I do not own Final Fantasy 13 or any of the characters.
Unhappy Guardians
Daniel stepped out of the door after Lightning and Sazh and sealed the door behind them. They walked back out to the street just as a group of PSICOM soldiers arrived and aimed at them.
"That's them!" one of them shouted.
"Them who?" Daniel asked calmly.
"Shut up!" another said.
"Drop your weapons!" the commander said.
"Sorry," Daniel said. "I don't think so."
"Do it now!" the commander ordered.
Daniel drew his gunblade and blasted him and the soldiers on either side leaving four and he sprinted at one while Sazh shot two and Lightning shot one. The soldier shot at Daniel but he leapt into the air and landed behind him spinning and removing his head.
"Sick," Sazh said. "Now what?"
Lightning turned and ran off down the street and Daniel and Sazh followed. They reached a train station and jumped onto the track and ran along it over a firefight. Daniel threw a hand grenade into the ranks of the PSICOM soldiers and killed several. He also drew attention. They ran faster as bullets flew past and Sazh shouted something about dying. Finally the soldiers went back to shooting at the civilians and they reached another firefight. Lightning and Sazh both kept running but Daniel leapt off the track and into the PSICOM soldiers. They had surrounded the last fifty or so civilians and Daniel knew the fight was over.
He landed in a roll drawing his gunblade and slashed two soldiers then spun killing three more. Then he switched it to its gun-mode and began spinning and shooting. He picked up a soldier's gun and began shooting with that too and within minutes, half the soldiers were dead and the rest were finally starting to react. The civilians picked up their fallen guns and began shooting the soldiers with him. He threw the extra gun to a soldier then slashed him and ran into the ranks of soldiers dodging bullets from both groups and slashing soldiers right and left. Finally he finished just as a a massive metal structure was flown into the city by a fleet of jets.
"There it is," Daniel said. "You'd better wait for me Lightning."
He ran to the edge of the platform and leapt off just as a jet flew past. The jet was a ring of metal with an anti-gravity thruster on each end making it perfect for Daniel to grab the top and kick the PSICOM pilot out then take the controls and fly toward the structure. A crane suddenly turned toward the structure and raised itself to a doorway into the structure. He could see Lightning and Sazh running up the crane and jets flying toward them. He swung onto and intercept trajectory and began shooting and one of the jets swerved out of the way crashing into another. The third turned toward Daniel. They both began shooting and Daniel managed to hit the jet but got himself shot at the same time.
Lightning turned to look as a pair of jets exploded and a third turned to attack one that was trying to shoot it. She looked closer and saw that it was Daniel piloting the extra. After a couple minutes, both exploded into balls of fire and Daniel leapt out of his, fell twenty feet, and landed hard on a platform at the base of the crane she and Sazh were on. She groaned and turned running back for him and leaving Sazh behind.
Just as she reach him, a PSICOM Marauder landed behind her. She spun swinging at him and he blocked it with his staff then spun it and smashed the bottom into the side of her head sending her flying.
"Weak bitch," the Marauder said. "You and your friends should have just let yourselves be purged."
"And you shouldn't have hit a girl," Daniel said managing to roll onto his back and lift his gunblade to blast the Marauder in the back destroying his armor on the torso and his helmet.
Both fell away leaving him in gloves, pants, and boots with his staff.
"You failed," the Marauder said as Daniel blacked out.
"No," Lightning said standing. "He was just making an opening for me. Let's try this again."
The marauder turned back to her just as she charged at him. She swung and he blocked it then spun around her and thrust the bottom of his staff back at her. The point tore through her shirt and side leaving a bad gash but she still managed to spin and slash the Marauder then switched her gunblade to its gun-mode and shot him in the face splattering his brain over the ground. Then she gasped holding her side. She picked up Daniel and carried him up the crane to the door and gave him to Sazh then opened the door and they went inside. They stopped just inside and Lightning knelt pulling out an experimental type of potion that was supposed to be able to heal any wound no matter how grave so long as there was still life in the body. A moment later Daniel sat up as a loud audible crack went off and clamped his mouth shut to hold back a scream of pain. Then he fell onto his back again and sighed.
"Thanks," Daniel said looking at Lightning then paled. "What happened?"
"The Marauder got me before I could finish him," Lightning said. "It was a lucky shot."
"Looks like more than a lucky shot," Daniel said. "Let me see."
Lightning moved her hand aside and Daniel pulled the edges of the tear in her shirt out of the way so that he could clearly see that the blade had torn a large chunk out of her side. The entire left side of her shirt and skirt were both soaked in blood so bad they were dripping and Lightning was getting paler by the minute. Daniel bit back a curse and let the edges of the tear fall back into place.
"He got you good," Daniel said. "You'll bleed out if you aren't healed."
"Would a potion help?" Lightning asked.
"I doubt it," Daniel said. "I do, however, have something that would."
He pulled a tiny pill out of his pocket and handed it to her. She swallowed it then gasped as her side suddenly erupted in a white-hot pain. Her wound healed and Daniel sighed.
"You're healed," Daniel said. "Come on. We need to move."
He pulled her to her feet but the after effects of the pill kicked in and her legs gave out.
"Forgot about that," Daniel said picking her up bridal style. "Come on Sazh."
They walked down thew hall into a large open room with only one path leading up to a large round platform. When they got there, they found a Cie'th waiting.
"Shoot it in the eye," Daniel said.
Sazh did as instructed and the Cie'th exploded into millions of pieces which faded. They continued up a flight of stairs and came to another hall ending in a sealed door with a glowing L'Cie brand in the center.
"Now what?" Sazh asked.
"It's me," Daniel said. "Open the fuck up before I brake the door down."
