Hello everyone, welcome to another chapter! I just want to thank everyone who favorited this, it means a lot to me! Also, a huge thanks to HollowPanda for being the first reviewer and for not only reviewing once, but twice! :D

Anyway, this is finally the action chapter! Wooo!

The moonlight shone through the invisible clouds and shining stars. The sky was pitch black, but it still emitted a sense of warmth. Inside the large living room, soft guitar chords could be heard as well as singing. Leo was singing a love song he composed many years ago as Sazh, Hope, Serah, and Snow listened with awe. However, Lightning was outside, leaning on a balcony guardrail. One hand was holding a glass and the other a phone, which was gently propped up to her ear.

"…In conclusion, everyone and everything has been prepared for the operation. Commander, I strongly recommend you to return to the before-stated site as soon as possible, beca-"

"General, I cannot do that. I just arrived to Erebus! Besides, it's only an hour or so away, there wouldn't be much of a point, would there?" Lightning huffed. She was currently talking to her right hand man, or woman, she should say.

"But it'll make events go faster! All the recruits would be more motivated to work! You know how lazy they are," Her voice was soft, yet it had a harsh and demeaning tone, but she was a very kind person on the inside, Lightning thought. General Asami Vitria was always very strict, especially during the first few years Lightning worked with her after the beginnings of FLASH. But Lightning could trust her with anything; the General was a very reliable person.

"…Lightning?"

"Yes Asami?" Finally the formalities were over. Lightning hated ranks and titles, it had no point other than to boost one's ego. She would never think like that 6 or 7 years ago, as climbing up the ranks was everything to her, but now, she couldn't care less.

"Did you finally come up with a way to deal with all those…demonstrators?" Asami's tone was eerily suppressed, as if she was slightly scared of what Lightning's mind concocted. She knew that Lightning could be…rash sometimes.

Lightning bit her lip. Leo's plan as him being a spy was perfect, even though she didn't want to admit it. But, she couldn't tell Asami. It wasn't that she didn't trust her, it was just that this was confidential. And if word got out, Lightning's position as a Commander would be doomed.

"Not really, they didn't accept my plan to arrest any suspects…they want me to initiate an investigation."

"But that will take too long, no?" It was as if Asami could read her mind.

"Yeah, it would, but it's the only choice I have. Besides, this operation is currently more important than the protestings are right now. Once I finished this, I'll deal with these protesters…personally." Lightning emphasized the last sentence with a scrutinizing tone. "Anyway, I must go now. Make sure the secondary preparations are complete by 48 hours."

"U-understood," Asami slightly stuttered. Lightning was slightly confused at the sudden loss of confidence in Asami's voice, but she didn't press. She disconnected the call and looked at the starry night. As the wind blew on her mesmerized state, she heard quiet footsteps behind her.

"Was that the General?" Leo slowly murmured as he propped himself next to her.

"Yeah…Hey Leo…these next few days are going to be crazy," Lightning looked up at the moon, her face shown a mix of emotions, from sad, angry, happy, excited, and troubled.

"I know, sweetie, I know." Leo followed her gaze to the moon, also mesmerized by its simple beauty. "But everything'll be ok, I'm sure of it."

Lightning walked through the streets of Erebus, taking long, graceful strides. Today was the day of the preliminary operations to set Fang and Vanille free, and hopefully by tomorrow, everything would be completed. She wore her "casual" military uniform and gear, since today was going to be a very laborious day. She looked around at the streets, noting that there were a scarce amount of people. Usually, there would be more people here, she thought, especially since this is the time that everybody would be going to work in the morning. She took a shortcut through some alleys, holding her breathe as she went past some random dumpsters. She may never show it, but Lightning was sensitive toward vulgar smells; it always wanted to make her gag. She was walking from the Erebus FLASH Headquarters to a small café in the center of the city to meet up with Leo and Maria. Afterwards, she would drop them home and then depart for the operation site near the crystal pillar.

As Lightning's mind was being filled with all these thoughts and plans, she seemed to have failed to notice the group of men behind her as they followed her every move. She glanced once or twice at them, but they were casually talking to each other about shoe sizes, so she didn't worry as much. She took a quick left and then after a flight of stairs, another left. She finally arrived to the café, where she saw Leo, Maria in his arms, waiting by the café's patio. He waved to her as she walked towards them.

"Light! How was the meeting?" Leo gave a small kiss on Lightning's cheek as he transferred Maria to her.

