NOTE: THIS IS REALLY CHAPTER NINE, NOT TEN. Sorry about the confusion.

Written by sukura123. Thank you for favoring this story and even added it to your story alert too. Please review as well! :)

Chapter Nine: Concerns

Right before we took off, I heard Gadot shouting at us but that was drowned out by the engine. Crap he's gonna be pissed too. I sweatdropped. Vanille screamed as we took off super fast.

Vanille looked at the big greenish thing and was in deep thought. "Vanille, are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. Hope look out!" She exclaimed.

We all screamed because of the landed a few feet away from the hoverbike. Vanille was on her stomach, Hope head was on her back, and I landed on my back with my legs on Hope's back.

"Ouch, I'm sorry Hope, but your driving sucks." I said as I stood up and dusted my self off. He shrugged and hurridley got himself of Vanille.

"That was close. Now where is the-" Vanille said while her eyes landed on the hover bike. We checked out our surroundings. Where the hell are we?

"Guess its just us." Vanille said while making some weird sign with her fingers.

"What did you think? Even soldiers know not to go near the fal'Cie." Hope continued with his head still down. "You become a Pulse l'Cie and your finished."

"What the fal'Cie and a Pulse l'Cie?" I asked.

Hope answered my question, "Basically servents of Pulse l'Cie. Its not something you wanna do."

"Sound like it sucks to me. Guess we might as well get moving..." I said walking towards the stairs.

"Oh! Check this out!" Vanille climbed a stone pillar and grabbed something that looked like deer antlers. What the heck is she gonna do with that?

While Vanille was showing off her weapon or whatever it was. A panther robot jumped down from a pillar and growled at us. Vanille readied her weapon and Hope got a yellow boomerang out of nowhere. I stood next to Vanille and I still had my gun from before.

Vanille took the first couple hits, Hope went next, and I finished it off. "Nice work guys." I complimented. I threw my gun on the ground, I was out of ammo.

We ran all over the area, battling creature after creature. My karate skills came in handy, although my legs stung a bit from kicking several panther robots.

While scanning the area further, I heard Hope and Vanille talking about Pulse and fal'Cie. I walked over to them.

Vanille put on a frustrated face, "Pulse fal'Cie and l'Cie are bad news. That's why Cocoon kicked them out. Live too close to the fal'Cie, one way ticket to pulse. That's the purge in a nutsell."

"If they catch us here, they'll purge us too and then-" Hope started. Vanille put a finger to her chin in thought.

"What's your problem?" She cut him off. To me Hope seemed a bit whiney...

"What's my-Pulse is hell on Earth!" He seemed really frustrated and upset. Vanille and I went over there and hugged him.

"Its gonna be okay Hope." I said giving him a warm smile. Vanille nodded her head. Hope pushed us away and muttered "get off me".

I put my hands on my hips in annoyance. "Okay Hope, you need to take a chill pill and-" I was cut off by Snow shouting about some girl named Serah. Oh no, what if he finds us! Oh well.

We just sat around bored to death when we heard, "Hang on baby, your hero's on the way." A staircase rose up in front of us.

"He is here. Calling himself a hero." Hope was super mad, but we didn't say anything. A red symbol that covered a hidden door also disappeared. I started heading towards the door, when Vanille and Hope caught up with me.

We fought even more battles and even found a few items and money or gil as they call it. My leg and hands were freakin sore. We went through the hall where the red symbol had been.

"Woah" Hope said. Vanille and I gasped in awe of the area around us. I loved the sparkly dots that floated randomly in the air. How pretty. Sadly a horrible yell ruined the peace.

We looked over and saw these black scrawgly monsters with red orbs on there chests coming towards us from all sides. Hope gasped and backed up in fear.

"What are they?" I asked. We were all back to back in a circle.

"Cie'th! l'Cie who failed!" Vanille said. Her voice sounded sad. "This is what happens- when the l'Cie don't complete their Focus the fal'Cie gave them."

"Focus?" I asked. I didn't get an answer. The Cie'th were too close for comfort. With a yell, and pretty much running a Cie'th over, Snow came. Thank goodness too.

"Lets even these odds!" The battle began. And jeez these things took a while to take down. While everyone else did the usual, I used my legs to round house kick the creatures. Then, I jumped on the red orbs and tried to crush it with all my might. Finally, it ended.

Hope fell on his hands and knees out of exhaustion, Vanille put her hands on her knees, and I just drew in some deep breaths and sat down.

"How did you guys get here? You need to leave." Snow said. Vanille quickly glanced at Hope and let out a nervous laugh. "Just find somewhere to hide, I'm going to get Serah and then we can all leave together. You'll be home in time for dinner."

"Wait!, He needs to say something." Vanille shouted trying to stop Snow.

"Who's Serah?" I asked.

"My soon to be wife. She is a Pulse l'Cie." I saw Vanille put her hands toward her mouth and I heard a mumbled, "Oh no." Snow continued talking.

"What's wrong with you!" yelled Hope. Crap here it comes. "Why do you wanna help a l'Cie? There the enemy! How could you save a l'Cie and not...and not..." I could tell Hope was close to tears, he angrily stomped his foot on the ground and said, "That's insane!"

"Probably" Snow answered. He rubbed the back of his head. "But I gotta do something right? I'll be back." Snow took off running.

Hope fell to his knees, I went over there to try and comfort him with Vanille. "It might be better to wait for-" I started to say. Hope slammed his fists on the ground.

"I'd rather go to Pulse! Why is happening to me?" I could see he was trembling. "The army took us and threw us on the train...and because of that guy, mom is..." he lifted his head.

"Hope"I said gently, "You cannot blame it on Snow, he did everything to try and prevent her death. I was with him. We both did our best but-"

Hope glared at me. I was a bit taken back. "She's DEAD! If you hadn't been hanging on her ankles and causing extra weight, he could have saved her and-"

I was trying to get him to understand even though I did feel partly responsible, but what could I do? What happened was inevitable. I slightly lowered my head and look him straight in the eyes.

"Hope! I didn't have a choice in the matter. Look the brigde we on started to lean forward and all of us fell, I was lucky enough to grab her ankles. Believe me, she even tried to help me out, but it was futile. And she-"

"I don't care! Krystal stay away from me! Why did he save you and not..." My brown eyes widened in shock. Its like everything I just said went out the window. What he said had hurt. Vanille gasped.

He started to walk away, and I grabbed his shoulder and turned him around to face me. "Your mom was a brave women, she wanted us to get you home. I don't break promises. She wanted to protect you and she did by sacrificing herself. Now you have to carry on, It'll be hard but we'll help you."

Hope just glared even harder, if that was possible. He didn't want to hear anything I had to say. I just left him alone to think. Vanille tried to console him as well but he wasn't listening. Too much anger and hate. I saw Snow heading back toward us.

"Hey again." He said while catching his breath. Vanille replied with a "hey" back. I was sitting on the steps on the side of Snow in thought. I sighed, What now?

Vanille grabbed hold shoulders. "Lets go with them."

"What?" questioned Hope.

"You gotta talk to him. If you don't take this chance, you'll regret it forever." She replied. Hope nodded and we were on our way to find Serah.

Thanks for reading, please review!