The door suddenly shone a bright red then opened and Sazh gaped at Daniel. Daniel kept walking and after a moment Lightning pushed away from him and he helped her stand.
"I'm okay," Lightning said. "Now how did you get that door to open?"
"The fal'Cie knows me and knows that I would easily kill it if I wanted to," Daniel said. "It opened to save itself."
"You've got issues," Sazh said.
"I'm aware," Daniel said. "Should we keep moving or are we just going to wait around here all day?"
"Let's move," Lightning said.
"Why are we even here?" Sazh asked.
"I'm here to see the fal'Cie," Daniel said.
"I'm here for my sister," Lightning said.
"Well then why am I here?" Sazh asked.
"Cuz you don't want to be left alone right now," Daniel said. "Any more questions?"
"No," Sazh sighed. "Let's go play hero."
They all followed the hallway to a massive room with a fairly large platform in the center with several people in the middle. Lightning instantly recognized Snow and her sister. She ran forward and knelt beside Snow just as her sister began to shine before being encased in crystal. Then she rose into the air and faded, a single crystallized tear landing in front of Snow.
"What the hell happened?" Lightning asked.
"She completed her focus," Daniel said. "She'll wake up eventually. For now, she's asleep."
"How do you know?" Lightning asked.
"I've seen it before," Daniel said. "Now can we go see the fal'Cie?"
"Yes," Lightning said. "I'm going to make it wake her back up."
"It can't," Daniel said. "But don't worry. So long as she's in crystal, she'll be safe."
Lightning nodded and stood. Snow stood as well and the other two, both children, glanced at each other before the girl walked over.
"Sazh?" Daniel asked. "Don't tell me you're going to stay here alone."
"Nope," Sazh said. "Besides, if a little kid is brave enough, what would that say about me staying?"
"Come on Hope," the girl said.
"But...Vanille," Hope said then sighed and nodded. "Fine."
They all turned and walked up the ramp to the last door and into a small circular room with a large metal construct on the far side. There were two turbine-like machines, and a large metal loosely shaped like a torso with a head and positioned so the turbines looked like hands.
"There you are," Daniel said. "Been a while."
"Indeed," a deep synthetic voice said from all sides. "What do you want Daniel?"
"You know," Daniel said. "Where is he?"
"Unknown," the voice said. "Now move aside so that we can get this over with."
"Suit yourself," Daniel said stepping out of the way as Lightning sprinted forward smashing her gunblade into the fal'Cie.
"Foolish human," the voice said. "You want a fight? Fine."
With that, the turbines connected themselves to the body and it sprung to like swinging at Lightning. She leapt into the air over the arm and Daniel slashed it cutting it in half easily. The other arm swung at Snow but Vanille drew a staff and it shot several hooks which caught the arm and held it still.
"Not bad," Snow said before punching the arm and smashing it. "Gotta love AMP tech."
"No doubt," Lightning said. "Helpful when you have to fall a long way."
"Shut up and attack," Daniel said.
All of the others instantly charged at the fal'Cie and hit it with whatever they had for a weapon. Daniel also charged and just before his attack hit, the fal'Cie released a pulse of energy that sent them all flying and a moment later, they were in a pocket dimension. The fal'Cie's true form was visible. It had a tail wrapped around a drill-like lower body and the turbines had slid up the arms to reveal metallic hands. The head had a face and it was clear that the fal'Cie was not happy.
It held its arms out and streams of energy shot out hitting each of them in the chest. L'Cie brands burned into various places on their skin and then the light faded and they all woke up on a sea of crystal outside the Pulse Vestige they had been on while fighting the fal'Cie.
"Where are we?" Sazh asked.
"Outside?" Hope asked. "What's this crystal?"
"How did we survive the crash?" Vanille asked looking as a massive chunk of the vestige not far away.
"The fal'Cie," Daniel said. "He saved our lives buy crystallizing everything. Guess we're even Anima."
Daniel stood brushing himself off and picked up his gunblade then looked around to see three massive Cie'th approaching.
"Company," Daniel said standing and looking down at himself. "Lightning, you want first crack or should I go?"
"I'm going," Snow said sprinting forward.
When he reached the Cie'th, he punched one and it exploded into a ball of light before fading. The next Cie'th swung at Snow but Lightning instinctively held her hand up and a silver and grew sphere shot out of her palm hitting the Cie'th and destroying it. Then Daniel landed behind the last and slashed it making it, too, fade.
"Those were...L'Cie powers," Sazh said. "We're L'Cie!"
"I'm not," Daniel said. "Guess I got lucky."
"Yippee for you," Hope said. "Unlike all of you, I have a family I can never see again."
"Believe me when I tell you I know the feeling," Daniel said. "My father killed my mother just because he wanted to test his power. I know how it feels to loose someone and to never be able to see them."
"Yeah right," Hope said. "You were probably what, five?"
"Sixteen," Daniel said. "When it happened, my power awoke for the first time. The only reason I knew is because when it did, I had my father's power for about five minutes."
"Good for you," Hope said. "Am I supposed to care?"
"No," Daniel said. "You're supposed to shut up."
"Screw you!" Sazh said.
"Enough!" Lightning said. "You're all acting like children!"
"We need to move," Daniel said after a moment of silence. "PSICOM won't take kindly to a group of L'Cie in a sea of crystal."
"What's our focus supposed to be?" Hope asked.
"Destroy Cocoon probably," Sazh said.
"No," Snow said. "Serah said protect Cocoon."
"When?" Lightning asked.
"Just before you got there," Snow said.
"Can we move now?" Daniel asked pointing up at a Warmech flying overhead.
"Yes," Lightning said. "We can move now."
THE END
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