Chapter 815 - 814: Shocking Information and the Prelude to the Plate’s Fall."

Still being in the "Seventh Heaven" establishment, Alex tried with all his might to ignore the extremely intent and silent gazes of Aerith and Tifa. Both girls were looking at him as if he were right now committing something completely wrong and unacceptable. Alex, of course, perfectly understood the true reason for these reproachful gazes, and therefore had limited himself in advance: he had broken only one single finger of Garrett's and delivered only one precise punch to the nose, simply to force the traitor to finally shut up.

Tired of listening to Garrett's continuous wails, Alex unceremoniously grabbed him by the mouth, after which he turned his head toward Tifa and Aerith and with a light, calming smile made them understand that the matter would definitely not go further than one broken finger.

Alex fully realized that the ordinary residents of the Slums of the Seventh Sector had perfectly seen how Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge had dragged this bound dishonest merchant across the street, and far too many extra eyes had noticed how he was being hauled right into the doors of the bar. That was precisely why Alex had to step on the throat of his own habits and completely do without his favorite extreme interrogation methods.

Seeing this calming gesture of Alex's, Tifa sighed with relief. Even though she sincerely blamed Garrett for his vile act, her nature was still not so cruel as to beat and torture a person, regardless of the severity of what he had done.

Aerith, for her part, simply smiled sweetly and warmly, after which she softly placed her palms on Alex's shoulders, wordlessly showing that she fully supported his restrained decision. Removing his hand from the face of the quietly moaning Garrett, Alex cast a questioning glance over the others present, inquiring about their general opinion: was it even worth listening to what Garrett so fiercely wanted to say, or would it be wiser for them simply to properly beat him up and without extra talk throw him out?

Hearing such a dilemma, Biggs and Wedge thoughtfully exchanged glances, beginning to discuss in undertones how best to proceed. Barret, for his part, without thinking for a single second, loudly spoke out in favor of beating the merchant-scum half to death and throwing him right onto the distant dump for the hungry monsters to eat. From these stern words the bound Garrett began with wild panic fiercely shaking his head from side to side, with all his strength trying to prove that he possessed incredibly important information.

"Maybe we should still listen to him, as Claudia originally suggested? What if this bastard really has something to tell us?" Jessie proposed, pushing a wooden chair closer and sitting down on it.

"Why the hell should we even listen to this lousy bastard?! Let's just thoroughly beat him up and throw him out onto the street, it'll be far simpler and faster that way! What is this scum even capable of telling us?!" Barret growled in an angry bass, clenching his massive fist to the cracking of joints and preparing to deliver a crushing blow right to Garrett's physiognomy.

"Well… he is a black-market merchant after all. Such types usually know a damn lot of interesting things," Wedge said in a thoughtful tone, slightly tilting his head to the side.

"Hmmmh-hmh!.." Garrett immediately began convulsively and fiercely nodding his head through the gag, making it clear with his entire appearance that he really knew very, very much.

"A lot to say?! This freak has already said enough with his betrayal! If not for his fucked-up greed, they wouldn't have tried to blow us all up yesterday together with an entire goddamn train car!" Barret spat out with deep disgust and without extra ceremony delivered Garrett such a juicy and ringing slap to the back of the head that the latter's ears immediately started ringing.

"Oh! What if he has something incredibly valuable stashed somewhere?! Well, for example, entire treasures or the rarest Materia? Or even Materia that is itself an ancient treasure?!" Yuffie cried out enthusiastically, in one moment jumping up to Alex and excitedly leaning her elbows right on his shoulders.

"That's rather unlikely, little one. Such small-time merchants usually have absolutely empty pockets. If this slug had anything really valuable, he wouldn't be hanging around the black market like an ordinary cowardly rat," Dean answered with a predatory smirk, condescendingly patting Garrett on the swollen cheek with his palm.

Listening to these continuous discussions in the background, Alex continued to silently look at Garrett, who, despite the mouth sealed with a gag, sincerely tried with his entire appearance to show that he represented far greater value alive than dead—exclusively thanks to the information he possessed.

