Chapter 2: The Return
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Lightning stood at the edge of her doorway being only able to stare at the girl in front of her. Vanille, Fang's adopted sister who the soldier assumed was never going to see again. Though here she was, drenched in rain with a troubled frown across her face. Vanille looked up to meet Lightning's dumbfounded gaze. "Hiya light..It's been a while huh?" Lightning rubbed at her eyes once more, thinking maybe this wall some sort of twisted dream her mind was teasing her with, but once she reopened them the redhead was still there though with now a confused expression shaping her face.
Convinced that the girl in front of her was finally real, Lightning shook out of the trance she found herself in before moving herself to the edge of the door. "Please come in." Vanille nodded and waltzed inside the soldiers home, trailing muddy footsteps along the living room floor as she went on but Lightning paid it no mind. The soldier signaled the pulsian to stay put while she scurried off to the bathroom to retrieve some towels. "Here, you look like you may need these." Lightning tossed a few towels in Vanille's direction and the girl caught them effortlessly.
As the girl continued to dry herself off, Lightning felt the anxiety burning up inside her. Where was Fang? Was she alright? Had she returned from stasis as well? Too many questions to ask and not enough time. Right at the moment Vanille dropped the towel from her face, the soldier was quick to get her attention. "Do you know where Fang is? You said the last time you two awoke from the last stasis you was together on Cocoon. Shouldn't she have been there with you?"
Lightning wanted to forgive her aggressive questioning so soon, the girl did just wake up after all but she needed answers. Vanille's expression dropped as she let her arms dangle around her hips, toying with her feathered dress as a excuse not to meet Lightning's piercing gaze. "I-I don't know what happened. I Just woke up right outside the pillar and I didn't see Fang anywhere." Vanille could notice the soldiers shoulder slump almost immediately. She could see Lightning close her eyes viciously and started to look away from the younger pulsian, the soldiers heart was hurting intensely. Vanille saw how bad Lightning was hurting, so she quickly attempted to rephrase her sentence.
"Maybe Fang awoke at a different area around the pillar! She may have also gotten up before me and tried to find her way here too. Light I'm sure she'll be-" Before Vanille could finish, Lightning heard all that she needed to. She hurried off into her bedroom to gather a few supplies, she wasn't about to give up on Fang, even if there was a small to no chance of finding her, she would never give up on her lover. Lightning quickly tugged her holstered gunblade from the counter and turned to swing open her dresser. Wasting no time, she grabbed a leather coat and slipped it on as jogged to the kitchen. Without hesitation, she swung the fridge door open and packed a few water bottles, in case Fang happened to be dehydrated.
The soldier kneed the fridge door closed and tossed a water bottle to Vanille, who stumbled backwards and juggled to object before finally gripping it, still mildly confused. "Light what are you doing? It's pouring outside and it's dangerous-" She froze up as Lightning faced her with a glare before opening the door. "Stay here, If she's out there then I will find her." With that said, Lightning exited the house before slamming the door shut behind her. Vanille sighed as she plumped down onto the couch, exhausted from the long walk to get to Lightning's apartment. She couldn't help but worry about her adoptive sister and best friend, she could only hope Lightning would find her. She had to.
Lightning rushed to her velocycle parked right outside the women's garage and quickly hopped on the vehicle. Ignoring. With a flick of a switch, the vehicle started to power up slowly as Lightning started revving the gas, hoping it would power up faster. Her efforts finally had paid off when the engine kicked on and wasted no time throwing it into reverse. Pressing on the gas, she pulled the handlebars accordingly to twist the cycle facing forward before soaring off into the air.
With Lightning's foot smashing into the gas paddle, it was about ten minutes until the pillar really started to come into view. The soldier scanned the open plains and nearby forests as she hovered around them, making circles around the crystal pillar as she went. After close to twenty minutes of searching, a figure stood out just below here, it looked to be someone walking and using something to prop them up, like a cane of some sort.
Finding it important to investigate, she twirled the velocycle in mid air and flew towards ground level. Even if the person was not Fang, they could still need some help as Gran Pulse was not a very safe place for travelers who was not well prepared. Lightning's eyes narrowed as the humanly figure started to become more and more clear. The figure wore some sort of traditional pulsian clothing, it looked just like a sari but she wasn't sure just yet. Though the image enough made Lightning's blood rush and felt her heart skip a couple beats.
