Author's Note: Yeah, instead of surprising you guys with more character additions, I'm telling you right now: Fang and Vanille are back. They weren't among the "ghosts" haunting Lightning, so it was obvious they were coming back, just like Ashe, Mydia and Balthier. Although, they won't be in the story as long as them. Why? Because I'm mean. And I am insane. I've said that a lot, but, yes. I'm pretty sure I'm partially insane, at the least.

Late Christmas present to y'all, The Giant Daifuku, HopelessRomanticist and Riku Uzumaki. I don't normally say "y'all", but it's better than saying Meennie-SOO-ta (Minnesota). I have a slight Norwegian accent, yes. Random fact of the day. And now let's get this show on the road.

NO. WAIT. TGD, there's a reference in this chapter to a conversation you and I had. I just had to include it. I also took your advice and made Lightning laugh in this chapter. :)


T i m e ' s S c a r

Chapter Twelve

Different Kind of Revenant

Lightning was getting rather tired of seeing her comrades from the past. Having Snow haunt her just because she held the ragnarok blade for more than a thousand years was one thing, but meeting up with a princess turned seeress and the Judge of Wings herself was completely different. Either her past truly was making a comeback, or she was finally nearing the end. She almost wished for the latter, but then she remembered she was currently trying to revive her fallen machinist.

The Judge of Wings—or rather, Mydia was holding off Yiazmat while Lightning desperately tried remembering the incantation for the Esuna spell. But it was a white magick spell and she couldn't risk knocking herself out when there were others in danger. She didn't even know if that particular spell would stop the mossfungus from spreading.

"Mydia," Lightning called out, cradling Mustadio in her arms. "It's no use! We need to get out of here!"

That earned her one of the only few glares that would make chills run down her spine. There had been only a handful of people who were able to do that, too. Mydia, obviously, and, of course, him. But that was an entirely different subject she didn't feel like sharing.

"Then leave," the Judge snarled. Her narrowed bright eyes were barely visible underneath her helmet. "But I will not rest until this beast is gone."

Lightning cursed under her breath, lifting Mustadio's limp body over her shoulder and dashing for the exit. Yiazmat was too distracted by the flurry of light and dark magick beams to notice she was making a run for it, let alone taking away the opportunity of catching two new victims. Countless thoughts brushed through her head as she ran: what had Mydia been doing down there? How was she still alive? And why wouldn't that one man she wanted to see more than anything come back, too?

She was starting to get fed up with all this madness. And, as always, the gods were to blame. There was no doubt in her mind that they were trying to find some way to ruin her eternal life even more. Well, they would be in for a surprise, wouldn't they?

"Light?"

Mustadio's feeble voice caught her attention, and she halted her run to set him down on the ground. He was staring at her with green eyes, which Lightning knew were caused by the poison currently running through his veins. His skin was still paler, almost as pale as her own, and the haggerd cough that escaped his lips didn't improve things. He tried saying something to her, but she touched a finger to his lips.

"It's going to be okay," she assured him, keeping a tender hand holding his shoulder. "You don't have to worry about anything, all right?"

He closed his eyes, and Lightning pulled him into her arms again. She could just feel the warmth leaving his body as she cradled him, and just holding him reminded her of all the nights she would spend wishing that she wasn't alone. She finally had someone, and just like that he would be leaving her. She lost Serah first, then Ragnarok, and him. She had watched them die, felt their life leaving their bodies. They were as dead as she was, but then again...She was still alive. Wasn't she?

The clamor from below disappeared as time went on, but she could still hear Yiazmat's roars. Mustadio's strength was faltering, too, but she tried pretending that he was only going to sleep. She ran a finger down his cheekbone, and he looked at her with a tired, lost look in his eyes.

"Light, what's wrong?" he asked; so weak. "You look...sad. I mean, you've always looked like that, but—it's different."

She cast her eyes downward. "Different? Yeah, I am different," she sighed, and the words seemed to just slip from her lips. "I should have told you sooner. I should have...I could have done something. Guess eternity isn't what it was cut out to be, huh? That's what I get for being cursed with the life of an Eternal."

