Chapter 2: A whole New World

It had been over a week since Cloud left the city of Edge to go travelling, Tifa had agreed to hold the fort while he was away and tell everyone that he wouldn't be making any deliveries for while. Cloud left early the very next morning just after he had refilled the fuel tank on his bike Fenrir. After spending four hours travelling along the Western Continent Cloud had decided to stop at Nibelheim for a little while. He was now walking along the street looking round him, the town was pretty much back to normal since the fire over eight years ago but Cloud still got an uncomfortable feeling whenever he thought about it.

"Well this place hasn't changed much since Shinra had rebuilt it," Cloud stated as helooked around at the people going about their daily business, buying and selling goods. "Still something's off though, even though it was restored to exactly how it was before the fire, it's not the Nibelheim I once knew."

Cloud so was wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice an old woman pushing passed him with a tray full of potions.

"Watch out laddie!" The old woman yelled, "can't you see this is the busiest day of the week for us?"

"Oh…sorry," Cloud apologised "I was just…"

"In your own little world," The woman finished his sentence for him. "I understand laddie. I drift in and out all the time."

Cloud stared at the old woman as though she had a screw loose. "Right…sure." However he moved aside so that the old woman could get passed him.

"Thanks laddie," She replied gratefully, and she walked off.

"You're welcome," Cloud responded politely, he shivered at what the old woman said, and when he was sure she was out of earshot he added under his breath. "I hope I don't become senile when I get to that age."

Cloud continued to walk down the street and he passed a house that looked familiar to him, Tifa's childhood home. Next to Tifa's old house was his own, Cloud felt a single teardrop in his eye as memories of his childhood flooded his mind and he had a sudden urge to just enter the houses he once knew just to get a clear memory of what they looked like but Cloud resisted. They didn't belong to him and Tifa anymore, someone else now lives in the houses and it wouldn't be right to just barge into someone else's private property. Besides this wasn't the Nibelheim he remembered anymore, the Nibelheim he knew was destroyed in the fire and nothing could bring it back. To him now, Nibelheim was just another nameless town. Cloud managed to pull himself away from the remnants of his old life and he carried on walking until he came across a building he hoped he'd never had to see again.

"The Shinra Mansion," Cloud whispered faintly, and a shiver ran down his spine, a feeling he always got whenever this place was mentioned, but now that he was standing right outside that dreaded place, those uncomfortable feelings were intensified.

The Shinra Mansion, the only building in Nibelheim that wasn't destroyed by the fire and was the beginning of Cloud's nightmares, and just standing in front of the building was enough to conjure up memories Cloud had tried so hard to forget.

"I hoped I would never have to see this place again." He continued, great now he was talking to himself, he had always wondered whether talking to one's self was a sign of madness, not that it made much difference to him. "But I wanted to see what happened to Nibelheim. Now that I know it's ok, I can move on."

Cloud turned round and was about to walk away from the Shinra Mansion when he was struck by a blinding light.

Cloud had to shield his eyes through fear of being blinded. "What the hell…?" He cursed under his breath.

Cloud slowly opened his eyes and looked to the sky just in time to see something crash through the roof of the Shinra Mansion.

"What was that?" He asked himself, he looked behind him, hoping that he wasn't the only one who had noticed the object falling out of the sky and he was dismayed to see that everyone was still carrying on as normal. Cloud sighed to himself, "figures, no one in this town notices anything, it could have been another meteor and they'd still go about their daily business." Cloud looked back towards the mansion and gulped nervously. "That thing could have been anything," Cloud stated as his hand instinctively reached for the sword on his back, but he didn't unsheath it. "I guess it's up to me to investigate, even though I promised myself that I'd never set foot inside this place again."

Cloud crept slowly up to the entrance and opened the door, the door opened with a loud creak, he stepped inside and gently closed the door behind him. The hall was dark and Cloud almost stumbled a few times as he felt for the light switch. Eventually he found the switch and light flooded the room.

