Having very quickly forgotten about the greedy merchant who had learned the power of karma firsthand in the form of a pepper bomb right in the face, Alex, Aerith, and Yuffie set off toward their next goal—the workshop of the tool seller named Poll. Alex was sincerely certain that everything was in complete order with Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge and that nothing truly serious had happened.
Otherwise, if a raid or an open Shinra operation had taken place in the sector, it would already be fully discussed on every corner of the noisy Wall Market. That was precisely why Alex continued carefully listening to the conversations of passersby, counting on gathering fresh rumors. However, in the crowd they discussed exclusively yesterday's catastrophe with the fall of the Plate and the news picked up by street gossips that he himself was now being called practically the supreme leader of AVALANCHE.
Shaking his head, Alex stopped listening to others' speech, finally making certain that Shinra had not arranged any large-scale forceful actions. This was pleasing, although it left the probability that the corporation could have acted covertly and without extra noise—for which they always had enough resources. But even in the worst-case scenario Alex did not particularly worry: the protective spell he had placed would without any problems fulfill its task and keep the guys safe.
Deeply immersed in his reflections, Alex did not even notice how they had already approached Poll's stall at close range. Walking nearby, Aerith timely paid attention to the fact that he on autopilot continued walking further with a thoughtful gaze. Quietly sighing, she hastily tugged him by the sleeve before he managed to pass the needed door. Feeling how he was unceremoniously pulled back, Alex instantly broke free from his thoughts and turned to his companions.
"Enough floating in the clouds, mister! Or were you intending to cut circles around the market until we return to the same place again?" Aerith said with a light, teasing smile, pointing a finger at the doors of the needed little shop.
"Nope, that sounds somehow too stressful… Fine, let's go talk to this Poll. If we don't find out anything useful, we'll head back to the exit," Alex responded in a lazy tone, approaching the doors of the stall.
"Want me to help properly ask questions to this trader?" Yuffie asked with a cunning smile, leaning forward right from Alex's shoulders and looking him straight in the eyes.
"Only in the case if he suddenly also imagines himself the smartest and wants to charge for simple answers," Alex answered with a cunning smirk, playfully poking a finger into Yuffie's nose and forcing her to straighten up.
"And please, let's do without your little bombs while we're inside. The way that poor merchant screamed sounded as if it was really unpleasant for him," Aerith said, chuckling, carefully pulling Yuffie down from Alex's shoulders.
"Well alriiiiight," Yuffie drawled lazily, carefreely leaning back and deftly jumping onto the pavement.
Looking at Yuffie, Alex could not help laughing: she looked exactly like a child who had just been strictly forbidden to play with her favorite toys. Tenderly stroking the kunoichi on the head, Alex first entered the shop and right from the threshold saw a man about forty years old in a white tank top, with powerful, pumped arms, a shiny bald head, and dense facial hair.
He immediately understood that before them was precisely Poll—that very merchant whom Biggs and Wedge had planned to visit today. Poll himself, hearing the chime of the opening door, calmly set the tools aside and raised his head, shifting the welding goggles onto his forehead. Narrowing his eyes, he began evaluating the extremely colorful company that had come into his stall.
Meeting Poll's gaze, Alex without extra preludes immediately explained the reason for their visit. And before the merchant managed to open his mouth in order to habitually declare that he knew nothing, Alex added that he, Aerith, and Yuffie were close friends of Biggs and Wedge. Hearing these names, Poll fell silent for a moment, instantly recalling how literally a couple of hours ago this pair had looked into his stall, animatedly discussing some incredibly handsome guy with strange eyes.
Quickly figuring out that that very handsome guy from the stories of Biggs and Wedge was right now standing in front of his counter, Poll understandingly nodded. Without wasting precious time on empty chatter, he in the most detailed manner told what exact tools the guys had bought and where exactly they had planned to head further. Having listened to everything they needed, Alex gratefully nodded and led Yuffie and Aerith back out onto the street.
"So this really was the last place they went into. And where could they have gone after that in that case?" Aerith said thoughtfully, raising her gaze to Alex.
"I think they simply finished with their business and headed to your home, deciding not to jump around anywhere else—being completely certain that we would return without problems ourselves," Alex answered, turning his head, and pulled a thin cigar out of his pocket.
