"Get down!" Fang yelled, diving to the side.

Snow's body reflexively followed the order and hit the ground. The earsplitting sound of gunfire pierced the air accompanied by the shriek of shattering glass. Snow's hands reached up to cover his head for protection. Protection from the noise. Protection from the bullets. Protection from the falling glass. His mind couldn't process what the protection was for. His body just acted. Across the floor, he spotted Fang scrambling on her belly towards the bathroom door. Not thinking but just doing, he quickly followed suit, cringing at the loudness of the bullets that were still being fired into Serah's wall as he and Fang crawled through the bathroom and into Lightning's room.

"Fang?"

His mouth had formed the word but he couldn't hear a sound. All he could hear was gunfire. He wasn't even sure if the skytank was still firing rounds into the room next door, but the shots were still ringing in his ears.

"Fang!"

Fang was frantically pawing around the room as if she were searching for something. Lights passed over the curtained window, but no bullets had been fired into the room. Yet.

"Fang, what are you doing? We gotta go!" Snow's head ached as he began to finally hear the sound of his own voice.

"Here it is!" Fang's upper body disappeared under Light's bed for a moment before sliding back out with a medium sized carrying case. "Light's blade. She'll want it when—"

"Lightning?! Lightning's long gone! We need to start thinking more about ourselves here!"

"You don't know that!" Fang yelled, quickly spinning around to glare at Snow. "She's probably waiting downstairs for us to—"

"Fang!" Snow shouted, although it came out more like a cry. His ears thrummed with every beat of the circling skytank's propeller. It wouldn't be long before the house was brimming with PSICOM agents. "They don't want Lightning! They want you! As long as she's got the colonel, she'll be all right! You won't! We need to get out of here. Fast!"

"But…" Fang looked down at the case in her hands. Her mouth twitched through the deeply set grimace on her face, as she continued to stare at it. "Ya know a way out?"

"I'm a master at all ways of sneaking in and out of this house," Snow replied. He couldn't have masked the gratitude in his voice no matter how hard he tried. "Follow me."

Still in a crouching position, Snow darted past Fang and out of Lightning's door. The hallway was conspicuously silent, and even more conspicuously devoid of soldiers.

"No one's here," Snow said under his breath, keeping his eyes on the top of the staircase. "Why isn't anyone here?"

"Isn't that a good thing?" Fang whispered in reply. "Stop looking a gift chocobo in the mouth. How are we getting out?"

"Under that table. You can't see it from here, but there's an old vent thingy that leads to the basement. Follow me."

The bleating of propellers could still be heard circling the home as Snow pulled up at the opening of the vent and motioned for Fang to crawl in first.

Just as Snow had said, the vent brought them straight to the basement. From there, they climbed out of a narrow window and into some bushes in the Farron backyard.

"Can you get a good look at what's going on?" Snow asked, trying to keep low to the ground. He felt quite self-conscious about their current hiding place, mostly because he was a lot of boy trying to hide in a little bushes.

"Not really," Fang said, scanning the sky before straining her ears to listen to what was going on. "My guess is it's just the skytank. Must not have enough people in there to spare to send down on foot. Won't be long before back-up—Duck!"

Both teens dropped to their stomachs as the skytank flew over them, its wide searchlight running across the grass as it did so. Once the light had passed, Snow lifted his head from the bushes. "We gotta make a break for it."

"One step ahead of ya."

In a flash, the two l'Cie hopped out of the bushes and ran for the fence. Both took a powerful leap, easily clearing the structure before tumbling into the neighboring yard.

"Still clear?"

"GoGoGo!"

They broke into a crouched sprint across the next yard before hopping over the next fence.

"I think we can—"

"Get back!"

Fang grabbed Snow's shirt to pull him against the wall of the neighboring house as two PSICOM aerial recons zoomed over the yard. Sirens could be heard wailing from the street along with shouting and what sounded to be breaking furniture. Back up had arrived.

"Check this one!" a foreign voice called from nearby.

"Shit!" Fang hissed as the gate to the yard beside them clanked. "They're checking yards. The house! Get inside!"

Snow didn't say a word but rushed around the bend of the house, Fang tight on his heels, to try the residency's back door.

"Keep your eyes peeled!" a different voice called, sounding way too close for comfort.

"Fuckin' open the door," Fang urged. Her eyes were frenetically zipping around the yard, watching for any signs of movement, while her hand was quickly tapping against Snow's shoulder.

"It's locked," Snow whispered back. He jiggled the handle so that it made somewhat loud clacking sounds to prove his point.

"Something's in the back this way!" The foreign voice had gotten even louder.

