Alex slowly climbed higher and higher up the metal steps, intending to reach the very top of the technical service zone of the Main Support. Along the way he made short stops on the tiers in order to quickly cut short the next conflict between members of "AVALANCHE" and Shinra Grunts. Having thrown more than ten people into the air, where a soft amortizing mattress was already waiting for them below, Alex unhurriedly headed toward the steps leading further upward, completely ignoring Reno and Rude, who were continuously watching him from the helicopter. Reno and Rude themselves, sitting in the cabin and once again observing how Alex with icy calm threw people through the railings, could not help exchanging glances between themselves, asking themselves the silent question: "What the hell is happening right now?"
Alex himself continued climbing higher and was already approaching the tenth tier. Halfway up the stair flight he suddenly heard how the chaotic sounds of shooting on the tenth tier abruptly fell silent. Expressing slight bewilderment on his face, Alex quickly climbed the steps upward and found there yet another place of a terrible massacre. The entire tenth tier was literally littered with corpses not only of members of "AVALANCHE," but also of the bodies of Grunts. And in the middle of this nightmare stood a single Elite Stormtrooper, who at that very moment was savagely tearing apart another Elite Stormtrooper with his bare hands.
Stopping on the last step, Alex slightly stroked his chin, tilting his head to the side. He immediately noticed that this Elite Stormtrooper was somehow radically different from those he had encountered before. The longer Alex peered at his silhouette, the more distinctly it seemed to him that he had already seen something similar in the past. And, as far as he remembered, the best way to learn the truth without resorting to magical vision was simply to ask, and then immediately kill.
"And what the hell is wrong with you? Since when did Shinra start sending rabid dogs into battle?" Alex inquired with sincere interest, observing the strange Elite Stormtrooper.
"He has come… He has come… The opponent of fate has come… You cannot change what was predestined… Submit to Fate! Obey Fate… The end is inevitable!" the Elite Stormtrooper spoke in a terrible, distorted voice, unnaturally turning his head and staring at Alex.
"Ah, so that's what it's about! You've started directly possessing other people's bodies. And since this idiot was literally stuffed to the brim with liquid Mako, it's far easier for you to penetrate his mind and flesh. Clear-clear," Alex said thoughtfully, stroking his chin, finally realizing that the Gray Whisperers had taken far more radical steps.
"Submit to fate… Obey fate… Accept the predestined end!" the distorted, otherworldly voice again rang out from the lips of the Elite Stormtrooper, while his body approached Alex with unnatural convulsive jerks.
"Listen, shut the hell up. You're really interfering with my thinking… And my final answer is no. So be so kind as to go and fuck your friend, or brother, or whatever you are to each other," Alex dismissed contemptuously, paying absolutely no attention to the terrible spectacle unfolding before him.
The more Alex peered at the writhing body of the possessed Elite Stormtrooper, the more it seemed to him that the situation was becoming far more interesting than it had been from the very beginning. Slightly narrowing his eyes, Alex with lazy grace stepped aside, easily dodging the red-hot blade. The sparkling blade of the stormtrooper whistled down onto the metal step where Alex had been standing a moment ago.
Sharply jerking his arm, the possessed soldier with one powerful motion completely chopped off the stair flight, finally cutting off any path back for Alex. Lowering a calm gaze onto the suddenly attacking Elite Stormtrooper, Alex merely slightly raised an eyebrow. He became even more curious about what the Whisperer who had fully taken over the foreign body was now planning to undertake.
Having destroyed the staircase, the stormtrooper predatorily leaned forward and with an instantaneous sharp surge rushed at Alex. Finding himself close, the puppet began continuously swinging its red-hot blades, slicing the air with hot strips. Dodging every aggressive lunge, Alex with genuine interest observed exactly how the possessed stormtrooper acted, showing sincere curiosity about how skillfully the Whisperers were capable of controlling human flesh.
Having observed for some time and along the way without the slightest effort avoiding the blows, Alex saw absolutely everything he needed. He had seriously hoped that the Whisperers who had taken over a living body would be able to surprise him at least a little. However, before him unfolded the same dull spectacle that he had seen hundreds of times before, when someone forcibly tried to control foreign muscles and ligaments. Understanding that he would definitely see nothing new or interesting here anymore, Alex decided to operatively end this farce and move further upward.
