Chapter 863 - 862: Midgar Left Behind at Last, Nothing But Adventure Ahead."

Being on the so-called Edge of Creation, Alex realized from the very first second that this entire pretentious set piece was nothing more than another empty, mentally cobbled-together illusory dimension. That was precisely why he decided to destroy this artificial stage with maximum flair and style, turning Sephiroth's chance to show off his power in front of Claudia into one big formal farce.

The use of the Red Materia's destructive power and the summoning of the King of the Nine Worlds seemed to him more than an exhaustive answer to the overreaching Sephiroth. Sephiroth himself, even in his death throes, choking on the flesh-devouring bacteria, still managed to throw out pretentious predictions about legions and inevitable doom.

But Alex frankly didn't give a damn whether this upstart was acting alone or whether an entire army of the exact same dressed-up clones stood behind him, cheerfully shoveling shit and throwing it at the fan. To Alex, all these "chosen ones" had never been anything other than pathetic, blind marionettes in the claws of an alien creature named Jenova.

Without waiting for Odin's giant spear to smash the platform completely, Alex scooped Claudia up into his arms and, with a rolling, mocking laugh, rushed to the very edge of the stone fragment floating in the cosmic void.

Powerfully pushing off with the toes of his boots from the crumbling edge, he tightly pressed Claudia to his chest and nimbly spun in the air so that his back faced the falling world, in order to give the defeated Sephiroth one last most eloquent gesture. Choking on his own blood and burning alive from the horrific internal infection, Sephiroth in the very last moment before the elemental strike caught sight of that insolent smirk and the middle finger put on full display.

"I HATE YOU!!!" Sephiroth roared with all his remaining strength, fixing on the falling Alex a mad, bloodshot gaze full of primordial, all-consuming fury.

In response to Sephiroth's cry filled with hatred and pain came only loud, ringing laughter overflowing with open mockery—Alex showed with his entire demeanor that this whole pretentious drama with "edges of creation" had been nothing more to him than a cheap circus with pathetic decorations.

Screaming in impotent rage and trying to gather the last of his strength for escape, Sephiroth jerked, but it was already too late. Networks of purple lightning flared around him with a crack, pinning his bacteria-eaten body dead to the stone slab.

Feeling the invisible predators burning out his organs from the inside while electric discharges shredded his skin from the outside, Sephiroth raised his eyes to the weapon falling from the heavens. He didn't even have time to let out a final scream before in that same second Odin's giant spear, radiating astral death, crashed down on him with a terrible roar.

Falling into the endless cosmic void together with Claudia pressed to his chest, Alex watched over his shoulder as the tip of the spear punched clean through the platform, splitting it into myriads of tiny fragments.

Knowing perfectly well by what physical laws collapsing pocket dimensions operate, Alex snapped his fingers, creating a dense shimmering barrier in front of them so that Claudia could safely observe this grand finale. In the next instant blinding purple discharges shot out in every direction from the embedded spear.

The flared lightning slashed through the fabric of space at insane speed, tearing the illusory world into pieces and creating a truly surreal, mesmerizing spectacle. After the electric storm came a colossal explosion that birthed a blinding flash of purest energy and a monstrous shockwave.

Squinting against the bright light, Claudia instinctively pressed herself into Alex's shoulder, once again feeling mute awe before the monstrous, incomprehensible power of those who were called the true protectors of the planet.

Alex, on the contrary, watched the rampage of the elements without looking away for a single moment, coldly savoring the results of the destruction of the overreaching idiot. Yet he understood perfectly well: any spatial collapses, whether an artificial world or a mental illusion, always ended the same way—with the birth of a destructive vortex.

"Hold on with all your strength! The most unpleasant part of our ride is coming up!" Alex warned, shouting over the roar of the disintegrating world and wrapping his arms even tighter around Claudia's waist.

"What's happening?!" Claudia shouted back, vainly trying to shield her eyes from the radiance beating through the barrier.

Alex didn't even need to answer the question—in the next instant Claudia saw with her own eyes everything he had warned about. When the blinding radiance and the aftereffects of the explosion faded, the giant spatial cracks left by the lightning discharges suddenly began contracting toward the center at terrifying speed.

