A/N: Hey everybody, This is one of my first attempts at doing this, so if you have any comments/advice, please leave me a review. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.


Lightning Farron woke slowly, a gradual awareness of herself as her body kick-started itself. As soon as she was able, her eyes were open. Scanning her surroundings, processing every detail through a threat-assessment routine ingrained into her brain.

The room was dim enough that it didn't hurt her still-adjusting eyes. The walls were a plain white like you would expect in a lab or a hospital, the air was sterile and dry, making the inside of Lightning's nose itch.

A thin woman with shoulder-length brown hair standing a few meters in front of her wearing a military uniform Lightning didn't recognize. She did however, recognize the red shaped cross stitched into the shoulder of her uniform. Was she in a hospital?

She continued scanning the room, quickly noticing two others. Men this time, wearing the same uniform, minus the patch. They were standing in front of the only door, guarding it with sleek-looking assault rifles held at ready. Probably not a hospital.

Her hand shot to her waist and her gunblade was out in an instant, snapping the blade up, and stepping into a ready stance. Her centre of gravity low, lithe body tense and ready to strike. The position was comfortable for her, familiar after countless hours.

The medic stepped back immediately and the rifles were up and pointed at her in an instant.

"Ms. Farron we mean you no harm, please, lower your weapon" the woman said, her hands outstretched, trying to disarm the tension.

"Doesn't look that way!" Lightning shot back, her body coiling, readying to strike.

The woman opened her mouth to reply when the door slid opened and a man stepped through.

"Lower your weapon, Sergeant" Said a deep, booming voice.

The voice sounded familiar, but Lightning couldn't place it until she saw the man it belonged to. The man Lightning recognized as her old lieutenant, Amodar.

Relief tried to seep through her tense body at the sight of the familiar face, but Lightning pushed it down. She didn't have the facts yet.

Amodar was wearing the same uniform as the soldiers. The rank on his shoulder identified him as a Colonel. He was not the same as she remembered though. His face had more lines and was weathered. He seemed more... grey?

"Uh sir? You look like old, sir." Lightning said hesitantly.

Amodar chuckled. "Yeah I suppose I do, but I guess that's what happens when you get old." Lightning started.

Crystal stasis. She could have been in crystal stasis for centuries and it wouldn't even feel like a minute to her. "How long sir?"

"A while"

Amodar turned and started to leave the room, beckoning for her to follow. Lightning, unsure of what to do, folded her blade and replaced it at her waist, following him out the door.

Lightning was relieved of her blazefire sabre before she was escorted to a room. A soldier who couldn't of been older than 18 accepted the weapon. He stared at the gunblade in his hands as if it was a relic. Maybe it was.

While under normal circumstances Lightning would never consider giving up her weapon, there was too many soldiers around for it to make a difference. Lightning knew she was good. Very good. But she wasn't willing to find out if she was good enough. Not in unknown territory, and definitely not without l'cie magic.

Lightning started. L'cie magic. She peeked down her shirt and sighed in relief, holding her hand to her chest, when she saw nothing but unblemished skin.

Her room had plain white walls, with a single bed covered in blankets that looked standard-issue. There was also a table with two chairs, and a small couch. It still smelled like a hospital. It was probably bugged but Lightning had no idea how to look for that.

There were no windows, but that didn't surprise her. Windows weren't secure, and it might tell her something before they wanted her to know.

Even though having Amodar present eased her mind a little, the thought of an unknown military force possibly listening or watching her made her edgy.

Amodar had also refused to say anything about Serah or anybody else, saying only "We'll talk about it when you're settled"

Well here she was... Settled... She sat down on the single bed. She instantly stood up and went to the door of her quarters. Tapping the panel on the wall, the door slid open. The hallway was empty.

Lightning started forward, but stopped when she noticed a dark strip a few centimetres tall on the side of the door, about one third of the way up. It was positioned at the perfect height such that she couldn't get through the door with out passing in front of that strip. A motion sensor.

That explained the lack of guards, she was not getting out of this room without them knowing.

