Author's Note: Balthier, I love you...But, SERIOUSLY. You've got two gorgeous women watching over you and protecting you all the damn time, and all you do is talk and angst with them? GAH. You confuse me...

My thanks go to Joshua Chung, because without you I'd be very lonely and depressed. :] *hug*

S o S t a r s t r u c k

Chapter Eight

I Don't Need A Focus To Guide Me

When I had first awoken in this new world, I had no clue of what was going to happen to me...I still found it hard to understand everything, despite those I had aligned myself with.

When morning came, Balthier was surprised to see that he'd fallen asleep on Lightning without even trying. She didn't seem to mind, though, when he had quietly apologized for doing so. While Fang found it hard not to laugh at the two of them, Lightning merely told him that she only let him use her as a pillow because he wasn't feeling well. But, seeing how she refused to make eye contact with him told him otherwise.

Unlike the day before, there were more PSICOM soldiers running about the streets looking for them. The three hung back for a while, waiting until some of the commotion died down. Fang took the time to tell them of her past - about who she was, and who she wasn't. Apparently, she had lived on Gran Pulse during some 'War of Transgression' and was one of two l'Cie (the other being Vanille) that had completed their Focus and was crystallized. The two of them had woken up from their crystal slumber nearly five hundred years later, and had forgotten what their first Focus had been. And then, the two of them were separated when they tried to escape the Sanctum after causing Serah to be branded a l'Cie. After that, Fang joined forces with Raines and his Calvary in order to find Vanille.

Balthier leaned up against the railing beside Lightning, listening to Fang finish up with her story. Lightning narrowed her eyes, standing up straight and facing the other l'Cie.

"So, you're telling me Serah will come back to life someday, too?" she asked, her voice harsh and urgent.

"Yep," Fang answered, looking up from where she sat against the wall. "We...didn't do our job right. That's why it made her a l'Cie." She sighed, hanging her head low. "We messed up. Sorry."

Lightning stepped forward, standing right in front of the other woman. Balthier didn't need to watch to know what happened next. The female soldier raised a hand and slapped Fang across the face, making the sky pirate wince at the sound. He learned not to get on Lightning's bad side - whenever she seemed to get mad, someone ended up getting their arse kicked. He wouldn't be one of those peope, that was for sure.

Fang pressed a hand to her cheek, then looked up at the other l'Cie. "That it?" she asked; short and simple.

"You sure better hope so. But whether we're square, that's up to Serah."

"You sound exactly like Snow. And he didn't hit me."

Turning away, Lightning pursed her lips. "Wait," she said, "he already knows this?" Obviously hearing that Snow knew something about Serah before she did didn't sit well with her.

"Wow," Fang sighed in relief, standing up and stretching out her arms. "That's a load off. Glad I apologized!"

"You only apologized so you would feel better?" Balthier asked with a wide smirk.

"Guess so." She turned to him, ignoring the frustrated look Lightning was giving the two of them. "How 'bout you? Anything you need to apologize for, pirate?"

He could feel Lightning's eyes on him, but he simply shook his head and sighed. "Not at the moment..."

A few moments after that, Lightning decided that it was time to get a move on. Balthier would have preferred if they had stayed in one place for a while longer, but there was nothing he could do to change her mind. The three of them walked over to the stairs leading up to the main part of the city, and Lightning stopped Balthier before he could head any further.

"Felix Heights is up there. Still a-ways before we get to Hope's place," she said to the two of them.

Fang stretched out her arms and agreed, "Better pick it up."

Balthier squinted his eyes as he looked around, searching for an easier way to get past all the soldiers that were still patrolling the streets. "We should head through that gate," he suggested, pointing to the gate nearby the other bridge across the city. "It'll be quicker and easier. We'll still have to fight a few times, but that shouldn't be too hard."

"So says the man who made himself sick last night," she said under her breath, smirking at him. "What makes you think we should take advice from you, hm?"

The two of them glared at each other (though Fang was simply teasing him) until Lightning stepped in between them. "He's right," she stated, tired of putting up with their constant banter. "We'll head out that way, for now."

PSICOM's soldiers were easier to deal with when Balthier actually had a weapon. Occasionally he returned to his old magick casting ways, but most of the time he took them down with his blades. Still, he missed his fomalhaut - the swords were good to use, but they were nothing compared to the effectiveness of a gun.

They managed to reach the other bridge quicker than they expected, despite what Fang may have commented about it. Only a few soldiers followed them past the gate, but Lightning took care of them as soon as she saw they were targeting the sky pirate. He begrudgingly thanked her, and she pretended not to notice. Fang sat down on one of the stairs leading up to the center of the bridge, while Balthier leaned over the edge of it, staring down at the water below. Lightning walked up beside him, eying him carefully as if she expected him to jump off.

