Title: Mu and Tango Crossover Part Four; or rather, It's about time to fly away
Story: Starstruck series / The World Traveler series
Author's Note: And so begins the 4th part in the Mu and Tango crossover series. This one might be on the sad side, though. I had an epiphany the other day while listening to some music, especially the song It's About Time by Barcelona. Mu recommended it to me a while back, and I absolutely love it. So what does it have to do with this part? Well, the song talks about three people: a man, a woman and the narrator. Obviously for this drabble, Lightning is the woman, and the man is Undead!Balthier. As for the narrator...Well, I was random and decided Lightning's Balthier needed to have a part in this. :)

They didn't understand her.

Lightning sat staring at the people she called her friends—her family. Sazh was busy lecturing Hope and Dajh about the dangers of wandering off alone, while Serah happily looked on as Snow boasted about his most recent ventures through Pulse. There were three missing from their group, however. Fang and Vanille were still crystallized with Cocoon, even though Lightning had already seen them pass on a few years before. As for their third lost comrade...Well, she hardly expected Balthier to be standing in the doorway, acting as if he'd only been gone a few days.

But it had been a year since Lightning last saw him. No, not her sky pirate. The undead one, the one she had slowly missed over time. He must have been off flying through worlds, terrorizing the cruel and charming the weak. Lightning smirked slightly; she had been weak when they first met, so it was no surprise when she fell under his spell. But after seeing how dedicated he was to Fran...Her heart returned to its rightful place.

Though she was surrounded by people who loved her (even though she was years older than them), something was missing. Things had changed in the one year she spent in Gran Pulse, and things would continue to change until the plague arrived. It was undeniable that most of the events caused by Ultima would still take place, even though Serah remained as lively and cheerful as ever. And if the plague came to Pulse again, no one would survive.

Lightning knew she wouldn't be able to handle watching all of them die again. Sometimes she wished she had taken up on Balthier's offer when they met in Ivalice. He had told her she would make a fine sky pirate, hadn't he? Just imagine - she could have been soaring the skies of Ivalice with him and Fran. She could have been free.

"Hey, sis, I forgot to tell you," Snow said all of the sudden, pulling Lightning from her thoughts. "Just the other day, when I was searching the clearing in the forest, I found this!" He pulled out a glowing orange stone from his coat pocket, grinning ear-to-ear. "It's a Teleport Stone, from Ivalice! Betcha can think of who left it here, right?" He didn't wait for her to answer; he was too excited. "Balthier! I saw him disappearing in a green light, back in that clearing. This Stone was sitting right where he was, too."

Her eyes were glued to the stone like it was entrancing her. "A Teleport Stone, huh? I highly doubt he left it here for me, Snow. Ever think it's meant for you?"

"Nah, I don't think he liked me very much, all 'cause I kept thinking he was...you know..." Snow frowned, slouching in his seat. "The other Balthier. Our Balthier."

Lightning took the Teleport stone from him, eying it cautiously. "So what if he left it? It's not like any of us plan on getting lost in another world like he always does. I wouldn't fit in well in Underland, I think. I'm too pale and dead. And cutting off heads isn't my kind of thing."

"Underland?" Hope asked, eyebrows raised.

"Don't ask—it's a long story..."

Silence covered them like a warm blanket, until Snow spoke up again. "I think you should go visit him," he said. "I mean, he probably misses you or something. Why else would he stop by and leave a Teleport Stone?"

"To tell me that I should go back to my time?"

"No, not that," Serah interrupted. "What Snow is trying to say is that Balthier must have known you would someday change your mind. Don't pretend I haven't noticed that look you get whenever we mention him and Ragnarok, Claire. Ever since that day, you've been moping and sulking about losing them both."

Lightning sighed. "They're not the only ones I've lost," she muttered under her breath. She had yet to mention Mustadio to them, but that was only because she didn't know how they'd react. Revealing the truth that she, long ago, allowed her Balthier to have countless affairs wouldn't send Snow into a fit of rage. Back in her world, he would always get mad whenever Balthier returned from a drunken night in Balfonheim, scarcely able to recollect that night's events.

"All this talk of two Balthiers is making my head hurt," Sazh grumbled with a scowl. "Which one are you talking 'bout now?"

"I think the skeleton one," Hope murmured. "You know, the one who committed suicide right in front of you, Snow and Light?"

"I thought both of 'em have committed suicide in front of us..."

