It was about six in the morning on the twenty-fifth of December when Lightning snuck out of her sister's house and got into her car, already headed to the crime scene with a rage unlike any other.

Though her night had gone surprisingly well even with the presence of Snow Villiers, Lightning hadn't been able to get the fact that the FBI had taken the case away from her so easily, Amodar not being able to do a single thing no matter how loud she had yelled. And yes, the present she had gotten from her sister had been very nice and God knew she had been complaining about her previous watch breaking during a case, but even as she looked at the new piece on her right wrist, all Lightning could feel was resent.

Cigarette between her lips and car-window open, she carefully drove towards the building on empty roads. Sometimes, she was able to spot a person carrying bread and a journal back to their home or spot a car slowly driving past an intersection, but on this Christmas morning, not a soul was to be seen and that suited her just fine.

Living on the East of Los Angeles, the drive to the flat took her no less than twenty-five minutes she spent in a constant state of wondering, questioning the severity of the case and why the Bureau had decided to step over everything that belonged to her. I can't believe it. But you better be sure I'm not giving up that easily Agent Yun. Oh no, I hope you realize who you're dealing with, she thought as a mirthless smiled crinkled the corners of her lips because clearly, they hadn't properly met. And she couldn't wait for them to meet.

As she maneuvered her car inside the West-Hollywood district, Lightning's breath slowly started to accelerate. From afar, she could still see one of the two SUV's parked near the building and one person standing in front of the front door with what seemed to be a rifle in his hand.

"That's going to make it harder," she muttered to herself. "Backdoor or window it is."

Pressing the pedal, she took a turn to the right and continued her way towards an alley. Slowing down the rhythm of the car, she came to a step when she was able to see an emergency ladder leading to every floor and got out of the car without thinking for another second. But the second she got out, her phone suddenly rang.

Like a dancer in the middle of a stage, Lightning did her best to snatch it out of her pocket and respond to the call, hoping no one in the nearest vicinity had been able to hear her ringtone.

"Yes," she whispered as she reached the beginning of the ladder, "found anything?"

"No, sadly. The man on the pictures is unknown and no other fingerprints were found on them or the body. I triple-checked, but nothing came back. And also, nothing else was found about Jihl. We still don't have a real name."

"Fuck." Sighing, Lightning shook her head ever so slightly. "Thanks, Emma."

"You're welcome. And now that the FBI has taken over…What happens?"

"Nothing," she lied. "We're not on the case anymore."

"Alright…I'll send the FBI what I found."

Gritting her teeth together, Lightning thanked the forensic for the warning and proceeded with climbing the steps towards the fourth floor with care. Knowing that windows surrounded the building she needed to do her best, so she wouldn't be seen by any other occupants of the building and eventually she managed to reach it.

With her hand protecting her eyes, she looked through the window for any kind of movement and therefore making sure that no FBI agent would be standing in the middle of the living room, and after a few more moments of investigation, Lightning managed to open the window. Climbing it up as quietly as possible, she gingerly glanced in both her directions and tiptoed towards the bedroom.

But to her greatest disappointment, nothing had changed.

A gun being charged behind her back made her turn around, her own hand already pulling it out of its holster to face her attacker. "You're not allowed here. I thought I was clear yesterday," the woman she recognized to be Agent Yun calmly uttered. "I'm going to give you ten seconds to get the hell out of here."

"You FBI agents think you have unlimited control over everything, don't you," Lightning asked as she pulled her gun away, "You think you can shove that precious badge of yours everywhere and do whatever you please."

A wicked smile drew itself on the Agent's lips and Lightning fought hard to keep her hands inside of her pockets and not let it crash against her jaw. "It is how it's supposed to be," she said, "and if you have an ounce of respect for the Force, you will step away."

Her eyes usually of a light blue slowly began to darken the longer she stared back at Agent Yun, her smile still bright and mirthless but as much as it hurt to admit, she was right. Lightning respected the Force and by extension, stepping away was the only thing she could do.

