Sell you a Bridge chapter 341

July 3rd 2016 Traverse Town, 10:00 PM EDT

My  head was killing me when I woke up. Honestly I thought I'd left this  particular habit behind me, but weirdly it's almost comforting to know I  still have limits, if only so I know I can still surpass them. Still,  it took even me a second to clear my head as I came to, and when I did, I  realized my head was somewhere soft. I looked up to see the worried  face of my girlfriend. I grinned at her widely. "Come here often?"

Realizing  I didn't even know where 'here' was, I sat up and looked around,  realizing a few important details. Once, I was on the couch back in the  old house. Two, I was still in my armor, which wasn't a surprise. Three,  Zee wasn't the only one here, Rana and Drea were sitting in nearby  chairs, looking over anxiously. I waved to them. "Howdy. Looks like  everyone made it out alright?"

I'd only blacked out after  undoing the virus, so I hadn't been too worried to begin with. Vincent  was a friend of the others, Sephiroth would probably be a little out of  it, and with Rana there and him losing most of his power, I was sure she  could handle it. The only wild card, no pun intended, was Luxord, but  only because I was worried he might have some annoying emergency escape  trick. He seemed like the type.

I was shocked to feel the  impact of a small form as my daughter hurled herself across the room and  wrapped her arms around me. "Daddy!" She wailed. "You're ok! I was so  worried. Mom and mama swore it would be fine and that you used to do  this all the time, but they both seemed really worried too so I couldn't  trust it." She buried her face in my metal clad chest, squeezing so  tight I suspected a normal person's spine would have become powder.

Right,  my old habit of overdoing it and blacking out had mostly been before  her time. I was pretty sure she hadn't seen my incident in the invasion,  since it had only been a few minutes. I might have done it once or  twice in front of her, but I'd become a lot stronger. It was reasonable  she might get a bit worried. I patted the top of her head gently. "Hey."  I murmured. "I'm fine. It's alright. Are you ok? Is everyone else?"  Their auras weren't chaotic enough for me to assume anyone died, but I  figured telling me might take her mind off things.

She  nodded into my chest. "They're ok. Cloud and Tifa are gone. Once the  virus wore off, we got distracted by Vincent turning back. Luxord did  some weird magic overload thing and blew up most of his cards to short  out the wards before vanishing, and Sephiroth took the opportunity to  escape. They stopped to check on Vincent and then took off to try to  catch up to him. They haven't come back yet, but Aerith says she doesn't  think they'll be able to catch him. They've been chasing him a long  time and he knows them too well."

I cursed. Fuck. I hoped  we would've caught him. It was fine. He wasn't a huge threat, just an  annoyance. Sephiroth wasn't even that, he wasn't likely to show up again  with the Organization, I'd probably never run into him. That wasn't the  biggest question though. "What about the Devastator? Did we manage to  catch him?" Taking out one of Barbatos's annoying bat knock offs would  definitely be a win, moreso than the cultists honestly based on what  that particular fake had been capable of.

My relief at  their tangible happiness couldn't be overstated. I absolutely didn't  want to deal with that asshole escaping and trying to get vengeance.  Even if I'd destroyed the virus on a conceptual level, no Batman could  be underestimated, and he'd been under its influence for a while based  on how advanced it was. There was no reason to think he couldn't have  come up with some kind of knock off version, and that was if he couldn't  somehow get another strain from wherever the fuck he got the first one.  If it had changed enough from the original my purge might night have  affected that.

"We got him." Confirmed Zee unnecessarily.  My sorceress shot me a wide grin. "Once Aerith confirmed he was clean we  handed him over to the Merlin! He came back after this all ended and  was hoping to talk to you. He apologized for not being able to help out,  but says we did a great job! Donald and I even spent some time  discussing magic with him, and he gave me a book of exercises to work  on!"

She was nearly delirious with joy, and it was hard  for me not to laugh at her excitement. I finally let my armor retract,  pulling away from my pouting daughter with a laugh. "Well, sounds like  you all had a crazy time. How long was I out anyway?" I checked my  phone, but I hadn't checked it before the fight so I wasn't sure exactly  how long it had been anyway.

Drea chuckled warmly. "Four  hours, more or less. It's why Morana was so worried. But yes, it was  hectic. The others are waiting to see you, if you're willing. I know  that more than just the three of us were worried. Tifa and Cloud  expressed their regrets that they couldn't wait for you to wake up  before they left." She raised an eyebrow at Rana. "Which SOMEONE should  probably have mentioned. I suspect she was too busy moping her crush  left."

Rana gave an offended scoff, but her blush would  have given her away even if her aura hadn't. I just rolled my eyes and  hopped to my feet. "It's fine. I'm feeling better and I'd love to see  how everyone is doing. Also kind of curious what's up with that Vincent  dude." I stood, watching in amusement as my girls hovered like I was  going to fall, despite being a literal deity. Once they were sure I was  alright they grudgingly let me leave.

