A/N: I know, I know. I'm horrible. But I have reasons. First of all (and probably the most important and most relevant) is that I haven't had much in the way of Internet recently. Moved house not TOO long ago, and haven't had anything resembling Internet until I moseyed my way over to the Parents' residence to steal some of THEIR Internets. Don't look at me like that! I'm their daughter, I can go visit and scrounge Internets off them if I want!

Anywho. Second reason is: Writer's Block. God it's a pain. Stopped me from finding a good way to finish this chapter. I was also going to make the chapter longer too, but...eugh. That takes effort. I'll make the next chapter extra long to compensate. Promise.

Which actually brings me to a few things I wanted to mention. First thing is that I'm planning to make the chapters longer. Gradually, of course. That way there's more to read, and lowers the overall chapter amount, coz this story's gonna be a long-ass pain in the neck if I keep up with the limit I currently have on chapter length. Yay.

Another thing: I know this is supposed to be slight AU/novellisation kinda thing, but I'm sensing it's taking way too long to get to the good stuff. So there's gonna be a bit less filler in future chapters. I'll save the important stuff, of course, I'm not a complete numb-nut. But if there's a battle scene that doesn't necessarily need to be in there, or needless walking that doesn't need to be written about, I simply won't. That'll get us to the end a little bit quicker whilst still being somewhat enjoyable for my lovely readers...if you're still reading, anyway. Nooot getting very many reviews still. Y'know, at all. So that's a bit of a downer. Not really condusive to the cranking out of chapters either. But that's my problem, not yours. Anyways, if you ARE indeed still reading, please let me know. For my sanity, if you value it.

Sorry for the long-ass A/N. Actual chapter is below. Go read! :)

Chapter Seventeen – Catching Up

Sazh could feel the faint tickles from his scalp that signified his little chocobo friend had popped out of his hair to look around. "Kweh!"

He chuckled. As he looked around, keeping an eye out for monsters, Vanille was climbing. "One, two, three…up we go!"

"Hm. And what are you up to?" asked Sazh, turning to look – but then wished he hadn't. The way Vanille was sitting on that piece of rusted junk she was trying to climb was…erm, suggestive.

The chocobo chick popped out of his hair and quickly fluttered to face him. "Kweh, kweh!" it chirped angrily.

Sazh shook his head fervently. "Uh, wait up!"

"Come on already!" called Galen from the other side.

"Coming!" replied Vanille happily. "Wheeee!" she cried as she jumped from platform to platform.

Meanwhile, Sazh was still trying to climb up the first rusted piece of junk – with help.

"Kweh, kweh, kweh," the chick counted, moving in imitation to Vanille's example. As he finally made his way up, he only just glimpsed Vanille's silhouette as she jumped down to the other side, to join Galen.

Sazh groaned. "Can't keep up with this girl!"

"Oi, Sazh!" called Galen. "You good?"

"Just dandy," replied Sazh.

Eventually, he was able to work his way over to the two kids, and they set off.

"You get tired?" asked Vanille.

"I'm good, I'm good," said a very tired Sazh.

Further on ahead, through a rusted tube that must have once served as a dry passage, they came across a curious scene.

A group of three watchdrones were spinning and dancing around a Pulsework soldier, landing kicks that seemed ineffectual against the reinforced being. It, in turn, was using its arm to whittle away at its Cocoonian foes.

"Now the robots are fighting each other?" asked Vanille.

"Staying outta that," said Galen. "Let's go around."

"Mm-mm," hummed Sazh. "Way's blocked."

"More climbing?" asked Vanille eagerly.

In amongst the kerfuffle, Sazh eyed a curious piece of machinery with an electromagnetic attachment on its front. "Nah, I got a better idea. But it involves takin' on those."

"Great," said Galen. Then an idea occurred to him. "Hey, wouldn't it be easier to just let them go at it? At this rate they'll kill each other."

Sazh shook his head sadly. "We're still on the run. If we stay here, PSICOM will be sure to find us. Better to keep moving. And that," he said as he pointed towards the electromagnetic machine, "is our only way forward."

"What are we waiting for?" asked Vanille. "Let's take 'em out!"

And with their enemy focused on each other, it was much easier to do so. After the mechanical beings were no more than ashes on the stale wind, Sazh jogged over to the machine he'd noticed before.

"Hey, Pops," said Galen. "You good with technology?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," replied Sazh, and then, in a voice much too low for the kids to hear, continued, "with modern Cocoonian tech, that is." As he looked the machine over once more, he said, "Never seen a rig like this before…"

Curious, he pulled the lever on the side facing him to the right, and the machine sputtered to life. "Here we go."

The electromagnetic attachment began to spin, at first slow, and then at a faster and faster pace. Suddenly it shot forward, sticking to the giant piece of debris blocking their path, and slowly but surely dragged it back towards them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" shouted a worried Sazh as it got closer and closer, when just as suddenly as it started, it stopped a mere few feet in front of them.

