Hello Ladies and Gentleman. I bring to you another episode for your delight. First of all, I would like to thank AquaThunderKnight17 for being so patient with me. I tend to be distracted a lot, and since I'm still learning to develop my English grammar, I guess it's kinda frustrating for my beta reader to keep up the pace (If there is one XD ). As always, hope you find this episode, worth of your time.
So far, Miss Tarna, mr wolf777 and LadyA sees with good eyes this story. That's exciting and encouraging for me. But if you want to keep up with this story, fav it!. Like some people say: the more, the merrier XD. But being serious, I'll do my best to bring you episodes worth of your standards.
Enjoy this episode
Lightning's senses are disoriented, confused by what she sees, feels, breathes. Freezing shadows, bits of dying colors, tiny points of light that resemble distant stars. All of this combined with a titanic aquatic push that presses the entire being of Lightning. The warrior can't trust her sight or her ears, but her touch is the only thing that whispers to her that she is inside the portal. That one sense is filled with new, unknown and terrifying sensations; These sensations, which are exhaled like piercing punches, jumps into Lightning's mind. A cold, liquidy sensation painted with stellar and dark strokes is what surrounds Lightning's being. It pushes her as if it were an omnipotent current that gently lifts an unprepared insect, away from its home and what it knows and loves.
Lightning does not know how much time has passed within that constant confusion of senses, Years? Days? Seconds? She was still submerged... sinking into that dark space. Suddenly, the pinkette feels something sharp approaching her back. Lightning turns her eyes and discovers that she is not alone; someone else stalks her. The elusive presence uses the darkness of that silent sea as a shield to commit its macabre mischief.
Lightning's pupils dilate and contract, her ears sharpening, as she looks for known forms within the prevailing darkness. The captive warrior finds her friend Blazefire, well-disposed in its sheath. They both look forward to Nabaat's evil presence. The shock of Blazefire's metal against Nabaat's treacherous claws bestows Lightning's longed-for desire to fight.
The sharp lines of both weapons run eagerly like shooting stars toward the smooth anatomical surfaces of both females. Quick fists and sharp metals danced around Nabaat and Lightning. The warrior's belly is punched broadly by Nabaat's swift slashes. Lightning grabs Nabaat's wrist and counterattacks crashing Blazefire's grip against Nabaat's forehead. Both blows pushes them away briefly before they launch against each other once again to resume their fast kicks, broad punches, and swift slashes. The light show was fading with dizzying speed; the purplish-blue stellar darkness of that place smothered with their presence the strength of both warriors. Lightning seeks to hasten her hunt and finish the bout as soon as possible. In her mind she knew of two things that could extinguish her existence: First, there was Naabat who now possessed the power of a god. And second, but not least, the strange, stifling surroundings around her.
Nabaat extends her hand to Lightning's chest. Twisted and dark lines are drawn rapidly into the palm of her hand while a celestial light emanates from those marks. Lightning senses it; Naabat will give everything in that attack. Without waiting for words from her enemy, Lightning pushes all her forces into the cut of her sword to stop Nabaat's attack.
The warrior manages to intercept her rival and shoved her sword in the magic circle that forms around Nabaat's palm. Lightning tries to cut the circle with only her muscles, but she realizes that something else is happening, she sees it in Naabat's stunned look. She screams something, but Lightning can't figure what it is. Then, Lightning feels a slight tug on the handle of her sword. Her mechanical friend does not respond to her orders to continue cutting. She tries to pull away her weapon away, but with no success. The marks coming from the magic circle were impregnated like bacteria in Blazefire's metal sheet. The light of the spell becomes bluer and whiter. Lightning can't let go of her weapon, she does not want to leave her companion but the light slowly whispers to her that something catastrophic would tear her completely if she does not run away immediately. In her mind, colors, sounds and pleasant sensations spread quickly. Familiar voices call her. Hope, Sazh, Snow... Serah. Memories that Lightning secretly treasured in her private moments, intensify their presence before a very certain culminating situation. The pinkette only has one option: to close her eyes and wait to wake up from that nightmare.
"Serah!" It was the last thing Claire Farron's voice sighed before closing her eyes.
But something else approached her ... a shadow? It was warm, solid. It sheltered the warrior with lukewarm darkness; Lightning felt her arms, thighs, feet, hands and neck being tightly entangled by the darkness. She was devoured by a shady uncertainty that grew at every second.
