Such a positive response on the first chapter alone -_- omg,thanks.

Umb, I got a question about what relationships are going to happen, etc.

Uh, I dunno to be honest.

I kinda don't have everything planned yet. Lightning was always such a dry person, I can't see anything falling in love with her, let alone bang her. Can you imagine? Missionary, derp derp.

Anywho, this entire chapter is chit chat and figuring out why the hell ff7 and ff13 could correlate at all.

It's all a great stretch and I hope my readers buy it. If not I tried T_T

Anyway, I just have to thank everyone who is giving this a chance. I love you all and don't even know you.

A loud knock had awoken the delirious Lightning, not from the children's door, but form the bar. She turned over onto her side when suddenly she jumped. Hearing glass break from down stairs, she rushed into the closet to grab her jacket, boots and armor. While still slipping on her gloves, she burst through the door to see Cloud and Tifa at the ready.

Standing opposite from the two hosts were men dressed in black suits, one disheveled red head with a ponytail and his bald partner in sunglasses. The red head cracked his neck and pulled out a long metal shaft and tapped it to his shoulders.

"Well, well, there was no need for that now, was it?" the red head said, snickering at Tifa.

"What do you want, Reno?" she barked back kicking a piece of broken glass at them.

He caught the glass under his boots and just shoved it aside and continued to sneer. "Just idle, chit-chat, nothing more. Geeze-oh-man, what can a guy do to get a drink around her, yo?"

Tifa remind with her fists up but Cloud eased his arms down. "What do you want?" he asked more calmly but with a firm sense of authority.

The bald man stretched his arm out to point at Lightning and said, "She's coming with us."

Reno stepped forward, "Hand over quietly and no harm is done. Rude's got a hot date and doesn't want to get blood on his hands, dealio?" The suited bald man shifted uncomfortably and adjusted his glasses.

"As if!" Tifa spat.

Lightning looked at the men in suits and then back at Cloud and Tifa. She then proceed to walk in the middle of the feud and stomp her foot to get attention. She glared at the Reno and Rude before saying anything.

Cloud reached out to stop her, but she snapped, "I need to know what the hell is going on! Who the hell are these two?"

"Honestly, it doesn't matter sweetheart, you just come along with us, and like we said, no problems," Reno spoke out again, leaving no reassurance.

Tifa yanked Lightning from the open area and back towards Cloud and herself. "Keep away from these creeps. These guys work for Shinra and you best keep your distance."

Lightning grabbed her arm back and glared at Tifa. "What do they want with me?"

Reno answered for Tifa. "That's top secret info, babe."

"Forget it, go," Cloud ordered the men in suits.

"Afraid we can't that," Rude replied.

Tifa, having enough of the cryptic messages, lunged forward and swung at the Reno, causing him to jump backwards, and fail his arms to keep balance. Cloud, following Tifa, lunged at Rude, pinning him up against the wall by the neck, holding him a few inches higher than he.

"Get lost, Turks!" Tifa yelled, swinging at Reno again, him ducking also once more.

Reno attempted to fight back at him, but easily parried and caught him in a turn around, having the red head facing the door. Feeling a swift kick, he felt himself flying out the door and landing on the rough cement outside the bar. He quickly whipped around to look up at the bar to only find himself being pummeled by his own partner being thrown out on top of him.

The door slammed shut and Tifa flipped the lock to keep anything else unwanted for coming inside. Lightning slowly approached the duo and began pointing at Tifa and Cloud.

"Okay, and who were they?" she demanded.

Tifa wiped her hands off on her skirt and replied, "Shinra scum. Keep away from them or anyone for that matter in a suit."

Lightning shifted weight to her other leg. Annoyed, she asked, "And what's Shinra? What are they doing looking for me?"

Cloud shook his head. "Don't know what they want." He scratched the back of his shoulder. "Just stay away from them. They're messed up."

Lightning still wasn't satisfied. "Who are they? What's Shinra?"

"A failed energy company. Screwed up a lot and are now looking to exploit anything and anyone at this point. Bad news," Tifa finally answer, in a quick summary.

