Tread Lightly

Lightning swept her gaze over the saloon and felt her lip curl in disgust. She'd seen her fair share of rundown, no good saloons, but this was one of the worst. Grime clung to the faded, mouldy walls, and the wooden floors were scratched up and stained with what looked to a mix of blood, muck, and other things that didn't bear much thinking about. Just sitting in the place got her temper up, and it didn't help one bit that the clientele was mostly riff raff of the shadiest sort. Still, the saloon did have a thing or two going for it. First of all, it wasn't all that far from the Cocoon compound, even if it was hidden away in the backstreets. And second, it was the kind of place where everybody kept to themselves, which meant that she and the others could talk their plans for the night over without worrying about anyone listening in too closely. And if anyone did get it into their head to try and listen in, no one in the saloon would look twice if she started roughing people up.

"So," Lighnting began as her eyes moved from the rest of the saloon to the three other women sitting around the table. "What's our plan for tonight?"

A slow, lazy sort of smile crossed Fang's lips and Lightning had to stifle the urge to reach across the table, grab the bandit by the collar of her shirt and punch her in the jaw. She hadn't known Fang all that long, but she'd already come to recognise that look for what it was – the prelude to another smart mouth remark, something to either get her angry or embarrassed. Fang must have caught the narrowing of her eyes, because her smile widened. Before Fang could get a word out though, Vanille reached over and poked her in the cheek.

"I know what you're thinking, Fang, and now's not the time for tricky talking." Vanille did her best to look intimidating, but she really didn't have either the size or the glare for it. "You can tease the sheriff all you want later, but right now, we need to talk business."

"Well, I guess it can't be helped then," Fang drawled. "Our plan is actually pretty simple. We head on over to the Cocoon compound, bust our way in, get into that office building that Vanille and I told you about and search the place for the paperwork that we're after. Once we've got what we need, we just waltz on out of there." She smirked. "Sound good?"

"Good?" Lightning wasn't sure whether to be impressed by Fang's audacity or just downright annoyed with the pathetic excuse for a plan that the other woman had just laid out. She settled pretty quickly on getting annoyed. "You call that a plan?" She scowled. "If that's how you and Vanille have been operating so far, it's a damn miracle that you haven't been caught yet, Fang." She made sure to emphasise the last word, to draw out the other woman's name until it was almost an insult. Honestly, there was just something about Fang that got to her, that made her want to go spoiling for a fight, even if she knew now wasn't the time. Of course, that wasn't all that Fang made her feel. However, some of those other feelings, like that little tingle of nervousness that swept through her every time Fang's emerald eyes lingered on her, weren't the sort she wanted to think about too closely. "Just how do you think we'll be getting into the compound without being spotted? There's a pretty decent size fence around it, to say nothing about the patrols they've got going too."

Fang's eyes twinkled and Lightning once more got the feeling that Fang could see right through her. It was a strange sort of feeling, and she felt her blood warm even as a faint shiver ran through her. "Don't worry, sunshine, I never say anything I can't back up." She glanced over at Vanille. "Why don't you show them how we're going to get through the fence?"

The red head grinned and reached into the long coat that she wore. She pulled out a vial of clear liquid and waved it around with a little too much glee for Lightning's liking. "We'll be using this to get through the fence."

"What is it?" Lightning asked. "Although knowing you, I'm sure it'll do the job and then some."

"Acid, I'd guess," Quistis said as she gave Vanille a calculating look. "I didn't figure you for a chemist, although given how you and Fang seem to have a knack for blowing things up, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised." She sighed. "Although I'd appreciate it if you put it away for the time being. I don't fancy having to deal with something like that splashing on me."

Vanille rolled her eyes. "Don't you worry, marshal, I've worked with this kind of thing before. You're right though, it is acid, just the kind that can eat through iron or steel in a second or two without making too much noise or lighting the place up." She put the vial back into her coat. "We can use it to melt away a couple of bars in the fence, you know, give us a door of sorts. We can also use it on any locked doors we run into, although I figure we're all pretty good at picking locks." Out of the four of them, only Quistis had the decency to try and look innocent. "I will say though, it probably won't work on a safe, at least, not without maybe destroying what we're after, so if we do run into a safe, we'll just have to use a little finesse or…" She trailed off, a wild, crazy sort of smile on her face.

Lightning's eyes widened as Fang leaned over and slapped Vanille upside the head. There wasn't any real force behind the blow, but the shorter woman rounded on Fang with a scowl and threw a punch that got about an inch before Fang caught it. The sight of it almost made Lightning smile because really, it wasn't all that different from her and Serah, only it was Serah that did the slapping and unlike Vanille, she didn't bother hitting back. No, when Serah got into a fighting mood, it was usually better just to find some "sheriff business" and come back after she'd cooled down some.

"I know what you're thinking, Vanille, and we are not using those explosives that you cooked up." Fang glared at Vanille, but Vanille didn't look the least bit worried, if anything she just got more annoyed. "Now, I hate Cocoon just as much as you, and if I had my way, I'd blow the place sky high, but you heard what the marshal said the other day. If you go wild with those explosives of yours, it won't just be Cocoon you'll be blowing up, it'll be other people too, people we haven't got a quarrel with."

"Fang…" Vanille's expression turned downcast. "You don't have to be mean about. Besides," she mumbled. "We could still blow a couple of buildings up without harming anybody except Cocoon." She looked back at Fang, her green eyes wide and slightly watery. "Please?"

Fang recoiled away as if she'd been struck soundly on the jaw. "Now, Vanille, you stop looking at me like that right now."

As much as Lightning liked seeing Fang squirm, they needed to get back to business. "Vanille," Lightning said, "We're not going to be blowing anything up, not if things go right." Vanille turned to her with that look still on her face, but Lightning met her gaze squarely. As cutesy as Vanille looked with her bottom lip jutting out and her eyes all teary, she had nothing on Serah. Still, it was sort of adorable… "I suppose, if things did go bad, you might get a chance to use an explosive or two." She winced at the scowl Quistis sent her way and hastily added, "But only if we all agree it's necessary."

