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[FFXIII] Apokalupsis Eschaton, 1/?
Title: Apokalupsis Eschaton
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII
Character/Pairing(s): Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Hope, Team NORA... hell, everyone. --very light Maqui/Hope
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Post-game, plot-heavy. Not so fluffy this time, guys. Action/adventure, mystery, family, friendship.
Summary: Ten million people decided to remain on Cocoon, until one day they all disappeared without a trace, leaving residents on Gran Pulse bewildered and terrified.
It was all over the news the morning that they lost communication with Cocoon.
Maqui had been getting ready for school like every morning, now, rushing down the stairs to catch Lebreau and Gadot standing in front of the holo-vid, looking especially somber and grim. He hadn't needed to ask any questions to know that something bad had happened.
According to all scans and vehicles that had been journeying back and forth between the two worlds, every living soul on Cocoon had suddenly just disappeared from the airwaves.
Cocoon had once been a bustling world supporting over thirty million in population... but that had been before the Purge, and before everything had gone downhill. Planet-fall had seen a third of their numbers dead, and even after, less than a ten million people had decided to stake their lives down on the world below. Everyone else who had grown up fearing Pulse with every fiber of their being had stayed on the dead planet of Cocoon, trying to live off the remnants of civilization and hoping to rebuild the world from the ashes of the old one. It was a hard life for those who stayed in Cocoon, but they had the familiar comforts and energy was not hard to harvest-- it had probably been easier to live up there even in the dark than to live in the light of Gran Pulse, where the population was constantly in danger and lives were taken every day from the civilians who didn't believe that the lands would drown them if they so much as looked away.
"You're staying home from school today," Lebreau had said to him, voice hushed and serious even as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a brief, tight hug. "Gadot will go get Hope as well. His father's probably going to be busy for the next few days figuring this out."
Thirty million people on Cocoon before the fal'Cie had decided that the sacrifice of everyone would make a good present to the Maker. Around twenty milllion by the time Cocoon fell out of the sky. Now... with the sudden disappearance, less than ten million people were to be accounted for in the entirety of both worlds.
Maybe the fal'Cie were succeeding, after all.
-----
It wasn't two hours later when just about everyone was huddled together in one house, even Dahj looking serious as people stared at the holo-vid announcing the news once again. It was a beautifully sunny day in the Vallis Media, yet no one could see it past the gloom of realizing that half the population had just disappeared.
"I don't like this," Serah was saying quietly in the back, hands tight around the phone she kept dialing. "Where's Claire? She hasn't called in at all, and she said she's give us a call the moment she got any information about what's going on."
"I'm sure she will," Snow tried to reassure her. "She'll get through. For all we know, this might be a huge prank that someone pulled to stop the communications system."
It didn't feel like a prank, though. The gravity of the situation felt as heavy as it had been to Maqui when he first found out that Serah was a l'Cie and trapped in the Pulse Vestige. As heavy as when he found out that Snow had been turned into a Pulse l'Cie as well.
"There are at least ten million people living up there," Sazh tried to placate them. "Now, ten million people don't just disappear into nowhere, right? I'm sure there's just some sort of satellite malfunction or something. These things are always shortin' out now that the fal'Cie aren't powering them. We just gotta make do. I'm sure the military are sending up some cameras to find out what happened-- give it a few hours and we'll all see that they're all safe and sound and we're being huge worry warts, is all."
"Think they're overreacting?" Maqui whispered to Hope, leaning in closer to the other boy. The silver haired teen shook his head, though, expression as grim as ever even has his eyes were still glued to the holo-vid screen as the news announced that they would keep the general populace updated with whatever information they could find.
"Think they'll send Light up there with the squad?" Hope asked, the question not really directed at anyone. "Maybe that's why she's busy right now. Could be why she can't call back yet."
Serah reached out instead of answering, pulling Hope closer to her in the same manner that Lebreau had hugged Maqui that morning.
"--and in recent updates, the Guardian Corps are attempting to make contact with home base to find out exactly what went wrong at 0750 this morning. They will soon be sending out troops up to Cocoon to check for disaster or power outages. Our best wishes go up to the families up in the mainland and we will do our best to supply them with whatever food and water is necessary for the duration of their crisis. I repeat, our current updates for the situation on Cocoon--"
Gadot reached to turn the holo-vid off. "Alright, that's enough. They've only been saying the same damned things over and over again for the past half hour now. Might as well be listening to some kind of radio broadcast for all they're saying. Don't know how much I'd trust the military to be able to contain the situation on Cocoon if there was indeed some sort of power outage there. We've barely got the supplies for ourselves down here, how the hell are we supposed to support everyone living up there, huh?"
"We can't, that's what." Lebreau shrugged. "But we'll offer anyway, and they'll most likely refuse help because they don't want anything to do with Pulse or even the settlers that came to Pulse. My bets? They'll just turn the soldiers away when anyone reaches them, all convinced that they can do this without help. None of them want to be contaminated with Pulse germs."
Serah hugged Hope closer to her, and the group waited.
-----
It was another three hours before Hope received a call from Bartholomew, telling him to stay put with the rest of them and that he wouldn't be home for the night... and possible the next few nights after that as well.
Maqui hadn't been able to make out the details, but he could hear Hope whispering vehemently to his father from the other room, and could tell by the boy's posture that he didn't approve of Bartholomew's decisions. Dahj had fallen asleep on the couch, and everyone was talking in whispers so not to wake him up.
-----
It was almost nightfall before they heard anything from Lightning, and even then, it had been nothing but a clipped message reassuring them that she was fine, and something about Lindzei's nest. Hope had retreated to the guest room after he had heard that, and even the rest of the room had gone silent, although Maqui was sure that it was because Sazh and Snow actually knew something about what she was saying.
