Earlier that year…

A loud ring cut through the silence in the dark bedroom.

"Mmmm?" A disgruntled groan rumbled from the young woman splayed out on the bed that took up nearly half the floor space in the snug room.

Another loud ring.

The woman opened her eyes. The room was pitch black except for the luminous glow of the beeping device that vibrated on top of her nightstand. When the third ring sounded, the woman tiredly reached out to snatch the device and bring it to her ear.

"Sergeant Lightning Farron," she mumbled into the mouthpiece.

"Farron, I need—wait. Farron, were you… sleeping?" Lieutenant Amodar's familiar voice boomed through the receiver.

"I'm preparing for my morning flight to Eden tomorrow, sir," Lightning groggily replied. "I thought I had signed out early—"

"No need to explain yourself," Amodar quickly interrupted. "You're one of the best officers I've got and I didn't check to see who was on duty or not. I just figured you were, although it is comforting to know you actually do sleep like the rest of us hehe…"

"Sir, is there a problem?"

"Nothing major. Just got a noise complaint from around your old neighborhood. Candy Court, was it? Sounds like nothing more than a bunch of kids getting rowdy, but you know how ornery old, rich folk can be. I'm sending one of the rooks over there to quiet things down, but I was hoping you'd accompany him. Show him the ropes and all."

"You want me to show some new guy the ropes?" Lightning asked disbelievingly.

"I know it's not your usual shtick, but think of this as a test. Samuels is moving to Nautilus soon, so a new position will be opening up. If you can prove you're capable of training new recruits, you'd be the definite front-runner for promotion. And don't act like you don't want it. Isn't your sister planning a wedding or something?"

Lightning wasn't exactly excited over the prospect of working with a bunch of clumsy, new rooks, but Amodar was right. There were new expenses popping up in her life that she could use some extra gil for.

"Alright…" she breathed, finally sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of her bed. "Where should I meet the newbie?"

The ride to Candy Court was a long and quiet one. Lightning hadn't bothered putting too much effort into getting ready before meeting the rookie. She simply threw on some pants and a jacket, tacked on her Guardian Corps badge, and picked her gunblade case up on her way out the door. She now silently stared out the passenger seat window of one of the GC cruisers, occasionally lifting a hand to smooth down parts of her disheveled pink hair. She could feel the rookie's eyes frequently leaving the road to quickly study her before moving back to the pavement. At first she thought it might've been because of her messy appearance, but with each passing glance, she began to realize what the real reason was.

She should've known from the jump. It was always the same reason.

"Spit it out," she bluntly stated, still staring out the window.

"Huh?" The rookie sounded as if he had accidentally swallowed his tongue.

"Whatever you've got to say." Lightning turned so that her icy blue eyes were now digging into the rookie. "Spit it out and make this trip a lot less awkward for the both of us."

"Oh. Uh…" The rookie quickly glanced over at Lightning once more and then sheepishly smiled. "You're her, aren't you? Lightning Farron. As in THE Lightning Farron? Savior of Cocoon?"

And there it was.

Lightning sighed and massaged her temples with her fingertips. It had been a little over four years. Four years since she went on a high school field trip to the Vestige and had an untimely encounter with a Pulse fal'Cie. Four years since she and four of her classmates had consequently been turned into l'Cie. Four years since the group of them had marched into Eden, hoping to take down the corrupt Sanctum but instead having a showdown with Primarch Dysley, who turned out to be a fal'Cie himself. And four long years since she helplessly watched her closest friend turn into a monster, who would not only kill the fal'Cie, but who would also savagely tear a huge crater into the side of Cocoon's shell before disappearing without a trace. At the time, Lightning and her l'Cie comrades had been working with a renegade group of Sanctum officials and military men called the Cavalry. The Cavalry had been planning on overthrowing the Sanctum as well, but when their plan fell through, they needed a cover-up that wouldn't expose them as traitors. Thus, they spun a story around Lightning and the two other Cocoonian l'Cie being Saviors of the planet, which instantly jetted the ex-l'Cie into popularity. The cover-up didn't come without casualties, however. Lightning would know that better than anyone. Her father, who had been given a life sentence for treason, was one of them.

"Just pull over here." Lightning tapped on the window and the cruiser slowed to a stop in front of one of the mansions that circled the Candy Court cul-de-sac. It was almost surreal being back in the old neighborhood. Her room in her old house was bigger than some of the spaces she had rented when she and her younger sister, Serah, had first started living on their own. As she looked over the large homes, she quickly identified Hope and Snow's old houses.

"So it's true?" The rookie excitedly asked, copying Lightning's movements and hurriedly exiting the cruiser. "You really are her?"

"Is this going to get in the way of us doing our job?" Lightning tiredly asked, giving the rookie an impatient glare from over the top of the cruiser. "Because if it is, you can just sit in the car and let me handle this myself."

