Final Fantasy XIII
Part One: The Hanging Edge
Chapter 1: Defiers of Fate
Summary: Lightning and Sazh are held aboard a military 'Purge' train along with a group of civilians destined for exile. In stark contrast to the uncertain and despairing people around her, Lightning appears determined and focused.
She seizes upon an instant of inattention to disable a guard, and her impressive display inspires Sazh and the other civilians to take up arms against the soldiers.
After clashing with army forces, the train crashes to a halt in the war-torn district known as the Hanging Edge.
Sazh attempts to figure out Lightning's angle, but she shows little desire to share. The former soldier throws herself into battle without the slightest hint of hesitation – what could be driving her…?
A train rushed down the tracks at a quick pace, weaving through and around high mountains making its way to one of the most desolate locations in Cocoon, the Hanging Edge. Inside the train everyone where in white robes with blue lines running down the sides, their hands chained together no room for a lock in the cuffs, only open able by a button on a control pad held by one of the armed soldiers on the train. These robes marked the people as being infected by Pulse, the feared lower world below Cocoon and they were all to be purged, which meant being sentenced to an imprisonment on Pulse, never to return to Cocoon.
The train door slid open and an armoured soldier clad in green bulky armour with yellow glowing lights in the stripes running down the armour of the soldier. The armoured soldier walked through, he was carrying a sub-machine gun in case with several bullets within which fired at an impeccable pace once the trigger was fired. The soldier was wielding the gun in case there was any resistance from the Purge deportees. He looked at the people through the small visor in his head armour to see if there was anything suspicious going on. Seeing that nothing was amiss, he started to walk down the train, finger on the trigger of his gun, not scared to fire if there was anyone trying to escape or up to anything that he considered wrong for a simple way of putting it.
As the soldier continued to walk down the train checking on the people inside, and the train continued to whistle down the tracks, one of the people in the blue and white robes turned to the person next to him and said "You serious?" She replied with a curt "Be quiet." The man's name was Sazh Katzroy, he had dark skin and a beard but had a wise aurora that you could sense about him. Sazh was an ex-pilot, with two safely concealed pistols on him which he was given in case there were any monster attacks during his flights. He chuckled and said "Best of luck."
As the train continued down the tracks it went straight through a shield causing the train to shudder and the guard to stumble. Then she struck, with no time for the guard to stop her and no time for any other soldiers to help. Fast as the thing that gave her name, Lightning. She attacked the guard like a lightning bolt and broke the mechanical pad that released the cuffs on all the people's hands. Sazh smiled and said joyfully "She did it."
Two more guards came into the room, to try and stop her, both armed with machine guns, the soldiers holding them close to their chests in case needing them to use as a close-up weapon , their fingers on the triggers ready to fire at the trouble maker, no problems with killing for either of them. Lightning threw off her purge robes, revealing her soldier's amour with a red cape and her pink hair. The recently retired member of one of the two sides of the military, the Guardian Corps was extremely deadly and powerful as she easily knocked down the two soldiers and stole one of their machine guns and ran through the door to the next section where she was met with another guard. She easily fired several rounds into the guard killing him, Lightning had almost reduced herself to a robot as she also had no problems with killing, she only showed any emotions with one person in her life, and she was gone, taken from her and now she was going to get her back.
Meanwhile Sazh was checking on the people back in the section where he was and said to a boy sat on the ground, "You all right?" The boy looked at Sazh hesitantly and Sazh said "I'm not a L'Cie." Then Sazh's Chocobo chick jumped out of his hair and squealed causing the kid to smile.
Whilst this was happening, Lightning continued to fight soldiers and activated her anti gravity jump allowing her to glide through the air crushing soldiers against the wall, kicking them away and shooting them with the two machine guns she stole, the second one after kicking a soldier to the ground. She spun and glided through the air, firing bullets killing, wounding and disarming soldiers, one bullet going straight through a soldiers visor and hitting him between the eyes.
Sazh then joined Lightning near the front of the train with his own choice of weapon, the two small pistols that he concealed beforehand. Sazh was also carrying another weapon, this one though was much deadlier, it was a missile launcher. Sazh hands Lightning her own weapon which was confiscated before they were allowed to board the Purge Train. Lightning's weapon is a combination of a Sword and Gun otherwise known as a Gunblade. Behind Sazh are several civilians wielding machine guns who have decided to take up arms against the Sanctum.
