I just want to say thank you to LightningRoxmySox for reviewing chapter one (and being my first ever reviewer) plus to all of those of you who are reading this. Keep reading, and keep commenting!
When The Glass Shatters
The Key
The warm glow of the sun beamed in through the cave's opening, Lightning opened her eyes slowly, stretching and reaching for the cold steel of the Blaze Edge before feeling her now dry clothes.
She got dressed and walked out to the others, most were just getting up like her but Fang was wide awake, looking curiously at Lightning.
"Good night last night?" She gave a sly little wink to Lightning.
"I don't know what you're talking about Fang, I just slept in the cave"
"Oh I wasn't talking about that Light, I was talking about the pool thing with Vanille"
"Nothing happened, I don't know what you are implying Fang but stop it" She crossed her arms and sighed.
I hope no-one heard me talking in my sleep… that kiss was amazing yet- No. I shouldn't even be thinking about that.
Stop it stop it stop it!
Lightning pressed her hands against her head, shutting her eyes and trying to block out the image of her vivid dream.
Vanille gently stirred, as if being willed to wake by Lightning's thoughts. Snow gave a massive yawn while sitting up and stretching.
"Yo Sis!"
"Bloody hell Snow, trying to match Titan with that yawn? What is it?"
Snow sniggered as Vanille gently rubbed her eyes awake.
"Lips feeling a little dry this morning? I've got a girl lying next to me who would love to wet them for you"
"Grrr" Lightning growled at Snow's unpleasant comment. She walked quickly over to him.
How did they know? Was I talking in my sleep again? If so.. who the hell came into the Cave last night?
Lightning slapped Snow on the head. She wasn't usually one for slapping – Too girly it was decided.
She did not however want to explain to Serah why her fiancée had a dented head after punching him with her gauntlet. Hard.
Vanille just laid there, wide awake but looking embarrassed. Her lie had been spread to too many people, and now Lightning knew.
She could see this not ending well.
Hope and Sazh woke up when they heard the sound of Snow's head hitting Lightning's hand.
Now that everyone was awake the group decided to form a plan as to what to do next. As lovely as the Archylte Steppe was, it was vast and always full of monsters.
Lightning suggested splitting up into pairs and exploring each corner.
"That's a good plan girl, Who's going with who? Bet you want some time alone with the lovely red-head eh?" Fang teased Lightning, winking at her again.
"Urgh" Lightning sighed. "Don't call me girl"
Am I ever going to get away from this? One little slip and everyone suddenly becomes a court jester.
Fang does have a point though… who's going with who. I can't pick Vanille. That would look too suspicious.
Lightning imagined a menu popping up, with the heading 'Switch Party Members' on it.
"Right, for that, Fang you're coming with me. Snow you go with Vanille and Sazh, you take Hope."
"Ah damnit" Fang clicked her fingers. "I knew there'd be some repercussion to winking too much at Lightning"
"A Mage and a Commando in every camp?" Hope questioned, looking up at Lightning.
"Yes. It's called Slash and Burn, it's a very well known Strategy. Now let's pick a direction and go"
Fang started walking north, Snow went east as Vanille bounded after him, skipping merrily and Sazh grabbed Hope's arm and they started going west.
Lightning waited, making sure everyone was acting the plan out. She happened to catch a glimpse of Vanille's swaying hips, breaking a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile across her face.
Vanille jumped, and in mid-air turned to face backwards, catching Lightning's gaze. She giggled to herself and went after Snow.
Hope shrugged off Sazh's grasp and walked with an infuriated stomp.
Sazh laughed to himself as Hope seemed like a lion cub, trying to roar as to be intimidating – It wasn't working very well.
Hope was leaving scorched footprints with every step. Sazh could see he was angry.
"Hey look I'm sorry kiddo I didn't mean to drag you like that. It's just… we needed to get going."
Hope looked up, up at the mountain wall. He unfurled his boomerang from his back pocket and muttered 'Enfire'.
His weapon immediately caught fire and he threw it at his intended target.
The item dropped onto the ground below and Hope, now no longer stomping scorched prints ran over to it and picked it up.
"Look Sazh, this is what I was getting enraged about, not your arm"
"Oh" Sazh looked curious as Hope held a shimmering object in his hand "What's that?"
It was a deep crimson object, spherical but with patterns emblazoned onto it which somehow seemed familiar to the group.
"This is a key. My father used to tell me stories of an object that could harness natural magic and could be used by a non-L'Cie. I think, I think this is it"
The object emitted a light while in Hope's hands, and seemingly grew a darker crimson colour. Hope seemed to smile but then his eyes turned dull and he collapsed to the floor.
"Hope?… Hope!" Sazh shouted in desperation
He rushed over to Hope's near lifeless body, and attempted to grab the orb away from his hand. Upon touching it, Sazh's brand stung with an intensity he had never felt before.
"Ungh" Sazh groaned as he too collapsed to the floor, eyes closing and darkness creeping in.
Snow stood up on the plains of the Steppe, attempting to look for Vanille, who had run off. Snow closed his eyes to see if he could hear the clinking of Vanille's jewellery.
"'Nille? Where are you?"
"Vanille!"
Hmph, where has she got to? She was just here. Light's going to kill me if I lose her girlfriend.
Snow opened his eyes and saw a medium-sized chocobo heading straight for him.
Before he had time to turn and run he stepped back a few paces and felt his knees cave in and he fell over something small, but hard.
