Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 or FF13.

Lightning had always been a light sleeper. She awoke to any noise, any sort of stirring or whisper. There had been one night a few years ago, shortly after they had moved into the orphanage, where Lightning had woken up and didn't find Serah in her bed. It had sent her into a panic, but she soon found her baby sister curled up by the washroom door down the hallway, crying because she had been too scared to go to the washroom herself and that the hallways were too dark. The next morning, Lightning had adamantly demanded the adults at the orphanage to install a night-light while she would walk Serah to and forth from the washroom like a diligent bodyguard. Eventually, Serah grew out of her fear of the dark, and walked the halls of the orphanage as if it were her home, but Lightning still kept an ear out just in case. She woke up with a start, frantically blinking her eyes to focus her vision in the darkness. Her bed creaked, but beneath the sound of the old springs, Lightning heard a soft sniffle. "Serah?" Lightning called out groggily, pushing herself up on her bed to see the blanketed cocoon on the other bed curl up into an even smaller ball. "Serah? What's wrong?"

"It's-hic-nothing." Serah's meek reply came muffled from the blankets.

"No, it's not nothing." Lightning said softly, turning her table light on. "I know you're crying."

Baby blue eyes peaked out from beneath the sheets grasped in tight hands. They were red and watery, and all exhaustion evaporated from Lightning. Her sister always came first. "What happened?"

"M-My stomach hurts." Serah said pathetically and began sniffling again.

Lightning asked, "How does it hurt? Gas? Does it feel like you need to burb or fart?"

That earned a horribly hidden snicker, "N-No."

"Maybe you ate something wrong. It's gotta be Lebreau's cooking. Do you need to go to the washroom?" Again, Serah giggled.

"No, but…" The younger girl sat up and shivered, "It just… hurts." Without beckon, Serah clambered into Lightning's bed and buried herself beneath her sheets. Wrapping her sister in her arms again, Lightning placed her warm hand on Serah's belly.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Not so much." Serah murmured against Lightning's shoulder. "I… I love you." Lightning didn't shift, not even when she could feel Serah's tears trickle onto her skin or how her sister's body started shaking again. "I wish… dad was here- a-and mom too. S-sorry."

"Serah-"

"You have to go to school a-and you have a lot of homework. I'm bothering you and-"

"Serah, you're never a bother." Lightning whispered gently, kissing the crown of Serah's head, "I'll always be here for you. I promise."

Blue eyes peeked up at her in a silent plea. They were both so young, so innocent, offering nothing but a child's unadulterated and unwavering trust. "Me too." Serah grinned, despite her runny nose. Well, everything was quite… leaky but Lightning could hardly shy away from her sister. It would be them against the world. Serah burrowed herself into the crook of Lightning's neck again, wrapping her arms around in a warm embrace. Their dad wasn't here anymore, and neither of them could remember their mom. Lightning had been three, and so she still had blurry recollections, but their mother had died at child birth when Serah was born and so her sister only knew through pictures and stories.

After watching her sister, no older than six, ask if it was her fault their mother died and how their dad crumpled with grief afterwards behind closed doors, Claire had resolved to fill in that motherly role. She had done it a little clumsily, and their dad had drilled it into their minds that their mother had died because of geostigma. Lightning knew Serah still carried that unreasonable guilt, but there was nothing she could do about it and it made her feel weak.

Lightning didn't sleep that night. Serah had long drifted off, probably tired from her crying, but the older sister's head was now filled with thoughts of mom and dad. She didn't fault them for dying, it's not like they wanted to, but she just didn't like how alone they had left them. No relatives, no family except for each other. They lived in an orphanage, but the more she thought about it, this place was more like a place where all children abandoned by their parents in one form or another wound up. Snow's parents were dead, Gadot's parents had drinking problems, Yuj's mother had ran away and his dad had gambling problems, Maqui's parents were abusive, and that left out Lebreau. That girl's parents ran a restaurant and they treated her as if she was a mistake.

They all had their own sob stories, and Serah knew she couldn't cry over her own in front of the others. She did it in front of Lightning only and Lightning… Lightning didn't cry. Everything would be fine as long as she had Serah.