Swinging a thin smoldering cigar in his teeth, Alex turned his head toward Claudia and inquired about her opinion, since she alone was in no way participating in the general argument. Noticing his questioning gaze, Claudia merely slightly narrowed her eyes and without extra words leaned closer to the bound merchant. Slightly moving aside the edge of his clothing stained with dirt and blood, Claudia deftly extracted a small worn notebook from his inner pocket and accurately threw it right into Alex's hands.

Catching the notebook on the fly, Alex slightly raised an eyebrow and shifted his gaze to Garrett, whose eyes at the sight of the notebook instantly widened from wild, primordial horror. Noticing such a turbulent reaction of the merchant, Alex with picturesque interest opened the notebook and began examining its contents.

As soon as he turned the first page, all those present immediately crowded around him in a dense throng, showing colossal interest in the merchant's secrets. Leafing through page after page, Alex saw only systematic notes about with whom exactly Garrett had already managed to conclude vile deals, as well as lists of potential clients. However, reaching a certain page in the middle of the notebook, Alex slightly narrowed his eyes and slowly raised his gaze to Garrett, bestowing upon him an icy, deadly look.

In the next second the others also looked at this merchant as at the most finished and vile bastard. The page on which Alex had stopped was filled to capacity with women's names, and some of them were mercilessly crossed out. But at the very top of the sheet flaunted a cynical inscription: "Candidates for wives for Don Corneo." And among these names with a special mark were even listed Tifa and Jessie.

Barret's eyes instantly filled with blood from all-consuming rage. In the same second he grabbed Garrett by the collar in a death grip and without a single extra word began delivering the heaviest blows with a fist right to the merchant's bloodied face. Only after the third deafening blow did the others finally come to their senses and rush to drag Barret back before he beat the traitor to death right on the floor of the bar.

Seeing with what primordial fury Barret was raining down his pound-weight fists, Yuffie with a squeak immediately hid behind Alex's broad back—she clearly had not expected to see such wild, crushing rage from this eternally loudly shouting bruiser. Biggs, Wedge, and Tifa with enormous difficulty managed to drag the enraged Barret away, who was ready to finish off the merchant with his own hands here and now. Aerith also did not remain on the sidelines, helping to hold the big man by the arm before he managed to do things that he would later sincerely regret.

"Let me go, damn it! I'll personally kill this finished bastard! I don't give a damn what happens to me later!" Barret roared, with furious strength breaking free from the collective grip of his friends in order to finally finish what he had started.

"Calm down, Barret! Corneo is dead anyway… Don't you dare even dirty your hands on this worthless scum!" Biggs said, breathing heavily, straining with all his might to pull his friend as far as possible from the bloodied prisoner.

"I'm absolutely calm!.. Just let me go! I'll just quietly strangle this bastard and personally bury him somewhere deeper in the dump!" Barret began speaking in an icy, full-of-rage tone, continuing to incinerate Garrett with blood-filled eyes.

"Barret, believe me, he's absolutely not worth it. Just take a deep breath and try to calm down," Tifa intervened in a soft, peaceful tone, continuing to carefully push Barret farther into the depths of the hall and straining with all her might to bring him to his senses.

Even despite the heated persuasions of his friends, Barret continued to look at Garrett with fierce rage. He was under no circumstances ready to forgive the one who had not only subjected his friends to mortal danger but had also seriously intended to sell into slavery those who had long become like younger sisters to him. However, boiling from yet another all-consuming wave of rage, Barret suddenly felt how his clouded mind was beginning to calm in a strange way.

Feeling how the wild rage was gradually receding and thoughts were becoming unusually crystalline and clear, Barret stopped breaking free and merely heavily sighed, trying to catch his breath. Noticing that their leader had finally come to his senses, everyone sighed with incredible relief and began gradually releasing him.

While no one was paying attention, Aerith, who continued to hold Barret by the arm, decided to resort to her own special method in order to stop her friend from a fatal mistake. Her palms for a short moment glowed with a soft, peaceful green light that unnoticed penetrated right into Barret's body.

And when the latter finally calmed down, Aerith with a sense of fulfilled duty released his arm and joyfully smiled, sincerely glad that her little scheme had fully succeeded. Continuing to smile warmly, she turned her head to the side and met the gaze of Alex, who with a light, understanding smile approvingly nodded his head to her.

