As soon as Barret's cry rang out, filled with all-consuming rage, immediately followed by the dull, heavy thud of the overturned table, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge instantly jumped toward their enraged friend. They strained with the last of their strength to hold him back before he could throw himself at the two Turks who had arrived with an absolutely brazen request. Reno's words that he and his partner had literally come to ask them to "wipe Shinra's ass" became the final straw for Barret—and he could no longer restrain himself.
Over the last two days their squad had seen so much concentrated filth that the corporation was capable of committing: from the bloody dropping of the Plate right onto the heads of completely innocent residents to the grim underground laboratory where horrific experiments were conducted on living people, turning them into mad monsters. And the final chord in this madness was the kidnapping of orphans from the orphanage for the creation of yet more soulless soldiers ready to blindly carry out any orders.
Even while with difficulty holding back the enraged Barret, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were no less angry—for they had just seen with their own eyes on the projection all this abomination. But they still could not allow Barret to arrange a bloody massacre right in Aerith's house, especially considering that Marlene was currently on the second floor under Elmyra's protection.
Tifa herself, who usually acted as the main peacemaker in such moments, still could not come to her senses from the information received a moment ago. What was happening seemed so monstrous to her that it simply would not fit into her head.
But Aerith was the most shaken of all: she stood frozen in place with a glassy gaze, silently staring into the emptiness before her. At that moment only one single destructive thought was spinning in her head—that she was to blame for everything that had happened. She blamed herself for trying to rewrite predetermined fate, blamed herself for dragging completely innocent children into her own problems. Noticing this glassy, dead gaze of Aerith's, Yuffie immediately ran up to her, trying somehow to comfort her and bring her to her senses. But Aerith heard absolutely nothing, sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of corrosive guilt.
Claudia at that moment was suffering from yet another flare of wild headache: before her eyes chaotically flashed fragments of the past about which she remembered absolutely nothing. In her memory surfaced the silhouettes of people in capsules flooded with cloudy liquid Mako, and the icy face of Professor Hojo who walked past with a mad smile—as if examining experimental animals in cages.
Only Dean in this chaotic situation retained absolute composure. Even though dull anger boiled inside him, in his life he had managed to see enough atrocities not to lose his head. Right now his intent gaze was fixed on Alex, who was looking at all this flaring chaos with a strange, absolutely empty gaze.
"Well, why the hell did you shut up, you bastard?! Aren't you yourself ashamed to work for these scum who kidnap little children?! Huh?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! Can you even call yourselves people after this?! Miserable dogs who will run after their fucking master wherever he sends you!" Barret roared with even greater fury, straining with all his might to grab Reno by the collar.
"What the fuck did you just mutter, big guy?! Yes, we kill people! Yes, fuck, we're paid for it! And so what?! So you'd better shut your trap and don't you dare equate us with those Deepground bastards! And don't you dare call us the lapdogs of that fucking Hojo! We came to you out of the goodness of our hearts and shared the most valuable information! And you still dare to snap at us?!" Reno suddenly roared back, sharply tearing from his place and with a crash overturning his chair.
"Out of the goodness of your hearts?! Don't make me laugh, you red-haired scum! Your master simply wants us to wipe his ass and kill his daddy! And we'll again be labeled terrorists! Who the fuck dropped the Plate on our home?! Huh?! Us or you?!" Barret roared with even greater rage, almost breaking free from the grip of Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge.
"That's it, big guy! You asked for it yourself! I've put up with your damn attacks for too long!" Reno barked furiously, pulling out his electric baton and intending to immediately engage in a fight with Barret.
Seeing how the situation had heated to the limit, Rude immediately tightly embraced his partner and began dragging him back—despite Reno's desperate resistance as he strained with all his might to reach Barret. Barret himself burned with the desire to sink his claws into the red-haired Turk with no less ferocity, but his friends continued to hold him in place with a death grip.
At that same moment on the second floor of the house was Elmyra, who was straining with all her might to cover Marlene's ears with her palms so that the little girl would not hear anything of the filthy swearing that was spreading through the first floor. However, even through this endless stream of furious cries Elmyra managed to distinctly make out exactly what had happened in the slums.
From this realization even greater disgust toward Shinra flared up inside her. This cursed corporation was guilty not only of the death of her husband, whom they had once sent to a senseless war they themselves had started—now they intended to take away from her Aerith as well, who had become the true center of her entire life.
