Serah's eyes fluttered open and she found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. That was the first surprise. A screech of chair along the floor drew her attention to the second surprise of the morning.

"C…Claire?"

"Serah, thank the gods you're alright." The elder Farron replied, grasping at her hand with a sad smile. Serah could only close her eyes and focus on controlling her breathing, the headache welling up again. She'd rather not blow the roof off two buildings in a year.

"Your disappearance makes a lot more sense now, in retrospect." Serah finally replied, opening her eyes and looking back at her sister. Claire had grown into a young woman, all lean muscle and hardened eyes. No more lanky limbs or… She noted with a cursory glance at her own hair, blonde locks. Lightning caught the gaze and dipped her head with a quiet laugh.

"Yeah, pink hair, who would have thought?" She mused, brushing the hair out of Serah's face with a sad smile before the expression fell. "I'm… I'm sorry that I left. That you've gone it alone for so long." Her apologies were interrupted by Serah leaping out of bed and launching herself into her arms.

"You absolutely suck for vanishing that day, and barely keeping in contact beyond the occasional cryptic text. But considering what happened back at the school, I… Understand why you had to run."

Lightning sighed, looking away at the door. "I wish I hadn't have ran. But with so much panic over the emergent L'cie I was worried something would happen to you, as well as mom and dad."

"Well I guess they have two daughters to freak out over now." Serah sighed, wincing at the thought of whatever they were going through now that two of their children were mutant freaks. "I was on the road for a few months on my own, until I got caught up in a bar with a few men intent on um… Not great things. They attacked me, and were about to kidnap me, take me to the Sanctum."

"You were attacked? By humans?" Lightning asked, daring not believe she had heard correctly. Serah rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I'm fine. Fang saved me, and has been looking out for me since."

"I bet she has. Keeping you under lock and key with that terrorist organisation."

Serah prodded her sister's collar bone with a sharp finger and glared. "No. You don't get to judge her when she is the only person who has kept me safe over the last while. She has shown me kindness, care and protected me from anyone who would seek me harm, Claire. She risked her life to get me away from Caius when it was made apparent what he planned to do with me and my abilities."

Thoroughly chastised, Lightning looked away with a small scowl, not wanting to admit that maybe someone she considered her enemy was a good friend to her sister. "... What kind of a name is Fang..." The elder Farron muttered to herself.

"Well what kind of a name is Lightning?"

"I... It was Sazh's idea. Helps protect our identities when out on the field." Lightning replied defensively. "While you're here, please call me Lightning, or Light. I don't trust Fang, regardless of her intentions to help you. The less she knows about us the better."

Serah frowned, the icy expression on her sister's face deepening into a dangerous glare as a blonde man in a hoodie stood at the door and knocked politely. "What do you want, Snow?" She heard Lightning ask and saw how he immediately straightened and looked nervous. Just what kind of person had her sister become?

"Uh… Um, S-Sazh wants to see you. Asked me to come get you."

Lightning sighed and stood from her spot by Serah's bed. No use putting off the inevitable lecture for "employing aggressive tactics before seeking a peaceful resolution". She nodded towards the door and squeezed her sister's hand. "I have to go deal with this, stay here and rest. I'll be back in a bit to check on you." She gave Serah a kiss on the top of her head and left the room, turning back to smile at her sister as she left.

"Wow." The blonde man muttered as Lightning left, causing Serah to tilt her head in curiousity. "Oh. Sorry. Just uh, probably the first time I've seen her smile in about the two years I've known her. Also I'm... sorry I accidentally knocked you out earlier. Didn't time my shot right, it wasn't meant to be that forceful. Um. My name is Snow."

"Serah," the pinkette replied with a smile, giggling a little. "Sorry I don't really go by my chosen alias yet, but that's Blazefire if you're interested." Snow smiled broadly and stepped inside the room, pulling up a chair to sit at her bedside. "So, what is this place?" She asked.

"Oh, this is The Haven. L'cie come here to be safe from the humans outside. Learn to control our gifts, so we can integrate into society, show them we aren't a danger."

While confirming her suspicions that she was in the place that Fang had railed about in many conversations, Serah winced at his words, fiddling with the blanket covering her. "I can't say I would be safe. I blew up my school when my powers manifested."

"Ouch, was anyone hurt?" He asked, placing a comforting hand over her own. Serah nodded and bit her lip.

"A little, nothing serious, no deaths."

