(7,658 words) I'm not sure why but my mind keeps trying to tell me that I wrote this a million years ago. It was definitely a week ago I know, but not as long as my mind is trying to convince me. My beta-sis had a lot of things to edit (two other chaps of mine, and two of hers), so it took her a bit to go through. I found a few incredibly retarded mistakes whilst going through it, so she may not have done the best of jobs. If you find any such mistakes, I apologise in advance.

It's the Christmas holidays now, so I should get more writing in, meaning I should hopefully be able to update somewhat faster than usual. Since it being the Christmas holidays there will be plenty of distractions, like the day itself and friends coming over and all that kind of stuff. I'll also be in Melbourne for a few days, so I don't know if I'll have a laptop during those days, we'll see.

Hope you enjoy.

Truth and Lies

Chapter 10: Found

Far away in the distance, a wispy voice called out, pleading desperately, hoping for someone to hear their cries. Lightning opened her eyes, and was greeted by a miraculous sight. She was atop a mountain, with a waterfall flowing from over a larger mountain besides it, causing the water to gather in a pond atop the peak she was on. The pond was surrounded by pink, purple and yellow flowers, their petals being swept up in a gentle wind. It occurred to her that she was dreaming, since she was unable to feel a thing and a peculiar haze hanged around her. But for a dream, everything was startling clear.

She lifted herself up and brushed away the stray petals that had clung to her damp skin. She felt as if she'd jumped in the pond earlier, but had no recollection of doing so. After taking in the sight, she recalled the voice she had heard, the one that had woken her to this world. It'd been soft and gentle, a weak sound carried to her by the wind. It was pleading, sad and yet happy all at the same time. It sent a wave of calmness through her, despite the negative undertones it had been filled with. She looked around, surveying her environment to see if she could find them. Upon her initial observation, she came up with no results, and concluded that whoever had spoken was not in sight. However, after looking around once more, she spotted a woman leaning over the pond's edge, holding in her hands a lotus flower. She was perfectly calm and still, the world around her might as well not even by there at all.

Lightning eyed her for a moment, wondering what she was doing there, and why she had called out. She decided in the end to ask her for the answer, it did not seem like this woman was a threat to her. After one step, the woman lifted her head, eyes wide with surprise, but not a second later, her look of astonishment was replaced by a warm smile. She dropped the lotus flower back into the water, where it floated off to the middle of the pond, led by the wind. She stood up and turned, smile present. Her hands were placed behind her back, and her expression was perfectly serene. She was dressed in what Light was sure were Pulsian attire. She was wrapped with a sari matching the many flowers that surrounded her, only it was trimmed with a light baby blue. Her shirt underneath covered only her chest and was made of a thick black material, wrapped and tied at her back. Her skirt was long and trailed on the ground; it was patterned like her sari, but coloured with deeper shades. Her feet were covered in russet coloured sandals; the tops of which she could not see for her skirt covered them. Her arms were decorated with bangles of pale shades of brown, with an odd yellow or pink one here and there. Her hair was hazel; it was perfect with a slight wave, ending by her ankles. On her head was a golden headdress shaped like a behemoth skull. It held up twin braids that wrapped around her head. Her eyes were a soft pink, her lips a deep shade of the same colour. Her skin was fair, without a single flaw.

She smiled, and said in a soothing voice that though quiet and weak, echoed around the mountain top, "It's good to see you my daughter, though my sister Lindzei had adopted you."

Lightning's eyes narrowed, to be frank, the words seemed crazy. She knew she'd heard the name Lindzei somewhere, but for the moment, she was unable to remember where.

"Daughter?"

"Why of course. Every one of you were my daughters, it is a shame what had to befall you." She replied, her head bowed, hand to her chest. She looked weak, and yet oddly strong.

She didn't understand any more from that, and felt even more concerned about what on earth this woman was going on about to be true. "What befell us?"

"Oh yes, you recall don't you? When they attacked you? Many of my daughters had their lives cut short that day." She seemed truly saddened, like these were her real daughters she was referring to. Only that didn't make any sense, but Lightning had to remind herself, this was a dream, things tended to make no sense in dreams.

"Daughters, do you mean the Veil?" When she tried to think of being attacked, the only thing to come to mind was the day the Veil experiment ended, when the guards attacked them all, killing the vast majority.

