A/N: I started writing this before I left for my dad's, I suppose that didn't help much…
SHIIITTTT. Five chapters in and I've yet to put a disclaimer! I don't own FFXIII, but I do own original content in the story.
Juwpiter081, I'm keeping my options open. I mentioned that poll in my profile. So far there are a few votes for Sophie/Trinity pairing, but that isn't the one that's winning. Still, I never close something off until I'm sure of what I want to do. But, yeah, that little insert there could go either as a tease or as a start of something else entirely.
I lied when I said I change the dialogue entirely. When I said I won't go word for word, I meant I won't go out of my way to see what the exact conversation is. And then there are the scenes I just can't resist keeping… me loves me some Fang sarcasm :3 Okay, I'm good, you can read now.
Edit: I started this a year ago… the fuck, life?
D.G: Final Fantasy XIII
Chapter 5: Plans
The three of us reentered the family room, though it had gained a few more occupants since the last we saw it. They were all sitting in thoughtful silence as we made our way to an open couch. Sophie and I once again took the small couch while Fang made for a chair across the center table, opposite Hope and his father. No one looked up as we entered, especially Snow who looked like he was building up for the biggest speech of his life.
Ah yes, his confession. I know when we are, now…
Suddenly the tall, blond haired NORA leader got up from his seat and dropped to the floor before Hope's father. He bowed so far I could have sworn he was kissing the ground, and his pained voice spoke into the silence.
"The blame is mine! I couldn't save her…" the giant remained on the floor, refusing to look into Bartholomew's eyes. Hope's father sighed out of grief, and held his head in his hand, but otherwise said nothing. Hope looked away from the man beside him.
"If it wasn't for Snow… I wouldn't be here, now," the boy said, sticking up for the man he once intended to kill. Bartholomew sighed again and looked up to see Snow still on his hands and knees.
"Did she… did Nora say anything to you?" At this Snow looked up, finally meeting the man's eyes.
"Hope," he said with little to no pause. "She said to, 'Get him home.'"
Bartholomew looked at his son who in turn nodded in confirmation. The man turned back to Snow. His fist contacted the table, and for a second Snow looked even more guilty and pained, but Bartholomew interrupted whatever Snow had been thinking.
"And that's exactly what you've done," Bartholomew declared sternly. Snow looked up, and the look on his face was hard to describe, but if I had to, I'd say it was mostly surprised, but also consisted of hope. Hope for forgiveness. The man's son turned to his father and showed a small smile, relieved as well. Everyone in the room started letting out breaths, save for me and Sophie. I was surprised that even Lightning had been holding her breath.
"Seeing you all as you are here, before me now… it is hard to imagine that you are all dangerous fugitives. L'cie, nonetheless. The entirety of Cocoon are scared to death of you L'cie. And not just you, people who have helped you, bumped into you. People who have just walked by one of you. Those people are tainted in their eyes, and want every single one of them purged!" The oldest in the room, the exception being Fang, stated coldly, his obvious disgust at the thought showing. I was beginning to remember this conversation a little too well.
"The Sanctum is a puppet of the Fal'cie!" cried and outraged Snow. "To them, our lives are meaningless…" Bartholomew grunted at the truth in Snow's words. "We'll stop them! Together we will take down the Sanctum, and save Cocoon!" With the last sentence Bartholomew's eyes narrowing reprovingly.
"You've thought that through?" Snow looked taken aback at the simple sentence, and remained silent, not sure what to say.
"If L'cie take down the Sanctum, fear of Pulse will only get worse. They won't just be afraid; people will take up arms, and stand against you." Everyone in the room looked downcast at the man's words. Apparently they had never thought about it before.
"Can you imagine it?" he continued, looking around at all the present faces. "The mass chaos?" Lightning looked up in understanding, chiming in to the scenario.
"When the government's control is gone, the people will rebel," she said, for once the cold tone gone, replaced by an insightful one. Snow looked away from the girl. If Light said it, then it must be a real possibility, and the situation appeared crumble in on him. Not quite, though.
Fang stood from her chair, looking fed up. "So, what then? Are we supposed to just smile and eat a bullet?" she scoffed, looking at Hope's father. "That means you too."
"I know I'm a part of this," Bartholomew chuckled dryly. "I'm on your side of the fence, harborer of l'Cie and a public enemy."
