It was centuries, no maybe eons since Vanille and Fang have awoken when they saved Coccon... again. Their friends have all died from old age and the world has moved on. But they... couldn´t. Not like this. Not when their friendship was on the verge of shattering.
And it was all Fang´s fault. She was the stronger of the two, but that didn´t mean she had the right to decide about her – Vanille´s life. Last time she remembered, they were cousins, not mother and daughter. Vanille also knew that Fang and her were the only remaining members of their clan and that the older woman was only doing her best to help her. But this was too much. Vanille had enough. She was only human, too. Maybe Fang did all that not knowing how much her smug tone hurt her or how often Vanille said something and Fang just had to add that it´s not true and it´s different. Fang ALWAYS had to have the last word and she ALWAYS was right. Everything Vanille said was rubbish. It wasn´t doing good things to Vanille´s self esteem, thank you. How Fang always prodded her. Over some time gradually Vanille began to dislike, no loathe her cousin she used to call her best friend and only surviving family. To top it all... they lived together. Yes, that´s right. Because Vanille wouldn´t be able to return to normal world. Because she was too weak to survive on her own. To her, it sounded like she was the most incompetent idiot under the sun in Fang´s opinion. They didn´t argue, because Vanille disliked quarrels and such. But then, everything changed one day...
Vanille went outside on her own without telling Fang – she wanted to surprise her with her hunting skills and some meat, because they were running low on it. Maybe Fang will finally see that she isn´t a burden. Vanille refused to be called a burden. She was from the Oerba clan, too! She was capable of going alone on hunts and bringing back provisions on her own. And she would prove it.
She was outdoors, lurking in the shadows, waiting for pray to show up. She caught a glimpse of a rabbit or something like that and she skillfuly and quietly like a mouse followed after it. It went towards and ancient ruin. Mind you, they were living in wilderness, far away from civilization of any sorts. The deer stopped to drink water from a pond. Vanille readied her bow. This is going to be easy, Vanille thought. She killed it with precise aiming before it had any chance to ran away. Vanille squeeled from joy, literally. Finally! She will show Fang that she isn´t weighing her down and maybe she will change her attitude towards her!
She approached her fallen prey with caution. There were less monsters than before, but Vanille wouldn´t like to awaken something unpleasant, no thank you. Her goal was to make Fang see her abilities and praise her, heck ackowledge her as equal and consider her opinions before swiping them away with her mocking glare and tone of voice.
Vanille knelt down and picked it up and she was about to put it inside her bag when the ruins shook with an alarmous intensity and Vanille stumbled and almost hit her head. Fortunately, she grabbed a tree and stabilized herself. Then she looked around. It seemed like whatever was lurking here in these ruins... it woke up. Vanille didn´t want to stay a moment longer. She ran like her life depended on it. However, she didn´t get far. Vanille turned her head as she was running and saw how the ruins exploded and a giant spider like monster made its way towards her. Needless to say, Vanille shrieked from horror as it was rushing forward and catching up with her. Vanille kept running, she was prevaricating between trees and she jumped across a puddle that would have definitely slowed her down. Vanille had to stop. She was out of breath and she didn´t feel well. She was used to running around, but not to running around to save her hide from a monster she can´t possibly defeat. If she had her L´Cie powers, then maybe she could have taken it down. But now... she was an ordinary human with mediocre power.
Then, she got a redeeming idea – how about using her surroundings? And of course, her wit. She noticed that this spider hated water. So what if she lured it near a big, really big lake? She saw one on the way here while she was tracking the deer. But to lure it, she would have to throw it inside the lake. Hopefully, it´s a dumb big monster which won´t notice water until it´s drowning. With that idea in mind she changed her way and sprinted west. It followed her and Vanille was happy about that fact. It came after her, so it took a bait. She had to smirk at that notion.
They have reached a forest clearing and Vanille halted abruptly. The monster spider stopped in its tracks and observed her with its many eyes. Did she mention she had arachnophobia? No, well now she had. She shuddered as it looked on and measured Vanille´s every move. To tell it was sickening was demeaning. The spider suddenly launched forward and only Vanille´s reflexes saved her from being crushed between its fangs. ( The irony, eh?) She had two options: First, fight it and lose and of course, die OR as she thought earlier, lure it into the water and hopefully kill it. She decided for the latter.
Unbeknown to her, someone else was was watching them, hiding in the shadows of trees, the thick branches concealed the other person who was closely observing the situation. Vanille readied her weapon and waited for the monster to come closer. It flinged itself towards the younger of Oerba clan and Vanille saw an opening – she whacked it really hard and it was dazed. She immediatelly tripped it over and it was falling right into the pond, where it landed in a big splash. Her tactic worked, because in a matter of seconds, the monster drowned. Well, that would teach it to mess with her. She was no easy prey, not anymore. She had regained her confidence in her, Fang´s shadow was no longer clouding her. A gasp made her face in the direction of the trees. Vanille knew that someone was there. "Whoever you are, stop hiding. I don´t like cowards."
Fang stepped forward and the look on her face was beyond angry. "Vanille! Did you just call me a coward! I protected you, it was me who saved you! It was me who-" But the younger of Oerba interrupted her. "Shut up! Just shut up! I put with you shit for years! You are no more than a tyrant, trying to dictate my life! I am THROUGH WITH YOU. I´m leaving and never coming back. You were always putting me down, making me feel like I was worthless. Well guess what? I´m NOT. It is you, YOU, Fang who needed ME. Move on with you life, I am not your fragile little sister or anything. I helped save the world. Get over you inferiority complex and forget you ever knew me. Because the days when I silently obeyed you are OVER. Hate me if you must, it´s my damn decision and I am not changing my mind. I´m strong, a lot stronger than you."
Vanille turned to leave, when Fang attempted to touch her. "Don´t you dare touch me! You deprived me of everything, of the world I saved! I´m going to one of the cities. Don´t bother following me. Farewell."
And she left the older woman alone, where she collapsed on the ground, her hand covered her face. She cried. She cried because Vanille had every right to leave her, she wasn´t her slave, her servant or anything. Just a family member and friend. Nothing more. And nothing less. Maybe she really was mean to her all the time and she didn´t see it, however, Vanille did. And she hurt her, terribly. Only thing Fang had now was regret. And she´ll live with that, because she brought it upon herself. Maybe one day, one day Vanille will forgive her.