We continued our journey along the now crystallized lake, the bulk of the group all complaining about becoming L'Cie and wondering why them, me collecting more crystal shards, dollar signs in my eyes the whole time. "Okay, if we don't know our focus, how do we complete it?" Lightning asked.
"Would a vision about a giant monster help with anything?" I asked.
"Hold on now, did we ALL have the same dream?!" Sazh asked.
"Ragnarok." Lightning and Snow said at the same time.
We got a small glimpse of the vision again: The giant monster destroying Cocoon. "So, we all saw the same dream. We all heard the same voice." Sazh asked.
"Kinda like Nightmare on Elm street with more monster destroying things and less homicidal maniac freak burnt to a crisp trying to kill us in our sleep with a glove that has razors at the finger tips." I confirmed, although I could tell from the weird looks I greatly confused everyone.
"You mean that was our focus? So, how are we supposed to know what to do from that?" Hope asked.
"That is a good question, my friend." I said, stopping to think. "... I got nothin'." I said, shrugging, causing them all to deadpan.
"That's the tricky part. The dream's the only hint the Fal'Cie gives us. Figuring out what to do with it, that's our job." Vanille said, stepping forward.
"Oh, great, it's like charades back at the office." I said.
Flashback...
Back at the office, the power was out, due to Dante not paying the bill, so we decided to pass the time by playing charades. Trish went up first and made it look like she was destroying everything in sight and lighting everything on fire. "It's me." I said, deadpanning.
Dante was up next, doing basically the same thing, only making it seem like more of a joke. "It's me." I said.
Nero went up next and pretended to casually shoot everything and get drunk at the same time. "It's me. And next one just a guess, me." I said.
"Okay, that is scary." Trish said.
Back to us...
"Pulse L'Cie. Enemies of Cocoon, right? So does that mean our focus is... Are we supposed to-?" He asked before Snow interrupted.
"Save her." He said.
"Were you not just listening to the man? ENEMIES of Cocoon. So we're PROBABLY not trying to save it." I said, pointing at Sazh in the beginning.
"Our focus is to protect Cocoon!" Snow said.
"I don't believe you." I said in a tone that made it sound like I didn't believe him.
"Really? Okay. And why is that?" Vanille asked.
"Serah told us. Let's do it! We're all in this together." He said, looking all around. "I'm gonna look for Serah. She oughta be nearby." He said, rushing off.
"I'll come, too! Wait!" Vanille said, rushing after him.
"Yeesh. That boy can't stay still." Sazh said, following them.
"Really." Hope said in a normal tone, as if he didn't particularly care. He stopped and looked at Lightning and I for a minute, but then took off after them.
"Follow the plot, I guess." I said, following them, Lightning following behind shortly after.
"We need to find a way out of here. We can worry about everything else later." Snow said.
"Weren't YOU just the one talking about rushing around and saving your woman?" I asked. We then encountered a large group of Cie'th, getting ready to fight. "Let's test these new powers a bit more, shall we?" I asked, throwing a large volley of Ruin spells at them, hitting them with the orbs of crystal power (I think that's what it is), slowing them down decently when Snow ran in and launched the biggest one into the air with an uppercut.
"Yeah! Maybe this isn't so bad!" He said, marveling at his new strength.
"Now you're getting it! Trish, eat your heart out!" I said, raising my hands, then calling down a bolt of lightning to strike the Cie'th in midair, killing it.
Back at the office...
Trish shuttered slightly. "Something wrong, Trish?" Dante asked.
"I think that little brat's talking about me behind my back again." She said, annoyed.
Back to us...
I finished the last of the Cie'th, looking at the giant gap we had to jump and the long drop if we fell. "Cake." I said, easily making the jump, turning to the others and bowing in a way as if I was trying to say "Now you're turn".
"This could work!" Snow said as he jumped up, although they did not make the entire jump like I did, having to make a couple smaller jumps from platform to platform along the way. "This magic may be a curse, but it makes us stronger! What's stopping us from putting it to good use." He said.
"About time you guys see it from my perspective." I said as the rest of them got up here.
He then got an idea, fist pumping. "We fight it, Ragnarok!" He said, jumping down from where he was towards the reconvening group. "That's the reason we're L'Cie! To stop it! To keep Cocoon safe!" He said.
