Final Cry

by Study in Elegant Death

The world no longer needed the Savior, she served her purpose of shepherding the souls of old to a New World and freeing them of the creed of Gods. Now all that had been left was trying her best to assimilate into a normal life. But fate had other plans for the Savior, and being 'normal' just didn't cut it. Especially when Yeul and a red-clad demon hunter get involved.

10. What you need not what you want

Wlyman2009: Good things take time. I'm not sure if you've read the LR novel that covers post-game but when Light is at the train station in the end of the game the person she's going to meet is Hope. Her and Hope Estheim in the Japanese are actually much closer and more than just 'hinted' to be involved. Even in the games. But in the English versions it was edited down to a more 'innocent' level for obvious reasons.

MissTaarna: You're too kind. Readers like you are the reason most of us continue on our written works, even when we convince ourselves that they're no longer worth reading/continuing.

darkslayer65: Quite a few things are in store for them. It's all a matter of me sorting things out and not moving 'too fast'. Honestly I've had to write/delete and re-write chapters because of my own impatience.

Meech Macko: I'm not really sure where to place this Dante. I'm basically pulling bits and pieces from each game and putting them together./Things are a little more complicated with the 'game restricted' area. As I know there are limiters on Dante, but Light also gets nerfed in-game. Currently as things are; Lightning is canonically the strongest character/protagonist in the entire Final Fantasy Series as Dante is for his respective series. And he's more of a pseudo-immortal if anything. He heals quickly from his wounds as fast as they're inflicted, but he's never fought someone like Lightning before. Like-wise she's never dealt with someone like him before.

Anyhow, I apologize for the very long wait for this chapter! Before I knew it so much time had passed me by. I hope you enjoy!

-Elegant

---

Lumina cocked her head to the side, amused as she stared down the many entities within the wicked realm that were all just dying to devour her. Letting out a small giggle, she covered her mouth with her gloved hand and raised a brow when some dared stalk toward her. "You think you can take me?" She asked, all amusement draining from her face, as the girl took on a serious look only Lightning herself was capable of. "I'm not a prize that you can devour to gain power and further your goals. Unlike the Savior or the Son of Sparda- I'm not a mortal enhanced by divine means." She knew that to be absolute truth, as she was part of Claire Farron, but the Chaos also fueled her very existence. And the fact that any of these callous, arrogant creatures figured they could destroy her to become stronger was laughable.

Through her peripheral vision, Lumina saw an elongated, spiked arm preparing to smash through her abdomen and perform a coupe de grace from behind. Evading the peculiar, winged monstrosity, she slowly turned her head so that she faced it. "My turn." Her hand glowed with the aura of Chaos itself, as the tendrils snaked out of seemingly nowhere and restrained the large demon. Moving her hand behind herself, Lumina opened a large portal of Chaos, and summoned a servant to her aid. "I want you all to see this." She said, looking around to each and every malevolent creature gearing up to attack her. Glancing up at the hydra she summoned, she nodded. "He's all yours!"

Each of the hydra's mouths hungrily opened and promptly began to devour the offending creature just as Lumina had instructed it to do. Letting out a throaty roar to the heavens of the nightmare-like realm, the hydra stood behind Lumina, daring any/all of them to attempt harm to his mistress. As if sensing the hydra's emotions, Lumina caressed the tamed beast gently. "And don't worry- there's plenty more where he came from! So if you decide to pull a stunt like your friend over there, well, you'll meet the same fate. And it won't be pretty. These guys can get pretty hungry!" Taunting all of the demons, Lumina was rather amused when all of them seemed to bow their heads and decide against fighting her. Giggling with delight, Lumina began to skip through the herd of demons who'd been careless enough to challenge a child of Chaos.

Her bipedal hydra wasn't too far behind, each of its three heads monitoring the demons and waiting for any sign of aggression.

None of the demons dared harm her, and Lumina made it to their destination- an audience with the peculiar, new being forged from the joining on divinity. Mundus and Bhunivelze- two mighty creatures born into divine creeds and strengths superseding most if not all that opposed them. So, the question was now raised- with Bhunivelze being Lightning's mightiest opponent she'd ever fought/defeated, and Mundus being the same for Dante- how would a hybrid pair of the two joined together be? This artificial being was an enigma creatred by self-righteous arrogance and, frankly what some humans would term to be a 'shit show' or 'spitting contest'. But it still pulsated with absolute power- power belonging to God and the demonic King.

"You dare intrude upon this realm?" Seemingly filled with disdain at the prospect of what the entity seemed to think of as a 'lesser being' seeking audience with itself. Of all things, the one standing before them was Lumina- the being who dared work against God to aid the Savior and her friends in order to kill the deity. Though their attempts on his life had failed, God was still angered by her.

"Oh, I more than 'dare'." Lumina said calmly, ignoring the snarky tone used by the large creature before her. Walking around the elegant throne room designed in the 'light' image of Bhunivelze and the darker half of 'Mundus' she was intrigued by their fusion- or lack thereof functioning to an extent. Clearly there was still some 'glitches' or 'disagreements' as the room reminded her of Orphan and how the deity had formed concepts of what the God believed to be the great Lindzei and Pulse. The 'loving mother' who swaddled and protected her beloved child, whilst Pulse, the destroyer or 'father' whom had come to take away its haven in the sky. The Cocoon built so tightly to keep humans subservient to Gods, forever. "A few of your guards wouldn't let me through- so I had to misbehave. Hope you don't mind."

"Why have you come here?" Bhunivelze/Mundus addressed Lumina directly, ready to smite her and crush the entity in its hands, dissolving her clay once more to the matter that God/Mundus could turn to whatever it wished. The only thing holding it back was that the God King wanted a formal answer from Lumina.

"I wanted to see something for myself." Lumina spoke up honestly, walking with her hands clasped behind her back and smiling up at the creator of such a peculiar palace. "Vindication that you had returned. The one who worked so hard to keep humanity under your heel for so long, the callous, impudent one who believed that God knew best." Expecting some form of retaliation for her mocking the being before her, Lumina was ready for it. Just because God wasn't happy to hear it, didn't mean things weren't true.

Opening the palm of his hand, a large, spherical orb formed in the hand of the dual-being made from Bhunivelze/Mundus. "I was willing to act amongst them, lower myself to using such a frail, weak shell to communicate to my humans! For millennia, I watched as they warred among themselves for superiority, my children, my beloved creations who knew nothing more than to destroy all that God had worked so hard to maintain. My glorious world bathed in the Light of God, creatures given shape, form, life and breath by my will and those I created- Etro, Pulse, Lindzei- their precious fal'Cie, the Gods who aided them in their everyday lives- but they still wanted more! And when they cried for salvation, did I not hear and answer their pleas? Did God not create his Savior, the one who would purify their souls and deliver the worthy to a world despoiled of anguish, sadness, want, unsightliness and anything that may cause their hearts to yearn?" Voicing disdain from Bhunivelze's memories of how things had gone down, the slumbering God was furious that they ever dared to raise their hands to him. He'd been their greatest protector, the one who wanted nothing but the best for humans. But where had freewill gotten them, in the end? They ruined their world, the selfishness of one man had killed the Goddess of Death, his daughter, Etro who had been foolish enough to give her heart away so that one might be born again.

"And how was I repaid for my generosity? By betrayal. Those I had worked tirelessly to prepare, that they might be of use to God with their servitude- raised their swords, used magic and Eidolons to smite me! God's love was yours, eternally. But now I shall make you aware of all that I have done. Humans will learn their place!" Unleashing the full anger of both entities, the crimson sphere was tossed from the palm of its hand and aimed entirely at Lumina. Watching as the sphere came closer to Lumina, the God King reveled in joy as it collided with her position and exploded with a devastating amount of destruction. Her hydra cried out in pain as it was obliterated, and like-wise Lumina appeared to be gone.

"Ouch. That looked like it would have hurt." Lumina put her hands on her hands and leaned forward, frowning at God and feigning hurt over what had just occurred. "You know, what you call 'love' others would call 'obsession'. Ask you for a new world, yes. But did you ever hear any humans asking for the 'love of God'? I mean, before you kidnapped and brainwashed Hope, that is. Think carefully, God, because if I remember correctly: Hope was working toward saving mankind. Not just Hope, but Sazh, Fang, Vanille, Serah, Noel, Lightning and Snow. They all fought for a brighter tomorrow so that your beloved humans could live a while longer on your finished world. But where were you when the Chaos leaked out in the world, when they needed you most, and felt the despair of living in a world where no new life could begin? When Lightning slumbered for 500 years and left Snow, Sazh, Dahj, Vanille, Fang and Hope behind so that she could work so hard to protect her precious part of herself that she couldn't bare to part with- Serah's soul, where were you, God? Watching. Letting them suffer and causing their suffering so that they could form a dependence on you, one that they'd never be able to free themselves from. Sure, the fanatics and the desperate with nowhere else to turn to ate that stuff up. But the smart ones with valiant souls and glimmers of hope held onto their dreams of a brighter tomorrow that the could be with their loved ones again."

Stepping through a portal of Chaos, Lumina appeared before the God King, standing a healthy distance from him and gazing up. "You took their champions, their reasons to live and love, but they kept fighting for miracles to be birthed. Without Hope, the others fell to despair. Without Lightning, they lost their strength and will to carry on. Without Serah, their humility and ability to stay grounded was lost. Fang and Vanille? You kept them separated by a 'focus' and made them suffer everyday they were woken on a world near the end. Snow? He didn't just lose his one true love, he also lost his sister, and the family he always dreamt of. He lost the will to go on. So, once more, I ask you- what have you done for us?" Lumina asked, tilting her head to the side and frowning up at him. Her image flickered a bit, instead of seeing just Lumina, the God King was met with the image of Lightning Farron and her scowl matching Lumina's scathing look sent up to the divine creature. Just as Lumina folded her arms, the image of Lightning followed suit and scoffed.

Surprised by the peculiar display, the God King momentarily sat still and pondered her words. Instantly, anger was evident on his face. "They were to realize what their lives could be without the love of God. Hope's solution would have failed. Only God may create worlds worthy of humans to live on. Lightning chose to sleep and abandon those who might benefit from her company. You exist because I will it so. And you will show gratitude, lest I remake you into something fitting the adoration of God!"

"You already tried to replace us. With your monstrosities you hid in your Ultimate Lair." Lumina narrowed her eyes at the God King, the image of Lightning seemingly garnering more anger as with her younger companion. This time it wasn't just Lumina's voice followed by the 'Lightning' apparition mouthing the words in sync with her, both women were speaking and seemingly outraged at the statements they'd heard. "You've brought a lot of suffering in your wake, God. And now that you're awake and have become what you are, then I suppose you're going to create more. But remember one thing-" Lumina paused, looking directly in the eyes of the God King. "-humans aren't as weak as you think they are. And they're not the only ones you have to deal with. A Goddess you created and the Son of Sparda won't just let you waltz into their world to destroy it and wreak havoc as you please. We won once. We'll win again." Lumina didn't even bother waiting for a reply. She'd said all that she needed to say. Opening another Chaos portal, she stepped inside and shut it behind her, appearing in front of Yeul.

"I hope everything went the way you wanted it to." Yeul spoke up, unsurprised by the sudden appearance of Lumina. Glancing over at the rose haired girl, she already knew the answer for herself, but waited for Lumina to speak.

"I said what I needed to say. I think I might have made him angrier, but I don't mind- I'm not scared of him." Lumina waved away any concerns Yeul might have of her and God/Mundus clashing. The divine being had tried to destroy her, but Lumina wouldn't allow herself to die- she had to live for Lightning. Losing part of herself would be far too cruel. And as much as she enjoyed being back, Lumina enjoyed being whole more than anything.

"You don't think there will be repercussions to follow for the champions of mankind?" Yeul asked, gauging Lumina's reaction to her question.

"Oh I know there will be." Lumina nodded her head to Yeul's query but refused to let it get her down. "Don't you worry. I have every confidence that Lightning and Dante can handle whatever comes their way. I've done my research and I know that he's just about unkillable. And while the other me may be convinced that she's invincible, I think that he'll end up knocking her down a few pegs. She might even learn a thing or two." Lumina mused, acting serious and then shaking her head. "Nah. This is Lightning we're talking about, after all."

"He challenges her." Yeul spoke up, making eye contact with Lumina. "She might not always understand his actions and form mistrust due to the fact that she's used to being 'alone' and acting as such- but he's different. As stubborn as Lightning may be, this one can match her every step of the way in a battle of wits. I have seen the many trials that they'll come across, even how it ends- but I still believe him to be the best thing for her. Even if she may not agree right now."

"I've heard it before- sis getting herself a boyfriend. But I didn't believe it." Lumina said honestly, leaning against a podium. Shaking her head slowly, the rose haired girl shut her eyes and threw her head back then smiled as she opened them again. "We've been alone for so long that it became a reflex to push people away, because it was easier to act like caring wasn't a part of us. So long as we overcame whatever plight that came our way and struck down the 'bad guy' what did it matter? But that all changed within the blink of an eye with the coming of Hope Estheim, Snow Villiers, Oerba Yun Fang, Oerba Dia Vanille, and Sazh Katzroy. We found the family we'd always been searching for ever since our parents had died- but still couldn't help that feeling of loneliness. Valhalla. Nova Chrysalia. The New World. There was never 'time' to find that person- a Snow to a Serah, but we could delude ourselves and dream." Lowering her head, Lumina stared at Yeul, the apparition of Lightning appearing beside her and mirroring the actions of the younger girl.