"N-no!" The rookie vigorously shook his head, still staring at Lightning through awestruck eyes. "I, uh, I just want you to know that it's an honor working with you, ma'am. A real big—"

"Quiet." Lightning held up a finger and looked around. She could hear the yapping of laughter and loud banter from somewhere nearby. She slowly turned her head and stilled, now precisely sure of where the noise was coming from… the other side of her old house. "Over there," she whispered and pointed to the large, dark structure. At one point and time, the home had been littered with bullet holes, smashed windows, and splintered doors from a PSICOM raid that had taken place when she was still a l'Cie. It was such an eyesore that the other wealthy families in the neighborhood had pitched in to get the place remodeled, but because of its history, they could never convince anyone to buy it. That was evident from the huge "FOR SALE" sign that was still picketed on the home's front lawn. The house had pretty much been regarded in the same way that the 'beloved' Saviors of Cocoon had: with honor and public admiration for enduring the l'Cie curse while quietly being pitied and outcast for being tainted by a fal'Cie in the first place; something to be admired from a distance but not acceptable to actually come home to.

"Okay," Lightning began in a low voice as the rookie joined her from around the car. "You don't want to spook them. So the best way to—"

"Don't worry."

Lightning's brows ruffled in an aggravated manner when the more inexperienced officer cut her off.

"I've got this." The rookie didn't wait for any further instructions before gripping his taser and jogging forward around the huge house. "ALRIGHT EVERYBODY! FREEZ—Hey! Wait! No! Don't run! C-come back!"

Lightning rolled her eyes and grumbled something beneath her breath before proceeding forward in the same path the rookie had taken. When she rounded the corner of the house, she caught sight of him dejectedly staring off into the distance, probably the direction where the targets had run off in. A number of various spray paint cans rolled around the ground by a fallen ladder at the rookie's feet. He mindlessly kicked one as he continued to stew over his lost bust. "I thought that maybe the taser would make them listen," he admitted, finally turning to Lightning.

Lightning didn't answer but continued to walk forward, looking around to carefully study the area. With the new renovations, the heavy-duty fence that had once lined her estate had been torn down. She remembered how the huge fence had once been the deciding factor for the other l'Cie to come over to practice using their powers for the first time. Without it, the home was now exposed for all kinds of punks and weirdoes to thrill seek by visiting the house where the first televised l'Cie sighting had been reported.

Lightning stooped down to pick up one of the empty spray paint cans. She tapped the nozzle with the tip of her finger. It was still wet. Sighing, she turned her head to face the side of the house, curious as to what the damage was. She expected to see some sort of unoriginal line roughly scribbled across the brick, like 'DIE L'CIE SCUM' or 'BRETT WAS HERE', but that wasn't the case at all.

Her spine stiffened and her jaw tightly clenched as her eyes ran over the huge painting that now covered the side of her old abode. She could hear the rookie stepping beside her, but she just couldn't pull her eyes away from the wall.

"I guess that's what they were painting, huh?" he thought aloud. "It's actually pretty good. That's her, isn't it? Ragnarok? Before she grew and fully turned blue and everything?"

"Fang," Lightning said softly, barely over a whisper. "She wasn't just Ragnarok. She was a person with a name. Fang."

The rookie was right in that the mural had been painted with a good enough amount of skill, but at the same time, it looked as if Fang had been drawn like a character from a fourteen year old boy's comic book fantasy. Her clothes were torn down the middle so that only half of her tattered garments clung to her extremely toned body, exposing half of a black bra that could barely contain huge, balloon-like breasts and the top of what looked to be a g-string bottom. A long, blue tail curled from behind her and a bright red l'Cie brand glowed on one of her upper arms. On her opposite arm, her tribal tattoo twisted down until it had transformed her hand into a monstrous, clawed paw. A mane of dark, wild hair with glowing orange tips framed her face, a face that intensely stared forward with piercing green eyes that nearly glowed in the dark. Sprayed in cursive above her head was the unoriginal phrase she had originally been looking for. "Embrace Your Inner Beast."

A hard knot formed in Lightning's throat as she continued to stare at the mural… those haunting green eyes in particular. Lightning thought that she had finally been given a break when Fang's face had originally stopped flooding all of the mainstream media outlets, but she had been greatly mistaken. Before Fang had transformed into Ragnarok, the Cavalry had successfully completed a large-scale Pulsian evacuation from Cocoon. Once the initial commotion of the Ragnarok attack had died down, the Sanctum wasted no time in corralling many of the planet's remaining Pulsians into specialized living camps that made the reservations that they had formerly been living on look like vacation resorts. Reports soon started to leak, due to the Cavalry no doubt, detailing the horrible treatment that the Pulsians had to endure, before and after the camps. This caused a huge uproar from a bunch of pro-Gran Pulsian groups and once again, Fang's face started popping up everywhere. Soon, Fang had gathered a small cult following. It didn't matter whether the people agreed that the Pulsians had been treated like crap or not. Anyone who considered themselves any type of 'rebel' or anyone who held any type of disagreement with how the Sanctum ran things, whether it was how the educational system was handled or whether they were pissed off about getting a parking ticket, could make up a reason for throwing some sort of support towards Fang. It didn't help that there had also been recent stories in the news regarding mysterious attacks to Cocoon camps on Gran Pulse that were being led by a warrior called Ragnarok.

