Thank you everyone for reading chapter 3!

*Chapter Three

When I woke up the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky. It was hot-95 degrees at least, and the city's hustle and bustle from the previous day had returned. I couldn't believe it...I'd woken up in the same room I'd gone to sleep in, and not my own bedroom...? Was it even possible to have a full night's sleep inside of a dream?! I'd even had a dream within a dream! Everything was just too real! But it couldn't be!

I remembered the sound of glass breaking at that moment, and quickly shuffled out of bed. My wounds were feeling better at least-that medicine water was really something!

I thumped down the hallway in my bare feet until I reached Snow's room. The door was closed, and when I put my ear to it, I didn't hear anything.

"Maybe he's asleep. I don't want to bother him if he is..." I thought.

Slowly however, I reached for the doorknob and tapped lightly on the door, to which there was no response. I tapped again, louder this time, and waited for something. When no one answered, I took the liberty of inviting myself in.

The glass mess from last night had been cleaned up, and the rug had been replaced with a cheaper, less attractive one. The cot in the corner was neatly done, the sheets folded with the pillow on top for the next customer. There was nobody here.

My heart sank.

I shut the door and went downstairs into the lobby. The door to the Inn was open now and the oversized mustache man was once again organizing boxes. When he saw me, he flashed me a big, toothy, cringe-worthy grin.

"Good morning, miss!" He said happily.

"...Hello...?" I replied awkwardly.

"Your friends already left the inn early this morning. I asked them about you but they didn't answer. Hm, I thought it strange."

I sucked in some air. "Good to know."

"Anyway," Mr. Mustache continued. "They said they wouldn't be coming back, but also that you had nowhere to go. Your parents are missing, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Well! Miss...um...miss..."

"Winter."

"Winter? That's a weird name. Anyway, miss Winter, today is your lucky day! After a brief conversation with miss Lightning and her pathetic-I mean, her blond friend, we've made arrangements for you to stay here. But that is IF, and ONLY IF, you agree to work here full time!"

I stared blankly at the man. He kept that ridiculous grin on his face and was expecting me to return his enthusiasm. When I didn't, his face fell.

"Hey, you should be happy! I'm not kicking you out of the inn, and this way if your true parents come by and need somewhere to stay, they'll find you and all will be well! THAT'S why you should be happy!"

"I'm thrilled." I said flatly. "I also don't have a choice do I?"

"Well, you could chose not to work here, and then you would be forced to sleep outside and beg for food with the rest of the lower society."

That DID sound convincing.

"Okay." I said. "I'll work here...but um, on the subject of money..."

"Money? What's that?"

I blinked. "The currency? What you use to pay for stuff?"

"You mean gil?"

"Gil?"

"Of course! You don't know what gil is? Just where are you from anyway? Gil is the currency of the entire world!"

"Oh." I said. "I didn't know."

"What are they teaching you kids in school, eh?"

I sighed.

"Anyway, you shouldn't worry about pay. Your reward is having a place to sleep every night yes? I'm so generous, yes yes so generous." He sang. What could I do but watch his antics with a blase attitude?

"In the meantime you have GOT to take a shower. Your hair looks a mess, your clothes look like you lost a fight with a Coeurl, and you're covered from head to toe in Dryland mud. Do yourself a favor miss, er, Winter. Go take a towel from one of the storage boxes in the back, and walk down this street until you get to the bath house."

"RUDE!" I thought in my head, narrowing my eyes at Mr. Mustache.

"Thank you so much, kind sir!" I said with forced enthusiasm "There you go! That's the spirit!" He cheered. "and for future reference, my name is Soll."

"Yeah yeah." I muttered, marching towards the storage room.

I wandered around the city looking for the bath house for 30 minutes. Apparently, I'd forgotten that I didn't know how to read any of the signs in this world. I was too shy to ask for directions from the people, which ate into an extra 15 minutes. I didn't find the bath house until one very daft girl made a comment on my hair and said: "Why don't you go to the bath house, it's right over there!" It took all the strength I had left to not drop everything and strangle her.

The bathing pools were so huge, and of course, they were all being shared by women. I'd been used to public bath houses from being raised in Japan, but being in this particular one felt...strange. I wanted to crawl into the furthermost corner of the room and bathe there in silence. And that's precisely what I did.

