Chapter Seven: Hostage
Lightning never did like being at the mercy of others. That was why she always tried to take control of a situation herself instead of allowing others to manipulate her. Manipulation was too big in her history for her to ignore, not that she wanted to. If she ignored it, it would be easier for her to be controlled.
Just like how she ignored her surroundings when touching the orb in the temple and didn't hear the person sneak up behind her. Now they had full control of her.
The village that they led her into while keeping her at the tip of their weapon was a fair distance away from the temple. The grass was no longer green; instead it was a dull brown that showed rainfall was rare. The trees hardly provided any shade and the huts weren't sophisticated in any way. These were either nomads who travelled a lot or they were really deprived. Unfortunately, Lightning believed it was the second. The temple couldn't be moved, and if they found her there, they had some connection to it. They refused to leave this land because the temple was here.
Her captor shoved her down to the ground by the tree, forcing her to grunt. "Easy," she snapped, turning her head and finally glaring at the person who had previously been behind her. Though the weapon was no longer in her back, there was nothing she could do now. Her hands were tied with rope and she wasn't able to work her way out of them. For now, she was at their mercy. "What did I ever do to you?"
The man with bushy brown hair only glared at her in return, bending down and reaching into the red pouch that was on her leg. "Hey!" she cried again, tone biting. He was withdrawing all of her potions!
Lightning was so fixated on him that she didn't notice a person approaching from her right until their shadow was covering her. By then it was too late to block what was coming. A slap to the face forced Lightning to turn her head sharply in the other direction and squeeze her eyes shut in both fury and pain.
"Be quiet," that man ordered lowly. "We're willing to show compassion if you're willing to cooperate."
"You're stealing from me, for now reason," Lightning said as she glared at the black-haired man who was very well built and kneeling down beside her.
"You intruded on a sacred place. You shall pay the price in blood and be subject to the inquiries of our head."
Before Lightning could respond, she heard the sound of quiet footsteps to her other side. Thinking it was another threat, she turned her head quickly to see what it was. It wasn't a threat specifically, but it did manage to make her heart drop.
"Caius."
Caius was walking in with a sword in his back as well, and his hands tied behind his back. Even worse, one of his two captors was holding onto his weapon. He was defenseless. Somehow, Lightning had been hoping that Caius wasn't caught and he could get her out of this mess. It didn't matter though; she would find a way out of this and make these people pay for sneaking up on her. It was their funeral, not hers.
"So, you know him," the man said with a slight smirk. Lightning's eyes narrowed when Caius was being toyed with like she was, his bounds being undone and then redone so that he was tied with his hands behind the tree. He was in an even worse position than her, since she was just shoved down to the ground. It was definitely up to her to save the day. "You're associated with Caius Ballad. Do you realize how badly that makes you look?"
"Why, what'd he do?" Lightning asked her captor, turning her head and looking at him again with narrowed eyes.
"That girl in the memory that you saw," her first captor answered, "was named Averia. And she was killed by Caius."
I don't believe that for a second, she thought as she furrowed her eyebrows. In the memory, Caius looked terrified for Averia's safety against the monster. He didn't kill her. "What about Long Gui?"
"Averia fought against Long Gui and managed to defeat him, but she was severely weakened. That was when Caius finished her off. We arrived at the scene as it happened."
"You're lying," Caius growled. His interruption resulted in him receiving a punch to the jaw. For a split second Lightning felt anger for the sake of Caius.
"But now, we're going to ask you the questions," a new voice said. Directly in front of her, a tall, built man was walking into the center of the area. His clothes were the same as everyone else's, but his hair was pulled back in a long ponytail. The air around him told her that this was the chief of the village. "Who are you, and why are you travelling with Caius Ballad?"
"It'd be much easier to answer your questions if I wasn't bound," Lightning dared to say coolly. The brunet beside her kicked her arm roughly, shoving her down onto her side. She grunted, eyes narrowing as she glared over at him. Well, it was worth a shot.
"You'll need to bear with us and do things our way," the chief declared. "You are at our mercy, not the other way around. I am a kinder man than the rest of my tribe, so unless you want my kindness to run out, I suggest you start speaking plainly with me."
