Chapter Text
Steal the Tonberry King’s crown, he said.
It’ll be easy for you, he said.
When Barret does make it back to Costa Del Sol, he was going to beat the ever-loving shit out of Johnny, maybe even using the crown they nearly died getting.
It all happened quickly, too quickly, their carefully laid plan of Cloud and Tifa taking offence while Barret and Aerith backed them up with long ranged attacks and spells, bolstered by Red and Cait Sith as they covered Yuffie’s attempts to pluck the crown off the fiend’s head came undone quickly, about four minutes in to the battle, to be exact.
No one knew the King could summon other Tonberries, it seemed obvious in hindsight, but when he called at least a dozen of the little shits in to fight for him, everyone was surprised.
‘Fall back!’ Came Chadley’s voice from the communicator in Cloud’s pocket.
It distracted Tifa, who lost her footing.
Red lunged in to protect her but was frozen mid-air by a magic circle.
A blur of blonde and black and a flurry of punishing attacks on the Tonberry king followed, Cloud moved so fast that Barret wondered if he’d been frozen too.
Before anyone could blink, the king’s head went bouncing across the empty arena, cut clean from its fat neck as Cloud stood, stock still, in front of the body as it disappeared into mako.
‘You did it!’ Yuffie crowed, picking up the bent and misshapen crown, but no one was cheering. Not when Cloud dropped to his knees, the last thing to disappear was the golden blade stuck out of his gut.
Barret wasn’t a medic.
But he’d seen men bleed to death in minutes, and he wasn’t about to lose Cloud.
The merc’s face was scrunched up and pale, freckles standing out more than they ever had before, the same freckles Barret and Yuffie had been making fun of just a few hours ago. Since they arrived in Corel, Cloud’s natural ruddiness had come out in earnest, cheeks pink from the sun and freckles darker than they’d been in Midgar, Aerith was just fascinated by the concept of freckles, having lived her whole life under an artificial lamp and was excited at the chance of getting one of her own.
Aerith cast a phoenix down with a flourish, then another one, and one more for good measure ‘What - do they not work on Tonberry wounds!?’
‘What- what do you, what do we do?’ Nanaki bleated.
‘We’re gonna have to stop the bleeding’ Barret growled.
‘How?!’ Yuffie squawked, face positively green at the sight of all that blood as she diligently kept pressure on the wound.
‘We’re gonna have to cauterise it.’
Tifa and Yuffie held down Cloud’s shoulders and arms, Red and Cait Sith took the legs - even summoning the moogle to help since Cait weighed next to nothing. That left Barret to seal the wound, and Aerith to pour whatever potions they had over it. Cloud’s eyes were rolling around, unable to focus on much and he was clearly having trouble staying awake, despite Tifa’s best efforts.
Barret glanced at the metal megaphone in his hand, offered up by their newest companion, Cait Sith. He wasn’t sold on the cat - toy… thing, yet. But Cloud seemed to be, and Cait didn’t hesitate to offer his weapon up to cauterise the wound, gloved hands holding it like it was made of gold, and not just something Cloud had stumbled across in the Dustbowl.
‘Okay, we can’t fuck around here,’ Barret sighed, ‘girls, he’s gonna get pretty rocky, cause it’s gonna hurt like hell. Don’t let go.’
Tifa nodded, Yuffie gulped.
‘Ready?’ Aerith cut in, green eyes determined as she nodded to Barret who was heating the megaphone over Red’s tail.
‘Ready.’
No one was ready.
Cloud’s back arched as his acid green eyes flew open and he screeched, back arched as Tifa kept a grip on his hands and Yuffie threw her entire weight against his chest. Cait Sith nearly went flying as the merc’s legs kicked wildly, Barret kept his eyes on the task at hand, focussing on searing the flesh together - as did Aerith, who remained focussed on pouring the potion over the burn. When it was done she, put her trembling hands together and prayed, and Cloud sagged. Boneless and heaving and not one bit conscious.
The issue of where to go next reared its ugly head, perks of having no fixed address and no friends in the big bad wilderness.
‘We could go back to Johnny’s place?’ Nanaki suggested.
‘And have Cloud die of an infection?’ Yuffie sighed.
‘What about Corel?’ Tifa chimed in.
