Lightning remained attentive as she sat perched on the edge of a rusted walkway in the dim Pulsian cavern. One arm rested against what was left of an almost fully corroded railing as her legs dangled over the side of its grated floor. Her free arm hung at her side with her hand cautiously hovering near her gunblade. Her eyes were fixed on the four bodies that convened a short distance away on the ground below her.

One body in particular kept her interest.

She had been studying Fang from the moment she spotted her and Vanille waiting for them in the foothills. Despite the lecture that she'd given Snow and Hope on their walk to the meet-up point about keeping their guard up, the boys immediately rushed the two Pulsians upon seeing them. Lightning, however, stayed back. Keeping a good distance… and studying Fang.

It seemed so weird how someone could be so familiar yet so foreign at the same time. The many ways that Fang had changed over the years became more and more obvious with each second they spent together. The young woman had always been confident, even in high school, but now there was something that accentuated her self-assurance. That thing was unabashed pride. She spoke in a more resolute tone. Her gaze was searing. Her chin was always held high and the way her body moved in that sari was purely deserving of attention. Her whole being emanated a certain majesty that would've made her a prime bullying target for the Guardian Corps back when she lived on Cocoon. She was captivating to watch, and sometimes Lightning would have to force her eyes away just to give herself a break.

The brunette was currently standing with Snow. Her arms were crossed and her hip was slightly jutting out to the side in that characteristically Fang way. There was a mildly interested look on her face and sometimes she would smile and slightly part her lips to mouth, "Ahhh," when Snow became particularly animated. She didn't seem as invested in Snow's stories as she used to be in high school, but a few years of separation and maturing could do that. Nevertheless, something seemed off. Lightning just couldn't place a finger on what it was.

Then Fang's emerald greens were focused on her and Lightning immediately tensed. As their eyes held, Fang's lips lifted into a soft, half smile. Not thinking—not knowing what to do at all—Light jerked her head away to look elsewhere. She had to. Just that hint of a smile was enough to start melting away her resolve… but her resolve for what?

She shook her head. She was making no sense, and more importantly, she had been off her game since she had arrived on this planet. She hadn't even minded to pay attention to her surroundings, which should've been her main priority considering how sketchy the environment was.

After the initial reunion with Snow and Hope, Fang and Vanille led the way to a cave that happened to be the entrance to a series of underground tunnels. Mah'habara something, they had called it. Wherever they were, it seemed like the perfect place to set a trap. It was a confined, foreign maze where no radio signals could get out in case they needed to call for help. If the two of them were planning to do something fishy—

"Hey."

Lightning slightly jumped and looked down to see Fang now standing below her.

"You look bored," Fang stated, her head tilted all the way back as she looked up at Light. "Thought ya might like someone to talk to."

"Hm," Lightning simply mumbled, fixedly staring over Fang's head.

Fang bit her lower lip as she eyed Lightning up and down, silently trying to suss her out. She noticed the cushion of distance the pinkette had been keeping between them as well as the long stares that were sometimes accompanied by a disdainful nose crinkle or eye roll. She thought she had the soldier pegged when they had been face to face in that field days ago, but now, she wasn't so sure.

"Heh, will ya looka that?" Fang peered over her shoulder to nod her head in the direction of Hope and Vanille. Hope's cheeks were flushed and his mouth was moving a mile a minute, stopping every few seconds when he obviously seemed to stumble over his own words. Vanille just smiled, nodding and giggling along with most of what he said. "Can't believe how much he's grown. He's almost tall as me! But those hormones of his aren't doing him any favors… Boy's in over his head."

Lightning slightly smiled. Fang had practically said the exact same thing years ago about Hope and Vanille when they had been paired up as partners on their Vestige field trip. It had been the day that started the whole l'Cie mess. "Who can blame him?" Light asked in reply. "He's a teenager and she's a pretty girl. What kid can win that fight with their hormones at his age?"

Fang's eyes were locked on Lightning's again and another faint, almost knowing smile was on her face. Once more, Lightning averted her eyes, this time to keep herself from blushing.

"Sooo…" Fang drug out after a short silence, "Ya really feelin' up for this?" It was an obvious subject change.

