"On your first trip back… we should do something special," Lightning said softly, barely over a whisper. Their small sleeping cabin on the Lindblum was still dimly lit. Neither her nor Fang had felt the energy or the need to get up and turn the lights fully off last night. Lightning actually found the soft glow to be comforting. With so much uncertainty looming ahead, she liked the fact that whenever she opened her eyes, she could see that they were still safe. And still together. "Go somewhere nice… Like Nautilus. I hear they have parades. And a really big petting zoo… We could go and pet the chocobos. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
Lightning could feel Fang smiling against her shoulder. As Light lay sprawled out on the mattress, feeling totally warm even though her sleeping clothes had long been unbuttoned and removed from her body, Fang had curled into her side, resting her head against her shoulder and draping her arm across Lightning's chest so that her fingers could gently stroke the pink locks above her ear. Lips gently pressed against Lightning's neck, and Lightning smiled at the ticklish feeling she got from Fang's nose grazing her skin as she moved down to place a second kiss on Light's shoulder.
"It's a lovely idea," Fang admitted, taking a deep breath before resting her chin on Lightning's shoulder and smiling up at her, "but I'll be living on Gran Pulse. I'll be surrounded by all kinds of chocobos. Yellow ones, green ones, red ones, purple ones… If ya want, on your first visit I can teach ya how to ride one. I've never spotted a pink one in the wild, but I can definitely save ya a purple one."
Lightning arched an amused eyebrow. "You're going to teach me how to ride a purple chocobo?"
"Why not?" Fang shrugged. "It won't be the first time I've coached ya how to properly maneuver on top of something Gran Pulse born."
Lightning lightly smiled, but then sighed. "I never thought I'd be worried about how much I was going to miss it—the innuendo." She turned her head and looked across the room. On the opposite wall, near the ceiling, was a red light. It was the light that was supposed to blink on and off when it was time for them to assemble for their mission. "And you. Not seeing you every day... It won't be the same."
"But it'll be something. We'll be free."
'If it all goes right…' Lightning thought to herself. "Yeah. We will."
"Just think about it." Fang crawled a bit further up along Lightning's body so that their heads were level before rolling Lightning onto her side so that they were facing each other. "By this time next week, everyone will be rescued. We'll be on our way to a cure. And you'll be learning how to ride a purple chocobo. Almost sounds too good to be true, huh?"
"Almost," Lightning nodded, scooting closer to curl more into Fang's body. She could feel Fang's arm wrap around her side and over her back to hold her as their heads leaned in to lightly rest against each other.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Lightning released a shaky sigh. The room was flashing red. She felt Fang's brow furrowing against her forehead and had to fight to keep her own face from breaking.
It was just nerves.
Everything would be just fine.
Anything was better than trying to live with this l'Cie curse.
These were all things that Lightning wanted to say, but all she could get out was, "We better get dressed," before rising from the bed and getting ready for the biggest day of her life.
The airship's conference room was practically empty when Fang and Lightning first entered. Snow and Hope had yet to arrive, but as expected, Rygdea was waiting them. Conversing with the cadet was the only other person in the room, a tall man with slick, black hair who was dressed in a fancy silver suit with a white cloak draped over his shoulders. The strange man was the first to spot the l'Cie. His eyes immediately transfixed on the two as they entered, before saying something that made Rygdea spin around to look at them as well.
"Claire 'Lightning' Farron and Oerba Yun Fang," Rygdea announced in a loud voice as he began striding across the room towards the girls. Rygdea was smiling, as usual, when he approached them, but there still seemed to be something much more serious about his demeanor. As he got closer, he reached into his pocket to pull out the silver cuff that had once been around Lightning's wrist. "Good morning, y'all. Sleep well?"
Both girls looked to each other hesitantly before turning back to Rygdea and nodding.
"Good! We got a big day today. Fang, somebody in tech asked that I deliver this to you." He lifted the bracelet between his fingers. "Anything you need to tell me about why you want this?"
Fang studied the suppressor cuff for a moment before shaking her head. "For the past few years, the Sanctum's made my life a living hell," she said, moving her attention to Rygdea's face. "If I give it right back to 'em, I want it to be purely from me. I want them to think of it as something that happened because they drove a Gran Pulsian over the edge, not because they couldn't capture a rogue l'Cie."
Rygdea still looked tepid over Fang's statement, but in the end he just nodded before snapping the cuff around Fang's wrist. Beside her, Lightning watched with a disconcerted look on her face as the cuff's clasp immediate began to mold into the rest of the bracelet. She knew it was a needed precaution for the Ragnarok scare, but she knew how scary PSICOM could be as well.
The door to the conference room slid open again for Snow and Hope to enter.
"Aw, good. Now we've got the whole gang here." Rygdea took a step back away from Fang. "If y'all would follow me, there's someone important I'd like to introduce y'all to." He kept stepping back, with all the l'Cie in tow, until he was standing in front of the tall, dark-haired stranger. "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my boss and leader of the Cavalry, Guardian Corps Commander Cid Raines."
"It is a pleasure to meet you all," the dark haired man greeted.
Lightning felt the nerves in her stomach begin to stir again when the man's eyes landed on her. There was a certain interest behind them, as if he were closely examining her. She felt somewhat targeted, but she wasn't exactly sure if she was getting more attention from him than everyone else until she heard Fang harshly clear her throat.
"Pleasure's all ours, Mister Raines."
The commander removed his eyes from Lightning and directed them towards Fang, who was now standing with her arms crossed and hips jutting out to the side. "Please," the man insisted, "Call me Cid. We are all soldiers in this war, and no one has a far more superior role in it than the four of you. So to start things off, I would first and foremost like to thank you all for your bravery and decision to help us win this war against the Sanctum. Everyone in the Cavalry understands and appreciates the risk and sacrifice it takes to march into PSICOM headquarters knowing that all of the attention will be on you."
"About that…" Snow said, raising his hand, "How is this going to work? Are we supposed to walk into Eden and just expect all of PSICOM to come out and leave the Primarch unsupervised?"
