Author's Note

Alright guys and gals, first chapter up now. Looking forward to seeing what you guys think of a simple intro, I know its not really all that special yet, but I needed a warm up chapter to start this off. I have to give a shout out again to Womble619 for his willingness to collab with me on this fic. I hope to do his work some justice, while im at it, you should check out his fics too!

Now in said spirit, i will salute Womble the only way I know I can

I am so poor, someone tried to give me a job so I would have the money to "pay attention" and as a result I do not own any rights to Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7

Chapter 1: Gust of Shadows

The bar was packed tonight, filled to the brim with old men, hard workers, and only a single woman navigated the sweat filled bar. Her hair was long, braided into a single ponytail, wearing a simple black t-shirt, which fitted to her rather well endowed upper body. She wore a flowing dark blue, rough material skirt that reached down to her knees. She had a toned body, not an hour glass figure though well off that enough of the crowd of men's eyes kept following her as she moved through the bar. Most of the men in the bar however, gave her enough room to move as to stay out of her way.

Marlene Wallace was not a woman you messed with. Many out of town travelers learned quickly within their first few nights in Kalm to not grope her. The locals have had a few nights of laughter whenever traveler's stopped in on their way to the Midgar ruins for a salvage run. Some poor sorry soul would try his luck in the bar, and after being dropped within a span of a few seconds from her flurry of blows, Marlene would show the nice men out by throwing them from the front steps.

Many years ago, Marlene and her father, Barret "Bubba" Wallace had come to Kalm in search of a simple life. The years had been perfect to the woman, and slightly in his favor for the old man who now was head of the town's security force. There was a boy Barret had took in to raise alongside Marlene, Denzel had gone had learned the trade of a mechanic, becoming quite the hand at anything you could take a tool to, and after some training from the big gruff man, Denzel also was a scary force to be reckoned with. After all, he was also a fire arms dealer and worked on the big man's gun arm for maintaining it in near perfect shape, and had established himself as a eagle eye shooter with his custom set of handguns.

Tonight was a rather quiet night for Marlene, she moved about her bar, delivering drinks where they were ordered and cleaning up tables for new use. Of course with the chocobo races on tonight it would be packed full with all the gambling, drinking, and disappointed men no matter if they were locals or travelers would not matter to her. Marlene took deep breath before plunging back into the fray, Mugs of beer in hand she fought her way past a pair of singing drunks celebrating their chocobo winning the main race, no doubt lining their pockets with some major gil for the evening. She felt a hand brush over her hip followed by a grunt.

"Sorry Marly." a elder man said as he slid off his stool.

"It's okay Martin, you done for the night?" She asked, tucking a stray strand of her honey brown hair as she placed her hand gently on Martin's shoulder to steady the gentle elder man.

"Yeah, I am not like I was in my younger years. Can't seem to keep up with the younger boys like I used to." He smiled before handing over a small set of coins to the young woman.

"Your fine Martin, tell Julia I say hi, and you have a good night." She smiled, walking the man to the door, seeing him out in safety. This town was like her own family. She barely remembered much of her early childhood. A little bit of life in Midgar, towards the end of it all and the start of her father's journey off into Cosmos only knew what his drive was for. Here in Kalm, she had all she really needed, it was something that she WANTED that was itching at her heart. Something she didn't even know what it was, just that she knew she wanted it.

"Alright fellas." she called out, clapping her hands together a few times to get everyone's attention,

"Time to go home to your wives and families, last call for a drink! Clear out if you are not ordering the Last Call." She grinned wickedly.

The Last Call was a drink she had spent a few years preparing to make on her own, getting the drink made properly took skill, surviving the small shot glass, however, was something else entirely.

"Hey, Manly!" Called out a young male's voice, "I'll take your challenge on!" After she had first introduced the locals to her concoction, only the brave or foolish would order her Last Call. Marlene was a good sport about it and issued a challenge that if you could handle a Last Call, you were giving a night's worth of free drinks. It was safe to say that the house had yet to have the challenge won.

Emerging from the crowd was a cloaked figure, the face covered in what looked like a rider's mask, to protect them from the fierce wind and dust that they seemed to track with every step they took up to the bar.

Marlene took the time to study this figure, clearly a young male, just a head taller than her. He was wearing a grey riders' cloak that seemed to be just painted with dust and grease. His steps were heavy, sounding of hard leather and well practiced footing of someone with serious focus.

The rider took Martin's, now empty seat, and poured himself a glass of water, taking a long and without a single pause drink. Setting the empty glass down he looked over at her. "Well?" He asked, the hint of a smile hidden by all but his voice.

Marlene shook off the stunned silence as she turned to all the men in the bar. "Well?!" She boomed, "Either order or pay up!" She smacked her fists together and almost instantly money was all place on respective places as hardened workers and travelers raced to get out of the barmaid's establishment. With the bar now empty, Marlene strode over to behind the counter as she began to mix up the drink for the man.

"What brings you around these parts?" She asked.

She swore she knew his voice

"Just a scrap deal, I am looking to put a small team together for a Midgar run, but so far no takers for a Sector 3 run." He brushed off the cloak, sending a small cloud of dust into the air

Cosmos, she just got the place as clean as she liked it before the rush

"Oh yeah? Looking at some old Shinra tech?" She commented stirring the mixture around.

"Yeah, you want to help? I could use a good partner out there, and after all I know how well you can handle yourself in the field, Marlene."

It couldn't be...

She turned around to lock eyes with a fierce set of blue eyes and a pearly white smile that soon she was mirroring on her own face. Setting the drink down she squealed in delight to see her brother and long time best friend in her bar. Running over to him she half hugged/ half tackled him as she was overjoyed to see him again.

"When did you get back?" She asked, ruffling his light, mousy brown hair.

"Just now. I figured you would be up for some trouble like always." He grinned. That was always like Denzel, up for adventure at a whim and sweeping her off into some trouble making.

She raised her eyebrows in amusement. "I know I can look after myself, but can you handle real trouble?" She tossed at him a playful grin as she strode back behind the bar.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who got scared of the dark when we were kids." He tossed back.

"Oh? Then you should be able to handle this." Marlene smirked ass she set a small, dark green drink in front of Denzel. "And If you can't, I get a seventy percent cut." His face paled two shades

"But if I can handle it, you got to start calling me 'Boss'." he countered.

"And if you blow chunks in less than a minute. I get your bike." Denzel's face became white like the moon.

"And if I have to do it, so do you." He challenged back.

"Alright," The wicked barmaid grinned as she set a second shot down.

"On three, " She nodded as they both picked up their own shots and held them to their lips.

"One. Two. Three!"