"No, the non-undead Balthier just died on his own; it wasn't suicide, I think. And he came back afterward."

"Doesn't that make him undead, too? I mean, how many times has he died?"

Lightning slammed her hand on the table, the snap echoing throughout the kitchen. "It doesn't matter!" she spat furiously. "I'm not going anywhere, and this time," she made a point of glaring at Sazh and Hope, "you're not forcing me! All right?"

It was Snow who retaliated first, but not in the way she expected. "You're being selfish, sis!" he snarled. "Just because you've given up any chances of happiness, doesn't mean you have to take it away from others."

Again, her thoughts drifted to Mustadio. He had been happy with her, but she left out of grief and fear of losing him.

"Even if he's not the Balthier we know, you and him have got a lot in common," Snow continued, somewhat bothered by his own words. His eyebrows were knit tightly, and he frustratingly turned his gaze toward the window overlooking Cocoon's crystallized majesty. "Maybe he just wants a truly immortal companion, somebody he can relate to. And by staying here, moping about being an Eternal, you're not making his life any better."

"You don't even know him," Lightning said quietly, "so how can you pretend you understand? He's not our Balthier. Remember?" She rolled her eyes, getting up and storming toward the door. However, Serah's voice stopped her from going further.

"I saw how you looked at him, Claire. You care about him, more than you want to admit."

Lightning clenched her fists, biting her lower lip as she tried to figure out how to explain herself. At last, she couldn't find the means to say anything but, "Fine, then. I'm going. But don't expect me to come back."

And so she fled. She hid in the forest a few days, occasionally sitting in the tall trees and staring at Cocoon. She almost wished Fang and Vanille would talk to her; maybe they would have understood how she felt. They weren't alive anymore, technically, but they must have known what it was like to miss someone so much. If he wasn't stuck in another time, Ragnarok would have been more than happy to talk with her, too.

One night, she decided to use the last bit of energy in the teleportation device Besrudio made to send Balthier a warning. After all, isn't that what he said to do if she wanted to visit him? Smiling gently, she tied a rose to the device and pressed the button, throwing it into the sky and watching it vanish before her eyes.

She waited a day before leaving. However, she couldn't stand it anymore. For over a thousand years, she had been searching for a way to end her own life. She tried using countless white magick spells on herself, but those served to just knock her out for a few hours. She even attempted to lock herself away, but her rampaging mind forced her to end her isolation.

There had to be a way to escape. Feolthanos, long ago, had told her that only Eternal beings could kill their own kind, but she was now the last. No one could kill her no matter how hard they tried. They needed to be immortal, like her, to bring her what she wanted.

Immortal? The Teleport stone grew warm in her grasp. Lightning jumped down from the branch and set the stone down on a rock, and drawing her gunblade, she took a step back. Shutting her eyes as tight as she could, Lightning swung her blade into the stone, and soon a bright green light engulfed her.

Whatever city Lightning had landed herself in wasn't exactly the place she was hoping to be. The bright sun shining above Ivalice temporarily warmed her chilled body, but it was the sight of all the filthy, barbaric humes and other humanoids trudging around the place that worried her. Some eyed her like she was a piece of meat waiting to be torn apart, while others avoided her completely. She looked down at her clothes; her old Guardian Corps uniform must have been both odd and intriguing to them.

Night came sooner than she wanted, however. Not only was she lost, but she had no idea whatsoever as to where Balthier was. Ivalice was different than she remembered, even from when she and Mustadio visited a few years before. The city itself appeared to be tainted with blood of the poor, from what she could smell. A young blond girl, nearly five years old, informed her that Old Archades had been the site of many peculiar events, though lately things had been quite laid back. Lightning thanked her and told her to go back to her family, and continued on her way through the city.

"Old Archades, huh?" she murmured as she watched the little girl scamper away. "This, in the other world, was where Ragnarok ran rampant years ago. I guess it's the site of a bloodbath here, too."

Unfortunately, when she walked right into a dark and foul smelling alleyway, she discovered why the city felt like death. A man with missing teeth and a lingering scent of sweat cornered her, holding a rusted dagger centimeters away from her neck. He had too much hair on his body, and she didn't doubt that he had been one of the humes following her throughout the day, more than interesting in her appearance.

"Listen here, girl," he said in a rough voice. "I don't like the way you been walkin' around here, actin' like you own the place."

Lightning scoffed. "How about you go crawl back into the sewers you came from?"

