You know, it really would be awesome if we could just use all six of the characters in battle at once. It'd be a little over-powered for regular encounters, but during a boss fight, we need all the help we can get.

So yeah, fair warning, we get to the boss in this chapter, dun, dun, dun! On the bright side, the fight was relatively quick compared to others and especially Barthandelus. A lot of it is actual story, so it's really the regular warning for this being a very long chapter.

Guest: Excluding the bonus and final bosses?

First of all, it depends on how prepared you are. I come into battles extremely defensive and cautious when I fight them for the first time because I'm paranoid - I do a lot of extra Crystarium work in the first and second games, and I have at least one of all four elements in my schemata for the third with as high of ATB as I can get, plenty of items, and always have a healing ability, whether it be a medic in at least four of six of my paradigms in the first two and Mediguard in the third. I have full TP in the first game and full EP in the third. Most of the time, this is enough to get past most boss fights that aren't the final or optional ones.

It also depends on your gameplay style - would you rather be more offensive and just aim for a stagger, or would you use debuffs? Would you prefer to have defensive buffs, offensive buffs, or would you waste time trying to get both? Would you rather be half offensive, half defensive, or would you go full on offensive and full on defensive?

None of this is really a problem in the first game, as your roles are diverse enough that you have access to what you need. You can grind for items relatively easily in certain locations, the Crystarium system isn't bad at the first part until you get to end/post game stuff - even if one person doesn't have access to certain abilities in a role, someone somewhere else will - and if you know what you're getting into, there's no problem.

If you don't know what problems you're going to face or when you should be focusing on a certain strategy, then all boss fights are hard - Barthandelus's Destrudo attack, for example, you have to deal a certain amount of damage and wait for him to grunt. Seeing him charging for the attack the first time makes you want to heal and just wait it out in a Medic/Sentinel paradigm. The third game is also structured really well - just do some quests, fight some monsters, get gil, buy new equipment and you can most likely be prepared for the bosses.

The second game is where all the problems happen - as mentioned before, you don't have the same kind of scaling when it comes to your levels, the monster system is cool, but not very effective, you don't get the same abilities or those of equal value of the first game, and some of the optional fights are just broken if you're not completely and fully prepared.

The hardest boss that isn't optional in that entire series has to be the first one in the second game - that Gogmagog you face in the FFXIII version of Besaid, New Bodhum (the second time, I mean). You're incredibly weak at that point, you have three ATB slots, you have no way of healing yourself other than potions, the damn thing has a barrier, the Swipe attacks never stop, and the first time I fought that thing, the only reason that I survived was because I had Serah cast her spells one at a time so that she backed up each time and she was out of range of the Swipe attacks but not far enough away that she had the chance or the time to walk forward like an IDIOT right into them again. For some reason, while the ATB is charging, your character tends to feel the need to walk closer to your enemy, you have no control over this, and when it bites you in the butt because of a ranged attack that could've been avoided, all you can do is shout at your screen in anger as you die. Luckily this game doesn't send you back to your last save point every time you die, but it's still frustrating.

So yeah. Some people think that's easy, but on your first run through the game when you're me, it is freaking hell!


Hope quickly healed Sai as he was tossed in the air from a Greater Behemoth Heave attack. Sazh turned his pistols into a rifle and shot the monster before it started glowing with an electric aura. Its muscles bulged, it growled and rose to its hind legs, and reached up to grab the sword from its head with a powerful roar as the aura exploded. The Behemoth was returned to full health again, and they started from scratch.

"Sai!"

Shu pulled Sai out of the way as he was shaking off the hit. Shu had been staying a distance away from the fight, but quickly jumped in when Sai had been attacked with Heave. Shu was far stronger than they looked, but they still had to drag Sai rather than pick him up completely because he was taller and Shu just couldn't seem to summon their full strength.

"I'm fine, Shu," Sai assured them.

"O-Okay…"

Shu looked ashamed for intervening.

"But thank you," Sai said quickly, resting his hand on their shoulder reassuringly. "I appreciate your help. You did well, Shu."

They looked up at Sai doubtfully, but couldn't look at Sai's comforting smile without feeling guilty. Now even Sai had to look after them. He should've been doing his own grieving for Rei, he shouldn't have to babysit Shu and have that take all of his attention. Shu was such a burden to everyone around them. They wondered if Rei ever thought they got tiring at some point. The thought disheartened the fal'Cie further.

