A/N: To begin my three-part apology^^, just let me say that you all are wonderful people for sticking so far with this crazy, little story; for reviewing, for alerting and for favoring. Many thx also to the reviewer wo mentioned that "percent" mistake back in Chapter 8. At the time I wrote this chapter, I was like: percent or per cent. Of course I had to take the wrong one^^. When I released Chapter 9 about two months ago (O_O), I was in the middle of my final exams but didn't mention anything because I though it wouldn't take that long to deal with it. Terrible mistake! So I was, more or less, distracted for a couple of weeks and after having finished all the school stuff...I hit terrible writers block. It just went like: BANG...what the hell do I write now; although I mentioned in an earlier chapter where I wanted to head. It also wasn't that easy to actually write a fight scene.

But long story short, we're back with the 10th Chapter and this contains, as previously said, my first ever little battle scene. So I hope you guys can forgive me for not updating in all those weeks. I'm so sorry for this but I worked hard to get back on track (yes, true^^) and want to especially thank the lovely and amazing Lady Midday for helping me with it.

So during the battle scene, I switch between the characters and want to show what each of them is going through. I basically jumple them up and have them act parallel.

Just a little recap before we start:

The cast wants to take a rest at a bar. Snow and Hope are still outside and are about to enter. Meanwhile, Lightning & Co. stumble over Archie, the store keeper from the earlier chapters whose store went up in flames, inside the bar and trouble is about to unfold as the former storekeeper wants to take revenge with two of his guys. One of them attacks Sazh but Lightning shoots the attacker rather quickly.

So this is where the story continues and I hope you will enjoy this long overdue chapter ;)

Chapter 10

The storm outside became increasingly stronger; monstrous thunderclouds positioned themselves above the compound as several outside standing cars and motorcycles were coated sidewards with the awhirled layer of mud. Snow had noticeably trouble to keep his hat straight on his head as he slowly grasped at the rusted doorknob of the seemingly oversized entrance door. He encompassed the handle and pushed it gingerly downward as if he tried to prevent any kind of noice.

What the hell is he doing? What's taking him so long? "C'mon man, what the hell are you waiting for?" Hope, completely drenched by now, screamed to drown out the raging thunderstorm.

But Snow drew his hand back and wiped over his mouth with it. He had to think about a potential situation, involving a drunk Lightning Farron. C'mon, does she even drink? "Well, to be exact…I thought…"

"What is there to think about? They could be in deep trouble there! We have to go, NOW!"

Snow got more and more nervous and interlocked his hands the way which would have made Hope proud. God, this is so stupid. "Of course, but maybe…maybe you should go first!"

Hope looked at him in a shocking manner. "What?"

"Yeah, c'mon. I…I'll have your back!" Snow smirked slightly embarrassed and tapped softly against Hope's shoulder.

"I should be the one to go in there first? I'm just fourteen, you wuss! What's going to happen when some freaks in there start to charge at me out of nowhere?" His voice started to get slightly threatening. "It was you who babbled all the time about being a hero and saving everyone!"

"Yeah...and you were the one who kicked my ass about it. Did you already forgot how that played out?"

"Snow, you better go in there now before I take my Boomerang and…"

"All right, all right. Geez." Snow put up his hands in defeat. "Calm down, man. I'm going!" Now when did he become so aggressive? He sighed. C'mon, you can do it.

Snow grasped once more at the doorknob, slowly but with much more courage now as he thought about his dramatic hero affectation. Everything bubbled up inside him again. The excitement, the horror, the fear but most of all, the despairing aspiration for a victory. Was it to help out his friends of a possibly precarious situation or to survive a possibly drunk, wildly shooting around Lightning. He closed his eyes and sighed again. Damn, I should have taken the Boomerang… He put his hat straight once more. I wonder how many of those he actually has and where he stores them…

Meanwhile, inside the bar, time seemed to have slowed down. Smoke escaped slowly from the muzzle of Lightning's transformed sword, which she still pointed at the former storekeeper and the bartender. Her previously fired shot still echoed through the enormous room like a thunder for apparently several minutes. Almost all customers, who had sat on their tables, had jumped up from their seats and had backed off to the next best alcove or onto the dance floor. Lightning observed the thus forming crowd from the corner of her eye. The people in it pressed against each other in all possible directions. No one wanted to be in the line of fire. A couple of other customers just kept sitting at their tables and focused on their drinks as if a contingent shootout was the most common thing in this place.

