AN - BACK!
Within the hour Balthier had gathered every last citizen of their shipping container village back to the claimed hotel, ready and prepared to fight. There was minor squabbling between the now former-homeless denizens over who got what rooms, but it was handled swiftly by their leader, who had minimal patience for the arguments.
Penelo had made herself comfortable in the kitchen, while Aranea began cleaning up what she had dubbed her bar. Suddenly the hotel became a community, and over the next few days they would devise rosters for guard rotations, cleaning and cooking duties, using the vast food stores to make all sorts of hot meals for everyone. Cindy moved her shop to the underground car park, and everyone worked around the clock to turn the hotel into a veritable fortress.
When the Triads tried to take back their hotel they were met with a wall of gunfire that had them retreating in defeat for the time being. Finally, Ragnarok had a foothold that would stick. In Eden they were one group fighting against the Fal'cie. But here they needed more when they were low on resources. With Fran and the Viera on board, along with Balthier and his returning Monoculus group, perhaps they stood a change about ridding Yusnaan of the Triads once and for all.
Lightning watched the busy lobby from her spot, leant against the railings. This was a very large target for them to be sitting still. A flash of memory tore through her mind, back at the tower in Eden, where the entire building was rigged to blow as both an exit strategy to destroy evidence, along with a "fuck you" to Ragnarok. She wondered if they had done the same here, texting Vanille to get a hold of some bomb detection equipment.
"You alright, Lightning?" Fang called out from behind her, slipping in and wrapping arms around her waist. Perching her head on the pinkette's shoulder, she paused to kiss her gently on the neck.
Leaning back into the comfort Fang was offering, she sighed and gestured out to the lobby before interlacing her fingers with the Pulsian's. "We had the merch store, and the Triads blew it up with a drive by rocket launcher. What's to say they wont do the same here? This is a big target to hit, Fang."
"Except this time, we're ready for it. We're ready for them."
Lightning turned and pushed her back gently, holding Fang's hands and tracing her thumbs over the tattoos. "This isn't like Eden, where we were literally hiding in an old refurbished war bunker, picking off the players in the Fal'cie one by one. We're visible. Accessible. And now we're dragging other people into what's likely to escalate into an all out war."
Fang frowned, keeping her temper to a minimum but feeling frustrated all the same. "This was your idea, Light. You were the one that wanted to stick around and fight. We have next to no resources in this city to fight the Triads, even with what Vanille was able to smuggle into the city. We need more."
"I may be able to help with that, darlings."
Aranea walked over and immediately noted the tense environment between the two. She placed her hand against her chest and fluttered her eyelashes in a deliberately exaggerated fashion. "So serious here, ladies. Lightning, you're not holding a gun to any of our heads to be here, sweetheart. We're here because we choose to be. We're here because we want to be. Besides, I've got a gift for you both. Follow me."
She sauntered off down the stairs, Fang giving Lightning a lazy shrug and following. "So what gives, Aranea? You find a few rocket launchers for us to play with?"
"I'll go you one better. What was the thing that gave you guys an edge when going up against the Fal'cie back in Eden?"
Lightning tilted her head, unsure of the silver-haired women's angle. "Resources, tactical plans and an unwillingness to give up?"
Aranea smiled and leant in close, flicking her on the nose. "Nice try with the noble crap, Farron. But I was more thinking that the edge you were given was because little miss lieutenant here was feeding you information given to her from Psicom to prove her worth to you." She drawled, ignoring the glare she got from both of them. "Come on, don't give me those pouty faces. Vanille filled me in over drinks the other night. Sounds like without the intel you never would have gotten as far as you had."
Fang narrowed her eyes and jabbed Aranea in the chest. "Whaddya mean you had drinks the other night..."
Aranea rolled her eyes and slapped Fang on the arm. "Don't read into it, you overprotective idiot. Now play it cool, alright? These boys already look ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. Don't give them a reason to."
"What are you..." She trailed off as she saw two men standing by the lobby fountain, one about the same height as her, the other no taller than Lightning. The wolf badge that the taller one wore was either a note of rank or an unsubtle warning.
"Ladies, the Calvary has arrived. The tall drink of handsome is Lieutenant Cloud Strife and his partner who is the royal pain in my ass, Lieutenant Noctis Caelum."