"The Goddess believed in something beyond what could be seen even by the Eyes of Etro herself." Yeul spoke up, not looking at anywhere in general. She just wanted to make her point come across properly to Lumina. "That we were all destined for greatness that exceeded crystal curses, life eternal brought on by the completion of a focus, divine intervention of Gods and higher powers that would seek to use humanity as stepping stones for whatever needs of theirs we might serve. It was through this dream that many fates were birthed and sacrifices made along the way to stack evermore the favor in the hands of her children." Glancing over at Lumina this time, she decided to finish her speech. "Some of us were honored enough to be called 'beloved daughters of Etro' blessed by her love and hand eternally on us, guiding mankind to a radiant future."

"Forgive me here- but I don't understand what that has to do with Lightning and a certain someone." Lumina lightly shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. Yeul could prattle on about many things to her, as she already knew what was going to happen and how certain situations had to be handled- but Lumina couldn't grasp exactly what it was Yeul had been talking about.

"Etro foresaw a great amount of hardships for Lightning Farron in the passing centuries but she also saw joys to be found. A new family that extended beyond Serah Farron and forging lasting bonds. Despite her disdain over the many lives that she had taken, Etro still wished the best for her champion. Lightning may not have known it in her time, but all of those who came to her aid were at the behest of the Goddess even if they too unwittingly came to her side. But something was missing in her grand journey, something that Lightning had never thought of- a person to stand by. An individual who she could lean on in her time of need and be her best self with. The people she came across never fully fit this criteria. Had things been different, fate would have set in motion a different path for Lightning Farron. But things being the way that are have created a new reality we all must live in." Yeul knew fully well that Lumina had to have some idea of the feelings that Hope Estheim had for Lightning Farron and vice versa. In all honesty, it had been a plan of Etro's that the two of them be together in the first place. But that was no longer feasible. The Son of Sparda and the Savior would end up being a couple and while Yeul did rather enjoy and like Hope very much as a friend and collected individual who was wise beyond his years- she wasn't sure who was 'better' for her. Hope willingly went along with many of the things that Lightning had to say, but Dante willfully would disobey her at any given turn and 'piss her off' for his own amusement. They were factually very different people, and Yeul could see either one making Lightning happy.

"So you're saying it could have just as easily went either way between Hope and Dante? Interesting." Lumina folded her arms and stared at Yeul for a few moments. "Which one did you prefer?"

Yeul averted her eyes and spoke. "It's not for me to say. Certain criteria had to have been met by either or."

"But if you had to guess?" Lumina prodded further, not letting up on her questions.

This time Yeul made full eye contact with Lumina. Opening her mouth and about to speak, she was cut off by Noel as he entered the room.

"She said she didn't want to answer." Noel frowned at Lumina, the hunter annoyed by the fact that she was questioning Yeul when the Seeress obviously didn't want to tell Lumina. "Don't you have some sort of bias toward who you want Lightning to be with?"

Lumina raised her arms in the air and shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe." Smiling and giggling at Noel's outburst, she wasn't deterred in the slightest to show off her trickster nature.

"Then why don't you tell who you want to 'win'?" Noel asked, frowning at Lumina. He still wasn't over the fact that she'd given Yeul the Eyes of Etro once more and cursed her back to the life of the Seeress and eventual death.

"Because I know Lightning and I already know the answer to that." Lumina said calmly, leaning against the wall and letting out a small sigh. "So what would be the point?"

"We all know Lightning." Noel folded his arms, leaning against the wall.

Dante slept peacefully with his hands folded behind his head, blissfully unaware of the fact that Fang and Snow were snickering as they stacked things on the Devil Hunter in a bid to find out how much was 'too much'. Since he didn't shift much in his sleep, they were met with mild 'success' as they currently had menial things such as a television remote, magazines, pillows, newspapers, anything small that wouldn't be too heavy and cause their pile of junk to fall. As time went on, however, they soon got more brazen and used larger objects. None of which appeared to wake him up.

"What are you doing?" Lightning asked, frowning as she walked in on Snow and Fang stacking things on Dante.

"He won't wake up no matter what we put on him." Snow nodded to Dante who was still sleeping peacefully behind them.

"And why are you putting things on him?" Lightning still didn't feel like she'd gotten a decent answer on that one. Tilting her head so that she could glance behind Snow, Lightning saw Dante's chest rise and fall with the same continuous rhythm, so it stood to reason that they were telling the truth. Either that or he was a talented actor just screwing with them for his own benefit until he finally decided to open his eyes and leap up. Nah. He couldn't be that cunning- could he?

"Because he won't wake up." Fang shrugged her shoulders, as if that were explanation enough for Lightning. "We'd have done it to you, but you were too busy snuggling one of the men in your harem." Folding her arms, the Pulsian grinned at Lightning, wondering what sort of retaliation she could expect for her comments.

"I don't 'snuggle'." Lightning scoffed at Fang's words. "And since when do I have a harem?" Last she checked, there weren't exactly men flocking to her side and asking to be with her for the rest of their lives- she scared them off before they even had the chance.

"Well, that explains a lot. Probably why you seem so 'chipper' in the morning. And the evening. And at night." Fang joked lightly, as they all very well knew that Lightning could have a temper when she wanted to be difficult. But given the circumstance, some situations called for a temper like hers. "And since ya decided to dump your big and bulky boyfriend on us so ya could run off and find Hope."

"You've got me there." Lightning had to agree on that one. "Boyfriend? We barely know each other. Besides, we basically had a brawl in the middle of the street. Hardly 'romantic' when he's covered in blood from something I don't really want or care to know about. And me? I was just trying to keep it together and protect myself from demons." She could also thank Nix and Stiria for that one.

"He mentioned something or other about you hitting him in the face." Snow finally joined in the conversation after a lengthy silence. Now seemed as good a time as any to get some information on Lightning/Dante and their first encounter.

"I don't know about the face, but we got a few good hits in from either side." Lightning thought about their fight. The entire time Dante seemed to be enjoying himself and almost toying with her. How someone could be having fun in the midst of a fight to the death she had absolutely no idea. Honestly? Dante reminded her a bit of Snow.

"That's a first. It sounded like you just gave him a compliment." Fang was a bit surprised by that fact.

"He's got some moves, I'll give him that much. Fighting him wasn't like any of my previous battles. He kept me on my toes and pressured until I was backed into a corner and forced to summon Bahamut. I was using some of my more powerful moves, and he didn't even flinch. I think he was toying with me, like he didn't think I was an opponent for him to worry about." Lightning thought of the fight between her and Dante. His end of things seemed completely effortless and improvised- he even survived the attempted coupe de grace of the most powerful Eidolon. Just what was the 'Son of Sparda' capable of, and how much had he been holding back in their fight? Demons were clearly scared of him for a good reason. But Lightning had a differentiating view from them- he was strong and a worthy opponent of her. Which made him the perfect training partner.

"So you're saying he was a smart opponent?" Snow asked, wondering if his assumptions were correct.

"Maybe." Lightning wasn't sure if his attitude/way that he carried himself was a tactic or not. "He also caught me on an off day." That was a pretty weak excuse, but Lightning knew she had to apologize to him. Dante offered her a working partnership, and she let her arrogance get in the way of things. But in her defense, she knew next to nothing about Demons, and still didn't know very much about them. For one thing, there were 'good' demons like Trish(?) and Dante hanging around but most of them wanted nothing more than to exterminate the human race. It reminded her of fal'Cie to an extent. The main difference being that the fal'Cie wanted to summon Bhunivelze and not just destroy for the satisfaction of getting rid of humans.

"Yeah, he said something about that. I figured you were a little in over your head. And who wouldn't be? The important thing is that you're all good now and there's no reason to go guns a blazing and fight each other." Fang figured that Serah would also flip out if her house suddenly ended up destroyed because of a skirmish between Lightning and Dante.

"Any idea where Hope is?" Lightning opted to change the topic altogether. When she'd woken up, he was nowhere to be seen anyway.

"Probably had to go change from all the drooling ya did on him." Fang placed her hand on her hip. "Now, are ya gonna join in or not?"

"There's no way I drooled on him." Lightning frowned at Fang. "Not." It seemed far too childish for her liking and besides, she needed to have a shower. Walking away from the odd sight of Fang and Snow keeping their tumbling jenga tower at bay, she smiled a bit and shook her head. Would Dante be amused or annoyed that they did something so trivial and stupid? She honestly didn't know him well enough to know if it could go either way. Part of her wanted to be there the moment Dante woke up and saw the colossal pile of junk they'd placed on him, but if he slept through all of that- would he ever wake up?

Walking to Serah's room, Lightning wanted to collect her clothes from the previous day and forget that she'd ever worn Serah's nightgown.

Dante found himself wandering around his childhood home he once shared with his twin brother Vergil and his mother Eva. Confused, he walked around his former home and searched his surroundings. For all intensive purposes, this felt real. The creaks of the floorboards as he walked, the objects from so long ago as he inspected them, etching each and every picture into his memory while attempting to summon from his mind where specifically they had come from. Frowning as he was drawing a bit of a blank, he heard movement. "Hello?" Calling out, he wondered if Eva or Vergil were somewhere inside the home just waiting for him. Why he suddenly had such a nostalgic dream, Dante had absolutely no idea, but he figured he may as well take advantage of the fact that he was dreaming and see how far this one would go.

Hearing more rustling and a lack of answer, Dante walked through the hallway and into the living room where he heard the minor disturbance. His eyes rest upon the culprit- Yeul. The young, blue eyed woman seemed a bit different from her first appearance to him- for one thing, she wasn't made solely of a black, pulsating substance. For another, she seemed to be a bit taller, and maybe a bit more physically mature(?). She was a Goddess, afterall, so he didn't really question how she appeared, as it was more than likely her choosing.

"I was wondering when you'd show up to see me again." Dante admitted, leaning against the doorway and folding his arms as he stared at the woman. Seeing the frown appear on her face, and a sudden realization, Dante wasn't sure what he'd said or if he'd somehow offended her without knowing. About to raise his hands in surrender and simply apologize as opposed to risk a confrontation/angering of a divine aid, he found himself cut off by her words.

"I am not the one you met, Son of Sparda." Yeul calmly spoke up, bowing her head and sinking to one knee in front of Dante.

"Then you're not Yeul?" Dante asked, a little confused on why she sounded and looked just like the one he'd encountered all that time ago. He wanted to say something to her along the lines of 'get up' or 'you don't have to do that', but Yeul had divination and more than likely already knew how he felt about the gesture but decided to do it anyway. Dante wasn't used to people bowing to him, and it honestly felt a little strange having a literal dream girl do it to him each and every time they met. Even if this one seemed to be just like the very first but was somehow different- had he made this one up?

"I am a Yeul. The one you met was the first of us, I am the last of us." Yeul explained, standing and offering a soft smile to a confused looking Dante. Neatly folding her hands together, the young woman looked around the scenery and walked a little as she spoke and caressed certain objects with careful reverence. "First of the ones to take in breath, life, shape and form, the timeless one who cannot be reborn by ordinary means. I have lived and died in each passing generation, surfacing only in times of great need and atrocity, Son of Sparda. But the fate of the Farseers is subject to a world no longer- the Seeress has no place in the world of man." Yeul could admit that she was no longer meant to walk amongst humans and live her unnatural life, but the gears of fate had begun to turn, and forced the first of her to ask for her aid. No matter the pains of her visions, and the price that must be paid, Yeul would be useful to her friends that she had come to know and adore. They, who freed her of her fate and showed her ways beyond the several paths of fate before them.

"She said something about that- you being the first human in existence. Feel free to call me 'Dante'. I don't need a formal title that most demons just hurl at me at their nearest convenience." Dante was doing his best to keep up with her, but Yeul always seemed to be spouting off large chunks of facts that he made sure to remember. "But how are you here if she's there?" That was the biggest problem he currently wanted the answer to.

"Paddra Nsu Yeul may never leave the Unseen Realm, Dante- her soul has fragmented beyond repair. With each forced 'reincarnation' by the Goddess, our soul become more and more scarred, creating a distortion in the primordial force known to those of the old worlds of Cocoon, Gran Pulse and Nova Chrysalia as 'Chaos'. But to you, the essence of life and death is known solely as 'souls'." Pausing for a moment to let her words sink in, Yeul looked directly into his eyes as she spoke. "As I have told you before, we were born at the beginning of time, and made to watch cataclysms to be and do nothing. Given the Eyes of Etro and no power to act, we became known as little more than harbinger of death. Many revered us for our gift, wishing to use it to their advantage and daring to attempt blasphemy against the loving Goddess."

"You call her a 'loving Goddess', but it seems more like she played with your life in her hands. She distorted your soul over countless generations and forced you to see the future without any power to save the people you likely came to know and care about- how is that a kindness?" Dante couldn't imagine ever being in her shoes, let alone calling Etro, the one who seemed to make her endure such torment a 'loving' individual. He'd heard quite a bit about how malevolent and kindhearted the Goddess could be, and wasn't sure what to think of her.

"It was my wish to be reborn, Dante." Yeul's smile never once left her face as she heard his argument on her behalf. "My soul may have fragmented and distorted time and again as she welcomed me to her stagnant shores that never churned with life, but thanks to her, I was never lonely. The first of her children, I was given the highest of mercy and gifts by our mother who loved each and every one of us dearly. I am not normal, Dante- I was never meant to be birthed into the world. As the first human, I am a crossroads between mortals and the divine. Lindzei took careful reverence in using Etro's blood to craft myself, but I was and am far from perfect. While others could reincarnate and roam the known worlds with a blank slate, I have never been given that opportunity. The Goddess felt pity for my situation, and offered me the opportunity to be born again or stay eternally by her side. I chose to be reborn, and so she crafted not only I, but my guardian Caius Ballad to eternally protect and serve me. The gifts of the Goddess, while they may have good intentions, are a double-edged sword. Her Eyes shortened my natural life, and made it so that I would die from the age of 15-18 years. By the time I could speak, I was taken by Caius from my parents." Observing the fact that Dante was listening to her every word, the Seeress was glad that he felt so inclined to listen to her. "I committed the ultimate sin of my clan, Dante- I disobeyed the laws of the Farseers more than once. To save those I cared about and lived with, I looked into the future and attempted to change what was fate. But the will of nature will be done, and it was my actions that caused atrocities to come to pass."