Lightning cringed at the thought. People could romanticize Fang's transformation all they wanted, but none of them were there. None of them had ever talked to Fang. None of them witnessed how she had struggled each day trying to keep the monster within her at bay. None of them saw the mental, emotional, or physical changes that Fang had endured during their l'Cie sentence. If they had, they would never entertain the idea that Fang would willingly choose to run around calling herself by the thing's name.

"So is that true too?"

"Hm?" Lightning had been so engrossed by the mural that she hadn't even noticed the rookie had started talking again.

"The rumors," the rookie continued. "About the two of you. That you two were, uh… you know. Involved?"

Lightning just grunted and took a step closer to the mural. In the bottom corner, a strange marking had been painted in white spray paint. It was a small circle with a large "N" messily sprayed on top of it. Lightning's face heated and her jaw tightened even more. It was a symbol, and she knew exactly what it stood for. "Rook." She turned to face the rookie again. "How would you like your first bust to be a big one?"

"Where is he?" Lightning immediately asked as she burst in through the doors of Cactuar Ugly, a taco hut turned bar located downtown, right near Bodhum's shore.

"Light!" Lebreau, the bartender and owner, gasped in surprise. "Heyyy. You haven't been by in awhile. How've you—"

"Is he here?" Lightning continued to press, garnering a myriad of surprised and confused stares from the bar's patrons.

"Lightning, can you just calm down for one sec—"

"So he is here," Lightning confirmed aloud to herself, ignoring the pleading expression on Lebreau's face. "Rook, follow me." Lightning pushed her way through the bar, with the rookie officer timidly following behind her, and slammed her hands against a door in the back that swung open to reveal a set of stairs leading down to the basement level.

At the foot of the stairs, Lightning flung open another door to reveal a small room where a group of young men were hunched over a table. All of their heads popped up on hearing the back of the door slam against the wall from Lightning's entrance, and Lightning's vision instantly zeroed in on the tall, muscular blonde who stood in the middle of the pack.

"Uh…" the man spoke uneasily as Lightning began striding towards him and all of the guys previously surrounding him moved out of the way. "What's up, sis? UGH!"

The man huffed out a huge gasp of air as his back slammed against the wall. Lightning leaned forward, her teeth bared as her forearm pressed against the man's chest. "If you're going to send people to deface someone else's property, you should at least be smart enough to not have them paint your group sigil at the bottom of it."

"Wha— UGH!" The man tried to speak but couldn't get anything out before his back was slammed against the wall again.

"And I'm NOT your sister."

"Hey!" The rookie who had up until now been gaping at the interaction in surprise loosened up as he recognized the man's face. "You're Snow Villiers! Whoa… two saviors in one day… Is Hope Estheim hanging around here too?"

Lightning rolled her eyes and Snow took a moment to calmly peel Lightning's arm from his chest. "It sounds as if," Snow began matter-of-factly, "you're accusing me of vandalism. But isn't the law 'innocent until proven guilty'? I have at least four alibis who'll vouch for my location and you don't have any proof that I had something to do with it."

"So you had nothing to do with the graffiti mural of Rag—I mean, uh, Fang in Candy Court?" the rookie asked.

"Nope. Can't say I did," Snow answered with a tight, arrogant smile. "But out of curiosity, this graffiti mural you're talking about… how did it turn out?"

"Kinda good, actually," the rookie admitted. "Pretty hot."

"Awesom—"

"Of all the things that you could've had your lackeys paint and of all the things you could've had them paint on," Lightning interjected in a low, gritty voice, "You had to paint her… on my house?"

"I think it's kinda poetic," Snow shrugged. "And you left the neighborhood right after reckoning day four years ago. You didn't see the stages of the old Farron household like I did. Trust me. This is probably making the place look much better."

"Yeah. Painting a tailed, half-naked terrorist on the wall will do that sometimes," Lightning returned icily.

"Terrorist? See. That's the problem. It wasn't Fang's fault, and if this Cocoon versus Gran Pulse war is really happening, the least we can do is try to clear Fang and Vanille's images. Get 'em some support."

Lightning impatiently shook her head, but Snow still continued.

"You may not believe it, but I know she's still alive down there. I can feel—"

A loud crack sounded through the room as Lightning's fist collided with the side of Snow's jaw.

"Yo, Farron!" Gadot, the brawniest member of Snow's posse, jumped forward defensively, but stilled when Snow lifted up a hand, signaling him to halt.

"No, it's okay," Snow groaned, flexing his jaw while Lightning continued to glare him down. "Uh, would you guys mind giving us a minute alone?"

Gadot's eyes flitted unsurely from Lightning to Snow before his shoulders relaxed and he nodded his head towards the door, signaling for everyone to follow him out.

"Uh… Sergeant Farron?" the rookie nervously asked.

Lightning sighed. "Yes, you can leave too."

"Actually," the rookie apprehensively continued, "I was wondering if I could get a picture with the two of you. My mom would never believe me if I told her—"

Lightning turned to give the rookie a burning, stone-face glare.

"Know what?" the rookie squeaked. "Who needs a mother's approval anyway? I'm just going to close this on my way out…"

Lightning kept her glare glued to the rookie until he disappeared behind the closed door.

