"Hppphhhhh!" Lightning's eyes flew open as she came to. Her body tried lurching forward, but it felt as if something was pulling her back. Even her gasp had been muffled by the presence of something tight pressed across her lips—but she couldn't focus on that right now. There were much bigger things on her mind. She had clearly seen Vanille. And the woman who she had been fighting with… that voice… a bit sultrier than she had last remembered but still that same voice that had haunted her thoughts and dreams for such a long time now…

Fang.

Lightning's eyes frantically darted around to check her surroundings. It was late. The sky was a dark, midnight blue but the entire area was sufficiently illuminated by the bright glow of the moon. She was seated on a hard, almost cement-like surface and ahead of her was a wall of rusty bars. On the other side of the bars, a suit of empty PSICOM armor had been thrown into a heap in front of an armed man and woman who stood conversing with each other.

No Vanille.

And especially no Fang.

Lightning's breathing slowed as she forced herself to settle down. Part of her had half expected to see her redheaded ex-comrade standing outside of those bars and beaming at her with one of those characteristic Vanille smiles. And behind her, shifting her weight to one side as she stood with her hands firmly planted on her hips would be—no.

Lightning shook her head.

Fang was dead. Not even just dead. She was long dead. Deader than dead. She had transformed into a genocidal beast and then fell off a planet. There was no way that she could be anything less than dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. And even if she had somehow survived, the last thing she'd be doing would be parading around as the beast that had so eagerly made their lives miserable from the moment they found out about it… Yes. Fang was definitely dead. She had to be. But that voice… that familiar lilt in the way it had said her name…

"Mrrmmm." Lightning grunted and shook her head more violently this time. Fang was dead and that was that. She was on Pulse, for Etro's sake! How rare could it be to bump into someone whose accent sounded similar enough to Fang's? She had also been shaken up from the crash that had caused that pain in her side. That was more than enough to make her start hearing things. It was even enough to rattle her to the point where she probably imagined seeing Vanille, too. That was the only reasonable explanation.

Lightning released a deep breath through her nostrils, wholly satisfied with this explanation. Dehydration, tiredness, the crash, and the pain in her side must've caused her mind to play tricks on her. But speaking of that pain in her side… Light squirmed a bit in her sitting position, making sure to twist her midsection.

Nothing.

The pain was totally gone.

Lightning ruffled her brows and dropped her eyes down to skim over her body. She was no longer wearing her PSICOM suit, but was instead dressed in the Guardian Corps uniform that she had decided to wear under it. That would explain the empty PSICOM armor outside the bars. So apparently she had been disrobed and thrown into some sort of cage…

She tried wriggling her wrists, which had been pulled behind her to the other side of a pole that her back was pressed against. She felt the harsh burn of rope digging into her skin. Her ankles had been bound as well. She wasn't just in a cage. She was tied up in a cage.

She directed her vision back to the outside of the cage where the two Pulsian guards were still wrapped up in conversation. With her eyes on the guards the entire time, she stretched out her fingers to blindly feel the ground behind her. Someone had done a pretty messy job of clearing the cage out. Even in the small space of concrete that her fingers could reach, she was able to quickly snatch a small stone from the ground. She could feel that the stone was long enough to reach up to cut at the binding around her wrists like a saw, but she could also feel how thick the ropes were. She wasn't sure how long the Pulsians were planning on keeping her locked in this cage, but she was pretty sure that her best bet at an escape would mean working to cut that rope as quickly as possible…

"I was able to get a good look at her when I went to check out the wound in her side," Vanille stated from her seat on one of the plushy cushions in their luxury tent. After the spectacle at the amphitheatre, Caius had ordered that the 'viper intruder' be taken to one of their look-out posts a good hike away from New Paddra. The area was considered an ideal place for temporarily housing prisoners because it was distanced far enough from the city for the prisoners to not be a threat. It was also situated in one of the thicker parts of Gran Pulsian wilderness, where if the prisoner somehow escaped, it was certain that she'd quickly get lost and recaptured. "It's definitely Lightning."

"And who is Lightning again?" Noel asked from near the tent's entrance flap. He had been confused during most of the ordeal that focused around the pink-haired stranger, from Vanille's frantic break-up of the fight all the way to Fang's eerie silence that had stretched on afterwards.

"It's soldier girl!" Sazh exclaimed from another part of the tent. His eyes were fixed on the dynamic file cabinet that was tilted in his hands with the pink-haired soldier's picture still filling the screen. "I remember her from our Sanctum break-out! I'm pretty sure she tried to shank me…"

"So she's a longstanding PSICOM officer?"

"No, she's a good guy," Vanille responded. "Or she should be a good guy… Remember the other l'Cie we told everyone about? The ones that helped us?"

