Hello everyone and welcome to the seventeenth chapter of SSI. I'm sorry for posting this late since I promised it two weeks back, but yearly tests started and I didn't have time to write. Good things is I managed to write two chapters in the time it usually takes me the write one. So if I complete a full loop by the end of the holidays the next chapter shouldn't be too hard to get out. If all goes well (and it usually doesn't for me) I should have the next chapter out within a month. Which is good because I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter.

Anyway hope you enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do no own Final Fantasy, square Enix does.

Waiting for the dawn.

The sun was beginning to set. The day had worn on, noon bled into afternoon until the sky began to burn orange. The air caught a chill, which nipped at a person's skin. The danger of the bombing affair had yet to reside.

Marla kept watch over the young boy her and Elisarr had found. He hadn't spoken a word and his face remained blank, yet he presented no problem in following where they led him. Marla's only challenge now was to find a place to wait out the night. The night had turned cold, and she and Elisarr were weary from trekking around the city all day. The boy must have been too. The difficulty came in locating a secure location. There wasn't much in the region. Many houses around them had been destroyed by bombs or by the force of the blasts.

Gnawing on her thumb she contemplated possible solutions. Coming out with none she turned to her companion.

"Where's somewhere safe we can wait out tonight?"

Elisarr pursed her lips, thinking. Looking up at the street ahead of them she mused aloud, "There's not many options, so much around here is too beat up to offer protection." She continued to think it over, scratching her chin. Raising her eyes again she suggested, "We could head over to the department store that's northwest of here. If it's still standing we could lock ourselves in a storeroom, no one will find us there."

Running the suggestion through her head, Marla conceded, "We don't have much of a choice, there's nothing else around here." Getting up from where she sat she ordered, "Let's go."

Coaxing the silver haired boy to follow her, Marla and Elisarr set off in a north-westerly direction.

The department store when they found it was surprisingly, perfectly intact. But that's where the good news ended. It hadn't been hit by a bomb yes, but Cocoon had been ready for the civilians inside to try and evacuate the area.

Marla scrunched her nose up when the smell of death hit her. The car park was littered with dead bodies. Beside her Elisarr pulled an expression as if she was going to be sick. The two of them were use to a few casualties, but those casualties were smaller and had died for some reason at least. These were needless, completely useless deaths.

Marla pulled the young boy closer to her so he didn't have to see the worst of them. Slowly the group walked to the entrance of the store. They entered and now it was Marla turn to fil nauseous. On the big screens at the start and end of the line of shops were evacuation notices and the paths the civilians were meant to take to get out. Everything was as it had been left. Marla made sure to move off quickly. She didn't want to look at it any longer. "Let's find somewhere to rest." She snapped.

Elisarr did as she was asked and began looking for a store with an appropriate back room to hide away in. After checking couple stores they entered one. It was a pet store, and had a fair sized back room with a good lock. As Marla cleared the way of fallen store products. Elisarr kneeled by the glass animal enclosures. A brown puppy played with its brothers and sisters, completely unaware of the troubles of the human world. Looking forlornly over the tiny animal Elisarr jumped as the silver haired boy sat beside her. It was the most self-aware act he'd committed all day.

He stared at the puppies with Elisarr for a time until he surprised her even more by talking. "Are they going to die too?" He asked flatly.

The dark question put Elisarr off a bit but she saw no reason to indulge the kid with white lies, "Yes." She answered.

The boy nodded, his face wasn't as blank anymore but his eyes still reflected a world of haunted pain.

When Marla called for them to come over the kid only moved when Elisarr got up and dragged him to the storeroom by the arm. They entered and Marla closed the door behind them and locked it. Hopefully no Cocoon agents were going to look in here for survivors.

The boy sat down where Elisarr placed him and didn't make any further sound. Marla watched him worriedly. Despite her hard exterior, Marla had an exceptional soft spot for kids. It was the reason why she was going out on a limb to help the guy, despite the danger they themselves faced. Her eyes spoke volumes on how she feared for the kid's crumpled mental state. It was something they both wondered, what had made him so void inside.