"Sooo…" Snow slowly dragged out, "Something you need to get off your chest?"

Lightning's eyes rolled away from the closed door to dangerously land on Snow instead. "Seriously, Snow, could you be any more careless, stupid, or insensitive?!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to do something important here," Snow defended. "I wish I could say the same for you, Miss Queen of the Graffiti Police."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Lightning retorted, her voice laced with sarcasm. "I didn't mean to mistake your giant picture of an H-cupped, g-string-wearing Fangnarok as vandalism. Oops! My fucking bad!"

"It's about putting out a likeable image! We need more people to wanna like the Gran Pulsians to get them to oppose this war. I've even talked to Cid about this and he agrees."

"Of course. Because Cid knows everything," Lightning snorted. "That's why he was able to be primarch for TWO WHOLE WEEKS."

"He has a lot of good ideas! You'd know this if you ever checked in on the Cavalry once in awhile instead of slaving for 'the man'. You never complain when Team NORA is out slaying monsters—"

"I do."

"—but heavens forbid someone paints a harmless picture on the wall of a vacant house."

"Harmless?" Lightning looked at Snow incredulously. "Don't try to play that 'holier than thou' crap with me and pretend as if you and your renegade crew have never hurt anybody!"

Snow's face dropped. Lightning had found the one thing that he couldn't give her an argument for. "How many times do I have to apologize for that?" he asked in a soft voice.

"I don't know," Lightning replied coldly. "Ask Hope."

A tense silence filled the room, one so uncomfortable that even Lightning couldn't stand it. "Look…" she sighed, running a hand over her face, "It's just… it's already been hard enough as it is. I'm getting tired and the last thing I need now are calls dragging me out of bed to go see giant murals of her."

Snow just nodded.

"Good," Lightning breathed, more to herself than to Snow. She turned and headed for the door but stopped herself when she grabbed the handle. "And Snow? If you stop by Serah's… remind her that I'll be picking her up tomorrow around the usual time."

"Oh. About that…"

Lightning's brows creased suspiciously as she looked over her shoulder at Snow. "What?"

"Serah's notttt exxxxactly going tomorrow."

"Not going?" Lightning couldn't even try to contain the shock on her face. "Why not? We only get once a month."

"I dunno," Snow shrugged. "Getting tired, I guess. Just like you said."

Lightning just stared at Snow with a dumbfounded expression. Serah had never missed one of their monthly visits to see their father in Eden.

"But since you'll be up in Eden," Snow continued, pulling Lightning back into conversation. "If you run into Hope while you're up there… Can you, uh, tell him I said hey?"

"Sure," Lightning murmured, still trying to wrap her head around Serah's actions as she turned back to head out the door. "But don't think this means I'll start doing you any favors. If I so much as even catch you jaywalking after tonight, you're spending a day in a cell."

She could hear Snow lightly groaning in reply as she ascended the stairs. Back on the main level, Lightning would find her rookie sitting at the bar, drinking a complimentary cocktail from Lebreau.

"Yeah, before she dropped out, we were like besties," Lebreau was going on as she leaned over the bar countertop. The girl had always been one to experiment with alcohol back in school, so it was no surprise that she had bought the taco hut and turned it into a full-fledged bar after winning a sizeable lump sum from an insanely lucky bet at the chocobo races. "Once, we had a sleepover at her apartment, and she even let me pierce her bellybutton."

"Do you mean I once asked you to watch Serah for me while I worked a late shift and when I came home, Serah pinned me down while you savagely stabbed me?" Lightning asked as she approached the bar.

"I guess we all remember it our different ways," Lebreau replied with a sweet smile.

"C'mon, rook," Lightning said with the nod of her head. "It's been a long night and I have to wake up early tomorrow."

As per usual, the halls of Sanctum headquarters in Eden were bustling with activity as Lightning made her way towards the maximum detainment prison block.

"Sergeant Farron!"

From further down the hall, Lightning spotted Commander Jihl Nabaat walking amongst a few other men and women in uniforms. Jihl was a striking woman with long blonde hair, round thin-framed glasses, and an impressive collection of high-heeled shoes. She and Lightning had gotten to know each other quite well after all of the chaotic events that had taken place on this very estate four years ago. Jihl had been studying l'Cie behavior and often went to Lightning for help with answering certain questions. They grew to know each other even better when Lightning realized that Jihl liked to talk just as much shit about her at-the-time arch nemesis, Commander Cid Raines, behind his back as she did.

"I'm glad I caught you, Sergeant," Jihl greeted when she had gotten closer. "You know I'm terribly sorry about this, but your father has been placed under total lockdown. You can't see him today."

"What?" Lightning's usually stoic expression instantly turned into one of incredulity.

Jihl glanced hesitantly over to the group of men and women who stood beside her. "Can we finish this later? I have some important business to attend to," she told them in a low voice, watching them disappointedly nod and disperse before turning back to Lightning. "Come. Take a walk with me to my office."

Lightning released a disappointed sigh of her own and nodded before quickly falling into step next to Jihl.

