Chapter Three

Snow Villers watched over his soldiers silently from his window.

Lightning's group stood out the most; the disciplined assassin-soldiers she had trained had subtle, quick movements that often reminded Snow of a snake's strike – or more accurately, Lightning's strike.

He remembered the day she arrived – dressed in a man's clothes that were far too big for her, her knuckles bruised and bloody, not speaking. Her gaze had been wary and distrustful, but Vanille had managed to talk her down from fighting them, and coaxed her to stay.

He remembered fighting her himself when she broke someone's jaw and leg with her bare hands, and downed five others. The five had to stay in the infirmary for a week after that. He remembered the outer strength, and had been trapped in that dark, black gaze. Her movements had been quick, sure and powerful – he had no doubt that she had had training, wherever she had been from. She did not speak of where she came from – or maybe she just never chose to.

Snow remembered the way she had kicked him in the face and then did a series of acrobatics that downed another three men. It was then Snow knew she would be a valuable addition to Team Nora.

Fortunately, before she had injured anyone else, Vanille came and talked to her in a slow, soft tone, as though she was a nervous animal. Eventually she followed the girl inside, but refused to let another even look at her except for Vanille.

I guess I'm not surprised that she looks out for Vanille so much...

"Hey, Hero!"

Snow turned around to see Gadot grinning at him, and Maqui peeking around the burly man. The seventeen-year-old waved at Snow energetically.

"You're back!" Snow grinned in relief, going over to slap Gadot on the back and ruffle Maqui's hair. The boy protested and adjusted his headphones. "How did it go?" the big man demanded, anxious to know what happened during their raid. He felt personally responsible for every one of their soldiers.

Gadot smiled understandingly. "We lost one man – he crashed his hover unit." Snow grimaced, picturing the scene far too easily. "Other than that, only three were injured, and none of them fatally. We did really well."

"What about you both?" Snow wanted to know, looking the both of them over subtly. Gadot raised his eyebrow, and Snow sighed. Not so subtly, then.

"We're fine," Maqui spoke. "I took down three men with my bare hands myself!" The boy grinned proudly at his accomplishment. Snow grinned back and flashed him a thumbs up. "That's great, Maqui!"

The boy nodded, and was about to launch into a detailed description of how he took them down when Gadot interrupted, "Maqui, why don't you go check in with the troops? See how the injured are doing – I'll join you in a second."

Maqui scowled, but ran off without a complaint. Snow went back to sit in his chair.

"So, how goes it with Tenebrae?"

Snow sighed, and ran a hand down his face. "Not great," he admitted. "It could be a lot better. I'm sending Lightning in to take out the Prince – that would send them into chaos for sure. I debated whether I should get her to send someone of her regiment in herself, but then decided that he was a too dangerous a target for anyone but her to handle."

Gadot nodded. He'd seen the Prince take out half of the PSICOM himself.

"We should really think about joining forces with the Sanctum. If we're fighting amongst ourselves, it won't do us any good. We need to work together to crush Tenebrae."

Snow nodded absently. "I sent a holomail to Cid Raines under the flag of truce on that subject. I'm just waiting for his reply."

"You plan on meeting the puppet?"

"I have no other choice. Besides, if he was a puppet, he'd be a lot easier to deal with."

"Depends on how you think," the orange-haired man grumbled, but didn't press it. Snow sighed again.

"We'll just have to wait," Snow murmured quietly. "If he doesn't reply by the time Lightning has to be despatched... I'll have to go see him personally."

"Not alone, I hope."

"No," Snow agreed, thinking of the strawberry-haired woman who plagued his thoughts daily. "Not as alone as Light."

--

Noctis Caelum was bored beyond belief.

Earlier, a giggling Stella and his excited mother had jumped Noctis into helping then with the wedding arrangements. To avoid an argument, and also to show Stella that he had no hard feelings, Noctis had agreed, and was now looking at wedding envelopes that look exactly the same to him.

"And this is necessary because-?"

"Noctis, the King of Tenebrae's wedding has to be absolutely perfect," his mother interrupted, frowning playfully at him.

"Prince. Prince of Tenebrae." And I plan on keeping it that way for a little while more.

"Don't be such a spoilsport, Noct," Stella teased, and tapped an envelope. "I like this one. It's intricate. What do you think, Noctis?" She held up the gold-and-silver embroidered envelope, smiling.

He shrugged. "I think that it looks just like the ones you showed me before. Just pick one."

She made a face at him and put it back down with a sigh. "Why can't you just choose something? It is for our wedding after all..." she murmured. Noctis pretended to not have heard her.

"I think this one is the best," Noctis' mother proclaimed with a smile, holding up a little-too-elaborate cream envelope with gold trimmings. "Don't you think?"

"Sure, sure..."

Stella nodded, her eyes still downcast. "If Her Majesty says so."

Noctis glanced at Stella, and was immediately hit by a wave of guilt. I should stop yearning for a dead girl and start paying attention to the one that actually still exists.

But they were only words, and words, Noctis believed, were nothing to him. Not anymore.

--

Her grave.

Noctis looked down at it in silence, feeling strangely different... repulsed, as he always had before her place of burial.

There hadn't been a body to bury, so they had gathered some of her favourite things and put them in the coffin. When no one had been looking, Noctis had stolen some of them and hidden them in his room – his memoirs of her.

He smiled at the memory. Her shirt, an old book she loved to read, and her toy horse resided in his drawers – whenever he felt upset, he would gather up her shirt and hold it to his face; it smelled just like her, and would calm him down.

He had kept something else as well...

The chain around his wrist held a silver ornament in the shape of a lightning bolt. Lightning... Light. I wanted to get one with a sun, but there weren't any... and this one looked much better than the sun anyway.