The room was covered in light mist, so I quickly took off my clothes and slipped into the soothing, warm water. It revitalized my soul and made me relax.

I stayed in for a long time. Just as I was getting ready to come out, I realized something very important: I didn't have a change of clothes. Mine were dirty, ripped, and unpleasant to be in. I didn't want to change back into them after getting so clean...

"Eff my LIIIFE." I slapped the water and let out a groan.

"Hey! Watch yourself!"

A girl in a towel had been walking by with two other girls. My splashing had soaked all three of them, and they weren't happy.

"You soaked my towel! And I'm all out of gil..." One girl whined.

"You shouldn't come to the bath house if you're going to act like a child!" Another one whined.

I glared. "Sorry for splashing you, but don't talk to me like you know who I am!" I pouted and turned my head. "Why are you in the back of the bath house anyway?"

"We could ask you the same thing!" The first girl replied.

"And for your in-for-ma-tion," The second girl added. "We left our clothes back here and came to get them, but you totally soaked them all!"

I looked behind me at the drenched attire resting on the floor and mentally facepalmed.

"She didn't soak them all," The last girl said kneeling over the clothes. "Our didn't get soaked, just yours, Ans."

The first girl's eyes grew wide with anger. "I JUST BOUGHT THOSE!" She screamed, turning everyone's heads towards the back. Her friends shushed her, and I sank further down into the water. "Well, no matter." She said, flipping her wavy blue hair. "I'm just gonna have to take yours."

"Excuse me?" I asked in disbelief.

"It's the RULE." She scanned the floor until she came across my raggedy clothes lying in the corner. The girl wrinkled her nose at them as she leaned down to pick them up.

"Get your claws off my clothes!" I shrieked, flinching towards the girl.

"IT'S. THE. RULE." She said stubbornly. "Your clothes are a mess, and they look like something I dug out of the garbage this morning. Trash. But at least its dry trash."

"You could probably sell them for a couple of gil." Another girl said. I sat in the midst of this, too afraid to jump out of the pool because of my nakedness that I'd be exposing.

"You have no right to take my clothes!" I objected.

"How many times do I have to tell you that its. The. RULE? You're not from around here are you?" Blue-hair scoffed.

I sank further into the pool. With that, the three girls picked up their clothes and strutted out of the bath-house, leaving the drenched clothes for me to look at.

This was turning out to be quite a dream.

...So far...I had been nearly killed by a monster the day before, abandoned by the people that rescued me, and NOW, I'd just had the pleasure of having my clothes stolen. Rule? My ass.

I sighed and stepped shyly of of the pool. Everyone's backs were to me now, so no one saw me leave. I picked up the towel that had been next to my old clothes and dried my hair before wrapping the soaking towel around my torso. Then I picked up the girl's abandoned clothes and held them out in front of me. It was an exotic costume made up of a long, slit skirt of some kind with a sash attached, skin-tight black shorts and a black cut-off shirt. Dressing like this would definitely make me look like a native of this city, but I didn't like the idea of wearing a stranger's clothes. Defeated, I folded the clothes up and picked up my converses that she conveniently forgot. I ended up leaving the bath house wearing this girl's native clothes, converses, and the few jewelry I'd come here with-all soaked.

"At least I'm clean." I thought as I left, dropping some em...gil at the entrance desk. This place was weird. It's customs concerning the bath houses were weird. It's choice in currency name was weird. However, this was all I had for now. I didn't have anywhere else to go, and no other goals except to see my family again. Soll was right to some extent, maybe they would turn up eventually? But, if this was a dream, why couldn't I just make them appear right now? Why couldn't I just close my eyes and be back home?

Although I'd had the hunch ever since I woke up this morning, I was now starting to consider that this was not a dream.

After I got back to the inn, Soll had an episode over my new outfit. "I had enough money for THOSE? Nice clothes sure are cheap these days! Maybe I should go out and buy myself something new!" He'd exclaimed. I remained impassive as I sat on the wooden bench in the lobby, running my fingers through my hair. "They look so much nicer than those rags you had on earlier," Soll continued.

"Yes, yes indeed." I shot him a glare for the second time that morning. "Is EVERYONE in this city a jerk?!" I fumed.

