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Lightning returned to consciousness with pain reverberating through her skull; she was laying face-down on solid rock, with the faint warmth of a flame caressing her skin and the pungent fumes of fuel leaking through the air. Pushing herself up onto all fours, and gingerly lifting her head, Lightning found Cloud sitting against a rock, his sword at the ready and blood trickling from a large gash above his eye.
"Good you're awake," he said with relief. Lightning nodded, aggravating her headache, and turned to find the others still unconscious.
"Hey" she said gently shaking Hope's shoulder sharply;
"Heads up!"
Lightning looked up quickly. Charging towards them, slipping and sliding across the rock, was a herd of Domesticated Peacekeepers; Cloud charged, knocking them all back with a hefty swipe of his mammoth blade. Lightning drew Blazefire with a flick of her wrist and struck the first beast with a downward swing of her blade; she struck it again, reversing the swing upwardly, and it fell to the ground dead.
Acting on instinct, Lightning stepped with her right, dragging Blazefire upwardly across, before launching backward (twisting into a masterful backflip) and burying several hot slugs into another domesticated peacekeeper. It too dropped like its comrade. Raising her gaze from the fallen monsters, she was in time to watch as the newly awakened kids annihilated a pair of monsters with orbs of heat and wind; she shifted her eyes to find Sazh, fully awake and flooring another pair with burps of fire from his pistols. Lightning sighed in relief as she placed Blazefire back into his holster.
"Glad that's over," groaned Vanille victoriously as she and Sazh collapsed to the ground.
"Man I'm beat!" he panted but gasped exasperatedly as Lightning marched forward, "What, no break?"
"They're tracking us" Lightning explained impatiently, pausing for a moment and fighting her own exhaustion.
"I know that---I know that, but we aren't soldiers!" said Sazh imploringly "We don't have your kind of stamina."
"You've got enough to complain!"
"Lightning slow down," said Cloud, his voice a mixture of pacifying and concerned "Let's collect our thoughts and think for a second---"
"---FINE!!" Lightning snarled "YOU SIT ON YOUR ASS AND THINK, I'M GOING."
She left without another word, leaping over some of the debris; she moved in a brisk run. Think Farron, think she urged herself silently what's your next move? The question had plagued her since Hanging Edge; she had nothing left: her sister was gone and now she had this stupid brand on her chest which (to add insult to injury) made her an enemy of her home.
"It's all that damn Fal'Cie's fault" Lightning thought savagely breaking from her run; then it hit her, an idea that reenergized her entire being: why not take out the source of all of her troubles, the Fal'Cie in Eden. The sound of a tumbling rock and heavy panting reached her ears.
"Just you?" she inquired sharply, rather impressed that they had managed to keep up with her.
"Not quite," said a slow voice that caused Lightning to turn; standing in front of her was the boy, Hope, and Cloud.
"I didn't expect to see you," she said casually to Cloud though genuinely surprised to see him.
"Sazh and Vanille will be fine but I couldn't let the kid strike out on his own."
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Heart of the Warrior
FanfictionPart One of Three. While trying to run from a fate he cannot escape, Cloud Strife flees to the continent of Cocoon. However, he soon becomes involved with a group of survivors whose conflict seems terribly familiar to him. Novelization of Final Fant...
