Title: Semper Eadem
Disclaimers: FFXIII is not mine, I'm not selling this blab la bla. Just a little fanfiction.
Spoilers: eventually.
Pairing: Fang/Lightning & Fang/Vanille
Rating: Thus far it's T, for violence and language. So if you have virgin ears, fuck off. It promises to get sexier, so M in the coming chapters.
Author's Notes: I don't understand formatting on this site. As a result, it's a little messed up. I tried to space everything out though.
OOO
The scent of oil, urine and rot filled their nostrils. The air was thick and hard to breathe. The tang of metal settled onto their tongues, the taste of dirt; the darkness was punctured by torchlight strategically placed along the path. Ma'Habara Subterra: the mechanical cave. They'd been stuck in it for hours.
Fang coughed and cleared her throat, her breath was marked by strangled wheezing. She could hear Lightning retching a short distance from where she stood. She retrieved a potion from the pouch at her waist and took a sip. The cold liquid spread into her chest and cleared her lungs. Light returned visibly pale.
"Here," Fang held out the vial of potion and they started along the path again.
"Thanks," she removed the cork with a soft popping noise and drank.
"It's your l'Cie blood," Fang said. "Your body hasn't adjusted to it yet."
Lightning squeezed her eyes shut; the nausea was overwhelming. "Well it better adjust soon."
"It will take time. All of the things your body is made for: hunger, fatigue, expiration – none of them matter anymore. Being l'Cie is being immortal."
Light nodded and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. She gestured with the vial, "Provided you have plenty of these."
"Overcoming mortality is no small order. It's what that fal'Cie Primarch bugger's done. He doesn't eat, doesn't sleep and doesn't stop."
"If I don't need food or sleep, then why do I still get hungry? Or tired?" She gulped down another mouthful of potion.
"After a lifetime of eating and hunger, your brain has gotten used to the idea," Fang answered.
"I'm hungry because I think I'm hungry? That sounds insane."
"The mind plays powerful tricks," Fang removed another vial from her pouch and drank, chest tightening, "You die only if you think you're dead. Pain is the only thing left that's real. That's something even fal'Cie couldn't evolve out of."
Lightning's brow furrowed. "I don't know about that. What makes you so sure?"
"Five hundred years frozen in crystal is a lot of time to figure things out."
A trace of a smile appeared on Lightning's lips, "You're five hundred years old?"
"More I reckon," Fang replied, "But I spent about five hundred years in crystal stasis."
"What was that like?"
Fang shrugged, "I don't remember. I wish I did. I might remember my focus that way. Or at least Vanille's."
A fleet of Pulseworkers blocked their path. Fang was eager to fight them. The machines were quite simple, useless foes. She enjoyed their destruction; it forced her awake and kept her alert. Lightning used them to retrain her body, to regain the strength in her muscles she lost when the Humbaba attacked her. With each fight they became more flexible, less painful. Muscle stiffness was a side-effect of white magic.
A final burst of Light's Thundaga spell turned the Pulseworkers into heaps of scrap metal and wire. They sheathed their weapons. A sudden coughing fit seized Fang's body. She sucked in a breath and reached for another vial of potion. Taking a sip, she cursed under her breath. A cool, eucalyptus flavour enveloped her throat and spread through her chest. Lightning cleared her throat and swallowed hard, fending off her nausea. They continued their walk.
"We're running out of these," Fang frowned, sipping from the vial.
Lightning pursed her lips, desperate to take her mind off her illness, "How long have you known Vanille?"
Fang noticed the grimace on Lightning's face and handed her the potion. Light took it gratefully.
"All my life," Fang replied.
"You lived together in Oerba?" She passed the vial back to Fang.
"Yep," Fang nodded and took a drink.
"Any parents?"
"No," She shook her head and handed the vial back to Lightning. "No parents in Oerba. It was run like a giant orphanage for girls. There was a matron who ran everything. The older girls cooked and cleaned. Took care of us."
"Only girls?" Lightning arched her brow.
"Only girls," She smirked, "Men were a bit of a foreign creature there. We knew they existed. The fal'Cie temple at the centre of our village had a faculty of male-only priests. But they were haggard, mean old things. Nothing like what I discovered after invading your hometown."
Light sipped the potion, "The men must've been boys at some point."
"Obviously. But we had no idea where they were. We weren't allowed any contact outside of the village."
She frowned. "Why?"
The ground shook violently and Fang stepped in front of Lightning, using her body to shield her. From across the catwalk and beyond a winding metal staircase the giant creature moved, rolling through the cave's tunnels, crashing through the rocks and tunnelling anew. The bright orange teeth around it spun like a saw as it approached, stopping just short of where Fang and Lightning stood.
