Note: This chapter is set in a universe combining elements of "Ordinary Heroes" and "The Vestige"

X X X

Next Generation

Eidolon Brat

Averia was five years old when she finally realised just how unusual her family was. Most kids didn't know what an Ark looked like on the inside, and they definitely didn't get to see an Eidolon up close. And even fewer kids had an Eidolon pilot for a mommy and a marshal for a mom.

But being unusual wasn't always bad. In fact, Averia thought it was kind of cool.

"It's because you're an Eidolon brat."

Averia scowled, but her Aunt Yuffie just laughed. Her Aunt Yuffie was always laughing, which made sense because her Uncle Vincent never laughed. "Don't call me a brat."

"Heh." Yuffie grinned and ruffled the five-year-old girl's hair, earning herself another ferocious scowl. "You might be the marshal's kid, but you've got a long way to go before you're as scary as she is. Besides, being an Eidolon brat isn't a bad thing."

"It isn't?" Averia looked around. Her Aunt Yuffie was letting her watch some of the mechanics work on Chaos. Lots of people thought the Eidolon looked scary. Averia thought he looked cool – although not as cool as Bahamut or Odin.

"Nah, it's not." Yuffie lifted Averia up so that she could get a better look at some of the work the mechanics were doing. "Look, an Eidolon brat is just a term for someone who grows up around the Eidolon Program. We didn't have a lot of those before, but quite a few of the people involved in the program have kids now." She laughed. "Most people will never understand what it's like to be a part of the Eidolon Program."

Averia frowned faintly. There it was again. Her Aunt Yuffie and the others always got this weird sound to their voice when they talked about the Eidolon Program. "What is it like?"

"It's…" Yuffie sighed. "It's like family, kiddo. You see we're the sword and shield that keep the rest of the world safe. But Eidolon pilots like me don't do it alone. We've got our co-pilots, sure, but we've also got the entire Ark behind us. All the mechanics, all the techs, and everyone else – all of them are there to help us do our jobs and keep the world safe. I couldn't go out there and do the things I do without these mechanics looking after Chaos."

"What about my mom? She's a marshal."

"You're mom is…" Yuffie made a face. "She's maybe the most important person in the entire Ark. She's the reason all of this works. She organises everything. She makes sure that the mechanics are good and do their jobs, same thing with the techs. She also looks after the pilots, making sure we get all the training and support we need." She grinned. "She also makes sure we all get paid, which definitely helps."

"People say you get paid a lot," Averia said.

"Yeah, we do. But our job isn't exactly easy." Yuffie smirked. "Having giant monsters from another dimension try to kill you on a regular basis isn't the kind of work a lot of people want to do. But I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. There's nothing like going into battle in an Eidolon."

"Could I be an Eidolon pilot?" Averia asked.

"I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised if you do end up in the Conn-Pod one day. You've definitely got the genes for it."

Averia squirmed in Yuffie's arms, trying to get a closer look as the mechanics removed a damaged plate of armour to put in a new one. Everything about an Eidolon was just so big. And to think that her Aunt Yuffie and her Uncle Vincent were the ones that made it move. Her Aunt Vanille had given her a simple explanation for it: the pilots linked their minds to each other and the Eidolon.

Just then, Averia heard a sound that she would recognise anywhere. It was the steady tap of her mom's cane on the metal catwalk. Her Aunt Yuffie put her down, and Averia turned as her mom made her way over to them.

"Hey, Averia, do you want to see something cool?" Yuffie asked. Averia nodded. "Then watch this. I'll show you just how important you mom is." Yuffie cleared her throat and then said, raising her voice so that everyone in the Eidolon bay could hear her, "Marshal on the deck!"

Like magic, everyone in the bay stopped what they were doing and snapped to attention. It was awesome.

Lightning sighed. "At ease, everyone." Then her gaze locked onto Yuffie. "Major Kisaragi-Valentine, do that again, and you will regret it."

"It won't happen again, ma'am." Yuffie and Averia shared a look, and Averia just barely managed to keep from giggling.

"I trust my daughter is well?" Lightning asked.

