Morning was when the world of Pulse seemed to be at its most unreal. When the huge, brilliant light emerged from behind the edge of the world, its glow caught and scattered in the waves of crystal that surrounded their makeshift camp. Serah stepped out of the train car where she'd been sleeping to find a landscape that looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope.
More of the refugees were up and about than she'd seen at this time yesterday. It seemed like people were getting used to the place, although most of them were still milling around with dazed or empty looks, without really talking or acknowledging the others around them.
About half were people she knew from around town, but a lot were just people who'd come for the festival and then hadn't been allowed to leave. None of them were easy for Serah to talk to, considering what she knew about how they'd come to be here, so she probably kept to herself even more than the rest.
Off in the distance, she could hear a lot of authoritative shouting, and the sort of call-and-response chanting that had sometimes come from Lightning's garrison on the days when they were out training. It was actually kind of reassuring to hear, and seemed like a little reminder of home.
"Morning, Serah," said a familiar voice, making her start a little. Lebreau had come around the end of the train car while Serah was too distracted to notice, and stood with a rainbow pattern of refracted light shining on her hair. "You're up kinda late today."
"I guess I still don't know how to fall asleep out here," Serah said. "My mind just keeps racing every time I close my eyes."
"That usually means you're trying too hard." Lebreau leaned against a storage crate that had been set next to the train. "Everybody's going through the same thing, you know. No reason you should worry about it all on your own."
Serah smiled and didn't try to argue. "Okay."
"Lebreau!" Maqui's voice came from somewhere in the distance. "Hurry up, will you? We're starving here!"
"Hang on, you baby!" Lebreau pushed off from the crate, shaking her head and shooting Serah a knowing smile. "Hey, so we finally found all the parts for that portable stove. How do you feel about some real breakfast for today?"
"Sounds great," said Serah, as they started off. "Is Snow with you?"
"Huh?" Lebreau frowned. "He went out early with Gadot and Yuj. Said they were gonna go check out the Vestige. He said he'd be back in no time, but you know how he is."
The top of the Pulse Vestige towered over the crystal waves just off to Serah's left, almost perfectly silhouetted in front of the morning light. Rays of light radiated out from around it, making the structure look like the centerpiece of all the scenery around.
Serah was dimly aware that Lebreau had disappeared while she'd been distracted by the thing, and she barely recognized at first that her legs were carrying her towards it. She hadn't really ventured far away from the center of their little camp, so the ground became unfamiliar fairly quickly. Apart from the crystalline waves, there were pieces of broken metal, fallen walkways, and whole sections of buildings strewn around, making any direct path impossible. She even lost sight of the Vestige as she made one turn after another, just navigating in the direction of the light.
The longer she went without seeming to get any closer, the more urgency went into her steps. She was nearly at a run as she came out of one turn and saw the path open up for a while in front of her, when someone grabbed her arm.
"Hold on!" said a man's voice, as she yelped and tried to pull away. He wore a soldier's armor, but Serah still wasn't good at telling them apart. "It's dangerous out there. We haven't secured the area beyond this point."
The l'Cie brand on her arm was still hidden, and the man's voice didn't sound threatening, so Serah told herself to relax. "Um…," she said, trying to think of an excuse before deciding to just go with it. "My friends went to the Vestige. Have you heard anything?"
"Oh, those guys?" The soldier let her go. "Yeah, they came through about an hour ago. The Major gave them our radio frequency in case they need assistance, and we haven't heard anything. Who knows if they'd really call us, though."
Now that she'd taken a moment to breathe, Serah noticed that a line of holographic warning text was being projected across the path like a barricade, and another soldier was standing on the opposite side. It looked a lot like the guard posts that PSICOM had set up in Bodhum when they were rounding up everyone for the Purge.
"It's gotta be strange," she said. "Working with people you were fighting just a few days ago."
"Well, that's the Purge, right?" he said. "They trained us to be ready to sacrifice for Cocoon. And it's not like we can really complain. You guys all got caught up in this for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least we've got training, and we volunteered for the job."
"Not this job, we didn't." That was the other soldier, who sounded older and notably grumpier. "The response for Pulse contamination is supposed to be quarantine while we assess the level of threat. Purging a whole town after less than a day? I don't know what the higher-ups were thinking."
"What about those monsters that came out of the Vestige?" asked the first soldier. "We lost five whole units before we even knew what was happening. Not to mention what happened at Euride."
