A/N:
Gravenimage, I'm sorry you don't like the Fang Lightning pairing. Sorry to tell you, but for the past month that I've been trying to put this story together, that's what this story was going to involve. Leaves me wondering that if you are sick of the pairing, why would you read the story when it says that pairing in the summary? (I read your profile. Apparently you don't like yuri. I don't really know what I'll be doing with romance in this fic, but you not liking yuri… yeah, I think you aren't going to like what I'll be doing. Haven't decided if it will be graphic, but still.)
Tjemd, thank you. I couldn't have said that first part better myself! Thanks for reviewing :D
hubble36, once again, couldn't have said it better myself :) And thank you! I actually love fics where people from our world go into a movie or something, but it always disappoints me when HOW is not explained. You have NO idea how long it took me to develop this… thing. xD Thanks for reviewing!
With that out of the way… crap… I had something I wanted to say but I forgot. Oh yeah, I don't do word for word from the game stuff. I make up my own dialogue that has the same idea. Also, this is long because I promised I would have the OCs meet the FFXIII characters in this chapter. Remind me not to do that again xP
I have a link to my OC's character art in my profile, go check it out!
D.G: Final Fantasy XIII
Chapter 2: Changes
With all of her heart, Trinity had more or less hoped to wake up to the sound of explosions, simply because that would tell her what time it was. Instead, Trinity awoke to the sound of shoes scraping on streets and the sound of construction a few blocks down. She tiredly rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes before working her way off the couch without disturbing Sophie and stretching.
"Darn… well, maybe the fight happens later today," she muttered to herself.
"You say something?" Trinity turned around to see Sophie leaning on her elbow rubbing the sleep out of her own eyes. But, instead of answering, Trinity notices the clothes Sophie was wearing and looked down at herself.
"Huh. I wonder where the jumpsuits went." Sophie looked up at Trinity and then down at her own new clothing.
Sophie was now wearing a green tank top and a white unzipped jacket with collar that went up higher than was necessary. The jacket sleeves only went down just above her elbow, and the hem of the jacket ended just above her waist; it was decorated with black stripes at some of the seams. She also had a belt that had an empty pouch attached to it. This was looped around a pair of baggy, tan shorts that adorned more than a few pockets, and ended just above her knees. Her shoes were a pair of black boots that traveled half way up her shins. She had a fingerless glove on one hand, and a silver bracelet around the other along with a matching ring, both had 'D.G.' engraved in them. Sophie looked up at her friend with her wide, hazel eyes and smiled.
"It's just what I thought of! I didn't think it would work…" Sophie trailed off as she checked to see if she had anything of use in her pockets.
"You thought of everything didn't you?" Trinity chuckled. She herself had forgotten to think of what clothes she was going to wear, but she too had gained new gear. She wore a low cut red shirt that had two straps on only one shoulder. The shirt was tucked into a thick, wooden waist plate, for protection she assumed. She was also wearing grayish shorts, but much to her dismay they didn't even reach her mid thigh. Her dark brown boots came up to her knees though, and also had wooden knee pads. Her wrists were accompanied by leather wrist bands. She also had a choker necklace and a ring to match Sophie's own bracelet and ring. Her black hair had been pulled into a side ponytail and fell loosely on her right shoulder.
"No wonder I felt so exposed and uncomfortable last night. Eighty percent of my skin is showing!" Trinity's blue eyes burned in frustration, and she placed her hands on her hips. Sophie giggled and poked Trinity's waist plate.
"At least you have a little bit of armor… and you don't look half bad, you know. Remember when I used to beg you to show off what you had?" Trinity glared at her brown haired friend. She never did like to wear short sleeves or shorts. Now, she had to.
"This so called armor? Yeah. It's made of wood. Why is it made of wood?" Trinity asked. She wrapped her knuckled against her stomach and decided that wood armor was better than no armor, but still.
"I don't know. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have some sort of weapon, would you? All my pockets are empty." Sophie's hands were shoved deep into one of her pockets, hoping that they would find something that wasn't there.
Trinity shook her head. She only had two pockets and she didn't have a pouch, and she already knew nothing was in the pockets.
"Well, hopefully we'll find something along the way… worst case scenario we have to jack a PSICOM soldier of his gun and stuff… Hey! Wait up!" Trinity had left Sophie in the alley and started walking down the same street she had taken on the way into town.
"And you wouldn't happen to remember any of this would you? Or were you too tired?" Trinity asked once Sophie had caught up with her. Sophie shook her head.
"The only thing I remember from last night is the stars." They both smiled at the short memory. Trinity took what seemed like a random turn, then stopped on the side walk, causing a few pedestrians to bump into her.
"What's wrong?" Sophie asked her. When Trinity didn't answer, the green eyed girl gently grabbed her friends arm and led her to the side of a building so they wouldn't block traffic.
