Chapter 7

Can't catch a break.

Vanille saw the ships first. From what she could see, there were only two of them, and they continued to circle above the air around where the crash site was, which to them by now was miles off. She grabbed Sazh's jacket sleeve. "Sazh! Look!"

Sazh surveyed the area and groaned. "And I was hoping to get a break. We need to keep moving."

"Awww," Vanille moaned. "I'm so tired. I feel like all I've done is run for my life from the second I stepped off the Purge Train."

Sazh placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know, I'm exhausted too, but once those soldiers find a lack of four crispy l'Cie bodies in that rubble they'll expand their search outward. We don't want to get caught in their net."

"I know…but" Vanille trailed off as she spotted a bright magenta pillar of light off in the distance and the twinkling of more PSICOM ships off in the eastern end of the Vile Peaks. "I'm worried….about Lightning and Hope. They were traveling in the direction all the ships are."

"Lightning can take care of herself…and the kid too…I wouldn't worry. She made our escape easy. There's no soldiers here, they must have caught PSICOM's attention. I guess the army hasn't figured out we split up yet." Sazh replied. "I just hope they slip away undetected."

"Well it's like Lightning said, no news is good news."

Sazh nodded. "All of Cocoon is in the grip of a full blown Pulse phobia now. I'm sure the Sanctum is trying to cover up our existence as l'Cie and are trying to quietly eliminate us without the general population even knowing."

"What do you mean?" Vanille asked.

"The Sanctum announced that the Purge was successful, when in fact it wasn't, because four new l'Cie were created. If word got out that the Sanctum failed at purging everyone and in their mistake new l'Cie arose, the people would lose their faith in the Sanctum." Sazh explained. "That's why PSICOM is trying so desperately to rid themselves of us. That's why Lightning said to hide in cities. Sure the army knows what we look like, but civilians in the cities don't even know about our existence."

Vanille sighed. "But do the people even know what it is they fear? It's always the same, people are afraid of Pulse and l'Cie because they were told to be afraid."

"Kiddo, people are afraid of what they don't understand and what they don't want to learn more about. You know Vanille, you're awfully inquisitive about the relationship of Cocoon and Pulse. You don't even seem bothered by the fact that you were made a l'Cie."

"I just want to find some logic behind all of this." Vanille replied. "I'm not afraid or ashamed that I was made a l'Cie, nor am I afraid of Pulse or the sanctum for that matter. I just want to know why so many people are willing to believe what a group of people said is true without really experiencing it for themselves."

Sazh chuckled. "You're young. I envy that. I think the fear gets worse as you get older. If it were up to me, I'd say the world would be better off eliminating all Pulse l'Cie.

Vanille looked at him sharply. There was pain in her eyes. Her own companion just stated that the world would be better off if they had just died the minute they became l'Cie.

Sazh saw her pain and quickly corrected himself. "I mean….well….most Pulse l'Cie."

"Gee, thanks" she replied with a touch of venom in her voice. Without warning she picked up her speed and began making her way through the rubble on her own leaving Sazh to try and chase after her.

"Vanille!" Sazh called trying to keep her in his sight. "I didn't mean it like that. Vanille slow down." She didn't respond and this was uncharacteristic of her. From what he saw of her, she was an optimistic child who held on to any thread of hope she could grasp. It was almost as if his words had cut those threads just before her eyes.

He was trying to keep up with her but, his body was beginning to protest. He was in his upper thirties, and activities like running, jogging and climbing were once possible maybe fifteen or so years ago, but now his bones refused to move as nimbly.

"Kweh, kweh" the trilling sound brought Sazh's attention to his hair.

"Chocobo?" Sazh said as his head tilted upward. "I forgot you were there. I didn't realize you were still with me."

"Kweh?" it replied as it flew out of his hair into Sazh's outstretched hand. Its head cocked slightly.

"Chocobo, why are you still here? Go on, fly away to freedom. I'm a Pulse l'Cie now, an enemy of Cocoon."

"Kweh!" it flew back into his hair and began singing happily.

