Above and Below
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Final Fantasy series.
Notes:
1) Many thanks to everyone who has reviewed—for those of you who also write, you can understand how well reviews and criticisms are always appreciated! Please, keep them coming!
2) I now present chapter 6 of the story—I apologize if things seem to be moving slowly. The next chapter will be an adventure/interlude/short that's been stuck in my mind for a while, and following that, things will rapidly pick up pace, so stay tuned.
Many thanks for reading; comments, criticisms, and general thoughts are always welcome.
~Logos Minus Pity
Chapter 6: Memory Astray
It had been many long months since Lightning had last been on Gran Pulse. She thought of the last time—the first time—she had arrived on the vibrant planet.
Welcome back to hell, she thought idly, smirking to herself.
Granted, her re-introduction to the lower world was off to a much better start this time. The captain's voice crackled over the intercom as the airship approached the Oerba landing port.
"Passengers, please ensure that you are seated and buckled. We will be landing in Oerba shortly."
For all that most of the other cities that had been resurrected on Gran Pulse were given the addition of "New" into their names, for whatever reason the governmental powers that decided such things kept with the original name of Oerba for the small town only several miles out from the crystal pillar that held Cocoon.
The Oerba that Lightning had first visited had been a ghost town—a decaying city coated with a thick layer crystal dust and filled with the howls of wandering Cie'th. In the time that she had been back on Cocoon, the Guardian Restoration Projects had done more than she could believe.
All of the crystal dust had been swept away. Streets had been repaved, some buildings restored and many more simply built from the ground up. It seemed like construction was everywhere. Almost everyone she saw as they dropped down into the city was military personnel, but the fact that there were even some civilians and residential areas was a vast improvement compared to the Pulse-terrified populous that she had been raised in.
And this was just Oerba, which was, by all accounts, more of a military base than anything else. She had seen the sunlight glinting off of the burgeoning settlements farther out from the shadow of Cocoon. People were acclimating to Gran Pulse, many realizing that there was so much more to life than the floating metropolis of a world that the Sanctum had limited them too. Lightning felt a nervous energy wash through her. She was eager to see just how much had changed and evolved in the once abandoned lake-side town. And though she was loath to admit it, she was also anxious to see how things were being run in the Frontier Corps, and where her place in its network would be.
The airship made an easy landing onto the military port, and the passengers—all of whom were military transfers—quickly disembarked and lined up to get further orders. A resident officer made his way down the line of new soldiers, a data pad in hand as he cross-checked their I.D. chips. Lightning was waiting patiently when the officer stopped in front of her, eyes scanning the datalog file he held in his gloved hands.
"Claire Farron?"
"Sir," she responded curtly, with a sharp salute, uncertain as to why she had been singled out. Was there a problem on her file? Typical.
"The Claire "Lightning" Farron?" he asked his voice disbelieving. "Amodar's l'Cie?"
"Sir," she responded a second time, pointedly ignoring the loud whispers that broke out among the ranks. This whole response was getting old. The soldier signaled to another man, and after the two conferred, he returned, this time bereft of his data pad.
"Please follow me, Officer Farron. The Lieutenant-General would like to see you shortly."
Lightning replied in acquiescence. What else could she say? The officer quickly led her into the main compound, weaving through the newly built corridors until they reached a metallic door flanked by two armed guards. Her escort gave three sharp knocks before the door opened, allowing them into the office.
"Staff Sergeant Corf bringing new arrival officer Claire Farron for the Lieutenant-General."
The staff sergeant exited the office, leaving Lightning alone with her new commanding officer. She saluted toward the chair that still faced away from her, mildly annoyed that the general hadn't turned around yet. Here the man had gone and had her singled out of the arrivals to be brought before him, yet he couldn't even take the extra second to stop his work and actually put his own attention toward her?
"Farron, sir. Reporting for officer duty from training at Eden Academy, as requested. Sir."
The chair finally turned around so that the commander of military operations on Oerba—and indeed for the greater portion of Gran Pulse—could meet Lightning's sharp, bright blue eyes with his own, sea green gaze.
"R-Rygdea?" she exclaimed, disbelieving what her eyes clearly showed before her.
"The one and only, Farron. Surprised? Sit down before you do something undignified like faint."
