Chapter 12

The Will to Fight

Three days had passed since Lighting, Snow, Fang and Hope narrowly escaped execution in Palumpolem. They immediately set a course for Nautilus which would have taken a matter of hours to reach if they flew as fast as the ship could take them. However they were shocked to find the airspace around Nautilus filled with PSICOM ships. Raynes immediately ordered his research team to start hacking the Sanctum's database and find out what the commotion was.

Lightning silently prayed that Sazh and Vanille were okay, though at this point things were looking grim. She should have figured that the Sanctum would have sent pursuit after those two as well once they realized the dreaded l'Cie split up. Now coincidentally, the Sanctum sky fleet hovered over the very city that Sazh and Vanille ventured towards.

It was confirmed almost immediately by the research hackers that PSICOM had tracked down and imprisoned two fugitive l'Cie in Nautilus fitting the descriptions of Sazh and Vanille. One of the hackers also decoded a rather surprising message that was sent from a Commander Jhil Nabaat to a Commander Yaag Rosch stating "we captured two l'Cie, however due to one of their unexpected behaviors, we have decided to hold them captive and have the Primarch decide how to handle them."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Snow asked.

"It means that they want to wait until all the l'Cie are captured and have a mass execution at once." Lightning replied. "Besides I'm sure they'll get a ton of data from observing the enemy l'Cie."

"So what do you suppose we do?" Hope questioned.

"We wait" was Lightings answer.

So that is exactly what they did. Each of them tried to find things they could busy themselves in until more information was found out about what happened at Nautilus. Lighting and Hope spent most of their time in an empty hangar of the ship using it as a practice room. Lightning was teaching Hope the dynamics of sword fighting and better tips and tricks to using a handheld knife. Snow stayed glued to Serah's side in the research wing where Calvary scientists worked relentlessly to find a way to make her awaken. Fang worked with Raynes to find a way to tap into the Sanctum's headquarters but found that security had been tripled after Sazh and Vanille's capture.

They only saw each other for meals and quick debriefing meetings and during those times not a single word was breathed about Sazh or Vanille. It was if everyone was holding their breaths waiting, hoping that the Sanctum hadn't changed their minds and just killed them anyway. It was on the third day of this torture that a public announcement was made over the news. Everyone eagerly gathered on the hangar of the Lindblum to see just what it was going to take to save their friends.

"The Palamecia is the headquarters for the Sanctum sky fleet and is currently serving as a prison for the l'Cie that were apprehended in Nautilus." A reporter announced. "The l'Cie will face official sentencing upon the convoy's arrival in the capital city of Eden. In a heroic display of unwavering dedication to duty Primarch Dysley himself has boarded the Palamecia and has focused all his efforts into putting a halt to the Pulse-panic."

Fang sneered. "They're baiting us; trying to draw us out."

Lightning nodded. "Yeah it's like they're saying 'here are your friends, come and get them'"

Snow grinned. "Well then, if they're daring us to mount a rescue party, then why don't we just take them up on that offer?"

Fang smirked at him. "I like that attitude. It's time I finally find Vanille, just like I promised her."

"I'm in too" Hope interjected, "But how are we going to get on board without PSICOM noticing?"

Raynes pointed to a dark vessel sitting at the back of the hangar. "The miniature PSICOM vessel that we stole from them during the rescue at Palempolem. Don't worry, we've reformatted the whole thing, so they'll never be able to register it as the stolen ship."

"And we're supposed to take them all on" Lightning questioned, an eyebrow raised. "I think they may have the whole division on board."

"Who cares" Fang spat. "They've got Vanille on board and I'm gonna break her free from there." Without a word she boarded the ship and readied it for takeoff. The only thing on her mind was saving her best friend and getting her home to Gran Pulse.

