Answers to review questions.

Hakurama: For what the light inside Lightning's stomach is, and why it made her scream in pain, you'll have to wait for a while before I reveal that, but I will say this. That light is one of the key elements in the story. The light could be a good or bad thing, but it depends on people's views of it. In a way Lightning is light and Noctis is dark, but they won't be fighting each other if that's what you're asking. The main bad guy will be revealed after the events of FFXIII go by. When will Cloud and Light kiss? The answer is... much sooner than I originally planned. That whole thing about the woman looking almost exactly like Light will be explained much later. How long is this story until the end? You'll have to wait and see.

gagboy: The identity of the mysterious woman and her connection to Light and Serah will be revealed later. Don't wanna spoil anything.

Squall and Serah continued walking through the mysterious city that looked like it would be Heaven. "So Serah, how did you get here?" Squall asked.

"I don't really know. One moment I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I was here when you found me. Is it the same for you Squall?"

"Yeah. Everything just went black and then I found myself here." Squall answered.

"So, why do we have a wing on our backs?" Serah asked as she looked back at her wing.

"Dunno. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me." Squall replied as he also stared at his wing. Suddenly, the entire area began shaking violently as if an earthquake began. All the angel looking people looked around in fear as they had no idea what was going on.

"What's happening?!" Serah said had a hard time keeping her balance. She held onto Squall's arm to keep her balance since he was easily keeping his. Squall sensed a dark presence and looked into the sky to see a dark cloud hanging over the city. What appeared to be hundreds of dark creatures manifested from the cloud and descended onto the city. The people screamed and flew away as the dark creatures began attacking the city.

They fired dark energy blasts from their mouths which blew away chunks of building they hit. A few buildings came toppling over, rattling the ground even more. Fires spread along the plants which began to engulf the city. "Let's go!" Squall grabbed Serah's arm and dragged her with him as he dashed off in the opposite direction the creatures were coming from. Suddenly, a large dark creature landed in front of him and Serah.

"Damn!" Squall said as he reached to grab Revolver, but felt it wasn't there. Squall then tried to grab Lion Heart, only to see it was gone as well.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Squall mentally shouted as he and Serah had no way to defend themselves. The creature charged up and launched a large dark blast towards the two. Squall and Serah braced themselves for the impact, but as soon as the blast would've hit them, it instead phased tight through them, as if they were ghosts. The blast collided with a tall building and obliterated it completely. Squall and Serah looked at themselves in confusion.

"What just happened?" Serah asked as she examined her body, trying to figure out why the blast went through her.

"It's like we don't exist." Squall replied. Then suddenly, the entire city and everything around it became shrouded in a cloak of darkness.

"What the?!" Squall looked around in confusion of the sudden darkness that fell over. Squall turned around, only to see Serah had disappeared.

"Serah! Where are you?! Can you hear me?! Serah!" Squall shouted in the darkness. There was no reply, no answer. Nothing. A bright light shined through the darkness which caused Squall to cover his eyes with his arm because of the light's intensity.

"You'll be reunited." a voice said from the light. Squall felt his entire being be swallowed up by the light.

Serah opened her eyes to find herself on her bed like she was before she lost consciousness and met Squall in that weird world. "What's going on? What's happening to me?" Serah thought as she placed her hand on her head.

"It's alright Serah." a female voice said to her. Serah gasped as she looked around the room to find the source of the voice, only to see no one was there.

"Who are you?" Serah asked the voice if it was still there.

"In the future, you'll know. Both you and Lightning." the voice said.

"Wait, how do you know my sister?!" Serah asked in shock. The voice didn't respond.

"Okay, that was weird. I think I'll go see Snow now." Serah said as she hopped out of bed and ran out of the house to Snow's.

Squall opened his eyes to see the car was still driving through the city. He shook his head a bit to completely regain his senses. "What the hell was that just now?" Squall thought in confusion.

"Hey Squall, is something wrong?" Rinoa asked him.

"It's nothing." Squall dismissed. Rinoa decided to let it go because Squall had a face on that told her not to talk about what ever was bugging him anymore. Soon, the car reached the building and everyone stepped outside. The car drove away as soon as everyone was out. Noctis motioned for everyone to follow him up the steps , which of course they did. As they walked up the steps behind the others, Cloud continued to wonder about the mysterious white light he saw inside of Lightning. He turned his head back and glanced towards Lightning's stomach.

"Something wrong Cloud?" Lightning asked, bringing Cloud's attention to her face.

"No, it's nothing." Cloud answered as her turned his head away. Lightning could tell from his face that he was concerned for what happened to her before. That strange white light inside her.