"Since this riddle has been solved so easily, then why are we even standing in place?! Let's hurry back, I'm terribly hungry! One of the most important rules of a shinobi is always to walk around full!" Yuffie declared in a joyful tone and began energetically pushing Alex and Aerith in the backs, forcing them to walk faster.
"Did you just invent this rule on the go?" Aerith asked with a light laugh, casting a short glance over her shoulder at the puffing Yuffie who continued stubbornly pushing them forward.
"This is a great shinobi secret!" Yuffie responded with a mysterious smile, after which she deftly jumped onto Alex's back and hung on him exactly like a little koala.
"So hanging on me like on a tree is also an ancient shinobi rule?" Alex asked, chuckling, perfectly realizing that he would have to regularly carry this hyperactive "load" on himself.
"Yeah! This is a thought-out distracting maneuver—so that you finally relax, and I can rob you unnoticed!" Yuffie answered with a sly smile, joyfully swaying her head from side to side.
Shaking his head, Alex together with Aerith and Yuffie still hanging on his back headed toward the exit from the Wall Market in order to meet the others. Returning to the central arch, they immediately saw Claudia and Tifa who were standing by the wall opposite the entrance and unhurriedly discussing the results of their questioning. Approaching closer, Alex shared the details of their own search sortie.
Hearing his story, Tifa understandingly nodded and confirmed that from their side exactly the same information had been obtained. She and Claudia had detailedly questioned the refugees from the Seventh Sector who personally knew Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge. Someone among them had seen how the trio walked between the stalls, and someone had noticed how they had already left the Wall Market.
Obediently nodding, Alex received yet another unambiguous confirmation: the guys had indeed finished their business and moved straight toward Aerith's house. Leaning his back against the wall next to Claudia, Alex continued measuredly smoking while waiting for Dean and Barret. Fortunately, Don Corneo was already dead, and the Wall Market no longer looked like that disgusting and wretched snake pit that it had been under his rule—even though dealers who were used to playing by the old, cruel rules still remained here.
Continuing to stand relaxed next to Claudia, Alex with a smile listened to the lively chatter of Aerith, Tifa, and Yuffie who were colorfully describing the incident in Fred's stall when he had tried to extort money for elementary answers. Hearing about what hot troubles the greedy trader had encountered, Claudia slightly raised the corners of her lips, not even trying to hide her sincere amusement. After a couple of minutes of waiting, the approaching silhouettes of Dean and Barret appeared on the horizon, who unhurriedly passed the arch and headed straight toward the group.
"Oh, you're all already gathered! Did you manage to find out anything?" Dean asked, raising a hand in a greeting gesture, unhurriedly approaching the friends.
"Only that Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were seen heading to the Fifth Sector. And how are your successes?" Alex responded, shaking his head, after which he softly pushed off with his back from the wall and extinguished the thin cigar against it.
"Exactly the same. Possibly they simply decided to hurry back in order to protect Marlene," Barret added, folding his massive arms on his chest and affirmatively nodding.
"You've switched on your favorite father-bear mode again… Well, since we know for sure that they returned and everything is in complete order with them, we can also with a calm soul set off back," Alex said with a smile, looking at Barret and then casting a gaze over the entire company.
"Yeah, time to return. We definitely won't be hurt by a good rest after all these endless wanderings through Shinra's underground laboratory," Tifa agreed with a warm smile, ready to set out toward Aerith's house.
"I'm all for it with both hands! My legs are already literally buckling from fatigue, and all I want is simply to lie down," Aerith said with feigned fatigue in her voice, suddenly hanging on Alex's arm and looking at him with such an expressive gaze as if he was simply obliged to instantly understand her transparent hint.
Perfectly understanding Aerith's unambiguous hint, Alex slightly smiled and understandingly turned his back to her. The moment he did this, a maximally happy smile spread across Aerith's face, and she instantly jumped onto him, tightly wrapping her arms around his neck. More conveniently adjusting Aerith on his back, Alex unhurriedly stepped forward.
And before he managed to take even a couple of steps, behind rang out the displeased, loud growling of Yuffie who indignantly complained that her lawful place had been brazenly occupied. Hearing these claims, Aerith slightly narrowed her eyes and cast a cunning, provocative gaze at Yuffie. In response to this clear teasing Yuffie began protesting even louder, and Aerith merely quietly chuckled, more and more pouring oil on the fire of Yuffie's childish anger.
