Roads Less Traveled Part I

"So once we reach the Steppe, we'll head toward the mountain side here and take the path up the ridge that should be here. Hopefully we can make it to the top where there should be a decent view overlooking the Faultwarrens."

"That sounded like a lot of 'if's and 'maybe's."

"Well it's better than 'can't's and 'won't's."

Lightning, Fang, Hope and Snow were gathered around the the pinkette's kitchen counter—on top of which lay a device generating a holographic map of the area that lay under the storm. It displayed data on the land before the storm so they could only assume it remained unchanged—as unlikely as it seemed.

"okay, so we get there, then what?" Fang asked the obvious question.

"We gather data using the equipment kept here in the village." Hope explained, "Sazh is bringing it over." He looked as if he had more to say but hesitated, shooting a glance at Lightning. The pinkette caught his eyes and sighed.

"Then a smaller group will scout into storm," The Commander continued what Hope seemed to disagree with, "See if it's safe enough to continue deeper in—maybe even to Titan's throne."

"Okay, there actually were a couple of 'if's and 'maybe's in that one." To both Hope and Snow's surprise, Lightning did not react to Fang's snark with her usual hostile glare. Instead the soldier merely sighed and walked away, out of the open doorway to the truck parked just outside.

"Thank you Fang, you're never ending wit and satire is always the best way to start the day." Hope raised an eyebrow at the Oerban, intrigued by the strange behavior between the two—well, more Lightning's than Fang's but he decided investigating the latter would be less dangerous.

"Lightning's in particular." Snow added. Fang gave a little shrug as her lips formed a sly grin.

"Of course! What else would you have brought me back for?"

"Technically speaking, it wasn't either of us." Hope answered the joke with a motion outside. The Oerban turned to see Eve had appeared near the truck, along with Alva. The Lance Corporal saluted the pinkette as she approached. The smirk on Fang's face disappeared instantly at the new arrival.

"What's with the kid?" Snow asked, referring to Alva.

"Which one?" Fang snorted, referring to both, as she pushed off the counter and began inching toward the door. Not before catching the raised eyebrow from Hope, "What?"

Outside, Lightning was wondering the same thing as Snow. She was thankful that Eve had gotten ready early enough for her to explain the plan for the day but wasn't quite sure why Alva was with her. And was sitting on the back of the truck.

"DeFluo."

"Comm-Lightning." Eve caught herself as she greeted the superior officer.

"Alva." Lightning extended her own greeting to the smaller girl who sunk deeper into the bed of the truck, almost hiding.

"Alva!" Eve hissed.

"G'morning." The younger DeFluo said softly yet sharply. Both CRYSIS officers picked up on the tone but neither could begin to guess the reason behind the behavior. Eve gave Lightning an apologetic look. The strange avoidance and pointed stares didn't really bother the pinkette much. It was the news she'd heard last night about Alva, that concerned her more. She'd decided against telling Eve. She would eventually but she couldn't have the young soldier losing her head like she had in the city when they'd found Alva. Not right now.

"Vanille!" Alva's voice brought Lightning back. The smaller girl jumped out of the truck and bounded toward the side of the house where Vanille was studying a large tree.

"I'm s-"

"Don't worry about it DeFluo." Lightning cut the apology off, eyes still on Alva. The girl was certainly a lot more lively that the day before. There was little evidence of anything suggesting her underlying... condition—if Vanille and Fang's predictions were correct.

"Whatever Vanille gave her, it worked." Eve apparently was on the same train of thought, "She'd be ready to explore the entire of Gran Pulse if given the chance." Lightning found the comment both endearing and odd.

"Hang on, you're not thinking of bringing Alva with us...?" She focused on Eve who turned to her, eyes speaking the volumes of her seriousness, "DeFluo, I can't allow that. It's too dangerous."

"I know that." Eve responded almost immediately, almost as if taking offense to the suggestion that she hadn't already considered the risks, "I won't let anything happen to her." The fire in the young officer's eyes told Lightning she would not give up her position easily—if at all.

"DeFluo, I understand your position." Lightning tried to reason, "But she'll be safer in the village, we still don't know what to expect at the edge of the storm cloud, let alone within the Faultwarrens." She softened her tone of voice even more, "Believe me, I know what it's like to want to keep your sister safe."

"With all due respect, Lightning," Eve began after a brief moment of understanding, "You have people here you can trust with your sister's life." Eve turned and looked over at Alva who was now laughing as Vanille had begun poking at her sides, "Unfortunately I don't have that for mine." Lightning opened her mouth but found it difficult to formulate a counter.

"Let the kid take her sister." A voice caused both officers to tense up, "The more the merrier." Lightning recovered faster than Eve—probably out of experience—and turned to the Oerban warrior that had walked out of the house to meet them, "What? It'll teach her about duty and responsibility ...and stuff." Lightning raised an eyebrow.