She rested her eyes until she heard the buzz of her pending alarm and shut it off before it could ring. Serah was still wrapped around her like pita bread. Carefully, peeling herself away without waking up her sister, Lightning resumed her normal schedule of preparing for school and snuck in a quick kiss to Serah's cheek before she left. The streets of Bodhum hummed with life with everyone rushing to get to work or school, but the main road that Lightning usually traversed was backed up with traffic as far as she could see. Cars honked, irate people were getting… well, more irate, and nearly everyone was dialing one person or another up on their phones. It was unusual to see things like this, but she paid no mind until reaching the Guardian Corp cadet academy, which was situated next to the actual military base. Soldiers were buzzing back and forth, and all transports and trucks have been pulled out. Amongst the crowd, she saw Amodar briskly walking about with Baxter and Ray flanking him.

Since she reported directly to him first thing in the morning, Lightning shuffled over, gripping the straps of her backpack tightly. "Lieutenant-"

"Lightning, you're here. Good." Amodar promptly interrupted her, "There's an emergency in town. A monster outbreak. I'll have to go supervise and make sure the proper procedure has been followed. Head to class as usual." It could almost be considered dismissive with how he had hardly spared her a glance. Looking back and forth from the cadet academy to the military base, Lightning lingered for a few seconds before grudgingly starting her day.

She watched as the clock ticked downwards, counting the seconds and right on the point, the bell rang raucously to signify the end of the period. Lightning promptly gathered her books, stuffing them into her bag with haste and dashed out of the classroom before anyone had the chance to talk to her. Not the others would. Amodar's office was in sight, she didn't even bother knocking before bursting in to find the large desk empty where he would usually sit behind stacks of paper and snacks. He wasn't back, yet it was time for her one-on-one review with him. Shuffling inside, she placed her bag over the small desk they had stolen from one of the classrooms and attached it to the side of his, before booting up his computer for him. The first thing she did was turn on the radio to listen to any reports on the monster outbreak near town.

Being part of the Bodhum Security Regiment meant dealing with these kinds of things. She had long grown accustomed to Amodar tell her about stories of break-ins, wild attacks from agitated beasts, domestic disputes where officials have been called in, along with the murder or hostage cases. Amodar dealt with everything ongoing in the base, and even takes the time to supervise over the up-and-coming would-be soldiers in training. Dragging her chair to the window, Lightning perched herself there and stared out into the city. There was a heavy lump in her throat, and it felt as if her heart was beating slower. She remembered this feeling well, nearly drowned in it in the past when she had been sequestered in a white hospital room with Serah sleeping on her lap. The nurse that had been there constantly told her that her dad was going to be alright, that it wasn't too serious, and soon enough, they'd be able to return home.

Despite her good intentions, no crueler words have been said when another nurse had walked in and told them that her dad was not alright. It had been serious. He was gone. A week later, they were taken away from their house. There was no will left to them, because their dad hadn't expected to die of a sudden severe seizure, and so they were taken to an orphanage. Lightning never really did find out what happened to her house, if it had been left in the government's care until she was old enough to take it back, or if it had been simply seized. It didn't matter though, because she hasn't returned there since leaving it.

Now, Lightning sat there by the window in Amodar's office waiting. There was no nurse, and Serah wasn't here using her leg as a pillow, and so she simply hugged her knees to her chest and curled up. Waiting was the hardest thing to do, and she would much rather be on the front lines where she could do something. A part of her just wanted to go back to Serah and just hold her close. The sharp clang of someone bumping into the door snapped Lightning out of her trance, and her head flung back like a whip to see Baxter walk in, mumbling to himself and rubbing the arm he had slammed into the door. "Lightning?" He sounded surprised at first before grinning, "Hey, the Lieutenant just sent me here to get something."

"Oh… okay…"

The older teenager shuffled through Amodar's desk and produced a mana drive before pocketing it. "It's rough out there." Baxter filled in the awkward silence, "I don't think we'll be back until - a long time. You can probably head home for today."

Lightning nearly tumbled out of her chair when she scrambled to stand up, "H-How bad is it? Really bad?"

"Nothing we can't handle." Baxter hummed, moving to leave the office before hesitating at the doorway. He glanced back at her, seeing her standing as straight and stiff as an iron beam, and unblinking blue eyes wide with worry. "Well… most of it's already under control, and I guess we've called in the clean-up crews already. Do you want to come with?"

"Yes!" Lightning immediately answered, lurching forward towards Baxter to show that she would be diligently following him closely.

"Okay, okay. Just don't do anything dangerous. Or even better, don't do anything and just follow me around."

She snapped into a form perfect salute, "Understood!" Lightning shuffled after him eagerly, ignoring the slight chuckle he gave. The hallways were quiet, most students and instructors still held up in the last class of the day. A velocycle was parked outside, and Baxter climbed in first leaving Lightning a little lost as she stood left out on the side.