"I'm just trying to remember the layout of this place. It's almost impossible though, I haven't played this game in years." Trinity's head was bowed and her arms crossed, her eyes had a thoughtful look to them. Sophie glanced around at their surroundings but gave up at trying to help. She was the worst at remembering directions, if either of them knew their way around, even if the layout originated from a video game, it would be Trinity.
"Too bad we don't have a pause menu or map, eh?" Sophie chuckled nervously but fell quiet when Trinity didn't share the laugh.
"This isn't an actual game, Sophie. This is the real deal." Trinity started walking again, coming to the conclusion that standing in one place would, literally, not get them anywhere.
"I know that!" Sophie exclaimed as she fell back into step with her friend. Her loud remark drew a few non to friendly glances.
"Keep it down, I'm trying to think…" Trinity continued to walk and Sophie huffed.
"Think… what were the events just before the confrontation? What should we be looking out for?" The two girls had made it into a less crowded part of the city, and Trinity had begun to pace.
"I know for a fact Lightning and Hope were using an underground passage, and then they resurfaced… but then what happened?" Trinity stopped her pacing to run a hand through her hair.
"Ugh… why is this so difficult? I distinctively remember that I thought of this before we got here. What happened after they resurfaced?" Sophie had taken to leaning against a wall and just let Trinity try to figure it out. Just as Trinity began to pace again, a male voice sounded throughout the atmosphere causing everyone in the city to look up for its origins.
"Attention all Palumpolum civilians. The Sanctum has announced the location of the fugitive L'cie. A public execution will be following the immediate L'cie capture. This live feed is coming from the scene in Palumpolum." With this Trinity's eyes sparked and looked around for a screen. And there they were, Lightning and Hope stood there ready to fight on the video they were being shown. Trinity spotted something else in the video that looked familiar.
"Aww! That building is clear on the other side of the city!" Trinity pouted and continued to watch the video while Sophie came up behind her and tugged on her arm.
"Well come on! We aren't going to get any closer by just standing here!" Sophie tried to get her friend to move, but the blue eyed girl would not budge.
"Wait." Trinity shook her friend's hand off and stepped closer to the screen. Screams had started erupting at the news, and the streets were rapidly filling with people going the opposite way of the L'cie.
"For what?"
"What good would we do at this point in time? In mere seconds they are going to be surrounded. No amount of any training we've gone through is going to be able to take on the amount of military units that are going to be there." Sophie looked a little crestfallen, and folded her arms across her chest.
"What do you propose that we do do then?" Right after Sophie finished her sentence, a loud explosion was heard that came a ways behind them. Trinity turned away from the screen, knowing what was to follow.
"Well… they are going to start evacuating the city next. We can't really allow ourselves to get evacuated but I don't want to introduce ourselves just yet. What to do…" Trinity's eyes lit up. "We can stalk Snow and Hope up until the group gets together. We can figure things out from there." The black haired girl started a fast pace, and it took a few seconds for Sophie to catch up.
"Why Hope and Snow? Why not Lightning and Fang?"
"Think about it. Where will we blend in the most? In an angry mob or in… well, nothing? I don't know about you but an angry mob seems a little more like some decent camouflage." Sophie thought about this as she continued to follow her companion.
"But what about PSICOM? Remember? The people who came in contact with any L'cie were apprehended and… I think 'purged'," Sophie voiced her apprehensions, but Trinity wasn't listening. With a groan of disapproval, Sophie sustained her pace to keep up with her friend.
Suddenly, Trinity stiffened, pulled Sophie into an alley, and placed a finger to her lips to signify silence. The green eyed girl gave a questioning look, but all Trinity did was glance around the corner, only to duck back and pull Sophie behind a garbage can. Not five seconds later a group of civilians walked past the alley the girls were in, accompanied by PSICOM escorts.
When she was sure they were out of hearing range, Sophie spoke. "You think they saw us?"
Trinity shook her head, "I don't think so. If they did then they ignored us. Come on."
Now with more caution and stealth, the girls made their way down the street, sticking to the side of the walls. Soon they were at the place where the confrontation took place, except…
"No one's here." Sophie groaned and sat down against a wall. Trinity, on the other hand, carefully picked her way through the ice left by Snow's Eidolon. She reached out to touch it and was surprised to find that it wasn't cold. She smirked.
"Cool…" The blue eyed girl stepped over another patch of ice and made her way to the middle of the abandoned battleground.
"I wonder which way they went?" Trinity turned around at Sophie's question; the asker had joined her friend to overlook the damage.
"Well, if I remember correctly, Fang and Lightning stayed on the ground level, but Hope and Snow went somewhere up there… Let's see… did you hear anyone make an announcement to completely evacuate the city?"
"Sure, about five minutes ago. Something about not wanting the civilians to get caught in the crossfire." Trinity nodded. That sounded about right, which would mean Snow and Hope would soon be making their grand entrance to the next battlefield.
