Familiar Similarities

Lightning almost broke at least three doors and almost knocked over at least seven people as she practically charged through the administration building where she had heard she could find a certain First-Lieutenant. Finally bursting into a smaller office, she caught sight of the tall, light-haired man discussing something with two other officers.

"First-Lieutenant Estheim." She announced curtly, interrupting the conversation, "A word, if you please." Before a response could be given, she turned and headed back out of the room. As she stepped into the hall, she barely heard a rushed apology followed by a string of equally rushed footsteps heading in her direction.

"L-Light? What's going on?" Hope asked and he followed the rushing pinkette out of the building out into a large courtyard, "You seem-"

"I just got finished reviewing my first training session today." Lightning recited, stopping abruptly and spinning on her heel. The First-Lieutenant barely managed to step back, out of a head-on collision.

"I see..." He said after a moment of silence, still slightly confused.

"Funny, I don't recall anything being said about a training assistant." She raised an eyebrow when the look of realization crossed Hope's face. She folded her arms, waiting for his response. He looked thoughtful for a moment before rubbing the back of his neck, something she noticed he (still) did when he was nervous.

"I didn't?" Lightning frowned. Sure she'd been distracted the day and night before, but it couldn't have been enough for her to overlook something like this. It had been 10 years; the entire military had changed but she still worked better on her ownr— both Amodar and Hope knew this. Having been assigned an assistant was not something she would have accepted, let alone missed. She studied Hope's face, though she didn't really need to. She knew he was a terrible liar—besides he wouldn't lie to her.

"When you arrived, on the way to see Amodar?" He explained, "I think were were walking along the overhead bridge above the training ground...?" Lightning thought back. She remembered. They were talking about Dajh but she couldn't recall the actual conversation. She had been distracted by something- Her eyes widened, "...figured Amodar might not have wanted to bring it up since he knows best that you prefer to work alo-"

"Lance-Corporal Evangeline DeFluo." Lightning recited, interrupting Hope again.

"Lance-Corporal..." He trailed off, once again confused, "The name doesn't sound familiar."

"No? How about the face." Lightning asked, handing him a datapad. He'd barely taken it from her when he caught a glimpse of the image of the lower-ranked officer in question. Observing his undoubtibly shocked reaction, the pinkette's shoulders slumped as she let out a small sigh, "Light... Light this is-"

"I know."

"She looks like-"

"I know." Lightning interrupted yet again, more forcibly. She'd repeated the same thing to herself too many times to be able to handle Hope say it again. Hope picked up on this and decided not to push in that direction.

"So who is she?"

"She's been with CRYSIS for a little over three years," Lightning answered, having thoroughly read anything and everything she could find on DeFluo, "Quickly raised to the rank of Lance-Corporal within two but hasn't taken any of the tests to achieve a higher rank. She's been transferred around a lot, I haven't been able to find out a particular reason thought it may have something to do with her impressive combat skills."

"She's talented?" Hope questioned.

"I don't know about talented, but judging from her performance this afternoon, she knows how to handle herself."

"You... put her through training?" Lightning turned to see Hope with a raised eyebrow, "Your assistant?"

"I didn't know anything about this person! And she's assigned to help me train recruits?" Lightning defended a little too hastily, "I had to know what I was working with." Hope raised a hand in defeat, smiling sheepishly. The Sergeant-Major turned away, sighing.

"It says she's an orphan." Hope read off the datapad in an attempted to steer the conversation back on track.

"She was orphaned after the Cocoon incident and was raised in an orphanage just outside the Market District." Lightning clarified, taking the datapad from Hope, "Which means any information concerning her history prior to 10 years ago is lost or destroyed."

"For her to have been here for three years and to not have once have crossed paths with either of us..." Hope wondered aloud, "I guess since we've been to and from headquarters a lot more, recently..."

"She doesn't live in at HQ," Lightning continued to explain, "She lives in an apartment complex in the neighboring district."

"That's unusual, for her not to be living in the dorms—for a Lance-Corporal anyway," Hope commented, "It's mostly the higher ranks that choose to live outside of the CRYSIS district."

"It could be because of her sister, she lives with her." Lightning added.

"She has a sister?"

"Younger, early teens. I hadn't gotten around to looking into her," Lightning closed the datapad display, "It looked like her records had even more holes in it." Sighing once more, the pinkette noticed Hope rubbing his neck again. She gave him a questioning look.

"The younger sister... she didn't happen to have orange hair... did she?" Lightning nearly dropped the datapad, "In pig-tails?"

"Huh-?

"Bright green eyes?"

"Wha-?"

"Cheeky grin?" Hope added before receiving a punch in the arm. He gave a nervous but playful chuckle, rubbing the limb gently.

"Don't even joke about that, Hope," The Sergeant-Major warned, putting a hand to her forehead, "I've had enough of that to last a lifetime." She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay look, I can understand why you'd want to pursue this," Hope said gently, "I won't try to stop you, and if I can help in any way you know I will but I don't think you should totally rule out coincidence." There was a long moment of silence before he let go of her shoulder, "Can we talk more in the morning, I've got to get back to a briefing." He waited until Lightning gave him a small nod before turning and heading back towards the building entrance.

Lightning understood Hope's advice, and it wasn't like she'd already ruled out coincidence. It was logically sound and entirely possible. But a feeling in her gut told her otherwise. Many things had happened in the last decade—things both good and bad. And yes, a few of those things may have reminded her of the incident on Cocoon; what happened there; what happened to them. But nothing compared to this.

She hadn't just seen a ghost—she knew what it was like to be haunted by the past—this was undeniably different. It was like memories come to life. The physical resemblance was much too close for comfort. Though a deep red in direct sunlight, DeFluo hair was dark and unruly, 'Just like hers.' What Lightning could see of the Lance-Corporal's tanned body under the uniform was deeply defined and toned yet still managed to look soft—delicate even—'Just like hers.' She did not share the accent but something about the way DeFluo spoke struck somewhere deep in the pinkette. Her voice was smooth, subtly confident, 'Just like hers.'

After training she'd re-watched the recordings of the group doing strength assessments in the afternoon. She'd had each of them knock down as many training dummies as possible in a set amount of time. DeFluo had been the only one to knock down anywhere near the complete set of dummies. The Lance-Corporal displayed impressive power—even if one took into consideration the rank and experience she held over the recruits. However, what surprised Lightning the most was her familiarity with said power. She'd recognized it, seen it before, 'It's just like hers...'

"Fang."

A/N:

*GASP*!
Angreh Lightning is angreh!