"… did Serah say anything to you about her Focus?"

"Nothing."

"Oh- oh! She probably didn't want to worry you, is all!"

"Or she didn't think she could trust me." The light boot-steps left behind me. The valley in front of us was massive, it shone brilliantly, all masked with crystal. I felt so small in comparison to the view that immersed my sight.

I let it capture my thoughts, because anything else the others were talking about was too much. Sazh had brought up crystal stasis, he wanted to complete his Focus- bringing up the point that we still do not know what it's supposed to be. What we're destined to do. And Vanille, of course, asked Lightning if Serah ever told us what her Focus was.

But Serah never told us. I really tried getting her to open us to me, but Serah didn't want to talk about it. The one time I was able to, she couldn't find the words to describe what she saw. I think when she did understand it, eventually, she felt too scared to mention it.

To be honest, she told me before she told Lightning. It was shocking. I'm not the older sister, I'm not the one to be confided in- yet she came to me first about.

"Let me tell her, okay?"

A sigh left my lips. "You should've told her first." Because I'm too much of a mess right now, I thought. She scared me with this announcement. "Why am I first?"

Serah chewed at her bottom lip, side-eyeing her bicep. "I knew you wouldn't get angry and yell- I can't handle two upset sisters at once."

"Oh, sis-" I then pulled her into a hug, letting her droop down onto my shoulder. "I get it, I get it." My shoulder grew warm and damp where her face lay, which threatened my eyes to tear up again. "I'm so sorry, Serah…"

Understandably, Lightning was absolutely furious when she found out, especially knowing that we both kept it from her for a period of time. That is what's left Light to believe that Serah couldn't trust her. It's false, but I knew it had to hard to be the last in the circle.

I was still locked in thought, staring into the frozen abyss, when there was a voice next to me. "I'm- I'm guessing you don't know it either." It was Hope, to my surprise. Sazh and Vanille had already started following behind Lightning.

Chill, Aurora. I blinked a few times before turning to him. "Serah… stayed quiet. Light was mad, I was scared." We picked up the pace while I continued. "The three of us didn't have enough time to figure things out before, well, everything happened."

"I see." His voice was small, so I couldn't tell if he was just trying to be polite or if she was still timid. "Can I, um, ask something else?"

I probably won't have the answer, but go for it. I nodded.

"Could you forgive me?" Eh? "I blamed your sister earlier… when we woke up. I'm sorry." He was apologizing, the longest conversation we've had yet and it's mostly him saying he's sorry.

It was a bit hard to form a true smile. I knew, from his perspective, that blaming Serah made sense in the moment. I knew that then, at least. "Hope," my feet stopped, "I get it." He wouldn't look at me. "Look, Light will probably take a while to see it. Don't be scared, though. Truth is, anger is just her first response to everything." I shouldn't have been opening up about my sister's business, but Maker he looked miserable and I had to do something. "I forgive you. Serah wouldn't want me mad, so I'm not." When he still kept his gaze away, I nudged him in the arm. "If you keep brooding, though, I'll have to go back on my word." To my surprise, he chuckled.

We caught up to the other three in a tunnel. It glittered with crystal dust, bits of yellow and white shards poked out of the walls of the cavern- they looked so sharp. It's amazing (yet terrifying) how the fal'Cie managed to freeze this whole lake in such a short time.

I jutted my bottom lip out at the thought. Of course the fal'Cie could do this, I turned us all into l'Cie and managed to scare the entirety of Bodhum for days. The bewilderment of the sight turned into grief. I wish it was just all water again.

"Listen, you, there's no need to be all negative." Sazh's comment made me look up. Did I think out loud? I hadn't, turns out he was talking to Lightning. She was still leading the group, but her head was turned down as she trotted forward. Definitely still bothered from earlier.

She stayed quiet, instead of responding to Sazh. I was honestly hoping she would've snapped, even a little, or at least acknowledged that she was being spoken to. There was nothing, which meant she was definitely hurt. The others didn't quite see it that way, I could tell by the looks on their faces. Sazh appeared annoyed by the silence, Vanille tilted her head like she was confused, and Hope crossed his arms. I shouldn't have expected them to have sympathy for a stranger- it was just hard to watch when it's about my own sister.

