The Train Job

Lightning had to fight the urge to get up and pace. The others had been gone for quite a spell now and she was beginning to wonder just what new kind of mess they'd gotten themselves into. The lot of them had spent the last few days on the train headed west toward the Al Bhed and there was still another day, day and a half to go before they'd have to switch over to chocobos. Things had been going well so far, maybe a little too well, especially when she thought about just how badly everything else to do with Cocoon had gone.

Right now the train was pulled up at the station in some town with a name she couldn't remember to take on some more passengers and cargo. The others had decided to head into town to pick up a few more supplies and ask around, see if maybe anyone knew anything about Cocoon. It was a bit of a long shot, but any information they could snag might make a difference, and it certainly couldn't hurt to ask, so long as they were careful about it.

In the meantime, Lightning had chosen to stay at a small café tucked into the train station, along with Serah and Vanille. Cocoon knew that they were coming and it would be just their kind of thinking to leave a few people behind to try and slow them up, maybe even try and take them out before they got to the Al Bhed. Here, in the café, she could keep an eye on the train, as well as keep on the look out for any shifty looking folks who might be poking their noses into things. At least, that was the idea, but with Vanille and Serah around, she wasn't sure she'd be able to get too much of that done.

The problem was Vanille was doing her level best to teach Serah how to gamble. Well, maybe not gamble, but definitely how to play cards. Sure, Serah already knew a couple of games – there wasn't a person out West who didn't know a few to while away the days when it got too hot to go outside, or the rains turned the dusty plains into seas of mud – but Serah did not need to know all of the many variants of the games played in seedy saloons across the West. Maybe the only thing worse than that was that Serah was actually turning out to be pretty good, or at least better than Lightning had been on the trip so far. Vanille, that little card sneak, would already have cleaned Lightning out if they'd been playing for money. Luckily though, they'd only been playing for pride, and as much as hers had taken a beating, it was still a damn sight better than if they'd been playing for clothes like Fang had suggested. Never mind the fact that she was just a tad – and only just a tad – curious about how Fang might look under that shirt of hers, but there was absolutely no way she'd be letting a game of chance tell her whether or not she had to wander around half naked. Besides, knowing her luck, Fang would probably massacre her in a game of cards, anyway.

"You look a mite bored there Lightning," Vanille said. "You sure you're not up for a game or two?"

Lightning glanced down at the table where her sister and the red head had their cards set up. From the looks of things they were using bullets in place of money, and Vanille was actually a little behind. She wasn't sure what bothered her more – the fact that Vanille was losing, and to Serah, of all people, or the fact that they were using bullets instead of money. "I'm doing just fine," Lightning said. "Besides, someone needs to keep an eye on things in case there's trouble headed our way."

"I guess that makes sense." Vanille grinned. "But knowing us, I figure there's no question about troubling being headed our way."

Serah giggled softly and Lightning gave her a look. "Sorry, Lightning," Serah said as she played her next card. "It's just… Vanille's sort of right. We've all got a bit of a knack for trouble, especially you and Fang, so we probably should just assume that there's trouble headed for us."

Lightning scowled, but there was no real heat to it. "I suppose you're right about that." She took another quick look around. So far, she hadn't seen a thing out of place, just the usual lazy shuffle of passengers and cargo she'd expect in an out of the way town like this one. "Maybe I should be worried about the others then. That lot were supposed to ask around town and see if maybe Cocoon's been here, plus pick up some supplies, but I wouldn't be surprised if they started a fight or two along the way." Her lips curled up at the edges. "That seems like something of a specialty for people like Fang and Snow."

Serah paused for a moment in her game of cards with Vanille and gave Lightning a faint frown. "I'm sure Snow would do his best to steer clear of a fight, Lightning, even if he'd be mighty handy in one."

Lightning scoffed. "Serah, I'll have you know that the second time I met Snow, he was mixing things up in Midgar Town in a saloon." Her eyes narrowed. "And that's not all. Hope was with him and the two of them were making quite a ruckus. If I recall correctly, Hope was even knocking people down with bits of furniture."

"Really?" Serah almost dropped her cards in shock and Vanille took a quick peek at what cards Serah had. She mustn't have liked what she saw too much because she frowned and look back at her own hand in disgust.

"Yes, really," Lightning said. Sighing just a little, she glanced back at Serah, giving Vanille a sharp look along the way to let the red head know that she didn't take kindly to cheating, especially not again Serah. "I've been thinking, Serah, but how do you…" she trailed off, not wanting to actually say the words out loud.

"How do I what?" Serah asked as she played her next card. That prompted a muttered curse from Vanille along with the start of the next game as the red head gave up.

"How do you actually beat Vanille?" Lightning ground out, a light blush on her cheeks. With no trouble around, she just couldn't help herself. She hated losing and if she had to ask Serah how to win, she supposed she'd just have to live with it. Anything, really, to stop the red head making her look like a fool every time they got a game started.

"I never figured you'd go crying to your little sister for help, sheriff," Vanille said with a cheeky grin and if Lightning hadn't forced herself to clench her hands into fists right that moment, she'd have lunged across the table and throttled Vanille instead.

"You're treading dangerously there, Vanille," Lightning warned. As tempting as it might be to strangle Vanille, Fang probably wouldn't be too pleased with her if she did, and she had a feeling that Sazh wouldn't take too kindly to it either. The retired bounty hunter might look a little long in the tooth, but he was plenty dangerous, even if he did complain an awful lot about being too old for trouble.

