Drip. Drip.
"Vanille..."
Pain. It was everywhere, to the point where she couldn't feel anything else. It became a color, surrounding her in it's grasp. It was the black of night, the fear of children, and the comfort of monsters. She fought it with the strength that she was known for, beating back the darkness like she was born to.
Details began to filter in through the black.
Cold drenched her front, and there was hardness against her cheek. She could hear water dripping close by. All of a sudden, she heard a sound foreign to her cold, dark world.
"Claire! Quick!"
The sound was followed by the cadence of running feet. She struggled in her battle with the black, and pushed it back enough to crack an eye open. She saw the world that she had become accustomed to, dark and grey. Two figures, bright and unafraid, braved their way through the darkness to her. In her shock, she stopped her fight against the black.
With a chuckle that rang through her mind, the darkness reached up to claim her once again.
It felt as if she were floating.
The pain couldn't find her here, wherever she was. The darkness was banished, and light shone through her dazed mind. Details started to squirm through the cracks of her awareness.
Oerba Yun Fang felt warmth, and soft sheets beneath her.
Bed, she thought to herself. It must be daytime now.
Faint murmurs could be heard from close by. She cracked her eyes open and took in the sights.
She was in the bed of a brightly colored room. Light cascaded through the window on the far side of the room to fall on her from outside. Aside from the color of the walls, the room was small and spartan in its simplicity.
"No, Serah..."
The owner of the voice walked into the room and paused at finding the strange woman that they had found awake. She was dressed oddly, in a sleeveless jacket with many buckles and small shorts on. A weapon peeked out of the holster on her thigh. However, the strangest thing about her was the pink hair that seemed so out of place framing her hard expression. Her azure eyes locked on to Fang's viridians with a steely gaze.
At the sight of another human, Fang's mind seemed to clear. She leapt out of the bed and challenged the pink haired woman.
"Vanille! Tell me where she is!"
The pink haired woman slid back into a defensive stance and put her hand on her weapon.
"I don't kn-"
"Don't lie to me!" Fang interrupted with her smooth accent. "She was with me when I got attacked!" She frantically looked around for a weapon, and located her spear by the bedside table. She snatched it up, extended the spear to its half length, and twirled it into a battle stance. "Now spill, birdie! Where's she at!"
"Lightning! What's going on?" A light-pitched voice exclaimed from outside the room.
"Serah, stay back. This woman is dangerous." The woman called Lightning turned back to the strange woman and assessed her coldly. She was a strange looking woman, though admittedly beautiful, with bronzed skin and piercing viridian eyes. Her wild black and red hair made her seem like an untamed animal. She was wearing an odd blue tribal wrap around black shorts and a black halter top. "You are from Pulse, are you not?"
The strange woman sneered, "Gran Pulse. You're a damn Cocoon viper, and ya took my Vanille!'
The spear wielder leapt forward and attacked her captor with a short stab that would be lethal to most. However, Lightning did not seem to fit into that general category of people. True to her name, she easily avoided the spear strike and whipped out her sword.
Growling in frustration, the Pulsian whipped around the other end of her spear to press the attack, only to be blocked by Lightning's strange sword. The two enemies pressed close to each other in the block, each trying to overpower the other.
Lightning quickly realized that pure strength was definitely not the way she would win this fight. Even though her opponent was weak from fresh wounds, she was already overpowering the pink haired swordswoman.
Just how strong is she? Lightning thought. She's not much bigger than me, but she has to be stronger than anyone else I've ever met!
Lightning rolled away quickly, her speed not an advantage in this fight, with the size of the small room hampering her usual acrobatic fighting style. She sprang her feet quickly, launching a quick strike at the back of the bronze spear-wielder, only to have her strike blocked yet again.
The Pulse-born quickly whirled her spear, tossing Lightning's strike aside and coming around the back of the pink swordswoman's leg. She hooked quickly and brought Lightning crumpling to her feet. Flush with success, she brought her spear up for the killing blow.
"NO!"
The bronze skinned woman looked up quickly to see a smaller version of Lightning standing at the doorway. There were tears in the smaller girl's eyes and her hands were covering her mouth, as she looked from the spear to Lightning crumpled on the floor. Fang's eyes widened and darted between the two pink haired sisters as she realized that maybe these two weren't so different from Vanille and herself. It wasn't so difficult to see Vanille standing there crying with Fang on the ground.
"We go to all that trouble to save your life, and this is how you repay us!?" Serah yelled.
Guilt surged in Fang's chest as she put the pieces together. Her heartrate slowed, and the haze that was affecting her judgement cleared.
Unfortunately, that haze was all that was keeping her standing. The Pulse born dropped her spear and let out a groan as she fell towards Serah. She could only choke out a few words before the darkness rose up to claim her.
"...I'm sorry..."