Well, I guess Friday is my new day to post. Or something. Maybe it's a coincidence.

I admit, I just finished writing this chapter, and I'm nothing short of Tired as Crap, so eh... Cut me some slack... X3 Or tell me if you think there's anything that just looks weird...

I'm so tired that I'm willingly listening to the song "Limit Break" from XIII-2. That's pretty bad, I should probably change it.

Anyway... Thanks everyone for the views-reviews-follows-favorites and everything! Especially Lotusbitch and Dissonantia13. Thank you all for keeping up! :3

Yup, things are getting interesting...


Day Eight: Suspicion

Lightning opened her eyes a sliver. The sun was streaming through the windows brightly, and she squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to wake up. She wondered briefly what time it was, and then, deciding not to care, she drifted into thoughts of last night.

"Are you awake?" a familiar voice said softly into her ear, interrupting her short fantasy.

"No," she answered.

He laughed curtly, and then murmured, "They'll suspect us if we aren't downstairs soon."

Lightning rolled over, a nonchalant smirk crossing her face. "You're right. But that doesn't mean we have to go anywhere."

"I wouldn't have expected you to say that."

"Well, I just said it, didn't I?" She reached out to brush her fingers over his hair. Then she let her hand drop; let it trail over his scarred collarbone. His eyes followed her hand but seemed to have a distant look in them. She guessed he was remembering the night before as well.

"I don't want to face anyone," she said, resting her head against his chest.

"Then you shouldn't draw attention to yourself."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Both of us would have usually been awake hours ago."

"True." Lightning pulled away from him. She slipped out of bed and went to the window. "I guess you're right… I'll go down in a few minutes."

He did the same, walked over and slipped his arms around her waist as they looked out at the skyline of Academia. "I suppose it wouldn't be wise to arrive at the same time."

"Definitely not." She laughed scornfully. "Wouldn't want my sister knowing we spent the night together, would we, Caius?"

Caius only smiled. Lightning sighed in resignation, leaning her head back against him.

"Maybe we shouldn't try keeping it a secret."

She turned and faced him, clasping his hands in hers. "We are nothing but a secret, Caius," she replied, glancing pointedly at him.

Slowly, he leaned down to her and she let his lips meet hers.

"I should go," she said when they'd broken apart. "I'll see you later."

"Right," Caius answered.

And with that, Lightning was gone.


For the first time in forever, Lightning sat at the table in the cafeteria with the others during breakfast. Caius hadn't bothered to show up, but for some reason that single fact relieved Lightning. She didn't really want to deal with both him and her old friends at the same time.

"Hey, Lightning…" A voice on her left side startled her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see that it was her sister, Serah, whom she realized she hadn't seen in days. "Can I talk to you when we're done here? Alone, I mean."

"Yeah. Sure." Lightning studied her sister's face for a moment. "Why?"

"I just… wanted to ask you something."

Serah's words were innocent enough, but her face betrayed all of her feelings. She was not only embarrassed, but nervous and possibly a little angry.

What did she do to get a look on her face like that?

"Okay. When we're done," Lightning promised. She glanced around the table and caught a glimpse of Snow. His eyes had fallen on Serah, who was staring intently at the table in front of her, and his expression was undoubtedly regretful. Then his gaze turned to Lightning, and when he saw that she was looking back at him, he glared at her.

Did something happen, Serah? Lightning wanted to ask. She knew now was not the time, and turned back to the plate on the table befor her.

Though Serah barely spoke during the entire breakfast, the others seemed like their normal selves, even speaking to Lightning when they had the chance. Maybe they hadn't heard about the duel. And she guessed they hadn't seen her disappear into Caius's apartment last night.

Lightning wasn't looking forward to the conversation with her sister.

After breakfast was over and everyone was chatting about irrelevant things in the cafeteria, distracted, Serah dragged Lightning into the nearest empty room and shut the door. She pursed her lips and looked down at her feet, looking as though she was mentally preparing herself for whatever she was about to say.

"Lightning," she finally managed. "I really have to talk to you…"

"Yeah, so what is it?" Lightning said, maybe a little too harshly. "What's going on?" she amended, softening her tone.

"I didn't see you at all yesterday," she began. "And I didn't see Caius at all yesterday, either. You weren't with him, were you? He wasn't…?"

"Bothering me? Oh Etro, Serah. No, that isn't it at all," Lightning said, trying to smile reassuringly. "I was so tired yesterday. I decided to stay in my apartment. I didn't have any intention of finding out where Caius was."

"Are you… sure?" her sister asked carefully, her blue eyes flitting back and forth, trying to decode Lightning's words and the expression on her face.

"I'm sure," Lightning answered. She dredged up another cover and threw it out. "This place is draining me of my energy. Getting down here this morning was hard enough."

"Oh, okay…" Serah said, but she still looked troubled.

Lightning looked at her. "What?" she prompted.

"Things… Things really aren't going well between Snow and me," Serah admitted. "At first it was just a little disagreement about our engagement necklaces, and, well…"

"Now there's Noel," Lightning guessed.