Elmyra clearly understood that the kidnapping of the children was a underhanded trick of Shinra's, designed to force Aerith to voluntarily come straight into their clutches, for the top brass knew perfectly well how kind she was and how sincerely she cared for the orphans.
Feeling tears welling up in her eyes, Elmyra quickly wiped them on her sleeve so that Marlene would notice nothing. Taking a deep breath and trying to suppress the growing anxiety, she hoped with all her soul only that this nightmare would end well.
Feeling the trembling hands on her ears, Marlene turned her head to Elmyra and slightly tilted it to the side, silently asking if everything was all right. Looking into the worried eyes of the little one, Elmyra with difficulty forced out a calm, warm smile and softly nodded, making it clear that everything was under control and that silence would return to the house very soon.
"I hope everything will be all right with you, Aerith…" Elmyra whispered almost inaudibly, continuing to listen to the angry swearing carrying from the first floor.
At the same time on the first floor the swearing was growing louder and angrier: Barret and Reno were already ready to finally go for each other's throats, without interruption showering the opponent with choice insults. By this moment Tifa had managed to pull herself together, clearly understanding that they simply had no time to sink into heavy thoughts—they needed to urgently decide how to act further.
Noticing that Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were already holding the enraged giant with the last of their strength, Tifa rushed to their aid and began pushing Barret as far as possible from the Turks. While dragging Barret away, Tifa managed to notice that Claudia was once again suffering from an attack of wild headache, leaning against the wall and clutching her head with both hands. Seeing in what stalemate situation they had found themselves, Tifa sincerely did not understand why the atmosphere around them had intensified so lightning-fast and everything continued to roll into the abyss.
Shifting her gaze to the side, Tifa saw the glassy, lifeless gaze of Aerith, whom Yuffie was at that moment vainly trying to comfort. Tifa did not fully understand exactly what Aerith was feeling and how deep her pain was. But what Tifa was absolutely certain of was that Aerith currently had exactly the same gaze as she herself had five years ago.
On that nightmarish day five years ago, she too had blamed exclusively herself for her native Nibelheim burned to the ground and for her father who had died at the hands of Sephira. And even after five years this corrosive feeling of guilt flared up inside her with renewed force. Only thanks to the support of friends had she managed to somewhat suppress this pain and drive it as deep as possible.
Releasing Barret, Tifa silently approached Aerith and tightly, warmly embraced her, helping her break free from the stupor. Only upon feeling these warm embraces did Aerith finally pay attention to what was happening around. Lowering her gaze to Tifa, Aerith immediately embraced her in return and convulsively sobbed, no longer having the strength to restrain the surging flow of emotions.
Seeing that Aerith had burst into tears, Yuffie also tightly embraced her friend from the other side, trying to give her at least a little warmth. And the moment Aerith's bitter crying rang out in the living room, everyone instantly fell silent. Even Barret and Reno stopped straining toward each other and froze.
"Everything will definitely be all right, Aerith… We'll definitely come up with something. We'll come up with something together… I promise," Tifa said quietly, with difficulty choosing the words, trying to comfort her friend.
"I… It's my fault… It's all exclusively because of me. If I had done everything the way it was predetermined by fate, none of this would have happened! It's because of me that they all were taken…" Aerith muttered with tears in her eyes, convulsively clenching her fists and sinking into an even greater feeling of guilt.
"That's right, that's right! Don't you dare blame yourself! Blame better these bastards who arranged all this! So what if you're some kind of Ancient?! Let them go to hell, you're our friend, and we won't let anyone hurt you for anything! And if they want to pull dirty tricks, we'll pay them back even worse! Want me to throw a huge pepper bomb right into their main ventilation?! Then they'll quickly understand that they shouldn't anger the Great Shinobi Yuffie Kisaragi!" Yuffie quickly nodded, tightly squeezing Aerith in her embraces and encouragingly smiling at her.
"Hey, you! Don't you even think of pulling anything like that!" Reno immediately cried out, feeling how his eyes began to sting from the mere thought of this idea.
"Baaah! I don't care! You upset my friend, and I'll personally take revenge on all of you!" Yuffie responded with a bold and sly air, demonstratively sticking her tongue out at Reno.
