You don't wanna go there, kid
Midgar was due for completion in little over a week, or thereabouts. Zexion had got in touch with Lexaeus, which Xigbar had expected, and Lexaeus had passed on the message, which Xigbar had not expected. The gist of it was simple enough; stay away from Midgar. The place was about to get very briefly lethal, and from the sound of it, very brief in
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This time he was sat back, with his head bowed, but his eye open. He was also still nursing his first beer.
He was thinking about Zexion. He'd cared enough to report it, but he was, according to Lexaeus, with entirely the wrong crowd, and Xigbar knew better than most about the wrong crowds. Zexion knew way too much for Xigbar to be comfortable with him hanging out with Khamja, but he was still showing enough loyalty to warn Lexaeus to stay out of danger, so maybe he could be trusted, at least with this.
At least where Lexaeus was concerned.
If Lexaeus hadn't figured that he was surplus to Zexion's requirements, Xigbar could have been right up shit creek. It was enough to make a man re-evaluate the way he'd been acting. At least for a few minutes.
"Yo," he said, when Axel came into view, without lifting his head.
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"Hey," he replied, putting his drink down. "Slow day?"
He put the bill beside his drink. It was rolled up and would probably require a little more thought before he went through with signing up for it, but it was certainly his intention if the cost-to-pay ratio came out favourably.
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"Good to see you're staying useful," he said, once he'd swallowed, nodding towards the rolled up bill Axel had with him. Axel was a hunter, so a bill was what any rolled pieces of paper on his person were most likely to be.
Xigbar still didn't let the others know what he got up to for a living.
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It wasn't like he had to give Xigbar a share of his takings, anyway. That was the up side to being a Hunter rather than a Clan member -- you didn't have to give a cut to the group.
He unrolled the bill on the table and put his glass on it to hold it open.
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Xigbar had weathered it, however reluctantly.
"What job are you thinking of picking up next?" He asked, sitting up a bit to peer at the bill.
When he spotted the sketch of the monster at the top of the bill, he frowned.
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"This one," he said, shrugging. "Monster near Midgar. Small enough for me to handle solo, close enough that I don't do myself out of profit with expenses."
Renting the capsule part of their airship helped, of course. The rent was fair for the use he got out of it, and he was able to use it independently. It still needed flat ground to land on, but it was slightly more convenient than a Chocobo under normal circumstances.
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Getting Marks was difficult enough without having a decent sized clan to compete with, let alone one with a fight-happy berserker as a member.
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He shrugged one shoulder and took another mouthful of beer before continuing, "I'd have figured you for avoiding Midgar anyway, what with the whole history you got going on there, or were those labs that comfortable?"
It was, at least, a fair point, or half of one.
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The Clan were avoiding Midgar? That sort of behaviour didn't happen without a reason and Xigbar's distraction tactic wasn't going to work.
"Why's the Clan steering clear?" He asked.
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"We got a tip off," he said, his voice dropping in volume. "Midgar and the surroundings aren't gonna be a good place to be for the next couple of weeks. You don't need to know any more than that," he added, shooting Axel a sharp, one-eyed glance.
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Yeah, because that ever works. 'You don't need to know any more than that' was practically inviting obstinacy and contrary behaviour.
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He shrugged, and then took another mouthful of beer. "You wanna go, I can't stop you, right? You ain't in my clan; I don't order you about. But I never took you for the suicidal sort," he paused, considered events in the past, and then snorted, "at least not for the fun of it, so take some impartial advice and find some ugly troublemaking monster somewhere away from Midgar to go and kill."
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He folded his arms, looking down at the bill.
"So what is it? Someone planning to blow up another reactor?" He tilted his head.
He'd heard about that happening before. Not during his time in the City, or after it. Before he'd arrived on Spira, some terrorist group had gone out of their way to blow the Sector 1 Reactor sky high. It hadn't exactly gone up like Gongaga, but it had been considered a disaster at the time. Repairs had since been made.
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He looked at Axel seriously. "We're not supposed to know about this, so we don't, capiche?"
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He went cold, as though he'd been doused with icy water. After spending so long as a Nobody, it took him a moment to realise that it was fear, pure and simple. He'd been nervous, worried and afraid at points since arriving on Spira, all equipped with a very new heart, but that kind of all encompassing dread hadn't, until that point, crept up on him in quite that much volume and it made his skin prickle.
He'd seen Midgar, he'd been to Midgar. He knew how big it was, both from an airship and close up, from the inside. It was difficult to appreciate the scale because of the design, but it was still a full-on city, full of people. He'd seen the damage done to the Plate by the Sector 1 explosion, so for all of them to go off... that would destroy the supports. The plate would drop and almost everybody topside would die. Those below it wouldn't stand a chance.
....
Aerith was below the Plate.
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