Under the continuous quiet muttering of Yuffie they unhurriedly reached the breach in the wall leading straight into the Fifth Sector. Passing through the hole, they all immediately paid attention to the pale, worried faces of the local residents who in complete numbness silently looked toward the main street.
Noticing this oppressive expression of faces among the townspeople and exchanging glances among themselves, Alex and the others immediately synchronously increased their pace. Approaching closer, they saw a large crowd of people frozen in place as if any step deeper into the slums inevitably promised them the most lamentable fate.
Realizing the entire weight of the situation, Alex and the others frowned strongly, literally physically feeling the pressing tension hanging in the air. Looking around, they noticed not a single enemy, but the locals still stood as if rooted to the spot, as if they would indeed be killed on the spot for the slightest movement. In Alex's head morgue guesses immediately arose about who exactly could have frightened the entire sector half to death.
Understanding that the fastest way to clarify the situation was to ask directly, Alex slightly patted Aerith on the arm and briefly waved his chin toward the crowd. Understanding the gesture half-word, Aerith quickly slid down from Alex's back, approached an elderly man well known to her, and softly touched him on the shoulder.
"Oh, it's you, Aerith… Thank God that you weren't here at this terrible moment!" the old man George muttered in a sincerely worried tone, impulsively patting Aerith on the shoulder.
"Why? What happened here?!" Aerith asked, frowning strongly, feeling how everything inside was squeezing from a bad premonition.
"No one properly understood… Soldiers of Shinra suddenly descended. But they… they were absolutely different," the old man George began speaking, looking around and lowering his voice to a barely audible whisper, as if panically afraid that they would be overheard right now.
"How different?" Alex asked gloomily, standing shoulder to shoulder with Aerith.
"They were completely in black and in strange metal helmets… They even behave not like living people, but like soulless machines! They simply cordoned off the entire sector and in a dense formation headed into the very depths of the slums," the old man George responded, shaking his head, fearfully shifting his gaze toward the residential quarters.
"In that direction… Marlene!" Barret exhaled in astonishment, and a moment later his eyes widened from horror, and he, without uttering another word, tore forward at the limit of his strength.
"Barret! Stop!" Tifa desperately cried out, seeing how he was madly racing into the depths of the slums.
"What are you standing for?! Run after him! Who knows what shit has already managed to happen there!" Dean instantly reacted and first of all rushed after Barret.
Claudia and Tifa also did not waste precious time and tore after Barret and Dean who had already managed to disappear into the narrow alleys of the slums. Yuffie for a moment remained standing in place, sincerely not understanding where and why everyone was so panically running. But seeing how the squad was rapidly moving away, Yuffie decided not to ponder too long and tore after the others.
In Alex's head at that moment a clear insight flared: he instantly guessed exactly which Shinra soldiers had visited the Fifth Sector. And the mere realization of this already promised a real headache. Perfectly understanding how dangerous and cold-blooded these fighters dressed in black were, Alex scooped Aerith up by the waist, pressed her to himself, and at maximum speed ran after them.
Running into the depths of the slums with Aerith in his arms, Alex noticed out of the corner of his eye that a cruel pogrom had occurred in the Leaf House orphanage—as if someone had just been searching there by overturning everything and anything. Looking at this destruction, Alex immediately understood: the idiots in black had been searching for Aerith precisely there, perfectly knowing that she often visited the children.
They always carried out the assigned task roughly and clearly, and therefore had torn the building apart exclusively for the sake of a quality search. Aerith also noticed the wrecked orphanage and felt a painful prick of guilt, perfectly realizing that this chaos had occurred because of her. Ceasing to be distracted by Leaf House, Alex increased his pace and ran into the tunnel leading straight to Aerith's house. Quickly reaching the opposite end, Alex and Aerith saw several terrible black scorch marks on the ground right next to the motorcycle "Fenrir."
"Seems these geniuses tried to steal my motorcycle. Losers… They clearly shouldn't have touched other people's things," Alex said with a smirk, carefully setting Aerith on her feet and passing by his bike.
"Is this… that very thing I thought of?" Aerith asked carefully, pointing a finger at the dense black ash smeared on the stones.
"Yes. This is all that remained of those poor fellows who dared to touch my motorcycle," Alex affirmatively nodded and hastily ran up the wooden steps.
