Changing teams.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
"That's it." Hope said as the duo stopped on their tracks. The view from there was beautiful as the sea was reflecting the setting sun's light. Somewhere around the edge, was what seemed to be a city.
"Palumpolum."
"That's where you live right?" Lightning asked as she stared at the city surrounded by water.
"We'll stop in when we get there." Lightning stated.
"No...We're L'Cie now...and no one is there but my dad."
"Hope, you need to let him know what happened..."
"I know..." Hope replied hopelessly.
Lightning pondered on what she could do help Hope feel better. Truthfully, she never once expected to open up to the 14 year old so quickly. Perhaps it's because he reminded her of Serah? She found that she had to protect him at all times, just like with Serah...Ever since their parents died when they were both young, Lightning swore to protect Serah, even if it meant to sacrifice her life. And because of that, she had joined the Guardian Corps, intending on getting a job that could give Serah a sheltered life. If only...If only she had believed Serah...Then maybe, everybody would not be in this situation.
(Scene change)
Snow felt sadness fill up his being as he thought back about the day when Serah got captured. As he was busy remembering, he did not notice Fang's presence behind him. Realizing the Snow was not going to snap out of his thoughts, Fang slapped him lightly on his back. Fang hissed in pain when her hand made contact with Snow's hard body.
"I knew that you were hard-headed but-"
"That was-ow!" Snow said when the pain of Fang's slap finally got in contact with his pain receptors.
"Snap to it! We're rolling out." Fang commanded.
"Yeah, yeah...Hunting L'Cie, right?" Snow said lazily.
Suddenly, what seemed to be Cid's voice rang out through the speakers.
"This is our chance! Do not let the L'Cie escape! Move out!"
Snow hoped onto one of the flying vehicles and held Serah's crystallized tear in his hand.
"I will keep my promise Lightning." Snow said to himself. Snow heard two female voices calling out to him and knew that the Shiva sisters were by his side.
(Scene Change)
Vanille giggled as she continued skipping leaving Agana, Sazh and Trine slightly behind her. They were now trudging through the Sunleth Waterscape, Riparian Corridor. Vanille stopped and stretched her sore arms. She took a deep breath and released it.
"Fresh air. Nice!" Vanille commented and Agana had to say that Vanille was right. The air around them was clean and pure unlike what you would get in the city.
"So? Where are we headed?" Sazh asked only to get a reply that left him slightly ticked.
"Don't know." Vanille said without an air of confusion around her. Trine gave a small laugh when she saw Sazh's dumbfounded face.
"I thought you had somewhere in mind with the way you took off."
"I followed the smell" replied Vanille with her hands around her back.
"What?" Sazh asked.
Vanille turned and bended forward to smell a patch of purplish-orange flowers nearby.
"It smelsl nice...All naturey."
Sazh started to sniff, trying to smell what Vanille had smelled.
"It smells damp. And I think something bit me." Vanille put one of her fingers below her chin in a thinking manner. This action of hers was disturbed when a loud sound could be heard all over the clearing.
"Hide!" Vanille yelled and everybody took cover. A few mechanical flying vehicles passed.
"Skyfleet...Closest city that way is Palumpolum." Sazh exclaimed as he looked at the shadow of the vehicle.
"That is not good. I wonder if those two were caught in the net." Sazh continued. Agana frowned when Trine attached herself onto Agana's leg.
'What is wrong with this girl?' Agana thought to herself.
"What do we do?" Vanille asked, snapping Agana out of her thoughts.
"What do we do? The question right now is what can we do?"
"We could follow them to Palumpolum." Agana's voice rang out, making Vanille and Sazh turn around to face her.
"There has to be a reason as to why they are heading towards Palumpolum...It has to be something big if they are sending that many machines to Palumpolum...or, we could head to the opposite way..."
"Which would lead us to Nautilus..." Sazh finished. Without any more words, Sazh started to walk towards Nautilus. Vanille tried to come up with a perky reply, only to feel her mood dampened when she could not come up with any.
"Do whatever you want...I'm heading to Palumpolum." Agana said, receiving a few shocked gasps.
"Don't tell me you are going to Palumpolum! They are most probably trying to find more L'Cies." Vanille said in hopes of changing the soldier's mind.
"If they are really going to find the others, that would mean that this would be my chance to end this all." Agana said. Just as Trine was about to follow her, the young girl stopped in her tracks when a dagger embedded itself near her. Trine looked up only to see Agana holding another dagger.
"If you try to go forward by another step, you'll see this dagger in my hand suddenly in your heart." Agana threatened. With that, the black haired soldier broke off into a sprint towards Palumpolum. Trine looked at the dagger and bent down, only to pull the dagger back. She decided to keep it for Agana and promised to herself that she would return it the next time the saw the soldier.
"Don't worry about her...I'm sure Agana can take care of herself!" Vanille said towards the slightly worried Trine. The young girl turned to look at Vanille and nodded, a slight weight of worry already lightened off her already heavy heart.
(Scene Change)
Agana sprinted all while slashing the monsters that came into her way. Why was it that everywhere she went, monsters just seemed to follow? Nevertheless, it still gave her a peace of mind watching their blood splatter on the ground. Pretty soon, the skyfleets could be seen. Agana made sure that while she sprinted, she also hid herself to make sure that her presence would not be noticed.