Lazily yawning, Alex took a short step forward and delivered a crushing uppercut right into the torso of the jumped-up Elite Stormtrooper. Throughout the tenth tier the deafening crunch of breaking bones echoed, and the stormtrooper with a loud juicy slap smashed dead-on into the metal ceiling covering, turning into one continuous bloody mess.
Having killed the Whisperers' puppet, Alex with a habitual motion reached into his pocket and took out a thin cigar, intending to light it. Barely had he brought the lighter to the tip of the cigar when a strange, viscous sound rang out right above his head. The moment he raised his gaze upward, from the flattened body on the ceiling thick drops of blood began gushing, abundantly smearing his face and black coat.
"Oh, as always… And I already thought in my sinful mind that at least this time I'd manage not to get covered in blood up to my ears," Alex said with a sigh, carelessly smearing the fresh blood across his cheeks and thereby making his appearance only even more terrible and sinister.
Shaking his head, Alex dejectedly thought that the situation could not get any worse anyway, since he was already smeared with blood from head to toe. Firmly clamping the thin cigar between his teeth, Alex headed toward the steps and began climbing higher. He knew perfectly well the simple logic of this kind of situations: if even one such non-standard enemy appears on the path, then further on there will definitely only be more of them.
But what Alex simply could not help noticing was that during the slaughter of the puppet Elite Stormtrooper he had felt a rather specific sensation that radically differed from what he experienced when killing ordinary Gray Whisperers. Stuck on yet another stepped flight, Alex deeply thought and instantly realized: the Stormtrooper's body had been taken over by a completely different, more advanced type of Whisperer.
And barely had this guess formed in his head when everything finally fell into place—Sephira had after all already begun fully subordinating the spirits of fate to herself. For, as far as he knew, only she alone was capable of forcing the Whisperers to act so aggressively that they began directly possessing the flesh and mind of living beings. And it was precisely she who would strain with all her might to push the fate of this world toward the inevitable end. Having figured out this entire underbelly, Alex nodded his head understandingly and continued the unhurried ascent.
Passing one tier after another, Alex no longer encountered absolutely any resistance, with the exception of continuous devastation left after a series of past explosions and fierce firefights. Having climbed to the thirteenth tier itself, Alex saw an already painfully familiar spectacle: piles of mutilated corpses and possessed Elite Stormtroopers, of which this time there turned out to be significantly more. Seeing before himself a full five possessed Stormtroopers, Alex annoyedly pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Fine, let's do everything quickly. I need to finally deal with you before the others climb up here and see this entire nightmare," Alex said with a sigh, confidently stepping onto the platform of the thirteenth tier.
"Opponent… of Fate…" the possessed Elite Stormtroopers began chanting in unison in terrible distorted voices, unnaturally twitching.
"Yes-yes-yes, 'Opponent of Fate' and all that. When you learn at least a couple of new words, then we'll talk with you. And for now—shut up and let me kill you quickly," Alex said with growing irritation in his voice, tossing the extinguished thin cigar aside.
Exhaling the remnants of cigar smoke through his nose, Alex took a quick step forward and instantly found himself right in front of the first possessed Stormtrooper. Finding himself close, Alex simply placed a heavy palm on the soldier's head and pressed downward with monstrous force. In the same instant a juicy sound of a loud slap rolled throughout the tier, and the stormtrooper's body instantly crumpled under his hand, turning into a bloody lump of flesh smeared across the metal floor.
Without losing a second, Alex sharply turned and delivered a sweeping, crushing blow with the back of his hand right to the face of the next stormtrooper. From this touch the puppet's body literally exploded in a bright bloody fireworks, abundantly spraying blood and pieces of flesh across the entire space around.
The remaining three possessed stormtroopers reacted instantly: simultaneously releasing long red-hot blades from their wrists, they jointly rushed at Alex. Noticing the rapidly approaching blades, Alex gracefully stepped aside, easily dodging the joint attack.
