Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.
(Author's Note: I apologise for having taken much longer to finish the chapter than I had said I would. I though that with school starting again, I would have to forget about fanfiction for a few weeks – and the weeks turned into months, of course. Trouble (entirely my own fault) experienced in logging in also contributed to the delay. Thank you for reading.)
The City of Dis
Biggs's glaze drifted aimlessly around the small room. The discussion of the attack on the Shinra Headquarters had been raging for an hour and was no closer to resolution than when it had started. Wedge and Jessie were currently immersed in a very technical discussion of the various methods of disabling security cameras while avoiding the attention of Shinra patrols. Tifa had reopened the bar – if she hadn't, the door would have been beaten down within a few minutes – and taken Marlene, who had been getting bored, upstairs with her. Barrett was calculating the amount of money which would be required to purchase the supplies that would be used in the prospective attack - he didn't look pleased with the results.
" - but that still leaves the question of the cameras in the Shinra building – they're constantly watched, you won't be able to put other footage in without the gap being noticed – " Wedge sounded exhausted, but Biggs knew that he never gave up on an argument he had any chance of winning. Jessie was usually less stubborn, but tonight she seemed determined to have her opinion heard.
"We don't have an alternative, it's impossible to hide from the cameras and the guards, and we'd be noticed if we tried to take out the guards first. We'll just have to take our chances with the camera, I'm willing to bet that whoever monitors the footage doesn't pay much attention – there's nothing to monitor. False alarms are news now." Biggs shook his head. Those two should have been debaters, not warriors. They were effective enough once they stopped talking, but so were the soldiers near the Plate Support, and he'd been amusing himself for weeks by seeing how far along the street they guarded he could walk without being noticed. His record was to the end of it and halfway back.
"Look, you two, stop arguing." Biggs was slightly surprised to hear his own voice after listening to Jessie and Wedge for an hour. "There's no point, we'll never be able to use any of your plans with the number of members we have. I say that we should worry about recruiting before we get worked up about bombs and security cameras."
Wedge turned to face him, grateful for a way out which didn't involve him conceding defeat. "Biggs has a point this time. Let's all get some rest now – we'll have to be up early to farewell Tifa."
"Not going to eat anything first?" Taunting Wedge about his weight had been effective in the first few months, but over the previous two years he'd grown more and more inclined towards laughing Biggs's jokes off. They'd both gotten rather lazy with their insults – after four years of living together, almost anyone two people's repertoires will be exhausted.
"Tifa's too busy with customers tonight. I don't want to make trouble for her – and I don't think I even have the energy to eat. I'll see you all in the morning." Wedge walked to his corner of the room – usually three of the AVALANCHERs slept in the hideout and two in the main room. It was usually crowded but comfortable enough - although staying in the training hall opposite the bar if you were sharing with Barrett and Wedge was an acceptable practice.
Jessie scrutinised the roster which was originally pinned to the wall, but had since been crumpled into a ball and thrown in a corner numerous times, and now sat on the table under a glass. "It's Tifa and Biggs's turn to sleep upstairs tonight," she said, looking rather unhappily at her roommates. "I'll just sleep on the table, shall I?"
"Why don't we try movin' the table?" Barrett had yet to concede that it was impossible for everyone to sleep in the hideout – he felt it was much more secure than separating them when they were vulnerable, although the chances of the bar being attacked when no one knew it was their hideout seemed fairly slim.
"We've tried that already, Barrett." Jessie replied. "We can't move it far enough to make any difference without either blocking the elevator or damaging the computer. And I'm not going to take the computer upstairs, either. It'd be damaged be the customers."
Biggs walked over to the elevator, leaving the others behind to argue some more. He pulled himself up the wall rather awkwardly, and he thought he could hear Barrett trying to suppress laughter. Scowling, he reached the bar, where Tifa was trying to convince a particularly stubborn customer to leave.
"Look, it's half an hour past our closing time already, and we're practically out of – well, everything. Why don't you just go home now?" she said, straining to sound polite.
"Come on, Tifa, I'll throw him out. You know Johnny's hard enough to deal with even when he's sober. No point talking to him when he's in this state." Biggs proceeded to pull Johnny off his stool, attempt to sling him over his shoulder the way he'd seen Barrett throw people – and felt Barrett throw him – finally give up and drag Johnny out the door and onto the stairs outside. He turned back just in time to see the horrified look on Tifa's face.
"Biggs, you know how much Johnny helped me when I first arrived in Midgar. I'd probably be dead if he hadn't been around. Not to mention the fact that he's our best customer!" Biggs couldn't help smiling at this. Nothing would keep Johnny away from the nearest source of alcohol for more than a few hours, and Tifa knew it.
