Holy shit! what's this an update!

I'm so very sorry that I haven't updated in so long, I don't even have a good excuse. It was mostly just my own laziness, the fact that I got addicted to reading Inuyasha manga, I found Kingdom Hearts birth by sleep and have been playing that and that I was originally trying to write a chapter for my KH story and I just couldn't write it no matter how hard I tried. Put together most of it was just me getting distracted, which is no excuse for me not updating in three months.

I really hope you enjoy the chapter and forgive me for not updating in so long.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy Square Enix does

Nightmares beginning

Staring at the black haired girl in disbelief, Serah's mind tried to make sense of what seemed to be an impossibility. She was blind. That much was clear, but all it did for Serah was confuse her even more about how she had done what had been unfeasible for some of the strongest men she knew who had perfect sight. And all the while the world around her was nothing but darkness to her.

"You're blind." she muttered in the sheer disbelief of it. Even as she said it felt wrong, like it didn't matter what her eyes were telling her; it just couldn't be possible. But the evidence was right in front of her eyes, so how could she deny it?

"So you noticed," the girl said casually, like she found it funny that Serah thought it so bizarre. Placing a hand on her hips the girl walked closer to Serah and back on to the shore to retrieve her armour. Sitting upon a decently sized rock that dotted the sand, she picked up each part of her armour plates and replaced them back on her body one by one, leaving the shoulder guard for last. Fingering the black bandana that now played about her neck since she'd pulled it down from covering her face after the brief fight with the Valhallans, she laughed at Serah's behaviour "You really find it so weird don't you, that I can't see?"

"Of course I do!" Serah blurted out. "All of the strongest people I know put together couldn't have done what I saw you do and they can see perfectly, yet you can't at all and you took those men out in seconds!"

Looking up at her, the girl hummed to herself, "Guess I'm just a little different from those people you know then. Just guessing here, but I don't think any of them has the ability to summon fire out of nothing." Pushing her hair back behind her shoulder from where it had fallen to over her front, the girl got up off the rock and up onto her feet. From there she walked further down the beach and away from Serah but stopped not too far away and stood stock still, digging her toes into the sand. Despite her sudden stillness there was nothing in the way she held herself that portrayed that she sensed any danger in the immediate area. If anything, she looked relaxed.

Staring at her tall figure Serah tried to make sense of her, a hard task to achieve. She was a magic user, she'd made that clear by all the fire she'd created during the fight and by her own admittance of it and that in itself was something to be viewed as strange. It wasn't every day that you met someone with such powers. She had speed beyond the realm of what would be viewed as normal, or human for that matter. As well as amazing skill when it came to fighting, a true master of battle must have taught her sometime in her life so that she could have achieved such effortless perfection in battle at such a young age. But what confused her most was beyond the shadow of a doubt: the fact the girl could achieve such dominance in battle whilst not being able to see her opponents.

She had met blind people before in her life but never before had she seen one so sure of their movements that it went beyond the border of impossible.

A sound from the girl broke her away from her thoughts. Focusing back on the present she saw that she was doing no more than humming to herself like she had done when she was sitting on the rock.

"Is it because I confuse you that you have been looking at me?" she asked without turning around to look at Serah.

Becoming more perplexed, if that was even possible, Serah questioned the girl, finding no potential way that she could have known she was being stared at. "How did you know I was staring at you?"

"Same way I know where I'm going and that there was more of those buffoons coming down the path when I led you off it: a little birdy told me," she answered with a laugh.

"Going back to that excuse, are we?" Serah mumbled, conceding that she wouldn't be getting the explanations she dearly wanted off this girl, seeing as she always seemed to have some sort of excuse up her sleeve.

"It's a personal favourite," the girl said, knowing that Serah expected no response from her. Walking forward once again she only took a handful of steps before halting again. Twisting backwards she held out her hand and gestured for Serah to follow her. "You going to come or what? I doubt you have any other business to attend to here."

Grumbling to herself, Serah began to follow the girl as she reinstated her path forward. Why was it only now that she realised the girl was blind that her mind registered that when she looked about her eyes never focused on anything? Pondering the thought she did her best to keep up with the girl as she went about her fast gait up the shore.

...:...

Watching on as groups of Valhallan men lazed about in the small deserted town, a slim black haired man stood tall amongst his own kind. Despite what his outward appearance would have led you to believe, he was of Valhallan blood just like the men that surrounded him. His comparatively slimmer form made an odd sight next to the bulky forms of the others but that was not a difference you would take into account when faced with him. Aura alone proved who was dominant, and he won by a long shot.