"Yes, it was cruel. And now because of that, so much weight has had to fall on her shoulders." The woman kneeled down, and watched the flowers sway in the flowing wind. "It was never meant to happen that way, but things have changed. There's not enough time now."

"What weight, on whose shoulders?" She asked, it seemed like there was another piece of information she did know of, perhaps this woman could tell her. She thought this for a moment before remembering again that this was a dream, nothing here would matter in the waking world.

"Don't blame them for acting how they are; they want to live out their life, free to do what they want. They don't want to be chained down again. They haven't been able to take it, they've erased their own emotions just to ignore the pain of losing everything. It was bad enough for me to do such an unforgiveable thing to them, but for my sister to control her like she does, it erases everything that poor girl is. So I beg of you, don't hate them. They mean well, they just are unable to show you that."

"What? What do I have to do with anything? Why are you saying this to me? Who are you?" Lightning cried out, desperate for an answer.

The woman smiled. "That can wait for now, my daughter. Everything shall be revealed in due time, when you are ready, the time will come." As the words left her lips, whiteness begun to develop the pond and surrounding field of flowers.

Alarmed, Lightning tried to run forward, but the haze shoved her back violently, sending her to the ground. Not knowing what else to do, she called out, barely below screaming, "Wait! This isn't real is it? It's a dream right?"

Before all disappeared, she spotted the woman through the nothingness, sending her one last warmth filled smile. "Why, of course you're dreaming, but when did that ever mean that this is not real?"

Lightning awoke with a start, draped in sweat. Her breathing was heavy as she slowly calmed down. The dream hadn't scared in her least, there was nothing scary about it, but she couldn't help but feel unnerved over it all. It had the same haze any dream had, but at the same time, it didn't. She actually had needed to remind herself that none of that was really happening; usually there shouldn't be need of that in a dream. She was concerned, what the stranger had been going on about seemed to be very serious, maybe it did have some connection to the outside world. But who was the girl who had had weight thrust upon her? And why did she speak of the Veil as her daughters? And who on earth was Lindzei? The name was familiar to her, but try as she may the reason for why she knew it escaped her each time she dived into her mind to search for it.

She looked up to see everyone else was fast asleep. It was still dark out, but she couldn't see enough of the outside through the window to know how dark it was exactly, so the time it was difficult to guess. It was either close to dawn, or still late at night. She'd only gotten to sleep recently if that was so, she had gone outside earlier thanks to being unable to sleep, and Fang was the one who'd dragged her back inside. She wondered if their odd conversation had spurred on the dream.

She'd fully admitted to being a Veil to Fang, though of course she hadn't doubted that both Fang and Vanille had believed that was what she was. It made the suspicious way they'd been acting near her reasonable, at least to a degree. She continued to wonder what was up with that 'half-blooded wolf' moniker that she'd heard earlier in the night. Sure the wolf part was merely a play on Fang's name, but the half-blooded part made her think. The most reasonable thing to think of was that she was half Pulsian, and half Cocoonian. Beyond that, she didn't know anything that made sense. But even that was unlikely. Fang was born and raised in Pulse as much as she knew. She was quite sure that was the truth, and no Cocoonian would mindlessly wander into that country without a reason.

Fang was beginning to become quite the little mystery.

Throwing it out of her mind, Lightning shut her eyes and returned to sleep, hoping to catch some extra shut eye before they had to leave.

A short while after dawn, Lightning was roused from her sleep by Fang roughly shaking her to the world of the waking. Grumpy at being waken in such a manner, she swiped at the woman, who dodged it completely, completely expecting it. She grinned and picked herself up; as the movement had made her hit the ground because of the force she had done it.

"That's not going to work sweetie pie." She added on the nickname to annoy her, Lightning hoped it wouldn't become a habit.

The pink haired woman pushed herself up into a sleeping position, brushing away locks of her hair that'd fallen onto her face in the night. Vanille was wide awake, up and ready to go. Snow however must have been awoken only moments before her, for he was still on the bed next to her, wiping sleep from his eyes, mouth opened wide in the middle of a yawn. Sending a glare at the Pulsian woman standing by her bed, she jumped off and strode by her.

