Everyone needs saving

Chapter Seven.

oooooooOOOOOXIIIOOOOOooooooooooo

Lightning exhales forcefully, creating thousands of bubbles traveling around her and prickling the skin on her face; she keeps blowing until her lungs ache, until there is no air left inside them. She resurfaces from the water, takes a long inhale of air, and dives again inside the sacred pond, exhaling once more with all the strength of her muscles, until her lungs ache again.

It´s all she can do to prevent herself from screaming, from taking this sheer rage and anger that seems to be consuming her from within. She can almost feel the intoxicating need for vengeance. She resurfaces again, her breath ragged, and her lungs protesting for the lack of oxygen, but after a few gasps, she inhales again, and repeats the operation, as if she were punishing her body for allowing such violence.

Such rape.

She remerges again, her throat and lungs burning, but in spite of her efforts, she still feels the unbearable pressure of his touch. And she feels dirty all over her skin, just by the mere memory of it. Lightning wasn´t much aware of the places he had touched, only fragments of memories that allow her to guess were his fingertips and lips had been traveling over her body, but it feels as if every single inch of her skin has been desecrated. She feels she wants to rip off that skin, bit by bit, hoping it would take off the feeling of filth.

The pinkette takes again the soup, an operation that has been repeating itself over and over for the past half an hour, and starts cleansing her skin once again, starting from her breasts, the part of her that she has a clearer memory of his touch, even in her drugged state. And the loathed memory returns to her like a vengeance.

His lips touching the tender skin, sucking on her nipple, her flesh being ripped apart at the pressure of his teeth.

The soup is scraping her delicate skin, which is already red for the efforts, close to drawing some blood. But it would seem as if the pinkette wouldn´t notice, or wouldn´t care. She´s too obsessed by the idea of taking off the filthy sensation. Her teeth grind against each other, while she growls, the damn feeling intensifying in spite of her efforts, while tears threaten to appear on her eyes.

Oh no. Never that.

She shakes her head, and forces the tears away. There´s no way she would ever cry over such a dramatic thing. Tears wouldn´t help her to take away the feeling. She wants revenge instead.

"You should stop doing that."

Lightning grinds her teeth tighter, almost fracturing it by the sheer force of it, her response at hearing the voice of the goddamn girl.

"Lumina…" Her voice is almost a threat. "I´m really in no…"

"… mood, I know. I just wanted to see how you were, after… well, you know." Lumina interrupts her, but then remains silent for a moment, seating over the edge of the pond and at the older pinkette´s back, so that Lightning can´t see her. But there is something in her voice that sends alarms to the Savior, and makes her drop the anger level, if just a tad. Serah´s voice was like that whenever she was afraid of a nightmare. She should´ve known, Lightning was the one who always came to her aid, and slept on her bed, whenever the younger pinkette had had a particularly terrible dream.

The taller pinkette doesn´t want to meddle with the little demon, knows she has neither the time nor the mind to endure it, but soon curiosity gets the best of her. Besides, what are her options? To scrap her skin off? But the moment she turns around, the sight that meets her really make her hesitate.

Lumina´s beautiful baby blue eyes are fixed on the wall in front of them, shedding silent tears, while her knees are driven closer to her chest, enveloped by her arms. The perfect image of despair.

"I know I´m gonna repent for asking this, but, what´s wrong with you, Lumina?"

The girl takes a moment to answer. "He scared me, Lightning. Bhunivelze. I had never thought he´d be capable of doing… something like that."

A delicate eyebrow rises. The devilish kid is being sympathetic? But Lightning has never been good at taking sympathy from others, she has never been able to discern it from pity.

And she hates pity.

Hopelessly she snaps at the girl. "What is it with you, anyways? It´s not like it happened to you. In any case, it should be me the one being in that position, not you. What are you crying for? Wasn´t it what you always wanted? To see me humiliated, to see me hurt?"

"Don´t be stupid!" The girl snaps back at the taller pinkette, tears running freely but flustered at the accusation. "Of course I don´t want to see you hurt! I like to have fun and play pranks to you, but to be… to be touched like that against your will… even thinking of it makes me…" She hides her face over her knees. "It makes me want to cry…"

The girl starts sobbing, and the sight creates a bothersome lump in Lightning´s throat. At that moment, the Savior remembers Luka, the girl in Luxieron who sells her tears.

