A/N: Well this chapter came up fast because I had already...had it written? It was one of the few chapters that survived my deadly computer crash. I simply had to revise it. Notice Lightning isn't herself these two chapters? The end is coming soon. It seems rather fast, right? Don't worry, my version of soon is different from your version of soon. Thank you for your reviews, and patiently sticking around this long. Thank you to my new readers as well, you guys are greatly appreciated.

x-x-x

The sun had long since gone down by the time the party had finally come to a stop. Vanille always felt terrible for holding parties at Lebreau's house, despite the other girl's insistence that it was fine. She had to get tired of it eventually, Vanille had thought as she and Fang made their way back home. Surprisingly, Fang, who had managed to steer clear of alcohol the whole evening, was unnervingly silent.

If she knew anything, it was because this was the day they would finally open the chest.

When they got home, Fang looked at her, uncertainty in her eyes. Vanille thought it was funny, she was the one that should be terrified.

"It's been a long day..." Fang trailed off, with an expression that gave away so much more than she would have cared for.

The redhead nodded, "it has...but it's still going."

"Are you sure about this? We don't have to look at it now. We can look at it when you're ready."

"I'm ready." She was determined, "if I put this off, I'll never go up there again. I'll never know."

"Right." Fang sighed, and the smiled, a more relaxed expression graced her face as she guided her sister up the stairs, "then I'll get the key, while you...collect yourself?"

Vanille laughed, if anyone needed to collect themselves, it was Fang. After all, knowledge of her family could be in there as well.

X-x-x

Fang clasped the small key in her hand, she could hear faint humming from across the hall, Vanille was waiting for her.

"Support her."

The dark haired girl sighed, she already knew Vanille's story, and guilt had eaten away at her all those years after the old woman had died.

"If she seems lost, if she doesn't want to believe, guide her."

But how could she guide her, when the truth still felt like a story to herself?

"It's hard, Fang, for a girl your age, I know, but I have faith that you will do what is right."

What was right, when the truth felt like a lie?

"Yun Fang, daughter of a prideful, powerful, hunting clan. Daughter of an honest, serene woman, and a strong, resourceful man."

It was time. She clutched the key to her chest and a took a deep breath, she glanced down the hall and mustered her courage, they weren't blood related, but they were still sisters. She would be there for her.

X-x-x

Fang chuckled, her voice warm and earthy as her sister impatiently dragged her to the chest that had spun a spell of wonderment around her heart. With an ecstatic smile, Vanille took the key from Fang's out-turned hand and rolled it between her fingers. "What do you think it is Fang? Where do you think my family is from?"

A small smirk spread across the other girl's face as she shrugged, "Cocoon, just like the rest of us."

"The one day you decide to leave your sense of imagination behind, Fang." Vanille tsk'd, " maybe they were adventurers!"

"And maybe my parents ruled the Flan Kingdom." Fang scoffed, "we wont know 'til you open the box."

Vanille sighed, her index finger idly tracing the wispy, sweeping design on the lid. Holding her breath, she finally turned the key and pulled the lid open.

Out of the box she produced a thick envelope, with a raised eyebrow she offered a glance towards Fang, who motioned for her to continue, a reassuring hand on her shoulder. With trembling fingers, the young girl ripped into the old envelope, careful not to damage it's contents. With a nervous sigh, she pulled out a letter and glanced at Fang again, wondering if she should read it out loud. Fang merely squeezed her shoulder, and the girl took it for a 'yes'. She wanted Fang to hear this, perhaps clues to her own past were hidden within. She licked her lips and cleared her throat:

"Happy Birthday, my dear Vanille. My single greatest regret is that I have not lived long enough to see this day. I imagine you have grown to be as beautiful as your mother was the day I met her. Now, I know you're more anxious about that than an old woman's blessings, so allow me to start. I know you will want to believe it is just another one of my stories, but it's not, it is so much more!

As I have implied before, your mother was a remarkably beautiful youth, she volunteered at a schoolhouse I worked at. She was kind, and friendly, as you could imagine we became fast friends. Despite that, she was prone to illness, the poor child, and that was eventually her downfall.

As the years passed, I learned that your mother came from a long line of Pulsian farmers! Imagine that! I never thought I'd see the day! A supposed extinct race on Cocoon herself. I thought she was joking, but your father held the brand of a hunter, an old school teacher knows best. She taught me many things about her people, and I gladly took it in. Her's wasn't the only family, Fang, dear Fang, her parents knew your mother well, and I had the opportunity to meet them. I soon learned she would be as rough and rowdy as her father. He was the stereotypical image of a Pulsian that was pounded into my head when I was but a schoolgirl, tall and powerful.

