Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

The small group had been walking for hours, during which they'd been hit by at least half a dozen different Pulse-shifts—occasionally coupled with mild tremors. However, they only lasted a minute or two at most and none of them seemed to be of any of their own memories. It was just as if they were walking through a few different time-lines, other than their own. And thankfully, the none of them featured the fal'Cie ruler of the Subterra.

By the time they had reached the opening onto the Archylte Steppe, the sun was setting. It appeared that the Pulse-shifts tended to last longer than they felt. Outvoted by the majority of the party, Lightning agreed to set up camp for the evening, rest for the night and wait until the next morning to continue on towards the Faultwarrens.

Of what little the group had managed to salvage from the crash, the bulk was research equipment so they'd have to make camp the old-fashioned way. Hope went about starting a fire while Fang, Vanille, Dahj and Lightning split into two groups to hunt for something to eat. Of course Vanille decided the split would be herself paired with Dajh and quickly dragged the young Katzroy off before either Fang or Lightning could attempt to argue—or Dajh for that matter.

The warrior and soldier, realizing they were stuck together, trudged off in a separate direction to hunt for food. As they did so, Fang was unusually silent, still annoyed from their last 'talk'. The hours that passed after it had involved much more walking than talking—between anyone, really. Every time the opportunity had risen where she'd usually have slid in a bit of snark to ruffle the pinkette's feathers, she hadn't. The incident between herself, Lightning and Eve repeated itself in the back of her mind. And she couldn't shake the irritation itching under her skin each time it did so. In short, she had been sulking—and appeared to be continuing to do so.

Contrary to the warrior's belief, Lightning had realized this. She'd seen it with Serah, she'd seen it with Dajh, she'd seen it with half the recruits she'd ever trained—or attempted to, at least. And while on those occasions she'd respond in her usual fashion (which often involved a verbal chewing out or mere indifference) with Fang it was different. It reminded her of how young Fang still was. While she'd been around as long as Lightning had—longer even—time stopped for the warrior while encased in crystal. Fang should have grown and aged with her but she hadn't, she was still twenty-one. Lightning knew that their bond of friendship shouldn't have been effected by something so irrelevant as a difference in age but it bothered her nonetheless.

The bond she had with Fang had always been different, it took a long while for Lightning to figure out how. She refused to risk losing it by treating Fang like it wasn't different, like it wasn't special, like Fang was just another young kid she could simply scold and move on. But the question then became: how exactly should she deal with Fang?

"If I had a damn gil for every time you've sighed since we started out on foot..." The Oerban's voice finally broke the icy silence that'd fell upon them both, "What's the matter, Sunshine? Upset your little pet couldn't come along for the hunt?"

Gritting her teeth and resisting the annoyingly natural urge to respond with equal scorn, the pinkette merely sighed again and continued to walk.

"Oh, it's the silent treatment? Really?" Fang apparently had decided she'd had enough of sulking, "What was that you mentioned back in the city? About growing up?"

"Don't you dare talk to me about growing up, Fang." Lightning spun on her heel and practically growled at the Oerban.

"Why? It's not like there's anything else you'd actually respond to me about." Fang refused to back down, raising her voice, "It's like the only way I can get any of your attention is to piss you off!"

"And as if you don't enjoy every last second of it." The pinkette's voice remained low but no less full of anger, "Why is that? Is my irritation that entertaining to you? Does driving me totally and completely insane amuse you that much?"

"I just want to talk to you!" Fang was all but yelling now, "It's not like you make it easy for me—for anybody!"

"Easy?" Lightning stepped towards the Oerban. The bold, aggressive move somewhat threw Fang off guard, causing her to take a small step backward, "You want 'easy'? Alright." The soldier moved to lean against a nearby tree and motioned toward Fang, "Go ahead, tell me, whatever it is you want to say or need to talk about it." Fang found herself locked in Lightning's gaze, unable to break free, "I'm listening Fang. What is it?"

"I... I just..." Fang found herself unable to form words. The intensity of Lightning's eye on her. It wasn't really a glare but it was just as fierce—if not more so. Even though she was still a good few feet away from the pinkette—and still stood slightly taller—as she fell prey to Lightning's unexpected, undivided attention, Fang felt five times smaller, "I want..." Bewilderment morphing into frustration, Fang began again, "I can't..." Frustration quickly dissolved into defeat as she remained unable to verbalize much of anything.

"Well you certainly make it look easy." Lightning said as she turned away, shaking her head.

"You can't just-" Fang began once more and again could not finish, only this time she was cut off—and not by Lightning. The ground beneath them both began to shake. It quickly grew violent and the two were forced apart by a crack splitting the ground between them. The ground beneath Lightning began to rise, while Fang was forced to jump as her own segment beneath her feet swiftly sank, the surrounding area caving into it.

"Fang! This way!" Lightning called, already jumping from one collapsing chunk to the next, away from where they'd stopped, "The entire area is unstable, we need to get out of here."

"Ya think?" Fang shouted back over the sound of churning landscape. Deftly leaping to land and join the pinkette on a large branch of a tree, she paused to watch the area beneath them divide, sink and collapse in on itself. It occurred to her that the destruction of the land was much too violent to be natural; which then begged the question: What could cause it?