That helped snap her back to herself. Lightning gladly obliged by sitting down, but favored Rygdea with a sour look that made it clear what she thought about her fainting. She quickly composed herself.
"You can hardly blame me. I didn't even know that you were still…" Her voice trailed off at what she was going to say, recalling her own last encounter with the Cavalry.
"Alive?" he finished for her, almost gently. His eyes looked beyond her for a moment, hardening along with his voice. "It takes more than that to kill me. I may not be a l'Cie, but I don't die easily, no matter how much any damn fal'Cie wants it."
The groaning of Sacrifice Cie'th filled her ears as buried memories ghosted to the surface of her mind. She forced them back down, yet again, and made her voice appropriately reproachful.
"Still, all the secrecy? You had to stay in anonymity until the last moment possible?"
"It was worth it if only to see the flabbergasted look on your face when you walked through my office door, Farron. That alone was priceless."
She realized off-handedly that the roguish smile he was now wearing was the first true grin she had seen on his face since entering his office. When she had first met Rygdea while he was still serving on the Lindblum, despite the undeniable gravity if the situation that face them all, he always maintained a wild, carefree attitude, as if ready to go head to head with any challenges life might throw at him. The person in front of her now was a man changed. Gone was easy-going young man who had swaggered through the airship, spouting creative threats against Dysley's Sanctum; instead, that laughter is his eyes had disappeared, replaced by an air of grave seriousness that weighed down on his every movement and action.
He was now much more, she decided, like what Cid had been like. The trials of the war had left their mark on him as surely as any scar. For a long moment, it made her heart ache unexpectedly. Was there no one she knew who had escaped unscathed?
"I've been keeping tabs on you and all of your friends since the Sanctum got canned; I'm glad to see that you're all doing well, but…your two Pulsian companions…Fang, and that friend of hers she kept looking for…I'm sorry they didn't make it out, Farron. I won't waste time saying crap about them dying honorably, I just hope that they stuck it to the fal'Cie with their last breath."
Lightning closed her eyes and leaned back into her chair. Right, he didn't know. "More than that, Rygdea. I'm no savior of Cocoon. That crystal moon out there—our homeland—that was the two of them. Just the two of them."
The former Cavalry officer's chair creaked as he turned to look out his window at Cocoon. A low whistle escaped his lips. "I'll be damned. Pulsians saving our hanging garden of Cocoon. I'll salute to that."
He swirled around again to face Lightning, sensing greater story and the hurt behind her words. "Sorry, I'll move on to business now, before my aide-de-camp barges back in demanding I keep up with paperwork."
Rygdea pulled his computer screen closer typing a few quick strokes to presumably open up her files. True to his word, he immediately fell into a business mode.
"You made things easier for me by requesting Oerba, or I would have had to do some serious fighting with the bureaucrats to get you under my direct command. As it stands, you're here, and your skills and expertise are sorely needed. Between my experience with you before and the recommendations Amodar's sent down the line, I think you're going to be a perfect fit for what I need. So, I'm giving you a starting commendation of First Lieutenant."
If Lightning was at all surprised by this pronouncement, she didn't show it. It was unheard of for an officer as young as her and so fresh out of training to start at any rank higher than Third Lieutenant. Rygdea continued right on with his train of thought, his plans for Lightning obviously already mapped out in his mind.
"…not just standard officer in our security or guard regiment. I'm going to be putting you with the scouts—now don't get put down by the name," he amended quickly interpreting the momentary flaring of her nostrils. "The phrase "scouts" is just more of a verbal shorthand. If anyone constitutes the Frontier Corps, it's the scouts. They're our elite tactical soldiers, working in small sting squads to clear high-end beasts and Cie'th, or to, yes, scout out dangerous or unknown terrain. Pretty much, it's the best job I could ever want, but since I get stuck here doing administrative crud and creating a functional arm of the military, you are the next best fit to lead my lance corporals and make the Oerba Tactical Scouting Team the jewel of the GC…or at least until I get my Cavalry back up and running in a few years. But at the current moment, the scouts don't have a head commanding officer, and they need one. Youare going to be their CO."
"Me? But I just gradua—"
Rygdea waved away her concerns before she even finished voicing them. "If you're so worried about that then I'll give you a secondary officer title as the commanding officer of the scouts. Let's go with…hmmm…wait for it…I got it! Lieutenant-Commander! That sounds pretty impressive, right?"
