Chapter 5 – Frustration

An annoyingly familiar voice drifted down to Hope, infiltrating his ears, burrowing into his head and planting the words into his memory.

"Hang on, baby! You're hero's on the way!"

Keller and Vanille looked up, both thinking the same thing. He's coming down.

"So he is here," Hope said, echoing the women's thoughts. "Calling himself a hero…" Hope seethed. Because of him, his mother…no. He wouldn't go there. He would surely break down if he tried.

Even as the echoes of his voice faded away, four yellow prisms of light beamed down, parallel with each other, and as they aligned into a square formation, a small set of stairs lifted from the chasm that was there before. At the same time, the Pulse l'Cie brand seared itself onto the door to the left of the set of stairs and then disappeared, taking the door with it.

"There's our next destination," Keller noted, calm as ever. Hope envied her.

"He's coming our way," Vanille pointed out, turning to Hope with her hands clasped behind her back, leaning over to him slightly and piercing his green eyes with her own.

"What should I do?" Hope asked her, slight fear underlining his words.

"Tell him what you need to," Vanille replied, unclasping her hands and standing up straight.

"We'll go with you, kiddo," Keller added.

"But…nothing I say will – will change what happened."

"Hmmm…" Vanille tapped her chin in thought. "We could just…run away."

Hope nodded, allowing Vanille to take his wrist and lead him up the steps to the door, now thrown wide open. Keller allowed them to lead, instead dashing to the right to collect from an unguarded chest at the end of the path. Inside was an iron bangle with the health rune etched into the metal. She pocketed the bangle and then raced after the two kids, who were waiting for her. They passed through the doorway together, walking into a steadily-increasing darkness. Keller brushed her hand over the wall to her right side, and when she no longer felt it, she dragged her companions with her. Ahead, it looked like there was no end to the darkness, but as they drew nearer another door opened, leading them out of the Sacrarium, which was the chamber they had just left. A new, different chamber was what they ran into, and as Keller looked around, she immediately spotted two more pantherons guarding another sphere. After easily taking care of them both, Keller looked inside it to find another, stronger set of blades that looked similar to the weapons she wielded. These were stronger, sharper, and had two sleek green lines down the sides of both, stopping inches from the end of the blades themselves. The handles were covered with a strongly-woven dark-blue fabric. Keller grinned to herself. She bound the two blades together with a piece of thin wire and placed them inside her jacket, where there was an inner pocket big enough for the bundle to fit. Satisfied that they wouldn't fall out when she ran, she motioned for Vanille and Hope to follow her. She walked calmly down two flights of stairs and up another, until they were in the centre of a three-way crossroads. As Vanille and Hope looked up and around them, an inhuman roaring sounded from all sides. Keller cursed; the first time Hope had heard her do so. All three of them backed up until they were back-to-back-to-back, facing the three paths that the roaring had come from.

A terrifying sight met their eyes: gold gates made of energy alone were slightly transparent, letting humanoid creatures through them. They seemed to be covered in navy-blue crystal with hints of dark purple at the edges. In the middle of their chests lay what looked like a red eye with a white dot at its centre. They were slowly shuffling along in groups of at least three, huge clawed hands tipped with red scrabbling at their pale faces in what looked like agony.

"Wh-what are they?" Hope asked, trying and failing to keep his fear at bay.

"Cie'th," Vanille answered, whipping out her weapon and holding it tightly. "L'Cie who failed!"

"This, kid," Keller continued, gesturing to the Cie'th shambling toward them, "is what happens when l'Cie fail to complete the Focus a fal'Cie gives them." She pulled out her blades in preparation for the horde of shambling Cie'th circling them, but before any of them could act, loud yelling drew their attention to the left side, where Snow was rushing toward them from behind the line of Cie'th. He barrelled through one of them, rolled into a crouch and straightened, using his arms to block Vanille and Hope.

"Let's even these odds!" he shouted.

"Hey, Blondie!" A blade whistled past him and into the chest of one Cie'th, which immediately turned to dust before them. Keller ran past him to retrieve it. "Stay outta my way, alright? You might get stabbed."

"Right," Snow replied, kicking a Cie'th into a stone pillar, where it lay until Keller finished it off. High-tension wires tore through the air, binding one Cie'th and forcing it to the floor. Snow looked back to see Vanille clutching her weapon tightly, not letting the Cie'th escape. Another blade whistled through the air and finished it off. Hope's Airwing flew out from his hand, repeatedly hitting every Cie'th in the area and killing one when his boomerang hit it in the eye at its chest.