"And so we have light." He muttered, but his voice echoed loudly in the vast hallway, Cloud looked around him but he saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Hmmmm," Cloud thought to himself, "everything looks normal in here."

He walked to the room on his left and opened the door, the room was smaller than the previous one, the only furniture that was in the room was a grand piano, other than that there was nothing strange or out of the ordinary.

"It looks normal in here too."

Cloud searched all the rooms downstairs but found nothing unusual, so he proceeded upstairs. He turned to his left and entered the safe room. The safe was still open since Cloud came here last time but other than that there was nothing else here. Cloud searched the bedroom and continued down to the right checking every room until he entered the room with the secret staircase. Much to Cloud's disappointment there was a hole where the entrance to the staircase was, whatever that thing was, it landed in the basement.

Cloud sighedheavily, it was in that basement where things had started to go wrong, Sephiroth's descent to insanity, his five year imprisonment, every bad thing that Cloud could think of occured in that basement, but Cloud knew that he had no choice, he just had to bite the bullet and face his fears. The man responsible for all of this was dead and he was never coming back. "I guess I have to go down into the basement again." Cloud said not bothering to hide the fear and disappointment in his voice. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to go down there again."

Cloud walked down the stairs, he grabbed his sword from his back and held it out in front of him, he had no idea of what this thing was and whether or not it was dangerous. Cloud walked down the last step and saw an unconscious form lying near the entrance to the coffin room where he had first met Vincent. He crept up to the unconscious creature, it was humanoid in appearance but something was wrong. It had five tails sticking out the seat of its pants, Cloud jumped back when he heard soft moaning coming from the creature, it was waking up.

"Oh…"

Cloud held his sword above his head ready to strike at the creature that was just getting to its knees, it turned round and stared at Cloud with bright blue eyes. Cloud brought the sword back over his head and was in the process of bringing it down on the creature's head but he couldn't move it any further, something was blocking the sword.

"Put the sword down!" The creature yelled there was a hint of fear in his voice. "I mean you no harm!"

Cloud stared at the creature his eyes were wide with shock and for a while he couldn't speak. "Y...you...can...talk!" Was all he could utter.

"Well what gave you you're first clue?" The creature muttered sarcastically as he staggered slowly to his feet and turned to face Cloud.

Cloud stepped a few paces back but he obeyed the creature and put his sword away. For the first time Cloud took a closer look at him to find that he was fox like in appearance with sea green fur, his blue eyes glowed brightly in the dimly lit tunnel. His green spiky hair stuck out in all directions as though it was forgotten by gravity. He was dressed for the most part in black, but wore a purple shirt under his tunic. His five tails stuck out the back of his pants.

"Who are you?" Cloud asked, his curiosity soon out weighed his fear.

"The name's Max." Max answered, he hadn't moved an inch his eyes were still focused on Cloud.

Cloud found himself staring at ax's tails and was shocked that he had several tails, five to be exact. "Errrr…"

"Is it about my tails?" Max questioned before Cloud could even speak. Max knew the look Cloud was giving him, he had been through that all his life, but it doesn't bother him to the same extent anymore.

Cloud grinned sheepishly "well…yeah," He answered carefully, not wishing to offend Max, fortunately Max didn't seem to be offended.

Max sighed and he looked at Cloud, his gaze wasn't angry but it made Cloud feel uncomfortable nevertheless. "I'm a Kitsune," Max explained, Cloud gave Max a blank stare and it was obvious to him that Cloud din't know what a Kitsune was, so he continued. "A Kitsune is a race of multi-tailed foxes."

"Race?" Cloud quizzed Max, "you mean there's more than one of you out there?"

Max nodded, "yes," came the reply, "but they're on another world, besides…who are you?"

"I'm Cloud."

"Cloud?" Max tried hard to stifle his laughter. "That's a strange name."

"Well I've seen stranger things," Cloud retorted, "one of them is standing in front of me."

"Ha, ha …" Max laughed sarcastically, but that was quickly replaced by his overwhelming sense of curiosity. ""hat are you?" Max asked, "I don't think I've seen any of your kind before."