"You not tired at all are you? Didn't miss out on too much sleep did you?" Fang jokingly enquired, as she crossed the room and stood by her side. She was making fun of the fact that Lightning the night before had gone and taken a walk in the middle of the night, for the sincere reason that she couldn't get to sleep. She had found it stupid, she'd admitted that immediately, it seemed the woman wasn't in the mood to drop it, since it had wasted her possible sleeping time as well. Perhaps she wasn't fairing as well with the lack of sleep and constant travelling as everyone had thought she was.

Lightning rolled her eyes and left the room, "No, I'm fine thank you." She muttered angrily. Yes, she was tired as all god damn hell, and it wasn't helping her mood. But she wasn't going to give Fang the satisfaction of getting her to admit to it. She'd think it anyway, no matter what the answer was.

"Well isn't that nice?" Fang scoffed, before grabbing Snow by the collar of his shirt and, as much as possible, dragged him along with her out of the room. This left Vanille to hastily gather their few possessions, less they be left in the room.

Fang had already paid for the room the previous night, so they were free to leave whenever they wanted to. And what she wanted was to leave immediately. So they left the tiny inn and travelled to the edge of the miniscule village, and long past it, before anyone else was even wandering about.

As the sun rose in the sky, the heat steadily rose with it, until it became unbearable, and they were forced to walk under the shadows of nearby trees just to withstand it. Fang however, didn't seem even one bit bothered by the blistering heat. She walked along as if everything was perfectly fine, twirling her lance in one hand, whistling a tune, which would end, only for it to start up again a minute later. It might have been annoying, but it allowed the time to pass easily thanks to it stopping the silence from building up. Vanille mayhaps would have been fine as well, but for the sake of conversation she stayed close to Snow, who was walking under the tree's shade same as Lightning.

Things continued in this pattern up until midday, where Fang decided they would rest. They stopped by a small flowing stream, where they drank and ate some of the fruit that Vanille had acquired back in Katcinn, the small town they had stayed in for the night. The break did not last long, and soon they were back on their feet, walking to wherever Fang was taking them. Frankly, Lightning didn't even think she had a place in mind, she was walking where ever on Coccoon or Pulse she wanted to take them. Their final destination didn't matter. Sometimes she felt like Fang didn't think about anything, or care about it either. Everyone here probably had something to do, she wasn't sure about Snow, but she certainly had something in mind she needed to complete. This was a total waste of her time, not like Fang would listen to her, much less agree with her.

Vanille claimed that she was taking them somewhere safe, but Fang didn't strike her as the type that would care about that type of thing, so she thought that it was in every way possible that Vanille was just being positive. It was a possibility that she didn't know what Fang was thinking either.

A few hours after midday, not long before the sun was readying to dive into the horizon, there was a sudden quiet in the surrounding area. Lightning caught on to this fast, and so did Fang she noticed, when she looked ahead. They should be able to hear birds singing to each other, as they had been only minutes beforehand. Something was up. Snow and Vanille caught on that something wasn't quite right when they noticed their two other companions looking around apprehensively. Fang's grip tightened around her weapon, Lightning copied the movement, deciding it was the safest thing to do. If the animals in the area had been scared off, it was possible that there was something here that could cause them harm. It was better to be ready for it.

Fang stopped suddenly, and held up a hand, signalling for the others to do the same. They halted, and waited to see what was wrong. She didn't speak, but kept the hand up, to say they weren't to make a single move. She was tense, her concentration not focussed on any one place, but a range that encircled them.

For a moment, nothing, and then, something hurtled out of the trees, heading right for Fang.

She swiped at whatever it was with her lance, it was struck and thrown back. It was a man, dressed in brown rags meant to hide his face and any give away to his identity. He jumped back up and took a swipe at Fang, with a jagged dagger; she blocked it and knocked him back to the ground before wracking him with it once more to the head, knocking him out cold. She breathed out a sigh of relief, but the moment was cut short as another five men, dressed in similar rags, their faces hidden, pounced on them from the trees. They encircled them, waiting for the woman to give them an opening. Lightning raised her blade at the closest man, he was tall, but thin, he looked like he could be swept away with the wind. Snow readied his fists, and though Vanille's grip tightened on her peculiar weapon, she chose not to fight, and instead took a closer step to the middle of her companions. She remained wary despite this move.

They could see now what they were, they were bandits, hoping to steal anything they could off them.

