"Sweep team to base. L'Cie spotted. Repeat, l'Cie spotted."
Lightning almost couldn't believe it. They'd been sweeping Bodhum and the surrounding islands for a day and a half now, and she'd been fighting off a sinking feeling that the l'Cie was already outside their net. What's more, the PSICOM teams who'd swooped in on the area hadn't transmitted so much as a test signal on a frequency the Corps units could pick up. This call had come out on an open channel. Someone must have startled.
"Pulse l'Cie, confirmed. Initiating containment protocol."
Lightning was hanging on to the side seat of a Corps velocycle, as Dacks flew them over the reefs. They'd expanded the search out here in the morning, as it was theoretically possible for someone to wade all the way to the mainland while keeping their head above water — if they were surefooted enough, and had the right kind of superhuman stamina. According to the automap displayed across her windscreen, the PSICOM broadcast was coming from some finger of an island too small to have a name, about three kilometers away.
"Get us over there," she ordered.
Dacks complied, gunning the cycle up to its top speed. Lightning tightened her grip on the handlebar above the vehicle's door and leaned against the windscreen as the passing air tore at her arm and leg. She could make out the double contrails of skyfighters circling the island, and the fainter trails of other velocycles, but PSICOM seemed to have called all the skytanks back when they'd decided to uproot the Pulse Vestige and evacuate Bodhum's population. The logic of that had become more apparent this morning, when they started calling it a Purge.
Lightning shook her head. She'd been doing a decent job of keeping that out of her head, and there wasn't anything she could do about it now.
The island wasn't more than half a kilometer long, a rocky ridge that stuck up out of a sandbar (or a sandbar that had gathered around a ridge; Lightning wasn't a geologist), and they came up on it fast. The PSICOM units were circling around a point near the peak of the ridge, shortly before a sheer cliff that dropped back into the sea.
Lightning hardly needed the cycle's scope to spot the l'Cie, as her clothes were the only color on the whole rock. It was a woman, whose clothes consisted mainly of some kind of bright blue sash. Under that was a lot of black, though from a distance Lightning couldn't quite tell the clothes from the tattoos. But she recognized the wild hair and the curve-bladed staff, and the figure made a plausible enough candidate for a demon warrior from Pulse.
She was also clearly alone. Lightning could see the whole island as Dacks swooped in, and there was no sign of Serah anywhere.
By the time they arrived overhead, it was clear the PSICOM units were committed to keeping their distance, staying a couple hundred meters in the air and circling the l'Cie like carrion monsters, as if she'd just fall down and give up on her own. "This their 'containment protocol?'" she asked, shaking her head.
Dacks shrugged. "Can't really blame them. Who wants to be the first guy to take on a l'Cie?"
Lightning peered down at the woman. She'd stopped, the staff was in her hands, and she was shouting. She didn't have a chance to hear the words over the distance and the velocycle's engine, but it looked a lot like a challenge, like the woman was daring them to make the next move.
Her free hand closed around her gunblade. "Let me down."
He blinked. "Sergeant?"
"Do it."
Dacks hesitated. "You sure we shouldn't let PSICOM take this? If that's really a Pulse l'Cie—"
She flashed a glare that shut him up. "Just cover me."
Without another word, Dacks swung the velocycle around and came swooping in on the island along the length of the ridge. At about two hundred meters, Lightning pushed off into midair, drawing her gunblade as soon as she'd cleared the vehicle. Dacks had made a good run; she was set to come down practically on top of the l'Cie. Which was good, as she was falling quite a bit faster than terminal velocity and had only a few seconds to maneuver.
Pulling out a gravity bomb from her pack, she armed the device and threw it ahead of her after she'd confirmed her contact site. The l'Cie didn't seem to notice, or didn't know what the device was, as she stood her ground as Lightning made her way down.
The bomb hit the ground with a flash that left a bubble of distorted physics, sending sand and loose rocks swirling into the air and draining all of Lightning's momentum just before she hit the ground. She came down standing, weapon at the ready — and it was a good thing, because her target didn't seem affected at all. She was standing not two meters away, well within the gravity bubble, staff driven into the ground in some sort of defensive pose, and Lightning caught a faint shimmer of energy glowing around her.
Around then, she finally began to process what it might mean to fight a l'Cie. But there wasn't much time to dwell on it, so she took a quick read of the woman's stance and then charged.
The target was slow to respond, so apparently her power took a lot of concentration. Lightning's blade caught her across the forearm, but glanced off leaving only a razor-thin trace of blood. She reversed and cut her across the leg, with with no better results. Then she saw the l'Cie's stance change and propelled herself backwards just as the lance leapt up to miss her own arm by a hairbreadth.
Both of them fell back into a guarded stance, out of range. Lightning heard an engine whir behind her, and caught sight of Dacks' velocycle in her peripheral vision, coming to a hover over her shoulder.
"Where is she?" she demanded, not expecting an answer so much as time to get a better read on her opponent.
