A/N: Hey all thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites! Gets my thought process flowing. All rights are reserved by Square Enix Just love me some Lightning and Fang Fic. Enjoy!
Four Years later
It was a dark night, the humid wind breezed through Lightning's pink locks as she leaned against the balcony of her home. She looked up at the night sky taking the sweet smell of blooming flowers. Taking the last drag of her smoke before she disposed It In the ashtray, Lightning lifted the whiskey on her lips and took one long swing of her drink.
Dropping her head into her hands, Lightning closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened them back up and turned toward her house.
Her thoughts landed where they always seem to, on Serah; and as always Lightning immediately regretted letting her thoughts wander in that direction as the feeling of abandonment intensified. Lightning has not heard from her sister since she left almost a year ago to continue her studies elsewhere.
The isolated feeling has intensified as the anniversary of their parents death got closer and closer. It had recently become apparent to her that she would be going through it alone.
"What am I doing with my life?" Lightning exclaimed with a huff.
She grabbed her glass and started to fill it with, what has recently become her favored alcoholic beverage.
As she tipped the drink into her glass her hands started to shake spilling the whiskey down her arm. Her body was starting to feel damp and cold.
"Fuck!"
Lightning slammed down the cup and bottle and swiftly made her way into the house and to the bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet she grabbed a few bottles in her fist. Looking at them carefully she growled as she practically threw them to the side.
Panic and desperation gripped her as she grabbed another handful of bottles in her trembling hands. Sighing slightly as she finally found the two bottles she was looking for; she tossed the other ones to the side. Lightning's hands had started to shake violently. Struggling with the bottles for what felt likes hours she was finally rewarded when she heard the pop sound that comes with success.
She dumped one of each pill into her hand and tossed them into her mouth lowering the bottles onto the sink at the same time. She felt annoyance build up at the lack of immediate response.
Lightning picked the bottles up again narrowing her eyes at the weight of them.
"Shit."
Putting the lid back on the bottles, Lightning tensed up as a small shake of the bottles confirmed that she has not seen wrong
"Shit!"
Lightning quickly reached into her pockets and grabbed her phone. She was still wearing her work uniform. A single gold bar on her shoulder. A symbol of her status as a Lieutenant. At twenty-two she was the youngest Lieutenant In history. A fact that she should be proud of.
Despite these accomplishments, despite reaching most of her goals much earlier in life than she anticipated. None of her achievements felt real. Lightning could not escape the feeling of uselessness and guilt that seemed to constantly plague her life. She wanted nothing more than to find those 'bastards' that killed her parents and bring them in for 'justice'. But so far those pictures Lightning took all those years ago had turned up absolutely nothing.
Worst yet was the constant nightmares, and thoughts of 'what ifs', that kept her up most nights. She felt anxious and unsure, angry and constantly tense. That was, until she met Gadot.
Rocking lightly on the balls of her feet Lightning quickly found the contact she was looking for. Rocking quickly moved to pacing as the phone rang on.
Lightning stopped pacing abruptly as the sound of techno music blared through her speakers.
"Gadot, its Lightning I'm out. I need more by tomorrow."
"Woah! Lightning, hold your horses!" Gadot yelled over the loud music.
Lightning sighed heavily. She was in no mood to play around.
"I need more, Gadot. Tomorrow." Lightning sharply started taking a deep breaths and she continued slowly. "I have to go to the office tomorrow, and then I can meet you at the usual spot."
"Ok chill! I'll cya then!" The music cut off abruptly as he hung up.
Lightning placed her phone on the table. She felt her shoulders slump as fatigue finally hit her. Taking a deep sigh she placed her fingers on the bridge of her nose.
"Fuck my life." Lightning ran her fingers through her hair returning, once again, to the bathroom.
Lightning's life has become an endless cycle of routine activities. Wake up, go to the gym, head to work, go home, drink, shower, sleep - if that is what you want to call it. Rinse wash and repeat. Of course she occasionally steps outside her norm to visit Gadot.
