Ever realize that the more you type the word "Whoa," the less it looks like a word? That just me? You'll understand once you've read the chapter.

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Enjoy!

Etc!

"Now the robots are fighting each other?" Vanille asked.

"Watchdrones and Pulsework Soldiers," Sai said. "The Watchdrones are Sanctum and are probably here to try and contain the Pulsian machines."

"Think we can sneak past?" Vanille suggested.

"There's a big metal thing blocking the path," He pointed out. "Those fighting guys are next to a machine that might be able to do something about it."

Sazh sighed and drew his pistols. "Let's get this over with."

Vanille drew her rod and Sai settled for his dagger. Surprisingly, as they ran into the fray, not one of the enemies seemed to notice them. The Watchdrones were all ganging up on the Pulsework Soldier with their fast and powerful hits, but the tank of the Pulsian machine took the hits with ease. Though it was slower at retaliating, it hit pretty hard, and the two were whittling each other down slowly but surely.

Even as the group began throwing spells from a safe distance, the machines didn't even feel as they kept their focus on each other. Taking the smart move, the three l'Cie went for the Watchdrones first, as the Pulsework soldier was a piece of work, but it was slower than the three Watchdrones. Even as the Watchdrone went down, the other's attention stayed on the Pulsework soldier. Once all three were down, the soldier then turned on the l'Cie, but it was already weakened from the Watchdrones' assault, so it was easy to dispatch.

"Well that went well," Sai muttered.

"Now let's hope this machine's still in working condition," Sazh said, walking up to said machine and examining it. "Never seen a rig like this before."

He rubbed the back of his head before taking his best shot at tapping some buttons and then pulling a lever. The machine whirred to life, glowing with blue lights and crackling electricity before a wire with a disk at the end shot out and latched onto the large metal cylinder that was blocking the path. It then began to reel in the large piece of scrap.

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sazh exclaimed, seeing the thing being dragged their way.

Then, once the wire had fully retracted back into the machine, it shut off, the metal stopping at the machine as well. "…I knew that would happen…"

Sai laughed before walking around the newly-moved chunk of metal. The Pulsework Soldiers were taking a good deal of the attention from the mechanical PSICOM monsters around the area, and so it was just a case of rinsing and repeating the fights.

Walking through a tunnel-like metal cylinder, they came to the end to find the other exit blocked by a heap of metal, far too heavy to be lifted by them, and to high and dangerous to try and climb over and risk bringing down all the metal onto their heads. Luckily, another machine panel seemed to be online.

"Why not?" Sai shrugged and pressed a few buttons. "Better stand back."

A large metal piece that spanned the diameter of the tunnel's exit began to twitch, and Sazh looked forward in confusion. Then, it began to spin full circle, throwing the chunks of metal away with a groan and crash, dust being thrown everywhere, before the machine lost whatever power it had left and deactivated.

Sazh was understandably terrified by the sudden and booming action, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, piece of cake…"

Confirming that the fan-like blade wasn't going to activate again, they hurried through to find more fights between Thexterons and a Pulsework Soldier.

"Cocoon treats everything from Pulse as evil, doesn't it?" Vanille asked as they walked.

"That's what the population has been pushed to believe," Sai admitted. "I don't really care much for Pulse stuff. Never believed what I couldn't see with my own eyes, and as far as I'm aware, Pulse isn't dangerous. Just different."

"Hey! Hope!" She ran forward to indeed find Hope sitting on a rock, and Rei sitting against a small distance away against a cliff sharpening her sword, Lightning nowhere in sight.

The three of them hurried up, and Vanille smiled, slightly winded from the previous battles and hike. "We made it!"

"Where's Grumpy?" Sazh asked.

"She went that way," Rei said, pointing up the cliff behind her.

"She just ditched you guys?" Sai asked.

"Not like Hope's a gymnast, and there's no way I'd leave him alone to fend for himself."

"Got left behind, huh?" Sazh asked, walking up to put his hand on Hope's shoulder.

The moment he did, however, Hope shot to his feet and shoved him away. "Leave me alone!"

"Hey!"

Hope turned and took a few steps away. "This is pointless. Can't keep up. Can't get home. It's over for me."

Vanille rushed to stand in front of him and held up a fist encouragingly. "It's not over," She insisted. "We'll get you home!"

"I don't have one. Now that Mom is…"

"What about your dad?" Sai asked.

Day 11

The Seaside City of Bodhum

"Did you have any family?" Sai asked.