Fang shook her head in frustration and to me, the room got that much more apprehensive.
"Coming here… was a bad idea," Hope said, his head down. His father grasped his shoulder reassuringly.
"This is your home," he stated, offering a small smile. Hope returned the gesture and Bartholomew stood from the couch. "We're all here, let's figure this out together."
I looked away from him, and focused on the carpet. I waited for the lights to flicker off, which would signal PSICOM had arrived. The lights stayed on. The l'Cie in the room began planning with Bartholomew nodding in approval or interrupting to object an idea and offer up a better course of action. I felt the skin between my brows crease and I looked up towards the windows, where soldiers should have been by now, posed for attack. The house should have been swarming with PSICOM; Snow, Bartholomew, and Sophie and I should be hiding to avoid the battle. What was going on?
I turned back to Sophie who looked just as confused as I was. Neither of us said anything; how could we? The only thing we could do that wouldn't blow our cover was to wait.
"And what about you two? From what I've been told, you aren't l'Cie, either." Our head's snapped to Hope's father, our silent questions to each other temporarily forgotten.
"What about us?" Sophie asked when I didn't. I think she sounded more defensive than she meant to.
"You tell me. You've been following Hope and I since we cut off from the mob," Snow said. He had the hint of a smirk that only cops have when they've caught the criminal in the act. I would know. Sophie and I have come across our fair share of them when we were trying to swipe some food.
Sophie, on the other hand, looked shocked that he knew. I could tell that she was about to lie and say something like 'I don't know what you're talking about', but I beat her to it.
"Would you have preferred we didn't?" I asked. His smirk wore off and he looked down. Of course he was glad we followed him. As wrong as it was, we saved their asses.
"So, what? You manage to take down one of PSICOM's machines and you suddenly think you're strong enough to tag along? Why? Because it sounds fun? You have nothing better to do?" Lightning was glaring at the two of us. I figured she wouldn't like the idea of the two of us joining them. Two humans that show up out of nowhere, stalk a few of her companions, and just out of the good of their hearts want to help l'Cie fugitives? Yeah. That doesn't sound suspicious at all. Lightning took my silence as my way of saying 'yeah, whatever,' or something along those lines, and scoffed. "You have no idea what you've gotten yourselves into."
I fought the urge to silently mimic her last sentence. Oh, the irony…
"So what would you have us do then, huh? Here we are offering up a bit of help, and you just want to blatantly refuse? Give me one good reason why we shouldn't be able to tag along and saying, 'You're a liability' or some crap like that isn't an answer," I told her, straining to lower my tone which had started to rise. I was glaring right back at the ex-soldier. She had been my second favorite character in the games, but I knew two stubborn heads don't go together too well.
"I'd have you stay here. You'd only get in our way." I knew I was imagining it, but it wouldn't have surprised me if she was mocking me with her calm voice and how she was able to control her anger.
My good hand clenched and unclenched as I took a deep breath in an attempt to be as calm as she was, and I decided saying 'That's what you told Hope,' was out of the question.
In my silence I half expected Sophie to speak up on our behalf, but she remained silent.
"Look, we want to bring down the Fal'Cie rule just as much as you do. We've had a few years of training, and we are well aware of the risks. Let us help, in any way we can. We're willing to go to Pulse, if that's what it takes." I mentally smiled at my subtle joke and I caught Fang quirking an eyebrow at the last part.
"I say they should come. I like 'em. They're dedicated, if a bit screwy in the head," Fang's voice came from behind Light. I didn't break eye contact with Lightning, and she kept her eyes on me as well.
"Their 'dedication' is going to get them killed. What can they do? They can't heal themselves and they don't have magic on their side—" I cut her off and held up my injured hand.
"My dedication has kept me alive. We can take out soldiers and PSICOM units just as easy as you can. The only reason this happened is because I didn't have a weapon on me. We can take out the grunts while you handle the stronger enemies. We know it may as well be a suicide mission, especially for us, but the way I see it, so is staying here." I took a deep calming breath. "If we get killed going with you that's our problem. If it makes you feel any better, if I just so happen to get a fatal wound, I'll make sure to stay out of your way."
No one talked, and the silence was unnerving. Lightning still hadn't taken her eyes off the two of us, but now instead of glaring she seemed to be sizing us up.