In response Aerith cunningly narrowed her eyes and unnoticed showed him a thumbs-up. Chuckling to himself at how cute she looked at that moment, Alex turned to Garrett, who had lost consciousness after Barret's heaviest blows and was now literally bleeding.

Perfectly understanding that after such heavy slaps Garrett right now definitely would not be able to utter a single word, Alex decided to help the poor fellow a little. Stretching out his hand, Alex delivered a light flick to the merchant's forehead, unnoticed and instantly healing him so that he could again speak normally. After the flick to the forehead Garrett instantly came to and again went into a frantic howl, trying to break free from the death grip of the cable.

And before Barret managed to flare up with rage again from the mere sight of this slimy physiognomy, Dean decided to timely intervene and delivered the merchant a weighty reminder slap to the back of the head, forcing him to shut up instantly. Lighting a new thin cigar, Alex reached for the gag in Garrett's mouth and calmly, without extra movements pulled it out.

"So, my dear boy Garrett… As you yourself understand, the price of your worthless life has just risen several times. What exactly are you ready to offer us in exchange for your salvation?" Alex said in a careless soft tone, carelessly shaking hot ash from the cigar right onto the merchant's trousers.

"Stop! Stop, spare me! I can pay for everything! I have a pile of money! I have more than enough funds… I… I saved them for years to leave Midgar forever and go far to the Western Continent!.." Garrett began to rattle, desperately trying to find the right words, but his reasoning was immediately roughly interrupted.

"Everyone present couldn't care less where you dreamed of fucking off to! Speak strictly to the point, or that bruiser over there will with the greatest pleasure once more check the strength of your stupid skull," Dean said with a snort, delivering Garrett yet another ringing slap to the back of the head and expressively pointing at the frowning Barret.

"Don't, please! I'll give you absolutely everything I have! On my virtual bank account lies an impressive sum in gil! Shinra paid me more than two million gil for that deal…" Garrett began speaking in a nervous, breaking tone, trying not even to look in the direction of Barret, who a moment ago had been savagely beating him.

"You mean this account? Well, what a pity, but it has just turned out to be absolutely empty," Alex said with sincere amusement in his voice, turning the screen of his phone right to the frightened face of the merchant.

Seeing the empty virtual account in the Bank of Shinra on the screen, Garrett's eyes widened from uncontrolled fear. For this was his secret dummy account, registered through incredibly complex roundabout ways: it did not even list the owner's name, only a set of random digits.

And the merchant remembered with absolute certainty that on this balance lay exactly two and a half million gil—an enormous sum with the help of which he calculated on enjoying an absolutely carefree and well-fed life in the distant town of Nibelheim, where, as far as he knew, complete calm currently reigned. But now on his account proudly flaunted one single lonely gil.

Heavily swallowing the viscous saliva mixed with coppery-salty blood, Garrett began convulsively blinking, sacredly believing that he was simply hallucinating after Barret's heaviest blows to the physiognomy. However, the distinct taste of metal in his mouth made it clear that all of this was not seeming to him at all. Beginning to tremble nervously from the growing fear, Garrett lowered his gaze lower, mortally wishing to see where exactly all his honestly betrayed savings had vanished without a trace.

Wishing to fully satisfy the painful curiosity of the instantly impoverished merchant, Alex with a casual smirk ran a finger across the screen, opening the history of the latest transactions. Garrett's eyes filled with horror when he saw that absolutely all his money had been transferred to an account with a rather original name: "For the needs of a large family."

Fully realizing that he no longer had money for the ransom of his own hide, Garrett began with wild wariness examining each of those present in the establishment, convulsively trying to find at least some solution that would help him break free and leave the Seventh Sector of the slums as soon as possible.

After all, he knew perfectly well what exactly was supposed to happen here in the very near future, and more than anything in the world he wanted to escape from here. And at that moment he was not even particularly worried by the fact that he had been left without a single penny to his name. Observing the growing panic of Garrett, all those present merely nodded their heads in unison and with sympathy—for absolutely everyone in the bar understood without extra words on whose account exactly these millions had ended up in the end.