"I had someone very close to me. But really, everyone back home was family."

"Mom…you still believe in that kind of stuff?" A kid asked a little ways away. "Wishing on fireworks? Really? That's for little kids."

His mother wrapped her arms around him playfully. "Who you calling 'kid'?" She laughed.

He chuckled. "You."

"What about parents?" Sai asked as they walked past.

"None that I know of. It was always just me and my friend. I would chase them around the fields whenever they picked a fight, but we would always just end up lying in the grass, laughing our heads off. We would go to the springs and swim in the pools of water under the waterfalls, splashing water at each other until someone nearly drowned and the attacker instantly apologized, only to get a face full of water the next moment. I always played with my friend's hair, tying in flowers and trying to brush the lion's mane every day. At night, we would head to villages where we were welcomed home. Life was so simple."

"Do you miss it?"

She scoffed. "Of course I do. But that life is long gone by now, I'd assume."

"What if it's not?"

"Then it'd be some kind of impossible miracle. Anyway, I like it here. You've welcomed me just as my own family would have. I'd like to be apart of your family as well, if it wouldn't be too much trouble."

"No, none at all."

"That night, they found the fal'Cie in the Bodhum Vestige," Hope explained. "The next day, soldiers sealed off the town and we couldn't get back to Palumpolum. They forced us onto the train with everyone else. My mom, she was frantic. She wanted to get us home, so she tried to fight."

Vanille walked up to try and comfort him, but he turned and reeled on her. "She got tricked, by Snow! He used her!"

Vanille took a step back at his outburst. "Let's get you home, okay? Your dad's gotta be worried!"

"Let him worry." Hope turned angrily. "Why should I care? He doesn't."

"Any father cares," Sazh muttered.

"Sazh?" Vanille asked, noticing him looking down in thought.

"I-It's nothing, forget it."

He turned and scoured the area for another machine that might help, while Rei and Vanille hurried over to Hope to comfort him and pull him to Sazh and Sai, who'd found a machine and were examining it.

Sazh pushed a lever. "This ought to do it."

The machine flashed to life, shooting out another disk and wire to pull out another large metal ramp-like thing that led up to a good foothold in the cliff that worked like a staircase.

"Well ain't that convenient?" Rei muttered.

"The Sanctum's sent scout teams here before," Sai reminded her. "They've probably got a few little things here and there that can help us get around."

"We've got time," Sazh said. "We'll get you back home. Your dad will be happy to see you."

Climbing up the makeshift staircase, they made it up and continued onward after Lightning, meeting some more Pulsework soldiers and seeing tons more scrap metal. Hope was learning to cast some Ravager spells, as well as some defensive Synergist spells, like Protect and Shell. Though he was the most hesitant in the fights, he was learning.

"Yo, can I have my sword back?" Sai asked.

"Here, I made you copies of mine," Rei said, handing two swords, one gold, one silver, to him, the only difference from hers being that the ribbons tied around them were deep red. "Use them well. I don't give my swords to everyone, you know."

Looking up at the husk of what must've been a Pulse airship, Hope spotted to monsters standing atop the high piles of metal and dirt. "There's something up there!"

The creatures stood on one foot with the other up like a dancer, and they swayed their wing-like arms to a beat as well. They had bird-like claws and faces as well, so it wasn't hard to assume they had a running theme. They jumped down, and when they spotted the group, they dropped their one legs to use it in aiding their speed as they zipped over to the ground lightning-quick.

The creatures, Incubuses, spun around to kick with their raised feet, spinning in the opposite directions for another hit, and finished off by slamming downwards vertically, before then hopping back. As the group battered them with spells - Vanille working on her Saboteuring ability to debuff the enemies with Deprotect and Deshell while Hope worked on his Synergistic buffing - the Incubus's let out noises that sounded like kinda like flutes as they were attacked.

With a cry of defeat, the demons were defeated, and the group moved on to what looked to be the heart of the junkyard, filled to the brim with larger remnants of Pulsian technology, some of it even still active thanks to the Sanctum's teams having made a few improvements here and there to keep the place accessible for missions and whatnot.

"Isn't that a…?" Vanille began.

"A warship from Pulse," Rei finished.

"You mean, they made it this far?"

Sazh waved a dismissive hand. "Of course not. Not during the war, not since. They might have tried, but none of their forces made it into Cocoon. They only damaged the outer rim. Then the Sanctum's fal'Cie pushed them back. What, did you sleep through History?"

Vanille giggled. "More or less."

