This is my 4th fic. I rarely update, which I feel bad about. I sort of loose touch with what I'm going on about sometimes.

But, none the less, another mutlichapter fic submitted in an AU of Final Fantasy 7 and 13.

Some backstory for now:

Lightning finds herself lost after intense battle. Cocoon was invaded from outsiders and now it's up to her and others to find out what's going on. She first meets Tifa, Cloud and the kids. Eventually, more character from 7 and 13 will show up. I have a basic outline of what I'd like to accomplish in this story, and hopefully I will finish it!

This chapter is a little short, at least for what I like to write, but I figured it was enough to get us started :]

Please enjoy, obvious I do not own anything and don't make money off this. Please review if that's your thing :P

GASP.

She choked for a few seconds on the air; her eyes wide open in shock. She looked around for a few seconds and steadied her breath. Her chest heaved as she pressed her hands tightly to her chest.

Where the hell am I? Her bright blue eyes wandered around the room she was in. When the imagery around her began to sink in, she found herself in what looked to be a child's bedroom. Drawings pinned to the walls and framed wooden photos resting on the nightstands. She calmed down a bit and tried to ease her mind from the possible worst case scenario she had been contemplating.

The woman sat up and shifted to the edge of the bed and swung her feet down to the hardwood floor. She could hear some traffic from outside but for the most part, it was quiet. She could hear below her some rattling of glasses and some chatter from what sounded like a small girl and her mother.

Pushing herself up slowly from the bed, she managed to get up rather well from her unconscious state she was in previously and staggered to the bedroom door. The stomping around from her must have been heard because immediately the conversation had stopped. Then, from a distance she could hear footsteps heading up a set of stairs and towards the bedroom. Panicking slightly she pressed her body against the door and pinning it shut so even if an intruder tried to come in, they would have to execute with force.

Pulling her pale pink her behind her ears, she began to search herself of any weapons. Noticing now rather than before, she saw her jacket, boots and gloves had been missing. She felt nearly naked in only her brown sleeveless turtleneck and short skirt.

As the footsteps nearly reached the door, she could her heart pumping loudly in her ears.

Damnit.

She then heard three soft knocks. Her knees buckled and she covered her mouth to hold her breath.

Then two more knocks. "Hello?" A soft voice was heard. She allowed herself to breath but remained silent.

A slight giggle was then heard from outside. Is she laughing at me?

"It's alright! I'm not going to bite! I just want to see if you're alright!"

The pale haired woman turned to face the door and slowly turned it open, only allowing her left eye to peak out to see who was waiting outside for her. When she looked to see who it was, a slightly shorter black-brown haired woman stood outside with her arms crossed over her chest. She had a smile on her face.

"See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" Backing away from the door the pale haired woman let the other in and sat down on the child's bed.

"Rough time, you had it," The dark haired woman began. "Found you outside on the street of Sector 6 near the edge of rubble of 7." She itched the side of her face and brushed away her bangs from her face.

Sitting on the bed confused, the pale haired woman looked at the other blankly.

The dark haired woman shifted her weight. "Hm… Not from around here. Okay… Well, my names Tifa. Tifa Lockhart."

"Tifa…" the pale haired girl said quietly. "Why am I here?"

Tifa shrugged. "That's what I came upstairs to as you, frankly."

There was an uncomfortable still in the room.

Tifa broke the silence soon enough. "Have a name yourself?"

The pale haired woman paused for a second. "Lightning."

"Nickname?"

"Sort of."

Tifa walked over slowly and sat down next to Lightning a good arms distance. "What's the last thing you remember?"

It took Lightning a minute to think. Before the darkness, where was she? Nothing comes to mind.

"I-I can't remember a thing," she says under her breath, rubbing her palms across her face.

Tifa sighed and placed a hand on Lightning's shoulder. "Let's get you cleaned up. The bathroom is down the hall to your left. Towels and everything you need are there."

Minutes later, Lightning changed back into her clothes and walked down the hallway to find the stairs leading down. She opened the door at the bottom and found herself not in a house but a bar set up with tables and booths scattered about with Tifa behind the counter stocking shelves.

"Is this her?" the small girl whispered into Tifa's ear after pulling her shirt down from several tugs.

