Final Fantasy XIII

Part One: The Hanging Edge

Chapter 7: Into the Vestige and Fates Intertwined

Summary: Snow still cannot shake the feelings of guilt. Despite his efforts to protect the Purge deportees from the Sanctum forces, many have fallen.

The death of one woman in particular haunts his thoughts: a mother fighting for the sake of her son, who gave her life to save Snow.

In the moments before her death, the women begged the leader of NORA to take care of her child, but slipped from Snow's grasp without revealing the boy's identity.

With Gadot's help, Snow breaks out of his depression. He figures that if he just goes ahead and protects everyone, then the woman's son will be saved as well.

After checking to see if the children are safe, Snow leaves the waning battle to his fellow NORA members and sets off with new determination towards the Vestige. His fiancée is still held captive by the Pulse Fal'Cie.

A boy watches him leave, eyes filled with rage and loathing. To his grief-stricken mind, Snow is responsible for his mother's death.

For centuries, a Pulse Fal'Cie has slumbered undisturbed on the outskirts of a Cocoon city. On the day the lowerworld entity is finally discovered, Cocoon's peaceful society is plunged into chaos.

The government judges the city's inhabitants to have been tainted by their unwelcome guest, and begins a merciless campaign to expunge both the Fal'Cie and the 'corrupted' citizenry from the face of Cocoon.

Instead of the exile they were lead to expect, the civilians face extermination at the hands of the Sanctum army.

The people fight back, but are hopelessly outmatched by the military.

Lightning cuts her way through the battlefield, doggedly followed by the desperate Sazh.

Snow, meanwhile seeks to rescue his fiancée.

…And a boy spurred on by dreams of revenge pursues Snow with the help of an unusual young lady.

Though driven by separate goals, their paths all lead to the same end: the Pulse Fal'Cie.

With a renewed determination to save his fiancée and save the remaining deportees who had survived the Purge so far, Snow set off with Gadot by his side. The two of them making their way to where the soldiers on the flying motorbikes had landed, preparing to eliminate the soldiers, steal the bikes and find Lebreau and the others, the two of them refusing to believe that they had died.

As they made their way onwards, Snow continually thought the same thing, even though he had some of his faith restored by Gadot, it couldn't stop him wondering whether everyone was all right. 'No!' Snow thought, he couldn't think like that or it would already be over, he had to faith and continue onward. Nothing could stop them now, not after they had come so far.

Snow, as he ran forwards, came across yet another treasure sphere and opened it to reveal a Power Circle, which was the type of weapon he used which surpassed his current weapon the Wild Bear. He removed the Wild Bear which decreased his magic stat by two points but because he didn't use magic, he only used his own physique he equipped it and increased his strength stats by eight points. Once he had finished re-equipping himself, he nodded to Gadot who knew it meant he was ready to go and they both continued onwards.

Running forwards, Snow spotted two Pantherons standing still and a PSICOM Aerial Recon Soldier who hadn't noticed them yet, so the NORA leader decided to take advantage of their current disadvantage and charged in, saying "Standing there ain't gonna stop us!" Snow quickly readied a hand grenade and threw it at the two robot dogs which sent them back into a wall, with Snow charging at them ready to finish the job. Meanwhile, even though the aerial soldier had noticed what was going on from the loud explosion it was already too late. As he went to shoot Snow with his own gun, he struck from behind with several bullets from Gadot's gun, causing to fall into the darkness below, the final burial ground of several people, one of them still fresh in Snow's mind, a young woman who Snow failed to save. Snow, grabbed hold of the two Pantheron's and threw them over the edge, easily dispatching them, clearing the path so that they could move forwards and get even closer to their ticket out of here and back to wherever Lebreau and the others were hopefully waiting for them.

The two of them went up a small flight of stairs and along a small, narrow platform before heading down another flight of stairs, picking up a treasure sphere containing 100 Gil in the corner and then heading up yet another flight of stairs. They went over another small and narrow platform and down another flight of stairs when Snow said "Look! There they are!" Gadot followed him down the last flight of stairs and stopped down by a luckily hidden pile of boxes which shielded them from the soldier's view as they came up with a plan whilst they watched the soldiers.

Up ahead where the soldiers were waiting for further Purge deportees, the leader of the small squadron said "I want every weapon ready to fire. Stay sharp." Snow then turned to face Gadot and said "All right, on my go." Gadot nodded and said "Right." Snow held up three fingers, and then one by one he reduced them. Two fingers. One finger. "Go!" Snow shouted and then he charged.

Gadot appeared from behind the boxes and fired his gun at the group of five soldiers, taking out one on the left and then one of the right as they were distracted. And then it was Snow's turn as he charged at the remaining three soldiers, ready to eliminate them. By the time the three PSICOM Wardens had got their guns ready it was too late, as Snow threw his hand grenade at them, the explosion either killing them, or the ones who survived the initial explosion died after the force of it sent them over the edge of the platform and down below to their inevitable deaths.

After all the enemies had been defeated, Snow and Gadot got in a motorbike each and turned them on, the flying motorbikes beginning to levitate in the air. Gadot turned to Snow and commented "That's a sad sound," referring to the noise the bike was making. "Where's the soul?" Snow popped his head out of the bike and took a look at the Pulse Fal'Cie, standing motionless, supported by several Sanctum machines, the same place where his fiancée was waiting for him to pick her up. "Hey, Gadot…" Snow started, remembering something else on his mind. "Yeah." Gadot replied. "If you don't know who you've got to save, you just protect them all, right?" Snow said, wondering how to complete Nora's final request, having no idea of who he was supposed to get home. "Something on your mind? You got plenty of time for thinking on the way… …Hero." Snow smiled and said "Yeah." And then they both ascended to the same height in the air and Gadot said "Ready!," and Snow finished it by saying "Go!" The two of heading off to search for Lebreau, Maqui or anyone else they knew.

