Author's Note: Hi! So, we're back to Lightning and the others. This chapter is more slightly entertaining than anything, it's not the best. But hey, the plot takes a baby step forward, so who cares, right?
Anywho, on with the chapter!
"Ugh." Fang stretched as the train came to a slow stop. "Finally. I was starting to lose the feeling in my ass."
Lightning elbowed her. There was a mother with a small child sitting in front of them. She'd managed to control her tongue around Chase, but she apparently forgot that most parents don't appreciate people cursing around their kids. Fang just grunted.
They paraded off the train along with everyone else who was stopping in Cidra. There weren't that many others. Only five other people got off with them: a group of four men in their fifties and a timid young woman who couldn't have been more than twenty-five.
"Remind me, what's the plan from here?" Snow said once they left the station.
Lightning shrugged. "Just, see if anyone has any idea of where he went. I doubt it, but it couldn't hurt."
Serah frowned. "In that case, I mean, if no one knows where he went, what do we do then? You kinds neglected to tell us that part of the plan."
"Well, this place is a straight line from Bodhum. In his state of mind, he probably didn't change direction."
"Even after his, eh, detour?" Fang said skeptically.
"Even parasites have goals."
"Well, I guess we'd better find that jail." Snow said.
"What's it to ya?" Said the man they found in the office. He sat slouched in his chair, with a pencil in his teeth.
"He's my brother," Lightning said, "we want to find him as much as I'm sure you do."
The man behind the desk leaned forward, the smell of cigars on his breath. "Listen lady, I'm not in the business of jus' tellin' people top-secret info."
Fang, short of temper as she was, slammed her fist onto his desk, causing the six or seven various coffee cups to rattle. "It's your turn to listen. He killed someone back home, too. Do you think he's gonna stop? If we leave here and find out he killed someone else - like that little girl - and it turns out you knew where he was going, I'll come back here, and personally shove that pencil so far up your-"
"Fang." Serah warned.
The Oerban growled, but backed off.
The man didn't appear to be scared of Fang, but it was obvious that he believed her. "All right, all right." He leaned back. "Look, we went searchin' for 'em. We checked out the places the brat liked to hang out at, an' found footprints headin' that way." He pointed in the direction the footprints went, the same direction Hope had headed in the first place. "That's it."
"You didn't go farther?" Snow asked, disgusted.
"Why would we? They're gone, out of our town, not our problem."
All it took was Serah's hand on Snow's arm to keep him from lunging at the man, but Lightning had to hold Fang back by both arms. "Not your problem." She hissed. "He killed my sister!" She tried to get away, but Lightning just held on tighter.
"Come on." She said. "We know where he's heading, let's go."
Fang ripped herself free, but didn't move. "Fine." She slammed her hands down on the desk, and glared at the man. "If I were you, I'd destroy that pencil. I wasn't joking." She turned back to the others. "Let's get out of here."
They followed her out.
"What was that about?" Lightning asked once they were outside.
"That idiot wouldn't know a footprint from his own grave. A girl gets taken, under their noses, and they don't give a damn." Fang clenched her fists. "For all they know, she could be dead ten feet into the trees."
"No, I don't think so." Serah said.
"And why not?"
"Because I know him, and whatever is left of him wouldn't let that monster hurt a little girl." She said it with such certainty. Lightning was glad that at least her sister agreed with her' he was in there somewhere.
Fang grunted. "No offense, but you don't know him any better than I do."
Serah crossed her arms. "Well, at least I'm trying to know him."
"All right guys, calm down." Snow said. "Does any of this really matter? We know where he's going, sort of, so why don't we stow the arguing and get looking?" He pointed in the direction Hope had gone. "There's not much that way. We don't have time to waste. He could be anywhere."
"Well, that is that way?" Serah asked.
Snow thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Not sure."
They all stared for a while, as if that would help them remember. Lightning felt like she should know. It was on the tip of her tongue, like a food she couldn't quite identify.
Fang did it for her. "Oerba." She said. "He's going to Oerba." She spoke as if about a dead animal at her feet. She didn't like that he was going to her home. To Vanille's home.
As soon as she said it, they knew she was right.
"That's a ways away." Lightning said. "He's already got a head start, and I have a feeling we don't want him to get there first."
"I saw a place back by the station that rents chocobos." Snow said.
"What do you think, Fang?" Serah put in.
The hunter put her hands on her hips. "What do I think?" She turned to Snow. "I think we'd better go grab ourselves some chocobos."
See? It was only okay.
OhMyEtro, I love chocobos. They're so cute! I especially love riding them in 13. Did you know that if you sit on one long enough, something happens? For example: if Vanille sits on a chocobo long enough, it falls asleep! Haha! *cough* Sorry about that...
Anyway, let me know what you thought! :)
