Leaving the Shinra warehouse, Alex and Claudia advanced along the tops of the containers so as not to accidentally catch the eye of the grunts whom Shinra command had sent as fire support to the Seventh Sector on the Plate. Trying not to attract extra attention from the patrols, they noticed that the corporation had deployed a rather impressive detachment.
Looking at such a number of grunts, Alex was one hundred percent sure that Heidegger was right now going out of his mind, blinded by rage, and smashing everything around himself while continuing to yell at his subordinates with the demand to detain the culprit at any cost. Laughing slightly, he shook his head and continued to follow Claudia. After all, Alex understood perfectly well: the fateful events in the lower city of Midgar would still inevitably take place.
No matter how hard they tried to hide, Shinra would sooner or later still pick up the trail of another Avalanche cell in the Seventh Sector of the Slums and heartlessly drop the plate on the residents of the Lower City. That was precisely why Alex had decided to deliberately reveal himself in front of the cameras — in order to use the falling of the plate in the future with maximum benefit for himself.
Lost in thought, he did not even notice how he and Claudia had already reached the abandoned wasteland where they had agreed to meet the others. Freezing on the edge of a metal container, Alex and Claudia unexpectedly heard Wedge's plaintive sounds coming from a dark alley. Exchanging glances, they carefully jumped down and approached the source of the noise.
"Well, what about it? Did it hit me hard?" Wedge asked with a sob, experiencing rather unpleasant sensations in the area of his backside.
"Just wait, don't twist around! I can't see a damn thing," Biggs answered in an irritated voice, trying with all his might to make Wedge stop jerking.
Listening to these conversations, Alex and Claudia approached the alley and looked inside, where a rather strange sight presented itself before their eyes. Wedge was standing on all fours with his pants down, and behind him Biggs was squatting, enthusiastically shining a flashlight right on his friend's backside. Completely not understanding what the hell had happened here, Alex looked at Jessie, who was standing nearby and covering her mouth with her hands with all her strength, trying not to burst into loud laughter while at the same time holding back Yuffie, who was straining to look at exactly what injury Wedge had received.
Looking at the approaching Alex and Claudia, Jessie finally lost her self-control from the madness unfolding, holding back her amusement with the last of her strength. Rubbing his forehead, Alex decided to check personally what was going on. Approaching Wedge and Biggs, he leaned slightly. And the moment he found himself nearby, he saw a clear round burn right in the middle of Wedge's left buttock.
Scratching his cheek, Alex looked at Biggs in search of answers. After all, as far as he remembered, Wedge was supposed to receive a similar injury in the canonical events when they were being chased by guard dogs. Looking into Alex's eyes, Biggs could no longer restrain himself and snorted loudly.
Hearing his friend's amusement, Wedge began plaintively slapping his palm on the ground, expressing extreme dissatisfaction. Even Jessie could not hold out and dissolved into a fit of laughter. Having received the desired freedom, Yuffie immediately jumped up, carefully peeked out from behind Alex's shoulder, and also noticed the scorch on Wedge's backside. Gasping at the sight of the injury, Yuffie burst into peals of laughter, which made Wedge whimper even more plaintively.
"You guys are just the worst! This isn't funny! I was really wounded!" Wedge cried plaintively, continuing to slap the ground annoyedly with his palm.
"Oh, come on. It's just a small burn on your butt. A couple of days and it'll all go away. And now pull up your torn underpants and let's go," Jessie answered with a laugh, perkily smacking Wedge on the injured buttock.
"Ow, it burns! Why did you do that?!" Wedge squealed, starting to writhe on the ground and covering the burn with his hands.
"Heh. If it comforts you even a little, then an injury like that is worth a million gil," Alex drawled with a smirk, lighting a thin cigar and extending a palm to Wedge to help him get up.
"Really? Is this really a million-gil injury?" Wedge asked hopefully, grabbing Alex's hand and with his other hand frantically pulling up his lowered pants.
"It's an old army joke. They say that a bullet that hits the butt costs exactly a million," he noted with a smirk, slightly shaking his head.
"So you did serve in the army after all?" Claudia inquired, hearing the familiar intonations in Alex's words.
