Hey guys long time since a update huh. Sorry about that, my internet is cut so i have to make do thought i still write in my stories. never forget that

Anyway, here is the next chapter enjoy

Chapter Seventeen

Loyalty

They were silence through the room when Vaan finished speaking. Paine can see their expression of disbelief and horror at the story. She would have been the same if she hadn't stayed behind along with Basch and Vaan. Barret looked like he had swallowed something unpleasant, and he was blinking as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Tifa herself looked simply surprised, to Paine's surprise. She had expected Tifa to be the one flying off the handle considering the seriousness of the situation. But the young woman was simply seating there on her seat, her expression calm.

Almost too calm, Paine realized.

Zack Fair had a pretty similar face to Barret thought, but he stayed silent.

"Shit Vaan," Barret spoke, before shaking his head.

Paine turned her attention toward Vaan.

The young man was still white as sheet, but a little color was returning to his face.

"You've been helping a Pulsian all this time, we've been worried about you?" he continued his voice rising, "Pulse is an enemy of Cocoon…that girl is not worth it, you should have let the Colonel take her in since the Bresha Ruins."

Vaan looked at him.

"And what exactly?" he said, "Continue living peacefully when something this big is happening?"

"This is what any normal citizen of Cocoon should have acted," Barret told him.

Vaan stood up suddenly, his anger evident upon his features.

"Then what's the point of the creation of AVALANCHE then?" he said, "Isn't that the reason you created this little club of yours, to give the Sanctum troubles."

"Not to save someone that could literally destroy the world," Barret shouted.

Vaan turned away from him.

"What do you think you'll be able to do?" Barret continued, "That woman is a Pulsian Vaan. The Sanctum said Pulse is the enemy."

"So you're just going to believe them?" Vaan asked, yelling out turning toward the large man, "You're going to swallow their lies?"

"What proof do you have that this woman is not an enemy?"

"Paine and I are still alive," Vaan said, coldly, "I think that's proof enough."

That caused Barret to shut up.

"What are you going to do now Vaan?" Tifa asked him.

"I'm going after them," Vaan said.

Paine suddenly turned toward him.

"Vaan that's not possible," she said, "As much as I want to help, but you can't help crazy girl."

"I know that they are going to Eden," Vaan told her, "And that's where I'll meet up with Éclair."

Barret narrowed his eyes.

"You betrayed your brother for that bitch and now you're going after her?" he said, "Why don't you get it through your thick head, She is the enemy."

"Éclair is not the enemy," Vaan snarled.

Paine stepped back from him. She had never seen Vaan this agitated before. Then the young man sighed softly, "Look, I'm not asking for your help. You wanted to know what had happened so I told you what happened. I know Éclair is not the enemy here. She may be a Pulsian, but she is not the enemy."

He looked at Barret and said, "You can try to deny it all you want, and you know the Sanctum is wrong somewhere. You've spent years fighting against them with AVALANCHE and when a chance comes to actually do something about it, you back down from it."

He paused waiting for anyone to say anything else before picking up the bag he was carrying earlier.

"I'm going after Éclair," he said to them, "Nothing you can say can change that."

He turned toward the door and walked out of the room.

The rest of AVALANCHE seated there after he had left, and Paine herself stood up.

"Well, I'm going after him."

Tifa looked up at her, "What?"

"If I stay here," Paine told her, "I'm going to die of worry about him."

She picked up the gun she had and threw it in a bag before walking out of the bar. The streets were still empty since it's already evening. It didn't take her long to find Vaan who was walking down the streets.

"Vaan, wait up," she called.

The young man turned toward her, his eyes widening a little.

"Paine?"

"Why do you sound so surprised," she asked him, raising her eyebrows.

"I didn't think you'll still follow me after this," he said.

"Vaan, I told you before," Paine said approaching the young man and putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'm coming to keep you out of trouble."

Vaan chuckled a little.

"I thought you didn't really like Éclair?" he asked.

"Crazy girl turned herself in so that you could get to AVALANCHE didn't she?" Paine told him, "She had chosen death because she doesn't want to destroy Cocoon."

"What are you talking about Paine?"

"Look," the silver haired girl said, "If she had enough gut to chose death over what everyone believed she was going to do, she might be from a different world, but she is not that different from us."

Vaan nodded at her.

"C'mon," he said, "We'll take the train to Eden."

"I don't think the train is going to work this late Vaan," Paine told him, "If the Army had blocked the city today. It might work till tomorrow morning."

"I'm still going to check anyway," Vaan told her.

Paine sighed and followed him.

The Lindblum

Lightning walked through the ship's hallway heading straight for the holding cells. It was time to get some answers from the Pulsian. She might have an idea of what is happening to her at the moment and what was the deal with the brand that was on her arm.

She let out a hiss of pain clutching the arm.

The wave of pain had been coming and going for the past few days, and she had been able to ignore them, focusing wholly upon capturing the Pulsian and now that she had her, she was going to find some answers.

She arrived at the door and pressed a few buttons.

The door opened and seating on the other side, dressed in a Purge robe was the Pulsian woman. The robe wasn't activated so she still can use her arms. But the woman was simply seating there, not even looking up toward her and that make her frown a little.

"Now Pulsian," Lightning said, "You're going to tell me exactly what you have done back at the Ruins?"

The Pulsian looked up toward her, and Lightning was once again looking at a face exactly like her and she exactly knew what the Pulsian was thinking without the woman even speaking.

"You know of what I'm speaking of," she said, approaching her, "That vision we both had of that woman and…the one of Cocoon's destruction."

She still didn't say anything.

"That was part of you Pulsian plan against Cocoon isn't it?" Lightning continued now standing in front of her twin, "I want answers."