It suited her life. It had been a flash of light in the sky... a single moment of brilliance...

And then his world was dark, cloudy.

And the lightning bolt was gone.

So was she. Her life was the brief flash of lightning in the sky, a single flash, brilliant, terrifying, and beautiful... and alone.

Noctis turned and strode away.

Goodbye, Claire.

--

Lightning moved with a liquid grace at a fast pace, almost dancing as she struck the targets with her sword. This training was no longer needed by her, but she liked doing it because, when she fought, there was nothing but her, her sword, and her enemies. She liked the pace of fighting, of dodging and taking advantage of a weak point. And in a real fight, she enjoyed the adrenaline, knowing that she may die fighting.

The dummies kept popping up, swords sticking out in random places only to meet hers. She moved quickly, deactivating each of them with a simple cut across their chests. They disappeared after, and would be replaced by a fresh one.

The woman kicked one away and deactivated another one.

All of a sudden, the dummies went limp, and Lightning whipped around to glare through the glass at Vanille.

The girl strode into the room as the dummies disappeared, somewhat solid 'holograms' as they were, and propped her fists on her hips.

"Lightning!! You promised you'd get a new dress for that ball!"

Lightning sighed.

Vanille scowled.

"No, you told me I would," Lightning replied coolly, and slid Blaze Edge back into its sheath.

"Lightning!"

"A dress is not necessary. And neither is this conversation," the warrior continued, and started to walk off.

"Lightning, if you don't get a new dress, I'll tell Snow that you're madly in love with him, I swear," Vanille threatened.

Lightning froze, and turned around slowly. Snow's affections for her did not go unnoticed, despite what the huge man thought, and in a moment of rare panic, Lightning had blurted everything out to Vanille.

And now she really regretted it.

"You would not."

"I will." Vanille's smile was taunting, and if she were an enemy, Lightning would've slit her throat.

"All right," the warrior snapped, and Vanille's squeal of delight and smug grin almost made Lightning change her mind again.

"Go get changed!" she ordered. "I'll be waiting right here, so don't try to pull any funny tricks on me. Because we will get you your first dress today, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming into town!"

The red-haired clothes demon flapped her hands at Lightning, and, with a sigh, the older woman obeyed, going to take a cold shower to cool her temper.

--

"This is ridiculous."

"Don't doubt my choice!"

"And how will I make my escape if I'm caught with a weapon?"

"... You look nice though."

Lightning's lip curled. The girl had a very... intricate taste. She stared at the ridiculous blue – she had all but screamed at Vanille to not pick the pink one. Her hair was pink enough – dress with its frills and ribbons and other idiotic items that would not help her when she was running to the safe point. And anyway, it would get ruined if she ever decided to tear off the skirt to make running even easier. Not that she would be wearing it once she had killed the Prince. She would wear a black bodysuit beneath it.

Lightning shrugged off the dress as Vanille went back to the racks. The older woman sat down and crossed her arms over her chest, scowling. This was a complete waste of time.

"What about this one?" Vanille held out a pale gold dress with a big, poofy skirt.

Lightning glared at her.

"Okay, okay," the girl murmured, putting it back. "Don't have to be so touchy..."

Ignoring her was harder than Lightning expected at the start, but now she was well-used to tuning Vanille out.

"This one?"

A glare was given to the pink sheath. If it was any other color, Lightning would have considered it, but pink was a definite no.

"There's a black one-"

"Take it and we'll go," Lightning said brusquely, starting to grab her sleeveless brown turtleneck to redress when Vanille squealed, "No! We have to try it on!"

"It'll fit-"

"No!" Vanille shoved the black sleeveless sheath into her arms and shoved her face into the dressing room. "Try it! I'll get the other colors-"

"Black. Will. Do."

And the dangerous note in her voice stopped Vanille's voice in its tracks.

Lightning slipped the dress on, and allowed the girl to zip it up. Thank goodness this one is only up to my ankles – whose stupid idea was it to create dresses that touch the floor anyway?

The black dress had a slit up the side, to just touch the midway point of her thigh. She would be able to hide a weapon there, but the downside would be that she wouldn't be able to wear a black bodysuit underneath it after all. I can just imagine the guests' faces now, she thought darkly. Now she would have to bring a bag. Etro forbid I forget about it and get tracked down.

"You look beautiful," Vanille's voice, soft and awestruck, brought Lightning from her thoughts. The woman stared at herself in the mirror, and shrugged. She never really cared how she looked, as long as no one attempted to make a move on her, in which case she would probably chop her hair off.

"Hang on, I'll go get some shoes." Vanille darted off before Lightning could protest.

Sighing, Lightning leaned against the wall. "Get me something sensible, Vanille!" she called, hearing her voice asking the sales clerk for high heels and other accessories.

"Don't worry, I'm on it," Vanille called back.

Good Etro, we're all going to die.


Hehehe... Lightning in a big poofy dress. Something I want to see xD

Noctis and Lightning's meeting comes soon!! So keep reading, my friends ;)

Sorry for the late update!! Writer's block is never a good thing. :( I'll try to update soon, maybe next week, depending on whether I ever finish the chapter for It's Just A Crush and Flight of the Angels. :/

Until then, folks!

Review please :)

Question of the day: If I was able to, would any of you like to see a short video version of Eclipse? :) Only reason why I ask is because I was listening to Room of Angels and was mentally fitting in all the parts...

Playlist:-

Sleepwalker – Adam Lambert
Room of Angels – Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill 4 OST)
God's Will – (Naruto Movie OST)
Over the Clouds – Alan Menken (God Eater OST)
Fearless (250 and Dark Stars) – Falling Up