"It was ok, all the prep is finally complete," Lightning absent mindedly hummed as she and her husband strolled through the streets.

"Leo, have you noticed that-"

"Nobody is here?" Leo completed her thought.

"It's odd…Something just doesn't feel right…" They quickly went through a few stairs onto a major avenue, and then to another alleyway. Lightning wanted to get home as soon as possible; she knew something was not right.

"Maybe it's some sort of holiday or something," Leo wasn't as suspicious as his spouse. It was either because he didn't have trained, soldier-senses or that Lightning was being slightly paranoid.

Lightning suddenly whipped around. Her eyes darted in every direction; she knew she heard something.

"Light, nothing is here, stop being so paranoid and-"

"Move," Lightning suddenly ordered. "Leo, we have to get out of these alleys! It's too much of an enclosed area and-"

Suddenly, something crashed right in front of Lightning. She stumbled back, trying the best she could to not fall while Maria was in her arms. She quickly regained her composure and looked around to find their assaulter. Suddenly, swarms of people surrounded them from every direction. Some held signs, sticks, or rocks, while others held more dangerous weapons like torches or machetes. Lightning was extremely confused at the whole situation. Where did all of these people come from? Why were they approaching them? A thought flashed through her mind.

"Leo! These are the protesters, they're-," she looked around, but she couldn't see her husband anywhere in this swarm of angry people. Her heart skipped a few beats, as she frantically searched the crowd. She failed to notice a number of them quickly approaching her. She quickly ducked as a rock whizzed through her head, Maria's screams piercing her ears.

"MOMMY! MOMMY!" Maria started crying. Even she knew that this situation was bad. Lightning rammed through the mob, trying desperately to get away. She could not fight with her daughter in her hands, especially with this many people. She rushed through the alleys, making a quick left into the avenue. Relief washed over her as she saw Leo also running away from the crowd. She sprinted as fast as she could towards him, however, the mob also inched their way closer.

"Leo, take Maria! Get home as quick as you can!" Lightning screamed at him. She needed them to get to safety.

"But, what about you!"

"Don't worry about me, I can take care of these cowards," She tried to crack a small grin. She shoved a resisting Maria into Leo's arms. "Please, Maria, go with your daddy! Everything is going to be ok, don't worry." Lightning tried to comfort her daughter, stroking her cheeks with soothing words.

"But, mommy, you can't-MOMMY BEHIND YOU!"

At that command, Lightning whipped around and elbowed the nearest protester in the face, effectively shattering his nose. She grabbed another demonstrator by the arm, throwing him into a crowd of people, then running towards them and kicking each of them in the head. Hard. She somersaulted into a standing position, dodging and weaving through the various rocks, sticks, and machete swipes that threatened to harm her. This fight was getting pretty messy, and fast.

The only problem was that she couldn't use her gunblade. These were civilians, not trained militants. She could kill each one of these people with one flick of her sword, something that she didn't want to be responsible for. Suddenly, big, burly men emerged from the depths of the crowd into her general vicinity. She could not roundhouse kick those guys. She ran toward a group of college students, dodging the random pellets of rock they threw at her. She grabbed one of them by the neck, ramming him down on the ground with a loud thud. She then lifted his leg, swinging him around until she let go, where he effectively bulldozed another group of young people like bowling pins. Lightning ran towards the fallen group, successfully arming herself with a bat.

She could now do some serious damage to these idiots. But she first had to protect Maria and Leo, who were frantically running away from the few demonstrators who decided to chase them.

"Oh, they are so going down," Lightning roared, as she sprinted through the now smaller mob, selectively swinging the bat at various people when she had the chance. Blood splattered onto her jacket and face, making her look like a delusional serial killer. She finally met up to Leo, right before a man with a machete wildly swiped at him.

Leo turned his back toward the man to protect Maria, shutting his eyes as he braced for the impact. But…nothing happened. He thought he was dead for a split second, but Maria's screams awoke him from his stupor. He whipped around to find Lightning beating the crap out of the man with a metal bat. He covered Maria's eyes and ears, she was still too young to see violence like this.

"Leo! I…said…to…get…AWAY!" Lightning paused her sentence every time she swung her bat, trying as hard as she could to distance her family from these crazy people. Something still wasn't right. Not only where they only attacking her and her family, but the fact that they weren't fleeing either. Usually, any normal person would run a 3 mile radius away from a fierce Lightning, but none of these people seemed to even care that their comrades were getting horribly beaten.

