The Wrong Kind of Nostalgia

Quistis had long since learned to listen to her gut. It had kept her alive through all kinds of trouble and right now it was telling her to turn right back around and leave. It was one thing to break into a place like Cocoon, quite another to go gunning for a fellow like Hojo. Not only did he know they were coming, but from what Reeve had told them, his house was more like a fortress than a house, with enough hired guns to make any kind of frontal attack just about suicide.

So, of course, that was exactly what they were about to do.

It wasn't like they'd had much choice though. None of them wanted to leave Bart with Hojo any longer than they had to, so after talking to Reeve about things, they'd doubled back to drop Hope off with his Snow, Serah, and Nora. At the same time, they'd grabbed Fujin and as many weapons as they could carry and then headed over toward Hojo's place. Snow had wanted to come too, but Lightning had been pretty clear about him staying. Snow wasn't a killer, not really, and Quistis had a feeling that getting Bart back would require a pretty decent amount of killing. Besides, he seemed to get along with Hope pretty decently and him being around seemed to ease Nora's nerves, if only a little.

Without much time to get a plan together, they'd decided to do things the simple way. Lightning and Fang were the best of them at sneaking around, which meant that they'd be the ones to try and creep into Hojo's house and find Bart. But even those two would find that a pretty tall task with all the hired guns wandering around. That was why Quistis, Fujin, and Vanille were going to go and make some noise, see if they couldn't draw a bit of attention to make things a little easier for Lightning and Fang. After that – and assuming that they didn't end up riddled with bullets – they'd do their best to meet up with Lightning and Fang inside Hojo's house.

"You know," Vanille said, "We should probably get started."

Quistis slanted the red head a dry look. She didn't like the huge grin plastered on Vanille's face one bit, especially when she knew just how many guns and explosives the shorter woman was carrying. "I think you're enjoying this just a little too much."

Vanille grinned and slung her shotgun over her shoulder. "I figure you're probably right, but, you know, it's one thing to go around robbing banks and all that, quite another to actually be saving someone." Her expression turned sober. "Besides, Fang and I owe Bart, we can't just walk away from this." Her grin returned. "So, I might as well enjoy myself, don't you think, marshal?"

Quistis chuckled softly. "I suppose you're right." She looked across the road and her mirth faded. Hojo's house was big all right, more of a manor, really, and surrounded by a great big brick wall. Right in front of them though, was the gate, a huge metal thing with a guardhouse on either side of it and at least a dozen hired guns. "You ready Fujin?"

The other marshal smirked, her single crimson eye shimmering darkly in the moonlight. "READY."

"Good." Quistis drew a pair of pistols and strode across the street. "Let's go make some noise then."

The guards at the front gate stopped and stared the moment that the three of them came into sight and Quistis let a smirk play across her lips. They must have made quite a sight: three women armed to the teeth, one of them with an eye patch, another with glasses, and the last with one heck of a crazy smile on her face.

"Evening," Quistis said as she levelled her pistols at the closest pair of hired guns. "I don't suppose you'll us through, will you?"

A mix of disbelief and startled anger flashed across the hired guns' faces, but whatever they might have said was drowned out by the roar of both pistols as Quistis fired. The hired guns reeled back, both of them dead with their hands not even halfway to their holsters, and suddenly the night was alive with the thunder of gunfire as half the hired guns scrambled for cover and the other half opened fire.

"Take them down!" one of the hired guns screamed. "Don't let them through!"

Quistis felt a bullet shoot past her cheek and threw herself behind one of the trees that lined the sidewalk. It wasn't nearly wide enough for her taste, but it was better than nothing. A quick glance to either side told her that both Vanille and Fujin had found cover too, Fujin behind another tree and Vanille behind what looked to be a metal bench.

"Well?" Vanille shouted as she lifted her shotgun up and took aim. "What are you two waiting for? Weren't we supposed to make some noise?"

And with that the red head fired. The shotgun howled and first one hired gun and then another flew back as she gave them both barrels. The second hired gun crashed through the window of one of the guardhouses and shards of glass went every which way as the hired guns inside scrambled to get clear.

"Vanille," Quistis shouted as she pushed out from behind her tree and nodded at Fujin. "Blow the gate. Fujin and I will cover you!"

As the red head got one of her explosives ready, Quistis turned her attention back to the hired guns. There were a lot of them now, and more would be coming every minute. They needed to do something to thin their numbers a bit and draw their attention away from Vanille, as well. With a grim smile, she ran forward, firing as she went. One shot caught a hired gun in the leg and hobbled him, another nicked a hired gun in the cheek, and still another hit a hired gun square in the forehead and put him down.