Claudia didn't fully understand the nature of this phenomenon, but on an instinctive level she felt that such a narrowing would end in nothing good. Yet instead of a deafening explosion there came a strange, dry, and unexpectedly quiet pop, reminiscent of the sound of a balloon bursting somewhere nearby.

Before Claudia could recover from that ominous silence, a shockwave slammed into the magical barrier Alex had created at monstrous speed, forcefully hurling them straight toward the forming spatial vortex. Tightly pressing Claudia to himself, Alex slightly narrowed his eyes, and his pupils again flared with deep purple light.

Instantly assessing the critical state of the unstable rift, he realized that without his intervention they would simply be thrown somewhere wrong. Sharply extending his hand toward the raging vortex, Alex clenched his fingers as if groping for invisible ropes, then twisted his wrist, forcibly straightening the geometry of the corridor.

Having hastily stabilized the portal, Alex allowed the shockwave to finish what it had started, finally shoving them both into the gaping chasm. A moment later the familiar yet no less dizzying kaleidoscope of myriads of rushing stars and boundless colored nebulae once again swirled before Claudia's eyes.

Having raced through the interdimensional tunnel, Alex allowed himself a short, relieved sigh—the thought that this insane, event-packed day had finally come to an end and the long-awaited rest was glimmering ahead pleasantly warmed his soul.

"No time for sighs… Better tell me where the hell we've ended up?" Claudia asked, slightly frowning and raising her gaze to Alex while he continued to hold her tightly against himself.

"Isn't it obvious? We're taking a romantic flight through a spatial portal," Alex replied with a carefree smile and rolled eyes, lowering his gaze to Claudia's focused face.

"Enough clowning around. Answer properly: do you even have any idea where this damned tunnel leads?" Claudia snorted irritably, noticeably squeezing her fingers on Alex's neck as a sign that this was definitely not the time for his signature jokes.

"If my internal clock and navigator are to be believed, we should be dumped somewhere on the wastelands outside Midgar. Plus or minus a couple of kilometers from the concrete walls. Well, if I didn't miss a little, of course," Alex drawled with an impassive expression, while his hand meanwhile lazily and completely involuntarily slid along Claudia's waist, tracing lazy patterns with his fingers.

"So with equal success we could land a couple of kilometers above Midgar… And stop groping, pervert," Claudia hissed, narrowing her eyes viciously and lightning-fast intercepting Alex's wrist, throwing the wandering fingers farther from her lower back.

"It was accidental, just reflexes… And answering your question—yes, there's a margin of error," Alex admitted with an easy shrug, but immediately wrapped his arm securely around Claudia's waist again, flatly refusing to risk letting the spatial currents accidentally scatter them to different corners of the planet.

"Shit…" Claudia muttered with a heavy exhale, finally realizing that a soft landing was clearly not to be expected.

Hearing that quiet mutter, Alex merely smiled softly and encouragingly patted her on the back like a capricious child, making it clear that the worst was already behind them. Feeling those careless pats, Claudia raised a heavy, eloquent look at him in which one could read exclusively: "You're messing with me right now, aren't you?"

Carelessly smiling in response to her silent swearing, Alex perfectly understood what storm of emotions was raging in her head right now. The realization that Sephira, whom she had grown used to considering a cold-blooded enemy and the destroyer of her life, had in reality been only a blind marionette in someone else's hands, required time to rethink.

But the main reason for the headache remained the dying words of the chief bastard: the hint that this Sephiroth was far from the only one, and that somewhere in the interwoven timelines his counterparts were hiding. However, Alex never for a second doubted that Claudia and the rest of the gang would definitely not sit idly by and would set out to sniff out any traces of the remaining enemies.

And he knew exactly what tirade Dean would deliver when he learned that the villains were actually an entire brood—his colorful description of this situation would probably make it into textbooks. It only remained to hope that the rowdy Dean could be quickly calmed with the scenic views of open Gaia.

