A/N: This is part III of the story. It's sad to what's happening to Serah, isn't it? Being kidnapped to be used a bait for Lightning to come to the rescue, only to be killed by her enemy. But there's a big situation. Yuna's gonna be in serious trouble if the Songstress isn't rescued. Now Lightning searchs for the Abduction Agency to find her sister. With special guest star: Yuna from FFX/X-2
Lightning, Snow, Hope, Fang and Xever at all at the Abandoned Warehouse. Snow and Fang are keeping an eye on Xever while Lightning and Hope are outside. Hope wants to come help, but Lightning is refusing him to come.
"Why can't I come?" Hope asks.
"It's too dangerous." Lightning says.
"Lightning. I can fight! I'm not afraid. I want to help Serah and Yuna." Hope says.
"I know, but I don't care. I'm just trying to keep you save." Lightning says. "You're not coming, and that's final." Hope says nothing, then he slowly looks down in defeat. "Just...go home."
Lightning walks into the warehouse. She walks up to Snow and Fang. "You guys ready?"
Snow and Fang nods and both said, "Ready."
For the new plan, Lightning is using Fang as an abducted victim. The earrings that Fang's now wearing has a tracking device in them. So when the criminals are taking Fang to their lair, Lightning and Snow will just follow them out of sight.
"All right, Snow. Make the call." Snow dials the number that's written on the wall, that's said to be for the Abduction Agency.
While they're waiting, Lightning holds on to Xever, her sword over his throat ready to cut it open. "Do what we tell you to do...or else."
"I vill. I vill!" Xever says in irritation.
"Wow, Lightning. I've never seen you this spicy." Fang says.
"Hey, I'll do whatever it takes to save Serah. Now shut up." Lightning says.
Snow hands Xever the phone, and then Cain picks it up on the other line. "What is it, Xever?"
"Cain. I have abducted another girl." Xever says.
"This better be good." Cain says.
"It is. I'm sending picture of girl." Xever says.
Lightning looks at Snow and nods, then Snow sends the picture of Fang. There was a few minutes of silence. Cain hmms on the other line as he looks at the picture of Fang. "She's quite a beauty...maybe worth something. All right, I'll send Piros to pick her up."
"Da. I vill be vaiting." Snow and Cain hangs up the phones.
It takes a couple of minutes for them to wait. While they're waiting, Snow ties up Fang, Fang on the other hand isn't too comfortable with this. "Ow. It's too tight!"
"We need to make it look real." Snow says.
"Whatever. You guys owe me big time for this. And I swear, if I ever end up as a sex slave-" Lightning cuts Fang off.
"Don't worry. We'll have you busted out before that'll happen." Lightning says. "Snow, get her set up."
Snow carries Fang, cause her legs are tied together, out of the warehouse. Lightning holds Xever by the door, so he's in sight. She stays inside, hiding in the shadows, with her weapon still aiming for Xever.
The truck arrives and parks right outside. Piros and Rio walks out and approaches Xever, they noticed Fang right beside him. "Is this the girl?"
"Da. Load her up." Xever says.
Rio and Piros carries Fang to the truck and just tosses her in. They close the doors and gets in the truck, then drives off. When that's done, Lightning pulls Xever back in, then she and Snow walks out to see the truck driving away.
"What now?" Snow asks.
"We follow them." Lightning takes out the tracker, on the screen is a land map with a red dot slowly moving upwards. "And find their little hideout."
It's high noon. Lightning and Snow drives down the road of Canyon Gorge. Snow is driving while Lightning is tracking down the truck. Lightning is hoping that she'll save Serah before it's too late. Snow drives the hover car into Jagd Woods. Being here just brings a sad memory back to Lightning, when she found Hope. She can still picture the dying Nora and the sorrow Hope holding onto her for dear life.
She's also keeping her eyes out. She knows these woods are very dangerous. Lightning looks at the tracker, noticing the red dot isn't moving. "Snow, I think she's now at the hideout."
"All right." Snow says. "I'll ram through the gate and we'll fight our way to get back Serah."
