Well I don't really like this chapter XD But...oh well! And I'll admit it, I might have to throw in a little Hope/Vanille just because I think they're kind of adorable. (Yet they're my two least favorite characters...how does that work?) I'll also admit that I haven't updated this because I completely forgot where I was going with it and had to rethink the plot line. But I think I got it now (: Enjoy! Give me some reviews!


'But you won't win if you keep pretending as if he is what he was in the past.'

The words kept repeating themselves in her mind over and over until it had become almost an obsession for her to figure out their meaning. Why wouldn't Raines tell her? What was Barthandelus if not a powerful fal'cie? What more could he be? Lifting the drink off the Academy bartop, Lightning touched the rim to her lips and drank slowly. While the drink was helping her nerves, it wasn't helping jumpstart her brain to figure out what he had meant. Damn it. Her own focus had to do with the protection of Gran Pulse, she was sure of it. So protection from what? Dysley? Raines? It didn't make sense.

"Ya' look loike you've got the weight a' the world on yer shoulders." Lightning glanced to the side to see Fang pulling up a seat and settling herself next to Lightning. "You sure don't.", she dryly acknowledged, earning a chuckle from the brunette. "Some fun every once in a while moight be a start." Lightning expelled a breath and gave Fang a look. "And who do you suggest I have some...fun with?" Fang leaned forward and studied the bartender while she seemed to be contemplating just that. "Hey, handsome. What's yer name?" Uh-oh...Lightning didn't like the sounds of that at all. Keeping her expression neutral, she fingered her drink and watched. "Devan, what's yours?" With a quirked eyebrow, Fang sent him a look Lightning could only describe as a 'eat your heart out', before turning back to Lightning. "Have some fun with Devan here." The wicked grin on Fang's face, mirrored by the hopeful one on the tender's made Lightning nearly roll her eyes. Instead she kept her expression void of emotion and quirked an eyebrow. "Maybe I should." While that was the furthest thing from her mind, the hoot and slap on the back she recieved made her smile. Leave it to Fang to try setting her up with a random bartender.

"So what is it?" Lightning rubbed her jaw and peered down at her glass. "Something Raines said, but he wouldn't elaborate on. 'You won't win if you keep pretending as if he is what he was in the past.' What could he be besides the obvious?" Fang crossed her arms over her chest and they lapsed into silence to think. "Maybe he's come across a spot a' power lately." "But how?" "Same way he grew them fingernails." Lightning found herself smiling at the mention of Dysley's fingernails. She couldn't seem to get them out of her mind. "But no really. He wanted ta' bring back the Maker through killing everyone on Cocoon. Maybe he's found a source of power in order to become the new Maker." It was a thought, and more than she'd previously had.

Their conversation was interrupted by a violent shudder rocking the structure. Eyes snapped to Fang before yet again there was a violent motion that knocked Lightning's chair off balance. Reacting in that same moment, Lightning grabbed the bar surface and swung up even as her chair skittered to the oppsite side of the room. "Shit." "You alright Fang?" "Yeah, I'll be foine. Let's see what the hell's happenin'." Snatching her gunblade from where she'd placed it, Lightning slipped it into her sheath, vaulted off the bartop and followed Fang's headstart out, continuing down the hallway.

More violent shudders rocked the building, one so powerful it sent Lightning and Fang crashing into the wall and crumpling to the ground. Back on their feet in a few seconds, they ran into Rygdea and his group of soldiers. "Fang! Lightning." "Ry, the hell is goin' on?", Fang demanded instantly. Rygdea took Fang's elbow and ushered them down the hall after his soldiers. "That punk-ass Dysley is back and tearing the place apart. I assume he's after Raines. He's torn a huge hole out of the west side and we're losing guys fast." "If he gets Raines back under his control-..." "Shit's going to hit the ceiling, I know.", he said through ground teeth. "I'll go to where Raines is." Lightning hadn't even known the words were coming until they had left the mouth. Thankfully Fang and Rygdea were so caught up in what was happening, neither questioned her. "I'll take care of that, keep him in his cell, and you two go see about putting Dysley down." "Will do." As she started to sprint away, the accented voice floated after her. "Give 'em hell Loight!"


Keeping Raines in his cell proved to be a much larger task than she'd originally thought. Lightning had just reached Raines' location when the whole building - the walls, ceiling and floor - started groaning like a savage beast was gnawing all around. She was thrown off balance when a huge explosion caused the ceiling to start collapsing in on her. Ducking and rolling, Lightning did her best to avoid the debris as the entire front portion was ripped away, pieces caving in and pinning her to the ground. Stunned, Lightning was left to watch in a haze while the shadowy figure of Dysley walked toward the cell that Raines was being held in. "No.", she croaked out while straining against the debris holding her down. "Damn it, no!" But being unable to get out even with her straining, Lightning watched in silence as Dysley reappeared with a struggling Cid. "I refuse to be a puppet any longer." A burst of hope spread through Lightning's veins, spurring her struggles to a greater intensity.

Yet before her eyes, things soured quickly. Raines rushed, but was quickly overpowered by the fal'cie when he disappeared and materialized behind Cid, sending the man plummeting to the ground. With a foot resting midback to keep him down, his staff was placed on the back of his head. Lightning watched as he sapped any resistance out of Cid - replacing it with a depth void of anything human. Lightning had never seen anything like the process that had just gone on before her eyes. Yet she knew then what a mouse felt like when Dysley turned his gaze toward her, stepped away from Raines, and directed him on his first course. "Kill her."

