"Is she coming back?"

"I don't know."

"Why would she go ahead without us?"

"I don't know."

"S-"

"Hope."

"… Sorry."

I sighed. "No, it's okay. I'm… confused, too."

Hope was picking at his gloves. "She made you get on, but it was for your other sister, right?"

"Yeah. I'm… putting the pieces together now, actually." The part that bothered me most was Light also boarding one of the trains. When I thought about it, I realized that she would've either been on the same train, or the train right after mine. Not letting me know, not trying to find a way to sit with me, nothing. I was alone. I had to fend for myself during derailment alone.

"You mean, the two of you didn't have the plan figured out?"

I shook my head. "I thought we did. She-" I sighed again. "I think- I think she was panicking, as well. Everything happened so fast. I really shouldn't go into our whole mess with you." I barely know you, and I don't want to stress you out, either.

Hope stood up from his seat, and moved to sit next to me on my rock, to my surprise. He seemed like he wanted to say something, the air around him feeling a bit stiff and hesitant.

"You don't have to comfort me, Hope, I'm used to this. I should be lending you a hand. You're, what, 14?"

"You're only two years older than me, Aurora."

I chuckled. "Leagues apart."

We joked back and forth, mildly bantering about our age, school. It was a nice detour from the previous topic. Although, it made a pit form in my stomach as the realization hit, yet again, that Hope's just a kid. I mean, I know that I am too- it's just… different, when it's someone else, y'know? But I tried to stifle that thought. I was kinda enjoying just sitting here, in this junkyard, cracking at someone my age who could actually understand this specific situation we were in.

I don't know exactly how much time passed since Light leapt up and bounded out of sight, until I heard something. I quickly shushed Hope, rising to my feet and listening closely.

Footsteps. I couldn't tell how many, it might've been more than one person. Maybe it wasn't a person, it could've been a four-legged creature. Dear Maker, please don't be more hounds. I'm getting tired of the hounds.

My hands hovered over my blades, and I instinctively stepped in front of Hope, sensing his panic starting to rise.

But then, I saw a yellow ball of fluff tittering towards us. Oh. Heh.

"Oh, Hope! Aurora!" It was Vanille and Sazh, who've finally caught up. They were slightly out of breath, but not worse for wear, luckily.

Sazh stepped next to the rock we sat upon. "Where's Grumpy?" The nickname made me laugh.

Hope shrugged, nodding up the rockside that Lightning had climbed earlier on. He quite literally slumped downwards, like the gravity of the situation had come back and pulled his face and shoulders down. I, too, felt that moment of ignorance fleeting once reality set back.

"Got left behind, huh?" Sazh went to pat Hope on the back, but Hope rushed up, away from his touch.

"Leave me alone!" Ah, man. Poor Hope.

Sazh looked between Hope and myself, and I could see his eyes linger on me for a moment. Yes, she left me, too. Her baby sister. "Well, hey-"

"This is pointless." Hope turned away from us. "Can't keep up. Can't get home." He looked down. "It's over for me."

"Hope…"

Vanille stepped to him. "It's not over! We'll get you home."

"I don't have one. Now that mom is-"

I tilted my head at Hope's sudden cutoff. Vanille seemed to understand, asking Hope about his father. Clearly, there's something I'm not in on, but I won't pry. Parents are a sensitive issue for many kids… myself included.

"We had gone to Bodhum. Mom wanted to see the fireworks." They were beautiful that night. I remember. "But, they had found the fal'Cie in the Vestige. Soldiers sealed off the town the next day, and we couldn't get back to Palumpolum." I knew he was from out of town.

"And you ended up on the train, because of the travel block… I see." I stood from the rock, stretching my back as I listened. Hope had also been forced into a preventable circumstance, simply due to unfortunate timing.

I saw Hope nod. "Yes. And my mom, she was frantic." His voice wavered ever so slightly. "She wanted to get us home, so she tried to fight." Oh. Oh, no.

I bowed my head as Hope continued, but his grief quickly turned to anger as he suddenly brought up Snow. "Snow used her! He tricked her!"

Confusion hit me. "Wait, I'm sorry, Snow did what?"

