Finally updated, sorry it's so late, i've had a bit of writers block. still hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 8
Lightning looked at the Cie'th stone in front of her. She was glad to finally be back to working their way through Titan's trials. The gurangatch had been a good warm up to get them back into the spirit of battle. She herself hadn't needed it for that purpose, nor had Fang or Snow, but Sazh, Hope, and Vanille had been less than excited about continuing to fight. The battle had helped herself, and presumably Fang, work out some of the tightness and kinks left in their muscles after their battle with each other just the night before.
"Well what's up next, Sunshine?" Fang said behind her.
"Amam." Lightning said.
"Sounds easy enough, unless there are any objections?" Fang started, looking at the rest of the group, "None? Okay, hit it."
Lightning turned back and activated the Amam stone. A moment later they were in a new location and the narrow path made the location of the creatures obvious. It wasn't long before they found the target, two amams waiting in the middle of the road.
"This is going to be easy." Snow said before rushing head on at the creatures, followed quickly by Fang.
"Idiot." Was all Lightning said before following the two. As Snow and Fang rushed the beasts they were suddenly halted by a green cloud of toxic smoke. The gas dissipated fairly quickly, but had stopped their momentum and given them both a number of status ailments. Lightning arrived a second later and set about healing the ailments as Fang and Snow attacked one of the monsters.
Once the status ailments were removed and the three of them were all in moderate health, Lightning joined the fighting. Adding ice to her attacks she and Snow attacked one of the beasts, while Fang handled the other. The amam Snow and Lightning were fighting switched targets out of the blue, ignoring its attackers to assist its ally. It jumped at Fang's site with its jaws set wide open. The huntress' reactions where quick however, and she turned to her side and swatted the beast out of the air. Before it could correct itself, Snow ran over and rained multiple amp enhanced blows down on the animals head, crushing its skull into nothing. As he did this the second amam jumped at Fang just after she had swatted down the first one, and managed to knock her down in the process. It stood on her and reared back its head as it went to attack. Fang didn't even have to block the attack as Lightning's gunblade, out of nowhere, appeared and was buried in the roof of the beast's mouth, killing it instantly.
Fang pushed the dead creature off of her, and stood up, brushing herself off and wiping the blood from her face. "Thanks for that, but I could'a handled it." She said to Lightning.
"I know." Lightning responded. Fang expected her to say something else, but instead she simply continued on the path toward the next set of cie'th stones. Fang shrugged and followed the soldier up to the stone ahead of them, the rest of the group trailing behind them. Fang caught up to Lightning as she started to walk away from the first stone. She paused for a moment to look at why the woman had skipped it and realized it was an Ochu, and the same test they had already passed. Fang moved on towards, following Lightning's path, and managed to get her back within sight as she activated the second cie'th stone. After activating the stone Lightning turned and looked at the approaching huntress' who was leading the group after her. Fang noticed something odd about the woman, a slight tug at the corner of her mouth. Not a smile, more like a suppressed smirk.
"What's so funny?" Fang asked, grinning back at the soldier.
"Take a look." Lightning said, motioning with her hand toward the stone as she stepped aside. The look on Fang's face as she activated the stone immediately and permanently etched itself in Lightning's memory. The look was a mixture of surprise, disgust, and annoyance.
"What is it Fang?" Vanille asked, seeing the look on her friend face.
"Tonberry." Fang said with a snarl. Vanille grinned and Snow nearly burst out laughing at the way Fang said the name. Lightning continued the difficult task of hiding her smirk. Sazh just shook his head, and Hope seemed oblivious to the reason the others found it funny.
"You can always sit this one out Fang." Lightning said, garnering the larger woman's attention, "If you think you can't handle it." Fang was actually surprised at the statement. Lightning was mocking her, and she was not just going to stand around and let that happen.
"Oh I can handle it, Sunshine." Fang said, getting defensive as the soldier attacked her pride. "That little green jackass ain't gonna know what hit him."