"-ANG MOVE!" Lightning's voice rang over the thunder of cracking ground. As Fang looked over to realize Lightning had jumped from the branch they'd been sharing, she felt it fall from beneath her feet, "FANG!" Mid-fall, the Oerban's reflexes quickly forced her upright. Dirt filled her eyes and lungs as she landed uneasily on an uneven surface. She barely managed to throw herself aside to avoid another branch of the tree that had fallen with her.

Watching the warrior from what seemed to be the perimeter of the chaos, Lightning saw the need for Fang to move quickly in order to avoid being sucked under. She quickly scanned the area, visualizing the best possible path for Fang to escape. Reaching the conclusion that it involved her adjusting her current position as well, the Commander began to move.

"Fang!" The pinkette yelled to get the Oerban's attention. As she saw Fang turn to her, she drew and unfolded her gunblade. Planting a foot forward, she launched the weapon towards the top of a large, unmoving rock face. The saber flew until it hit the wall of rock, blade-first. There was a mere second-long glance between the two women before both started running. Lightning skirted the outside of area that still looked as if it were being engulfed by the planet while Fang struggled to keep herself from being swallowed by the ground. She vaulted and jumped, using whatever surface she could—stable or not—to reach Lightning's gunblade.

As Fang made her final leap, Lightning had done the same off the ridge she'd been running along. Time seemed to slow as the two of them flew towards the weapon jutting from the rock face. Lightning reached it first, feeling it shift slightly as she grabbed it but feeling it remain planted in place. With little time to adjust her grip with the one hand, she swung, reaching out with her other to catch Fang's outstretched hand.

Firmly planting her feet against the wall of rock, Fang pushed up and—with a helpful pull from Lightning—she managed to vault up, over the pinkette, swinging herself onto even ground. Without hesitation, the Oerban reached down towards the soldier, still suspended from her gunblade. With a quiet grunt, Lightning swung herself up, catching Fang's hand once more. Yanking her weapon out of it's place in the rock, she—with Fang's assistance—pulled herself up over the edge. Both women ended up on their backs, staring up at the sky as both the ground and air grew still; silent sans their heavy, ragged breaths.

As the silence continued, Fang found her lips forming a grin. Sitting up, she opened her mouth to speak but Lightning beat her to it.

"I loved you." The words hit and shocked Fang harder than the quake had—harder than anything had, really. She entertained the thought that she hadn't made the jump for Lightning's hand; that she'd fallen, hit her head and was dreaming—or was dead. Either way, she couldn't move. She couldn't even turn her head to look at the pinkette.

"I loved you for a long time, Fang." Fang continued to hear and understand the words perfectly but continued failing to believe them, "But you were gone by the time I finally accepted it." Lightning continued with a sigh, "And soon it got to be too much, too hard."

Still frozen in place, Fang almost forgot to breath. The pounding in her chest would've filled her ears if the words spoken by the soldier weren't echoing through her brain as it attempted to fully process them. Having just received an admission with more depth and feeling than anything she'd ever managed to get out of Lightning, Fang had no idea how to react. She had no idea what to think.

There was another excruciatingly long period of silence before the sound of Lightning shuffling into a sitting position broke it. It also seemed to break whatever kept Fang unmoving—though not fully, for when she turned towards the soldier, Fang only glanced in her direction, out of the corner of her eye. The warrior couldn't bring herself to look directly at the pinkette.

Lightning, on the other hand, had watched the other woman's reaction closely. She honestly had no more of an idea as to why she'd just confessed years worth of heartache than Fang did. Yet she felt no panic, no regret. It wasn't exactly a sense of calm, but a sort of numbness seemed to have taken over her mind and body. The feeling almost prevented her from noticing Fang stand up, still avoiding her gaze. She eventually did the same, folding and holstering her gunblade that had sat loosely, forgotten in her hand.

"Still feel like talking?" Lightning asked. After standing for a good long moment without a response she nodded. She hadn't really expected an answer, nor did she blame Fang for not being able to give her one, "Didn't think so." There was no sarcasm in her voice, just a tone of acceptance, possibly apology. There was little doubt in her mind that her sudden confession was somehow a result of their previous conversation. Lightning had never been one for small talk. She only talked in length and detail about important things, things that mattered. And when it came to Fang—after almost a decade—her feelings for the Oerban had grown to be all that mattered. So in hindsight, Lightning merely gave Fang what she asked for albeit more than the warrior could handle.

Even if Fang had somehow managed to sort out the disarray in her head to form words, she wouldn't have had the chance to speak them. A shock wave suddenly struck the two women, resonating through their bodies and echoing through their minds. In similar fashion to the quake, a Pulse-shift had hit the two of them strong and fast. And once again, Lightning and Fang—while in the midst of an emotionally intense moment—were thrown into chaos.

A/N:

Not only was there much contemplation while writing this chapter...
There was also much regarding whether or not to actually post it.
The reason being... it totally got out of control and by the time I'd finished, I'd forgotten what I had originally planned...

So yeah. There ya go.

I also have a splinter in my right index finger that I can't get rid of.
Just thought you should know.