"This isn't a joke, Fang."

"Who said it was?" The warrior motioned to Eve who was trying to figure out the woman's angle in the situation, "I know that look, Light, it's both or neither of them." The pinkette sighed, looking between the two darker-haired women. She really, really didn't need this first thing in the morning.

"Fang, this is practically a child we're talking about." The Oerban simply looked over towards Alva who had apparently turned to tables on Vanille and was chasing her around the tree with a large, fallen leaf. Watching the scene, Lightning realized Fang was delivering the point that Vanille—though significantly older that Alva—could be considered just as much a child. And she knew she wouldn't have second-guessed the idea of the younger Oerban coming along.

"It's different with Vanille and you know it."

"Is it?" Fang challenged. Lightning didn't reply. Her jaw merely tightened and her hands formed fists, "If anything, we should bring her along so we can keep an eye on her... condition." The Oerban added with both a hint and point. The tension Lightning felt faded, remembering the diagnosis Fang and Vanille had given the young girl. Even so, there was still the small feeling of distaste for the idea of Alva joining them, in the back of her mind.

"Fine," The pinkette eventually agreed, pointing at Eve, "But you are to keep an eye on her at all times and she is not to leave your side, understood." Eve responded with a positive, saluting the Commander. Without another glance at Fang, Lightning excused herself to greet an approaching convoy of chocobos, each one carrying a pack on their backs that looked as they contained disassembled scanning equipment. Sazh was leading them up the hill towards Lightning's house.

Eve stayed back by the truck and noticed Fang hadn't moved either. The taller woman caught Eve's gaze, the dark green orbs bore into her, studying her. The Lance Corporal refused to retreat from the scrutinizing stare and returned it with equal intensity.

"I almost lost her once, I'm not letting it happen again." Eve affirmed, "I understand the risks but I will protect her. I know what I'm doing." Fang remained still for a moment before she turned toward Alva and Vanille. Eve glanced over but quickly returned to meet forest green once more. The taller woman motioned in their juniors' direction.

"I hope, for her sake, you do." Was all the warrior said before moving away in the direction of Lightning and Sazh. As she watched Fang walk away, Eve tried to ignore the irritation she felt towards her. Fang had made her feel as if she's failed to prove her point—and that her promise to protect was more to convince herself than anyone else.

As Fang approaching Sazh and Lightning, she overheard the tail-end of what she assumed was the disagreement they were having over whether or not Sazh should be joining them.

"Claire, I'm asking you one more time, please," The ex-pilot pleaded, "Convince him to stay in the village, he doesn't need to be up there." Correction. The subject of discussion was the younger Katzroy.

"Sazh, you and I both know that once he sets his mind to something, it can't be changed." Lightning reasoned, "It's what got him here in the first place." She referred to his stow-away act. The elder Katzroy frowned, unable to argue against one of his son's personality traits. It was something his son had gotten from his mother, "If anyone could convince him to stay here, it'd be you."

"You don't think I tried?" Sazh sighed heavily, "Just... I've worked so hard so he doesn't have to go through anything we had to." He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Lightning give him a small smile.

"Maybe you don't have to."

"Don't worry old man," Fang interrupted the moment, reaching the both of them, "We'll watch your boy for ya. Make sure he doesn't do anything we wouldn't."

"I'm not quite sure how that's supposed to make me worry less." Sazh said, pointedly. He smiled however, at the bold confidence of the Oerban warrior. It'd been something he'd been wary of ten years ago but for all the nerve and daring Fang displayed, she never failed to justify it. Knowing deep down that while he could argue as hard as he wanted, he probably couldn't keep Dajh in the village. He accepted the small comfort that at least his son would be with people he could trust.

The three of them proceeded to load the truck up with the equipment Sazh had dug out of storage. While helping out, Eve asked about how the equipment was any different from the one they had brought from the city.

"It doesn't run on the energy from the Crystal pillar." Sazh explained, pulling out what looked like large cylindrical item, pulsing a pale yellow color, "It runs on these power cells that we charge using the wind and water around the village. There should be enough here to power this stuff for a couple of days." As he handed Eve the cell to examine, he pat the side of the truck, "This monster pretty much works the same way." Eve eventually returned the cell to the ex-pilot, visibly impressed.

It was still morning by the time the truck was packed and the people set to go on the trip had gathered. Lightning had convinced by Snow and Sazh to remain in Oerba Neo in the off chance the village began getting the same visitors as Crystallinus had. Both had argued and both had lost. Dajh had finally joined the group. He'd changed out of his CRYSIS uniform and was wearing a more casual outfit of Neo Oerban design. Hope had eventually come out of the house, carrying the A-L case and adding it to the small cluster of equipment packs on the back of the truck.