I wonder if it is Luka´s intention after all, to cry for the ones who cannot shed any more tears. Would she cry for me now? Just like this girl is doing?

Lightning swallows the lump, and approaches the weeping girl. Hesitantly at first, she places a hand on the child´s back, and feels the vibrations of the girls´ sobs. It doesn´t look like she´s faking it. The Savior then exhales, and forces her voice to sound a little less angry, to be a little warmer.

"I don´t understand, Lumina. I get it he scared you, but nothing happened to you, but to me. Why are you crying? It should be me the one doing that, and you don´t see me shedding a single tear."

"I do it because I know you cannot cry."

Lightning blinks at the blunt response.

"How… how do you know that I…?"

"Because you never do." Lumina´s face emerges from her hideout, and Lightning can see her eyes completely red, puffy eyelids for all the tears shed, but her eyes still seem accusatory. "Because, even now, you´re forcing yourself not to cry. And it makes me want to cry instead. And it´s so sad… Why would you ever do that to yourself?"

"I… umh…"

After not getting the desired response, Lumina hides her face again.

"Grown-ups are very weird. They do horrible things, hurt each other without much remorse, but what is worse, they hurt themselves and act as if nothing happened. I´m happy I´ll never get to be a grown up. I don´t want to be one."

The childish confession makes Lightning smile. "You have a good reason to be happy, then. This will be all over before you get your chance to be a grown up. Though honestly, being one is not that bad. I assure you."

"But now I don´t know how to help you." Lumina replies, though refusing to look at the pinkette. "The only thing I can do now is cry for you. Because you don´t want to."

She falls silent again, silencing Lightning´s replies as well. But the woman knows better. She has learned she can do something after all. She has learned how to do simple, but good things for someone else. So she steps out partially from the water, from the waist up, and not caring she´s naked and wet, envelops the girl´s torso in her arms. Lightning didn´t think it could be possible, she was half expecting Lumina to push her away aggressively, just like she always seemed to be doing. But instead, little arms envelop her neck, while small and sharp fingernails embed themselves in her skin, and her left shoulder suddenly feels warmer, as the girl cries out over it, seeking the solace the tall woman is offering. But the Savior doesn´t mind, and lets the girl shed all the tears she needs.

Because she knows she doesn´t have tears left for herself to be shed.

ooooooooOOOOOOOXIIIOOOOOOOooooooo

It´s already past midday, closer to dusk than she would like, and Lightning turns around the corner with as much caution as possible, knowing there´s no way she can hide something as flamboyant as a white chocobo, but still makes the effort. She looks right and left, and seeing everyone seems to be minding their own business, pulls at Odin´s reigns, giving a few steps forward as silently as she can.

"Hello there, Sunshine, going somewhere?"

Fang´s thunderous voice reaches her, and the pinkette sighs, knowing there´s no escaping now.

"Hello Fang. Yes, going to finish a mission."

"Oh really?" The offending smirk grows wider. "And here I thought we were together on the same mission. Isn´t that funny?"

Lightning sighs tiredly and stands completely in front of the belligerent Pulsian. "Look, Fang, you´ve helped me get all the way here, and I´ll be eternally grateful for that, I couldn´t have made it without you, but…"

"But your battle is against a demigod and you won´t be able to fight and take care of me at the same time, is that it?"

Lightning blinks twice at the woman. "Well…"

"By the flabbergasted look you have, I think I just nailed it, right?"

The pinkette´s nerves are flaring already. "Fang…" A very well known tone of warning that not even the Queen of Bandits can ignore. So the brunette shrugs.

"Don´t worry, Light, I get it. I know I can´t accompany you all the way through, Caius would kill me, a mere mortal, with that shitty chaos of his. And I´ve got to save Vanille. But at least let me accompany you to the entrance, and let me pray to all the gods and demons for your safe return, how does that sound?"

Surprised at how easy the expected fight went, Lightning smiles with relief. "It sounds great, Fang. Thank you."

"My pleasure, Sunshine."

