Securing Insecurities
Stage 7 – Eden, Eidolons, and Epiphanies
Back within the confines of Cocoon, Cid Raines sat in his office above the Eden raceway. Controlled by Barthandelus, he was merely a shadow of his former self, a puppet set to fool the people of Cocoon into following fal'Cie orders. No sign of the l'Cie had been seen for some time, the people of Cocoon being led to think that they were apprehended and contained in Palumpolum. Their escape to The Palamecia was never televised, the entire incident nothing more than lightning in the sky. The citizens who had seen a ship fly into the side of a building were told it was merely a holographic display gone awry during the apprehension, but that everything was still 'okay'. The citizens, longing for return to their peaceful world, accepted the explanation with little consequence. Dysley's disappearance was attributed to the Sanctum leader being ill, Cid Raines taking up the reins as Primarch while the good leader was nursed back to health. None of the citizens even thought to question these events, afterall it was much simpler to assume they were fact and to return to their daily peaceful lives.
Nevertheless, Raines sat in Eden, looking down to the preparing race. Barthandelus had ordered a distraction to pull the citizen's attention away from the army that was growing in Eden Hall. PSICOM and the Guardian Corps had both been fooled into thinking that the destruction of Orphan was to be prevented, protection mounting in many levels throughout Eden. What he really wanted was for the l'Cie to charge in, one last trial to push them further into Orphan's Cradle where they would finally be faced with the only decision: slay Orphan.
The rogue l'Cie were on their way home from Gran Pulse, currently inside their airship, zooming through the transgate. They could see what was happening down below, watching as a racing event was underway in Eden. Surely a distraction by the puppet, it would also provide the cover they needed to sneak into Eden Hall and find their way to the Cradle.
"Really? A race? I could beat all of them in Brynhildr!" Sazh bragged.
"Lame way to try and get the people's attention away from their failures," Snow said.
"Lame, but effective," Lightning added. "We better get ready, I have a feeling things are about to get ugly."
"It couldn't be as easy as to just walk into Eden Hall, could it? No we have to fight our way there, can't do anything the easy way!" Sazh complained.
"No, I just know that Eden is filled with soldiers of all kinds – it won't be as simple as walking in the front door. The entire army is going to be ready for the big bad l'Cie to come raiding their precious Hall," Lightning corrected the older man.
The ship was getting close to the exit of the gate, the racers below getting ready to begin. The Cocoonian people felt comfort knowing the Guardian Corps was watching the entire event, keeping them safe as they watched the joyous event. The people needed something to be excited about since Palumpolum was in disarray; it gave them a way to break away from the reconstruction.
Raines was simply going through the motions; standing up and making a speech into the camera, his image displayed on giant monitors throughout the raceway stands. He feigned interest and strength, having no choice but to continue his deception. The crowd below cheered, lights flashed, fog bloomed into the air, and horns blared. With a snap of his fingers, Raines signaled the start of the race. As the sound of the snap echoed through the stands, the crowd roared with excitement as the numerous airbikes, aglow with various stickers, lights, and decorations, wasted no time in blasting forward from the starting line.
"Hey! Look over there!" Vanille shouted, pointing toward the race track. The airbikes were lined up, ready to take off, a large monitor over top of them showing Cid Raines speaking to the crowd. Standing all around the track were soldiers and large robots and vehicles.
"No, look over there!" Fang pointed farther back behind the track at Eden's downtown area. While the streets were barren of citizens, soldiers of all types were already scouting about, guarding the entrance to Eden Hall.
"It looks like the entire PSICOM army!" Hope observed, nervous.
"PSICOM and Guardian Corps. Everything they have. They're guarding the Hall," Sazh added. The chocobo chick groaned as it dove back into his afro, tired of so much fighting. He may not be the one pulling the triggers, but it was wearing him out staying well hidden in the big bush of hair.
"They're guarding Orphan, you mean," Vanille corrected him. "But, if the army is being controlled by Raines, and he is being controlled by Barthandelus, wouldn't they be trying to get to Orphan, not guarding it?"
"They aren't strong enough to kill Orphan. But we are. Barthandelus doesn't want to keep us out; he wants us to fight our way in so that for one last time, the l'Cie are the ones to blame. Anyone who survives the crash of Cocoon will blame the l'Cie, and worship the fal'Cie as gods for their own safety. The fal'Cie will make slaves of them, the way they think we have made slaves of fal'Cie," Lightning explained. "Fal'Cie can't kill the humans outright, so they will make more l'Cie and use them to control the people with fear, forcing them into servitude."
