"Of all the messed-up ways to meet..."

Snow had that right, we should've met in better circumstances. Like school, work, city events, but it just didn't happen like that. He introduced himself, Snow Villiers. Wonder if Serah would take his last name…?

The others did as well, and thank goodness for that. In my head, they were just "the boy", "Pigtails", and "Chocobo-guy".

"The boy" was Hope Esthiem. I thought I'd heard his last name before, but couldn't quite pinpoint it. He definitely wasn't a Bodhum kid, it was so obvious that he doesn't have that sort of exposure.

Next was Vanille, the girl that Hope followed closest to. She's very sweet, but a bit mysterious, to be honest. Her accent wasn't much like anything I'd heard, and she didn't dress with the style like most people in Bodhum did. But hey, it fit her.

Lastly, Sazh Katzroy (his chocobo chick didn't seem to have a name), he was the wisdom of the group by that point and more known to the history of the l'Cie legends. He gave a good vibe, despite how he made me feel before. I was worried after he felt the need to, uh, 'help' Serah- but I came to understand that he didn't like to see anyone suffer. His opinion was just different, that's all.

Of course, they wanted to know about Lightning, so Snow introduced her as part of the Bodhum Security Regiment. "Last name's Farron. First?" He smirked at me. "Anybody's guess." Funnily enough, Snow didn't know Lightning's first name. I know Serah's loyal, I just expected it to slip up to him at some point. Lightning changed her name many years ago, to appear more stoic. Serah and I, we were cool with it. We would still fumble sometimes, calling her something else but she forgave it.

Still not for me to share.

So I just grinned, I'll let them ponder, but I'll never give it away. "Aurora—ah, that's my name, not my sister's." I almost wanted to let them know more about Serah, since they technically (and briefly) saw her but never got to talk with her. But, I didn't. Serah could tell them when the time came, and it will come.

Hope and Vanille started walking forward, while the rest of us stayed back a bit to take a break. Sazh stepped over to me and tilted his head. "You must be the youngest of your family, huh?" He sighed when I nodded, turning away. "It's just not right, why do kids have to be dragged into this mess?" Yeah, I didn't like it either. Serah said I was pretty "grown-up" compared to other kids my age, so I could sometimes forget that I was just a kid, too. Sazh had a point, why would a fal'Cie choose children? Hope, I think he mentioned being fourteen? He can't even drive, his 'weapon' is a boomerang, for Maker's sake- you can't even legally own a weapon on Cocoon at his age!

Lightning put a hand on my back. "Walk ahead, we'll catch up," she mumbled to me. I didn't really get why she wanted me to go ahead, maybe she just didn't want me to hear what they were about to talk about. It was fine, I went with it and walked ahead, going close to the other two. Vanille was messing with Hope, although he didn't seem to be enjoying it too much. They're practically opposites.

Vanille was trying to call the others over to us. I chuckled, "they're probably talking about adult stuff, just give them a moment."

She scoffed playfully, crossing her arms like a pouty child. "I'm an adult too!" Well, you don't act the part, but I'll believe it. Her pout quickly melted into another smile. She grabbed Hope's wrist, waving it in the air to keep at grabbing the adults' attention. I had a hard time keeping my laughter in after seeing his face, while he wasn't pleased, it was still pretty funny to see his pent up annoyance behind his blushing face. He's definitely young, if he's still getting embarrassed over things like this… Unless he's just getting anxious with what's going on. My inner laughter faded away with that thought. Sazh hit it on the nose, none of this was fair by any means.

I let the thought go away, I needed to keep my focus on what to do next, instead of lolly-gagging or feeling down. While the others were talking, and Vanille was still trying to get them to hurry up, I went on ahead to see what was in store for us along the path. It wasn't too long before I saw PSICOM hounds blocking the rest of the way. Looks like some of them still made it, but I wonder if that's all of them? Stepping away, I quickly went back to Vanille, who was still pitching a fit. "Hey, I'd bring it down a little, there's trouble ahead."

