Everyone needs saving

by denebtenoh

When Lightning finds her alter ego, the worst mistake she can make is let her guard down. She did it, and had to bear with the consequences. In her last moments, her numbed mind thinks of a specific someone to save her, but not without a prize.

3. Stronger bonds

Everyone Needs Saving.

Chapter 3.

oooooOOOOOXIIIOOOOOooooooo

She can hear soft whimpering in the distance, though at first she cannot place the origin. As her mind begins to clear, she notices the sobbing is right at her side. Fang tries to move, but it elicits such headache, that she´s more than willing to stay on the same position. But she must know. She forces her eyes to open and her muscles to obey, in spite of the way her body is screaming at her in protest.

"Ough… I should´ve seen that one coming…"

It takes her just a few seconds for her mind to process the previous events. Her eyes open wide at remembering her plight, and then search desperately for the frame of her pinkette friend, falling in terror the moment she finds her lying on the floor in front of her, unconscious, though already being attended by Ramón, whose back is facing the warrior, too concentrated on the supine woman.

"Lightning!"

"I got her, Boss." The man hadn´t noticed Fang´s awakening, but at hearing her alarmed voice, he turns his head to look at her, trying to appease her worries, and immediately after returns his attention towards his patient, though still addressing the taller woman. "Her wound is open again, but she´ll be fine, she didn´t hurt herself any more than she already was. It seems the wound just opened partially, though enough to shed a lot of blood. I was able to stop the bleeding before it gets even nastier for her, and now I´m trying to have her fever controlled before doing anything else. If you allow me to finish with her, in a minute I´ll patch you up. But I´m warning you, Boss." the man pauses for a moment to turn around and fix his eyes on emerald orbs, not a trace of hesitation on them in spite of locking eyes with the fierce woman. "There was a lot of blood loss, and a lot of dehydration for the fever, even for the almighty Savior. She will be extremely weak and in danger. You oughta take care of her, or else..."

Fang nods at him as his words sink in, and slowly stands up, flinching at the pain from time to time, when she hears the earlier sobbing starting anew, right next to her, and turns to see Lumina all bundled up in a fetal position on the corner of the room, sobbing uncontrollably, her eyes fixed on the unconscious pinkette.

Such pitiful sight makes Fang´s heart clench, forgetting it´s Lumina she´s staring at. Something about her looks, at that moment, makes the tall Pulsian want to hug the girl and to shush her crying.

"Are you ok, Lumina? Where are you hurt?"

In between sobbing and sniffing, the girl shakes her head in denial.

"I´m- I´m not injured, Fangy…*sniff* y-you protected me pretty well… I´m not *sniff*… I´m not hurting anywhere…"

Fang´s eyebrow twitches at the loathsome nickname, but she pushes her irritation aside and kneels, trying to help the broken girl in front of her.

"Then why are you crying? I know Lightbug must´ve scared the hell out of you, but then I thought that, you being all the time embedded in chaos and with all that many monsters being your pals, a scary little bugger like her wouldn´t even make you fret."

"Don´t be silly, Fangy!" the girl retorts at her, half angrily, half insulted, her old self returning for a split second. "I´m not crying because she scared me!"

The sudden outburst puts the Pulsian on edge. "Then, why are you crying? And stop that 'Fangy' thing, please, my name is Fang."

"I´m crying because… because I never thought she´d ever raised a hand against me. Fang, she tried to kill me!"

"Well… that shouldn´t be a shocker to you, you know?" Fang tries to suppress a smirk with all her might, but still the tone of her voice gives her out. "We all want to spank you anytime we get a glimpse of you. But you´re the only one to blame for that, and…"

"Oh shut it, Fang! Why on Etro did I think you´d be more than an empty-headed-bandit!? I knew you would never understand what I´m going through!"

Ignoring Fang´s glare, the little pinkette stands up, angered by the unwelcomed lecture, and turns around calling up Chaos for her, making Fang sigh out of frustration. But before Lumina steps into the dark fog, she pauses and looks at the brunette over her shoulder, hesitant, eyes still glassy over the tears.

"T-thank you for protecting me Fangy, you didn´t have to."

"I know. Don´t know what came over me, though." Pushing aside her own displeasure, for the girl´s benefit the woman smirks at her playfully, which elicits a small, hesitant smile from the little pinkette, a gesture that, oddly, makes Fang think the girl actually looks cute. Lumina nods and is about to leave, when she hesitates again and turns, facing the kneeled woman.

