Chapter Four: New Bodhum

Lightning and Caius drifted through the Historia Crux until they found another rift that they could exit by. With the gates having all vanished, they had to take whatever exit they could get and hope that it was the one that they needed.

But as they walked out of the rift, they quickly realized that this wasn't their original destination.

"What?" Lightning grunted, gazing around the area. It was dark, and in the distance, she could see Valhalla's shadow lingering. Apparently all the times were going to be like this, since Valhalla did affect time itself. Looking at her closer surroundings, she saw that they were close to a body of water and at the top of a hill overlooking a small town.

"New Bodhum," Caius inserted. "I'm unsure about the year, though…"

"It can't be too late in the timeline," she thought aloud. It looked too similar to the New Bodhum that Serah had lived in during 3 AF. "Let's go down and find out."

"What happened to getting to Academia?"

"How should I know?"

"You were the one who created the rift. Did you have another strong desire that would lead us here?"

Since it was a logical question, Lightning didn't snap at Caius. Did she have another desire? No…What desire would have made her come to this place? She had never actually been here before. Serah and Snow were at some point, but they couldn't be here now. "No, but I have a question," she said as she turned to face Caius. "Is it possible that we'll run into some friends here, like…"

"Like Serah?" he filled in. "Doubtful. Etro would not so easily allow that paradox. We may still be able to use the rifts to travel time, but I'm certain that the times any of us were previously in will be blocked off. That way, we cannot interfere with our earlier quest. Make sense?"

"Completely," she said with a nod. So certain times that Noel, Serah, Caius, and herself had visited were off limits because Etro maintained mostly dominate control of the timeline. She was both relieved and saddened that she wouldn't see Serah. Seeing her and being unable to save her would have been torture. However, Caius's line of logic brought up another thought in her mind. "Ok, so let's say that's the case. Then what was the point of us trying to go to 400 AF? Hope is in that time, so if we were allowed there, we'd run into him. Etro wouldn't allow that."

"That's correct. I honestly believed that we would not end up in that time period. I did, however, think that we would come near to it—perhaps ten years later, in that place. This is completely random."

"Maybe only because we can't see the big picture. Let's go find out," she urged again. This time, she started forward down the narrow path towards New Bodhum's fence. Caius followed without another word. His knowledge of the timeline and of Etro was beneficial; she had to admit that much. Just as long as he was logical and not pushy, then maybe this journey wouldn't be so horrendous after all.

"I expect that you'll learn how to use the rifts more efficiently in the future," Caius said as he ruined his good streak. He knew all too well that there was no real way to control this, so why did he have to bring it up?

"Right," Lightning said as she bit her tongue. No point arguing over it now. I don't really want to get into another duel, especially not here. The town seemed desolate as they entered through the fence's open door and had a clear view of everything. There were still houses by the beach in good condition, but the town hadn't expanded at all since Serah lived here. Her old home was still standing…Exploring that seemed like a good place to start.

The soldier walked up the stairs and entered the headquarters in silence, but silence did not surround her for long. A voice to her left called to her. "L-Lightning?"

Looking over to that side, Lightning saw a person standing being a counter. Her black hair was messily pulled back as she wore a white blouse that was over her shoulders instead of just laying on her upper arms like it used to be. She looked aged compared to the last time she saw her. "…Lebreau."

Lebreau came out from behind the counter, revealing that her whole outfit was different. Instead of the short shorts that she wore before, she now had on black pants. The dressing was more conservative than a few years ago, much more serious. Things had certainly changed since Lightning last saw her.

"Gosh, Lightning…" Lebreau said in aw, stopping a few feet away as she eyed Lightning over. "…Is this really you?"

"Yeah."

Coming out of her stupor, Lebreau managed a chuckle. "That is the type of short answer you'd give…" she thought as she shook her head. "So, you're alive after all?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah…" she said with a weak smile. "Well, it's good to see you alive, Lightning. We were all worried when the gate suddenly disappeared. But if you're alive, that means Serah's okay too, right? She's just stuck in another time…"

"Woah, Lightning?" Maqui's shocked voice sounded from the other side of the room. At his loud tone, Yuj and Gadot also came running over and joined in the gawking. They must have been shocked, seeing someone who disappeared a long time ago in their reality. They themselves looked different, though. More equipped for battle and serious along with older, wiser, and more weary.

