Lightning had visited Eden just a few months earlier, when she'd toured the University with Serah. She hadn't quite come to terms with the idea of her sister leaving town to live on Cocoon's gleaming capital in the sky, and the city's had felt a little overwhelming with its glass-walled skyways monuments as big as the Pulse Vestige in Bodhum, and plazas bigger than the whole town.
As her airship swooped in over Leviathan Plaza to set down in the special landing zone outside the capital hall, she dimly noted that the sight didn't impress her anymore. She just wished it wasn't so long a walk to the entrance.
There were quite a few more soldiers milling about this time, walking the plaza in squads of two or three, wearing full combat gear and the ornamented helmets of the Sanctum Vigil.
"That's a lot of security," she said, as she stepped off the ship.
"First thing they did was call up the reserves," Rygdea said. "Word is there's more soldiers running around than they can think up assignments for."
They walked through the huge glass doors that led into Edenhall, the giant arching capitol building that housed the Sanctum Council and the Primarch's offices. Even more of the Vigil were patrolling inside, along with a fair number of officers in black PSICOM gear. By Lightning's estimate, soldiers outnumbered civilians in the hall by at least three to one.
One of them, in particular, stood out. Apart from Rygdea and Lightning herself, he was the only one in a Guardian Corps uniform, and his was more elaborate than any gear she'd ever seen in person. The ankle-length, white-and-gray cloak, the silver trim and spiked shoulder guard told her he had to be a member of the Unified Command, though the man couldn't be older than forty.
As they approached, he'd been staring out the windows and Lightning had only seen him in profile. When he turned to look at them, however, she recognized him immediately.
"So this is her?" he asked, although Lightning thought it was more of a greeting than a question.
Rygdea nodded. "The demon slayer herself." His tone was relaxed, but not amused, so Lightning was reasonably sure he wasn't making fun of her.
The other man nodded, fixing Lightning with a look that seemed to drill right through her skull. It gave her a bit of a chill. "Cid Raines," he said, with a small nod, after holding the gaze for a moment. "Brigader General of the fleet."
"Sir." Lightning didn't salute. Raines hadn't either, but there was something in the way he was looking at her that put her a little off balance.
"Come." With that, he turned and walked off toward one of the lifts. Rygdea gave her a knowing little shrug and followed, and Lightning quickly fell in as well. The rest of the crowd split apart to make way. "I assume you're familiar with my assignment."
That was a safe assumption, since Raines held one of the military's most coveted positions. "You're field commander of the Cavalry, sir."
He nodded. "Which places me in a rather complicated situation. My soldiers are trained in rapid response, and skilled in battling the most unusual threats. Yet by order of the Sanctum, we have been sidelined, as threats from Pulse are the domain of PSICOM Division. Meanwhile, PSICOM has devoted its resources to the Purge." They stepped into the lift, which carried them up from the entrance hall into the high archway that looped over the city. "In any case, I have chosen to familiarize myself with those involved in each l'Cie encounter. And in so doing, I reviewed a most fascinating account, of one soldier who defeated a l'Cie."
Raines had fixed her with that piercing look again, and Lightning found herself a little taken aback. "I wouldn't say defeated, sir."
"I reviewed the encounter." Raines turned away, facing the doors. "You had far more success than you know."
The doors opened, and they stepped out onto the skybridge. Virtually the whole thing was made of glass wrapped around a gleaming white skeleton, and she could see all of Eden laid out below them, and the rest of Cocoon beyond.
Arrayed along both sides of the hall, on glowing white pedestals, were dozens of life-size, crystalline figures. Some had hands outstretched as if grasping for something, others had fists and a combat-ready stance, and still others had their arms across their chest as if waiting to be buried. Each one was unique, and they all seemed to glow with an otherworldly light.
"I assume you know what these are," said Raines, without looking back at her.
"Sir." It wasn't much of a question. Every kid in Cocoon learned about the Hall of Heroes.
Raines led them down the hall. Whenever they passed near one of the figures, a few lines of hologram text would flash up near the base of the crystal, recounting some ancient warrior's deeds in the battle against Pulse. There were dozens of them, and gradually Lightning noticed that they weren't quite what she'd expected. Some of them looked out of shape, and a few looked barely older than children. None of them seemed particularly larger than life.