With a shake of her head, she strode towards the frame of the door under which Yun had positioned herself and slammed her shoulder against hers on her way out of the apartment.

Whilst exiting through the front door, she heard a voice call out and say; "I hope this was the last time we meet, Lieutenant, God only knows my patience has limits," before she stormed down the stairs with her teeth on the verge of breaking.

Pushing the front door open, she ignored the calls of one of the agents acting as a security guard and rushed in direction of her car she had left behind the building and unlocked it the second it appeared in her line of vision. Jumping behind the wheel, she didn't start the car right away but only squeezed the wheel with both of her hands until finally, her anger got the better of her.

With a few punches, Lightning used the wheel as a punching-bag, slamming second after second her fist against the leathery fabric surrounding it until her knuckles turned a dark shade of purple. The pain lingered in her fingers for a few moments, feeling as if electricity had started to sparkle underneath her flesh and with that pain still acting, Lightning started her car and drove off the area with a dark, cruel last look in her rear-view mirror.

It was without surprise that Agent Yun stood in the middle of the road behind the car, her hands clasped at her hips. Their eyes met for a quarter of a second, enough for the same smile to be drawn back to the Agent's lips but this time, Lightning decided to ignore it and to be fair, she was inclined to ignore everything she had been told not to do.

The feeling she had had the previous morning upon arriving on the crime scene had been proved more than one time and now, her thirst for justice was overpowering. But how? How could she continue to work now that the FBI and Amodar had ordered her to stand down and steer clear from the case, no matter what? She would need to be swift, discreet and more importantly, alone. No one could know what she would truly be doing, whether it being her detectives or Amodar. Discretion was key, and Lightning was excellent when it came to it.

With an additional pressure on the pedal, Lightning continued her way towards her house in the center of West-Hollywood and not the precinct as she had been on duty the previous day, ready for what she hoped would turn out to be a perfect plan.

After a few more minutes and after turning at a few more interactions, Lightning was finally parked in front of her garage and was out of the vehicle within only a few moments. With her keys in hand, she slammed them inside the lock and after a quick glance over her shoulder, she entered her house and was enwrapped in warmth. The temperature wasn't cold here in Los Angeles, and after living in Montreal most of her youth Lightning was acclimated to frost but only wearing a thin jacket, the wind that had blown ever since yesterday had been more than annoying.

Her house was like any other household. With a single bedroom, an office, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom, Lightning was content with the decoration she had added. On the walls hung a few coloured paintings either of landscapes or shadows, the colours of black, red and blue usually being the ones striking out the most compared to the whiteness of the walls.

The soil was mostly made of light-coloured wood from the living to the bedroom, the kitchen and bathroom being the only two ones being covered with beige-coloured tiles and every now and then, a rug would bring out another dash of colour to brighten up the room.

All in all, her house was normal and in the two years she had lived in it, Lightning felt at ease. As she hung her coat on the hanger near the front-door, she first decided to make herself a fresh pot of coffee, the need of caffeine streaming down her veins now being direly needed. Perhaps would it help her to calm down as the Agent's words and therefore accent still echoed inside of her mind. You will step away. Stupid condescending bitch.

Eyeing the coffee-maker she had instinctively turned on, Lightning snatched a clean mug from one of her drawers and poured herself a large amount of the warm, dark beverage, leaving the sugar and the milk where they belonged: everywhere but in her coffee and with her filled mug in hand, it was now time to head towards her office and start to write all the information she had managed to gather yesterday.

Her office was devoid of objects. Apart for a desk, a laptop and a lamp, the only things filling the rather large room were a library filled with different books and a whiteboard hanging on the wall. Glancing at it, she read the few words from a previous case and walked closer to swipe her drawings off, coffee at her lips.

"Alright," she said to herself with a pen in her left hand, "Let's go."