Vanille was dreaming. She was dreaming of the beautiful city of Nautilus and how happy a place it seemed to be, with bright lights and smiling faces. The warm feeling it evoked within her was very reminiscent of the feeling she had being around her family back on Gran Pulse. The thought of it brought a smile to her lips. But as she wandered the amusement park streets, the lights dimmed to a deep red color and she saw Sazh standing in front of her; gun pressed to his temple ready to pull the trigger. No matter how hard she screamed for him to stop, he didn't hear her and pulled it anyway. The splatter of blood showered down on her staining her creamy skin and orange skirts. She screamed.

She screamed so loud that she woke herself up from the nightmare she had been living. The room was dark and she could feel the metal floor beneath her but she didn't stop screaming and the tears began to roll down her cheeks once more. It was only when a warm hand was placed upon her shoulder did she slow her sobbing.

"Vanille" Sazh whispered. "It was just a dream, snap out of it."

She looked at him as her chest heaved. "I know…but it seemed so real. I saw you shoot yourself and your blood it was-"

"Vanille calm down. I didn't shoot myself. It's just your mind warping what happened that night that's all." Sazh assured her.

She wiped her eyes and looked at him as the memories of that night came back clear as day. After being so exhausted that night she could barely remember what had happened. Jhil had told Sazh about why Dajh became a l'Cie. Sazh went to kill Vanille himself but found he didn't have the heart to, so he raised the gun to his head. When Vanille heard the gunshot she instinctively turned away and closed her eyes.

However she never heard Sazh's lifeless body crash to the ground so slowly she peeked her eyes open and saw her companion still standing before her, gun pointed at the sky, its tip smoking from the gunshot that happened just moments before. In an instant he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion not caring what would happen next. Vanille wanted to wake him up and find a way to escape but before she could get up from the ground PSICOM soldiers had surrounded them and they were both taken prisoner. Vanille in a Purge robe and Sazh in a coffin like carrying case that ensured that no one would be tainted by Pulse that way.

They were tossed into a dimly lit room made of metal. This would be their prison for three long and painful days. They were fed a slice of bread and a glass of water every day and were forced to sleep on the metal floors. While no one even bothered to check on them except to deliver mealtimes the room was silent. Sazh only spoke when he found it absolutely necessary to, and so the two of them sat silently in their prison waiting for their sentence.

Sazh's comforting words now was the first time he had actually held a decent conversation with her since they had been thrown on the ship. Though he said he had forgiven her, his actions up until this point hardly spoke for him.

After Vanille calmed down he whispered. "I'm pathetic you know."

She shook her head viciously. "No. That's my line. I'm the one who lied to everyone."

"Forget it, you can't change what's done. I'm sick of playing the blame game. The only ones responsible for this mess are the fal'Cie and the Sanctum. If the fal'Cie from Pulse and Cocoon would stop hating each other they wouldn't need to brand humans….and if the Sanctum quit filling people's heads with lies…."

"Lies?" Vanille questioned.

"After being told time after time that Pulse is a world of hell and brimstone that breeds only monsters and uncivilized people, I have to assume that the Sanctum has been lying to us" Sazh added. "Because you don't seem like a monster at all."

"Thank you"

Sazh continued. "Besides, I've been thinking. You woke up from a being a crystal once right? That means Dajh will too one day."

She nodded.

"What was it like? I mean how exactly did it happen, you completed your focus right?"

Vanille made herself comfortable on the ground she was going to tell her side of the story without it being tainted by what the Sanctum said. "I was chosen to be a l'Cie to fight against Cocoon…it happened hundreds of years ago on Gran Pulse. There were two of us, me and the other woman on the video, my best friend Fang. We completed our focus and fell into a long crystal sleep….."

"What did it feel like? Sleeping for hundreds of years I mean." Sazh questioned with wide eyes.

She shrugged. "Like normal sleep, except you can sleep for hundreds of years because the crystal preserves your mind and body." She continued after Sazh nodded. "When we awoke, we were on Cocoon in the Vestige at Bodhum and we had a new focus. Except well, Fang, she'd forgotten everything that revolved around our previous focus. I couldn't hurt people again, I couldn't hurt Cocoon or Fang so I lied."

"You lied about remembering your focus on Pulse?" Sazh stated in a shocked voice.