"Johnny would forgive you for throwing him off the top of the Shinra headquarters, Tifa; I wouldn't worry about me throwing him out of here." Biggs wasn't the most tactful person on the Planet, but even he realised mentioning Johnny's drinking was a bad idea.
"Even if that was true, you still can't treat customers like that. I have a professional reputation to worry about." Tifa said, sounding slightly calmer.
"This is Sector 7, you know – it'd be worse for your professional reputation if people weren't kicked out violently sometimes. No-one would think you were serious about bartending." Tired of the argument, Biggs continued speaking. "Anyway, I for one am going to sleep, right now. And you want to be awake for the Don, don't you?" Without giving her a chance to reply, he grabbed a blanket from the shelf at the back of the room, dropped it on the floor, lay down on it and pretended to have fallen asleep immediately.
Tifa sighed and headed out the door of the bar, turning off the lights on the way. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for a long time that night - the day's mission, Cloud's disappearance and her task for the next day had given her too much to think about. Biggs, untroubled and exhausted, fell asleep within ten minutes.
Biggs rarely remembered his dreams, but when he woke the next day he was left with a vague impression of having been back in Gongaga. He'd wanted to go back for a while – he knew both his parents had died in the explosion, but his older brother might have recovered, and a lot of his friends hadn't been anywhere near the reactor at the time. Looking back, he thought he'd been in shock when he decided to run as far from Gongaga as his legs would take him when he'd literally tripped over the corpse of one of the reactor workers, but he'd felt guilty about not staying ever since – too guilty to back and face everyone.
"Tifa, are you awake?" he muttered. In the darkness, it was impossible to know what the time was – in the slums, the lights operated automatically, and transition between night and day had been done away with long ago.
"Only for the last hour. The lights will be coming on any minute now. Everyone else is awake – Barrett's off arranging some kind of transport. He wouldn't tell me what, but he looks rather pleased with himself. The other two are in the basement with Marlene." Tifa reeled this off as though she'd been planning her words for days – her mind was evidentially elsewhere.
The lights outside switched on, eliciting groans from those outside who hadn't been expecting the sudden flash. At that moment Barrett walked through the door, looking happier than he'd been for days. "Tifa, have a look outside," he said, smiling as he spoke. Biggs began to tense – Barrett was not supposed to act like this. That wasn't how things worked in AVALANCHE.
Still smiling, he turned towards the elevator. "Jessie! Wedge! Up here, now! An' get up, Biggs!" he yelled. Biggs's body relaxed. That was more like it. His curiosity roused, Biggs stood up and walked towards the door, barely managing to remain upright when he saw what was outside.
Barrett had hired – at least Biggs fervently hoped he'd only hired – a chocobo-drawn carriage. This was quite possibly the most expensive form of transport in the world short of Shinra's ships and planes. 'What was he thinking?" Biggs muttered to himself. It was a ten minute walk from the bar to Wall Market!
Wedge's voice came from behind him. "Hey, what's... happening…Barrett!What is this?" Biggs turned to stare at Wedge, mouth gaping. Never had he heard Wedge so much as speak loudly to Barrett – this had obviously pushed him over the edge.
"What's wrong?" Barrett came to join them outside, looking considerably less amused than earlier.
Wedge was nearly shaking with anger. "Could you inform me of the cost of this?"
"Three thousand gil. Wedge, if the Don thinks she's got money, then…"
'Do you remember that our plans last night depended on us having at least twice the funds that we had then? And do you realise that you just spent two thirds of those funds on a ten minute trip?" He had to have gone mad. Biggs couldn't think of any other reason for Wedge to interrupt Barrett. "Tifa, good luck, I hope you find out something useful. I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully. Now, I am going to leave - goodbye." He delivered this speech with perfect control over every syllable, and walked away without the slightest hint of fury. It was only when he was at the other end of the street that Biggs thought he heard a muffled scream of frustration.
Amazingly enough, Barrett didn't chase Wedge, simply snorting and then turning towards Tifa. "Hope you know what you're doin', Tifa." After this attempt at a farewell, he stormed back into the bar.
In the harsh glare of the slum's lights, Biggs noticed Tifa's new dress for the first time. It was nice enough – sky blue was a colour he needed to see more often - he supposed, but utterly impractical for fighting in. Perhaps the transport might be useful after all. "Tifa, I think your chances of been chosen are pretty damn good." Tifa didn't seem to be able to decide whether to be pleased about this judgment or not. "Just remember, don't give anything about us away unless it's absolutely necessary. Good luck." Biggs turned and walked away from the carriage awkwardly. He would have thought twice about joining AVALANCHE if he'd known he would end up in situations like this.