"Not exactly." Lightning says. "We'll need to be stealthy and make sure no one spots us. Otherwise we'll end up hurting Serah and Yuna, and possibly Fang."
It takes about ten minutes, but they finally arrive at the destination. Lightning can see the castle from a distance. "Park behind those bushes." Snow drives the hover car behind a large bush that hides the hover car perfectly. Snow and Lightning comes out of the car, carefully sticking their heads out of the bushes to get a look in the castle. "We just need to find a way to get in."
"I could tie you up and I say I'm making a delivery." Snow says.
Lightning glares at Snow. "Are you trying to save Serah or get yourself killed?" Even though she's quiet, her voice was still hostile and threatening.
"Sorry, sorry." Suddenly, there's a loud banging, which startles Snow and Lightning. They look back, wondering where the sound's coming from. More banging happens. They follow it, which leads them to the trunk of the hover car.
Lightning grabs hold of her weapon, getting ready to strike. She slowly unlocks the trunk. She instantly opens it and points her weapon at the stowaway. But she and Snow drops their guard when they realized who it was.
"Hope?" They both said.
Hope smiles and chuckles nervously. "Hey, you two." Lightning and Snow helps Hope out of the trunk. "Oh wait." Hope goes back into the trunk and takes out Fang's spear. "You guys forget this. Fang's gonna need to fight too, right?" Lightning doesn't say anything, then just shuts the trunk.
"What are you doing here?" Snow asks.
"I'm here to help." Hope says.
"Just what the hell are you thinking stowing away like that?" Lightning says.
Hope turns to face Lightning. "Lightning. I know you're just trying to protect me, but I want to help. Serah is apart of my family, and Yuna and Fang are in there. I'm going wither you like it or not."
Lightning gives Hope a look that's telling him she's denying it, with her hands on her hips. Hope crosses his arms and stares back at Lightning as well. Snow just stands beside them both, feeling awkward in this situation. It's like they're having a stare off.
Lightning signs in defeat. "You are either really brave or really stupid." Lightning drops her arms and returns her attention to the castle.
Hope looks at Snow with confusion. "Uh...is that a yes?"
Snow just shrugged his shoulders.
The trio makes their way around the castle wall, trying to find a way in. They find a drainage pipe and takes it. Snow and Hope are wondering if this is really a good idea. But it was too late. Lightning had already managed to remove the muggy bars in the way, and they all walked right in. Lightning takes the lead while Snow and Hope follows her, plugging their noses and complaining about the stench. Lightning just sighs and rolls her eyes. She thinks they're behaving like kids.
They make it to the end of the line. In the hallway of the castle, Lightning lifts a loose piece of stone floor. She only lifts it a little, so she can get a view. She looks to see the coast is clear, then sets the stone aside. Lightning climbs up, then helps Hope up, then they both pull Snow up. When they're out, Lightning sets the stone back in place.
"Okay. Where could Serah be?" Snow asks, looking around.
Lightning walks ahead. "We'll need to find Cain's office. He probably has all the information of the abducted citizens."
The three of them walks down the hallway, staying together. They do have to be careful, cause there are soldiers patrolling around the hallways. As they walk down the hallway, they see shdaows of soldiers heading their way. They run back to see the same thing happening. Out of options, Lightning climbs up the wall, hanging on the support beams on the ceiling. Hope finds a dungeon room and hides in it. Luckily the door's unlock, who's the idiot to do that?
Snow just paces back and forth, trying to find a hiding place. All he can find is a vase with a plant in it. Snow takes the plant and holds it in front of his face. Lightning saw Snow's little disguise and scoffs. The guards walks down the hallway, they passed Snow like he wasn't even there. When the guards are gone, Snow puts the plant back where it was and Lightning jumps down.
They both looked around, noticing someone missing. "Where's Hope?" Snow asks.
Suddenly, they hear a little boy screaming, which startles the two of them. They know it's Hope. Hope bolts out of the dungeon room and quickly shuts the door, laying against it and panting heavily in horrify.
Lightning and Snow walks up to Hope. "Hope? What happened?" Lightning asks.
