"Valuable things always get crumpled like that."

As soon as Lightning entered the base, and gave her papers to the senior PSICOM sergeant, she was shuffled into a line of recruits already present. The ages varied – there was no age cap on who could enlist – but the majority of the other recruits were within the eighteen-to-thirty range, with various stragglers outside the average. This included her.

There were also very few women, Lightning noted with a roll of her eyes. From what she could see, however, she was one of the youngest here, if not the youngest. Fifteen was the minimum after all, and nobody really enlisted right away anyhow.

"Stand at attention!"

The line of recruits stiffened to perfect posture; she was no exception.

"Announcing Lieutenant Yun Fang!"

A slew of recruit eyes shifted. From within the base came a dark haired woman in a Guardian Corps uniform with a blue and black scheme. On her shoulders were the same parallel lines as everyone else – except hers pulsed an orange colour; the markings of a Lieutenant. Her hair was longish and wild, the same dark tint as her eyes. She was tan, with a knowing, playful smirk.

"Good to see new faces around here," she grinned, an accent that Lightning couldn't place curving the woman's words. "I'm Lieutenant Yun Fang; you may refer to me as such. I'm going to be in charge the Sanctum Recruit Training regiment for the next two months; you better be damn well prepared for it, yeah?"

She looked over the recruits, eyes resting on a few specifics as she paced back and forth before them. She straightened one boy's posture with a slap on the back, adjusted another man's shoulder guard with a tug. She finally made it to Lightning, near the end of the line. She stopped, and gave the girl a full look over.

"Name? How old are you, recruit?"

"Lightning Farron; I'm fifteen, Ma'am," Lightning answered stoically, purposefully staring forward.

"Mmm, haven't had meat as fresh as you around here in a long time," the Lieutenant crossed her arms thoughtfully, a hand under her chin. She unfolded her arms, and continued down the line. "Good luck."

After looking over everyone, Fang resumed her position in front of the row. She paced, hands on her hips, before them.

"As of now, you are all on the lowest tier you could possibly be at. You are not a member of a faction, nor are you being paid to be here. You will answer to your superiors accordingly, and follow the rules of the base. Sanctum doesn't look kindly to rebels, and we will escort you off the property should you fail to comply to the goals set for you. Wake up call is at oh-five-hundred, from Saturday to Friday. You are to report in with me at oh-six-hundred, and you are not permitted to leave the training grounds until eighteen-hundred. Because you're still recruits, on Sundays you are given temporary leave off the grounds for whatever purpose, but you must be back on the base before midnight, or you will not be allowed to return."

Fang gave one last wide gaze at them all. "Are we clear?"

A chorus of "Yes, ma'am!" replied.

She nodded . "Good. You've all been given room numbers in your papers. You will be lead to the dorms now; Girls on the left, boys on the right; there will be two people per room."

Lightning, like the rest, saluted to Lieutenant Yun, and followed in suit as a PSICOM officer lead them into the far building. The entrance split into two halls; left and right. As Fang had instructed, she followed the other handful of girls into the left, while the slew of boys shuffled to the right.

"13A . . ." that's what her papers said. She followed the hall down, stopping at her designated door.

"You in this room too? 13A?"

Lightning turned, just about to slip the keycard into the door. Next to her was a brunette with a ponytail and a wide grin; she was probably around eighteen. She was in the same uniform, the same colourless shoulder guard. Lightning nodded, and continued with her previous business of opening the door. With a faint beep and click, the door unlocked, and she pushed it open.

"Cool! We're roommates then," the brunette continued, following Lightning into the room. "What's your name? I'm Jesse," she introduced with a friendly smile.

Lightning thought about reciprocating the smile, but found it wasn't quite working. "Lightning," she replied, turning her attention to the room once more.

It was small, as she thought it would be. Half of the room was taken up by a bunk bed, and in the opposite corner were two lockers, both open and empty. There was a one-person desk on the opposite wall to the beds as well, with a lamp. Everything was neutral and metallic.

