HEy guys and fellow readers. Here is the next chapter.

Enjoy and review. XD

Chapter Six

Fate

The group arrived at a large clear way giving off to the Edge which was dark giving the ruins an eerie green color. Éclair saw that Basch was approaching a corner, which he set Paine down on the ground, the silver haired girl still unconscious from her wound.

"We will stay here for the night," he said.

Éclair nodded to him but Vaan approached him.

"So are you going to tell me you went to all that trouble to save me?" he asked, his voice sounding angry, "Paine told me that you will explain everything."

Basch sighed and stood up, facing his brother.

"What do you want me to tell you Vaan?" he asked him.

"The truth," Vaan said.

Basch looked at him for a few minutes and said.

"The event that took place today is something that the Primarch ordered his forces to take care of," he said, "The order was to send everyone that was caught in Eden to be send to Pulse."

Vaan eyes widened.

"What?"

"It was a Purge as it was nicknamed," Basch told him, "At least…that's what they are going to let the civilians believes. The real reason was to murder everyone that was on that train."

Vaan eyes widened even farther.

"They…they what?"

Basch looked at him.

"Do you really think, knowing this, that I would have the heart to watch them murder you in cold blood?"

Éclair sighed. Now the strangeness of the situation back at the station was clear…

"That explain why they took down that couple," she said, drawing the two men attention to her, "I had a feeling that something was strange during the entire operation. To think this was their plan all along."

Vaan looked from her to his brother.

"This is insane," he said, "Would they really have gotten away with it?"

"Anything that compromise the perfect image of Cocoon simply has to disappear," Basch told him.

"You mean killed," Vaan said.

Basch turned his attention back toward the unconscious Paine.

"Get some sleep Vaan," he said.

"Won't they be coming after us?" Éclair asked, "The Army."

"I don't think they would have expected us to survive the fall," Basch told her, with a slight grin, "We certainly didn't."

Éclair nodded and headed off toward the a spot, seating against a piece of a wall, from the other side Vaan had rolled beside Paine as Basch simply seat down, then he turned his attention toward her.

"So, what's your story?" he asked.

Éclair focused her blue eyes on the man across him.

"You certainly didn't get arrested like the others in Eden," he told her.

The pink haired woman let out a snort.

"You're right I wasn't," she said to him.

Basch raised his eyebrow.

"Then, where are you from?"

Éclair chuckled.

"I don't' really remember it much," she said, "Just pieces and faces I can't put names on."

Basch looked at her.

"Memory lost," he said, "Not very common but it happens…well, we better get some sleep and made up for tomorrow."

Éclair nodded at him as silence settled over them.

Colonel Farron groaned slightly.

She hadn't expected this turn of even to take place in the Edge and now she was stranded in the Bresha Ruins. She had lost her com in the fall and it was thanks to that also and thanks to her GRAV-con she was able to survive.

Whoever gave the order to destroy the bridge is going to get one earful from me, she thought, angrily.

Now that she looked around her, the ruins covered in the greenish color of the Hanging Edge far above it, she found that it makes the place look slightly more majestic than usual. She had never bothered to really look at them, believing that they are only a waste of time.

She walked forward into the night, her cape dancing behind her, now thinking to the matter that had caused her to enter the fray herself. She had that Pulsian woman to find, the pink haired woman.

She knew that they were a big chance that the woman had died in the fall but she wanted to see the broken body herself to feel satisfied that the Pulse threat was taken care of and now all she would have to worry about is that robed figure.

And he used magic, the Colonel thought; I have no idea how to take him down if I took him on. Manadrives are created to imitate magic…but facing the real thing…

The Colonel shook her head.

It won't matter, she thought, it will be for the sake of Cocoon…for my world sake, I would gladly put my life on the line.

This was the moral of this world, the moral she was raised to believe in. Cocoon will prosper as long as all threat such as Pulse was taken care of. She continued to walk until something ahead mad her stop completely.