"Hey!" the dark-haired officer protested at his introduction, Cloud ignoring him and immediately walking over to the pinkette, holding out his hand in offering.
"Lieutenant Claire Farron, it's nice to finally put a face to the name."
"Likewise, but it's just Lightning these days." She replied with a warm smile, taking his hand and shaking it firmly. "I hope the files sent down your way assisted in that case a while back."
The blonde man sighed and fell into step with the others as Aranea led them through to the bar. She called a server over for drinks and he watched the waiter leave before continuing. "For all the good it did. The perp walked because that's just what happens in Yusnaan."
Fang raised an eyebrow at the two and Lightning gave her a gentle pat on the hand. "When we were looking for information on the Triads I sent some evidence I'd found linking a CEO to the Triads operating out of Yusnaan in exchange for them sending along to Vanille any intel related to them moving on Eden."
"Huh, so you can take the girl out of the precinct..."
"Fang..." Lightning warned, digging her nails into the brunette's palm.
Aranea sighed at their antics and turned back to the two police officers. "So, to put it simply, we need someone on the inside track- Vanille has no eyes on the ground here, so we're sitting ducks until we can get Psicom access to the city."
Noctis gave a displeased twist of his features and idly stared at his phone. "Psicom doesn't exactly have a good rep with us in the past because of the Fal'Cie, and we're no better with the Triads bleeding through every level of government and law enforcement here."
"What if we could change it, sweetheart?" Aranea purred, sliding over drinks to the officers in casual wear. "These girls are practically sent by Etro herself and are here to tell the Triads to fuck themselves. What's say we have a little party and ruin their day?"
The two police Lieutenants gave uneasy glances to each other before Cloud shrugged and took a drink. "I've worked with the former Lieutenant Farron indirectly in the past, and I appreciate what she has done then, and what you're all trying to do now. But you're asking us to break the law."
Lightning nodded in agreement, and took a sip of her own drink. "We understand the stakes, and I understand more than most." She answered, pausing to subtly take Fang's hand underneath the table. "But doing things the right way doesn't work here. When you're working for the enemy, unwillingly working for the people that you're trying to stop destroying your city, doing things the right way is what allows them to continue making the city a worse place."
"She has a point, Cloud." Noctis muttered into his beer, the foam of the top sputtering across his glass at his words. His partner glared at him, while Lightning leant back and pulled her jacket off, revealing the savage scars on her shoulder.
"I tried to do the right thing, play it by the books; and it nearly got people killed, got people hurt, and me tortured in a dark cell by one of the highest ranked and completely corrupt commanders in Psicom. So tell me Cloud, Noctis, how is this whole going about things the right way been working for you?"
Lightning felt Fang's hand tighten suddenly in her own, and she tried to soothe the tension by leaning against her a little closer. She knew that Fang carried about as much guilt as she still did about that night, and any reminders caused the Pulsian's mood to drop.
Sagging his shoulders, Cloud groaned and buried his head in his hands. "How the hell do I let you talk me into this, Aranea?" He complained, while the silver-haired woman slapped him on the back hard.
"Because you're a sucker for a pretty girl. Now let's figure out how we're getting Vanille some eyes on this cesspool of a city."
They all clinked their various glasses and bottles together and settled in to plan their next move.
"This plan is ridiculous."
"You're ridiculous." Fang retorted, eyeballing her partner looking dour in the janitor's garb. Her mildly childish behaviour was in contrast to the seriousness of their situation. Dressed in the grey overalls, the two women slowly moved from room to room, emptying trash and placing small devices on the back of the computers as they placed the empty bins back.
"We couldn't risk Cloud or Noctis being caught snooping around. It's too obvious." Aranea's voice crackled through their communicators.
"We're too obvious!" Lightning hissed, hiding her pale hair beneath a baseball cap. "We're two wanted people whose faces are likely all over every Triads communication!"
"Then at least it'll make it easy for you. If any of them react, those are the ones you shoot."
"In a police precinct?"
"Guys, cool it, for fuck's sake." Fang warned, rolling her eyes, smiling warmly at a detective watching her. She slowly placed the bin down and walked out of the office, not able to put a key logger on that computer while being so clearly observed. "Pick up the pace, Light. I wanna be back in time for dinner."
Lightning sighed, placing a few more wire taps and bugs around the offices and hallways she was entering, keeping an eye on the cameras in the room. She exited quickly, barrelling into an officer and sending her flying.
