Ah, this feels better. Nostalgia always makes me feel good...

Still hate Ruby's accent though...

Chapter 2

"Y-you were r-robbed!" shrieked Zenero, as he and his brother rolled around in hysterics. Boss, leader of the some of the greatest thieves in Lindblum, was robbed!"

"It's not funny!" shouted Cinna. "He stole my hammer! No one touches my hammer without my permission!"

As Zenero and Benero tried to recover, failing miserably, Blank leaned against the doorframe, tapping one foot repeatedly.

"Come on guys. We only have an hour to find him before we have to start the play. Cinna, you and me'll take the Theatre District; B and Z, you two take the Industrial District. Boss and Marcus are in the Business District."

"Okay" Benero agreed. "How hard can it be?"

"I can't believe we couldn't find him!" moaned Benero, as he put on his costume for 'I want to be your Canary.' "It's like he disappeared into thin air!"

"He's good. I'll give him that" agreed Blank.

"Who's this ya'll talking bout?" piped up a familiar voice.

The two of them turned to see nine-year old Ruby walking up to them.

"A new member of Tantalus? Why havan't I been introduced?"

Blank snorted. "Yeah right! Some kid called Zidane stole Cinna's hammer and the gil we stole from some house in the Business District. We tried to find him, but he's disappeared."

Ruby giggled, no doubt snickering at the thought of their Boss being beaten at his own game.

"What's the little guy look like?" she asked.

"You'd know him if you saw him Ruby" answered Blank. "He's about seven years old, has blonde hair, and a tail."

"A tail?"

"Yup, weird huh?"

Ruby looked as if she was about to say something, but before she could, the three of them heard applause coming from behind the curtain. "Oops! That's my cue darlins.' Talk to ya'll later!"

"Darlins?" complained Benero.

Blank rolled his eyes. "Where does she get that accent?" he groaned. "Still, we'd better get ready too. I'm supposed to knock out the 'dalrlin' princess in this scene."

"We're there already!" complained Benero, and he ran in the other direction.

"Zenero! Where's my sword?"

The scene played without any slip-ups, but as Blank dragged 'Cornelia' off the stage, she opened her eyes, and whispered something to him.

"I saw him!"

"Huh? Saw who?" asked Blank, letting her go so she could stand.

"Zidane! He's in the audience. He winked at me from the front row! You never said he was cute!"

"What? Who's cute?" asked a voice.

The two actors turned to see Baku coming up towards him. Even though he was smiling, there was a slight tick in one eye, a reminder of his earlier anger.

"I saw that lil' thief Zidane in the audience!" repeated Ruby.

"WHAT! Are you sure?" shouted Baku, eyes widening.

Ruby nodded enthusiastically. "Uh huh. He had a tail, and blonde hair, and he had a hammer strung to his belt."

"CINNA!" Baku shrieked.

The boy quickly ran into view, glowering at his 'boss'. He'd almost had a heart attack from that yell. He was amazed nobody in the audience had complained.

But Baku just ignored the glare, and outlined his plan to Blank. "Blank! You and Cinna are the only ones free for the next few scenes, so get out there and get that pip-squeak! Understood?"

"Yes sir" the two replied, saluting, Tantalus style.

"I thought Ruby said he was in the first row" complained Cinna.

"She said hewas there Cinna. He's probably long gone by now."

Cinna blinked, and grinned. "Don't be so sure" replied Cinna, pointing in front of him, malicious glee glowing in his eyes. "Look ahead."

Blank followed his friends gaze, and sure enough, Zidane was only a few metres ahead of them. The boy hadn't noticed them, as he was too busy lifting a wallet from the pocket of a spectator with obvious practice.

Too bad they were about to mess things up for him.

"HEY!" Cinna screamed. "I want my hammer back!"

Zidane spun round in shock, but unfortunately for him, so did the man he was trying to pickpocket, who was quick to act like every noble in that situation.

"What the? Hey! Guards!" he shouted.

Realising he was out of luck, Zidane bolted, leaving Blank and Cinna to chase after him.

Zidane cursed his luck as he darted past the nobles in the crowd, groaning at all the pockets left half open. Why was the first day in a new town always the hardest? It definitely wasn't as bad as Burmecia, but it was coming in a close second. He'd had to spend some of his newly stolen money on a room at the inn, since the guards were still looking for him, and some drunken idiot had tipped them off to his earlier accommodation. And when he had come to the 'I want to be your Canary' performance, hoping to steal more gil from rich nobles who could lose a little bit of weight, he found out that it was Tantalus performing it! And apparently, winking at the cute girl on stage had given him away.

Still, he felt it had been the right thing to do. Sure, it had been risky to go so close to the stage, but he had a weak spot in his heart for girls. Specially the cute ones.