The woman scoffed. "Oh, is this the part where I tell you everything?" She had an aggressive posture; the lance was balanced in one hand, despite being even taller than she was, and she crouched as if ready to leap in any direction on a half-second's notice. Lightning didn't recognize the fighting style, but the woman looked like a natural for it. "Don't think so."
"You're surrounded," Lightning returned. "Start talking, or die right here." Killing her wasn't really an option just yet, but she was betting she wouldn't have to. To make it this far from Bodhum, the woman must have been running all but nonstop since the festival night, and Lightning could tell she wasn't at her peak. Lightning was betting she could wear her down.
"Yeah?" The woman's raised her lance, aiming straight at Lightning's face. "I've got another idea."
She lunged, and Lightning dodged, catching the lance with her gunblade and twisting to jab an elbow at the target's midsection, but the attack had more force than she'd anticipated and she staggered off balance. Her target took advantage, swinging the lance around and forcing Lightning to jump backward, then she drove the thing into the ground and vaulted herself forward, boots connecting with Lightning's center of mass. She wasn't quite sure how she managed to stop her falling over, but before her feet could regain purchase the lance was slicing toward her again, opening a gash across her tunic. Lightning didn't have time to check whether it had broken the skin, but it certainly stung enough.
The target clearly had Lightning beaten for strength as well as toughness, which left her with a pretty short list of advantages. Worse, she was getting driven towards the edge of the ridge, and fast losing her room to maneuver. She'd needed to turn the tide, fast.
She barely deflected the next jab from the target's lance, then made a half-spin to aim the gunblade back at her legs, but halfway through the move the lance split into three pieces and the bladed ends dove straight in at her. One caught on her tunic just below the neck, while the other bit into her arm before she could twist away. Then the target landed a kick on her midsection, propelling them apart long enough for the second it took her to reassemble the lance, and dove back in with a swing that nearly cut Lightning's feet out from under her. Her gunblade stopped the attack, but she couldn't riposte as the blocking took all the energy she had. The l'Cie, on the other hand, reversed the lance and took another stab, spearing into her just below the hip.
That hurt, but it gave Lightning the opening she needed to retaliate. Turning while the lance was still caught in her uniform, she drove her elbow into the target's chest, then bashed her with the hilt of her gunblade. Then, launching herself backward while the target was off-balance, she retracted the blade and shot her right in the shoulder. A half-second later, while Lightning pulled out a potion for the wound on her leg, Dacks fired a blast from the velocycle's beam gun, burning a trench through the ground under the target's feet and showering her with shrapnel from the superheated rock.
All their efforts were rewarded with a grunt from the l'Cie, whose expression looked annoyed for the first time. Lightning was becoming a lot less worried about killing her by accident.
The target's next charge came with a lot more force. Lightning parried, ducking under the lance, but the other end of it spun around and caught her anyway, right across the belt. This one stung a lot more, so she must have got skin, and Lightning barely had time to react as the lance split apart again. She caught the target's arm, used the leverage to swing herself away and made a swing with the gunblade mainly designed to buy her time before she finally managed to take up a proper defensive stance.
As soon as Lightning disengaged, Dacks fired a burst from the velocycle's machinegun. This time, the target dodged most of the bullets, twisted her foot and launched herself straight at the vehicle. Dacks flinched away, but the l'Cie got a hold on the vehicle's front fender, then jabbed her lance right into the forward gravity wheel. There was a flash and a painful screeching noise, and the l'Cie jumped back as the velocycle spun out of control, smoke pouring from the engine.
"Figures," she said, turning back to Lightning with an expression halfway between a grin and a sneer. "Even your machines are pathetic."
"Save it." Lightning charged again, but three strikes in a row got deflected by the target's lance before she could even get within range; the third time, she ended up with a cut across her knee. The target had nearly double Lightning's reach with that damn thing, and she got the feeling the l'Cie was playing with her. She was definitely driving Lightning dangerously close to the edge, so with a frustrated grunt she snapped on her grav-con unit and jumped, taking an arc that carried her well over the target's head. At around the midpoint she fired straight down, catching the surprised l'Cie dead center, then took a swing just as she landed that cut into the target's leg.
That really should have slowed her down more than it did. Lightning had enough time to slap a potion on her knee after a pretty unplesant landing, but then the target was on her again, with a stab at Lightning's chest that she barely managed to deflect, a swing that caught her arm, and then a kick to Lightning's stomach that nearly sent her sprawling. She managed to roll at the last second and come back to her feet just in time to see the target making a running leap at her. She twisted, and managed to avoid most of the blow, but the lance still cut into her side between two ribs. That hurt — the blades weren't just sharp, they felt like sandpaper going in — but if her tunic hadn't stopped them, it did seem to have distorted the l'Cie's follow-through, so Lightning had an opportunity. Even while she cried out as pain flared from her broken nerves, she grabbed the lance, turned to throw the l'Cie off balance, then drove her knee into the target's stomach. Then, her free hand pulled out the knife Serah had given her, flipped it open and swung. It cut a gash up the target's arm, right below the scorched white brand on her shoulder, but the woman had recovered quickly and it didn't cut deep.
