Chapter 7: The Warrens

[Author's Note: This is the first chapter where I will take a bit of creative license with the world. My reasons for doing this are mainly to flesh out the Warrens a bit as they were not given much of an introduction in the game proper and I wanted to tie together the positioning of the Gertrude enemies as being solely in the Warrens. I promise, any derivative from essentially a "game script" will be in keeping with the tone of the canon story.]

Day 1, 02:00

Lightning sat down at the Restaurant District, the flickering light of the streetlamps illuminating a bowl of some fascinating stew. The owner claimed the ingredients had been imported directly from the Wildlands, but she somehow doubted that. You certainly wouldn't get such select ingredients in a stew that tasted this good for only 100 gil.

"So, what do you want to do?" Hope asked as Lightning finished her meal. "You want to find that code?"

Lightning wiped her mouth with a napkin, returned her bowl to the owner and headed towards the Gate that lead back into the Plaza.

"The Children of Etro are gathering now. They'll be out of my reach until they're done with their... business," she replied.

"It seems like a waste to just wait here until then. Why not explore the city for a while?" Hope suggested.

"I might as well. There's not much time left. I won't waste it."

"Yes, your time is the most precious thing you have now. How you use these few days may decide the very fate of the world."

I'm aware of that Hope, Lightning thought as she scanned the Plaza. To think that she'd been at this strange quest for only a mere twenty hours. Each moment of the first day went rushing through her head. Were it not for the fact that she'd spent five hundred years in crystal stasis, and truly knew what an eternity felt like, she might say that this day had seemed to last forever.

Lightning walked back into the train station and noticed a gate that had been previously shut was now open. It led out onto a dirt path and a narrow blockaded corridor. Lightning figured this was as good a place as any to start, when Holmes stopped her.

"Ma'am," he said kindly. "You... you do know that this leads to the Warrens, right? It's not exactly safe for visitors."

"What's with the gate?" Lightning asked.

"Well, the people in the Warrens tend to be an odd lot. They sleep during the day and only come out at night. For the safety of our citizens we bar passage to the Warrens except when they are up doing business at night time. It's just easier for us all," Holmes explained.

"You mean you keep them caged in here like animals?" Lightning asked.

"N-no nothing like that. But with the Chaos Infusions lately it's safer to keep parts of the city locked off. Besides, the people in the Warrens... they support those heretics," Holmes said.

"This gate's not going to lock behind me is it?" Lightning asked, ignoring Holmes' rationalizations.

"We lock them at 6 AM. Just be back before sunrise," Holmes explained. "Unless you want to spend tomorrow there too."

Lightning walked through the corridor, rubbing her head. "Hope?"

"Yeah, I caught that," Hope said. "It's like I said, tensions are high and the people of the city are split between supporting the Order and supporting the Heretics. They segregate some of the 'less desirable' people into the Warrens."

"That kind of treatment can only go on for so long before somebody does something reckless."

"That's true. I suppose it's not hard to see why so many people think the Order is abusing their power."

Lightning rounded the corner of the corridor and fully took in the sight of the Warrens. The entire northern cluster of the city was a shanty town made up of half-constructed buildings, ruins, and even desolate shacks out of spare supplies. Large hovering robots patrolled around town. Perhaps the Order had argued that these were to protect the citizens, but Lightning knew crowd control when she saw it. The message was very clear: Keep in line, or we'll keep you in line.

Lights shone around the Warrens, illuminating the entire area in a surreal and almost beautiful glow. The distant rumbling of the monorail over their heads was the only sound to rival the whirring of the mechanical sentries' engines. Any business conducted in the part of the city was clearly conducted in silence.

"Are you seeing this, Hope? It must be the heretic's sanctuary."

"Hopefully we'll be able to find out more about this mysterious Shadow Hunter. I have a lot of questions I want to ask him. Like why is he targeting you?"