"As you know," Jihl began in a low voice, leaning close to Light's ear, "We've been sending a number of reconnaissance teams to Pulse lately. Yesterday, we lost contact with the third one this month. We think it may have something to do with the hostile group led by the one they call Ragnarok."

"The 'mysterious warrior' from the tabloids?" Lightning asked flatly.

"Believe it or not, all of it isn't fiction. I swear, we must have a mole somewhere in our division."

Lightning's eyes darted to the side, where Cid Raines had just rounded a corner and entered the main hall. When his eyes connected with Lightning's, he just smiled and gave her a congenial nod.

"It's not too far-fetched an idea," Lightning replied in a low voice, eyeing Cid until she and Jihl had walked past. "Have you contacted anyone in the area to investigate it?"

"We have. General Piquely." A look of disgust quickly passed over Jihl's face. "He's supposed to be our main point of contact down there but lately he hasn't been feeling motivated enough to be bothered with the war. Or securing his job." Jihl stopped when they reached the door to her office. She tilted her head and gave Lightning a tight-lipped smile before continuing in an overly dramatic whimsical tone, "He's met a girl."

"He's met a girl?" Lightning echoed, causing Jihl to smile wider. "As in an officer or a Pulsian?"

Jihl gave her a telling look.

"So not only is he making the natives aware of Cocoon presence," Lightning went on as Jihl opened the door for her to enter, "But he's also fantasizing about a girl who probably prays at night for Cocoon to implode."

"Nooo, it's not like that. He says it's true love and that she doesn't care where he's from," Jihl replied in a mockingly sweet tone. "She supposedly nursed him back to health from a horrible case of exotic food poisoning, so now she's his 'little green eyed beauty'."

Lightning slightly grinned at Jihl's mockery of the situation, but the grin slowly withered away as she approached the commander's desk. Sitting on top of a neat stack of files was a large headshot of Fang. She remembered that photo. It was Fang's yearbook picture. The picture never got published in the book itself, for obvious reasons, but the yearbook editor that year, Alyssa Zaidelle, had been nice enough to offer Lightning a copy.

"But I hear Pulse is the place to go if you're looking for one of those."

"Huh?" Lightning quickly looked up to see Jihl staring at her with an uplifted eyebrow. "I wasn't—it's just—last night, there was this huge graffiti mural and—I mean… ugh." Lightning took a deep breath and tried to gather her thoughts. "This Ragnarok character… You don't think it could be Fang, do you?"

Jihl amusedly studied the flustered Lightning for a moment more before bluntly answering, "No." She took a few strides into the room so that she was now standing behind her desk. "There is no concrete evidence to support the idea that she survived her fall from Cocoon."

Lightning felt that all too familiar ache in her chest as she watched Jihl take Fang's picture and stuff it out of sight under her files.

"However, we do know that Oerba Dia Vanille escaped to Pulse safely. We have reason to believe that she may be leading those groups under the alias of Ragnarok. It could be a symbolic way of her trying to finish what her friend started."

"No." Lightning shook her head. "Vanille wouldn't do that. She and Fang were too close. She'd never call herself the thing that ruined—"

Once again, Jihl was staring at Lightning with that somewhat amused raised eyebrow.

"—never mind… But what does this have to do with my father?"

"As you know, he was imprisoned for treason. More specifically for attacking a group of PSICOM soldiers and leading Fang and Vanille away right after Vanille murdered an officer. So after recent events, we thought it would be wise to isolate him until he's gone through more questioning."

"Because he's so 'in the know' on events on Pulse from his prison cell?" Lightning asked. "That's ridiculous! Just like the treason charge in the first place! He couldn't stand Vanille or Fang. I highly doubt he was there to help them."

"Well, we have two eye witnesses saying he did," Jihl calmly replied. "Unless he's told you something different."

"No…" Lightning relented, shaking her head. She had questioned her father incessantly about what it was he had been doing with Fang and Vanille that day, hoping to find anything that could reduce his sentence, but the man would always silently look away and wait for the topic to change. "He won't tell me anything."

Jihl just nodded, watching Lightning with a sympathetic look in her eye. "You know, since you're already up here, we recently picked up readings on a new signal that we believe could be an SOS from one of our missing troops. According to the terrain maps, it would be too long and dangerous of a journey for any of our currently posted groups to travel to, so we're gathering a small squad to quickly drop off, investigate, and pick up. You should consider joining."

Now it was Lightning's turn to stare at Jihl with a peculiar expression. "You know I don't want any part in this war."

"It's a rescue mission, nothing more than that. You're wasting your talents in Bodhum with the Guardian Corps," Jihl pressed. "I mean, seriously. Graffiti murals? You're much more capable than that and you have better smarts and combat skills than most of the soldiers already down there. And you can't tell me you don't need the extra money. Isn't your sister planning a wedding?"

Lightning softly grunted in return. Everyone seemed determined to use Serah's wedding against her.

"By the way, where is Serah?" Jihl asked. "Don't the two of you usually come on these visits together?"

"Just sign me up," Lightning mumbled, not wanting to get into the topic of Serah right now. "I could use the break from my usual beat anyway."