"I'm a human," Cloud answered as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, but after seeing Max's blank stare, it became clear to Cloud that Max had never seen a human before. "Aren't there humans on your world?"

Max shook his head, "nope," He replied.

Cloud was about to open his mouth to respond when he heard moaning and the sound of something dragging itself across the floor.

Cloud stared hopefully at Max, "please tell me you heard that too."

Max nodded, "yeah I heard it," Max responded, "heads up here it comes!"

Cloud and Max withdrew their swords and stood in fighting stances just in time to see a zombie dragging itself towards them.

Max stared at the zombie with a disgusted look on his face. "That's not something I really want to see when I first wake up," He replied visibly repulsed by the creature.

Cloud stared in awe at Max's sword. "Nice sword," Cloud complemented, "are you sure you know how to use it?"

"Yeah, let's put this ugly pile of crap out of its misery."

Max and Cloud charged forwards, their swords thrust out in front of them lusting for blood. Cloud jumped into the air his sword held behind him and struck down on the zombie slicing it in half with a Braver attack.

Cloud held his fist in the air, "Yes!" He shouted happily, "Huh?"

Cloud stared in shock as the two halves of the zombie came together and reformed.

"Yeah, slice it in half. That will work wonders," Max stated sarcastically.

Cloud gave Max an evil glare, "you got any better ideas, smart ass?" Cloud demanded.

"Yeah as a matter of fact, I do," Max answered smugly, "but it would involve us working together, alright."

Cloud nodded, "alright, let's take this thing down together."

Cloud and Max began to change their tactics, Cloud performed Cross-slash on the zombie and stunned it, Max then ran up and started hacking away at the zombie cutting off both its arms and legs and for a while that attack seemed to work. Max and Cloud ran round the room to locate and destroy all the limbs before the zombie could pull itself together.

"I think that's all of them," Cloud panted as he severed one of the zombie's legs.

Max shook his head, "no, there's one more, there's a hand missing and whoa!"

Max cried out as a severed hand reached out and grabbed his leg causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground and drop his sword. The hand started dragging him across the floor.

"Max!" Cloud yelled, "Hang on!"

Cloud ran up to Max and with the blunt side of his sword batted the hand off Max's leg and caused it to go flying and landing heavily against the far wall and slid down the wall and landed with a splat on the floor. Cloud helped Max to his feet and Max quickly grabbed his sword.

"Thanks," Max said gratefully, "I think the zombie has pulled itself together again."

Max and Cloud heard a scream behind them and they turned to see the zombie standing there once again fully formed.

"Damn," Cloud cursed, "I don't remember zombies doing that!"

"Some zombies can reform themselves if their body parts get severed," Max explained.

"We have to slice it into tiny piece and destroy them quickly," Cloud stated.

Max nodded in agreement, "yeah."

Max and Cloud resumed fighting but the zombie was ready for their sword strikes and dodged each one and began attacking back furiously. Fortunately its attacks were slow and clumsy and Max and Cloud could easily dodge it. Cloud continued to hack away at the zombie but Max just stood there with his eyes shut.

Cloud stared at Max, "Max I need your help," Cloud pleaded he ran up to Max and began shaking him. "Max!"

Max opened his eyes and grinned at Cloud.

"What?" Cloud asked.

"Let's strike him at the same time," Max suggested

"But we already tried that," Cloud stated shaking his head, "it won't work."

Max grinned again, "trust me, it'll work this time."

Cloud: nodded, "ok, you get in front of it and I'll go behind it."

Max walked in front of the zombie while Cloud crept behind it, they both had their swords ready, and Cloud was shocked to see that his sword was glowing white.

"Hey Max!" Cloud yelled, "what did you do to my…?"

"I'll explain later" Max replied, "now on the count of three we both strike ok, 1...2...3...!"

Max and Cloud both dug their swords into the zombie at the same time. It cried out in pain as light burst through it causing it to explode. Cloud and Max were covered in the zombie's residue.

"Yuck!" Max cried out in disgusted as his tunic was covered in goo.