Always on my side, Lightning thought. That was very much like him. The "old" Hope. The one who was still little more than a boy with a burden that most men could not bear. He would stand by Lightning because she gave him strength. She stood by him because she knew what it was like to be him. To worry to the point of losing control of yourself; your emotions completely out of control.

Now things were very different. He was the one instructing her. Helping her. Giving her strength when she needed it. Returning the favor? Or was there something beyond just that. They were friends, of course, but somewhere over the years Lightning had forgotten exactly what that meant. Not that she was not grateful to him, or did not care about him. But the effects had all been muted somewhat. She was not sure how to describe it. It was as though she was only play acting at the emotions she knew she should be feeling. But it was all a mental procedure, not an emotional one.

And yet her thoughts had been stirred by this sentence, and the one which he'd spoken two hours ago. Even if the world hates you...

She checked her watch. It was now 3 AM. Time was running out. She looked around the Warrens for any sign of the heretics, or anybody who looked out of place. Then again, in a place like this, who could tell what "out of place" was?

She spent the next few hours going from building to building with very little result. The place was a shambled mess of a place and only a few of the residents were willing to talk with Lightning. The information she gathered was nothing she didn't already know.

She checked her watch again. 5:45 AM. Any minute now Hope would be transporting her back to the Ark. As she rounded a corner she ran right into one of the robotic sentries.

"Halt, citizen. Present identification," the machine stated in a level, pre-recorded woman's voice similar to the one Lightning had heard at the train station.

"Sorry, just visiting," Lightning replied, turning towards a back alley.

"Halt, citizen. I am a Sentry. Classification: Gertrude. I have been entrusted with apprehending citizens under suspicion of illegal activities. Please present identification, or else remain where you are while awaiting an Inquisitor," The machine chimed on.

"Fine, I'll wait," Lightning said. "I hope he shows up within fifteen minutes or you'll be in for quite the show."

"Understood. Contacting local authorities. Please place any weapons on the ground in front of you and take two paces back," The Gertrude chimed.

"Oh shut up you piece of junk!" Shouted a drunk man from the side of the street. "You stupid bastard!"

He threw a bottle at the machine which shattered against its metal frame.

"Citizen violence detected. First and final warning: surrender or I will use deadly force," the Gertrude sang in that same level voice.

"You already did! How many more of us are you gonna just slaughter like lambs!" The man shouted throwing a rock this time. It dented the hull of the Gertrude.

"Stop it!" Lightning ordered. "You're not going to win this fight."

"Citizen violence confirmed. Beginning outbreak protocol," The Gertrude's four arms lifted up and it rushed towards the man.

The man shielded his head with his hands, but Lightning got there first. Her sword cut through the Gertrude as though it were made of paper. The wreckage that was once the Gertrude landed at the man's feet.

"What the hell is the matter with you. You could have gotten yourself killed!" Lightning shouted.

There it was again. She was not truly angry with the man. Had her job not been to save souls, and by extension lives, she would have let him get crushed for his stupidity. But she knew that he would respond to this anger. He needed to hear her concern. All just a mental exercise.

"That machine. I don't know if it was that one of course, but... my wife was killed by one of them, during a riot. She was just an innocent bystander. She didn't do anything to provoke it. But it... it killed her anyways," the old man began to sob.

"Listen, I know it has to be hard. But getting yourself killed isn't going to solve anything," Lightning said. "Your wife wouldn't want you to drink your life away and end up dying the same way she did, do you understand me. She would want you to live."

The old man looked up at the woman. He stopped sobbing as he noticed her hair. The faintest of smiles spread across his lips. "So it's true. The Savior has come at last."

A small beeping on her watch alerted Lightning to the time. 6 AM. The light of Hope's warp machine began to surround her. As the old man began to sob once more, she felt that same warm feeling on her chest. One last soul for the day, just in time.

And after all, her time was the most precious thing she had now.

~~~*The First Day Is Over*~~~