"No. But I had a lot of friends who served in the most varied units. And everywhere, you know, they have their own little jokes," Alex muttered with a shrug and with a habitual motion flicked ash onto the ground.
Hearing Alex's answer, Claudia nodded thoughtfully. She had long since noted from his habits and confident behavior in battle that Alex had most likely served in some elite special unit and had clearly held far from a rank-and-file position there — considering how cold-bloodedly he assessed the situation and gave commands. Alex, for his part, had no idea that Claudia had already written him an entire rich biography in her head, and he only once more inquired how exactly Wedge had managed to receive such a specific injury.
Barely holding back laughter, Biggs began to recount that one of the grunts whom Wedge had taken out with his belly had still managed to come to his senses. And when they were already hightailing it out of the warehouse, the woken-up guard had swung the electric baton at random and struck right on Wedge's buttock. Hearing this explanation, Alex nodded slightly and sank into thought. He understood perfectly well: even if the chain of events had changed, Wedge had still received a wound on his backside — albeit in a completely different way.
This led Alex to the thought that although the situation was developing not quite as in the canon, the key points still coincided. And that meant his plan to set off a "snowball" for the creation of the White Whispers was being realized exactly as it should. While he remained deep in thought, Jessie carefully peeked out of the alley and made sure the path was clear.
Waving her hand, she gave the signal for everyone to follow her, assuring them that she had an excellent plan for how to leave the plate and return to the slums while bypassing absolutely all of Shinra's patrols. When the group moved forward, Jessie noticed that Alex was still distractedly mechanically rubbing his chin, staring at a blank brick wall. Sighing, she simply grabbed Alex by the hand and brazenly dragged him after her.
"Stop standing still and thoughtfully staring at the wall. We're already leaving," Jessie said, continuing to insistently pull Alex after her.
"And how do you propose we get out? The same way we came?" Alex inquired, carelessly allowing Jessie to lead him by the hand.
"That's a secret. But I've long wanted to pull off a trick like this. You'll definitely like it, mister!" Jessie said with a chuckle and for a brief moment turned back to Alex.
Hearing Jessie's intriguing words, Alex nodded slightly and fell into step with her while she tightly squeezed his palm. At that moment he recalled that according to the canon Jessie planned to use parachutes to jump from the edge of the plate and quickly return to the slums. Only she had only two parachutes stashed away, and their group now numbered as many as six. He knew firsthand: one parachute could support a maximum of two people.
However, thinking about this, Alex only mentally shrugged — he himself did not particularly want to jump with a parachute, considering that he could perfectly well just fall like a stone from the outermost ledge of the plate and land neatly on the threshold of the Seventh Heaven bar. Advancing together with Jessie through the tangled alleys, they came out onto a lit street where frightened local residents were already gathering in full force, trying to understand what noise had just shaken their district.
Slightly narrowing her eyes, Jessie pressed more tightly against Alex's shoulder, deciding to play for the passers-by the role of an ordinary loving couple that had simply come out to gawk at the commotion like everyone else. Passing by the onlookers, Alex lowered the brim of his cap more firmly so as to remain unnoticed. Fortunately, the special concealing spell that he had earlier cast on his body was still working properly.
Advancing shoulder to shoulder with his companion, Alex recalled one more detail: during the attack on the Shinra warehouse fighters from another — the main and far more radical — Avalanche cell were supposed to appear here, and they would inevitably have gotten into a bloody shootout with the grunts. Slightly raising the brim of his cap with the tip of a finger, Alex calmly picked out from the crowd of ordinary people several extremely suspicious members of Avalanche who were trying to look like local residents of the residential district.
"Hmm… Looks like I wrecked all the plans of the other Avalanche cell," Alex said quietly, lightly touching Jessie's palm with a finger.
"What makes you think that?" Jessie asked barely audibly, continuing to press against his arm and carefully looking around.
"Those three over there… They know you perfectly well. And those two over there are staring hard at Biggs and Wedge. That means they know you," having said this, Alex barely noticeably waved his chin toward the spies lost among the passers-by.
"Indeed familiar faces… Only what are they even doing here?" Jessie said, slightly darkening as she examined the familiar figures in the crowd.