"Yeah? Why don't you give us one reason to believe that. One reason." Sazh said, pointing to Snow.
"Serah." He said.
"Look, I get you've got feelings for her, but something that wants Cocoon destroyed giving us powers to SAVE it? That makes even less sense than the plot of the Kingdom Hearts series." I said, then turned towards the 4th wall, nodding. That's right, I went there. Like you can make sense of it." I said.
Yeah, thinking about it just makes our head hurt.
[As if they TRY to confuse you.]
"She said to protect Cocoon. And then she turned to crystal. That's the proof right there! She completed her focus! That means ours is to save Cocoon!" He said, walking back and forth, raising one fist... When he wasn't facing us.
"Hey there, general. That does make sense and this is pretty inspirational, but you should face us when you raise your fist like that if that's the rally point of the speech." I criticized.
He then turned and walked towards us, but mostly towards Lightning. "Serah's Fal'Cie was the same as ours. Our focus has got to be the same! We were chosen to be guardians! To defeat Ragnarok! It makes sense!" He said, but Sazh moved away and faced him.
"The hell it does! You're graspin' at straws, son! Pulse Fal'Cie are Cocoon's enemies!" Sazh said, holding up his arms to make more of a point.
"Once again with the way he's talking, Square Enix: RACIST!" I said.
"We just got recruited by one of them! If I was a bettin' man, I'd put us on the other side." He said.
"So Serah's an enemy, too? Well, I don't buy it!" Snow said, turning to Lightning. "We have the power to save Cocoon! If we work together and carry out-!" He said, but suddenly, she pulled out her gunblade and put it to his throat.
"Our focus?! The Fal'Cie took Serah from us and you want to help it?! Whose side are you on?!" She demanded.
"Look, let's everybody just calm the fuck down." I said, raising my hands.
"Freeze!" A couple of soldiers said, aiming their guns at us. "Place your hands behind your heads!" The leader instructed.
"But you just told us to freeze." I said.
"Are you talking back to me!? Huh?! HUH?!" He demanded walking up, putting his gun to my head.
"Oh, no. No, no, no, no... Pfft- yeah!" I said, suddenly having Fire and Ice up to his chest. "Shot through the heart!" I sang, then activated Bullet Time (Witch Time, to get technical), freezing the guards and the first bullets they fired. "Yeah! Take that!" I said.
[So, what are we gonna do with these guys?]
Ooh, I sense a Tomb Raider movie reference coming!
"Yep." I said, walking up to the bullets the soldiers had fired and turning them around as if someone had just shot at them (this is a reference to the Tomb Raider movie where Lara rewound and froze time with the magic artifact, then turned the knife the bad guy through at her love interest in the movie to kill him instead of her love interest). "Surprise, motherfuckers!" I said, snapping my fingers, restarting time and sending the bullets into the soldiers' heads.
"Whoa. I don't know what you just did, but that was pretty cool." Sazh said.
"Yeah, now that's impressive!" Snow said enthusiastically, putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Why thank you, thank you very much" I said in my Elvis voice, even though I should've known they wouldn't get the reference. "Remove the hand." I said, looking at his hand on my shoulder.
"Thought they'd be tougher than that. These are PSICOM, yeah?" Sazh asked, inspecting the bodies. "Supposed to be cream of the crop." He said, waving in their faces to see if they were still alive while Vanille started praying again.
"Yeah, but PSICOM is an anti-Pulse Task Force. They haven't fought a war in centuries." Snow explained.
"Well, they're in for one with all of us, mostly me, up against them." I said.
"Yeah. Just a bunch of rookies swinging around over-priced weapons." He said.
"So, from what you're telling me, it sounds like a regular soldier has got more training than Special Forces?" Sazh asked.
"Not in my world." I said.
"Nothing for us L'Cie to be afraid of." Snow said confidently.
"Cut the crap." Lightning said, drawing everyone's attention. "They're grunts might be green, but PSICOM'S elites are cold-blooded beasts. They hit the field and it's game over." Lightning said.
"Well, aren't you just the spittin' image o' cheery?" I asked silently.
"Uh-oh! Then let's run away! Ciao!" Vanille said, standing on one leg on her toes, pointing to the way she was going to run, then ran away.