"I… I know Lightning doesn´t like me, but… but I do like her, and it hurts anytime I see her hardened eyes looking at me. I do like her, Fangy, really, I don´t want her to be hurt."

A delicate eyebrow rises, unconvinced with such statement.

"Then why are you always so annoying and troublesome and double time annoying towards her? Or to anyone, for that matter?"

Lumina shrugs, not really hurt by her words, and instead, her devilish and all-time-present-and-annoying smirk shows up, though Fang can´t help but notice it lacks its usual animosity.

"Maybe I don´t know any other way to relate with people? Maybe it´s my way of showing I care. Maybe I think it´s the only way I´ll get a reaction from Lightning, any reaction at all. I mean, I know it´s not pleasant to have her all worked up and flustered, but at least that way I can get a glimpse of an emotion from her, even if it´s an ugly one." She shrugs one last time, though with a tinge of sadness. "It´s… complicated, I guess." The little pinkette pauses and sighs, and then her countenance changes to that of resolve and, without warning, she kneels in front of the tanned woman, blazing azure eyes locked on emerald. "The curse is eating at Lightning´s strength, Fangy, it devours her vital stamina. And it will never heal unless she defeats the one who inflicted the curse."

Determined azure eyes bore into Fang´s, and the Pulsian can´t shake the idea of finding striking similarities between her friend and this girl… besides the obviously similar hair color.

"Who did this to her?"

"Caius Ballad." Emerald eyes open wide at the straightforward accusation. "The power of the Chaos has made him almost unbeatable, especially if faced inside the castle, though still not enough to defeat Bhunivelze´s Savior all by himself. But our Savior is injured and weakened, and will grow weaker by the minute. The curse is feeding off of her, of the chaos inside her heart. It can´t be stopped from the outside."

"Lightning is stronger than him." Fang retorts heatedly, loyal to her friend. "She defeated him once, I´m sure she´ll be able to defeat him again!"

Lumina smiles faintly, sadly.

"I´m sorry to tell you this, Fangy, but Lightning never defeated Caius. It was Noel´s victory, what brought the Chaos to this world." The girl stands up and steps into the Chaos, but not before sending a final warning. "If Lightning faces Caius all by herself in the state she´s currently in, there´s a high chance she´ll die. But if she doesn´t defeat him soon, the curse will slowly, but surely, kill her. Not even our Almighty Savior has the power to erase that much chaos from her heart."

Those final words are spoken almost in a whisper in the whirlwind of dark power, but their weight echo and settles upon the Pulsian´s heart. Fang stands up and fixes her eyes upon her very unconscious and very pale friend, concern and determination washing over her.

I won´t let that happen, Light. I swear to Etro I won´t let any of that happen to you.

ooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOXIIIOOOOOOOOoooooooooo

Breathing comes as an accomplishment, while consciousness starts to reach her. The pain is exquisite, trying to move is torture, just breathing elicits more pain, though ten times stronger than what she´s felt before. So the only thing she does is what she´s learned to do. Control the fear, and breath in and out slowly, softly, smoothly.

But her grunting has elicited another sound too. Azure eyes open up slowly, trying to adjust to the dim light of the room, as a darkened figure approaches her. At first, the Savior tenses all her aching muscles, but as the raven locks fall into her field of view, followed by a pair of concerned-looking emerald eyes she knows so well, she sighs in relief.

"Fang…" Lightning says, impressed at how weak her voice sounds. She clears her throat, and though still confused, she makes a second attempt. "Fang, where…? How is it… why…?"

Thousands of questions assault her mind, she´s feeling so disoriented it hurts even more than the wound in her breast. Lightning is not even sure how she came to be on the bandit´s lair, her memory blurry, making her head ache even more. The pinkette closes her eyes and moans, while with one hand she clutches her locks tightly, forcing her stupid brain to remember; but the taller woman sits beside her, taking the offensive appendix and lowering it slowly and tenderly, while with the other hand she removes a soft bang from the troubled woman´s eyes.

"Ssshhhh… it´s okay, Sunshine, you´re among friends. You´re in our headquarters, in my room. So don´t worry. We´re not gonna let anything happen to you. You´re safe now."

Safety is not something she´s searching for at the moment. She´s got a mission to accomplish, people to save.

I need to save Serah.

