(10,824 words) I'm sorry for my lack updates, I had important tests to study for and do (I missed one but let's not talk about that...) I'm hoping when I'm done with a number of artworks I'm doing that my update schedule may return to normal. Let's hope shall we?

Thanks for sticking with this even with my dreadful lack of updates. I'm happy for all the reviews I've gotten and would love some more (it's certainly been a while).

Oh, since it's been a few months with little reaction, I'd like to mention I have a poll up. I want to do a digital artwork for one of my stories and decided I'd leave it up to my fans to decide. So far only three people have, and they've each picked a different option.

Truth and Lies

Chapter 11: Deeper

When Solace heard the sound of steps, undoubtedly from a Chocobo, she'd initially thought it to be a wild one, or a traveller straying from the path like her. The idea she would know the man, was one that never occurred to her. Not knowing who had spotted her by the forest stream, she'd turned around calmly. But she recognised his features immediately. It'd been a while since they'd last seen each other, she may have aged a little since then, but he didn't look a day older. The older man froze, just as she did. Surprise was certainly something she could read on his face, but she doubted every bit that his heart was racing as painfully as hers.

"Solace…" Sazh breathed, shock consuming him

The sound of his voice, the familiarity of it calmed her. She wanted to smile, but in this situation it made no sense. She was shocked undoubtedly, she couldn't understand what brought the man here; he should be with Dajh back in Eden. So something had to be up, this wasn't normal, she knew it wasn't, and it scared her beyond any reason she could conjure. She was happy and terrified in equal measure.

"Sazh…?" She wanted to at least sound somewhat happy; she didn't want to look scared. He shouldn't be a threat to her; he was too nice for that. But his presence here was questionable, and with the oddity fear was brought along with it. In trying to hold it all down, the only emotion she could show was her surprise. Were she to show any different, she'd surely break. The man in silence got off his Chocobo, as his feet hit the ground Solace panicked and picked up what little of her things she had. Before she could make a run for it, however, Sazh already had a steady grip on her arm. Shyly, she lifted her gaze, her soft blue eyes uneasy as they met with his sorry dark ones.

"What are you doing out here?" He questioned, in a tone akin to speaking to one's own child. From anyone else, that would upset her. But in having no father around to look after her, she'd seen him akin to one. He was the only one who had the right to speak like that to her.

She lowered her gaze and kicked the dirt with her foot, chewing her bottom lip as she did so. He didn't see her answering, so he asked again, a little louder this time, as if she simply hadn't heard him the time before. Her posture proved her to be just as reluctant to speak, but this time, she answered, though, not quite what he wanted to hear.

"Drinking. I was thirsty. The water was very cool."

He sighed, her voice was so weak, and she stopped at odd places in the sentence. To him, it felt like she was a child who not only wanted to get out of trouble, but didn't even know what she was talking about.

"Solace." He said her name in an attempt to gather more of her attention than he was receiving. "You know yourself that's not what I was referring to. Why did you run off? You know the strict rules imposed on you right? Goddess knows how the council's going to react, I don't even want to think of it and it's not me it's going to happen to."

She looked at him this time, but not all her gaze was focused on him. She seemed to be looking past him. But he knew whatever she was looking at, she wasn't focused on that either. She just wanted out of this situation, and thought little other than that.

"What are you doing out here? What about Dajh?" She questioned, her tone stronger than before, but seeing as it was just another tactic to avoid answers, it just made him feel exasperated. However, that she was coherently talking was definitely an improvement.

"Dajh is being looked after at the palace. He's fine; it's not him that needs to be worried over right now. I'm mean, I'm worrying alright, I don't trust what those servants are doing with him. They're good people, but I'm still not one hundred per cent sure how they are with children; they've never looked after him for a prolonged period of time. It doesn't feel right leaving him there even if-" He halted when he noticed Solace's expression change, to that of worried concern, and he realised he was thoroughly digressing from his intended topic. He frowned himself and sighed. "Sorry about that. I didn't realise how much it was getting to me. Now, about why I'm here." He returned to his original topic. "I think you know that yourself."
Solace looked down at her feet and neglected replying. She gave the slightest of nods.

"Cid told me to look for you."

"Cid!?" She yelled. The first sound as high, or well, higher, than a normal speaking voice he'd heard out of her yet. "I thought the council-"

"He was worried," Sazh interrupted her quickly, "About what the council might try to do to you. He decided it was safer for you to return immediately, rather than later. He was hoping your punishment would be less severe."

She grumbled a little as her head fell down, she seemed to recoil inside herself a little. She didn't say more.

"I'm here to take you back alright? It's the safest for you after all. It's best for Cid too; you know what's going on. Don't act ignorant of your situation."

She bit her lip and pushed him away. The act was sudden and he almost stumbled back. That he kept his footing surprised him. "Solace?" He wasn't surprised she was upset, but, that wasn't quite the word for it. She was angry, her emotions had done a bit of a 360˚ flip in the few seconds that had passed since he spoke. She was fretting and chewing on her nails as she backed off and paced erratically. But her expression was enough to know what she was feeling.

"No!" She shouted, as she shook her head violently as she backed off.

"Solace!" Sazh went to grab her by the wrist, but she moved her arm away, refusing his attempt at consoling her.

"No…I can't, I can't go back. They won't be forgiving. They'll be the irrational people I know the council are. I bet they're overreacting already. Goddess I know they are." Her voice was shaking, her footing unsteady as her legs were the same.

"Solace, please just listen. You know you've gotten yourself into a complicated situation; me and Cid are trying to help, alright? If you come back now, we might be able to strike a deal to keep you safe, if you keep this up, I don't know what'll happen. But I definitely don't want a kid like you dying over nothing." He went to grab her hand again but she swiped it away fiercely.

