A/N: Some more AU goodness. I hadn't realized I named the last chapter after a DA2 quest, I've been obsessively playing that game, I guess it unconsciously slipped through! And don't worry, I won't get too creative with the names (snrk). There will be cameos in the future, so I won't have to stress over that. Thanks for reading so far! Reviews have been much appreciated, I'll try not to let anyone down!

Open Doors

The night breeze was slightly warm, however chills ran through Vanille's body as she slowly trailed behind Lightning. The silence was unbearable, uncomfortable, somehow it made the air feel ten times heavier.

"Umm..." Vanille started, both looking for relief and wondering if she would dread breaking the silence. Lightning did not reply, but acknowledged her with a slight glance over her shoulder. "Actually, I was wondering if it was possible Fang did not know about this."

"That's impossible." Lightning stopped and turned to look at her completely, "are you ill or something? You know Fang would be prying for information when we got back."

"What's stopping her from getting it right now? Isn't she with Serah?"

"Serah wouldn't tell her." She seemed confident. "Why wouldn't you want Fang to know? She's practically your guard dog!" She spat.

"I just...I don't want Fang involved as well, it's bad enough I'm getting tugged around by both sides now..." Vanille clasped her hands behind her back, spun around, and glanced at the starless sky. "Say it is impossible, say you can't avoid bringing up the subject."

"Where are you getting at with this..?"

"Just listen," Vanille chided, "tell her the story, but not...the whole story."

"So you want me to lie to her." Lightning sighed, "Vanille, she'll know."

"If that's so, then she'd discard your whole story, despite the obvious evidence, and take this whole venture as a ploy to get me to defect from her side." Vanille smiled sweetly, "she's not as dense as you believe her to be, onee-san."

"Onee-?"

"So, spit it out." Vanille grew serious, a hint of irritation in her voice.

"Vanille, I'll tell you. But there is absolutely no way Fang isn't going to get herself involved, you and I both know that."

X-x-x

"Bloody hell.." Fang rubbed the back of her neck uneasily as Snow finished speaking, "this is what she's got us on to?"

"But you get now, right? It's not easy, Fang. Imagine if it was you, she's tried so hard to keep it away from the people around her but..."

"She shouldn't have to fight this battle alone." Serah cut in, "it's...it's suicide!"

Fang was rubbing her temples now, a dull headache ringing between her eyes, "but Vanille! What am I going to do?"

Snow sat back, thinking for a second. He had long discarded his coat and bandanna, as the air-conditioner in the flat had long since been broken. "This is in her hands now, Fang. You can't protect her forever. Besides, if it's Lightning..."

"I couldn't just leave her with that stick in the mud, but if Vanille even has so much as a mark...so help me." Teeth gritted, she clenched her fists tightly until her knuckles turned even the slightest color of white.

"She'll be fine."

X-x-x

"Listen..." Vanille began, they had wandered to an empty restaurant on Lightning's suggestion that the story would take some time to explain, "I'm not expecting you to spill your whole life story, I know you won't. I just want to know how all of this began."

"Then that's my life story," Lightning rolled her eyes and took a sip of water, "we're getting nowhere fast, so before it gets later, can I start?"

Vanille nodded slightly.

"Then I guess we'll start with my parents." Lightning began, glancing out the window that they were seated besides, "my sister believes they died from an illness, but in truth..."

My uncle, even then, had a gambling problem. My father was a revered Sergeant in the Guardian Corps who had a lot of enemies on the mafia side- The Organization is probably the biggest mafia group I can think of in this city- in order to pay off a debt to their leader at the time he had to kill my father.

"Wait, wait, how did you know he had to kill him?"

"My uncle is horrible at keeping..'secrets'. That and, well, I overheard his conversation with this strange man."

Anyway, on his way to work one day my uncle approached him and told him that he had forgotten his lunch at home. Thing is, my father didn't take lunch to work, so my uncle fibbed and told him my mother had thought of making him a little something special.