Spinning in place, Alex instantly found himself behind one of the attackers and right away delivered a crushing punch with a fist to the back of the head. From this instantaneous impulse the head of the possessed one flew apart like a ripe watermelon. And before the headless stormtrooper managed to collapse onto the flooring, Alex grabbed his arm in an iron grip and with one sharp yank completely tore it off.
Grabbing the bloody stump, Alex powerfully swung it toward the nearest opponent—the red-hot blade on the dead arm sliced the next possessed stormtrooper clean in half. Tossing the useless limb aside, Alex shifted his gaze to the last remaining enemy. Slightly narrowing his eyes, Alex took a short step and literally materialized behind the puppet's back. Not giving it even a chance to react, Alex right away straightened his fingers and thrust his palm through the stormtrooper's back.
Feeling and tightly clamping the spine, he forcefully pulled it toward himself—and with one wild yank tore out the spine together with the head thrown backward. And while Alex so cruelly and matter-of-factly dealt with the possessed stormtroopers, Reno and Rude were continuously watching all of this right from the cabin of their helicopter. Having seen with their own eyes this crushing and bloody slaughter, they simply did not know how such a thing was even worth commenting on.
"Hey, Rude… He… he just ripped out a stormtrooper's spine right before our eyes? Right?" Reno began speaking in a quiet, frozen voice, still intently observing Alex through the windshield.
"Yes. He ripped it out," Rude answered with a single nod, adjusting his sunglasses with noticeably trembling fingers.
"So that means… we just got fucking lucky every time we crossed paths with him before?" Reno asked yet another question, stunnedly observing how Alex, completely covered in someone else's blood, as if nothing had happened began climbing step by step to the next tier.
"I don't dare deny it. We really were catastrophically lucky," Rude again sparsely nodded his head, unable to tear his shocked gaze from Alex.
"Listen, maybe… to hell with this mission? We'll tell the leadership that we unexpectedly got stomach cramps from acute indigestion, and quietly get the hell out of here as far as possible? I somehow don't feel like ending my days the same way as these stormtroopers at all!" Reno began speaking in a dry, broken tone, sharply turning his head to his partner.
"We have a clear job that we are obliged to carry out. We simply have no other choice," Rude answered in an extremely calm, though vibrating tone, shifting his gaze to Reno.
"Well, complete fucking disaster… Why the hell did I even agree to this shitty mission?! Damn, if not for my suddenly empty bank account, I would never have stuck my nose here in my life!" Reno spat out with furious irritation, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers from the helplessness that had covered him.
While Reno and Rude were talking between themselves in the helicopter cabin, Alex had already climbed to the fourteenth tier. Stopping on the last step, Alex could not help rubbing his forehead from annoyance at the sight of the picture that opened before him. Everywhere traces of a bloody firefight and numerous explosions that had flared up between members of "AVALANCHE" and Grunts were visible.
Looking at all this mess, Alex clearly understood: the Whisperers were deliberately arranging events so that during this incident as many people as possible would die. And the higher he climbed the stair flights, the more corpses he encountered on his path. And the only thing Alex sincerely worried about in the current situation was that Yuffie would see this entire senseless massacre with her own eyes. For, as far as he remembered, in the canon at this stage there had not been such a huge number of victims at all.
Rubbing his forehead once more, Alex hoped that Yuffie would be able to relatively normally accept what was happening. For such a nightmarish spectacle was capable of quite strongly and for a long time traumatizing the psyche of any person, not to mention such a young girl as Yuffie. Sighing heavily once more, Alex lowered his gaze downward through the grated floor, intending to check on which exact tier Dean, Claudia, Yuffie, and Barret were currently located.
Seeing that the group had already reached the tenth tier, Alex paid attention to the fact that they likewise had to fight the possessed. But here the role of puppets was played not by stormtroopers at all, but by the dead members of "AVALANCHE" and Grunts. Frowning at this alarming picture, Alex suddenly heard a quiet viscous rustle that spread throughout the entire fourteenth tier. Raising his gaze, he saw how right from under the metal floor Black Whisperers massively crawled out, who immediately began penetrating into the cooled corpses, taking over their dead bodies.