Mustadio broke out into a fit of coughs again, but he acted as if it was a mere cold. "Th-the cardinal spoke of them. People who can live forever. Ashe is one of them, right? Or at least something of that...sort."

"Something like that." She touched his hair again, only realizing then how soft it was. "Do you remember the grave we visited, before we were branded as heretics? Ffamran's the man I've mentioned to you—he's Balthier. The one who made me this way. The one who...died for me." Lightning frowned. "I'm over a thousand years old, Mustadio, and I can't seem to die no matter how hard I try. I'm just like the people in the stories. An Eternal."

The machinist was quiet.

"I lived in the Age of Technology, where the air ships flew in the sky that was ruled by pirates. My gunblade is from another world, a world called Cocoon. That was where I was born, and I used to think it was where I would die, too." She laughed quietly. "But then I met Balthier, and everything changed. I became what I am now, and spent years watching Ivalice warp into something I couldn't recognize. There was so much I could have done, just like I promised Ashe, but I just...moped for a thousand years." Biting her lower lip, she turned her gaze back to Mustadio's dazed expression. "Then you found me."

A grin slowly formed on his lips, but his eyes widened and another coughing fit took over. Blood dripped onto his gloves as he covered his mouth, and Lightning found herself unable to do a thing. Mustadio collapsed into her arms, whimpering and quietly pleading to nothing.

"Mustadio!" Lightning moved him onto the ground, laying him in front of her. "Mustadio, hold on!"

She looked around for anything that could help him. Something that could stop the gods from taking him away. Lightning looked back down, and suddenly saw his seemingly sleeping body lying there. Again—it was happening all over again.

A metal hand grabbed her shoulder and shoved her aside, and before Lightning could strike back, Mydia was bent over Mustadio's body. She held a small tube of green liquid in one hand, and was tilting the machinist's head back with the other. The vial's contents was poured into his mouth, and he started to splutter and cough at the foul taste. He tried sitting up, but the Judge held him down with a firm hand.

"Claire, you must carry him. I will handle any fiends that may cross our path," Mydia commanded, moving away from the boy and drawing her excalibur sword. "Your allies; they are above ground, yes?"

Lightning only nodded, lifting Mustadio's trembling body into her arms. She held him close, still stunned and realizing that he had been so close to death. That she had been so close to losing him. She broke out into a canter, moving through the vines and moss that hung from the cavern as if they were non-existent. She couldn't risk allowing the poison to affect him again, not when she was so close to getting out of there for good.


It was unclear as to how Mydia had managed, after fighting Yiazmat, to lead them to her safehouse just outside Midlight's Deep. Cidolfus was frustrated with Lightning upon seeing her carrying a barely conscious Mustadio, though Ashe reminded him that nothing bad would have happened to either of them. She must have known all along what Lightning went down their to confront: herself. Her past, present and future, as cliche as it was.

Damn princesses for constantly knowing everything.

"Lay him on the couch," Mydia called as they entered the safehouse. A two room place, a less homely than the cottage Lightning had secluded herself in for hundreds of years. The wood shelling wasn't much of a shield to the cold winter wind, but it was better than nothing.

As the squire did as she was told, Mydia removed her helmet and set it down on one of the tables. Her long blonde hair fell onto her shoulders and back, and her short hare-like ears stood erected on top of her head. Mustadio, already in a hazy state from the effects of the antidote, stared at her with a dumbstruck look on his face.

"You acquaint yourself with the oddest of sorts, Lightning," Cidolfus remarked, holding back a sheer smirk. "A Feol viera hiding behind the mask of a Judge? Aye, truly queer."

Mydia turned her nose upward. "I could say the same to you, good ser," she huffed. "The worshipped Thunder God is standing before me, but all I see is an old man with less of a mind than before."

"Touche, lass."