"I think I'll have a shower when I get myself into an inn," Cloud calmly stated.

"Yeah…" Max agreed unnerved at how Cloud could remain so calm about being covered in zombie residue.

Cloud stared at Max, "look," He said not forgetting that Max was still an alien that needed to be questioned, "we still need to talk, but not here."

"Apart from the zombie attacking us, is there any other reason?"

Cloud sighed and hung his head, "this place brings back a lot of bad memories," he answered sadly.

"Oh, I see," Max stated sympathetically. "Well after that experience it's no wonder."

Cloud shook his head, "no, something happened here nine years ago that I'd just rather forget."

"Yeah…I can agree with that logic."

" Just one question though," Cloud asked curiously, there was something he wanted to know. "When you had your eyes shut what were you doing?"

Max grinned at Cloud, "I was meditating," He answered smugly, "I put Holy power in both our swords. Zombies are weak against Holy power."

Max almost jumped out of his skin when he heard a voice suddenly speak in his head. "Well…looks like someone's got brains. It's a good job Cloud didn't kill him after all." The voice sounded like it was coming from a young male, perhaps in his early 20s. The voice sounded playful and mischievous.

It only took a few seconds for Max to get over the shock. "Ok…" Max said in his head, "first of all I can hear you guys. Second, Cloud's not an idiot."

"He can hear us?"

"He's psychic," A second voice joined in, only it was female this time, again young sounding and possibly in her early 20s she sounded more mature than the first voice. "Sorry about Zack, he's new to this sort of thing."

"Hey! I resent that!" Zack yelled in Max's head.

Cloud stared at Max, "you can hear the dead?" He questioned.

Max nodded, "yes, I can hear the dead." He answered, "I hear my mother's voice nearly all the time."

"You can hear your mother's voice?"

"Yeah."

"How did she die?"

Max hung his head sadly, "it's a long story."

"How's that possible?" Cloud asked curiously, "how can you hear the dead?"

Max opened his mouth to speak when he was interrupted.

"I guess Kitsunes can read minds," The female voice stated, "and they can hear the dead, just like the Cetra could."

"Aerith," Zack asked a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "don't you ever get tired of knowing everything?"

"No," Came the reply.

Zack was about to make a come back when Max interrupted them. "Hey guys! Stop arguing ok."

Zack and Aerith both spoke at the same time, "we weren't arguing."

"Really…" Max replied sceptically, "it sounded like arguing to me."

"Listen…" Zack cut in, "Max isn't it?"

"Yeah," Max replied.

"When you have a girlfriend," Zack continued, "you'll understand."

"I'm married."

"Oh that's so sweet!" Aerith exclaimed happily

"Look guys," Max spoke firmly to the voices of the two spirits in his head, "as much as I enjoy talking to…spirits or whatever it is that you are. You're kind of getting on my nerves a bit so err… please leave my head."

"Oh ok…" Zack responded not bothering to hide the disappointment in his voice, but he quickly cheered up again, "but we'll be back though."

"Anytime you need us," Aerith cut in, "we'll be there."

"Or if you just want to talk…" Zack continued.

"Yeah…" Max said in his head, "I'll look you up sometime."

"Tell Cloud we said hi," Aerith requested.

Zack and Aerith disappeared from Max's head.

"Can we please get out of here?" Cloud asked a hint of impatience in his voice.

"Sure," Max agreed, "I'll explain everything."

Cloud walked up the stairs and out of the mansion, Max followed behind him.

It was late at night in the city of Edge and Drogo was walking down the abandoned streets with a confused look on his face. Drogo woke up a few hours ago and found himself in a dumpster. He had been wandering round the streets of Edge trying to find at least something that would look even vaguely familiar to him.

"What is this place?" Drogo asked himself. "It looks like a dump." Drogo dodged round the odd passer by and stared at them warily in case they got any ideas of trying to mug him "Where is everyone? Where's Sunny?"

Drogo found himself thinking about Sunny, he hadn't seen her since they were separated, and now he was on a strange world separated from his friends and had no way of contacting them.