"No, it won't work, you know that." She sobbed, anger had given way to fear, which took the form of sadness on her countenance.

Sazh tried to give her a sympathetic smile, but when he took a proper look at her, it switched to serious concern. She hadn't been staring at him, but at her feet, so he hadn't noticed it immediately, but now he saw it, he knew he had to get everything under control. Her eyes had changed colour, they were startlingly clear, disturbed only by the fiery orange at their centre. Her breathing was erratic, and her eyes darted everywhere as if they couldn't see what was in front of them. He'd sent her off into a panic, and before he could feel bad about it, he needed to calm her down first. He'd seen this all before, he knew exactly what would happen if he didn't.

"Solace, just listen to me for a moment, before you regret anything." He managed to get out as he made another attempt to grab onto her; this time finally, he was successful. Startled, her eyes darted up and met with his.

She'd recognise the sensation she was feeling, she'd know if she didn't stop now she'd release her powers. And for both, that was the last thing they wanted. No one knew who could be watching, and no one wanted to end up hurt.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I-" She cut herself short as she pushed him away and unsteadily walked off a short distance away. Sazh went to get her but as she collapsed on the ground, he knew that wasn't smart. He stepped back, towards the Chocobo still waiting, as the sound of her screams filled the air. She couldn't calm down, and he couldn't get her to either. If she was going to lose it, distance was best.

He watched, pained by not being able to do anything. He'd seen this before, her lose it like this. When she had control it was fine, but when she didn't, it was hell. Before everything was released her temperature skyrocketed, her abnormal body was able to take it, but it'd kill a normal human experiencing the same. It was painful none the less, she felt like her insides were boiling and her skin was melting. Her breathing came fast and heavy as she forced herself to stay conscious through the pain, as if enduing it would make it stop. In the short time she'd fallen into that state her body had become covered in sweat. Only a few short seconds had passed, but the whole experience felt like it'd lasted hours. And when those seconds passed, everything was released.

She screamed as fire engulfed the area, with her at the core. It was a small radius, so Sazh was not caught up in it, but the flames were no less deadly. They ferociously scorched the area, with a wildness normal flames were incapable of. In a matter of moments, they died down, leaving blackness in its wake. Solace was unscathed, but her breathing harsh and her consciousness fading. She didn't last long. The burning sensation was gone, but her energy with it. It'd taken her all just to restrain the size, she couldn't take anymore now. After taking some short breaths, she fainted. Sazh stepped into the burnt circle, the ground blackened, the trees dead and broken apart, unrecognisable. The little stream nothing but steam. He picked up her small form, her body still a high temperature, and carried her over to the Chocobo. He'd feared setting her off, but had never expected to actually do it. He assumed, that she feared the council much more than he'd originally believed. It'd been years since her powers had been released to that level, there was nothing he could do for the area, and little he could do for her. He could only hope no one had seen anything.

A few hours later, Solace regained consciousness, to find herself on a patch of grass in a small clearing. Sazh was a little ways off, and the Chocobo was standing curiously by her. When they noticed she was awake, they begun to nudge her, chirping a little. She pushed the bird away as the feeling was uncomfortable. The sound of her shifting position alerting Sazh, who gave her a quick smile when he noticed she'd wakened.

"Feeling any better?"

She lifted herself up into a sitting position, groaning a little. Her energy was back, but her limbs felt sore and stiff. Her power was strong, but it exhausted her.

"I think so." She answered, as she recalled what had happened. "I'm sorry I…I freaked out, I didn't mean for that to happen."

Sazh nodded but brushed her apology aside. "Don't worry yourself about it. I knew you'd lost control of it again. Cid gave me fair warning of that. I was just hoping not to set it off, but if you've no control, then I really can't blame you." He sat down beside her as she lowered her head.

"Still…I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologise. I upset you I know, but you have no control over that reaction."

She paused, still troubled, but it seemed like she would stop. "I still have to go back, don't I?"

"Yes. I don't have any choice in that either."

"Right." She mumbled, dismayed by the thought. He didn't like it either, if he could stop her returning to Eden he would, but running off would just get them both punished, or even Dajh.

He sighed. "We have to go back Solace. It doesn't matter how I still see you, but you're not a child anymore. You know the circumstances you're in. The council aren't even the whole problem."

"She'll hurt him, won't she?" Solace interjected.

Sazh grimaced. "The goddess you mean?"

"Cid said both of them are watching me. One of them, he said, was the one who made you watch me. He said that there are others like you, working for her, looking after the other Veil. You'll be hurt if you don't do your job, he said that too. It's why he's sick, because of how we've been acting to each other." She bit her lip as she talked. "But I don't know if he's being punished specifically because he's being distant to me, or because I'm angry at him."

"She's touchy. Not exactly what someone would expect a goddess to be. I was punished severely when I failed my task. Cid saved me, by offering to use me as help with you. I'm surprised it worked, it let me get out without too many difficulties."

Solace didn't respond to that comment. She knew well that the only reason Sazh helped her now was because he'd looked after a Veil years back, but she'd died. She didn't know how he'd been punished, neither he nor Cid had ever told her. She didn't know what the actual intended punishment was meant to be either, as Cid had intervened it had never happened, and neither cared to tell anyone about it.

"What happened between you two anyway? The way you've been acting towards each other is more than a little odd. You used to be so close." Sazh popped up with.

She frowned, and moved so that she could wrap her arms around her legs, her chin resting on her knees. "If I'm being perfectly honest. I don't even know. Everything was fine, but then he just turned distant, no warning, no nothing. If I clung to him he'd push me off, and sometimes when I tried to talk to him he'd just tell me to leave. I'd spent almost half my life with him, I felt closer to him than I had to my own…" She halted and cut herself off, almost saying something she hadn't intended to.

