A/N: Ack! A good friend just pointed out to me that there has been a chapter duplication. I'm so sorry guys; something must've gone awry during the re-upload when All that drama happened with the wrong number count on chapters after the Interlude. So, here! I've fixed the thing! (please love me)
Chapter Nine – A Vision Shared (2,074)
"We need to find a way outta here," Snow muttered, looking around at the maze of crystal waves once again. "We can worry about everything else later."
Vanille ran to the very edge of the incline they were on. "I don't see anything but crystal," she replied doubtfully. "It's pretty and all, but…it's kinda creepy too."
Lightning, Snow and Vanille were scouring the area for a way out of the sparkling, unsettling landscape. Hope, Keller and Sazh were nearby too, waiting.
Eventually they came to a point where the path split. On one path were several Ghouls and a Ghast, which was where Lightning turned, Snow and Vanille following her. With their new strength and elemental abilities, the Cie'th were defeated easily. As they continued, they reached a rather abrupt dead end, with a silver sphere. Inside it was a Pearlwing Staff, which Vanille took happily. After that, the back-tracked to the place where the path first split.
"I'll go scope things out ahead," Snow said. "Watch the others, will ya?" he directed at Lightning, and then he was gone.
It didn't take too long for him to return. "Okay, we got several Cie'th up ahead, along with another of those weird chest things. Didn't go much further than that."
"Any specifics about the types of Cie'th?" Keller questioned.
"A couple of 'em had wings, like in the Vestige. Only one other, a Ghast," Snow replied.
"Take the lead, Snow. You know where you're going," Lightning said neutrally, gesturing forward. Snow nodded and walked almost casually ahead, Lightning following behind with her Gladius drawn. Keller also had her blades out, and Sazh gripped his pistols tightly. Vanille joined Snow and Lightning up front as they traversed the unpredictable landscape, keeping a lookout for the Cie'th Snow mentioned seeing. They came to a soft incline where they saw three Wights softly circling a clearing. Bobbing above a piece of trussway that had obviously fallen from the Hanging Edge was the chest that Snow mentioned – with a Ghast right in front of it.
"That's a lot of enemies," Vanille breathed, pointing at them.
"And there's the Ghast," Snow added. Lightning flipped her weapon into Gun mode and carefully aimed for one of the Wights flying above, making sure to keep the eye at the centre of its chest in sight. She fired, and the Wight burst into ashes, her aim true. Before she could aim for another, two more shots were heard from behind her, turning the two other Wights to ash before they could notice their ally missing.
Lightning looked back to see Sazh's pistols out and smoking slightly from the muzzles. She nodded at him before darting for the Ghast, stabbing it in the chest but just missing the eye. The Cie'th roared in pain before swiping at her, wrenching her Gladius from her hands in the process. She swore, quickly reaching for her Sabre after rolling out of the way of another swipe. Behind her, Snow, Vanille, Keller and Hope sent out blizzard, aero and water spells to distract it while Sazh threw fire. It roared before sending out a fire spell of its own in their direction, forcing them to scatter to avoid it. But that was the opening Lightning had been waiting for. She stabbed the Ghast through the eye on its chest, and it dissolved into dust.
Lightning gently stooped to pick up the fragile Cie'th tear left behind by the Ghast and her Gladius – which she placed into her back holster after giving it a once-over for scratches – and looked inside the chest, which contained a phoenix down and a silvery liquid. She recognised the slightly viscous stuff immediately – it was an antidote, which could remove any poison from the body. She placed the items into her thigh pack – which was getting quite full at this time – and with Vanille and Snow flanking her, she kept moving.
Eventually they came across several pieces of metal stuck within a high wall of crystal waves; long, thin and jagged edges. Lightning scrutinised them for a time, then stepped on the first jagged piece of metal, testing its capabilities. She motioned for Snow to step onto the metal, which he did. The metal seemed to be able to hold his weight. She then jumped up to another metal piece just above her. She did so with ease, silently and inwardly marvelling at how strong she had become – to be able to jump as high as she had just done is beyond the capabilities of a human, at least without some kind of help.
Following Lightning's rather acrobatic example, the others jumped up the jutted metal pieces until they came to a steep trussway piece. Thankfully the metal wasn't as slippery as most of them had feared, so they were able to climb up without too much trouble. Lightning let Snow overtake her; he ran to a mound of crystal and jumped onto it, examining his forearm for a time. Lightning's sharp ears detected a whirring sound to her immediate right, and she saw a chest bobbing gently at the end of a narrow path. She opened it to find an aerosol with the word 'Fortisol' on the side – an aerosol that, if applied correctly and at the right time, granted the wearer Haste, Bravery and Faith at the start of a battle. She stepped back out into the circle of flat crystal the rest of her allies were standing on; converging around Snow, who looked like he wanted to say something.
"This just might work," he started, a big grin on his face. "Magic may be cursed, but it makes us stronger, doesn't it? What's to stop us from putting it to good use?"
"What'cha talking about, Trench Coat?" Sazh asked sceptically.
Snow bumped his fists together. "We fight it! Ragnarok!" He jumped off the crystal mound he was standing on. "That's the reason we're l'Cie. To stop it – to keep Cocoon safe!"
"Yeah, why don't you give us one good reason to believe that?" Sazh asked, raising one finger for emphasis. "One reason."
"Serah."
Everyone looked at each other doubtfully.
