Poor Vanille doesn't get as much screen time as she should. Also, I'm not sure exactly what this chapter is, but I hope you enjoy! Keep reviewing, I do like it! Characters at Enix, plot is mine. Enjoy! Okay last time I uploaded this chapter, the entire first paragraph didn't load for some reason...so, here is take two! Hopefully it works!


Lightning's question would go unanswered for a minute. Huffing out a breath, she crossed her arms over her chest and watched Rygdea hop off the airship, land on the ground with bent knees to absorb the shock, and proceed over toward where Cid Raines was panting on the ground. When he knelt beside the larger man, Lightning simply shifted her weight to another leg and watched what happened. "Sorry old pal," came his voice, rimmed with regret, before he patted Cid on the shoulder and stood back up. With a glance over his shoulder, he waved an arm, motioning military men toward him. "Put him in the lockdown unit boys, an' get him some medical attention, would ya'? The rounds did a number on him." One final affectionate pat on the shoulder of his friend, and the man that had so happened to just try and kill them.

Two soldiers came running up beside the fallen man, clipping some sort of high tech restraints on him, before lifting him to his feet and half carrying him away. Her eyes followed the movement as they carted him up the ramp of the airship and then disappeared. Lightning wondered what exactly would happen to him. Rygdea wouldn't do anything bad to Raines, she was sure of it. Why did she not want anything to happen to him? It didn't make any sense. She had been so angry when she'd learned, once again, that he was going to try and kill them. But something about his eyes…they haunted her. 'Focus, Light.', she chided herself, shaking her head before turning back toward the rest.

Was she finally going to get her question answered? Standing patiently, she watched the cocky smile return and him go up to Fang. Apparently he had forgotten about the question. Or 'forgot' anyway. Fang was obviously higher in his list of importance then a question she had asked. "Tch," she muttered out as he slid up to Fang and slung an arm around her waist. "Miss me Girly?" Fang made no move to remove the arm slung around her waist. Fang smirked, Lightning sighed. She was never going to get her questions answered. "I told ya' not to get cute, Cowboy." At that point, Lightning noticed that Vanille had snuck up beside her, and feeling a tug on her arm, bent over slightly to hear what Vanille had to say. "Is that a friend of Fang's?" Lightning felt only like slapping her forehead a little over Vanille's whispered question. She had a sarcastic remark, but dropped it when she saw the innocent features looking up at her. "Yeah, when Fang was looking for you, she was with him."

The disgruntled little sigh she got made a smile lift onto her lips. "No, Light, I mean, you know, a friend." Lightning knew exactly what she meant, still, the way the younger girl had said it amused her. "You should ask Fang about that." Lifting her vision from the hyper girl to notice that they had just gotten closer together, she finally stepped forward, clearing her throat. "I asked a question Rygdea.", she pointedly spoke out, a hand on her hip. Okay, things were looking up in the department of getting her questions answered. Especially when Rygdea pulled away and got his more professional look back. Finally.

The cheeky grin was back again.

"Your brother in law contacted me an' told me what you were tryin' to do. Said that his wife was worried an' that he thought you were gonna do something stupid." Lightning rolled her eyes. "The pot calling the kettle black." The grin only widened on his features, but she got a shrug of a shoulder. "Mentioned trying to get Fang and Vanille back, so I put two and two together about where you'd be. I had the boys load up the closest airship and came out here toward Cocoon. I'd have brought the kid if I knew it was gonna to be a family reunion.", he mentioned with a glance toward the two Pulsian women. Lightning guessed 'the kid' was Hope. Vanille smiled then, with her hands clasped by her chest. "Well thank you! We were in trouble," she sheepishly spoke out. As much as Lightning wished she could have denied that, she knew that Vanille was right. They had been in trouble.

"What are you going to do with him?"

That struck a chord with Rygdea. Removing his arm from Fang's waist finally, he put his hands on his hips and glanced over at the airship and some soldiers that were standing there waiting, their guns hoisted up in their arms. "I've gotta say, I was damned surprised to see who it was that you were battling. Thought I'd finally put him to rest when he asked-…well, that doesn't matter. The point was, I was surprised, an' the only thing I could think of to help was shooting him. I'm just glad I didn't kill him." Lightning realized that he hadn't answered her question. It didn't seem to be by design though, since Rygdea was still looking over his shoulder, a bit of a saddened look on his features. "So now what do you do? Something about a lock down unit?"

She finally gained his attention. "That isn't the Cid Raines I know. He wanted freedom, but…didn't make sense that he'd just kill you for i-" "He's tried before," came Fang's interjection. "Back there in the Ark." Though Fang was right, something seemed…different. "Something wasn't right." That led to a snort from Fang. "No kiddin' Loight. We're l'cie, he's l'cie, hell, are you l'cie too Rygdea?" Lightning waved a hand to try and silence everyone. "He said something about doing 'his bidding' for the Fal'cie to find freedom." Vanille's voice quietly spoke out again, her eyes flickering between the three of them. Lightning nodded, "His focus must be to stop us, but something was off." Something about his eyes. Why did they cut into her thoughts so clearly?

Rygdea sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, we aren't gonna do any good standing out here and talking about it. Hop on board, we'll fly back to Academia and come up with something. I'm sure Hope would be glad to see ya too. In the meantime, we'll get Cid some medical attention and then try to figure out what the hell he thought he was doing, attacking you." Waving to them, Fang and Vanille followed him as he made his way toward the airship.

Freedom. Wasn't that what they were all after?

Lightning hung back a bit, watching them hop on, all the while thinking about Raines and his actions. It didn't seem like the actions of a desperate man. It seemed like actions from someone else, controlling him, driving him. That would make sense, wouldn't it? A l'cie, branded by Etro only knew who. Or could it be-

"Loight! Get yer ass over here."

The voice shook her from her thoughts and spurred her into action. As she stepped up and into the airship, Lightning glanced over her shoulder at the crystallized world behind her. As the ramp started to close, swallowing up her vision of Cocoon, hanging there in the sky, Lightning shifted to see it as the ramp closed until the door shut with a hissing noise.

Why did she feel the need to see it like it was one last time?