Lightning's head throbbed with a dull and consistent ache, but she continued to move forward. There were some things that a heal spell just wouldn't do the trick on, and she wasn't even sure if the uncomfortable pounding in her head was more of a physical or mental thing at this point. "Stop," she quietly commanded, reaching her hand back to form a 'halt' signal behind her.

The sound of multiple feet slapping against the asphalt rose and faded away in the distance. Lightning stayed still for a moment longer before slowly bringing her hand down and breaking into a power walk again. "We're parked on the next side street up, right?" She turned around to face Snow, whose clothes were roughly torn and face was nearly black from soot. He had been trudging along behind Lightning as the two did their best to evade any of the PSICOM foot soldiers that were now running about downtown. They were able to make enough ground right after defeating the dreadnought to be out of that area before the huge motorcade and helicopters appeared to block it all off. However, there was still the issue of getting back to Snow's car undetected, especially since Snow looked as if he had fought in a war. It didn't help any that the oversized boy was also running around with an even more battered-looking, unconscious girl slung over his shoulder. "Do you need me to cast another heal on your hand again? It still looks swollen."

"Huh?" Snow lifted one of his hands to his face. It seemed huge, much more puffier and bruised than his other hand. The glove he'd been wearing earlier had been completely tattered and his knuckles still looked red and raw. It had been the hand that he used to save Fang's life. He couldn't explain how he exactly did it, but he distinctly remembered feeling all of his energy run to his fist before hopping back into the crater, knuckles first, and hitting the ground, miraculously creating some sort of cavity that was covered enough from above by broken asphalt to shield them from a good brunt of the explosion. He had described it as feeling like he had some type of 'sovereign fist'. "No, I think it's alright for now. It's not like it's the worst injury we've got to deal with, anyway."

Lightning nodded and her eyes lifted to the still unconscious Fang. Neither she nor Snow was sure if it was the result of some type of kickback from the explosion right before Snow had reached her or from the force of Snow's rescue attempt, but Fang had been pulled out of that cavity much more wounded than Snow had. Lightning was able to heal her for a short moment before they had to start running, but she knew that she needed more time.

"Hey."

Lightning slightly jumped on hearing Snow's voice.

"She's going to be fine," Snow tried to reassure. The usually stoic Lightning had definitely become more frazzled after the dreadnought exploded, something that Snow knew was perfectly understandable but still hard for him to comprehend just from knowing how Lightning usually handled intense situations. Usually she was the one to stay level-headed, keeping her cool and working almost like a machine to get them out of danger, but it was he who had to wrench Fang from her green-lit hands in order for them to leave the alley before PSICOM could show. Even during their zigzagged trip through the back alleys of downtown Bodhum, he would often catch Lightning turning to anxiously glimpse at the lifeless girl on his shoulder. "We all are. I'm pretty sure the car is right around the corner, anyway. We'll be back to safety in no time, but we have to cross that main street first. Do you think we can make it from here to there without getting noticed, though? I mean… look at us."

Lightning looked to the ground and sighed. Snow had a point. There would no doubt be at least a couple of PSICOM soldiers patrolling the main street, and they definitely wouldn't blend in. At least, not all of them.

"Give me your keys," she demanded, reaching out her hand. "You can lay low somewhere out of sight while I bring the car around. Sound like a plan?"

"You can drive?"

"You have a better idea?"

"You're right." Snow handed Lightning the keys while Lightning handed Snow the folded up cape and mask that she had taken off blocks ago but had still been carrying around under her arm.

Lightning conjured up a small water spell to quickly wash her face with before settling herself and calmly walking out onto the lively downtown sidewalk. Although none of the other pedestrians noticed it, Lightning could unquestionably feel a tension in the air, especially coming from the few PSICOM soldiers that she passed on the way to Snow's car. There was definitely more security patrolling the sidewalks, more than likely looking for whoever had knocked out one of their sentries and destroyed their dreadnought. Nevertheless, Lightning would find no trouble getting to the car and driving it around to pick up Snow.

Fang was still unconscious when she wheeled the car around.