"And that's true! Enough with the sniveling! Since these creatures decided to play dirty, we'll answer them in kind… Hey, kid! Why did you go quiet?! You're the smartest one here among us—where's your next brilliant plan?!" Barret finally cooled his anger and loudly barked, shifting a demanding gaze onto Alex, who throughout all this time had not uttered a single word.
As soon as Barret uttered his words, all those present instantly turned to Alex, tensely waiting for what he would say. Even Aerith raised her tear-stained, hope-filled eyes—for she firmly knew: if anyone was capable of pulling them out of this hopeless situation, it was only him.
Coming out of yet another attack of headache, Claudia slightly shook her head and also directed a questioning gaze at him. But Alex himself reacted absolutely in no way to those around him, continuing to sink deeper and deeper into his own reflections.
He was trying to dig down to the very essence: why had everything turned out exactly this way? He perfectly understood that the Deepground lapdogs should not have appeared at this specific moment—and especially not in order to kidnap orphans from the orphanage. And Reno and Rude should not have come to their doorstep with priceless information and Tseng's personal key card to all the doors of Shinra.
The more Alex reflected, the more clearly he realized: everything that was happening was directly connected to his own actions. That "snowball" effect that he had so persistently tried to accumulate for the sake of creating the White Whisperers had given a completely different, unpredictable effect, chaotically mixing the key events.
After all, the first one who was supposed to encounter the Deepground operatives was supposed to be Yuffie—she was destined to lose a friend, and precisely from that moment an unquenchable desire for revenge against the entire top of Shinra was supposed to awaken in her. But none of this had happened because of his personal intervention: Yuffie had arrived in Midgar much earlier than the term predetermined by fate. And all the events before and after this in which he had taken a direct part had colossally redrawn the future.
At that moment Alex recalled one theory—"the theory of the drawn bowstring." And then it finally dawned on him: the snowball he had created had deflected the course of history so strongly that it had extremely tautened the bowstring of fate, and it was now striving by any means to straighten out and return to its original position.
But instead of the bowstring finally snapping thanks to the actions of the White Whisperers, the Gray and Black Whisperers desperately longed to return everything to the way it was. And only two beings could have a hand in this—Jenova and Sephira, who had imagined that this planet belonged exclusively to her.
At the moment of this complete realization, wild, dark merriment began rapidly spreading inside Alex. After all, even the bastard Chuck in his time had not tried so brazenly to spoil his plans, and in this world some cosmic parasite had dared to bare its dry teeth!
Feeling how a wave of mad excitement was sprouting inside him, Alex strained with all his might to restrain himself. His body began to tremble tangibly, which instantly did not go unnoticed by those around. And only Dean immediately understood what this trembling meant, and with an already habitual motion reached for Cain's Blade hanging on the belt behind his back.
"Hey, kid! What the hell are you shaking so hard for?! What's happening to you?!" Barret began speaking, noticing Alex's strange state, and already intending to place a heavy hand on his shoulder.
"Don't do that, Barret. And my advice to all of you: better take a few steps back," Dean said warningly, narrowing his eyes and half-drawing Cain's Blade from its scabbard.
"Why?! What's happening to him?! Is he unwell?! He was just completely fine a moment ago!" Aerith said in a worried tone, intently observing Alex, after which she sharply turned her head toward Dean.
"He's in absolute order. It's just that this idiot's roof is about to finally come off right now. And it's better not to stand next to him at that moment," Dean explained in a dry, everyday voice, not taking his attentive gaze off his partner.
"Heh-heh-heh…" Alex quietly laughed under his breath, nervously rubbing his fingers and continuing to stare fixedly at the blank wall in front of him.
"Is he… is he just laughing?! But why?!" Jessie asked, confusedly turning to Dean, whose face at that moment twisted as if he had just swallowed a whole ripe lemon.
"Well there… It's starting again," Dean muttered doomedly, pressing his lips together, understanding that they would again have to become witnesses to yet another attack of Alex's madness.
"Heh-heh-heh… Ha-ha-ha-ha… HA-HA-HA-HA!" Alex burst into laughter until his laughter turned into a real fit of hysterics from which he, clutching his stomach, doubled over.
