A/N: Chapter 11 is here! I said I'd try to get another chapter up by the end of the weekend, but who knew it'd be in three days? So, now the gang is on Eden, and we see just how far it's fallen since Barthandelus reigned. Also, a little bit of back story on why Cocoon isn't completely covered in crystal, as it was at the end of the game.
Disclaimer: What do I have to do to own the rights to the characters? The world may never know, I know I won't!
Chapter 11- The Doomed City
The l'Cie left the transport once it was safe to do so, and entered Eden's docking bay. Looking around, they noticed that all of the windows had been boarded shut, and the floor and walls had several cracks in it, many of which had been hastily repaired. The ceiling was missing in some areas, and there was some debris strewn around the bay. As they made their way to the exit through the maze of cracks, barriers, and ruins, the Pulsians couldn't help but wonder how bad things had gotten in this city.
By now all of them were aware of the trouble that had been plaguing Eden since Dysley, or rather Barthandelus, had resigned as Primarch. Between the Ark invasion and Barthandelus' own work, much of the city had been damaged. In fact, after Ragnarok Eden had been declared a quarantined area, and the military had been trying to get as many people safely out of the city as possible. But when they started to gain ground on the escaped monsters, the evacuation had taken a back seat, and now the civilians left in Eden were completely stranded, homeless and hopeless.
The quarantined area was now only around the district that held Edenhall, in the center of the city. From where the l'Cie had landed, they would end up entering the Quarantine Zone from a temporary base set up at the Siren Park section of Eden. With that in mind, they left the confines of the dock, and got their first look at the former capitol of Cocoon. What they saw, they could barely believe.
Most of the buildings in Eden had been completely destroyed by the fighting, and many of those left standing looked as if they were about to fall over. The road leading away from the dock was cracked much more than the floor of the bay itself had been, and unlike the docks, nobody had made any attempts to repair the street. Smoke was rising from many areas throughout the city, and nobody was certain whether it was from the buildings burning or if it was from people trying to stay alive. Once in a while, distant gunshots could be heard, though it wasn't clear if it was a military action or civilians. Far in the distance, barely visible through the smoke, sat their destination, Edenhall, the former seat of Cocoon government.
Fang and Vanille couldn't believe that the city had changed this much in just over a year, even with all of the chaos that had been started when they were last here. Zion took in the sights of the area and simply closed his eyes and shook his head. "Well, at least it looks like we can still get to Edenhall. Let's get going, shall we?" He had been walking in the direction that they needed to go when he'd realized that nobody had followed him. His comments seemed to shake everyone out of their respective dazes, and they all picked their way carefully down the street to the elevators near a dead end.
After pressing the button to summon the elevators, the group climbed in and rode down to a lower level of the city. Once they exited, they noticed that the damage down here was even worse then it was above. The road here was completely missing in spots, and it appeared that to their right that it had been partially covered by the edge of a fallen building.
The group started to walk away from the covered area, down the new street, when a sudden noise behind them got their attention. Zion was the first to reach the edge of the road, and was quickly followed by the rest of the group, all with their weapons drawn.
What they found under the canopy, in a hole in the road, wasn't a monster. Instead, it was a man, a woman, and three children, huddled around a small fire in the middle of the pit. It was apparent that they had been there a while, as there were tattered blankets all around the area. The four within the pit, seeing the humans standing there with their weapons drawn, huddled together and began to cower at the back of their makeshift home. Zion sighed and sheathed his sword, then jumped into the pit. He turned to the group, looking at them for a second, before he began to walk to the frightened family. Lightning got his message immediately. "Stay here." She said it to nobody in particular, but it was obvious that everyone got the message.
Zion continued his cautious walk toward the cowering group, his hands at his sides. "We aren't here to hurt you. You just startled us." He had to walk around the fire to reach the family, and once he did, he knelt in front of the group, a soft smile on his face. "Forgive me, but it's been a while since I've been in Eden, so perhaps you can help me? You see, I don't know what the conditions are further ahead, and we need to get to Siren Park." Zion pointed behind him, to illustrate his point.
The family was silent for a while, and Zion started to think that they were too scared to answer him. Before he stood, though, the man responded in a soft, hoarse voice. "Most of the beasts have been put into Quarantine, at the expense of the rest of the city. The military has scavenged parts from the elevators and buildings all over, but especially closer to the bases. Nothing in the area of Siren Park is stable, and other than the base, power there is non-existent."
Zion frowned slightly at this news, but nodded his head and stood up. "Thank you for the information." He began digging in a bag attached to his belt, and produced four rations, giving each family member one. When that was done, he turned around and returned to the group, who had watched and heard this exchange with a mixture of curiosity, hope, and fear.
"Why did you give them all of your rations?" Lightning scolded the Pulsian as they began to walk down the road once again.