"Hey, wait!" Sazh called to stop her, but she kept going, then he looked at the bird in his afro that jumped into his hand again. "What's a man to do?" He asked, chuckling as we followed her.
"One thing I've learned with women is you never win, so don't even fuckin' try." I said. We continued on and murdered more Cie'th, then encountered some weird creatures I've never seen before. A mix between fish and lizards. "Holy shit! Am I tripping balls again?" I asked.
"No, these are what creatures around here look like." Snow explained.
"Why doesn't my world have cool shit like this?!" I demanded, electrocuting the first one coming at me, then launching the next one into the air with a wind spell. "Yeah, screw you, Doctor Strange! Ain't got nothin' on me!" I smirked. We killed them all and then I pulled out a syringe, taking blood samples from all of them.
"What are you doing now?" Lightning asked.
"Taking blood samples from your ungodly mutant fish so I can sell them for big bucks! Money, money, money!" I laughed, taking pictures of the things to accompany the samples.
"Weird, isn't it? All the messed up ways to meet. Might as well make introductions. I'm Snow. Snow Villiers." He said. "Short stuff?" He asked, referring to Hope.
"Hope. Hope Estheim." Hope said.
"Sazh Katzroy." Sazh introduced himself.
"Vanille." Vanille said, then looked at the still silent Lightning. "What about her?" She asked.
"Farron. No one knows her first name. Goes by Lightning." Snow answered for her.
"Well, that just leaves me, I guess. Sai Kunai Blade, super badass fire demon ninja from another dimension and, as of now, flying up the ranks of the badass people I know with this new L'Cie magic." I answered,
"Grand intro." Sazh said.
"Thank you." I said, then suddenly hear a- "Is that a harmonica?" I asked.
Sazh looked at Hope and Vanille, sighing. "Oh, it's not right. Why'd kids have to get dragged into this?" He asked.
"Rotten luck, wrong place, wrong time, a revenge plan backfired. Take your pick." I said.
"I'll keep the kids out of trouble." Snow said, pointing to himself.
Sazh laughed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "The problem with that is, you're one of 'em." He said in a bit of a joking tone.
"Hey." Snow said.
"He's got a point, you've been getting us INTO trouble and I've been getting us out of it." I said.
"Don't get too cocky there, fire demon." Snow said.
"Oh, you're going there?" I asked, making a line in the crystal with my foot, stepping up to it and drawing a getting in my fighting stance.
"Trying to take on the Pulse Fal'Cie, that was our first mistake." Sazh said. "Should've left it to the Sanctum. Why not? We've counted on the Sanctum's Fal'Cie for food, water, everything we've needed since the time we were born." He continued.
The whole time he was speaking... "Heeey! Hey, come on!" Vanille called, jumping and waving, even grabbing one of Hope's wrists and making him wave with her.
"So the Fal'Cie are like Jesus, magically making more of what people need from nowhere?" I asked... They merely looked at me like they didn't know what I'm talking about. "Forget it. I'm gonna assume any reference I make is gonna be lost on you guys." I said, shaking my head.
"But you still helped us attack it. Why is that? Gotta be something." Snow asked Sazh.
"There might've been. I'm not so sure anymore." He said, continuing forward.
"So, what was the point of this cutscene?" I asked as we all continued on, not getting an answer from my fellow L'Cie out of confusion. We continued on a short ways until we ran into another group of the cougar robots the soldiers had before. "Oh, this is how we're gonna do it, then? Then how about... DOUBLE LIGHTNING!" I said, firing the lightning from my hands, Star Wars style, electrocuting them.
"How about this!" Snow said, freezing them.
"Not bad." I said, nodding.
"I've got this!" Vanille said, launching them into the air with aero.
"BURN YOU WHORES!" I laughed, roasting them in midair with my natural fire attacks.
"Pretty effective overkill." Snow said.
"That's my middle name." I said.
"I thought it was Kunai?" Vanille asked.
"... Damn." I said, looking at the ground. "What else gonna die?" I asked, continuing onward with my hands on fire, singing a little song to myself. "What am I gonna burn~? What's gonna burn today~?" I sang, encountering two more of the cougar things. "Looks like it's gonna be robots~!" I finished, burning them, laughing evilly. "Hey, Lightning, check it out." I said, jumping into the air and throwing a baseball sized fireball down at them, but it then exploded into a massive fire, engulfing the two of them as I continued to laugh. "BURN!" I laughed, throwing more fireballs into the flames.