It reminded her of the impression she'd had of the Pulse l'Cie. As an enemy, the woman had been stronger, tougher, and faster than anyone Lightning had ever faced, but there had still been a sense of basic humanity to her. Nothing like that creature that had appeared at the end.
"So far," said Raines, "we have two confirmed encounters with the Pulse l'Cie. Of course, you know about the second. The first was ten days ago, at the Euride Gorge energy plant. The Sanctum branded it as an accident, to keep the populace free of panic. In truth, two Pulse l'Cie destroyed nearly the entire local garrison, and assaulted the local fal'Cie."
Lightning hadn't really been thinking about how this could get any worse, but if she had, this would probably be the next logical step. "Two of them?" she asked.
Raines nodded. "One is certainly the woman you encountered. We don't know what happened to the other."
They came to the end of the hall, where a huge, elaborate sculpture portrayed the Sanctum's armies forming a protective shield around the shell of Cocoon, while a host of monsters and demonic-looking warriors piled atop each other in an attempt to reach its shell. The floor was recessed to make room for the installation, making it look like the Pulse monsters were swarming up from beneath the arch and might drag them all down into the sky.
"I understand," said Raines, looking back at her, "that you believe one of the l'Cie was responsible for taking your sister."
Lightning started. "Yes, sir."
"Do you know why a l'Cie would take any interest in her?"
She really wished she could have figured out an answer to that by now. "I don't know why they do anything, sir."
Raines nodded. "We think the creature that attacked you on the island was a creature called an eidolon, summoned by the Pulse l'Cie. Based on our records from the war, eidolons only appear to a very few l'Cie. And when they face an eidolon, most l'Cie do not survive." He turned back around, focusing on the sculpture ahead of them. "But those l'Cie who conquer an eidolon become all but unstoppable."
Lightning could remember the impact when the creature had struck her. She didn't have trouble believing him.
She heard the general take in a breath. His shoulders slumped and he hunched forward for a moment as though something had just hit him in the gut. The moment passed before she could think on it too closely, and with a glance back at Lightning, he strode past the sculpture, to where a Vigil guard stood next to a closed door. The guard stood aside, Raines stepped over to the door, and turned to motion for Lightning to accompany him.
As soon as Lightning stepped through the doorway, a wave of dizziness hit her, and for a second she thought she might pass out. The moment passed, but when she had a chance to take in the room, it felt almost as disorienting. Instead of the bright, glass-walled design of the Hall of Heroes, the place had a classical construction, with ornamented walls and stained-glass windows projecting a pale blue light. A ring of pillars and vaulted arches patterned the hall around an octagonal dais in the center, and a trio of tall, hooded feminine figures—one black, one white, and one gold—were set into alcoves in the walls.
As she looked around, Lightning noticed that Rygdea wasn't with them anymore. Had he come with them to the hall? She needed to start paying closer attention.
"During the War of Transgression," said Raines, walking up to the dais, "the heroes of Cocoon came here to ask for Eden's blessing. The Sanctum's fal'Cie granted them the power to defeat its enemies." He turned. "And to protect its people."
The tightness in her chest was back. Lightning couldn't shake the sense that those statues were watching her.
"Why am I here, sir?" she asked.
Raines took a few steps back in her direction. "The war was nearly seven hundred years ago, but not so much has changed. Our technology is based on fal'Cie's power, just as it was then. The military has funded countless projects over the years, but none have approached the destructive power we saw when Pulse attacked." When he came to a stop, he was standing just off to one side as she faced the center of the room. The white statue loomed just over his shoulder. "Even after all this time, we still know only one sure way to defeat a l'Cie."
A chill seemed to wash through the room. The light through the windows seemed to brighten, as if a cloud had passed away. Some part of her wanted to panic, but the greater part of her just felt numb. It felt like she'd known this was coming.
"With another l'Cie," she said.
Raines nodded. "This is not a burden I can order anyone to assume. Once made a l'Cie, there is no turning back. A l'Cie's life is no longer their own. They exist only to fulfill the Focus the fal'Cie gives them. But in return, they have the power to face any opponent. What's more, l'Cie exist outside the normal chains of procedure, with almost total discretion as to how their task is accomplished."