After Fang was born, her parents had to leave. Her parents left her with your parents, with confidence that they would raise her to become a remarkable woman. It wasn't their intention to abandon Fang, but they were on the run, and they did not want Fang growing up to learn that lifestyle.

Your father had died by then, as a brave soldier of the Guardian Corps. Could you imagine? Serving the world that hated their kind. They were interesting people, indeed. With your father's death came your mother's pregnancy, a miracle within a tragedy. The day she found out, I had been named your godmother. Two years later, your mother had come down with a deadly illness. I remember how frantic she was as she told me she wanted you to grow up knowing the good in Cocoon before you were told of you heritage. She wanted you to know that not all of the people here are cruel. She died happy, confident that her beautiful baby girl would grow into a strong, wonderful woman.

You are Vanille of the Dia clan of the Oerba village."

The letter trailed off to talk about the rich culture of Oerba, that her parents had left behind, how they were Refugees on Cocoon. Vanille looked up at Fang in awe, "Pulse! Can you believe that, Fang?"

"No, I can't say I can," the girl crossed her arms, "old woman loved to tell stories, what makes you think this is true? And I am to believe my parents are from the same place? Seems too convenient. Besides, Pulse has been devoid of life for, goddess, centuries!" Fang felt a twinge of guilt, acting like this, she knew it was true but she refused to believe it. Some support she was.

"But what if there are still people there, Fang? History can be wrong! History can be altered just enough to make the people on this world feel safe!" She watched her sister pace to and fro, "haven't you ever felt different from everyone else Fang? Like you don't belong here?"

"You're right, 'Nille." Her voice still held a tone Vanille had mistaken for sarcasm, her sister reached into the box and produced a stack of pictures, "it's the truth, I just don't want to believe it. Even now." Glancing from the pictures, she locked eyes with the redhead, "I don't want to believe it, that my parents might still be out there...while yours..."

"Even now?" Vanille cut in, "Fang, do you mean you already knew this?"

The wild-haired teen ducked her head sheepishly, "she told me on her deathbed, she wanted me to be supportive." Handing a photo over to Vanille she snorted, "some help I am."

Vanille looked down at the photo, bewildered by the beautiful woman that smiled up at her. "Is is..her?" She ran a finger down the picture of a redheaded woman, her hair was long and wavy, it came tumbling down her shoulders and framed her face perfectly. She looked very much like Vanille, except for her brown eyes. Her features were so defined, and she looked like a sophisticated woman, beside her sat a man with red-brown hair, his smile broad and reminiscent of Snow. His green eyes sparkled with laughter. Judging by their attire, the man in a decorative white Sari with gold trimming and colorful paint on the exposed portion of his chest that created intriguing designs, while the woman wore a beautifully woven strapless dress, a colorful array of necklaces hung from her neck, some woven and others beaded- this was a wedding picture. Sure enough, the man's tattoo stood proudly on his exposed arm. In the background, Vanille caught a glimpse of a small, cozy house that had rolling fields behind it.

Fang shifted beside Vanille, other photos in her hand. She placed them down to wrap an arm around the girl, "you know, you look a lot like the two of them. I think they'd be proud with how you turned out."

"Yours too, Fang, I bet they think about you everyday."

"You think so? Sometimes I wonder...if they're still around. Maybe you're right, maybe there's still life on Pulse." The tan girl pulled a necklace out of the box, it was beaded and held a variety of blues, greens, reds, and yellows. Vanille recognized it from the photo, "maybe they're on Pulse." She reached in and produced a few more necklaces and finally a neatly folded dress. The two girls stood, Fang shook the garment out and held it up against Vanille.

Vanille's eyes stung as she gently took the white dress, it was too long for her to wear, not that she intended to do so. It was too beautiful, she concluded. But she marveled at the simplicity of it, thinking she'd love to wear it at her own wedding. Fang whistled her approval, Vanille chuckled.

This was it, this was all the proof she needed about her origin, and she was shaking with excitement, "I have to tell the others! I wonder if Serah's dad ever met mine!"

"Stop," Fang held up her hands, "I'm just as happy as you are, but what makes you think they'll believe you? This is Gran Pulse we're talkin' about, to some Cocoon citizens it isn't somethin' you joke about."

With a pout Vanille sighed, "but what if they do believe me?"

"Lightning's going into the Guardian Corps, Vanille, we'd be her problem when that time comes." Catching her saddened expression, Fang cursed herself, "I'm not sayin' we shouldn't tell them, I'm just sayin' you should leave out the part about our parent's being from Gran "Hell on Earth" Pulse."

Vanille folded the dress and placed it neatly back into the box, along with it's other contents. She finally nodded, "right, that will be our...secret."

x-x-x

I kept the wedding picture and a necklace that had my parent's wedding bands interlocked. I slept with both items under my pillow.

