Zack stood, stiff as he struggled with himself. Emotions flew and raged inside him as he stared at the three SOLDIERS before him, two grinning with coy insanity while one was grim with reality. They all had their weapons pointed him, teaming up to cut him down despite the friendship they had.

Zack's own hand twitched to take his own Buster Sword, only to find that it was out of his reach again.

They turned on you.

Zack curled his hands into tight fists and gritted his teeth as he tried to ignore the voice and the heavy drum of his heart pounding in him as he struggled to make sense of this.

They didn't turn on him. They were manipulated, pulled by strings of a history they had no control over.

They drew their swords back, taking slow steps towards him, one after the other, like they were coming to cut him down, whether he was weaponless of not.

They chose to live up to those manipulations. They chose to abandon you.

Zack found himself taking a step back as they got a bit faster, lightly jogging towards him.

They didn't turn on him, he repeated to himself, not on purpose. They were taking advantage of. It wasn't their fault.

They wouldn't stand with you, they made you stand against them, they let themselves become a monster.

They weren't monsters! They were heroes! They were everyone's heroes!

The silver one, wearing black flickered before him, drawing back, his long blade still down, digging into Zack's exposed chest, sinking deep into his heart before he even had a chance to react. Zack gasped at the pain that bled into him. His hands reacted automatically, grasping the blade as a uselessly struggle to stop it, all the while cutting himself as he gripped it.

Do heroes really turn on their people? Do heroes really turn on their friends?

Zack choked, gasping for air as he struggled with the pain. His attacker merely smirked down at him gleefully, pressing his boot against him as he slowly started dragging the blade out. Zack's hands were cut even deeper as he held onto it, screaming.

Are they really heroes? Were they ever heroes?

What makes you think you're even a hero yourself?

The blade slid out, flickering off the blood it collected. Zack crumbled and fell, quivering as he clutched his chest.

We aren't heroes.

Zack's eyes slid up to the towering silver haired man, searching desperately.

Heroes save people and kill off monsters that threaten them.

He couldn't find a trace of regret or remorse for what he was doing. For what he was about to do. He didn't care at all.

We killed men that stood for their belief, protecting themselves against a tyrant that wanted to rule them all.

He raised his sword high, as if ready to strike the ending blow, a blow Zack was sure to come.

We aren't heroes. We're monsters, just like them.

The blade came down, and a sure thud was heard as a body lay limp, his eyes empty and his face devoid of emotion. Above him, a larger being towered above, large black wings shadowing it; with only glowing red eyes peering up at the remaining two hungrily.

They didn't change their stance at all, not at the sudden death before them.

And monsters kill.

A roar rippled out of the creature as it dove for the remaining two, raging emotions of betrayal, hurt, and anger pushing it into action as it dived on them.

In seconds, two bodies joined the first, their eyes empty and their faces blank of any emotion, of any care of what just transpired.

Above them, red eyes glowed angrily as as claw like hands curled into fist.

They weren't heroes.

They weren't saviors.

They were killers, murderers.

Monsters.

Lightning woke, content and warm in the bed, her head was heavy with grogginess of a much needed rest and the slow and lazy peace that came with finding it. Sliding her lids open, Lightning blinked the sleep out of her eyes as she took in the space around her, recognizing it as one of the castle's many bedrooms, or perhaps it was one of two since they were the only living occupants here.

Just her and Zack.

Zack.

That's right.

Lifting her head and peeking over her shoulder, she was surprised to find that not only had he let her go, his back was to her and he seemed to have been sleeping soundly; there wasn't a trace of the pain written on his face or the tension of his posture. He was lax and still, his face neutral like he wasn't dreaming at all.

A mute, unsettling feeling bubbled inside her, but she quickly brushed it off. There was something off with the way Zack was, she got the clear sense from it; but she couldn't see how anything could be wrong. She was sure Caius did something with the chaos he released, and by how it affected Zack; now, seeing him calm and just neutral...

