First time writing a crossover so do not be surprised if people are horrendously out of character.
You've been warned.
Another thing, this story WILL be different from most generic crossovers. One of which I will say is that Lightning will not immediately draft herself into the ranks of the main characters.
The airship quaked as it sped through the acclaimed 'gate' to Gran Pulse. A variety of colors could be seen blurring past in a spectacular array outside of the cockpit as everyone clutched onto the straphangers dangling from the ceiling.
Across from Lightning, Snow stood with the goofiest grin as he watched Hope try to keep his own balance in a less-than-graceful manner. Apparently noticing Lightning's glance, Snow smiled and gave her a heroic thumbs-up.
Lightning rolled her eyes with hidden amusement, the next series of jolts nothing to her thanks to simulations regarding flight turbulence administered within the Guardian Corps. Although real-time situations that actually required the use of an airship were exceedingly rare in the Guardian Corps., she was thankful in knowing that both her and Snow were the only ones not struggling to stand upwards, but she chalked that up due to him being an absolute behemoth of a man.
As a rather violent quake of the airship caused even Lightning's stand to stutter, she reached out and pulled Hope back upwards by his scarf, resting a hand reassuringly on his shoulder while the teenager rubbed his head sheepishly with a free hand.
Snow didn't lose the grin as he called towards the pilot, "Hey, I thought you knew how to drive an airship?!"
"A Gran Pulse ship," Fang quickly added with a quirked eyebrow.
Sazh's let out a series of grunts, eyes never leaving the front as he fought against the rough jerks of the wheel, "Hey, hey, I'm trying, sheesh!" he said, half-joking, half-irritated. After that, his focus promptly returned to keeping the airship stable.
Lightning still had her free hand firmly planted on Hope's shoulder. It may have seemed to have been acted out of reassurance, but it was mostly so the boy didn't trip over himself again. As Snow, Vanille and Fang engaged in playful banter, Lightning opted to remain silent and observe.
It was obvious Snow was determined to make this through to the end and that both Vanille and Fang were excited to see their home once again. Hope was visibly anxious to see what Gran Pulse, 'Hell below', actually looked like.
Truthfully, Lightning was also. To anyone else, the small curve of her lips was of amusement but inside, as much as she hated to admit it, her heart fluttered and beat rapidly. Something caused her mind to pump adrenaline through her at the prospect of going to infamous place of the accursed 'Hell on Earth, Pulse' or as Fang told them all with pride, Gran Pulse.
'Call it the rebellious tendencies that I didn't have when I was a teenager,' Lightning thought lightheartedly.
With a blinding flash of light, the turbulence halted to a smooth and everyone was in awe at what was on the opposite side of the cockpit's safety-glass windows after their eyes adjusted.
Letting go of the straphanger, Lightning took a few steps forward.
Lo and behold, below them, an absolutely colossal expanse of greenery highlighted by reddened sunset expanded as far as the eye could see. Foreign, beautiful trees dappled the landscape along with glorious waterfalls and colorful canyons that were shaded in random places depending on whatever angles they faced.
At such a high altitude, it all seemed incredibly small as the airship glided through the sea of clouds without a single trouble, each fluff of white passed through leaving dewdrops and moisture on the outside surface of the cockpit.
Vanille ran up to Sazh with a smile, "You did it!"
The pilot gave her a thumbs-up, "Yeah! Told you, didn't I?" as both he and Vanille chuckled playfully, looking back at the scenery.
A few moments passed of marveling before a shroud of column of dark blotted out the cockpit window that caused everyone to raise a protective arm over their arms instinctively. When the sun finally returned after a few seconds, everyone looked up to see their first Gran Pulse monster: A gigantic, flying worm far off in the distance.
"Playful little critter, isn't he?" Fang said with complete nonchalance, a hand on her hip.
"Yeah, well play with someone else."
Vanille smiled nostalgically, giggling at Lightning's serious comment, "Happens all the time."
Everyone had their eyes trained as the bi-headed, horned worm soon detoured, its ferocious mouth snapping open and close.
"He thinks we're lunch," Fang input casually.
"Yeah, like a l'Cie-food buffet," Sazh added with some worry as the worm flew even closer.
Lightning reached out to grab her gunblade when the monster directed itself straight towards them, "'Cie-Food'. Cute."
"Guys here it comes!" The moment of Hope's desperate exclamation, the monster collided headfirst with
the cockpit window, the glass shattering easily along with the removal of the front half of the ship.
As the airship began to fly towards the earth, both Hope and Vanille screamed when they went tumbling together out into the sky in a vacuum but managed to latch onto a fractured piece of metal still connected to the ship. Too busy trying to grasp towards their own closest objects, Lightning, Fang nor Snow could help them when Vanille's grip slipped, both she and Hope falling towards the ground.
Snow gripped tightly onto an iron bar as he yelled, "Fang, get 'em!"