Lightning looked up at the figures in the walls. Each one was about four times her height, and completely impassive. Fal'Cie statues were always like that, completely indifferent to the humans who literally set their clocks according to the fal'Cie's time.
"And when it's finished?" she asked, although she wasn't sure why. She'd known the answer long before she saw those statues in the hall.
Raines turned away, looking up at the figures as well. "All l'Cie who fulfill their Focus in service of Cocoon are granted the gift of eternal life, and join the heroes of the past in crystal sleep. It is the fal'Cie's ultimate reward."
Being turned into a display piece didn't seem like much of an ultimate reward, but that was beside the point. She didn't even bother to ask about the l'Cie who failed, because that wasn't an acceptable outcome anyway.
"What do I have to do?" she asked.
Raines motioned toward the dais. "Step forward."
The click of Lightning's boots on the floor echoed through the room in a way she hadn't noticed before. The room was bigger than she'd realized, too, and it took her longer to reach the dais in the center than she would have guessed. As it loomed larger ahead of her, reaching up nearly to her shoulders, she got the sense that she was shrinking as the rest of the world grew to overwhelm her.
As she came up to the near side of the dais, the sounds around her vanished, as if someone had just muted the world. A pale glow lit the air around the three tall figures, subtly at first, then brightening as the light from the stained-glass windows began to fade away. The figures seemed to loom forward from their recess in the walls to became the only solid objects in the room.
Then the room was gone. The floor had vanished under Lightning's feet, and she felt the sort of weightlessness that usually came within a grav-con field. She could be falling, but there was no sense of motion, and the air around her was deadly still. And she felt a sort of electric charge around her that made her hair dance on end.
She heard something behind her, like chimes and falling glass, and turned to see that she wasn't alone. A metallic figure loomed in the dark, metallic skin surrounded by loops of crystal chain. It resembled the statues in the vanished hall, only impossibly larger, and this one's face was uncovered. Its upraised arms vanished in the folds of an ornate robe that looped outward and down, tapering to end alongside the figure's legs to form a shape like a titanic mask. Its eyes glowed a cold white, and its face looked down at her with a blank, indifferent stare.
It took Lightning a long moment to realize that she'd seen this before, too many times to count. The immense figure before her made a shape that was uncannily similar to the Sanctum's official crest. An emblem whose design had been patterned after the fal'Cie god Lindzei, creator of Cocoon.
The figure's arms moved, looming over Lightning and seeming to fan a cloud of pale mist that closed in to surround her. Then, in a flash, the mist solidified into a mass of silvery tentacles that coiled around her arms, then legs, then neck. She fought it, by reflex, but the bindings didn't care. The chimes had multiplied, and the sound had become a deafening wave.
Then a new beam shot out from somewhere inside the giant's metal sleeve. Lightning caught an instant's glimpse of a glowing, outstretched hand amidst the light before it struck her square in the chest.
She barely had time to expect it would hurt, but she was still surprised when it didn't. The impact knocked her back, her arms and legs went rigid, but the tendrils holding them actually seemed to cushion the blow. What she mostly felt was cold, as though something inside her was freezing, and a sensation that something was being pulled out straight through her ribcage. Now she definitely wanted to panic, or fight back, or something, only now she couldn't move at all.
It released her. She began to fall, or the giant figure was rising away from her, and the world faded to darkness again.
Lightning didn't exactly see what happened next. Images and impressions flashed through her mind, like memories that she'd never experienced. There was a war, with lines of soldiers falling, airships breaking apart in the sky. People were cowering behind rubble, and buildings crumbled like sand.
And there was the Pulse l'Cie whom Lightning had fought on the island. She was standing in a giant hall, and she was screaming, and changing into something else. Her hands sharpened to claws, her back exploded into a mass of frozen flame, and a huge tail snapped behind her. Her voice wavered until it didn't sound human anymore, and the world cracked around her.
When the impressions faded, everything else had gone as well. Her surroundings had vanished, all her senses had gone, and there was nothing left but darkness.