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.:Chapter Ten:.
Trapped
Oh no.
Noctis was about to intervene when Stella dodged, and rushed at Lightning, who leaped in the air, and snapped her fingers. Strange power came from the sound... and Noctis was blown aside as Lightning shot at Stella again.
To Noctis' amazement, Stella swore loudly as the bullet embedded itself into her shoulder. Lightning raised her gun again and shot, but Stella deflected it with a spell before attacking with such ferocity that Noctis expected Lightning to stumble under it, but she met each and every blow like a pro.
Stella dodged another blow and aimed at Lightning's legs, but she leaped out of the way and possibly kicked her in the head as she dove by. Stella managed to carve a streak of red across her stomach, but it was as if Lightning didn't feel anything; she just kept moving.
The soldier lashed out at Stella's legs, attempting to trip her, but Stella leaped nimbly over them and released another spell, which, thankfully, Lightning managed to avoid by flitting away, almost as fast as Noctis would've teleported.
Then, she shot at the Princess, five times in succession.
Stella avoided them, and what she could not avoid, she deflected with a simple spell. He saw Lightning curve her lips in disgust, and then slashed diagonally.
Stella let out a cry unlike any heard before, and gripped her arm.
Lightning's eyes blazed with triumph, but Stella kicked her in the stomach, where the wound was. The Prince heard her hiss with pain, then lunge at the Princess one more time.
Duck, dodge, lunge, twist, flip. Each move was choreographed, he was sure; it was lunge, meet, deflect, dance away, and all over again. Lightning held her ground against the Princess despite the many spells that came her way. Stella's face was twisted as she attempted to best the legendary soldier in what she did best: fight.
For some reason, he felt as proud as a parent whose child just came running back from school screaming, "I GOT AN A-PLUS!!! AN A-PLUS!!!" His lips twitched in amusement at the thought of Lightning running to him, yelling the same thing... or rather, their daughter.
The thought shocked him so much that he jerked in surprise. Lightning caught his sudden movement, and turned to him, obviously distracted.
"No, Lightning!" he heard Vanille call to her weakly.
Lightning whirled back into the battle, but she was too late.
As he watched (with some despair) a Firaga spell raced at her and hit her hand.
The soldier let out a cry like no one had heard before, then leaped into the air. He heard a weak snapping of her fingers, and watched her dive headfirst at the Princess.
Stella raised her sword at the last moment as Lightning flipped, then juddered to a stop when her feet touched the floor. Icy blue eyes wide, the soldier glanced down at her chest.
Blood dripped down from the large, deep wound and landed on the ground silently.
Lightning raised her eyes and met Stella's, hatred suddenly flowing into the clear blue orbs. Stella looked at her expressionlessly as the other woman struggled to raise her sword.
The soldier took one step forward.
And fell to the floor.
--
Cries of outrage and fury came from the Resistance's army as their best commander was picked up by the opposing side and led away, but Stella's magick had grown – she could thrust them back, put an invisible wall between them and their enemy. Noctis was thrown onto the black stallion, who miraculously survived the battle with only a few scratches along his flanks and a massive cut on his chest.
"Let's go!" Stella called to the soldiers, and darted to her chocobo.
"Lightning!" he heard her friends scream. As if numb, he turned to face them, his face blank, devoid of expression. They were struggling to lunge through the invisible barrier – he noticed that the big man was about to manage it.
To them, he mouthed, "I will take care of her. Do not worry." But he didn't know if they understood; they glared at him and Vanille drew her bow and tried to shoot. He thought that the effort was futile – the magick would deflect the arrow.
But to his surprise, the arrow slipped through the barrier as though it was enchanted, and flew straight at Stella's chocobo.
The chocobo went down.
"Princess Stella!" one of the warriors guarding her cried, but as he tried to rush at her, Vanille shot him with her arrows and then she ran, right through the barriers.
"Lightning!!"
Two of Noctis's warriors, at Stella's look, caught her and took her forward. "Sire, what would we do with this one?" He leered at Vanille, who shot him a look of complete loathing and kicked his balls.
He went down, much to Noctis's amusement.
The other one let her go as she turned on him, then she ran right for the 'prisoner'. "Lightning!"
Someone shot at her with an anaesthetic dart, and she went down too.
Noctis could only watch and ride after his army helplessly, wondering how this had occurred, and what he could do to save them.
The answer was clear.
Nothing.
--
Lightning woke up in a dark place, her heartbeat thundering painfully in her chest. She glanced down, and saw that the front of her tunic was covered in blood. Her first thought was, Well, Vanille can't make me wear this anymore, so I can use my own uniform.
Then, she remembered what happened.