"I can't give up now," Drogo stated defiantly, "they have to be around here somewhere, I just have to find them. Maybe a little Sake will help to boost my spirits." Drogo looked down at his belt and found that his flask of Sake was missing. "Great," He mumbled angrily to himself, "why is there never any Sake when you need it? I guess I'll have to find some."

Drogo continued walking until he came across a building with a statue of an Angel on the roof, Drogo shook his head at it. Whoever lived here had some strange tastes. Drogo leaned on the door and fell through it, someone had forgotten to lock the door.

"Owwww… " Drogo cried out in pain and staggered to his feet. "These people obviously don't understand the concept of locking their doors when they go to bed."

Drogo searched for a light switch and the room was filled with light, he found himself standing in a bar. The room was deserted and Drogo guessed that it must have been closing time.

"That's strange, the bars on Terra Firma never close. Unless it's different here. In that case I'll just help myself to some Sake, they won't miss one bottle."

Drogo jumped over the bar and started looking round but couldn't find any Sake anywhere.

"There has to be some Sake somewhere."

He continued to search but still couldn't find any Sake. Drogo was unaware of the amount of noise he was making. Meanwhile upstairs Marlene was woken up by a loud noise downstairs.

"That sounds like someone breaking in," She whispered to herself, she tried hard to contain her fright.

Marlene threw the covers off her, darted out of bed and ran out of the room running head long in to Denzel.

"Denzel?"

"Marlene, what are you doing out here?"

"I heard a noise downstairs," Marlene answered.

Denzel stared at Marlene, "you heard it too?"

"Yeah, why did you?"

"Yeah," Denzel replied, "we should tell Tifa."

Denzel and Marlene ran into Tifa's room, they crept up to her bed and started shaking her.

"Tifa? Tifa…wake up!"

Tifa moaned as she stirred and stared bleary eyed at Marlene and Denzel.

"Marlene, Denzel…"Tifa asked sleepily, "what are you doing in here?"

Marlene grabbed hold of Tifa's hand, "we heard something downstairs. Someone might have broken in!"

"Marlene," Tifa reassured her, "you were just having a nightmare."

Denzel grabbed Tifa's other hand, "it's true Tifa, I heard it too."

Marlene and Denzel both spoke at the same time, "Come on Tifa!"

Tifa sighed, "alright, I'll go down and see what's going on."

Tifa crawled out of bed and Marlene and Denzel left the room as Tifa got changed into her regular clothes. She then opened the draw at the side of her bed and reached for her gloves, she put them on and walked out of the room. Tifa was shocked by the loud noise.

"See," Marlene stated fearfully, "I told you, there's something down there."

"Alright, listen," Tifa told Marlene and Denzel, "you and Denzel stay here, I'm gonna go downstairs and investigate, ok."

"Ok, be careful Tifa," Marlene replied.

Tifa nodded to Marlene and Denzel and walked slowly down the stairs, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a frying pan hanging from the wall and put it on her belt. She then proceeded down the hall and slowly opened the door to the bar. She looked into the room and saw a shadowy figure behind the bar.

Tifa spoke quietly to herself, "so Marlene and Denzel were right, someone has broken in. I have to stop them.""

Tifa crept into the bar, the intruder still had his back to her this was her chance to get the upper hand on him. Tifa aimed to punch the intruder on the back of the head to knock him out but he seemed to have other ideas. He turned to face Tifa fists at the ready.

Tifa threw herself forward and pulled her fist back aiming to punch the intruder in the face, but he jumped to the side just in time. Tifa realised her mistake and launched a combo of punches and kicked at the trespasser, which he could barely block.

The intruder spoke in his head, "damn this girl's fast, and powerful too."

The intruder cried out in pain as Tifa dug both her feet into his stomach and performed a somersault one of her feet kicked him in the chin as she went over. The intruder performed a triple kick combo, he kicked her in the face and stomach and was about to do a sweeping kick under Tifa's legs to trip her up but she jumped just in time. Tifa grabbed hold of the intruder, jumped high into the air and threw him to the ground, he slammed heavily into the floor, unable to move.