Sazh however, gave her an all knowing look. "To your own sister do you mean? I know you have a sibling. There was one Veil there who had two children, and I know you're one of them."

Solace didn't seem comfortable with him knowing the information, but she continued what she'd been explaining. "I don't really know how to describe it, but I just didn't want to be alone, I just wanted him to always be with me, and I'm not even sure why. Then three years ago, it stopped. He began ignoring me, avoiding me, telling me off for the slightest thing. He won't explain himself at all, that's probably what hurts the most."
Sazh gave her a look that she couldn't even begin to describe. She thought initially it had been understanding, but understanding what? She wasn't sure. She didn't understand it; that was what she knew. It annoyed her to look at it, so she looked at her feet instead.

"I really do have to go back don't I?"

"You do, this short stint is over, there's nothing we can do about it."

"Then don't take me back, just run off. Claim you couldn't find me, say I'm dead. I know Cid wouldn't believe that, but the council might, they're the problem after all." She pleaded.

"I don't see that working, Solace."

"Then make it work." She ordered him.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "You know for one who hates being valued as a child, you're being rather childish."

At this she grumbled and dropped the subject. Sazh stood up and went back to whatever he'd been doing before she'd woken. With little interest, Solace watched the Chocobo poke about the area, and not the man.
After some time, she piped up again. "Cid said we were never meant to have met."

"Eh?" Sazh wasn't sure how to respond. He wasn't entirely sure if the girl was even referring to him, or to Cid himself. Given the circumstances of her and Cid's relationship, he dearly hoped she meant him. "What do you mean by that?" He asked for clarification.

"He was meant to protect someone else, and someone else was meant to protect me." He froze up when he realised she had truly meant Cid. "There was a mix up, but it wasn't an accident. He knows who it is, but he doesn't know who they are."

At the curious topic, Sazh found himself returning to Solace's side. "How can you know who someone is without knowing who they are?"

"He knows the person who took his place. But he comes across the problem that he doesn't actually know where they came from. They were from Eden like him, most that protected the Veil were. This he doesn't doubt, but for some reason he wanted out, and he used her to give himself that opportunity. I wouldn't call it cruel at all, the girl wasn't intended to be hidden anywhere near Eden. The survivors were scattered, only a few were left in Eden, and of those I'm the only one still alive. I don't know who they are, but they must have been in some kind of important position that they were meant to look after someone important, as were all left in the city. But they didn't want to remain in the city, so they did what they were not supposed to, and helped one of the girls chosen to be taken away, and left with her."

"That's a…curious story."

"I'm not half as concerned on who he is as Cid is. He knows his face and name, but nothing else about him and it's always bothered him. I just want to know what made him want to leave Eden. There's no poverty in the city, being born into a family there can make you set for life, yet he left anyway. To live in some backwards town, it doesn't make much sense in a lot of ways. So I want to know what caused him to take such an action."

Sazh took the information in with a level of curiosity. He himself couldn't know who she was talking about, according to Cid, only three people were still looking after Veil if he didn't count himself. But since his original charge had died, he had never spoken with the goddess. Only then did he have a chance to speak with her other servants. That was how Cid knew who this man was, but he could not get that information himself.

"You have met another one haven't you? A few years back, another Veil and her protector." The thought came into his head, he'd known about it for some time now, but had never questioned the details.

"Vanille, that was the name of the protector, but I forgot the other's name. I just remember it sounded more like a dog's name. It made me curious if it was actually her name, it just didn't sound right to me, But then again, I don't know Pulsian naming sense. "

"Vanille, how do you remember that name and not the other? Dogs don't even have complicated names."

At this, Solace giggled. "Because it sounds like Vanilla. I thought it was cute. I talked with her more as well; I couldn't get a word through to the other. She couldn't stand me because I was from Eden; that was about it. I'll admit, after that I wasn't too fond of her either."

Sazh frowned, not sure what to say about that comment. "I wasn't informed they were Pulsian of all things. I was under the impression that they were all from Cocoon. Only the Veil had some heritage, none of the protectors."

She shrugged. "I wasn't sure myself how Vanille got herself caught up in this mess, but both were definitely from Pulse, they'd spent too long together for any to have been caught up in that experiment. They're special cases I think. I met them in Eden though, they were caught, and put in prison. If anyone had found out what they were, I know they would have both been executed on the spot. I sympathised with them, I wasn't sure what they were doing sneaking around the capital of an enemy nation, but I didn't see it as reason to kill them."

"So…you're the one that let them escape I take it."

She nodded. "During a lapse in the guard's attention, it worked out better than I'd expected. They got away and I haven't seen them since."

"Do you understand what could have happened to the lot of you if you'd been caught? You're valued worse than Pulsians themselves, I don't think it gets any worse than that."

To this, Solace did not reply, she said something entirely different instead. "She said you're L'cie. They're usually servants to the Falcie, but in desperate times, the goddesses take control of them. That's what all the protectors are. What did she mean exactly? Aren't you guys normal humans? And what exactly does desperate times even mean?"

Sazh paused, "I think there's a little bit too much information in that to explain right now. You should rest some more, I doubt you're a hundred per cent." He walked off from her, and would answer no further questions.

Pouting, she responded with a childish reaction she wasn't even sure she meant. "Then I'm not going back then."

The sun rose over the horizon slowly, bringing light that shone through the canopy of leaves. The sky above turned from grey and purple to warmer shades as the bright orange orb grew higher. The cold air warmed little by little as morning went on. Lightning followed a short way behind Snow and Vanille, with Fang as per usual in front by a league. The two to her front had been talking earlier, but their conversation had dwindled to nothing some time ago. Lightning had been vaguely listening to them to keep her mind from boredom from the mundane task of walking. But with that gone, she had little more than to distract herself by than seeing if she could walk in a way that'd cause less dew to jump up on her. She'd grown tired of the coldness a while back. She found that not knowing where they were heading made her grow bored exceedingly fast. She had half a mind to think Snow wasn't much better, but he seemed to be more patient with it for now, and she didn't really care anyway.