Cloud took a deep breath. "Which is why we have to figure out how you got to be here. If Shinra knows something we don't we better figure out they're plan with you."

Lightning seemed unsettled. "I wouldn't know anything, this is ridiculous, I—" she paused for a second. "Do you two think… No. Wait a minute…" She turned away from them and rubbed her face.

Tifa's eyes widened. "Cloud, get Cid on the phone!"

Cloud didn't question Tifa's command and grabbed his black cell phone from his pocket. Once he began dialing a number, a creaking sound in a door from opening and Denzel's head appeared from the crack.

"Tifa…" his voice softly carried out as the three adults turned to him. "Is everything okay? Marlene and I…uh…"

Tifa rushed over to him and kneeled beside him at the door. She began whispering words of comfort to him and told him to go back up stairs and tell Marlene that everything was going to be okay. He nodded obediently and ran back up, Tifa shutting the stair door slowly behind him.

She smiled softly at Lightning. "They'll be okay."

Lightning didn't really care but just shrugged back. Both turned their heads over to Cloud who had just gotten the other party to answer the phone.

"Tifa wanted me to call you…" he said slowly, his eyes slowly turning at her. Loud ranting was heard from the other end that was a bit difficult to decipher.

Tifa rolled her eyes and stretched out her hand, commanding that he give it over to her. Cloud handed her the phone and Tifa quickly threw it up to her ear.

"Cid? Cid! Shh, shh, I need to know something important. Yeah, I get you're a busy man, but this is important!" She began pleading over the phone. The receiver was blasting profanities until she could speak again. "Okay, okay. Look, you've been monitoring aircrafts coming in and out of here right? What? No, I mean—not planes! Cid, listen!" The frustration in having a conversation with this man was already taking its toll on her. "Okay, have you been monitoring anything coming in and out the borders lately? Okay I get it, you're not border patrol, but you said…What?" A very quiet silence began as the voice on the receiver got more still. The sounds were muffled as Lightning and Cloud creeped in a little closer towards Tifa.

"Oh… Can you come to the bar tonight. I think everyone needs to be in on this. Yeah… Okay bye," she finally said, wrapping up the conversation.

Lightning crossed her arms. "And?"

Tifa looked over to hear while handing Cloud's phone back to him. "Cid's coming over. Doesn't sound good."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. "What's Shinra up to now?" he asked sternly.

Tifa shook her head. "It's not Shinra. Cid'll be here in an hour." That's all the information she left them as she began tending to cleaning the bar for Cid's arrival. Cloud stuffed his phone back into his pocket and briskly walked up into his office. Lightning stood for a moment before she decided to sit at a booth and pick at a loose tread on her gloves.

She glanced over to Tifa once she snapped the thread and rolled it up into itself and flicked it across the table. "Tifa?" she said, asking for her attention.

"Hm?" she replied looking up almost instantly.

Lightning put her chin on her palms relaxing her posture. "Who's Cid?"
Tifa broke her stare to keep cleaning. "He's a pilot. Cid's a long time friend of mine and Cloud. He's been keeping tabs on flights around the world. It's kind of his hobby."

Lightning looked at her confused. "So, what does this have to do with those guys in the suits and that company or whatever?"

Tifa put a glass away in a cupboard and turned toward Lightning. "People have been… well, flight crazy"

Lightning lifted her head and peered harder at Tifa. "And?"

Tifa started to walk towards Lightning in the booth seating. "And, that means people have been in and out of here unmonitored. And since Shinra's failure, all the patents and technology they'd invented has gotten out to public and now little organizations are taking their ideas and inventing their own… their own whatevers." Tifa sat down across from Lightning, flustered rubbing her forehead.

