Chapter Two – The Long Haul

"I'm gettin' too damn old for this," he grumbled as he climbed clumsily down the wrecked train car after the stoic former soldier. Almost as soon as he landed loudly onto the trussway, she tensed and ran forward at the soldiers in front of them.

"Fixin' to ditch me already, are you? Are you sure we can get through here?"

She said nothing in reply, letting him fill the air with chatter as she drew her gunblade once again and focused on the path in front her, blocked by soldiers. The Wardens started to fire at the pink-haired warrior-woman coming their way but before they could get a clear shot she was in the air, flipping over and behind them, and sliced their backs without even breaking a sweat. Sazh watched on in amazement and slight disgust as they crumpled.

He walked forward so he was standing in front of the summoning portal nearby. "What do you suppose this is? Is the army leaving its toys out now?"

As usual, she did not reply.

This happened another time, the next couple of soldiers up: she surprised them and ended their lives in the same ten seconds. Sazh was astonished, but he really shouldn't have been. After all, she was a soldier. But what he didn't get was why she was attacking her own.

And so it continued for a long while: they cut through every soldier standing in their way if they could not avoid them. "Great. The entire army came out to play!" Sazh grumbled. He really didn't want to fight, but as the PSICOM bastards were firing and attacking him as well as her, he had no choice. It was kill or be killed here.

Just think of it as a stepping stone, he thought just before a PSICOM bird flew in low, firing shots in their direction. That seemed to be a breaking point for Lightning's older companion.

"I do not like low-flying things tryin' to kill me!"

Lightning rolled her eyes at that particularly blunt statement. She couldn't believe he'd stayed so long with her. What was he after? The same thing she was? She pushed that back. She'd think about that when it was absolutely necessary. For now, she had to focus on what was important.

"These guys don't seem interested in our side of the story, do they?" Why does he bother opening his mouth when he knows I won't respond?

A few minutes later she stopped behind a piece of wreckage long left behind when Cocoon's shell was cracked. She looked around it to see yet another Warden and a Pantheron patrolling in circles.

As Sazh caught up, he said, "Not wanting to get Purged, I get. But taking on trained soldiers?"

"Better to die than get sent to Pulse." Lightning replied, surprising Sazh that she actually spoke after so long. "It's hell without the brimstone."

"Yeah, well, hell's not sounding too bad, 'cause this place ain't exactly paradise," Sazh pointed out, looking around and rubbing the back of his head.

Lightning again suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "Domesticated peacekeepers. Nothing to worry about."

"Maybe not for Soldier Girl, but I'm just tryin' to say – hey!" He sighed as she ran off again, this time straight for the 'domesticated peacekeepers'. "Guess we, uh, have to fight again, huh?"

Lightning merely nodded in response as she flipped her gunblade into sword mode and started attacking again.

After they were all good and dead, she pushed past Sazh to take point. "No need to be pushin', now!" Sazh exclaimed, slightly annoyed at her apparent lack of manners.

The next set of enemies, several Pantherons and a Warden, still had no idea of their presence. Lightning ducked behind yet another piece of wreckage, waiting for her companion to catch up to her. As he did, she breathed, "Pre-emptive strike" – his only source of warning – before darting forward. Unluckily for them, the Warden caught sight and yelled, "Rebels!" in an effort to warn the Pantherons of their presence.

"So much for the element of surprise!" Sazh yelled, pulling out his Vega 42's for the umpteenth time that night.

When they were dealt with, the faint whir of air-suit engines, still able to be heard above the near-constant explosions and gunfire, alerted Lightning to the next wave of enemies, some of which were in the air this time. That didn't stop her from endeavouring to take them down, but not without severe consequences.

She flipped her Sabre into gun mode and quickly shoved it into its holster before kneeling down, agony radiating from her left set of ribs. The aerial soldier had managed to fire off a missile burst before dying, the bastard, and when she pulled her hand away, her own blood stained her fingertips. Breathing through her mouth, she fumbled for the red pack strapped to her left thigh, managing to get it open but failing to find the potions necessary to heal her. She, despite her severe training, felt panic nibble at her heart, and called out to the only ally who was there to hear.

"Sazh!"

He looked back, and paled at the sight of her. He immediately ran over and knelt down beside her, pulling out his stash of potions and managing to pour an entire flask down her throat. Already she could feel her skin and several broken ribs healing, knitting together underneath her fingertips with a slight tickling sensation that she would never find the words to describe later. She, with Sazh's help, stood, and with the help of a newly-broken water-pipe several feet away, cleaned her hand and as much of her clothing as she could of all traces of blood.