Grey-blue eyes stared out from behind a side fringe on the right side of his face and scanned the expanse he stood in. It'd been awhile since he had stepped foot in this town and in his opinion of it hadn't changed much in the time he had spent in the Mynscentar forest, but it was unlikely to him that it would change much when he left. The place had been in Valhallan occupation for roughly about the entire time that they had been in this world so he hardly thought that that was going to change any time soon.

Stepping forward he began to walk towards the most prominent structure of the town. It was a decently sized building that enclosed a large front room and a detached bedroom, though it didn't seem to him that it had been primarily used as a house.

Walking up a small set of stairs that led to its front doors he walked inside. Spotting the man he was looking for slouching over a lounge that looked like it had seen better days, he approached him with a dark smile settling itself on his lips.

"Vitzca, you wouldn't happen to know what happened to that prisoner of mine that I left in your – and that group of yours' – hands, would you?" he asked darkly, his tone dripping in a friendliness that anyone else may have mistaken for genuine, but the man sitting down in front of him knew better than to be that naïve.

Snapping to attention at the sound of the voice, Vitzca sat up dead straight and locked his gaze with the man standing over him pleadingly. "Please Sir," he whimpered, knowing that the man would have only come here to ask him such a question if he already knew that the prisoner that had been left in his care had escaped. "It wasn't my fault that she escaped! Someone attacked us, we barely got the chance to see who they were before they knocked us unconscious! Please don't hurt me, Sir, it wasn't my fault!" he begged, knowing the futileness of the act.

Laughing darkly at the cowering Vitzca, the man leaned over him. "Someone attacked you, you say. I'm just going to guess here, but when you say someone you mean a single person, so you're saying an entire group of men fell to a single opponent?"

Still whimpering in fright, Vitzca continued to cower from the man standing above him. "Don't hurt me," He whispered in a last ditch attempt.

"Ho ho, if only if it was that simple my good man. You see the order to capture that prisoner came directly from the Untundra himself, so seeing that you let her escape he isn't very happy about it and has let me know so. And believe you me, it didn't take him long to give the order to see to it that you and that little group of yours received the punishment you all deserve."

He let the last line hang in the air a moment, a dark grin placing itself upon his lips, promising the torment that was to come.

"Oh, there's one last thing I wish to impart to you," he said menacingly.

Drawing in close to Vitzca he drew a sabre from a sheath at his side and pressed it close to his neck.

"You are the last of your group who still breathes."

Screams of agony resonating from the building and floated across the small town.

The torturous sounds caught the attention of every man within hearing range, freezing them in the middle of whatever they were doing to listen on as the man's yells became more and more subdued, until silence reigned again.

Watching as the black haired man walked out of the building and wiped his sabre clean on the grass outside before sheathing it, they averted their gazes from him whenever he drew close to one of them.

But they knew he was aware of the stares, nothing ever evaded his sights.

Treading away from the town and into the forest beyond it, the black haired man walked out of view of all the men that persisted staring at him. He was well aware that he was always stared at when in this village, or around any of the men as a whole, but it didn't bother him much. They thought him a psycho, even by their standards, and they were right. He wasn't bothered by anything he had to do if it was to serve Untundra, hence he had no limits as to what he would do.

Most Valhallan men killed the inhabitants of this land without much thought, but it was the opposite when it came to their own kind. It was an upmost sin to kill another Valhallan, but his mind had never paid attention to that, so killing another Valhallan was no problem for him. It was a reason why Untundra liked him so much, because he could be put to so many uses that the others never could.

So of course when the blundering fools had let a prisoner whose capture had been ordered directly from Untundra escape, he was the one asked to punish them.

Though on the topic of people Untundra wanted captured, he could concede that they at least still had two of them in their grasp, one of which Untundra had valued so highly a captive that he had ordered her taken directly to him. But one still remained here, under the watchful eye of that psycho woman at that.

So it didn't matter too much that one had escaped, she could most likely be re-captured later anyway, it wasn't like she could get very far away from them in her current situation. But before making an attempt to find her he thought that he might as well go check up on their other prisoner, to see how he was faring being watched by that psycho.

He thought it funny that the men found him so much more disturbing than that woman. Because when it really came down to it, if he was considered a madman, then he was but a candle to an inferno when compared to that woman.

