Cactuar Ugly was packed per usual on a Thursday night, making it somewhat of a challenge for Lightning to weed her way through the tight crowd of customers to get to the bar.

She had come relatively late, not being able to get off work until now, but she was hoping that Snow would still be there. The weight of keeping everything to herself for the past week was starting to wear on her, and she didn't know who else to turn to. This was literally her last resort. She had even sat outside in her cruiser for twenty minutes wondering whether or not she should even tell him. It was a good thing that Jihl's schedule only allowed her to visit to Bodhum on the weekends. If Light had gotten even one text from the woman asking where she was, she probably would've lost her nerve and driven back home.

When she had finally made it to bar, she squeezed her way through to lean across the countertop.

"Lightning!"

Lebreau immediately spotted her amongst the crowd.

"Didn't expect to see you back so soon! Need a drink?"

"No, Breau," Lightning called, shaking her head. "I came because, uh…" Lightning looked down to the bar for a moment before taking a deep breath and deciding that she had come all this way, she might as well go through with it. "Is he here?"

Lebreau's expression turned annoyed. "Do you really want an answer this time or are you just going to barge in there anyway?"

"Breau, I didn't mean to—"

"Ugh! I know you thrive off being Super Cop and all, but I've got a business to run here! Could you at least care a little about my job instead of just thinking about yours?"

Lightning looked to Lebreau apologetically and the dark-haired bartender just sighed.

"You're lucky I can't stay mad at you. That would be like being pissed at a mosquito for sucking your blood."

"But you—" a drunken patron at the bar slurred, turning his head from Lebreau to the beautiful pink haired woman in uniform, "Weren't you just cursing over a mosquito bite you said—that you said you got?"

"Well of course I'm still pissed at her!" Lebreau shot irritably at the man. "I'm just saying that I can't be too pissed at her because it's her nature to be a pain in the ass! Sheesh!" Lebreau looked at Lightning and shook her head as if to say, 'Men…' then nodded her head towards the back. "He should still be down there. Can you just promise me there won't be any fighting?"

Lightning softly smiled and gave her old friend a grateful nod. "Thanks, Breau." She slipped back into the crowd to make her way to the back door. She could barely make out Lebreau's voice shouting, "And I mean it! No! Fighting!" over the noise of the bar as she reached the door and made her way down to NORA's headquarters.

Just like Lebreau had said, Snow was still there. He and Gadot were sitting together at the room's small table, looking over pictures of different beaches. Lightning watched them for a moment before knocking on the doorframe to get their attention.

Both heads shot up.

"Farron?" Gadot stared at the woman blankly before letting out a deep breath and sagging his huge shoulders. "What did we do now?"

"I'm not here for work," Lightning calmly replied, looking to Snow whose face held the same blank and mildly puzzled expression as Gadot's. "I just wanted to talk to Snow. Preferably alone."

Gadot's brows lowered a bit and his face looked stern, but finally he just placed his palms against the tabletop and pushed his chair back. "Cool with me. I need another drink anyway. Snow…" Gadot looked at his best friend as he stood up, "Watch yourself. And you…" He walked around the table towards the front of the room and momentarily paused when he reached Lightning, "…you're a mean person. You should do something about that."

Lightning rolled her eyes as Gadot continued past her to exit the room, closing the door behind him. Now that they were alone, Lightning moved forward to take a seat across from Snow at the table. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the pictures laid out in front of him.

"What's all this?" she asked, reaching out to pull one of the pictures towards her. It was of a deep orange sunset over a shimmery ocean. Near the corner of the photo was a homely looking shack with a surfboard posted up against the wall. "Is NORA trying to break into the postcard business now?"

"Hehehe…" It was a forced, nervous laugh. "No." Snow rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "They're honeymoon spots. Or I guess prospective honeymoon spots… I thought a vacation to the beach after the wedding would be a cool surprise for Serah."

"We literally live right next to Cocoon's nicest beach," Lightning said, still looking at the picture.

"I, uh, I know. I just thought that maybe, I dunno. It'd be something nice."

Lightning placed the picture back on the table and pushed it away. Snow was flustered; she could tell. And that was definitely not what she wanted. She especially didn't want to talk about what he planned on doing to her baby sister after the two of them got married. So without any more pussy footing around the subject, she jumped right in, "I saw Fang."

"Yeah, I know," Snow breathed, gathering the pictures together to stack them in a neat pile while Lightning stared at him quizzically. "I saw Fang, too. In fact, I see her everyday. On the magazine covers, the news specials, on the beach whenever I walk past a really tall tanned woman… Sometimes I even see her in the face of a smiling child."

Lightning rolled her eyes again. This is why this always felt like a last resort. Snow was an idiot.

"After you came through here last time, I told Serah I thought that you should see a therapist about all this, but if you trust me enough to pour out your—"

"You told Serah what?" Lightning cut off, eyes narrowed.

"Sis. Calm down. This is a safe place, remember?"

"No, you ginormous jackass, I went to Pulse on a mission and I saw Fang and Vanille."

"Wait…" Snow's eyes glazed over a bit as he tried to process the information. "Huh?"

"They're alive and living in some sort of settlement on Pulse where Fang is called Ragnarok and running around in a stupid Ragnarok costume and being treated like some walking she-god on earth for what she did to Cocoon!"

