AN: That's a good amount of reviews for the first chapter. Glad so many of you enjoyed it. So this story will continue, although I cannot guarantee a steady uploading speed. Drama production, college apps, school, and trying to figure out my feelings for a few girls I know, people. Not fun stuff. Well, except the very first.
Disclaimer: Herp derp. Potatoe. You all lost THE GAME.
Begin!
For my son... I'll pay any price... Just give back my son...
"Ugh. What hit me?..."
A boot roughly found itself in my ribs, flipping me onto my back, forcing me to wake up. My eyes were still blurred from recovering back my first fal'Cie induced concussion or whatever it was that made my head ring.
"Hey, get up, old timer. Yeesh. What were so many civvies doing in the Pulse Vestige? For Eden's sake..."
Hey... wasn't that one of the PSICOM officers that arrived in the Vestige with us?
This wasn't good... he better not have been with Colonel Naabat...
Ah man... that lady's going to kill me!
"Serah!" I heard the young blond man cry out, likely just awakening himself. With groggy eyes I could see him get up before examining our surroundings with panic in his eyes, looking for his precious Serah who we had seen turn to crystal before our eyes.
All of Lake Bresha had been turned to crystal, the waves, the foam that had been churned up by the water when the Vestige likely crashed into the lake, all of it. It was breathtakingly horrifying.
I gaped as the blond, Snow, I recall, did his imitation of a goldfish alongside me.
"Is this... for real?..." he muttered, disbelieving.
"You bet it is. All the water of Lake Bresha has been crystallized. Looks like Anima wanted to do more damage Cocoon by getting rid of one of its largest sources of water. Damn, this is going to have serious repercussions for Cocoon. A fifth of the water supply is in this lake alone." the PSICOM officer with the oversized gunblade sighed.
What, was he compensating for something?
...Not that I'd ever ask that to they boy's face of course...
"S-so you're saying that this must be Lake Bresha? I guess we fell from up there and the lake turned to crystal?" I asked out loud, looking up at the green fogged sky.
Orange eyes from the officer's PSICOM mask stared at me blankly, but I could feel the look of, 'No, really?' from behind it.
"I'm saying that it was Lake Bresha. Now it's one giant hunk of crystal." He scuffed his heavy boot against the surface of the crystal, "Not even ice. Geez, Cocoon is in for one hell of a water shortage."
"Ugh. Major, sir. Are you alright?"
The other PSICOM officer had just gotten up and I could recognize the uniform that he wore. Only some of the more elite in PSICOM ever grew past the status of a footsoldier, even fewer getting a position of anything higher than a lieutenant. The man had the Uchiha Fan stitched onto his right shoulder.
Damn.
PSICOM nobility?
There were four letters in red under that red and white fan.
ANBU.
Shit... these two must have been top of the line... and the one with the overly large gunblades was a major?
ANBU were the best of the best in PSICOM and no matter what rank you were, once you got into ANBU, you were demoted to the status of a private, although an ANBU private had more pull than a regular PSICOM lieutenant... and this man was a major... if he was in ANBU...
An ANBU major...
He could probably kill us all without even trying.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Captain. Don't worry yourself. Need healing?"
"Negative, sir. I'll be just fine." the captain stood up, brushing himself off and checking his equipment. "How are the civilians?"
"They'll be fine, it seems." the major PSICOM responded. He too had the ANBU insignia. "They're tougher now than they ever were."
"You mean..."
"Yup."
"Well this complicates things..." the Uchiha soldier mused.
"Hey, what's going on! Did the fal'Cie do this? Somebody explain to me what the heck is happening!" I panicked, I admit it. I didn't understand anything that seemed to be going on here. I turned to Lightning, the GC soldier that I had followed into the Vestige and she turned away from me with a frown on her face.
"How should I know?" she responded, almost emotionlessly before drawing her gunblade.
She glared at the two ANBU PSICOM officers expectantly, ready for any possible signs of aggression.
The major who was dressed in a red, armored overcoat PSICOM uniform with black flames licking the bottom edges laughed, throwing his helmeted head back, the metal armor looking suddenly more vulpine.
