Stepping first into the Seventh Heaven bar, Alex was sincerely surprised that everything in this place looked exactly as he remembered. Against the wall stood the familiar jukebox from which music played across the entire sector in the evenings, and nearby was a pinball table that actually served as a disguised passage into the secret hideout.
Alex's gaze continued to wander around the hall with interest until it latched onto the bar counter combined with a small kitchen. Wondering where it would be better to sit, he took the bags of Gil and Materia off his shoulders and set them on the nearest table, continuing to look around. Hearing footsteps nearby, Alex turned to Tifa, who walked past heading toward the bar counter and holding in her hands the folder with documents that had been handed over a minute ago.
Tifa's face expressed a whole spectrum of complex emotions: realizing what terrible information had fallen into her hands was not easy for her. Sitting down at the counter, Tifa looked at the papers once more and sighed heavily. She already clearly imagined Barret's stormy reaction when he saw the contents of the pack of documents. Knowing her friend's hot temper perfectly well, Tifa had no doubt: Barret would snap and be ready to personally tear apart Don Corneo, who had turned out to be the one responsible for Shinra tracking down AVALANCHE's underground cells.
"Are you sure Corneo is dead?" Tifa inquired again, turning her head toward her new guests, wanting to get final confirmation of Corneo's death.
"He should already be dead by now. Unless, of course, my choom Leslie suddenly decided to torture the Don a little before the finale," Alex said with a slight smile, continuing to stroll unhurriedly around the bar and examine the interior.
"Choom? And isn't Leslie Corneo's right-hand man? Why would he betray his boss?" Tifa asked in bewilderment, sincerely not understanding why the loyal assistant had gone against the Don.
"It's not hard to guess why Leslie suddenly decided to betray the Don… And one more small question…" Alex said with a smile and then coughed embarrassed into his fist.
"Yes? Do you three need something?" Tifa asked with a slight nod, noticing the awkwardness on Alex's face.
"Do you have anything to eat? Since yesterday I haven't had a crumb of food in my mouth!" Dean intervened sharply, absolutely not intending to wait until Alex found the right formulations.
Hearing these words, Tifa blinked her eyelashes slightly in surprise and stared at the trio. Initially she had thought the young guy wanted to tell her some more important and severe information, but in reality it all came down to a banal desire to eat. Seeing the sincere embarrassment on Alex's face, Tifa couldn't hold back a warm smile and nodded slightly.
Chuckling to herself, Tifa stood up from behind the bar counter and walked around it, heading toward the kitchen area. Looking into the small refrigerator under the counter, she quickly assessed what could be cooked from the products that had survived after yesterday's crowded evening. Noticing that the supplies left were the absolute minimum, Tifa took out everything necessary and began deftly slicing the ingredients.
"There aren't that many products left after yesterday, so don't count on too dense a breakfast," Tifa said, turning to the trio and not interrupting her work.
"This will be enough for us for now. How much from us? And is there anything to drink here?" Dean said with a slight shrug, taking a plump pack of Gil out of the bag.
"One hundred fifty Gil for breakfast for three. And the drinks are on the house," Tifa replied with a smile, turning to Dean.
Dean absolutely didn't know the local prices and wasn't sure whether this was expensive or not, so he simply laid a two-hundred Gil bill on the bar counter. Seeing the dense pack once again, Tifa finally understood why this trio's bags were packed to capacity with cash.
Chuckling to herself, she thought that such a bastard as Corneo had finally run into trouble and lost everything — and that sounded like a damn pleasant morning news. Stopping slicing the ingredients for breakfast, Tifa wiped her hands with a towel and put the money under the counter. She was already about to give Dean the change, but he only lazily waved it off and walked back to the table toward Alex.
Watching him, Tifa met Aerith's gaze, who immediately smiled openly and waved her hand slightly. Seeing such sincere friendliness, Tifa smiled in response and also waved her palm. Slightly narrowing her eyes, Aerith immediately jumped up to the bar counter, burning with the desire to strike up a conversation and get to know each other better. Tifa herself was only glad of such a sociable nature of the new acquaintance. The girls very quickly got talking, and Tifa finally learned the names of those who had shown up at her bar so early.