"'Mother', huh?" Dante tested out the term, thinking carefully about her words. "So you're saying that it wasn't Etro's fault- it was just the price for your wish to come true." When Yeul nodded to his statement, Dante nodded back to her, watching as she interacted with a few items from the home. "You seem like you've had a hard life. You're technically the oldest living human." He honestly couldn't imagine ever being in her situation and still finding something to smile about. Taken from such a young, frail age and raised knowing that you were going to die? That seemed far too cruel. "I'd have liked to meet this Goddess of yours. She sounded like quite the person."

"Sparda met Etro." Yeul spoke the words that she knew would cause Dante to stop everything.

"When?" Dante asked, curious to hear a bit more about his father. Had this been why he went missing all those years ago? "Didn't your world exist before ours did? So how did he come across her?"

"Yes, that is true. But Sparda washed up on the shores of the Goddess in a time of great need, when a miracle was all that we could hope and pray for. Whether or not she reached across the timeline and pulled him from your world, or if he came through Etro's gate by conventional means, I do not know." Yeul had tried to find out the answer, but it was denied to even her. "He came to Valhalla before the daughters of 'Dia' and 'Yun' were birthed and their focus of Ragnarok revealed by the Pulse fal'Cie, heralded by the Cocoon fal'Cie."

"You mean Fang and Vanille, right?" Dante felt a little odd about the fact that he was now getting answers about Sparda so long down the line after he disappeared. At the very least, he was getting closer to the reason on how and why specifically Sparda had just dropped off the face of the Earth. Yeul nodded to his query, waiting to be asked the next question. "What sort of 'miracle' did Sparda end up creating? Did he save your worlds?"

"To save all our worlds, Sparda gave his life and soul. The Goddess showed him the timeline as it were; Fang and Vanille would become the being known as Ragnarok and destroy everything in existence. The worlds of Cocoon, Pulse and Nova Chrysalia all had to exist in order for the New World to be crafted by God. If the fal'Cie had succeeded in their scheme, then the Maker would have burned everything in an ocean of fire and started anew. His humanity would be nothing more than God's toys. On seeing this, Etro gave Sparda a choice; return to this world and time end with it, or be reborn under her careful choosing, with the hand of the Goddess eternally upon him."

"Sparda obviously chose the only choice one would make in that situation. What was he reborn as?" Dante really wanted to hear the rest of the story from her. So the Legendary Dark Knight hadn't abandoned his family by choice- and saved a world, to boot. Obviously as he was reborn as who or whatever, he wouldn't have his memories or be able to come back to Dante and the others should he still be alive and around somewhere.

"The time is not right." Yeul shook her head, offering an apologetic smile. "Seek me out, Dante. Noel Kreiss and I will be awaiting your arrival with Lightning and the others."

"Hang on a second-" Dante reached out for her, but the dream ended as abruptly as it had started. Still leaning forward as he woke up, he heard a large crash and immediately frowned. Reaching for his sword, he found it hidden under a pile of crap that certainly hadn't been around or near him when he was sleeping. "I've gotta stop drinking." Hollow words, since he didn't factually mean them, and he'd done worse than move things around in his sleep.

"Sleeping beauty's finally up!" Fang remarked, scoffing at Dante and snorting once she saw the mess. "I win. Pay up." She turned to Snow, grinning ear to ear at him for losing their bet.

"What time is it?" Dante asked, wondering if he'd woken up early for a change of pace. After last night he was ready to sleep well into the day before getting to the important stuff.

"4 in the afternoon." Snow promptly answered his question before turning to Fang. "Alright. Guess I've got no choice." The tall man relented, ready to give her compensation.

"Oh. So it's still early." Dante let out a small sigh. Picking up the Rebellion, he walked past the two. Stretching and yawning, he found himself face-to-face with Lightning. Something seemed a little 'off' with her.

"Fight me." Lightning spoke with absolute seriousness and a look that made her seem angry with him.

"A little early to be pissed off with me already, isn't it?" Dante asked, curious as to how and why he'd somehow offended her. It didn't seem possible, but maybe he did something yesterday that she found despicable. But in his defense, he had been drinking. And little miss 'I can beat anything and everything I come across so I don't need people' should have been able to take care of herself.

"What do you mean?" Lightning frowned, not sure what he meant.

"You're practically scowling at me and want to fight right when I get up." Dante just pointed out the obvious to her. Was she really so bitchy that Lightning was somehow immune to how she came off?

"I'm not scowling at anything- and I'm not mad at you. I-" Lightning glanced away from Dante, not staring at anything in particular. "-need your help." She admitted, feeling like she may come to regret that choice of wording.

"Come again?" Dante asked. "I don't think I heard you." It seemed to be taking a lot on her end of things to factually say those words, but Dante felt like torturing her a little bit. Come on, she had tried to kill him, and this was the least he could do.

"I need your help." Lightning spoke up, this time a little louder, and looking more sincere to the demon hunter. Whether or not he heard her the first time didn't matter at all- Lightning needed him, and now she realized it.

"You know the proper way to ask, right?" Dante asked, folding his arms and staring down at the shorter woman. He wondered if he could get her to beg him a little bit.

"Please?" Lightning waited to see if that was the proper answer to his question.

"Well, since you asked so nicely." Dante grinned at her, shrugging his shoulders. "Lead the way." Following Lightning outside, she already had her Blazefire Saber drawn and stood opposite him, seemingly waiting for him to instigate things. "You don't want to set any rules or anything?" Dante asked, curious on how she wanted her 'friendly' contest to go.

"Just don't hold back." Lightning wanted that to be the only condition between them.

"You sure about that?" Dante gave her a bit of a warning, as he supposed he should at the very least give her a chance to back out.

"I am." Lightning nodded.

"And what happens if you die?" Dante felt like he should ask, since it was a distinctive possibility. Their last fight had ended with her being cut by the Rebellion and kind of freaking out.

"Then I'll know I was weak and not up to the task of saving this world." Lightning spoke as if her supposed death had literally nothing to do with her, and even shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not willing to risk it. Yeul said two. Two people had to save the world." Dante turned away from her, and Lightning grabbed his wrist. Turning his head to face her, she seemed adamant that they fight. He supposed this was a different approach from the last time. Hell, Lightning could have just shot at him like the previous encounter and decided to pull her 'I'm not backing down' thing she had going on.

"And to do that, I need to get stronger. How do you get stronger? Fight people who are strong. Etro put a lot of stock into me, and it's about time I find out whether or not she was right to bet on me. So if I lose to you, end up dying, or whatever may happen- I'll know that you were strong and I was weak and not worthy." Lightning was prepared to put her life in fate and see what happened. Dante and her didn't really know factually anything about each other, they were just thrown together by a higher power and told to work together no matter what. Putting all of that aside, he had no real reason to not kill her in a fight. At least, from her stand point that's how things seemed.

Dante just nodded to her. Taking his arm from her grip, he walked a few steps away and turned to face her. Taking the Rebellion off his back, he rolled his shoulders and prepared to face her head on. Lightning was wearing a deadly serious look, as if this fight could end up being her last- she really didn't know anything about him at all. Even if she was prepared to die, he wasn't ready to kill her. Despite their first meeting and a few interactions thereafter, she wasn't a bad person, nor evil or any fitting criteria for him to take her down. Even if she didn't want him to hold back, if he saw that she was struggling then he'd win the fight by forcing her to stop or call it quits altogether. Snapped out of his thoughts by her gunfire, he swiftly deflected every bullet with the Rebellion. Glancing over at Lightning, she looked genuinely angry this time around.

"You don't even take me seriously enough to pay attention? I'm not looking for an easy 'win'." Lightning warned him, charging forward and flipping, raising her Blazefire Saber and attempting to impale him.

"You say that like you're going to win." Dante scoffed at her, easily side-stepping her attack. Watching her scowl at him, he winked and clashed swords with her, matching every blow meant to leave her with an opening to harm him. It seemed both of them were just trying to find their ground at this point, to test out the limits either one was willing to go to. Just because Lightning said it should be a no-holds-barred match, didn't mean he had to follow her rules. Turning his head, Dante evaded a straight punch that would have hooked him in the jaw. Jumping, he evaded a low sweep kick Lightning sent his way. Her military training became more and more apparent with the strategic array of attack she sent his way. Because of how fast she was, he imagined most people had a hard time fighting against Lightning. But he wasn't most people.

"Prove me wrong." Lightning got a sense that he was cocky. That's what it all boiled down to between the two of them- he was cocky, and she was arrogant. In simple terms, he would come off as a 'dick' and she was a 'bitch'. She could see why it would be frustrating for anyone to fight either one of them, as Dante didn't seem to take his opponents seriously, and he dodged everything she was doing without breaking a sweat. Her? She preferred to pressure and power through until her opponent eventually fell beneath her. But Dante was different from every foe she'd faced. Literally. Caught off-guard, Lightning barely blocked a hit Dante sent her way.

"Now who's distracted and being rude?" Dante taunted her with a smug smirk.

"I was just thinking about why demons want to kill you. You're a jackass." Lightning scoffed at him, a hot pink aura surrounding her until it exploded and forced Dante back.

"Well, you've got me there." Dante shrugged, landing without a single scratch. "But in my defense they usually start the name calling and boring speeches about how I'm 'going to die' and Sparda's name tossed in there a few times."

"Sparda?" Lightning asked, raising a brow and momentarily stopping.

"My dad. That demon part of me you seem to hate so much? It came from him. The 'Legendary Dark Knight' who betrayed his kind to save the human world. Probably another reason why they want to kill me. They probably figure that since they can't get him, I'm the next best thing." Dante found it quite comical, really. They never had a chance against his father, so they come to him and try to avenge losses garnered by Sparda. Pretty pathetic, really.

"Sins of the father pass to his son, huh?" Lightning scoffed. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." But then demons weren't exactly the most down to Earth individuals, now were they?

"Demon logic." Dante didn't really get it himself, but he didn't care. So long as they died and he won- what did it matter? Lightning was clearly done with their momentary break, as she ran forward and resumed her assault on Dante. Performing a pirouette followed by a sweep kick to his chest, she seemed pleased to land a few physical attacks to him. Walking backwards, Dante and Lightning struggled on until the Son of Sparda managed to disarm the Savior and knock her Blazefire Saber a fair distance from either individual, it's blade landing firmly in the sand, begging to be removed by either its owner or someone worthy to wield it in the heat of battle.

"Give up?" Dante asked, smirking at her. Lightning's eye seemed to twitch, and she definitely didn't like being without her sword. But surely she had to be capable of fighting without it, as she moved fairly quickly and had an arsenal of physical attacks at her disposal that were no doubt acquired during her tenure in the military.

Lightning scoffed. "You think that just because I don't have my sword, I'm done?" He really must have had a low opinion of her.

"Most people would be." Dante shrugged, nodding to her question. Granted, she wasn't likely to just give up, but he liked taunting her and playing 'dumb' on the topic.

"I don't give up easily." Lightning warned, going for a low sweep kick, leading into a reverse roundhouse and backhand combo. Evading a few thrusts of his sword, she eventually flip kicked it out of his hands and watched as it landed behind him in the same manner as her sword did. "Do you ever get tired of screwing around?" Lightning felt inclined to ask, while doing her best to pressure him with her physical attacks.

"Honestly? No." Dante matched her blow for blow, stopping each hook meant for his face by burying it in the crook of his elbow or using his forearm to counter it properly. Ducking a high punch, he caught a mid kick Lightning sent his way and spun her around. Kicking her in the ass, he sent her stumbling away from him and couldn't resist the grin he felt spread across his face when she was obviously irritated.

"I get why people would be pissed off to lose to you- you're not organized, at all. Everything seems improvised and your personality gets on my nerves." Lightning had to admit she hated his way of fighting and the way that he carried himself. But the fact was, no matter her disposition, he'd won many fights against strong individuals by acting the way that he was. He acted like Snow, maybe even worse than Snow.

Dante shrugged at her statement. "Would you rather I act like you?" It was a simple question, and he assumed there would be some haughty retort coming his way.

"No." Lightning shook her head, unafraid to admit that. "You're laid back and cocky and an ass- that's probably why you get on my nerves. And it's probably why you end up winning a lot. Build up frustration until the enemy can no longer focus and maintain a clear head long enough to use their strategies. Then when they're at their weakest, you take them out. Psychological warfare." Lightning wondered how many of his enemies ended up frustrated to the point that they became rash/reckless and lost because of Dante acting the way that he did. She could see it- losing to a Snow-type? Lightning would honestly never live that defeat down.

"Are you calling me smart?" Dante asked, grinning at Lightning. Even if she ended up furious at him, he still enjoyed pissing her off.

"Not exactly." Lightning scoffed. "I can't tell if you do it on purpose or if you just like getting on peoples nerves and seeing how far you can push them before they reach their limit."

Dante once more shrugged, giving her a carefree smile. "Certainly works on you."

"I have a short fuse. It doesn't take much to annoy me." Lightning knew it very well, as did everyone else. And there was no way Dante didn't know she could be unreasonable. Honestly, he was a newcomer and she barely knew him at all- how was he expecting her to trust some man she met on the street who looked like he'd just butchered a bunch of people? Even now, she was weary of him. Trust had to be earned and not given. Just because Yeul said that they had to save the world together didn't mean either of them had to force a working partnership for the greater good.

