Orphan's Cradle
Warnings: Emotional breakdown, torture, loss, as per canon.
Fang's footsteps echoed through the blinding white Narthex, and she hesitated as the long, winding hallways finally came to an abrupt end. A part of her mind recoiled at the sight of the glowing red bar shining on the far wall, while the other part might as well have leaned forward with a feral grin. Through that door was Orphan's nest, the Cradle, and the end point of the Focus she'd received so many years ago.
It felt like she'd suffered so much to get to this point. The pain of becoming a l'Cie, the fear of losing Vanille, of fighting a war with a planet that wished genocide on her people, to letting herself become engulfed in the negativity and unleashing Ragnarok.
Now knowing that Cocoon's key fal'Cie had wished for death all along, and that they would have let her approach with little challenge... Perhaps she should have tried walking through the front door five hundred years earlier, Fang thought with a bitter twist to her mouth. It could have saved them all so much trouble.
Vanille came to a stop beside her, biting her lip uncertainly. The purposeful sound of Lightning's boots on the sterile white tiles approached, and Fang's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Vanille and Lightning, both looking pale and stressed, both looking at Fang as if she was the one with the major problem. At least they were getting along, now that it was far too late, Fang noted with a silent sigh. Fang watched Lightning continue on with Snow and Hope. She wished she could be certain that this wasn't the end for them all. Fang nodded to Vanille once, and then she turned to watch Lightning open the door to Orphan's Cradle.
The l'Cie entered the Cradle from the Narthex, Fang keeping pace at Lightning's side, her expression iced into what she hoped was aloof determination. Ahead of them, the Cradle was decked out in spinning wheels, and a bright yellow light that seemed to suffuse everything with a false warmth. Only the whir of cogs broke the silence within the Cradle.
Lightning halted before the steps, glancing sideways to Vanille.
"Ready?" Lightning asked her, and Vanille nodded.
"Yep." Despite her determination, Fang noted that Vanille's voice sounded subdued, and she shot Snow a quick look, wondering if he was going to start it with the rhetoric to rally their spirits for one last hurrah. The man remained silent, and Fang shook her head as she heard Hope affirm his own readiness.
Without a further word, Lightning led them on down the stairs, and as they reached the end of the platform, they all looked out over the empty throne in the centre of the hall. Fang felt her anxiety spike again, and the skin between her shoulder blades tightened. She shifted her shoulders uncomfortably.
Orphan. Ragnarok. The Focus. Her family.
The ground around them began to shake – maybe from the Pulsian wildlife still chewing at its shell – and it seemed to galvanise her fellow l'Cie into action.
"This is it," Snow said, his voice grave, and Lightning shot Fang a fleeting look before turning her gaze back to the empty throne.
"Moment of truth, Hero," Fang heard Lightning tell him, and then launched herself off from the hanging edge. The rest of the l'Cie followed, and as they landed together on the throne room's floor, Fang craned her neck up.
Crystals floated around them, defying the natural law of gravity. Vanille murmured something about little lights, and Fang nodded to her, remembering. She'd seen those sparks before, and she knew enough to know that it meant powerful magic, pain and terror. She wouldn't be cowed by simple magic tricks, though. The ground began to shake again, and two globes of light coalesced at either side of the chamber and grew rapidly in size.
"Life's spark shines on, once freed from its fleshy shroud." Dysley's voice echoed from somewhere in the chamber, and Fang's grip tightened on her weapon reflexively. His voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and it was going to do Fang's head in. Ahead of them, the lights grew brighter, gained form, until she could see two crystals warp into being. She hadn't needed to hear Sazh and Snow's anguished shouts to know that those were the crystal forms of Serah and Dajh.
Fang had a bad feeling about that.
Wings sounded from behind her, and Fang turned half a pace as Menvra – maybe Barthandelus' fellow fal'Cie, maybe his tool, maybe even his bloody familiar – swooped down low. Fang bared her teeth at it as it passed right through their group and burst into a now-familiar light on the Cradle's throne. Galenth Dysley appeared as the light faded into nothing, seated at the post of the highest-purpose fal'Cie on Cocoon, sneering down at them like some insufferable god.
Well, just in case the rest of the l'Cie had made Fang forget just what is was about Cocoon that she'd hated all those years ago, there was an unwelcome reminder.
"Dreams, meanwhile, shatter in a flash," Dysley told them, and Fang wondered if she heard barely-restrained glee in his voice as he lifted his staff up and then tapped it once on the floor. It echoed in the quiet of the chamber, and in a brief moment of absolute terror, Fang wondered if he was going to end the timer on her family and turn them to cie'th.
Dajh's statue shattered at the sound, and Sazh's anguished roar was all Fang could hear. It was a cruel blow, calculated to cripple and reign their defiance in. Fang's eyes snapped over to Lightning – from the way Lightning suddenly blanched, from the useless way Snow desperately reached out for Serah's crystal, they'd figured out what would come next.
"NO!"
Snow looked as if his heart had torn in two as the crystal smashed into fragments, and the man threw caution into the wind as he charged at Dysley.
Fang, meanwhile, only felt bitter. She'd expected nothing else from the cruel Cocoon fal'Cie, even if the look of agony on Lightning's face was unbearable. His attack repelled easily by Dysley's shields, Snow crashed back into their group, and he groaned in pain. Fang watched Lightning crouch by him and push him upright. Sure, a part of Fang felt awful for them, but another part wondered if Serah's crystal breaking would finally be Lightning's breaking point.
