Chapter 6
Splitting path's
If there was one thing Hope was asking himself the most that day it was "How am I still alive?" He had survived the purge massacre, came in contact with an angry fal'Cie, was branded, and was chased by PSICOM troops at Lake Bresha. Now he could add 'Survived an airship crash' to the list. Either he was just not having a good day or his brushes with fate and living to tell the tale was one of the many mysterious abilities l'Cie had.
Now he lay in a patch of dirt in a dark wasteland, his body contorted into an odd position, as he wondered just what the hell was going on. It would take a miracle to survive a fall like the one they experienced, and yet here they were, alive, yet again. He had a vague idea where he was. They had crashed somewhere off the shore of Lake Bresha to the north, so that would mean they landed in a place known as the Vile Peaks, a landfill that was surprisingly stuffed with trash from both Cocoon and Pulse.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that they would have to get up and move soon. The army would be on their tail making sure that the crash really had killed them.
"You okay?" he heard Lightning ask him. She looked at him as he sat up.
He nodded. "yeah, bit of a headache but I'm fine."
"What about you two?" she nodded to Sazh and Vanille who sat up slowly.
"Could be better" Sazh replied. "But at least we're alive."
Vanille nodded.
A static noise filled the air. The control panel's holographic screen was flickering from within the pile of rubble that was once their ship. All around them small fires broke out from the electric that was seeping all over the place. Lightning took a good look at the screen and played with a few dials hoping they still worked. She quickly found out they did. A news broadcast filled the screen.
"Just moments ago the sanctum announced the successful conclusion of the purge along with the arrival of the Cocoon migrants to their new home on Pulse." An announcer said over the screen. "We have the Primarch Galenth Dysley ready to make a statement about it."
The screen changed to an elderly man wearing the white and gold robes of the sanctum appeared. "There is no denying the strain that the purge placed on us all, not just to the people of Bodhum. Given the tens of millions of lives at stake there was no other alternative. In all the centuries that have passed since the War of Transgression thousands of years ago, Cocoon has been spared Pulse aggressions and has prospered and it is essential that we maintain this peace and keep Pulse out of our land. That is the sanctums' goal and it was the goal of the Purge which I am happy to announce was a complete success. We can go on living our lives and those who were unfortunate enough to be touched by Pulse can go on living their lives in a better place for them." The Primarch announced.
Lightning gritted her teeth. "Those who were moved to Pulse can go on living their lives? They're all dead! We are gonna be running for the rest of our lives. Not just because we're l'Cie now….but because we know the truth about the purge."
"Say" Vanille interjected. "Who is that guy?"
Sazh, Hope and Lightning looked at their companion with concern. It was like she had no common sense. Sazh was the one to humor her. "That's Primarch Dysley, the head of the sanctum. The murderer-in-chief himself. The purge was his idea. Seriously what do they teach kids these days?"
Vanille didn't respond.
The image on the screen faded. Either the power source was cut off or the wires had finally burned in the rubble. Lightning sighed. "We need to keep moving. The army will send people down here to check to make sure we're dead."
"We can't take a break?" Sazh asked as he stretched his back.
"You can stay here if you want to die" Lightning responded.
Sazh sighed. "We aren't soldiers like you, we don't have the same stamina."
"Well then what do you propose we do?" Lightning asked. "Stick around here relaxing until they shoot us down."
Hope decided to step in "Where would we go? Anywhere we'd go, we'd have to eventually run from. They know we're l'Cie and they will do anything to get rid of us."
Lightning was silent but finally wispered. "I'm going to Eden."
"You're crazy" Sazh yelled. "Eden is the headquarters of the Sanctum. That's the last place you'd want to be."
"All the more reason why I want to go there and expose the purge to all of Cocoon. This has to stop. If the sanctum keeps this up, many more lives will perish."
"You're serious about this aren't you?" Sazh asked.
"Well, its die or turn Cie'th…I really don't see us accomplishing that focus we saw." Lightning responded.