As you can guess, the food he was given was laced with a deadly poison, it takes its time attacking the immune system. You start to grow feverish, and then you collapse. This happened to my father while he was on a routine patrol, though knowing him I'm sure he didn't think anything of the fever. He was a workaholic, he didn't believe in missing a day just because of a little cough.

"Is that why you want to be in the Corps?"

"Yes. I was much closer to my father than I was my mother, that was Serah's field. I didn't see much of my dad, but when I did he would tell me grandeur stories about his week."

Speaking of my mother, my uncle was quite fond of her. In a disgusting way. It had gotten to the point of which he wanted to take her for his own. A strong woman she was, however. After my father's funeral she had done what she had always wanted to do, she kicked him to the streets. She saw him as trash, a leech draining the life from our family. He only lived with us because my father took pity on him. Even when she was weakened by my father's death, she wouldn't allow herself to be wooed by a rat. Even in a piteous state she was in.

She did fall ill, however. She was never really that healthy, and I suppose the recent tragedy had only hindered her health even more. My uncle, the sad man he was, wanted revenge for being rejected. Luckily for him, the organization had a new hit for him to take care of. They wanted my mother dead, simply through association. They wanted to wipe out my entire family, for fear of someone just as ambitious of cleaning streets as my father was, rising to the challenge.

When I came home from school one day I walked in on him strangling my mother, I did the only thing I could think of doing, I charged at him and threw him from her body. He escaped before I could do anything. Not that I could, I wasn't all that strong, I was only able to get him off of her simply because he was distracted and hadn't known I was even there. I was too late though, she died a few days later at the hospital. It was a mixture of stress from the fight and her illness.

I told Serah it was her illness. I didn't have the heart to tell her we'd be living with the murderer of our parents. But I vowed to protect her from him, at all costs. I became Lightning, I created a path of destruction.

"But doesn't the organization want you to join them? Why don't you do that? Pay off the debts, and be rid of them forever.."

"It's not that easy, they wanted me because I'm strong. They know I'm a threat to them. Once you join, there's no way out. It defeats my purpose in life. I don't want a life living amongst thieves and liars, I want to destroy them for what they've done, and I want to protect other families from falling to the same fate."

"But couldn't you do that...from within?"

"I had considered that. To fight for the top and keep the city clean through them. But there's only so far you can go before they figure out what's going on and they turn on you."

Let me clear things up with The Organization first, when my dad was around they were being run by some noble governor from Pulse, the irony of that is we were at war with the nation at the time-

"Well, aren't we still?"

"We have a temporary treaty, but I suppose. Yes. We're still sending soldiers and supplies over.."

I did research on his background, turned out he was a temporary place holder until the previous leader's son was of age and experience to take up control. Of course, this Governor was having a massive power trip and refused his request for the Head. This ran for a year until he was mysteriously found dead in an ally in Eden.

Prior to that, they wanted me dead. They knew of my ambitions, I'm positive my weasel of an uncle leaked everything he knew about me to them. When the new leader rose to power they suddenly wanted me in their ranks.

"Is this where we find ourselves right now?"

"Not exactly, I've been fighting them off for the past three years. Now that I'm of age to join the Guardian Corps, I'm afraid they're confident in my decision to keep away from them. I'm an actual threat to them now."

"Isn't it difficult to get in though?" Vanille raised a perplexed eyebrow, she hadn't heard of many people actually making it into the Corps, even less made it into PSICOM, and with Lightning's track record she was confident she wouldn't make it into either, "you're not exactly the world's most perfect student. I mean, sure you have those years on sports teams under your belt but that's about it. What about all those fights you get into? All the good grades in the world can't save you from being judged off of them."

Lightning shrugged, "my father wasn't exactly a perfect student either, from the stories I've heard, he was a lot worse than I am." She stood from her seat and beckoned Vanille to follow, "you have the basics of what's going on, we need to get you to Fang before it gets any later. I don't want to listen to her idiotic ramblings right now."