"We'll be done in a moment," Sai assured them.

Shu nodded slowly. Sai ruffled Shu's hair lightly, and they instinctively moved to fix it. They patted it into place, but clearly lost their energy. Sai frowned, but moved to join the others in fighting the Greater Behemoth.

The monster swung its large sword, which was basically a giant circular saw with a handle, and Fang held her ground as it clashed with her lance in her defensive Sentinel Steelguard. Snow moved in from the side to hit it with an Aquastrike that knocked the towering creature off balance as it was staggered and glowed gold. Hope and Vanille continued to build the chain gauge for ever more damage while the others all went offensive to attacking, having been protected and healed earlier.

Lightning slashed at the Behemoth's left side, causing it to stagger right into where Fang struck its other side with her lance. Sazh shot it in the face and diverted its attention just before Snow hit it right between the shoulder blades to send it falling forward into Sai's swinging swords. He slashed at it with enough force to change its momentum to falling backwards again, before Lightning stabbed her sword at the base of its spine and it went limp, fading to a black silhouette before that dissipated into the air.

"Like a well-oiled machine," Sazh commented, slipping his pistols into their holsters.

Sai went over and offered a hand to Shu, who was sitting at the corner of the subway area silently, seemingly unaware of the monster they had been fighting. Shu looked up, as though surprised that the fight was already over, and allowed Sai to take their hand and pull them to their feet. As they continued down the tunnel, Sai didn't protest when Shu kept hold of his hand.

They came out into another of the large sewer-like areas, water streaming out from under the subway tunnel entries and down into the abyss below. They made their way along the metal structures lining the smooth walls, hoping that they were still structurally sound. There would be nothing for them to get a grip on if they fell, after all. The staircases also jutted out from the walls as well, leaving them walking across a narrow metal pathway with nothing supporting it from below, only each end being held.

They made it safely across, going down yet another tunnel. When they reached the next station, every other exit was closed off, forcing them to turn down a tunnel with a different aesthetic than the rest of the subway they'd been going through.

"Is it just me, or does this seem like an exit?" Sai suggested.

"Could be," Lightning agreed. "At the very least, it seems to be leading us out of the subway tunnels."

Sure enough, the tunnel opened up into a larger area, resembling some kind of helicopter landing pad or something, with an open area and what looked to have been city of buildings behind it. The buildings were all tilted, having fallen long ago, but just based on the rectangles that had been windows, they had been many stories high. The large area wasn't completely open, a wall and dome surrounding the edges of the space like in Attack on Titan but with metal walls and a roof, yet it was certainly bigger and closer to freedom than the place had been before.

There wasn't much time to take in the scenery, however, as their attention was drawn to the man walking up to them from the middle of the area leading up to the tunnel they were exiting.

"Raines?" Snow asked.

"What?" Fang hissed.

Snow turned and saw Sazh, Vanille, and Sai's worried looks. "Whoa, easy, guys, it's all right." He jabbed a thumb behind him before turning. "Raines is a Sanctum officer. He's been helping us out-"

"Ah!" Fang's arm shot up and prevented Snow from moving forward. "Why are you here?"

Cid was silent, but then Charon walked out reluctantly from behind him. "Why else, Fang, but to stop you?"

"Raines!" Lightning snapped, drawing her gunblade and charging forward. "You traitor!"

She swung, but Cid sidestepped her swing easily, his cape acting similar to a flag in bull-fighting. Lightning turned in surprise, but quickly moved to striking once more, each of her swings blocked by Cid's one gloved hand as sparks flew. On her third swing, he caught her wrist and flipped her single-handedly, her gunblade flying up out of her hands as she slammed against the ground with a shout of anger and surprise. Cid had barely grunted in the effort to take her down, the other's all backing up in shock as Lightning rolled to a kneeling position quickly.

Admittedly, Lightning's rage had been impairing her judgment and skill, but the shock still rippled through the others as she was defeated so easily. Shu was probably the most taken, pulling close to Sai with a small shriek. Sai kept them behind him protectively, and Charon felt a surge of jealousy at the scene. Charon should've been the one to protect them, not the one they needed to be protected from.