In front of her path was an archway unto which had a lot of carving upon it, the wall showing cracks and broken places all over it, but what had taken her by surprise was not the ruins but who was standing in front of the ruins.

An armored pink-haired woman.

It's her, the Colonel thought, she survived. Must have used magic…just like the Pulsian rat she is…I'm taking her down…now.

A dark grin growing on her lips, the Colonel stepped forward.

A few minutes earlier…

Éclair opened her eyes.

She had been asleep for what seems to be a short while as she glanced toward where the people she was with, finding them asleep and snoring softly. Standing up, she looked around herself at the ruins around her. She didn't know why but something about those ruins seems strangely familiar to her, almost as if she had been here before, as strange as it sounded to her.

But according to Vaan this was the oldest place in Cocoon, so how could she had been here before when she doesn't remember much about how she even got on Cocoon? Éclair knew she wasn't from this place.

So she decided to go a little exploring for, she was curious about how large those ruins really were. Walking off into a random direction, Éclair headed off into her little exploring quest, her eyes taking in much of the surroundings.

The grounds were slightly uneven and slightly wet and filled with mud. She can understand why Vaan was so fascinated by the place since even from the ruins, she can tell that it was once beautiful and had also a mysterious feeling about it.

Then something glinted at the corner of her eyes, causing her to look back at it.

She could see it, glinting in the water a little farther away from her. Éclair heads straight for it, recognizing it in the distance but she had to make sure. When she got closer to it, she realized that it was right.

It was her sword.

She had lost it when she had stabbed it in that Warmech and it had fallen with it inside of it. She had thought that she had forever lost it, but here it is, looking undamaged and fully whole. Picking up the weapon, she felt its familiar weight in her hand pulling it upward, smiling as the word graved upon it shone slightly in the poor light.

Honor above all.

Thanks Dad, she thought smiling, remembering the man.

Then, something reflecting on the blade's metal, causing her to turn around.

Éclair gasped.

Behind her stood a large stone archway that, thought, even it looked old with age, it hadn't lost any of its former beauty. She approached it, mesmerized as she saw the words engraved upon it and found that she recognizes some of the letters since they were slightly similar to the ones on her sword.

She was so taken with the structure that she hadn't heard the soft footsteps approaching her from behind until something was pressed upon the back of her head, causing her to become instantly alert.

Then a voice spoke, a woman.

"How about we skip the introductions and you come with me quietly?"

Éclair stayed still her eyes moving slightly to the left as her hand tightened on the handle of her sword.

Then she moved.

Fast.

She spun around, sending the blade around toward , hearing something whistle in her ear, probably a bullet from the gun that had been against the back of her head. Her opponent must have been as quick as her for she had stepped back from the strike, Éclair's blade colliding with a ping against another weapon.

Then Éclair stepped back away from her attacker, taking her in.

It was a woman that much was certain. She was dressed formally with boots and two shoulder pads that had twin glowing lines that were blue in color. She had a red cape behind her with a gun in her glowed hand. But it was the face that truly shocked Éclair.

It was a mirror image of hers.

She can tell the woman was having the same conclusion seeing the shock in her blue eyes.

"W…Who are you?" the woman said.

"I should ask you the same question," Éclair told her.

The woman across her smirked slightly.

"Well, if you asked," she said, "Colonel Lightning Farron of the Cocoon Sanctum Army, and you are coming with me."

Éclair tensed slightly.

"I'm not coming with you," she said.

A cold look crossed Lightning's face.

"It wasn't a request," she said.

Éclair raised her blade, aiming it at the woman.

"Neither was mine."

Lightning smirked, and pressed something on her gun which shifted into a blade form.

"This will truly be interesting," she said.

Then she charged at Éclair who took a defensive stance and then the two blades connected with a short clang and their deadly dance begins. The woman, Lightning, was fast sending strike after strike toward her, but Éclair was confident in her own swords skills as the two faced off, the sound of their blades echoing across the ruins.

