I landed near where the kids had crashed and leapt up to them. "Hey! What are you two doing?!"
They wheeled to look at me; the girl looked sad, the boy defiant.
"Don't you know what's here? The Pulse fal'Cie, that's what! You know, one of those so-called 'almighty deities' of Cocoon, Pulse and Eden? Are you two out of your minds?!"
The boy suddenly roared and threw a punch at me; I blocked the blow and gripped his arm.
"Don't try anything, kid. You don't wanna piss me off, do you?"
He glared at me, his gaze still defiant. There was a rage there, too.
"Are you even listening to a word I say?" I demanded of him, pushing his arm away.
"Why would I listen to you?!" he shouted, his voice raw. His gloved hands were balled into fists. "It's because of you! If it weren't for you, she…" He trailed off.
My face grew sombre. "Your mom, right?"
He flinched and looked at me.
"Listen, the reason she fought was because she wanted to keep you safe… No matter what the cost."
"What would you know?!" he shouted.
"I know more than you think, kid."
"Just shut up! Shut up!" He ran off.
"Hope!" the girl called after him, her face worried.
"Let him go," I told her. "Best to let him blow off some steam for a while." I chuckled wryly. "Even if this isn't the best place to do it."
She looked down and put her hands in front of her, her index and pinkie fingers crossing over each other.
"Hey…" I put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright." I paused. "Well, if you're worried about him, maybe we should get after him. Okay?"
She looked up at me and smiled. She nodded. "Thanks."
"No problem." I stood up. "By the way, my name's Remus."
She giggled. "Call me Vanille."
"Vanille, huh? That's a weird name. Where's it from?"
"Oh, you know, around." She gave a sweet smile.
I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Vanille went to a nearby gargoyle and pulled out a strange-looking staff. She folded it up and put it in a hidden pocket in her fur cape. "Well, we have to defend ourselves, right?" she responded to my confused look.
I nodded. "Let's get after that kid."
"Hope," she said to me. "His name's Hope."
"Right."
Vanille started running off.
"Hey, wait up!" I ran after her.
When I finally caught up with her, I started asking questions as we ran. "So why are you two up here anyway?"
"Well, Hope needs to talk to that other man. The one you were hanging out with?"
"You mean Snow?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, by the way Hope reacted to me, I'd guess talking is the furthest thing from his mind when it comes to Snow."
I stopped behind a gargoyle and peered around. A bunch of militarized beasts were mingling around. "Oh great."
"What's wrong?" Vanille asked me.
"We've got company."
She peered around me; I could feel her hand resting lightly on my waist.
"We can't just go rushing in there…" I murmured.
The pressure of Vanille's hand on my waist suddenly vanished; she'd pulled out her odd staff and was running at the beasts.
"Vanille!" I shouted, pulling out my swords and chasing after her.
She was shouting and wheeling that staff around like a whirling dervish. Only thing was that the tips of the weird extension on that staff were lashing out like whips at the beasts. I came in behind her and started slashing at the beasts myself. Mostly Vanille was able to distract them long enough for me to cut them down.
When the last one went down, I heard Vanille giggle behind me. "I'm tougher than I look, huh?"
"Maybe," I shrugged, stepping closer to her, "but that doesn't mean you have to run straight at every enemy that shows up."
Her face fell and she pouted. "Sorry." She twiddled her thumbs.
I chuckled; this girl really knew how to use her cuteness to her advantage. "Come on. Let's go." I started running.
"Hey! Don't leave me behind!" Vanille shouted, chasing after me.
A little while later, the two of us had reached what resembled a small town square, that kid Hope still nowhere in sight.
Vanille looked around. "Hope? Hope!"
"Quiet!" I warned her. "You have no idea what could be around here."
My point was soon illustrated by the arrival of shambling, blue-grey figures. They had deformed bodies, and only one red eye.
"Like that!" I shouted, drawing my swords.
"What…" Vanille started, reaching for her staff.
"Cie'th," I told her in a deadly voice. "One of those things I was trying to warn you about. Any l'Cie who fail their Focus or don't complete it in time are turned into these…things. They can't die until someone – or something – kills them. Of course, the alternative is completing your Focus and being imprisoned in crystal. Either way, you can see why people shun the l'Cie. They've got a death sentence hanging over their heads no matter what."
"How…sad…" Vanille murmured.
"No time for sad! We gotta fight!" I slashed at one of the Cie'th with my swords, cutting it down.
Vanille was doing her best against the Cie'th, but she looked hesitant.
Soon we were surrounded. "Dammit!" I swore. "There's too many of them!"
A familiar voice roared as one of the Cie'th went down, slowly disintegrating.
The hero had come to the rescue.
Snow launched himself into a powerful combination of punches, taking down Cie'th as he went. I snapped out of my trance and cut down a few of the shambling figures. Vanille was still paralysed, frozen in place.
I killed a Cie'th that tried to hammer her brains out. "Snow! Help me protect Vanille!"
"On it!" he replied, delivering a punch to another shambling figure.
Eventually, we killed the last of the Cie'th. I put my hands on Vanille's shoulders. "You OK?"
"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm fine." She looked up at me and smiled.
"This yours?" Snow asked us, holding Hope by the scruff of the neck. The boy was protesting wildly.
"Hope!" Vanille shouted, rushing to him. "Are you alright?"
Hope wormed his way out of my brother's grip. "I'm fine."
"Well, it's nice to meet you all," Snow told them, "but I gotta go. There's someone I need to see in here."
"Are you insane?!" Hope shouted suddenly. "Anyone in here is either PSICOM or a l'Cie. Not even human! Don't you get it?! The l'Cie are the enemies of Cocoon and you wanna help one of them?!"
"Don't you dare say that!" Snow roared his retort, his finger pointed at Hope's face. "Never say that again!"
"It's the truth, isn't it?" Hope asked pugnaciously.
"That's enough!" I shouted, stepping in between the two of them. "Listen, you two. This isn't the time or place for a discussion like this. So both of you just shut up and let's go. Together. Got that?!"
Hope huffed and turned his back to me; he didn't run. Snow, meanwhile, took a few deep breaths to regain his composure, then nodded.
I shifted my shoulders. "Let's go find Serah," I said to my brother.