"Be nice," Serah said primly as she gave Vanille her best Lightning look, which mustn't have worked too well, because the red head's grin only widened. Still, a part of her was awfully pleased that Lightning had come to her for help. Even if it was only over something as silly as cards, it was nice to be able to give Lightning a hand for once, instead of the other way around. "Well, Lightning, it's not really all that tricky once you get the hang of things. What you need to do is count the cards so that you know which ones have been played and which ones are still in the deck. Once you can do that, then it's all about working out whether or not they're likely to have something better than what you've got." She smiled. "It also helps to watch people too, you know, like their faces and they way they're acting."

"I know all of that," Lightning said. "Just… how are you so good at it?"

Serah flushed faintly. "Well, you weren't always exactly, um… open with how you were feeling, so I got a lot of practice growing up." Seeing Lightning's look of surprise, Serah realised just how poorly her words could be taken. "Um… I don't mean that you weren't really, really great to me, or anything, you just weren't… well… quite so… uh… open about your feelings and all that." She winced. "I'm making a real mess of this aren't I?"

"You sure are," Vanille said.

Lightning scowled at Vanille. "No… it's all right, I know what you mean, and I guess you're right."

"Don't you dare feel bad about how you are, Lightning," Serah said firmly. "You did the best you could for me and I'm right proud to have you as my sister." She paused. "I also might have played a lot of cards while I was learning teaching." Lightning's eyes widened. "Well, Ashelia liked to play a lot and she was always dragging Captain Basch into things and then there was Lulu, she liked to play too." She laughed a little nervously. "And I guess it kind of helps that Vanille has a couple of habits that she falls into when she plays."

"That so?" Lightning wasn't sure quite what to say. She'd never figured Ashelia for being big on cards, although if she was, she could understand Basch being dragged into the thick of things.

"You're pretty sharp to pick up on those habits of mine," Vanille said before she smirked. "But I could cut them out if I really wanted to." She shuffled the cards up for the next game with an ease that was almost frightening. "In fact, I just might have to if I want to beat you, Serah." She glanced at Lightning. "And speaking of those habits of mine, I'm surprised you haven't picked up on those, Lightning. I'd have thought you'd have a pretty keen eye for things like that." Her eyes twinkled. "But I guess I can't blame you, seeing as how those keen eyes of yours seem mighty interested in something else besides the cards."

"Like what?" Lightning asked flatly. She didn't like the gleam in Vanille's eyes one bit.

"Oh, I don't know," Vanille giggled. "Maybe Fang?"

"I am not eyeing Fang," Lightning growled. Or maybe she was, just a little, and only every now and then, and only because Fang insisted on leaning toward her the whole damn time they were playing cards and only because Fang wasn't exactly the kind of woman who could be ignored. It hadn't help Lightning's cause one bit that she could swear that Fang knew she was looking and had undone an extra button on her shirt just to make things worse.

"Whatever you say," Vanille teased. "You up for another game, Serah?"

Serah nodded and Lightning turned her attention away from the game and back to everything else around them. There wasn't more than maybe an hour to go before the train got going again, and passengers had started to drift back in, although there still wasn't any sign of their group. Knowing them though, they'd probably get back just in time, and with a slew of hired guns on their tail to boot. The train was also taking on the last of the extra coal and water if would need to finish off the journey and she kept a keen eye on things just in case anybody got it into their heads to use all the hustle and bustle to make some trouble.

She was just about to glance back at Serah and Vanille's game when someone caught her eye. There was a woman just standing there and even if Lightning hadn't been on the look out, she'd have pegged her as dangerous. The woman had dark red-brown hair that fell just past her shoulders and she wore a long coat that was almost that same shade. Beneath the coat, the woman had dark grey trousers with a lighter grey shirt. But what really drew Lightning's eye were the two sabres the woman carried, one sheathed on each hip. Not many people used sabres these days, and Lightning couldn't really remember the last time she'd seen someone with two. More than that, the woman moved with an easy grace and held herself with the kind of self-assured posture that left Lightning with no doubt that she absolutely knew how to use those sabres she carried. Just then the woman looked her way and their eyes met. A cold, knowing smile played across the woman's lips and for one long moment they stared each other down until a crowd of passengers cut in between them. When the crowd finally cleared, the woman was gone.

"You see something, Lightning?" Vanille asked. There was still a grin on her face as she played her next card, but when her eyes moved away from Serah, there was a hint of seriousness in them.

"Maybe," Lightning said. "There was a woman there just a second ago that seemed mighty interested in us." She shifted so that she had a better view of their surroundings. "I don't know for sure, but just keep your eyes open. I have a feeling that she's trouble."

But neither trouble, nor the woman turned up again and Lightning wasn't sure what to make of that. When she'd met that woman's eyes, she'd known, deep down in her gut that the other woman's interest wasn't the least bit friendly. That woman had recognised her and Vanille, she was sure of it, and the only reason someone might be on the look out for them was if they worked for Cocoon. Still, when the others got back a good half hour before the train was due to leave, there still hadn't been any sign of trouble.

"Anything interesting happen while we were gone?" Fang asked as the lot of them got settled back on the train. They were set up in a couple of booths in one of the better carriages. Each booth was made up of a group of seats facing each other with a fold out table that could be opened up in the middle.

"Just the one thing," Lightning said. "But I'll get to that in a second. Did you find out anything useful in town?"

Fang chuckled. "Now that you mention it, we were able to wrangle a few little bits of information out of a fellow or two down at the local saloon." Sazh choked back a laugh and Fang shot him a glare. "You got something to say, Sazh?"

Sazh grinned at Lightning. "What Fang means, sheriff, is that we may have jumped a fellow on his way out of the saloon after he mentioned Cocoon."

"That so?" Lightning scowled. They didn't need to make any more trouble for themselves, seeing as how they were in plenty enough as it was.

"I wouldn't say we jumped him," Fang said. "It's more that he ran into my fists a couple of times and well… he might have run into Fujin's boots a few times too, seeing as how he was real clumsy." Fang and Fujin shared a chuckle. "Anyway, it turns out that Cocoon passed this way not too long ago. Hojo had quite a few hired guns with him too, and it seems that he left a couple behind to try and give us trouble."

