Chapter Title: Chaos-Damned
Fandom(s): Dissidia Duodecim: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII
Word Count: 3,486
Rating: T
Warnings: Violence, blood, injury, and memory tampering. Spoilers for some plot points of Duodecim (concerning Kain, Tifa, and Jecht). Spoilers for FFXIII's characters, antagonists and ending.
Summary: Over the course of the endless wars, Lightning has fought the fal'Cie Barthandelus, the puppet Raines, not to mention swordsmen with god-complexes and the maddest of mages – but she never expected to face this opponent.
Additional Notes:Written for the Fight Scene Fic competition, over at ff_land This is done to the usual cheesy standard of Dissidia, and answers the question - who do Ithink would be Lightning's opponent in Dissidia?

I guess this could be interpreted with a Fang/Vanille or Light/Fang slant, but I wrote this with neither pairing in mind.

Jecht slapped his thigh as he finished the latest in his line of poor jokes, throwing his head back and belting out a full-throated laugh. Seated on the other side of the fire, with her arms crossed tightly against her chest, Lightning glowered at Jecht.

Bartz, the last member of their group, was too busy guffawing at the humiliating story – once again told at her expense – to notice her growing anger. The slack-jawed idiot was almost as bad as Snow, but at least she didn't have to endure non-stop hero quotes ad nauseam. That was, perhaps, Bartz's only saving grace.

Enough was enough. Lightning stood abruptly, drawing her weapon and scowling at Jecht, who was still lounging on the ground.

"You two are unbelievable," she told her two comrades. She had tried to put up with it all. She could swear to Eden, Etro, Cosmos, or whatever deity that asked, that she had really tried. But even l'Cie had limitations, and Lightning had had it up to here with Jecht's constant needling and Bartz's obscenely upbeat idiocy.

Her hand strayed to her newly-forged l'Cie mark, a constant reminder that she was still bound by the rules of a Focus. It was an exchange. To regain her lost strength and the powers she'd wielded in life, she'd submitted to being Cosmos' l'Cie. Rather than destroy Cocoon as Ragnarok, she'd been tasked with wiping out Chaos' pawns. It was certainly a task she'd found easy enough to stomach.

But she was going to go cie'th from frustration if she remained around here much longer, Lightning decided with the hint of a snarl on her lips, and she turned away from them.

"I'm going for a scout of the perimeter," she told them, keeping her voice impassive and controlled. "And Jecht? Try to get over yourself before I come back, or I might have to cut your ego down to size."

"That a threat, little lady?" Jecht sounded casual, but there was no mistaking the tension in the air. The blitzer was never happy when he was challenged, even when it was by somebody as skilled and dangerous as Lightning.

Lightning just shrugged, not even bothering to look at him. "No, that's a warning."

As she quickly made her way from the campsite, Lightning had to admit that these strange Cosmos Warriors weren't a complete loss. Jecht was a valuable and brutal fighter, and Bartz kept their morale high. The problem was, since they reminded her so vividly of her old friends, she couldn't help but dwell on home. As hazy as her memories were, she'd never be able to forget the other l'Cie. Serah, Snow, Hope, Sazh – she just hoped that they were still okay.

The last thing she could remember, before waking up in this war, was leaving to search for a way to free Fang and Vanille from crystal stasis…

She shook her head as she cleared the forest her group had made camp in, bypassing the old, broken ruins of a town and travelling east. Lightning had crested a cliff and was still moving quickly towards the edge of the Cosmos-controlled territory, when the hair on the back of her neck prickled in a warning.

Warily, Lightning paused as she shot a glance over her shoulder. The feeling was unmistakable; someone unfriendly was following her movements. Lightning made a sound of irritation as she continued down the other side of the steep cliff. Perhaps Barthandelus or Raines – whichever poor fool Chaos had roped into the war – was finally going to confront her. Tch. About time.

Now weeks into the conflict, Lightning had seen no sign of her Chaos-sworn counterpart. It wasn't that she really cared – she had more than enough to concern herself with these days, what with Kain's odd mood-swings, Tifa's touch-and-go memories, and Jecht's issues with his wayward son. But the sooner Barthandelus showed his ugly, mechanical face, the sooner she could send him to meet his precious Maker again.

But as she moved among another set of old ruins, that watching sensation increased, and Lightning finally felt a spike of killing intent.

So they're going to make their move, Lightning thought, slowing to a halt. She was surrounded by rubble and the destroyed remains of stone buildings, and she rested her hand on her hip. The fingers of her other hand strayed to the hilt of her dualweapon – she was wary, but after so long in this war, Chaos' pawns no longer worried her.