Hope shallows hard. "I don't want to talk about it." Hope says. In truth, the kid saw one of the kidnapped women being...trained for her 'destiny'. Hope stands up then walks past Snow and Lightning. "When we're done here, I need to burn my eyes."
Lightning and Snow can tell what it was that he saw, well mostly Lightning, and she's concern with Hope. But she tries to focus on the mission.
Lightning, Snow and Hope finally finds Cain's office. Lucky for them, especially Lightning, it's empty. They all walk up to the desk, looking at his computer. "This should help us." Lightning says.
Hope sits on the desk, typing on the keyboard, but shortly stops. "It's asking for a password." Hope turns to Lightning. "Any idea what it could be?"
Lightning looks closely at the password requirement. "I'm not sure. He probably wrote it down somewhere."
"Hey Light, look at this." Lightning and Hope looks to see Snow is standing by a dart board with Lightning's picture on it. The picture has like hundreds of tiny dots, a handlebar mustache on Lightning's upper lip, a goatee and there are black X's over her eyes. "Seems like this Cain character really has it out for yea."
"Shut up, Snow." Lightning says. "Why don't you make yourself useful and go keep watch."
Snow nods. He stands by the door, with it slightly open, and keeps his eyes open for any trouble.
Hope and Lightning begins looking through the drawers, for anything about Cain's password. Hope finds it and then types it in. Now Hope is searching around Cain's desktop with Lightning look at it over his shoulder.
Hope opens some files in the desktop, he searches all over the computer until he finds a file labelled 'For sale'. Hope opens the files to see a list of women names. There, he finds Fang's name. He opens it, there's a picture of the girl, a complete list of her stats. Hope is even surprised he got all this, even on short notice.
"Man, Cain sure knows his research." Hope says.
"There. It says she's in Dungeon 1W:104." Lightning says.
"Hey look, someone already bid on her." Hope clicks on the screen name. "...Techboy938? Who's that?"
The pen name captures Snows ears. "Wait. What did you guys say?" Hope repeats the pen name to Snow. Snow seems surprised. "That's Maqui." Hope and Lightning are surprised to see that. Snow walks towards Hope and Lightning, looking at the screen. "Just what is Maqui doing in this madness auction?"
"Focus, guys. We've got to find Serah." Lightning says.
Hope nods, he know's its true. He scrolls down the list and find's Serah's name. He clicks on her name and looks at the her background list. "It says she's being held at 3NE:219."
Lightning nods. "Let's go." Lightning and Snow moves on, but stops when they noticed Hope's still on the computer. "Hope! Come on!"
"Just a second. I need to find..." As Hope scrolls through the list, he finds what he was looking for. "There." Hope closes the files then leaves the desk. "Yuna's in B3: 001."
"Okay, so we split up." Snow says. "I'll go look for Serah. Lightning, you and Hope find Fang and Yuna."
Lightning shook her head. "No, I'm going on my own. You two find our friends." Lightning walks off.
"Li-Light? Where are you going?" Hope asks.
Lightning cocks her Gunblade. "I've got a date with an old friend."
Snow and Hope doesn't bother going after Lightning. They know that she's going to finish some business with Cain. Snow and Hope decides to go their separate ways as well. Hope would get Fang and Yuna while Snow rescues Serah. Hope decided it would be best to find Fang first since she's a warrior. Lightning sneaks down the hallways, on her guard, ready to either strike or shoot. She knows how sneaky and devious Cain is. This time, she'll be prepared for his ambushes.
Snow runs down the hallway, beating up any of the soldiers who would dare stand in his way. Hope just sneaks down the hallway, he knows he's not gonna put up much of a fight. He arrives at the West wing of the castle. He walks by the dungeons, reading their numbers. "101...102...03..." He now stands in front of Dungeon 104. "Bingo."
Hope grabs on the handle, pulls but it fails to open. Hope tries pulling the door open, but it doesn't budge. "Locked! Of course."
