Pulse 101: Cocoon Studies
Critique welcomed. I apologize for the very long wait. Being a senior is extremely difficult, especially when juggling precalculus and other stuff.
The contraptions that guided the group deeper into the vestige were rather high tech for it to be several centuries old. Amelia expected it to be lots of stairs, the occasional elevator, but the hand activated machinery was just mind-blowing. Pulse must have been more technologically advanced than she was led to believe. But she remembered the looks that Lightning and Sazh gave her when she expressed her interest in studying these ancient ruins. Just keep walking, don't say a word. Keep your opinions to yourself! Sometimes, it hurt to be in Military History. She was around history, Maker-dammit! She could brag about being in a Pulse Vestige, and surviving, if Pulse was one of those adrenaline rush things some of the frat boys at Eden U did.
"Stay close, Amelia. Don't know what other Pulse nasties could be crawling around." Speaking of crawling, a flock of flying Cie'th decided to make an appearance on the stairway towards the Fal'cie, and hopefully Serah, as a human.
"What were you saying about Pulse nasties, Sazh?" Amelia drew her gunblade with a haughty look in her eyes.
"Oh, shut up." Sazh readied his pistols, not amused in the slightest.
"You can argue later. Extermination of the Cie'th is more important." After the battle, the trio ascended the stairway, neither Sazh nor Amelia wanting to say anything. Lightning looked too focused, and if her abilities in combat were any indication, it would not fare well for either person to offend her right then. If anything, what would happen after this part? Would they make it out alive? Make out as l'cie? Become Cie'th? She was too frightened to even want to think. Luckily, she didn't have to, because they found Lightning's sister at last.
Lightning could not sound more human than when she grabbed her sister. This was the Serah that the leader of NORA and Lightning had been talking about. If Serah was Lightning's sister, what was she to the members of NORA?
"That's a Pulse brand. That girl's a l'cie." Sazh was about to ready his pistols.
"No shit, Sherlock. We weren't aware of that when we got here." Amelia glared at him, as if the man would realize he was stating the obvious.
"I already told you that." Lightning got defensive immediately.
"Pulse l'cie are the enemies of Cocoon." And again, no shit. This wasn't already ingrained into our minds since birth, wait, what is he doing? Lightning will kill him three times over if he's doing what I think he's about to do! Serah weakly spoke to Lightning, and Amelia accredited it to the brand's effects. Then, the leader of NORA shouted from an elevator, accompanied by the girl in curly pigtails and the boy from Palumpolum. Where was his mother? As the leader ran over to the group, Serah called him her hero.
Oh.
Oh... that's his girlfriend. Lightning didn't seem too pleased to see him like Serah was, then when he called her his sister, Amelia retracted the girlfriend theory. Serah was his fiancee. To be honest, Serah looked far too young to be his fiancee, let alone his girlfriend. But that was something to say for another time. Suddenly, Serah started to glow blue, and for the first time in her life, Amelia witnessed a real l'cie complete their Focus, and become a crystal. She looked eerily beautiful as a crystal tear fell into her fiance's hand, and Amelia could feel her heart shatter at the look on both her sister and her fiance's faces. To get so far only to have Serah become a crystal... In hindsight, it was better this way than for Serah to be a Cie'th. But that also went on the list of things she couldn't say to Lightning right then. He said something like sweet dreams, but Amelia was too focused on Serah to say anything. In a fit of anger, Lightning shoved her and Sazh out of the way to yell at her future brother about Serah being alive or dead. He then went on about the rewards of a l'cie who completes his or her Focus, and they all looked at him, unsure of what to say. There hadn't been any l'cie since the War of Transgression, which was 500 to 600 years ago. And to be honest, there were no l'cie, Pulse or Sanctum, to prove it true or false. Whether Serah is alive or dead is up for speculation, something NO ONE had time for. When Lightning punched Serah's "hero" in the face, Amelia audibly winced, seeing how brutal the woman could be in combat. She kind of felt bad for them, but what could she do? She barely met any of them, and introductions are not best when fighting and running for your life. So, Amelia kept quiet, as she always did, and tried to avoid debris from the Sanctum strike that begun soon after.