She perked up with a gasp. "Oh, okay!" Hope seemed to get nervous when hearing me mention the enemies. "It's going to be a-okay, Hope!" Vanille patted the top of his silver hair with a smile. He took a glance between me and Vanille, quickly straightening up.

The hounds were simply no match for us now, I don't think PSICOM prepped them to fight against magic. The round I saw weren't the only ones, however, as we went on ahead there were a couple more packs of them. PSICOM were really prepared to fight- well, they prepared things like war machines and animal experiments to do their dirty work for them. In fact, I hadn;t seen a single soldier since the little team of them earlier, which had me inquiring if there were any more left. Of course, there were going to be some in other areas, Bodhum was heavily damaged because of the rebellion and the fal'Cie, but possibly other areas like Palumpolum were still alright. I wouldn't doubt if the surviving army decided to head to the other cities, to try get their dignity back. We're lucky to still be here, had we not gained up against the soldiers, we might be—

I had a face full of Lightning's maroon cape to cut my solemn thought off, consequence of losing focus. She didn't even react, though, just standing still and staring forward. "Sis, what's the matt—"

"Serah!" Serah? Why was Snow yelling her name? I stepped to the side to see in front of Lightning and…

Serah. There she was, no harm done to her crystallized cocoon. She was frozen in place, like a painting, amongst the rest of the crystal waters. Snow had already run to her, examining to make sure everything was still in place. Lightning was still, which had me worried. Was she simply in shock? I glanced up at her for a moment before going over to Snow and Serah. He had found a large, sturdy metal bar that was broken on the end, making a jagged and sharp edge, and he was using it to dig Serah's crystal out from the rest of the lake.

Soon enough, Vanille and Sazh joined in to help. Hope stood behind them, seeming to look around as if wanting to do something too. I don't see any more of those sharp sticks of metal, is that what he's looking for? I knelt down next to Sazh, pulling out my gauntlets to see if they'd do some good too. "Hey," I called for Hope's attention, "use one of these". My hand was out to offer him one of my gauntlets, so he could join in too. He quietly accepted, going over to Vanille and working too.

Serah was so peaceful, glimmering beautifully like glass. It didn't feel real seeing her like this, she was just like an ice sculpture that never melted. The cool blue colors that were marbled in her wavy hair matched those of her eyes when she was still awake. Do you see us, sis? Are you aware of what's going on… or is it like you're just at home, sleeping in your bed? My work on trying to carve her out of the ground started slowing down, I just couldn't stop staring at her face and feeling melancholic. My sister was trapped in this stasis, and I didn't know if she was having dreams or nightmares, if she was actually conscious in this state or asleep, I was so mentally distraught. The skin under my eyes started to tingle and heat up, so I shook my head. No. No tears. If Serah really is watching, she can't see you weak… She needs you strong. When the word "strong" came to mind, I looked for Lightning to see if she was here too.

But she wasn't. Instead, she was still staying behind, and even starting to walk away. What the hell, where are you going? I stood up. "Hey—"

"Lightning, you're just going to leave her?"

She stopped. "PSICOM is going to be here soon." She kept her back to us. "If they find us, we're all dead. You think Serah'd want that? You think you know how she feels?" This isn't the time to start this again…

Lightning started walking again, but stopped when Snow began talking. "If I leave her… then I will never know. We'll be fine, Lightning. I," he put a hand to his chest, "can handle whatever they throw at us. No one will die." Snow looked back to Serah before facing Lightning again. "I'll protect her, and Cocoon." She turned, and I knew exactly the look in her eyes. It was the same look she had when Serah told her that Snow proposed to marry her, right after being branded by the fal'Cie. The same look she had when I tried to fight against her in getting on the Purge train. The same look she gave the fal'Cie after Serah completed her Focus and turned to crystal. Snow was receiving this same exact fury.

Lightning strutted forward, taking a moment to look at Snow, and then in a flash Snow was knocked back, into Sazh, and onto the ground "Does she look protected to you?"

