A/N: Well, I kept my word this time. 5 days or less, I said. And here it is!
...But no reviews? None? Nada? It's not like I didn't think I'd need to re-establish my fan base, but seriously? Nothing? I'd hoped for at least one...or a view, at least. Did anyone at least look at it?
Ahh, well. Not like I'm gonna give up on it anyway. I'm too stubborn for that.
Disclaimer: Miiiight've forgotten to put one in the updated first chapter. But you guys should already know that if I owned FFXIII, I wouldn't be here.
Update: I actually noticed something weird concerning the chapter numbering in the files from this chapter on. So, I'm fixing it. Right now. Why on earth do I always decide to do this crap past one in the morning?! I'm an idiot!
Chapter Fifteen – Escape
"Okay now, we all strapped in?" Sazh asked from the cockpit.
As he was the only one from their motley crew whom he trusted enough to fly the airship, he was stuck at the controls. Lightning, whose arms were now tightly folded as she sat in her chosen seat, was not particularly happy about this, for some strange reason that no-one on board seemed to be able to identify.
"All good here!" said Vanille.
"Seconded," said Galen.
Hope simply nodded and hummed in agreement.
"Great. How 'bout you, Soldier Girl?"
"Let's just get on with it already."
"Startin' her up, then."
The engine roared to life, and Sazh sighed in relief. "Guess we really hit it lucky."
"See? I told you," said Vanille.
Galen forced himself not to smile. As he felt the airship lift and hover on its stand, however, he found himself tightly gripping the seat's arm rests, and he tried his best to breathe deeply through his mouth and nose.
That all went out the window when the aircraft jolted rather sharply up and through those weird holographic-looking blue things every Cocoonian had called gates. Gates were not the word Galen would have chosen.
And right now, he was pretty sure he had left his stomach back on the ground.
Protest arose from everyone on the airship as Sazh struggled to control the bird through the turbulence. The whole thing was shaking, and Galen felt his face drain of colour.
We're gonna crash, I just know it.
Against his better judgement, he decided that looking out of one of the oval-shaped windows was a good idea. All he could see was dark, so that didn't really help.
Was it a tunnel? Where were they going, exactly?
What he had no idea of until later was the growing aerial army waiting for them just beyond. Already sky-tanks were aiming their spotlights down into the abyss the l'Cie were racing up, their cannons priming to fire.
And as he looked straight ahead – because from where he was sitting all Galen had to do was look ahead and he was looking through the front window – he knew that things would not end well.
He gulped. "Uh…"
Vanille looked sideways at him. "You don't look so good."
"I don't feel too good either."
And then suddenly bright pylons of light flew down from above, avoiding the airship by inches and causing him to break out in a cold sweat. This was well out of his comfort zone. Ground fights he could deal with well enough, but this?
A second wave of fire ended up hitting the ship at either side and causing it to flail in either direction. "Agh, no!" moaned Sazh.
Lightning was up from her seat in an instant. "Give me that!" she ordered, seizing the control stick from him.
"What?!"
But it was too late; she had it. Gritting her teeth, Lightning aimed and pulled the trigger; the mini-gun on the underside of the ship fired, tearing one of the sky-tanks above them to pieces. It exploded, creating a hole in their defences for them to fly through.
"Did we get 'em?" asked Vanille, almost excitedly.
"We got one of 'em," was Lightning's curt reply.
"Does anyone know how many of them are actually out there?" Galen hoped his voice didn't sound completely hysterical.
"They're still behind us!" Lucky enough for him, they had Hope for that.
But he was right. Bullets were firing at them from behind as more airships joined the chase.
"So, the very convenient airship left for us…this airship, to be exact…was a trap?"
"Seems that way," said Vanille disappointedly.
Meanwhile, Lightning and Sazh seemed to be fighting over the controls. "Stop that!" said Sazh in response to her yanking the control shift away. The result was that everyone on board began to yell and scream as she performed the evasive manoeuvres necessary to avoid the buildings in their way.
