Airships soared overhead, and PSICOM troops patrolled the area. "Great," Lightning muttered. "We're not alone."

I looked down at the soldiers. "Probably looking for any survivors."

Vanille looked at us. "Why would they be looking for survivors? To help them?"

Sazh scoffed. "Yeah, help 'em into the next life."

"What?"

"The whole 'free-ride-to-Pulse' thing? It's a damned lie."

Vanille said nothing.

"The Purge was never about relocation to Pulse for any l'Cie or anyone connected to them," I told her. "You don't relocate pests. You exterminate them." My mind returned to a scene I'd seen the day before NORA had attacked Hanging Edge. When Lightning and – as I now knew – Sazh got on the Purge train. The young couple who'd run from their lines, not wanting to go to the wilds of Pulse. They didn't get put back in the lines. Instead, PSICOM emptied their machine guns into them.

Vanille gasped. "I kinda wanted to…"

I looked at her. "Wanted to what?"

She looked up at me and shook her head. "It's nothing."

Lightning stood up from her crouched position. "We need to keep moving. If PSICOM catch us, we're dead."

Hope shouted something incoherently, pointing behind us. We turned and spotted a small battalion of PSICOM goons running up the crystal slope, their guns and batons gripped tightly. "Freeze!" one of them shouted. "Put your hands behind your heads!"

I sighed. "Come up with an original line, will you?" Nonetheless, I complied.

One of the troopers – the captain, presumably – stepped forward, having noticed that Lightning hadn't put her hands behind her head like ordered. "You fall off the Purge train?"

She chuckled shortly. "Maybe." She laced her fingers behind her head.

"You'd wanna hope you didn't," the captain told her, pointing his gun under her chin.

She smirked. It probably wasn't a good time to notice it but…damn,she was attractive. "Nice gun," she drawled.

"Are you talking back to me?!" the captain snapped, pushing her chin up.

Lightning didn't reply with words. She instead moved her hands to knock the gun up into the air and kick the captain square in the chest. He groaned and fell, knocking more than one of his allies over in the process. Lightning snatched the captain's gun out of the air and swung it like a club, catching more than one trooper's head.

I grinned at Sazh and drew one of my swords. I knocked one guard on the head with the flat part of the blade and kneed him in the back. The man shouted in pain and fell, unconscious.

Lightning pulled out her gunblade with a flourish and slashed at the last remaining guard, killing him.

I sheathed my sword and smiled at Lightning. "Stylish."

She chuckled. "Thanks." Without another word, she turned and started walking.

Hope was the first to follow her. I raised an eyebrow at that, but followed as well.

Apparently Sazh thought it was odd, too, because it was the first thing he brought up when he fell into step beside me. "What's up with the boy? He's following Soldier Lady around like a lovesick puppy."

"Well, it could be one of two things."

"And they are…?"

"One: he's got a crush on her. And, to be honest, how could he not?"

Sazh raised an eyebrow at me, but said nothing. "And the second?"

"The second is less light-hearted," I replied grimly. "Hope's got a grudge against Snow. A serious grudge."

"How serious?"

"Very. Hope blames Snow for his mother's death. She died fighting alongside us at Hanging Edge. She was on the Purge train with you."

"What does that have to do with Snow?"

"Well, as far as I can tell, in Hope's mind, Snow's a conniving, soulless SOB. No better than the fal'Cie. Which, as I'm pretty sure you already know, isn't true."

Sazh crossed his arms as we walked. "So, why does that connect into him following Lightning around?"

"Lightning doesn't like Snow. Never has. I guess Hope thinks that she can pass on tips on how to hate Snow."

"That sounds…kinda childish."

"We know that, but Hope doesn't. And something tells me that by the end of it all, he won't be using childish methods to pay Snow back."

Sazh whistled. "That don't sound good."

"Tell me about it," I muttered.

A few minutes later, we reached the end of the crystallised lake and saw stone ruins. Sazh looked up at them. "The Bresha Ruins. I'd heard about them, but never seen 'em. They've been excavating the place for a while now."

Vanille ran quickly up the long flight of stairs; she stopped when she reached the summit, which was surmounted by a stone archway. "Wow! Look at this!"

Lightning was the next person up the stairs, but she didn't look around, instead looking ahead, her hand on her hip.

Sazh stood next to the bubbly girl and followed her gaze. "Even the fire's crystallised."

I chuckled. "How's that work, huh? To hell with logic."

Without a word, Lightning started walking forward, her boots clicking on the stone floor.

"Wait up!" Vanille called, falling into step behind her.

As we walked, I looked up at the ruins, an interested look on my face. "Who built these? And when? Why did they build it?"

Sazh gave me a look.

"What? I'm a bit of a history buff." I smiled. "That's probably why I get along so well with Serah." From the corner of my eye I saw Lightning glare at me. "Sorry."

Vanille leaned back slightly to involve herself in the conversation. "What was that about Serah?"

"She's crazy about history," I told her. "Past civilizations, important events that happened many years ago, that sort of thing. Couple that with a curiosity that could give a cat a run for its money and you've got a dangerous concoction."

"How do you mean?" Sazh asked.

"Her curiosity and love of history was what led her to the Pulse Vestige in Bodhum. It's what eventually led her to becoming a Pulse l'Cie."

Vanille's face fell and she sighed.

Sazh looked at her. "What's wrong?"