"If that's the case, then where are they?" Lightning asked. "We're about to head off and there's been no sign of them yet." She paused and frowned. "Although there was someone earlier who seemed mighty interested in us at the station. She's probably one of them."

Fang smirked and Lightning felt tempted to reach over and whack her upside the head. "You're quite the looker, sunshine, how do you know she wasn't all taken in by those sweet, womanly charms of yours."

Lightning's hand twitched and Serah gave her a knowing look. Fine, she might not be able to hit Fang just yet, but maybe after they'd dealt with all the trouble she could. "I don't think that was it. She knew who we were, Fang, I'm sure of it."

"Well, what did this woman look like?" Fang asked. Lightning gave her a quick description. "I can't say I know her," Fang said slowly, once Lightning had finished, "But she sounds a little like someone Reeve mentioned once."

"Oh?" Lightning's eyes narrowed a fraction. It would've been real nice to bring Reeve along given everything he knew, but short of knocking him out and trussing him up, there was no way they'd ever get him to go along with them.

"Hojo's got a lot of people who work for him. Reeve couldn't tell me all that much about most of them, but this woman you talked about sounds a little similar to one of the nastier ones he told me about." Fang shrugged. "Although the way I see it, just about anyone who works for Hojo has got to be a real piece of work, anyway." She pursed her lips. "You're right though, we probably are headed into trouble and now that I think about it, this place is likely as good a place as any."

"What do you mean by that?" Lightning asked. Although she'd seen a fair bit of the West as a sheriff, she'd never been out this way before and they were pretty much relying on Fang and Vanille to guide them.

Fang pointed out the window. "Just look out the window, sunshine. There's some pretty rugged terrain up ahead. Those hills we're about to head into were too tough to just blast through when they were laying the tracks, so once the trains get there, the track gets all tricky and the train has to slow down plenty just to get through there safely."

"Slow enough to get a decent shot at, I bet," Lightning said slowly. "And probably slow enough for someone to try and board, too, right?"

Fang grinned. "You got it, sunshine. I'd bet that woman of yours never turned up again because she had to ride out there and get the rest of her friends into position."

"I see." Lightning looked at Serah. "Serah, I don't want you sitting near the windows." She frowned. "Go sit by Snow." Seeing the soft smile on her sister's lips and the big grin on Snow's, she couldn't stop herself from adding, "If nothing else, he's big enough that they'll find it just about impossible to shoot around him and get you."

Vanille laughed and Serah gave Lightning a little smile. Over the trip, Serah had actually told Lightning that she thought Lightning was warming up to Snow. Frankly, Lightning didn't think too much of that idea, but Snow had proved that he was completely useless and she wasn't so petty that she'd deny that. Besides, she meant what she said. Snow would do a lot better than her as a human shield, and she knew he'd have no problems getting between Serah and a few bullets.

"Well," Vanille said as the train gave a few harsh whistles. "Since we're about to get moving and there really isn't all that much else we can do, who's up for a game of cards?"

X X X

Lightning made a disgusted sound as Vanille won yet another game. Damn it, the red head really was good. Right now, the game was her, Fang, Vanille, and Fujin, and only the marshal seemed to be having much luck against the little bandit.

"You know," Fang drawled. "You don't have to feel so bad about losing, sunshine."

"What makes you say that?" Lightning ignored the chuckle that came from Quistis as Fujin leaned over to show the other woman her cards.

"Vanille's probably just about the best card player in the West." Fang pulled Vanille into a playful sort of headlock. "When Vanille and I weren't too busy emptying Cocoon's pockets of its ill gotten gains, she was busy emptying the pockets of pretty much every cut throat, hired gun, and stockman in the West. Hell, how do you think Vanille affords all that stuff she uses to make explosives? Those chemicals aren't cheap and you've seen how many explosives she goes through whenever there's fighting to be done."

"Thing is, winning at cards isn't half as much fun as robbing Cocoon blind." Vanille paused for a second. "Well, except for the odd saloon fight. Those can be pretty fun and Fang loves getting a good punch or two in."

"I just bet she does," Lightning muttered as they got the next game set up. As Vanille shuffled the cards, she took a quick glance out the window and frowned. The open, rolling plains had given way to some pretty densely wooded hills. The train had already had to slow down a fair bit to negotiate some of the trickier twists and turns and the trees made it hard to see too much of anything. It was just about perfect for an ambush and maybe the only thing they had going their way was that it was only an hour or so past midday. At least when the ambush did come, they'd be able to see what they were shooting at.

"What can I say," Fang said. "I happen to like a good scrap every now and then, it keeps me from getting rusty." She rubbed her jaw and smirked at Lightning. "And so does sunshine there, if I remember right."

Lightning scowled. "I can't say I like getting into a scrap too much, you just seem to deserve a good punch to the jaw more than most."

"Just admit it, sunshine, I get to you." Fang glanced over at Vanille. "Now, how about we change the stakes a little? Maybe –"

"We are not playing for clothing." Lightning glared at Fang and even Vanille had the good sense to edge away from the other woman just a fraction. Honestly, Fang really should have learned by now that there was absolutely no chance that they would ever be wagering clothing. "And wipe that silly grin off your face, Fang, you haven't exactly been doing too well yourself today."

Fang's grin only widened. "Well, maybe I just need the proper incentive to do well." Very slowly and very deliberately, she let her gaze drop below Lightning's face and she was hard pressed not to laugh when she spotted Lighting's eye twitch. "The fact is, I'm quite the player when I've got something worth playing for."

