Chapter Eight – Lake Bresha
"Serah!"
Snow reached out with his hand, only grasping empty air. He sat up, and looked around at his unfamiliar surroundings. There were others scattered around the area, too – Lightning, and the others from the Vestige. They stirred, and moved to get up. Snow righted himself and looked around again.
The place they woke up looked both familiar and totally alien. Mesmerising blue crystal covered the entire area, locking it in perfect wave-like structures. Wait…waves? Was this Lake Bresha? Snow couldn't say for sure.
"Is this…for real?" he asked to no-one in particular, looking out to the distance. They all looked – and saw the Vestige, half buried in crystal waves. In fact, everyone was looking about the area except Hope, who was still sitting, one leg underneath the other and his head resting on his folded arms.
"This must be…Lake Bresha?" Sazh's tone made it clear that he was trying to figure everything out. He looked up at the sky and saw the winking green lights overhead, which could only mean… "I guess we fell from up there, and the lake turned to crystal?" He looked around at his allies for answers. "Help me out here! I mean, did the fal'Cie do this?" He turned to Lightning. "How in the world did we end up here?"
"How should I know?" Lightning returned coldly, backing away slightly.
Vanille fell to her knees in a mixture of shock and wonder, clasping her hands together. "We're alive…but how?"
"Serah!" Everyone looked to Snow, who had a loving smile planted on his features. "No-one survives a fall from that high, not without a miracle! Serah saved us!"
"Serah?" Lightning interrupted sceptically, one hand on her hip and the other pointing accusingly at Snow. "Listen, it's your fault she got –!"
"Watch it!" Keller called from her position, crouched on the ground. She pointed behind them – where several Ghasts were shuffling towards them all – at the same time that Sazh cried, "Hey, hey, hey!" in an attempt to warn them. Lightning whipped around, hand on her weapon, as it prepared to swipe. She wouldn't make it; the Cie'th would get her first.
"Watch out!" Snow ran in front of her, blocking the Ghast's crystal fist with his hands and pushing it off. Something on his left forearm glowed a blinding blue, his fist glowed; icy shards pierced the Cie'th at the same time Snow landed an uppercut – one that sent the Ghast flying upwards before landing on a crystal shard with a sickening crunch. It burst into a black cloud of ashes as ice crystals fell to the ground before promptly melting away.
Snow looked to his forearm in awe as the brand that wasn't there before glowed before settling to black, standing out against his tanned skin. "What did I…just do?" He gripped his forearm.
"You used magic!" Hope cried from behind them. He stumbled to his feet as more Ghasts approached the group from all sides. "You used the power of a l'Cie!"
More and more Cie'th approached.
"The fal'Cie cursed us!" Hope's hands were fisted tightly. He let his anger fuel him from the time being. "We're l'Cie now!" He glared daggers at Snow's back, as if it was all his fault Hope got sucked into the whole mess – which, technically, it was.
Keller flipped out her twin blades, stepping in front of Hope in a protective manner. "Easy," she chided him; even though she felt Hope had every right to be angry, even though she wanted to be angry, now just wasn't the time. Lightning grasped her Gladius – the only weapon she currently had in her possession that could slice through Cie'th flesh like it was nothing – tightly. "Right," she stated firmly, glaring at the oncoming Cie'th. Vanille pulled out her weapon – a Binding Rod – and Snow readied his fists. Sazh pulled out his guns, doing a nervous jig as he did so.
There were six Ghasts, and six of them – one for each of them. "We need to separate them," Lightning murmured. She glanced sideways, where Snow stood, his fists still raised. He nodded grimly.
Lightning struck out with her boot, kicking one of the Ghasts towards Vanille, who caught it with the high-tension wires of her Binding Rod. She pressed a button on the staff, and the brown-orange tips sharpened into thorns, tearing into the Cie'th. It roared and struggled, eventually tearing itself apart. Lightning spotted Keller dancing with her own target, and when she looked behind her she could see Snow beating his own Ghast down. Hope's boomerang flew through the air, guided by the wireless control on his right wrist under his glove. Sazh's guns fired into his Ghast, along with a few fire spells stronger than any manadrive.
High-power adrenaline flew through Lightning's veins as she reached inside herself to tap into a power source she'd never felt before. Lightning bolts rained down from above and hit her Ghast, stunning it for one short moment. It was enough to let her get close enough to stab into the eye at its chest, turning it to dust.
Several gusts of air flew around the remaining Cie'th from Vanille, preventing them from moving as fast as they were capable of. Next to her, Hope tapped into his own magic, using water spells to finish off his Ghast as well as several hits with his boomerang in the right places. Snow finished off his Cie'th with the help of Keller, who'd finished off hers, and then they all converged on the last Cie'th standing. Overwhelmed, it collapsed, promptly turning into dust.
Snow looked down at his forearm again, where his l'Cie brand was. "Oh, no…" he breathed to himself, then said louder, "So we really are l'Cie."
Sazh looked down at his own brand, situated at his chest, half-hidden behind his shirt. "Looks like it," he almost hissed.
"You too?" Snow asked Vanille quietly.
"Yep." Vanille lifted up part of her skirt to reveal the black brand on her upper thigh. "Right here."
"Okay…"
"L'Cie to the last," Lightning murmured.
"Guess so," Keller sighed.
Hope fell to his knees in shock. First his mother falls in front of him, and now this! When would it end for him? "Why me?" He looked up at Lightning, who was to his left. "I don't even know you! But you had to go and attack that thing?!" He stared between Lightning, Sazh, and finally Snow. "Just leave me alone!" Hope looked down at the ground, trying so hard to find the words he desperately needed to say. His tongue grappled with the words, but they kept slipping away from him, leaving him with half-empty sentences. "It's your fault…it's your fault my…you could've…!"