"Yeah," Lightning found herself saying again as she lifted a hand in greeting.

"Who's this guy?" Gadot asked suspiciously as he eyed the silent Caius.

"An ally."

"Strange ally," Yuj stated as he too studied Gadot. He seemed to be marveling at his purple hair.

"Yeah, strange," she said absently, though she agreed. Caius was quite odd.

"So where's Serah?" inquired Gadot more optimistically. "Can't be too far behind, can she?"

Lightning's gaze went to the floor. "…Serah's not here."

"What? Then where?" Maqui piped in confusion.

"…Five hundred AF…gone."

"G-gone! You can't mean…?"

Lebreau instantly started to cry. "I knew it," she moaned. "I knew that if we let her go, she wouldn't come back…"

"What happened, Lightning?" someone asked tensely. Lightning was getting too choked up herself to look up and see who spoke. These people were Serah's family when she wasn't around…they protected her and loved her. They had a right to know it all.

"The goddess Etro was in danger…" she said factually without looking up. "…I sent Noel here to bring Serah to me so that she could help. Serah died almost right after the final battle. After she set the timeline right."

"Serah…sweet Serah," Lebreau sobbed. It was heartbreaking to see someone who was normally so strong break down so immediately. But that was what happened after living in fear for Serah's life for so long. All of them were broken.

"It's my fault," Lightning immediately blurted. That was when she had Gadot's full attention on her. "I shouldn't have brought her into the fight."

Even with her head lowered, Lightning thought she could sense so many glares on her. Lebreau continued crying quietly a few feet away, Maqui stared at the ground, Yuj at the ceiling, and Gadot at her. Caius stared as well, silently observing. Even he was probably feeling awkward, despite how he seemed to care about nobody but Yeul. Seeing all these people caring for Serah must have been odd.

Gadot approached Lightning, the well-built young man standing right in front of her. "You…" he mustered. Lightning still didn't look up. "You…had to drag Serah along into death, didn't you?" he finally boomed, losing his temper. "You were dead to the world and had to drag Serah down with you! What the heck is wrong with you, bringing a girl like Serah into a fight for the world? She's not like you! She's…"

Caring. Innocent. One of a kind, Lightning finished mentally, not backing down from Gadot's screaming. "I'll face the consequences of my actions," she said as she finally looked up. "It's all I can do now."

Gadot let out an angry roar. His face was twisted with fury, and at that moment, Lightning realized that he handled grief the same way that she did: he channeled all the sadness and sorrow into pure rage.

That rage was going to impact Lightning in the form of a fist.

He lifted his hand and swung at Lightning. She shut her eyes and braced for it, knowing full well that she deserved that kind of punishment. She accepted it. And although she did not move to avoid it, the fist never connected with her face.

Caius was suddenly right next to her, close enough that his torso was touching her back. His hand caught Gadot's might fist about six inches away from her face. When Lightning opened her eyes and glanced back at Caius, her eyes reflected her shock. He just stepped in to save her from a blow? He didn't have to do that, especially since this wasn't a battle. What compelled him to do that?

"What the heck, man?" Gadot cried angrily at Caius as he tugged his fist back to his side.

"Taking out your misguided wrath at Lightning isn't going to solve anything," Caius said calmly.

"Misguided? She just said it was her fault!"

"You'd expect that from any sibling, wouldn't you?" he continued in the same calm tone. "In reality, Lightning had nothing to do with Serah's death."

"What's your take on it, stranger?" Maqui finally asked. His tone was softer, more timid. Closer to heartbreak than to anger.

"The goddess Etro started this battle. She deceived Lightning, Serah, and Noel into believing she was a goddess of benevolence," Caius explained lowly. "Truly, she was a cruel goddess. She cursed Serah with the ability to see the future. Each time Serah saw the future, her lifespan was cut. Etro is at fault."

