It had been a long and difficult path circumventing Taejin's Tower, but in Lightning's opinion it was worth it.
The ancient tower was filled with a ridiculous array of eldritch fiends and deadly traps, and neither she nor Hope had any desire to brave them unnecessarily. There was an elevator inside that, in theory, could have cut half a day from their journey, but it was linked to a needlessly complex music box-style puzzle, and it couldn't be trusted not to deposit them in the midst of a dozen battle robots. The relatively tranquil paths of Sulyya Springs were easily traversed by the two companions, and they had bypassed the dank tunnels of Mah'habara using a shortcut they had found during their first visit to Gran Pulse.
Technically, she needn't have left Oerba at all, but the next military transport leaving for Cocoon wasn't for weeks, and she knew there were civilian flights leaving from Vallis Media nearly every day. She hadn't the patience to sit around any longer than she needed to, and to her, action was always better than inaction. The journey was rigorous, but l'Cie (or former l'Cie, as she kept forcing herself to remember) had an advantage in the fact that their brands acted as some sort of energy source, precluding the need to stop to drink or take in meals. Since Cocoon's fall Lightning's brand had faded significantly, but she still needed only one meal a day to remain functional. However, Hope had confessed to her earlier in the day that he hadn't eaten in over a week.
The lighter side of slavery. A hollow smirk shaped her lips, but quickly dissolved back into a puzzled scowl. The very pace of their l'Cie fueled trek is what made her next realization all the more troubling.
"We're being followed," she stated matter-of-factly. Hope halted in his tracks and looked at Lightning confusedly, but she merely gestured for him to continue walking. "They've been tailing us ever since we left Oerba."
"Who? Where?" Hope struggled with the urge to peer over his shoulder and find the mysterious person to whom Lightning was referring.
"I'm not sure," Lightning said grimly. "And I'm not sure why, either. Which is why I'm planning to find out." Her pace became more brisk as they approached the canyon path that would take them to the Archelyte Steppe; Hope nearly had to jog to keep up. The canyon walls got lower as they moved through it, and by the time they had gotten to a spot where the canyon took a steep 90-degree turn to the right, the left face was a mere twenty feet high. They rounded the corner quickly, and were greeted by an odd spectacle: a giant silver wolf-like Humbaba locked in a deadly struggle with an equally giant King Behemoth.
Déjà vu, Lightning thought. I swear there's some sort of animal fight club happening here. Still, this will be a perfect distraction for an ambush.
"This is it," she declared, stopping and turning toward her young partner. She surveyed the scene for a moment before pointing at a spot at the top of the canyon wall. "There."
Lightning and Hope picked their way out of the canyon, taking care not to disturb the bestial brouhaha in the process. In return they were greeted with a view of the sweeping green expanse known as the Archelyte Steppe. A sharp cliff on their right culminated in a several-hundred foot drop to a vast expanse of vibrant plateaus and valleys, occupied with a dazzling array of creatures both predatory and peaceful. A similar vista stretched out before them beyond the end of the fairly narrow pass they were occupying, but instead of continuing on toward the savage landscape, Lightning had them double back until they reached the top lip of the canyon, with a perfect view of the majority of the fissure they had recently traversed.
"Keep your head down," she bade Hope, and he responded quickly. Lightning found a spot where the lip of the crevasse had a natural fissure, and stretched herself out face-down on the sun-dappled grass. Very slowly, she reached behind her and pulled the Ultima Weapon out of its sheath and sighted it down the canyon, using the fissure to cradle the barrel. She allowed herself a long, deep breath, which she exhaled with audible deliberateness.
"And now," she sighed, "we wait."
And wait they did.
Hours had passed since they had first taken their posts at the top of the canyon wall. Hope was reclined against an outcropping, idly tearing blades of grass from the ground and pulling them apart piece by piece before releasing the dissected bits of them to the wind. The King Behemoth had long since seized victory (and a hearty meal) from the Humbaba and was lounging in the sun, swatting away the hand-sized insects that had come to claim their portions of the winnings. Lightning's readiness had not flagged, but she was angry at herself for wasting so much time on what had turned out to be a wild Chocobo chase. If not for her inherent stubbornness, she would have abandoned this position long ago, but she was not ready to admit that she had been jumping at shadows.
No, she reprimanded herself. I was NOT seeing things. There had been someone… right? The disgust she was feeling toward her own lack of confidence instantly evaporated into vindication when a lone figure entered the far side of the canyon, waking at a leisurely pace toward their position. Their gait did not speak of a one who was tracking someone, but Lightning had not lay here for hours to chalk everything up to her own paranoia. Hope had not noticed the intruder yet, and Lightning had no intention of risking their advantageous position by alerting him.
As the figure grew closer, Lightning began to pick out details. It was a man, and if she had to guess, she would put his age at approximately the same as her own. 5'10", maybe a little taller, she mused. He wore loose fitting olive-green pants tucked into his boots, and nothing on his torso but a sleeveless white shirt. Windswept auburn hair fell around his face, and he walked with a litheness that belied his muscular frame. In fact, he seemed to be sauntering along so casually that Lightning would have assumed he was in fact on a walkabout had he not been sporting a belt laden with what appeared to be two dagger sheaths and various other mechanical artifacts that clearly were not designed for measuring the temperature of the air. Lightning allowed him to get to the point where he was almost immediately below them before her voice pierced the afternoon air.
