BAND OF BROTHERS
CHAPTER 3
Night has fallen upon Materia´s champions, so they set up camp, as far away from the gates as possible, least an enemy would fall upon them during the night. They take advantage of the large number of allies involuntarily gathering around the fallen pinkette, taking turns to stand guard and rest further than usual, while leaving Lightning in the middle of their tents. She had been cured quickly, but the blood loss had taken its toll on her, so she had barely awakened after her curing, only to fall into a deep slumber almost immediately after. Neither of her comrades wanted to test her healing capabilities, so they took shifts to guard the tents and guard her too. Surprising everyone around him, Squall volunteered to let the rest of his comrades sleep further, and took the longest guard, the one awaiting the new dawn.
It´s been a few hours since he awoke to the beginning of his shift, and as his ears strain to hear as much as he can, he lets the calmness of the night envelop him, though he can´t prevent himself from taking furtive glimpses towards the sleeping pinkette, concern making him frown. Squall would never recognize it in front of everyone, but Lightning´s kindness and gratefulness directed at him, when they defeated Odin and her brother-in-law, touched the sensitive spot hidden way deep inside his heart.
And once awakened, the damn thing wouldn´t stop throbbing on his chest, every time he saw the results of leaving her jump alone inside that gate.
He could´ve stopped her, or better, he could´ve followed her, but as the 'whatever teen' he´s become (according to Vaan and Zidane), he hadn´t cared much about her safety. But who would´ve thought about it? Who would´ve guessed someone as powerful as Lightning could be injured so badly?
His blue eyes leave her figure once more, and he sighs, looking up at the dark sky, enjoying for just a moment the billions of stars above him.
Although it´s still pitch dark, the sudden smell of the field lets him know dawn is approaching, when the crushing of a pair of boots gets him on high alert and makes him get up fast.
"Who lives?"
"Materia, goddess heiress of Cosmos." Responds the baritone voice. Squall recognizes it immediately and huffs. It´s one of his comrades´, but one he doesn´t trust much.
Kain Highwind.
The Dragoon approaches with his usual determined steps, his eyes completely fixed on the supine form of the beautiful pinkette, and just when he is about to reach her level, a very concerned and distrustful young man stands on his way.
"What do you want with her?" Squall asks, his eyes full of mistrust.
Kain isn´t deterred by his words and only smirks.
"That´s only for her and me to know. Stand aside, cadet. I don´t want to have a problem with a comrade. I need to see her."
But said cadet is not easily convinced. "Then you and I have a problem indeed because I won´t let you. Lightning is sleeping, she has been severely injured during her last battle and needs the rest quite badly."
His voice sound strained the moment he hears this, but Kain forces it to be as even as possible. "Who dared to injure her this much? Or should I rather ask, how many dared to injure her? Because knowing her, there´s not a single person who could hurt her like this on their own."
"That´s none of your business."
Kain growls and stands in front of the brunet teen, his eyes sending daggers and promising pain to no end, but to his credit, said teen stands his ground, refusing to move.
"Would you two stop it, please? This whole display of testosterone is making me nervous and won´t let me sleep." They both turn at hearing the husky voice of the injured woman, whose glare makes them falter a bit. "What do you want, Kain? Don´t you see everyone is sleeping?"
Once his eyes meet hers, he quickly walks to her side, pushing the teen with his shoulder, and his more than obvious haste makes the pinkette sit on the makeshift bed; she smiles brightly at him, relieved that her waiting had finally reached an end. But she loses her smile and her countenance darkens, her whole body becoming rigid, when the man, instead of holding her in his arms, as she would expect him to, kneels in front of her and fixes his eyes on her feet, as if ashamed of meeting her eyes, as if he didn´t feel worthy of her attention.
"Lightning… I…"
He doesn´t finish his sentence, and she doesn´t say anything either, understanding the reason behind his actions very quickly. A heavy silence falls upon the three, but then Squall notices he´s being completely ignored as if he had disappeared from their environment whatsoever, as the couple focuses their full attention on each other.
On his silent plea. On her silent demand.
Squall sighs, puts both hands behind his neck and leaves them alone. He knows what´s going to happen next is something he rather not witness.
A few minutes pass by, though it feels like an eternity, but finally the Dragoon ventures. He can´t stand it, her silence cuts him like a knife, if not even more painful.
"Who did this to you, Lightning?"
But she answers him with a question on her own. "Did you get to see her?"
Her words stabbed him in the gut, in the chest. He was expecting this, her cunning and intelligence always too good for them both. The silence that follows is like a fire inside his heart.
Rosa.
