I'm so glad to see no one wants to kill me. :3 I'm also glad to see some familiar faces popping up again! 8D I hope Breathe will keep all of youhappy! Currently I'm writing Chapter 4. I really hope this streak continues, it would make me very happy!

Thanks to SinisterPurr for beta'ing!

Breathe

PSICOM

To say the group was on edge was a vast understatement. The sky tank was flying over ranks of PSICOM soldiers, searching the crystalline environment for anything that could hint at the l'Cie's where-abouts. From overhead, Fang could see that they had left the ruin vestige relatively alone, the soldiers refusing to go actually in the building.

At least they hadn't been shot down. That could put quite the damper on their day.

A day that was quickly drawing to a close. It was growing dark, and fighting PSICOM at night was definitely not something they wanted to do. As great as they were, fighting people who had laser targeting and night vision left the battle a little one sided. Not to mention the hordes of enemies out there, it was in their best interest to keep a low profile.

There was the sound of someone tripping over their own two feet, and Fang rolled her eyes.

Right, this group keeping a low profile. As if the crystal woman in the cargo-hold didn't raise a couple of questions.

"This isn't going to work." Sazh spoke, doing another fly over as he looked for a place to land. He wasn't the only one; three other airships were zooming around, desperately looking for a place to land that wasn't too close to the vestige. "Have you seen our group? Snow doesn't even fit into-"

"I got a plan, don't worry." Fang shot back, before her lips curved into a smirk. "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"Oh, ha ha, so you watched a few vids…" Sazh frowned, "There's no where to land."

"You could land in the vestige!" Snow called from the cargo-hold.

Sazh shot a look over his shoulder. "Oh, yeah, that's great. Why not just paint a big red target on our hull instead?"

"Land there." Fang pointed to an open spot on the outskirts of the troops. It was far enough from the main transports so they could avoid any unwanted attention, but still within the perimeter line so they weren't too close to the crashed vestige. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yep!"

"Vanille," Fang patted Sazh on the shoulder as she moved back into the hold. The girl was clad in a PSICOM uniform, her face hidden behind the strange helmets the soldiers typically wore. "Remember not to be peppy."

"Oh, um.. Sure?"

Fang crossed her arms.

"I mean, Yes, Sir!" She saluted promptly.

"Better." Fang took her own helmet off the stand and slipped it on, finding the entire interface displayed on her screen rather confusing. "Oh, great..."

Snow was sitting in one of the seats, his size made him entirely too larger for any of the stowed away uniforms. Instead he was hunched over, wearing restraints on his wrists looking far too amused to be a prisoner.

"You know, when Vanille said we had to be soldiers, I don't think she meant literally.."

"We're landing in one minute!" Sazh called back to them.

Fang shrugged, handing Vanille one of the rifles. The girl giggled, pointing it at Snow.

"Bam." She joked, which got a kind smile from the man.

"Sazh, don't forget to put on ya helmet!"

"Yeah, yeah!" He called. "Damn thing's too tight on my head…"

"You have too much hair, Sazh!" Vanille snickered, watching as Fang took her own rifle from the wall. It was a little larger then the one she handed to Vanille, symbolizing she was in charge.

Or, at least they hoped.

"How are we gonna explain Lightning?" The girl questioned, looking at the crystal.

"We found her like that, and he was trying to move her." Fang pointed to Snow with her rifle.

Snow shook his head. "This isn't going to work…"

"What's with all the pessimism?" The tribeswoman shook her head in disbelief.

"Fang, you have Vanille posing as a PSICOM soldier…"

"I know the plan has some flaws, but there's always plan B."

"What's that?"

The airship gently bobbed as it touched down, and Fang puffed up proudly, not having an inch of doubt in her voice.

"Kill every last one of 'em."

"Oh," The man chuckled. "I feel safer already."

"Shut up," Fang barked, though it wasn't as serious as she originally intended. "You're supposed to be a miserable prisoner."

With a soft hiss, the ramp began to lower. The two soldiers looked out, watching as three figures stood outside. They were waiting for a report; Sazh had mentioned something about this airship belonging to a group of ill-fated operatives. Hopefully, they would accept the lie (well, most of it was true actually) and just be on their merry way.

There was a l'Cie statue in the hold of the sky tank.

In all his years of service, never had Desa seen such a beautiful figure. A woman had apparently fulfilled her focus, and now she was here before him. Arms up while it looked like she was casting a powerful thunder spell. He stood there, awed for a second before he dared to approach such a treasure.

He was greeted by two soldiers who promptly saluted him. He returned the gesture, his eyes falling back on the statue. Of course, a low cough drew his attention away, almost painfully. Behind his mask he scowled, clutching his rifle tighter as he pushed past the two and stared at the giant man sitting hunched over in the hold.

"One of the l'Cie…" He murmured, his voice sounded slightly automated due to his helmet. "Where'd you find him?"

"At the Vile Peaks, Sir." The woman who replied was the taller of the two, and sounded as if she had an accent. "He was with the statue."

"No doubt one of the others who escaped Palumpolem," Desa glanced back at the statue. "Friend of yours?"

The man's hands coiled into fists.

"Hmph…" He turned his attention back to the two. "Where's your pilot?"

"He's still in the cockpit Sir, our transport has been having some trouble."