"So, I've been making all the choices so far. Where to? You choose the next direction." Trinity gave a playful smile and Sophie rolled her eyes.
"Oh joy, I finally get to be included. My heart is crying tears of happiness and—"
"Okay, okay. You've made your point now take your pick. We have maybe ten minutes until they encounter the riot." Sophie pondered this. There were two stair cases, one on either side of the area they were in.
"I guess if it's a fifty-fifty shot I should just pick one?" the brown haired girl looked to her companion to check for any signs of approval, but instead met a humorous smirk.
"…Or, you can take the path of logic and choose the side with the most destruction and unconscious… dead… people." Sophie frowned and lightly punched the side of Trinity's arm.
"You said I could choose!"
"So choose." Sophie's frown deepened before taking off in the hinted at direction; you could almost make out the steam radiating off her head.
The two made their way up several flights of stairs, careful not to disturb the bodies of fallen soldiers. From there, Trinity picked paths through a few tunnel-like balconies, with only the occasional scattered body. The whole time they walked, they remained in silence. That is, until they ran into a dead end.
"Great. So what now?" Trinity's blue eyes rolled.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten!" Sophie's face turned curious and walked over to a ledge.
"We take the same way Hope and Snow took. Up the icy bridge." Trinity took a small jump up onto the ledge closely followed by Sophie.
"You sure this is safe?" Trinity chuckled.
"What's with you? I'm usually the doubter and here you are asking all the questions of pessimism." Trinity could feel hazel eyes burning holes through the back of her head.
"Only when it can get us killed." Trinity smiled.
"Lighten up, Sophie. You're starting to sound like a certain pink haired soldier we've yet to meet."
"I do not!"
"You're right… she actually takes risks." Trinity ducked Sophie's swat at her head and backed off of the ice onto the metal pathway; the one that also had dead soldiers on it.
"You're the one who said this isn't a game, this is the real deal. We can't just restart after a game over, Trin." Sophie hopped down after Trinity, careful not to land on a body.
"What's the use of living in a fantasy world if you aren't going to have fun with it?" To that, Sophie had no answer, and they remained in silence as they walked on. They could hear the sounds of battle in the distance and the air surrounding them still smelt burnt. At one point, they came to what looked like another dead end, but they quickly found the passage way that led out. It lead to a hallway that led to a place that seemed to be underground… they could tell from all the pipes.
"How much time do you figure we've got?" Sophie asked. The girls had been walking for a while and decided to take a rest; it sounded like they were catching up to Hope and Snow. It was either that, or the tunnels they were in had wicked sound carrying and echo capabilities.
Trinity shrugged. "You mean before we catch up or in general?"
"I was referring to when we would catch up, but… what do you mean by 'in general'?" The two girl's eyes found the others'. Trinity looked away first.
"I've been thinking. We're pretty much human right? We only have a little special training, but nothing too special?" Sophie nodded.
"Well… I've just been wondering that, if we actually pull off joining their little gang, how long we would last. It seems they have a hard enough time fighting, and they're L'cie. If we're only human, how hard do you think that same fighting will be for us?" Sophie had been staring at the blue eyed woman, but at this statement she looked away.
"You think we won't make it?" Silence. "Trin, do you think we made a mistake of picking this as our new home?" Trinity's head snapped up.
"Never. To me, it will be enough if I can make it far enough to see Gran Pulse. We've seen a little bit of greenery here in the city, but I'm almost positive that's nothing compared to what they have on Pulse. If I can make it that far, it won't have been a waste. If I can't… well, this world is still better than the one we grew up in." Sophie had to look away from her friend again; the look in her eyes was so intense and filled with determination.
"I… suppose. Yeah, I agree with you." Trinity smiled and walked over to her companion and put her arm over Sophie's shoulder, and pulled Sophie's forehead to meet her own.
"I have faith we'll get far enough to see that green, and to help only a little bit. The real trick will be convincing them that we won't slow them down. I have a feeling Light will have a hard time believing we won't be a burden…" they both erupted into quiet giggles. Trinity then used the hand that wasn't around her friend's shoulder to push Sophie's head away playfully.
"Now come on, I think they're moving again, probably out in the streets now. I can't hear anymore gunfire." With that, they both took off at a run, now motivated to face the task ahead.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait… wait." Sophie said this after they had been running for a few minutes. Trinity slowed to a stop and walked back to meet Sophie, who seemed a little confused.
"I thought they made the evacuation announcement when Snow and Hope were already on the streets?" Trinity furrowed her eyebrows at this and though hard about the order of the events.
"Well… maybe." She thought about this a moment more before her eyes widened when she remembered. Sophie was right… "but then… what's that gunshot sound we've been following?"