"Well, now that you ask," Cid lightly smiled, "We've developed a plan to spread you all out, putting you into different sectors of the Sanctum's headquarters so that PSICOM will be forced to spread out as well, sending a number of their soldiers into each area. The first part of the plan will be infiltration. All of you, except for you Hope, will be given PSICOM uniforms to help mask your identities—"
Fang groaned uncomfortably.
"—It'll be much more efficient to strike them this way."
"Excuse me," Hope cut in. "I understand why I can't fit the uniform, but I was wondering… How will we be able to tell PSICOM and Cavalry soldiers apart? If they're all wearing the same uniforms and all?"
"The lights on our uniforms' shoulder pads," Cid informed. "They'll be pink. I thought the color would be fitting enough." His eyes were once again on Lightning, causing her to shift a bit with unease. "But each of you will be assigned to accompany different beta teams to complete different tasks. Fang, you will be with the Silent Hawk teams who will be going to maximum detainment, where Vanille and Sazh Katzroy are being held."
"They've got Sazh in maximum detainment?" Fang asked with slight disbelief. "What'd he do to get in there?"
"It was the Primarch's orders," Cid replied, his facial expression never shifting. "As to why he ordered it, I have no idea. But continuing on, while Fang will be traveling with the Silent Hawk group, Lightning… is that what you prefer to be called?"
Lightning just nodded. She could barely hear Fang grumbling something beneath her breath.
"Lightning will be traveling with the Hot Streak group to the regular detainment area, where the residents of the Bodhum reservation are being held. Your group will be responsible for safely freeing them from imprisonment and leading them to the designated portal zones for their safe return to Gran Pulse. As for Snow and Hope, I hope you two won't mind working together. I don't doubt either of your abilities, but I just find it too unsettling to leave someone so young by himself in a group of strangers."
"We're fighting a war, being chased by crazy men with guns and the thing that worries ya is that the kid'll be with strangers?" Fang asked.
"No, I'm fine with being with Snow. I'd like that better," Hope quickly followed, just in case Fang's comment may have inspired Cid to in fact put him in a group by himself.
"Good. The two of you will be with the Bald Chocobo group. You all will be clearing out the Sanctum's communication center. Your role in this is very important. Without control of the communication center, we won't have control of the portals, and the Gran Pulsians will have nowhere to flee to once they have been freed."
"Must ya use the word flee? It makes us sound like a bunch of pansies."
"Fang," Lightning warned in a low voice, feeling that Fang's irritation had something to do with a little more than his word choice, "Stop."
"I dunno, neighbor." Snow obliviously shrugged his shoulders, looking over to the somewhat stewing Fang. "It kind of does. Just a little bit."
Cid softly cleared his throat to regain everyone's attention and straightened his posture. "During all of this, our alpha teams will be making their way through the main halls towards the Primarch's chambers. Once we have subdued Primarch Dysley, we will have control of the Sanctum and PSICOM, and will therefore be able to call off all further attacks. Is everyone okay with their objectives?"
All of the l'Cie simultaneously voiced their consent to the plan, causing Cid to smile.
"Good. Rygdea has your PSICOM uniforms ready. Hope, we will try to find something that isn't too eye-catching to suit you in. If you would just get dressed, I will see you backstage at the pep rally when the cruisers take you below Eden."
"Pep rally?" Lightning asked with a confused look on her face.
Cid's smile softened. "Just something to raise the morale of the men. Don't worry. You won't be required to say anything. Just stand behind the podium, as you are. The soldiers will love you."
"Oh, yeah?" Fang asked, arching an eyebrow. Her eyes were nearly burning holes into Cid's skulls. "Will they love me, too?"
Cid just politely smiled to Fang in return and nodded his head. "They will love all of you, or at least respect you enough to fight beside you in this battle."
"Ohh, the respect card…"
"I will see you all soon." Cid ignored Fang's comment and began walking to the door. He nodded at Rygdea, who had slipped out of the room during the conversation to retrieve the PSICOM uniforms, on his way out.
"Soooo…" Rygdea said with a big smile, holding one suit of PSICOM armor in his arms as a few other soldiers stood behind him with the others. "Who's ready to suit up?"
The pep rally took place in what looked to be an old arena on the outskirts of one of the once hugely populated cities located under the floating capital, Eden. Just as Cid had said, the l'Cie had to do nothing but stand on stage in their PSICOM gear as Cid spoke words of encouragement to the multitude of soldiers below them.
Halfway through Cid's speech, Lightning remembered feeling Hope's hand slip into hers and tightly hold it. Rygdea had made a big deal of lining them up in an order so that Lightning and Fang were on opposite ends of the stage, saying that he just wanted to make sure there was no funny business. Lightning hadn't found the comment amusing at all, but Fang had taken it in stride, noting that it was as if they had never left high school. It wasn't until the very end of the speech, right as they were being ushered backstage, that Lightning would give Hope's hand a comforting squeeze before letting go.
"That went better than expected," Cid announced once they were all behind the closed stage curtain. "The soldiers are all fired up and ready to go. How are all of you feeling?"
"Kind of like I wanna hurl," Snow admitted, rubbing his stomach. "But the good kind of hurl. Not the bad one."
Lightning eyed Snow with a look of disgust before rolling her eyes. Cid just stared at him and nodded, almost as if he were trying really hard to understand and empathize. "Very well. We will be heading out soon. Fang, your group will be the first to load up, so if you have anything to say that you don't want to broadcast over the comm. devices, it would be wise to say it now."
"Oh, uhhh thanks." Fang took a step forward, closer to her fellow l'Cie, with her PSICOM helmet tucked under her arm. Her face looked conflicted with all sorts of emotions that she seemed to be struggling to put into words. "I, uh…" She stopped to look over her shoulder at Cid, who was still standing right behind her amongst the group.
It took a few seconds of silence for the man to notice Fang's eyes digging into him. "Oh." He awkwardly smoothed out the part of his cloak that was flung over his shoulder. "I'll go check on when everyone else's groups are getting ready to load. Fang, when you're ready just talk to that gentleman in the uniform over there. He'll accompany you to your cruiser." With that, Cid politely nodded temporary adieu to the l'Cie and marched off.
Fang watched him go with a slightly peeved look on her face.
"He's cool. I like him." Snow was the first to speak.