Lightning opened the door to the bathroom room. She undressed and placed her clothes in the hamper. She stopped and stared at herself in the mirror. At times, she still had a hard time recognizing herself. She had changed so much in the past few years.
Sure, Lightning was toned from the constant workouts. She had gained some muscles. Her job kept her on her feet and she needed to be ready for anything. But even the muscle could not hide the fact that her body had simply not come out of this ordeal unscathed.
Her normal pale skin has gone an almost sickly paler shade; and despite the muscle, perhaps because of the muscular tone, it was incredibly obvious that lightning has lost more weight than would be deemed healthy. The most drastic change however was in her eyes. Her once cerulean blue eyes have taken on a gray lifeless tinge; only made more prominent by the dark circles under her eyes.
Lightning stepped into the shower letting the hot water splash each curve on her body while she leaned her head against the tile wall.
Lightning sighed.
She hated these moments the most. When she was not working or drinking, her mind would wonder. When her mind wandered to long every feeling and memory she tried to suppress during the day would come out full force.
Thoughts of her sister, thoughts of her parents. Her parents. It has been a while, maybe a few months, since she has looked at that case file. Maybe it's time she pulled it out again.
Lightning shook her head roughly and quickly finished her shower, getting out before she let herself get too caught up in her own thoughts.
She quickly made her way to her room, opened her drawers and pulled out a tank and some swats. Throwing them on she looked to the bed. Realizing there was no way she was relaxed enough to sleep yet she walked over to her closet, grabbed a beat up leather case off the shelf and placed it on her bed gently.
She unbuckled the locks on the case, opened it and looked down at one of the only things she had kept of her mother's. A black glossed acoustic guitar. It had been well cared for, with barely any Knicks on it. When she was much younger, Lightning's mother used to play this very guitar for her; and Lightning loved every minute of it.
Lightning ran her hands over the neck of the guitar.
"Claire, darling. Could you get me my guitar please?"
Claire smiled "Sure, mama!" Claire ran to the corner and tried lifting the guitar in her tiny hands. The guitar was almost twice as big as Claire but she managed to grip it by the neck and carefully, albeit awkwardly, wobble back to her mother who had been sitting on the couch watching the whole thing with a bemused smile on her face.
"Thank you baby." Athena said taking the guitar from her daughter. "I know how much you like hearing me play, right?" Claire nodded sitting down in front of her mother "So, I was thinking It may be time we started teaching you to play" Claire's face lit up immediately as she reached for the guitar.
Athena Laughed. " No no, you silly thing. Check your room."
Claire jumped up and ran upstairs.
Sure enough, there had been a guitar there on her bed that was perfectly sized for her. And true to her word Athena taught her daughter to play by the age of eight.
That guitar is gone now. Sold, broken, given away, who knows? This one, however, was one of the few things Lightning made sure to grab from her parents' house before she sold it.
Lightning use to play in recitals until she got side tracked with training for BPD. But now, every once in a while, she would take it out to help ease her mind for a bit.
Lightning carefully took the guitar out of its case and pushed the case over. Sitting on the bed she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit another one quickly. Staring off into space she started to strum out songs she thought long forgotten.
Lightning quickly shook herself out of her daze and looked over to the clock on her dresser. A half hour had gone by. Shaking her head she tossed the cigarette, which she had apparently finished a while back, into the ashtray. She stood up placed the guitar back in its case carefully, and placed it back in the closet in the exact same spot she always did.
Exhaustion finally kicking in, she walked back to the bed and fell on top of the covers. She was asleep before her body fully settled.
Two hours later
Lightning tossed and turned. She heard a sound in the distance but couldn't quite place where it was coming from, let alone what it was. Her eyes were not cooperating. They felt like someone had tied tiny weights to the lids while she slept.
The noise got louder. Or perhaps closer?
Lightning jerked awake suddenly. The noise was her cell. Lightning got up as quickly as she could, and ran back downstairs missing a step or two on the way.