It was just unsettling.

Reaching out, she lightly rested the back of her hand on his forehead, feeling that his temperature was fine. Her hand moved to his neck, feeling a strong and steady pulse bump under her skin.

Frowning, Lightning drew away, slowly and carefully getting off the bed so not to disturb him. Casting her gaze over his form again, she wondered how could be like this when he was clinging to her yesterday? She shook her head, shrugging it off and slipped out of the room and headed towards the throne room.

Along the way there, like silver petals, her armor came and fluttered around her, settling and hugging her form. With the familiar weight and the light, tickling brush of feathers against her legs, Lightning stood a little straighter, a little more sure as she entered the throne room, sparing a glance at the empty, crystal seat.

Nothing happened or came to her, so she turned away and slipped outside.

Much like the castle itself, the city before her changed and shifted, slowly returning to its original state, healing the destruction and remaking itself into the promised city it was before the fight.

Lightning narrowed her eyes as she thought back to it.

Caius didn't even wait a day for the presence of Etro's Eve to completely vanish. With their guards down, he struck out, enlisting a few eidolons to his aid along with a large pack of behemoths. She had dove in, only to be plucked up into the air at the start of the fight, Caius's dragon form easily coiling his claws around her. Once he had her in his clutches, the fight down below was long as she had focused all her attention on the black and grey bahamut.

At some point, she habeen flung off and left alone in the air.

She had expected to fall and hit the ground, immobile, but not dead; though that wouldn't have stopped Caius from pushing it. Only to end up caught in Zack's sudden embrace, saving them both the trouble of him dealing with Caius on his own.

A shadow darted over her vision, and Lightning nodded her greeting to a dark, humanoid like dragon. "Diabolos," she bid.

Bahamut turned feral.

"Feral?" she repeated.

He smashed Odin's face into the ground.

Well Odin probably didn't like that. Lightning's lips almost twitched up into an amused smile, almost. If she wasn't so unsure about what Caius did, especially to affect Bahamut; she might have laughed at the eidolons' endless bickers between one another, especially in who is stronger.

"Continue to keep and eye on him, and see if he can be reasoned with. I don't want to jump to conclusions, at least, not yet."

Diabolos gave a grumbling growl, before opening his wings and disappearing into the sky, towards where Bahamut was being contained.

Sensing another eidolon present, Lightning turned around, blinking in surprise when she saw Zalera standing by the crystal throne, encased in shadows. Lightning narrowed her eyes at him. Out of all the eidolons, Zalera was the closest to Etro, as well as the most distant. Zalera was the eidolon that dealt with death, death for everything and being. If it wasn't the your time, he'd always come to save you, and if it was, Zalera would let things be, or would manipulate the world to make it so.

If it was Etro's time, Zalera wouldn't stand for her to save her; she made him so. The same went for anyone or anything else. Out of all the eidolons here, Zalera was the one Lightning was the most cautious of.

They stood there for a moment, simply staring at one another. Lightning's blue-green peering into the hollow dark holes of the grinning skull, trying to get some impression of what the skeleton was here for.

"I bet you know what's going on, don't you?" Lightning called out.

Her only response was a click of bones together and the skeleton smiled even more before it dipped back into the shadows, lurched over in a bow as it disappeared and left Lightning alone.

i think if lightning wasn't her main element or if her name was kept as claire (eclair in france) diabolos might have been considered as one of her eidolons because of her use of the gravity bomb.

after thinking it over and reading a few reviews, i find that i'm going to toss the idea of using FF13-2 into my story. the story in my head is taking a somewhat different turn, also, lightning didn't enlist serah or noel into helping, so neither won't appear, or at least, noel won't (sorry noel, i do like you)

so the dlc in the end of FF13-2 won't happen as a few of you suggested. serah doesn't die because lightning never brought her into the job, and caius never defeats lightning in this.

so, thank you for the reviewers and for reading ^^ next chapter should be about week to a month