Hey! Okay this chapter...I don't know how about you all decide if it was good or not xD I'm not the best when it comes to the fighting scenes, but I gave it my all. :D That's what matters most after all! I'm so sorry it took so long! It was a pretty challenging one to write for some reason I guess. Don't worry though, one OR two chapters will be up before Thursday, but I hope you enjoy this like all the others :)

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I've Got You

Chapter 14: L'Cie Camp

Barthandelus...all along he's been the one feeding Cocoon lies. Even as a fal'Cie he's much more heartless and sinister than his human form. He was definitely the hardest thing that we've faced so far. No kidding.

He was scary strong. We had to all be extremely alert and well planned. It was perfectly clear that getting rid of the smaller heads would be the first step. All four heads were finished off quickly. Now, the battle had really begun. Lightning and Fang would go and do straightforward physical attacks. Snow, being a walking tower and all took most of his hits while being healed constantly by Vanille, who was healing us all from time to time. I was busy casting spells like Firaga and stuff like that. Hope and Sazh were buffing as all up so we wouldn't be losing a lot of strength when Barthandelus does his more stronger attacks.

I thought we were doing okay, but we weren't really. He began to laugh. He was laughing at us. That can't be good. "Is that the best you've got?" he said. His eyes were glowing bright white as he began charging up his energy for a powerful blast.

"This isn't good... What should we do?" said a panicking Sazh.

"You and I are going to be attacking his head. Fang and Snow, make sure you can direct the blast to you instead of us. Hope, you use magic and hit him from far away. Adeline and Vanille, you're on healing duty. We clear?" Lightning said quickly. What? All I get to do is heal? Well, it's better than guarding with Snow and Fang.

"You got it, chief!" said Fang.

Light's plan worked out pretty well. His super beam of death didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I guess it was probably because Sazh and Lightning were hitting him so much it weakened his power? That didn't mean he was dead yet, however. I mean, he's like freaking metal so it's no surprise that he's not dead.

We kept trying to give it our all, but he still didn't fall. What the heck! Can't he just die already? I glanced at Lightning who was summoning Odin. Then, Sazh and Snow were following her lead as they summoned their own Eidolon. Perfect, I have Leviathan and I haven't summoned him at all yet! Or...was it a she? No, it looks more like a dude...I think. As soon as I was about to summon him, Snow stopped me.

"Hey just leave this to us, okay?" he told me.

"But I can-"

"You've never used your Eidolon before and you could get hurt."

"...Fine." I said reluctantly. For his information, Leviathan and I happen to share a strong bond...kind of. Oh, whatever!

It took three Eidolons to finally see Barthandelus fall down. It could've been four, but no, it didn't happen. ...Yeah okay I'll drop it. I watched Barthandelus's eyes lose it's glow as he vanished into thin air. So...he was dead, right?

"As I said." Dysley's voice rumbled, even shaking the ground. Seriously he's still alive? "I am Lord Sovereign." He appeared in his human form floating down, coming closer towards us.

"Looks like fal'Cie don't go down easy as the rest of us." Sazh said saracastically.

"Ease is not the issue. You have not fought to win. I'm sure you all know already the sure way of destroying our kind." he said. What is he talking about?

"Ragnarok." he spoke.

"What's Ragnarok?" Fang said confused. All of a sudden, she groaned in pain as she clutched her white brand. Wait...Ragnarok. I saw it in a dream I had. I just so happened to have that dream the night before I woke up as a l'Cie.

"It seems that you have forgotton your focus." he spoke. He lifted up his finger, slowly moving it as he pointed at all of us one by one. "Ragnarok is the beast one of you must become in order to lay waste to Cocoon." That's what my whole dream was pretty much about. I remember seeing Ragnarok furiously destroying Cocoon with all of it's people.

"Sound familiar? You've all had the dream." he laughed. "Defeat Orphan, destroy Cocoon, and then you will complete your Focus."

"Orphan?" said Lightning.

"The source of Cocoon's power. If you destroy it, you'll release a force that this world has never seen."

Snow took out a blue tear shaped crystal from his coat. "Serah asked us to save Cocoon before she turned to crystal. That's what we're going to do! That's our Focus-" he was cut of by Barthandelus's dark laugh.

"The moment you arrived, your friend wept crystal tears. This was because her Focus required that you be brought together. That girl did nothing but assemble the tools for the destruction of Cocoon." Snow seemed taken aback by this as he just stood there speechless.