She closed the door and sat down at the table, not yet ready for sleep. The tables and chairs also looked standard-issue; made of wood and focusing purely on function, with aesthetics completely forgotten. Then again, Lightning had always found a certain elegance in functionality.

She looked around the room and knew she wasn't going to get answers until Amodar decided to give them. She didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, The the door beeped, the semi-harsh tone cutting through the silence.

When the door didn't open after a few seconds Lightning called out, causing the door to open and allowing Amodar into the room.

"Do you mind?" Amodar asked, gesturing at the remaining chair. Lightning shook her head and Amodar sat down beside her. There was a moment of silence before he spoke:

"Alright. You've got questions. Ask them"

Lightning responded immediately "How long has it been? Who else is awake? Are my friends still alive? Are they okay? Where are we?" It came out in a controlled torrent.

He paused for a moment before speaking. "Before we get into that, there's something you should know," he paused "you've been under for nineteen years".

Lightning's breath caught in her throat and her fists clenched beneath the table. Nineteen years. She had been in stasis for two decades.

Amodar, seeing her reaction continued quickly "Your friends are fine. A touchy subject in public, but still alive. They started waking up about 9 years ago, so you're not too far behind."

Lightning nodded her head, still numb from the realization that she had been out of the loop for almost twenty years. Caught in her thoughts, she was not listening as Amodar continued to talk.

"... shooting war on, and it's not going well for anybody."

"Wait what?" Amodar once again commanding Lightning's full attention at the words 'shooting war'.

"I said, There's a war on, and nobody is winning. And your l'cie buddies are on the wrong side of it. Hell, they started the damn thing."

"What?" Lightning spit out, instantly feeling like she had not been greeted by friends, but rather captured by the enemy. Her fists re-clenched in her lap and she deeply wished she still had her gunblade.

"There was a drought a few years back," Amodar continued, "People got hungry, and when people get hungry, they get angry. Long story short, people got angry and took that anger out on the Council –The government that was elected after the fall."

"Elected?" Lightning asked.

"Yea. We took a more democratic approach this time around. For whatever that's worth now."

"It's worth everything. The ability to choose our own path was the reason we fought the fal'cie." Lightning said fiercely. Fate was something she had frequent disagreements with.

"Either way, now that you've deigned to rejoin the living, we're hoping you can bring us together and end this war".

That made Lightning uneasy. She did not like plans that involved her. On top of that, if Hope and Snow were on the other side of a shooting war there was a damn good reason they were there, and she wanted to know why.

When she asked, Amodar looked uncomfortable, his eyes finding the table before he looked up again. That moved Lightning from uneasy to suspicious. Amodar swallowed before responding.

"There was a difference of opinion between your friends and the Council. We have people who want to meet you tomorrow that can explain better than I can." It was a non-answer and they both knew it. Something was not right and Amodar was afraid to talk about it. She was right, the room was bugged. Before Lightning could respond, Amodar stood up.

"I think that's enough for today, Lightning. You have a lot to think about, so I'll leave you to it. It's good to have you back."

Before Lightning could back away, Amodar grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Lightning flinched, not expecting it. Before Lightning could protest, Amodar whispered in her ear. "The bed isn't safe. Sleep on the couch." Lightning froze. Everything was wrong with this situation. Lightning had never seen Amodar act like this.

Amodar released her and left, leaving Lightning thoroughly confused. What the hell could they possibly do to a bed that would make it dangerous?

Lightning wasn't going to find out. Not even risking a pillow she laid down on the couch, laying her head on the armrest.

Waking up to explosions was something Lightning had experienced a few times. Your brain going from fast asleep to wide awake in nothing flat was not a fun process.

Before she could sit up, another explosion rocked the room. This one blowing the wall into the room, filling it with dust and smoke. Lightning was suddenly very glad she wasn't standing up. She stumbled to her feet, neck stiff, ears ringing, vision blurry, and coughing up dust. When the smoke cleared The first thing she saw was the large hole in the wall. The wall that the bed had been pushed against the night before. The bed that was now scattered across the room, pieces of the blankets and pillows still floating towards the ground. Amodar had known this would happen.

