Chapter 4 ~ Trap

"No! I'm not putting that on!" Hope refused to look at the dress that Lightning had shown him, the one that she had gone through absolute fetching hell to procure.

Lightning suppressed an angry snarl and let out a sigh instead. At least it wasn't as bad as when she had tried to convince him to wear the bikini briefs that she had gotten from the Honeybee Inn. Listen, kid, she could have said, I just went through some embarrassing shit involving a lot of naked women and a bathtub for this. All in all, the ex-SOLDIER did not wish to be reminded of her experiences at the Honeybee Inn—and in the end she simply let it go. But the dress was crucial. "You can put this on like a good girl," Lightning managed through clenched teeth, "or I can go on alone to Don Corneo, while you run back home to your mother. Your choice."

"…Can I keep my clothes on underneath?"

"Fine." It wasn't noticeable, anyways, and Lightning wasn't about to carry his clothes around so he could change afterwards. "Now get in there and change. And don't forget the tiara." That was a nice touch—it went well with his hair, or so she believed.

The boy who stepped out of the dressing room could have fooled even her. The tailor and his daughter, who ran the clothing store, were likewise stunned. "Not bad," the tailor said, inspecting the dress from behind the counter. "We could make a business out of this. Just take the dress for free—it's on the house." Thank the Maker, Lightning thought. The thing looked like it would cost a fortune.

Her face must have shown something. "What is it?" Hope asked grumpily. He kept turning around, trying to see the back of the dress. "Did I zip it up right?"

Instead of answering, Light towed him to the tall mirror in the clothing store. Once he saw himself, his face twisted in a mix of shock ("I really do look like a girl") and disgust ("I look like a dork!"). "If I do say so for myself," Lightning drawled casually, "you make quite the young woman, miss Hope."

Hope glared at her. "Aren't you going to wear one too?" he said, accusing.

Oh, crap. She had almost forgotten about that. "Well, go on, miss Lightning! I'm not going to go in there dressed like this myself!"

She had probably as much experience as Hope did when it came to dresses. She had picked one out almost similar to Hope's, one that allowed her to wear her normal clothes underneath. She had to adjust the belt straps that held her gunblade's holster, but concealing the weapon was, thank the Maker, easy to conceal. Since Hope's silver dress had highlighted the color of his hair, she decided to follow that with a pink one. If Hope lets out so much as a giggle, Lightning thought as she exited the dressing room, I will murder him.

No tittering greeted her—not even a single smile. Is it that bad? "Hold on, I can change to another one—"

"No, no," Hope choked out, his face red. "Y-You look great, Lightning. You really do."

"You do," the tailor confirmed. Light shot the tailor a glare—Not helping, her eyes told him. "That one will cost you, though." She resisted the urge to sigh again when she counted out the gil on the counter—Snow would have to pay her double, at the rate she was being forced to spend on her mission to reunite with Serah, else she'd have to go find a real job soon.

"Don't say anything once we're there," Lightning advised Hope. "I'll do all the talking." For all appearances, the boy wasn't even getting to that stage of growth yet—though his voice was unmistakably male. Awkward. Now the boy was trying—rather unsuccessfully—to walk without tripping over the dress. "Remember, you chose this, Hope."

"I know," he wailed, "but… I…" He didn't finish the thought, only twisted around again to look at himself helplessly. "This is ridiculous. It's never going to work. It's not going to work, it's not!"

That was what he kept muttering under his breath while they trudged through Wall Market, even as they cleared the security guard outside Corneo's mansion. The guard asked what was up with the cute one, and Lightning smiled as sweetly as she possibly knew how. "She's just nervous for her big night with the Don."

"It's not gonna work, it's not gonna work…"

"Will you please be quiet?"

That shut him up, and made him look around for once instead of at the ground, to make sure he didn't trip. "It worked!" Really, Lightning thought sarcastically, although she didn't say it. "So what do we do now?"

For answer, Lightning led the way up the stairs where there were doors. She tried one unsuccessfully, considered breaking it down, and let it go—they had gone through hell to make this disguise work, and they sure as hell were not going to blow it so soon. The second door was locked as well. That left only the gaping passage at the end of the corridor, which apparently led downstairs. A basement? For what? And then she knew.

Torture devices served as sadistic furniture in the basement, lit only by a dim lantern. Lightning had to squint, to pick out the human-shapes and figure out whether it was some torture rack or some shape of her sister—"Claire?" Serah's incredulous voice came from a figure that Light had dismissed as a mannequin. "What are you—why're you dressed in—no, forget that, you're safe!"

Light pulled herself out of their embrace, even as Serah clutched at her desperately. "I'm all right," she said irritably to all of Serah's queries about her well-being. "Considering I fell quite a few stories after that disaster of a mission. What I'm concerned about, Serah, is: why are you here?" When Serah's gaze trailed away to something behind her, Lightning remembered. "Oh. This is Hope, some… kid who showed me the way here."

"How old is she? How can you bring a little girl with you here, Claire?"

