Hey guys, here is the next chapter. Enjoy

Chapter Four

The Hanging Edge

It had been a few hours since the train had taken off from the station back in Bodhum. All the robbed prisoners were silent as a guard walked down the aisle every now and then, checking on how the situation was.

Then in the last aisle of the train, a soldier was walking throughout the aisle, aiming his weapon toward the bowed heads of the prisoners and turned his attention toward the last row where one of them were seating, but the person head was facing straight not bowed as the rest of the people.

Curious as to why, the soldier approached the person wondering why they weren't as broken as the rest of the prisoners. He arrived in front of the person, who turned their attention toward him and to his surprise, she smirked at him.

"What's so funny?" he asked aiming the gun at the girl.

The girl didn't answer him as a light turbulence made the train tremble slightly causing the man to lose his balance for a second and then, at that moment, the girl struck forward.

She head butted him in the chest causing him to let out a groan of pain before tackling him down to the ground and knocking him out. A light murmur echoed around the girl as she stood back up, the people around her taken aback at the display.

Then the girl stepped upon a small device on the man's shoulder. With a light beeping sound, the sleeves of the robes she was wearing got loose as they detached from each other, as she got out of her robe.

She was silver haired with a few string falling in front of her eyes which were an unusual red eyes. She was dressed in leather ensemble with high-heeled boots. Then took hold of the soldier's automatic weapon and put a finger by her ear.

"I'm in," she said, "Now I'm going to find Vaan, from what I can conclude, we are almost at the Hanging Edge."

"Alright Paine," a male voice said on the other line, "Find Vaan, and we'll get the hell out of here before the Sanctum can send more troops in."

The girl, Paine started to walk off as the prisoners stood up, amazed at their freedom.

Éclair didn't know how long she was seating there, listening to the engine of the train and the muted sound of the wind outside. She hadn't bothered to look outside, but something about this entire thing was giving her a bad feeling and she didn't like that feeling at all.

And then, they were those soldiers getting their weapons ready earlier, but for what exactly? All the people on the train were civilians by far as she could think of and they even had a couple of kids similar to Vaan.

She hadn't seen him ever since she got unto the train, and he probably was in some another part of the train. The sound of a hissing door caused her to look up and noticed it was a soldier and he was easily walking, his weapon not pointing at anything as he looked around to the robbed figures around him.

Then the train shook slightly and then the next thing that happened was that the robes the prisoners were wearing were all beeping and the sleeves broke off from each other, earning shocked sound of surprises as the soldier took hold of his gun.

Éclair moved before the guy was even ready.

She charged at him, causing him to turn but she took hold of the weapon's front pushing it upward as bullets flew from it toward the ceiling earning screams. Then with her other hand, she slammed a hard punch into the man's stomach making him groan and continued to punch him at the same place.

Seeing that the soldier was losing strength, Éclair brought him down on the ground smashing his helmet with the butt of the gun. The man laid there, unmoving as Éclair stood back up looking down at her robe in confusion.

W…What just happened?

Vaan was also surprised to the turn of events when the robes suddenly freed them. He stood up, looking around himself in shock as the rest of the prisoners did also, talking in between them. Then the door at the end of the train opened up showing…

"Paine?"

He was shocked, seeing the girl standing there. He knew Paine from back home in Palumpolum, and she had always been someone that was hard to talk to considering the vibes she sends out but turn out she was actually a nice person.

"Vaan," she said, "Finally found you."

That brought a raised eyebrow from him.

"Found me…what the hell are you going here in the first place?"

"Rescuing you," Paine told him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Rescuing me….how did you know I was on the train?"

"Your brother," she simply said before moving on, "We have to get off this train as soon as possible, before we get to the Hanging Edge."

"Why?" Vaan asked, "Isn't the Hanging Edge forbidden military ground or something like that."

"Your brother will tell you more," Paine said, "But now we've got to go."

Paine put a hand on the radio.

"I've got Vaan, where are you guys?"

Vaan could hear a voice answered but it was hard to tell who it was.

"Almost there and Paine, get ready for a fight…the train is arriving at the Hanging Edge."

Paine let out a few choice curse words before heading off toward the train door and taking her head out.

The outside was a greenish world with many roads overlapping each others with the buildings and turrets the wind was blowing strong considering how fast the train was going. They were many ships flying about and Paine knew that they were Sanctum military ships.

"They are already here huh," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"The Military is already here," Vaan said, "they must have gotten a distress call from the train."

Paine scoffed.

"I wouldn't bet on it."

The silver haired girl turned her attention toward Vaan and said.

"We are going to have to fight to get through the military troops, that is, if they don't blow up the train first."

Vaan looked at her confused.

"Why would they do that?" he asked, "They are only civilians in here."

Paine gives him her coldest glare.

"Do you really think that those soldiers will care whether it's civilians or not?" she asked.

Vaan turned his head away as the train shook slightly, and then he turned his attention toward her again.

"If that's true, then what about the rest of the people here?" he asked.

Paine was about to answer when an explosion shook the train earning shocked cries from the people around them.

"We have to stop this train," she said.

She then took off toward the head of the large machine with Vaan following.

"Colonel, we've lost contact with the Purge train."

Colonel Farron stood up from where she was seating, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Can you figure out the reason?" she asked.

"No ma'am," the soldier in front of her said, "it would seem that the line had been jammed."

