Wish Upon a Star

Fang checked the saddle on her chocobo one more time and then nodded in satisfaction. It was just going on noon and now that they'd gone as far as the train would take them, it was time to switch over to chocobos for the rest of the journey to the Al Bhed. After the not so little shoot out on the train, there hadn't been any more trouble but she wasn't quite sure what to make of that. It could be that Cocoon had finally started to run out of hired guns to throw their way – they'd certainly killed enough to make that seem pretty reasonable. But, it could also be that Cocoon was setting a trap for them, gathering all of the people they had left to put up a real big fight near the Al Bhed. That was probably the way of things and Fang could only hope that she and the others had what it took to see things through.

"Well, I'm just about ready," Fang said as she turned to see how the others were doing with their chocobos. "How about the rest of you?"

Lightning made a disgusted sound and pointed at the rest of the group. "Do they look ready?" she asked. "The way things are going, the ride over to the Al Bhed is going to be mighty interesting."

Fang followed Lightning's gaze and swallowed a chuckle. Somehow, Serah had ended up with a real mean looking big grey chocobo. The bird's eyes were narrowed and it was eyeing her a lot like she was lunch. To her credit though, Serah was standing her ground, but it didn't take much thinking to realise that in any kind of fight, the chocobo would definitely come out on top.

Not too far off from Serah, Vanille was pretty much the opposite. She had her own chocobo just about eating out of the palm of her hand, the two of them already as thick as thieves. Fujin and Quistis were all right too, which didn't surprise Fang all that much. As marshals, they probably did a fair bit of riding and Fujin could glare well enough with that one eye of hers to scare any chocobo into behaving.

And then there were Sazh and Snow…

Sazh was eyeing his chocobo pretty cagily and Fang was sorely tempted to go over and whack both bird and man over the head. It had been quite a while since Sazh had ridden a chocobo that wasn't his and she'd almost forgotten just how aggravating that could be. The problem was that most chocobos didn't like him too much, and from the looks of things, the chocobo he had now wasn't any different. With a sigh, she strolled over and grabbed Sazh by the scruff of his coat. Before either he or the chocobo could even think of moving, she lifted Sazh up and practically threw him onto the chocobo. The bird gave an outraged squawk, but before it could try to buck Sazh off, Fang reached down and grabbed it by the chin.

"You listen here," Fang said with a toothy smile. "We really need to get going, so I'm going to have to ask you to play nicely with Sazh here. If you do, we'll get along just fine. If you don't… well, you might end up being dinner."

"Uh, Fang," Vanille said as she reached over to pat Fang on the shoulder. "You do know that chocobos can't actually understand what we're saying, right? I mean they can learn a few words, but most of the time, it's the tone of voice they listen to."

Fang grinned evilly at Sazh's chocobo, which had begun to look a little terrified. "Maybe, but I think this one here understands me just fine." She patted the chocobo on the head. "Isn't that right?" The chocobo nodded and Fang let loose a chuckle. Now that was done with, there was just Snow to worry about. "Snow… you need to get a bigger chocobo. For crying out loud, that thing is smaller than you are."

Snow smiled sheepishly and then trotted over to switch chocobos with Serah. She didn't blame him too much for wanting the smaller chocobo. It had been right friendly and just ambled over to him as soon as he'd set foot in the stable, but it really was much better suited to someone Serah's size. Besides, that mean grey chocobo might be able to bully Serah about, but Snow was an experienced stockman and a great deal bigger too.

"Okay, everybody ready?" The others nodded and Fang smirked. "Good, saddle up. I'll just settle with the owner of these here chocobos and then we can get a move on."

It took Fang about a quarter of an hour to get things sorted and then they were off. The ride to the Al Bhed would probably take two or three days, and that was if the weather held up and stuck to just a few light drizzles here and there. Of course, they'd been anything but lucky so far, and things weren't about to change.

About an hour shy of dusk, the light drizzle they'd been riding through turned into a downpour. The wind kicked up and great sheets of rain pelted down on them. It was hard just staying in the saddle, let alone getting anywhere, and as much as she wanted to press on, it wouldn't be long before they'd have to just call it a day and find some place to wait the storm out.

"Fang!" Vanille shouted. "We've got to get out of the rain!" The red head lifted one hand to try and shield her face. "I can barely see a thing and the chocobos can barely take a step in all this mud."