"You can sit on my lap. You're quite small."

"But-" Lightning protested, pursing her lips and frowning at the shrug he gave her.

"Or you can just wait here. This isn't a two seater y'know." It was embarrassing, and Lightning had always been one to keep distances. She had a very large personal bubble, and if it weren't Serah, then she'd always somehow and in someway, eject that person away from her vicinity. "Amodar's waiting for this mana drive."

She shuffled her feet, approached the velocycle awkwardly and stepped back, glaring at the machine as if it were her worst enemy. Baxter started the machine, and that set the kind of panic in Lightning that made her want to punch someone. "There's not enough room." Lightning replied tersly.

"Alright, I'm leaving then." The bike rose from the ground and the pink haired girl scrambled on, haphazardly seating herself in front of Baxter and huffing at his laugh when he reached around her to grab the steering. "See? That wasn't so hard." The machine shot forward, speeding through the streets of Bodhum towards the southeast end. "It's a big deal," Baxter started talking after a while, briefing her about the going concern, "A Cyclops. Those things never appear near towns, heck, or even on Cocoon! At least, I've never heard of it. They're rare, so the Lieutenant thinks someone released it here on purpose."

"Aren't they big though?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, huge. I've got no idea how anyone would be able to smuggle one in without people noticing. But someone did, and that's why we have a Cyclops situation on our hands." She could see the multiple GC transports parked, forming that of a barricade guarded by patrolling soldiers on the outer perimeter. Baxter waited for Lightning to jump off before he followed suit, waving at her to follow as he head towards the forest populating the outskirts. There was a deep rumble that made nearby ground shake, like heavy and slow footfalls. "Calmed down a bit." Baxter commented, "Before I left, it seriously felt like an earthquake here. We've got it trapped inside one of our barriers, so all that's left is what to do with it now."

"Are you going to kill it?" Lightning bluntly asked.

He paused, and shrugged again, "Up to the Lieutenant. I mean, I don't even know what we can do with it. We can kill it, but then what of the body? It's too big to dig a hole and bury it."

They passed through the trees, maneuvering through the overgrowth. Looking past the tree tops, Lightning could see the orange glow of the GC erected barriers already, occasionally flickering along with the heavy steps that now shook up her knees. She paid attention to the loud noises rocking the earth, and falling into nearly a daze as she followed Baxter, the sounds started to fade out until her world was completely mute. "You get it." Lightning walked on, unblinking and numbly listened to a voice she couldn't recognize speak to her. She sounded about her age, maybe younger, but there was that playful tone as if this other girl was mocking her. "Y'know, at least go out in style, right?"

"Who… are you?" Lightning whispered, but in the silence around her, it felt as if she were yelling.

"I finally found you." The girl stressed, "I really should've known. Where else? Bodhum obviously! Duh. I thought you might get a little nostalgic and suddenly show up to fight my Cyclops, and look at here! You show up!"

Lightning abruptly stopped, and looked around the forest. She could see the wind rustling the leaves, feel the ground bumping beneath her feet, but she couldn't hear anything. "Where are you?"

"Bah, I can't even do anything anyways. What's the point?" The mysterious girl started ranting, "I have to let you do your thing. Why don't you take a hike and go to Midgar? Hurry things up a little. It's really annoying having to keep track of all of you. It's like finding needles in a thousand haystacks. Fang, Vanille, Sazh, Sn- oops, almost let that one slip."

"Where are you!" Lightning yelled, twisting around to look into the shadows of the forest.

"If you start screaming to yourself, people are going to start thinking you're crazy. Sheesh, you're hopeless. Well, let's see what good you really are!"

A giggle, and then the sound came funneling back into her ear, making her head ring with pain. Lightning gasped, covering her ears with her hands, "Hey! What's wrong?" Baxter grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her lightly. "Are you alright?"

Blinking rapidly, Lightning shied away from him and nodded meekly. "Y-Yeah... I uh-"

It was a streak of vibrant crimson electricity that shot through the sky towards the barrier, striking it with a thundering clasp. Lightning watched, stilled with shock, as the barrier cracked. The loud stomping returned before a large bang shattered the air. The barrier collapsed like broken glass, and panic instantly erupted. "What the- Lightning!" Baxter yelled, shoving the pink haired girl roughly the way they came, "Go back now! Tell everyone at the barricades that the Cyclops has broken free! Go!"