"I got that." Dante nodded to her, walking around his side of the battlefield. "But where's that gotten you in life, Lightning? Keeping people at arms length and being so cold to everyone who might care for you." He scoffed a bit, still amused on the woman, even if she didn't seem to share his sentiment. "It's a wonder you have so many people who speak so highly of you. These people are willing to die for you and you treated them like this? I don't see it. But you must be one hell of a woman to get that kind of loyalty." He had been wondering about that for a short while, and maybe Lightning would eventually show him that side of her. Or maybe she'd just keep pushing him away and treating him like the way she currently was. Not that he'd really put up with it forever.

"I didn't need people. At least, that's what I thought, anyway." Lightning folded her arms, staring him down. "My only goal in life was to take care of my little sister. Did it matter to me if I had friends by my side? No. She was the only family I had left, and I never wanted to see her unhappy. I didn't always do what was best for me, but I always did what was best for her- even if she didn't see it. If I'm 'cold' then so be it." Lightning knew that she could treat people like dirt. But right now she needed to do what had to be done, and there was no time to act like Dante or Hope or Serah- she needed to be ruthless.

Dante felt like he'd heard some of this speech before. Glancing over at her, and the scowl she was giving him, he was reminded of Vergil. Him and Lightning probably would have gotten along well considering their disposition on people and life and the fact that they just loved treating people like less than. "I've heard it before from Snow and Hope. You might act like this, but you do need people. No matter how much of a big shot you think you are- they save you as much as you save them."

"I know that." Lightning wouldn't deny it in the slightest. "They knew it, too. That's why they never turned their backs on me. Even if I was too damned stubborn to admit it aloud, they knew how I was feeling. I'm grateful that they didn't give up on me even when they had every right to leave me behind."

"You don't give up on people until the bitter end, Lightning. Everyone is capable of being saved, even if they just don't know it. Some are just too goddamn stubborn to to take an offered hand. The key is to let your guard down from time to time. Yeah, you may be strong Lightning, but it's okay to let people in. You can act as 'cold' as you like- but you do care a lot for people, even if you don't admit it. Say what you like, but you didn't have to raise your little sister and push yourself as hard as you did to help her." Dante watched as Lightning seemed a bit surprised by his speech. She didn't appear to be offended, but rather appreciated his words.

"But I-" Lightning began to argue, but found herself cut off.

"-no, you didn't." Dante shook his head. "You may say things in the spur of the moment and play it down so you seem like a hardened woman, but you have a lot of empathy for people. Sacrificing so much so that Serah could grow up and be happy, doing what you thought that she wanted. I'm sure she appreciated all that her big sister went through, but she also probably felt lonely, too. Being home alone and worrying for the safety and well-being of her sister who joined the military? That'd cause anyone to worry. And Hope? You were so scared for him that you tried to push him to go off with Sazh and Vanille, so that if he did die, his life wasn't in your hands. The two of them ran to safety and you figured he'd be better off without you, because you were going off on a suicide mission."

"I screwed him up." Lightning felt her hand ball into a fist and shake a bit at the mention of Hope and Cocoon. Averting her eyes, she didn't want vindication for her actions from all that time ago. "Because of me, he almost killed Snow. I trained a 14 year old boy to be a killer. The knife that Serah gifted me for my birthday would have been his murder weapon, and I would have ruined not just his life- but three."

"He told me that too. But he has a different point of view from you Lightning. Did you ever talk things through with him?" Dante asked, waiting for some form of answer from Lightning. There still seemed to be some unresolved issues between the group even a thousand years later.

"There was never any time." Lightning shook her head. "Between being stuck in the Unseen Realm and working against time to save Nova Chrysalia, I never had the time to have casual conversations. Up until a little while ago we hadn't seen each other in 10 years."

"Makes sense. So, we still doing this?" Dante asked, getting a little restless and bored of their banter. He thought she dragged him outside to have some sort of fight and training session. So how did it turn out to be a back-and-forth between them?

"You think you can keep up?" Lightning taunted him, deciding to get things started up once again.

Dante scoffed, amused by her sudden confidence boost. "Maybe you should take a page from your own book, lady. It seemed like that lightning was all outta zap."

Lightning was taken aback by that statement. It reminded her of Amodar and how he always meant the light form of hazing to be incentive to better herself and rise to the challenge like he believed she could. Getting past her initial surprise, she nodded and decided to see just how much either of them could dish out. Somersaulting forward, she aimed for a flying kick to hit him in the jaw. Dante lazily tilted his head to the side and avoided the attack, grabbing her leg and tossing her to the ground while wearing that cocky grin of his all the while. If she wanted some boring opponent who did tedious things like avoid every single blow meant to harm them, then he guessed he could grant her that wish. No matter how boring it turned out to be.

Swiftly recovering, Lightning took a defensive stance and slowly closed space between the pair. Was his strategy to make her come to him, piss her off and then finish her when she reached the pique of her frustration? She wouldn't let that work. That stupid shit eating grin was going to be wiped off his face once she connected the heel of her boot to his jaw.

Amused by her apparent anger, Dante watched as she seemingly was trying to figure out a proper tactic to fight him with. As of right now, he supposed her main tactic was to keep attacking relentlessly and hope it wore him out so that she'd win. While he could appreciate someone being reckless and doing their damnedest to defeat an opponent- it wouldn't work on him.

"Not that it really matters- but why the rage? Enjoy yourself. I certainly am." Dante mused, trying to figure out why she seemed to irritated with him.

"People like you just float through life and everything comes so easy to you when the rest of us work so hard each and everyday to make something of ourselves. Everything I've ever had I worked for- I wasn't just born into power because my dad was something more than human. When my parents died, it was just me and Serah alone in the world with no one to lean on. I sacrificed everything I had so that my sister would never know what it was like to want for anything." What was there to enjoy and screw around about? There was a world at stake.

"You think life's been some big cake walk for me?" Dante asked, neither confirming nor denying her theory. He could pull rank on her and tell her all about the things that he's lost, and the dreams that he'd had about his family falling apart- but he wouldn't. She seemed like she needed this. To vent to him about inner frustrations that were likely reflections of herself.

"Prove me wrong." Lightning scoffed at Dante, once more standing idle and waiting for him to give her something, anything that made him seem like he wasn't just some guy who was born into power and was 'strong' because of that fact.

"You're right, Lightning, nobody in the world knows struggle except for you." Mocking her, Dante much rather they finish their fight as opposed to have a 'who struggled more' contest.

"I never said that. I just pointed out how different we are. For the first 21 years of my life, I was human. For the next thousand? I became a l'Cie, Knight of Etro and a Savior/Goddess. But now? I can't even call myself a child of man." Lightning knew that no mortal would ever be able to wield the powers that she currently had, and likewise Dante was in the same boat as her. To have just half of Sparda's blood and be this strong? How strong was Sparda? She only knew the bare minimum from Dante, that he had 'saved the world from demons', but what was the hierarchy of demons? The first she'd encountered said something about there being a king, and that they all wanted to overthrow the leader and prove who was the strongest. But if Sparda defeated him, then wasn't he the strongest?

"And that must drive you crazy, doesn't it? Not being human and able to relate to those closest to you. Sure, you may have been human at one point and able to grasp the situation you were in, but now you're a God. The divine don't seem to understand humans or how they struggle. So, what happened to you, Lightning? Did you forget all of the sudden what it was like before you were changed into something more than you already were?" Dante slowly walked around their makeshift 'arena' while they spoke, wondering if he was making chips in her armor. Even if it made her angry, which was the most logical response, well, that and being defensive, Dante didn't care- she had to hear it and he felt inclined to say it. He wasn't Serah, Snow, Fang, Vanille or Hope- she couldn't just walk all over him and he'd take it.

Surprised by his sudden 'depth', Lightning was a little unsure of how to respond. "I...slept for five centuries. When my sister died at the end of a journey I sent her out on, I did the only thing I could- I tried to save her soul and bring her back. Her blood was on my hands, and I was too arrogant to notice. For me, it was simple: The world needed saving, and in Valhalla I was forced to watch and denied the chance to act. But someone in the mortal realm would be able to act as my hand, to save our worlds and correct the distortions created by Caius Ballad."

"Serah." Dante said her name without hesitance, guessing what Lightning was leading up to. Lightning nodded. "I guess we're done fighting, aren't we?" Dante asked, figuring that they obviously had a few things to talk about.

"I guess so." Lightning sighed, acknowledging the fact that the moment had been ruined by their banter.

"Alright. Well. Let's call it a 'draw' and move on." Dante picked up the Rebellion and placed it on his back once more.

"That wasn't a 'draw'." Lightning scoffed at him. "Don't try and spare my feelings by saying we were evenly matched- you were winning. I can take a loss, Dante, but I won't accept a pity 'victory'." She wanted to make it abundantly clear that she wasn't someone to be pitied or looked down on. No matter what it took, she would make herself stronger and defeat anyone in her way.

"Why does it matter who 'won' Lightning?" Dante factually didn't care one way or the other, but she seemed to have a hard time losing to him.

"Who's Lumina?" He asked, waiting for Lightning to answer him. Ever since that little fiasco she had started, Dante was genuinely curious on the identity of the girl posing as Lightning.

"She's...me." Lightning said, her back turned to Dante as she knelt down and retrieved the Blazefire Saber. Looking back at him, she saw his confused state. "Lumina is a part of my soul I never fully accepted. Given shape and form by the Chaos. She's my selfishness, among other things- and that's why she's so troublesome."

"But you said she came back. Doesn't that mean that she and you came back together at some point?" Dante asked, unsure of if he had his facts straight.

"We did. Right before striking down God, Lumina told me a few things I needed to hear and helped me to tell the others things I'd never say aloud. But she's back now and for better or worse I have to deal with her." Lightning explained, frowning at the mention of Lumina. For right now she'd been able to forget about her annoying little 'sister' running rampant and doing god knows what.

"Any clues on what brought her back?" Dante could tell that Lightning wasn't thrilled and who wouldn't be? After all of the reasons he'd gotten from Lightning he wouldn't necessarily be happy to deal with her either.

"She blamed me for it. Didn't seem happy to be back, and I can't blame her- I feel the same way." Lightning wondered what exactly she'd have to go through with her hanging around.

"Kinda strange you two don't like each other." Dante couldn't help but notice that fact. If they were the same person, then was this some sort of peculiar and literal form of 'self hatred'?

"She likes me and I don't really care for her. But I'm willing to chalk her up to being an annoying family member." Lightning glanced over at Dante, something had been on her mind too. "What about you? You got any family other than Nero hanging around?" It seemed fairly obvious to her that he had a brother or sister running around considering he had a nephew who looked almost identical to his uncle. While she and Serah might have looked alike, Nero and Dante looked like they could be father and son with a few decades between.

"Not anymore. My parents died when I was young, too. My brother and I were saved only because my mother told us to hide from the attacking demons that took her down because they couldn't find Vergil and myself. We don't know what happened to Sparda, but we all just kind of assumed there had been something or other out there that took him away from the rest of us." Pausing for a moment, Dante was reminded of the dream he'd had with Yeul. It had completely slipped his mind because Lightning insisted that right from the moment he got up the two of them were supposed to have some epic fight that turned out to be nothing more than her trying to figure him out followed by a big 'heart to heart'. Honestly not the way he figured things would go.

"I don't know much about Sparda." Lightning said truthfully, and that was probably very obvious to Dante who had to tell her about him, but she felt the need to say it out loud. "How strong was he?"

"Strongest thing to walk the Earth and the Demon World." Dante said truthfully, wondering why Lightning seemed to have the sudden interest in the Dark Knight.

"Even stronger than God?" Lightning asked, waiting for an answer.

"I don't know. He defeated Mundus, and I'm not sure if God and he were a match for each other or if one was stronger than the other. But one things for sure- Sparda would give him one hell of a run for his money if the two of them ended up fighting."

"It sounds like we really could have used him on our side." Lightning had to wonder what could have been strong enough to take down such an adversary. Tactically speaking, if he was stronger than both Lightning and Dante, then who wouldn't want someone like that on their side?

"Yeah, but he's gone. All you've got is me." Dante feigned apology, winking at her.

"Don't worry- I'll beat the Snow out of you eventually." Lightning commented dryly, walking with him along the beach. Honestly, if she had to pick a person for him to be just like it would definitely be Snow. Pissed her off on the first meeting, she felt nothing but a compulsion to hit him and he seemed to know just how to push her buttons.

"Any excuse to put your hands on me, I guess. Just remember to keep your hands above the waist." Dante watched as she instantly glared at him and looked visibly disgusted. Despite how some people might think they had to walk on eggshells and do the 'anything to please Lightning' dance, he wasn't for it. So she had a short fuse, big deal- he could take her punches. Literally and metaphorically.

"You wish." Lightning didn't know where he got his cockiness from, but he could be full of himself and hit on any other girl- why bother with her? Was he doing it specifically to piss her off? Did he have some sort of kink for punishment?

"Fine, you can go below the waist." Dante raised his hands in surrender, watching yet another wave of disgust wash over Lightning. He'd honestly probably stop with the sexual innuendos if she'd stop reacting to him so much. Even Lady would have probably shot him once or twice and gotten over it as she knew the hazing wouldn't stop, but at this point Lightning was being just as irresponsible as he was.

"We both know that's not what I meant. Don't you have some other girl out there to hit on? I'm not in the mood. Especially not when there's a world out there to save." Lightning was trying to not let it bother her, to simply brush it off like most of the men she'd faced when being a woman in the military with their petty remarks, but it wasn't the same when it came to Dante. She couldn't just glare at him to scare him off, or kick his ass and leave him in the dust as she ascended through the ranks quickly and put him to shame. So what was there left to do?