"Come on, Fujin," Quistis muttered as she jerked away from a bullet. "What are you waiting for? Do something."

Bang.

One of the hired guns jerked back, a great red rose blooming across his chest just as he drew a bead on Quistis.

Bang.

Another hired gun halted, stopped in the very act of firing, a shot drilled right through his eye.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

With each shot, another hired gun fell and Quistis whipped a hasty look back to see that Fujin had abandoned any semblance of cover. Instead, the silver haired woman stood out in the open, her feet apart and her single eye narrowed in concentration. A rifle was pressed flush against her shoulder and there was a look of eerie calm on Fujin's face as she lined up another shot, each movement as easy and natural as could be, before she fired and stopped another hired gun in his tracks.

"Move!" Vanille cried as she lobbed something through the air. "Get out of the way, Quistis!"

Quistis didn't need to be told twice. Running like every nightmare she'd ever had was on her tail, she darted back for cover. There was a moment's pause as the explosive landed at the base of the heavy metal gate before a deep, earth-shaking boom rattled the street. A second later, bits of mangled metal and charred brick began to rain down and Quistis poked her head out from behind some cover just in time to see some of the hired guns stagger away from the ruined gate, clearly disoriented.

"NOW!" Fujin said. "GO HOUSE!"

Quistis nodded and got to her feet, Vanille only half a step behind her. The three of them charged through the remains of the gate, firing at any of the hired guns still alive. But more hired guns had begun to pour down toward them from the house, maybe more than even they could handle.

"I sure hope Lightning and Fang appreciate this," Quistis muttered. "Because, this is starting to get tricky."

As bullets bit into the ground all around them, Vanille laughed. "Starting to get tricky? Way I see it, it's been tricky since we started." She fired back at the closest clump of hired guns and managed to drop a couple. "Still, it makes you feel alive, don't you think?"

Rather than reply, Quistis instead chose to scan the path up ahead for anything they could use as cover. They were a little too exposed on the path and although they'd managed to run along it so far without getting hit, it wouldn't be too long before something went wrong or one of the hired guns got lucky. "There." She pointed to a guardhouse that occupied a spot about halfway between them and the house. "We can use that for cover."

Vanille chuckled. "It looks pretty good, marshal. There's just one problem… it's kind of occupied." As if to prove Vanille's point, the windows of the guardhouse were suddenly filled with guns. A bullet cut the air over Vanille's head. "Still, it's probably better than out here."

"Cover me!" Quistis shouted. "I'll try to bust us in."

As Quistis began a mad sprint toward the guardhouse, Vanille and Fujin poured gunfire into it. Most of the shots didn't hit, but it hardly mattered. The point was, they managed to force the hired guns inside away from the windows and that would give Quistis at least a fighting chance of taking the place by storm.

Quistis dragged in a deep breath as she closed the gap between her and the guardhouse. There probably wasn't much point in even trying the door – if the hired guns had any sense, they'd make sure it was locked – which left her with just the windows for an entrance. With a growl, she threw herself through the nearest window. The hired guns inside looked at her for a second before they scrambled to get rid of her. One of them fired, but she jerked out of the way and she heard a strangled curse as the bullet hit one of the other hired guns. A savage smile crossed her face. In the crowded quarters of the guardhouse, they'd be hard pressed to fire without hitting each other. She, on the other hand, had no such problems.

Guns blazing, she fired on all sides, scarcely able to see as a stray shot took out a lamp and cast the whole place into near darkness. Her guns soon clicked empty and she grimaced. There was no time to reload, so rather than try she instead switched her grip on them to hold them by the barrels. Then she threw herself back into the fray, a single woman pressing the hired guns back, as she lashed out with the pistols. She whipped one across the face of a hired gun and he stumbled back, nose broken, a second lunged and she caved his cheek in. But a third snuck up on her and she felt pain explode as he drove the butt of his shotgun into the back of her head. For a moment, she reeled, barely able to see or think through the pain, and then she heard a vicious growl as first Vanille and then Fujin leapt through the windows.

From there everything seemed to happen in a blur, each moment punctuated by the flash and roar of Vanille's shotgun. It seemed crazy to use a weapon like that in a place so cramped, but Vanille made it work, and the whole place shook each time the gun fired. But it was Fujin who caught Qusitis' eye and held it. Quistis had always known that the other woman could fight, really fight, with just her hands and feet, but she'd never thought she could look so beautiful doing it.