"To take on a fal'Cie who'll use his powers to magically poof away this war?" Lightning asked, slightly lifting an eyebrow. "Oh, of course."

"I detect a bit of sarcasm there," Fang replied with remnants of that soft smirk still playing at her features. "And I'd like to think of it more as magically kabooming it away. This is war we're talking about. Ya don't 'poof' things away in war."

"Well, 'kabooming' didn't work too well in my favor the last time we faced a fal'Cie together, now did it?"

Fang's eyes guiltily dropped to the ground. "You know…" she began, her voice losing all of the playfulness that it had just held a moment ago, "It isn't all rainbows and roses for me either."

"Of course not," Lightning went along in a soft, chiding tone. "Just costumes and celebrations."

"Yea, guess it would seem that way…" Fang lifted her head back up and ran a hand through her hair. "But losing a focus as a l'Cie is hard to explain. It's not the instant liberation you think it'd be. And it's more than just losing a few memories. It's like losing all—mmm." Fang's eyebrows scrunched up and her face shifted into a somewhat frustrated expression as she tried to rework what she was going to say. "Ya see, when I first woke up on Gran Pulse I was in a dark pla—I mean, I felt—ugh." Now her hand was grasping a handful of hair as she stared at the ground and continued to think of the best way to explain.

Lightning just watched her silently. She knew these mannerisms well. There were many times during their old sparring practices when Fang would try to explain some "amazing" aspect of life on Gran Pulse but would fall short of finding the right words. She'd go through these same motions, and Lightning would calmly watch her with the same feeling of intrigue that was currently bubbling up inside her. It wouldn't be until Fang would look up and catch Lightning staring that she'd pause, grin, then take a breath and finish summarizing whatever else she had left to say.

"It's like I came from this abyss where I existed solely as a big ball of these intense feelings just to suddenly wake up with this emptiness inside me and—"

Just like old times, their eyes caught, but instead of a sheepish grin, Fang just gazed at Light with a cautious stare. It was eerie how quickly she could slip from seeming like her old self to becoming a stranger.

"Well…" the Pulsian finally continued after her brief pause, "I guess what I mean to say is that the costumes can be itchy. So it's not all it's cracked up to be."

"Yeah..." It was the only word that Lightning could think to say at the moment, so to cut down on all the awkwardness she felt, she once again looked away and began to idly twiddle her fingers.

Fang sighed.

"Lightning, I know this whole situation is weird—"

She called her Lightning again.

"—but we were friends before. You and I. And I know it's a tall order for me to ask, but do ya think we can ever get back to that place? Or at least try? If we're gonna be facing a string of fal'Cie, we're gonna have to be at our best, and I can't see that happening if we're on the outs. At least, I can't see it happening for me."

And there she was. Not a wary stranger, but old Fang with that hopeful twinkle in her eyes. It was the same Fang who sat behind her in history class and suffered through Snow's 'Hero Nights' and trained with her every day after school. It was the same Fang she had become friends with before realizing that being friends just wasn't enough.

"I'm not sure—" Lightning began but was cut off by a loud rattling that filled the tunnel. The walkway that Lightning sat on softly began to shake and misty pillars of dust descended from the trembling cavern ceiling.

"Fannngggg!" Sazh Katzroy, an old friend of Fang and Vanille's, came skidding around one of the tunnel's corners. "Fang, he's coming!"

In the blink of an eye, Fang's face had gone from light and hopeful to dead serious. "You heard the man, everybody! It's almost go time! Remember your positions!"

"Yeaahhhh, there's a problem with the positions," Sazh called back, causing Fang to look back at him in disbelief. "The levers in the control room are rusted stiff! I'm gonna need some help working them if we're gonna get the juggernauts operational."

Fang's expression turned tired for a brief moment as she paused to think, but before she could give another order, Hope excitedly exclaimed, "I can help!"

Fang brought her attention to the teen, cutting her eyes at him a little. "The levers in there are heavy enough without the rust. You think you'd be able to handle 'em?"