Lightning started to near ground level swiftly and as the figure came into full view now, it was a women. Tall with tanned skin, wearing a blue sari, using a spear as a walking prop, Lightning had no doubt that she found her. She had found Fang. Lightning decelerated the vehicle and landed it ahead of Fang. Lightning practically leapt off the vehicle and ran towards her lover as she witnessed Fang collapse onto the ground. The soldier felt her heart sink into her chest when she knelt down beside the pulsian. Fang's clothes had been clawed and slashed open by some local fauna, Lightning quickly started examining the women of any serious injuries.
Luckily, there was only a few cuts around the women's abdomen and upper arms, though she had a nasty gash in her hip that would need medical attention soon, but nothing life threatening. As soon as was about to lift up her injured friend, she heard movement of multiple entities scurrying behind her. Lightning's natural reflexes kicked in when her gunblade flung from its holster and twisted into its bladed form as she twisted around.
Hedge frogs. The small pack of amphibians surrounded the pair of former l'cie ready to attack. As if right on cue, the three frogs pounced towards Lightning at once. With a flick of her wrist, her gunblade cut clean through the belly of one of her victims and ducked under the two other hostiles. Lightning's head was drenched in the monsters blood and what looked to be a liver slide down her shoulder to the ground. The soldier wiped the blood from her eyes and was given no break as the monsters began their attack once again, pouncing towards the women.
She sidestepped the first attacker as it aimed for her chest, bringing her blade clean through the center of the amphibian and was dead before it even hit the ground. Simultaneously , she gripped the remaining frog's tail and swung it straight into the ground, promptly then shoving her boot straight into its windpipe. Now that they was safe for the time being, Lightning dropped down beside Fang, draping her arms around the soldiers neck and lifted her up fireman carry style. Figuring the huntress would like her spear back when she woke up, Lightning knelt down to retrieve the weapon before making her way back to the cycle.
Lightning maneuvered herself on the vehicle so Fang could lay across the soldiers lap on her stomach. She could practically feel the pulsians stomach growling for food, signaling that she should probably head back quickly. Lightning flicked the switch and watched as the velocycle come to life in seconds and before long, she set back off into the sky and back to New Bodhum. Luckily it had stopped raining, so the trip back wouldn't be too bad to navigate her way back.
The soldier found it wise not to go too fast, as she had Fang's spear in one hand with a handlebar in another so it only seemed smart that she should take her time. Fang was not in need for immediate care, so there was no huge rush. Lightning looked and smiled down at her lover, who was now snoring so loud she could faintly hear over the cycles motor. The soldier closed her eyes as the cool autumn wind swept through her pink locks and began to reflect on all that had just happened in just a short time.
Lightning could not help but think this was all still a dream. She had countless dreams over the past three years about being reunited with her lover. Some she went and took Snow's approach and started to hack away at their crystal bodies until they were broken free. Some dreams Fang would just pop up on her doorstep like Vanille had just did and everything started to go back to normal. Then there was the nightmares, which she had way too often.
The nightmares varied just as much as her dreams. Some of which Fang did return, but did not remember anything that happened during their journey together and not even remember who Lightning even was to begin with. Then there was the horrid nightmares that taken place back during their journey together where Lightning had to witness Fang get killed each and every time. Whether it was from a stray bullet, a juggernaut fist coming down on her, or even becoming a cie'th just to spend a little more time with Lightning and avoided the fate that she was destined for. To become Ragnarok and destroy Cocoon.
Back then, it was all too much to take. Her mind teasing her with a mixture of both hope and despair. The dreams and nightmares started to become more and more frequent where it started to become common for Lightning to wake up to find herself in tears. Nobody knew of her inner turmoil, not even Serah, at least not all of what was happening. Lightning had told Serah about her relationship with Fang, but nothing about how badly it eat at her inside.