It'd been a few days since Fang had forced her to fight her. She blamed her own lack of patience for the woman that she'd accidentally used her powers in her anger. But it'd given her the opportunity to find out for sure that Fang, like her, was indeed a Veil. She wouldn't lie, it annoyed her she was unable to figure out what the Pulsian's power was, but seeing as neither Snow nor Vanille knew it either, she had little she could do.
She was still sparring with her, there was little improvement besides that she was getting a little better at predicting what Fang was going to do, but it certainly wasn't enough to beat her. She understood that this was all to make her stronger, but she still disagreed with it. She'd grudgingly accepted that the woman was a strong fighter. She had experience beyond her years in fighting, therefore being able to beat someone of that level didn't seem at all necessary to her. What did Fang expect to happen to her? She understood the danger a Veil faced when it came to being discovered, but she doubted this far away from any major city that she'd face someone with any real talent. She was good enough already, it wasn't like she couldn't fight, Fang was just making an unfair comparison by comparing her to herself.

Where they were going was a fact still unknown to her, Snow undoubtedly was just as clueless. Vanille believed she wanted to take her somewhere safe, but the exact location was clearly unknown to the girl as well. She seemed to be holding onto her faith that this all had meaning, but Lightning herself still had that budding feeling that they weren't heading anywhere, that this was all pointless and Fang was merely playing a game with them all. The woman was still enough of a mystery to her that she felt like nothing had occurred that proved her theory otherwise.

As the day went on their surroundings changed gradually. The trees began to lessen until there were little to none and the woods opened into a plain that stretched as far as they could see. Vanille voiced what they all thought at the sight with a long sigh of exhaustion. There were a few hills and few trees, which made the bad combination of lack of shade and more exhaustion. As the sun had risen close to the centre by this time, Fang offered to take a break, one which was gladly taken by the others.

They rested under a small crooked tree and ate lunch. The rest offered them an opportunity to relax their sore bodies after the long walk. They'd woken up hours ago, before the sun had even risen sincerely because Fang had been impatient. The woman in question seemed fine, but all the travelling had taken its toll on the others. There was definitely no doubt that Fang and Vanille were just more used to this kind of nonstop travelling in comparison to Lightning and Snow who'd grown up in the one place, but even Vanille was a mess by now.

They were mostly silent until Lightning grew curious and asked, though not expecting a direct answer, "Where the hell are you taking us?"

Fang was up and leaning against the tree, spying at a faraway animal in the distance she couldn't quite make out. Her level of distraction seemed great enough that whether or not she heard the pink haired woman's question, she wouldn't answer. She proved to surprise them all however when she did.

"I think we walked back into Cocoon a bit."

"We never left Cocoon." Vanille sighed.

"I know, just walked further away from the border." She clarified, pointing out she was perfectly aware of that. "I'm just trying to figure out where we are exactly. It's familiar, but I don't remember clearly enough to recall the exact position. I was staring at that thing out there though," She pointed to the animal she'd seen. "Thought it looked like a dog, but then I realised it's something completely different and that that was a pretty stupid thought. I swear I've seen one before, so we're definitely somewhere in proximity of the border, if I could find any defining land feature I'd be able to tell, but it's just grass, trees and hills."

"Wait you were actually staring at that thing for a reason?" Lightning questioned, she thought it was Fang ignoring them. She wouldn't put it past her to ignore humans and get distracted by something in the distance; she put it akin to a child getting distracted by something shiny.

"Of course I was, do you really think I'm that stupid?" Fang moved away from the tree, clearly annoyed at the lack of faith in her intelligence.

"You've never made me think otherwise." Lightning grumbled and rolled her eyes.

Fang paused and crossed her arms, definitely annoyed at her attitude. Lighting expected of course that the Pulsian woman was about to lose it at her, but instead she only laughed it off, suddenly falling into a fit randomly. "Fair enough, sweet heart."

The other ignored the outburst and fell silent until she eventually asked after finishing what she'd been eating. "You never answered me you know. Where the hell are we going?"

"Calm down Sweet pea, I've got to figure out where the hell we even are first." Fang chuckled before returning to the tree and eyeing the area again; to see if she'd missed anything.
Vanille gave Light an apologetic look. Yet again, no proper answer.

After the break was deemed over, Fang made the decision for them to continue onwards. She believed she'd find something eventually, and they had enough food and water on them to chance the endeavour.
The day passed by slowly as they traversed the plain. It wasn't overly hot but the lack of shade was not welcomed after spending such a long time in the woods. The march was not much more than walking over a hill and then another in turn, again and again as Fang attempted to see something of note that by some chance she might recognise. Like usual, The Pulsian was out in front, not just because she felt like it this time however, but because she liked the idea of scouting anything first so she could tell the others about it before any of them saw it. Lightning valued the distance she was away from them as an opportunity not to deal with the woman. She wasn't the nasty sort, but her vague answers and constant sweet nicknames tried her patience. Snow and Vanille too took to the same habit, alternating between avid conversations and long periods of silence. Lightning trailed behind them, dragging her feet as she had no intention to interact with anyone. She knew and expected as always that if she tried to leave, Fang would catch her and bring her back. So, much like how she valued this expedition here, it would be a fruitless endeavour.