Except for perhaps Sephiroth, but she would never admit that aloud.

The air current changed, just slightly, and there was a muffled click as something slid into place – Lightning hurled herself to the side, just in time to dodge the storm of automated arrows and gunfire that rained down on the place she'd been not a second before. She didn't have time to catch her breath as she hurled herself upwards in a flip, the ground beneath her disintegrating in a fiery explosion. She landed in a crouch ten feet away, scowling, and her eyes darted around, looking for some trace of her attacker.

Was it the Emperor? No, his traps were far more refined, far more dangerous than this. Ultimecia? She'd hardly make a move without her precious Emperor on side. Exdeath was over at the volcano, Kefka was hurling his weight about his tower with Terra as his mindslave, and she knew that Sephiroth was in the Rift toying with the Warrior of Light, even considering that the psychotic swordsman usually attacked directly –

Lightning's breath caught in her throat as she saw something blue streak high into the air. It was only through pure instinct that she rolled to the side, just in time to miss the explosive impact of Fang's Highwind.

Lightning froze, her fire-charged counter forgotten as the magic on her blade sputtered out.

Wait. What?

Fang – Fang? – straightened as the dust cleared. With one, sharp movement she jerked her bladed lance from the ground, twirled it behind her back, and then she smirked at Lightning. The expression wasn't right, though. There was something decidedly not Fang about the blatant loathing in her eyes.

"You dodged it. I'm almostimpressed," the Pulsian woman told Lightning, her tone seeming almost normalfor the half-second before her expression darkened, and her stance shifted back to being battle-ready.

"Fang?"

Lightning's eyes narrowed, and she wondered if this was another of Ultimecia's illusions. There was no denying it - this person certainly looked to be Oerba Yun Fang, right down to the leather warrior's band on her bicep, the sprawling tattoo, to the arrogant and daring way the woman held herself. And the fact that she'd used Highwind…

She shook her head, not willing to believe.

"Done your research, I see," the other woman scoffed. Suddenly, Fang was moving and she'd lashed out with that bladed lance, so fast that Lightning didn't have time to blink before she'd blocked the blow. Her shoulder jarred from the impact, but she still held steady. Eden, it would have taken off her head had she not moved so quickly to intercept it.

Straining against the force that Fang was still exerting behind the strike, Lightning ground out, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hunting vipers, as it were," Fang spat, and Lightning's blade flashed down again, to block Fang's follow-up strike, before using a quick-fire thunder spell to knock the other woman back. It gave her an instant's worth of breathing space to put some distance between them, but that was all she needed.

As she circled Fang warily, not lowering her blazefire saber, Lightning's mind worked furiously. None of it made sense. Vipers? Fang hadn't used that slur against her in a very long time. They were allies, for Eden's sake! No matter their differences, nothing had ever brought that friendship into question. Until now, Lightning amended quickly. Her teeth clenched, because there was no mistaking the look of hatred in Fang's eyes.

"This is ridiculous. You're saying you're a part of this war now?" Lightning demanded, studying the way Fang's feet moved, the subtle shift of balance that would indicate when Fang would attack. Lightning had to keep her talking, to try to figure out what the hell was going on with her friend.

"Now? It's always been war, for me," Fang said, the silver light of a Ruin spell gathering at her fingertips. "Just another Cocoon viper to kill, and there ain't two ways about it."

"You have got to be kidding me."

Lightning pivoted to dodge the quick Ruin that Fang had sent her way, and brought her blade up just in time to intercept another blow, ducking the follow-up attack but slamming a flame-wreathed palm-strike into Fang's side. It knocked the other woman back again, but Fang's words were troubling. Just another Cocoon viper?

Cold realization hit her, and it made her temper flare. For Fang, the last thing that she remembered was how the War of Transgression ended. She didn't remember their time as l'Cie together, and she didn't remember defeating their Focus and earning their freedom. Lightning's grip tightened on the hilt of her weapon. Chaos had gone and stolen Fang's memories, just so she'd have no issues with fighting her old friend and ally.

Bastard, she swore at the God of Discord as she solidly blocked another of Fang's strikes, locking her stance and scowling. Fang's green eyes were merciless and hateful as she pressed down against Lightning's weapon, trying to use her superior strength and height to her advantage. A small part of Lightning noted that this was how it felt, to be on the other side. Once upon a time, had Serah not wandered into that Vestige, they would have fought like this as mortal enemies.