It had been two years since Lightning had been given a promotion, going from Detective to Lieutenant thanks to the number of arrests she had made as well as the dedication to the job. To her, being a police officer meant many things. It was a commitment to her city, but also to its inhabitants and breaking every sort of promise she might give was something she simply deemed unacceptable. It was also was she was meant to become, and she had it all figured out. Now a Lieutenant, it was only a matter of years before she would be in charge of the precinct, or even another. It didn't matter where as long as she would be in charge.

A smile plastered itself to her lips as she continued writing, thinking about the many things she would be able to do and say the day she would be Captain, and Agent Yun's face instantly popped back inside her mind. For instance, she wouldn't let the FBI do whatever they wish to do, unlike Amodar had done. He didn't have a choice though.

Although her thoughts had returned to carnage, Lightning managed to remain perfectly calm as she continued writing suppositions, ideas and more importantly, a plan. Still having access to the precinct's database and knowing where the parents were staying, Lightning had a few ways to find out more about this girl and her murder, and for now, the question that kept coming inside of her mind was the following; why had she disappeared and was the FBI responsible for it? Frowning, she wrote the question on her board and brought her finger to her right temple, slightly pressing against her skin. With screwed up eyes, she swiftly turned around and took a seat on her swiveling chair, coming closer to her laptop to turn it on.

She waited a few moments for her iMac to come back to life, and the few seconds that went by were spent pondering the implications of the FBI. It was her only focus and it would ultimately be the answer to almost everything, or at least, it would be the beginning of something much more complicated.

Breathing out a puff of air, Lightning glanced back at the screen and pressed on safari to open up a new page, quickly typing in the police's database website and waited for it to load when her cell phone started to ring from the distance. Looking away from her screen, she got up from her chair and followed the sound coming from her jacket, quickly retrieving the device to place it at her ear. Amodar was calling on her day off, and why remained the question on her mind.

"Captain Amodar?"

"Lightning, I know this is your day off but someone is at the precinct. They want to talk to you, and only you."

Arching a brow, she scratched the back of her head and grabbed her jacket from the hanger. "I'll be right there," she said before cutting the communication short.

Who it was didn't matter, but this would give her a reason to look for more clues in a secure environment. Going back to her office, she turned off the laptop, gulped her coffee and exited her house with a cigarette dangling between her lips. The drive towards the precinct was short, and only minutes went by until she was energetically climbing up the only flight of stairs separating her from her office.

Only a few people were inside of the precinct, understandable since the day had only just begun and the 25th was off for almost everyone in the city. Amodar was always working, not having a wife to come home to anymore he had decided that working was better than doing nothing in his house, and Lightning had agreed. Work came first, leisure second.

As she walked down the hallway, she saluted the two female officers chatting by the coffee-maker and took a turn to the left to enter her office, surprised to see Amodar turning his back at her. But as he moved to the side, the person sitting in front of her desk was the one getting her entire attention. Jihl's younger sister was here, and based on her eyes, she had been crying for more than just a few hours.

"Lightning thank you for coming. I told Jenna the FBI had taken over, but she wanted to speak with you", Amodar said. Skirting around her desk, she gave her Captain a nod and waited for him to be out of the room.

For a while, neither of them talked. Lightning only gazed at the young girl, observing her skin, her neck, and her hands and the more she looked, the clearer it became that she wasn't only grieving. She was also terrified.

"Can I get you a glass of…"

"My father used to hit Jihl," she suddenly interjected, leaving Lightning breathless. "She thought I didn't know, but I did. He never hit me, it was only Jihl because she wasn't like he wanted her to be."

"Do you mean because she was a homosexual?"

"I'd wager it was. When she left, I was…happy for her. I figured she ran away to escape all that…" Jenna drew in a breath and slowly exhaled. "She never showed any sign of leaving. She was the same as always…"

"Would you say she left willingly," Lightning asked, writing everything on a piece of paper.