"I'm fine, mom." Averia fell into step beside her mom. She grinned evilly at Yuffie. "Aunt Yuffie was just telling me about what an Eidolon brat is."

"Really?" Lightning raised one eyebrow. She chuckled softly. "I suppose it makes sense." She reached out to hold Averia's hand. "Come on. Your mom and your Aunt Serah are about to take Bahamut out for a run to test some of his upgrades. You can watch from the observation deck."

It was later, watching Bahamut smash his way through target after target that Averia came to a conclusion that would shape the rest of her life. She wanted to become an Eidolon pilot.

X X X

The Ghost In The Machine

"Mom!"

Lightning turned as Diana ran along the catwalk toward her, Averia a few steps behind her. The pair loved visiting the Eidolon bays to see the titanic war machines, and they always saved Odin for last. The legendary Eidolon was locked securely in his bay, a team of mechanics looking over the latest series of upgrades. He would never see combat again, but he continued to serve a valuable purpose – Vanille tested most of her ideas on him.

But as the girls crossed the halfway point to Lightning, a shout rang out across the bay.

"Watch out!"

Lightning's gaze snapped to the right. One of the cranes lifting a heavy piece of equipment had broken loose of its moorings. Several tonnes of metal hurtled toward the children.

"No!" Lightning reached out with one hand, stumbling as she lurched forward in a futile attempt to save her children. Her cane rattled across the catwalk.

CLANG.

Her eyes widened. The children were safe. Odin loomed over them. The Eidolon had somehow ripped free of its restraints. Its forearm had knocked aside the equipment. The two girls froze where they were, staring first at the Eidolon and then at the equipment scattered around them.

"Thank the Maker!" Lightning ignored the pain that flared in her right leg and stumbled over to them. She threw her arms around them, pulling them close. "Come here." She felt tears well up and blinked them back. She'd come so close to losing the girls.

"Ma'am?" one of the mechanics cleared his throat. "Maybe you should take them out of here?"

Lightning nodded slowly and got back to her feet. One of the other mechanics handed her cane back. "Come with me," she said, not willing to let go of either child. "We'll go somewhere safer while they clean this up."

X X X

"How did it happen?" Lightning asked.

"I thought they told you." Fang sighed. The girls were spending some time with Yuffie and Vincent. "There was a mix up with the specs on that equipment. They underestimated the weight."

"I don't mean the equipment," Lightning said. "I meant Odin. There was no one in the Conn-Pod. His systems were all disengaged. There was no way he should have been able to move. But he did."

"I think I can answer that – sort of, anyway." Vanille walked into Lightning's office. "It has to do with the Drift. As you know, the Drift links the pilots to each other and the Eidolon. In more modern Eidolons, we scrub the Eidolon's neural systems on a regular basis."

"Why?" Fang asked.

"Well, we don't understand exactly how it all works, but we do know that the neural systems get a bit quirky after a while. It's usually nothing big – just a few glitches here and there in the operating system and some extra noise in the Drift. Still, it's better to get it out of the way. But Odin… Odin isn't a modern Eidolon. We didn't have the scrubbing protocol back when you were piloting, and his systems are so old that scrubbing them would probably destroy them entirely."

"Why not just replace them?" Lightning pursed her lips. She was more familiar with the combat side of Eidolon development. "Your funding should be enough for that."

"You can't, not for the old Eidolons. So many of the old systems are inter-dependent. We'd have to gut Odin completely to replace his neural systems." Vanille winced. "And that would be a crime. He's a work of art. Anyway, Dr Estheim and I have a theory about why Odin moved."

"Do tell."

"You and Serah are the only people to ever pilot him. Your memories, your feelings, your personalities, your instincts – everything has run through his neural systems before. And you piloted him on your own. I don't know how much of data you understand, but, marshal, no one has ever immersed their mind as deeply into the neural systems of an Eidolon as you did that day. We believe that you imprinted some of who you are on Odin. If you include the fact that Serah regularly operates Odin as part of my testing program, then Odin might not only have part of you inside him but he might also know exactly who Diana and Averia are."

