A/N: Hello everyone and Happy 4th of July! Here's chapter of Heart of a Soldier, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII and its characters rightfully belong to Square Enix
Claimer: Heart of a Soldier and its OCs belong to me
Heart of a Soldier
Chapter VII: Branded
As Alexis and I walked after the others, we spotted Lightning not far from us. She hopped from one part of the motorway wreckage to the next. Both of us jogged and followed her upwards, where we found the others except for the blonde who was missing from the group "We fight it! Ragnarok!" He concluded as he jumped off a ledge and rejoined us "That's the reason we're l'Cie. To stop it- to keep Cocoon safe!"
"Yeah, why don't you give us one reason to believe that? One reason." Sazh told him.
"Serah." The blonde replied immediately.
"She said to protect Cocoon, and then she turned to crystal. That's the proof right there. She's completed her Focus! That means our is to save Cocoon." The blonde tried to convince us, he then turned to Lightning but she turned her back towards him "Serah's fal'Cie was the same as ours. Our Focus has to got to be the same. We were chosen to be guardians, to defeat Ragnarok! It makes sense!"
"The hell it does! You're grasping at straws, son!" Sazh turned around "Pulse fal'Cie are Cocoon's enemies. We just got recruited by one of them. If I were a betting man…I'd put us on the other side."
"So Serah's an enemy too?" The blonde questioned him "Well I don't buy it!" He then walked up to Lightning and grasped his left forearm "We have the power to save Cocoon. If we work together and carry out our Focus-"
In a blink of an eye, Lightning unsheathed her gunblade and held it up against his neck. Alexis elbowed me as we watched and elbowed her back harder "Our Focus? The fal'Cie took Serah from us, and you want to help it?" the blonde didn't say anything "Whose side are you on?"
"Freeze!" A commanding voice shouted. A group of PSICOM soldiers surrounded us with their guns trained on us, front and behind "Place your hands behind your heads!" The captain of the group ordered. Damn, we're surrounded "Nicholas and Alexis Cross, put your hands where I can see them, front and center."
I looked at Alexis and nodded for us comply. Both of us put our hands up by our heads and turned around to face the leader of the squadron. Gun barrels were placed at the back of our heads "Move it," Their weapons clicked. We walked through the group and stood front and center, as instructed.
"Nicholas and Alexis Cross, quite a coincidence to see you here. Makes my job easier." The captain said "You two are wanted for murder and disobeying Sanctum orders. Got a large bounty on your heads."
"Did Colonel Lieutenant Derek assign you to look for us?" I questioned him. The Captain didn't say anything "Hey-!" I was cut off short when the captain's fist made an impact against my stomach, I wheezed as he placed the barrel of his gun against my head and ready to pull the trigger.
"You wouldn't dare!" Alexis snapped but was threatened by a gun to the face. She glared at the captain.
"Handcuff these two and confiscate their weapons while you're at it. Report to Colonel Lieutenant." The soldiers behind us moved to the front and put our hands into the handcuffs, they then unstrapped our gunblades from our waists and tossed them to another soldier "I would rather kill you two than hand you over to Colonel Lieutenant. Saves us the time."
"Then why don't you." I asked. The Captain hesitated to find an answer but went silent instead. We were then forced to move forward "Not enough backbone." I scoffed.
"You fall off the Purge train?" The Captain walked casually over to Lightning.
"Maybe." Lightning placed her hands on the back of her head.
"Are you talking back to me? Huh?" The Captain shoved the barrel of the gun in front of Lightning's face.
I looked over to Alexis and nodded, she did the same. Both of us stopped and waited, knowing Lightning, hell is about to break loose. "Nice gun." There was line of pained grunts followed by the yells from the other PSICOM soldiers. Making that our queue, Alexis and I turned around, I swept one of the soldiers off his feet and made a swift kick to his head, thus breaking his neck. Alexis aimed a roundhouse kick to the other soldier's head. The rest of the group took out their weapons and joined the fray against the PSICOM soldiers.
"The Captain has the key!" I told Alexis and we maneuvered our way through the fight and I managed to get to the Captain's body but I was stopped by a barrage of bullets and one caught my cheek. It stung for a moment. I charged towards the soldier whilst dodging a barrage of bullets, once I was close enough, I jumped over him. Landing facing his back, I kicked him forward and a blade of a gunblade penetrated his front and out of his back.
The soldier was moved off the blade and dropped onto the ground. I looked up from the body to see that it was Lightning. The others regrouped, Lightning knelt down beside the dead Captain and searched the body for the key. She held out a simple key card and tossed it over to me and I caught it.
With PSICOM soldiers finished, the group examined a soldier while Alexis and I removed our cuffs and retrieved our gunblades from a dead PSICOM soldier.
"I thought they'd be tougher than that." Sazh commented "These guys are PSICOM, yeah? Suppose to be cream-of-the-crop."
"Yeah, but PSICOM's an anti-Pulse task force." The blonde explained "Haven't fought a war in centuries. Bunch of rookie troops swinging around overpriced toys."
"So, from what you're telling me, it sounds like a regular old soldier…has got more training than special forces."
"Nothing for us l'Cie to be afraid of." The blonde said. I shook my head and Alexis let out a chuckle.
"Cut the crap." Lightning said "Their grunts might be green, but PSICOM's elites are cold-blooded beasts. They hit the field and it's game over."
"I agree with that," I called over my shoulder as Alexis worked on healing my cheek that the bullet from earlier made a cut on "The elites will stop at nothing to kill their acquired target. Enemy or not. There's no stopping them until one of you are on the ground."
"Oh-oh! Then let's run away!" The redhead pointed towards a random direction and ran off "Ciao!"
"Hey, wait!" Sazh called after her before sighing, a small yellow chocobo chick flew out of his afro and landed in his hand "What's a man to do?" Sazh went on ahead with the blonde and silver-haired kid.
Alexis patted my cheek, indicating that she finished "All healed but it left a decent scar. It's not noticeable unless you squint." I ran my fingertips over the newly formed 'scar'.
"That's fine. As long as I don't end up having a collection." I sighed.
"Oh, yeah, because woman find guys who have scars really attractive." Alexis teased, indicating the last person who remained behind "You never know." She winked, why must Alexis do this to me? My face started to blush and my twin sister giggled at the sight.
"Come on you two," Lightning said as she approached us.
I quickly adjusted my scarf so that it hides my flaring cheeks "R-right." I nodded and we walked after the others. At the bottom of the slope, there was a group of Cie'th stumbling around. After fighting the group of Cie'th, we continued deeper into the crystallized Lake Bresha.
As we walked into a large clearing, I started to hear croaking. I stopped walking and glanced around "Does anybody else hear croaking? Or it is just me?"
Everybody stopped "I hear it too." Sazh said.
"We need to keep moving." Lightning instructed and we did so but as a precaution, I let my hand hover over the hilt of my gunblade. The croaking got louder after each passing step we took. A group of Breshan Bass jumped out of their hiding spots and surrounded us. We took out our weapons and prepared ourselves.
A Breshan Bass jumped towards with its mouth wide open and ready to chomp on my face. Wind formed around my left hand and with a downward quick gesture, the Breshan Bass was crushed against the crystallized ground. Croaking was heard to my right, I unsheathed my gunblade and switched it to its gun form. I pulled the trigger and bullets tore through the Breshan Bass.
We put away our weapons and continued on our path.
A/N: Chapter 7 is done! I know this chapter seems short but I'm going by the subchapters within the game- that means, more things to add between characters *cough* *cough* Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, until the next time I update! See ya~!
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