Hey guys! This time around, the chapter is a bit shorter than you're used to.
No worries though! There's more to come soon enough. I hope this can tide you over until then? ^_^;
Don't forget to review! (Please, please, please?)
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By the time I was out of the shower, Lightning was already standing in my living room. She was holding Taki suspended in mid air, arms length, so that they were eye level, and the pup was just wagging her tail while trying to close the gap between their faces with her nose. I stood there, smiling. The confused expression on Lightning's face, coupled with how eager Taki was to lick her, made a funny scene.
"You know you're in a towel, right?" Light said without even looking at me. I glanced down; my first instinct was to run in the opposite direction but I shrugged instead.
"It's not like you've never seen a shirtless man before." Taki yipped. Light's attention returned to the pup.
"This thing attacked me on my way in." She said, coldly. "Why do you have it?"
"Taki?" I said with a laugh. The dog turned her cute, husky head at the sound of her name. "She's my baby!"
I walked over to them and took her from Light's grasp, cradling her against my chest with one arm. She raised her front paws, playing with my Shinra tags like a cat and wagging her tail. Light sighed and turned her head with a slight blush.
"Just get dressed."
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We took a chopper from Shinra Corp, suited up our parachutes and waited until we were just near the forests of Gongaga. I didn't tease Lightning about Taki, like I wanted, or how well they seemed to be getting along by the time I had gotten dressed. I just kept the image of the two, laying in the floor and passing a ball back and forth, to myself.
Back on land we entered the trees and walked in silence for a while, listening for our mark. The forests hadn't changed since my last visit home. The scent of the wood and the contrasting greens and blues of the plant life. The sounds of wild fiends, not big enough to really harm anything, or the taste of the hanging dew. All of this was enough to clog your senses, make you forget what the outside air was like. These are things I always miss about home especially since leaving for Midgar.
Lightning sneezed.
My brief glance in her direction made her quicken her pace. She was something to watch, really, that layer of ice just thin enough to see through, but not to melt. Her sudden fast pace told me that she was embarrassed. She sneezed, and hey, that's human. But, because it's so human, she's embarrassed to have been caught doing it.
Just like when she hurt her shoulder.
Just like when she was playing with Taki.
And that's the thing you need to understand about her, really. It's best to just leave her alone about it.
Her head jerked to the side; her stance sharpened as her fingertips brushed the hilt of her gunblade in an involuntary reaction. I sensed it too, a few seconds after she did and turned toward the sound and scent of our target, my eyes adjusting to the dim light of the forest.
We advanced into the trees, her speed and agility outweighing my own. Within seconds we arrived in a small clearing, surrounded by trees with three Grand Horns to the back. They were small. All huddled around each other like they were cold: an unusual behavior for these fiends.
"Aren't they a little bit.. small? Where's the mother?" But honestly I don't know why I bothered asking because when I turned to her she was already jumping high into the trees.
Dammit you don't have to show off.
She dropped from the branches and into the little group with ease, sending two of them flying. I was behind them, knocking the two she sent my way with the blunt end of my sword. They huddled together again, almost like nothing had happened, but she launched again and broke up the group, knocking them away.
"Don't let them group!" And again she broke apart their repaired formation.
Each time she pushed them back, they huddled together again. At first, I wasn't sure how to fight a group that wouldn't fight back but then I noticed something weird about these Grand Horns.
"They don't even have horns!"
Lightning smirked, shooting the ground at their feet, sending them scrambling again. Come to think of it, she wasn't actually hurting them at all.
A bullet rebounded toward my head and I reflected it with my sword. The group of baby Grand Horns were resilient. Lightning kept pushing.
"If they can't group up, they call for help."
"Got it!"
I charged using en elementary Blitz technique, keeping my stance in the middle of their path forcing them to pass by me on their way to the others. Light was trapezing on high branches directly over my head, firing burst shots at their feet. Finally, after what seemed like an hour of this daunting strategy, the siblings rooted themselves into the ground and let out a bone chilling shriek. Light's eyes flashed, her nostrils flared for a moment, and after a stunning silence, she tilted her head to the side and grinned.
"Hello, beautiful."
It came from beneath the earth. It broke out and tore down the surrounding trees. Lightning jumped down, landing behind me with a snort of a laugh. I adjusted my stance. She launched.
It's upper body was ill proportioned. Thick feet, thin legs, giant hands, thin arms and a torso bigger than all three of her children combined.
"She's big!" I laughed, bringing my blade across the backs of its legs while Lightning held its attention, straddling the shoulders.