"You make it sound like he's alive." Fang shivered. "But that doesn't explain how he moved. His systems were disengaged. He was powered down."

"Yes." Vanille handed them some printouts. "He was. And I can't find any way of explaining how he moved, even if I think I know why. Those are his system profiles. All of his systems were disengaged, and his core was off. At this point… I'd just say it was the ghost in the machine."

Lightning said nothing. Instead, her mind drifted back to that terrible day when she had piloted Odin alone. She'd felt strong then, powerful. She'd always thought it had been because of her need to protect Serah. Was it possible that she'd had help, that her need to protect Serah had been something that Odin shared?

"Lightning?" Fang asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Lightning nodded. "I think so."

X X X

It was the middle of the night, but no one questioned Lightning when she made her way into Odin's Conn-Pod. The inside was still familiar, and she ran her hands over the controls, lingering on the harness.

"Thank you," she murmured before she turned to leave. "Thank you."

X X X

A Day With Dr Dia

Diana knocked on the door of her Aunt Vanille's lab and waited. Then she waited some more. When waiting even more didn't help, she knocked again. Finally, the door opened. Her Aunt Vanille poked her head out, looking left and right, before she took a swig of her energy drink and turned to go back inside.

Wait…

"I'm down here!" Diana growled.

Vanille turned and blinked blearily before looking down – way down, much to Diana's displeasure – and smiling. "Oh, there you are." She glanced past Diana to the pink-haired girls standing behind her, trying to hide their smiles. "So, it looks like I've got all three of you for the next few hours. I swear this is how your mom makes sure I take a break. Oh well, come inside and don't touch anything without asking."

Most people thought her Aunt Vanille's lab was scary, but Diana thought it was one of the coolest places in the whole world. There were so many computers there, plus there were bits of paper everywhere and whiteboards with all kinds of things written on them too. Then there was the whole corner set aside for fal'Cie samples.

"Do you have anything new since the last time?" Diana asked.

"Indeed I do." Vanille yawned and led them over to the wall of samples. "Here are some samples from the last few fal'Cie we've fought." She pointed at a weird, glowing thing that pulsed every now and then. "Cool, huh?"

"Yeah." Diana leaned forward. "What is it?"

"It's part of the organ one of the fal'Cie used to create a cloud of extremely corrosive material that was also capable of ignition under the right circumstances." Vanille sighed as Diana gave her a blank look. Diana might have made a good minion – and a convenient human shield when the marshal was on the rampage – but she was still only four years old. "One of the fal'Cie used that to make a cloud of acid that could catch fire."

"Awesome." Diana grinned. "But my mommy and my Aunt Serah beat that fal'Cie, right?"

"They did. They applied their patented fist-to-face formula of fal'Cie removal." Vanille smiled as Diana tilted her head to one side. That was so adorable. "They punched it a lot until they won."

"Oh."

Vanille nodded. "Come on, I'll show you guys some of the cool stuff that you don't get to see on the news."

"Yay!"

Diana watched the news whenever there was something about Eidolons on. Not only were both her parents involved in the Eidolon Program but Eidolons were also the coolest thing in the whole world. Who wouldn't like giant robots that killed evil monsters and saved the world?

And her Aunt Vanille had way more stuff about Eidolons in her lab than ever appeared on the news. On the news, they only ever showed a bit of the fight, but her Aunt Vanille let them see way more. Plus, they didn't have to watch on a regular television. Her aunt's lab had holographic projectors and everything. It was even better than going to the cinema.

"Did you see that?" Diana shouted as Bahamut smashed one fist into the face of a fal'Cie before activating his wrist blades and stabbing it in the head. "Mommy and Aunt Serah are totally winning!"

"That thing looks tough though," Averia said. "Is it a Category V?"

"Category VI actually," Vanille replied. "But on the smaller end." She nodded at one of the other fal'Cie, which was fighting Chaos. "That's a Category VI too, but bigger. But they can handle it."

"It's Shiva!" Claire leaned forward, her hand running through the holographic image of her father and her Uncle Hope's Eidolon as the slender Eidolon joined the fray. "Go Shiva!"