In an open area, Zidane was sure he could out run his pursuers, but the large crowd made it impossible to get away, and ugly and visor were catching up.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw the two of them, mingling through the crowd easily. They obviously had no trouble manoeuvring in crowds.

In his panic to get away, Zidane kept his eyes on the two, hoping to lose them. Had he been smart enough to keep his eyes forward, he may have gotten away easily. But he didn't, and he turned his head round just in time . . . to hit the stone wall that surrounded the theatre. He slumped to the ground, knocked out cold.

"Ouch. Thathad to hurt" consoled Cinna as the reached the body.

Blank grabbed the unconscious kid's arms, and started dragging him back to the door by the stage.

"Just help me get him to Baku before he comes to."

Zidane must have hit the wall hard, because he was out cold throughout the rest of the play, and for three hours afterwards, before waking up to find himself tied to a chair in the Tantalus Hideout.

And he was not happy.

"HEY! Let me go! What I'd ever do to you? This is child abuse!" he shouted, trying to reach his precious dagger. Unfortunately for him, it was gone, along with his newly acquired hammer.

A voice boomed through the room.

"HAH, HAH, HAH! What did you ever do to us? You actually have the gall to say that?"

Zidane looked up to see Baku walking towards him. Looking round the room, Zidane saw the other members of Tantalus, including the two that had chased him. One was hugging a hammer, tears streaming down his face.

Realising who had him, Zidane sighed of relief.

"Oh, it's just you. For a minute there I thought you'd turned me over to the guards."

"Just us?" Baku screeched. "Kid, no thief steals from another thief. It's a code of honour! Once we're through with you, you're gonna wish wehad turned you over to Lindblum's finest!"

Zidane ignored the comments. The odds were they'd just keep him tied up without food and water for a couple of days. And he'd had worse punishments than that. Instead, turned his attention to two other members going through his bag.

"Hey! Keep out of there! That's private property ya know!" he shouted.

Zenero and Benero paid no attention. "Here's our money" Benero stated, picking up a large pouch and emptying it. His eyes widened as the gil continued to fall.

"And half of Lindblum's too by the looks of it."

"Sweet!" Zenero crowed, picking out a necklace. "Boss you should check out some of the stuff he's got. This must be worth a fortune!"

Entranced by the necklace, Ruby came over to look at his findings, despite the tailed boy's ranting, and spotted something else glimmering in the bag.

"Hey, what's this pretty lil' thing?

All eyes were on Ruby as she picked up a strange looking pendant. A large crystal was its main centrepiece.

As his gaze hit the pendant, Baku chocked.

"Oh no... Don't tell me that's the FALCON CLAW!"

Zidane just looked at him. "The what?" he asked.

Baku shook off his original shock in order to glare at him.

"Kid, don't tell me you actually broke into Regent Cid's castle."

Zidane grinned. "So what if I did? Had some real nice stuff too, but when those stupid guards found me, I could only make with the pendant."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, because Baku went in a state of shock. Ruby waved her hand in front of his face. Not so much as a blink.

"I think you killed im'" she said, looking at the confused thief.

Zidane cocked his tail, along with his head, in genuine confusion.

"Was it something I said?"

Blank groaned, holding his head in his hands.

"At least now we know why the palace guards were chasing him."

Seeing nobody else was in any state to yell at their idiotic prisoner, Marcus found he had the honour of yelling at Zidane.

"Are you crazy? Even WE wouldn't think of stealing the Falcon Claw!"

He blinked. "Well... okay, maybe we'd think about it, but we'd never actually DO it! That 'pendant' is one of the regents, wait,Lindblums most prized possessions!"

"If we get caught with that thing here, we'll be hung on Lindblum's walls" Blank supplied.

Cinna had disappeared before the discussion, but now reappeared, carrying a bucket. Walking over to their still frozen Boss, he threw the bucketful of water onto him, drenching him from ear to foot.

"WHADDA'YA DO THAT FOR?" roared Baku, grabbing Cinna by the neck. Then remembered the earlier conversation.

He groaned, and let Cinna down, much to the boy's relief, and tried to formulate a plan.

"Okay, Ruby. You stay here and guard monkey boy over here. The rest of you come with me, and take that stupid claw with you. And Blank!"

"Yes Boss?" shouted the boy, saluting.

"Put Zidane's stuff in the chest over there" Baku motioned to a chest in the corner of the hideout. "We don't need it cluttering the place up."

"Gottit!" Blank answered, and much to Zidane's distress, put the bag and dagger in the chest, far away from Zidane.

"Hey" he protested, struggling with the rope. "Don't I get a say in this?"

"NO!"

As everyone walked out the door, Ruby stood in the doorway, waving goodbye.

"See y'all later darlins!"

Zidane grinned at the girl's back. This 'Tantalus' thought they were so smart. They clearly didn't know who they were dealing with.

To be continued . . .