As soon as I stepped  into the hall I got hit with ANOTHER missile. This one with brown spiky  hair. I froze as Sora swept me up in a bear hug. "Morgan! That was  awesome! I'm so glad you're ok!" I was a little thrown off balance by  the gesture, but it wasn't really a weird thing. Sora was basically an  overgrown kid.

"Wow, you're a hugger." I said with a  chuckle, patting his back as he set me down. "And yeah, I'm fine. Heard  you did pretty well out there too." I reached up to mess up his hair, a  gesture that proved functionally impossible to do given the wild spikes  it was already in. "Thanks for looking out for my girls out there."

He  shot me a big dopey grin. "Of course! What are friends for?" I laughed  and clapped him on the shoulder, following him down the hallway. As we  walked, he kept up a steady stream of chatter about everything and  nothing, telling me what had happened, how he felt about what had  happened, what he had for lunch after, and everything in between. I had  to hold back a smile. Sora was more of a kid than Rana was, and it was  impossible not to see him as an overly excitable little brother. He just  had this kind of weird magnetism that made you want to like him.

When  we arrived in the front room I got another hug from a teary eyed  Aerith. "Thank you so much Morgan! We can't express how much it means  that you helped save Vincent. He's an old, dear friend, and the thought  of him stuck like that breaks my heart." She gestured to where a pale,  tall man with long dark hair and lots of red clothing was sleeping  peacefully on the couch. Based on the aura I was pretty sure they put a  sound bubble of some kind around him so he wasn't disturbed.

I  smiled at her as I pulled back, not actually entirely comfortable with  all the one on one gratitude. In big groups like after the invasion it  was cool, but being gushed at by a single person was kind of awkward,  not that I'd be a big enough dick to say it. I decided to take a page  from Sora's book. "Hey, don't mention it. What are friends for right?  I'm just glad I could help. How is he doing?"

This  question was aimed not just at Aerith, but at the tall bearded man in  the unusually pointed hat sitting by the fireplace reading a book.  Merlin gave me a grandfatherly smile as he looked up over his half moon  glasses. "Quite well thanks to you, my boy. I must admit, I knew you  would handle things, but in the timeline I viewed you weren't quite so  thorough. An excellent job, young man."

It  was a strange feeling, being kind of in awe of the guy and super pissed  at him at the same time. "I appreciate that Merlin, but I'd have  preferred you actually help us. I know you said there was some timey  wimey shit going on, but this whole thing was way more dangerous than I  expected. You couldn't have given us ANY clues? If we'd had your help  Sephiroth might not have escaped. Or Luxord."

Realistically  I knew that if Merlin said he had his reasons he probably did, but my  head hurt and I was annoyed. This had been a net win for us, true, but  we'd taken some losses too. With Merlin on side we could have swept this  shit up within a few hours probably.

To  my surprise, Merlin didn't bluster or make and grand proclamations, he  just smiled sadly and sipped his tea until I was done ranting. Once I  finished, he gave a slow nod. "This is true." He said without an ounce  of hesitation. "I may have been able to prevent both of those things  from happening. However, it is my burden to look not only at the current  situation, but at that which is to come. A good chess player thinks ten  moves ahead, a great chess player needs only consider one, but it is  always the right move. I, sadly, for all my years, have never been able  to achieve greatness in any field save magic."

I  threw up my hands. "That's it? You just say 'oh, well it'll definitely  pay off later, don't worry about it, and I'm supposed to believe it?  Because no offense but living legend or not I don't know you." I DID  know he wasn't lying to me, no one could manage that without my  knowledge, not anymore, but not lying wasn't the same as telling the  truth.

That  got a sad chuckle from the old man. "But I know you, Morgan O'Malley. Or  I will. I know you well enough to know you would agree with my  decisions, should you have access to the information at my disposal. I  realize it rings hollow, asking for your trust while seemingly extending  none of my own, but I assure you it is a matter of the utmost necessity  that things proceeded in the general fashion they did. Small variations  are still withing acceptable parameters, but my direct involvement  would have been far beyond that acceptable threshold."

Seeing  he had no intention of changing his mind about telling us what was  coming all I could do was sigh. He was right. I could trust him or not  but in the end talking or not talking was up to him. Might as well roll  the dice if my money was going in the pot anyway. "Fine. Well, what CAN  you tell me? I got the impression you won't be here for long. You didn't  stay behind to tell me good job right?"

The  kind smile was back. "It is always important to let people know they  are appreciated, dear boy. Remember that. But no, I stayed behind  because while I cannot reveal the entirety of future events for fear of  changing their course, I CAN give you a general direction to work in."  He glanced off to one side into the fireplace, half moon glasses  glittering in the light of the flames. "Tell me, Morgan. Have you ever  heard of a place called Scala ad Caelum?"