The silence in the room told Lightning that they all heard what Caius had to say. She knew Etro caused Serah's death, but she still had to blame herself. She was her sister, after all. Meant to protect her…But Lightning could never protect. She only destroyed. Her bewildered eyes stayed on Caius as he lingered nearby in case Gadot decided to throw another punch at her.

But he didn't. Instead, he took a few steps back and began to calm back. "I'm sorry," he said heavily. "I should have known you were just saying that it was your fault. You always did like to take the responsibility for everything, huh Lightning?"

The soldier remained silent.

"So, what are you doing here, Light?" Lebreau finally asked as she composed herself and wiped at her tears. "Does it have to do with the darkness that appeared?"

"Yeah," she said. That was the same short answer she kept giving Lebreau earlier. She felt a little bad about it, but she was at a loss for words herself. Everyone was willing to accept she wasn't guilty, just like that?

"What year is it now, and what year did the darkness appear?" Caius asked.

"It's ten AF," Yuj said. "And the darkness…Well, that's complicated. One day we sort of just looked into the sky and realized that it was there. We can remember times that it wasn't, but we can't pinpoint a date for when it appeared."

"Is it some kind of paradox?" asked Marqui.

"Sort of," Lightning said. "It's caused by the appearance of Valhalla in this world."

"Valhalla?"

"The unseen realm. It's a place of no life, death, or time," she continued. "It's where I was, and where Etro currently is. She was restored to power and revealed her true nature then. She released chaos into this world at that moment, but she hasn't converted this world to Valhalla yet. She needs a huge amount of death to be able to release the rest of her Chaos into this realm and turn this world into a place without time, life, or death."

"So you're trying to stop her," Lebreau assumed.

"Yeah." She cursed herself for that answer yet again. "But with the gates gone, travelling time is a little more sketchy. We didn't mean to end up here."

"Huh," Maqui said as he tried to think. "Do you think Etro messed things up so you guys wouldn't be close to her?"

"It's possible," Caius input. "But doubtful. We are travelling through rifts created through purest desires. A gift from another god a long time ago."

"So what desire brought you here?"

Caius's gaze went to Lightning for the answer.

"My desire was to protect my friends," Lightning said after a second. "That was what brought us here."

"You…consider us friends, Lightning?" Lebreau asked in surprise. But she was also touched by Lightning's desire. The fact that her desire was as it was and she was brought here proved the truth: she did consider Lebreau, Gadot, Maqui, and Yuj to be friends. When they were in Bodhum, Lightning couldn't stand them. They were reckless fools. But now Lightning saw them as reckless people, but they had good hearts. They had to in order to raise up this town.

They were her friends.

"That's…kind," Yuj stumbled over his words, clearly surprised. Lightning wasn't the type to show friendship too often, so it must have been flattering to hear that she not only liked them, but considered them to be friends. "So your desire to protect your friends brought you here. You were thinking of other friends, but fate had something else in mind."

"The question is…what would you need to protect us from?" Maqui finished for Yuj.

That was an excellent question. One that Lightning didn't have an answer to. A shrug was the only response that she could offer to the people around her. What danger was there in this time period? She witnessed the timeline from Valhalla and nothing of significance happened until—"What year is it again?" she asked suddenly.

Everyone around her exchanged curious looks before Gadot answered, "Ten AF."

"Ten AF? That means-!"

A great roar from outside interrupted Lightning. It was loud enough that even she had to cover her ears at the mighty bellow that came from the beast she knew now that she came to stop. From Valhalla, she had seen a threat appear on Gran Pulse in this year. But what happened to it was something that she couldn't remember for the life of her.

"Lightning! What's going on?" Gadot cried as he too covered his ears. The bellow continued for a few more seconds before it faded.

The house stopped shaking, but Lightning's heart only pounded harder. "The Dawn Dragon," she gasped.

"What?"

"Yes," Caius said, having realized the truth at the same time as Lightning. "The Dawn Dragon is a beast that appeared out of the ruins of Cocoon at this time period. He ravages many towns and destroys them before they even have hope of creating themselves into great cities."