Snow snarled, not having what she put out there. "I can save her!"

But Lightning hit him again and put him right back on the ground. "What can you possibly do?"

"Whatever it takes!"

I was uneasy, hoping she wouldn't hit him again. "Stop- stop! Please! How can she rest when you two are starting this again?"

Lightning was breathless, but still tried to argue. "She isn't just 'resting', Aurora—"

"God, Lightning! Why are you insisting?" I wanted so badly to stomp up, grab her by the shoulders and shake her until she understood. "Too many people are dead, but when there's the chance that she could still be alive, you deny it? Why?" I huffed. "It's… stupid." Do. Not. Cry.

Lightning didn't reply after that. I don't know if she ran out of words to say, or had too many that she just couldn't bring herself to say. At that point, I didn't care which one it was, I was just glad that she stopped fussing with Snow. They both needed to settle down, I needed to settle down. If Serah were watching, I know she'd be terribly upset, that's what I kept in mind to keep my mouth shut.

Sazh strolled away, muttering something about us being hopeless. He just didn't know how far back our conflict with each other had been going on, Lightning had refused to accept Snow for a while, and hadn't exactly liked that I was okay with him and Serah being together. Then we had this issue, which just worsened their tempers and decreased my tolerance for their feuding. Lightning let Snow continue on getting Serah's crystal detached from the lake in silence, Vanille kept helping too, and Hope gave my gauntlet back before sitting down to rest. I wanted to keep digging, but I didn't want to get distracted with my own thoughts and accidentally miscarve- so, I walked to Sazh instead.

"Hey."

He looked down at me. "Uh, hey there."

I pursed my lips and glanced away. "Sorry, about all that. They've been like that for… quite a while."

Sazh stood quietly for a moment, then chuckled. "Ah, don't worry about it. Family feud, I got it, I just hope it doesn't get 'em in a mess they can't back out of." He leaned against one of the waves that had turned solid, folding his arms. "A mess you can't back out of."

"Yeah. Maybe we can just all watch out for each other." I nodded in agreement to myself. "Keep each other safe."

As Sazh started to reply, a bright spotlight shone on us. I blocked the light from my eyes with my hand to try to see what was aiming at us.

"What the—oh, no no no, nonono not now!" Sazh yelled and waved at the others. On a ledge nearby was a very large, very intimidating robot in the form of some sort of scorpion or snake. It already had dents and scratches, either from the fall or having been attacking something else. The thing leaped down in front of us, readying an attack as it shook the ground beneath us. It made Hope fall over. I quickly ran over to him to pull him up and away from the enemy.

Snow told Sazh and me to stand back, Hope didn't even have to be told as he ran off to hide from it. Vanille and Lightning went up to the robot to start fighting it. I decided to go over to Serah, protect her, make sure the thing couldn't hurt her, and Sazh followed pursuit. I don't actually know where Hope ran off to, but I knew that surely he'd come back once the root of his fear was defeated. "Sazh, do you know what this is?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's a warmech! Me and your sister, we fought it back on the Hanging Edge- I would've thought that it didn't survive!"

My mouth opened. "So you mean to tell me that it survived the fall?" How in the hell did it? I don't understand how it made it out of a battle with Lightning, much less the fall from the Hanging Edge! "Should we- ack!" A solid piece of metal broke off the warmech and flew towards us. Lucky for me, Sazh was quick to jump in front and shoot the debris back into the battle. "I'm going to shut up and pay attention."

It was hard to stand back, watching the robot slash at the three below, without trying to go down and help them. But at the same time I knew I couldn't leave Serah, since I still did not know if the crystal made her invincible in this state or not.

There was a moment that really startled me, Vanille had gotten knocked back and was barely moving after it. "Vanille! Oh my god-" Sazh shot his arms out and stepped forward, as if he wanted to run over there to help her. But instead, some fluorescent ball of light quickly drifted over to her, spreading over her body before it was absorbed. Vanille suddenly gasped and stood up, immediately looking better. "What- I- What?" Sazh was speechless, as was I. What magic was that? A type of cure or something? I need to learn to do that... It was like his brand knew what he wanted to do, so it cast out magic to do it for him. Freaky.