I could go up to her, maybe try to talk to her about it, but she definitely wouldn't want that, especially not in front of other people. Later. You'll get the chance later.

It was just five seconds after Lightning ordered, "stay close," that Vanille started screaming.

"Vanille!" She was in our line of sight, and following dangerously behind her was a winged beast that looked ready to tear her to shreds. "Hurry!" The bird crashed into the ruined wall just feet away from Vanille, breaking the crystal flames so they ignited in the background. "Over here!" Sazh was able to grab Vanille and pull her behind him before she could be attacked.

It was definitely some abnormal PSICOM experimental creature. Its veins glowed with artificial light, it had an electric tail, and words were inscribed on its wings in a neon color. Lightning quickly shot at it as Sazh gave Vanille a magic boost, since she managed to scrape herself up running from the beast. Hope stumbled away towards me, startled by the sudden onslaught. He'd have to deal with it, I needed to go up and help Light- so I did. I threw handfuls of fire at the bird and hoped it would work.

It was a pattern of bullets, fire, the occasional boomerang hit, until the beast cried out and shied away a few meters. Lightning said it was charging up for its final moments, meaning we needed to be careful as we finished it off. It had become increasingly difficult to defend ourselves, the bird had more tricks up its sleeve than before.

Luckily for us, this meant that it was getting physically weaker and weaker, despite having more magic in its arsenal. Vanille lassoed the bird with her rod, dragging it down to the ground which allowed Sazh to give one last shot.

The battle was over.

"I'm- you know- just gonna, just gonna sit for a minute," I plotted to the ground with a huff. "I don't think I like birds anymore."

I was the only one to sit, Vanille grabbed the others' attention as she ran off. "Take a look at this!" She was waving her arms and pointing at something, so I turned my head.

How is it possible to luck out like we do- there was an aircraft right there! It was empty, it looked in working order. I got to my feet to join them in examining the ship. Sazh and Lightning nodded to each other, confirming it was a perfectly fine vessel, a perfectly fine vessel for us! We boarded with haste, as to not alert any PSICOM soldiers that may have still been around.

The interior was not all too large, it had four passenger seats and one pilot seat, which was crazy considering that's exactly the amount of people in our group. There was a brief debate between our two gunmen, over who would pilot; Sazh managed to claim the seat, making Lightning sit in the front-right passenger seat. Behind her sat Hope, with me across from him, and Vanille in front of myself. Once the engines came alive, we blasted off to exit the ruins.

Although I hoped for a safe travel out there, there was no way it was going to be that good. As if they had been waiting for us the whole time, opposing aircrafts were right above us, blocking the exit. Their spotlights shone into the windows of our ship.

We were being attacked, multiples of ships against our single one. Electric beams shot down and rattled us around.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lightning bolt from her seat to the pilot control panel, and I started hearing our own air-craft fight back. "Give me that!" Sazh attempted to protest but she was not letting go just yet.

I caught sight of one of the opposing air-crafts falling out of the sky, and back into the ruins.

"Did we get them?" Vanille had popped her head up, probably trying to get a view of what was going on. Hope cowered back into his seat and glanced over at me- I quickly shook my head, holding up a single finger. Just one.

The back of our ship rattled as it took more and more attacks, they were still behind us and were not going to lighten up anytime soon. In the pilot's seat, Sazh kept yelling at Lightning to back off, and eventually, he shoved her back. "You wanna die?" She stumbled back before seating herself.

"Come on, come on, come on..." Nervous jitters spread throughout my body, I clutched the back of Vanille's seat and bowed my head as I kept hoping we'd get out of this. I attempted to tune out the bickering that Lightning and Sazh kept persisting. Hope kept expressing his concerns, Vanille wouldn't stop asking the same thing over and over. I eventually covered my ears and stared out the front windshield as our ship sped out of the ruin city.

Only seconds went by, seconds that felt like minutes, and we were in the sky- in the clear. The moments afterward were quiet, I think I fell into a daze as I let relief roam through me. The others were quiet too, and I assumed for the same reason. I took a mental note, Sazh is really good pilot, Hope and Vanille complain too much under stress. I chuckled under my breath. Truly, if I spoke my thoughts, I'd be the worst out of all of us. Well, Lightning could probably have me beat with her annoyed glares, those alone are thick.