Fujin threw her rifle at the man closest to her and he caught it out of reflex. Before he could even realise the mistake he'd made though, Fujin hit him with a kick so hard Quistis could have sworn she heard the man's ribs break as the blow landed. Another man charged and Quistis tried to shout a warning, but Fujin was already in motion. She ducked beneath the hired gun's haymaker of a punch and turned to fling him over her shoulder. He slammed into a small table and the thing broke beneath his weight. A third rushed Fujin from behind, but she didn't even bother to turn. Instead, she just twisted slightly and thrust her elbow back and the man reeled away, his nose broken and barely conscious. A second later, he was unconscious as Fujin turned and landed a punch square on the point of his chin. By now, there was only one more hired gun still alive or conscious in the place and he drew a knife from his boot and leapt at Fujin. The silver haired woman simply eased to the side and the knife went wide. Before the hired gun could bring the knife around for a second attack, Fujin caught his wrist and twisted it sharply to one side. The knife dropped free of his suddenly slack fingers and Fujin caught it and flung it contemptuously away. The hired gun backed away now, fear in his eyes, and Vanille slammed the butt of her shotgun over his neck.

"OKAY?" Fujin asked as she reached down to help Quistis to her feet. "QUISTIS OKAY?"

Quistis winced. The pain in her head had faded to a dull ache and although she knew she'd really be feeling it tomorrow, there didn't seem to be any blood, and she seemed to be able to walk all right. "I'm fine," she said. "Just stunned, is all."

Fujin's lips curved into a wry smile. "I NEW. YOU NOT. YOU SUPPOSED LOOK AFTER ME."

Quistis chuckled. Although a little blunt, it was hard to take offence at Fujin's words when there was such warmth shining through at her from that single eye. "I suppose you're right about that."

"Ahem." Vanille coughed and pointed out one of the windows. "Now, I know you're probably still a little groggy and all Quistis, but there are a whole lot more hired guns headed this way." She reached into her coat for a pair of explosives. "Now, do I have to explain how these work to you two?"

Quistis looked down at the explosive in her hand. One of these days, she was going to have to ask Vanille how to make them. If nothing else, they'd give her a pretty interesting way of dealing with her paperwork when it got to be too much to handle. "No, I figure I know what to do." She glanced over at Fujin. "You?"

Fujin just smirked and looked out of the window at the approaching hired guns. "BOOM."

X X X

Fang glanced off toward the sound of the gunfire and frowned. By the sound of things, there was one hell of a fight going on down there and while she knew that Vanille could look after herself and that Quistis and Fujin were as tough as they came, she couldn't help but wish she was down there too. Still, she thought as a trio of explosions rocked the night, those three definitely knew how to make some noise. She and Lightning were almost to the house and they'd yet to encounter any hired guns, although she wasn't crazy enough to think their luck would hold for much longer.

"Come on, Fang," Lightning whispered. "We need to hurry. Those three might be able to distract them for a while, but sooner or later the local lawmen are going to show up and that's not trouble we want to face."

Fang nodded. The local lawmen might not be too much of a threat, but there would likely be a lot of them, too many maybe, for them to handle on top of everything else. "All right then, let's keeping going."

The two of them made their way over to the back of Hojo's house and Fang took a quick look around to make sure it was clear. Sure enough, there was no one there. As quickly as she could, Fang got one of the windows unlocked and the two climbed through to find themselves in some kind of sitting room. Although Reeve didn't know just where Bart was being kept, it didn't take a genius to know that Hojo wouldn't risk keeping him somewhere easy to get to. That left Fang and Lightning in a bit of a quandary. They could either search the whole place, which wasn't likely to turn out too well, or they could find someone who knew a thing or two.

"Stay here," Fang said. "I'm going to grab us an informer."

Fang tiptoed over to the door of the sitting room and eased it open a fraction. It wasn't long before a group of hired guns ran past, probably to go help out with Vanille and the others. She waited until the last of them was level with the door, before she reached out and grabbed him. He tried to yell, but she had her hand over his mouth before he could make a sound. Pressing her gun up against his temple, she led him back into the sitting room.

"I've got a couple of questions for you," Fang drawled as she stepped away, her gun trained on him the entire time. "If you happen to enjoy living, I suggest you answer to the best of your ability."

The hired gun looked from her to Lightning with wide eyes and then shook his head. "You can't make me talk."

Lightning scowled and levelled her own gun at the hired gun's head. "And how do you figure that?"

The man grinned viciously. "You're looking for that Bart fellow, aren't you? Well, you can't kill me, can you? Otherwise you'll never find him."

Fang glanced over at Lightning and the sheriff rolled her eyes. The hired gun was all kinds of stupid admitting that he knew something about Bart. "So, you do know something about Bart." She smiled sunnily and then slowly, deliberately, lowered her aim from his head to his crotch. "Maybe we can't kill you, but we can sure as hell make the rest of your life nasty." Her eyes twinkled. "I wonder if you'll still be able to go standing up after I shoot you down there. What do you think, Lightning?"