As soon as this wild, hysterical laughter of Alex's rang out, all those present reflexively took a step back, feeling acute, sticky anxiety. None of them had expected that his laughter was capable of frightening so strongly. But the ones who chickened out the most in this situation were Reno and Rude, who instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
Dean, observing this attack of madness, already intended to do what was supposed to guarantee stopping this laughter—namely deliver Alex a quality uppercut in order to return him to reality. But before he managed to take even a step, Aerith outpaced him: in a couple of quick steps she found herself next to Alex and immediately tightly embraced him.
Feeling her warm embraces, Alex instantly stopped laughing and calmly wiped the tears that had welled up. At that moment he could not help but admit that he now perfectly understood the feelings of his wife Alucard, who had always been sincerely amused when all sorts of tiny worms sincerely believed that they were capable of somehow harming her.
Throwing his head back toward the ceiling, Alex forced out a final short chuckle, after which he calmly lowered his gaze, casting his usual, deceptively cheerful gaze over those present. Seeing that he had instantly returned to normal, everyone reflexively relaxed.
Claudia slowly released the hilt of the Buster Sword, intently not taking her eyes off Alex: the moment he began laughing, all her inner instincts had sounded the alarm—as if standing right before her was something so deadly that any contact with it was fraught with inevitable death. Dryly coughing, Alex lowered his gaze to Aerith, who was looking at him with tear-stained eyes and still tightly pressing herself to his chest. Tenderly smiling, Alex carefully ran his fingers over her cheeks, gently wiping away the remaining tears.
"Damn, kid! You almost gave us a heart attack! What the hell was that just now?!" Barret loudly barked, patting himself on the chest with his palm in order to shake off the surging feeling of anxiety.
"It's just that this entire situation turned out to be so funny and amusing that I literally couldn't restrain myself," Alex answered with a smile, soothingly stroking Aerith's hair and helping her finally come to her senses.
"Amusing?! What in this situation can be even a little bit amusing?!" Jessie began speaking in a feignedly indignant tone, bestowing upon Alex an absolutely empty and confused gaze.
"Absolutely everything in this situation is amusing! One group of idiots is literally luring us into Shinra. The second group of idiots is bringing us the key to all the doors. Everyone around is only waiting for us to walk into their home with joyful smiles," Alex began speaking in a calm, casual tone, pointing a finger first at the ceiling and then at Reno and Rude who were shifting from foot to foot off to the side.
"So you intend to go there, even knowing perfectly well that it's a trap?" Claudia asked in a cold tone, folding her arms on her chest and looking straight into Alex's eyes.
"Exactly. We'll go there, but not at all the way they calculate. They're waiting for Aerith and me to show up at the main entrance with wide smiles on our faces. But we'll enter from a completely different side," Alex said with a satisfied smile, raising a thumb upward.
"Fine, kid. Enough talking in riddles! What's your plan?! I'll say right away—I'm in! For the mere attempt to kidnap my little angel these Shinra bastards deserve to have my boot deep in their asses!" Barret snorted with a furious smile, again patting himself on the chest.
"And sign us up too," Jessie said firmly, pointing first at herself and then at Biggs and Wedge, who resolutely nodded.
"That's of course very nice that you're so eager for battle. But it's still too early. First go and gather strength… And I for now have one urgent little matter," Alex answered with a smile, softly pushing Aerith away from himself.
"What other matter?" Tifa asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at Alex.
"To conduct a funeral procession and pray for the life of the deceased," Alex answered with an extremely serious face, approaching the chair to which the captured Deepground fighter was tied.
"Um… need help?" Aerith asked embarrassedly, looking up at him from below.
"Gather some flowers. We'll meet where you and I first met," Alex answered with a warm smile, and, scooping up the chair together with the prisoner sitting on it, unhurriedly dragged it toward the exit.
Looking at Alex, Dean merely shook his head in resignation and expressively rolled his eyes, perfectly understanding exactly what "funeral procession" that one intended to arrange—this psycho was simply going to bury the Deepground member alive. Completely not intending to interfere in this, Dean turned to Reno and Rude and without extra words pointed them with his finger straight at the door, wishing to throw them out as soon as possible.
Seeing this eloquent gesture, Reno and Rude did not even look for pretexts to stay and silently headed toward the exit, counting on leaving this place as quickly as possible. Seeing this, Alex with a deceptively polite smile held the door for them, ushering the Turks out like overstayed and slightly tiresome guests.