Several figures then crystallized out of the agitated crowd and a few blazed the trail to nearby tables and grabbed several beer bottles or chairs, while others pulled out some knives.

Now what is their problem? Lightning had to smile to herself at this sight. Don't they see that I am the one with the gun here? What are they trying to do with knives?

But they didn't let themselves be distracted by Lightning's train of thoughts. They held the knives loosely in their hands and waved around with them for a short moment. "Finally some action!" , one of them dared to say.

They began to lumber slowly, like colossuses, and with every further step, they split up and scattered around Lightning in a semicircle. She scrutinized the dirty, disgusting and unshaved faces of those figures and examined their partly pinched eyes and their unbalanced gait. Tch, they can barely stand on their own feet. She knew they wouldn't pose a serious threat.

She took her view back to Sazh, who still knelt behind their table and pressed against his neck. "Hey, Sazh. You alive?"

She's trying to be funny now? "Y...yeah, yeah. Don't worry. I'm fine. Thanks."

But her slightly, innerly whoops of joy were tarnished quickly as she suddenly heard two guns being cocked. She looked to her side and saw as two of those wranglers had drawn some firearms in addition to their knives and had pointed them at her head. Just great. Of course… because this would have been way to easy otherwise. She sighed. Maybe we should have tried a little diplomacy first. But she already saw in her mind's eye what was about to come and it would contain, with a high probability, many casualties…injured and dead.

Archie, the former storekeeper, slowly started to clap with his hands and a big grin loomed over his, now lined by scars, face. "Well done, guys." Without paying any attention, he stept over the dead body of his former acquaintance. "But be careful with those guys." He said in an undertone of irony. "They know how to use some…let's call it…mumbo jumbo. But I think they won't try anything stupid now, right?" His eyes locked onto Lightning, he slowly proceeded with a few steps towards her. "But how small the world actually is, don't you agree? I just can't say how lucky I am to run twice into you in the last 48 hours." His voice now oozed with lewdness. "Now you know how it works. Be good and drop your weapon!"

Fang and Vanille managed to press themselves pass the last frightened or excited customer on the dance floor and were able to see the painful scene. "Oh no…now what happened there again?" Vanille whispered, while Archie started to clap and pulled off his mumbo jumbo line. "She's never going to make it on her own. We have to help her."

"I know that too, my dear!" Fang had already started to look for a potential weapon.

"But how? We don't have our weapons." God, it was so stupid to burst into this place without thinking. Damn you Fang, you sexy crazy b...

"Ah, don't worry. Just grab the next best chair and clobber someone on his head with it or just scratch their eyes out, you wildcat. Just wait for the right moment."

"When is the right moment?"

But Fang already sidled slowly among the people on the dance floor in the search for one of the barstools. This will get nasty!

Right...here we go again! Lightning let out a deep sigh and dropped her weapon on the floor. But she managed to catch Fang at positioning herself, in the meantime, next to one of the barstools, ready to strike at any moment. Though Lightning knew she had to get rid of the guns pointed at her head first…and fast. She slowly slid her cape over her left leg so that it stood free. She then focused on Sazh and waited for eye contact.

Tottering, Sazh slowly got up on his legs and tried mightily to hide that he was in any pain. But the truth said something different as he had the feeling that his entire body was in flames. Infernal pain emanated from his neck. What's going on, old man? This is just a scratch! He dabbed repeatedly against it and kept checking his fingers about the blood loss.

"Hey, now who said you were allowed to get up?"

