Chapter Four – The Vestige
"So, how do you figure that Pulse fal'Cie is different from the Sanctum's?"
Lightning crouched at the edge of the skybridge, estimating the distance between them and the trussway below. She then looked forward, where slowly, very slowly, a desolate building stood before them, inching closer. She frowned; how could her companion not see the imminent danger creeping closer? As she looked up towards him, she realised why: Sazh was looking down into his open hands, where his chocobo chick rested, chirping happily.
"All things being equal, I'd just as soon keep wondering," Sazh continued thoughtfully, partly talking to Lightning and partly to the chick in his hands.
Lightning edged backwards towards him. When she was level with him, she breathed, "Time to jump," and ran for the edge.
"Yeah," Sazh responded absently. He looked up just in time to see her take her final running steps toward the edge. "Hey, hey, hey! Hang on!" Sazh shouted, running forward with his hand stretched forward in the hopes of stopping her but before he could, it was too late and she had already jumped. "What the –? Hey!"
Ignoring his cries, she angled her body so that her nose tipped towards the rapidly-approaching ground below. Seconds before she would have crashed into the trussway, she clicked her fingers, activating her Grav-con unit. At the same time she flipped her body over and landed in a crouch, with an electric blue aura surrounding her in a dome shape. As Sazh watched, transfixed and wide-eyed, she righted herself, brushed herself off, then looked up at him with an expression that said, Are you coming or not?
Sazh looked at her, then the chocobo chick, his mind made up. "If she can do it, so can we," he said, coaxing the chocobo chick back into his hair with his hands. He then manoeuvred himself onto the very edge, then clambered down until he was only hanging onto it. As soon as he forced himself to relax, he was falling – not very gracefully – towards the electric aura that still remained after Soldier Girl's landing.
Lightning's lips twitched slightly. She could hear his screams from where she was. It would've been hard not to, to be honest, with the way he was carrying on.
Meanwhile, the ground was coming up a little too fast for Sazh's liking. He thought for sure that he would be flattened by the impact and left on the trussway, so he was very, very surprised when he suddenly stopped as he came into contact with the Grav-con aura. As soon as she heard Sazh's screams subside into "Whoa, whoa...", she set off, knowing that if Sazh was really so hell-bent on sticking to her like a parasite, he would follow.
With a groan, Sazh picked himself up and, just as Lightning predicted, trailed after her as if he was a moth and she was a particularly bright light, guiding him away from the dark.
While Lightning and Sazh were heading for the Vestige, Snow had found Gadot not too far away from where he initially had fallen. He now had the red-headed man propped up on a bit of fallen debris and was now thinking of ways to awaken him. He tapped his face lightly, with nary a flutter of his eyelids in response. "Come on," Snow murmured, tapping his face again. Still nothing. "Come on!" Finally, after Snow had slapped Gadot's cheeks with more force, he opened his eyes. Gadot looked around at the bodies strewn everywhere: under and over rubble, on top of each other. Clutching his shoulder and, surprisingly alert for someone who had fallen a distance such as he had, he immediately sat up and asked, point-blank, "What about the others?"
Snow merely shook his head in response, the events leading up to the military strike and after still running through his mind like a movie roll: seeing the silver-haired woman standing up to volunteer, leading her to the battle front, letting her take his arm and help him up after she shot at the sky-tank, her unconscious form dangling from his hand and then slipping through his fingers...
He looked down at his hand. It looked normal, but to him it looked like the hand that let so many people die, including that one silver-haired woman.
"They didn't die!" Snow was wrenched from his memories into the real world by Gadot. "They couldn't have died!"
"Of course not," Snow muttered, becoming distracted once again. And this time, from his place on the ground, Gadot noticed.
"Hey, get a grip, man! What's wrong with you?" Gadot then stood up and popped his left shoulder back into place; which had, evidently, been dislocated at some time during either the fall or the landing.
Unfortunately, Snow wasn't listening. He was thinking about the words of a mother desperate to protect her child. "'Get him home.' Get who home?" Snow asked himself.
An explosion sounded in the distance, forcing Snow to abandon his former train of thought and look back. At first glance it looked like a fireball had latched itself onto a long-since-abandoned building, but upon second glance was actually a skybridge crashing into said building.