The question he'd asked Elisarr earlier had perhaps hidden a clue in it. When he asked if the puppies were going to die he'd said 'too'. That could be interpreted that either he'd seen heaps of people die, or just someone in particular. Either one might have been more than enough to provoke this reaction if the situation had been right. But she'd never know for sure unless the boy told her, and she wasn't hoping for a miracle like that.

Whatever the boy had seen, he was keeping it to himself. Knowing that, she settled in for the night.

…:…

Fang felt the hard asphalt scrunch under her feet. She held a gun steady at her side, ready for whatever the bomb zone would throw at her. She's clicked on fast that Cocoon was murdering the survivors, so she thought she'd repay the gift by giving every one of their agents she saw a bullet in their brain. She thought it was fitting repayment. If they were kind enough to invite her to this hell bath then she didn't want to be rude.

She tapped the gun on her leg in boredom. The day had almost worn away and she was yet to locate any safe places to hide away if she wanted to get some sleep.

She tossed a couple ideas around in her head of where she could go but couldn't find a suitable one. So she decided to just continue walking until she found someplace. But lucky for her, the heavens seemed to be kind to her just for today. She found a bank three blocks away. It was still perfectly alright, and she reasoned that it must have somewhere inside it good for hiding. Banks had plenty of bitch locks.

Striding her way through the entranceway she busted the door to get behind the counter. She looked around for somewhere good. The place would have probably had a room for safety deposit boxes, but those places tended to be locked from the outside. Thinking about it she recalled most Bodhum banks operated their locks by a remote control carried by some authoritative figure. Fang scratched her head, if she had the control it'd put the safety deposit room back on the cards.

She looked back to the room beyond the counter. She'd past corpses on the way in, some of them were clothed in the uniform of the bank. It was possible that one of them was the one which held the control. Walking back through the door from the counter she looked over the dead bodies. She thanked her lucky stars again when she found the remote in one of the male employee's front pockets. Cringing as his rank smell hit her noise she stood back up. She hated it when corpses began to stink. Good thing she wouldn't be able to smell it away from the front room.

Crossing back behind the counter she entered a hallway off to the side which she reasoned must lead to the room she was looking for. She found it easily and was about to open it when the sound of someone's boots crunching on broken glass reached Fang's ears.

Pulling her gun out she aimed it straight at the source of the noise only to find a man in a similar position. His gun levelled at her heart, he held his gaze strongly on her.

Fang scanned his person. He looked twice her age, forty maybe. Dark skin, afro, wore a green coat, and had a hard look in his eyes which matched hers. Cocoon agent.

Fang stared him down no more willing to lower her gun than he was, but too afraid to shoot lest he do the same. Glaring at the man she received a look much the same.

"Cocoon agent I assume." She growled.

"Pulsian agent I guess." He countered.

Fang smirked, "You'd be right on that count. Name?"

"Like l'd give you that." He hissed maliciously.

"Then I won't give you mine." She replied with a vicious look.

"No need." The man said. "I know exactly who you are. You are Pulse's Iron maiden, formerly Cocoon's. Oerba Yun Fang."

Fang raised an eyebrow, then smiles hatefully, "Good job recognising me, I'll give you an extra point for knowing my last name. So, why do you know so much?"

"Well you are an interesting subject, you went south once you were told the truth of Cocoon destroying your village for the sake of capturing you, presumably by Jilh Nabaat. Successfully defected from Cocoon, first in history in fact. Only one in history to be more exact. The higher ups aren't a fan of you. Have tried many times to have you assassinated, all unsuccessful."

Fang's smirk widened, "So you're close to the higher ups are you?" Her eyes spoke of the volumes of malicious things she wished to inflict upon this man if she could get her hands on him.

But the man laughed, crushing his gun in his hand he bit out, "Oh no, those fuckers can go jump off a cliff for all I care. I'm just an old agent, I hear things now and again." Crushing the firearm harder he threw it to the ground in a fit of rage, "Those fuckers left me out here and ordered me to kill anyone who survived. Civilians, who they just bombed without care to who got hurt! And when I refused, they ordered all those with me to shoot me. I escaped of course, even if it meant shooting all of them, but now I'm stranded out here no different from you 'Iron maiden'. Someone Cocoon just wants to kill."