Whether he was kinder or not, Lightning had to take him for his word. Maybe if she fed them some story, they could let her go. "My name is Lightning," she said as she slowly pushed herself back up so she was sitting."
"Lightning, yeah right," one man scoffed.
"What's your last name, Lightning?" the chief asked as if he believed that was her name.
"Highwind," she lied. Why on earth did I just say that? Lightning thought in silence, surprised with herself. Then she understood it: Lightning Farron was an important figure in history, most likely. She was the l'cie who saved Cocoon. If she gave them her real name, then they could either disbelieve her completely or believe her wholeheartedly and they could cause a huge paradox.
"Okay, Lightning Highwind," the man continued with a nod. "I assume you were named after the Lightning who saved Cocoon so many years ago?"
So, my logic was dead on then, she thought with relief. That was a great move on her part, even if it was just instinct. "Yes," she said with a small nod. "I was."
"Why are you travelling with someone so wretched when you're named after such a great hero?" he asked with disappointment in his tone.
"Only because we share a common enemy right now," she answered honestly. "He was the only one who could fight with me."
"Who is your enemy?"
Lightning bit her tongue. "…That's too much to tell you right now," she said. "If I told you, it could compromise everything."
The chief stared at her for a few moments, studied her authenticity. Though Lightning was truly being sincere right now, she was a very convincing liar. She had to be for her past career in the Guardian Corps. Lying and sucking up was a big part of being a success. And since she was so bad at sucking up, lying and pretending to like people was what Lightning did to ensure her success.
"Fine," he said after a few moments. "Just one more question. How do you feel about the gods?"
That was such a random question. Yet it must have been important if they brought it up. What was the right way to answer, though? Before she could stop herself, she shifted her gaze to Caius in hopes of getting some kind of hint. Yet his expression gave away nothing. It was stupid to even think he could help; what was he even supposed to do?
She decided to be honest. "I hate the gods," she said lowly. "All of them."
"Even the goddess Etro?" the chief asked with a stoic expression.
"Especially Etro."
"I see," he said with a nod.
On cue, a man knelt down beside Lightning and cut off the ropes that were binding her wrists. At first she was startled, but then she realized that she was being freed. Thank goodness, she thought in relief. I said the right thing. She was free. Next she had to find a way to get Caius out of his bonds.
But she wasn't out of the woods just yet. Suddenly the two men beside her yanked up her arms and dragged her to her feet. "What?" she grunted, eyes narrowing as she looked back to the chief. What was going on? She thought she was alright!
"Those who are against the goddess are against us," he said with an unkind expression. "And they must be killed."
Killed. That was the fate that Lightning was going to face. Unless she struggled back. She yanked one of her wrists free before it was to be tied. She elbowed the man on her right in the face, knocking him away with one rough blow. Then she reached for her weapon, only to grasp for air. The man on her other side had already taken it out of the bag so that she couldn't have it.
Oh well, she wasn't completely incompetent without a weapon. When she went to take a swing at him, he ducked to miss her. He didn't even try to attack her, because he didn't need to.
Lightning cried out suddenly when she felt something pierce her lower torso. It went in so deep and at such a great speed that it pierced her to the tree. Looking down, she saw that it was an arrow. One that was very familiar to her.
Glancing up with pain filled eyes, she saw that the chief was the one holding the bow and arrow set that Lightning had seen in the recorded memory. "That's Averia's bow," she said weakly.
"Averia was my wife," he said evenly. "She was the sister of the seeress Yeul. And she died trying to save the village, but was ultimately killed by the one who came to protect Yeul later. Caius Ballad."
"I did not kill your wife, Corin" Caius said with some bite.
"Lies!" Chief Corin cried. "You did, and the proof is in the memories that we were able to recover from Averia. I do not doubt my wife. And besides, you became the Guardian of Yeul, and afterwards, Yeul disappeared from history."
"What?"