"Nope." Dante shrugged his shoulders and watched her concentrate very hard on something. Reaching over, he placed his gloved hand on top of her head and pat her lightly. Striding forward, he placed his hands in his pockets and surpassed Lightning. If she wanted to be alone right now, then he supposed he could at the very least give her that.

"Wait."

Stopping dead in his tracks, Dante obeyed her command. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Lightning preparing to say something to him. She seemed to be having trouble getting the words out, but the Son of Sparda figured he'd wait around to hear them. After all, she had gone to the trouble of stopping him and now there was something she was trying to say.

"Where are you going?" Lightning asked, looking him dead in the eyes and waited for an answer. On seeing his confusion toward her simple question, she decided she had to follow up a bit more. "I just thought you went through so much trouble to find me and now you're giving up? You really know how to send mixed signals."

Dante laughed lightly and shook his head. "I'm going to get a drink. Don't think you've gotten rid of me that easy, Savior."

"How do you expect me to take you seriously when you don't act serious?" Lightning scoffed and folded her arms.

"We have different definitions of 'serious'." Dante shrugged his shoulders. So what if she didn't like his personality? It was of no consequence. They just needed to get along long enough to save the world then go their separate ways and figure out things from there.

"Yeah. You act like more of a child than the 14 year old Hope in the Vile Peaks. I'm not going to babysit you every step of the way. So you can either get serious or get left behind." Lightning didn't want to deal with a drunk who could be so juvenile all the time. This man seemed old enough to know that he was immature and generally a pain in the ass all the time, so why did he enjoy acting this way? When they were fighting Orphan Lightning saw him in a whole new light- there was a fire in his eyes and a confidence that wasn't him just being a jackass. Why couldn't he be that person all the time? She'd enjoy him much more than this one.

"Keep pushing people away Lightning, it always works out for you in the end, doesn't it? You get to say all the harsh things you want and act like some sorta big shot and people still flock to your side don't they? You said you wanted me to 'prove you wrong', right? Fine." Dante turned once more to face her and decided to give her a little crash course on his life since she seemed so keen to turn things into a 'who's suffered more' contest. "Did you and Serah grow up to hate each other because of your differences, Lightning? Did you end up going rogue and turning so shut off that you eventually had to fight her to the death?" Dante didn't really see a point to this, but he wasn't going to let her mock him or think he'd had the easy life just because he didn't let it turn him into a jaded person like her.

"Worse." Lightning looked him directly in the eyes. "She told me she was a l'Cie, and I didn't believe her. Snow and Serah came to see me for my 21st birthday, and they dropped two bombshells on me: They were getting married, and she was a Pulse l'Cie. What did I do? I told her that if she really was a l'Cie, it was my job to 'take care of her' which of course meant that I was going to kill my little sister. I was furious with her for getting engaged to a guy she barely even knew, and the real kicker was that I thought she was pulling a stunt on my birthday to get me to accept him. Men like Snow... they don't always turn out to be good guys. But Serah did alright picking a husband." Pausing for a few moments, she decided to continue on. "After we saved Cocoon, I was dragged to the realm of Valhalla. The Goddess blessed me with her sight, and her gifts. I wasn't allowed to leave her sacred realm, my mission was to eternally protect the Goddess from her would-be killer. But I needed someone who could fight in the realm of mortals. The Chaos wrote me out of history, and my path was lost- but Serah was the one person I knew I could depend on. Calling out to her, I asked that she and Noel Kreiss journey across time and correct the distortions in the timeline created by Caius Ballad. The price of her aid? She became a Seeress of the Goddess. Cursed with the Eyes of Etro, she saw each and every distortion and the consequence of fixing it at a cost of her life. At the end of her journey, she died. Because of me, my sister lost her life."

"You had no choice, Lightning." Dante could see that. "You said it yourself, she was the only person you could ask. If Serah could see the future, then she knew that she'd eventually die, didn't she? And I'm guessing she was willing to struggle through it all, and suffer through any amount of pain until she saw her big sister again. Because she loved you, Lightning, she was willing to do what you asked just for a chance that you could come back. That you could be reunited. You lost your sister, Lightning, but you got her back- I never got Vergil back."

"She knew that she'd die. I knew that she'd die." Lightning admitted, her hand balling into a fist and shaking a bit. "To save a world on the brink of destruction and protect not only those I cared about, I bet on the possibility that I could change fate. But I was wrong." The words of Yeul rang clearly through her mind. By what right, do you demand her release? "She asked if we were going to meet again, and I didn't really give her an answer. When her soul was held hostage by Yeul and Caius Ballad, I fought through the Chaos and defeated him for Serah. She told me that she knew she was going to die, but she was ready to do so. To save not only the world, but to see me again. And we made a promise all those centuries ago. That I would never let her memory fade to the Chaos, that I would wait for the day that we could be reunited and live together again. For 500 years I waited in a crystal slumber only to be woken by God who would use her as a bargaining chip. I didn't know that he was lying about Serah, though I had my suspicions."

"I'm sorry about your brother." Lightning tried her best to come off as sympathetic. She knew she could come off as 'self-involved' to someone she barely even knew, but that was because she had people to protect and things that were precious to her in this life. Lightning hadn't tried to ignore the words he'd given to her about his brother, but had talked over it and felt like she needed to clear the air and let him know she'd heard and understood to an extent what that feeling was like. "I was lucky in that respect. I had an opportunity that you didn't- a chance to take her soul from the Chaos itself. I don't know what happened between you and Vergil, and I'm guessing in your scenario I'd be him- if he's anything like me, then he appreciated your efforts to save him even if he didn't admit it. Whether or not his soul is waiting for you in the Chaos, that's anyone's guess-" Lightning paused for a moment, looking Dante in the eyes while she spoke. "-but so long as you don't forget about him and keep Vergil in your heart, he'll never fade away into nothingness."

Dante smiled a bit at her trying to cheer him up over the loss of Vergil. Maybe this was her way of saying 'sorry' without actually having to vocalize the word aloud. Proud people certainly were something. Patting her on the head, he wondered if she understood actions better than words. "That's how you kept Serah's soul safe inside of you, isn't it? Sleeping for 500 years with her on your mind, dreaming of a world where the two of you could meet again. But I don't have that luxury, Lightning. People around here can't just spontaneously turn to crystal."

Lightning was surprised when he touched her head. To be honest, she wasn't sure if he accepted her semi-apology but it seemed now that she'd gotten it through to him. Nodding to his question about Serah, he hit the nail right on the head. "Neither could we. I didn't have a focus, Dante, I was something else at that point, beyond human, beyond l'Cie- I just didn't know it yet. Etro had a plan for me, and it's still unraveling to this day. Yeul said that you're part of things and I'm just trying to catch up. You're different from every foe I've ever come across. You'd probably even give a fal'Cie a run for their money all on your own. It took all six of us to decently fight let alone kill one. But you? You walk off gunshot wounds. Heal near-instantly and don't even flinch when I pull some of my harder punches." Lightning had to give credit where credit was due and Dante had definitely earned it from her.

As the older ones, it's our burden to bare that we could sacrifice for you so you'll never know wants, sadness, unpleasantness and the unsightliness that comes with the world. To me, it came naturally that I wanted to protect my little sister. Join the army? No problem. Toss aside my childish desires and anything that I considered a weakness? Gone. But, maybe, I was wrong.

"The wonderment of carrying Sparda's blood." Dante shrugged, walking with Lightning along the beach. "I have one question for you, Lightning."

"Alright. Shoot." Lightning was curious on what he had to say.

"Is that your real name- 'Lightning'?" Dante wasn't sure if she was named after the weather like Snow had been, but Serah had received a relatively normal name and he was curious on the drastic difference between the names of the girls.

"You don't like my name?" Lightning feigned offense and tossed the ball back in Dante's court.

"I didn't say that. I just wondered if it actually is your name." Dante shrugged his shoulders, waiting for a more solid answer from the woman.

"That's a story for a different time. But the short answer? No. At least, not originally. Is Dante your real name?" Lightning countered, figuring she could flip the question on him.

"Does it matter?" Dante once more shrugged his shoulders and grinned as he heard her sigh from beside him. "How about we go and get ourselves a drink? It's already been a long day." Even if she declined his offer that wouldn't be enough to stop Dante from going off and busying himself in a bar or wherever he deemed fit to drink.

"So you get my answer and answer a question with a question? That's an evasion. And I'll take that as a 'no' from you as well." Lightning could play his little games every so often. Lumina and her usually were the ones to do this kind of thing, so she wasn't used to duking it out with others. "I don't bother with that kind of thing. But I guess I'll tag along."

"Sounds like a plan." Dante ignored her comments about his 'evasion'. It seemed like another petty fight waiting to happen and he had better uses of his time. Like explaining to her what Yeul said about looking for her and Noel. Walking along with Lightning in silence for a change of pace, Dante brought her to the bar he'd found in the town of 'New New Bodhum'. Holding open the door for Lightning, she didn't seem pleased with the seedy little bar he'd brought her to, but nonetheless walked inside. Dante promptly followed her in.

Wearing her usual scowl, Lightning ducked a swing by a bar patron meant to hit another intoxicated man and continued on her way, unimpressed by the antics of these people. Gazing around the room she felt like it could have used some updating and definitely tidying up. How could someone ever be interested in coming into a place that looked sticky and in a rougher shape than Oerba had been in the 600 year absence of the Pulsians? Sighing, she found them a booth where someone had been passed out and dragged the man out of their way, placing him in the corner. Sitting opposite Dante, she saw him raise a brow at her. As if she was somehow the odd one out in this setting. "What?"

"Nothing." Dante shrugged his shoulders and leaned against his portion of the booth. "You're just a 'mom' type all the time, aren't you?" He didn't really need her answer as he'd seen her eying up the place in disgust.

"Come again?" Lightning asked, folding her arms and frowning at Dante. She hated this setting. What the hell was with that smell? Did no one in this place believe in hygiene? He seemed about to speak up until the waitress came by to take their order. Following his eyes, she saw him stare at her breasts. Rolling her eyes, Lightning didn't know why she bothered indulging him.

"Anything for you?" She asked, noticing the pink haired woman was angry about something.

"Water." Lightning didn't bother to look over.

"Well, that was rude." Dante remarked once she walked away. Humored by the situation he didn't get why she took out her frustration on a passerby.

"I'm surprised you had the time to notice in between staring at her breasts." Lightning scoffed at him.

"Don't get jealous. You're still my top priority." Dante grinned at her.

"Jealous? I'm glad you found someone else to inappropriately ogle." Guys like him who flirted with every girl to come their way were so irritating. But she honestly did feel relief that he switched his attentions over to another woman.

"I glanced. I didn't 'ogle'." Dante set the record straight and shrugged at her comments.

"Glanced?" Lightning scoffed at him, how could he be so brazen as to lie to her when he was caught? "You're so full of-" When her eyes landed on him, she caught Dante doing it again when his drink was placed in front of him and while the waitress leaned over to give Lightning her water. Waiting for the waitress to move on, Lightning frowned. "-I'm sorry, I guess her breasts had something more interesting to say."

"Last I checked you and I weren't dating. And you said it was 'fine', right? So why make it a big deal?" Dante drank his beer and challenged her to say something about that.

"It was. But I doubt you have the concentration to do both at once." Lightning honestly didn't believe he'd be listening to her while staring at a woman. She wouldn't repeat herself just because he wanted to be a jackass. Grabbing a few napkins from the dispenser, Lightning poured out a small quantity of her water from the glass and began wiping down the table and portions of the booth. Just because patrons were fine with this kind of setting didn't mean she was going to settle for sticky seating and filthy table tops.

"Yet you're cleaning up the booth and talking to me without looking up once. Isn't that some form of hypocrisy?" Dante asked, downing more of his drink while he waited for her response.

"The difference here is that I'm listening to you." Lightning scooted over to the edge of the booth and decided to let the rest of it dry. "Now do you have anything of interest? Because if not I'm going to find somewhere- anywhere else to be."

"I was getting to that. You were just busy glaring at me and pissed off for some reason." Dante stated the obvious and felt her glare at him once more. There was obviously no pleasing her, so what was the point? "Yeul had something interesting to say." Watching her perk up and seem ready to hear whatever he had to say, Dante wasn't used to this Lightning. A docile one who seemed to hang onto his every word. "She wants us to go and find her and Noel."

"She has good timing. Anything else?" Lightning guessed that someone who could divine the future would obviously know how to make 'coincidences' happen.

"Yeah, she wasn't the Yeul from your 'Unseen Realm'- she's here. I'm guessing you know what she's talking about." Dante didn't see surprise, well, much on her face.

"I do." Lightning nodded. "She's helped me on more than one occasion. Of all the Yeul's I've encountered she's probably the most human. Maybe she owes that fact to Noel. I just don't know where she is. Hope did some research and couldn't come up with anything. Noel and Yeul basically dropped off the map a few days ago. But if anyone can track them down then I know he can do it." She had every confidence in her partners abilities.

"That works. So we sit and wait for him to do all the work? Sounds perfect to me." Dante finished off his beer and wondered how/why the two had disappeared. "You don't think someone could've went after the Seeress, do you?"

"You're unusually perceptive today." Lady commented, slapping a file down on the table in front of Dante and Lightning, the woman pulling down her glasses and frowning at Lightning but giving Dante a much more friendly look. Folding her arms, she glanced from one to the next. "I leave for a few days and you two are having tea parties in dive bars? What the hell happened to the whole 'I'm going to kill you' bullshit you decided to pull on us?" Lady pointedly asked Lightning, not at all deterred from the results of their last encounter.

"Nothing that killing a God and banding together towards a common goal couldn't fix." Lightning ignored Lady's attitude and dirty looks she sent her way and focused on Dante when she spoke.

"The nightgown might've helped a bit." Dante chimed in, smirking at Lightning even when he felt her kick him in the shin. "Ow."