Snow nodded, taking in her story as she continued to tell him what had happened, and he shrugged when she took a breath. "Well, it's a heck of a birthday present, I'll give you that. And if Lightning was the catalyst with her text that pissed you off, I guess that's pretty unsurprising. She's got the emotional capacity of a light bulb." He mused, his eyes widening when he realised who he was speaking with. "UH. Sorry."

With another giggle, Serah pulled herself out of bed and threw on her shoes. "It's fine. If anyone's going to understand it'd be me. Come on, I am feeling better. I know Cl… Lightning said for me to stay put but I really am alright. How about you give me a tour? I also want to go find Fang, make sure she's okay."

Snow helped her straighten up and blushed as she linked her arm through his. "That's the lady you came here with, right? I think she's down the other end still out of it. Can't believe that's Hex's sister."

An uneasy feeling settled in Serah's stomach at his words and her heart went out to Fang. She knew from a few of the stories the brunette had told her, facing her own sins of her past couldn't have been easy. Coupled with the fact that they were in the Haven, it was either going to be traumatic or potentially deadly when Fang came to.

"Come on, Snow. I've gotta go find her."

Lightning tapped her foot impatiently as she sat in Sazh's office, feeling beyond scrutinized. Yet he said nothing, just continued to watch her with a stern glare.

"I already know what you're going to say." Lightning blurted defensively, and Sazh raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"That I shouldn't have just charged in, I should have assessed the situation without acting rashly, that if I had have shown restraint and not jumped straight to excessive force I could have avoided unnecessary injuries. I need to not let my emotions get the better of me otherwise my abilities will control me, not the other way around."

Sazh hummed appreciatively, albeit completely exasperated with the pink-haired woman sitting before him. "Well you've at least saved me the trouble, I guess. But come on, Lightning. You automatically assumed that Serah was in danger because of who she was with."

Cerulean eyes glared at him accusingly. "Who she was with? Anyone marching under the banner of Valhalla with Caius and his madness is dangerous. Fang is a terrorist, for Etro's sake."

"So are you mad because your sister has fallen in with a bad crowd? Or just pissed that she's getting personal with the shifter?" Sazh's words cut Lightning deep, and the snarl that pulled at her lips was completely involuntary. "I don't mean in that way, though you'd be giving me that expression regardless. I meant that the two seem to have formed a surrogate relationship, in the absence of their own respective sisters. Surprising, that we didn't know about Hex. Though that girl always keeps her cards close..."

"So what, we're just going to pretend that Fang didn't kill four Sanctum agents at that diner? That Serah was coerced into blowing up five squad cars in order to escape?"

Sazh gave a heavy sigh and loaded up something on his computer before spinning the monitor around. It was the security footage from the transport the day Lightning had found them in the city. "This is from the day you found Serah again, Diabolos and Hex hacked the feeds to get this information, that also led us to finding them when they later ran from Valhalla.

"Caius scares me. He looks at me like I'm a weapon he can use. I know you owe him your life, Fang. But I worry that he sees my abilities and wants to unleash them on the populous, like I'm the answer to his problems."

Lightning watched as Fang held her sister close, gazing at Serah with gentle affection. "Don't worry little one. I won't let anything bad happen to ya. If Caius turns out to be a raucous genocidal maniac, we'll jump in my truck and drive. Ok?"

After switching off the monitor, Sazh folded his arms and gave Lightning a stern look. "You need to understand something that appears to be escaping your notice given your current… Impatience towards our guest. Fang is loyal to the death. She wouldn't stand against Caius for anything. He orders her to kill, and she kills. He orders her to stop, and she stops. She follows him blindly and willingly, no matter what order she is given. And here she is, risking her life going against everything she knows and believes in, because she doesn't want that violent life to befall your sister."

Lightning clenched her jaw and looked away, unable to keep eye contact. If it was true, what she saw, she knew Fang wasn't going to be able to return to Valhalla. And she did save Serah. The only deaths at the diner were by Fang's hands, nothing that Serah did was to cause harm, merely to divert attention. The concept made Lightning uncomfortable. She didn't like when things weren't black and white.

"Claire, when you-"

"It's Lightning." She interrupted, not wanting to hear her real name when Fang could be in earshot.

"Lightning, when you came to us all those years ago, I wanted to show you a better way. That you could still get an education, a life, safety and security. Yet at the moment if I were to stand you and Fang side by side, you're closer to the ideologies of Caius than she is."