Looking once more at the black soot marks on the ground, Aerith merely silently nodded and quickly ran up the steps after Alex. At that moment she was exclusively worried about whether the friends remaining in the house were safe. And the moment the two of them climbed onto the porch, from inside rang out Barret's loud cry, who without stopping was calling Marlene, on the go running into Aerith's house. After him Dean slipped through the doors, and last of all Tifa, Claudia, and Yuffie ran inside.
Not seeing around any obvious traces of a cruel struggle, Alex frowned even more strongly and hurried. Quickly running down the internal steps, he together with Aerith rushed toward the residential building itself. With every second inside Aerith grew wild anxiety for each one who remained in the house, and together with this the poisoning feeling of guilt strengthened—for it seemed to her that all this had happened exclusively because of her.
Noticing her hunted gaze, Alex softly placed a palm on Aerith's shoulder and quietly reminded that she was definitely not the only one to blame for what had happened. After all, he himself had more than once provoked Shinra's leadership into such aggressive actions. However, he was sincerely surprised that the top of the corporation had gone for such a radical step so early, and had even engaged their especially secret department.
In Alex's thoughts instantly floated the name of only one person—the bastard Hojo, who was one of the leaders of this project and also had direct access to this secret subdivision and could give orders to these special SOLDIERS. Irritably clicking his tongue and mentally promising himself to break several of Hojo's limbs at the first convenient opportunity, Alex together with Aerith ran into the house and froze in astonishment.
In the living room there still stood a dense, distinct smell of pepper powder—as if right in the premises someone had detonated a powerful pepper spray canister. But the picture itself was truly surprising: Jessie with watering, swollen eyes was with the last of her strength holding a Tonberry named Steve who was aggressively waving his kitchen knife while maintaining a habitually cold-blooded, stone little face.
On the other side of the room stood Wedge with the same red eyes from which a continuous stream of tears was flowing, convulsively squeezing a completely bent frying pan in his hands. And in the very center of this chaos was Biggs who, despite the tears flooding his face, was straining with all his might to tightly bind a man in black combat uniform and a blank metal helmet. And right then from the second floor rang out Barret's relieved, loud voice, fully rejoicing that everything was in complete order with Marlene and Elmyra.
"Guys, what the hell even happened here?! And who is this?!" Tifa asked, hastily flinging open the windows in order to somehow air out the premises from the burning pepper haze.
"No idea! These bastards showed up without even knocking and immediately tried to grab Marlene!" Jessie answered with tears in her eyes, continuing to hold the raging Steve who was straining to reach the helpless prisoner.
"And as for what happened here… So say a huge 'thank you' to Wedge! This fool found nothing smarter than to throw that very pepper bomb that Yuffie gave him right under our feet!" Biggs added, wiping his tear-flooded eyes with his sleeve, angrily pointing a finger at the crying Wedge with the frying pan at the ready.
"Why did these scum need my little one?! Have they completely lost their fear?! Come on, give me this bastard! Right now I'll personally talk to him and clearly explain what the consequences of attempts to touch my little angel are!" Barret began speaking with a furious roar, heavily stomping and running down the wooden steps.
Seeing how Barret was already ready to throw himself at the prisoner, Tifa immediately intervened, intending to stop him at any cost. However, Barret was not going to cool down at all: he burned with the desire to force all answers out of the uninvited guest by force and completely find out what the hell Shinra had planned by kidnapping his daughter. Observing this scene, Alex looked at Dean and shook his head, giving an unambiguous sign: this "father-bear" needed to be urgently neutralized before he finished off the prisoner before the latter managed to give out any information.
Understanding Alex's gesture half-word, Dean quickly approached the roaring Barret whom Tifa was with difficulty holding, and resolutely dragged him back. Having dragged the enraged giant to the opposite end of the living room, Dean looked at Alex and mentally asked him whether he knew anything at all about this idiot with an iron pot on his head.
Hearing this question right in his head, Alex unnoticed nodded and instantly shared with Dean telepathic information about the secret subdivision Deepground. Having listened to Alex's explanation that the one tied to the chair was nothing more than a senseless marionette pumped with Mako, with thoroughly washed brains, blindly executing others' orders, Dean irritably swore through his teeth, regretting the foulness of the situation.