The skin between Fang's shoulder blades itched, and she watched Dysley smile down at them all.
"Think!" Fang heard Lightning tell Snow quietly. "Where's the real Serah?"
Snow met Lightning's eyes brokenly for a few tense heartbeats, before reaching into his pocket and withdrawing the crystal tear. It glowed with the same ethereal light as always, and seeing it there and whole seemed to be enough to calm him just a little. Fang's lip curled in anger – it was all useless delusion.
Fang's thoughts circled her future dream, the one she'd shared with Lightning not two hours ago. The dream of something more made her heart ache, and it felt like it was the only thing that held her back from simply ignoring the deal she'd made with Lightning back in Oerba and killing Dysley and Orphan right then. Fang swallowed as Sazh and Snow nodded to one another, and Snow climbed back to his feet.
Dysley, however, just laughed at them.
"At last, my errant l'Cie. Men fight men. Men battle beast. Cocoon wars with Pulse," Dysley told them, and Fang's knuckles whitened as she tightened her grasp on her lance. "There can be no end to such conflict. But Cocoon's end is imminent and inevitable. Will you not at least slay Orphan, and make it quick? As an act of mercy?"
"Mercy?" Lightning demanded, and she sounded outraged at the way Dysley had so blatantly misrepresented the situation. "You mean murder. And Cocoon won't die. We're not here for that. We came for you." Lightning levelled her weapon at Dysley, not wavering for a second.
Dysley sighed heavily, as if it had been too much to hope that they'd all come to their senses. "Such wilful insolence. Disappointing." Dysley moved his hands once, and his human form rose up in the air. He looked down on them in contempt, like they were children. Like they were animals. "You prolong Cocoon's suffering. And to what end? Refusing me but condemns another to face your Focus tomorrow. If you truly seek salvation, you will obey!"
Fang was running for Barthandelus before he stopped speaking, before the bulk of the machine body even touched the ground, pushing herself faster and harder. She had to be better than ever, let her pent up strength wreak havoc, to be everywhere at once. There was too much on the line to lose out now. She wasn't going to lose them.
Should have taken out that damn bird first, Lightning told herself angrily, the full impact of their mistake beginning to sink in. Despite how the fal'Cie had groaned as it had sank down – as if in ecstasy – they had really believed that they were done with the puppeteer behind all the wars, the hatred and the awful Focus. Around her, the other l'Cie had begun to smile and celebrate, Fang had actually been smiling, and then -
"We are the Abandoned One, born but now to die. Our name is Orphan. By our hand, the world shall know redemption."
Lightning stared up at the fal'Cie Barthandelus – no, not Barthandelus any more – and wondered if this had all been a part of Dysley's trap for them. The ground was still shaking, and even she had to admit that sight of that monster rising above them was nothing short of terrifying. The dull ache of the brand on her chest grew sharper, and she clutched at it, recoiling slightly at the heat.
The brand knew what it wanted, it hungered for it with strands that reached into her mind. Lightning looked back up at the fal'Cie, her jaw clenching and stubbornly resisting the urge to reach for the deeper magic in her, for Ragnarok. Her grip on her weapon tightened. They'd gone to the Cradle to stop the madness, to reason with Orphan, even to protect it. Now, it looked as if Orphan had been in on it the whole time, and what the hell were they meant to do? The way back was sealed off, and that thing would either kill them or be killed.
Lightning's breath picked up as Orphan laughed darkly and rose above them again, and they didn't have a chance to react as the fal'Cie countered with magic to drive them down and force them to yield. The first blow of dark and crackling magic sent Lightning staggering. Out of the corner of her eye, Lightning saw it force Snow to his knees, and behind her Sazh cried out in agony.
Lightning looked up at the fal'Cie through her bangs, her breath coming in unsteady gasps. They really had no choice. They had to fight this thing, their own wills be damned. Maybe they could try to knock some sense into Orphan, but her brand was strangling her and she felt like she was choking. Her skin prickled with sudden sweat, her breath shortening even further.
Orphan and Barthandelus had been playing with them, all this time. The two fal'Cie had manipulated them, had made them believe that maybe they could fight their fate, made them believe that victory would be within their grasp. Then the fal'Cie simply snatched it away in a single calculating move.
Maybe Fang had been right. Maybe she and Snow had simply been setting everyone up for failure. Maybe it had all been a part of Orphan's plan. The next blow of agonising magic caught Lightning hard, and the sheer power in the magic was enough to paralyse her. Around her, she heard Vanille whimper and Hope crash to the ground. That was the nearly the last of them, except-
To save a people beyond salvation, there is only Ragnarok.
That was the truth of Barthandelus' words, and Ragnarok and stasis was the only mercy they would get from a Focus too awful to think about. Somewhere ahead of her, she heard Fang roar once in defiance, seeming to be the only one still standing. Lightning knew what she'd agreed to, back in Oerba. Eden, she knew. Despite giving her word, despite knowing that it might have been their last shot, Lightning could not accept that kind of mercy. Not from Barthandelus, not from Orphan, and not from Fang, either.
"Have you ever paused to consider our reason for making l'Cie of men?" Orphan demanded of them all, and as Lightning tried to rise up and defend Fang from their venom, she realised that she still couldn't move.
Fang was only barely remaining standing, and she felt herself begin to sway with exhaustion. Orphan's spell had managed to fell the others, but somehow she alone had remained defiant. She couldn't bring herself to look back at them, because seeing them down for the count and shattered under Orphan's magic would probably cause her to finally break. Fang's teeth bared even as she gasped for breath. She couldn't break, not yet. Not with so much on the line!
