A/N: I know I added so much K-POP stuff in this fic. But hey, how could I resist? ^o^ Anyway! So sorry for the late update. I've been out of town for a few days and got more busier. BTW, I have only seen Advent Children and have not played FFVII. Sooo, I don't know really the places around the places in Gaia/Midgar/FFVII planet. Well I have only played Crisis Core for a while and I haven't finished with it...ever since my PSP upgraded to 6.37 when I played Dissidia 012. *facepalm*

Chapter Six
.Meeting New Friends?.

Lightning opened her eyes. Her head was slightly aching from...wait, what did really happen? She scanned the room. Everything looked clean as if she was in a medical center since almost everything was pale white. She turned to her side and saw a sleeping raven haired man in the bed right beside hers. Now that she remembered, he was that guy who had the strange aura that bothered her back at SOLDIER. The gentle pain was still keeping her from remembering what happened before she was here. What happened? She asked herself and looked down on her clothes. She was still in her uniform with only few dirt.

A sound of an opening door was heard and it caught her attention. Angeal and the others were entering the room. Zack immediately went to her. "Boy! I'm glad to see you guys okay!" he beamed.

"What happened?" was all she could say. She tilted her head slightly to her left in confusion as she saw Zack looking away with a chuckle. Genesis just smiled amusingly , so did Angeal. "What?"

"You were knocked out unconscious when you bumped his head." Cloud explained, the only one who seemed to be not really amused. He pointed at the sleeping raven haired man. "And that was before you both kissed accidentally." Lightning didn't know what or how to react. Mixed emotions and feelings began to swirl and churn inside her. She didn't know whether she was mad, embarrassed or maybe both. "I don't know what to say." She said with a facepalm. The door opened and revealed a lady in white which appears to be a nurse. She looked like she was in her late twenties.

"Ms. Farron." She called out in a kind tone. "...telephone." She signaled.

Serah! She quickly thought of her little sister. What happened to her during her absence in Cocoon? She immediately went got out to bed and followed the nurse. The thought of her old friends suddenly came up in mind. She smiled. She had to admit it, she missed all the idiocy of her friends would bring. She missed the laughter, the moments and the happiness especially beating up Snow - which she had done often whenever Serah's not around/looking.

"Geez! Is it her boyfriend or something?" Zack teased childishly also reacting to her sudden behavior as they hear the sound of the closing door. Then, they all turned to Noctis who was still sleeping peacefully. "Boy, he almost kissed a hot chick." Zack said and then turned to Cloud with a puzzled look. "Why did you say that they kissed?"

Cloud shrugged. "I just wanted to. Besides, she doesn't look surprised."
"I bet she is but she's hiding it." They all nodded.

It was already getting dark. After her two hour conversation with her friends in Cocoon, she got another call from Tifa on her phone. She reminded her about moving in at her place.

Lightning went out of the clinic. She didn't bother to tell the others since maybe she would ruin their fun. She looked up to the gray sky and rain started to fall from the heavens. She missed the rain. It certainly brings back good memories...memories of her own family.

She paused as she remember their tragic death. A frown started to form on her. It had been years since they've died. It was terrible...awfully terrible. She shook it off and went home.

When she arrived, she immediately packed all of her things. While doing so, she thought of what is going to happen for the whole year. A lot has been happening. She left home, met a lot of people and now, she's a first class SOLDIER. Will everything be alright? She smiled. Maybe it would.

She put the last thing she had to pack on her suitcase and zipped it close. She took the suitcases and glanced the room before leaving. "So long, hard bed." She smirked and with that, she left.

At the train...

Thirty minutes since I've left. She thought as she glanced at her wristwatch. She was wearing her own casual clothes. A simple off-shoulder shirt and shorts is enough to keep away people's suspicion on her. This way, she'll be able to read her book peacefully.

