"You let me land this bird before I drive her straight into your a-"

For a group of magic-possessing "enemies", we really weren't being fed to the dogs so easily. Rygdea was arguing with someone over the ship's communication system as they weren't letting us board the Palamecia.

"—about damn time!"

Alright. Go time.

Fang, Hope, Snow, Lightning, and I all stepped down out of the Lindblum's exit hatch and gave a quick wave back to Rygdea. The wind from its engines rushed by us as we walked into the surprisingly dark bottom landing deck of the Sanctum's skyfleet… and then soldiers rushed up to ambush us not even seconds later.

"Code Red! I repeat Code Red! Attention all crew: this is not a drill! Code Red!"

"Everyone, stay focused!" Light commanded us, and quickly pulled out her blade. "We're here for Vanille and Sazh, so be ready!"

"Where are we supposed to go?"

Fang pointed her red spear towards two pillars on the other side of the deck. "Right up there!"

I looked up. "We're not climbing up, right?"

Fang just chuckled, and jumped into battle.

This would be the first time that all five of us fought together—we had the addition of Fang, who's an absolute powerhouse in a battle. Not only did she have control over magic that the rest of us hadn't learned to use yet, but she had incredible stamina and confidence. She was almost as fast as Lightning when it came to sprinting around the soldiers and catching them off-guard.—and like Snow, Fang would rush head first into the fray, where she took on soldiers at speed to gain an upper hand.

We're pretty lucky to have her here. As cool as it was to watch Fang's unique fighting, I had to pull myself back into the action and stay on track.

Hope made sure to give all of us a magical boost while Fang used her spells to weaken the group of soldiers that blocked our way. Then, it was much easier for Snow to barrel forward using his whole body, and for Light to slash through each of them. For the soldiers that managed to straggle outside of their group and attempt to circle us, I gave them a quick shock of stormy magic.

Something slid across the floor after one of those guards fell over, and I ran to grab it. It was small, rectangular, and sturdy. "An ID card…" Well that would make hijacking the Palamecia a whole lot easier, considering the entire ship likely knew by then that we were onboard. Figured we couldn't just nosy on in.

I looked around, and saw a podium with a white screen nearby. Seemed like a perfect opportunity to test the card—I slid it across the screen and, to my surprise, a lift appeared from above almost instantly.

Well that's… convenient? "Uh—guys, hey, this way!" I called out to the others so we could all board the platform and head further into the ship.

After avoiding some very paranoid guards, we got ourselves back outside on one of the outer docks.

"Well," Snow looked up from where we jumped down from, "not going back that way."

The shaft closed behind us—even if it hadn't, it was too far up for us to reach without a lift.

I looked around. In trying to see another way in, I realized just how far up into the sky we had been taken. I've never been scared of heights, but even this would definitely be a very long fall. All we could see below us were clouds and other ships—no green earth anywhere in sight.

"Just don't look down," Fang had advised. Because, yes, duh. Looking down and realizing that you wouldn't even see the ground beneath you when you first fall is not a wonderful thought to have.

Light and Fang talked about where to go. The latter was able to find entry: across our way was a set of platforms… obviously being guarded by soldiers pacing back and forth.

Then the wind picked up.

"And don't get blown away!" Our new friend chuckled and rushed forth, going straight for the nearest soldier.

With that, the rest of the squad outside were alerted.

We had to move quickly, but also with purpose. Had to be careful not to trip, or go around a corner too quickly—otherwise, we'd have a very unwanted skydiving experience.

Fang and Lightning maneuvered around the deck with ease, I could see how the strong breeze made the blue wrap and red cape flap behind them. I hurried along, with Hope right by me. I could tell he was weary of the height, and the wind blew harshly through his hair and jacket. My own dress was fluttering around my sides. Snow stomped across the platforms behind us. Each of his steps could be felt under our feet—if it hadn't been a big; fancy, expensive government ship, I would have totally been panicked letting myself run across at the same platform as me.

Drones and sentry-soldiers were knocked off, while the human ones were just knocked out. They lay either unconscious on the deck, or down on their hands and knees trying to recover. Some even ran inside, likely to report what was happening (and to prevent being thrown into oblivion).

"Not even a l'Cie could survive a fall from up here."