The room began to shake again. From above, Barthandelus's owl was flying to us, it's size gradually increasing. Before our very eyes it was now a giant airship.

"Run, l'Cie. See how stark reality really is!" he said, disappearing once again.

"Come on, let's go." Lightning said as she walked to the airship. It looks like we didn't have any choice really. We all ran inside. Thankfully, there were enough seats for all of us. In other words, I don't have to share with Hope again, even though it wasn't that bad.

We soared out of the Palamecia, which was already breaking apart. "Oh, this isn't good. The yoke's jammed!" I heard Sazh say. He had no control of it whatsoever. It's as if it was moving by itself.

"I knew this was some kind of trap!" said Snow.

"Something's coming!" Hope yelled. We looked back to see another ship firing missles at us. The ship quickly dodged all the missles being fired, spinning up and down, left to right. It even began to fire its own bullets at the other airship.

"Sazh can't you do anything?" I asked.

"This ship's got a mind of it's own. I give up!" he said.

"Some ex-pilot you are." I mumbled. Hope seemed to have heard this comment and smirked at me.

"Be nice." he joked. I smiled back at him. At first, Brice was the only one who could make me smile in bad situations like this. He's not the only one anymore, I guess.

The airship behind us still kept blasting missles at us, until we flew into this weird transparent area that appeared out of no where. It was like some sort of shield that no one else could get through. I looked back to see that the other ship wasn't flying after us anymore.

When we flew out of the shield, we passed by familiar tall buildings and highways. I would know this place like no other. We were in Eden. Was the owl/airship taking us straight to Orphan or something?

"Sazh look out!" Vanille screamed. We were heading straight towards a building. I closed my eyes, expecting a huge impact, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes to find that the ship has stopped. We all got out, only to find ourselves in some underground part of Eden. Atleast, I think we're still in Eden.

"Where are we?" said Light.

"It looks like a piece of Pulse." said Vanille.

Sazh gave Vanille a confused look. "Pulse? You mean like the Bodhum Vestige?"

"Why would they keep a part of Pulse under the floors?" Fang questioned.

"Maybe Dysley wanted us to see this? His owl...or whatever it is did take us here." I said.

"Yeah, a place where l'Cie can accept their fate." Lightning said bitterly.

"Is our Focus really what he said it is?" Hope asked.

"Destroying Cocoon and Orphan...that's what the vision is telling us." said Sazh.

Snow was silent the whole time, even keeping his distance away from the rest of us. Vanille seemed to notice this too and called out to him.

"Mr. Hero! Cocoon calling Snow!" she said in a sing-song voice. No response. She huffed in disappointment and turned back around.

"A fal'Cie Cocoon that wants to destroy Cocoon...that's so weird." I said.

"It doesn't make any sense!" Vanille pouted.

"Maybe he's planning some grand design that we don't understand." said Hope.

Fang eyed Snow, who still hasn't said a word since we got off the airship. "Nothing from you, Snow?" she asked. Still no reply. He was just staring into space. Not literally. He was so convinced that our Focus was to save Cocoon, not crush it. We're all shocked abuot the "truth" from Barthandelus, but he seems to be taking it harder than anyone else.

"I'll go talk to him." Light uttered. She gave the rest of us a look to leave them alone for a while.

"Right, okay. So this way?" said Sazh, who lead the rest of us not too far away from them. Are Lightning and Snow going to have some kind of brother-sister moment? I smirked at the thought.

Fang and Vanille were quietly talking with each other, occasionally looking at me and then giggling. I raised my eyebrows suspiciously, but I figured it was nothing. I walked over to Hope and Sazh, who was making sure the little Chocobo wouldn't wander off anywhere. It seemed to take notice off me and flapped it's little wings towards me. I held it gently in my hands. "So is it a boy or a girl?" I asked Sazh.

He nervously scratched the back of his head. "To tell you the truth, I have no clue. I think it's a boy. He always responds when I call him 'little guy.'" I laughed as I softly stroked the "little guy's" head. He chirped happily and flew back over to Sazh. I then felt Vanille playfully push me towards Hope. What am I to her, some flimsy rag doll? Thankfully he caught me. I blushed and quickly mumbled a "thanks" and looked at a grinning Vanille.

