Chapter 11

Sorry this one took me so long. Been working extra hours and been a bit unmotivated. All better now ^_^

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So here they were again. Another year, another battle for the 7th Heaven bar. For four years it had been struggling to feed the men in power the money they ordered for the land they rented and the licenses to serve alcohol. This year looked to be the final year, unless a plan to attract more customers was thought up. The first three years were not a problem, despite the money often becoming very thin at the end of the year when all land tax and license fee renewals were paid to the ALIEN financial department, however the locals were drying up. Many were moving out of the slums, many out of Midgcar itself, to look for better standards of living. Tired of being forced to live in the polluted and run-down areas where their houses were situated, they migrated in search of cheaper yet cleaner land, relying only on rumours from travellers passing by. Today was another slow day at the 7th heaven bar. Tifa sighed, cleaning another glass despite there not being the need for it, the glass was sparkling as it was. She put it down and turned to face the two co-owners of the bar, Barrett and Cid, who were as usual sipping down a couple of beers and telling jokes with hearty-laughter.

"We need to do something…" She said despondently. There were five people in the bar, two couples seated at tables opposite to each other and an old man who came in when they opened and left when they closed, often dragged out by his wife. Tifa figured if it weren't for him they would have been out of business a long time ago.

"How 'bout we go steal some money from the ALIEN buildin'." Barrett grinned, he was desperate to attack the ALIEN main building, the headquarters, where the president resided and all decisions were made, however, so far they had only gone for smaller branches and outlets. In themselves those missions had been tough, and the three had been lucky to escape capture a number of times.

"Nah, can't be bothered with that shit." Cid replied, taking another sip of his beer. "You know how long it takes to plan one of our normal attacks? It'd take us ten times as damn long to work out how to get past the security, then we'd have to work on the building."

"Damn, man." Barrett shook his head and finished his beer.

"We need to keep this bar… it's our only source of money and our hideout, it's perfect as we've been in business a few years, ALIEN hold no suspicions over this place. If we want to remain anonymous we're going to have to keep this place in business."

"Can't we set up somewhere else?" Barrett asked.

"No! We can't afford new licensing fees! The prices for land and rent have skyrocketed too since we got our land." Tifa sighed.

"Damn ALIEN. Hate 'em." Barrett began pouring himself another drink.

"We need something to attract younger people… the people we get in here are part of the older generation that are skipping town. The younger ones, that's what we need. Not kids, of course, but young adults." Cid looked thoughtful for a second. "A band!"

"Band?" Tifa shook her head. "I don't want a band here."

"Why the hell not?" Cid grumbled.

"They'd be loud, and might bring in unruly customers." Tifa argued.

"Unruly customers would probably have bought lots of beer first. If our crowds are doubled, we can afford to pay the band to play every week at least." Cid replied evenly, smiling as Tifa's scowl deepened. She hated being argued with, but knew that with the trouble they were in, Cid's idea may have to be given a shot.

"Yeah man, I think we should go for it." Barrett nodded, taking a swig of his newly filled beer and wiping his mouth.

"You would." Tifa sighed. When she disagreed with one the other seemed to pipe up in agreeance, at which point it seemed to become impossible for her to put across her point of view.

"I can play drums…" Cid shrugged.

"I got some experience on bass, I could get down with that." Barrett added.

"So you're going to be in this… band? Now I really don't want to be here." Tifa growled.

"Harsh…" Barrett replied, glancing at Tifa and shaking his head.

Two figures came through the doors. Tifa, Barrett and Cid's arguing had rendered them unable to notice the two new customers, as they normally would. The two men sat down at a table near the entrance and began talking. If Tifa had known their identities her attention would certainly no longer be focused on the future of the 7th Heaven Bar.

"Are you doing to get a drink? I'm thirsty." Jim asked, he had wanted to go straight to the bar and get a drink, but instead Danny had sat down.

"We can get a drink in a minute. It's not like we have tons to spend, you know." Replied Danny.

"Yeah… we need to get some money behind us, somehow." Jim shrugged, not really sure on how they could get money at this point. They'd have to get a job that paid in cash, since they had no ALIEN bank accounts, and the employer would have to be very uninterested in personal background.

"Jobs don't just come out of the blue. Not in the slums, anyway. We can't go up to the surface yet, and especially not to get a job." Danny drummed his fingers on the table. "Our options are limited. Aeris said her and Jerad have some money, but Jerad isn't going to give any of that to us. I don't want to take their money anyway."

"Me either. Well, I'm sure something will come up, it always does. How much do you have left?"

"About seven hundred gil."

"I've got about that much as well. One thousand four hundred will last us a little while."

"I guess so. Hope that bunker Jerad found is as safe as he thinks, don't want him or Aeris hurt whilst we're out… but since we are…" Danny looked over to the bar briefly. "Wanna go get a drink?"

"Sure…" Jim nodded, but before they got up he turned to Danny. "I think my family would be in the slums… I don't want to go to the top plate until we've searched for them."

