A/N:

X Hey kiddos! :D I'm really hyper but anyway, I read some story on here that made me love the pairing of Lightning and Zack. However, it's not gonna be like that story. At all. Lolz. This story might take a while to kick off, kay? Kay.

X This story is kinda based off the song Give Me a Sign by Breaking Benjamin.

X I don't own Final Fantasy XIII or VII. If I did, that would be epic. But sadly, I don't.

Preface

Vanille

I was excited to be back with Fang, but an ark wasn't exactly my idea of fun. I hadn't seen Hope, Snow, or Lightning in awhile; it was good to see they were all alright. Snow wasn't exactly the happy large teddy bear he usually was after hearing Serah's focus. Hope kept close to Lightning. And Lightning was, well, Lightning. She would run off ahead of us, and then when she realized we were all way too behind, she would wait. She wouldn't exactly turn to look at us, but she would wait. It was a gesture I was sure no one else noticed.

It made me realize even Lightning didn't want to be alone. She may act like it, but why would she make sure we were following? She could handle a majority of the fiends by herself and avoid the ones she couldn't.

I decided Hope was the answer.

"Hey Hope!" I called, jumping a little. The boy turned around, curious.

"Yeah Vanille?" He answered, pausing a moment for me to catch up to him. I made sure Lightning was out of earshot before I started.

"Why is Lightning always so cold?" Hope blinked a little, before he looked at the ground, puzzled.

"She told me she lost her parents, but other than that, I think it's just because she's a soldier, ya know? She really does care, just takes her time to warm up to people." He answered, before adding "I think." I nodded. And that was the end of the conversation.

After a long progression of events, and both Hope and Fang obtaining Eidolons, figuring out Lightning crept back into my mind. Lightning was that person you wanted to be friends with, but you didn't know how to reach them. We were all sitting by a fire after a day of completing cie'th focuses. Lightning had agreed to a couple, and Hope managed to get her to agree to a couple more. Now, Hope, Sazh and Snow were asleep.

"Hey Light." Fang waved her hand in front of Lightning's face before Lightning looked at Fang.

"What?" she spat, obviously annoyed. Fang only chuckled.

"Why do you have such a soft spot for the boy over there?" Fang jerked her head in the direction of Hope, adding a smirk. Lightning looked at Hope before turning her head back to Fang.

"He reminds me of myself, a little." She answered.

"How so?" I asked before I realized I was speaking. Lightning's attention turned towards me.

"What is this, 20 questions?" She sighed, "When I lost my Mother, I was a little lost, like Hope." I smiled. This was the first time Lightning was actually speaking. I crawled over to Fang and took a seat next to her. Fang and I were both now directly in front of Lightning. She sat against a large tree, her arms crossed over her chest. She was looking at the ground, deep in thought. She didn't have her usual scowl on her face, but she looked rather sad. I felt bad, as I realized she must've been thinking about her mother.

Fang didn't seem to feel bad about it.

"How'd she die?" Fang asked. I nudged Fang before saying "That's a rather touchy subject, don't you think?" Fang only shrugged in response before turning to Lightning.

Lightning's face was a peculiar sight. She still looked sad, her eyes expressed pure horror, her mouth twitching as if she was trying to say it out loud.

"She was killed. In front of me." Lightning's voice came out in a very low whisper. Now I felt terrible. It was easy to see people you didn't care about die in front of you, but not someone that close. Fang's face showed guilt.

"I'm sorry." Fang managed out. Lightning shook her head, before placing her head in her knees. A rather loud and completely uncalled for snore came from the direction of Snow. I looked over to see him out cold, his head on a rock. Lightning's head shot up, but she placed it back on her knees slowly, scowling at Snow.

After about 20 minutes of awkward silence, Fang fell asleep. I couldn't sleep.

"She was dying anyway." Lightning said softly. I looked over at her, curious. She was completely out of character. Small tears were falling down her face, but she made no sound. She was staring up at the sky.

After a while, Lightning spoke again, "You know that saying, the one where if one lovebird dies the other one does too? That's kind of what happened. My father died, and she got sick. My brother had to get a better job, to pay her bills, so he went off to work at something called SOLDIER. The money he sent was enough to pay her bills, but I had to get a job to pay for everything else." I knew she wasn't exactly talking to me, but I listened closely anyway.

"I never knew you had a brother." I said softly. She nodded.

"His name was Cloud." She answered. I caught the was, but I didn't question it.

After yet another pause, Lightning said, "It was like that for a while. And everyday my mom got sicker. And then…." I knew what she was trying to say.

"You don't have to tell me any more if it bothers you." I said, trying to be comforting. She looked at me and nodded, before smiling.

"Thank you." She whispered. I cocked my head to the side before asking,

"For what?" She smiled at me once more before looking back up at the sky.

"For listening." She answered simply. I beamed.

"Anytime you need a set of ears. You can borrow mine." I chirped. She looked at me, before smiling weakly. I fell asleep afterwards.

Xx

The next few days passed by quickly. I spent most of the time with Fang, stepping in to a fight if I was needed. Lightning went back to her usual self, relentlessly killing everything in her path. I often wondered if Lightning enjoyed killing. She seemed like it.

Mah'habara felt like torture. I felt we were walking around aimlessly.

"I'm going to go up ahead." Lightning said as she lived up to her name and bolted out of sight. That wasn't a problem until there came a fork in the road.

"What do we do now?" Snow said. Hope pointed to the left, "Um, that one?"

Looking down the other path, I could see Lightning. I turned to tell everyone, but they had already headed down the left path. Conflicted, I ran towards Lightning. She looked at me, before asking,

"Where is everyone?"

"They went down the other path, they thought you went down that one." Lightning let out a grunt.

"It's a dead end. They'll realize that in a minute." She said. I felt nervous about Fang

"Can we go back anyway?" I asked, adding a sheepish grin. Lightning sighed before nodding.

It was a rather interesting sight. Everyone was at the dead end, staring at it. A glyph was there, glowing an odd purplish hue.

Before anyone could say anything, Snow's hand outstretched and touched the glyph.