The train continues hurtling down the tracks until it comes out into a large area known as the Hanging Edge. Lightning sticks her head out of the door, where she sees several flying robots firing at the train. She looks at Sazh and says "Give me that." She then yanks the missile launcher out of his hands and focuses on her target and fires causing an explosion as the missile hits its target.
As the train continues on a mechanical bird appears and follows after it. Lightning fires another missile but this time she misses and the bird fires back with a powerful lightning bolt causing the train to fall of the tracks and down onto some other tracks further below.
Meanwhile other purge trains have revolted as well and have taken up arms against the Sanctum soldiers and their mechanical machines which they summon through small portals. The soldiers were summoning either mechanical dogs or giant behemoths.
Now on the tracks below, a gigantic machine known as Manasvin Warmech landed on top of the train and gripped on to it tightly trying to force the train to a halt. After a few seconds it finally succeeds and then starts bombarding the train with attacks from its mechanical tail. After a few hits the Warmech opens up a hole in the train and seeing this Sazh shouts "Run!" Lightning then jumps out through the hole and heads towards the Warmech, seeing this Sazh shouts, "I meant away."
Sazh then climbs out of the hole joining Lightning on the top where she has her Gunblade out ready to fight the machine. Sazh trying to be calm says "Hey, hey, hey! Let's be rational now." The Warmech doesn't listen to Sazh's pleas and tries to attack them forcing them to crawl out of its way or jump elegantly in Lightning's case. Sazh then says "They're sending in the big guns now. What do we do?" Lightning brushes off Sazh's worried comment and says "Watch and learn."
Lightning dashes forward and slashes the machine twice with her Gunblade, in anger the machine retaliates by trying to slash Lightning which she elegantly dodges. Sazh decides to try and help out as well and starts firing at the Warmech to pierce its armour. Lightning runs forward for another strike and the Warmech fires its laser which Lightning dodges by jumping to the right. She then reaches her target and once again slashes the Warmech twice with her sword. After another few bullets from Sazh and another strike from Lightning's Gunblade, the Warmech jumps back and grabs hold of the part of the train Lightning and Sazh are standing on and starts to pull on it.
Lightning realising what it is up to says to Sazh, "Fall back." The two of them run back and Sazh taunts it saying "Not so tough now." The Warmech hearing this pulls harder on the train causing Sazh to say "Hey, that wasn't like a challenge now. All right?" The Warmech then rips the train in half causing Lightning to quickly run and jump to the other half and Sazh following behind slowly, continually tripping and stumbling and when Sazh reaches the end of the first half, Lightning yells "Jump!" Which Sazh does causing to land on the other half in a heap.
Lightning then says "Heads up!" and Sazh tiredly says "This thing won't give up!" The Warmech then jumps and joins them again and starts another fight. Sazh quickly fires bullets at it which it shrugs off but Lightning then slashes the machine several times taking it by surprise. The machine fires its main cannon which Lightning dodges, followed by its laser which she deflects. Meanwhile Sazh had fired several bullets whilst it fired its main cannon causing it severe damage and then Lightning then jumped into the air and brought her Gunblade down slashing the Warmech with tremendous force.
The Warmech then falls off of the train and starts plummeting down into the dark depths below. Sazh collapses once again and says "Thank goodness. Whew! We did it." Several machines fly pass which Sazh notices but Lightning completely ignores and she puts her Gunblade back in its belt. Sazh then turns to Lightning and says "Aren't you supposed to protect civilians, soldier? I mean you are Sanctum aren't you? What're you doing trying to stop the Purge? Why don't you tell me that?" Lightning barely turns to look and says "I was a soldier." Lightning then runs off and jumps down to the platform below with Sazh saying "Hey, where do you think you're going?" Sazh sighs and then pulls his small Chocobo chick out of his hair and holds it in his hands saying "Chocobo, we just can't catch a break, can we? Well we'd better follow her." Sazh then climbed down the edge of the train and started to follow Lightning into the warpath waiting for them.
Author's Note: This is the start of my Final Fantasy XIII novelization, what I am hoping to do is to finish this, follow it up with Final Fantasy XIII-2 and then possibly XIII-3. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review.