Hey guys and girls new chapter here. Enjoy

Chapter Sixteen

Ambush

Both Vaan and Éclair looked at each other.

She can see the surprise in his eyes as he looked at her, his gray blue eyes. A myriad of emotions were flying through them too much for Éclair herself to recognize. She quickly moved off, thinking about what the man had said in his journals.

"You're the Crystalis," Vaan whispered.

Éclair didn't answer him.

"That's how you got on Cocoon wasn't it," he said, "You were in a crystal sleep when Dr. Cid had found you."

"I must have been," Éclair said.

Vaan glanced down back at the open journals in front of him.

"That would mean you've completed your Focus," he said, "If you were a crystal I mean, you've completed your Focus."

"I must have," Éclair said, "But I don't remember much of it."

Vaan glanced up back at her, frowning a little.

"You're a l'Cie now right?"

Éclair nodded.

"Yes," she said, raising her eyebrow.

"How was that possible?" Vaan asked, "I mean…if you had completed your Focus and went through the crystal sleep, you won't be an l'Cie anymore."

Éclair faced him again.

"Where are you going with this Vaan?"

The young man stood up.

"I…I just didn't realized it before with all that was happening," he said, "Back at the Edge, you couldn't use magic. You were just an ordinary woman…But ever since the Ruins, you have been using magic. Somehow, when you were in the Ruins, you have become a l'Cie again."

He looked at the woman.

"How did that happen?"

Éclair knew that she will have to tell him; after all, Vaan had done this much to help her. She sighed a little and thought back to the strange events that had taken place in the Ruins.

"It was when Lightning had found me in the Bresha Ruins," she started, "I simply had went to explore the ruins. She had found me and we fought but this man had come to us."

"A man?" Vaan said, "Who?"

"I don't know who it was," Éclair said told him, "He was hooded, and he could use magic. He made me us l'Cie."

"A Fal'Cie?"

Éclair shook her head.

"No, he wasn't a Fal'Cie," she said, "I didn't know what he was, but I know he is no Fal'Cie. But, he knew who I was. It was almost as if he expected to find both me and Lightning at the same place alone."

Vaan stared at her.

"Are you saying that this guy can see the future?"

Éclair turned toward him.

"Whoever sends him did," she said crossing her arms.

Vaan closed the book.

"At least we know why you are an l'Cie now," he said, "But…if you're an l'Cie, what is your Focus?"

"What?"

"If you're an l'Cie right now, you've got to have a Focus right?" Vaan told her.

Éclair opened up her mouth and closes it again. The vision that she had before of the destruction she had seen came up again. She didn't want to believe it.

"Éclair," Vaan said tentatively.

"Vaan…I…"

"What is your Focus?" he asked.

She looked up at him, and Vaan eyes widened, a sudden realization coming up.

"No…," he whispered, "You're not…"

"I can tell you Vaan," Éclair said, "I'm not going to destroy Cocoon."

"Then what could it be?" Vaan asked her, "You're from Pulse aren't you? You're an enemy of Cocoon as the entire world sees it."

"Do you see me as an enemy Vaan?" she asked him.

The young man sighed.

"I just don't know Éclair."

She stayed silent as she watched him. He was only a child compared to her, Éclair noted. The young man had threw himself into something that he didn't fully understand, in hope of proving his ancestor was right, only to find that not anything where as he believed.

There is only one thing left to do, she thought.

"Then this is over," she said.

Vaan looked up at her.

"What?"

"You have done what you said you were going to do," Éclair told him, "From here on out, we go our separate ways."

"But…but why?"

"I have seen what my Focus is going to cause Vaan," Éclair snapped at him, "It will cause Cocoon to crash upon Pulse killing everyone. I am an enemy of Cocoon as you said. I should have never let you drag yourself into this."

"Éclair…I…"

But before he could finish what he wanted to say, the lights suddenly went out, causing Vaan to gasp slightly. Then bright light started to shine through the windows.

"So they found us at last," Éclair said.

"We have to get out," Vaan told her, already running toward the backdoor.

"No."

The young man turned at her, surprise and shock showing through his eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"I told you," Éclair said, "I'm not going to need your help anymore. I'm turning myself in."

Vaan crossed the room and took her hand.

"They'll kill you," he said.

