Serah was finishing a package of dried fruit that had been salvaged from the train when shots rang out behind her. The noise had become a familiar one throughout the day, as monsters started to come wandering across the crystal sea towards their makeshift camp, but these were the nearest yet.
The sound sent a jolt through the little circle of people in their makeshift dining area. Some people made as if to retreat to one of the nearby train cars, while others looked ready to break off running in the other direction. One man got halfway through switching off the lantern that they were gathered around, but apparently changed his mind and ended up shading it with his hands.
More gunshots, and shouts in the muffled tones of the PSICOM soldiers, followed by a more frantic round of firing. Things didn't seem to be going well.
Serah got up and edged around the train to see what the commotion was. She saw a boy, probably a few years younger than her, nearly tripping over himself as he scrambled towards the group. Behind him, four soldiers were picketed near the farthest of the fallen train cars, facing off against a creature that looked like a giant sock puppet covered in goo.
Mostly just a shoulder-high yellow blob, the monster was topped with a brown splotch that gave the look of a bandanna covering its head, plus round protrusions for eyes above a gaping mouth and thick, slimy arms. And from the way its body rippled in time with the gunshots, Serah couldn't tell if the bullets were bouncing off the creature or just getting absorbed in it.
"Hold your ground!" one soldier was shouting. "Don't let it near the civilians!"
One of the creature's arms snapped out, stretching to at least three times its original length and catching the nearest soldier square in the chest with a loud, wet smack. The impact was enough to knock the man clean off his feet.
"Weapons ineffective!" another soldier called, and Serah thought she could hear panic cracking his voice.
"Use the manadrive!" the first soldier replied.
The monster made a kind of sucking sound as it oozed toward the train car where Serah stood. Behind her, she could hear people knocking over the little dining area as they retreated from the thing.
Underneath the fabric of her jacket, the mark on her arm was tingling.
"All forces attack!" ordered one of the soldiers, and two of them opened fire again. The monster made an odd sort of jiggling motion that made it look even more like a giant piece of pudding, and briefly came to a halt.
Then the other two soldiers were charging in. A bright, wavering orange glow had appeared around their swords, as if the weapons had caught fire. The monster lashed out at one of the soldiers, but the man raised his sword and cut a big, slimy chunk right out of it. The second soldier took a swing right between the creature's eyes, leaving a blackened gash that looked a little like burnt caramel.
While the monster kept advancing, the soldiers' weapons were making effective work of it now. Before it had closed half the remaining distance to Serah's train car, the thing collapsed into a blob of goo as it apparently lost the strength to hold itself together. A sickly sweet, charred odor wafted out from the mess.
"What's going on?" Snow's voice broke onto the scene a second before he came running up from behind one of the bigger crystal waves. Gadot and Lebreau were following close behind. "Serah! Are you okay? What happened?"
"The situation's under control," said the leader of the soldiers. "Shouldn't your team be watching the Vestige?"
"That's what you're worried about?" Snow demanded, turning on the man. "You people let a monster get this close to the refugees? What happened to you guys and your 'perimeter?'"
"Keep your voice down! We don't need you agitating the civilians by causing a scene!"
"What, so PSICOM's worried about agitating people? Now I've really heard it all."
Yuj and Maqui were running up to join the group now. Serah thought there was a pretty good chance of this getting out of hand. "Hey, Snow? It's okay." She stepped forward, trying to get his attention. "I think everyone's fine."
It worked, and the soldiers' leader took the opportunity to lead his men away. One of them was limping; Serah thought he was the man who'd been knocked over by the creature.
"Unbelievable," said Snow, shaking his head. "They're the guys who put us down here in the first place, and they act like it's just another day at the office."
He had a point, but Serah didn't really want to feed the discussion. "It looked like normal attacks didn't work on that monster," she said.
"Yeah, that figures," said Gadot. "Those things are a nasty piece of work. I don't know what they feed the monsters on Pulse, but they're on a whole other level."
"Hey!" Lebreau elbowed him in the side.
"What?" Gadot spread his arms innocently. Snow was glaring at him as well. "I'm just agreeing with her."
