Stay the night in Sector Seven

Cecil was mostly looking towards Tifa when he asked about moving on. She seemed to know the area. This was a place for her past and she was the best to keep them on track here. She shook her head and motioned towards the bar.

"Its probably best that we rest and make some preparations first."

The AVALANCHE crew dispersed the crowd and then led the way into the Seventh Heaven bar. Cecil looked around, feeling that the little shanty bar fit in perfectly with the dirt and squalor outside. Maybe he had just gotten used to having a castle? But the odd lighting and the rumblings from the plate above were fairly disturbing to him. It almost reminded him of when they had been in the Dwarven kingdom. Giott and his daughter would be right at home here.

Once inside, Biggs went behind the bar and began getting some food ready with Wedge grabbing some drinks from the refrigerator. Jessie went to the odd machine on the far wall and with the exception of Tifa, the group was surprised when Jessie hit a button and started to sink into the floor on the hidden elevator. Quistis walked over and peered down as Jessie made her descent.

"Interesting. Crude, but interesting. Tifa, is this sort of thing common?"

"Not really. These guys and me are part of a group called AVALANCHE. We're eco-terrorists. Shinra and the Mako reactors were killing the planet and we fought to save it. This was our base in the old days."

At that, Biggs glanced her way.

"You said in the old days... Is the fighting over? Did we win? Or have we just moved to a new hideout?"

Tifa pretended to be interested in a dirty glass left on one of the tables so she didn't have to look his way. Biggs didn't notice the tears forming in her eyes, but Fran did. She picked up the glass and began and a discarded rag and began cleaning it.

"We won. Shinra wasn't the only enemy. Not even the worst. But we won. Thanks to the efforts of Barret, Cloud, and a lot of others, we were able to save the planet. We lost a lot of good friends along the way, but in the end, we pulled it off."

"So what about you and that guy Cloud? He's a bit rough, but a good guy I think," asked Wedge, his round baby-face lit with a smile as he brought over a few beers for the crowd.

"We're living together now. Us and Marlene and another orphan named Denzel. Barret's constantly out looking for new sources of energy, so Marlene's pretty much my daughter now."

"Knew you guys would hook up," chuckled Wedge. Biggs finished up his cooking about the time the elevator started up again noisily. When Jessie got off the elevator, she tossed a pair of leather gloves to Tifa and brought over a sack of money.

"This is the last of the gil. Its not much, but it should help you get some supplies for you and something better for your friend there," she said motioning towards Quistis and her party dress.

"Yes, this wont do well in combat," Quistis agreed with a sigh.

"Don't suppose you have a map of this new land do you?" Ace was looking towards a backpack that Jessie had brought up with her.

"Sorry, but no one has been able to map much more than the land immediately around Midgar yet. to the east there is some plains that lead to a rather large forest. To the west is a cliff that leads down to a large expanse of grasslands. We can see another cliff in the distance, but not much past there. Other than monsters, that area looks pretty safe. To the south there is a big expanse of water. Not sure if it is a lake or an ocean. No one's really looked into it. Then to the north is another cliff, but instead of dropping off, it goes upwards. There's a cavern there that is frozen even though it feels like mid spring outside of Midgar."

Ace sighed and looked to Cecil.

"Cosmos said you are the leader, so any ideas on our next move?"

"Yeah, find out how to get out of Midgar and then make plans from there. How well has the frozen cave and the odd forest been explored?"

"Not very well. The few scouts Shinra sent to the forest have gone missing. I heard a rumor that they sent back a message saying weird magical wards were blocking them and that there were odd humanoid people moving deeper in the forest, but that's it. The Cave on the other hand has had some safer exploration. It seems like it goes up towards the top of the cliff, but there is a lot of monsters there."

Cecil noticed Fran stiffen when Jessie talked about the forest, but left it alone. If she knew the forest, it could come in handy, but she didn't seem like she wanted to go there. The cave on the other hand could be safer. They didn't have a boat, so the ocean was probably out of the question for now, and that left the lands to the west. Three possible directions to head, though for now, he really did need to focus on getting out of Midgar.

Jessie pulled a notebook out of the backpack and asked Tifa about how they would get to the plate again. When Tifa explained that it was near a place called the "Wall Market" the AVALANCHE trio groaned.

"Corneo's probably not going to make it easy. With all the chaos right now, he's tightened his grip on the Sector Six slums. Any girl he considers hot enough has been **** into working at the Honey Bee while he's got even more thugs for his personal army. Shinra seems to have forgotten about everyone down here for now, so I doubt we'll have to worry about them for now. But if we enter Sector Six..." Jessie got a disgusted look on her face.

"What is the Honey Bee," asked Fran.

"A brothel that the Don owns. He samples the girls before they start working there, and then tosses them to his men. After a few nights as their personal slaves, they turn the girls over to the brothel to use as money makers."

"Dirty bastard," added Biggs as he slammed a fist into the bar.

Tifa gave a sigh and hefted the coin purse.

"I'm going to pick up some supplies. Why don't you guys eat and get some rest. I'll worry about how we get past Corneo's men."

"Hang on, I'll go with you." Cecil followed Tifa out, hoping to question her more in private about what she was planning.