Lightning exited the car as Snow gently laid Fang down across the back seat and covered her with Lightning's cape. "Wha—hey. What are you doing?" he asked as Lightning pushed past him to crawl back into the car after Fang.

"I need to finish healing her," Lightning stated, settling herself on the backseat floor. Snow watched her quizzically.

"You don't have to sit on the floor and do all that, though. I'm sure she'll be fine until we get back—"

"We're wasting time talking about this." The fierce and adamant look in Lightning's eyes was almost as effective at cutting Snow off as her intruding statement. "We need to leave before any PSICOM soldiers check this side street again."

"Uh… yeah." Snow clumsily nodded and left Lightning alone, giving the girl one last hesitant look before closing the backseat door. He pulled off what was left of his black trench coat and shirt as he walked to the back of the car. He summoned a light water spell to wash his face, just as Lightning had done earlier, and snatched up some spare, dirty clothes he had lying around in his trunk. He then got behind the wheel and started the long drive back to the reservation.

The ride was relatively quiet.

Snow would occasionally hear a soft whisper coming from the backseat and flick his eyes to his rearview mirror to get a glimpse of what was going on back there. There was always the ever-present green glow of Lightning's hands from her healing spells, one hand placed under the cape and on top of Fang's abdomen while the other, interestingly, held on to intertwine fingers with one of Fang's limp hands. He thought to maybe tell Lightning that driving around with a mysterious green light glowing from his backseat windows wouldn't do anything to help their cover, but on remembering the look in her eyes when he had said something about her getting in the backseat, he thought better of it.

"Ughhhhh…"

Snow peeped at the rearview mirror again. On the backseat, he could see Fang's legs squirming beneath the cape. He looked back to the road for a moment before looking in the rearview again to see Fang's eyes slightly open in thin slits. Lightning's hand had migrated up from Fang's stomach to side of her face while her other hand still tightly grasped Fang's. She had scooted closer against the back seat, hovering over Fang so that their foreheads were nearly brushing each other. Snow could hear the soft whispering begin again and could see Fang's chin slowly nodding up and down.

He quickly looked back to the road.

He didn't know what it was that he had been looking at, but he had a feeling that it was something he was not supposed to see. He had never felt like such an intruder in his own car.

A minute or two later, he heard a range of different shuffling noises from behind him, and before he knew it, Lightning had joined him at the front of the car.

"Uhhh…" Snow began, keeping his eyes plastered to the windshield, "How's Fang?"

"Alright," Lightning answered concisely. "She's still worn out, so she'll probably sleep the rest of the way."

"Okay." Snow nodded, trying to think of something else to say. At least for him, the car felt as if it had gotten just a tad bit more awkward. "Do you want to maybe talk abou—"

Lightning leaned forward to click on the radio, abruptly cutting off whatever he had to say. "I love this song," she said in a dull voice as some random tune flowed through the speakers.

Snow just nodded and tapped the top of his wheel as they continued to ride in silence. For someone who had seemed to be in such a nurturing mood just a minute ago, it was almost weird how quickly she had flipped the switch to being seemingly pissed.

On the last leg of their trip, Snow slowed the car down as they reached the beginning of the entrance road to the reservation. A group of about five PSICOM officers stood on each side of the road while one stood in the middle, waving a flashlight to signal for Snow to stop the car.

"This can't be good…" Snow said in a lowered the volume on the radio and rolled down his window. "Good evening, sirs. How may I help you?"

"ID chips. Both of you. Now." The soldier seemed to be eyeing Snow's face diligently through the goggles of his mask as Snow fished his identification out of his pocket to hand over. "You're Cocoonian," he stated, after a quick scan of the two chips.

"Yes, sir. Born and raised!" Snow returned with a smile.

"Hm." The soldier nodded once. "What are you doing here?"

"Picking up my next door neighbor, sir. I dropped him off earlier to do some of that reservation community service work."

"Hm," the soldier said again.