"Well, none of you get any ideas," said Snow. "We're gonna take whatever comes at us, and keep all the people safe." He folded his arms. "Right?"
"Pulse monsters are no match for NORA!" said the others, striking a back-to-back pose.
Serah giggled. "That one doesn't quite have the same ring to it."
"Alright, guys." Gadot folded his arms and got a conspiratorial look. "Why don't we get back out there, and give the happy couple some time? That Vestige isn't gonna watch itself, you know."
"You know, it actually might," said Maqui.
Lebreau smacked him on the back of the head. "Nobody likes a smartass, kid."
"Hey, that hurt!"
Still bickering, the gang withdrew back toward the other side of their little camp, leaving Serah and Snow with the little crystal clearing to themselves.
"So, anyway," Snow said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You are okay, right?"
Serah sighed. It seemed like Snow asked her that almost every time he saw her now, and that wasn't really very often. They'd been on Pulse for another whole day now, and hadn't done much of anything to show for it; between sifting through the crates and train cars and ruined buildings that had fallen from Cocoon and avoiding the monsters that were creeping in from the world beyond, they hadn't even had time to explore as far as the Vestige.
It had to be wearing on everyone, so she didn't want to complain. Snow and the others in NORA seemed to be in good spirits, and Serah wondered if that was because they had something to do.
"You know, I've been thinking." She folded her arms, half-consciously putting a hand over her sleeve and the brand on her arm. "The l'Cie are supposed to be the most powerful fighters in the world, right? But you guys are all trying so hard to keep everyone safe, and I'm just standing here watching. Even when all this happened because of me in the first place."
"What are you saying?" Snow stepped in front of her, both hands on her shoulders now. "Don't talk like that. It was the Pulse fal'Cie that started all this, and then the Sanctum with the Purge. And I'm telling you, there's nothing to worry about. We've got this all under control."
She didn't want to tell him that his reassurances were getting less creative, or that he sounded more tired each time he said it. And she didn't think she really wanted to reveal her powers as a l'Cie to everyone, either, so maybe all she'd wanted was for him to tell her no.
Thinking that about herself didn't make her any happier. She made herself smile anyway, but couldn't raise her eyes above the necklace hanging around Snow's neck.
"Thanks," she said. "I'm okay."
Snow hugged her, and that actually did help her relax a bit. "Tomorrow, all right?" he said. "We're gonna head over to that fal'Cie, and set everything straight. Just make sure get some rest, yeah?"
"Yeah." She managed a smile when he let her go, and as he set off to rejoin Gadot and the others. But she couldn't quite ignore the twinge in her arm, as if a tiny flame was nagging at her nerves from under her skin. And the feeling wouldn't go away.
The wind caught Lightning full in the face as the Lindblum's massive wings began to swing open, and wisps of cloud flitted between the airships docked in the bay. With the hangar now exposed to the air, most of the Cavalry's fleet could be launched at a moment's notice if need be; one of the cruisers above the Narshe was already gliding away, slowly maneuvering out to the open sky.
Far below, Lightning could see the woodlands of the Proto-Ecology Belt through the now-open deck. She wasn't used to seeing Cocoon from this altitude; from the ground, the hazy vision of the world's far side looked more like a faded mural than a real place, but the landscape below was just large enough and clear enough to be undeniably real. At the same time, it was far enough away to be undeniably out of reach.
Half-consciously, she held a hand over her chest, where the fal'Cie had left its mark. Looking down at the surface gave her a sort of melancholy feeling, as if she'd have to get used to seeing the world from a distance now.
She didn't hear Raines approach, thanks to the sound of wind and engines around them, but she saw him at the edge of her vision as he stepped from the gangway onto the Narshe's weather deck. "I trust the preparations are going well?" he asked, somehow making his voice carry perfectly over the noise despite not seeming to raise it at all.
"Apart from missing a pilot and a combat team?" she asked. "Sure. We're good to go."
Raines nodded. "Obviously, organizing an entire crew in a matter of hours for a mission such as this would raise a few logistical challenges. And, of course, there are…other concerns." Stepping forward, he produced what Lightning quickly identified as a gunblade, offering her the weapon. "Here. One thing we can provide."