"Uhh…" Now Snow looked completely lost. "I don't get…"

"She's a bigger jackass than you!" Lightning spat, thrusting a hand out in Snow's direction. "Can you believe the nerve? She drags us through hell and then hides away so she can live in her own personal paradise? How selfish can she be?"

"I knew they were alive…"

"I pretty much fell out of the closet because of her! Our relationship couldn't just be our business. No, it had to be EVERYBODY'S business. And then when she goes all berserk and turns into a monster, guess who's stuck in the public mess that she created?! Do you think she even cares?! That she gives one single damn about all the damage she left behind?! Even if she did lose her memory, that doesn't give her the right to just go on as if nothing happened!"

"Lost her… What?"

"Why should she be able to start over?!" Lightning's icy blue eyes focused on Snow. "Why can't she be stuck with baggage like everyone else?" She was so upset that she was trembling.

"Light. I'm so sorry…" Snow reached a hand across the table to place over Lightning's, but the woman pulled away. Snow had seen Lightning like this before—it was right after Fang had attacked Cocoon and they had been ushered into a safety bunker under Eden. In the bunker, Lightning had been reunited with Serah, but the two were also told about their father's fate… and Lightning locked up. Snow knew there was a lot of anger there, but more than anything else, he knew there was hurt.

"It's nothing," she quickly muttered. "It's just not fair is all."

A tense silence filled the room as Snow thought vigorously for something to say. "How, uh, how much of it did she lose?"

"They say everything from our l'Cie days. Possibly a little more." Lightning stared at the table as she spoke.

"How well did you two know each other before—"

"We didn't."

"Oh…"

Another silence.

"They say she's been using Vanille to fill her in on everyone's profiles… She knew who I was, but I can't be sure if she actually knew me."

"So she still knows who we are… This is good!"

Lightning lifted her head on hearing the excitement in Snow's voice.

"Vanille was always on board with Team L'Cie. She only would've told Fang good things! What if we could get the team back together? Work with each other to stop this war?"

"That idea is ridiculous."

"Ridiculous how?" Snow asked, opening his palms as if to invite questions. "Think about it! What greater force is there for stopping evil than us? No one went against their focus before without turning into a monster, and look at us! We did it and took down a fal'Cie too!"

"We didn't defy our focus," Lightning sternly reminded. "We unknowingly walked right into it and Fang defeated a fal'Cie while also trying to defeat our planet. We didn't do anything special."

"But we could! This war has the potential to be big. I mean MAJOR. Look at the past wars we had with Gran Pulse and all the lives it cost. You can't tell me Fang and Vanille wouldn't want us to help."

"I'm positive they don't," Lightning said, for a moment reimagining the moment that Fang had pushed her off the cliff.

"Did you even ask?"

"I didn't need to."

"C'mon, Light," Snow pleaded. "I know she did some messed up things in the past… but she's still Fang. And with both the Cavalry and the Gran Pulsians on our side, there's no way we can lose!"

"You don't even have a plan, do you?"

"Will you just think about it first before shooting it down?" Snow asked. "I mean, it took four years to find her. By the time we get a hold of her again, I should have a—"

"I'm heading back to Pulse tomorrow," Lightning informed. She didn't know why, but she just felt the need to let it be known.

"Seriously?" Snow asked in slight surprise. "Then I guess—"

"You shouldn't get your hopes up," Lightning interrupted again. "She's still a wanted criminal. And when I find her, she's going to answer for what she's done."

Weightless.

That's how she felt. Or not so much weightless, but just there, floating through a bleak gray sky over a dark sea filled with glistening shards of crystal. She couldn't feel any of her limbs but the strain on her mind was definitely palpable. If ideas could carry weight, then this is what any philosopher's head would feel like.

"Concentrate." Caius's voice surrounded her. "Can you see it? Can you see Valhalla?"

"Yea." Fang continued to float as the dreary world came more into focus. "Yea, I can." Tall, jagged buildings cut through a sky filled with floating debris in a deserted city that lay bordered by a colorless beach. Although she couldn't see him, Fang could now feel Caius's presence next to her.

"Good. The meditations have been working. You are becoming quite skilled in the harnessing of chaos."

A feeling of content washed over Fang at the words. Nowadays it was rare for her to receive any forms of approval from Caius. They used to come quick and often when the two had first met, in the days when Caius was trying to convince her of her destiny to be Gran Pulse's greatest hero, but now most of their conversations turned into arguments filled with insults and reprimands. Their relationship had been especially tense since Lightning's escape last week. When Caius learned that Fang had been the last person to see the intruder before she disappeared, his body language showed obvious fury, yet he didn't lash out. There was no shouting. No spells. No punishments of any kind. Instead there was a cold, resentful feeling, and it was that feeling that made everything worse. Caius was the type of man that believed a lesson should be learned from any 'mistake', but he barely even acknowledged the breakout. It bothered Fang to no end, and she knew that she should be worried about something… she just didn't know what. Despite the ominous feeling she had about it, she didn't try to bring attention to the issue; the last thing that she wanted was to explain to Caius who their prisoner was and what their relationship had been before she had transformed into Ragnarok.

"What's that?"

Fang hadn't even realized that she been zoning out during their flight. The two were floating deeper within the depths of the city now, surrounded by decrepit buildings on all sides. The air around them wasn't as cluttered with debris as it had been over the beach, but one abnormally shiny piece clearly stood out from the rest as it lazily drifted through the sky. Fang immediately knew that this is what Caius was asking about.