"Well then, as you yourself see, my dear boy Garrett, you now have absolutely nothing to buy yourself off with. And now I'm insanely interested: with what do you plan to pay in order to somehow wash yourself clean of all that shit so thoroughly described in your little notebook, and at the same time for your rather lousy act on the train? You know, I really don't like it when they try to blow me up," Alex said in a soft, almost affectionate tone, putting the phone back into the pocket and looking at Garrett with a lazy, cheerful gaze.

"I… I can right now pay you with incredibly valuable information!" Garrett muttered with difficulty swallowing saliva, perfectly understanding that he had exactly one single chance left to buy his own freedom and life.

"And what kind of super-information is that? Are you planning to leak to us the coordinates of Corneo's caches? Or maybe the secret warehouses of Shinra itself? Or once again start your fucking story about secret underground paths out of the city?" Biggs began probing with venomous sarcasm, folding his arms on his chest and casually leaning his hip against the wooden table.

"No-no! I beg you, listen! This information directly concerns our Seventh Sector!.." Garrett uttered with colossal difficulty, convulsively rubbing palms sweaty from wild nerves.

"Well then why the hell did you shut up?! Decided to suddenly take a dramatic pause or something? Maybe I should help you loosen your tongue a little?!" Dean cried out with open irritation, instantly delivering yet another weighty slap to the merchant.

"I'll tell everything! I'll tell everything, just don't beat me anymore! Shinra… They know perfectly well that right here, in the Seventh Sector, is located the main cell of 'AVALANCHE'! And also… they know that She is here!" Garrett cried out, swallowing saliva, and desperately pointed with a bound arm right at Aerith standing not far away.

As soon as these alarming words of Garrett's rang out in the silence of the bar, absolutely all those present instantly turned their heads toward Aerith, experiencing the most sincere and deep interest in why exactly the Shinra Corporation was so diligently searching for her and why she was needed by them at all. Aerith, for her part, masterfully put on an equally surprised face, as if she herself was sincerely astonished by the fact that Shinra was showing such intent attention to her modest person.

In reality she incredibly did not want to lie to her loyal friends about who she actually was and how colossal a value she represented for Shinra. Aerith with all her soul wanted to tell the others the pure truth—that she, Alex, and Dean were the last living Cetra in this entire world.

However, it was still extremely difficult for her to realize how radically the fate of this world had changed thanks to Alex's decisive actions, and therefore she preferred to reasonably remain silent until the arrival of a truly suitable moment.

Seeing that even Aerith herself looked no less stunned, the group decided not to dwell once more on this complex question. After all, the fact that Shinra had targeted their dear friend was quite enough for them. Alex, meanwhile, continued to maintain an absolutely imperturbable expression on his face. He looked at Aerith with a calm gaze and slightly nodded his head to her, making it clear that everything was under control.

From Garrett's mere indirect words alone Alex understood with full clarity: this slippery merchant knew perfectly well about that horror that was soon supposed to happen in the Slums of the Seventh Sector. But the only thing that truly concerned Alex at that second was whether Garrett knew who exactly Aerith was in reality.

Deciding that the time had come to finally force Garrett to shut up, Alex unnoticed put his hand under the folds of his coat and habitually touched with his fingers the handle of the hell-steel karambit, seriously intending to lightning-fast cut the merchant's throat before the latter blurted out something extra. Even Dean, instantly sensing Alex's mood, was already reaching for his belt to pull out Cain's Blade.

However, before Alex or Dean managed to tightly shut Garrett up, Barret again actively intervened in the matter, who was burning with the desire to find out in all details what exactly this degenerate had blabbed to Shinra and what specifically he knew about the corporation's military plans.

"What exactly did you blab to Shinra, you bastard?! What the hell did you spin to them?!" Barret flared up again from all-consuming rage, roughly grabbing Garrett by the collar and shaking him like a rag doll.

"I… I simply told everything I knew! A guy named Cole, with whom I concluded a couple of small deals yesterday, blabbed that you all safely returned to the Sector… And I only wanted to sell this information more expensively to the people from Shinra!" Garrett answered with wild fear in his eyes, straining with all his might not even to cross gazes with the enraged big man.