In the Duodecim cycle, they both were always aware that someday they were to return to their homeland, to their cherished and loved ones, and Lightning always knew there was someone Kain had met long before he met her. Did she expect him to forget his love for the princess, to replace it with his love for her? But truth be told, if he were smart enough, he would immediately pick the untamable soldier over the princess: he has shared with Lightning a lot more than with Rosa. With the woman he truly loves, his memory holds only soft whispers and small brushes of the hand, knowing full well she already belongs to another man; instead, with Lightning, he has shared blood, suffering, joy, kisses, flesh… and always the promise of something more…
Then why on Earth would his treacherous heart continue making the wrong choice?
"Lightning… I just…"
Like a tempest, the woman stands up, interrupting him, and walks away from him, as far away from the tents as possible, long strides hitting the dead ground underneath her feet. Though her countenance is unreadable, he knows her far too well to understand she has read his soul like an open book. She has read, through his hesitation, the decision his heart has made.
He knows he shouldn´t follow her, he doesn´t deserve an amazon, a magnificent Valkyrie like her, but even if he can´t love her the way he loves Rosa, he still loves her so very much, and her well being is always his concern.
His long strides make it easy for him to reach her level. "Who did this to you?"
"Why do you even care?" She snaps at him, her eyes always fixed on the horizon up ahead.
He doesn´t acknowledge her tone. "You know I care, Lightning. You well know I care. I came to you as soon as I heard you were badly injured."
She finally glares at the man. "Yeah? It certainly doesn´t look like it. I haven´t heard from you ever since this new cycle began, I even have the feeling you´ve been avoiding me."
"You know my mission is to protect Cecyl, I can´t run away from it."
"Then go after him." She spats at him.
"Look," he sighs, "I´m sorry I left you alone."
"You didn´t leave me alone." She almost growls at him, offended by his words. "As you can see, I have many comrades, brothers in arms, with me. So worry not. I´m well taken care of, my well being should not be of your concern."
The Dragoon still pushes on. "It won´t happen again, I promise I´ll try to be more around you."
"Why would you even care?" She raises her voice, doing her best effort to hide hurt from it, and evidently losing the battle. "It´s more than obvious you´ve made your choice, is it not? I´ll respect that, but then you should respect me and stay as far away from me as you can."
"But that´s the problem, Lightning. I don´t want to stay away from you. I admit I tried, but as soon as I knew you were hurt, I couldn´t stand it. I needed to know you were okay."
She suddenly stops and turns to face him, anger and the feeling of betrayal getting the best of her.
"What do you want from me, Kain? What do you expect me to say? A 'thank you for your effort'? You know me very well to know I won´t tell you such thing, nor fall for this stupid farce of yours."
He almost collides against her due to her harsh turn, but fortunately can stop the inertia of his body, though they stand face to face quite close to one another. The scent of her body, of her hair, invades his nostrils, making it harder for him to think coherently.
"It´s not a farce, Light. I just want to say I´m sorry for not being there for you."
"Well, you´ve said it, so don´t worry about me. I´m not your responsibility anymore."
"That´s actually my point. I was trying not to bother you much because I could sense in you this new determination. Lightning!" He takes her by the arm and forces her to turn and look at him, to stand very close to him, since the woman had already given him her back and started to walk away once more. "Please, understand. You´re not the woman I left in the last cycle, you´re far from the woman I knew back then, the sulking, angry and unpredictable woman I once met. You´ve changed so much, have grown magnificently. You don´t seem lost anymore, nor in the verge of collapse and making the world around collapse with you. I can see a determined, controlled and more powerful woman than before. A woman I admire a lot more, but one I clearly don´t deserve."
"And what do you mean by that?" She smirks. "Do I scare you? Make you feel uncomfortable because I don't need you to pick me up from the ground anymore? Because I don´t need you to save me as any damsel in distress would?" She forces her arm off of his hand.
"Of course not…"
"Then what is it? What do you want from me, Kain?!" She´s knows she´s yelling but still makes her hardest not to punch him in the face. She won´t give him the satisfaction to see her lose her temper, to see how much she´s hurting.
Her words make him desperate. Oh! How much he would rather fight against her, than receive yells and glares! "I just want to be by your side, Lightning, because rumor has it, Sephiroth has been looking for you, has fixed his aim on you. I´m worried he would find you and believe me, you wouldn´t want that. He´s such a mad man, I don´t know what he would do to you once he finds you. The only thing I want is to protect you from him."
She smirks and huffs at him, trying to sound entertained. "Well, news flash, pretty boy. He´s already found me, and as you can see, I survived. So there, I don´t need your help. Go pester someone else, because I´m just fine with the team I chose." She turns around once more and walks away, more than eager to leave his side.