The sad look on Vanille face fell away instantly, and she was once more all chipper and cheerful. "You're pretty decent, sheriff, once you set your mind to things." She grinned and reached over to pat Lightning's hand. "You definitely have my blessings to go after old sour puss there." She pointed at Fang. "Although, I don't thing you'll have to try all that hard to get her."

Her blessings? Lightning's eyes widened and she felt her cheeks redden once again. Damn it, when had she started to blush so much? As quickly as she could, she fought the blush down and stared across the table at Vanille who had, apparently, realised that maybe she should have kept her mouth shut when it came to Lightning and Fang. "Now, you hold on just a second," Lightning began as Vanille scooted her chair closer to Fang, "I'll have you know that –"

"Ahem." Quistis coughed to get their attention. "That's about enough of all that, I think." Her blue eyes narrowed slightly. "Now, Fang, back to the plan. Sure, we can get past the fence with Vanille's help, but that still leaves the patrols." She glanced around the table. All of them were dressed in dark colours, which would help a little when it came to sneaking around. "But if we get spotted, we'll be in a tight spot because I know for a fact that Cocoon has got a whole heap of guards there, probably more than we have bullets. So, my question is, what do you know about the guards and their patrols?"

Fang laid a piece of paper on the table. "You know how we met earlier this afternoon? Well, when Vanille and I got back to where we're staying after that, I happened to receive a package. Now, I'm not normally in the habit of receiving packages that just drop in out of the blue, but I did make an exception for this one." She chuckled. "It had a cat drawn on the front, a very badly drawn one at that." She slid the piece of paper across the table over to Lightning. "To make a long story short, our friend Reeve might not be much of an artist but he does turn up some useful information. That there is a schedule for the patrols that Cocoon runs around the compound. Have a look, memorise it and then we'll head on over to the Cocoon compound."

Lightning took the schedule, careful to keep her fingers from touching Fang's. Just that afternoon, she'd felt a spark of something pass between the two of them when their hands had touched as Fang had passed her a cup of coffee. "How come Reeve didn't pass one of these onto us?" She gestured with one hand at herself and Quistis. "It seems mighty useful."

Quistis shrugged. "I've dealt with Reeve before, Lighting, and we do get along pretty decently, but I am a marshal and that does put a dampener on things. I figure that these two," she pointed at Vanille and Fang, "Have known him for a fair bit longer and with them being on the wrong side of law, they've probably worked with him a lot more too. The fact is if they ever thought to double cross him, he could probably bury them. He'd have a much harder time dealing with me if I ever thought to come after him." She smiled faintly. "Not that I ever would. There's a lot of people peddling secrets in Eden City, and not a one of them is half as decent or reliable as him."

"Fair enough." Lightning passed the schedule over to Quistis. It wasn't all that long, actually, and she'd pretty much got it memorised. "Why don't you take a look at this now, Quistis? I can't wait to get out of this place."

Fang tilted her head to one side. "Can wait to get down to business, can you sunshine?"

Lightning's lips thinned. "The sooner we get this mess sorted out, the better."

It didn't take Quistis much more than a minute or two to get the schedule memorised. After that, they headed out of the saloon and began to make their way over to the Cocoon compound. It was just going on midnight and apart from the occasional clatter of a far off carriage or still open saloon, there really wasn't all that much going on. It was a good thing though that the gas streetlights were on. If it wasn't for those, they'd have no choice but to go by the light of the moon or use a lamp, and neither option was particularly good for what they had in mind.

"It's quiet," Lightning murmured as they all hid in the shadows of a store across the road from Cocoon. It was a general store and right now the whole place was dark and still and quiet. "We should probably make our move now."

"Right." Fang pointed at a section of the fence. "Vanille and I will get the fence. Sunshine, you and Quistis keep an eye out. We might have the patrols figured out, but there's no telling when someone might walk by."

Lightning kept one eye out on the street and another one Vanille as the red head got to work. Wrapping a handkerchief over her face – most likely to block out the fumes – Vanille studied the bars of the fence intently. A moment later, she pulled a vial of acid from her coat and began to pour some of it onto the metal. The effects were pretty impressive. There was a faint hiss and then the metal began to dissolve. A sharp kick from Fang was enough to do the rest and knock several of the bars out of place. The resulting gap was more than wide enough for them to slip through one at a time, but still small enough that no one would notice it in the dark of the night unless they were really looking for it.

"All right," Vanille said. "We've got it. Now come on, let's go."

They crawled through the hole and came up behind a pretty large clump of bushes. Lightning felt a ghost of a smile cross her face. Bushes and trees and all that might look good, but they also provided plenty of cover and out West that meant trouble. In fact, one of the first things she'd done when she'd become sheriff was to strip the area outside her office of anything someone on the outside could use as cover. If someone wanted to try and take a shot at her when she was in her office, they'd have to be prepared to do so without having anything to hide behind.

"The office building we're after is over there." Vanille pointed to a large, plain looking building about a hundred yards off. "It might be a little troublesome getting into though."

Lightning nodded slowly. Vanille was dead right. Although the office building wasn't far off, there was an awful lot of open ground between them and it, not to mention that the area around the building itself was pretty well lit. Sure, there were some stone statues and other garden ornaments, but they were hardly big enough for a kid to hide behind, let alone any of them. Then there were the guards. She couldn't be entirely sure, but based on the schedule there should be seven of them there. "Okay," she murmured, "Vanille, you and Fang have been here before, right? In that case, you two take the lead and Quistis and I will follow." Her gaze sharpened. "But no shooting. If you fire, there's no doubt that the other guards on patrol will hear and they'll be on us before we know it." Shifting her gaze entirely to Vanille, she added, "And none of those explosives you've got, either. Those will be even worse."

Fang smirked and patted Vanille on the head. "It looks like she's got you figured, doesn't she?" She shifted her eyes over to the office building. "Okay then, let's get going. Follow me."

The next few minutes were pretty tense as Fang led the group from shadow to shadow. Along the way, Lightning had to admit that she was downright impressed. There might not be a lot of cover around, but what little there was, Fang made excellent use of. Heck, Lightning wasn't sure if she could have done a better job of sneaking around and she liked to pride herself on her ability to do whatever needed doing. Still, Fang just had to ruin her good humour by flashing her that wicked grin that let Lightning know that Fang could tell exactly what she was thinking.