Fang nodded grimly. She wanted to keep going, but Vanille was right. Still, the rains would only speed things along for Cocoon and they were already cutting things pretty closely. But the simple fact of the matter was that it was almost impossible to see more than a few yards ahead and a quick glance at the others made it pretty clear that they were all cold, wet, and miserable. Even Snow looked pretty bad, the big stockman's powerful frame shivering as the rain beat down on him. It wouldn't matter one bit if they got to the Al Bhed in time if they turned up half dead. They'd just be easy picking for Cocoon.

"All right," Fang shouted back. "We'll stop as soon as we can find some place to get out of the weather." She squinted into the gloom up ahead. "It looks like there's an overhand in those rocks up ahead. We should be able to wait things out there."

They made their way to the overhang as quickly as they could and Fang could practically feel the relief coming from the others as they got the chocobos under cover and got a fire lit. All of them looked wet and tired and irritated, and Fang could hardly blame them. Riding a chocobo for hours at a time could get pretty tiring, and the rain and rocky terrain hadn't helped one bit.

"WARM," Fujin said as she tossed her cloak onto a rock close to the fire. Her shirt followed a moment later and Fang grinned as both Snow and Sazh quickly turned away. Clearly, both of them had learned the hard way not to intrude on a woman's modesty, especially when that woman was heavily armed and downright deadly with her hands and feet to boot. They needn't have been too worried though, because Fujin had some bindings on to cover her chest and the silver haired woman didn't seem the least bit embarrassed. If anything, she seemed more irritated about being wet. "SILLY," Fujin said. "TURN AROUND."

"You heard the lady, Snow. Turn around," Fang said. "We're all friends here anyway and we do kind of need to get dry, otherwise we will get sick." She smirked and shot an amused look at Serah. "Now get that shirt of yours off, Snow, and go dry off by the fire." Serah blushed and Fang turned her eyes to Lightning. "You too, sheriff," she said, her smirk widening a tad. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold."

Lightning scowled, but nevertheless, stripped off her coat and shirt, which left her dressed much like Fujin. Fang, of course, did her best not to stare, although she'd have been lying if she said she didn't take at least a couple of quick looks. Naturally, when Serah moved to take off her own wet clothes, Lightning was quick to shoot Snow a dark look before she went off to fetch some dry blankets from the saddlebags. Snow might have looked out for Serah so far, but he was not about to see her in anything even vaguely resembling a state of undress.

A few minutes later, the lot of them had their wet clothes off and were huddled about the fire wrapped up in blankets.

"How long do you think this'll keep up?" Lightning murmured. "If it doesn't start to ease up, we might not make it there in time."

"Then let's hope it does ease up," Fang said. "Otherwise, we're going to have one heck of a disaster on our hands." She looked at Sazh. "It shouldn't be too much longer before we're dry enough to change into some of our spare clothes. In the mean time, how about you get some water boiled? I'm sure we could all use a coffee or something to warm us up." She tilted her head to one side. "Unless you've got any whiskey, that is."

"Actually…" Vanille crawled over to one of the saddlebags and reached into it. "We do have some whiskey!"

Fang's eyes widened as Vanille tossed her a bottle of whiskey. Actually, make that a very fine bottle of whiskey, she thought as she read the label. "Where on earth did you get this? I don't remember us picking up any along the way."

Vanille shrugged. "I might have sort of… maybe have swiped it from Ashelia's place before we headed off." Lightning shot her an unamused look and Vanille held her hands up in surrender. "Hey, they had plenty, so unless Ashelia's a drunk, she's not going to miss it. Besides, I thought it'd be nice if we had some around, you know, in case it gets cold, or we need to disinfect any wounds."

Fang gave Vanille a dubious look. "I'm sure that's what it was." She opened the bottle and took a swig. "Just don't turn into a lush, Vanille."

"Says the woman drinking straight from the bottle," Lightning said before Fang closed the bottle and tossed it her way.

"Have a sip, sheriff, if anyone here could use some warming up, it would be you." Fang smiled. "And don't worry, I won't take advantage of you if you get tipsy, not unless you're into that sort of thing."

Lightning frowned and looked down at the bottle for a moment. She could still see a little bit of moisture around the neck from where Fang's lips had been. Bracing herself, she tipped her head back and downed a mouthful of whiskey. "Anyone else want some?"