"Fine. If you know you have a high chance of dying, so be it. But if you fall behind, you get left behind. Is that fair enough?"
"I would have been surprised if you said anything different." She finally looked away, and I allowed myself a triumphant smile.
"Fantastic. Now what?" Snow asked. He hadn't gotten up from the floor, but he was working on standing.
"You still need to rest until your injuries are fully healed," my hand and foot throbbed in unison but I tried to ignore it, "The rest of us will formulate a plan to meet up with Sazh and Vanille. After that, we'll find a way to take down the Fal'Cie," Lightning told him. He looked disappointed, but didn't protest at her silent order to go lay back down. The room came alive with ideas of how to find their friends. Hope mostly listened, though he would voice his agreement with Lightning whenever possible. Fang wanted to literally go searching for them, but that was quickly shot down because of how irrational it was. Hope's father suggested they wait for the news to announce l'Cie activity that wasn't their own and go from there. Fang didn't like the idea of waiting, but since there really wasn't a better option they all began building on the suggestion. Sophie and I stayed out of it. It might have appeared it was because we had little to no idea what the rest of the group was talking about, but I'm pretty sure it was because we were both waiting for what should have happened a while ago.
First Light and Fang being late to save Hope, now the delay of the attack on Hope's house; just thinking about it got my head hurting again. What was causing all the delays? Maybe Sophie was right. Maybe we were changing things just by being there, even if we weren't doing so intentionally. But, no matter how late PSICOM was, neither of us were willing to relax enough to the point that we would be unprepared when they did show. IF they showed. I was tense, and Sophie kept twitching at every sound that was even slightly out of the ordinary.
"Right. So we wait for a lead to be broadcasted and we'll head in that direction. When we get there, wherever it is, we'll make ourselves known so that Sazh and Vanille will know to look for us, too?" Hope asked his companions. Light nodded. "But how will we get there fast enough? They could be anywhere."
"Don't worry about that. We'll hitch a ride with a few friends of mine," Fang laughed. Her spirits were lifted now that they had somewhat of a plan.
"Friends?" Light looked at Fang, a hint of doubt in her voice.
"Eh, I made somewhat of a deal with someone high in rank with the Cavalry. He'll fly us out to wherever they announce Vanille is."
"Okay. We have a plan, we have a ride. All there's left to do is wait for a lead," Light said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms and legs. Hope and Fang nodded simultaneously, also relaxing into their seats. The room was encompassed in silence once again. Everyone in their own thoughts. I was listening for the sound of flying equipment and guns. I couldn't hear any. Sophie took a deep breath then opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it and closed her mouth quickly, shaking her head.
"What?" I asked her. She looked at me. Later, is what that look told me. We'll talk about it later. I was a little disappointed; I wasn't too keen on the silence and I was hoping for a small distraction to break my tension. But, I supposed that, once again, this would be a conversation for our ears only. I sighed despite myself. It was still too quiet, and if the other people in the room noticed our little exchange, they didn't show it.
"How long do you think it will take?" I asked no one in particular. Light glanced over and Fang looked at me questioningly. "To find your friends, I mean," I clarified. Light went back to thinking, allowing Fang to answer.
"Who knows? I don't know about this Sazh guy, but Vanille is good at staying under the radar when she wants to. It could take awhile…" She paused. "Then again, it'd be pretty hard to hide when the military knows which face to look for…"
"Right… neither of them would happen to have a phone or some other device you could use to contact them to make a rendezvous point, would they?" She looked at me like I had grown an extra head. "What? It's a fair question, isn't it?"
"You're not a very good listener, are you?"
"Um… I can be when I need to be. What should I have been listening to?"
"When we were discussing the plan. You didn't catch any of that?"
"Oh, right. I, uh… caught the important parts. I was actually listening to make sure PSICOM didn't show up at the doorstep. I wouldn't put it past them to still be after you even though we stopped for some 'R and R'," I told her. She raised a brow. "Rest and relaxation," I said, answering her unasked question. She looked confused for a second but then nodded.
"Hm. Good to know I'm not the only one worried we're still being tailed," Lightning said off handedly, glancing sideways at Fang. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the great Lightning Farron was teasing the warrior. Then again, she could just be vaguely chastising Fang, or anyone else, for that matter. Though, Light never was one for subtleness. I dismissed it as simple banter.