"Hmph! At Euride, they covered the whole thing up because they didn't want to admit that two l'Cie broke through all our defenses. And then, when it gets too big to hide, they've gotta do something big and flashy to show that the Sanctum's still in control. And there's your Purge."
"Um…," said Serah. She didn't totally understand half of what she was hearing, since her own knowledge of the days before the Purge wasn't exactly complete. "Do you have any idea what happened to those l'Cie?"
The first guard shrugged. "We got a report that one of them was sighted around town, but who knows what happened after that."
"Not like it makes a difference to us now." The second guard folded his arms. "Listen, whatever else I can say about those kids, they can take care of themselves. And we don't need unarmed civilians running out into an unsecured area by themselves. So give us all a break and stay with the group, all right?"
Serah took another look at the Vestige looming over the unreal landscape. She was used to seeing it from the beach at Bodhum, and it stood much larger now, leaning slightly overhead as if it was staring her down.
"Okay," she said, and turned back up the path.
When she turned around the corner, she nearly walked straight into someone else, who'd been standing with her back to a piece of broken wall. "Oh!" she said, recovering and recognizing an embarrassed-looking Vanille. "Sorry about that. I didn't see you there."
"Um…" Vanille looked as if she was searching the ground around them for something else to look at.
The moment felt awkward, but Serah didn't want to just walk away. "Did you come to check out the Vestige, too? I was just thinking how different it looks from the way it was in town."
Vanille looked surprised, glancing up at the giant structure as if she hadn't seen it before. "Yeah," she said, frowning at her, and Serah got a distinct sense that Vanille knew something that neither of them had said.
"To be honest, I was kind of worried about my friends," Serah said, breaking eye contact and starting a slow walk back toward the camp. "Everyone's trying so hard to keep things going, and it feels wrong to just be standing around, you know?"
"Huh." Vanille fell into a sober pace beside her, looking down intently at the ground. Then, as if a bolt of energy had struck her, she hopped forward and spun right into Serah's path. "Oh! You wanna see something?"
Serah got half a chance to answer before Vanille went bouncing off along the trail.
They returned to the jumble of debris where most of the refugees were gathered, and Vanille singled out one of the bulkier, windowless train cars near the edge of the little encampment. Two people were carrying boxes out of the car and sorting them on the ground nearby; one was a soldier, but the other was a woman in a knitted sweater and silvery hair, who Serah guessed had to be one of the refugees.
"Hey there!" Waving, Vanille ran right up to them. "What've you found?"
"Oh, you're back?" The soldier pointed to the pile of boxes. "We're still separating out the gear, but here's everything we found that survived in good condition."
"Thanks!" said Vanille, dropping down to rummage through the gear.
Serah was having trouble keeping up. "You're…working together?" she asked. "What is all this?"
"Hunting and survival gear," said the soldier. "It was supposed to be distributed among the population after resettlement. The Major wanted us to look through and see how much of it was salvageable."
"Isn't it amazing?" Vanille had picked up what looked like a sport-grade hunting rod, and was experimentally balancing it in her hand. "They've got all kinds of stuff here!"
The gear certainly didn't look like normal military weapons. Serah didn't see any guns, or even the swords or batons that some of the soldiers used. Still, she'd never really been out sport hunting, either, so most of it was just as unfamiliar to her.
Resting in one half-open box, though, she spotted something that caught her attention. Taking it by the handle, she pulled out what she'd taken for a collapsible short bow. When she drew it from its case, though, she noticed that the weapon's outer edges were sharpened so finely that, when collapsed, the weapon looked almost like a sword.
"Have you used one of those?" asked the older woman, who was watching her turn the device over in her hands.
"Um…," Serah shook her head, putting the bowsword back into its case. "I did archery for a while in school, but I've never used one for fighting."
"Perfect!" Vanille stepped in, grabbing the weapon case just as Serah was setting it down, and pushing it back into her hands. "You know what they say. There's a first time for everything."
Serah started to protest, but something stopped her. There was a serious look in Vanille's eyes that belied her carefree tone of voice. And besides, hadn't she just been moping that she couldn't use her l'Cie power to help anybody? If there was a way for her to help fight without using any fal'Cie magic, why should she turn it away?
"Yeah," she said, closing her grip on the weapon again. "Thanks."
The Narshe landed with a jolt that ran straight up Lightning's spine and made her wish that she hadn't been standing. Outside the windscreen that wrapped around the ship's bridge, she saw the guide light at the edge of the landing platform, hovering barely two meters away.
"Sorry about that, captain," said Vicks from the pilot's seat, where he looked reluctant to take his hands off the controls. "The auto-landing system wasn't quite configured for pads this small."