The bottle of whiskey was quickly passed around and Fang finally had a chance to see just what sort of tolerance some of the others had. Serah was the first to start acting a little tipsy – after just one swig, in fact – and it took everything Fang had to not burst into laughter as Serah began to ramble in quite an interesting fashion. Indeed, if it weren't for the fact that Lightning was currently glaring painful death at everyone and everything, Fang might have tried to slip Serah one more sip of whiskey.

"Have I told you, Snow, that you look extremely dashing without your shirt on?" Serah drawled, her cheeks a rosy pink and her hands drifting altogether too close to Snow's bare chest. To be fair, the poor fellow wasn't even thinking of taking advantage of things. If anything, he looked like he was trying to work out how to get away without offending Serah. "Why, I imagine you must have to fight off women wherever you go."

"Uh…" Snow leaned away. "Um…"

"That's about enough, Serah," Lightning said as she reached over and pulled Serah into her lap. "Maybe you should go to sleep."

"But I'm not tired," Serah said as she snuggled up to Lightning. Vanille's mouth twitched and Lightning shot her a ferocious scowl. "You know, Claire, you're really very soft," Serah murmured. "I don't know why we don't cuddle more. Remember when we were little? We used to cuddle all the time." Lightning's eyes widened comically as Serah nuzzled her cleavage. "But you're so grouchy now… which is a real shame… because you're really much softer now… much, much softer."

Fang suddenly found it very hard to breathe. Okay, maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to pass the whiskey around. Then again, she hadn't exactly thought Serah would turn out to be so touchy feely.

"All right," Lightning said as somehow managed to pry Serah off her. "How about we get some rest? The storm doesn't look like it'll let up any time soon, so we might as well rest up while we can." And before anyone else could say anything, she hurried over to the saddlebags to get one of the bedrolls out and all but threw Serah into it.

"That sounds like a good idea," Snow said softly, although Fang could detect a hint of hoarseness in his voice. Well, he was only human, and Serah had been really, really touchy feely.

"It's always the quiet ones," Sazh muttered as he shot Lightning an amused glance and went to get his own bedroll ready. "Now, who's going to take first watch?"

Lightning looked down at Serah who had, mercifully, fallen asleep. "I suppose I'll take it." She looked around. "We should have two people per watch though."

Fang nodded. "Sounds good, I'll take first watch with you then." She slanted a look over at Vanille who had all but slumped into her own bedroll. "Vanille isn't all that much better than Serah, so I guess she and Serah can take the last watch." Not to mention that any suggestion that Snow take a watch with Serah would probably end up with Snow either being kicked out into the rain, or else, riddled with bullets.

As the others got bedded down for the night, Fang watched Lightning out of the corner of her eye. The sheriff had chosen a spot just shy of the edge of the overhang where she had a good view of all of the approaches to their camp, albeit a view hampered by the rain. The sheriff's rifle was also draped across her lap and Fang waited a while for the others to nod off before she walked over to where Lightning was and sat down on a rock beside her.

They sat there for a couple of minutes just watching the rain and Fang was just about to speak when Lightning cleared her throat. "What will you do if we're too late?"

Fang looked out into the rain, her eyes drawn to the steadily growing puddles that had formed not too far from them. "I guess I'll just try to take down Cocoon anyway." She reached over for a small pebble and tossed it into one of the puddles. The splash the pebble made was barely noticeable through all the rain. "It might not bring the Al Bhed back, but it'll stop Cocoon from ever pulling something like this again." She shrugged. "I guess it's kind of lucky that the train doesn't go all the way. If they want to get back to Eden City, they'll have to get past us." With a faint smile on her lips, she reached out to catch several raindrops in her palm and flicked them at Lightning. The other woman rolled her eyes, but made no move to retaliate. "Serah's quite a drunk, isn't she?"

Lightning gave a heavy, heavy sigh and Fang couldn't help but chuckle. "Serah's been a lightweight for as long as I can remember," Lightning said. "At least she didn't shoot anything."

"Shoot anything?" Fang grinned. "Do you mind explaining that?"

Lightning brought the rifle up to her shoulder and glanced down the length of the barrel. "When Serah turned eighteen, we threw her a big party back in Bodhum. Everybody back in Bodhum loves her, you know, and that was the same year she headed off to study in Eden City, so the party was even bigger." Lightning lowered the rifle. "Someone must have mixed liquor into the juice or something, because the next thing I know, Serah's got a hold of a gun and damn if she isn't a better shot drunk than sober." Lightning's lips quirked up just a fraction. "We were holding a shooting contest and she just about won the whole thing. Heck, she'd have given me a run for my money, the way she was shooting."