"Ah," The Captain touched the wall of the hold. "These older models tend to have some difficulty… Where's the rest of your squad?"

"Dead." The answer was flat. "We were scouting, when we returned most of the men were dead, he was clinging to the statue."

He wasn't sure, but something seemed off about their tale. "Do you know what her focus was?"

"No, Sir, she was crystal when we returned."

Desa turned to the blond man, who was glaring up at him with icy, empty eyes. "Do you know?"

"My guess: to kill every one of you murdering bastards. Too bad she had to settle for just a squad."

The Captain slammed the l'Cie upside the head with the butt of his rifle. Blood flew from the force of the hit and splattered onto the floor and crystal figure. "They had families, not that a l'Cie would understand that..."

That glare the man had been giving him turned darker. Desa swore the temperature dropped.

"Are you planning to turn him over to Lt. Colonel Rosch?"

There was a second of silence; Desa assumed it was surprise. "The Colonel is here?"

"He arrived shortly before you did, said something about the PSICOM brigade previously deployed here was amiss." The Captain paused. "You wouldn't know anything about that?"

"No, Sir, we never encountered another group." That accent was quite intriguing, Desa made note to seek this officer out later. He hadn't heard of any places on Cocoon that had such a voice.

"There was a shattered statue, where we found the lone l'Cie and this woman." The smaller of the two piped up, her voice having a similar accent.

"Hm." Desa pondered. "Well, Rosch will want to know about this l'Cie-"

"Sir, the l'Cie has agreed to help us."

That was a rather odd thing for the enemy to do.

"He has?"

Fang nodded, hoping that this lie wasn't pushing their facade a little far. "The woman who was crystallized, she was his fiancée."

Snow looked at her, surprise on his features. The Captain looked over at him.

"Y-You…" He growled, his voice shaky. "You said you wouldn't-"

"I don't lie to my superiors." Fang snapped back, huffing. "He said he'd help us as long as we give our word nothing happens to her."

Desa had no intention of harming the figure trapped in an endless slumber. He grunted and nodded, gesturing to Snow. "How can you help us?"

"There's a room in the vestige." The man began, looking at the ground sadly. "Our supplies are there, it's how we've been moving from place to place. We stockpiled inside, seeing as any human that enters turns into a monster… We figured it'd be safe."

"Cieth guarding l'Cie treasure…" One of the soldiers behind the Captain commented.

"Well, I'll send a team into the vestige to-"

"It only opens on the command of a l'Cie." The blond looked up, his eyes challenging. "Ancient fal'Cie magic."

"Hmph… Well," his eyes fell back on the disguised Fang and Vanille. "Since you two seem so capable, you'll lead the team to reach these resources. I'll send over a few men."

"Thank you, Sir."

The tension didn't vanish after Desa and his men left. Snow was glaring at the tribeswoman, the temperature that had dropped before hadn't returned to normal. If anything it had gotten colder. Fang frowned, not that it was visible to the man, but it still felt good to hope he saw her expression.

"What?" She snapped.

"My fiancée?" Snow growled, looking over at Lightning. "Maybe you've forgot, but I proposed to the other Farron sister."

"Aye, but it's the first thing that popped into my mind." The woman returned with a slight growl. "At the moment there isn't much in difference between them, is there? Both crystal, both have pink hair and both warrant your gaze."

"They… What?" Snow blinked, looking taken aback.

"Don't play innocent with me," Fang pointed the rifle at him accusingly. "You admire her features, a lot."

"I… Don't." The man gritted his teeth together. "Besides you stare at her more than I do. What's with that?"

Don't turn this around boy. Fang snarled inside her head, eyes narrowing at the challenge. "I stare at her face, jackass."

"Oh really?" Snow smirked, crossing his arms. "Should I start naming off occasions where you were staring at a different part of her body?"

"Snow, you're fixin' for a-"

Vanille blinked. "Commander!" She shouted, trying to gather their attention. It worked for a brief moment. "Captain Desa is returning."

Immediately the argument was dropped, though there was no doubt in Fang's mind that it would continue at a later point. The strain was almost visible, as a few of the soldiers Desa gave to them didn't want to get between their new commander and the l'Cie.

What surprised the entire group was when Desa handed Fang a controller. It was relatively small with a touch screen displaying an outline of a machine. The woman blinked, holding it awkwardly before she looked up at her captain and saw behind him was a massive, admittedly strange looking mechanized soldier.

It was an Orion; a fast and somewhat humanoid shaped warrior designed and programmed to help PSICOM. The group had fought them before, and never had they imagined that any of them would have the controls to one. It had a large white breastplate, while its limbs were a mix of yellow, blue and white panels and wiring. It stood almost awkwardly on three strange legs while one arm was long and ended in blue, sparking antennas. The other appeared to be a weapon that could unfurl for a special or elemental strike.

It towered over them all. Looking down on them with its strange black and yellow face that was vaguely birdlike.

"It will come in handy if the l'Cie tries anything, or if you run into any Cieth left over from the crash." Desa nodded. "That controller means it'll listen directly to you. Don't let him get a hold of it." The captain looked towards Snow, who glared back. "It'll be a nightmare in the wrong hands."

Fang grinned underneath her helm. "Of course, Sir, I assure you, I'll put it to good use."