"Damn, I just can't believe Headquarters decided to pull off their operation on this exact day," Biggs hissed irritably, having heard the quiet conversation between Alex and Jessie.
"A coincidence?" Claudia inquired, casting a cold glance over the Avalanche members hiding in the crowd.
"I don't think so. More like a bad sign that Headquarters has started acting so clumsily. Fortunately, someone decided to arrange a grand performance for all of Midgar. Because otherwise everything could have finally gone to hell," Biggs added in a gloomy tone, nodding toward the Headquarters operatives scurrying about.
"For example? What else could they have done?" Yuffie inquired, deftly looking around and walking right next to Alex.
"Another raid on the Slums. Only a maximally radical one. There wouldn't have been any questions — only mountains of corpses and another news report about the brutal fight against terrorism," Alex answered with a sigh, tenderly patting Yuffie on the head.
"Exactly. Fortunately, this time everything worked out," Biggs nodded, perfectly understanding how much worse the outcome could have been.
Hearing their friend's words, Wedge and Jessie nodded in unison. Even though they had serious disagreements with Headquarters, they still sincerely did not want a bloody massacre, which would inevitably have been followed by even more unpleasant events. After all, similar clashes had already occurred in Midgar in the past: first they ended in a brutal shootout, and then in a total raid on one of the slum sectors.
And only thanks to Alex had they learned that all this information was being leaked to Shinra by the local mafia boss Don Corneo — who had become a victim of inexorable gravity and who had previously had ears and eyes in all the Slum sectors. Alex at that moment was thinking about something completely different. He dreamed of returning as soon as possible to begin assembling the arc reactor and to see how the Planet itself would react to such insolence.
He already had premonitions that the reaction to such global changes would turn out to be rather radical. He understood perfectly well: the creation of the arc reactor would cause the strongest response from the Gray Whispers. These uncompromising guardians of the canon would certainly want to get rid of the technology capable of so radically distorting the course of fate they had set. Narrowing his eyes, Alex could not hold back a quiet, slightly mad chuckle. Because if the Gray Whispers reacted exactly as he expected, it would mean one thing: he was moving in the absolutely right direction.
In the direction of creating the White Whispers — faithful keepers of the new course of history who would take Aerith's side and protect her until the complete destruction of the threat to the Planet. Hearing Alex's quiet laugh, Jessie turned her head toward him in surprise, sincerely not understanding why he had suddenly dissolved into laughter. Lightly tugging Alex by the hand, Jessie forced him to pay attention to her. Cutting short the amusement, Alex shook his head, letting her know that he had simply recalled a silly joke.
"And what joke did you recall that made you laugh so much?" Biggs inquired, having heard Alex's clearly feigned answer.
"Every time you inhale, your body does it automatically. But the moment you think about it — and you'll have to apply conscious effort to take the next breath," Alex said with an absolutely serious face, coming out with the first piece of nonsense that came into his head.
"No way, that's not how it works… Or is it?.. Lord, what am I supposed to do now?! Do I have to breathe like this on my own for the rest of my life?!" Yuffie first waved it off with a laugh, but in that same second fell into comic panic when she realized that she was now indeed forced to inhale and exhale independently.
Hearing how Yuffie seriously panicked after Alex's joke, everyone laughed in unison. Even Claudia let out a light chuckle, understandingly shaking her head. She noted that this childish and seemingly silly joke was in fact extremely effective and perfectly capable of distracting an opponent's attention at the most needed moment of battle. Chuckling at the fussing Yuffie, who was frantically taking deep breaths and continuing to argue with herself, they unexpectedly noticed that Wedge was not laughing together with everyone.
Turning to him, the friends saw that although he was not panicking out loud like Yuffie, his face had become terrifyingly pale, and large drops of sweat were streaming down his forehead in a cascade. Noticing how Wedge was purposefully and with all his might trying to control every one of his breaths, Alex, Jessie, and Biggs burst into even louder laughter. Suppressing the amusement, Alex gently patted Yuffie on the head, assuring her that everything would immediately pass as soon as she stopped thinking about it.
