Final Fantasy XIII: Episode Zero -Promise-

"Treasure (Family)", Chapter Two

"Treasure (Family)", Chapter Two

They pretended we were emergency patients, carrying us away and loading us on a PSICOM airship. Sometimes one of the higher ups in PSICOM would come by, saying they had to 'observe' us. That Nabaat woman kept saying it was a 'lucky accident' or something like that. PSICOM's specialty is... well, they call them the "Menace of Pulse". I wondered what was so luck about PSICOM being at the plant.

No, I didn't care about that, so long Dajh was alright. So long as he was safe. But they didn't explain anything to me, they just dragged us to Eden and put us in the military's medical facility. She said she'd tell us the details later, but with the medical staff watching over us on the airship there was no time for that.

Because they said, "The safety of your son is of the utmost importance." I didn't say anything.

Dad was all shook up, so I complete forgot to let you and Dajh meet. But you weren't exactly able to at the time, were you? You were hiding in dad's hair, so shocked you couldn't even move, right? When you finally flew out it was night, and I was getting into bed. They'd put me in a different room from Dajh. I was all alone, so it gave me quite a start.

Of course I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about the word that Lieutenant Nabaat said: "The Mark of the l'Cie".

By the next day, nothing had changed. Sazh still didn't know what was going on. He cornered one of the medical staff, but they'd only tell him that they were still investigating. Or they'd tell him that Lieutenant Nabaat would explain everytime to him at a later time. If he asked where she was, they'd only tell him they didn't know. He thought that they were probably hiding something, but it seemed the staff here really had no idea. They weren't in charge of the investigation on Dajh, but one of the higher ups, a specialist.

Maybe they felt sorry for Sazh, who was out of his mind with worry. The medical staff attempted to find out about Lieutenant Nabaat, but couldn't get much farther than he could. The Lieutenant was out on duty, she couldn't even be contacted.

"Lieutenant Nabaat is a very important person. She is one who the Sanctum relies on. There is nothing we can do."

The young woman who'd done everything she could to help him looked regretful. According to her, Nabaat had graduated at the top of her class. After that, she had moved quickly to the position of Lieutenant, and it wouldn't be too long before she attained even higher positions.

If someone like that was involved, then what had happened at Ewleede was no simple accident. It looked like he and Dajh got wrapped up in some serious business. That he was sure of.

"We will get in contact with her, so you can get an explanation as soon as possible. I know you're worried, but please wait a little longer."

"I understand, just... as soon as you can, please." Sazh thanked her, and returned to his room. It wasn't a sickroom, but a place set aside for the family of patients. It was set up like a hotel. It even had a machine where you could access the shops, among other things.

When he stopped in front of the machine, the baby chocobo flew out from his hair. It had probably been watching to see if it was safe, so it hadn't come out before.

"Play around as much as you want. I'm going to try and get some information." He turned on the machine, and accessed the library. He wanted to find out more about this "Mark of the l'Cie" that Nabaat had been talking about earlier.

Of course he'd heard of l'Cie. It was something he had known about since he was a child. Everyone born on Cocoon heard about them in old stories and fairy tales. But how does that fairy tale relate to reality? He couldn't think of any way they could have anything to do with Dajh and the accident at Ewleede. He had probably heard wrong, and it was actually a different word. Not really l'Cie. If that was the case, then what could it be? He wanted to know what Nabaat had been trying to say.

He figured that his search would only come up with the titles of children's books. But he was wrong. There were more history books listed than he would have imagined. There were copies of old texts, and videos of reference libraries there as well.

Sazh was trying to think of which one he should try first, when the baby chocobo came flying down on the control panel. The screen changed.

"Hey now, don't touch the machine! If you're going to play around, go over there." He reached for the cancel button, but he looked closer at what had come up on the screen. It was a picture of an old text, strange symbols and writing carved into rock.

"What in the world is this?"

He recognized that symbol. In fact, he had just seen it half a day before. It was the mark he had seen on the back of Dajh's hand. Sazh read the accompanying text that went with the picture, and he paled.

The "Mark of the l'Cie" that Nabaat had been talking about... wasn't just something he had misheard.