"So," Fang said as she pressed herself against the side of one of the buildings. "Now, we get to the tricky part." She leaned away from the wall and looked around the corner. "Reeve was spot on. There are seven guards there and they're spaced into three groups, too far apart to be taken down together, at least by one person." She shot Lightning a teasing look. "I figure I can take the two closest to us, how about you, sunshine?"

Lightning looked around the corner. The group closest to them were about thirty feet away. Given that she'd fought Fang a couple of times now already, she didn't doubt for a second that the other woman could handle them just fine. The next group had three guards and was another thirty feet further away than the first group. Finally, there was a third group of two guards that was on the far side of the courtyard, perhaps eighty feet from where she and the others were standing. "Let me think…" Her foot bumped into something and she looked down. There were pebbles scattered along the ground, probably from one of the garden beds. She smiled. "I'll take the pair on the far side."

"Oh?" Fang's eyes sparkled and Lightning shivered. "And how do you suppose you'll manage that?"

Lightning poked another pebble with her foot. "With one of those. Trust me, I can hit just about anything."

"Really?" Fang murmured. "You'll have to show me sometime."

Vanille rolled her eyes. "I guess that leaves the three in the middle for the marshal and I." She grinned at Quistis. "Come on, we'll swing around the other side and get a bit closer to them." Her lips curved upward. "I'll use the usual signal to let you know when we're ready to go, Fang."

As Vanille and Quistis slunk off into the shadows, Lightning slanted another look at Fang. The other woman's eyes were gleaming in the darkness, alight with an almost feral intensity. This, she realised, was what Fang lived for and if she was honest, maybe so did she. She took a breath to steady herself. "Vanille said she'd be using the usual signal, what is that?"

Fang grinned. "Ever heard the sound a chocobo makes when it's mad?"

A small smile crossed Lightning's lips. She knew exactly what an angry chocobo sounded like. Back when she'd been a kid, she'd been mighty stubborn. Heck, most people would probably say she was still stubborn. Anyway, her father had got it into his head that she needed to learn how to ride a chocobo and while that wouldn't have been too bad, the chocobo he'd tried to teach her on had been every bit as stubborn as her. So the two of them, girl and bird, had spent a month testing each other until eventually things had boiled over. She couldn't remember what she'd said to the chocobo, but it must not have liked her tone, because she'd ended up running for her life with the bird behind her screeching its rage. She was just lucky that Serah hadn't been around, otherwise she'd never have heard the end of it. "I do," Lightning said, shaking herself from the memory. "I most certainly do."

Fang raised one eyebrow. "Sounds like you have a story to tell. Anyway, that's the sound that Vanille will use to let us know she's ready."

A few moments passed and then the signal came. The strange, angry sounding squawk had all the guards looking around to try and find the source, which gave Fang and Lightning just the opening they needed. As Lightning palmed two pebbles, Fang darted forward. She reached the first guard before he had time to turn and her fist caught him flush on the point of the chin. He slumped to the ground and the second guard whirled, hand already halfway to his pistol. He never made it that further though, because Fang grabbed that same hand, stepped forward and turned to sling him up and over her shoulder. He hit the ground with a thud and lay still.

Farther ahead, Vanille and Quistis leapt into the thick of things. The marshal laid into one man, landing a kick to the jaw that lifted up off his feet and into the clump of bushes behind him. The second turned to yell for help and she dived, cutting him off, before they hit the ground in a tangle of limbs. Quistis came out on top and one punch was all she needed to put him down. In the meantime, Vanille had used the stock of her shotgun to club the third man across the face and just for good measure she added a kick to gut.

In the midst of all this, Lightning was measuring the throws she'd have to make. Naturally, she noticed the other three handle their targets, it was hard not to, but in truth, her eyes and her attention were on the two guards furthest away. They were right under the gas lights, so she had no trouble picking them out. The only question was: could she drop them both before they made a sound? A small smile played at her lips. Of course she could.

She took one pebble from the palm of her left hand and rolled it around in the palm of her right. It was a pretty small thing, just about half the size of her thumb, but it would do. Eyes narrowed in concentration, she stepped out into the open and the entire world narrowed down to just the two guards and her. One of them went for his gun, his right hand skimming the holster before she drew back her arm and threw the pebble. The pebble streaked through the air and there was a dull thud as it struck him in the forehead. He went down as if he'd been shot and as the other guard hesitated, eyes wide with disbelief, she threw her second pebble and hit him too.

"That wasn't half bad, sunshine," Fang murmured as the group dragged the guards out of the light cast by the gas lights and into some shrubbery. "Although, I really shouldn't be surprised." She grinned and rubbed her jaw. "After all, you've got a hell of an arm on you."

Involuntarily, Lightning found her eyes drawn first to Fang's chin by the gesture, and then her lips. They were very nice lips. "Never mind that," she muttered, putting a scowl on her face and hoping that Fang hadn't caught her staring. "Let's head inside."

However, Fang hadn't missed Lightning look at all and Lightning was hard pressed to hold her scowl in place as Fang ran her tongue over her lips. "I guess we should." Fang pointed at the door and took off her hat. "Ladies first, sunshine."

It took them less than a minute to get the front door of the office building open and once they were inside, they locked it after them.

"I think we should split up here," Quistis said. "I'm guessing that none of you are exactly experts when it comes to dealing with money." Fang opened her mouth to speak and Quistis grinned. "And no, being able to steal money does not count. Anyway, I should be able to tell if anything up there is going to be useful, but I'll need one of you to show me around the office." She glanced at Vanille. "How about this? Fang, you and Lightning can stay down here and keep watch. We've got those guards hidden away so we should have maybe fifteen minutes, but it'd help if we had someone down here in case things went wrong. Vanille can come with me, you know, show me where that restricted area is." She chuckled. "And if there's something there like a safe or a door that needs dealing with, I figure she'll come in pretty handy."

Vanille nodded. "Sounds good." She turned and headed off toward the stairs, Quistis a step or two behind her. "Oh and you two," she said, turning to look over her shoulder at Lightning and Fang, "Try not to kill each other while we're gone."