"Fucking hell!" Fang pushed Snow out of the way and took the handle in her own hand. She gave it a good, powerful twist that ripped it straight out of the door before placing a hand along the glass to slide it open. "Get in."

Snow jumped into the house first and Fang squeezed in immediately behind him. She smiled with relief as Snow slid the door shut and closed the blinds behind it. "That'll buy us some—"

"What the hell?!"

Both Snow and Fang cringed on hearing a familiar high-pitched squeal from behind them. Fang had been too anxious to notice, but she should have recognized that yard the moment she stepped foot in it. It was Alyssa Zaidelle's.

"Snow, keep securing the perimeter," she whispered under her breath. "I'll handle this." She lifted her hand to twiddle her fingers before slowly turning around to face their host. "Alyssa, I know this looks bad, but I'm gonna need you to keep your voice down. Now."

Alyssa stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the two intruders with a harsh, calculating stare. "You're breaking and entering!" she accused. "With like a million PSICOM soldiers outside, for Etro's sake! Could either of you be any dumber?"

Snow turned his head to give Fang a worried look. He was aware of the rocky history between the two girls, especially of late. Although Fang was gifted with sabateur abilities that made her the smarter option in making sure Alyssa stayed out of their way, he still wasn't sure if Fang were in the right state of mind to be the one in charge of quieting her.

"Luckily for you," Alyssa continued, "This is the most exciting thing to happen in this neighborhood since you tongued Lightning down on the sidewalk."

Fang's brow scrunched offensively at the statement.

"So come on. I've got a front row seat, and you do NOT want to miss this. Ugh, stop being dweebs and quit looking at me like that. It'll be fun."

"Uh…" Fang shot Snow an astonished look, and the boy just shrugged. He was just as confused as Fang. "Are your, uh, parents home? I mean, they won't mind two strangers sitting at the window, watching a police raid? Like they'd be cool with us being here?"

"They're not home. They left for some art exhibit thing in Nautilus this weekend," Alyssa stated matter-of-factly. She made a motion for the two of them to follow her while she led the way to the front of her house.

"Really?" Fang asked skeptically, letting her eyes scan the room as she walked. "Isn't it your lifelong goal to become homecoming princess or whatever? They're not gonna be here to help with the dress or send ya off with their blessing or something?"

"It's the Mont'de Chocolina exhibit," Alyssa replied icily. "You can't just go see it whenever you want. An opportunity arose and they took it. Our maid can help me out with my dress and make-up anyway. She's done it for the last few dances, so she has a better idea of what I like."

"Oh…" Despite her mind shouting against it, Fang couldn't help but feel a little bad for Alyssa. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Alyssa knelt on a couch that faced one of her front windows and nodded her head to signal for Fang and Snow to do the same. "Wow, there's so many of them… What do you think they're looking for?"

"Something I hope they don't find…" Snow muttered as his eyes scanned over the multitude of PSICOM soldiers that had crowded their court. "Hey, uh, Fang? Sit tight and try not to get so close to the window. Remember what happened last time? I'm gonna call Hope."

"Don't sit so close to the window?" Alyssa echoed in a mocking tone. "What? Are you wanted by PSICOM or something?"

Usually, Fang was a master at playing things off. She had to be since she had dealt with being stopped by Guardian Corps officers most of her life. But with the horrible luck that she had been having tonight, she couldn't contain the fleeting look of surprised guilt that had crossed her face when Alyssa had made that joke.

"Oh... em… gizzle. You are?! What did you do?! Does this have something to do with the steroids you're on?"

"What?" Fang immediately went into defense mode. "I'm not on steroids! And it's none of your business!"

"Did you kill somebody?"

"No!"

"Stole something?"

"No!"

"Flashed someone important?"

"Why's that even an option?!"

"Hope says they're starting to search houses. He's got the keys to his other house, but we have to find a way to get them," Snow announced as he walked back to the sofa. "What's going on with you two?"

"Fang's a criminal. Surprising, I know."

"Oh, eat a dick."

"You told her?!" Snow exclaimed in disbelief.

"She guessed!"

"How could she guess that we're PSICOM's most wanted?"

"You too?" Alyssa leaned forward with a totally giddy look on her face.

"See. Not so easy flying under the radar, is it?"

"Alyssa, " Snow sighed, turning away from Fang to solely focus on his other classmate. "I know it's hard to believe, but the fate of Cocoon is resting on our shoulders. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is doomed if PSICOM catches us. So please, I'm begging you… help us find a way to sneak out of here. We won't say you helped us or anything and you'll never have to worry about Fang again."

"Hey!" Fang shot, glaring at Snow.

