Yes, beat the deadline again! *proud*

I lied when I said Monday for the next chapter, I underestimated the time I would have to write this weekend. Badly. I promise not to mislead you guys next time, okay?

Big thanks again to every one of you. Those who review, those who favourite me, those who story alert me. I swear, when I log in to my email and see like 10+ emails from this site alerting me to your love, I feel all happy and bubbly - it really inspires me to keep going. You guys know who you are, you guys rock.

You may have noticed the rating change - in this chapter it's solely because Light swears rather badly. I wasn't gonna change at this point before, but since this fic is going to get darker at any rate (no spoilers from me), I thought, well, why not?

So anyways, enjoy this chapter - definitely not as much action as the previous chapter, but I do like the way the first half of this chapter turned out for sure. And Snow gets a part, yay!

Disclaimer: I don't own XIII.

Chapter 6: Blood of Pride

Serah glanced at the clock, gripping the house phone tightly in her right hand. She paced around, glancing at the window every other turn. Night had fallen, and Claire was neither home nor picking up her phone. Serah dialed her number again.

"We're sorry. The customer you are calling is not available at this time. If you would like to leave a message, please dial 1…"

Angrily, Serah slammed the phone down on its cradle, jolting Snow awake from his nap. He meandered his way around the living room to her, pulling her into his arms.

"What's wrong, baby?" He gently stroked her cheeks, holding her smaller face in his large hands.

Serah looked away from him.

"It's Claire… She was acting weird this morning, and she was supposed to be off duty at six… It's eight already and she's not home. I tried calling her… But every time I try she doesn't pick up. Snow... I'm scared! What if something bad happened to her?"

Snow held Serah tightly to his chest.

"Baby, it's okay. Sis is tough – she wouldn't get herself into trouble like that. Don't worry, Sis is probably fine! She's probably just late." Serah clung to Snow, wanting so badly to believe him. But dread swam in her stomach – maybe it was sister instinct, but Serah knew that Lightning… well, something was wrong.

"Snow… will you go look for her? I…I'm worried!" And try as she might, Serah couldn't contain the tears from falling in little droplets onto Snow's shirt.

"Alright, baby, I'll go look for Sis. You stay with Hope in the living room, okay? Don't go looking for her by yourself." Snow embraced her one more time, burying his lips in her hair, leading her gently over to the couches. "Sis is tough – she wouldn't leave you like this. And I know that she wouldn't," he whispered into the pink locks.

"Hope!" he called loudly, causing the teenager to come down from the stairs. "Stay with Serah, okay? I'm going to go look for Sis. Gimme a call if she turns up."

Hope glanced worriedly at Serah. "Light's not home yet?" he asked.

Snow shook his head. "Don't let her start panicking," he said in an undertone, gesturing towards the pinkette. Hope nodded grimly, and went over to Serah on the couch, as Snow shut the front door behind him. Hope heard the lock click as he made his way to the couch.

"Hey." His voice was hesitant. Serah was still crying softly to herself, hands gripping her skirt tightly. Hope wanted to make sure he would get his next words out right.

"Don't worry about Light. She's the most determined person I know. She tried so hard on our journey to save you – she wouldn't leave like this… okay? She doesn't give up – if she thinks there's no hope left, she keeps going till she finds some. So… don't worry. Light will come home." And though his words were meant to comfort Serah, he found himself clinging to them as well.

Serah looked sideways at the teenager, smiling a little even through the tears.

"I know," she whispered softly. "Claire never gives up."

But Serah hadn't always felt so confident in her sister. When Claire had first joined the army, she'd been terrified Claire would get herself killed in combat. Monsters were common around the swamps in Bodhum. And she clearly remembered the first of many times Claire had come home injured…

Claire was late for dinner again. Really, Serah wasn't all that surprised – Claire wasn't on time for meals often. It wasn't that she was intentionally late or anything, but her job often extended long past mealtimes, especially if she was out on a mission. But at around eight thirty, she finally heard a key scrape in the lock. Serah had bounded over to the door, but Claire had opened it before she could unlock it.

Claire was a mess. Her pink hair was tangled into matted clumps, and she was gripping one elbow with the other hand. There were several growing bruises on the exposed parts of her arms, and she was limping.

Serah backed away from her, letting out a surprised cry.

"Claire!"