For a while the ride was smooth, we watched the news that was currently airing on one of the channels that the ship received. The hosts spoke of the Purge, how it was 'necessary that the Cocoon citizens had evacuated' or some bull like that. The feed then turned to show a message from our Primarch- Galenth Dysley. I don't know too much about him personally, aside from remarks from Lightning. She would talk about how much of a hypocrite he was, that he was selfish. Sazh, just as Dysley was shown, expressed a negative mind about him too. Called him a "murderer-in-chief". After that day, I don't blame him for saying so.

The next few minutes suddenly went from peaceful to chaotic as we were being attacked again. I started going into a panic, becoming hyper-aware of every bullet shot into our ship, every yell from Lightning or Sazh, until something crashed into the side of us and jostled the ship. Sazh was thrown out of his seat, making the ship lose all control.

Before I blacked out, I caught a glimpse of my sister darting over to me, but nothing else.

I woke up to the worst headache I've managed to get. My everything was hurt. I became aware that I was lying on my stomach, before rolling over to my back to open my eyes. It was dark out, making me realize that some time had gone by since I last remembered. What time is… the ship! I brought my hands up to wipe my eyes to clear my vision and saw that our aircraft was crashed into a rock wall. Then I noticed that Hope was next to me, getting into consciousness. "Hope?" My throat was scratchy.

Hope blinked hard as he turned to me. "What- oh, look, look!" He pointed opposite from himself, making me look back. Lightning, Vanille, and Sazh were up and fighting off what looked like the last of a PSICOM hound pack. Shit! I brought myself to feet with haste, grabbing Hope by the wrist to drag him up and over to the three.

They were able to finish off the last round and turned around to look at us. We were all quite beat up from the crash, gaining some scrapes and dark bruises here and there. Vanille had to sit down afterward, she was still quite winded from the fall; Sazh joined her as well. None of this stopped Lightning, however, she kept moving forward.

"What, no break?"

Lightning glanced back. "They are tracking us."

"I know that." Lightning didn't stop for Sazh to continue. "Hey, I know that, but we," he gestured to himself and then the other three of us, "aren't soldiers. We don't have your kind of stamina!"

I had to agree on that much. "He's right, we just fell out of the sky, sis."

Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything. Light turned her head over her shoulder, giving me a quick (but deathly) glare before turning it to Sazh. "You've got enough to complain."

"Excu-"

"Oh, that's- Forget it!" The older man threw his hands in the air with defeat.

I half-heartedly expected Lightning to at least understand when I said we were tired, but nope, she still moved on without even waiting for us. Not even me. "Ugh, did she hit her head or something...?" I grumbled, sitting down next to Vanille. My joints didn't feel too great from getting rattled around in the air.

Hope finally walked over. He was rubbing his hands together, looking flustered, kept glancing in Light's direction. He's all ready to go, that quick?

I saw Sazh nod. "I'd stick with her if I were you, kid."

This seemed to make Hope perk up momentarily. "Later, then." With that, he rushed off to catch up with my sister.

"Mm, I should go too. Sorry, guys." I decided to get up and follow along Hope's trail. I called back to the pair behind me, "don't break for too long!" Light'll get impatient.

Hope didn't take his time to make it up the path to Lightning, I wondered if he wasn't as busted as I had gotten from the crash- or if he possibly had a similar lack of patience like my sister.

I could hear her just up the hill I was trekking, "Just you?" Hope had responded by asking if they should wait for the others.

"Would've been nice if you did, sis!" Finally, I made it to the pair. "Sazh and Vanille will-"

"-will catch up, eventually." Lightning cut me off without hesitation as she continued forward, Hope lingering behind her. "Let's keep moving, you two."

I did as I was told, but not happily. I think Lightning was just getting angrier and angrier by the minute. She's cold, her eyes are steel, yet I could feel the heat rushing off of her. She quit waiting around, being generous with her time, and instead she just pushed forward. Didn't matter if she walked too fast for people to follow close, Lightning would much rather be independent. Yeah, I knew this already... does that mean I enjoyed it? Of course not.

But I didn't know that she could shut me out as well through this. With the way she acted after we found Serah in Lake Bresha, to the abandonment behavior, I was feeling my patience thin with my oldest sister.

