This chapter takes up where they leave Snow and Serah behind and the party of four treks out of Bresha Lake – then follows Lightning and Hope when the party splits in two. The next chapter will continue to follow Lightning and Hope until they reach Palumpolum. Thanks for reading...Please leave a review
Lightning and the others were battling their way through the Lake Bresha area, PSICOM patrols were on every twisting corner of the pathway. The crystal was smooth and slippery like glass in places, making the trek even more difficult as they all tried to stay on their feet. Hope fell down more than once and Vanille was always there to help him up and give him words of encouragement.
They were tired and hungry, but Lightning refused to stop, knowing they had to get out of the area before PSICOM could capture them. "We can rest and eat later, when it's safer" she reasoned to herself "otherwise, we don't have a chance."
Her thoughts were constantly drifting back to Serah, hoping to see her and Snow at the next bend, "What could have happened to them? Maybe they found a different way out, waiting for us on the other side of this crystal hell." She was trying to keep her thoughts optimistic, as there was too much pain to think of the alternative.
They felt a rumbling under their feet and heard the loud hum of airships in the distance, as they inched closer to a crystal cliff to peek at what was below. What they saw made them lay flat on their bellies, as not to be seen, and watched in dread of the activities going on below. The Sanctums flag ship, The Palamecia, had landed in a flat area of the crystal lake with dozens of warships flying around it.
"The people of Cocoon really hate anything Pulse, don't they?" Vanille quietly questioned.
"Not so much hate, but fear." Sazh replied to her. More airships arrived, flying almost over their heads and Lightning urgently proclaimed, "They're sealing off the area, looking for stragglers, we have to move, now!"
Cautiously proceeding along the pathway, they moved out of the area and hastened their pace to put some distance between them and the PSICOM warships. Standing at the stairway to the Gates of Antiquity, they paused in amazement as the whole area had turned to crystal.
At the top of the stairs, Sazh remarked "Even the fire has turned to crystal, unbelievable!"
PSICOM troops had taken over the ruins of Bresha City, once a prominent and bustling acropolis before its destruction in the War of Transgression, and the group had to dodge or fight them on every corner and pathway they took. Reaching the top of ruins, they thought they were safe as Vanille starting giggling and running ahead of the group, stopping only to twirl around to take in the beauty of the crystals of fire.
Lightning yelled a warning to her "Stay close!" Vanille giggled back "I want to look around!" Lightning rolled her eyes in frustration at the girl, knowing that anything could be lurking to attack them at any moment.
Sazh and Lightning were trying to decide on the best route to take out, when they heard screams from Vanille a short distance from them.
"Vanille!" Sazh yelled, "Over here!" as they saw her rounding a corner coming towards them, running as fast as she could and screaming all the while.
A flying monster, the size of an airship, came crashing through the fire crystals chasing Vanille. It was a ferocious appearing beast with a multi-colored body and wings of a dragon. It let out a screech that rattled the pillars of the ruins and scared Hope half to death, as he turned to run.
Sazh ran to Vanille, pulling her away from the beast and stood in front of her to offer what protection he could. Lightning unsheathed her blade and prepared for the fight, as Sazh and Vanille followed her example and the battle commenced.
They thought they had it down, but the hideous beast spiraled up into the air and flew a short distance from them, folding its wings around itself as it hovered.
"What is it doing? Sazh asked, bewildered at the site.
"It's charging up" Lightning responded in a matter of fact tone.
"Charging? Charging for what?" he asked of her.
"Humph, it's last moments!" Lightning shouted, as she started running for the beast with her blade held high, ready to strike.
Sazh and Vanille ran after Lightning as the second round of the battle began. The monster was stronger than before, shooting bolts of lightning and devastating balls of energy at them. They countered the attacks with their own offensive magic and staggered the beast, finishing it off as it dropped dead, crashing through a barrier of the crystal fire.
With the barrier gone, a PSICOM airship was revealed, sitting on its launching pad pointing straight to sky. Vanille started giggling again "This will make things easier!"
Sazh walked up from behind her and commented "With our luck, it's probably missing an engine."
Vanille put her hands on her hips and responded "You shouldn't be so negative!" to Sazh, and then the two of them walked to the airship.
Lightning felt uneasy, like something was watching them, hesitating to look all around, but there was nothing in sight. No one had noticed the metallic owl-like bird that had landed high above to watch them battle the monstrous beast, still watching from its perch as they made their way to the airship.
They boarded the ship and took off, but a dozen or so warships detected them as they shot through the portal and gave chase. Sazh and Lightning fought over the controls as Sazh yelled "Stop that! What are doing?" Lightning yelled back "Give me that!" and got off a round of missiles that took out one of the warships.
Sazh tried every maneuver he knew to shake them, but they kept on his tail, firing their weapons at their ship. He finally led them through some narrow gorges; several of the pursuer's ships went down, crashing into the steep cliffs of the ravine.