Tifa patted the girl's hand away and said, "Yes, yes, don't pull on my shirt, Marlene! Go over and introduce yourself and be nice!"

Whipping her body away from Tifa, the little brunette skipped over and stopped right at Lightning's feet. She smiled a gappy-toothed smile and looked over to Tifa and quickly looked back up at Lightning's face.

"Hi! I let you take my bed because Cloud said you were sick and I shared with Tifa so it's okay! I'm Marlene, Denzel isn't here yet, he's with Cloud, but he wants to meet you! We weren't allowed to talk to you yet because Cloud said you were sleeping and that if we woke you up, you would be even more sick! But man-oh-man! You were asleep for four days!" The little girl began to spit and sputter without, what it seemed like, taking a breath. She wagged her finger for Lightning to lean in closer. Marlene began to whisper at her, "Shh, don't tell Tifa, but I snuck in and left you a card I drew myself, it says 'Get Well Soon!' Didja see it?"

Lightning overwhelmed with the one sided conversation tried to backtrack in her head what she remembered seeing while being in the girl's room. She recollected no such card. "…no," she answered shaking her head.

"WHAT? Ohmygosh, follow me!" Marlene grabbed Lightning's wrist and dragged her back up the steps into her room. The girl then jumped and bounced over to the other side of the bed and grabbed the folded note. She crawled over the comforter and handed Lightning the card. It was a crude line drawing of Lightning with more saturated pink hair, Tifa's long dark hair, and two other figures she didn't recognize. In the child's writing on the inside of the card had GET WELL SOON in large cursive writing while under was a heart drawn with red pen reading "Love, 7th Heaven."

Marlene then grabbed the card right from Lightning's hands, surprising her slightly and having the front drawing being displayed under her chin. Marlene pointed to the brown haired stick figure. "This is Denzel. He's ten years old." She then pointed to a blond figure with jagged spikes everywhere. She exclaimed again, "And this is Cloud! I don't know how old he is but he lives here too."

Lightning sat down next to Marlene on the bed. She wasn't much for liking children, but she found it rather sweet this stranger of a child drew her a card without even knowing who or what. "Is this your family?"

"Sorta," Marlene replied. She held the picture close to her small stomach and looked down with a sigh. "Tifa and Cloud are friends who live here. Daddy is working and can't see me. But he calls me every night and tells me loves me!"

Lightning was lost for words. "Oh..." was the only proper response she could muster.

Marlene again pointed to the drawing of the boy. "Cloud found Denzel by the Church and since he has no parents, he lives with us now. And because Cloud found you, I drew you because you're like Denzel and maybe you can come live with us, unless your parents are looking for you then we have to give you back to them."

Lightning shifted herself. Her and Denzel had quite the bit in common. "I wouldn't worry about my parents…"

"Haven't you got any?" Lightning just shook her head. Marlene frowned a little and scooted closer to Lightning. "So are you going to live with us?"

Lightning shook her head again. "I think I'm a little too old to adopt."

Marlene let out a smile and then jumped over to the door. "I'm going downstairs, come with me!" Pushing herself up, she followed Marlene down to the bar again, appreciating her wrists not being pulled at.

Down at the bar, Tifa was cooking a pot of noodles and chopping up some meat. She smiled at the two new friends. "Hungry? It's been a while," she offered up to Lightning. She hadn't thought about food at all yet, but the sound of it immediately made her stomach gurgle.

"I suppose. Four days since I was last awake?" Lightning responded.

"Since we found you," Tifa corrected, "Could've been longer. Here pull yourself up at the bar, I'll get you some water."

After serving dinner to herself, Lightning and Marlene, she began asking some questions for her new guest. "So, where do you say you're from?"

Lightning swallowed a gulp of water. "Bodhum."

Tifa looked at her strangely. "What?"

Lightning looked at her back confused as well. "Bodhum. Cocoon." Tifa's face remained the same. Lightning dropped her silverware and put her face in her hands. "Where the hell am I?" she spat in frustration.

Tifa, about to console her, whipped her head at the door to see a young boy and man walk through the entrance of the restaurant. "Cloud, Denzel, welcome back."

Denzel ran over and popped a seat opposite of Tifa next to Lightning. "Are you feeling better yet?" he asked her excitedly. She gave no response and still kept her face inside her palms.