"Of course we will. We'll search both plates." Danny stood up and walked to the bar. He owed Jim's family a lot, they had taken him in when he was younger and his parents had kicked him out, or he had ran away, often fearing for his life. His father was mean enough when he was sober, but once he got drunk all hell broke loose. His mother stayed out of the way, when he was drunken and raging through the house in search of a fight, and when he was sober she often joined in. His father had got a fight alright, the day he'd left…

"Thanks." Jim's voice broke through his thoughts. "It'll be dangerous on the top plate."

"I owe your parents this much…" Danny replied as he got to the bar. A large, tanned man with short black hair, a white tank top and green trousers stood behind the bar. He had an extremely rough appearance.

"What can I get ya?" His voice was just as rough.

"Two beers…" Danny said, looking at Jim who gave a nod.

"That's what I like to hear." The large man grinned and began filling the pint-glasses.

"Big time drinkers?" A voice to the left of them inquired. The two rebels turned to see a man with scruffy blonde hair and dark blue eyes taking a sip of a beer and searching for something in the pocket of his large blue overcoat.

"No… we just need one right now." Danny said, sounding a little tired.

"Fair enough. Hm, so, what you guys doing here?" Cid put down his glass and moved to the pockets of his navy trousers, growling as he seemingly was unable to find what he was looking for.

Danny and Jim looked at each other briefly, they couldn't tell him why, Jerad had been adamant that they shouldn't say a word to a soul about their plans. On the other hand, they had not thought up a counter-story.

"Just passing through." Danny eventually said, slightly uneasily.

"Well, what the hell are ya doing for money?" Barrett asked immediately, handing Danny and Jim the two full glasses of beer.

"Odd jobs." Jim quipped, taking a sip of his beer as Danny paid and took a sip of his own, it was the first drink they'd had in a while and both were by now extremely thirsty. As they entered conversation with Barrett and Cid, one, two and three beers seemed to go by far too quickly. Soon they found themselves laughing and joking with Barrett and Cid like they'd been friends for years. During the conversation, and about the fourth beer, Cid said something about ALIEN, and that's when Danny let slip.

"ALIEN! Those bastards… we're gonna take them out!" He knew immediately he should not have said that and laughed a little nervously. "Or at least, I wish, eh?"

"Yeah man, don't we all?" Cid nodded, apparently neither he nor Barrett had noticed or cared about the outburst. "If you need money, you know, we haven't got any jobs at the bar, but we're thinking about hiring a band. Don't suppose you guys do instruments?"

Danny was about to mutter a negative, but Jim's voice cut in. "How much?"

"I dunno…" Cid pondered. "About five hundred gil a show, I guess."

Danny turned to Jim, to try and reason it out, but it was too late, Jim had already responded.

"As a matter of fact, we do happen to play… both of us can do guitar, uh, Danny here does our vocals…"

"That's good… Barrett and I were thinking about being in the first band, since it's experimental and our idea… he does bass or guitar, I do drums… think we've got all we need. You guys got any songs?" Cid downed his fifth or sixth beer, at least, since Danny and Jim had been there.

"Of course we do." Jim said slowly. Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Good. You'll have to show us what to do, come in tomorrow afternoon and we'll sort the rest out." Cid nodded, grinning. Danny, looking uncomfortable, finished his fourth beer and turned to the bar, checking out all the bottles of various alcoholic beverages. "Hey, you got anything a little stronger?"

"Heh, sure do." Barrett took out a much smaller glass and poured in some blue liquid. "Drink up." He smirked, handing it to Danny.

"Hey, give me one too." Jim said with a laugh. Both clearly were no longer thinking straight. Danny stared at the liquid for a couple of seconds, shrugging and gulping it down, not really tasting it. He said the glass down and a wave of dizziness came over him.

"Whoa…"

"Hey, looks good…" Jim shrugged and drank his a little slower, not that the effects were any different.

"Hey, we gotta…go now…" Danny stood up shakily, grabbing onto the bar.

"Sure… just remember to get in here sometime tomorrow, eh?" Cid smiled and patted Danny on the back.

"Yeah…" Danny said slowly. "We'll be here, man…" He stumbled towards the door, Jim behind in a similar pattern.

"Did you have to give them something that strong?" Cid asked, laughing and finally finding the cigarette packet he'd been searching for earlier in the inside pocket of his overcoat.

"Hell, they needed it, man." Barrett nodded.

"I'm not sure they'll agree with you in the morning." Cid shook his head, getting out his lighter and lighting up his cigarette. It was a bad habit he'd tried to kick, but so far failed. He shook his head and chuckling as Danny stumbled into Tifa on his way out. She had gone home to try and collect as many of the financial papers as she could, and she nearly dropped them, barely managing to keep a hold of them, and dodging as Jim went past her. She stormed in and sat down, slamming the papers on the bar.

"Who the hell were those two idiots?"

"Our band." Cid grinned.