Claudia measured the Deepground prisoner with an icy gaze, frantically trying to extract from memory at least one recollection of which subdivision this fighter in black belonged to. But in her head there was not a single clue about a Shinra department using such equipment, and this forced her to frown even more strongly.
Aerith, for her part, more tightly squeezed Alex's palm—she perfectly knew who this soldier was and by what monstrous methods he had been created. Feeling how Aerith was nervously squeezing his fingers, Alex softly stroked the back of her palm with his thumb, helping her calm down. Feeling his warm touch, Aerith relaxed a little and exhaled with relief.
"And what are we supposed to do with this type? We have no idea who he is and what he's even capable of… We simply got insanely lucky that his buddies decided to abandon him and retreat," Biggs muttered gloomily, wiping his face with a wet towel in order to somehow relieve the hellish burning in his eyes.
"Simply kill this bastard before he comes to and bury him somewhere! For example, right in the garden under the little flowers—there'll be a worthy little grave for this creature!" Barret growled with a furious roar, burning with the desire to deprive of life the enemy who had encroached on his daughter.
"We need to interrogate him first, and only then quietly finish him off without extra noise. He is completely certainly from Shinra, but I don't remember them having a department wearing such armor," Claudia intervened in a gloomy tone, leaning against the wall and folding her arms on her chest.
"I agree. First we need to extract everything possible from him, and only then decide what to do further," Jessie supported her, applying a cool wet towel to her burning face.
"And how exactly are you going to interrogate him?" Tifa asked carefully, although in the depths of her soul she already partially guessed the answer.
"The way it's always done. We'll break his bones until he starts talking," Alex said calmly, approaching right up to the bound Deepground fighter.
"I'm afraid that will hardly help you. These guys by nature are not particularly talkative," Reno's familiar voice, saturated with sarcasm, suddenly rang out from the side of the doorway.
Hearing this familiar sarcastic voice behind himself, Alex slowly turned his head and saw Reno with his habitual lazy smirk, freely standing in the door opening. Slightly tilting his head to the side, Alex noticed behind his back Rude's shiny bald head, who restrainedly nodded the moment their gazes crossed.
The moment the two Turks appeared on the threshold, Barret's anger flared with renewed force, and he was already ready to furiously throw himself at them. But before he managed to take even a step, Reno with a sly smirk deftly jerked his hand: from his sleeve a telescopic electro-baton fell right into his palm, which he immediately raised at Barret, clearly making it clear that he was fully ready for a rematch.
Barely had Reno bared the weapon when Claudia instantly squeezed the hilt of the Buster Sword, and Yuffie with one motion pulled her enormous shuriken from behind her back. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie also instantly raised their guns, taking the dangerous duo into their sights. Seeing how lightning-fast the atmosphere heated up, Rude silently placed a heavy hand on his partner's shoulder, with a reminder gesture making it clear for what they had come here at all—and this was clearly not in order to arrange yet another senseless brawl.
Understanding this silent call, Reno slightly snorted and with a deft motion put the electro-baton back into his sleeve. Alex, observing this scene, with interest raised an eyebrow: he sincerely became curious what the hell these two had even barged in here for. Even Aerith was slightly surprised by their sudden visit. Waving a hand, Alex made it clear to the others that Reno and Rude had come clearly not for a quarrel and definitely not in order to drag out the bound prisoner.
After Alex's sign everyone reluctantly lowered their weapons, but still remained on guard: each perfectly understood that with people from Shinra, and even more so with Turks, one categorically must not relax. Seeing that the guns and blades were lowered, Reno snorted and walked into the living room so loungingly as if he had come to his own home. He unhurriedly pulled a chair toward himself and calmly sat down, loungingly resting his elbows on its back.
"Well, and what the hell did you even come for? Maybe pour you some tea?" Alex asked, casually leaning his elbow on the head of the unconscious Deepground fighter.
"I won't refuse tea. And even better—brew coffee," Reno responded with a bold smirk, slightly rocking on the chair and casting a sly gaze over Alex.
"And aren't you afraid that they'll spit into your cup? Or do you, on the contrary, sleep and dream that our Flower Girl personally spits into your glass?" Dean inserted with a smirk, bestowing upon Reno a mocking gaze, for which he immediately received a tangible kick on the leg from Aerith.
"Disgusting… I'll manage without your dubious kindness," Reno answered, squeamishly grimacing, and demonstratively jerked his shoulder.