Lightning shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't we find out?" She lowered her gun too.

"Okay!" the man cried, panic in his voice as he held up both hands. "I'll tell you what you want to know." He grimaced. "Damn it… I don't mind getting shot in the arm or something but…"

Fang eased the hammer of her pistol back. "Stop worrying about yourself for a moment and focus. We're looking for Bart. Where is he? Tell us and you should be able to get out of this okay."

The hired gun gulped. "He's where Hojo always keeps his prisoners – down in the dungeon… Cell 20, I think."

"Dungeon?" Fang didn't like the sound of that one bit. "What do you mean, dungeon?"

"That's what it is!" the man wailed as Fang's eyes flashed dangerously. "It's a dungeon damn it, so that's what we call it."

"Never mind that," Fang said. "Where is it? How do we get there?"

The man paled. "It's hidden… there are stairs in the dining room behind the tapestry, you can't miss it." He looked up at Fang. "There… I told you what you want, don't shoot me."

Fang made a disgusted sound. "Don't worry, you're not worth the bullets, now tell us how to get to the dining room." Once he'd finished talking she slapped her gun across his head. The hired gun fell to the ground, out cold and Fang turned to Lightning. "You heard the fellow, sunshine. Let's go find that dungeon."

The two of them headed for the dining room. Along the way, they ducked in and out of rooms whenever a bunch of hired guns got too close and they managed to make it almost halfway there before they got spotted. Before they could take the hired gun out though, he doubled back the way he came, no doubt to get reinforcements.

That was why, when nobody came after them, they began to get nervous, especially when they got to the last corridor between them and the dining room.

"This looks a lot like a trap, doesn't it, sunshine," Fang said as she eyed the corridor. It was a long one, with a whole lot of doors branching off it and despite the ruckus going on outside, there wasn't a sound to be heard inside. "I'd bet everything I own that they've got this place staked out as a trap for us."

Lightning nodded slowly. "I think so too, but this looks like the only way to the dining room."

Fang grinned. "In that case, let's not keep them waiting." She slanted Lightning a serious look. "Watch yourself, sheriff."

Lightning smiled thinly. "Likewise, bandit."

Each step down the corridor was filled with tension and Fang could feel her hand twitching. There were hired guns about, she just knew it, the only question was: what were they waiting for? She got her answer a moment later. As she and Lightning reached the middle of the corridor, one of the doors in front of them burst open.

A hired gun appeared in the open doorway and Fang was just fast enough to drop him before he got his shot off. But even as he fell another door in front of them opened and Fang was forced to fire again, her attention diverted just enough that she never noticed a door behind them open.

Luckily, Lightning did.

Lightning's gun roared and Fang spun around to see a hired gun clutch at the doorframe before his strength failed him and he toppled to the ground.

"Hey, sunshine," Fang murmured as she backed up until she and Lightning were pressed back to back. "How much do you want to bet that there are hired guns behind all of these doors?"

Even if she couldn't see it, Fang could hear the cold smile in Lightning's voice. "I don't see the point in betting on a sure thing." Lightning tilted her head a fraction and for a split-second cerulean met emerald. "Just worry about the ones in front, I'll get the ones behind, and so help me, if you miss any and I get hit, I'll shoot you myself."

Fang chuckled. "Same to you, sunshine, same to you."

And then they didn't have any more time to talk or even think as the doors on either side of the corridor, in front and behind, began to burst open. Gunfire filled the narrow space and the two of burst into motion together. A bullet zipped past Fang and the bandit heard Lightning curse before she fired twice, each shot followed a second later by the thud of a body as it hit the ground. Likewise, Fang had her own work cut out for her as her gun leapt from target to target, every iota of her being focused on the task in front of her, almost painfully aware that any mistake she made could very easily cost not only her own life, but Lightning's, as well. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the hired guns stopped coming and both she and Lightning breathed a sigh of relief as they stopped to reload and then walked into the dining room.

It was a pretty nice set up, with a big oak table and what looked to be a pretty decent dinner laid out. However, they had eyes only for the large tapestry on one of the walls and when they jerked it out of the way, there was a door there, a door that opened onto some stairs that led underground.

"Aw, hell," Fang muttered, "If that corridor was bad, this has got to be at least ten times worse. Just what is this?"

Lightning glanced down the stairs and winced. It didn't take much looking to know that the stairs were just ripe for an ambush. More than that though, the look of the stairs took her back a few years, back to one of the worst cases she'd ever worked. "I saw something like this once," she murmured. "Amodar and I were going after some slave traders and we stumbled across a place like this. They had stairs leading underground to where they kept the slaves… it wasn't pleasant down there, if you catch my meaning."