Lightning inclined her head. "Don't worry, I'll be right here when you come back."

"What?" Fang's said as she turned to narrow her eyes at Lightning. "What about me?" Lightning just shrugged. "Hey!"

X X X

Vanille put one hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles as she headed up the stairs. Slowing just a little so that Quistis could draw level with her, she shot the other woman an amused look. "Do you think it was a good idea to leave those two alone? I mean, we are trying to keep things quiet, and as much as I like Fang, I have this feeling she'll let her mouth get away with her and then the sheriff will start shooting."

"You know, you just might be right about that," Quistis said. "But I figure Lightning will have the decency to wait till we're done here before she starts shooting. Besides," she murmured, a thoughtful look on her face, "I have a feeling that even if Lightning did start shooting, she wouldn't be shooting to kill."

"Oh?" Vanille's eyes twinkled with mischief and she draped one arm over Quistis' shoulder, which was a tad awkward given the difference in height between them. "They do get on pretty well, don't they, punching and shooting aside, don't you think?" She giggled. "Remember when we were having coffee this afternoon? Fang was getting all flirty with Lightning and sure, Lightning was glaring something fierce, but she was blushing a fair bit too." A dreamy sort of look came to Vanille's eyes. "It's so romantic, don't you think? The outlaw and the sheriff, brought together by all this trouble and…"

"Vanille," Quistis said, shrugging the red head's arm off her shoulder. "I think we should probably worry about settling all this business with Cocoon before we start worrying about anything else." She paused. "But, if I had to bet my money on it, I'd probably say you were right." She looked around furtively. "Just don't tell Lightning I said that, and if you want to stay in one piece, don't you mention any of your ideas to her either."

Vanille laughed softly. "Don't worry, marshal, I know when to keep my mouth shut." She took a quick look at their surroundings. "Hey, look, we're almost there."

They made quick time through the rest of the building and Vanille breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been pretty confident that she'd gotten the layout of the place memorised, but it was a bit hard to be sure, what with the way all the offices and corridors looked the same. However, her relief didn't last more than a few seconds because not ten feet from the door that led to the restricted area was an office and in that office there was someone sleeping at one of the tables.

"What the heck?" Vanille growled. "What is he doing there?"

"Sleeping by the looks of it." Quistis peeked into the office and winced. "I should have thought of this. Financial reports and the like are due in around this time of the year, so he probably stayed late to finish some work up and just fell asleep at his table." She sighed and turned back to the door into the restricted area. "We'll just have to keep things quiet. So long as we do, he'll never even know we were here."

The two of them got to work on the door, careful to keep everything as quiet as they could. Unfortunately, Vanille hadn't managed to get a closer look at it earlier in the day, but from what she could tell, it might get a bit tricky. They got the first lock open pretty fast, but for the life of her, she couldn't work out exactly what was keeping the door shut after that. There must be another lock, or maybe even two or three more, but there didn't seem to be a way of getting at them without blowing down the door, which really wasn't an option right now, even if it would be pretty fun.

"Vanille, you've still got some acid left, right?" Quistis asked.

Vanille nodded. "Sure, I've got some, but not enough to melt the whole lock if that's what you were thinking."

Quistis grinned. "You won't have to. Look." She pointed to the gap between the edge of the door and the doorframe. Squinting, Vanille could just make out the heavy dead bolt that held the door in place. "Think you can get any of that acid onto that dead bolt there? Once that's gone, we should be able to just swing the door open."

"You know, marshal I like the way you think." Vanille tilted her head to one side to get a better view before she took out another vial of acid and got to work. A couple of minutes later, they were able to swing the door open. On the other side was a large office area lit by a couple of gas lamps with at least half a dozen tables set out, along with a fair number of shelves and cabinets. "This looks tricky," she muttered, "How are we going to find what we're after amongst all this? We could be here all night."

"Don't worry about that," Quistis replied as she stepped into the centre of the room. "I've been working cases like this for a while now, and one thing I've learned is that most companies like to keep things orderly. Give me a few minutes to poke around and I'll have this place figured out." She paused and looked around the room, her eyes finally coming to rest on one of the wood panelled columns that supported the ceiling. "Have a look at that, Vanille, it seems a little thicker than the other columns. I'll bet ever gil I've got on me that there's a safe or something hidden there. See if you can't get it open while I take a look around." She raised one finger to her lips. "And keep it quiet too."

As Vanille got to work on the column, poking and prodding it for any sign of something hidden, she was careful to keep an eye on Quistis. In all honesty, she hadn't really paid all that much attention to the marshal before, but maybe she should have. The woman was pretty handy in a fight, but that didn't really impress Vanille all that much – she did, after all, spend most of her time around Fang. However, there something mighty impressive about the way Quistis breezed through the office, her keen blue eyes taking in everything she saw as she puzzled out how everything was organised. In just a few minutes, she seemed to have it figured, because Quistis began to move from table to table, plucking up pieces of paper and stowing them in the satchel she'd brought along.

"What are those?" Vanille asked.

"These are all related to the financial trick that Cocoon seems to be pulling." Quistis pointed at another stack of paper she'd begun to look through. "And these seem to be related to some of the projects that they've got in the works. It's not exactly what we're looking for, but I'm pretty sure that Shinra will be interested in it."

Vanille nodded and then paused. It was a little thing, barely noticeable really, but there was a section of the column that felt a little different from the rest. Leaning over to place her head against it, she rapped it once with her knuckles. The sound that came back sounded awfully hollow.

"Quistis," Vanille said. "Come over here." She pulled the wooden panelling away to reveal a large hollow in the column with a safe set into it. "Just like you said, there was a safe here." She gave Quistis a hopeful look. "You ever think about switching careers, marshal? I think you'd make a pretty fine bandit."

Quistis chuckled. "Maybe, but I'm happy on my side of the law." She looked at the safe. "Think you can get it open?"

Vanille grinned. "You know, you'd think a company as rich as Cocoon could fork out a little more cash when it came to security." She tapped the safe with one finger. "You see this safe? It's not exactly the newest model. In fact, I've cracked one just like it before, so it shouldn't take me too long." She cracked her knuckles. "Just stand back and let me work, marshal." She gave Quistis a teasing look. "You could take notes too, if you want."

