Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy XIII and blah blah blah usual stuff, don't sue me for writing this Squenix.
It has been five years since the day Cocoon fell, since Jenova had been frozen in crystal, and the grand crystal pillar appeared to hold the hollow world safely above the surface of Gran Pulse. The populace of Cocoon had been able to migrate down to the lower world as they did not have much of a choice. Within the first year after The Fall, more than half of the food producing fal'Cie died out, crippling Cocoon's ability to sustain life. As food became more and more scarce, panic set in as people were still terrified of the world below. It strained the remaining military of Cocoon to control the panicking populace but they pulled through. Also during the first year after The Fall Lightning Farron, the woman that brought the heroes together and the single most important person in events leading to The Fall, though she would deny it every time, became pregnant and later, just before the beginning of 2AF (two years After Fall) gave birth to twin girls.
Three major settlements were set up, the first being Oerba as it had been mostly intact but Fang had a huge problem with the Cocoon citizens stomping all over her home but Vanille was able to bring her around. The second settlement was named New Bodhum in memory of those wrongly accused in the Purge, and the third was New Eden, for those lost in the last battle. One year after the initial migration, swaths of land had been cleared for farming.
Two years after The Fall, the settlements started expanding and the heroes of the war against Jenova and the Sanctum moved into Oerba, as Fang and Vanille refused to live anywhere else. Angeal and Genesis took the side of the Pulsians mostly because Oerba reminded them of Banora. The entire group quickly settled into near-civilian life, they did what they could to help the new, unnamed, government and the refugees in Oerba. Tasks mostly involving getting new immigrants from Cocoon get settled into Oerba and keeping the area around the settlement clear of Pulsian beasts.
The third year after The Fall was surprisingly quiet and uneventful which relieved the Cocoon military and government but the fourth year was a nightmare. Storms ravaged the unprepared settlements, except Oerba which had been built to survive the tropical storms, wildfires took many of the farms and orchards the populace depended on leading to a food shortage. Oerba was the only settlement to remain fully intact after the fourth year. 5 AF was dedicated to rebuilding what was lost the previous year.
Lightning sat on a bench in the front yard of her house watching her twin toddlers play in the grass and listening to numerous construction projects going on around the neighborhood. All minor repair jobs after the last storm. There were times she wished she could be helping repair the damaged houses but she had to care for her daughters as everyone else was too busy to babysit them.
One of Lightning's daughters, Lucrecia, had slightly more pale pink hair than Lightning, which could only be noticed if they were together, and bright green eyes just like her father. The other girl, Averia, had silver hair with the slightest hint of pink in it and blue eyes just like her mother. They were named after the mothers the two soldiers never knew. Lightning and Sephiroth adored their daughters and all of their friends and family were glad the two soldiers had children. It softened both of them to the point where they would openly smile around everyone.
"Hey Light," Hope called as he entered the yard. Lightning greeted him with a small wave, never taking her eyes off her twin daughters.
In the last five years, Hope had grown tall and strong. Though he was young, he had proven to be exceptionally intelligent and for that Cid Raines had made him a part of the development council for Oerba. The elder members would always refute the claim, but many knew it was Hope that kept Oerba functioning most of the time.
"Hey," a second male voice greeted, Lightning greeted him with a small wave as well.
The second voice belong to Hope's childhood friend and current bodyguard, Noel Kreiss. He was the same age and build as Hope but he had longer dark hair, blue eyes, and was easily as smart as Hope but was more impulsive and shortsighted. Noel had been orphaned during the Fall and was fortunate enough to be sent to Oerba with other refugees where Hope found him and Bartholomew Estheim took him in. He joined the Guardian Corps as soon as he could and became a remarkable fighter with a unique dual sword fighting style.
"So what brings you by, Councilman?" Lightning asked with a smirk, Hope hated being called a Councilman. She took a glance at the visitors and saw Hope in his suit and Noel in full uniform
"The older members are having a meeting." Hope said with a shrug as he sat next to Lightning, Noel remained standing with his back to the wall.
"Without you? Or is it about you?"
"Probably the latter. I guess they're getting tired of a kid stepping on their toes." Hope's comment earned a chuckle from Lightning.
"They're a bunch of narrow minded fal'Cie loyalists. They're only happy if everyone is obeying without question." Noel said, keeping his eyes on the surrounding area.
"You should be careful about throwing those comments around," Lightning warned him "There are a lot of people that still side with the fal'Cie."
"Well they're just as foolish as the fal'Cie." Noel spat back.
"Some people just want order in the world and with what's happening in our world right now, I can't blame them." Lightning responded.
"We were under the rule of the fal'Cie for so long that we don't know how to lead ourselves. So the people in charge are emulating the only example of leadership we ever had." Hope said to his two friends "Makes me glad that Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis are around to rally the military."
"Yeah. We wouldn't have made it this long without them." Noel speculated.
"Speaking of Sephiroth though, where is he?" Hope asked.
"He took a detachment to New Eden to help the rebuilding effort. Angeal went with him to keep the people in high spirits. Genesis is doing both things in New Bodhum." Lightning answered.
No one spoke up after Lightning's response, the three remained silent for a solid minute before Hope broke the silence between them.
"Seen Vanille lately?" the platinum blond asked the pinkette.
"Yeah. She's starting to show a bit." Lightning answered, Hope nodded and made a 'hmm' sound "There'll be a little Genesis or Vanille running around soon."
"I bet Angeal will love that." Hope commented sarcastically.
"He's used to dealing with children. He did choose to mentor Zack, remember." Lightning joked. She and Hope shared a laugh and they continued talking about their friends and sharing stories.