"Better to die than destroy Cocoon," Éclair said, "You have done enough for me Vaan…maybe this time, I can save your life."

Then outside came the sound of heavy machinery moving and then the bullets starts flying inside the house and Éclair pulled Vaan down to the ground as the bullets tore through the couches and the walls around them, breaking the pictures as they crashed through the ground.

"Come out, Pulsian and turn yourself in," a voice was speaking through an intercom, "If not, we will bomb the house killing everyone within it. Your choice."

"Get out while you can," Éclair told Vaan as she stood up, "I will draw their attention, after all, they are hunting me and I've kept them waiting long enough. Use that to get out of the house and head off to meet Paine."

"Éclair…don't do this," Vaan said.

"Sorry Vaan," she said, "but this is my choice."

Then the woman walked toward the broken large window that gave out toward the yard where the source of light was coming from. She leaned against the wall, her head looking toward the outside and turned toward Vaan who was standing in the back of the house.

She gives him a brief smile and a nod before stepping out from her hiding place.

At once, a number of laser dots appeared upon her body, the light shining off her armor as she had both of her hands up.

"Pulsian spotted," the same voice from earlier said.

"Colonel, we have a full view of the Pulsian."

Lightning approached the screen and sure enough, the armored pink-haired woman was down here with both of her hands in the air, with the many lasers covering her entire body. She smirked slightly.

"I'm going down here," she said, "Keep your men in position."

She notices Raines looking at the screen with something akin to amazement in his eyes before she walked toward the end of the large ship they were in and opened the ramps.

Éclair looked up slightly seeing a level of the ships coming down with a woman standing upon it. From the two glowing blue shoulder pads, she had a pretty good idea who it could be.

"You have done well in sending all of Cocoon soldiers in a wild goose chase," Lightning's familiar voice carried toward her.

The woman walked forward, and she stepped into the ray of lights that she could see the woman that looked like her own flesh and blood twin and yet, wasn't.

"We meet again, Pulsian," she said.

"My name is Éclair," she answered.

Lightning came to a stop until she was a good few feet away from her. Then Éclair noticed that the woman looked slightly more different than she had last met her back at the Bresha Ruins. She was clenching her jaws slightly as if she was trying to subside something, and some bags under her eyes.

"You are coming with me," she said, "Try to resist, you will be put down."

"Not like I have a choice on the matter," Éclair said.

Lightning smirked before taking hold of the woman's arm and putting both of her hands behind her back. She dragged the Pulsian toward the ship.

"Tell the pilot to make course for Eden," she said toward a soldier standing beside her, "I'm taking her to the Primarch."

"Yes ma'am," a soldier said quickly walking off.

"You and I got some things to talk about Pulsian," Lightning growled from behind her, "and I want some answers."

She walked off toward another part of the ship, passing Basch who was standing in the corner of the hallway.

Vaan couldn't believe that she had done it.

From where he was standing he saw the Colonel pulling Éclair toward the ship and they both entered it. Then the ship took off into the sky followed by the rest of the soldiers who were moving out. Éclair had decided to turn herself in, knowing what her Focus could cause to Cocoon. Vaan knew he had done what he had told her to…

So why does everything feel so wrong?

Huffing slightly since he was carrying a small bag into which he had threw the journals in, Vaan stood there watching the ships disappear from his sight and out of Palumpolum.

Paine had warned me that this might happens, he thought, Éclair is a Pulse l'Cie. She had told me herself that her Focus is to destroy Cocoon, so she turned herself in to be executed so that she couldn't complete her Focus.

Vaan gritted his teeth.

But this doesn't make any senses, he thought, Why would the Fal'Cie want to destroy Cocoon? What did they gain out of it?

Vaan suddenly remembered what he had read in the journals.

Why would the Fal'Cie, those godly beings rely upon humanity?

This was one of the mysteries that his own ancestor couldn't resolves and Vaan had found himself asking the same questions as of now. The same questions his ancestor had asked about the strange ways that the Fal'Cie executes themselves to the world and to humanity.

I have to find Paine, he thought.

He quickly ran through the empty streets of the city since the Army had pulled off from Palumpolum, they shouldn't be any one in the streets at this moment, so he ran heading straight for the Seventh Heaven bar, where he knew the AVALANCHE team will be.

