FIGHT AND FLIGHT

The sounds of battle assaulted my ears, softly at first, but growing louder by the second. I opened my eyes, every bone in my body crying in pain, and I slowly sat up.

The first thing I noticed was that night had fallen. We were surrounded by ruined machinery interspersed amongst the rocks. They had a name for this place: the Vile Peaks, a wasteland filled with the debris of centuries.

"What's going on?" I muttered, clutching the back of my head, which ached horribly.

It finally dawned upon me that we were being attacked. Lightning was fending off three Pantherons, dashing around and stopping them from flanking her to get to us.

I struggled to my feet, and sluggishly drew my blades as Vanille ran past me, her hair whipping about in the soft breeze.

"Lightning!" she screeched, lending her aid.

I shook my head, trying to clear it and focus, but by the time I had stumbled towards them, they had already dispatched the bioweapons.

Vanille relaxed visibly.

"Glad that's over!" she said, relieved.

"What happened?" I asked as she and Sazh, who had stumbled to his feet to watch the end of the battle, lay down, clearly exhausted.

"We crashed," Lightning replied simply.

"Yeah, I gathered that," I said, indicating the flaming wreckage of our ship. "Is everyone okay?" I asked the group.

Hope was getting up, nursing a grazed elbow. Vanille and Sazh were both catching their breath on a rock, shaken but unhurt, and Lightning was staring around, taking in our new environment.

"Man, I'm beat," Sazh said, but Lightning started walking on. "What, no break?" he asked her incredulously.

I rolled my shoulders, ironing out my stiff joints and muscles. A break seemed like a good idea.

"They're tracking us," Lightning said pointedly.

"I know that. I know that, but we aren't soldiers!" Sazh cried, holding out his hand. "We don't have your kind of stamina."

I looked from one to other, prepared to keep moving, half-wishing I could just lie down like the rest of them, but I knew that if we stayed put for any length of time, PSICOM would catch up to us.

"You've got enough to complain," Lightning said coldly, and continued on, following a wide path through the rock.

"Oh, that's-! Forget it!" Sazh cried, sitting back down.

Hope approached us.

"I think, um..." He looked at Lightning's retreating figure.

We understood.

"I'd stick with her if I were you," Sazh said with a wave of his hand.

"Later then." Hope gave us all one last look.

"You're really not coming?" I asked the two remaining l'Cie.

"You go ahead," Sazh said, nodding in Hope's direction.

I quickly analysed the situation. If I stayed, PSICOM would catch up to us, and following Lightning was my best chance of survival.

"We'll catch up," The older man said.

I nodded.

"Hope!" I called, hurrying after him. "Wait up!"

He was trying to climb a large square piece of wreckage.

"Here," I said, cupping my hands to give him a boost.

He regarded me briefly, as if unwilling to accept my help, but after a moment he placed his foot in my hand and I pushed him up, quickly scaling the high ledge after him.

I saw him leap off the edge. The drop was nothing for someone like me or Lightning, but for a kid like Hope...

But he managed it easily.

"What's your story, kid?" I asked, dropping lightly next to him.

After a moment of silence, he muttered, "I need to be stronger."

"You're doing pretty well so far," I said, clapping him on the back.

"It's not enough." Hope hung his head. "I need to be tough, like you... like Lightning."

"Lightning is pretty tough," I agreed, smiling.

Hope nodded, and together, we began to follow the path, knowing that Lightning wasn't far ahead.

"How did you get here?" Hope suddenly asked.

I looked down at him. "What do you mean?"

"You're PSICOM. You're supposed to be against us."

"Hey, I'm a l'Cie, too," I told him.

"That's not what I meant," The boy said. "You were there, in the Vestige. Why?"

It took me a moment to answer.

"Believe it or not, I went in there to rescue you."

"Rescue me?" He asked.

"All of you," I said, shaking my head.

"Why?"

I chuckled at his persistence.

"The Pulse Vestige is no place for kids."

I thought back to the two hoverbikes entering the vestige, one carrying Snow, and the other carrying two children, who I now knew to be Hope and Vanille.

"Some rescue," I said darkly.

Hope nodded.

"There she is," I said, pointing as Lightning came into view.

We jogged after her.

She turned when she heard our approach.

"Just you two?"

I nodded.

"For now, I guess," Hope said. "Should we wait?"

"They said they'll catch up," I reassured him.

"Eventually," Lightning added.

We started moving, working our way through the debris.

"All the junk around here came from Pulse, didn't it?" Hope asked our silent leader.

"Yep. This is the Sanctum's dumping ground," I said when Lightning didn't answer.

