A/N: Lightning and Hope are sparring while the rest of us are just standing back and watching the show. Who do you think is gonna win the match? Lightning or Lightning? Ha ha, just kidding.

During our time on Gran Pulse, things have been quite a struggle. This is a very strange and alien world, filled with nothing but wildlife and bloodthirsty creatures that seems to attack us every six seconds. Being l'Cie isn't easy. We are right now working on these Cie'th Stone missions, all of us expect for Hope are doing an okay job. The kid is barely keeping up, and not because of that sickness he suffered earlier. We've been working and fighting all day, the kid is starting to reach his limits.

Lightning is saying that Hope should take it easy, cause she's saying that he's just a kid. There it goes again. Hope is protesting that he's not just some little kid, but that's just how Lightning sees him. She ain't wrong however, he is only 14 while the rest of us are adults.

To prove he isn't just some kid, Hope admitted to challenge Lightning to test his strength. I start to worry about his arrogance of challenging Lightning, she'll obvious cream him and I would pretty much fail my promise to Nora to keep him save. I nearly broke it when that kid almost got stomped by a Adamantortoise. I'm even starting to imagine Lightning and Hope's duel, Lightning's grown fifty feet tall and she stomped her massive boot on top of the exhausted boy.

The duel takes place in the Aggra's Pasture, where we set camp for the night. Lightning and Hope are facing each other at a distance, doing some stretches. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Lightning asks.

"Yes I'm sure!" Hope demands. "I'm not just some little kid, Light! I'll show you!" In his thoughts, he's really saying he's a fool for doing this and he's as good as dead.

Lightning sighs, she takes out her weapon and makes her battle stance. "All right. It's your funeral."

Lightning charges makes the first strike. Hope turns and dodges Lightning's attack, then throws his boomerang at her. Lightning turns, seeing the boomerang at her. It hits her in the head, then flies back to Hope.

The rest of us stand back against the cliff and watch the two of them fight. "So, who do you think is gonna win?" Sazh asks.

"Obviously Lightning." Snow says. "She's gonna cream him."

I cross my arms, barely looking at Snow. "I don't know. Hope maybe young and weak, but he's smart. I think he's gonna win."

Fang just laughs like what I said was some punch line to a joke. "Oh really, honey? Did you forget earlier today when I arm wrestled the kid?"

We all look away staring in space, thinking back to that moment:

Fang and Hope are sitting at a large stamp, arms out, elbows on the chopped wooden table. Fang and Hope are arm wrestling. Hope was doing it as a way to show he's not a wimp. Fang just wants to do it for the fun of it.

Hope was pushing Fangs arm with all of his strength, but her arm doesn't move, not even a budge. The warrior isn't even fighting to resist, like her arm is completely numb. Hope now tries to push with two hands, still nothing. He gets off his stand standing on the side to get a better leverage, nothing. Put his leg on the stomp to push with more strength, still nothing.

Fang yawns, she's starting to grow tiresome. Hope stops pushing, panting to catch his breath. "You done?" Fang asks.

"Not really." Hope says.

After a moment of rest, he continues to pull. He pulls Fangs arm until he decided to try his teeth, chewing on her arm. Fang just sighs and rolls her eyes, like that's really gonna do anything. Hope rushes to the other side of the stamp, pounding his fists on her arm. Still no progression. When that fails, he returns to the first position, sitting on his seat using one arm to push.

In the end, he's tired and exhausted. "Okay...I'm done."

Fang shrugged her shoulders, then she pushes Hopes arm with full force. Hope even got cause in the force and was knocked out of his seat and falls to the side. Fang stands up, stands beside Hope and looking down at him. "That's just sad, really."

Fang walks over Hope and past him. Hope lays his head down on the soft grass, sighing in shame and defeat.

After our moment of thinking back, I glare at Fang. "Will you stop calling me 'honey'?!" Fang just shrugged her shoulders. "And also, fighting doesn't take brute force. It takes strategy and Hope's best at doing that."

"I'm with Patrick at that." Sazh says. "But I still think Lightning's gonna cream him."

I turn my attention to Sazh. "Thanks a lot, Sazh." I say with disapproval.