"Come on… Did you really decide to stage some snotty zombie stuff here? This isn't cool at all," Alex said with a sigh, observing with unconcealed skepticism how the possessed corpses with a scrape began slowly rising to their feet.
Lighting a thin cigar, Alex observed the already familiar-to-him spectacle of suddenly revived dead men. For him enough time had already passed since the last time he had seen such zombies with his own eyes. Having long given himself over to nostalgic memories, Alex for a moment removed the thin cigar from his lips and began slowly exhaling dense smoke more resembling a mixture of ash and soot. Very quickly a dense gray cloud completely enveloped the entire fourteenth tier, tightly blocking the view and covering the bodies of the possessed members of "AVALANCHE" and Grunts head-on.
Taking a calm step back, Alex opened his mouth and with a sharp motion clicked his teeth, striking a spark. In the same moment the gray cloud instantly detonated, and throughout the entire fourteenth tier a powerful shockwave from the volumetric explosion rolled with a crushing echo. The possessed bodies flew in all directions like rag dolls caught by a whirlwind, right in flight catching bright flame. From this sharp shockwave even the heavy helicopter in which Reno and Rude were sitting was strongly rocked in the air, and the pilots had to urgently climb even higher so as not to be hit by the raging fiery storm.
Standing on the very edge of the blazing tier, Alex with a soft motion shook the cigar ash onto the metal floor, casting a bored glance over the burning remains. Smirking, Alex expressively snapped his fingers, and the bodies engulfed in fire flared even brighter, in a matter of seconds completely turning into gray dust. In the current situation he least of all wanted blazing possessed dead men chasing after him on his heels. Having finished methodically dealing with the arisen problems, Alex continued unhurriedly climbing the steps and stopped on yet another inter-floor flight, looking toward the slums engulfed in fire.
From there he had an excellent view of how the frightened people were gradually evacuating into the safe Sixth Sector, into the area of the Wall Market. Looking at the flaming slums and the Shinra helicopters circling above them, Alex searched with his gaze for Aerith, Tifa, and Jessie, who until the last were helping people leave the doomed Sector. Noticing the girls, Alex slightly narrowed his eyes, wishing to finally make sure that on their side everything was under full control. Having ascertained that they were safe, Alex barely noticeably smiled.
"We'll sincerely hope that Tseng is still not so stupid as to try to brazenly grab Aerith when Steve is right next to her. Otherwise I'll have to personally hand him the official medal of the biggest Idiot of the century," Alex said with a sarcastic smirk, slightly narrowing his eyes at the helicopter in whose cabin Reno and Rude were still nervously sitting.
Casting a last glance at the flaming slums, Alex continued climbing higher, intending to reach the twentieth tier faster than Dean, Claudia, Yuffie, and Barret, who were breaking through along the inner staircase from the opposite side of the technical service zone of the Support. Deciding to properly hurry, Alex noticeably accelerated his step and began quickly making his way from one tier to another.
Along the way he no longer encountered a single survivor—only successive groups of possessed puppets straining with all their might to slow his progress. Continuing to methodically destroy the possessed on his path, Alex inevitably got dirty: his clothing with every step became more densely covered with fresh blood. And by the moment he finally reached the very upper tier where the main control panel of the Support was located, his black coat and face were already practically completely smeared with thick scarlet blood.
Stepping out onto the open platform of the last tier, Alex raised his gaze upward and stared fixedly at the gigantic Plate of the Seventh Sector that loomed oppressively right above him. The more time passed, the more distinctly and inevitably he felt: very soon it would crash downward with a roar. And he literally felt in his gut that this would happen not at all through the fault of Rude and Reno, who were supposed to officially launch the process of detaching the Plate, as it had originally happened in the canon.
Walking to the very center of the metal platform, Alex briefly glanced at the helicopter of the Turks hovering right above him. Holding his gaze for a couple of moments, Alex turned away and unhurriedly approached the very edge. Standing at the dangerous precipice, Alex again looked downward at the blazing slums.