"We can't even remember the day that Yeul disappeared from our midst," Corin said in sorrow. "All of it is like a distant dream. But we know it occurred, and we know that only you could cause this to happen. So you will pay, Caius. You and your companion will die."
While this whole squabble went on, Lightning's wrists were retied with her arms above her head and over a thick tree branch so that she was fighting to stay on her feet. Of course, the arrow in her stomach was helping her stay put since it also pierced the tree. The blood was seen against her tan coat, seeping out and creating a nasty stain. Worse than that, she was feeling dizzy from it.
"Everyone but Rufus come with me and set up the execution area," Corin declared, putting away the bow and arrow in silence.
Just like that, everyone but one left the scene. Rufus walked a few feet away from Lightning as he held onto her gunblade, staring at it with curiosity. It was so nonchalant; he was studying her gunblade while Lightning was dying.
"If you want her alive for the execution, you'll need to dislodge that arrow and mend it so she doesn't bleed to death," Caius said from his spot.
"If she dies here, that makes our jobs much easier," Rufus responded smoothly. "We'll only have one enemy of Etro to execute."
Just like that, the conversation stopped. Rufus went back to studying the gunblade and Caius went back to staring at Lightning with concern. She tried to ignore his eyes boring on her, closing her eyes as she tried to come up with a plan. Her weapon was in the hands of the enemy and she was pierced to a tree by an arrow. And her hands were tied above her head…
First she needed to get free of the tree. Then untie herself, then get her weapon back. She knew how she could get free of the tree, but it was going to be painful and call attention to herself. If she could knock out the captor along with that, then she'd be alright. She just needed to work quickly in order to finish this before the rest of the people came back to take her away to kill her. Once they were on top of her, she wouldn't stand a chance against them.
Okay. I can do this. Lightning opened her eyes, seeing that Rufus was still studying the gunblade. "If you're so curious about it, I could show you how to use it," she said to him.
Rufus scoffed. "As if you'd show me anything. You're trying to trick me."
"What can I possibly do?" Lightning asked with a bitter laugh. "In case you didn't notice, I'm pinned to a tree and bleeding severely. I'm going to be killed in what, ten minutes?"
"Hmph. More like five," he said with a smirk, giving Lightning valuable information.
"So there you go. I've got no chance, even if this is a big misunderstanding. The least I can do is show you how to use the gunblade so that the knowledge doesn't die with me. It's the last gunblade that exists."
"T-this is a gunblade?" Rufus asked in awe. "But it looks like just a gun to me…"
"There's a button you push for it to extend," she explained. "Step closer so I can see it; I'm so used to using it that I'm not sure exactly how to explain it to you."
Idiotically, Rufus took the bait. Either Lightning was a more convincing liar than she thought (which said something since she was very confident in her skills already) or Rufus wasn't as smart as he first appeared to me. He stood right in front of Lightning, holding the weapon about half a foot in front of him so that Lightning could look at it. Of course, she had intention of showing him anything.
"Well?" he inquired with an arched brow.
"The button is down near the handle," she lied.
Rufus's eyes left her. That was when she took action. She gripped the branch above her head and lefted her feet off the ground, pressing them against the tree. Gritting her teeth, she pushed off the tree and felt the arrow get ripped out of the tree. A loud cry of pain left her lips, retrieving Rufus's attention. But it was too late for him.
She lifted a leg and kicked him under the jaw, the force behind it enough to knock him onto his back. The fact that he was dead weight when he fell and he dropped the weapon told her that she managed to knock him out.
Panting a breath in pain, Lightning slowly swung up her legs so that they were up by her hands, hanging over the tree branch. She managed to reach inside her right boot and pull out the weapon that she had hidden in there: the knife that Serah had given her on her twenty-first birthday. A practical gift to be sure.
"We only have a minute before they appear," she said weakly to Caius, opening up the knife as she started sawing at the ropes that bound her wrists to the tree branch.
"I can do the majority of the fighting. You shouldn't move much with that arrow still in you," Caius said from his spot at the tree.