Sazh sighed in relief, and was just about to leave when he noticed both Galen and Vanille had turned to face him with eyebrows raised.

Sazh chuckled nervously, raising his hands in a peaceable manner. "I knew that would happen."

"Sure, Pops," chuckled Galen, "whatever you say."

Vanille giggled and skipped forward. "I'm gonna go peek ahead!"

"Don't go too far," warned Sazh.

"Wait," said she, stopping a few feet away. "I hear growling sounds."

"Another machine-on-machine fight, you think?" asked Galen.

"Sounds like it," said Sazh, reaching for his dual pistols. "Ready for round two, kids?"

"You got it!" said Vanille, weapon raised.

"Sure thing," agreed Galen.

This continued for a while longer before the trio found their way blocked once more, this time by a giant two-pronged rusted fan caught on more rusted pieces of junk.

"Again?"

Ignoring his annoyed companion, Sazh looked to the right, and found a panel fixed to the wall of the dry passage they were in. "This should do it," he mumbled to himself, keying in the generic override code.

The machine began to rev, eager to spin, but was too stuck to do so. Eventually it wrenched free, sending the rusted debris flying forward and causing the trio to shield themselves from anything flying towards them.

"Whew," panted Sazh once it was over. "Everyone okay?"

Galen and Vanille answered to the affirmative, and the trio continued forward through more battling robots.

"Cocoon treats everything from Pulse as evil, doesn't it?" said Vanille sadly.

Galen clapped her on the shoulder. "It'll be okay. Just gotta keep moving forward." He squinted ahead, and through the ashes of freshly-dead machine he noticed a lone figure seated on a small piece of rock in front of what looked like a dead end. "Who d'you think that is?"

"Hey! Hope!" Vanille ran forward, leaving the two guys behind her scrambling to catch up. Hope raised his head to the sound of his name, but he looked off. "We made it!"

"Where's Grumpy?" asked Sazh.

Hope hummed dismally in reply, and nodded towards the dam-like structure she had climbed over.

"Got left behind, huh?" Sazh placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder.

Hope immediately stood, brushing Sazh aside as he walked away. "Leave me alone!"

"Hey!" Sazh looked down at his hand, then to the back of Hope's head worryingly.

I thought he looked off. Rejection hurts, doesn't matter in what form. Galen crossed his arms, bearing silent witness to the events unfolding in front of him.

"This is pointless," said Hope. "Can't keep up. Can't get home. It's over for me."

"Don't say that," interjected Galen.

"It's not over!" agreed Vanille. "We'll get you home!"

Hope looked blankly at Vanille. "I don't have one. Now that Mom is…"

"What, you don't have a dad or anything?"

"Yeah. What about him?" Vanille's brows furrowed in worry.

Hope sighed, seemingly in complete misery.

…

The Bodhum fireworks festival was in full swing. Everyone was chatting and laughing around him, the 'ooh's and 'ahh's that came with each burst of colour making Hope feel somewhat at home.

"Hey, keep 'em coming!"

"You can feel it when they go off, huh?"

"This is some display!"

Hope looked over to his mother, who had her hands clasped in front of her, eyes closed as she wished. Though, nothing made him feel so at home as his mother never failed to do. After a moment, her emerald eyes opened, and she smiled down at her son. "Not making a wish, Hope?"

"Mom…" Hope chuckled. "You still believe in that kinda stuff?" As she nodded fervently, he continued, "Wishing on fireworks? Really? That's for little kids."

His mother chuckled and, grabbing hold of her son, laughed in his ear, "Who're you calling 'kid'?"

"You." Hope gazed up at the dazzling display. "So what did you wish for?"

"Oh, that next year, your father could come with us." She smiled tenderly as she, too, gazed up at the fireworks.

Hope frowned at hearing this, and, shaking her off, eventually replied, "Why? It's better like this. We don't need him."

He could feel his mother's sad and worrying eyes on him. It never occurred to him in that moment that soon, he would lose her.

…

"That night, they found the fal'Cie in the Bodhum Vestige. The next day, soldiers sealed off the town and we couldn't get back to Palumpolum. They forced us onto the train with everyone else." Hope's hands curled into fists at his side. "My mom, she was frantic. She wanted to get us home, so she tried to fight."

Vanille stepped forward, closer to Hope. She knew the rest.

Hope looked sideways at her as he slowly turned back to face her. "She got tricked, by Snow. He used her!"

"Let's get you home, okay?" Vanille would not be deterred. "Your dad's gotta be worried!"

"Let him worry." He turned away once more. "Why should I care? He doesn't."

"Any father cares," said Sazh lowly.

"Sazh?"