"You gonna fight me, GC? That would be interesting."
"Guys! We shouldn't fight! Shouldn't we be more glad that we're alive?" a young redheaded teen, Vanille, I think, cried out.
She had on this sort of skimpy tribal clothing that I wasn't really sure if it counted as such. Clothing, I mean. It was more of patched furs and leather linked with beads more than anything.
"I think the more important thing is how we survived that fall." I spoke up, getting a few glares, making me suddenly feel very self-concious. "W-what? Can't let an old man babble?"
The little chocobo chick in my afro stuck out its little head before shaking and popping back in.
"Serah! It must have been Serah that saved us! Nobody survives a fall that high, not without a miracle. Serah saved us!"
Guess who that was...
Unfortunately, that got Lightning's attention and, well, Pulse hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Target's a target. I fight blind, but I will protect Cocoon with my life, for I am a Guardian.
"Serah?" how dare he... how dare he utter her name after what had happened... "Listen, it's all your fault she got-"
"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" Sazh called out, almost tripping as he dashed to his right, although hid did slip a little, "We got bigger things to worry about! Like that Cie'th over there!"
I turned around to see that a large, blue and black, metal and crystal Cie'th had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and was about to strike me. For the first time in my life, I really froze when this monstrous Cie'th towered over me, arm raised and poised to crush me into the crystal lake.
"Watch out!" Snow cried out, getting in front of me before crossing his arms over his head to block a crushing blow from the Cie'th, knees buckling slightly. He grunted as he tossed up the metal arm, before something on his arm glowed and a flash of silvery-blue shot out, making the monster fly back.
A brand... a l'Cie brand...
Oh Eden... we were all l'Cie, weren't we?
There was a resounding crunch as it landed, unmoving.
I grasped the part above my left breast, where my brand was located.
I was just like Serah... cursed...
"Man... white boy got some power right there..." Sazh mumbled from behind me, but that wasn't what had us all shocked.
"What did I... just do?" Snow stared at the glowing mark on his forearm, eyes wide.
"You used magic!" the silver haired teen spoke up, standing finally. About time he got up from his fetal position. Such a child...
"You used the power of l'Cie!" he continued as more Cie'th closed in on us, "The fal'Cie cursed us, we're l'Cie now! All of us!"
I shifted my gunblade from its gun form to its blade form.
"Right."
Whether I was a l'Cie or not, there was no way that I could permit myself to die here!
The Cie'th in front of us got up as two fellow Cie'th jumped down from a high ledge made by a crystal wave.
"Yeesh. Some predicament that we've gotten in..." the PSICOM with the large gunblades groaned as he walked forward, drawing his blade. I thought that Naruto was the only one with a gunblade that big... but apparently not, since this man had two of them. "Well, looks like we have to kick some Cie'th butt together, eh? Somehow, I'm not really sure if PSICOM would accept a Pulse l'Cie back into their ranks."
A powerful gunshot took down one easily as three more flanked us from our left. Four more approached from our right.
Maybe Naruto gained two blades?... or perhaps he was given some experiment to make him stronger. I hear that Orochimaru of PSICOM had done things to himself that a normal man would die from to make himself stronger.
"Major! I'll hit up the ones on our nine! You there, the old man and the kid with the boomerang, help me put these bastards out of their misery!"
"I'm only forty! That ain't so old, boy."
The silver haired boy only shook nervously as he drew his high tech boomerang.
Wait, a major? Could... could he really be Naruto?
Why couldn't I seem to get my mind off of him? Even when my life is in danger... and he isn't here to help me, to save me, like he had always promised to?
Dammit!
I fired off a orb of magic, called 'Ruin' I instinctively knew, at the Cie'th that the PSICOM major had shot down, knocking it down again as it was attempting to get back up. It finally fell with a groan, body fading away into raw mana.
"Charge!"
Snow flung bolt after bolt of Blizzard spells at one of the before getting in close, punching away at the Cie'th. He pulled out two metal gauntlets from inside his large coat before slipping them off as he shook his hands which must have hurt from bashing into metal. When he was attacked he quickly picked up this yellow glow, Steelguard, that seemed to turn the damage into practically nothing.