"Anyway, since this is your first day of work, I should probably start you off with something easy." Soll pulled a woven basket of papers from out of a particularly large cubby and began to sort through them. "I've got TONS of errands to run. I've never had an assistant here before, but boy am I happy! Now that YOU'RE here, I can make you do all the hard stuff, for absolutely NO pay! Why didn't I get one earlier?!" He shrieked happily, tossing letters into the air.

"Because you would have to pay a hired assistant." I reminded him, putting emphasis on the "hired" part of the statement.

"Details, details." He mumbled.

Finally he pulled out a single piece of paper out of the pile, and ran around the counter to slap it into my lap along with a little pouch that jingled with coins. I stop fiddling with my hair and squinted down at the paper, trying to recognize the writing. It all looked like scribbles-like the writing on the signs.

"There you go! A to-do list for you." He smiled.

"...Uh, -"

"No need to thank me for giving you fool-proof errands, just make sure you get them done!"

"But , I-"

"-Or else you're fired. Chop chop! Hurry up before the sun goes down!"

Soll yanked me off the bench and shoved me out of the door. "Hey!" I yelled, tripping over the brick door-stop. Soll kicked the brick outside and into the street, then shut the door in my face.

"HEY!" I growled.

"You can't come in until everything on that list is done!" He said from further away inside the inn.

"But , I can't READ this!"

"Excuses, escuses!"

"It's not an excuse! Can you at least tell me what the first one says?!"

Silence. He was gone.

I glared at the door, kicked it, and continued down the street. I stared at the paper trying to make sense of the gibberish, but it was hopeless. It was like asking a kindergardener to read The Iliad.

"I need to ask somebody to translate." I thought, watching the crowds pass me by. Not too far away from me, a lady standing on a street corner with a basket of flowers cradled in one arm was beckoning people to come to her flower stand. She looked sweet and nice, so I decided to try asking her for help. It went against my reclusive nature, but this situation was dire.

When I approached her, she smiled warmly at me. Come to think of it, it had been one of the most genuine smiles I'd gotten all day. "Hello young miss!" She chimed. "Would you like a flower for someone special?"

I grinned nervously. "Uh...uhm no...that's not why I'm here..." I stammered. The girl's face fell, and she looked as though she were about to cry. Overwhelmed with guilt, I sighed and pulled open the coin pouch. "How much..." I mumbled.

"It's only five gil per flower, but we're having a special on bouquets today." One bouquet arranged with twelve flowers of your choice for only 7 gil!"

"I'll take a bouquet, but you have to help me out first, please." I begged.

The girl nodded at me enthusiastically. "Yes, how can I help you?"

I held the to-do list up to her. "Do you know what this says?"

She squinted at the paper for a long while. "I'm sorry, I've been travelling around so much that I hardly even remember how to read this. But it looks like the first one says-"

FWOOOOOO~

A strong wind conveniently blew in just then. It blew some of the girl's flowers out of her basket and sent my skirt flying heavenward!

"KYAAAAH!" I screamed, forcing my skirt down and releasing the to-do list.

I gasped and grabbed for it as it flew down the street and into the crowd. "NOOOOOOO! "I'M RUINED! I'M RUINED!" I cried as I dashed down the street. "Hey!" The flower girl yelled after me. "What about your bouquet?!"

"Put it on layaway!" I yelled back.

I shoved past people on my mission to recover the paper. I got more stares and rude remarks than usual of course, but I tried to ignore them as best as I could. The paper floated until it landed on the top of a food stall much farther down the main street and got caught between the wooden planks that made up its sun-visor. "DAMMIT!" I fumed. "Just my luck, huh?!"

"Excuse me sir," I beckoned the shop vendor once his last customer had gone. He was a sorry looking middle-aged man with a shaggy beard and a look in his eyes that said: "I hate all life." When I approached him, he glanced at me once before turning his attention back to his grimy, curled fingernails.

"What." He demanded.

I raised an eyebrow at him before dismissing it. "Can I climb your stall to get a very important paper that's on your roof?"

"If anything breaks, you're gonna pay me twice the amount." He grumbled.

"Thanks." Moving the wares on the front counter to the side to make room for my feet, I hoisted myself up onto the counter and tried to feel around for the list. Passers by were staring of course, and the children playing in the street had stopped to gaze upon my exploits with awe.