"Could you not-"

Fang was a funny one.

While we fought to protect ourselves and clear the path, Fang almost treated it like a sport: laughing, cracking jokes, a smile on her face as she twirled her spear and somersaulted over enemies. A warrior. She was definitely experienced, maybe even trained? Where Lightning was poised and upright in battle, Fang was savage, leaning into her attacks. She played a dirty offense. But she wasn't rough around the edges like Snow. No, Fang had practice.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized Vanille was actually very similar. I hadn't had enough time around her yet, but knowing she was friends with Fang, it began to make more sense. Wherever they grew up, whoever they learned to fight from, made them into warriors.

Well, to call Vanille a 'warrior'… heh.

Back inside, Snow began yelling down a corridor. "Let us through! Block our way, you die!"

And he was met with silence.

"You tryin' to get 'em angry?" Fang stepped up with a hand on her hip.

"Uh…" Snow looked back. "Eh? Thought maybe they'd run, with all this blood spilled."

I saw Light roll her eyes. Annoyed, she argued, "you thought 'they'd run'? Snow, let me remind you, those soldiers think they're protecting Cocoon from l'Cie. All brainwashed by the fal'Cie."

"Damn fal'Cie!" The sound of Snow punching the wall out of anger reverberated across the hall. "I've had it! We can't let this go on!"

"Attention all crew!" An alarm coming from the intercom startled me. "Code Green! Repeat: Code Green! Security forces stand by! Hostile forces on board!"

"We're creating a rainbow of alerts, aren't we?"

PSICOM hustled around the inside of the ship. Going against their squads over and over, the repetition of it all kept turning us around. The only thing that kept us from completely walking in the wrong direction was paying attention to the rank of each soldier we encountered.

The deeper into the ship we went, the stronger the forces became, and the more sentries we had to go up against. They had put their human forces at the front to try to slow us down, then used robots as the brute strength meant to drain us; that's what Lightning had said. Even if the soldiers fell, there would still be droids and drones powered up to get in our way.

And yet, despite their efforts, we took them down. Soldiers fell, weak to our strength and power. The magic we held was real, sourced from literal gods. No government-manufactured antimatter devices could stand up to it.

Thaaaaat didn't mean we weren't wearing down. We stopped to rest for a brief moment any chance we could get, in any hiding spot we found. There were just so many people on their side.

Hope whined, "there's not even time to catch your breath…" as we approached a door.

"I know, but it's not just us, at least," I tried to reassure. "If we're getting tired, then they're probably exhausted-"

"Code Purple!"

"Oh, that scared me-"

"I repeat: Code Purple!"The man announcing through the intercoms sounded panicked. He stumbled over his words. "Security breach, all units on alert! C-Code Purple!"

"All these colors, what's it mean?"

"It means," Fang chuckled, smirking, "we're doing our job. Making those PSICOM guys nervous!"

A sudden shake of the ship knocked the smile off of my face. "Whoa-what—"

"Vanille." Fang's face darkened. She hurried to get the door opened with the white card and ran inside the next room, ready to keep fighting.

"Okay, guess we're going!"

Walking through the door led us into some kind of dark shaft, only lit by the glow of neon orange rays across the walls and the lights flashing from the sentry soldiers that guarded the area.

It was probably dark enough for us to sneak past them… or, at least, sneak up on them.

"Hope, Aurora, you're going to run past on my cue." Lightning pointed to a door halfway across the strip. "Wait there for us."

By then, I knew better than to waste time arguing—if Light said I had to ignore this battle, then I damn well did it. My face still remembers that steam attack… eugh.

Hope and I knelt down at the door while watching the others run in to take the soldiers down. The attack alerted others in the room, and they began coming to assist the ones that our group were going against. I then saw Hope raising his hands, fingers glowing.

"No!" I stopped him with a hushed voice. I grabbed his hands. "They'll see the magic come from here."

"But—there's so many of them." He looked worried.

I nodded. "I know, but they're going to be fine." Somehow, I just knew. We're already this far without any hiccups… somehow.

And just as Lightning had said, she turned to beckon us over while Snow and Fang brought down the final soldiers and droids blocking the path. We got up and ran down to the next door. Light went behind us when we were close, and then Fang and Snow followed suit after the last droid settled to the ground.