Lightning tries to straighten from her supine position, but the pain freezes her on the spot. Fortunately for her, Fang is there to push her down, and so hide the embarrassment such weakness brings to her.

"It´s ok, Lightbug. You´re injured, but hopefully you´ll be better soon. Don´t worry, you´ll have plenty of time to play the fairy-godmother for everyone. But now I need you to lay down for a while."

Lightning sighs, though the movement elicits more pain, but she tries to relax under the scrutiny of her friend.

"How are you feeling now, Lightbug?"

A small smirk in response. Lightning doesn´t want to address the truth and instead dismisses it with silence. But Fang is not someone to be fooled.

"That bad, uh?" She sighs, as she places a tanned hand over a pale forehead. The fever is finally gone, and so the Pulsian warrior can feel her own distress released a bit.

Such tenderness and such care can´t pass unnoticed by the pinkette, who smiles softly, while closes her eyes to feel the caress and sighs in contentment, then opens them to meet emerald orbs with gratitude.

"It´s so good to see you again, Fang..."

"Not as good as seeing you among the living, Sunshine. I´ll try it again. How do you feel?"

Lightning smiles a wider smile this time, acknowledging the stubbornness of her best friend, but also her sweet concern over her well being.

"If you must know, I feel like shit, as if an adamantortoise had just danced over my body." She groans before adding. "My chest hurts like hell. I can barely breathe…"

"Which means you should just rest up and stop talking. The wound hasn´t closed still, it could be reopened anytime."

"Wound?" Azure eyes shot open, as if the word had brought with it a wave of memories assaulting her mind. Her confrontation with Caius, her clumsiness that allows him to get a direct hit on her; their battle she was so close of losing; her falling unconscious over the warm sand…

"What happened? Why am I here?"

She makes a feeble attempt at getting up again, but the pain is just too unbearable, even for her, so she lets herself be forced on the bed once more.

"Sshh… please, stay calm, or you´ll get yourself hurt. Again."

"Again?"

"Please, stop talking, you´re supposed to be resting."

Her fingers close over Fang´s forearm with an iron grip, and the raven-haired woman flinches in empathy, recognizing so easily the signs of torture over the younger woman´s azure eyes. But she also recognizes the determination embedded in them.

"Fang, I need to know. I trust you. Please, tell me what happened."

"You weren´t thinking like that a little while ago." A sad smirk plays on the taller woman´s lips, one that makes Lightning´s mind screech in a halt.

"What?"

"Hey Boss! I brought some more vials of…" The man, the bartender of their little hideout, enters without previous warning, and Fang releases herself from Lightning´s vicious grip, obviously angry about the interruption. But the man makes no sign that he has noticed his slip. Instead, he looks at a couple of empty bottles over the table, ones that Lightning hadn´t noticed before. "I see you´ve consumed all four I left you!"

"Consumed?" Lightning is impressed by his words. And now that she scans the place, taking note of her surroundings, she finds the room looking as if a raging storm passed through the place: broken furniture and weapons lie scattered everywhere, the paintings are ruined, as well as some adornments Fang had over the table, and it seems to be… blood… over the floor and furniture.

"Fang? What really happened here?"

"She doesn´t remember?" the bartender intervenes, and the raven haired woman sends a deadly glare towards him, but the man must´ve been blind, or been completely oblivious not to notice, since he keeps on talking, seemingly way too excited to be the one to tell the tale. "You were soooo terrifying, Miss Lightning! With all that power and rage! I had never seen the Boss so beaten up! I actually thought it was impossible to even scratch her skin, and then you came! You looked like the Goddess of Death herself!"

Azure eyes open wide in surprise and horror at his statement.

"That´s it! That´s enough! Out of here! Now!" Fang finally reacts and pushes the man outside of the room.

"But… but Boss! I need to refill those bottles! Your ribs are still broken and I´m sure Miss Lightning…"

"I think you´ve done enough! I said GO!"

The woman unceremoniously throws him through the door, and then slams it shut, and rummaging, returns to the table, busing herself with the bottles and refusing to look at the fairer woman.

"Is that true? Fang?"

No response. Lightning is starting to lose patience.

"Fang?"

"Don´t worry about it, Sunshine."

"Please tell me."

"There´s nothing to tell."

"Fang, please."

The warrior doesn´t answer, and does as if she´s too busy refilling the bottles, preparing some vials, while Lightning feels her rage peak. Her stubbornness takes the best of her, so the Savior pushes herself upwards, grunting and sweating at the pain and the effort, but refusing to be defeated by such.