"Hoo, boy, they really skimp out on these rooms, huh," Jesse whistled from behind Lightning, shifting over to the lockers and stuffing her duffel bag into one.

"They're just recruit rooms; not really a top priority for people who might not even get hired." Lightning followed in suit, putting her bag in the opposite locker. Jesse looked over the bunk.

"You mind if I take the top bunk?" She asked.

"Sure."

Jesse climbed up onto the bunk for good measure, looking back down to Lightning.

"So, you aiming for the GC or PSICOM?"

"GC," Lightning sat on her own bed below, "PSICOM just seems too anonymous. I don't want to get involved in deep Eden secrets like that."

Jesse sighed. "Me too. Luckily my boyfriend is going for GC too, so we probably won't get separated."

Lightning raised a brow, looking out from the bunk bed to look up at her roommate. "You have a boyfriend?"

Jesse grinned again. "Sure do. His name's Biggs; you probably saw him too, ha ha – he was the slob that got his posture smacked by Lieutenant Yun," she laughed.

Lightning could recall the dark-haired boy who the Lieutenant had hit. "That's him?"

"Yup. He's a goof, to be sure, but he's my goof," Jesse mused, before hanging her head down to look at Lightning. "What about you? Any boys out there waiting for you?"

Lightning scoffed. When she registered for the SRTR, she didn't expect it to turn into a sleepover. But Jesse wasn't a bad person, she could tell; just chatty. "No," she answered curtly.

"Oh? What about that silver-haired guy? The older one."

Lightning raised a questioning look.

"I remember seeing you getting out of a guy's car when you got here. I thought, 'hey, she's pretty young! But she looks so badass!' and stuff. You kinda stand out, y'know? But I saw the guy that drove you here and gave you your stuff was some older guy with silver hair. Who's he? Big brother?"

"He's not my—" Wait, it wasn't Snow. It became a reflex to deny her relation to Snow when someone mentioned brothers. "No, he's not. He's a . . . "

Come to think of it, what was he?

"Family friend," she decided, "he lives in Palumpolum, so he just gave me a ride here."

"Ohh." Jesse almost seemed a little disappointed. "That makes sense."

The intercom in the corner of the roof buzzed. "All recruits for the SRTR will report to the outside of the lodges; repeat, all recruits. . ."

"That's us," Jesse hopped off the bed, looking back to Lightning. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah." Lightning stood up, and headed out the door with Jesse.

He headed to the downtown area. Hope hadn't really bothered to compile some kind of grocery list, but he knew vaguely what to get. He preferred the lower area; there were open food stands and single stores. Things always came fresher from there, even if it wasn't the most well-to-do part of town. Food always seemed fresher there.

"Fruits and vegetables, fresh from the Fal'Cie!" and other similar calls made a menagerie of sound. It was kind of like the background noise on the beaches in Bodhum: a mix of conversations, but all pretty joyous.

"Looking for anything in particular, young man?"

Hope turned. The voice like chiming bells belonged to a young woman with gingery hair and bright green eyes. Her wrists and neck and waist and ankles were littered with bright-coloured beads and woven accessories, all very hand-made.

When he didn't respond, the girl just followed with a smile. "You look a little lost," ginger-curls said.

He shook out of it. "Oh, no I know where I am. I grew up in Palumpolum, I just haven't been here in a long time . . ." he looked back to the market. "I almost forgot what the market looked like."

She laughed, that same, cheerful ringing sound. "Well, how 'bout a refresher then? I'll join you; I've got little to do until my companion gets off work."

Hope nodded. Company wasn't so bad. "I'm Hope."

"Call me Vanille!" She chimed.

AN:

After having such a block on what to do for the last chapter, this one came so easily! Unexpected, to be sure. I've got a few more plot bunnies pertaining to this swimming around in my head, so we'll see where it goes~ Reviews are awesome, as always. Thanks for the support everyone! Please continue to follow me. [/bow]

By the way; I haven't messed with Fang or Vanille's ages. I just couldn't find a proper reason to, so I decided not to. (Can't mess with it too much, after all.)