Cid caught Lightning's weapon as it came back down, a small brand of Lindzei glowing on the back of his hand. "I put you on the path. That was my Focus."

Vanille, Hope, and Snow were taken back, and Fang responded with anger. "You're a l'Cie?" She demanded.

"Since long before we met," He confirmed, holding Lightning's gunblade out, though having no intention of using it. "I did my best to assist you, as bid by the Sanctum fal'Cie. Now do you understand? The fal'Cie have watched over you, guiding your every step. The 'luck' that saved you time and again was a deliberate machination. Why, you may ask? The Primarch - or should I say, Barthandelus - is crafting you into the instruments of Cocoon's demise."

Fang scoffed. "We've been played for fools."

"So all those meetings with Cid, why you came to the Lindblum in the first place…" Shu muttered.

"Reporting Cid's orders, keeping an eye on the Lindblum," Charon finished. "Making sure they didn't step outside of the Primarch's plan for them. Making sure Cid didn't step out of line. Being l'Cie still means you have a choice, but Barthandelus wanted me to make sure that Cid had none."

"So you weren't spying on the Sanctum, you were spying on the Lindblum. What are you, a triple agent?" Sai asked.

Charon shrugged. "I don't know what I am anymore. Barthandelus gave me orders, I followed them, simple as that. I didn't pay much attention to everything after a while."

"A Cocoon fal'Cie?" Sazh realized. "Why? Why would he want do this?"

"To restore the Maker."

"The Maker?" Hope asked.

"The entity responsible for creating both humans and fal'Cie."

"'Long ago, the Maker departed this world, leaving the two races behind,'" Shu recited. "'In a sense, human and fal'Cie are brothers - orphaned by the same parent. As for the humans, they forgot the order imposed by the Maker. They began to war amongst themselves for the first time in history. The fal'Cie focused on recalling their lost deity, and returning the world to its former glory. This purpose lies at the heart of all their actions.' Rei told me the story when I was little. I never understood what it meant. She would just smile when I asked and said that I shouldn't be concerned about it - that the other fal'Cie would handle things and we were to just stay out of their way. The other fal'Cie…all of them seemed to have a goal, a Focus of their own. I wondered why they never relaxed, never just played, never stopped their endless working, doing things I didn't understand. They were searching for a way to bring this 'Maker' back, and Barthandelus went about it by creating Cocoon…starting that war with Anima, staring all of this."

Cid nodded. "Calling back the Maker requires a fitting sacrifice."

Lightning stood, venom in her voice. "Yeah, we've heard. The destruction of Cocoon."

"The lives of this world's entire populace, in bloody tribute!"

Cid tossed her sword back to her, and she caught it gracefully. Cid's tone suggested that he thought the idea was just as repulsive as she did.

"No…that's crazy talk," Sazh muttered.

"I don't get it," Hope said. "Why do they need us? Couldn't the fal'Cie end Cocoon with just a thought?"

"Their existence is bound to the creation and maintenance of this floating shell," Cid explained. "It is their very nature that holds them in check."

"You mean…" Hope summarized. "Cocoon fal'Cie can't destroy Cocoon? They needed tools…"

Vanille stepped forward, her hand at her chest resolutely. "If we can stop this by doing nothing…" She shook her head. "We'll do nothing!"

"Noble," Cid admitted. "I expected as much."

"You lied to us," Snow spat. "What happened to your dream of rebuilding Cocoon for the people? Was it all a lie?!"

"A shadow of a dream, from when I was human. It was change I craved, and once I'd built the influence to make things happen, there was change. I gained all the power I could hope for, but was a puppet with no will to wield it. It wasn't the fal'Cie who changed. It was me."

He held up his hand, his brand flaring with power and glowing with a bright green light.

"You…you were made a l'Cie?" Vanille asked weakly.

"A l'Cie," He agreed. "Tied to an inescapable Focus - a slave of destiny. I'd lost hope. I saw that even another fal'Cie couldn't escape the ties binding him to Barthandelus. I'd all but given up on dreams of freedom."

"What are you saying?" Sai demanded.

"We are here of our own accord, not by fal'Cie order," Charon declared.

"Seeing you fight brought it all back," Cid admitted. "Brought back that future I once strove for. I, too, will challenge my fate."