"Lightning!" Fang runs to her side, far too late since Lightning is already seated on the edge of the bed, sweating profusely and becoming paler than ever, her breathing ragged. "Please lie down, the wound isn´t healed and…"

But the pinkette slaps Fang´s hands away from her shoulders, and instead locks eyes with her, azure piercing emerald ones, and the intensity written on them freezes Fang on her spot. The taller woman can see that every breath is painful, especially since Lightning´s breathing is fast and laborious; Fang actually flinches at the thought. Lightning, nonetheless, clenches her jaw, closes her eyes and, with a last moan, pushes herself up and away from the bed, finally standing on her own feet, much to Fang´s desperation, who only hovers her hands around the shorter woman´s frame, too weary to touch her. Lightning´s knees buckle under her, and she staggers until her hands find the wall next to her; she huffs and grunts, feeling her mind going numb and afraid that her legs might budge under her weight… but they still support her, and she presses her back upon the wall, trying to stabilize herself while she inhales deeply, ignoring the pain, forcing her body to respond to her commands.

She opens her eyes and has a hard time focusing her sight, but after a few seconds finally, finally, she´s able to stand on her own feet without the imminent danger of passing out, so she smirks, and sends a defiant look at her friend, straightening her posture, putting aside the exquisite pain the movement elicits.

At the sight, Fang just huffs and passes a hand over her wild locks, sending a smirk back at the stubborn woman.

"Show off." The warrior spats at the pinkette, earning the rising of a delicate eyebrow, but then the warrior shrugs and gives a step backwards, confident that her friend won´t be falling off on the ground… at the moment. "Fine then. After this completely unnecessary bravado display, would you care to join me for breakfast?"

A playful glare as a response. "Only if you tell me you weren´t the one cooking."

The taller woman chuckles at the words. "You should remember who was the one keeping you alive during our time as l'Cie. Vanille wasn´t the only one cooking, you know?"

"I know, and I remember, that being the reason why I rather not eat something you cooked."

"I´m a little bit offended by that."

"And I´m a little bit concerned you might want to punish me with your food for all the trouble I´ve seemed to caused you, given the state of your residence." Lightning passes an appraising look at her surroundings, after which she locks eyes with her friend, prompting her to talk. "Care to explain all of this?"

Fang sighs. "I thought you had forgotten about it."

"You know me better than that."

"Then I should propose you better sit down." Second time the eyebrow rises, though this time Fang´s response to that is a smirk of defiance. "Trust me, Sunshine. You might need it."

Lightning´s eyes linger on her friend, but then she looks at the floor, considering the possible risk of intense pain, or even worse, to lose her balance and fall unceremoniously to the floor, if she dared to leave the security of her wall. Or rather, she glares at the floor, as if the damn thing were responsible for her plight. She´s well aware she must do this, must stop relying on something as stupid as a wall, but has a hard time deciding, until she closes her eyes in resignation and sighs.

I can do this…

Fang awaits for the woman´s decision with all the patience in the world, understanding her feelings, until a ruckus is heard outside her office and she goes out to see, only to almost smash herself against Adonis, who steps back in surprise at finding his face mere inches from his boss´s. The surprise makes him stagger backwards and finally he lands on his rump, caught completely off guard.

"Woah! Ouch!"

"What´s happening out there?" Fang is split between helping his second-in-command or rushing towards the exit.

"Oh! Boss! You gotta come!" Painfully, the man stands, his concerned gaze fixed on the tall woman. "The Gurangatch is here again! Is trying to steal today´s hunting!"

"Again? Damn thing!" He needn´t ought to say another word. Without missing a bit, Fang grabs her bloody lance and rushes towards the exit, prompting her man to follow her as a rush of anger, weariness and excitement are dangerously mixed inside her blood. "Let´s go!"

Both bandits run to the encounter of the beast, but after a second Fang returns in a flash, peeking through the door to glare intently at the injured woman, as a menacing finger is pointed at the pinkette.

"Don´t you even consider following us, Sunshine! Don´t you dare disobey me for only a second! This is my place and as long as you stay here you follow my rules. Are we clear?" Without waiting for a response, Fang´s head disappears behind the door.

Lightning glares back at the empty space left by the taller woman, but then looks again at the floor, her worst enemy at the moment, and clenches her jaw in anticipation.