"But you will never survive if you go marching directly into their beloved city. Its too dangerous. You're throwing you're life away. At least I'd rather die trying to survive rather than march into the Sanctum's seat of power with a death wish" Sazh retorted.
"After all that's happened, after seeing the Purge first hand for what it really was, after becoming a l'Cie myself and truly understanding that I have no more lost my humanity than any of the citizens in Cocoon…..I get the feeling that this is all the fault of the Sanctum fal'Cie Eden." She said referring to the fal'Cie that was named after Cocoon's capitol and watched over all of it's citizens and made the executive decisions of the Sanctum.
"What do you mean?" Hope questioned. "I thought Sanctum fal'Cie were the good guys, it's the fal'Cie from Pulse that are bent on destroying us."
Lightning grunted. "If you ask me, I have the sneaking suspicion that it was Eden's idea for the purge. The Sanctum just did as it was told and now they are doing everything in their power to cover it up. They're all the same, both Sanctum and Pulse fal'Cie. They are bent on destroying humanity and they're using us as slaves to do it for them."
"So what are you gonna do?" Sazh asked.
"Destroy it."
Hope gasped.
"Destroy Eden? By yourself?" Sazh said almost as if he was trying to work out how her crazy idea could be possible. "Say you pull it off, and you destroy Eden….it mean's lights out for Cocoon. Eden powers this entire place."
Lightning couldn't hide the grin playing at the edges of her lips.
"You want that?" he gasped. "You want to complete your focus and destroy all of Cocoon. You're playing right into the Pulse fal'Cie's hands."
Vanille who had been watching the entire spectacle from a quiet corner could see right through Lightning. She could see Lightning was hurting and was afraid of what was going to happen next. Lightning was a soldier in the defense corps, and yet she couldn't even defend her own sister. Now she was faced with a dilemma of being a l'Cie and hunted and she was afraid that she couldn't protect her new companions in the same dilemma. "You know," she piped up hoping to change the subject, "I've been thinking. Isn't wandering around together dangerous?"
Everyone was silent taking in the weight of her statement.
Lightning finally said, "You're right. We can't continue to travel like this. We're like one big moving target. We need to split up." She looked at the horror that registered on Hope and Vanille's faces. "It will give the army a bit of a challenge and force them to split up."
"Where would we go?" Sazh asked.
"Like I said, I'm going to Eden. If we really did land in the Vile Peaks, Eden is to the east of here, past the Gapra Whitewoods. I'm going there. You three can travel together then split up again if needed." Lightning responded.
"I'm going with you" Hope announced to Lightning.
Lightning raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so"
"Past the Whitewoods is Palumpolem. I live there." He said sternly.
Lightning nodded. "Fine. You'll come with me, but only as far as Palumpolem. Sazh and Vanille go west, through the Sunleth Waterscape and catch a ferry to Nautilus. Once you get there, blend in. We're at this stage of the cat and mouse game where hiding every time you see a soldier looks suspicious. The trick is to blend in. Look like you belong there and at all costs, keep your brands covered."
"We're gonna go to big cities to hide?" Sazh asked. "Aren't we putting a lot of people at risk?"
"Yes, but the army won't think to look in the cities. They'll be far too busy checking abandoned places like this, since they make good hiding spots for l'Cie on the run." Was her answer. "Once you get to the city don't attempt to contact each other. Keep an eye on the news and remember, no news is good news. Just because you don't hear anything doesn't mean it's bad, it means we haven't been discovered yet."
"Are…..are we ever gonna see each other again?" Vanille asked.
There was silence. Vanille knew Lightning was going to answer that never seeing each other again would keep them alive longer.
After another few awkward seconds Sazh sighed and said "How about this. We go to the cities and blend in like you said. Give the people and the sanctum some time to cool off and let the Pulse and l'Cie panic calm down. At the end of, say, three weeks we can grab some tools and we can all start making our way back to Lake Bresha to rescue Serah. Then we can decide what to do from there." He looked at Lightning. "Then you can rush off to Eden if you want…how's that?"
