The bar was dark and dank, reeking of stale beer and regrettable decisions. Serah passed the time counting the cigarette burns in the table in front of her while she toyed with the ice cubes in her water. The other patrons were keeping to themselves, which suited her just fine.

It had been a few months since Serah's untimely departure from home, by now the news far reaching about the L'cie who had blown the roof off their school, injuring at least fifty students and teachers, some critical but thankfully no deaths. The waitress at the bar had taken pity on her when she started counting out coin for a meal and snuck her a plate another table had sent back that would have otherwise been thrown out. So Serah sat in the dark corner, hiding her hair beneath her hoodie that had since faded to a strange pale pink instead of her natural red. Another side effect of her curse, she supposed.

She finished her meal in silence, pushing the plate away with a gentle nod of thanks to the waitress who gave her a wink in acknowledgement. Mostly silent these days, Serah relied on the kindness of strangers who weren't privy to her more volatile nature, who were willing to donate food or a job that paid cash for the night, or turned a blind eye if she happened to sleep in the doorway of their shopfront on rainy nights.

Serah had travelled north to a place called Nautilus that was all entertainment and nightlife, an easy place to become invisible amongst the revellers looking to make mistakes and memories. Hoping to escape the shame and the fear that had dogged her from Bodhum, Serah escaped into the crowds and just survived. It was not ideal, but anything had to be better than the lynching that awaited her back home. She wasn't prepared to die, but didn't know how to live with the curse.

The slide of denim on leather caught her attention as a drunken lout slithered into the booth next to her with a lecherous grin. "Good evening sweet thing, what're you doin' here on your lonesome?"

"I'm just leaving." Serah replied curtly, shuffling over to the other side of the booth to escape. Just as she stood another of the man's friends sidled up to block her exit and put his hands on her shoulder, pushing her back down in the seat.

"We don't want any trouble, just a good time and you look so lonely over here in the corner." The other man said with a chuckle that held every promise of sinister intent. Serah began to panic because she could feel herself begin to heat up. She liked this bar. The staff were nice to her and fed her. She didn't want to accidentally blow this one up either. As Serah pushed him away a small flare lit up from her hand and threw the man across the room.

"Holy shit!" His friend exclaimed, leaping out of the booth and staggering on his feet. "Fucking L'cie!"

Shit.

Serah rolled out of the way of the drunken man's grubby hands that sought to grab her by the neck. With a curse on her lips she scrambled to her feet and ran through the bar, making for the door. Another brute tackled her to the ground and restrained her while she struggled.

"Got one of them L'cie scum! Reckon Sanctum will give us a reward for this one? Let's get a look at her."

"Let's put her down and back away before you wind up with more broken bones than you'd be capable of counting." A rough voice growled from the doorway, startling all of the men that had surrounded Serah. A tall brunette stepped in from the darkness outside, her vivid jade eyes seemingly illuminated on their own.

"Shame to wreck this reputable establishment over a misunderstanding, don't you think?" She drawled, her foreign lilt tickling Serah's ears. The drunk shouted a few choice obscenities at them both and rushed the tall brunette, instantly realising their mistake as the woman pulled her hands from her jacket pockets with sharp claws protruding from her fingertips. She gave a snarl and revealed pointed canines that gave her an overall frightening appearance.

One drunken lout found himself picked up by the wrist and thrown against the wall, followed by an entire table being hoisted up and hurled at him to keep him down. His friend narrowly avoided being disembowelled when the woman's sharp claws slashed at his front, carving up his shirt but leaving his skin intact. It looked as if the movement was intentional, the brunette giving a cheeky wink before giving the man an uppercut that sent him crashing into the floor with his friend.

"Anyone else want to try me?" The woman growled, anyone else in the near vicinity either backing up or ducking behind the booths in the bar. With a sigh she fished a wallet from her back pocket and sauntered over to the counter. "For your trouble tonight, ma'am. Plus damages. Apologies." She said quietly and with as much charm as possible, sliding several hundred gil over the counter.