He reminded her that everyone breathes from the very moment of birth, when they don't even have the concept that the process can be controlled manually. Hearing his words, Yuffie sighed with relief, but immediately again filled her lungs with air, still not managing to completely throw these thoughts out of her head. Rubbing his face with a palm, Alex mentally decided that he should no longer tell Yuffie jokes like these — otherwise this epic with breathing would repeat endlessly.
"Okay, enough standing around and remembering how to breathe properly. We're almost there! If we go through here, we'll get home very quickly," Jessie said, barely holding back a smile, pointing at the massive closed technical doors.
"Is there a technical elevator or something like that there?" Biggs inquired, carefully opening the leaves and looking around to make sure no one had noticed them.
"Almost… And don't ask extra questions anyway! When we get there — you'll see everything yourselves," Jessie added perkily, cheerfully pushing Alex in the back and shoving him through the doorway.
Not answering any questions, Jessie quickly shoved Alex into a narrow technical alley that was usually used only by Shinra workers for carrying out repair work. Finding himself inside, Alex unhurriedly followed his Jessie, who with quick steps rushed forward, being in an excellent mood.
Watching the joyful Jessie, he exhaled slightly through his nose, with sincere warmth realizing that his selfish desire to rewrite the Planet's canon had in the end brought Jessie enormous happiness — because her father had finally woken up. However, Alex understood perfectly well: he still had to prevent the tragedy that was very soon supposed to happen to Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge.
Besides, he needed to constantly watch Yuffie so that she would not set out on her original route, which would inevitably lead her straight to Sector 0. And all these key events were supposed to unfold already tomorrow night. Realizing how enormous a number of things he still had to keep track of, Alex simply could not help sighing heavily, feeling dull irritation from how much was happening in such a short period of time.
After all, even in his previous world managing the course of history and directing events in the needed direction had been far simpler — at least because Chuck had absolutely not given a damn about side plot lines woven into the captured universe, since he was interested exclusively in the lives of Sam and Dean. Walking next to him, Claudia immediately noticed that Alex had once again sunk into gloomy reflections and was experiencing annoyance.
"What are you thinking about?" she inquired, lightly pushing Alex with her elbow in the arm.
"About the fact that another completely sleepless night awaits me… I haven't slept properly since the very moment I woke up in the church of the Fifth Sector. Three whole long days without sleep," Alex said with a sigh, wearily raising three fingers.
"It's only three days without sleep. And you're the one to blame for piling so many things on yourself. No one forced you to take on everything in a row," Claudia said in a calm tone, giving him an absolutely empty look.
"Ugh, that really hurt just now," Alex said with a chuckle and dramatically clutched his heart.
"I know. And I did it on purpose. Consider it my counterstrike," Claudia answered with a light smirk, looking at Alex with a slightly amused gaze.
"Hey, you two! Hurry up! We're already almost at the very edge of the Seventh Sector plate. We have very little left," Jessie shouted loudly, turning and trying to hurry the noticeably lagging Alex and Claudia.
Quickly catching up with the others, Alex and Claudia came out onto a spacious technical balcony from which a stunning view of the Seventh Sector Mako reactor opened. Looking at this gigantic reactor, Alex narrowed his eyes, and in his head in that same second a clear plan for the next day formed. Having finally thought through the details, he smirked contentedly and lit another thin cigar, considering that this idea definitely deserved to be brought to life.
Not stopping smiling, Alex took the black cap off his head and ruthlessly threw it into the abyss, allowing it to freely fly downward. Throwing his hands behind his head, Alex together with Claudia followed the rest of the group. Descending to the lower platforms, Alex and Claudia noticed that something white flashed near the containers toward which Jessie was racing at full speed.
Claudia immediately recognized this mysterious silhouette — after all, she had seen exactly the same one the night before. Only this time the harbinger noticeably differed from that ghost that had settled in her memory. At the sight of the white robe Claudia immediately instinctively grabbed the hilt of the Buster Sword: in her understanding these ghosts were somehow connected with the dead Sephira.
However, before she had time to draw her faithful sword from behind her back, Alex stopped her in time, silently shaking his head and showing that the White Whisper had already dissolved into the air. Alex himself, at the sight of the White Whisper, broke into an even wider smile. This event gladdened him so much that he even had to cover his mouth with his palm so as not to demonstrate to those around him his too-sharp teeth.
