A/N: Chapter 10 of Howling Star: Dance in the Shadow of Light. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except my own. Final Fantasy XIII belongs to Square Enix.

Chapter 10: Going to Felix Height's 35-A

Star's POV

Lightning and I followed Fang through the alley, zigzagging along and sometimes picking fights with soldiers and robots. They were no match for us, Fang being Commando and Lightning in Ravager mode. I decided to take the role of Medic, since I was perfect at the job and Hope wasn't with us.

After awhile, Fang stopped and said, "Hey Lightning". We fell in behind her. "Call me Light." She replied. I gave her a glance but said nothing as I decided to take up the rear end. Fang huffed and asked, "Did you see Vanille's brand?" Lightning looked at her puzzled, "No."

"No, huh?" Fang walked a bit then turned around. "Want to know how long until it's Cie'th city? Just look at your brand." Lightning's eyebrow arched up in interest. She turned away and decided to check her brand. Fang continued, "You start getting more arrows, and then finally an eye. Once it opens all the way, you're done." She walked over and turned Lightning back around, "Let's have a look. Don't be shy." Lightning kept quiet as Fang inspected her brand. She nodded and said, "Nowhere near. You got time." She then looked at me. "Where's your brand?"

"On my back." I replied.

"Can you show it to me?" I shrugged, set down my backpack and morphed into a black werewolf with white paws, a white tipped tail and a star-shaped mark on my forehead. Turning my back to her, she had a hard time looking for it but she saw the red outline amongst my dark colored fur. "Yep you look fine." She said after awhile. I twitched my ears and morphed back into a human.

"You never know. Some people, doesn't take so long. You get a nasty shock, it can speed up the process." Fang then stared up at the sky, deep in thinking. "Vanille's brand must be pretty far along by now. I've got to save her and get her home." She clenched her fist and paced around.

"To Pulse you mean?" Lightning asked, her arms folded across her chest.

"To Gran Pulse." Fang corrected. "I hear that the Sanctum prevents people from leaving Cocoon." She snorts, "I'd like to see 'em try and stop me."

"So, that's your plan?" Lightning's voice sounded wistful as she said the question. Fang gave her a confused glance.

"I wish I had one. Without Serah, without a future, there's nothing to plan for. There's no way out of this mess, and no way to fight it." Lightning looked up at the sky, scowling. "I'm stuck trading blows with the Sanctum, but that's no plan." Lightning sighed.

"Even if we topple the government, where's that leave us? With nothing to fight for?" Fang was leaning against a wall, arms crossed as she listened to Lightning's words. "I might as well be dead." She said that line as though she meant it. Her eyes were filled with sorrow.

"If you died Light, then what?" I walked over, looking up at her. "We would be left to fend for ourselves and without a leader like you, we'll never accomplish anything. Besides, Serah wouldn't want that now would she?" She smiled slightly, and rested her hand on my head.

"She's right." Fang said, removing herself from the wall. "You've got plenty to fight for. Think about it." She walked around a bit. "Don't you want to see Serah, after she wakes up? Not only that, you made a promise to return a certain someone back to her own world." Lightning looked at her as well then glanced down as I leaned against her.

"That's your future right there. All you've gotta do is survive. It's simple!" Fang chuckled a bit at her own words. "Right." was Lightning's reply. We looked up suddenly as the sounds of small patrol airships zoomed overhead. "Snow."Lightning's voice was full of shocked as her eyes followed the little.

"They found 'em" Fang snarled as we ran off toward the others.

Hope's POV

I tried to kill him. The man responsible for my mother's death and he was smiling about it back in the sewers. When we were disconnected from Lightning's group, Snow and I went up on the rooftop, over looking Palumpolum and were on our way to my dad's place. I confronted Snow, accusing him of killing my mom and in my rage almost killed him before those airships appeared. They bombed the area where we were and I flew off the roof. If it weren't for Snow, I would've been dead. He shielded me as we fell, taking the brute force as we bounced off of objects.

When I woke up, Snow was carrying me on his back. He was wincing in pain from earlier, but he continued to get us to our destination. Distant rumbling sounded around us.

"That must be Light." Snow chuckled to himself.

"Why did you save me?" I know I am being harsh on him but still, I was angry about the whole NORA thing.

"I was asked to keep you safe...by Lightning...and by Nora." Was his reply. "I'm sorry. What happened-it was my fault. I put her in danger." He was silently crying and I listened quietly.

"I know that things can change. Let me make things right."