He didn't even wait for her answer before sprinting off to where the broken barrier was. She spun on her heel and ran the other way, tripping over fallen trees and stringy plants. Lightning broke through the forest and staggered back towards the GC transports. In an instant, the other soldiers were upon her, no doubt concerned why she was suddenly looking so ragged since seeing her a few minutes ago, "T-The Cyclops! It broke the barrier!" Lightning yelled and set everything into motion immediately. The soldiers hustled, loading and equipping the weapons, calling out the domestic peacekeepers and any other military drones they had in supply. A hand snagged her arm and she was roughly dragged to safety, but she didn't get far. The floor shook heavily, the loud stomping coming faster and closer before the rows of trees before them were crushed by a large bulky red beast.

It loomed over them, and Lightning could see that any regular adult probably reached up to its stubby legs in height. Guns fired, flashing repeatedly to burn itself into Lightning's eyes. The large singular eye rolled, down sweeping over the Corps before it let out a mighty roar. It swung its club, sending the military drones and soldiers flying, tossing the transports several feet in the air. Several Guardian Corps were already hot in pursuit of the monster from where it had broken free. Lightning couldn't focus on anything other than the Cyclops that was staggering towards her. "Go! RUN!" The soldier that had been dragging her away pushed her forward before turning around and unloading his gun into the Cyclops.

Her heart was beating in her ears, pounding like that time she had fought the gorgonsopsid but ten times worse – no, a hundred times. A large explosion erupted from behind, lifting Lightning off her feet and throwing her forward. Choking at the rough crash into cement ground, she gingerly picked herself up and her ears were blinded by a piercing ring. Lightning looked back, panting heavily, and froze at the fiery destruction. The Cyclops stood in the middle, thrashing its club in large sweeping motions as the soldiers were launched into a frantic frenzy at its feet.

Lightning stood still, nearly entranced with the Cyclops erratic movements. She took in its large swipes, how it lifted its club far above its head and raised a foot off the ground, wobbling slightly, for hard hitters. It was a pattern, and like all living things, even a Cyclops would exhibit some sort of repetition of habit. "R-Right…" A shaky breath escaped, noting the times the beast lifted its leg up. "Okay. Right. Right." Twisting around, Lightning's mind whirled upon seeing the velocycle Baxter had used. "Yeah, okay. Right. Right. Right. Right." She repeated it over and over again as if it were some sort of mantra to psych herself up. Climbing onto the vehicle, she looked over the buttons. She had watched Snow and Gadot play those racing video games, so this shouldn't be much different, and she had watched Baxter drive just now. As long as she could turn it on...

Pressing the buttons that Baxter had used to turn it off but in reverse order, Lightning sucked in her breath and held it as the engine revved to life. Twisting the wheel, she pushed it forward to move the velocycle forward, allowing it to drift. Only when she was a respectable distance away, did she turn the velocycle around to face the Cyclops on rampage. Shedding her jacket off, Lightning clambered forward to flip open the storage compartment right in front of the steering. She counted the seconds, watching how the Cyclops of swing it's body back to accommodate the weight of the club before bringing it down in a hard hit. Amodar was there, Baxter was there, and they could very well be dead, but so would Bodhum if the Cyclops manages to get into the city. "Serah." Lightning breathed as she tied one of her sleeves to the wheel, "Serah, Serah, Serah…"

The Cyclops swung its body back, and in the next second, Lightning slammed the steering wheel forward. The velocycle shot forward like a bullet, taking not even a moment to start up and Lightning pushed her weight to keep the wheel forward before stuffing the rest of her jacket into the storage compartment, then slamming it shut. The tied sleeve kept the wheel in place and stopped the velocycle from decelerating. It was now or never, and the longer the steering wheel was slammed forward, the faster the vehicle got. Lightning leapt out of the vehicle as it shot forward, crashing onto the ground harshly and rolling roughly on the ground.

She didn't feel any pain, not yet. Twisting around, Lightning watched wide-eyed as the velocycle slammed into the Cyclops mid swing, tossing it off balance right before it was going to lift its feet up. She watched it fall with bated breath. "Hit it now!" A distant yell came from the GC forces at the Cyclops feet. Multiple wires were shot from large turrets mounted on the remaining transports, piercing the monster's hard flesh to hold it in place.

Blood. Lightning chilled upon hearing its pained cry. Limping forward, she clutched her sore arm against her body, "N-No! Don't do that!"