They walk in silence towards the platform, while Etro believers bow and kneel in front of them as they pass by, Lightning feeling uncomfortable by their actions, but Fang smiling, understanding their feelings. Once they are a few meters from reaching the place, Odin starts to jump up gleefully, knowing full well he´s about to fulfill his destiny. Fang takes Lightning by the wrists, forcing her to look at her eyes.

"Fang…"

"How are you holding up, Light? With all that happened with Bhunivelze yesterday?"

Lightning hesitates at her question, an image of Lumina invading her mind.

"I… thought I was going to be worse, but thanks to some help, I´m better off, thanks."

Fang smiles softly, and then grows serious. "Don´t let anger consume you, Light, you´re better than this, than anyone. Remember when we first met how you were so blinded by rage, you got yourself into a suicidal mission?"

"Yeah…" Lightning smiles softly too, "I could only think of Serah, of saving her… just like I am now."

But the tall woman shakes her head. "No, Light. It´s not like the last time. You´re a different person now, stronger, wiser, you have to do better this time, there are a lot of things that have happened in our lives that got us here, but even when the situation seems to be similar, this time we´re different, we´re not the same people that walked this land, you´re not the same person you were the first time you walked along the Throne of Etro, you´re different, and you have to let that show. I know it's hard, but don´t make the same mistakes you made. Don´t let anger consume you, don´t let rage blind you. You were a child then, converted in mere l´Cie with a suicidal mission, knowing you couldn´t save your sister. Now, you´re a demigoddess with a mission to save thousands of people, not only Serah; you´re a woman who has proved herself the impossible is possible. Never stop believing that."

Lightning smiles, truly smiles at her friend this time, but Fang´s eyes are darkened in spite of everything she had said, and suddenly, the woman stops completely, her body facing the pinkette´s, but her eyes lost in the road, as if not convinced yet, and then inhales deeply.

"Fang? What…?"

"Look, I´m sorry Light." She suddenly blurts out, as if she had just thrown a heavy burden off her hands.

"Uh? What for?"

"For everything. For not being able to be there for Serah, for the prick I was when you came back, when you needed me the most." The woman is speaking so fast Lightning is struggling to keep up with the words. The pinkette shakes her head, trying to prevent the words from coming out of the woman´s mouth.

"It´s okay Fang, you don´t need to…"

"But of course I need to." Fang interrupts her, placing both palms over the Savior´s shoulders, with a look of need carved in her emerald eyes. "Please, bear with me, Sunshine. I need to say it. I really do." Fang inhales and exhales, forcing herself to relax, and, without taking her hands off of her friend, tries once again, though her eyes this time are fixed on the pinkette´s feet, as if ashamed of meeting her stare. "I´m really sorry for not believing in you, for actually distrusting you the moment you stepped into my lair. For not giving my everything to your cause and instead trying to fool you, to test you, when I should´ve followed your lead, like I used to. I´m sorry for believing that you, of all people, would fall for Bhunivelze´s lies. I should´ve known you weren´t that kind of person. I should´ve understood you had your own agenda, that you would never believe nor follow a God blindly. I should´ve been there for you. And I´m really, truly sorry I didn't do it. I´m sorry too for being such a fool, instead of being the friend you needed." She exhales again, and finally looks up, meeting azure eyes. "But I really hope I still have time to mend my mistakes with you. And I dare to hope that, at least in an extent, I´ve proved to you I want to redeem myself for everything I´ve done."

After the Queen of Bandit´s speech, there´s a silence that meets them. But is rather a comfortable silence, one full of understanding. Fang´s words find the pinkette´s heart, creating a feeling that washes over the woman freely, without restrain. And then, the silence becomes awkward, neither knows what else to say, knowing full well this is goodbye, and might be a definite one. The words are getting in the way, and the Savior realizes it, while her chest is filled with warmth. Lightning´s eyes flare with a very strong emotion at Fang´s words and suddenly, without thinking, she takes the brunette´s face with both of her palms and pulls, at the same time stands on her tiptoes, finding the lips of the Queen of Bandits.