Sazh sighed. "Fine, do what you want." He was about to go and look for Vanille when she called out to him first.

"Sazh! Come look"

He rushed as fast as he could over piles of rubble to where he saw Vanille's slender figure standing at the edge of a cliff. Her chipper mood was back and all traces of resentment melted and vanished.

"Look, we've reached the end of the Vile Peaks" she exclaimed, her finger pointed out over the cliff to a large expanse of dense green trees.

Sazh smiled. "That's the Sunleth Waterscape, a marshy wetland that provides a habitat for most of Cocoons wildlife. All we have to do is cross it and I believe there's a travel center where we can catch a ferry to Nautilis."

Vanille looked at him with pleading in her eyes. "Can we take a break, please?"

Sazh looked around. "We gotta sleep sometime I suppose, and since no soldiers have been trailing us, how about here. We'll stay the night and continue in the morning."

Vanille let out a sigh of relief as she pulled off her bearskin skirt and neatly laid it on the ground near a large rock. Sazh went to join her but she abruptly held out her hand. "Hold on" she said softly. She grabbed a stick that was lying in the dirt and drew a line in the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"Do not cross this line, understood?"

Sazh sighed. "Grow up, will you?"

She grinned and plopped down on her makeshift blanket using her arm as a pillow. "Good night" It was a matter of seconds before she was fast asleep.

Sazh took a seat on the dirt next to Vanille but was careful not to cross her line. He lay on his back gazing at the stars keeping watch for any PSICOM ships that may be passing over. One hour of a clear sky turned in two and Sazh felt himself drifting off to sleep. It was only until Vanille had begun crying in her sleep that Sazh felt himself jostled awake at some point in the night. Not only that, but she had rolled across her line and off her blanket until her back was pressed against Sazh's own.

"Still just a kid." Sazh sighed. He reached over Vanille's body and grabbed her bearskin skirt and threw it over her before going back to sleep.

The Gapra Whitewoods sectioned off the darkness of the Vile Peaks from the civilization of the bustling residential city of Palumpolem. It's primary purpose was for research in discovering the origins of many plants that were indigenous to the area and the upbringing of experimental creatures the Sanctum had been raising for bio weaponry. Lightning had never personally been to the Whitewoods, but many of her colleagues had told her about it, so she had a vague idea of how the place looked and worked.

Hope was on the second watch that night while Lightning slept, and though they weren't spotted by the army they had been quite close to being discovered multiple times. As soon as the light from the Sanctum fal'Cie Phoenix could be seen in the horizon Hope shook Lightning awake in hopes to retreat from the Peaks as quickly as possible. The PSICOM troops scoured the area throughout the night and with no luck turned around to look in a different direction.

Using that opportunity the two of them made their way quickly through the remainder of the Vile Peaks to a large metal wall fifty feet in height to what would be the entrance to the Gapra Whitewoods. Lightning quickly took out a Sanctum Defense Corps ID card and slid it through a slot in the wall. The light above the slot changed from red to green as a panel in the wall slid open to reveal a glimmering scene before them.

"Lets go!" Lightning called. "They'll be on our tail again soon. I used the ID card, and while the bio-researchers of the sanctum probably haven't been told of the l'Cie scare yet, the army can see a record of everyone who has slid an ID card through here if they want."

"Then why did you do that?" Hope questioned.

"Because climbing the wall would have been stupid. Not only would it leave us completely exposed, there is many motion detectors atop that wall that would alert both the bio researchers and the army of intruders. At least with the ID card we got a little extra time." She explained as she walked through the gate.

Hope felt like he walked into another crystalized paradise. The Whitewoods did indeed look like a forest, except the trunks of the trees had large chunks of crystal attached and the leaves were made entirely of a thin slab of crystal. It was all highly reminiscent of Lake Bresha, except Bresha's crystallization was caused by a fal'Cie whereas the Whitewoods was entirely natural. Soft warm winds rustled the leaves causing them to clank against one another making a sound of what seemed to be wind chimes.