Lightning gave her a skeptical look. "So, the people aren't governed by a totalitarian company. Freedom to make their own market—"

"No! You don't understand, Shinra is full of sick people. The experiments they performed, the technology they had… None of this should've been repeated!" Tifa pulled at her hair for a second. She then locked desperate eyes with Lightning, who now was feeling rather uncomfortable. "Look, those patents were supposed to stay secret, but the President of Shinra decided it'd be a good idea to release all of Shinra's dirty secrets, as a way to come clean. The people should've been horrified by the atrocities that had happened, but now they're using Shinra's technology for themselves. At this point, I don't know what's happening. It's chaos."

A quiet somber feeling began to set in the restaurant. Lightning took a heavy sigh and fidgeted with her navy leather gloves. She could see how much this was problem to these people. But what did any this have to do with her? As attached as she was starting to become to her hosts, she still felt like her problems were her own. As for the situation this place was in, she couldn't really find herself banding together and saving the world, or something less dramatic.

Cloud then came through the stairway door and made his way over to the booth where Lightning and Tifa were sitting. Tifa scooted over to make room for him to sit. Once Cloud sat he began rubbing his temples.

"What's wrong?" Tifa asked, trying to make eye contact with him, but he remained staring down at the table.

"I just talked to Barret. He said something about Corel now exporting scrap metal to a bunch of privately owned companies. He said 'Business is booming' but I don't know Tifa. It doesn't look good to me," he answered back. He voice was distant. To Lightning, something was ticking in his brain.

"I bet it's to those idiots out of Junon," she spat out.

Cloud just shrugged. "I don't know what's with everyone's sudden interest in building aircrafts."

They sat for a minute. Lightning didn't want to interfere but she felt the need to interject somehow. "Do you think they're getting paid?"

Cloud and Tifa both looked at her.

She repeated herself again. "Do you think people are getting paid to build machinery? Aircrafts, you know?"

"But who would be paying them?" Tifa asked. "It's individual companies, people are just making things and using them."

Lightning shook her head. "I mean, think. A bunch of companies come out of nowhere since this Shinra stuff went under. People don't know what to do with themselves, so they get their hands on these patents. They all start building, but for what? Not everyone can fly a plane. So, they sell them to a bigger company with the resources to use them. In turn, people keep their jobs, and whomever is flying around doing whatever people do."

Tifa covered her mouth. Cloud, who until them, seemed aloof and disinterested in anything had wide glaring eyes.

"Yeah, but okay, who has enough money to keep buying so many aircrafts?" Cloud said, his voice becoming slightly louder.

Lightning shrugged. "I dunno, who has all the money?"

Tifa and Cloud just shrugged. "That's the problem, no one does," answered Tifa. "but what you said makes perfect sense. People are just starting to manufacture and places like Corel are now back in business."

Lightning leered. "Corel, some kind of dead city?"

"Pretty much," answered Cloud.

A few minutes passed as the trio sat and exchanged thoughts until a loud knock came from the outside doors. Cloud let Tifa out of the booth and she rushed over to the door. She was greeted by a middle-aged man with short blond hair that was pushed back by a pair of pilot goggles. He threw his cigarette out to the street and made way into the bar. Tifa followed and decided to change spots, seating herself next to Lightning while Cid took her seat next to Cloud.

Cid sniffed and rubbed his nose and gave a exaggerated look over at Lightning. "Who's the new kid?"

Lightning already pressed her lips and folded her arms across her chest, glaring at the old pilot across from her.

"Lightning, this is Cid," Tifa said, giving Cid a look of disapproval. Her eyes read, 'knock it off,' but Cid just managed to roll his eyes.

"Lightning, Cloud, Jesus, what shitty weather we're having," he barked.

Cloud ignored the comment and began to speak. "Cid, we need to know about all these aircrafts being build. What are people doing?"

Cid sat back and took in a deep breath. "Back home, I got signals coming from ships all the time. And they all seem to be landing just outside Prison Town. Them from there, the monitors get all haywire and don't pick up shit."

"Are they blocking any signals coming into the area?" Tifa asked.

"Shit, hell if I know. They got something going on and there aren't any readings leaving. Everything's coming in and staying. And to hell goin' there, you get lost, Corel will just pick up your left over's and throw you to the dogs. I ain't steppin' foot in that shit hole," Cid said.