And after a while of searching, they found not only Lebreau and Maqui but Yuj and several Purge deportees where with them as well and they prepared to land, trying to stop the three NORA members from shooting them as they did. Gadot said "Hey!" and Snow said "Hey! It's us, it's us!" Both of them trying to prevent them shooting them. The three NORA members lowered the guns and Snow chuckled and said "Don't shoot."

Gadot landed his motorbike down first, with Snow following shortly afterwards. Maqui said "Snow," and ran towards him with Yuj and Lebreau following behind him. Gadot went over to Snow and said "Since when do you care about kids?" Snow just replied simply "Favour for a friend." Gadot accepted that answer and said "Okay." Maqui then appeared next to them and said "Hey, Snow! You made it!" Yuj and Lebreau walked over next with Gadot saying "Yo," to the two of them and they replied by saying "Whew," and "Hey," respectively.

Gadot jokingly said "So, you really manage to use that thing?" Maqui smiled and laughed saying "Nah, I think I'm done," which Yuj replied to saying "You're done when we are." Meanwhile Hope and Vanille had walked over to see what all the commotion was about and then Hope saw who it was, his self proclaimed enemy, Snow. "That's the one." Hope said to Vanille who said "Didn't you have something to tell him?" Hope nodded and said "Yeah," which Vanille excitedly said "All right then!" Hope then began to stutter and said "But… I…" Vanille looked into his eyes and said "I'll go with you." Hope was surprised and said "What?"

Meanwhile Maqui was filling in Snow on what had happened and said "You have no idea what it's like," and then he started to groan. Snow smiled and said "Everyone safe." Maqui and Yuj then eagerly said "The army's no match for NORA!" Snow sighed and said "I meant the kids," and Lebreau slapped both of them on the head and said "Grow up!" Yuj quickly recovered and said "All accounted for." Snow smiled and inwardly thought that, that was the best news he had heard all day. "Okay." Snow said and whilst staring at the same hand that had gripped Nora's before she fell, he said "Let's keep it that way, all right?"

Back with Vanille and Hope, Vanille pushed Hope forwards towards the NORA members and said "Go on!" Hope, however, faltered and was unable to get closer to the group and unable to speak a word. Vanille decided to get closer and said "Hey!" However her voice was drowned out by Snow turning the flying motorbike back on and saying to his fellow NORA members "I'll swing by the vestige. Keep the kids out of trouble." Gadot nodded and said "You got it. Say hi to the missus for me!" Gadot then chuckled and continued by saying "You go skirt-chasing, I take care of the kids. Some husband!" Snow also chuckled and said "Dinner's on me," which Gadot replied to by saying "Better be home cooking!" Yuj then walked forward and said "When's the wedding, lover boy?" Snow laughed and said "Don't worry, none of you are invited!" Snow then ascended into the sky starting to fly off with most of the NORA members saying something to him. Yuj said "We're still going," and Maqui said "Hey, you serious?" and Lebreau said "Hey, what about me?" Snow looked down at them and gave them one last smile and said "Catch you later," before heading straight on towards the Vestige, all pumped and fired up to get his fiancée back from the Pulse Fal'Cie.

Hope and Vanille, meanwhile, watched on as the NORA leader left and Hope losing his chance to talk to him. Vanille started yelling and said "Wait! Come back!" Trying to coax the NORA leader on returning and talk to Hope but it was already too late, as he was out of earshot and well on his way to the Pulse Fal'Cie. Vanille walked over to where Gadot's bike was and Hope walked over to join her wondering what she was up too.

"Hm? You okay?" Vanille said, noticing Hope stop next to her. "I want to tell him, it's just that-," Hope said, stopping half way through his sentence, grabbing hold of Vanille's arm for support. Vanille looked shocked and then turned to face the bike and said "Say… You know how to fly this?" Hope replied by saying "Yeah. I think so." Vanille cheered and said "All right. In you go!" and pushed him into the motorbike and climbed in behind him and pointed towards the Pulse Fal'Cie and said "That way!" Vanille wrapped her arms around Hope's waist as Hope began to get second thoughts and said "No, no…If we go in there, that thing could- It could make us L'Cie." Vanille sighed and Hope continued on saying "This is… I don't think I can-," Vanille unwrapped her arms from around Hope and put them on the controls and said "You can do it!" Then a voice began to yell at them, it was Gadot. "What are you two doing?" Gadot started to run towards the two of them and without thinking, Hope activated the bike's controls and said "Here we go!" The bike ascended and then descended as Hope tried to figure out all the controls causing Gadot to say "Uh-oh!"

Hope, eventually, figured out what to do and levitated to a reasonable enough height and prepared to head off as Gadot shouted at them saying "Get back here? Do you hear me? Hey!" Hope however ignored Gadot and flew towards the Vestige, preparing to confront Snow; all hesitation lost in the heat of the moment, unprepared for the dangerous perils that waited for them when they arrived and the beginning of a journey that would change the world.

Author's Note: Chapter 7 done and that's Part One complete. Please tell me what you think in a review and I'll start Part Two of the story whenever I can. Till Next Time, The Fantasy Man.