He leered at her, but whatever attempts he was making at being threatening were inaffective. "I don't like your tone, either. You got a feisty attitude, girl. Attitudes like that are bound to get you killed..." He grinned toothily. "Or worse."

Before he even had the chance to advance on her, a bullet whizzed through his chest and penetrated the brick wall inches away from Lightning's shoulder. The odoriferous man collapsed at her feet, blood seeping from the hole in his heart. Lightning shuddered, stepping over his inert body and looking toward the roof.

"You're late," she said. A sudden smile slipped across her lips when Balthier stepped into view, his skeletal form a frighteningly stunning sight in the moonlight. She spotted the rose she sent him attached to his matted belt, hanging like a limp hand. It, like him, had lost its life and wilted, becoming a mere shell of what it once was. He shrugged, wiping oil from his gun's barrel.

"At least give an old man some sympathy. You should have told me you'd pick this place to hold a rendezvous."

Lightning stifled a laugh as he jumped down from the roof, landing on all fours in front of her. He shifted back into his hume-like appearance with a squelching sound, and rested the fomalhaut on his shoulder, smirking widely.

"If you're an old man," she said, "then what does that make me? The dust that blinds fierce-some Oretoises?"

His smirk faltered and his shoulders slumped. "Still upset about that, are you? I'd thought seeing your precious beastie would have cleared the tension between us," he slowly answered. "Snow's all better, is he?"

"More or less, yeah. He's actually the one who forced me out of my home to come here." She sighed, running a gloved hand through her hair. "Apparently my brooding was offending them...Why'd you leave a Teleport Stone for me, anyway?

"Teleport Stone?" Balthier scratched his neck, his various earrings trinkling against each other like chimes. His said with a small laugh, "Light, I haven't been to Gran Pulse since Ragnarok named me his delivery man of all variants of roses."

"Snow said he saw you, though. And trust me; when he think he's seen a Balthier, he's right."

"I have a distinct species now, apparently," he drawled, nudging the dead body with his toe. She disturbingly noted how casual this situation seemed to be for him. "Tell Serah she needs to cure the oaf's obsession and impeccable fondness for me—er, the other me."

"I'm not going back there, Balthier."

This notion appeared to have surprised him; his eyes widened very slightly when he met her gaze, but he understood. While she bent down to examine his handy work, pocketing whatever gold or valuables the dead man had, Balthier's attention seemed to drift elsewhere. He was staring at her almost hungrily, but when she stood back up, he stared off into the distance. At last, he broke free of his momentary haze and shook his head, sighing heavily.

"It's quite hard to distinguish my thoughts from your words, you know," he mumbled through tight lips. Lightning stared at him, both concerned and disturbed. Who was he talking to? "Yet I suppose I should be pleased that you're not trying to rip my soul from my body like those other ghosts once did."

"Balthier—?" Lightning waved a hand in front of his glazed eyes. "You really are mad, aren't you..."

He closed his eyes as if to banish whatever had been contacting him. "At times, I'm nearly as mad as the Hatter."

"All because you chose to be cursed. I didn't."

Balthier grinned, almost, when he opened his eyes and looked at her. "Your brooding is almost making me wish you would leave." Again, his silver-speckled eyes drifted to the side. "Oh, have it your way, then. I won't force her to leave. I wasn't planning to, anyway. Does that sit well with you?"

"I think we should find Fran," Lightning said, and the mere mention of the viera made him perk up. "Does she know I'm here?"

"Of course she does. She knew you couldn't resist the thrilling life of a pirate much longer."

"Killing brute men in alleyways doesn't sound very appealing to me..."

He shrugged. "Those were my exact thoughts, long ago. Alas, everything has changed."

The Strahl was drifting dreamily over the cliffs of the Tchita Uplands, partially invisible in the darkened night sky. Lightning climbed on board behind Balthier, a longing smile pinching her lips when she looked around the familiar scene. She could vaguely remember Mustadio excitably examining every inch of the ship, pestering Balthier with questions he didn't want to answer. Her smile faded, and she followed the sky pirate into the cockpit.

Fran, her long cream-colored hair flowing behind her, was sitting in the co-pilot's seat. One of her tall ears flicked in their direction, and then she turned around to greet Lightning. Unfortunately, it seemed like she was bitter toward the Eternal; Fran's crimson eyes narrowed for a moment before looking to her partner.

"You brought her with you?"

"I wasn't about to leave her standing helpless in this mad world alone," Balthier answered, looking partly guilty. "And I did propose she try sky pirating with us back when we met the first time..."