"Hey! I said stop!" Sazh impatiently knocked her arm away. "You want to die?"
"How are you gonna lose them?" Hope asked, his voice breaking multiple times in the same sentence.
If he wasn't doing it, I sure as hell would be. As embarrassing as that thought was, Galen was horrified to admit that it was one hundred per cent true. Flying sucked. Especially in this situation.
They were now currently flying very dangerously in between two horribly rough-looking cliff faces. "You got me, kid!" said Sazh, trying to comfort him.
Oh yeah, very comforting. Just like all the bullets hailing from all sides and the very real possibility of crashing into one of these cliff faces. Galen felt sick.
"Then let me!" yelled Lightning from her seat.
"No, thank you!"
After what felt like a lifetime and a moment at once, they were finally through the cliff faces, and into open sky. Galen's eyes widened. The sky was a beautiful, forget-me-not blue, and the clouds looked fluffy and touchable.
He would've enjoyed the view if not for the situation he was in now.
Projectiles continued to hail from all sides of them, even after the fiasco with the cliff faces. Sazh looked behind him, genuine surprise colouring his face and tone. "They're still on us?"
They flew through the air, making sharp twists and turns in an effort to lose their entourage, and with every turn Galen felt sure that he would be violently sick. He tried to breathe in a normal rhythm through his mouth.
But it was no use. Their pursuers would not be left behind.
A horrible-sounding bang shook the ship, and Sazh ducked. "We're taking hits!"
Suddenly they were racing towards ground again, and Sazh levelled out just before they would have dunked under the water. Maybe he had hoped that one of their pursuers would dive under the water completely, but not one of them did. Bullets continued to fly, piercing the water either side of them.
"Come on, gimme a break!"
They flew right into a channel between two cliffs, and Galen's anxiety spiked. "Oh no, not again," he whispered, the arm rests suffering under a vice-like grip that turned his knuckles white with tension. Explosions coloured the rock faces orange; they were under heavy fire.
"Hang on!" cried Sazh, and the ship spurted forward.
Oh no. His stomach flattened against his spine. Once this is over, I'm never getting on an airship again.
Sazh fired at a low-hanging piece of rock partly blocking their way, and they zoomed underneath it as the pieces fell. Looking behind them – why was there a window on the back of the airship anyway? – Galen saw nothing emerge on their side. He forced himself to relax a little.
Oh, good, it's over.
A sound from the front made him jump slightly – the result of Sazh's fist slamming into the dashboard. "Oh, for the love of all that's good!" he groaned, his head going straight through the display. Not long after this, holographic pictured appeared on not just his display, but everyone else's.
"Next, an update on the status of the Purge."
Galen's eyebrows furrowed. Now slightly more comfortable on the flying metal death-trap, he noticed that everyone else, including Vanille, had their eyes focused on the bulletin currently being displayed. Flustered, he endeavoured the same., and turned his eyes towards the newswoman seated behind a desk on the holographic display. Her words filled the relative silence of the ship.
"Just moments ago, the Sanctum announced the successful conclusion of the Purge, along with the safe arrival of the Cocoon migrants to their new homes on Pulse."
Sazh shook his head at the display, clearly not impressed with what was said. He pressed a button on the display, and an interview with a strange-looking blonde man in his late fourties dressed in royal attire appeared on-screen.
"Yes, that is correct." It was the same voice Galen recognised from the radio during the Purge. So, this is the bastard behind all this.
"There's no denying the enormity of the strain the Purge placed on us all. But given the tens of millions of lives at stake, there truly was no alternative."
The interview feed stopped there, and another announcer continued. "Primarch Dysley stood by the move, stressing the necessity of the relocation. When asked about the possibility of future Purges, the Primarch remained noncommittal, stating only that he'd seek counsel with the fal'Cie Eden and weigh all options before making a decision."
Galen heard Hope sigh in what sounded like disgust.
"Yeah, that's right," griped Sazh, "if it makes the Sanctum look bad, it never even happened."