"Well I don't. He seems fishy." Fang's eyes continued to watch Cid until she felt a hand gently pull at her wrist.
"You're overreacting." Lightning released Fang's wrist once the girl had stopped glaring at Cid. "Besides, he's a bit older than me."
"You'll be legal in a year," Fang stated. "And I'll be in Gran Pulse."
"Okay… I definitely missed something this time." Snow twisted his head from Light to Fang with a puzzled expression on his face. "What did I miss?"
"Nothing," Fang mumbled, stepping up and lifting a hand out to grab Snow's. The boy smiled as he took it and pulled the Gran Pulsian into his chest, slapping his free arm across her back in a hug.
"You're gonna keep that head of yours screwed on tight, right? Because I'm not gonna be there to put you back in your place if it happens again," Snow said, still smiling, as Fang backed out of their embrace.
"Pshh, I totally kicked your ass, blondie," Fang returned, now wearing a light smile of her own. "And just stay focused on getting those portals up and running. I don't want any surprises when I'm done busting Vanille out."
"You can count on it."
Fang gave Snow a feigned look of distrust before turning to face Hope. "Please. Make sure he does right."
"Heh. I will," Hope agreed. He stepped up to hug Fang around the waist while Fang ruffled his hair as she usually did.
"By the way, I've got something for ya." Fang dipped her hand down into the front of her armor and pulled out a little piece of paper. She leaned over so that she was eye level with Hope and held the paper up between their faces. "Some extra coordinates. We're not supposed to use them for transporting people, but if things start getting too heavy with PSICOM, open a bunch of portals up near this area. It just might help out a little bit."
"Okay," Hope vigorously nodded and took the paper from her.
Fang smiled and mussed the boy's hair one last time before rising back up. She wasn't even fully standing straight before she felt Lightning's arms wrap around her, pressing their bodies together in a tight hug.
"Take care of yourself. I mean it," the pinkette said as she held Fang in her arms.
"Only if you do the same," Fang replied. "And no sharing cruisers with Cid. Or I'll cause so much hell, he'll be wishing I'd turned into Ragnarok instead."
"Fang…" Lightning pulled away to playfully punch Fang's shoulder, although the expression on her face was reprimanding. "Not funny."
Fang just chuckled and watched Lightning as she reached out to take the helmet from under her arm and lift it over Fang's head. Once the headgear was snapped in, a loud buzz of static filled Fang's ear while lights and numbers flashed across her visor. "What the…"
"The controls are on your arm," Lightning informed, taking Fang's hand and lifting up a small panel in the armor over her forearm. "This is for radio." She clicked a button and the static cut off. "This is for night vision. This is for outside conditions. The others, you can just ask one of the soldiers on your cruiser about."
"Oh whatever would I do without you?" Fang asked in a mockingly sweet tone.
"FANG!"
The l'Cie turned around to see Rygdea impatiently staring them down with his fists on his hips. Cid was standing beside him.
"Can you hurry it up? We ain't got all day!"
"Oh… Uh, coming!" Fang turned to walk away but felt a hard grip yank at her wrist, spinning her around so that she was facing Lightning once again. "Light, I have to—"
"You said that Lady Luck smiles upon lovers, right?" Lightning quickly asked, her eyes erratically moving around Fang's helmet, almost as if they were searching for the girl's eyes.
"Yeah, but that was mostly cause your dad—"
"I don't care." Lightning gripped the sides of Fang's helmet and brought it to her lips for a kiss, letting her lips rest against the visor for a few extra seconds in hopes that maybe a little more luck would seep through. "Good luck."
"Light, ya couldn't have done that before I put the helmet on?" Fang whined, although beneath the helmet she was still partly smiling.
"FANNNGGGG!"
Once again, the l'Cie looked to where Rygdea was standing. His fists were no longer on his hips, but instead were pulled down straight at his sides. His expression was incredulous and his face was on the verge of turning a deep red. Beside him, Cid's expression was more of a subtle mix of shock and curiosity.
"Uh oh. I think we broke him," Fang said in a low voice. She turned her head back to her friends and let out a deep breath. "See ya all when the war's done then, aye?"
There was mix of nods and voiced affirmatives amongst the group before Fang began her trek across the room towards the man who would lead her to her cruiser that would fly her up to Eden.
"…and then on my signal, we—"
BOOM!
The ground softly vibrated beneath Sazh and Vanille's feet in their holding area, completely stopping them in mid-conversation.
"What the hell was that?" Sazh asked, looking around the room with a puzzled expression on his face.
BOOM!
Another shake.
"Maybe they're moving stuff around?" Vanille asked unsurely.
BOOM! BOOM! BangBangBangBang!
Both Sazh and Vanille's heads flew to the door, where various different slamming and scuttling noises could be heard. "Vanille, get behind me," Sazh ordered, instinctively pushing the teenager back in order to shield her from whatever might come through the door.
"What? You should be getting behind me!" Vanille chirped from behind.
Sazh paused for a moment as he thought over the concept. She was probably right. "Ok—"
Before the word could escape his mouth, the door to their hold slid open and a small group of armed PSICOM soldiers filled the doorway.
"You two, get the girl. Ellis, help me grab him," one of the soldiers barked, nodding his helmet in the prisoners' direction.
"Whoa-ho-ho!" Sazh held out both arms and backed up, effectively blocking Vanille from view since he was now stuck in front of her anyway. "What's going on? We heard noises that kinda sounded like explosions to me. Everything all right?"
"None of your business, mechanic," the soldier who was obviously in charge said as he stepped further into the cell. "But we're moving you two to a more secure location. The less you resist, the less painful it'll be. So out of the way." The soldier reached out to snatch Sazh by the lapels of his jacket and fling him to the side so that two of the soldiers behind him could rush Vanille.
"Ahh!" Vanille yelped as each of her elbows was firmly grasped by the soldiers.
Meanwhile, the soldier who Sazh guessed to be Ellis, pulled out a gun and stuck it into Sazh's side. "I still don't understand why Dysley wants to keep him around so much," the soldier said, obviously referring to Sazh. "What could he possibly need him for?"
