I was woken up out of my sleep by the blaring loudspeakers. "Due to fal'Cie activity in Bodhum, the University will be on lockdown until further notice. All classes will be suspended and a curfew of eleven o'clock pm will be enforced. Thank you and have a wonderful day."

How could anyone possibly have a wonderful day when all of this was going on? I picked up my cell and dialed Lightning again. This time, it went straight to voicemail. I sucked my teeth. How was I supposed to know if Lightning was okay? I had to find a way to get the hell off of this campus and find some answers.

Bliss sat up in her bed yawning. "Morning! How long do you think campus will be on lockdown?"

"Hopefully not for long," I said wistfully. I picked up the remote and turned on the tv to see if there was anything on the news. Everyone in the room rubbed sleep from their eyes as the news reporter said, "The Purge will take place ths afternoon at two o'clock. Some Purgees have been identified as ex-soldier Claire Farron, Nora and Hope Estheim, and Alyssa Zaidelle. We will keep you updated as time goes on."

My heart stopped. I couldn't breathe. Everyone knew that the Purge was just an excuse to kill people, who were usually innocent. They just took anyone... anyone who was supposedly "touched" by Pulse.

What I was trying to prevent was happening all over again. I traveled back to Cocoon hoping that I could avoid becomibng a l'Cie. But this time Lightning was in trouble. I had no idea if she was a l'Cie, but she was in trouble. I couldn't let them take her away from me. It wasn't going to happen. Not on my watch.

Bliss started hyperventilating. I stared at her in confusion. "Alyssa... is my cousin! We have to do something!" I nodded in agreement and stood up.

"Well what can we do?" Maqui asked. "We're just kids to them."

"You're right," I said. "We are kids to them, but that doesn't mean that we can't try to stop the Purge."

"Stop the Purge? How could we possibly?" Yuj turned to me, waiting for my reply. Honestly, I had no idea what we could do to stop it. But we couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

"I don't know," I confessed. I sat back down next to Noel. He took my hand in his.

"Whatever we're going to do, it's going to require us to leave the campus," Noel said. "It won't be easy. We need Snow. Let's go find him."Yuj and Maqui nodded, leaving the room behind Noel. Lebreau sighed.

"Everyone in bodhum is in danger," she said. "All of our families and friends."


Snow leaned back in his chair. We were at the pizzeria eating lunch. I wasn't very hungry. Nobody was. All we could think about was what was happening back in Bodhum. "So do you have any ideas?" Noel asked him.

"It's simple," he said. "We take down PSICOM... the ones that are gaurding the exits. We take them down and we get the hell out of here. Then we go to Bodhum to stop the train. Maybe we can find a way to derail it."

"That's crazy," Lebreau said. "Taking down PSICOM? Derailing a Purge train?"

He ignored her and continued. "We don't have many options here. It's either that or we sit here and stare at each other, hoping the Purge will end," he said. "No obligations, rules, or authority!"

"NORA!" said Maqui. "We can call ourselves NORA!"

"NORA," I said carefully. I shrugged. "We may as well have a name since we're the rebels."

"Exactly," Noel said. "If we're going to be rebels, everyone should know who we are."

"Who's with me?" Snow asked. One by one, everyone agreed.

Lebreau smiled. "I can't let you idiots do anything stupid, so I'm coming."

"All right. Does everyone have weapons that they can use?" asked Snow. "We're going to need those." Everyone nodded. It was easy to smuggle in weapons. It was like they wanted us to use them or something. "We'll meet by the fountain in an hour. Get ready and bring only important things with you. We might not be able to come back here after this."

Noel laughed. "Well that was a waste of a tuition deposit. None of us learned a thing."

Snow put his fist in the air. "We're the heroes! We don't need this place!" I shook my head. Snow hadn't chnaged at all. He was still trying to be the hero.

After I took a shower and got dressed, I pulled my bowsword from under my bed. Bliss sat next to me, holding her gun. She ran her fingers across the cold material. "First time I'll get to use this thing for real. Have you used that before?"

I nodded. "Quite a few times." I remembered using it in the future. I couldn't remember all the details though. The future must be changing. I gasped and was pulled into a vision before I could comprehend what was happening.

Cocoon... It was destroyed... Barren... There was death everywhere. Dead bodies lay across the ground. There was no life. The fal'Cie had destroyed everything, wiping out all life. It was a hopeless future. A dying world. A future that I had to protect...

I was brought back into reality by Bliss, who was shaking me wildly. "Serah!"