"You know, there's such a thing as overdoing it." Hope said, using a water spell and making the giant bubble of water pop above the flames, extinguishing them.
"Nice to see he's got a good grasp of it." I said approvingly. We then encountered more soldiers, aiming their guns at us. "You don't want to start this, believe me." I said.
"That's far enough!" The leader said, tossing handcuffs to our feet.
"Oh, is it now?" I asked, rushing forward, shooting steams of fire out of my hands. "Yeah, how 'bout now?!" I asked, roasting him alive. "Does that bug you?! Does burning to death bug you?!" I asked, then turned towards his squad.
"Hey, you don't have to do everything yourself." Sazh said, shooting at them with fire spells, Hope also striking with a wide range of magic: wind, lightning and water.
"Whoa, Hope you must be the mage role in the original game." I said, looking at the wiki. "Yep, basically." I said. We then looked around our surroundings before realizing there was a chain from the L'Cie frozen in place where we could jump from link to link to reach the top. "Hey, look, the chain of Olympus." I said, jumping up to the top.
We continued on once again for a short distance before Lightning stopped, looking at a small crystal formation. She looked closer and finally realized what it was. "Serah." She said quietly in somewhat disbelief. She was about to run forward, but then Snow raced past her.
"Serah!" He shouted, running up to his crystallized fiancee' and knelt down in front of her. "Serah..." He said, looking at how she was stuck in other crystals, taking her hand. "I'll get you out of there." He said, picking up... I don't know what it was, but it had a sharp spike, then he kept stabbing at the base where she was stuck.
"I'll help you!" Vanille said, having picked up a broken piece of metal and started digging at the base off to his right.
"Thanks." He said. They kept at this for a couple minutes, Sazh joining in, before I got bored.
"Okay, this is taking too long." I said, moving off to the side next to Sazh, putting my hands underneath the crystal formation enough to get a grip and casually lifted up, breaking her free. "I win." I said.
"Good work, Sai... Thank you." Snow said, for once serious.
"Yeah, no problem. I don't think I can get her out of the crystal though." I said, rubbing the back of my head, looking at the crystallized woman.
"This is goodbye." Lightning said quietly, a small sob in her voice, turning to leave.
"Lightning! You're just gonna leave her?!" Snow asked.
"PSICOM will be here soon. If they find us, we're all dead. You think Serah would want that? You think you know how she feels?!" She demanded, not turning to face us.
"If I leave her, I'll never know. We'll be fine. I can handle ANYTHING they can throw at us. No one will die. I'll protect Serah. AND Cocoon." He said.
"The man's got a point. After all, we're pretty much..." I said, pulling out a stereo and playing "Indestructible", bopping my head to the music. She then turned around with a deep glare on her face. "OH, she's pissed." I said, getting ready to use the stereo as a shield.
She walked up to Snow, pausing for a moment, before throwing a powerful haymaker to the left side of his face, with enough power the camera changed angle and repeated it, Snow falling down into Sazh. "Does she look protected to you?!" She demanded.
(I strategically choose NOT to say anything.) I thought.
[Good idea.]
Yeah. I thought it was scary being on Trish's bad side, but I'm terrified right now! Someone hold me!
[You're a disembodied voice inside our head, you can't be held.]
*cries*
"I can save her!" Snow said, standing up, earning him another haymaker and knocking him down into the pilot once again.
"What can you possibly do?!" She demanded again.
"Whatever it takes!" He said. This shocked her and caused her to lower her fist.
"Whoo, me, you two are hopeless." Sazh said, putting his hands behind his head, walking away a bit, then looked at Lightning a bit. "You just can't admit it. You wanna stay as much as he does." He said.
Since he didn't get slugged in the face for saying that, I deemed it safe to talk. "Look, we can continue on, no problem. Get a couple pieces of rope, I could make her into a large, pointy, hard backpack. I can carry her no problem, it wouldn't slow me down or hinder my fighting at all." I said. Suddenly, I heard something land nearby, along with robot-like noises, then a spotlight shined on Sazh. I looked to where it was coming from and saw the Scorpion robot thing we killed in the first chapter (not counting the prologue). "You've GOT to be kidding me!" I said.
