Disclaimer: I'm sorry, but I don't own Lightning, Hope, Vanille, Fang, Cocoon, Pulse, etc etc. I only own the epicness plot =P
A crackling campfire. It lit up the darkness, pushed it away with light. Over it, one could see a massive sphere, sparkling in the darkness. And surrounding the sphere was a series of vast, rolling plains, teeming with life.
Around the campfire sat several silhouettes. There were several extremely short ones, indicating that there were children there too. But this was confirmed as one spoke up, asking in his still-high voice,
"Tell us a story!"
A raven-haired woman, strong and graceful, tended the fire. She replied, "I think your auntie Vanille has had enough storytelling for one day."
"Aw cmon Auntie Fang," chorused all the children. They rushed over to a red-headed woman, still young, but scarred with experience. "Please Auntie Vanille, please tell us a story?" She was assaulted with the children's puppy-dog look attacks, each one weathering away at her resistance until she finally gave in.
"Sit down everyone." Vanille patted the ground around the fire. The children gave out a resounding cheer as she caved into their demands- no, request.
"Which story do you want to hear?" She asked. "The gorgonopsid and the Adancheild? Or maybe-"
She was cut off by an insistent voice from the back saying, "tell us about our world!"
"Alright," Vanille said. She got herself into her storytelling stance, remembering everything she had been told and had seen, and related it all to her captivated audience.
"In the beginning, there was only the Maker. He saw the void, and created land. He saw the darkness, and created light. He saw death, and created life."
The children ohhed and ahhed over such a powerful diety.
"And so, he created the land Gran Pulse, and small planetoid of Cocoon. Gran Pulse is, as all of you know, filled with nature and the wild, tribes roaming everywhere, living- no- thriving. "
The children nodded as they took this in. Being on Gran Pulse themselves, they knew exactly what they were talking about.
"But what about Cocoon?" asked an eager young boy.
"I'm getting there," said Vanille with an annoyed look on her face.
"Cocoon was a technological marvel. They had machines to make everything they needed. They wanted for nothing.
Unfortunately, Cocoon and Gran Pulse were too different. People from both sides hated each other. Back then, Cocoon thought Gran Pulse was a hell, filled with monsters ready to slaughter them at the first chance. And we Pulsians... We thought Cocoon was filled with vipers ready to strike down at us at any moment. And so the War of Transgression started."
"Children, you should get to sleep," said Fang.
"But we haven't even started the War yet," whined the children.
"Just tell them about the end," came a soft voice from the other side of the fire. His silver hair obscured his eyes, but the twinkle in them was apparent.
"Uncle Faith! You're here!" screamed the children in joy.
"And me?" Asked a pink haired woman as she down near the newly-named 'Uncle Faith.'
"And Auntie Thunder!" squealed the children.
The two looked at each other. 'Uncle Faith' shook his head as 'Auntie Thunder' grimaced, "Will they never get our names right?"
"Ahem." Vanille cleared her throat rather loudly. The children looked back at her. "Do you want to hear my story, or would you rather go to bed?" The children scrambled to get in front of her and sat down, without a peep out of their mouths. "Good", Vanille said as she nodded in approval.
"Now, Fang and I were cursed by the big bad Fal'Cie to be l'Cie. l'Cie are given a task to do, and either fill it out and get turned to crystal, die, or..." Vanille shuddered as she remembered the lumbering hulks that had previously been living breathing humans only moments before.
"Or else you become a monster." Fang chimed in.
Vanille nodded. "Right. But when you're cursed, you get a big brand showing you're a l'Cie. The Fal'Cie also give you magical powers."
"Like?" demanded one of the children.
"This." Vanille grinned evilly as she splayed out her hands towards Fang, and cast Blind on Fang, who had the misfortune of having her eyes closed. Fang slowly opened her eyes, only to see darkness. The rest of the group around the campfire shared giggles as Fang stumbled around the campsite, muttering profanities and insults. Vanille removed the spell.
"Well, you all know our task. Destroy Cocoon. And this was to be achieved by the Fal'Cie Anima giving us a heightened form to transform into when the time was right. Ragnarok. The ultimate power. The ultimate weapon." The children shuddered.
"A magnificent beast of immense power. It truely could annihilate the entirety of Cocoon in one fell swoop."