"Perfect." Jihl smiled. "I'll send your file to General Piquely right away. I'm actually going out for lunch with some of the other heads in a few minutes. You're perfectly welcome to join, if you'd like."

"I'm fine," Lightning passed. "I was planning on making a trip to The Academy before it got too late. Might as well do that now."

The strong smell of dirty socks, armpit odor, aftershave, and possibly ball sack burned Lightning's nostrils as she walked through the hall on one of the boys' floors in the Epsilon dorm at The Academy. She stopped in front of room 422 and made a silent prayer that the inside of this room would smell at least a little bit more pleasant than the hall as she knocked on the door.

"Coming!" a muffled cry called from inside the room. Lightning crossed her arms to wait and curiously listened to the weird shuffling and clanging sounds coming from the other side of the door. She wouldn't have to listen long though. Within a matter of seconds, the door swung open to reveal a lanky, teenage boy with sea green eyes and a messy mop of silver hair on his head.

"Lightning!" The young man's face lit up and he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around the sergeant before quickly pulling back with an embarrassed look on his face. "I mean, um… Sorry. Just… it's been a while. Do you, uh, wanna come in?"

"Sure, Hope." Lightning politely smiled and stepped into the small room.

"You can sit on the bed," Hope offered as he closed the door behind them.

Lightning arched an eyebrow as she looked down at the unmade bed on Hope's side of the room that was partly covered in dirty clothes.

"Or you can just stand up," Hope added as soon as he noticed his mistake. "I wasn't really expecting company."

"It's fine. I should've called," Lightning excused, her eyes still roaming around the messy room. "Snow says hi."

Hope's eyes silently drifted to the floor and Lightning immediately realized that she probably should've started the conversation in a different way.

"And, um… Maqui might have asked about you, too. How've you been?"

"Good." Hope replied with a mindless shrug. "Just busy with school and some extra projects. If I don't get approved for vacation housing, I might be coming home next break. So there's that."

Lightning just made an interested humming sound as her eyes landed on a tall and nearly equally wide structure near the back of the small room that had been covered with a white sheet. "Is that one of your projects for school?" She took a curious step towards the sheeted object but froze in her tracks when Hope quickly darted in front of her.

"Nah, just something I've been working on. Nothing important," he blurted, nervously rocking back and forth on his heels as he talked. "What, uh, what about you? Must've been a long day, huh?"

Lightning looked at Hope with a slightly lowered brow and an undoubtedly questioning expression on her face.

"You, uh, you look kinda irked." Hope's cheeks reddened a bit as he explained. "Sometimes you get real stiff and hike your shoulders when you're stressed."

"Oh." Lightning had forgotten just how well Hope could read her body language. The boy had always looked up to her, but after the whole l'Cie ordeal, his usual quiet admiration had shifted into more of a puppy dog following. Before Lightning dropped out to start her career in the Guardian Corps, Hope would constantly stay on her heels at school, clinging to her. The only times she could ever find refuge from the boy was when she went to the girls' room. But even though it sometimes got annoying, she never tried to get rid of him. She knew how hard it was for Hope to fit in. Even before they had become l'Cie, Hope had always been the odd man out. The kid was a certified genius, and his smarts had scored him a place into some of the more advanced classes at Bodhum High even though all the other kids his age were still in middle school. Lightning had never seen it with her own eyes, but between his age and his nerdiness, she knew that he was a prime bullying target. Some of the bullying probably stopped after he had been dubbed a Savior of Cocoon, but she knew it couldn't have done much more to help his social life. Savior or not, he had still been a Pulse l'Cie. Her leaving Bodhum High might not have been the sole reason that Hope had accepted an early offer into The Academy, a specialized learning college for gifted individuals, but she was pretty sure that it had been the first step.

"Does it have something to do with your dad?" Hope continued to ask when Lightning hadn't answered him. "Today's visiting day, right? Where's Serah—"

"It's nothing," Lightning dismissed, earning her an alarmed expression from Hope. She definitely didn't want to talk to Hope about Serah. She also didn't like the idea of mentioning her father's lockdown; it was none of Hope's business. But she knew that he wouldn't stop staring at her like that unless she explained herself, so she settled on the only subject that could probably help her out of the conversational hole she had already dug. "I've been getting a lot of Fang-related assignments lately. Just last night, I had to follow-up on a complaint after Snow got some punks to make a graffiti portrait of her."

"He really doesn't care about anyone but himself, does he?"

Lightning looked up to see Hope's face harden into a scowl before slightly relaxing as he continued to think about what Lightning had said.

"But I kinda know what you mean. You go awhile not hearing about them, and you think everything's gonna go back to feeling normal, but then all of a sudden you see something that reminds you of them… and all the hurt just comes back, as if it all happened yesterday. You know, sometimes I sit down and still kinda wonder what our lives would be like if we had stopped Dysley sooner? Snow wouldn't be doing those stupid NORA missions. Fang would still be alive and the Ragnarok thing never would've happened. Maybe you two would still be dating. My dad could've met Vanille and maybe we could've hung out more…"

Hope was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he missed the uncomfortable look that passed over Lightning's face during his spiel.