I should have grabbed that pillow. Lightning thought, rubbing the knots out of her stiff neck.

As her ears cleared, the ringing was replaced with the sounds of gunfire. Lightning moved to the hole in the wall and looked out over the edge.

It was pitch black and cool, the breeze raising goosebumps on her arms. Lightning pushed the cold to the back of her mind. Now was not a time for distraction.

The only light in the night came from the glowing crystallized remains of Cocoon far, far off in the distance, and tracers flying towards the building she was standing in. Two small fighters buzzed overhead, the roar of their engines was deafening as they sped towards the source of the incoming tracers.

Behind Lightning the door opened, and she spun around, ready fight with her bare hands. Amodar ran into the room, blood splatters on his uniform. He carried his sidearm in one hand, and her blazefire in the other. He folded the gunblade into it's compact-carry mode and tossed it to her.

She caught it and flipped it into its blade form, giving it a shake in an effort to clean the blood off. It didn't work. "What the hell is going on?" She shouted.

"What does it look like? We're leaving!" he responded. He made to close the door, but a soldier burst through, throwing Amodar to the ground and levell an assault rifle at his head. Two more soldiers burst in behind the first, but Lightning was already moving.

She was a blur as she crossed the room, intercepting the first soldier. She swung down with her blade, severing his hands before driving the blade through his chest, the rifle hitting the ground with the hands still attached.

She was on the second soldier before the first hit the ground, cutting him down. The last soldier was just out of reach, so Lightning flipped her blazefire into a rifle and shot him instead.

She locked the door and shot the panel before turning and pulling Amodar back to his feet.

Lightning looked out the hole and saw a sleek looking ship soaring towards them, the roar of the

engines mixing with the sounds of battle.

Soldiers started banging on the now-locked door, and Lightning knew it wouldn't be long before they got inside the room. She decided that she didn't want to be here when that happened.

The ship's engines roared louder as the wing-mounted engines rotated, spinning the aircraft around. The main engines now pointing in the opposite direction, stopped it dead in its tracks. The backwash was so powerful it pushed Lightning back a step, throwing her hair around her face. Not just a plane, A VTOL.

The rear hatch lowered like a ramp onto the edge of the building, as the engines rotated downward, keeping the ship hovering while manoeuvring thrusters kept the VTOL parked on the edge of the building.

The first thing Lightning noticed weren't the benches running the length of the VTOL's passenger area, or the large logo painted on the grey cockpit door that read 'N.O.R.A'. What she noticed was the tall, thin, man wearing a Calvary uniform with twin pistols holstered on his thighs, a brown, afro showing streaks of grey topping his head.

"You sure are a sight for sore eyes, soldier girl." Sazh held out his hand. Lightning grabbed it and stepped up into the rear of the aircraft, followed closely by Amodar.

"Where are we going, Sazh?" She asked.

"Home. You got a couple people who are pretty antsy to see you again."

"Don't mean to interrupt," Amodar jumped in, "But can we get out of here? That door isn't going to hold."

Sazh returned to the cockpit leaving Lightning and Amodar alone in the rear of the ship. They strapped in and sat in silence.

Almost as soon as they were strapped in, the ship shot forward back in the direction it come, jerking Lightning violently against the straps of her seat, causing her to clenching her teeth and fists.

"I thought you played for the other team."

"So did a lot of people" Amodar replied "When the war broke out, I stayed in Haven when everyone else left. We figured you'd come out one day and wanted someone nearby when that happened, to help get you out. I was the only person who you knew that wouldn't be shot on sight."

"Haven?" If it was a place, Lightning had never heard of it.

"When Cocoon turned crystal, everyone that was still alive settled near the base. The settlement was a place of safety in a harsh world. For a long time, it truly felt like a haven. When the Council decided to name the settlement someone suggested it, and it stuck."

"I see. So where are we going?"

"Base is about 8 hours away riding in this, but we'll be meeting up with the everyone else once the ground forces disengage and flying home together, call it sixteen hours."