Cloud rubbed his eyes. "Do you think Shinra's involved?"

Cid gruffed, "Naw, those bastards are up to shit, but this doesn't sound like them. They just as well as you and I don't want to go near that prison."

"Then who?" Lightning asked impatiently. No one answered. She began to lose hope. "If none of you are willing to investigate your own issues, that's fine. This is none of my business. But I want to know is how I got here and why I ended up where I was."

Cid looked at her funny. "Ended up? What, you just like, fell outta the sky or somethin'?"

Lightning scowled. "Might as well! Who knows, maybe you all are building a bunch of rocket ships and kidnapping people and then throwing us out windows into blown up rubble and whatever stupid things that everyone is doing around here!" She was now standing, slamming her fist down on the table. "I want to get out of here and go home! And if that means going to some prison in some snowy mountain, I'll do it!"

Everyone now sat in uncomfortable silence. Cid just looked at her like she was crazy. "The hell you say you're from?" he asked.

Lightning sat down hard and took a deep sigh. "Bodhum," She paused. "On Cocoon."

A light when on in Cid's brain. He said nothing but his eyes widened and were moving across the table as if he was reading intensely into newspaper spread across the surface. "Cocoon? You don't…That's crazy. Have you been checked out recently?" Cid began spewing out more and more accusations and questions at Lightning.

Offended, Lightning retorted, "No, I'm not insane! I'm part of the Guardian Forces to protect Cocoon. They wouldn't hire crazies! I was taken hostage and now I find myself in this place of ruin and chaos! And you're accusing me of insanity? Maybe I should've gone with those guys in the suits earlier; maybe they'd have some real answers!"

Tifa bit her lip. "Reno and Rude made a drop by."

Cid rolled his eyes again. "The hell they want now?" Tifa just nudged her head towards Lightning, "The hell the know we don't, those bastards."

Lightning had enough small talk. "You tell me right now damnit, why I'm being accused on being crazy or I'm giving myself up to those guys from before!"

Cid waved her sit down. "Alright, alright, don't get your panties in more of a twist than they already are. Sit your ass down." Lightning eased herself back into her seat but remained on edge. "Look, this 'Cocoon' you say you're from, well, up until now, didn't exist but in rumors. Alright, everyone at this table except for you isn't supposed to know about 'Cocoon'."

Tifa gave him a questionable look. "Supposed to know? Then why is it you aren't completely confused as we are, Cid?"

"Aw hell, Tifa, I'm confused as shit," he responded, "Just not in the same way. You see, when Shinra has me under their orders, they told me that during my first flight into space, I'd be heading to some satellite or whatever. Then, while in training, they told me that I'd be on Cocoon, an orbiting object that was abandoned by the Shinra Space Project years ago. I was told it was a remains of an older meteor or something they sent people to inhabit as an experiment. It failed, and was left to rot in space, and everything with it. Then, after learning all that shit, they gave me the boot and told me to never speak of it again."

Tifa and Cloud eyes were in disbelief. Lightning was a bit more at ease than before. "Well, that's something."

Cid rubbed his face. "Up until now, I figured it was just some myth set up by Shinra. Even until this day, no information was released about Cocoon."

Lightning unfolded her arms. "Well, until today, you didn't think that there are entire populations and cities roaming Cocoon. And until now, you didn't realize that people are now dying and in war. And until now, you didn't think anything outside of this place didn't concern you." Lightning let her face fall into her hands. "Serah is still there. And for all I know, she could be dead now." She cringed and then looked up to Cid. "And I don't give a damn if you get your ass thrown into that shit hole prison, you're going to take me to it, and you're going to get me out of here, you hear me?"

Cid threw down a fist. "Who the hell are you to tell me what the hell I'm going to do? I'll go on my own time, and right now ain't it!"

Cloud put up his hand. "Stop, guys." His voice remained calm. "Look, we'll go to Corel Prison tomorrow and see what's going on. Until then, rest up here. We have a long day ahead of us."