"Hey, toss me that," Gadot said, making Snow turn back and face him. He was pointing at the abandoned gun on the ground, no doubt dropped by someone whilst falling. Snow picked it up and tossed it to him.
"Catch."
As Gadot caught the gun, Snow just thought he would lazily drape it over his shoulder like he usually did. That said, he didn't expect him to point it right at his forehead. From a distance that small, there wasn't a doubt that Gadot wouldn't be able to hit him with one bullet.
"What're you doing?" Snow asked, angry surprise both on his face and in his tone.
"So what are you afraid of? You're supposed to be the hero," Gadot replied. He then laughed slightly and rested the gun lazily on his shoulder. "She's waiting there, ain't she? Your lovely bride-to-be?" He gestured in the direction of the Vestige, glowing green and blue in the darkness and surrounded by shadows. "Ain't it about time you picked her up?"
Snow's eyes narrowed at the thought of his beloved, still trapped inside the Vestige. That image alone was more than enough to snap him out of his funk. There would be plenty of time to think about the woman and her words later. Right now, there was another woman who needed saving.
As three airbikes zoomed in to land a little ways away from them, and Gadot and Snow ducked down behind a large bit of rubble, there was no more doubt in Snow's mind. He would not let his beloved down.
"And there's our ride," he stated proudly, hands on his hips as he stood. Gadot righted himself and laughed.
"Now you're talking," Gadot replied, grinning as he nodded.
Snow took the lead as they traversed through the mountains of rubble and the piles of bodies. Snow shook his head. "How could they?"
"Huh?" Gadot asked from behind.
"Nothing."
I hope everyone's alright, Snow thought to himself. Up ahead were two pantherons, pacing back and forth and growling as they passed each other.
"Standing there ain't gonna stop us!" Gadot growled, and charged in, his gun at the ready.
"Gadot! Don't go rushing in on your own!" Snow immediately ran after him, right into one of the pantherons' vision. It growled, coiling its body to lunge at him, but Snow threw a hand grenade at it before it had the chance. It exploded from underneath it, causing it to be launched around five feet into the air. It fell back down heavily and its limbs flopped lifelessly on the ground. It was dead.
Snow looked to the side, where Gadot stood over his own pantheron, which was obviously as dead as its companion.
Up ahead were piles of orange-red boxes, and walkways between them. Both men eased through, careful to keep as quiet as possible. As they came closer, a small whirring noise alerted Snow to something a little to his right. When he looked, he saw it was a smallish silver sphere, floating above the ground and slowly turning, like a little planet. When Snow came close to it, it whirred faster and a small opening appeared, just big enough for his hand to get through. Snow gently put his hand inside, and came across something vaguely bottle-shaped. When he pulled it out, he saw it was a potion. When he had put it safely into his pocket, he looked back at the sphere. It was no longer whirring and instead sat dormant a hair's-breadth off the ground, not moving apart from slight, slow bobs that, if you weren't looking directly at it, you would've missed. Snow then ran left to catch up with Gadot, who was crouching behind a particularly large, rust-covered box. From here, they could hear the soldiers strutting around, talking to each other, and the click of machine-guns.
"There they are," Gadot breathed. Snow looked out from behind the box to see several Wardens and two Enforcers guarding the airbikes, looking out for any sign of movement.
"I want every weapon ready to fire," one Enforcer instructed.
"Yes sir!" one of the Wardens, possibly a trainee, replied brightly, readying his gun.
"Stay sharp!" the other Enforcer snapped.
"Alright, on my go," Snow whispered, holding up three fingers as he spoke.
"Right," Gadot replied softly, tensing.
Snow put down one finger, then the second, then the last. "Go!"
Gadot let out a loud battle cry, leaping out and gunning half the soldiers down. The other half yelled out things like, "Deportees!" and, "Let's get 'em!" Of course, since they were dealing with ape-sized men with huge muscles and quick reflexes, they didn't really stand much chance. Especially when one of them was equally vicious with his gun, his fists and his hand-grenades. "That's what I'm talking about!" Snow yelled in triumph when the last soldier was blown sky-high, miraculously leaving all three airbikes unharmed. As soon as they had checked to make sure everyone was dead, or at least had a good whack to the head, they headed toward the bikes and started them up.