Hope went to touch a low hanging branch of the crystal leaves when Lightning said "I wouldn't touch that. The crystal is so thin that it acts as a razor. Those will cut you up in an instant."

"Amazing" Hope whispered. He couldn't believe that he had been living next to a wondrous sight like this all his life and didn't even know about it. Sure he had heard about it in school and how most of the medicines created had derived from the plants in the whitewoods, but he never figured something like this could be so breathtaking. "Have you ever been here before?"

Lightning shook her head. "No. My job was to keep Bodhum safe. I've had friends though, who have don work here, so I know a little bit about it. Why? Are you scared?"

Hope shook his head. "Not really, Its kinda quiet here, and if we need to fight off more soldiers, then that's what we'll do."

Lightning smiled at him. "Good answer." She rifled around in one of her pockets and produced a small pocket knife that was folded neatly in its sheath. "Here."

"What's that?"

"Something to defend yourself. I'm sure it will help you more than throwing that boomerang around." She replied simply as he took it from her hand. "I'll want it back you know."

"Lightning" he called as she turned and continued to walk through the woods.

"I said call me Light."

He struggled to keep up with her. "Right, Light, do you think Snow is still alive?"

Lightning stopped walking and looked at him. "Why do you want to know that?" When he didn't respond she shrugged. "Unfortunately Snow is too stubborn to die. Either he's still out there hacking away at my sister, or PSICOM got him. That's his problem. He's arrogant and thinks everyone is his pal. I never liked him much. My sister has weird taste in boyfriends."

"He's the head of some terrorist group right?"

Lightning snorted. "Terrorist group? I don't think so. They're a gang of juvenile kids. Call themselves NORA I think."

"Where'd they get the name NORA from?" Hope questioned as he dodged a low hanging tree branch.

Lightning crossed her arms, Irritation starting to set in. Not from Hopes questions however, but more from having to recall that idiot and his group of immature friends. "Stupid acronym. Stands for No Obligations Rules or Authority. Bunch of crap if you ask me." She was going to continue her rant when she held out her arm in front of Hope to prevent him from moving further.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"This is the research wing." Lightning gestured. "There will be all kids of wild monsters and beasts roaming around here, and trust me, they aren't going to be friendly."

"What do you mean?"

"The research group here takes tame and civil animals and does experiments on them to turn them into bio weapons. Bio weapons that are made for war…no, that are made to hunt l'Cie."

Hope didn't respond. He just followed her, head hung as he mindlessly pulled out the blade of the pocket knife only to sheath it again.

"Okay" Lightning said with a sigh as they moved carefully through the bioweapon research area. "What's eating you? I can tell you're hung up on something. You've been thinking about it for a while. It's been compromising your focus in battle. Is it the l'Cie thing?"

Hope remained silent.

"It's Snow isn't it?" she asked as Hope immediately turned his head. "What happened with him? She pressed on.

He hesitated but softly said "My mother was killed because of him. He let her go just so he could save himself." Anger was starting to boil within him again. All he could feel was the urge to find Snow, take the knife Lightning had given him and avenge his dead mother. "That's why I followed you. I promised I'd live long enough to avenge Mom. Snow dragged us all into this, and for that he has to pay."

Lightning didn't necessarily disagree with Hope, especially about the part that Snow dragged them into this l'Cie mess, but to make him pay? That seemed a bit harsh. When after all Snow was doing everything he could do to save Serah. She was about to protest on Snow's behalf when a group of Sanctum Security bikes flew by overhead.

"They found us already?" Hope exclaimed. "Did we trip an alarm?"

"No" Lightning retorted. "PSICOM has just found out that I used my ID to get in here. We need to move. If we can continue to stay one step ahead of them until we get to Palumpolem we'll be okay. Hope, you said you lived in Palumpolem?"

Hope nodded.

"Do you think we could stay at your house and hide there until the Sanctum clears out and searches other places?"

"Well….I do have a house, but it's just that I really don't get along with my father and I highly doubt that he's going to want l'Cie in his house. I'm afraid he'll just kick us out or report us to the sanctum or something."