The children gasped. "But what about Uncle and Auntie?"
"But thankfully, before that, we were to stage an attack on a critical military outpost on Cocoon. It..."
Vanille stopped abruptly. She couldn't continue. It was too much to relive those memories.
Then, Fang made her way to her. 'Uncle Faith' and 'Auntie Thunder' also walked over. They put their hands in hers. They infused her with not only their confidence in her, but also their memories.
To Vanille, it was as if a bravery spell was put on her. She suddenly knew what she had to do. And she plunged into the silvery pool in her mind that was not only her memories, but also the memories of the three around her.
And Vanille pulled out memories, like a long cord. She saw her own self. She saw 'Uncle Faith' when he was there on that fateful day. She felt the desperation of 'Uncle Thunder'. She saw herself, and the events surrounding that day, again.
In the real world, the people surrounding the campfire saw the sight of the memories, felt the pain and emotion, thought the same thoughts.
Vanille swam through the memories, choosing several of them, discarding others. And as she passed through them, everyone in the real world was there, as that person. And that's how the entire campfire managed to see the last moments of the war 2 years ago. It was the beginning of the end...
"There goes another one!", shouted one of the Pulsian raiders in fear. They had just witnessed one of their few rickety transports crumble under concentrated fire from the Cocoon defenders.
Vanille winced. How many was that? Fifty lives simply gone? She hardened her mind, knowing that before the war's end, the costs would be much larger.
As the transports touched onto ground, Pulsian raiders started streaming out. And Vanille couldn't help but smirk a tiny bit, seeing Fang whoop in joy as she brought her lance down to crush a Cocoon soldier. Odd, she thought, he had no helmet. Ah well, Another decline in the numbers of the vipers.
However, the Pulsians had only tribal weapons such as lances and bows. As skilled as they were with them, they simply couldn't compare with the advanced weapons of Cocoon.
It's time to even the odds, thought Vanille, and tossed spell after spell at the Cocoonian defenses. Ice and Fire flew at the defenders. She frowned when the soldiers just kept shooting. Blindna should do the trick.
As the Cocoon soldiers reeled around, suddenly surrounded by darkness, the Pulsians quickly scaled the defenses and put them down viciously.
Outwardly, Vanille reveled in the bloodshed. But... there was a little part of her that cried out in sadness. A tiny part that shouted out, that this was wrong.
Just then, the raiding party got to the center of the compound. And that's where they met a silver-haired boy, maybe 14, glaring daggers at them.
There was a sudden jump into Hope's mind. His mind was different than Vanille's. While hers had been Dark, full of guilt and regret, his was filled with fear. But there was also love, and and a seed of bravery.
Ever since the morning, the day had gone horribly wrong. His father Bartholomew had finally agreed to bring him to the place that the town, if not the entire region, depended on. He was so excited! He finally got to see the reason why those Pulsian dogs hadn't yet taken over his beloved world. He might even be able to see his older sister, nicknamed Lightning. She was his idol, and a sergeant in the military. But she was stationed far away from here. But first, his mother got into a huge shouting match with his father about going in the first place- she said he was too young for the rigors of war. But his father yelled back, and stormed out, bringing Hope. Say what you would about Hope's father- paper-pusher, coward, politician- he was not someone who went back on his promises. So he actually did bring Hope, despite his personal misgivings, as well as the misgivings of his wife.
The second they stepped into the compound, Hope had shrunk a little bit. It looked not like a place of Pulse-fighting heroes, not the humble abode of brave knights, but it rather looked like a concrete jungle, and smelled like a pigpen. Some of the soldiers inside gave Hope condescending looks, and insulted his father. His father simply ignored them, grabbed Hope's hand, and walked faster.
Just as they were about to enter the main building, the ground shook. Alarms wailed, and suddenly there was a sense of tension and urgency not there a mere second ago. Soldiers rushed everywhere.
A group of soldiers sprinted towards them, quickly hustling them towards the building, and they huddled in one of the larger rooms, shaken. Other citizens from the nearby town were being hurried in. The room quickly became crowded, and everyone shivered in fear hearing the crashes and screams of the fighting outside.