As the battle drew to a close, Vanille reached for another energy drink. She probably shouldn't be having it, but she'd pulled another all-nighter getting the plans for the latest upgrades of Spira's Drift systems together.

"Okay, kids, enough of that. I need to work on something, and I need you guys to help me."

"We get to help you do an experiment?" Diana asked.

"Well, not exactly. You guys get to call for help if I screw up and melt my brain."

"Oh." Diana giggled. "That sounds fun too."

"Of course it does." Vanille led them over to another corner of the lab where she had a chair set up next to a robot that was roughly the size of Diana. "All right, you three. Sit over there, behind the yellow tape. Good. Now, Averia, you know how to use the intercom right?" Averia nodded. "Great. If I start convulsing or something, hit the big red button next to the intercom and then call for help. Got it?"

"Yes, Aunt Vanille."

"Awesome." Vanille sat down in the chair with a keyboard in her lap and put on a specially designed helmet. "Now watch closely and be prepared to have your minds blown."

The three children did not have their minds blown. In fact, they were distinctly unimpressed as the small robot began to stumble around the designated area like a drunken sailor or like their Aunt Yuffie the last time that she'd challenged their Uncle Vincent to a drinking contest.

After a few minutes, Aunt Vanille yanked off the helmet. "Impressed?"

"That was kind of lame," Diana said. "You just made the robot walk around."

"Just… made… it… walk… around?" Vanille growled. "Get over here, you." She lifted Diana over her shoulder and marched back to her desk, pulling up her latest findings as well as a few old, but very familiar, brain scans. "Take a look at that."

"Uh… Aunt Vanille, I don't know how people's brains work and stuff yet. I'm four years old."

"Hmm… you're right." Vanille sighed. "Look, the ones on the right are scans of my brain that I took just then. Notice how there's not a lot of extra activity going on? It means my brain didn't have to try very much to control that robot. The ones on the left are scans of someone controlling an Eidolon. Do you see how much more brain activity there is?"

"Yeah…" Diana pursed her lips. "Does… does this mean you're trying to make it easier for people to control Eidolons?"

"Yes!" Vanille gave Diana's cheeks an affectionate squeeze. "I knew you'd get it, my clever, little minion!" She glanced at Averia and Claire. "You get it too, right."

"Well, yeah." Claire shrugged. "I guess that is pretty cool, even if it looked kind of lame."

Averia frowned. "What else have you tried connecting this to?"

"Clever girl." Vanille grinned. "I haven't tried it on prosthetics yet, but…" That was the end goal. If she could get this to work for fine motion applications like prosthetics, it could change everything for the disabled. She could even get paralysed people to walk again, provided their brains were undamaged. There was only one catch… the person she'd always intended it for might not be able to use it. Even with the reduced load, it was probably still too much for Lightning to handle, given the damage she had sustained as Odin's pilot. She shook herself. No, she'd figure it out one day. "Anyway, we've still got another hour or two before your parents show up, so why don't we do something fun?"

"Like what?" Averia asked.

"Like build our own killer robot together," Vanille said. "Let's go!"

X X X

Family Issues And Next-Generation Technology

Diana had always been certain that she would be Averia's co-pilot. It was just common sense. They were sisters who did almost everything together. Their mother and their aunt Serah had been co-pilots. And on the few occasions that their mother had allowed them to work together in a simulator, they had done extremely well.

Not even the fact that Diana was three years younger had seemed like it would be an obstacle. After all, their mother was three years older than their Aunt Serah. It wasn't at all unusual for pilots to be kept in reserve until a suitable co-pilot could be found.

But there was one person who Diana hadn't counted on: their cousin Claire.

Claire was their sister in every way but blood. She'd grown up around the Eidolon Program just like they had, and she'd spent her whole life dreaming of being a pilot too. She was also the same age as Averia and, apparently, quite capable of being Averia's co-pilot.

Diana sighed and tried to turn her attention back to the components in front of her. Tinkering with things in her Aunt Vanile's lab was one of her favourite things to do. The redhead was the Eidolon Program's resident mad scientist, and Diana had spent almost as much time with her as she had with her parents.