Noel nodded. Years ago, when he and the Cocoonian refugees had first met, a lot of stories had been told about how a small group of Cocoonians had also been turned l'Cie and played a major role in helping the Gran Pulsians escape the floating planet. But as time passed and the stories began to take lives of their own among the people, the Cocoonians' roles in those stories began to get smaller and smaller until they were barely even mentioned anymore.

"Well, she was one of them! The Cocoonian girl!"

"Ohh kayyy…" Noel rubbed his chin as he tried to remember bits and pieces from the older tales. "So she was the one who used to train with Fang all the time, right?" He looked to his side where Fang, still dressed from the neck down in her Ragnarok costume, was quietly leaning against one of the tent poles. She hadn't spoken a word since right after her fight, when she had volunteered to escort the warriors who were transporting the PSICOM soldier to the look-out post. She was currently standing with her arms folded against her chest, seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on around her, staring at the ground with a far off look in her eyes.

"Yeaaaa, I guess you can say that she was Fang's old 'workout' buddy."

"Oi. Vanille…"

All heads popped up to turn towards Fang, who had finally been broken out of her trance by Vanille's comment. She was staring at the younger girl with a tired look on her face.

"Let's just not."

"Not what?" Vanille asked innocently enough. Her expression was playfully challenging, and she appeared to be the only person in the tent who was not surprised by Fang's sudden return to reality. "Not talk about how while me and Sazh were wasting away in a PSICOM prison cell—"

"Oh, Vanille, come off it."

"—you and Lightning were up thousands of feet in the air—"

"Vanille…"

"—DOING IT?!"

Fang's face screwed into an agitated expression. "And how would you know that?"

"Rygdea told me," Vanille replied haughtily.

"And how would Rygdea know? I can bet'cha my bottom dollar he wasn't invited."

"Most of the Lindblum knew! I heard you two weren't exactly quiet about it."

"Okay, okay. Settle down, kids," Sazh interrupted, lowering his hands in a calming motion while Noel silently mouthed the word 'wow'. "So question is still out there, whether she once did the nasty with Fang or not—as nasty as that is in itself—"

"Sazh, seriously?"

"—is she a threat or isn't she?"

The tent grew silent as everyone stopped to mull over the question.

"She can't be," Vanille finally answered, shaking her head. "Cid or Rygdea would've told us if she was fighting for the other side. And she knows enough to expose them. There wouldn't still be a Cavalry if Lightning was working for the Sanctum, right?"

"She kinda did stop when she saw Vanille," Noel thought aloud. "She could've easily shot Fang there, but she didn't. I guess that counts for something, too."

"Well, whatever you guys are counting for, you'd better count quick," Sazh warned. "Because if you haven't made up your minds before Caius gets back from Yeul's doctor appointment, there'll be no hope for that girl."

"But if Caius gets back and she's not here, then what? She knows where our city is. He'll want to skin everyone at this post alive if we let her off," Noel said. He had had his fill of watching innocents get tortured or killed over this war, but he had also seen the wrath of Caius firsthand. If the man thought that this woman could endanger Yeul by bringing an army back to New Paddra, he would have no problem using the bodies of everyone at this post as a fear motivator for the city's army.

"But we can't let him kill her, either," Vanille quickly argued. "Not without good reason! She was our friend and she apparently has inside access to PSICOM! Maybe she'll help us!"

"It's been over four years," Sazh put in soberly with a shrug. Noel's words about Caius had made him come to a certain realization, and saving some unlucky girl was nowhere near as important as going home to his son. "People change. Look at you. You can't honestly say you're the same person you were four years ago, right? And she did show up armed in a PSICOM uniform."

"She met you armed in a PSICOM uniform!" Vanille retorted. "Fannngggg!" Vanille looked to Fang for help, but the older woman was once again lost in her own thoughts.

"Maybe we can make a case for her," Noel offered, trying his best to look hopeful. "We can't let her go, but Caius sometimes listens to me. If we prove that she isn't a threat and that she can even be an asset, then maybe he'll let her stay."

"No." Once again, Fang caught everyone by surprise with her sudden entrance back into conversation. She was still gazing at the ground, but it was apparent that her mind had returned from wherever it had been earlier. "She has to leave."

"Thank yooouuuu," Vanille ground out in a relieved sigh. "Now we need—"

"No. No we."

"Huh?" Vanille's face dropped as Fang lifted her head to make eye contact with her.

"No we. Noel is right. Caius will be looking for blood after she escapes. So I'm going to put this entire one on my back."

"But I—"

"And no buts." Fang shook her head. "I want you lot to stay as far out of this as ya can. As much of a dick as Caius can be, he's still a fair man. If he knows I acted alone, he'll try to punish me alone, and I can take it."