They both tried remembering before Sophie snapped her fingers. "The subway, Light and Fang fought near a subway for a little while. Maybe we've been hearing the sounds being carried?" Seeing as there was no other explanation, Trinity groaned.
"We've been heading in the wrong direction for the past ten minutes! That's it, times up. Snow and Hope are probably fighting that one thing by now." Sophie shook her head.
"No, there hasn't been another explosion yet."
"The first time they fight it, the explosion hasn't occurred." Trinity started pacing again. "But then what the hell is happenin—" Trinity was cut off from the massive amounts of gunfire and screams coming from the ceiling.
"…Oh… OH. Man, I am all mixed up. I thought he went all 'I am a Pulse L'cie' like… fifteen minutes ago! Or was it ten?" Sophie rolled her eyes and took hold of Trinity's wrist. "Five?"
"Hush, you!" The two looked around for a manhole and ladder that they could use to get to the surface, and finally found one after listening to deafening gunshots for at least a few minutes. They hurriedly climbed up, anxious to see the going-ons of the up above.
Sophie started to open the manhole—having to use all her strength on the heavy object—but dropped it with just as much swiftness as they had moments before in their search.
"What is it?" Trinity whisper-shouted up to her.
"PSICOM! Tons of them just loitering around this area. I guess Snow and Hope haven't gotten to them yet." The manhole started to move, and the girls exchanged wide eyed horror before hastily making their way down the ladder.
"Who's down there?" Of course the girls didn't answer, but they heard the soldier that called out talk to another and soon two military units were expertly sliding down the ladder and pointing their guns around at anything that moved.
Shit! Trinity mouthed. Sophie was repeating the phrase 'we're dead' over and over again in her head. Both, however, were thinking that they should have picked up some guns, seeing as there were enough dead soldiers lying around at the surface.
"We know somebody's down here! Show your selves! Step out of your hiding place with your hands behind your head!"
The girls looked at each other.
What do we do? Sophie mouthed.
I know what we AREN'T going to do… Sophie glared at Trinity.
What. Do. We. Do, Sophie repeated, though slower. Trinity took a deep breath, and once she was composed, turned back to Sophie's green eyes.
Okay, here's what we do… Trinity finished off using hand motions to communicate that they were to wait 'til the soldier turned around. Then, one of them would knock out—kill if need be—the closest soldier, and use any weapons that he had on the other enemy. Sophie slowly nodded, not sure if she understood everything, but nevertheless they got into a prepared stance behind the wall of which they had taken cover. Trinity took the risk in looking back at the soldiers, but quickly pulled back, shocked.
"Hey!" the soldier rushed over at them. They didn't have time to think. Their training took hold and the first thing Trinity did when the soldier came behind their wall was swing at him, hitting him in his unprotected neck. Something snapped and Trinity knelt down clutching at her hand, but at the moment Sophie paid no heed. She quickly took up the downed soldier's gun and open fired at its previous owner's companion. Soon, that soldier was down too, and it all was over in less than fourteen seconds.
Sophie tried to slow her breathing, her adrenaline still hanging on. When she finally composed herself she went back over to Trinity and knelt down beside her.
"Was that crack I heard that guy's neck or your…?" she trailed off, seeing the blue eyed woman's bloody knuckles. Trinity chuckled despite the throb of her hand.
"I think it was both," she replied, standing up.
"Come on, we have to keep moving."
"But, what about your hand?" Trinity looked back at Sophie. She had made it to the ladder and was holding her broken hand to her chest and getting ready to climb up.
"Unless you have any bandages or magical powers to heal it, there isn't much we can do at the moment. Now come on."
They were a little slower climbing, but to retain her pride Trinity wouldn't accept any help in climbing or heaving the manhole open. Luckily, this time the soldiers that were at the surface were dead.
"Those two work fast…" Sophie said as she poked her head out of the manhole and sat on the edge. Trinity nodded.
"I think they went that way," she gestured with her head in the direction of bodies that were lying on the ground.
"Well, then that's the way we'll go." Sophie stood up and took the lead, a little more confident with the gun in her hands. Trinity followed, a little put out of having lost being the leader.
"Cheer up. If we do end up being with the group, you wouldn't be the navigator anyways. Light would."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sophie laughed and Trinity groaned. She knew that Sophie was high on confidence now, and that she would be showing it for the rest of the walk until something happened to shatter it.
The street they were walking on met up with a bigger street before long.
"Trin, look." Trinity walked a little faster after having faced the direction Sophie was, and started heading in the pointed out direction.
The mob of people that were after the two L'cie had followed said L'cie into an alley.
"Leave the little girl alone!"
"This is our town!"
"Kill the L'cie!"
"That's the angry mob alright," Trinity muttered, and both girls sped up their walking to meet up with the crowd. They pushed their way through the mob until they were in the front on the right side.
