Author's note: This is an oldie, but goodie. Story takes place when the gang cross Gran Pulse.
Invincible
"Oh. My. God. I can't take more of this!" Snow grimaced when his punching fist slurped through a Blob. The leading party of three consisted of him, Vanille, and Sazh. The others had their backs and flanked behind to take out nasties that followed them. Gran Pulse sure was lively.
"What's wrong, Villiers?" Fang goaded some distance behind him as her group smashed away at their set of flighty bird-like enemies. "I thought you liked a workout."
"Not for three hours straight on a bumpy trail with no break in sight." Sentinel work always meant waiting for the right opportunity to lay waste to enemies who expected him to stay on the defense for an entire fight while everyone else had a go at the attacking creatures.
Snow was a built guy. He could take hits. He could take hits for himself. Then he had to keep a reserve for the slashes coming for Lightning and Sazh and Hope and... well, the list went on.
When Vanille shrieked for the umpteenth time and Snow leaped in to save her hide, he yelled over to Fang, "Assistance, please!"
"I'm guarding enough people over here. Yah!" The sharp sound of metal gutting a carcass resounded.
"You can handle variety, can't ya? Switch with me." Snow was desperate. There was only so much of Vanille's high-pitched shrieks he could listen to when he was tired.
Sazh, flying arms casting buffing spells, piped in to Snow, "Hey, man, you're doing great. We'll swap at the next stop we make- ah!" He dodged a vicious swing from the blob aimed at his private parts. Sazh whipped out his dual pistols and punctured a hail of bullets into the thing.
Even while busy in his own battle, Hope encouraged Snow, as he was wont to do. "You can make it, Snow!" To prove his point, a gossamer sheen of blue swirled around Snow's torso and healed his immediate aches.
Flinging water spell after water spell, Vanille pouted with every flick of her arm. "Go. Down. You. Yummy. Looking. Jelly. Thing!"
"Don't mention food!" That was Lightning's disgruntled comment.
The mass of goo in front of Snow slouched, a sure indicator of its imminent defeat. He slowly circled it, taunting it to draw it away from Vanille and Sazh to let them drain the gelatin out of it from behind.
"Magic all, now!" cried Vanille to the guys.
Snow waited a step for the blob to swing at him before he lowered his guard to ready a stream of aquatic hurt.
He blocked the blob's wobbly and powerful swipe. Seizing his opening, Snow set himself to launch, but as he did he saw a tide flood over the creature from its back.
The force was so incredible that the water crushed the blob down to the ground and splashed all the way to Snow's side. His eyes squeezed shut just when the waning rush of water slammed into his face. A gunshot banged and a squealing croak ended that foe.
"Yahoo!" cheered the two magic users in his group while Snow wiped the streaming coldness off his face and head. His coat was not so lucky. He shivered as icy wetness made its way down his neck.
Sazh, holstering his pistols, caught sight of the drenched Snow first and winced. "Ooh."
"Oopsie." Vanille covered her mouth and raced over to Snow. "So sorry! I thought you were far enough away."
"Me too. Guess my eyesight deceived me." Sazh kept a straight face for three seconds before he burst out laughing. He tried to wave a hand in apology when Snow glared at him through sopping bangs.
"My, my, what have we here?" Lightning sheathed her gun blade, an unusual smirk on her usually unsmiling lips.
It was pretty obvious what happened and Snow didn't bother responding. He began forging ahead, really hankering for grub and rest. And getting dry.
"W-wait, I can dry you off!" Vanille called out after him, sounding ready to do something drastic. "Hold on, Snow, I'll use a wind spell."
A chorus of resounding "no's" was everyone's answer.
The promised land of respite was indeed real. A bit of grass, a smattering of overgrown trees nearby, and a floating ball with no monsters in sight. There was a unanimous sigh when they arrived and talk of setting up a campfire instantly kicked into gear. Evening was already in motion.
Needing a moment to himself, Snow wandered to the outcrop of trees and leaned heavily against one, forgetting about the wetness of his clothes, the fights, the chit-chatting, even Serah. He simply let his weary bones and flesh sink into the propping trunk and concentrated on reenergizing behind the blackness of his closed eyelids.
"You'll catch cold staying like that." The crass and slightly accented tone observed from his right.
"I didn't know you cared."
"I don't. I know if we leave you as you are you'll whine."
Snow cracked open an eye towards Fang. "I do not whine."
The enigmatic woman sauntered over and leaned towards his ear. Her whispered command brushed a melody in. "The coat. Off. Now."