"We fal'Cie are crafted for a single purpose, and granted finite power to that end." Orphan's voice filled the now-silent chamber, reverberating through the floor and wrapping around Fang. Their words were everywhere, and she shook her head stubbornly. "With men it is not so. Men dream, aspire, and through indomitable force of will achieve the impossible. Your power is beyond measure. We take l'Cie so that we might wield such strength. Through you, we obtain freedom from our bondage. And now, your Focus alone remains."
Indomitable force of will? Fang still couldn't look at her fellow l'Cie. If their will was meant to be so indomitable, then why had they fallen and left her to fight alone? Fang looked up at Orphan then, at the awful amalgamation of Barthandelus and the battery of Cocoon, feeling nothing but loathing and anger that they would mock them all so. She heard Vanille moving stirring behind her, climbing to her feet, but Fang eyes were locked on the target.
"Defy it, and all will be for naught." Orphan raised one huge, twisted hand towards the other l'Cie, the red eye calculating and knowing. Fang heard Vanille begin to scream, and she couldn't look away any longer. "Cocoon's sacrifice, and that of Gran Pulse as well..."
"Vanille!" Fang shouted, turning fully but still unable to force her body into decisive action. Vanille was her sister, and she looked on in horror as Orphan targeted that which was the most precious to her, again and again. Gran Pulse, Oerba, her family, Lightning, and now Vanille?
"Yet, if we but summon the Maker, we will be granted the chance to begin anew." The fal'Cie waved a hand, dark light gathering at their fingertips, and Vanille lifted up out of Fang's reach. "All our sins absolved and the world born anew!"
"Stop it!" Fang begged them, her voice cracking in alarm as Vanille's screams of agony only grew. Vanille was hurting and she was all Fang could see.
"Submit, l'Cie!" Orphan demanded in that awful three-layered voice, and Fang struggled to force herself to stand. "Become Ragnarok! Lead us into the light!"
"Let her go!" Fang reached out for Vanille, because if Orphan killed her then Fang would have nothing left. A part of her noted that it was probably all part of Orphan's plan to drive out Ragnarok anyway, she noted vaguely. If they killed Vanille, then they would find their plans useless – once she was done ending the world, not even the Maker itself would be safe from her wrath, crystal stasis and this Door of Souls be damned.
Orphan's eye narrowed, as if it already knew her thoughts. "We have no need of flawed l'Cie."
They were right, of course. Fang had failed to destroy Orphan and Cocoon once, already. Looking around at her fallen family, looking back at the agony she'd caused and the damage she'd wrought... Fang would not fail again. Her heart slowly hardened with new resolve, and it felt awful. This wasn't a threat or wishful thoughts of 'should'. It was action and the will to follow through.
"Orphan!" Fang said, loud enough to be heard over the crackle of burning magic and Vanille's cries. Her voice was flat and even. "I'll do it! I'll destroy you."
The words were a betrayal and a relief as she spoke them, and she felt Orphan's red eye on her again. She stared them down, her grip tightening on her lance. They released Vanille with a sneer, and she fell to the ground like some broken plaything.
"Ragnarok." Orphan nearly whispered the name in reverence, and Fang shivered. "The will to guide a world unto oblivion. Can you bear the sin of our salvation?"
Fang looked to the side, just once. Destroy everything for the sake of those she loved...
"You heard me," Fang said, her voice growing stronger as she made her bargain. Save everything and become Ragnarok? Then that was the price she paid, and she'd pay it gladly. She'd done it once already. "I said I'll do it!"
"You can't!" Vanille cried out from behind her, reaching for Fang as if her platitudes and begging would do anything at this stage in the game. "I'll be fine! And you can't forget our promise! We promised to save Cocoon! We promised!"
Fang squeezed her eyes shut as Vanille's accusations and disappointment hammered against her, and she turned her weapon against Vanille to silence her.
The promises, the betrayal… It didn't matter. As Fang turned to Vanille, all she wanted to do was to break down and let her own horror and terror pour out. She wished with all her heart that she'd been able to continue believing in Lightning's 'fighting the Focus' bullshit, that it all hadn't been some incredible delusion. She wished Snow and Lightning had been right. She wished that she'd been able to reach that future she'd wanted so badly.
But it all boiled down to one moment, one act, and that was Ragnarok. Just the way Fang had always believed. She heard the others begin to stir, but it was too damn late. They'd put her in this position. Their fight with Orphan had proven, without a doubt, that there was nothing left that could save them.
Fang's anger spiked – and Lightning. Lightning had not even seen fit to follow through with their promise.
"I made another promise, too. To protect my family." Fang had to follow through with that, no matter how it hurt and how much it cost her. With an steadiness that belied the fear and desperation running riot through her mind, Fang drew her weapon back. She'd strike Vanille down, knock her out so that she would never have to bear witness to that transformation again. "Sometimes, you've got to choose!
The speed at which Snow lunged forward and threw himself between Fang and Vanille beggared belief, and he caught Fang's weapon in his arms. Fang's anger roared to life – Snow, that fucking idiot. It was his fault they were even in this mess! If it hadn't been for him, if he hadn't been putting stupid dreams in everyone's heads, then they might have been through with Orphan by now!
"Back off!" Fang snarled at him, trying to pry her weapon from his grip, but the man clung on like his life depended on it.