True to her word, Vanille had the safe wide open pretty quickly. Rather than money, the inside of the safe was full of papers.

"So, marshal," Vanille said, "Have we found what we're looking for?"

Quistis smile was mighty big and all sorts of crafty as she thumbed through the papers. "I think we do, Vanille, I think we do." She divided the papers into two stacks and put one stack into her satchel and gave the other to Vanille. "You've got a satchel of your own, right? Put those in it."

Vanille did as she was asked and then gave Quistis a keen look. "Why'd you do that? You could have put all the papers in your satchel and I probably wouldn't have noticed until later."

Quistis shrugged. "We're in this together. Splitting the papers up means we've got to keep on working together until we've got things sorted." A thin smile crossed her face. "It also means that if something happens to one of us, at least we won't leave this place with nothing."

"Good thinking," Vanille said. "Now, how about we head on out of here?"

They were just heading out of the restricted area when something plain stupid happened. Someone had left a typewriter out in the corridor, probably because it needed fixing. In the faint light coming in through the windows and from the odd gas lamp left on in the office area, neither of them noticed it until Vanille tripped over it. She went down hard, but even then she didn't make much of a sound – but the door she crashed into did.

As the crashed faded away, Quistis shot a look into the office where they'd seen the man sleeping before. Well, he wasn't sleeping anymore, and if the look on his face was any judge, he'd probably just worked out what they were up to. "Aw, hell."

X X X

Lightning had never really minded the quiet. In fact, she probably liked things better that way. The only problem was, Fang didn't seem to agree.

"You going to just stand there and brood the whole time, sunshine?" Fang drawled. "Not that you don't look good brooding." She smirked.

Lightning looked very deliberately out of the window next to her. "We're supposed to be keeping watch, Fang."

Fang chuckled. "Well, you know, we can keep watch and talk at the same time." She put on a look of mock surprise. "Oh, look, sunshine, we're doing that right now."

"You like making things difficult, don't you?" Lightning muttered back as she entertained a thought or two about shooting Fang. Still, it was getting pretty boring just waiting for Quistis and Vanille to get back. "I suppose we could talk a little though." Fang's face lit up. "But only if I get to ask you a few questions." Fang's smile faded just a little.

"Fine," Fang said before a mischievous look crossed her face. "But fair's fair. If you ask me a question, I get to ask you one back."

"It seems a bit strange to here you talking about fair," Lightning shot back. "Besides, why should I answer anything you ask me?" She was a pretty private sort of person and Fang already understood her a little too well for her liking.

Fang smirked. "You got something to hide, sunshine?"

"I've got nothing to hide," Lightning snapped before she grimaced. She'd walked right into that one. "So…" she began. "How'd you and Vanille end up as bandits? I can see you being one, but Vanille doesn't exactly strike me as the type."

Fang gave a low whistle. "You sure cut to the chase, don't you, sunshine? And just for the record, I'm hurt you think so poorly of me." She put on a hurt look, but Lightning gave her a glare to show that she wasn't fooled in the least. "Still, I don't see any harm in telling you, in fact, I figure you might see where I'm coming from." She paused and glanced out the window to where the moon was shining, low and large in the sky. "You see, Vanille and me have always been together, even back when were kids. Hell, I can't even remember what it was like not having her around. And, well, after…"

"After?"

"After Cocoon messed everything up for us, she was, literally, the only thing I had left in the whole world." Fang gave Lightning a steady look. "I won't tell the details – that's not something I like talking about too much – but I'll tell you this. Vanille and I lost everything because of Cocoon. We lost our friends. We lost our home. We lost everything." Her lips pulled back into a snarl. "That all happened back when we were kids, but even then we could tell that we'd never get justice the normal way, not two scrappy orphaned kids against a big, rich old company like Cocoon." She tapped the gun at her side. "No, if we wanted justice, we'd have to get it ourselves, the old fashioned way. Besides, we might be bandits, but it's not like we rob just anybody. It's Cocoon we're after."

"I'd heard you only robbed Cocoon banks and the like," Lighting said. "Is that really true?"

Fang nodded. "That's should count as a question, sunshine, but I'll give you this one for free." She rubbed the back of her head. "As a matter of fact, that is pretty much true. I mean, Vanille and I only go after Cocoon stuff. Sometimes though, people get in the way, you know, marshals and the like, but really, our quarrel is with Cocoon. So long as people stay out of our way, we've got no problem with them." She glanced back at Lightning. "How about you, sheriff? What made a nice girl like you sign up to join the law? I bet your parents weren't too happy about that."

"I wouldn't know," Lightning said quietly. "I lost them a while back."

Fang winced. "Sorry about that. I didn't know."

Lightning shrugged. She should probably be angry, but she could seem to find it in her, not when Fang actually looked sincere in her apology. It was strange too, to see something beside a teasing look in the other woman's eyes. "Don't worry about. Anyway, once my parents passed on, I had to look after my sister and times were pretty tough." She swallowed thickly, thinking back to those awful days. "No one was hiring, you see, and I would have done almost anything to make sure my sister could get by and…" she sighed. "And then I got an offer from the sheriff to come work for him. It started pretty simple, you know, just chores and paperwork, but I took to it pretty well and it turned out that I was pretty good with a gun." Her eyes drifted to the shadows on the floor. "I've been doing it ever since."

Fang's voice was uncharacteristically soft as she spoke. "Ever dream of doing anything else?"

"That counts as a question," Lightning said. "But I guess I owe you one." She shrugged. "Not really. I like what I do. I like being able to make a difference, to be able to go to bed each night and know that I'm doing my bit to make things better. And I'm glad to be able to do what I do, otherwise I'd never have been able to look after my sister." She looked over at Fang. "How about you, Fang? Let's say you and Vanille get your revenge and bring Cocoon down, what exactly are you two going to get up to?"