‘If I take my SOLDIER friend back to Corel, he’ll be dead by sundown’ Barret sighed.
‘What about the gold saucer?’ Said Cait.
‘That’s not a bad idea,’ Aerith cut in before Barret could shoot him down, ‘Dio did say we were safe there and I’m sure there’s doctors too for a place that big.’
‘Ay! So it’s decided!’ Cait beamed, ‘We all get in that there buggy and we toddle off to the saucer, we can even use the goods lift and no one will give us any trouble at the gate! I can get us some rooms.’
Barret didn’t like the idea one bit, but Cloud was positively white, and they needed somewhere safe.
The suite was too much, covered in fake spiders and a plastic tonberry that came whirring out of the corner with its plastic knife, Aerith screamed and belted it so hard with her staff, she caved in its green, plastic skull. And no one said a word.
The doctor was more suited to fun, silly, holiday related injuries than he was stab wounds. But with the gladiator style fights that went on each night at the saucer, he at least knew more than they did. He got to work reopening and cleaning the wound, before stitching it up and wiping his hands on his pants, frowning at the bloodstains.
‘I’m leaving you with the IV he’s got, plus one more as backup. It’s antibiotics, and painkillers, should keep him under for a while yet. Definitely clean him up and get him out of those clothes and then you can use those bandages to wrap the wound, that’ll have to be changed at least twice a day. He’s lost a lot of blood but we don’t keep transfusion bags on site, but - he’s a soldier yeah?’
‘Uh- yeah, I mean he was,’ Tifa nodded, half way between shocked and livid that the doctor was just leaving them like this.
‘Right, well they’re all enhanced to the back teeth so he should be fine - rest, fluids, all that good stuff. My bill will be sent to the room.’
With that, the door slammed and he left.
‘What a fucker!’ Yuffie snapped, voice shrill.
‘Ay,’ Cait agreed, ‘I’ll be putting a complaint in.’
‘Well, you heard him, let’s tidy soldier boy here up,’ Barret sighed.
Cloud’s shirt had already been removed, sliced up the middle and tossed in the corner, Tifa made a mental note to try and mend it as she scurried into the ensuite and filled a bowl with warm water and swiped the soap from the counter.
When she got back, Barret was standing over the bed, flanked by Nanaki.
‘Tifa, how about you ladies go next door, get tidied up and have a rest. We got this.’
‘Oh- are you sure? I can -’
‘Tifa,’ Aerith held her arm, ‘we don’t all have to see Cloud’s willy, do we?’ She giggled.
Red faced and spluttering, Tifa let Aerith lead her out of the room, followed by Yuffie.
‘Unfortunately, looks like we do,’ Barret sighed as he got to work taking Cloud’s boots off, careful not to jostle his wounds too much, ‘Cait, look at the wall - I don’t want some Shinra toy recording this.’
‘You wound me,’ Cait mocked, grabbing his furry chest, ‘but I dinnae think I want to stay and watch, you fellas got this - I’ll pop out and see if I can’t rustle up some food.’
Cloud hadn’t lost a lot of blood. He’d lost a shit load of blood.
It had run down his thighs and into his shoes, the bottom of his feet were stuck to his socks, the material peeled off his skin with a sickening squelch, and he barely stirred when Barret did his best to manhandle his limp frame into the big grey shirt and boxers he slept in. Cloud didn’t have much in the way of clothes, none of them did after fleeing Midgar, but Tifa had gone out of her way to pick whatever she could up at shops and thrift stores. Barret was glad of it, the SOLDIER greaves would need a good wash.
When they were finished, Cloud was tucked up in bed and changed, with his IV connected and dripping slowly. It didn’t feel like enough, but it was all they had.
‘Shouldn’t he have woken up?’ Red bleated.
‘Nah,’ Barret sighed, ‘the doctor gave him something to keep him out while he worked on the wound, it’s probably gonna be a while before that wears off.’
Without the frenzy of trying to keep Cloud’s insides from spilling out, or carving trails through the desert on their way to safety, Barret felt hollow and a bit sick.
Knees buckling as he sat down heavily on the end of the bed, taking in their charge as he slept on, all pale skin and furrowed brows. It was then that mako eyes snapped open as he shot up in bed and threw up.
It’s gonna be a long night.