I thought now would be the best time to update since I've been spoilt for updates myself and it is the season for giving afterall, right? I'm dying to write more stories for these two, but I should really finish what I've started! *looks at my other story* oops!

As always, enjoy! (And Merry Christmas!)

Cid kept a firm hold upon Lightning's linked arm, much to her discomfort as he guided her to the back of his chauffeured car, which she felt severely underdressed for. The heavy smell of leather hit her instantly as the chauffeur opened the car door, ducking his head in respect to Cid, who nodded in turn. During the event, Cid had enquired her name, seeming pleasantly surprised to hear her response.

"Raines and Lightning, what next? A child named after snow?" He chuckled. Lightning's mouth became a hard line as she tried not to express her amusement at his words. If only he knew. Beside her, Cid had just about fit his head within the car after waving off photographers with a silk-gloved hand.

"I'm sorry about all this, they never seem to get enough." He said, referring to the photographers outside who were pressing their cameras against the glass of the car.

As the car journeyed on, Lightning observed that, although a polite man, Cid seemed remarkably dull, as their conversations became nothing more than generic chitchat. She felt bored already, despite being just minutes into the car ride and she wanted nothing more than to open the passenger door and roll out, regardless of whether the car was moving or not.

Witnesses by damned, Lightning snaked her left arm around her back where Cid would not be able to watch what she was planning to do. She grasped the gun's handle; the barrel of which had been digging painfully into her back as a constant reminder of her goals. She waited until Cid became bored from her lack of response and found the scenery from his window more interesting.

The sound of engine purring was soon the only noise made within the chauffeured car, yet neither passenger showed signs of caring. With Fang in the forefront of her mind, Lightning arced her gun occupied hand around to face Raines, expecting him to still be glancing out of the window. She was wrong. The second the muscles twitched in her arm, Cid's own bulking arm leapt out like a striking snake clamping its mighty jaws around her wrist.

Clearly he expected her to attack him.

Lightning hit out with her free hand, curling her fingers and flattening her palm in a move to try break his nose. Even then Raines anticipated her actions, flinging back his head to avoid her palm.

"Attacking already? You don't wait around. I hope you didn't think I wouldn't recognise you from my time in Bodhum." He growled as Lightning fought to regain use of both her wrists.

"S-sir?" The driver's eyes from the rear-view mirror darted between the soldier and his boss, looking torn between helping Raines and diving out of the car himself at the sight of the gun in Lightning's grasp.

"Carry on home, John." Cid ordered as the chauffeur's face became equally as pale as his hair. "Nothing I can't manage."

"Hmph!" Lightning raised her knee to her chest as best she could in the enclosed space, forcing it into Cid's face and his head rebounded against the window with a thud. He countered with a punch to Lightning's gut, which was an awkward target to reach for given the confined space within the car. The time it took for Cid to hit her, Lightning readied herself for the impact, tensing her stomach muscles to dampen the pain.

It was strange, with all of the adrenaline pulsing through her veins; Cid's attacking did nothing to pain her, but fuel her desire to hurt him more. No, she realised as she thrust her foot forward again at Cid's face until his nose exploded with hot crimson over her shoes, the lack of pain came from her determination to help Fang in kind. The gun in her hand begged to be fired, and despite being aimed at the car roof, she let her finger close around the trigger. In one short moment, she watched as Cid's animalistic angry face dropped in horror as blood spouted rhythmically from his thigh.

"You- you bitch!" He wheezed in agony, letting go of Lightning to stem the blood flow that was staining his leather seats. The metallic tang was overbearing enough to make the driver slam his breaks in the middle of a grand gravel driveway, to a location Lightning still could not see properly. Against the wishes of Cid, John the driver unbuckled an excused himself from the car to vomit, giving Lightning the chance to escape. She practically rolled backwards upon opening the side door, gasping for breath as her lungs met the fresh air, but her legs didn't stop to rest, striving to reach the driver who had not finished being sick.

"Please don't kill me!" He begged as the sound of her crunching footsteps revealed her intentions of drawing near him. "Please I don't know why you're doing this, just let me go." The man continued to babble until Lightning grew weary of his cries and the smell of his vomit.

"Now listen," she said shaking the man from her leg, desperately needing the man to cooperate in order to call Fang about her whereabouts, "I need you to tell me exactly where I- eugh!"