Keller's blades flew past her allies and performed the killing blow on almost every Cie'th they encountered, almost never missing, until only three were left. They huddled together, as if knowing what would come next. Snow threw a hand-grenade right at their feet, which promptly exploded and launched them into the air, turning two of them to dust. Vanille finished the other one off.

"You got good aim," Snow directed at Keller, who smirked.

"I try," she replied. "Name's Keller, by the way. Didn't quite catch yours."

"I didn't give it. Name's Snow," he said, extending his hand for her to shake. She had a firm grip. Snow was reminded of Lebreau, just in the way Keller shook his hand. He turned to Vanille and Hope.

"How'd you get in here? You've gotta leave!"

Hope glared at him, whereas Vanille smiled awkwardly, lacing her fingers under her chin. Snow sighed.

"Okay, listen. Find someplace to hide and keep quiet. Once I find Serah, we'll all leave together." Hope looked over to Vanille. He thought he saw a glimmer of recognition stir in her eyes when Snow said the name 'Serah'.

"You'll be home in time for dinner!"

Hope forgot about whatever he saw before. He turned back to Snow, his glare back in place. "You –"

"That include me, too?" Keller interrupted Hope smoothly, hands on hips as she raised her eyebrow at the blonde. "Do I look like a kid to you?"

"'Course not," Snow shot back at her. He then turned back to Vanille and Hope and waved. "Later."

"Wait!" Vanille yelled. Snow stopped and turned back to them. "Who's…Serah?"

"My wife. Future wife, that is…" Snow scratched the back of his neck. "She's a Pulse l'Cie."

Vanille put her hands to her mouth in shock. "Oh no…"

"She's in here somewhere along with that fal'Cie. I've got to find her, and set her free."

Hope snapped. "What's wrong with you? Why do you want to help a l'Cie? They're the enemy!" He looked down at his feet, then back up at the face of the man he had recently grown to hate so much. "How can you save a l'Cie, and not…and not…" He stamped his foot in frustration. "That's insane!"

"Probably. But I gotta do something, right?" Snow waved as he made his way to the middle staircase. "I'll be back!"

Hope sank to his knees. Vanille stepped forward slightly, then turned back to Hope. "Should we wait around for him, and hitch a ride?"

"I'd rather go to Pulse!" Hope snapped, bringing his fists down onto the marble floor.

"That could easily be arranged, kid," Keller interrupted fiercely. "Calm down, all right?"

Hope didn't listen. He didn't care. "Why is this happening to me? When they found the fal'Cie the other day, we were just visiting Bodhum. But the army took us…threw us on that train…"

Keller grimaced. She understood exactly what the kid was going through. Vanille knelt beside him, patting his shoulder soothingly, waiting for him to continue.

"And because of that guy, Mom is…" Hope let the sentence trail off there. "And he wants to help a l'Cie?"

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Snow appeared again. Keller sorely hoped that he didn't hear the boy's rant. "Hey again," he said, stiffly waving his hand.

Keller nodded to him. Vanille looked at him and said, "Hey."

Vanille leaned over to Hope, clasping his hands and forcing him to look at her. "Let's go with him!"

"What?" Hope asked, frowning slightly.

"You've gotta talk to him, Hope," Vanille replied. "If you don't take this chance, you'll regret it forever." Hope saw regret in her eyes. What does she have to regret? Nevertheless, he knew she was right.

"Okay."

"Okay, then!" Keller said, turning to Snow. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"To Serah," he replied. "Let's go!"

They all set off with Snow in the lead. Hope fell in behind, trying hard not to focus on anything but the enemies they encountered.

"What's gotten into you, soldier? Thought you came for a fight," Sazh asked as Lightning kept going up the steps. She stopped abruptly, hands curled into fists.

"My sister…" she began, not knowing how to explain in a way that her companion would understand. From what he had said before, she gathered that he hated Pulse fal'Cie and l'Cie more than the Sanctum. How could she explain her sister's situation to someone like that?

"Your sister?" Sazh inquired, running forward until he was in front of her, making her face him, but she let her eyes drift to the side.

"She's a l'Cie."

"A Pulse l'Cie?" Lightning nodded once.

"The fal'Cie has her captive. But I'll find her." Her hands flexed, as if itching to grasp her gunblade.

"Is she still…?" Lightning began to walk forward, but Sazh stopped her. "What was her Focus?"

Lightning stopped again, unsure how to answer.

