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Chapter Fifteen
L'Cie
Paine continued through the tunnel she was running through. She was almost at the checkpoint for the AVALANCHE team. She was a little exhausted and didn't look forward to see Tifa and the rest again, as much as she loved and respected them.
What could she tell them? That she and Vaan had been helping a Pulsian evade the Army and that they had marked themselves as fugitives for life?
Yeah, Tifa is definitely not going to take this well, she thought chuckling.
Paine didn't like the idea of leaving Vaan alone with crazy girl, but she had to, at least make contact with the rest of AVALANCHE. She had been part of the group for at least two years now. She was getting sick of her father quoting the Primarch speeches around the house. So she had simply left and had that day, she had stumbled upon Zack Fair, Tifa's old boyfriend.
The young man had gotten her involved with AVALANCHE. Paine had heard talks about the group ever since she was a young kid and knew what kind of acts they did but Paine didn't care, as long as she rebel against her father.
Then she was brought out of her thought when she came to a familiar crossway with a ladder that lead straight toward the surface. Paine had used this subway many times before and knew that the ladder will lead her straight to the street parallel to the AVALANCHE base.
She quickly scales the ladder and arrived at the top, but was brought to a pause when she heard footsteps of soldiers walking through the street above her. Paine frowned a little, hearing this.
She is going to have to be careful when she is getting out, she wouldn't want to be caught so close the base, which could bring trouble if they realized she was part of the group.
Paine continued to scale and pushed the manhole cover upward slightly, so that she can see in front of her. The streets were deserted of peoples, probably all staying in their home when the soldiers had been arriving. She can't blame them for that after all, she would be the same if she wasn't involved with Vaan and that Pulsian.
Pushing the manhole cover sideway, wide enough so she can slip out, Paine glanced around her fugitively, not wanting to get caught by any soldiers.
So far, so good, she thought.
Paine covered the manhole back which echoed with a loud clang which echoed across the street. She winced a little at the noise, but she quickly ran toward the alley, not taking the main routes to lead her anywhere.
She arrived at the end of the alley and hid behind a pillar.
A soldier on a velocycle whizzed past followed by two others and Paine quickly ran across the street and into the alley beside the Seventh Heaven bar. She slid the window open and entered it…
"Paine?"
She quickly looked up at the voice, feeling her heart freeze since she wasn't expecting it.
"God, Zack," she said, "You're trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Hey, you're the one that stepped through the window," Zack said, standing up from where he sat, "Where did you get that gun?"
"Never mind the gun," Paine said, "Is Tifa here?"
"Of course she's here," Zack told her shaking his head, "She came first here when the Army started to invade Palumpolum. Guess something go the Sanctum spooked eh?"
"So it seems," Paine said.
The two AVALANCHE members heads straight for the backroom, and Paine sighed a little. When Zack stepped through the door she heard him said said, "Hey Tifa, Paine's here."
She stepped inside the room, her eyes quickly finding Tifa who was seating into the couch in the corner of the room. The girl had looked up at Zack's announcement her eyes finding Paine's. The next second she was upon Paine, crushing her into a hug.
"I was so worried," she said.
"So am I Teef," Paine said, patting the girl's head.
Tifa stepped out of the hug, and Barret approached her.
"What happened after the Edge Paine?" he asked, his eyes boring into her, "And where the heck is soldier boy?"
"A lot had happened Barret," Paine said, "I'm not sure of all of them myself."
The large man blinked a little.
"What are you talking about Paine?" he asked.
"Look, Vaan might be able to explain it better…"
"He's not with you?" Tifa asked.
"Obviously," Paine sighed, pinching the place in between her eyes, "Look I'm tired, exhausted and hungry. I need something to eat and rest for a while. As I said, Vaan might explain it better than me so, save your questions for him when we get to his place okay."
Barret looked at her for a few minutes and sigh.
"Shit, Paine I hope Vaan had a really good damn explanation about what's going on," he said.
Paine nodded, relieved that she didn't have to explain it anymore.
"C'mon," Tifa said taking hold of her shoulder, "Let's get you something to eat."
Both Éclair and Vaan were flat against the wall as they heard the footstep of the soldiers loom closer to their hiding spot. Vaan didn't dare to even breathe when he noticed the shadow of the soldiers appearing. Éclair's hand however was holding the hilt of her sword.
"I swear I heard something over here," one of the soldier said.
"I didn't hear anything," the other one said.
The first soldier sighed.
"You never heard anything," he said.
"Fuck, I'm supposed to be on my vacation to Nautilus," the other soldier said, "But no, Raines had to join forces with Colonel Lightning."