Seeing that the situation had finally settled, Tifa cast a gaze over the small mess in the living room and, patting Jessie on the shoulder, proposed to clean up all this disorder together. Hearing the request, Jessie immediately nodded and tangibly elbowed Biggs and Wedge standing nearby so that they also would not stand idle. Barret, for his part, headed to the second floor to calm Marlene, worrying that the little one might have been strongly frightened by the chaos she had had to endure in this short interval of time.
Noticing that only Claudia remained without a task, Aerith immediately jumped up to her and asked her to help gather a bouquet. Lowering her gaze to Aerith, Claudia hesitated for several moments, pondering, and then silently nodded. Seeing the agreement, Aerith lit up with a joyful smile and quickly grabbed two woven flower baskets that stood on the nightstand by the doors.
"Here, take this! This is for you. Now we'll pick a few flowers, and then I'll show you my most secret place!" Aerith said with a smile, thrusting one of the baskets into Claudia's hands, and pushed the door, going out onto the street.
"Your secret place is the church?" Claudia asked, going out after Aerith into the fresh air and holding the basket in her hands.
"Exactly! That's where I first met Alex and Dean when they woke up after their mad hangover. Dean reeked of alcohol so strongly that day… Ugh, that smell was simply terrible!" Aerith responded with a warm smile, nostalgically recalling the events of a week ago.
"Hmm…" Claudia responded only indefinitely, casting a thoughtful gaze in the direction where Alex had just dragged the chair with the tied prisoner.
Taking a few steps toward her garden, Aerith looked back and noticed that Claudia was still standing in place, not tearing her gaze from the place where Alex had disappeared. Softly smiling, Aerith jumped up to her, trustingly grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her after herself. She herself right now felt insanely heavy and sad because of the fact that the children had been seized and dragged straight into Hojo's terrible laboratories.
But Aerith clearly understood: there was absolutely no sense in shedding tears, for they would not help these poor little ones in any way. She sincerely believed that together with her friends they would definitely be able to save the children from the clutches of this madman and return them home safe and sound. She believed in the strength of her friends, but most of all—in the fact that Alex would again manage to work a real miracle and save everyone, as he had already done more than once.
And she perfectly knew that the best way to distract oneself from corrosive bad thoughts was to fully concentrate on some simple task. Such dark thoughts too often poisoned her everyday life, so she had long ago learned to cope with them. Feeling how she was softly pulled after, Claudia did not resist and calmly went after Aerith in order to gather flowers—even if she did not fully understand why all this was needed right now.
At the same time Alex was located not far from the abandoned church. Cheerfully humming an uncomplicated melody under his breath, he with a shovel in his hands methodically filled in a freshly dug hole. Throwing another portion of loose earth to the bottom, Alex lowered his gaze downward, looking at the Deepground operative. That one helplessly lay at the very bottom in a heap of mud, and from his eyes, nose, and ears thick streams of scarlet blood were seeping. Thrusting the shovel deep into the earth, Alex took a thin cigar out of his pocket and unhurriedly lit it.
"Of course, it's quite original that they implant a special chip into your heads for suppressing emotions and thoughts… Only the memories still go nowhere and continue to accumulate. And absolutely all of this I just pulled out of your head… Understand?" Alex began speaking to himself, looking with a dark smile at the half-dead Deepground fighter lying at the bottom of the hole.
Seeing that his half-dead interlocutor was already incapable of answering, Alex lazily shrugged his shoulders and carelessly shook the hot ash right onto the still-living Deepground member. From the memories of this brainless idiot Alex had managed to fully confirm his previous suspicions regarding where exactly the orphans from the orphanage had been delivered—namely to Hojo's main laboratory on the 65th floor of the Shinra headquarters.
Learning that the children had been dragged to the very top to this bastard, Alex even experienced a certain relief. As he had managed to find out, Hojo frankly did not give a damn about the small experimental subjects, despite the potential possibility of using them in his terrible experiments.
For this complete madman the children were nothing more than convenient bait in order to lure into the laboratory far more valuable specimens—Alex himself and Aerith. In the operative's memory Alex clearly saw how Hojo in yet another fit of scientific mania had personally declared: he and Aerith represented for him incomparably greater research value than some rabble of paupers from the dump of which there were plenty in the slums of Midgar.
Leaning on the shovel handle, Alex feverishly shook his head at the mere thought that some wretched madman sincerely counted on laying him on the dissection table for the sake of his dog experiments. Such an attitude toward his own person evoked in Alex not irritation or rage, but rather sincere, light amusement.