"I happen to be one hell of a pilot," Sazh stated, but the comment earned him a hard jab in the gut with the butt of the gun. "Aghhh!" Sazh groaned, doubling over.
"Sazh!" Vanille called. She lurched forward but was stopped by the soldiers gripping her elbows. "Sazh. Now?"
"Hphh! Hphh! Yeah…" Sazh choked as he rose back into a standing position. "Now."
There was a light clinking sound as something small clattered to the floor.
"Huh?" One of the soldiers holding onto Vanille leaned back to catch a glimpse of what had dropped. A silver bracelet, which looked as if it had been roughly sawed through, was lying on the ground. In the brief second that it took for him to realize the significance of that tiny circle of metal, it was too late.
"Hyahhh!"
A forceful whirlwind of fire swirled around Vanille, sweeping the two PSICOM guards up into the fiery blaze and flinging them into different walls of the holding area.
"Holy sh—" Ellis lowered the gun from Sazh's side, stunned into shock as he watched his comrades get flung across the room like tiny fireballs. But he would quickly learn that that was the wrong step to take, as an elbow was immediately slung straight into his visor.
"Oww!" Sazh cried out in pain, reeling his elbow in to cradle it as the PSICOM soldier staggered backwards. "That really hurt!" Still holding onto his elbow, he rammed his shoulder as hard as he could into Ellis, slamming the soldier's body against the wall before grabbing his helmet to ram into the wall as well, giving Ellis no chance to recover before knocking him unconscious.
"Not so fast!" The leader of the soldiers moved to pull out his gun, but was quickly zapped in the chest by a bolt of lightning. "Wrahhhh!" the man shrieked as his body convulsed before joining Ellis's on the floor.
"Damn…" Sazh rubbed his elbow and shook his head as he looked around the room at the fallen soldiers. "That was… intense. So it's that simple? You can just wish for lightning and fire and BOW! It appears?"
"Pretty much," Vanille confirmed, nodding her head.
"Eesh…" Sazh leaned over to take both Ellis and the leading soldier's guns to slip into his own waistband. "Then remind me not to piss you off. So look, I'm not exactly sure where they could be keeping Dahj, but if we find a lone straggler just wandering the halls, maybe we could use your powers to scare him enough into telling us where he might—AHHHH!"
"SAZH!"
Out of the blue, Sazh's body went rigid. His arms stretched out to his sides and his head flew back, his eyes wide and focused on the ceiling as his body began to violently tremble.
"Sazh, what's wrong?!" Vanille ran to the man's side but froze in mid-step when she noticed a bright light shining from his chest, just above the undershirt he was wearing.
Sazh's body suddenly went limp, and the man fell into a heap on the floor.
"Ughhhh…." He groaned, rolling onto his back. "Did I—Did I get tased."
Vanille didn't speak. She couldn't find the words. She just stepped over to Sazh's side and crouched down. She reached for the collar of his undershirt and gently pulled it down, earning her a confused stare from the middle-aged man below her.
"Oh no…" Vanille gasped, yanking back her hand to cover her mouth.
"What? What is it?" Sazh asked. He reached his hands back to push himself up before pulling at the collar of his shirt as well to peek at his chest. "No… Aww, no!"
He didn't know a lot about l'Cie or fal'Cie or much else on the matter of focuses and powers, but from his time in the cell with Vanille, he had learned enough… And he definitely knew enough to figure out that the new tattoo-like marking on his chest was a l'Cie brand.
BOOM!
Fang knelt on one knee, fully surrounded by Cavalry soldiers, as she listened to the havoc that the first deployed beta teams were causing.
Another explosion shook the ground, accompanied by the clacking of gunfire. Fang could hear a chorus of shouts in the distance.
"Hold your positions," one of the Cavalry men in front of Fang advised in a low voice.
Another loud boom.
Fang clenched her jaw and took a deep breath. It was almost 'go' time.
"PATH IS CLEAR! MOVE! MOVE!"
All the soldiers in Fang's group jumped to their feet and sprinted forward. Smoke surrounded them as they sprinted forward, and even through her mask, Fang could smell the burning. The earth continued to shake as explosions went off ahead of them, making the ground feel unsteady beneath Fang's feet as she ran.
Her group was able to rush straight through the arches and into huge first floor lobby of one of the Sanctum's security wings. "Here," a Cavalry soldier commanded as the Silent Hawk group huddled in the great hall, right outside a row of elevators.
The comm. radio in Fang's helmet suddenly clicked on, briefly singing static before a woman's voice filled her ears. "Silent Hawk at the roots. Wing 4-E. Is the area clear?"
The radio clicked off before almost immediately clicking back on again. This time, a man's voice was speaking. "Area clear. Are the elevators secure?"
Click off. Click on. "Uhhh, roger that. Elevator controls are secure for, uhhhh, safe passage," Snow's voice rolled over the radio in a mock-pilot tone. "Over."
Fang smiled to herself as Rygdea's voice now barked over the radio, "Hey! Either be serious or don't broadcast!"
"Big talk from the cadet who wasn't even experienced enough to leave the Lindblum. Over," Snow muttered one last time before the radio clicked off again.
There was a loud ding as one of the elevators popped open. The leader of Fang's group motioned for a few soldiers to pile into it. "Fang," the leader turned around to face the youngest person of the group, "You'll be going up with the fourth group. We're going to try to keep you padded in the middle."
Fang nodded as another ding signaled another elevator that would be filled with more Cavalry soldiers. A couple of dings later and Fang felt herself being pushed into one of the crowded moving boxes.
As the elevator door closed in front of her, Fang smiled to herself and clicked her radio unit on. "The lobo is on the prowl. I repeat, the lobo is on the prowl."
Another click. Static. "If I had known y'all would be like this, I would've gotten y'all suits with defunct communicators," Rygdea mumbled. "But since we know how almost all of our l'Cie are doing… Lightning. How are you feeling? Nothing moving too fast?"
Click. Static. "Everything is okay." Lightning was straight and to the point as usual. "My group is stationed right outside of the regular detainment wing, just waiting for the signal."
Fang's grin beneath her helmet widened. "So the flamingo is in the pond?"
Some of the soldiers in the elevator with her chuckled.