"It's alright Cloud, you don't have to worry about it. I'll be fine. I have you by my side after all." Lightning said. Lightning's words gave Cloud hope that they were true.

"I'm gonna protect you. I swear on my life I will. I won't lose anyone else I hold dear." Cloud thought with confidence as he and Lightning continued walking with the others. Noctis told the guards at the doors that the party was with him so they could get in. Once everyone was inside the building, they were all left with amazement in their eyes. The inside of the building was very large with many floors and a large cylinder fish tank that went to the top. The building was full of people, who all looked like rich business type people, or simply rich people. Noctis turned to the party.

"You guys can enjoy yourselves for the rest of the time we're here, and please don't do anything stupid or embarrassing." Noctis said before walking off.

"Well, I'm hittin' the bar." Cid said as he and Barret went off to the bar. Zell was of course chowing down on the fancy food, while Irvine was trying to find a cute girl to make a move on, and everyone else was walking around the place to check it out. Cloud was walking around on one of the upper floors while checking out the downstairs view.

"Whoa. Even Midgar didn't have places like this." Cloud thought as he admired the view.

"Excuse me." a voice said behind him. Cloud turned to see who the voice belonged to. He saw it was a beautiful young lady about the same age as Noctis. She had blonde hair that was about half way to the middle of her back and was wearing a beautiful white dress that went a little passed her knees.

"Yes?" Cloud asked back.

"Are by any chance Cloud Strife?" Stella asked.

"Yes I am." Cloud answered. "How do you know my name?"

"Where I come from there are stories about you and how you saved the world from Meteor." Stella answered.

"Oh. So what's your name?" Cloud asked.

"Stella Nox Fleuret, but just call me Stella." she answered.

"So how did a great man like you get into this place?" Stella asked.

"I got invited." Cloud answered.

"Wow this is amazing. I never thought I'd get to meet you in person. You know you're cuter than I thought you'd be." Stella said in a flirtatious tone as she slightly leaned towards Cloud. Cloud was now feeling very uncomfortable.

"You wanna take a walk around with me?" Stella asked again in a flirtatious tone.

"Thanks for the offer, but I've gotta be somewhere now." Cloud lied.

"I understand. See you later Cloud." Stella said before walking off.

"That was weird." Cloud thought as he walked off in the opposite direction. Unknown to Cloud, Lightning could see the whole scene from another floor. She had felt immense jealousy build up in her when she saw the girl was acting flirty to Cloud. She also felt glad when she saw that Cloud seemed uninterested in the girl and lied to get out of the situation. Lightning couldn't help but wonder why she had felt the way she just did.

"Why? Why am I so jealous at that girl? Why am I glad he's not interested in her? Is it be because... I like Cloud?" Lightning wondered. At this point, she wasn't surprised if she really did like Cloud. He's a strong and caring person who would fight to protect those he holds dear to him and not give up hope. Well okay maybe for that hope part not so much when she first met him, but with help from his friends he regained hope. As Lightning walked away, she began wondering if Cloud feels the same way she does.

Some time later, Noctis was walking up the stairs to the next floor. While walking up, he could see a mysterious light shining from the next floor. When he reached the top of the next floor, he could see a girl with blonde hair in a white dress standing in front of a large portrait of the goddess Etro. Noctis continued walking as he watched the girl stand in front of the portrait. The girl turned her head towards him and smiled at him as he walked. The girl turned her head back towards the portrait as Noctis stopped walking a few meters away from her.

There was a small moment of silence before Stella broke the silence. "Prince Noctis. You can see the light, right?" Stella asked as she turned to him. Noctis walked towards her but stopped as she turned and they both looked up through the window into the night sky. Stella quickly turned and walked towards Noctis who turned and walked the other way too.

"Was that what you were looking at from downstairs?" Stella asked.

"Pretty much. When did you start seeing it?" Noctis replied.

"When I was a child." she answered.

"Near death experience?" Noctis asked.

"Yes. And you?" Stella replied.

"It was pretty horrible." Noctis answered as he sighed at remembering such awful memories.

"The Goddess Etro shall open the gate welcoming the the souls of the dead. When that happens, a bright light shall shine down through the skies from the land of the dead. That is the legend. It's a Tenebrae legend." Stella said.

"We've got the same legend here." Noctis replied.

"Did the light give you power?" Stella asked.

"No. I don't need anything like that. I'm fine how I am." Noctis answered.

"I know, right? No matter what kind of power it is, if it's at the cost of somebody's life... It would give me nightmares." Stella said with a bit of sadness and fear.