Slightly chuckling, Alex more tightly clenched the thin cigar between his teeth and with doubled energy continued filling in the hole, deciding to finish with this dirty work as soon as possible. After all, whatever this Hojo was, he remained only an ordinary mortal man who could be easily zeroed at any convenient moment if that one played the arbiter of fates too much.
Touching the Death Ring on his index finger with his thumb, Alex for a moment yielded to the temptation to arrange for Hojo some maximally absurd and humiliating accident. However, this thought quickly receded into the background when he recalled how much time this ugly genius actually had left to pollute the sky.
"Eh, fine. Let this faggot live for now. He has barely anything left to breathe anyway. And if he starts raging too much, then an 'unexpected' fall down the stairs can always happen to him… Or he'll choke on a piece of food. The ideal death for a 'genius' scientist. What do you think, dear?" Alex said with a laugh, continuing to throw earth out of the hole and casting a fleeting glance at his own shadow.
"Hospital…" a quiet, chilling whisper rang out right from Alex's shadow when it suddenly acquired the distinct outlines of Zhang Ya, staring at him with her scarlet-red eyes.
"Hmm… And that does sound extremely tempting! The Major could really use a new pleasant neighbor. After all, he has no one to talk to after the events in London. And Wernicke would gladly collect fresh materials for his research in the field of the human mind…" Alex said thoughtfully, freezing for a moment with the shovel in his hands.
"Yes…" Zhang Ya quietly echoed, after which Alex's shadow instantly returned to its habitual appearance.
Looking at his shadow, Alex quietly laughed, finishing filling in the hole. After all, how could he not know exactly what was happening in the Red City ruled by his wife, and where his little princess Alessa quite often visited?
She occasionally visited Dalya and Claudia Wolf there—two of the most disgusting women whom she continued to sincerely hate with her entire being for what they had once turned her life into. And however much Alex might have wanted Alessa to finally let go of this past, he as a father perfectly understood: his daughter would not soon forgive these creatures.
Heavily sighing, Alex thrust the shovel into the earth and headed toward the ruined church. Pushing the old wooden doors, he calmly entered inside and again saw the habitual devastation remaining here from their previous visit. Raising his gaze to the ceiling, Alex with a smile looked at the two punched holes through which he and Dean had so absurdly tumbled out a week ago.
Slightly chuckling at the comic curiosity from which his adventure in this world had begun, he approached the heap of broken benches onto which Dean had then crashed, fished out one surviving bench, and dragged it after himself. Setting the wooden bench near the flowerbed with yellow lilies that were still peacefully blooming in the midst of the devastation, Alex sat down and lazily crossed one leg over the other, observing the quietly swaying petals.
He clearly understood that the rest of the squad right now needed time to cool down and not act on a hot head. After all, if real and immediate danger had threatened the kidnapped children, he would not have been sitting here with his arms folded, but would long ago have arranged a bloody massacre right in the Shinra headquarters. Again touching the Death Ring on his index finger with his thumb, Alex once more made certain: all the kidnapped orphans were guaranteed to live to a ripe old age and their happy fate was going nowhere.
Lazily swinging his leg, Alex continued looking at the yellow lilies that were Aerith's most favorite flowers. Slightly tilting his head to the side, Alex thought that it would not hurt to add something special to this wonderful flower garden. Reaching into his inventory, he took out from there a shimmering Moonlight Flower brought by him straight from the Hunter's Dream—the very one that Doll had loved so much.
Rising from the bench, Alex squatted next to the flowerbed and began carefully digging a small hole in order to plant the guest from another world. Carefully lowering the flower into the earth and covering its roots, Alex tenderly touched the glowing petals and warmly smiled.
"I think she won't mind at all if you also grow right here," Alex said quietly, affectionately running his fingers over the petals of the Moonlight Flower.
"Why should I mind anything?" Aerith's ringing, sincerely interested voice suddenly rang out from the side of the entrance to the church.
Hearing Aerith's voice behind himself, Alex rose from his squatting position and saw that she had not come alone, but had brought Claudia with her. Noticing how Claudia was looking around and frowning as if somewhere on the edge of memory she had already been in this place, Alex slightly nodded to her and shifted his gaze to Aerith, who was walking toward him with sincere curiosity in her eyes.