"Oh man, that's a sad sound," Gadot lamented, shaking his head at the smooth, silent whir of the airbikes' engines. "Where's the soul?"
Snow wasn't listening. He was staring up at the Vestige, as if entranced. In truth, he was lost in thought. He was caught in between wondering over the silver-haired woman's last words and worrying about his beloved. Don't worry, baby. Your hero's on his way.
"Hey Gadot?"
Gadot looked up from his airbike's controls. "Yeah?" he asked, looking over to Snow, who had a peculiar gleam in his eye.
"If you don't know who to save, you just...protect them all, right?"
Gadot thought about this for a second, then frowned slightly. "Something on your mind?" Getting no response from Snow, who was again lost in thought, he continued, "You know, you got plenty of time for thinkin' on the way...Hero."
Snow nodded once. "Yeah."
Gadot nodded in response. "Start your engines!"
Both engines revved silently in response.
"Ready...go!"
As they raced through the skies, on the way to check on the rest of NORA, Snow explained that he was 'worried about the kids'. That was certainly part of the problem, but Snow didn't really feel up to divulging the whole accident with the silver-haired woman, nor did he want to relate to him her last words. They circled his head, over and over, battering his skull with their urgency, wanting attention. They were like weeds, planted in his brain. They were all he could think about. Then he would think about his fiancée, and his thoughts would swerve onto that particular road. This continued until they reached the skybridge that the deportees and NORA were on.
When they heard the soft whir of the airbike engines, Lebreau, Maqui and Yuj immediately pointed their guns at the intruders – and almost shot their leader.
"Hey, it's us, it's us! Don't shoot!" Snow yelled as they landed the airbikes next to one already there, probably left by a now-dead soldier. Lebreau and the others laughed, lowering their guns almost sheepishly.
"Snow!" Maqui called as he raced over to the bulky NORA leader and Gadot.
"Since when do you care about kids?" Gadot asked; resuming the conversation they'd had on the way over.
Snow looked down at the hand that had let the silver-haired woman – and so many other lives – slip through his fingers. "Favour for a friend," he murmured as Maqui made it over to them.
"Okay," Gadot mumbled, but was interrupted in saying more by the small blonde engineer.
"Hey Snow! You made it!" Maqui exclaimed, just short of hugging his idol.
"Yo," Gadot greeted as the rest of the NORA gang's founding members joined them.
"Whew," Yuj breathed, while Lebreau stuck with a simple "Hey."
"So, you really managed to use that thing?" Gadot asked, laughing slightly and gesturing to the gun in Maqui's hand. He flushed, remembering that he had almost used it to kill them.
"Nah, I think I'm done," he replied.
"You're done when we are!" Yuj interrupted, hitting Maqui on the back of the head with the back of his hand.
"Ow!" Maqui groaned.
From a ways away, the silver-haired boy and his red-headed companion were watching the NORA crew's exchange.
"That's the one," the boy murmured, his sights set on Snow, who seemed to be having a good time with his friends, seemingly not caring about the fact that his mother died because of him. The boy's anger grew.
"Didn't you have something to tell him?" the red-head asked.
"Yeah," the boy replied.
"All right then!" The red-head raised her fist almost to her chin.
"But...I..." The boy seemed to be lost for words.
"I'll go with you," the red-head soothed.
"What?" The boy's attention was once again focused on the motley crew in front of them.
"You have no idea what it was like!" Maqui complained. He would have said more, had Snow not asked, "Everyone safe?"
Yuj and Maqui looked at each other and grinned. "The army's no match for NORA!" they proclaimed as they posed with their backs to each other, gun out.
"I meant the kids?" Snow clarified, his tone making it a question. Lebreau smacked both boys on the head. "Grow up!" she commanded.
Yuj, rubbing the back of his head, answered, "All accounted for!"
"Okay." Snow looked down at his hand again, flexing it. "Let's keep it that way, alright?"
Meanwhile the two were having a 'discussion' as to whether they should confront the blonde brute or not. Finally the red-headed girl lost patience.
"Go on!" she urged, pushing the boy forward. When the boy didn't move another step, she moved forward and yelled out, "Hey!"
At that moment the airbike Snow was on started up again, causing the two kids to block their ears – the bike's idle was louder than when it actually got moving.