Fang chuckled, but there was something a little hollow about the sound that had Lightning studying the other woman more closely. "You know, I hadn't really thought about that." That was a lie, Lightning thought. "But I'm not stupid. Cocoon is pretty tough and even assuming we manage to win, it'd take a miracle for us all to get out of it in one piece." She laughed softly and reached down to pull her gun free. Eyes on Lightning she tapped the barrel of the weapon against the side of her head. "But I'll make damn sure that Vanille gets through things okay. Hell, I'll tear down the sky if it'll save her. But if things do work out okay, then I figure Vanille and I might get a place somewhere, you know, settle down. She's pretty good with animals, so I figure she could have a chocobo ranch or something. As for me, I don't know." She laughed. "I'll probably have to stick around, keep Vanille out of trouble. Who knows? I might even up a sheriff some place."

For a long moment, Lightning said nothing. She didn't know what to say. But she did know that she didn't like the look in Fang's eyes one bit. It was a look she'd seen in the mirror all those years ago when she'd headed out into the night thinking she'd have to sell herself to buy her sister's future. Amodar had been there for her then, even if he could have just as easily have walked away. "You know," she said, the words spilling out of her before she could stop them, "There's good land up near Bodhum, just right for a chocobo ranch and I could always use a deputy."

Fang looked at her and laughed. "That's a nice joke, sunshine."

"I'm dead serious," Lightning said.

Fang's eyes widened. "You really mean that, don't you? Even after everything I've done, you'd still take me on? Are you nuts?"

"Maybe I am," Lightning murmured, "But I can judge a person just as well as anyone." Her lips curved up into a ghost of a smile. "And let me tell you, you're annoying, you're tricky, you tease me far too much and sometimes I get the feeling that I'm one step away from filling you with lead, but, Fang… I've got you figured as someone decent, even if you do a damn good job of hiding it." By the end of it, Lightning had dropped her eyes a little, not quite able to bring herself to meet Fang's gaze.

But when she looked back up, Fang was smiling at her and it wasn't a smirk or a grin or any of the hundred or so different kinds of teasing looks that Fang seemed to have. No, it was a real smile, honest and truthful and whole. It was the kind of smile that welled up from deep inside and it made Fang's eyes shine like twin emerald pools and Lightning couldn't help but think that just then the ruggedly attractive woman was, to put it simply, the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. "That means a lot to me, sunshine, it really does." Fang's voice was so soft that Lightning had to strain to catch it. "Out West, you learn to take the measure of a person and you learn pretty quick that fine words don't mean a thing if they're coming from scum. But from you… well, what you said to me might be the nicest thing that anyone's ever said to me." She coughed self-consciously and then grinned. "So I'll tell you what, sunshine, after all this is over, I might just take you up on your offer. After all, I figure Bodhum could use a little livening up and someone's got to keep an eye on you." She slowly and very deliberately eyed Lightning, her gaze running from the soles of Lightning's boots to the hat on her head. "Isn't that right?"

"Damn it," Lightning muttered as she looked away. "Don't get weird on me because of what I said."

"Why not?" Fang teased. "I never knew you liked me so much." She chuckled at Lightning's horrified look. "Now, sunshine, it's my turn to ask a question –"

CRASH!

Fang stopped midsentence as the sound of breaking glass filled the air followed by a panicked scream. If that wasn't bad enough, whoever it was that had just gone sailing through one of the upstairs windows didn't just fall on the ground. Instead, they landed on one of the storage sheds where equipment was stored. The wooden structure came apart with a heck of ruckus and Lightning realised with cold certainty that there was absolutely no way that the din had gone unnoticed by the other patrols.

A few seconds later, Vanille and Quistis came bounding down the stairs, a troubled look on the blonde's face as Vanille babbled wildly.

"I didn't mean to kick that guy out the window," Vanille wailed. "He just grabbed on to me so I did the first thing I could think of."

Quistis sighed. "Look, it doesn't matter now. The fact is, the other patrols are probably headed this way right this instant, so we need to get out of here right now."

Lightning nodded. "Did you get what we came for?"

Quistis pointed at the satchels that she and Vanille were carrying. "We sure did. Now, come on, let's get moving."

Quistis had just started to open the door when Fang gave a growl.

"Don't go out there!" Fang shouted, her eyes trained on the window next to her.

Quistis jerked away from the door and just in time too. Bullets ripped into the doorframe, sending slivers of mangled wood every which way. As Quistis scrambled back there was a roar and a shotgun blast all but blew the door off its hinges.

"Well, damn," Quistis muttered. "Looks like they're already here."

Lightning nodded grimly. If they got boxed in here, they were done for. Sure, they'd be able to hold the guards off for a while, but more and more of them would show up until eventually they either ran out of bullets or got overrun. They needed to get out onto open ground. Her eyes flicked to the window not far from her. It was large, almost as large as she was, actually. With a determined set to her jaw, she strode across the room, grabbed a chair and flung it through the window. The window shattered and she used the barrel of her pistol to clear the remaining glass away. "I'm going to get their attention," she said as she leapt through the window. "Storm the door once I do."

Fang grinned madly. "Sunshine never does things halfway, does she?"

Quistis chuckled. "No, she doesn't."

Outside, Lightning scrambled for cover. There wasn't much about, but she managed to throw herself behind one of the stone statues that dotted the area. It didn't cover more than half of her, but it was better than nothing. As she waited for a chance to fire back, a bullet struck the statue just a few inches from her head. Dust kicked up and she snarled. That was a little too close.

Finally, there was a break in the shooting and she leaned out from behind the statute, a gun in each hand and fired furiously. The area was pretty well lit, so she didn't have much trouble lining up her shots. Her first two shots hit the guard closest to the door of the office building. He gave a harsh cry and spun away, his chest a bloody mess. Pretty soon after that, another guard went down, caught once in the neck and again in the chest, and then a third joined him, struck in the arm and the head. But the remaining guards were onto her now, and they dove for cover, firing as they went.

"How long are you planning to stay in there?" Lightning roared to the others. "Come on!"

And then there was a boom as Vanille came out of the door, her shotgun braced against her shoulder as she drew a bead on one of the guards and fired. He couldn't have been more than twenty feet away and the shot picked him up and threw him clear into the darkness beyond the gas lights that lit the area by the buildings. A second later, Fang and Quistis were out the door, as well, both of them shooting as they came, Fang with a wild grin on her face, and Quistis all business. It was quick and brutal and the remaining guards never stood a chance.