"What are you doing-" Snow demanded through clenched teeth, and just as Fang thought she had him sorted, she felt another person's arms lock around her waist, as if that would do anything.
Fang looked back, her mouth twisting.
"This ain't the time to be losing it, lady!" Sazh told her tightly. Of course it was Sazh. The man wouldn't know a proper hold even if his life depended on it!
Fang's familyalways got up to stop her, for better or worse. Even at the end of everything, that was one constant that never seemed to change. Had Orphan released them from his spell to force her to fight them? Did he think that striking them all down would make her hurt even more? Fang's throat felt raw and her eyes burned, but she couldn't stop now.
She threw Snow away with a roar, and her arms now free, she pried Sazh from her back and kicked him to the ground. They were lucky they got away with just that, but when Fang looked back to Vanille, it seemed like she'd delayed too long. Lightning and Hope had struggled to their feet while she'd fought with Snow and Sazh, and they'd placed themselves in front of Vanille protectively.
"What do you gain from hurting Vanille? We're in this together!" Lightning told her. A little viciously, Fang noted that Lightning hadn't been so keen on protecting Vanille a few days ago. Now that it suited her purpose, things were different. Just like what Lightning had promised back in Oerba.
"This is my Focus." Fang's voice shook a little, and she drew her weapon back, preparing to gather her power for one final strike. If they were going to stand against her, then she'd have to incapacitate them all. "No one's gonna stop me!"
Fang felt her power coil inside her, forgotten fire burning somewhere deep in her stomach as launched herself up and away from the disbelieving stares of the rest of the l'Cie. Power gathered at her lance's tip, but Orphan's tail was moving. Why? Fang had an instant to frown before the magic scorched her, and then she was streaking downwards. Fang impacted on the floor of the Cradle, shock-waves of dark energy stretching out.
Her eyes wide, her breath ragged and her heart pounding, she watched as the rest of the l'Cie fell. She watched as the brands began to glow and erupt and then it all hit home. Her fellow l'Cie fell at her blow, and they rose again as cie'th. It was her worst nightmare, and what was more, Fang hadturned them.
"Everything I do – why? Is this what you meant to happen?" Fang demanded of them – Snow, Lightning, everyone. As she watched the monsters around her begin to rise, she couldn't even stay angry at them. They were gone. What good did all her anger do against them now? "All of 'em..."
Even in spite of her promise, her intentions – Fang hadn't even been able to stop them from turning cie'th by agreeing to be Ragnarok. Fang's breath sobbed as she watched them all ignore the weapons they'd cared for so well in life. She really shouldn't have been surprised that Orphan would be so cruel. She wished she no longer felt at all, and her grip slackened on her weapon.
Behind her, Orphan was laughing.
"After all we went through!" Vanille cried out, and from where she stood before Orphan, Fang could hear her sobbing. She couldn't move forward to comfort her sister, because she was still so horrified at what she'd done to them. She heard the thudding footsteps of the cie'th approach, and she knew better than to expect recognition or mercy from the monsters that had once been her family.
They struck her with crystal-barbed clubs in place of hands and she realised vaguely that she couldn't bring herself to raise her weapon to fend them off. Even after all she'd claimed, she still couldn't take them out.
"Guess I deserve it, after what I did!" Sazh, Hope, Snow, Lightning... Fang looked up at Orphan's cruel red eye, coughing as the wind was knocked from her lungs by the cie'th's strikes. "Are they my sin to bear for choosing salvation?"
She couldn't take it any more – she fell to her knees with a groan, unable force herself to stay standing. They all fell with her, piling on top of her and beneath the crushing weight of crystal and flesh, Fang swallowed rawness and tears. She'd been set up and knocked down all her life. This would be the last time, because now she'd lost everything to Orphan. Gran Pulse. Family. Lightning. Choice. Dreams. It was enough to send anyone off the deep end, and as strong as she'd tried to be for them, she was only human.
Fang felt agony in her shoulder as her brand erupted, residual magic flinging the cie'th away from her and it hurt like nothing she'd ever felt before. It wiped out all thought.
Familiar sensation crawled through her veins, power coiling again in her stomach and flowing from her in waves. She could hear Orphan talking, always talking, but she was no longer listening to them. Ragnarok was madness, despair and destruction personified. That was all she felt, and she wasn't Fang any more as she lunged forward with a snarl to attack.
Everything was dark, and Lightning felt as if she was moving at unbelievable speeds through empty space. Voices streamed by, snatches of half-remembered conversation and images from her past. Her parents, alive and happy. She remembered slamming her door on them on one rainy afternoon, remembered angrily shoving Serah out there with them because she hadn't wanted to deal with them all. She'd not been much older than fourteen, and she hadn't known that her time with her parents was growing short.
Hazy sensation filled her mind, the darkness around her easing as the light grew.
She'd taken another name when she'd lost her parents, not caring what she'd eventually lost of herself in the process. She didn't remember her own tears, but she remembered Serah's. She remembered being driven forward by something, and even now the feeling was like hooks buried in her chest, pulling her along. It was a focus-point, and it filled her with an awful drive that would not let her be. In the darkness and surrounded by warped and flickering images of her past, that drive and hunger for something was all she could think of.