Her Pulsian twin simply turns her gaze away from Lightning.

That caused the soldier to sigh before running a hand through her hair.

"Look, I'm trying to save Cocoon against what I think might be coming," she said, "You have to give me something here."

The Pulsian returned her gaze back to Lightning.

"You've captured me," she said, "Cocoon is not going to be destroyed."

Lightning blinked at that.

"What make you think so?"

"That was my Focus," she continued, "The task that the Fal'Cie gave to me."

Lightning stared at her.

"I was branded," The Pulsian continued, "But it's not like it matter anyhow since you've captured me."

Lightning felt a light chill at this, the brand on her forearm burning slightly at those words. The Pulsian must have noticed her expression for the attention was upon her.

"How did you know of my Focus Colonel?" she asked her.

Lightning turned from her approaching the door, letting out sigh before turning toward the Pulsian.

"And it looks like you haven't been getting sleep either," The Pulsian said and Lightning heard movement behind her.

When she turned, the Pulsian was standing up now, her height the same as hers, Lightning noticed. She didn't know why but somehow she felt void. She had wasted effort to hunt the Pulsian down and now that the woman was in her grasp, she felt no satisfaction upon it. The woman looked exactly like her and Lightning simply leaned against the wall behind her, putting her hands against her head.

"Because I see the same vision every time I close my eyes," Lightning heard herself say, "It's replaying itself in my head, driving me insane."

The Pulsian looked at her, and Lightning found that she can read her quite easily.

"You were branded?" she whispered.

The Colonel frowned a little.

"Don't you have any way of removing it?" she asked, approaching the Pulsian "You are the only one that must know of. Magic came from your World after all."

"It's magic," The Pulsian said, forcefully, "It can't be removed until you've completed your Focus…which is the same as mine."

"What are the alternatives?" Lightning asked, taking hold of the Pulsian's shoulders.

The shake of the head causes Lightning to lose the little hope that she had.

"There are no alternative. When the Fal'Cie gives you a Focus, you have to complete it. It's your very life that is on the line."

That caused Lightning to become angry.

"There must be another way," she said, the anger evident in her voice, "There must be."

"There isn't."

Lightning pushed the Pulsian back, the woman falling down on the ground in front of her.

"I won't destroy Cocoon," she said.

The Pulsian looked up at her.

"You don't have a choice," she said softly, "You either complete the Focus or you die."

Palumpolum Train station

Vaan looked around.

Paine had been right.

The entire place was deserted and dark. The trains weren't running and Vaan feel like punching sometime since he never felt so angry before in his life. This was a major drawback in his plans to find Éclair who might be far away at this moment.

She might be arriving into Eden early the next morning tomorrow and this wasn't good enough for him. He need to get to her and free her from the Sanctum ship thought he had no idea of how he was going to do this.

Damn it, he thought.

He kicked a garbage can to express his emotions.

"I told you," Paine said, "The train won't run till tomorrow."

"This isn't good enough," Vaan said, "Éclair might be half way toward Eden by now."

Paine sighed before leaning against a poll.

"You've done what you can Vaan," she said.

Vaan whirled toward her.

"Then what I can do isn't good enough," he shouted.

His voice echoed a little in the deserted station.

Paine stared at him blankly.

"Don't take your anger out on me," she said.

Vaan controlled himself.

"Sorry."

He approached where the tracks were and stood up there, thinking.

What can I do he thought, what can I do against the entire Army of Cocoon?

Éclair had told him what her Focus was. What she was tasked to do. She was going to destroy the world…Cocoon. She had told him she had a vision about it happening.

"Vaan."

He turned toward Paine.

"Yeah,"

"What did you guys find out about the l'Cie thing I mean," Paine asked him.

Vaan approached her.

"She is the Crystalis Paine," he said.

"You…You're not serious?"

"I'm dead serious," Vaan told her.

"So that's how crazy girl got on Cocoon," Paine murmured.

Everyone on Cocoon knew about the Crystalis. It had been the greatest find that the world had ever known and this was one of the main reasons that Pulse had gotten so much attention.

"Who would have thought that it was actually a person," Paine continued.

"l'Cie who fulfill their Focus turn to crystal and gain eternal life," Vaan said, thinking back toward the words his ancestor had deciphered.

"What now?"

"It's something that Augustus had deciphered on his trip to Pulse," Vaan told her, "It all come back to this connection that both worlds had with each other. Cocoon and Pulse might have the same point of origins but he could never prove it."

He looked toward Paine.

"I think that Éclair might be the key to unlock all of these questions," he said, "She might be the key in all of this….this is why she cannot died yet, for if she does, then none of them will be answered."

"That could mean that he wasn't as crazy as everyone thought," Paine told him.

"Exactly," Vaan answered her.

The duo suddenly realized that they were almost nose to nose, causing Paine to gasp softly. She hadn't realized how close Vaan was to her until he was right there, and maybe…she should just…lean forward and…finish it…

Vaan own breathing filled the air…

Just a little more…

"PAINE, VAAN."

Tifa's voice caused the both of them to jump apart, as if burned. Paine can feel her cheek warming and her own heart thundering against her ribcages.

"VAAN, PAINE where are you guys?" Tifa yelled.

"Maybe they didn't come here after all," another voice spoke, Zack's.

They could hear the two footsteps coming closer and Vaan simply turned toward them.

"We're here." He said.

Both Tifa and Zack approached them.

"What do you guys want?" he said.

Tifa and Zack looked at each other and Zack decided to speak.

"We want to help."

Help coming from Tifa and Zack while Colonel Lightning learn a little about her brand?

What await them now?

Next time: Revelations.

R&R

Jacques0 out.