"There are more of them headed this way," Fang said as she reloaded. In the darkness beyond the gas lights, it was easy enough to make out the glow of at least two dozen lamps headed their way. "And by the looks of things, they're coming from the direction we broke in from." She made a face. "We're going to need to find another way out."

"Or we could make another way out," Vanille said with a smug look. "Or have you forgotten that I'm carrying explosives?"

Lightning's eyes narrowed. "That's a good point, but before we can blow a hole in the fence, we'll have to reach it first." And with the number of guards headed their way that would be a pretty tall task even for them. What they needed now was a distraction, something to draw some of the guards away. "Say, Vanille, how many of those explosives do you have?"

Vanille shrugged. "A lot of them. Why?"

Fang followed Lightning's gaze to where the printing press building was. "I think sunshine wants you to give us a distraction." She smirked. "That printing press is worth a stack of cash, right? How about you give them something else to worry about instead of chasing us."

The look on Vanille's face was comical. "But its state of the art, Fang! It's just… do we really have to blow that up? Couldn't we blow something else up instead?"

"That's the point," Fang said. "There's no way they'll just let it go without at least trying to save it, so it'll definitely cut their numbers down a little if we lob an explosive or two at it."

"Fine," Vanille growled. "I suppose we could blow it up."

"Good." Lightning nodded. "Vanille, the rest of us will cover you. Get a move on."

As Vanille broke into a jagged run for the printing press building, Lightning and the others got into position to cover her. They were lucky that the guards hadn't bothered to ditch their lamps. In the dim light beyond the buildings, it might've been hard to sight them, but the lamps made it almost a little too easy to pick them off. Still, the sheer number of guards was beginning to get a bit troublesome and Lightning had to duck back behind the side of one of the buildings to reload as another group arrived to add their gunfire to the battle.

"What's taking Vanille so long?" Lightning shouted over the gunshots.

The answer came in the form of a tremendous explosion that blew the roof off the printing press building and shattered every pane of glass in the area. Lightning swayed, struggling to keep her footing as the ground trembled and great spires of flame and smoke rose from the ruined building. The guards fared little better, with most of them staring at the blasted out building in a mixture of awe and horror. It was just the effect that Lightning had been hoping for.

"Head for the fence!" Lightning shouted. "Move!"

The group sprinted for the fence, Vanille muttering apologies to the surely ruined printing press the whole way. Glancing over her shoulder, Lightning saw that fully half the guards had stopped to try and contain the blaze, but she could already see that it was a futile task. There was no way anything could have survived the blast and from the look on Vanille's face, the red seemed to think so too.

They were halfway to the fence when another group of guards cut them off. They split up, Vanille and Quistis diving for some trees while Fang and Lightning took cover behind a stone bench.

"They're not half bad," Fang muttered. "Definitely well organised." She grinned. "Looks like we'll just have to fight our way through. You up to it, sunshine?"

Lightning didn't even bother to reply. Instead, she just nodded once and then pushed out from behind the stone bench. Fang moved with her and the two of them turned to face the guards, guns blazing. Lightning took the ones on the right and Fang took the ones on the left. A guard fired, his shot going just wide of Fang and the emerald-eyed woman fired back, one bullet catching him in the gut, another just above the heart. The guard yelped and fell back, smashing a wooden stall.

From behind them, Lightning heard more gunfire as Vanille and Quistis started shooting, the faster rhythm of Quistis' pistol all but drowned out by the thunder of Vanille's shotgun. Scowling, Lightning ducked, letting Fang shoot over the top of her as she reloaded and a moment later she returned the favour, standing over Fang as the other woman reloaded as fast as she could.

"Damn," Fang muttered as a fresh wave of shots forced them back behind cover. "There sure are a lot of them." She turned to where Vanille and Quistis were hunkered down. "Vanille, give us some covering fire? Sunshine and here are going to go right up the middle."

Vanille giggled. "Sure thing."

"Quistis," Lightning said. "How about you swing around, they'll be too worried about the two of us to see you coming." Quistis nodded.

"On three then," Fang said. There was a big damn smile on her face and even though Lightning wasn't smiling, she knew that her eyes were shining just like Fang's. They were both enjoying this. "One… two… three!"

Lightning and Fang burst into motion and the instant they were out in the open, Lightning fired twice. Two guards went down and then Fang fired, adding two more to her tally. As the other guards began to return fire in earnest, Vanille gave them both barrels and a whole hell of a lot to think about, her shotgun a booming counterpoint to the shorter, sharper sounds of the pistol fire. Lamps clattered to the ground, dropped from suddenly slack hands, their light casting crazy shadows across the garden as Fang and Lightning pushed forward.

For her part, Lightning was having the time of her life. She'd fought with people she trusted before – Quistis, for instance – but she'd never felt so strong before. It was like nothing the guards did mattered to her and Fang. The other woman seemed to know, even without asking or looking, where to shoot and how to move so that rather than just fighting together, they were fighting as a team, the two of fitting together like they'd been fighting side by side since the day they'd been born. They might only be holding two guns each, but damn if it didn't feel like they might as well be holding twenty.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lightning saw another group of guards drawing near, but then Quistis was there, catching them off guard and diving right into the thick of them. The marshal was shooting in all directions, so close to them that she could hardly miss and with her right in the middle they couldn't risk shooting in case they hit each other instead of her.

"Come on," Lightning said as the guards fell back. "We're nearly there."

And indeed they were. The only thing standing between them and the fence was a small cottage, probably used by one of the caretakers who looked after the gardens. Unfortunately for them, about a dozen guards had decided to use the place to stage one last ditch attempt to stop them.

"You know," Fang said, glancing over at Quistis as they took cover. "I thought you were joking about Cocoon having more guards than we have bullets. It turns out, you're probably right."

"Well, I can't say I'm happy about being right," Qusitis said as a bullet dug into the tree she was hiding behind, the shot only a few inches from her head. "That cottage is going to be tricky. They've got a lot of cover and we don't exactly have all that much." She looked forward to where Lightning had been forced to take refuge behind a flimsy looking bench.

