'The zirnitra must have pushed us further off the path than I thought.' Lightning turned her gaze to Pulse's sun. It wasn't the most exact measure of time, but it gave her a rough idea of how long they had been trudging along the wide expanse of the untamed Steppes. Even by a rough estimate, she could tell they had been forced way off course. Their flight path was to take them no farther than a mile and a half perimeter of New Bohdum. A walk like that, at their pace, should have been half an hour, an hour tops. Instead, they had spent the majority of the day marching, and still the terrain was vague to her.
"It'll be dark soon. . . we should be back already." Private Meadows chose to vocalize the obvious. 'They sure don't train them to think, do they?' It wasn't a surprise really, with the strain for able bodies just to oversee 'The Fall' aftermath. "Lieutenant, I don't know if we can make it back before night fall."
"We can't." She didn't want to admit it, but there it was. Traveling Pulse by day was dangerous, but there was the sun for direction, and danger was always in sight, in not always unavoidable. By night however, well, Lightning wasn't familiar enough with Pulse's astronomy to attempt navigation by stars, and Pulse's night life was more dangerous than the day's. "We'll need to find some shelter soon." The Archelyte Steppes didn't lack for caves in its numerous, rocky pillars. That being said, the two soldiers were not the first beings to have that idea. The shelter was plentiful, but one never knew what might be lurking back in the shadows.
"We could try that one." The private pointed towards just such a cave in a nearby outcrop.
"Good as any. Keep an eye out, we need to sweep through before we settle in." Lightning drew her Blazefire and flipped it into rifle mode as she headed for the cave mouth. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dank, darkness of the cove, but a quick search revealed it was little more than a hollow in the cliff that bent around a corner. They could not have asked for a better place to bunk up for the evening. It was too small for any of the menacing beasts of Pulse to pay attention, and the bend provided cover enough to light a small fire without attracting attention.
'What Pulse lacks in wood, it makes up for in brush.' Fang had taught them that, during their l'cie incident. The closest things to trees the Archelyte had were something akin to massive dandelions. No doubt a lasting source of fuel for a campfire, but they were sparse and cutting one down took a fair amount of labor. A travelers best chances lay in the brush and grass of the land. Something about the plants lent themselves to burning for long hours, resisting the flames that attempted to eat them up. Lightning would have traded all the brush on Pulse for Phoenix. She supposed it was a bit ironic, that after everything, she sat here wishing for the return of a fal'cie, but under Phoenix's glare, Cocoon had seldom reached a climate that was too hot or cold.
"We're going to make it in time, right Lieutenant?" Meadows was attempting to spark their gatherings. A look of uncertainty was plan in the glances he shot her way. "I mean, we'll make it in time to get. . . to get Waters help, right?"
"Of course." 'I hope.' She could have laughed. Hope was all they had to ride on right now, but she had left her Hope back in New Bohdum, along with her sister. She knew they must be losing it by now. She had promised them it would take a few hours at the most. A quick run, scout, and back in time for supper. Last night's supper.
'Please, don't go. The others can handle it, you don't have to go be hall monitor on every scouting, do you?' Serah's voice rung out in her mind as clear as if her sister were sitting right beside her. Serah had always been a bit on the paranoid side, and the lose of Snow had, of course, only worsened that paranoia. Pulse didn't get its reputation for being a safe haven after all. In the end though, she had relented, like she always did. Hope had been the harder of the two.
A sigh escaped her lips. She would be getting an earful from the teen, from both of them, when she got back, she had no doubts. Serah would never say it out loud, but that aggravating 'I told you so' look would be plastered all over her face. And Hope. . .
'Fine, go then. I wouldn't want to keep you from your work. That's what really matters, isn't it?' He had stalked off, sullen and sulky. Their last interaction before this whole mess. She hadn't even replied. Lightning had never been good with words.
A grumble arose from the other side of the cave, only to settle back into the white noise of snoring. 'At least one of us will get some sleep.' As tired as she was, sleep would not take her. Instead, she settled back against the wall and pulled her whet stone back out. A nice block of silent reflection would help, surely.