"What specifically did you dump on them?! What are these Shinra bastards planning?!" Barret shouted with even greater, deafening rage, continuing to mercilessly shake the merchant frightened to half-death.

"Wait, Barret, let him finish normally… What exactly did you tell Shinra and why did they need Aerith?" Claudia intervened, calmingly placing her palm on Barret's powerful shoulder in order to at least slightly cool his ardor.

"I really don't know why this girl is so needed by Shinra… But she is incredibly needed by them," Garrett answered, beginning to cough convulsively, desperately trying to take at least one full gulp of air while Barret continued to press the collar against his throat.

"And further? Why did Shinra require information about the location of the main cell of 'AVALANCHE'?" Alex asked in an absolutely calm voice, carefully pushing Barret aside and seating the choking Garrett back on the chair.

"They… They want to arrange a large-scale demonstrative execution of all the rebels…" Garrett quietly muttered, lowering his eyes to the floor, trying no longer to look at any of those present in the bar.

"How did you come to know this?" Alex asked, deliberately intending to dig down to the very essence, even though he himself knew perfectly well the entire underbelly of the upcoming events.

"That Shinra guy with whom I concluded that deal accidentally blabbed about it during the conversation… And I immediately resold this most valuable information to another cell of 'AVALANCHE' in the Fourth Sector for cash," Garrett answered, beginning to tremble finely with his entire body, perfectly understanding: the more terrible details he revealed, the fewer real chances he would have left to get out of this bar alive.

"And how exactly are they going to arrange this execution?" Tifa asked in a heavy tone, tightly squeezing her trembling fingers behind her back.

"Shinra… Shinra wants to completely drop the upper Plate right onto the Seventh Sector…" Garrett muttered in a barely audible, trembling whisper and tightly shut his eyes, because he perfectly understood what exact reaction would immediately follow the disclosure of this monstrous information.

As soon as these terrible words of Garrett's finally died away in the air, complete, ringing silence reigned in the "Seventh Heaven" bar. From this dead pause even the bound merchant himself from wild fear pressed even more strongly into his chair, trying to become absolutely unnoticeable.

None of those present simply wanted to believe that what he had said could turn out to be true at all. However, absolutely each of them knew perfectly well how Shinra was actually accustomed to acting and to what monstrous acts this merciless corporation was capable of going. Tifa's face instantly turned chalk-white, and she barely managed to stay on her feet, covering her mouth with both palms in shock.

Claudia managed to timely catch the falling friend by the shoulders and frowned gloomily. Now she finally fully realized why from the very moment of awakening a sticky, invasive feeling that something incredibly lousy was definitely going to happen today had not left her.

Biggs and Wedge with a completely stunned appearance powerlessly sank onto the nearest chairs, desperately trying to fit and digest this terrible information in their heads. Jessie was no less shocked than her comrades, but at the same time she felt a deep sincere relief from the realization of the fact that still yesterday morning her beloved parents had managed to timely leave Midgar and go as far as possible from this cursed city.

Inside Barret once again with renewed force flared up all-consuming rage. Unable to hold back, he with full force kicked a heavy wooden table, causing it to scrape aside with a screech, and began to curse deafeningly throughout the entire bar. Yuffie, standing right at Aerith's side, very tightly embraced her around the waist.

In Yuffie's head from such information a real bomb simply exploded, and she experienced exactly the same colossal shock as everyone else: she could not even imagine that Shinra was capable of so cold-bloodedly and cruelly dealing with thousands of peaceful people right in its own native city.

And only three—Alex, Dean, and Claudia—reacted absolutely in no way emotionally to the voiced nightmare. They continued to silently and contemplatively look at the huddled Garrett on the chair, who nervously twitched with every muscle every time Barret's next furious shout rang out. Slowly tapping an index finger on the wooden back of the chair, Alex with a thoughtful gaze examined the huddled traitor.