While Alex drifted in his own thoughts, Claudia was also digging through memories. The thought of that insane proposal Sephiroth had voiced on the Edge of Creation caused her physical disgust. How could she even hypothetically have stood on the side of the one who had cold-bloodedly taken everything from her?

Inside, a hot wave of anger mixed with bitter regret that she hadn't managed to properly smash that bastard with all her strength before he finally croaked stirred again. Driving the anger deep inside, Claudia raised her chin and noticed a rapidly approaching point of blinding light ahead, causing her eyes to narrow involuntarily from the strain.

"Is that… what I think it is?" she clarified with a frown, tearing her gaze from the radiance and transferring it to Alex.

"Looks like it. The home stretch! Hold on tighter, because the landing promises to be fun and completely unpredictable," Alex replied cheerfully, feeling how they were rapidly accelerating on the way out of the interdimensional tunnel.

"Explain to me why every time I'm next to you we inevitably fly upside down or fall somewhere?" Claudia hissed through narrowed eyes, staring Alex dead in the face.

"No idea. But admit it, it's a great way to earn savior points so that at the end I can get the well-deserved reward in the form of your kiss," Alex answered with infectious laughter, pressing Claudia even tighter against himself while the world around them rapidly turned white.

"Don't even dream. That's never happening," Claudia cut him off, rolling her eyes and mentally preparing for a hard impact with the ground.

"Then you won't mind too much if I take that payment in advance?" Alex drawled with an insolent, almost devilishly charming smirk, sharply leaning forward and closing the distance so that their noses almost touched.

Noticing Alex's face in dangerous proximity, Claudia had already raised her head for a crushing forehead strike straight to his nose when a sudden jerk of air slammed them into the spatial tunnel with tenfold force. Feeling the wild, insane speed, she instinctively abandoned all attempts to fight and pressed herself into him with her entire body, desperately praying that they would be thrown anywhere except somewhere in the sky a couple of kilometers above Midgar.

Alex, on the contrary, maintained absolute, almost Buddhist calm. Over all the time of his travels through different worlds he had already grown so used to falling from the sky to the ground with such regularity that he was simply too lazy to even get angry at yet another gravitational anomaly.

In the next instant the portal spat them out—headfirst, flying out at monstrous speed straight onto the expanses of the desert wastelands. A second's assessment of the terrain told Alex that he had almost not missed: familiar sands outside Midgar stretched around them.

But one small detail prevented him from savoring the triumph of the precise calculation—they were hurtling at full speed straight at a colossal granite boulder. Instantly grouping up and tightly pressing Claudia to himself, Alex sharply spun in the air back-first, according to the already established tradition solving all braking problems exclusively at the expense of the strength of his own spine.

With a deafening crash worthy of a meteorite impact, Alex slammed into the stone mass. From the most powerful blow the boulder shattered into hundreds of sharp fragments that sprayed out in a fan in every direction, raising clouds of sand and dust. At that same moment Dean, Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, Barret, and Red XIII, standing in the shadow of another stone mass outside Midgar and peacefully digesting the information received from Sephira, sharply shuddered. The air was torn by a piercing, ear-splitting whistle, followed by a short but powerful series of dull explosions.

The entire group exchanged glances in unison, trying to understand what fresh madness was unfolding at dawn. The answer itself did not keep them waiting: small pebbles and sand crumbs began raining down on them from above. Jumping out from behind the protective cover, the group stared at the long trail plowed through the earth leading through the ranks of just-scattered stone blocks.

"You know… I have a vague suspicion that it's Alex and Claudia," Aerith suggested with a slight smile, shielding her eyes with her palm from the flying dust.

"No need to guess, it's definitely them. Only that guy has the talent to land with such epic noise," Dean drawled with a smirk, squinting at the rising cloud of dust ahead.

"If it's them, we need to run there right away! What if they need help?!" Tifa exclaimed anxiously, ready to bolt from the spot.

"Well, since we've finished standing around with our mouths open, let's check if our favorites are alive," Dean threw cheerfully and was the first to rush in the direction of the impact site.

"Oh, damn it… I was just starting to think we'd finally wrapped up this insane running around. When is this shit ever going to stop?" Barret exhaled irritably, sighing heavily at the fact that all this running never ended.