"You told me before that you couldn't." I countered, still feeling angry yet, I felt sympathetic as well. Snow shook his head, "And that words were useless, and a lot of other things I shouldn't have said. Look, I didn't know what to do, didn't know how to set things straight. So I didn't." The flapping of birds flew overhead.

"I thought if I couldn't make up for it, then all the apologies in the world wouldn't mean a thing. So I decided I had to find a way to pay for it first, before I'd even have the right to say sorry. But," he turned his head to look at me, "it's like you said. I was using that as an excuse, so I could run from my own guilt." He stood up, wincing. "Look Hope. I know what happened was my fault. I don't deny it, and I am sorry. Here," He held up that survival knife Serah got Lightning on her 21st birthday. "That's Light's isn't it?"

I held the knife in my hand, looking it over.

" I'll find a way to make things better. Just give me time. If nothing I do is good enough, then I'll take any punishment you want to dish out." Snow walked into a large open stadium,

"She's gone Snow." Those words that came out of my mouth halted Snow in his tracks. " You can take the blame, but it won't bring her back."

Snow hung his head and said, "I'm sorry."

" I knew it. I knew it all along." I looked at up at the sky, " I had to blame someone. I had to. I needed a reason to keep fighting." I sheathed the knife back, I didn't have to energy to attack Snow.

"It wasn't someone's fault. It was mine." Snow's voice growled. "Take it out on me. And keep yourself alive until you do." He collapsed, but continued to move.

"Let me catch my breath." His eyes widened with surprise when a Ushumgal Subjugator lands and attacks us.

"Get out of the way Hope, I got this!" Snow rushes in but gets knocked out fast because he wasn't fully healed.

" Always the hero. You want to die?" I shouted at him but he has lost consciousness.

"I won't let you." I got into attack mode as the thing charged.

I was doing pretty well on my own for a few minutes. Blocking. Attacking. Healing, all of these commands ran through my mind as I did my best. After 50 minutes, I was tired. I couldn't hold up much longer and the machine was almost upon me. I grasped my boomerang with confidence, no backing down.

"Hope!" I turned my head with relief toward the sound of the voice when a flaming fireball soared over and crashed itself into the Ushumgal Subjugator, driving it back into the adjacent wall. I flashed my rescuers a smile.

Lightning's POV

We hurried toward the sound of battle. Thanks to Star's great hearing, we arrived before Hope gets slaughtered.

"Hope!" I called out his name as Star morphed into wolf form, charged up her 'Flaming Star' attack and flew over his head, crashing in to what looked like a Ushumgal Subjagator, driving it into the wall on the other side. He flashed us a smile as we ran to his side. "Glad you could make it." He sighed with relief as we stared at the billowing smoke.

"Oh jeez, that flaming fur ball." Fang sighed as she drew her lance, "I hope she didn't die yet." I gave her a glance and drew out Blaze Saber as I saw Star darted out of the smoke, turning around as the Ushumagal Subjagator staggered out, Star's attack blast a huge hole in the middle. It looked quite angry. Right now it was going after Star, shooting it's guns and missals, any kind of projectile items.

"Damn, I wish I had that kind of strength." Fang whistles as she watched Star used the wall as leverage and flipped backwards, sinking her fangs into the enemy. It tried to shake her off but Star held on tight, using her claws to tear out chunks of its armor. I huffed with annoyance and rushed into battle to help, Fang right on my tail. Hope went to help Snow, who was regaining his conscious.

"Over here you over-grown metal head!" Fang roared as she swung her lance, creating a huge gash along its body. I was busy chopping it into pieces and Star was still hanging on, ripping out its wires. The fight lasted about 2 hours and once we were done, there was no trace of the thing left.

"I could use a nap." Fang mumbled, stretching her sore muscles. Hope and I nodded, agreeing with that option. I looked at Star as she flopped down, licking her healing wounds. I smiled, sitting besides her. She looked at me with her topaz eyes and morphed back into human form.

"I'm tired." She yawed and fell asleep instantly.

Hope was helping Snow on his feet and said, "Let's go, my father's place isn't that far from here." Fang and I nodded in agreement. She carried our stuff and I carried Star on my back. We trudged our way towards Felix Height's 35-A, the resident place of Hope's father, Bartholomew Estheim.

A/N: Done. Pheeew, so sorry for these late updates (friggin finals takes too long). Luckily I have only 2 more days left before summer vacation so hopefully I will have enough time to work on these stories. As always reviews are greatly appreciated! :P