Still, it was enough to make her back off, retreating to a defensive posture. "You really don't know when to quit," she growled, and Lightning noticed she was breathing heavier now.
"You're surrounded, remember?" Lightning smashed another potion against the cut in her side, and managed to stop most of the bleeding. That was three in barely a minute, was starting to feel the tingling that warned half her body was about to go numb if she kept using the things, but she was nearly out of them anyway. "Only one way this ends."
"Heard that before." And the l'Cie charged again. All the signs told Lightning she was wearing the woman down — her posture was slacking, her breathing was harder, her voice had gotten tighter — but she still came on with the force of a training drone and Lightning barely deflected the lance away from her neck. A knee caught her on the wound in her side, the staff of the lance slammed into her collarbone and the l'Cie delivered a kick that took her straight off her feet. She lost her grip on her gunblade, and for the second she hovered in midair, she saw the lance spinning around, the l'Cie ready to deliver a finishing blow.
She also saw Dacks' velocycle rising behind her, shuddering back into position. Snapping on her grav-con unit, she drove her fist against her remaining gravity bomb just as she hit the ground. Another gravity bubble exploded around her, and the energy field shot her a good twenty meters up. The blast caught the target off guard this time, and she was left flailing in midair. Dacks took advantage, and blasted her right in the side with the cycle's beam cannon.
Lightning switched off the grav-con unit, landing in time to catch the end of the gravity bubble and retrieving her gunblade from midair. The target, while singed, recovered just as quickly, and made her feeblest charge yet. Lightning parried her thrust with only a moderate effort, then swung her gunblade down in a sweep that nearly caught her leg. The l'Cie deflected the blow, then the lance split apart and Lightning could only parry at one end; the other cut across her cheek. She drove up with the gunblade's hilt, caught the target on her jaw and tried to get some distance and give Dacks another clear shot, but the target must have figured out the plan as well and stayed with her. Pulling out Serah's knife again, Lightning stabbed at her shoulder, then caught the riposte with her arm, taking another bad gash as she twisted away, converting her gunblade and getting just enough room to jam it against the exposed skin above the target's hip and pull the trigger. This time, the shot tore right through her.
The l'Cie made a cry that was equal parts pained and angry, and took a wild swing with the lance that twisted Serah's knife out of Lightning's hand and caught her just below the collarbone. Her tunic took most of the force, and Lightning grabbed her arm, twisting at the wrist and kneeing her hard. She was actually surprised when the move succeeded in breaking the target's grip on the lance, and one loose end clattered down to the rock. Before the l'Cie could recover, Lightning planted her foot on the tip, leaned in, made a fist and punched her hard in the side of her head.
The exertion was enough put spots in front of her eyes; she stumbled, and or the first time she worried about how much blood she'd lost. But she'd managed to knock the target to her knees, and broken her hold on her lance. Fighting through her own daze, Lightning kicked the lance away and aimed her gunblade at her throat. "I want answers!" she said, picking up Serah's knife without once breaking the l'Cie's gaze or lowering her blade.
The woman glared up at her, with eyes that knew she'd lost but didn't want to admit it. "You're wasting your time," she said, practically coughing out the last word. "You want to wipe out the big, bad l'Cie? Sorry, I'm all you get."
Lightning narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about? Where's my sister?"
The woman didn't seem to be listening anymore. She coughed, clutching the knife wound on her arm, and she couldn't seem to keep her head up. "You're not gonna get a thing from me," she hissed, this time to Lightning's boots. "So do us both a favor, and just finish it!"
Around then, Lightning noticed that the target's shoulder was glowing. And she wasn't actually clutching her knife wound, but the white brand just above it that was now shining with blue-white light. A second later, the ground around her was glowing too.
Lightning took a step back. The ground was shaking, with a rumble that seemed to reverberate right through Cocoon's shell, and the whole sea was rippling with waves larger than she had ever seen. Then a column of light, brighter than Phoenix, speared up from the l'Cie, who made the first cry of pure pain Lightning had heard from her.
A second after her eyes adjusted, Lightning looked up, and caught sight of a large, dark object diving straight at them.
She got halfway into a defensive stance, but it didn't help. Something cold and hard struck her right in the chest, lifting her off her feet and sending her flying. She shook herself out of the daze just in time to snap on her grav-con unit, stopping in midair an instant before she would have smashed against the rocks.
The creature was now hovering over her and the l'Cie, a massive mechanical monster with a silver head and huge orange claws. It was glaring down at the l'Cie, who had that annoyed expression again.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, picking up her lance. "I don't need you! I was doing just fine!"
Seeing the situation about to escape from her, Lightning brought up her gunblade and charged back towards the two as soon as her feet touched the ground, trying to ignore the stabbing pain that told her the thing had probably cracked a rib. Before she was halfway there, a blast of energy flared out from the creature's claws and crashed right into her. She was dimly aware of being knocked off her feet and tumbling down the ridge, but her awareness had given out before she hit the bottom.