This new addition is a very short one and I apologize for that

It's a small break from the blood and swordplay, but only just

As always, don't forget to review and keep checking back for the latest installment

- Resplendnce

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Cold steel
Blood
Burnt leather

The fog slowly lifts from my head and I can instantly smell the danger in my surroundings. I'm so terrified of opening my eyes that I allow myself to lay there, seemingly still unconscious, and take a moment to sift through my mind. To remember- who am I? Where am I? What is my mission and who am I trying to save?

My name is Zack Fair. I am SOLDIER, 1st Class. My best friend is Snow Villiers. Snow is missing. We were attacked by a serial. Lightning saved me. She's badly injured. Cissnea is dying.

I can feel a sharp pain starting from my chest and working its way through my body until it reaches the very tips of my fingers. I feel heavy, my flesh stinging with a strange type of coldness and the act of merely flexing my hand becomes painful. Cissnea is dying. Cissnea is dying because I wasn't there. Why wasn't I there?

I remember the blood pool; Cissnea's wound growing by the second. There's a voice calling my name. There's a massive set of fangs tearing my arm from my body. Lightning in a crumpled, broken heap, leaning on the supports. Then there's Rude carrying that small girl like an oversize marionette, away from my clumsy hands. Beyond my vision. There's voices and screaming and somewhere far away, a sigh. My mind is a broken record, replaying the same scenes again and again and again.

My name is Zack Fair. I am SOLDIER, 1st Class. I live in an apartment complex near the south side of Sector 5. I have a dog named Taki. My best friend is Snow Villiers. Snow Villiers is missing. Snow Villiers might already be dead.

I force my eyes open, so that a new set of morbid images cannot force their way into my mind. It takes another moment for my brain to register that, even though my eyes are open, the darkness seemingly goes on forever.

There's a muffled sound, like fabric against fabric. Someone is breathing deeply as they would in sleep. I don't move, matching their pace with my own breath.

Pomegranate.
Mint leaves.
Warm skin.

With a tentative hand I reach out into the open space above me, touching nothing. I inhale deeply, forcing through the steel, leather and blood to find those sweet scents once again. I don't have to guess who or where because I know she's somewhere to my left. I'm too afraid to find her with my cold hands.

A new kind of fatigue takes over my mind from the exertion of merely lifting my arm.

"I know you're awake."

Her voice scares me and for a minute I'm unable to respond. There's some small shuffling sounds before a cold hand finds my left arm in the darkness and fingertips brush over my skin, almost like she's afraid. When I finally do speak my voice is hoarse and my throat, dry.

"I'm glad you're okay." She laughs bitterly, the scowl clearly registering in her voice.

"You just wait till morning, Fair."

For a brief moment, Lightning and I lay in silence and after some hesitation, she finds my hand with hers. I close my eyes again, giving up on seeing through this darkness.

Suddenly I realized that I'm not in any pain.

"Do you know how long we've been out?" I ask quietly, making a list of questions and starting with the easiest ones. Lightning answers them without hesitation, but as she speaks her hand slips away from mine. Our moment of pleasant company over.

After I passed out Lightning, Cissnea and I were rushed back to Midgar for medical attention. Cissnea had lost so much blood that she went into hypovolemic shock as soon as we entered the building and was taken to another room for aggressive treatment. Lightning tells me that due to the high mako concentration in Modeoheim, the native fiends are unnaturally stronger than normal fiends. The fiend in the reactor wasn't a serial like I had thought, but a hybrid bred from a native fiend in that area and a specially selected serial.

There's no new information on Snow's whereabouts or if he's still alive, but after the data gathered in Modeoheim they've confirmed that whatever killed all those people in the town was not the fiend we faced.

She says that my wounds were minimal at best and were easily treated upon arrival. I have, however, been asleep for four days.

"And what about you?" I ask after a few more minutes of silence. I hear some shuffling and a sigh.

"Well, there won't be any collateral damage if that's what you mean."

"No, I mean how are you now?"

"I'm fine."

I'm used to Lightning's coldness. It's just a part of who she is -a shield she carries to defend herself- but the way she sounded, as if she was choking on her own words, made me think twice about letting it go.

"I'm tired. You should sleep too."

I say okay and turn my back to her, knowing full well she can't see me. But I can't sleep. Not after hearing all of that and especially not after learning I've already been out for four days. I thought of Snow, wondering if he's breathed his last breath in the time it took for me to recover from a random fiend attack. Whatever killed all those men is still out there and I may never find my best friend.

The idea of leaving this room passes through my mind once or twice but the task of navigating through this advanced darkness turns me away from it and I continue to lay in my bed, cradled into some sort of fetal position. I wished Lightning would touch me again. I longed for her body pressed against mine. She isn't telling me everything I need to know, I know that, but it's obviously for my own protection. Or hers.

Eventually the morning does come. Eventually the lights come on, the nurses file in and I am laying on my back, staring up at a familiar, endless expanse of white.

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To be continued in the next chapter..