"Hmmm." Alyssa looked from Snow to Fang with a thoughtful expression on her face. "And they call me the drama queen… But I guess that'll work out in your favor. You need to get to the poindexter's house on the other side of the court, right? Well, how about you use me?"

"Huh?" Snow asked. That had taken a totally unexpected direction.

"Use me as a hostage while you get across! With that much PSICOM, there has to be at least a few news cameras out there broadcasting everywhere. Bodhum, Palumpolum, Eden… maybe even Nautilus. I'm just saying, with so many people possibly watching, they couldn't risk hurting an innocent, right?"

Snow rubbed the back of his neck and looked to Fang for input. Fang just shook her head doubtfully. "I'd be too tempted to actually kill her."

"Well fuck you too, Raggedy Ann—"

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

All heads turned towards the front door.

"PSICOM! Open up!" a gruff voice called.

Fang's stomach dropped. They were here.

"Quick! Up to the attic! There's a chain on the ceiling that should pull down the attic stairs!" Alyssa was shouting at them in frantic whispers while pushing them towards the staircase.

"What's in the attic?" Fang asked, her feet automatically hurrying along the trail that Alyssa had set them on.

"A door to the roof. Maybe you can get out from there."

"This house is like three stories! What the fuck kinda exit is that?"

"I don't know! A better one than the front door, apparently! Didn't you swing from high places on vines and shit on Pulse?" Alyssa hissed. "Figure something out!"

Fang grit her teeth and made a step to walk back down the stairs to chew Alyssa out, but Snow caught her in his arms and hoisted her over his shoulder to carry her up the rest of the way. On the top floor, they followed Alyssa's instructions and pulled down the chain for the attic steps. Below them, they could hear the front door bursting open as PSICOM soldiers bustled into the house. The thudding of footsteps was just beginning to reach the stairs when the two l'Cie had shut the attic door and were making a break for the small hatch that led to the roof.

Snow climbed out first, to make sure that the coast was clear, before helping pull Fang up. Luckily for them, the skytank wasn't circling around the court but instead just hovering in front of the Farron household. Both teens laid on their stomachs and crept to the roof's edge.

"That's some crowd," Fang breathed as she peered down. The Farron house was completely taped off and flooding with soldiers while heavy groups of other PSICOM operatives ran from house to house. "We're gonna need a plan."

"We're heroes," Snow said in reply, pulling his cell phone from his pocket. "Since when do heroes need plans?"

"Huh?" Fang's head flung around to curiously eye the eye the boy as he held the phone to his ear.

"Yeah? Hope? Do you think there's any way you could sneak next door to my yard? Yeah… You'll see a velocycle… When you get there, turn the ignition, aim it up to the Zaidelle house, find a way to stick the throttle, and let it rip. The antigrav battery is pretty low, but it should be enough to keep it in the air til it gets here… Thanks, buddy. Just hang tight… We'll meet you there."

Snow hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket, a light smile on his face.

"What did you just do?" Fang asked suspiciously through narrow eyes.

"Possibly found us a way out. Think you're up for making a scene?"

"Well, ya know how the old saying goes. When on Zaidelle property, do as the Zaidelles do. That and I'm guessing I ain't got much of a choice."

"Good."

Snow planted his hands to the tiles of the roof and slowly got to his feet, while Fang cautiously did the same at his side.

"Aim slightly right," he instructed, pulling his hands up from his sides. They were glowing a bright blue color and misting with frost.

Fang just nodded and pulled up her hands as well while conjuring a ruinga spell.

"NOW!"

Fang let it rip, blasting a ruinga spell into the asphalt below, right near a group of PSICOM soldiers, while Snow instead aimed an ice spell into the sky. Soldiers flew from the ground, crashing a few feet away as the asphalt exploded beneath them, causing it to rain mid-sized asphalt chunks that injured even more soldiers as they came down. Around them, thick layers of ice looped through the air before rushing to the ground, tearing through more asphalt and sending other PSICOM soldiers flying out the way.

"This is cute!" Fang shouted, quickly summoning more ruin spells into her hands to aim at the soldiers who were now frantically looking around, trying to figure out where the blast had come from. "But I don't think we can stay up here doing this forever!"

"No problem. Here we gooooooooo!"

"Wha?"

Fang eyes darted to a large, mechanical projectile that was flying in their direction. A velocycle. Fang quickly looked down to shoot another large ruinga blast below as some of the PSICOM soldiers began noticing the two figures on the roof.

"Fang!" Fang turned back around just as Snow jumped over the side of the roof to land on the empty seat of the flying motorcycle. He jerked at the handlebars and removed a rubber band that had been wound around the throttle. "Jump!"