"Alright, y'all, that's it," Rygdea groaned. "No more radio communication for the high schoolers UNLESS it's an emergency. There better be blood, death, and tears. Got it?"
"Got it," four voices replied into the radio at the same time.
"Sounds like someone's in timeout," one of the soldiers standing behind Fang chuckled.
"Oh, Rygdea's just got big man with a whistle syndrome," Fang shrugged off. "How much further 'til we get to the maximum security cells anyway?"
"Actually, they shouldn't far ahead," the soldier answered. "Just two more block units away."
"Really?" Fang sounded surprised. "That close?"
"Don't tell me you're getting scared, Gran Pulse," the soldier said lightheartedly.
"Nah, I'm not getting scared. I just kinda thought that there'd maybe be a little more resistance than this, ya know. It being maximum detainment and all. We've been just breezing through everything."
"You, uh… you have a point," the soldier admitted. "Hold on a sec." The radio clicked on again. "Can we get some intel from our PSICOM mole. What are the assignments surrounding maximum detainment?"
There was a pause before another voice answered, using codes and colors that Fang couldn't understand, to describe the security that currently surrounded maximum detainment.
"That's odd…" the soldier said once the radio had clicked off again. "Those are recent changes. They're calling soldiers away from max. Why would they do that?"
"Maybe they're sending more soldiers to the communication center," a different soldier offered.
"And remove security surrounding the thing that gives them the upper hand in this war?" the first soldier asked. "Something doesn't feel right. Maybe we should—Whoa!"
There was a hard jerk that made everyone in the confined space stumble back.
"Did we just stop?" Fang asked turning her head around to look at the other soldiers before facing the front again to look at the button panel. "Why did we—" The elevator lights flicked off. "Awesome."
"Remain calm," the first soldier said in a low voice before clicking on the radio. "Communication center, what's going on over there?"
"Simple glitch," came the reply. "Just sit tight. We'll have it fixed in no time."
"Just great…" the soldier breathed. "Well, you heard them. Guess we'll just sit back and—guck!"
"Hm?" Fang turned her head to curiously eye the soldier. "Mate, you alright?"
"Gluck—guck…" The soldier's body stiffened. His arms shot straight down to his sides and his armor softly trembled. There was more incoherent gurgling when his body relaxed. He bowed his head and pawed at the bottom of his helmet, trying to pull the thing off.
"Are you like, a claustrophobe or something? Cause we can try to give ya a little more space if ya need—"
The soldier took a deep inhale when he had finally pulled the helmet from his head.
"Dude, you look like crap—huh?" Fang's eyes narrowed and she took a step further into the elevator. There was a dark mark etched on the soldier's neck. A mark that, at the very sight of it, made Fang's heart feel as if it suddenly dropped into her stomach. It was a l'Cie brand. "Hey. How long have you had that…" Fang took a step closer, but jumped back when the man's body violently went rigid again, throwing his head back and causing his chest to thrust upwards toward the ceiling.
"AHHHH!"
"GRRRGGGG!"
"UMPHHHHH!"
As if there had been a simultaneous trigger, one by one, every other soldier in the elevator's body morphed into the same tensely crooked position as the first's, filling the elevator with groans and painful yells.
Fang could do nothing but stare in shock. She couldn't understand what was going on, but her body innately knew that this could only mean trouble. Her legs instinctively took a step back. And another. Until her back was flat against the elevator doors.
"WRAHHHH!" the first soldier screamed.
Fang's eyes were brought to the now glowing brand on his neck. Her eyebrows shifted downward as she watched it. Right before her eyes, his brand was progressively developing. More arrows were quickly etching themselves into his skin as if there was an invisible painter in the elevator with them. Around him, each and every other soldier in the elevator let out a painstakingly loud shriek as well, while an eye formed amidst the arrows in the first soldier's brand and a deep red flooded around it.
And then…
The eye opened.
The soldier's screaming stopped and a bright light filled the elevator as his skin began to glow, nearly blinding Fang in the process. Similarly, just as they had with everything else, the other soldiers in the elevator followed suit behind the first. Even though she couldn't see their skin as clearly, their screaming had subsided and light had begun to leak through the cracks of their armor until even the armor was covered in a bright shroud. If Fang could ever picture heaven, she felt that this is what seeing it for the first time would be like. The vice-like fear grip that reached into her chest and pulled at her heart, the blinding bright light, and the peaceful quiet that made her own heavy breathing sound like thunder in her ears were all things she could picture herself seeing and feeling when standing at the pearly gates.
But then came the first long, mangled moan, and Fang's picture of heaven was instantaneously switched to that of hell.
The soldiers were gone. Every last one of them. And in each of their places was a hulking, ruggedly crystalline creature with a huge, red eye placed in the middle of its chest.
"Gods…" The world slipped out of Fang's mouth. A cold chill ran up her spine and goosebumps prickled over her skin. She couldn't tell whether the elevator had suddenly gotten colder, but there was a deep feeling of despair mixed with remorse that had quickly washed over her… something that made her pulse quicken with fear while at the same time pulled at her heartstrings, as if she had just suffered a huge heartbreak. "What—"
THWAP!
The first heavy blow across Fang's helmet made her see light. Her head unbearably ached and when her vision cleared, fuzz and numbers were spastically flickering across her visor.
THWAP!
Another smack, this time against her chest, made her go flying back into the elevator door. "Ooomph!" Even with all the armor, it felt as if her chest had caved on that last strike. The pain so was distracting that Fang didn't even notice the lights of the elevator switch back on.
Click. Static. "Everything is all clear. You guys should be back in business now," a voice announced over the radio.
The radio.
Fang lifted her hand to reach for the control panel on her arm, but her body was immediately thrust back, crushed against the door of the elevator. Past all of the random digits that flooded her haywire visor, she could see the rocky eyes of one of the creatures as it pushed her up against the door, so heavy that she felt as if she could barely force out any breaths. That feeling of misery, of cold despair, felt as if it had immediately intensified, so much so that Fang would've guessed her bones were made of ice. Behind the first creature, she could see the others. Pushing forward. Leaning against the one that had trapped Fang. Either working together to pile all of their weight against her or mindlessly fighting to each get a piece of her. Fang wasn't sure.