"Gran Pulse" Vanille corrected "And yes, I played dumb and said I lost my memory too. I wanted to escape my fate as a l'Cie. I ran from it, and as a result the fal'Cie that awoke within the Vestige with us called out for more people to become it's l'Cie. That's how Serah was branded."

"Wow. So you weren't kidding when you said you caused this mess huh?"

Vanille glared at him.

"Sorry."

She was about to laugh it all off when the sound of an alarm cut through the air. The dim lighting went from radiating a dingy green color to a bright red. Vanille looked to Sazh and her gaze was met with a huge grin. A voice overhead called "Code Green. Enemy forces have been detected. I repeat code green."

"I'd hate to get your hopes up if I'm wrong, but I have a feeling our rescue has just arrived."

No sooner had Sazh got the words out of his mouth the door to their prison cell flew open with a clang and bright light flooded from the corridor outside. Vanille instinctively shielded her eyes. A single soldier entered the room holding a gun ready to fire. "Get up, You're being moved." When neither of them made a move to obey, the soldier grabbed Vanille's arm and dragged her to her feet. "I said move bitch!"

Unknowingly the soldier had made a mistake. He had taken his eyes off of the other l'Cie prisoner in the room to focus on Vanille. Sazh used this opportunity to ram his entire body weight into the unsuspecting soldier causing him to lose his grip on Vanille and drop his gun at the same time. Thinking only on instinct Vanille grabbed the gun that clattered to the ground and in a swift movement pointed it to the PSICOM soldier and pulled the trigger.

Vanille had never murdered another human being before and hoped she would never have to. Shooting someone in front of her she reasoned had to be the worst way to commit the act. She saw the soldiers anguish and heard his pain as he fell to the ground barely hanging on to life as a river of blood streamed from beneath him. She stood there trembling as she let her mind review what she'd just done.

Sazh took the gun from her and said. "Come on, Vanille. I'll take the gun, let's just get out of here." He searched the soldier's pockets and found a ring of keys.

They made their way out of their prison cell and into a corridor lined with doors that led to dark rooms just like the one they came from. Sazh ran to the door across from their prison cell and began working the keys he had stolen. On the fifth try he successfully heard the lock click and pushed the door open. Sitting on top of a pile of wooden crates was a pair of guns and a distinct looking fishing rod. Their weapons!

"I thought I overheard them say our weapons were over here when they delivered our meal yesterday" he explained as he tossed Vanille her rod. "You sure you want to use this, you can have the PSICOM gun."

She shook her head. "No…that's okay. I don't want to kill anyone like that ever again."

"Suit yourself. We gotta move. Whether its Lightning and the others or not, we can at least use this as a distraction to get out of here."

"Code Purple! I repeat, Code Purple! Fugitive l'Cie have been spotted on the Palamecia. Furthermore the l'Cie imprisoned on the ship have escaped their cell. All units stand ready to fire." A voice called over a series of loudspeakers that blended into the celling overhead.

Sazh sighed. "Sounds like we aren't the only ones going to be making a ruckus, but code purple means it will be even trickier to get out of here. Come on, let's go get rescued."

"No" Vanille whispered. "For once in my life I will not sit around and be a damsel in distress. I'm going to stand up and fight; I'm going to rescue them."

Sazh grinned. "Now you're talking." He ran down the narrow corridor with Vanille following behind not knowing what would be around each corner but they kept moving anyway holding on to the hope that they could survive this

""Code Purple! I repeat, Code Purple! Fugitive l'Cie have been spotted on the Palamecia. Furthermore the l'Cie imprisoned on the ship have escaped their cell. All units stand ready to fire."

Lightning halted in a corridor and motioned for the others to follow suit. They had successfully taken the PSICOM ship to the Palamecia and using the newly formatted ID code they were able to dock with ease. Unfortunately shortly after they boarded they were forced to fight soldiers setting off an alarm. They were forced to travel through the ship in its more lightly guarded areas like the cargo hold area at the ships lowest part.

