Cloudy with a Chance of Confusion

"So do you remember me at all?" Vanille asked Dajh as the both of them walked down one of the many small, almost-hidden paths through the forest surrounding the Oerba Neo. They'd only been walking for a few minutes yet it already seemed as if they were lost, far from the village.

"A little," Dajh answered, following Vanille, observing her with interest, "My dad would talk about you a lot. I know you helped him a great deal back before..." He trailed off, not sure whether she felt like talking about the oncoming topic—whether he felt like talking about it.

"I see." Was all Vanille eventually said before they fell back into silence. It wasn't necessarily an uncomfortable silence. But Dajh could practically hear the words that remained unsaid. It may only have been a little, but what he remembered of Vanille, he remembered clearly. Just as curious as he was now, at nine years old Dajh often let his curiosity get the better of him—a habit he'd slowly trained himself to forget.

He remembered the power plant at Euride Gorge, the excitement of seeing a real fal'Cie—a god—with his own eyes. Young and impulsive he'd wandered from his father's side to seek out Kujata himself. The irony of it was, he never did find it. Branded by the supernatural being yes, but see it? No. What he did see were two strangers in funny outfits. With the expected attention span of a nine-year-old, Dajh was now focused on the two women overlooking the gorge. Moments later—for reasons other than his young age—Dajh's focus was once again changed, that time not by choice.

"Va-"

"Now remember, we're looking for a flower with red petals a blue stalk." Vanille instructed, cutting him off before he could begin, "If it's the other way around well... let's just say a high fever and endless dizziness will be the least of Alva's problems."

"And how do you know this flower will work?"

"I don't." Came the blunt, almost immediate response, "Not for sure anyway, but all I can do right now is try all I can to help Alva." Dajh pushed aside a few small branches to survey the area around a fallen log for the flowers the young woman was looking for, "Long before we'd ever gone to Cocoon, I was always with Fang," Vanille began to reminisce aloud, "She was always the strong one, always the getting into fights or other kinds of trouble, always scratching herself up." Dajh found it easy to understand. One glance at the two Oerbans and anyone could have probably figured that much, "I'd always be ready to patch her up. I was never the fighter, so I learned to support Fang in a different way."

Dajh, unable to locate the needed flower, turned from the log and found Vanille holding a few up in her hand. Her other hand motioned to a hole in the side of a particularly large tree trunk. Peering into it, Dajh noticed an entire blooming patch of red-petaled, blue-stemmed flowers.

"And who doesn't like flowers?" Vanille grinned, placing the ones she'd picked into her pouch. Dajh felt a smile cross his lips. He always thought his father's description of the peculiar Gran Pulsian had been odd and inconsistent but observing Vanille in person, it was certainly starting to make sense.

"Well, unless they're twice your size and trying to kill you." As Vanille laughed, Dajh also made note of how true his father's words were when he's said her smile was infectious. Almost irritatingly so—but not quite.

"You're Sazh's son, alright." The smile on Dajh's face faded almost instantly at the comparison. It didn't escape Vanille's notice, "You've even got that weird shifting-his-weight thing he does when he's uncomfortable." She giggled as the boy immediately attempted to force his body to remain still. Eventually he gave up and brushed past her, clearing his throat.

"So what's next on the list?" He motioned toward the surrounding foliage, "Magic mushrooms?"

"He also tended to change subjects when he was nervous." Vanille commented, still smiling.

"Lots of people do that, it's been scientifically proven." Dajh pointed out, wagging a finger, "Unfortunately that's not something unique to the Katzroy family."

"And the excessive deflecting using witty remarks?" Vanille raised an eyebrow in response. Dajh opened his mouth to retort but caught himself, realizing the little saboteur had almost caught him in her clever verbal trap. Once again he found himself recalling more of what his father had mentioned about Vanille—in this instance, her deviously deceptive innocence.

"My dad's a great man." Dajh placed a hand on a nearby tree, picking at the bark slightly, "I'm nothing like him."

"Of course you aren't." Vanille's voice felt like a stab in the middle of his back, "You're you. Sazh is Sazh. Just because you aren't your father, doesn't mean you aren't a great man... boy... person." Dajh's jaw tightened as he returned his gaze to the young woman.

"You don't understand."

"So help me understand." Vanille could read the trouble in Dajh's eyes. She couldn't let it go. This was Sazh's son. And Sazh was like family to her—which meant Dajh was too.