The sharp clack of bullets once again began piercing the air, so without much thought as to whether this could be a good idea or not, Fang sprinted to the edge of the roof and leapt.

"AUGH!" she grunted as her butt clumsily plopped onto the seat behind Snow. There was another aching thump to her rear as the wheels of the motorcycle roughly dropped onto the icy swirls that Snow had created just moments earlier. In front of her, she could vaguely hear Snow shouting directions at her, but his voice was overpowered by the popping of PSICOM guns along with the loud shattering of the heavy clumps of ice that broke off from the frozen sky road as the heavy velocycle rode over it, crashing to the ground and knocking out the PSICOM soldiers below. Feeling that she had an idea of what he wanted, Fang lifted both her hands and started throwing out ruin spells left and right. Snow continued to steer the velocycle with one hand while continuing to create more ice road with the other.

"Fall back! Fall back!"

Fang could barely make out the shout, but she could clear as day see the skytank beginning to ascend further in the air.

"We did it—ugh!" Snow stopped talking to rear back his fist and punch an aerial recon who had been bold enough to rocket up aside their velocycle. He only took a brief moment to watch the soldier spiral down to the ground before continuing, "Hold on!"

Fang tightly gripped Snow's waist as the motorcycle quickly jerked to the right. The court was a mess of broken asphalt intermingled with ice and unconscious PSICOM bodies. She had always known that their powers were a force to be reckoned with… but she had never thought they were this strong.

"Ugh!"

There was a loud screech of metal as the velocycle swerved from the ice path and spun into a landing position in someone's backyard. Fang loosed her grip on Snow to look back to the sky. She couldn't see the tank from their new spot on the ground, but she could still hear its propellers bleating in the near distance. It wasn't leaving. It was waiting, keeping a watchful eye on all activity in Candy Court while more reinforcements showed.

"Snow! Fang!"

Fang lowered her chin from the sky as Hope rushed out the back door of the house. His face was paler than usual and she swore she had never seen his eyes so wide.

"I have the keys!" His hand shot out from his side with the keys to his Palumpolum home pinched between two fingers. Fang thankfully took them as she swung her legs over to get off the bike. "But I was listening in to the PSICOM radio transmission. There's more coming. A lot more. You've got to get out of here!"

"We need to find a way back to Sazh's without being followed," Fang stated, looking over to Snow. "Fastest way to make ground would be on the bike, but I'm sure they'd have every watch dog in Bodhum looking out for that thing. And that skytank out there would stick to us like stink on a sewer rat if we left on it."

"Yeah, you're right…" Snow rubbed his chin. "Maybe we can create a diversion. I take the bike and detract PSICOM while you get Vanille. Once I lose them and ditch the bike, I'll meet up with you at Sazh's. If I take too long, head to Palumpolum without me."

"Ya really expect me to make it through the city undetected on foot?" Fang asked skeptically. "That'd take forever."

"Maybe not," Hope cut in, gaining him the attention of both older teens. "I think I can help. You see, Vanille's been helping me practice it, but I never really thought of a good way to use it."

Fang arched an eyebrow. "What're ya talking about, Hope?"

"It's a spell I know. We call it 'haste'. When I touch people, I can make them go faster. Maybe if I use it on you, you can get away from here and get to Vanille faster."

"Hmm," Snow hummed thoughtfully. "It might work."

The three l'Cie paused and looked to the sky. The beating of the skytank was starting to grow louder once again, which could only mean one thing. It had gotten the back-up it had been asking for.

"Good idea or not, we gotta use it. Alright, little man." Fang held out her hand towards Hope. "Hit me with your best shot."

Hope stared at Fang's hand shakily. Fear was still clearly evident on the boy's face. He took a deep breath and caught Fang by surprise by moving around her arm and lunging in for a hug instead. "Please…" he said, his voice muffled from his face being buried in Fang's shirt, "…don't get caught." As his arms squeezed her sides, Fang could feel something changing within her. It was hard to explain, but she just felt… on. The sounds of the beating skytank propellers in the distance sounded more dull and dragged out, and it almost felt as if her heart was about to beat out of her chest.

"Fannnggggg."

Fang looked to Snow, who was already sitting on his bike with his hand gripping the throttle. "Arrrreee youuuu readddyyyy?"

Fang nodded.

"Oooookkkkaayyyyy."

The bike revved before gliding forward. Fang's head turned as she watched it go. It looked to be moving at a dull pace, but it obviously had enough force to burst through the wooden gate and into the court. Once Snow had left, there were multiple whistling noises that Fang guessed to be gunshots. Her hands tingled as she summoned two ruin spells to them. It was show time.