"There was only one fal'Cie on the Pulsian side, anyway," Rei said. "It's not like Pulse really stood a chance in the first place, when they initiated the war."

Hope looked to her. "How would you know that?"

"I…I looked into the government files. A girl gets curious, all right?"

"So, what's a ship from Pulse doing here?" Vanille asked.

"Once the war was over, people couldn't live near the rim anymore," Hope explained. "In places like the Hanging Edge. So the fal'Cie, they gathered up scrap from Pulse, and used it for rebuilding here."

"This is what was left," Sai continued. "A bunch of garbage."

"Who'da thunk?" Sazh mused. "A Pulse fal'Cie and who-knows-what, mixed in with all the trash?"

Vanille looked down. "Who'da thunk…"

"You never know," Rei said. "If the Sanctum fal'Cie let a Pulse fal'Cie slip by their senses, I wouldn't call them a very good protection against Pulse forces."

"Same thing with the PSICOM dudes applies too," Sai added. "They haven't fought a war in centuries. May be pretty rusty at this point."

"Either way, it means that we still have a chance to get out of here before they catch us."

"I'm gonna go peak ahead!" Vanille announced.

The rest of them tried to hurry after her. "Do me a favor," Sazh requested. "Stop wandering off and stay where I can keep my eye on you."

They made their way through the rocky terrain, Hope showing he was actually really good with his magic, despite not being able to hit very hard physically. There were numerous Pulsework Soldiers, along with Incubuses, and even a Succubus, which glowed purple and did a Heretic Dance while the Incubuses went on the offensive to buy it time, and when it finished, it threw out it's wings and it's purple aura expanded outwards in a whoosh to inflict Deprotect, knocking Vanille back from it. Rei was quick to throw an Esuna, and the process repeated as they took the group down as well.

As they walked past a large mound of - surprise, surprise - more junk, Lightning suddenly jumped down.

"Hey! Welcome to the party!" Sazh greeted.

"You miss us?" Vanille added.

Lightning just scoffed and walked off.

"Would it kill her to smile?" Sazh muttered, Vanille putting her hands to her hips.

"Better keep up with her," Rei announced.

"Time to move!" Lightning agreed, running forward.

"Okay!" Vanille called, hurrying after.

"At least we're all together again," Sai said.

Lightning was clearly not in a good mood, whether it be from determination, or from having to tolerate Vanille's perkiness, Sazh's quirkiness, and Hope's sullenness, and so she plowed through the enemies seemingly with a vengeance.

Pulsework Soldiers didn't stand a chance, especially once they'd been staggered up. When they encountered another Succubus, it did a Subversive Dance, this time glowing with a brighter orange to bestow Bravery upon itself, though Lightning wailed on it before it could properly use said buff. Though it was pretty, it was dead within seconds.

Sazh activated a few machines, including a cool staircase. "Just need to get through here," Lightning muttered, referencing a group of Pulsework Soldiers, Succubuses and Incubuses all together.

"Oh, this'll be fun," Rei muttered.

"Let's party," Sai agreed.

Once they'd finally taken that fun group of enemies down, Lightning rushed ahead, barely winded. "Hurry up!"

"Yes mistress," Sai muttered.

Rei elbowed him. "Keep up, lazy bum!"

When they finally did catch up to her, they found a large pile of junk and no path forward. "What do you suppose that is?" Lightning asked.

Walking up to it, the pile of junk began to shake and then a good deal of it was flung away to reveal a large machine, glowing with power and raring to fight.

"What is that?" Sai asked.

"Pulse armament," Rei said, drawing her sword.

The machine raised its large arm and shot it forward, breaking through the final piles of metal that had been covering it, before slowly stomping forward towards the group.

"And that's bad for us, isn't it?" Sazh asked.

"You have eyes, don't you?" Lightning responded.

The machine raised its arm and then thrust it forward, knocking Sazh and Rei back with great force. Rei went to healing the damage, as Lightning straight up attacked the thing, Sai and Vanille threw some spells, Hope went to casting Protect and Shell, and Sazh cast Bravery, Faith, and the Vigilance.

Vanille moved to casting Deprotect and Deshell, Rei kept the party healed from the hard attacks, while everyone else focused on throwing all the spells they could at it for a stagger. The Dreadnought them steadied itself and began to release a billow of steam from beneath where it's head might be.

"What's it doing?" Sai asked.

"Removing Vanille's status ailments," Rei answered. "But that does keep it from attacking us for a while. Keep at it!"