After all, right above the crate with the parachutes had flown precisely a herald of the new canon! Trying with all his might to hide the triumphant expression on his face, Alex continued to descend the steps, hoping that the appearance of the White Whisper had brought those very long-awaited changes to the course of history.
"So, it should be somewhere here… Ah, here it is!" Jessie said with a joyful smile, beginning to actively dig through a mountain of crates with tools.
"What are you looking for there?" Biggs inquired, watching with surprise as Jessie scattered heavy containers.
"This… Ta-da! Our reliable way to quickly descend downward! I already, to my sinful mind, thought that father had been mistaken when he told about this place. But they turned out to be exactly where he said," Jessie responded in a cheerful tone, with a crack throwing open a large metal chest inside which three parachutes lay in even rows.
"What do you mean — 'thought'?" Wedge asked again, warily staring at Jessie and slightly pursing his lips.
"Well, fifty-fifty is still excellent odds! Right, honey?" Jessie added perkily, peeking out from behind Wedge's shoulder to look at Alex.
"Right. In the end, if not here, the parachutes could have been lying in any other place," Alex answered, raising a thumb upward and still covering his mouth with his hand.
Seeing that in the crate instead of two parachutes there lay as many as three, Alex with great difficulty restrained a triumphant smile. At the same time he was aware: the events he had begun to change had so far managed to give birth to only one White Whisper. But this was only the first herald of the new canon — the more he rewrote history, the more such spirits would appear in the world.
Trying with all his might to hide his sharp teeth, Alex forcibly suppressed a grin, noticing that they had begun to look at him with puzzlement while he continued to cover his mouth with his palm. While the others distributed themselves and put on the gear, he mentally wondered: had Aerith sensed the birth of the White Whisper, or was its presence still so insignificant that she simply could not notice the appearance of the spirit amid the deafening hum of the weeping Planet?
Lost in thought, Alex did not notice how everyone had divided into pairs. In the end he got Yuffie, who without his knowledge was already thoroughly pulling an adult parachute onto herself, cheerfully swaying from side to side. Coming out of his reflections, he in that same second put a stop to her independent activity. Ignoring the protesting howls, Alex deftly threw the parachute onto himself and tightly fastened the protesting Yuffie to his chest. The moment he tightened the last straps, Yuffie lazily hung on him like a cat in a carrier.
Lowering his gaze to Yuffie who had drawn up her legs, Alex barely held back laughter. Hearing the suppressed chuckles, Biggs and Wedge turned around and saw how Yuffie comically hung on the straps without the slightest possibility of reaching the floor with her feet. Noticing that the entire company was laughing at her, Yuffie began loudly shouting and desperately flailing, trying to reach the offenders with her hands and feet.
Barely holding back laughter, Alex tenderly patted Yuffie on the head to calm her at least a little. Approaching the edge of the platform, Alex deftly climbed onto the railing. Looking down, he saw the familiar outlines of the Seventh Heaven bar. Looking at this dizzying height, Yuffie only resignedly folded her arms across her chest and stretched her legs forward.
Climbing over the railing together with Claudia, Jessie with a happy smile inhaled the night air, examining the sprawling slum districts below. She could not deny the obvious: this was unequivocally the best day of her life.
"Thank you, guys! I'm very grateful that I was able to share such a happy night precisely with you. And I really value this," Jessie said with a sincere smile, turning her head to her friends.
"Heh, no need for thanks! After all, I am the great kunoichi Yuffie Kisaragi! And that means I will always be where something interesting is happening," Yuffie answered with a laugh and proudly raised a thumb toward Jessie.
"It wasn't difficult for us at all, because we're your family too. Although someone did far more today than all of us put together," Biggs said with a warm smirk, adjusting the straps on Wedge and nodding toward Alex, who was confidently standing on the railing.
"Consider it simply a night of miracles," Alex answered in a light tone and was already about to take a decisive step into the void.
"Wait, honey! I completely forgot to tell you something!" Jessie quickly began speaking, trying to stop Alex and impulsively tugging at his pant leg.
"Ah?!" Alex exclaimed in surprise, feeling how his leg in that same second slipped off the wet railing.