"OH jeez, sorry miss. I…" He trailed off as he spied her hair, immediately reaching for his weapon. "You! You're one of those Eden scum!"
"Shit."
Kicking her leg upwards, she struck the officer in the groin and leapt to her feet, swinging her fist around and connecting with his skull. He dropped, out cold and Lightning glanced around, cursing at the blinking red light on the security camera that had just captured the entire confrontation.
"We are going to have to wrap this up, I've been made and it's only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. Get out of here."
"Fuck. Where are you?" Fang replied, her voice dipping lower in concern.
"East wing, seventh floor. Over the other side. Get out, meet back at the hotel."
"Light…"
"Go. I'll be fine. Vanille, if you're going to break into the network and do your thing, do it now before they find the wires and bugs and shut it down."
"On it." The redhead replied, "We'll come get you."
A gun shot rang out, spraying plaster from hitting the wall beside Lightning's head. "No time. Just focus on the task." She snapped, drawing her own weapon from her jumpsuit. Firing a few quick rounds, she sent the officer scrambling for cover, giving her the opportunity to run.
Alarms began to blare across the station, mobilising all the officers to action following the sounds of shots being fired. Lightning ran through the hallways, no longer caring about subtlety. She received a few confused glances from a few officers, but many more were already advancing towards her with dangerous intent. She gave a pointed stare at Cloud and Noctis as she passed them, hoping they'd at least give her a five second head start before blending in with the other pursuing officers.
Lightning sprinted into an office and barricaded the door with a filing cabinet, moving to the window and reefing it open. Seven floors up was certainly a long way down, but she was too far from the stairs to get to them. "Time to put those rock climbing weekends in Oerba to good use…" She muttered to herself, thankful that being put through her paces in the rough lands of Pulse was Fang's idea of a wild weekend away.
Pulling herself up onto the ledge, she found she could shimmy across the building, taking extreme care with her footing. If she could make her way around to the fire escape stairs, then hopefully it would make her escape quicker. She timed her shifts across the windows, making sure that she wasn't going to be in view of the officers inside searching for her.
Her luck ran out when she moved across the window of a dark office, only to find a red laser suddenly target her from inside. Lightning leapt to the side as the window blew out. She lost her footing and slipped off the side of the building, managing to twist around and grab at the ledge on the level below. The impact jarred her shoulder and she grimaced, holding on by sheer will alone.
"Why can't just one thing go right? Just once. That's all I ask." She ground out, hoisting herself back up to the ledge a level beneath where she'd started. Moving quickly along the side, Lightning got to the corner and sighed. The fire stairs were just out of reach. "One. Thing. Seriously."
More gunfire rang out, officers having figured out where she was and trying to climb out onto the ledge to get to her. Lightning sighed and made a leap for the railing, catching her foot on the edge of the metal and hitting the steel fire escape. The impact knocked the wind out of her and she groaned from the pain. Lightning curled into a ball to make herself the smallest target possible as a few officers hung off the side trying to shoot her.
Crawling her way to the stairs, she limped down as quickly as she could, her heart hammering in her chest and the adrenaline making her dizzy. Lightning stumbled down the last flight of metal stairs, landing hard with a roll on the pavement below. The sound of screeching tyres and gunshots filled her hearing, and she ran down the alley, trying to get clear. A car pulled up at the end of the alley on her approach and the passenger door slammed open.
"Claire! Get in!"
Lightning barely had time to process before another lot of shots rang out and she leapt into the seat. The car sped away with a squeal of rubber, escaping the scene and heading back in the direction of the downtown hotel.
"You... I'm not hallucinating am I?" Lightning said quietly, staring straight ahead but keeping her sister in her peripherals.
"No. You're not. I'm here." Serah replied, the air tense. They drove in silence for a time, before Lightning finally decided to speak up.
"So why now, after all this time? It's been... months. Almost a year."
Serah's eyes darted from the road in front quickly, the guilt obvious. "Vanille, actually. She uh... Talked to me before she came out here. Told me what had happened to you and Fang."
"I'm sure you don't approve of the situation.." Lightning muttered, folding her arms and staring out the side window. She was startled by the sound of Serah angrily hitting the steering wheel.