Light fell into Fang's body as though drunk, her nausea returning perforce. She moaned. The pain had increased. Fang steadied her, cupping her shoulders in order to keep her standing.
Lightning's head lolled back, "What the hell is that?"
Fang chuckled, tickled by schadenfreude, "It's an Atomos. It ploughs tunnels through the Ma'Habara caves. It's our way out of here."
Lightning blanched, "What?"
"I'm not going to lie to you," she said. "It's going to be hell with that headache of yours. You'll have to use your white magic."
"I still don't understand."
"Atomos is a vehicle," she replied. "A sentient machine, but a vehicle all the same. It goes through the Subterra and ends up in Sulya Springs."
Lightning looked heartbroken, "Let's get this over with."
They climbed the metal staircase and gingerly boarded Atomos. Inside were cast iron ledges they used for seats. Light tensed. The seats were unbearable. Fang closed the hatch and sat next to her, trapped inside the darkness. As the Atomos roared to life, Lightning gasped and put her hand on her stomach; the green-blue glow of a cure spell kept her nausea at bay. Fang saw the soft green illumination and reached for it, covering Lightning's hand with her own. The cure spells seeped into them both and eased their discomfort; the contact between their hands kept them calm.
OOO
The Springs were a welcome relief from the dark, dank carcass of the Atomos. Lightning was the first to struggle out, anxious to be free of the insidious machine. Fang emerged more slowly, unnaturally, as though something was holding her back. Light collapsed to her knees and bent over the spring water, using her hand as a cup. She could hear the Oerban behind her wracked by another hoarse coughing fit. She took an empty potion vial and filled it with water, corked the top and returned to her friend.
As she offered the vial to her, Fang removed the hand that covered her mouth. Blood laced between her fingers and collected at her palm; her lips were smeared with bright crimson. She heaved and opened her mouth wide, trying to inhale.
"I think we were breathing rust," Fang's voice couldn't breach a whisper. She slowly lowered her body to the ground, the weight of it suddenly intolerable.
Lightning eased her descent, searching the Pulsian's face for an answer. None came. Her fingertips glowed with the beginnings of a cure spell. She pulled down the sari collected at Fang's chest, unfastened the zipper of the black top beneath.
Fang wheezed, "What are you –"
She ran her index and middle fingers up the centre of Fang's chest, pressing hard into the bone and taut flesh. The green-blue glow filled Fang's chest, relief came with it.
"Tilt your head back," Light's voice was soft and velvet.
She obeyed and revealed her throat, Adam's apple, slight and feminine, unveiled itself. She swallowed and Light watched the strange little device move, trailed her fingers upward: past the collarbone, up the throat to the chin. She reached out with both hands, her thumbs glowing, and tilted Fang's head back until they were level and could see one another. Her thumbs ran across the space just beneath Fang's eyes, on either side of her nose and she pressed the cure into the skin, dragging her thumbs toward Fang's ears. Fang moistened her lips.
"Better?" Lightning cupped Fang's face.
Fang nodded, seduced by the calm of the moment. She could breathe. Everything was clear.
Lightning refused to move. A branch snapped behind her. A Centaurion. Fang spotted it over Lightning's shoulder. Light was abnormally oblivious.
"Lightning?" Fang's eyebrows arched.
"Yes?" Her cheeks were flushed, eyes heavy-lidded. Her pulse quickened.
"Move!" Fang demanded.
Her eyes widened, incredulous, "What?"
With one hand Fang shoved her out of the way, groping around for her staff. She reached it in time to swing it at the leaping Centaurion and stab it in the gut. White-grey gizzards oozed from the opening. The creature twitched as it gradually succumbed to death. She panted and straightened her back.
"You alright?" She asked.
Fang nodded.
They took a moment to absorb the environment, stared longingly at the clean pools of spring water, the waterfall off to the side. Their clothes and hands were stained with the entrails of their mutant foes; layers of new and old sweat caught dirt like the net of a spider's web.
"Wish we could wash our clothes," Fang remarked.
"We have nothing to wash them with," Light replied.
Fang shrugged, removing her sari and folding it at her feet. As she reached for the zipper at the back of her black top, Light's voice perked up.
"What are you doing?"
"Bathing," she replied and presented her forearms as evidence. "I'm covered in Humbaba shite."
A smile quirked at Lightning's lips, "I was wondering what that smell was."
Fang tossed her top to the side and pulled down her shorts, "Well, you don't smell like roses, Sunshine."