"It's not that easy to explain-"

"Try." Vanille encouraged.

"Why are you pushing this?" Dajh shot back hotly. Vanille resisted the urge to step back.

"I just... I know what it's like to keep something inside, not talking to anyone about it." She revealed, hoping to make him understand it was only her intention to try and help him, not upset him, "Sometimes it helps to tell someone-"

"What and I should tell you?" Dajh snapped, "I should trust you with my deep, dark secrets? You may have saved Cocoon but you were part of the reason my father nearly broke back then." The young Katzroy knew somewhere in the back of his mind that he'd regret his words but he could no longer stop from saying them, "If you hadn't... If you and Fang weren't there that day when..." He looked away from Vanille, seeing the flash of guilt on her face, "Working for the Sanctum, not strong enough to resist... to put my dad through that." Sighing heavily, attempting to calm himself again, Dajh looked skyward, "I kept trying to be stronger but he always had to protect me. I couldn't take care of myself let alone..." He trailed off, his eyes falling back towards the ground, "Nebu..."

"So this is about being brave enough?" Vanille continued to try to understand, "About being 'man' enough-?"

"Don't patronize me." This time Vanille did step back, seeing the flash of anger in his dark eyes, "You think that just because you know my father, you know me?" Vanille opened her mouth to apologize but Dajh had already turned away, shaking his head.

The Oerban swallowed a lump in her throat. For as much as he argued against it, there was no doubt in Vanille's mind he was more like Sazh than he claimed. For in that brief flare-up, she was instantly taken back to that day in Nautilus. While she was in a lush, green forest glittering with natural glow rather than a heated city full of synthetic light; while she didn't have the firearm in her face; all she saw in Dajh's moment of outburst was Sazh's mixed expression of fury, fear and the subtle allusion of guilt.

"Look let's just... pick the flowers and go home." Dajh all but pleaded as he continued along the path ahead of them. Vanille merely nodded and started after him.

"I wonder how Fang's doing." She decided to take the liberty of being the topic-changer, "Or Light and Hope for that matter."

"I'm sure they'll be fine." Dajh answered distantly.

Elsewhere, around the same time, the shuttle with the aforementioned group on board was diving headfirst towards a rather perilous-looking mountain ridge.

"We are NOT going to be fine!"

"I'm sorry but you are not helping!"

"I'M sorry, do you not see the bloody ground rushing up to meet us!"

"I'm sorry but would you both kindly shut up!" Hope yelled over his shoulder at the two women screaming at each other. Both of them stared at the First Lieutenant and current pilot like two deers caught in headlights—or rather two deers on a shuttle about to crash into the ground. Either way, the both of them remained silent, "Thank you."

Turning back towards the controls, Hope managed to straighten the aircraft out but the engines were still failing and they were still falling. They were on the edge of the storm and as soon as they'd passed through one of the cloud walls, the systems on board the shuttle had begun to go haywire. It wasn't long before they'd started the unintended super-accelerated descent.

"Both of you, brace yourself!" He yelled again, flipping some last-minute controls, "It's going to get a little rough."

"Would that be before or after we smash into the ground?"

"Oh Fang would you please just shut u-!"

There was a deafening crack followed by an ear-shattering screech of metal on rock as the shuttle made contact with the mountainside. The three on board were violently thrown from their seats as the craft tumbled onto it's side, the momentum rolling it over and over before it hit a particularly large rock, flipping it one last time, back upright. The broken landing gear hit an upward slope, effectively slowing the shuttle to where it eventually skid to a stop against the rocky ridge.

Save the settling dust cloud that trailed behind the damaged vessel, there was no other movement. The lights within the craft flickered along with a few sparking wires that'd been torn loose. For a long while the scene remained unchanged until one of the doors flew open to reveal a disheveled Lightning and limping Fang half carrying and half dragging out a semi-conscious Hope. The three of them eventually collapsed a good dozen feet from the crash site.

"Well, that went well, all things considered." Fang spoke up, breaking the silence. Lightning shot her a look while she helped Hope sit up. The First Lieutenant groaned but seemed free of any life-threatening injuries.

"Did we-?"

"It's okay, we're all okay." Lightning assured Hope, noticing a cut along his forehead and a particularly long gash along her own arm, "We'll be fine—Fang could you see if you can find the shuttle's first aid kit?" Receiving no response—in either words nor movement, she turned to the Oerban, frustration sinking in, "Fang-" She stopped when she realized what had rendered Fang unable to either reply or move.