The large mass that was its hand flew by my head in an attempt to swat me away, like some kind of mosquito. It missed and impacted with the side of Light's head. I heard her grunt and she was knocked off balance, flipping and rebounding from a trunk nearby. She crouched, wiping her mouth. I succeeded in removing that hand from its body.
The amount of blood was impressive and the way it flailed about, roaring and staining everything in a violet red, made me pity it. Light was already standing again, firing shot after shot into its temple. Its shell was thick and the bullets kept deflecting and flying in different directions, many toward me. My sword was quick to deflect them though while I slashed at its ankles, keeping it focused on me rather than Lightning.
One more by my head and the fiend goes down. Light's broken through its shell.
But it's not dead yet, just bleeding like a stuck pig. I rush it directly, dodging the other massive hand and shove my blade into the opening she'd cracked for me. It shrieked one last time, struggling against me until the movement slowed and finally stopped all together.
I pulled my sword from it, squinting at the amount of blood it'd shed. I wondered if Angeal was writhing in his grave, knowing how much use his precious sword was getting these days. Then I thought about Snow and how it was even possible that he did all of his combating by hand.
Lightning crouched down, holding her side and panting. She kept her head low and hiding her face from me.
"Surely that little exercise wasn't too much for you, SOLDIER?"
"I'm alright." She sounded breathless and kept her fist clenched on her side. "I just..need...a moment."
With those weak reassurances, she fell to one knee, coughing. A small amount of blood showered the ground, a brilliant red in contrast to the fiend's. I rushed to her side and caught her before she hit the ground, face first.
"Move your hand." I said sternly, cradling her head to my chest. She did as she was told, for once.
Wedged into her ribs, just below the heart, was a distinct bullet wound, severely large and deep enough to still hold the bullet itself. Her vest wasn't torn so it had obviously slipped in between the opening during the movement. Her chest was heaving while she breathed, her abs tense with each pulse. Every inch of her was stained heavily with blood, a mixture of fiend and SOLDIER.
"It must have ricocheted off.. something."
"Let's get back. We'll have a...AHH!" She hissed and her hands jumped to the wound. Muscle in her arms tightening, the skin around her neck stretching. I opened her side pouch, digging for something to dress it.
"That bullet is in the bone. It's deep. And your accelerated healing has already started to kick in which is why it hurts so much." She nodded, her eyes glimmering with tears. My hand found something slender and cold. I pulled it out and breathed relief at the beautiful survival knife. "If I don't get it out now there will be complications later. It will try to heal around the thing, and your movements will b-"
"Do it." She hissed. Her back was beginning to arch in pain. I didn't need telling twice.
I gave her my glove to bite down on. I lifted her into my lap, turning her on her side.
I plunged precisely, quickly finding the little scrap with the tip of the blade.
Lightning let out one loud scream. Her fists were clutching at grass and dirt. The meat around the opening was burned from the impact since the bullets she was using were grade A SOLDIER and meant for heavy hitting.
It took time.
It took a quick wrist.
It took control.
I hooked the tip underneath the bullet, angling the knife carefully and trying not the rip open anymore flesh or stab a major organ.
Lightning was biting onto my leather glove. Her jaw bones were tense beneath her skin. Her moans were sealed off at the base of her throat.
It came out easily, much to my relief and fell onto the ground with a deafening thud.
I immediately grabbed a healing potion from her bag and poured the liquid onto the opening, washing it out. Lightning had her jaw clenched and remained deathly silent while I cleaned her up. She remained in my lap for a minute, her eyes closed as her Jenova cells took hold of the healing. A normal human would need it burned closed while it healed, immediate medical attention, weeks of recovery in some hospital bed. A normal human would be weeping and thrashing about in agony, screaming at the nearest nurse for painkillers.
I watched the wound begin to decrease in size almost as soon as I left it alone. The rate of recovery was astounding, much more advanced than mine. The meat was mending together again and the bone made a slight crackling sound as it healed as well.
"Thank you." She said, her voice unsteady and somewhat hoarse. I just shook my head and smiled down at her.
"You push yourself too hard." She scowled.
"Lucky me to always have Zack Fair to fix me up."
"Yeah, lucky you." I grinned.
She pushed herself out of my lap and stood up without any help. I watched her walk over to the dead fiend and carve the serial code from it's flesh using the same knife I had just used in her rib.
"Hey, Light!" I called, still sitting in the dirt. "We're partners, right?"
There was a silence as she turned to me, staring in confusion for a split second. After thinking on it for a second she nodded her head and showed me a small smile.
"I think you could call us friends now, Zack."
I leaned back with my hands behind my head and laughed.
"Well then.. what about that?"
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To be continued in the next chapter..