The Cyclops thrashed violently, dragging one transport by the wires and flung it into another in attempts to dislodge the steel wire heads. The transports erupted in flames, and thick blood gushed from the beast's wounds. She was so focused, cemented in the thick fog of dread bubbling in her gut, that she no longer felt the pain in her body. Lightning started to run towards the Cyclops, tripping over her feet every few steps. "L-Lightning!" Twisting around, the young girl looked to the voice, her breath hitching when she saw Amodar standing on the other side of the Cyclops, "Get out of here!"

Time stopped when she watched helplessly as the Cyclops took a blind swing at Amodar when he had been distracted. He flew through the air, tossed like a ragdoll and slammed into a damaged transport. "A-AMODAR!" She sprinted forward, running as fast as possible until she couldn't feel her legs anymore. She didn't know what she was doing, but all that mattered was that she got to Amodar in time. Lightning thrust herself in between her Lieutenant and the Cyclops, looking up in fear as she Cyclops brought its hand down to crush them.

"LIGHTNING!"

There were so many voices. She had heard Amodar, had heard Baxter, but strangely enough she had heard Serah the loudest. Throwing her hands out in front of her, she watched in horror as the Cyclops closed in and at the last moment, a wall of flaming fire erupted at her fingertips, exploding into an uncontrollable firaga.

The beast wailed, thrashing as it caught fire and fell backwards. Lightning had belatedly noticed the large arm wrapping around her body, pulling her backwards into Amodar's body before Baxter stood protectively in front, arm raised and glowing with the mana drive he had retrieved earlier. "The blood!" Baxter yelled, "It's flammable! Use fire!"

It was a sea of flames, its vibrant light flickering in the dark crimson pool. The Cyclops' tortured wails and cries cackled with the fire. "Lightning! Lightning, it's alright." A large hand covered her eyes and she was turned away from the gruesome sight before her and hidden against Amodar's body. He held her tightly, so much that she was nearly crushed, but she clung onto him with her eyes clamped closed and begging for the cries to stop. She didn't know how long she had her face buried in Amodar's uniform, but she stayed there even long after the Cyclops had gone silent. All she listened to was Amodar's deep voice hushing her.

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, and she was soon guided away. Everything was a blur afterwards and she numbly followed Baxter back towards the base. The transports were all busy carrying the wounded, and the reinforcements came in a tad late. There were casualties, deaths, but Lightning couldn't stem the relief knowing that Amodar was alive. "You really do have a knack for trouble." Baxter commented quietly as they walked along the sidewalk, "Seems like it always comes looking for you." She stared at the ground as she walked, and soon started to limp when the pain in her arms and legs returned. Her skin was scraped, blood trickled from the multiple cuts were gravel and dirt were lodged, and her cadet trousers were torn. "Here." He stopped abruptly and knelt down on the ground in front of her, "I'll carry you."

"I-I'm fine."

"Come on. You're limping. If I let you walk all the way there, Lieutenant Amodar would kill me."

"Amodar?" At the mention of the Lieutenant's name, Lightning nodded and climbed onto Baxter's back. Hooking his arms with her legs, he lifted her up, took a slight moment to find his balance before trudging onwards like a trooper. "Do you…" Her hands tightened around his neck as she rested her chin on his shoulder, "Do you think he's angry at me?"

He laughed, and it was a nice laugh like the ones he would laugh when he was teasing her. One that was so remarkably inappropriate given what had just happened, but it put Lightning at ease. "Angry? Maybe. But he's probably more angry at me."

"You?"

"Well, I am the one that said you could come. I thought everything was under control but… I was wrong." Baxter shifted, glancing back at Lightning from the corner of his eyes, "Sorry about that."

"Mnhmn." Lightning mumbled, shaking her head, "Not your fault." He didn't say anything afterwards. Exhaustion was slowly settling in, and Lightning's eye lids were growing heavier with every blink. She had stayed up the night before talking to Serah, and she expected a normal day at cadet school. Not this. Her body hurt, and all Lightning wanted was to be home with Serah again. She drifted off to sleep unknowingly, her head lulling back and forth on Baxter's shoulder.

I didn't expect this chapter to be so long... but then again the whole Cyclops attack was a last minute thing. It will be in this arc that Jihl makes first contact with Lightning, but I want to focus a bit more on Serah, Snow and maybe a little more of Lebreau. Now that I'm looking ahead into what this story has planned, I'm seeing a WHOLE lot of angst and eventually tragedy. You have been warned! ;D