Éclair had a sharp intake of breath at that.
"No way," the soldier said.
"I was there," the other soldier said, "Word was they were hunting down a Pulsian."
"No way," the first soldier exclaimed, "How the heck did a Pulsian get on Cocoon on the first place?"
"Hey, don't ask me, they don't tell the good stuff…"
The two voices continued to come farther and farther away before Vaan let out the breath that he was holding in. Éclair had let got the handle of her sword.
"That was a close one," she said.
Vaan stepped out from the wall and said, "Looks like the Sanctum joined forces with the Cavalry too from what those two soldiers are saying."
Éclair looked at him.
"Aren't all soldiers part of Sanctum?"
"Yeah," Vaan said, "But the Cavalry had always worked separate to the S.A. forces. They were too much bad blood between the soldiers. If Colonel Lightning had been able to make them join forces…she had done something no other soldier before her had."
Éclair frowned.
"She had a lot of influence over people," she murmured.
"That's for sure C'mon" Vaan said, tapping her shoulder, "we only have a small way to go."
Vaan led on and Éclair followed.
The streets were practically deserted and they can hear the noise of the Army's machine moving throughout the streets near them. She was shocked to hear the Colonel's name coming out from the soldier's lips. She hadn't been expecting it and she wondered how the woman was doing.
She knew the woman had been marked the same as her, and wondered if Lightning had told anyone about it.
"We're almost here," Vaan told her.
The two of them had managed to work through the alleys in between the houses, avoiding soldiers that they see and in no time, they were standing in front of a park.
"My house is right there," Vaan said, pointing.
Right across the park was the two story house. It was well designed and Éclair found that she like it's creamy wall and red roof.
"Nice," she said.
Vaan chuckled, "wait till you see the inside."
Éclair glanced around herself.
"I don't see any soldiers around here?" she asked.
"It's private property," Vaan told her as he walked forward with the woman following her, "There is a fence that spun around this entire place…ah, here it is."
The fence was around chest height and Vaan jumped over it and before Éclair could the whirring sound of a machine drew their attention causing the woman to turn around.
Hovering there was a machine, unlike anything Éclair had ever seen before. It was small, almost the same size as her sword but it had a giant optic in the middle of the thing that had been glowing
"Éclair," Vaan yelled.
The machine glanced toward him its eyes focusing upon him for a few moments before refocusing upon her and the woman launched herself forward, pulling out her blade and slashing the machine into two pieces.
The machine falls down on the ground in an electrical mess creating sparks slightly.
"Why didn't it fight back?"
"It was Drone," Vaan said, "Simply video feed to the soldier, it's a Cavalry weapon. Let's hope whoever had sent it didn't notice the video feed had been cut off."
Éclair glanced at him.
"That's unlikely," she said, "if they are hell-bent on finding me."
"C'mon let's just get inside before anything else happens" he said.
Éclair jumped over the small fences and the duo heads straight for the house, and since the encounter with the Drone, she can't shake the feeling that their luck is about to run out.
"Colonel, one of the squad is reporting having lost contact with one of their Drones," a soldier said.
Lightning looked up at this, her eyes suddenly alert.
It was the only good news she had heard since they've started the Palumpolum lockdown. Ever since that audio feed she had from Raines that was the last contact they had of the Pulsian woman's location. They knew she had no choice but to go to Palumpolum; Lightning had been ready to bet her life on it that the woman will be there.
But since they have started to comb the city, their search had been coming empty and Lightning had been getting more frustrated with herself but then this soldier had came in and gave her that piece of good news, the first one she had heard all day.
"From where?"
"I can use the Drone's last signal to track down where he was," the soldier.
"Then do it," Lightning snapped at him.
"Y…Yes ma'am," the soldier said, quickly typing on his pad.
Then a map of Palumpolum appeared and a small red dot was beeping upon it.
"This is where the last signal of the Drone had been transmitting before being taken down," the soldier said.
Lightning stared at the dot, frowning.
"Basch, you're more familiar with Palumpolum than me," she said, "Where is that signal coming from?"
"The Private residences," Basch said softly, almost as if speaking to himself but Lightning had heard him.
She approached the map. No wonder they couldn't find the Pulsian, their forces were stretched thin in searching the east side of Palumpolum mostly near the sea, but somehow the Pulsian had been able to slip through the soldiers stationed there and somehow landed herself in the heart of Palumpolum.
"At what time did the Drone stop transmitting?"
"Nearly thirty minutes ago," the soldier said.
Lightning smirked.
You won't escape me this time Pulsian, she said.