She bit her tongue and proceeded to undress, stealthily glanced in Fang's direction. Her body was tanned – brutish muscles mixed with feminine delicacy throughout her physique. It was quite alluring. Light licked her lips. Quite fascinating.
"Are you coming?" Fang stared at her perplexed.
"What?" She took a moment to understand the question; certain she hadn't heard it right. When its meaning sank in, Light nodded, her cheeks flushed. Clumsy fingers divested her and she leaped into the water, welcomed the cold.
They swam around for a while, a certain freedom born from nudity, all restraints removed. Lightning swam toward the waterfall and stood beneath it, stretching her arms up, straining her fingertips. The force of the water lifted the dirt from her flesh, relaxed the tension in her muscles. She ran her hands through her hair, nails digging through the grime and pulling it free until it was lost in the jet of water.
For a while, they kept to themselves, concentrated on the task at hand. Sideways glances passed between them, all coveted, each one eliding the other's attention, eyes scrutinizing. Light dove back into the spring and swam to her clothing on the ledge. She pulled herself out, rummaged in the pile of clothing for her jacket pockets. Fang floated over, narrowed and curious eyes watched the soldier. Lightning looked up and her alabaster skin pulled taught, tinted cherry-pink as she registered Fang's presence, her sharp stare.
Lightning removed a small bottle from her jacket and uncorked the top. She shook a few drops of liquid onto her palm and rubbed her hands together. Holding them out, apart from each other, she called to Fang.
"Come here."
Intrigued, the Pulsian climbed the ledge and sat on the rock next to her.
"Wachya got there?" Came the expectant, lilting drawl.
"Turn."
There was a playfulness in her expression. Fang bit her lip and obeyed. Fingers threaded through her damp, heavy locks, massaged her scalp. A floral aroma filled their nostrils. Fang grinned.
"Perfume?" She asked.
"I was going to trade it for Gil," Light said. "But we can put it to better use."
"You sure?" she asked. "Perfume's quite valuable." Her thoughts ran together, fingers stroked her scalp firmly, smoothed over and under her ears, touched the top of her jaw line and travelled to the back of her neck where thumbs kneaded the flesh.
"I'm sure." Light smirked, watched Fang struggle against the pleasure of her touch. Light's tongue darted out and moistened her bottom lip.
"Don't you want any?" She asked.
"What?" Light arched her brow.
"The perfume?" She gestured toward the vial.
"Right," Light nodded, swallowed hard.
Fang reached for the vial and coated her palms with it. She coaxed Lightning to turn. Her calloused hands ran through the fine silk of Lightning's hair; the tender strands fell between her fingers like sand through a sieve. Her fingertips traced a similar path as the ones that touched her moments before. She brushed back the soldier's bangs and collected her in a ponytail, worked the perfume through. She let the wet hair fall at Light's back and reached back up to run her fingertips over and under Lightning's ears, at her neck. A soft moan escaped Lightning's throat.
Fang rubbed her back with an open palm, "You alright?"
She recoiled from the touch, "Fine. We should get going."
Fang nodded in agreement.
They dressed quickly and in silence, sheathing their weapons, tying their supplies to their dress.
"Whereto, Fang?" Lightning inhaled comfortably, jacket zipped up as far as it would go.
"The tower," she replied.
Light merely nodded.
They walked shoulder to shoulder across the mossy platforms, brushed against each other on occasion.
"How's your head?" Fang asked.
"Headache's gone," Light said, a faint smile on her lips. "And your chest?"
"Clear." Fang flashed her a sideways grin. Light faltered and looked away.
"Good," she said, her voice wavering. "If one of us gets sick, it will only slow us down."
Her steps picked up speed and she wandered ahead of the Pulsian.
"Right," Fang said, her voice crestfallen. But there was no one to hear it. Lightning was already too far ahead and showed no sign that she would stop.
OOO
Night was upon them, brought with it a new fleet of nocturnal enemies, each more mutant than the last. She swayed atop Bahamut's back, the wind lifting the tips of her strawberry blonde hair and brushing it from her face. Light looked down at the woman curled up in her arms; she rubbed the bare, tanned stomach, transmitted a cure. Fang winced at the initial touch and relaxed as the magic eased her pain. The new scratches on Fang's brow sealed and became smooth. Light stroked the Oerban's face. The last fight left Fang with a gash on her forehead.
"So you never finished your story," she said.
"Hmm?"
"About Oerba," she replied. "You were telling me about Oerba."
Fang pursed her lips and nodded, "Where were we?"
"You weren't allowed to leave the village."
