Back on the surface again, we witnessed something that made me deeply upset to see.

"They're Purging Palumpolum…"

We hid in the shadows. Soldiers were lining civilians up, ordering them to move.

It was happening all over again. It was happening because of us.

A memory flashed in my head from when our Purge first took place. It was before we were loaded onto our trains. We had been in line, giving our stuff to the soldiers and getting our travel cloaks in return. Someone had decided to run. The army killed that person without so much as a chance to let them stop and surrender. There was blood pooling on the station floor after the person had been riddled with bullets. It was then that I knew the Purge was not for our safety. It was to demand control. It was to eliminate whoever threatened the hold the government had over us.

Ever since I saw that person be killed coldly by the army, I've felt almost numb to the situation we were put in. Everything after was a blur, entering the train, the Hanging Edge. Things slowed down after we were marked, but the concept of fatality had suddenly come into focus the moment we saw Hope's city being Purged. Another region, being taken over, like Bodhum.

I felt nauseous. Thankfully Hope and Snow started talking about a game plan and I just made myself listen to them, letting my eyes fall to my scuffed-up shoes instead of the lines of innocent people.

"… Purge everyone who's a threat," I caught the end of Snow's sentence.

Nevermind. The conversation wasn't going to help. Still felt ill.

Snow sighed. "You can't take the blame for that." I didn't know what the context of Snow's affirmation to Hope was, considering I really hadn't been listening the whole time, but I figured it was to do with our presence in Palumpolum causing this next Purge. "We can still save 'em. Let loose, and bring the army to us."

I looked over to Snow once I understood. "We create a distraction-

"-and draw their fire." Hope finished.

"I'm supposed to protect you," Snow said. "But I also can't let this happen. It's a tough call, that's for sure. Only one choice, I guess." He turned to face us. "I try to save everyone." I just knew this upset Hope, but Snow stood up before it could marinate further. "So- you two up for it? You just need to look out for each other."

I got up as well. "We've got this, big guy." I looked to Hope. "Right?"

Hope visibly willed himself to ignore Snow's previous comment, and nodded. "Right."

Another message was being played over the city intercoms, declaring a state of emergency and the presence of the military being in the area. I tuned it out, knowing exactly what it was going to say. 'For your safety, you're being Purged' yada-yada. Liars. None of what you're doing is safe. It's all one big trick to protect yourselves.

I quelled the bubbles in my stomach. "Let's do this." I put my hands into my blades. I moved to the back of our group to cover the rear as Snow took lead in starting the distraction plan.

Civilians were being cleared from the area. Snow and Hope ran up to the soldiers leading them, and when they had their attention, I yelled to the residents, "go!" Some were hesitant and didn't take off, some immediately took my words and bolted, and the rest stumbled away into hiding while we knocked the soldier squad down. There was panic in the people's voices, I just hoped they saw we weren't aiming our attack at them. But even if they don't understand, at least they'll be safe from the army.

After that group, we moved ahead and found a much larger band of people being taken away.

"Not good."

Everyone was too close together, bunched together with soldiers strewn among them. If we were to run in immediately, the risk of getting the wrong people hurt would pose a problem.

So, Snow calmly walked forward into the crowd. "Is there a problem?" A soldier asked him while subtly aiming his gun at Snow.

But Snow didn't answer. Instead, he swung, hitting the soldier in the face and snatching his gun from him. The crowd of people reacted with panic and confusion. Hope and I quickly stepped into the crowd and watched as Snow bolstered, "I am a Pulse l'Cie!" Then started shooting straight into the air. "I'm here to kill you all!"

This made everyone scream in terror as they rushed away, scrambling to grab their loved ones, and get to safety.

"What are you doing?" Hope shoved Snow.

Snow dropped the gun, watching the people leave with a mix of guilt and satisfaction on his face. He got them to run. Shots came down from the sky in our direction as more soldiers flew in on aircycles. Snow grabbed Hope and I and dragged us under an awning.

"They'll open fire on a crowd. It doesn't matter who dies- just wipe 'em all out!"