"Aerith, and where are you three from in general?" Tifa couldn't hold back the question, setting a glass with a cool sweet drink in front of her.
"I'm from the Fifth Sector… And Alex and Dean… Well, they're from far away. I met them yesterday when they fell from above," Aerith said thoughtfully, slightly narrowing her eyes after a sip of the cool soda.
"Fell from above? You mean they fell right off the Plate?!" Tifa exclaimed in surprise, staring at Aerith with rounded eyes.
"Well yeah… I found them in my secret place when they were sleeping there," Aerith replied with a carefree smile, sincerely considering it absolute normality that Alex and Dean had survived after falling from a multi-meter height.
"How did they even stay in one piece after falling from such a height?!" Tifa continued to dig, trying to digest what she had heard.
"Because we're SOLDIER… And right to your next question: no, we don't work for Shinra. That's exactly why we're here," Alex's voice sounded, continuing to impassively play the habitual legend.
"So you're former SOLDIER… That at least a little explains how you survived… And what problems do you have with Shinra?" Tifa nodded thoughtfully, peeking out from behind Aerith's shoulder to look at Alex.
"We beat up their soldiers and twice knocked sense into the heads of two Turks who just wouldn't leave us alone. So now we've got excellent targets hanging on our backs. And then I saw the news about AVALANCHE and thought: hey, we can go to these guys and hide with them! And here we are," Alex explained in a calm tone, resting his cheek on his palm and looking Tifa straight in the eyes.
Hearing such an explanation, Tifa didn't even know how she should comment on it. Was it even worth simply accepting the fact that a strange trio had crashed into her bar from the very morning, two of whom were former SOLDIER who for some unknown reason had gotten into trouble with Shinra and twice beaten their special agents.
Deciding that such information shouldn't be thought about too deeply at such an early hour, Tifa only noted to herself the reason why Alex's eyes were of such an unusual color. Wanting to catch her breath from the shocking news, she returned to cooking and casual conversation with Aerith to get to know each other better.
Noticing that Tifa was no longer asking questions, Alex returned to browsing the news on his phone to somehow kill time. Dean lazily sprawled on the chair, throwing his legs onto the neighboring one, and thought only about when the long-awaited food would finally appear in front of him.
Looking at Dean, Alex smiled slightly and continued scrolling the feed. However, there was nothing interesting there: solid propaganda, a couple of dry notes, and endless advertising of goods from Shinra. Shaking his head, Alex set the phone aside, thinking about the fact that they still had to wait for Barret, negotiate with him, and find a normal place to sleep.
"What are you thinking about again?" Aerith asked, who had unnoticed crept up to Alex from behind.
"We still need to find a place for the night… And then we can already think about what to do next. Maybe it's worth spoiling Shinra's life a little so that they simply don't have time left to search for us," Alex said thoughtfully, slightly stroking his chin and turning his head to Aerith.
"I can help you with the lodging. I know an excellent place where you can rent a room… But why do you need to spoil Shinra's life? Isn't it simpler to quietly wait it out and then just leave Midgar? With the money you took from Corneo, you can calmly go somewhere very far away," Tifa said with a light smile, sitting opposite and setting plates with breakfast in front of Alex and Dean.
"We simply sincerely love spoiling the lives of all sorts of idiots. Right, Dean?" Alex replied with a smirk, immediately starting on the food.
"That's my absolute favorite activity. They spoiled my morning, and I'll spoil their life," Dean supported with a wide smirk, instantly swallowing half of his portion of food.
"I think you should definitely talk about this with Barret. Maybe he can even help you… Just keep in mind, he has a rather specific character," Tifa said with a strained smile, propping her cheeks with her hands and carefully watching Alex.
"Well, I think we can find a common language with him… Besides, I can offer him something more interesting than a simple folder with documents," Alex continued smiling and slightly shook his head, chewing the breakfast.