Nodding, "I'm on it!" Fang expertly dived towards them with Lightning following. As they skydived, Lightning's gunblade shifted to rifle with the click of a mechanism upon spotting the familiar, dark glow from the Pulsian woman's shoulder.
Looking back expectedly, Fang turned around midair and tossed the Eidolon Stone towards Lightning. Knowingly, Lightning's eyes didn't leave the small glint that was the Eidolon Stone when it brushed past her. Aiming carefully, she discharged a shot.
A split second later a shatter could be heard and the clouds above swirled into an ominous black along with a series of layered, violet sigils expanding overhead quickly there were broken when Bahamut collided through with a mighty roar, diving towards them.
"Here!" Fang opened her arms and legs and caught the draft, grabbing Lightning's extended arm as they landed safely on Bahamut's arched spine. With a calculating look, Fang patted her Eidolon twice, causing it to fly fast towards the descending ship containing Sazh and Snow who soon jumped onto Bahamut without hesitation.
Hope and Vanille flailed midair as they held each other's hands tightly. The petite girl glanced towards the teenager, "You okay?"
Hope seemed to have been aggravated by that casual question, "Oh yeah, I'm great!"
"Grab on!" And before they knew it, they were clutching Bahamut's spine after Fang roughly pulled them on. With another pat, the Eidolon steered away from the dangerous falling airship as it began to crash into a nearby forest.
With everyone's hearts still pumping with adrenaline, they began to recollect themselves while observing the scene directly below, watching migrations of the beasts of Gran Pulse.
When calm descended over them after a few moments, Fang announced, "Home sweet home. Welcome to Gran Pulse."
Nothing significant happened after that, instead everyone favored small chatter as they savored the magnificence of Gran Pulse. Everyone's eyes darted around its vast landscape like a child at a candy shop while Vanille and Fang huddled close together like sisters silently reminiscing over the days of yore, contently smiling with scattered thoughts.
It took a few hours before Fang finally descended to the ground and dismissed Bahamut. The sun had long since set, the air cool and damp in the valley overseeing a ravine that they decided to camp in.
Though they were rather deep within the valley, Vallis Media, but Cocoon's beautiful bounty could be seen over the horizon, its shell shining like a pearl basking under the moonlight as the crack in its hull pulsed softly with an ephemeral green under the veil of night.
'It looks nice,' Lightning noted. It was midnight, her shift almost over but nevertheless she was remained alert at every bush rustle or sway of grass. Often it was a rabbit or something of the innocent sort - which equaled a free meal.
It was a good thing the gunshot from a gunblade was not nearly as loud as the standardized gun. As of now, she had collected two rabbits and one those overgrown slugs with flowers on their backs.
All three of which were stacked in a pile right next to Lightning who sat on a rock as she sat, legs crossed, gunblade laying on her lap with a finger resting on the trigger.
After hearing another noise, the gunblade whipped right towards the source but then lowered once Lightning realized it was just a weary Snow. The behemoth of a man yawned loudly before speaking with a drowse, "Hello to you too, Light."
Lightning scoffed at the nickname, but hopped off the rock anyways after sheathing her weapon and making way back towards their small camp.
Just before Lightning was completely from earshot, she smirked triumphantly upon hearing Snow complain rather loudly in the distance, "Aww, come on, Light!" the drowse was completely gone.
He had most likely just sat on top of the three critters that had been pooling blood underneath them for quite some time.
"Oaf," still holding to her victorious smirk, Lightning entered the camp and unbuckled her sheath, laying it down with the Blazefire Saber still tucked inside to be used as a pillow.
It was better than nothing, after all. Not to mention how much more tactical it was, considering she could be awake and ready should any trouble arise.
Besides, trying to sleep comfortably with the sheath strapped on was impossible when it constantly jutted her sides.
Before Lightning could finally rest her head, a familiar accented woman interrupted her, "What are you so giddy about?"
It was Fang, who apparently was still awake. Lightning immediately wiped the smirk away, "Nothing."
There was a brief silence before Snow's defeated groaning could be heard in the distance, barely perceptible. Fang exhaled a small, silent laugh but didn't bother anymore when Lightning lied down.
The moment her head hit the 'pillow', she was asleep.
The moment her eyes shot awake, Lightning bolted right up and reached for the Blazefire Saber, drawing it from its sheath in a smooth motion, aiming its barrel directly at the floating, spherical beasts that surrounded her.
A quick glance told her this was a lush, dense forest freshened by a thick mist that left drops of moisture to tickle her ears and chin as they trickled to the ground. With a jerk her body, Lightning couldn't spot Hope nor Snow nor anyone for that matter.
She was snapped out of her analysis when the spherical, foreign beasts with agonized, black-painted faces turned, the cannons protruding from their bodies clicking loudly into place when they fixated on her.
It wasn't long before they discharged the first volley.