"I've taken a few wiring and mechanics courses at The Academy," Hope replied. His head twisted back and forth from Fang to Vanille as he talked to make sure that both were listening. "If Pulsian wiring isn't too different, I could figure out a way to hot wire the system. And if that doesn't work, I—I'd be strong enough to help with the levers. I'm not a little kid anymore." He was now looking solely at Vanille, who continued to congenially smile.

"Of course you aren't," Fang said in a warm tone as her eyes shifted from Hope to Vanille. "Go ahead with Sazh. We'll take care of everything down here."

Hope's face broke into an antsy smile, which he flashed at Vanille one last time before taking off into a jog after Sazh.

"And kid!" Fang called one last time, nearly stopping the teenager in his tracks. "It's GRAN Pulsian."

"Oh! Right." Hope nodded once before once again breaking into a quick jog and disappearing after Sazh around the tunnel corner.

"So now Hope's in the command center. Big guy, d'you think you'll be fine by yourself?"

"Pshh. Of course," Snow responded as he climbed up one of the rocky cavern walls, pulling himself upwards until he could reach out and grab the railing of one of the upper level walkways. "I got this."

"Great. And you," Fang turned back to eye Lightning up and down. "You remember the plan?"

"Keep it contained until the juggernauts show."

"Atta girl," Fang smirked. Familiar old Fang. "Just remember the timing has to be spot on. If he senses something's up, he'll switch directions. And keep an eye on that juggernaut over there for me, will ya?" She tilted her head in Snow's direction. He was vigorously jiggling the walkway railing to check its sturdiness, not at all worried that if it collapsed, it would do so with him standing on it. "He's making me nervous."

"Juggernaut," Lightning lightly huffed. "Such a coincidence, right? With that being his 'super name'? It'll be just like our old superhero nights. Juggernaut, Sharp Tooth, and The Pink Wonder together again."

"Indeed," Fang replied with a soft smile. "Just keep in mind, we're not dealing with a pickpocket here. It's a fal'Cie. So don't let your guard down, Pink Wonder."

And she wouldn't. Her eyes grew stern as she watched Fang walk across the trembling cavern floor to meet Vanille. As ridiculous as superhero night was, they had never called themselves Juggernaut, Sharp Tooth, or The Pink Wonder. Their 'hero names' were far more idiotic. Once again, Fang had become a stranger. Just this time, she was a stranger pretending to be someone else.

"So what is the plan again?" Vanille stood with her arms crossed and her head tilted to one side as Fang approached her.

"Just your usual case of wrangling the Atomos," Fang shrugged, placing her hands on top of Vanille's shoulders and leaning forward to make it seem as if they were in deep conversation. "It's been reported that he dug through one of those huge ore deposits earlier, so he might already be tired. That should make it easier on us."

"He's not gonna like this…"

"Oh, don't worry about him," Fang dismissed. "He rolls around in the dirt by himself all day. He should be happy for some company. And speaking of extra company, it seems like Hope's gotten attached to you pretty quickly."

"Yeah…" Vanille lightly smiled and embarrassedly rubbed the side of her arm. "It's pretty cute, actually. He's been following me around like a little gorgonopsid pup."

"Well, if he insists on following ya around like a puppy…" Fang said, lowering her voice as she slid her arms away from Vanille's shoulders, "…then maybe you should throw him a bone."

Vanille looked up at Fang uncomprehendingly. "It's Hope."

"And he's eager to show off," Fang replied matter-of-factly. "Let's give him a chance."

The tunnels rumbled more violently as Fang left Vanille to climb atop a rocky ledge nearer to Lightning's platform. Vanille did the same thing by the wall where she previously stood, crouching into a small nook in the wall as she stared off down one of the tunnels.

Lightning paced up and down on her platform, her muscles feeling tighter than they ever had before. Why was she even here? The last time she faced a fal'Cie, she lost everything, and that was when she had l'Cie powers of her own… and a team she wholeheartedly trusted.

Her eyes drifted to where Fang clung to the wall, staring down the tunnel with a look of pure anticipation on her face. Lightning would be lying if she said it was a look she didn't miss. Some things never did change. Maybe the lying was partly Fang trying too hard to get on her good side because she genuinely did want them to become friends again.