"I'm... I'm okay," I said, unsure of what I'd just seen. "I just spaced out." I felt bad for lying, but there was no way I could tell her that I was a seeress without telling her my whole story. I was nervous. Why had the fal'Cie destroyed everything and everyone? What was going to happen.

I hadn't had a vision since I came to Cocoon. I thought that maybe it was all over... that I had lost my gift. But it was still with me, which meant that I was closer to death. That scared me. I didn't want to die. I had so much that I didn't do. I hadn't even started college like I wanted. What would Noel do if I died? How would he cope with that pain?

"Are you sure?" Bliss asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine," i assured her. I picked up my backpack. "We should get going. It's almost time." As we walked out of our dorm and onto the campus grounds, Bliss asked, "Do you think Yuj is into me?"

"He might be. Personally, I've never seen him with a girl. Like on a date. I'm not sure he's ever had a girlfriend before," I said.

Bliss looked at me in horror. "Oh, for Etro's sake! He's gay isn't he? Is it Maqui? I had a feeling something was going on between them!"

"No, Bliss. Neither of them are gay. I've known them my whole life. I'd know."

"Good. Because Yuj will be mine. Just wait and see." I laughed. I liked Bliss. I'd only known her for a day, but I thought she'd make a good friend. And I appreciated the fact that she'd stopped answering for me.

The others were waiting by the fountain when Bliss and I approached it. PSICOM officers were walking about the campus. We probably looked suspicious, but I supposed it didn't matter. We were about to kick some PSICOM ass.

"First, we'll take out the ones closest to the exits. We don't need to pick any unnecessary fights," Snow said. "We'll find a way to get to Bodhum once we get out of here. We'll have to lay low after we escape. There's no doubt that they'll be after us."

I nodded. He said, "On three, we head for that gate straight ahead... One, two... THREE!" With that, we charged ahead. We startled some of our classmates doing so, but they were the least of our problems. Snow pounded his fists together. I knew it wouldn't be easy getting off the campus, but this was war.

Bliss and Lebreau started firing their guns, causing the PSICOM soldiers to run straight to us. They fired in response. I readied my bowsword and shot an arrow at the nearest PSICOM soldier. He fell down with a groan. Noel finished him off, stabbing him in the back. I heard Snow getting several powerful punches in before I turned to find more soldiers running toward us.

"Hey!" one of them cried. "Drop your weapons!"

"Ha!" said Noel, charging for them. He dodged all of their bullets and began the assault. Yuj and Bliss fired, careful not to hit Snow or Noel. Maqui started yelling and running toward us. I fired at the next soldier I saw twice before he fell.

"Guys! The exit is clear! Let's get out of here!" he shouted, waving his hands wildly in the air. Snow nodded before delivering the final blow to the soldier before him. We charged for the exit. I looked back to find our classmates running and screaming, confused and afraid from the attack. So much chaos, so little time, I thought.


The coast was clear. We'd been hiding within the trees for a few minutes but nobody came looking for us. I stood up since it wa safe. "How are we going to get to Bodhum?"

"There's a parking lot nearby. We could probably steal a few aerobikes or something," Bliss suggested.

"Sure," Noel said. "It's not like we haven't broken about half a dozen rules already. How much more trouble could we get into?"

"Let's go, heroes," Snow said. He took off at a run toward the parking lot. I hurried behind him to keep up. Noel ran beside me.

"You okay?" he asked. Truthfully, I wasn't okay. I was worried about Lightning, but I was even more worried about the vision that I had. How much longer did I have to live? How many more visions left before my death? The thoughts worried me, but I didn't want to worry Noel. I shook my head and said that I was fine. I could tell that he knew I was lying, but he didn't push it. He'd probably want to talk about it later. By then, I could come up with a story to tell.

As Bliss suggested, we took a few aerobikes. The owners were nowhere to be found. After all, pretty much every place in Cocoon was on lockdown. I wasn't surprised. I sat on an aerobike with Noel, who insisted on driving. Bliss purposely went with Yuj, Lebreau with Maqui, and Snow by himself. I just hoped that Bliss didn't scare Yuj away with her seductive tactics.

We arrived in Bodhum in less than an hour. If we hadn't found the aerobikes, who knows how long it would've taken. I knew we wouldn't have made it to Bodhum by the time the Purge train was set to leave. We had five minutes. Five minutes to stop the Purge train. Five minutes to save Lightning and the others. Their fate was in our hands. This was a task that I couldn't afford to fail. If I failed, there was no saving the future.

If the scene with the action completely sucked, I understand. I'm no good at fighting scenes. But you guys better enjoy this chapter because I spent all morning on it when I should probably be doing my summer homework. Ah, oh well :)