"You think they're looking for us? Or do you think they know where we are and are planning a strike?" I asked the ex-soldier.
"Honestly? I think they know we're here. They're probably gathering their forces, and preparing a strategy," she grimaced. "And if that's true, we should be on our toes. PSICOM's not above blowing this place sky high just to get rid of l'Cie, and ease the minds of the populace."
"How long do you figure we have?" Silence. At first I thought she didn't hear me, or she was ignoring the question, but then she answered.
"I'm surprised we're still here."
That makes three of us.
Hope, who I had all but forgotten stood up, then. "We should leave, then. The sooner the better… we can hide until Snow fully recovers." He turned to his father. "I don't want to put any more people in danger."
"Hope… you don't have to go just yet. Stay, rest. When it's time to leave, you will. But that doesn't have to be now," his father told him, as he stood up as well. I could detect a hint of desperation in his voice. My head started throbbing again.
"Your dad's right. When PSICOM gets here, we'll take Snow and slip out. We don't need to leave, not now at least," Light said, a small indication of empathy in her tone.
"As much as I want to stay here, I know we can't. Each second we wait, you get put in more and more danger. If we leave now, you'll have a better chance of PSICOM leaving you alone." Hope looked down. His fists clenched, and for a moment his face became distorted in pain. "I won't lose more family due to this l'Cie business."
Bartholomew went to say something, but he closed his mouth. I'd expected him to look defeated, but he just looked thoughtful. He looked up at his son, then turned to the rest of us.
"You—"
"Trin!" Sophie cut him off in a loud whisper. She quickly stood up and grabbed my arm, bringing me with her. I stared at her, a little startled at the outburst. She wouldn't look at me though. Everyone stared at her, and she just stared at nothing. "Listen…" I waited for her to say something, but she didn't. No one did. The only sounds were the buzzing lights and a faint whirring…
Lightning jerked her head towards the window first. Then Fang, and finally Hope.
Finally.
"Hope, go get Snow, we need to leave," Light demanded as she drew her weapon. The boy nodded and ran off in the direction Snow had took, and not a second later, the lights died.
"Speak of the devil, and the devil appears," Sophie whispered from beside me. A spotlight shined through the windows, and with that light, I saw Hope and Snow were back in the room. We listened to the sound of footsteps, moving soldiers and speakers, but no one moved. Why wasn't something happening?
I widened my eyes at the sudden memory that flashed through my mind.
"Get back, don't breath it in!" I yelled over the noise that just kept getting louder. Everyone but Sophie looked at me strangely, but then Light's eyes lit up and her head snapped towards the ceiling.
"Heads up!" she yelled. The glass above us smashed, and gas filled the room a second later. Everything started to blur as the gas made my eyes water. I started coughing as well; I was unable to stop it from filling my lungs. PSICOM started pouring in. I heard a voice coming through the smoke.
"Hope! In the back!" I placed the voice with Snow.
"You're not ready for this!" I heard the boy say. "I'm staying here. You help my dad."
A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. I held my fist up and took a swing, but the offender blocked my hand. "Trin, it's me!" That's Sophie's voice…
"Come on!" she said again. She grabbed my wrist and started pulling me through the dissipating smoke, but my vision was still blocked with tears that wouldn't leave.
"You two, go with Snow!" I turned towards the voice, and was met by a blue blur. I was pulled again, this time through a door. I saw two more blurs, both sitting on something else blue.
"Where's your bathroom?" I heard Sophie ask.
"This isn't really the time for that—" I think that was Snow, but Sophie stopped him.
"Where is the damn bathroom?" No one talked, but the blur to the left had an extension come out of it. Sophie dragged me in the direction indicated, and soon I was sat on something cold, and felt porcelain.
A cabinet opened, then running water.
"Trin, open your eyes," Sophie told me. I shook my head.
"Don't argue with me right now, open your damn eyes!" she didn't wait for me to comply. A wet washcloth was pressed to my face. When the thing pulled away, I attempted to open my eyes but hissed in pain and quickly shut them again. Sophie growled in frustration, and pulled me up. She forced me to bend forward, and I held my hands out to stop my head from hitting anything. They found a large bowl. Then I heard running water again and a few drops fell on my hands… not a bowl. A sink.
Without warning, cold water splashed my face. I tried to recoil, but Sophie's arm was keeping me in place. More water splashed my eyes.
