Chapter 10: During the Tragedy part 9: Focus of Destruction
Back at the geth ship, Legion had managed to successfully synthesize a gel with the Thorian samples, the Brand skin samples and various other materials. It had already sent out the message to Hope and was waiting for the l'Cie to return. Hope had, however, replied with a reckless-sounding request: to hack into the Eden Prime Alliance database.
Hope and the l'Cie soon re-entered the geth ship, and immediately moved to see Legion. It then led them to the area of the ship which held the equipment and the first synthesis of the Brand Reduction Agent Gel, or as it was shortened to, BRA-gel.
"Farron-Sergeant, Oerba Yun Fang," Legion suddenly commanded, "…restrain Villiers, Snow, but leave his left forearm exposed!"
"Wait, why me?" Snow roared as he was put into an arm-lock by Fang and had his left arm held in place by Lightning.
"Villiers, Snow is test subject for Brand Reduction Agent."
"What about Sazh and Vanille? They are here now, so why not them?"
"Experimentation on Oerba Dia Vanille would trigger hostility of Oerba Yun Fang and may result in armed conflict. Katzroy, Sazh is also unfit for experimentation as doing so unnecessarily on his Brand has a higher risk of internal organ damage. Hope, we require you to be on standby with an application of medi-gel."
"I've already got one ready to go!" Hope stated, readying his omni-tool.
"Readying omni-tool for deployment of gel. Application will happen in three…" Legion began counting down. Everyone held their breath.
"…Two…" Snow hoped he was going to be okay.
"…One." Legion's omni-tool rammed onto Snow's l'Cie Brand, whereupon he began screaming such that, were it not for the room being soundproofed, someone outside the ship might have heard. A split second after Legion applied his omni-tool, it withdrew and commanded Hope to apply the medi-gel. It all happened in a matter of seconds, as Hope applied the medi-gel to Snow's Brand and, as a result, got him to stop screaming.
Looking at the Brand, there were less arrows, and the eye was almost closed… but it looked like that was just how they looked before leaving Cocoon. From there, Sazh followed, then Lightning, and Vanille, all of whom had the BRA-gel applied to their Brands and screamed in pain until the application of the medi-gel by Hope. Finally, it was the turn of the young l'Cie, who relinquished medi-gel duty to Connor.
The BRA-gel was applied, and Hope could feel a massive searing pain where it had contacted, akin to his wrist being wrapped in a hot iron. The pain was immense, but ceased after feeling a much cooler gel on his wrist. He found that his Brand had also regressed to its earlier stage. "Okay, the procedure was quite painful, but hopefully with this, we can be relatively free," he sighed in relief as Connor left the room.
"How far has the regression of Hope's l'Cie Brand reached?" Legion wondered.
"Up to the point before we left Cocoon, I think."
"Aforementioned scenario of 'freedom' is therefore implausible."
"Why? As long as we can keep the supply of gels running-"
"Based on research results, administration of second dosage of Brand Reduction Agent can only happen after five days. Earlier administration would result in neural destruction of the surrounding tissue."
"What! No, there must be something we can do! We were so close to breaking these godforsaken chains! Isn't there something more we can do, something we might have overlooked?"
"Only remaining course of action is to carry out Focus."
"Hope! I see something tis important!" Connor suddenly shouted from elsewhere in the ship.
"Not now, Connor!" Hope shouted back.
"Just come here and gaze upon what I found. Bring the geth and l'Cie as well!"
When everyone was at Connor's location, he began talking to Hope: "Cross-reference the data on the fal'Cie Carbuncle with the data I just gifted you."
"Fine," Hope sighed, not expecting anything to come of it now that their most promising endeavor had fallen short. "What data did you upload, Connor?"
"Look at the screen, Hope!"
"Yes, it… it can't be. The functions are different."
"The genetic structure! Tis important to look at the genetic structure. The surface functions may be different, but thou must look at the underlying blueprint!"
"Fine, have it… wait a second… it can't be!" Hope suddenly realized.
"Yes, the underlying genetic structure is exactly the same, yet the fal'Cie looks like a less refined version," Connor continued.
"Of what?"
"The keepers. The Citadel's keepers."
"Impossible. How did you get readings of the keepers?"
"A lone salarian scientist kept trying to show off his findings to his research group, and twas fortunate that I was inside the network at the time, but that's unimportant. The good sir's findings indicate that the keepers are genetically constructed by the same people who made Sovereign."
"Analysis of Hope Estheim's quarian data complete. Data is relevant to this discussion," Legion interjected. "Uploading acquired data to mainframe now."
From there, screens came up of records taken on Ilos a year ago. Those records detailed the events of the Prothean genocide, of the Citadel and of the keepers. "I thought so! I knew it!" Connor yelled.
"Knew what? Stop making a scene and just tell us!" Fang shouted.
"Your fal'Cie are prototypes! Prototypes for the Citadel's keepers, they who were fathered by the Reapers. Hope, tell me what you know of the labors of the Cocoon and Pulse fal'Cie!"
"They Brand l'Cie with different marks, but otherwise, from what I understand, the Cocoon ones fulfilled different functions such as providing infinite food, power and light, and even controlling the weather, but I don't know about the Pulse ones, though. You'd have to ask either Fang or Vanille."
"But the more useful ones were on Cocoon. They were the more useful prototypes. But I know not why they would…"
"Connor… are you saying what I think you're saying?"
"The truths presented to our eyes here tell me that the fal'Cie, the perfect world of Cocoon, even the planetoid itself… is a construct of the Reapers! We have to get back and set things straight now!"
"Entry into Eden Prime Alliance database achieved," Legion announced.
Some time later during the evening, Connor was with his parents at home, packing up his possessions, and there was an Alliance officer present. "What do you mean he has to leave?" his mother shouted.
"He has been selected for a training program on medicine. We have already received his consent," the Alliance officer responded.
"Connor is nowhere near old enough for that. Just who signed him up?!"
"As a matter of fact, it was Captain Hannah Shepard of the Orizaba. That's where he will be serving."
"This is preposterous, Lieutenant."
"I'm a Sergeant. His recruitment for the program has already been approved, and we have his consent. He is packing his clothes already as you can see."
"But this is insane. Since when does the Alliance just draft in children from out of nowhere?"
"The young Mr. Guerrin found one of our locally-based medical training programs, and after what we have seen of his progress cross-referenced with his background history, we would prefer to have him tested away from an area that was recently a source of trauma for the boy."
"This is insane. At least promise to let him call us."
"That seems like a reasonable request, although discretion will be left to him. Are you ready to go, young man?"
"Yes, Sergeant," Connor responded, having finished packing. Him and the Alliance officer were soon walking through the entrance to the colony. "Oy, ma'am, you sure you should be leaving at this time of night?" a voice sounded. Turning to look, Connor saw the Alliance officers Biggs and Wedge.
"I'm just taking the boy on a short stroll, Biggs. I still have some time before I need to be back in the air."
"Sure, take your time, just don't take too long."
Connor and the Sergeant continued walking into the countryside. Once a landed geth ship came into view, she took off her helmet, revealing long pink hair.
"I think that went fairly well, don't you, Sergeant Farron?" Hope's voice resonated from the ship.
End note:I felt that there just had to be a Biggs and Wedge couple in FF13, but I couldn't find them in the game. Otherwise, with the plot twist about the Reapers, the perfect world of Cocoon seemed to be a little too perfect for my liking. Yes there are sometimes Pulse fal'Cie that infiltrate Cocoon and other fal'Cie wanting to bring back the Maker, but beyond that, what else? I hope you enjoyed so far.