So hi guys, and thanks for tuning into the next chapter of NR! (:

Thank yous go to my reviewers: OscarMerrinoz96 and Mylaervain! And another big thank you to every one of you - NR hits 100K words with this chapter and without all of your support I would never have had the courage and inspiration to make it this far! 8D And yes, Mylaervain, that annoying Yangt'zu seems to screw stuff up for us all the time, doesn't he? Gosh...

This chapter is a little late (at the moment it is 10:17 pm my time) and it was a little more rushed than usual, but I did get everything I wanted to in this chapter, and well, I hope it sounds alright to everyone who reads it.

I won't say anything else before this chapter, only that I really hope you guys enjoy it! n_n

Chapter 25: Ephemeral

A drip of something cold splashed on the back of her neck, and Lightning cursed under her breath, irritatedly wiping the splatter of icy water from her hair and skin. There wasn't a lot to see by, and her footsteps echoed too loudly on the stone floor for her liking. The footsteps in front of them had faded, and Maker knew how the hell they were going to get out. She kicked something cold, letting out a hiss of pain and frustration before taking a step backwards. What the hell...

She'd kicked a trapdoor open, and Lightning could see stairs descending into what she could only make out as more eerie torchlight and darkness. Between wandering around aimlessly on this floor and descending into Maker knew what, she'd take her chances.

"Light?" Hope tugged on her arm, and she could hear his breathing beside her. She hummed a response, not taking her eyes off the stone steps.

"Are we going to go down?" Someone pushed her roughly from behind, making her stumble forwards and onto the first two steps of the newly revealed staircase. Whipping around, ready to spout the curse at whoever had the stupidity to push her, she found herself glaring at Snow's playful blue eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she snarled, curling her fingers into a fist and raising it. He only laughed at her, batting her hand away gently.

"Awh, Sis, don't be so uptight. The only way we're gonna get out is by going down, so down we go. What's the hesitation for?" She shot him a venomous scowl before turning back to the stairs. Thanks for the information, genius.

A blast of heat hit her face as her boot touched the bottom of the stairs, and Lightning had to raise a forearm to shield her eyes from the glow. What she had assumed was the same eerie torchlight was a bright flaming glare, and it took her a few heartbeats to realize from what. The floor below dangling stone platforms was lit by the fiery blaze, but she couldn't see any evidence of actual fire, nor lava, now that that she thought about it. Still, instinct warned her to stay away from the ground below the stone platforms - she had a nasty feeling that whatever went down there wouldn't come back. It wouldn't hurt to test that theory though.

"Serah," she hissed into the darkness behind her. "Bring that weapon I gave you." Lightning crouched at the side of the platform, and carefully inspected their current floor - there was a thick metal bridge she could see several metres to their left they could use to cross to the other side of the room, but she couldn't see much further than that.

Multiple sets of footsteps drew near her, and she felt cloth brush her arm. "Here." Serah was crouched beside her, and her blue eyes widened when Lightning held the weapon over the edge. Even putting her hand over the orange glow made her want to withdraw her hand - she could feel the heat wave the rose from whatever the fuck the floor was made of. Letting go of the katana, Lightning stood up to watch its progress as it fell onto one of the tiles. There was barely a flash of interruption in the light as the metal weapon quickly turned into a sooty pile of dark ash. She bit her lip - there was no way anyone would survive falling onto that.

"Damn," she heard Snow hiss behind her. "What the hell is this place?"

She turned around to find Hope's scared green eyes looking up at her, while Serah was safely snuggled into Snow's coat. Gently draping an arm over Hope's shoulder, Lightning hoped the gesture would calm him a little. She was never the one for physical contact, but... I need to know he'll be okay.

"Alright, listen up." Her voice sounded unnaturally quiet in the room - at first, she was unsure whether it was her, before she realized the floor tiles had a similar sound to fire burning. Figures. They hadn't noticed it coming onto this floor, but now that it was actually silent, Lightning didn't see how she could have missed it before. "I think we've all just what happens if we touch the floor tiles. So, this just means we'll have to be careful... and that means no playing games," she finished, shooting an accusatory look at Snow.