Without long and tedious reflections the entire further plan of the corporation was clear to him down to the tiniest details. After all, he himself had left Shinra more than enough clear "breadcrumbs" in order to provoke this large-scale event strictly on his own terms. But what Alex simply could not help admitting to himself was the fact that Shinra had once again pulled off a damn excellent strategic trick.

"Heh-heh-heh… Well played, Shinra! Pleasant to see that at least someone in this city still knows how to play chess correctly," Alex said with a predatory smirk, ironically clapping his hands.

"Kid, has your roof finally gone off?! What the hell are you even spouting right now?!" Barret roared, breathing intermittently, staring at Alex with an absolutely wild gaze.

"All of this from the very beginning was nothing other than yet another excellently thought-out trap. And our cute friend Garrett played a key role in it… After all, he's such an obedient and good boy of ours," Alex answered in an absolutely calm tone, unhurriedly rising from the chair and condescendingly patting the trembling merchant on the crown.

"Can we have a few more details? And preferably as quickly as possible—before an entire Sector of the upper Plate collapses on our heads!" Jessie uttered in a tone heavy with tension, nervously rubbing her forehead and directing an extremely collected gaze at Alex.

"Everything is extremely simple: Shinra from the very beginning calculated that this idiot would definitely want to sell such secret information to 'AVALANCHE' in order to profit and make easy money. And now answer me: when this shocking news is guaranteed to reach the rebels… what will they immediately do?" Alex began explaining in a lecturer's tone, continuing to patronizingly pat Garrett on the head.

"The members of 'AVALANCHE' will rush with all their might to the Support in order to try to prevent the catastrophe and repel Shinra's attack… Wait, you mean to say…" Biggs began answering, frowning heavily, but his eyes suddenly widened from horror when the true design of Alex finally reached him.

"Bingo! President Shinra himself still yesterday officially accused all of us of a direct conspiracy with Wutai. And since here, in the Seventh Sector, the most dangerous radicals who concluded a deal with the main enemy of all Midgar have settled… The Great and Mighty Shinra will be ready with all its forces to 'protect' the city and 'stop' the enemy, not allowing us to drop the Plate onto the heads of the innocent residents of the Slums!" Alex, with theatrical grace mounting right onto the chair, began speaking in an incredibly solemn tone, perfectly parodying the mannered and authoritative voice of President Shinra himself.

Despite the fact that Alex uttered his revelation in an emphatically pretentious and pompous tone, absolutely all those present managed to clearly understand what exactly Shinra had actually planned and what next vile trick they were right now pulling. And the very first thing Barret thought about in this terrible situation was his little daughter Marlene, who at that very time was absolutely carefreely playing with friends on the street.

Before Barret managed in blind panic to jump out onto the street, Alex timely stopped him with a short gesture and asked Wedge to go for the girl. Barret at first frowned densely from the fact that he had been so sharply slowed down, but Alex quickly explained to him: his current wound-up and crazy state would only scare Marlene to death. Taking himself in hand and deeply inhaling, Barret gratefully nodded his head and shifted his gaze to Wedge, who immediately straightened up like a string and instantly ran out onto the street.

Next the question sharply arose that was instantly voiced in the silence of the bar: how exactly were they to warn the unsuspecting residents of the slums that they needed to immediately drop everything and leave? Hearing this question, no one in the establishment simply knew what to do. Heavily sighing, Alex calmly explained the bitter truth: even if they right now ran out onto the square and began shouting about this on every corner, absolutely no one would believe them—they would only be sent as far as possible, taken for madmen.

From these sober words absolutely everyone became even more gloomy, with a heavy heart understanding that Alex was absolutely right: not a single person in their right mind would be able to believe that Shinra would really decide to drop a huge metal Plate onto an entire Sector of the slums.

While everyone was frantically thinking over a plan how to jam the mechanisms and hinder Shinra, Wedge had already managed to return, bringing Marlene with him. The little one completely did not understand why she had been so hastily called home in the very heat of the games. Before Marlene managed even fleetingly to see the bloodied, broken face of Garrett, Alex with a deft and unnoticed motion threw a dusty rag over the merchant's head and together with Dean stood tightly in front of the chair, completely blocking the little one's view with their broad backs. Seeing his beloved daughter, Barret instantly transformed: he immediately approached her with a bright, sincere smile on his face and carefully lifted her into his arms, completely hiding the anxieties eating away at his soul.