The man fell victim to a series of hysterical laughs, "Talk about all the years I gave to them, all the faithful service. I've been an agent since I was nineteen years old! I lived my life at Cocoon, met my wife there, had my son there. Had to live with my wife's death on one of their mission when our son wasn't a year old, had to raise him by myself! And one refusal to take an order and they left me to die."

Slamming his foot down hard on the gun at his feet, he screamed, "Cocoon can all go fuck themselves for all I care, cause they certainly don't care for me!"

Huffing in anger, the man clenched his fist at his sides. Fang's smirk only widened. She pressed the button on the remote and the door at her side opened. "I like you." Stepping to the side she entered the safety deposit box room.

The man recovered some of his calm from the outburst and retrieved his gun, "That an invitation?"

"If you want it to be, do you really want to be stuck out there tonight with a bunch of people who want kill you do you?" Fang drawled.

Huffing the man walked into the room after Fang. "Do you really think it's a good idea to show your back to me, I could still shoot you?"

Turning slightly so she could see him Fang said, "If you do you do, plus you sounded sincere enough when you were yelling about Cocoon. Of course you could just be lying about everything and I'm gonna wake up dead in the morning, but I'm willing to take that chance. I don't care so much any longer if a die or not."

"Well that's morbid." The man mumbled to himself, finding a spot to sit at the back of the room against the wall.

Fang sat down similarly at a distance of three metres apart, her gun still held firmly in her hands. The man too kept a strong hold on his weapon.

Tapping her finger against her leg Fang asked, "So why do you know so much about me?"

Humming the man replied slowly, "Well, I heard a few thing before they got of hold of you, a whiff of the plans to set your village alight. The thing about Nabaat telling you about them is just common sense. She was the only one who could have possibly gotten hold of those records who would have shown them to you."

Running that though her head Fang posed another question. "Ok then, how did you know I defected because I'd learnt of the plans?"

"Cocoon figured that was the reason, plus Nabaat screamed as much when she was-" The man paused, and carefully chose his next word, "interrogated."

But Fang caught the meaning behind his words. "So she was punished for helping me?"

The man watched Fang intently for her reaction, but Fang started giggling, "Well too bad for her then." In a much darker tone she admitted, "I can no longer be bothered with that woman anyway."

The man drew away, he'd heard the two had been close. This complete disregard for the other was a little off putting. He guessed it just proved the rumour that the Iron maiden had gone mad.

The two sat in silence for a while until Fang was snapped from her thoughts as a cold chill ran through her. She jumped and wrapped her arms tight around herself as she road it out. It felt like someone was personally breathing ice on her every cell. Pain tore through her, blocking out the world around her. Then as suddenly as it had come it left. She loosened he grip on her arms and relaxed.

The man's eyes were on her in an instance, "What was that?" He asked.

Fang shook her head, "Nothing." But the man's suspicious eyes said that he didn't believe her.

'Fuck' Fang thought in her head. It had been too long since she'd had Seohilen. She was going to have some yesterday but Fate had pestered her to stay with her. She shouldn't have listened. Given there was no way she could foresee a situation like this, but if something had gone wrong it would have at least meant that she wouldn't have to deal with Seohilen withdrawal symptoms. As she was now, she was screwed. She had no way to get a fix, and the symptoms were only going to get worse. The cold chills were the very beginning.

And the way the man stared at her revealed he knew it to be as much. An old agent like him would be well versed in the symptoms of Seohilen addiction. He turned away eventually, but Fang knew he wasn't convinced she was fine.

The two sat by like that as the hours slowly ticked by. Talk was little, weak and ended quickly. They just sat waiting for either sleep or dawn to come.

…:…

Serah jumped, the man on the ground in front of her was stirring. She had sat by in the square for hours. Whenever a suspicious person had passed she'd played dead on the ground in case they mean her harm. She was paranoid whoever had instigated this still wished to hurt people.