She sat by the window. The rays of the afternoon sun glimmered on her, making her brighter. Her pink hair was set on the same side where she would always keep it in place. Her blue eyes were fixed on the words printed in the pages of the book. It was an old book which she treasured deeply. Her mother was an author and her books were amazing as she would say. The Farron family was once known for their amazing talents which were incredibly extraordinary. Her mother was gifted in literature and her books were always best-selling while her father was a prodigy in piano. He worked as a pianist and at the same time, a successful composer. Serah once dreamed of being a violinist and had the potential. However, ever since that day, her dreams of becoming one shattered. Lightning didn't really know why she quit the violin when she was really good at it. All she would say was "Maybe, I don't feel like it anymore" or "I got tired of it." Even though these were her answers, she knew that she wasn't really telling the truth.

Lightning inserted a bookmark on the very page where she once read and closed it. She took out a relaxed sigh as she looked at the window. The sun was almost setting, the sky was pinkish orange and the birds where flying high up in the skies probably going to their nests. She closed her eyes as she started to remember a fragment of her memory. She remembered holding her father's hand as they both watched the sun was setting right before them at a dock. Birds were flying around the pinkish orange sky freely. She remembered how happy she was and how he would tell her how a person succeed with their dreams by just believing that you can do it.

"Fellow passengers, we have arrived our destination. Thank you for riding with us."

Lightning snapped back to reality. She glanced at the window to see the station. She picked her bags and headed towards the exit.

As she step foot out of the train, she took a deep breath and began to observe the change of environment. Everything seemed peaceful. The feeling around was quite mixed and it was either sadness or joy. She saw people running towards their loved ones who had finally returned home or vice versa.

A little girl around the age of five ran right past her. Lightning watched her as a man around his seventies went up to her. He had a sad look on his face.

"Is papa alright? Is he here?" She could hear her say. All the man did was keeping himself quiet with the gloomy look on his face. The little girl's smile faded as she keep asking him the same question and finally she was almost going to cry. Lightning's heart was about to tear apart as she remembered the exact thing that had happened to her years ago. The man finally spoke with a sad tone. "I'm sorry."

"Lightning!" A voice called. Lightning sapped out of the scene and turned to her right since it was where the voice came from. She spotted Tifa along with two children - a boy and a girl. The three went to her. "Had fun?"

"Not really." She replied then looked at the two kids. The girl shyly hid herself behind Tifa while the boy just stood right beside her. "Oh, this is Denzel and Marlene." Tifa looked down at the kids. "Kids, this is Lightning."

"Hello, Lightning." Denzel greeted. Marlene waved shyly. Lightning just gave them a slight nod then gave them a small smile. She looked over Tifa's shoulder as she spotted a blonde spiky haired man. "Cloud?" She said. "What's he doing here?" Tifa turned to the blonde. "Do you two know each other?" She asked while looking at both people. "She's a SOLDIER, Tifa." Cloud answered. Tifa was shocked. "A-A SOILDIER? For real?" She exclaimed and turned to Lightning. "How come you didn't tell me?"

"My way of surprising people." She muttered amusingly. And turned to the two with a grin. "Is Cloud your boyfriend?" Tifa shook her head. "No, he's just a friend." Lightning saw Cloud looking sad at her words. She grew a little curious about his reaction but she snapped out of it as Tifa said "Let's go."

Cloud and Tifa helped her carry her bags but Lightning carried most of it though. "What's in this bag?" Tifa asked after she had opened the door to the bar (A/N: Or whatever it is xD). Denzel and Marlene went inside as they played tag with each other.

"My weapons. Be careful with that bag." She said as she confidently passed by a shocked Tifa. "Your room's this way." Cloud said as he climbed the staircase as he was followed by Tifa who quickly snapped out of her shock. Lightning followed the two. "So, what do you do in SOLDIER? What rank are you in?" She asked as they reached the end of the stairs.

"First class. Just like Cloud." She replied. They walked to the hallway. The rays of the setting sun shone from the window which was at the end of the small hallway. Tifa unlocked a door to her left which seemed to be Lightning's room and opened it. The room wasn't too small and it wasn't too big either. The light from the sun came through the window. She had to admit, it gave a home-sweet-hom feel. The three put her stuff beside the bed and left. Before Tifa could close the door. "Oh right, dinner is within twenty minutes. I think you should change while you're at it." She said and with that she closed the door. Lightning sat at the bed and lay down. It was so comfy unlike the hard bed in her previous apartment. It gave her a nostalgic feel of her own bedroom. Everything was so quiet and she could feel the tranquility the way she liked it after a day of hard and stressful work.