"Remind me not to give her any whiskey next time," Fang said. "But you know, Vanille isn't that much better. You think she's trigger-happy when she's sober? You should see her when she's drunk."

Lightning actually shuddered. "That's a scary thought."

Fang nodded. "It sure is." She glanced back to where Vanille was sleeping, her hat draped carelessly over her face. "You know, we blew up a bridge once, a real big one, and not just the bridge either, we blew up the train that was on it too. Vanille was a little tipsy at the time, so instead of just using one explosive, she used four or five. It was absolutely incredible to watch all that metal, wood, and stone just go flying everywhere, at least it would have been if I hadn't been running for my damn life with Vanille thrown over my shoulder."

Lightning looked sideways at Fang. "The life of a big sister is never boring, is it?"

"Not for a moment." Fang stretched her hand out to catch more rain and tossed it at Lightning.

This time Lightning did retaliate, and by the time they stopped, they both looked a little like something the cat dragged in.

"You ever think about how things could have been?" Lightning asked softly.

Fang wiped her face off with the back of one hand. "You mean if Cocoon had never burned down Oerba?"

Lightning nodded. "That's right."

"Sometimes." Fang smiled softly, sadly. "But not too much – that'd just about drive me crazy. Doesn't matter anyway, you can wish all you want that things turned out different, but at the end of the day, you're not dealing with how things could have been, you're dealing with how things are." She poked a pebble with her foot. "And the fact is, I'd never have met Sazh if things hadn't turned out the way they did, and Vanille and I would never have gotten to see the world." She grinned at Lightning. "And I wouldn't have met you either, Lightning, or any of the others, so I guess it wasn't all bad." She tilted her head at Lightning. "You ever think about what you'd do if you weren't a sheriff?"

Lightning looked into the rain for a long moment and Fang wondered if the other woman would actually answer. "You know, growing up, I never thought about things like that too much." Lightning tossed the rifle up into the air and caught it easily, spinning it briefly before she tossed it up again. "Growing up in Bodhum, I just wanted to be someone… to make a difference. I suppose being a sheriff's a decent way to do that, but… I wouldn't have minded owning my own ranch somewhere."

"I can definitely see you owning a ranch," Fang said with a chuckle. "You'd be the terror of the West, getting all your stockmen to work double shifts at half pay." Just for emphasis she made a whipping motion with one hand.

"I'd pay them fairly and you know it." Lightning's eyes narrowed. "But you're right, I'd expect a decent day's work out of anyone who works for me, but in exchange I'd see to it they were treated right." She frowned. "I never could understand the way some people treat their hired help."

Fang looked out into the night. The rain had begun to slow and within a few minutes it had stopped entirely. It was far too late to get going again, but she found she didn't mind quite so much as before. The skies began to clear too, and all around them the West stirred. Animals came back out into the open, the stars twinkled overhead, and the wind rustled by, gentle, and slightly chilly, as the sounds of an owl echoed through the air.

"What are you looking at?" Lightning asked. "Trouble?"

Fang shook her head. "No, not trouble." She smiled faintly. "I was looking at the stars." At Lightning's curious look, she continued. "You ever hear about the way some of the tribes view the stars, Lightning?" The sheriff shook her head. "Well, how about I tell you a thing or two about how we people from Oerba think about the stars." She smirked. "We've still got a couple of hours to go before we switch over to the next watch, so I figure it might help pass the time."

"Fair enough," Lightning said. "Go ahead."

Fang cleared her throat. Stories were more Vanille's thing, but she'd listened to these particular stories just as closely as anyone. They'd been told by the tribe's elders when the nights grew cold and everyone huddled around the campfire for warmth. "In Oerba, when a good person dies, Divine Etro sets them up in the sky so that no one ever forgets them. The brighter the star, the better the person."

"That so?" Lightning glanced up at the sky. "Well, why don't you tell me who's up there."

Fang pointed up into the sky. "See those three stars all close together?" Lightning nodded. "Those are the Three Brothers. They were all great hunters and one day, they decided to prove their skill by hunting and trapping Bahamut, the Spirit of the Sky." She laughed. "Of course, they didn't actually catch him, but Bahamut was so impressed that he asked Etro to honour them anyway." Warming to her topic, Fang pointed to another group of stars. "See those stars, the ones shaped like a spear? They call that Kain's Lance."