"Look at her!" One little boy said. "I wanna do that too!"

"She looks cool!" A little girl said. "I wanna be like her."

"The youth of today." And old woman scoffed as she walked by. I stifled a giggle and shook my head in amusement.

Today was definitely an unlucky day and I'd gotten a rough start, but if this was supposed to be my new life-or dream or whatever, I would just have to adjust. I could have still been in the desert right now duking it out with the cold and wind, but instead, two kind-well, one kind and one not-so-kind pair of people had brought me here. I would have to deal with things here until I could eventually move on...-

-Suddenly, there was screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAHHH! THEY'RE HERE! YOUR CHILDREN! YOUR CHILDREN!"

People began to become stricken with mob mentality and ran rampant throughout the streets, snatching up their kids, hiding their wares behind stalls and grabbing their shopping.

"Get down child!" The grumpy old man demanded, tugging at my leg. I wasn't sure what was happening, but I did as I was told. My heart was already beating at an accelerated pace.

"Wh-what's happening here, why is everyone acting this way?!" I shrieked.

"They're here..." He said, his voice shaking, terror in his eyes.

"...Who is 'They'...?" I asked, secretly not wanting to know.

"It's the PSICOM soldiers." He said. "You don't know?!"

"No sir, I'm not from here!" My voice cracked.

"Go home, child. Lock your doors, and don't come out. You're new here so you don't know that they do to younguns like you, but you don't want to find out."

I nodded and wasted no time in dashing in the opposite direction, but ended up coming to a screeching halt when I looked in the sky and saw the most gargantuan, yet amazing air-craft that my eyes had ever seen. It hovered above for a little while before landing in the midst of the city, where people were still scattering and trying to get out of its way, or running for cover. With all this commotion, I didn't know which way to go. It was like every time I turned around the street had changed.

"...That house wasn't there before...or was it?"

"...That same stall was just over there right?"

"...Which way is South?! Where am I going?!"

I felt a hand on my arm, and then I felt myself get yanked to the right through the crowd. When I looked up at the person who'd grabbed me, I recognized the girl from the bath house, the one who took my clothes. She wasn't wearing them now however, she'd changed into native clothes, although I could tell it was her by the dark blue hair. What had that girl said her name was? Anju? Angel? Sara?

"What are you doing?!" I shrieked, confused.

"Don't let them see you!" She yelled back.

We ran down the main street, away from the aircraft and into the house of a woman who was beckoning the blue-haired girl and I with her hand, as terrified as the rest of the people were. The second we stepped foot into the house, the woman slammed the door and the blue-haired girl directed me into a corner of what looked like the living room, near a window, sandwiched between the wall and a bookshelf. Towards the back of the room were two younger children-twin boys-who were cowering in a corner underneath a quilt. The woman, who I was now presuming to be the girl's mother, took a blanket from a secret hatch in the floor and threw it to us. Blue-hair caught it and held onto it.

"...I bet you're wondering why I saved you?" She panted.

"I...am wondering just what the hell is going on here?!"

"...You really must not be from around here. Its PSICOM. Every few months they come to our city to collect our city's dues to the government, but for some reason whenever they come, we always owe them some kind of debt. In order to pay off that debt, the soldiers take the children and young people-like you and me. Nobody that they take ever comes back."

I blinked.

"Everyone in this city is like family. During times of trouble we cling together because we're all we have. We depend on each other. That's why strangers hide children in their houses on days like this, and that's why I'm doing this even though I don't know you. You can thank me later...and by the way, my name is Ansei." She finished.

"...Winter." I replied.

She grinned and nodded.

Slowly, both of us raised our heads to the open window to get a glimpse of what was happening outside. Ansei's mother warned us to keep our heads down lower.

The once beautiful, clear sky had become an unsettling shade of gray. The streets were nearly deserted aside from the few people that had found themselves with nowhere to run to. That's when I saw, coming from the Southern end of the street, an army of armed soldiers, each with some kind of machine gun in their hands. Their faces were covered with a blue visor that was a part of their one-piece, white and blue uniforms. The people standing outside were petrified... unable to move, unable to speak. When the soldiers walked by, the civilians collapsed onto the ground and ducked their heads. The army finally stopped marching when they reached the center of the town just a little ways away from Ansei's house, and stood at attention. From the center of these soldiers, a single man walked out of their crowd, and the soldiers parted to make way for him.