"Him and his- his team, he wanted to fight, be a hero! But-" He huffed. "Mom went with him, he didn't even stop her when he saw me. How could he do that? How could Snow let her fight?" Hope was seething by now, Vanille tried to calm him, comfort him, remind him of his home and his father. She seemed to be able to bring him back down from his fury, as he took a few deep breaths.

I knew that Snow was going to rebel during the Purge, it was part of his plan to use the military equipment to break into the Vestige to find Serah. I knew that him and our friends, a group called NORA, were working together. But how did Hope's momget involved? Were they on the train together, maybe? All of this went through my mind in the few moments it took for Vanille to get Hope back together.

Although Hope had calmed down, the mention of his father's worry for him ended up bringing less comfort than Vanille probably hoped. "Let him worry! I don't care. He probably doesn't either."

"Any father cares." Sazh interrupted, breaking his silence from behind us. He quickly cleared his throat, catching our gazes, "ah, it's nothing. Forget it." He moved to the wall where Lightning had climbed up. Vanille put a hand on Hope's shoulder and had him walk away for a moment with her, probably to comfort him.

I have to admit, listening to all of Hope's ranting, I got a bit emotional standing there. I didn't show it. I didn't want to make things worse. But, inside, I felt a prickly ball swirling around. Parents, family, home, Serah, Snow. Thinking about it all in a mere few minutes was a bit overwhelming.

Apparently I was in a daze ruminating, not noticing anything to my right until something shot out of the wall. We all jumped with a slight start.

Sazh managed to activate some sort of pulley machine, which pulled down… something from the wall, forming a type of staircase for us to climb.

"We've got time. We'll get us all home."

Once we got our bearings, we trekked forward, the four of us. We took down a couple of PSICOM droids, and found an old Pulsian warship among the junk. Sazh and Hope theorized about how it would've made it into this area, saying it was likely our fal'Cie rummaging scrap from Pulse after the war to try to rebuild Cocoon. Our planet's outer rim was damaged during that time, so the fal'Cie tried what it could to fix it. It was interesting, coming across this stuff. Especially now, after what we've been forced into.

We didn't stop long for storytime, though, and quickly progressed further. I kept wondering how Lightning was doing, even though I was still a bit ticked with her. I didn't like her being alone out here with all of this PSICOM mess tearing around. Although, she's apparently been here multiple times. News to me.

About a half hour after Hope and I were found by Sazh and Vanille, we walked upon a bridge next to a cliffside.

Out popped Lightning, jumping down. About damn time.

"Oh, hey!" Sazh greeted her. Or, attempted to. "Welcome to the party!"

"You miss us?"

Lightning just scoffed, walking forward, but I didn't miss the brief glance she gave me right before doing it.

Rude. Just rude.

I mirrored her, staying silent and looking away. Sazh said something about Light's lack of pep or perk, usually it would've amused me. Not much right now. I stepped ahead of the three and followed a few feet behind my sister, earning a reaction of the others as I heard them quickly catch up.

Lightning beckoned us to hurry up, adding to my frustration with her further. As if we aren't already?

I felt a bit silly, staying mad. It didn't do me any good to still blame her for her behavior. I just- I just couldn't help it.

Maybe everything was just building up.

Neither myself nor Light talked much. Sazh and Vanille conversed between each other from time to time, Hope chiming in every now and then (although he, too, was still a bit forlorn). Sazh and Vanille tried to be lowkey and take glances at me from time to time, likely noticing my silence, feeling my vibe in the moment. I'd imagine this was a big shift from the Aurora I had been when we first met the previous night.

Our group came upon a dead end. A dead end with lots of junk, as expected. But something stood out.

"What do you suppose that is?" I heard Lightning say, as she examined the pile of cogs and bits in our path. It did look different, like this pile had a structure of some sort?

Sazh also walked up to it, taking in more of the left side as Light went to the right. It was like the airship we came across earlier, by that I mean that it was definitely something, and not just random pieces of other things sitting around.

I was about to get closer myself, when I felt the ground shake, and lights glow from the junk pile.

This is most definitely something, alright.

Out of the junk rose a large machine of some sort, resembling the front of a steam engine.

Sazh exclaimed, confused, and Light let us know what it was. "Pulse armament."