"No. No! No, no, no! Not now!" Sazh shouted, looking back at the group, who prepared for battle.
Sazh would've went to fight, but Snow put his arm out in front of him "Stand back!" He said, taking point.
Hope also didn't fight, but he had more of a reason, since the thing could've killed him at least twice when it flew in down in front of us. "We'll have to work on manning you up later, but for now... ROUND TWO, BITCH!" I said, taking a stance in between Lightning and Vanille.
Hehe, we're sandwiched between two chicks!
[Is now REALLY the time to be thinking about that? It is pretty sweet, though.]
"BURN!" I said, shooting more streams of fire at it while Snow used a large variety of ice magic and Lightning using, well, lightning magic, Vanille healing us while we laid our assault. I then turned to the 4th wall. "By the way, I'm not using the whole paradigm rule. They didn't have 'em in the cutscenes, so why should I put them in my fanfiction? We can use any type of magic during the fight. Boom. Epic." I said, using steelguard to lessen the damage of the monster throwing crystals at us, then healing the whole group and turning to the 4th wall. "Also, we're gonna go with the premise we know everything we're gonna learn throughout the trip. None of that Crystarium stuff. That takes FOREVER." I explained again, hitting the thing with Thundaga at the same time as Lightning, Vanille hitting it with Firaga and Snow hitting it with Blizzaga for massive damage, causing it to stagger.
"We're gonna win this!" Snow said, pummeling it with regular attacks now.
"What was your first hint?" I said, throwing a ruin spells at what I thought were its eyes, then running in and throwing an uppercut, knocking it into the air. "FINISH HIM!" I said, hitting it with Blizzaga and blasting it down with all 3 of them with Thungada, finally destroying it... With a satisfying explosion.
We all looked on, then Lightning turned away. "You're leaving?!" Snow demanded, getting in her way.
"We wanna help Serah, too. But without any rope like he was talking about, Sai's gonna have his hands full, which could be a problem." Sazh said.
"That's the nicest option, my next suggestion was putting her in one of my trench coat pockets." I said, getting an angry glare from both Lightning and Snow. "I'm gonna assume we're ruling out that option." I said, raising my hands and backing away, using steelguard just in case.
"So then you expect me to just abandon her?!" He asked, looking at the whole group.
"What about your Focus?" Lightning asked, shocking him. "What happened to banding together and saving the world?" She asked, to which he remained silent. "Snow, you're all talk." She said, walking away.
"OH! SHE JUST DISSED YOU!" I laughed, pointing at her.
"Lightning!" Snow said, clenching his fist, causing her to stop. "I'll do whatever it takes! I'll finish this focus AND keep Serah safe! That's my promise." He said.
She was quiet for a minute, but then kept walking. "Great job so far." She said, continuing on.
"Well, sorry man, but I'm going wherever the plot is. Gotta find some way to get out of here." I said, quickly following her.
Saz sighed, looking at Snow. It was obvious he didn't want to leave him here, but he didn't have a choice. "Stay out of trouble." Snow said.
"Yeah, you too." He said, grabbing Snow's shoulder and giving him a small shake, continuing after us.
Hope and Vanille were still unmoving, but then he pointed over his shoulder back to us. "Get going." He said. Vanille nodded and started to walk, but Hope was hesitated. "Later." Snow said, raising his fist as some way of goodbye.
"Okay." Vanille said, nodding, going after us.
Hope was about to follow, but he stopped, looking back at Snow, walking back in front of him. He may not be able to blame him for his mother's death in this version, but he still was pissed about bringing her into danger and dragging him into this. "Snow..." He said, but couldn't think of what else to say.
"Save it for next time, kiddo. You'll get left behind." He said, pointing over his shoulder again.
"But..." Hope said, still looking for what to say.
"It's okay, Hope. Light will take care of you and that Sai kid doesn't seem to be much of a pushover, either." He said.
"You fucking got that right!" I called back.
"We'll meet again." He said with a smirk.
"Yeah. Count on it." Hope said, rushing to catch up with us. He turned back quickly once more. "Count on it." He said.
(I know guys, this may not be my best work so far, plot-wise, but I needed to think of a reason for him to get left behind and the whole Eidolon thing somehow. Also, what do you think so far, am I doing a good job of making Hope a bit less bitchy? Let me know what you think.)