Lightning mulled over the idea and eventually nodded. "Fine. We'll do that instead, but don't think I will change my mind about Eden, I will go there once we get Serah." She looked at Hope. "C'mon, let's get a move on before the army starts to investigate this area."
Hope gave a quick hug to Vanille and said "See you soon?"
She nodded. "Yeah…I'm looking forward to it."
Lightning was moving fast through the rubble of the Vile Peaks. It was easy to tell that she was once a soldier. Her muscle was toned and her stamina was hard to keep up with. She could easily lift herself over piles of twisted metal and jump over wide chasms filled with garbage. Hope was starting to find that keeping up with her was difficult. He was beginning to regret deciding to go with Lightning.
Sure Palumpolem was his hometown, but what would he do once he got there? His mother was dead, and his father, well let's just say Hope and his father rarely spoke to one another. The two of them didn't have an ideal father-son relationship. But a thought kept playing in the back of his mind. Who was going to tell dad about what happened to mom? His father had known that his wife and son went to Bodhum for the annual fireworks festival, but he couldn't join them due to a last minute change in his work schedule as usual. Surely he had seen on the newscasts the reports on the fal'Cie sleeping in the Vestige and the report of the Purge. But was it right for him to continue to believe that his wife and son were living a new life on Pulse? Was it right for Hope to continue living on Cocoon on the run from PSICOM for the rest of his life while his father believed he was safe and sound with his mother? Or at least as safe and sound as he could be on what was supposedly hell on earth.
Hope was lost in his thoughts when he bumped into Lightning who had suddenly stopped.
"Hope, turn around." She stated.
"What?"
"This was a bad idea. Go with Sazh and Vanille. If you keep moving you should catch up with them in a few hours. I can't babysit you anymore." Was her simple answer.
"But I want to go home. I can fight too" he said as he pulled out the boomerang Vanille had given him for the first time since wandering the Vestige.
She looked at him eye's raised. "I don't think so. You can't keep up with me." She was about to badger him more about how she had never even seen him fight or use magic when two PSICOM ships sailed over their heads heading in the direction of the large piller of smoke that was rising in the distance; their crash site.
"We better get moving" Hope responded. "There will be soldiers patrolling here soon, once they discover there are no l'Cie bodies burning in that flame, they will start to comb this area thoroughly searching for us."
Lightning knew he was right. There was no way she'd let him backtrack to Sazh and Vanille now that PSICOM had arrived. She couldn't help but be worried about Sazh and Vanille at the thought. Sazh was not a spring chicken and Vanille, that silly girl didn't look like a fighter.
The worry on her face must have shown because Hope said "Lightning, are you worried about the others? Don't be, Sazh was pretty tough when we stole that ship, and Vanille, she protected me in the Vestige."
Lightning looked him in the eye and said "This is your last chance, you can leave me now and catch up with the others. With me, it will be fight after fight, not just because I plan on knocking down Eden's front door, but because I was a member of the defense corps. The Sanctum knows who I am and have all of my information. I am going to have a hard time blending in, in the cities."
Hope looked back at her with as much intensity. "I know that, but I need to be stronger. There's something that I promised I'd live long enough to do." His mind was flashing back to Snow letting his mother's hand go as she plummeted into the darkness of Lake Bresha below.
Lightning surveyed the young boy before her, and though he was scrawny and trembled she could see the potential within him. In some way, he was showing her the same courage that Serah had showed when she announced that she was made a l'Cie, and this time Lighting wasn't going to answer the wrong way.
"Lightning?" Hope asked as he shifted on his feet unsure of what her silence meant.
She turned her back on him and continued down the path. "Call me Light" she cried. "and hurry up, I won't wait for you."
Hope grinned and followed her.