Lightning could feel herself tensing as she watched the soldier. Fang should've been quite visible through the windows from the way she was laying across the backseat. It would be a bit harder to spot the girl since she was covered by the cape, but at this time of night, the PSICOM officers surely had to have their night vision capabilities turned on for their masks. It would only take one look behind Snow's head and into the backseat for him to see her… but it was a look that the officer didn't even attempt to make.

"Very well, then. Go ahead."

The soldier moved out of the way to let Snow slowly drive forward. "Well," Snow began after the window had been rolled up and the car had driven a few meters forward, "I think it's safe to conclude that they're probably suspicious of l'Cie now. Might be even safer to say that we know who their prime suspects are."

"They were looking for us." Fang's voice softly floated to the front seat, causing Snow to almost instantaneously check his rearview mirror. The Gran Pulsian was slowly pulling herself up to sit against the back door panel. "Like they knew we were comin'… It's why that thing was there."

Neither Lightning nor Snow responded. They had all been so preoccupied with escaping from PSICOM that they hadn't stopped to think more about why the dreadnought had been planted downtown in the first place.

"I dunno" Snow began uneasily, fixing his eyes on the road. "Maybe. If nothing else, they were definitely trying to bring down Snowman, but I guess if they knew that a fal'Cie was loose in the Vestige, then they may have figured that some l'Cie were running around too."

The car once again fell silent.

"Did anyone call Vanille? Make sure she's alright? That one of those things wasn't sent to the reservation?"

"You choose a great time to start worrying about what'll happen to Vanille…" Lightning murmured under her breath.

Snow's head quickly snapped to the side to shoot Lightning a befuddled look, but the girl was staring straight out through the windshield, giving very few signs as to what she was thinking. Snow could only make a mental observation that the worried, nurturing side of her had apparently vanished without a trace.

"Well, uh," he fumbled as he brought his eyes back to the road and thought of an answer to give to Fang. "We'll be able to make sure for ourselves in a few. How are you feeling?"

"Shitty," Fang grumbled. Snow could hear her uncomfortably shifting around under the cape in the back seat. "How'd I… How'd I make it outta that blast?"

"The powers of Snowman," Snow said with a slight smile. "I had one of those 'mother lifting a car off her baby' moments and went all Hulk smash for you. If you saw it, you would've been impressed."

Fang lightly grunted in an amused way but didn't say another word for the rest of the short ride to reservation's living area.

Snow supported Fang the distance to her trailer, and when the three of them burst through the door, they were greeted by the startled stares of Hope and Vanille, who were sitting on the sofa watching television.

"Gods, what happened to y—Fang?" Vanille jumped from the sofa to run up to her best friend, but Fang shooed her away with the flick of a wrist.

"I'm alright. I'm alright. The night was just a tad more eventful than we thought it'd be," she excused. "Youths today are vicious."

"But your leg!" Vanille pointed out, looking down at the slash across Fang's leg that still hadn't fully healed yet. "Let me heal that for you."

"Vanille, I've got it." Lightning moved up to step between Vanille and Fang. "There was a lot of dirt and stones out where she got cut. I want to make sure it's properly cleaned out before healing it. You keep watching TV. She'll be fine."

Vanille slowly nodded, finding some reassurance in the calm and commanding way that Lightning had spoken to her. She hesitantly sat back down on the sofa as the three older teens moved to the opposite side of the trailer to the bathroom.

Snow helped seat Fang on the toilet and she lifted her leg so that her heel was resting on the edge of the tub. Gently, she ripped open her torn pants fabric and slightly grimaced on seeing the large cut against her leg. Snow just backed away to lean in the doorway with his arms folded as Lightning searched the small cupboard behind the mirror for things to clean the wound with. "So the pain isn't too bad anymore?" Lightning asked as she searched.

"It still hurts. Everywhere. But it's nothing a few painkillers can't cure," Fang said, keeping her voice low so she wouldn't disturb Hope and Vanille. "Thanks, Snow. I guess I really owe ya one, huh?"

Snow's lip twitched upward in a light smile as he continued to lean against the doorframe.

"Do ya like cherries? I know this place that makes a mean fruit basket that I could send ya… Light? Light, why are ya lookin' at me like that?"