"If you say so." Lightning said, and then turned and activated the cie'th stone before Fang could change her mind. The found themselves in yet another new location. As they progressed forward they could see a large green creature in front of them.
"You did say this was a Tonberry didn't you?" Sazh asked.
"That's what it said." Lightning answered.
"Then why is there an Ochu here?" He asked, nodding at the imposing creature before them.
"It's got to be around here somewhere." Hope said, looking around while trying to avoid the Ochu's line of sight.
"Let's just find it and kill it." Fang said, still annoyed at their current choice of target.
"I think there's a path over there." Hope said, pointing to their left. They worked their way towards the narrow path, avoiding the Ochu so as to not wear themselves out. Surprisingly enough, it was Fang who was in front, setting a brisk pace for them to follow. They hadn't gone very far, though, before they spotted the Tonberry. Fang stopped walking and stood dead in her tracks, starring at the sight. "There's three of 'em." She said.
"I see that." Lightning said as she walked up beside the huntress, "Is that going to be a problem?" Lightning wasn't always able to guess what Fang would do next, but she still knew how to play on her pride and competitive spirit, and that was exactly what she was going to do. "You can sit this one out if you want to Fang." Lightning started back in, "No one would blame you. After all they are scary, being all little and green. So you can just go ahead and step back, if you don't think you can handle it." As she ended she looked at the older woman, her face set and straight as she could keep it. Fang's expression was a little less controlled.
"Oh I can handle 'em." She said, her pride demanding a defense, "I'm gonna kick some little green ass." Fang ran forward at this, catching the three Tonberry off guard. Lightning followed Fang into the assault, and Hope followed her, as he tended to do.
The battle started out quickly, Fang's surprise attack proving to be a valuable asset as she landed a flurry of blows against one of the targets, and then tossed it into the air with a flip of her lance. Lightning and Hope rushed one of the others, Hope's magic attack knocking it off balance and Lightning launching their Tonberry into the air as well. The three of them cut loose on the monsters, Fang's lance slicing through the air with precision, while Lightning's blade cut fast and Hope's magic rained down the many elements on the beast. Despite this both of their targets managed to correct themselves after a short time, and the third beast had already began attacking them. "Keep them off guard!" Lightning yelled out, causing Fang and Hope to both switch up their tactics. Hope set about healing the three of them while Fang started casting impairments in an attempt to lower the tonberry's defenses. Lightning chose to keep up the assault that had started on the weakest of the three monsters. When Fang finally succeeded in dropping the defenses of her target, the three of them switched again. All of them targeted the same one Lightning had just been attacking. In a matter of moments the beast was dead, but the battle was still going.
They immediately began attacking the second Tonberry, Fang's original target. After just a moment Lightning realized they were going too slow and called out to Fang to take knock its defenses down. As Fang began working on crippling the creature Lightning and Hope continued attacking. The strong hide of the Tonberry made their attacks limited in effectiveness, but they were still hitting fairly hard. As soon as Fang managed to break its defenses she began attacking alongside the other two, and the beast soon ended up impaled on the end of her lance.
Lightning turned on the spot and shot a look at Hope, who immediately began working to heal the multiple knife wounds they had sustained. He had only healed them slightly when the last Tonberry released a wave magic that hit them all. The few wounds it had sustained were healed along with the status ailments Fang had put on it. Lightning didn't even have to look at Fang to know she was already working to lower the monsters now heightened defenses. She chose to start the attack while Hope continued healing them. When the spells had finally been placed Fang started to attack alongside Lightning and Hope took the time to place a few boosts on the three of them. He only placed a few before joining the assault with a series of powerful magical attacks. With its defenses gone and their attacks boosted the Tonberry's health dropped rapidly. After finishing another flurry of attacks against the small creature Lightning put some distance with a back hand spring, leaving Fang and the Tonberry in front of her, and Hope back and to her right. As her feet hit the ground Lightning's eyes watched as Fang landed three quick strikes on her least favorite of monsters and then hit it once hard enough to send it flying in her direction. She reacted on instinct at the Tonberry flew through the air directly at her, swinging her gunblade to hit it off course so it flew behind her. Both women watched the small green monster fly through the air towards Hope. As the creature passed in high front of him Hope brought his clenched fist down, causing multiple thunderbolts to rip down from the sky onto the creature, halting its momentum and bringing it crashing to the ground with smoke coming off of it.