It was a blade-gun contraption identical to the one that Lightning had been armed with when she stumbled upon New Paddra.

"Shit…" Fang breathed as she continued to float past the weapon and towards a huge, abandoned temple further ahead. "Nothing. It's nothing."

"You're not staying focused." Caius's voice was slightly tempered, calm but laced with impatience. "For this exercise to work, you must clear your mind of all other things and focus on the task at hand. You must em—"

"I know, I know," Fang testily cut off. "I must embrace chaos. It was a minor slip. I'm focused again. See. Look."

The two had entered the temple and ascended to the top floor where they now faced an old, somewhat crumbling statue of Etro.

"This is our mark, isn't it?" Fang asked, desperately wanting to change the subject. "The statue in Etro's temple?"

"Ahh, yes…" Caius hummed beside her. "The goddess, Etro, in all of her glory…"

There was something strange in the man's voice as he made the comment, but Fang couldn't pinpoint what. She couldn't tell whether he was speaking in admiration or if he was mocking the goddess… or if he was possibly doing both.

"But yes, this is our mark. Your ability to not only reach Valhalla in your mind's eye but to also—wait. What's going on?"

"Hmm?" Fang's attention, which had been wandering around the huge temple, was now brought back to the Etro statue. "Oh no…"

The ancient statue was still standing as it had been earlier, but now there was one major difference. A small area of the statue, located right above Etro's left breast, was glowing profusely.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Caius's voice boomed as the light began to glow brighter and brighter, growing until it had swallowed the entire statue in its aura.

Fang squinted, or tried to squint. There was nothing to block her from the blinding light that quickly engulfed her. Her head began reeling and it felt as if she was being blown back by a strong wind until it all suddenly stopped.

"What in the gods' names was that?" Caius's voice sounded irritated. Fang opened her eyes to find herself back in the tent he had set up on the far outskirts of the city for their sessions together. Caius was sitting cross-legged on a mat across from her, staring at her hard while obviously trying to restrain himself from full out exploding.

"I…" Fang tried to think of something to say, but she just couldn't.

"I do not care what type of debauchery you partake in during the day, but I will not allow your barbaric need to desecrate anything with breasts interfere with our sessions!" Caius was beginning to lose the internal battle that he had been waging with his temper.

"Is it really that big a deal?" Fang asked. "It was just a screwed up vision of an old statue in some run down city."

"Valhalla," Caius ground out through tightly grit teeth, "is not just some run down city. It is part of the Unseen Realm and you would want to make it a priority to master transportation to and from it. Knowing how to navigate the gap between this world and the next may come quite in handy when this war comes knocking on our doorstep."

"Then maybe we should stop sitting around meditating and waiting for them to appear. If we were to go to Cocoon, we could free our people there and cut off the head—"

"In time," Cauis said loudly, giving Fang a stern look. "Certain things cannot be rushed, and you most certainly are not ready."

"I am ready!" Fang retorted. "Maybe I've been off my game a little recently, but just give me a sec. I'll settle back down and we can try—"

"No." There was a strong hint of finality in Caius's voice as he rose to his feet. "We're done for the day. I suggest that in your free time, you find something to help get you 'back on your game'. I will not accept this type of failure next session."

Caius moved straight to the tent's entrance flap to push it open. He then stared at Fang expectantly. Taking the hint, Fang let out a deep sigh of resignation and got to her feet. The air almost felt icy as she passed the stone-faced Caius to exit the small tent. It was amazing how in such a short span of time, she had gone from proudly receiving the man's approval to being scornfully kicked out of his tent.

"Asshole…" Fang huffed beneath her breath as she made her way back into the city. Ever since that girl had talked to Fang backstage about her cousin being stuck on Cocoon, Fang couldn't stop herself from continually weighing the pros and cons of returning to the planet. For the most part, she knew that the Gran Pulsians were vastly outnumbered by Cocoonians. That along with the fact that they had an even fewer amount of warriors and their population was spread out across the huge planet, making it harder for them to galvanize any armies. They were doing okay with using their knowledge of the land to best the Cocoonian soldiers that came down. However, they were still trying to learn the land themselves along with doing other things such as rebuilding and repopulating, which were becoming a huge challenge with the Cocoonians always interrupting… They couldn't just keep waiting around for Cocoon to send the multitudes of soldiers they had at their disposal to whittle down their numbers. What exactly was Caius waiting for?

When Fang finally reached the home that she shared with her best friend, she let out a deep breath as she stepped inside and called, "Vanille?"

No response.

Fang made a face. It wasn't unusual for Vanille to be gone during the day, but today, Fang really wished that the younger woman was there. She didn't feel like being alone with her thoughts. So naturally, she walked right back out to search for the younger woman, and it wouldn't take long for her to find her. There were a few places where Fang knew the redhead frequented when she wanted time to herself. This particular place was a huge flat rock out in one of the fields. Vanille would often go there to sit and watch the grass sway in the wind.

"Vanille…?" An unsettling feeling swelled in the pit of Fang's stomach as she approached. Vanille was sitting atop the rock, her pigtails swaying in the direction of the breeze. From behind her head, Fang could spot a small black cloud that floated in front of Vanille's face before dissipating into thin air with a bassy thud and quickly appearing again. "Vanille?" Fang called louder, cautiously slowing her step while keeping her eyes on the black cloud. She was familiar with this particular spell of Vanille's. She knew that finding yourself inside of that cloud was similar to finding yourself staring down the barrel of a gun during a game of Russian roulette.