"Oh, you're right Fang! They're perfect for each other!" she squealed in excitement. So that's why they were pointing at me and giggling.

"What are you talking about?" I said innocently.

"You know! Hope you should hurry up and ask her out already. You're taking way too long!"

He shifted uncomformtably. "Uh...I-"

"Sazh you think so too, right?" she said bouncing up and down. Oh no, she's worse than Fang.

"Hey come on now, Vanille. It's not exactly your job to get them together." he told her. Who would've thought that Sazh would be my hero of the day? Before Vanille could say anything else, Lightning and Snow walked over to us, which meant we were ready to finally explore this weird "Pulse" territory.

Once we walked up the stairs we stopped for a moment. It was like the most bizarre place I've ever seen. The floors underneath us began to glow bright red. I felt my hand sting as my brand was glowing. Everyone else groaned in pain. It felt like we were being scanned or something. When it all ended, the weird buildings opened up their doors, letting out two robots. They looked no where near as advanced as the others on Cocoon, but nontheless they were still dangerous. In a flash, they fell to the ground.

"This place-it must be an Ark!" said Vanille.

"An 'Ark?'" Lightning said with confusion in her voice.

Vanille continued to speak. "Long ago, the fal'Cie on Gran Pulse were afraid of invasion from the outside. So for battle preparations they created an army of living weapons. They stored them in Arks and scattered them all over the world."

"They said that they were suppose to have a more practical purpose. To force l'Cie into mastering their new powers." Fang followed up.

"Okay, I get it. Dysley wants us to become stronger weapons for him." said Light.

"So, like a training camp for l'Cie pretty much." I said.

"Exactly!" Hope exclaimed. "We should just think of it as training for the fights ahead."

"Hope's right!" Vanille nodded eagerly. The room was starting to shake again, and more of those one-armed robots came walking out.

Snow groaned. "Not these guys again. Come on let's go that way." He pointed to another set of stairs near us. We quickly ran up, escaping from the robots and the other weird walking weapongs that were after us.

Honestly, did the fal'Cie seriously have that much time on their hands to make millions of these Arks? This place was enormous. Sometimes we were going upstairs, the other times we went down. Like, seriously? I felt like one of those lab rats in a really big maze. Great, I just made myself hungry for cheese. As if I wasn't getting any crazier, I think I saw another figure from far away. Wait, there actually was someone ahead. We walked closer to get a better view. Hold up...it couldn't be..

"Raines?" said Snow.

Fang narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What are you doing here?" She had every right to be suspicious. The only person who would know about this place is Dysley. So the only way Cid could've known is if Dysley told him.

"You traitor!" Lightning screamed angrily. She ran straight to him, ready to strike him with her gunblade. He swiftly dodged her, flipped her over, and took hold of her gunblade. Shit. He brought down Lightning. We're in trouble.

"I put you on the path. That was my Focus." he said.

"You're a l'Cie?" Fang said in disbelief.

"Since long before we met. I did my best to assist you, orders from the Sanctum fal'Cie. Do you understand now? The fal'Cie have been watching your every move, guiding you every step. You all aren't dead yet because Barthandelus is making you all his weapons to dispatch Cocoon."

"A Cocoon fal'Cie." Sazh spoke up. "Why?"

"To restore the Maker."

"The Maker?"

"The one responsible for creaing both humans and fal'Cie. The Maker left this world a long time ago. While humans started war against one another, the fal'Cie focused on returning the world to it's former glory. To bring the Maker back requires a big sacrifice." Yeah "sacrifice" as in destroying Cocoon he means.

"You lied to us." Snow said bitterly. "What happened to rebuilding Cocoon for the people? Was it all a lie?"

"That was just a mere shadow of a dream when I was human. At first, I lost all hope and gave up on freedom. Seeing all of you fight brought it all back." he paused for a second as his own brand was beginning to shine. "I didn't come here because I was ordered to. I came here to challenge my fate." Using his powers, he formed an unescapable gate that circled around us. He really was no longer human as he transformed into his Cie'th form. It looked more like he was just half Cie'th and still half human.

"If I can defeat you here, than the fal'Cie's plan will fail. I can set you free!" he yelled. He's totally lost it now.

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What is with me and ending it before they all fight a boss? Haha, sorry I know that's totally not cool and all. Expect a new chapter (or two) before Thursday :)