Then, the Commanding officer limped in, helped along by several subordinates. His leg was pierced by an arrow, but everyone gasped as they saw his left arm was quite literally burned off. He coughed, holding a napkin in front of him. The assorted citizens murmured as they saw it was covered in blood.
Then, the man said, "Yes, it's true. Those Pulsian dogs are overwhelming us. "
The murmuring grew stronger.
"But they won't for long."
The muttering suddenly went silent.
"Why? Because we have you, the people of Cocoon helping us. Will you stand with us, and repel these Pulsian invaders?"
"Yeah, let us fight!" shouted some of the younger, more enthusiastic men.
"You can't expect us to just sit back and watch." said some of the other more older men.
"Alright, we have this many weapons left." the CO gestured to a cart being wheeled in by several soldiers. It was piled high with many weapons. However, when the volunteers walked forward, it was empty. Except for...
"There's one left." noted the CO. "Any volunteers?"
"I'll take it." said Hope's father.
"No!" Hope cried, "you can't-"
"Yes I can," said Hope's father. "For you."
Hope watched helplessly as the men slowly walked out, solemnly.
It was only 10 minutes later that he heard that the entire defense, including the volunteers, were completely annihilated.
When Hope heard, he ran out of the room sobbing. The people left looked after him with sad eyes. Most of them, after all, had lost a father, or a husband, or a son. They could understand the feelings.
Hope didn't think when he ran out. He had a vague idea of going outside and finding his father, maybe bringing him out. Or maybe even simply trying to surprise one of the Pulsian warriors. Maybe he could wrest a knife away from them in their surprise, or maybe...
And he came right up in front of the main group.
Bastards, he thought.
The shift back to Vanille's mind was still startling. It was still dark, but perhaps a little less.
Vanille's first thought- He's so Cute! Then, how can someone so cute be one of those vipers?
Just then, there was a hiss of steam. The men surrounding Vanille and Fang stiffened. They had heard that sound before. So many times. As had Vanille. That sound... reminded her of the day when...
5 years earlier. Gran Pulsian village of Oerba.
"Mom! Dad! Come back!" A teenage Vanille screamed. "please, come back!"
She had been outside in the woods collecting herbs and plants along with her childhood friend Fang. When they heard that hiss, they had sprinted back towards their town of Oerba. They had had the lesson ingrained in them- when in danger, head back to the village. The hiss of steam heralded Cocoon soldiers. And Cocoon soldiers definitely put all of them in danger.
Vanille thought of the stories. About how the Cocoon men were half viper, had a serpentine face. They were ruthless, and had eye slits like a snake. They even had a tongue like a snake- with a v.
When she got back to the village, she was greeted with the sight of a nightmare. The soldiers were not in sight, but they had already done their bloody work. Smoke rose from fallen buildings, and groans echoed throughout the village.
Vanille snapped out of her stupor, and sprinted for her house. It was eerily quiet. And as she quietly stepped into the kitchen, she was greeted with the sight of her parents lying in a pool of blood, her father's hand still holding her mother's. Vanille knelt by her fallen parents' bodies, paralyzed with grief.
"Chosen one!" One of the raiders screamed. "What do we do!"
Vanille snapped out of her daydream, and grabbed Hope. He tried to jerk out of her grasp, screaming all the while. Another raider gagged and trussed him, tying him over his shoulder.
"Right, let's go," She said.
Vanille and her raiders sprinted out of the compound, and headed for the transports. Thankfully for them, the Cocoon transports landed on the other side of the compound. She saw her team around her and nodded. They boarded the largest transport together, and screamed one word together to the pilot, "GO."
As the back door went up, a platoon of Cocoon soldiers appeared. They were lead by a woman in pink hair. As Hope saw her, he ripped the gag off, and screamed at the top of his lungs, and screamed. "Lightning!". The woman cried, "Hope, I'm coming!"
The transports blasted off into the air. Only Hope was looking back at the Cocoon soldiers left behind. Only Hope saw the Lightning fall to the ground and start sobbing.
Vanille saw the pink-haired woman and stiffened. Lightning, was it? She finally had a name to blame for her horrors...
5 years earlier. Gran Pulsian village of Oerba.