"…And it sucks knowing she's down there somewhere. By herself."

"She's not by herself," Lightning finally took the opportunity to speak up. "She's with her people."

"We're her people!" Hope quickly returned. "We were a family, and if it weren't for those fal'Cie, she'd still be here. We'd all still be together. And I swear, one day we all will—" Hope stopped mid-speech as if something had just hit him. "Light?" He looked to Lightning with wide, apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be talking about finding Vanille when Fang—"

"Hope." Lightning's expression turned stern as she spoke. "I'm over it."

Hope's brow slightly crinkled as if he were uncertain whether to believe her or not.

"Besides, Vanille was my friend, too," Lightning reminded. "And it's not like me and Fang had a touching goodbye. All things considered, I think I'd rather see Vanille again if I were given the choice between the two."

"Yeah, I guess…" Hope said slowly, letting his eyes sink to the floor. "You sometimes get intel on what's happening on Pulse, right? What do you think Vanille might be doing down there? Like right now?"

'Leading a small rebel army to wreak havoc against Cocoonian camps,' Lightning thought to herself. "Um…" Lightning reached up to gently rub the bottom of her chin. It was a bit of a weird question to ask but Hope did seem so, well… hopeful. She didn't want to be the one to take that away from him. "I guess Vanille was always a free spirit. So right now… I don't know. I bet she's probably out doing something that makes her happy. Just because. Like skipping or singing in a field… Maybe even picking flowers…"

"Stripping?!"

The loud exclamation bounced off the walls as two travelers slowly ascended the decaying stairwell of a deserted tower.

"What do you mean she's stripping?" the older of the two, a dark-skinned man with a puffy Afro huffed.

"She's not exactly stripping," the younger woman who was leading the way by about four steps replied. "She's just going to this pond everyday and slowly taking off some of her clothes in front of this general to get his guard down so she can continually get stuff from him. Wait. Okay. Never mind. That's exactly what she's doing, Sazh. Vanille is stripping."

"Fang, wait up. Let's stop here. I need a break." Sazh bent over and heaved in a loud, deep breath. "This…" he breathed as he slowly caught his breath. "This isn't cool. It's bad enough that I walk in on you with your Ragnarok groupies so often, but… Vanille stripping?"

"I don't like it either, old man." Oerba Yun Fang paused on the stairs and planted her hands on her hips so that they were pressing into the sides of her royal blue sari. "But she has to cover most of her face so that no one recognizes her, so the easiest way for her to get close enough—no questions asked—to give him a good saboteur spell is to show a little leg. And maybe some side boob."

Sazh made a disgusted groaning sound.

"The other option would be killing him, but that would stop the information flow."

"Gods…" Sazh still had a distressed look on his face. "Vanille is busy playing striptease… At least that explains why you wanted me to come along, although you still didn't tell me what we're doing here." He rose to his feet and looked around the ancient stone stairwell.

"Sazh. Buddy. Don't sell yourself short. I invited you because you're my number one advisor."

Sazh looked to Fang with a disbelieving expression on his face.

"Annndddd because Vanille's too busy playing striptease… But you're gonna be glad ya came because guess what?" A sly grin began to work its way across Fang's face. "You're gonna see me tame a dragon."

"Oh, really? That's what we're doing here?" Sazh asked skeptically. "Taming a dragon?"

Sazh and Fang just stared at each other for a moment, Fang's face brimming with excitement and Sazh's displaying the cynicism of a man who's had to put up with way too much shit in his lifetime. It wasn't until it dawned on Sazh how genuinely excited Fang looked that he realized… they actually were climbing the stairwell of some old, rotting tower in order to tame a dragon.

"HELLLLLLLLL TO THE NO! I'M—"

"No, no, no! Don't go!" Fang lunged forward to grab Sazh by the back of his jacket collar as the man spun around to head back down the stairs. "This could be good! You've seen all the Cocoonian soldiers popping up around here lately. And just the other day they attacked that river village! A dragon could be a good security system, and think of the scouting capabilities!"

"My good judgment should've told me not to come with you," Sazh griped, pointing an angry finger down to the ground. "I knew you were gonna get me into some crazy shit because crazy shit is your usual MO and I know this is supposed to be your meditation time with Caius and Caius never lets you skip meditation time!"

"Taming it shouldn't even be that hard! The elders say that this dragon is my eidolon, or spirit animal or something. We're already bonded. I've just got to show him. And think of how cool it would be to show up at the reenactment tomorrow riding a dragon. I'll be Ragnarok starring as Ragnarok riding in on my own mini Ragnarok."

"I have a son, Fang! I NEED TO LIVE!"

"Could you be anymore dramatic? And it's not like ya haven't been through worse… But if you wanna go," Fang released her grip from around Sazh's collar and moved up a step, "I'm not stopping ya. Although I'd miss you every second along the way, Sazhy."

Sazh angrily stared Fang down before exhaling a relenting huff of air. "Fine. I'll stay."

Fang beamed.

"But only because I don't wanna be the one to tell Caius where you went. That, and somebody has to drag your body back if this all goes wrong. Maybe I can get that weird-looking guy with the saxophone to play Careless Whisper at your funeral. Vanille could even strip to it."