Her sister glanced up, and Serah noticed the dull fatigue in her eyes.

"Hey…" Her voice was rough and lacked its usual sharpness. Serah trailed after her as Claire made her way to the living room, flopping down on a couch, still holding her elbow.

"Claire, what happened?" Serah was frantic – Claire had never looked like this before coming home from work.

"There were more monsters than we expected…" her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes. Serah took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and made her way to the cabinet where they kept the first aid kit.

Lightning made no move to stop her as Serah carefully cleaned the cut on her elbow, and inspected her knee.

"Claire, is your leg okay?"

Lightning had blearily opened her eyes. "Yeah, I just sprained it… that's all. Don't worry about it, Serah."

"Why didn't you get it treated at the infirmary?"

A sigh had escaped Lightning's lips. "There was a long lineup... and I could still walk, so I went home. Seriously Serah, stop worrying..."

Serah had pursed her lips, not trusting her sister's judgement, but knowing it would be fruitless to argue with her. "I'll get you some tea okay?"

And for that one moment, Lightning looked like the old Claire. "Thanks, Serah." Her voice was soft, and Serah skipped away happily to the kitchen, her heart warming. Claire never let her do anything for her anymore. She didn't ask Serah for help, and shut herself off from her, and so, even this felt like in some way she could bring the old Claire back.

But when Serah returned from the kitchen, her sister was asleep. And in those heartbeats she noticed how tired Claire looked. Dark shadows under her eyes, cheekbones worn thin underneath pale skin. Gently, Serah let her fingers trail down her sister's face, tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh Claire, you try so hard to support both of us. You keep insisting that I need a proper education, but you threw that away yourself. I don't care if we have to live somewhere different, or don't go to college. I just want my sister to be okay…"

Gently embracing her sister, Serah buried her face into Claire's shoulder.

"I just want you to be here, with me…"

Lightning turned instantly towards the sound of the voice, shifting her gunblade to attack position.

A tall man with long hair tied back in a ponytail wearing a scientist's coat stood a few feet from her, an ugly smirk on his face. He gesticulated with a slender notebook in his hands as he laughed to see the expression on her face.

"Who are you, and why do you know about me?" she snarled.

"Oh, my dear Lightning. Impatient as ever I see," he sang in an ugly, oily voice, waving the book around.

Lightning let out a growl. "I don't want to play games with you. Answer my question or—"

"Or what, may I ask? Are you going to kill me? Are you sure that's the best way to get the answers you want?"

Is this guy playing games with me on purpose?

Lightning advanced with her gunblade drawn, placing each foot on the rock slowly. She eyed him critically as she advanced - he didn't seem armed. But for someone who wasn't armed he was acting awfully cocky about things.

"Who the fuck are you?" Her voice was drawn into a cold hiss.

But the scientist didn't seem to be daunted at all, even though it was clear that she was ready to attack him. He only laughed, and skipped backwards a few steps.

And his voice was full of contempt when he answered her. "Oh Lightning dear, why would I tell you who I am? Not when you followed one of my puppets here. And I assume you know he was the one who left that note on your locker, and sent the monsters to your house? How very clever you are."

At this, Lightning let out a snarl of fury, but she didn't have a chance to demand answers before he continued.

"That note had no lies on it, by the way," he laughed. It was clear he was enjoying toying with her, and wouldn't give her a straight answer to anything she asked.

Lightning didn't even bother replying, aiming several bullets at his chest. But instead of blood splattering out where wounds should be, black smoke escaped the holes left by the bullets.

What the…

Stalking over quickly, she knelt by the man who was now on the ground - at least the bullets had done that much. His features were still twisted into that insane grin, as if he felt no pain.

"What do you want?" she demanded again, raising her omega weapon.

But still, the man laughed, like he couldn't tell he was dying.

"Oh Lightning, if only you weren't so hasty to kill… Maybe you could have found out more about this plan of ours… But don't worry, this is only… the tip of the iceberg. There are… more people like me, monsters tougher than the ones you faced…" his voice trailed off.

And then the symbol of a Pulse l'Cie appeared, superimposed over his left eye. When he spoke again, his voice was stronger, deeper, like a different being used his tongue.

"And there will certainly be a use for you, l'Cie. So don't tire of us so soon. We will come for you."