Sometimes when boredom got to her, she listened in to Snow and Vanille's conversations. She never listened for long enough to actually understand what they were going on about. She'd come in mid word, listen to a few sentences and stop. As such, they never made sense to her; it sounded like gibberish worse than what Fang could conjure. She'd caught enough to know that Vanille had said plenty on Oerba and Pulse as a whole. She had the basic understanding that though there was a lot of trust amongst the Pulsian people, it was with good reason. As well as relationships between people where, it was certain that Cocoon called the place hell for a reason. The beasts there were vicious; alone, a normal person stood no chance. Connections made for safety. Being from nowhere of importance, Snow certainly had less to say, though he seemed to have an odd amount of interest in the logics of Pulse, so he said less about everything anyway. But he did speak a little of Bodhum, hardly like there was much to say.

It was a little village by a beach. The weather was almost always warm, so rain generally came as a shock. It was well off for what it was, but was fairly cut off from other towns, so it'd learned how to look after itself independently. It had a fair amount of citizens, with an odd amount of old ladies. The children had loved them because they'd always give them something, sweets mostly. Snow admitted to taking advantage of their generosity with his friends. Being orphans, they were extra generous to them. They'd offered to Lightning as well, but back when she was that young she had only recently came to Bodhum, and didn't trust anyone enough to accept their offerings, no matter how kindly they were made. He told Vanille about how the village was aware of what Lightning was, but whether or not they believed the Veils were involved in the catastrophe of Eden, which had almost killed the entire royal family, no one saw the reason to take it out on a child. She was little, and couldn't have anything to do with it. After witnessing her powers, some of them were scared of her, but most worked on getting through that fear and tried to help her instead. The attempts perhaps would have been more productive had she not had so many trust issues.
Vanille smiled sadly at the last fact, and admitted sometimes Fang was the same. Lightning wasn't sure if she saw what she meant.

Later in the day, as it neared sunset, and after another period of silence from the two in front of her, Lightning heard an energetic yell from Fang. She must have been screaming, because despite the distance between them she was startling clear.

"Hey, I can see something over here!" She turned back around to look again at what she was referring to. Vanille ran to catch up to her and the others were stuck following suit. As they got to the crest of the hill Fang had stopped at, they noticed a distance away down the hill and then some, a greyish spot. In the darkening light it was hard to make out what it was. They could see the end of the plain by now, but it'd be night time before they reached it. Under that logic they decided to investigate what Fang had found instead of attempting to reach the end before nightfall, something they knew would fail if they tried.

They headed down the hill; Fang not near as far away as she had been all day, and gradually grew closer to the spot. As it grew larger, they began to make out more of it in the purplish grey light. What became certain was that it was a rock formation. The ground surrounding it lacked grass and was littered with small rocks, likely cracked off from the larger ones. As they got closer however, its shape became easier to ascertain, and what they noticed now they were only a short way from it was that it wasn't a simple formation, it was a cave.

The others paused to take it in, but Fang opened her mouth immediately and laughed, "Well, I think I've find us a place to stay for tonight."

With little options available and likely no close by towns, the group took up Fang's idea and rested for the night in the cave. The two Pulsians quickly gathered up fire wood and got a fire going for some light and warmth. They set it up a short way into the cave, which proved deeper than expected, and they were unwilling to travel that deep in, not knowing what they'd find. As night fell the temperature dropped. Around the fire some warmth was maintained, but away from it it was freezing. Both ground and walls were smooth to almost perfection. Vanille reckoned it was a strange cave, but whether anybody agreed with her, no one voiced their opinion.

Focusing on staying warm rather than conversation, the group was silent for quite some time, until with some curiosity Fang brought up, "You know, I've been kind of thinking it weird, but for as long as we've been out here, we haven't come across any fiends. Well besides that dog thing, but that was heaps far away, and there was only one of them. Is that weird to you? Or am I just making retarded Pulse-Cocoon comparisons?"

The response wasn't immediate, as the others didn't actually know the answer to Fang's question. Any kind of legitimate sentence from Fang's mouth was unexpected in and of itself, so that too made it more difficult to answer.

"I think Pulse is just crazy." Lightning answered blatantly.

"Maybe they're just not in this area, or there's just less in Cocoon." Snow attempted an actual answer.

Fang pondered their answers, more to Snow's than Lightning's of course. The woman didn't bother with her answer; she didn't appear to want to start a proper conversation.

"Something doesn't feel right about that though. We're close to Pulse too, so I don't see why with that small geographical difference, why they'd be that much difference in the fiend population. Pulse is hell but Cocoon's no heaven. "

"What about culling?" Vanille piped up with out of the blue. "I've heard when passing villages on more than one occasion of culls happening. Keeps fiends away from towns. From the sound of things at least I think it's a pretty common practice on Cocoon."

The expression on the two Cocoonians faces was akin to that of a light bulb turning on.

"Ah, actually I've heard of that happening around Bodhum. Pretty common actually. Of course it'd happen other places." Lightning felt stupid with herself for not thinking of the answer. She didn't know much of other towns much less cities, but given how Cocoon was, other places committing the act wasn't at all odd to her.

"Really does seem like something Cocoon would do, huh?" Snow mused to himself.

Fang looked at all three quizzically. "Wait, what the hell is culling?"

"You don't know?" Lightning questioned her; the woman's confusion seemed genuine. It was stupid in a way.

"It's where people cut down the population of animals in a certain area when the population's gotten out of control." Vanille explained. "Like killing them because they're eating all the fields needed for farming, or because they could be a danger to townspeople. There are lots of reasons for it. It's not the kind of thing for a Pulsian to do however, so it doesn't surprise me you don't know of it, even if someone thought you dim for not knowing. You've no real reason to in the end."