"Hey, Sis, that's not fair..." His voice turned into a childish whine. She shot another glare at him.

"Don't act cute with me, Snow. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Turning around, she made for the steel bridge. Hope tagged alongside her, tentatively linking his right arm with her left. Lightning flinched at the unfamiliar contact, and at first, she wanted to pull away, unsure of how to respond to the affectionate gesture. But it feels... kind of nice.

She sighed, cautiously letting herself enjoy the physical contact, but keeping her eyes in front of her and on the floor, careful of where she was stepping. The metal bridge underneath her boot sounded loudly, and she winced again - anyone on this floor would be able to hear them from several dozen feet away. She pulled out her weapon, flipping it to sword mode, and concentrated on not falling off. A soft giggle sounded somewhere behind her - she knew who it was and exactly what they were laughing at.

I'll never hear the end of this when we get out, will I?

Serah covered her mouth with her small hand, stifling her laughter. Not only was Claire actually letting Hope literally hold her arm, she didn't look irritated, nor had she said a thing. She knew the seriousness of the situation, but she couldn't deny that this tiny moment had almost made her feel at home, and made her feel like... Maybe Claire isn't so cold hearted to everyone all the time.

A snort of amusement made her look up, as she saw Snow had the same expression she did. His grin was monstrously wide as he looked at the two ahead of them.

"Hey, hey... is Sis actually letting..." The satisfaction was so evident in his voice Serah didn't see how Claire couldn't hear him. But she smiled, letting the sight of her sister warm her heart.

Reaching up, she pressed a finger to his lips. "Don't, okay?" She giggled. "If you want to see more, don't tease her about it." The familiar, confident laugh made her smile again as she traced her finger down his jaw. She felt him embrace her again, leaning against him.

"Okay, baby, whatever you say. Now let's go before Sis gets mad again." He took off at a sudden run; laughing, Serah chased after him, keeping an eye on her feet and where she was stepping. And when things are like this... it's hard to believe things won't be okay.

They caught up to Lightning at the end of the bridge, as she was inspecting the area for the next staircase. Right... there are nine floors in the Demonsoul Tower. There's eight more to go. She took a step towards her sister.

"Claire, see anything?" She followed the point of her sister's omega weapon, and her gaze rested on the corner of the room where the flickering orange light cast a shadow. Following her and Hope, she trailed after them with Snow, happily holding his hand. But something nagged at her - this felt too easy, even to her. And even if it was supposed to be, she found it hard to believe that Yorun, or whoever it was, wouldn't make things harder for them. There was so much at stake here that she didn't want to believe that things were going so well.

There has to be a catch... there has to be. At this rate we'll easily catch up with them...

Slightly out of breath, Hope followed Lightning as his feet hit the ground of the second floor of Demonsoul Tower. The last seven floors had passed rather uneventfully, something that he knew made Lightning uneasy. There had been some minor maze-like qualities in some of the floors, but they had all been devoid of life, human or monster. The only danger had been falling onto the floor tiles beneath the stone platforms, but it became apparent after awhile that the only real way to fall was if someone was extremely clumsy.

He tugged on her arm, and she turned around, slight irritation in her blue eyes. "What, Hope?"

"Light? What do you think we'll find... at the bottom?" He saw her visibly shudder as she raked a hand through her pink hair.

"Whatever it is... we'd better be ready," she hissed quietly. He saw her whip her head around, clearly looking for Snow and her sister. He heard her growl of frustration as her left hand curled into a fist and she muttered darkly under her breath. "That idiot... seriously, when will he learn that this isn't playtime?"

He felt her tug his arm a moment later, dragging him after her. "Well, we're not waiting for him to dawdle his way over here." Prying her grip off the sleeve of his orange jacket, Hope tagged along after her. Now didn't seem like the right time to return her simple gesture, but he wanted to. Light...