Cid made a fist in front of him, his l'Cie brand charging energy before the symbol of Lindzei flashed to full power above the back of his hand. His hand shot up, his entire body engulfed in an aura of power, releasing a shockwave of energy that caused the group to stumble back.

Charon held his hand out, energy building up before he sent a blast towards Shu. Sai got in the way instantly, holding out his two swords in defense, but the force sent him flying the two blades spiraling through the air in either direction as both Sai and Shu behind him were thrown back from the rest of the group.

Cid snapped, energy pulsating through the air as a large brand of Lindzei image appeared behind the l'Cie. With an electric zap, rows of the brands expanded to each side, circling the group and caging them in with Cid until the end ones locked together. All of them looked around at the closing circle as it formed in alarm, but it was too late to do anything by the time they realized what was happening. They were trapped, a solid aura connecting the brands like a fence, so even if they thought they could just slip past the admittedly wide spaces between the brands, it was foolproof - no going under, too high to jump over.

"Easy, guys," Lighting warned.

Cid lowered his hand slowly, in a defensive position as the energy he was releasing only grew. "If I can defeat you here, the fal'Cie plan will fail."

"Raines!" Fang shouted.

"I will use all my remaining power!" He declared, pulling his arms together as Charon put his hand on Cid's back.

Cid threw his arms and head out and back, a flash transforming the upper half of his body into a half-crystalline-Cie'th, pushing himself to his limits without fully losing his mind courtesy of Charon's fal'Cie help. His upper half was now bare of clothing, revealing white crystal skin taking up almost all of his torso. His right arm was completely encompassed, his hand and arm much bigger than normal thanks to the crystal and it was the part of him that was most Cie'th. His left arm remained normal and human, but the crystal had spread down his upper arm about halfway. His hair had been thrown up and crystalized like some kind of Onion Knight's helm, with black tips remaining from his actual hair color. His face and neck were still skin in the front, but the crystal cupped his head and reached out to his eyes, which were now glossed over as crystal orbs themselves.

"I will set you free!" Cid declared.

Charon disappeared in a flash, leaving the l'Cie to fight Raines. He reappeared in front of Shu, who was cradling the unconscious Sai in their arms.

"Sai! Sai, wake up!"

Charon drew his Wakizashi. "Two of them are dead!"

He slowly began to advance on Shu, who stumbled back with a shriek, slipping out from under Sai and struggling to get to their feet while trying to back up.

"You and I are the last ones! When we're gone, there'll be nothing left!"

He swung his sword and Shu frantically rolled out of the way of his swing, barely dodging his sword that cut deep into the ground and released a wave of energy that cut right through where Shu had been - instead tearing through the metal floor. He was aiming to kill.

"Charon! Charon, stop!"

"You want me to stop? You'll have to kill me!"

He swung again, releasing a wave of energy that cut Shu in the arm as they tried to dive out of the way. They screamed and held their shoulder, trying to pull themself forward on the ground with their other.

They began to sob. "Rei…Rei, help me!"

Charon grabbed Shu and slammed them up against the wall as they screamed. "You're sister isn't here anymore! Our sisters are gone, and there's nothing we can do about it! So you either suck it up and deal with it, or you die!"

Charon turned and tossed Shu through the air, sending them high over the battle with Cid and the l'Cie and over the edge of the railing, down into the destroyed city below. He teleported to where Shu was in the air and swung his sword repeatedly, though his weapon didn't release energy waves. He kicked and slashed at Shu multiple times, but it was so fast that Shu was sent flying with practically all the force applied to them at once.

Despite being a weak fal'Cie and not in good condition, Shu still had the resilience of any other fal'Cie, whether they liked it or not. They hit the ground hard from the force and were beaten up badly, but they were still alive and conscious. They struggled to sit up, having been thrown into one of the buildings. Charon appeared, looming above them, his sword drawn.

Shu saw an anger in his eyes they'd never seen before, and one that terrified them more than anything.


Raines was fast and hit hard. Snow was the first to Provoke him and barely managed to get in an Entrench before Cid was suddenly upon him, shooting across the ground for a spin-kick. He struck Snow multiple times, even knocking him back though he kept his defensive stance, and Raines kicked upwards in a flip that might've sent Snow skyward had he not been guarding.

