2.

When she woke, it was to a tingling sensation. A light touch almost. As she opened her eyes, it turned out to be the motion of water against her skin. Instinctively, her body wanted to draw a breath but she forced it into submission. Drowning was not on her agenda.

She was suspended in a pool of sorts, back pressed against a hard surface. How unusual. Instead of sand, she felt wood under her fingers. Wood and strangely, some kind of flowering plants. As her sense of orientation returned, she turned her face upwards. There was light. She was close enough to make out the shape of a structure above.

Where was she? In a forest? The shadows were vague. The distortion from the water made it difficult to judge. Worse than that, the confusion. She had no idea how she had gotten here. Moving into a crouch, she steeled herself for the unknown, then kicked off the ground. Drops splattered as she broke the surface and her lungs were relieved. She twisted immediately, searching her surroundings for any sign of life.

There was none. She was almost glad. She'd half-expected another enemy to be standing on the edge, waiting to pounce. The place was completely deserted. Not even an animal.

She swam a few paces, only to find it shallow enough to stand a couple of metres towards the edge. She saw nothing but high walls, broken pillars and benches, thrown across another carelessly. Nothing to indicate what the purpose of this place was, or had been. She couldn't remember seeing this kind of building on Cocoon or Gran Pulse.

This wasn't good. Something had gone wrong. Focusing on before, she remembered only the reunion in the wake of Cocoon's crystallisation. Serah's smile. Snow's shout of delight. Father and son in each other's arms. Even Hope had gone forward, determined to enjoy the moment despite the absence of his parents. And she…

She had stood and watched, had felt the relief consume her. Had been so close to believing it would finally be alright. Only to have the world fall away in front of her eyes. She'd been pulled away into an abyss, powerless to fight. Some kind of magic had done this. As she walked along the perimeter of the building, it was obvious that she was the only one. The others were gone.

Confusion began to overpower her rationality. She'd thought after this adventure, she was prepared for anything. Magic, monsters, armies, whichever. Now, she couldn't feel the mark on her chest anymore. She knew it had disappeared. Could it still be some kind of l'Cie curse? And if not? What was this place? More importantly, how to get back? To the others, who had seemed to be unaware of something happening?

She slumped against one of the pillars. The sunlight, throwing ribbons of light across the floor, did nothing for her mood. She was stuck. No vision to indicate this was some kind of new Focus. She had no purpose and no way of knowing how this had happened.

Her fists clenched. She'd just have find a way out of this mess on her own, as she always did. She'd not been through all this for nothing. Her fingers tapped against her thigh, satisfied to find her Gunblade sitting in its holster. At least that familiarity had stayed.

Her footsteps sounded hollow on the wood as she walked away. One door stood open and she stepped through into a world of dust and metal. For several moments, she could only stare as she moved, taking in everything at once.

This was different. The artificiality of Cocoon's structures wasn't quite the same. They had been supreme creations of the fal'Cie. This place simply looked crude, rough and dark. As though pieces had been put together without looking to see if they matched. Everything, was also in ruins. This was as immensely damaged as she'd seen happening during the Purge battles. The area was deserted and it wasn't hard to see why.

What had happened here? Instantly, she was thinking about home, the ocean, the open space. She wanted that back, impossible as it was now. Lightning kept walking, kept listening but wherever she'd emerged, it was quite abandoned.

Eventually, she had no sense of time passing anymore. The shadows got longer but the piles of debris didn't look any different. She kept walking, hoping to stumble upon anything that would be of use. She needed information and these remains of civilisation around her weren't providing much.

It came as a surprise when she climbed another mountain of rubble and saw the gaping hole in front of her. What looked to have been a massive wall, had been reduced to pieces. She followed the stretch of its remains with her eyes. It must have been a city boundary. Further away, the remains of a tower-like structure rose where the wall ended. She couldn't identify it but from its state, she guessed there was little hope of finding life there.