Fang shot out of the yard through the hole that Snow had previously created. The boy was currently at the end of the court, making wheelies with the velocycle to knock over a crowd of PSICOM soldiers while simultaneously pelting them with quick ice spells. Fang moved her hands up to shoot a number of ruin spells at many of the soldiers who were out of the spinning velocycle's reach, hoping to clear a path for Snow to drive through. The effect of the spells was mind-boggling. White bulb after white bulb continually flew out of her hands, almost as if machine guns were connected to her wrists, and within no time, the majority of PSICOM foot soldiers had already been cleared out.

With a loud roar, Snow reared up on the velocycle and zoomed forward while Fang took off in the opposite direction. Everything around her zipped by at a nearly impossible speed as she flew over two gates and found herself running through a sparse grove trees until she reached the highway below.

"Ayyyeee!" Fang gasped for breath as she slowed to a jog on the corner of Sazh's shop. Not too long ago, all of her surrounding started taking on normal form again instead of just blurred colors as her body slowed back to its normal speed. She had been tailed part of the way of her journey by some PSICOM officers, but they hadn't been able to keep up. It didn't help that they had sent most of their heavy vehicles, such as their skytank, after Snow and the velocycle.

Gods, she hoped he was all right… The plan was to leave if he took too long to come back, but how long was too long when you were worried about a friend?

"Huh?" Fang halted on the sidewalk as she jogged up to Sazh's shop. The metal garage door was pulled open and crookedly bent out at the bottom… Someone had forced it open.

"No…"

Fang's skin began to prickle as her feet automatically picked up speed again to bring her into the garage.

"Sazh?" she called cautiously. Her head flung from one side to the other around the dark room. Tools had been thrown across desks. Papers were scattered across the concrete floor. Metal shelves and all their contents were strewn across the ground. "Old man? Vanille?" she called again.

She froze and could feel her whole face beginning to tremble when her eyes landed on the splintered door in the corner of the garage. It was the door to the steps that led to Sazh's home above the shop. "No, no, no, no, no," Fang repeated under her breath, rushing to what was left of the door.

"VANILLE!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, not caring if anyone heard her or not as she flew up the stairs. "Vanille, answer me! Sazh! Dahj!" She checked every room. Looked into every closet and under every bed, but it was no use. There was nobody home.

"Vanille!" she cried out again, her tone sounding much more dejected than frantic as the reality of everything began to sink in. She couldn't think. She could barely breathe. They were gone. No one was home. She mindlessly drug her feet back through the house to enter Dahj's room. The bed had been overturned and flipped up to lean against the wall, the mattress slit down the center. The covers were balled up and thrown into a corner and the floor was littered with clothing from the closet.

Fang dropped down to sit Indian-style on the floor. There was a prominent ache in her chest, but aside from that, the rest of her body felt numb. She stared up at the ripped mattress against the wall.

That had been Vanille's bed.

When she and Vanille had asked Sazh if they could stay at his place for a couple of nights, Sazh had agreed without question. He was just that kind of guy. He would complain and yap their ears off about their language, weird habits, and questionable life decisions, but he had always been there to help them out when they were in need. It was that paternal instinct that made him agree to let them stay at his house. He had even given them Dahj's room, saying that Dahj and him could bunk together so that nobody would be forced to sleep on the floor.

Fang's eyes ran down the long split in the mattress. Vanille had always been a contact sleeper growing up. She just needed to touch someone to sleep comfortably. It could be something as small as just poking someone with her big toe or something big, such as bear hugging in her sleep; she just needed some sort of contact. Fang had always suspected it had something to do with her parents' deaths, but it was something she never questioned. She just lived with it. She could picture Vanille now, as she sat cross-legged on the floor, trying to convince Dahj to sleep on that mattress with her tonight instead of with his father. It was a campaign she would've started the moment she got back from the fireworks since she knew Fang would be spending the night at Lightning's… leaving her alone.

A loud clanking sound from below caught Fang's attention. Her head slowly turned around to the door of Dahj's room and she climbed to her feet.

"Fang?" Snow's voice called up from the garage. "Fang, you here?"

Fang took a hard swallow and began her walk back down to the garage.

"Man, what happened here?" Snow asked as he heard Fang's footsteps coming down the stairs. He wandered around the garage, inspecting the damage.

"They're gone."

"What?" Snow looked up and his eyes grew in slight alarm at the totally forlorn look on Fang's face.

"They took 'em. They're gone."