He paused, grabbing his coffee and taking a long sip. It had long since gone cold and he scrunched his face in annoyance. "You need to understand your enemy to overcome them, and that doesn't mean know everything about them so you can strike at their weaknesses. It means understanding their motivations, and finding ways that could address their needs without violence. Communication, real dialogue… It causes longer lasting change than a weapon ever can."

Choosing to remain silence but not in obstinance, merely contemplation, Lightning considered his words while thinking over what she had witnessed. The only animosity she received from Fang was when she was the first to attack, inclusive of the past. There was the added complication that she was Hex's sister- that in itself was going to make things difficult.

The woman in question creaked the door open with a gentle knock, the scars on her face being the first thing Lightning noticed about her. The redhead was a Supernumerary, a category of L'cie that were often sporting more limbs or fingers than what would be considered normal. As a result, they are highly dexterous and highly intelligent, their brain power having to make up for the additional limbs giving way for extraordinary skills in other areas. Which was why it made Hex a great healer as the team's medic. Sazh ushered her in and Hex sat down with a small smile that looked more exhausted than anything.

"So from what my sister told me as we were bringing her back here yesterday, at least before she lost consciousness after your encounter with her, Light... Caius plans to make a move on the Sanctum. He had planned to use Serah's powers to detonate the building, forcibly drawing a line in the sand. I spent the night patching… Fang up to remove some of those bullets she'd received, courtesy of the Sanctum."

The pause in Hex's explanation wasn't missed, not that it was surprising to Lightning that Fang wasn't her sister's real name, any more than Hex was for the redhead. She never spoke on her past, so it came as a shock that she had a sibling at all, let alone that the sibling was a Valhalla devout. It also wasn't difficult to deduce the origin of her scars, now that Lightning was able to put two and two together. Knowing now that Fang was Hex's sister made her feel a little guilty that she went so hard during the fight.

Hex and Serah were of the same age, just as much as Fang seemed to be Lightning's age as well. It made sense that Serah and Fang latched onto each other, especially if they were missing their own respective sisters. Sparing a warm glance at Hex, Lightning could certainly see the reasoning behind it, and even understand it considering she had done much the same with the young redhead. She reached over and gave one of Hex's hands a squeeze, smiling gently.

"It must be rough, your sister coming home. How are you holding up?" She asked, Hex's bright green eyes tracking up to meet Lightning's.

"I would have thought to ask you the same thing."

"We would probably end up giving the same answer," Lightning chuckled, shaking her head in resignation. She'd have to shelve her animosity towards Fang, now for both Serah's and Hex's sakes. "What is going to happen with her?"

Hex's eyes darted between Lightning and Sazh, the old man moving towards the door and opening it slowly with a sigh. "That all depends on her. Let's go find out what we're all going to do moving forward."

When Fang opened her eyes, she was met with a similar ceiling but not unfamiliar to her at all. She knew exactly where she was. Fang growled under her breath and threw the sheets off her, her feet hitting the wooden floor warmed by the internal heating. The luxury of the place made her angry, considering that her brothers and sisters were out in the real world, suffering. Once she had inspected the bandages around her torso and tested her movement, she put her boots on and shrugged on her jacket, sticking stuck her head out into the hallway to check if she was being watched. She found her surroundings devoid of anyone and she rolled her eyes at the stupidity of it. If that pink-haired sister of Serah had an attitude as violent as her fighting, the fact she wasn't being guarded honestly surprised her. Fang shoved her hands in her pockets and ventured into the corridor.

Time spent at all in this mansion was time too long as far as Fang was concerned. She rounded a corner and found herself gratefully near the entrance. As she put her hand on the doorknob, Lightning, Sazh and Hex rounded a corner, on their way to check in on her. There was a silent stand-off between Fang and Lightning before the Pulsian's gaze drifted to the brutal scarring on her sister's face. The milky white of Hex's left eye left a void in Fang's heart and she turned away, unable to continue looking at such a painful reminder of her inability to control herself.

"Yeah well. Thanks." Fang said bluntly, twisting the handle and yanking the door open, stepping quickly through it. Hex watched her leave and her expression crumpled at her sister's retreating form. Lightning glanced at her and put a supportive hand on her shoulder.

"Fang, wait!" Sazh called after her, chasing her out into the courtyard. She was already halfway across it and picking up pace, not interested in whatever he had to say. "Come on, Fang. At least say hello to an old man?"