"But New Bodhum wasn't supposed to be destroyed," she recalled. "So why is he here now?"

"The goddess has a hand in all things. Most likely, she saw our coming and is trying to set the Dragon on us rather than sending a new enemy and creating a paradox."

"Then if we leave, so will the dragon."

"Not so likely. The goddess will use the dragon to threaten those close to you until you take action."

"So we need to face it head-on."

"Correct," Caius said with a nod.

Alright. Lightning knew this wasn't a battle that they could flee from, so it was best to run into it right away before the Dawn Dragon could do any severe damage. She started out of the building alone, shouldering the responsibility on herself. "You all stay here," she recommended to Lebreau and the others. "None of you are meant to die in this time. I don't want to see what happens if you die early." It would create some kind of paradox. Nobody wanted that.

"You expect us to just sit by the sidelines while you fight a dragon?" Gadot asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Lightning responded simply. She ran out of the building before anyone could argue with her further. She expected that maybe Gadot would try to follow and fight, but she also expected that the goddess wouldn't allow anyone else to interfere with the fight. She only wanted Lightning and Caius dead, so she would target them as long as she could.

All Lightning could do was hope that she and Caius were strong enough to face this beast. Neither of them fought any real battles since losing their divine power.

The dragon entered Lightning's sight as soon as she was standing in the middle of the beach. Ruby red and skinny, the dragon reflected death in every way. The Dawn Dragon was meant to destroy new towns at their very dawns before they could rise to face the day. It was meant to take away hope just as the people began to grasp it.

That was why it needed to die.

The dragon flew down and stood right along the water's edge, tail swinging lightly as it took up nearly the whole waterline. Okay. Okay…I've faced worse than this. I've faced Fal'Cie, for Pulse' sake. I can do this.

Solemnly, the soldier pulled her sword out of her case and held it by her side. She was ready for battle, and so was the dragon. With a mighty roar, the beast spun around and swung its tail at her. Lightning as able to jump over it to avoid it, but the large rock to her right was badly damaged by the strong swing. Thus a problem quickly arose: they couldn't fight their battle here by the town; innocent people would get hurt.

They had to lead the dragon away from here, but how?

"Hey!" Lightning hollered on impulse, regaining the dragon's attention as she shot bullets at it. "You want me? Come and get me!" And so she took off in a sprint towards the path leading out of town.

Shockingly, the dragon actually abandoned the town and started stomping along the beach to follow Lightning. If she had time to think about it, she would have realized that it made complete sense. After all, the further away from the village Lightning was, the less help she could receive from others. The more likely she was to die.

The soldier leaped onto the fallen tree, running without losing her balance for even a second. Her first plan worked but she had no clue what to do next. She glanced over her shoulder, grunting when the dragon was right there and swinging his tail at the tree. The tail impacted the very middle of the tree, crashing it hard enough to send chunks of it flying and splinters everywhere. Fortunately for her, she was able to jump off the edge of the tree and onto solid ground before it completely collapsed. Now nobody was going to follow her for sure.

The realization that she was truly alone in this fight made her heart skip a beat in panic. However, she quieted the panic with rational thinking. Unleashed panic would only make things worse. She just had to come up with a plan.

She spun around and neared the edge of the ground to see where the dragon was, since it seemed to have disappeared after destroying the tree. She didn't have to look for long, though.

The dragon's shadow loomed over Lightning as it flew in the air above her. It inhaled and she quickly took in a breath as well. "Fire," she panted. Great. She sprinted to the side, jumping from land mass to land mass as the dragon breathed a fiery path of destruction right behind her. The heat lapped right at her heels, but it wouldn't conquer her.

She suddenly had a plan.

Lightning jumped into the water, thankful that it was shallow as she kept up her speed. As soon as the fire hit the water, smoke appeared. The heat of the fire against the cold water caused the water to evaporate rapidly and create this fog. The smoke covered the entire area in a white fog, hiding Lightning from the dragon's sight. Now was her chance to strike.