"I feel a little left out. Are we the only ones not shouting insults?" Sophie whisper so as not to be heard by the rest of the people.
"Guess so…" She was about to say more, but stopped. They had both been watching Snow, carefully managing what he was doing. What they were waiting for occurred, and his brand started glowing.
"Get ready to run."
"Straight through? I thought maybe we would just climb over the equipment. We won't stand out as much." Trinity blinked.
"On second thought I like your idea better. But if we get pulled back by PSICOM, I blame you." The civilian's continued shouting insults, one stood out more than others;
"I'm not afraid of you!" And then Snow used magic, and the structure overhead was struck. The citizens started shouting in terror, and it was evident that the people were, in fact, afraid of the L'cie.
The girls scoffed and took a simple step back while everyone else cowered. Then again, the people couldn't be blamed. They didn't know the L'cie before them weren't murderers.
"Now?"
"Wait," Trinity said, holding her arm out to block Sophie, who was eager to go.
Hope walked up and picked up the toy the girl had dropped and set it on the fallen structure.
"…I'm sorry." The statement could barely be heard over the terrorized whimpers of people, but the girls new the line well enough to pick it up. That's when the soldiers came rushing in, guns aimed and ready to shoot. Right before Snow and Hope's take off into the air, the screams, and the gunfire, Trinity finally shouted,
"Now!" Trinity yelled. Sophie caught the look Snow gave them when Trinity shouted, but then he got distracted with keeping Hope safe. In a moment, he was a ways up, Trinity and Sophie had ducked into yet another alley, and a bunch of PSICOM units took to the air after the L'cie.
"Now what?" Sophie shouted. Trinity was frantically looking around. Her hand still hurt, and was making it hard for her to focus, but she soon spotted a fire escape.
"There!"
They started their ascend up the stairs. It was a wonder that no soldiers followed them, but they assumed it was either because the soldiers didn't know their whereabouts or the L'cie were top priority. It was probably the latter.
When they reached the top, Sophie just barely caught a glimpse of movement on another roof, and started in that direction. Trinity followed, as she had no better option. They jumped a few gaps between the buildings, and soon enough they were examining the abandoned Dragoon jetpack… thing. It was on the roof of a circular building, and it was clear which way the L'cie had taken. They could see the PSICOM swarm from there.
"Do we wait, or stalk right under their noses?" Trinity answered by taking a seat not far from the jetpack. They would be okay; any units still after the L'cie would be drawn to the sound of gunfire, which the girls were nowhere near.
"Are you trying to avoid meeting them?" Sophie asked as she sat down next to Trinity.
"Nope."
"Then why do you keep putting it off?" The older girl sighed and turned to face her companion.
"I'm waiting for the right moment. I find it hard to picture us just walking up to them and saying, 'Hey, what's up. So listen, can we, like, join you? Yeah, we're human. We can? Awesome!'" Sophie was not amused and gave an empty stare.
"I am being completely serious. I'm trying to play this whole thing out in my mind, and I'm having a hard time finding a good point to 'make ourselves known'. So, I've kind of just decided to see if they just notice us."
"Since when has that ever worked? For anybody?"
"You know, I'd tell you, but that's not one of the things I told myself to remember and now is not the time for me to get a massive headache." Sophie grunted her reluctant agreement.
"So." Trinity stood up and stretched, careful not to aggravate her hand. "Shall we?"
"But I thought we were waiting for the expl—"
A loud blast was heard not too far off, followed by another, bigger blast.
"—osion… Okay, let's go." Instead of running, they just fast walked. Neither of them had any intention of getting involved with the next fight; they would be no match to it, even with help. They walked until they could just make out the area in which the explosion occurred, and then they snuck over to the ledge of a different building to get a better view.
"Now that is some determination," Sophie said, impressed. They were watching the injured Snow climb back up the building with Hope's dead weight on his shoulder. They sat back and let their feet dangle over the edge of the building overlooking the battle to come.
"Kind of makes me feel better about my hand," Trinity said in agreement. She held her hand up in the sunlight and examined it. It had stopped bleeding, but was now stiff and swollen and caked with dried blood.
Snow had just made it back up to the ground they were on before they fell, and was now picking Hope back up from the little rest he had just taken.
"Won't be long now. All they have to do is have their little heart to heart chat before big, bad, and ugly shows up," Trinity said. She retracted her hand and cradled it to her chest, wincing a little bit at the pain.
Sophie nodded. "How long do you think Hope will last on his own?"
"I don't know. When I played the game I just let him die, because I knew for a fact that's what was supposed to happen. I give him three minutes though."
"Only three? Awe, show some faith in the kid, he's stronger than we are!"
"And we would last a grand total of about thirty seconds."
"… I see your point."
They watched as the monster tossed Snow aside as if he were nothing, and then how Hope went to fight the boss alone.
