Title: Roleplayer/Paradigm Heart
Series: Final Fantasy XIII
Rating: K+
By: Ssomsie
Summary: A analysis fic describing the change in Lightning's character from when she becomes a l'Cie to the final battle through the use of her three central paradigm roles. Lightning centric/spoilers
Pairings: Platonic Hope/Lightning, implied Serah/Snow and Fang/Vanille
A/N: This, honestly, is my least favorite of the paradigm chapters… Just didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to. XP Nonetheless, I hope that I'm just paranoid/unappeasable, and that everyone else does enjoy it. :)
..Ravager..
She has done something she did not think that she would ever do of her own free will- she is working with another.
She has become the older sister to another.
She sees herself in this younger boy.
She asks him to call her "Light".
She has a "protégé".
And, although it takes some time before she realizes it, she manages to damage this impressionable little boy as badly as she hurt Serah.
So fantasized by revenge and self-destruction, she did not realize that she has been forcing these same ideals onto one who is as unstable as she is- she has been giving false hope to the boy who is, ironically, named "Hope".
However, that does not change the fact that her heart is beginning to heal. In this confused and troubled teenage boy, she sees, for a lack of a better word, "hope".
Charging in recklessly, he has begun to adopt her statements as life-guidelines… when in reality, they are little more than the ramblings of someone who is too caught up in grief to realize what she is saying.
After all, he is just a fourteen year old boy whose mother has recently died- Lightning should have realized sooner how vulnerable he is… after all, her own parents died when she was young also.
Instead, in her misguided fury, she has not only allowed, but encouraged, him to follow her down the path of demise.
(One thing is for certain though- she has allowed this young boy into her heart… She has allowed him to be close to her as only one other is… To Lightning, this boy is her brother as much as Serah is her sister.)
That is why, once she realizes what she has done to him, she starts searching for any way to reverse the effects- to show him that she was wrong when she went off on a suicidal tangent.
She first realizes her mistake when she hears the words "Operation Nora".
However, as much as she hates to admit it, she had her own "Operation Nora" at one time. Just a short while ago, she would have had few qualms about killing her sister's fiancé. (Not that she is at all happy, friendly, or any other suitable adjectives, with Snow. She just no longer wants to kill him. Logic has begun to reclaim the part of her mind that had been overrun with fury.)
Hope really is taking after her if the decision to start a mission to kill the one who he blames for his problems is any indication.
And, seeing as he is taking after her, when she denounces her "teachings" and everything that he had been holding on to until that point, he does not take it too well.
Both are scared; unsure of what to believe in.
However, neither are quite as upset to be l'Cie anymore… after all, it has brought them both- together two people who are quite similar. The only thing stopping them from being related is blood.
And a short while later as a testimony of their luck (or lack there of), they are separated. Lightning is then partnered with another. And, as irony would have it, this woman is one of the people who caused Serah to become a l'Cie.
Lightning sees almost as many similarities between herself and Fang as she saw between herself and Hope… just in totally different ways.
Fang understands failing to protect. Unlike Hope, Fang is not young and impressionable- she is stubborn and self-sufficient.
Lightning has lost everything she wanted to protect- she has lost her motivation to fight. That is when Fang reminds her to fight for Serah's future.
(Because, Fang insists, Serah is not dead- Fang herself is testament that "eternal crystal sleep" does not equate with "dead".)
Fang is the second person to receive permission to call the strawberry-blonde "Light".
Unlike any other Lightning has met, Fang domineers immediately- "I'll take point. You watch the rear."
That is the true beginning of Lightning working with others. Although Hope is the one who softened her heart, Fang is the first person who ever took full lead over Lightning- emotionally and physically.
That is why, when a group of PSICOM soldiers spot the two female l'Cie, Fang's job is to attack them with her lance; Lightning is to focus on their elemental weaknesses and trying to break them.
"You ready? You can fight 'em, right?" Fang yells once the soldiers are in range of the two girls.
"Target's a target."