"Nightgown? Did you two sleep together!?" Lady had far too many unappealing questions going through her head than she'd like to ask the two. Who the hell tries to kill a person then sleeps with him? Furthermore, why the hell would Dante go for such a psychopath?

"No." Lightning scoffed at Lady. "Didn't you come here with something important to say?"

"Though she did admit she was 'in a harem' with me and wanted to do some lewd things while time was stopped. But who could blame her?" Dante asked, folding his arms behind his head and grinning at Lady, waiting for whatever information she'd come across to be spewed out.

"Harem?" Lightning frowned at Dante. "I think the word Fang used was 'tramp'- she seemed to be under the idea that Hope and you have some hidden agenda for me. Why I don't exactly know- and I don't care. It's one of those more 'out there' ideas anyway." Lightning found it to be ridiculous. Fang was obviously hazing her and Dante was trying to do the same but she didn't exactly know him well enough to gauge his humor. Likewise he probably had a hard time on deciding whether or not Lightning was being serious.

"True. But that's not what I was talking about- I mean, you clearly have some sort of fetish for treating guys with white/gray hair like crap." Dante dared her to say otherwise. Hope would probably have to agree with him on that one. And why wouldn't he? As far as he'd heard, Dante had basically gotten the better deal when compared to Hope and dealing with Lightning.

"Is that what Hope told you?" Lightning asked, narrowing her eyes further.

"Does it matter?" Dante countered her statement, sitting up and smirking at her.

Lightning could feel her eyebrow twitch. Folding her arms and looking away from him, she didn't want to bother with such a frustrating egoist anymore.

Lady watched the back and forth with a raised brow. "I don't know how or why you two went from at each others throats and somehow arrived at 'sexual tension' but I'm going to power through the info I've brought." Leaning against the table top, she looked from one to the other. "Trish and I did a little digging and it seems that there's a new cult out there-" Astounded at the lack of reaction from both individuals, as Dante seemed more fascinated by his beer and Lightning seemed to perk up only slightly and glance at anywhere but Dante, she decided to continue. "-not exactly the reactions I was going for, but whatever. Get this, the Order of the Sword joined forces with two other organizations- once I'm sure you've heard about." Lady motioned to Lightning. "The 'Children of Etro' and the 'Order of Salvation'. It seems the three of them found something in common. Any guesses what that might be?"

"Yet another crazy scheme to bring demons into the world and bring oblivion with it?" Dante asked, taking a guess that didn't seem to be 'far off' considering the way the Order of Salvation had been previously. As for the 'Children of Etro' and the 'Order of Salvation' he'd heard that they were also pretty bad news from Hope. While it wasn't exactly ideal, he supposed that they could power through things.

"Either that or they think that God's come back and is somehow going to snap his fingers and make everything better." Lightning couldn't help but agree with Dante. These 'order' types seemed to be one track minded and capable of doing just about anything if it meant accomplishing their goals in the servitude of whichever deity they deigned fit.

"You're both right- sort of." Lady leaned back and sighed a bit, folding her arms. "They seem to think that Sparda's somehow coming back and that you are him reborn." Looking directly at Lightning, she waited for any hint that she'd heard of this before.

"Me?" Lightning pointed at herself, raising a brow and looking at Dante. "I knew that these 'Order' types were crazy- but I didn't think they were also this stupid."

"It's definitely one of the more 'original' ideas out there about what happened to Sparda." Dante mused, shrugging his shoulders. "Why would they think that Lightning was him, anyway?" He asked Lady.

"A pink haired girl with special powers told them." Lady knew that both Dante and Lightning had some form of idea who she was talking about.

"Of course. Lumina." Lightning pursed her lips. "Why am I not surprised? She loves to make trouble wherever she goes."

"But what would she gain in making people believe you're Sparda? It doesn't make any sense." Dante didn't really see any logic behind it.

"Dupe a bunch of willing, eager people devoted to their God into believing he's come back from the grave to save them and they'll believe anything. If these people actually think that I'm Sparda and come when a disaster is supposed to befall the world then they'll get antsy and unpredictable- I've seen what people who thought they could get in 'good' with Bhunivelze could do and I'm not willing to sit around and see what they have in mind." Lightning stood up from the booth and looked at Lady. "Do you know where these people are, or, better yet, can you take me to them?"

"Still working on that." Lady shook her head, finding it comical that Lightning was now looking to her for help. But she did have a point- people with blind faith were dangerous.

"I'll expedite the process." Lightning walked to the front doorway and exiting the bar. Finding a semi-private area, she searched for any hint of humans or someone who may end up seeing her and found no one within her vicinity. Looking down to her chest, she retrieved the crimson crystal of Brynhildr and hot pink of Odin. Tossing them both to the sky, she use leapt into the air and simultaneously slashed both open. Brynhildr's transformed into a raging inferno inside of a sphere and Odin sprang forth from his crystalized floral summoning circle, both grabbing Lightning and tossing their summoner higher into the air so that she could land safely. The moment her boots hit the ground, Lightning was met by the curious looks of Brynhildr and Odin.

"I have a job for you two." Lightning looked between the pair and made sure to portray herself as nothing but serious. "There's a new group out there worshipping, well, me- and I want you to find them. I don't know if they're a radical religious sect, but treat them like the Order of Salvation. Find them and come back to me. Don't get yourselves hurt- I just want to know where they are. Leave the reckless part to me." Lightning didn't know if she had to go charging in there or not but it was better to be prepared for every situation as opposed to going in blind. Once the Eidolons found the location of the group, then Lightning was going to set the record straight that she wasn't their God returned and to her knowledge she'd been alive longer than Sparda had been missing so there was no feasible way of her being him.

Watching as Brynhildr and Odin respectfully bowed their heads and nodded to their master, her Eidolons looked to the sky and took off, leaving Lightning to ponder current events as they were.

The Order of Salvation are a group I never thought I'd hear of, again. Loyal servants of Bhunivelze who would go so far as to damn the souls of the dead to oblivion in a bid to live on a utopia where they were freed from human liberties such as free will, choice, struggle and the unsightliness the Goddess allowed us to express along with our joys. Their dream was nothing more than grasping at straws. Even though God was happy to supply such a world where he took us over and placed his essence within our 'shells' to house the holy vessel of the almighty- I never allowed it. Being mindless puppets who knew only love, light, joy and never one moments despair, how could anyone call that living, at all? It had been my wish, when I drew my sword against God that he die the true death and never return from the fissures of Chaos that so gladly engulfed his crystalized body. But now that he's returned, and my prayers have gone unheeded, the Savior needs to take her place- not as a pawn of God, or the Angel of death. She needs to be his executioner, and bring about the one thing that God has ever feared- death.

The Children of Etro were nothing more than murderous, pious individuals clinging to what once was. If they knew I was the guardian who stood at the shores of the Goddess in Valhalla and drew my sword to protect her in the name of balance and nature that the Goddess so carefully safeguarded for centuries on end. Or that I was reborn in her righteous image, would they have pardoned me and absolved me of my sins for failing to save her? Or would they still have gone on their vendetta and murdered countless pink haired women in an ill-conceived attempt to murder the servant of God? I could have stooped to their level when I encountered them with Noel Kreiss, but I decided not to. The Goddess showed me how callous, arrogant and unforgivable it was to kill in the name of survival and nothing more. I, more than anyone know that my sins will never truly fade away- but I won't allow people to make the same mistakes that I had been. They don't have the luxury of meeting Etro, but I can advocate on her behalf as I was the last one to meet her.

I'm not sure what this 'Order of the Sword' is- but I can't imagine they're anything to be thrilled about. Worshipping a Demon as a God? I'd put more stock in a Fal'Cie. But it's not just any 'demon' out there- Sparda was a special exception. Perhaps even more human than any of us could ever hope to be. Defecting from his own kind to save humans that were termed 'lower beings' by his brothers in arms, Sparda naturally became a black sheep amongst them. So powerful that he managed to defeat massive armies commanded by the 'Demon King' and even the most brazen of those who might oppose him, Sparda was a man I'd have loved to meet. Hearing his achievements, I suppose my own seem to dull a bit in comparison. But I wasn't born with the power that he had, and comparing the two of us is pointless.

"What are you staring at?" Lady asked, her arms folded and raising a brow when Lightning seemed a bit startled as she turned her head and met the gaze of Lady. Had she come at a bad time? Well, that was too bad- they had issues to go over. And those peculiar creatures she sent into the sky would have to be one of them at some point or other. But for now Lady would put a pin in it.

"I was... thinking." Lightning admitted, though the term 'thinking' would be putting it lightly as 'inner monologue' suited the occasion better.

"Something about me?" Dante asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere beside her, surprising Lightning and causing him to have a moment of surprise. She had noticed him come up beside her, right? At least, he thought she did. Lightning was usually on top of these things.

"No." Lightning scoffed lightly. "If you have to know- I was thinking about your dad."

"Oh, so you like 'em older." Dante couldn't help the smartass remark she'd set him up for. "Well, we both know Sparda's gone. So I'm the best you've got."

"Yeah, you are." Lightning agreed with him before turning her attention to Lady. "Anymore info on those three groups? Anything involving the Order of Salvation and the Children of Etro can't be good. The Order of Salvation almost damned humanity for a chance to get good with their God, Bhunivelze and the Children of Etro resorted to murdering anyone who even remotely looked like me to snuff out the Savior. And if either one is back to their old tricks, then I'm going to show them that's not such a good idea."

"Nothing solid but Trish and I did hear that they were having a meeting in a remote area. It's just a rumor and not concrete but it didn't seem harmless enough to go unsupervised. Trish went there and she's supposed to tell me if anything's going on. I don't know about the Order of Salvation or the Children of Etro- but the Order of the Sword members were supposedly the ones to be there." Lady pursed her lips on hearing Lightning's crash course on those two groups she'd been familiarized with. So they were corrupt humans willing to do the bidding of the divine because they were deluded enough to think that the favor would be returned? She honestly couldn't resist the scoff that escaped. Idiots.

Dante perked up a bit on the mention of the Order of the Sword. He'd been stuck on the fact that Lightning agreed with him for a few moments but glossed over it for now. "What exactly did you hear was going to happen?"

"A tribute." Lady answered Dante. Turning to face him, she sighed. "Since they believe this one is Sparda-" She shrugged in Lightning's direction before continuing on. "-they thought that sacrificing a human would somehow get them in good with their God."

"Doesn't that go against Sparda's wishes? Last I heard he protected humans. So wouldn't it just piss him off to kill one?" Lightning couldn't understand the hypocrisy.

"People do crazy things for their Gods, remember? Maybe they think their God will cameo and save the sacrifice before that time comes." Dante was trying to think about what they could gain from sacrificing a human, but Lightning seemed right. In either case, they had to find out whether or not these rumors turned out to be true. At the very least, they were true enough for Trish to go off alone and scope out the area. Were it just some debunked whispers of radical people trying to seem 'tough' he knew she wouldn't waste her time.

"I'll be their God, alright- just not the one they want." Lightning didn't need this- not today. Her hands balled into fists, and the Savior sent off a look that had been reserved only for Bhunivelze when he admitted to taking Hope's body, torturing him for 167 years to make a complacent servant bent to his will and stealing his soul then claiming humanity as his playthings.

These humans believe that Sparda's returned and they get to murder followed by a get out of jail free card? That I'm going to pat them on the head and congratulate them on a job well done afterward? They've got another thing coming. I'm not one of their belongings and as with the Order of Salvation they're going to learn that the Savior's got her own agenda.

Hearing the disdain in her voice, Lady wasn't sure what Lightning planned to do but figured it wouldn't end well for the Order of the Sword members. Feeling her phone buzz, she fished it out of her pocket and placed it to her ear. "Any news?" Listening for a few moments, Lady frowned. "What? We'll be right there. Just hold tight and don't do anything reckless." Hanging up her phone, Lady looked to the pair. "Looks like we've got a rescue mission on our hands."

"Lead the way." Lightning didn't want to waste a moment that could have been spent saving an innocent.

"Got a ride?" Lady asked, since the fastest way they could go would be by vehicle.

"No. But I can get one." Lightning looked to the sky. "Odin!" Calling his name to the sky, she shut her eyes and prayed that he somehow heard and heeded her call. After a few moments of silence, his whinny came out to the night and Odin descended from the sky, standing before Dante, Lady and Lightning. Opening her eyes, Lightning smiled softly and placed her hand gently on his head. "There's been a change of plans- I need you to take us to a friend. Something bad's about to happen and I'd rather prevent it before it can." Looking to Dante, Lightning motioned for him to come over.

"Just one? What about Brynhildr?" Dante wasn't sure what she could do, but he was curious. Going over to Odin, he saw the Eidolon shy away from him. It didn't seem to share Lightning's sentiment that he could ride it.

"She's busy. We're ready to go." Lightning told Lady, hopping aboard Odin. "Get on." She told Dante. Trying to do as she instructed, Dante was having difficulties due to Odin constantly moving away. Every time he thought he pulled one over on the Eidolon, it instantly shuffled away and snorted at him as if he was somehow wrong for ever assuming he could sit on him.

"What are you waiting for?" Lightning frowned, looking over at Dante.

"He won't let me on." Dante said flatly, frowning at Odin.

Lightning finally clued in to that fact. Sliding off the Eidolon, she moved to the front of him. Looking him in the eyes, she gently caressed his snout. "I need you to let him on. Odin, I need Dante to help me, and you can trust him- he's not a bad person. So would you let him on, for me?" Pleading with the Eidolon, Odin pondered it for a moment and nodded his head, letting out a small snort. Glancing at Dante, Lightning nodded to him. "Get on."