"That's right," she said, "We were kept inside of it and we'd visit the temple every week."
"Why did they keep you there?"
"I think they wanted to keep us stupid," Fang said, an edge in her tone, "Keep us from discovering a world beyond our own. Oerba wasn't just a town, it was a world within itself. A way of thinking."
"Why keep the boys separated from the girls?"
"Worth," she replied. "Men would grow up to be priests. Or Pulsian terrorists sent to Bodhum or Palumpolum, places like that. All in service of the Pulse fal'Cie and his word. The word of the Maker."
Lightning's thumb stroked the Oerban's cheek, "What about the women?"
Fang pursed her lips and swallowed, muted anger in her eyes. Light's brow furrowed. She'd hit something.
"All the girls in Oerba had a... somewhat similar look to them," she began. "The matron, the cook, the maid were always pregnant. Newborn girls arrived pretty regular. But we couldn't have all belonged to the matron, or the cook, or the maid. There had to be others."
Light grimaced, "Are you and Vanille sisters?"
Fang averted her eyes, "I don't know." Her voice trailed off. Light frowned, unsure if she wanted to hear anymore.
"Usually, when a girl reached about ten, they were sent to the fal'Cie and sacrificed. That was our primary purpose."
She drew back in horror, "You were raised to be sacrifices?"
Fang nodded slowly, "From sacrifice and misery, the Maker will return to earth. At least, that's what the good book says. I don't think all the women were killed though. I reckon some were used for something different."
"How do you figure?" Light asked.
"When Vanille was nine and I was fifteen, we snuck into the fal'Cie temple under the pretence that we wanted to serve the Maker. I'd always been deceptively pious. I hated it: the fal'Cie. I knew it was hurting my family, my village. I knew it would hurt Vanille within the coming year."
"How did you make it to fifteen if girls were sacrificed at ten?"
"Some girls made it to their early teens before they were sent away from Oerba. I think they needed them to produce the children the fal'Cie used. I'm betting I was chosen for that, only they never got the chance to send me away."
Light's chest ached. Her fingertips sought out Fang's hand and they locked together.
"When we were in the temple, they were going to sacrifice Vanille right there. I knew they were. I wanted to destroy the fal'Cie. I screamed at it to get it angry, committed all kinds of blasphemy." Fang smiled faintly. "The priests were beside themselves in shock. They were about to kill me when Vanille threw herself in front of me. Seeing how bold we were... must've impressed that fal'Cie bastard because he marked us both, turned us into l'Cie and wiped out all the priests. I remember the ground shaking, Vanille holding onto me. Some sort of shockwave hit.
The temple vanished. The fal'Cie disappeared. If we'd been given a Focus we had no idea what it was, or how horrible it would become. When we went back to the village, everyone was gone. Vaporized. Like they'd never been there."
"I'm sorry," Light whispered.
"Don't be," Fang replied, looking up at her, scanning her face for signs of disgust. There was none.
"I lost my family too," she said, "My mother and father died when me and Serah were both young. And now with Serah gone... "
"You'll get her back," Fang's voice was quiet but resolute. "I'm living proof of that. She's alive."
"I know." Stubborn tears welled in her eyes but would not fall. Fang struggled to sit upright. Light propped her up beside her.
"Does it still hurt?" Light asked.
"No," Fang shook her head.
They watched the stretch of land in the distance, nocturnal creatures warring over territory and prey. The wind whispered past them, calmness in the calamity of the night. Pulse was always so alive, always dangerous yet somehow wonderful, a balance: chaos and peace, love and hate, need and satisfaction, life and death. Fang sighed.
"We've had to deal with so much shit."
Light leaned back in her seat, "I know."
"At least when I'm with you, the shit goes away." She smirked, her signature expression.
Lightning chuckled softly and nodded in agreement. She leaned her head on Fang's shoulder and relaxed into her. An arm wrapped round her and pulled her close. The warmth of their bodies coaxed them into slumber.
OOO
They reached Taejin's Tower as dawn approached. There was an eerie quality to the air as they stepped from Bahamut's back to the pebbled ground. A mist covered the cliffs and clouded the tower; grey light cast the sky in semi-darkness. Lightning's skin crawled; Fang scanned the fog with suspicion. They were trespassing on a path laid by something else, already come and gone away. Or waiting and watching them in secret. It was certain that they were not alone.
Light shot Fang a distressed look.
"Yeah," Fang nodded, "I don't like this anymore than you do."