"Don't use ground transport?"

"Not unless we can't avoid it. Air is faster and much safer. All kinds of creatures in the Pulse wilderness that would like nothing more than a bit of human for dinner"

"I remember. What about the ones that fly? They weren't a picnic either."

"No they are not, but at least you can see them coming in the air."

A speaker in the cockpit bulkhead started spitting out static and Sazh's voice. "Hey, ETA 1 minute. Turn the monitor on to the front camera on if you want to see something cool"

Amodar obliged and a small screen underneath the radio flickered to life.

Although the shuttle Lightning was flying in was large, it was dwarfed compared the beast she was staring at through the small monitor mounted on the bulkhead. It looked like a brick with engines stuck to it. On the side of the ship, in large white letters it read: Nora.

They have a ship now... And it hasn't fallen out of the sky yet... Lightning couldn't help but wonder who they stole it from. She didn't remember NORA for their ability to build or fly airships.

The top of the ship sported a large hanger door, that was currently open, with twin winches on both sides of the door. There was also a weapon mounted on the bow, but she was too far away to make out what it was.

Besides the weapon and the winches, The only thing decorating the deck of the ship was a small control tower.

It looks like a cargo ship that someone stuck a gun on.

Lightning voiced her opinion and Amodar barked a laugh "Yeah, sounds about right"

As the ship made its final approach Lightning watched another ship, almost identical to the one they were in, rise out of the cargo-hold of the ship.

This ship wasn't black like the one they were in. It was pure white and Lightning recognized the Calvary Pararescue insignia painted behind the cockpit.

A minute later Lightning heard the engines rotate again. Lightning could still feel the vibrations of the engines as Sazh landed the VTOL in the belly of Nora. and Lightning, Amodar, Sazh, and a man who Lightning assumed was the co-pilot, wearing the same uniform, disembarked from the ship.

The cargo area of NORA was exactly as long as it looked from the outside, but it was only half again as tall as the ship. From the size, Lightning guessed they could have easily fit twenty more of the shuttles she was flying in. Despite the low clearance, Sazh had navigated it deftly, safely seeing his passengers aboard.

"Alright Kreiss, strap her down" Sazh said to the co-pilot as they stepped off the ramp into the completely empty hangar bay.

"What? Why don't you help, old man?"

"Because I'm older than you, and you need to learn to respect your elders." Kreiss huffed, exasperated. He opened his mouth to respond when Sazh continued

"Plus, I have orders to bring Amodar and soldier girl to the bridge ASAP." Kreiss sighed in defeat, turning back to the ship, while Sazh chuckled victoriously. As they left the hanger, he muttered to Lightning.

"Bending over hurts my back. I'm old you know?"

Lightning smiled. there were no orders.

"So how's the kid?" Lightning asked as they walked to the bridge.

"Hates it when you call him a kid. Dajh is sixteen now"

Lightning whistled "That's older than Hope when we were fighting fal'cie. How's the chocobo?"

Sazh nodded in agreement. "Big. Can't even keep the thing in the house. We had to build a house for it in the yard. Her and Dajh are inseparable though. He's the only kid who rides to school on a chocobo"

Lightning pictured a small Sazh riding a chocobo through the streets causing trouble, and couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"How's Serah?"

Sazh paused, unsure if he should continue "She's good, married Snow a while back"

Fantastic. Now Lightning really was his sister.

Sazh looked at the ground as they walked "They wanted to wait for you..."

"No, I get it. Nobody could predict when I was going to wake up, and I can't expect them to put their lives on pause for me."

Lightning couldn't lie to herself. It hurt like hell not being there for the wedding, but what kind of sister would she be if she begrudged Serah her life? She had tried that once, and it almost cost her everything. Lightning had promised to never try again.

They reached the base of the tower and climbed the small flight of stairs in silence.

As they stepped on to the bridge of NORA, Lightning took in every detail: It was small, dimly lit room with windows on all sides except for where they entered. The room was not designed for luxury, built in a time when resources were so scare that 'function' was barely possible, let alone 'form'.