So she started to become fully devoted to the Guardian Corps to find some sort of escape. Lightning grabbed all the hours she could get and worked constantly for three years. Her work paid off well, she was now considered wealthy now being a high ranking officer but it all was not enough. Amodar had forced her to take some days off and when she did, the pain and memories consumed her. For three years there was a giant hole inside of her that was never full or satisfied. There was always something missing in her life and she knew exactly what it was, ached for it so badly but always knew she would never have it. She would never have Fang again.
It seemed ironic to her that she shut herself off from love all these years, for Serah's sake she continued to tell herself and only to finally meet someone worthy of her love, to have that said person ripped away and out of her life forever. All of it was so unfair. She hated herself for even falling for Fang, wished she never had even met the women so that she would never had experienced this unbearable pain, but she did meet Fang and did fall in love with her.
Lightning felt relieved and thankful that she hung in there the past three years, never once giving up on her lover. Her countless prayers to Etro was finally answered, the goddess herself gave Lightning's one and only true lover back to her. She was so relieved to have her back that she just wanted to latch onto Fang and cry her heart out. She also wanted to beat Fang back into a coma for breaking the promises Fang made to her back in Sulyya Springs, that the pulsian would never leave her side, that they would get through this together.
Though Fang, willing or not, did come through with her promises as here she was, laying across her lap comfortably asleep it seemed. Lightning brought her eyes back up from Fang and in front of her, New Bodhum was starting to finally come back into view. Serah had spent the last three years learning to become a doctor and now was a nurse at a local clinic. The medical equipment was not as advanced as it was back in Cocoon but it still was very effective none the less.
Since Fang's injury was not lethal as well as Lightning not wanting random strangers working on her girlfriend, she figured it was best to bring her by Serah's house. Snow's place had two bedrooms, one of which him and Serah shared after she moved in and a guest bedroom which they was thinking about making a nursery out of in case they wanted a child anytime soon. For Snow's sake, she hoped that was not going to be happening anytime in the near future.
As they entered the small settlement of New Bodhum, Lightning started to decelerate the vehicle and started to slowly hover towards ground level. The soldier had Serah and Snow's apartment location memorized and found it effortlessly as she brought the velocycle to a full stop and parked it right outside their garage. Lightning backed up gently to let Fang's limp body rest on the seat of the vehicle before hopping down. She quickly made her way back to the pulsian and scooped her up bridal style and huffed, the women was a lot heavier then she looked.
Lightning struggled as she hurried herself to the couples door and began knocking frantically. After about the fifteenth knock, she started to hear soft padded footsteps hurrying to the door and heard the door being unlocked from the inside before the door opened to reveal the younger farron. Serah was about to question Lightning to no end about why she had waken her up this late with work in the morning but could only gawk. She stared at Lightning then to the tanned tribal women in her arms.
"Light is that..the women who you was telling me about?" Serah asked nervously but before she could receive an answer, Lighting pushed past her to gently drop the pulsian onto the couples large couch before turning back to meet her sister. "Yeah..that's Fang. Vanille came to my house and told me that she had woken up but she had no idea where Fang was. I'm not sure how long ago she woke up from stasis but I found her limping a few miles away from the pillar. She seems pretty hurt, I was hoping actually if you could take a look at her."
Serah nodded before jogging towards the guest room where all the medical equipment had been stored. Lightning took the moment to reach into her pack that was strapped around her waist to grab one of the water bottles she got from earlier and tugged it out. She walked towards the couch where Fang lay and set the bottle on the small table beside the piece of furniture as Serah quickly hurried back to the living room.
The smaller pinkette returned with a some rubbing alcohol, rags, bandages, stitches, scissors, and a stethoscope wrapped around the back of her neck. Serah maneuvered the end of the stethoscope to Fang's chest as she plugged the ear pieces in. She moved the object around a few times, monitoring the pulsians heart beat. Satisfied with the results, Serah retracted the object and tugged the ear pieces out before looking back at the anxiously awaiting sister. "Her heart beat is steady so I think she'll be fine." The young pink haired doctor then went to pull examine the numerous scratches and the gash in her hip and as she started to prep the rags with alcohol, Snow waltzed into the room yawning wearing nothing but a black t-shirt and some shorts that matched.
