Higher / a7x

Breaking Their Hold

*Brian's POV*

We all were gathered around Cliff's table, about to discuss our plan, but first we had to tell the new comers about the entire situation.

I licked my lips as I held my beer bottle in both hands, playing with it, "Okay... As you know, I died on the twenty-ninth of December, one day after Jimmy died. Everyone around the table nodded and I noticed that the guys looked troubled. I understood that it was a rough subject for them. After a small pause, I continued, "So, you see... I know all of you so I'm going to be as straight-forward as I can ... I wasn't supposed to die."

They all faced me, frowns on their faces. I looked at Cliff and gave him a pleading look, to which he nodded. He understood that it was hard for me to tell them the truth. He cleared his throat as he continued, "There was a mistake in the system... Let's just say that there was a mistake and they took Junior, instead of Senior."

Cliff looked at dad and he nodded, "Mister Haner, you were supposed to be taken and not your son."

Dad nodded as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Okay, where do I sign?"

I quickly shifted my gaze to him as I raised my eyebrows, "I beg your pardon?" He rolled his eyes as he looked at me, "Brian, I'm willing to sell my soul to the Devil if that means you're going to be okay for at least another three decades."

I shook my head as I refused to let that happen, "That's not necessary, dad, we found a way."

I looked at Dime who nodded and picked up from where I left, "So, we all need to collect as many of our people as we can in order to fight Azrael-"

Dad's eyes widened as he leaned closer to the table, " I beg your pardon?"

Elvis smirked as he shook his head, "Like father like son."

Dad completely ignored that comment as his eyes widened, "What exactly do you mean by fighting Azrael. I'm not about to let my kids fight him just because of me, an old bag of bones!"

Matt spoke up, slamming his fist on the table, "Don't ever say that! You're family, you practically raised us all, you're family and no one gets left behind."

Johnny brought his fist up as he fake coughed, "Been watching too much Lilo and Stitch, huh?"

Zacky nodded as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I definitely agree, both with Johnny and with Matt", Matt raised his hands in the air as he shot a confused look at Zee, "we're family, Mister Haner, if we have a chance to fight them, we will fight until the end."

Lemmy nodded as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Plus we already have everything arranged and ready, we just gotta fight these fuckers and hope for the best."

Brooks raised his eyebrow as he finally spoke up, "Excuse me, fuckers? Not just one fucker? Plural? Who exactly are we gonna fight?"

Vinnie shrugged as he leaned back in his chair, "Nobody knows that, man, this is why we have to hope that we're gonna win this fight."

The blonde drummer continued as he raised an eyebrow, "But we gave to know who we're going to fight so we know who to put on our team, no offence Johnny, but you're good for bait and then, that's it."

Matt shook his head as he slapped Johnny's back, which caused the shorter man to wince, "Don't say that, we all know that Johnny becomes a little soldier when he's under pressure."

Zacky nodded as he spoke up, which made me look at him, "Yea, we all saw that he's able to fight and do it good."

Johnny sighed after he finally accepted the fact that Matt had his arm draped over his shoulders and he couldn't shrug it off, "I may not be the strongest nor the smartest nor the best, however when I have to fight for the ones I love, I'm ready to fight."

Cliff cleared his throat as he spoke up, "Plus, you already fought all types of creatures the last time you were here, so I'm sure whatever Death has for you, it's not gonna be that big of an issue.

"Now, as I was about to say, all of you are going to pick out extra people that will come from upstairs to help. Plus remember that here you have the entire country in your hands, we are all still so very grateful for what you did, because if it wasn't for you, there would be an invasion.

"Now, for the record, I'm sure y'all are worried about leaving your wives, kids, family behind and this is why I'm going to explain it to you.

"With the help of Brian we upgraded our system so that only eighty percent of your soul is here and you're living a normal life with the rest of the twenty percent. However, once the mission is done... Here comes the bad part.

"If you win, Brian decides what you're going to do, which I'm sure is going to be the best for all of you. But, if we lose, then you're going to be declined access to Bat Country and sent either to Heaven or Hell, which means you will be separated from each other and never to be seen again. At least these are the ground rules, we have let Brian make small arrangements that are going to be announced once we have everyone we need. "

Matt nodded as he gave Johnny's shoulder a squeeze, then he pulled away and leaned his elbows on the table, "I trust my people and I trust you, guys. I'm sure that we're going to fight with all strength that we have and we won't back down."

We all started working on the plan, however I couldn't help but just smile from time to time for no reason. I was definitely happy that we were all reunited and I believed that we were going to break the hold that Death had on us.