Oh crap. With the reality of death slipping nearer and nearer, Lightning was left to face it head on.

Except that a familiar burning within her chest and the appearance of her Eidolen sent a blast of energy that knocked both her opponants and the debris holding her down away from her. Instantly the feeling of freedom elated her, pushed her to get up. So up she went, her weapon returning to her hand, only to be knocked back by Barthandelus. Quickly twisting to the side, she narrowly avoided the butt of his staff smashing her face in. A familiar figure astride Bahamut came to her rescue, Bahamut snatching Dysley off her and sent him sailing into the rubble in the opposite wall.

Lightning vaulted on Odin as he ran past, attempting to crush Dysley before he could recover, but he disappeared before her eyes while a second figure crashed into her - unseating her and hurling her to the ground. "Fang!", she shouted while she breathlessly started to stand, blocking the downward strike that would have otherwise disarmed her by countering with a blow from her gunblade. "Go after Dysley!" And so she was left alone with Cid. "Raines pull yourself together, damn you!" If the blackness in his gaze was any indication, he wouldn't be listening to a word she said. Jumping back to avoid a blow to her body, Lightning searched for signs of weakening.

Nothing.

She wouldn't be able to do this, not by herself, but she could give him a run for his money. If she was going to hold out for any length of time, she was going to have to hit hard and avoid any attacks from him. Waiting, they sized each other up. No rushing. She would hang back, conserve her energy and wear him down as best she could with Odin to assist her. Vaulting once more at Odin, she was caught and whipped over Raines, twirling to land on her feet and follow up with a few snaking slashes of her gunblade. And once more she retreated, drawing him out of the ruined building and toward a more open pathway, toward assistance.


Avoiding a well timed attack what seemed like hours later, Lightning rolled to the side and allowed Odin's fist to uppercut Raines and knock him back. While she was attempting to focus on the battle at hand, it was fairly obvious that something was wreaking havoc on the rest of the city. Damn it. In the distance she could see the large form of Bahamut flying toward her - a sight which distracted her momentarally. In that moment though, Raines attacked and disarmed her, sending her sprawling on the concrete. "Shit.", she muttered. Her salvation came in the form of the petite redhead she'd all but forgotten about.

"Faaaaaang!" That same moment straps entangled the figure set to kill her and dragged him back. Rolling to her knees, Lightning watched the Fang guided Bahamut swoop down, catch Raines in his grip and begin the climb back to the skies. "Lightning!" Lightning didn't take her eyes from off the rising Bahamut, but recognized the now deeper voice of Hope Estheim. "What's the situation with Barthandelus?", she snapped while peering upwards. "He's leveling the city right about now. Rygdea and Sazh have an airstrike which should be ready in a few minutes. Etro help Academia." With a grunt of approval, Lightning's grip tightened around her gunblade handle when Bahamut was forced to drop Raines or be harmed. Brushing past Hope, Lightning swung up on her faithful eidolon and sent him rushing toward where Raines was plummeting to the ground - but not in time.

With a fall like that, logically she thought he had to be dead. Dared she hope? And yet when she dropped off the back of her eidolon and knelt beside the large figure, her hand reaching for his chest, a larger hand encircled her own, gently but firmly. Eyes no longer void to the depths stared up at her. "Miss Farron, I-" The words were interrupted by a loud groan as the ground beside them burst. Thrown to the side and down to her knees, Lightning felt herself being dragged back and away, but couldn't find the ability to do anything but stare at the looming being rising from the newly destroyed section of ground. It seemed as big as Titan - but she had no idea what it was. Equally as grotesque as it was majestic, they were left to watch as the figure was approached by a mutated version of what Lightning assumed was Barthandelus. "What the hell?" Fang's question was what Lightning wanted to know. What was going on? "That's Phoenix." It hadn't been so long that Lightning couldn't even remember what the sanctum Fal'cie looked like. Hope had explained that they had all gone dormant after Cocoon had fallen from the sky - yet here it was, rising from a place Lightning wouldn't have expected.

With a hand still on her gunblade, she stood with the rest of them and watched the two god-like figures lock into a furious battle. It was easy to see who was winning though. In an impressive show of power minutes later - begrudgingly given by Lightning - Barthandelus struck down the mighty fal'cie. The crash of Phoenix hitting the ground shook the very city, and Lightning struggled to stay on her feet for a moment. "What's happening?" Vanille's pitiful little squeak caused her gaze to snap back up in time to watch the form of Barthandelus seem to...what was he doing to the figure of Phoenix? She lifted her arm to shield her face as a bright light shot through the sky, engulfing them and everything in its path. The noise that accompanied split her ears - when it was all over, Barthandelus was gone, leaving behind a shell of what Phoenix had been in his stead. "Get a ground crew down there, now!" Rygdea's commanding voice took control of the situation, barking orders at the soldiers that had now gathered around them. "Oh no!" Once more Vanille's little squeak of a voice alerted her to something happening. She watched while Raines slumped to the ground, starting almost violently to awaken out of her dream like state to start over toward him. Through that fog Rygdea's voice spoke once more. "And get Raines to a medic!"