"So let me get this straight" Lightning said as she jogged as fast as she could through the paths of the Whitewoods. "You don't want to visit your father and at least let him know that you're alive."

"I said its complicated." Hope snapped. "I will blend in just fine on my own. I don't need to go hiding in my father's house. He probably doesn't even care that Mom and I are gone." But Hope knew he was lying to himself. He knew that his father deeply loved his mother and he had the right to know what had really happened during the Purge. Maybe in telling his father that, he wouldn't call the Sanctum on them and have them executed for being l'Cie.

"I wish I had parents I could talk to" was all Lightning replied. "Hell, I wish I had any family to talk to, but hey…if you don't want to see your father, that's your choice. Keep up with me. We're just about out of here."

Hope was so busy being lost in his thoughts of his mother and father and fighting off the rising anger toward Snow that he didn't even realize they had cleared the Whitewoods and stood on the edge of a vast sea. Perched along the Cliffside in the distance was the bustling city of Palumpolem. Hope was home, and yet he couldn't drop the urge to turn back around and run as far away as he could.

Sazh and Vanille began making their way through the Sunleth Waterscape as soon as Phoenix's light touched the barren grounds of the Vile Peaks. They had a relatively peaceful night aside from the fact that they were sleeping on rock. They continued their journey into the wetlands of the Waterscape where Vanille gaped at all of the foliage that grew around them.

"Wow, It's so green and nature-y here" she exclaimed as she took in a deep breath of the fresh air.

"You've never been here?"

Vanille shook her head. "No."

"I used to transport ships filled with school kids here all the time." Sazh replied. "That was my job, I engineered ships. Built them, fixed them, drove them….I did a lot of field trips for the schools. Mostly from big cities like Palumpolem and Eden."

"Ah I see…" Vanille exclaimed. She was about to continue when she grabbed Sazh by the arm and yelled. "Hide."

Sazh felt himself get pulled behind a large green shrub just as army ships soared over them. The ships didn't slow down or scour the area though, they kept traveling back in the direction that Sazh and Vanille came from.

"The only city in that direction would be Palumpolem" Sazh whispered to her.

"Isn't that where…."

"Yeah…but they'll be fine. If they are still searching, it probably means they haven't been spotted yet." Sazh replied.

"What do we do?" Vanille pleaded.

"Nothing we can do kiddo. If we turn around we'll be going the same place they are. Lighting is a soldier, so the army knows what she looks like. She's a big target."

The two of them continued through the wetlands in silence. Sazh was easily brooding over something, something he'd been keeping held in for a long time. Vanille was trying to justify in her mind that running the opposite way and getting out of this easy was okay. She wanted to rid herself of the guilt that had been slowly eating at her, but the further they traveled the worse she felt. Lighting and Hope were taking the brute force of the army while she and Sazh were easily slipping through the cracks in their net. Once they got into a highly populated area where civilians had no idea that l'Cie were around it would probably be near impossible for the army to catch them without revealing their failure during the Purge. Cocoon was a big place populated with tens of millions of people after all.

As Vanille ran over all the reasons why she should continue running she realized she had no idea how Sazh got roped into this mess at all. Sure she knew her reasons, and Hope's too. Even Snow and Lightning's motives were easy to figure out. The only person she had yet to figure out was Sazh.

"Hey Sazh?"

"Yeah" he said as the found a dry patch of grass to sit on. Since the army wasn't tailing them, they could take more breaks and probably move at a much slower pace than Lightning and Hope had to.

"Tell me about yourself" she said in her chipper voice.

"What?"

"Any family?"

Sazh was silent for a moment but smiled at her. "I have a little boy."

Vanille's eyes were wide and a large smile grew on her face. So Sazh did have something worth fighting for. She had been afraid that he had no family and no motive to stay alive, thus he didn't care whether he lived or died, completed his focus or turned Cie'th. "So you're married?" she asked.

"I was…yeah. My wife died a while ago…it's just been me and my boy."

"Well then, we gotta get you home. Your son needs you" Vanille announced. "Where do you live?"