"What, for example? You could have calmly sold this information to Shinra — the three of you would have been guaranteed to have the wanted notices taken down, and they would have paid handsomely on top," Tifa inquired, slightly leaning forward and continuing to probe Alex's character.
"To hell with Shinra. To hell with their entire top. I'm not going to be friends with bastards who burn and destroy their own world," Dean intervened in an irritated tone, not hiding his disgust.
"Well, something like that. And as for what I can give… For example, an alternative source of light to deprive Shinra of their main income at the root," Alex added in a lazy tone, casually waving a fork in the air.
Hearing Alex's words, Tifa fell silent for a brief moment, feverishly thinking over what was said. And only when the meaning of his phrase finally reached her, she loudly slapped her palm on the table, declaring that such things are not joked about in Midgar. Seeing such a flash, Alex only quietly sighed and reached into the inner pocket of his coat for a notebook.
Taking it out, he flipped through several pages and showed Tifa detailed drawings of a reactor. Tifa slightly frowned, with difficulty making out the complex engineering schemes. Understanding that one drawing was not enough, Alex calmly explained that exactly the same reactor was already working at their home, and Dean confirmed with a confident nod that this was pure truth.
Hearing this, Tifa sighed heavily and sank back onto the chair, preparing to listen to the details. No matter how unreal this seemed to her, she was not going to miss the chance. After all, like any other resident of the Slums, she dreamed to the depths of her soul that people would stop depending on Shinra, which regularly inflated electricity tariffs, forcing the residents of the Slums to give away their last Gil.
Sitting nearby, Aerith warmly patted Tifa on the hand, making it clear that Alex could be trusted unconditionally. And even though they had met only yesterday morning, Aerith already trusted him with all her soul and knew that the guy didn't throw words to the wind.
Alex meanwhile continued to calmly explain the essence without going into overly sophisticated terms. The main thing he conveyed: the energy source he was proposing didn't use Mako at all. Having listened to him, Tifa sighed heavily once again, trying to fit another shocking news of this morning into her head.
"I definitely need to discuss all this with Barret and the others. If what you just told is true, life for people in the Slums will become many times easier… But keep in mind, an even bigger target will appear on your backs. Shinra will never leave alive those who stick their noses into their monopoly," Tifa spoke, trying to maintain external calm, looking intently at Alex, who was just reaching for a cigarette.
"That's even better. There'll be one more excellent reason to spoil their life. Although I understand that without visual proof it'll be hard for your friends to believe me. That's exactly why we want to officially join AVALANCHE," Alex said with a light smile, gesturing to ask permission to light up, to which Tifa nodded slightly.
"Your help will be invaluable in any case. Even without this reactor, whatever you call it there," Tifa replied with a warm smile, standing up from the table and taking the dirty plates.
Alex calmly smiled, perfectly understanding that Tifa hadn't fully believed his words. After all, words always remain only words, and a drawing of an arc reactor is just a picture on a sheet of paper. Without a working sample any assurances about how many kilowatts of electricity his reactor was capable of producing sounded like empty sound, no matter how much he bragged about it.
That is exactly why Alex intended to prove everything in practice, starting to help AVALANCHE and at the same time provide the entire Seventh Sector with a stable, autonomous source of light. Tapping his fingers on the tabletop, Alex reflected on how best to convince Barret of this, who, as far as he remembered, was distinguished by rare stubbornness in such matters. Exhaling cigarette smoke, Alex rubbed his forehead, mentally calculating how many things he would have to pull off in the nearest future.
To great fortune, the Gray Whispers hadn't yet crawled out of every crack to arrange problems for them for another violation of the canon and too early a visit to the threshold of the Seventh Heaven. Sitting nearby, Aerith slightly tugged at Alex's sleeve, with lively interest asking about this amazing energy source.
She insanely wanted to learn more about the invention that didn't use Mako at all and didn't harm the Planet itself. And while Alex was enthusiastically explaining to Aerith the principles of the reactor's work, Dean decided to find himself at least some occupation to kill time. Looking around, Dean noticed a dartboard on the wall and unhurriedly headed toward it, planning to entertain himself with a game alone.