"That's all because you're already old. That's why you get so tired!" Yuffie laughed, easily and gracefully streaking past the grumbling Barret.

Dodging the curses flying at her back on the run, Yuffie only laughed ringingly, throwing mocking glances at the purple-with-rage Barret as she ran. Barret himself strained with all his might, trying to prove to the overreaching Yuffie that old age was still a long way off for him, but in response received only another portion of lively teasing.

Running alongside, Red XIII merely silently eyed this squabble, mentally asking himself the philosophical question of by what happy coincidence he had ended up in such an eccentric company. Ahead of everyone, paying no attention to this circus, Aerith and Tifa raced.

Their attention was occupied exclusively with worry for Alex and Claudia: they sincerely wanted to make sure those two were intact and unharmed after such an extreme arrival.

The only one who wasn't worried in the slightest remained Dean. He knew perfectly well that Alex's durability was something to envy, and therefore only barely held back a wide smile, picking up the pace in anticipation of an amusing sight. He terribly wanted to hear Alex's signature complaints about yet another gravitational fiasco.

Meanwhile, amid the crumbling veil of dust and small fragments of the destroyed boulder, Alex lay on his back, with a light smirk pressing the stunned Claudia to himself. Staring at the clouds slowly drifting across the morning sky, he allowed himself a long, exhausted sigh.

Even the prospect of the upcoming journey, where one could finally relax a little, have fun, and unwind, seemed weak consolation at that moment. Feeling a slight desire to smoke, Alex reached into his pocket for a thin cigar, but the moment he tried to fish the pack from his pocket he felt a light movement on his chest. Lowering his gaze downward, he found himself nose to nose with Claudia, who was boring into him with her signature heavy, unblinking stare.

"Well, congratulations, we made it out after all. And the main thing is we managed without falling from a two-kilometer height straight onto the roofs of Midgar. So by my modest calculations, as a sign of gratitude you are now simply obligated to kiss me," Alex cooed with a wide smile, looking straight into Claudia's eyes.

"Don't even dream… And in general, how long are you planning to hold me like this?" Claudia inquired in an even voice, bracing her palms against Alex's chest and once again trying to rise.

"Exactly until I receive the honestly earned payment for the rescue. You can choose: tight hugs or a passionate kiss. Although, to be honest, I'm voting for both points at once," Alex drawled with a philosophical air, not weakening his grip in the slightest and flatly refusing to release Claudia from his arms.

"If you don't take your hands off right now, I'll hit you," Claudia promised in a cold tone, clearly feeling how his warm hands could be sensed through the clothes on her back.

"Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained—you can try. But we both know perfectly well how exhausted you are. You're a cool elite SOLDIER, of course… But even for your organism this night turned out damn hard," Alex countered, lazily closing his eyes, slightly leaning forward, closing the remaining distance between them, and lightly nudging the tip of his nose against Claudia's nose.

Ignoring the light nudge to the nose, Claudia didn't want to admit it out loud, but Alex's words had hit the mark exactly. She really was dropping from exhaustion after all these insane events compressed into two days.

First the monstrous fall of the upper Plate onto Sector Seven of the slums, then the surreal foray into the underground laboratories of the Shinra corporation, the bloody assault on Shinra headquarters itself to rescue the kidnapped children. And then the chain of madness had spun at such speed that none of them had time even for basic rest—only rare, convulsive seconds to catch their breath.

But even now, on the edge of physical exhaustion, pride would not allow her to utter the word "tired" out loud or admit that she was still on her feet solely thanks to stubbornness and willpower.

Exhaling heavily, Claudia once again braced her palms against Alex's chest, trying to push him away and rise. But the moment she made a movement, Alex only pressed her tighter to himself, locking any attempts at escape dead. Feeling how her body pressed flush against his chest, Claudia irritably rolled her eyes, mentally cursing his insolent character.

Alex in response merely smiled carelessly, making it clear that there was not the slightest point in thrashing about and running right now. First, he had already managed to scan the surroundings with a mental scanner and confirmed that the rest of their group had been dumped on this very same wasteland.