As the sun started to set Hope was called back to the council hall and Lightning gathered her daughters. She fed the toddlers their dinner, bathed them, and put them to bed. The twins shared a bed because they were small enough, cried for each other when they seperated, and there wasn't enough space for two beds in their room. Lightning looked at the photo on her nightstand as she lay on her bed. The photo was taken by Amodar a few days after the twins were born, it was a group picture of the former l'Cie and SOLDIERs. Lightning and Sephiroth were sitting on a loveseat each holding one of the twins, she had Averia and he had Lucrecia. The others were on both sides of and behind the loveseat. Sazh had Dajh on his shoulders, Snow had his arm around Serah, Zack was holding Aerith bridal style, Vanille had Hope in a headlock, Angeal, Genesis, and Fang were just standing proudly. The best part of the photo, in everyone's shared opinion, was that everyone was smiling with true happiness, even Sephiroth.
Lightning smiled to herself as she looked at the picture and drifted to sleep. It wasn't long before the dream she always had when Sephiroth was away occured. She never could remember what it was about, just that there was a lot of fighting in it. Whenever the dream occured, the pinkette would wake up near midnight and race to her daughters' room to check on them. Seeing them peacefully sleeping snapped her out of the overwhelming concern the dream gave her. Everytime she would smile softly at how adorable her daughters looked cuddled up to each other while sleeping and just write off her actions to parental worries.
The next morning, the pink haired former l'Cie was awoken by her giggling daughters jumping on her. She couldn't help but give a motherly laugh as she sat up and swept them both into a hug. That's when she noticed they were already dressed and their hair had already been brushed. Lightning got out of bed and was all but dragged along by the twins. Sephiroth was sitting on their couch in the living room and Lightning went and sat beside him, the twins climbed up into their laps.
"Morning," He said with a small smile "How did you sleep?"
"Someone turned my alarm off." She reply "So quite well. What are you doing home so early?"
"Angeal told me to go home to my family. Said he'd keep everything under control. Why though? Enjoy not having me around?"
"No. We missed you." Lightning leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Sephiroth's cheek.
"I missed you too." Sephiroth reply as he placed his arm around Lightning's shoulders.
They sat there enjoying each other's presence for some time as their kids got bored and started to play on the floor. The two soldiers watched the toddlers for a time and Lightning noticed her vision getting a bit blurry around the edges. She wiped at her eyes and it went away, she almost laughed at how emotional she was in private with Sephiroth. Lightning knew Sephiroth was also much more emotional but he still tried to hide, though she couldn't blame him. He wasn't used to expressing how he really felt, most of his life he kept it hidden.
"Mommy's bleeding." Lucrecia said a few minutes later.
"Your nose, mom." Averia said after.
"What?" Lightning responded as she touched her nostrils and found out she did in fact have a nosebleed "Oh geez," she commented, keeping it clean around the kids, as she got up to find a tissue.
"Are you alright?" Sephiroth asked as he got up to follow her. The twins followed their parents.
"Yeah, I'm fine, this is just really random," Lightning answered, entering the bathroom to use toilet paper to stop the bloodflow. She looked to Sephiroth and saw in his eyes he was hiding his true concern behind the innocent question "It's stopping already."
"It's a bit unusual though." Sephiroth commented, his tone telling Lightning he suspected something.
The rest of the day was uneventful, much to Lightning and Sephiroth's appreciation. It was rare for them to have a day to themselves and the twins. With the migrated society constantly on the edge of collapse, Sephiroth was always busy but it was understandable as he was one of the handful of people trying to get a new world up and running.
The next day, just after lunch, there was a knock at the door. Sephiroth answered and Lightning stood beside him, it was a Cavalry corpral in full uniform and it took the soldier a moment to realize he was standing face to face with the commander of the entire military and one of the heroes. He snapped a quick salute after his moment of stunned silence.
"What is it corpral?" Sephiroth nearly growled. He did not enjoy having his time with his family interrupted.
"Your presence is requested at Headquarters, Sir."
"What ever the issue is, contact Primarch Raines, Brigadier General Hewley, or Brigadier General Rhapsodos." Sephiroth reply.
"Primarch Raines is asking for you, Sir." The soldier glanced around nervously "He said there are some strange readings and signals coming from Cocoon."
"What?" both Lightning and Sephiroth said.
"We already sent a team to investigate and they said the readings and signals were coming from Eden." Sephiroth shared a look with Lightning as the soldier spoke "Then they disappeared."
"They just vanished?" Sephiroth was trying to sound skeptical but it wasn't working very well.
"Another squad was sent in to find out what happened but now we have a dozen soldiers that are M-I-A." The soldier was a bit nervous under Sephiroth's gaze.
Sephiroth turned to Lightning to tell her he was going but she just smiled and spoke first "I know. Just be careful out there." Sephiroth gave her a light kiss, told the soldier to wait in the car, then raced to get changed into his uniform.
As Lightning watched them drive off, she got the same feeling of dread whenever she watched him leave. She wrote it off as civilian worry and that she was in love with the man, they did have two kids after all, and hated to know he was heading into potential extreme danger and she wouldn't know what happened to him for at least two days. She tried pushing the worry aside, she shut the door and went to play with her daughters, they always helped her feel better after Sephiroth left. But this time was different. He was heading into the site of the final battle against Jenova, who knows what, or who, was waiting there?
And so begins the sequel to One Winged l'Cie. What do you think? Up to my usual bad beginning standards? Don't worry, it'll get better, I promise. I suck at beginnings afterall. Funny thing is I've had this done for a while, just needed to think up a title and a summary. Anyways…
Please leave a review.