But Sazh failed to hear Archie's comment and his snipping fingers as he was still busy to stand firmly. Guess I'm getting too old for this s…

Sazh was ripped out if his thoughts as the entrance door was kicked open and the raging thunderstorm resonated through the entire area. The wind shrilled about the room and threatened to explode everyone's eardrum. As in slow motion, Snow stomped into the building and stood still in the middle of the stairs, with his legs apart and both of his hands resting on his hip. Ok, the hero has finally… He scouted around to see that nearly everybody had turned into his direction. ...arriv... His gaze wandered to the corpse on the ground and to Lightning, who was surrounded by several gunmen. Ah, hell...

Hidden behind Snow, Hope peeked with his head to take a glance to see if his caution was justified. Sweat started to unfold on his forehead when he looked into the room.

"Now look what we have here. I guess you two are here for backup haha?" Archie asked, causing sardonic laughter to arouse.

Firmly standing on his feet, Hope shifted his weight to find a better balance. His left knee began to throb, causing him to clench his teeth. "Uhm...Snow. This looks like real trouble so I think you should just use your…"

Lightning herself had to smirk slightly when she saw them but it gave her the opportunity to act. In a fraction of a second, which this unintentionally awkward diversion brought along, she grabbed the gun's slide from the person to her right. At the same time, she swang her left leg obliquely backwards and hit the second shooter with a well-aimed kick to his jaw. He spun around and fired his gun reflexively, before it fell out of his hand and he next to it. The bullet bounced against the wall and shot directly through the bartender's head towards Snow. Milliseconds later, he could feel the air draft of the projectile flying past him and winced as it penetrated into the wall, barely next to his head.

And then all hell broke loose as Archie gave out a loud "kill them all" and most people inside the crowd started to run for the entrance in panic while three more jumped up from their seats, pulled out more guns and opened fire on Snow and the little kid.

A sudden adrenaline rush overcame Snow and he began to storm with Hope towards the counter as two weapons rattled off and tored apart the near standing tables and chairs with their bullets. Snow jumped with a well-timed dive over the counter, while Hope slid behind it.

"Damnit, that was close! Why the hell are they shooting at us now?"

"What?…I thought you would have gotten used to it now?...C'mon kid! Watch your head!"

They ducked under the rain of lead balls, bursting bottles and splinters of wood and crawled along the counter.

Her hand still tightly comprising the gun's slide, Lightning underran the arm of it's owner and rammed her elbow into his ribs. It felt good to hear them break. With a short outcry, he released his grip of the gun, staggered a couple of steps back and grasped his chest. Lightning then conveyed him with a roundhouse kick against one of the tables and send a couple of bullets after him.

But the threat was far from over as there was already the first firing burst, which smashed into the chair next to her. Lightning immediately rolled sidewise over the nearest table, overthrowing it to give her a brief cover while the bullets followed her in a straight line. She immediately opened fire herself during her movement but the first two bullets missed and the gun didn't want to spit out more. Shit! She knew she had to move fast as the bullets threat to burst the table apart but luckily, Fang was already right on the spot and shattered a chair conscientiously on the shooter's head, who was knocked out in an instant.

While Fang was busy taking care of the guy with her chair, Vanille jumped with full commitment onto the back of her nearest shooter, grabbed around his neck and tugged him back and forth wildly. "Take this!" Her fingernails pierced through his thin shirt into his flesh and the guy shot around wildly into the ceiling. Losing his balance, he keeled over backwards and fell with Vanille on him onto the ground. The girl ignored the pain, which gaped in her back by the fall and entwined the bad guy further with her legs. Fang saw as her lover was in some trouble and put the threat out of commission with a strike into the face.

"You ok, Vanille?"

"Aww…my back hurts."

"Son of a bitch!" Fang punched the guy into his face once more.

Both of the shooters, who were eager for eliminating Snow and Hope, squeezed past the people running by and continued to unload their lead into the counter. The l'Cie kept crawling until they reached the inner corner.