Noticing this deep interest, Alex beckoned Aerith closer to himself so that she herself could see the new resident in her flower garden. Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, Aerith quickly jumped up to Alex and looked where he was pointing.
Her gaze was immediately opened to an amazing white flower shimmering with a strange, mesmerizing silvery light. The first thing Aerith thought upon seeing the wondrous plant was that it was literally shining with moonlight, despite the fact that the sun was fully shining outside.
Seeing something like this for the first time, Aerith squatted next to the flowerbed and carefully touched the tender petals. The moment her fingers came into contact with the Moonlight Flower, Aerith felt an amazing feeling of peace—as if she had instantly found herself in a quiet, cozy place where there was no longer room for anxieties, and only absolute protectiveness hovered. Taking her hand away from the petals, Aerith turned her head to Alex, who was already sitting on the wooden bench with his habitual calm smile, and insistently narrowed her eyes.
"What is this beautiful flower?! I've never seen anything like it!" Aerith asked with feigned suspicion, sitting down on the bench right next to Alex and practically burying her nose in his cheek in thirst for answers.
"This is a Moonlight Flower. I already told you about it once," Alex answered with a calm smile, ignoring her piercing gaze.
"Yes, you did… But you never said what exactly it means in the language of flowers!" Aerith said, wrinkling her little nose, and insistently poked a finger into Alex's cheek.
"It means the mysticism and mystery of moonlight… But it has one more, far more important meaning," Alex said with a smile, leaning back against the back of the wooden bench.
"What?" Claudia asked, approaching from behind and lowering her gaze to the flowerbed that seemed to her simultaneously familiar and alien.
"Absolute trust and a spiritual refuge," Alex answered with a smile, patting the free part of the bench and offering Claudia to sit next to him rather than stand over his soul.
"Wow… I insanely like this! Together with my little ones it looks so natural!" Aerith began speaking joyfully, enthusiastically clapping her hands.
"I'm glad it was to your liking. And what do you think the entire flowerbed now means in the language of flowers?" Alex asked with warmth, affectionately placing a palm on Aerith's head.
"Hmm… Let me think! If I understand everything correctly, my yellow lilies mean: 'Our meeting was destined by fate and gave me hope.' And your flower then adds: 'And I swear to protect this hope and be your faithful protection to the very end'…" Aerith said thoughtfully, and toward the end her voice trembled, and drops of sincere tears welled up in her eyes when the true meaning of this message reached her.
Understanding exactly what Alex had wanted to say by this, Aerith convulsively grabbed him by the hand and looked straight into his eyes, seeking confirmation of her guess. Alex merely softly nodded with a tender smile. Realizing that she had guessed everything down to the last word, Aerith spread into a happy smile and impulsively threw herself at Alex with embraces, wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her cheek to his cheek, and joyfully, ringingly laughing. She had pounced on him so sharply that the wooden bench under them almost overturned! Seeing how Aerith was rejoicing like a child, Alex quietly laughed and began soothingly stroking her on the back.
Sitting down on the other side of Alex, Claudia looked at this entire scene with an extremely tired gaze and mentally regretted that she had agreed to go with them at all. It seemed to her as if she had been dragged against her own will into some sentimental romantic plot in which she had not the slightest desire to participate.
But at the same time Claudia felt a strange, deep response inside when she saw the pure joy on Aerith's face. In her head again echoed the words from the recent dream: one must continue walking this same path in order to rewrite everything for the better. Still not fully understanding the true meaning of these words, Claudia preferred to avert her gaze, not wishing to observe others' tender moments, and simply began looking at the petals quietly swaying under the light breath of the wind.
To be continued...
(At first, I thought I should have the characters rush straight to Shinra HQ right off the bat. But then I decided against it; I needed to show how the heroes were reacting to the situation first. I'd call it the calm before the storm. Yeah, that's the right way to put it. And I simply couldn't bring myself to write a scene where Hojo does something to the kids. Even in *BioShock*, I never once played through by killing the Little Sisters. My conscience just won't let me do that to children, even if they are just characters. I'm not a monster like some authors who write about that kind of killing. Screw them. I'm a nice guy. Yeah. Anyway, moving on. Which means it's time to eat. Peace, love, and pink ponies pooping rainbows from the sky onto the villains' heads.)
Early access to chapters on my patreon: p*treon.com/GreedHunter