...:...

Following the black haired girl's brisk pace had long since began to tired Serah out. It wasn't to say she was unfit, but the girl in front of her was something else entirely. It was like she could go on forever without having to pay a single thought to fatigue. Though Serah doubted that that was truly a possible feat, the girl was yet to show any signs that this fast pace was having any effect on her.

Pulling to a stop suddenly Serah bent over double, placing her hands on her knees as she tried as best she could to get her breathing back to normal. She was near certain that simply walking had never taken this kind of toll of her before. Though it probably didn't help that the past few days previous had been spent trekking across a giant plain for hours straight and the sun above was far hotter than she was used to in all her time spent in the underground safe house and Mynscentar forest's shade.

She heard the sound of footsteps pad across the sand. Serah looked up to see the girl starring down at her, with a damned smile on her face that screamed that she found Serah's exhaustion funny in all kinds of ways no less.

"Tired, are we?" she questioned in that exotically accented voice of hers with a humorous tone that the smile on her face already showed she felt.

Straightening up in place of answering her question Serah replied with, "How in the world can you keep up that pace for so long?"

Genuinely laughing at Serah questioning, the girl shrugged, "If I knew I would tell you, but alas I don't have the answer. It's just something I've always been able to do, but I have to give it to you, you've done better to keep up with me than some people from where I come from, and that's saying something."

"That so?" Serah mumbled as she let herself sit down on the sand to rest. All the girl's last sentence had managed to do for her was intrigue even more as to who in the world she was and where she came from.

Moving away from the sitting Serah and closer to the line of trees the girl said casually, "You can rest here for a while if you want. I'll keep watch."

Letting her gaze wonder to the girl, Serah couldn't help but let slip out, "Just asking but how exactly can you keep watch?"

"I can because if there's anything in the area that could be dangerous or of interest a little birdy tells me."

It took all of Serah will not to go up to the nearest tree and hit her head against it. "Can you please stop saying 'little birdy' and be a little bit more specific please?" she half complained, half begged.

"Nope," was the girl's lightning-fast answer.

They rested there for roughly another half hour before setting off again down the beach. It was quickly noticeable to Serah that the girl had, or at least seemed to have, a clear destination in mind but where that was she had no idea.

After another few minutes, curiosity got the better of her and she asked, "Where are you taking me?"

"Personally I have no idea; I haven't been down this way before. But a little birdy keeps on telling me that there is something around here that I have to see. I have an inkling that it is a person but they won't tell me."

Resisting the feeling to hit her head at the 'little birdy' comment again Serah blurted out, "You don't know where you're going!"

"Not entirely. I wouldn't say that I don't know where I'm going because I certainly know where I want to end up. It's just that I've never been there before, so how could I know where I'm taking you? I'm relying on the little birdy to take me there."

That sounded weird but she thought she had it down. So this girl knew where her destination was but had never been there before so she couldn't say she knew the place. That she got, but what in the world was the 'little birdy'?

Still trying to make sense of the thought Serah was abruptly made to halt when the girl suddenly came to a unannounced stop. Carefully taking a few steps forward so that she drew to the girl's side, Serah asked her, "Why are we stopping?"

Without answering her question the girl posed another one: "Serah, do you recognise this place?"

"Wah?" Serah was about to interrogate her further on the sudden question when her attention was drawn away from the girl and to the area they now stood. She did recognise it, she had just been too distracted by her thoughts to notice it sooner. But now that seemed so stupid to her, because how could she not recognise this place?

Walking onward a couple of more steps so that she stood in front of the girl, Serah peered ahead of them. The place that met her eyes was easily more than a couple hundred metres away but that didn't matter to her eyes. She knew this place.

"That's new Bodhum," she whispered.

Hearing the girl as she came closer until they stood side by side, the girl asked her "So you do know this place then. How come?"

"This is the place I lived after the fall of Cocoon," Serah told her, a distraught emotion taking control of her voice. There were a lot of emotions that came along with seeing the place after so many years, but the one that came out on top was sadness.

Oh goddess, the place was infested.

There were Valhallan men everywhere she looked, they filled every nook and cranny that was visible to the eye. It was a horrible sight.

"They're there aren't they?" the girl said from behind her. "Those idiotic oafs, they're everywhere over there."

"Yes." Serah answered sadly.

"And you don't want them there," she said, but not as a question.