While waiting for Barret, Tifa quickly washed the dishes after the guests' breakfast and began cleaning the hall, which no one would have done for her anyway. Alex and Aerith were quietly chatting about all sorts of little things, and Tifa, wetting a rag for washing the floor, was listening to their conversation with sincere curiosity.
Dean settled himself comfortably nearby: he was sipping cool beer and playing darts, enjoying a well-deserved rest after a rather stormy and active night at the Wall Market. An hour flew by unnoticed. By this moment, tired after the active night, Aerith had sweetly fallen asleep right on Alex's shoulder, firmly hugging his arm. Tifa finished sweeping the floor and began polishing the glass goblets to a shine, while Dean was fully warring with the pinball machine, trying to beat the establishment's record.
Alex, on the other hand, immersed himself in reading a book that he had carelessly extracted from the bag with their things. Turning another page, Alex caught the quiet patter of children's feet and raised his gaze. The door behind the bar counter opened slightly, and a sleepy little girl in a pinkish dress appeared on the threshold. The girl with charmingly tousled hair was cute rubbing her eyes with her little fists, trying to finally wake up. Alex instantly recognized Marlene — Barret's adopted daughter, whom the stern resistance leader was raising and protecting as his own. Coming out into the hall, Marlene still sleepily stretched, slowly climbing onto a high bar stool, and sweetly yawned.
"Good morning, Marlene. Wait a little, I'll prepare breakfast for you now," Tifa said with a soft smile, carefully smoothing the tousled hair on the girl's head.
"M-m-m… Thank you, Tifa. And has papa not returned yet?" Marlene nodded sleepily, trying not to fall asleep again while Tifa was smoothing her hair.
"Not yet. But he'll be here soon, you know him. He's probably stuck in some line again and got into a fight with someone," Tifa replied with a smile, quietly chuckling and continuing to fix Marlene's tousled hair.
Marlene nodded slightly at Tifa's words and again sweetly yawned, trying with all her strength to finally wake up. Slightly stretching, she put her hands on the cool bar counter and buried her nose in them. Trying not to fall asleep again, Marlene caught a characteristic click and the hum of a working game machine. Slightly turning her head to the side, she only now noticed that in the bar, besides her and Tifa, there were outsiders.
The girl blinked her eyelashes in surprise, examining the adult man who seemed to her the same age as her father Barret, who also sometimes liked to kill time at the pinball. Then her gaze slid further and stopped on the second pair of guests who looked the same age as Tifa herself.
Marlene's attention was captivated by Alex, who, noticing her gaze, softly smiled and barely noticeably waved his palm to her. The girl immediately broke into a reciprocal smile and waved her little hand to him. Turning away to the counter, Marlene was almost burning with curiosity: she terribly wanted to know who these early visitors were, especially the young guy with surprisingly beautiful eyes.
"Tifa… And who are these people?" Marlene asked in a completely quiet whisper, leaning forward so that only Tifa would hear her.
"They came to visit your papa," Tifa also answered quietly, noting Marlene's lively interest in their new guests.
"Really? Papa didn't say that he has such friends," Marlene whispered with sincere surprise, sacredly confident that her father would definitely have shared such news with her.
"They're not exactly your papa's friends…" Tifa replied with a kind chuckle, noticing complete bewilderment on Marlene's little face.
"Why? That uncle over there is somehow so similar to papa!" Marlene whispered, pointing her little finger at Dean, who at that moment was completely absorbed in the game and not distracted by anything.
"Ha-ha-ha! I'll definitely tell you everything later. And now enough asking questions and let's get to breakfast. Or when papa returns, he'll start grumbling again that you don't eat anything," Tifa said with a soft laugh, setting a plate with freshly prepared food in front of Marlene.
Staring at the breakfast in front of her, Marlene quickly nodded and began eating. Bringing a fork with scrambled eggs to her mouth, she again turned on the stool and looked at Alex reading a book. Feeling the intent child's gaze on himself once again, Alex raised his head and softly smiled at the girl.