"I'll swing by the Vestige. Keep the kids out of trouble?" Snow asked Gadot.
"You got it. Say hi to the missus for me," Gadot replied, then laughed heartily. "You go skirt-chasing; I take care of the kids! Some husband!"
"Dinner's on me!" Snow laughed back.
"Better be home cooking!"
"When's the wedding, lover boy?" Yuj teased.
"Well don't worry, none of you," Snow gestured to the gang, "are invited." The airbike started to hover just as the NORA crew were protesting about Snow's last remark.
"We're still going!" Yuj yelled.
"Are you serious?" Maqui asked.
"What about me?" Lebreau inquired, ticked.
"Ha! Catch ya later!" Snow yelled back as he hovered higher then zoomed off in the direction of the Vestige.
"Wait! Come back!" the red-head yelled, running to the edge of the skybridge. At that same moment, the brunette that had run after them cleared her throat from behind the silver-haired boy, making him jump and spin in surprise.
The girl was quite beautiful. Glossy golden-brown hair waved perfectly down her back and well past her backside in a plait. Her eyes were the perfect mix of brown, green and blue. She was dressed quite simply – black leather jacket over long-sleeved cotton shirt over singlet, with grey jeans and black combat boots. She seemed unperturbed by all the fighting around her. The boy was taken aback by her sudden appearance.
"From the way you were eye-ballin' that blondie that just rode off into the sunset, you don't like him much, do ya?" Her accent was decidedly unusual. It was much stronger than that of the red-head's, yet they were similar. The boy just stared, until the girl chuckled. "Oh, silly of me. Didn't introduce myself, did I? Name's Keller. Nice to meet ya."
The boy hardly managed to stammer out, "H-Hope Estheim," before running after the red-headed girl, who was now examining the airbikes left behind. She turned to find her silver-haired companion running to catch up to her – followed by the brunette Hope had talked to earlier.
"Say...can any of you fly this?" the red-head asked them.
Hope had experience with them – tenth birthday, he was given a mini-airbike, which were all the rage with young people. Long story short, he crashed into around three different things on the one go and vowed never to get on one again. But then, he was actually developing interest in them again, despite his promise. He still knew all the controls.
"A bit," Hope mumbled, while Keller replied, "Sure."
The red-head clapped her hands in glee. "Alright then! In you go!" she chirped, then pushed Hope into the driver's seat. Keller grinned at the sight.
"Hey, girl with the red hair. What's your name?" Keller asked, still grinning.
"Vanille," the girl supplied happily. "And yours?"
"Keller," the brunette replied.
Vanille climbed into the airbike behind Hope, who became a little uncomfortable. "That way!" she said, pointing in the direction of the Vestige. Keller looked at the other airbike, which was still in top condition. She righted it and turned on the engine, then climbed in and readied the bike to hover.
Hope shook his head and looked down at Vanille's words. "No, no...If we go in there, that thing could – it could make us l'Cie. This is – I don't think I can –"
"You can do it!" Vanille interrupted, placing both hands on the steering grips beside Hope's.
"What are you three doing?" a loud voice boomed. Vanille, Hope and Keller looked up to see Gadot, the hot-headed NORA member, running towards them.
"Uh-oh. Oi, we going or not?" Keller yelled over the engines to Hope.
"Here we go!" Hope started the engine, then managed to hover it before Gadot started running full-tilt towards them. Hope panicked and lost control of the bike. It plummeted off the skybridge.
"Uh-oh," Gadot murmured to himself as he reached the edge of the skybridge, only to rear back in shock as Hope took back control of the airbike and it zoomed past Gadot and up.
"Get back here! Do you hear me? Hey!" Gadot roared.
Keller laughed at the sight before her. She piloted the airbike expertly as she shot past Gadot, making him gasp and jump, and reached Hope's side.
Keller laughed again. "Not bad for a beginner!"
And ignoring Gadot's continued shouts of "Get back here!" they headed off in the direction of the Vestige, not one of them knowing what would happen when they reached it.
…
"Come on, you two!" Keller shouted from inside the Vestige, as Vanille and Hope hovered a ways above her head. In seconds they were down – though not like they expected to. Keller shielded her eyes as Vanille and Hope crashed into the ground, sprawling several feet from where the bike landed.