With a swift motion she turned and moved to the exit, giving Serah a nod with her head to follow. The young pinkette didn't feel any safer with these revellers, especially now that the drunks had outed her as a L'cie. She chased after the tall woman who was meandering slowly through the carpark.

"Hey, wait!"

The brunette turned with a questioning hum, smiling warmly at Serah's approach. "Hey there little one, are you alright?"

"I… Um… Thank you, for saving me."

"Think nothin' of it little Sunshine, if you're anything like the other elementals I've come across I didn't need to save you, just the bar. The less collateral damage the better. Damn, where are my manners." The woman held out her hand in greeting before staring at the blue skin of her palm. "Oh right. Hang on." The claws retracted back into smoother looking fingertips, her skin returning to normal, though her other hand still remained somewhat beastial. "Fang's the name. Nice to meet you on this fine evening."

"Oh, y-yes. My name is Serah. Serah F-"

"No need to tell me your full name sweetheart, Serah is just fine. The less we all know about our pasts the better. If anyone gets captured by Sanctum, we don't want anyone else we know getting caught in the crossfire through their need to purge the evidence."

Fang walked over to a beaten-down truck and gave Serah a quick once over with a quirk of her eyebrow. "You got somewhere to go? Safe?"

Serah glanced back at the bar with a sigh. "That was my safe place." She said with a downcast expression. The waitress there let her stay out the back in the storage room and kept her fed. Not anymore, she gathered. She'd have to keep moving now, out of Nautilus and then… Somewhere? Possibly up to Luxerion, or off continent altogether if she could smuggle herself onto a trade ship…

Startled from her thoughts when the brunette's arm slipped around her shoulder, Serah glanced up at the concerned jade eyes staring at her. "Hey, if you like you can come with me? If you've got nowhere to go, I got room in my truck for two. I was headed home, myself. Doesn't feel right leavin' you to the wolves of Nautilus, after all."

It was a tempting offer. But Serah didn't know Fang from any other stranger in the city, and possibly getting in a truck with her was just as dangerous as staying in the bar. Fang seemed to sense the trepidation and took a few steps back to give the pinkette space.

"It's up to you sweetheart, I won't force you to make a decision you ain't comfortable with. I will at least keep you safe, fed and give you a place to sleep so you ain't gotta deal with the bitter cold on the streets."

With a nod Serah stepped back in close, allowing herself to be led over to the truck and settled in. Fang gently closed the door before sliding over the hood of the car and slipping into the driver's seat with a grin. She kicked over the engine and roared the engine, driving out of the car park and onto the main road to put some distance between them and the bar as soon as possible.

Serah remained silent for a while, unused to hearing her own voice after so long staying quiet while on the run. She hadn't met another like her before. And this woman was an unknown entity yet one that showed kindness. Serah felt that she needed to at least get to know her rescuer and cleared her throat to speak. "S-so you're a L'cie as well?" She asked timidly.

"What was your first clue?" Fang drawled sarcastically, though feeling a little guilty for her comments with the way the young girl flinched. She flexed the claws on her right hand and tapped them along the steering wheel. "Sorry. Long night. Yes. I'm a L'cie, just like you. A shifter, as they call it. Now what about you? What are you doing out here on your own? You're obviously a little green if you're travelling alone and without protection… Let alone a firm grasp on your abilities. How long you been… You know… Out?"

Serah remained silent for a moment, staring at her hands as her memories took her to the destruction she'd unwittingly wrought on her school in Bodhum. "Um… Not long. Couple of months." The two settled back into silence before Serah's curiousity got the better of her. She tried not to stare at the blue hand that gripped the wheel, claws always primed to fight. "Fang, why did you… Save me?"