He felt her hand stop him just before the steps to the final floor. "You ready?" Her question was carefully neutral, but he noticed the way she was holding her weapon. She's ready for a fight... Feeling either Snow or Serah accidentally kick him from behind, he nodded, before he realized she couldn't see him.

His throat felt dry, and his answer was slightly choked. "Yup." She glanced back at him once, blue eyes questioning, before she let out a small breath, breathing in a few more times before she took another step.

"Okay, let's go."

The moment her foot hit the ground, Lightning felt her body tense in its usual pre-battle nerves. This time though, she knew she was in for a fight, and she was better mentally prepared. Come and get it.

The first thing that caught her eye was that Yorun was standing there, unthreateningly, in the middle of the room. She couldn't see beyond him - there was really only one rather narrow walkway, and she narrowed her eyes when she noticed that the burning floor tiles this time were only slightly below the sides of the walkway, and there was nothing to hold someone back from falling ten feet onto the tiles. Nothing to stop someone who happened to misstep. Shit... If this turns out into a battle, this could go badly... very fast. There was something off about the set up, but she couldn't place her finger on it. Something was missing.

"Finally caught up to us, I see." Yorun's voice was as oily as she remembered it; and she gritted her teeth. "So glad of you to join us, Lightning." She didn't bother replying, simply raising her weapon until the barrel of her gunblade pointed at his forehead.

He only laughed, though, reminding her cruelly of Larcell, as his golden eyes danced mockingly. "You really think such a mortal weapon has enough power to kill me?" She heard leather grind on leather as Snow pulled his hands into fists behind her.

"You wanna try?" His angry growl only made the man laugh even harder as he waved a hand behind him before moving aside. You...sick bastard...

The first, and only, thing she could see was red. Red as in blood red, and she heard a horrified gasp behind her. The immediate instinct to protect Serah snapped her into motion, and Lightning moved in front of her sister, weapon raised, before Serah could see more. A muffled squeak told her that Snow had had the exact same reaction as she did, and she raised her left hand, swallowing when she saw it was trembling slightly.

She couldn't even begin to describe the scene before her - it threatened to trigger her gag reflex. Xue was nowhere to be seen, and for a heartbeat, Lightning was grateful that she wasn't there. One less favour to owe...right? But the moment of relief was wiped when she considered the alternative, her body frozen in shock at the scene before her.

Claws sunk in a body she couldn't even recognize until she saw the ripped white cape and the numerous other bodies lying splayed around it in various forms of the contorted figures of death. Eyes that stared only at death and the reflection of the flickering orange tiles cast on the ceiling, and she felt fury begin to worm its way up her chest when the beast that the claws belonged to raised its head and locked gazes with her.

She could feel Hope's breathing spike beside her, and Snow mutter a curse as it ripped its claws from the body, dropping it to the ground. Now that it wasn't hunched over, Lightning could see it was some sort of dragon - the moment before some sick form of terror and panic gripped her mind, she noted it vaguely reminded her of Bahamut, Fang's Eidolon. And it was painfully obvious it had found its next victims - them.

But she couldn't let herself panic - Hope was looking at her expectantly as the metallic black dragon spread its tattered wings and flew several short flaps towards them. Steeling herself for a fight, Lightning forced herself to take a breath, pulling it in between her teeth, and raised her left hand. Bring it.

"Protection!"

Snow pushed Serah behind him, forcing her to take cover in the low stairway as he put himself in front of Lightning and Hope. He felt the Syngergist spells wash over him, and a warm light enveloped him. Did I ever mention the kid is good at this sorta stuff? The first swipe from the dragon was caught by his Steelguard, and he grunted from the effort - it pushed him back and the claws dug into his skin; the pain ephemeral as it was almost instantly wiped by Lightning's Cure spells. Bracing himself for another hit, he found that it hurt less... once again thanks to Hope. Then came the spell he was waiting for; the feeling of being so light on his feet he could cross the room effortlessly. The moment he felt it wreath his body, the sharp command from Lightning snapped him into action.