Beyond the barrier, there was grey. She didn't know if the sight was worse than the dead city behind her. It was pure wasteland, not a shred of greenery. She shook her head in disbelief. This had to be the result of war poisoning the lands. She couldn't fathom anything else. Even Gran Pulse, with horrible myths surrounding it, had been a place with life.

She leapt down, crossing the boundary with ease. At least she could clearly see the sky above her now. The resemblance to her home, small as it was, meant that this world wasn't entirely alien. It didn't give her much reassurance though. Wide expanses meant no cover and she didn't know what could reside among the rocks she saw in the distance. She stayed in the shadow of the broken wall for a moment, weighing her options.

If there was one thing she had enough of now, it was time. At least she thought so. She figured her best chance was to scout the area before heading out. The city was large and she had apparently come out on one end. Perhaps on the other side, there was something more inviting than this stretch of hard-baked earth.

"Tch," she pushed her fringe out of her eyes, "So this is what you get for trying to save the world"

Grumbling under her breath, she started off towards the East. Whatever had brought her here, fate, a spell, who knew, she was starting to think this could only be a punishment. She had just been reunited with the only family she had left, only to be taken away again. Was this the last revenge of the fal'Cie, however it had been done?

So lost in her thoughts, she only noticed a change when the noise could no longer be overheard. Her head snapped up and she squinted against the light. There. Throwing up dust and bumping over rock. A vehicle. She couldn't remember seeing that kind of model before, especially one moving so slowly and unable to fly. It didn't matter. It sounded like a machine and those were generally controlled by something living. Human or not, that would be the interesting part.

She broke into a sprint, abandoning her cover. If she timed it well enough, she could leap onto the vessel and perhaps take control. She kept her eyes on the moving target, which was nearing her at a right angle. Coming closer at a breakneck pace, she could see that the back was an open space, loaded with supplies of some kind. Perfect.

Three more strides and she kicked off, was airborne for several seconds, before her feet impacted on metal. The vehicle shook under the force and she was thrown backwards as it rapidly slowed, swerving on the rocky terrain. She flipped instinctively, landing on the highest point in a crouch and drawing her blade as it rumbled to a stop.

A door opened below her and she saw arms, legs, red hair. Human by the look of him and judging by the angry voice. Thankfully, he was speaking a language she understood. On top of that, the wooden object he clutched in his hand wasn't intimidating. She could see he wasn't adept at using it.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Off my truck, right now! You trying to steal…" his voice broke off when he caught sight of her on the roof of his truck, blade pointing in the direction of his chest. He quickly backtracked, taking several steps away from her, "I mean…let's take it easy now, nobody needs to get hurt"

Human, alright. He was acting like any other Cocoon civilian. His clothing was slightly different but that didn't bother her. He was the first evidence that she wasn't in a deserted world. He didn't sound to be any more dangerous than Snow when he started talking. She jumped down, facing the man who'd grown a couple of shades paler. She ignored it.

"Tell me where I am," Lightning demanded.

"What…didn't you just come from…?" he was babbling and she had no patience for this.

"The name of this place" she gestured wildly to the ruins behind her, "What is this planet?"

He looked just as confused as her, his eyes jumping wildly between her weapon, the destroyed city, and her face. "That's Midgar. Everyone in Gaia knows it, the city destroyed by Meteor years ago. Look, do you need a medic or…?"

Again she cut him off, her mind working frantically to figure out what he was saying. "Gaia? How far is it from Gran Pulse?"

"I…I don't know any Gran Pulse! Will you put that sword away?!"

Again, she purposely overheard his question. She looked over her shoulder at the place she'd found herself in hours ago. The first answer she'd received since waking and already, she had a sinking feeling. He could by lying but he seemed honestly clueless what she was speaking of. She sighed, lowering her sword a fraction.

"And who are you?"

He still had his hands up in surrender but now he cracked a nervous smile. "Call me Johnny"