"What did the fal'Cie order her to do? It wasn't 'blow up Cocoon', or anything like that, was it?" Lightning looked to the side, refusing to meet his eyes as she answered, "I didn't ask."

Before another word could be spoken, a rumbling sound could be heard from the top of the last flight of steps. When they looked up, they saw a keyhole-shaped door burn with the Pulse l'Cie brand before it and the door disappeared, leaving the beings behind it free to come down the steps. They were humanoid, covered in navy-blue and dark purple crystal. Their claws were dark purple tipped with red, and looked sharp. In the centre of their chests a large red circle with a white dot in the middle lay. It looked like an eye.

"Listen to me," Sazh began, hoping to finish before Lightning stormed off again. "When a person gets cursed by a fal'Cie, they become a l'Cie. Then they get given a Focus, right?" When Lightning didn't answer, he continued, frowning slightly as he said, "How do I put this? If they don't carry it out, they become one o' those things." He gestured to two of the humanoid crystal monsters already down the stairs and heading in the opposite direction to Sazh and Lightning. "What I'm saying is," Sazh continued, "if your sister's gone that far –" As soon as he said those words, Sazh knew he'd made a mistake. A brief flash of pain stole over Lightning's features for a second, then her hands balled into tight fists.

"I – I mean…! She might still…how can I…? Oh man," Sazh fumbled for words as Lightning glared at him, daring him to finish. "There's no way to turn a l'Cie back into a human. Even if she completes her Focus, there's no changing her fate. She'll live her life as a fal'Cie slave." Lightning's features twisted in pain once again. "Don't make her suffer."

She snapped and pushed him back. "Just say it! Any l'Cie…anyone who might ever become a l'Cie should be wiped off the face of Cocoon!" She gave him a look colder than any she'd given him so far, then walked forward until she was in front of him. "It's people like you who started the Purge in the first place," she shot over her shoulder to him.

She knew he was trying to help in his own way, but she didn't need it. He should've just stayed quiet – should just keep quiet now – but he wouldn't. He struck her as the type who filled silences with awkward small talk.

"So…that's a Cie'th, huh?" he asked to no-one in particular. Lightning's eye twitched.

"Hey, look behind those Cie'th, over there!" He pointed at the dead end straight ahead of them, where two Cie'th stood guard over two silver spheres, one slightly larger than the other. Lightning hunched over slightly, her right hand hovering near the handle of her Sabre as she carefully approached the two Cie'th, who seemed to be in their own little world of painful agony. One of them shed a milky-white tear, which turned to crystal before hitting the floor. Lightning almost felt sorry for the creatures – until one of them spotted her. It roared and swiped at her head, which she neatly ducked. She tried to sever one of its arms with her Sabre, but the Cie'th's crystallised skin was tough. She could barely do more than cut partway through it. As it faced her, the eye at its chest burning, Lightning raised her Sabre and stabbed through the eye. It immediately fell, turning to dust. She heard roaring from behind her and whirled around with her Sabre ready to strike, just as Sazh fired his guns. The bullets hit the eye and the Cie'th exploded into ashes.

"What the…?" Lightning looked up as the black ashes that used to be Cie'th dance in the air, leaving behind another milky-white tear. She reached up with her other hand, making the ash dance around her palm. "How…?" She did remember seeing those pantherons die in the same way, but she never paid it any mind, more focused on finding her sister, but now that she actually focused on the ash…it was definitely strange, to say the least. She then turned to the silver sphere, still floating in the air, waiting to be opened. It opened up and Lightning felt around inside to feel something hard and cool encased in leather. She pulled it out to see a brand-new gunblade, with the word 'Gladius' etched into the metal. She'd heard of these. They were modelled from gunblades excavated from a Pulse Vestige similar to this one, years and years ago. They were a strong, sturdy model, only outmatched by its even stronger counterpart, the 'Helter-skelter', possibly the strongest weapon used by Guardian Corps soldiers to date. The Gladius's blade was shaped differently, and had a light-orange line on the tip which continued down to the handle. Lightning swiped it through the air, testing it. It was lighter than her Blazefire Sabre, she noticed, cutting it through the air easily. Satisfied, she carefully attached its holster to that of her Sabre, keeping the Gladius in her grip.

There was another item in the sphere as well, Sazh noticed, as it still seemed to be open, and not dormant like all the other ones were. He hesitantly reached inside and found a dark-crimson band inscribed with a strength rune: two s's entwined together. Suddenly Sazh remembered the name of the shambling Cie'th they had been fighting: they were called Ghouls, because of the similarity they had to the mythical ghouls that haunted houses, moaning warnings. Then there were Ghasts, the Ghoul's stronger counterparts. Those things used the fire element to their advantage as well as their bulky fists, one bigger than the other. None could quite say why that was. Sazh only hoped there were no Ghasts in the Vestige.