"Stay where you are!" Her voice carried an authority that few other twenty-one year old women could muster, and Hope jumped so hard he nearly careered forward off the edge of the precipice. The man hardly seemed alarmed, however, and raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sun so he could get a better look at his accoster. He smiled casually.
"Hey there, Beautiful," he called up to her. "Sure is a fine day to be alive, isn't it?" Hope's head peeked above the rise to appraise the stranger. "Out for a walk with your son, I see?" Hope scoffed and looked to Lightning for her rebuttal. She merely squeezed the trigger once. The canyon wall a few inches to the left of the man's head spewed pebbles.
"Who are you, and why are you following us?"
"Follow? You? Why I do believe you're mistaken. Although you couldn't blame me if I were following you, could you Beautiful?" He grinned widely, clearly unfazed by her warning shot. She made no immediate reply, so he continued on. "I see you're skeptical. Well allow me to explain. I appraise land for various groups, and I'm out here scouting suitable sites for outposts for the GC. That's Guardian Corps, in case you were wondering. Just an independent contractor doing his job. Name's Chazwell Vayne. Vayne, like vein, but spelled different, y'know? Now how about you stop trying to carve your name into the landscape and we can both go our separate ways. Or the same way, if you'd prefer, Beautiful."
"Enough!" Lightning did not care for his smug attitude one bit. "Stop calling me Beautiful, or I'll…" she stopped yelling mid-threat when an image entered her mind. "Wait – I've seen you before. In Oerba. Private contractor nothing, you're Corps!" Truly, she had not recognized him out of uniform at first, but she clearly recalled seeing that idiotic grin on a number of occasions at the Oerba HQ. He had not been in her squad, so she had no idea what his name was, or even what unit he was assigned, but she was sure it was him.
"Now tell me who you really are and why you're out here, or you can limp back to HQ with a bullet in your ass!" The man, still smiling broadly, shrugged slightly.
"Okay, you got me. My mother is the only one who calls me Chazwell. Most people know me as Seraph. The ones that survive, anyway." Lightning pulled the trigger again, but was an instant too late, for he had already taken two agile steps forward and leapt, high enough to clear the twenty-foot wall she and Hope were perched on. She barely had time to roll to the side as he kicked the cliffside where her gun was notched on his way up, causing rock and dirt to rain down on her as her gunblade landed far out of her grasp. Seraph landed with a grunt between where Lightning lay weaponless and where Hope was standing near the cliff's edge. He appraised her with that same casual grin as she propped herself up on her hands, furious that she had let him get the drop on her.
"Okay, well I truly am sorry for calling you Beautiful. Clearly, the sun was in my eyes." His callous insults were almost as grating to her as his compliments had been mere moments before. She had obviously underestimated how dangerous this man was.
"Come on," he tilted his head slightly. "You couldn't have thought that the military was just going to let you run around doing whatever you want! You're one of the most dangerous fugitives to have ever lived! They let you have the Lieutenant position in Oerba to try and put your violent behavior to good use, but they're certainly not going to give you free reign. Especially since they – I – know what you're trying to do." He sighed heavily. "Once a terrorist, always a terrorist, I suppose." He began pacing idly. "You know, I was just supposed to follow you, and if you tried to enter Cocoon, prevent you. But you had to go and mess that up. So now I guess I'll just have to take you and your babysitting charge back to headquarters and let Yuan decide what to do with you." The name he mentioned held no weight in Lightning's memory. Seraph gestured toward her.
"Okay, let's go…" he paused and placed his hand on his chin in a pose that Lightning supposed was trying to imitate someone thinking. "Well, I can't call you Beautiful anymore, so how about Lumpy! Let's go, Lumpy! Up and at 'em!"
"SHUT UP!" Hope shrieked wildly. His weapon pouch was empty and in his hand was a gunblade, edge shimmering dangerously in the mid-afternoon sun. "Just shut up! I'm tired of listening to your voice!" Hope was seething. "And I'm not going to let you talk to Light like that!"
Hope attacked with surprising speed, but the slash was wild – unpracticed – and Seraph's nimble dodge caused the stroke to fall far wide of the mark. Before Hope could recover from his miscalculated, rage-fueled attack, Seraph seized his wrist and wrenched it back, eliciting a cry of pain from Hope as the gunblade fell quietly to the grassy soil. Lightning used the brief distraction to quickly spring to her feet, but she was still without a weapon, and Seraph was holding Hope dangerously close to the canyon's edge.
"Now," he growled, significantly less amused that he had been, "are you going to come along or am I going to have to motivate you?" He punctuated his words by twisting Hope's arm violently. Hope cried out in pain.
This man is clearly a sociopath. I can't risk not doing what he says… who knows what he'll do to Hope?
Before Lightning could acquiesce, Hope responded for her.
"She'll never listen to someone like you," he choked out. "She's stronger than us." Seraph pulled Hope's face close enough to his own that their foreheads touched, and he spoke to him as one would speak to a misbehaving toddler.
"Quiet son, adults are talking." He shoved Hope away from him and lashed out with a vicious side kick, which caught Hope full-force in the chest.
"No!" Lightning lunged forward, but was too far away for her actions to do any good, and she watched helplessly as the force from the attack flung Hope over the ledge into the canyon below. Seraph turned to Lightning and shrugged sheepishly.
"Kids, right?"