It truly was a beautiful structure. It stood in plain view of thousands; its luster unavoidable to the eye. No matter what moment of the day, the light of the sun, whether directly from the source itself or reflected off the clear moon, made the crystal structure gleam with absolute magnificence. This awesome structure stood as a thing of beauty, but also as a reminder of how close doomsday came for its ex-inhabitants. It had been two years since Cocoon's fall and now what once sheltered the lives of millions was now cocooned itself in crystal. Now those it sheltered were slowly rebuilding their lives on a planet they once thought to be hell incarnate.
The people of Cocoon were taught and raised to believe that Gran Pulse was a hostile world, filled with creatures out for the blood of the innocent and that anything from the world was tainted. It was the worse place any person could think to live on. However, the refugees of Cocoon were now learning that the stories they had been told may have been filled with a good amount hyperboles describing how dangerous it was. It was a slow going effort, but in the last two years small towns and villages had been constructed and people were beginning to settle down.
Of course, settling a new world that, although it was not the hell it had been described as, was still hostile and teeming with many monsters was still a very dangerous thing to do. Though they didn't kill people out of spite, they were still animals and it was simply a danger that had to be contended with. This certainly meant that the Guardian Corps was very busy, with hardly a moment to breath. Of course, this was hardly a bother to Lightning as at it meant she was never bored.
She had settled into a good home in the two years she'd been living on Gran Pulse. It was located in the first town that had risen, which was located nearby the crystal pillar that held up Cocoon. Anywhere in the town, you could see the large structure and it certainly served as a reminder of how quickly things could go bad. However, as of now things were relatively calm despite occasional attacks from Pulsian creatures.
However, the unfortunate part about people is that when they are dislocated from their homes in such large quantities and so suddenly they'll have a tendency to resort to crimes to try and survive. Often times it is mild crimes, mostly thefts and some muggings. However there were the occasional murders here and there, but the perpetrator never got far. At least, most of them didn't. Lightning was much more of a combat orientated officer, so she never really handled the murder cases and rather was more of a civil protection agent; handling things such as the animal attacks or apprehending criminals. However it didn't mean she never heard the reports of the Guardian Corps agents who were a part of the investigative branch.
Over the past year-and-a-half, it seemed that a serial killer had sprung up and was giving the Guardian Corps a run for its money. They could not get any clues on the identity of the killer, not even finger prints, hair samples, and any blood they found belonged to the killer's victims. The only thing that really had on the killer was that he was a male of average height, and had quite the fondness for knives and was not beyond torturing people for sheer amusement; this theory being based on the fact that all his victims were simple folks trying to rebuild their lost lives. None of them had any important info, at least as far as the Guardian Corps knew.
Lightning wanted to get ahold of this scum as much as the rest of the Guardian Corps, but she knew that detective work wasn't her thing and so she figured it would be best if she simply continued with her civil protection until she either got a call on the killer's location or came across him by chance. That was an opportunity she eagerly awaited.
It did not seem likely she'd ever actually come across this man in her new place of residence, New Bodhum, as all the killings so far were occurring in smaller villages where security wasn't as tight. So she'd have to wait for HQ to give her the call that they found the man's location and have her apprehend him.
Though it was rather disappointing, Lightning was rather happy the killer was not located in New Bodhum simply because she knew Serah wasn't in reach of him. Lightning knew Serah wasn't in much danger, with her fiancé tailing her all over the place and NORA members also keeping a watch on the town, but Lightning couldn't help it really. Serah was still her little sister and Lightning would always be weary for her safety regardless. It was just a habit Lightning couldn't ever hope to be rid of.
Lightning scanned the crowd of people she was standing just outside of for anything suspicious. She had been placed on patrol duty in the mid-day shift, which meant now she had to watch a growing crowd as they went about their commute to wherever they were headed. Lightning never really enjoyed patrol duty, nothing very exciting tended to happen, other than possible pickpockets and maybe a mugging; certainly nothing that really required her to strain her abilities. She hated sitting at a desk handling paperwork more. Truthfully, it was odd for a Lieutenant of the Guardian Corps to be out on patrol, but Lightning had more than proven herself to be a skilled and valued member of the Corps so her higher ups allowed her more leeway in what she wanted to do. She certainly earned the privilege to do so.
