Fipp: And here is the second chapter of the first mini-series.

Also, I remembered that today is my twenty-first birthday. Time to rob a liquor store.

Beta Read by Distant Glory.

Purgatory: Realm In-between

Lightning felt a stinging numbness throughout her entire body. Forcing her eyes open, she found herself looking at a wooden ceiling.

Turning her eyes down, she found that she was on some sort of bed, a white sheet pulled up to her chest.

"W-what happened?" she asked, her voice low.

"Oh! Hey, Light! I was kinda thinking that you'd never wake up."

"Huh?" Lightning turned her head to the right to see Vaan sitting up on a bed pushed against a wall, almost tucked into a corner, with the sheets pulled up around his waist. Instead of the armor he normally wore, he was dressed in clean linen clothes and wrapped in bandages. The most noticeable one was wrapped around his head, covering one eye.

"Vaan . . ." She blinked to focus better; to make sure that it really was Vaan. "Is that you?"

"Yeah. Good to see you're awake."

Lighting pushed herself up and struggled to sit upright using the arm that didn't feel like someone had tried to rip it off. "What happened to us?" She looked down at her own body to see that she was dressed in similar clothes and bandages to what Vaan was wearing, though her right arm was in a sling, and both her eyes were good.

One of Laguna's manikins had fired a shotgun at almost pointblank range near Vaan's head. While he managed to avoid most of the buckshot, a number of fragments tore at the side of his head, and even hitting the now-covered eye. She hoped that it was undamaged, or at least still there.

Taking her good arm, she reached for her other arm and touched lightly, only to instantly pull back. Yeah, that felt like it would be hurting for a while. Looking down the bed, she was glad to see that both her legs were still usable. There was sharp pain in her side, a dull throbbing running behind her eyes, and the small of her back hurt where her one of her own doppelgangers had sliced at her. While none of this was ideal, it was something that she could live with it for now.

Rubbing her eyes, she turned back to Vaan. "Last time I saw you, I was sure you were killed." She averted her eyes. "Then again, I can't say I was in much better condition."

"Well, I guess we both got better," Vaan said, shaking his head. He looked past her. "What about you guys? Did you guys make a full recovery from death?"

"Wha -?" Lighting turned around to face the other side of her own bed, to see Tifa, Yuna, Laguna and Kain, each of whom sat in their own beds. They were each in similar states to herself and Vaan. "You guys, too?" Upon hearing her voice, broke away from whatever conversations they may have been having. What they had been talking about, Lightning hadn't paid enough attention to really catch anything.

"It's good to see you're awake, Light," Tifa greeted with a kind smile, before looking forward. Lightning followed her gaze to see a wooden door in the wall. "That man said that when all of us were awake, he'd tell us what was going on." Her hands were heavily bandaged. Lightning recalled numerous small streams of blood running between her fingers and over her palms. Even with heavily padded gloves, Lightning guessed that punching monsters made of hard and sharp crystal would still leave injuries.

"What man?" Lightning asked.

"The man who found us," Kain said. "Along with several of his allies." Lightning saw chest and shoulders covered in bandages. Did the Firaga spell those Onion Knight manikins really manage to scorch him through his chest plate?

It was odd to see the Dragoon out of his armor. Even during the times she saw him with his helmet off, Lightning never got used to seeing Kain in anything but his dragon-styled armor. She wasn't sure if it was his dark-blue eyes, or the long blonde hair, but it always seemed more right to see him as a sort of dragon, rather than an actual person.

"But I don't get it," Lightning said and shook her head. "We all died. We fought

the manikins, we lost, and we were killed." Her good hand clenched. "So can someone explain exactly how we're alive, and who this man is?"

"Ooh! Everyone's awake!" Lightning turned to the door at the sound of a new voice, to see a young girl with long violet hair, poking in through the doorway. "Okay, since it seems none of you are dead, I'm supposed to get the head honcho so he can give the rundown on what's going on." She grinned. "So, I'm going to leave you guys alone for a little bit, so stay right here until I get him." She paused momentarily. "And try not to die again, 'kay?"

"Wait!" Lightning snapped. "Just who -"

The girl's head had already vanished back behind the door, slamming it behind her.

"- are you . . ." Lightning's words died on her tongue.

Wait, had that girl had long pointed ears?

Lightning turned back to the others. "Anyone care to tell me who that was?" she asked. "One of this 'man's' allies?"

"Oh, um, her?" Laguna said. He tried to scratch the back of his head, but stopped when he winced in pain. Lightning saw that his shoulder was swollen and purple. There were also bandages tied around his neck, and his leg was in a cast. She had always thought Jecht's sword was more for crushing than cutting, and his manikins proved this. "I think she said her name was Pistachio!"

"Pista - what?" Vaan groaned. "I swear, you're doing that on purpose!"

"Her name is Prishe," Yuna said with a smile. Her skin was pale and sickly, a side-effect from being infected with a powerful poison by a small, strange manikin no one recognized. It was because of this that she was the first to fall. "She has been recently put in charge of healing us. According to her, their other healers are allowing their strength to return. It took much of their power to save us."