"You know, your mother didn't really have a choice." Vanille settled down next to Diana.

"I know that." Diana's hands shook. That only made it worse. How could she be angry when her mother had only done the right thing? They needed more pilots, and Averia and Claire had finished at the top of their class. The fact that they were compatible meant that her mother had to pair them together. They simply couldn't afford to wait until Diana completed the rest of her training.

"But it's okay to be mad." Vanille handed Diana an energy drink. "You know that too, right?"

Diana raised one eyebrow. Handing an energy drink to someone when they were sad was hardly the normal thing to do. But her aunt was hardly a normal person. "Where did you even get that? I thought my mother banned you from drinking those."

Vanille waved one hand. "I know a guy who knows a guy." She patted Diana on the back. "It's all right if you want to let off some steam. I won't say anything to your parents."

"It's just –" Diana's fists clenched. "I was supposed to be Averia's co-pilot! When mother told me that she'd be getting someone else, I was so angry. And then I found out it was Claire. What was I supposed to do then? Claire is pretty much my sister too, and I know she's going to be a good co-pilot, but… but… but…"

"Averia was supposed to be your co-pilot." Vanille sighed and wrapped one arm around Diana. The young woman's shoulders shook as she fought to hold back her tears. "You know, there's something you might want to –"

"Dr Dia." The door of the lab opened, and Marshal Lightning Farron walked in, her cane beating a steady drumbeat out on the floor. "You were just leaving."

Diana scrubbed at her cheeks as her mother and her aunt exchanged looks. Finally, her aunt sighed and got up. No one, not even her mom, was crazy enough to disobey her mother when she was in what Diana affectionately called her 'Marshal Badass' mode.

Lightning settled into a chair opposite Diana. For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Instead, Diana had a chance to study her mother. It was easy to forget just who her mother was sometimes. To Diana, she'd always been there, a strong, steadying presence in a world that could sometimes be very scary.

But there was no forgetting right now. Her mother was the highest-ranking officer in the entire Eidolon Program and the commander of Eden City's Ark. She had personally overseen a dramatic expansion of the Eidolon Program to meet the renewed threat of the fal'Cie, helping the Program's scientists to develop the most advanced and deadly Eidolons in history. There were ten Eidolons under her personal command, and there were plans to add another four inside the next year.

Everything about her mother, from her steely gaze to her impeccable posture, screamed control and precision. Yet as Diana watched, her mother allowed some of that hardness, that control, to slip.

"I'm sorry," Lightning said. "You left before I could say that."

"I'm… I'm sorry too." Diana lowered her head. "I shouldn't have run. But…"

"I know." Lightning reached out and took Diana's hands in hers. "I know how much you wanted to pilot with your sister. You were a match, you know. But I couldn't afford to wait. Your sister is too good a pilot to leave on the sidelines, and your cousin was a match too."

"There will be other matches for me, right?" Diana asked softly. "Right?"

Lightning paused. "Diana, I'm sure your trainers have gone over this with you. We haven't had much success at all finding other people you would be compatible with. In fact, the only two that showed a high probability of compatibility were your sister and your cousin."

"Oh." Diana refused to cry in front of her mother. "And they're piloting with each other."

"Yes, they are." It was the matter of fact way that her mother said it, which broke Diana's resolve. The next thing she knew, she was in her mother's lap, crying. "It's okay," her mother whispered, stroking her hair. "I promise it'll be okay."

Diana sniffled. "But how? Being a pilot is all I've ever wanted to be. And I'm good – you know I am! I'm better than anyone in my class, but I'm too young still, and now I don't have anyone I can co-pilot with."

Lightning shifted uncomfortably, and Diana realised how awkward it must have been for her mother to hold her with her injured leg. She tried to go back to her own chair, but her mother wouldn't let her go. "I'm going to show you something, Diana, but you have to promise me that you won't breathe a word of it to anyone else. It is extremely classified, and the only reason I'm even showing you is because it will involve you."

Diana nodded slowly. "Okay."