"Guys… I, of course, sincerely don't want to say this right now, but it seems that right now some unhealthy crap is starting on the street," Wedge began speaking in an extremely nervous tone, worriedly casting a quick glance over all those present.

"What specifically is happening there?" Jessie asked, instantly rising from her chair and already preparing to go out on reconnaissance herself.

"You really better see all of this yourselves… It seems we learned about all this shit too late," Wedge answered in an extremely careful tone and expressively nodded his head toward the entrance door.

"Damn… Marlene, sweetie, stay here in the bar for now. Daddy and his friends will go out for a short while now and look at what's happening there. Don't go anywhere and under no circumstances open the door to anyone, okay?" Barret clicked his tongue in annoyance, carefully lowering Marlene to the floor and tenderly stroking her soft hair.

"Okay, Daddy! Just come back as quickly as possible!" Marlene answered with a bright, carefree smile, sweetly narrowing her eyes at her father.

"Well of course, little one. We'll be there and back on one leg!" Alex picked up, chuckling, and, without even straining, with one hand pulled the beaten Garrett right together with the chair out to the exit.

Going out onto the street and carelessly dumping the bound Garrett right from the steps onto the dusty ground—on whom in the risen turmoil absolutely no one even paid attention—Alex raised his gaze to the sky. Right from the upper Plate several military helicopters of Shinra were slowly descending, to which the frightened gazes of all the residents of the slums were instantly fixed.

Everyone who at that moment was looking upward sincerely did not understand what exactly was happening and for what purpose Shinra had sent combat aviation here. Narrowing his eyes toward the huge Main Support, Alex made out that on its upper tiers armed members of "AVALANCHE" had already secured themselves. Activating magical vision, Alex slightly nudged Dean with an elbow in the side so that the latter would also see with his own eyes everything happening on the approaches. Feeling the nudge on the shoulder, Dean instantly used magical vision and began carefully observing the situation in the slums.

With the help of magic Alex and Dean clearly saw how a whole Shinra train arrived at the local station at full speed, packed to capacity with armed Grunts who in orderly ranks immediately advanced toward the Support of the Plate. Standing right next to Alex on the wooden threshold of the bar, Aerith with a heavy, full-of-pain gaze looked at the helicopters smoothly descending from above. She had known from the very beginning that this nightmare would inevitably happen, and more than once in detail had seen this terrible event in her prophetic dreams, knowing perfectly well how many innocent people would ultimately perish in this massacre.

Feeling how the frozen Aerith was squeezing his palm more and more strongly, Alex softly and carefully stroked her on the head, attracting her attention to himself. When she turned her pale face to him, Alex with a light smile softly squeezed her nose with his fingers, wordlessly making it clear: he would apply all his strength in order to rewrite this fate. Slightly stretching, Alex habitually lit a new thin cigar and patted the silent Dean on the shoulder. Descending the wooden steps of the bar, Alex approached his motorcycle Fenrir and with a light press opened its built-in weapons compartment.

"So, we have only one single last option left…" Barret said in a gloomy furious tone, with heavy steps descending after them from the steps.

"We stop them exclusively by force?" Biggs asked for final clarification, with a habitual rapid motion taking a pistol out of the thigh holster.

"Exactly so, you guessed it. But first we will simply carefully observe the development of the situation. And see what exactly we can do right now," Alex calmly answered, extracting a weighty telescopic baton from the weapons compartment of the motorcycle.

To be continued...

(I actually thought about getting everything started in this chapter. But I spent a long time considering how to go about revealing that kind of information—whether to do it abruptly or have someone else reveal it. In the end, I chose the latter, which is why things turned out the way they did. Well, you've seen that for yourselves by now. Next up, we have the fall of the Slab, which gets halted in a rather unique way. And for those who've played the game: no, nothing bad is going to happen to them. Everything will be fine. Which means... it's time to eat. Peace, love, and—hey, stop falling! I can't catch you fast enough!)

Early access to chapters on my patreon: p*treon.com/GreedHunter