"Right," she agreed, finishing cutting the ropes. She was free. She dropped her legs and released the branch, landing smoothly on her feet. Right by then, her weapon laid on the ground. She slipped it back into her brown bag before she ran over to Caius, standing behind him and the tree as she used Serah's knife to cut through his ropes. It was much easier than doing her own bonds for obvious reasons.
Caius took his wrists back when he was free, nodding his thanks to Lightning. Fortunately for him, his weapon was stabbed into the ground only a few feet away. He walked over and pulled it out easily, putting it on his back before turning back to Lightning. His eyes landed on the arrow that was still in her stomach and the bleeding wound.
There wasn't too much time for him to stare. Sudden shouts of dismay and anger came from down the road. "Lightning, run!" Caius ordered, maneuvering himself so that he was standing between her and the rest of the men.
Though she hated running, she nodded. "Meet at the temple!" she said before she turned and jogged away. She was certain that Caius would hold them off for a while to give her enough time to get somewhere where they could meet up and she could create a rift to escape from. Why she said to meet at the temple may have seemed random at first, but she had something she wanted to retrieve at that place: the orb with Averia's memories. Though she did believe that Caius was innocent, she wanted to know the truth and how Averia was connected to him. Finding out more information about him was why they came here in the first place after all.
Sounds of battle sounded behind Lightning as she kept a decent pace, the arrow still in her stomach as she ran. Blood dripped on the path behind her, leaving a trail of where she was going. It couldn't be helped now. She had to make it to the temple before she lost too much blood and passed out. Each step she took was more dizzying than the last. Each breath more shallow and filled with pain. The temple was on a hilltop, so climbing that was even more toiling.
She reached the top and collapsed on her side, panting breaths as she tried to hold onto consciousness. "Caius, please hurry," Lightning whispered in the air. She wasn't doing well.
Slowly, she picked herself up and started jogging into the temple. She didn't even worry about the booby traps too much as she stayed away from the walls and didn't jump on any suspicious tiles. Miraculously, she made it to the orb. She stuffed it into her pouch before she ran back the way that she came, managing to make it outside just in time to see Caius running up the stairs.
"What are you doing?" he panted angrily, again looking down at the wound that was more covered in blood than earlier.
"Getting a souvenir," she said as lightly as she could, stumbling a step before she fell down to her knees.
The sound of harsh footsteps sounded as the men from the village ran up the stairs to meet up with them. "You didn't defeat them?" she asked, looking up at him and noticing for the first time that he had some blood on his cheek.
"I couldn't finish them. Things are going to get complicated," he said as he held his weapon tightly in his hand and faced the stairs once again. "Create the Rift. Time is short."
"Okay."
What did she want more than anything else? She didn't want to go to her friends when she was in a wounded state; they would become nervous wrecks. She didn't want to travel anywhere connected with Caius because that was what she did this time and they got into a ton of trouble. All that I want is somewhere safe to go, she thought, glaring down at the arrow in her torso. Please, somewhere safe where we can talk…
Lightning heard the rift appear behind her within seconds. "Caius," she called, slowly rising to her feet.
He turned around, glancing over his shoulder as the men just reached the top of the stairs. Corin was right in front, with an arrow loaded on his bow as he took aim. Caius didn't hesitate gripping Lightning's arm tightly and swinging her into the portal before he ran into it himself. The two of them just managed to escape the arrow that was flying at them and leave that place.
They weren't even in the Historia Crux for a second when they flew into another rift and toppled out in another location. Lightning managed to land on her side while Caius landed on his stomach right beside her. The warm air of this area greeted her, as did the sound of waves rolling just a few feet in front of her.
They arrived in New Bodhum in the same year that they had been in New Paddra. That was why they arrived so quickly; they only travelled to a new location, not a new time. Thankfully, the town of New Bodhum was abandoned now. But there was still the ocean rolling in with the salt water that both Lightning and Caius believed would sooth her wounds.
"Don't fall unconscious," Caius said lowly as he carefully brought Lightning to her knees. "You lose consciousness and it'll be hard to come back with how much blood you've lost."
"We need to take out the arrow," she said, looking over at Caius and seeing him begin to blur in her sight. "Quickly."