Aware that all of the others were, once again, having a great deal of fun at her expense, she turned her gaze away from Fang and back out the window. It was lucky that she did. From just behind one of the trees, she saw the glint of something metal and as the train drew closer to it, she realised what it was.

It was the barrel of a rifle.

"Get down!" Lightning shouted as she shoved the fold up table out of the way and dove for the ground. Along the way, she grabbed Fang and Vanille, and looked around to make sure that Snow had gotten Serah safely behind him.

An instant later, the window closest to them came apart in a shower of glass. Screams filled the air as the roar of the shot died away, but they were swamped almost instantly as more gunfire poured into the carriage.

"Damn it," Fang growled as she ducked beneath the windowsill and brushed bits of glass off her coat. "They don't do things halfway do they?"

"No, I guess they don't," Lightning replied as she took a quick look around the carriage. The gunfire still hadn't let up and there wasn't a window in the carriage that hadn't been blown in. Bits of glass were everywhere and not far from her there was a passenger doubled over, a great blotch of red already visible just above his belt. He wasn't the only one injured either. Others had cut themselves on the glass or had hurt themselves in the mad dash for cover, and she was pretty sure that the five or six people lying sprawled on the ground riddled with bullets were dead. Her jaw clenched. It was bad enough that Cocoon was trying to kill them, but the fact that they'd go this far, gun down so many people who weren't involved, only filled her with cold fury. They were going to pay, all right, she'd see to that herself. "Quistis," she shouted over the gunfire. "Can you see anything?"

Quistis was the one furthest from the side where the shooters were and so she had a better chance of seeing what was going on. "They're all holed up behind those trees on the hill." She ducked quickly as a bullet raced over her head. "There's at least ten of them, maybe more and…"

"What?" Lightning growled.

"Some of them are headed this way, some on chocobos, others on foot. It looks like they're going to try and board the train." Quistis cursed. "If they get on, that'll make things real tricky for us."

Lightning nodded. The train was going awfully slow right now, but the train driver would probably speed up now that they'd come under fire. Still, the hired guns would have more than enough time to hop on the train and given the winding nature of the tracks, the train was probably going to circle around the other side of the hill, which would give the hired guns another chance to either board the train or take them out from the top of the hill.

"All right," Lightning said. "Here's how we're going to do things. Sazh, Vanille, I want you two to head back toward the end of the train and give those hired guns trying to hop on board something to think about." She looked at Fang. "Fang, I want you to head over to the train driver. Those hired guns might go after him and if they get him then we'll be in all kinds of trouble."

Fang nodded. "Sounds good. What about you sunshine?"

Lightning drew her pistols. "I'll be here with Quistis and Fujin. We need to take out those hired guns on the hill, otherwise, they'll just keep shooting and if that happens, they're bound to hit one of us eventually." She scowled. "And knowing our luck, there'll be more of them on the hills ahead too."

"What about me?" Snow asked. The big man looked a little nervous at the thought of shooting and with all the bullets flying everywhere and people screaming, Lightning couldn't really find it in her to blame him.

"You?" Lightning sighed. "You and Serah stay here and keep together. Either of you see a shot, you take it, but make sure you keep my sister out of trouble, you hear me?"

Snow gulped and pulled Serah closer, the two of them crouched behind a chair. "Sure thing."

"Good," Lightning said as she pushed herself to her feet and pointed both pistols out the window. "Now enough talk, it's time to get shooting."

As Lightning blazed away with both barrels, less concerned with actually hitting anyone than she was with giving the others some covering fire, she saw Fang flash her a jaunty grin before the other woman headed for the doors of the carriage that would take her up toward the front. A moment later, Vanille and Sazh made a break for it too, both of them headed toward the back of the train. With those three safely to the doors, Lightning slowed her shots a little to try and pick off a few of the hired guns. It wouldn't be easy though, not with the train still moving and lurching about, albeit slowly, and not with the hired guns up on the top of that hill a fair distance away.

Even with all the problems, Lightning managed to hit one of the hired guns with her second shot. The bullet hit the hired gun just below his collar and he jerked backward and began to roll down the hill. However, the other hired guns weren't about to just let her stand there and pick her shots. A fresh round of gunfire forced her back down behind some cover and as she snuck a glimpse over the windowsill, she saw that a fair number of them had begun to move down the hill to take advantage of the train's slow speed and get some shots in from a closer range.

Well, she could probably leave the closer ones to Sazh and Vanille, but the ones up on the hill were starting to get real troublesome. Unfortunately, her pistols weren't too suited for this kind of shooting, and she'd need to save the bullets in case they did manage to get on the train.

"Quistis," Lightning shouted. "Can you get me my rifle?"

The blonde nodded and tossed the weapon over to Lightning. Before they'd set off from Eden City, they'd been more than happy to accept some extra weapons from Basch and Ashelia and while Lightning and Fujin had opted to take rifles, Quistis had opted for a shotgun. Sadly though, a shotgun wouldn't be much use at long range, but Quistis was damn good with a pistol and she managed to drop another two hired guns before she had to get back behind a shot up chair and reload.

"I'll pick them off, Quistis," Lightning said as she brought her rifle up to her shoulder and let the barrel rest on the windowsill, taking a moment or two to knock what little remained of the window's glass out of the way. "Just give me some covering fire."

Quistis nodded and Lightning peered down the length of the barrel of her rifle. For just a second, the whole world faded away and Lightning's entire universe narrowed down to what was in her rifle's sights. A hired gun looked back at her, his rifle aimed squarely at her chest, and she waited a heartbeat to steady her aim and then squeezed the trigger.

They fired almost together and Lightning heard Serah gasp as something whipped past her head, so close that the wind of its passage swept her hat off her head. At almost the same time though, the hired gun cried out as the impact of her shot tore the rifle from his hands and tossed back into the tree behind him. He lay there, sprawled at the base of the tree, his chest one big mass of red.