"I want them away from this place," Serah told her, not entirely sure why the girl had voiced such.

"Then that's easily fixed." the girl said, rising her arm high so that it came up to chest height and pointing it in the direction of New Bodhum.

Confused by the action Serah failed to make sense of it. That was until she noticed the air around them turn deadly cold and the water in the vicinity of New Bodhum turn to ice. Seeing the change of the water the Valhallan men by the beach panicked. Clearly knowing what was going to happen next came faster to them than it did Serah.

But the next instant left no time for her to ponder it, as it explained it all.

The ice shot out from the sea in great waves, working themselves around the shore and beyond to the houses. Every man the great shards passed were captured in an ice prison and frozen solid. Snapping her head to the side to view the girl, Serah watched as she looked ahead with great focus, despite that her eyes did not see what she was unleashing upon the Valhallan men in the town.

Turning slowly to view the scene of the deadly ice prison that now existed over the expanse of New Bodhum, Serah noted that no Valhallan men within moved, they were all encased in ice.

Lowering her arm, the girl moved from her spot and went sidewards towards the trees by their side.

"What'll happen to them?" Serah asked her.

"They'll die like that," The girl answered with nothing in her voice giving away that their death at her hands meant anything to her.

That shook Serah, but more than that, it was because she found that she didn't care if those men died than the fact that the girl could end their lives with nary a thought.

Following the girl in the direction of the trees, she asked her, "Where are you going now?"

"What I'm looking for is not in that town, but it's close. I am looking for that."

Walking down the same path as the one the girl took through the trees Serah soon found herself back on the dirt path that the girl had taken her away from some time ago now. It was considerably thinner in width than when she left it and only got thinner as it got closer to the town until it stopped and the land transformed into groups of rock formation through which different routes could be used to get to town.

Standing by the girl for a moment as she figured out which way to go, Serah gave the land a look over. It was forested area with the small dirt path marring what would otherwise, pure scrubland.

"They're over there." the girl spoke up suddenly.

"Who?"

"People, I can hear them, but it seems that one of them is leaving. It'd be best that you look out for them as we get closer, under these circumstances I wouldn't call them a friend."

"Kay," Serah responded as she took up a position beside the girl as they stepped into the heavily-forested area beside the path. After a time of tracking though the bushes, Serah picked up to the sounds of people talking like the girl had before.

She could hear the voice of a man talking to someone, there was a menacing tone to his voice that made her thank the goddess that she wasn't the other person in the conversation. But that wasn't the only thought that crept into her mind, it was simply the more benevolent one.

"I know that voice," She whispered.

"From where?" The girl questioned her.

"He was the man that captured me."

The girl froze in her tracks abruptly hissing out, "Shit, that's where I've heard that voice before. I've met him before, that guy's bad news in just about any situation these days." Gesturing for Serah to stay where she was she told her firmly, "You stay here, if you come with me you only run the chance of getting hurt."

"Why are you going towards them if you know they could hurt you then?"

"Because the person with him is a prisoner. I'd be a stone cold bitch if I didn't try to help someone in those circumstances, especially if they're under that man's watch."

With that she disappeared into the trees above and left Serah all alone in the span of green forest.

...:...

Holding his gaze with a Valhallan man with black hair, Hope held his silence.

This man's aura spewed forth menace and his every action gave away that he was dangerous in every sense of the word. It came as a surprise to Hope that the man knew English, having only once before heard a Valhallan speak in it, but it was also came with an annoying side. The man was adamant that Hope knew something he didn't and kept questioning him on subjects he had no idea about. The man's delusions confused him to great lengths and even if he wasn't being stubborn on not speaking a word to him, Hope wouldn't have an answer to give to him anyway.

And why was it that he was being so damn curious of Savina, half of the questions he asked him were about her. He didn't get it, what was it about her that had the Valhallans so interested in her? Sure she may have been strong and exceedingly smart – it was how she had gotten so high in the ranks of the military at such a young age – but there was nothing particularly strange about her that merited the reaction the Valhallan men had to her.

His train of thought was cut short without warning when the black hair man pacing about the small grove in thought gave a sudden grunt of pain and fell to the ground senseless.

Standing above the unconscious figure was a young girl with waist length black hair and a short sword bared a hands length from her body. Looking down at the man she had just knocked out, she pulled a strange face and bit down on her lip.