"Stop right there!" We suddenly heard a commanding voice from behind us, alongside the sound of footsteps.

More had managed to catch up to us from where we had come from.

I instinctually cast fire magic in their direction— while, at the same moment, Snow sent a blast of ice magic at them. Together, they cancelled each other out, just leaving water vapor behind.

"Oh shit-"

"Whoops!"

"Snow."

Instead of confronting them, Lightning grabbed my hand and pulled me into the next room, with the others quickly tagging along. Fang jammed her spear into the keypad on our side, making it spark up and close the door. "That should stop 'em."

"Hey, look." Snow pointed to the left. "Think that takes us back out?"

Fang nodded. "Got that right. Let's go."

Together, we walked down the short hall and through the door that Snow mentioned.

Sunlight and a breeze hit my face as we made it back outside; but, that breeze quickly stopped. The vibrations coming from the airship no longer rumbled under my feet, either.

"We're decelerating," Lightning stated. She looked suspicious, folding her arms. "... are they up to something?"

Snow piped up, suggesting, "I don't suppose it could just—I dunno—just be good luck?"

Is that what it was? Good luck? We were having some kind of streak of luck, it felt like. I had no idea how we managed to slip through the ship so quickly. "I guess a little luck wouldn't be too bad—"

"Ah, no, that looks more like bad luck," Fang stopped me and gestured ahead with her weapon.

From shafts in the airship's dock came these big, flying droids. They looked like wasps, but human-sized, and with these long stingers that could extend out past their bodies.

"Birds, now bugs…" I grimaced.

I felt a hand pat my shoulder and looked to Light facing the creatures. "Vespids," Lightning called them. "To me, that's not bad luck. That, we can do something about."

Large flaps rose from the deck, reaching to be taller than us, and they shuddered with the wind. Seemed like some kind of mechanism to help the ship brake and slow down. These flaps also blocked our way, however, and made it difficult to see where exactly those bug-things were.

Luckily, Lightning knew how this specific creature worked. Apparently if their outer shell got hot enough, then their temperature on the inside would get too warm, and they'd just shut down to cool off. And we had plenty of magical fire to go around.

Fang decided to dart ahead, figuring out where each one was and yelling to guide us over. We spread out to take on more at once, each of us were pretty decent with fire magic by this point. The Vespids would screech with their high-pitched sounds as they were hit with the flames—and just as Lightning said, they dropped like flies, some even rolled off of the deck if they managed to catch the little bit of wind just right.

"That wasn't so bad," I chuckled.

The ease of this was nice… but it still put a strange feeling in my stomach. There was still something eating at the back of my mind. The feeling of uneasiness, the feeling of being unsure. It just seemed wrong to assume everyone on the Palamecia was actually bad at doing their job.

But, there wasn't time to continue thinking about it. We kept pressing forward, taking a path around the side of the ship where we could stay out of sight of any other soldiers that were looking for us. It still wasn't that hard to get rid of whatever got in our way. We still remained cautious—never knew if something else could just pop up out of the ground again.

We all came to a stop.

Some strange screeching sound rang out, but we looked and looked, and couldn't spot what the noise was.

"Where…?"

And then, in the distance, some kind of large bird came rushing through the air at us. Another species of PSICOM's experimental animal weapons, I could tell, once it was close enough. And it was huge. Far bigger than the other flying droids we were getting used to seeing. This thing was also alive. It even had that stupid, extending stinger thing like the Vespids did. That felt like a problem.

Fang seemed to agree. "So, Light, what do you think? This luck?"

"How's this-" Lightning stepped forward with her blade. "When we kill this thing, we get one step closer to Vanille."

I could see the corner of Fang's mouth turn up from where I stood. "Well, you got me there!"

Right as we went to fight this flying thing, a large blast came from behind us.

I stumbled forward, nearly tripping over myself. There's no way I missed another airstrike— Quickly, I caught myself, and counted the heads to make sure no one fell from the side of the ship. Light, Fang, Snow, Hope, Chocobo—

Chocobo?

"Prrrbt!"

A yellow puff ball surrounded by smoke sped out of a hole in the side of the ship, immediately followed by a coughing Sazh and Vanille!