Some things in life you just do…

Meanwhile, Fang runs as fast as she can towards the exit, followed closely by Adonis. She knows Gurangatch all too well, having fought against the monster many times already, and knows from experience the beast is a nasty one: with its form resembling that of an overdeveloped turtle, it was born with an organic carapace that is almost like an impenetrable armor covering most of its body, so impossible to damage that the locals have baptized the exosqueleton "iron wall". But its most terrible feature is its fearlessness: whenever the beast attacks, it doesn´t care how dangerous it´s target might be, nor how many lives it has to take, as long as the little bastard steals a big chunk of meat. The monstrosity has already stolen from the bandits a few hunting, and it´s been only Fang, with a lot of effort and injured thieves, the one to make it flee. The monster is way too strong to be truly defeated, its powerful carcass preventing them from doing any real damage.

As they arrive at the battle scene, Fang can see the plight her bandits are in: there are already two men on the ground, hopefully just unconscious, and four more shooting or striking with their weapons the impenetrable scales of the beast´s shell.

"Damn." The tall Pulsian curses under her breath, and then starts shouting orders at her people, distributing them for the attack, while she serves as bait for the powerful offender, shooting and swearing at it, trying to provoke it by making all the noise she can conjure. The beast turns around and finds the woman, and Fang can swear it recognizes her from previous robberies, as it charges against her with a deafening roar, one that would freeze anyone´s bones; but the woman takes the sudden attack to her advantage, avoiding its already bloody fangs at the last minute and allowing her people a clear view of the monster´s throat. But the scales are too thick, and the beast is too fast for them, so the weapons don´t even make a scratch on the powerful armor. Gurangatch bits again in the air, inches from the tanned skin of the queen of bandits, and Fang understands that, this time, the monster has come for something more than just meal: it has come for her.

"You want a piece of me? Come and get it!" Fang taints the animal, and as it lunges towards her, the sound of thunder reaches everyone´s ears, and a sudden, blinding light envelopes the beast, making Fang stagger backwards. The monster screeches in pain, and a foul smell, like that of burned flesh, invades the air.

"What the…?"

Fang tries to see beyond the creature, all too aware of the responsible for such a powerful attack, but another flashing light, this one of fire nature, strikes once more the huge beast. Though this time, the scales are burning hot, white hot, and the monster retreats them, trying to ease the torture, while it lunges towards Fang, blinded by fury and pain, confused at the origin of the attack but convinced it must be the tanned bandit´s doing.

It´s the worst mistake Gurangatch has done, and also the last.

The woman is way too skilled a hunter for a simple beast to beat her, especially when its armor is already gone. A flick of her wrist is all it takes for her to severe the monster´s trachea and carotid artery, now completely stripped from its protective shell, and with a few seconds of tremors, the fiend falls dead, bathed on its own blood.

Everyone cheers at their boss´s victory, but the cheering increases all too evidently at the sight of the young, beautiful pinkette that lingers in the entrance of the building, everyone well aware the spells had been her doing.

While all the bandits cheer and whistle at the two powerful women, Lightning´s azure eyes are defiantly fixed on the emerald ones of the Queen of Bandits. The pinkette has her back resting upon a pillar and with a smirk playing on her lips, an aloof attitude on her stance.

But Fang knows better.

For her knowing eyes, there is no escaping the sweat on the pale woman´s forehead, the small tremor on her stance, the evident shadow of sheer torture behind her azure, blazing eyes. It´s obvious the beautiful pinkette is in pain, but at the moment the warrior has no sympathy for the disobedient woman: her authority has been confronted, and Fang can do nothing but glare at the stubborn ex-soldier.

"I thought I had told you to stay safe in my room."

At the words, Lightning returns the glare, but the mirth is evident in her voice.

"Tch. I am safe, or can you say I received any kind of injury?" Her smile grows wider, as Fang´s eyebrow twitches. "You should know better than to think you can order me around, 'Queen of Bandits'."

Fang is about to retort but thinks against it and instead smirks at the smaller woman.

"Yeah, you´re right. Guess that´s a lesson I should´ve learned a long time ago, right? Though there´s no denying something."

"And what´s that?"

"You´re just too stubborn to die."

Caught off guard for a split second, Lightning smiles sadly at this, and both women share a second of silence and reminiscence, but then something dark passes by Fang´s countenance, and she breaks eye contact and shrugs, a gesture that makes Lightning thoughtful.

"Fine. Who am I to judge? Have it your way, Savior."