Her thoughts drifted back to Serah, who was probably at school (or at least what counted as a school that could be made in the two years), being educated to become a teacher herself. Her and Snow had yet to get married due to how busy both were; Snow and NORA were helping people to build their new homes and also keeping things safe. Serah was also busy with her education, something Lightning was honestly glad for. It meant Serah understood the importance of an education and was not too wrapped up in any romantic fantasies of an easy and happy life.
The two were finalizing their plans for a wedding soon though, as Snow's schedule was beginning to clear up as more volunteers began to step up. Lightning wished they could give her a clear date as to when the wedding is, so Lightning could inform her COs that she would need to take a day or two off. It seemed however that Serah didn't even know when her own scheduled would be cleared long enough for them to have the wedding.
Lightning then glanced up towards Cocoon, and thought back to that fateful day two years ago when Cocoon fell. She hardly remembered being crystallized, but she wouldn't forget the moments afterward. The awe of seeing the newly Crystallized Cocoon, the joy she felt when she saw Serah had been freed, and the simple relief that all that hell was done and over with. Of course, the two years getting everyone settled was a huge mess. PSICOM had been badly damaged, but it still had just enough strength to harass Lightning and her fellow ex-L'cie. Eventually things cleared up, and since the Guardian Corps was still in mostly intact, PSICOM ended up being assimilated into the Corps.
It was fortunate that the group had been able to find themselves a good living after The Fall. Sazh was volunteering like Snow was to help people, except Sazh was out further into the less developed zones with his little boy, Dajh. He would often run flights between places to drop off supplies and needed material. She would occasionally see him when he would arrive in New Bodhum, where he would usually describe the conditions of the outlying settlements. Sometimes the news would be good, though is tended to be bad. Such is the struggle of people settling a new and foreign world.
Hope had been staying in New Bodhum with Lightning, as of now it was still unknown if his father had survived The Fall. Not wanting to leave him on his own, Lightning gladly took him in, though that didn't mean she was soft on him. She smirked ever so slightly at how nice it was to have another helping hand around the house; she certainly made him earn his home. Of course, he was quite busy now as he was undergoing the basic training to join in the Guardian Corps and he was only three weeks into BT. After that he still had a few more week of Advanced Individual Training before he'd even become a member. It's a tough fight, but Lightning was confident in Hope; after all, that boy had survived and fought through worse than what most Guardian Corps members would experience.
Speaking of new recruits, she caught site of a recent addition to the Corps across the crowd. He was a young man, only about a year or two older than Hope. She thought about what was his name for a second, and then watched as Reapy pulled a man from the crowd and motioned him towards a wall. Seems Reapy would make his first arrest today. Reapy had done very well in the training for the Corps and certainly showed promise, however Lightning decided she best provide some cover in the off chance something bad happened. One could be taught a great many things in training, but a Corps member could never be fully prepared for the randomness of the real world. Lightning herself has a few scars from criminals suddenly turning violent, or from friends of said person deciding they should try to stop the arrest of their pal. A person could never be completely prepared for what may occur out on the streets, so one always had to be on guard.
She watched as Reapy had the man place his hands against the wall and go spread eagle so Reapy could frisk him down for any weapons. As she made her way towards the two, Lightning felt like something was off about the situation. She watched around, scanning the crowd and even the rooftops for potential dangers and she couldn't make out any; she could not however shake the feeling that there was something dangerous in close proximity. She looked back towards Reapy and his catch, Lightning calmly keeping her hand near the handle of her Blazefire saber. She knew better than to actually grab hold of it until she needed to, less she get the crowd around her excited.
Reapy reached into one pocket and quickly wince before he pulled a simple steak knife the man had placed n his jackets left breast pocket. The tip of the knife had a small amount of blood on it, and Lightning could see a small cut on Reapy's finger. Reapy quickly went back to searching, finding this time a small pocket knife in the lower left pocket of the man's jacket. Lightning narrowed her eyes, still making her way through the crowd when she caught a good look of the man's hands. Though she could only see the backs, she could clearly see severe scarring from what appeared to be knives or some sort of sharp objects. The scars were criss-crossing and some even travelled towards his wrist down the back. All of the scars appeared to have the same causes; it seemed this gentleman had been playing with a lot of sharp objects.