She stood up and went to put everything in place. She put her clothes in her closet and her suitcase of weapons underneath the bed which was the only place to hide them. She put her purse on the vanity which was a few feet away from her bed. She looked at the clock. Eight minutes before dinner. She thought and walked to her closet and opened it. The closet revealed all of her newly kept clothes. She picked a simple T-shirt with a picture of Happy from Fairy Tail at the front and shorts that was similar to what she was wearing before. Right after that, she put her hair in a sided low ponytail.

"Lightning! Dinner time!" Tifa yelled from the kitchen.

As Lightning arrived downstairs, she saw a few people. Of course, all of them were unfamiliar to her except Tifa, Cloud and the kids. Denzel and Marlene went around playing while the two talked to their visitors.

"Lightning!" Tifa exclaimed as he noticed her. She went to her and grabbed her hand. "We have some visitors. I forgot to tell you about it. So sorry." She continued and dragged her. "Let's go." She took her to a young girl and a blonde man who looked grumpy.

"Lightning, this is Cid Highwind and Yuffie Kisaragi." She introduced. "Guys, this is Lightning."

"Ooooh!" Yuffie suddenly clasped her hands around hers. "I've heard a lot about you! You're sooo coool!"

"N-Nice to meet you?" Lightning raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, a cat riding on a big moogle separated Yuffie from her. The cat looked at her weirdly. Lightning felt like sweatdropping as he got closer and closer to her. "So you're Lightning, huh? You're really pretty!" the feline said as Tifa pulled him from getting to her closer. "You're making her think you're weird, Cait." She said. "Oh, this is Cait Sith. Don't really mind him." She continued. Lightning stared weirdly at the talking cat. Those kinds of cats don't exist back in Cocoon. As Lightning was about to turn away, she bumped into a guy in red cape with long hair.

"Sorry." She said. The man was about six feet tall and his face was almost covered by his hair and red scarf. Tifa went to him. "Lightning, this is Vincent Valentine."

"So you're Lightning that Tifa had talked about." Lightning just nodded, her face barely showed any emotion. "You sure remind me a lot of Cloud." He muttered before walking away. Out of the blue, she felt an arm around her neck and she was pulled close by a person. "HEY Light!" Zack exclaimed happily. She looked up to him and gave him a glare. A small yet deadly glare. He quickly let go of her. "M-Man, your glare is even more scary than Cloud's." Cloud glared at his cheery black haired friend.

"I heard that." Now, two people were glaring at him. "B-But I think hers is still more scarier." Zack said looking at the two.

"Dinner time~" A brown haired woman with her hair in a long braid sang. The next thing Lightning knew, people were running to the dinner table. She calmly followed them and sat next to the brown haired woman. She warmly smiled at Lightning. "I'm Aerith." She said. "You're Lightning, right?" She nodded as she sat down. "Well, I hope you enjoy the food."

"LET'S DIG IN!" Zack childishly exclaimed as he ate. "Thish ishhh shooooo good!" His mouth was stuffed with food as he spoke. Cloud rolled his eyes at him. "You know, you would choke if you stuff all the food in your mouth..." Not long before Cloud could finish his sentence, Zack began to cough from too much food in his mouth. "...again." He finished. Aerith looked at Zack with worry. "Zack, take it easy." Tifa stood up and went behind his back. "Here goes nothing... HIYA!" She punched his back forcefully and sent the choked food on the floor.

"EEEWWWW." Denzel and Marlene said in unison. Lightning stared at Zack with disgust and tried not to look at the choked food lying on the floor. She went back to her eating, avoiding the food on the floor to ruin her appetite. Everyone's attention were now back on the meal from Zack's choking incident. Cid started to talk about how he was been. Yuffie told them that the war in Wutai ended peacefully and how happy she was with it. It wasn't long before they started to ask questions to Lightning. Aerith was the first one to ask. "So Lightning, tell us more about yourself." She started.