Fang scowled. Slave traders were some of the worst people that Fang had ever met and if she never met another one, she'd be just fine with that. "Yeah, sunshine, I catch your meaning." She took a step down the stairs. "Let's get this over with and who knows, maybe it won't be that bad."

She was dead wrong.

The stairs didn't lead down to a basement. No, they went down much further than that, down right into the very bowels of the earth. With each step they took, Fang felt the unease inside her grow until it took everything she had not to just turn tail and run. There was something wrong about this place, and not just because no one had come to stop them, but because there was something off, something that didn't fit. This far underground, the air was supposed to smell stale, to be a little musty, instead there was another smell, one it took her a good long while to place. It was the smell of blood, old blood, the scent of fear and horror.

The stairs came to an abrupt end and they found themselves in a large hall paved with what looked to be cobblestones. Water trickled down the walls and Fang couldn't stop a shiver from running through her. What kind of place was this? Uneasy right down to her boots, she glanced around more closely. There were doors branching off the main hall and they were numbered – they must be the cells that the hired gun had mentioned. There was also balcony around the whole place too, which meant there was probably another way in.

"Where are the guards?" Lightning asked. "Why aren't there any guards?"

Fang eyed the shadows more closely. With the whole place lit by just a couple of lamps, there were plenty of places to hide. "I don't know, sunshine." She glanced at the cells and shivered. "But how about we get Bart and get out of here, the quicker the better."

"Fine," Lightning replied. "Let's go. It was Cell 20, wasn't it?"

As they walked over to Cell 20, Fang chanced a quick look inside one of the other cells. She wished she hadn't. There was a man in there, or at least, what had once been a man. He was chained to one of the walls by his wrists and his body was one big mess of blood and broken flesh. His face was little better, a thin mop of scraggly hair covering a face so bruised and battered it was barely recognisable.

"This isn't right," Fang whispered. "This isn't right at all." Just what had Hojo done to the poor fellow, and how long had he been down here?

Lightning came up behind her and Fang felt the other woman tense for a moment, before the sheriff drove one booted heel into the door with enough force to almost knock it off its hinges. The pink haired woman knelt by the fallen man for a moment and then shook her head. "He's dead, Fang, probably has been for at least a day now."

"I know we have to get Bart," Fang said thickly, "But we need to check the other cells. We can't leave anyone down here."

Lightning nodded. "Right."

It took them about five minutes to check the other cells. Most of the others were empty and those that weren't held only the dead. Hojo, it seemed, didn't seem to care too much for leaving people alive once he'd finished with them. With heavy hearts, they made their way over to the last cell in the hall, Cell 20.

With a growl, Fang kicked the door of the cell open and she felt a wave of guilt and horror sweep over her at what she saw. She hadn't known the other people they'd found, but she knew Bart, and that made things a hundred times worse. The man's glasses were gone and his face was one big bruise and there were cuts above and below both eyes. His body was a mess too, with bruises and gashes all over. These weren't the kind of injuries a man got being interrogated, these were the kinds of injuries a man got when someone beat the hell out of them for fun, and not just once either, but a lot of times. As she and Lightning drew closer, Bart gave a twitch and then tried to scramble away from them.

"Easy, Bart," Lightning said as she knelt by the man's side, her voice so soft that it nearly made Fang cry. "It's me, it's Lightning. I'm going to get you out of here and get you fixed up."

Bart forced one eye open and somehow managed to get the words out. "Sheriff?" The haziness in his gaze made Fang want to retch – it looked a lot like they'd drugged him too. "Is that really you?"

"It sure is," Lightning said as she hooked one arm around him. "Now, I need you to try and stand. Can you do that for me, Bart?" She glanced at Fang and then at Bart's other arm.

"I couldn't tell them anything…" Bart mumbled as Fang took his other arm and helped him stand. "I didn't know anything… but that didn't seem to matter… that Hojo… that… that…"

"That's enough," Fang said, her voice thick. "Just… just take it easy, Bart."

"Fran?" Bart said, eyes still glazed. "What are you doing here? You… you shouldn't be in a place like this…" His head tilted to one side and he tried to jerk away, but Lightning held firm. "Wait… you're not her… you're not…"

The sound of clapping interrupted them as they left Bart's cell and entered the hall.

"Well, well, well," Hojo drawled as he took a position in the middle of the hall flanked by two dozen hired guns, all of them with their guns already out. "You actually came for him, and what an odd pair you make, a sheriff and a bandit. How interesting." He smiled, as friendly as could be. "Now how about the two of you drop yours guns. It'd be a shame if this came down to shooting."