"Damnit, Hope. Can't you just use your Boomerang?"

"I don't have one. I broke it back in the trunk!"

"So you lied to me, you little punk!"

Hope grabbed Snow's shoulder and began to shake him. "C'mon you fool. We're sitting ducks here." Bullets smashed into the wall next to their heads. "Use the sisters already!"

The shooters banged away with their guns through the counter until the air buzzed of bullets, wood and glas. Snow and Hope both held their arms protectively over their heads.

"What did you say? It's too loud here man!"

Sazh didn't even had the slightest time to react when the bartender next to him was shed from his back part of the head. The next moment, he was already fighting for his life as two inhuman powerful arms surrounded his neck from behind and yanked him backwards. He was hurled back onto the filthy ground and nearly fell into the pool of blood from Lightnings previous victim. He smashed against the ground with a huge blast while his guns jumped out of their respective holster and slid under one of the tables. Sazh was then met with several kicks and punches from Archie.

"Take a good look at my face." He shouted, followed by another kick. "It's the last one you're ever going to see."

Sazh had curled up to take most of the hits but that wasn't a way to last long and he slowly got angry. Sazh hated being kicked at. Enough already!

"Get him!" he screamed and the baby chocobo popped straight out of his afro and dashed towards Archie, who had struck out for the next kick. The chocobo chick prickled with full force between his eyes, forcing him to flinch and to deviate from his attack.

"What the…?" Archie lost his balance and waved around with his hands to get rid of the bird.

Sazh used the moment to kick against Archie's knee, causing him to stumble. He then jumped in a leap to his guns under the table and turned around to face Archie. Sazh hesitated at moment as a thought arose in his head. This would be a good time for an one-liner now. But valuable seconds passed as he was unable to think of one and just emptied ten bullets into his enemy.

Lightning threw away the empty gun, rolled forth behind the table, and dashed towards the two men, who kept shooting at Snow and Hope behind the counter. No one noticed her until it was too late. Lightning-fast, she grabbed the first shooters arm, twisted his arm and struck against his elbow. The snapping of the bone was only drowned out by the agonized scream and the sustained fire from the other shooter. The weapon fell to the ground, followed by himself. The guy was still falling as Lightning turned around her own axis, grabbed the gun out of the air and shot the second guy into his side.

After having perforated Archie, Sazh shot the table above him to pieces and jumped up onto his feet. The very next moment, a further aggressor slashed at him from behind, his knive hissing through the air. Roaring, he struck out with a sweeping blow but Sazh was faster. Much faster. He blocked his blow skillfully, grabbed his neck and pressed his face towards his knee, which he wrenched upwards. The knive slipped from his hand and Sazh then pressed one of his guns onto his body. Four bullets exited through his back and he slumped down in an instant.

"Hey...it stopped!" Without having to duck from flying bullets anymore, Snow peeked briefly into the room and analyzed the situation. He couldn't see that much in all this clutter but he could see that one guy, equipped with two chairs, approached Sazh from behind, while he unloaded a couple of bullets into another one. "Hey, Sazh! Watch your back!" But Sazh didn't show any reaction. Damnit!

Snow crowched back to Hope. "Ok, little guy. You wait here and back me up. I'm going to muscle in a bit and deal with this guy there." And he already jumped over the counter into the crowd.

"Snow, wait! Use your GODDAMN Eidolons!" But Snow didn't hear him and marched on to his aim. Why do they always forget to use them? And what the hell do I have to do to get one? …aaaahhhh.

Snow grabbed the next best barstool and attacked his target daringly. He smashed it against it's back at full tilt but the strike was without much effect. Completely swamped, Snow looked at the stool's remnant in his hands and then saw as the assaulted fellow dropped the chairs and turned around slowly. Ah, hell. Did I just run into the most obstinate one? A powerful blow then pinched Snow who flunged over one of the tables and continued to slither on the ground.