The ground shook even harder, almost causing Light to lose her footing, and a loud rumbling filled her ears. Whatever they were waiting for was closing in on them. Fang lifted a hand to the air, using her other hand to tightly hold on to a jagged rock sticking out of the wall. "Readddyyyy!" she growled loud enough so that everyone could hear her over the noise.

Lightning pulled her gunblade from its holster and aimed it towards a rusted beam that was keeping one of the more corroded-looking walkways lifted.

WHHRROOOOSSSSSHHHHHHHH!

"NOW!"

Lightning's finger pressed on the trigger just as the grating below her feet violently jerked. "Ahh!" she gasped as she momentarily went airborne before her body crashed down onto the rickety walkway. The gunshot still rang in her ears, but she knew it was off the mark the moment her finger slammed down on the trigger. Somewhere else in the room she could hear the sound of metal crashing—Snow must've succeeded in tearing his walkway down—followed by the loud shriek of metal being ripped into. Planting both hands onto the grating, Lightning pushed herself up and froze as her eyes caught sight of their fal'Cie adversary.

It looked nothing like she had expected. There was no hulking being with multiple sadistic faces or long, spindly fingers snapping with currents of dark energy. Instead there was a huge spiked boulder that was tearing through the scaffold that Snow had dropped before it, running up it like a ramp while its spikes slit through the metal like paper and its huge width carved through the rocky walls at its side.

"Where are the juggernauts?!" Lightning could hear Fang's coarse yell over the sound of the live-wrecking ball that they were trying to corral. "We can't sabotage it until we can stop it! Lightning!"

Light frantically looked around. There was so much noise, it was hard to tell where Fang's voice was coming from.

"LIGHTNING!"

Then she spotted her a few feet ahead of her on the cavern floor. Her face was sweaty and her arms were smudged with dirt. Lightning hadn't noticed before, but the cavern looked entirely different now. It was littered with huge rocks and boulders, and thick clouds of dust filled the air, making nearly every breath she took itch her throat. The fal'Cie must've caused some sort of cave-in when it burst into their tunnel.

"He's coming back around! We need the other ramp!"

Lightning nodded and turned back to the rusted beam that she should've shot down the first time. There was no way she was going to miss it now. She lifted the gunblade and held down on the trigger, spraying bullets at the old beam until it snapped and the walkway came crashing down. "Got it!"

"Good job, Lightcycle!"

Lightning's spine stiffened and she whipped around to Fang, who had already turned away to shout a new command at Snow.

"What did you call me?!" Lightning couldn't stop herself from yelling.

"Huh?!" Fang turned around, confusion written over her face. "I—sorry! What are you getting at—"

"FANG, WATCH OUT!" Snow's voice rang across the tunnel.

Light's eyes flicked up and widened as the fal'Cie took a sudden sharp turn, crashing through the railing of the walkway instead of continuing on its path and dropping to the cavern floor, rolling right towards—

"FANG!" The scream escaped her mouth right before the huge mass of fal'Cie collided into the Pulsian warrior, its speed never faltering as it continued to barrel through the entrance of a different tunnel.

Not thinking, barely breathing, Lightning bounded over the railing of her walkway, landing on the cavern floor in a crouch. Vanille came zipping out of the cloud of dust that had settled over their section of the tunnel, running past Lightning and straight into the thicker column of dust ahead where the fal'Cie and Fang had disappeared. Not wasting any time, Lightning sprinted after her, coughing as she took in deep inhales of the thick, dirty air.

"Wait!" Lightning choked out, finally deciding to cover the bottom part of her face with the crook of her elbow. Her eyes burned and she could barely see anything through the dust, but she could still somewhat make out Vanille's silhouette ahead of her. "VANILLE!"

"Lightning?!"

Light felt a hand tightly grip her free wrist and pull her forward until her body was pressed against someone else's—undeniably Vanille's.

"Hold onto me!" Vanille instructed in her ear.

"Where'd they—"

"He's gonna keep digging!" Vanille interrupted. "If he reaches a wall and decides to tunnel through it, he WILL impale her and rip her in half! Just hold on!"