Lightning led the two of them down a path filled with as much junk as she could find. She figured that with it being as dark as it was, it would be hard to spot them if they blended in with the piles of rotting garbage and rusted metal. And so, they traveled like that for hours through the darkness trying to stay alive.
As it turns out, the sanctum was being smart about their search for the missing l'Cie. Rather than wait to send troops looking for them till after it was confirmed whether they died in the crash or not, the Sanctum sent the troops out to search the far ends of the Vile Peaks in case by a small chance the cursed l'Cie did survive and would try to escape.
The two of them crouched behind what seemed to be a rusty piece of an old warship left behind by the War of Transgression near where the troops made camp and listened to see if she could hear any of their tactical plans.
"Any sign of the l'Cie" a soldier asked.
"None so far, but no I just got word that no bodies were found at the crash site. Our inside Intel was correct. Imagine surviving a fall like that, can l'Cie really be destroyed?" Was the response.
"So the Intel was correct then, they split up?" the first soldier asked.
"Yeah. Those l'Cie are smart, but we will always be on their tail. The B group is going after the others."
Lightning let out a soft sigh of relief knowing that Sazh and Vanille wherever they may be, hadn't been caught yet but it was clear that troops were on their tail's too. "Listen, we should wait until most of the soldiers clear out of here to go look for us, then we'll take down whomever remains." Lightning whispered.
But Hope wasn't listening. He was looking intently at what it was exactly they were hiding behind. At first he thought it was part of an old warship, but the closer he looked at it the more he realized it was something different. "Is this a Pulse weapon?" he asked trying to keep his voice down as much as he could.
Lightning shrugged as a look of irritation came over her face. "How should I know?"
"What if it still works?" Hope was becoming more and more intrigued. He had always been into learning how things worked. When, at one point in his life, he and his father got along, the two of them would spend afternoons taking things apart and putting them back together. As he looked at the massive weapon in front of him he started to realize that, while he had never seen a weapon like this before, its mechanics where highly similar to what he was used to working with.
Lightning elbowed him. "Just leave it. You'll get us spotted." But Hope had already climbed up to the top of the weapon and began twisting and tampering with the wires and gears. Lightning knew it was only a matter of time before he was spotted even though he was trying his best to stay as low as possible.
"Pulse l'Cie!" a soldier screamed from the ground. Immediately the soldiers picked up their weapons and began firing at Hope. He ducked and cringed as he heard the bullets clink off the metal.
"Just a little more…" he said.
Lightning kept her place from behind the machine. After all, she wasn't the one that was spotted. The soldiers were oblivious to her presence, and the longer it stayed that way the better. There would be no point in rushing out to defend Hope against over fifty armed troops shooting at point blank range. All she could do now is wish that Hope knew what he was doing and start the damn machine.
As if someone answered her plea, the turbines located on the lower portion of the weapon whirred to life. Lightning jumped out of the way so she wouldn't be caught and crushed in the twisting turbines. "Hey! It still works!" Hope yelled as the Machine picked itself up off the ground. It was shaped like a tank, only it had legs of its own to move with and two enormous Gatling guns that acted as arms on each side. Hope was sitting atop the contraption working the control board.
The PSICOM troops hesitated and took a few steps back. The weapon when standing was enormous. Lightning used their hesitation as an opening to move. She quickly climbed up the side of the machine and sat behind Hope who was still getting the hang of controlling the thing. A series of loud shots filled the air and she wasn't sure who was firing at who, but when she saw the blood splattered on the ground below she knew Hope discovered how to fire back.
Involuntarily she wrapped her arms around his waist and said "Move!"
Hope obliged as he placed his foot on the gas pedal and the weapon moved forward. The metal from the front and the back of the weapon was proving to make a very decent shield against the fire that was opened on them, but Lightning wasn't so sure about the sides. Using her l'Cie magic she controlled lightning to strike any soldier who tried to fire at them from the sides.
Hope was trembling but it was more from the rush of adrenaline he was feeling, than anything else. He continued to stay focused and plow through the waves of troops. Lightning on the other hand remembered feeling terrified at one point, and it startled her more than anything else. She rarely felt terrified and she rarely had to rely on someone else to get her out of a mess.