"What is it?" Lightning was looking for an answer with her uncooperative vision but only traces of that darkness hung over what she saw. She wanted to get rid of those doubts. And a tiny trace of light, strikes her pink hair, giving Lightning the answer. Bright, almost blinding colors, covers Lightning and Nabaat.
"A way out?" That was what Lightning thought as the tiny light grew in size and its intensity increased. A light sensation caresses the fist of Lightning holding firmly to Blazefire. The spell had broken and the celestial light grew terrifyingly. Lightning can't distinguish between lights and shadows, or if Jihl was consumed by that light. Silence once again; Lightning's heart feels at peace. That feeling of peace is cracked by a strong and invisible blow that pushes Lightning directly towards this longed for exit. The end of the journey has arrived with a majestic and shocking explosion.
Air. Fresh, graceful air danced around Lightning's face. That fragile breeze gave her, little by little, strength to the warrior and causing her to move, to react. Lightning's weakened gaze met the pervasive darkness, which still possessed that tender warmth of before.
That impression creeping up several parts of her body was insolently piercing that lukewarm shield. But also, that insolent sensation helped her to be aware of her surroundings. Lightning was falling very fast and she would soon hit the surface.
She couldn't see a thing but she could feel everything, in the company of the graceful breeze, that played with the warm shadow. Lightning prepares to receive the impact with the few forces she possesses; she tries to harden her touch, to hold her breath. She closes her eyes and just feel what the wind does on her face. It reminds her, the sea breeze that embraced her every day.
"What am I doing here anyway?" She wondered. That girl with black hair had more than two hours of standing and circling in the same place. She was looking for an answer to that question. She thought that the rocky and rugged landscape of Nibelheim would give her at least a suggestion of what she should not do in order for her to make a decision. For her it was the end point of the trip that took 3 days. Her clothes, surrounded by jet-black colors and accompanied by a modest brown camping bag, were enough shelter from the cold that was passing near the rocky roads of Nibelheim, which were covered by several cushions of night clouds and some stars that took advantage of the spaces ignored by the clouds to show their tiny beauty.
The doubt of that woman had already persecuted her for many years. So many things she chose not to say. Maybe because she was afraid or maybe because she didn't believe it was necessary. Those accumulated sensations had already done too much damage for her to ignore. Therefore, this woman took the hasty decision to go on a trip to some place that would help her banish those dying sensations that only accumulated dust inside her soul. Sensations she wanted to feel, if those moments that she longed for arrived; but instead, cruel circumstances forced her to put those aggrieved feelings in a secret corner of her heart.
Her gaze focuses on the ground. She looks to one side and the other side. And then, she is attracted by a soft and tiny plant.
"Hey...!" says the girls almost to herself "How did you grow up in this place?" Her gaze widens as she approaches to the delicate plant of yellow petals and tiny leaves. The girl caresses the tiny, tender leaves of velvety texture with her fingertips and she changes her sight to what is underneath that tiny plant. She looks closely at the deep, though narrow, crevice that had opened that plant before it blossomed.
"I see. If you did it, then I can do it too!"
That woman shakes her head as she laughs when she notices that she is speaking to a plant.
After a few, meditative moments, determination fills the explorer.
"From now on a new life is what I wish, and I'll get it" After that exclamation before the empty immensity of the mountains, the girl laughs to herself, feeling her cheeks redden.
The woman takes one last look at the starry and slightly overcast ceiling that covers her old home, her memories, both the beautiful and the cruel ... and also her new promise. A smile full of optimism and security is what she returns to the heaven of Nibelheim for having been the unique and attentive witness in this new promise that this beautiful woman has inscribed in her heart and soul.
The hazel-eyed woman begins her march back. But a dim light covers her in that cold, desolate setting.
"It's too early for dawn!" Those were the words that cross the mind of that woman who sees how that dim light increases its brightness as the seconds passed. She check her hands ... it can move. Then the hazel-eyed girl notices the origin of that light...THE SKY!
Her gaze locates that intense light; it is a comet that expounds golden, bright colors. The hazel-eyed woman gazes in the distance as that bright and huge figure hastens its way to meet the hard, cold and uneven surface of the mountain slopes of Nibelheim. The impact of this comet expels a powerful and serious blow before imposing its harmonious and brilliant explosion.
That titanic wave reaches the young woman who is pushed back before she regains the balance. The smoke curtain caused by the comet's crash quickly settles, allowing the woman's sight to witness a giant pink crystal pillar rise and crawl rapidly into millions of tiny pieces. The fragments that fell from this great crystal danced gracefully with the wind, as they disappeared with the mantle of darkness.