Hope threw on a Protect to help Snow, and as Raines finished his assault, he backed up to reveal he was hovering just above the ground, light as air and explaining his impeccable speed as he glided across the floor. Sazh and Hope were moving quickly to get their buffs on everyone, while Lightning was switching between attacking and throwing spells to build a chain gauge and Fang and Vanille were trying every debuff they knew.

Raines, enduring Lightning's hits like she didn't even exist, threw a volley of Ruins at Snow. He paused for a long moment, waiting for just the right time to fly in for another combo, this time having every hit blocked except his last one, where Snow's Entrench wore off and he was forced to strike with his built up energy. Right after the hit that Cid didn't react to, Snow was kicked up into the air from Cid's upwards kick.

"The fal'Cie have no hold over me!"

Snow came plummeting down to the ground before Raines tossed a Ruinga and slammed him back down just as he was trying to get up. Snow managed to stand, just as Raines shifted to Defensive, taking on a Guard stance and effectively leaving both him and Snow guarding. Snow saw this and changed to offensively casting spells to help Lightning with the chain, just as Sazh and Hope decided they'd gotten all the buffs everyone needed and assisted as well.

"No more words!"

He switched back to Offensive before unleashing his combo this time on Fang. Hope was quick to heal everyone up, but Raines shifted to a Recovery Shift and started casting very quick Cure spells. They continued their assault to out-damage his healing, keeping up their own health while doing all the damage to Raines that they could. They were making good progress, even before they'd fully powered up a stagger, but then Raines slumped forward, his crystal body glowing as four sets of crystal wings sprung from his back in a Metamorphose.

"My will is my own! My will is my strength!"

He suddenly shot high up into the air, throwing his wings and head back. A Seraphic Ray caused the entire area to flash white knocking all those who weren't prepared back with powerful blast and dispelling every one of the positive buffs that had been cast on the l'Cie. Then, as they were switching to a defensive mode with Medics, Sentinels, and Synergists, Raines cast Protect, Shell, Vigilance, and Haste. Raines went on a Guard, and so Vanille focused her efforts on healing while Fang went in to try and Dispel, the effect lowered because of Raines' defensive move. Hope was torn between healing and putting up Protect and Shell again at the very least for Raines' next assault, while Sazh was hurrying to put up Haste on everyone to speed up the recovery, Vigilance to help keep them from flinching, and Faith on the healers to speed up the healing process. Snow was in Mediguard and Lightning was helping out with the healing as well.

As luck would have it, it was Hope who ended up taking the next assault, who had been more focused on helping the others than helping himself. Even though he was at medium health with Protect, the Ruin attacks knocked him out. Lightning was the first to use Raise and heal him up, but Raines cast Poisonga, Deprotega, Deshellga, and Dazega, hitting all of them with varying degrees of success. Hope had gotten Daze, Deshell, and Deprotect, Vanille had gotten Poison and Deshell, Sazh had gotten Deprotect, Lightning had gotten Dazed and Poisoned, Snow had only Deshell, and Fang had gotten only Poison.

Vanille went to using Esuna on Lighting and Hope first so that they could help in the efforts to heal, but Raines cast a Ruinga to Snow who was defending and the blast hit Hope and knocked him out again. This time, Sazh revived him with a Phoenix Down, but meanwhile Cid started using Curasa and then went in for his physical combo with Snow in Mediguard. Fang went in for attacks to help keep the stagger chain they'd built alive, with Sazh trying to help by casting spells as the others worked frantically to heal the statuses and the damage done.

Then, Raines busted out another Seraphic Ray, getting rid of all the debuffs still in place and getting rid of all the positive buffs as well - including the ones left on Raines himself. Raines was quick to replace his own, however, while the others were struggling to recover again.


"Charon, if you and Cid are…defying Barthandelus, why are you…?"

"I'm stopping his plans. I'm going to make sure that everything falls apart in front of him, just like it did for me!"

"Why does that mean killing us?! Why can't you help us?!"

"Why do you think I'm able to defy him at all?! She is dead! Styx is dead! After all these years, I've hoped, and worked, and never stepped out of line, and now she's dead!"

"She's…but if she was all the leverage Barthandelus had over you then why would he-?"

"She killed herself for me! She thought that she was…holding me back, that she would be better off…! I've lost my name, my family, my home, my life, everything I love! And what makes you think I should help you?!"