"No... Mom... Dad...," sobbed Vanille. How could it be? How could they be gone? Their bodies were here- where had father gone? His love for his family, his devotion to his people, his hard work and kind eyes. And what about her mother? Where had her love of cake, her love for father, her love for film gone? Wait... film...
It was then that Vanille truly saw the camera. It was still recording, for who knows what. She picked it up and frowned. It showed her mother laughing, her father kissing her, and then alarms. Her father perked up, walked across the room, and was pushed back by the door literally coming off its hinges. He flew across the room, while a pink haired woman with a Cocoon uniform pointed her gun at them. Her mother quietly walked beside her husband, and took his hand. 2 bright flashes later... her parents were gone, and the pink haired woman- Lightning- was outside to continue her bloody work.
Present day- Pulsian transports.
"Who is she, who is she," growled Vanille as she shook Hope. Hope, on the other hand, remained stubbornly silent. Vanille raised a hand, ready to slap him, but he remained defiant as ever. Suddenly, she had a thought. She raised her arm, showing her Pulse l'Cie brand, and said quietly, "If you don't tell me right now, I'll... I'll turn you into one of us."
Hope was now visibly trembling. He could resist, but he would never, at any costs, become one of the Pulsians. So quietly, he said, "she's my... sister."
Vanille gasped. Here was the brother of the one who had killed her parents. Here was a chance for revenge! She raised a knife conveniently provided by one of the nearby Pulsian raiders, and was ready to stab Hope in the heart. She started to lower the blade...
When it was suddenly stopped. An elder was on the transport, and he whispered into her ear. He held the knife in one hand. The other had been lost in war. But the frown on his face said something clearly- NotNow.
Vanille got the message, that she wasn't to kill Hope, and she respected the elder's judgment deeply. However, she still believed that something had to be done. So she whispered to Hope, who was by now shivering and sweating with fear, "you're going on the gallows tomorrow." She then walked out of the cabin to wait for the flight to end.
As Vanille tossed and turned in bed that night, she thought deeply. She had been happy to receive the praise awarded to her by both the soldiers and the elders of the various villages. And she had announced her intentions to execute Hope the next day. But then she heard some terrible news. Fang had been captured. And the only possible way of getting her back was a prisoner exchange. And who better to exchange than...
And the next day Vanille lead the ceremonies to the maker, and to the Fal'Cie. However, these were half-hearted, as Fang was not by her side, murmuring the words beside her. She looked down, almost couldn't speak for a moment, then continued.
As Hope watched Vanille, he thought that he should feel happy about Vanille's blunder, that he should be happy with Vanille's pain. But he felt only sadness. Vanille right now wasn't the enemy, she was only someone who had recently lost someone dear to them. A feeling that Hope had certainly felt in the past day.
Hope looked up at Cocoon. He thought at the great orb, am I thinking the right thing?
He then squinted. Then almost whooped for joy. For he could see a flotilla of ships headed his way. Cocoon ships. And although he couldn't see it right now, he could imagine her flying towards him, pink hair streaming behind her, gun by her side.
Lightning was here, and anyone who tried to stop her simply wasn't fast enough.
In a whirlwind, the entire Pulsian compound was on their bellies. They had showed up for a religious ceremony after all, and hadn't brought their weapons. Lightning was about to give her soldiers the order to fire, but was stopped by Hope. He caught Vanille's eye as his mouth was about to close. He thought of her mourning for Fang. He said to Lightning, " Those people have loved ones too. I know you miss Dad, and Zach, and Cloud, and Sarah, but they have people who will miss them too. Please... Don't make it any worse..."
Little did Hope know that Lightning's loudspeaker was on. And so Hope's words were broadcast throughout the entire compound. Every person there heard those words. And everyone, including Vanille was just a little touched by it. And with that, Hope pulled a stunned lightning into the nearest transport. Her soldiers quickly followed, and they blasted off.
6 months later- Armistice ship.
It hadn't been easy convincing all sides. Fang was the first opponent to fall, seeing how devastating losing her family had been, and wishing to stop that from happening to others. The elders had been next. Lastly, the actual Pulsian armies were the hardest. But with encouragement from the two Chosen, they had in the end, put down their arms.