The feeling of danger rose significantly, as she figured the man was the source of the feeling she felt. It only took a few seconds for the source of the danger to quickly present itself as Reapy reached into the right lower jacket of the man's coat. Reapy attempted to pull something from the pocket, but when it didn't give he pulled harder and the object came free. Everything seemed to slow down for Lightning as she heard a distinct metallic clink, and she watched a gleaming piece of metal spring into the air. The scarred man quickly turned and delivered a hard kick to Reapy torso, causing the rookie to stumble back and drop what he had taken from the man's pocket.
Lightning watched the metal cylinder Reapy had pulled free from the man's pocket drop and bounced off the stone road, the metallic clang it made ringing in her ears. Her eyes widened as she quickly turned herself away and dived away from the grenade. A moment later a loud bang rang through the streets, followed by the screams of fear and pain that came from pedestrians nearby. Lightning quickly rose back to her feet, ignoring a cut she had received on her leg from the flying shrapnel and quickly looked around at the damage. Her heart sank as she looked at Reapy, whose face and body had received the full brunt of the shrapnel of the grenade. His left eye was now a bloody mess, she could see several deep lacerations across his face and his nose was partially gone, and he wasn't moving or breathing. Then she took a glance around to assess the damage some more where she took notice of a few injured civilians, two of which looked badly injured.
Down the alleyway, it was near impossible for her to miss the fluttering of the culprits black jacket. Lightning knew other patrol units would notice the scene and quickly get medics to those who needed it, so she wasted no time and immediately took off after the man. He was fast, she gave him that, but there was no chance she was going to let him get away. Both easily vaulted over a knocked over trash can, and the two weaved around corners. Lightning drew her sword and switched it to gun mode, attempting a few shots but never having the man in her sights long enough to get a clear shot. She saw her opportunity as the man turned into a dead-end alleyway and she brought her weapon up to take some shots at him. What she hadn't expected to see was the culprit make a quick hand motion which was followed by him being covered by the familiar blue aura produced by a grav-con unit like the one Lightning had. She quickly recovered from the surprise and fired at the man, who was running up the wall towards the rooftop. When the bullets came close to his feet, he kicked off the wall and landed on the rooftops. Lightning was quick to follow and used her own grav-con to follow him up. The chase continued for several minutes as the man was vaulting over alleyways, going from rooftop to rooftop with Lightning in hot pursuit. She switched her Blazefire to its sword form after she had used up the ammunition she had, and at this point she was more than satisfied with running the bastard through. That opportunity came as the man jumped to a lower rooftop, landing in a roll and coming up to his feet to face her. She was already in mid-jump with her sword ready to hack at the base of the man's neck.
She however had underestimated the man's reaction time, as the man reached behind him, which was followed by a flash of metal as it deflected her saber strike. In that quick moment where her weapon was lowered, it having been parried, she saw another flash of steel then felt a sharp pain go through her arm as it was struck. Lightning made all effort to shut the pain out enough to keep ahold of her weapon, and the man took advantage of this quick lapse of concentration and gave Lightning a hard push kick to the side, knocking her back. She lost her footing, but fell into a roll then came back up onto her feet, just in time to bring her sword up to block a strike from the man. The first attack was followed by another strike aimed towards her thigh, which she adeptly dodged with a spin followed by a counter hook kick across the man's face. He stumbled to the side then stumbled back more as Lightning kept with the spin and delivered a hard side-kick to the man's stomach causing him to buckle. She was already slashing at the man, as she had expected him to stand back up, where his head would be directly in the path of her sword. However, instead of standing up, the man took a step forward then came down on his knee with his leg between Lightning's. She felt him wrap his arms around her just beneath her ass where he then stood up, lifting the woman off her feet. Being airborne only for a second, the wind was knocked out of her and was replaced by pain as the man slammed her onto the cement rooftop. This time she couldn't manage to keep hold of her weapon as the pain surged through her arm that was holding said sword. Her head also met the rooftop, and it made her vision swim. She fought her body's urge to black-out right there, but could do nothing to fix her vision. She felt the man quickly take a full mount position on her, then felt cold steel against her neck; she recognized the feeling of the steel as a knife.