"Fang, we don't know that." Snow maneuvered around the front end of a car in order to close the distance between him and Fang. "If we could escape a PSICOM raid, so could they. And it's not like PSICOM would just leave the garage untended after raiding it. Unless it was some sort of trap—ohhhh, crap. We need to get out of here." Snow reached to grab Fang's wrist and lead her back to the garage entrance, but the girl defiantly yanked her hand back.

"No."

"No? No what? Fang, if you're right and Vanille got caught, PSICOM will be ready to pounce on us in any second! If I'm right and she didn't, then the faster we get to Hope's place, the faster we see her again!"

"I'm not leaving without her," Fang replied with her eyes on the ground. Her chest was beginning to rise and fall with slow, powerful breaths, and her arms looked to be slightly trembling as well. "I can't leave her alone. I promised."

"Fang, there's nothing you can do for her now," Snow said sternly, hoping to get through to his comrade. "The smartest thing—"

"NOTHING I CAN DO?!"

Snow futilely gasped for air as fingers tightly clamped around his throat and his back slammed into the wall behind him. "Feehhhnnn," he tried to wheeze, tears inadvertently beginning to blur his vision as Fang gripped his neck with one hand.

"DON'T TELL ME THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO!" Fang roared. "If PSICOM wants a piece of this, then I'll be waiting here to give it to them!"

Snow clawed at Fang's hand, trying to pry her fingers away, but it was to no avail. His eyes darted to Fang's face, but the look there gave him less hope than he expected. Her features had contorted into something totally ghastly. It was Fang, but at the same time it wasn't. It was something much worse. And whatever that thing was, it was not going to let go of his throat.

"Boys, stand down! It's her!"

Snow vaguely registered a new voice entering the garage as he tried to pool enough power into one of his hands as a hail mary act, something he could possibly use to zap Fang with to make her let go.

"Fang! Boy, am I glad to see you! We been looking all over for you!"

"Huggghhhhh!" The burning sensation of air quickly filling his lungs as his knees hit the ground totally took Snow off guard.

"You…" Fang growled, maliciously eyeing the young man who had stepped into the garage. She remembered him very well, with his rugged facial hair and cocky build. Rygdea was his name. He was the PSICOM cadet that Colonel Farron had admired so much that he tried to fix the young man up with Lightning.

"Fang, my men have this place secured for now, but we don't have much time. We need to move you to a safe zone before Rosch gets wind of—"

"You PSICOM bastard!"

An acute pain shot into his stomach as Rygdea went flying across the garage, tumbling across the hood of a car before landing into a heap on the cement. Fang's lips curled up into a nasty snarl as she strode over to the spot where Rygdea had landed.

"Ughhh," Rygdea groaned. He held his stomach with one hand as he tried to get to his feet. "Fang, I don't want to hurt you. I just want to help!"

"HELP?!" Fang roared, never breaking stride as she got closer to the cadet. "Just like ya helped Vanille?!" With one hand, she reached under the fender of the car that Rygdea had just bounced off of and flipped it over as if it had been a cardboard box. "I oughta—oomph!"

Like a speeding bullet, Snow shot out from behind a different car to slam into Fang's side, tackling her to the ground. Rygdea took this chance to scramble to his feet. "Boys! Aim and hold! And remember, shoot to stun! Not to kill!"

"NO… SHOOTING!" Snow coughed as he continued to wrestle with Fang. He originally held the advantage by catching her off guard, but he couldn't see himself keeping the upper hand much longer. He tried to pin her hands down, but she was too strong. One fist reached out to deck him across the jaw. His body reeled over to the side but his knees still had a firm grip around her waist.

"AHHHHHH!" Fang roared as she reached for one of Snow's wrists with her free hand and slung him off to the side and into a wall.

"Fang, this is madness," Rygdea tried to reason as the teenage girl slowly rose to her feet and set her sights back on him. Before Fang could take a step, however, Snow was on her again. This time he jumped on her back and wrapped an arm around her windpipe. Fang wildly bucked in an attempt to throw him off. When that didn't work, she began to wildly ram her back into different walls. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to take much more of a beating, Snow's mind quickly flitted to the last time he had seen someone directly incapacitate Fang. He quietly apologized to Fang in his head before sending a powerful lightning spell through the arm latched across Fang's neck.

"Yaaaaahhhhh!"

Fang's body convulsed, but she remained on her feet. Snow could feel her body shaking beneath him as she continued to stagger forward. He just gripped tighter and continued to pour electricity into her body, feeling his own strength weaken as he used more and more of his magic.

Finally, the girl dropped to her knees.