At that moment he again thought about his five little "gremlins," who right now were probably busy with another exciting adventure or fully taking revenge on their uncle Lucifer for spoiling their family trip. Imagining with what scale his brother was accepting revenge from them, Alex quietly laughed and set the book on the table.
Deciding to make Marlene a small pleasant gift, Alex pulled toward himself the cardboard box of sweets that Aerith had stolen from Corneo's mansion and extracted a chocolate bar from there. Holding the chocolate bar in his hand and not showing what exactly he had taken out, Alex waved his hand, calling Tifa over. Not understanding what was wanted from her, Tifa wiped her hands with a towel and approached closer.
"Here, treat the little one to chocolate," Alex said with a smile, holding out the chocolate bar toward Tifa.
"How much from me? I'll pay…" Tifa quickly said the moment she saw in his hands a rare and expensive delicacy by the standards of the Slums.
"It's free. Aerith stole a whole box from Corneo's estate anyway. And he definitely won't need this chocolate anymore," Alex said in a cheerful tone, winking and pointing his finger at the box.
Turning her head in the direction Alex was pointing, Tifa looked at the cardboard box and immediately noticed that it was packed to the top with chocolates. Thinking about the fact that from Corneo they had pinched not only money and dirt but also scarce contraband, Tifa simply couldn't help but laugh. Nodding gratefully to Alex, Tifa returned to the bar counter with a smile to pass the pleasant surprise to the little one.
Slightly leaning toward Marlene, she asked her to hold out her little palm and close her eyes. Tilting her little head to the side, Marlene obediently squeezed her eyes shut and held out her little hand as Tifa asked. And immediately felt a pleasant weight. Opening her eyes, Marlene saw a whole chocolate bar in front of her, from which her little eyes immediately widened in surprise.
Raising a stunned gaze to Tifa, the girl first of all asked whether it was true that she could eat this. Tifa with a kind chuckle stroked Marlene's hair, confirming that the chocolate was completely at her disposal. Joyfully beaming, Marlene immediately unwrapped the rustling wrapper and carefully broke off a piece, which she first held out to Tifa, and only then broke off a slice for herself.
"Marlene, you don't need to give me chocolate. This is a gift only for you," Tifa said with a soft smile, returning the treat to the girl.
"Nuh-uh! You eat too! I'll definitely leave some for papa, Jessie, Biggs, Wedge… and Claudia. And I still need to share with Betty," Marlene quickly shook her head, carefully pushing Tifa's hand back.
"But then you yourself won't have anything left…" Tifa said with a tender smile, leaning a little closer to the little one.
"It's okay! You're all my friends, and with friends you always need to share. That's what papa said," Marlene replied with a proud smile, showing with her whole appearance that she would never gobble up the whole chocolate alone.
"Ugh, and what am I to do with you… I think the others will simply be delighted when you share with them," Tifa said with a warm sigh, carefully stroking Marlene's silky hair.
Listening to Tifa's conversation with Marlene, Alex simply couldn't hide a warm smile. Even Dean, enthusiastically warring with the pinball machine, froze for a moment to look at what was happening. Both of them couldn't help but note how cute and kind Marlene was growing up, ready without hesitation to give away a precious gift made personally for her. At the same time Alex noted a rather strange name in the list of the girl's friends.
However, his first thought was that he had simply misheard: Marlene was chewing chocolate on both cheeks and had probably just mumbled Cloud's name unclearly. Slightly shrugging, Alex decided to let it pass by his ears, considering it a banal slip of the little one's tongue. Wanting to make another pleasant gift to such a nice little one, Alex carefully adjusted Aerith's position on his shoulder.
Carefully transferring her head onto the soft bag with things, he carefully covered the girl with his long coat so that she would be warm and not wake up. Finding herself under Alex's warm blue coat, Aerith comfortably curled up into a ball and quietly rubbed her nose against the soft collar. Standing up from the table, Alex extracted a whole stack of chocolate bars from the box and unhurriedly approached the bar counter.