"Not so tough now are ya?" Fang said, mocking the dead animal as she stood over it. She stabbed at the smoking corpse a few times with her spear. "Teach you to mess with Oerba Yun Fang."
"It's dead, Fang. Leave it alone." Lightning said. She wasn't quite sure what to make of Fang's hatred of the creature that was so harmless in appearance that it was a common children's toy. "Let's just move on to the next one. We have two stones, one here, and one behind the Ochu."
"No we don't." Sazh said, causing Lightning to turn and see him, Snow, and Vanille walking towards them. "While you three were fighting those guys, we took out the big one. The stone over there is still quiet."
"Guess that leaves us with just this one." Fang said, gesturing towards the stone next to them.
"Guess so." Lightning said as she walked past Fang to activate the stone, "Neochu, ever heard of it?" She asked.
"Yeah." Fang said as she walked over to stand in front of the stone next to Lightning, "It's just a bigger, badder version of the basic one. Never fought one m'self, but how much worse could it be."
"Well what are we waitin' for? Let's go." Snow said from behind the two of them. Lightning didn't turn around to look at him, it would just annoy her. She raised her hand and activated the stone, sending them to Titan's Throne. They moved forward along the simple path, it was just a moment before they could see the cliff drop that was the battlefield. Lightning stopped and turned around, the group gathered around as she started speaking.
"Alright, this is one of Titan's big guy, anyone need a breather?" She asked, looking at each of them in turn.
"I'm good if you are." Fang said as Lightning's eyes found her.
"Careful Fang, your competitive streak is showing." Was Lightning's response.
"I could actually use a break." Hope said, getting him more attention than he seemed to want. When Lightning looked at him though, he quickly added, "From the fighting, just for a moment."
"Alright kid, I'll take over for ya." Snow said, stepping forwards, "That thing'll never know what hit it."
"More like you'll know what hit you." Fang said to Snow.
"Yeah, I'll – Wait what?" Snow said as he suddenly realized he'd been insulted.
"Yep, that's what you do best, get hit." Fang continued, barely managing to keep a straight face at this point.
"I do more than that." Snow said, defending his pride.
"Yeah, you also yell at them a lot." Lightning said casually, adding on to Fang's verbal assault on Snow's battle tactics.
"Alright, alright." Sazh said, interrupting whatever Snow had been about to say, "Let's leave the big guy alone. Maybe we should get back to killing the monsters. Everyone good with that?"
"Right. Let's move." Lightning said, leading towards the battlefield.
The battle began as soon as Titan set down the beast. Fang and Lightning immediately began attacking the large creature, while drew its attacks. It was just a few moments later that Snow was starting to get fairly weak. Lightning stopped attacking and started healing him, the process somewhat slowed by attacks from the Neochu. After a short period she managed to get him back to what she thought was fair enough health, and rejoined the attack. She could still hear the blows landing behind her as the creature continued to attack Snow. She knew it probably wouldn't be long before she would have to heal him again.
Lightning suddenly heard a loud yell from behind her and turned to look. She wasn't sure if it was bad timing on Snow's part, or good on the Neochu's, but just as Snow had dropped his guard for a moment, it had struck. It sent the large man flying into the air, and coming down with a heavy thud. Being already weakened by the previous attacks meant that he was barely able to roll himself over, getting up was out of the question.
A quick switch of strategy set Fang on defense and Lightning as a healer. Just as she was about to heal him though, the Neochu's attack burst through the ground at her feet, sending her into the air as it had Snow. The blow left her rattled; she was able to get up but just barely. She turned the healing magic on herself, clearing her vision and letting her stand better. She knew she didn't have to worry about another attack; Fang had drawn the fire for them. A few more doses of healing magic helped her, then one that worked for both herself and Fang. One more cast should put her high enough to start helping Snow again, she knew. Then she heard the Neochu stomp it's feet. She turned to see it inhale, then release a screech that hit her like a physical blow, knocking her to the ground. She rolled over on to one knee, but she wasn't going to be getting up from that one very soon.