But before Lightning could get another word out, the l'Cie symbol glowed a bright gold and the man was consumed in blinding light. Instinctively, Lightning raised her forearm to shield her eyes from the glare, and when she lowered it again, the man was gone; only wisps of black smoke drifted away in the slight breeze. Looking up to the mouth of the gorge, she judged it to be about midnight or so. And for the first time that day, she felt fatigue claim her body, and sank to the ground, sitting against a cold stone wall. Her left hand went to her injured shoulder - she wasn't surprised to find it still bleeding. Although she didn't think it was too bad, her lower back tugged on it whenever she moved. Wincing, she got to her feet.

Serah will be worried. Huh, I guess I did turn off my phone. She's probably frantic just about now...

At this thought, Lightning pulled out her phone and turned it on. She wasn't surprised there wasn't service so far out in Gran Pulse. Cursing quietly, she stuffed her omega weapon away, and began the long trek back up the gorge. It almost made her knees feel weak when she realized how far she had to walk to get home, but no one would think to find her here if she didn't. One hand still gripping her shoulder, she tiredly resolved to put one foot in front of the other.

Serah... I'm sorry.

Serah clung worriedly to the blankets that Hope had thrown around her shoulders. It was long past midnight, and neither Snow nor Claire had returned. Her heart wrenched painfully to think about possibly losing the two people that mattered most to her in the world. Hope was still up, pacing in front of the door. It was cold and dark, but neither of them wanted to turn on the lights or light the fire - it reminded her too starkly of who was missing.

Snow... Claire... Please come home. Please...

Snow tromped through the streets of New Bodhum, his footsteps echoing loudly against the pavement. While he had acted strong in front of Serah earlier, in truth, even he was getting worried about Lightning now. It wasn't like her to do anything but come home after work - he knew she was highly disdainful of all social events. He'd searched around the Guardian Corps building twice already - only the night crew were there, and none of them had seen her.

One of the rookies had told him she'd left for a delivery to Pulse Management, and that he hadn't seen her since.

That worried Snow - Lightning certainly wasn't above snooping around, especially since she thought someone at Pulse Management attacked them. He hoped she hadn't gotten herself caught.

And as golden tendrils of dawn snaked their way into the dark sky, touching beams of light from Cocoon's crystallized pillar, did he hear footsteps. Snow whipped around, his heart giving a leap when he saw the distinctive pink hair highlighted almost white by the early morning light, trudging tiredly up the path coming from the Guardian Corps building.

"Lightning!" Snow couldn't hide the relief in his voice, and he rushed over to her.

No sooner did he reach her, did she utterly collapse against him. Her pink hair was dark, and it clung to the sides of her face in clumped tendrils, and Snow felt claws of dread reach into his chest when he saw the red down the back of her uniform.

"Lightning - are you okay?" Her eyes were dull with fatigue and pain, as she glanced up at him. A thin smile formed on her lips.

"Of course I am," she rasped. "Nice try playing the hero though..."

Ignoring her weak protests, Snow picked her up. "We're going home, okay? You've worried Serah sick. Heck, even I was worried," he admitted sheepishly.

Snow felt a tiny bit more reassured when she laughed softly. "Were you? I didn't know you cared so much."

Whew.

For some reason the second half of chapter was insanely hard for me to write - not quite sure why. Maybe it's because I think I suck at portraying evil insane scientists, but man, even Light was hard to write in that particular part of the chapter. (I still stand with my statement that the first half of the chapter seems much more well written to me, even though I did this chapter in one sitting)

So, evil scientist has revealed his true motives before vanishing? No, not yet. He did mention it was only the tip of the iceberg - and now Light's lost her lead too.

That Pulse l'Cie symbol superimposed in his eye obviously means something, but what? And why didn't he bleed when Light shot him? Who was the person who took over him at the end? Bwahaha, stick around and find out.

Shoutout to zeon-06! Of course Serah was gonna call Light over and over, and we all know Snow wouldn't ever pass up a chance to play the hero. xD

As you probably guessed, this fic is going to be rather long. These few chapters are only the "building blocks" of the story; we haven't even gotten to the main plotline yet.

So feed the review monster, as always. Potential Beta Reader hasn't gotten back to me yet, so we are Beta-less for now. As always, critiques and speculations highly welcomed.

Next chapter will probably be up tomorrow - I already know it's gonna be rather short.

Hearts!