The brunette raised an eyebrow without taking her attention from the road. She let out a sigh and shook her head. "Eh. You remind me of my sister, and other remnants from my past. I couldn't… Couldn't leave you to those louts." Fang paused, pushing the painful memories of her sister's pained screaming from her mind and focused on the road ahead. "Plus, you know. I've been alone out here when just discovering my abilities. It fuckin' sucks. You wind up with bad crowds." Fang replied, shrugging her jacket off her shoulders and placing it behind her seat. With a little concentration the blue arm slowly faded to her normal skin tone, claws retracting into human-looking nails.

"See? I can pass as a boring human when the situation calls for it. I prefer ol' blue out, at least one of them anyway. Keeps idiots from gettin' fresh. Makes me feel stronger. Untouchable." The exposure revealed a mottling of scars along her arms, perhaps evidence as to why she was always up for a fight.

The soft blow of the car's heater brushed Serah's hair around her face. She leant forward and warmed herself on dash, giving a grateful smile to her rescuer. "Where are we headed?" She asked, curious as to their destination. Fang tapped her fingers against the wheel and smiled.

"Somewhere safe, little one. People like you and me. Our brothers and sisters. Your new home, if you'll have us. Hey, how's about you get some sleep? I'll wake you when we're at the docks."

The truck pulled up at an old warehouse in the early hours of the morning. Grey, dim light crept through the various shipping crates and run down facilities, casting everything in an eerie dawn glow. Serah rubbed at her eyes and sat up in the passenger seat with a yawn, wondering how long she'd been out for. She shivered at the cold morning air, wishing she had thought to bring a warmer jacket with her when she ran from home.

A heavy leather coat was suddenly draped over her shoulders, lined with wool and warm enough to chase the bitter winter air away. Serah glanced up to find Fang giving her an easy smile as she picked up a backpack from the tray of the truck. "You looked like you needed it more than I do right now, little one. Come on, there's a boat over here we can take to Valhalla."

"How mythical." Serah muttered under her breath, startled when she caught Fang's wry chuckle. She hadn't meant for the brunette to hear her.

"I guess it is," Fang mused as she leapt down into the boat and effortlessly grabbed Serah, lifting her down with her. "Caius likes to refer to us as gods amongst men and all that ego stroking stuff so, seems fitting he name it for the place of the gods."

If Serah was at all religious, she would be worried about how they were very likely tempting the wrath of the gods themselves to name a place after their immortal home but... She supposed she could find a kinship with the symbolism. Once Fang had untied the rope from the docks, she settled in for the quiet drive on the water, the only sound breaking the dawn's silence being the low grumble of the boat's motor.

It didn't take long to reach an island off the coast of Nautilus, the land mass looming up through the morning fog. It appeared to be a defunct power plant, possibly nuclear in design from the looks of the broken towers. A fleeting thought crossed Serah's mind about possible radiation contamination but it gave way to curiousity as to what kind of "home of the gods" she was about to enter.

Fang gave her a little encouraging hug around her shoulder as they pulled up to a dilapidated dock. "The outside looks like a shithole, I know. We keep it that way to deter folks from getting too close. We had a L'cie on deck here that could absorb radiation and so any active materials we found are long since dead. So we don't get anyone out here aside from the occasional urban explorer, and they're sent on their way pretty bloody quick."

Serah didn't miss the past tense and couldn't help but wonder if it was because the individual left of their own free will or something far more sinister. She remained silent about it, but worry started the edge in on her awareness. Fang seemed to pick up on her mood and brought her in close.

"Hey, come on sweetheart. I won't let anythin' bad happen to you. These are all friends here. They're your family now. We've all gone through the same struggles, and won't let you go it alone anymore. But if you don't feel comfortable here, I can take you back to shore and to the nearest transport, wherever you want to go, ok?"

While the concept of the offer was chivalrous and kind in theory, in execution Serah found herself not wanting to leave the Pulsian's side. Fang was the first kind person she'd come across in months. Until that point, she had been mostly silent while on the road, aside from a few uttered sentences, Serah had sorely missed just the simple pleasures of conversing with another human being. Or, L'cie, she supposed.

Fang stepped forward and pulled some vines out of the way of a rusted door. She knocked thrice and waited, humming a tune softly to herself with an air of impatience. A slot hissed open, metal screeching on metal and a tall man with an imposing stare peered out.