The production left to an advertisement with something to do with chocobo chicks. Vanille pressed another button on the left side of the screen, and Primarch Dysley again came into view.
"In all the centuries since the War of Transgression, Cocoon has been spared Pulse aggression, and prospered for it. It is essential that we maintain this peace. That is the Sanctum's focus. We will continue employing every resource necessary to combat these threats to the harmony of our society."
"Meaning, we'll be running for the rest of our lives," Sazh translated in disgust. The feeling was tangible, unavoidable, and Galen felt himself sinking into it, sinking into deep-seated hatred for the Primarch.
"Hey," piped Vanille, and Galen's focus turned to her.
"Mhmm?"
"Uhm, who is this guy?" Vanille pointed to the display.
Well, while I'm glad she asked…
"Ugh…" Sazh ducked his head briefly. "I mean, what do they teach kids these days? He's Galenth Dysley," he replied in a tone that implied this was very common knowledge. "The Sanctum Primarch…murderer-in-chief."
"According to our insta-poll –"
"Just another tool of the fal'Cie," mused Lightning. Galen roved his gaze over her face, which showed a face curiously blank of expression.
The ship was silent apart from the newswoman on the display.
"– nearly ninety per cent of Cocoon citizens agree with the Sanctum's handling of the Purge. Seventy per cent of respondents said they would also support additional Purges were the need to arise."
"Ugh," groaned a thoroughly exasperated Sazh. "Let's Purge everybody! That'll fix it!"
Just then, the display fixed itself to blank, and a flashing red warning light along with a siren reverberated around the ship.
Fire once again pierced the air on all sides. Here we bloody go again. Galen instinctively backed further into his seat, his grip tightening once more on his arm rests.
"Points for perseverance," grumbled Sazh, his yellow chocobo chick emerging from his hair in the process.
Light permeated the inside of the ship, a blinding light that made everybody wince and groan, had Sazh putting a hand in front of his face to shield it and the chick ducking back into the safety and darkness of his hair.
As the cloud cover disappeared, everyone looked at the source of the light to find what looked like a miniature sun floating in a halo of blue. The sun had what also looked like a wrought-metal brace around it, so Galen surmised it couldn't be just a sun.
Vanille's eyes widened, her hands instinctively moving to her mouth. "Whoa…"
"A Sanctum fal'Cie up close and personal. Cocoon's own light in the sky." Sazh sounded just as awed.
"While I just hate to spoil the fun," began Galen, "we all realise we're still being pursued, yeah?"
His words were proven by a jolt from the ship and another siren wailing, this time one octave higher.
"Here we go again," murmured Sazh. Yet more bullets were fired, and Galen's nostrils flared. By now he was used to the ship, and he could finally focus on something other than his turbulent stomach.
"Fly in." Lightning's words stunned him. "We'll lose 'em in there."
"Are you serious?" Galen turned his incredulous gaze on her. "You can't be serious."
"You got any better ideas?"
He bit the inside of his cheek, drawing blood.
And Sazh turned their course towards the sun fal'Cie.
Up this close, Galen could see that it wasn't really a sun at all, just a whole bunch of heat and light generators causing minor solar flares just like a real sun would. An artificial sun for an artificial world.
They could feel the ship being thrown off course by the solar flares, and as Galen swivelled in his seat to look back, so were the other ships that had foolishly followed them in. As he continued to look, one of them was hit by what looked like a golden fork of lightning – and violently blew up.
Just perfect.
"I like this fal'Cie!" crowed Sazh.
There's more of them!" exclaimed Vanille.
And of course, she was right. Galen could feel their survival chances dwindle to slim-to-none the more time they spent within the turbulent fal'Cie force.
A massive crashing sound and an equally-massive jolt from the ship indicated that they, too, had been hit. Why did I have to be right now?! Galen swore as everyone took hold of the seat in front of them, as the ship flew into a death spiral towards the ground, as a plume of smoke trailed from behind them.
And the world grew dark.
A/N: Well, that's that. Review? Please? Fang desperately needs some love.
Fang out.