Lightning took the opportunity to do as much damage as she could while the status ailments remained, doing significant damage while doing so. When the Dreadnought finished, it turned towards Lightning and raised its arms, its main body sliding forward to put weight behind it when it slammed down upon her.

Vanille used its distraction to throw on her debuffs once more to make use of them before they were removed and to distract the Dreadnought from attacking when it tried to remove them, and Hope worked to heal Lightning. Everyone began throwing their spells again to build the stagger, Vanille powering through another attack of the Dreadnought before it glowed gold.

Now it flinched to all attacks, and the group battered it with spells to keep it flinching. Lightning and Rei went to work on physically attacking, and if spells were strong when staggered, their attacks were devastating.

The Dreadnought lifted its body to reveal a Wrecking Ball, glowing with electricity and humming as it charged up.

"Get down!" Rei shouted.

The others scattered as she held up a barrier to take the blast. Her barrier held, but the force of the attack took down the metal panels they had been standing on, sending them falling into the cavern below. Sazh, Hope, and Vanille let out shouts of surprise, the fall not long but still a good twenty feet or more.

"Thought we were goners," Sazh muttered. "You all right?"

"I think so," Vanille said, rising.

"Good as I can be," Sai grunted.

"Incoming!" Lightning shouted.

The Dreadnought jumped down into the cavern with a boom, advancing on the group once more, ready for round two.

The machine raised its arm, but instead of attacking, it swung past the group, letting out a wave of flame, instead, before sweeping the area with its other arm as well. Vanille worked to throw her debuffs on again, while Hope handled healing the burns. Lightning and Sai threw their magic attacks while Rei took up the role of attacking, and Sazh went Synergist and threw his enhancements again, Hope doing the same once he'd finished healing.

The Dreadnought let out another wave of flame, but this time, Hope's Shell protected them from the worst of it, and they began throwing more spells at the machine to build its stagger.

The mechanical monster then raised its body to reveal its Wrecking Ball once more. It shot at Vanille, but the Wrecking Ball exploded on impact, hitting Sazh, Hope, and Sai as well - Lightning and Rei being behind the Dreadnought attacking it and out of range.

Thankfully, the Dreadnought then began a Steam Clean, allowing Vanille and Hope to heal everyone up. Once the Steam Clean was done, Vanille moved to throw her debuffs on once more, and the group resumed pummeling the machine with spells to stagger it, powering through another fire-wave attack before the mech glowed golden once more.

Lightning and Rei hit the machine hard with their physical attacks, Sai joining in on the action, while Sazh, Vanille, and Hope continued with their spells to increase the chain and allow the attackers to do even more damage. In a matter of moments, the machine was struggling to stay alive under the assault, trying to use a Wrecking Ball but missing entirely.

With one final mechanical grunt, Lightning struck the machine hard, and it went down, collapsing into a heap of metal as its lights flickered out and its mechanics shut down. Rei jumped onto the machine and jabbed her sword onto the main body, the final sparks dying out as she shredded the controls completely.

"Won't be getting up ever again," She announced.

"Pulse is crawling with things like that, isn't it?" Sazh asked.

"Maybe," Rei said, hopping off the Dreadnought's corpse. "I'd hazard a guess that there are more natural monsters than mechanical man-made ones, but I'd assume they aren't uncommon."

"Got me," Lightning said. "Not even the Corps has access to intel on Pulse. Soldiers in the field fight blind."

"Yeah, I noticed," Sazh said, crossing his arms. "But don't you need to know exactly what you're up against?"

"Target's a target."

"You like to keep it simple, don't you?"

"I stick to my goal."

"As long as you have a goal, you can fight?" Hope asked.

"You can stay alive," Lightning corrected, walking forward to a newly revealed path.

It seemed to be a ramp, leading back up to the ground above where they'd fallen and allowing them to continue past the junk piles that had been barring their paths previously. Making it to what looked like a nice place to stop, they took a break around a pool of water that seemed to glow. There was a fallen airship which Lightning, Rei and Sai sat on, messing with their weapons to upgrade them, while Vanille and Hope hung out below on the ground.

Sazh sighed and sat down next to Lightning. "Not much of a future for us, huh?"

"Hard to picture a happy ending," Lightning admitted.

"We don't even know where to go."

Lightning stood. "I do."

"Hm?" Sai asked.

She turned and looked up and the others stood to see where she was referring to. "There."

In the sky was what looked like an airship, glowing white like a moon. "What's that?" Rei asked.