With little choice in the matter, both Fang and Lightning tossed their guns to the floor.

"You know, Mr Estheim there is quite a man." Hojo grinned. "I'll admit, I didn't have him pegged as much, but most people break down after an hour or two. The fact is, he was going strong until just before the two of you arrived." He shrugged. "Pity he didn't know anything."

"What is this place?" Fang growled as she and Lightning carried Bart over to a chair and propped him up in it.

"You're a curious one aren't you?" Hojo said. "Well, I like to think of it as a place where I can get to know people a little better." He chuckled. "Indeed, I imagine I'll be getting to know the two of you just as well as I know Mr Estheim." He frowned faintly. "Although I have to say, I'm a little puzzled. I've heard all about the sheriff's problems with Cocoon, but you, bandit, I'm not sure why you're gunning for Cocoon." His gaze was suddenly intense and despite the wave of revulsion that swept over her, Fang found herself unable to look away. Suddenly, a dark smile broke out on Hojo's face. "Wait a second… I know those eyes, I've seen them somewhere before."

Fang clenched her fists and looked vainly at her gun on the floor. There, right in front of her, was the man responsible for what had happened to Oerba. She wanted nothing more than to tear him limb from limb, but she wasn't stupid enough to think she'd get even three paces before the hired guns beside him put her down.

"Yes…" Hojo murmured. "Yes." His eyes shone with pure malevolence. "I remember it now, it was… Oerba… I saw a girl in Oerba with eyes just like yours." He chuckled. "And she had hair like yours too, now that I think about it, and such… marvellous hatred in her eyes, just like the hatred in yours eyes right now. Yes… yes… unless I'm mistaken, you must be her." He laughed coldly. "No wonder you hate Cocoon so much."

"Shut up!" Fang growled. "You shut your damn mouth! You have no right to talk about Oerba, not you!"

Hojo tilted his head to one side. "So… you found out that I was the one responsible. Well, there really must be a leak in Cocoon." He shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to take care of that later, too." He smiled. "You know, I've always been very proud of what happened in Oerba… it was… a masterpiece."

"Shut up!" Fang screamed, voice raw as she blinked back tears. "Don't you say another word!"

Hojo just laughed softly and then glanced over at Lightning. "You seem curious, sheriff, would you like to know what happened in Oerba?"

Fang clenched her fists helplessly. That monster…

Lightning shook her head. "I can't say I really do."

"Oh, but sheriff," Hojo said, "It's only right that you know, considering the two of you are working together." Hojo smirked. "I'm sure you're familiar with the way Oerba is now, what with the mines up there, but it wasn't always that way. You see, not all that long ago, there were some tribes that lived in Oerba, primitive people, but happy, I suppose." He looked at Fang and smiled, eyes bright with something akin to ecstasy. "But those tribes didn't know what they were living on, didn't know just how much iron and coal was right under their feet." He laughed softly. "It's almost funny, really, iron and coal – the lifeblood of the modern age and so much of it under a bunch of a savages who were still bumbling around with theirs spears and bows and arrows." He shook his head. "It was worth millions, the biggest iron strike in years and one of the biggest coal strikes too and you know what, we tried to do the right thing. We actually made those savages a pretty decent offer." This time his laughter was loud and the sound of it echoed through the hall. "But they knocked it back. Those savages knocked back more money than most people could even dream of because they wanted to stay on that stupid patch of land, never mind the fact that they could have bought ten times as much with what we were offering." His eyes narrowed. "But we couldn't just go away, not from so much iron and coal, so what to do? We couldn't just kill them off. After all, the government was starting to get nosy and where would we hide all the bodies? And then it hit me..." Hojo smiled broadly and scratched the back of his head, almost as though he were embarrassed by his own cleverness. "We could kill them, we just had to make it look like an accident. You see, there are plenty of fires around Oerba each year in the summer. It gets real dry up there and there's lots of lightning. So long as we planned it carefully, no one would even know the difference." He looked at Fang and smirked. "It was beautiful. We waited till there was some lightning and then we lit the whole place on fire around them. They never had a chance, not with the way we had them boxed in with all the fires, and even if a few made it out, well… we could deal with a few them easily enough."

As Hojo's words trailed off there was an uneasy silence broken only by the deep, heaving sobs that wracked Fang's frame. Lightning moved to comfort her, but Fang shook her head slowly. This was her past, the pain that she'd carried with her down through the years and nothing would ever be able to wash it away except the blood of all the people responsible. Slowly, she took one step toward her gun. It didn't matter if she died, just so long as she managed to put a bullet in Hojo first.

