Weee new story! I apologize in advance for any slow updates. The story is still a WIP, and I'm still gathering up ideas on how it's going to end up. Any suggestions are more than welcome! :)

As with my other fics, I do not own Final Fantasy 13, or the characters, etc related to it. All of that is property of the lovely Square Enix.

This winter was probably one of the worst on Gran Pulse, according to Fang, and Lightning just had to be in the thick of it.

'Figures...' The Lieutenant thought to herself as she peered through the foggy glass of the window on the side of the small aircraft. The blizzard raged outside, covering everything in a violent haze as the aircraft shook and swayed against the harsh winds. The weather had been decent enough to fly in when Lightning and her small squad of three began their mission earlier on in the day. They were on a rescue mission to recover a scouting team from the mountainside. But things had quickly taken a turn for the worse after several hours in. Lightning was beginning to question the integrity of the craft they were in as it rattled against the intense storm they were literally in the middle of. Fang had been right, this was no storm to take lightly.

~That Morning~

"Fang, I have to go. I have orders, and there are people out there that need help. What do you expect? That I leave them out there to die?" Lightning said as she finished shoving things into a duffel bag on their bed.

"Of course not! But who will be there to save them if something happens to you?" Fang stood a few feet away with her arms crossed over her chest.

"We have a window of clear weather that we are taking advantage of."

"Light, I'm from Gran Pulse, remember? I know how bad this could get! Even 500 years ago there were only a few storms worse than this one. That so called 'window of clear weather' won't last long and it'll just get far worse."

Lightning shrugged on a thick, white jacket over her winter military attire. She sighed and looked over at Fang, seeing the anxiety and worry in her face. The soldier smiled and walked over to her partner. She grabbed Fang's arms and pulled them away from her chest, lacing their fingers together.

"It's dangerous, I know. I know that Fang. But it's what I do and it's often dangerous." She stepped closer and leaned her forehead against Fang's." I do everything in my power to come home safe to you every time I am called out. Please know that."

Fang relaxed her shoulders and nodded slightly, accepting her lover's motivations. She unlaced their fingers and wrapped her arms loosely around Lightning's waist, pulling her body closer to her own as she tilted her head back to look into the soldier's face. "I do." Her expression changed as her lips curved playful smirk. "Just know that if anything ever happens, I'm coming out to get you and keeping you on lock down for months."

Lightning smiled and leaned in. "Fine, I can accept those terms." She brushed her lips softly against Fang's. Both of their minds were put at ease, even if just for the moment.

~Back to the Present~

A sharp jolt brought Lightning out of her thoughts. She braced herself against a control panel to keep her balance. The aircraft began to rattle and pitch. Alarms started going off as the crew frantically reached for various buttons, knobs and levers to try and regain control of the situation.

"What's going on?" She called out to her squad.

"The engine shut down! We're losing altitude!" One man called from his station.

Lightning's attention was now turned to the cockpit window. Through the thick layer of ice that had accumulated on the glass, she could see the tree line racing closer and closer.

"Everyone brace for impact! We're going down!" Lightning yelled and ran to strap herself down in an empty chair.

Before she could reach it, she was flung away into the wall on the opposite side of the ship. Metal screeched, electrical sparks flew and the ship rolled and pitched violently along with its passengers as the ship went down.

'Should have listened to Fang…' Was Lightning's last thought before the aircraft collided into the ground.

Unbearable cold was the first thing that came to mind as Lightning began to ease back into consciousness. Every inch of her body was absolutely freezing, especially the right side of her face. Her eyes opened to find herself lying in face down in the snow. As the rest of her senses began to slowly come around, she became more aware of the ever increasing pain in her left leg. She propped herself up on her forearms and tried to pull her legs up so that she could get to her feet, but was stopped abruptly by a shot of pain engulfing her leg and by something pinning that leg into the ground. She gasped at the sudden sensation and looked over her shoulder to see that one of her legs was pinned under a large piece of twisted metal. Beyond that she could only see what had was left of their ship, which littered the snow in smoldering pieces amongst shattered and broken tree limbs. Fires burned from various unrecognizable pieces of the wreckage. Her crew was nowhere in sight.

The snow storm was still going strong, and she was completely exposed to the harsh elements. Lightning knew that if she was going to even have a chance at survival she needed to free herself, find shelter, and hopefully along the way find a radio or beacon to send for help. She sat up as best as she could and gripped her thigh to her trapped leg. She inhaled and exhaled deeply in an attempt to brace herself for the excruciating pain that was to come, as well as to block out as much of the already present agony in what she was pretty sure was a broken leg. Once she was sure it was going to get no better she began to slowly, forcefully pull her leg out from the debris. The chunk of wreckage was incredibly heavy and bared down hard on her leg, making it extremely difficult and equally as painful to pull it free. Lightning clenched her teeth together to stifle cries of pain and exertion as she struggled to pull. With a heavy thump, she was finally free and the wreckage settled into the snow.

Lightning flopped onto her back, her chest heaving and stars floated in her vision. Once she caught her breath and was sure that she was not going to pass out from the ordeal, she eased into a sitting position so that she could assess the full extent of her injuries.

Her left leg had been mauled from the crash. There was no telling where and how the damage had occurred during the impact, but whatever and however many had come in contact with that limb surely had done quite a number on it. Her pants were shredded from the knee down and blood seeped through several lacerations. Through all of the surface damage she could tell her leg did not look right. There was no doubt in her mind now that her leg was severely broken. Her forehead felt as if it were caked in something other than snow, something sticky. When she reached to touch the skin she was greeted with a sharp prick of pain and red fingertips.

"Another bump on the head…great" Lightning scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Restructured the chapters a bit, so if anyone is noticing that this chapter seems a little shorter than before that is because it is. But fear not! Nothing has been cut out, it has just been relocated to chapter 2 ^^