Lightning collapsed to the floor on all fours grasping her head, crouched jadedly behind her Cid grinned, the entire bottom half of his face splashed in red. She had no idea what he had hit her with, but as her vision blurred, warm liquid dripped from her brow to the sandy gravel below.

Lightning groaned at the dull ache that spread across the entire right half of her head, and winced when she felt the dried blood across her face crack as she moved. Her surroundings weren't familiar at all; though she put that towards the fact the room was encased in complete darkness. She was cold, shivering, stripped of her hooded jacket and thankfully nothing else. The blood that had dried began to itch, however try as she might; her handcuffed wrists prevented her from any sort of useful movement. The soldier shuffled slightly, feeling the large pipe that her arms were constrained behind to judge whether there was a weak point in the metal. There was nothing. Lightning huffed and allowed the low hum of an unknown machine fill her ears as she tried to come to terms with what had happened for her to get where she was now.

Fang. The wild woman would never find her here, because Lightning had no way of contacting her and she didn't know where she was to begin with. How long had she been in the room? Her hunger was the only indication that it had at least been a few hours. She rattled the handcuffs that chained her in, yelling in annoyance when they didn't yield to her pulling.

In the corner of her eye, a door creaked open in response to her commotion, spilling light down a flight of stairs. Despite the pain of staring into such contrasting brightness, Lightning watched the unmistakable silhouette of Cid Raines limp down towards her, laughing darkly. When he reached the bottom, he flicked a switch.

"You should be so… thankful that I even spared your life, Lightning - if that is even your real name. You show up out of the blue at Deepground, injure my second in command and get away with it. All of a sudden you appear here in Bodhum, find me, and manage to do the same amount of damage to me as you did Rygdea." Cid paced around the wine cellar – now Lightning could see whereabouts she was – but refused to look her directly in the eye. "I can't tell if you are ridiculously lucky or just ridiculously stupid."

Lightning laughed hoarsely, realising that if she was going to die, she might as well act like she did not care.

"Neither, Raines. I'm just good at my job."

"Speaking of which, who is it? Who are you working for? The police? Yourself? Wait no," Cid tapped his chin thoughfully, "Bodhum…" he laughed once more, "Sanctum isn't it? Ah yes, has Dysley enlisted the help of yet more women to tempt me to my own death? Pitiful old man."

"Well you're gullible enough if I'm here right now." Lightning retorted.

Cid pulled down his sleeve and spoke into what at first looked to be a watch, but as Lightning looked closer, it appeared to be a small radio.

"Send a few down, and send the doctor too. I want you to watch for Rygdea, I've told him to make his way here."

"A doctor? Why don't you call for your mother instead, Cid?"

The door upstairs opened again, and two henchmen surrounded a bespectacled doctor down the stairs.

"Ah, no. This doctor will be for you… that is once we've finished with you. I want to prolong your demise."

With a click of his gloved fingers, the two henchmen obediently moved closer to Lightning. One cracked his knuckles as the other rolled a few unused pipes from their pile in the corner of the room. The hollow metal scraping against concrete was unmistakable, and it wasn't until the henchmen began beating their weapons against the palms of their hands in wait, did she become slightly worried.

"If you wish to avoid a painful, merciless battering, Lightning, then all I ask is for Dysley's new whereabouts."

Her voice was calm and more importantly, honest, when she claimed she knew nothing of his location and yet Cid didn't believe a word.

"Come now, you can tell me." Cid bent down to Lightning's level as best he could with a wounded leg, with any pain masked behind a solid, unmoving mask of a face. He grasped the soldier's face between his finger and thumb, squishing her face slightly as if teasing a child.

"Get the fuck off me, Raines." Lightning shouted, forcefully pulling her face away. But Cid grasped her face tighter, moving swiftly in for a kiss. Lightning's eyes grew wide horror, her body convulsing as she attempted to move away from Cid. Their lips touched in the most unromantic and unreciprocated of ways and Lightning kept her lips pursed firmly, any sign of his tongue would involve her surgically removing it with her teeth.

With all the strength she could muster, despite having the stiffest of necks, Lightning withdrew from Cid's clutches and hammered him in the nose with her forehead. Blood flew everywhere as she even managed to catch his lip and split it in the process. His blood wet her face and stained her t-shirt, refreshing the pungent scent in her nostrils. Had she not been used to the smell in her line of work, she would have retched.