"Hell yeah it isn't a Pulsian thing to do. If an animal's there, they were there first, deal with it, or leave. And if they just randomly appear and invade your place, feel free to leave if you can't deal with it. That's no reason to kill them. Don't care if it's because they're overpopulated, that's just a crazy idea." She ranted, "Goddess, the more I stay here the more I think all of Cocoon is crazy." She pointed to her companions with a rather lazy flick of the wrist. "You two are alright, but seriously, this is crazy."

Vanille chuckled a little rant, but made no comment.

After another while of silence, Fang started to muse to herself about their location. Seeing as the woman certainly seemed to have done the most travelling, if anyone was going to figure out where they were, it'd be her.

"This feels familiar in a weird way; I swear I've been here before, but for the life of me I can't remember when."

"So we're basically still lost?" Lightning asked, though more than that, she'd decided it.

"No." Fang sighed and jokingly pouted at the other woman. "I'm sure if I remember it I'll be fine. I recall pretty fine the times I've used this path." She boasted, or attempted to as Lightning didn't take any value in her words. "If I just remember when I came here I could remember the direction I was going in, and I'll go from there."

At her words it wasn't Lightning to respond but Vanille, who giggled. "And that'll help you remember? The direction you were going in?"

"Yeah," Fang retorted. "I was in the same area, but at different points. That's what I mean. So I was either going down or up, If it's down, I'm pretty sure we're still heading where I want to take us. If it's up, well have fun, we have to backtrack."

No one looked happy at the prospect of having to walk back all that way just so Fang could find her way again, given this was already an attempt on that. Even the woman herself seemed upset by it, and she hadn't been fazed at all the entire time.

"So wait, how come you've taken this path more times than Vanille?" Lightning picked up on something amiss in both Pulsian's words. She doubted Snow had noticed, and she believed Fang tried to go over it quickly so the pink haired wouldn't notice either. They'd made it seem like the duo were always together, it seemed like Vanille's job almost to rein Fang in. She couldn't imagine a reason for them to travel without the other.

Fang grinned, a cheeky, snide grin. Lightning knew it had no meaning in itself, Fang just wanted to upset her in typical fashion. "I've been everywhere, I doubt Vanille could keep up even if she tried."

Annoyed, Lightning just decided to lose interest in the conversation. Perhaps there was information in that sentence that meant much more than Fang was leading on it did, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with her. Irritable, She stood up and walked off, deeper into the cave.

"Ah, wait." Vanille cried, anxious and a little worried, "What about light? It's dark down there."

"Not a problem." She called back as she turned a corner. A small warm light could be seen a few seconds later, from an undoubted source.

Vanille backed down with her argument, but still felt anxious about anyone going in deeper than necessary. Snow got up to go after her, but Fang grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him back down with more force than needed.

"Let her go, you don't have to follow her all the time. Just rest a moment, nothing will happen here. She wants some alone time, 'bout time she actually got some. I've been waiting for her to rip my head off." Snow seemed ready to argue back, but he stopped almost immediately. He knew Fang's logic well enough, and no matter who a person was it was hard to win against.

Deeper into the cave Lightning went, all was cold expect her right hand, where she had a small fire going. It was probably the most trivial thing she'd used her power for, she'd never really imagined using it as a torch. It was a useful idea, but it'd never been needed.

She'd turned a corner back when the others were still close, but now it was a single ongoing passage, slanting down little by little. She believed that the cave could be so big because the formation they saw wasn't its entirety, but rather much of it was underground, as this was surpassing her expectations. The walls and the floor proved as smooth and flawless as the entrance was. It was simple, but upheld itself to be an oddity. The ground at her feet was beginning to level out and become flat, it happened at a slow decline over time, to the point she barely noticed until she realised later when she was no longer walking downwards. She didn't think much of it and continued on, she wasn't exactly curious, but being tired of being in Fang's presence she'd needed to escape. This was a good path to take, quite literally, to achieve that.

After some time walking down the passage, in complete darkness except her little flame, and in complete silence except the sound of her footsteps, she finally came across another turn, and light at that. She turned the corner, and the sight she saw not only astounded her, but confused her and gave her plenty of reason to extinguish her flame. In front of her was an open cavern abounding in glorious blue white light. There was little ground to be spoken of for infront of her was a lake glowing bright. Unable to understand the sight she walked closer and found under the surface was shining deep blue, purple, sky blue , green and pink crystals. The array of colours produced the most unbelievable light. She didn't know what made the crystal glow, but she couldn't say she cared. Interested, she sat at the water's edge, doing nothing but gazing all around her at the magnificent sight.

Hours could have passed, but she did not feel them.

After spending a time alone, the silence was finally broken by the sound of steps. Granted they weren't light she knew at least it wasn't Vanille. She tilted her head lazily to check who was behind her and saw Snow standing a short way away from her. Frowning she looked away and grumbled in an annoyed tone.

"At least you're not Fang."

"Don't want to talk to her I take it?"

"I don't want to talk to you either." She muttered. "Fang's just exhausting to be around."

She watched the water in front of her and ignored him for a while, as if that'd make him leave. She didn't believe it'd work either, not after he'd walked all this way, but it was a better alternative than talking to him. She of course found it was a pretty pointless idea when he sat down next to her, with some choice distance between them however. He pushed how far he could go with her plenty of times, but he took her hatred for him more seriously than Fang did. It should've been something to be glad about, but she still hated him just the same anyway, and couldn't find herself caring.

"You were gone for a while, so I just meant to check."

"Then you can go back."

He frowned at that, "Can't I get away from her for a little while?"

She glared, "I came this way to get away from the both of you. You don't even have much of a problem with her don't you?"

"Not really." He admitted. "But when you're gone she targets me, and then Vanille gets confused because she's coming up with so much crap, and she tries to ask about it and it just gets worse from there. I think it's been an hour, so it got really bad by the end."

"An hour huh." She hadn't paid much attention to his words; she just used it to check the time. "Didn't think I was gone for long."