It all blurred faster now. A promotion and fireworks, the knife on her birthday. Lightning flinched as the image of the fal'Cie Anima reached out for her again, and the memory of the Ragnarok dreams they'd all shared seared in her mind, and Ragnarok tore apart Cocoon, heedless of the lives lost. There were those scared grey eyes at Palumpolum, reminding Lightning of failure and betrayal, before there was a flash of blue and a knife shining in the sunset. There was free-falling and fire-lit green eyes, a crystal tear. There was laughter with others in a run-down village. There was the sensation of lips on her own, freezing water -
The Focus was meant to be everything, the one driving point that spurred l'Cie forwards until it was met or it consumed them. It was meant to be everything, but Lightning realised then that it wasn't. There were people, things, ideas and places that were far more important to her,and the barbs in her chest seemed to ease and fade.
Lightning's eyes snapped open to brilliant afternoon sunlight and a warm breeze. Her fingertips brushed her chest, feeling for the mark that had been so vividly on her mind since Lake Bresha. Somehow, that l'Cie brand was no longer there, and Lightning felt her shoulders sag in relief. The how and why of it was not immediately apparent, and Lightning squinted up at the crystal pillar above her, raising a hand to shield her burning eyes.
Blinking back the spots in her vision and shaking her head, Lightning felt as though someone suddenly flipped a switch in her mind and cranked up the volume, because suddenly she could see the rest of the l'Cie around her. Fang, Vanille, Snow, Hope, Sazh, a little boy that had to be Sazh's son and – Serah. They were all smiling and laughing amongst themselves, and Lightning's heart ached as she fought the urge to join them.
The sight of them all together was everything that Lightning had wanted for the future, and everything that really mattered. They'd somehow won, and Lightning wondered what the crystal pillar had to do with it all.
She looked back up at the pillar, trying to pick out the strange design etched into its surface. It hit her like a suckerpunch to her gut, and Lightning's eyes widened and her mouth suddenly felt dry. Lightning whirled, her eyes searching for Fang. The woman wasn't there any more, and neither was Vanille, and with a cold certainty, Lightning looked back up at the pillar.
Everything felt clear, and the warmth and happiness she's felt only moments had evaporated in the space of a second.
Fang. Cocoon. Ragnarok.
She remembered seeing Fang's back as she stood alone against Orphan. She remembered defending Vanille, and the burning feeling of her brand erupting and all control fleeing her. Fang was still fighting Orphan, still trying to win them their freedom, and Lightning would be damned if she'd let her do it alone again.
Fang awoke with a ragged gasp, wincing as her lungs burned and her head pounded. She twitched, trying to move but finding that she couldn't. Etro, but she didn't recall feeling this awful last time, but more familiar was the feeling exposed rawness in her mind. It was like she'd been ripped open and laid bare, and what did she have to show for her troubles?
"Yet again."
Fang's eyes cracked open reluctantly. That voice meant that Orphan was still there, still waiting. Still alive. Half-formed memories of violence and madness flashed through Fang's mind, like stunning moments of clarity buried under Ragnarok's all-consuming hunger. Fang tried to shake them away, but they clung to her like cobwebs.
"How many times must you fail?" Orphan asked above her, and cooling magic suffused her for a moment even as some other magic forced her upwards. Her family had become cie'th. Even turning Ragnarok hadn't done her any good in the end, because she'd managed to fail again. She let the fal'Cie's magic lift her through the air, wrapping her in bindings of dark light, because she didn't have the strength or will to fight this monster any longer.
"Let me go." Fang barely recognised her own voice, hoarse and broken to her own ears.
"Retake the form of Ragnarok," Orphan demanded, their multi-layered voice like nails on a chalkboard. Fang squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block the words out. "Deliver us which we have been to long denied!"
White hot agony burned through her as Orphan's magic scoured her, and Fang couldn't hold back the scream. The pain seemed to last forever, wracking her until she couldn't move, until she wanted to die and leave the world to its fate. All she could see were sparks dancing against blackness, and Fang knew that she'd been only a breath away from having that wish fulfilled when cooling magic soothed the fire in her veins.
Fang cracked an eye open, looking up at that awful red eye. This close, it looked like the eye on the brand. She felt ill.
I wish you were here to pull me up, one last time.
"What do you want?" Fang's eyes lost focus, and agony wracked her again. And again. Orphan held her on the brink of death, as if the cruelty would do any damned good! Fang slumped as the fal'Cie's magic drenched her. She was no longer sure what was worse – the pain that came with the black magic, or the dread that came with the healing.
"Steep yourself in hatred," Orphan ordered, and they seemed to be smiling. "Let it infuse you with the strength it craves."
The sound of footfalls, soft and cautious, reached Fang's ears in the chaos of all the pain and magic. Fang's eyes fluttered open – with the rest gone, it could only be Vanille. Fang had thought Vanille had been taken out, unconscious from the force of Fang's transformation. Orphan heard it too, and they paused for a moment in their sick cycle of torment, that red eye flicking down to somewhere behind Fang, three sets of lips each curling into a smile.
"Your awakening demands an offering of pain!"
Fang flinched, and she finally understood exactly how Orphan would make her hurt one final time. Would Vanille's death finally be enough to give Fang the strength to do what had to be done? She didn't want Orphan to chance that.
"Vanille..." Fang rasped out, hoping that her words would reach her sister. "Run."
"No!" Vanille's voice sounded frightened, but determined. Fang's heart sank, and she flexed her fingers against the bonds Orphan held her in. No good... "I swore I wouldn't run away any more! I'd rather fight and lose than give up without even trying!"
Stupid girl... Fang closed her eyes, waiting for Orphan to lash out and take Vanille, too. I can't save you any more. Couldn't save anyone, really.
Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Hope. They were all gone in a flash, like they'd never even been there. They'd abandoned Fang to the horrific reality of the Focus, and if Vanille had her way, she'd be gone too. Once that happened, Fang really would be alone with Orphan, to somehow find it in her to end the world. Haziness seized her mind now that Orphan's attention was no longer on her, and she felt herself slipping down into unconsciousness and hopefully something deeper -
An explosion tore through the air, a dull roar to Fang's ears, and the fact that she was then falling no longer seemed to matter at all. Fang thought she heard Vanille cry out for her, and something – somebody – warm and solid caught her before she hit the ground. Fang heard Snow – Snow? – grunt as he bore her full weight. She tried to open her eyes, but it felt like they were gummed shut.
"Miracles out of misery. You've got to be kidding me." That was Sazh. Not just Snow, but Sazh. Perhaps Fang really had died in Orphan's clutches, but if she got to see them all again...
"Yeah, Fang." Hope's voice sounded to her left, and healing magic rushed through her veins. Fang tried not to baulk at the sensation, after what Orphan had done to her. "Who'd be dumb enough to swallow that crock?"
Dumb crock? It couldn't be real. Fang slowly swung herself down from Snow's arms, bracing herself against him a little. After everything Orphan had done to her, she still felt unsteady on her feet, and her head was spinning enough to make her feel like she was going to hurl. She forced it down and away from her mind. Vanille was running forward, her eyes wide and her smile even wider. Behind her, Orphan burned and writhed in agony. Who had done that...?
"Sure, we've all had better weeks." Fang's head snapped around as she heard the last voice – Lightning approached the group, looking confident and as unruffled as ever, as if she'd never been a cie'th at all. Fang watched her move, every her eyes drawing in every inch, and undeniably it was Lightning because there was nobody else could imitate that unique mixture of hot-cold. Lightning had Fang's weapon in one hand and her blazefire saber in the other, and her eyes were warm as she came to a stop before Fang. Fang's mouth felt dry, and she swallowed unsteadily.
It was Lightning and the others, sure. But Fang didn't understand how.
"You're alive!" Vanille didn't so much as ask but exclaim, as if this turn of events was not so surprising after all.
"But you can't be!" Fang's voice was still rough and harsh from the torture and her exhaustion, and she still felt so raw and exposed. They couldn't be there. They just couldn't. She saw them turn cie'th, she'd felt them attack her. She still had the bruises and blood on her! They'd been cie'th.
Lightning shrugged, seeming to accept the events much the same as Vanille had. "Could be more fal'Cie smoke and mirrors."
Fang stared at her, momentarily silenced by the deliberate simplicity of the explanation. It was a bullshit excuse, but that sort of bullshit excuse was exactly the kind that Lightning would give. Fang had to give her points for consistency, there.
"Fang, I'm sorry," Snow said softly, and Fang watched him shake his head.
"We made you go it alone." Lightning certainly sounded sorry. Fang felt her throat begin to hurt as Lightning held out the weapon, waiting. Sure, they might have made Fang go it alone in the end, but seeing them again, now, made all that pain and all that desperation seem to fade away.
"Second time now, isn't it?" Fang asked quietly. Well, second time she'd been so dramatically hauled to her feet, by Lightning, in front of everyone. Fang shook her head, still feeling like none of it could be real, and that at any moment she'd wake up in Orphan's bonds again, because this whole situation defied all possibility. But they were still there, still smiling, still with her and looking like this time they always would be. Fang accepted her weapon back from Lightning's grasp with a nod, her gaze flickering up to meet Lightning's.
Maybe they'd both been wrong in how events would go down – what mattered was that they were finallyon the same page.
"But... where were you?" Vanille asked from behind Fang, and Fang turned slightly to offer her sister an exhausted smile and accepted an arm to lean on – just for a bit.
"Somewhere cold and dark, just thinking about everything up until now. And then..." Hope shook his head, as if he was unable to explain it. "And then it was like-"
"It was like I had a glimpse of the future," Snow cut in, his eyes distant and a smile on his face as he cast his mind back. "Everyone was smiling and laughing. Even Serah. Even Light."
Fang looked back across at Lightning, feeling that familiar tug in her chest as she noted the way Lightning's lips had quirked at Snow's words. It... was a nice dream.
"I don't know. It was a new Focus, or something. Didn't really make sense. I mean, knowing we were worm bait and all, but..." Sazh said, rubbing a hand through his hair, still looking perplexed as he tried to sort out his thoughts. "As luck would have it, next thing I know I feel somebody pushing me right along."
"You were there too, Fang. Same side. All of us." Lightning's voice was firm, and it dragged Fang's attention back to her. Fang couldn't say she minded that. "Together to the end."
Behind them all, ignored but not forgotten, Orphan began to scream and Fang shot a wary look back over her shoulder. The other l'Cie rallied around her, and she felt the ghost of Lightning's touch on her tattooed shoulder as they all watched Orphan sink down, their latest shell dying and fragmenting as the magic binding them together began to run dry. It wasn't over, the deep ache in her brand told her.
There was still work to be done.
"The heroes never die." Snow paused then, grinning around at them all, and assumed a battle stance as the ground began to shake. "Come on. We've got a world to save!"
"If we have the power to destroy Cocoon, then we have the power to save it," Hope reminded them, though frankly Fang was unsure how exactly Hope had that all figured. "You say you want your Day of Wrath, do you? Well it's coming right up!"
Fang heard Lightning snort softly, and felt her own lips twitch in response. So that was how it was? Take out that murderous bastard, and then worry about saving Cocoon?