"Well, I have faith in Hope, so I think he'll win." Vanille says.

Hope casts his Waterga spells at Lightning as he backs away. Lightning charges directly at Hope, avoiding his spells. When Lightning gets too close, Hope casts an Aerora spell to blow her back. Lightning falls back into the wet grounds, getting soaked.

Lightning gets back on her feet, looking back at Hope. "Is that really the best you've got?" Lightning asks.

"I was just getting started!" Hope says. "Thunderga!"

Lightning realizes what Hope was planning, but was a second too late. Lightning strikes into the waters, electrifying Lightning. We were all amazed at the thousand bolts of electricity, multiplying cause of the water, frying Lightning. In the end, Lightning was partly scorched, smoking and rocking back and forth in a daze until she collapses onto the ground.

"Whoa..." Everyone but me says.

I smirk and turn to Fang. "See? What'd I tell yea?"

Lightning moans as she begins to awake. Lightning slowly gets on her feet. "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that." Fang says.

Hope positions himself, ready to strike. But does nothing when he sees Lightning barely standing with her balance. Lightning looks up at Hope. "Impressive...but not good enough."

Lightning holds out her weapon and charges at Hope. Hope casts a Firaga, but Lightning counter attacks with a Watera. The two spells clashes and a large puff of steam explodes. Hope can barely see anything, for the steam too dense to see through it.

"Stealth mode. How clever." Snow says.

"She is a soldier after all." Sazh says.

"But isn't stealth mode more of a ninja thing?" Vanille asks.

"Shh, quiet!" I demand.

Hope looks all around, aware of his surroundings. The mist begins to lighten up, but it's still hard to see. There's no sign of Lightning. A soft rumbling sound happens behind Hope. He quickly turns around and throws his boomerang at the direction. The boomerang just hits the boulder and falls from impact, Hope sees it's nothing.

"Oh, quite the misdirection." Fang says.

Hope seems confused look at the boulder. Lightning leaps out of the mist, weapon out ready to strike. Hope gets an eerie feeling with the presence. He soon realized what it could be. At once, he turns around and unleashes Aeroga, blowing Lightning away with powerful force of winds before she could even hit him.

Lightning is knocked back until she crashes against the wall, head on. All of us were shocked when we see Lightning crashed against the wall. All of us were standing up. "LIGHTNING!?"

All of us quickly rushed over to Lightning. She's laying on the ground unconscious, with blood seeping out of her head. Vanille takes a quick check on her, the impact of the wall caused a cut on her head.

"Oh dear, that's not good." Vanille says.

"Damn, man." Sazh looks at Hope. "I thought you were sparring, not trying to kill her."

"I-I...I didn't mean..." Hope says nothing else, then he looks down at Lightning. "What have I done?"

Snow puts a hand on Hopes shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. Lightning's a tough girl, she'll be fine."

I look at Snow and slap him in the back of the head. "How about a little less no-worries and a little more medical-aid. Lightning's in pain, man!" Everyone else agrees with me, and we all carry Lightning back to camp. While we're walking, I grab fang by the arm and we stopped. "By the way...I won the bet. That's 500 gil you owe me."

Fang groans with disapproval then pays up the gil.

We brought Lightning back to camp, Vanille did some healing spells on her wounds and wraps her forehead in bandages. Lightning now lays on the softest grass we could find with her head resting on the chocobo's feathery body. Hope keeps a constant eye on Lightning, just waiting for her to wake up. Hope can't help but feel guilty for doing this. All he wanted to do was prove his strength, but all he ended up doing was nearly taking out her life.

All we can honestly do is wait and hope she'll be okay.

Hours have passed since Lightning's incident. The sun is already setting, Fang is working on cooking dinner while the rest of us are looking at Lightning and Hope from a distance. Hope hasn't left Lightning's side all day and it worries me, Snow and Vanille.

"He's been that way since the accident." Vanille says.

"Man, it's like he's possessed." Snow says.

"It's my relationship with me and my father all over again." I say.

Vanille turns to me and Snow. "Should we talk to him?"