Light was the first to enter; she gripped the handle of her gunblade. Fang had her staff out of its holster, prone for an attack. The tower was as monstrous inside as it was from the exterior. Sapphire flames lit the torches and drowned the room in indigo. There were mutated Gorgonopsid carcasses on the floor, bellies gutted by long, precise cuts and random puncture marks. In the distance something creaked, a metal clap from a few floors up echoed through the chamber, stone debris fell from the ceiling in pebbles and dust.
A machine started, rumbled from above and a chime played as a large structure descended along a glowing green track. It stopped at the mouth of the platform in front of them; a hatch opened at the side. They approached it wearily, unnerved by the emptiness of the place, the portraits of death on the floor. Fang found the lever and pulled it back. The hatches closed and the metal cage rumbled, knocking them to the ground. The chime played as they ascended up the tower.
Lightning was livid, "Do you always mess with things you have no idea how to control?"
"Of course!" Fang yelled over the noise of the elevator.
"And if it kills you by accident?" Light anchored herself on the wall.
"Then I die trying!"
The elevator grinded to a halt and heaved. They crashed to the floor. The hatches opened. Light mumbled something about a smartass. Fang crawled out and stumbled to her feet, brushing the dust from her dress. They were on the roof.
The sky was a bit clearer though gray and empty. Mutant animal carcasses littered the ground: a pack of Gorgonopsid, a few Zanitra. The marks on them were different: the flesh was hideously torn, chewed and scratched away from the bones. Guts were strewn about beside them, as though they'd been ripped from the wounds and tossed about. Something was terribly wrong.
She swallowed, "Who did this?"
Fang shook her head, "I think the question is: what did this?"
A feral shriek tore through the blank sky. Their eyes narrowed. From a distant black dot emerged a black cloud, spreading out along the horizon.
Fang sighed, readied her weapon, "And there's the bullshit."
Light removed her sword.
The black cloud continued to widen, approached them with pace. It was then that they each spotted it: black wings flapping all in unison, all frenzied and reckless. The shriek returned and morphed from the single voice into the hundreds of tiny little cries, hoarse little Chonchon throats and tiny poisonous fangs. Lightning cast Thundaga at the massive fleet and pushed Fang forward.
"Run!"
The Chonchons dove down with a sharp spin, hunting the perceived leader –Fang – at the head of the group. Fang and Lightning ran furiously, cast magic in their wake to buy themselves time. The Chonchons leapt across the sky. The women charged across the platform and came to a wall of debris. Without any time to think, they began the climb, Lightning first, up the large blocks of marble and stone, twisted with wire and rubble. Light clawed at the ground, hauled her body over the obstacles. She could see a small opening between the collapsed stones, a place where they'd be safe.
At the top of the wall she turned, held out her hand for Fang to grasp it. She looked to the west. The Chonchons were dangerously close. She cursed. What was taking so long?
"My foot is stuck!" The Oerban shouted, head turning to gauge the distance of the enemy.
Lightning screamed, "Fang!"
It was altogether too late. The black cloud of Cie'th bats crashed against Fang's body: talons pulled the flesh from her limbs, from her face. They latched onto her and ripped her away from the debris, suspended her over the mouth of the platform. Lightning watched in horror. Fang was already dead, her face and body a crimson mess of shredded skin and blood. The bats let the corpse go and Fang's body fell back through the opening in the tower.
Light threw her Eidolon crystal onto the platform. From the portal, Odin emerged and she leapt from the wall to land on his back. She urged him forward and they plunged through the mouth of the tower, racing against Fang's plummeting body. Odin was able to arch beneath her just before the ground floor. Light caught her, clutched her to her chest. Fang's blood stained her fingers and clothes. They ascended rapidly, back up through the platform and toward the wall of debris. The Chonchons were waiting. They spotted them, carved the air in their flight path and switched direction.
The way out was close. The Chonchons paralyzed Odin with a surge of Pain. The spell left him in a daze and he hovered in the air, made them vulnerable. Lightning screamed at him, kicked him with her heels. He pressed further, lethargic from the hex. Something bit him. He reared and they pitched toward the concrete platform in a tailspin. Light hit the ground with force and lost her grip on Fang's body.
She opened her eyes steadily, warm liquid streaming down her face, down her chin. Fang was just out of reach. Odin was trapped by the Chonchon army; they devoured him piece by piece. She spat a gob of blood onto the ground, hopelessly tried to pull her body forward to no avail. Her strength drained quickly. She lowered her head onto the cold concrete, sobbed in frustration and pain. In one final attempt, she stretched her arm out, fingertips trembling, desperate to reach her friend. But her hand fell; tears streamed from her eyes. And her laboured breathing slowed until her body too, was still and silent.
TO BE CONTINUED...