"Fang, listen to me!" she ground out. She darted under Fang's next, wide-sweeping strike, flipping to slam her heel into the other woman's jaw. Taking advantage of the sudden dazedness in Fang's eyes, Lightning flitted away a few paces, before shifting her weapon and sending a spray of bullets her way. Fang dodged the surge contemptuously, and she flashed forwards to swing at Lightning's head.

"You're nobody's fool! Don't you get that you're being manipulated?"

As Lightning snapped her blade up to parry Fang's spear once, twice, three times, she knew that she wasn't getting through to her friend. Tch. There was no other choice but to stop holding back, and fight with everything she had. Fang was far too dangerous to take lightly.

The fight wore on, and it was clear that they'd reached a stalemate. Fang was easily tanking the majority of Lightning's strikes – the Pulsian could hit like a truck and her liberal use of status magic was making Lightning's head swim. Tch. Saboteurs. She really hadn't been prepared to deal with this slew of debuffing magic, and it was beginning to take its toll.

While Lightning was able to keep the other woman at bay through rapid-fire magic, her weapon's added range and her esuna magic, shallow scrapes were beginning to cover her arms, her face, her body. Swallowing and tasting blood, from where her lip had been split by another of Fang's punches, Lightning knew she had to end this soon. Fang would wear her down and outlast her. It was as simple as that.

Already, she was feeling her reactions slowing from exhaustion, from blood-loss, from the seeping poisons she struggled to halt and the numbing bruises that hindered her ability to fight back. Fang was a dirty and desperate fighter, and what she lacked in military finesse and discipline, she more than made up for in sheer power and determination.

What exactly was she fighting for?

Lightning sent a flurry of thunder spells to distract Fang, while she cast another slew of cures on herself. There was only one thing for it, she decided. She had to disrupt Fang's focus, knock her off her game. Because if Lightning screwed up, even by just a little, she knew that Fang would not hesitate in cutting her down.

"So what'd Chaos promise you?" Lightning's breath was coming hard, and she tried to swallow her panting. "Eternal life? God-like powers? A chance to get even with me, for whatever bullshit I've supposedly done?"

Lightning spat off to the side, her eyes searching for even a glimmer of hesitation in Fang's expression, or in the way she moved. Anything to tell her that her friend was still in there, somewhere.

"I've heard them all, Fang. He's worse than a fal'Cie, all sugar-coated promises, while he hides the whips and chains behind his back. He will make you fight forever, Fang."

That had been what the Warrior of Light had told her, and more and more, Lightning found herself believing it.

"I'm more than ready to shoulder the price." Fang's eyes were almost defensive. Protective. The realization hit Lightning with the force of a King Behemoth's blade.

She understood, now. There was only one thing that Chaos could have promised Fang, only one condition that the huntress would have accepted – and that was Vanille's freedom from the Ragnarok Focus, perhaps even freedom from crystal stasis.

Lightning's mouth was moving, before she'd even stopped to consider what she was saying. "If Vanille could see how far you've fallen, Fang, she'd stop you herself."

"How the hell would you know what Vanille would want? She wants out of that Focus, and if killing you is gonna do it, then that's all I need to know. You don't know her – you're just another target!" Fang lashed forwards, locking blades with Lightning again and forcing the soldier back a step. Her anger was palpable, emanating from her in waves.

"That's exactly it, Fang!" Lightning gasped out, praying that her blade would not waver under the brute force behind Fang's push. "I am not your enemy – worse, I was your friend! You, me, Vanille, Snow, Hope, Sazh – we shared a Focus and we defeated it!"

"Liar," Fang snarled, and the pressure behind her blade seemed to double. "You can't defeat a Focus."

"But we did. There is still a bond that lies between us all, that no fal'Cie – or even Chaos – will ever be able to break. We went through hell to get our happy ending. Don't you remember that?"

"Shut the hell up. You say I should just believe in this miracle you keep pushing? You? A Cocoon soldier? I've spent my life tearing people like you apart. It's kill or be killed, black and white, do or die – that's all it ever boils down to!"

Lightning somersaulted backwards, landing smoothly and pushing her sweaty hair back from her eyes. Back before, Vanille had once mentioned the misery and hopelessness that they'd felt during the time of the War of Transgression, and how badly it had scarred Fang.

