Chapter 2

The day turned to dusk quickly as Lightning and Aqua made distance toward the low moutains and cliffs. The changing weather began to take another turn as a light snow fall begun its coating on the ground. Lightning however, seemed to become overly excited with this new phenominon to her, as she smiled and focused her attention to the rapidly blackening sky as the last traces of the sun were covered in a veil of stars.

"Aqua Look!" Lightning shouted from behind as she held her hand out.

Aqua smiled and turned around as she walked backwards, "So where on Cocoon are you from?"

"Bodhum".

"Ah, must be beautiful huh?" Aqua asked curiously.

"Yeah, I never had time to really sink it all in though..." Lightning began to think about her work, her life she had before. 'It's nothing now, everything except Serah' Thinking of Serah gave her hope, something to plan for and most of all, keep her going when she couldn't. She wanted to tell Serah how much she meant to her, she promised herself she would when they meet again.

The two began there way through the small band of mountains as they headed towards minor settlements, or "refugee spots" as Aqua had called them. The snow and cold wind began to increase as Aqua's teeth began to chatter. Lightning followed closely now as she unbuttoned her red cape, shaking off the collected snow as she wrapped it around Aqua's shoulders.

"Oh!...uhm.." Aqua's eyes widened as she turned to face Lightning, "Thank you.." Aqua blushed.

Lightning smiled warmly causing the younger girl to relax more, "So how much farther do you think it is?".

"Not much, maybe a mile, New Edin is the largest settlement, actually was created after PSICOM completed its raids in the east.

"PSICOM?" Lightning rushed to ask.

"PSICOM was not just limited to Cocoon, they have a much longer history then those on Cocoon would know, most of it is even restricted to those in the Sanctum. The only 2 who knew were Dysley, and Jihl. Dysley however, was a puppet essentially, oh he knew it all along, but it had to be done, for Jihl's protection."

Lightning's mind relapsed all the events, 'but Jihl was dead... the fact that what she thought she knew, a world controlled by fal cie''

"Dont worry, well discuss this after we settle in."

"Water, please." Serah asked dryly, she had been walking for hours without single luck of finding anyone, her cheeks covered in dirt with dried tears on her cheeks.

"Sure thing". As the bar tender turned, Serah looked around at the building, the metal and glass structure was clean, and to her fascination, almost similar to the design used in Cocoon. The room had metal walls, with tables made out of glass. The roof was an open dome, with checkered glass covering the ceiling. She grabbed the water as she sat down by a table. 'I miss you Lightning'. Serah began to feel her throat ache as she sunk her dead down against her arms.

"Hey, are you alright?" A gentle voice opened Sera'h eyes.

"Uhm" Serah rose up as she saw the girl standing across from her, she had blond hair, and tan skin. Her eyes soft as she gazed upon Serah with worry. "Oh its nothing.." Serah trailed off in nervousness.

The blond girl sat down as she smiled, "I'm Arianna".

"Serah". She replied sheepishly.

"Something must be bothering you?"

"My sister, Lightning... She got taken from PSICOM, and I dont know if shes.." Serah was cut off with the slamming door as it hit the side of the wall.

"Lightning!" Serah squealed, as she got up and ran towards the older girl, embracing her in a hug.

"Serah!" Lightning squeezed her sister as she kissed her on the forhead. "I told you I was getting it back" Lightning laughed as she took off the pendent ad clipped it around her neck.

"I thought..." Serah began to tear again, but before anymore could fall, Lightning swooped up Serah and rubbed her cheek, carrying her back to her table.

Lightning set Serah back in her chair as Aqua and Lightning pulled up some chairs. Aqua smiled at Arianna and Serah as she sat down quietly.

"Lightning! This is Arianna!" Serah tugged her arm as Lightning smiled at the blonde.

"Hey" Arianna's concentration was shifted quickly however, as she soon sheepishly glanced at Aqua who in turn blushed, and looked down. Lightning had already caught on as she watched the two interact. "Arianna, this is Aqua, she's the one who got me away from PSICOM".

"Hey.." Aqua said nervously as she tried to avoid eye contact with the blonde.

"Hey" Arianna smiled.

"So, we have alot of things to get cleared up about, what the hell is going on with PSICOM, and what were you talking about Oerba and Jihl?" Lightning had many questions, so many in fact that remembering them had already become difficult.

"Well, PSICOM had actually begun its implementations on Pulse for a while now, there ultimate goal, was to emulate the destructive powers of Fal'Cie. They first began in Oerba, not too far from Taejin's Tower. They had planned on harnessing the powers from Fal'Cie Dahaka. After they failed, the previous leader saw it to search for the powers, first objective was Oerba. Within a week the village had become a high level sanction for PSICOM Research and Technology."

"Why Oerba?" Lightning paused her briefly.

"Oerba was said to have many magical elements within the town, however these rumors were much different then from what was reality. However, many years later, Conol Jihl nabaat seized control of the restrcited department for PSICOM, and began to study Ragnarok... Ragnarok's early origins were recorded first in Oerba, in actuality that is, not prophecy. However, after failing the first attempt, Jihl had needed a way to retry the failed objective, for the first reason to destroy Cocoon, but secondly to extract the power of Ragnarok, which is now deeply embed within the crystallized Cocoon you see today."

Aqua fell quiet, as she looked down. "So Jihl, she was incontroll of the Sanctum, after the previous leader fell?" Lightning asked as she slowly began to interpret what had ben said.

Aqua nodded, "Yes, Dysley's death was inevitable, she had planned it all along, even staging her own death to flee Cocoon, and start early on preparations fro Ragnarok.

"So what do we do?" Serah asked as she stayed under Lightning's arm.

"We have to stop PSICOM before they begin there preparations on extracting the powers from the crystals, if not, incomprehensible power will be in the control of Jihl."

"So why did Jihl ask for the Crystalized Tear?" Lightning remembered.

"Im not sure, if im right, I would assume she is after ever grain of crystal, but the one from Serah, its diffrent.. She was a L'Cie, its possible her Eidolon is extractable from that, and clearly they know something we don't." Aqua spun the tear in her hands as she rested it on the table.

"Well I'm gonna go get some sleep" Lightning yawned as she pushed herself out of the chair, Serah holding her hand tightly, as Lightning brought her sister over to the couch. She patted the front signalling for her to lay next to her, for which Serah squealed and jumped next to her.

The table was quiet as Aqua fiddled with her hands. "Uhm well..." She said in attempt to break the silence.

"Wow Your Gorgeous!" Arianna bursted, a deep blush forming as she could no longer hold the quiet separation between her and Aqua.

Aqua's face went deep red, as she looked down, "Thanks...so are you" She replied sheepishly, as she gave quick smiles back up to her. Aqua pushed back from the table as she smiled sweetly and made her way to the couches.

"Goodnight" Aqua blushed, as she hurried away.

Special thanks to Lightning Farron for all the help and the end bit :) Please Review! And the opening, which is probably the best grammer and vocab out of the whole story XD.