"Here's more, little one. And you're absolutely right: with friends you always need to share… So here, now you can definitely treat all-all your friends," Alex said with a soft smile, sitting down on the neighboring stool and unloading a real chocolate tower in front of Marlene.
"Thank you very much… e-e-m… handsome guy!" Marlene blurted out with a bright, shining smile, looking with admiration straight into Alex's eyes.
"You can just call me Alex… Of course, it's damn pleasant for me to hear when I'm called a 'handsome guy'… but let's better do without the formalities," Alex replied with a chuckle, tenderly stroking Marlene's tousled crown.
Marlene immediately actively nodded her head, trying with all her strength to remember the name of the handsome guy. Standing behind the bar counter, Tifa continued to smile warmly, watching in what excellent spirits the little one was. After all, for the last few days Marlene had been walking completely gloomy because Barret once again had gone headlong into the organization's affairs and returned home too late, never managing to spend time with her.
But Tifa perfectly understood Barret's motives: the matter was not only in revenge on Shinra, but also in a sincere desire to build a normal future for his daughter where she wouldn't have to survive in the slums. Continuing to smile, Tifa shifted her gaze to Alex, who was cheerfully joking with Marlene, and only now paid attention to the fact that he was literally hung with weapons.
Noticing two pistols in shoulder holsters and a sword fastened on the belt, Tifa finally confirmed herself in the opinion that he was indeed SOLDIER. After all, among ordinary people few carried such weapons with them. Thinking that Alex could well have known Claudia — since they were both former SOLDIER — Tifa was just about to ask him about this when the double doors of the bar slammed open wide with a bang.
"What the hell are you doing next to my daughter?!" a furious, thunderous roar of Barret rang out right from the threshold.
Hearing the angry shout, Alex and Dean turned their heads toward the entrance and saw on the threshold a tall, pumped-up dark-skinned man in sunglasses. On him was a leather vest under which a light body armor was visible, dark army pants, and high leather boots with iron toes. But the brightest detail of his appearance was a six-barreled machine gun installed instead of his right arm.
Alex immediately recognized this giant, whom because of his colorful appearance it was hard to confuse with anyone. This was Barret Wallace — the head of a separate AVALANCHE cell, who because of his dark past preferred exclusively radical methods of fighting Shinra. And while Alex was briefly examining Barret, the latter was already heading straight toward him with heavy steps.
Alex hadn't even managed to say a word when Barret found himself nearby and immediately grabbed him by the collar. Barret tried to yank Alex upward, but the latter didn't even budge, as if grown to the chair. Sighing heavily from the fact that he was being jerked so unceremoniously, Alex raised his palm and calmly placed it on top of Barret's massive hand. Already preparing to loudly demand answers, Barret suddenly felt how the world before his eyes rapidly turned over, and in the next instant a sharp pain from the impact against the wooden floor burned his back.
Finding himself on the floor, Barret blinked his eyes in astonishment, sincerely not understanding what had just happened — after all, a second ago he had been standing firmly on his feet. Tifa behind the bar counter opened her mouth in shock, seeing with her own eyes how Alex put Barret on his back without even moving from his place. Dean instantly abandoned the pinball game and joyfully grabbed a bottle of beer, settling more comfortably to enjoy the spectacle. And only Aerith continued to sleep peacefully nearby, wrapping herself tighter in Alex's blue coat.
"Have you calmed down now, old man? Or shall we continue?" Alex asked in a calm tone, slightly leaning forward and looking Barret straight in the eyes.
"Who the hell are you?!" Barret growled in a gloomy, stormy tone, instantly raising and aiming his machine gun at Alex.
"Wait, Barret! They came to talk! And brought very important information!" Tifa hurriedly shouted, jumping over the bar counter before Barret managed to open fire and smash her bar to splinters.
"Information?! What kind of information?!" Barret frowned, still holding Alex's face in the sights.
"See for yourself… Only I'm warning you right away: try not to get too angry," Tifa said, taking the plump folder with documents from the counter and holding it out to Barret.