"What the fuck were you thinking?!"

"AHHHH!"

Fang's leg shot up from where it was elevated as a huge wave of alcoholic medical serum splashed across her cut.

"Shit, woman!" Fang cried, nearly popping a vein in her neck as she clutched at her thigh in pain. "Could ya be just a little more sparing with the—AHHH!"

Lightning had tipped the bottle to pour more of the burning liquid onto Fang's wound.

"Lightning..." Snow looked behind his shoulder to peep Vanille and Hope staring in the bathroom's direction with bewildered expressions on their faces. "Lightning, maybe you should tone this down just a little. Ee-shay is-hay agnarok-ray."

"Ee-shay is-hay also upid-stay!" Lightning exclaimed in reply, glowering at Fang. "Really! What were you thinking?!"

"I dunno! Save Snow's life?!" Fang yelled back. "I'd think ya'd be a little more grateful!"

"I'm grateful," Snow piped in with his pointer finger raised to the air, but his comment was completely overpowered by Lightning.

"And what good did that do? He still had to jump right back down into an exploding field to save your ass! You've got sentinel abilities! Why didn't you use them?"

"It was a BIG ASS robot!"

"You didn't even try!"

"Whatta ya mean I didn't try? Ya think I was just standing there with open arms shouting 'take me now' as the thing exploded?"

Lightning exhaled exasperatedly and tilted the bottle again.

"Hey, hey, hey! Just wait a sec!" Fang jumped up from the toilet seat and held her hands out cautiously towards Lightning. "So maybe my decision-making wasn't the greatest, but I was just tryna help. I'm Ragnarok, the beast of burden—"

"That's an ass."

"Can ya stop being condescending for just one minute? As I was saying, it just happened so quickly. I didn't have time to think; I just acted. And the one thing that kept repeating in my head was that it was all my fault that everyone was out there. My fault for everything… So it was my responsibility to make sure none of ya got hurt. And with me being the one who's supposed to turn into a monster, I figured I had the least to lose."

Lightning fiercely stared Fang down, still tightly gripping the serum bottle. There was a definite hint of disbelief in her eyes.

"Um, excuse me." Vanille's head poked in past the bathroom door. "What exactly happened to you guys? Explosions and robots and… asses?"

"I'll explain it to you," Snow offered, reaching out an arm to take Vanille by the shoulders as he turned out of the doorway.

Lightning lowered her eyes and sighed. When she lifted her gaze again, it had lost a lot of the ferocity that it had held earlier. "Just…" she said under her breath, tiredly placing the bottle of serum in the sink, "Just try to think next time, okay? No more trying to save the day and being a 'beast of burden'. Just—just don't. We're supposed to be fighting this focus together, and… and I don't want to do it without you. So just don't."

"Okay," Fang said, nodding her head up and down as she watched Lightning through guilty eyes. "Man… it's a wonder you weren't chosen to be agnarok-ray with that hot head you've got. Not really something you'd expect from a homecoming princess nominee."

Lightning's face scrunched in mild disapproval at both the timing of the joke and the reference to her status in the race for homecoming princess, but knowing that this was something to be somewhat expected of Fang, no matter what their current circumstances were, she just made a face and lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug.

"But about the whole Ragnarok thing…"

Lightning looked to Fang attentively.

"…I'm sorry. I should've told ya sooner. Especially since we'd—" Fang paused to look past Lightning and into the other room of the trailer, where Hope and Vanille were totally engrossed in Snow's over-fabricated retelling of their Superhero Night, "—well… been getting closer and all. It wasn't right keep ya outta the loop like that just cause I thought it'd give me a better chance to get in yer—uh, wait. I can phrase that a whole lot better."

Light rolled her eyes at Fang's statement, but instead of reaching for the serum bottle, she just reached her hand out to lightly touch Fang's thigh instead. Her fingers glowed green as she began to cast her final healing spells on Fang's wounded leg. "Don't worry about it," she said, as Fang's face relaxed into a easier expression. "It doesn't really matter how long who knew what anymore. It's just important that we all know now, and we know we have to watch our step because PSICOM is on the lookout for us. You and Vanille especially if they've got posts around the reservation. Maybe it'd be a good idea for the two of you to go away for awhile."

