The Calm Before

"I'm telling you! Something's different!"

"And I'm telling you, it's not!" Dajh shot a hissed whisper back at Vanille. The two youngest members of the group (with the exception of Alva and not taking into account the hundreds of years of crystal sleep Vanille had) were presently discussing the behavior of the two women that were at the front of the group as they made their way across the Steppe. They both seemed to be leading but remained at least half a dozen feet from one another.

"Look, I've known Lightning for ten years-"

"And I've known Fang my whole life, and it's not like Light's a complete stranger to me." Vanille motioned to the Commander and warrior ahead of them, "Something is wrong."

"But I was told it was always like this, they'd fight and bicker, sometimes ignore each other"

"But that's the thing," Vanille cut the cadet off, "Light would be the one doing the ignoring. Right now it's Fang that's acting like she doesn't want to talk to Light."

"Okay, so maybe she doesn't want to talk to Light?" Dajh suggested with a shrug. At the sound of silence, he paused an looked to see Vanille had stopped walking and was looking at him in total incredulity, "Wh-What?"

"Fang always wants to talk to Light." She stated matter-of-factly before continuing to walk. Dajh's brow furrowed at the tone of her voice—a tone that insinuated the fact was as obvious as it was irrefutable. He also noticed that there was no jealousy apparent in her statement. In fact, there seemed to be even more joy in the smaller Oerban's expressions when she talked about both Fang and Light. Apart from their amusing quips between one another, Dajh couldn't quite understand why.

"Of course, there's Eve." Vanille added quietly, thoughtful. Dajh glanced at the Oerban, who was now looking over her shoulder. He followed her gaze, looking to see the Lance Corporal in question, guiding Alva along. He thought back to the night before in the clearing.

:::

"Okay... Titan really needs to learn how to whisper his cryptic message without breaking my eardrums." Dajh, along with the rest of the expedition back at camp were recovering from the latest Pulse-shift. They'd felt the tremor as well but it cease quickly after.

"Is everyone alright?" Hope asked, dusting himself off, having fallen to his knees coming out of the Pulse-shift. Dajh and Vanille voice their affirmatives but Lightning remained silent. Her eyes on Alva, still asleep on the bedrolls. Hope followed her gaze as he walked over to the other soldier. The pinkette had apparently assumed the same thing he had. The legacy Titan spoke of was closer to them than they'd thought.

"Fang!" Vanille's voice knocked both Officers out of their thoughts, "Fang and Eve!"

"Everybody stay here," Lightning motioned between the other members of the group, already making her way across the clearing in the direction the two darker-haired women had gone off in, "I'll go see if..." The pinkette trailed off when out of the small break in the foliage came Fang. The two stared at one another for a few moments before the pinkette looked away, backing up as the warrior moved in towards the others.

"Fang! You're alright!" Vanille bounded over, throwing herself at the taller Oerban who returned the embrace amused, without hesitation. There was visible relief in the others but it wasn't long before the concern returned—most quickly to Lightning.

"And Eve?" She was almost unprepared for the glare she received from Fang but she chose to ignore it.

"Oh, I'm fine Sunshine," Fang responded in a grumbled, "Thanks for asking."

"It'd take more than a bad memory and a little shaky ground to get you, Fang." Lightning retorted before she could help herself. She hadn't meant to sound insensitive but what was happening, that involved both Eve and Alva—now, even more so than before—was bigger than whatever was currently between herself and Fang. Her gaze lingering on the Oerban for longer than she intended, Lightning noticed Fang looked far too disheveled for the mildness of the tremor they'd experienced. Perhaps it was worse in the area Fang had been in. Or perhaps the tremor had nothing to do with it. Lightning couldn't help but deem the latter explanation as the more likely.

"Fang, where's Eve?" Lightning repeated the question, this time through a frown. The Oerban's lack of an answer wasn't helping ease her suspicion, "Fang-"

"Hey! Eve!" Dajh exclaimed, raising his arms, looking past the Commander in the direction Fang had come from. The pinkette turned to see Eve push past a few low branches and step into the clearing. She looked equally, if not more tousled, than Fang, but otherwise unharmed. Lightning looked between Fang and Eve, the glance between the two of them not escaping her notice.

"What happened?" Neither woman seemed keen on answering the Commander's question. Lightning, aware of Fang's stubbornness, turned to the Lance Corporal, "Eve?" The younger soldier's gaze shifted from Fang to Lightning but still, she remained quiet. Lightning wasn't sure if it were because she didn't want to speak, or didn't quite know how to begin, "Eve, what happe-"

"The path we took led to a cliff." Fang stepped in, "The tremor knocked over half of it off." Her eyes met Eve's for a brief moment before she turned back towards Lightning, shrugging, "We barely kept from falling to our untimely deaths." The Commander didn't quite buy the explanation. Looking over at the Lance Corporal, she raised an eyebrow, hoping for the truth.

"Fang saved me." Came a response from Eve, finally, "She saved both of us." She looked away to hide what Lightning assumed was bruised pride.

"Eve?" Alva mumbled from Vanille's arms. The smaller Oerban had moved to protect the youngest of the group during the tremor.

"Alva." As Eve rushed to her sister's side, Lightning accepted the conversation as over. For now.

:::

"Ah yes, Eve." Dajh mumbled in agreement to Vanille's statement. He turned his eyes back ahead. Not only had he—like everyone else that had eyes—noticed the eerie physical similarities she shared with Fang, He was also one of the few that realized the Eve's mannerisms were very much akin to Lightning's. Further more, he was one of the fewer that were aware of the effect the Crystallinus native had on Fang and Lightning—more specifically, their relationship.

"You you think it's true?"

"Hmm?" Dajh snapped out of his thoughts, "Do I think what's true?"

