Finaly getting into the meat of the story, happy reading+thanks reviewers :D


Breaking Illusions

Unknown to the L'Cie, the same assassins who attacked Leo were still breathing. They had escaped the prison within hours of arriving.

The prison guards thought they took all weaponry, but the heels of the assassin's trainers were razor sharp. They casually leaned against the perimeter fence, leg up, and dug their heels in. Within seconds a hole was made and they had escaped.

The two assassins ran to a safe-house where they rearmed themselves. They didn't care about being fugitives; that fact was irrelevant because they let their target escape. They were told not to come back until their mission had succeeded. They both knew returning now would mean certain death.

"Ember, we've gotta find Leo."

"No chance, we don't know anything about him, we were given his name and location. He could be anywhere on Cocoon now. Face it, were screwed!"

"Like you have a better idea."

"Ha! Run like hell."

"Everyone will think we're L'Cie."

"I am." Instantly Raven tumbled backwards

"You could have infected me"

"Doubt it. I was a L'Cie before I joined this assassin thing. I'm leaving, you want to come with?"

"And help a L'Cie?"

"Suit yourself."

As Ember turned to leave Raven pounced, only to be blocked and knocked to the ground.

"You're too predictable." Ember broke into a short sprint knowing she could outrun Raven.

Ember you crazy bitch.

Fang and Vanille were getting used to their new life of walking, fighting and sleeping. Dawn was telling them about her life before becoming a L'Cie.

"While escaping the City was difficult, finding a unguarded gate to Pulse was easy." Fang stopped the group.

"What, you're from Cocoon?"

"You aren't?"

Fang broke into an attack. Whilst she was greatly outnumbered, most of her opponents couldn't fight well. Vanille was frozen on the spot. They caused this, but attacking them isn't right?

"Fang what the hell are you doing?" Dawn was blocking the swings of Fang's Bladed Lance, but any quick stabs with it couldn't be blocked.

"Cocoon caused this all. They-" The sound of gunfire broke up the fight, the group droped the box's and scrambled for cover. "Freeze L'Cie!"

A Pulse patrol had heard them. Six soldiers were charging the scattered group. The trigger-happy soldiers came together, but with their targets out of sight, they turned fearful. Mid or long range fights are easily won, but the soldiers knew that the L'Cie could now be hidden in or behind trees, and this is how patrols died.

Fang was found by Dawn and a few more L'Cie. Dawn enforced the idea of ignoring the reason for the patrol attacking until after the fight. The patrol had already called for backup, but this didn't seem to worry the others. They came up with a quick plan. The enemy was in a tight group, so a few spells would inflict damage on them all. The planned attack was being set up. The soldiers were predictable. They followed a path because it gave them more time to fire, but to one side of it, Fang and three others prepared their ambush.

The group was about to unleash their attacks when the soldiers stopped. They had spotted something, Fang watched as their leader gave various hand signals. Fang was confused by them until they became painfully clear. She saw what they had: Vanille!

"Attack!" Fang called the ambush early. A group of three soldiers were caught by several magic attacks and were finished quickly by Fang. Only one had the time to open fire, but the remaining soldiers had hurtled away. The other L'Cie gave chase but the soldiers had a big lead.

Fang was being careless. She knew if the the soldiers turned around it would be game over for her, but she didn't care. Two soldiers turned sharply left as they caught a second glimpse of their target, much closer than before. As they did they fired off a few rounds towards where Fang was, but she had seen Vanille and turned first.

"Vanille get outa here!" Fang yelled as she spotted her gasping for breath in a small clearing, Fang saw the two soldiers as well. She ran to engage them, but they still were fixed on Vanille. As Fang got within striking distance she saw the two opened fire at Vanille. As she took out the first Soldier, Fang heard a screen, she stabbed the second Soldier in the back and as he finally tried to defend himself, Fang struck him on the head, hard.

Fang scampered towards Vanille and saw that Dawn was already there. Vanille was on the floor, a bullet in her left leg. Dawn was kneeling next to Vanille, she too had been shot.

"Are you two ok?"

"She's fine, one bullet scraped her leg, but the others got me" Dawn stood up but her back sparked pain, forcing her down

"You got two bullets in your back, you shouldn't be-"

"What the hell were you thinking back there?"

"Cocoon started L'Cie. It's their fault anyone is made a L'Cie"

"It was one guy who started it, not all of us. If you want to kill someone over it, kill him. We'll will join in too."

"One guy?"

"Oh yeah, you're from Pulse. You haven't heard the real story."

"We don't know the guys name, but the story goes that he never had friends, was hate filled, and always wanting to spread hate among others. He stumbled on a way to spread hate among the entirety of Cocoon and here we are. we call him the traitor cos he caused all this, and if he's still here he will cause more"

"Damn, sorry. I heard that it was a virus made by Cocoon to try and kill all of Pulse. Hey Vanille, can you walk?"