Despair, violence and desperation – they were the things that drove this incarnation Fang. This wasn't the same Fang who'd sacrificed herself to save both Cocoon and Gran Pulse. Lightning straightened, noting the wariness and defensiveness in the other woman's eyes. But this Fang had the potential to be, if given a reason to hold onto hope –

Stars exploded in Lightning's eyes, and Fang's rapidly cast daze spell sent her to her knees. She gasped raggedly as she tried to clear her vision and mind, but she could already hear Fang moving. She lashed out blindly with her dualweapon, praying to Cosmos that she'd stop Fang's strike or fend her off or something –

Fang's knuckles connected with her jaw with a sickening crack, and suddenly Lightning was airborne. She crashed onto the ground again, nearly ten feet from where she'd been kneeling, and as she began to struggle up again, she saw a flash of blue. Fang was upon her again, and all Lightning could see was the sight of the other woman's red lance arcing around.

Lightning's weapon clattered to the rubble-strewn ground, as Fang's lance gutted her in one smooth strike. Lightning would have almost called it a beautiful move, as blood welled up over her desperately moving hands. She shook her head. They were stupid thoughts. She had to get it together, she realized, and she tried to summon the energy for a curaga. Anything to keep herself from falling into the creeping darkness.

Before she got the chance to release the spell, she bit her lip to stop herself from crying out – Fang leaned heavily on the blade now buried in her shoulder, her sandaled foot on Lightning's abused ribcage.

"It's all just another Cocoon lie, to dull the senses and herd me like some scared chocobo." Fang's voice was unsteady and vicious. A cornered behemoth. "But I won't fall for it, not this time. Because you can't be right, because it would make everything that I've done, everything that I've sacrificed just a laugh. I won't stand for it."

Fang sharply jerked her bladed lance free of Lightning's shoulder, drawing it back for that final strike. Lightning just watched her, teeth clenched, too dazed from the spell, the blow to her head and pain and loss of blood to put up a struggle. There it was – after all this time, a shadow of hesitation. She could have sworn at Etro. Of course it would have to come, at the very end.

"You were a worthy opponent, I hope you understand," Fang told her, and Lightning knew that she was being honest. Fang always was. "Didn't know they made them that tough, up in that nest."

Lightning had to take her chance now, or she'd have to wait for the next cycle to roll around. She couldn't have that.

"…I think you can feel it," Lightning gasped out, her words tumbling over one another as she fought to hold onto consciousness. Eden, but her stomach… "The bond of friendship. You can't understand it, and you might not want to feel it… but it's there and it's never going to go away."

That bond. It was the reason Lightning had left to find Etro, to free Fang and Vanille from crystal stasis. It was the reason she couldn't stop trying, not until she saw her family complete again.

There was only one thing left that she could do, now, to make Fang stop and think for a moment. Her fingers were slick with her own blood, but she made quick work of her brown sweater's zipper, drawing it down just far enough to expose the Pulsian brand that she bore. Fang recoiled.

"What the hell is going on?" the Pulsian woman demanded, and the lance clenched in her hand began to shake as it fell back to her side. Fang's eyes were wide and desperate, and she didn't seem to know how to deal with this new information. Lightning let her eyes drift shut, unable to summon the energy to remain conscious.

Fang knew exactly what the brand meant. She'd been tricked. She'd been lied to. She'd been leashed, to play at the whims of gods, as nothing but a pawn. Again.

The last thing that Lightning remembered was Fang roaring, and slamming her spear into the soft ground beside Lightning's head.

Lightning awoke to the sight of a canvas roof above her head, and she sat up with a groan. Her shoulder and stomach had been heavily bandaged, and the entire tent reeked of healing items and ethers. Even so, there was a deep ache in her shoulder and stomach, a painful reminder of the bout she'd lost to a woman she'd once called 'friend'.

She pushed the hair out of her eyes, considering. The fact that she was even alive, meant that she'd managed to get through to Fang. The fact that Fang was gone, meant that there was still a lot of work to do. Lightning dressed herself awkwardly, before stepping out into the fading daylight.

The Warrior of Light sat by a small fire, seeming contemplative as he watched Lightning approach. So. He'd been the one to find her and tend to her wounds, she realized as she seated herself across the fire from him. She supposed she owed him a small explanation, then. Without being bid, Lightning haltingly recounted her fight with Fang, how she'd lost and what she'd achieved – if anything.

He leaned back as she completed her story, and those pale blue eyes seemed far too knowing for Lightning's comfort.

"So. You believe your fight with Chaos' new pawn is at an end, then?" the Warrior of Light asked, quietly. He already knew Lightning's answer, though.

"No." Lightning looked up, out towards the setting sun. "She might have realized she's been tricked, and she might get that things aren't what they seem… but I think she still believes that Chaos will free Vanille. And that's the most dangerous part. So it's not over. Not by a long shot."