Grabbing the phone and fumbling with it for a second she managed to answer it despite not quite being able to see the buttons.
"Yeah...it's…"
Lightning yawn.
"Lightning…" Lightning could barely keep her posture as the adrenaline quickly wore off again. Her eyes started to close.
"Lieutenant, sorry for the late wake up call."
Lightning was once again fully awake.
"Captain Amodar, sir. Don't worry about it I know you wouldn't call me at this time if it wasn't urgent….what's going on?" Lightning started pacing back and forth in the living room.
Amodar sighed "Lieutenant…. there was incident at the train station…. Lightning please come down as soon as possible." Amodar sounded weary.
"Yes sir. I'm on my way."
Lightning quickly ran up the steps. She nearly face planted half way up but managed to catch herself just on time. Cursing under her breath she managed to dress herself in her uniform without and incident.
Lightning rushed down the stairs put on her holster, threw her uniformed jacket on, and pulled on her beat up combat boots.
Setting the alarm, she rushed out the front door to her car and sped off.
Bodhum Train Station
Lightning pulled up the train station. There were dozens of squad cars and ambulances on the scene. Lightning squared off her soldiers reached into her glove compartment and grabbed a bag of pills she kept there.
Shoving them into her pocket she got out of her car, locked it and looked around.
Two body bags were being placed on the coroner's truck. An officer, lightning was fairly sure he was a rookie, was heading her way.
He stopped in front of her and saluted.
Lightning returned the salute.
"Captain, Amodar asked me to escort you to him. Follow me please."
Lightning nodded and followed the officer. They passed the yellow tape, Lightning nodded to an officer she kind of recognized, and continued following. She looked ahead and saw her commanding officer speaking to a couple of investigators and, what looked like, a station employee...
Lightning quickly thanked the rookie and walked over to Amodar. She saluted him.
"Captain, what's going on?"
"Lightning, earlier today at the Bodhum Psych Ward Jihl Nabaat escaped." Lightning heartbeat quickened "From what we could tell based on witness testimony and tapes, she managed to seduce and strangled a guard sometime after hours. She took his keys and escaped." Lightning's eyes went wide.
Jihl was sent to a, supposedly, secure psychiatric institute rather than put behind bars due to her mental state. Apparently you would have to be insane to do what Jihl did. She was supposed to serve a life sentence in that institute. She was charged with a number of felonies. Heists, robberies, murders. The murder of her own parents in fact.
Jihl managed to evade the law a long while. Two years ago, however, she made one mistake that costs her dearly. She had gotten complacent. Jihl, Lightning supposed, was feeling invincible. Jihl had decided to murder her last victim in an alley off a fairly public street. A street Lightning herself goes down quite often. This of course proved to be Jihl's biggest mistake. Lightning could not save the victim, but she did manage to catch and help convict Jihl. Unfortunately, she was only sent to a psychiatric facility; and it seemed like she had not only managed to escape but cause another big disaster.
"It seems like she was able to stow away on the train, in the cargo bay. She killed a train attendant, and gutted a civilian. She injured a handful of others and a few are in critical condition …. "Amodar took a deep breath never losing eye contact.
Lightning had a thick lump in her throat. It took her a bit to force it down.
"Captain?"
"Lightning, Serah was on the train. She..." Amodar cleared his throat "She is one of the ones that were hurt… um in critical condition I mean"
Lightning's felt like her body had been plunged into the bottom of an icy lake. Again, she had to force down a lump.
"Captain…. Where is she? Where is Serah?" Both Lightning's voice and body had started to shake.
"Lightning, she was in an ambulance and should be arriving at Bodhum Memorial Hospital. I have sent a number of guards to keep watch to make sure Jihl does not come looking for Serah. Lightning I'm so sorry. I called you as soon as I knew." Amodar fidgeted slightly.
Lightning didn't spare him any acknowledgment. She ran past everyone easily as they all moved out of her way.
She felt her stomach turn as the feeling of Deja vu hit her hard.