Vanille still had an unsure look on her face as Fang pushed herself away from the pole so that she was now standing up straight.

"Besides…" Fang continued, "What were the chances of all of this playing out the way it did, hm? If Lady Luck wants me to talk to Lightning Farron so badly, who am I to disappoint her?"

Lightning wriggled her wrists again.

The ropes twisted and swayed, granting her a little bit more give than she had before. She had been sawing at the ropes for a little while now and she suspected that she was nearly a fourth of the way through them, but the ropes were only a small fraction of the battle. She would still have to find a way to cut the binding around her ankles, escape her cell, and get past the—

"Ragnarok!"

Lightning's head shot up on hearing the guards simultaneously call the name… and then her heart immediately stopped.

Time almost froze still in Lightning's eyes as a third person sauntered up a dark pathway, partly shrouded by trees, from her far left. Shimmery, blue threads dangled from the newcomer's body as she calmly moved forward, an unmistakable air of entitlement in her walk as her hips lightly swayed with each step. Lightning immediately pegged this woman as the actress she had fought with earlier that day, but unlike earlier that day, the actress was not donned in her full costume.

She was no longer wearing her mask.

Lightning's eyes were instantly glued to the actress's face, taking in everything from the wavy mane of dark hair on top of the woman's head to each delicate feature on the woman's bronze face. She was sure she didn't blink the entire time that the woman seemingly moved in slow motion towards the two guards. Then the actress looked her way, locking serious emerald eyes with Lightning's for a brief second, and the pinkette's throat went dry.

Her mind could still be playing tricks on her. She could still be unconscious. The Pulsians could've even drugged her… because she recognized that face. And that face was the face of a ghost.

Fang was not dead.

"Ragnarok!" the two surprised guards gasped in unison as Fang made her way up the path.

Fang didn't immediately respond but instead let her eyes wander around the small area. She rarely made trips out to this post and she had certainly never visited a prisoner here before. No PSICOM soldiers—at least to her knowledge—had ever made it close enough to the city for them to have to use it as a holding space. The first thing she noticed was the armor and weapon case that had been carelessly thrown to the side. Her eyes then jumped towards the small line of cages that were situated not much further. She had been told that this area had once been used as a place for trappers to house rare animals, the kind that were worth more alive than dead. As her eyes dropped down to briefly land on the exotic pink-haired woman on the cage floor, staring wide-eyed at Fang in what looked to be nearly a catatonic state, she couldn't help but see the irony in it all.

"Ragnarok!" The guards repeated their greeting and straightened their stances as Fang slowed to a stop in front of them.

For some reason, Fang couldn't help but glance back towards the pink-haired woman in the cage again. Lightning was still staring at her through those wide, disbelieving eyes, but something minor had changed in her expression. Her brows were somewhat creased, almost in perplexity, as her gaze quickly ticked back and forth from Fang to the guards.

Fang studied Lightning for a moment more, silently trying to gauge her facial expressions before finally asking, "What's the meaning of this?"

"The… excuse me?" the female guard responded.

"You heard me." Fang turned away from the cages to face the two in charge. "What's the meaning of this? These cages are for animals. Not guests."

"Guest? Ragnarok… she's a prisoner."

"She," Fang corrected in a stern tone, "is no prisoner. She's a guest. An honored guest, at that. And you have her tied up in some dirty cage."

"But she attacked—"

"Do you know who she is?" Fang asked, lifting a hand out in Lightning's direction. "She's the girl from the stories, the girl as quick as lightning who fought by my side to help free OUR people from Cocoonian tyranny. And this is how you treat her?"

"She's that girl from the stories?" the male guard asked, now anxiously looking back and forth from Fang to their prisoner. "I am extremely sorry, Ragnarok. We didn't know. But General Caius ordered—"

"General Caius ordered?" Fang asked with a slightly taken aback look on her face. "Kinsman, what does your Ragnarok order?"

The guard took a hard swallow and shook his head, more to himself than to Fang. "Ragnarok, she's PSICOM. She attacked you and others. Are you saying we should just let her—"

"Kinsman…" Fang interrupted, giving her voice a sort of softness that it hadn't held before while still keeping some of its authoritative edge, "Listen. I'm not asking you to give her the world on a silver platter. I'm just asking you to treat a woman who once risked her neck for our people like a fucking human being. Don't have her sitting out here in a cage like some kind of dog. Fix a small tent for her. And to make sure nothing goes wrong, once it's set up, I'll even guard the thing my damned self."

"Ragnarok, are you sure?"

Fang looked over her shoulder to peek at Lightning, who was now attentively sitting up and staring at them with a more critical expression on her face. She turned back to the guards and nodded. "Positively."

