I changed the rating to M cos there's some smut in here, sorry ..
6
One
Stirring under warm flames, clawing against her soft and supple cheeks, Vanille roused from her prolonged state of unconsciousness. She fluttered her eyelids under the overwhelming weight of exhaustion, its throbbing pain tightening across the entirety of her petite frame. As she lay in the state between being awake and being asleep, she dreamt of a time and place where her and Fang could live simply and freely, without the burden of other people and their misery. She could imagine them running to a wilderness, far away, surviving perfectly well with the warrior's adept hunting skills. It was nothing more than a dream though, Vanille knew that.
Scraping her body into an upright position, the tiny redhead glanced over her shoulder towards where the heat had been coming from. Sat beside the well-stacked fire, Fang poked vacantly at the bright orange fire, watching as the carbon tried desperately to reach upwards for air. The redhead could see she was deep in thought. Everything was a blur to her, she could not remember if she had managed to save Fang from becoming a L'Cie. Perhaps the dream that had followed, where the girls were slowly drifting apart, in a space of bright fluorescent green, had occurred because they escaped. It seemed unlikely, but Vanille would rather be optimistic and believe in that than permit herself to the creeping truth that they were both, now, slaves of the Fal'Cie. It was selfish, but Vanille did not care about the Fal'Cie, or their wars against Cocoon. She did not hate the unknown orb floating above them; she did not even vaguely dislike it. Despite the harsh cruelties of life on Pulse, she preferred to focus on the good. Fang and the people of Oerba were good, and if everyone could live to accept that life was not easy, they could be content and appreciate the gifts of their world, instead of relying on the Fal'Cie and their powers to protect them.
She looked to the broken woman before her, staring into nowhere, Vanille felt selfish for wanting a life with her and not caring for the greater problems of the world. Now standing, the tiny redhead softly placed her hand across the older girl's shoulder, at least expecting a reaction. Instead, she did not even flinch.
"Fang?" she asked, softly, as she sat atop the same piece of scrap metal – probably a ruin of Oerba – Fang sat at. There was no reply, no glance back to her; there was not a single movement to indicate she was awake. She caught a glimpse of Fang's scorching bright L'Cie brand, branded into her right shoulder, as if she was some kind of Fal'Cie product. "We can find your focus together, you don't have to shut me out like this," she said, nuzzling her lips into the warrior's neck. She felt cold, almost as though she was already a corpse.
Vanille gasped as she felt Fang's cold hand brush against her thigh, reaching underneath her brightly coloured skirt. Her fingernails scratched gently across the bumps of a raised surface, caressing the metallic texture of the redhead's brand. She glanced down to where she had touched, astounded by the bright glowing emanating from her. "I'm sorry," Fang finally spoke, her throat was tight with the burden of guilt wallowing in the pit of her stomach, "it's my fault you're a L'Cie," she tilted her head and closed her eyes, one tiny droplet gliding down her cheeks, "I should have protected you."
"Then we'll find our focus together," Vanille's eyes had begun to build up with freshly formed tears, "we'll be together, as crystals, forever, like we promised."
Fang smiled warmly and looked to the younger girl's bright emerald orbs for comfort, "From what the elders told me, we're meant to work out our focus for ourselves," she said.
Vanille nodded, "Did you dream that we were drifting apart, just after we were turned into L'Cie?" She knelt down to her knees before Fang, interlocking their hands. Her emotions were creeping back to her, almost with a sense of urgency since what had happened to them, as she shared the lustful gaze. The cave they had found themselves in almost seemed romantic, with the gentle sound of water streaming past them in a soft current.
"Do you think that's connected to our focus?" Fang asked.
Vanille shrugged her shoulders slightly, she was unsure of what it meant, but it had to be significant. "We were drifting apart, so maybe it's telling us we need to stay together," she concluded, thinking aloud.
"That doesn't really help us much," Fang closed her eyes and returned to the deep state of thought Vanille feared, "it could mean anything." Frustrated by her lack of control and understanding towards the situation, she rose angrily to her feet, Vanille rising with her, their interlocking fingers never parting.
Without saying a word, the tiny redhead leaned to her tiptoes and planted a soft peck atop the older girl's lips. They both smiled from the humble sensation it had bought them, but their longing glances down towards one another told each other they both wanted more. That night in the military's food transportation carriage had left Fang wishing they could stay there for eternity, but now a similar situation had arisen and she was unsure of whether she could control her animalistic urges. Was it worth pulling herself back from them? The warrior had thought to herself, as their tongues raced passionately against one another's. She was stupid to have thought she could have become a L'cie, fulfilled her focus, and become a crystal without giving every inch of herself to the younger girl.
Letting her hands stray downwards, tracing a path, starting from the redhead's slight shoulders, falling into a resting place at the subtle curve of her hips, Fang continued to lose herself in the immersive kiss. She could feel the slight sting of Vanille's fingernails digging into the skin of her neck, though it had become an oddly pleasurable sensation under the heated desires of the moment. Fang could not fight back the devious grin forcing its way across her mouth, as high-pitched moans escaped Vanille's mouth. The redhead's body was beginning to tense up under the intense pressure building up within her, a collection of many years' worth of deposited desires. Were they in such a situation because they were afraid of not getting another chance? Was it because the time was right?