"NICE," Fujin said as she brought her own rifle up. The silver haired woman fired and Lightning watched another hired gun take a hit just above the middle of his chest and go down.

Lightning managed to get three more shots off before the train rounded the side of the hill to give them a quick break in the action. As she reloaded her rifle, Lighting took a glance around the carriage. Most of the passengers had caught on and were huddled on the ground and out of sight of the windows, which was good. All of them though, were looking at her and the others in the group with a mix of shock and amazement.

"Stay down," Lightning warned as she struggled to get a believable story together. "Those men up on that hill are bandits looking to rob this train. Keep out of the way and we'll see to them."

The train rounded the side of the hill and Lightning bit her lip. Why hadn't the train sped up yet? Right now, they were sitting ducks and it wouldn't be too long before they were back in the hired guns' sites. Worse, she was pretty sure that a few of those hired guns had managed to board the train.

"Come on, Fang" she murmured. "Get to the driver."

X X X

Fang scowled as she shoved past yet another terrified passenger. It wasn't that she blamed them too much for being scared. Certainly, having bullets flying everywhere was sure to make just about any scared unless they were either in the business of keeping the law, or breaking it. Still, that didn't mean people had to run around screaming and carrying on. Not only did that make it harder for her to get past them, it also made them a lot more likely to get hit in the cross fire, especially since some of the hired guns up on the hill seemed to have noticed her and were now doing their level best to fill her with holes.

"Get down!" Fang growled before she grabbed the man shoving at her and pushed him to the floor. He cursed, but stopped dead in his tracks when a bullet whizzed through the air just over his head. "Now, look, you can either run around screaming and get your head blown off, or you can stay down. So damn it," Fang said. "Stay down."

For good measure, she shot him a glare and then pressed onward. The front of the train where the driver was set up was only one more passenger carriage away, but the fact that they still hadn't sped up made her mighty suspicious. It wasn't that unlikely that the hired guns had some people on the train with the passengers and the driver, and if that were the case, then she'd have to deal with them first.

She stopped just shy of the door to the next carriage and used the doorframe for cover as she dropped down to her knees and looked under the door. There was a gap there just big enough for her to make out the shadow of someone in front of it. Combined with the fact that she couldn't really hear anyone making any noise on the other side, she figured that there were probably at least a few hired guns there to make sure no one got to the driver. As she stood up, she smirked. Time to get to work.

With a big grin on her face, she took several steps back and then leapt forward to deliver a huge kick to the door. The blow knocked the door right off its hinges and she heard the hired gun curse wildly before he went down under it. For a moment, the rest of the carriage just stared and she seized the chance to take a quick look around. There were five hired guns in the carriage, two of them in the aisle in front of her and another three by the door to the driver.

Almost as one, the hired guns turned their guns on her, but she beat them to the draw. Both of her guns came up and she fired quickly, glad that the passengers were too stunned to even think of moving. Her first shots took out the two in the aisle along with one of the hired guns by the door, but then she had to high tail it out of the carriage as the other two returned fire. Funnily enough, the hired gun under the door was still conscious, because he'd cursed again as she stepped on the door to get to cover.

She waited a few seconds for the gunfire to stop before she quickly peeked out and squeezed off a round. Her shot hit one of the hired guns in the chest and she waited for the heavy thump of a body hitting the ground before she peered out from cover again and dropped the second hired gun. With both of them out of the way, she fired a shot through the door she'd kicked down and headed for the door to the driver. As she was about to open it, she stopped. The chances were that there was another hired gun with the driver and if she just walked in there, she'd end up with a bullet in her. Standing beside the door, she reached over and opened it. At least this way, if there were someone there, he'd end up shooting nothing but air.

Just like she'd expected, the moment the door was open, there was a hail of bullets. However, quite unlike she'd expected, the bullets came to an abrupt end as a loud clang filled the air. A moment later, the body of the hired gun flew through the door. What in blazes?

Slowly, Fang inched around and glanced inside the door. A sudden blur of movement had her ducking and she dropped to the ground just in time to dodge a shovel that would have taken her head off. Still on the ground, she brought her pistol up.

"Hold it right there!" Fang growled. "What do you think you're doing?"

The shovel stopped and Fang finally got a good look at the person who'd almost taken her head off. He had a slightly scruffy look to him and his blonde hair stood up just a little at the front. There were a pair of goggles on his forehead too and she could tell that he was pretty solidly built beneath the blue overall he wore.

"You another one of those bandits?" the man growled. "Cause if you are, I'll deal with you just like I dealt with that other man."

Fang glanced past the blonde. Behind him was a mousy looking sort of brunette woman with glasses. She lowered her gun. "Look, I'm not with them, if that's what you're worried about. In fact, I'm just here to make sure that you keep this train going, maybe even get it going a little faster so that we can get out of this mess."

The man searched her eyes for a moment and then reached down to haul her up. "The name's Cid," he said before he pointed back at the woman. "And that's Shera. The two of us do the driving." He lifted his shovel. "Shera's not too big though, so I end up doing most of the shovelling when the engine needs more coal. She's a good engineer though, one of the best there is."

"Nice to me you Cid, Shera." Fang inclined her head. "I'm Fang. Now, I don't suppose we could speed up a little? As you might've noticed, there are a lot of people out there trying to riddle this bag of bolts with bullets."

"Don't you call my train a bag of bolts!" Cid growled as he brandished his shovel.

Fang grimaced. It was a pretty big shovel and she already knew that Cid could use it pretty well too. It was just like that time she'd insulted Vanille about her explosives. "Look, forget I said that. Can you go faster or not?"