"Hey! You!" Hope flinches and turns. He sees a guard walking up to him. Hope seems nervous. "You're not from here...are you?" Hope doesn't answer, just stutters. He's pretty nervous. The guard looks at the door Hope was trying to get into. "1W:104, eh?" The guard looks back at Hope. "You the bidder?"
Hope seems confused, but then he suddenly remembers, someone bid on Fang. "Uh...yes. Yes I am. I'm...Techboy938."
"Really? Usually, we don't have people come here until there's been a buyout." The guard says.
"Uh...well. I figured I should get like a uh...a trail. Just like a sneak peak at...what I'm buying and...gonna do with her. You know?" Hope's story seems a bit weak, for some of the reasons, it's because he has seen what people would do to these abducted women, and boy he doesn't want to experience it.
"Makes sense. Very well then." The guard walks in front of the door, unlocks it and opens it. Hope looks in to see Fang is still tied up. Only this time, her blue clothing is removed. Leaving the girl in only her black top and black underwear. "Don't worry, she's bonded pretty good. She won't escape or hurt you or anything."
"Thanks for the tip." Hope says.
The guard makes his leave. Hope looks out the hallway to make sure he's gone, then he approaches Fang. "I'm glad to see you're okay."
Fang just gives Hope a mean glare. "I heard everything. If you think you're gonna get any ideas of-"
Hope holds his hands in front of him. "Whoa, whoa. Slow down, Fang. I didn't mean it. I was only saying it just to, you know, stay out of trouble."
"Yeah? Well saying it is gonna get you into more trouble!" Fang says. "Just get me out here!" Hope moves to Fangs side, untying her. "It's about damn time you showed up...speaking of which, where's hero boy and the soldier girl?"
"Snow's going after Serah and I think Lightning's got some business to settle with Cain." Hope says.
Fang was finally free. She stands up, then gives Hope a punch on the shoulder. Not a playful one, it hurt him. "Ow! What was that for?"
"For what you said earlier." Fang says. Fang grabs her blue clothing on the side of the room and puts it back on. Hope hands Fang her spear. "Thanks kid. Now let's find Lightning and Snow."
"Not yet. We need to find Yuna." Hope says.
Fang signs in irritation. "Right...the famous Songstress. So where is the celebrity?"
"She's somewhere in the basement." Hope says.
"Gotcha." Fang lifts her spear, spins it over her head then positions it to attack. "I'll take point, you watch my back."
While Fang and Hope are making their little travel, Snow is running down the hallways on the second floor. The soldiers are armed, ready to attack Snow. But that doesn't stop the hero. Snow charges at the soldiers, knocking them out with his fists. The soldiers strikes to strike down Snow, but he either avoid their attacks or blocks them.
When his path is clear, Snow continues to run down the hallways, heading for the stairs. Snow is one floor closer to Serah. He can't give up now. When he reaches the third floor, he's greeted by dozens of guards. Snow cracks his knuckles. "Oh yeah! It's hero time!"
Snow charges in, beating up the soldiers in his way. Most of the soldiers fight back, but they weren't too lucky. One of them manages to give Snow a cut on the arm, but Snow sweep kicks the soldier in the face, knocking him out.
After battle, Snow takes a moment to recover. The wound on his arm is just a scratch, so he ignores him and moves on. Snow heads for the Northeast Wing, at the second hallway. Snow rushes to the end of the hallway, which leads to the door of dungeon 3NE:219.
"Hang on, baby! You're hero's here!" Snow bangs on the door. The first three times, they fail. Snow backs up, yells and charges, slamming his body at the door, forcing it to open. Snow takes a moment to recover from that impact. When he does, he looks in front of him to find Serah chained to the wall. "Serah!"
Serah looks up. "Snow?" Snow runs up to Serah and kneels beside her. "Snow! Listen to me, you need to get out of here."
"No, I'm not leaving with you." Snow grabs on the chains, trying to yank them off the wall.
"I'll be fine. You have to find Lightning and get out!" Serah tells him.
The moment Serah's done talking, a door slam happens. Serah and Snow looks at the direction to find the door is closed. A the man beside that door is Cain. Looks like mr. Hero is in big trouble.