"How did it all end up here?"

I shrugged. "During the War of Transgression – you know about the War of Transgression, right?"

He nodded.

"Well, during the war, Cocoon's outer shell was cracked, so the Sanctum fal'Cie brought up scrap from Pulse to repair the damage. This is the waste."

"I suppose the Vestige arrived in Cocoon with the rest of this, huh," He said.

"Probably," I replied.

On our right, a pile of scrap began to stir, and a humanoid robot burst from it. It was rusted, with long arms ending in pincers.

"I guess it wasn't just the scrap the fal'Cie brought up here," Lightning said, drawing her gunblade.

"That thing's from Pulse?" Hope asked.

"Doesn't look like any Cocoon design I've ever seen," I said, firing several shots at it with my rifle.

Hope launched lightning magic at the Pulse automata, and it began to whir and shake.

"Nice," I said as the robot collapsed, its circuits sizzling.

We continued on our way, coming to a wall of rock and debris.

"Why is the way forward always so difficult?" I complained.

Nobody answered.

"Dead end. Guess we have to go back," Hope said, panting and clutching a stitch.

Lightning and I surveyed the rocky wall, while Hope sat down on a rock.

"Can we get through this way, you think?" Hope asked from his seat. "You... know where you're going, right?"

I grinned at the question.

"I've been here on missions before," Lightning said."

"Missions? Nothing to do with the Purge, though?" Hope asked.

I looked at him.

"The Purge is a PSICOM operation," I told him. "Not the Guardian Corps."

I looked at Lightning, who began to explain.

"Our military is split into two arms," She began. "The Public Security and Intelligence Command, known as PSICOM-"

I raised my hand.

"And the Guardian Corps. I was Guardian Corps, Bodhum Security Regiment."

I had been to the seaside village of Bodhum only once before. It was the home of the Pulse Vestige before it was moved to the Hanging Edge.

"Wait, but I don't get it," Hope objected. "If you're not PSICOM, then why did you board the train?"

I glanced at Lightning, who looked at the two of us.

"For Serah."

I could envision her story in my mind.

A crowd was gathered at the Bodhum Station, lining up alongside an orange Purge train. PSICOM soldiers stood guard, directing the panicked crowd.

"Join the end of the line!" an officer barked. "Attention Purge deportees. Follow instructions and stay in your lines."

There was a changing booth at the end of the line. The people exiting wore white hooded robes, and boarded the train.

"Personal belongings will be returned upon arrival," the soldier continued.

"Move it!" One man pushed through the crowd, closely followed by two others. The crowd parted as the soldiers converged.

"You! Halt!" a soldier ordered the fleeing deportees. They didn't slow down, and the soldiers opened fire as gasps and screams came from the crowd.

"Do not leave your lines!" A soldier walked through the crowd. "This is for your own safety!"

Lightning approached the soldier, walking with purpose.

He noticed the Guardian Corps pauldron on her shoulder.

"What's the GC doing here?" he demanded quietly. "This op's under PSICOM direction."

"So direct me," She said. "Let me on. I want to be Purged."

The soldier grumbled before leaning in closer.

"Only civs get Purged. Sanctum staff and soldiers are exempt."

Lightning drew her gunblade and handed it to the soldier.

"Then I quit."

He was silent, then after a moment ordered, "Line up."

Lightning turned and walked to the back of the line, where she was joined by an afro-haired man in a green jacket.

"Excuse me. Hey, lady," He said to her. "What gives?"

Lightning looked at him.

"I volunteered," She said simply.

"Really?" Sazh regarded her for a second. "You don't look ready to go quiet into that good night."

"You want quiet," she said, moving up. "You'd better take the next train."

"I had to rescue Serah before they transported the Vestige to Pulse, and out of my reach," Lightning said. "My only chance to save her was to join the Purge."

"You're telling me you got on that train to save your sister?" Hope queried her. "That's crazy. I could never do something like that."

Lightning turned to him.

"It's not a question of can or can't," She said. "There are some things in life you just do."

"Easy for someone like you to say," Hope said despairingly, looking at his shoes.

I watched Lightning sigh and turn to the rock wall, leaping up to the top in a display of agility that was beyond me.

"Lightning!" I called up to her, and Hope's head jerked up.

She jumped the last few feet and was soon gone from our sight.

"She's good," I said.

"She left us," Hope said, sitting back down.

I turned to him.

"Don't worry," I tried to console him.

"Don't worry?" he said loudly. "What now?"

I turned to the wall. "We need to figure out a way up this thing."

"How? I can't do what she did," Hope said.