"Owwww…" he moaned in pain.

Tifa landed gracefully on the ground next to him, she walked over to the trespasser and sat on him. She now had the opportunity to take a closer look at him and was shocked to discover that he was a humanoid hedgehog with purple fur, light purple fringe spikes. He wore mostly blue, his waistcoat and pants were slightly damaged in the fight, but not much. The spines on his back were sticking straight out and were almost digging into Tifa's leg. The intruder started struggling wildly.

"Hey!" He cried out trying to throw Tifa off him. "Get off me!"

Tifa jumped back with a yell, "you just talked!"

The intruder slowly sat up, "yeah…" he mumbled satrically, "what did you think I was, an animal?"

Tifa stared at the intruder, "this isn't happening, this is just a dream."

"Yeah…" The intruder stated in response, "I've been thinking the same thing, but I'm real."

Tifa felt round her waist and she remembered the frying pan on her belt. She removed it and crept up on the intruder, the frying pan was held high over her head aiming to hit the intruder over the head with it and knock him out. However the intruder was one step ahead of her, he withdrew both of his Kitanas and slashed to the side Tifa let go of the pan in shock as the handle was cleanly severed from the pan and fell to the floor, Tifa dropped the pan.

"How did you do that?" Tifa questioned half impressed, half fearful.

"I'm trained in using two Kitanas," The intruder replied boastfully.

"I see…I'm Tifa by the way."

"The names Drogo."

"What are you doing here?" Tifa asked, her fear was replaced by curiosity.

"I didn't break in if that's what you mean," Drogo answered quickly.

"Then how did you get in here?" Tifa questioned.

Drogo pointed to the door, "the door was unlocked," He replied, "I was leaning on it and I fell through. I was just looking for some Sake, I wasn't going to steal anything."

"Oh…" Tifa responded to Drogo, "we're sold out of Sake."

Drogo stared at Tifa in disbelief. "No Sake..."

Tifa shook her head, "sorry, we sold out this morning."

"When does your next shipment come in?"

Tifa thought for a while before answering, "let's see, I should get some more Sake on Friday."

Drogo continued to stare at her, "Friday?"

Tifa nodded, "that's two days from now." She stated.

Drogo moaned at this, "you mean I have to wait two days for a bottle of Sake!"

"Well you could have another drink while you're waiting," Tifa suggested helpfully, but at the same time she found it strange to be in the presence of a hedgehog who was partial to alcohol.

Drogo thought for a while then nodded, one drink was better than not having one at all and he was in a bar after all. He walked over to the bar and sat down on a stool, Tifa walked behind the bar.

"So what can I get you?" Tifa asked him in her typical barmaid voice.

"Do you have anything that's as weak as Sake?"

"We have white wine."

"I'll have a glass of that then."

Tifa poured Drogo a glass of white wine and gave it to him; he then downed it in one gulp.

"Thanks," Drogo said gratefully as he put the empty glass back down on the bar. "I guess I owe a few pounds."

Tifa gave Drogo a blank stare. "What are pounds?" She asked.

Drogo stared at Tifa in shock, "you don't know what pounds are?"

Tifa shook her head, "I've never heard of it." She replied.

Drogo pulled some coins out of his pocket and showed them to Tifa. "This is what pounds are." He stated.

Tifa gazed curiously at the coins in Drogo's hand, "we don't have anything like that here."

"Then what's the currency here?" Drogo questioned

"Gil." Came the reply.

Drogo put his coins back into his pocket and merely shrugged, "oh, I'm sorry," He apologised, "I don't have any gil."

Tifa laughed heartily, "that's alright, that drink was on me."

"Oh, thanks…I guess."

Drogo and Tifa heard soft footsteps coming down the stairs and Denzel and Marlene entered the bar.

"Tifa!" Marlene ran up to Tifa and hugged her, "are you ok?"

Tifa smiled at Marlene, "it's ok, Marlene," Tifa said reassuringly.

