"Who are you? How do you know her?"

"How do you know her?"

Snow, Hope, and Sazh all looked on in confusion as they woke up to what looked like Lightning arguing with Vanille who had suddenly turned male. Lightning's eyes narrowed to slits and her hand was repeatedly twitching, moving ever so slowly towards her gunblade, while the Vanille look-a-like was moving his hands in a position Hope knew all too well- a position to cast magic.

"Alright, alright," Hope said while pushing the literally face to face duo apart. "Light here," he said while gesturing to Lightning, "was one of Vanille's l'Cie companions on her quest to destory Orphan. So was I, and same with Snow and Sazh here. Now how do you know her?"

The man's eyes widened comically. "So you four were companions in Dia Vanille's journey?" The four nodded, slowly, suspiciously. "You also were companions with Yun Fang?

"Yes, and your head might be companion to my blade if you don't speak up,"
Lightning snapped. The impatient soldier was obviously impatient to get on with their journey.

The man however, only nodded, and said, "My name is Dia Varic." There were assorted gasps, as he then nodded to Lightning. "I have already contacted you, regarding my goals."

"Wait, soldier girl. You've already met him?" asked Sazh.

Lightning thought backwards. There was no way she had seen Varic, while not remembering here. How had he- wait. "You were that stranger in my head?"

"Yes, that was me," He replied. "Apologies for any undue excitement I may have caused."

"So... does your name mean you're related to Vanille?" asked Hope.

"Brother and Sister," said Varic.

"And what about Fang, did you know her?" asked Snow.

"We were..." Varic paused for a second. "We were arranged for a marriage. I believe your word is 'engaged'."

Following that, there was an awkward silence. Hard as they might try, none of the four had ever imagined that Fang could possibly have been engaged. None of them.

Lightning was the first one to break the silence. "Well, how did you get here?"

Varic bowed his head. "I was trapped by Barthandelus when I was part of the second invasion fleet." Raising his palm to stem their protests, he said, "I only joined to protect Vanille, to protect her from the Cocoon menace. I was and am willing to do anything for her, including fighting in a war I believe is unjust."

This silenced Lightning immediately, remembering what she had done to protect Serah. Anything, even killing, just to protect her. Maybe Varic and her had more in common than just their pink hair.

But then she thought of something else. "When you contacted me, you told me that you had the knowledge to get Fang and Vanille." When Varic nodded his head, and the other three looked flabbergasted, she continued. "Then mind telling me exactly how?"

"Well you understand that crystal sleep is not true death, correct?" asked Varic. When the four nodded, he continued "It is simply that their souls are removed from their bodies. If you can retrieve the souls..." He trailed off, appearing to be in deep thought.

"Wait, can anyone who's been crystallized be saved?" asked Snow. When Varic nodded in the affirmative, Snow raised his head and whispered something, something that sounded like, "I'm coming, Serah."

Sazh, on the other hand, simply said, "Dajh, daddy's on the way."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Hope, "let's get them!"

"Wait, wait, not so fast," Varic said, putting a hand on Hope's shoulder. His eyes slowly narrowed as he said, "The truth is that while I know it can be done, I-"

"You don't know exactly the location," finished Lightning. When Varic nodded yet again, Lightning simply pinched her nose in annoyance, Hope sighed, and Snow and Sazh just looked at each other.

"Well... there is one way I can find out," said Varic. The group suddenly crowded around him, newfound hope in their eyes.

Hope was the first to break the silence. "Well, how can we find out?" he asked rather impatiently.

The reply came with trepidation.

"We must complete the trials of Titan."

A/N

If anyone can find out how to do the line breaks, just shoot me a PM or tell me in a review.

So, we finally find out who our mysterious stranger is. I hope you don't all lynch me for destroying all of your precious pairings =\

As always, please review. Thanks!