Her hand was already sprouting the claws when Fang heaved a sigh and let her arm drop to her side. She turned to face the owner of the mansion with a stony expression. "Sazh, save the proselytising for another day will you? I wasn't interested then, I'm not interested now. I'd gather now that Serah's been reunited with her sister she won't be leavin'. You've got another sheep for your flock, shepherd. So now I'm on my way."

"And your own sister?"

As much as it hurt to do so, Fang shrugged and turned away. "My sister doesn't need me around to remind her of how I nearly killed her."

Sazh raised an eyebrow at her and clicked his tongue in annoyance. "How long has it been? Hex doesn't hate you, or hold a grudge over what happened. She just misses you, and wants you to come home."

"This isn't my home. It isn't safe for the other students for me to be here, and you know it."

"Is that what you really believe? Or just what Caius keeps telling you? Are you still so bitter about your gifts?" Sazh asked with a weary sigh, placing his hands on his hips. Fang snarled, showing sharper canines than he remembered seeing and stepped forward, giving him an aggressive shove. Lightning saw the altercation and dashed forward, Vanille chasing after her. Sazh put his hand out to stop her from doing anything rash, and she skidded to a halt, fists balled and ready to step in at a moment's notice. Fang kept her in her peripherals, but right now her anger was focused solely on Sazh.

"Gifts. My whole life was taken from me because of these so-called gifts! You see my sister every day and witness the results of my gifts." She replied angrily, balling her fists and feeling the claws growing out, cutting into her palm. Fang fought to control her breathing, exhaling sharply through her nose. "There is nothing for me here."

The tense standoff was broken by a cheery yell from the other end of the courtyard as Serah jogged over with Snow, completely oblivious to the escalating situation they'd walked in on.

"Hey, Fang! How are you feeling?" Serah asked, interrupting their argument. She raced over and crashed into the tall brunette with a hug. Fang couldn't help the wry chuckle, ruffling the girl's pink hair. Lightning's jaw clenched at how familiar the brunette was with her sister, and narrowed her eyes in a somewhat jealous glare.

"A lot better, thank you. A little singed, but nothing a good beer and a sleep won't fix. I'm… I gotta make tracks, little one. People like me aren't good for sticking around in one place for too long. You… Got your sister back, so you won't be needin' me anymore."

Serah pouted and stood back, slowly turning Fang around with a frown. "That's not true, Fang. I… I'd still feel safer if you were around. Besides, isn't your sister here too?"

Fang leant forward and kissed the top of Serah's head in an affectionate gesture that made Hex's jaw tighten as well. "In case you haven't seen her yet, tell me that if the situations were reversed and your sister had done that to you, if you'd feel safe with her around." She whispered sadly, before pulling back and regarding her own sibling. Serah huffed and decided to file this argument away for later when there wasn't so many witnesses. The first thing she had noticed about Hex was her shy smile, not the scars that marred her face.

"I was hoping you and my sister could at least meet properly, seeing as you both h-"

"In case you forgot, Serah. Your friend and I have already gotten plenty acquainted." Lightning warned from behind them, a slight crackle of electricity dancing across her fingertips.

"Etro's fucking Gate…" Fang muttered, as she stared hard at the elder Farron. There was something annoyingly familiar about the cerulean eyes that were staring her down, but she chalked it up to the family resemblance of her recent travelling companion. She glared at the elder pinkette before gesturing lazy at Sazh. "You can't sit there and bemoan Caius and what he is trying to do for our kind when you have your personal defibrillator on a leash here ready to go off the chain at a hair trigger."

"Why you-"

"Lightning, don't." Sazh warned, his order causing Fang to cast a smug grin at the woman's expense.

"That's a good girl. See to it that your resident bug zapper gets a treat for such good behaviour. Don't want your pups getting out of control now, do we?" Fang drawled before giving them a salute and walking away. They all stood in silence in her wake, the only person making any kind of movement being Lightning. She suddenly let an angry yell and ignored Sazh's protests for her to stay put. Spurring herself forward, she chased the Pulsian across the yard.

Fang was already on the driveway headed towards the gate. Her mind weighed heavy with the guilt of walking away from Vanille, but she didn't have a choice. She wiped the tears from her eyes with a growl at her weak emotions. It was hard enough going back there and being reminded of all the reasons she ran in the first place, let alone that electric menace had once again managed to one up her. The subject of her thoughts suddenly appeared on the road in front of her, green and white electricity crackling around her. Fang swore and snarled, furious. "Are you trying to get yourself fuckin' killed?"