"No," Lightning whispered as she put one hand on Fang's shoulder. "No."

Fang whirled on Lightning as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. In her tear-streaked vision Lightning was little more than a blur and yet the other woman's gaze seemed to come through as clear as day. Lightning understood, Fang realised dimly as her breathing hitched again and again, somehow Lightning understood.

"You don't know what it's like," Fang whispered softly, so softly that only Lighting could hear her. "To wake up in the middle of the night and see only fire and smoke around you, to know, deep down inside, that there's no way out and that everybody you love is going to die." Tears trickled down her face and landed, one by one, on the cobblestone floor. "Me and Vanille… we were orphans but there was a woman who looked after us… she… she wrapped us in wet blankets and ran with us through the fire." She closed her eyes and clenched her fists so hard they hurt. "She… she got burned real bad because there wasn't enough water to soak a blanket for her and… and then there were men with guns… they came after us, but she pushed us ahead and told us to run… told us that she'd meet up with us later… but she knew, I could tell in her eyes that she knew she'd die there, die so that me and Vanille could live." Fang dropped to her knees. "And then there was just me and Vanille and I had to look after her because I was older and there was nobody else, not after… not after…"

"Shhh…" Lightning whispered as she sank down onto her knees beside Fang and drew the other woman into her embrace. "Shhhh…" And as Fang sobbed softly into her shoulder she shot a look at Hojo, a look so sharp, so cold, so filled with deadly fury that for all the two dozen hired guns beside him, Hojo flinched and stumbled back.

"Pathetic," Hojo spat as he regathered himself, although not a one of the hired guns blamed him for being scared, not when Lightning was looking at him like that, like he was the worst thing in creation, a thing that deserved only killing of the slowest and worst sort. "Just pathetic." He shuddered. "Well, sheriff, now that you know about Oerba, I'm sure that you're just dying to know what I've got planned next."

"Mighty generous of you," Lightning spat.

"Well, its easy to be generous when you're in a winning position, which I most definitely am," Hojo said. "Besides, look at your friend there, look at the despair on her face, isn't it wonderful?" He looked at Fang and laughed. "I wonder how much worse she'll feel knowing that what we do to the Al Bhed will be every bit as bad as what we did to Oerba."

In Lightning's arms, Fang stiffened. The Al Bhed? She knew about them… Slowly, she felt her sorrow begin to fade, felt her fury begin to rekindle and she grabbed desperately onto that rage as she forced herself to stand again and meet Hojo's gaze. She wouldn't let him break her, not after everything else he'd done. "What do you mean?" she growled as she scrubbed at her cheeks and tried to put some steel in her glare. "What are you going to do to them?"

"What do you think?" Hojo asked bluntly. "Not unlike your pathetic tribe, they're sitting one something that Cocoon can use and they don't plan on moving. Well, if it worked once, why not twice? Besides, I'm eager to see if I can do a little better this time, after all, you survived Oerba, didn't you? Maybe this time there won't be any survivors." He gestured up at the balcony and more hired guns appeared. "Now, enough chat, how about the two of you escort Mr Estheim back to his cell. After that, since I'm feeling mighty generous, I'll let you two pick your own cells."

Fang looked at Lightning and then back at Hojo. They were hopelessly outgunned now, but she'd rather die fighting than end up like up in Hojo's hands. From the looks in their eyes, she could tell that Lightning and Bart felt much the same. Slowly, she stepped toward her gun.

Hojo laughed. "You're actually going to –"

The rest of his words were cut off as the man next to him was blown off his feet, the near silence of the hall broken by the boom of a shotgun. An instant later another hired gun went down and Fang dove for her own weapon. She grabbed her guns and glanced past Hojo and the hired guns. Vanille, Quistis, and Fujin were there – they must've found the stairs and made their way down.

"Sorry we're late," Vanille growled as she fired again, "But we were a little busy upstairs."

"Impossible!" Hojo spat as he scrambled for cover. "You're supposed to be dead!"

Vanille's reply was another vicious shotgun blast that tore up the table that Hojo was hiding behind and sent the madman scrambling for something else to hide behind. "Yeah, I figured you'd think that after you blew up that guardhouse we were in. Problem is, I don't die easy, and neither do my friends here!"

Beside Vanille, Quisits had her pistols out and her face was drawn into a deep scowl as her gaze flicked first to Bart and then to the hired guns. She fired with ruthless precision and two of the hired guns went down even as a fusillade of gunfire came from the balcony, only to be silenced as Fujin drew a bead on the hired guns up there and began to whittle their numbers down.