Drogo looked at Denzel who was standing at the door to Marlene who was currently at Tifa's side, and back to Tifa again. "Those aren't your kids, are they?" He quizzed not taking his eyes off Tifa. "I mean you look too young to be a mother."

"I just look after them," Tifa answered.

Drogo nodded to show that he understood. "I see."

Marlene stared curiously at Drogo, "who's he?" She asked enquiringly.

"Marlene, Denzel," Tifa replied, "this is Drogo." Tifa pointed to Drogo as she said this.

Marlene released her hold on Tifa and walked over to Drogo, "He sure is funny looking," Marlene stated.

"So are you," Drogo retorted.

Tifa left the bar and walked into the back, she came back into the bar carrying a book, she opened the book and gave it to Drogo.

"Here," Tifa said as she pointed to the page, "this is what a hedgehog is supposed to look like."

Drogo looked at the page and saw a picture of a small, brown, spiky animal.

Drogo began to read the page. "A hedgehog is a small insect eating animal that curls up into a ball when threatened…" Drogo laughed at this. "That's what a hedgehog may look like here on your world," Drogo said as he contained his laughter, "but where I come from, hedgehogs are a very different thing altogether."

"Do all the…species on your world look like you?" Tifa quizzed.

"The hedgehogs do, yeah." Drogo answered, "but there's a wide range of species on my world."

"So you behave exactly like humans do?"

Drogo gave Tifa a confused look. "What are humans?"

"That's what we are silly!" Marlene yelled playfully as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Alright Marlene," Tifa ushered her out of the room. "I'll take care of it. You and Denzel go to bed."

Marlene sighed looking disappointed, "oh ok…bye Drogo."

"Yeah, see ya."

Marlene and Denzel disappeared upstairs and Tifa continued to stare at Drogo.

"So what do you do for a living?" She asked inqusitively.

"Oh, I'm a cop," Drogo responded proudly, "but before that I was a thief."

"You were a thief?"

"Yeah," Drogo grinned arrogantly, "not just any thief though, I was the King of Thieves."

Tifa laughed at Drogo and he gave her an evil glare.

"What's so funny?" He demanded.

"You can't be a thief," Tifa said trying to contain her laughter, "if you were…"

"You don't think I was a thief eh?" Drogo cut in, "Watch this!"

Drogo stood up and back flipped onto one of the tables behind him, he then jumped to the nearest wall and kicked off it landing on the spinning fan on the ceiling. Drogo jumped from fan to fan and landed on another table he then ran outside and frontal flipped onto a lamppost he crouched down and jumped kicking off the walls and landing on the roof of the Seventh Heaven. Tifa ran out to watch. Drogo performed another back flip and landed on top of the angel statue. He then crouched and launched himself off the statue; he pulled out one of his swords while in mid air and placed it underneath him. The blade stuck into the ground and Drogo landed with both feet on the hilt perfectly balanced, he grabbed hold of the hilt and jumped landing safely on the ground. Drogo sheathed his sword and grinned at Tifa who was just staring at him in awe.

"Well…what did you think of that?" Drogo folded his arms and gave her a smug, complacent stare.

"That was amazing!" Tifa admitted. "How did you do that?"

"I used to be a thief remember?" Drogo answered, "thieves have to be flexible if they are to succeed in heists."

"I guess I stand corrected."

Drogo and Tifa walked back into the bar and for the first time in a while Drogo remembered Sunny.

"Hey, Tifa." Drogo found himself asking, "you haven't seen a girl named Sunny around here, have you?"

Tifa shook her head. "Sorry I haven't. What does she look like?"

"She's a hedgehog like me." Drogo explained, "she has peach coloured fur, brown eyes, wears a lot of blue. She wields a bow. She's not very strong physically but she can summon pretty powerful monsters.

Tifa's eyes lit up, "oh, she has lots of materia?" She asked.

Drogo looked confused, "what's materia?"

Tifa smiled warmly at Drogo, "I'm guessing you don't have materia on your world." Drogo shook his head so Tifa continued. "Materia are small orbs that grant the user the ability to cast magic."