"Go away?" Fang asked, giving Lightning a slightly confused look.

"Just until things settle. If Hope can still snag those keys to that house in Palumpolum, that'd be ideal. There probably aren't as many patrols looking around Palumpolum as there are here, and you'd have an empty house all to yourselves. It'd be like a vacation."

"And you'd trust us to just shack up in a some strange house in some strange city?"

"Well," Lightning trailed, stepping closer to Fang and reaching a hand out to gently turn her face, examining for cuts or bruises she may have missed in the healing process, "I won't lie. I would feel better if someone else went up with the two of you. It'll probably have to be Snow since he's being raised like a wildebeest and his guardians won't care."

"Well, I won't lie to ya either," Fang softly replied as her head was slowly turned in the opposite direction. "I'd feel better if you came up and spent some time with us. I mean, why should we be the only ones acting like it's vacation?"

Lightning slowly retracted her hand from the bottom of Fang's face as she mulled the thought over. "I'm not sure if I'd be able to get away."

Fang's face visibly dimmed, pulling at Light in an unexpected way.

"But I could try," she recovered, feeling a bit better on seeing Fang's features hopefully light up. "I can say that I'll be at Lebreau's for the weekend, or something, and ride up with Snow."

A small smile began to whittle its way to Fang's lips. "I'd like th—"

"You did NOT!" Vanille's voice loudly broke through their conversation.

Fang leaned to the side to look past Lightning and into the main compartment of the trailer. Vanille was shaking her head at Snow with her hands planted on her hips while Hope looked up at Snow from his seat on the sofa with a disbelieving expression on his face as well.

"Speaking of the devil, he's probably in there right now spreading all kinds of propaganda about what happened earlier," Lightning said, her head turned to look over her shoulder into the adjoining room. She turned to face Fang again and hesitantly paused before holding out her hand. "Want to set him straight?"

Fang could feel her smile slowly spreading as she warmly looked down to Light's outstretched hand. "I'd love to." With that, she took Lightning's hand and allowed herself to be led out of the bathroom.

In an attempt to not make any sound, Lightning turned the key in the lock as slowly as she could when entering her house. Once she had pushed the door open enough where she'd have enough space enter, she lifted her hand to give Snow a good-bye wave and slid inside, once again doing her best to close the door as quietly as possible.

"Claire."

Lightning let out a thwarted breath and didn't even bother to attempt silence when clicking the final locking mechanism back on. "Dad, I'm—" she began as she turned around to face her father.

"Do you know what time it is?"

Lightning froze when her eyes landed on the man. He looked totally disheveled. His hair was ruffled and there were visible bags under his slightly veined eyes. The only other time she had seen her father in any type of discord had been when her mother passed… "Dad—"

"Where have you been? And why is your phone turned off? Didn't I tell you to be home by a certain time?"

"Y-yeah," Lightning stammered, still thrown off guard by how distressed her father looked. "I'm sorry. It's just that—"

"I've been worried sick about you! Do you have absolutely any idea how much anxiety you've put me in these past hours?!"

"Dad, I really am sorry! It's just, after training I stopped by the reservation and lost track of time watching television." Partly true. "I didn't think it'd matter too much." Or she didn't think she had to worry about getting caught. Her father had never been known to check whether she and Serah were in the house after a certain time of day.

"The reservation…" The look on Farron's face turned contemptuous. "Well, this will be the last time that this happens. Yun Fang and Dia Vanille… I don't want you to see them anymore."

"Dad, it's not their—"

"Did you hear what I said?!" Farron's voice boomed as he took a step closer to Lightning, causing her to take a frightened step backwards. "No more training! No more rides to track meets! No more house visits! I don't even want to hear their names spoken in this house, do you understand?"

"But it's not their—"

"I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Lightning hadn't noticed it, but she had been fully backed up so that her back was pushing against the wood of the front door. The look in her father's eyes was damn near crazed, he was so mad. She wasn't one to test his patience on a regular day, so she knew that she had no chance in trying to go against him now. "Yes, sir." Her voice came out barely over a whisper.