She muttered a little and said, "All right, I want all of our men to be ready to fight. Those people have to be thrown off Cocoon and it has to be done by any means necessary. Send this message to all of the troops we have at the Hanging Edge."

"At once ma'am," the man saluted before walking off.

The Colonel walked off.

"I will go down there also," she said, "There is someone I have to find."

Her mind went toward the woman from the video she had watched, causing her to grit her teeth slightly. She was wondering why the Primarch hadn't raised the alarm yet to be on the look-out for the Pulsian woman, and her robed companion. He should have gotten the data by now.

The Colonel then concluded that the Primarch might be consulting Orphan in what to be done, thought she had never seen the benefactor of Cocoon itself.

I will bring her to the Primarch, she thought, she is from Pulse, an enemy of Cocoon.

Her mind made up, the Colonel approaches the edge of the ship as she watched the Hanging Edge and can see the train speeding through the rails, seeing ships taking shot at it as it sneaked through on the railroad.

"Kill the power in the train," she said, "We wouldn't want any of the refugees to escape us."

With that she jumped in the air, falling straight down toward the ground as the wind whistled in her ears before she spun around in the air, activating her GRAV-CON unit, creating a large blue sphere crackling with energy which she landed in a crouch, her red cape swirling behind her.

Looking toward the train that had come to a stop, she headed toward it walking confidently toward it.

Paine and Vaan were surprised to feel the train come to a stop.

"Who is stopping the train?" Vaan asked.

"The Army is here," Paine said, "We have to get off now."

The two headed off the train into the metallic ground and they turned their attention as everyone started to come off the train after them.

"We have to get these people out of here," Vaan told her.

"There is only the two of us," Paine told him curtly, "If we make it through the soldiers, it will be a miracle."

"Maybe I can help," a voice said.

The two turned toward the person and Vaan let out a sigh, "Éclair."

Paine looked at the woman, who was dressed in her silver and gold armor, with a sword in her hand and a shield stuck in her other arm, her pink hair dancing in the air. She jumped down from where she was standing, landing in a crouch.

"You know her?" Paine asked Vaan.

"Yeah, she was brought in the cell yesterday night," Vaan told her, smirking.

Then the young man turned toward the woman.

"You alright?"

A smirk crossed Éclair's lips at this.

"I can take care of myself Vaan, I wasn't born yesterday you know."

Vaan smiled.

"Just making sure."

"For the love of…," Paine sighed, "Vaan."

The blond boy turned toward her.

"Okay okay," he said, "we're going to help the civilians getting out of the hot zone. This place might turn into a battlefield soon."

Éclair glanced toward a ship coming closer to them.

"We've got company."

Vaan turns his attention toward the direction Éclair was looking at and sighed.

"A Warmech," he said, "All right everybody get back."

"Here we go," Paine said, raising her gun toward the oncoming machine and started to open fire upon its metal body. Vaan who had taken another gun opened fire also as Éclair charged forward slamming her sword upon it.

The Warmech was shaped like a scorpion with both of his 'hands' filled with rotating blades that cursed with electricity. It launched the hands forward, causing Éclair to jump backward to avoid it's attack.

"Not bad," Vaan yelled as he continued to fire.

Then the Warmech opened its hatch, showing a brilliant interior meaning it was powering something big up.

"Oh, shit, get away," Paine yelled to the other two.

Vaan did but Éclair charged forward with her sword, and jumped up plunging the sword right into the place it was about to fire. There were an explosion which threw her back and she landed hard on the ground.

"Éclair," Vaan yelled quickly running forward.

The Warmech started to malfunction as the front exploded into a ball of flames and electricity as it falls sideway and unto the darkness below, taking Éclair's sword with it. Paine approached the edge looking down at where the Warmech had fallen before turning her attention toward Vaan and the pink haired girl.

"I'm fine Vaan," Éclair told him standing back up.

Paine approached them.

"You're crazy," she said, addressing the pinkette.

"It worked didn't it?" Éclair told her, a soft smirk on her face.

Paine shook her head turning toward where the civilians were and put a hand toward her ear.

"Where in the hell are you guys?" she said.

"We're inbound," the voice said on the other line, "What's the problem?"

"I've got some deportees with me," Paine said, "Vaan's idea."

"I could have guessed that," the voice said a light laughter in his voice, "Clear a path from where you are, that should give the ship enough space to land."

"You got it," Paine said.

She turn and walks toward where the groups of robed peoples were standing. They looked up when Paine arrived near them.

"All right listen up, here is the deal," she said, "I've got a friend who is coming with a ship that could get us all out of here. We're going to clear a path for them to land so you guys can get home safely…"
"Let us help," a man said standing up.

"Yeah, you can't let us just stand here and do nothing," another agreed.

A few murmur of agreement ran through them.

"Could help," Vaan told her.

Paine glared at him.

"I'm not going to be responsible for their deaths," she said to him before turning toward the group, "If you're completely sure about this, and then check unto the train to get some weapons…"

Then a noise drew her attention as a ship appeared, Sanctum soldiers coming out of it by dozens, and Vaan got the gun ready as Éclair tensed up noticing them coming.

"So Paine, you're going to tell me why my brother wants you to come and save me?" Vaan asked.

Yeah, this is it for now. Okay, i'm seeing in reviews that most people think Vaan/Eclair will be a pairing. What gives you that idea? I'll admit that Vaan got a little crush on her but he will stay only a friend to her, a companion even.

I hope that cleared a few things about this Vaan/Eclair thing.

Jacques0 out.

R&R.