Cid grinned. "Don't you worry about a thing. Without that fool pointing a gun at me and Shera, we can really put on some steam." He glanced back at Shera. "Come on, Shera, we need to get things set up so we can put on some speed." He pursed his lips. "Still, it'll be tricky with the terrain being what it is. We can't go too fast, otherwise we'll end up jumping the rails."

"Just do what you can," Fang said. "Show me just what this bag of bolts can do." She looked out the window and rolled her eyes. Just perfect, some of the hired guns were on chocobos and were headed their way. She leaned out the window and fired a few times. Her shots dropped one hired gun and forced the others to veer away. "Mind hurrying it up a little? There are more of them headed this way."

X X X

Sazh gave Vanille a stern look. "Now, Vanille, I know for a fact that you've got explosives on you, but you've got to promise me you won't be using any of them."

Vanille pouted. "Come on, Sazh, just a couple wouldn't hurt."

The dark-skinned man spluttered for a moment. "Wouldn't hurt? We're on a train, Vanille. Just one of those things would probably blow the train in half and while I know that's something you and Fang have done before, I don't think that'd be such a good idea today. Besides, if you blow this train in half, we'll have to walk the rest of the way and there's no way I'm doing that."

Vanille giggled and gave her shotgun a quick look to make sure it was ready. "Fine, fine." She grinned at Sazh. "Just make sure you can keep up, old man."

Sazh scowled. "I get enough of that from Fang, I don't need it from you too." He gestured toward the door to the next carriage. "You ready?"

Vanille nodded and took the lead. With a shotgun it was probably best for her to be up front and to be honest, given how trigger-happy she could be, Sazh wasn't too keen to be in front of her. They got the door open and Sazh took a look around. There were frightened passengers huddled everywhere, but there didn't seem to be any sign of the hired guns. Where were they?

As if they'd heard what he was thinking, the door at the opposite end of the carriage burst open and a hired gun rushed in. He saw them right away and rushed to get his gun up, but Vanille was ready for him. The shotgun roared and the hired gun flew back into the group behind him. A few more hired guns stumbled past and Vanille fired again, the shotgun as loud as thunder in the confines of the carriage.

"Cover me, Sazh!" Vanille shouted as she dropped back behind a chair to reload.

"Just hurry up," Sazh said as he stepped forward, both guns at the ready.

The hired guns had picked themselves up off the ground and Sazh fired quickly, glad that he'd kept reasonably in practice over the years. Two of the hired guns reeled backward, their chest stained red, but more of them came through the narrow door, and Sazh muttered a curse as gunfire forced him back behind a chair for cover.

"There's an awful lot of them," Vanille said. "Might be tricky if we don't do something soon."

Sazh reloaded his pistols. "I'll go grab their attention, how about you charge them with that shotgun of yours?"

Vanille chuckled. "That sounds like fun."

Sazh shook his head slowly. Hopefully Dajh would turn out okay, because when it came to Fang and Vanille, he'd raised two pretty crazy people. With one last look at Vanille, he pushed out from behind the chair and opened fire on the hired guns. Bullets filled the air around him and he muttered a curse as a couple put holes in his coat. Damn it, Lahna had made quite a fuss about how nice he looked in this coat and now that he'd managed to put a couple of holes in it, she was going to kill him.

As the shooting continued, Vanille leapt out into the open and charged toward the door. She waited until she was right on top of the hired guns, so close that Sazh was sure that the hired gun she was aiming at could see every scratch on the barrel of the shotgun, before she fired. The hired guns reeled away, the man she'd hit airborne, before she lined up her next shot and fired again. Shotgun empty for the moment, Vanille dropped it and went for her pistols. She fired quickly, too close to miss, and Sazh rushed over to add his own gunfire to the mix.

"Well, that's those guys taken care of," Sazh said as the two of them stepped into the next carriage. "What now?"

The answer came a moment later as several windows burst open and hired guns leapt into the carriage. As if that weren't bad enough, the carriage door that people boarded the train through burst open too and more hired guns filed in.

"I just had to ask, didn't I?" Sazh muttered as Vanille giggled and brought her shotgun up. "I just had to ask."

X X X

Lightning growled as the hail of bullets stopped only for several hired guns to pull up alongside in chocobos and either leap in through the windows or through the doors of the carriage that were for boarding the train. Never mind the hired guns up on the hill, they'd have their work cut out for them with the hired guns in the carriage.

The hired gun closest to Lightning fired and Lightning flinched away as the shot came a little too close for comfort. In fact, she thought as she reached down to touch the collar of her coat, another inch or two more and she'd have had a hole in her neck, a pretty big one too. Eyes narrowed, she fired back and her shot hit the man the stomach before a second hit him in the chest and put him down for good. Behind her, she could hear Quistis and Fujin firing too, but the hired guns were getting too close for gunplay now, which meant they'd have little choice but to settle things the old fashioned way.

As one hired gun lunged forward at her, Lightning ducked under his punch and then landed a punch to the gut that doubled him over. As he struggled to breathe, she grabbed him by the back of his shirt and shoved him toward the window. He hit the windowsill with a cry and then tipped out the window, his scream of horror drowned out as the train gave several loud whistles and finally began to pick up speed. Good, she thought, Fang must have reached the train driver in one piece.

Another man lunged at her and Lightning landed a solid kick to his chest that knocked him toward Snow and Serah. For a moment, she felt a stab of worry, but she shouldn't have. Now that the fight was all about fisticuffs, Snow was not only ready, he was confident about throwing himself into the thick of things. He grabbed the man and, easy as could be, hurled him several yards away through the nearest window. It was, Lightning thought grudgingly, not something she could have done, especially that easily.

And it was a good thing too that Snow was ready to mix it up, because the hired guns seemed to have realised that Lightning, Quistis, and Fujin could handle themselves plenty well. So, rather than go after them, they went after Serah instead. The younger Farron sidestepped the first of them neatly and stuck her foot out. He tripped and hit the ground headfirst and was out cold before anyone could quite believe what had happened.