Lightning continued to watch Fang and the guards through wary eyes.

Sounds that she just couldn't make sense of drifted into her cage as the three talked, and Lightning could only guess that they were speaking a language native to Pulse. However, there was one word that Lightning could clearly pick out from the conversation.

Ragnarok.

The guards were calling her Ragnarok, and she was clearly answering them as such. And the more Lightning watched them, the more cues she began to pick up from their body language. It was almost a strange dynamic, watching the three of them interact. Fang never strayed from her calm and stoic demeanor while the guards seemed to be running through a whole spectrum of different actions and emotions. Moving in then shrinking away… Trying to catch Fang's eye before bashfully looking elsewhere… Speaking loudly just to let their voice waver once they had gained her attention… It was as if they were in love with her but afraid of her at the same time.

More loud, unintelligible words were spouted before the two guards briskly hurried off along the dark path into the tress. Lightning followed them for as long as she could with her eyes, subconsciously begging for them to turn back around. Whatever analytical thoughts she had been trying to piece together seconds before immediately disintegrated the moment she realized that she was now alone in the area with a supposed-to-be-dead woman.

Fang didn't immediately approach the cage, but instead moseyed over to where Lightning's armor had been tossed to the ground. The Pulsian stood there, gazing at the pile for a moment, before dropping down to take hold of the weapon case that lay next to the PSICOM suit.

Lightning just stared, her heart rate steadily rising with each rapid breath she took, as Fang slowly pulled her gunblade from its case to turn in her hands. A soft, familiar smile pulled at her lips as she studied the weapon. After a few more examining turns, the woman lightheartedly shook her head and slid the gunblade back into its case. She then pawed at the ground to pick up something too small for Lightning to see and tucked the item away in her costume before lifting back to her feet.

With the gunblade case now slung over her shoulder, she moved towards the cage calmly, almost cautiously, until she was standing in front of the small prison's door. A wide, metal bar that was set horizontally across the cage door blocked Lightning's view of what happened next, but with a loud pop, Fang was able to break the lock and toss it into the grass.

Then her eyes were on Lightning.

Lightning couldn't help but feel her cheeks heat at the attention. Fang was staring at her with a sort of mystified look on her face, assessing her nearly the same way she had been assessing the gunblade earlier.

It only took a few steps before Fang was towering over the sitting Light. Her gaze visibly drifted down from Lightning's eyes to land on her lips. She leaned forward to reach at the tape that had been plastered across the soldier's mouth, but just as her fingers were about to graze the Cocoonian's cheek, she paused. Her expression switched from wonder to uncertainty as she thought better of the idea and pulled her hand back to her side. Instead, she took a step back to squat down at Light's feet and reach for the soldier's ankles.

"Mphh!" Lightning took in a sharp breath and jumped, trying to pull her legs away as Fang's hands neared them. A look of hurt quickly flashed across the Pulsian's face at the movement as she misinterpreted Light's reaction. The flinch hadn't been purposeful. Lightning had barely been thinking about it when her body reacted. Things were just becoming too real too fast, and in the back of her mind she knew that if Fang were to touch her, then that would confirm that this was all really happening. You can't touch a ghost.

"It's okay." Fang calmed, looking Light earnestly in the eyes. "I won't…" She stopped to take in a deep breath as she rethought her words, "I don't wanna hurt ya. I'm here to help." Once again, Fang reached. This time, she was able to gently place her hands on Light's legs, right above the knotted ropes. It was only a slight touch, with her fingertips barely pressing against skin, but for Lightning the sensation would've felt the exact same way as if she would've had her legs in a vice grip. "But I can't help unless ya let me, okay?" Fang nodded as she spoke. Her eyes and tone were so encouraging that Lightning couldn't help but blankly nod along with her. "Good."

Fang's hands slipped away from Lightning's skin to swiftly untie the ropes around her ankles. When she had successfully pulled the last knot loose, she slipped behind the pole at Lightning's back to begin working on those too. Light heard a soft snort before feeling Fang's fingers dig into her fist to wrench out the rock that she had previously been trying to cut her binds off with. She'd forgotten that she had still been holding it.

"Alright. Up we go," Fang breathed, taking Lightning by the elbow to help her to her feet. Immediately, Light tried to pull her wrists apart, but found that they were still bound together. "Sorry 'bout that, but I still have to take precautions. Can ya walk okay?"

Fang waited for Lightning to nod in response before giving her an approving half-smile. "Good. This way."