I sidestepped the vertical swing from another Cie'th, dashing around and cutting at the monster from behind before firing off two more Ruin spells at it. It groaned in pain, but a few, well placed attacks had it trying to keep its distance.
As I fought my own Cie'th, I could see the red, black, and orange PSICOM officer weaving between the four that had approached from our right, wielding both of his large, heavy gunblades like a graceful dancer, bullets of mana and the blades of heavy steel mowing down his enemies.
He vaulted over a wide sideswing before cutting off one arm at the elbow, backflipping as he turned both gunblandes into their gun form and blasted the decapitated one into shrapnel and launching himself up further in the air.
A sommersault in the air and he landed back down, gunblades in sword form bifucerating two Cie't down the middle from top to bottom.
Then the remaining one got a lucky blow in as a large metal-crystal arm smashed into his helmet before it was sliced up into four or five pieces by a quick spinning attack. The Blitz technique. Once again the knowlege came to me by instinct, I noted as that Cie'th faded into mana, just like the rest of them had been.
"Son of a bitch!" the PSICOM major growled as an Aeroga blew up three more Cie'th that had been approaching our six up into the air harshly before he leaped up and separated the bodies of the last three into large quartets before landing on his feet, and putting away his weapons, pulling at his now deformed helmet, trying to pry it off, as the abnormal shape threatened to cutt off his air supply.
I turned around quickly to finish my own Cie'th with minimal help from the red haired girl, her whip-staff distracting the Cie'th enough so I could get a decisive blow.
I heard the sound of tearing metal as the helmet gave way to the opposing pull of two powerful arms. Turning my head, my breath caught in my chest as I saw familiar blond locks and whiskered face.
"...Naruto?..."
Power... I need more power... But how much will I give for it?
"Geez... even if we were turned to l'Cie, we weren't supposed to blow our cover, you dead-last." I called over to my best friend as the group gathered again.
"Oh, shut up, Sasuke, you emo-bastard. Like you've ever listened to rules. You know how many demerits the two of us have gotten because of you?"
"Ha. Like I care. The only reason I even called you 'sir' was because you were acting in a position of authority until now. Dumbasses can really only appear to be cool for so long. I knew you'd fuck up eventually."
Lightning, the hot and powerful girl, now woman, from the Academy gave me a bone-chilling glare that I didnt' think even my fire magic could overcome. Then she turned to Naruto with an even harsher glare, the other blond, Snow, staring at him in disbelief.
"Naruto... is that you?..."
"Uh... hi?"
He flinched as he dodged a bullet from Lightning's Blazefire Sabre.
"You don't write, you don't call, and now you come three years later in front of me during the middle of a Purge that's happening to OUR HOMETOWN? How dare you? You scum!"
She fired again, Naruto landed backwards on his butt. She fired again and he shifted awkwardly as it hit the crystal ground, a bit too close to his nether regions for comfort.
"Come on, Light-chan... I wasn't even part of the Purge group! I defected for Eden's sake! Cut me some slack!"
"D-defected? Shit, boy, that's serious! You're a major in PSICOM's ANBU division! You probably know a lot of classified stuff! They're going to be hunting you down if you didn't quit the normal way!" The old black geezer cried out in fear, pulling at the sleeves of his green and yellow coat. An ugly coat.
One I wanted to burn.
"Like it matters. He would have 'disappeared' about a month after quitting in the position he was placed in anyways." I spoke up, in support of the man that I unfortunately called my best friend. "He got neck deep in a bunch of old secrets that PSICOM kept hidden from the Purge previous to this one, the one about eighteen years ago. Our superiors only let it go since he was such a strong figure in ANBU, but now that he defected, well, only Eden knows what'll happen next... I still can't believe how you somehow coerced me into defecting with you."
"I guess the rumors in ANBU were true then. You are gay for me."
"...Wanna die, dead-last?"
He stuck out his tongue at me childishly before freezing as Lightning's blade flicked forward, the tip of the gunblade pressing lightly into his tongue's tip, close to drawing blood.
