Author: Wallwalker
Title: Friend in Need
Fandom: FFVII
Character: Barret, Dyne, Marlene
Challenge: Old Friends
Word Count: 400
Rating: SFW; references to minor (canonical) character death.
Summary: Barret gives a bit of advice about friends in need.

---

I coulda saved him.

It's funny, ain’t it? It’s been years since Dyne died, but sometimes I close my eyes and it’s like I’m there again, standing in that forsaken desert, and he’s begging me not to ever make Marlene cry.

He wouldn’t even see her again. His blood, and he’d never meet her. Got so twisted up instead with the hate and the bloodshed, he couldn’t figure out how to keep goin’. I reached out for him that day, tried to pull him back from the edge, but he... he wouldn’t take it. He just wouldn’t.

Maybe I don’t blame him, you know? Maybe he wasn’t wrong to think I wasn’t gonna be able to hang on, ‘cuz I couldn’t do it before when I had two hands. Why’d I think he’d changed his mind?

But no, that ain’t what kills me. What kills me is knowin’ that I let him get that twisted. I could’ve found him. I could’ve forced the guy who gave us both the arms to tell me where he was, and then me and Marlene... we coulda done something, right? I mean, he wouldn't take my hand, but maybe he woulda taken hers, back at the start. We could’ve been a team. Marlene could’ve had more family than just her broken old Papa. Sure, we were both busted up inside, but me an’ Dyne, we could’ve helped each other through it.

But I was scared. I was scared somethin’ was gonna happen to Marlene if I left everything behind. I... I wanted to give her a better life, so I felt like I had to make a choice. And Marlene was all I had in the world. I didn’t dare risk it.

Dyne... if I had to do it over again, I’d go find you. Sure, life ain’t bad now, but even if I knew what I might be givin’ up, I wouldn’t hesitate. You deserved a chance too, old pal.

So take my advice, and don’t give up on your friends. I watched a guy come back from the edge because he had someone who didn’t stop lookin’ for him, who knew her friend needed her. If I’d done what she’d done, well, Dyne would've had a chance, at least, and that's more than he got. So I’ll give that advice to everybody who’ll listen to me, til the Planet takes me back.