Guys, I'm back. I'm actually back. I've been gone so long that there aren't even any documents left on my account. But... yeah. I really wanted to write CaiusxLightning again.

I know I said I didn't have much homework last time, but then that changed hardcore. So...

On another note, thanks to i and jollyp for the reviews. Sorry to make you wait. :P

Okay, so you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it, but I just want to make one thing clear: I am not shipping Fang and Caius. Not in the least. It's just that... Fang is supposed to be the foil for Claire in this fic. And she's Fang. So she says outrageous things.

But anyway. I don't own Square Enix or Final Fantasy. So here you go.

:D

Chapter Four: Trust Fall

Training started before sunrise the next morning. Claire was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes when she showed up at the area they used for training. She ran past General Ballad on her way in, and their eyes met for a brief moment before she ducked her head and broke eye contact.

She couldn't stop thinking about the assignment, even though she knew it wasn't like her to worry. Maybe, she thought, General Ballad is getting to me.

"This is it," General Ballad said as the squad stood recovering from their twenty laps around the main building. "We are to begin our first assignment in ten minutes. If you are not ready, you will fail. Be prepared." He turned and walked away.

"Why's he gotta have such a nice ass?" Fang muttered under her breath.

"I think you mean 'why's he such an ass,'" Claire returned.

"Oh, God, Claire, get over yourself. Look at the man's ass. It's perfect." Fang gestured to General Ballad as he disappeared around the corner.

"You can't possibly find a man like him attractive," Claire answered, rolling her eyes.

Fang laughed. "I've got to have something to do while all this training is going on, don't I?"

Claire rubbed her face with her hands. "That might be the most suggestive thing I've heard all morning."

"Claire Farron!" Fang exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. "Get your mind out of the gutter. I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure you didn't," Claire answered, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, Claire, Fang, can I forewarn you?" The two girls looked up from their conversation to see Noel standing off to their side. "If I get shot, no life support, okay?"

Claire and Fang exchanged looks. "I think we should have been the ones forewarning you," Fang said. "Anyway, why not? It's the first assignment. You can't possibly want out already."

"Maybe I didn't want in, in the first place." Noel's expression twisted.

"You don't mean that," Fang said.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," he answered. "Anyway, forget I said anything. You two ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Fang told him.

"Damn ready," Claire muttered under her breath.

"Claire, God, don't look so happy about it," Noel said.

"Whatever."

"Soldiers, you are to line up now!" General Ballad's voice broke through their conversation, and the three of them looked at each other in apprehension.

"Good luck to all of us," Fang said.

"Let's try not to end up in Hope and Vanille's unit when it's over," Noel answered.

"Or the ground," Claire said.

"Oh God," Fang said under her breath.

"Don't die, or you won't get to admire Ballad's backside anymore," Claire muttered to Fang as they lined up in front of the gate that led outside the military complex.

"I was gonna say don't die or you won't get to see my radiant face anymore."

"That's always good, but obviously you don't have your priorities in order."

"Shut up, you."

"What did you say, Claire?" Noel asked, trying to overhear.

"I didn't say anything," Claire told him. "Stop talking. General Ballad will hear you and shoot you before we even get out of here."

"Sorry," Noel said, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

They proceeded to leave the complex, marching in rows behind General Ballad. Just before they passed through the gates, they walked through terminals to pick up their weapons. Every soldier in the squad received the same gun: a dark blue, partially transparent rifle with extra cartridges. Claire squeezed hers in her hands, concentrating on the feeling of the trigger under her finger.

"Do not forget," General Ballad said, so quietly that Claire had to strain to hear, "that this assignment is entirely real. They have bullets. They can kill. They can kill you. And there are no second chances."

Claire took a deep breath and focused on the path ahead of her. General Ballad called out a command, and they began to march.

"Break formation as soon as you hear the shots," he said.

Claire listened for the shots. She remembered learning about their enemy in class: Pulse's Army. Their war had dragged on for years and years over territory and resources, until the point when the war zone had come right up to the doorstep of the military's training facility. That was the reason they held this training assignment here every year, they'd told the soldiers, because they hoped that some squad would eventually break through Pulse's defenses. None had yet. They were locked in what looked like an eternal stalemate.

Someone fired a shot, and the soldiers exploded outward, running in all directions. Claire ducked behind a stone slab that protruded from the dark and dusty ground. The sky looked gray; everything looked gray, and Claire couldn't see the bullets even as she heard them shooting past her. She propped her gun on the top of the stone slab and looked out.

Some of the soldiers had advanced ahead of her, pointing their weapons at the structure that lay beyond. A few of them had already been knocked down by Pulse's bullets. Someone shouted, "Watch out for mines!" but just as soon as the remark had been made, one of the trainees stepped wrong and went flying. Claire cringed.

She saw Fang running ahead of her, firing at the enemy, and she held her breath, hoping her friend wouldn't go down. She looked down the sights of her weapon and saw the dark structure of a fence looming ahead of her, with guns that poked just above it. Claire fired a few shots but didn't see any change ahead of her.

