Fang. Lightning thought as she lay back on the floor of a garden rooftop overlooking the small pulsan village of Oerba. It was the first time she had stopped to think for weeks. She gazed over the village that was still in the middle of repairs. If only you could see it now.
"Where will we go?"
"Who will lead us?"
"How will we survive?"
"Where will we go?"
The questions just kept coming in an endless circle from the most important politicians and military leaders in cocoon, who had met near the edge of the camp that currently houses most of the population of Cocoon, not far from the base of the huge crystal tower stretching between Lake Bresha in Cocoon to the Oerba Lake on Pulse. The camp had been set up where people had landed on the side of the pillar furthest from Oerba opening up onto the open plains of Gran Pulse proper. Light sighed.
"We're gonna be here for months at this rate" she whispered to Sazh who was stood by her. The black man said nothing but nodded slightly confirming his agreement and impatience. It had been two days since they had destroyed Orphan and saved Cocoon and as the cause of it all the former l'cie had been given no choice but to oversee the meetings to sort out the political issues that had been bought up by it.
"Silence!" roared Bartholomew a hand on Hope's shoulder as he also lost patience with the squabbling politicians.
One or two of them looked like they were about to turn on him but a quick glance to Hope and the rest of the former l'cie showed them all to have hands placed lightly on their weapons and thought better of it.
"Thank you." Bartholomew said walking forwards slowly scanning the faces of onlookers for signs of trouble. "I'm no politician and don't pretend to be" he started "But even to me it is clear that we have no sense of order and require a leader to function properly. For now I nominate the saviours of Cocoon..." he glanced at the l'cie uncertainly and relaxed to see lightning's relief that someone was taking charge even if it was them. "At least until someone is agreed upon to take the position permanently."
"Very well." Said one of the politicians turning to the former l'cie. "Do you accept this?"
"Anything to speed up this boring process" Snow said unable to prevent his annoyance from showing.
"I refuse to accept the l'cie scum." One of the leading figures, Agrona Zupan the new head of PSICOM. "They are filled with the pulse taint and will kill us the first chance they get." She finished her voice rising slightly in volume.
"Are you insane?" Bartholomew turned to her offended at his son being referred to as 'scum' "They saved Cocoon. Without them we wouldn't even be alive right now."
"Silence" Agrona yelled back at him signalling her troops who were with her to attack.
Bartholomew stood his ground staring at Agrona.
"You defend them and you are as bad as them" Agrona said. "Attack!"
The two PSICOM guards on either side of her rushed forward pulling their guns out as they ran only to find all four of the former l'cie stood between themselves and Bartholomew weapons drawn. They hesitated momentarily before continuing to charge.
"Hold it!" yelled an eerily familiar voice.
The PSICOM troops turned to confront this new entry before dropping their guns in amazement as Cid Raines walked into the meeting.
"Long time no see." He said smiling turning to face Light and the others. "I'm not gonna attack you." He added when he noticed that rather than lowering their weapons they tightened their grip at the sight of him.
"Prove that you're free of the big man." Sazh said lowing one pistol cautiously and walking forwards still keeping the second pistol trained on Raines's head.
Raines smiled and pulled up his sleeve showing them that like them his mark was gone.
"That'll do for now." Sazh said lowering the other pistol.
"But we still don't trust you." Light added before anyone else could speak.
"So where were we?" Cid asked un-phased by Lightning's hostility.
"We were just sorting out who should lead us now that Dysley is no longer with us." Agrona said. "And that idiot had just suggested letting those l'cie scum do it until we have someone more permanent" she finished pointing accusingly at Bartholomew.
"Well how about I take the position full time?" Cid asked holding a hand up to silence Snow's protests. "And if I fail to prove I can be a good ruler with the best interests of the people at heart rather than some fal'cie's twisted dreams, you can tear me limb from limb."
"Sounds good." Snow said simply after pausing for a moment to consider it.
"Where's Fang and her friend." Cid asked noticing the absence of the two pulsan women.
Before anyone could respond or stop her Lightning strode forwards covering the distance between her and Raines and punched him, knocking him onto the floor.
"Fang and Vanille" she began forcefully standing over him "are locked deep inside that thing" she pointed at the crystal pillar behind her "trapped in crystal after solving your stupid mistakes."