Her head rose and she gave us a sweet smile. "It's nothing, really." She ran off ahead, passing even Lightning.

Sazh and I exchanged a look, then shrugged and kept walking.

We reached the centre of the ruins, which, despite the many years eroding the stone, was still a grand-looking structure. Sazh, Hope and myself were panting heavily from the many fights we'd gotten into with military units, beasts and troops. Vanille was still bouncing around irrepressibly, while Lightning stood with her arms crossed. "I thought you were in good condition," she said blandly to me.

I looked at her. "Shut up," I smiled.

Sazh gave off a heavy pant and stood upright. "These old bones ain't what they used to be."

Vanille scooted ahead again, giggling, a bright smile on her face.

"Don't stray too far," Lightning warned her.

The girl didn't seem to notice.

I grinned at Lightning. "Seems you really do care."

She rolled her eyes at me.

Behind us, Sazh looked like he was having a father-to-son-like talk with Hope, who was listening, albeit begrudgingly.

Vanille screamed.

We all turned to see the girl running back towards us, tailed by what the uneducated would call a dragon. Its skin was a pale green, with wires poking out of it in many places. It didn't have any visible eyes, and there was a second, gigantic maw on its back.

I grunted and drew my swords. "PSICOM sure loves their beasts, don't they?"

Lightning didn't give me a reply, instead drawing her gunblade.

Sazh grabbed Vanille's shoulders and put her behind us, along with Hope. The pilot drew his pistols and stood next to us.

I looked up at the monster. "You want us?! Come get us!"

It roared and charged at us.

Lightning dodged to the side, while Sazh shuffled back and opened fire on the monster. His bullets looked as if they were covered in fire. I, meanwhile, had jumped over the thing and stabbed it in the back with my swords. It howled and tried to throw me off. I held on and channelled the lightning magic into the swords, sending the electricity bolting into the beast. The howl this time was more pained than the last.

I leaped off the monster and landed awkwardly on my feet. "It's weak to electricity," I informed my friends. "Must fry the circuits or something."

Suddenly, the monster roared, not in pain, but in defiance, and flew away slightly. A pale light started shining around it.

"What's it doing?" Sazh shouted.

"Charging up," Lightning said grimly.

"Charging? Charging for what?"

"Its last moments."

"Then we gotta stop it!" I shouted, running towards the beast.

Before I could get to it, the monster let loose a beam of light that barely missed burning off my toes. "When'd it learn to do that?!" I demanded. "That's just not fair!"

Sazh struck the monster with an electric bolt, and Lightning joined me and slashed at the monster.

"Light! Give me a boost!" I shouted.

She nodded and grabbed my leg. With all her strength (which was a lot, by the way), she threw me up. I leaped over the snapping head of the monster and landed on its back. Turning, I sheathed one sword and started running up its long neck. The thing roared and tried to throw me off. I held on with my right arm and crawled up carefully. I eventually reached the end of its neck and locked my legs around it to support myself. I raised my sword above my head and stabbed the beast through the top of its head.

The roaring cut off in a sickening gurgle and it started to plummet to the ground. I jumped off and landed uncomfortably on my stomach before the monster fell, dead.

A hand grabbed my jacket and pulled me up. It was Lightning. She looked closely at me. "Nice work."

I grinned. "Couldn't have done it without you."

"Guys!" Sazh interrupted us. "Check this out!"

We walked over to see a PSICOM airship. It wasn't in good condition, but it looked flyable.

"Can you fly this thing?" I asked the pilot.

The chocobo chick poked out of his hair as he gave me an injured look. "Of course I can."

"Well, let's go!" Vanille giggled, climbing in.

As soon as Sazh took off, PSICOM ships took off in pursuit, firing at us. "How do they know it's us?" I demanded.

"PSICOM have a sixth sense when it comes to these things," Lightning told me grimly.

"Great," I deadpanned.

"Hang on!" Sazh suddenly shouted as he pulled the controls sharply to the left. The ship spun quickly, and Vanille and I cried out in alarm, but Lightning didn't seem fazed.

The soldier suddenly took the controls from Sazh and fired the rear guns at the pursuers. I heard an explosion shortly after. Clearly she'd killed at least one pursuer.

Sazh pushed her hand away and grabbed the controls back. "You wanna die?" he asked acidly.

"Just fly up," was all Lightning said.

Sazh complied, flying straight up. We broke out of the cloud cover to see a massive ball of energy.

"A fal'Cie," I murmured.

"Phoenix," Lightning clarified. "It's responsible for all the heat and light on Cocoon." She turned to Sazh. "Fly in."

"Are you nuts?" I demanded of her.

"Well, we're about to find out," Sazh answered, flying straight into the tendrils of red-orange energy. The PSICOM ships, inevitably, followed.

Big mistake.

Most of the ships were destroyed by rogue blasts of energy from the fal'Cie.

Sazh laughed shortly. "I like this fal'Cie!"

"You know what?" I grinned. "I agree with you!"

The smiles washed off our faces when we were hit by a flash of energy from Phoenix. Sazh calmly steered us downwards, since that was the only way we could go. "Hang on!" he shouted as we came close to the ground.

We braced ourselves for the impending blow.

The airship crashed into the ground, its belly grating along the gravel. When we came to a stop, Sazh looked around. "Everyone alright?"

I groaned. "Let's not do that again," I muttered.