"Let's give him a few more minutes." Snow says, and the rest of us agrees.

We all gather around the campfire watching the Sahagin being cooked. Hope looks down at Lightning with shame and guilt, the soldier girl is still out cold. He just watching her closed eyes, her chest slowly rising and falling, her head bandaged with little bit of blood seeping through the bandages. Hope still cannot believe what he had just done.

Hope grabs hold of Lightning's hand, holding right in front of him and begins crying. "I'm-I'm sorry, Lightning...I'm sorry...I didn't mean for this to happen...please forgive me...please come back."

Hope cries over Lightnings body. A minute later, he stops when he hears something coming from Lightning. He sits up, looking down at her face, noticing her eyes are beginning to open. Hope gasps slightly, he can't believe she's finally waking up.

"Guys! Guys!" Everyone jumps hearing Hope shouting. "Get over here!" We all shot up and rush to Hopes side.

We all look down noticing Lightning is beginning to wake up. "She's waking up." Vanille says.

Lightning slowly, carefully sits up. She struggles since her strength is currently weak. Halfway up, Lightning moans and puts a hand on her head. "Oh...my head."

Hope helps Lightning sit up. "Are you okay, Lightning?"

"Who's...who's Lightning?" Hope seems surprised to hear that. Lightning turns to look at Hope. "Who are you?"

All of us muttered with each other, except me. I move in front of Lightning, kneeling down. I place my hands on the sides of her head, looking directly into her eyes. She's not kidding, she really looks lost and confused.

"Just as I thought." I look back at the group. "Amnesia."

Vanille gasps, Snow seems surprised, Fang makes no expression and Sazh shook his head. "Who's Amnesia?" Lightning asks.

We all wondered what we're going to do. Lightning is our leader and now she has amnesia. We all gather around the campfire, leaving the clueless Lightning on the corner with the chocobo. Lightning does wonder about Snowflake, even constantly pokes her. Snowflake kwehs and looks at Lightning everytime she pokes Snowflake. We all eat our dinner and decide what we're gonna do.

"I can't believe she lost her memories." Hope says.

"Don't worry about it, Hope. These things happen." Vanille says. That's just like her, trying to cheer people up.

"Well, I'm with the kid. I mean...what are we gonna do?" Sazh says. "Lightning is our leader. Without her...I feel like we're just a bunch of wild dogs chasing our tails."

"Well, we'll just have to find someway to bring back her memories." Snow says.

For once, Villiers is right. While everyone else chatted, I decided to take Lightning away from the group for a moment. I figured I could help her remember some things.

"So, who am I?" Lightning asks.

"You're name is Lightning Farron." I tell her. "Well, actually, Lightning isn't your actual name. But you prefer to be called that way."

"Well...what's my real name?" Lightning asks confused.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. But that's not important. My name is Patrick, I'm a close friend of Serah."

Lightning tilts her head to the side, looking lost. That's to be expected. "Who's...Serah?"

"You're sister." I suddenly remembered something. I reach into one of my bags, taking out a folded photo. I unfold it, and hand it to Lightning. "Here."

Lightning takes the photo, she looks to see a picture of Serah, smiling with her hands held behind her. Lightning looks at the picture curiously. Serah looks very familiar to her.

"Serah...My...sister?" Lightning says.

"Yes, that is correct." I say.

Lightning looks up at me. "Do I...have parents?"

I slowly shook my head. "I'm afraid not. Your parents died when you were young."

Lightning seems hurt to hear that, as if she just saw her own parents died right in front of her. "So...I'm an orphan?"

"I wouldn't say that. You're more on the lines of a guardian, since you're watching over Serah." I point out.

I get a terrible feeling. I turn to see Snow walking up to us, waving. "Hey, how's sis doing?"

I look at Snow bitterly. Lightning turns her attention to me, confused. "Sis? ...Is he my brother?"

"No. He's just some big doofus. Just ignore him." I stand up, walking off.

"What's with him?" Lightning asks.

"Uh...me and I have a complicated relationship." Snow explains. Snow looks at the direction where Hope's at by the campfire. "Hey...Lightning."

Lightning looks at Snow confused. "That's my name, right?"