But none of that mattered much to Fang. She had eyes only for Hojo. With a growl that rose from deep inside her, she raised her gun and fired. At the last second, Hojo flinched away so that rather than blowing a hole right through the middle of his head, her bullet instead blasted away his left ear. Hojo screamed and clutched at the wound and Fang fired again, only for a hired gun to step in the way and take the bullet instead.

"Hojo!" Fang bellowed as she fired again. This time the bullet caught him in the shoulder and Hojo spun in a great circle, his arms flung out to try and catch his balance. But before Fang could fire again, before she could finally kill the monster that had come up with the plan to destroy Oerba, she was forced to find cover as the hired guns turned their fire on her.

"We can't stay here!" Lightning said as she grabbed Bart and dragged him behind cover next to Fang. "We've got to get out while we still can."

Fang turned a frantic eye to where Hojo was hobbling toward what had to be the other way out of the hall, the hired guns close behind him to cover his retreat. "Damn it, Lightning, he's right here! I can't let him get away! I can't!" She tried to push out from behind their cover but more gunfire rained down on them. Even so, she would have gone after Hojo anyway if Lightning hadn't grabbed her arm.

"Look at Bart, Fang, look at him!" Lightning growled. "We need you if we want to get out of here in one piece, Bart needs you." Fang opened her mouth to speak, but Lightning grabbed her chin and forced her to look at Vanille. The red head's eyes were shining, but it was pretty clear that she'd been bruised up something fierce and was running more on guts than anything else. "And Vanille needs you too, Fang! If you go after Hojo now, you might get him, but there's no way you'll make it back alive and if you die then what do you think Vanille will do? Do you really think we'll all get out of this place in one piece without out you?"

Fang felt tears of frustration pour down her cheeks. "But Lightning…"

"I know, Fang!" Lightning shouted as she met and held Fang's gaze. "Damn it, I know, but you'll get another chance and don't forget what he said – they're planning to do something to the Al Bhed and we can't do a thing to help them if we die here." She holstered her gun and cupped Fang's cheeks in her hands. "I promise you, I promise you we'll get him, but right now, we need to take Bart and get out of here so we can get him patched up and work out what Cocoon's planning for the Al Behd. If we don't do that then Bart's not going to make it and neither will the Al Bhed, so please, Fang, I'm asking you, let him go, just this one time."

Fang bit her lip until it bled and then nodded. "All right… all right, Lightning, I'll let him go." She looked one last time to where Hojo was hurrying away through a door and their gazes met. In that instant she did her best to convey every ounce of hate she had inside her to him, to let him know that he might've gotten away this time, but that it would only make things worse for him in the end. It must have worked too, because he stumbled and would have fallen if a pair of hired guns hadn't caught him. "Okay," Fang said as she forced herself to smirk. "You grab one of Bart's arms, I'll grab the other," She took a quick peek around to where the others were. "On the count of three, we make a break for it, because, hell, we've been in this damned place long enough. One… two… three!"

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off this.

So… the truth about Oerba has finally been revealed. Hopefully, this goes some way to explaining why Fang and Vanille hate Cocoon with such a passion and why they have a particularly deep hatred of Hojo. Speaking of Hojo, I have to admit that I don't like the fellow much and would have been quite happy killing him off. Unfortunately, he's still got a roll to play, so he didn't quite meet his end, although he left this chapter a little less than he started it (minus an ear, as a matter of fact, and with a bullet in the shoulder to boot), so it's not like he got away completely unharmed.

On another note, this chapter was one of the trickier ones to write, simply because I didn't want to make a complete mess of revealing what happened to Oerba (and hopefully I didn't). Fang's reactions were also something I wanted to be careful with, along with Lightning's and I have to confess a soft spot for the section at the end where Lightning is forced to reason with Fang.

For those who don't know, Hojo is from FF VII, Quistis and Fujin are from FF VIII and the Al Bhed are from FF X. In particular, the Al Bhed are a tribe from FF X who suffer a great deal of discrimination from the Yevonites who happen to run most of the world (due, in part, to their use of technology, which the Yevonites think is evil).

Finally, I'm curious to know what people would think about my posting a scratchpad. By scratchpad, I mean a separate "story" in which each chapter reflects an idea that I have but haven't had time to fully develop yet. Think of it as potentially providing "teasers" for future work, although I won't be able to say when the stories in the scratchpad will actually get developed (or even if all of those posted in the scratchpad will be developed). Also, I have to say I'm a little curious as to the somewhat cool reception that the last chapter got (at least in terms of views and number of reviews). I don't think I made a mess of it, but if I did, I'd be interested to know what exactly went wrong.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.