Snow released the grip around Fang's neck and stumbled away to stand behind her. He felt too drained to fully stand upright, but even in his bent over position, he kept one hand still aimed at her back. Fang's body trembled, but it was evident that she still had enough juice in her and was fighting the tremors in order to stand again. Snow only took his eyes off of Fang when he heard a multitude of simultaneous clicks echoing from the front of the garage. He turned his head and froze. There was a small army of men in PSICOM uniforms, weapons raised and pointed at the two of them, blocking the entrance to the garage. In front of them, still holding his side, was the young man who Fang had attacked earlier.

"Another l'Cie?" the man asked, or more like groaned. "I thought it was just Fang and Vanille."

"V-V-Vanille," Fang chattered through trembling teeth.

"I'm sorry, Fang, but there was nothing I could do for her. Rosch found out that this Sazh Katroy was known for hiring a few Gran Pulsians under the table to do work for him. He had a special recon squad come to scope the place out. They found Vanille and took the whole family in. I was able to get his men to clear out while mine 'took watch' but I can only hold this spot for so long."

"W-what did they d-d-do to Van-ille?" Fang's eyes lifted to fiercely glare at Rygdea. She wasn't even fazed by the number of men pointing guns at them.

"She isn't harmed," Rygdea assured, lifting his hands. "My boss has a lot of power with the PSICOM bigwigs. He convinced them not to harm her until you were taken in as well. That way, PSICOM could inform the public of l'Cie presence after y'all were already caught and do a public execution. It'd bolster the public's faith in PSICOM and wouldn't cause an uproar."

"Execution?!" Fang once again tried to get to her feet, but stumbled back down to her knees instead.

"Don't worry. We won't let that happen. We don't take our orders from the Sanctum scum like the rest of PSICOM. We're the Cavalry. And we're gonna help you save Vanille."

"The Cavalry?" Snow's eyes lowered suspiciously. "Who is your boss?"

Rygdea looked over his shoulder, past some of his men and out the garage, before turning back to the two l'Cie. "It's actually a long story and we're short on time. So how about I tell you all about it in my cruiser? Just as long as y'all are willing to play nice, that is."

Snow looked down to Fang. Her teeth were clenched and bared in a tight-jawed scowl, but her body wasn't shaking as much. Her head turned upwards to look at Snow, and there was something just familiar in her eyes that let him know that she had come back from whatever dark place she had gone to before.

"Okay," Snow nodded, turning back to Rygdea. "Let's go."

Fuzzy.

That was the best word to describe it.

Her mouth felt fuzzy. And a little dry. Her vision wasn't too focused either. She wasn't sure where she was. Her body was lying flat against a cushioned seat and there was a slight rumbling beneath her.

She was in a car.

She blinked a few times, waiting for her vision to clear a bit more. The car was dark. It was nighttime. She was on the back seat. Low murmurs were drifting back from the front of the vehicle.

Lightning felt nothing but tired as she rolled onto her back to look at the ceiling. She could tell that it was a PSICOM jeep from the interior. Her dad and Serah must be the two voices from the front. Where were they driving? It was rare for her dad to drive them anywhere nowadays, and it had probably been years since their last vacation.

Vacation.

That word seemed to stick to the forefront of Lightning's mind. That was it. They were finally going on a much needed vacation. But to where? She stared hard at the car's ceiling as she thought about it.

Anywhere. They were going anywhere. Dad had packed their bags for them and had readied a special car. Time was of the essence and they had to leave now. All she needed to do was say goodbye to Fang first—

"Fang!" Lightning rasped. She tried to sit up, but her body just felt too heavy, so her back just dropped back down to hit the seat. "Ugh…"

The murmuring from the front seat abruptly stopped and the car momentarily filled with silence.

"You're awake," Colonel Farron's voice said pointedly from the driver's seat. "That was much qicker than I expected."

Lightning turned her head towards the front of the car. Her eyes rose to the rearview mirror and she could see her father's stern blue eyes staring dead at her. The passenger seat shook a bit before Serah's face turned to peer back from around the cushion. Her eyes were wide and glassy and her eyebrows were slightly knit. She looked scared. Or confused. Maybe both.

"This isn't…" Lightning groaned, finding it a bit harder than she expected to form words and push them out, "…my first date with tranqs."

"And if you try anything foolish before I stop this car, it won't be your second either," Farron smoothly replied. His gaze in the mirror left her to shift back to the road. The side of Serah's lips pulled down to a frown and her eyes descended to the floor of the jeep before she slowly turned around to face the windshield.

Lightning took a deep breath and twisted her head around to further study the vehicle's interior. It wasn't her dad's usual jeep. It was a new one. From the feel of the ride, she guessed that it was a much heavier, bulkier vehicle. Probably something that was normally used to transport important cargo. Maybe even important prisoners.