"But that's stupid! It makes no sense!" Vanille argued.
"Nobody said it had to make sense; genocide rarely does," Lightning answered.
"Wait, if destroying Orphan will cause Cocoon to fall, then why are we going to find Orphan in Eden Hall?" Sazh asked, suddenly realizing that he didn't understand the plan.
"Easy. Barthandelus wants Orphan dead to bring back the Maker. But we're going to destroy Orphan to save Cocoon instead. We're going to put an end to the cycle of making l'Cie of humans to be fal'Cie slaves. When the goddess returns, she will be our salvation, and keep Cocoon aloft. It isn't mass homicide she wants, it's a sacrifice of the fal'Cie to bring her forth that she needs. The fal'Cie die, and she can come back to be with the humans she created," Fang explained.
"Where are you getting all of this?" Snow asked.
"You know that little doohickey in the box? I figured out how to use it, and it explained everything. That's when Lightning and I made our strategy," Fang said, a smirk on her face.
"When was this?" Snow asked again.
"While you guys were busy packing things away, we cracked into the log and heard it all," Fang answered him. "In short, the Maker is the goddess Etro, who made humans and fal'Cie, then high tailed it for a little while and to make her come back we need a sacrifice. The fal'Cie want to sacrifice Orphan but need l'Cie to do it, but destroying Orphan will cause Cocoon to fall to the world below, killing the majority of humanity. The thing is, destroying Orphan will kill all of the fal'Cie, regardless of who slays it, so the fal'Cie are committing mass suicide and don't even realize it. They think if we destroy Orphan for them, Cocoon falls and they become gods."
"So either way we all die?" Sazh asked in a panic.
"No, Etro will return and save us. She made us, the fal'Cie forced her away, and she wants to come back to take care of her children; us. Look, none of this makes a huge amount of sense. All in all, it's just a bunch of stupid fal'Cie pretending they are gods when none of them have a damn clue about anything!" Fang said, a little irritated.
"Barthandelus thinks we are going to destroy Orphan to help the fal'Cie, but he doesn't know we found out the truth, and that now we are going to destroy Orphan to help free humanity," Lightning explained. "So that's the plan. We get to Eden, fight our way into Eden Hall and confront Orphan to bring this all to an end."
"So in we go, huh? No more poking around, it's time to finish our Focus the way we want to finish it," Snow said, grinning a little.
"The army is no match for NORA, right, Snow?" Hope chided him, nudging him in the arm. He hadn't said 'Nora' since the incident on the rooftops of Palumpolum.
"The army is no match for us," Snow corrected.
"Look, the race is starting! The perfect time to get into Eden Hall!" Vanille shouted in excitement.
"Get your game faces on, they aren't playing around," Lightning ordered. "We don't have time to land. Call your Eidolons, we're going to battle."
The six l'Cie stood in a row, pulling their crystals from their brands. The ship shot through the exit of the transgate, lighting up the sky as the gate closed behind them. "Now!" Lightning shouted. "Odin!" She threw her rose shaped crystal forward, shot it with a bullet from her gunblade. Lightning felt the mighty stag run up behind her and duck down, allowing her to straddle his back.
"I summon Brynhildr!" Sazh cried out, throwing his crystal forward and shooting it three times. Brynhildr began to form in a large sphere of flame, finally bursting out into her Valkyrian form. Sazh reached out and held on to the giant scythe held by the Norse warrioress..
"Bahamut!" Fang called out, her crystal flying into the air, shattering in the sky with the supersonic squeal of the dragon racing through the clouds piercing their ears. She felt him come up behind her and she grabbed on straddling his back in her usual perch.
"Alexander!" Hope smashed his own crystal between his hands, sparkling in yellow dust, his massive guardian descending from the clouds, taking the shape of a mighty warrior with Hope sitting in his giant outstretched hand. He gazed back at his massive Eidolon, impressed.
"Come on, Hecaton!" Vanille called forth her freakish Eidolon by sending her crystal hurtling to the ground. He came up from underneath her, grabbing onto her with his front most hands and cradling her in his arms. Only Vanille would come up with a cutesy pet name for her Eidolon.
"Shiva!" Snow crushed his crystal in his fist and tossed it forward, the twin sister forming on either side of him from a shattered sphere of ice. The six l'Cie were then prepared for what may very well be their most elborate battle yet.