She punched the wall next to the bed she was lying on.
It's so dark. I don't even know where I am. It's cold... I need something warm... and I need bandages. Goddess, my chest hurts... Where am I? What am I doing here? ... Will Noctis help me? No – I cannot rely on other people anymore... look where loving Noctis put me. Caught! Captured! For the first time in my life as commander! Snow would kill me for being such a bloody fool.
Her cheekbone throbbed, and she touched it, wincing. She must've hit something... she had a vague flashback of a rock, and grimaced. That's my fault; I should've seen that coming.
Suddenly, there was a sliver of light coming from somewhere in front of her. A hand reached in and flicked a switch.
Ah, she was in the 21st century. She forgot.
The lights flared on, and she let out an involuntary cry as her eyes burned, not used to the sudden brightness.
"Sorry," a voice said, and she felt the bed jiggle as the owner of the voice sat down. "How're you feeling?"
"Like bangaa dung."
"Well, that's bad," the person said cheerfully. He is so not Noctis. "I mean, I fell into bangaa dung before, and it stank like crazy. No one would come near me for months... but that's probably because I'm usually tripping up over something."
She rolled her eyes, and cautiously opened them. To her relief, she could see, although it hurt a little. The man sitting on her bed was the same blond who introduced himself as Laris and brought her to Noctis in the first place.
Laris smiled at her, and handed her a medipack. "Here, Noctis thought you might need this. He'd come visit you himself, but Stella's keeping him away... anyways, I'm to look after you from today on, until your trial is finished."
Lightning blinked at him, and took the medipack, then opened it. She sifted through the things inside, and found the appropriate things to cover up her wounds – she realized that the one on her chest was already half-healed, but she replaced the bandages anyways (Laris turned away at her request and hopefully closed his eyes as well), and addressed the numerous bruises Noctis gave her when he... assaulted her.
"Do you want anything to eat?" Laris asked over his shoulder. "And can I turn around now?"
"No."
"For which question?"
"Both."
"I see... Well, we'll bring you something anyways. You need to eat, get your strength up... At least, that's what Noctis said."
"Shut up."
"Okay."
Lightning sighed, and lay back, staring at the ceiling. It was white. There were no windows around here... No chance to escape then. The lights came out from the corners... altogether, it was the most high-tech, comfortable dungeon she'd ever seen.
"You want anything?"
"Just my weapon and my freedom." Oh yeah, why don't you throw in Noctis while you're at it?
Laris winced. "No chance. Stella took it. Both of them."
Lightning tensed, sitting up. "Where is she?" she asked tersely.
"Erm... you're not supposed to..." He trailed off when she shot him a death glare, and he swallowed, backing away a step. "Meeting?" he whispered, clearly afraid.
Lightning rolled her eyes, and lay back down, counting cockatrices behind closed eyes. Gigantic, angry cockatrices, with blood red eyes and a handbag. And her freedom.
"I'll wait outside," Laris promised, and practically ran out.
A small smile curved Lightning's lips, and she resumed counting cockatrices with red eyes and handbags.
--
A few hours later, she was awakened by the sound of someone entering the room.
She shot up, her hand automatically reaching for where her gun-blade should be. But it wasn't there, because it wasn't with her.
Big sigh.
The person who came in was a woman. Not any woman – Stella.
She was accompanied by two guards.
"Good evening," she said with a should-be charming smile and her honey-blond hair loose and flowing around her face. "Do you like your quarters?" The blond woman walked over to a small couch and sat down there. Lightning vowed silently to herself that she would never sit on that thing even if her life depended on it.
"Not so much that I'll stay here of my own free will," Lightning retorted, then her breath hitched as her chest wound pained her again.
Stella obviously noticed. A small smile twitched her lips. "We tried to get a healer to tend to that, but you were in a frenzy – you almost killed one of them."
Lightning frowned, then a memory sparked her mind – she was caught, strapped down, and she wanted to be free. The only way had been to kill... so her body moved of its own accord, trying to destroy everything in sight.
She nodded.
The Princess smiled. "I've come to talk to you about your friend."
"My friend?" she asked, confused. She tilted her head sideways.
"Your young friend, a red-haired woman who rushed forward valiantly to save you."
Lightning's eyes widened with fear – real fear. Vanille was caught? She raised a finger and pointed it at Stella, and stood. "You touch one hair on her, and I swear I will rip this place into shreds using my bare hands," she threatened, but Stella merely smiled.
"Noctis will stop you," she said firmly.
Lightning flinched when she said his name – it was so loving, so proud... so possessive. He's not yours to take, she felt like snarling, but she kept her mouth shut. "He'd better not," she answered, and stepped closer to Stella. Her guards moved in closer, but Stella stopped them with a hand.