I can't die like this! She thought to herself, thinking of any way she could stop the man form slitting her throat, but her vision had yet to refocus and she was only beginning to recover any air. No dammit! She cursed as she awaited the sharp pain to surge through her throat as he slit it. It took her a few moments to realize though that there was no pain even though the steel remained against her throat. She started to hear the sound of the man laughing, and then wondered if the freak was planning to take advantage of her; she swore that she'd rather die than have a man force himself upon her. However, the man only kept laughing as he kept the knife pressed to her throat, and her vision was quickly coming back into focus.
"Now that is the Farron I expected to deal with, however I'm surprised you left yourself so vulnerable to a takedown like that." the man said once he had ceased laughing. She finally got a good look at him, Lightning taking in his messy, sandy colored hair and dark brown eyes. She could also see a harness of sorts which had multiple knives sheathed on it underneath his black jacket. It seemed her wish of encountering the killer had come true, though this wasn't how she had hoped it would play out.
She struggled in an attempt to throw him off, but quickly stopped as he pressed the blade of his knife against her neck more. "No, no, no Lightning, not yet." The man smiled down at her, the two looking into one another's eyes. She simply growled at him, glaring daggers up at him.
He gave her a friendly smile in complete contradiction to what he was doing. He smacked his lips just before he spoke again, "Now then Lightning, I…" he then paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking of what he was going to say next. " I would like it if you'd remain calm, as this process will go much quicker." When she tried to struggle more, he simply grinned as she winced slightly as he made a small cut into her throat, enough to remind her just what was pressed against it.
"You see, now that, that is what I meant by staying calm. I really have no interest in killing you right now as that would ruin all the fun." She couldn't move one of her arms as he had pinned it beneath one of his knees, but that didn't stop her from attempting to punch him with the other one. He quickly dodged her punch and used his free arm to grab ahold of her elbow and pinned her arm to his torso. She tried once more throw him off, but didn't have any luck.
"How about I introduce myself, hm?" he made a clicking sound with his tongue before giving her another smile. "My name is..." He paused again, something that Lightning was beginning to become increasingly annoyed with. "Dale, Dale Rodomir III." He then removed the knife from her throat and used that hand to keep her free arm pinned to his torso still as Dale reached into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. She tried once more to throw him off, but she couldn't get the right leverage to sweep him off her and she certainly didn't have the raw strength to just muscle him off.
Dale then removed a rectangular device that had a small circuit board with a couple wires connecting to various spots. A small antenna was sticking off the circuit board, and Lightning recognized it to be a makeshift detonator. Her eyes widened before she sneered more, she refused to just lie there so she kept trying to throw Dale off.
"I want to make sure that you, Ms. Farron, will take me seriously when I give you your choice." Dale gave her a friendly smile once again as he pressed one of two buttons that was on the detonator. Lightning jerked her head towards the sound of an explosion as it went off, eye widening before she tried again to get Dale off her. Once the sound of the explosion had subsided, Lightning could hear the screams of people followed by the sirens of the Guardian Corps as they went to investigate the cause and to help those in trouble.
Lightning tried again, but he kept his balance as he began laughing. "Dammit!" Lightning shouted as she kept trying to throw him off, however she was quickly stopped as Dale returned his knife to her throat.
Dale hadn't stopped his laugh, something that managed to slightly unnerve Lightning. It sounded like a genuine laugh; the freak was actually enjoying all this. "Lightning, "He began after he had finished his laugh, "Please, tell me. How long has it been since your sister escaped her crystallian state?" Lightning immediately sent him a death glare, but didn't attempt to move with the knife still pressed to her neck. Dale gave her a smile once again as he chuckled some. "It would be quite the shame for it to only be two years, right? I mean," He paused again he looked off towards the recent explosion then continued, "Not married, hasn't finished her education, and not even of the drinking age yet!"