Down below, the race had just started. The air bikes were going at maximum speeds, the crowd cheering them on. All but one of the racers were focused on the track. The other racer made the mistake of looking skyward, seeing the green gate closing and six giant mechanical creatures emerging in bursts of light and color, smaller beings riding on them. The rider panicked and turned the wheel sharply, causing him to lose control and the airbike to fly down the track end over end, the driver yelling for help.
Suddenly the biker felt himself stop in midair, the world no longer spinning crazily. He saw pale flashes of blue, felt the air turn cold. "That was a close call!" a man shouted.
Snow was standing atop the side of the air bike, the twin sisters on either side of the bike, holding onto it. Snow was grinning, eating up the attention. "And the hero saves the day! Thank you, thank you! You're too kind!" he boasted. He was waving at the crowd, the sleeves on his coat falling to uncover his forearm uncovering his l'Cie brand. A camera zoomed in on his forearm, displaying the image up on the screen. The audience began to scream and yell, panic settling in as they recognized the tattoo of black arrows and a red eye in the center.
"Oops, probably should've covered that." He scolded himself, realizing he was being broadcast on the monitors. As the Shiva sisters set down the air bike, he leaped into the air, the sisters grabbing hands and combining into their own motorcycle, Snow landing in the seat just in time. Several Sanctum mecha known as Bulwarks were then flying after him, ready to shoot him down. He slammed down the pedal, Shiva blasting forward with all of her power. "Catch me if you can!" he yelled back to the troop of white mechanical Bulwarks.
Alexander and Hope landed on a crosswalk set above the track, watching below. Hope jumped down, a Bulwark barely having time to stop in front of him.
"Hi there!" he said cheerily. The mechanical arm drew back to hit him, but Alexander landed on top of it instead, crushing it in a loud squeal of metal and sparks. Smoke spewed out of the machine, Hope smiling as he noted several more Bulwarks coming toward them. He looked up at Alexander; "Cut 'em off!" he ordered. Alexander nodded and raised his gargantuan arms to grab hold of the closest intruders, throwing them aside, one of them bouncing down the track toward Snow and Shiva.
"Looks like we have a winner!" Snow joked. He revved up the engine even more, the icy engine squealing. Shiva sped up, leaving the destroyed Bulwark in a mound of ice.
"Now!" Lightning shouted, riding atop Odin, who upon her order, tossed her up in the air, grabbed her hand, and swung her around, giving her enough force to leap onto a nearby velocycle with a PSICOM soldier piloting it. He jammed the steering shifter around, trying to throw her off without success. He tried another tactic, attempting a barrel roll. "You're dead!" he yelled.
"No, you first!" she replied, grabbing him by the collar of his armor and yanking him out of the velocycle, sending him flying to the ground. Fang pulled up beside her on Bahamut, laughing at the fallen soldier.
"Keep it up Light!" Fang shouted, grinning. Bahamut reared back, taking fierce slashes ahead at some more velocycles and flying bulwarks. Sparks flew and squeals of metal on metal filled the air. Bahamut kept transforming between warrior mode and flight mode, tossing Fang into the air over and over as he did so, not even pulling in his wings as he fought. Lightning was hanging off the side of the hijacked vehicle, flying toward more soldiers piloting velocycles.
Bullets were flying at the freakish Hecatoncheir, bouncing off the metal arms of the Eidolon as he cradled Vanille in his many arms on his front half. Soldiers had fired steel wires at the him, attempting to subdue him but to no success: Hecatoncheir was much stronger. His hands had grabbed onto the cables, now wrestling with the wires trying to yank them out of the airships that were firing them.
"Stop that! I said stop that!" Vanille hollered at the soldiers in anger. They were getting really annoying, and there was no reason to be trying to kill her. In fact, everything was fine until Snow's brand was spotted, then the army came out of the sidelines to attack, right there on the race circuit!
"Bring her down!" one of the soldiers yelled, firing more cables at them. Hecatoncheir grabbed these too, yanking hard and snapping them at the root. More bullets flew, Hecaton still blocking them away with his arms, the metal making loud noises as the bullets deflected off the armor.
"Block this!" another soldier screamed, firing a rocket launcher at them. Vanille pulled her arms up to her chest, suddenly panicked.
"Uh oh!" she said, but by then the rocket had hit, and although she was safe from danger by the massive arms holding on to her, she and Hecatoncheir were flying through the air, the final cables snapping, yanking down the airship with it. She screamed loudly as they hurtled end over end.