"They looked like they needed them more than I do." Zion looked back behind him, through the rest of the group, at the small pit he'd just left. "Besides, if we ignore those who need help the most, what is the point of helping anyone at all?" Lightning couldn't find an answer to that question, and sighed in defeat, nodding at him and continuing to walk forward.
Further on down the road the group came to a large pile of debris. However, unlike the rest of the they'd seen, this debris was encased in crystal. Vanille gasped at the sight, and she and Fang immediately ran up to the pile. Fang ran her hand over the clear-silver crystal, and as she felt along its surface, she realized what it was. This made her wonder about what had happened. "This is the same crystal we were put into stasis in."
"Yes, it is." Sazh was now walking up behind the pair, with the rest of the group in tow. He looked at the crystallized pile and couldn't quite hide his amusement at the Pulsians' shock. "Sometimes you can see pieces of Cocoon encased in it still. It's unusual to find a piece this big, though."
"I was wondering about that, Fang. When we saved Cocoon, didn't we turn the entire planet into crystal?" Vanille was apparently aware of what they'd done more than the others had realized.
"I thought we did, but until now, there wasn't any proof." Fang was even more confused than her young companion, though it seemed neither of them would ask for information. Zion was also confused and concerned, he had assumed that Cocoon was completely crystallized as well. However, the male Pulsian was much better at hiding his emotions than the women were. Nonetheless he listened intently to the conversation.
"Well, you did turn all of Cocoon into crystal when you became Ragnarok." Hope volunteered the information. All eyes turned to him, and waited for more. When none came, Vanille decided to take a more active part in the conversation.
"Then why isn't it now?"
Hope looked away from the Pulsians, to the crystal, then back again. "I don't know, and as far as we can tell, nobody does." Hope paused for a second, and spotting a piece of crystal large enough to sit on, he decided to take a minute to rest and consider his explanation.
"When we defeated Orphan, and you two turned to crystal, you became a pillar that kept Cocoon from crashing into Pulse and killing everyone and everything on both planets. But you did more than that, Cocoon wasn't just encased in crystal, it was completely turned INTO crystal." Vanille and Fang both nodded, they had already either been aware of this or at the very least assumed it. "We searched Euride and everywhere else we knew fal'Cie lived, and couldn't find any traces of any of them. Even Phoenix had disappeared, and Cocoon was bathed in perpetual darkness. The government realized that as it was at the time, Cocoon was incapable of supporting human life. Because of this, they authorized and ordered the settlement of Pulse. For two months, the military implemented a forced evacuation of Cocoon. They were going to let the monsters Barthandelus had unleashed in Eden have the entire planet.
"But one day, people woke up and noticed that the crystal that had coated everything on the planet was disappearing. That same day, the skies were lit up in daylight for the first time since Ragnarok. Phoenix had returned." Hope gestured to the sky, to the sunlight drifting through and onto the crystal which everyone had come to take for granted. "We looked at Euride and in Palumpolum, and everywhere else, and almost all of the fal'Cie we'd thought had been killed were back. When they returned, the crystal began to vanish, though there are still some spots where the fal'Cie haven't gotten, especially here in Eden."
"If the fal'Cie have returned, then..." Fang wasn't sure she liked where this was going, but Hope just shook his head.
"No, Barthandelus, Orphan, and Eden are all dead, as far as we can tell. I don't think anyone has gone into Edenhall since we escaped it, but there isn't any evidence that any of them are in there." Vanille opened her mouth to ask a question, but Hope put a hand up to stop her. "And we don't know where the fal'Cie went for those two months, nor why they returned. Fact is, nobody's been able to communicate with any of them since they came back, and because of that, there is a lot of hostility surrounding them, especially at Euride."
Zion spoke for the first time since Hope had begun his story. "Hostility? You mean that they don't trust the fal'Cie anymore."
Lightning decided it was time for her to enter the conversation at this point, since she was the one who knew most about this particular situation. "Some people believe that the fal'Cie that remain on Cocoon wish us no harm, but there are those who believe that all fal'Cie are enemies of humanity and must be destroyed. The power plant at Euride Gorge, because it houses Kujata, has become a frequent site of conflict between these two opposing ideals, and the fact that the fal'Cie can't or won't speak to us isn't helping the situation one way or another."
Fang looked at Lightning with an amused yet concerned expression on her face. "So why hasn't the government stepped in?"
Hope spoke up once again. "Because they can't." At Fangs look, he elaborated. "The government right now is almost as much of a mess as Eden is. After the fall of Sanctum, there was complete chaos. It wasn't until after the fa'Cie returned that anything resembling normalcy came back into the political realm, but by then, the government had to be completely redone. In the end, it was decided that each city on Cocoon and each colony on Pulse would elect one representative to a council that would make laws governing both Cocoon and Pulse. The elections were held four months ago, and the representatives have been gathering information and seeing what needs to be done before they actually meet to make any policy decisions. That said, one thing they did do right after the elections was throw out much of the Sanctum's restrictions, including those on travel. They also limited the powers of the military and police forces, so there isn't any more oppression."