Even from my place in the house I could see that he was a dastardly man. He was wearing a black trenchcoat, military boots, and skinny, black leather pants with buckles and belts embellishing almost every part of his outfit. He had a headpiece on his left ear, and his dirty-blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail. There was a scar across the bridge of his nose and between his eyes, which were both hazel-blue. He walked with his chin up as though he were someone important, and with an amused grin on his face. I hated him instantly. And for some reason, it felt like I'd seen him before.

"Arsenic..." Ansei whispered.

I glanced at Ansei. Her eyebrows were arched, and her eyes shot daggers at this devious looking blond man standing in the middle of the street. For a minute, the world was hushed...

...And then he cleared his throat.

"Good people of this humble city of New Braska!" He began, meeting the eyes of the petrified people who were crouched down in the corners and city stoops. His voice was loud and clear. He gave a polite nod to a woman in a shawl whose arms were wrapped tightly around a little boy whose face was turned away. His grin spread into a smile. "You have absolutely nothing to fear this day."

Before I could stop her, Ansei and risen up from her spot next to me and swung the door open, dashing into the street. "ANSEI, NO!" Her mother cried, grabbing for her as she ran. I stared after Ansei with my eyes bulging and my mouth gaping, and stuck my head higher out of the window to see what was going on.

"What do you want from us?!" She screamed at this so-called Arsenic. "We've given you our city dues and you've taken your share of youth from our city already! Will you stop at NOTHING? What more do you want?!" She shrieked.

"That girls got some serious balls." I thought, my eyes growing even larger. Ansei's mother stood by the door frame trembling. The two boys had emerged from their corner and were kneeling on all fours underneath a table in the room they'd been in, cocking their heads so they could see out of the door.

A cocky grin spread across the dark-clad man's lips. He started walking towards Ansei. I stuck my head out just a bit further...

"Hmph. The Mayor's daughter," He said grimly. "Miss Rille Ansei."

"The mayor's daughter?!" I thought, shocked at the revelation.

"What happened to "daddy"? Is he hiding? Was he not man enough to come chat with me himself?"

"You keep my father out of this! I came out here on my own will, and I am perfectly capable of talking to the likes of you like an adult! Or is it you who's not man enough to chat with me?" She hissed.

"Oh snap!" I clasped a hand over my mouth. "She called him a little girl!"

"You would do well to mind your tongue, little brat." Arsenic said, his cheesy smirk now gone and his voice dripping with venom. He continued to walk towards Ansei, whose feet were nailed to the ground. He stopped only several inches away from her and glared down at the girl with such hatred that I could feel it, even from these few feet away in her house. She glared back at him with just as much malice in her eyes. There was no petty tension between them, just pure hate.

"I've come to your city today to inquire about the sightings of these two individuals..." The blond man pulled two photographs out of the pocket of his trenchcoat and raised them to Ansei's face. She took the pictures from him and studied them.

"We are looking for two individuals named Lightning Farron and Snow Villiers. We received word that they would be staying at your City's Inn. Is this correct?"

My ears perked up then, recognizing the two names.

"...I recieved copies of records from the Inn mentioning these two." Ansei said quietly.

"Yes well, we checked the Inn on our way to the main square, but there was nobody there?" He phrased it as a rhetorical question, and raised an eyebrow at her for an explanation.

"...Well I don't know where they went." Ansei said, handing the pictures back to Arsenic, who took them and placed them in his pocket.

"The inn-keeper informed us that these two individuals had said that they would be departing for an undisclosed location early this morning," Arsenic continued "And that there was also a third party in their group. A young girl, about your age. The innkeeper described her as a girl of about 5 feet even, light brown skin, light colored eyes, and dark brown wavy hair worn short..."

I sank down into the corner already knowing what would come next.

"...And responds to the name "'Winter.'"

The boys in the room looked straight at me, and my heart stopped beating as I sank even further beneath the blanket. Ansei's eyes flashed with realization, but she continued to stand firmly in her place.

"Ring a bell?" Arsenic pressed. Ansei remained silent, and glared at the ground. The man straightened up and took a few steps back, his eyes studying her.