"Wow, that was...close..." Vanille murmured as she tried to get up. There was a weight on her back; when she peered around to have a look, she was met with silver hair and half-lidded green eyes. As Hope got off her, she helped herself up and all three of them looked around.
"Now, where is the..." Vanille muttered, looking around to see the crashed bike several feet from her. "Oops. Well then..." She kept looking around, seemingly searching for someone, but finding the place empty except for them. "Guess it's...just us." Vanille put her index fingers together and crossed her pinkies in a diamond symbol.
"What did you expect?" Hope asked unkindly from his place on the floor, still kneeling in the place that he landed. "Even soldiers know not to go near the fal'Cie. You become a Pulse l'Cie, and you're finished."
"What do you mean, 'finished'?" both girls said together.
"Haven't you heard, Miss...?"
"Vanille," she interrupted. When Hope looked at her weirdly, she offered a hand to him and continued, "My name. And yours?"
"Hope." He took her hand and Vanille helped him up, brushing him down when he was standing up.
"Thank you," Hope mumbled. "What were we thinking?"
"I don't know about you two, but I wasn't," Keller remarked. "I just came along for the ride."
Vanille put a finger to her chin in thought. "Well, since we're here...let's look around!"
Hope's expression said he'd rather not, but he followed her anyway. Once they'd had a good look around, they moved up some stairs to three wide pillars. They were circular, with flat tops. If Hope tried, he'd be able to climb up and stand on them.
"Oh, check this out!" And like that, Vanille and Keller were away, checking out the two pillars at the end.
"Hey – Vanille, Keller, where are you..."
Vanille was the first to clamber down, with a weird tree-shaped thing in her hands. She wielded it like it was a weapon.
"Well?" she asked, clearly demanding his opinion. At the same time Keller dropped down next to Vanille, wielding two long, sharp swords. She posed with the weapons in her hands, obviously expecting the same thing as Vanille – his opinion.
"That's, uh..." He didn't get to finish his sentence, nor Vanille her twirling, before a pantheron jumped into their midst. Vanille and Keller immediately took up arms beside the confused teen, and Hope reluctantly pulled out his Airwing. After a little bit, Keller jumped forward and sliced through the pantheron, two more taking its place as the first turned to black ashes on the ground. Hope followed her example, throwing his boomerang forward while Vanille kept her distance, using her weapon's long-distance binds to slash through the air and pin one of them in place. Keller was finishing it off when the second pantheron decided that Keller was the perfect target, taking a swipe at her. She just smirked and swiped back with her two swords, severing it into quarters before it, too, turned to dust.
"W-what was...the dust..." Hope stammered.
Keller just sheathed her two swords again as she replied, "Magic. It messes with the way things are supposed to die. Instead of leaving an empty shell behind, the soul takes the shell with it, eventually leaving for the Shadowland, the Void Beyond, whatever it is they call it." She shrugged. "Some say it's the Goddess's Chaos that takes it away into Valhalla, but I don't think that's true. Just a lot of mumbo-jumbo." She grinned and leaned against one of the pillars.
"Okay then," Vanille muttered to herself as she quickly folded up her weapon and placed it in its spot on her fur-skirt. "Back to exploring."
"Better stay close," Hope replied, only to hear Keller snicker in response.
"You may have to, but I, for one, have no problems about lookin' ahead," she stated. "I'll go scope out the rest of the area. You two just sit pretty." And with that, she walked downstairs and to the left.
"Whoa," she breathed, looking around. There were three little red bots walking around on thin, tiny stump-like legs. Instead of eyes, there was just a line of neon-blue light across the face, and a neon-blue square outline surrounding them.
"Zwerg droids. Should be fun," Keller breathed, running forward towards one with its back turned. One quick swipe of a sword turned it to black ashes on the ground before they were swept up by a draft. She leaned forward, tensing, waiting for the other droids to turn their backs before swiping at them too. Two more puffs of dust permeated the air. She turned to find a pantheron blocking her way, it growled and tensed to strike. It sprang forward, claws out, ready to kill, but Keller merely ducked, then caught its belly with her swords and swiping it deeply, turning it to dust as well. Keller sheathed her swords again and dusted herself off. It was then that she discovered two things – a floating silver sphere and an abandoned airbike. She went for the sphere first, which spun fast to open a hole big enough for her hand to enter. She grabbed what was inside and pulled it out, examining it in the somewhat-dim light. It was an armband, light brown in colour, with a healing rune inscribed on the inside. When she turned back towards the sphere, she saw it had deactivated, now bobbing slightly a hairs-breadth from the patterned marble floor.