"I appreciate you too, Sazh," Fang replied, turning to continue to lead the way up the stairs.

After what seemed like a thousand steps later, the two came to a break in the staircase. Up above, they could see the edge of what looked like an open platform, but the remaining stairs leading up to that level looked to be torn out.

"Well, that was fun," Sazh stated, putting his fists on his hips. "Guess we'd better leave now."

"Hold up." Fang squinted and took a step forward. "The walls have deep enough grooves. We can climb the rest of the way."

"Fang, does it look like I'm in the climbing mood?" Sazh asked, fists still on his hips.

Fang studied Sazh for a brief moment before shaking her head. She would only push the man oh so far before giving him a break. "I can climb the rest of the way," she corrected herself.

Sazh nodded in approval and leaned against the staircase wall as Fang began to climb it. When she was finally able to reach her hand on the platform and grab something sturdy enough, she swung the rest of her body up onto it.

"What do you see up there?" Sazh's voice hissed from below. "Do you see the dragon?"

"I, uh…" Fang rolled onto her stomach and planted her hands against the ground to push herself up as she surveyed the area. "There's a lot of rocks… broken columns… some bones… and…"

A deep growl bellowed from across the room, causing Fang to freeze. Her eyes slowly lifted to land on the huge, shiny, black-scaled beast that was curled up in the far back shadows of the gigantic room. Its head was lifted and it was staring at Fang through perfectly dark eyes.

"… a dragon."

"So you gonna slay it now?"

"Just… just give me a moment," Fang harshly whispered in reply, keeping her eyes trained on the dragon as it slowly rose to its feet. "Alright… just like Caius said," she mumbled to herself. She slowly reached her hand behind her to where her spear was strapped to her back, just in case. "Embrace chaos… control your anger and you can control fate…"

Her heart started to pound wildly in her chest as the dragon took a step closer, rattling the unstable building as its clawed foot hit the ground. Concentrating seemed so much easier during her meditation sessions.

"Embrace chaos… embrace chaos… embrace chaos…" she quickly chanted as the dragon continued to move closer. "Embrace—crap!"

A piercing roar blasted through the area as the dragon lunged forward, swiping one of its heavy claws at Fang but barely missing her.

"What's going on up there?" Sazh called.

"I'm not…" Fang yelled back in full sprint across the room as a huge plume of fire chased after her, "…embracing chaos! Umph!" Fang grunted as her ass hit the floor from her jumping over some fallen stone structure in order to take cover. "Arrggg! This damned chaos method will work at every single inopportune moment it gets, but when I actually need—ahhh!" Fang gripped her right shoulder as a searing pain shot through it. After the initial shock of the burn had worn off, Fang peeled back her hand and couldn't help but feel somewhat of a relief. Her usually white l'Cie brand was now glowing orange and from the other side of her barricade, she swore that she could hear the dragon softly groaning. "Sazh! It's work—RAHHH!" Another sharp pain burst through her stomach, accompanied by the howl of the dragon somewhere else in the room.

This was a pain that was familiar… a pain that she had endured before.

This was a pain that had almost destroyed a planet.

Fang's body started heating up and she swore that her vision was beginning to turn red. A throbbing ache pulsed beneath her skull that even made her ears pound. In the back of her mind, she could somewhat register the dragon off to her side, whimpering.

'Embrace chaos,' she thought to herself, and the pain began to dull out. Her vision started to become sharper and a new, rejuvenating feeling began to wash over her insides, making her feel stronger as if her bones and muscles were being reinforced.

It was happening. She was making it happen.

"Fang?" Sazh called, standing up on his tiptoes to try and get a peep at what might be taking place on the upper level. He couldn't be exactly sure of what was going on. All he could hear was a mix of different long, drawn out moans. He couldn't even tell whether they were coming from Fang or the dragon. "Talk to me, Fang!"

There was another loud roar that made Sazh shrink back against the wall, but this roar sounded nothing like the roar he had heard earlier. This roar sounded as if it had come from a totally different beast.

"Fang?" the name came out barely above a squeak.

More whimpering could be heard from the upper level before everything went silent. Sazh just stayed where he was, frozen in fear as he clung to the wall. His eyes were glued to the edge of the upper platform, not knowing what to expect but knowing he had to expect something.

"Sazh?"

The man's muscles relaxed and he let out a deep, pent up breath of air on hearing Fang's voice. "Girl, you—just please tell me something good happened."

The upper platform rumbled as a bunch of loud thuds could be heard above. "Sazh," Fang called again from the platform. A large, black, reptilian face peered over the edge to stare at Sazh through big, dark eyes. Immediately after, Fang's head popped out from behind it, a victorious grin plastered on her face. "Looks like we're heading to the reenactment in style."

A/N: Hey, y'all. Just wanted to say wow... Thanks for all the feedback! Y'all are awesome and this thing may be starting off a little slow, but i'm planning on having it live up to all (or at least some) of the expectations. And Thunder, I'm doing pretty good, thanks for asking! Just up to my same old same. Hope everything's going great on your (and everyone elses) end too.