"NOT BAD," Fujin said.

"Um… I didn't mean to," Serah said.

That was all the hired guns needed to hear to charge right after her, but Snow was already in motion. He grabbed the first man and flung him into the wall. A second leapt at him, but Snow just swatted him out of the air with one big fist, and the hired gun crashed to the ground already unconscious. More of the hired guns closed in, but Snow was careful to keep himself between them and Serah.

"He's not bad," Quistis remarked as she and Lighting ended up back to back. A few yards off, Fujin leapt into a kick that knocked one hired gun off his feet. She landed gracefully, and twisted into a low sweep that tripped up another hired gun.

Lightning blocked a punch and deck the hired gun with a solid right to the jaw. "I suppose he's not too bad." Suddenly she stopped and looked up. Unless she was mistaken, she'd just heard footsteps up on the roof. But what would they be doing on the roof unless they were…

The sound of gunfire filled the air along with the sound of mangled metal as bullets rained down on them through the roof of the carriage. Several of the hired guns were caught in the attack and went down. Thankfully, Snow had managed to get Serah toward the door of the carriage and Lightning gave him a stern look.

"Get her out of here," Lightning said. "Fang should be up with the train driver, so you should be safe if you can get there." She winced as another bullet skimmed her leg. "Quistis, Fujin, you two stay here and deal with things. I'm going to go deal with the ones up top."

Not waiting to see if her orders had been followed, Lightning darted over to the window and leaned out. She hopped up onto the windowsill and turned and from there she was able to grab hold of the edge of the roof and pull herself up. Her sudden arrival caught the hired guns up there off guard and she managed to knock two of them off the train before the others realised what had happened.

The train lurched beneath her and she realised that the train had really begun to put on some speed. A quick glance over her shoulder told her why: there were still a few more twists and turns up ahead, but past that, the tracks straightened out into a bridge over a wide, fast flowing river. Turning her eyes back to the hired guns, she went for her pistols. She hadn't had time to fully reload them amidst all the chaos in the carriage, but she'd just have to make do.

As she rushed forward, the hired guns fired, but she was ready and she ducked beneath the first salvo. She returned fire as she rose, dropping three of them before her guns clicked empty. With not time to reload, she settled for just shoving the next one off the train before the train whipped around a corner with enough speed to almost throw all of them off their feet. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet and a kick to the chin knocked another hired gun off the train before the next swung a huge, haymaker of a punch at her head. She was just a little too slow to get out of the way, but she was able to get her shoulder up in time to take most of the force. Still, she nearly fell off the roof as she stumbled, and the hired gun charged forward to take advantage. Rather than try and meet him head on, she stepped to the side and used the momentum of his charge to fling him over her hip and off the train.

"You're not half bad." The words came from the last hired gun, the woman she'd seen back at the train station. Her red-brown hair whipped back and forth in the wind and she had a pistol out and trained squarely on Lightning's chest. "Then again, after seeing what happened to Hojo and his house after you and your little group went after that friend of yours, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised."

"Who are you?" Lightning asked as she took a slow step to the side. The other woman was holding her gun almost carelessly, but Lightning didn't let that fool her. Whoever, this woman was, Lightning would bet that if she so much as twitched wrong, she'd end up with a bullet in her.

The woman grinned in a way that Lightning couldn't help but find unsettling. It was the look of someone just teetering on the brink of madness. "The name's Rosso, sheriff, although most people like to call me Crimson."

"Why's that?" Lightning asked. She needed to play for time and hope that Rosso screwed up.

"I'm glad you asked." Lightning's eyes widened as Rosso holstered her gun. "See, the reason they call me Rosso is because I have a habit of just, shall we say, messing up the people I kill." She reached down for the sabres at her side and drew both of them. "See, guns are nice and all, but nothing really stacks up to just slicing people up yourself." She shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a hands on kind of person."

Lightning's hand went to her waist and she drew the knife she always carried. It was gift from Serah and while it wasn't all that big, it was definitely sturdy, and it was a whole lot better than going up against two sabres bare handed. "That so?"

Rosso smiled and levelled one of her sabres at Lightning's chest. "You know, it took me a while to settle on using my sabres. I mean there are lots of other ways to kill you that are plenty hands on too. I thought about strangling you, garrotting you, hell even just beating you to death, but in the end, I figured that sabres would be best, seeing as how I could take my time a little, really get to know you before finish you off." She laughed and her big red coat flapped in the wind. "I hope you're ready, because I've been looking forward to this."

And then she moved.

Lightning's eyes widened. Rosso was fast, real fast. One sabre whipped down and Lighting only just managed to get back in time. Rosso followed her and the second sabred swept toward Lightning from the side. At the last moment, she managed to get her survival knife up and sparks flew as the sabre skittered off the knife and over Lightning's head. But before Lightning could even think of striking back, Rosso's other sabre was in motion, this time aimed straight at her heart.

"You're mighty fast," Rosso drawled as Lightning backed away, a thin cut on her shirt. "Then again, Hojo said they called you 'Lightning'." She spun one sabre lazily and then rushed forward again. "This is turning out to be real fun."

Lightning had often heard that she wouldn't know what fun was if it came up and punched her in the face, but she was dead certain this wasn't fun. Rosso might be all kinds of messed up if the gleam in her eyes and the smile on her lips was anything to go by, but she was also damn good with those sabres. As much as Lightning tried, she just couldn't find a gap and she found herself giving more and more ground as Rosso's lashed out again and again.

"That's it," Rosso taunted. "You're doing well to last this long, but then again, that's what makes this fun."