Paine had turned on the TV to see what was going on in the news. Because of the crisis today, the bar didn't open today. Tifa was behind the counter, fixing the utensils, but Paine knew that she was just looking for something to do with her hands. It had been a tense night so far with the Army swooping every now and then.

"In your evening news, we've just received reports that the Sanctum Armed forces are pulling out of Palumpolum as we speak. We have unconfirmed reports that the fugitives that they have been caused the siege of Palumpolum. They are not releasing any details at the time but only the word that the fugitive had been caught."

Paine suddenly seated up, drawing Tifa's attention.

"What is it Paine?" she asked.

But Paine didn't hear her as her eyes stayed fixed upon the screens.

"We will continue to develop the story for you on a later date and we will shed lights upon the sudden siege that the Sanctum had placed upon Palumpolum. That is all for this news bulletin."

Could crazy girl had been caught, she thought, if she was…what about Vaan? She had been with him.

The silver haired girl suddenly seated up from her seat.

I've got to make sure, she thought.

Paine heads off toward the backroom, grabbing a jacket in the process, drawing Zack's attention.

"What's the rush?"

"I'm heading toward Vaan's place," she said.

"But the Army is still out there," Zack said.

"Not anymore," Paine told him, "They've pulled out. It was on the news."

Without waiting for Zack's reply, Paine quickly left the room, crossing the bar in hurried strides and pulled the door open.

"PAINE," Tifa called after her.

"Not now Teef, I've got to get to Vaan…I've got to make sure…."

Tifa suddenly took hold of the girl's arm, drawing Paine's attention back at her.

"What is it with you?" the older girl asked, "Ever since you've came back you've been keeping secrets from the rest of us. I've let you rest and didn't ask much, but now you're seriously starting to act strange."

"I'm not acting strange," Paine said.

"Yes you are," Tifa hissed, "Now you're going to tell me what's going on?"

Paine turned her head away from Tifa.

"I told you before, Vaan might explain it better than me," she said, "Now, I have to get to his house and get his ass out of danger."

She wretch her arm out of Tifa's grip as she listened to the girl's heavy breathing.

"This hasn't got anything to do with what's happened on the news?" Tifa asked, "With the fugitive that the S.A. had been hunting down as it?"

Her silence might as well have been a declaration of truth to Tifa's words. The older girl realized it too.

"Paine, just what did you and Vaan do to get the S.A. so jumpy?"

Then the two girls heard a sound. It was faint at first, but quickly growing closer. Paine recognized the rhythmic beat as the sound of footfalls as if someone was running and the air was filled with the sound of heavy breathing.

Then, at the end of the road, a figure appeared…one Paine recognized instantly.

"VAAN," she yelled running up toward him.

She heard Tifa running after her too and the two arrived beside the young man who was clearly out of breath.

"What had happened Vaan?" Paine asked him, "Where is crazy girl?"

"Army…ambush…," Vaan let out, breathing heavily, "Attacked."

"Let's get you back to the Seventh Heaven," Tifa said, "You might want to shed some light upon this."

Vaan nodded and the trio headed back toward the building, and Paine kept glancing toward Vaan. The boy was white as sheet, and his hands were trembling whether from adrenaline or fear she didn't know, but she want to know what happened.

Did crazy girl really get captured? She thought.

"Here seat," Tifa said, pulling him into a chair as Barret and Zack appeared from the doorway of the backroom.

"I thought you said we will join Vaan later?" Zack asked, looking surprised to see the boy here.

"Well, as you can see," Paine snapped at him, "They have been a change of plan."

"Obviously," Barret said.

"Here drink some water," Tifa said, appearing with a cup of water.

Paine hadn't noticed her leaving their side to take the cup.

Vaan gratefully took the cup from her and drained it in one gulp.

"Thanks Teef," he said, giving the girl a grateful smile.

"So, you might want to tell us what the hell is going on?" Barrett asked, "And where is that brother of yours?"

Vaan seemed surprised at the questions and he turned his attention toward Paine.

"You didn't tell them?"

"I preferred you do the honors," Paine answered shrugging her shoulders.

Vaan took a deep breath.

As he started to speak, Paine noticed the expressions changes from curiosity to outright horror and shock and knew that they were in for a very long explanation.

The truth come out for the AVALANCHE team...what would happen next?

Next time: Loyalty

Jacques0 out.

R&R.