He swung his sword and Shu reached for their own on their back, drawing it and blocking Charon's at an angle with their good arm.

"This all started because of you!" He pushed against Shu's sword and Shu was forced back. "If I had never seen you, if I had never met you, if I had never talked to you, if I had never kissed you, if I had never loved you, none of this ever would've happened!"

Charon forced Shu's sword upwards, sending them stumbling back and falling to the ground.

"She would still be alive!"

Charon's sword came down and Shu held their hand up to catch it, the blade cutting deep into their hand, releasing a stream of moss-green blood. It was a miracle that the blade hadn't simply cut straight through their hand and arm, but Shu's hand was shaking and they could feel the blade sinking deeper with each second.

"Mataecharonsan, STOP!"

It was a desperate and futile final plea, but to both of their surprise, Charon stopped putting pressure on his weapon. Both held still for a moment, before Shu carefully pulled their hand away, Charon not moving from his position. His face expressed both anger and confusion, but he wasn't able to move or say anything.

Shu placed their injured hand within their other, holding it tightly to stop the bleeding. "C-Charon?"

Charon looked like he was straining to speak, but he couldn't. Shu remembered that Barthandelus had spoken Charon's full name every time he gave a command, and this time, Charon only stopped when Shu used his full name to order him to literally stop.

"M-Mataecharonsan, y-you won't hurt me or the l'Cie!"

Charon still didn't move. Shu felt out of place ordering him around, but it was worth the try. If they could stop Charon from hurting all of them, then they could stop this fight peacefully.

"Um…you can move now."

Charon seemed to be giving them a ticked off face, as though prodding for them to continue.

"Oh. Mataecharonsan, you can move now. Man, your name can be a mouthful."

He suddenly sprang to life, finishing the arc of his swing and sending out a wave of energy. Shu shrieked and covered their face as they shrank up in defense. They felt their hair blow and the pressure as the attack sliced through the air beside them, but as they heard an explosion from behind them, they realized that he had missed.

They slowly opened their eyes and came out of their tight, balled up position, only to flinch back into it as Charon swung again. Shu winced each time they heard an explosion behind them and felt an energy wave slash past, barely missing them.

Finally, when it stopped, they heard Charon screaming into the loud echo chamber of the room they were in. Shu looked behind themself and saw Charon had destroyed the city behind them - well more than it had been, turning the broken buildings to nothing but rubble and leaving a long trail of destruction from his Wakizashi swings that made the area look like a meteor had come in for a landing, tearing its way through the buildings and ground.

Shu felt the ground shake and jumped, turning back around to see Charon had punched the ground, having dropped his sword to fall to his knees screaming in rage. He punched the ground as though it had done something to offend him, before looking up at Shu with an even worse rage than they had seen in him before.

Okay, so maybe releasing him was a bad idea.

But Charon still wasn't able to harm them, so that was a good sign. Charon launched himself forward with a war cry, but even though Shu flinched just in case, Charon still soared barely past them and into more of the remaining buildings that were off to the side of the initial destruction of his sword.

He continued screaming in rage as he brought down the rest of the building he'd crashed into, moving to destroy the rest of the city. Shu tried to follow his progress as the destruction continued, but it didn't last long. Eventually, Charon stopped.

Shu picked themself up, cradling their injured hand, and walked over to where they'd last seen Charon. Shu carefully walked into a half-destroyed building, thankfully abandoned and devoid of human life like the rest of the Ark. If there were any monsters in here, there weren't anymore.

They looked around, traveling through and following the path of carnage. They heard him before they saw him. He was sobbing heavily. Shu finally found him against a wall, cracked with evidence of his fist nearly breaking through, but his punches had become too weak to finish it off. Charon was slumped against the wall, his fist still held up against the cement, but his energy was gone.

"Charon…?" Shu called gently.

He looked up through his watery eyes for only a moment before letting his head fall again. He pulled his legs up and buried his face into his knees. Shu carefully sat down next to Charon and leaned against the wall. Shu finally had a moment to fully process what Charon had told them.

Styx was dead.

The only other fal'Cie that had ever accepted Shu, the only friend on Gran Pulse that hadn't been a plant. Shu remembered visiting Styx at every opportunity they could. Rei permitted Shu to go off and play with her while she tended to other grown-up things, at least that was all Shu really cared to know about what she did. She was older and always knew what she was doing, so who were they to question anything? She might've tried to explain on one occasion or another, but Shu didn't really listen.