She was dumbfounded. "You really just made that up right now? You can't just make up new officer ranks!"
He barked out a laugh. "Course' I can! They gave me free reign to use as much creative license as I want to form the Frontier Corps, particularly the scouts. As long as my boys—and ladies, too, pardon—get the job done, the politic types that keep our funding coming don't give two shits. So Lieutenant-Commander it is for now. Ooohh, maybe I'll upgrade your scout title as you progress in the other normal officer ranks. Yeah, so when you make Captain, then you'll be Captain-Commander…I like this already. Oh, but don't thank me yet! There is, of course, a catch."
This time, she groaned. Just great.
"No field work to start off. I'm grounding you for a while yet." Rygdea folded his hands together and leaned forward. "We need your knowledge, Farron. I want every last bit of information on Gran Pulse your memories have to offer, I don't care how stupid you think it is. Geography, terrain, places, creatures, weather, nice sights…anything and everything is game. Even now, our database is so limited that every little bit helps. We are going to pick your brain five times over, and then maybe I'll let you do some actual soldier work."
Lightning didn't care by now that she was openly gaping at him. She knew this "introductory" period was already going to be absolutely horrible.
"No questions? Good." Rygdea held out a holopad toward Lightning, some various numbers glowing on it. "This will be your starting officer salary—you can expect comparable pay class increases with every promotion. It's not as much as what I'd like to offer, but it should help you get settled in for now."
She looked over the figure. It was over double the amount she would have expected to receive. When she looked back up, she met Rygdea's gaze, his now more strikingly green-colored eyes almost tauntingly daring her to say something back. She swallowed down her pride. A nod was all he got in return from her.
Smiling, he typed a few final notes into his computer interface, and then handed Lightning a small data chip from across his desk. "Head down to the barracks supply shop, and give them this. They'll give you your new uniforms and everything else you'll need until you find a better place to settle here in Oerba.
"You have the remainder of the day to yourself—and before you argue that you're ready to start, just do what I say and take the day off—but I expect you to report the Department of Special Forces and Intelligence at 0600 tomorrow morning. Make sure you get a lot of rest tonight, Farron, you're about to have a long week or two ahead of you. We'll talk more later."
Rygdea finished by flashing Lightning a thumbs-up, presumably her signal that she was dismissed. She bit back the childish urge to stick her tongue out at him in retaliation. Why did she always get put under CO's who never seemed to care for proper protocol and decorum? Somehow she had the feeling that Rygdea would make Amodar look like the shining example of "politically correct" by comparison. Nonetheless, she still stood and, giving him a smart salute, turned and exited his office, the door whizzing closed behind her. Her solitude lasted for only another bare second, though.
"Pardon me, ma'm, are you Officer Farron?"
Lightning raised a quizzical eyebrow at the soldier standing before her. He was in a full armor suit, helmet included, the occasional dent and gouge testifying to its practical usage. The coloring and style of the armor unit were unlike any standard PSICOM or GC work that she had ever encountered.
"That would be me, yes."
If it was possible, the man stood even straighter, immediately snapping a textbook perfect salute to her.
"Lance Corporal Evitt, standing attention, sir! I was sent to escort you to the barracks, Lieutenant-Commander."
It took Lightning a second longer than she would have liked to retrieve the response befitting of her officer rank—and just how was it that everyone seemed to know everything already?
"At ease, Lance-Corporal. Please, lead the way."
Evitt was Lightning's definition of a professional soldier. Focused and single-minded, he wasn't particularly talkative, but he was an excellent guide for Light, who wanted nothing more than to clear her paperwork and get some sleep. Once she arrived at the barracks, she quickly submitted her data chip to the staff sergeant on duty. She was given keys to her temporary officer's quarters, a new set of field and formal uniforms, and, as per her request, directions to the closest restaurant as well as the military mess hall.
As a sign of her new officer rank, she was also given two new spaulders, one for each shoulder, both with two luminescent red stripes running across them. It felt bizarre wearing the two shoulder guards after over a year of only wearing the one on her left. But she knew she was turning a new leaf in her life. She supposed the new look only served to match it.