Hope was, yet again, helpless. "He can look after himself just fine, Serah." Serah peered at Hope's face, as if trying to figure out just how this pixie could be male. "Where's Snow? If he has anything to do with this, I'm going to—"

"Relax, it was my idea." Lightning frowned at that, and raised an eyebrow in a gesture that said, Go on. "It started when Snow caught a shady man, after we got back from the mission. Apparently this Don Corneo sent him to find some information—so I decided maybe I could try finding out some information on him, instead." She motioned to her dress—specifically chosen for the way it revealed her body. "Anyways, Corneo's looking for a bride. Every night he gets three new girls, chooses one, and… you know."

"And Villiers sent you out knowing you'd be seducing a lech like this Don Corneo?"

"No! He—Snow doesn't know." Serah looked at her feet. "Anyways, I need to be chosen by Corneo if it's going to work. But since you two are here…"

"…it doesn't matter who he chooses, so long as you know all three girls," Lightning finished. At that, Hope looked up quickly in confusion. "If he's okay with it…"

"Huh?" Hope had tuned out of the conversation, and wasn't expecting to be dragged into it. "Wait. So you're saying… the Don is going to pick one of us, and then he'll…?"

There was an awkward silence. "Should we…?" Serah asked her.

Lightning shook her head. "Nothing's going to happen—if Corneo tries anything, we can all fend for ourselves." Or so she hoped—Serah had that gimmicky bow-blade she had been using during their mission (hopefully it was concealed somewhere in that provocative dress of hers), and Hope could always fry him with a quick Fire spell. As for herself, her gunblade had two options of dealing with one indulgent Don Corneo. Hope's eyes widened as he connected two and two and realized what exactly the two sisters were planning—but he didn't complain. If anything, he looked even more like a girl whenever his face flushed like that.

"Hey! It's time, ladies—the Don is waiting!"

"You heard him," Serah chirped, adopting a cheerful attitude to lighten up the mood. "I heard he's too fat to really try anything, anyways." That doesn't help at all, Light thought.

Her sister was right, unfortunately. The Don was a sow in silk, near-sweltering in the unventilated room. As soon as they had lined up in front of him, he pounced on his desk in glee. "Good, splendid!" He licked his lips as he drew closer to inspect them personally, his small, leering eyes peering at them hungrily. "Which one shall I choose, eh?" He lingered in front of Serah, and Lightning tried her best not to rip off the costume and stick the end of her gunblade into that pig's face. He's going to choose Serah, Lightning thought with alarm. Then the man turned her attention to her, and her thoughts went for the worse. Crap, crap, crap!

"I choose…"

Shit—

"…this wonderful little fairy!"

It was all Lightning could do not to gasp. "M-Me?" Hope stammered, blushing crimson again. "Wait a sec—I mean, please wait a moment!" His voice was perfectly feminine once he was faced with the terror of being chosen by this pig of a man. But hopefully Corneo would change his mind—

"Woohoo!" There goes our luck. "She's even playing hard-to-get!" He took Hope by the arm, fairly half-dragging him away to a back room. "You can have the other ones!" he told his guards, who subsequently turned hungry gazes towards Serah and Lightning. "Let's go, my pretty!" he crooned. The last thing Light saw of Hope was his helplessly huge eyes, screaming Help me!

Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.

None of this would have happened if he had just shut his mouth. If he hadn't suspected of Lightning's affiliation with AVALANCHE, if he had just abandoned her from the moment the ex-SOLDIER asked him if he had worn a dress before.

"Is the little doll shy? Don't worry, papa'll be gentle…"

None of this would have happened if he weren't such a girl. The image of his reflection came back—how girly he looked. It's the hair. Definitely the hair. As soon as he phoned his father and got back home, he'd get a new haircut, pronto.

"Don't you like me, my little pixie?"

Hope was shaken from his self-deprecating reverie when he realized that the Don was waiting for an answer. The man was on his bed, trying to coax him closer; all the Don was doing, however, was making Hope wish for a weapon like Lightning's to replace his silly boomerang. What was I thinking, bringing a toy like that as a weapon?What he needed was a knife—no, wait, what he needed to do was answer the Don. What did Lightning and her sister want, again? Information? "I, umm…"

Don Corneo reared back in suspicion. "There… There isn't anyone else, is there? That's it, isn't it! An adorable little pixie like you wouldn't help but attract several admirers, am I right?" As if. And if someone used the word 'pixie' to describe him one more time, he was going to have to send a Bolt spell up their—"Come on, you can tell me! Who is it, this charmer who's captured my pixie's heart?"

Here goes. "I-It's… Snow." He didn't even know where that name came from—Serah had mentioned it earlier. Didn't Lightning call him by his last name? "It's Snow Villiers."

At first the name made no impression on the Don—until Hope added the surname. "Villiers? Sounds familiar…"

"You know," Hope tried, "he's the one you were trying to find out about." That was what Serah had told Lightning in the basement, right?