Only this time, there was no way they'd be given the chance. Two of them went for Fang at once, deeming her the most problematic. She held out her lance horizontally, and they ran straight into it, dazed but not out for the count, they wobbled back a step before going in for more. She spun her weapon in one hand, she knew their focus would be on it, and not the leg that was about to kick the closest in the face. He was struck hard, and the force was enough to make him collide into his accomplice, slamming them both to the ground. At the same time, one of the bandits made the mistake to go after Snow, he welded a sword, and perhaps he thought that it would allow him to keep enough distance that he needn't attain any damage. But this ideal was wrong, for after the first step, before he could swing, he was dealt a blow to the face and was knocked to the ground, holding his broken nose, blood pouring out from it.

The first of the two who'd gone after Fang got up and attempted again to harm her. The other had been knocked unconscious upon having his skull hit by both another human and the ground soon after. She ducked as his knife stabbed the air above her, before coming back up to head butt him, he was dazed, and in the same moment she hit him with the blunt end of her lance, hurtling him to the ground with enough force to make things turn to black on him. The remaining two continued their circling, deducing that both Fang and Snow would be dangerous opponents.

The bigger of the two, who was standing between Fang and Snow, ran straight for Vanille, who held up her weapon, ready to use it, only for Fang to come weapon in hand and strike the man on the neck, forcing his breath right out of him. On the ground he lay, couching and gagging, until he regained his breath. This man, unlike the others, took the smart path out, and when he was in a good enough condition to move, he made a run for it. While he was doing this, the last man, the thin wispy man who'd been hanging near Lightning finally made his move. She was ready for it, and was just about to swing her blade, but before she could even register what was happening, Fang had gotten in between it. With her lance she blocked the blade, and with her leg she blocked the man, kicking him away, sending him flying until he crashed into a tree.

For a moment, nothing else happened, so Fang allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. After this the man Snow had attacked, who'd thus had his nose broken, got up and took off in the same direction the other man who'd ran off had went in. It didn't appear that the bandits were going to try anything again, so she went around, nudging back to consciousness the ones she'd knocked out, forcing them to get up and follow the ones who'd already left. As she did this, Lightning called out from behind her, complaining,

"Hey, you didn't have to do that; I could've done it myself." She was ticked off, and had every reason to be.

"I know Honey, but that never meant you had to." Fang replied with a shrug of her shoulders as she got the last bandit to leave.

Lightning frowned and stormed over to her. "What do you mean by that? What do you think I'm such a weakling that I couldn't take them on myself?"

Fang swiped at her with her hand to stop her from getting too close, she took a step back so the hand didn't meet its target. "Hey, I already agreed that you could do it, when did I call you too weak? Sure you're weak, but not that weak."

"Then why did you attack him instead? You could've been hit instead you know!?" She growled, frustrated.

The other woman grinned, perhaps sincerely to annoy her more, "Trust me sweet pea, you couldn't hit me if you wanted to, otherwise you might actually win when we spar. You can barely land a hit even then, and that's me going easy on you. If I thought that I might get hurt, I would have let you swing that blade and do whatever you wanted."

"For the Goddess' sake stop with the freaking nicknames already." Lightning muttered, more to herself than anything.

Fang smiled, a wicked smile, like whatever she was trying to do, it was succeeding. She was toying with her; maybe she'd even attacked the man to set this into motion. Lightning narrowed her eyes, to her left she heard Vanille's severely worried voice hissing Fang's name. Lightning thought that the girl had come to the same conclusion, and wanted her to stop it before it went too far, but was too nice to come out and say it.

"You know I think I like the nicknames, I think I'll keep them up. But seriously, don't fight; it's better if you don't. You are weak, accept that. And I'm sure you know the rest of the reason, we had a fabulous conversation about that last night didn't we?" Fang grinned cheekily, baiting her.

Lightning scowled, and without really thinking about it, she swung her blade. The Pulsian dodged it with ease, with more ease than what she'd seen her use in their sparring sessions. Fang wasn't even looking at her; she had her face down with her eyes half closed. It was like she wasn't putting even the slightest concentration into it, this was another thing she was sure, that was meant to annoy her. And it was working.

This time when Vanille called Fang's name, she didn't hiss it, she screamed it. She seemed panicked, concern overpowering everything else she felt. As to why this was, Lightning hadn't the slightest idea, all she knew was that whether it caused any damage or not, she wanted to land a hit on Fang, to serve her right for what she said.