"Please, no more violence while she's injured."
They backed off.
"I just thought you should know that I'm letting her go. She's no major threat to us..." Lightning heaved an inward sigh of relief. "But, however, I cannot let you go," the other woman continued, "Because the attempt to kill a Princess and a Prince is not taken lightly by the combined council of Tenebrae and Arcaia. They want to kill you... and I'm afraid to say that both Noctis and I agree you should be taken down."
Lightning hissed at her. "I'll die fighting."
"Please don't," Stella said mildly. "It'll only prolong your death."
"That's the whole point, is it not?" Lightning said mockingly, adopting Stella's refined way of speaking. She was surprised to feel the formal words forming easily on her tongue. "If I am to die by your hand, I would rather die a hero's death than die cowering on the floor."
Stella smiled. "A good way of putting it, because we will test your strengths before we execute you."
Lightning raised one eyebrow, but didn't comment. In her mind, she thought, I have to get out of here before that happens.
Someone else knocked on the door.
"Enter," Stella called, and Lightning shot her an irritated look before turning to see who it was.
Noctis came in. He didn't spare Stella a glance as he said, "Leave us. I wish to speak to Commanding Officer Lightning alone." Stella frowned, then gestured to the guards and they filed out. "Laris, lock the door and make sure no one dithers around here," the Prince called to his friend. The lock clicked, and all was silent.
Lightning retreated to her bed and lay back down. Her wounds hurt, and her head throbbed. Noctis on the bed next to her, his hand gently brushing away the strands of hair on her face. He didn't seem to notice as she tensed and tried to move away from him. "I'm going to get you out of here," he told her.
She looked at him, surprised. "Now?"
"As soon as possible." His hands drifted to her stomach, and he eyed the bandage, then raised an eyebrow at her. "May I?"
When she nodded, he pulled up the shirt slightly – very slightly (his ears turned red, causing her to hide laughter behind a cough) – and ran his hands over the bandage before gently lifting it up and staring at the angry, red, raw flesh underneath.
"I can heal that for you."
"It's not necessary. It may look bad today, but by this time tomorrow, it will have been healed."
"No matter, I can save you a great deal of pain and energy."
"I'll need to get rid of this energy somehow or rather."
He smiled slightly, and put his hand above the raw flesh, muttering something under his breath. Lightning squirmed as the wound tickled her. In a minute, the wound was healed, the skin having flowed back together, leaving no trace of a scar. She pressed her hands to it, and her eyes widened as she felt the smooth skin.
"What about the one on your chest?"
"I'd rather you leave that one alone at the moment. It's very... private up there."
He grimaced. "I won't look," he promised.
She rolled her eyes. "This one's fine. Now that the one on my stomach's healed, I can focus my energy into healing this one. Besides, keep your magick to yourself. You might need it."
"I've only ever taken the White Magick course. Beyond that, I've never truly found magick necessary. After all, why should I when I blade is feared enough?"
"I find magick repelling. It's a sneaky, underhand way of winning a fight."
"Mm. Maybe." Noctis pulled her shirt over her stomach as much as he could, and his hand accidentally brushed her hip. They both flushed, and looked away. "Do you want anything to eat?" he offered her to hide his embarrassment.
She shook her head.
"You know, I'll hand-feed you if need be," he warned.
She shrugged. "I don't need to eat, but I do it because I want to, and because it tastes good," she explained. "My energy comes from meditating and resting, and the world around me if I have to take it from them."
He felt confused still, but shrugged it off. "All the same, I'll feel better once you have some food in you." He brushed her bruised cheekbone once, very lightly.
"Aren't we just getting broody?" she murmured under her breath, causing him to scowl. But he knocked on the door and told Marcus to get some food. At least, she thought it was Marcus.
When he came back, she said, "Stella..."
"What about her?"
"She loves you a lot, doesn't she?"
He didn't reply.
"You're lucky, you know that?"
Still no answer. Damn him.
"She speaks your name as though it was a rare diamond anyone would want, and as though she was a proud parent," she told him, trying to get a reaction out of him.
Response?
A single twitch of a finger and he clenched his jaw, finally saying, "But I don't love her."
"Right."
"I really don't."
"You agreed to get rid of me, didn't you, Noctis?"
"Only to placate her and the council."
"If you truly didn't care about her, why would you want to placate her?"
"Hang around her when she wants something and you'll see."
Lightning fought back a grin, and sat up. "I need some space – I'm going to meditate." He retreated to the chair, and she shook her head. "You can come back in a hour or two, but right now I need to cure my wounds. Bye, Noctis."
Her eyes closed and she drifted into a waking dream.
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