Farron's chest heaved as he continued to stare at his daughter through tempered eyes, but finally, he took a slightly calming breath and stepped back. "Consider yourself punished, as well. I'll be sending someone to bring you home promptly after school and monitor you until I get home. I already took your computer from your room, and I want your phone to be on the desk in my study before you leave for school tomorrow."

Lightning lifted hurt and uncomprehending eyes up to her father. "Tomorrow?"

Farron scowled at Lightning for a brief moment before balling his fists and backing a few steps away from her. "Tomorrow. If you need to call those Pulsians on the reservation, do it tonight," he said, turning to walk through the room and to the staircase. "And let them know that if I catch them in my house again, they'll be praying that I allow them to leave in chains."

There was nothing comparable on Cocoon to the nighttime soundtrack of the Gran Pulsian reservation. Fang attributed it to the land being so natural, or as natural as things got on this planet, and therefore attracting many more of the world's wild attendants.

'This is just where they like to throw all their wild things, eh?' Fang thought to herself as she stared up at the dark ceiling of the trailer, listening to the outside symphony of nighttime creatures mixed with the gentle rustle of Vanille's breathing against one of their sheets. 'Cocoonians. Can't stand what they can't control, so they all try to throw 'em someplace where they don't think they can be bothered.'

"Fang?" a voice softly peeped from beside her.

Fang's eyebrows shot up as she turned to spy the back of Vanille's head. She had no idea that the girl was still awake. "Yeah, Van?"

"What do you think about the Palumpolum idea?"

"Hm." Fang shrugged, even though she knew Vanille wasn't watching her. "Guess it's the best decision to make right now, considering everything, yeah?"

"Yeah. As long as nobody gets hurt, I guess it's a good plan… Fang?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember when we were young? That first night in the orphanage after we lost our parents?" The sheets rustled as Vanille twisted her upper body around so that she was looking back at Fang.

"I could never forget," Fang replied. Her forehead crinkled as some of those glum memories passed to the forefront of her mind.

"And you remember the promises we made, right? That we'd protect each other always. And that we'd stick together… forever."

Fang opened her mouth to speak, but could find no immediate answer. She let out a soft breath before turning to look back up at the ceiling. "I remember, Vanille."

"We're still going to do that, right? Stick together forever? No matter what?"

Fang's eyebrows knit tightly as she turned her head to face Vanille again. "Where's all this coming from?"

"I-I dunno. Just… I want to hear you say it again. Think of it like renewing a vow. I've been talking to the gods more often, and I learned that the more you say something that you really really mean, the stronger it gets."

"Vanille, that's stupid. Repeating shit over and over again doesn't solve problems. Doing shit solves problems. Have ya even considered that since we need to join to become that monster, that it'd probably be better for everybody if one of us disappeared? Or did the gods tell ya something different?"

"Oh…"

Fang turned her head to look at Vanille again. Her eyes had gone glassy and the unmistakable look of hurt was splayed across her face. Fang could feel her own facial expression loosening into one of remorse. Where did that even come from? She never talked to Vanille like that. Ever. Especially when it came to something as sensitive as their first nights in the orphanage. "Van…" she tried to piece together, her voice laced with guilt. "Van, I am so sorry. I didn't mean that. I just—I don't know what came over me. I promise, Van. I promise that we'll always protect each other and stick together. No matter what."

Vanille's face still looked somber, but she gave a quick nod in acceptance of Fang's promise. "I promise too, Fang. We'll always stick together and protect each other. Always."

A small, wry smile pulled at Fang's lips before the girl turned over to face the wall opposite Vanille. She couldn't bear to look into Vanille's sad eyes for a moment longer with so much guilt weighing her down. Guilt from snapping at her the way she did, and guilt from knowing what she had done, because it had only been a few hours earlier that she had been standing in that crater, arms relaxed and dangling at her sides instead of tense and guarded, as she stared into the glow of a different ticking time bomb… just waiting for it to go off and break that promise.