But Hope, Light, and I pushed forward; we encountered different types of beasts and robotic enemies, ones that were built to withstand the new area we were in. If I remember, maps at school would state that the area is the Vile Peaks. General citizens do not go there, not usually. It's more of a material site for the army, to get resources for machinery, armory, weaponry, you name it.

The Vile Peaks was a junkyard, to put it loosely. But that's as much as I knew, Geography isn't my favorite subject.

Over the course of the trail, I came to realize that Hope definitely paid more attention in school than I did. He started explaining what the Vile Peaks' resources were originally from: The War of Transgression.

The war between Cocoon and Pulse, hundreds of years ago. It struck a chord in our home, and after it was over our soldiers took advantage of the remnants Pulsian armies left. Our soldiers scavenged Pulse to fix what damage we took. According to Hope, people couldn't live near the rim because of what Pulse did to us, so we needed the scraps that were left to salvage what we had. "This is what was left: a bunch of garbage." The Vile Peaks became a debris area.

I listened to Hope's story till we reached a dead end. We just met a wall, no tunnel or anything to help us go forward. Hope suggested we go back, obviously, since there was no pressing on from there.

Perfect moment to just sit down, honestly. I took a seat on a random steel box, really needing to rest my feet and rub out some knots in my calves. Sazh and Vanille still haven't caught up. Do they plan to, though? If they did happen to come across us, I figured there wouldn't be much achievement for them considering the predicament.

Hope plopped down near me breathlessly. "Can we get through here, you think?" I saw him survey the wall in front of us, before turning to Lightning.

"This thing is steep, I don't know." I gave him a shrug. I mean, for me it wouldn't be easy. For Hope, it wouldn't be easy. Of course, Lightning could probably walk right up it with no issue.

Then Hope voiced concern, "you... know where you're going, right?"

Lightning didn't turn to reply, but still answered. "I've been here on missions."

"I didn't know you've been here, Light." Why didn't she ever tell me before?

"Missions, but nothing to do with the Purge?"

Part of me wondered if maybe it did have to do with the Purge, maybe that's why she never brought it up. But she made that assumption diminish. "The Purge is PSICOM's baby." She looked over her shoulder to Hope, then forward at the wall. "Our army is split into two arms," Light started examining the junk that was collected against the barrier, "The Public Security and Intelligence Command-" PSICOM. "-and the Guardian Corps." Lightning's side. "I was Guardian Corps, Bodhum Security Regiment."

Yep, she- wait. Was?

"But I don't get it," I started to tune Hope out when I realized that Lightning said 'was', "if you're not PSICOM, then why did you board the train?" What, she boarded the train? My head snapped up to Lightning at that, my daze completely puzzled.

Lightning didn't look at me. "I did it for Serah."

I stood up from the box. "What do you mean by, 'I was Guardian Corps'?" My arms folded over my chest. "You got on that train, why? You said you were staying back!"

She still didn't face me. "Like I said, for Serah. I had to get to the Vestige-"

"So that meant lying to me? Making me think I was actually being sent to Pulse?" Words went straight from my brain and out my mouth with no filter or stop. "I knew there was more to it. I knew you wouldn't just send me off like that, when Serah was already screwed over because of it!"

"Aurora." Hope was the one to speak up this time. "What Lightning is saying... she got on the train to save your sister." I get that. I fucking get it. "Which is crazy. I could never do something like that." His last statement came out as a mumble, but I still heard it.

I bowed my head. If I just knew why, I wouldn't have been so scared. Damnit, Lightning.

There was a moment of silence, nobody brought anything up. But Lightning eventually broke it. "It's not a question of can or can't, Hope There are some things in life," green eyes fell on me, "you just do." Don't look at me like that.

"Easy for someone like you to say." Hope was exactly right, it's easy for her to say that. She never hesitated with anything. She would just do anything, anything and wouldn't explain why.

I caught a sound of irritation from my sister, and looked up to see her scaling the wall with speed.

Hope bolted up and called to her but it didn't stop her. With a flash, she was gone.

Lightning just... she just went off without us! "She left us." Hope's voice was solemnly quiet, he took a seat back on the lone rock from before.

"She- Lightning Farron!" I kicked the metal box I was previously sitting on, leaving quite the dent. "Who the hell does she think she is? Ugh!" My legs found their way to the ground as I rubbed my face with frustration. "She's gonna get it later, I swear to Maker."