"Y'know, what pretty much all the others are thinking but aren't really talking about." Vanille explained in an amused tone that only she could pull of while being completely serious, "About the heir to Titan's throne and the guardian that protects them."

"...What about them?"

"You have got to be the most clueless observant person I've ever met." Vanille's statement brought Dajh's gaze back to her. He was met with a look of quiet curiosity. Paired with what she'd just said, it irked him.

"What? Should you really be saying that?" Dajh raised an eyebrow at the Oerban, "Miss distract-Light-at-just-the-right-moment-to-prevent-more-drama?"

"Well, at least for me it's on purpose..." Vanille continued to tease, giggling at the young Katzroy's face.

"And how would you know I'm not doing it on purpose when I actually am doing it... on... purpose?" Dajh formed a sentence that—thinking back on it—caused him to kick himself mentally for going too over-the-top for it to be taken seriously. And it wasn't, as Vanille continued to giggle at the question.

"Well, it's just... the way you react to certain things."

"Oh, great," Dajh mumbed, "and here I was worried you'd be vague."

"I never said it was a bad thing." Vanille pat the cadet's shoulder as the two of them continued walking.

"I understand what you're getting at though." Dajh continued the conversation with a more serious tone, "I never had anything to do with Titan and even I can connect the dots." He threw another glance over his shoulder once more, "All two of them."

"What I don't understand is," Vanille started, "Though it's not the same as ours, Alva's shown some kind of magical power. But Eve hasn't."

"Well... maybe she hasn't awakened yet." Dajh suggested, "Or bloomed... I think was the word Titan used?"

"Blossom." Vanille corrected, "And Maybe. But If they really are who we think they are, you'd think they'd bloom at the same time—being cut from the same cloth, so to speak."

"Speaking of cutting... from... cloth-" Dajh shook his head at the play-on-words-gone-bad, "Eve has to be involved, her similarities to Fang and Light are way too many in number for it to be a coincidence."

Vanille had to agree with the cadet. Eve had more than just Fang's face. Ever since they'd left Crystallinus, she'd noticed little things the Lance Corporal would do that she'd only ever seen either Fang or Lightning do. A certain way she fought, or a particular way she talked. It really was like all Titan did was combine the warrior and soldier into one. She giggled quietly at the thought. If it were ever wondered

"So if Eve was created using Fang and Light, why doesn't she have their powers?" Dajh questioned, "I mean, those two still the only ones who seem to be able to use their abilities now." The boy motioned to the two in question, "It kinda insinuates they're powers are the strongest." Vanille turned quiet, contemplating his question, "Maybe Alva got the powers and Eve got the... personality?"

"Not likely," Vanille shook her head, "Both of them were incredibly powerful offensively, neither of their strengths were healing—which I assume is what Alva displayed last night."

"What about Hope?" Dajh offered, "Or you even? You were both better than the others with the healing spells—Alva even has the light hair."

"No, I don't think so, actually." Vanille stated, "I thought about it, her having a similar hair-color to Hope but her hair is almost white, rather than silver-gray like his. And she looks nothing like any of us." The young Oerban paused, "Yet seems just as familiar..."

"Well maybe Titan just messed up?" Dajh was getting a slight headache from their attempts at making sense of everything, "What?" He asked in response to another look of disappointment from Vanille.

"We're talking about Titan! Keeper of Gran Pulse? Oldest and wisest of the Gran Pulse fal'Cie? There's a reason why it's called Titan's throne!" Dajh found himself side-stepping to avoid the flailing arms that accompanied the small rant, "With that much power, that much responsibility and wisdom you really think he could've just... messed up?"

"So he just—with all his wisdom and... knowledge and stuff—predicts that the fal'Cie will eventually disappear and isn't particularly fond of the idea—understandably so, of course—so he comes up with a plan involving pitting other 'lower' beings against each other in a gauntlet to determine the strongest. And from them, take their strengths, combine them with his own mojo to... create a mini-him—along with a babysitter—to take over his spot as the Keeper of Gran Pulse." The cadet took a breath, "And his... replacements just happened to have been humans and come to be citizens of Crystallinus and somehow linked to CRYSIS—therefore to Light. And CRYSIS being linked to the Crystal Pillar—therefore to Fang. Furthermore both Lightning and Fang having been led back to the Faultwarrens, therefore bringing both Eve and Alva back as well, returning the heir to the throne and fulfills Titan's legacy and returns Gran Pulse to the way it was."

Slightly out of breath, Dajh finished his piece, staring at Vanille in disbelief of his own words. The Oerban just raised an eyebrow, her lips forming a smirk. Blinking, Dajh took a moment to process his brief rant. Of course, it did made sense—albeit massively convoluted. Titan was the Keeper of Gran Pulse, he controlled not only the life on the world; he controlled the life of the world. With him gone, Gran Pulse was left to wither away. It's why everything was literally falling apart. It's why it started speeding up after Fang and Vanille had awakened. The Crystal Pillar—the last remaining source of active magic—had acted as a temporary solution to Titan's absence. And when it shattered, it enabled for world to continue to decay.

Dajh, realizing the accuracy of his rant, looked up at Fang and Light, then back over his shoulder at Eve and Alva before returning his gaze to Vanille. The young Oerban was just grinning with a look of satisfaction on her face. Coming to another realization, Dajh recalled the earlier conversation pertaining to his reaction to certain things.

"It's things like that, isn't it?"

A/N:

Yes, yes, I know. I finally update after god-knows-how-long and it's with this boring bleghasdguegh =\
Been busy. And stressed. Should really get around to that kite-flying...
It'll get better though. Soon. Hopefully. No, it will.

Thanks for being patient.
I will not blame you should you wish to throw tomatoes at me.
I like tomatoes. They're yummy.

Also, art for chapter 33 is floating around my dA gallery.