"Kain's Lance?" Lightning asked.

"Yep," Fang said. "Kain was supposed to be one of the greatest warriors that ever lived. According to legend, so long as he had his lance, he was invincible." She laughed. "You know, before everything went bad, I'd just started learning how to use a lance. Every night I'd look up at those stars and I'd pray that I could get as good as he was."

"You said that good people get put up there," Lightning said. "But so far, you've only mentioned heroes. Who else is up there?"

"Well… it's true that most of the constellations are named after heroes, but they're not the only ones up there, at least I hope not." Fang closed her eyes. "There was a woman back in Oerba who looked after me and Vanille, even though we weren't hers. I'd like to believe she's got a star of her own, and I'd like to believe everyone else who died that day does too." She took a deep breath. "That woman, the one who looked after me and Vanille, she used to say that the reason Etro set the stars up in the sky wasn't just so that we wouldn't forget them, it was so that we wouldn't ever feel alone. All we'd have to do is look up into the sky and we'd know that there were people who cared about us, people who'd watch over us no matter how bad things got." Her voice grew hard. "I hope the stars are watching the day I finally set things right, I hope they see that I haven't forgotten them." Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I hope they're proud of me."

Lightning said nothing for a long time, but when she spoke, her voice was gentle, like a cool autumn breeze brushing against Fang's heart. "I don't know if the stars really are the spirits of the dead, Fang, but I figure that your people would be proud of you just the same."

Fang's eyes widened. "Lightning –"

But before Fang could say anything else, Lightning shot to her feet. "Uh… I'm just going to take a look around, make sure there isn't anything dangerous nearby."

Watching Lightning stride off into the shadows, Fang could only laugh and shake her head. "Really, sheriff, just when I think I've got you pinned down, you've just to go out and surprise me."

X X X

The next two days passed pretty quickly and to Fang's surprise things actually seemed to go their way. It was still raining, but it wasn't so bad that they couldn't keep up a pretty decent pace during the day. They still had to make camp once dusk fell, but they were actually making good time. It didn't hurt either, that they kept the same shifts each night.

Little by little, Fang found Lightning opening up as they whiled away the long hours together. She learned pretty quickly that the trick to getting Lightning to talk was to set things up so that the other woman had something else to occupy her. It didn't matter if it was just watching the rain, or keeping the fire going, so long as Lightning didn't feel too caged in by the conversation, she actually didn't seem to mind talking all that much.

On the morning of their fourth day on chocobo, Fang called a stop to things. The Al Bhed weren't all that for off now, just over the next series of hills, really, which meant that Cocoon was probably close by too. They hadn't spotted anyone yet, but that didn't mean much. The chances were that Cocoon had at least a couple of people hidden around to keep watch, maybe more.

"All right," Fang said as the group got the chocobos hidden away behind some big rocks. "Here's what we're going to do. Serah, Snow, Sazh, and Vanille are going to stay here and keep an eye on all of our things. Try to keep out of sight. Quistis and Fujin, I want you two to head upriver, see how things are set up at the dam. Lightning and I will head over to the village, see what's going on there."

After a few complaints, mostly from Vanille who wanted to come along, Fang headed off toward the village with Lightning. As much as she'd have liked to bring Vanille along, the red head wasn't exactly much given to sneaking, and given the situation, sneaking was what they would have to do. It took a little bit of time to get closer since they had to go on foot, but going on chocobo would make it far too easy to spot them.

"That's the village," Fang said as she pointed down at the clump of buildings below them. "Now, we don't know that there'll be trouble, but the way things have gone, I think it'd be a good idea to have a look around first."

Lightning nodded. "With our luck, Cocoon will be right there waiting for us."

"Probably." Fang grinned. "But if that happens, we'll just have to sort them out the old fashioned way – with a hell of a lot of bullets. Now, you take that side of the village, I'll take the other. Once you're done looking around, meet back here."

Glad that there were enough trees around the village to provide a bit of cover, Fang crept closer. It was well past dawn now, so there should have been a lot of people out and about, but so far she hadn't really spotted anybody. She had a bad feeling about this. Lightning could be right about Cocoon being right there waiting for them.

Keen to get even closer, she followed a little brook – one of several that branched off the from the broad, swift-flowing river that ran alongside one edge of the village – and came to a stop just shy of the open space that signalled the edge of the village. There were people there, but they were not Al Bhed. In fact, from the way they were dressed and the way they carried themselves, she'd bet they were hired guns. Of course, the wagon full of guns and ammunition beside them also helped settle things.