But one thing she was sure of was that she had to get them off of her. Some way.
She twisted her arm, which had been pinned right under her breasts, so that the palm was placed in the middle of the creature's chest, right above the red eye.
One good blast. That was all she would need. One good blast and—
No blast.
Another long moan and heavy push against the door. Fang had forgotten. She was wearing the suppressor cuff. The cuff meant no powers. No powers meant no blast. And no blast meant she was stuck in this elevator, the sticky feeling of hopelessness and wretchedness spreading throughout her insides while these monsters worked to crush those very same insides by smashing them up against the door.
DING.
There was the momentary feeling of falling before Fang's back fell through the open elevator doors and hit the hard floor with all of the creatures toppling over and dropping around her waist. One of the creatures reached to claw its way up Fang's body, but the girl was running on pure terror now. She quickly scrambled backwards, her legs working overtime to alternate between kicking and digging into the ground to push her back until she had slid from beneath the last of them.
As she scooted further and further away, she noticed that the monsters did nothing but writhe and squirm on the ground. It was as if none of them had the mind to just pick itself back up into a standing position to chase after her, and as slightly comforting as that was, it still took nothing away from the fact that Fang was sure that they had effortlessly bruised her ribs in that elevator.
For the second time, Fang lifted her forearm to click in on the radio, but all she got in return was static. "Hello!" she called.
Nothing.
"HEY! Can anybody hear me?!"
Nothing.
"DOES THIS DAMNED THING EVEN STILL WORK?! AHHHH!" She snatched the helmet from her head and mindlessly flung it at one of the crawling monsters on the floor ahead of her. "Fuck…" She reached up to cradle her throbbing head. Lightning had warned them that l'Cie turn into monsters if they didn't fulfill their focus in time… "Oh no."
A new feeling of terror overcame Fang as she came to a horrible realization.
The soldiers in the elevator had turned into l'Cie… which meant that somewhere nearby, there had to be a fal'Cie. Possibly even Anima… She had to find a way to warn everybody.
DING.
DING.
DING.
Fang's head shot up at the sound of multiple elevators arriving on her floor. The goosebumps and the cold, sticky feeling of despair was enough to alert her of what would be coming out, even before she heard the moans or the elevator doors had opened far enough for the monsters behind them to amble out.
"Oh, fuck me…"
Static and muffled shouting.
Those were the noises that had filled the comm. devices in everyone's helmets for a brief moment, clicking on and off a couple of times before stopping all together.
"What do you think that was?" Lightning asked one of the soldiers who knelt beside her behind a barricade. Not too far ahead, they were in a heavy gunfire battle with quite the army of PSICOM soldiers that were guarding the normal detainment area. She peeked her head over the barricade, taking only a split second before sending a lightning spell forward to scatter a few opposing PSICOM soldiers.
"Probably just some interference. PSICOM must be trying to hack our signal," the soldier replied easily, peeking over the barricade to fire a round of bullets before ducking back down.
"It kind of sounded like someone was trying to say something."
"Trust me. It's nothing to worry about. Ooh, hey! Break in the line! Path is clear! Move forward!"
"Really?" Lightning peeked over the barricade again. "That's what you call clear?"
"That's as clear as it will get! Let's go!" The soldier rolled from around the barricade and took off.
"Seriously?" Lightning grunted, before doing the exact same thing.
Asphalt flew in the air all around and she could hear gunfire zipping past her. She lifted both hands as she ran, belting out a variety of spells this way and that as she continued her rush forward. The only major thing that blocked her from the imprisoned Gran Pulsians was the heavily guarded iron door across the quad, where the remaining PSICOM soldiers were having their last stand.
KABOOM!
Lightning's heels dug into the ground as she skidded to a stop. The smell of burning tar filled her nostrils as a huge cloud of dust blocked her view of the detainment facility.
"Get back! Get back!" A handful of Cavalry soldiers rushed out of the dust cloud towards the barricades that they had just recently been taking cover behind. From behind them, Lightning could hear loud clanking sounds.
"What's going—"
BOOM!
Lightning jumped back as a small rocket whizzed by, crashing into a pillar and creating a dark, fiery, smoke cloud. "Moving back!" Lightning yelled, spinning on her heels and sprinting back to the barricade. In the back of her mind, she could slightly register more gunfire popping accompanied by the occasional loud, mechanical clank.
"DID YOU TRAITORS ACTUALLY BELIEVE," a familiar voice boomed through a loudspeaker, "THAT WE WOULD REALLY LET YOU WALTZ IN SO EASILY?"
Lightning hopped over the barricade just as another rocket flew above, striking a wall further across the quad.
The comm. radio in her helmet clicked on. "Hey! Light, what's going on down there? The meters are detecting crazy activity!" Hope's voice worriedly called through.
"Fucking Yaag Rosch," Lightning grumbled back. "And I think he has some kind of tank or…" Lightning peeked over the barricade. All of the dust had settled, but what had been behind it was far more daunting. "HOLY SHIT!" Lightning ducked her head back down. "He has a huge fucking army and he's wearing some kind of huge metallic suit, like a transformer. He's like a fucking decepticon!"
"What?!" Snow's voice called excitedly through the speaker. "That's so cool!"
"IT'S NOT COOL—Ahhhh!" a random soldier's voice yelled over the radio before being drowned out by a huge explosion.
"The army's too big!" another soldier's voice cried. "It's like they pulled out all the stops! We're going to get buried alive out here!"
"Well, what can we do? What do we do?" Lightning quickly asked.
"Stay strong," Rygdea's voice calmly stated through the radio. "Remember what our overall goal is. We knew there would be sacrifices, and although there is a lot to lose, think of all that the people have to gain."
"What?!" Lightning barked.
"This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. This is bad," Snow repeated, pacing in front of radio panel in the Sanctum's communication center. "We've gotta do something. We need to help. WE SHOULD GET DOWN THERE!" He pounded his fist into his palm. "That's it! Me and Fang took out enough of those jerks with just two of us. We could do some damage with three of us and the Cavalry! Right?"
"Uhhhh…" Hope unsurely buzzed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small slip of paper, studying it for a quick moment before his hands went shooting out into different directions across one of the control panels. "I—I have an idea. I'm not sure if it'll work, but I have an idea."