Fang doesn´t know what happened, until the feeling of warm, sweet lips invade her whole. The kiss is soft, a small caress that lasts a thousand of seconds, but when Fang is about to respond to the kiss, Lightning steps back, ending it, but her smile and the blush in her cheeks still make the tall woman´s heart ignite.

"Thank you Fang. For saving me, for protecting me, for guiding me. I´m sorry I ever doubted you."

"No, I´m sorry I doubted you, back when we were searching for the Clavis. I…" delicate fingertips upon her lips silence her.

"Enough of that. Let´s say then you´ve repaid your debt. I might be called the Savior, Fang, but to me, you´re my true savior."

For a moment all seriousness is gone, and the playful smirk finds its way on Fang´s lips. "Awww Sunshine, you look so cute when you say that. So we´re even then?"

"No, I need to repay what you just did for me. My life is worth a lot more than just a simple apology."

"Well, we can say that kiss was a big step ahead. Care to share more?"

Fang gives a step closer but Lightning pushes her backwards, still smiling and her cheeks blushing.

"I think that´s enough for now, hotshot. I´ve got a thing to do."

"Fine, you be careful, I´ll be waiting for you here. Just don´t take too long or I´ll go fetch you."

Lightning rolls her eyes. "Whatever you say, mom."

"Hey!"

Fang turns to look at Lightning to protest further, but the flash of a smile stops her midway.

"Wait, is that a real smile? Oh dear Etro! Our Almighty Lightning can really make a smile!"

The teasing does its work as Lightning chuckles, and Fang pushes her a little on the shoulder.

"Will we get to see that smile more often, Sunshine?"

Lightning looks up at Fang, meeting her eyes, and the tall woman can see the flare of determination on her baby blue orbs.

"Once I get Serah back, you´ll get to see a real smile out of me. I promise."

"That´s the spirit, Savior."

They walk a few more steps but this time is Lightning the one to stop and face her friend.

"Look Fang, I think we should part ways here. You have some place else to be right now. You´ve spent a little too much time with me already." Fang opens her mouth to protest, but Lightning raises a hand, stopping her. "Vanille needs you." Such a low blow… The brunette raises an eyebrow, addressing the unfair words, but the Savior stands her ground. "You´ve done everything you can for me, Fang, for you there´s nothing more here but waiting. And to waste such precious time I´m sure it´s not sitting well for you and…"

"Yeah, you´re right. I should leave."

Lightning blinks twice, not believing what she just heard. "Really?"

"Really, Sunshine. Your reasoning is impeccable as usual and I must submit to it. Once you enter the castle, I´ll leave for Luxerion and wait for you there."

The pinkette has still a countenance of utter disbelief. With such a hard-headed Fang, reasoning has always been a hard task. If she knew better…

"Okay, spit it out. What´s gotten on our mind?"

"What? Why wouldn´t you believe you convinced me?"

"Because it´s you, Fang, and twice in a single day you´ve admitted I´m right. In a single day! If it were someone else, it would be easy to believe reason has finally reached them. But it´s you, the Queen of the stubborn people, so I don´t believe it could be that easy."

Fang sighs at being found out, and passes a hand through her dark tresses. "All right fine. While you were at your bath, and with all this shitty things happening, I noticed dawn is approaching fast. We´ve spent another day and it´s getting worriedly closer to the last day. And Vanille… well…"

Lightning smiles at her friend´s confession. "Why didn´t you tell me earlier?"

"Because… well, because when you attacked me, the sole mention of Vanille made you act like all crazy, so I thought…"

"I did what!?"

"You destroyed my room and attacked Lumina and I when we just found you and you woke up from your coma state during the night. You almost chocked Ramon at the time. Remember that?"

"No."

"Oh yeah! You were under the fever effects." She scratches her head. "Well, the point is, you wanted my head on a stick because of all the things I previously apologized for, but when I mentioned Vanille, you went all berserk on me and… well, I didn´t know you´d be such a jealous type."

A furious blush tainted Lightning´s cheeks at the confession. "I´m not…!" But Fang´s glare prevented her from protesting, and she harrumphed. "Well… if we´re being honest with each other at this moment, I might… get… a little bit jealous from time to time."

"A little bit?"