"We could always use one of my explosives," Vanille said conversationally as she peeked out from behind the statue she was hiding behind. "They are clustered up pretty tightly there and there are a lot more of them headed this way. Besides, it's not like they don't already know we're here."

Lightning winced. The last couple of shots had been much too close for her liking and Vanille was right. Back the way they'd just come from a whole heap more guards were coming. "Fine," Lightning said. "Go for it, Vanille."

Vanille gave a little cackle and reached into her coat for an explosive, lit it and then threw it at the cottage. There was a couple of second's delay before the cottage exploded. Guards and timber went flying everywhere and Vanille waited just long enough for the dust to clear before she took a second explosive and lobbed it at the fence.

"Okay," Vanille chirped. "There's our way out of here."

The four of them darted forward, firing on the stragglers. Then, they were past the smoking rubble of the fence and out on the street. They sprinted for the shadows and made a beeline for the back streets and alleys that they knew would let them loose anyone who'd been able to keep up with them. They wound their way through the back streets and alleys for a good half an hour before they were finally certain that no one had managed to trail them.

"That was a heck of a way to spend a night," Fang said with a smirk. "It was fun though."

Quistis shook her head. "A little too fun, if you ask me." She looked over at Fang. "So, you've got the next meeting with Reeve set up, right?"

Fang nodded. "Tomorrow night," she said. "It'll be at the saloon we were at earlier."

Lightning made a face. "Can't we pick some place else?"

Fang chuckled. "Any place nicer is probably going to ask too many questions."

"All right then," Quistis said. "Looks like we'll see you and Vanille tomorrow night." She paused. "Look after yourselves."

Fang nodded. "We always do." She smiled at Lightning. "We make a pretty good team, don't we, sunshine?"

Lightning smiled grudgingly. "I suppose we do."

X X X

"What a big damn mess," Zack muttered as he took in the smoking ruins of what had been the printing press building. If that wasn't bad enough, the printing press itself was little more than a melted pile of scrap metal. He turned and surveyed the rest of the damage. There were bullet holes everywhere along with bloodstains and scorch marks. There was also a big hole in the fence and one of the caretakers' cottages had been blown to bits. He slanted a look at Cid. "Do you really think just four people could have done this?"

Cid nodded slowly. Like Zack, he'd been dragged out of bed early in the morning when reports of gunfire had come from the compound. He'd arrived to find the makings of a disaster and now, with the full extent of the damage visible in the early morning light, it was pretty clear that a disaster didn't even come close to describing it. "Apparently."

"Well, if that's the case, I'd like to meet them," Zack said with a grin. "It's been a while since I had a challenge." However, the smile dropped off his face when he caught sight of the person headed toward them. "Tell you what, Cid, I'll leave Hojo to you. I've got to go, uh, supervise the clean up."

Cid chuckled softly as he watched Zack almost sprint away. He couldn't really blame the other man. Hojo might be one of Cocoon's most valuable employees, a genius, really, but he was nothing if not… eccentric. In truth, Cid didn't like Hojo either, he was just better at hiding it. There was something detestable about Hojo, from the hunched, shuffling walk he had, to the eerie gleam that seemed to flash in his eyes whenever he thought no one was looking. Make no mistake, Hojo was dangerous and Cid was smart enough to keep wary of him, even if he was working for Cocoon.

"This is quite the mess, isn't it?" Hojo began. "And here I am, only a day back from the West."

"I assure you, the culprits will be caught." Cid's eyes narrowed.

"I don't doubt it. You've always been very thorough." Hojo grinned darkly. "Tell me, Cid, how are you going to catch them?"

Cid frowned faintly. He didn't like the hungry look in Hojo's eyes one bit. "I've spoken to some of the guards. It's pretty clear to me that they knew the layout of this place along with our patrol schedules. Whoever they are, they've been here recently." He glanced at the remains of the printing press building. "They also broke into the restricted area and removed some of the papers that are kept there."

"The restricted area? How interesting." Hojo raised one eyebrow. "But based on what else you've said perhaps they were a visitor here? Or maybe… a client?"

Cid nodded. "Those were my thoughts." He paused and then continued, "Just yesterday we had a new client come in, a man by the name of Estheim. He had two visitors with him too who seemed pretty keen to take a look at the place. At the time I didn't think too much of it, but now…"

"Ah." Hojo grinned widely and Cid felt a chill run through him. "Then why don't we find this Estheim and pay him a visit?" He chuckled. "I'd very much like to see if he knows anything." His eyes glittered. "And if he doesn't feel like talking, well, I have ways of making people talk."

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off this.

Well, here we are again. I'm happy that I was able to get this chapter out a bit more quickly than the last one. It's not exactly story-related, but I'd like to thank all of you for your kind thoughts regarding some of the things I mentioned in the author's notes of the last chapter. My mother's surgery went well and she'd doing much better. Thank you for your consideration – it's much appreciated.

Now, when I started, I wasn't sure how this chapter would end up, but I'm reasonably pleased with the end result. I wanted to have a bit more from Lightning's perspective and I thought it'd be nice to have her deal a little with the fact that Fang gets to her. I also wanted to have some fight scenes where Lightning and Fang got to show their stuff and work together. Plus, having Vanille lob explosives everywhere was something I'd been wanting to do since the last time (which was a fair number of chapters ago, now that I think about it). Incidentally, the entire scene with Lightning and Fang talking downstairs was not something that I'd originally envisioned when I started writing. It sort of just crept up on me when I asked myself: so… Vanille and Quistis are upstairs stealing stuff, what are Lightning and Fang doing? Yet that scene ended up being one of the ones that I liked the most.

And finally… we have Hojo. Anyone who knows anything about FF VII knows that the guy is one evil person, and I've been wanting to bring him in for a couple of chapters but he just didn't fit until now. Heh. Don't worry though, Hojo isn't the only villain we'll be seeing in this story. After all our intrepid cast hasn't dealt with Barthandelus yet, now have they?

On another note, I'll be graduating in about… seven hours. There is a virtual cookie (and maybe even a virtual Mr Snaggles) up for grabs for anyone who can guess what I'm graduating in. Looking back on previous author's notes, there is actually enough that you might be able to guess correctly.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.