"Stop!" I yelled at her. A crash came from the other side of a wall, to the right, I think.
"Open your eyes!"
I tried. They stung. I closed them again.
"Damn it, Trinity!" I felt pressure below and above my left eye. Was she trying to force my eyes open?
I tried to pull away as the pain hit, but Sophie wouldn't have any of it. She kept my eye open with one hand and splashed it with the other. I expected it to sting, but instead there was just relief as the water hit my open eye. My vision cleared a little. Sophie went to splash me again, and this time I didn't struggle. When my left eye was mostly clear, and I could see the majority of my surroundings, I eagerly pulled myself closer to the sink and splashed my whole face, multiple times with my eyes open. Another crash came from the living room.
"You okay?" Sophie asked from behind. She still had her hand on my shoulder, looking at me through the mirror. That's all I could comprehend, concerning her anyways. I was busy looking at my bloodshot eyes. I couldn't even see the whites, the red had taken over and the only color left was the blue of my iris.
"That stuff was strong…" I whispered to myself.
"Yeah, I think it was some sort of tear gas. Nothing like we had on Earth," she said. We both winced. The headache was back. Again. As I thought about the headache, I also remembered my other injuries. I jumped as the pain in my foot returned as if it knew I was thinking about it, and the throb in my hand came back full force, causing me to pull it back from the sink to cradle it to my chest.
"We should go back to the others."
I nodded in agreement and put an arm over her shoulder, allowing her to guide us back into the room with the blurs, which I now realized were Snow and Hope's father sitting on blue chairs. They both looked up at our entry, and their eyes widened when they found mine.
"What happened?" Snow asked quietly, cringing away from the wall behind him in response to another crash. I shook my head.
"I think one of the gas canisters got a little too close to my eyes. I don't think anyone else was affected," I told him. Bartholomew relaxed a little into his chair, probably relieved that his son hadn't been injured… that he knew of.
Sophie and I stood in that room awkwardly for what seemed like years. The battle in the other room raged on and on, and I was starting to think it wasn't going to stop. Then the amount of gunshots started decreasing, and finally silence encompassed the house once more. That, of course, didn't speak for the commotion going on outside.
Snow stood up with a purpose, only stumbling a little. Bartholomew started to help him, but Snow shook his head and looked through the door.
"Is it over? Are they…?" his question trailed of, and his concern for Hope made Snow smile a little.
"They're fine, Hope is a tough kid."
Reassured, the two walked out of the room, and we followed them out. We rounded the corner to the living room and found all of the soldiers sprawled out across the destroyed living room. The windows were all completely broken, and the L'cie that stayed to fight were hiding behind them and looking out for more threats. Hope, who had been looking at something on the floor, looked up and saw Snow and his father had entered the room.
Sophie started to help me over to the rest of the group when a spotlight shined through the smashed ceiling, and momentarily blinded our eyes. We continued over to the three L'cie, and stopped to lean against the wall that hid us all from the next wave of soldiers.
Light and Fang leaned over to look out of one of the shattered windows. You could tell their forces were getting large by Fang's comment.
"Who ordered the Battalion?" she asked no one in particular. Light glanced over her shoulder at the woman and replied more seriously,
"They'll take out the whole building, next."
"You mean they haven't already?" I couldn't help myself. Looking around the room, you couldn't tell it was the same one we had been holding conversation in maybe twenty minutes before. Light turned around and looked disapprovingly at my comment, but then her focus turned to Snow and Bartholomew, who still stood outside the room, and waved them over.
The two quickly made it over to safety, and Hope and his father reunited. While Bartholomew showed his concern for his son, Snow collapsed onto the floor next to Fang in exhaustion. The two made sure the other was safe, and when it was confirmed that they both were, Hope nodded towards Lightning to proceed with the next plan of action.
"Trin," Sophie whispered in my ear. I turned away from Snow, who was about to pull of his stunt, and looked at her downcast face. "You believe me now, don't you? Something's wrong?"
I knew what she was talking about, but it wasn't the time for in depth conversations, so I answered the only 'play-off' way I could.
"Yeah, my foot, hand, and eyes. They all hurt, and one out of three of them are your fault."
She glared at me, obviously not in the mood for humor. "I'm serious, Trin, something's wrong –" I hushed her when her voice began to rise.