"But," she interrupted the taller woman from teasing her any further, "but I´ll never get in the way of your friends. What you and I have is special, as special as whatever you have with the rest of the people, and though sometimes I might envy the time and moments you spend with them, I can assure you I´ll never act on it. I respect you too much to do that to you."

A dark eyebrow rises, the Queen of Bandits still unconvinced. "Umh… that´s not what I saw that day."

Lightning glares, trying to reinforce her words. "As you said, I was under the effects of the fever. I would never do that on my right state of mind."

Fang stands silent for a moment, still not falling for Lightning´s glare, but then her eyebrows wiggle playfully, while she gets closer to the shorter woman. "Aaah, so after all, you do get jealous of me." Lightning scoffs and pushes her away.

"Don´t let it get in your head. This is the only time you´ll get to hear it, so value it, because I won´t speak with you about this ever again."

Fang laughs out loud so hard, it´s almost contagious. "Fine Sunshine! I´ll cherish this moment as if it were gold! Now let me lead you to the last steps of this journey, and I´ll wait for you eagerly in Luxerion for the final battle."

ooooooooOOOOOOOOOOXIIIOOOOOOoooooooo

"The last time we saw each other was the second time the Chaos saved you from my hands. It´s becoming… unnerving."

Caius´s voice resonates throughout the chamber, the ancient walls vibrating at his deep, majestic voice.

Lightning is still panting, after her last forty or so battles in the ancient hallways of Valhalla, her sweat shining against her skin, but she still feels full of energy, ready to face Caius, so she smirk´s at the man´s words, taunting him.

"Yes, it must be really annoying that your own source of power from time to time gets in your way, wouldn't it?"

The man huffs at her mocking. "Worry not. This shall be the last time we fight, and it will end with you under my blade." He raises his sword, taking a fighting stance.

"I´ve survived worse, Caius, and you know it. So we´ll see about that." Lightning mimics his action, her gunblade raised above her head.

Both enemies clash blades, and the dancing begins, attacking and evading one another, seeking for each other´s flesh but finding only the resistance of the other´s iron or an empty space where once each foe stood. But Lightning is well aware she has no time to waste, even less with someone she already knows cannot be saved.

She greets her teeth, trying to control her desperation, even though she starts to feel distress, and suddenly feels a small pressure over her left breast. She looks down, and finds small puffs of smoke passing through her cloth. It would seem her many battles against the beasts inside the temple are finally taking their tool on her resistance. Bhunivelze´s protection is fading under the pressure of her own emotions, obviously fueled by the chaos surrounding them. Well aware that her only way to win this battle is whether she finishes it soon, Lightning pushes her strikes harder, and for a moment forces Caius on defensive strategies. But the moment she is about to strike the killing blow, the man smirks, evades it and retaliates, injuring her side. She reels forward and away from him, clutching her injured flesh, and for a moment, the chaos covers her sight; for a split second, she can no longer see Caius´s form, and instead sees the frame of Bhunivelze, and the sight makes her rage peak. Unfortunately, such ire makes her lose her concentration, an opportunity Caius has always been good at taking, and manages to injure her again, this time at her left shoulder. Lightning screams at the top of her lungs, either out of pain or frustration, she doesn´t know, but notices her struggle is met by the iron of his passiveness, his countenance that of calmness, only a tint of irony is seen through his countenance. She´s been distracted again, and Caius takes the opportunity to send her flying backwards with a kick, her back crashing against a pillar and almost destroying it. Lightning falls on her knees, both palms on the rocky floor, while she glares hard against the innocent rocks underneath her, her rage peaking. But when her sight focuses and the pinkette realizes what she´s been looking at, azure eyes open wider in astonishment.

Right bellow her, tainting the ancient floor, there´s a dried patch of red and black, the stains of her own blood. There, in front of her, is the proof of her failure, of the second time Caius defeated her, broke her Savior insignia and almost managed to kill her, and the sight makes her clench her teeth in determination.

She won´t allow a third time.