"Hm?" The cloud disappeared again and Vanille's head flung around to brightly peer at Fang, not surprised in the slightest by her friend's presence.

"You, uh… you okay?" Fang asked unsurely, taking a hesitant step closer.

"Yes," Vanille replied in her usual peppy way. "But you aren't…" Her voice took on a more concerned tone. "Caius?"

"Not all Caius," Fang admitted, giving Vanille one more wary eye before taking a seat next to her on the rock. "Mostly, but not all." She let out a deep breath and stared out over the field. The sun was starting to set and the golden grass was beginning to reflect the pinkish-orange color of the sky. Even the huge floating planet above them looked to have taken on a pinkish-orange shade. "Hmm…" Fang softly hummed as her eyes lingered on Cocoon. "They really hate us up there, don't they?"

"Well, we kinda gave 'em good reason," Vanille replied.

"They started it."

Vanille looked to Fang, who had turned away from Cocoon to smirk at her. The redhead smiled in return before playfully nudging Fang with her elbow as if to push her off the rock. The smile remained on her face as she listened to Fang softly chuckle beside her, but she quietly sobered up as another thought passed her mind. "They're gonna wanna end it too, you know."

"I know," Fang answered.

The two sat quietly together, watching the grass as it swayed and shimmered and reflected the sky.

"We could run away," Vanille offered, garnering a mildly interested look from her best friend. "Gran Pulse is huge. Most of it's pure wilderness. We could disappear and they'd never find us." Vanille turned back to Fang with a look that clearly read, 'What do you think?'

"Ooh," Fang breathed with a dramatically torn expression on her face. "A pretty girl asks me to run away with her, how can I say no?"

"But you will."

"I have a duty here, Van. You know that."

"I should've known you'd turn me down…" Vanille sighed, deciding to be dramatic as well. She knew Fang wouldn't agree to disappear in the state that everything was in now, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the satisfaction of teasing her about it. "If you wouldn't even run away with Lightning Farron, then I never had a shot."

"Oh yeahhhh," Fang drug out in a soft voice, "Nothing rekindles an old romance like the memory of your ex trying to rip your planet to pieces. If Lightning wanted to run away me, it'd only be to stab me in the back of the head as I slept."

"Please…" Vanille brushed off. "I totally thought you two would be gone for good when you volunteered to bust her out by yourself."

Fang snorted, but by glancing at Vanille's face, she immediately saw that her friend was telling the truth. "Wait. Ya seriously thought so?"

"Call it a sixth sense but when she realized who you were, I just got a vibe…" Vanille said with a shrug, "…of the hormonal variety."

Fang half smiled and shook her head. "Your vibes have gotten us both into enough trouble around here. Besides, I'd never leave ya behind. You know that. Together forever, remember?"

"Yeah. I remember." Vanille's lips remained stretched in a light smile, but that mischievous spark in her eyes dulled a bit as she nodded along. Something was wrong. Fang could tell. But before she had a chance to ask about it, the redhead turned her head to stare out over the fields again—a silent way of letting Fang know that this particular conversation had run its course.

Fang just sighed and once again brought her eyes up to Cocoon, the planet that was so close yet so far. Lightning Farron was up there… and so was the Sanctum. She couldn't remember getting any vibes from Lightning that night, but by keeping her mouth taped and wrists bound, it wasn't as if she had given the other woman a chance. Now all Fang could do was look up at Cocoon and wonder if she had made a mistake.

Nearly every muscle in Lightning's body ached as she continued to hike upwards along a steep grassy hill. She could see the ground leveling out a bit further ahead, but not for long before it reached a rockier incline that she would undoubtedly have to climb.

This was becoming the trip from hell.

She knew that it wouldn't be easy—tracking Fang down. She had been exhausted and disoriented after her fall into the river, which had carried her a little ways downstream from whatever settlement had been built above it. Even then, she didn't know where she was. The only thing that she could remember about the area was the thick foliage and the distinct musical chirpings of some type of bug, a chirping which grew fainter and fainter the further she had stumbled along.

When she first arrived back on the planet, she had a certain game plan set out. Her pod landed in an area that wasn't too far from the last drop off point she had been to. Giving the botanists and soldiers who she had traveled with the slip was no problem. The issue was figuring out which direction to take once she had gotten free.

Before the trip, she and Snow had spent hours bent over a map of Pulse, trying to make a good guess as to where to travel. There was a river and a few small streams within a day's walking distance of where her pod had first been dropped. In the vicinity, there were also a few areas on the map that showed high elevation levels. Lightning figured that she could travel as far as she could in one general direction without having to break off towards one of the flowing bodies of water and just hope that some type of miracle sign would come to her… and come to her it did in the form of faint, musical chirping.

By now, the chirping had gotten much louder, past the point of annoyance as Lightning climbed the steep, rocky terrain. Etro only knew how pissed she would be if this trek amounted to nothing… She reached a hand upwards to pull at a tough patch of grass from over a hedge to haul herself over the what seemed to be the last clump of rocks.

