Heart of the Warrior

Chapter 10 - The Fifth Ark

I do not own Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XIII, the Final Fantasy series or any official characters featured within this project. The Final Fantasy series is owned by Square-Enix, Hiranobu Sakaguchi, and Tetsuya Nomura. Please support the official release.

"It looks like a piece of Pulse" said Vanille, inspecting the new area more closely with her natural curiosity.

"Pulse?" asked Sazh incredibly "What, you mean like the Bodhum Vestige?" He blew a whistle of both impression and revulsion "Something like that, this close to Eden?"

"Yeah, well, what I don't understand is after the Purge and all of that l'Cie paranoia, why keep a chunk of Pulse under the floorboards?" asked Fang meditatively, placing her hands on her hips.

Hope clapped his hands and turned to the group: "Is this what the Primarch wanted us to see?"

Lightning remembered back to what that psychopath had told them when the vivid memory hit her like a red hot iron: "A place for l'Cie to accept their fate."

"Do you really think our Focus is what Dysley said it is?"

"You mean become Ragnarok?" questioned Vanille, earning a nod from Hope.

"Destroy the Fal'Cie Eden and shatter Cocoon, that's what the vision told us more or less" replied Sazh methodically "Well it looks like we're back to square one: out of luck."

Lightning stared at him incredibly; though she could tell from his expression that he didn't really believe Dysley (no, Dysley wasn't real) Barthandelus, prediction but even she couldn't deny that he was right about them being out of luck.

"It's almost like Dysley wants it to come true; I mean he sure didn't mind explaining it" said Hope putting a thoughtful finger to his lips. Sazh and Fang nodded.

"But that doesn't make sense" said Vanille "I don't get it: why would a Cocoon Fal'Cie want to destroy Cocoon?"

"Perhaps it's a Fal'Cie thing, you know what I mean?" said Hope ponderingly "Some grand design we just don't understand."

Lightning thought hard on the boys words; it would not have been the first time that people blindly followed the orders of god. Then again, looking towards the group, she could easily tell that none of them believed that his purpose was that deluded.

"Hey Snow, nothing from you?" called Fang, to which she received no answer.

"Mr. Hero! Cocoon calling Snow!" said Vanille as though she were calling someone faraway. Lightning wheeled around to find the leader of NORA, leaned against the wall with a glassy expression on his face; it didn't take a genius to tell that he was still reeling from Barthandelus words.

"Come on" said Sazh "Nowhere else to go but forward, right?" As the group moved away, Lightning turned back towards Snow, putting a hand on his shoulder and began guiding him forward. The six of them moved forward in silence, some pondering the Fal'Cie's words, others were still dealing with the present situation.

"Hey, uh, I've got to apologize...it looks like I was wrong" came a small voice that was alien to Lightning; she kept her face stony but was disconcerted to hear the voice come from Snow.

"About Serah's Focus? It's not like you to second guess yourself" she asked calmly; she knew full well what he was apologizing for but she also knew that Snow did not deserve to shoulder any blame for Barthandelus lies.

"Well, even heroes make mistakes."

"What about your plan to protect Cocoon?" Lightning said, attempting to keep Snow's morale up. "Either way, your faith in Serah was strong and that strength got you this far."