"Neither can I," I told him. "And I don't know how this works, so I can't get it running." I waved my hand at the wrecked Pulsian machine that covered the rock wall.

"Hey, guys!" I looked up to see Vanille hurrying towards us, Sazh following behind.

"We made it!" The orange-haired girl said, coming to a stop in front of Hope.

"Where's grumpy?" Sazh asked.

I pointed at the top of the rock wall.

"We'll find her," Sazh said, placing a hand on Hope's shoulder.

At the contact, Hope jumped away.

"Leave me alone!" he cried. "This is pointless." He slumped away. "Can't keep up. Can't get home. It's over for me."

Vanille leant down in front of him. "It's not over! We'll get you home!" She said.

"I don't have one. Now that Mum is-" He stopped mid-sentence.

"What about your dad?" Vanille asked.

Hope paused, deep in thought.

"I was with my mom in Bodhum, watching the fireworks display," he said. "That night, they found the fal'Cie in the Bodhum Vestige. The next day, soldiers sealed off the town and we couldn't get back to Palumpolum. They forced us onto the train with everyone else. My mum, she was frantic. She wanted to get us home, so she tried to fight."

He turned to us.

"She got tricked, by Snow. He used her!"

"Snow?" I asked, but Hope ignored me, consumed as he was by the memories of his mother.

"Let's get you home, okay?" Vanille said. "Your dad's got to be worried!"

"Let him worry," Hope said savagely. "Why should I care? He doesn't."

"Any father cares." Sazh spoke from the corner.

We turned to him.

"Sazh?" Vanille said.

"It's nothing, forget it," Sazh said, turning away from us.

He walked towards the base of the wall, and I followed.

"You know how to work this?" I asked.

"This ought to do it," He said, pulling a lever on the machinery.

The machine lit up, and a ramp leading to the top of the rock extended from the opposite side.

"We've got time," he said, addressing Hope. ""We'll get you home. Your dad will be happy to see you."

"Come on," I said, leading them up the ramp, and to the top of the cliff.

We followed the path onwards, talking very little, lost in our own thoughts.

We came to a large, open space with a lake, and a wrecked ship rising from the water. The path skirted around the edge of the lake, rising gradually.

"Isn't that a-?" Vanille started to ask.

"A warship from Pulse," Sazh said.

"You mean, they made it this far?" she asked him.

"Of course not," Sazh said quickly. "Not during the war, not since. They might have tried. But none of their forces made it into Cocoon."

I nodded, I remembered all this from my schooling. In fact, I had made several excursion to the Vile Peaks with my PSICOM unit for training, and to study the Pulse warships.

"They only damaged the outer rim," Sazh continued. "Then the Sanctum's fal'Cie pushed them back. What, did you sleep through history?" he asked the young girl.

She laughed. "More or less."

I grinned. "Kids, huh?" I said to Sazh, who sighed.

"So, what's a ship from Pulse doing here?" Vanille asked.

It was Hope who answered this time.

"Once the war was over, people couldn't live near the rim anymore. In places like the Hanging Edge," Hope said. "So the fal'Cie, they gathered up the scrap from Pulse, and used it for rebuilding here. This is what was left; a bunch of garbage."

"Who'da thunk?" Sazh said. "A Pulse fal'Cie and who-knows-what, mixed in with all the trash?"

Vanille skipped ahead, much to Sazh's annoyance.

"Hey, stay where I can keep an eye on you," he called after her.

"I hope Snow's okay," I said aloud.

"Me too," Sazh responded. "Maybe..."

He didn't finish. There was practically no chance that PSICOM hadn't caught up with Snow by now.

As we came onto a platform, Lightning dropped down in front of us.

"Hey, welcome to the party!" Sazh greeted her.

"Decided to wait for us, huh?" I teased.

She just snorted.

"Would it kill her to smile?" Sazh wondered out loud.

I chuckled quietly and hurried after her.

After a half-hour of walking, we came to a clearing, and in the centre was a giant battle machine, a Dreadnought.

"What is that?" Sazh asked as the machine began to move toward us.

"Pulse armament," Lightning replied.

"And that's bad for us, isn't it?" he asked.

I nodded. "Very."

The five of us leaped out of the way as one of its arms came crashing down.

I ran in, firing, the sound of my rifle echoing around the area, but the bullets ricocheted off the Dreadnought's armour. Changing tactics, I slashed with my blades, but the metal just clanged against metal and rebounded, throwing me off-balance.

"Not fair," I said loudly. "This isn't going to work!" I shouted to Lightning.