They had lost their pursuers for a while and the video display units popped on when Sazh hit the control dash with his fist. They were announcing to the world that the Purge was a success and that of the deportees' had safely been deported to Pulse.
The Primarch was giving a speech when Vanille popped up and asked "Uh, Who is this guy?" as she pointed to her display.
Sazh, in disbelief she didn't know who this was, started shaking his head and said "What are they teaching kids in schools these days? This is Galenth Dysley, Primarch and murderer in chief."
Lightning remained silent, her thoughts rushing back to the town of Bodhum wondering if anyone had survived. She had regret that she hadn't spent more time with people she had known and with Serah. "There was no going back, no chance to regain the lost time" she thought "there is only going forward and trying not to make the same mistakes again." They had taken a hit, and the sudden jerk of the airship brought her back to the present to discover their pursuers had returned.
Sazh swerved and bobbed the airship, trying to avoid PCICOM fire, but they took a couple more hits and decided to fly into the pulsing rays of the fal'Cie to try to lose their pursuers. It proved fatal to some of the PSICOM ships that followed, but it also caught their own ship on fire and they headed for a crash landing. Sazh did his best to control the crash and minimize the damage, fire and smoke streaming from the ship as they headed down towards the ground.
Lightning was the first one to come to after the crash landing of the airship, which was in full flames several hundred feet away from them. She checked on the others, who were still unconscious, but didn't seem to be injured. A group of domesticated peacekeepers were encroaching upon them and Lightning pulled her weapon and ran towards them to face them alone, defending her fallen comrades.
She used her blitzing maneuver to hit several of them at once, and then would throw a thunder spell to weaken them. Vanille woke up to see Lightning fighting alone and quickly woke the other two so they could run to fight beside her.
They quickly defeated the beasties and they all sat down to recover a bit, but Lightning was having none of it, as she wanted to hurry up and get away from the area. "What? No break?" Sazh shouted at Lightning in disbelief.
"We've got to move, they're tracking us!" Lightning shouted as she started walking. "I know that! But we're not soldiers; we don't have your stamina!" Sazh responded back to her.
"You have enough to complain!" she turned and retorted back to Sazh.
"Where are we?" Vanille asked as she looked around at the dismal surroundings.
"Ville Peaks," Sazh responded, "dumping ground for excess military equipment, especially the Pulse armament".
Hope decided he would follow Lightning, afraid of being left behind and took off after her. Sazh and Vanille rested for a short while before deciding they better follow and try to catch up. A bridge gave way before Sazh and Vanille could use it, so now they had to use a different path than the one that Lightning and Hope had taken.
Sazh and Vanille were separated from Hope and Lightning for quite a while before finally meeting up again. First, they met up with Hope, sitting alone, holding his head in his hands.
"Where's grumpy?" Sazh asked him. Hope nodded his head towards a sheer cliff of debris that Lightning had traversed, leaving Hope behind.
"So, you got left behind" Sazh remarked as he put his hand on the kids shoulder.
Hope immediately became angry, jerking his shoulder away from Sazh and started shouting "It's over for me! I can't fight, and I can't go home!" Vanille tried to cheer him up by saying "Don't worry, we'll get you home."
"Mom is gone and there's nothing there for me now" he responded, hanging his head.
"What about your Dad? He'll be worried." Vanille asked ina sypathetic voice.
"He doesn't care" Hope said, turning his back on them.
"Believe me, Dads always care" Sazh said quietly, and glanced towards the ground.
Sazh spotted an odd looking control panel on the opposite side of the cliff and, after pushing some buttons, it pulled the debris into a passable pathway. Reaching the top, they started along the pathway when Lightning jumped down in front of them.
"Did you miss us?" Sazh asked Lightning. "Humph" was only response he received from her.
"Would it hurt her to smile for once? Sazh turned to Vanille and asked. Vanille shrugged her shoulders at him and didn't say a word.
They shared stories of the battles they had fought and discussed what might have become of Serah and Snow as they were eating some of the rations they had left.
"They must have found another way out," Sazh reasoned, "The Sanctum wouldn't miss an opportunity to tell the world they had captured some Pulse l'cie, right?"
Lightning agreed, "They would make a public spectacle of it, even we would hear about it out here."
"Where do we go from here?" Sazh asked Lightning. "I mean, do we keep running? Does it even matter anymore?"
Lightning looked up in the sky and nodded her head towards the glowing light that everyone recognized as Eden and said "That's my target, the Sanctum wants a fight, I'll take it to their front door."
"Are you crazy?" Sazh questioned, "just march into Eden and take on the Sanctum, just like that. We wouldn't stand a chance." After some argument, Lightning started out for her destination of Eden, hell bent on taking down the Sanctum or die trying.