And second, after such a grand and thundering fireworks display with which they had flown out of the portal, they would definitely be searched for, and no one would get lost. And if so, then why waste the last strength on extra movements when one could lie comfortably while the world around waited?

"How long are you going to keep playing living mattress?" Claudia inquired with a tired, strengthless sigh, boring into Alex with an irritated look and continuing to brace her hands against his chest.

"Instead of asking stupid questions, relax and try to enjoy this moment," Alex cooed softly with a smile, soothingly running his palm along Claudia's back.

"We don't have time for this circus. We need to get up and look for the others," Claudia coldly reminded, showing with her entire demeanor that she had no intention of lying around on the sand amid the debris.

"Don't worry so much. From the racket with which we smashed that boulder they heard us a kilometer away. They'll come stomping themselves, they're not going anywhere. So stand down the alarm, rest," Alex smirked soothingly, reminding her of the scale of their epic landing.

"Eh… To hell with you. But consider this the official repayment of the debt for the rescue," Claudia exhaled constrictedly, surrendering, realizing that arguing with Alex was already useless, deciding that this time she could allow herself weakness, and heavily dropped her head onto Alex's shoulder.

"Now that's talking heart to heart. Just keep in mind: this is only modest interest on your gigantic debt to me," Alex sang cheerfully, continuing to smoothly and noticeably stroke Claudia's back.

"Then be so kind as to explain how exactly where your hands are roaming right now is connected to debt repayment?" Claudia inquired in an icy tone, suddenly feeling how his palms had dropped much lower than allowed.

"Oh, this is called a pleasant and extremely fortunate coincidence of circumstances," Alex drawled with an innocent air, in that same second allowing himself to squeeze his fingers a little harder on something soft and rounded.

"Don't you want to take your hands off, idiot…" Claudia hissed through tightly clenched teeth, feeling her face flood with a treacherous blush as she felt the frank pressure of Alex's palm on her buttock.

"I just did it by accident, they went there by themselves… Besides, I'm holding you over dense clothing, so everything is within the bounds of decency," Alex countered with lazy composure, not even thinking of stopping his liberties.

"Get your hands off my ass, idiot, before I tear them off up to the shoulders! Ah…" Claudia tried to threaten, choking from the insolence, but the sudden, overly confident pressure of Alex's fingers knocked the air from her lungs, making her break into a quiet, treacherous half-moan, because of which she fixed him with a murderous, burning-through stare.

"Oops… Well, see, again by accident. It's your own fault for jerking so sharply," Alex immediately justified himself with feigned fright, coughing into his fist, although his fingers on Claudia's buttock squeezed with even greater, completely unambiguous tenderness.

Feeling how Alex's insolent fingers again unceremoniously squeezed her soft place, Claudia finally lost the last of her patience. Grinding her teeth from the boiling irritation inside, she decided once and for all to give this incorrigible insolent man a master class in respecting personal boundaries.

No longer wanting to tolerate the mockery, Claudia with a sharp movement threw herself at him, intending to explain in two counts what happens to those who get handsy. Alex, of course, had no intention of turning into a punching bag—intercepting her wrists, he tried to block the attack.

Flashing with anger, Claudia deftly twisted her hands out of his grip and in the blink of an eye wrapped her legs around his waist, toppling Alex onto his side. Sighing heavily and trying to reason with the enraged fury, Alex wanted to get by with a stock phrase about an "accidental misunderstanding," but in the end everything rolled into a full-fledged scuffle. Rolling around on the dusty ground led to a result that was not hard to predict: now they had frozen in a position far more ambiguous than before.

Alex held her hands, pressing them to the ground and blocking attempts to slap him, while Claudia, without noticing it herself in the surge of adrenaline, had wrapped her legs around his hips and was pressing against him with her entire body far more tightly and frankly than when she had been lying on top.

At that very moment Aerith, Tifa, and Dean, who had reached the giant boulder, heard strange scuffling, muffled moans, and the rustle of sand from the reverse side. Exchanging glances, they carefully peered around the corner—and immediately froze, eyes popping at the piquant picture that opened before them. Dean immediately turned away, quietly snorting into his fist and straining with all his might to hold back the laughter bursting out.