"Hey, do you remember the name of that thing?" Trinity asked as Hope took the first strike.
"I… do not. All the monsters here have weird names. I barely remember the Eidolon names."
"I only remember two of those… no wait, three. Bahamut, Alexander, and Odin. The rest are too weird."
"Weird to us. I bet people here never heard of an animal called a hippopotamus," Sophie pointed out.
"True… oh, that looks like it hurt." Trinity watched as the beast started using its fire attacks and Hope was starting to look worn down.
"Should we help him?" Sophie asked, sounding a little nervous. The girls looked each other for a moment… before breaking into uncontrollable laughter.
"Haha! That's a good one! Help."
"Ha, I know, right? Besides, Fang and Light will show up any minute now. They'll be able to take that thing down." They both sat back and relaxed a little. The minutes ticked by and the L'cie female duo didn't show. Hope looked about ready to collapse if he had to fight another minute alone, and the spectator girls were getting worried.
"Where are they?"
"Trin, we have to help. I don't think he'll hold for much longer."
"I know, I know… But the only thing we would be good for is a distracti—" A grin started to work its way on the black haired girl's face, and her blue eyes started twinkling mischievously.
"Wh—? Oh, no. No, no, no, and NO. I am not acting as bait!"
"Soph, you are the one who said we needed to help! Come on, it's not like we have guns or something that we can fight with… Well you do, but I don't. Come to think of it, that would have been a good thing to think up when we came here…"
"I know, but… is there a way we can both help from a distance?"
"Well, I doubt it will even feel a rock that I could throw at him… how do you feel about building the world's biggest sling shot in less than thirty seconds?" Sophie tore her gaze away from the sorry sight of Hope to glare at her friend.
"The only thing I'm going to do in the next thirty seconds is kick your sorry arse. Trin, I'm not playing! What do we do?" Trinity looked back at the boy fighting for his life and then at the ladder that conveniently led down to the ground he was fighting on.
"Okay, in all seriousness, what are your thoughts on actually going down there and running like hell around the damn thing pretending to be more threatening than Hope, and stalling it until Light and Fang show up? You can pump it full of whatever bullets that gun has left, and I can creep it out with my infected hand." By time Trinity had finished, Sophie's eye was twitching. Trinity saw that Sophie was obviously not too fond of the idea—and didn't appreciate the joke at the end— but she also saw that they had to make a decision, and fast.
"Soph, this may also be the best time to put ourselves out there. I've gone through it over and over in my head. This may be the best if not only opportunity to put ourselves out there. After this part is over, they head to Hopes house. If we don't even introduce ourselves by then, we can kiss our chances goodbye. We don't have to join up with them now, but if we can somehow meet with them later and they already somewhat know us… I think we'll have a better shot."
Sophie looked away from Trinity. She had noticed lately, how her friend could be reckless and carefree one moment, and then serious the next. She supposed that, maybe, the overload of change was starting to get to her… no, to them.
"Okay… but you're leading. You are the eldest, after all." Sophie gave Trinity a playful nudge to the side, and her friend smiled back.
"When have I ever done otherwise?" Trinity joked. The brown haired girl laughed before getting the hidden meaning, and quickly pursued and swatted her friend soon after.
Trinity was already on her way down the ladder; she had decided to do what the soldiers did in the underground and slid down instead of climbing. Sophie followed suit and both reached Hope's level in record timing.
"Okay, what's the plan?"
"I already told you; run around, scream like hell, shoot it up, and pretend to be more threatening than the boy who's about to pass out," Trinity answered while briskly walking towards the scene, though trying to stay out of view for the time being. Sophie had a doubtful face, but followed faithfully.
"I figured that you were going to be more elaborate, but okay…" The two snuck around the outskirts of the fight and gradually edged their way closer. When they were about fifteen yards from the monster, Trinity pulled Sophie behind a pillar. The brown haired girl was about to ask what they were waiting for when Trinity suddenly interrupted her.
"Give me your gun."
"W-what? Why? Your hand's all busted up," Sophie said, surprised at the sudden order.
"I don't care, give it to me. I'm a better shot anyways." Sophie put on a pouting face and reluctantly handed the stolen gun over. Trinity handled it with some difficulty, but eventually got it situated to the point that it didn't trouble her hand too much. She then briskly laid on the floor to the side of the pillar and brought the butt of the gun to her shoulder to take aim.
"I sure hope these guns are like the ones back home…" she thought aloud. A single shot rang out and the beast stopped what it was doing to look in their direction. Apparently, Hope wasn't even doing damage anymore, so his threat level was little to nothing. Trinity adjusted her aim so that, if she hit her mark, it would be near what she thought was the head.
"Sophie, go! Start running around near its feet. If it starts going after you, get out of range!" The addressed girl nodded, slightly panicked at having to go alone, but took off in the direction of the boss, if not a little to the side. Trinity pulled the trigger once again and another bullet whizzed through the air, hitting a few feet from her mark.