Sazh wasn't about to go on what he considered a fool hearty mission as that and refused to follow. Vanille wasn't thrilled about the idea either and remained behind with Sazh. Hope on the other hand wanted to follow Lightning for only one reason, he wanted to learn how to fight and become strong like her.
Lightning left without knowing that Hope was hot on her trail. When he caught up, he hollered "Wait for me, I'm coming with you!" She paused and turned as the boy ran up to her, panting and out of breathe. She tried to persuade him not to follow her, when they heard someone yell "Halt!".
She swung around to see PSICOM soldiers in front of her and exclaimed "Great! A PSICOM hit squad!" One of the soldiers pressed a button on a device he was holding and blew up the passageway Lightning and Hope had just come through, so retreating was no longer an option.
Hope pulled out his boomerang and started throwing his magic on the soldiers, while Lightning was blitzing them with her blade. After prevailing over the soldiers, Lightning had no choice but to let Hope tag along with her, since there was no way for him to return to the others.
"So, what's the plan" Hope asked her, trying to act tough.
She started walking "Go to Gapra Whitewood's then though to Palumpolum, catch a train to Eden from there" she responded.
"I live in Palumpolum" Hope told Lightning "I know all the short cuts, there."
"Alright then. Let's get going" Lightning said, and quickened her pace to leave the area.
Lightning and Hope were almost out of the Ville Peaks area, she had kept up her soldiers pace and Hope was having a hard time keeping up with her. Her thoughts were intertwining between the past and present; she felt guilt tearing at her for the time lost with Serah, and remorse for parents she had lost at such an early age. "What future was ahead of them, would there even be a future for them?" she thought, as she raised her hand to touch the area of her brand.
"Is this the end, as Sazh had suggested, or is there a way out of this?" She became agitated by the confusing dilemma going on in her mind, deciding she had to fight, it was all she knew, and the Sanctum was the target this time. "Why did this kid have to follow me?" she thought as she grew more agitated, "he'll be killed if he stays with me, and he's slowing me down."
As she started crossing the bridge that lead into the Gapra Whitewood area, Hope tripped, landing on his hands and knees. This sent her into a rage, as she started yelling at the boy.
"This isn't working, you're slowing me down!"
"You can't leave me here!" Hope yelled back at her.
"Enough!" she shouted back as she put her hand on her brand as it began to burn.
"The whole world is against us!" she continued as the pain from her brand grew stronger, "I can barely keep myself alive, none less a helpless kid!" The pain increased with every word until it dropped her to her knees. The brand was blazing a crimson red and penetrating through the sleeveless shirt she wore. "You want to get tough, do it on your own!" she yelled, as the bridge beneath her blazed in crimson red patterns and the pain from the brand was such that it made her cry out in pain.
She jumped away from the glowing part of the bridge, to see a huge knight-like figure in gold and silver armor standing in front of her as she yelled in dismay, "This can't be happening!" The figure had a shield and a menacing looking sword that was almost the size he was.
Hope, who had fallen down again on his butt, screamed as the knight held his blade high in the air and started to swing it down on him. The knight was stopped by Lightning's blade, sparks flew as the two metals collided and she pushed the knight back away from Hope.
Hope rose to his feet and stood with Lightning to take up the battle, throwing protective magic on both of them. Lightning tried to attack with her blade, but the knight would stand with his shield up and her attacks would go without harm to him. Switching to magic was more successful, but still caused him very little damage. Hope started casting offensive magic and the knight would quickly and mercilessly attack Hope, again and again.
Lightning switched to healing magic to keep Hope alive and heal his wounds. The knight attacked Hope repeatedly and attacked him with a vengeance which forced Lightning to continuously cast cure onto Hope. Finally, the entity yielded to Lightning, jumping high into the sky and transforming into a beautiful gold and silver steed with rose petals that floated and swirled around the beast before it dissipated into the air.
Lightning's brand was still blazing red and causing her great pain, as she knelt with one knee on the ground, clutching at her chest. Hope ran up to her and asked if that was an Eidolon and Lightning responded "Magic mumbo, jumbo. I must have hit my head on that Purge train".
As the pain subsided, she rose to her feet as Hope questioned her "I'm I really slowing you down?"
Facing forward, she responded "Come on, we'll toughen you up. About before, I'm sorry", as she started walking again, this time at a slower pace that Hope could up with.
After a few more encounters with PSICOM soldiers, Hope was exhausted. Lightning recognized how tired he had become and told him "We'll rest up here; I'm going to look around." When she returned, Hope had fallen asleep against a rock wall. She sat opposite him on the ground, watching him sleep and keeping a vigil for intruders.
In his sleep, he called out "Mom" – Lightning smirked and said "Not by a long shot" as she stared at the boy sleeping. After a time, Lightning chanced drifting off to sleep herself, waking a every little sound, then drifting back to sleep. It wasn't the best night's rest, but it was some rest that could keep her going the next day.