Tifa looked up to Cloud. "But, who'll watch Marlene and Denzel?"

Cloud closed his eyes and thought. When he opened again Tifa already seemed to have an answer. "I'm sorry, Tifa."

She just nodded and gave a weak smile. "It's no biggie. Just be careful. Denzel will freak if he never sees you again."

Cloud quietly nodded. "I promise."

Cid stretched his arms out and yawned, "Well, I'm going to have another smoke and call it a night, I'll be at the inn if ya need me." At that, the old pilot left the bar and the other three left upstairs for the night.

When morning came, Cid was already at the restaurant bright and early drinking coffee Tifa provided him with when she woke up to make Denzel and Marlene breakfast, where they now sat in one of the booths. Lightning rubbed her eyes and sat down on one of the bar stools and adjusted one of the buckles on her left boot. Tifa handed her a cup of black coffee. Lightning nodded in thanks and sipped on the steaming glass. Minutes later when Lightning reached half a cup, Cloud made his way through the stairway door equipped with a blade as tall as he was and at least a foot wide. In his hand, he had a familiar object to Lightning. Inside of its leather holster, her sword and gun contraption was folded tenderly as it was engineered to.

"Yours, right?" Cloud asked, handing the holster to her. She accepted it and attached it to her brown leather belt at her waist.

"I was wondering when I'd be seeing this again," she said, teasing.

Tifa came around from behind the counter holding another mug full of coffee with both her hands. She offered it to Cloud but he just held out his hand shook his head. She took it back, holding it close to her chest.

"The kids wanted to stay home and see you off," she said, only looking at Cloud. Her expression was much somber than from the day before.

Marlene finished taking a bite of egg and ran over to hug around Cloud's knees. Cloud managed to keep his balance as he gave a weak hug around her small head. She looked up to him with her large brown eyes and whimpered, "I'll miss you!"

Cloud gave her a feeble smile back and released him for her grasp. Denzel, who quietly had made his way over to the adults, he sighed and too hugged Cloud, though much higher at his waist. "You promised we'd go riding sometime." Cloud gave the boy an apologetic look and rested his leather glove on top of Denzel's shoulder.

"We're still going to. I promised Tifa I'd come back in one piece," Cloud said, trying to sound reassuring.

"You better!" Denzel said, with more enthusiasm.

Cid gave the kids hugs as well, saying his pieces to them. Marlene then walked up in front of Lightning, who had been waiting now by the edge of the bar, resting her elbows on the countertop.

"I thought you were going to be apart of our family, but Tifa said you're going home now," the young girl said sadly.

"Sorry kid. I don't belong here," Lightning replied.

"If you wanted to stay you could," Marlene pleaded.

Lightning sighed, "I have people to take care of back home. You have Tifa and Cloud and others. People need me too."

Marlene just nodded and understood. She ran back over to Tifa and hugged her knees. Denzel gave a weak hug to Lightning and stood next to Marlene. Tifa escaped for the girl's grasp and gave Cid and Cloud both endearing hugs. When she made it over to Lightning, she hunched over slightly and held her left arm in her other hand.

"Well… I mean, if you ever end up back here…" she began, unsure of how to wrap up their short visit.

"I'll know where to look," Lightning finished, her voice the most relaxed it had been the entire time.

Tifa nodded in approval. "Good luck then."

"Thank you," Lightning at last said.

Cloud, Cid and Lightning then made their way out the door and into the open city of Edge to begin their journey.

For some reason, I can imagine Cloud being a smoker. I might make him one.

After all the bullshit he went through, shit, I'd be a chimney.

But anywho, Next chapter they'll probably all be traveling through Gaea, Gaia, derpa derp? Someone clarify that for me. I'll do my fair share of research, I promise *3*

But yeah, the journey begins and more secrets revealed,ohemgee!

Okay, lovlies, have a good one, thank you for sticking with me, readers are what makes me so motivated to continue writing and practicing (because, dang dang, I need it for sure)