The two unlikely comrades returned to the staircase, where another Ghoul waited, its head cradled in its clawed hands as it seemed to sob continuously. Lightning crept up to it, her new Gladius still in her hand, and sliced through the shambling Cie'th like a hot knife through butter. The corners of her mouth twitched. Much better, she thought as the Cie'th turned to ashes. With no more barriers in front of them, they ran up the steps, only to be confronted by yet more Cie'th. Shadows crossed the floor, and Sazh looked up to see more of the things, only these ones had wings.

"Shit, these things grow wings?" Sazh asked in a panicky voice.

"Haven't you heard of Wights before?" Lightning asked pointedly, Gladius at her side.

Sazh spluttered, trying to answer the pinkette. She simply shrugged and walked forward to the four Cie'th on the ground. She proceeded to the left, taking out two of them effortlessly with her new weapon while Sazh shot the ones on the right side. Every one of them exploded into ashes. More stairs lay on the right side, and both proceeded to climb.

"How many stairs are there in this place?" Lightning snapped at no-one in particular, anxious to get her sister and get the hell out.

"I don't know!" Sazh snapped back, clearly in as much of a hurry as she was to get out of there.

They finally reached the keyhole-shaped doorway of sorts that they'd noticed before, guarded by yet more Cie'th, easily taken care of thanks to Lightning's Gladius, but as they walked through, they saw a Cie'th on the floor that looked very different from the others they had encountered. As it stood up, they noticed its skin was an almost mesmerising blue, not light but not dark either, and had a very bulky build, but Sazh immediately recognised it by the huge crystallised fist on its left side. It was a Ghast.

"Whatever these things used to be, they sure ain't human now," Sazh noted uneasily.

"Stay away from the arms," Lightning advised before charging in to attack it close-range. Sazh fired some bullets to keep it distracted. It roared and a ball of fire erupted from the eye in the middle of its chest – more powerful than any manadrive – straight for Sazh. He dodged, but only just. Moments later, Lightning succeeded in slicing through one of its arms, which immediately turned to dust. It roared again, this time in pain, before swiping at her with its other arm, which Lightning neatly dodged. It prepared to send a ball of fire her way, but before it could two shots rang out in the vast building, and the Ghast turned to dust.

"Thanks," Lightning said, deadpan.

"You're welcome," Sazh replied.

…

After defeating several more Cie'th, Lightning and Sazh finally reached a door similar to the one they had to get through to enter the Vestige, but this one was open. They ran through it into darkness that continued for several more feet until a small dot of light emerged ahead, which got bigger and brighter the closer they came to it, until they were no longer in the dark hallway, but in a slightly larger, brighter chamber. Above red-tinted lights shone down, shadows made by several metal arches placed along the walkway, and in their way stood at least six Ghouls and two Ghasts at the end. None of them looked very happy to see them.

"We won't accomplish anything just by looking at them," Lightning muttered as she tensed her muscles to attack the first Ghoul. Once it was dust, she took off for the next one. One by one they fell to her gunblade, made easier by the Gladius she still carried, until only the two Ghasts at the end were left.

"Might be easier if we just shoot the eyes," Sazh said uneasily. Lightning flipped the Gladius into gun mode, loaded it and shot at one of the Ghasts, which immediately turned to ash as the bullet hit its mark. The other Ghast noticed and roared before lumbering over to the duo.

"Oh merciful Maker…" Sazh fretted, his hands shaking as they clasped onto his weapons. Lightning ran towards the Cie'th; it swiped at her with its fist, which she dodged, pink hair flying. She cut off the arm it used to try to hit her before she stabbed it in the chest, right where the eye lay. It roared one last time before turning to dust.

From watching her in battle, Sazh got the impression that she was more at home on the battlefield than anywhere else. She certainly had more skills than most military soldiers – not that he knew many. She belongs in Eden, protecting the Primarch, not in Bodhum, Sazh thought. Then again, if she were, they wouldn't be in here, and nor would Lightning's sister – whoever she was.

As they walked, the floor beneath them moved up to yet another staircase. Once they had made it up, Lightning immediately ran to the middle of the floor, where a fragile-looking girl who could have been no older than eighteen lay.

A girl with pink hair.