"Lightning…"
"Goodbye, Kain, be happy with your non-bride. I really hope I don´t see you ever again, not even your manikin."
With that she walks forward, not looking back, not even once, while the Dragoon stands on the same spot, his voice leaving him. After a few seconds, heavy footsteps reach his side. Squall is level to him, accompanied by Cloud, and each one of them stands on each side of the tall man. Squall remains silent, but after a moment, Cloud speaks for them both.
"She went against four enemies, one of them being Sephiroth." His voice was low, almost reverent, while the three sets of eyes were locked in the retreating figure. "They tortured her, bled her out almost to the death. And still, she was able to defeat them all."
Kain opens his eyes wide at the information, but before he can say anything else, Squall is the one who speaks first.
"How stupid can be a man, to let a woman like that go?"
Without waiting for a response, the two friends walk after the Savior, leaving the Dragoon all by himself.
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"Lightning? Squall? Where did you go?"
Cloud had been walking for only five minutes, or so he would think when his two comrades had just vanished into thin air… or was it like that? Because it felt rather as if he had been the one vanishing.
It had happened so fast, he and Squall reached Lightning´s side, neither she nor them saying anything at all, and the three walked together, falling into a comfortable silence for quite a long time when something reached Cloud´s ears. He just stopped a few seconds while his peers continued their walking, when suddenly the ground had illuminated at his feet and then he felt like falling, without being able to warn his friends in front of him. Without being able to yell to neither Lightning nor Squall to help him.
Now Cloud walks a rather strange path, though a magnificent one he must admit. The land is full of green grass and flowers of many colors, with a deep blue sky above his head, nothing else to see beyond the horizon, the sight illuminating his distressed heart. He wonders, for the umpteenth time, whose memory would this be.
"I would never expect you to seek me out, Cloud."
That voice… that loathed voice… he turns around just in time to clash blades with his enemy.
Sephiroth.
His dark, single-wing is opened up wide at his side, making him look even more terrifying. Cloud´s arms tremble after the force of the impact, but an image flashes before his eyes, giving him back his desire for revenge, and that erases doubt and fear from his heart. The sight of Lightning´s battered and bloodied body, cradled in Squall´s arms. The so many bleeding injuries, the art of the mad man in front of him.
"Why do you insist on hurting her? On hurting Lightning?" He raises the Busted Sword and clashes it against Masamune, grinding steel against steel, which creates sparks on its wake. "Stop picking up on her, it´s me the one you want to kill!"
The ash-blond male chuckles at his words. "It´s funny, she said the exact same thing. Are you sure you´re not siblings?"
Cloud growls at his words and slashes with all his strength, as sparks dance around them with every strike.
"Stop making fun of me, and answer already! Why her? Why would you want to hurt her the most?!"
The smirk never leaves Sephiroth with every attack, but his eyes are ablaze at the new challenge. Cloud attacks once more but the one-winged angel moves away with practiced ease and slashes with mighty force. As the swords collide, the strength of the blow sends Cloud flying away from him. The blond does a summersault and falls on his feet, the inertia carrying him a little further away from the ash-blond male. The moment Sephiroth speaks, he does so with all the calm there is in this world.
"This is not personal, Cloud. Well, what you and I have is, but my battle against your peers isn´t personal. We have a mission to fulfill, an enemy to conquer, and to your surprise, it is a common enemy. But with Lightning…" The tall, imposing male pauses as if to collect his emotions and try to give them form as words, the action makes his devilish smile grow wider. "There´s been a long time since I met someone who could meet my blade for extended periods, who could fight against me one on one, and especially one who wouldn´t die nor be defeated all too soon. Not even you can last that long. Whenever I fight with her, the possibility of being defeated is always there, and it chills me to the bone, sends shivers down my spine." As he speaks, his emotions run wild in his eyes, and he licks his lips, almost in anticipation. "Fighting her is such a pleasant sensation. And oh! Whenever I see her shedding her precious blood, or watch her suffer… it´s like electricity running all over my skin. It´s like an overwhelming need is born inside my chest and my loins, a special type of craving…" He chuckles, but it´s mirthless, more like he´s reliving the moment with every word. "Cloud, I cannot explain the feeling with words… it feels as if, every time I hear her scream, her strained voice fills the empty space inside my chest. It´s as if tasting her blood would be like tasting the most exquisite wine there´s ever been in human history. My body, my soul and my heart sing and are reborn whenever I fight with her, whenever I´m about to kill her…"
Even though Sephiroth´s posture is relaxed, Cloud can easily see a tinge of madness behind the steel-gray eyes, and the realization repulses him to no end.