She turned her gaze from the sights, but Fang was gone, lost in the dark uniforms of soldiers ahead of her. Claire gritted her teeth, kept her weapon out in front of her, and jumped out from behind the stone slab. Immediately, she saw that no other shelter lay directly ahead of her, and she felt paralyzed as she watched the barrel of one of the guns flick toward her. As she expected the impact of a bullet in her armor, in her chest or in her shoulder, a different impact hit her: the impact of a body slamming into her from the side. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of her, and she settled into the dust gasping, looking around for the culprit.

Kneeling in the dirt several feet away was General Ballad, his eyes fixed straight on Claire and her stunned form. Claire opened her mouth to say something, but the words escaped her.

"Watch your step next time," he chided her. He glanced ahead at the wall. The two of them were out of range of the enemy's guns. "Do you need help?" he asked, turning his eyes once again toward her.

Claire felt the sudden pressure of his gaze, the weight of his question, and she responded, "No." The word passed her lips so quickly she wasn't sure whether she had even spoken it.

Caius gave a sharp nod of his head and disappeared into the fray. Claire swallowed hard. His absence felt as strong as his presence, and she resented it. She wanted to forget he had even been there.

But she realized, after some hesitation, that she had wanted to say yes.

But what kind of test had he meant to pose to her by that question? Had she said yes, he might have taken her for a coward. But because she'd said no, he likely thought she was ungrateful.

Either way, for that split second, she'd wanted his help.

Cursing under her breath, she dove straight back onto the battlefield, charging toward the enemy's wall. She managed to conceal herself behind the next fragment of stone wall buried in the dust, and when she looked across the field she realized she had become the closest to the wall of machine guns. Cautiously, she peered over the top of the stone fragment, squinting ahead at the enemy's wall. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the steady motion of the guns as they fixed their sights on their targets. They were unmanned. Turrets. Their squad was shooting at nothing.

"Fall back!" Claire screamed. "There's no one there! Fall back!"

Some of the other soldiers lowered their weapons, looking confused. Claire repeated her order, and slowly, the other members of her squad began to retreat. She saw no sign of General Ballad, and she didn't care. Part of her hoped he was lying somewhere with a bullet in his chest.

Claire turned her back and sprinted back toward the military complex. When she reached the main gate, she saw that the rest of her squad had already crowded around it and begun to whisper to each other. Fang nudged Claire with her elbow, and Claire looked up to see that General Ballad stood at the front of the group. He stared intently at her, and she averted her eyes.

"He's got it out for you," Fang said.

"I guess that means you can have him all to yourself," Claire muttered.

"Shhh," Fang hushed her.

"This concludes your first assignment," General Ballad said, his voice flat and his eyes searching the soldiers before him. "If you look around, you will see that we have already lost several members of the squad."

Some of the soldiers glanced around them, shouting out names of trainees who had been lost to battle. General Ballad silenced them as soon as they spoke.

"You will learn that loss is a regular part of battle," he told them. "And that making an ordeal out of it is not in your best interest, nor your fellow soldiers'."

The squad fell silent. General Ballad fixed his gaze on them for a long moment before he finally cast his hand toward the military complex's main building. They shuffled forward, breaking ranks, and moved down the road. General Ballad watched them pass, waiting until Claire passed him to put out his hand and clamp it around her shoulder.

"Good luck," Fang whispered and Claire glared at her.

She turned to face General Ballad. "What is it, sir?" she asked.

"Your observation and command were uncalled for on this battlefield," he pointed out, his eyes drilling hard into her. She held her breath. "But on a real assignment, that kind of information would rather be imperative."

"Oh?" Claire asked. "Thank you, sir."

"Yes," General Ballad said. "Claire, I would like to extend an invitation to you."

"An… invitation?" Claire asked hesitantly, studying his expression. His face gave away no clues.

"Walk with me for a few minutes," General Ballad told her. "It will not take long."

Claire flushed. Somehow she couldn't imagine walking calmly next to the same General who had insulted her and thrown her in solitary—the same General who commanded her squad and told them to do push-ups.

"With all due respect, sir," she said, the phrase sounding strange in her mouth, "I don't think I'm allowed to do that."

He laughed. "Do you truly think anyone will know?" He fixed his eyes on her face again, and the intent look he got in them when he did so made her blush. "Have you looked in the mirror lately, Claire? You hardly even look young enough to be a trainee soldier."

"Oh," Claire answered, her blush deepening.

He put one hand on his hip and smiled easily, awaiting her answer. Claire felt all the more awkward. She couldn't possibly agree to it, could she? What would Fang think?

"Well… okay." The word slipped out of her mouth unbidden, but Claire couldn't take it back. General Ballad nodded once.

"In that case," he said, "follow me."

Claire blinked, watching his black-clothed frame turn and retreat from where she stood. She took a deep breath and followed him down the path, wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into this time.