"Okay," Fang said as she pulled out a phone, "Let's get Snow on the line." She paused, then angrily shook it away from her ear. "Damn thing's still jammed...Eh, he can take care of himself."

"We'll just have to believe that," Lightning agreed, walking away from the bridge's edge and looking down. "...The others are safe, right? If any of us got caught, they'd make an announcement."

Balthier jumped down from the railing and brushed off the front of his vest. "Of course they would," he replied, "They would need to let everyone know that the big, bad l'Cie can't hurt them anymore." He scoffed, shaking his head. "These Cocoon people are all cowards, the lot of them."

She turned toward him, eyes glaring. "'These Cocoon people' have spent centuries under fal'Cie law, in constant fear of a Pulse invasion." She frowned, "If it weren't for Serah, I'd be out there, too. Hunting l'Cie. Would have been nothing but targets to me."

"Well," Fang looked at the two of them and said with a small, sarcastic smile, "Pulse is just as twisted. 'Cocoon's a nest of vipers, ready to strike'...Or, so I thought."

"So you became a l'Cie to fight the 'vipers', and destroying the nest is your..." She sighed, touching the necklace around her neck. "I mean, our Focus now."

The black-haired l'Cie stood up, walking past Balthier and right over to Lightning. "Until we woke up here, we'd been in crystal stasis. Which means...we must have completed our first Focus." She sighed out of frustration, looking up toward the sky. "Why can't I remember that part? My child hood's clear as day, but the one thing I need most...It's just gone. Blank - like an empty page. I reach for the memory, but there's nothing there." She and Lightning walked down the stairs, Balthier following close behind as he fixed the gloves on his hands. "And then there's my brand. It's all messed up."

Balthier looked up and toward the two women, curious.

"Vanille and me - we lost our past, and our Focus..."

Lightning tilted her head to the side. "And now, you want to find them?" she asked, "Be a Pulse l'Cie, an enemy of Cocoon?"

"Tch," Fang scoffed, "Pulse and Cocoon can rot for all I care. If I don't figure out our Focus soon...Vanille's gonna be a Cie'th." She looked up toward the sky, then back down at her hands. "I'll tear down the sky if it'll save her."

Normally I would have said something in return, but that time...I couldn't bring myself to say a single word. Fang was dedicated to protecting Vanille, despite the fate that was awaiting them both. I wondered: could I even do anything to stop their doomed fate?

Balthier eventually caught up to them, and Fang gave him a questioning look once he walked in front of her. "We must be almost there," he said to them, "We've been out here for almost the entire day. Don't you think now would be the perfect time to stop for a rest?"

"We l'Cie don't have time for rest," Lightning spat, brushing past him. "We need to keep on going further. We've already wasted enough time just standing here."

Fang shot him an apologetic look, and walked after the other woman. Balthier, however, hung his head low and reluctantly followed. Why couldn't he shake off the feeling that they were being followed...?

As they walked on, still avoiding battle as much as they could for Balthier's sake (at least Fang knew that he couldn't go on for too long without a break), the three of them were silent. They were all thinking about different things, but Balthier only had one thing on his mind: getting back to Ivalice. Even though things seemed to be going fairly quickly around him, he was still no where near finding his way home. He wanted to talk to Serah again, to ask her if he was doing exactly what he was meant to do.

Helping those six l'Cie complete their Focus...It seemed so simple, but at the same time, he didn't know what he had to do in order to guarantee that he would return to Ivalice as soon as it was all over. Fran must have been worried about him. He'd been gone for quite a while, and who knew how much time had passed back home. Years could have passed by, and he wouldn't have even known it.

Lightning looked back at him, her expression becoming concerned when she saw that he had stopped following them. He met her gaze, and weakly smiled at her. But then, she took a step back when something behind him caught her eye. "Balthier!" she cried out, pulling out her gunblade and rushing forward.

He turned around, but once he was facing the other direction something knocked him off his feet. Fang had pushed him away from the large Sanctum droid, hitting him in the stomach with her lance and knocking the wind out of him. Lightning barely caught him before he could hit the ground, and he gave her a charming smile despite his current dizziness.

"Warn me sooner next time, won't you?" he asked, standing up on his own. She had to hold his arm to keep him steady until he was back to normal, and the two of them ran forward to help Fang.

Balthier pulled out his swords, smirking as soon as he caught sight of a small group of PSICOM soldiers running out from behind the droid. Then, his smirk faded once he was surrounded; guns pointed directly at him. "Oh, bugger," he cursed, beginning to cast a stop spell. Before he could release the magick, there was an explosion of pink light behind them. Lightning grabbed him by the back of his vest, pulling him in front of her and onto some sort of armored horse.