This was bad, Fang thought, as she skirted the edges of the village. There were hired guns everywhere and the Al Bhed seemed to be locked inside their own homes. She and the others had been hoping to warn the Al Bhed, maybe even get them on side, but it looked like Cocoon was done messing around. Their plan was probably to keep the Al Bhed locked up until they blew the dam and then just kill anyone who tried to escape. The floodwaters would get rid of the bodies and nobody would be any wiser.

As quietly as she could, Fang headed back up to where she and Lightning were supposed to meet. She'd been there all of five minutes when she felt a dagger come to rest against her throat. Slowly, she turned, expecting to see a hired gun. That was not what she saw. The person holding a dagger against her throat was a young woman with blonde hair who wore what looked to be a faded orange-brown top with a pair of green shorts. It was a curious mix of the clothing people back east wore and the clothing the Al Bhed typically favoured. What really got Fang's attention though, were the young woman's eyes – they were a vivid green and had the peculiar swirled pupils that were the surest sign of an Al Bhed.

"Are you with them?" the woman snarled. "Answer me!"

"Hey, just calm down there," Fang said. "There's no need for anyone to…" She trailed off as Lightning seemingly appeared out of nowhere, her gun pressed against the back of the young woman's head.

"How about you put that dagger down?" Lightning said.

The young woman made an aggravated sound and slowly lowered her weapon. "Who are you two?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

Fang took a quick look around. They hadn't been spotted yet, but if the young woman's voice got any louder, or if they ended up fighting, they definitely would be. Digging up her somewhat rusty Oerban, which Fang knew had at least a few similarities to Al Bhed, she spoke. "Calm down, we're here to help."

The young woman's eyes widened and she replied quickly in Al Bhed. "That is Oerban… there aren't supposed to be any Oerbans left."

"Well, I'm one of the last," Fang said. "My name is Oerba Yun Fang and I'm here to make sure that what happened to Oerba doesn't happen to your people."

"That so?" The young woman nodded slowly. "Do you know who those people in my village are?"

Fang nodded. "Yes, they're from Cocoon." She cleared her throat. "But how about we speak in something else. My friend there." She pointed at Lightning. "Doesn't speak Oerban or Al Bhed." Fang sighed. "Now, I can explain what's going on, but first we need to get out of here, okay?"

"Right." The young woman turned. "Do you have a camp nearby?"

"Yes," Lightning said. "But who are you?"

The young woman grinned impishly. "The name's Rikku."

X X X

Author's Notes

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

Another slightly slower chapter, although given the prodigious body count in the previous chapter, it's only fair that Cocoon's hired guns get some time to kick back and enjoy the good life, at least until Fang and the others show up. More seriously, however, I wanted to try and get at some of the thoughts that are going through Fang's head as the showdown with Cocoon gets closer and closer. As they say "waiting is the hardest part" and when you've been waiting years to get your revenge, well, waiting can get pretty hard indeed.

With regards to chocobos, I know chocobos don't actually exist (if they did, I would own several), but lots of animals really do just seem to listen to the tone of their owner's voice. I recall quite fondly the way that one of my friends used to swear at their dog in the most affectionate manner and the dog would, in contradiction to some of the quite interesting epithets being used, just grin and look like all its Christmases had come at once.

The idea of drunk Serah being touchy feely is something that comes up in a number of other stories (big invisible internet hat tip to E. G. Szyslak, in particular), and I just couldn't resist having Lightning and Snow be on the receiving end of her more liberal behaviour. As for the thought of Serah being better with a gun tipsy than sober, that is a not so very veiled reference to the concept of 'drunk-fu'. Lightning has already taught Serah all of the mechanics of shooting, and being just a little tipsy takes the edge off her fear and gets her to relax enough to make the most of her training. Coincidentally, I do actually know someone who gets significantly better at videogames when they are drunk. Obviously though, I do not recommend getting excessively drunk, nor do I recommend handling firearms when drunk (yes, this is a warning that you shouldn't go out, get drunk, and then handle weaponry).

For those of you who do not know, Rikku is from FF X and FF X-2. I've been waiting a while to put her in because she is definitely one of my favourite FF characters. Anyone who can defeat monsters by throwing money at them is made of awesome.

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