Eventually the waves of troops got weaker and weaker as Hope picked off each and every soldier that was trying to kill them.
Lightning let out a sigh of relief. "That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen." She scolded.
Hope looked at her. "What were we supposed to do, wait around forever until most of them left? I doubt that would have happened. Whomever is their inside Intel, they are good. They knew exactly what we are doing. You heard them. Somehow they knew that we split up."
That may have been one of the most troubling things Lightning had heard all day. Not that her sister was gone, not that she herself had been made a l'Cie, but the fact that the Sanctum was still on their tails, and they knew that they split up. Just who was this Intel that the soldiers were talking about? Hope was right. If they knew that Lightning and Hope split from Sazh and Vanille only hours after they had made the decision, they would have without a doubt known sooner or later that the two of them were hiding just feet away from their camp.
Lightning mulled over this wondering why she hadn't heard of any "Inside Intel" in her days as a Soldier but dropped the thought when she saw the cliff ahead. "Hope, slow this thing down. We'll go over the cliff if you don't." she cried.
"I'm trying" he responded, panic rising in his voice.
They didn't stop, if anything they accelerated.
"Hope!" Lightning yelled, wishing that yelling at him would make the machine slow down.
"I said I'm trying!" he snapped. "I don't know how to stop this thing."
"Take your foot off the gas!"
"I did! It's still moving"
The machine moved quicker as it edged closer to the cliff. Lightning made up her mind. She grabbed Hope, threw him over her shoulder and jumped off the machine. Just as they tumbled and hit the stone floor the weapon fell over the side of the cliff into a dark abyss.
The two of them laid there gasping for air when Lightning sat up suddenly. "This isn't working."
"What?" Hope asked as he pulled himself to his feet.
"I mean, you're a liability. I can't do this." Lightning responded as she got up and began to walk toward a bridge in the distance that spanned the chasm that the Pulse weapon plummeted into. "You'll just slow me down. I'm easy for PSICOM to recognize. I need to constantly move." Lightning was at her breaking point all day, ever since she boarded the Purge train earlier that morning, but now, the stress of having to babysit Hope along with keep the two of them alive was starting to make her lose her mentality.
"You can't" Hope pleaded. He knew that without her help, her companionship and her knowledge of how the army worked, there was no way he could survive.
"I'm sorry but I can't even…." She began but felt a piercing sharp pain in her chest. It was the same kind of pain she felt when the fal'Cie in the Vestige branded her. It was white hot and seared through her starting from her brand and expanded outward. She placed her hand over her chest and forced her lungs to take in air as she bit back a scream. Her brand began to glow a soft magenta color.
Hope wasn't paying attention to his companion, he was trying to find a way to convince her yet again to let him continue following her, at least until Palumpolem. "You can't just leave me here. I'd never survive on my own."
"Enough!" Lightning screamed. She was forbidding tears from flooding her eyes as she swayed on the spot. "The whole world is against us. I can't even keep myself alive let alone some helpless kid."
Hope was about to respond when Lightning let out a cry and fell to her knees. He saw the light pulsing from her brand and the pain etched on her face. "Light…what's wrong?"
The light around grew brighter until it engulfed her entire body. Hope watched in horror as he heard his friend cry out in pain within the blinding light but he couldn't bring himself to get closer to her.
Just as soon as the pain started, it vanished along with the light that blinded her. Standing before her was a massive soldier wearing titanium armor that glimmered in the moonlight. In its hand was a lance that towered over the soldier itself. It's intimidating yellow eyes peered at Lightning from behind it's helmet. Then it turned, and saw Hope trembling in fear. In a quick movement it hurdled toward Hope, lance raised ready to strike.