"Eden?" Sazh asked in shock. "The Sanctum's seat of power. Oh, that's a great idea. Just charge right in there. Give 'em a taste of l'Cie terror!"

When she didn't respond, he turned to her, his smile fading. "You're serious?"

"Keep running - it's die or turn Cie'th," She explained. "There's no place for l'Cie to hide. No…They want a fight? Let's take it to the Sanctum's door!"

"This isn't a game!"

"No. That's for damn sure. It started with Serah. The fal'Cie took her. Now I'm a l'Cie too. And the Sanctum's hunting me, an enemy of the state. But who's pulling their strings? A fal'Cie. Eden. Cocoon's Sustainer and Guiding Light."

Vanille and Hope had walked up to join them, and Lighting turned towards them, putting her hand over her chest. "It probably ordered the Purge, too. Pulse and Sanctum fal'Cie? They're all the same. And we're all the same to them: expendable."

Rei looked down for a moment, and Vanille 's head fell in silent agreement.

"I'm not dying a fal'Cie slave," Lightning declared.

"So?" Sazh asked. "What are you gonna do?"

"Destroy it."

"By yourself?" Sai asked. "What, are you crazy?"

"Say you pull it off," Sazh continued. "What's that get you? Satisfaction?" He turned, putting his hand to his forehead. "Something happens to Eden, it's lights out Cocoon!"

He then turned to Lightning in realization. "You want that. You're a Pulse l'Cie now, so you just want to snuff out Cocoon!"

"No!" Vanille shouted, stepping forward. "What about Serah? She said to save Cocoon! It might even be our Focus to make sure Cocoon stays-"

"Our Focus doesn't matter!" Lightning snapped. "I don't take orders from fal'Cie. How I live is up to me."

"Don't you mean, how you die?" Sazh asked.

"Think like that, and it's already over. Better to pick your path and keep moving."

Hope's head fell in thought, while Lightning turned back to Sazh. "Don't worry. I'm after the Sanctum. I'm not out to destroy the world. If it did come to that, wonder if our 'hero' would try to stop me?"

"You wanna fight Snow now?" Sazh asked. "Just like that, and you're enemies?"

"Next time we meet, we might be too."

Lightning stomped past Vanille and Hope back down off the airship and walked off down the path to continue through the Vile Peaks.

When the fear sank in, it tore us all apart. Lightning was suffering. Reaching out to us. But none of us could see it.

"Snow deserves it!" Hope suddenly shouted and ran after Lightning.

If only I'd been stronger, none of this ever would have happened.

Rei sighed. "Okay, that doesn't seem like a good idea. Sai, stay and look after them, will ya?"

She ran after Hope, and Vanille looked like she was ready to follow, but hesitated and shook her head. "I don't know what I should do."

"That makes two of us," Sazh said.

She looked to him before smiling and slapping him on the back, nearly causing him to lose his balance and fall off the side of the airship. "Hey! You're taking care of me!"

"Well I won't be if you keep pushing me like that."

"I…guess I'm staying with you guys," Sai said. "We should probably hurry after them if we want to stay with the group. Unless you guys have some other brilliant plan in mind?"

Also 'Who'da thunk' is a real saying in the game subtitles, which I find funny for some reason.

And yeah, Hope wasn't in the Dreadnought battle in the game for gameplay reasons, but when you're writing a story, you can make it so that he is!

(Ignore the rest if you aren't a FFXIII nerd)

BTW, my friend says Hope is worthless, but Protect and Shell can save your life. He's a faster magic caster than Vanille (and make less weird noises - if you know what I mean) as well as a more powerful caster than Lightning - since she's more balanced physically and magically - so he ends up making it into my final post-game party. The only reason I'd choose anyone else over him is because debuffs are useful too and offensive buffs come in handy in certain situations as well (before you've maxed out all Crystarium, of course).

And yes, Hope is an annoyingly angsty downer at the beginning of the game and he can be annoying sometimes, but give the kid a break! He just lost his mom, who he loves, and he's literally the youngest of all the people there - 14, just barely a teenager - and his entire world was shattered when he became a l'Cie! This is affecting the adults in the group, so don't pick on him for being more terrified! Plus, have you seen how mature this kid is for his age?! If you've never been a 14 year old kid living on Cocoon who lost your mom in a Purge and then was transformed into a l'Cie, don't even talk to me!

*Sighs* I'm just salty at my friend who isn't a final fantasy nerd to the core. Sorry for my rant.