A/N: So, after seeing the results of chapter one I thought I'd get this out. It was an experiment, though I am happy to say that I'm satisfied with the results enough to continue with it :D Thank you those who kindly reviewed!
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII or anything to do with it.
Edited: 6-3-11
A Rock and A Hard Place
Orange and red leaves drifted to the ground in the wake of a slight breeze. Small children ran through the piles of multi-coloured leaves, laughing and playing with not a care in the world. Parents stood by and watched on fondly, remembering days in which they, too, enjoyed life without worries. It was a beautiful day - slightly overcast, not too cold, not too warm. A perfect in between.
Standing under a leaveless tree in the far end of the park, Lightning felt terribly alone and stuck.
After telling Fang the day before about her father and the very last, peculiar conversation with him, Lightning had felt better and worse. After having locked it away for so many years, it had felt liberating to get it off her chest. But because she had locked it away for so many years, she had forgotten the niggling mystery, and pain, it brought.
Suffice to say, Lightning was deeply troubled.
After the whole l'cie business, she had sworn to herself that she would do better with Serah. Having to relocate to Oerba had helped, Serah having had no choice but to stay with Lightning (not that Serah was complaining - she, too, wanted to work on things with her sister) while the people rebuilt Oerba and started reconstructing salvageable parts of Cocoon. Snow had decided to stay with NORA, knowing that living with the sisters would be a bad move on his part. Vanille and Fang had moved in with Lightning, as well, after a short bit in crystal stasis - a simple two weeks. Fang had claimed the short time was due to the fact that Lightning couldn't live without her favourite hunter. The real reason remained a mystery, however, and everyone was content to leave it at that.
So far, Lightning and Serah were making progress. It was agonizingly slow progress, but it was progress nonetheless. To try and pretend the past nine years hadn't happened would be a huge mistake. They had silently agreed to take things slow. Now, with Oerba thriving and the reconstruction going supremely well, Lightning felt the inevitable departure of Serah from her daily life. Serah and Snow had decided to postpone the wedding until after things were settled down. Lightning felt she had half a year at the least. It didn't feel like enough.
It wasn't helping anything, either.
Watching the children having the time of their lives with their parents looking on lovingly was like a slap in the face to Lightning. She loved, and hated, autumn. She loved it because the heat of the summer finally gave way to the cooler, more temperate weather of fall. She loved it because all the trees turned beautiful colors, their leaves falling gracefully to the ground. Piles would be made, people would jump into them in delight, and the leaves themselves would make a satisfying crunch noise when stepped on by happy people. She loved it because it tasted of freedom, of happiness, of love.
These things were also what made her hate it.
She hated it because her parents died in autumn. She hated it because she had to look on and watch others be so happy with their families. She hated it because autumn had taken everything away from her.
Normally she'd have been able to shove her emotions into a box and throw away the key, leaving her body on a sort of autopilot. But Fang had demolished all her walls and defenses during their time as a l'cie - she was helpless now against the onslaught.
She didn't know whether to cry or laugh at the irony. To top it all off, she couldn't get her father's last words to her out of her head. They kept repeating themselves like a broken record - 'Watch over Serah, and continue the family business if needed.' She had been so obsessed with those very words, she had practically blackmailed Fang that morning into restarting her research into her ancestry while she was on duty.
Yes, Lightning was indeed stuck. Stuck between a rock, and a hard place.
It wasn't a very pleasant place to be, not very pleasant at all. Beginning to feel edgy and on the precipice of a breakdown, Lightning reached down to her communicator to contact Fang and see if she could just get her mind to shut up. Before she even touched it, however, it rang. Startled, she answered without thinking, and heard Fang herself say in a strained voice, "Lightning, you might want to get down here and take a look at this. I think I've found somethin'."