Cid disappeared from her view to be replaced by one of the henchman who punched her repeatedly in the face before kicking her in the stomach for good measure. Teeth gritted, Lightning fought back a groan of weakness.

Fang wouldn't give in. Another hit, but this time the other side of her face. At least they don't know of her. Another. At least she can get on with her goal of getting- yet another strike to the stomach –of getting Dysley.

It wasn't until the first henchman grew tired did the other advance upon her, repeating the questions Cid asked. When Lightning repeated her story of knowing nothing, the hand holding the steel pipe raised, but the second he did so a small commotion upstairs stopped him from going any further.

The room was silent as everyone held their breaths to listen again for the noise.

Between coughing and spluttering on his own blood, Cid reached for his radio.

"What's going on up there?"

'It's just Rygdea sir, he flung the front door open and is singing.'

Cid shook his head. "Idiot… send him down."

Within minutes Rygdea appeared, sporting a limp of his own from their previous encounter. His eyes fell upon the new guest that was Lightning, his jaw falling open as he pinpointed her face to a location.

"Hey Boss... wait... i-is that?"

"The very same." Cid said with a nod.

Similarly to Cid, Rygdea gripped Lightning's face and stared directly into her soul.

"You're a bitch." He said, pointing to his knees, which were bandaged under his leather biker gear.

Lightning spat in his face, enraging Rygdea more.

"Oh, you're a bitch who's gonna get her fucking arse kicked in a minute." Rygdea growling, backhanding Lightning as hard as he could.

There was a faint noise from upstairs once more, which Lightning could barely hear above the humming machinery, the sound of the pulse in her ears and her heavy breathing. At first, she was sure it was just her mind playing tricks with her, providing her with the solace that she wasn't going to die after all. But no, the ruckus grew louder as men shouted and one or two shots were fired, followed by a cluster of succeeding shots from a different sounding gun.

'Sir! Someone has just burst through the front door and started shooting at us!' The radio hissed.

Cid's face was a picture of sickening worry. "What?"

The sound of furniture being thrown on their sides grew louder and louder, smashing of ancient and pricey antiques and the screams of many men pierced the sergeant's ears. The four members of Cavalry reached for their guns, whilst the fair-haired doctor scrambled into a dark crevice and hid.

The chaos ceased.

Footsteps drew closer.

Bullets struck the hinges from outside of the room, and as if blown over, the door toppled down the cellar stairs to reveal the shape of a bedraggled and bloody man. Deciding not to wait for an answer, the four gang members unleashed a flurry of bullets, which hit the body with deadly accuracy. It was a confusing sight to Lightning, as the man took each hit, until a figure behind it, shoved him forward to meet the same fate as the broken door.

"You're a bunch of fucking idiots, the lot of ya!"

And with that, her diamond in the rough saviour Fang sprayed the closest henchman with lead. Lightning closed her eyes. The sound of Fang's voice and her bullets put her oddly at ease. Fang dived right and completely off of the stairs, landing behind what Lightning presumed was one of many crates of vintage wine. When a bullet pierced the crate, the telltale sound of a smashing glass confirmed her thoughts; she just hoped it wasn't the sound of Fang's skull breaking along with it.

"Don't shoot the boxes, you fools! That stuff costs more than all your lives put together!" Cid roared, wrenching the steel pipe from the remaining henchman's hand and throwing it towards where Fang had hidden. It clattered against the concrete, having missed its intended target.

"You throw like a girl." Fang taunted from the other side of the crate, and from the top of the box her hand appeared to make a misplaced shot.

"And you shoot like one." The last henchman cried out with laughter. It was then Fang chose to reappear, placing the luckiest shot Lightning had ever seen. The bullet hit his forehead, and the man fell down, with the breath of his laughter still fresh in his lungs.

"Fang! One's coming up the stairs." Lightning warned, as Rygdea stalked up the steps to ambush the Oerban from behind.

"Cheers!"

A flurry of bullets met the steps by Rygdea's feet; he balked and leaped back against the wall.

"What're you doing, Ryg? Kill her for Maker's sake!" Cid ordered from behind a supporting pillar. More and more bullets were exchanged, and Lightning was growing impatient. Fang's ammo peppered the pillar protecting Cid and Rygdea was partially cowering as far back as he could, inching ever closer to the exit, she noticed. There was a burst of movement from Fang's side, who leapt behind a pillar herself, scaring Rygdea out of the room altogether.