"Don't you dare touch my sister!" Lightning shouted and attempted once more to throw Dale off, this time succeeding. Dale fell to his side as Lightning sprang up to her feet, grabbing hold of her sword on the way up and stabbed down towards Dale. She finally saw the weapon he had been using as he brought up the metal, telescopic stick to block her thrust and knock her off balance. He then quickly scrambled to his feet in time to deflect another strike from Lightning, but Dale had made the very poor mistake to threaten Lightning's little sister. She planted a hard push kick into his sternum, knocking him onto his ass and was already in mid-lunge at him. Dale parried her blow once more, but this time she came down in the full mount position on Dale and went to place her gun blade against Dale's throat. He managed to bring up one of his sticks (which Lightning just noticed had a spike at the end of it) and place it between his neck and her weapon. Lightning then saw him quickly hit the second button on the detonator.
She growled and began pressing the blade down towards his neck when he decided to start talking again. "The thing I noticed around here is that no one is very observant or good at keeping things guarded. Schools especially." Lightning's eyes widened before she sneered and kept pressing the blade down closer and closer to Dale's throat. Lightning was then tossed forward as Dale bucked his hips, forcing Lightning to catch herself, which he then grabbed one of her arms and rolled them over, where he quickly threw a punch towards her face. Lightning easily blocked the wild punch, but it gave Dale enough time to get to his feet where he quickly backed away from her.
Lightning rose to her feet once more and began to walk towards Dale when he held up the detonator. "Four minutes and thirty seconds Lightning. That's how long you have before your sister is vaporized." He began to laugh again as Lightning stopped dead in her tracks, sending Dale a glare. "It originally was five minutes, but you just had to try and kill me didn't you, it's what you are best at after all, right?" She gripped her gun blade so tight, her knuckles were turning white.
He grinned at her, "Four minutes and twenty seconds now, best get running, the school is a good ten minute walk from here!" He then began to laugh as he began to walk backwards away from her. She would have shot him dead, but now she was out of ammo and if she tried to get him at this point her sister would be long dead. Lightning mentally argued with herself what to do before she cursed the bastard and quickly began sprinting towards the makeshift school that Serah was attending. The sound of Dale's laughter was fading behind her, but it still rang clearly through her mind. She shut it out however as she ran as fast as she could to try and save Serah.
Lightning tried not to think about how much time she had left and simply told herself to keep moving. She kept hopping form rooftop to rooftop and when she had to take the streets, she lost count of how many unfortunate people she knocked over to get by them. It felt like she was back at Guardian Corps basic training with how exhausted she felt. Of course running a marathon was easy for her, but sprinting the length of a damn marathon was something else. She had no idea just how much time she had when she finally came upon the building Serah was at, but everything hurt by this point. The building was still there, but for how much longer she had no idea. Then she saw Serah walking form the building, talking with one of her good friends. There was not a moment wasted as Lighting willed her muscles into one last sprint.
Serah had no idea what hit her when she and her friend were blindsided by Lightning. The older sister than grabbed the two students and flung them to the ground behind a small concrete wall, falling on top of them both to shield the students from the explosion that followed only a few seconds later. Lightning just kept her herself as low as possible and kept Serah and her friend pinned to the ground as the bombs went off from inside. Lightning felt the heat wave of the blast go by her and got a face full of dust as it was kicked up in every direction.
As things settled, Lightning slowly lifted her head up to take a look at the damage. She saw many people running around in chaos, and she could also make out several injured individuals, which a few Lightning could already tell would not survive their wounds. Several corpses littered the area, many of which were badly burned and a few unfortunate souls had been scattered in several different directions. The building's front entrance was much wider, and another entrance had formed on the side. The majority of the structure was still intact, but Lightning could see clearly that a good portion of the inside had been badly damaged with some parts just being out right destroyed.
Serah quickly shoved her sister off her as she peeked over the concrete wall that had given them shelter and stared horrified at the building she had just been inside. Her friend was at the point of breaking down as Serah looked at Lightning. The lieutenant sounded as if she was having an asthma attack with how hard she was breathing, and she looked pale as all hell.
Lightning's vision was quickly beginning to fade as she finally gave up the fight to remain conscious. She barely heard Serah call her name as everything went black; the last sound that ran through her head was the sound of Dale's laugh.