"Of course I don't approve!" The younger Farron snapped, gripping the wheel until her knuckles turned white. "Of course I don't approve of getting that initial phone call from Vanille, the one I've been dreading since you chose to stay with Fang. The one that proved me right. They didn't know where you both were, and feared the worst."
"So why are you here then?"
Serah didn't respond at first, focusing on the road and ignoring the tear that slipped down her cheek. "... Because... The fear of losing you when our last words to each other were in anger, was worse than the fear of you staying in a gang." She replied with a shaking voice. Managing to maintain her composure, though it wavered when Lightning reached out to hold her hand. "When...Vanille called me to tell me she was headed down here to give you two support I... I realised that you were right too. This was your insane way of protecting Eden from the other side, and that this scenario would have happened regardless of which side of the line you chose to stand on."
"I'm... I never meant for any of this to happen. It was all... All supposed to just be a few weeks as an undercover assignment in prison two years ago. Get some intel and get out. I wouldn't have for a million years expected all... This."
The younger Farron smiled slightly and looked down at the small scar on her sister's ring finger, symbolic of the Pulsian tradition of marriage. "Honestly, Claire. You make it all sound like such a chore. I've seen the way you look at Fang enough to know you wouldn't have it any other way." Serah pulled up near the hotel and waited while her got the guards on duty to let them through.
Lightning guided her towards the garage where they could park. "Not that I'm not appreciative for you bailing be out, but what now? Did you even plan that far ahead when it came to jetting over to a hostile city with no easy way out?" She sighed, getting out of the car. Serah followed suit and ran around to the other side, flinging herself at her sister.
"No, I didn't. I was too worried about you to think of anything else. Claire I can't lose you." Serah said firmly, her voice breaking as she gripped her sister tightly. "And I cant leave you alone again. So please don't ask me to.. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for walking away when I should have stuck by you no matter what."
While the words sounded sincere, Lightning couldn't entirely believe them. Not after that day in the caverns where the younger Farron had said she accepted her, only to walk when Lightning turned down the job offer at Psicom. Still, her resolve began to waver after nearly a year without Serah, and she slowly put her arms around her sister and returned the hug. "For what it's worth, it's good to see you again, though next time I think I'd prefer not being shot at." Lightning drawled, hearing her sister's laughter. As terrible as it felt, Lightning had to give Serah the benefit of the doubt for now, and perhaps just keep her expectations low. It'd make it hurt less when her sister inevitably backed out again.
The two walked from the garage, making their way to the lobby of the hotel in the elevator. Lightning turned to reward her sister and braced herself for the inevitable backlash. "There's a lot to catch you up on but for now, I will introduce you to a few of our new friends. We've housed the remnants of a homeless camp here. I'm not asking you to take up arms, but any help you could offer to keep this place running that keeps you out of the line of fire would be appreciated."
Serah nodded, knowing that the sooner Claire got things stabilized here from what Vanille had told her, the sooner they could all go home. The doors to the lobby opened and Fang spun around, looking half ready for trouble.
"Light! You're alr... Serah? What are you doing here?" She asked, bewildered at the little Farron's appearance. Lightning just moved forward and dragged Fang into a kiss in front of everyone, ignoring the whistles from the others around the lobby.
"I'll explain later. But right now I've had an ordeal and I nearly fell from the seventh floor of the damn precinct building tonight. I need food, I need medical attention, and then I need you."
"Oh. OH. Right. Hey Vanille? Your friend is here. Can you do the rounds while I go check out Lightning's injuries?" Fang called out, getting her sister's attention. The redhead raced over and hugged Serah tightly, before immediately launching into a lecture about how she was warned not to come to Yusnaan.
"They'll be fine for a while. Room service and the spa?" Lightning questioned, walking to the other elevator. Fang noticed the slight limp and caught up to her, draping one of her partner's arms over her shoulder. She smiled gently, tucking the pale hair behind Lightning's ear.
"So do I want to know exactly how you came to almost fall off a building?"
Lightning shrugged as the elevator doors opened and she stepped inside. "Probably not. The landing still hurt though. I think I need help working out all my kinks after tonight."
"After taking you to bed for nearly two years now, Light, I'd like to think I've got a pretty good handle on your kinks."
Fang was very fortunate that Lightning was both tired and injured, as the punch she received to the stomach from the cranky pinkette held no power to it.
"You're such an ass."
"Only for you, darlin'. Only for you."