A miracle—the Maker must listen to him after all, if sporadically. Recognition lit up Corneo's face as he exclaimed, "Ah, yes! In Sector 7 in the slums…" Yes! I did it! "And how does a little pixie know about that!" Oh, crap. Not a miracle after all. It was time to ditch the outfit.

He had planned on ripping the flimsy thing away and tossing it to the side, but life wasn't as easy as a video game, apparently. Crap, how do I get out of this? Before the Don could make another move, however, the door slammed open, and Hope recognized the click of Lightning's gunblade. "Get back, you freak," she advised him coldly, training the weapon on his shocked face. "Serah, help Hope out of that thing." Luckily the lighting of the bedroom masked his red face as the young woman moved to help him out of the thing. He didn't know if he would ever be so glad to be back in his normal clothes again.

"W-Who are you!" Corneo crawled further away on the bed, but didn't risk diving for the exit—not with the gunblade pointed at him by a woman with those eyes. Mako-infused eyes, Hope remembered, almost with relief. "What the hell is going on?"

"Shut up. We're asking the questions now." Lightning clicked her weapon back into a saber, although her eyes were still trained on Corneo. "What did you send your men out to find?" The Don was hesitating. "If you don't tell us…" Lightning leaned forward and placed a boot on the edge of his bed. "…I'll slice them off."

Even Hope understood what she meant by "them". The boy shuddered, and thanked the Maker that they were on the same side.

Corneo was not so lucky. He nearly jumped, and blubbered, "No, not that! I-I'll tell you everything, I swear!" Another look from Lightning's eyes: Go on. "I had them find out where that big man was—you know, Snow Villiers. B-But that's what I was ordered to do…"

"By who?"

Corneo flinched. "No! If I told you that, I'd be killed!"

"Talk!" Hope surprised himself by the fury of his demand. He followed Lightning's example, and placed a foot on the edge of the bed. "If you don't talk…" He reached back for the Fire materia that Lightning had lent him earlier, and lit up a living flame on his open palm. "…I'll burn them off."

Corneo was fairly crying now from fear. "W-Wait! It was Heidegger, from Shinra! Heidegger, Head of Public Safety Maintenance!"

Lightning and Serah shared a knowing glance, while Hope flailed inside. Heidegger? So it's true! Light and Serah, they're from AVALANCHE, that terrorist group! Hope hardly had any time to think. "Shinra?" Corneo nodded frantically. "What are they up to? If you don't tell us…" Serah pulled out her mechanic bow. "…I'll shoot them off."

"Y-You're all crazy," Corneo whimpered. "But it's hopeless, Shinra isn't fooling around! They're trying to crush that rebel group AVALANCHE by finding out where their hideout is—and they'll crush them, literally!" For a cornered man faced with three armed threats surrounding him, he was gaining some bravado as he spoke of Shinra. "They're going to break the support holding up the plate above them. After that, everything's gonna go BAMM!" He wasn't even afraid anymore, his eyes glowing as he emphasized on that last sound effect. "We found out that their hideout is in the Sector 7 slums… far away from here in Sector 6."

Oh Maker, Hope thought. Mom and I were going to Sector 7, right after the church!

"They can't do that!" Serah shouted, shaking her head furiously. "They'll wipe out the entire slums just like that?" She turned to her sister, trembling. "Cla—Light, we have to get back to Sector 7!" The ex-SOLDIER nodded, and both started moving towards the exit, with Hope following confusedly behind. Dad wouldn't let that happen! It's impossible!

"Just a second!" Corneo had moved to one of the edges of his bed.

Lightning turned to him dangerously. "We don't need anything more from you, pig."

"Just wait! It'll only take a second." None of them understood the look on Don Corneo's face. "How do you think scum like me feels when they babble on about the truth?"

"Quite frankly, I don't give a damn, Don Corneo," was Lightning's caustic reply.

"Bzzt! Wrong answer!" With that he flipped a lever, and suddenly there was nothing below Hope's feet but darkness. It's a trap! Hope tried to cry out, but it was too late. His thoughts went to his mother—I have to go warn her! It was too late for that, too. There wasn't anything left. Only the dark…

Wow. Did I mention how much I love Wall Market? Yes, yes I did. True, when I first played the game (wee six year old) I didn't know what the heck Cloud and co. were talking about when they said they'll "rip them off". And the Group Room in the Honeybee Inn… I thought the entire place was like, a karaoke place or something. It's good to be young.

I'm sorry I'm cheating on descriptions when it comes to cross-dressing Hope and Lightning in a dress. The last time I wore a dress was for graduation and that is not happening again. I know as little about dresses as Hope, really. Really. The whole thing was interesting to write, anyways.

Final note: Hope's really important! Really! And speaking of which—I had to go on Urban Dictionary and look up 'trap' in the not-so-obvious sense, hence the title. I feel so naughty. Anyways, next up: Pillar bombing. Where we meet the awesome dude (not in Advent Children. But y'know) known as Reno, and a certain spearchi—I mean, spearwoman showing up to join the party.

Thanks for reading!