Chapter Seven – Anima's Throne
Eventually they found the fal'Cie, sleeping in its dimly-lit chambers. Hope nervously fidgeted as he walked, his mind on everything and nothing. How were they going to get out of the Vestige? Would they survive?
"So this is…the fal'Cie," he muttered, green eyes wide. In the dim light, all he could see was a large bulky shape in front of him, which he supposed must be the dormant fal'Cie. The whole place looked dark and mysterious. Holes in the ground on either side of its dormant form showed manipulators with sharp rotatable blades. On the bulky dome housing the fal'Cie was a tarnished plaque, revealing the fal'Cie's name and purpose in a language so similar to their own it was almost effortless to read: Anima, protectress and overseer of Oerba.
"Serah's a crystal now," Snow started, pointing at the fal'Cie's dormant form. "You gave her a Focus, and she did it! You got what you want! Now let her go!" Sazh and Lightning tensed, hands hovering over their weapons. The fal'Cie's silence was her only response. Snow sank slowly to the ground, now kneeling before Anima as his eyes started to water.
"Please," he begged, voice cracking slightly. "Turn her back…" His voice was full of pain and hurt. His head snapped up and put his hand to his heart, as if reciting a pledge. "I'll be your l'Cie instead!" he cried, gritting his teeth in an effort to stop the tears in his voice from showing in his eyes. He needed to stay strong, damnit!
Still Anima did not respond.
Lightning's icy-blue eyes narrowed. "Fine. You go on begging," she muttered, pulling out her weapon and stalking towards the still-dormant Anima. "Like this thing gives a damn what we want!" She attacked, slicing downwards with her gunblade several times, but it only bounced off of Anima's protective shell. She staggered backwards as her final blow glanced off of the shell once more.
"Lightning!" Snow yelled. Lightning breathed hard, steeling herself. "It's this thing's fault the Purge started, and it's people who are dying." Her shoulders moved in time with each slightly-laboured breath she took as she fought to stay calm. Her back straightened. "Serah told us to save Cocoon. That means this thing needs to die!" Lightning raised her weapon. Suddenly a bright yellow light flashed in the room, blinding them slightly as their eyes readjusted. Steam rose in the air and Anima's protective shell split, revealing a crack of blinding white light. Her manipulators rose from their place in the floor with several more clouds of steam. Lightning whipped around as the manipulators continued to rise. Anima's shell fully split itself in half and folded away, blinding the entire party in blinding white light.
"I can't see!" shouted Hope.
Both Lightning and Snow stepped back, brandishing their weapons – in Snow's case, his fists.
"What the –?" Sazh exclaimed, faltering once he saw Anima's offense form. it would take hours for anyone to describe the fal'Cie, her most noticeable feature – apart from her menacing rotating manipulators, triple-layered claw and numerous screens showing the Pulse insignia surrounded by interference – was the lavender crystal in the middle of her torso.
Hope couldn't take it anymore. Truly hyperventilating now, he ran for the exit, head down with his hands over his ears. He didn't notice nor hear the little clicking and whirring noises coming from the walls. His only thought was to get the hell out of the chamber – until he bashed head-first into a force-field and bounced off when Anima saw he was trying to escape. Vanille looked at Anima for a few seconds, misery etched onto her features, before running to Hope and helping him up.
"Are you okay?" she asked frantically. Hope continued to breathe shallowly, eyes wide, until Vanille wrapped her arms around him and lifted him off of the floor, turning so he had his back to Anima.
Keller tensed, indecisive about the situation in front of her. She couldn't attack Anima, no matter how badly she wanted to. It wouldn't help her situation. She backed up until she was directly in front of Hope and Vanille, effectively shielding them both with her body. If Anima did attack Hope or Vanille, Keller would rethink her decision. She couldn't let anyone else get hurt.
"Come on, now," Sazh directed at Lightning. "You really think you can kill a fal'Cie?"