"Is that true? Did you really defect?"
"Do I look like I'm lying to you? Besides, we're all l'Cie now! Like the other PSICOM soldiers are going to care whether I was once one of them or not. We're all targets to them! I've gone through their training and most soldiers come out as mindless robots. That's what happens when you make a hardass like General Danzo in charge of training. But do I look like one of those heartless bastards to you?"
Snow, however, seemed to only be absorbed in his glowing l'Cie brand which was slowly losing its glow again, returning to its natural black and red.
"So we really are l'Cie..." he murmured quite loudly. Maybe a little fire would snap him out of his funk?
Sazh looked at the brand which was only half seen from his black undershirt.
"Looks like it." he agreed sadly.
I grunted, or 'hn'-ed as Naruto puts it, and looked at the teenaged girl and boy.
"Hey. You runts branded too?" I asked, taking off my helmet.
Since I wasn't PSICOM, I didn't see the need to pretend I was a part of it anymore. I never liked the helmet to begin with. It gives me the strangest helmet hair and makes my hair look like a chocobo's butt... I refuse to believe Naruto and that it looks like such all the time.
Vanille nodded before pulling up her fur skirt lightly with a long, elegant finger, the brand on the side of her left thigh showing much more clearly. Man, those legs were nice...
Wonder if she needs a man in her life.
"Okay." Snow sweatdropped. "It's official. The fal'Cie are twisted bastards, for sure."
"Hn. Perverts too, by the look of it."
"L'Cie to the last." Lightning agreed, sheathing her sword and turning toward us, resulting in the release of a deep breath from Naruto. The blade must have been pressed rather firmly into his tongue since he cast a discreet Cure spell on himself.
Wussy dead-last.
Hope fell to his knees, hand grasping his l'Cie brand.
"Why me?..." he whimpered, before suddenly grabbing on to anger as his anchor to reality, snapping at Lightning, "I don't even know you! But you had to go attack that thing? Just leave me alone!"
Now his anger turned on Snow.
"It's your fault... it's your fault my... you could've... ALL THIS IS YOUR AND SERAH'S FAULT!"
Not smart... what was this kid smoking? I mean, really?
...I could probably use some of that...
Snow had growled at him menacingly, "Watch it!" the tall blond barked at Hope, making the teen fall back and crawl backward on his butt before colliding with Lightning's leg, the pinkette not looking at all amused.
Naruto had gone as far as to get up and pick the silver haired teen up by the collar of his jacket, making him struggle to be let free, Naruto's killing intent focusing on the poor kid, making him begin to hyperventilate.
"Don't you dare say that about Serah-imouto. If you ever, even utter, one more bad thing about her in my presence, I will break you, boy."
"Hey, Naruto, lay off the kid."
"Shut up, Sasuke. Nobody messes with my precious people and gets away with it."
Dammit, he's forgetting about our Focus in his anger.
"Didn't you just say it yourself? We're all l'Cie now. Let's at least try to get along."
I can't believe I'm being forced to say something like this...
"I agree with the Uchiha guy." Sazh agreed, his chocobo chick chirping happily as it fluttered around his head. "Fighting amongst ourselves is gettin' us nowheres fast."
Naruto dropped the boy who got back into a fetal position, covering his head with his hands as he shook from Naruto's killing intent. Vanille did her best to comfort him, although I didn't think it was enough to get through to him.
I've been on the receiving end of Naruto's killing intent when I've done some pretty asshole-ish things myself. It wasn't pleasant, that's for sure.
I shook my head as Vanille began dragging Hope off to try to cheer him up again. Something about her was off... like it didn't quite add up... perhaps I was being too paranoid?
Then again, paranoia had saved my life more than once.
Yeah.
That and fire.
Lots and lots of fire... there were few things that fire couldn't fix.
"I'll make sure they don't get themselves killed." I groaned as Sazh followed with a sigh, agreeing to do the same.
Snow, Naruto, and Lightning stayed behind, each staring at each other.