"Just trying to get your attention." The pinkette snapped in response. Lightning snapped her fingers and a spark shot from her hands, landing just in front of Fang's feet. The Pulsian turned and stared at her in disbelief, knowing that the woman had no hesitations to electrocute her.

"Well it worked. If this is about me helping your sister, I didn't lay a hand on her, and I'm not lookin' for a reward." Fang growled, closing her eyes to control her heart rate.

Lightning narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "Actually it has nothing to do with my sister, and everything to do with yours. You seriously think you're going to just leave after almost a decade of not seeing Hex, or her even knowing if you were alive?"

Fang snarled and bared her sharp canines at the pinkette. "What's it got to do with you? It ain't no business of yours, light socket."

"Hex is part of this household, of this family so it makes it my business. Think about that while you try to get your boots off the asphalt." Lightning disappeared in a flash, leaving Fang growling at the sparking electricity in her wake. She tripped over her own feet and realised that Lightning had melted her soles of her boots to the road.

"Fucking hypocritical elemental bitch…" Fang sighed, pulling her shoes off her feet and standing barefoot on the hot asphalt.

While nowhere near as fast as Lightning, Hex had chased after Fang as well. She found her sister kicking at the half melted boots in frustration and surmised from the smell of burnt rubber that Lightning may have had a hand in her sister's delay. Fang looked up on her approach and immediately tore her gaze away.

"So after almost a decade, this is how it's going to be?"

"Vanille, I…" Fang started, failing to find words to give her sister a response that would possibly be deemed adequate. She turned away, only to find six arms grabbing her and spinning her back around.

"Stop running, Fang. You think you're the only one who did damage when your powers awakened?" Vanille yelled, holding onto her sister with an iron grip. "I'm told your friend Serah blew the roof off her school building, injuring about fifty students and teachers. Lightning caused at least a dozen accidents when she shorted out the town's power supply, Sazh's town thought it was the end of days and started offing themselves in preparation to meet their maker and Snow accidentally froze his own parents! If all you did was this," she paused, pointing at the scars on her face for emphasis, "then I think you got off pretty damn lightly!"

Fang had no response, just stood there in silence with a tight jaw. It was true, though still terrifying for the humans today when someone's L'cie abilities manifested. It was only a handful of years ago where they started appearing more frequently, and almost always caused some sort of injury, death or at the very least some significant property damage. Vanille pushed herself into Fang's chest and cried. "Enough, Yun. I'm tired of being alone."

"You're not alone, 'Nille. You've got plenty of friends here." Fang replied, her voice breaking with her failing composure. Vanille shook her head and buried herself into Fang's neck further.

"They're not you. I don't care about what happened. I miss you. Stop looking at me like I'm your life's biggest regret. Look at my face and let the scars remind you that no matter what you do, I will still love you, and never let you go."

Fang continued to hold her sister, ignoring the tears that fell down her own face. Even moving past the scars, she definitely wasn't going to dismiss the fact that her sister had quite a few more arms than the last time she saw her. While she had her suspicions based on what she'd seen from other L'cie that Vanille would have had the gene as well, she was very human when they parted ways. "When did you get so bloody handsy? It's like bein' hugged by an octopus…" she muttered under her breath while she continued to stroke her sibling's hair. Vanille giggled and looked up from ember spot against Fang's chest, wiping the tears from her face with a sniff.

"I figure I needed more arms to hold onto you the next time I saw you, so you wouldn't leave again."

Fang snorted at the light-hearted comment before staring off towards the mansion with a sigh. "I guess… I could stick around for a while and heal up."

Vanille laughed amidst her sobs, knowing that her sister was too stubborn to concede like a normal person. She grabbed Fang's hand with one of her own, tugging her back towards the house. "Come on, I will talk to Sazh about getting you space in the mansion."

"Goody." Fang replied with a sardonic tone. Being reunited with her sister was one of the best things in the world, but coupled with spending that time in what was essentially a "Nest of Vipers" as Caius called it, was probably one of the worst things in the world.

She laid her eyes on Lightning as she was dragged back into the house, the ice cold expression of displeasure was as obvious as a brick through a glass window.

"Lady Luck, help me survive this in one piece." Fang muttered to herself, before allowing Vanille to lead her down the hallway.