"The bullet didn't strike bone, so you should be able to."

Fang helped Vanille up, Vanille tested her weight on the leg, it stung, but easily bearable.

"I only killed two solders, there's still one left"

"be vigilant, but get the boxes and lets go"

Fang was talking Vanille just behind the group when the boxes were spotted, Dawn immediately instructed the others to pick them up. As Fang and Vanille entered the clearing Fang saw something which wasn't tree like in the corner of her eye, the final soldier eyeing up the others.

She broke into a desperate sprint. He too had just seen the L'Cie but aimed and fired at Dawn, the ring leader. He aimed low, and let the recoil drive the bullets up her, as soon as he saw Fang he turned to defend himself, but one sweeping blow proved decisive.

Everyone had gathered round Dawn, they tried all the spells they knew to heal her, but they weren't effective enough. They were bullets from here ankle to her head, she had no chance.

The rest of the way to Oerba was sombre. Fang was nervous the entire journey; whilst the rest of the group were still willing to let her join, she doubted her chances, and also Vanille's.

Ember had been on the run for days now, she had found a gate to Pulse so she thought to be safe, but she had run out of food. She had no experience of surviving in the wilderness, and was not prepared to die because she ate poisoned food. She was in light forest when she heard an engine, people had to be driving and they must have food.

She saw it was a badly beaten APC, it had an weird emblem on it. Pulse's army? It seemed to be struggling to keep up with walking pace. She pursued it into deeper forest, where she could predict when it was going. She got a large distance between it and got ready to attack it. She wanted to get the soldiers out of the APC before attacking them, so she hauled two small logs up a tree and waited a while.

She threw the first log as the APC approached, and the second when it was directly underneath her., The plan worked, the APC stopped underneath her. As the first soldier got out she fired her crossbow down. The other three soldiers got out of the front and stood still, searching with their eyes for her location. Two guards were directly beneath her, one was the other side of the APC. She jumped out of the tree, shot the soldier on his own with her crossbow and casted Fira as she landed on the other two, she used her Sai's to finish them off. The fight was over before the soldiers realized it had begun. She searched the front for supplies, there were a few snacks which Ember ate.

She went to the back of the APC; she knew Cocoon used them for delivering all sorts of supplies and equipment, as well as troops, but Ember never expected to find the cargo she did.

As she opened the back doors she saw a female figure at the very back of the dark APC with her head in her hands.

"Hey, you ok?" she got no response, Ember weren't even sure she heard.

"I'm not soldier, you're safe now"

"I'm not safe, I'm never going be safe," she forced the words out. The voice put an age to the figure. Young, no wonder she's scared.

"Why don't you think you're safe?"

"Because, because..." She couldn't force the words out this time, so she let her actions talk. She slowly reached for her sweatband, and with both arms shaking she moved it down her arm, bowing her head as she did so. she revealed her brand. Ember stepped onto the APC but as the metallic sound rang round the APC the figure flinched, dug her head into her arms.

"Don't get closer, you'll be infected"

"L'Cie can't infect people and I should know." The girl looked up, this was the first time she had seen Ember, she was smiling whilst holding her right sleeve up, showing her brand on the back of her wrist.

"But, L'Cie are merciless. They're savages!"

"Yep, the Sanctum talks a lota crap." a small smile appeared on the girl's face before she bust out with laughter. Ember's smile grew.

"What's your name?"

"Abbie"

"I'm Ember. Come on, you must hate this rust box" she turned to leave the APC.

"Thanks Ember, for rescuing me"

Ember stood still for a while, unsure how to respond. She had no intentions of "rescuing" anyone when she first attacked, and the fight itself was easy.

"Don't mention it"

Now back in the light Ember noticed the Abbie had two concealed daggers. "Hey, can I take a look at a dagger"

"aright" she threw one into the air, Ember caught it with two fingers, before examining it closely.

"Their great quality, do you know how to use them?"

"Kinda. I did a few years of self defence classes, and I've only ever used daggers. Swords need too much strength to use."

"Ha, you're my kind of fighter, use tactics over muscles" Ember tossed the dagger back.

"I'm not much of a fighter. I've only ever used them if I had to"

Damn, the kid can't handle death "I'll handle all the nasty stuff then"

"Hey, don't talk like that! I'm not a four year old, I'll kill when I have to, I just don't want to kill everything we see, I don't like fighting, but that doesn't mean I wont"

"You know we will have to fight a lot, and strike first too"

"Why?"

"If we see them from range, we can only attack with my crossbow. If the see us at any distance, they'll shoot to kill"

"But these guys didn't kill me"

This kid's good "Your right. I only know Cocoon shoot to kill, though Pulse are hardly gonna let us walk by. We gotta find some good cover soon though, it gets dark early here"


I'm hoping to update quicker this time, cos I really love my next chapter (finaly get the characters together)