Not 10 feet away was a giant wall of cloud, shimmering and shifting. Blurry shadows could be seen behind the murky barrier every time there was a flash of one could only assume was lightning, each time the shadows were different. They were moving. No, not just the shadows. The clouds were moving. Towards them.

"I... think we should-"

"Fang, we have to move!"

"Right, that." The Oerban turned as Lightning swung Hope's arm over her shoulders and began to lift him off the ground. Fang joined her and the both of them began heading back toward the shuttle, hoping it would at least provide some form of resistance against whatever the storm wall would bring.

But they weren't fast enough. The cloud hit them just as they reached the crashed craft. And it hit them like a wall of stone, knocking them all off their feet and blotting out what little sunlight there was.

I'm scared.

"Hope?" Fang called into the darkness that surrounded her.

You're not gonna go through this ordeal alone, you know.

"Light?" The Oerban lifted her hand to her face but there was nothing. It was totally darkness. And she was completely confused, "Hope? Lightning?" She repeated. There was a cold burst of air that hit her, causing her to reflexively raise her arms to her head and shut her eyes. When she opened them again, this time she could make out faint shapes, indistinct shadows.

But that's what scares me! I don't... I don't wanna see you get hurt because of me.

"Hope? Hope is that you?" Fang began to walk towards the dim light, squinting, attempting to make out the moving shadows. From what she could tell, she was inside one of the storm cloud walls.

It would be better for everyone if I just stayed behind.

Before Fang could call out again, the light suddenly flared, and another stronger blast of air sent Fang stumbling backwards. The dark cloud around her seemed to be blown away, her vision blurred again as her eyes began to adjust to the much brighter area. As her eyes slowly began to focus, she felt the ground shake beneath her feet as something huge, something towering landed in front of her.

Mention ordeals, and look what comes along...

Fang stopped breathing for a moment as she heard the words—the voice. She blinked through the whirling dust in the air and tried to find the source of the voices. When she did, her eyes widened as she ignored the irritation behind them. She was so wrapped up in disbelief, the next few sounds she heard came in faint and blurred. She didn't really hear them, she was too busy trying to process what she was seeing.

"Alexander...?" She breathed. The Hulking Eidolon stood in all his majestic glory, clenching and relaxing his massive fists, preparing to do battle. But what was more bizarre was standing in front of the Eidolon, between him and Fang were Hope, Lightning and- "Me...?" Fang stared at herself. Herself in her sari. Lightning was in her Guardian Corps uniform and Hope... Hope was a kid, "What-?"

"Ready?" Her doppelganger looked over at Lightning.

"Ready." The pinkette replied.

"Hang on a minute-!" Before Fang could take another step towards them, Alexander began his attack. Fang again shielded her head with her arms as the three figures in front of her engaged the Eidolon. In her confusion she couldn't make out a lot of the battle. But what she did, it was more like she was remembering it. Watching it play in the back of her mind. She'd done it before with many other memories but this was... something else. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, her doppelganger landed two feet from her, skidding from being thrown by the giant guardian beast. Fang remembered that landing clearly, it'd been just before-

"No, wait!" She attempted to stop her other self but she was already charging at the beast. She jumped at him but hadn't noticed he had already pulled back an arm. Fang could almost feel the sickening crack of bones that she heard break as her doppelganger got swatted aside. As she saw her other self hit the wall of the canyon she shut her eyes, and looked away. As soon as she did so, the area fell silent. No more yells of a frantic Hope, no more sharp sounds of Lightning's gunblade against Alexander's armor.

Slowly opening her eyes again, Fang found herself staring at the crash shuttle, lights still flickering, cables still sparking. To her left, Hope was leaning against the aircraft with an expression of total bewilderment. A little to Hope's right, Lightning was on one knee, on the ground, hand on her gunblade. As she met Fang's gaze, the look in the cerulean orb sent an unnerving shiver down her spine. The Commander looked as if she'd seen a ghost. There was no longer any doubt in Fang's mind that the other two had seen what she had—felt what she had.

"What. In the hell. Was that?" Hope eventually spoke the words all three of them were thinking.

A/N:

I'm with Hope.
What WAS that?

I don't know. I bet Alexander does.
Because Alexander is king.

This chapter was originally longer but... my editor-llamas decided the last part would be better as the beginning of the next chapter.
"MORE IMPACT!" they said. Yes, I talk to llamas.