Fang paid no attention to the redhead, and instead on the blade which was coming directly for her again. She dodged it like it was nothing. She was perfectly calm, despite the dangerous sharp object being swung at her. Lightning swung again and again, and time and time again she missed. Fang would duck, jump and side step each swing, without breaking a sweat, and without showing any sign of fear. She was completely confident in her belief that she would not be hit. Soon the weapon begun to feel heavy in her hands, and she was becoming short of breath, but being as stubborn as she was, she wasn't going to give up. The whole time Fang teased her, making good use of every sickingly sweet nickname she could come up with. In the intervals between this, she mouthed something to herself, but moving around so much Lightning couldn't even hope to read her lips and know what she was saying. Right before she felt so exhausted she was about to drop, she managed to figure out what Fang was mouthing, 'just a little more'. She narrowed her eyes, wondering deeply what the heck that was all about.

After a long time of her poor attempts to hit Fang, she started to feel like she was about to faint, her footing was unsteady, sweat was dripping onto her eyelashes, blurring her sight, and her weapon felt like it weighed over a tonne. But even so, she stubbornly kept it up, her ears rang from the sound of her heavy breathing and Vanille's screams telling them to stop. But she paid neither sound any attention, all she could think was that she wanted to hurt her, screw just landing a hit, the woman had tried her patience, she wanted her in pain.

In the last moment before she was sure she would drop from the exhaustion she felt, she heard someone shout something at her. At first, she thought it was Vanille, as she hadn't shut up the entire time, but after a second, it registered with her, that it hadn't been Vanille, it'd been Snow.

As the sound echoed around the area, she tightened her grip on her weapon, and spotted sparks of red and yellow in the corner of her sight, and before she had time to realise what was happening, flames enveloped her blade, and sliced the ground along with it. Fang eyes went wide, and to the other's shock, it was not the woman's bright jade eyes that greeted her. Before the flames could lick her, the Pulsian woman jumped back, landing on her feet three feet away. She shut her eyes and held her head, as if in pain. The flames spread, and in the corner of the sight Light saw something red and purple flash in front of Vanille, but it existed for only a second, and after it passed, it was gone, and the girl was now at a safe distance.

She didn't have enough time to question, as darkness begun to gather in her mind. She'd driven herself past what she could take; she'd faint any second now. Her legs gave up and her knees buckled, before her body could fall onto the flames however, Snow grabbed onto her and pulled her back, holding her in his arms so she couldn't be harmed. She didn't have enough power in her to struggle out of his grasp, and in mere moments, all turned black, and she fell unconscious. The last thing she saw as her eyes closed was Vanille hurrying to Fang's side; who was now on the ground as well, catching her breath, still holding her head.

"Fang, why did you do that?" She hissed, she seemed angry, but was acting nice about it. She was frustrated though that her friend had gone and done that in spite of her protests against it, that was clear to see.

"I wanted to test her. Nothing more. I was wondering if they were the same." She breathed, too exhausted to speak any louder. She'd only been pretending that she was fine, though she had never gotten to the point where fainting was an option like Light, she had certainly pushed herself beyond the point she could take.

"What do you mean, 'the same', who?" Vanille enquired, exasperated yet worried too.

"We both know that you know what I mean." Fang chuckled. "You noticed it from the get go didn't you? You just didn't want to believe it." She grinned, which made her friend frown and step away, sitting on the ground close by her.

"Don't act like it's funny, it's horrible. I don't want to tell her the truth, it'll hurt so much."

"All the better to continue on our way then? She'll find out much later if she ever finds out at all."

Fang remarked, as she stood up and walked over to Snow. He'd placed Lightning on the ground as the flame had already burnt down to embers and disappeared.

"She's a difficult one to deal with I take it?" She laughed, it'd only been rhetorical, she was simply stating it, not expecting any answers. Whether he realised this or not, Snow did not reply, he instead watched the fainted form of the girl in front of him, concerned by what had happened.

"You know you didn't have to use your powers." Vanille stated, from where she sat.

"And this from the one who did the very same thing?" Fang scoffed, taking a seat on the ground opposite Snow.