"What do all the colors stand for?" Hope whispered.

Fang smirked. "It means we're doing our job correctly. We're making PSICOM nervous."

Lightning nodded. "Code green stands for a minor threat. We set that off by our arrival. Code purple however, means there was a breakout from within."

Hope's eyes lit up. "Vanille and Sazh?"

Lightning smiled. "I hope so." She peeked around the corner to check and see if the coast was clear. When it was she motioned for everyone to follow her. Something was bothering Lightning. This had been too easy. They were able to get into the Palamecia with little problems and once they had been discovered, the hordes PISCOM troops they had been expecting never arrived to fight them off. On the other hand, from the sound of it, Sazh and Vanille had been able to escape their prison. For being on such high security protocol, even the chance of escape was nearly impossible. Something was definitely wrong.

She stopped and faced her companions and said "Listen, be on your guard. I think something is seriously wrong."

Snow nodded. "I agree. This is all too easy. It's like the Sanctum is letting us walk in and take what we want with no isues."

"But how can that-" Hope started, but was cut off as the ship rocked violently. The lights flickered and went dim. Once the rocking ceased the ship was still. Too still.

"Power is down." Lightning announced.

"Won't the ship crash?" Snow questioned.

Lightning shook her head. "No, they have backup generators to keep the ship floating, but they cut the power to everything else to reduce the strain on them."

"What do we do?" Hope whispered.

"We use this as an opportunity to get to Vanille and Sazh." Lightning replied.

"Halt! Enemy l'Cie found." Cried a soldier's voice. A group of six soldiers streamed down the hall in front of them. They proceeded toward the fugitives guns raised ready to shoot. "Don't move."

Lightning pulled out her sword ready to fight off the assault half grateful that they were finally attacking them and acting just as predictably as they should. She gripped the hilt and let her body slide into position ready to strike

As they advanced down the hall there was a loud explosion as a chunk of the wall of the corridor blew to pieces. Half the soldiers were caught in the blast and their bodies were promptly ripped apart. For the soldiers that survived, they turned on their heels and promptly retreated in fear of the l'Cie's incredible power.

Fang stood in the hall, awestruck looking to Lightning for an explanation of what happened.

The explanation came in the form of two figures stepping through the wall coughing out the smoke from their lungs and batting it away from their face. One, a very tall dark skinned middle aged man and the other a petite fair skinned, red pigtailed girl.

"Ack! Sazh I told you using that dynamite we found was going to cause too much of a ruckus. The soldiers will be here soon." Vanille cried as she stepped through the wall. She waved the smoke from her tearing eyes and saw four very familiar people, one of which was the very person she had been searching for. "Fang!"

"Vanille!" Fang cried as she ran to her best friend and wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so proud of you." She immediately moved down to her leg and pulled up her skirt to look at her friend's brand. The others shifted uncomfortably at Fang's action. "Relax " she chuckled. "I'm just checking to see how much time Vanille has left….what a relief. You've still got time."

"Um Fang" Vanille began, her voice shaking. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Never mind about that" Fang interjected. "We'll have plenty of time once we get off this bloody ship."

"But-"

Fang ignored her. "What's the plan?"

Snow grinned and clenched his fists. "We topple the Sanctum now?"

Sazh's jaw dropped. "Were you out digging in that crystal too long? Look I don't know what happened to you since we split up, but fighting the Sanctum is nuts. We'll never survive."

"We need to give Cocoon back to the people, not let the fal'Cie control it just because they have a bone to pick with the Pulse fal'Cie." Snow retorted. "It took us so long to realize that Pulse…"he caught Vanille and Fang's glares. "er…I mean…Gran Pulse isn't the real enemy here. It's not the Sanctum either…it's the fal'Cie. Just because the fal'Cie from Cocoon and the fal'Cie from Gran Pulse hate each other they think they can drag us humans into it. We need to put a stop to this."

"Well…if you put it that way…" Vanille grinned. "I think we should Purge a Primarch."

"I like the way you think kiddo." Snow grinned.