Chapter Ten – The Waters Stilled
Just down the way, Lightning and Hope spotted Snow and the others standing before yet another group of Cie'th – How could so many damn Cie'th survive the fall? – which consisted of three Wights flying cautiously around the area and two Ghasts on a big jutted bit of trussway guarding yet another chest.
"I wonder what happened to everyone else," Vanille breathed.
It was a good question, but now definitely wasn't the time to answer it. They now knew for sure that soldiers were after them. They couldn't afford to dawdle.
After they had taken care of the Cie'th that barred their path, and checked inside the chest – several more potions and another aerosol, this time an Aegisol (grants the wearer Protect, Shell, Vigilance and Veil when applied properly) – they continued down the path.
Wow, Sazh thought as they passed a flame-coloured crystal. The flames turned to crystal too?
Well, it looked that way. The crystal was warm to the touch, unlike the common blue crystal currently surrounding them, which was cool.
Soon enough they came to yet another split path. They could all hear a perfectly strange sound from the debris above the space where the paths split off – somewhere between a deep, throaty chirp and a croak – before a group of four Breshan bass hopped down before them, effectively blocking their path. Lightning flipped out her Gladius, and the others, seeing that as a sign, each pulled out their respective weapons – Sazh's guns, Keller's twin blades, Vanille's staff, Hope's boomerang and Snow's fists. With six against four, and supernatural power on the l'Cie's side, the bass should've been easy to defeat, right?
Wrong. With their incredibly tough skin and almost whip-like tails, they were annoyingly hard to kill. Only Lightning's Gladius could slice through the terraquatics' skin effectively enough to do sufficient damage. Only magic could seep through the tough barrier and do enough damage to kill them, and so Keller reluctantly put away her blades and focused on the well of magic within her. It wasn't quite as strong as she would have liked, but it did the job. Compared to Hope's magic – which he seemed to have taken to rather well – she felt especially underwhelming.
Once the terraquatics were nothing more than puffs of ash on the wind, the l'Cie started deciding who would check which path. If one of the paths were not a dead end, that group would send one capable person back the way they came and tell the other group, who would have checked the other path.
Now all that was left was divvying up the groups.
"I'll go down the left path," Vanille said, "and Hope's coming with me!"
"W-what?"
"Then I'll go with 'em, too," Sazh said, stepping over to where Vanille had skipped to, dragging a flustered Hope with her.
"Okay then." Snow shook his head with a small smile on his face.
"That leaves the rest of us to check the right. Let's move." Although Lightning's voice was relatively quiet, it carried across the group. Snow and Keller set off with Lightning, while Sazh and Vanille took Hope with them towards the left.
…
Lightning walked in front of Snow and Keller, lost in her thoughts but still fully-aware of her surroundings. Which was why she immediately noticed when Keller fell into step beside her.
Not that you could ignore someone like her, anyway.
"Sooo," she drawled, grin plastered onto her face. "How're you doin'?" Already she felt she'd have quite a bit of fun getting under Soldier Girl's skin.
"Fine," was Lightning's curt response. Keller could see she had her lips pursed – whether from stress or frustration, she couldn't guess. Or maybe she was always like this? Keller wanted to find out.
But not today. If this kept up, she was sure there'd be plenty of time to get to know the stony soldier.
"The path continues from here," Lightning said pointedly.
"I'll go get the others." Keller pulled out her blades and ran up past the crest of the wave they were just descending. That left Lightning and Snow standing between the crest and the base of the wave, waiting for them. Thankfully it wasn't long before Keller returned, with Vanille, Sazh and Hope in tow.
Down below the l'Cie were more fire crystals and debris, though from their vantage point they could see their path curving to the left. Vanille skipped down the wave and right past Lightning, who rolled her eyes.
Keller was just in front of Hope and Sazh, hands linked behind her head, breathing in deeply. Although the lake was still frozen in crystal splendour, she could still smell brine and salt. She continued to breathe it in, eyes closed.
Vanille was now up ahead with Snow, just descending past the base of a wave and curving gently to the left, following their path across a handy piece of trussway and under two waves frozen mid-crash.
"Weird, isn't it?" Snow asked as they turned right, still following the path. "Of all the messed-up ways to meet..."
At this point, everyone but Lightning had caught up and were now walking as a group. Keller laughed.
"Not exactly ideal, I'll give ya that much."
"Might as well make introductions." Snow shrugged. "I'm Snow – Snow Villiers. Short stuff?" he directed at Hope, who glowered a the blonde brute.
"Hope. Hope Estheim."
"Keller," the brunette supplied, grinning. "Keller Lina."
"What about her?" Vanille asked as Lightning walked briskly past the chatting group.
"Bodhum Security Regiment," Snow replied. "Goes by 'Lightning'. Last name's Farron."
"What about her first name, hotshot?" Keller asked.
Snow scratched the back of his head. "That's anybody's guess."
"I'm Vanille," the red-head supplied.
"Sazh Katzroy," Sazh said, offering his hand for Snow to shake. "Good to meet you."
…
Vanille giggled and set off down their path, dragging Hope along with her.
Sazh sighed. "It's not right. Why'd kids have to get dragged into this?"
"I'll keep the kids outta trouble," Snow offered, hand on hip as he walked over to Sazh's side, who chuckled and clasped him on the shoulder.
"Problem with that is, you're one of 'em."
"Hey!"