"It's fine." Lightning tried to straighten out the new crick in her back. "Secure the ship and wait for us."
"Yes, ma'am."
The high-pitched hum of the ship's engines died down as she made her way to the exit at the back of the bridge. She stopped when she reached the door, turning to look at the man who was standing awkwardly next to one of the jump seats. "Come on."
"Huh?" Sazh Katzroy flinched, looking up as if he'd been caught trying to steal the ship again. "Me too?"
"You want answers about the l'Cie, right?" Lightning turned around and stepped up to the door, triggering the sensor that slid it open. "Won't find them standing around here."
"Right. All right." The man hurried to catch up as Lightning stepped onto the main deck. "Right behind you."
Lightning crossed to the loading ramp, and from there to the pavement below. Guard Station Typhon was built on the side of a forested ridge, with its small barracks and observation tower nearly swallowed up by the huge razor-shaped leaves of trees that had been carefully trimmed to allow a decent range of vision. The landing pad was barely big enough to hold the Narshe, whose engines were hanging out over the edge.
What stood out most was that, while the base's floodlights, its navigation beacon, and the guide lights on the platform were all on, all of its interior lights were dark.
"Well, this looks homey," said Sazh, taking in the scene from beside her.
"There should be a Guardian Corps garrison here." Lightning started toward the entrance. "To watch for activity in the Vile Peaks. Pulse armaments wander out from the rim sometimes, and a response team goes in to mop them up." When she reached the security door and held out her hand, the access panel lit up just like it was supposed to. "Only this garrison was completely reassigned about two weeks ago. Right after the l'Cie appeared at Euride Gorge."
Sazh froze for a second, then hurried to join her as the panel verified Lightning's ID. "What, so they transferred somewhere else? Just left the whole place empty?"
"Seems like it." The door slid open, and Lightning stepped into the base's processing room. The automatic lights came on to greet her, filling the room with a dim, sterile gloom. "Thing is, if someone had to travel from Euride Gorge to Bodhum on foot, the quickest route wouldn't pass very far from here."
They walked past the banks of empty desks toward the hallway on the far side of the room. All the screens and control panels were still dark, but the chairs left at angles and minor effects left at workstations gave a sense that the occupants hadn't meant to be away for long.
"Kinda creepy," said Sazh. "Hey, you don't think there's anything funny going on? With the timing and all."
"Who knows?" Lightning stopped at the mainframe console by the exit to the hall. "But staffed or not, the surveillance scanners should still be online. If the l'Cie came back this way after I faced her on the island, there should be a record."
The garrison's archives were organized in more or less the same way as the Bodhum Security Regiment's, but the records were broken into security zones that Lightning wasn't familiar with and analyzing surveillance footage hadn't really been the focus of her duties. She hadn't been assigned a crew member with the skills that this job called for, though, so there wasn't really a choice but to work through it.
"You know," said Sazh, fidgeting off in her peripheral vision. "I just wanna say, I really appreciate you letting me in on this. I know it's not exactly normal, bringing a civilian along and all." Every time he finished a sentence, he paused for just long enough to make Lightning think he was done talking. "And hey, if there's anything I can do to help out—"
"Quiet." For a second, Lightning just had a vague impression that something was wrong. While the more precise of her senses were catching up, she focused on the glow that came from the elevator at the end of the hall.
The interior lights and all the terminals should have shut themselves down after a certain period of time if the building's sensors registered it was empty, and stayed that way until somebody came in proximity to them. There were four doors along the sides of the hallway, plus the elevator at the end. Lightning hadn't been near any of them.
But all their panels were lit.
"Get back!" She pulled out her gunblade just before the nearest door slid open. Four seconds later, a half-dozen soldiers charged out into the room. They had clearly been waiting to leap into action, and quickly formed a firing line with rifles trained on Lightning and Sazh.
"Woah!" said Sazh, reacting about the way any civilian would when faced with a phalanx of machine guns. "Hey, woah, now! Let's take it easy here, all right?"
"Identify yourselves." Lightning, for her part, was trying to get the situation under some kind of control. These soldiers were not supposed to be here; aside from the base's garrison having definitely been transferred out, the men in front of her were wearing the grey combat gear of PSICOM rangers, not Guardian Corps fatigues.
Another figure stepped into the hall behind the soldiers. He was PSICOM, too, but instead of combat armor, he wore the long coat of a staff officer and the epaulets of a lieutenant colonel. A scar ran up his forehead above his left eye, and his silvery hair was carefully styled into a range of spikes and thick bangs, giving him an air somewhere between aggressiveness and regality.