"Hey sis! I knew I could have sworn I heard your voice-woah! Is that Fang?!" Snow immediately went to the edge of the couch but Lightning was quick to put a hand on his chest firmly as she started to push him away. "Shut up you idiot can't you see she's sleeping!" she hushed. "Come on, let's go outside and I'll tell you about it. We need to let Serah bandage her up in peace." Snow agreed and followed Lightning out the screen door that led to the couples patio. Snow closed the door behind him and took a seat in one of the lounging chairs nearby. Lightning did the same.
"How did you find her?" he asked blatantly. Lightning then went on to repeat what she had just explained to Serah moments ago and Snow just looked at her dumbfounded before finally regaining the ability to speak. "Hah, I knew all along they would get out one way or another. Fang's too stubborn to stay locked up for too long right?" Lightning silently agreed but stayed quiet for the most part as she stared off into the night sky. Snow's tone started to soften then. "I'm glad to see their back. Things just weren't the same without those two here causing all sorts of trouble." He said with a goofy grin plastering across his face. "Does anybody else know their back? I can give Hope and Sazh a call-"
"No!" she interrupted. "Nobody else needs to know just yet. Whenever Fang wakes up she's going to need some time to rest. We don't need everyone bugging and harassing her with questions when she just got back." Part of that was true, but Lightning mainly wanted Fang to herself for a while. Even back when they was l'cie, the two never really had much privacy with Vanille and Hope snooping about. Snow let out a defeated sigh before agreeing with the pinkette. Snow knew better to try and change Lightning's mind about something she felt strongly about.
Silence fell between the two for a few minutes as they took in the night sky. Stars filled almost every inch of space above them and Lightning found it gorgeous. You could never see the stars in Cocoon, nothing like this. Everything Fang told them about Gran Pulse was true in every sense of the word. The place was not like hell as all the foolish and misguided Cocoonian's believed it to be, it was the opposite in fact, heaven. Lightning remembered how naive she was back before she was a l'cie. She was just another falsely led sheep that was taught to believe pulse was nothing but a horrid place where everyone feared to go. How wrong she was.
The silent broke when the screen door opened to reveal Serah peeking her head out. "Fang had a few minor injuries excluding the gash but it will heal in time. She'll need new stitches for it later on so just drop by here or the clinic and I can replace them for you. Other than that, everything else I was able to bandage up pretty easily, I think she'll be just fine and should wake up soon actually. Lightning felt herself relax instantly and smiled uncontrollably. Fang was safe.
Lightning pulled herself up from the wooden seat and returned back into the house and peered down at the sleeping form beside her. The soldier switched her gaze from Fang to her sister and smiled warmly before she brought Serah into an embrace. "Thank you Serah..I really appreciate this." Serah smiled in turn and returned the loving embrace with her own. The two stayed like that for a while before Lightning pulled back. "No problem, I was happy to help."
Serah then looked to Snow who was now in the kitchen, searching through the fridge. "Hey babe! Can you clean out the guest room and make the bed for Fang?" Snow returned the milk to the fridge before he could start preparing his breakfast and made his way into the guest room before giving Serah a kiss on the forehead as he passed by. "Yeah sure thing." Snow swiftly disappeared as he exited the living room and into the hallway to the guest room. Lightning then decided to take this time to leave, before the big lug could return.
The soldier walked over to Fang and bent down to her knees as she started to run her fingers through Fang's wild brown locks. The pulsian was drop dead gorgeous and Lightning could never get enough of her. She wanted nothing more than to just climb onto the couch and snuggle up to Fang and waited for her to wake up, but Vanille was still anxiously awaiting her to come back with the news. So instead, she rested her hands on the tanned cheeks and planted a firm kiss on the women's forehead.
She held the kiss a few seconds before reluctantly pulling herself away. Serah meanwhile was staring at her sister with a mixture of glee and confusion. Lightning never showed affection to anyone other than herself. She was also very happy for her sister to finally find it in her heart to actually fall in love with someone, her sister deserved to be happy and have someone protect and watch out over her for a change. The smaller pinkette was broken out of her thoughts as Lightning pushed back up to her feet and walked up to her.