She nodded and started barking orders, "Hope, try to disable it, Vanille, you help! Sazh, you and James use ice magic to try and freeze its systems."

"What about you?" I asked, holstering my weapon.

She ran a hand along the blade of her weapon, and it began to shimmer, then it caught on fire.

I watched as she slashed again, but this time, the blade cut deep into the metal, the fire-enhanced blade melting the metal where it struck.

"Okay! Sazh, let's do it!" I said, waving my hand and leaving a trail of ice along the length of the Dreadnought's metal torso.

"Why don't you try its legs, kid?" Sazh yelled.

He pointed his palm at the Dreadnought's feet, and the wave of ice surrounded the metal, freezing it to the ground.

I grinned, and repeated the motion on its other leg, effectively stopping it in its tracks – for about two seconds.

The Dreadnought wrenched its trapped feet from their icy prison, and started towards us again, a sliding mechanism moved on its bulky front, revealing a large cannon that sparked and whirred.

"Move!" I shouted, diving out of the way.

My companions hit the deck as an explosion rocked the ground.

The ground beneath us began to crack, and before any of us could move, it gave way and we fell.

I hit the ground hard, trying to land on my side so that my arm took most of the damage. I felt the rock scrape open the skin, but I was, miraculously, alive.

I pulled myself up, rubbing my arm.

"I thought we were goners," Sazh said, standing up and dusting himself off. The others all stood.

"Everyone all right?" I asked.

Four heads nodded in response.

"Incoming," Lightning said, her gunblade already in her hand.

The Dreadnought landed in front of us, shaking the ground.

"Any ideas?" I asked, not really expecting an answer.

I wasn't disappointed. I moved with my companions, launching a relentless assault on the Dreadnought, but our blows barely dented it.

"James, try to blow a hole in it!" Lightning cried out to me.

"How?" I shouted back, dodging a lumbering blow and moving in her direction. "This doesn't come equipped with a grenade launcher!" I indicated my rifle.

"Think of something!" she said, somersaulting away.

I racked my brains. If none of our weapons could pierce it's thick armor, then what could?

Then it occurred to me.

I ran towards Hope, who was alternating between magic attacks and healing spells away from the main battle.

"Yeah?" He said, throwing a quick healing spell in Vanille's direction as she was slammed into the rock.

"On my mark, aim a fire spell at it, okay!" I told him, raising my hands and summoning the magic.

Hope didn't question my order, instead he pointed both palms at the Dreadnought.

"Now!" I yelled, sending a horizontal whirlwind of wind magic at the machine.

Beside me, Hope sent an enormous fireball towards the Dreadnought, and the two spells merged together, becoming a raging torrent of spiralling flames.

The magic collided with the Dreadnought and did what nothing else would. The Dreadnought stumbled backwards with the force of the magic, a large, smoking hole in its chest, revealing a mass of wires and circuits.

"Everyone fry it!" Lightning yelled, sending a bolt of electricity at the Dreadnought's unprotected circuitry.

In unison, the five of us launched a wave of electrical energy, and the Dreadnought keeled over backwards as it blacked out.

I replaced my weapon, panting, and placed my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

"Pulse is crawling with things like that, isn't it?" Sazh asked no one in particular.

"Got me," Lightning answered. "Not even the Corps has access to intel on Pulse."

Everyone looked at me and I sighed.

"To be completely honest, PSICOM doesn't have all that much about Pulse weaponry, only what we've gained from studying all this." I swept a hand around the area. "And seeing as this scrap is centuries old, we don't know if this is an accurate description of what they have, or whether Pulse has more advanced technology now."

I stood upright.

"We do know that Pulse is crawling with wildlife, savage monsters and the like," I told them.

"Well don't you need to know what you're up against?" Sazh asked me and Lightning.

"How can we?" I replied. "We prepare against what we think they have, and pray they don't attack with anything else."

"A target's a target," Lightning said.

"You like to keep it simple, don't you?" Sazh asked her.

"I stick to my goal."

"As long as you have a goal, you can fight?" Hope asked the soldier.

Lightning folded her arms. "You can stay alive."

I looked at her, silently agreeing with her words.

We continued onwards, coming to another wreckage.

"Maybe we should take a break," I said to Lightning, noticing how the others lagged behind.

She nodded and quickly looked around, before returning and saying that it was safe.

I turned to the others.

"We're gonna rest here for a bit, okay," I told them, before settling down next to Lightning, scanning for entrances to the clearing and marking their location for future reference.

Sazh sat down next to us, stretching.

"Not much of a future for us, huh?" he said.