There were no more inclines. No steep hills or rocky walls for her to climb. She was now on the edge of a flat field of flowers and tall golden grass, and standing ahead of her, rising from a halfway bent position with her eyes locked on Lightning, was a girl with a thin flower pinched between her fingers.

Instinctively, Lightning reached her hand down to touch the hilt of her gunblade. After last time, she had made it a point to bring a change of clothes so that she wouldn't be travelling in PSICOM armor. However, Cocoonian and Pulsian fashion were still very different, so Lightning couldn't say that she had the most faith in the clothes allowing her to blend in.

"You've made it back," the girl said to Lightning as she straightened herself out. Her features were eerily calm and her tone sounded as if she was speaking to someone she had known for years.

Lightning eyed the girl curiously. Something felt off about her. She was thin and pale—almost sickly looking—with a head of long, deep blue hair. Her face and physique suggested that she was a teenager, but it was hard to say. There was something in the way her eyes knowingly gazed at Lightning that made her seem much older than she looked. "You know who I am?" Lightning asked, keeping her fingers near her gunblade. Weird, sick, or not, if this girl knew that she had escaped their confines before, Lightning would have to find a way to take her out of the picture.

"Yes," the girl softly answered. "You're the chosen one. Things have become twisted. You've come to make it right… to relieve the defier of fate."

Lightning's face must've screamed 'confusion', because the girl gave her a slight, eerie smile and continued, "You're looking for Oerba Yun Fang."

"Yes!" The word flew out of Lightning's mouth. "I mean… yes," she repeated again, this time trying not to sound so eager. "Do you know where she is?"

"Yes." The girl nodded once and continued to gaze at Lightning.

"Well…" Lightning began, feeling a bit uncomfortable under that steady, knowing gaze, "Would you be able to get her? To bring her here? Possibly… alone?"

"Yes."

Once again, Lightning and the girl were staring at each other, and once again, Lightning felt herself becoming more and more uncomfortable. "Can you do it now?"

"Yes," the girl answered in the same manner as she had done before. "I will go to her now and let her know you're waiting—"

"Wait!" Lightning exclaimed, reaching a hand out just as the girl had turned around. "How, um, how did you know I was looking for Fang?"

The girl's head tilted and her brows dipped a little in confusion as she stared back at Lightning.

"I mean, do 'chosen ones' show up here often to relieve her?"

"You're curious of the relations she's been having," the girl spoke, not even attempting to mask the doubt in her statement by posing it as a question.

"No," Lightning shot defensively, feeling her cheeks beginning to burn. "I'm just—ugh. Nevermind. Can you just go get her?"

"Yes." The girl nodded and turned around to leave but was once again called back by Lightning's voice.

"But when you see her, don't tell her it's me. I mean, don't let her know what I look like—or that I asked about the chosen ones. Or that I told you not to tell her anything. Okay?"

The girl once again looked at Lightning as if she didn't understand what was going on before her face peacefully smoothed out again and she nodded. "Yes."

"…so if we just had a way of getting there and infiltrating—"

"Oerba Yun Fang."

Fang stopped in mid-explanation to look over her shoulder. Standing behind the rock that she and Vanille were still perched on, looking as pacified as ever, was Yeul, the city's seeress and possibly the only person to ever stay on Caius's good side.

"Hey, Yeul…" Fang greeted tiredly, not exactly happy about the interruption. She had just hit stride in her conversation, but there was a sort of unspoken rule that everyone obeyed in the city. Even Fang. If Yeul spoke to you, you dropped everything to listen. "What's up?"

"I can't find my headdress. It was last in the great flower patch."

Fang stared blankly at the young, blue-haired seeress. She knew where this was going. Vanille did too. She could sense the redhead grinning beside her. "And?"

"I can't find it." Yeul's steady gaze never left Fang.

Fang sighed and shook her head. She wasn't in the mood, but Yeul was way too close to Caius. If Yeul let slip that Fang wouldn't help her find that damned headdress, especially after she had botched their meditation session earlier, Caius would throw the hissiest of all fits… "Well since you can't find it, then maybe me and Vanille should look for it," Fang said in a loud, somewhat robotic voice.

"No." Yeul walked around the rock and reached out to take Vanille's hand in hers. "Me and Oerba Dia Vanille will stay."

Both Fang and Vanille threw her a puzzled look.

"Girl talk."

Now Vanille's brows nearly reached her hairline, they had shot so far up in surprise. "Oh. Okay. Girl talk, I guess…" She looked over to her best friend apologetically. She was just as confused as Fang, but had learned to just go with the flow when it came to Yeul. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine," Fang waved off, sliding off the rock. "You two have your personal little girl talk while I go to the flower patch to find a headdress in a haystack. This sounds like total fun for everyone."

Vanille continued to watch Fang with a look of concern until she felt her hand being softly pulled. She turned to meet Yeul's calm face. "Soo…" Vanille started, unsure of where to begin. "Girl talk, right? What do you want to talk—"

"Hair."

Lightning nervously paced back and forth with her gunblade in hand. It had been awhile since she had let the weird girl run off to fetch Fang, and now she was beginning to rethink the decision. What if the girl could tell she was from Cocoon? What if she went to warn everyone? What if she let everyone know about the 'chosen one' question?

Lightning groaned and ground the butt of her palm against her forehead. How could she have been so stupid?!