Lightning tried her best to smile at the viera, but the skeptical look she was receiving halted all attempts. Fran turned away, tilting her nose upward in a stubborn manner.

"We make for the Necrohol of Rabanastre, then."

When Balthier joined Fran at the helm, Lightning took the time to explore the ship. The cargo hold was filled with treasures from all around Ivalice, and she thought to have caught a glimpse of auracite tucked away in a leather bag. She made her way to the back of the ship through the narrow hallway, and eventually stumbled upon the room that was, in her time, Balthier's room.

Leaning against the wall as the Zodiac Spear, though it had been knocked aside as if it was just another object taking up space. Lightning skimmed through the number of books on a shelf, occasionally finding a subject she understood. Much to her surprise, she found a book entitled Fabula Nova Crystallis that included the mythology of her world. She quickly looked for anything she could find on Etro and her Eternal soldiers, but much to her disappointment, there was nothing.

When she returned to the cockpit, Balthier brushed past her, looking extremely angry and upset over something. Lightning touched his arm, and he appeared to be calmed by her warm touch.

"Did you and Fran argue?" she asked.

Balthier had to think for a moment before answering. "She believes you've an ulterior motive for coming here, something other than wanting to see me."

"I'm not sure I understand; you're the one who invited me."

"So claimed the oaf who nearly got himself stomped to pieces in hopes of being rescued..."

"It couldn't have been anyone else. The other you wouldn't come back like that. He would have said something."

He winked at her as he walked past. "Oh, I'm sure he's done just that."

After a number of side-trips (a few bounty hunters had been inkling to get their hands on Balthier, but all were easily dispatched by Lightning's gunblade), they reached Rabanastre—or rather, all that was left. The city was covered with moss and Mist, half buried in the grimy sand and debris. Lightning was almost hesitant in going onward, fiddling with her auracite necklace.

"There's not much left, these days," Balthier said when he stood beside her. "But I suppose that's to be expected when you're a few centuries old."

"I avoided coming here," Lightning told him quietly, "even after the fall of the Royal family. It started when Rozarria moved against Archadia, and that was when...when Snow went to battle and was killed. Things were never the same after that. Ivalice changed, and so did I."

Something briefly distracted Balthier, and he muttered something on the lines of "stop your worrying" under his breath. When he collected himself, he looked to Lightning with an almost sympathetic expression. "I can't see you being any divergent than you are now. Not unless you had less of a liking in taking pleasure beating men to a pulp."

She managed to fake a laugh, but she was sure that he wasn't convinced. "Only when provoked."

As they ventured deeper into the Necrohol, the Mist grew thicker and thicker. Fran made a point of keeping a hand on Balthier's shoulder, no doubt making sure he didn't run off or get dragged away by a lovesick god. Lightning walked ahead of them, her curiosity getting the best of her with thoughts of seeing glimpses and hints of how things could have gone in the Ivalice she knew. Nothing seemed any different, though.

She must have wandered away from the sky pirates, because sometime after walking into the old throne room, Balthier and Fran were nowhere to be seen. Lightning sighed regretfully, slumping down into one of the tall chairs and crossing her legs. She waited and waited, getting more impatient as time trudged on. With her luck, the other two might have gotten whisked away to another world on accident. However, when she was about to get up, Balthier came across her annoyed form.

"Do you have a habit or disappearing," he said, "or have I gotten blind over the years?"

"Both," Lightning said tightly. "Where's Fran?"

"The Mist was proving to be a bit much for her, so she's on her way to the Strahl. We should be returning as well, lest we want the ghosts to haunt our damned souls again."

She pursed her lips, standing up from the throne. "All the ghosts that used to haunt me are long gone. My old allies tried to coax me into avoiding the gods at all costs, fearing I'd become their pawn. Everyone was there, except...him." She touched her auracite necklace gingerly. "He had already moved on by then, waiting for me to join him. I wouldn't be too surprised if he's given up on me."

"He hasn't," Balthier urgently said. Lightning gave him a quizzical look. "Your man may have found...other ways to see you and other people to haunt."

"Pardon?"

"Never you mind; just a slip of the tongue, that's all." Balthier made to leave, feigning tiredness by yawning. "Come, Fran must be impatient by now, and I'd rather not suffer the dire consequences of leaving her alone for a long period of time again."

