They burst through the door of Seventh Heaven, panting, their faces streaked with sweat and grime from their frantic race through the alleys of Wall Market.
The usual comforting dimness of the bar felt different now, charged with a new, terrifying urgency.
Barret, who had been cleaning his formidable gun-arm at the counter, looked up, his brows furrowed in concern.
"What in the Lifestream happened to you lot?! You look like you just ran through a herd of angry chocobos!"
Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, who had been playing darts, spun around, their tired jokes forgotten as they saw the grave expressions on Tifa, Arthur, Cloudia, and Aerith's faces.
Tifa, still catching her breath, slammed the stolen Shinra documents onto the counter.
"It's worse than we thought, Barret! Much worse!"
Her voice was hoarse with urgency.
Arthur leaned against the doorframe, still feeling the lingering chill of the Whisperer's gaze.
"Shinra isn't just spreading rumors, Barret. They're planning to collapse the Sector 7 plate. Tonight."
A stunned silence fell over Seventh Heaven. Barret's eyes widened, his usual booming voice choked off in his throat.
Jessie gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Biggs and Wedge stared, their faces draining of color.
"What?!"
Barret finally roared, his voice shaking the bottles on the shelves.
"Collapse the plate?! They can't! Thousands of people live there! My Marlene...!"
His eyes darted wildly, fear for his adopted daughter, who lived in the slums below, etching lines into his face.
"It's true,"
Tifa confirmed, pointing at the documents.
"It's all here. A demolition order, blaming 'eco-terrorist attacks' for 'structural instability.' They're going to blow up the main support pillar after midnight, while everyone's asleep, and blame us."
Aerith, stepping forward, her gentle voice filled with sorrow, added,
"The Lifestream... it's crying. So many lives are in danger."
Cloudia, ever stoic, simply nodded, confirming the horrifying truth with her silent presence.
Barret snatched the papers, his good hand shaking as he scanned them. His face turned a dangerous shade of red.
"Those bastards! They'll sacrifice innocent people's lives just to make us look bad?! This ain't about Mako anymore, this is about pure, unadulterated evil!"
Jessie, her eyes blazing, slammed her fist onto the dartboard.
"We can't let them! We have to stop them!"
"But how?"
Biggs asked, his voice full of despair.
"It's the entire Sector 7 plate! It'll be guarded like crazy!"
"And we've got hours, maybe less,"
Wedge added, looking at the clock on the wall, which showed it was already past 9 PM.
The initial shock gave way to a surge of frantic energy. Avalanche was a small group, but their determination was immense. They had to come up with a plan, and fast.
"Alright, listen up!"
Barret barked, his voice regaining some of its usual force, though tinged with desperation.
"We hit the main support pillar. That's their target, that's where their demolition charges will be. We gotta get there, disarm whatever they've set up, and stop them from pulling the trigger!"
"But it's going to be crawling with Shinra guards,"
Tifa pointed out, already thinking of strategies.
"And they'll have heavy equipment. We'll be walking into a fortress."
"And Shinra security is probably already on high alert because of us breaking into Corneo's place,"
Arthur added, remembering the alarms that had gone off.
"They'll be expecting something."
"Then we hit them harder!"
Barret declared, slamming his gun-arm onto the counter.
"We use every trick we got! Jessie, can you scramble their communications once we're in the area? Create some confusion?"
Jessie, already nodding, pulled out her small hacking device.
"I can try. Their systems are tough, but if I can get close enough, I might be able to cause a blackout, or at least mess with their security cameras for a few minutes."
"Biggs, Wedge,"
Tifa said, looking at the two men,
"We'll need diversions. Anything to draw their forces away from the main pillar. Can you rig some charges at other points, just to make noise?"
Biggs straightened up, his face grim but determined.
"You got it, Tifa. We'll make sure they're running in circles."
"And Arthur,"
Barret turned to him,
"Your 'energy manipulation' is gonna be key. We need to get through those defenses fast. You bust open any strong points. And protect Aerith. She's got a bad feeling about this, and I trust her gut."
Arthur nodded, a cold resolve settling over him.
He would have to use his power, and heavily. The Whisperers would definitely notice. But he couldn't let the canon events happen.
Aerith, seeing the seriousness of the situation, looked at Arthur.
"I'll do my best to help too,"
She said, her voice soft but firm.
"I can use my magic to heal, or to create diversions with Sleep spells."
"Good, kid,"
Barret said, a rare softness in his voice as he looked at Aerith.
"We're gonna need everything we've got."
Cloudia, who had been listening silently, finally spoke.
"I'll go with Arthur, Tifa, and Aerith to the main pillar. My sword... it can cut through anything."
Her gaze was steady, her resolve unwavering. She clearly understood the sheer scale of the threat.
The next hour was a whirlwind of frantic preparations. They gathered their weapons, checked their gear, and quickly went over the limited blueprints Tifa had from Corneo's office.
The support pillar was massive, a huge concrete and steel structure that plunged thousands of feet down from the plate to the slums below. It was a vital artery of the city, carrying Mako energy lines, water pipes, and communication cables.
"The demolition charges will likely be placed where the Mako lines are strongest,"
Arthur theorized, looking at the blueprints.
"They'll use the energy flow to create a bigger blast, make it look like an 'accident.'"
Jessie worked furiously on her hacking device, muttering to herself about Shinra's encrypted networks.
Biggs and Wedge gathered old explosives, planning their diversionary attacks. Tifa sharpened her fists, her expression a mix of anger and grim determination.
Barret stood in the middle of the room, his daughter Marlene's small, hand-drawn picture clutched in his gun-arm's vice.
"My little girl... she's down there," h
He whispered, mostly to himself.
"We ain't losing anyone else to Shinra's greed. Not tonight."
Arthur looked at his friends, at the small, mismatched group of rebels preparing to face down an entire corporation.
The odds were impossible. But they weren't fighting for themselves; they were fighting for Midgar, for the planet, for all the innocent people who were about to be sacrificed for Shinra's lies.
The clock ticked relentlessly towards midnight. Every second felt like a drumbeat, counting down to disaster.
The hum of the Lifestream, which Aerith could feel and Arthur could sense through his connection to her, was growing louder, more frantic, like a desperate cry from the planet itself.
He felt the subtle flicker of a Whisperer's presence again, a brief, cold warning.
He ignored it. This wasn't just about his own fate anymore. This was about everyone's fate. He was a variable they couldn't compute, a wrench in their "correct" path.
Good. He would shatter their path if it meant saving these lives.
"It's almost time,"
Tifa said, her voice cutting through the tension.
Barret strapped on his gun-arm, a look of fierce resolve on his face.
"Alright, Avalanche! This ain't no ordinary mission. This is for Midgar! This is for the planet! Let's show Shinra what happens when you mess with people's lives!"
With a shared nod, the small group of heroes, facing impossible odds and a ticking clock, stepped out of the comforting dimness of Seventh Heaven and into the dark, dangerous night.
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Craze: Rimuru, Shion, and Shuna are confirmed to be Arthur lovers. There might be more! Harem is like an universe, always expand!