"Guardian Corps Sergeant, lives in Cocoon, nothing more." She replied as she finished her meal. "Aww... tell us more than that." Zack pleaded.

"That's none of your business." With that, she gave Zack the none-of-your-concern look.

"Why's that?" Cloud asked. She glared at him. What part of "that's none of your business" don't they-

"GUYS!" Cait Sith yelled as he entered the dining room. All eyes fell to the cat riding on the big moogle. Lightning could sense panic in his voice. "What's wrong, Cait?" Cloud asked, standing from his chair.

"Three guys in, in, in black! W-W-With white hair!" The cat said and pointed to the door which he was referring to outside. Screams of people were heard from outside and the group quickly grabbed their weapons. Her gunblade was still in her bedroom. She quickly went upstairs.

"Where you're going?"

"Out to get something. You guys go ahead." She said, running her way up to her room. She opened the door and grabbed the suitcase underneath her bed. She entered the code and it quickly opened and the suitcase spread out revealing all her weapons. It may not look like it, the suitcase contained twenty weapons. Gunblades, swords, guns, bazookas and more. She took Blazefire Saber and shut it close.

Meanwhile, as the group went outside, they saw three men in black with silver hair bringing chaos to the town. What was really odd was that they were riding on chocobos with red eyes. Although they really look very evil, the chocobos were too cute.

"Aww~"

"KWEEEH!" The chocobo screeched loudly. People were covering their ears from the terrifying sound. Helpless people were on their knees with their hands on their ears. Who knows when this will end.

As the screech had ceased, the three men got off the three yellow birds. The one in the middle looked like their leader since he looked more into this than the rest of them. Cloud held his sword in the position that meant he was ready. "Do you think this will lead us to Mother?" The guy with shorter hair said as he was heading towards a little boy in a corner near him. "To get to her, we got to get that materia first." The long haired man said.

"Let's say we got to ask a few people around..." He replied, preparing his fists as if he was ready to fight someone.

"Hey you!" Zack called. The two looked at him. Their faces showed no emotion. The long haired man and the leader went to him. "Well, well, well, if it isn't another brat. I believe you couldn't even last in the start of a fight."

"Heh." Zack smirked. "Well, let's try and see what I can do." Cloud went beside his friend as if he was part of this. "You wouldn't last long without me." He teased. "I can do this by myself."

Suddenly, clones began to surround the group. They were clones of the three enemies. "Well?" Cloud smirked as Zack pouted. "Let's go!"

The group charged. Zack attacked the clone at his left. The clone dodged and tried to attack him. He blocked the attack and successfully stabbed him and it turned to dust. Four clones were surrounding Cloud. He stood still and waited for their attacks. As soon as the four charged at him, he leaped in the air as he dodged them and sliced them one by one. Cid had no weapons with him and two clones were walking towards him. The only thing he had with him was...

"A frying pan? Since when did this get here?" He said, raising an eyebrow. The clone of the long haired man started to shoot him with several bullets. Cid quickly blocked the attacks with the frying pan. The two leaped towards him. Cid quickly hit them in the head with his frying pan.

Bam! Bam! BOOM! as it went and finally they punneled into dust...literally since once they were K., they turn to dust. "Ha! Ha!" He exclaimed in victory and began hitting one clone and the other until they turned to dust. "Woo! Nice going, Cid!" Yuffie happily yelled as she was through with the clones she just defeated. Tifa was with Aerith and she had to protect her since she doesn't know how to fight. Tifa punched and kicked the enemies that headed towards them as Aerith's eyes were focused on the young boy who looked like he was in the age of fourteen. He was glaring at the man before him while he keep on punching and kicking the boy.

Aerith clenched her fists. She couldn't stand seeing a helpless kid get hurt. She quickly ran towards the short silver haired man who was holding the lad's collar to hit him with a final blow on the face

"Aerith!"

"Leave him alone!" She yelled. The man turned to him. Aerith glared at him but a glare wasn't enough to make him leave. He just stood there as the blood was dripping from the wounds. An icy silence was between them. Only the sounds of the fight was heard. The man dropped lad on the ground with a thud. "Looks like Miss Goody-Two-Shoes wants to fight, eh?" He said with an evil grin forming on his face as he started to walk towards Aerith. She closed her eyes and waited for him to hit her.

