Final Fantasy XIII: Cursed Past
Chapter 14 of my Final Fantasy XIII story, enjoy.
Reviews
bookgirl111: Well, read on to find out.
Lightarcana: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it, Fang is very composed.
Beloved Nightmare Union: Yup she was and that's right. I've not played all of FFXIII-2, I personally love the fact that Serah became main character although I do wish Lightning was given more play time.
The Light to all Fears: Yup, glad you are enjoying it, Nora's survival is simply becasue I wanted to give her a chance to live, I don't dislike Bartholomew in any way but the main point in this story was the fact Hope hadn't sorted things out with him before his death, doubling the loss.
Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: Fina Fantasy XIII belongs to Square Enix.
Chapter 14: Shocking Return
Lightning, her Blazefire Sabre strapped to her waist, headed for the Bodhum back alleys. By working her way through the alleys she would come out at the area of town where the disappearances had been occurring. It did not take her long since she didn't run into anyone while in the alleys, so little obstructed her. She braced herself as she stepped out of the alleyway and into the main street. She was in the poorest, seamiest most depraved and run-down area of Bodhum. The side the resort tourists didn't see, here criminals and all manners of lowlife had power and greater authority and voice than a Guardian Crops officer. Luckily Lightning had had the presence of mind to wear her oldest and most worn set of clothes, so, apart from her weapon, which looked rich and fresh; she was able to blend into the crowd. She knew that the right look was important and therefore rolled up the sleeves of the shirt so the scars on her arms were visible, that would give the crooks something to think about. Knowing that they were hotbeds of information if she could avoid the brawls she headed for the nearest club.
It was late afternoon so the club had only been open for at least an hour, as such there weren't too many people, but soon it would be packed. Right now a brawl seemed unlikely to happen so Lightning decided to take advantage of the moment and walked up to the bar sitting down. The man behind the bar looked up and asked her noncommittally what she wanted to drink, she ordered her drink and once he set it down she picked it up and took a sip. She wasn't worried; thanks to her gift of magic it was impossible for her to get intoxicated on such a weak alcoholic beverage. Her body broke it down before it had a chance to take effect; it took strong liquor to get her drunk. She weighed her chances and decided to ask.
"I heard someone else disappeared last night," She said, making it sound like a casual question. The bartender looked at her with narrowed eyes before sighing, "Yeah, that's the tenth this week."
A rough looking man almost as tall as Snow and with muscles to rival him with tattoos up both arms sat down next to her.
"Yeah, those scumbags don't care who they take, but we're the popular targets…because no one cares what happens to us." He growled before adding, "These creeps, whoever they are, took my Brother three days ago."
Lightning nodded, "Where did all this happen anyway?"
The man sighed, "They always snatched them from the small square, west of here."
Lightning nodded and downed the rest of her drink, paid the bartender and then left, just in time, as she got out the door she stepped to the side as a large throng of people surged in. Once they were gone she headed to the square mentioned by the thug, hoping to catch sight of these kidnappers.
She walked to the square, there weren't many people in it now since most were in the clubs. She stopped in a shadowy corner and watched, waiting for any sign. As she waited she felt her phone vibrate, she answered it.
"Hello," She greeted the caller quietly, it was Cid.
"Lightning, I know I said keep your personal life and your career separate but I thought you'd like to know. The Estheim boy has gone home, the neighbours agreed to watch him, his Mother's condition is improving but she's still unconscious."
"What about the others?" She asked, quietly relieved that Hope was alright and that Nora was improving. Cid answered, "They went home; at least that's what Fang told me."
Lightning nodded, "Thanks, okay, I've gotta get back to work."
She hung up and continued to observe. It was much later that she saw it, a young man was on the opposite side of the square who was walking by, minding his own business when he was suddenly grabbed and a hood thrown over his head and a group of shadowy people grabbed him and began to disappear down the alleyway, she immediately pursued them. She was itching to save the young man but first she needed to ascertain the identity of the kidnappers.
She followed them through the alleyways for some distance until they came to an almost deserted beach area, resting on the shore was a large airship, standing outside were several figures dressed in a similar fashion to those in who had kidnapped the young man. Lightning stared in disbelief at this group of people, she recognized those uniforms. They were all dressed in identical grey battle-suits with red armoured plate, they wore helmets similar to their armour, each one carried a machine gun.
'PSICOM,' Lightning thought to herself in shock, 'But that's impossible, they were dissolved two years ago, what are they doing here?'
Just then a man stepped forwards; he was dressed in a black PSICOM uniform with silver decoration and brown belts connecting parts of his uniform, he also wore black boots, as for the rest of his appearance it was hidden behind a mask. When he spoke his voice was distorted, most likely by some device in his mask.
"Good, get him on board immediately, we'll need him for our experiments," The figure said and Lightning glared, 'Still conducting those experiments, I've gotta stop this.'
She leapt out, pulling out her Blazefire Sabre in its gun mode; she opened fire and the three who had grabbed the young man fell dead instantly. The masked man glared.
"Interfering fool, how dare you, a Guardian Corps soldier, deal with her!" He yelled as he jumped onto the airship, sending soldiers down to fight.
They charged in but Lightning swiftly switched her weapon to its sword mode and charged in, launching a few fire spells for good measure. She then leapt into the middle of the group and spun around, her sword held out at arms length sending out a wave of circular energy, killing nearly all of them. The last three opened fire on her but she deflected the bullets and launched several Ruin spells to kill them all and turned to face the others.
'Good, not lost my touch, I can still deal with them,' Lightning thought grimly to herself, 'But those were just the weaklings…The rest of them are stronger.'
She glared at the masked man who shook his head angrily, "Curse you," He spat before signalling to the pilot of the airship which took off and left.
She sighed and turned around, the young man was gone, he had run off, she pulled out her phone and called Cid; once he answered she delivered her report.
"Cid, what the hell is going on here," She snapped, "Those kidnappers were PSICOM soldiers, I thought they were destroyed."
"Are you certain?" Cid asked, he sounded tense, Lightning shook her head, "I'm pretty familiar with their uniforms, they were kidnapping people to use in experiments, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's PSICOM."
"This is disturbing," Cid said darkly, "There must be pockets of them left, operating in secret, I'll continue the investigation into Dysley, but this will have to be looked into too."
Lightning agreed and Cid relieved her of duty, she hung up and immediately hurried home. When she arrived she heard Serah out the back, tending to the small garden. She took advantage of her sisters absence to slip upstairs, place her Blazefire Sabre in it's case, return the case to its place beneath the bed and got changed into some more normal clothing and headed back downstairs. She stepped out into the garden; it was small but beautifully maintained thanks to Serah's tender care.
"Hey," She greeted casually, Serah looked up and smiled, "Hey Light, I take it you heard everybody went home?"
Lightning nodded, Serah pondered for a moment and then sighed, "Light, I thought you should know, Hope is going to be in school tomorrow and then after school he's gonna go straight to the hospital."
Lightning nodded and headed back inside, she picked up her cell phone and called Hope.
"Hi Light," He greeted he the same way he always did, so he was obviously doing okay.
"Listen Hope, I just thought I'd ask you, after school tomorrow, do you want me to drive you to the hospital."
"Are you sure?" He asked, confused, Lightning confirmed and he agreed, "Thanks Light, I appreciate it."
With that they hung up and Lightning sat down at the kitchen table smiling to herself, although inside she was pondering that strange feeling inside her chest again.
'It's not going away, I just…don't understand it,' She thought to herself, more confused than ever.
She decided to put it to the back of her mind for now and worry about sometime when she was better prepared to deal with it.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.