The panic from before faded and I smiled. "Yes!" I couldn't help but bounce on my toes, happy to see them again, safe. Even though we hadn't known them for long, our brief time together (and probably the supernatural connection) kept me worried for them, and hoping we would reunite.

Vanille looked up, a grin on her face, and then she looked towards Fang.

Fang suddenly sprinted over to her, wrapping her with her free arm into a hug. "Vanille."

"Fang…" And Vanille returned the hug just as tightly.

And then it clicked. "Waaaait, they know each other!"

Lightning turned to me, and she looked like she was trying to hide a chuckle. "Yes, Aurora, they do."

"… am I the only one-"

"Yes."

"I—well when did you find this out?" I pouted at her.

Light just poked my nose. "Palumpolum."

Snow suddenly hollered, "theeere you are!" And looked around until he faced Sazh.

"Aww, you missed me?"

"No—the monster!"

Sazh quickly brought up his pistols in a panic. "Monster? Where?"

I looked up, and saw the bird again, followed by a second one. "Oh— there!"

When they caught his eye, Sazh was fast to shoot one of the birds down, and it fell through the sky. It hit the side of the ship, before sliding off and falling towards the ground.

But its friend was still flying, circling us like prey.

Hope's boomerang whipped into view and smacked the bird clean in the face—which just made it screech and dive towards us. Lightning was quick to send a bullet directly into its beak, making it flip back and fall down, past the ship.

"Whew!" I looked and saw Sazh shake his head and put his hands on his knees. "Can't— catch a break!" He caught my eye and chuckled, giving me a wave. "Howdy, Aurora."

I smiled. "It's good to see you again!"

He grinned back at me. "You know it!"

Aside from us, Fang and Vanille were standing close, just parting from another embrace. Fang knelt down, and she lifted the side of Vanille's skirt, seeming to check her brand. The guys awkwardly looked away, and I just folded my arms and looked at Light. "I guess that explains Fang being so into this rescue mission."

"Was it not obvious from the start?" Lightning teased.

"You shush."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to see Fang standing up again. Vanille was trying to say something to her, but the taller of the two pulled her into a hug yet again. I could catch a bit of what Fang was saying, something like "making me worry". Bet they got separated because of the Purge. Vanille was with us back then, but I never saw Fang before Palumpolum. I still didn't know where they came from, just that Vanille must've been in Bodhum when the city was locked down.

What was strange to me was Fang also being a l'Cie (with a ghostly white brand). There was only the one Pulse fal'Cie, as far as I knew. But, maybe she somehow got branded too, either before or after us. She seemed close with the guys from the military, so I wondered, was she at the Hanging Edge like us? Got too close to the fal'Cie?

Ah, she probably found out that Vanille was there, and went after her, just like we went after Serah…

Light then questioned, "what's wrong?" So I looked over.

She was facing Sazh, who seemed surprised. "Wha— oh, uh, it's nothing." He gave a shrug, looking at each of us as we all turned to him. I didn't catch what made my sister check on him, but he did seem a little caught off-guard.

Sazh gestured to us. "So, what's on the agenda, hm?"

"Toppling the Sanctum." Snow stepped up, pressing a fist into his open palm.

Just like before, when Lightning talked about her goal of reaching Eden, Sazh was once again unimpressed. "No, I mean really."

We really mean it.

And Lightning simply affirmed it. "He's serious. We're gonna take down the Sanctum, and give Cocoon back to the people." She folded her arms. "Fal'Cie have called the shots for long enough."

Sazh turned his disbelieving eyes towards me.

I just nodded.

"If we pull this off… it'll be a miracle," added Hope.

Fang piped up, chiming in about us being backed by Lady Luck, and I smiled. Her being reunited with Vanille had obviously given her more faith in the situation.

Then, of course, came a series of loud and piercing caws that echoed through the air. A whole group of those birds swooped down from above, its talons outstretched and its beak open in a screech. Our group quickly scattered, ready to defend, when Fang suddenly just chuckled—

"Here's a miracle, Gran Pulse style!" Fang ran forward, followed by Vanille. "Go fish!"

Vanille reared her rod back, her eyes following one of the birds— then she swung forward and released the hooks, making them soar out and latch onto the bird with ease.

"Whoa…"

The bird tried shooting out a beam at the two, but missed by a long shot.