Staring at the folder in Tifa's hands, Barret frowned even more and began slowly rising from the floor, still not taking Alex off the sights. Alex only pursed his lips — after all, he hadn't even really done anything, and they were already intending to pump a burst into him. Hearing a muffled chuckle nearby, he turned to Dean and expressively rolled his eyes, seeing how the latter was openly laughing at the situation.
Finally rising, Barret snatched the folder from Tifa's hands and immediately noticed the hated emblem of Don Corneo on the cover. Continuing to frown, he threw the documents on the table and began flipping through the pages with one hand, still holding Alex in the sights of the machine gun.
However, soon the barrels of his weapon began slowly lowering when the contents of the papers made Barret forget about everything. The further he read, the more strongly rage boiled in him. Flipping page after page, Barret came across the names of Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge.
Trying with all his strength to restrain the raging anger in the presence of his daughter, Barret turned to Tifa, giving her a heavy, understanding gaze. Tifa understood him without a single word and softly asked Marlene to go up to the second floor. Marlene quickly nodded, deftly scooped up her chocolates, and ran to her room. Seeing her off with his gaze, Barret again shifted his gloomy gaze to Alex and Dean.
"Where did you get this?" Barret asked in a heavy tone, poking his finger toward the folder.
"Took it as a modest bonus from Corneo when he refused to pay for our victory in his arena," Alex replied in a calm tone, lighting a cigarette.
"Where is that bastard now?! I'll shove the machine gun right up his ass and shred this fat hog with lead!" Barret roared, barely holding himself in check.
"He's dead. So turning him into stuffed pork is unlikely to work out for you, man," Dean intervened with a smirk, slightly raising the bottle of beer in an improvised toast.
"Croaked?.. Heh-heh-heh… That disgusting rat croaked after all? Something makes me doubt it," Barret squinted, still doubting the words of the uninvited guests.
"You can take a walk to the Sixth Sector and ask personally. I think they're arranging a grand celebration there right now in honor of his demise," Alex said, resting his cheek on his palm and pointing with the smoldering cigarette toward the exit.
"Alright, to hell with that bastard… Why did you come here and drag all this?" Barret waved it off, understanding that now it was important to get answers to far more essential questions.
"In search of a reliable shelter from Shinra. The documents are, simply put, a sign of goodwill. And in return we offer our full-scale help in your fight against Shinra," Alex explained in a calm tone the true reason for their visit.
Barret thoughtfully looked at Alex and Dean, who from the very beginning had demonstratively ignored the machine gun aimed at them, as if they completely didn't give a damn about the threat. Still frowning, he turned to Tifa: he needed to listen to her explanations, because he knew perfectly well that she would never have let a suspicious trio over the threshold of the bar without a solid reason.
Noticing Barret's questioning gaze, Tifa began detailed retelling of everything she had managed to learn from Alex and Aerith, not forgetting to mention the reasons why they had been forced to go to ground. Listening to her, Barret sank onto a massive chair and only periodically nodded, completely not paying attention to the fact that the heroes of the story were only a couple of steps away from him.
Exchanging glances, Alex and Dean silently shrugged and returned to their table to the sleeping Aerith, who had managed not to wake up despite all the orangutan noise and shouts arranged by Barret upon appearance. Slightly surprised at what an inhumanly strong sleep Aerith had in such an extreme setting, Alex with a quiet chuckle sank onto the chair next to her.
The moment he sat down, Aerith immediately in her sleep moved closer to his body. Stroking the sleeping Aerith's hair, Alex carefully watched how the emotions changed on Barret's face. Alex was one hundred percent sure: they would definitely be accepted into AVALANCHE. And that meant only one thing — in the nearest future all of them would have to run around quite a bit.
To be continued...
(Yeah, I'm deliberately making it so Alex still doesn't know Cloud is Claudia. He certainly doesn't expect to see a girl with a huge sword who frowns all the time. So, joining AVALANCHE is secured, which means we can move on to other things. And I just noticed yesterday's chapter had two 7s in it, and the title also had two 7s. Hehe, what a funny coincidence. Okay, time to go eat. Peace, love, and I'm Barret, and I have a machine gun for an arm that can do pew-pew.)
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