Freaky cool.

Vanille was able to get in a few more strong attacks after that, along with Lightning and Snow, and the warmech tumbled over in defeat- reduced to nothing more than scrap. Serah's crystal was still safe and sound, no different than it had been before the fight. Sazh and I walked down to the others after they put their weapons away. Hope came out of his hiding place as well to join us, looking a bit ghostly in color. He probably saw Vanille get hurt.

"So... now what?" I looked over to Lightning. Her gaze was fixed upon Serah from a distance but trailed once she started to walk away.

Snow was quick to stand in her way, block her from proceeding and stared down at her with fiery eyes. "You're leaving?" The disappointment in his face wasn't easy to witness.

Sazh stepped up. "We want to help Serah too." A drawn-out sigh. "But without the proper tools, uh, we could be digging here for days. The army's on our trail, Snow. So for now, we gotta keep moving. For now."

"So I abandon her, just to save myself-"

"What about your Focus?" Lightning chimed in. "What about banding together to save the world? That's what you promised. Now you want to forget it all and die right here?" She shook her head. "Snow, you're nothing but talk." And with that, Lightning continued to walk past him.

Snow was seething with heated anger after that, the steam was almost visibly coming from his ears. I was about to walk over to him, to calm him down, but then he called for Lightning. She stopped to hear him say, "I'll do whatever it takes". Snow promised Lightning that he would finish his Focus and keep Serah safe.

Snow... Well I hope that's a promise you can actually keep.

Lightning stood still for a moment. I couldn't tell if she was going to take what Snow said, or fight him again for saying something she didn't like.

All that came from her was, "great job so far", and she kept walking. All sarcasm.

Sazh and Snow exchanged words before parting, and Snow told Vanille and Hope to get going. Vanille skipped on ahead while Hope tried to talk to him. Snow just let Hope go ahead, instead of telling him what he had to say. "You can tell me later, kid." Hope accepted that and ran to catch up with Vanille.

Then, there was me. "Don't wanna let Light worry too much, do you?" Snow smirked.

I was chewing on my lip, what choice do I make here? I wanted to stay with Serah so bad, but I didn't trust myself to stay in small numbers. Snow's tough but irrational, and so was I. "I just... would she forgive me?" Snow seemed confused, so I explained: "Serah, I mean. If I leave her, would she forgive me for going with Lightning instead?"

He folded his arms. "Light is your best chance right now, 'rora. Go with her." He smiled. "I'll tell Serah that you're coming back, it's okay."

"Alright." Deep breath in, and exhale. I peered ahead to the group as they gained their distance. "Then I better get going."

"That you should." Snow chuckled and patted my head. "Go kick some ass, sis."

Yeah, sure thing.

"Is all this climbing really necessary? No- phew- elevators around here?" Sazh was starting to grow on me, really, it was nice to have him try to start a conversation from time to time. It's not that I didn't want him with us, but he was really not the agilest of the five of us. Lightning could literally jump from roof to roof if she wanted to, Vanille 's bouncy and energetic, Hope... he could tire easily, but had persistence. I was moderately flexible,knew how to fight even if I'd be a slight klutz. But Sazh- he was older than the rest of us. He had great willpower and intelligence, I could already tell, but he physically couldn't withstand as much as us.

I wasn't disappointed in Sazh by any means! It was Lightning that I worried would have a problem with it soon. She hadn't made another comment about the group's speed in a while, I just still had my concerns. We had so much area to cover, to investigate so we didn't end up victim to the PSICOM hounds and soldiers. Being caught unexpectedly again could have us end up in a tight spot, and I didn't want us getting split... or possibly lowered by a number or two. Man, I really needed Vanille's optimism, didn't I?