"Ah!" Jessie flinched in fright, realizing too late that she had tugged him too hard.
Feeling how his leg slipped off the wet railing and he began to rapidly topple backward, Alex in that same second concentrated — and the entire world around him seemed to slow its course. The first thing his vision caught was the panic on Jessie's pale face and the eyes of Biggs and Wedge widened to the limit from shock. He realized: if he did nothing right now, he was guaranteed to smack the back of his head quite solidly against the metal handrail.
And even though he knew perfectly well that from such a collision he would feel absolutely nothing, Alex still preferred to avoid an extra blow to the back of the head — in his life something already flew straight at his head on a regular basis. Bracing his only unslipped foot against the railing, Alex lightning-fast turned in the air and pushed off from the metal structure with such force that the massive handrail noticeably bent. Pushing off from the platform, he carefully wrapped his arms around Yuffie's stomach and several times beautifully spun in a prolonged jump.
Jessie, still in quiet shock from the fact that she had accidentally sent Alex flying, sighed with relief upon seeing how fantastically quickly he had reacted and corrected the trajectory. Frantically patting herself on the chest, Jessie suddenly remembered that very thing she had originally wanted to tell Alex.
And, sharply leaning over the edge, she nearly dragged the standing-nearby Claudia after her. Barely avoiding becoming another victim of Jessie's carelessness, Claudia in the last moment managed to clamp onto the metal structure with a death grip and forcefully yanked her friend back onto the platform.
"Honey! When you land — be sure to drop by my place! I need to tell you something!" Jessie shouted loudly after the falling Alex and Yuffie.
Hearing Jessie's loud shout through the whistle of the wind and Yuffie's joyful laughter, Alex deftly turned during the fall and showed her a raised thumb. Seeing that Alex had agreed to drop by her place, Jessie laughed perkily and dragged after her the completely exhausted-from-this-crazy-night Claudia. At that moment only one thought was spinning in Claudia's head: sooner or later she was guaranteed to get injured thanks to the catastrophic carelessness of this team.
However, not resisting Jessie's insistent movements, she simply pushed off from the metal pipe on which they were standing and stepped downward. Not intending to lag behind, Biggs and Wedge immediately jumped after them. Enjoying free fall in the company of Yuffie, Alex decided to please the restless kunoichi a little more and began performing spectacular pirouettes right in the air.
Delighting in such maneuvers, Yuffie screamed even louder, eagerly spreading her palms and stretching her legs. Sharing her delight, he pulled the ring on the strap: in that same second the parachute canopy opened with a whistle, and they began to descend smoothly, admiring the bright lights of the night slums. Hanging on the straps on Alex's chest, Yuffie cheerfully swayed her head from side to side, humming some joyful melody.
"That was just mega-cool! We'll definitely have to repeat this again!" Yuffie shouted with a laugh, spreading her arms to the sides while they continued to descend.
"What exactly? The way I almost hit the back of my head on the metal railing, or the parachute jump itself?" Alex responded, continuing to smoothly guide the canopy toward the junkyard beyond the slums.
"Hmm… I think only the parachute jump after all! Only next time we'll have to jump from an even greater height! And then we'll do it like this: whoosh, whooooosh!" Yuffie answered laughing and began actively waving her arms, depicting the desired tricks.
"No problem. If such an opportunity presents itself in the future, then we'll definitely jump with a parachute again," Alex said with a smile, lightly squeezing Yuffie's cheeks with his fingers so that she would stop shouting so loudly right into his ear.
"Promise?" Yuffie asked again, with difficulty turning her head toward him while he was still squeezing her cheeks into a funny "duck face."
"Yes, I promise. And for now hold on tighter — we're starting to descend," Alex answered with a nod and pulled on the lines, directing the parachute straight toward the abandoned junkyard.
Directing the parachute toward the junkyard farther from prying eyes, Alex began to descend quickly so as not to accidentally crash into a mountain of junk or, God forbid, fly into the nest of one of the local monsters. Landing smoothly, Alex pulled the lines toward himself, lowering the canopy to the ground. And the moment his feet touched solid soil, Yuffie immediately began loudly protesting, repeating that she was terribly tired of feeling like a child in a carrier.