Lightning got in her car and sped away.
4 Hours Earlier: Train D Valhalla to Bodhum
"Hey sis! It's been a while, I was going to surprise you when I got home but I couldn't hold it any longer!" Serah couldn't stop smile while she left Lightning a message.
"Any who Light, it seems like you're busy maybe finally doing some crazy shit with some girl huh? I was wondering, if you get this message on time, can you pick me up from the train station? I Love and miss you… I'll see you soon!"
Serah disconnected the call, and placed her phone back in her pocket. Serah looked down at the four empty coffee cups and realized that she desperately needed to use the bathroom.
"Oh Etro! I need to pee!" Serah couldn't hold it any longer she quickly got up and rush to the back to use the restroom.
Serah sighed in relief, washed her hands. But before turning to leave the bathroom, she heard a loud thump just outside the door. Serah's eyebrow rose. She carefully opened the door. Serah had to hold back an almost involuntary scream as her eyes fell on blood smeared on the walls. Looking down she saw a crimson puddle forming on the floor. Serah looked up again eyes wide with terror. She froze at what she saw, her voice catching in the back of her throat.
"J...Jih...l, what are you doing here?" Serah choked out feeling paralyzed under Jihl's gaze.
Jihl gave Serah a crazed smile.
"Serah, long time no see, how long has it been? Two years?" Jihl adjusted her glasses. She looked mostly the same to Serah. Perhaps a little more crazed than she remembered. Jihl wore Psych Ward garments stained with, what could only be fresh blood. Her hair, once completely blonde, now seemed to be stained with the same red liquid
Fear and nausea consumed Serah. Jihl may have been locked up for two years, but by the looks of it; she has kept herself in top physical shape. Serah quickly glanced down at Jihl's hand which had twitched forward slightly.
Serah's breath hitched. In Jihl's hand was a very long, very sharp bloody knife.
Jihl licked blood of her lips and continued to talk.
"So I decided I would go for a vacation today. I have been beyond bored and I said to myself where should I go? So I decided … OH! OH! Can you guess where I'm going?" Jihl asked with a devious smile.
Serah numbly moved her head side to side.
"No." Serah's voice hitched.
Jihl crossed her arms, place the knife on her chin and smiled.
"Serah, no need to be scared dear. I'm here to see Lightning. I want to say hello. But it looks like you're doing the same right?" Jihl stepped closer to Serah, pushing Serah further into the bathroom. Jihl locked the door behind her and leaned on the door frame.
"So why don't we give your sister a surprise?" Jihl smiled wildly moving closer to Serah. Her bust pressing against Serah's breasts. Serah tried to hold tightly to the sink for support. Jihl licked the side of Serah's face, and smiled again at the grimace Serah did not, or could not hold back.
Serah's head had dropped down, her shoulders hunched protectively.
Jihl traced her knife up and down Serah's face. "Such a pretty little thing." Jihl roughly grabbed Serah's face and forced her to make eye contact "Let me fix that for you my dear."
Present Time Bodhum Memorial Hospital
Lightning sped through every light. It could not have taken more than a few minutes to get here.
She quickly leapt from her car. The drive here had done nothing for Lightning's nerves. Her heart was racing; she could not get her hands to stop shaking.
Lightning went into the ER entrance and walk to the front desk.
"Serah Farron what room!" Lightning's eyes were glossing over on the brink of tears. "Please." She added as an afterthought.
The nurse looked up at Lightning. She quickly typed something into her computer and waited.
"Serah Farron is currently still in surgery you will have to wait until we have any further information from the doctors you can-"
"Please can you tell me how she is? Anything would you just tell me please!"
The Nurse looked at Lightning sympathetically and just shook her head.
"I'm sorry all I know is she was brought in, in critical condition. She was rushed here nearly 10 minutes ago."
Lightning was shaking badly; she nodded her thanks and rushed to the cafeteria to grab a coffee. She ducked behind a corner leaned against a vending machine and swallowed down a couple pills in hopes that they would help her relax.