"Dad…" Lightning took a hard swallow and turned her head to look back into the rearview mirror. "When—I mean… For how long? How did you know?"

Farron's eyes darted to the rearview to look back at his daughter for a brief moment before falling back to the road again. "I make a living off of tracking suspicious activity. And you may think that just because I'm not always home that I don't notice what goes on in your lives, but I do. With all the weird behavior after the trouble at the Vestige, your new infatuation with Pulsians, and the breaking of curfew on nights when l'Cie activity had been reported, the idea wasn't too much of a stretch. That, and your new friend talks too much. One conversation alone with her and I was able to surmise the rest. Hopefully she'll do us a favor and keep her mouth shut about you in custody, at least long enough for us to find you a cure."

Lightning's chest constricted. "She was caught?"

"Shit, Claire! Now is not the time!" Farron exploded from the front seat. "She was the one who got us into this mess in the first place! She's the one that got you turned! And if it weren't for that disgusting video of the two of you on your school's website, you wouldn't have even be implicated in this! What bothers me the most is that she even convinced you to keep this a secret from me!"

"You're twisting it around the wrong way."

"Oh! So she didn't coerce you to meet a fal'Cie? And she didn't convince you to hide it from me? What? Did she tell you all kinds of stories about how your own father would have you sent you away because that's what PSICOM does?"

Lightning remained quiet. She could argue with her father, but she didn't know what she could even say. Fang had indeed instructed her multiple times in multiple different languages not to tell Colonel Farron about their situation. "I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you first… I guess the bigger issue might be why it was so easy for her to convince me not to."

Farron growled from behind the steering wheel, but it was Serah who timidly spoke next. "A cure? There's a cure?"

She had shifted in her seat so that her body was fully facing her father. Her eyes had grown impossibly wider as she stared at the man expectantly. Farron grunted, still seething over his eldest daughter's statement, before answering, "Possibly. I've been talking to some scientists who I freed from a terrorist prison camp years ago. They agreed to work under the radar to help find one, but they need untainted l'Cie blood in order to see if it works."

"Untainted?" Lightning asked. She had turned her head to face the ceiling again, not wanting to catch her father's eye. Whatever he had drugged her with was still prevalent enough in her system to numb some of the feeling in her limbs, but it couldn't stop the heat that flowed to her face and the uncomfortable churning in her stomach as her mind kept flicking back to the thought of PSICOM tearing through her house in search of Fang. In their eyes, the girl was already tainted. And of course she would resist arrest. Lightning tightly shut her eyes and took a hard swallow. She wouldn't let them get away with it. Not this time.

"You don't have any idea what being a l'Cie does to your body, do you?" Farron asked.

"You get a brand."

"Yes. You get a brand. A brand that changes over time, as you probably know already. But do you know what happens when that brand fully forms?"

Lightning didn't reply.

"I guess even your Pulsian friends didn't warn you of that. You turn into a monster. Some wretched creature that's not dead but not alive. It's just there, a slaved soul who thinks of nothing but its focus until it withers away or is put out of its misery. The beginning steps of that final transformation is what taints l'Cie blood, Claire. I don't know how far along you are, but the quicker we get you cured, the quicker we can be free of this whole fal'Cie mess once and for all."

"So if their cure works… everything goes back to normal?" Serah asked.

"Nothing will go back to normal," Farron answered gruffly. "But abnormality is something I can live with as long as my children are safe to live it too."

"Light—erm, Claire."

Lightning looked back to the front of the car. Serah had turned around in her seat to face her again.

"I'm sorry… I told you that I'd help, but instead I got scared… and I cut you out."

Lightning's brows scrunched in confusion at Serah's statement. She used her elbows tp prop her upper body up on the backseat, finding it easier to move her body as she spent more time awake.

"She wasn't alone, you know. Snow was there when we left. So when you find Fang, tell him that I'm sorry too."

"Serah?"

Serah gave Lightning a wry smile before releasing a shaky breath and looking back towards their father. Her eyes studied his face for a moment before dropping down to the steering wheel.

Lightning's eyes widened in realization. "Noo." She tried to twist her body to the side, hoping to roll herself off the seat in close enough range where she could reach out and grab her younger sister. "Serah, don't—"

Serah's hands shot out from the passenger seat to quickly jerk the steering wheel hard to the left. There was the loud screech of tires mixed in with her father's shouting and the crumpling sound of metal. Lightning's stomach flipped as she fell from the seat, twisting in the air, to hit the ceiling of the jeep, before flying to the back to hit the interior of one of the back doors, and flipping over again to be on the floor as the vehicle tumbled down whatever terrain it had been veered off into.