Now it was Sazh's turn to turn away. "It's nothing, forget it." He strode away to examine their surroundings.

As he moved closer to inspect a machine that looked similar to the one they first encountered, Vanille pulled Hope to her and walked him over to the side, and out of the way. "Follow me, okay?"

"This ought to do it," muttered Sazh as he found the lever, and pushed it. The machine whirred to life and, just like the first one, the electromagnetic attachment on its front shot forward, catching a nearby piece of junk and pulling it towards them.

"We've got time," said Sazh. "We'll get you back home. Your dad'll be happy to see you."

"In the meantime," said Galen lightly, "we have a wall to climb."

"This should help," replied Sazh, gesturing to the piece of junk that had been moved by the machine he'd powered up.

"Alright!" Galen began to climb eagerly, but inside his mind he worried. What are we gonna do when we get out of here? Where'd Lightning buzz off to? …Where's my sister?

He pushed that last question out of his mind. Wherever she was, she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She was much better at combat than he, at least. Surely that must count for something?

Worry eased slightly, Galen proceeded to help the others up and over the wall, and they continued forward through the mounds of detritus after checking the silver sphere off to the right containing a new device-controlled boomerang for Hope, model Hawkeye.

"Does this place even have an exit?" asked Galen wonderingly.

Surprisingly enough, Hope was the one to speak up. "Yeah, it should. Before Lightning went ahead, she told me this place backs into areas patrolled by Sanctum military."

Galen nodded. "Figures. More soldiers."

"That shouldn't come as much of a surprise," said Sazh. "The whole army's on the lookout for the ones that got away."

"Yeah, s'pose you got a point," replied Galen amicably.

"Hey!" piped Vanille, for the first time since before the climb. "Is that a door up there?"

They all turned their gaze forward, where what looked like a thin garage door lay. Despite the rust and chipped and worn paint, the crimson colour was still clear enough to be determined even from this distance.

"Let's check it out!" said Vanille as she ran forward.

"Wait a sec!" cried Galen, but she had already darted away. He scratched the back of his head. "Does she always do that?"

Hope shrugged. "Kinda."

A high-pitched squeal drew their attention from their short-lived conversation back to the red-headed youth. "Vanille!" shouted Galen, running to catch up to her. Hope and Sazh endeavoured the same, and as they caught the duo they saw that the door was now open, and a Pulsework soldier had emerged. By this point in time it had already knocked a surprised Vanille to the ground, and Galen was running at it with his sword drawn.

"Agh, dammit," cursed Sazh as he drew his pistols.

"Hope, Sazh! Distract it, would ya?" said Galen.

Hope readied his Airwing, not yet ready to try his newer model as of yet, and threw it into the air. From there, he guided it towards the Pulsian machine again and again, gaining the satisfying sound of reinforced plastic against metal. Sazh aimed his pistols and fired shot that hit the mechanical being everywhere he could get at, and Galen used this opportunity to pull Vanille to her feet. "You good?"

"Uh-huh," replied Vanille. "It just surprised me, is all."

"Ah, good." Galen parried a swing from the Pulsework soldier. "Time to work your magic."

"Right!"

With all four of them teamed up against it, beating the mechanical being wasn't difficult. It was especially easy when Vanille discovered it wasn't just Hope who had learned something new.

"Is it me, or does it feel like we're dealing more damage to it than before?"

"It ain't just you," replied Sazh. "The metal's…what is it, softening or somethin'?"

"Look!" cried Hope, pointing forward at their target just as it staggered back, a red light encasing it. "What's it doing?"

"I…I think it might be me…" mumbled Vanille.

"You're the one weakening it?" asked Galen, astonished. "Well, I'm not complaining!"

"Quick," said Sazh, "use the opportunity!"

"I got it!" Galen rushed forward, using his sword to cut through the now-soft metal and into the mechanical being's core, swiftly ending the fight.

"Whew!" sighed Sazh, stuffing his guns back into their holsters with a laugh. "You did good, kids."

"I'm just glad it's done," said Galen, leaning against a jagged rock. "That thing had armour for days!" He nodded at Vanille. "Seriously, you saved us a lot of trouble. How did you do that, anyway?"

Vanille shrugged. "It was definitely some kind of magic. I have no idea, though."

"Remember that discussion we had in Bresha? About the types of magic?" said Hope. "Seemed a lot like debilitating magic. Maybe it was a saboteur ability?"

"Hey, that could be it!" Vanille smiled and let out a small giggle.

"Aright, people, let's move it," said Sazh. "We got aways to go before we catch up with Soldier Girl anyhow."

"Right," said Galen. "Let's move our arses, then."

A/N: Done and dusted! Right. You guys know the drill. R&R, ConCrit, whatever. I honestly don't care. Don't usually like being a review whore but there's no getting around that. Please review!

Fang out.