Tifa blushed deeply to the very tips of her ears, instantly turning away, but still continuing to steal glances at the pair through her fingers. Only Aerith tilted her head to the side with genuine interest and nodded approvingly, as if taking the scene into account for some secret plan of her own. A second later the breathless Yuffie, Barret, and Red arrived at the scene. Seeing the view that opened, Yuffie instantly squeezed her eyes shut, but immediately obligingly spread her fingers, continuing to stare with all her eyes.

"What the hell are you two doing?! Get yourselves a motel if it's that urgent, what the hell are you arranging this debauchery in the middle of the street for?!" Barret roared, turning purple with indignation and looking away.

"Exactly! Stop engaging in indecencies here in broad daylight!" Yuffie supported him, flushing crimson and continuing to peek through the slits between her fingers.

"Um… What? Have you been standing here long?" Alex turned his head in astonishment, blinking, and stared at the suddenly formed spectator audience.

"Just got here, but don't rush, lovebirds, continue, we'll wait… Although, judging by Claudia's face, you might soon run out of not only patience but life indicators," Dean drawled cheerfully, barely holding back laughter and shining with overflowing merriment.

"I think first we should make an official statement that all this is a flagrant accident," Alex tried to justify himself, still holding the thrashing Claudia on the ground.

"Of course-of course! We gladly believe you, honest word," Aerith sang with a sly smile spreading across her face, slowly folding her arms across her chest.

"Get off me immediately, idiot!" Claudia hissed through her teeth, trying to push Alex's face away with her palm and putting all her remaining anger into the blow.

"I'd be happy to, but did you forget to unlock your legs? How am I supposed to get up, in your opinion, if you're still holding me so tightly yourself??" Alex threw back egotistically, rolling his eyes and indicating with a nod of his chin her ankles that had locked dead around his waist.

Snorting irritably, Claudia finally unclenched her thighs and reluctantly freed Alex. Before removing his hands, Alex threw Claudia a pleading look, jokingly asking her not to hit him right after the release. In response Claudia merely rolled her eyes with such an expression that if he didn't immediately take his hands away, the next blow would definitely be his last.

Alex answered conciliatorily with a skeptical eye-roll, clearly doubting her threats. While they continued this silent duel of looks, Tifa, no longer able to bear this circus, coughed embarrassedly, politely calling on the pair to finally get up and stop embarrassing those around them.

Seeing Tifa's brightly flushed face, Alex nodded conciliatorily and finally released Claudia. Rising to his feet first, Alex immediately extended his palm toward Claudia, offering help. Staring at the open palm, Claudia quietly snorted but still grabbed it, rising onto the dusty ground with a sharp tug.

Thoroughly brushing himself off, Alex tried to assume the most impassive appearance possible, as if a minute earlier they had not been rolling in the sand in an extremely ambiguous pose. Claudia, silently throwing the Buster Sword behind her back, walked past him, deliberately strongly brushing his shoulder, and headed straight for the embarrassed Tifa.

Quietly chuckling after her, Alex transferred his gaze to Dean, who was expressively and very slyly wiggling his eyebrows. Exaggeratedly rolling his eyes, Alex slid his gaze over Aerith—she was examining him with an overly thoughtful, mischievous expression that betrayed a tricky plan ripening in her cute little head.

Catching his look, Aerith sweetly wrinkled her little nose and immediately ran up, tightly latching onto his arm and trustingly pressing her cheek to his shoulder. Alex smiled softly and ruffled her hair, completely ignoring Yuffie's caustic muttering as she continued to call him a shameless pervert.

"You know… Judging by my observations, the females of your species also prefer to choose the strongest male for procreation. I somehow hadn't thought about that before," Red XIII declared completely seriously, thoughtfully sweeping his gaze over Alex and the Aerith hanging on him.

"Pfff… Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Dean couldn't hold it and laughed thunderously, clutching his stomach and barely staying on his feet.