Sazh ignored her question. "It's too late."

"Why? Is it because you're a l'Cie now?" She asked. "Nevertheless, l'Cie or not, you're a father."

Sazh couldn't hide a smile playing on the corners of his mouth as he said "You're right."

"So, what's his name?"

"Dajh." He yawned

"You look tired," she stated. "Didn't you sleep last night?"

"Off and on" he replied. "I had to keep an eye out for army ships that may be searching the area. I think I'm gonna lie down here and take a rest for a bit. Do you mind keeping watch of the area this time?"

She shook her head. "Sweet dreams pops." She took a seat on the grassy floor next to him and held out her hands for the chocobo chick that was fluttering around. It landed gracefully in her hand with a soft trill.

"You know," she whispered to the bird. "Being made a l'Cie, its not easy, even I'm a bit worried. But even if we don't know what will happen, we still need to keep our dreams alive. We still need something to fight for. We need something to look forward to. If we don't then what's the point of all this running away?"

"You know, you're right" Sazh said softly. "next stop is Nautilus, City of Dreams. Now hush so I can get some sleep."

She smiled as she lay on her back keeping watch. Between the warm breeze, the fresh air and the feeling of security being with Sazh, Vanille let her eye's grow heavy and she too fell into a dream of happier days.

"kweh! Kweh!" Vanille thought she was dreaming about chocobo's but when the chirping persisted she cracked an eye open to see the baby chocobo chick fluttering around her head like mad.

She sat up slowly and let her eyes adjust to the light. According to Phoenix's position in the sky, she had slept for a few hours. With a stretch she looked around and gasped. "Sazh! Sazh where are you?"

The patch of grass where Sazh slept was empty and he was nowhere in sight. Vanille felt the panic rising in her chest. She reached around her back to where her folded fishing rod was attached to her belts. She hadn't had to use the weapon since the Vestige, but now being on her own, at least having the weapon ready may give her enough of a head start on a soldier or beast than not.

She ran as fast as she could gripping the rod in front of her. Her boots crushed grass, weeds and flowers as she trampled over them. Her eyes were wide with fear and her mind was trying to push out the panic. There was no possible way she could continue running on her own. "Sazh!" she screamed. "Where are you?"

Just as she was about to let tears slip from her eye she saw a figure standing on the edge of a pond between reeds of bamboo. Upon closer inspection she let out a long sigh of relief. "Sazh!" she exclaimed not sure if she wanted to hit him for scaring her like that or to hug him and make him swear he would never do that again.

He jumped as he turned to her, guns in hand pointed at her. "Oh…sorry, you scared me." He said as he placed the guns back in the holsters on his legs. "I didn't think you'd wake up so soon."

"What….were….you doing?" she asked carefully.

"Just thinking. Thinking about my son. Thinking about being a l'Cie. Thinking about what I have worth fighting for."

She smiled. "Don't blame yourself Sazh. You can't control who a fal'Cie picks for a focus."

"My son Dajh." He whispered.

"Excuse me?"

"He was picked. He's a l'Cie."

"How?" was all Vanille could ask.

"He said, that for his birthday, he wanted to see a fal'Cie up close and in person. So I took him on a guided tour of the Euride Gorge Plant. You know, the plant that sits atop the Volcano about five miles off from Bodhum and supplies energy to most of Cocoon."

Vanille nodded.

"Well, as an extra surprise I thought I'd buy him a chocobo chick to take home from the gift shop. I turned my back on him for a second, and he vanished. Kid ran off into the plant. I searched all over for him. I found him in one of the observation decks. Sazh continued.

"And," Vanille whispered but her voice was cracking.

"When I finally found him, he was unconscious. It was too late, the fal'Cie that worked the plant got to him. It turned him into a l'Cie, but not just any l'Cie, a Cocoon l'Cie." Sazh added. "After the pain I went through being branded myself, I don't want to even think of the pain that Dajh went though."

Vanille couldn't look him in the eye. "That's horrible." Was all she could say.