"Sweet," she breathed, putting it into a small black bag situated on her upper arm. She then turned towards the abandoned airbike. It wasn't hard to see whom it belonged to – that blondie Hope was eyeing angrily earlier. She took a deep breath and called, "Hey, you two! Found something you might be interested in!"
She could hear footsteps behind her and turned to find Hope running towards her, with Vanille bringing up the rear. "What? What'd you find?" Hope asked, and then looked behind Keller to see the abandoned airbike. "Is that –? Hmmm..." Hope ran forward past Keller to the airbike. "That's his! Where is he?" Hope mumbled to himself. Keller knew who he was referring to. The blondie.
"Hey! There's an opening through here!" Vanille called from the other side of the area. Keller dragged Hope away from the airbike and to where Vanille was. There obviously used to be an opening there, and at first glance it seemed blocked from the debris. But to Keller, it was a challenge. And Keller loved challenges.
"Alright, let's go!" Keller crowed, jumping onto a piece of debris, which was stable enough to hold her weight. She then jumped onto another piece. She somersaulted the final jump, and she was across.
"Come on, slowpokes!" Keller called from the other side.
Vanille and Hope looked at each other, then followed Keller's example. Once they were over, they turned to find their path blocked by more pantherons – two of them. Keller grinned, ran forward and sliced a head off of one of them, which had lunged at just the wrong moment. The other one growled at Keller, raising its mechanical hackles, and swiped at her, only to have its claws and paw cut off. It whined, then came forward again, only to find itself cut in half, then turned to dust.
Please don't go looking for trouble, Hope thought to himself, knowing it would be no use at all. Keller seemed to him to be the type of woman that just jumped in, knowing full-well she could get herself killed. She liked challenges, doing things just for the hell of it, for the fun, the thrill.
"Aren't either of you scared?" Hope asked, desperate to relieve the silence.
"Mmm, not so much," Vanille replied, while Keller just shook her head and said, "No."
Hope sighed. "You two really don't get it."
Vanille stopped, then whirled around, hands on her hips, losing patience with the fourteen-year-old. "Pulse fal'Cie and l'Cie are bad news," she started, starting to pace in front of him. "That's why Cocoon kicked them out. Get too close to the fal'Cie? One-way ticket to Pulse!" She stopped and faced Hope with an expectant expression on her face.
"That's the Purge in a nutshell, I guess," Keller finished.
"If they catch us here, they'll Purge us too. And then –"
"What's your problem?" Vanille asked, point-blank.
"What's my –? Pulse is Hell on earth!"
Vanille stepped forward and hugged him again. "We'll be okay! Calm down."
Hope pushed her off of him. "Get off me."
Keller laughed. "Come on! The soldiers already sent a search team in here, only to have their Comm devices messed with 'cause of the magic in this place. They're not gonna try that again soon. Relax, kid."
Hope would have replied to that statement, but was interrupted by an echo throughout the Vestige.
"Serah! Can you hear me? Where are you?"
Hope knew that voice.
Sazh sat on the floor of the dimly-lit chamber they were in, watching Lightning slash repeatedly at the door. The door had a red insignia on it – arrows pointing up, down and to the side. In the middle was a dot, almost like an eye, which was a deeper red than the rest. It was the Pulse l'Cie brand.
"Still won't budge?" Sazh asked, then stood and walked over to Lightning, who continued to slash at the door as if she never heard his words. But she did.
"I think the door is winning," Sazh remarked.
"Why didn't I listen?" Lightning mumbled to herself, stopping in her destruction of the door.
"Uh, beg your pardon?" Sazh asked, leaning closer to hear her words.
Lightning placed her hand upon the door, where the brand's aura pulsed at her touch. She leaned in close to whisper, "It was me. This is my fault." Hints of sadness and regret laced into her otherwise-deadpan tone.
"Beg your pardon?" Sazh repeated.
Lightning looked up at Sazh, her cerulean eyes hard. She took her hand off the door and replied, "Cover your ears."