"Time we gave the people what they really wanted." Sazh was quiet, as if he understood the short-sightedness of the plan, but would go along with it anyhow. Well, if the old man wanted to finish Orphan once and for all, Fang was hardly one to complain.
"We can do it. I know we can." Vanille's voice was stronger, and her green eyes were determined. The shadows were gone and it made Fang's heart ache. "We made it this far – let's make a real miracle happen!"
"Lady Luck sure ain't on his side!" Fang felt her smile widen into a feral grin, and it felt real as she assumed her place beside them all. She felt like she'd been born again, like she – they – really could do anything. Even if that 'anything' was to fight their fate and to spit right in the face of the fal'Cie, because somehow they were alive and well.
Before them, Orphan's true form rose up, seeming smaller and less threatening than Fang had imagined.
They'd all fight their fate together, and beyond that? They'd kick Orphan's arse and save Cocoon on top of it all. Impossible? Sure. That was what they did, and it'd all work out somehow. The proof was right in front of her.
Maybe it was the knowledge that the other l'Cie had actually had the gall to return from a fate she'd feared for so long. Maybe it was the feeling of blood pounding in her ears, or maybe that she had hope for the future. No matter what it was, the feeling of synergy between them all – with Vanille, with Lightning, with all of them – as they stood their ground against Orphan was nothing short of amazing.
The ground just to Fang's left erupted in a burst of silver magic, and Fang felt her blood thrill as Sazh's haste spell settled over her and the battle became a blur as she streaked past where Snow was charging in for a vicious attack. Spells of all four elements whizzed by just a hair's breadth away from her cheek as Hope worked on lowering Orphan's shield. As Hope's final Blizzaga landed, the shields seemed to implode on Orphan, and with a grin, Fang whipped her lance forward and dragged the razor edge across Orphan's delicate features.
The fal'Cie screamed at her, and as Fang felt magic coilfor a brutal counter strike, she launched herself up and away from Orphan's face. Snow caught her on her way past, and he grabbed her outstretched hand and flung her backwards. Instead, he bore the full brunt of the hail of silver magic with a roar.
Fang stumbled backwards, the haste spell rapidly faded and leaving her feeling light-headed from her exhaustion. Fang shook her head, trying to clear the dark spots dancing in front of her eyes. They were nearly there – she had to last the distance this time!
She jumped as cool magic washed her, and she looked over her shoulder to where Lightning stood. Fang nodded to her in thanks, trying not to become distracted by the memory of the healing and torture she'd suffered. Lightning smirked, jerked her head toward Orphan, and they both sprinted forward. Lightning reached Orphan first, the force of her resulting strike raising sparks as her blade whipped along the length of Orphan's features.
Now that that damnable shield was down, it wasn't really a fight, Fang realised. It was a wrecking, and it felt rightthat Fang was the one to finally ram her weapon through and into the delicate machinery behind Orphan's face. Five hundred years in the making, Fang finally completed her Focus.
Take that, Anima, she thought, a little vindictively as Orphan began to scream and the cogs began to spark around her weapon. Vicious glee or not, Fang noted that fulfilling her Focus had felt far less satisfying than she'd imagined. There was no relief, there was no joy, because now she knew that her task wasn't going to end just yet. Fang launched herself from Orphan's dying shell, stumbling a little as she landed. She feeling a hand reach out to steady her, and she knew without looking that it was Lightning.
Orphan did not die easily or quietly, and from the way the Cradle began to shake, it'd take Cocoon with it.
Fang felt Lightning's hand squeeze her shoulder and felt Vanille grab her other hand. Snow and Hope stared up at the erupting fal'Cie with awe, and behind her, Fang heard Sazh sigh as reality set in.
Like it or not, we've fulfilled our Focus. Now what?
Lightning noted that the gravity was the first thing to go, followed quickly by the lights, the heat, and then the air. The whole of Cocoon seemed to tremor as the effects of Orphan's demise took its toll. She saw the final question reflected in the eyes of the other l'Cie around her - now what? Lightning's mind began to work overtime as she tried to formulate one last plan to get them through.
Your power is beyond measure. Orphan's multi-layered voice resonated in her mind, but it gave her no answers. Small as they were, how could they stop one planetary body from smashing into another? It was an impossible task with the tools they had, and Lightning began to wonder if there really was a way to save Cocoon, now that they'd done the unthinkable and slain Orphan.
What choice did we have? Lightning asked herself, her jaw clenching. She had to keep thinking, but the worst thing she could do was to let the others scatter and fall to Pulse alone. She raised her voice and told the other l'Cie, "Stay together!"
"Hey, grab my hand!" Sazh was the first one at her side, and he dragged Snow along by the sleeve of his coat. Lightning grabbed onto his outstretched hand, before reaching out for Hope's. They floated together in zero gravity and rapidly-thinning air as Cocoon fell away from them. She kept her eyes fixed on her family, trying to reassure them one final time and trying futilely to put some sort of plan into action.
Lightning was so preoccupied that she didn't notice them missing until Snow shouted for Fang and Vanille. Lightning tore her eyes away from Hope and looked down, back to the smashed innards of the Cradle. She felt her heart leap into her throat as she caught the familiar flash of blue against the glow of light, and suddenly she felt nauseous. Fang and Vanille had not joined the group, for whatever reason. There had to be a reason, Lightning told herself with a growing feeling of panic.
Lightning suddenly felt cold. She knew that she was not going to like that reason, whatever it was.