Sighing, he unfastened the straps and released the noisy Yuffie. Taking the pack off his back, he began carefully and quickly folding the fabric — in case someone else still needed the gear. Squatting next to Alex, Yuffie carefully watched his deft movements, trying to remember as many useful things as possible that she did not yet know.
Having folded the silk cloth back into the bag, Alex saw Biggs and Wedge, who were just descending right toward them. Waving a palm at them, he took several steps to meet them and helped them land safely. Touching the ground, Biggs nodded gratefully and immediately began packing his parachute. While Biggs was fussing with the bag, Alex inquired where Claudia and Jessie were and why they had not landed on this same clearing.
Without interrupting his work, Biggs explained that Claudia and Jessie had been landed on the other side of the slums because of a suddenly risen strong gust of wind. Nodding, Alex handed his neatly packed pack to Biggs and asked where exactly Jessie lived — since she had so insistently asked him to drop by.
"Well look, mister hero-lover. You go straight from the weapon shop, then you need the first turn left, and further you go deep into the alley. And there will be a cozy little house with bars on the windows. You definitely won't miss it. Only try not to make too much noise — Jessie lives with other girls," Biggs said with a smirk, explaining the way.
"Yeah, entry for guys is completely forbidden there! A bunch of beautiful girls live there who dream of becoming actresses. So better not hang around there without business, or you'll be misunderstood and quickly labeled a pervert," Wedge spoke in an absolutely serious tone, nodding and folding his arms across his chest.
"More likely these girls themselves will drag our handsome guy into their house! Just look at him! Damn, life is still a damn unfair thing," Biggs added with a chuckle, casting an envious gaze over Alex from head to toe.
"I already told you — envy is a very bad feeling. Well okay, guys, I'll go find out what Jessie wanted from me. We'll meet at Seventh Heaven," Alex responded with a laugh and waved goodbye to Biggs and Wedge.
"Oh, go to hell," Biggs snorted with a chuckle after the departing Alex.
Hearing Biggs's last words, Alex, without even turning his head, with a smirk raised his middle finger and lightly waved it in farewell to Biggs and Wedge. Leaving the abandoned junkyard together with Yuffie, Alex slightly moved his fingers, recalling the plan of the slums and the exact location of the needed streets. His gaze almost immediately latched onto the bright sign of the weapon shop.
Having finally oriented himself on the terrain, Alex turned to Yuffie and asked her to go straight to Seventh Heaven, promising to come there right after the conversation with Jessie. Hearing Alex's request, Yuffie slightly narrowed her eyes and displeasedly wrinkled her nose. Despite all her dislike of other people's romantic tendernesses, which she constantly had to observe, Yuffie still passionately desired to find out the fresh spicy gossip and therefore flatly refused to leave.
Seeing that Yuffie was being stubborn, Alex decided to resort to the already proven fail-safe weapon: he promised to cook something incredibly tasty for her, and also timely reminded her of that very cake he had recently promised to buy her. At the mere recollection of the divine taste of the food that Alex cooked, Yuffie immediately felt how saliva uncontrollably flowed.
Quickly wiping her chin with her sleeve, she nodded her head at machine-gun speed and in that same second raced off toward Seventh Heaven — before he changed his mind. Watching the sparkling heels of the fleeing Yuffie, Alex only shook his head with a kind smile, recalling that he had persuaded his own wives in exactly the same cunning way. Stopping smirking, he with a habitual motion lit a thin cigar and unhurriedly headed toward Jessie's house.
To be continued...
(Well, I guess I'll explain here who the White Whisperers are. As I already wrote, they're supposed to be the guardians of the new Canon. They were supposed to appear much later, after all the events that happened in Midgar. But in reality, they were incredibly helpful and didn't change anything, they just guided the altered Canon and fought off the Gray Whisperers. And then they even seemed to side with the Gray Farts. Basically, the White Whisperers are a damned opposition to the dark Canon, but they're still the kind of bastards who can only fart in your palm and push you in the back if you don't want to fall, but you fucking need to fall. But at least the White Farts were on Aerith's side, until the right moment. And now it's time to eat. Peace, love, and the Whites, or Gray is still a fart.)
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