And right now he could not get rid of the invasive thought that for the sake of his selfish desire to rewrite the canon he had turned out to be quite ready to leave hundreds of innocent people without housing—and all only so that in the end everyone would have a happy ending. For no matter how he justified himself by the fact that this was being done for the sake of saving the very Fate of this world, he had still directly contributed to the fact that the destitute people had been robbed of the last thing they had.
And this was despite the fact that he knew perfectly well: he had had the opportunity to prevent this catastrophe at any moment. Feeling how the cold upper wind blew across his face, Alex closed his eyes, straining with all his might to redirect his thoughts into a constructive channel—his plan was strictly calculated for the long-term perspective for this entire world. For if the houses burned—it was no big deal, they could be rebuilt without problems at any moment.
"Everything for the common good… Right?.. Yeah, later I'll have to bother a little to restore all of this again," Alex began speaking to himself in an extremely calm tone, observing the blazing slums far below.
"I see you're a real altruist, SOLDIER buddy," Reno's sarcastic and slightly bold voice suddenly rang out right behind Alex's back.
Hearing the irritating voice behind himself, Alex slowly turned his head and saw Reno, who stood several meters from him with a habitual arrogant smirk on his face. Slightly blinking, Alex raised his gaze upward and looked at the helicopter hovering in the air, carefully piloted by Rude.
Lowering his gaze back to Reno, Alex merely carelessly wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve and turned away, continuing to intently observe Aerith, Tifa, and Jessie, who had practically fully helped all the residents leave the flaming slums. Irritably clicking his tongue from the fact that he was once again shamelessly ignored, Reno with a click unfolded his telescopic electric baton and with a sharp surge rushed toward Alex.
Instantly closing the distance, Reno found himself close to Alex and swung for a crushing blow. But exactly at the moment when the sparkling weapon was supposed to touch the target, Reno saw how Alex literally evaporated before his eyes. The next thing Reno managed to realize was that he had at full speed stepped right onto the edge of the platform and was already ready to fly downward.
Practically tipping over the edge above the dizzying abyss, he suddenly felt how he was forcefully pulled backward. Feeling the sharp, saving yank, Reno heavily plopped onto his backside, experiencing a nasty, nauseating sticky fear from the realization that he had just almost smashed to death. Relievedly patting himself on the chest and catching his breath, Reno raised his gaze to Alex, who was looking at him from above with an extremely tired gaze.
"I just can't understand: either you're a real finished idiot, or you simply want so strongly to get the Darwin Award?" Alex said with a sigh, lighting a thin cigar and looking down from above at Reno sitting on the metal floor.
"You're the idiot yourself! If you hadn't simply dodged at the last moment, I wouldn't have fallen anywhere!" Reno spat out with furious irritation, narrowing his eyes at Alex.
"So now I'm to blame for the fact that you're a fairy-tale dumbass?.." Alex asked again in a cheerful, teasing tone, casually shaking ash right under Reno's feet.
"That's for you to decide yourself. I only wanted to detain you," Reno snorted, continuing to warily look at Alex and carefully following every minimal movement of his.
"I'm just insanely interested: and where does so much courage even come from in you? Aren't you afraid that at some moment I'll take and really kill you?" Alex asked in a soft, deceptively affectionate tone, smoothly squatting right in front of Reno and intently looking into his very eyes.
"You won't do that… Right?" Reno answered, gripping the handle of his electric baton even tighter, ready in case of anything to attack from any position.
"Well, you two idiots don't need to tense up so strongly. Overall I even rather like you…" Alex said with a smirk, still sitting on his haunches in front of Reno and exhaling a dense cloud of cigar smoke right into his face.
"Damn bastard!.. Cough-cough… I actually like exclusively girls with huge tits, and not such pretty boys as you!" Reno snapped, going into an annoyed cough from the dense smoke that had gotten into his respiratory tract.
"As you say. And now shut up, or I'll again break half your bones in order to somehow subdue your ardor," Alex summarized in a mocking tone, delivering a ringing, tangible flick to Reno's forehead.