"Damn, I'm out of practice… knew I should have taken gun classes towards the end of training…" Trinity scolded herself, but nonetheless let out another few rounds, making sure to keep the thing distracted between her and Sophie. They repeated this pattern—shoot, distract, run, distract, and repeat. Halfway through her ammo, the monster let out a roar of frustration right before it started to glow.
"What is it doing?" Trinity questioned out loud. It then occurred to her that this beast's main element was fire, and the glow was starting to look like dangerous flames. Sophie hadn't seemed to notice, as her head was down and she was running around the creature's legs. Trinity's eyes widened.
"Sophie! Get out of there!" But the shout was in vain. Sophie was too far off, and Trinity cursed herself for letting the monster's attack charge this far.
"Sophie!" she called at the top of her lungs. Still no good.
"Argh! Damn it!" Hope had collapsed from exhaustion a while ago, still in the creature's range of fire, and Sophie still hadn't noticed the monster's charge.
Where the hell are those two? Trinity started to sprint towards the three beings, shouting at the top of her lungs, hoping Sophie would hear her.
"Sophie! Get back! You won't be able to take it! SOPHIE!" Trinity had made it to Hope and was kneeling down beside him.
Damn it! He's out cold… She looked up. Sophie was frozen in shock, staring at how bright the creature had gotten and was trying to figure out why it was radiating light. Trinity was still too far off, and no matter how many times Trinity shouted, Sophie couldn't hear her.
"Come on, come on!" She couldn't seem to move fast enough. She didn't know why, but for some reason she had chosen to get Hope out of the way first, and managed to drag him by his shirt collar over to where Snow was. She hoped that that was far enough away that they wouldn't get affected by the blast. The charge felt like it had been going on for a few minutes, though in reality was probably about one. Knowing the average charge time, Trinity knew this was going to be no small blast. With that thought in her mind she took off after Sophie.
Everything started going in slow motion. Trinity was close enough to see the realization and fear cross her companion's eyes, but she couldn't get the warning out fast enough. The creature sucked in the radiation it had been emanating, and all went silent. Trinity allowed herself to believe that the charge was for some sort of buff, but kept running for Sophie, who had turned and started running.
A flash from behind them when they met up, and what sounded like an explosion not twenty-five yards away, was all the extra warning they got.
"Get down!" Trinity grabbed hold of Sophie's waist and tackled her to the ground, both of them landing on their stomachs and covering their heads with their hands. The explosion produced a spiraling fire that burnt the back of the hands, legs, and backs, also singeing their clothes. Both girls fought the urge to scream out in pain, but failed miserably, though it didn't matter as the sound of the outburst drowned out any other noise. Debris came falling down onto the pavement all around them, the bigger pieces missing them but the smaller ones left little marks, as if the girls had been hit with airsoft guns. Trinity resolved to biting her lip to kill her screams, and Sophie's own yelling turned into whimpers.
Neither of them moved nor spoke, not even after silence had taken over. It wasn't until one last piece of sharp metal came falling down that Trinity broke the silence. It had landed on her already injured hand.
"SON OF A BIT—" Sophie sat up and muffled Trinity's screams with her hand. A lone tear fell from the girl's blue eyes, but other than that she stood up, though very wobbly and with much difficulty. Both girls were breathing heavily, Trinity even more so when she collapsed, not able to hold herself up.
"What happened?" was all Sophie could say. She looked confused, and was rubbing the back of her slightly burnt hand. The girls had been fortunate and had gotten far enough away that they could escape without too serious of injuries, but that didn't make the pain any less.
"I think it got pissed off enough that it self-destructed in hopes of taking us out with it," Trinity replied, her eyes closing. She had a headache coming on, and the bright sun was not helping.
"That… that was too close for comfort." Trinity nodded in agreement, then smiled at her upcoming sarcasm.
"See what you get, for helping people?" she laughed weakly, clutching her hand to her chest.
Sophie let a small smile grace her lips, but otherwise was unaffected. She noticed Trinity grasping her injured hand.
"Hey… that really doesn't look too good, Trin." The girl opened her blue eyes and focused them on what her friend's green ones were looking at.
"What's a broken hand supposed to look like? Daffodils and daisies?" Sophie frowned.
"Don't think just because we are both in some pain right now that I won't kick your arse for your sass. Let me see your hand."
"No."
"Trin, let me see your hand," Sophie repeated, more sternly.
"No!" Trinity jerked away from Sophie's movement to grab at her.
"Damn it Trin, if we don't do something about that, it's going to be disfigured!"
"If you try to touch my hand again, you are going to be disfigured!"