Lightning ignored their banter and continued to check Mustadio for any signs of lingering poison. Ashe was beside her, though she was shuffling through one of the pouches on her belt. She pulled out a vial much like the one Mydia had, and examined it. Through the corner of her eye, she spotted the squire's uneasy expression and smiled.

"Oh, try not to be so tense, Lightning," she purred. "It's only a mere tranquilizer. Mustadio needs to recover from the poison, and he can't do that while staring at Mydia's ears. Here." Ashe handed the vial to the squire. "Give this to him, and just stay with him until it wears off. Can you do that for me?"

"Like I have a choice." More like, I don't need you to tell me to do something I already planned on doing.

The seeress dragged the other two into the second room, leaving Lightning alone with a pretty much drugged Mustadio. After being given the second potion, he was too busy staring at the ceiling to notice, to be quite redundant, that she was contently staring at him. It didn't help much that when he finally met her gaze, he started laughing.

Lightning scowled, sitting up and scooting away from him on the couch. "What?" was all she managed to growl.

"So, if I accidentally shot you," he said, reaching for the gun in his holster, "you wouldn't die?"

"No."

There was an awkward, long silence, until the boy actually pulled out his gun and aimed it between her eyes. Lightning swerved away, grabbing the pistol and stuffing it underneath one of the pillows. Mustadio whined quietly, but still laughed not too long later. She was half-tempted to confront Ashe and ask what the hell he had been given. His eyes were glassed over, a lot like the look he would get everytime he got a tad bit too drunk. Lightning sighed heavily, leaning against her palm and focusing on the small boiler in the corner of the room.

"Light?"

She glanced in his direction. "What, Mustadio?"

"Thank you. For telling me, finally." He grinned sheepishly. "It's been hard not telling you that I knew it all alone. You're a terrible liar, Light."

What? How could he have figured it out? Lightning rolled her eyes. "You're welcome, then."

"I mean, I didn't know about you and my, uh, ancestor. That's completely new." Mustadio's cheeks flushed. "Things are just...slightly awkward now. Just a bit."

"Awkward? Mustadio, just because I admitted to being in a relationship with Balthier, doesn't mean things have to change between us."

"Well, I suppose." If it was possible, his cheeks flushed even more. "Does that mean you're my great, great, great, great—"

"Mustadio." She had to hold back her laughter. "I never had kids, and I never will. I'm not related to you in any way, so don't worry. And, besides..." She leaned back against the cushion, gazing upon the wooden ceiling. "Balthier wouldn't have wanted to be a father. Suppose that explains why he ran out on the women he was sleeping with when I wasn't looking."

That didn't seem to settle well with him. "What?" He got closer to her, and Lightning noticed that his eyes were almost back to their normal color. "He was a philanderer?"

"He had a viera for a partner, since before he and I met. When he found me, he already managed to charm a young girl named Vanille, somehow my sister Serah, and this wild woman named Fang. Snow's friend, Lebreau, was quite sad when Balthier disappeared, too. After she remembered him, of course."

"And you're...okay with that? With him being all...you know?"

"I never knew," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. "He might have just been too crazy sowing his wild oats in his youth, for all I know."

Mustadio was the first to start laughing, and Lightning couldn't help but join him.


"Feol viera live longer than the normal viera. That is why I am still here."

Lightning was sitting behind Mydia on a chocobo when she had to ask how she was still alive. She'd forgotten that Feol viera had the mixtune of hume and viera genes, as well as that of aegyl, too. Perhaps being of Feolthanos' blood had something to do with it? All she knew was that she wasn't going to get much more of an answer, not until later on.

Mustadio was sitting behind her, and Ashe and Cidolfus were on the other chocobo. They were headed to Dorter, hoping to catch up to Ramza and Agrias—wherever those two were. Now that they had found Ashe, and Lightning no longer needed to hide her immortality, things were finally on the right track. Then again, some things enjoyed sneaking up on her. Especially the past.