"What's the password?" He stated, his voice low and threatening. Fang scoffed and rolled her eyes, leaning back on her feet.

"How's about… Fuck off and let me in already because it's cold out here?"

An agonised sigh came from behind the door as the eyeholes slid shut. The door creaked open and a tall man with fire-red hair stood there looking exasperated. "Fang, what's the point of all the secrecy and passwords and shit if you aren't going to at bare minimum humour me?"

Serah couldn't stifle the giggle at their antics, and the man turned his eyes on her. He snapped his fingers and flame spurted from the tips of them, better illuminating the dark hallway. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your cute new friend?" He asked with a wink at the pinkette's expense. Fang slapped him on the arm and pushed him to get moving into the compound.

"This is Serah, though Caius won't have a bar of that name for long. Serah, this is Ifrit."

The tall, built man leant down and delicately shook her hand with his free one that wasn't currently on fire. "Call me Gadot, if you prefer. Caius likes his God-names a little too much."

"God… Names?" Serah enquired, starting to find the earlier pondered symbolism to be a bit… Over the top. Gadot sighed and twirled the fire in his palm as they walked down the passage. Fang kicked at his heels and growled. She turned to Serah and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Caius believes that the names we were given need to be cast off when we awaken as L'cie. They aren't a testament to our true powers or potential." Fang explained, her voice rich and empowering as it bounced off the narrow hallway. "It's a facet of one's old life. Look Caius tells it a lot better than I do. And unlike Ifrit here, I don't have any name other than Fang, so don't ask."

"You um… Cast it off, right?"

"You got it, kid."

The passage opened up into a large expansive room, possibly once a main storage hall in another time. There were a handful of other L'cie scattered about the place, some lounging on run down couches, another sitting in a corner reading a book, a few sitting in front of a television playing games on a console. Serah found it all so disarmingly normal. She didn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this… Well, it appeared to be nothing more than a teenage hangout.

Fang's eyes lit up as she saw an imposing man leaning on the railing a few floors above, watching them with interest. She nudged her friend and nodded towards the walkway. "Hey, can you just wait here with Serah for a minute? I need to go check in."

Before Serah could register, the brunette loped off and leapt up from the ground floor to the next walkway many metres in the air, hoisting herself over in an effortless swing of her legs. Fang approached the man with a respectful bow, and was met with a quirk of a dark purple eyebrow.

"So, the prodigal sister returns. How fared the hunt?" Caius asked, sounding bored. He brushed the feathers from his face and eyed the pinkette on the floor below them. "I see you have found another sister for our home."

Fang nodded eagerly, giving Serah an encouraging wave from her spot by Caius' side. "Picked her up on the outskirts of Nautilus. Runaway, like the rest of us. She was being attacked by humans and I got her out of there." She explained. Caius leapt over the railing, landing hard on the ground below. His appearance silenced the others in the room, and they all turned to see what had gotten their leader's interest.

Serah swallowed hard and took a step back, only to find herself held by a gentle hand of Gadot. Fang landed more nimbly and quietly behind Caius, and jogged over to Serah's side.

"So, you have seen the nature of human kind, when they spurn you for the gall of being alive." Caius growled, claws extending from his fingertips in a much more savage way than what Serah had seen from Fang. A smile crossed the purple-haired man's face that had the outward appearances of warmth, but it never met his eyes. "Do you have a name, child?"

"It's… Serah."

He hummed, seeing Fang visibly wince. "A human name. You will find your own soon enough. You are a goddess amongst men, little sister. Take your power and revel in it. This is our time now. We won't let you come to harm from the foolish humans. Welcome home, Serah."

There were a few cheers from around them as the other L'cie approached to meet their new family member. They surrounded Serah and chattered eagerly, the pinkette feeling overwhelmed after months of next to no contact with people. She felt herself stepping back slowly and bumped into Fang.