Then Éclair switched her tactics sending an attack which Lightning blocked, creating sparks as their two faces were separated by their swords. Aqua blues eyes meet each others as Lightning smirked.

"Impressive," she said, "No one had been able to match me in a sword fight before."

"Guess I can consider myself lucky," Éclair answered.

The blades shook slightly at the amount of strength that was being put upon them.

"I guess you and I don't share only the same face," Lightning answered her, "But the same skills also."

With a grunt Éclair pushed her off, causing Lightning to stumble backward. She launched forward with a stab motion, which Lightning side stepped.

"Tell me, what kind of magic you are using?" the soldier asked, launching herself forward, "There must be some kind of spell to be able to copy my image so…flawlessly?"

Éclair blocked the attack with her sword, glaring daggers into Lightning.

"How could I be using a spell to copy you," she said, pushing her off, "When I didn't even know you existed till a few minutes ago?"

Éclair yelled as she rushed forward, slashing at Lightning who was blocking the strikes with a frown upon her face

"You're from Pulse aren't you?" Lightning said, "You and your kin are causing disorder on Cocoon. For years Cocoon had known peace, but your world and its curse of magic…had caused nothing but tragedy."

"What?" Éclair said, "Like murdering your own people? What kind of peace demand blood to be accomplished? The one that your leaders have come up with?"

Lightning let out a roar of rage launching herself forward her sword raised toward Éclair who dived out of the way. The blade slammed on the ground, creating spark. Lightning's eyes were burning with anger, as she glared at her.

"Do not disrespect the Primarch in front of me, Pulse scum," she growled.

Before she could add anything more, a new voice spoke.

"Cocoon, Pulse, the two worlds that shares a common origin. The Father would have wept crystal tears seeing his children separated by thousands of years of lies and deceit."

The two women turned toward it.

Standing in the middle of the stone archway, was a robbed man with half of his face shadowed by the hood.

"You," Lightning said.

"Hear thy plea, children of Zanarkand," the man said, "For your fate had already laid out by our Goddess."

Somewhere on Cocoon

The Primarch was watching the night fall upon his world. He had watched the tape that Lightning had sent to him. He couldn't believe his eyes, seeing the woman that had turned from the crystal sleep.

The Protector of the Fal'Cie, a voice whispered in his mind, will cause disorders to our Paradise.

He agreed to it. He will not have disorders.

Maybe he shouldn't have let the people like Dr. Cid and Bartholomew get too curious about Pulse or as it was known in the legends, Gaia. The Gaia he knew was nothing but flames and death, and he will not have his world be completely destroyed by a mere outsider.

Then the footsteps approached him, and he turned toward it, finding Rygdea.

"Any news from Lightning?" he asked.

"The last news was that she was at the Hanging Edge," Rygdea answered, "But they had been no communication since. There is a good chance the Colonel had perished during the carnage at the Edge."

"Then Sergeant," he spoke, "You just been promoted to her post as acting Colonel. The public must know of what the Government had done to ensure their safety from the villainous world of Pulse."

"As you wish Primarch," Rygdea said, saluting before walking off.

As the man walked off, the Primarch refocused upon the view he was watching. He knew Lightning was still alive.

She knows what she must do, he thought, and when she does it, everything will fall into place.

They will not interfere, the voice spoke to him, For the greater good, they must all die.

They all will die, he thought, Just not yet…after all, it had been a long time, since I've crossed path with the legendary Éclair Farron.

The mysterious hooded man make his appearance? What does he have hidden for the two women?

Next time: Focus.

AN: I'm glad this story had so many views thought not as much reviews i would have liked...but if people are reading...i will continue updating. To answer Light27 question from his review, I must say that it is mostly the characters from those series you've mentioned. Other FF series characters might make an cameo appearance.

Jacques0 out.

R&R.