"It's more war stuff, right?" Lightning gave me an affirmative sound as she readied her gunblade.

"That's bad for us, isn't it?"

"You have eyes, don't you?"

The armament swung around, revealing large cogwork arms and legs, bashing junk and garbage left and right at us with hostility. We prepared ourselves, but Lightning stepped back towards me. "Stay away."

"What?"

"It's defective- it's erratic, dangerous. Step away, Aurora."

I clenched my teeth. "No."

Lightning turned her head to me. "I'm not arguing this, ste-"

"I said no!"

"Can you PLEASE save your family feud for after?" Sazh raised his voice, shooting at the engine as it started stomping towards us.

Lightning remained for a second, then turned back to the enemy and went into battle. I defiantly joined, ready to defend.

Admittedly, yes, I should have stayed back, like she told me. I may be stronger than the average student my age, more informed on self-defense and military know-how, I'm definitely not a soldier. And this was most apparent now more than ever.

With each swing and shot of our weapons, the armament returned it with three times the power. Its hits were brash, hasty, but they each made an impact. We kept being pushed back.

Hope had been tripped up at one point which made him fall. I didn't see if he was badly hurt, but the sound he made when he hit the ground sounded rough. Vanille told him to get in the clear, and he listened.

Sazh and Lightning's bullets kept ricocheting, despite leaving little dents in the engine's shell.

"Vanille, cast a line!"

With her net, Vanille swung, latching her lines onto the legs of the enemy. She struggled, but was able to whip the armament off its feet.

This made it very, very angry. Steam blew out of its vents as it righted itself.

I've never seen a steam engine stomp its feet like a child. In different circumstances, this would've been hilarious.

What wasn't funny was its next attack: scalding steam, right at the closest person to it. That person was me.

"Ack!" I dropped one of my blades in the shock and pain, my free hand reaching towards my eyes which were stinging, burning. I had a coughing fit as steam had gone into my mouth and lung.

During this moment, I felt myself be shoved to the ground, and thinking it was the armament I swung wildly with my armed hand. Someone grabbed my arm to stop me. Lightning's voice came to me, "I told you. Stay. Back." And her footsteps rushed back towards the sound of the steam engine and the fight.

Light had ejected me from the battle.

Okay. Yeah. Fine. I understand.

My eyes watered, hurting with each rapid blink as I tried to bring my vision back after the attack.

But my vision did not clear up soon enough, for suddenly the ground fell out beneath me. I heard the others yell with a start, so I knew something happened to all of us.

I think Hope had caught up to me on the sidelines, aiding me in staying clear of any further attack. He filled me in on what the heck just happened: the engine broke up the ground beneath us, revealing an underground cavern, and it joined us below to continue its assault.

Luckily, the fall had damaged the armament's, weakening it enough for Light and the others to practically pulverize it down to scrap.

A resounding sigh of relief came across the group afterwards, sounding the end of the battle.

Footsteps made way to me. "You're okay?" It was Lightning.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Tears were still streaming down my face, despite my vision finally starting to clear up. "Ugh." I wiped at my face, but I was stopped by Hope who took my hand away.

"You'll make it worse." He put his other hand in front of my face, and I felt a weak, but blissful, cool wave of air spread over my eyes. I took a deep breath, blinked a few times, and saw my vision returning much faster. The inflammation faded quickly. Hope cast some restoration magic for me. Proving to be quite the healer.

I was still shaky, but better, and very grateful. I expressed my gratitude to Hope, who nodded in return.

Sazh turned back towards the armament. "Pulse is crawling with these nasties isn't it?"

"Got me," Lightning responded. "Not even the Corps has access to intel on Pulse. Soldiers in the field fight blind." Was that a pun aimed at me? Ha. Haha. Very funny, sis.

"Yeah, I noticed that. But don't you need to know exactly what you're up against?"

Not if you're Lightning Farron, badass soldier in the GC- sorry, former soldier- who's so determinded she'll let her little sister fend for herself in a PSICOM-infested area for a while.

"Target's a target." Yup. Totally.

Yes, still bitter. Sue me.

Hope turned away from me and towards Light. "As long as you have a goal, you can fight?"

Lightning started walking off, but not before answering with, "you can stay alive."