It didn't. Try as she might, her thoughts kept drifting back to Hope and Serah, wondering what they were doing right now. 'I just hope they haven't tried anything stupid like a search and rescue.' There was that word again, hope. It clung to her like the real article used to, when they had first met. It clung to her since they had first met really. Funny, that a boy who had seemed so lost and hopeless, would carry the name, and the feeling back into her life.
Back then, even if Serah hadn't been branded, Lightning's life had been devoid of it really. Six years, she had spent building up her career. Six years spent raising her younger sister. Six years sacrificed to hardship over the unfortunate events that plagued the Farrons. And in the blink of an eye, it had all been swept away. All that work, washed out in less than a day. Lightning had made herself so busy with providing for Serah and making sure they could just survive, she had never planned for the eventuality of her sister's departure. Endless plans that fell apart at the simplest tug of a thread. Lightning was never that open, or warm of a person after donning her alias, but after Serah had brought Snow home the first time, she had become downright bitter.
Until him. Until her life had been turned upside down and tossed out in the rain. Until she had found hope in the most hopeless situation she had ever been in. At first he had been nothing more than a nuisance. A lost puppy following her doggedly. A fly buzzing around her head. She had even tried to leave him there, in the Vile Peaks. He might have died right then and there, after the Sanctum found him, or some beast, if Sazh and Vanille hadn't chanced along the same path first. And she would never have been the wiser. He'd be gone, and most likely her too, with the path of destruction she had been forging, and she would never have had the chance to know him. The thought disturbed her.
Despite her promises of distancing herself, of never opening up again, Hope had somehow become such an integral part of her life. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if she lost him, not now, not after all they had been through. And after losing his parents and Snow, she didn't doubt he felt the same of her. It was a bit strange, to think she mattered so much to someone besides Serah. That someone valued her life so much, and was so dependent on her. When she had been ready to throw it all away, he wanted nothing more than to cling to her, and hold her back she thought. But no, he wasn't holding her back, he had been pulling her back.
In her darkest hour, he had shown her that no matter what she thought, someone would be there. Someone who would care about her, someone who wanted her, faults and all. She had to get home to them. The two most important people in her life were out there, worried sick about her well-being, and with no way for her to comfort them. No way to even send a signal back to them to ease their minds.
LIghtning slipped her whet stone back into her red pack. She settled onto her back and watched the lights and shadows dance around each other on the cave ceiling. 'It's not a question of can or can't, somethings, you just do.' Her own moniker came back to her, right out of Hope's mouth, or her conjured image of him anyways. Never had it been so true. Serah and Hope were all she had left, just as she was all they had. There was no room for doubt on this one. No second guessing. She would make it back, l'cie powers or no. Titan himself couldn't stop her. 'Let that overgrown rock just try me.'
Her hand slipped back into her pack and found the soft fabric she had been looking for. A teal scarf, Hope's scarf. His last memento from his mother, and he had entrusted it to her. Once she had been Lightning, inconstant, destroying all that stood before her, flashing bright before fading from memory. Now she knew better. Now, she was just. . . Light. Warm, protective, giving hope to all it touched. And behind that Light, was a Hope of her very own.
And with that thought, in a meager cave somewhere on the great face of Gran Pulse, a peaceful sleep finally found a soldier who clutched a square bit of silky fabric close to her heart.
I know late again. I have no sort of self-discipline, sry. These Lightning chaps are really going rough as well, I'm enjoying writing the Serah + Hope chapters way more. This is turning out to be longer than I was planning, and I think I'll need a few more days (story-time) to even wrap up what I want to do here. At least to make it flow naturally anyhow. So I'll keep trying to squeeze these out, and at least see this story through. Thx again for reading! I'm hoping the spirit will come back to me and I can really have the last few chapters pop. Again thank you for the views/follows/reviews. They're what's keeping me going here, but for now G'night/morning!