BOOM!

An explosion between them stopped the man from harming her. Aerith widened her eyes in surprise and went to look at a window in 7th Heaven since it came from there. It was Lightning with a bazooka. She put it down and jumped from the window and landed on the ground safely. "Lightning!"

"What took you so long?" Cloud said as he stabbed the leader's clone. "Quit the talk. We have work to do." She said pointing her gun at the man who tried to harm Aerith. He held his right arm, injured from the explosion. After he glared, his eyes widened in the sight of her.

"Hey Kadaj! Isn't she the one who hit you in the head?"

The leader's eyes, who seemed to be Kadaj, were now fixed on her. "YOU!" He pointed furiously. Lightning shrugged. "Thought I'd ever see you again." She said calmly as if it was nothing. He prepared his double bladed katana, ready to fight her.

"Wait! You two know each other?"

"Not really. It was some mission that sent me here to SOLDIER." She said, putting her gunblade over her shoulder. The clones started to disappear which put an end to the group's fight. Kadaj charged towards her and attacked. Lightning calmly dodged his attacks but as soon as she almost got hit, she grew a little serious and shoot him. Kadaj easily dodged the bullets that was targeting him and he disappeared suddenly. She looked up and then to her left and right. When she turned around, she saw his blade near Aerith's neck. "Get off me!"

"Come closer and she dies." Kadaj said with an evil smirk. She lowered her gunblade. She picked a rock and started to throw it in the air and it landed on her hand. Throw, land on her hand, and over and over and she throwed it towards him like a baseball player. Kadaj snorted. " Do you think a rock is good enough to kill me?" He blocked the rock and Lightning quickly charged at him. "Firaga!" She yelled as balls of fire went to him. Kadaj dodged the fire making him let go of Aerith.

Lightning smirked. She leaped in the air and put her gunblade to blade mode. When she was about to strike him with her blades, the long haired man aimed his gun right at her. Cloud caught sight of his actions and when he was about to shoot, he pushed him which sent the bullets to shoot in a different direction which was the director's car.

The car let out noises. Kadaj dodged her attack and kicked her. "Tch."

She landed on the ground safey. Zack went towards her. "You alright?" She didn't reply. She watched as the three rode on their chocobos. Kadaj gave Lightning one last glare. "I swear! We'll finish this!" He yelled. With that, they disappeared as the chocobos turned into ferocious birds with dark feathers and long beak and swiftly flew away leaving no trace of feathers behind.

The others went to the three SOLDIERs. Zack ran to Aerith who had been almost threatened twice. "Aerith, are you ok?" He asked in worry. The brown haired woman just nodded.

"So, they weren't chocobos after all." Yuffie said, looking up to the sky when they vanished. Lightning stood up and went towards the young boy who had been beaten up earlier. The group watched her. The boy stared at her as she placed her hands on her hips and she wasn't happy. "Hope, what on earth are you doing here?" Her tone sounded a little angry.

"You know him?" Tifa asked but didn't get a reply. She was too mad to reply to anyone at the moment. The boy, who seemed to be called Hope, just gave Lightning a stare. "I... I want to find my dad." He hesitantly said. A brief moment of silence came afterward. Lightning and Hope had a staring contest.

"Fine." She said. "Just don't do anything reckless." She went to kid and ruffled his hair. She smirked. "Where are you staying?"

"I just arrived this morning." He said.

"Tifa?" Lightning called and turned to her. She hoped that she still has a spare room in 7th Heaven. Tifa looked at her, knowing what she meant. "There's a vacant room next to Marlene's. He could use it." She said. Lightning turned back to Hope.

"Looks like I have to babysit you again." She teased. Hope pouted. "I'm not a baby!" He said. Lightning stood up straightly as she smirked. "Then get your things." Hope, still pouting, carried his bag.

"Hey!''

The group turned to a man who turns out to be the director. He walked over to hid car with his face unhappy. "Who did this to my car?"