"At first I thought but…To change so fast. I don't know. I don't know anymore."

Lightning flinched as the young girl suddenly started to cry. Taken aback, she jumped from her seat and grabbed a box of Kleenex she kept on a shelf in case something like this were to happen and placed them before Jenna who instinctively snatched the first one.

"Thanks…You know, I was so angry at first when she left," Jenna continued, "I was selfishly thinking but now…Who could've taken her? And why is the FBI investigating? Is there more than they say?"

Lifting her finger up in the air, Lightning bent down and opened up one of her drawers, retrieving the pictures of the man Jihl had been taken and placed one of them on the table, in front of Jenna.

"Do you recognize this man," she asked her.

Jenna looked at the picture and grabbed it between shaking hand. "I…don't think so. Who is he?"

"We found his pictures inside of your sister's apartment, hidden near the sink. I figured maybe you had seen him somewhere some time," Lightning admitted, disappointed by this outcome.

Running her fingers through her hair and feeling a headache coming her way, she untied the bun on the top of her hair and let loose pink-coloured hair to fall on her shoulders to ease the pain starting to spread at its center. Pushing her bangs away from her right eye, she looked back to her papers and scribbled a few additional words.

"Can you…can you promise me something?"

Glancing up, Lightning placed her pen down and nodded. "Sure."

"Can you promise you'll stop them. Stop the people responsible?"

"I'll do what I can," Lightning said. "And about your father, I'm going to send a…"

"No, please don't. Don't do anything I beg of you," Jenna pleaded, back on her feet. "He wouldn't be locked up, he would find a way back!"

"But if we can find old wounds on Jihl's body…"

"No, don't. That's final."

Surprised by the sudden authoritative tone of voice and dangerous look, Lightning had no choice but to give up. Handing her hand in the air as a surrender, she got up from her seat and made her way back to the door. There wasn't much Jenna could tell her anymore. The real first clue was the father, and Lightning planned on having a small chat with him.

Pressing on the button of the elevator, she thanked Jenna for the information given and waited for the elevator to be sent back to the ground floor. Spinning around, she made a beeline in Amodar's direction and entered his office without bothering to knock.

"Sir, this is bigger than…"

"Lightning let me stop you right there," Amodar annoyingly said. He pointed at the chair and waited for Lightning to take a seat behind his desk before continuing. "The FBI just called me and warned me that a Lieutenant with pink hair had infiltrated the crime scene earlier this morning."

Her stomach started to sink. Had this bitch really decided to tell on her? What was this, fifth grade? "Sir I…"

"I'm not done," he grounded. "Let me make myself clear, Lightning. If I find out you're still investigating on this, you're suspended for three weeks. No badge, no authority. Am I being clear?"

"Yes Sir," she said with a nod.

"Now off you go. I believe it's your day off."

Nodding once more, Lightning exited the office in silence. Trying to wrap her mind around everything that had happened, she exited the precinct with her brows heavily furrowed and her phone at her ear. Right now, the only person who could tell her what to do was probably awake, and she needed her ASAP.

"Hello? Can you meet me in twenty minutes at my place? It's urgent." She then got in her car and drove away with speed.

The bell rang throughout her house exactly twenty minutes after making the call and carrying two cups of coffee to the living-room, Lightning sauntered towards the door after placing them both on the coffee table.

"Hey Serah, thanks for coming."

"You're a jerk for leaving without saying goodbye, you better have a valid explanation," Serah said entering the house.

Frowning, Lightning led them towards the sofa. "I do, that's why I called you here."

"Alright?"

Taking a seat, Lightning first looked at her sister with a small smile. It was amazing to see how she had changed in the past years. Though her hair was still pink-coloured and her eyes still a bright blue, she had managed to get thin lines of laughter at the creases of both her eyes and mouth and she could only thank Snow for bringing some colour in what could've turned out to be a morose life. At least there was this little thing she appreciated about him.