"Oh, blast charge? Hold on, hold on!" A blast charge was exactly what it sounded like. Sazh ran to the back of the chamber, kneeled down and covered his ears in record time. "Alright, go for it! Make it happen!"
Lightning replaced her hand on the door, and the brand pulsed again, as if it could feel her regret. "I'm so sorry," she apologised. "Please let me in. Please?" she asked, bowing her head and closing her eyes as if in defeat.
The door, as if hearing her plea, split and dragged itself into the wall, leaving them free to enter the Vestige. Hearing the door open, Sazh uncovered his ears and looked behind him, where there was no more door. "What the –? Hey!"
"Right," Lightning breathed, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings.
"What did you – how'd you open it?" Sazh asked, confused. He didn't hear any explosions, nor were there any signs of brute force. How did she open it?
Lightning merely walked forward, sheathing her Blazefire Sabre as she did so.
"After you," Sazh gestured after her, defeated. He walked through the opening that wasn't there before, and heard it shut with a clang of metal on metal as soon as he was through. That wasn't what he was focused on, however. He was focused on his new surroundings.
The temple-like structure's inside was like nothing he had ever imagined. The colour scheme seemed to be different shades of yellow-gold, grey-silver and blue-green, made murky by the many layers of aged dust that choked its floors and walls. They were standing on a walkway, with a grey-black stone – or was it concrete? – wall, about as high as Lightning's waist, stopping them from falling down to the lower levels of the Vestige, which, now that they were in it, they could see was monstrous in its size. Prisms of Pulse energies seemed to keep the whole place from crumbling, as there did not seem to be any stone pillars – perhaps the ancient people or peoples that built the Vestige ran out of stone? Sazh couldn't say. Smaller stone pillars were attached to the stone walls surrounding the walkway; on those pillars, Sazh could see glowing yellow beams attached to them – pure Pulse energies? Sazh wondered what they did. Up ahead he could see two more pantherons guarding a set of stairs, where Lightning was running –
"Again?" Sazh grumbled to himself, then pulled out his Vega 42's, aimed, and fired past Lightning at one pantheron, hitting it right between the eyes. It fell limply to the ground before it burst into black ash, as if it were too fragile for the marble floor below it. If that threw Lightning off in any way, she never showed it, choosing instead to take care of the other pantheron, which was still running toward her. One slice in just the right place severed the bioweapon's head before both pieces burst into black ash like its companion before it.
Lightning began to make her way up the steps, with Sazh running to catch up. Up the stairs they both went until they reached the landing, where three more pantherons waited to strike. As soon as she saw them, Lightning ducked down behind the steps remaining and smoothly flicked her Blazefire Sabre into gun mode. She aimed steadily at one pantheron but locked eyes with Sazh, who immediately got the message. He aimed his two guns at the other two pantherons, and at Lightning's gesture, they each fired. Three pantherons dropped onto the floor before they turned to dust, and floated into the air. Lightning stood, smoothly sheathed her weapon and walked forward. Something white caught her eye, and as she looked down, she saw an incisor obviously left behind by one of the pantherons. She picked it up and immediately felt it pulse with an almost diabolic aura. She placed the wicked fang into her thigh-pack and drew her gunblade once again.
She was in a more open space than the chamber they were in before, with whirring machinery on either side of her – engines, maybe? Ahead of her were two groups of Zwerg droids, on either side of the walled-in open space. The group on the left side, composed of four of the small red scanners, seemed to be guarding a silver sphere. Ahead of her was the way forward – guarded by a dormant Myrmidon.
Lightning tensed, then ran forward, gunblade out, and slashed each Zwerg droid. With just one slash, they each turned to black dust, several leaving behind small pieces of fabric. It took all of five seconds. A low whirring sound directed Lightning to the side, where the smallish silver sphere bobbed up and down, turning slowly as if in orbit. When she stepped closer, the sphere whirred faster and a hole opened up in it that was big enough for a hand, a wrist, and not much else. Lightning put her hand inside the sphere and felt around until her hand came into contact with something immeasurably soft and delicate. She pulled it out to discover that what she held was a fiery feather, coloured every shade of red, yellow, orange and pink you could imagine. It was like holding a summery sunset in her hands. She recognised it immediately as the feather of a phoenix, said to be able to revive one person from the depths of their subconscious. She pushed it carefully into the red pack strapped onto her upper thigh, just underneath the limits of her mini-skirt, then eyed the dormant Myrmidon. Its limbs were folded inside its body, and the jets underneath it kept it floating in mid-air.