"But…"

"Protect Maria!"

At that command, Leo sprinted away from the streets and into some more alleys, dodging the various trashcans, litter, and cars that obstructed his way. He sprinted for a good minute or so until he hid behind a dumpster, panting heavily.

"Daddy…mommy isn't going to make it…" Maria sadly and softly whimpered through her sobs. Leo was perplexed by her daughter's bold statement.

"Why is that honey? Mommy is really strong, she can do anything!" Leo slightly shook her shoulders, plastering a huge grin on his face. He silently prayed to himself that that was also the case.

"But…but there's too many of 'em! And…mommy will get tired!" Leo was amazed on how smart Maria was. She was brighter than most kids her age, but this was beyond ridiculous. She also had a point: sure, Lightning had amazing stamina, but it still had its limits.

"Sweetie…Nothing is going to happen to mommy, ok? I'm positive that everything will be ok," he strongly believed in his statement. He locked eyes with his daughter for a few more moments until she very quietly murmured an "ok". He picked her up, slightly rocking her, until he heard some shouts.

"Here we go again," Leo heavily sighed. All this running around was making him tired, and Maria was starting to get heavier in his arms.

"Daddy, go up!" Maria pointed up. Leo quickly followed her gaze to a ladder. Man, this girl was smart. He placed Maria securely onto his shoulders as he quickly scaled the ladder and up to a random balcony. From there, he climbed and stood on top of a thick guard rail. He took a deep breath and pushed off, jumping to a ledge of an adjacent building, four feet away. He barely landed on the edge of the building and quickly scrambled to prevent himself from falling a good 40 feet. He looked over the edge and watched the confused men under him in amusement. He then turned around and started running and leaping onto other buildings, trying to build some distance from his attackers.

Meanwhile, a frustrated Lightning stabbed one of her attackers with his torch with her left hand and swung the bat at his head with the other. She was getting mad, and fast. It wouldn't take long until she snapped, pulling out her gunblade for an all-out massacre. She clenched her jaws and gritted her teeth and ran towards the last wave of people. She leaped and rolled out of the way of a machete strike, somersaulting back up into a kneel, where she blocked another swing, but this time, her bat finally shattered. Some of the chunks of metal sprayed onto her face and to her attackers. The pain stung, and she flinched for a moment, but that gave her attackers enough time to advance. One kicked her on the side, knocking all the air out of her. She tried to gasp for air, but a burly protester came up and grabbed her by the neck, throwing her into a nearby dumpster. The sharp edges tore her back. Lightning felt sharp pain and warmth resonating from her posterior. Things where getting bad.

She struggled to get up, standing into a slouched position. She stared at her attackers faces, all of them with evil grins plastered onto their faces. She had enough of this. With one, quick, fluid motion, she unsheathed her gunblade, pointing the tip to the nearest person. He froze.

"If you…all take one more step…I'll kill you." She said in a menacing voice. None of them dared to move for a few seconds, until the last of the burly men walked towards her, cracking his knuckles. She gave him a glare for a second, before deciding to strike him down. Well, he did have a warning, she thought. Right before she raised her blade, some person from behind swung a machete at her abdomen. She tried as hard as she could to move away, sensing the disturbance in the air, but it was too late. She felt a deep gash being form as the piece of metal met with her bare skin. She let out a strangled yell and then the burly man kicked her six feet away.

Lightning's vision started blurring, her breathing was deeply labored. She could not get up into a standing position, so she sat there in a crouched position. She could hear the laughs of the men. Immediately, she glared at them, flipping her gunblade into its trusty gun mode. As they laughed, she pointed the firearm at them. She shot each of them in the leg, twice, in rapid succession. Their screams filled the air as they all crippled and fell to the ground, unmoving. Lightning, panting heavily, gave a large sigh.

"It's over." Lightning fell to the ground, still conscious. Bodies littered around her, also unmoving. Blood stained most of the ground, walls, and doors of various buildings. Too much blood was flowing out of her; this was not good at all. She traced a finger to her coat and into a pocket, where she pulled out her communicator. She pushed the big red button on the side, and placed the communicator in front of her face.

"Lightning, what is the emergency!" A familiar voice shouted through the speakers.

"Amo….dar…..42nd street west…alley…he..l…p" At the last word, she finally gave into the darkness.

That was my first time writing a fight scene. It took forever! -_- Oh well, I'm pretty happy with it. :3

Tell me what you think in the reviews! :D