"Cut the empty chatter! Spill what the hell you showed up for before my hand ends up in your ass, redhead!" Barret cut off with a furious roar, loudly cracking the joints of his cyber-arm right in front of Reno's face.
"Come on, try it, big guy! Think I won't beat you up?! If yesterday's situation hadn't been so foul, I would have smeared you on the ground even then!" Reno blurted out with an instantly flared smirk, tearing off from the chair and casting an extremely provocative gaze at Barret.
Hearing such an open provocation, Barret with a deafening click transformed his cyber-arm, and it immediately turned into a ready-to-fire machine gun aimed right at Reno's face. Reno himself was not going to patiently endure such attacks and again lightning-fast pulled out his electric baton.
And before a full-scale fight flared up between them, Tifa resolutely stood in front of Barret, straining with all her might to push the giant back. Seeing this, Reno began venomously mocking Barret, nastily noting that he was hiding behind a woman's back. From these words Barret flared up with even greater anger, and then Dean had to intervene, who deftly grabbed the "father-bear" and by force dragged him into the depths of the room.
But before Reno managed to shout yet another insult, Rude with a heavy palm descended onto his partner's shoulder and tangibly pressed, forcing him to sit back on the chair. At the same time throughout all this Rude's intent gaze was literally glued to Tifa who was blazing with anger and trying to cool Barret.
Observing all this chaotic farce, Alex impatiently rolled a hell coin between his fingers, slightly chuckling at how expressively Rude was looking at Tifa. Seeing how strange and tense the atmosphere in the living room had become, the others simply did not understand what they should do.
Having waited a couple of moments until the heat of passions subsided, Alex highly tossed the hell coin upward and ringingly caught it, loudly clapping with two palms in order to attract everyone's attention to himself. Barely had this clap rung out when everyone instantly turned their heads in his direction.
"Since everyone has finally calmed down… maybe we can still begin the discussion of why you two even came here?" Alex said, again measuredly rolling the hell coin between his fingers.
"Our boss sent us here in order to return a debt to you," Rude began speaking ahead of Reno before the latter managed to blurt out another stupidity.
"A debt? What debt?" Aerith was sincerely surprised, standing side by side with Alex and suspiciously narrowing her eyes.
"For saving our hides yesterday, little girl! We're of course far from soft and fluffy guys, but we know how to pay bills," Reno explained with a sly smirk, making Rude a short sign with his hand.
"Ah, you're talking about yesterday's events… And with what did your boss decide to settle with me?" Alex asked, understandingly nodding, truly surprised by such a noble act of the head of the Turks.
"With information. And with this," Rude responded sparingly and with a precise throw sent a black plastic card to Alex.
"Tseng's personal key card? And what have you cooked up in your department?" Alex asked in surprise, raising an eyebrow, carefully examining the electronic pass in his hand.
"Heidegger and Scarlet decided to harshly set us up and screw us over. Therefore our boss gave full permission to crap right on the doorstep of this old man and this bitch… More precisely, it's precisely you who will have to do this, buddy," Reno responded with a satisfied smirk, folding his fingers into a pistol gesture and playfully "shooting" at Alex.
"For what reason at all should he do your work for you?" Claudia asked, frowning, intently and distrustfully looking at both Turks.
"I'm afraid that what we came with just won't leave you absolutely any choice… Especially you, Aerith Gainsborough," Rude cut off in a gloomy, extremely serious tone, unhurriedly taking a black flash drive out of the inner pocket of his jacket.
Having finished speaking, Rude with a sparse motion threw the black flash drive to Alex so that he could see everything with his own eyes. Catching the flash drive, Alex questioningly looked at Rude, and the latter merely silently nodded, making it clear: this spectacle is better seen once than heard about a hundred times. Slightly frowning from such an answer, Alex took the phone out of his pocket and connected the flash drive to the port.
Standing nearby, Aerith anxiously leaned closer to the screen—for Rude had just in plain text declared that the recording directly concerned her. The drive contained only one single video file from a surveillance camera. Alex opened it, and his eyes immediately dangerously narrowed, while Aerith's eyes instantly widened from wild shock. Seeing the first frames, Aerith involuntarily covered her mouth with her palms, feeling how a wave of panic was rapidly rising inside her: she instantly recognized the children on the screen.