He immediately got his consciousness back and saw as the thug cut his way to him. Still a little dazed, Snow started to grab various things that lay around him and threw it at the attacker but they were all parried. He threw bottles, forks, spoons, a gun... Wait! Did I just throw a gun away in all this hectic?

So, he slowly got on his feet, ready to face his attacker. So I guess we have to do this the hard way then. "All right...c'mon then!"

The guy mumbled some words which Snow didn't understand and banged his fist into his palm while approaching him. Snow couldn't avoid to smile. Haha, I never knew how silly that looked.

Suddenly, two bottles burst on the guy's head, causing him to stand still abpruptly. He slowly started to roll his eyes and fell to the ground as Hope appeared right behind him.

"Hope!"

"Didn't you hear what I just said, you fool?"

While Fang was busy trying to help Vanille to get on her feet, she didn't see one of the remaining guys moving in to grab her from behind. She was pulled back with a jolt and had to see as another guy stormed at her head-on, equipped with an iron bar. Now she had to think fast as the guy stormed at her, with his weapon raised. She thrust her head back and hit her clutching opponent at the jaw, who lost a bit of his grip because of the hit. She then hived off of the ground, caught the neck of the other guy with her legs and broke it with a powerful jolt. He whirled around and smashed into one of the remaining tables.

Immediate pressure built up around her waist again as the guy behind her refound his good grip on her and yanked her backwards so that it nearly took her entire breath away. Fang struggled with all her power as he tried to tug her upwards. She hooked into his leg, causing him to fail at his attempt. She then pushed her bottom forwards and her head backwards with full force to give him his second clout...and his third. Screaming in pain, he lost all of his power in his arms and stumbled back a step. That gave Fang the time to spin around and hit him with a brute spinning kick into his face. He flung a couple of meters backwards and smashed onto the ground.

Still not yielding to her, he slowly pushed himself up and moved towards her, now quicker than ever. Does this guy ever give up? With a back flip, Fang grabbed the iron bar from the ground, took position and wielded it around. All right...now let's finish this in style! With her free arm outstretched, she urged him to come closer.

In that moment, a shot roared through the room and sparks emitted from the hanging disco ball. The retainer of it broke right in the middle and the disco ball fell onto the guy's head. Under the force of the hit, he came to a full stop, completely ossified. Without any further movement, the last remaining enemy then keeled over like a felled tree.

Hey! That was MY guy! Fang turned herself into the direction of the shot and stared at Sazh, who stood there with his assault rifle. He transformed it back to his pistols, spun them around his fingers and piled his guns into their holsters. "You're welcome."

Man, is he a show-off. "Yeah, I could have handled this guy alone...but thanks anyway, I guess." Fang threw the iron bar onto the ground and went to check up on Vanille as she still lay under one of the unconscious guys.

Completely exhausted, Snow grabbed one of the remaining chairs in this room and sat himself on it. "Oh my...I'm literally dead." He tipped his chair back and puffed like a grampus as Hope sat himself next to him on a table.

"You already wasted, big man? Pfff..."

"Hey! I was under enormous stress back there" Snow started to nod, still breathing heavily. "But no problem. I managed to retain control over the situation."

"Control? If it wasn't for me, we would scrape you off of the wall now!"

"Just leave me alone, man! Was there any other possibility to begin with?"

Hope pressed his head into his hands and sighed. "You could have just..." No, he has to learn it the hard way next time.

Sazh cracked with his fingers and walked to Lightning, who leaned against the entrance door and looked onto the ground. "Hey...that was...we really got away with a black eye there."

"Hmm...you think?"

"Yeah, sure. I mean...when this guy attacked me and you jumped up from your chair and then...BANG...right into his heart. That was...I don't know what to say."

"Don't mention it."

"No, really. Thanks for saving my ass out there...again."

"I said, don't mention it."

Sazh drove his hand through his afro and looked over the room. "Oh boy, look at this mess...well, at least...this place didn't go up in flames. That's a progress, don't you think?"