Fang watched the lights go out all over Cocoon, feeling an odd mix of pride and sadness. They'd all had the chance to fight their fate, and they'd all done a right job of it. Fang looked up, to where Lightning and the rest of the l'Cie drifted up and away from Cocoon's falling wreckage.
She cared for Lightning, so much. Who was she kidding? It really did feel like she would betray those feelings if she went through with her half-formed plan. But this was a choice between a rock and a hard place! If she did nothing, then her family died. She would rather throw her own life and freedom away to save them and for a chance to stick it to Orphan one last time, even if it would hurt.
Fang's mouth twisted painfully. At least she'd give Lightning and the rest of their family the chance to live out those dreams that had given them so much hope. It was the least she could do after everything. She just wished that she'd been able to be there to enjoy it with Lightning...
Fang was surprised, though, to find that Vanille had remained by her side.
"Vanille?" Fang questioned, because there was no going back from what Fang would attempt. Etro, but it might not even work! She could have don this alone, but it was reassuring to have Vanille there with her at the very end.
"Ready." Vanille nodded, her eyes full of trust and understanding. Yeah, Vanille knew the price just as well as Fang did. In a case like this when there was no more time and no more options, they were both willing to pay that price. Vanille reached out and gently took her hands, and Fang shot one final wistful look up to Lightning.
Ragnarok subsumed them both, and then all Fang could see was a brilliant white light.
Everything was dark, quiet and still. When Lightning's mind surfaced for an instant, she felt sluggish and over-warm, and it felt like she had been sleeping for far too long. Her grip on consciousness was tenuous, and it slipped away from her too easily. After the chaos of the Cradle and everything that had gone before it, she couldn't say she minded. Perhaps just going back to sleep was for the best.
Cocoon had been saved – Lightning knew that implicitly, even if she didn't really understand how – but Fang and Vanille were gone. Her awareness began to fade, and she wondered if there was really anything left out there in the world, if there was a point to waking up at all.
Something light and airy flitted through her mind, like sunlight across her eyelids, and it seemed to be around her all at once. There was a darkness, too, and suddenly sleep didn't seem so incredibly attractive. She felt restless. She felt -
"Wake up." Vanille resonated in Lightning's mind, just the one time, and there was a flash of sunlight and greenery before the presence fled. The dark shadow in her wake had to be Fang, and Fang had not even seen fit to say anything. Lightning surged after them both, scrabbling for awareness and to somehow follow along and give Fang the damn piece of her mind that she deserved. They slipped away through her fingers, though, as if they were never there at all.
Lightning opened her eyes to the riot of life – sounds, smells, sights, sensation – and for perhaps the first time, Lightning was glad to see the rugged wilderness of Gran Pulse. Around her, the other l'Cie had also found their way out of crystal stasis, all seeming in awe of what they'd achieved. They'd survived the Focus, and what was more, they'd saved most of Cocoon.
Serah returned to them, and Dajh too, and as the l'Cie began to make their way toward where the Cocoon survivors were gathering at the foot of the pillar, Lightning took a deep breath, and looked up at the crystal pillar. She squinted as the reflection of afternoon sun almost blinded her, and her mouth twisted a little. Through the sacrifice of others, by losing, she had won a future for herself.
It hardly seemed fair. In the dream during the fight, she'd seen a distorted image of this future, but it wasn't the same. Serah was there, and Sazh's kid too, but there was no Fang and no Vanille, because they'd given their lives and freedom to save the world. They were the ones who had sacrificed and suffered the most for a happy ending, and they were not there to claim the future.
Fang was gone, just like that, and all Lightning could think of was of how much time she'd wasted with her.
Now she's gone, and what good did all that pride and stubbornness do you?
Her throat felt raw as it hit home, and she ignored the troubled look Snow shot her. Serah grabbed her hand, not understanding yet but still sensing Lightning's turmoil, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Lightning knew she wasn't facing the future alone, but at that moment it was little consolation. The future…
Lightning could see the Cocoon survivors at the base of the spire still, milling about in confusion as the remainder of PSICOM and the Corps tried to take charge. Of course, PSICOM and the Corps would need help, and doubtless they would love to have Lightning's assistance. Of course. That life and future was still waiting for her, and aside from the relocation, things could be just the way they were before everything had gone to hell and back.
Lightning considered it. She'd get that promotion, and she could go back to following orders and living her life for others. It would be so easy to just slip back into old habits, to forget her regrets.
Now, though, the bonds of duty and requirement felt suffocating as Lightning looked back up at Cocoon again, and she couldn't help but feel a little robbed of her own dreams. Lightning didn't want that life any more, and that was clearer to her now than it had ever been before.
It doesn't suit you, Fang had said of Lightning's old name, and Lightning began to wonder if the name had been all she'd been referring to. You've grown beyond it.
Damn Fang, but she'd been right. Same with Vanille, really. If Lightning didn't want her old life back, then she didn't have to go and take it. Lightning had the right follow her own path, and the right to a life free of regrets.
"It's not over," Lightning told the sphere, Fang and Vanille, and she knew with a sudden certainty that it wasn't.
A/N: Sorry for the delay on this chapter, started a new area of work and kind of got sucked in, in terms of time! I'm not 100% happy with the chapter, but if I had my way I'd edit for another month (or two) and likely it wouldn't change anything! So here it is, and I hope everyone enjoys. There is one more chapter to go, before the end.
Edit 12 August 2012 - I should probably have mentioned earlier, but reviewer number 100 will get a short fic of their liking.