Lightning looked to Yuna. "Can you at least tell me who these people are?"

Yuna was about to answer, but Prishe's head popped through the door. "Okay, guys, I got a lot of stuff to do, so I gotta go." She once again grinned. "But don't worry, Basch here will explain everything! See ya!" She then left as quickly as she came.

"Basch?" Vaan asked. Lightning saw his brow furrow, and silently repeat the name.

A tall man with a beard, and a red and brown leather vest entered the room.

"So, you're this 'Basch' person Prishe spoke about?" Kain sat up as best he could, and carefully folded his arms over his chest.

"That is correct." The man, Basch, nodded. He looked over the six warriors, lingering on Vaan for a moment, before speaking again. "I apologize for not being able to meet with any of you before, but there were other matters I needed to attend to."

"Then why don't you start explaining yourself?" Lightning narrowed her eyes. "What I want to know, is who you people are, why you decided to help us, and exactly where the hell are we?"

Basch nodded towards her. "Very well, I see you have no desire to waste time with idle chatter, so I will tell you what this place is." He turned away from Lightning, and looked over the whole room. "I'm sure you are all confused about what has happened. I also know the last thing you remember was falling in battle while participating in the war between Cosmos and Chaos."

Tifa nodded. "The last thing that happened to us was us trying to stop the manikins, and seal the portal that they came from." She lowered her head. "We managed to do that, but . . ." She left the words unsaid.

Lightning leaned forward. "How do you know about Cosmos and Chaos?"

"Manikins?" Basch asked, raising an eyebrow. "I am sorry, I do not know what those are."

"The munchkins?" Both Lightning and Vaan shot glares at Laguna. "Yeah, they're like these crystal-puppet-things that the Chaos-guys summoned from the Void." The Gunner waved a hand. "They summoned a lot of them, but they're not supposed to be in the war, so anyone who's killed by them stays dead. So then we went to go and stop them, which we totally did!" He grinned, but then sheepishly looked away and scratched the back of his head, only to wince again. "It didn't go too well for us, though."

"We died," Yuna sorrowfully added, looking down at her lap. "At least, I thought we did."

"These manikins you speak of, they are not supposed to be part of the Wars, and yet you fell against them?" Basch asked, seemingly deep in thought.

"Yup, sounds about right," Vaan said, putting his arms behind his head and laying down, though he still kept his eyes on Basch.

"We've told you our part of the story," Lightning said, glaring. "Now tell us just what's going on here."

Basch looked back to Lightning. "Are you aware of the nature of the Wars? That when an entire side falls, they are revived to be forced into more battles with no memories of previous defeats?"

"Yeah, we are." Lightning's voice was bitter.

Basch closed his eyes. "In order to be revived, we have learned that a great dragon called Shinryu appears over the battlefields when the winner is decided. Shinryu purifies the lands, reviving the dead and healing the injured in order to continue fighting, and their memories are cleansed." He looked to the ground. "But a person can only take so many of these Purifications, and when they cannot take any more, they are cast into this world, no longer able to serve either god. In fact, myself, Prishe and another warrior of Cosmos were the first three to enter this realm."

"But what exactly is this realm?" Kain asked.

"We've come to call it Purgatory, though it bears a great resemblance to the world where the gods fought." Basch explained. "Currently we are in a building in the town just north of Order's Sanctuary."

"You mean the ruins of Cornelia?" Yuna asked.

"Aye."

"So when you die enough times, you end up here," Laguna thought aloud. "But what happens if you die here?"

"You reappear at either the Order's Sanctuary, if you fought for Cosmos, or the Edge of Madness, if you battled for Chaos, that are present in this realm," Basch answered.

"How do you know that?" Vaan asked, pushing himself back up.

"While most of the people here are Warriors of Cosmos, a number of Chaos's soldiers have also ended up here." Again, Basch looked at Vaan intently. "This has of course led to fighting and people dying. When a person dies, they reappear where they were originally summoned with all their injuries healed. Their memories also remain upon reviving, unlike back in the realm where the gods fought. It is these places that warriors first appear after being cast away by Shinryu. But you appeared at the Empyreal Paradox. That's where I assume you six met your ends, correct?"

"You can say that," Tifa said, rubbing her hands through the bandages that covered them. "I'm guessing since we didn't get killed by someone, but by manikins, we ended up there instead of at Sanctuary."

"So, let me get this straight," Lighting said, the tone of her voice hard. "If you die enough times you end up here, trapped, and you don't die permanently no matter what, right?"

"That is correct," Basch agreed.

"What about a way out?"

Basch frowned. "I am sorry, but we've all tried to find ways back home, but none of us have found any. As far as we know, there is no way home. We don't even know what will become of us should the gods finish their wars."

Lightning groaned and fell back onto her pillow. She spat out her next sentence. "Worst self-sacrifice ever."

000

Please review,

Mrfipp