"Fire team." His voice sounded accustomed to being listened to. "Stand down."
The soldiers lowered their weapons in unison, stepping apart like an honor guard. The man stepped forward to stand in front of Lightning's gunblade, just at the edge of her strike range.
"Yang Rosch," he said. "PSICOM Division."
Lightning decided that having her weapon out wasn't accomplishing much, so she holstered it and let herself relax. "What's a PSICOM command officer doing here?" she asked.
"Is it any less strange for the Cavalry to arrive?" Rosch narrowed his eyes at Sazh for a moment. "Interesting company you have found, Mr. Katzroy. But you are mistaken if you believe your son's interests are served by joining a misguided hunt for Pulse l'Cie."
Lightning narrowed her eyes, ignoring the awkward laugh Sazh made. "Meaning?"
Rosch somehow managed to draw himself up into an even haughtier pose. "You have come into quite a bit of renown very quickly, captain. But however much esteem General Raines may hold you in, there are ways to make a name for yourself less damaging to public order than by interfering with our containment of l'Cie."
"Not your 'containment' again." Lightning didn't like the idea that her fight on the island had gotten the attention of PSICOM's brass, but she probably shouldn't be surprised.
"You may not approve of our procedures," said Rosch, "but they exist for a region."
"Six hundred years of bureaucracy? I'll pass."
"Hey, uh, excuse me?" Sazh stepped up beside them, holding up a hand. "What are you talking about, exactly?"
"Long story," said Lightning. "PSICOM found one of the Pulse l'Cie, but their protocols didn't involve actually dealing with her. So I did."
"You provoked a situation that you could not control, and allowed the l'Cie to escape." Rosch folded his arms. "Our mission was to contain the l'Cie until we could properly evaluate the threat and bring sufficient force to bear. The pursuit of a selfish agenda will only put more lives at risk."
"Make all the excuses you want." Lightning caught herself getting annoyed. "My priority was the safety of the residents of my district."
"You mean you wanted to locate your sister."
Lightning's throat tightened. "She's a resident."
Rosch frowned at her for a moment, and a kind of shadow passed over his face. The expression didn't last long, though, before his air of aggressive dignity came back.
"The town of Bodhum has no residents," he said, stepping past her and into the main room behind. "Any survivors among the civilian population would fall under PSICOM jurisdiction. And be subject to the Purge."
Lightning spun around so fast that the line of soldiers flinched behind her. "Say that again."
While he didn't quite take a step back, Rosch looked startled for about a second. But then his expression just went somber. "We face the greatest threat to Cocoon since the War of Transgression," he said. "PSICOM's directives come from the Sanctum itself. When faced with an enemy bent on the destruction of our world, can you expect any less?"
He motioned to the soldiers, who started towards the exit. Lightning and Rosch kept standing there, eyeing each other until the others had gone. It seemed like his expression softened a little then, but Lightning wasn't in a mood to read into it.
"These are difficult times," he said. "But involving yourself in these matters will save no one from tragedy. I would advise you keep your distance."
With that, he turned and left as well. Lightning watched him go, reminding herself to breathe as the door closed behind him.
"Too late for that," she said.
"Hey, ah…" Sazh, whom Lightning had nearly forgotten about, stepped up to her, awkwardly scratching his head. "What was all that about? Something with your sister?"
Lightning turned away, returning to the mainframe console. But as much as she didn't want to air the details of her story with the l'Cie, it did only seem fair.
"She disappeared three days ago," she said, "after the monsters came out of the Vestige. The Pulse l'Cie was there."
"What, you mean, like she was kidnapped? l'Cie do that?"
"I don't need to hear how it doesn't make sense. But that l'Cie is the only clue I have about what happened to her. And there's no way in hell I'm letting PSICOM find her first."
The display screen had been cycling through dozens of video clips, highlighting recordings where the motion sensors had detected anything unusual. Most of them were just monsters, with a few showing soldiers on patrol and military airships flying overhead. But one showed a solitary figure making her way along the ridge, heading straight into the restricted zone of the Vile Peaks.
Lightning forwarded the records to the Narshe's computer, along with those from every other sensor along the ridge from just after that time period, and then allowed herself to breathe again. The sensors didn't extend all the way into the Peaks, because of interference from the old Pulse technology, but the most recent records weren't even a day old.
"Come on," she said, shutting down the terminal and breaking into a run toward the exit.