Lightning's body was moving before her brain could even register what she was doing. Instinctively her hand slipped to her sword's sheath and she pulled it out watching as it unfolded from its gun form into it sword form. She placed herself in front of hope and raised her sword to meet the lance's tip. There was a clash of metal, and Lightning felt herself go flying through the air.
She landed on her back and felt the air get knocked out of her lungs. She sat up to see that the giant soldier was advancing on Hope again who this time was readying himself to fight. Lighting again felt her body move before her brain actually decided what to do. She was back in front of Hope sword raised again. This time she was knocked to the side like a ragdoll. Her body skid across the stone ground stopping dangerously close to the edge of the chasm. Her sword had been knocked from her hands and lay lifeless feet away. She struggled to get up but her arms protested and she was fairly sure a rib or two was broken.
She whimpered in pain as she struggled to get up. The soldier was advancing on Hope again. Lightning knew there was no possible way for her to get up, grab her weapon and move quick enough to place herself between the soldier and Hope and so she screamed at the top of her lungs "STOP!"
She had figured since this thing was produced by the light of her brand, she could make this end. The soldier ceased its movement toward Hope and looked at her. "Why him?" she asked. "You came from my brand, so why him?"
The soldier advanced on her, but she knew she couldn't move. Her legs were covered in bruises and cuts, her arms felt as if they were on fire, and the headache that pounded in her head was threatening to knock the consciousness from her, but worst of all was the pain in her ribcage. She had broken a few ribs and was probably bleeding internally. She waited for the soldier to raise its lance and strike her, but the blow never came.
Instead she heard it say. "I am the Eidolon Odin. It was you l'Cie who called me into this reality and that is why I came."
"Even so," she struggled to say as she clenched her side. "Why attack him. If I called you, then attack me."
Odin shook his head and merely said. "You were searching for a reason to continue traveling with this boy. You doubted him every step of the way, you feared that he would slow you down and so you wanted to rid yourself of him yet part of your mind wanted to find a reason to make you see that keeping him around was not a liability. That part of your mind called out to me and I made you see just how much you were willing to risk to protect him. That should be reason enough to see that you do want to keep traveling with him."
Lightning looked at Hope who had collapsed to his hands and knees. "So I called you?"
Odin nodded. "I am the Eidolon that was granted to you, l'Cie. I am here to aid you in your quest to complete your focus. I am not to intervene at any other point in your quest unless it pertains to your foucs."
"And my dilemma proved to be of importance to my focus" Lightning asked through clenched teeth. The pain was becoming too much
"It does." Odin replied. "You must focus on your task. Do not worry yourself over trivial things like who you should travel with. Worry about your focus. Now that I have forced you to see what it is you really want, you can continue on your quest and fulfill your focus l'Cie."
Before Lightning could respond Odin vanished in bright light. Instead of pain in her chest, however she felt a soft warm tingling feeling on her ribs. Hope had made his way over to where lightning was. A soft green glow emitted from his fingertips when he touched her.
"Healing" was all he could say.
"Excuse me."
"Healing magic" he repeated. "It's the magic the fal'Cie gave me. I can heal."
Lightning nodded as she felt waves of relief wash over her. Hope worked carefully on each wound until all Lightning had bruised left was her pride. "I…..I'm sorry" she whispered. "I don't want to ditch you here. I never did. I can see that now."
Hope chuckled. "No, it's okay. Thanks for saving me. You can pay me back by staying with me until we reach Palumpolem."
Lightning nodded. "Deal. The Gapra Whitewoods are probably only a mile or so across the bridge, but I think we deserve a bit of a rest huh?"
The two of them wandered to a rather cluttered location on the other side of the bridge and made camp. Lightning figured that they would do shifts through the night to keep an eye out to see if PSICOM had tracked them again. After the light spectacle Odin put on for his arrival, it wouldn't be long before the army came searching the area. She told Hope to get some sleep and that she would take first shift. At some point through the night Hope mumbled in his sleep "Love you mom" thinking that he was referring to you she chucked and whispered. "not by a long shot." She knew this was going to be a long night.