"WE'RE FLAILING OUT HERE!" another soldier shouted over the radio.
"Dammit." Snow pulled off his helmet to take in a huge, antsy breath of air. "What's the idea? We need something. Now."
"Fang gave me some coordinates." Hope continued to reach across the panel, pressing down on buttons and swiping his hands across the touch interface. "She said if we were in a jam to use them, and I can't think of any other options."
"Guys, we all know that it's me they want the most. A l'Cie." Lightning was now speaking over the radio. "If you cover me, I'll take out Rosch. Once he sees that I have powers, I'm sure he'll focus all the attention on me and send less rockets your way." There was a pause. "Fang… are you there?" Another pause. "Okay… Umm, I guess you've got your hands tied with max detainment—"
"FARRON, WE'RE GETTING POUNDED! DISTRACT ROSCH NOW!"
"Alright. Fang, just… I want you to know it was all worth it. Every second of it."
"FARRON! NOW!"
Light could be heard sighing. "I—I've gotta go… Bye."
"Hoppppeeee," Snow nervously looked across the panel to the boy who was still pushing and swiping. "We're running out of time. Is it working or not?!"
"Got it!" Hope exclaimed, slamming his hand down against the interface.
"Alright…" Snow breathed. His chest puffed excitedly as he looked around the room, from Hope to all of the Cavalry guards who guarded the door. "So what now? What did that do?"
"Holy Etro…" The voice that now poured though the panel's radio sounded like the perfect mix of fear and awe. "You're not going to believe this…"
Lightning darted to the side just as Rosch shot another rocket in her direction, rolling across the ground but swiftly jumping back on her feet while summoning a water spell in one hand and a lightning one in the other.
"YOU'RE TOO SMALL TO BE VILLIERS," Rosch's voice boomed through the speakers of his machine. "AND TOO BIG TO BE ESTHEIM."
Lightning shot the spells in both hands at Rosch simultaneously. The effect was what seemed to be an immediate short circuit, but the suit must have had an alternate power source. It shook, just a bit, before fully powering back up as if nothing had happened.
"AND YOU'RE WEARING A CUSTOMIZED FEMININE UNIFORM."
"Ahhh!" Lightning shrieked as a bullet from one of the PSICOM foot soldiers slammed into her breastplate. Her armor was bulletproof, but it didn't stop the hit from hurting like shit, and the momentary pause in movement was enough to slow her down so that she couldn't fully avoid the blast from the Rosch's next rocket. The impact from catching the tail end of the blast sent Lightning flying, skidding across the broken stone and concrete in a rocky landing.
"SO I'M GUESSING YOU MUST BE THE INFAMOUS OERBA YUN FANG."
Lightning unsteadily planted her hands in the ground, pushing against it to stagger to her feet. Her rough landing had taken quite the toll on her armor. Half of her visor had been scraped to the point where she could no longer see through it, making it that much harder for her to gauge Rosch's movements. She turned her head to keep an eye on him, disallowing her to focus on any of her surroundings despite the weird sounds of something comparable to a strong electric current that were beginning to surround her.
"OR YOU COULD BE CLAIRE FARRON, BUT CLAIRE DISAPPEARED WITH HER COWARDICE FATHER."
Lightning kept her eyes trained on Rosch, studying his every move. Her hand reached down to grip the blade that she had insisted on bringing with her. She was faster than him. She knew that. If she was quick enough to get in, strike him without getting swatted or blasted, maybe she take him down.
"WHICH IS UPSETTING. THE TWO OF YOU WENT SO WELL TOGETHER. YOU WERE BOTH SUCH MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENTS—"
RAWRRRR!
From seemingly out of nowhere, a giant lobo soared through the air, claws first, into the side of Rosch's mechanical suit.
"WHAT IN ETRO'S NAME?!"
It was then that Lightning finally took the chance to look around. The area resembled a zoo. Giant animals were running amok across the quad, attacking PSICOM and Cavalry soldiers alike. Sprinkled across the quad were also large, shimmery ovals. They almost looked like mirages, pieces of distorted reality. She immediately knew what they were, especially when a huge, dinosaur-like animal stepped in through one. Portals to Gran Pulse.
"MANGEY BEAST!"
Lightning turned back to Rosch. This was her chance. She charged a powerful lightning spell in one hand and gripped the hilt of her blade, which was fastened to her belt, in the other. When Rosch had finally shot a rocket into the animal's belly, sending it flying across the yard, it was too late. Lightning released her spell, aimed straight at the mechanical suit's chest and watched as for a second time, the suit short-circuited. Perfect. She slung her blade from her side. All she needed was one, efficient, spell-charged strike, right into the heart of the suit, she could probably shut the whole thing down.
Her feet planted into the ground before pushing off in a powerful leap, her blade at the ready.
Blinding flash of light.
Lightning felt lightheaded. Her muscles were beginning to tense. She wasn't in the air anymore. She was back on the ground, clumsily stumbling backwards. "No, no, no. Not now—aughh!"
Smoke and lightning.
Gunshots and sparks flying everywhere.
Storm clouds.
A piercing scream.
A loud roar.
Fiery beast.
Wild eyes…
"AHHHHHH!"
Lightning was snapped out of her untimely visions by the heavy, metal hand that slammed against the front of her armor, sending her crashing into a nearby pillar. She tried to get back up, but she couldn't. Everything felt hurt. Everything felt broken.
"NOT QUITE THE EXECUTION THAT I HAD ORIGINALLY PLANNED FOR YOU…" Rosch sinisterly bellowed as he turned his suit around to face Lightning and pointed one of his rocket launchers towards her.
Lightning's head rolled around against the side of the pillar. She had run out of moves. Out of juice. She had to do something, but how could she beat someone without moving?
"BUT I WILL TAKE IT NONETHELESS. ARE THERE ANY FINAL WORDS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY? SOMETHING FOR ME TO REPORT TO THE PRESS IN OUR VICTORY COLUMN?"
Lightning's eyes landed on one of the dinosaur-like creatures—an adamantoise. It was a Hail Mary play, but she had no other ideas. Using all the strength she could muster, she reached a hand out to it and called for the rest of her energy to pool into that hand.