The return of the defensive, sarcastic warrior makes Lightning´s frozen heart sting, but she remains silent, while the other woman approaches, not meeting her crystal-blue eyes. Fang is passing by her, intent on entering the building without crossing any other word, but then hesitates, and stops at the level of the pinkette, who´s still resting her back against the wall. Emerald eyes are fixed on the stone floor, refusing to meet azure ones, but Lightning can see them alight with an emotion she just cannot place. It´s just so unusual for Fang to be hesitant, that seeing her like this is rather unsettling, but she still allows the silence among them stretch a full minute. The moment Lightning is about to address the woman, Fang´s voice reaches her in a soft, almost imperceptible whisper.

"I´m sorry, Light."

"Excuse me?"

"I said…"

"I know." Lightning´s voice raises, with no other intention but to spare her the humiliation. "I´m unsure at what, though."

"Well… Back in the labyrinth… I was…"

"An insufferable bitch? A traitorous moron? Everything but a true friend?" Lightning snaps at her, which makes Fang´s eyes open wide in astonishment and turn to see her friend. Lightning´s eyes are locked with hers, but she cannot see in them true anger nor true malice. Or at least nothing she can place.

"Well… yeah… for that too..."

Lightning sighs and straightens her posture a bit, locking eyes with her friend.

"It hurt, Fang. It hurt to see you not trusting me, to see you on guard whenever you were close to me. To hear you talking sarcastically about my mission and me, because I know, whenever you do that, it means you´re feeling distrustful about the situation. Or of the person, in this case."

Not without effort, Lightning finally manages to stand on her feet, not relying on the wall, her azure eyes fixed on the woman.

Though she cannot see true malice in them, Fang can still see a glimpse of a dark emotion running through them. It´s very disturbing to see a woman so passionate once, that a few hours ago felt so strongly, being so… collected… as if her feelings where lessened, somehow.

"Yeah, Light… I´m sorry for all that too… I…"

"But I understand, Fang." The pinkette interrupts the tall warrior, seriousness in her countenance. "I know why you did it. Believe me, if our roles where reversed, and it was Serah the one in danger, and you the one in my place, I, too, would´ve doubted of you, because Serah is the most important person for me, just like Vanille is for you."

Fang´s heart clenches at the trust and understanding Light is capable of, feeling even more guilty than before, but at the same time relieved of a heavy weight.

"So. No hard feelings."

"Well…" a small smirk plays on the pale beauty´s lips. "That doesn´t mean I won´t seek revenge at the first opportunity that presents to me."

The brunette woman chuckles at that. "Well, it won´t be today, so let´s play the white flag and let me aid you to return to my room."

Fang wants to laugh out loud at witnessing the darkening of Lightning´s features at her last words.

"I don´t need to be aided."

"Yes, you do. So stop being stubborn and just take my hand."

Rather too roughly for Lightning´s taste, Fang takes the pale hand and guides it to her shoulder, the taller woman trying her hardest to drown the exhilarating butterflies dancing in her stomach the moment the pale fingers get in contact with her tanned skin.

"There. I won´t touch you, but you can walk by my side and I´ll lead the way. One step at a time, Light. I promise I´ll keep it slow."

Lightning glares at the woman, but the pleading emerald eyes finally get to her cold heart, and she huffs and accepts, giving a step towards the tall Pulsian.

"Fine. Lead the way, oh Great Queen of Bandits."

Fang snorts at the jib, but complies.

ooooOOOOOOXIIIOOOOOOOoooooooooo

Author´s Note:

I´m so sorry for the long, long, ooooh so long delay in posting! But there are so many hard and rather stressful things happening in my life, that they completely occupy almost every single hour of the day, and obviously erase all my inspiration. But I´m BACK! I hope I didn´t lose you, guys! And hopefully you like this chapter too! Though it might feel like a filler chapter, believe me, it was needed. I hope to read you soon!

For those who left unsigned reviews, here are the answers:

Anon: I think you should make that account! So I can talk to you more often! (well, that is, in case you want to, of course) I´m happy to know that I could surprise you with the events, but I´m even happier to know that I could keep both of them in character! I don´t know about Lumina, though, in this chapter she might be a little too OOC, but the idea is, if she´s (MAYOR SPOILER) Lightning´s most shameful feelings, that means her feelings of fear and her childish tears are so part of Lumina´s character, right? So I hope you liked this chapter too!