Cid stayed quiet as he got to his feet. When Lightning did not punch him again he felt it safe to speak once more but changed the topic.
"What do we need to sort next?" he said.
"What're we going to do about Cocoon?" one of the officials spoke up. "And what are we going to do about the people while we decide?"
"What is the damage report from the death of Orphan?" Cid asked automatically attempting to do what he can to lessen the severity of the situation.
"Eden is destroyed. Most of the citizens were evacuated when the pulse invasion kicked off but the casualties still numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Other than that Bodum sustained severe damage but was empty because of the purge and other uninhabited areas like the hanging edge also took a lot of damage." The official stated listing off the areas that were hit. "There were minor casualties in other areas from Cocoons decent but nothing of major consequence."
"Overall deaths?" Cid asked wanting to get the worst out of the way.
"Still unknown but we estimate near three hundred thousand dead and another hundred thousand injured. There are currently five hundred unaccounted for, most of them children and elderly, we cannot say what became of them."
"Right." Cid paused to think momentarily "Our first priority needs to be protecting those who we have already evacuated and finding those that are missing." Secondly we need to find shelter for the evacuees while we rebuild Cocoon." He turned to face Light, "You've been here before. Are there any areas of pulse that are habitable?"
Light stayed quiet for a moment. "Oerba." She whispered before saying louder "Not that we saw. All the pulsan settlements we passed through were just Cieth infested ruins that don't even offer shelter anymore."
Hope took a few steps towards Lightning as she looked down a sad expression on her face. He rested his hand comfortingly on her arm.
"We could try and clear them out if we had the troops but it would still require a lot of work before it's habitable." He said to Raines evenly.
"Sir." A soldier suddenly ran into the room.
"Report" Cid said turning to face the new entrance unphased.
"We might have found a solution to the problem of shelter" he said. "There is a small village on the opposite side of the crystal pillar."
Lightning looked up suddenly at this fear and sorrow just showing through beneath her normally warm but steely eyes.
"I see you may have not been honest with us." Cid smiled turning to her. "Your reaction tells me you know of this place but did not wish to speak of it. I won't ask why you hid it, I don't think my jaw can take another example of your left hook but it would have been nice to at least know there was somewhere we won't have to start from scratch" he turned back to the soldier "Any other information we know of it?"
"It is currently inhabited by a number of unusual Cieth but other than that appears deserted. There are certainly a lower number of hostiles than anywhere else we've seen."
"That's probably because we spent three days there in total upgrading equipment and resting before returning to Eden knowing it would be fighting from thereon in." Light said a slight hint of pride in her voice upon learning they had had a lasting effect.
"So you did travel through there then." Cid said. "You could lead us there again?"
Lighting turned and looked at her fellow former l'cie and saw the same sorrow that she felt but a determination not to forget the sacrifices made by their friends.
"We can." She said turning back to Cid. "But we'll need every available troop in order to protect the civilians."
"That's to be expected. If we give you two weeks to train the soldiers with what they will need to know do you recon you can manage it?" Raines asked smiling.
Light thought carefully for a moment.
"Yes, I believe so, but it will still be dangerous and we might lose people" She said honestly.
"That's something we'll have to risk" Cid said.
He turned to the gathered officials.
"Spread the word. We have two weeks to pack up and prepare for travel as well as to find as many survivors still on cocoon as possible. After that we make for this village."
"Oerba" Light said smiling slightly. "I'll lead the operations myself."
A month later Lightning stepped out of the lift from Taejin's Tower onto the snowy slopes overlooking Oerba, accompanied by Snow and Hope, the advance party to check the coast was clear before Hope returned back up the lift to Sazh telling him it was safe for the refugees to come down.
"Never thought I'd see this place again." Snow said quietly listening to the tune the lift played as it carried Hope back up the tower.
"I did;" Light said. "I just thought there'd be more of us."
Snow stayed silent knowing she was referring to Fang and Vanille as they had managed to protect the citizens from harm on the long trek from the open plains of the Archylte Steppe. It had been a long journey but now all that remained was to clear Oerba of monsters and begin rebuilding.
Fang. Lightning thought as she lay back on the floor of a garden rooftop overlooking the small pulsan village of Oerba. It was the first time she had stopped to think for weeks. She gazed over the village that was still in the middle of repairs. If only you could see it now.