"You´re totally sick, Sephiroth, did you know that?"
The man chuckles softly. "So I´ve been told. But I still refuse to believe it. It´s the world, Cloud, the world that´s gone crazy, walking slowly towards their own destruction, and knowing it, but not doing anything to prevent it. So who is crazier? The human race for trying to destroy the world they live in? Or me for trying to prevent it, by destroying the human race?"
Immediately after his last word, Sephiroth propels himself towards the blond. The tall man moves so fast Cloud almost misses his strike to the side. Fortunately, he raises the Buster Sword just in time to clash it against Masamune, stopping the surprise attack and saving his neck from being separated from his shoulders with a slash. He raises the immense blade and clashes it against his enemy, seeking retaliation, but Sephiroth´s smile lingers; he spins on his own axis, the movement giving more impulse to his attack, and as he clashes swords once more, he sends the blond reeling backwards.
"I do hope you´re better at defending Lightning´s honor than your small blonde friend. She was rather easy to dismiss, did you know? Such a pity I only needed a few blows to send her to the ground."
The tainting does its magic. Cloud is seething in rage at this new information, blinding ire filling his sight.
"You hurt Terra too? Arrgh! You´ll pay for this!" He strikes the hardest he can, but Sephiroth allows the blades to only brush, making the shorter man stagger, and kicks him in the abdomen, and then hits his face. Cloud falls, his lip bleeding, but rolls on the ground with the momentum and stands up fast, his sword ready for the next attack.
The one-winged angel points his long blade at the man. "It seems I drew first blood."
Cloud growls at the tainting. "It only means I´ll get the last strike. I´ll defeat you for sure."
They both ready their postures for the next round, when suddenly Sephiroth looks up, alerted by his senses, and raises his blade; immediately after, it clashes against a gunblade, and then against another. Squall falls on top of the man through the same gate as Cloud had, hits the Masamune with his Revolver and does a summersault, falling away from him, in front of his comrade, and giving space for the next assault. Following the cadet´s attack, Lightning´s gunblade, the beautiful and magnificent Overture, clashes with Masamune, sparks flying around them, but she keeps the pressure against it, meeting eyes with her opponent.
Sephiroth´s gray orbs are suddenly illuminated by her figure. "Alas! It´s true what they say, after all: all paths lead to Rome, just like all paths gladly lead me to you. You´re most welcomed, Lightning, I´m so very pleased to see you´re completely restored to your full strength. We were talking about you not a moment ago."
Lightning smirks at his words. "I bet you were peeing on your pants by the memory of our last encounter."
Sephiroth chuckles at her insult. "Quite on the contrary, it was a rather pleasant memory I was sharing with my friend there."
"Stop it, Light! It´s my fight! I was the one meeting blades with him!" Cloud gives a step forward, but Squall stops him with a hand and a shake of his head.
Both enemies push harder and then break contact, jumping away from one another.
"I understand, Cloud." Lightning apologizes, though her eyes never leave the imposing man in front of her. "I´m sorry we busted in, but I need to have a word with him."
Sephiroth hums, his eyes fixed on hers. "I knew you had a thing for me, Lightning. Your eyes and your body language speak volumes."
She seethes in rage at his words but refuses to let it show. "Tch. Don´t even get me started about what I really think of you, instead, there are a few things you need to clarify."
His sickening smirk never leaves his face, as he shrugs. "I already told Cloud why I adore fighting against you, don´t make me repeat it in front of you or it´ll make me blush."
"I really don´t care about the lies you told my friend, nor if he believed you. Last time I saw you, you spoke of a beast looming over all of us, of my blood feeding this earth. I want to know the truth behind those words, I want to believe those aren´t words spoken by a man who has lost his mind. So tell me, what have you found out?"
His smile lingers for a moment, but then he grows serious. "So, you´re telling me you don´t believe in Materia´s words? What about Spiritus' desires? Do you believe in him?"
Lightning loses her fighting stance, as her eyes remain fixated on the tall man. "I tend to distrust any god or goddess that orders me around. I know there´s more to this than what they let us know, and have the feeling you´ve found out something you don´t want to share with the rest of us."
He smirks, though this time sadly. The steel-gray eyes look up to the blue sky, and then back to her.
"You want to know what I know? Then fight me."
With that, he jumps towards her, seeks her out as fast as he can, and Lightning readies her blade, but right before he reaches her, Cloud stands in front of him, clashing swords with him and redirecting the strike. Sephiroth jumps backwards with the strength of the blow, and as he falls, the second gunblade hits his side. The man only growls, but slashes against Squall, clashing his blade and sending him flying backwards. The young man falls on one knee and recovers fast.