"Stop the search of the city," Lightning said, standing up from where she sat, "rally our forces back to their bases."
"What are you doing?" Basch asked her.
"We don't want to tell the Pulsian we're coming straight at her," Lightning said, looking at the man, "From now, we will give them the element of surprise."
The sun was already setting in the horizon and Lightning knew that the Pulsian won't be able to walk out from this one…
Your little friends won't be able to help you then, she thought, I can't wait for it.
The inside of Vaan's house was well taken care of and yet, had a slight lonely feeling to it. It was the type of house that a big family could live and feel comfortable. The living room had a large couch that could fit at least five people and a large TV screen on the wall. They were few pictures of the family and Éclair approached one of them.
It was of a much younger Vaan and a taller young man which Éclair quickly recognized as Basch without the bear and long hair he had now. There was another man beside them, dressed smartly and Éclair deduced that it was their father.
The older Vaan looked remarkably like him, she noted. The only thing that was different was Vaan's hair which was longer and the color of the eyes. While she was standing there, she saw that the sky outside had darkened considerably, and it makes her wonder how long she had been standing there…
"Éclair," Vaan called.
The young man came down from the stair, carrying what looks like a heavy book probably the journal he was always talking about to her.
"I hope you didn't wait long," he said, as he approached her.
"It was only for a while," Éclair told him approaching him, "Is this it?"
Vaan showed the large book to her.
"This is it," he said, "My great-great grandfather's journals."
"Let's see what he had to say about his finding," Éclair told him as Vaan seat down upon the chair and putting the heavy book upon the table in front of him.
"You sure you don't want to get something to eat first?" he asked her.
Éclair shook her head.
"I'm not really hungry at the moment," she said, "and I'm anxious to know about what I truly am."
"So do I," Vaan told her.
Then he opened the book.
Éclair can words written upon them thought the writing was vaguely familiar to her, similar to the words written on her sword and yet, lightly different. Vaan was going through the pages, murmuring to himself as he searched through the pages.
"Ah, here it is," he said, tapping the page with his finger.
Éclair leaned closer.
"What does it say?"
"Let's see," Vaan said, "In my findings upon the Pulsian word, I came across strange tablets. They were written in a language that was familiar to any scholar of Cocoon. The old dialect, the one our ancestors spoke in the early days of our floating world. Again, I am once again taken aback by how much the two Worlds, Cocoon, Pulse seems to share. It was just as Dr. Cid theory many years earlier. I'm convinced of my theory that Cocoon and Pulse sheared the same ancestry, but proving it will be difficult for no evidences are left of that connection. But back to the tablets, they must have been religious of some kind to those people since I notices some wordings that would describes deities and I will try my best to translate what it means…
They were a blotch of inks and many words that where crossed out, showing that the man was truly working upon them…
March 15, 3940 by Cocoon Reckoning
Finally, after three long days, I have deciphered much but it felt too little. One the first tablet, were words such as,
The Fal'Cie blessed our World, May their blessings protect and strengthen us.'
I'm guessing the Fal'Cie were the name they had given their gods, it is truly fascinating to learn about a lost culture secrets. The second line on that tablet says,
Servants of The Fal'Cie blessed by their holy power, to protect and sacrifice, l'Cie, Servant of the Fal'Cie, May the Maker bring peace to their souls'
This gives me a chill as I read what was written. I was surprised and shocked to learn that those gods of long ago chose people of this world to join them and be equal in power. I'm still wondering why the Fal'Cie chooses an ordinary person to do this? Did the person have a choice in the matter? And why would the Fal'Cie, those godly beings rely upon humanity? Those questions I'm afraid, will never be answered but the last phrase I have deciphered is the one that brought question as to what the crystal woman we had found during our search truly is.
'L'Cie who fulfill their Focus, turn to crystal and gain eternal life'
Did that crystal woman used to be an l'Cie? If so, did she complete her Focus? Was she a Guardian of the Fal'Cie? Will she turn back to a Human again or is the 'promised eternal life' be being a crystal forever sleeping through time? As I said before, questions such as these will never be answered. If only I could speak to her in some way to learn about her completed Focus, but as reality sees it, the woman will be forever a crystal if she had been one thousand of years ago, who say she won't be one thousand of years into the future? I guess I kind of understand somewhat as to what the second phase of the tablet means. If an l'Cie, who was blessed by the Fal'Cie, when had completed their Focus the reward for their efforts means sleeping through time, then it is no better than being dead.
A total silence reigned within the room when Vaan finished reading.
The truth come out...but to what cost?
Next chapter: Ambush
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Jacques0 out.
R&R