Lightning cursed as one of the sabres nearly cut off her arm. However, the next strike went just wide enough for Lightning for her to sneak inside Rosso's guard and strike out at the other woman with her knife. Rosso flinched away, but as they parted, the other woman struck. Lightning scowled. Rather than cutting deeply into Rosso's chest, her knife had only managed to score a thin cut along the other woman's arm. To make things worse, that last strike of Rosso's had actually managed to hit and while the cut in Lightning's side wasn't deep, she could already feel it begin to sting.

"Well, well, well," Rosso drawled as she ran her eyes along the cut on her arm. "You're even better than I thought." She chuckled. "Maybe it's time I stopped holding back on you then."

This time, when Rosso attacked, Lightning had no time at all to think. Every blow, every strike, every move was executed with lethal speed and deadly intent. It wasn't long either before the task of trying to parry or block Rosso's blows with her knife made Lightning's arm ache. If she'd had a sabre of her own, things might be different, but as it was, Rosso had the upper hand and it didn't help one bit that Rosso was being careful to keep out of Lightning's range. Crazy she might be, but Rosso sure knew how to handle herself.

Abruptly, the train reached the bridge and they both had to steady themselves as it began to pick up more speed, the sound of the river drowned out by the roar of the train as it rattled over the tracks. Even so, Lightning couldn't help but notice the way the waters of the river churned almost a hundred feet below. A fall from this weight could easily be fatal.

"Like the view?" Rosso taunted as she lifted her sabres again. "How about we finish things?" She darted forward again only to stop short as a bullet streaked through the air over Lightning's shoulder and nearly took her head off.

"I'm afraid you'll have to find someone else to pick on," Fang drawled. "Because this one's mine."

Whatever relief Lightning might have felt at Fang's arrival vanished as the other woman wrapped one arm around her waist.

"We finished up downstairs, sunshine, and I thought I might come give you a hand up here." Fang smirked and tightened her hold on Lightning. "I'm glad I did too, because she looks more than a little crazy." She waved the gun at Rosso. "Mind dropping those sabres of yours? I've got a couple of questions to ask you and I'm sure Lightning does too." She chuckled softly before adding in a teasing tone, "Although I'd be worried about Lightning's questions – her fists tend to do a lot of the talking."

Rosso scowled but made no move to drop her sabres. "You're looking awfully confident for someone who just barged in on things."

Fang smirked. "And you're just lucky sunshine here didn't have something bigger than that knife of hers, otherwise you'd be missing a limb or two." Her smile vanished. "Now put down those sabres, or I'll put you down myself."

Rosso's eyes narrowed and quick as flash she flung both her sabres at Fang and Lightning. Fang cursed and fired as Lightning grabbed her and threw both of them flat against the roof of the train. The sabres whistled through the air over their heads and they looked up just in time to see Rosso leap off the train and plunge into the river far below. As they got back to their feet, Lightning could just make out a head of red-brown hair as Rosso clawed to the surface of the river.

"You know, sunshine, we always seem to run into the strangest people," Fang said.

Lightning grabbed Fang by the collar. "Why didn't you just shoot her?"

"We needed her for questioning, and before you ask me why I didn't just shoot her in the leg, you know as well as I do that she might have tripped and fallen off the train if I did that." Fang sighed. "Not that I didn't want to shoot her." Her gaze dropped to the cut in Lightning's side. "Especially since she did that to you."

Lightning flushed a little at the warmth in Fang's voice and eyes. "By the way," she said softly. "Thank you for showing up, I appreciate it."

Fang shrugged. "You'd have handled it yourself if you'd had something better than that knife of yours. Besides, it's not like I could have done any better in your shoes, and I know you'd have done the same for me." She paused. "Only you probably would have just shot her, I suppose."

Lightning smiled faintly. "I probably would have."

"Now, if you really want to thank me," Fang said as she reached for Lightning's shirt and got to work on the buttons "You'll let me take a look at that wound of yours."

X X X

Inside the train carriage, Serah sent a worried look up at the ceiling. "Do you think they're all right?"

Vanille was about to reply when Lightning's voice came in through the bullet holes in the ceiling.

"Fang!" Lightning roared before they heard the sound of cloth being cut.

"Hey, back off there, sunshine, no need to get all violent with that knife of yours," Fang said. "I was just taking a look at that wound of yours."

As the shouts above them continued, Vanille turned back to Serah with a smile. "Yep, I'd say they're just fine."

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy nor am I making a dime off this.

Well, you didn't think they'd get to the Al Bhed without at least a little bit of trouble, did you? This chapter was a fun one to write, because I've pretty much been waiting to write something involving a train and lots of guns. Sure, Fang and Vanille might've blown up a train and everything, but I didn't actually get a chance to write that particular scene out.

The choice of Rosso the Crimson as the leader of the hired guns wasn't one I had to think about too much. She's got links with Hojo (see Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus) and she's also suitably villainous in her own right. Although she had a double bladed weapon in FF VII: DoC, I just don't think that'd be too appropriate in a more Western setting so I decided to give her two sabres instead. It's not exactly the same, but if slicing and dicing is your thing (and it most certainly is Rosso's thing), then it's probably close enough.

I also couldn't resist adding the bit at the end, with Fang acting suitably heroic and then messing it up by wanting to take just a little too close of a look at Lightning's wound. Of course, you can't exactly blame the woman for trying, now can you? Fang's just lucky that Lightning didn't slug her, or she might've ended up in the river with Rosso. The idea of Vanille being good at cards was also one that I've been waiting to toss in, because I think it just suits her. Once I had that in place, I couldn't resist a couple of jibes at Lightning's expense either.

For those who don't know, Cid Highwind and Shera are from FF VII. I couldn't exactly get them a rocket or an airship, but I did manage to get them a train. Not quite the same, but I figured it would be a little strange if they had a rocket, given the Western setting and everything.

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