Met with mild hesitance, Dante managed to climb aboard the Eidolon this time around. You can trust him. He's not a bad person. Hearing Lightning's words, he wondered if that meant she trusted him. More than half the time she made it out to be that he was the nuisance she was left to put up with. Well, that worked just fine for him, as they needed to stick it out long enough to save the world. And if he could change her mind and make a lasting relationship with her, well then he supposed that'd be all the better. Only time would tell. Offering her his hand, Lightning glanced at it for a moment took it. Pulling her aboard Odin, Lightning sat behind Dante and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his torso and leaning her head on his back.

"I see we're sticking to the 'hands above the waist' rule. Good to know." Dante joked lightly, grinning over his shoulder at Lightning and winking at the pink haired woman. Glancing at Lady he nodded to her. "Lead the way."

"Right." Lady raised a brow and nodded. "Just try to keep up." Starting her bike, she took off into the night and heard the whinny of Odin as the Eidolon tore off into the sky and easily matched the speed of her vehicle with little to no strain on his part. These two were going to save the world? Lady scoffed lightly. "We're screwed." She commented to herself, trying to hurry along to the rendezvous point Trish and she had set up prior to finding out the rumors they'd heard were the real deal.

"This is a sweet ride. I need to get me one of these." Dante commented, glancing behind him at Lightning. To his surprise, she seemed to be once more staring off into space with an incredibly serious/stoic look. Lightning didn't appear to have heard a single word he'd said, and Dante wondered what she was worried about. Was it the Order of the Sword? Surely someone like her knew she was more than a match for a bunch of humans with manufactured demons at their disposal. Well, that and the odd person they decided was expendable.

She hadn't managed to hear a single word Dante had spoken to her. Her mind was racing with the possibilities that could happen once she came face-to-face with this 'Order of the Sword'. If need be, she'd take a domineering approach to let them know exactly what she stood for- the Savior was not one of their belongings and likewise wouldn't bow down to their will. Lightning maintained a firm grip on Dante's torso and stared out toward the horizon. After a few moments of staring into space, she focused and lift her head up. Odin appeared to have landed on a rooftop. Pulling back from Dante, she shuffled herself around and dangled her legs off the edge of Odin then dropped off the short distance between her and the rooftop. Hearing Dante leap off behind her, she stood in front of Odin and looked into his eyes. "I need you here, old friend." Ordinarily an Eidolon would be dismissed when finishing the task their master had ordered them to do, but Lightning still required his presence.

Odin didn't hesitate for a moment, nodding his head and changing back to his ordinary form. Expertly flourishing the Zantetsuken in his hands, Odin looked down expectantly to his master, waiting for Lightning to ask anything of him.

"Now that's one way of getting around." Trish remarked, raising a brow on seeing Dante and Lightning arrive on Odin. Not to mention the fact that their horse had somehow reformed back into the peculiar creature it had been previously. Trish had yet to meet this one, as she'd only seen Stiria/Nyx/Bahamut previously. Folding her arms, she frowned a bit. "What took you so long?" She asked Dante pointedly.

"Jealous you didn't get to ride the magical flying horse?" Dante asked, ignoring her question and grinning at her.

Trish rolled her eyes. "I was busy making sure the humans were doing what we were told they'd be up to- I didn't have time to run off and do whatever it was that made the two of you get over the whole 'I'm going to kill you' bit you had going on." Placing her hand on her hip, Trish shrugged over in the direction of the Order of the Sword members who were gathering in preparation of their sacrifice to 'Sparda'/Lightning.

"We killed a God together. Even exchanged swords for a little bit there. Yep, you could say things have gotten pretty serious." Dante winked at her, walking over to the edge of the building and glancing down. "They plan on sacrificing that woman?" Glancing over at Trish, the blonde nodded to him. "What do you make of this? Any game plan?"

"Yeah, a few. All of them don't let that woman be murdered for a bunch of deluded people to get their way." Lightning frowned at the large, peculiar object behind her. Of all the artifacts she'd ever encountered, Lightning had no factual clue what this thing was. "What is that?" She asked, pointing at the Hell Gate and looking to Dante for an answer.

"Nothing good. That's going to open up and summon a demon. And judging by the size of that thing? We don't want them to boot it up." Dante shared Lightning's sentiments exactly on the fact that they needed to save the woman, not let a giant demon through and let these people know that they weren't doing anything in their best interests.

"Is there anything we can do to stop it?" Lightning asked, knitting her eyebrows together as she tried to think. "Does it react to you in any special way? Or have something that powers it?" Reminded of the Dead Dunes and the fact that certain obelisks had to be touched by the Savior and her magic had to activate them. This object had to be no different.

"Me? No. But you're right on the mark with something power it. Remember that special whip I had a little while back? Well, that just so happened to come from that demon you encountered on the rooftop. And something like that is being used to power that Hell Gate." Giving her a small crash course on Hell Gates and Devil Arms Dante figured he didn't have time for more considering they were in a time oriented situation.

"Can you destroy it?" Lightning cut right to the chase.

"I can." Dante nodded to her question, waiting for her response as he felt like there was something more she wanted to say.

"Do it. I'll take care of them and you deal with that thing." Lightning knew there wasn't another moment for them to waste. Not while someones life was hanging in the balance while they were talking it out on a rooftop. Glancing at Odin, the Eidolon nodded to her as if instinctively knowing what his master required of him.

"Got it." Turning around, Dante searched for any sign of Lightning but found her and Odin missing. Call him crazy, but how did some large creature like him go missing, let alone Lightning without them noticing?

"Just what the hell is she doing?" Lady asked, frowning when she joined the others in time to notice Lightning was gone from the rooftop.

"She went rogue." Trish commented dryly. "You almost missed the party."

"And miss out on thwarting a ritual sacrifice? What kind of girl do you think I am?" Lady scoffed. "Since we're Savior-less, how about we get this show on the road, yeah?" She asked, raising her weapon and glancing around at the followers Sparda still currently had who were delusional and now worshiping Lightning.

People tend to put too much stock into the divine and 'higher beings' as if they factually ever gave a damn about humans and the like- but that's never the case. These people might think of Sparda as a 'God', but he's nothing like them- Sparda saved a world on the brink of destruction, tossed aside his own nature to nurture the 'lesser beings' they chose to slaughter in a bid to snuff out mankind. He was better than any God could ever hope to be, and these people are so blind that they'll believe anything so long as it means that Sparda has returned and is somehow going to absolve them of all their sins and be their ultimate weapon in the grand scheme of things. But I'm not their 'Sword' and have no interest in joining their organization.

Hearing the fearful cries of the woman they had restrained against two pillars before some peculiar object Lightning had never seen before, and some idol statue that appeared to show her and some other being together fending off an attack, she knew she needed to act. These people seemed to not gave an actual damn about the fact that they were going to rob this woman of her life and the possibilities that could come her way- all they cared about was the coming of some former 'God' who had long ago left this world. Gripping her hand tightly on her sword, Lightning narrowed her eyes. Their arrogance only brought up bitter memories of a past that no longer was- fal'Cie and their preaching of the Maker, Bhunivelze who would remold everything into his perfect image. Caius Ballad who was willing to destroy time and life and death itself just so that he could fulfill his one-sided wish on the behalf of Yeul. Her servitude to Bhunivelze, a mere puppet to God so that she might aid him in his 'perfect' world. Yeah, right.

Leaping into action, Lightning somersaulted over the statue and destroyed it in one swift blow that bisected it with relative ease. Landing right in front of the woman, Lightning waited for the dust to settle and the multitude of screams in the background to stop. Glancing back at the woman, she could see nothing but terror etched on her face. As if Lightning had come to be her executioner. If only she knew how wrong she had been. Standing up, Lightning looked to the crowd and pointed her sword at them. "There is no graver sin in life than to ever take the life of an innocent." The Blazefire Sabre crackled with its crimson divine electricity as she let her anger show.

"Be-" A man started to speak up but Lightning refused to be spoken over.

"I am not just another one of your belongings- you don't want to ever meet me. The 'Savior', she comes at the end of a worlds natural life cycle, she's a harbinger of Death used as a last resort to ferry out the remaining souls of the living and those deemed 'worthy' by God for his radiant, 'perfect' New World." Some of them seemed a little unnerved, others even more surprised by all that she had to say. Maybe Lightning had managed to get through to them on the fact that it wasn't a good thing to meet the 'Savior'. "I wasn't born on this world, and I don't know how things work here- but I can promise you that it's a one up from Cocoon, the place where I come from. There aren't Gods running rampant and playing with your lives as they see fit- you people deluded yourselves into thinking that your almighty had come back to this world. You were willing to stoop so low as to murder someone to summon him here. I don't know much about Sparda, but what I do know is that he thought that human lives were precious and worth protecting, so what made any of you think that you could advocate for him?"

Seeing Lightning and Odin produce themselves before the group of people, Dante decided he join in the action. Finding a moderately empty space for himself, Dante dropped from the rooftop and decided to sneak his way to the back of the Hell Gate and destroy it before any trouble could begin. Hearing a rather large crash, he glanced over and saw Lightning destroy the odd statue the Order of the Sword had erected in her honor. Honestly? He couldn't blame her for destroying it. What a weird idol to use anyway. Making his way to the back of the Hell Gate, he heard Lightning giving a large speech to the group of people and the anger in her tone of voice as she began to explain the various differences between her mortal life on Cocoon and how things worked on Earth. For the most part, he had to agree that their struggles weren't per se on the same level, but not to be fully discounted. Humans here didn't have to deal with Gods but they did have to deal with a 'higher power' in the form of demons.

Attempting to remove the Devil Arm that had been powering the Hell Gate, Dante arrived too late it seemed when he couldn't forcibly extract the object. Hearing shocked gasps from the crowd followed by screams of the woman they'd been baiting for the demon, Dante rushed out to see what was going on and found the scene to be nothing but utter chaos. A demon had summoned part of the way from the Hell Gate, Lightning was nowhere to be seen, the woman was freaking out and he wasn't sure where to start. But that didn't stop him from jumping in. First thing was first- save the girl. Rushing toward her, Dante ducked under the thrashing demon as he made his way to the woman. Caught off-guard by a stray appendage, he was smashed against a wall. Frowning, he mentally scolded himself.

"Sitting on the job? I knew you'd find a way to screw this up. No pay for you." Lady scoffed at Dante and lightly teased him. Pulling out the Kalina-Ann she aimed the massive weapon at the demon and fired.

"We both knew we'd be the ones carrying the team in this one." Trish joined in on the hazing as her pistols were charged with her demonic energy, firing off a multitude of rounds at the demon.

Dante brushed himself off and stood up. "I was careless. In case you didn't notice- I don't have enough arms to be everywhere at once." Pointing out the obvious, he caught something in the corner of his eye. Glancing over, he saw Odin standing in a corner, the Eidolon seemingly distressed. Something about that didn't feel right. What could a being like him be worried over? "You two mind going ahead?"

"You say that as if we didn't already know we'd be doing the rescue mission. Go." Lady told him, pulling out her pistol and for the moment benching the Kalina-Ann until she found more openings to use it on the creature. "You ready?" Lady asked Trish.

"I thought you'd never ask." Trish smirked at her, dashing forward and somersaulting over the large arm of the demon. Finding herself under the careful cover fire of Lady, Trish wasted no time in getting over to the woman and freeing her from her bonds. "You should get out while you still can- this is no place for humans." Trish warned, glaring up at the demon.

"Come again?" Lady asked, raising a brow.

"You know you're no ordinary human." Trish scoffed lightly, folding her arms and glancing back at Lady.

"Right. I knew you weren't poking fun at me." Lady mused, pulling the pin of a grenade and tossing it at the demon.

"Never." Trish agreed, using an electrically charged shot to implode the grenade and cause minimal harm to the creature.

Arriving in front of Odin, Dante found him perched over Lightning who was now unconscious. "Is she...?" Dante asked Odin, wondering if she was still alive. The Eidolon instantly raised his weapon at the hint of another individual but his features softened on finding the individual to be Dante. Odin shook his head to Dante's query. His master would never fall to something so easy. She was merely unconscious. "How'd this happen?" Already having an idea on the answer, Dante followed Odin's gaze to the demon. "Hit her when her back was turned, huh?" Odin nodded to Dante. Staring at the large Eidolon, Dante figured he didn't want to leave Lightning's side, but also was struggling with wanting revenge for what had happened to her. "Would you-" Without hesitance, Odin held out the Zantetsuken to Dante. Glancing down at the weapon, Dante took it from him and watched as Odin transformed into his gestalt form- the horse.

Submitting to Dante, Odin whinnied at him as he buffed Lightning with offensive and defensive buffs. Taking one last glance at Lightning, he hoped that she'd be alright. Turning his attention to Dante, Odin didn't hesitate in the slightest when it came to the devil hunter mounting him. Casting Ullr's shield, Odin wasted no time in buffing his temporary master and charging into battle. Letting out a whinny, he would avenge what happened to Lightning.

"Sergeant Farron!"

Finding herself berated by Amodar, Lightning blinked in confusion as she stared at her former(?) superior officer. "Sir?" Lightning asked, trying to make sense of things. How was she back in Cocoon, on her Guardian Corps days? Wasn't she on the New World with Dante and the others, fighting to save some girl from being sacrificed to a demon?

"You seem a bit distracted today. Something on your mind?" Amodar asked, folding his arms and staring down his ordinarily focused subordinate. If something was important enough to get her head in the clouds, then she'd have to get her focus back.

Lightning knew what her response should be in this situation- she'd lived through it before, right? "No, sir. I'm just... distracted." Those weren't her initial words to Amodar when they'd actually had this conversation 1000 years prior on Cocoon, but Lightning figured that this was a dream, right? So logically she should be able to converse with him in a different manner since he was merely a figment of her mind now. The real Amodar was long gone.