"Hold on," she muttered to him, wrapping a hand around his waist. He nodded to her, and took her gunblade from her when she handed it to him.

While she took full control of the Eidolon - he could just tell that it couldn't have been anything else - he aimed the gun blade (now more of a gun than a blade) and shot at the soldiers below them as they rode toward Fang and the droid. She looked up at the two of them and gave them a rather confused expression, but she jumped onto the summon and sat behind Lightning.

"Take us outta here!" Fang yelled, "We gotta run from this fight!"

Odin - Balthier had heard Lightning call it that - ran off into an alley way hidden behind some of the tall buildings, and before the soldiers could chase after them, the Eidolon released some sort of energy attack against them, quickly turning around in a circle as they watched their enemies fall. As soon as they were safely hidden between the buildings, Lightning dismissed her Eidolon, and the three of them were once again on the ground.

Fang was the first to speak, grinning like a cat at the other woman. "I didn't know you'd already tamed your Eidolon, Lightning! That was for sure an exciting ride!" she exclaimed, stretching out her arms. She then turned toward Balthier and asked, "Don't ya think so too, pirate?"

Balthier was resting a hand against the wall, covering his mouth with his other hand as his face turned a pale shade of green. "I think I'm going to be sick..." he groaned, and both Fang and Lightning sighed in unison.

After taking a short rest, mostly for Balthier's sake, again, the three of them headed down the alley way in silence. Fang walked down the stairs ahead of the other two, but she stopped once she reached the bottom. She put her hands on her hips, and asked, "Hey, Lightning, did you see Vanille's brand?"

Lightning shook her head and stopped walking down the stairs. "No," she answered, only slightly confused.

"No, huh?" The black-haired l'Cie sighed in disappointment, continuing her walk down the alley way as the others followed her. Then, she stopped again and faced them, mainly Lightning. "Wanna know how long until it's Cie'th city? Just look at your brand." Lightning turned away from them and unzipped the front of her shirt to, obviously, look at her l'Cie brand. "You start getting more arrows, and then finally an eye. Once it opens up all the way, you're done." Then, she walked over to the younger woman and stood right in front of her. "Let's have a look. Don't be shy!"

Balthier turned his head away awkwardly, slightly embarrassed by the situation. He wondered: what kind of fal'Cie would be prude enough to brand a woman on her chest? He shook his head, rolling his eyes.

"Nowhere near. You got time," Fang stated as Lightning zipped up her shirt, turning away. "Still, you never know. Some people, doesn't take so lon. You get a nasty shock, it can speed up the process."

For some reason, Balthier remembered, or at least tried to remember, his comrades back in Ivalice. But, when he tried to picture them, all he could see were blurred faces. Something wasn't right there...

"Vanille's brand must be pretty far along now...I've gotta save her and get her home."

Lightning tilted her head to the side slightly. "To Pulse, you mean?" she asked.

"To Gran Pulse. I hear the Sanctum prevents people from leaving Cocoon. I'd like to see 'em try and stop me!"

"So, that's your plan?" The female soldier walked a few steps away from the two, staring down at the ground. "Wish I had one. Without Serah, without a future, there's nothing to plan for. There's no way out of this mess, and no way to fight it. I'm stuck trading blows with the Sanctum, but that's no plan." She walked past Balthier, who was leaned up against the wall of one of the buildings. "Even if we topple the government, where's that leave us? With nothing to fight for? I might as well be dead..."

"Your sister," Balthier stated, and the two women looked in his direction. "You have quite an amount to fight for. Think about it. Wouldn't you want to see Serah, after she wakes up? That's your future right there." He smirked at her, but she kept staring at him. "The only thing you need to do right now is remember that you're fighting for her, and only her. I don't need a Focus to guide me, and neither do you. So, forget what the fal'Cie ordered of you and remember Serah." He then weakly smiled, folding his arms across his chest. "It's quite simple, if you take the time to think about it."

Lightning nearly smiled, but she turned around and began to walk away. "Right..." she murmured, sounding uneasy. But before anyone could say anything else, an air ship from above shot at one of the buildings in the distance all of the sudden. They all looked up as soon as they heard the explosion, and Lightning became tense. "Snow!" she yelled out.

"They found 'em!" Fang stated as she turned around, facing the direction they had just come from. "You two go after them, I'll try to find some way to distract those lackeys!" She ran off up the stairs, and Balthier turned toward the female soldier, seeing that she was still staring up at the ruined building.

"Light, let's go," he told her, gently grabbing her arm. She met his gaze and nodded, and the two of them ran off toward the explosion.

What? Balthier stole Fang's lines? Silly pirate...

I seem to enjoy abusing Balthier...:D But that's only because I lurve him. Haha!