Confused what she was doing Hope soon realised that she was trying to refrain from laughing, and failing, horribly. It wasn't long before she was bent over double laughing her lungs out. While making a futile attempt to contain her laughter, she made her way over to Hope and used her sword to cut the ropes that had him tied up to a tree. Still laughing she held out her hand to him in greeting.

"Hi, I'm Bat Fuck Insane, nice to meet you."

"Ah, hey," he said reaching out his hand to shake hers unsurely. "Could I ask what that was just now?"

"Oh that" she mused "Well you see that guy is really, really, really, really strong and I just jumped down from a tree and knocked him out. He didn't even I know I was there, funny no?"

Skipping over to the man's unconscious body lying on the ground, she poked it with her foot, laughing to herself.

"Oh hey, you know someone called Serah don't you?" she piped up randomly.

"How did you know that!?"

"A little birdy told me." she quipped and jumped into the trees above, disappearing into their green cover and vanishing from view.

Left alone in the small grove, Hope could do nothing but try to figure out the hell had just happened.

...:...

Looking up as she heard movement in the foliage above her, Serah only just managed dodge to the side as the black haired girl landed on the ground just to her side.

Smiling mischievously she quickly told her Serah out of the blue, "I just met one of your friends."

"What?" Serah was quick to question "Who?"

"Come see." The girl said with the same smile and disappeared in a western direction.

Following the path she took as best she could Serah tread through the plants underfoot until she came out of the bush and into a small grove. She stopped in her tracks when she saw who else other than the black haired girl was within it.

"Hope!" she yelled out in surprise.

"Serah."

Walking forward to meet at the middle of the grove Serah grasped hold of his hands. "I was scared you'd died, what happened to you?"

"I escaped getting hurt when the Yaschas Massif base was destroyed and I got captured when I was going to the safe house in Mynscentar forest. There were others but they didn't get captured, someone else was with me but she's been taken elsewhere."

Nodding, she gave his hands a squeeze. "I'm glad you're ok." Letting go of Hope's hands, she flicked her eyes up to the left, now spotting the black haired girl sitting on the branch of a large tree.

Following her line of sight, Hope asked her "Who is that by the way? She introduced herself to me as 'Bat Fuck Insane'."

"What?" Serah responded, snapping her face back to his.

"It's one of my many titles," the girl joked from her place in the tree.

Shaking her head at the girl's strangeness, Serah gave an answer to Hope's previous question. "Actually I have no idea whatsoever who that girl is, she didn't even give me a semblance of a name. She just burst out of nowhere and saved me from the Valhallans after they captured me. She hasn't given me any speck of personal information about herself."

Looking over at the girl in question, Hope said to her, though not exactly expecting an answer, "So you're not going to tell us your name huh?"

Watching as the girl gave him a fleeting look before jumping down from the tree and beginning to pace towards one side of the grove, a thoughtful expression on her face, Serah and Hope took their attention off her and put it back on their own conversation.

Serah spoke up first. "So what do you think we should do now? Go back perhaps, though I guess I wouldn't have to tell you how dangerous that is."

"Hmmm, it's a thought, as dangerous as it is, but wouldn't it be even more dangerous to just stay out here. Last time I checked there aren't any safe houses around here, seeing as so many Valhallans hang around here. In a way going back to Mynscentar is our best choice."

About to talk further, Serah was cut off the girl beating her to speaking first. "Hey" she said to get their attention.

Looking over at her, Serah took note that her expression was unlike any that she had seen on her yet, but the emotion it expressed wasn't one that she could put into words.

Looking directly at Hope she said "Call me Aaia." Pausing briefly, she cast her gaze over both of them "And I don't think you'll be getting back anytime soon. You see, you two were captured for a reason and I don't think those buffoons will rest until they have you back in their hands. So for you two, this is the start of a nightmare."

Do you have any idea how annoying it is to call someone "the girl" for an entire chapter, especially if you're someone like me who hates being repetitive in what you write?

Also the black haired man is being called that because he legitimately has no name, I'm having trouble coming up with one. Anyone out there wouldn't be any to help with that would they, all I can really say about the kind of name he needs to have is that it is something more normal than the traditional Valhallan name (I'm going to use Vitzca as an example for a traditional name). He just needs a name that's on the normal side that sounds cool, every time I try to come up with one my mind goes completely blank, I can't even come up with any ideas whatsoever, which is rather unusual for me.

The "little birdy" comment is going to drive you mad in this story, because Aaia says it so many times it's driving me insane.