"Light? You there?"

"Yes, sorry. So, I had a case yesterday and…"

"And the FBI took it from you, you told us that at least ten times today."

"Oh," Lightning said confused. "Well, anyway, the sister of the victim came to see me at the precinct and told me her father was abusive. And Amodar warned me that if I continue investigating on the side, I'm suspended."

"O-kay?"

"What should I do?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do," Serah asked, her head slightly titled on the side.

Lightning shrugged. Truth was, she only had two options; either continue and risk being suspended or worse, fired, or drop the case altogether and keep her focus on something else. But in her mind, her decision had been taken a day ago.

"I want to keep going. I promised Jenna I'd do my best, and that's what I'm going to do. My best."

"I have a feeling that's not all you want to say," Serah said with a knowing smile, her cup of coffee not being big enough to cover it.

"This agent…Agent Yun. She saw me this morning when I snuck into the apartment."

"Lightning that's reckless!"

"I know it was. But I can't do anything if she's still in my way."

"You make it sound like you're going to kill her," Serah said, a brow arched.

"No, not all! I'm just hoping the FBI won't stay in LA too long, was all I'm saying," Lightning countered a bit appalled by her sister's conclusions. "Something irks me when it comes to her."

"To the Agent? You know she's just doing her job right?"

"I know that but it's the way she acted," Lightning said after a sip of coffee, "something bothered me, I couldn't tell you what it was."

A short moment of silence passed as Lightning looked at her intertwined hands, Serah focusing her attention on the ceiling.

"I don't know what to do," Lightning eventually whispered to break the silence, her hands covering her face. "I always know what to do when I'm on a case, but this makes it so much complicated."

"What do you do exactly, when you're on a case?"

Glancing up, Lightning stood up and waved a hand in Serah's direction, urging her to follow her right this second. Making her way towards her office, she unlocked the door with a key she kept around her neck and pushed it open with the palm of her hand, letting Serah step inside of the room.

"I take notes. I analyze," Lightning finally answered, "I find clues, I do research."

"Clearly," Serah said as she came closer to the whiteboard. "This is the victim?"

"This is the victim six months ago," she stated before pointing at another picture, "this is her now."

"Ew, Light!"

Serah instantly turned around at the sight of the photograph of the body recovered. Gingerly observing, Lightning fought a smile at her sister's curiosity got the better of her and focused her attention back on the picture, a look of disgust still plastered on her face.

"She doesn't look anything like before," Serah observed, "Like she tried to change her identity."

"I know, and with the FBI showing up at the door, the pictures she took…I don't know, I feel like there's something more. Something they don't want us to know."

"Light, can you sit down?"

"Uh, sure?"

Arching a brow in Serah's direction, Lightning went to her chair and slowly sat down. Legs crossed, she waited for Serah to sit on the facing seat, unable to tell what had suddenly happened, and based on her shifty eyes, she figured whatever needed to be said wasn't something good.

"Serah, out with it. I don't have all day…"

"But you do," her younger sister interjected. "You're not supposed to be working today, you're supposed to be enjoying time with your family rather than concentrating your attention on a case that doesn't even belong to you anymore, Lightning." Wincing, Lightning leaned back against the chair and stapled her fingers together. "I don't know what you want to achieve with this but…stop."

"Why," she asked offended, "I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just trying to find who did this, find the killer."

"I know Sis, but this isn't the right way. You could lose your job and I doubt this is what you want since you're…obsessed with it."

"I'm not obsessed with work, Serah. I just want it for you to be safe to walk around. You and everyone else," Lightning stated, her tone suddenly sounding more annoyed. "I don't know why this is so hard for you to understand."

"To be honest, I do understand. I just need you to be sure."

"Sure about…what, exactly?"

Serah smiled. Coming closer, she placed her mug on a coaster and elbowed against the desk before whispering; "because I'm going to help you dummy, what else are younger sister's for but to help their older ones?"