Having received a tangible blow to the forehead, Reno instantly felt how it literally rang in his ears from this flick. Looking at the comically rolling on the floor Reno, Alex smirked and raised his gaze upward, staring at the helicopter that Rude was piloting. Raising a hand, Alex expressively pointed a finger downward, clearly making it clear that the Turk should immediately land. Rude, who was at the controls, perfectly noticed this authoritative gesture and shifted his gaze to Reno, who was still absurdly writhing on the metal flooring, holding onto his reddened forehead.
Weighing all the "pros" and "cons," Rude made the only correct decision to land the machine. He understood perfectly that they had not a single chance against a guy capable of stopping bullets with bare hands. Besides, it remained absolutely unknown how good Alex's current physical form was and what else he was capable of at all. Having landed on the platform and shutting off the engine, Rude exited the cabin and slowly approached closer. Seeing this, Alex merely slightly nodded his head and turned away, continuing to silently look at the flaming slums. Shaking his head from hopelessness, Rude approached his partner and carefully helped him rise to his feet.
"And what now… are we hostages, or something like that?" Reno inquired, annoyedly rubbing his swollen and reddened forehead from the flick.
"Something like that… But even if I continue to hinder your mission, the Plate will still fall. Don't you both think so?" Alex began speaking in a calm, reflective tone, slightly turning his head and narrowing his eyes at Reno and Rude.
"Why would that be? It's you who are supposed to drop it, and not us at all. We're here exclusively in order to stop a dangerous terrorist," Reno parried with a habitual arrogant smirk, unnoticed probing the surroundings with his gaze and looking for at least the slightest opportunity to break through to the control terminal of the Support.
"Hmm. Well then let's consider that right now you are heroically holding me in place. And then the Plate is guaranteed not to fall, after which absolutely everyone will live long and happily in a world of rainbows and pink ponies," Alex answered with a sarcastic smirk, lowering his gaze to the metal floor in order to check on which flight Dean, Yuffie, Claudia, and Barret were currently located.
Hearing such nonsense, Reno and Rude for a moment simply lost the gift of speech from how absurdly and surreally all of this sounded from Alex's lips. Noticing that Alex had lowered his gaze to the floor, Reno instantly thought that this was his ideal chance to unhinderedly reach the control panel of the Support. Carefully taking a step aside, Reno did not take a wary gaze from Alex, carefully going around Rude from behind and covering himself with his partner as a living shield from the foreign view.
Taking yet another quiet step, Reno sharply froze when he saw how Alex suddenly and rapidly turned his head toward the blazing slums. And a moment later, without saying a single word, Alex made several lightning-fast steps and without hesitation jumped from the gigantic height right downward. Seeing all of this, Reno and Rude stunnedly exchanged glances, absolutely not understanding what the hell had once again happened before their eyes.
"And what the hell was that just now?! Did he… just take and simply jump downward?!" Reno asked again, actively pointing a finger toward the empty edge of the platform from which Alex had just stepped.
"I think he sensed something… And the only thing that currently comes to my mind is that our boss got too close to Aerith," Rude answered, carefully adjusting his sunglasses and cold-bloodedly peering toward the lower tiers and the slums.
"And that's already completely not for the good… Fine, to hell with everything! I'll quickly activate the detachment mechanism, and we'll instantly get the hell out of here. Then he'll simply have no other choice except to drop everything and save the girl," Reno said, frowning gloomily, and with a decisive step headed right toward the control panel of the Support.
"Fuck! Well finally we're at the very top… Whatever finished asshole built this shitty platform, let him go to hell!" the loud, extremely irritated voice of Dean suddenly rang out from the side of the stair flight.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me!.." Reno groaned dejectedly, midway realizing that yet another unforeseen problem had again arisen on their path.
Several minutes before Alex jumped from the technical platform, the evacuation in the slums had already fully completed, and absolutely all the residents to the last had successfully left the Sector. Aerith and Tifa stood near the steps of the bar, observing how Jessie ran to check whether Biggs and Wedge, who were clearing the main path for the departing people, had managed to help everyone.