"Denzel, go take Marlene upstairs," The blond haired man said to the boy.

"But I—"

"Go." It was a demand, but lacked harshness at all.

"Fiiiine, c'mon Marlene," Denzel moaned, waving Marlene to follow him.

She took one last bit of noodle before she skipped up stairs. Before walking through the door, she waved at Lightning and yelled, "Goodnight, feel better!"

Once the door from the upstairs shut, Cloud unloaded his gear onto a booth and sat in the same seat Denzel had next to their new guest. He took a deep sigh and looked down at the counter.

"Lightning, right?" he asked.

"…"

"What were doing down by The Ruins?" he asked more sternly.

She uncovered her eyes and pierced hers into his. "I don't even know where I am! I don't know what Sector 6 or 7 is; I don't know what The Ruins are; and I don't know what 7th Heaven is. I. Don't. KNOW!" Lightning barked back, slamming her fists down on the bartop.

Tifa, put her hand over Lightning's. "Calm down, please, the children—"

"I don't care! Where the hell am I? Why am I here and not on Cocoon?"

There was dead silence. Tifa shifted away and looked down at her lap. "You're in the 7th Heaven. That's the name of this restaurant."

Lightning calmed for a minute. Now she was getting some answers. "And what city…land am I in?"

Cloud answered next. "This is Edge. The place you were found at was in Midgar. Your on the same land mass as Junon and the Grasslands."

Lightning just shook her head. "Nothing."

"I don't know at this point. You can stay here as long as you like, but we need to ask you some more questions," Tifa informed her. Lightning just stayed quiet.

"The weapons and armor you had, you were in the military?" Cloud asked gravely.

Lightning nodded. "Was. I left when I went looking for my sister."

"SOILDER?" he asked.

"What? No," she answered harshly. Guardian Corps. Protectors of Cocoon. Was until I—" she cut herself short. Memories came rushing into her head. He remembers battling, fighting her way through civilians and soldiers alike. She remembers a foreign enemy, completely strange looking people fighting her and her comrades.

"I-I remember… It was battle," she slowly began spitting out. Cloud and Tifa leaned in closer to pay attention. Lightning continued. "It was night and we were attacked… A foreign enemy. They came in a great ship from the sky. I was with my sister, Serah, at the time it happened." Another short pause. "We were having lunch when I was called to duty. I left her…I was stupid. When the enemy got closer to the town, I ran away from the front lines. I had to find Serah… The captain, he said if I ran I was relieved from duty." Lightning swallowed heavily. "I didn't care. I had to find Serah. Before I made it back to the café, I was ambushed." Searching hard into her memory, Lightning fell onto a blank spot, gap in the story. "Sorry… I don't remember anything after that."

Silence crept upon them again as they sat and contemplated Lightning' story. It was a lot of information to take in at once, and yet, nothing seemed to make much sense. Cloud could only imagine one scenario in which once Lightning was ambushed, she was then kidnapped. But then that didn't explain why she ended up so far from where she was.

Cloud lifted himself from the stool and began to leave the bar to the upstairs. "I'll be in the office."

Tifa nodded and remained seated alongside Lightning. "All I can think of right now is just letting you stay. If you want, the children's room is yours for now." Lightning just nodded. "I know its just midday, but it might be best for you to rest some more. I'll leave some clothes out for you and I'll wash what you're wearing," Tifa said, not really offering but telling Lightning the game plan."

"Where are my other things?" Lightning then asked.

"Your clothes are in the children's closet. Everything else is in the weapon's closet in Cloud's office. You need to ask him to retrieve it. We don't want the kid's getting a hold of anything, ya know?" Lightning, though very different in personality from Tifa, liked her. She came off as kind and caring, but still strong willed and smart. She was even slightly envious of that personality. She had never really met anyone like that.

Lightning removed herself from the stool and slowly walked to the door up the bedrooms. She turned to look at Tifa. Her piercing blue eyes eased a bit. "Thank you, Tifa."

The dark haired woman just smiled and nodded. "Holler if you need anything." Lightning just nodded back.

Chapter 2:

Lightning gets situated and the gang begin an investigation of The Ruins of Sector 7