The chocobo skid to a halt, and Lightning's head shot up the moment she heard something rustling in the trees. Mustadio was just as alert as she, though he wasn't as quick in pulling out his weapon. A figure jumped down from above, landing on its feet in front of the leading chocobo. It—no, it was a hume. She held a lance in her hands, and the slyest of chuckles rose from her throat.

A gust of wind knocked Lightning and Mydia off the chocobo, although Mustadio managed to hang on. Cidolfus was whipping his head around in every direction, defender blade already drawn, and Ashe was calmly sitting on their chocobo with a subtle, yet twisted smile on her pale face.

Another figure, a younger woman, joined the first one. With a wave of her hands, the earth underneath Lightning's feet opened up, and vines wrapped themselves around her legs. The younger girl giggled before revealing her face.

Lightning just about shot herself when Vanille and Fang stood in front of her.

"Caught you, Light!" the redhead cheered, grinning like a cat. "Fang didn't think I would be able to catch you, but I did!"

"I'm surprised," Fang added, removing her dragoon helmet and shaking the sweat from her bangs. Her wild hair was tied into a wavy ponytail. "Didn't think it was possible for the all powerful Lightning to get captured by anyone. 'Cept that pirate of yours."

From the way she was dressed and the way she attacked, Vanille was a geomancer; her hair was longer and lighter, and was separated into two thick braids that lay on her shoulders. Fang hadn't changed much, though instead of her sari she wore the armor of a rogue dragoon. Still revealing as ever, nonetheless.

"Can you at least get rid of these things around my legs?" Lightning groaned, resting her gunblade on her shoulder. "I don't like being tied up."

"Sure you don't," Fang purred. Vanille shrugged and waved her hand, and the vines returned to the ground. When Mustadio peered around the chocobo's head and jumped off, standing behind Cidolfus and Mydia, Vanille just about knocked him over with what Snow used to call her death-by-hug attacks.

"I knew you'd find a way to get immortality!" she squealed, hugging Mustadio around his neck. "Balthier, I've missed you more than anything!"

Fang raised an eyebrow, tapping a finger on her chin. "He's younger than I 'member," she noted. "And blonder. Light, have you been feedin' him? He's skin and bones, too."

From where she stood leaning against one of the chocobos, Ashe directed her eyes to Lightning, anticipating her answer. The squire sighed before moving Vanille away from the machinist, who was clearly in need of rescue. "This isn't Balthier," she stated, and the light in Vanille's eyes seemed to fade at that moment. "Mustadio's his youngest descendant, actually. That's probably why they...look alike." She seemed to be realizing this just then, too.

"You mean your pirate actually bred with someone else?" Fang let out a hearty laugh. "Always knew he wouldn't be faithful to you..."

"Then..." Vanille frowned; such an expression was foreign to her still-young face. "Where's Balthier?"

Lightning didn't know how to answer that. All she could do was hold out the auracite around her neck, hoping that would shed some light on the situation. Vanille was staring at it with surprisingly still dry eyes, though she didn't say anything.

"Ah. Didn't get the immortality, did he?" Fang sighed heavily, rubbing the back of her neck and turning toward the rest of the group. Lightning noticed that she wasn't making any crude or suggestive remarks about her slight possessive problem with a certain sky pirate. "Shame. I would've liked to see him again."

Awkward silences seemed to follow Lightning more than they had before. Vanille had gone silent, for once, and Fang didn't look like she wanted to talk about him anymore. Mustadio gladly changed the subject.

"What exactly brought the two of you to ambush us?" he asked.

The two Oerbans exchanged sudden grins. Lightning didn't know if she should have been scared, or worried that they seemed to be suffering from a multiple personality disorder. Maybe whatever had happened to Cocoon (which would explain the fact that they were no longer crystalized) had altered them?

"We thought you would be interested in a bit of news," Vanille stated, though she still looked weary of Lightning's necklace.

Mydia crossed her arms. "News?"

"Yeah." Fang smirked. "We know where one of your Zodiac Stones is."


Told you they'd be back. And yes, Ashe is kinda crazy. I think Mustadio's the only sane one there...