"Yeah, and Hope would know, since his dad is the representative of Oerba!" Snow happily chimed in his two cents for the first time, which earned a small groan of annoyance from Serah. Zion looked at the pair with an amused look, while Vanille tried unsuccessfully to restrain a giggle. The others appeared to not have any reaction, except Hope, who looked worried that the Pulsians may take offence to a resident of Cocoon representing their village.
Fang realized this and belayed the young man's fears. "Hey, he's a good man. He'll be a good representative for Oerba, especially since we're going to be too busy trying to stay alive to do it ourselves."
Sazh groaned as he stretched. "Speaking of which, we need to keep moving. We aren't going to get to Siren Park standing here, you know." The others nodded in agreement, happy for being able to rest a little bit, but well aware that they were still racing against the clock.
For the most part, the journey to Siren Park was uneventful. Along the way the group encountered an occasional Pulse creature to defeat, or a rogue machine that would attack them suddenly, but it was nothing they weren't prepared to handle easily. As they continued their journey, they also noticed that the destruction seemed to grow worse the closer they got to the Quarantine Zone. They had to use a few elevators to change levels in order to get around blockages or damaged areas, and to continue to go in the correct direction, but within a few hours, they were on the freeway that they had used to get to Siren Park the last time they'd been in Eden.
As they approached the end of the line, where the road had been barricaded by a massive accident fourteen months ago, they noticed that some of the destruction appeared to have been intentional. "This must be what they meant by scavenging the area for the base." Sazh remarked as he looked at a piece of the wall that had apparently been cut apart.
"I'd heard reports that the soldiers stationed in Eden had been taking pieces from the city's debris in order to fortify the walls and keep their bases operational, but I didn't know they were true." Lightning remarked at Sazh's discovery.
Zion had walked over to where the elevator's doors were, but when he went to open them, an explosion was heard coming from the direction of Edenhall. All eyes turned at the sound to see what appeared to be a large ball of fire flying out of one of the windows of the building, heading directly for the l'Cie. It fell short of hitting them, however, and in fact fell almost half a mile short. Nonetheless, it worried the group that they were being targeted. "We need to get moving, if that was intentional, we're sitting ducks here." With that, Zion forced open the elevator doors, and noticed, with some frustration, that the elevator shaft had been largely carved up, and the elevator itself was missing.
Lightning, who had walked up behind him and was now looking over his shoulder as best she could, noticed why Zion had started grumbling softly. "Looks like we're going to need to climb down, doesn't it?"
"Yes, though, it may be better if one of us leads, since we have the most experience in things like this." Zion glanced back at the rest of the group, then back to Lightning. "The kids should be the last to start, they can follow the path we pick out for them."
Sazh had walked over two the soldier and warrior, and caught the last of their conversation. "Well, I doubt that Dajh will be able to climb much of anything, especially with how far down we'll need to go." He looked down the shaft as Zion had stepped aside.
Snow walked up to the group, along with Serah. "Well, why can't we use your anti-gravity thing like we did last time we were in Eden, sis?" His comment immediately got an elbow in the gut from his fiance.
Lightning groaned at Snow's reference to her status, but replied calmly anyway. "There's two problems with that. First, the shaft is way to narrow for all of us to jump down it safely, and even if we did, we don't know what's at the bottom or even if there IS one. Secondly, I don't have enough copies for everyone. In fact, I only have two operational ones left."
She motioned for the others who hadn't already joined the group to do so, then Zion and Lightning took turns explaining what was going to happen. Everyone understood fairly quickly, since most of them had done things like this before. After explaining everything, and making sure that Dajh was securely tied to Sazh's back, Zion began to work his way down the shaft. Lightning followed, with Sazh behind her. Serah, Snow, Vanille, and Hope eventually started climbing, with Fang bringing up the rear, and ensuring that they weren't jumped from behind as they started.
The path the group took was slow, because there were spots that they had to move laterally around the chamber rather than vertically down it. Because of this, and the fact that everyone climbed at different rates, the group ended up somewhat spread out along the makeshift cave. About the time the group got halfway down the shaft, another explosion was heard from the direction of Edenhall.
A couple of seconds later, a portion of the shaft exploded, sending debris down and causing Hope to lose his grip on the wall. As he fell, Zion, who was about ten feet directly underneath him, reached out his left hand to grab the boy as he fell past. He managed to catch Hope, but in doing so, Zion lost his own grip on the rickety surface. He grabbed at Lightning with his right hand as he started to fall, but when he failed to get a hold of anything, he simply pulled Hope to him as they both plummeted down the shaft.
A/N: Yeah, another cliffhanger. I'm going to try to NOT make that a habit, but I thought that it was a good point to stop. Next time, the Siren Point base, and the fates of Hope and Zion.
To etheral-23, and anyone else who reads this: Thanks for the time and review. I hope you continue to enjoy it.
Please review and comment! It is always appreciated!