A Requiem for the Slaughtered

     Barret soon after climbed out of the buggy holding Marlene's hand. It looked like a parent bringing over a child to apologize for doing something. That is, all except for the fact that Marlene didn't look scared nor sorry for anything she may have done such as existing. She held Barret's hand, but mostly ignored him because she was too preoccupied with trying to look cool while she smoked with her other hand.
     Also her mouth.
     Aeris woke up suddenly and flung my arm off of her. She looked back at me and smiled.
     "Sorry, Sephy," Aeris said. "I was dreaming about tentacle rape for some reason. Why would I dream about rape?" She shrugged. "Hey! Here come Barret and Marlene!" Aeris rolled down her window and stuck her head out the side. "Hey guys! What's up?"
     "Yo, Aeris," Barret said. He walked to her window. "Listen, can I talk wit' you in private?"
     "Sure!" Aeris hopped out of the car and Marlene hopped in. She sat behind the wheel, but it was either out of fear or instinct that I pulled her to the side and moved myself into the driver's seat so that she couldn't move back in.
     "Oh, Seph," Barret said, looking back at me through the open window. "We's headed ta Super Lucky World too. See ya there, man."
     Barret and Aeris walked to the buggy and went inside. It was a trap that was perfectly set. I couldn't believe it. Only seconds after they stepped into the buggy, a group of soldiers ran up to the car and pointed their guns at the car.
     "We're here at the port!" a soldier shouted. "You have five seconds to drive this car out of here or we'll open fire! And have a nice day!"
     A giant door in front of us slid up quickly and the buggy drove out onto the pier. The soldiers around us were struggling with their countdown, but once one of them remembered that three comes after four when counting down, they readied their guns.
     I quickly grabbed the key and started up the car, then drove out into the ruins that were Costa Del Sol. It looked like repairs were going well, but at this point it was a city of construction fences and clean up crews. There were also a shitload of Shin-Ra soldiers patrolling the city to oversee the repairs. I continued to follow the buggy through the city, waiting for them to stop and switch passengers, but then I noticed a sign on it that had Mother and Marlene on it. It said 'Wanted dead or alive for the destruction of Costa Del Sol. Reward: 5 gil per head.'
     There we go, Sephy! We can make the big bucks with that! You can cut off my head, give it to them, then when my head grows back, cut it off and repeat! It's genius!
     "That blows testicles," Marlene said. "Only five damn gil? I can make more money sucking off Shin-Ra employees."
     The buggy started hauling ass out of town, so I did the same.
     What about us?
     So did Mother and the rest who were in the car and therefore traveled with me and wouldn't require me to mention them independently.
     Geez, Sephy. You sure are pissy sometimes. I mean, you've TOTALLY got an attitude. Like Sonic!
     As the buggy left the Costa Del Sol city limits and still didn't slow down, I realized that they'd stuck me with Marlene to make some sort of point. I only wish I knew what point they were trying to make. I tried to just concentrate on the road and ignore all conversations going on in the car.
     "Hey, Sephiroids," Marlene said. She unbuckled her seatbelt and was jumping up and down on the seat. I really didn't care since it wasn't my car anyway. In fact, I'm pretty sure Aeris stole the car. "I have to take a dump, ya mind?"
     "Yes, I mind," I said. "We can't pull over right now."
     "I wasn't asking you to pull over. I'm just wondering because this is the seat you normally sit in, right? Well I'm gonna leave you a nice pile of logs here if you know what I mean."
     Like Lincoln Logs!
     "No shitting in the car!" I said, then promptly took a hard turn, knocking Marlene into the window, then on the floor. I think she was unconscious and bleeding out the face, but I really didn't care. I drove on in silence, humming to myself. After a few miles of silence, I realized there was a radio in the car, so I turned on KGAY. I didn't mean to turn on that station, but it was tuned to that station. I wasn't sure if it was Aeris or Johnny that had the car on that station, but I turned it off nonetheless. I found a new station that was WORK. I'm not sure what O, R, or K stand for, but the station was awesome. There was a song called "A Requiem for the Slaughtered." I highly enjoyed it. It was a chorus with a large choir. The music was highly disturbing and sounded like a bunch of people being gruesomely slaughtered while the choir simply repeated things like "genocide" and "ticking time bombs in your head, when it hits midnight you will be dead." It was completely badass and lasted for a good ten minutes.
     I drove a good ten or twenty minutes before I realized that not only was Marlene being incredibly quiet, but so was Mother. I looked over my shoulder and saw Edwardo licking the rear window. And that was it. My heart dropped. Mother was gone. Again!
     I jammed on the brakes, which caused Edwardo to slide forward and headbutt the glass. He fell over unconscious. Or dead. I really didn't care which. I just took the opportunity to pick him up and throw him into the car. I also put Tiffany on the dashboard. I decided to get Mother back on foot. Not because driving was slow, but I really just wanted to use the car as a prison for Marlene and the animals. But the car was slow too.
     I might've cracked a window before I left, but I quickly proceeded to retrace my steps as I made my way back to Costa Del Sol. It was nice to wander the planet alone again. It hasn't been this tranquil since-
     "HOOOOOWDY!" came a disgusting and annoying voice somewhere to the east. It could only belong to one person. Well, in this situation it belonged to a familiar cat riding a moogle, but either way, it was Reeve's annoying damn voice. "Haw's it goin', Seph-roth!?"
     "Been better," I responded.
     "Aww, that's no problem!" Cait Sith said cheerily in his hick accent. "So whut're ya up to?"
     "I think I accidentally knocked Mother out of the car. She's wandering around by herself now."
     "That ain't good, Seph-roth. Want some help findin' 'er?"
     "Please, no."
     "Aww, hell, Seph-roth. Don' be modest! Me 'n Red'll help ya."
     "Red?" I asked. "As in Red XIII?"
     "Yo," Red said, sneaking up behind me.
     "Look, creepy animal things and Reeve, I can find Mother on my own. Thanks, but go away."
     "Well yeh won't find 'er goin' that way," Cait Sith said. "Nah, yer Mother's on 'her way ta Super Lucky World."
     "I know. We both were until she fell out. But why isn't she this way?"
     "B'cause she's with Reeve. He's drivin' 'er there. He found 'er a bit ago an' picked 'er up. Hell, I hear he just passed yer car up the road thar. Said you had some gnarly beast in the car. Also a wolf and a goldfish."
     "Yeah, Marlene's in there. I really don't want to go back to the car."
     It really didn't matter what I wanted. I had to go get the car. Not especially because I felt obligated to keep another child or animal from melting in a car, but more because I feared for what would happen if Marlene was ever unsupervised. I don't want to see a four-year old girl succeed where I once failed. Even if I wasn't all that into it. I mean, I could've done it. I was just not really into it. Yeah, that's it.
     Red XIII, Cait Sith, and I headed back to the car, only to find the whole thing had been torn the hell up. The seats were ripped apart with cotton spewing out the ripped parts, the windows were all shattered, the steering wheel was completely gone, and there were no living creatures in the car. Not even Tiffany.
     "Seph-roth?" Cait Sith said. "Reeve told me to tell you that Jenova says 'Hey. Put Edwardo on the line.' I'm not sure what she means, but I bet she's angrier than a porcupine in a uhh. In a. Well, she'd be angrier than a porcupine."