Lightning walked past the two, along with Keller.
"Tryin' to take on the Pulse fal'Cie, that was our first mistake," Sazh said. "Shoulda left that to the Sanctum."
"Hey! Come on, come on!" Vanille cried, taking Hope's arm and waving to the rest of the group with it.
"Why not? I mean, we've counted on the Sanctum fal'Cie for food, water..." Sazh continued, "...everything we've needed since the time we were born."
"Well, too late now," Keller said, almost cheerfully so.
"But you still helped us do it," Snow pointed out, arms leisurely folded across his broad chest. He looked over at Sazh, grinning. "Why's that? Gotta be somethin'."
"There might've been..." Sazh nodded, looking down. "Not so sure anymore." He walked forward, after Hope and Vanille. Snow sighed and followed him.
"Well, our path's pretty much set. Nothin' much we can do about that." Keller gestured grandly after their companions. "Shall we?" she asked the soldier, grinning cheerfully from ear to ear. Her earlier depression seemed to have disappeared for the time being.
Lightning narrowed her eyes slightly at the girl in front of her. "How old are you, anyway?"
"Nineteen. You?"
The Soldier walked after the others. "Twenty-one," she shot over her shoulder.
Keller followed her, still grinning.
Eventually their path began to slope steadily upward once more. The l'Cie strode up at a steady pace, keeping a sharp lookout for more PSICOM troops.
"I'm lookin' ahead," Keller said. "Wanna stretch my legs a bit. You guys just sit pretty." She turned and winked at them before running up and over the crest and out of sight.
…
Keller took refuge behind a nearby fire crystal and looked around it.
The first thing she noticed was the different things jutting out of the crystallised waves around her. There were what looked like giant chain links, some still linked together, creating archways and blocking other ways out.
Must mean we're getting closer to the exit to this bloody place.
Pacing up and down the only other path out of Lake Bresha for the l'Cie were pantherons, two pairs that she could see from where she stood, growling at the slightest movement or noise.
Keller grinned. This should be fun.
She took the automatic weapon she'd nicked off a random PSICOM soldier during the Purge – equipped with a silencer, of course – and took careful aim. One bad shot would alert every one of those four pantherons to her presence.
She narrowed her eyes and fired. The bullet embedded itself into one pantheron's hind leg. It fell, whining. The other pantheron stopped, growling, and then continued pacing at a faster rate than before.
Keller grimaced. She had near-perfect aim with her blades, but guns just weren't her thing. She aimed again, this time just above the space between its eyes. She fired, holding her breath, watching the bullet as if in slow motion as the pantheron turned in just the right way. The bullet shot through its neck, and it fell to the ground before exploding into ashes. Keller stepped out from her hiding place, whipping out her blades, and cautiously approached the first pantheron. It was trying to stand up, and eventually did so, favouring its hind leg. It growled as Keller approached. Keller growled back and slit its throat.
She heard claws clicking on the crystal behind her. She turned, but too late; she was tackled to the ground by one of the other pantherons. It seemed that while Keller was preoccupied with the first pair, the second pair were busy sneaking up on her, ready to tackle her and tear out her throat.
The pantheron's momentum was too great, however, and they both kept rolling. Keller hitched her feet underneath it and kicked, sending it shooting back-first toward one of the giant chain links embedded in the crystal. She winced as she heard a crack sound on impact; the pantheron seemed to hang suspended above the ground for a nanosecond, and then fell the ten feet needed to hit the ground. She could hear it whine low in the back of its throat, in obvious pain. Keller looked around – there was one more.
A coughing bark alerted her to a pantheron trying to take advantage of her open side. Keller rolled opposite its lunge, and slashed at its back. It whined, and then turned to lunge again. Keller bared her teeth at it and sprang forward, embedding one of her blades through its eye. It howled before turning to dust.
Keller took a few deep breaths to steady herself, and then walked over to the other pantheron. It looked at her as she beheaded the bioweapon, giving it a quick death.
She heard a whirring sound behind her and to her left that was becoming familiar to her. She turned and found a little hidden alcove housing a silver sphere. She activated it and felt around for her prize – a phoenix down – before running back down to the others.
"So? What'd you find?" asked Snow as she returned.
"Pantherons," Keller replied casually, as if she hadn't just killed four pantherons single-handed. "And one o' these." She brandished the phoenix down in her hand before placing it carefully in her pocket.
"Great," Sazh groaned. "More soldiers, right?"
"'Fraid so," Keller said, shrugging.
"Let's go," Lightning muttered, walking up the crest to find nothing but a dormant chest in the alcove previously mentioned. Further along the path were more pantherons and to the right, another silver sphere. After taking care of the obstructions, Snow opened it to find something that no-one suspected – 50 gil.
"Money? What are we going to use it for?" Hope asked sceptically.
"Well, usually," Keller replied, "a certain amount of money is usually traded for things you want and/or need to survive in civilisation –"
"Okay, I get it!" Hope yelled over her. Keller glared at him for interrupting her, but he just ignored her. "What I meant was, where are we, Pulse l'Cie on the run, supposed to spend it?"
It was definitely a well-placed question. They were, after all, now Public Enemy No. 1, all of them, simply because a fal'Cie from the World Below marked them as their own, minions to do their bidding. Obviously, people wouldn't just let them into their shops and buy something.
Snow just shrugged and put the money in his pocket.