And the same with Cocoon. Many of the people there were tired of the fighting, and simply wanted it to stop. They supported a peace wholeheartedly. Many army men had also seen comrades fallen, and simply wished to stop that as well. But the government had taken convincing. Therefore, both the people and the army had staged a coup. And now, the fighting was over.
Vanille and Lightning found themselves on either side of Hope at the signing. Hope was the one who started it all, and the Cocoon public had rallied around his call for peace. Therefore, he was the head of the conference, with the advocates for peace, Lightning on one side, and Vanille on the other, around him. And when Hope stood up to shake hands with other politicians already eager to earn political coin, Vanille and Lightning found themselves sitting side by side.
The silence between them was awkward for so long. But in the end, Lightning sighed, and said two words. "I'm sorry."
Vanille blinked in surprise.
Lightning forged on, "I saw your photos in that house. I'm sorry I did that. I was just... so angry..."
And Vanille suddenly shouted, "Why!" As others turned around to view the commotion, Vanille said in a somewhat smaller voice, "why did they have to die?" And she started to whimper.
Lightning replied, "My siblings... were killed in a raid by your father. I hid in a closet, when they begged for mercy, they..." Lightning fell silent. Even the steel-spine soldier couldn't go on.
Vanille put her head down, needing something to cry one, someone to cry on. And she found her tears drying on Lightning's right shoulder. A tear streaked down Lightning's cheek as well, as she fought against her emotions. Many people murmured at the emotional event.
Hope hurried to the commotion, and suddenly saw Vanille crying on Lightning's shoulder, while Lightning had tear streaks on her face.
They both looked at each other and finally understood each other. They may not know each other's customs, nor their faith. But in that moment, Cocoon native and Gran Pulsian had one thing in common. An understanding of each other. And as they both wrote names on the fancy treaty, as Lightning nodded, Vanille simply said two words.
"Never Again."
Vanille still sat in the pool, unwilling to get out. That moment so rewarding, in so many ways, for so many. But she looked up, and saw Fang's face, along with Hope's and Lightning's. She raised her hand, and they pulled her out.
As soon as Vanille came out, the first thing she noticed was the quiet. The fire was still crackling, but the children were unnaturally silent. That's because they were all silently breathing in and out, in a pile of blankets on the ground.
Vanille looked at the other three, eyebrows raised in a question. That long?
"Yup," Fang said, "That long."
Vanille looked up at the silvery moon up in the sky. She contemplated the event that still had effects on her 2 years later. A world filled with peace. She could still hardly believe it.
Maybealittlemorethanpeace, Vanille thought as she watched Lightning and Fang get into a friendly wrestling match. When would she get used to the fact that Pulsian and Cocoonian were not fighting over lives and land, but over fun and jokes?
"Maybe a lot," came the whisper from behind her ear.
"Maybe," she whispered back, as she allowed arms to be wrapped around her waist.
Fang and Lightning openly gaped as they stopped their argument to watch the spectacle of Hope and Vanille smiling, as one. The pair didn't seem to notice. They simply sat there, and watched the stars and sky, and the glowing orb in the sky meshing in perfectly with the plains surrounding it. It gave off a soft glow, and the plains around it shimmered in radiance.
The fire crackled. It pushed back the darkness, but only so much. Outside their ring, the darkness still reigned. And the four sat in the light, feeding it, but the fire only doing what it could. Try as it might, it could not yet reach out of the circle of light.
The four simply sat, tending to the fire for hours. They sat, and took turns. One pair might sit and think, while the other slowly fed the fire with wood.
Slowly, but surely, the fire went out. Its light dimmed, until the only light was one tiny red ember, refusing to surrender to the cold and the darkness.
The ember went out. But the four didn't notice. They were looking up, towards the east.
The sun, in all its magnificence, rose slowly but surely, and drove the darkness away. The floating orb in the sky glowed like a luminescent bulb, the plains below covered with a growing golden light. The sun rose, and hit Hope and Vanille. They smiled, radiant, light around them like a golden wreath. Lightning and Fang were also glowing with the wonderful golden light, looking at each other in awe.
They had held out.
They had survived the dark days.
They had brought light to their people.
And they would ensure those dark days would not repeat, never again.
Guys I cannot stress this enough- please review! Tell me what's good, but most importantly, tell me what's bad. I really want to improve, and that's the best way how.