Lightning reached into her pocket and pulled out a data-display unit. She turned it on and then nodded at Diana. "Take a look."

It took Diana a moment to understand what she was looking at. These were plans for an Eidolon, one that was at least two or three generations ahead of anything she'd seen before. The designs were brilliant: better armour, better mobility, better weapons. She could recognise her mother's influence here as well as the handiwork of her Aunt Vanille and her Aunt Lulu.

But there was something strange about the designs. The Eidolon would have access to an unprecedented number of weapons, many of which were designed to operate while the Eidolon was on the move or in close-quarter combat. There were also additions to the Eidolon's mobility and armour systems, like boosters, anti-grav technology, and even limited, localised shielding technology.

"This is incredible… but how… how are you going to control all of these additional systems? There's no way that an operating system can manage all of this, not during combat. You'd need to plug it into the pilots to make sure that everything worked properly and at the right time, but pilots already have enough to do. You'd overload them."

"Yes, we would." Lightning nodded. "Look closer at the piloting system."

Diana did and then gasped. This Eidolon wasn't designed to be piloted by two people. It was built to be piloted by three. By sharing the neural load across three pilots, it would be possible to maintain the combat standards currently in place while incorporating all of the advanced technology in the designs. The end result would be an Eidolon that could engage in hand-to-hand combat with unprecedented mobility while at the same time making full use of an unrivalled arsenal of weaponry. This Eidolon would be able to pummel a fal'Cie with its fists or its sword while using high-powered plasma cannons or even a rail-gun at the same time. It could, in theory, even engage multiple targets, holding one off in hand-to-hand combat while firing on the others with its ranged weaponry.

"It needs three pilots."

"Yes, it does. But there's just one problem with that…"

"The pilots would all need to be compatible with each other. Finding two people who are compatible is hard. But finding three that would all fit together…" Diana shook her head. "The only three I can think of would have been you, Aunt Serah, and mom."

"The three of us would indeed have been quite suitable for piloting together. But, as you can see, that's no longer an option." Lightning patted her leg. "I will never be able to pilot again. You know that. Besides, there are three other people who would be suitable for this Eidolon."

"There are?"

Lightning chuckled softly. "Diana, you're not normally this dense. Think about it."

Diana's eyes widened. "You mean me, Averia, and Claire?" She couldn't keep the hope out of her voice. "Do you really?"

"I do. Diana, this Eidolon will be the most advanced one we've ever built. But it isn't ready yet. However, it will be soon. In fact, it should come online just after your graduate." Lightning stood and smiled faintly. "So don't give up. Work even harder. After all, your sister and your cousin will have the edge on you in experience."

"I will! I promise I will!"

"Good." Lightning headed toward the door. "Oh, and if you absolutely have to talk about this to someone, talk to your Aunt Vanille. She's the one who came up with a way of establishing a functioning three-person link."

Outside the lab, Lightning scowled at Vanille. The scientist was grinning from ear to ear.

"You big softie. I knew you couldn't resist telling her." Vanille smirked. "Who knew that the great Marshal Farron was –"

"I know that you've been smuggling energy drinks into your lab, Dr Dia. Keep talking, and I will have them seized."

"You're a real buzzkill."

Lightning raised one eyebrow.

"You're a real buzzkill… ma'am."

X X X

Smooth Sailing… Not

To say that Lightning was nervous would have been an enormous understatement. It was one thing to prepare soldiers for battle, but it was quite another to prepare her children and her niece for battle. At least she could take comfort in knowing that Averia and Claire had already distinguished themselves in battle, and Diana had excelled in all of her classes.

"Initiate contact, ma'am?" Lebreau asked.

"Give them a moment." Lightning addressed her next words to the trio inside the Eidolon that Diana had affectionately dubbed 'Gary' due to the fact that it still hadn't received its final colour scheme and was thus still sporting several strips of fluorescent orange for safety purposes. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, ma'am," all three young women said.

"All right." Lightning took a deep breath. "Lebreau, initiate connection."

Lightning watched the emotions play across their faces as they entered the Drift together. Based on Vanille's research, increasing the number of people in the Drift together resulted in a far greater strain on each person. The level of compatibility required was incredible since even the smallest instability could rapidly spiral out of control.