Not knowing what else to do, Lightning wrapped her arms around Vanille and held on tight. Over the sound of the fal'Cie's rumbling further down the tunnel, Lightning could make out the sharp whistling of wind. Then she could feel it all around her, slashing at her back and sides. Her clothes whipped back and forth and gusts pushed at her and Vanille's body from all directions.

Then with a loud 'WHOOSH', it all stopped.

Lightning opened her eyes when she felt Vanille's arms disappear from around her. She was amazed to see that the dusty tunnel that they had just been standing in was now clear as day, with nothing but a powdery, dirty mist clinging to the walls as proof that there had even been a dirt cloud there in the first place. Vanille had been quite talented with her spells back in the day, but this… Lightning couldn't imagine the amount of power and control it took to accomplish this.

"Arrgghhhh!" A strained voice shouted from further down the cavern, accompanied by a loud, clanging noise.

"FANG?!" And Vanille was off again, with Lightning close at her heels.

"RAHHH!"

SCREEEECCCKKKK!

The tunnel shook, causing dust to plume from the walls and ceilings as the two women continued running towards the commotion. Dust once again began to fill the air as the two women swiftly moved forward, but the dusky shroud wasn't enough to block their vision of the immense struggle that was taking place right ahead of them in the tunnel.

Vanille skidded to a halt as Lightning slowed to stop beside her.

More clanking sounds echoed off the walls as a massive group of robots stood, huddled together, around the huge boulder of a fal'Cie. Their metallic arms were outstretched, almost touching each other, as they seemingly held the fal'Cie in place. Standing on top of the round, bulking being was none other than Fang. One arm was tightly clinging to one of the fal'Cie's glowing spikes as her free hand pressed down upon the fal'Cie's dome, pouring a string of sabateur spells into it, no doubt.

"How could she…" Lightning began to ask as she stared at the woman in the wonder. There was no logical way that Fang could've survived being hit at that speed by something that big. And for her to be able to climb on the top of it like that, even with the help of juggernauts, was astounding.

SKREEEETTTT!

Bright orange sparks sprayed across the tunnel as the fal'Cie suddenly began spinning again—a last attempt effort to break free of the hold. The juggernauts held strong, but there was a loud yelp that broke over the sound of the fal'Cie's body scraping against the metal. Still holding onto the fal'Cie's spike for support, Fang disappeared as soon as the demi-god began to rotate, getting lost somewhere between the fal'Cie's body and that of the juggernaut for a brief moment before being forcefully thrown out of the mix to roughly skid and tumble across the jagged cavern floor.

"Oh gods… Fang!"

"Fang!"

Lightning's legs took on a mind of their own as they raced towards the crumpled body that lay on the ground not too far ahead of her. She slid into a kneeling position beside the Pulsian l'Cie and rolled the woman over by her shoulder so that she was lying flat.

Fang burst into a coughing fit the moment her back hit the ground. Whether the coughing was from dust or blood, Lightning couldn't be sure, but she was determined to find out. Her hands roamed over Fang's body, fanning out across her abdomen and sliding under her sari to check the skin underneath for wounds.

"Lightning?" It came out as a weak, questioning rasp as Fang's coughing subsided and she was finally able to focus on the soldier kneeling above her.

"Have you been cut anywhere? Any sharp aches or pains? Did the spikes catch you anywhere?"

"Lightning." This time, Fang reached down to take hold of one of Lightning's hands, which were now running up and down sides, but the gesture was almost immediately slapped away by the pinkette, who continued on her search.

"What about numbness? Can you feel all of your limbs? You would've had to have been pinched between metal and that thing… Does it feel like you broke a bone?!"

"Lightning, I'm—"

"Blood. I'm not finding any blood—are you feeling lightheaded at all?" Lightning froze. During that last question, one of her hands had reached up to cradle Fang's cheek while her other hand rested languidly over the woman's bellybutton. In that moment, it became blaringly apparent to her that this was the first time she had touched Fang in over four years. Yes, there had been that quick hug in the foothills during her last visit, but it wasn't the same as this… as actually feeling Fang's warm skin pressed beneath her palms or even seeing the contrasting tones of her pale hands against Fang's bronzed flesh… Idly, the hand at Fang's cheek stroked upwards until it was tenderly tucking a lock of dark hair behind the woman's ear.