"I know, I know. Now just isn't the time, Soph. Things are about to get even more intense."
My avoidance of the conversation made her huff and look away, but we both jumped when we heard the gunfire.
"We can talk about this after we get on the Cavalry ship, but seriously. Now is not the time," I whispered, hoping she heard me over Snow's speech.
"Fine. As soon as we get the chance, and when we can talk without interruption. Not a moment later," she demanded, her eyes burning. I had never seen her so determined, and suddenly Bartholomew wasn't the only one who was worried. I nodded my agreement, and right as I did the racket outside burst up in volume. The PSICOM we could see out the windows were quickly falling, and no one inside had even lifted a finger.
At the sight of what was happening, Lightning stood up and turned to Hope. "We're leaving. Tie up your dad." Hope looked confused but didn't object. Light then turned to his father. "We threatened you and forced you to help us," she stated.
He started to object, but Hope cut him off, leaving him defeated. The two went to the back of what was left of the room. Knowing what conversation they would have next, and with the knowledge neither of us had no part in it, Sophie and I made our way closer to the windows. It seemed everyone inside had forgotten about Snow, who was struggling to get up. He was coughing profusely, and looked like a deer caught in headlights, standing in front of the ship that faced him.
"Come on," Sophie said to me, nudging me toward the window. We climbed out, and a second later the rest rushed past us with their weapons brandished. Snow fell back until he was beside us, away from the air craft's line of fire.
"Is this what you signed up for?" he said dryly, not taking his eyes off the battle. The two of us looked at him, at each other, and back before I spoke for the two of us.
"This is exactly what we signed up for."
He turned to us, coughed once, and then focused back on the battle. "Well, as long as you know…"
Sophie and I shared a look. I wondered briefly how they would take the truth, if we ever got the guts to tell them. The explosions that continuously racked the darkness lit up our faces and played with shadows that made us look almost evil. Perhaps they would think us crazy? Maybe, but then they live in a world where magic exists. Maybe to them, inter-dimensional travel wouldn't be as out of the norm as one would think. I hoped, anyways. Sophie and I could only keep up a face for so long.
The aircraft finally went down, and the fighting group was starting to look as exhausted as Snow. Us three on the side lines watched intently as the last explosions made the thing disappear under the ledge, and Snow gritted his teeth when another one took its place.
"They need help!" he said, though he looked like he was talking to himself. He started forward, but neither of us stopped him; instead, Sophie and I followed.
"What are you three doing? Get back!" Lightning caught sight of us and was waving us back to safety. Snow, being his stubborn self, didn't even look at her and struggled to take a fighting stance next to Hope. Sophie and I, on the other hand, stopped when we were three fourths of the way to the group. Lightning looked between Snow and us with her glare, and tried one more time.
"I said get back!"
A flash lit up our surroundings, soon followed by a deafening blast that sent shockwaves from behind us. My arm that was supporting me on Sophie's shoulder gripped tighter in preparation for the second explosion, the one that could send us flying backwards if we didn't brace ourselves.
The missile hit the enemy ship, and a wave of heat pushed everyone a few feet back. I shielded my eyes from any debris that might have flown off, and like everyone else turned to see where the missile had come from.
"Come on," Sophie said to me, pulling me forward. We went right up behind Fang, who still stood with the others in their fighting stances.
The new ship landed, the door opened, and four PSICOM clad soldiers rushed out with another one strolling along behind them. Fang gradually came out of her stance as realization took over, and Sophie and I continued walking until we were right beside her.
"Heya, Fang," the confident soldier said, taking off his helmet. Long hair was released from the containment, revealing a cocky smile. "Need a ride?"
The warrior, now completely relaxed in the presence of a familiar face, smirked. "Don't get cute." She turned to the rest of the L'cie, still on the defensive. "Right, let's move it!"
They all hesitated at first, but Sophie and I quickly fell into stride behind the woman, eager to get on the Lindblum and have our talk.
A/N: I hated this chapter with a burning passion. I did. It was boring to write, and once I got something down, it seemed stupid. My fifth time rewriting, I decided, "Screw it." This part wasn't really that important anyways. All I want is to get the group to meet back up with Vanille and Sazh. That's all. Then I can have my fun. On the bright side, I have the next chapter partway done… Sort of.