When they knew the location of the river, Shu hurried off to the banks and called for Styx, sometimes putting their hand in the river to get her attention. She would always giggle and say that it tickled. She would always say that 'he' didn't want her around strangers, and that she didn't want Shu to meet 'him' because she knew that he might not approve. After all the other fal'Cie that they'd ever met had rejected Shu, they didn't want to risk the one that had been the acception to be taken away.

"He's back! I have to go! You should hurry away!"

Shu had, at first, found the prospect of getting caught terrifying, but eventually, it had become thrilling, the game of cat and mouse - although not quite, since the cat was the one getting chased by something else - trying to hide and scanning for places to hide in an emergency. They imagined a big, bad villain that Shu would outsmart and elude.

Shu remembered talking until their throat became dry, laughing with Styx as they talked about everything they thought was weird about nature, getting pulled into Styx's river and trying to keep up with her even though they were in her domain and were bound to lose any challenge.

"What would happen if he caught me?" Shu asked one time.

"He'd probably be mad that I kept you a secret from him," Styx admitted. "He might be so mad he'd make you go away and never come back."

"Is he really mean?"

"No. He just cares too much."

"What is he?"

"Hm?"

"Is he a father? A brother? A friend?"

"I don't know. I've never really known if there was a word for it."

Shu had asked again the next time they saw each other.

"He says to call him a brother."

"And do you think he is one?"

"I don't know. What is a brother?"

"It's a boy who you love, but not romantically. It's a stronger love than friendship because you know that no matter what happens, how angry you get at each other, how much you disagree, you can't break that bond between you. That's family."

She hummed in thought, smiling as she laid on the surface of her river like it was as solid as the ground. "Yes. He'd definitely be my brother."

Now, Shu realized, that Charon was that brother that Shu had once been so afraid of. He was just a guy who wanted her protected. Shu could imagine a younger Charon, seeing the little sister they'd done everything to protect captured by the big bad king of Pulse. Shu could see Charon accepting whatever deal Barthandelus had made in an instant, unhappy about it, but desperate to help her. He would've thought he'd only have to do a few bad things for Barthandelus to get her back - maybe things he really hated, but it would be worth it in the end. Yet a few days stretched into weeks, weeks stretched into months, months stretched into years, years would stretch into decades, centuries, and Charon would've slowly realized the mistake he had made - but what other path was there? To abandon the one person that he'd promised to protect and help?

Charon had nothing else. If he gave up, he might as well have killed her himself. And if he was free, what would he do? Would he be able to do anything without remembering how he gave up, how he killed the one person he wanted to save because he wasn't strong enough? What else did he want to do, what life would he want to live without her, with that guilt on his shoulders? He'd rather try then give up, and he got caught in an endless loop mired in endless atrophy.

Shu could imagine it, because all they had to do was imagine what Rei would do if it were Shu who was captured, held hostage while both were still just children trying to get by in the world. Shu hadn't realized it at the time, but Rei had looked after them so much, handling where they lived, where they would go during storms for shelter, where they got food, making sure Shu didn't wander into anything too dangerous and saving them if they did. Shu remembered the nights they went out together and played in the fields, pretending they were on adventures until Shu tired themself out and Rei gave them a choco-back ride back to wherever they were staying while Shu drowsily fell asleep to the rhythm of her walking.

They wanted those days back, being a little innocent child on the plains of Pulse. Being a little human or a lion cub, it didn't matter. Things could be hard at times, but they had their sister to look after them, and that was all they needed. They'd met Styx, earned their first friend, but then Shu and Rei no longer came across her migrating river. Shu always looked, every day, for any sign of their one and only friend. But as they put their hand into every river they came across, the little serpent fal'Cie of the river never showed up again. Shu had cried by a river bank for a day, finding a single Hyacinthus at a river, but Styx still never showed up.

When they'd seen her on the Palamecia, they hadn't recognized her at first. She had lost that sparkle in her eyes, grown up into a broken and dried up body. Shu wondered if she'd transformed since she was captured. Fal'Cie could stay in other forms for as long as they wanted, but it was always uncomfortable if they didn't transform for a long period of time - like wearing the same outfit for even just more than a day without changing.