"Alright alright, scat the lot of you. We've been travelling all night and I am going to go find her a bed. Any spare rooms?"

A dark-haired woman jerked a thumb in the direction of another hallway and smiled warmly at Serah. "There's a couple of rooms free, down that way."

"Cheers," Fang replied, leading Serah in the direction of sleep. They entered a small room with a cot and a lamp and Fang scratched at her head nervously. "Eh, look. It's not the ritzy hotels in Nautilus but… Its home enough." She drawled with a lop-sided grin. Fang was startled by the young girl launching herself into her arms, squeezing tight. "Hey, it's ok darlin'. You got nothin' to worry about here. Caius is a surly prick at the best of times but he means well. The rest are far more laid back, I assure you." She ruffled Serah's hair and helped her into bed.

Fang couldn't help but hover at the doorway as Serah settled in for sleep, keeping a watchful eye over her before finally satisfied that she was sleeping soundly once the girl's breathing had evened out. She sauntered back out to the hall and made straight for the best up fridge, pulling a much needed beer from its contents.

"What a fuckin' week." She sighed, crashing on the couch next to her fire-haired friend. "Is the Seeress about? Gotta thank her on that tip for rescuing that kid."

Gadot eyeballed her and shook his head. "Nah, she's gone on one of her vision quests again. Won't be back for a month at least. So what's this newbie's deal? She a shifter? Kinetic? Elemental? Oh please tell me she's another elemental."

"No idea," Fang replied with a thoughtful hum. "Haven't seen a peep of her abilities, but we will probably find out s-"

An explosion rattled the hall and the shockwave sent them both crashing to the ground. "The hell was that? Sanctum?" Gadot exclaimed, quickly getting to his feet and setting himself alight with his abilities. Fang snarled and leapt to her feet, her claws elongating from her fingertips and skin shifting to a shade of dark blue. Caius stormed into the hall with a savage look on his face, ready for battle with whatever forces encroached on their home.

"It came from down that hall." He stated bluntly, and stalked towards the doorway. Fang's jaw dropped and she inhaled sharply.

"Gods, Serah!"

Fang shot forward, speeding past him to get to Serah's room, the door blown clear off the hinges. Bursting into the room with a roar, it died in her throat when she saw Serah bundled in the corner of the now charred and blackened room, shaking like a leaf. "Serah!" She cried out, racing over and bundling the pinkette in her arms, careful not to cut her with her sharp claws.

"I'm s-sorry, Fang.. I didn't mean to... I was having a nightmare and.."

"Wait, you did this?"

Serah nodded, sobbing into the Pulsian's chest. Caius placed a hand on Fang's shoulder and drew her gaze up. "Come on, man. It isn't her fault." She warned, receiving only a smile in response. Caius knelt and carefully drew Serah's face around by the jaw.

"Do not shed tears for what you are. It is a far greater crime for you to feel shame over your power than blowing up bricks and mortar."

Any protest or apology died in Serah's throat as she took in his words. "You're... You're not mad?" She asked, trembling. Fang brushed the hair from Serah's eyes with a soft smile, her features slowly shifting back to normal now that the threat had passed.

"Of course not, sweetie," she cooed, rubbing gentle circles on Serah's back to calm her. "Everyone struggles with their abilities at first. We've all had a raft of problems adjusting. Come on, you can come crash in my room tonight but... No blowing it up, alright?"

Serah nodded diligently, allowing herself to be carried out of the ruined room. She caught what appeared to be a genuine smile on Caius' face and looked away.

"Worry not, little sister. Rest, and when you have eaten tomorrow we will look at your abilities in greater depth, and help you figure out how to unlock them."

That night Serah returned to sleep while safe in Fang's arms, just like her sister used to hold her when she was little. If she closed her eyes she could imagine that it was Claire holding her, whispering assurances in her ear, stroking her hair gently. Just as much that if Fang closed her eyes, she could imagine it was her own sister she was comforting instead of this young girl who had unexpectedly fallen into her life, and reminded her of home.