"That was in protection, I didn't mean to do it. You did it on purpose, and you did it to annoy her. Now look at the state she's in, and the state you're for that matter!" Vanille complained. It had been an idiotic mood on her part.

Fang rolled her eyes, and returned her attention to Lightning, who looked like she might as well be deep in a peaceful sleep. For a while, no one spoke, and silence reigned supreme. But this was cut short when Snow piped up and asked, confused,

"When did you use it? I didn't see anything."

"From the get go, it was how she didn't hit me." She answered, without much of a thought.

"I saw nothing. What is your power anyway?" He questioned, deeply curious about the whole thing.

"You wouldn't have seen anything; it's not visible to people other than me." She answered vaguely. He knew he wouldn't get anything else out of her, so he stopped with the questions, and together they waited for Lightning to regain consciousness.

Solace yawned and stretched her arms. She was sitting on the roof of a small building snacking on an apple. She'd stolen it from a stand of apples a few streets back. No one had noticed her do it, though she supposed being skilful at a number of things went hand in hand with being a fully trained knight. Her skills had given her the opportunity to be fast, and her cloak had given her the opportunity to hide anything within it perfectly. She had a small amount of money on her, but it was so much more easier to take the cheap things rather than buy them, she could keep the money for better uses that way.

She wasn't entirely sure where she was, all she knew was that she was far away from both Eden and Palumpolum. A gigantic forest surrounded Eden, so that was a dead giveaway, and towns got larger and more rich the closer you got to Palumpolum, so that also worked as a sign for her. She was in a small village, she'd gotten the use of someone's house last night to rest in, as she was opting to stay places for free rather than to spend. She intended to leave soon, find another town or something, though she wasn't bothered if she got stuck in the woods for the night. She knew how to make fires naturally-as she was in refusal to try and use her powers to try and make one-and she had plenty of protection, she wasn't without a weapon, even if it wasn't as good as the sword she would have if she was back in Eden, but it would do. It was good she did not have that weapon; it would be most suspicious after all. It would also serve as a hint to anyone looking for her, as it seemed ever so stupid to think that she was going to get out of this scot free. The council would probably want her dead for this, she wasn't allowed to leave Eden; she wasn't even allowed to leave Cid's company.

She half expected she would eventually be dragged back, and whatever fate awaited her in the capital she would have to face. But whatever her fate was, she had decided to enjoy this as much as she could. She'd never felt so free in her life after all, every day was calming, perfect. Even if it was simple and repetitive, she was happy.

Solace finished the apple and dropped it at her side; she walked over to the edge of the roof and jumped off, scaring a passer-by as she touched the ground. It was about time she got going. As she walked to the edge of the village she had to dodge a number of children running past, and another man who was carrying around large chunks of wood. Near the edge she ran into a handful of Chocobo's outside an inn, probably belonging to some travellers passing through like her. She patted one on the head, a bright young hen who chirped in response. She giggled as the bird nudged her with its head, before leaving them behind and walking long past the village's boundaries.

Lightning roused late in the afternoon, she opened her eyes slowly to see both Vanille and Snow sitting close by. Snow was sitting with his back to a tree, and Vanille sat atop a large rock, dangling her legs. They were talking to each other; something seemed to be bothering them greatly. She supposed it was what had occurred earlier, she'd already seen how upset Vanille was over it, it made sense Snow would be too.

As she stayed awake, the world slowly came back to her, and she begun to make out the words the two were saying besides her.

"Has she done this before?" Snow asked, seemingly exhausted. It was a possibility that the two had to deal with Fang after Light had lost consciousness; she saw that as the most reasonable thing. It would take a lot to get Snow like he was now.

"She did once, only she was the one who paid in the end. We've been forced to keep a low profile since then. It was a few months back, it was a lot worse I believe. There were spectators; both us and her could've lost our lives. Though I think it would have been us more likely, no one could see her face, I don't think anyone even knew she was a girl. They would have just thought that she was young." Vanille frowned. "I don't think she was a bad person, but Fang immediately took to hating her. She was Eden raised, and acted like they'd never done anything bad to her. It'd infuriated her I think."

Snow nodded and didn't pry and further, instead he looked at something in the distance, which Lightning realised was Fang, sitting atop of small hill ripping apart flowers, her lance placed at her side.

"Her eyes changed colour." Lightning said, startling the others who hadn't noticed she'd regained consciousness; they were lost in their own conversation.