Pressing Vanille to the floor, unhooking her garments as they fell into one another, Fang straddled her hips, amazed by the ecstasy coursing through her veins. She doubted that there was another person in the world that could bring her to such a high, so easily. Unbuckling her belt, she allowed Vanille to explore the softness of her skin with the palms of her hands; her entire body damp from the sweat excitement had brought. The warrior felt weak to the world, now that her supple breasts exposed themselves to the redhead's delicate stroke. A hand wandered between Vanille's legs, receiving a welcoming moan, as she desperately searched for something to grind. Everything around her was fading into a blur, senses and vision, all weakening under the younger girl's slight grazes. Arching her back into each thrust, as she lay into the girl's petite, damp body, the girls brushed their bodies against one another's, feeling the intense fire of a climax readying itself to consume their consciousness. She felt as though her body had fell into one with Vanille's, perfectly synchronised.
Exploding into uncontrollable euphoria, Fang blacked out, falling atop Vanille, cold to the world. Almost as though she transported into the future, she saw herself turning into a wild, emancipated beast, a furious combination of steeled claws and hostile fangs, leaping into the sky, heading towards the bronzed shell. She was ripping a whole into Cocoon's outer shell, destroying all of its inhabitants with her newly adopted powers, as the ferocious beast.
She regained her composure, to find Vanille beneath her body, seemingly taken aback by a similar vision. The redhead wrapped her hands around Fang's shoulder blades so that she lifted into an upright sitting position, though her mind was still quite some distance away from reality. She was in a limbo between reeling over her feelings for Fang and the shocking revelation of her L'Cie focus. Vanille did not want to be the one to possess such incredible power; just the prospect of being that strong frightened her enough to wish not to pursue it. Perhaps she was to become a Cie'th, it seemed a better fait than the one Anima had in store for them.
"Did you see it?" Fang asked, panting under her exhaustion and confusion.
Vanille nodded, "Yeah," she said. Her voice was wary and distant, perplexed by what she must do next. She was unsure of whether an eternity spent as a crystal, by Fang's side, was really worth the sacrifice of a civilisation. Even though those people had stolen her chance at a normal, easy life – they had even stolen her parents from her – Vanille did not believe ripping their homes from the sky was a likely solution.
"We have to go to that volcano," Fang said, urgency to her tone, "before we turn to Cie'th."
Vanille fell silent, she did not dare to air her concerns – even through all that had happened – she still doubted whether Fang would understand her doubts. Perhaps she would hate her through a misplaced sense of betrayal, feeling as though Vanille had backed out of their oath at the last minute. With all the conviction in her heart, she knew that was not the reason why she was having second thoughts.
Sorry, the redhead muttered under her breath, as she watched the warrior collect her clothes from around the makeshift camp. Vanille hated herself for her selfish doubts, but she just could not bring herself to go against her instincts.
*
They had emerged from the cave to find themselves in the place they had foreseen in their dreams. It was a place surrounded by molten lava and towering canyons. Although at any other time Vanille would have found herself captivated by the scenery, at that moment she could not care less. She was about to betray her soul mate, just at the moment when everything mattered most. Would Fang turn into a Cie'th, too, because of what Vanille was about to do? She thought to herself, still hoping to discover an overlooked alternative. Her head felt hot and dizzy, all the redhead could do was follow shyly behind the warrior and hope that something would happen, something would influence her, to make what she had to do easier, but it did not. Nothing happened at all.
"What do you think we have to do?" Fang asked, spinning on her heel so that she could glance back at Vanille for reassurance, as she stood at the spot they saw her transform into the beast. In that vision, her L'Cie mark had been burning bright pink, aflame with passion and anger. Even in the dream, both girls had felt the hate and betrayal in the moment; the sheer pain it released a long with it was surely devastating.
"Fang..." Vanille said, fighting back tears, "I can't do this!" Her words projected across the canyon, painful and unbearable to Fang. Just after she had managed to convince herself that they could do it together, the redhead was having second thoughts. She was right though – the warrior shook her head in anger and despair – she could not do it.
She fell to Fang's side, pulling angrily at her grasp so that she would stop what she was doing and think for a moment. Perhaps neither of them needed to assume the terrible monster's form; perhaps there was a hidden meaning behind what they had witnessed. She had to believe it; she knew it would tear the warrior apart if she stopped for a moment to think about what their focus meant for the rest of the world. Cocoon would damage Pulse, as it fell from its height in the sky.
"I understand," she gritted her teeth, as her brand glowed bright pink, just as they expected, "maybe this is your focus," she laughed, allowing the power to consume her soul. She thrust a hand over the scorching mark, collapsing to her knees, weak from the intense pain pulsing through the entirety of her body.
"I-I'm so sorry!" Vanille's eyes streamed with tears, unable to watch as the woman she loved transform into a fit of fire, birthing a horrendous creature, of which only the cruel Fal'Cie could spawn.
Losing her to the power far greater than anything she could harness, Fang thrust into the air, as she became the beast named Ragnarok, her claws thrust out before her, aimed towards the sinister outer casing of the devil planet. Although the strength was overwhelming, it felt hollow compared to the burning pain that had coursed through her being, as she transformed into it. She was empty without Vanille to assume the beast, and despite all of the Fal'Cie's magnificent power, all manufactured into her soul, she could not crack Cocoon's shell with her claws. Before she knew it, she was falling from the sky, back down to the ruins of Pulse beneath her, turning into crystal as the beast's form had left her.
THE END
A/N: I hoped this chapter would be a lil longer, but I really couldn't draw anything else out. I'm not used to writing smut, so it's probs rly rubbish, but I really liked the idea I had with it so... ya. Thanks for all teh really nice reviews, helped me through writers block 3, and I really hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. BYEE