Jessie leant towards Tifa and whispered something that was inaudible to Biggs. From the anxious look on Jessie's face and Tifa's nervous smile, he didn't think he needed – or wanted - to hear. After their final goodbye, the carriage pulled away from the bar, and Biggs turned to give a final wave. He began to stroll towards the bar, not in too much of a hurry to meet Barrett after Wedge's outburst.
"Biggs, do you think it might be safer to stay out here for a little while?" Jessie's voice seemed unusually soft. She was gazing at the carriage as it rapidly moved towards the border of the sector.
"Probably." Normally he would have taken this as an insult to his power to stand up to Barrett, but at that moment he didn't feel like another round of their constant conflict – well, it wasn't even a conflict. Barrett had always ignored his attempts to prove that he could be any threat to his leadership.
"Why does this sort of thing always end up happening to us?" The words burst from Jessie as though she'd been holding them in for years. "Cloud is missing; Tifa has to get information from the Don…" An expression of disgust passed over her face momentarily at this. "…the Shinra have been tightening the security in here for weeks – they must at least suspect our location – and we're still fighting each other."
"Well…" Biggs paused, trying to work out why Jessie was upset about this. "I think it's because we don't have much in common, except for hating the Shinra – and we can't do much about the Shinra's power. We're all frustrated, and we've all had to live together for years – it isn't really surprising that we argue a lot." Biggs was rather pleased with his explanation, but it didn't seem to satisfy Jessie.
"But we're never able to put anything aside and argue later. It's amazing we get anything done at all."
"Most of it has a point, though. I mean, we have to make up plans on the spot sometimes, so we have to argue about everything that could go wrong. And with me and Wedge teasing each other – it's just a game. Maybe I do want to do better than Wedge in some things, but mostly it's just something to do to keep myself from going mad. And I think Wedge feels the same." Biggs was getting the impression that Jessie wasn't really paying attention to him. "Look, someone had better start serving the customers. Marlene shouldn't have to do all the work here." He clearly wasn't being of any use to Jessie, who continued to stare in the direction of Wall Market as Biggs headed back inside.
The room was empty, except for Marlene who was sitting on a stool and cleaning the glasses. "Hey, Marlene, why don't you go downstairs with your dad? I can do the work here." Biggs had always felt uncomfortable talking to Marlene - spending time with children wasn't something he'd ever done much of, and Marlene was too quiet to really have a conversation with. She slid off the stool and walked over to the elevator as Biggs picked up another glass and gave it a quick wipe, without paying much attention to the actual location of the grime which clung to the inside of it. Repetitive work had always appealed to Biggs – it allowed him to have some time to think without looking like he was being lazy.
He could hear the television blaring from the basement - the words couldn't be made out, but the sound of an explosion was played several times. Biggs grinned rather threateningly at nothing in particular at this. He didn't know why Shinra wanted to have footage of the bombing being played all the time – it could only undermine the perception of safety under their government. Well, if they wanted to make their own position weaker, he certainly wouldn't try to stop them.
Johnny staggered half-awake into the room. "Where's Tifa?" he muttered, raising his head momentarily to cast a glance around the room.
"She's had to go – look, it's none of your business, Johnny. Just get back to killing yourself with booze. Here." Biggs threw the first bottle he grabbed in Johnny's general direction. It hit the floor – Johnny's hand-eye co-ordination was rather poor, especially when he'd spent the previous night trying to drink his own body weight in alcohol – but didn't break, and he eagerly picked it up.
"I don't have any money…"
"What a surprise. How are you planning to pay us back for the last three years – taking over a small continent and selling it?" The rest of AVALANCHE had attempted to convince Tifa for the entire time she'd owned the bar that Johnny would never pay, but she insisted on serving him. Biggs had to admit that he hadn't been strictly correct– whenever Johnny had the money, he paid. The problem was that this happened once every three months if they were lucky.
"I'll find something. I'm going to leave Midgar soon. In fact, I'll stop by Sector 6 once more – just to say goodbye – and then I'm headed for Junon. I think I'll leave now, actually."
"Johnny, you said that two days ago." It had to be admitted, he never gave up.
"I'll send you the money once I'm settled somewhere. Tell Tifa goodbye, and that I hope I'll see her again sometime, and good luck to Barrett and everyone else with the fight, and – "
"We've done this before, Johnny. Tifa's in Sector 6, you might meet her if you hurry - and give me back the beer, if you're not staying." Reluctantly, Johnny threw the bottle to Biggs, who just managed to catch it and put it down gently next to him.
As Johnny walked out of the bar, Biggs murmured, "Good luck."