"Vanille!" Sazh shouted, pushing the pedal to the metal inside Brynhildr in her car form, the chocobo screeching at the top of its tiny lungs. Just as they were about to pass by the falling pair, the car ejected Sazh from the seat, transforming into her Valkyrie form, swinging her massive scythe around to catch Hecatoncheir as he flew by. "Got ya!" Sazh called out, landing back inside Brynhildr as she reformed as a racecar.
"Odin!" Lightning called for her partner. She ducked just as Odin, in warrior form, landed beside her and shoved a falling piece of debris from the air. She leapt from panel to panel of various parts of machinery shot through the air, leftovers from Bulwarks and velocycles, as one of the airships Hecatoncheir felled was coming apart. Odin transformed himself into various stages of his warrior mode, evading bullets and objects being hurled at him, slashing back with his own dual scythes. "Hope! Make a wall!" she commanded the teenager as she was ducking yet another iron panel that Odin pushed away from her. "Move it!"
"Okay!" Hope replied. "I need your help, big guy!" Alexander didn't hesitate – he immediately began to shift, half of him folding down into an orb-like shape, his arms expanding outward to catch several falling towers from the sky. Hope climbed up on him, positioning himself near the center of the Eidolon sphere. Alexander spread his sides out far, creating a huge wall across the track, keeping the Bulwarks, velocycles, , soldiers, and everything else from passing by. If they tried, Alexander would simply shoot them down with high powered white-hot lasers.
Having recovered from her ride on Hecatoncheir, Vanille hopped down from his arms. "We work better together!" she said, smiling. His arms went rigid and began to rotate, then folded down to make four large turrets. The entire creature formed a bipedal mech, larger than the mechanical foes attacking. Vanille cheered and hopped up on top of the machine of war. "Time for a taste of your own medicine!" she said, steering Hecatoncheir toward the crowd of soldiers that had shot her down before. They were attempting to shoot once more, but Hecatoncheir was holding up a shield, shooting large orbs of energy toward them. Vanille ordered him to start firing missiles around them, driving the soldiers into a group. She smiled, Hecatoncheir jumping and landing smack into the middle of the group. Vanille reached up and pressed a few buttons, grinning up at the soldiers around her. He drove his turrets into the ground below and began to charge up. A large half sphere of energy began to form around them in a huge radius, holding in the soldiers and they began falling as the ground shook violently. Hecatoncheir fired intense electrical shocks into the ground, the power surging throughout the Eidolon, Vanille holding on, screaming in excitement. Rocks erupted from the ground and electricity flowed throughout the hemisphere with clouds of dirt brushing up. When the energy dissipated, all that remained of the soldiers was armor and broken corpses."That's more like it." She giggled.
Brynhildr and Shiva were busy corralling more soldiers, Bulwarks and velocycles toward Alexander like cattle. Shiva revved up, spinning to create small ice barriers to block incoming gunfire, Brynhildr backing up and shooting sparks and flame, forcing the adversaries back. They were closing in toward Alexander, no escape available for their quarry.
"Let's finish this up," Snow shouted, revving up Shiva's engines, freezing air blasting from her exhaust pipes. He drove straight into the middle of a large group of soldiers and mechs, then began to spin out, swinging in circles and circles, frozen air turning to ice, locking foes within it. Snow pressed a button on the center console and the ice shattered into tiny pieces, everyone inside shattering with it.
"Ouch!" Sazh commented. "Alright, let's go from one extreme to the other!" He revved up Brynhildr's engine, then began driving circles around his group of adversaries, a large wall of fire forming in Brynhildr's tracks. The more he revved the engine the higher and more severe the fire got until it was tracing lava tracks in the ground. When Brynhildr finally stopped, the only thing left was melted metal and corpses. Sazh and Snow traded thumbs up, then drove out farther, pushing in the last of the fiends toward Alexander.
"Hope! Do it now!" Snow ordered. "You got it!" Hope replied and stood back, hanging sideways off of the gigantic Eidolon. A large slit in the center opened, tiny laser eyes opening, shooting white hot lasers at the ground, drawing a holy glyph over top of everything there. A huge explosion followed, finishing off the Sanctum army. The three l'Cie cheered, Vanille straddled upon Hecatoncheir arriving on the scene just in time to watch as Bahamut and Odin faced two Warmechs.