Fang spun and leapt into the air. My eyes darted back forth to watch both of them, seeing Vanille sling the bird down onto the aircraft, then seeing Fang land onto the bird's back and shallowly pierce its side with her spear. She then turned back and rose a fist, "all right!"

"Let's hop on!" Vanille instructed, skipping forward.

Whoa whoa, wait, huh? I needed a moment to register just what all happened and how quick it went by, the ease of how they worked together to bring down the bird with speed, and the way Fang managed to tame it, and then we were meant to get on it? When did Vanille learn to do that? Where?

That strange gut feeling is back— it's just anxiety… right?

Lightning just took my arm and led me over with the others, and we all got onto the bird's back.

Fang gave the bird a swift kick in the side with a, "ha!" and we took off, the wings flapping hard to bring us soaring into the air. And it was not smooth sailing, let me tell you—

Hope initially freaked out, just a little, from the sudden take-off—

Snow somehow managed to catch himself from slipping off of the bird—

Lightning was firmly planted, but I wasn't, and so she grabbed onto me tightly from behind to hold me down—

Sazh was wailing from the back, he hadn't gotten a good seat before we were flying—

But Fang and Vanille? Practically experts. Fang still had her lance speared into the bird, so she held onto that, all the while cheering about Lady Luck. Vanille was helping Hope sit stable, and once she did, she literally just flipped her hair out of the way so casually like this wasn't our first time flying on one of these things. Fang and Vanille… I hope we get the chance to know more about them.

It was so rough, but we managed to circle the ship and find passage back inside (we may or may not have forced the bird to shoot a laser through the metal siding to make a door…) where we jumped and landed on an inner strip—it was a straight shot for the bridge. We gave ourselves no time to hesitate or run away, instead rushing forward to the door. I fished that ID card from before out of my pocket and gave it to Lightning, who pressed it over the door's scanner. The two sides of the door slid open, and we hurried through before it could even finish.

And there he was. Galenth Dysley. Across the room, atop a throne no less, sat back casually and dressed in his fancy robes and jeweled headdress. He looked the same as he always had on broadcasts and pictures, regal—but in person, he gave an air of egotistical pride.

With him stood a woman, tall, proud, and smirking. Sazh pointed to her, "been looking for you, Nabaat!" So that's the PSICOM Commander, I've heard of her. She's been on the news many times as well. Colonel Jihl Nabaat. As we ran forward, Jihl jumped down from the raised platform her and Dysley had been on, and she landed gracefully. She was ready for us.

With a gun pointed right at the colonel, Sazh hurried to lead us. He's got something personal against her, that's for sure.

"Hm." Jihl Nabaat looked at Sazh's gun, then scanned the rest of us. "Your Eminence," she began, "please escape." Although it was a bid, she did not beg. Her confidence spoke of how unafraid she was of us, even with us being l'Cie. "I will cover your retreat." She was swift to brandish a baton from her hip.

I let my eyes go up to the man seated above. Yeah, 'your Eminence', go run. Through all of this, we haven't seen your face a single time. You've avoided facing the Purge, the deaths, the violence.

I didn't know how he would react—

"Why don't you leave, Jihl. Or, rather, take your leave."

— but-

"Humans have no business here."

— it wasn't this.

In an instant, Colonel Jihl Nabaat with a choked shriek, falling face first onto the bridge floor. Her body absorbed a glowing ball of light, and Dysley's ornate staff had been the source.

How— what?!

Then Dysley rose from his seat— not with his feet, no, he floated. A spinning circle of those same bright orbs came from the staff, and then they shot out.

The aircraft controllers surrounding us all dropped to the floor, one by one, struck by magic. Their screams echoed throughout the ship, filling me with a terror I've only felt once before. They were just doing their jobs, completely unsuspecting, and then they were gone. The Primarch didn't hesitate, not for a second. He just killed them.

And the soldiers in the Whitewood were just protecting the area. But they were killed, too. We couldn't even try to help them if we wanted to, or we could end up caught and dead… we aren't going to die here, right?

And the soldiers killed that person when the Purge started because he was running away. He was just trying to live. He was being human. He was scared… I'm scared.

Maker, my heart is gonna give out. I just couldn't shake the image out of my head of every quiet, still body we came across. They were each burned into my mind.