"What do we do with this one?" Sazh asked.
"If we're quiet enough, we could probably edge around the thing and keep going up," Lightning replied, keeping a hand near her gunblade should the Myrmidon awaken. She then walked to the side of it, careful where to place her feet. As Sazh tried to follow her lead, the Myrmidon folded outwards, its spider-like legs touching the floor as it came to life with a whir. Quick like her namesake, Lightning jumped up and landed on its head, using her Gunblade to sever it from the rest of the Tilter's body. She back-flipped gracefully off just as it turned to ash, landing in a crouch. She stood, ignoring Sazh's quiet look of surprise and awe as she ascended to yet another landing, where a pantheron and two Zwerg Droids waited.
"You coming or not?" she asked, impatient. Sazh immediately ran up the steps after her, only to stop and stare as three more piles of ash littered the landing they stood on. Lightning flipped her gunblade back into its holster and looked at Sazh with a raised eyebrow, her eyes cold as ever.
Does she ever smile? Sazh wondered as she walked casually over to a silver sphere, reached in, and pulled out several clear flasks filled with green liquid. Potions. She threw two to Sazh, who caught them and placed them in his coat pocket as she placed the other two inside her red pack strapped to her thigh.
Another set of stairs led up to another landing. As they climbed, Sazh began to talk.
"If those robot things are still around, might be some soldiers trapped in here too…except they'd probably be l'Cie by now, right?" When he got no response from his companion, he continued. "Not even human anymore. Just Pulse l'Cie, and enemies of Cocoon." They reached the landing, and Sazh folded his arms as he looked up the next flight of steps, leaning against the short wall lining their path. "Can't show 'em any mercy."
On an upper level of the Vestige, Snow walked through a seemingly endless path with too many staircases to count. He looked in front of him. Down two flights of steps there were two pantherons circling a green bar of energy, piquing Snow's interest.
"Wonder what that's for?" he softly asked aloud as he continued to walk forward. The two pantherons then spotted him, and ran straight for him. They stopped just in front of him, growling, their mechanical hackles raised. Snow grinned and raised his fists. "Come and get it!"
They growled once more, and lunged as one. Snow laughed as he dodged, leaving a well-placed hand-grenade in his place. By the time the smoke cleared, all that was left of them were several chipped incisors and black dust. Snow picked up the chipped canines and walked casually over to the green bar. He touched it, and the ground moved beneath him as the bar turned yellow. He could feel the ground he was standing on jolt as it moved upward and to the side, glowing red before settling again and leaving him with a new path to follow. "Just hold on, Serah," he breathed.
After several minutes of traversing what seemed like hundreds more staircases, up and down, he spotted another green beam in front of him, once again guarded by pantherons and a small red Zwerg Droid.
"And there's the next one," Snow noted, grinning as he approached the Droids first, gaining the strategic advantage when he caught them by surprise. Two strategically-placed kicks sent both Droids flying through the air, slamming into the ascending staircase behind them and turning to black ash. The pantheron quickly took notice of its missing allies, and lunged at Snow, who slid back-first underneath its attack and kicked its belly, sending it flying. It smacked hard into the wall, and after a few slow moments, got back onto its feet, whining low in its throat like a wild dog. It ran forward once again, only to be pushed back by Snow's fists. He kept the stubborn pantheron back with kicks and punches until it, too, dissolved into black dust, dissipating into the air.
"What's up with that?" he asked himself. True, the soldiers and bioweapons outside the Vestige hadn't just disappeared into the air like the bioweapons here. Did it have something to do with the beams of energy inside the Vestige? The fal'Cie itself? There was much to think about, but not now. He stepped forward, confident this time as he lightly touched the next green beam of light. It, like the last, turned yellow, and at the end of the path an oval-shaped platform lowered.
"All right!" Snow crowed, running up the last two flights of steps and jumping onto the platform. When it began to lower, he bumped his fists together.
"Hang on, baby! You're hero's on the way!" he called out, hoping that she would hear him, wherever in the Vestige she was.