"Apparently, the fal'Cie at the gorge felt threatened for some reason, maybe because of the Vestige, maybe because of the Pulse fal'Cie sitting within it. Whatever it was, the fal'Cie at the gorge branded Dajh to protect itself. Being a Cocoon l'Cie probably meant he had a focus to defend and save Cocoon. He's a hero. But we're Pulse l'Cie…we're Dajh's enemies." Sazh's voice was beginning to waver as if the memories were opening old wounds. "PSICOM showed up shortly after to take custody of him. They did one test after another but even then they couldn't find out his focus."

Vanille couldn't hold back her tears. "I'm so sorry Sazh. That's such an awful thing."

"You know, Dajh gained some special abilities after becoming a Cocoon l'Cie. He had a way of sensing things that were Pulse related. He was the one who alerted the Sanctum that a Pulse fal'Cie was living in the Vestige, and he also told them that a Pulse l'Cie was running around Bodhum. So I put myself on the Purge train."

"Why?" Vanille questioned.

"I figured Dajh's focus had something to do with destroying the Pulse fal'Cie. I thought that if I could do it for him, he'd be spared the task of completing his focus and the Sanctum would give me my son back."

Vanille couldn't find the words to respond. All she could think was out of all of them, Lightning, Snow and Sazh had this the hardest. They watched a loved one turn into a l'Cie and tried to protect them, and in doing so paid the price of becoming l'Cie themselves. It just didn't seem fair. The two of them traveled through the marshy land in silence. Sazh was still torn up over revealing his past and his reasoning for boarding the train.

Since they didn't have to worry about PSICOM troops chasing after them they didn't have to make their patterns through the wetlands random and took the most direct route through following Sazh's direction since he had been here plenty of times before. After a few hours traveling through the lush land Sazh broke the silence by saying "Check it out." As he pointed to a row of docks sticking out over a large lake. "we can catch a ferry from here directly to Nautilus."

Vanille nodded. Once they got into the city they could blend in and think of happier things than all this Pulse and Cocoon fal'Cie and l'Cie business. They were on the edge of civilization again. "Make sure you're brand is covered" she whispered as she adjusted her now worn and dirt stained orange skirts.

It began to rain, so the two of them quickly ran to the pavilions that covered long lines of benches on the docks. Handfuls of people were sitting along the benches, mostly rangers who worked in the wetlands that were getting off work for the day. They busied themselves by talking on cell phones or reading the newspaper. No one so much as gave a second glance to Sazh and Vanille even though they were covered in dirt. Seeing as the other workers sitting with them were sweaty and dirt covered as well explained why. The rains in the wetlands came suddenly and caused the wetlands to become nothing but mud.

"Sazh, do you hate Pulse?" she whispered making sure no one could hear.

"Why wouldn't I? Look at this mess it's gotten us all into."

Vanille looked away.

"Of course, that's not to say I always hated it. I've always been a bit suspicious about the Sanctum's motives, seemed like all they did was scare people about Pulse without a shred of proof, but now that all of this has happened it's hard to choose sides."

"I see"

"You know Vanille, I've been thinking" Sazh added. "Its all because Dajh found that Pulse fal'Cie that this whole Purge business started."

"You're wrong!" Vanille cried. "It couldn't have been your son. They would have eventually found it you know."

Sazh sighed as he looked at the rain pouring off the roof of the pavilion. "It was that scum from Pulse that did this."

Vanille shot up from her seat and ran out into the rain. She wanted to use the rain as a way to cover up the tears that were now streaming down her face. She clenched her fist and let them come silently.

"Vanille, you're getting soaked" Sazh called. "Come and sit down. We're both exhausted."

"I'm fine!" she cried as she let the rain wash the dirt and grime from her face. "Its only water!"

Sazh was about to drag her back under the shelter of the pavilion, when he saw the ferry pull up. He let the pain he was feeling disappear. From now on it was going to be crucial that they have as low a profile as possible and draw as little attention to themselves. If they succeeded, all they had to do was blend in for a few weeks and hopefully meet up with the others at Lake Bresha in a few weeks. Until then, they could only take it one step at a time.