Fang looked around. She was still standing after the last attack, having been ready for it, but Lightning was not so lucky. That left both Snow and Lightning on the ground, and she already had her hands full trying to recover. "I could use some help over here!" She shouted, knowing that the other three were waiting nearby. It was barely a moment later that shots rang out and hit the Neochu. Then Fang felt a rush as healing magic ran over her. Sazh and Hope showed up a second later as the sources.
Hope kept healing, starting with Lightning, while Sazh started laying down status magic to protect all of them. As soon as Lightning was up she started helping Hope with healing magic. Between the two of them they managed to raise Snow as well, and keep everyone in good health. Fang began attacking the creature as soon a Snow was well enough to draw it's attacks, and was quickly followed by Sazh and Lightning. Hope stayed back to heal any wounds.
They had only been attacking for a few moments when the beast again dealt a heavy blow, this time in the form of toxins. The debilitating gas it let loose cast a multitude of status ailments on them. Sazh's magic softened the blow somewhat, but they were still left weakened. Hope immediately started attempting to heal them of their various conditions, but the Neochu decided to strike while it had the chance. Vines erupted from the ground beneath Snow, who had already had his defenses taken down by the previous attack. Hope refocused his healing magic onto Snow, raising him up again. Fang and Snow both tried to get the monsters attention in order to keep the others safe, but they were just a little too slow. The creature next attack took Hope out in one shot.
In the chaos of the battle it took them a few seconds to notice that the young boy was no longer in the fight. Lightning switched up and stepped back, preparing healing magic, but was not quick enough. Ignoring both Fang and Snow once again, the beast took out Lightning, who had been suffering the effects of poison, weakening her so that Sazh boost to her defense had no effect.
Fang dropped her attempts at defense and immediately began attacking the large beast in front of her, she knew that Snow could handle defense for a moment. Shots fired at the creature told her Sazh was doing the same. She also heard the sound of Snow standing through another of the powerful creature's attacks. She put all of her effort into her attacks, but still barely managed to leave a mark on the beast's thick hide. She used every attack she could think of, using one handed and two handed swings, as well as breaking her lance down into its three part form, but nothing seemed to be able to deal any serious damage.
A she backed away after another chain of attacks, Fang took a moment to catch her breath, while behind her Sazh continued firing shots and Snow took yet another hit. Fang prepared herself to rush in again, hoping that this time one of her hits would do some real damage. However before she could the giant beast let out a second screech, so powerful it managed to bring both Sazh and Fang to their knees, leaving Snow the only person involved in the fight who was still standing. Likely hoping to rid itself of this one last annoyance, the Neochu let loose a breath of toxic gas, crippling the large man before it.
We're done for. Fang thought, as she looked at the debilitated l'cie that was barely standing before the imposing beast. Then, out of nowhere, she saw a streak of green magic heal the man. She just managed to turn enough to see Vanille running up to the battle, healing the sentinel. As soon as she had healed him, she removed the status ailments that had been plaguing him. "Thanks, I needed that." He said, barely turning his head to look at the young girl.
"Run." Fang barely managed to choke out, "Get out of here, both of you. We can't beat this thing."
"No." Vanille said, her voice stern, "I should have been helping you before. This is my fault and I'm going to fix it."
"You got a plan to take this thing down?" Snow asked.
"Sort of." She said, though she didn't seem sure.
"Works for me." He said, grinning as he provoked the large monster. Vanille immediately switched into her saboteur role, and quickly cast imperil on the beast. After getting the spell to stick, she seemed to stop attacking for a moment, simply standing there. The she threw out her left hand toward the massive creature, causing a few black spots to appear in the area around, though they quickly faded.