Left only the two of them, Aerith and Tifa exchanged glances, clearly understanding: they needed to urgently pick up Marlene and leave before something terrible happened. Casting an anxious glance toward the humming Support, Aerith took a deep breath and first entered the bar. Finding herself inside, she heard how Tifa in a quiet whisper was comforting the confused Marlene, who was strongly upset because their habitual home was about to be completely destroyed, and they would lose all their property.
Comforting the little one, Tifa herself also felt deep sadness from the thought that their cozy "Seventh Heaven" might disappear forever, therefore she only more tightly and softly embraced the crying Marlene, trying to gift her at least some warmth. Approaching closer, Aerith squatted nearby and looked at Marlene with the most tender and kind gaze.
"Marlene, just always remember: you still have your dad, all of us, and even Steve. And we all together will definitely build ourselves a new wonderful home—exactly where you yourself want," Aerith said in an affectionate tone, softly stroking Marlene's soft hair.
"Really?.." Marlene asked in a quiet, sad tone, raising her tear-stained eyes to Aerith and Tifa.
"Well of course! We'll be able to build the biggest and most beautiful house where we can live all together again," Tifa answered with a bright, encouraging smile, wiping the emerging tears with the back of her hand.
Marlene quietly sniffed and with difficulty but gratefully nodded her head. Continuing to smile, Tifa carefully lifted Marlene into her arms, intending to finally leave "Seventh Heaven" and go to a safe place. Rising from her squatting position, Aerith affectionately picked up Steve, who this entire time had been sitting as a loyal guardian next to Marlene, keeping her company and guarding her peace. But the moment they took only a few steps in the direction of the exit, the entrance doors of the bar noisily swung open, and on the threshold appeared a fit man in a strict black suit.
Seeing Tseng, Tifa immediately warily tensed, instantly covering Marlene and Aerith with herself. Tseng, for his part, reacted absolutely in no way to her protective gesture—he merely intently looked at Aerith with his habitual polite smirk. With a soft motion adjusting the black leather gloves on his hands, Tseng took a confident step forward, forcing Aerith and Tifa to instinctively step back, maintaining a safe distance.
"You made us run around quite a bit, Aerith… And now be so kind as to come with me," Tseng said in a calm, icy tone, carelessly pointing a hand toward the street where a parked helicopter stood.
"I'm afraid I can't do that in any way… Not this time, Tseng," Aerith answered, frowning gloomily and carefully peeking out from behind Tifa's shoulder.
"Clear. So you simply leave me no other choice. In that case I can no longer guarantee the safety of your new friends," Tseng began speaking, still in the same calm tone, slightly nodding his head and shifting a heavy gaze to Tifa and Marlene.
"It's you who should be strongly worrying right now, and not us at all," Aerith answered in a soft, even slightly mocking tone, looking somewhere over the shoulder of the head of the Turks.
"Is that so? And why? Do you sincerely think that the two of you together can hinder me?" Tseng asked again, with slight surprise noticing how the tense faces of Aerith and Tifa instantly relaxed, and on Marlene's little face a happy smile even blossomed.
"Not them… but me," Alex's dry, oppressive voice rang out right behind Tseng's back.
Hearing this sound right above his ear, Tseng slowly turned his head and saw Alex standing close, whose clothing was solidly covered with fresh scarlet blood. Casting a cursory glance over the little street behind Alex's back, the head of the Turks shockedly realized: absolutely all the elite Grunts who had arrived with him were already lying in stacks on the ground unconscious. And this entire cleanup had happened so lightning-fast that he had not even managed to hear anything.
"Hey there, mutt. Shall we chat?" Alex said with a predatory smirk, fraternally placing a heavy palm on the shoulder of the stunned Tseng.
To be continued...
(Today was another miserable day. I was desperately sleepy all day long, and a headache just about did me in. I couldn't work—I could barely even write a chapter. It's one of those days where I just want to stare at the ceiling or drop dead. Even as I write this, my head is pounding and I'm fighting the urge to sleep. So, not a word about the plot. Except that the stove is going to fall. I'm off to get something to eat and go to sleep. Peace, love, and pink ponies.)
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