I stared out at the Peaks laid out before us. It was very peaceful, the mounds of rock and debris silhouetted by the moonlight.

"Hard to picture a happy ending," Lightning said resignedly.

"We don't even know where to go," Sazh said, peering below us at Hope and Vanille.

Next to me, Lightning stood.

"I do," she said.

I looked up at her. "Where?"

"There." She pointed up at the white ship above millions of miles above us.

"Eden?" Sazh asked incredulously. "The Sanctum's seat of power." He chuckled. "Oh, that's a great idea. Just charge right in there. Give 'em a taste of l'Cie terror!"

He was sarcastic, joking, but I could see it now. An image filled my mind, the Sanctum toppling, the fal'Cie Eden, taking the form of a giant white light, vanishing. The faces of nameless Purged civilians cheering as their mutinous fal'Cie leader crumbled beneath our might.

Lightning was silent.

"You're serious," Sazh said.

Lightning turned to him. "Keep running – it's die or turn Cie'th."

I subconsciously placed a hand on my left shoulder, feeling the raised skin of the scars and raking my fingertips across the brand.

"There's no place for l'Cie to hide," Lightning continued. "No... They want a fight? Let's take it to the Sanctum's door!"

"This isn't a game!" Sazh cried as I stood, nodding my head.

"No. That's for damn sure," Lightning said to him. "It started with Serah. The fal'Cie took her."

"And the Purge," I supplied, voicing my own reason for accepting her plan.

"Now I'm a l'Cie too. And the Sanctum's hunting me, an enemy of the state," Lightning said. "But who's pulling their strings?"

"A fal'Cie," I said. "Eden."

Lightning nodded. "Cocoon's Sustainer and Guiding Light. It probably ordered the Purge, too."

"It didn't stop it," I said.

"Pulse and Sanctum fal'Cie? They're all the same," Lightning said quietly. "And we're all the same to them; expendable."

Hope and Vanille had reached us, and were listening intently.

"I'm not dying a fal'Cie slave," Lightning said.

"So? What are you gonna do?" Sazh asked her.

"Destroy it," She replied.

"By yourself? What, are you crazy?" Sazh said loudly. "Say you pull it off... What's that get you? Satisfaction? Something happens to Eden, it's lights out Cocoon!" His eyes grew wide. "You want that. You're a Pulse l'Cie now, so you just want to snuff out Cocoon!"

"No!" Vanille interrupted. "What about Serah? She said to save Cocoon! It might even be our Focus to make sure Cocoon stays-"

"Our Focus doesn't matter," Lightning said, taking a step towards her. "I don't take orders from fal'Cie. How I live is up to me."

"Don't you mean," Sazh said slowly, "How you die?"

"Think like that, and it's already over. Better to pick your path and keep moving." Lightning turned to face Sazh. "Don't worry. I'm after the Sanctum. I'm not out to destroy the world."

She paused.

"If it did come to that, wonder if our 'hero' would try to stop me?"

"You want to fight Snow now?" Sazh asked her. "Just like that, and you're enemies?"

Lightning looked at each of us in turn.

"Next time we meet, we might be too."

I watched her leave.

"She's right," I said.

"Not you too," Sazh said, looking at me forlornly.

"The Sanctum need to pay."

"Listen to me son, you take out the Sanctum, Cocoon comes down with it," Sazh said.

I shook my head.

"I can't just run from this," I told him. "I wasn't raised that way."

"You're a l'Cie!" he cried. "Running is all you will ever do."

"No. If you're being hunted, take out the hunter."

Sazh snorted.

"If that's some PSICOM logic-"

"What else can I do?" I retorted, furious that he was trying to justify retreat to me, a soldier.

He opened his mouth, then closed it, defeated.

"Lightning's right. Set yourself an objective, and see it through," I said through clenched teeth.

"All of Cocoon is out to kill you – to kill all of us!" Sazh said angrily. "If you do this, if you go with her, chances are you won't survive."

"I need to do something!" I said loudly. "And hers," I pointed in the direction that Lightning had gone. "Is the best plan I've heard all day. So run, if you think that's best, but I can't run with you."

Then I wheeled around and strode after Lightning.

I had gone about twenty feet when I heard footsteps behind my. I spun around, blades in hand.

It was Hope.

I sighed and replaced my weapon.

"Sorry," He said, eyeing me warily.

"It's all right, Hope," I said, letting him catch up beside me. "Come on."

Hope's appearance didn't really surprise me. He had told me earlier that he needed to be stronger, and he seemed to regard Lightning and I as the best way to achieve that goal.

I let him fall in line behind me and we set up the path after Lightning.