He had to admit it, Fang did not mess around when she wanted something. Snow pushed off the tree and watched her expectant gesture of her hand slipping onto her hip. "Is that an order? 'cause I don't do orders." The long coat was a lot heavier when doused and Snow only realized this when it came off his body. He didn't let go right away.
"I care not for orders, either. Call it a favor." Fang snagged the material between her fingers, then slipped the collar of the coat on top of her spear like a fluttering flag and hoisted the handle on her shoulder. "There we go. I'll put this near the fire."
"Near it, lady. Not in it," Snow reminded her with a point of sternness.
Fang shrugged and walked away to join the others. She stopped in mid-stride and looked slyly over her shoulder back at Snow. "You taking your pants off to dry, too?"
"What?!" Snow yelped aghast. He wasn't that wet.
"Just checking if you're listening." Her playful eyes danced, then studied him intently. She peered with a curiosity unlike her. Her velvet tone became tranquil. "Are you all right? Ever since you entered Gran Pulse you've been preoccupied."
"Serah's been on my mind." Snow stated this as if this was a brilliantly undiscovered fact.
"Really? I never would've imagined." Fang's words jested but her face kept its somber expression.
"Sometimes I think of nothing else but getting her back to normal. The thought is so strong that I can almost believe it when I reach out." Snow flushed as he spoke, not used to confessing his deeper emotions to anyone in the group. They hadn't had many breaks to sit and talk, what with being fugitives.
Fang stuck her spear into the ground and the coat tails wavered in the breeze. She crossed her arms and began pacing. "I felt the same way when searching for Vanille. Killed anything that got in my way. The surges of energy as I fought waves of beasties. It carried me through fights I'd otherwise die in."
Snow nodded in total agreement. "It's an invincibility spell."
"Yes. I wrapped that spell around me like a shroud. Held on to it until I couldn't breathe. I was so close to giving up. Being separated in this huge world is tough. When I thought I had no air left, no hope, I saw you guys and Vanille aboard the Palamecia." The quick smile that graced Fang's mouth was full of relief and happiness.
The struggle must go on. Snow got the picture. He never knew how close he could be when despair overcame him. Fang was his proof.
Fang outstretched an index finger and poked Snow in the forehead. "You keep your wits and the strongest image of Serah and she will be at the end, you hear?"
Snow, getting advice from the indomitable Fang? Her words penetrated his doubts. He smiled. "The end will come." Ominous as the phrase was, in the context of hope to revive Serah and save Cocoon the words never sounded better.
"It will." Fang unpiked her weapon and resumed her stroll to the newly built fire which crackled along nicely. Her voice lightened when she said, "Shall we see what's on the menu?"
"Something that won't make me lose what I ingest." Snow made a face at the last meal he had as he followed along. He was a meat man, but the last one he ate almost sent his stomach overboard. He shivered in repulsion.
"...so then Fang went up to it, looked it right in the face and said, 'Hey, buster, that egg is mine!'"
Vanille was enthusiastically relaying a story to everyone, presumably something during her and Fang's old Gran Pulse days. When the petite woman saw the duo approach, she waved at them. "Hi guys! Fang, do you remember the pretty egg you found outside Oerba?"
"Oh, that tale?" Fang complained, a note of embarrassment creeping in. The emotion was so rarely seen that Snow grew a rapidly avid interest in hearing the rest of Vanille's story.
Fang hung Snow's coat to dry by the fire and circled the burning logs to Vanille. She wrapped a pretend arm around Vanille's neck in a chokehold.
Vanille squealed and exaggerated a gasp of oxygen deprivation. "Heeelp!"
Everyone except the Gran Pulsians looked at Snow, who had saved Vanille a lot.
Always in for a good joke, he held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, I'm incapacitated by magic. Ask Lightning."
Shrugging with a neutral face, said woman said, "I'm busy tending the fire. Hope?"
The pale-haired teen scratched the side of his face. "Um, I'm helping you out. Sazh?"
The older man, cuddling his tiny Chocobo chick in his hands, glanced up at hearing his name. "No can do. I gotta watch this little dickens." The yellow fuzz ball cooed.
Vanille stamped her feet despite being locked in Fang's grip. "Nobody will help? Nooo! I've healed you all and I get this cruelty?"
Everyone laughed, a catharsis of fears during their long journey. When Snow's eyes matched Fang's from across the flames, he was laughing harder than everybody else.
-THE END-