Three times she repeated the maneuver, but it appeared that her spell simply wasn't working. She threw out the spell a fourth time, and got no better results than before. Just after she had failed again, vines erupted from beneath Snow's feet, and he dropped to his knee, having taken more hits than even he could handle. Vanille looked around, all of her friends had been defeated by the monster, and she wasn't just going to let it get away with that, but she knew she wasn't strong enough to survive one of its attacks.
She focused hard on her spell, putting every ounce of willpower she had into it. She knew she would only get one more shot, and she was going to make sure that was all that it took. "It's time to end this!" She shouted, throwing her left arm forward with her palm facing the imposing beast. Darkness swirled around the monster, cloaking it for a moment, and then rushing in. As the wisps cleared away it was clear, the beast that had felled nearly all of them, was dead.
Vanille healed Hope first, and then they healed Lightning. Between the three of them they were all healed in no time. They were engulfed in magic, as they were transported back to the beginning of the Faultwarrens. "Everybody okay?" Vanille asked, getting enough response to know that everyone was healed. "Good, then let's get back to camp." With that she turned and skipped ahead, leading back towards their most recent campsite.
….
The fire burned brightly in the center of the camp, providing heat and light for those around it as the sun set and deeper cold began to settle in. As Lightning looked around at her fellow l'cie she realized that their last fight must have gotten to them. Everyone seemed to be depressed. Normally she would have attributed this simply to their situation, however she knew at the moment that it came from their near failure earlier. Vanille had been attempting to cheer everyone up, as she was apparently the only one unaffected, but had given up and allowed even herself to succumb to the gloom that hung over them all like a cloud.
At the moment there was one particular person who Lightning was worried about. It wasn't Hope; she was used to him being depressed. Nor was it Sazh, whom she knew could handle himself. She definitely wasn't worried about Snow, or Vanille for that matter, they would both bounce back quickly. It was Fang that bothered her at the moment. It just wasn't right, Fang wasn't one to get depressed, pissed off maybe, but not depressed. She didn't like seeing the woman like this; she knew she had to do something about it. Fang had been there for her when she needed it, now it was time she returned the favor. "I'm going to check the perimeter." She said as she stood up. She barely even got a glance from the rest of the group; they had figured out a while back that this was simply what Lightning said when she wanted to walk away.
Lightning crossed through the middle of the camp on her way out. As she walked past Fang she let the back of her hand brush against her. She paused for a moment when Fang turned to look at her from the contact, giving a subtle nod of her head, then continuing on. Fang must have got the message because Lightning had barely taken more than a few steps when she heard Fang stand up behind her. "Hold up a minute Sunshine, I'm goin' with ya'. Getting' bored just starin' at the fire." With that the two of them walked off without as much as a look from the rest of the group.
When they were finally out of earshot, Fang spoke up. "So, what'd ya pull me out here for?" she asked. It didn't surprise Lightning that Fang had spoken up first, she usually did, what surprised her was the way she said it. The calmness and lack of emotion in her voice reminded Lightning more of herself than of Fang, and that bothered her even more than she already was. She decided the direct approach would be best, and so she turned and looked Fang directly in the eyes as she said "What's wrong?"
Fang was taken aback by the sudden statement. Lightning usually didn't show an interest in people's personal problems, with the exception of Hope, who she seemed to have taken under her wing. "What'd ya mean?" she asked. She knew she wasn't at her peak right now, but she wasn't sure that Lightning could see it, so it was probably best to just play dumb, hopefully the problem would go away.
Lightning cut through Fang's hopes in single breath. "You know exactly what I mean, so don't even try playing dumb." She said. "Ever since we got back from that last set of trials you haven't been yourself, so I'll ask again. What's wrong? And I want an answer this time." Lightning held Fang's gaze even after she finished, staring into Fang's eyes with a force. Finally Fang turned away, though she could still feel Lightning's on her, waiting for an answer.