"Trouble at home? I know that sister of yours keeps you busy from time to time." Amodar figured that was likely the source of her lack of focus.

"Sir, I-" Lightning wasn't sure how long she had to interact with this world, and whether or not there was a point in asking this question, as time was finite. And the longer she stayed in this place the longer she was out of the battle and the others were forced to look out for her. "-permission to speak freely?"

"Granted." Amodar nodded to her.

"If you knew that something terrible was going to happen and that you could change it, but altering the past would interfere with the future, would you do so? Even if it meant you had to give up everything to save everyone else?" In this world none of them had become l'Cie just yet and Lightning could drastically alter events here so that the others could be happy. Hope wouldn't lose Nora, Sazh and Dahj would never be at Euride Gorge, Serah and Snow could be married and Vanille and Fang along with Lightning could carry out their focus. Sparing Serah, Snow, Hope, Dahj, Sazh from being marked by their respective fal'Cie, preventing the death of Hope's mother, would that be some form of atonement?

"Regrets, Sergeant?" Amodar folded his arms and frowned. "No, I wouldn't- our experiences shape us into the kind of people we are. Losing any of them would make us lose ourselves. I'm sure there was another you that you hope you could turn back to, but I've never met her. To me, there's only you, to you? There's probably more versions of yourself than you can count. You can't let things like this weigh you down."

Turning her head away for a moment, Lightning contemplated her words. "Thank you, sir." Lightning turned her head back with a smile on her face. That is, until she looked over and found her mysterious opponent once more standing opposite her, and being forced to wear the Knight of Etro garb.

"Feeling sorry for yourself?" She asked, taunting Lightning and once more brandishing her weapon.

"No." Lightning shook her head, sighing a bit as she was already tired of facing this person. "I just have people I want to protect more than anything, but I can feel my humanity slipping away day by day. I don't even think there's anything left of it. Just echoes of emotions and pieces of what I lost to remind me that it's no longer there. Even with Lumina's return, I knew that I could no longer call myself a 'human' and I don't want to be a God or an Angel or 'Higher being' but it's not my choice. The world needs people who are more than just humans to take a stand against those who might look down their nose at mankind and protect everyone."

"The divine cannot understand what they lack. You were born a human and turned into something more. Something is lost to be gained. You've said it yourself, Lightning- you sacrificed your humanity to save a world on its last legs. This is the consequence of your actions- equivalent exchange."

"And what would you know about forsaking humanity? As far as I know you were never human in the first place." Brushing her off, Lightning really wasn't in the mood for this.

"Apparently more than you. It's time you wake up." Without warning, she rushed over and impaled Lightning through the chest, once more killing and banishing her from the realm they resided in.

Opening her eyes, Lightning took in her surroundings- Odin and Dante fending off some demon with Lady and Trish while the Order of the Sword members seemed to be enjoying themselves and watching. Standing up, she supposed it was about time she join the battle and they all finish this. Finding her hand to be empty, Lightning glanced at her sword and found it to be the Overture, gift of Etro, the late Goddess of Death. Hearing a metallic clank beneath her feet, Lightning stared down and let out a small gasp of surprise. Lifting up her forearm, she stared at the familiar armor, reaching out and testing if it truly was on her body. The shield belonging to the Knight of Etro too had materialized on her forearm and completed the set of her armor. Not wanting to lose momentum, she instinctively picked up the Overture and ran forward.

"I'll take you to the Unseen Void." Surprising everyone present by speaking, Lightning held out her sword and pointed it skyward at the massive demon. "I've had just about enough with enemies who think they can land the coupe de grace when my back's turned." Casting Aura on Trish, Lady, Dante and herself, she leapt over the group and straight into the battle. "Blade of the Goddess!" Unleashing a devastating flurry of blows on the demon, she hacked away until finishing with an overhead slash and back flipping away.

"Look who finally got up." Dante mused, joking lightly with Lightning. He didn't know what she per se did to him, just that he already felt much stronger than he was previously. Whatever it was, he hoped it kept coming. She hadn't been wearing that battle armor previously, right? So where'd she get that shield, armor and new sword from?

"The Savior of a world long forgotten. Of Humans who offer no gratitude to their divine protector. Why do you waste your efforts on such unworthy creatures?" The demon asked, scoffing at their efforts. Whether or not it ended up destroyed in battle was of absolutely no consequence.

"Why do your kind keep coming to this world expecting to win when one by one you get snuffed out by humans and demons alike? I swore my warrior's oath to Etro that I would fulfill the tasks she asked of me in exchange for the power to act within her stagnant, divine realm lost from the machinations of time. The Goddess graciously accepted and gifted me with powers no human was ever meant to have. Her divine will still influences the world and I will do what she asked of me. I don't care if I have to cut down every last one of you to do it and drag you to the Unseen Realm but you will never have this world." Long ago Lightning had lost the abilities gifted to her by Etro but it seemed now that they had returned to her. And since she had the Savior abilities gifted to her by Bhunivelze combined with Etro's graces, then she was going to show just what she was made of. Buffing Trish with enfire, Dante with enthunder and Lady with enfrost she gave each one a set of Shellga, Faithga, Protectga, Veil, and Vigilance. Giving herself enwater Lightning wanted to see specifically what elements managed to hurt the creature.

"What was that...?" Lady asked, puzzled as she looked down to her hands and found them giving off a cyan hued aura that seemed to enhance her weapon in some form or other.

"I don't know. But I like it." Trish decided, feeling a warmth in her hands as her pistols both glowed red. Knowing that Lightning had at the very least something to do with it, Trish flashed her a look of gratitude before leaping back from a low sweep performed by the demon in an attempt to catch them all off-guard.

"It's really something the first time around, isn't it?" Dante agreed, hopping off Odin and standing with the rest of the group. Once Odin shifted back to his original form Dante returned the Zantetsuken to him and glanced over at Lightning. "You're just full of surprises."

Lightning momentarily broke eye contact with the demon to meet Dante's gaze. "You like my tail?" She asked, smirking at him with a playful glint in her eyes.

"It's creative." Dante joked back with her, glancing at the feathered end of her armor. "Any particular reason you decided on feathers?"

"The Goddess wanted a champion who was unyielding- these aren't just 'feathers', they belonged to that of a Phoenix." Lightning wondered if the people of this world had any indication of what a Phoenix was, but on Cocoon/Pulse they were powerful, ethereal creatures of legend that no one had ever encountered. Long ago, the Goddess had welcomed perhaps the last of the mythical beasts back into her realm. They created disorder in the laws of nature, violating what all knew to be; that all living things must inevitably die. But for special people came special circumstances. The down of a Phoenix even the blood of one of these transcendent creatures could be used by one chosen by the Goddess for a special purpose without recourse.

"Etro made you armor from a Phoenix? I thought those guys didn't just give up feathers." Dante was a little puzzled on that fact. Maybe the Goddess of Death had special privileges when it came to this kind of thing.

"To those they deem worthy a Phoenix would give all that it has to ensure their survival. Etro earned their faithful servitude eternally to the point that she'd received the highest of gifts from these beings; their feathers and blood. When the Goddess died there were rumors of tunes being heard sung from her temple that no mortal would ever be able to replicate or hear again. Though not confirmed, I assume it to be the doing of the Phoenix." Lightning never encountered such a creature in all of her travels, but Etro had allowed her to gaze upon one through her eyes. They were beings of beauty and something that she wished to see again. But in her heart she knew that she'd never be able to see them again. They departed from reality when the Goddess vanished from the world.

"Sounds like she knew how to make friends in high places. This guy on the other hand? Not so much." Dante shrugged at the large demon and ducked a swipe. "He's not even talking to us- how rude."

"All the more reason to send him packing back to where he came from." Lightning raised the Overture and pointed it at the demon. "Don't worry- we'll make this quick."

"Couldn't be quick enough." Lady chimed in, ready to test out the new powers Lightning had given to her.

"Especially when there's likely some form of payment involved." Trish agreed.

"Unfurl the wings of death." Lightning instantly leapt into action, Odin at her side while they struck blow after blow into the demon. Dante appeared to be the only one keeping up with them in damage ratio and harming the creature while Trish and Lady were filling the 'support' role for the trio. Using Bladestorm a powerful wind current formed around the demon and caused it a decent amount of harm.

Dante periodically glanced over at Lightning during the battle and saw her use abilities she'd never bothered with previously. Relentless in her attack, she eventually used Last Resort and seven of the eight spheres collided with the demon while a stray one hit the Hell Gate and caused a crack to form along it. Using an unfamiliar tactic to him, Dante watched as she uttered the word 'Chaos' and Deprotect, Deshell, Curse, Daze, Debrave and Defaith were cast on the demon severely weakening it to all of their attacks. Damaging it until the demon could no longer fight back, Lightning and Dante went for the coupe de grace and simultaneously impaled it.

"Jackpot!" "Evil has a price."

Both individuals glanced over at one another when they spoke their lines. Lightning was confused as to why he'd spoken that phrase, and Dante seemed to contemplate her last words. "Jackpot?"

"It's a family thing." Dante shrugged his shoulders. "Kind of an inside joke, really."

"Makes sense." Lightning could understand that. She and the others had plenty of inside references most people wouldn't get. "Now how about we turn this thing into a memory?" Lightning asked, ready to do whatever it took to destroy the Hell Gate and remove any lingering threat of demons like that one getting through. Dante had all the expertise but she'd lend a hand if she were able to do so.

"You're not gonna just use those fancy balls to tear it down?" Dante asked, he couldn't help but notice they were powerful enough to cause cracks along the Hell Gate. Using all of them on it would likely destroy the object.

"I thought I'd go with your opinion. You're the expert here and I don't want to get in the way. Artifacts like this aren't meant to be toyed with." Lightning wasn't even sure why they existed or how but perhaps some higher power out there deigned fit to make them. Maybe one who hated humans.

"'Expert', huh? Never thought I'd hear you say something like that." Dante mused, hastily making his way to the back of the Hell Gate and removing the Devil Arm behind it. Glancing over, he saw Lightning beside him and offered her the object. Her gaze focused on it for a moment as if contemplating whether or not to take it but she shook her head.

"You keep it. You'd know better than I what to do with it." Lightning figured that those belonged in his care. It didn't seem right that she take it.

"Is this your way of saying 'thanks' for protecting you earlier?" Dante asked, grinning at her. He expected some haughty remark and angry look to come his way. Maybe even a swing or two.

"No. But I definitely owe you for that one. I'm not sure the words 'thank you' are enough gratitude." Lightning wasn't sure how she could repay the favor. Maybe she'd get lucky and the opportunity would present itself.

"Just do something you'd like." Dante wouldn't per se call Lightning 'flustered' but she did seem a little out of her element having to thank him. At least this way there wasn't any pressure from her to give him a gratuity. Watching her hesitate for a few moments then come closer, Lightning stood on her toes and pat him on the head. Surprised by the small gesture he'd performed on her a few times, he couldn't help the small smile on his face. She enjoyed him doing that? Lightning had turned her head away from him, likely out of embarrassment so he assumed the answer to be 'yes'. To be honest, he wasn't sure what he had expected from her. Standing on her toes? "How about we really destroy this thing?" Dante asked, sparing her pride and shrugging to the Hell Gate.

"Sounds like a plan." Lightning leapt back and used Elementga while Dante used his newfound 'toy' to take it down.

"The chosen ones of the Goddess are remarkable paragons of unmatched strength." Yeul commented, stepping forward and smiling at the pair while she observed the destruction of the Order of the Sword's misdeeds. Accompanying her was Noel who looked surprised at the display of power between the two. Well, not only that but Yeul and he had caught sight of Lightning seemingly petting the older man.

Both instantly looked over at the approaching pair and closed the distance between the four of them.

"You're Yeul, right? Not another I gotta know about?" Dante asked, wondering if this had been one from his dreams.

"Yes, I am the Yeul you encountered within a dream. You needn't worry yourself, Dante." Yeul smiled softly and even let out a small laugh, the Seeress displaying an overall amount of humanity that Lightning wasn't familiarized with. Maybe that had come into her personality from being left alone on the New World with Noel for a decade. Would that come to an end due to her once more receiving the Eyes of Etro?

"It's been a long time, Noel." Lightning spoke up to the brunette male.

"Too long." Noel smiled at her.

"When was the last time we saw each other? When you tried to kill me in a street brawl?" Lightning asked, toying around with him a little bit. Seemingly caught off-guard by the statement, Noel averted his eyes and scratched the back of his head.

"No, I think it was when I heroically stepped in for you during that 2 on 1 Chimera fight." Noel said, regaining his composure and smiling at Lightning.

"My hero." Lightning said in a manner that reflected Serah's statements about Snow. Each one laughed a little at her mimicry of the younger Farron. "You're not looking for a hug or anything like that, right?" Lightning asked, wondering if he was going to pull a Snow on her and just dive in for one at his choosing.

"Not really. You're not the hugging type." Noel shook his head. "It's just good to see you. I wasn't sure if I ever would see you again."

"You know me- end of the world or nothing." Lightning honestly had a bad sense of timing when it came to people.

"Lotta that 'almost killed me in a street brawl' going around now isn't there?" Dante asked, placing his elbow on Lightning's shoulder and looking down at her.

"But did you die?" Lightning asked.

"Not really the point now is it? You could'a just talked things through with me." Dante pointed out.

"Yeah, but then we wouldn't have had a fun time trying to kill each other." Lightning could honestly do this all day.

"Speaking of 'killing' there is another matter at hand." Yeul spoke up, surprising the trio. "One that you had conflict with many centuries before on Cocoon needs your assistance. This person will be needed to aid your cause."

"Who is it? Rains?" Lightning wasn't sure if he was of the souls reborn on the New World, but it was possible.

"Nabaat." Yeul spoke the name that sent a shiver down Lightning's spine.