"Same. It's a ridiculous bedtime story." Noctis said as he stopped walking and sat down on a nearby bench. "You shouldn't talk to other people about the light."

"How come?" Stella asked, confused at what Noctis meant.

"Being different from others can cause a lot of trouble. Don't you think?" he answered.

But if it's just a bedtime story, what do you think the light really is?" Stella asked.

"It's just something that's there. Isn't that good enough? Um..."

"Stella." she said.

"Stella... I should be going."

"Thank you for your time, Prince Noctis."

"Just Noct, or Noctis is fine." he said.

"I have to go too. I feel like I've received something from the light tonight." Stella said as she walked a bit away from Noctis before turning back around. "I got a chance to speak with you."

"Well now you'll have nightmares." Noctis replied.

"You're mean one aren't you, Prince Noctis." Stella replied happily.

"Noctis or Noct." he reminded her with a smile.

"I'll call you Noctis the next time we meet." Stella said. You should come to Tenebrae some time. I'll show you around."

"That sounds interesting. I'll think about it." Nocris replied. Stella bid farewell to Noctis before walking off. As she walked off, Noctis turned to the window and looked up at the sky.

"...Who are you?" a mysterious voice asked him.

"I was about to ask the same thing." Noctis answered before walking away.

An hour later at 10:30 PM:

The party got more exciting as music began playing on the main floor and a large number of couples were dancing to it. As the Yuffie and Selphie watched the couples dance, Yuffie suddenly got a sneaky idea in her head. "Hey Selphie, I just got a wicked idea." Yuffie said with a mischievous grin.

"What'd you have in mind?" Selphie responded, also with a mischievous grin. Yuffie whispered her idea into Selhpie's ear. Selphie squealed with delight at Yuffie's plan.

"Let's do it." Selphie said before the two girls ran off to put Yuffie's plan to action. When she found him, Yuffie ran over to Cloud. "Hey Cloud!" she called.

"Yeah?" Cloud asked as he turned to Yuffie.

"Come with me!" Yuffie said as she grabbed Cloud's hand and dragged him along with her.

"Hey wait! What's this about?!" Cloud shouted as he stumbled a bit from being dragged around by Yuffie.

"Selphie wait! What's going on?!" Lightning shouted as Selphie was dragging her along.

"You'll see." Selphie replied. Yuffie brought Cloud all the way to the first floor, and when she saw Selphie dragging Lightning with her, she quickly rushed over. They maneuvered through the large number of couples, and when they reached the center of the room which was clear, Yuffie and Selphie pushed Lightning and Cloud into each other. Cloud stumbled a bit back as Lightning ran into him, but managed to regain his balance and stop Lightning and himself from falling. The two blushed as Lightning's hands were on Cloud's chest, Cloud's arms were around Lightning, and their bodies were touching.

"You can thank us later." Yuffie said to Cloud's before she and Selphie skipped of with joy like they were little girls. Cloud turned and faced Lightning who returned the glance. Cloud unwrapped his arms so Lightning could take her hands off his chest. There was a small moment of silence between the two before Cloud broke it.

"You wanna dance?" Cloud offered his hand to her. There were so many thoughts racing through Lightning's head when she head those words come from Cloud. This was the first time in her life someone gave her this opportunity.

"Sure." Lightning answered as she took Cloud's hand. Throughout the time of the music playing on the main floor, Cloud and Lightning, as well as the other couples performed several ballroom dances. The Waltz, the Foxtrot, the Viennese, the Quickstep, and others.

(A/N: In case you don't know any of these dances, just go on YouTube and look up videos of these dances, and while you watch them, just imagine Cloud and Lightning are the ones dancing. Copy and Paste the underlined video names below.

For the Waltz, I suggest looking up: Gethin Dances the Waltz - Strictly Come Dancing - BBC One

For the Viennese I suggest looking up: Jonathan Wilkins & Katusha Demidova - Viennese Waltz Show

For the Foxtrot and Quickstep, just find whatever you can.

While Cloud and Lightning were dancing the Viennese, Cloud's eyes couldn't help but admire Lightning from top to bottom. She looked stunning in hr golden dress that reached a bit below her knees. Lightning couldn't help but do the same for Cloud as they danced. The dress clothes looked very nice on Cloud, and made him look less like a fighter. They both thought their attires made each other look like normal people. As the dance continued, Cloud noticed in the crowd of couples that Squall was dancing with Rinoa. Cloud could see Squall had that 'I hate this so much' look on his face. "She must've used the puppy dog eyes on him." Cloud thought as he continued dancing with Lightning. The strange thing was, he also noticed Noctis was dancing with that girl Stella he'd met earlier.