There was a seat in the middle for the captain, and one in front of each of the four command consoles were placed ahead of the captain's seat, two looking significantly newer than the two on the right

On the far left was Lebreau, somewhere in her mid thirties now, sitting at the communications console with a bulky headset wrapped around her head, microphone extending towards her mouth. She was speaking to somebody over the radio.

In the middle-left sat Yuj running operations. His console was larger than the rest and was packed with screens that showed everything from radar to ammunition supply levels for the weapon mounted to the bow of the ship. Everything critical to making informed tactical decisions.

In the middle-right was a man Lightning didn't recognize flying the ship. He was older, probably in his late forties with goggles on his head, same as Maqui.

At the last console, Maqui was controlling the Engineering console, monitoring outputs from the engines and power generators, the headset on his head connecting him to various people throughout the ship.

Where's the big one? Lightning thought to herself. She could have sworn that there was one more member of NORA.

Sazh approached the man sitting in the Captain's chair and said "I got someone you're gonna want to meet"

The man stood up and turned around, and Lightning's eyes widened in surprise.

"Farron. good to see you again" said Rygdea, the commander-in-chief of the Calvary.

"You survived? How?" Lightning asked

"When the Calvary came under attack from the fal'cie, we immediately began evacuation to the surface of Pulse, Bartholomew Estheim and I were t -" he was interrupted as Yuj called out

"Sir, those fighters are coming back around, they're headed straight for the EVAC transport!" Yuj shouted. The two ships from earlier that Lightning remembered flying out towards the airship she was currently standing on.

"Understood. Lebreau, tell Gadot to open fire. And tell him not miss this time!" Rygdea shouted, refocusing on the task at hand.

Lebrau hit a button on her panel and passed on the orders. A few seconds later, the bow of NORA ONE started spitting a firestorm of tracers into the night. Lightning could hear the rapid-fire booming of the weapon, feel the vibrations in her bones, and see the tracers speeding into the darkness.

I knew one was missing. Lightning suddenly knew where the other NORA member was.

Lightning couldn't see what Gadot was shooting at in the darkness, but moments later there was an explosion in the distance, quickly followed by another. The bridge burst into cheers, Lightning included. She didn't personally know anybody on the incoming rescue ship, but they were responsible for saving her life, and that was something Lightning could appreciate.

While everyone was settling down, Lebreau suddenly went dead silent, the merriment vanishing from her face. She focused on whoever she was talking with. Lighting noticed and tried to listen, whatever it was, if it made her focus like that, it wasn't good.

"...will be waiting, you're cleared to land. Good luck. Nora out." She flicked another switch on her control panel.

She looked up to Rygdea, to get his attention, but he was already listening, the smile gone from his face.

Lebrau smashed a button on her panel and started talking in clipped, professional sentences.

"The EVAC ship was hit on its way back. We need medics in the hanger now. ETA forty five seconds. Two yellows and three reds on board." She said, telling both Rygdea and the microphone at the same time.

If those codes meant the same thing they did when Lightning was in the GC, it wasn't good. The colours were used to described patient conditions to doctors in the hospital.

Greens were minor casualties, and usually just needed painkillers and a bandage. Yellows were serious and needed serious, immediate medical attention. Red was high-risk and needed immediate surgery. Blue's went straight to the morgue.

Rygdea started barking orders "Cid, get us moving. We have wounded incoming and the closest surgery-capable hospital is almost two days away. Lebreau, let them know they'll have to land while we move" he said.

"Sazh, get back to your ship and warm up the engines. We can keep the yellows here, but the reds need to get back to base ASAP."

Sazh didn't hesitate for a second. He nodded and spun around, sprinting back towards the hanger.

If what Amodar had told her was right, he wouldn't be seeing a bed or a meal for at least another eight hours.

With Sazh gone, Lightning was left with Amodar and the bridge crew. Rygdea turned to her and his shoulders sagged as he sighed, deflated.

"Welcome back, Farron."