"Light! You're alright!" Snow cheered, turning around to face her.

Lightning pushed herself up into a sitting position. She lazily pushed Snow out of her personal space and got up onto her feet. She saw that they weren't at the same place they'd been in when she'd fainted. They had gone off the path then, it seemed correct to think that they had been wary that those bandits would return, and since they couldn't quite leave, they'd done second best and simply left the path.

She noticed Vanille averting her eyes, perhaps for her comment.

"Vanille." She called softly, in an attempt to get her to look at her.

The redhead inched her head ever so slightly up, "Yes?" She spoke quietly. It was unlikely she wanted to talk at the moment.

"What happened?"

"You and Fang got into a fight…and you kind of set the ground on fire. Then you fainted." She answered, still in the quiet tone.

"No not that!" Lightning snapped, making the girl jump back. "Her eyes changed colour. What's the answer to that? They were all weird and aquamarine."

"They're clear at the centre." Vanille mentioned, something that was needless to mention, for it had no use.

"So I saw." The other woman sighed, running her hand across her face as she sighed outwardly, "But what happened, why did it happen?"

Vanille looked away and fiddled with a small rock next to her thigh. "I think you already know the answer to that."

Lightning frowned. "But I didn't see anything. If I'm correct, then you just admitted that she's a veil. Their eyes change colour when their powers are in use, but I didn't see anything."

Vanille shrugged, "I didn't either. I don't even know what her power is, she's never mentioned it. She uses it a lot though, because as long as you can't see her eyes, the other person would have no idea anything is wrong."

It didn't appear that asking the red head more questions would get her anywhere fast, so she sat down exasperated and scowled. It looked like Snow was about to ask her a question, so she sent a glare his way and it shut him up.

She'd gotten confirmation that Fang was the same as her, a Veil. But now she was even more confused, her power wasn't something that could be seen by others, but it wasn't obvious either. She knew it wasn't a force field, because the results of it would have been clear to see in their fight earlier. But she wasn't aware of any other abilities that were invisible.

One step forward always became two steps back it seemed, whenever it came to Fang.

Cid strode through the castle corridors, a week had passed since he was issued the order to capture the remaining Veils; he done very little in the space between. Namely for he was suffering odd pains and a constant sickness that refused to leave. He knew this was because the Goddess was upset with him for the situation with Solace, and now she would be even more so angered by him. So few Veils still existed in the world, what little remained both of the Goddess' would not want to lose.

He had little choice in the matter however, and in spite of the Goddess' wishes and his own sickness, he would be made to leave the castle, and begin searching. He had secured all that he needed, needless to say. He was prepared, it'd be stupid or him otherwise to step foot out of the castle.

He was close to the castle doors, when he passed a small courtyard; he noticed by its edge a woman, sitting on the ground with her legs drawn up close. And as insane as it sounded, she was changing the colour of her nails, like it was something to normal to do to pass the time when bored.

He stopped by the woman, and felt the need to comment. "You are aware how insane you look at the moment for doing that Jihl?"

The woman, Jihl, looked up at him scowling, her long hair half covered her face because of her position. "Nonsense, if I really wanted to look insane I'd do this." She returned her nails to their original colour, and now instead grew them long, past the length that you could ever hope to see on a human. After her demonstration, she returned them to normal, and questioned Cid.

"Are you off to look for her yourself? If you are they're really causing quite a fuss over that silly girl."

"No, I am not off to search for Solace. But I am leaving the castle, and I'm not sure when I'll be back. On that part, you are correct. I have a different task I need to complete however."

Jihl observed his expression, to see any truth in his words. She found nothing wrong, so she chose to believe he had not lied, and continued to do what she'd been doing before he had interrupted her.

"Jihl, a piece of advice if you don't mind. The council is in a cruel mood, so I recommend not using your powers in the coming weeks." He offered it not merely as simple advice, but as an order. This she did not miss.

"And what problems do my powers bring? The most they can do is change my appearance, and even then there are many limits! I'm not some literal bomb like Solace! I'm not her."

"I'm aware of that Jihl, I never disagreed with you." He informed her calmly, but this did not soothe her temper.

She stood up, her face right in his. "I'm not some stupid half-Pulsian scum from that Experiment!"