"…and now she decides to Pinocchio up and become a real girl…"

Lightning froze. Someone was coming. She could hear a voice muttering in the near distance. Frantically, she looked around. The field was completely empty, but the flowers were pretty tall. If she wanted cover, then they would have to do. Without taking any more time to consider the idea, she dropped to the ground, lying flat on her stomach so that she was hidden by the long stems.

"…but noooo. I'm the one who has to be errand girl while it's all girly girl talky talk with Van. So what am I supposed to be? An 'it'? Who knows more about girls than me?!"

Lightning's heart rate immediately picked up. She knew that voice; it was definitely Fang's. Keeping close to the ground, she strained her hearing. There was a soft rustle of grass as the woman continued to mutter to herself. It sounded as if she was swatting at the flowers, taking a few steps then pausing before taking another couple steps. There were no other rustlings. She was alone.

Gripping the gunblade a bit more tightly, Lightning took a deep breath to settle herself. Now was the moment she had been waiting for. Without giving herself any more time to possibly think herself out of it, Lightning planted her hands to the ground and thrust herself to her feet, immediately lifting her gunblade in the direction of the rustlings. "Freeze!"

And sure enough, there she was. Fang. Alone with a stunned look on her face. "Ligh—"

CLICK. Lightning cocked the gunblade. Her hands were trembling but the end of the shaky barrel was still pointed directly at the Pulsian woman in front of her. She checked over Fang's shoulder to make sure no one else was coming before training her eyes back on Fang. The sun hadn't fully set yet, giving Lightning a much better view of the woman than she had the last time she had been on Pulse.

"You didn't let me talk," Lightning stated as her eyes continued to study Fang. She looked the same, yet different. She had the same mane of wild hair and the same mesmerizing, emerald eyes, but her features had indeed matured. Her posture had straightened a bit and her tanned skin had a goldish-brown, sunkissed glow to it. Unlike last time, she also wasn't donned in a Ragnarok costume. Instead, she wore a long, royal blue garment that winded around her body, accentuating the woman's curves as it wrapped around her waist while exposing a black bra and bare midriff. Fang had definitely been keeping herself in shape, and as Light's eyes continued to rove over the toned skin, she couldn't help but make a mental note of all the other places where Fang's body had obviously matured.

"Mrrmm…"

Lightning jumped on hearing a softly cleared her throat.

"It's a sari," Fang informed in a voice just as gentle as her throat clear. There was somewhat of a bashful smile on her face as she spoke.

Suddenly, Light could feel all the blood rushing her to her face. She had been caught staring. She hadn't even meant to be staring!

"I know it might seem a little weird to ya," Fang continued coaxingly in the way an adult speaks to a scared child, "but it has a lot of cultural importance here, and I'm expected to wear it. Plus, ya wouldn't believe how comfy it—"

"You're alive." Lightning brusquely cut off, trying to recompose herself enough to look Fang in the eye again.

"I am alive," Fang confirmed, keeping that gentle tone.

"How?"

"I don't know. How are you alive?"

"Are you seriously joking?" Lightning's eyes widened in disbelief. "You attacked Cocoon! You caused permanent damage to the atmosphere, rendered acres of land uninhabitable, and displaced thousands! We are still trying to recover from all the destruction you caused! And you still have the gall to make jokes?!"

Fang stared at Lightning with a mystified expression before slightly narrowing her eyes, peering up into the sky at Cocoon before looking back at Lightning. "Did you travel all the way back down here to fuss at me?"

"Wha—No!" Lightning exclaimed, flustered. "I came here to—" Her voice caught in mid-sentence as something slightly familiar caught her eye. She took a step closer, keeping the gun pointed, and squinted a bit at a strange, white marking on Fang's shoulder. Then realization flooded in, accompanied by a creeping feeling that crawled up her spine. She jumped back and lifted the gun higher so that it was aimed at Fang's head. "You're a l'Cie?!"

"Whoa there," Fang's hands flew up apprehensively. "Just calm d—wait. You're not?"

"That's what you did to me on the ledge! You used a spell on me! Wait—Are you working with the fal'Cie?!"

"No, I'm not—"

"Was everything part of your plan the entire time? For us to get you into Eden so you could destroy Cocoon?!"

"You're spiraling."

"I'm so stupid! I should've seen it from the start—"

"LISTEN TO YOURSELF!" Fang finally yelled, causing Lightning to shut up in surprise. Fang paused to give Lightning a chance to settle down before continuing. "Just… listen to yourself. Does that make any sense?" Her face looked as if she was trying hard to reason with Lightning. "Yea, I'm still a l'Cie. After Eden, I came to and my brand was all messed up, but I don't know why. I'm just as confused as you are."

"You've been a l'Cie for four years?" Lightning asked skeptically.

Fang hiked her shoulders in a helpless shrug. "It hasn't progressed since it got messed up." When Lightning's expression still looked doubtful, Fang shook her head and took a cautious step forward. "Do ya really think I'd be working with the fal'Cie? After everything we've been through… after everything we fought for… Do ya really think I'd be capable of that? At seventeen, I wasn't even capable of finding matching socks every morning."

Lightning's finger loosened on the trigger and she felt a reminiscent smile trying to work its way to her lips. Fang did used to come to school looking as if she had just hopped off a freight train, but the look somehow always worked for her. Practically nothing panned out the way Fang wanted it to. Back then, the girl was barely capable of holding a drop of water in a bucket, yet she still was always trying to convince Lightning that all their plans would work out fine… but they didn't. "You've done a lot of things I never thought you'd be capable of."