Sephiroth places a hand over his injured side and sees his palm dampened in his blood. But there is no rage in his eyes the moment he finds Lightning standing at the ready, and instead, the smirk returns to his lips. "I see you do have a couple of chivalrous knights seeking to defend your honor. But tell me, did the third knight appear after you? Did the Dragoon you so desired to see finally found you?"
Her face, ears and neck burn in anger at his words.
She screams and propels forward to clash blades against him, creating sparks with each blow, her movements so fast, Sephiroth can barely keep up with her, forcing Cloud and Squall to remain behind, unable to find a space between their attacks to support her. But unwillingly, she´s shown her weakness, and Sephiroth is an expert at taking advantage of it. A movement of his blade make her break her guard, and with his free hand, he takes her by the collar; using his body as an axis, he makes her fly sideways, and slams her back against the bed of flowers, the impact forcing all the air from her lungs. Having her lying on the grass at his feet gives him leverage, so as she coughs, trying her hardest to get some air, he straddles over her at the waist and places his Masamune over her throat.
"You´re distracted, woman. You shouldn´t fight while distracted by the man you love."
Through her plight, she glares daggers at him. "It was… it was you! It was you the one who… told Kain!"
He chuckles at her. "Bingo. In his defense, let me tell you he seemed very much concerned once he found out you almost died. Now stand still, would you? I´ll show you what I mean by your blood feeding the earth."
"No." She mimics his smirk. "I´ll be the one to show you." She moves fast to embed her knife on his skin, but he moves faster, alerted already.
"That trick won´t work on me anymore, woman. You should know about that." He´s about to cut her throat when his instincts scream at him, and he´s forced to move fast, away from her, as the Revolver and the Buster Sword seek out for him, Squall and Cloud coming to the rescue. Cloud clashes swords against the ash-blond male, forcing him away from the pinkette, while Squall stands in front of Lightning, offering his hand. She coughs a little bit more and takes his palm, allowing him to push her up.
"Thanks."
"Don´t mention it."
"Squall, I…"
"Really, don´t mention it."
Lightning chuckles at the inability of the teen to bond with words but respects him anyways. In a way, their shared despise and overall lack of need for words to understand each other, are what has made them quite a unique team. They´re about to attack Sephiroth once more, when suddenly, the once pristine sky, the deep blue that had been surrounding them, is broken by ribbons of black energy traversing it, consuming it. They all look up at the sky, alerted.
"What… what´s happening?" Cloud asks, but Sephiroth answers him with a laugh.
"It´s already started, and you can see it now. That´s what I mean, my fair Valkyrie, whenever I speak of using your blood. It´s our blood, the blood of the mightiest fighters, the one who will awake the beast." With that, the man walks backwards, reaching for the luminous gate behind him.
"Sephiroth!" Lightning screams at him, and he smiles at her in return.
"Don´t worry. I´ll wait for you at Spiritus's side. In case you want to continue what we have." With that, he leaves the group of friends, the echo of his laughter lingering in the air as he disappears.
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A/N: Wow! This one came a lot faster than the last! I kinda like it, what do you think?
In between the many things I didn't like of this new Dissidia, one of the things I miss the most is the bonding between Lightning and Kain, because this time, they don´t even look at one another, even less talk, when in Duodecim they had become quite close, Kain always checking out on her, scolding her whenever she was sulking… but now, there´s a huge mountain of silence and indifference in between these two. Well, this is my filling of the blanks regarding their relationship. Hope you liked it!
Here are responses to your fantastic reviews:
From i (Guest): You´re totally right! They should explain why she´s paired up with Sephiroth! I mean, they just blew out the T.V. with their amazingness! But there´s no story behind it, we need it! We need it! I will try to explain why he has this sick fixation on her, one such that even her teammates are very aware of, I just hope my explanation is of your liking. And yeah, the only way I can see them interact is by he being rather sadistic with her. I just hope I don´t get too over the fence with it! It´s curious how it would seem you were reading my mind over there in your comment! Since this chapter was already drawn in my head before I read your comments, yay! You´re a mind reader!
Thank you so much for your words! You totally made my day!
From jolly P (Guest): Yeah! We do need more stories of Sephiroth and Lightning, right? They blew out the T.V. so much with their awesome battle, they made us want a lot more from them! Thank you!
From Henry: Thank you so much! I´m really excited to know you´re liking the story, and even happier to see I could keep the characters at least close to the originals! You made me so happy!
I don´t own Final Fantasy. I just write this out of fun.