I dreamt of a beautiful world filled with wild creatures and exotic flowers, small villages and voices filled with laughter.

x-x-x

Lightning stood in the middle of her room, inspecting the one picture of her family, her arms were crossed over her chest. "Have I made you proud?" She wondered out loud, remembering what Vanille had told her on that day. "Father, I am so lost. I am so...afraid. How can I be brave? How can I protect Serah, if I'm afraid?"She grit her teeth and fought the familiar sting in her eyes, she would never cry, she had forgotten how to cry, but the sensation still washed over her when it pleased. Tears never fell.

She had to be strong, for Serah.

"I need you now, more than anything." She grit her teeth, "I need guidance." Finally, she turned away from the picture, took a deep breath, and glanced at the shut door. "No, I can't be like this. I can't be...you. I can't be Claire." She felt ridiculous, referring to herself in this sense. Maybe she was going mad, maybe that was the key to it all. To completely lose her mind. "You left us too soon. I can't protect Serah, not like this. Not while part of me is still Claire."

She sat on the floor, back leaning against her bed as she stared out her window at the clear, starless sky that was spontaneously lit up by Bodhum fireworks.

"I might die, father." Lightning chuckled, "will she forgive me if I died? She has wonderful friends now, it...pains me to admit to that. They'll take care of her. Even her blockhead boyfriend. She doesn't need me anymore. She doesn't need Lightning or Claire. She needs you. But this is a fate I must accept, when I finally meet Caelum...I might...no, I will die. To give her a happy future, that is something I must accept. I don't want to. I'm scared. But sometimes...we must do the things that terrify us the most, for the ones we love."

What about Vanille? Lightning had never met anyone that made her feel the way Vanille did. Confused, and strange. The odd, almost magnetic feeling she felt at school whenever she spotted the girl. The need to protect her...

"Keep it together, Soldier."

It was almost as though he was training her for this, she thought, like he could see into the future. Like he knew their mother and him would die.

"You must never rule out an outcome. Expect anything, expect everything."

"Expect anything." Lightning muttered, closing her blue eyes. She thought about Vanille again, her chest tightened, "say...I'm in love with her..." She started, "then would it be best for me to...never speak to her again?"

"I was eighteen when I met your mother, just barely a cadet." she remembered his rough laughter, "I was warned not to get involved with a woman in this line of work, but it was love at first sight! I asked her to marry me the moment I saw her, she turned me down of course, but we started dating after that."

"Why are you telling me this?" She had scrunched up her nose, when she was younger she found topics of romance to be the most disgusting thing.

"Expect anything," he told her again, "I never thought I would fall in love, I tried not to be involved in other people's lives. I always did things alone, always pushed people away so I wouldn't have the chance to hurt them. But I never wasted opportunities either, and when I met your mother, I was determined to be with her."

"Even if I die..." She clutched her necklace.

"Even if I die one day," he said, hand hovering over his chest, a look of determination spread across his face, "it was never my intention to leave an impression on someone...but now I know...even if I die someday, I will live on in her, in you and Serah. That I've left my mark on this world. That was the problem, before I met your mother I wanted to be a protector, but I could only destroy. I didn't have anyone to protect, therefor I did not know how to protect. I met your mother, and I knew that I wanted to keep her safe more than anything in this world. And then we had you, and Serah, and I wasn't simply fighting for one future, but many."

She thought back to that day, what had she done to earn that lecture?

Serah had brought home a beaten, stray kitten, and Lightning had been upset about it for some reason. She didn't know why Serah wanted to keep the smelly thing, why she wanted to clean her and baby her. They all knew the kitten's life was going to be cut short, despite the younger Farron's efforts, yet their parents had let her keep it.

Lightning had run out of the house, upset, to practice with her wooden blade. She was so furious that she could not focus on her own training, and her father had watched on until Lightning finally gave up and collapsed on the floor, exhausted.

She realized after that lecture, that Serah was fighting to give the kitten a future. Much to their surprise, the kitten survived. It was a short life, she died a few years later, but it was a life nonetheless. So much more than she would have gotten if Serah had not brought her home.

"Fight to protect a future," Lightning thought again, opening her eyes to see that the brilliant fireworks had ended long ago. She glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand, 2:00AM flashed a neon green color. "'If you love her, protect her, give her a future.' Is that what you mean? Give Vanille a future...Give Serah a future..."

She closed her eyes, the months were catching up to her, she was tired. Tired of fighting. She fell asleep sitting against the bed.

"You're still too young to understand this, Claire." He patted her head, his hand heavy, "but there are things your mother and I do to give the two of you a happy future. When you are older, you will understand. Someday, you will be fighting to give someone else a future. It is an endless cycle. It is life."