With her hand still lightly holding Lightning's elbow to guide her, Fang directed them into a dense thicket in the opposite direction of the forest path that the guards had taken. They moved quickly yet steadily, careful to avoid low hanging branches and high roots. Lightning was especially aware of the heavy sound of her own breathing, which almost seemed to compete with the snapping of twigs beneath their feet as Fang coolly led them through the forest, appearing totally un-phased by the whole situation.

"So…"

Light's eyebrow ticked as her head jumped to the side to look at Fang.

"I see ya were still able to join the force even after everything that had happened, huh? Congratulations, officer."

It was then that Lightning noticed that Fang was looking down at the Guardian Corps badge that was pinned to her shirt. When they were in high school, Lightning's goal to one day join the GC had always been a bone of contention between the two. Lightning thought that she could use the position to better serve her community, but Fang could never see past the uniform that had abused her people for so many years. And now, despite everything that Fang had done—getting her turned into a l'Cie, ruining her chance at a normal life, trying to destroy her planet—Lightning couldn't help but feel her cheeks burn with a tinge of embarrassment for wearing the badge.

"I asked about you, ya know."

Lightning's head whipped around to Fang again in confusion.

"I mean, uh… shit. Nevermind." Fang focused her gaze forward, her brows crinkled worriedly as if she had just made a big mistake. "But uh, ya look well. All things considered, of course. Oh. Here we go."

Fang gave Lightning's elbow a little squeeze to slow her down as they neared a break in the tree line where the ground dropped off below. As they neared the ledge, Lightning could hear the unmistakable sound of rushing water.

"Hey."

Lightning's breath caught, startled, as Fang's hands rested on her forearms to spin her around so that they were directly facing each other. Fang was staring at her again in that same way she had been staring at her in the cage. Her eyes desperately moved across Light's face as if they were in search of something until the woman finally released a deep breath and let her hands run down Light's arms back to her elbows.

"I know ya must hate me, and I know there's no way I can make up for everything I've put ya through. But at least…"

She dug into a hidden pocket in her costume to pull out a small anti-grav device. When the guards took off Light's PSICOM armor, they must've found the anti-grav unit and taken that off of her too.

"You still carry one of these around with ya everywhere ya go, dont'cha?"

Fang looked from the little device held between her fingers back to Lightning's face. She then took the Cocoonian by surprise by moving in closer and lifting a hand to gently cradle the pinkette's cheek. Lightning's heart rate spiked. There was something so familiar about this—something she had tried forgetting a long time ago that instantly came rushing back to her with one touch. The feeling of Fang's skin on hers or the warmth of her body heat as they stood a hair's width away from each other, all the way down to the way her eyes focused on Light as if there was no one else in the world… Lightning never expected to run into Fang during this mission, but in any scenario that she had dreamt up where the two of them would meet again, she certainly never anticipated this.

"It was good seeing you…"

Suddenly Lightning's cheek grew warm, and not warm in that flesh-on-flesh sort of way, but abnormally warm. Her breathing began to slow and her limbs grew heavy. Even the chatter of the forest had become distorted in some sort of weird, subdued way. She tried to move her head away from Fang's hand, but the action felt too tiring. What was happening?

"But if I ever catch you around here again…" Fang's breath grazed Light' cheek as the Pulsian woman leaned in even closer. Light felt the weight of something small drop into her shirt pocket followed by the relief of the binds at her wrists being loosened. "…I'll run my spear straight through your belly."

Lightning's eyes widened as all of a sudden, all she could see was sky. All of her senses came rushing back to her at once. Her breathing was back to normal and her limbs didn't feel weighed down, but her stomach was dropping and the wind was heavily rushing past her.

She was falling.

Before she could even open her mouth to scream, a staticky hum filled her ears, immediately followed by a sharp tingling sensation that ran across her skin. She wasn't falling anymore. Instead, she was being held static by the electromagnetic cushion of an anti-grav device.

She took in a relieved breath, and her eyes shot upwards. She could barely make out the ledge that she had just been standing on with the round shape of Fang's head peering over it for just a second before pulling back and disappearing completely.

Lightning huffed in disbelief and lifted a hand to rip off the tape that covered her mouth. Her eyes were still locked on the spot where Fang's head had just been. "She pushed me off a cl—arrghh!"

With a loud zap, the cushion from the anti-grav disappeared and Lightning's world instantly became inundated with water.

"Augh!" She gasped as she fought the strong current to break the surface of the water. She had been so focused on Fang and the disappearing ledge that she had damn near blocked out the observation that the ledge hung above a river.

Water filled her nostrils and ears as she was once again pulled under. She thrashed wildly beneath the water as it twisted and spun her, using as much energy as possible to continually make her way up to the surface until she finally reached a calm spot and was able to scramble to the pebbled riverbank.