So many dead. All dead because of this man in front of us who holds all the power— he was in front of us and we were just standing there unguarded and ready for whatever he wanted to do. We were l'Cie… but he had more than power as a leader. He, too, had actual magic.

I'm shaking so bad… I had grabbed Light's hand from behind her without even thinking. Breathe. Breeeeathe. Lightning was there. We're not alone. We're together. We could be okay. We just needed to stay close.

Light gripped my hand in return and even moved to block me from the Primarch's view.

A far-away, faint pain pulsed from my brand. Not. Now. I held my shoulder with my other hand and squeezed my eyes shut to try to calm down. I couldn't fuck it up for everyone by having some issue just because I was freaking out.

The Primarch was standing right in front of us by the time I looked back up. He had taken out the ceiling, and Snow was thrown to the floor after trying to attack the old guy. And Galenth Dysley was just chuckling. He found it all so amusing, and spewed nonsense about the people of Cocoon.

"… human thralls," the Primarch said. Even as we tried to argue back, he continued. "What can mere men do? Without our help, death is all which you're capable." 'Our'? He's making himself sound like a god.

Galenth Dysley shook his head with a smirk. "You saw the fools, drunk on the fear of a few l'Cie." The other people? The soldiers?

Light's hand left mine. She stepped forward, armed. "If they only knew a l'Cie was the one filling their glasses!" She pointed her blade at him.

… He just started laughing again. "L'Cie? You mean," he gestured to himself as his smile grew, "me?" Seeing some old man dizzy with power completely lose himself in his own laughter shouldn't have startled me as much as it did.

But he knew something we didn't. He definitely had something on us, and that's why he was comfortable acting this way despite being outnumbered. I feel weird about this. Again.

"Oh child." The Primarch floated up, away. "Perish the thought." He raised his staff high. It glittered and glowed. A bird, that damn bird, flew to meet the top of the staff, and a sudden bright light blinded us.

"I am fal'Cie!"

My lids blinked hard to clear away the dark aura that the light left behind in my eyes.

"I am Barthandelus!"

The ground shook as the name rang out, nearly knocking me off of my feet. My vision was clear enough to look up and see— I— I saw—

"I am the Voice of the Sanctum, and Lord-Sovereign of the Cocoon fal'Cie!"

What… what the fuck was that…? Where did he go? That's… no, there's no way…

A large, strange, mechanical being took the spot of where the Primarch had been. A front plate opened to reveal a face that grinned with sharp teeth and metallic skin. It's voice echoed across the walls despite there being no roof, despite its eerie smile never budging.

"Your kind feared the darkness, so we gave you light."

It spoke with Galenth Dysley's voice—because it was Galenth Dysley.

And that's why he found the idea of being like us so entertaining. He was nothing like us. Never was. He was more. He said it himself.

Fal'Cie.

"You begged us for the Purge, and did it not come to pass?"

More faces revealed themselves across it. Was he just one thing? Was he actually a fal'Cie made of multiple beings? It would make sense, he's so powerful—I mean, right? I don't know how that works, we were always kept in the dark about fal'Cie. We only had legends to tell us anything…

"Now you spurn our counsel? You must learn your place!"

I felt my hand be grabbed and I was pulled back. Snow made me get behind him, alongside Hope. I managed to break my gaze from Ga—Bar—the fal'Cie and looked over to Hope. He was pale and wide-eyed, I probably looked the same. He looked absolutely drained of any confidence he had built up…

We're all scared. But we need to be there for each other.

So I took Hope's hand and held it tight. He looked at me and I tried to show through my face that it was okay. We weren't weak. It wasn't the first fal'Cie we faced. We had powers and we had fought many other battles before.

Hope took a deep breath, and squeezed my hand in return. He gave me a firm nod.

I let go and we both armed ourselves, as did the others. This was definitely turning into a fight… this was what my gut was warning me about this whole time.


[Author: I AM BACK. I AM SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY. It's been almost seven months, I'm so sorry. I just had so much writer's block, and real-life schenanigans, yada yada… Again, sorry. But, I used this time to make sure that this chapter was well-written, and made sure it was longer than past chapters. I am also working on future chapters right now, and hope to post more as soon as possible.]