Author's Notes: Drabble (ish) for a monthly prompt: "New Beginnings". Title is French for "reason for being".
Raison d'etre
She wasn't the same. Not anymore. Not after the whole l'cie situation. She sighed, as if thinking about the whole journey was physically taxing on her body. In a way, it was because it changed her. She changed her.
At first, she didn't know. She never had time for such trivialties. It had no place among the Guardian Corps. But somehow, somehow she had done the impossible. From the first time at Palumpolum, she intrigued her. Then, she was astonished as she broke her barriers, her wall down, brick by brick. She was a Pulsian- no, a Gran Pulsian. The corner of her lip twitched a little. Had she been here, she also would've corrected her. She didn't need to.
It had hurt, as her hand held Snow's, not hers. At that moment, she knew she had changed. No, she wasn't Lightning anymore. Not quite. After all these years, Claire was emerging out of the shell. Lightning's shell. She helped her, the one who tore it down, cracked the cocoon, unleashing the emotional torrent.
No, she wasn't crying. She wanted to though, but she had a job to do. Something to repay her back. It was a new day, a new beginning, right here in her home village. Now it was hers as well. Picking up her gunblade, and holstering the weapon, she got ready to leave. But not before fixing a picture frame on the way out. The same picture frame which had her and Vanille standing together for a picture. The only tangible comfort she had left; with every ending comes a new beginning.