"Don't really see someone paying much attention to that in a place like this." He whistled as he observed the area. "I gotta say I was surprised when I noticed the light back there, but I didn't expect this. Wouldn't think a place like this would be in the middle of a cave huh?"

She didn't bother to reply. He frowned; it was difficult getting her to talk when it wasn't an argument. He was trying his best to start a conversation, but her sincere lack of interest was hard to get around. He decided to comment on something different to see if it'd work.

"Do you listen to mine and Vanille's conversations? You're always walking behind us after all."

She sent him an odd look, after spending a million times trying to talk with her as a kid, she could read his face well. She knew he was trying to set her off with different topics, but she hadn't thought he'd even mention such a thing. "I guess, not much, they don't make sense."

He chuckled, "Well they would if you listened more. She talks of Pulse mostly, she's not sure what to say about herself, and knows even less about Fang. So she just rants about her home."

"Well you rant about Bodhum; it's annoying to be honest." She sounded annoyed, he was pretty sure she'd never really valued the place as home like he had. She distanced herself constantly, initially from being scared of hurting people, and then because she'd chosen to dislike them. He couldn't see why she'd like the place, even if it'd offered salvation for her. She'd seen herself as alone.

Snow didn't voice any kind of response out loud, but held a curious expression she couldn't read. He was oddly silent for a while, before he finally spoke a sentence as curious as his expression. "It doesn't sound that bad a place."

"Pulse?" Lightning clarified, confused by the statement.

He nodded. "I mean yeah, it still sounds difficult to live in, but there's just this trust among the people that just sounds nice. I can't think of it as hell if it's like that. It may just be Vanille's experience, but I don't see why it wouldn't be like that elsewhere. I used to think it might be that way as a kid you know. I thought that if Veils weren't bad, then maybe Pulse wasn't either. It was all stuff the capital shoved down everyone's throat. They probably lie about everything anyway. So in that way, Cocoon's kinda the bad place. They're all twisted anyway."

Lightning's response to this, was an extremely quizzical expression and a question that burst forth from her lips. "How the hell do you end up with that kind of anti-Cocoon ideal when you grew up in a coastal town like Bodhum? They never had anything to do with anything!" She was in no way disagreeing; it just happened that she'd never expected him to say that. He seemed comfortable enough with having Pulsians in the group, and he'd known a Veil most of his life, but she still hadn't expected him to have any bad feelings about his home country.

He thought of the answer for a moment himself, "Honestly, I don't even remember when I started thinking that way. It was before I met you though. I didn't understand how having weird powers had anything to do with being evil, so I just never took it that seriously. When the Catastrophe of Eden happened, I didn't believe they had anything to do with it either. What did some random mothers and daughters want with the royal family of all things? Plus, how did anybody know anything about Pulse when they'd never been there or even seen a Pulsian? That didn't make sense too, so I just assumed they were both lies."

She was quite rightly dumbfounded, even if his explanation made sense; it still took her by surprise. "This from a guy who was practically raised by some old senile ladies in Bodhum. I'm not even sure how I'm meant to react right now."

He laughed off her comment. "Hey, they weren't senile. They looked after you too."

She visibly calmed down a little, but an odd mix of shock and confusion remained in a tight ball in her chest. It was uncomfortable, but her comment brought something else to mind.

"It really burned down didn't it? Bodhum."

"Yeah. When it started it didn't seem bad, but no one could get it under control. Pretty soon everybody was grabbing their possession and ran, no one managed to save any of the houses. The fire was devastating."

She wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing. She'd originally heard about it when she'd met Snow again, it'd been shock then. But after time passing and she adjusted to the fact, she wasn't sure what to feel. She hadn't cared much for the place, but she'd still spent a lot of her childhood there.

"Why'd it burn down?"

He didn't reply, she doubted he knew what started it himself; he'd give the answer otherwise.

"You didn't set anything alight did you?" She half joked.

"Hey, I'm not that dumb."

"Could have fooled me." She rolled her eyes and turned silent.

The silence was short lived; as Snow in a voice quieter than he'd been speaking the entire time, spoke some questionable words.

"I'm sorry."

She scrunched up her face, "What the hell do you have to apologise for besides annoying me?"

He didn't verbally reply, but moved closer and leaned in a little, whatever he was going to say she didn't hear. Instantly she felt like her personal space had been invaded and she'd very instinctively pushed him back, fiercely. Her fast reaction had meant she hadn't paid any attention to where she'd even touched, but got that answer when he was nursing his smashed nose a second later.

"Ow." He mumbled.

She just sent him a look. "Don't, just don't."

"At least I got you to talk to me."

He pushed himself back up, and with a sigh, picked himself up and started heading back to the duo at the cave's opening. Before he could turn around the corner, Lightning asked him a question that had weighed on her mind during their conversation.

"Hey, why were you there that day when the experiment ended? Why did you take me away from my sister? If you're from Bodhum, what reason did you have to be in Eden?"
She expected a reply of course, but to her surprise, she did not even get a single sound.

Given her feelings on the matter, she was riled up instantly by him thinking he could give her the silent treatment. "Hey, Snow. You want to talk so answer my question!"

He still didn't speak, and turned the corner in the cave, out of her sight. Fiercely annoyed, she ran after him, only to find he was already way up the passage when she got there. Irritated, instead of chasing after him she aimed a kick at the wall, only to instantly regret it as her foot impacted the solid rock wall and erupted into fiery pain.

Alone, she tried to calm herself down before heading back.

