A/N-Oh look! Writer's block...look at all the crap I can write with writer's block...

Hope you enjoy nonetheless-w- thanks for reading!

Warnings-large amounts of gore and violence, character death;don't like don't read

Genre-Horror/Romance/Hurt/Comfort

Pairings-LightningXHope, the pairing itself doesn't show up until later on though


Blood Red Skies and Topaz Eyes

Chapter 1-The sound of dripping blood.

The sun showed dimly in the sky beneath the cluster of clouds overhead as six L'cie ran for their lives. They ran as fast as their legs could take them Lightning leading, Snow not far behind, Fang and Vanille jogging behind shouting directions as they came to dead ends, and Hope and Sazh,being the slower two of the group, running in the far back.

Behind them ran two Behemoth Kings, bearing their teeth and roaring as they turned corners in attempt to cut them off. One veered left again in another attempt but snow saw and warned the others of the incoming threat. The second one attempted to do the same thing taking advantage of the group's momentary pause at a dead end that not even Fang nor Vanille knew how to get out of without being caught. The two Behemoths got on their hind-legs and began to run towards the cornered group, slashing their swords through the air as they did so. Hope being as tired as he was didn't notice anything even though he was in the back of the group. He was in a hunched over position trying to catch some air to revitalize his lungs.

The Behemoth slashed again and it caught him in the back making him crash to the ground with a loud scream of pure agony. The others turned with looks of shock and concern for the fourteen-year-old that lay on the ground in a near unconscious state. They ran towards him in effort to help, Lightning leading the way by a mile a look of genuine anger on her face. She ran past the dying figure of Hope on the ground in front of one of the Behemoths and slashed at its legs causing it to roar in pain and anger. The others had made it to Hope and were making sure that he was okay asking him questions to keep him mind occupied so he wouldn't pass out, Vanille checked the wound in the back and attempted to heal him as fast as she could, or at least stop the bleeding a faint glow of green covered her hands as she called out her medical magic. She whispered to Hope that everything would be okay and that he was fine now;tears filled her eyes as she examined the wound even more to find any deeper areas that would would healing faster.

Lightning jumped in the air; becoming face to face with the angry creature in front of her;she pointed her gunblade in its face and shot it, square in the forehead. The creature fell to its knees and it did not get up, it knelt there almost as if it were...stunned.

This however didn't stop Lightning from climbing on top of it and continuously stabbing it in the abdomen. The blood from this wound flew everywhere it landed on near by rocks and trees, it pooled below it in a thick puddle of deep red,it flew to her pink-tinted hair, and also to her clothing. Her fingers were covered in the thick red substance. She halted her backstabbing and studied her fingers she held her hands to the small amounts of light that creeped through the overcast clouds.

She got up off of the writhing body beneath that began choke and roar in protest to the multiple wounds in its back, but she didn't care. She watched it flail its legs and spaz as it slowly began to die from the wounds she had inflicted. She breathed heavily as the dieing creature turned into a corpse; she loved the sight of it, the blood dripping from the abdomen,the way the face scrunched up when they screamed...the way the body falls limp when the heart ceases to beat. She loved it all. She had decided, she loved to kill.

She looked away from the corpse over to the more important matter at hand. Hope. She wasn't really worried about the other Behemoth because it had ran away as she was killing the other. She ran over to the other five that were attending to Hope's wound.

"How is he?" She asked.

"He'll be fine," Vanille explained "But..."

"But what?"

"We'll have to stop here for awhile, Hope will be in no condition to move at all for a good long while,"

"And why can't you just heal him?"Asked Snow from behind Lightning.

"I can heal him, however my magic is not enough to heal the wound all the way..."

"What if all you medics combine all thier healing powers and try to heal him that way?"Sazh said.

"No, that won't work, there's some weird spell on the wound that prevents the wound from healing all the way by magical standards,"Vanille explained with a look of sadness on her face.

"Well if there's nothing we can do about it..." Fang said, "Well Sunshine? Wha' do you think?"

"If there's we really can't do anything, then I guess we'll have to stay,"

They began to treck higher into the forest to find an area they could set up camp. They had Snow carry Hope so they wouldn't have to make him walk, though it's not like he could walk in the first place. They soon found an open area that would do them just fine a creek was not to far off and there were no enemies in sight so the decided to set up camp there.

"Hey, sis,"Snow said.

"Not your sister"Lightning replied almost automaticly.

"Okay soon-to-be-sis,"Lightning flinched at his use of sarcasm and tried to suppress the urge to punch Snow.

"Don;t you think that you went overboard on that Behemoth?"

"No, why?"She replied matter-a-factly

"Well you're covered in blood-"

"Easy to wash out"

"You're weapon is probably dull now-"

"Nothing two rocks can't sharpen"

"And, most importantly, you left Hope there on the ground next to it!"

"I knew you guys were behind me and besides how would my medical magic help? You know Vanille's the better medic,"

"Hehe,well you're just full of answers aren't you?"

Lightning didn't even try to answer that question, truth was she was confused. She didn't know why she'd left Hope there on the ground, had she just been angry? Or did she really believe that the others would make it on time to help him? Or did she even care that Hope was injured? Oh, how she wished she'd have the answers to those questions.