I hoped that this would end well, otherwise it was going to be either Lightning and Snow's or Naruto's remains we were going to have to clean from the crystal lake surface.
L'Cie. Fal'Cie. Cie'th... All are cursed... All must end... Lead me to Omega...
"So... this is awkward..."
Snow slugged me in the face.
"Snow!" Lightning cried out in surprise.
"Man... that the Pneumatic Gauntlets that Biggs and Wedge were working on?"
He helped me up by grabbing my hand, the powerful guantlets' grip almost crushing the poor bones in my right hand.
"Yeah. They said that you were doing them a favor in exchange for arming NORA. Thanks for that by the way."
"Well you're we-"
He slugged me again with his other hand, letting me fall to the ground again.
Dammit.
I think he dislocated my jaw.
Thank god for the Medic l'Cie role.
"The first was for leaving for three years without telling us anything but the bullshit in your letter. You didn't even talk to us face to face and you didn't even start contacting us... the second one is for being late in coming to help save Serah."
"Ackpt." I spit out some blood as my cheek had cut itself on my teeth with the second punch. I healed myself up with a simple Cure spell. "Ok... I deserved that and probably more."
Snow shrugged.
"Yeah, but we need you. I'm going to beat you up more later."
"What, that a promise now, Snow?"
"Yeah, that means you have to stay alive until then. Got it?"
I laughed, even with the current soreness in my jawbone.
"Aight, aight. Yeesh. I'm a bigshot in PSICOM, or I was, at least. You should have a little more faith in me."
"Hah! The army's no match for NORA!"
I rubbed a pinkey in my ear.
"Hm? You say something Snow?"
"...You've officially gotten more annoying than when you teased me about liking Serah."
"Meh. I try."
Lightning just glared at the two of us.
"Men." she scoffed, somewhat in disbelief about what she just saw, "So quick to forgive. You're not off the hook yet in my book, Naruto."
"Called it."
"Shut up, Snow."
"...Doesn't change the fact that I called it."
He ran off, following the rest of the group as he dodged a half-hearted kick. I guess even after time, somethings don't change.
But...
I looked at Lightning again, discreetly taking in her figure now... some things on the other hand really change.
"So... I see you're wearing the cape. I knew you'd fall prey to the awesomeness that is orange."
"...You really haven't outgrown that phase?"
"Aw... you mad?"
"Yes, I'm mad. For the stupid situation I've been placed it and because it took you so long to come back."
"So you did miss me!"
"As much as one misses maggots growing on their flesh."
H-how harsh...
"Look, Light-chan, I'm sorry, but there was no way that I was going to get you involved in my mess. If some of the higher ups in PSICOM even knew that I was talking to you two, or anybody else for that matter, you would have been shipped off to who knows where to be used as leverage against me."
"I don't care. What, you think that people would have not noticed something fishy if I just disappeared?"
"And you think that nobody in the remaining half of Bodhum really cares that half the town was Purged? They're more busy trying to keep the fire away from their own asses!"
Lightning slapped me in the face, saying nothing, before she turned around, walking off to join the rest of the group again.
"...She's changed less than I thought that she would have." I sighed, rubbing at my now burning cheek, "When faced with unfortunate truths, she can still do nothing but walk away... but did she really havta slap me?... Man, this is going to be so troublesome. Where's a Nara when you need one? I'm sure Shikamaru would know what the hell I needed to do to get out of this mess, but nooooo. He's going to be off doing something lazy with Kakashi or sleeping around with Temari."
I made up the gap between me and the rest of the group with a brisk walking pace.
Snow, Sazh, and Lightning had taken point, way in the front, past what was logically safe, and Sasuke in the rear. He heard me even with my silent gait, damn those almost elfish ears of his, and smirked at the red handprint on my face.
"I see who wears the pants in your relationship."
"Shut up, Sasuke. Like you and Karin are any better. Well, then again you're getting dirty with Naabat..."
"...Low blow. She's crystal now. Besides, I was already in a polygamous relationship."
"Yeah, yeah. As if yours was much higher, you emo-man-whore."
"...Touché... They suspect anything?"