"Yes." Serah looked as though she might cry. "I don't know what to do. I didn't want to hurt Noel's feelings, but I ended up getting on Snow's bad side. And now… I can't bring myself to take it all back and break Noel's heart, even for Snow. I can't help it. I want to be with them both. It's all so wrong."

Even though the very idea of what her sister was suggesting made Lightning shiver, she took a deep breath. "Serah, it's okay to feel that way," she said softly. "We both know what it is. It's the time bubble. It's messing with everything we ever thought we knew."

"I know that," Serah murmured, tears brimming in her eyes. "I know."

Lightning ached at seeing her sister in pain this way, but at the same time, somewhere deep down she was grateful that Serah was too preoccupied with her problems to even try to focus on what was going on with her and Caius. There were too many ways that she could have found out, and Lightning didn't intend for any of those ways to work.

She stood by Serah for some time while Serah tried not to cry. Lightning told her it was okay, that it didn't matter, that things would resolve eventually. But in the back of her mind she thought that it could only get worse. This was a time bubble, not the real timeline, and with time never really progressing, there wouldn't be a happily-ever-after ending for any of them.

Lightning's skin itched. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had to get the hell out of there.

And then someone passed by them outside the door, and Lightning's gaze snapped up. Caius paused mid-step to meet her eyes, and then in a split second, he was gone. Resisting the urge to run to the doorway, Lightning glanced back at her sister, hoping to mask any trace of apprehension from her face.

"What is it?" Serah was wiping the remaining streaks of tears from her cheeks. Her expression morphed from one of despair to one of confusion as she turned to stare at the door.

"It's nothing, Serah." Lightning pressed her lips together. "I thought I… saw someone."

Her sister was looking at her strangely again, as though she was searching for a hidden message underneath what she saw. Like she was trying to dissect the lies that Lightning was hiding behind.

"Lightning, I'm not kidding," she said in a weak voice. "I need you to talk to me."

"I'm not kidding either," Lightning insisted. "I'm fine. I'm here for you."

"But, Lightning…" Serah began. She turned around again to look at the door, but the looming shadow of Caius was long gone. Acting on impulse, Lightning took a half step forward, put her arms around her sister and hugged her. As she did, Lightning heard Serah sniffle, and she thought she had gotten distracted again. But when Serah spoke she knew that was not the case.

"Lightning." Her tone was almost hard-edged, though dampened by the tears that still lingered in her voice. "Was it Caius?"

Lightning tensed immediately. Still holding onto her sister, she opened her mouth to speak, and what came out was: "Serah… I'm sorry."

She pulled away and was halfway down the hall before Serah could even call after her.


Lightning decided to chance it that afternoon and leave her apartment to go to Grand Avenue. She reasoned that no one she knew would be around, and even if they were, there was little probability they'd recognize her among Academia's regular daytime crowds. She was tired of being holed up in her apartment all the time, hiding from everyone.

And some part of her knew that she was still banking on the idea that maybe there was a way out of the time bubble. She had told Caius harshly that there was no such thing, and then she had failed to sense the strange energy that the gates gave off while they walked around the city. But Lightning refused to believe that she was stuck in this hell of an Academia for the rest of her eternal existence. What was happening outside, in the timeline? Surely it hadn't disappeared completely…

She lowered herself onto a bench that lay in the shadow of a staircase. People passed by her, their conversations echoing in her ears, their pointless words bouncing off her. How many times had they spoken those exact words? How real were they? Were they seeking refuge from the timeline, too, or were they—

Lightning gasped suddenly, leaning forward and cradling her head in her hands. A sharp pain was stabbing through her skull. And she could see, even with her eyes shut. There was something undeniably wrong with that.

What she saw wasn't pretty, either. The people all around her were full of darkness, the air full of twisting forms. Everything was red and purple and black blurring together, impossible shapes forming behind her eyes. It was a distortion. A distortion, in the time bubble.

As soon as she sat up, the darkness dissipated, leaving behind the same scene that she had seen before it appeared. People all around her, noise and color and normality, the idle chatter filling the space where there had just been a vast amount of nothing.

Lightning stared at it for a minute, but after a while she couldn't stand it anymore. She jumped up and ran back to her apartment, hardly stopping to catch her breath.


There was a message on her comm pad when she got back.

Your sister's looking for you. – Hope.

Lightning growled in frustration. How far did she have to go to get away from everyone? She quickly deleted the message and left her room, navigating the hallways to approach another room she was beginning to get to know well.

Caius's door was locked. Lightning tapped her knuckles against it lightly, checking over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching.

But there was no answer. She knocked again, and once more just for good measure, but still he did not come to the door. After several minutes, she finally gave up and went back to her own apartment, deciding that if anyone came to see her there, she would just not answer her door.

Still, worries bounced back and forth in her head.

Where the hell is Caius? she thought. And what is he planning? What is Hope planning?

Part of her didn't want to find out.