The Warmechs were actually much larger than any of the Eidolons, save Alexander. One was in the shape of a gigantic mechanical black spider, the other modeled after an oversized black Bulwark with numerous weapon enhancements. The spider began swinging its huge legs at Odin, the Eidolon dodging and shooting electricity from the giant blades that Lightning held in her hands. Odin jumped into the air, shooting more electricity at the spider, which backed down. The spider shuddered and shook, a large tail slithering out of its back end and curling up over its body. The creature at last looked like a giant scorpion instead of a spider. It began swinging its huge tail at the Eidolon who again dodged and weaved between swings. Odin bucked, then slammed its hooves into the head of the scorpion beast, Lightning taking the moment to swing the blades forward, channeling electricity directly into the monster. It let out mechanical howls and reared up, sending Odin flying back. Lightning glared at it, then looked down at the horse beneath her. "This is it!" she shouted. She stood up, Odin bucking once more, sending her flying into the air. As she reached the apex of her jump, she began to spin her body, the giant blades in her hands spinning with her. Electric arcs emitted from the blades, slicing into the scorpion, slicing off its tail and into the legs. The sound of shattering glass echoed throughout Eden as the creature burst into a million pieces like a porcelain plate. Lightning landed on Odin's back, the blades still in her hands.
Bahamut was busy dodging laser blasts coming from the giant Bulwark, missing the swing of its arms and then diving to miss bursts of red laser energy coming toward him. He shot up into the air and fired his own laser beams from his mouth, cutting into the machine. Without hesitating it charged up once more, a golden glyph appearing in front of his face. Missiles launched from its mouth, exploding as they hit the Warmech, sending it stumbling backwards. "Be a sweetheart and rain down hell!" Fang ordered with a chuckle. Bahamut quickly circled around, launching himself higher into the air, all of his energy channeling between his mandibles, a blue orb of power surging between them. He released it, the orb slamming down into the creature, both it and the super heated plasma exploding outward. Pieces fell at the feet of the Eidolons and fell off of the track to the world below. She landed the dragon in front of the other Eidolons, the group finally together again.
"We're going to have to walk the rest of the way, so be careful." Lightning said, just as a large rumbling sound began. Green and purple flashes of light went off, miniature transgates appearing like holes in space. From out of the holes came several Adamantoises, Behemoths, and various other Pulsian beasts. They flooded into Eden like a clown car, a seemingly never ending stream of creatures. Roads cracked and wall crumbled as the gargantuan Adamantoises trampled the streets. Their monstrous feet left holes in the roads as they walked, the slightly smaller Adamancheilds just cracking the pavement.
"They're too powerful, even the Eidolons don't stand a chance with those beasts," Fang warned. "We have no choice but to dodge them on foot. Trust me, we put up with these bastards for years before the war."
"Right, agreed. We have a long way to go so let's get to it," Lightning ordered. She leapt off Odin's back, connected the two scythes into a single blade and put it in his equestrian mouth. "Until next time!" she bid him goodbye and he ran into the sky, disappearing into a flash of light. Vanille waved her arms goodbye as Hecatoncheir jumped back into the ground. The Shiva sisters blew Snow a kiss as they ran off, shattering into icy dust. Brynhildr gave Sazh a salute as she jumped into the air, disappearing in a ball of flame.
"Thanks, big guy!" Hope bid Alexander goodbye, the massive Eidolon launching himself back into the sky like a row of rockets.
"Catch you later!" Fang laughed as Bahamut flew away into the sky, the sound of supersonic speed fading away. No longer perched atop their Eidolons, the team regrouped in front of a small door leading out of the Eden Raceway out into the downtown area.
"Lightning, take point, I'll bring up the back," Fang suggested. Lightning nodded, took lead, and the others followed, Fang watching their backs. For the moment they were safe, travelling through a long corridor filled with orange lights. It seemed as if the corridor was at least a mile, curving only part of the way in.
"Uh, where are we going exactly?" Sazh questioned, confused of the game plan.
"We have to make it through downtown Eden, trying not to get stomped on by those big beasts. The Behemoths and smaller beasts will be harder to dodge since they're so fast, but maybe the Sanctum army will keep their attention," Lightning explained.
"Once we get through downtown we should be at Eden Hall. Once we're in there we just need to break into entrance to Orphan's Cradle and then it's doomsday for that selfish bastard!" Snow added with enthusiasm.
"Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to Orphan we go!" Sazh sang. His chocobo chirped in agreement.
"Hey, Sazh?" Hope questioned. "Don't do that again," he joked.
"Heh, just adding a little humor there kid," Sazh replied. Everyone laughed, easing the tension a little.
"Al right guys, let's get a move on," Lightning said.
They spent most of the trip in silence, mostly because they all knew they were on their way to what could possibly be their deaths.