"So you do." He said simply. "You've seen her, yes? It is unlikely that she was aware of our coming today-"

"No one was aware." Ansei cut him off sharply.

Arsenic smirked. "Fair enough. Regardless, if you've any insight as to where this girl might be hiding..."

Oh how I wished there was a place lower than the floor to sink into...

"...Then it would be in your best interest to relay to us that information. Now."

I didn't hear anything coming from Ansei's mouth. She was nervous, but her eyes remained locked on the ground.

"...I don't know where she is. She left with the other two." She answered finally, her voice shaky.

"Oh really? That isn't what the innkeeper said." Arsenic replied smugly. "He told us that they left without the girl and had no intention of returning for her. He also said that he had instructed the girl to run errands for him earlier and said that she had not returned to the inn since then. So...now that we all know that's a lie, I will give you one more chance to answer me truthfully, or else."

"Or else what? Will you take more of us? Capture our mothers and our young and make them your slaves? Will you set the city on fire? Gun us all down?" She asked only semi-sarcastically. Without moving her head, she had lifted her eyes to meet them with her enemy's deadpan ones.

Arsenic let out a hearty laugh. "No, no, all though those are all excellent ideas. This time child, the only thing we will be taking is your life."

"Up until now at the request of your father, you have been the only child spared from collection. However, now that your father has...disappeared, your life is of no meaning to me. Answer me now, or I will have my squad open fire on you." Ansei's mother gasped and reached her hand out as if to grab her child back into the house.

"What did you do to my father?!" Ansei screeched, stepping towards the commander.

"Your only concern right now should be how many seconds you have left to live." Arsenic replied. "So I will ask you again, and you have five seconds to give me an answer!" His voice was rising the more annoyed he became.

"WHERE. IS. THAT. GIRL?"

I sucked in some air as I heard no replies from Ansei. If that had been me in her shoes, I probably would have been so scared that I would have fallen to the ground in tears pouring out the entire story, from the bath house to this timely invasion. However Ansei said nothing. I felt a stab of guilt for the second time that day. "...Is this girl that I've only met just today...really willing to face a firing squad for...me?"

Five seconds passed.

"Ha!" Arsenic bellowed, glaring down at Ansei, who remained in her spot staring at the ground. "Are you really going to die for the sake of protecting a girl you hardly know?!"

She said nothing.

"You and your father are leading a flock full of fools. Very well then."

Arsenic stepped all the way back until he was at the front line of his army. He folded his hands behind his back and stood casually, with a serious look on his face.

"MEN!" His voice thundered throughout the petrified city and sent a shockwave through my brain-jolting me awake.

"OPEN FI-"

"STOP IT! NO!" I heard myself scream.

Involuntarily, I threw the covers off and climbed out of the window. I hit the ground running, and dashed in front of Ansei although I was shaking, and I wanted to cry. Realistically I didn't want to leave the safety of the sheets, but I also knew deep down that my inner conscience wouldn't have been able to watch her die.

Ansei looked bewildered yet relived. She put her hand on my shoulder and said: "Don't worry about me. This is my duty appointed to me by the mayor. You need to get out of here!"

"Trust me." I answered. "I don't want to be standing here any more than you do."

"Ansei!" The woman from the doorframe beckoned to her daughter with desperate arms. "Please!"

Ansei took a final look at me and nodded, then ran back to the door.

"Well well, look who we have here!"

The evil man bagan walking up to me with a deceptive grin spreading across his face again. His heavy footsteps echoed throughout the city streets and into the alleyways, giving me that same feeling one may get when listening to the ticking of a clock. "What are we waiting for?" As he came closer, I felt myself stepping back. I kept walking farther and farther backwards, nearly losing my balance each time.

"You must be Winter." He said calmly. "You're trembling. Child, I assure you that there is nothing to be afraid of."

I sure as hell wasn't convinced but I forced myself to backtracking.

Arsenic reached into his back pocket once again and took out the two pictures he'd shown to Ansei. Lightning and Snow's faces were now in front of me, and by the flash of sadness I portrayed when seeing their pictures, I'd made it clear to Arsenic that I knew who they were.

He retracted the photos and shot me a grimace, cocking his head to the side. "I imagine you know these two, yes?"

I blinked. "I...met them, yes."

"Hm. Indeed." Arsenic began to pace the area in front of me. I watched him carefully, ready to haul-ass if necessary.