"Yes. Anyways, you see that little boy over there?" Snow asks, pointing at Hope.

Lightning looks directly at Hope. "Yes...What about him?"

Snow smirks, this is the perfect opportunity to have a little fun for him. She wraps an arm over her shoulders, pulling Lightning close to him. "Let me tell you a little something about him."

While Snow is having his private conversation with Lightning, the rest of us are deciding what to do next. I told everyone I was able to have Lightning remember her family, and a little bit from Snow. At one point, we made the decision that one of us to keep a close eye on Lightning incase anything happens, and we all voted on Hope.

"WHAT!? Why me?!" Hope asks. He's not very pleased being chosen to babysit Lightning.

"It's your fault she's like this. Your mess, you clean." Fang says.

"I'm sort of with Fang on this." I say.

"Same here." Sazh says.

Hope sighs, disappointed. Vanille puts a hand on Hopes shoulder, trying to give the kind some confidence. "It'll be all right, you can do this."

Hope looks at Vanille, noticing her smile, then he smiles and nods. Whenever she smiles, it makes him happy. He really did mean it when he told her that it makes him happy when she smiles. Of course he was actually treating the whole thing like it was a big joke.

Snow and Lightning returns to the campfire. Snow sits next to Fang and Lightning sits next to Hope. Fang notices Snow smirking. "What are you smiling about?" Fang asks.

"You'll see. Just watch." Snow says.

Snow and Fang pays attention to Lightning. Hope just sits looking at the fire. At the corner of his eye, he sees Lightning. He slightly turns to see her, noticing she's staring at him. Hope starts to get uncomfortable about Lightning's staring. Hope faces Lightning, then notices she's...smiling, which makes him feels weird.

"Uh...Lightning? Are you-" Hope was cut off when, all at once, Lightning hugs him and plants her lips on his, kissing him.

Snows smile widens, Fang looks surprised then smirks as well. The rest of us are pretty shocked, gasping and dropping our food, like what we're seeing is something we would have never expected to see ever in a million years.

Lightning ends the kiss, Hope looks completely shocked and paralyzed, like he just saw a blood horror movie that completely scarred him for life.

"Wha-wha...what was that for?" Hope asks.

"Cause it's what we do, snuggle-bug." Lightning says, cheerfully.

Now THAT is completely shocking. It's as if Vanille is possessing Lightning. Fang quietly chuckles at Lightning's 'snuggle-bug' comment. I however, turn to Snow with a mean look, I know that he's somehow behind this. I turn back to Hope.

"Uh, Hope, why don't you and Lightning go for a little walk?" I suggest.

Hope seems uncomfortable with the idea, but Lightning answers for him. "That's a great idea. Come on, love!"

Lightning gets up and drags Hope with her. Hope begins to protest and tries to fight, but he can't escape it. When they're gone, I turn to Snow.

"Snow. What did you do?" I ask.

All eyes were on Snow. "Okay, well. I told Lightning that she is a lovely free-spirited girl..."

"Like Vanille?" Sazh asks, earning a laugh from Vanille.

"Yep, and she and Hope are in a very loving relationship...and that Hope has a massive crush on her." Snow finishes.

I was totally surprised to hear all of this. "You WHAT!? Why the hell would you do that?" I ask.

"What? Just thought it would be fun." Snow says in his defense.

I slap my head with my hand, groaning in annoyance. "Uh...are you sure that's a good idea?" Sazh asks. "I mean, once Lightning gets her memories back...she's gonna kill you...or Hope...or maybe both of yeas."

Snow shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I figured we could use some entertainment until then."

Fang chuckles. "Sure is entertaining for me. Hey, maybe I can convince Lightning she has a massive crush on Patrick."

I'm on angered alert hearing that. I stand at my feet, glaring at Fang. "If you dare do that, I'm gonna give you the Atomic Texas Wedgie!"

Snow is worried to hear that, Fang on the other hand is confused. I turn and make my leave. Fang turns to Snow. "An Atomic what?"

"Trust me, Fang. You don't want that." Snow looks over down his shoulder, gently rubbing his bottom. "I can still feel the burns."