In spite of how frightening that shock was, that pink glass pillar captivated that woman for a few seconds. She checks in her pocket and pulls out her PHS. Her fingers are fumbling to dial one of her friends. However, curiosity keeps her from hitting a single button as she stares into the gigantic crater. The hazel-eyed woman keeps her PHS in her pocket, and makes the first decision that drives her to fulfill her new promise.
"I have to see what's in there!"
The woman's swift footsteps roam the rugged mountain roads as if it were her playground, slipping expertly through dangerous cliffs, and blindly darting into dark caves to get out of them. She rests her confidence in her former experience as a guide in those desolate places. The certainty of knowing each one of the paths, that have that gray and rocky fortress, impel her even more to reach that longed for, chaotic, and beautiful place, that caught her attention.
"Wake up ... Lightning ... Wake up ... The ride is over." The call is repeated a couple of times in the warrior's mind before she could open her eyes slowly. The faint and diffused sight she had at the time, only revealed to her that the warm shadow moved away from her, at a gentle pace, in the same way as a formidable, crystalline-looking flower that was adorned with a brilliant light Pink, began to open.
After that pink light disappeared, only the silver and cold night light covered Lightning's entire body. The pink-haired warrior tries to stand up and she feels her limbs obey her orders, with some reluctance but they respond. Lightning feels her legs as if they have been immersed in cold water for days. As for her arms and hands, she felt small blades tearing at her battered skin. In spite of these sudden and annoying sensations, Lightning's mind manages to separate those distractions in order to get up and start walking.
"I'm not dead ... That's good!" Lightning says as she notices the pain in her arms and legs.
"One step at a time" Lightning repeats to herself as she walks on the cold, rocky ground.
The sight of Lightning does not fit well into the darkness that reigns around her. Only diffused strokes of night colors is what the weakened warrior can reach to touch perceives through her steps that the ground is steep and deep. However, to Lightning's surprise, her hearing was working very well. The only sense that was at all times alert whispered in a frenzy that something was coming. Sounds of falling rocks were the signal to Lightning that something speedy was approaching.
Instinctively, she resorts to the reliable texture of her Blazefire's handle but the cool air is what she manages to hold before realizing that her sword is gone. The sounds become clearer and louder, the sound of small rocks sliding down the steep ground tightens the trained senses of Lightning who tries to concentrate her senses to specify if that sound is synonymous of danger. Her sight doesn't improve, it is still blurred.
Even so, she manages to see a dark human silhouette; she can recognize it thanks to the faint starry sky, that gave Lightning the necessary light. Lightning stands still, raising her fists as high as she can, fighting the sharp stabbing pain that nibbled at her arms and legs. The soldier thought that if that silhouette was an enemy at least she would fight against whatever that was. However, her gaze suffers a rapid, saturation of white light. She can't feel the cold around her, the inclement pain that lashed her disappears by magic.
The dark silhouette is still in the same place. But suddenly, something strange happens before Lightning's eyes: the silhouette moves out of place, as if the earth was swallowing it. Lightning tries to locate that silhouette but a tremendous sensation invades her whole body, a feeling of intolerable heaviness. Her body can't resist anymore and her body falls out and is abruptly received by the cold hard ground.
"Get up ... GET UP, DAMN IT!" Lightning shouted at herself. She was looking for a way to regain her lost strength before that silhouette reached her.
Lightning can hear clearly as the sound of small rolling rocks approaching to her. Her vision, still blurred, can see a silhouette of jet-black colors approaching to her. Lightning can't figure what that silhouette is doing. Her skin can't feel how that silhouette wanders with her hands to see the state of Lightning's wounds. She can hear a voice ... she can perceive something in that feminine and delicate voice: concern and kindness. Lightning's eyesight slowly turns dark, her eyelids are closing. The warrior can still hear that kind voice that calls her:
"Hang in there! You'll be OK! Please don't die" The hazel-eyed woman begs the warrior as she takes Lightning in her arms.
"Serah-I'll—save—y-" It's what Lightning can say to the silhouette before she closes her eyes.
A/N: Next, chapter 5. Right now I feel excited because apparently I impressed my beta reader with this episode. That's a relief!(I'm serious!). What do you think?. Did you liked it?. At least I hope I gave you a good time while you read this chapter. Please leave your comments, I won't be able to improve if I don't know where I'm making the mistakes (I'm counting on you ;) ).
See ya.