Drogo thought about this, "I see, where can you find materia?"

Tifa shrugged her shoulders, "you can find it almost any where, at the moment a friend of mine, Yuffie has our materia."

"She's a thief right?" Drogo questioned curiously.

Tifa nodded, "yes, how did you guess?"

Drogo grinned at her, "just a wild stab in the dark, so how did she end up joining you?"

"We caught her," Tifa replied with a sigh.

"By being caught do you mean you found her unconscious in a river?"

Tifa shook her head, "no, we caught stealing our money and materia."

Drogo laughed, "then she can't have been a very good thief," He stated boastfully.

"Why did you ask about whether we found her in a river?"

"That's how my friends found me," Drogo explained a hint of both anger and sadness in his voice. "My ex best friend and second in command set up a mutiny, it was either jump off the cliff or face death. My friends found me and nursed me back to health, of course my new best friend, Lance put these things called nanites inside me to control me."

Tifa nodded to show that she understood, "is that when you met Sunny?"

Drogo shook his head, "no, I met Sunny long after that. When we searching for our friend Max who was shot two years previously."

"I see."

"Look, Tifa," Drogo sounded serious for the first time that night, "as much as I enjoy talking to you, I need to find Sunny and my friends."

Drogo started to walk out of the bar but Tifa stopped him.

"Wait! You can't go now!"

Drogo turned round and stared at her, "why not?"

"It's dark outside," Tifa replied out of concern for Drogo's safety, "there are lots of monsters that come out at night."

Drogo snorted with laughter, "I'm not afraid of monsters. I've fought some tough and ugly monsters."

"I'm sure you have, but even if you can fight off all the monsters, you don't even know where Sunny is."

"I'll travel round the whole world if I have to," Drogo stated a look of pure determination on his face. "I will find her."

Tifa sighed, she knew that there was nothing she could say that would make Drogo change his mind. "Alright, but can you at least wait till tomorrow?" She suggested.

Drogo stared at Tifa, he wanted so much to search for Sunny, to hold her in his arms again, but as much as he hated to admit it he knew that Tifa was right.

"I guess I have no other choice since you're blocking the exit," He said finally.

"There's a spare room upstairs if you want it."

"Yeah, thanks."

"You're welcome," Tifa replied, "get some sleep and then maybe tomorrow we can find Sunny and the rest of your friends."

"Yeah, hey, don't forget to lock the door, Tifa."

"I won't," Tifa responded as she put the key in the lock and turned it, the door was now locked. "Well, I'm gonna go to bed now. You coming?"

Drogo yawned "yeah."

Drogo followed Tifa behind the bar and walked up the stairs, Tifa took one last look round the bar, turned the lights off and walked upstairs. She led Drogo down the hallway and opened a door.

"Here's the spare bedroom," She stated helpfully, "I hope it's ok."

Drogo entered the room and looked around, the room was only basic, but at least it was clean. The wall paper was white with floral patterns, a single bed with a plain white duvet and pillows was leaning against the wall underneath a small window. There was a large wooden wardrobe opposite the bed and a chest of draws next to the wardrobe.

"Yeah, this will be fine," Drogo replied gratefully, "thanks."

"No problem, well goodnight Drogo."

"Goodnight Tifa."

Tifa walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, Drogo removed his swords and laid them gently at the side of his bed. He kicked his boots off and took off his waistcoat and shirt, he then crawled into the covers and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Tifa entered her room and changed back into her night clothes, it had been a strange night for her, she had seen some strange things in the past five years, but a giant humanoid hedgehog who was capable of human speech was by far one of the strangest things she had ever seen.

"Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow and all this will be a dream."

Tifa turned the bedside lamp off, lay back on the pillow, closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Well that's it for chapter 2, sorry it's a bit long but it was quite an action-packed chapter. Chapter 3 is coming soon. Tell me what you think, remember this is my first fanfiction so please don't slay me. If you want to criticise me, make sure it's constructive criticism.