Finally, he found his words. His hands balled into fists, his eyes narrowed. He stood, and faced the man that caused so many of his problems. "All this is your and Serah's fault!" he yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the fighter.
"Watch it!" Snow snapped back; so ferociously that Hope fell backwards onto the ground again. Terrified back into silence, he scooted back, away from the furious blonde. He was stopped from going too far by something hard – someone's shins? He looked up to see Lightning's almost disapproving aquamarine eyes glaring back. He pushed away from her and doubled over on the ground, his head in his hands.
Snow sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. "Sorry."
Vanille walked calmly over to Hope, bending down on her knees and placing her hands carefully on his shoulders. He looked up into green eyes so like his own.
"Everything is gonna be all right. You'll see." She then pulled him gently to his feet. "Come on. Off we go," she murmured, walking with him to an opening between the crystal walls.
As Vanille dragged Hope onwards, the others decided it was time to set off, too. Lightning stood there, arms crossed, staring up at the Vestige.
"You comin', girly?" Keller called.
Lightning sighed and followed after them.
…
Snow let out a long, low breath as he stared down at his brand. "L'Cie, huh?"
Sazh sighed too. "Yep. We're all playin' for Team Pulse, now." He groaned and made as if to pull at his hair. "Why me?"
Keller pursed her lips at this, but said nothing. The crease in between her eyebrows felt like it was going to become as permanent as the brand on her back. She might not have been able to see it without a mirror, but she could feel the power that it generated, pulsing outward.
As they stopped on an embedded piece of trussway, having finally caught up with Vanille, Snow looked around, realising they were missing one. "Where's Sis?"
"I'm not your sister."
Snow and Sazh looked behind them to see Lightning walk almost casually down the incline to join them.
"Trust the soldier to keep her cool through this mess," Sazh muttered to Snow, who cracked a smile.
"It's kinda what she does best," Snow replied.
Lightning walked past Snow and Sazh and stopped near Vanille and Hope, with Keller off to the side. "Okay," she murmured, "if we don't know our Focus…how do we complete it?"
Vanille turned to face the stoic soldier. "I think…I saw it."
"Saw what?" Lightning asked, a tad harsher than she intended.
Sazh stepped forward. "That, is how a Focus comes down, people." Everyone looked at him curiously as he continued. "The fal'Cie? They don't spell it out with clear-cut instructions. All you get is a hazy glimpse."
Lightning and Snow both turned and walked towards Sazh. When they stopped, their arms were folded and their faces serious.
"Well, that's what they say. You know, legends and all." Sazh, flustered, turned and looked out at the crystallised Lake Bresha. "Legends."
Lightning faced Hope. "Did you see anything?"
"I uh – I just… It's all kinda foggy, but… I saw this big – I mean, towering –"
"W-wait a minute. Hold on now. Did we all have the same dream?"
"Ragnarok," Snow and Lightning said together. It all flashed through the l'Cie's minds once more – short glimpses of Pulsian menaces in Eden's streets, flashes of Cocoon being torn apart and falling towards the grassy expanse of Pulse. And then the voice that followed…
"So…we all saw the same dream. We all heard that same voice."
"Surrender to your fate, as only through great suffering must the world reach harmony once more." Keller turned from the crystal waves she was gazing thoughtfully at and faced the rest of the group, a small half-hearted smirk working its way over her mouth. "How can anyone forget a voice that says things like that?"
"You mean, that was our Focus?" Hope turned to Sazh and Keller, slightly frustrated. "How are we supposed to figure out what to do from that?"
"You really expected the fal'Cie to write it down for us?" Keller scoffed, schooling her expression into a raised eyebrow as she put a hand on her hip. "For starters, they don't have hands. And I don't know about any of you, but I wasn't about to loan 'Anima' a biro I clearly don't have."
"That's the tricky part." Vanille seemed not to have heard what Keller said.
"What, loaning a fal'Cie a pen?"
"No. The dream's the only hint the fal'Cie gives us. Figuring out what to do with it…that's our job," Vanille surmised.
"Okay, okay…we're Pulse l'Cie, right? Enemies o' Cocoon!" Sazh's eyes widened. "So does that mean that our Focus is –? Are we supposed to –?"
"Save her."
"Say what?"
Snow stepped forward. "Our Focus is to protect Cocoon."
"Sure," Keller muttered sarcastically. "And I'm a hunchback."
"Really?" Vanille asked, slightly sceptical. "Okay, and why's that?"
"Serah told us," Snow supplied without missing a beat. "Let's do it. We're all in this together." Before Lightning could tell him how ridiculous he sounded; before any of them could say a word, he continued, "I'm gonna go look for Serah. She ought to be nearby," and jogged along the makeshift path forward.
"I'll come too!" Vanille cried. "Wait!"
When she had followed him, Sazh groaned. "Geez, that boy can't stay still!"
"Really…" Hope replied.
"Let's go then. Nothin' else to do." And then Keller was gone too.
"Think she's lost her cool already?" Sazh asked Hope quietly. "Only known her a bit, but it looks like she's unsettled."
"Keller? Don't know with her."
"She could get robot lessons off Soldier Girl…" Sazh shook his head as he followed after Keller.
Hope was about to follow but stopped near Lightning. He looked at her, was about to ask whether she was coming too, but she beat him to it.
"Go ahead. I'll catch up." She folded her arms and turned so her back was to him.
Hope turned and ran after the others, only looking back at the pinkette once.