"Not yet. It'll take them a while to remember their Focus as well. You might want to stick with the lower tier Ravager spells. I think that I might have taken it too far with my Aeroga."
"You suck. I'm a good Commando, but a Ravager is what I do."
"Shut up. That's just because you can use practically every element. My individual spells are stronger than yours."
Sasuke snorted.
"Whatever. Don't change the subject. At least I'm not the one that got bitch slapped in the face."
Why was he one of my best friends again?
Stupid arsonist.
"Teme!"
"Dobe!"
I'm a Hero... and a Hero doesn't need to make a plan!
"A l'Cie, huh..."
"Yup." Sazh spoke as he played with the chocobo chick in his hands, "Looks like we're all playing for Team Pulse now. Grah! Why me?"
"That's how the cookie crumbles, I guess. We just got seriously shafted."
"You can say that again."
Lake Bresha was a wonderful sight in its crystal state, looking as if the whole lake was just frozen in time, like the most realistic hologram-photo on the face of Cocoon. I really wished that Serah could see it. She would have loved this sight.
Sazh looked back at Lightning whose brisk pace had her pass by us fairly quickly as she took point over us.
"Trust a soldier to keep her cool through this mess."
I couldn't help but to laugh at the older man.
"It's not even that she's a soldier. I think that it's just who she is as a person... To be honest she got turned into more of a hardass when Naruto left, really... Ah geez... I'da decked the guy harder, but we really need him in this situation..."
"You stupid, boy? The guy's in ANBU! That's the black ops unit of PSICOM! The elite of elites! And he made major at his age? You lucky the boy didn't cut you in half."
I scoffed as we walked down the slope of a frozen wave.
"Nah. We're like extended cousins, some people a few times removed down the family tree. My mom's last name was Senju which was a royal military family, but she eloped for love. And Uzumaki's and Senju's are pretty closely related. So he's probably my distant cousin or something. There are few of us left, too. Doubt that he'd commit homicide on us."
"You sure? I've met a few ANBU before. Nutjobs, all of 'em."
"You do realize that the two of us can hear you, right, old geezer?"
"I'm not that old, Uchiha-kid! Cut your hair, you look like the back end of a black chocobo."
"...That's it, he dies."
"Hah! Told you so, Sasuke-teme!"
"...Right after I kill you!"
Lightning shook her head in front of us.
"Men." she scoffed, my ears barely catching her speak.
We stopped at the bottom of the slope again as Lightning voiced a worry that I'm sure none of us forgot.
"Okay, if we don't know our Focus, how do we complete it?"
Mmm. That's true.
It was, Vanille who replied to that, surprising the rest of us.
"I think... I saw it..."
"Saw what?" Lighting asked, turning toward the younger girl.
"Well that is what a Focus comes down to people." Sazh spoke softly in exasperation, "The fal'Cie? They don't spell it out with clear-cut instructions. All you get is a hazy glimpse."
He got all self-concious again as we all stared at him.
"W-well, that's what they say. You know, legends and all."
I want to know where he heard those legends, because I've never heard that before myself, to be frank. Something was fishy about this whole ordeal.
Or maybe I was getting paranoid after turning into a l'Cie?
Nah, heroes don't need paranoia. We've got awesome on our side.
Lighting turned to Hope with some apathy.
"Did you see anything?"
"I, uh, I just... It's kinda foggy and all, but... I saw this big, no, this towering-"
"W-w-wait a minute." Sazh interrupted as we came to an epiphany, "Hold on now, y'all. Did we all have the same dream? This is ridiculous, man."
"Yeah. The Omega. The beast of the end. The destroyer and the great devourer of Cocoon, the thing that my parents were killed for looking into." Naruto spoke up behind us, making us all turn around and face him, "We've all been seriously boned. What you all saw was the one thing that can destroy a fal'Cie forever and ever. Ragnarok."
Ragnarok?
Shit. We really drew the short straw this time.
End!
Hey, hope you enjoyed, y'all!
And yes, Sasuke is going to have arson problems. Maybe a little schitzo to boot.
REVIEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
With love,
KSLCross