Finally ready, the exploration group piled into the vehicle. Hope in the driver's seat with Lightning in the front passenger seat; Fang, Vanille and Alva in the back; Eve and Dajh sat on the back of the truck—comfortably due to the less amount of equipment thus having more than enough space.

Serah made a brief appearance as Hope was pulling away from the house. After fully scolding her older sister for attempting to leave without word—much to the amusement to everyone else around—the truck pulled away from the house, through the village and eventually out into the wild.

For the first hour or so, the terrain was flat but the road was a winding one through the forest. And once they broke the tree-line it was an equally distorted path through tunnels underground. Old tunnels that remained from the fal'Cie Atomos, on the edge of the Mah'habara Subterra.

The question had been raised as to why the team hadn't made their way through Taejin's tower and taken the easier path out of the village. Hope had explained that the tower had been abandoned as a CRYSIS outpost since an attack years prior—the same one he'd discussed privately with Fang just before they'd left the city. It was had fallen further into ruin, making it impossible for them to have taken the truck through. So they would go around—or rather, under—using a series of older tunnels to reach the Mah'habara Subterra and eventually come up onto the Archylte Steppe.

"Rolling through here ain't as much fun without Atomos." Fang had brought up, referring to the tunnel the truck was currently navigating through. The truck came screeching to a halt as a large wall of rock suddenly appeared in its path, "No dead ends back then."

"The maps we have of the tunnels, particularly the outer ones, are pretty old and aren't easily updated." Hope defended, pulling the truck away from the wall and driving back down to a previous tunnel intersection.

"This isn't right." Lightning spoke up, continuing to study the map she was using to help guide Hope, "These tunnels shouldn't have caved in..."

"Well we can't assume that quakes are the only thing that's able to change the land." Hope responded logically, "There are plenty of other reasons why a tunnel of rock could collapse in on itself-"

"Speaking of which-" Fang interrupted.

"Hope, watch out!" Vanille's yell set Hope's reflexes into motion as he swerved the truck out of the way of a minor cave-in. Upon recovery, the First Lieutenant opened up the comm-link between the inside of the truck to the outside where the two younger CRYISIS personnel sat.

"You two okay back there?" There was a brief pause before Dajh's voice crackled over it.

"Where the hell did you learn to drive, Estheim?" Hope smirked as he began to relax a little, his grip on the steering wheel loosening ever so slightly.

"And Eve?" Lightning asked, the concern evident in her voice.

"Who was driving that shuttle yesterday?" Came a response from the Lance Corporal in question. Hope's smirk blossomed into a full-on laugh, "Wait... something's... off..." The comm-link didn't fail to pick up the worry in Eve's voice, "How far exactly does that storm-cloud stretch across? And how close to the Steppe do these tunnels run?"

"What?" Hope asked, confused, his laughter dying down.

"This... can't be good." Lightning muttered as she noticed something on the map.

"Okay, when Lightning says something can't be good, we're screwed." Fang half-joked.

"Assuming we're driving along this tunnel here-" the pinkette highlighted a specific line along the holographic map in front of her, "-and the storm hasn't moved, we're skirting the cloud-line."

"But we're underground," Dajh's voice popped up over the intercom, "Clouds usually stick to the sky don't they? Y'know with the light, fluffy, floating thing they have going-"

"Watch out!" Came another screamed warning, this time by Alva. Before Hope could react, something hit the back of the truck, hard. The vehicle swerved as Hope tried to regain control of it. The light that'd been keeping the road ahead of the truck lit, was knocked to the side, leaving Hope driving blind.

"Everybody hang on!" He ordered as the ground under the truck began to shake and the ground above it began to fall, "Dajh, Eve, stay as close to the front of the truck as possible!" He instructed through the comm. He was almost too distracted with keeping the truck from being crushed to notice the lack of response. Eventually the comm-link opened but all that was heard was static.

"...Alva!" Eve's voice suddenly broke through, voice disembodied but clearly frantic.

"Eve!" As the younger DeFluo called in response to her sister, the truck's light was swung back to light the road in front of them. Only it wasn't a road. For the split second they had a glimpse of it, Hope and Lightning saw hard scales, paired with mechanical plating. Large, sharp spikes fit for carving through pure rock spinning toward them.

"Atomos." Lightning breathed the fal'Cie's name before the giant, burrowing being collided with the truck.

A/N:

DUN DUN DUN! AGAIN!

'Roads Less Traveled'... UNTIL NOW!
Ah... sorry this chapter seems so cheap, my brain's been bordering on a migraine since I started it... like.. 2 days ago =\

Don't ask what's going on because I don't even know any more... yeah... totally playing it by ear...
Sorta... I dunno... we'll see ...or something =S

HEAD! HURTING! NEED MORE SLEEP!
even though I got almost like... 10 hours last night.