Vanille

The walk to her home consisted of ten minutes of uninterrupted silence. I was too busy thinking about what happens next. Lightning? Well, I'm not sure if I'll ever know what's going on in her mind, but I suppose if I had to guess – she was wondering the same thing.

When we finally got to her flat, Serah started scolding her on sight, Fang anxiously waited her turn. I thought it quite uncharacteristic for the tables to be turned, Lightning who was always scolding Serah for being around Snow was now receiving the same treatment for running off without telling Serah why.

X-x-x

After another routine argument and "almost" fight, Fang returned her attention to Vanille, "you're not getting anymore involved in this."

"I think that's a little too late Fang." Lightning rolled her eyes, unconsciously rubbing her jaw, "if you didn't want her involved, you should have kept a closer eye on her, and you-" she glared at Vanille now, who swallowed nervously, "-you need to keep a tighter grip on your dog's leash."

"What did you-"

"Fang!"

"I'll be damned if I take this-"

"Fang! Knock it off!"

Serah shuffled nervously, glancing at Snow, who shrugged halfheartedly with a look that read, 'it's been a long day, just them fight it out.'

Fang turned her attention back to Vanille, Lightning opened her mouth with a ready retort, but closed it when she saw the tears streaming down the young girls cheeks. "Both of you, just stop. There's no point. What's done is done, I can't reverse the past or stop the inevitable future. I'm—we're already involved, and there's nothing either of you can say that can change that!" She sniffled slightly, and glanced at Lightning, "I'm just happy Lightning even came to save me."

Several heavy seconds passed, Fang turned her glare towards Lightning, "this is on your head sunshine. If anything happens to Vanille..."

"Yeah, I get it." Lightning snapped back.

"You better, because I'm expecting you to keep a close eye on her when I'm not there."

"Fang..." Vanille started, "that's unnecessary.."

"She's right." Lightning sighed, "as much as I hate to admit it, she's right about that. Who knows when they'll try to attack again. Serah doesn't have that problem, she's always with either me or Snow. But you. When Fang isn't around, you tend to wander aimlessly on your own, don't you?"

"I can take care of myself.."

"I think we both know how that went."

"I was caught off guard!"

"Never let your guard down." Lightning's eyes narrowed, "not even in your own home. That was your first mistake."

Now it was Vanille's turn to feel slightly frustrated, Serah and Snow had left, Fang wandered off to vent her built up anger. "So then I should be on guard around you too, right?"

Lightning stepped forward, Vanille stepped back, of course stepping back would have been much easier and much appreciated if she hadn't placed herself between a wall and a hard place when they had arrived. Lightning trapped her against the wall, their bodies dangerously close.

Vanille swallowed nervously under the girl's intense gaze, "L-Lightning?"

"You're a cute girl, Vanille." Lightning muttered, index finger tracing her jawline.

Vanille couldn't believe this was happening, her heart racing in her chest. Was Lightning's face getting closer? She had to stop this.

She did, when she was just milliseconds away from a kiss, she shoved her away with a strength she never knew she had, "Lightning!"

Lightning grinned slightly, "that's what I'm talking about Vanille."

"e...eh!"

"It was a test. I wanted to see if you really were helpless. But it's the truth, you're a cute girl, what would happen if that man had taken advantage of your weak appearance? You can't trust everyone, Vanille." She shrugged and added, "and at least you're not crying anymore."

"IDIOT!" She could feel her face burning, she moved to swat at the girl, but she easily blocked her attack with a cocky smirk. Still fuming, Vanille pulled off the jacket the girl had given her and threw it at her, "I absolutely hate you, Lightning Farron!"

X-x-x

Vanille

I stormed out, dragging a confused Fang along with me. I huffed most of the way home, muttering every curse I could think of attaching to the ex-athletes' name. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not erase the image of her grinning from my head. I liked her smile, I kind of wished she'd smile like that more.

'And at least you're not crying anymore.' Still echoed in my head, I wondered what she had intended with that line.

The weeks that followed were calm, almost a bit too calm. Even the kids at my school seemed like ghosts.