Treading along a well-worn dirt path, away from the cooling cover of trees, a Chocobo made its swift passage down the road. The midday sun poured down on its rider, who constantly shielded himself from the glares. Cid had left the capital a short time ago. After the council had given him the mission of tracking down the remaining veils, likely because they distrusted gifting him with the task of locating Solace. He had promptly secured all he needed and left soon after. The Chocobo he currently had was owned by another knight, it tended to be kept at the stables at the palace, as everyone seemed to have much use for the bird. He was a little larger than the usual, and his stamina astounding. Granted the long path he needed to undertake, the bird was practically shoved on him by his very understanding owner.

While the bird was a stroke of luck for him, he doubted it'd make this mission any easier. The council's logic was that he'd recognise the Veils' protectors, which, seeing as he knew their appearance wasn't a bad logic in theory. However, he was given the overwhelming feeling that the council actually underestimated just how difficult their assigned task was. He was looking for two people, in order to find a different two, and the area in which he had to do this was the entire of Cocoon and Pulse. Cocoon within itself was sizable, but the country had nothing on its neighbour. Pulse was a never ending plain dotted by mountains and valleys to break it up. With every horizon passed, there was always another ten more. The country was impossibly large. He knew two of his targets were from Bodhum, however he was aware the town had burnt down some time ago, and neither targets were together. If they had joined up again, he did not have that information. As for his other two targets, the fact they were from Pulse timed his difficulties by a wearisome amount. The two women had been captured in Eden once before, so he knew they had no fear in wandering about Cocoon. The problem being, even with that as fact, he had no way to be certain they were even in Cocoon. It was just as likely for them to be in their homeland, and if that was so, he had no idea how to find them.

With essentially no clues as to where to head, he followed the roads down south, believing it would be far more likely for them to be closer to Pulse than away from it, as it was more likely for them to be further from Eden, than near it.

The day passed slowly as Cid travelled out of the woods and into a number of smaller towns as he grew further and further away from Eden. The rate at which wealth disappeared was almost shocking. He'd been out of Eden plenty of times before, but it never stopped surprising him. That wasn't to say the villagers he passed were poor, they were well off enough, but their houses and possessions were clearly only as much as necessary. The houses were cosy and small, and Villages had not a particular amount of anything to their name. They lived well enough for sure, poverty was not present, but nothing compared to the glorious capital and all its riches.

With little on him avoiding paying for anything as best he could suited him well. While some people distanced themselves from him, being both an Eden citizen and a knight, some were more than welcome to assist him. There was a dislike for Eden present in many citizens of Cocoon, they had the greatest amount of wealth, Cocoon was essentially their empire. It had claimed the title of capital for no reason other than its wealth. Many thought the people of Eden were greedy. Some people however, whether they believed in this too, he could not tell. He didn't explain what he was doing, but there seemed to be the general idea that an Eden knight, even one all alone, must be up to something important. The very idea of not supporting him was then preposterous.

He knew as he got closer to larger towns, to avoid them. A Veil would be smart enough to stay away from them. Solace was not the only one with reason to avoid them. They were crowded, busy, and full of government officials who could easily send them to the council. Veils in the past had thought them a good place to hide, being surrounded by an insane amount of people in order to hide sounded like a good plan. But this same logic had cost countless Veils their lives; it was one of the factors in why so little were left.

Passing by small towns, inspecting them, then moving on became second nature quickly. He was as thorough as he could be, but even so if towns were close together he could pass through multiple in a day. He'd made it a fair way in to Cocoon in only a short while. The days had blended together somewhat, so he couldn't name an exact day, but he was certain at least a week had passed.

As the day grew late he stopped at a decently sized town. He got himself a room at a small inn there, and tied up his Chocobo before he explored the town. As late as it was, he had planned to secure a place for the night before looking it over. It was rampart with kids wanting to play until it went dark, making use of the last hours of sunlight before they had to separate and go home. They were difficult to dodge, but luckily some backed off either fearfully or shyly at the sight of him, so not all threatened to knock him over as they ran amok.

Just as the thought of being knocked over ran through his head, he noticed in his peripheral a small boy being knocked off his feet by his friend. A young woman, who he took to be the boy's relative knelt by him and offered him some help. Cid didn't think at the time, but his head turned to her without really realising. He thought it was because of her oddly bright blue cloak. However, upon closer inspection he realised it was the familiarity of the clothing that piqued his attention. The hood of the cloak covered the woman's head, and shadowed her face, so her features were indistinguishable, especially at their current distance. But he knew he recognised the cloak, the vibrant deep blue with a bird like design on the hood, acting much like a mask, he'd seen it before, and recently at that.

He knew she wasn't relevant to his mission, he knew he'd already ordered someone to search for her, but she was right here in front of him, he doubted severely even without looking at her features that he had the wrong person. Believing himself right he called out her name, knowing she'd respond, whether it be good or bad.

"Solace?"

She stood up, almost unrecognising at first. But the moment she saw him she realised who'd spoke. Her face was hidden in the shadow cast by the hood, but he could see her. Her bright blue eyes reflected a horrible kind of dread, her mouth crumpled up and shook, making her look as if she was about to cry. It'd hardly surprise him if she did that very moment, but she held it in. Her head lowered, allowing some of the strands of her rose red hair to fall off her shoulders and hang lifelessly.

"Again…" She muttered dejectedly.

Cid began to speak, in order to question her. But before the words reached her ears, she was gone, dashing away as fast as her small self could go.

He let out a sigh that released a heavy feeling from his chest, but a familiar feeling of exhaustion set in. She'd always been difficult to deal with, and the job had always been placed on him. He knew if he was going to catch her, he'd have to chase her first.

Thought I'd reveal a few little things in this chapter.

Sometimes I feel like this story is one big game of, 'Shuush, don't tell Lightning'. Does it seem like that to you guys? If not, I'm probably not trying hard enough.

Thanks for reading, hope you liked.

Concrit is welcome and reviews are appreciated.

Jya ne,

~Serah