Shu couldn't imagine what it was like to be Charon, but Shu knew that they had lost their one and only friend just after they'd found her again. Shu had been so sad when they thought Styx had left without saying goodbye, but now they knew that she was…dead? It was different then just believing she had left, it seemed so much more permanent, so much heavier.

Shu closed their eyes and leaned their head on Charon's shoulder, and though they felt him flinch at the sudden contact, he let Shu rest there beside him.


Snow was managing to block Raines' attacks, but was thrown when Raines unleashed another Seraphic Ray. Vanille and Fang Dispelled the positive buffs he put on as quickly as they could while Hope healed up all of the damage. Vanille and Fang started continuing their debuffing with Slow and Curse from Fang and Deprotect, Deshell, Poison, and Imperil from Vanille. Sazh gave the bare minimum of his buffs with Haste for everyone and Bravery for the attackers and Faith for the magic users, and Hope gave Protect and Shell before they went offensive.

Raines used Esuna on one of the debuffs he had - Curse being the latest one and the one removed - but continued his assault after that, going after Hope and unleashing his combo before launching him into the air. He flew up and slashed at Hope with his wings, sending him higher, before circling around and slicing at Hope before kicking him down to the ground. It was only thanks to his Protect status that he managed to stay conscious. Fang used Challenge to get the attention to her and defended with Steelguard as Vanille and Lightning healed him up again and they went back to attacking and casting to build a chain gauge.

As Raines went into a guard, they pushed him as far as they could, and the moment he came out, they activated the stagger. Snow launched him up into the air, and after that Raines didn't stand a chance.

They all backed up as Cid came falling back to the ground. He stumbled to his feet, but as he tried to stagger forward, he ended up falling to his knees, grunting in pain and panting as he leaned on his arms, his eight wings beating to the rhythm of his breathing.

Lightning sighed and sheathed her gunblade. "Raines…"

"Ironic, isn't it?" He asked, looking up with his glossy white eyes. "The only thing I wanted was a moment of triumph. How it ends…isn't important. Just do what you know is right. Trust yourselves."

Crystal fragments began to float up around him, and as Raines stretched out his crystalized hand, his entire body flashed with a blue aura, exploding in a loud crash like breaking glass with a blinding light that everyone blocked their eyes from. When the light faded, they all looked in shock to see that Raines had turned into a crystal, still in his kneeling position with his hand stretched out, a bed of crystal spikes now around his legs and his entire body glowing in the light blue that Serah had. Unlike her, though, his eyes stared open at them, frozen as if still trying to get his desperate message across.

"What? Did he complete his Focus?" Sazh asked.

"No."

They looked over to see Charon and Shu hopping up to the platform from the destroyed city below. The l'Cie all took defensive stances, but Shu held their hands out quickly. "No! He won't hurt you! I've…I've got him under control."

"Cid's Focus was to lead you on your way to the destruction of Cocoon," Charon said. "Focuses can sometimes be vague, can sometimes be won through technicalities, but Cid acted completely against his given orders. Barthandelus can't set some kind of automatic setting so that Raines went Cie'th the moment he even thought about going against his Focus - if he wants to turn a l'Cie Cie'th, he has to do it manually. But fal'Cie aren't known for granting crystal stasis. If it's even possible, Barthandelus wouldn't be the one granting it, let alone to Cid of all people."

"So then…what happened?" Hope asked.

Snow stepped forward, looking at the crystal. "All Raines did…was try to save Cocoon in his own way." Snow looked down in thought, before his hand formed a fist in front of him. "His own way!"

Snow suddenly turned and pushed past them all to go into the tunnels that continued forward.

"H-Hey!" Sazh called.

"Where are you-?" Lightning began.

"Snow!" Vanille called.

Their attention was diverted as Raines' crystal suddenly started glowing again, a column of light raising up and crystal shards floating out from him. His crystal flashed white, before it began to fade and dissolve into the light, starting from the tops of his wings and slowly dispersing the rest of his body into the pillar of blue flying up and above. Eventually, even the light faded, and Cid Raines was no more.

I think Raines was searching - searching for a way to make us understand. To understand the frustration of being a l'Cie - a l'Cie bound to a Focus. And maybe…what it meant to be human.