The two were too engulfed in their dispute that they didn't notice that they had both gained the strength to stand up and start waving fingers at each other. They also failed to notice a certain pair of female L'cie make their way out of an alley at full speed, and running to the two male L'cie passed out near the wall.
"I swear to god, woman, if you make a move to even look at my hand again I will use my good hand to punch you square in the face!"
"Oh yeah, there's a bright idea, ruin the only hand you have left!"
"Ha! You just called yourself hard headed!" Sophie's eyes grew wide and her nostrils flared from anger.
"Trinity Anderson, you know that was NOT what I meant!"
"Then why'd you say it? Ow! Son of a bitch!"
Over where Lightning and Fang had arrived, neither heard the girls' quarrel. They were both too focused on the boys at their feet that they were having a hard time waking up.
"Hope, wake up. Come on, stay with us Hope," Lightning coaxed the silver haired teen into consciousness. He hissed at his soreness and sat up, Lightning with a look of relief on her face.
"What happened?" Hope rubbed the back of his aching head, flinching at a sharp pain.
"We found you here lying next to Snow, both of you unconscious. I was hoping that you'd tell me what happened." Lightning helped the boy up, and looked at him warily. Hope caught this look.
"I… Operation NORA… it didn't work out." Lightning saw the look on Hope's face as he handed back the dagger. It was full of understanding, forgiveness, and regret… but she felt the regret was towards his thoughts of revenge, and not the failure to achieve them. She hugged him.
"It's okay Hope. I'll protect you." Her arms wrapped tightly around the boy, and he let her, but he didn't feel he deserved to return the hug of comfort. Not yet.
"I… me to. I'll try to keep you safe too." Lightning pulled away and gave the closest to a genuine smile Hope had seen. She then playfully and gently flicked his face, and the two shared a quiet laugh.
"Excuse me." The two looked over at the Pulsian woman. "There's still this one. He's alive, but he won't wake up." The other L'cie joined up with the tanned skinned, raven haired woman, and Lightning knelt down to help Fang pick him up.
"Yeah, he's alive alright," she laughed dryly. "He's too stubborn to die." Something then occurred to Light.
"Hope, if you didn't do this to him, did PSICOM…? How'd both of you get knocked out?" Lightning asked, something not fitting into the puzzle in her mind. She knew both of them were capable of handling foot soldiers and even a few elites. So how did they end up they way they were found?
"Well… long story short, we kinda fell off a building after an explosion, and then that big thing you guys just killed threw Snow into the wall. I… I fought for as long as I could, and then you two showed up… Didn't you see me pass out? You were right there," the boy gave the two a confused look, and they returned it.
"Kid, we just got here."
"Yeah… Hope we didn't see any monster." All three of them exchanged glances.
"But then, who saved me?" They became very quiet, trying to think of a possible explanation. Had Sazh and Vanille showed up, and for whatever reason, left? That was unlikely. The cavalry wasn't around, and they would have helped out the two males if they were involved in the rescue. Those were the only people who would have helped them, but then… who…?
"You idiot! I told you not to touch it!"
"Ow! You hit me!"
"I told you I would, what did you think I was lying? You should know by now that I don't swear to god unless I mean it!"
All the L'cie that were awake turned their heads in the direction of the yelling, and could just barely make out the image of two people, girls from the sound of their voices. They were just a ways away behind all the heaping scraps of metal, and were obviously arguing over something.
"Are those…?"
"What are people doing here, of all places? I thought they were being cleared out," Fang thought out loud. Lightning and Hope nodded in agreement.
"Hey, Light, you don't suppose that they could be the ones that… saved me, do you?" Hope asked the pink haired soldier. She didn't respond, but started walking in their direction.
"I doubt it, but if they've been here long maybe they can tell us who did. That is, if they don't run away." Hope looked after her, and ran to catch up to hear the information first hand.
"Oh, right. I'll catch up with you, just give me a minute," Fang said sarcastically, annoyed at being left behind. Fang hoisted Snow into a position so that she could help him along easier, and went to get in on the conversation that was ahead. Even if they did run away, she didn't want to miss the hilarious looks that would undoubtedly be on their faces.
A/N: I am SO sorry. Sort of a cliff hanger, and they didn't really meet, but it's obvious they will next chapter, right? And Trinity personally dragged Hope by the shirt… THE SHIRT. To safety :D That has to count for something, right?
Anyways, hope you enjoyed, tune in next time to see Lightning get her socks blown off by how two human girls "beat" that whatever it was called (I looked up what it's called, but putting the name here is pointless because I'm sure not many of you know the name anyways.)
So go ahead, leave a review. Are the canon characters still in character? Yes? No? Tell me if they are or aren't and if they aren't tell me what I'm doing wrong!
Are my OCs mary-sues yet? If for some reason they are, tell me, and help me to NOT make them ones.
Thanks for reading, lovelies! Leave a review if you loved/liked/enjoyed it :D