I was never sure what she was to me…
She was already too many things to count…
I sat in the tall grass, crying. I was only six, and I'd just lost everything I'd ever known. My mother, my father, my home, they were gone. I was sure that I had nothing left to live for, everything I had just disappeared.
I buried my face in my knees, trying to block out the cries and screams I heard of my mother and my father's voice still echoed in my head, "Get out of here, Vanille! Run, run as far as you can! Please! Go! I love you, Vanille!"
And I did just as he said, I ran and ran for hours. I didn't dare stop. But my feet began to bleed and I had no choice but to stop.
Suddenly, I looked up and saw a girl, older than me. She had long black hair, and wore a black shirt, blue pants, and sandals.
My heart began to race, I didn't know if she was chasing me for the bandits that had slain my family.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt cha." The girl smiled, and sat down next to me, "My name's Fang. How bout you, you got a name?"
"V…Vanille," I sniffeled out.
She smiled, "Well, Vanille, what's the matter?"
"I… My… Bandits…"
"It's alright, if you don't want to tell me, I'm not angry or anything."
I looked up at the girl, and smiled.
"Now, that's more like it."
She grabbed my hand with her's, "C'mon, I wanna show you something."
She stood, and pulled me up next to her, making me notice that she was about a foot taller than me. She led me to a waterfall far from where I lived in Oerba. We sat by the water, and I got the courage to tell her what happened.
"F…Fang?" I asked in my high childish voice.
She looked over at me, "What is it?"
"When you found me… I was running… some bandits came into our house looking for money… my daddy told me to run far away. But my feet started bleeding and… and…" The tears fell down my face again.
"Shhh, it's okay," She ran her fingers through my hair, "Come here."
She picked me up and sat me on a nearby rock and rinsed off my bloody feet and wrapped a few pieces of cloth around them.
"Feel better?" I nodded my head.
"You know, I'm an orphan too, Vanille."
I stared at her, she looked only about nine.
"I've been on my own since I was about your age. But what I'm trying to say is that, if you want, you can stick with me. I can teach you how to take care of yourself."
I smiled, hiding my inner shock at the kindness from this girl that I'd just met.
"Yeah!" I jumped on the girl, and felt her smile.
"Well alright then, that settles it."
I found myself sleeping curled up next to her that night, and her warmth comforted me through the night as I cried myself to sleep.
The next morning Fang had found us fruit for breakfast, and as I sat on the rock eating, she grabbed two elastic bands she wore on her wrists, and pulled my curly orange hair back into two pony tails.
She came back around and smiles, "It fits you."
I smiled back at her.
"You touch one orange hair on her head, and I'll gut you like a behemoth."
Fang stood in front of where I laid helpless on the ground. The bandits from my past had found me, and their last orders were to kill the last member of the Dia family… Me.
The bandits towered over the fifteen year old Fang, but she gave no thought to it as she stood in front of me.
"You think we're scared of you? You're just a kid."
They began to push Fang out of the way, and she snapped. She swung her lance, their blood spilling on the Pulsian grass.
"I told you!"
With the murder of their leader, the others ran away in fear. Fang turned her attention to where I say crying on the ground. She quickly dropped her lance and squatted down to where I was sitting.
There was a cut on my stomach, and she quickly tied the top of her sari around it.
"It'll be okay, Vanille. I'll protect you. Please, don't cry. Please… Don't…"
Fang picked me up, and carried back to our small camp where she rinsed out my cuts and bandaged them.
"There. You'll be better in a few days…"
I tried my hardest not to cry as Fang hugged me.
Fang knew seeing the bandits had brought back long buried memories of my parents, and I didn't even have to tell her. She asked no questions that night as I lied in her arms crying. She just did all she could to make it hurt less.
And somehow… it did.
"Fang. Were in this together."
Fang tried to hide her anger, "Why would you follow me, Vanille? Why did you want to become a l'Cie."
"I don't want you to have to be alone…"
Fang shook her head, she said it wasn't supposed to happen like this. We were knee deep in the War of Transgressions, and she had become a l'Cie to protect me and Gran Pulse, and now our focus was to destroy Cocoon.
It had been two months since we were turned l'Cie, and the war was at its breaking point. It was now or never for us. But I suddenly had cold feet, I was scared to become Ragnarok. Those people on Cocoon were people too. They didn't deserve to die, they were innocent.
All I remember was Fang screaming at me, "Vanille!" But I hadn't listened, I refused to destroy the lives of those innocent people, and she became the incomplete version of Ragnarok, missing me as her other half. She only managed to make a scar on the shell of Cocoon before their goddess took pity on the people, and crystallized us before we could do any more damage.
I woke up… I wasn't sure where I was…
Suddenly the memories of the events before flooded my mind before the scattered as I saw Fang lying on the ground in front of me. I ran over to her, but her memories of our focus had faded. She remembered our childhoods, but our focus… she couldn't remember.
I didn't want her to go out and get killed trying, so I told her I didn't remember either… Her brand had been affected, it was no longer active, it never changed… But mine… It was still steadily changing, and she told me that she would figure out our focus, and she'd complete it.
"I'm not just going to sit around waiting for you to become a Cie'th!"
That's what she said to me… But so many things happened to us after we awoke… Our actions had affected so many people… Serah… That little boy, Dajh… His father Sazh, Serah's sister Lightning, Hope… and even Fang… In lying to her, it made her risk herself more that she would have if I had just told her…
But I told myself… Even if I was going to become a l'Cie… My life wasn't worth more than the millions of people that lived on Cocoon. They were humans just like me, and they didn't deserve to me. My view of them had changed, they weren't our enemies… We were both fighting a senseless war.
Then there was Orphan… it was our last stop. Niether fang or I wanted Cocoon to be destroyed. It was our friends' home. But Orphan demanded us to become Ragnarok and complete our Focus once and for all. Fang offered herself to become Ragnarok, but I refused, and Orpahn tortured me. Just as I was about to give in, the others rushed in, saving Fang. We destroyed Orphan together, and we were all suddenly floating above Eden.
The others held on, floating higher than us. They called out to us, but we knew what we had to do.
"Ready?" I looked over at Fang and took her hands, and nodded my head, "Ready."
And together we turned into Ragnarok and stopped Cocoon from crashing into Pulse by crystallizing it. The others were crystallized outside of Cocoon on Pulse. We remained floating in the center of Cocoon.
"Wake up…" I told them, and they slowly began to come out of crystal stasis. We watched as they were reunited with those they'd missed, and gave a few parting words… then we were gone.
We came to in a large field, it looked like the Pulse we had known as children.
"Where are we, Fang?"
She shook her head, "I don't know…"
I looked down at my feet, when she suddenly grabbed my hand.
"But what I do know is whatever this is, and wherever we go, and whatever we do, we'll do it together."
She smiled at me, and we walked together in our strange, but wonderful new world.
So you see, I can't say exactly what she is…
All I know is that she talks to me when I need to be talked to, she hugs me when I need to be hugged, she protects me when I need to be protected, and she loves me when I need to be loved…
And now I do have a perfect title for her…
One that fits her…
She's my Guardian Angel.