"Lightning…"

Light was snapped out of whatever trance of familiarity that she had been sucked into by Fang's voice. Her eyes immediately sought out Fang's and it was then that she noticed the expression on the other woman's face—an equal mix of worry and alarm.

"Lightning, I'm fine." Fang's eyes never wavered, but neither did they stop gaping at her as if she were a crazed woman. "And you… Are you okay?"

Lightning's stomach turned.

No. She wasn't okay.

"Hey, there you guys are!" Snow's voice bounced off the cavern walls and Lightning for once was relieved by the brute's timing as it gave her a decent excuse to turn her head away from the perplexed eyes of Fang. "With all the dust floating around, I think I made a wrong turn—whoa." Snow stopped in his tracks to stare wide-eyed at Lightning and Fang on the ground together. He looked as if he were fighting for a way to explain the intimate contact to himself until his mind just decided the easiest answer. "Fang, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just—"

"Guys, we got the juggernauts working!"

Now it was Hope who came rushing through the tunnel's entrance. At first, his eyes were only locked on Vanille, but when he noticed the sober, borderline sympathetic expression on the redhead's face, he followed her vision to the two other women in the area. "Light… And Fang… Fang! Are you hurt? You." Hope spun around to glare at Snow with a clenched jaw. "You did something, didn't you? What did you mess up this time?"

"Me?" Snow asked, taken aback. "I just got here!"

"Is that the excuse this time? Just like—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" In one swift movement, Fang had slid away from Lightning's touch and had bounded to her feet. "Nobody messed anything up. We caught him, see?" She tilted her head backwards in the direction of the tired fal'Cie, who had finally given up on grinding against the hoard of juggernauts pushed against it. "And I'm fine… ughh..."

Fang took a step forward to prove her health, but uneasily stumbled to the side. Luckily, Vanille swooped in to catch her before she fell, and the younger Oerban's hands immediately lit up with a green light as they wrapped around her older best friend.

Fang's face loosened into a lazy half smile as her body was covered in the green aura. Lightning only watched for a second before taking the chance to slip away into the entrance of an adjacent tunnel, ambling down the dim path until the voices of everyone else just sounded like muffled, high-pitched echoes.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, lifting one of her arms to lean against the rocky wall before resting her forehead against it. She wasn't sure long she stayed like that, just decompressing, before she heard the quick patter of footsteps approaching.

"Light, you missed it."

Hope.

Lightning let out somewhat of a relieved sigh as she finally lifted her head and turned to greet the teen. "Missed what?"

"Well, Fang and Vanille did some sort of fal'Cie whisperer thing back there to find out if this was the fal'Cie we were looking for."

"And?"

"It wasn't." Hope didn't look the least bit perturbed by the news that they had spent all that time and effort for nothing. "But we did find out his name is Atomos, so that's pretty cool."

"Yeah. Sure." Lightning took another steadying breath before finally straightening herself out to stand upright.

"But Fang says she has an idea who it might actually be. Atomos was first on the list, but since he was a bust, she's sure it's got to be this next one. We're not going to have time to go after it now, but she says for next time—"

"Hope, about that," Lightning cut in dejectedly. She could tell how excited he was about the idea of being able to come back, especially with the way he had been laying it on Vanille, but there was no way she could just let him continue on like this with a clear conscious, "There won't be a next time."

Hope's face dropped.

"More clearly, there won't be a next time for me. You and Snow can keep coming through Cid's PR scheme if you'd like, but I won't be taking on any more missions here. I'm sorry."

"Me and Snow?" Hope echoed with a betrayed look on his face. "But… but why? Is it because of what happened back there between you and Fang?"

Lightning kept forgetting how well Hope could read her.

"I know she acts kind of different and her memory is kind of jumbled, but it's nothing you guys can't work past. You're still friends, right?"

Lightning dryly smiled at the boy. Yes, Fang was acting different and yes, her memory was jumbled, but there was one realization that became blaringly clear to Lightning as she had knelt down to hold the Pulsian woman's face in her hands…

She could not be Fang's friend.