Fang's face slightly crinkled in disappointment. "Lightning—"

And Lightning's finger was back on the trigger with the gunblade pointed dead between Fang's eyes. That one word had hit her like a truck. Fang never called Lightning by her full nickname. It was either Light or some other play name such as Lightmare or Lightbug. Now she really wanted to call Fang out on her lies and to start getting answers, but still in all, there was only one thought that she could actually manage to into words. "You really don't remember me…"

Fang's head slightly tilted and her expression shifted from disappointed to hurt. "I remember you."

Another hard punch straight to the gut. The woman's voice came out so innocent and so full of conviction that Lightning couldn't help but be caught off guard. "You—"

"Hi, Lightning!" Vanille's voice unmistakably called from Light's right. "Please put down the gun."

Lightning turned her head to catch sight of Vanille standing off to their side. One of her hands was pointed towards Light with a black mist emanating from it. Lightning thought that she knew all of Fang and Vanille's spells, but she had never seen this one before.

"In case you were wondering, I'm still a l'Cie too. And you have no idea what I'm capable of."

"Van…" Fang reached a calming hand out in the redhead's direction, "No."

"I'll put it down when she puts down the gun," Vanille evenly stated.

"Light—"

"No way."

Fang agitatedly looked from one stubborn female to the other. Neither looked like they were going to budge. "Urgh…" She took an exasperated breath, dropped her hands to her sides, and took a step forwards towards Lightning.

"What are you doing?!" Light quickly asked, looking at Fang with wide eyes.

"I know it's crazy for me to want you to put the gun down but I'm gonna ask anyway. We used to fight together, not against each other, and look at the things we accomplished then. Maybe it's a sign that we found each other again when we did. Maybe it's the universe's way of saying we should be fighting this war together." Fang tried to speak as soothingly as possible as she took another step forward, paying close attention to the bewildered look in Light's eyes.

"You pushed me off a cliff."

"They were going to execute you." Fang took another step. "I really need ya to trust me right now. But if not, it's fine. Go ahead and shoot me. I'm not promising that Vanille won't hurt ya afterwards, but I'll agree that I deserve it." She kept moving forward until the gun was nearly poking her in the chest.

Meanwhile, a million thoughts and scenarios were crazily flying through Lightning's head, and she couldn't concentrate on a single one. They had been in this situation before—a couple of times actually. Lightning could remember almost like it was yesterday, the day when Fang told her that they had been turned into l'Cie. Light had been given the choice to trust Fang or tell her father. Then there had been the time when Fang admitted to that she was supposed to turn into Ragnarok and Lightning had once again been faced with the same decision that she was currently faced with now. Her choice then had led to her worst times as l'Cie, but it had also led to some of her best… And what if Snow was right? She did some messed up things in the past… but maybe she was still Fang.

"Snow said the same thing…" Lightning finally sighed, hesitantly lowering her gun. From the corner of her eye, she spied Vanille lowering her hand as well.

"He did, did he?" Fang was giving her a relieved smile.

"He thinks that if the team got back together, that we could stop this war. He obviously doesn't know much about resources and strategy."

"But he's got lots of faith."

"Too much at times…" Lightning shot Fang a suspicious glance. Just that quickly she had dropped her guard and was falling into casual conversation, something she couldn't afford if this was a scheme. "What did you mean by 'you remember me'?"

"Heh…" Fang looked at her feet, that bashful smile once pulling at her lips. "You've been talking to Cid."

That didn't answer the question.

Lightning opened her mouth to ask again but was cut off by a sharp snapping sound that echoed in the near distance.

Both Fang and Vanille's heads snapped in the sound's direction.

"Yeul?"

"No. Heavier."

"A sentry?"

"Mmm, possibly, but I doubt it. My bet's on goblins. It's mating season, isn't it?"

"We can't be here after sundown if that's the case."

Now both Fang and Vanille's heads were back on Lightning. Fang's eyes quickly roved over Lightning's attire before turning back to Vanille, who shook her head. "I dunno if we'll be able to get you into the city unnoticed with that outfit," Fang finally stated, speaking to Lightning.

"I'm not leaving without answers."

Another loud cracking noise sounded, but this one was closer.

"Then ask and move," Fang said, quickly glancing over her shoulder before brushing past Light towards the edge of the field. "Goblins get very aggressive during mating season. We stay around here too long and we'll be fighting off a horny pack of 'em. Your pod landed in Quadrant BC, I'm guessing?"

"Quadrant what?" Lightning asked, keeping her gunblade in hand as she followed Fang and Vanille down the rocky incline that she had climbed up earlier.

"Yes. It's the only reported landing in the area today," Vanille filled in.

"Alright, we'll lead you down to the foothills and from there it's a straight shoot back to where ya came from. Ya might run into a few goonies here and there, but most of the night critters in these parts are aerial. Just keep low and ya should be safe."

"What?" Lightning was having a hard time keeping up. "You know about the pod landings? How—Nevermind." She shook her head. They were moving really fast down the incline, with Fang and Vanille swinging and sliding this way and that as if they made this trip everyday. If she wanted her answers, she had to be wise in picking the right questions before they reached the foothills. "So your memory. How much of it do you have?"