"I have to head back, Vanille I'm sure will want to know that Fang's awake and safe. Thanks again, for everything." Lightning hugged Serah tightly, giving her forehead a swift peck as well before she pulled herself back. "I'll be back by tomorrow to come and check up on her. I'll call Amodar in the morning and let him know I'll be taking the day off. I'm sure he won't mind, he's been trying to force me to take vacation time I have built up." Serah only nodded in response and walked with Lightning to the door. The soldier opened the door and stopped mid-way outside of the door. "I'll be brining Vanille by as well. You can use some of my gil if you decide to go shopping, Vanille will probably need some few extra clothes." Serah smiled and shook her head at the kind offer. "It's fine Claire I can take care of it. So I'll be seeing you tomorrow then?" Lightning smiled and nodded as she started to close the door. "Bye Serah." The door closed behind her and made her way back to the velocycle.
Lightning hesitated before getting on the vehicle, instead looking back up at the stars once more. It seems prayers and wishes do come true after all. Lightning smiled at the thought before climbing onto the vehicle and strode off towards her home which was only a mile down the beach. Only a few minutes passed until Lightning made it back to her house, pulling into her yard and parking the vehicle beside her doorstep. The soldier lazily hopped off the vehicle and slowly walked up to the door. She was both emotionally and physically exhausted, so much had happened in just a short time it, it was too much to take in one night.
As the pinkette opened the door to her home, she found Vanille passed out on the couch, resting on her side facing the cushions. Lightning smiled slightly as she disappeared into the hall and into the closet to grab a spare blue quilt that used to belong to Serah when she was a child. Returning to the room, she approached the sleeping pulsian before folding out and covering the quilt over the sleeping girl. Lightning never was really fond of Vanille when they had first met. The young girl was nosy, annoying, and always in the way. But as time went on and the more time she spent with Fang, the more she started to become attached to them both.
Vanille was also the only thing closest to family Fang had and Lightning would respect that. It wouldn't be too bad once she thought about it, the young red head was just a more bouncy and perkier version of Serah. Fang and Vanille both did save Cocoon after all as well as giving Serah back to her. Lightning could not imagine how she would repay them, but treating Vanille as if she was a member of her own family would be a start. When the younger pulsian was fully tucked in, Lightning smiled faintly as she watched the sleeping figure on her couch before treading off into her own room to do the same.
The soldier disappeared out of the living room, into the hallway, and up the stairs that led to her fairly large room. Lightning opened and closed the door as she entered, making her way to the closet where she started to peel off the rain and blood smeared garments. After retrieving some new clothes, she walked out the door and into the bathroom to take a quick shower before bed. Setting the fresh pair of clothes beside the towels, she twisted the knobs as the shower nozzle started to spray out the warm droplets.
Stepping into the shower, she started ponder on what tomorrow might bring. Would Fang wake up? Was it going to be like her nightmares and Fang would not even remember who she was? Did Fang still love her after all this time? More and more questions started to fill her mind, only to worsen her impatience. Lightning sighed and forced herself to calm down, she would see Fang in the morning, but for now she needed to keep cool and think about what's she going to do now that the women in back.
Going over scenarios in her head on how to deal with the press, fans, and media she stepped outside of the shower grabbing a towel to dry off with. It was no secret that the two pulsians was the famed heroes that saved Cocoon from its destruction. So when the community found out the two were alive and well, no doubt the two would get constantly harassed with questions and all sorts of media garbage. Lightning had a few strings she could pull in the Guardian Corps to prevent that from happening anytime soon thankfully, she would have to give Hope a call soon.
The pinkette dropped the towel before starting to redress into her moogle pajamas. Lightning hated them with a burning passion but it was a birthday gift from Serah, so she had to wear them. The pinkette exited the bathroom and returned back to her room before dropping into her soft cold silk sheets. Curling up into the bed, Lightning was quick to fall asleep. She would finally be with Fang again.
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Author's Notes: Here is a update for you guys! I really appreciate all the kind reviews it means a lot to me and I hope to hear more from you guys as time goes on :D. Also I was a tad bit iffy on writing the hedge frog scene, I'm not too great at writing action scenes just yet but there will be more to come later on so I hope to improve until then. Fang is officially going to be in the next update, I was going to throw her in this chapter but I did not want to make this chapter too incredibly long. Anyways thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoy it!