"What now?" One of the two that followed Snow here looked around nervously, and the second one fell to the ground, cradling his head. The man that came with me and Lightning, the one that almost threatened to kill Serah, assumed it must have been the army. Did they know that we were here, or were they simply trying to destroy the fal'Cie?

So, we needed to try to protect ourselves, although Serah was currently helpless. I quickly went over and shielded her head from any debris while Lightning and Snow covered the rest of her. We could take it. Serah? I don't know how strong crystal can be, especially if it's l'Cie crystal. Either way, we had to keep her safe, if there were any chance she would wake up she needed to be in one piece. I would never forgive myself if she got hurt and I didn't stop it.

The army kept attacking the Vestige, shooting large ropes through, which had barely missed the few of us. I just closed my eyes, trying to ignore what was going on around me and just focus on protecting my sister. Perhaps the army was trying to rip the Vestige apart, weaken (or even kill) the fal'Cie inside, and have this whole thing erased from existence. I know they wouldn't care if murder was a consequence, they didn't care earlier when I was on the train. They didn't care when we were simply out in the Hanging Edge, so why would they have any sympathetic thought in this?

I could hear the other three talking, one of them being the young boy. "We can't stay here, they'll kill us!" I craned my head up to look at him.

"And if we leave, they'll kill us! We're-!" More rubble fell from the ceiling, making me jump to the side. "-We're too close to the fal'Cie, they'll probably think we're l'Cie too!"

He wouldn't look at me, instead, he just held the pigtails-girl's hand and shook like a scared dog. I didn't know if we were safer in here, or if it could be safer to find a way out and sneak past the army. But our chances were low, and I just wanted to look at the now: Serah needed to be safe, we needed to try to stay unharmed, and look out for each other. That was all I told myself to do.

And soon enough, the shaking stopped, the attacked ceased, and no more debris fell; yet I was still too nervous to take a look. I was told everything is okay with a pat on my shoulder. Looking up, we all saw a door ahead; a red glow emitted from it, in the shape of a Pulse l'Cie brand, like the one Serah had been forced to receive. Maybe the fal'Cie is ahead?

"… be right back," Snow suddenly started walking ahead of us, towards the entrance. Uh…

"Trench coat," the older man seemed to be confused as well, "where you goin'?"

His words made Snow stop going, and gave a glance over his shoulder to us. "Date with the fal'Cie. Got some things to talk about…" Well, that doesn't sound so logical.

The man scoffed. "What? You're going to ask it to help her? Are you out of your mind, kid?" Probably. "That thing wants to chew us up and spit us ou—"

Snow quickly spun around. "Well, what do you want me to do?" His face turned red with anger, his fist flung back when he turned, and I saw none of that spunk in his eyes like he was known to have. The hero was in defeat, and I could suddenly feel a pang in my chest as reflective light glimmered off of Serah's crystal form. What could we possibly do, other than coming face to face with a Pulse fal'Cie? Serah is smart, she'd know what to do. But she can't tell us. Lightning is tough and brave, but would even a soldier like her go up to that thing to fix this whole thing? I looked to her to see what was in her eyes, and she looked to me as well.

Something was there, swirling in turquoise I saw flecks of sadness, of fury. Something ignited in her, and to anyone else, she would just seem cold and quiet, but I knew those elements she expressed, and I felt it myself. Lightning gave me a quick and gentle nod. Wait, are we really…? Should I? A fal'Cie has power, maybe if we could harness it and do what Serah needed us to do, it would release her from her crystal sleep. We have to try.

And I nodded back. Lightning faced forward, it was her turn to walk ahead and I followed.

"Uh…"

"Guys?"

We were going to meet the fal'Cie—is meet even the right word to use here? Does a fal'Cie speak or move, gesture or respond? I have never been face to face with one, nor have I ever thought I would consider to go up to one with hope and fear. I just keep telling myself that if I feel the slightest bit of suspicion, I'm running the hell out of that room.

Within the next few moments, we all were standing in front of what appeared to be a shell. Does it really need to be protected? It can make all of those Cie'th, I doubt it's so vulnerable. I couldn't tell if I were imagining things, but I heard a constant and eerie, low-tone chime. As if worship bells were ringing just miles away. Multiple screens, almost like computer monitors, surrounded the fal'Cie from above.

The silver-haired boy stayed to the back of the group, which I understood. I stood close to the back as well. "So this is… the fal'Cie." Biting my lip, I looked to him and nodded in response.

Snow walked forward. "Serah's a crystal now," he started, "You gave her a Focus and she did it! You got what you want, now let her go!" He paused, looking at the shell with anticipation and I did the same. Nothing came to us. There was no response, no shift in the air, no Serah walking in with a bounce in her stride. After a moment, I saw Snow fall to his knees and put a hand on his chest. He pleaded, "Turn her back! I'll be your l'Cie instead!"

"What did I expect…?"

"Fine, you go on begging." Lightning spoke up, "Like this thing gives a damn what we want!" She furiously whipped out her gunblade, and slashed at the copper shell of the fal'Cie. Her hits did nothing as the shell seemed indestructible, but I knew she didn't care. She was angry. This is how she fought the Cie'th earlier on, and it wasn't good for her to be doing this. I wanted to stop her, but I knew it would just make it worse. A few more hits until her blade bounced off the fal'Cie, creating a ripple that swung through her and knocking her back.

Damn! "Lightning!"

She stumbled back in a breathless fuss, sweat beading on her face and pink hair sticking on her forehead. Just that minute of anger brought that much energy out of her. "It's this thing's fault the Purge started, and its people who are dying," she huffed and straightened up, "Serah told us to save Cocoon, that means this thing needs to die!"

Almost immediately after she finished that statement, the floor beneath us lit up in a neon-fire glow. The TVs lit up with brand symbols, and gears shifted as the shell of the fal'Cie opened up to emit a bright, white light. Emerging from the copper was a large, robot-like… thing, with a massive arm and cluster of crystal on its chest. Rotating arms also hung from above on either side.

Behind me, the young boy bolted for the exit, with the pigtail-girl not too far behind him. Lightning backed up to stand in front of me. "Go."

"What?"

She stiffened. "Go, now!"

I gulped, I didn't want this thing to hurt her! I saw Snow ready his fists to fight, and the older man said he was in too. Maybe she'll be alright… I took a deep breath and ran in the direction that the other two went in, hoping we would find a safe place to hide until Lightning and Snow defeated the fal'Cie.

But, to our disadvantage, the fal'Cie put up a barrier, keeping us from leaving. The boy had run into it, and the girl helped him up. "We can't leave!"

I looked back to my sister, who put fury into her slash at the Pulse enemy. "If you can't fight, just stay back, okay?" And I brought my eyes back to the pair. "I'll stay with you, if you'd like."

The girl glanced at the boy, then turned her gaze to me with a nod. "Okay." The younger of the two, obviously scared out of his mind, mumbled a "yeah" and hugged himself. We stayed back, keeping our eyes on the battle.

Author's Note: I would like to apologize for this chapter being so incredibly late (and kind of short compared to previous ones)! I didn't upload last week due to being busy with classes, physical therapy, and celebrating Halloween. But I promise I wasn't just doing nothing with the story, when I could I would work a bit on this entry. I do quite like this chapter, actually! And after uploading this chapter, I am going to immediately start working on chapter 5, so expect that one this week. See ya!

-TSoH