Continuing forward, we had taken a momentary break to catch our breath, tend to each other and make sure we were okay. Well- Lightning wasn't really involved in this. She had taken a glance at me, checked my gauntlets for any wear, and then proceeded to scope the area until we were ready. She hadn't even looked herself over. I had insisted that I inspect for any open wounds but she wouldn't let me.

Vanille, like a mother-hen, had patted Hope's back and arms for injury, given him encouraging words, generally just making sure he was in an 'okay' state. Hope had returned concern for her, but not to the same extent. Socially, he couldn't reciprocate what Vanille had been doing.

Sazh had pretty much stuck to himself for any break we had taken. He had taken care of his chocobo chick, attempting to find any sort of natural life it could feed on before letting it rest in Sazh's hair. By that point, he hadn't had time to run by any of the rest of us before we would have to get up and keep moving.

But we didn't move for too long, due to coming across a soldier camping base. It was a sweep team, I think, based on their violet colored armor, although from the view I had I could be wrong. We were crouched down on a cliff about half a mile away from the camp, so we were able to stay out of sight- however, that distance still meant we needed to be careful.

"They must have been hunting down Purge survivors," Sazh pondered, his voice low. Vanille responded, hoping that all the civilians made it out okay. He agreed, "but nowhere is safe for them now... damnit. All 'cause they shared a neighborhood with some fal'Cie- get treated like Pulse-tainted rats." Sazh beat his fist into the ground once, shaking his head.

Vanille had seemed calm, yet melancholy. "People really hate Pulse, don't they?" The comment made Sazh sit up to rest on his knees, telling her how people hadn't hated Pulse around here. People just feared it. Pulse had been such an unknown yet common concept that nobody quite understood. All we had known was what had been recorded in history books, about the war and all. But, with politics, all these ideas could have easily been biased. I wouldn't have known. I had always been on the slight-neutral side, considering I had never been to Pulse. How could I have hated something I'd never experienced, right?

"All these people- scared of Pulse boogeymen..." Sazh had continued on. "They'd have been, well, shaking in their beds every night if they knew. If they knew that l'Cie like us were near."

I nodded. "We fear the unknown. It's like being scared of the dark, because you don't know what's there when your sight is taken." I glanced at Lightning, seeing if she understood too what I meant, but her gaze was set on the soldier base.

Vanille's voice was almost a whisper. "But- they Purged that entire town!" She couldn't grasp the idea that fear was behind what happened, convincing me that she really must not have been from Bodhum or its neighboring cities. Sazh kept responding to her questions, understanding her confusion about it all. He brought up the Sanctum fal'Cie, with its lack of tribute to the arrival of the Pulse fal'Cie and the Purge that followed.

"Up until now, Eden has always stepped in, to correct their errors in judgment." Eden, the Cocoon capital and Sanctum fal'Cie, which Sazh mentioned earlier. "But, I guess humans aren't worth the effort... puh." With obvious annoyance, "figure they'll just let us kill each other off-"

"L'Cie are not human." Holy shit, what the- Hope abruptly stood up, with an unexpected bold and baritone voice, making me jump.

Vanille shot up and grabbed Hope by the wrist, "listen, you, that's enough!" But after that, she went silent for a moment, no eye contact with Hope or any of us. Vanille quickly dropped his wrist and walked away a few feet. "Look, we're still alive. That's something!"

Yeah, it's... something. But I wondered if that something was even worth cherishing after all.

The ground started to shake, a low vibrating tone was in the air, like when an aircraft flies by. But, where is the aircraft?

"What? Where?" With wide eyes, we examined all around us to try to figure out where the aircraft in question was.

"There!" Lightning caught a glimpse of it first, pointing out to the right of us. It wasn't just one craft, it was two- three- four- five! Five of them! They flew so close to us, the force that bounced off caused the few of us to tumble over. Then I counted even more after that, that was trailing further behind. Did they see us?

"They're sealing off the area, trying to trap the stragglers." Lightning knew exactly what the army was planning. "We've got to get moving before we're caught in the net!"