She couldn't be entirely sure if it was from the wetness seeping into her skin or the excitement of it all, but Light's entire body trembled as she lay back against the mud and smooth rocks that composed the bank. Not only was Fang alive, but she was also being revered as some admirable figure for her Ragnarok metamorphosis—acting out stupid plays to celebrate attempted genocide! She was practically laughing at how she had taken away Lightning's father, home, diploma, or any shot of the life she had once hoped for but could now never have! And to ice the cake, the bitch pushed her off a cliff!

Then there was that feeling when she had the nerve to cup her cheek the way she did… What was that? Drugs, perhaps? No. Lightning was sure she had felt it once before, but she just couldn't put a finger on where. And that line?

'I asked about you.'

Lightning grit her teeth and planted her hands into the mud to shakily pull herself to her feet. None of it made sense.

From the corner of her eye, a little further up the bank, something shiny caught her attention. She carefully made her way over to the object and felt at least a bit of relief on coming upon her gunblade. She pulled the weapon from its case and checked the cartridge: no bullets.

She grumbled something to herself and glanced up the river.

She needed to get back to Cocoon.

Unlike during the day, the halls of Sanctum headquarters were dark and desolate at this late hour as Lightning stormed down one particular hallway. Her face was heated and her jaw was tightly clenched. It was by sheer luck that in the middle of her Pusian trek, she had stumbled upon a small dump where she was able to find a discarded compass, amongst other handy tools. It took her quite a long time to figure out where exactly she should be going, but eventually she was able to make it to her team's designated pick up point.

However, between her journey across Pulse and her trip back to Cocoon, she had been given a lot of time by herself to think. And the more she thought, the more sense she was finally able to pull from her short walk with Fang, and she was pretty sure that she knew where she could find the answers to some of her questions.

It was like she had tunnel vision as she moved down the hall, barely making note that the light in Commander Nabaat's office was turned off as she marched past it. That didn't matter right now, though. There was only one person who she wanted to debrief with, and just as she had hoped, the light in his office was still on.

"You knew!" Lightning hotly accused as she burst through the door of Commander Cid Raines' office.

"Sergeant Farron." Cid was seated at his desk with a mess of papers splayed out before him. His head was tilted upwards to meet Lightning's enraged glare and he appeared entirely unfrazzled by the outburst except for the look of concern that washed over his face as he took the young woman in. "You're back. I was so worried when we got word that your mission—"

"Oh, cut the crap, Cid. I know you—" Lightning stopped to distrustfully look around the office. She made sure to close the door that she had just flung open before spinning back towards Cid and cutting her voice into a venomous hiss as she said, "You knew she was alive!"

That look of concern never left Cid's face as he studied the young woman before him. "Lightning, you've been through a lot these past few days. Have you been to the medical facility yet?"

"Fang, Cid! I saw her!"

And just like that, Cid's face grew serious. "Fang is no longer with us, Lightning. We all know that."

"You know, the whole trip back I just kept thinking about it," Lightning began, disregarding Cid's statement and shaking her head as she started pacing back and forth in front of the commander's desk, "She said she asked about me, and it didn't make sense until I realized… who else could she have asked about me to but you?"

"Lightning, you're tired and disoriented—"

"DON'T YOU EVEN!" Lightning exploded, rounding on Cid to point a threatening finger at him. "I know who I saw, and if you keep playing dumb with me, then maybe I won't be so inclined to play dumb with everyone else about your extra-curricular activities anymore!"

Cid opened his mouth to reply but couldn't think of anything to say, so instead he let out a long, relenting sigh. "We've only known for a year."

"A year?!" Lightning's eyes widened. "You've known for a whole year and you didn't tell me?!"

"It's not what you think—"

"What gives you the right to keep that kind of secret from me?! Don't you think I deserved—that maybe all of us deserved to know?!"

"If you'd just let me explain—"

"And you, of all people! You're the one who left her for dead when her radio signal went dark four years ago, but now you're the only one who gets the Fang rights?! That's total bullshit and you know—"

"SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER YOU!" Cid finally boomed, slamming his fist against his desk.

Lightning jumped at the intensity of Cid's interruption, but it was his words that made her feel as if she had swallowed her tongue. "What?"

Cid lightly cleared his throat and tugged at the inside of his collar to settle himself before sympathetically looking back to Lightning. "Lightning, she doesn't remember you. In fact, she doesn't remember any of her time as a l'Cie. She won't agree to let us run tests to prove it, but we believe that the quick transformations between her human and Ragnarok form took a toll, physically and psychologically, on her brain. That's why I didn't tell you. You weren't talking me at the time and it felt distasteful to just drop that kind of bomb on you, especially with everything else you already have on your plate."

Lightning just gazed at Cid as if he were some sort of alien creature. "No." She shook her head. "Now I know you're lying. She recognized me. She knew who I was. She said that she asked about me."