"She said to protect Cocoon, and then she turned to crystal. That's the proof right there. She completed her Focus! That means ours is to save Cocoon." Snow looked at Lightning as if to say, believe me! and then continued, "Serah's fal'Cie was the same as ours. Our Focus had gotta be the same. We were chosen to be guardians, to defeat Ragnarok!"
"The hell it does! You're graspin' at straws, son!" Sazh gestured to the Vestige, still plainly visible from where they were standing. "Pulse fal'Cie are Cocoon's enemies. We just got recruited by one o' them."
"You're also forgetting," Keller interjected smoothly, "that Ragnarok fought for Pulse in the War of Transgression. Ragnarok has Pulsian origins, Blondie, not Cocoon."
She had a valid point, and everyone there knew it. Vanille looked down. As much as she wanted to believe Snow, Sazh and Keller both had valid, common-sense points of view that Snow seemed to have completely ignored. But on the other hand, Snow had a point too. Serah did say to 'protect Cocoon' before turning to crystal. Was that really her Focus? And if so, why would Anima, protectress of a Pulsian city, give her that Focus? Could fal'Cie go insane as well as humans and l'Cie? No. It just wasn't logical that they, Pulse Fal'Cie, would give them, now Pulse l'Cie, a Focus to protect the hated Cocoon.
Sazh nodded at Keller's statement. "Now, if I were a bettin' man," Sazh finally said, "I'd put us on the other side."
Snow frowned. "So Serah's an enemy too?" He fisted his hands. "Well I don't buy it!"
"At least she's on the same side as we are!" Keller yelled. She'd had enough of the blonde oaf's incessant beliefs. She drew one of her blades threateningly, and pointed it at him. Even though she was far enough away from him that she wouldn't be considered too much of a threat, he could still see how shiny the blade was that she pointed at him, and that made him the tiniest bit nervous. "Wise up, kid, because idiotic hotheads like you don't survive long, even if they are l'Cie." She spat out the last word as she smoothly put away her weapon.
"I'm sorry, how old are you?" Snow then turned and faced Lightning, holding his brand like it was a lifeline. "We have the power to save Cocoon. If we all work together and carry out our Focus –"
He didn't get to finish. Lightning quickly drew her Sabre up to his throat. "Our Focus?" Lightning spat angrily. "The fal'Cie took Serah from us, and you want to help it?" She pressed the blade of her weapon further into his neck, drawing small beads of blood. "Whose side are you on?"
"Freeze!"
Lightning turned, Sabre still out, but before any of them could move more PSICOM soldiers surrounded them, guns out and ready to fire.
They were cornered.
"Place your hands behind your heads!"
With several fully-loaded guns pointed in their direction, they had no choice but to comply. A resounding clang of metal against crystal signified that Lightning had dropped her Blazefire Sabre.
"You fall off the Purge train?" The Captain asked tauntingly, his gun slung lazily over one shoulder.
With her hands folded behind her head, Lightning smirked. "Maybe."
"Are you talking back to me?" The Captain stalked over to Lightning and shoved the muzzle of his gun under her chin. "Huh?!"
Lightning's smirk widened. She had him right where she wanted him. "Nice gun," she taunted, then flipped it out of his hands, flipped him over and kneed him in the stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground, moaning.
The other soldiers panicked. "Stop! Freeze!" they cried out.
She did no such thing. Instead, she flipped her Blazefire Sabre back into her hand with her foot, slashed at the group of soldiers in front of her and darted away again, raising her index finger in a 'come and get me' gesture. Snow, Vanille and the others took that as their queue to start attacking as well, some sending out spell to distract while others went in for close-quarters fighting. Lightning was in the thick of it all, mixing between fighting head-on and sending thunder spells at her targets. It wasn't long before they weren't much of a problem anymore.
Sazh knelt down near the fallen Captain. "I thought they'd be tougher than that." He waved a hand over the Captain's masked face. "These guys are PSICOM, yeah? Supposed to be cream-o'-the-crop." Vanille knelt before the soldier next to Sazh, linking her index and pinkie fingers in a diamond symbol.
Snow shook his head at Sazh's statement. "Yeah, but PSICOM's an anti-Pulse task-force. Haven't fought a war in centuries. Bunch of rookie troops swingin' around overpriced toys."
Sazh stood back up. "So, from what you're tellin' me, it sounds like a regular ol' soldier has more training than special forces."
Snow grinned, no longer serious. "Nothin' for us l'Cie to be afraid of."
"Cut the crap," Lightning snapped at him. "Their grunts might be green, but PSICOM's elites are cold-blooded beasts. They hit the field and it's game over."
"Oh-oh!" Everyone turned to Vanille. "Then let's run away! Ciao!" She kicked her heel up and then ran along the path that soldiers were blocking just minutes before.
"Vanille, wait!" Keller was off like a rocket trying to catch up to her.
"Hey, wait!" Sazh's chocobo chick fluttered down into his cupped hands and mimicked Vanille's actions before she ran. He sighed. "What's a man to do?" he asked himself, then turned to follow Vanille. Snow walked after Sazh, but then turned to Lightning. She had her arms folded and was looking everywhere but at him. He sighed and followed Sazh.
Yet again, Hope was left behind with the cold pink-haired soldier. He looked up at her. "Uhm, are you…?"
"Go ahead. Follow the others."
Hope grimaced. Lightning, of course, noticed this, but said nothing.
He was reluctant to go anywhere near Snow. His harsh words, blaming Snow for everything that had happened, was a second clue.
As Lightning walked a little way behind Hope, keeping him within her sight, she found herself wondering just what the blonde brute had done to set the kid off.