Dream of the Phoenix

Corel Prison/Gongaga

Chapter 3: Corel Prison/Gongaga

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Square-Enix; I'm just borrowing them for a while. The song is Forever Young by Alphaville; I just figured it would fit well into the story somewhere.

.o.0.o.

The darkness surrounded him as his eyes struggled to focus.

"What happened?" he asked to no one.

"We are now in jail as far as I can tell," the soft voice of Aerith came back to him. It was then that he noticed that his head was resting on a firm warm object. Opening his eyes he realized Aerith had his head resting in her lap.

"Glad to see you finally decided to join us," she said with a smile as she gave him a light kiss on his cheek.

He slowly began to get up, reluctant to leave the gentle embrace that Aerith had him in, her hand slowly running through his hair.

"Where are the others?" Cloud asked once he managed to sit up.

"I don't know," Aerith replied as Cloud helped her to stand, wrapping his arm around her waist once she had.

"Where's Cait Sith?"

"Mower Feer!" came the muffled reply from the pair of feet sticking up from the pile of trash that the toy had landed in. Cloud grimaced, not wanting to think about what might be in the pile. He quickly moved to pull the cat from the pile, wanting to spare him the torture the smells were sure to be doing to him.

"Pahhhhhhh! Thanks," was his reply as he took lungful after lungful of clean air. "You have no idea how bad that pile smells."

"Actually we do," Aerith replied as she pinched her nose, "you need a bath."

Cait Sith sniffed himself and grimaced, almost passing out.

"You're right, ewwwww."

Cloud just laughed as he and Aerith began walking away, giving the cat a wide berth.

"So, where are we?" Cloud asked through the distance that separated the couple from the cat.

"A desert prison... Corel Prison..." Cait Sith replied.

"A desert prison?" Cloud asked in surprise.

"Yup, a natural prison in the middle of the desert...surrounded entirely by quicksand. I heard that once you get in, you never get out... But, there was one special exception..." He began as they entered the main part of the prison.

After walking for a few minutes they noticed they were being followed by a somewhat crazy guy, so seeing a house they went inside, hoping to lose him, which thankfully they did. Not more than two seconds after they entered the room Barret came crashing through the door, the others not far behind him.

"Hey Spike, who the hell is this?" he asked when he saw Cait Sith.

"This is Cait Sith, he helped us out and decided to join us," Cloud said as he shrugged, indicating that there was nothing he could do to stop his coming along.

"Well, so long as he don't get in my way," Barret said as he stalked to the corner and sat down.

"A pleasure to meet you," Red said as he bowed.

"Hi!" Tifa said as she waved. "I'm Tifa, that's Red, and the grouch in the corner is Barret. He may seem mean, but he's actually pretty nice." Muffled curses were heard from Barret's corner, and they were ignored as soon as they were heard.

"Barret, don't be so glum, cheer up!" Cait Sith said, trying to lighten the tension, a bad move on his part.

"CHEER UP?" Barret yelled as he lunged at the cat, luckily he was held back by Cloud and Tifa. "WHAT THE HELL DO I HAVE TO CHEER UP FOR? You didn't see their faces, you didn't hear their accusations. You have no idea what they blame me for!"