"How does it look?" Lightning asked.

"It's looking good." Lebreau pulled up the Drift analysis. "Their vital signs are fine, and I'm not sensing any abnormal brain activity. Their synchronisation rate is also within operational parameters, and it's still climbing."

"Good." Lightning glanced at the screens showing the pilots. Based on the patterns of brain activity, they should be entering the phase of the Drift where they started to parse through each other's memories rather than simply wander through them. "Keep an eye on them and –"

"It was you!"

Lightning jerked back as Averia turned in her harness and jabbed one finger at Diana. The younger woman yanked her head back as Claire, who was on the other side of Averia, tried to reach out and hold the other pink-haired woman back.

"You're the one who knocked over mother's vase! I got blamed for that!"

Lightning covered her face with her hands. Good grief. "Captain…"

"It was an accident!" Diana cried. "And I was going to say something, but you know how scary mother can be! By the time I was brave enough, it was too late. And you were always going on about how you wanted to protect me so –"

"I got grounded for a week, Diana! A week!" Averia lunged, but her harness kept her solidly in place.

"Averia, maybe you should stop trying to strangle Diana." Claire nodded at the screen. "You do realise that everyone can see us."

"Oh." Averia coughed and then immediately returned to her usual, serious demeanour, but not before giving Diana one last glare. "I'll get you later."

"Are you quite finished?" Lightning asked.

"Yes, ma'am." Averia nodded. "Awaiting your orders, ma'am."

Snickers came from all around the command deck, and Lightning shook her head. Trust those three to get into trouble at a time like this.

"At least we hadn't connected them to the Eidolon yet," Lebreau said.

"Yes, otherwise, we'd have an Eidolon that was strangling itself with one hand while trying to restrain itself with the other. It would probably be firing all of its weapons too," Lightning muttered. She cleared her throat. "We will be commencing your connection to the Eidolon in two minutes. I expect you to handle yourselves accordingly."

"Excuse me, ma'am," Diana said. "But, do we have to keep referring to it as 'the Eidolon'?"

"Lieutenant Yun-Farron," Lightning said. "The Eidolon does not have a designation yet."

"We could call it 'Gary', ma'am." Diana's suggestion was met with groans from her co-pilots and more chuckles from the command deck.

"We are not calling it 'Gary', lieutenant. That Eidolon is the most advanced piece of technology in human history. It is the single greatest war machine ever built. It cost hundreds of billions of gil. We are not naming it after a cartoon character." Lightning took a deep breath. "Come up with a better name."

Diana made a face. "Well, Bahamut is already taken."

"And so are Odin and Shiva," Claire added. Bahamut and Shiva were still in service, and Odin's name had been retired as a sign of respect for the pivotal role the Eidolon had played in bringing the first Fal'Cie War to an end. "So…"

"How about Ragnarok?" Averia asked quietly.

"Ragnarok?" Lightning smiled faintly. "Yes, you can use that name."

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I do not own Final Fantasy or Pacific Rim. I'm not making any money off of this either.

So, yeah, I'm not dead. But I have been pretty busy with some stuff recently, which means that I haven't been able to update the way I've wanted to. That said I'm hoping to resume normal updating soon. If you want to know what's going on, you can always send me a message or drop by my Tumblr, where I'll often post shorter bits and pieces.

Anyway, I've been meaning to get back to The Vestige for a while now. This chapter is one way of helping me ease back into that particular story after a bit of a break. I hope you guys enjoyed the snippets here (a slightly different approach, compared to the usual long chapter format I've been using recently).

Finally, I also write original fiction, mostly fantasy. I've recently released my newest original story on Amazon. It's called Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf. If you have enjoyed my more light-hearted and humorous stories, you will absolutely love this one. Trust me. It's a fantasy with plenty of humour, warmth, action, and a healthy dose of craziness (the kind you've come to expect from me). You can find links to it (and the rest of my original fiction) in my profile. If you're after something a bit more serious, try The Last Huntress. It has plenty of atmosphere and action.

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