"Did they talk to you at all?"

"Of course they did."

"What did they say?"

"Nothing about you."

"Oh, really? Then what did they talk about?"

"Nothing important."

"Well if it was nothing important then you have nothing to hide." He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. "Do tell me then what you talked about. I would be intrigued to know."

"What we talked about is none of YOUR buisness!" I wanted to yell.

Instead I said: "They asked about my past."

"Your past? why your past? What's so special about you?"

"Jerk." I thought.

"Nothing." I said.

"Then why would they want to know about it?" He pressed.

"I don't know."

"Hm. Well, do you know about their past?"

I flashed back to yesterday, when I'd been eavesdropping.

"Do I need to remind you what we were even doing in the desert?"

"We are looking for the bastard that tore Gran Pulse apart, killed off our friends, and turned YOUR wife and MY sister into a goddamn I need to remind you of that?"

"Lightning, you KNOW you can't take on that guy by yourself."

"I wasn't abandoning anything!"

"No." I answered.

"Is that so..." Arsenic's voice trailed off. "Heh. Well then miss Winter, allow ME to tell you about their past. The two people that you met yesterday are criminals of the law. They're revolting against the government and destroying our property. They've been linked to a rebel union stemming from the mainland, and our intelligence sources are saying that they are on an ultimate mission to shatter the government for good."

I raised an eyebrow. "...Are you supposed to be the government?"

Now it was his turn to look confused. "You don't know your own government of PSICOM? Just where are you from, child? What are they teaching you in school?"

"I don't know you, and I don't know anything about PSICOM." I said. "But, If this is the kind of government that this world is running then it's obvious why there are rebels. Where I'm from, there ARE no rebels, because the government doesn't show up whenever they feel like it and kidnap people's children. They don't threaten to gun down kids. They don't take children's parents and make them disappear. What kind of idiot would just accept that?! Where I'm from, they call that tyranny. And I have no respect for that kind of a government."

Ansei gasped. Arsenic's eye's grew wide with pleasant disbelief. Once I realized what I'd said, I gasped. I'd just remembered the army of armed guards standing only 15 feet away! I'd meant what I said, I just...well, didn't mean to say it. Not now anyway.

"You're an interesting child indeed." He said. "I'm sure the Commander in Chief would love to hear what you have to say. Foolhardy talk. Tyranny? We only do what we must to protect the people."

"So you kidnap their children?! How's THAT helping anybody?!" I nearly blurted out.

"I will have to ask you to come with me for questioning miss...Winter."

"I don't know anything else about those two so don't ask me! I don't want to go with you!" I stepped back.

Arsenic smirked. "I will teach you something important about your government of PSICOM miss Winter. Even if something is phrased like a question, refusal is out of the question."

He snapped his fingers and two guards from the front lines dashed over immediately. They grabbed my arms with their free hands.

"Hey!" I shrieked. "Stop it! That HURTS!"

The two men proceeded to drag me along towards the sea of army soldiers.

"LET GO!" I shrieked.

Ansei covered her mouth and her mother began to whimper in fear. The people on the sides of the street watched in horror as PSICOM dragged me down the street and towards the airship, while I kicked and tried to snatch myself out of their hands.

"-AARGHHH!"

Arsenic's screams made the two soldiers promptly turn around. The army ahead raised their guns, ready to fire.

"Let her go." Lightning said firmly.

Lightning returns!

...Wait...Lightning returns? But...why? Find out in the next chapter of "White Snow Dimensia!"

**I feel like a need a beta-reader. It feels like there were too many unnecessary pauses and insertion of actions. Writing is hard work! Of all of the chappies I've written so far though, this is one of my favorites. Sorry it's so much longer than the others though.

**Noburi Park doesn't exist in Shibuya.

**The city of New Braska has nothing to do with Nebraska the state lol. You see, I had wanted to name the desert city after Lake "Bresha" because of an earlier plot point. But I forgot the name of the lake and mistook it for Braska. It hadn't even occured to me at the time that 'Braska' is Yuna's father! (I was wondering where the name had come from, XDD) But it was too much trouble to go back and change, and I ended up scrapping the plot point anyway, so the name stayed. C=

R&R! Thank you for reading!

-Kamikimmy13