He was halfway across the room when she spoke up. "Balthier, wait." When he turned around, clearly confused and only slightly concerned, she took a few steps forward. "I know you have the general idea of how it feels to live forever, but...After leaving Mustadio and going back to Pulse, only to be forced away by my friends, I've come to realize that there's nothing left for me. There's no reason for me to continue living this life I never even wanted."

Balthier, though wary, was still silent. And so she pressed further.

"I've tried for many years to kill myself, but all attempts were failures. It's only now that I've discovered my escape..." She bit her lip. "And I need you to do me a favor."

"And that, being...?"

"Eternal can only be killed by their own kind. When I killed Feolthanos years ago, I lost my one chance at death. But then I met you." She moved close to him, placing her hand directly over the medallion in his chest. He visibly flinched. "Just one thing, that's all I ask. Kill me."

"No," he said instantly. "Light, I can't—"

"I can't live with myself anymore! Please, just do this for me...You're the only one who can save me."

"Light, I am not who you think I am, nor am I like you. This curse," he gestured toward the medallion, "was by my own will; not the gods'."

She looked down at the medallion barely protruding from beneath his blouse. Slowly, she moved her hands across it, almost caressing it tenderly. "No, you have to be like me..."

Balthier's eyes darted from her face to her hands, suddenly fearful of something she couldn't comprehend. When she tried to say something, his face contorted into a vicious snarl and his hands found their way around her pale neck. Out of instinct Lightning hastily drew away, avoiding his silver gaze and moving against the wall. Balthier was too fast for her—he seized her by the shoulders and forced her to the floor, tightening his grip as he bent down to bite at her neck.

Suddenly terrified, Lightning struggled beneath him and reached upward hopelessly, grabbing a lock of his hair and pulling his head back. She slammed her knee into his chest, knocking the wind out of him, and quickly unsheathed her gunblade. Barely crying out, she thrust the blade into his stomach and pushed him against the wall, grimacing when the black, sticky blood oozed onto her hands.

But that didn't stop him—no, he had lost control of himself for whatever reason. So easily did he pull the gunblade out, and so carelessly did he toss it aside. Lightning had no time to run away to warn Fran, and Balthier had pinned her against the wall before she could say "stop".

"Balthier—" she choked out, his hand clenched around her neck again. "Balthier, please..."

A sharp pain twisted her shoulder when he bit her, tearing the neck of her shirt and the skin of her shoulder clear off her body. Her blood was red, so very red and unlike his own. Lightning desperately pleaded to him again, trying to pull him out of whatever Mist and Madness-induced rage he was in. But he couldn't hear her, for his darker side had claimed him.

She should have been dead by then; her blood was seeping down her arm, chest and through her uniform. Regretfully, she jabbed her elbow against his eye socket and collapsed to the floor, groping the floor for her gunblade. This wasn't what she wanted! She didn't want him to become a monster, never like this! Balthier lunged for her again, but something stopped him in his place.

He was glaring at the empty space between him and Lightning as if someone was there. Lightning, as she tugged at the front of her shirt to cover the scarred bullet wound on her chest, could faintly make out a figure standing over her and protecting her. In fact, she could have sworn it was him. But, no, that wasn't possible...Was it?

An arrow whizzed past Balthier's nose, and Fran gracefully and quickly wrapped her arms around her partner's torso, murmuring to him in vieran. "Peace, my partner," she purred. "She means no harm."

Balthier snarled at her, so inhuman and beastly. His silver eyes flickered between Lightning and the empty space, and slowly he calmed down. However, when Lightning stood and moved close to him, he snapped at her, sharp teeth gleaming with the Mist.

"Go," he rasped, struggling against Fran's hold of him. "Get out of my sight!"

"Balthier, I'm sorr—" she started to say, but he growled once again.

"Stay away from me!"

Lightning choked out a sob, grabbing her gunblade and fleeing from the throne room. The faint figure was guiding her out, a warm hand pulling at her own and soothing her. When she reached the blazing sun's light, the figure faded away and left her alone. But she still ran, and didn't stop running until the echoes of Balthier's cruel voice no longer existed in her ears.

The Gladados Ruins welcomed her like a lost child, pulling her in and holding her close in a comforting embrace. She wandered the halls almost mindlessly, empty eyes searching for the one place she belonged. At last, she stumbled upon the altar where the auracite of Feolthanos once lay. Lightning stroked the stone almost lovingly, and she sat down on the floor, leaning against it and closing her eyes.

All she could do was wait.