"Relentless Assault!" Pushing himself off the ground, Snow landed the punch in the dragon's left foreleg with Lightning slashing at the opposite side. The dragon's moan of pain was driven from its mouth some twenty feet above their heads, but the wounds they were inflicting didn't even seem like they were doing much - the thing swiped Lightning aside with one blow and he heard Serah scream.

An Aeroga covered her recovery, and Snow felt the flicker of relief to see her on her feet, cursing quietly. The dragon was after him next, and in the moment he took to dodge the coming swipe, he wondered Where the hell did this thing come from? But there wasn't any time to delve on the origins of the beast as he felt claws rake over his head, and he fell forwards from the momentum it created.

Pushing his body faster, Snow cast a Blizzaga at it, hoping the ice spell would slow it down. The only thing it seemed to do, though, was aggravate it as it clawed at its body where the ice flower had frozen. He could see that Lightning saw it as well - her eyes narrowed and she paused in the midst of shooting bullets at it.

He saw her raise her hand for a Ruin, and the moment she leapt up to strike it, she switched strategies. "Decimation!" But she had switched to casting spells to attract the dragon's attention, which left him free to pummel with his fists. Fine with me, Sis. The Vigilance swept over him and the dragon was knocked back a few inches while in the midst of trying to catch Lightning with its claws and spiked tail. Nice, kid. The moment the tail swept back to try and catch her, she backflipped and caught it in the foreleg with a series of gunshots and slashes. While the dragon reared back in anger, Snow saw his chance.

"Here it comes!" His few blows slammed the dragon against the ground, and Snow allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. A glare from Lightning told him it wasn't over yet - the dragon was scrambling to its legs, albeit slowly, and he could see the leery anger in its small red eyes.

She backpedaled quickly as the tail came swooping over her head, calling the next command. "Tri-Disaster!" A blast of magic hit the dragon as Snow realized all of them had thrown some variant of a Blizzard spell at it, and he saw it stagger backwards again. He waited for her to change the strategy, surely now was a good time to switch to the Aggression strategy so it couldn't attack. But the command didn't come, and when he whipped his head around, he saw why.

Lightning felt her omega weapon glue itself to her side when a flash of pink hair caught her eye. The dragon had been loud enough to cover the sounds of everything else but their fight, and she could have sworn she felt her heart stop for a few seconds.

Serah was inches away from the floor tiles, hands gripping another pair of hands. But that wasn't what scared her. What scared her was how close this fight had come to her sister - it wouldn't be hard for the dragon's tail to knock into Serah at this point, and the ugly figure wielding a weapon just behind her. Yorun.

Why had she let herself forget about him the moment the dragon attacked them? Why hadn't she made sure Serah was safe before going to fight her own battle? Why hadn't... She didn't even feel the pain when claws raked themselves down her leg as she pushed her tired body towards her sister. Hating herself more than ever at the moment, Lightning knew she wouldn't get there in time, wouldn't get there before a weapon buried itself into her sister's back - and Serah couldn't even fight back with her own l'Cie powers. Shit... why...

Lightning tried to make her body move faster, but even with the Haste spell pushing her forwards, there was no way she could reach Serah in time to protect her fully. There was only one way to get there in time to even remotely have a chance to shield Serah from some sort of harm, and that was to put her own body in between the weapon and her sister. Lightning gritted her teeth as she stumbled to a stop in the way of the weapon and Serah's terrified eyes, and waited for the inevitable pierce of pain.

Instead, she watched a brilliant blue sphere of water explode around them and freeze everything in the limited vision she had at the moment.

Ha.

Well, I think that was sort of expected (it's about time someone else got their Eidolon)... and once again, I'm sure 99% of you know what's going to happen next. But I'm cutting the chapter off here anyways, just because... I felt like it. Heehee.

Once again, I leave interpretation of events up to you, though I must say... Hope, did you just... *coughs*And Light, did you let him... Anyways. *coughs quietly* This chapter has been fun though, and at least it looks like poor Light isn't going to have to sacrifice herself to protect Serah because our hero has other plans, yes? n_n

As always, leave love in reviews, and I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Hearts!