"Thank you, Sazh," she said stiffly, then walked forward purposefully as he trailed behind, lost in thought.

What is her angle? Sazh thought. She just…throws herself into battle, with no care for her wellbeing. He shook his head. She must surely have a reason. He ran forward to catch up to her.

And a huge explosion rocked the trussway they were currently running on.

Sazh involuntarily ducked, shielding his eyes as the light blinded him. He straightened up, then stared in disbelief and shock, his mouth agape. Lightning merely looked on, long-since used to death and destruction occurring around her.

The path in front of them blew apart with the force of the explosion and took the long fall into Lake Bresha, taking several lives with it. Lightning walked forward quietly to the slightly slanted bit of trussway still stubbornly hanging on, just strong enough to hold both their weight.

"What do we do? Do we turn back?" Sazh asked, slightly confused as to what Lightning was doing.

"There's no time," she replied, her tone worryingly blank.

"Then what do you suppose we do?"

"Quiet!" She looked at the situation, seemingly deep in thought, and then she clicked her fingers, activating her Grav-con unit once more. As it lifted her off the ground, Sazh began to panic, and before she could get too far, she felt a pair of arms clutching her, stopping her from rising any further.

"Hey! Hey, no, no, don't leave me!"

"Let go!" Lightning yelled, turning in his arms so she was facing him as even more colourful words floated through her mind and the blue-violet glow around her began to sputter and fade.

"Hell no, you're my only way outta here!"

"I said," Lightning growled, hitting him in the shoulder, then giving him a roundhouse kick, sending him sprawling to the ground. "Let go!"

But by then the damage was done. She clicked her fingers once, twice, but nothing emitted from the unit apart from static sounds and blue sparks. She gritted her teeth and folded her hands into fists. Great. A cooldown.

Sazh lay on the ground, slightly dazed. He groaned and tried to get up, but barely made it to his hands and knees. He looked up and saw a bridge hovering to the left, just a few hundred feet away.

"Hey, that might get us across!" he croaked, but Lightning could still hear, and looked to where he pointed. "Right there!"

Lightning bit back a scathing remark and said instead, "Looks that way."

"Just leave everything to me," Sazh groaned as he finally managed to get up, then, clutching his shoulder, ran up the stairs to the terminal. Lightning couldn't resist an eye roll as she followed.

"Seems to be in working order," he murmured as he hit some buttons on the control screen and activated the platform which in a few short minutes took them to the bridge in question. They jumped off and onto the piece of trussway, Lightning eyeing the Marauder a distance away with two Enforcers accompanying him.

"This is not our lucky day," Sazh groaned as he, too, spotted them. "Hey, he's a soldier too, right? Can't you like, pull some strings or something?"

Former soldier, she frustratedly thought, I'm a former soldier.

The Elite turned and spotted them.

"Deportees, are we?" the Elite asked tauntingly. "Weapons down," he commanded even as he lifted his own. "I'd hate for this to turn ugly."

"Uh…'turn ugly'?" Sazh asked, confused.

"He wants to kill us without a fight," Lightning stated grimly, acting as a translator.

"Time's up!" the Marauder yelled as he lifted himself off of the ground – Grav-con unit? – and sped toward them. Lightning shifted her Sabre to blade mode and easily parried his attack while Sazh made short work of the Enforcers running to catch up.

The Marauder was difficult. While it was easy for Lightning to parry his attacks, he managed to keep her entirely on the defensive. In the end, the two allies were only able to end his life with a bullet from one of Sazh's guns to the back of the head.

After a moment of silence, Lightning stepped over his body and made for the terminal not far from where the three soldiers were standing before the fight. Neither of them said a word for a while as Lightning worked to activate the switch that would make their hovering bridge travel to where they needed to go.

"So, Soldier…what's your angle?" asked Sazh, his curiosity finally overwhelming him.

Silence was his answer.

"What, is it classified military info? You quit, didn't you? You think I'm just gonna go out there and tell everybody your secret –?"

"The Pulse fal'Cie."

"What?" He was once again surprised she answered.

She turned to face him, her expression cool and composed. "My 'angle'. I'm after the fal'Cie." She placed a hand on her hip as she walked calmly over to face the massacre-in-progress. "Still happy you tagged along?"

Sazh became sombre for a little bit, and then murmured his answer, all the while thinking of the reason he had 'tagged along' in the first place.

"Didn't have a choice."