"Coward, get back here!" Cid roared, but Rygdea was already gone. "Enough of the hiding," Cid said, "we'll do this good an proper."

Fang laughed heartily. "Like a true standoff, eh?"

The sound of a magazine clip clicking reached Lightning's ears.

She better have enough ammo for this.

Fang continued, "Winner gets the girl?"

"Hmph. I suppose so." Cid said with a smirk.

"I'm no prize, Fang." Lightning's face grew red and she felt her stomach flutter, then there was nothing but silence.

As if there had been a silent countdown, both sides appeared simultaneously from their respective pillars, each pointing their guns at one another.

Time slowed as Lightning watched; Fang sprinted forward sending bullet after bullet towards Cid, who fired back before cowering back behind the safety of the pillar. Fang evaded the shots with ease, her feet light as air as she sprang left to right to avoid being hit. She fired once, twice, three times, before the barrel emptied.

"Shit." Fang swore, quickly looking up to see the barrel of a gun aimed towards her.

"Guess I won." Cid smiled cruelly, and pulled the trigger once more.

Fang collided with Cid as the gun went off and Lightning called her name in shock. The both rolled into the darker side of the cellar, exchanging punches and insults until one last gunshot was heard. Then nothing.

Nothing.

"Fang?" Lightning whispered.

There was heavy breathing to her left and Cid appeared from the corner of her vision, swaying unsteadily with his hand pressed tightly to his stomach. Lightning's own stomach sank, cuffed hands balling into fists.

"Fang, no!"

Cid gave the soldier one last look before falling to his knees and collapsing.

Lightning sat wide-eyed at the bloody and beaten body in front of her. She was cuffed to a pipe, freezing cold and unaware of Fang's condition.

"Fang? You alive?" She called once more.

Her slender figure emerged from the shadows, shoulders slouched and panting. Fang smiled weakly, brandishing the gun Cid had been using.

"Got last hit." She smirked, pretending to blow smoke from the barrel.

Lightning beamed as Fang shot the links of the handcuffs that bound Lightning, rubbing her wrists appreciatively the second the chains weakened.

Fang leaned wearily against the wall beside her and upon closer inspection within the bleak light of the room, the soldier realised Fang seemed rather pale. Lightning stumbled forward, clutching Fang by her shoulders. The action caused the tanned beauty to wince and inhale sharply.

"Wait-" Fang began, however Lightning was already hot on her case.

Lightning swallowed and without word, unzipped Fang's hooded jacket, peeling it away slowly when she noticed blood pouring freely on her left side, above her collarbone.

"You idiot." Lightning hissed as Fang pulled her into a one armed hug, smiling despite the pain. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, and Lightning felt reluctant to move from her place in the crook of Fang's warm neck.

"Don't worry about it, Light." Fang strained, breaths short and shallow.

Lightning closed her eyes and pressed herself closer to Fang, feeling both of their nervous heartbeats pulse to a soundless rhythm. She made the mistake of looking up into her eyes, to find Fang staring down intently at her. Despite feeling weak at the knees, light-headed and close to exhaustion, Lightning slid her hand up and behind Fang's neck, guiding their mouths together. She closed her eyes to focus solely on the feelings of Fang's gorgeously soft lips upon her own as they kissed slowly but passionately, whilst Fang's grip on her tightened. Careful not to touch Fang's injury, Lightning pulled at the hair on the nape of Fang's neck, tickling the taller woman.

A bronze arm trailed up the soldier's back, sending shivers up and down her spine.

"I could do this all day." Fang panted as her cheeks darkened over her paler than usual complexion. Lightning nodded with half-lidded, dreamy eyes, although unconvinced with Fang's bleeding shoulder. The second Lightning stepped away; Fang began to waver on the spot, grasping the wall with her good arm for support.

"Y'see the effect you have on me, Light?" The Oerban joked, yet Lightning knew better.

Gluing herself to Fang's side, the two women headed towards the stairs.

"Hey, wait!"

The doctor crawled out from under an oak table and corrected his glasses. Bowing his head in thanks he then gestured towards Fang. "I could take a look at that now if you like. My way of saying thanks for killing that guy." He looked towards Cid's body, which had a pool of blood flowing from underneath.

As Fang was being bandaged, Lightning flipped over Cid's body and checked for a pulse, and only when one did not seem existent she feel happy to contact Jihl.

"We got him."

Thanks for reading!

Have a wonderful New Year guys, I'll see you in 2012!