Leaping onto the land again, she had her sword at the ready as she neared where she saw the dragon had landed by the water. When she was within ten feet of it, she had a clear enough view of it. Silently, she ran forward to catch it off guard. She could do it! It wasn't looking at her at all…

A battle-cry left her lips as she ran to the dragon and plunged her gunblade into its scales, right at the heart.

Her sword only managed to pierced a few inches. That was far from the fatal blow that she intended to inflict.

The Dawn Dragon roared at the blow, though it wasn't severe. The being looked down at Lightning with angry eyes and wiped its claw at her, sending her flying back into one of the palm trees. Her back impacted it roughly, a breathless grunt escaping her lips as she toppled onto her stomach. Her sword fell onto the dusty ground before her. No… she thought instantly, seeing the smoke clear up as the dragon stomped over towards her. She just had her chance to defeat the dragon, but she blew it. What was she supposed to do now?

The dragon prepared to deal the final blow while Lightning was lying down and momentarily paralyzed with pain. It swung around, lifting its tail to smash Lightning into the ground. Though she knew that it wouldn't do her any good, she lifted her arm to shield herself.

Again, someone came to her rescue. A human-like shadow passed above her as he jumped off the top of the tree and onto the dragon's back. Now clear within her view, she saw that it was Caius. How and when he appeared, she didn't know. All that she knew was that she was now indebted to him. However, she couldn't focus on that right now. Her blue eyes followed his movements from her spot on the ground.

Caius Ballad retained his balance skillfully as he lifted on the beast's back. It couldn't throw him off for even a second. Within a few seconds, he lifted his hefty sword and plunged it into the dragon's back without effort. Darkness immediately emitted from the creature as it shrieked in pain. The tail lowered feebly to the ground right in front of Lightning as Caius withdrew his sword, jumped, and landed right in front of her. "Lightning, are you alright?" he asked calmly, glancing over at her.

"Yeah," she managed with a grunt. She was definitely sore, but no real damage was done. Slowly, she started to rise to her feet as the dragon faded away completely. "How did you do that?" He fell so easily to Caius…

"My blade is specially forged to defeat dragons," he explained.

Lightning shot him an angry, pained look. "That would have been nice to know beforehand."

"I wanted to see your strength."

"And I nearly got killed because of it," she spat.

"But you did not die," he responded coolly. "And now I have seen that you still possess some strength and wit about you. The fact that you even pierced the scaly surface proves that you're still very strong."

"…Thanks?" she said with suspicion. Was that some kind of compliment?

"Let us leave now that the danger is gone," Caius said simply, putting his sword onto his back.

However, Lightning wasn't ready to leave yet. She had some questions for Caius, and they weren't just about the battle that ensued. "Caius…Why did you not let Gadot punch me?" she couldn't help but ask.

He hmphed, looking away from Lightning. "The petty argument was wasting our time."

That wasn't the answer Lightning was expecting. She had been expecting something that was actually…sincere. But the only thing that was sincere about Caius was that he didn't have a heart or pity. "That's it, then?" she said as she started fuming. "You didn't have any compassion in that situation at all? You intervened for your own sake?"

"Yes," he said evenly. "Is that all you have to ask?"

"Yes," she responded angrily. "That's all."

Lightning started walking back to the town with her hands in tight fists by her sides, angry with herself. She assumed that Caius Ballad would have some kind of compassion towards human suffering. She had believed that maybe there was some good in him. His words just proved her wrong.

It was simply a shame that his words were not the truth.

*…*…*…*…*…*

Yup, that's the end of that chapter folks! I'm gonna get straight to the personal stuff:

i – Oh, there's no rush at all with publishing these. :P In fact, I already have 8 chapters done and I'm planning on working on the 9th tonight. Writing is just SO important to me. Writing fanfics has helped me realize my dream and potential of writing novels in the real world. Someday I'll be the next best-seller, hopefully. :3 Okay, maybe not best seller, but I at least wanna be published.

That's it for personal this week; there weren't too many reviews for this chapter. Hopefully that'll change with this one! ;)

Have a good night guys!

Peanut