With no little effort, she raises her eyes to meet the figure of her foe, and she blinks, realizing now her previous actions, and understanding all this time she´s been under a second spell. The spell of her rage. She can see it now, the fog forming again on her breast, feeding off of her life support, and giving feedback to her ire. She closes her eyes and forces herself to think about Fang, compels her mind to remember the kiss, to replace Bhunivelze´s image for Fang´s tender lips. And forces herself, too, to remember her promise to Serah. The anger and need for revenge hasn´t diminished even a little, but it´s somewhat soothed, its importance replaced by the sudden rush of blood on Lightning´s cheeks, at recalling the warmth of the people she cares about; of remembering the kiss. A small smile plays on her lips.

Her control retaken, she locks eyes with her enemy, and with slow, calculated, almost feline movements, she takes her attacking position again, ignoring her recent injures, this time her whole focus on the enemy in front.

"I´m ready, Caius. Let´s finish this."

Caius smirks again, and attacks her once more. But the woman in front of him is not the one he has been confronting previously, so his strikes are met with refined strength, his blade is being under the siege of sheer determination in the form of a new goddess. The soon-to-be Goddess of Death.

No matter how fast he goes, he always finds Lightning one step ahead of him, and in the end, is a magnificent Army of One what strikes him down, disarming him, leaving him with one dark knee on the ground, and the tip of a blade under his chin, scraping the skin on his neck. Violet eyes look up to meet his foe, his pride refusing to be injured. After all, he knew this time would come eventually.

"So this is it. Finally you can rejoice all you want, Savior, now that your hand will deliver the punishment for my unforgivable sins."

Lightning hesitates for a moment at his words. Yes. Yes she should feel totally elated to deliver the final blow, that even when it won´t kill him, it will still be painful enough to give her the pleasure of seeing him suffer. But she still hesitates.

Why?

He was the cause of all her disgraces. The reason why she had been kidnapped to Valhalla. The reason behind Serah´s cursing with the Eyes of Etro, and her posterior, but very premature death. The reason why the Goddess Etro, the one she had sworn to protect, in the end passed away too, driving the world into pain and disgrace. The reason why there is no new life. The reason why the world was going to be destroyed.

She should totally be happy he got what he deserved in the end, and maybe even worse. There was no way he could get what a warrior always wanted: an honorable death. He wasn´t even going to get death, in any way. There is no greater torture than that.

But, for an unknown reason, she can´t feel happy at his dire destiny. She instead feels something she thought she would never feel for Caius Ballad. She feels sad for him. For her worst enemy. After a pause, she takes her blade off his neck, sheathes it and gives a step backwards, ready to leave the place.

"Wait!" Caius yells at her before she gives another step. "What is this new rouse? Won´t you punish me?!"

"I think you´ve been punished enough. There´s no more need to that."

He rises from his position, confronting her. "That makes no sense. I thought you hated me for all I´ve done."

She looks up at him, and he notices her azure eyes had lost the spark of anger, of emotion, behind them.

"I never hated you, Caius. Of course I was angry, I wanted nothing more but to defeat you, to put you in your place. But hate never crossed my heart. I´m glad everything ended between us, and I´m not a hypocrite and not say you don´t deserve what you brought to yourself, but I never wanted this. I´m really sorry this happened to you, if it where in my power, you should have no doubt I would do my best to take you to the promised land, no harmed feelings. If you don´t want to be saved, though, there´s nothing for me to do, but to say goodbye, and hope we never meet again."

She turns around and as she walks away, he gives a step forward to her figure. There´s still one more thing to say.

"For what is worth, Lightning, it was an honor to have the opportunity to fight against you. I had never found such a formidable foe as you were."

She looks behind her shoulder, and gives him a small smile.

"I think so too, Caius. For what is worth, thanks to you, to all the bloody battles we shared, I´m stronger, a lot stronger now, and maybe wiser too. Good luck in the chaos."

And she leaves the man alone without taking a single glance backwards.

The End.

ooooooooOOOOOXIIIOOOOOoooooooooo

A/N: At last! We´ve reached the final chapter. I´m sorry if it didn't meet your expectations, but its purpose was to allow me some closure. So for me, it served it right.

Thank you so much for those who followed and faved, and even more for those who commented. Hope you liked the chapter! I´m sorry the story was short, but for the record, it was meant to be a one shot, thanks to you it got so much bigger! Hope to see you again soon!