Authors note: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong to their owners.

Ch.6 The Beginning of the End

We fought our way through the Cie'th that had survived the fall of rubble from the Sanctum strike, and at the end a long dark hallway greeted us. I knew what lay at the end of it: the fal'Cie Anima. If we made it there, we would be turned into l'Cie, and be given a Focus of the world's destruction. I felt like I should say something, anything. But the words wouldn't come out.

The six of us reached the end of the hallway and came out into a large open room. Blank monitors covered the wall, and in the middle was a large dome shape, with a hole on either side. Snow stepped forward and pointed at it. "Serah's a crystal now. You gave her a Focus and she did it. Now let her go!" he yelled. There was no response, and he got on his knees. "Please. Just turn her back." He looked up. "I'll be your l'Cie instead!" There was still no response, and then Lightning stepped forward.

"Snow, you're wasting your time." She drew her gunblade. "Like this thing gives a damn what we want!" She struck the dome, and then did it again and again. Each time she hit harder, until she hit it so hard she was sent a step back with the metal in her sword ringing. "It's this thing's fault the Purge started, and it's people who are dying. Serah told us to save Cocoon. That means this thing needs to die!" "And what good will that do?" I asked. She turned to me.

"Even if we kill that thing, something else, some other thing from Pulse, will just make its way here. And then killing that fal'Cie will have done nothing but got us hurt and feared, because we were humans who killed a fal'Cie." She looked at me, surprised, but then the room started shaking. Machinery started running, and the floor beneath us started glowing. The dome began to split open, and out came a bright white light. We all blocked our eyes, and when the light faded we all saw the Pulse fal'Cie.

Anima was huge, and was almost made of machinery except for a crystal core in the center of its body that resembled a head. The holes and the ground opened, and its Left and Right Manipulators rose out of the ground. Hope and Vanille both tried to run off, but the fal'Cie but up a shield in the shape of a Pulse brand. "Careful now. You really think you can kill a fal'Cie?" Sazh asked. Lightning raised her gunblade. "I'm doing this for Serah," she said. Sazh paused for a moment, and then he said one word. "Dajh…"

The chocobo in his hair tweaked and he said "I'm in. As long as you don't mind an amateur." He held up his guns. "I got these things. Might as well use them." I stepped forward and pulled Indomitus off my back, feeling it settle in my hands. "Well I'm fighting. There's no way I'm going to let something that's not even human kill me." She looked at us both and said "Thanks." It was then that Anima attacked. It slammed its arms into the ground and a wave of magic energy shot out and sent us all back. Lightning, Snow and Sazh just shrugged it off and began attacking its core.

However, it looked like their attacks weren't doing anything, and Anima sent out another energy wave, this one stronger. We all were sent back a few feet and landed on our backs. I pulled myself up and said "We need to take out its arms! Then it won't be able to attack!" The others looked at me, and then nodded. Snow and Sazh went to attack the Manipulator on our right, while Lightning and I started attacking the one to the left.

She kept slashing at the Manipulator with her gunblade, but nothing happened except sparks flew from the impact. It slammed down for a third time and once again we were sent back. I groaned in annoyance. "This thing really starting to tick me off!" I yelled. Lightning charged again, and while she wasn't looking at me I called upon my magic. I ran forward and yelled "Cut 'em down!"My sword cut through the metal as easily as paper, and the manipulator fell to the ground.

Lightning looked at me surprised, but I was already running to Left Manipulator. "Get out of the way!" I yelled to Sazh and Snow. They did, and I cut the other arm off as easily as the first. The moment I did the fal'Cie shuddered, and then its core began to glow. "What's it doing?" Snow asked. I thought back to when I had fought Anima in the game and answered "It's trying to regenerate its arms! We have to take it down before it can!"

We all began attacking the core, but we were hardly doing any damage. Sazh's bullets bounced off, Snow's fist didn't make any dents, and both Lightning's Blazefire Saber and Indomitus just struck sparks. Then, just before the fal'Cie stopped shuddering, Snow let one a punch a lot harder than the others, and the core actually dislodged for a moment, showing a gap just a few inches wide, before the core slipped back in, the holes in the grounds reopened, and out rose two more Manipulators.

"It'll just keep regenerating! What do we do?" Sazh asked. "You guys keep hitting the core while I get rid of its arms again! I've got an idea!" I called. Lightning looked me. "It had better work," she said. "It will. Trust me," I replied. She looked at me for a split-second, then nodded and went back to attacking the head. I channeled my strength into Indomitus again, and I swung at the Manipulator to my right. It fell instantly, but before I could get rid of the other it slammed in to ground and a wave of energy sent me flying.

I landed and my back with my sword beside me, and I heard Snow yell "Are you alright?" I nodded. "Yeah, just need to get rid of that arm!" I said, picking myself and my sword up. Now I was getting really irritated, and that lent me some extra strength. I swung Indomitus at the Manipulator to my left and it went through easily. Once again Anima shuddered and began to glow. "Now! Hit the side of the core as hard as you can!" I said.

They did, with Snow letting out fist after fist on the core, Sazh shooting a stream of bullets and Lightning dealing one hit after the next. I swung my sword at the side, and the core again slipped out the slightest bit. I jammed my sword into the opening, but then it closed on my sword leaving it stuck between the core and Anima's body. I gripped the handle with both hands and pulled with all my might. The sword wouldn't budge. "Snow! Help me out here!" He ran over and I said "Grab the handle a push it forward, like a crowbar!"

He looked at me for a second, confused, but then his face lit up and he said "Oh, I see what you're doin'. Got it!" he gripped Indomitus and heaved on it with all the strength he could muster. There was a creek, a groan, and then the core of the fal'Cie shot out like a cork from a bottle. "The core's vulnerable! Get it!" I yelled. Everyone readied their weapons and I said "As one!"

Snow jumped up and hit it with the hardest punch he had could hit with, just as Sazh let out a few more bullets and Lightning and I both threw our swords. All four of our attacks hit the core at once, the combined attacked proved too much, and the crystal shattered. Instantly there was a huge flash of light, then everything went black.

xxx

We were all floating in empty space. I looked around and saw the other floating as well. Lightning, Snow, Hope, everyone. There was a glow and I looked down. There was a huge crystal that was bathed in light, and then it shattered, and a huge being appeared. It had the face of a man with half of it covered, it was the size of a cathedral, and countless numbers of bells tolled. Vine like coils glowing with a bright green light wrapped around each of us, and a cluster of them wrapped around my right hand.

I felt a sharp burning sensation in the palm of my hand, like someone jammed a hot needle into it and my palm was touched by an iron. The being flung its arms outward and a huge wave of energy hit us all. We were ripped out of the coils' grip, and I felt myself falling, falling… It was then I had a dream. There was a towering figure, the base of Cocoon being ripped apart, a world falling to strike the ground below. I remembered one of the lines I saw before I appeared in this world. "Now you shall live in a world beyond your own, cursed to follow the same path as others."

What was my dream? You guessed it.

I saw the dream of Ragnorak.

xxx

Now Deiru and the others' destinies truly have become intertwined. We all know how the story had gone before, but with Deiru in the picture how will things be different? Wait and see!

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