Lightning raised her Gladius, focused on her target. "I'm doing this for Serah!"
Snow tensed before Anima, fists still raised. Sazh gripped his Vega 42's.
"Dajh…" he breathed as he surveyed Anima for a split second. Chocobo popped up from his afro and chirped decisively, and Sazh's decision was made.
"I'm in!" he cried, pulling his guns out of their holsters and stepped forward beside Lightning and Snow. "As long as you don't mind an amateur. I got these things," he gestured to his weapons. "Might as well use 'em."
"Thanks," Lightning replied, keeping her eyes on Anima. One of her manipulators swiped at them, and they all dodged back.
"Those things first!" Lightning shouted, and Snow immediately moved from Anima to the left manipulator, using brute strength alone to try to break the rotating blades. Sazh kept firing his guns, putting dents in the blades and in some cases actually putting holes in them. Lightning used the bent and broken blades to her advantage, attacking where they were weakest. The manipulators were taken care of easily enough, so they then turned to Anima herself, who hunched over slightly as soon as her manipulators were gone, seemingly storing power for something. They took advantage of this and ran to attack. Several minutes later, they realised what Anima was storing power for: with a yellow flash, the manipulators were regenerated. Lightning did the math – if they kept attacking the manipulators, it gave them a several-minute window to attack the fal'Cie herself, without worry that they would get hurt, until the manipulators fully regenerated.
As they did this, they found the manipulators harder to destroy than before – Anima could use them to expel resonant magic that could weaken them to the point that they were relying on potions to keep them upright until the manipulators were destroyed yet again. They then turned back to Anima. This pattern continued for an excruciating amount of time.
Finally, when her manipulators were nothing but metal heaps on the floor, Anima let out a burst of power, and suddenly they weren't in Anima's chambers anymore. Instead, they were floating in a great expanse of black. Bells were tolling somewhere no-one could see. A glowing blue-green crystal was centred above them, and below them was a deep black abyss. Lightning looked around, but apart from the others, there wasn't much to see.
"Where are we?" Lightning asked to no-one in particular.
"What's going on?" Snow added.
A powerful magic projection pulsed up, hitting the crystal above them, and suddenly the tolling bells could be heard clearly. Lightning could see them above the crystal, which wasn't a crystal anymore. It was Anima in her true form.
She had a feminine face and a normal body down to her torso, but that was where her resemblance to a human ended. From her waist down, she had metal tentacles branching out everywhere. Her hand swept out, and glowing blue-green threads extended from her hands to pin everyone in place. They struggled, but could not free themselves as Anima seared arcane markings onto their bodies, all in different places: Lightning and Sazh's chests, Snow's forearm, Hope's wrist and Vanille's upper thigh. Cruelly, those neon threads turned Keller over and branded her back through her clothes, and she hissed in pain.
Something glowed red, but Lightning couldn't tell where it came from. A powerful burst of light exploded from the dying fal'Cie, and they were all let go, floating in space. Each person saw the same vision: a giant beast was tearing Eden, Cocoon's capital city, to pieces. The vision ended with Cocoon plummeting towards Pulse.
But there was more. A haunting female voice swept through their ears, burning her words into their minds.
"Surrender to your fate, as only through great suffering must the world reach harmony once more."
Unbeknownst to those inside the Vestige, the whole thing was crystallising around Anima's chambers. Several powerful energy shock-waves swept out, knocking the sky-tanks from their lofty seats in the air and sending them crashing to Lake Bresha below. The soldiers on the ground were stunned, falling to the ground. The Palamecia's ties to the Vestige snapped, causing it to fall too. Another powerful shock-wave emanated from Anima, and Lake Bresha was locked in crystal splendour, creating a beautiful blue landscape around the Vestige, now half-buried in crystal waves.
When I couldn't see a future, and I was afraid…when the future was clear, and it hurt to see…I'd just close my eyes, and lose myself in happier days.