"Give me the knife."
Lightning obliged, handing it over and listening to Caius speak as he cautiously set a hand on her upper back. "I'm going to saw off the tip of it," he explained as he began. "Then we'll need to pull from the front to get it out. The salt water of the ocean can work as a disinfectant. Believe it or not, I don't know any immediate Cure spells; only Regen. So if you manage to stay awake for a little while, things will begin to get better."
She nodded silently as she felt the tip be sawed off completely by Caius. He moved to be in front of her, setting the knife on the ground as he lifted his gaze to her face. "Are you ready?" he asked.
Again she nodded. "Get it over with," she said through her teeth, clamping her eyes shut as she prepared for a world of pain. Yanking out the arrow would be agonizing, but there was no choice in the matter. She was just lucky that it hadn't hit any major organs…But she supposed that was the point. Corin hadn't been shooting to kill.
A second passed without Caius doing anything. Then he suddenly grasped the edge and yanked it out quickly so not to prolong her suffering. Lightning screamed in pain, though she bit off her lip to hush it after a second. Dizziness overtook her for a second as she started to fall forward.
Only Caius was still there to catch her. His hands found her upper arms as he kept her upright so she wouldn't fall into him completely or onto her face on the ground. "Stay," he said lowly, his voice not harsh in any way. "Stay conscious, Lightning. The worst is over."
Not able to find words to respond, Lightning found herself nodding again. "Take off my cape," she said hoarsely. "And soak it in ocean water. We can wrap that around me to slow the flow of blood and stop infection while Regen begins to work."
"Regen should be cast first," he argued.
"No," she disagreed. "You cast that and the skin on the surface will start to heal first. Then if I have an infection, it's already in my system. Ocean water first."
"As you wish," Caius said after a few moments. He slowly released Lightning and allowed her to go back and sit on her legs since she was on her knees. Her balance remained as he moved to her side, unclasped the cape, and then walked to the ocean to get it wet.
It'll be alright, Lightning thought silently, focusing on just staying still and waiting for Caius instead of the weakness and the pain. Like Caius said to her, the worst was over. They were away from danger and the arrow was out. Very soon things would get better. And once they were, she could speak to Caius. Maybe they could have a conversation without snapping at each other…
Something changed between them. It was between when they entered that time and sometime during the confrontation with the villagers. Lightning had believed that Caius was innocent of killing Averia even when the evidence pointed towards him. She was strong, broke herself free, and freed him from his bonds. And Caius…He held off the villagers to allow her to run away to safety. He threw her through the rift first to protect her. And now he was helping her take care of the wound.
They found respect and trust in each other's abilities and hearts. Neither of them would abandon their comrade for a second or believe ill of them just because somebody else did.
Things changed.
*…*….*…*…*…*
Figured I'd go ahead and update today. Why not, right? ;3 Well, I hope that you guys enjoyed the chapter! Drop off reviews (like I know you well—you guys are seriously the best readers I've ever had!) and have a good day!
And the personal stuff:
Darkis0777- Nope, I haven't seen a single Indiana Jones movie in my life. xD
Naivette- My only response to Lightning allowing Gadot to punch her is because she is that grieved. We haven't seen her lose Serah in the games, but I think that if she did lose her, she'd be swallowed by grief enough to accept the punch. And I called chapter 5 "Lightning's Redemption" because she redeemed herself in battle. The role reversal was intentional. xD
Riku91- "Averia was supposed to be Lightning's name!" Yup, and it's such a pretty name! I wanted to pay tribute to that, but that's it. xD Averia and Lightning aren't related or the same person at all.
Hannah Abby- I'm sure you'll be fine with the stupidness. xD
Shigeki-Hizashi- Don't worry, I won't abandon the story! I couldn't live with myself if I didn't see this through.
Davewik- "I like your simple, readable style." Thanks! I know what you mean about people getting really poetic and all that; I'd rather keep it simple, in character, and clear than show off big vocabulary or overly poetic dramatic writing.
And to everyone else: thanks for the birthday wishes! You all made me feel really special. :)
Until next time! Peanut's out.