Sitting back up straight the leaned over Snow as he slowly regained consciousness. Twiddling her fingers anxiously it hit her only now that he might not recognise her. She tried to tell herself it was a stupid thought. Her hair had only been dyed and curled. That thought didn't stop her anxiety though, stupid girl logic.

Grunting, Snow gradually opened his eyes. He slowly began to focus on the form leaning over him. He stared at her for a moment, recognition flashing in his eyes, "Topaz?"

"Serah." She responded immediately, stretching out her hand for him to shake despite the distance between them made the movement awkward.

"What?" he questioned, confused by the name change.

"My real name." She explained.

Rubbing his eyes Snow tried to will wakefulness back into his body. He took the hand Serah outstretched to him and shook it. Trying to get up he winced.

Serah reacted before thinking to the pained look on his face, placing her hands on his chest she tried to coax him to lay back down. But he waved her away and continued with his endeavour to sit upright. He managed eventually, but he put himself through much more pain in the process. His eyes began to clear now and he seemed more aware of himself and his surroundings now. "Hey this is real right, you're really here aren't you? I didn't hit my head did I?"

"No, I'm really here, but you probably did hit your head." Serah told him, an amused expression on her face as he moved to feel the giant bump on his head.

Looking around him he noticed finally the giant disaster zone they were in. Eyeing the place in dumbfounded silence he twisted is head back to Serah, "What happened?"

"I don't know really, someone bombed the place. Only I think those who did are still-"

At hearing a crack on the ground Serah grabbed Snow and forced him to the ground with her so they lay side by side.

"What?" he asked in a too loud voice.

"Shhh, I think the people who did this are still trying to harm civilians. I keep hearing gunshots in the distance, and if the people I think did this did it, then I wouldn't put it past them."

"Who?" He asked again.

"Shhh, close your eyes, play dead."

A person trod close to the two lf them, their steps were heavy so Serah figured they were a man. They stayed there for a while and then moved on. Once the sound of their steps had completely faded Serah spoke up again, "We have to get out of here."

"But what's going on?" Snow asked her earnestly. The look in his eyes made Serah feel sorry for him. She at least had warning of things like this. He was dropped into something completely alien to him.

"I'll explain afterwards, first we need to get somewhere safe."

She helped Snow to his feet, he was a little unsteady at first but he got better as they went on.

Many of the buildings around them were destroyed, but as they worked their way away from the square there were some houses intact. Serah knew there was probably a better alternative that would be safer for them to hide in, but they probably only had ten minutes to sun down and they needed to find somewhere safe when they could still see. So they searched the houses for appropriate places to hide.

After ten minutes or so of this when the sun had all but disappeared for the day Serah opened a door in one of the houses. "This is a walk in pantry." She said to Snow.

Having found no other alternatives in the other houses they were forced to accept this as the best option. Snow entered before her as she held the door open. Tapping on the silver doorknob she discovered, "This door has a lock on it." She paused, "Who the hell puts a lock ln their pantry?"

"Maybe Mama didn't want Papa to sneak midnight snakes in the night." Snow joked from where he sat at the back of the pantry.

Serah pulled a face at him, then turned her head away and tapped the knob again, admitting, "That's strangely plausible. But this is still a messed up house."

Closing the door she pressed in a tab to lock it and sat by Snow.

Watching him worriedly she asked, you're not hurt are you?"

"No." Snow said with a shake of his head, "I'm fine, it hurt a little before but I'm alright now."

Serah had a feeling that had been more of a reactional response rather than a true one.

Clinging to his arm she mumbled slowly, "I missed you."

Placing a hand over hers he told her, "So did I." His face took on a worried look. "What happened to you? Some crazy stuff happened at school and then you just up and disappeared.

Looking up at him, Serah looked away guiltily, "I'm probably not good at explaining it, Fang would do a better job."

"Fang?"

"The woman who called herself Atla, that is her real name." Serah explained tilting her head up. Looking back down again she lay her head against Snow. "But if you really want to know I'll tell you, we have all the way til dawn after all."

And her story was going to take a while.

Hoped you liked the chapter.

This one came out better them the last chapter I wrote for my other story so I'm happy I guess.

Anyway, please review I'll deeply appreciate it greatly.