Noticing the sharp reaction of Alex and Aerith, the remaining members of the squad quickly approached closer and began peeking over their shoulders. Understanding that crowding was senseless, Alex with a gloomy face approached the table and launched a holographic projection so that absolutely everyone could examine what recording Reno and Rude had brought. On the projection it was clearly displayed how Deepground fighters were by force leading crying, frightened children out of a truck and roughly dragging them toward a cargo elevator.
Seeing this cruel picture, Tifa reacted exactly the same as Aerith—helplessly covering her mouth with her palm with silent disbelief and horror in her eyes. Yuffie immediately turned away, unable to look at the lawlessness being committed. Jessie heavily, painfully sighed, averting her gaze to the side. Barret, for his part, squeezed the edge of the wooden table with such monstrous force that deep cracks with a crack ran through the massive wood.
Biggs and Wedge shockedly exchanged glances, reading a storm of emotions in each other's eyes. Dean merely frowned strongly, folding his arms on his chest, but his fists were clenched so tightly that the knuckles emitted a distinct, dry crunch. Claudia, for her part, suddenly felt a sharp attack of headache: before her eyes again began chaotically flashing fragments of the past about which she remembered absolutely nothing. Having seen more than enough, Alex turned off the projector and shifted a heavy, gloomy gaze to Reno and Rude. After what had been seen, everyone in the living room literally lost the gift of speech, simply unable to digest the entire depth of Shinra's cynicism.
"Where… where are they leading these children?" Tifa asked in a quiet, trembling voice, convulsively squeezing her hands behind her back and panically afraid of hearing the terrible answer.
"There where they will make them into exactly the same soldiers as the one sitting behind you," Rude answered with an extremely gloomy expression on his face, adjusting the sunglasses on his nose with one hand and after pointing a finger at the bound Deepground soldier.
"Seems your boss decided to timely switch to the other side. And sent you under the guise of 'returning a debt' so that we with our own hands would clean up the shit for Shinra. Well, the head of the Turks remains the head of the Turks," Alex said in a deceptively calm tone, not taking his heavy gaze off Reno and Rude.
"Damn, and you figured us out quickly… Yes, you're absolutely right, buddy. Our boss indeed decided to change sides. And he perfectly knew that you wouldn't abandon your girlfriend and would do everything to help her. And she definitely won't leave the children she was looking after," Reno responded, shrugging his shoulders, understanding that Tseng's cunning plan had been figured out down to the finest details.
"So Rufus Shinra is returning from his prolonged 'business trip' and fully preparing a rebellion against his own daddy? How cute… So he also decided that I would solve his personal problems for free?" Alex asked with dangerous tenderness in his voice, slowly and measuredly tapping a finger on the wooden table.
"It's up to you. Although, considering your habitual methods, you'll guaranteed take this matter to the end. After all, we've been observing you long enough," Reno continued, responding with a barely noticeable smile to Alex's calm but chilling gaze.
"Ah you damn bastards! You yourselves created this shit, and now you want us to clean up after you?! First you dropped an entire plate on us! Now your creatures are kidnapping little children in order to conduct their fucking experiments on them! You even tried to kidnap my daughter! And now you show up here and ask us to wipe your ass?! Maybe I should kill both of you right here and now, and then go and finish off all the remaining carrion that has settled in Shinra?!" Barret roared with a wild furious roar, in one yank overturning the heavy wooden table and incinerating Reno and Rude with bloodshot eyes.
To be continued...
(Phew, I was just sitting there, not sure how to wrap up this chapter. I honestly didn't know exactly where to stop. If I hadn't decided to end it on Barret's angry shout, I could have easily written another thousand words. But then I checked the time and realized I should finish up and go make myself something to eat. I had plenty of ideas for why the group might head to Sector 0, but the idea of Deepground members kidnapping children seemed like the most logical reason. That would definitely make Aerith want to go to Shinra HQ, and Alex certainly couldn't just abandon her. Plus, the others wouldn't stand for that kind of crap either; they'd go save the kids too. It doesn't even feel forced—especially for Barret, considering someone once tried to take his daughter away. But I just couldn't bring myself to write a scene where Marlene gets kidnapped. She's just too sweet. Anyway, that's all for now—time to go eat. Peace, love, and... should I stage a massacre?)
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