"What the hell are you talking about, Red?! What kind of crazy diagnosis was that just now?!" Barret roared, turning purple with indignation and lowering a stunned look onto his four-legged comrade, who merely tilted his head to the side in incomprehension.

"I'm simply stating facts based on visual analysis. Isn't it obvious?" Red countered impassively, raising his gaze to Barret.

"Guys, let's drop the zoological lectures and get to business… Alex, did you manage to deal with Sephiroth at all?" Tifa blurted out, blushing deeply and desperately trying to shift the topic to something more decent, sharply turning to Alex.

"Sort of… In short, I have two pieces of news. Classic of the genre: good and bad. Which should I start with?" Alex drawled philosophically, extracting a new thin cigar from his pocket and releasing a ring of gray smoke into the morning sky.

"Let's start with the good one, okay?" Aerith suggested with a sigh, lightly tugging his sleeve and calling on him not to drag things out.

"Well… The good one is that Sephiroth ended his earthly path very beautifully—in the form of a bright cosmic fireworks display from Odin's strike. As for the bad…" Alex said with a light smile, bringing the cigar to his lips and preparing to lay it all out at once.

"Let me guess: the bad news is that this pretentious bastard turned out not to be in a single copy, and there are still a whole wagon of such idiots across the universe?" Dean interrupted him, lazily throwing out, not even trying to put on a surprised face.

"Stop, how do you know? That madman only managed to drop that brilliant thought when his insides were already fully turning into mincemeat," Alex asked in surprise, slightly raising an eyebrow and looking at Dean with undisguised interest.

"Sephira kindly informed us of that," Tifa answered, wearily rubbing the bridge of her nose. The mere mention of that name made her feel a dull, wave-like fatigue from the fact that all the worst fears had once again been confirmed.

Hearing such an unexpected revelation, Alex involuntarily raised an eyebrow, sincerely astonished that Sephira had not only voluntarily made contact with their group but also possessed such valuable information. Claudia experienced no less shock, distrustfully digesting what she had heard.

Wishing to restore the full picture of what was happening, Alex with a lazy gesture of his hand asked them to lay out all the details of their conversation with the former villainess. Considering that it would be easier for her to explain everything, Aerith took the initiative into her own hands and calmly retold the entire dialogue with Sephira, omitting excess emotions.

Having listened to her and thoughtfully nodding, Alex in response shared his considerations and what he had managed to extract from the fading Sephiroth right before his destruction. But they were not allowed to develop the topic to the end: the silence of the sandy wastelands was suddenly torn by a distinct, rolling hum of a powerful engine.

Sharply turning their heads toward the noise, they saw a heavy armored personnel carrier approaching them at top speed, raising clouds of sand. In the next instant a beaming Jessie leaned out of the side window of the vehicle, energetically waving her hand at them with a mischievous smile showing all thirty-two teeth, greeting the return of the prodigal comrades.

Recognizing the familiar silhouette of the armored vehicle, Alex allowed himself a light, relaxed smile. It only remained to sincerely hope that Valerie had not forgotten to pick up those very voluminous bags with a neat capital in gil and personal belongings that he had thoughtfully left in the bed of the stolen truck in the underground parking of Shinra headquarters before everything went to hell.

To be continued...

(Today has been an absolute, fucking, goddamn disaster. The power in my place went out twice today. The first time, I had to rewrite half a damn chapter because I'm an idiot who keeps forgetting to hit the "save" button. The second time, the power was out for even longer—luckily, I managed to save what I'd written before it cut out. But not wanting to waste any fucking time, I tried writing on my goddamn phone, which is a total, fucking nightmare. Honestly, I was one step away from a nervous breakdown. I even considered just saying "fuck it" and giving up on the chapter entirely. But then the power came back on, so I decided to finish it after all—didn't wrap up until 11:00 PM. To hell with this day. Anyway, Midgar is behind us; we'll spend a little time on some dialogue, and then head straight for the town of Kalm. I'm not writing anything else about the plot—my brain just refuses to function anymore. Peace, love, and honestly, it's about time we burned this goddamn world to the ground.)

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