The skyfleets eventually led her to a cliff, where she could see the beach. As if her eyes were palying ricks on her, Lightning and Hope could be spotted at the shore of the beach, looking at the city know as Palumpolum from afar. She jumped down and approached them. Lightning, sensing light footsteps, got ready with her gunblade in its shooting mode and held it in an attacking position. Surprise took over her body when she saw that it was Agana standing in front of her, with her scythe held out dangerously. Hope got freaked out as he did not realize that Agana was behind them. Likewise, he got out his boomerang and got ready to charge any elemental spells.
Seeing as how no attacks were made, all three of them returned their weapon back their resting place, although Hope did so reluctantly.
"Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be with the others?" Hope asked, all while feeling numb. In front of him was a killer, and she could most probably kill him in a blink of an eye.
"I don't remember you being my mother or master...As for your questions, I was with them until we spotted skyfleets heading towards Palumpolum." Agana replied smoothly, never once taking her eyes off Hope, causing him to shiver.
"It seems that we're a team now..." Lightning muttered. It was best to have Agana on their side for now. At least until Hope went back to his father.
(Scene Change)
Both Vanille and Sazh were panting all while directing attacks towards their enemies. Their enemies consisted of 4 Flans. All while attacking them, Vanille and Sazh also had to protect Trine at the same time, making in quite hard to focus on both. Pretty soon, the 4 Flans were destroyed. Vanille groaned as she fell on the ground, rubbing her aching feet. Why is it that Agana decides to leave them now? Couldn't she have left a day or two later? Then they would not be facing this problem now. Another problem for them was that Trine refused to hold any of their hand, something that she would normally do towards Agana without a second thought.
Sazh sat down as well, sighing.
Vanille immediately got up and rested her hands at her hips.
"You look tired...Not enough of sleep?" Vanille questioned all while watching Trine play around with the butterflies fluttering around.
" I guess..." Sazh said in a weak and stressed tone.
"Not surprising! Cute girl like me, it's hard to close your eyes, huh?" Vanille replied as if it was the most obvious statement in the world. She was trying to cheer him up desperately.
"I'm just gonna lie down for a bit..." Sazh said as he settled himself on the damp grass, with his back facing Vanille. Vanille stretched her arms and sat on a boulder as Sazh's chocobo came flying towards her. She held her hands out for the flying chick and smiled at it softly.
"Being made a L'Cie...It's not easy. I mean look, even I'm kind of worried..."
"But even if we don't know what will happen, we still have to keep our dreams alive. Have something to look forward to, you know?" Vanile continued speaking towards the chocobo.
"Can I hold it?" A small voice belonging to Trine voiced out causing Vanille to jump a bit. Looking over towards Trine with surprise on her face, Vanille let Trine get ahod of the yellow chick. The chocobo chirped happily while ruffling its feathers cutely. Trine giggled at this and petted the chick slowly, enjoying the feel of its soft feathers. Vanille smiled softly at this. The comforting silence suddenly broke when Vanille popped a question.
"Say...Trine, why were the monsters after you?"
Trine seemed to freeze for a moment. Never once did she think that a question like this would pop out. She had to lie...It was not time for them to discover that her existence was actually in the past and now in the current time. Getting ready with fake tears, a fake sob tore out.
"Well...M...My parents were...killed by...by the monsters! So, I ran...and t...that's w...when you guys fou...found me..."
Vanille felt her heart breaking as every second passed by. This poor child, she had gone through so much of fear. Losing your parents was most probably the worst thing that could happen to a child. Although Vanille herself had never once felt how it was to have a family by her side suddenly gone, she was sure that the feeling must be dreadful.
Trine felt guilty of lying, but she knew that it had to be done in order everything goes out safely.
'Hmph...You really are a good actress for a child.' A sneering voice became clear in her head. Trine closed her eyes and met up the mysterious person sneering at her. There, in her mind was a child who looked exactly like her. The only difference was that she had pale skin, black hair and red eyes. The rest of her clothing was projected in black and red.
' Akane...' Trine whispered mentally, wondering as to why her counterpart suddenly appeared in her mind.
'The time is near, Trinetta...Her destiny will be discovered...' The girl, known as Akane whispered harshly. Trine nodded numbly. This was why they were sent here by The Maker. To not only help save Cocoon, but also to save Gran Pulse from the looming danger that was threatening the whole world. The only way they could do it was by helping the blood-thirsty soldier realize her role in this whole scheme.
'Her summon will come soon...' Trine whispered back and received a nod from Akane.
'That is the time when Chaos and Cosmos will start to get ready in summoning their warriors to aid them...' (A/N Yes, there is a mention of Dissidia in this story.)
'But for now, we can only it her destiny to herself...' Trine exclaimed once again as she watched Akane dissolve from her mind.
"Trine?" Vanille called out towards the girl who suddenly was drowned in her thoughts. She bent down to look at Trine's face and smiled when she saw that the young girl was sleeping. Vanille carried Trine and placed her onto a much more comfortable place for to sleep. Vanille herself, plopped herself near Trine and started to fall asleep as well.
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