Cid winced at the insult she sent. "I'm aware. But though you are a full blooded Cocoonian born and raised in Eden, who's powers couldn't harm a fly, the council sees you and Solace as the same. Dangerous creatures that should not exist."

Jihl struck him across the face. "How dare you say that!? I have never put anyone in harm's way, that stupid girl could never hope of saying that!"

She went to slap him again, only this time he was prepared and caught her hand before it hit. "I never disagreed with you Jihl. I never said that you were the same; I accept that you and Solace are very different. But the council doesn't consider this. So I'll tell you again, and trust me, you should heed this advice, and just be glad that I am being kind enough to give it to you, despite all the cruelness you've offered me throughout my years at the palace. Do not use your powers for any reason in the coming weeks." Cid's tone was cold and unwavering. He let go of her hand and walked off, acting indifferent to all that had occurred.

Jihl watched him as he left, concerned over how serious he had meant his words to be taken.

The Chocobo sniffed a small bush, covered in wildflowers near its feet. Her owner tugged at her reins and pulled her forward, away from the flowers which had gathered all her attention. She obeyed and put up no fight. She was an obedient little girl, though her owner had been warned that this was only so for the people that she liked. Luckily, she'd taken a liking to her current owner, and showed no problems at all.

Sazh was moving through a small woodland area, he'd left a minuscule town behind him not yet half an hour ago. He had slept in late that morning, because he was becoming quickly drained from the early waking times and late getting to sleep times he had been forced to follow since he had left Eden. He knew he was faring better than most people his age, as he was not sore all over and about to drop, but merely somewhat weary.

He'd left the forest of Eden behind him days ago, and was now passing by small villages, he made sure to stay far, far away from the three cities of Eden, Palumpolum and Nautilus. He cared more to stay away from Eden and Palumpolum, for one where the very place she was eluding, and one was where she had disappeared from. Though Nautilus did not tie in to any of the others, he was sure that his target, Solace, would be avoiding any large or major towns. Nautilus fit that bill, and therefore it was incredibly unlikely for her to be there, and if she was, it was incredibly stupid of her.

The only word of knights that Sazh had heard of was that they were staying in close proximity to Palumpolum, which was where Solace had run off from, believing that she couldn't have gotten too far. This was a most idiotic belief, as she'd had enough time to get far away from the city before any real amount of men could be sent after her. He had also been filled with tales of a young woman fitting Solace's appearance, and as a matter of fact, it was at this very moment that he was chasing the trail of one such story.

He'd been informed by a stall owner a short while after waking, that a young woman, all by her lonesome had wandered off into the woods, in the direction of a nearby village. She'd been dressed in white clothes, and wore a peculiar looking blue cloak. What little civilian clothes the girl owned were mostly of that colour, and he had long since known her to be in possession of a cloak matching the description of the one that had been mentioned.

He had not been counting the days, but he was sure that if a week even had passed since he'd left Eden, he been seeking her for only been longer by a day or so. He was already so close to finding her. He was sure it would not be much longer now.

A few hours passed and noon fell and became sunset. The sky turned a brilliant orange and the clouds a soothing lilac. His Chocobo was tiring, so he intended to give her a rest soon, and also for himself, who was currently aching all over. He could hear a river running close by, so he had decided he would find it and rest on its banks, so he'd have a water source.

A couple of minutes passed, and he finally found a clearing where the river he had heard flowing was visible. He was about to stop and get off the Chocobo, when he noticed a figure by the river banks, filling themselves up on the liquid it contained. He froze up and stared at them, unable to form a proper thought.

As if sensing their presence, the figure, a young woman, turned to face him, their traveller's cloak billowing in the wind. Even with the distance between them, and the growing darkness, her features were clear. She was young, with piecing blue eyes, and dazzling rose red hair stuffed into her cloak's hood.

Only one word was placed on Sazh's lips. "Solace…." He breathed.

She stared at him wide eyed; shock, anger, sadness, confusion and an oddly placed happiness all fought for Supremacy on her face. It was the shock however, that won in her voice. "Sazh….?"

I probably could've put off what happened in the last scene for later on, but I decided that it was better late than never, since knowing me, if I put it off, I really would put it off.

Hope you liked that, reviews shall be much appreciated, I really enjoy knowing what people think of the story.

Jya ne,

~Serah Villiers Valentine