"Tee-hee" A giggle came from beneath him
He had enough sense about him to look what he had fallen over, a young red-haired girl.
"Vanille? What the hell are you doing? Where were you?"
"I was only playing, thought I would surprise you. See… he had a good time too"
Vanille pointed to the chocobo that had startled Snow not moments before.
It was doing some form of strange dance and the only noise that came from it was 'Kweh' in different patterns.
Snow could swear he heard a faint echo of a long forgotten battle theme.
"How did you get a chocobo to do that? I know they are meant to be tame but still I've gotta say that's kinda impressive"
"Well" Vanille started "He was my pet chocobo when I lived in Oerba. I raised him from a little chick, like the one you see with Sazh. When he got too big I…"
"You had to let him go?" Snow finished her sentence; he could see this topic was upsetting the girl.
"Yeah that's it. He must have wandered to here all by himself. There are said to be a lot of Chocobos in this area so I guess he felt at home. This little guy's name is Boko"
She smiled as the chocobo came and placed its head under her hand. She ruffled his head a little, and then cuddled him.
"Right" Snow said authoritatively acting all serious. "I think we've done enough 'exploring' in this section of the Steppe so why don't we call it a day and head back to the camp?"
Vanille nodded and gave out a little 'Mmhmm' in recognition.
"Come on Boko, you'll come too won't you?"
The chocobo gave out a seemingly happy 'Kweh' and followed Vanille back to the camp.
There was only one thing on both women's minds – Vanille.
Fang was desperate to talk to Lightning about what had happened, and Lightning was desperate to avoid it.
After a few hours of awkward silence, Fang decided to break it.
"So… Was she any good?" Fang smirked with a playful glint in her eye.
"Good at what? Like I told you this morning, nothing has happened" Lightning put her hands on her hips and stood still.
"You know, kissing. We all heard you had a pretty steamy kiss together in the pool yesterday"
Damn. Are my dreams becoming reality now? There must be a simpler explanation to this.
"Did anyone enter the cave I slept in last night?"
"No, I'm pretty sure no one did. I was sentry last night and no one got up… oh and before you say anything Light, no I didn't either. Why, did you have a good dream then?"
Fang could see Lightning blushing slightly, this was almost a new thing. Fang had only seen her blush once before and she remembered that it had just so been when Vanille fell over and landed on top of Lightning after running away from a Flan enemy.
"Fang, I didn't dream about anything and Vanille certainly did not kiss me yesterday"
Lightning held one hand up to her face to check if she was blushing or not. Fang gave Lightning a cheeky wink as she did.
I'm so warm in the face. Is this how she knows? Is this how she can tell? Damn.
Lightning punched her thigh, the only surface near to her.
Note to self. Remember to not blush.
"Well even if Vanille lied about kissing you, something happened Light, you can't deny that much. You should be flattered, she finds you attractive and I'm pretty sure deep down you feel the same about her"
"Shut up Fang, just shut up!"
Lightning turned her head, then her body and walked off northwards.
Fang laughed to herself.
"She can deny it all she wants, but eventually those feelings are going to creep out"
"Ok, you know what? There is clearly nothing here"
Lightning was getting tired of Fang's questions about her preference for men or women.
"We have been searching for most of the day and haven't found a thing. We should go back to the camp"
Lightning turned towards Fang, and started walking back to the camp. Fang gave her a playful nudge and Lightning gave a jokingly heavy push back.
"Don't worry Light, I know it's not me you fancy!"
They were just about to enter the group's camp, when Lightning spotted Snow and Vanille already there.
"You two find anything?" She said affirming her leadership among the group.
"Nope…well only this little guy" Snow pointed at the yellow, fluffy chocobo.
"He's mine Light, we're keeping him ok?" Vanille looked at Lightning and smiled, opening her eyes wide and fluttering her eyelashes a little.
"Tch, fine. As long as you look after him"
"Yay thank you Light!" Vanille was overjoyed.
Without thinking she ran to Lightning and put her arms around her, holding the pink-haired beauty tight.
Lightning closed her eyes for a second. Instinctively putting her hands on Vanille's waist.
Smelling Vanille's perfume was a luxury she had never undertaken but for this brief moment it was beyond divine.
Lightning opened her eyes and saw both Fang and Snow looking shocked. She quickly let go of the red-haired girl and assumed her position as leader.
She cleared her throat before she spoke, getting that lump that Vanille had put in there out of it.
"Have you two seen Sazh and Hope?"
"No, not since we all set off" Snow shook his head as well as speaking.
"I'm sure they are fine, let's give them until nightfall and then we will look for them"
"Sure. You know, that's probably one of the most sensible plans you've come up with"
She laughed and made Fang laugh with her abuse of Snow too.
Even if we do give them a few more hours, there are still plenty of things out there that could get them. They should have been back by now.
The sun of Gran-Pulse was setting, the sky lit up with an orange and purple hue.
The crimson orb had now turned to white. The markings, once prominent in gold now turned a clear colour, almost invisible on the white background.
Sazh was paralysed, but could open one eye enough to see footsteps which came closer to the orb, heavy and masculine footsteps.
Sazh could only make out the bottom of a white and flowing coat, with black boots. He kept still while the orb was picked up. Its holder unaffected by what the orb had done to the L'Cie.
A rough and earthy voice spoke out in the near darkness of the setting sun
"The key is almost complete"