The weapon seemed a bit more advanced than her usual model. It felt a bit lighter when Lightning took it, and the blade was all straight lines and sharp angles, as if designed by machine pattern instead of traditional craftwork. It was made of some sort of charcoal-colored composite, with highlights inscribed in Cavalry blue.
As she tested the grip, she noticed one other attachment near the base of the weapon. "A manadrive?"
Raines nodded. "With certain modifications. Instead of producing magical power, it amplifies your own. And it may be a useful way to explain the source of your newfound abilities."
Lightning turned the weapon over in her hand. It felt completely new, with perfectly fashioned textures that hadn't had a chance to be worn down by any kind of use. Which made sense, of course, but something didn't seem right.
"Why the secrecy?" she asked. "Why don't you want anyone to know about me?"
Raines turned half away from her, looking back out at the open sky and the surface of Cocoon beyond. "These events have awakened people to truths that our generation has never had to face. The threat from Pulse is only one of them. No one in living memory has ever seen a l'Cie, so they have exist only in legend and rumors. But consider this: By law, a person made into a Sanctum l'Cie is no longer subordinate to any law, as they are bound solely to the fal'Cie's Focus. And their Focus known only to them." He rested a hand on the Narshe's railing, straightening his glove with the other. "Unchecked, unpredictable power is an easy thing to fear."
It occurred to Lightning that Raines hadn't asked what her Focus was. She was only half-sure herself about the meaning of the vision she'd seen, so a debriefing might have been helpful. But it felt wrong to bring the subject up on her own, somehow.
"What about the intruder?" she asked. "Sazh Katzroy. Why did you want me to deal with him?"
Raines looked back at her. "Have you spoken to him?"
"Yeah. He says he's trying to save his son. Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"
Raines nodded. "The boy was present at Euride Gorge when the Pulse l'Cie first revealed themselves. When the threat emerged, the local fal'Cie decided it needed a champion. And it chose the candidate closest by."
In the moment it took to decode Raines' cryptic delivery, Lightning felt a chill pass through her chest. "The boy's a l'Cie?"
"The fal'Cie's decisions do not always match what we would expect," Raines said. "Dajh Katzroy has the power of a l'Cie, but he is…too young to confront the Pulse threat himself."
Lightning got the impression that Raines was talking around something awful. "How young?" she asked.
He didn't reply.
"Where is he now?"
"In the care of PSICOM Division."
Another idea was looming over Lighning's thoughts now. She hadn't considered the idea that the fal'Cie would be turning other people into l'Cie, but of course it made sense. Choosing a random kid just because he was there certainly didn't, though.
The worse thought was that Raines had just been telling her that even the Sanctum's l'Cie live outside the law. Now, when she though back on his words, she couldn't shake the sense that his words had a darker meaning. That in the eyes of Cocoon, even the Sanctum's l'Cie weren't quite people anymore.
"The father," Raines said, breaking into her thoughts. "What do you think of him?"
I'm the only family he's got. Lightning's impression of Sazh kept coming back to those words. That, and the sense of determination fighting desperation that had come through in his expression.
"Funny how he managed to board the Cavalry's command ship without anybody noticing," she said. "And how you couldn't assign me a pilot."
"Things are moving quickly." Raines' tone was even more noncommittal than usual.
"And Sazh Katzroy is, what? Some kind of substitute?"
"A qualified pilot with a personal stake in finding the l'Cie? His presence does seem rather fitting."
Lightning had never commanded anything beyond a patrol squad in the hills around Bodhum, and the stakes of her mission were almost unimaginably high. More than a crew that seemed fitting, she wanted one she could trust. Instead, Raines was warning that if they learned the truth, her crew might not even trust her.
It actually surprised her how angry she was getting, the more she thought about it.
"Fine." She slipped the gunblade into its holster and clipped the weapon to her belt. "If there's nothing else, I think I've stayed here long enough."
Raines nodded. "Hmm," was all he said, but Lightning took it as a dismissal. She turned smartly and stepped through the Narshe's hatch, leaving the clouds, the general, and the outside world behind.