"I never imagined I would get to dance with you Noctis." Stella said.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't have anything better to do." Noctis replied. "This place was more boring than I thought it would be."

"Is this making it less boring?" Stella asked as she continued dancing gracefully.

"Oh yeah." Noctis answered with a smile.

"So I wanna know Noctis. Knowing who you are, you could get a dance with probably any girl here. So why did you choose me?" Stella asked.

"To tell you the truth, you're the only girl in here I'd feel like dancing with." Noctis answered.

"I feel honored to hear you say that. Thank you Noctis." Stella said.

"You're welcome." Noctis replied.

"I bet you said that because you like me." Stella teased.

"W-Wait wha-?!" Noctis almost tripped thought he was able to catch himself luckily. Stella looked to see blush on Noctis' face which made her giggle.

"I didn't know you were the extremely shy type." she said.

"W-W-Well s-sorta." Noctis replied, still with blush on his face.

"It's okay, I was just joking." Stella giggled as Noctis quickly tried to regain his composure.

As the music continued playing, Cloud and Lightning felt like they were in heaven with each other. The moment felt so right and the two just didn't want it to ever end. Too bad it had too. The music ended as soon as all the couples ended the Waltz a second time. All the males were to bow down on one knee, and kiss the females hand. As soon as Cloud's lips touched Lightning's hand, Lightning felt like electricity was zapping throughout her whole body. In a good way though. Not surprisingly, the same thing was happening to Cloud. He remembered during his time in AVALANCHE when they were at the Golden Saucer, he had kissed Tifa's hand when they were forced to act in a play.

That time Cloud felt somewhat shocked, but this time it felt like a lightning storm was raging in him. Again in a good way. As with Squall and Rinoa, Rinoa just giggled as Squall kissed her hand while feeling his uneasiness. This was because this kind of stuff wasn't his style. If he was gonna kiss Rinoa, he'd do it somewhere private, in his normal clothes, and on the lips. This was totally against how he would do things. When Noctis kissed Stella's hand... well it was pretty much the same as it was for Cloud and Lightning. Huge shock throughout their bodies and whatnot.

As all the guys rose, Squall noticed Zell and Irvine on the outside part of the circle of couples, laughing at him for how he was feeling. The couples dispersed, and when no one was looking their way, Squall flicked off both of them. Rinoa saw this and slapped Squall's hand down. "Real mature!" Rinoa said with her hands on her hips.

"Whatever." Squall said as he turned and walked away.

"Hey, come back here mister!" Rinoa shouted as she ran after him.

"Thank you for the dance Noct." Stella kindly bowed.

"It was my pleasure." Noctis replied.

"I trust I'll see you again soon."

"Sure." Noctis answered.

"Farewell until then." Stella said before walking away. As she walked away, Noctis couldn't help but keep his eyes on her.

"Cheking her out?" Genesis appeared behind Noctis which startled him.

"I-I'm not checking her out!" Noctis replied with a slightly red face.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that." Genesis said before waking away.

Meanwhile Cloud and Lightning were walking around on the second floor.

"Hey Cloud, thanks for that." Lightning said.

"Sure. We should do it again some time." Cloud replied.

"I'd love that." Lightning said. The party ended afterwards and everybody went home. As the limo drove everyone back to Noctis' place, no one except Yuffie, Selphie, Squall, and Rinoa noticed Cloud and Lightning fell asleep with Lightning's head resting on Cloud's shoulder. Yuffie, and Selphie gave each other a high five, seeing as their plan had worked.

"I think someone's in love." Rinoa said to Squall while pointing at Cloud.

"You think so?" Squall wondered.

"I'm sure. My woman's intuition is never wrong." Rinoa answered.

"Whatever." Squall said back. Rinoa pouted and made a face as she turned away from Squall because of his attitude. Squall cracked a smile as he watched Rinoa look angry in a funny way.

"I'll take you out when we get a chance." Squall whispered.

"Thank you Squall." Rinoa instantly smiled and wrapped her arms around him though Squall quickly removed them.

"Not with everyone around." Squall said.

"Okay, later then." Rinoa agreed. "Hey look." she whispered.

Squall looked to see Cloud was moving his hand in his sleep. His hand rested itself on top of Lightning's and Lightning pressed herself closer to Cloud.

"Why can't you be more like Cloud?" Rinoa asked.

"Because it's just not me." Squall answered.

"Oh whatever." Rinoa said as she ended the conversation. She quickly did as Lightning did and rested her self against Squall's shoulder. Not wanting to upset her, Squall, let her have her way.

"I still don't get her." Squall thought as the limo rode on.

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