"Yes, that's exactly right. She asked about you," Cid said, leaning across his desk with his palms pushed together. "She asked things about you that she already should've known. 'Does she really' this and 'Is it true that she' that, or how the two of you acted together on the Lindblum. She was confirming details."

"But she mentioned personal things…" Like Lightning's aspirations to become a GC officer, or remembering how Lightning always carried around an anti-grav device. Fang would especially remember that because it was the main thing that stopped their first date from being a total disaster.

"Of course she would know a personal thing or two with Vanille whispering in her ear all day. You were the one who informed me of how close their relationship is. You don't think whatever she told you were all things that she could've told Vanille before she transformed? I'm sorry Lightning, but Fang only remembers you as another Cocoonian girl who ignored her in high school."

Lightning took a hard swallow. She could picture a frustrated Fang complaining to Vanille about how Lightning was so committed to join the Guardian Corps, just as she could picture an excited Fang rushing to tell Vanille how well their first date had ended. And there was that strange way that Fang just kept staring at her… before pushing her off a cliff and into a river.

"Then why would she talk to you?" Lightning asked, still having a hard time wrapping her head around all of this. "If she doesn't remember me, she certainly doesn't remember you."

"She didn't remember me," Cid admitted. "We sent a small Cavalry group to Gran Pulse with supplies to give to a small village that had been raided by PSICOM. While our men were approaching the village, they were ambushed by a group of Gran Pulsian soldiers. Fang and Vanille were in that group and Vanille just so happened to recognize one of the soldiers as a man who had helped her and Sazh Katroy escape through the portals years ago. Not much later, we set up a web conference for Rygdea to meet with them, and that's when we first noticed Fang's lack of memory. Vanille didn't know Rygdea was part of the Cavalry, so she was unable to fill in any gaps for Fang before the meeting. When Rygdea tried reminiscing with Fang about their adventures on the run while Vanille had been imprisoned, she was at a loss. I think her curiosity more than anything is why she agreed to stay in contact with us."

Cid waited a moment for Lightning to reply. When she didn't, he took a breath and continued. "I know that we've had our differences in the past and there are things about my job that you don't approve of… but I still consider myself to be your and Serah's guardian."

Lightning rolled her eyes and scoffed. She hated when Cid would bring up the months right after her father had been arrested. Cid immediately swooped in on his white high horse to act as their guardian and take them in instead of using his power as temporary Primarch to drop the charges against her father in the first place. But Lightning knew that wouldn't happen. There needed to be an explanation as to how Fang could've infiltrated Sanctum headquarters the way she did. The Cavalry needed a fall guy to take that blame away from them, and the fates had pretty much hand delivered her father on a silver platter.

"I'm still trying to do what's best for you, and I didn't want to see you hurt. I know it's hard to take in, but what I said earlier is still true: Fang is no longer with us… at least the Fang that you knew. She has different views and different priorities. She doesn't remember whatever it is that you went through together. She only remembers being a second-class citizen—if even that—compared to you. And despite her lack of empathy towards Cocoon, she actually agreed to cooperate with us to find a way to peacefully end this war. I just assumed it would be easier on everyone—"

"I want in."

"Hm?" Cid's eyebrows lifted at the sudden request.

"You said you're working together to find a way to end this war, right?" Lightning asked, looking to Cid with a determined stare. "Well, I want in."

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't allow that."

"What? Why not?"

"Our relationship with the Gran Pulsians is fragile enough as it is. Bringing you in might complicate things. And considering the inappropriate relationship—"

"The inappropriate relationship?" Lightning snapped in interruption.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Cid clarified with a stern expression on his face. "I just can't bring another wild card into an already volatile situation. I'm sorry, but this is not an issue I will move on."

"But…" From the look in his eyes, Lightning could tell that Cid was serious. "But I can tell people that I saw her. I can tell them you've been communicating with her."

"You won't," Cid softly shook his head.

"She took away everything from me," Lightning pushed. "What makes you think I wouldn't?"

"Lightning, whatever it is that you're looking for—vengeance, explanations, closure… you're not going to get it from Fang if she can't remember doing anything. The best I can do is advise you to forgive and forget. Now, you look like you're in need of a good night's rest. I'll have a jet bring you back to Bodhum. It's been a stressful weekend for all of us, and I'm sure your sister is worried sick about you."

Lightning felt as if she were in a daze as she drifted to her apartment door. She had tried sleeping on the jet from Eden to Bodhum, but her mind had been too muddled with thoughts from her conversation with Cid hours earlier.

Could Fang really not remember anything? Or was it just a rouse to get in good with the Cavalry while ridding herself of the blame?