I gritted my teeth. "And somehow we're the enemy."

We went ahead after getting the soldiers off our tails, and down into a clear alleyway. We took this moment to process everything and reconvene before continuing.

Then, I heard whimpering and scanned the alley, looking for the source.

"Hey, it's okay," Hope said, and I turned around. A little girl holding a Carbuncle plushie was hiding in a corner of the alley. She was alone and terrified, just clutching at her doll. I knelt down as Hope tried to approach her. She must've seen and recognized us, or our brands, opting to back away instead of accept ourgesture.

"Stay away from her!"

We looked back to see a crowd of civilians coming up, armed with random pipes and sticks. They had formed a mob, ready to try to take us down. A woman in the front glared at us. "Don't you touch her!"

We definitely hadn't expected this.

I suddenly had a face full of green fabric.

"Ba-"

I shook my head and looked down. The little girl had thrown her toy at me. She got up and shoved past Hope, which knocked him to the ground, and ran into the arms of the woman in the crowd.

"This is our town."

"Get out of here!"

"Run, you l'Cie scum!"

"Kill the l'Cie!"

Snow bared his brand at the people and they all gasped, stepping back with fear. His brand glowed white, and he aimed upwards. He shot ice magic out at a sign above us.

It came crashing down and put a barricade between us and the mob. They all quieted down at the sight of magic. I sighed and stood up. "I don't like doing that," I whispered to Snow. He put a gentle hand on my back, agreeing, but telling me it was necessary.

Hope had bent over and picked up the Carbuncle plushie, before stepping to the broken sign and setting it down on top. He mumbled, "I'm sorry," and went back to join us.

The mother looked from the doll and back to us. The two of us made eye contact and I felt something change in her eyes.

A quick patter of footsteps started coming up took me away from the woman and Snow yelled, "time to go!" Soldiers were heading our way from behind the crowd of people.

I was suddenly brisked away, grabbed up into Snow's large arms as he grabbed onto one of the lone aircycles from a defeated soldier. I tightly held onto Hope's hand, and we were lifted into the air. The bike moved erratically as we were shot at, Snow tried steering it with his one hand but it was not a smooth ride. The bike slammed into the building wall we were scaling and jerked us back and forth. We managed to avoid getting shot and got out of the PSICOM's reach.

We landed fairly safely on a rooftop. Snow tossed the aircycle aside and let go of me, and I let go of Hope. Hope tumbled to the ground to catch his breath. I had my hands on my knees, trying not to follow suit.

Snow looked back at us with a chuckle. He pointed over into the distance. "Felix Heights is that way, right?" Felix Heights, aka Hope's neighborhood.

Hope didn't respond.

"Still preeeetty far." Snow just continued anyway. He read the words off of a sign in the distance that said, "a great place for family living." He shrugged. "So they say."

Hope still stayed quiet. I decided to chime in. "Um- I've heard it's nice. Quiet."

"Yeah- looks like it actually might be, huh?"

"l'Cie don't have family."

Snow didn't like Hope's response. He turned back to Hope. "Listen to me, kid." He stepped over to us. "I'm an orphan- I barely got to know my family. But someday, I'm gonna have my own." Snow sat down next to Hope. "But someday, I'm gonna have my own. Two sisters of my own and everything." Don't let Light hear that. "Once we save Serah, and protect Cocoon."

I lightened up when thinking about what the future could hold, if things go right. All of us reuniting with our friends and family, Serah and Snow getting married, going back home. I'd even be grateful to be back in school, at this point.

"How exactly?" Hope questioned.

"That's a good question." Snow stood up. "I wanna do what's right, but everyone hates l'Cie." He said. "Kind of hard to help someone that's trying to kill you. It'll be tough. But, everything will work out in the end." He held out his fist in determination. "As long as we stay together and hold onto hope-"

"We don't have any!" Hope exclaimed, rising to his feet.

I thought we went over this. Deja-vu, much?

The sign from earlier exploded in the distance. An airship began an assault in attempt to draw our attention.

"A l'Cie's only hope is a quick death!"