Lightning's jaw tensed as fear was replaced by anger. "What the fuck Jihl!" Lightning turned around and punched the soda machine, denting it in the process. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. Laying her head on the machine she closed her eyes. Lightning slammed her fist into it one more time.
"I should have killed the bitch when I had the chance. This is all my fault."
"Oy, what'll that poor machine eva do to you? Did you need change or something? Ya know they have banks for that."
Lightning snapped away from her thoughts, her body jerking slightly as she turned toward the voice. It worried her that she was not even remotely aware of this person or, apparently, her surroundings at all.
"You Lightning, ya?" This women was about a couple inches taller than Lightning. Based on her insignia she was also a lieutenant. Lightning could tell she is well toned under her uniform, black wavy hair with red tips, a beauty mark under her right eye, smooth bronze skin, piercing soft deep viridian eyes, and what look like blue horned or fanged earrings.
Lightning couldn't stop staring at her. Her heart felt like it was beating a thousand beats per minute. Oh Etro the woman was a goddess! Lightning suddenly noticed a hand waving in front of her and that husky thick accent again.
"Sunshine ya in there?"
Lightning snapped out of her daze.
"It's Lightning!" Lightning nearly snarled.
"Woah! Easy there sunshine don't get yer panties in a bunch, let's start with intros ya?"
The Bronze woman cleared her throat.
"Lieutenant Oerba Yun Fang, but you can just call me Fang." Fang smiled and put her and out towards Lightning.
Lightning gulped, her throat suddenly going dry. She grabbed ahold of Fang's hand.
"Lightning, uhmm yea..." Lighting stuttered through her introduction. 'What the hell is wrong with me! I've never been this nervous or flustered in my life! Not even that time Serah took me to that lesbian strip club for my twenty first birthday….. Serah...' Lighting snapped back to reality.
Suddenly giving Fang a cold, hard look, Lightning snapped her hand away.
"What do you want? I'm busy and I am most certainly in no mood for small chat, so if you'll excuse me Lieutenant-" Lightning went to turn away.
Fang grabbed her wrist and within seconds Lighting was face to face with Fang. Lightning felt her face turned to beat red.
"Hold on a sec sunshine-" Lightning shoved her back, Fang nearly lost her balance.
"What the hell is wrong with ya!" Fang snapped.
Lightning straightened her uniform and glared at Fang.
"Tch... First off don't call me Sunshine, second I am not here to joke around and play games with you, and third what the hell do you want from me?!" Lightning was yelling now, her frustration and worry mounting. She looked around and realized she had gathered a small crowd of onlookers. Taking a calming breath she allowed her breathing to slow down.
"Relax, geez ya need to remove that stick from up ya ass and just listen." Fang sighed.
"Lightning I've been assigned to be yer um, partner."
Lightning looked dumbfounded.
"What….what did you just say?" Lightning looked pale. She was pretty sure she was going to lose her breakfast, or would have, had she had any.
"I just got transferred today', Captain Amodar told me that I'm assigned to be your partner' until I croak, or better yet retire." Fang gave Lightning a big smile.
"Why the hell didn't he tell me I was getting a partner." Lightning placed her fingers on the bridge of her nose. She alternated between muttering and calm breathing exercises. She really was going to have an early heart attack at this rate.
Fang watched Lightning as she grumbled to herself. Fang smirked glancing up and down'Damn she's hot she's gotta nice set of buns! Never seen anyone like her, hmm… I wonder if that's her natural hair color, maybe I'll ask her later.' Then an intercom disturbed her thoughts.
"Claire Farron, please report to ICU. Claire Farron, report to ICU please." The speaker went silent.
Lightning eyes went wide and started to rush towards the elevators.
"Let's go Fang. We will continue this conversation later."
Fang Nodded.
"Ok Sunshine." Fang winced as she felt a sharp pain in her arm.
Lightning glared at her.
"That's for calling me sunshine."
This was going to be in one hell of a ride with this Oerba Yun Fang.