"NOTHING? WELL, I GUESS WE CAN THINK OF SOMETHING INTERESTING TO SAY FOR YOU."
Lightning fired away, not really sure of what type of spell it was as she released it.
"HAVE FUN IN THE AFTERLIFE, OERBA YUN—"
There was a large crash. A roar mixed with clanking metal as a startled adamantoise rammed straight into the tiny-by-comparison Yaag Rosch. Lightning didn't see the collision. She could only hear it, but she took the fact that she was still breathing as a sign that her plan had miraculously worked.
"Rosch is down!" A voice crackled through the radio. "I repeat, Rosch is down!"
"But the monsters!" Another voice called. "There are too many! Between them and PSICOM, we'll never get through! We need to abort mission. We've got our distraction. Continuing to try to free the Gran Pulsians is too big a liability!"
Lightning wanted to turn her radio on to argue. They needed to free the Gran Pulsians. That was part of the deal.
"Lightning? Where's Lightning?" Hope's voice was now calling over the radio. "Is Lightning okay?"
No. Where was Fang? Fang wouldn't stand for them even considering abandoning her people. Why wasn't she chiming in?
"Soldiers, we need to fall back!" the voice on the radio spoke again. "We need to… wait. Who's that?"
Lightning just sat, slumped against the pillar and totally oblivious as to what was going on.
"We've got reinforcements! Push forward!" the voice was now calling.
Lightning took a hard swallow and started inching her hands toward her body, close enough where even the weakest heal spell might be able to reach her worst wounds.
"Pink lights! We've got another live one! Whoa, buddy, what happened to you? Let's just get this off ya."
Hands were lifting off Lightning's helmet.
"Ohhh, I know this one."
Lightning lifted her eyes. Kneeling in front of her was none other than Yaschas Bron Dane, her Gran Pulsian nemesis. He had a congenial grin on his face, and his hand reached out to place Lightning's palm against her chest, as if he had known exactly what she had been aiming to do.
"The Gran… Pulsians…" Light breathed as her hand began to glow a pale green.
"Aye, we've got it covered," Dane assured, keeping Lightning's hand pressed to her chest. "You didn't think we'd just sit back and let you Cocoonians take all the glory, now did ya?"
Lightning and Dane stood together near one of the portals as a line of Gran Pulsians walked, single file through it. After the surprise reinforcements from the Eden reservation had appeared, the Cavalry was easily able to take full control of the quad while stationing most of their remaining beta squad forces on the quad's outskirts to fend off any incoming PSICOM waves.
Lightning had stripped off her PSICOM uniform once she had gained enough strength, but constant casting of healing spells had left her body feeling quite energy drained. "This is weird," Lightning stated as she watched the Gran Pulsians, one-by-one, enter the portal. "Does this mean we're friends now or…"
"Nahh." Dane shook his head. "Too weird. Is a temporary truce fine with you?"
"Hm." Lightning shrugged. "Works for me." She slightly grinned and Dane chuckled, both keeping their eyes fixed on the line moving through the portal.
"Uh huh. Copy that." A pacing Cavalry soldier came to a halt not too far away from where Lightning and Dane stood. "You heard that, everybody! Once all of the Gran Pulsians have crossed through the portal, we will be moving to Wing 7-C! The alpha teams need another big distraction to make up for Silent Hawk's failure!"
Lightning's head flung in the soldier's direction. "What…" she breathed, letting her feet weave through the line of Gran Pulsians to get to the soldier. "Excuse me, what was that you said? I lost the radio connection when I took off my suit. Did something happen to the Silent Hawk group?"
The soldier paused for a moment. Even though she couldn't see his face from behind the mask, she could tell that he was debating whether or not to tell her something. "There was an unidentifiable problem with Silent Hawk. They went dark."
"Wha—they went dark?" Lightning's brow furrowed and she quickly shook her head in confusion. "What does that mean?"
The soldier sighed. "Our moles informed us that Silent Hawk never reached the maximum detainment cells. They didn't reach any new checkpoints after securing the elevators. We tried getting into contact with them, but all lines of communication have been severed. Even the tracking devices implanted in the suits of each team leader have been wiped from the grid, and usually the only way to kill those things is through—well… incineration. The alpha teams were counting on the distraction at max detainment to pull a heavy amount of security away from the Primarch, but since that fell through, we will need to find another way to do so."
"But wait," Lightning held a hand up. Her breathing had become rapid and she felt as if she were going to be sick. "You just lost contact. That doesn't prove anything bad happened to them, right? They can still be in there. They might need our—"
"Our mission is to take control of the Sanctum," the soldier cut in. "And sending more bodies to max detainment will only jeopardize that mission more than sending the first few groups already has."
"What if they're in real trouble? You can't just leave them to die!"
"Oi. What's going on over here?" Dane asked, stepping beside Lightning to enter the conversation.
"Fang's missing and Vanille's still in max detainment, but it's not in the Cavalry's best interests to help them," Lightning growled through gritted teeth. "But I'm going to."
"What? Well sign me up! I'm coming with," Dane volunteered, but Lightning shook her head.
"No. Stay. Your people need you. I'll find them." Lightning spun on her heel and once again cut through the line of Gran Pulsians to march towards a group of Cavalry soldiers.
"Umm…" Dane let out a deep breath and hesitantly jogged after her. "Are ya sure you're up for that? You've barely recovered from the last fight ya had."
"Does anyone have a handheld radio?" Lightning asked the soldiers as Dane approached her from behind. One soldier unclipped a radio from his belt and Lightning accepted it gratefully.
"Lightbug, are you even listening to me?"
Lightning clenched her jaw before slowly rolling her head around to give Dane a peeved look. "Lightbug?"
"That's not your name?" Dane asked innocently. "That's what Fang called ya… or was it Lightbolt? No? Uhh... Lightyay?"
Lightning gripped the radio tightly in her hand. A soft, distant smile made its way across her lips, staying only for a brief second before quickly fading away. "My name is Lightning," she said before breaking off into another quick stride across the quad. "And in a week from now, I WILL be learning how to ride a purple chocobo."