Fang dropped her head for a moment as she gave in, and then let a long sigh before beginning. "I wasn't strong enough." She said as she turned to face the soldier. Lightning didn't speak, nor even blink, as she waited for Fang to continue. "I went up against that thing, and I lost. All my training, all my hunting, all my powers as a maker forsaken l'cie, and I was stopped by oversized fur ball."
Fang paused for a moment, catching her breath, and hoping Lightning would play her side in the conversation. Again she was given the silent treatment, leaving her to do the talking. "Ever since my parents died in the war, I swore I would be strong enough; strong enough to protect myself, my friends, my family. I trained constantly, I hunted and fought countless beasts, and I beat anyone who would take my challenge. I even went so far as to get branded a l'cie and became ragnorok in order to protect my home, but I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't strong enough then, and I wasn't strong enough today. How am I supposed to help anyone when I'm not even able to kill some random creature?"
Lightning took a step forward and put her hand on Fang's shoulder. "Fang, you are the strongest person I know. After everything you've been through, you still manage to enjoy the moment. Something I'm still trying to figure out how to do. And, unless I'm wrong, the Neochu is dead, and we all made it out alright."
Fang looked away from Lightning when she spoke, trying to hide the shame she was feeling. "Yeah, but I still failed. I was down and out. If it hadn't been for Van… I couldn't protect her, or you, or anyone. I had to be saved; I'm supposed to be the one who rescues her, not the other way around."
Lighting moved her hand to Fang's face, turning her to look her in the eyes again. "You weren't the only one who was taken out, Fang, remember? We all got our asses handed to us by that thing. You're right, if it hadn't been for Vanille, we wouldn't be here right now, but isn't that why we're all here? Wasn't it you who told me we aren't in this alone? When one of us wins, we all do. You shouldn't think you need to be indestructible, everyone needs help once in a while, just don't be too proud to take it. We're stronger together than we are apart, even if you're not strong enough, we'll be there to help you. I'llbe there to help you."
Fang looked into Lightning's eyes for a moment before letting a small smile break through. She pulled Lightning into an unexpected hug and held her close. After a short while she separated from the hug, only to plant a small but caring kiss on her girlfriend's lips. "Thank you." She said, her usual grin returning. This itself earned a smile from Lightning. The unexpected sight left Fang speechless, she hadn't seen a real smile on the soldier's face before, and now she never wanted to see her without it. "You should do that more often."
"What's that?" Lightning asked, suddenly confused.
"Smile." Fang answered, causing her new favorite look to cross Lightning's face yet again. "Now let's get back to the others and see if you can cheer them up too."
"Yeah, I'll leave that to you and Vanille. Just don't cheer up Snow. I like him better when he's not talking."
"We all do."
On getting back to camp they found everything was different than they had left it. Hope and Vanille were playing with the chocobo chick and Snow was telling Sazh an apparently funny story, based on the grin on the older man's face. As they walked in Lightning immediately returned to her seat on the other side of the camp, while Fang sat down next to Vanille. "So what happened here?" Fang asked, "When we left everyone looked like an oretoise had stepped on their favorite toy."
"Dinner happened." Vanille said with a very suspicious grin, "We saved you two some." With that she pointed at a bed of coals just outside the sitting area. Turning on a spit over the bed of coals was one of the tonberries they had fought earlier that day. Fang's jaw nearly hit the ground.
"You can eat Tonberry?" Lightning asked, she had never heard of such a thing back on Cocoon.
"Oh yeah." Fang said, "The little bastards are annoying as hell, but they're also delicious. A Gran Pulse delicacy."
"Well, let's eat." Lightning said, "Everyone else can hit the sack, I'll take first watch." She and Fang walked over to the cooked monster and sat down while everyone else lay down. Lightning began cutting pieces of meat off of the meal with the knife Serah had given her. Sure enough it turned out to be quite good. In the end it was just her and Fang, talking into the night while everyone else slept. Despite the problems earlier that day, Lightning thought the night turned out well.
...
Had some trouble with this one, as i said before, hope that fixes itself soon. Hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review, constructive critisism always welcome. and thank you to all readers, and fans of struck, a new fav, follow, or especially review always make my day.