"Ahh, back to this again…" Fang lowly chuckled, never looking behind her as she continued to lead them down the mountainside. "Well if ya must know, there are some things missing."

"What things?"

"Things from four years ago."

"That doesn't tell me anything."

"Why do you need to know so bad?" Fang glanced over to peek back at Lightning for a brief second before turning back to barrel down the incline.

"You said I'd get answers," Lightning firmly replied. "You at least owe me that much."

Lightning could see Fang's shoulder's slightly hike and relax, a gesture of her finally giving in. "Since I'm guessing Cid already told ya the gist of it, I'm mostly missing stuff that dealt with our focus."

"So you don't remember our l'Cie days?"

"I don't remember everything from our l'Cie days," Fang clarified. "Like I don't remember being turned into a l'Cie, but I do remember spending the night in prison afterwards. It's like when ya go out on a bender and wake up the next morning with pieces of everything, but not the whole picture. You remember some stuff, but not everything that connects 'em. Ya know something happened, but not when or even exactly why. It's all kinda jumbled." Fang's voice softened as she once again turned her head to peek back at Lightning. "I remember you."

Lightning couldn't help but feel her cheeks warm a bit at the statement even though n the back of her mind she did wonder how much of her Fang really remembered.

"But what you said about Snow wanting the group to get back together…" Fang continued, immediately switching the subject, "Actually, there is something we could use everyone's help with. We have a bit of a fal'Cie problem."

"A fal'Cie problem?" Lightning huffed as she ducked to dodge a low tree branch. "Along with your war problem?"

"Hehe, the fal'Cie problem could be a solution to the war problem. Have you ever heard of the Great Wish Giver?"

"Seriously?" Lightning asked.

"I'll take that as a no. Legend has it that there's a great fal'Cie who's always admired men because of their potential. Fal'Cie are limited in what they can do. They have magic and almighty power, but they don't have the creativeness or ambition or will that humans have. However, the fal'Cie was always disappointed at how humans never took full advantage of their gifts. They had so much more to offer to world, but still played slave to the constrained fal'CIe. So this great fal'Cie proposed an offer to all humankind, an offer that he hoped would allow men to really see the power they beheld. His offer was if any human could defeat the battle challenges that he set before them, then he would grant the human any wish that was in his power to grant."

"So you're saying there's a belligerent fal'Cie who wants to help humans by making them fight?" Lightning asked skeptically.

"Exactly!"

Lightning could hear the grin on Fang's face.

"After we returned to the planet, the fal'Cie started reappearing as well. We'd like to take a crack at the challenge, but we don't know which fal'Cie is the wish granter of legend, so that means we have to start an elimination game. That's where we could use your help. Who better to help us take on a load of fal'Cie than the original fal'Cie takers?"

It was disturbing to Light just how much Fang sounded like Snow right now.

"And with all the powers that a fal'Cie has, think of the possibilities. We could wish for a way to end this war peacefully. No more lives lost on either side."

"Sounds like a lot of fairytale madness," Lightning finally replied.

"Because of a fal'Cie, I turned into a huge planet-destroying monster with a pronged tail and flaming mane," Fang pointed out. "Fairytale madness is nothing new to me."

"We're here," Vanille announced as the three stumbled onto somewhat level ground.

Lightning took a moment to catch her breath, still gripping the handle of her gunblade for safe measures as the two Oerbans looked around to survey the area.

"Yeah, you should be good for now, but ya might still wanna hurry. I can't assure that the goblins will keep the mating on the mountainside," Fang said, bringing her eyes back to the slightly worn out Light. "But will ya think about the offer? To come back and help us?"

Lightning took one last deep breath before straightening herself out. "Even if a small part of me was crazy enough to believe that story, you're asking for me to find a way to get everyone down here to fight a bunch of fal'Cie?"

"I can get everyone here," Fang confidently replied, the hint of a cocky smirk on her face. "And I remember fighting against you at the amphitheatre. Trust me. You have nothing to worry about." The smirk slightly grew and with it, Lightning's stomach slightly fluttered.

"I'll think about it."

"That's all I ask," Fang smiled, taking a step closer to the still apprehensive Lightning. "Now if you'd like to make it back to the pod landing, you should just follow that star as ya go that way. If you hit a plateau, you've gone too far. And Lightning…"

Fang took hold of Lightning while the woman had been looking off into the direction pointed out to her and pulled her into an embrace. Lightning's body immediately stiffened at the contact, but soon started relaxing into the familiar feel of the Fang's body pressed against hers.

"Thanks for trusting me."

Then the hug was over and Fang was standing a step away from her, leaving Lightning's body somewhat puzzled by the sudden initiation and abrupt loss of contact. "I, uh, yeah," Lightning pieced together as she clumsily backed away.

The two Gran Pulsians watched as Lightning warily sidestepped further and further from them, keeping her eyes on them at all times until they could barely see each other.

"So what was that about?" Vanille playfully asked when Lightning was truly out of sight.

"It was a good-bye hug," Fang answered. "I give them to you all the time."

"You know what I'm talking about," Vanille slid Fang a sideways glance. "You know exactly which fal'Cie that is. And that he's bigger than Pulse, lives in the sky, and won't be awake for another four hundred years."

"Maybe I needed a reason to see the old crew again." Fang offhandedly shrugged, her eyes still on the spot where Lightning had disappeared. "I got a vibe."