Lightning numbly fumbled with her keys, not being able to concentrate on even that small of a task, but it didn't matter. The door was already unlocked.

She entered her apartment and ran a hand over her face as she softly closed the door behind her. She needed to force herself to take her mind off the Pulsian woman and get some rest. Obsessing over the issue was already driving her insane. Just moments ago, as she sat in front of the apartment building in her car, she had been fiddling with her seat buckle when she glanced up and froze. Fang was there, sitting in her passenger seat, lazily gazing out the window before turning her head to look at Lightning with those shining emerald eyes. The corner of her lips pulled up in one of her lazy, Fang smirks before she rolled her head away to look back out the window… It only took one blink for the woman's image to suddenly vanish.

No. It just had to be a rouse, Lightning suddenly thought to herself. Cid didn't know Fang well enough to sniff out one of her schemes, and this lost memory idea had 'mischief' written all over it. And even if she did lose all of her memories, that didn't excuse her from the huge crime she committed. She needed to be confronted.

"Lightning, is that you?"

The only problem was that Cid wasn't going to budge on his 'not letting Lightning participate' stance. As always, he was finding ways to keep her under his thumb.

"Honey, you're back." Two arms snaked around Lightning's waist to pull her into a light embrace from behind as a chin rested on her shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't meet you at headquarters. When I heard that your pod had signaled in, I figured you'd rather I meet you here… to avoid attention. How are you? Okay?"

Lightning forced a small, assuring smile and turned her head to catch Jihl Nabaat's olive green eyes gazing at her from her shoulder. "It's fine. I'm fine."

"Mmm…" Jihl hummed in content. She returned Lightning's soft smile with a drowsy one of her own and leaned forward to press their lips together. "I'm just so relieved you're home safe. Did you see anything interesting on Pulse?"

Lightning tensed. She had seen THE most interesting thing to see on Pulse. "No… not really," she lied, feeling Jihl's fingers stroke up and down the side of her hip. "Just a lot of grass and trees." Fang needed to be confronted for what she had done, but there were still so many questions Lightning needed to have answered. If she wasn't even guaranteed a visit with her father every month, she knew that she'd never get a chance to see Fang again if she gave her up now. "Did Serah call?"

"No…" Jihl sighed. "The phone did ring once while I was getting out of the shower, but they didn't leave a message."

"You didn't answer it?"

"You would've wanted me to?" Jihl asked in mild surprise. "Your sister wasn't exactly fond of me when I was instructing her in archery. Do you think she'd take it well if I answered your phone while you were gone?"

"Yeah, you're right," Lightning breathed, almost forgetting how much Serah actually did dislike Jihl. "I just thought… I don't know."

"Honey, when's the last time you slept?" Jihl's hand reached up to cup Lightning's cheek and the pinkette internally winced, still remembering that brief feeling of affection she had felt towards Fang's hand as it rested in that same place. "You look terrible. Here." Jihl turned Lightning around and took hold of one of her hands. "Come back to bed with me."

"Jihl," Lightning allowed herself to be led for a few steps before pausing, causing Jihl to curiously turn back around as well, "The mission that I went on… how often do those pop up? I mean, do you think there'll be any more going back to Pulse soon?"

"It's hard to say," Jihl replied. "It all depends on whether it's more efficient to use external rescue crews. Most of the interplanetaries we use for quick drop and picks are for reconnaissance of some sort, like the botany mission next week to help catalogue Pulse flora."

"Can I join it?"

"The botany mission?" Jihl's brows lowered suspiciously. "I would've thought after seeing 'just a lot of grass and trees' on your mission, you'd be done with them for awhile."

"I would've thought so too," Lightning shrugged, "But I guess there's just some plants Pulse that I'd like to get a second look at."

"I see…" Jihl said, rubbing her thumb over Lightning's knuckles. "I don't see any problem with it, so if you really want to join, consider yourself in."

Lightning gave a relieved, partial smile as Jihl pulled at her hand to continue their walk to the bedroom, but once again Lightning paused.

"Jihl, about our mission… Did anyone ever find the soldier who sent out the SOS?"

"Oh. About that," Jihl turned to smile at Lightning sweetly, "Turns out there was a malfunction in some of our communications machinery. There was no real SOS, it was a false alarm."

"So everything we went through down there was for—"

"Lightning, these things happen." Jihl gave Lightning's hand a squeeze before gently tugging at it once more. "So let's not think too much about it and just go to bed."

Lightning sighed and nodded, finally allowing Jihl to lead her away to the bedroom.

A/N: Hey, yall. Sorry about the long wait and if this chapter is pretty choppy. As always: Yall are awesome. Thanks for the feedback! And hope yall enjoy.