Snow had taken a few minutes to think and then talking quietly with Serah before he nodded and requested from Gadot, "How many transport vehicles do you think we have to spare right now?"
Gadot looked at Maqui pointedly, and the teen shrugged. "About two dozen, maybe? I've been fixing up some of the stuff we salvaged off what was brought down from Cocoon and some of the older parts here already on Pulse, but... well, I've been a bit busy with school lately." He felt sheepish saying that, but Snow had approved of his decision to go back to school (even before he had admitted that Bartholomew Estheim had requested he look after Hope at the private school they attended) and everyone had accepted the longer time period for Maqui to fix things up now that he had homework to deal with again.
"Can't take that many up with us anyway, man." Sazh told Snow softly, and the blond man sighed.
"Wait, what in Pulse are you talking about?" Lebreau demanded, hands on her hips. "Don't you dare think you're keeping anything from us again, oh fearless leader! We're a family, and we've already done this crap before. You want to start something, you better tell all of us what's going on."
Snow was stubbornly quiet even as Serah looked at him curiously, and it wasn't until Hope's voice came from the kitchen that the silence was broken.
"Lindzei. We've heard that name before. It was supposed to be the one who created Cocoon at least thirteen centuries ago. At least, that was what Fang and Vanille tried to explain to us. It's what people down here on Pulse believed, anyway. But we never encountered a Lindzei before... never even heard of that name before recently."
Snow coughed nervously, and everyone's attentions was turned to him. "We don't even know anything for sure yet. But if there's still something up on Cocoon that could be endangering the people... well, we gotta check it out, right? Being the heroes and all."
"Do you even have to ask?" Gadot asked with a laugh, slapping Snow over the shoulder. It seemed like they were the only ones who could take each other's rough-housing, seeing as everyone else would have doubled over from such a playful hit. "So what are we up to this time, oh fearless leader? Gunna find our own way up to Cocoon and check it out? Leave some supplies for people?"
Snow looked like he was about to affirm this, but then he looked down at Serah for approval, which made the girl smile. She nodded at him, knowing that it was what he wanted to do, and he grinned back. "What are we waiting for, right? The heroes will be there to the rescue!"
Maqui cheered along with the rest of Team NORA and Serah and Dahj, although he noticed that Sazh looked appropriately embarrassed and Hope... was silent in this endeavour.
"You in this with us, Hope?" Maqui asked quietly, voice covered by the loud planning that was already going ahead. He focused his attention on the younger boy beside him... not that it was a hard thing to do for him.
Hope just nodded, although he didn't look enthused. "Yeah, of course I am. If people need help, then... we should help them, right? And I'm pretty sure Light already knew that's what Snow would do, anyway."
"That's right, so there's no worries!" Maqui said cheerfully. "We won't get into trouble for what we're doing from her if she already knows!"
Hope just smiled. "That's not how it works, Maqui."
"Sure it's how it works." The older teen stretched a bit and then jerked his head toward the directions of the door. "Wanna help me prepare the transport vehicles? I don't know what Snow's planning it, but he usually likes it big and flashy." It wasn't like they wouldn't be debating over their lack of a plan for the next few hours, anyway. It had been like that ever since Snow got married to Serah, and he stopped charging into situations without a plan. Had something more important to him than being a hero waiting for him back home, he'd explain.
Hope just nodded again, although he followed along as they walked toward the garage and away from the excited planning (or was it really just yelling?) in the house. Sometimes Maqui wondered how their neighbours could stand them, and then he'd realize that the yelling was probably the reason that most people decided to build a few houses length away from them instead.
"What's on your mind?" Maqui ventured as they entered the garage and he pulled the large door closed behind himself. The place was as messy as ever, seeing as he hadn't had time to clean up before this morning, and he had been in the middle of disassembling a vevlocycle the past week for its gattling guns and hovering capabilities. The two of them hadn't too much time to just talk about things lately, seeing as everyone was always so careful with what they said outside. The only times they could really talk had been at Hope's house, or even Lightning's... or just in the garage.
After he had realized that the Estheims were presenting themselves as a flawless image to the rest of society, Maqui had taken a few days to study up on whatever EMP devices he might be able to scrounge up, and within a week had covered his garage walls with gadgets that would ensure nothing foreign got in, and nothing foreign could get out-- least of all sound signals that could be tracked by radio and cellular waves. Everything they talked about in the garage would be completely private once the door closed.
"Nothing." But the sigh that Hope gave even as he plopped down in his usual seat claimed otherwise. "It's just... nothing. At least, not much."
"C'mon, you know we can talk here." Maqui claimed cheerfully even as he grabbed his box of tools and waved a spanner at the younger boy. "What do you think about the whole communications thing going on this morning, then, huh? I mean, that's got everyone spooked-- think ten million people really did up and disappear all within the same minute this morning? Just... poof! And gone?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," Hope muttered under his breath, but shook his head before Maqui could ask what he was talking about. "I don't think we'll be able to get big transport ships up there, Maqui. At least, not the first trip around. If Sazh can get any sort of word in, we'd probably have a recon mission first to make sure that everything's safe. For all we know, something really did manage to kill ten million people up there-- and the only thing that can kill that fast is some kind of airborne virus."
"A virus? C'mon, Hope, the fal'Cie would never--" Maqui trailed off in his words when he realized what he was saying, and attempted a few coughs to cover it up, even as the younger boy gave him a pointed look. "Right. Okay. So that's a possibility. But we can't exactly send an unmanned ship up there to check it out, man. Not even Sazh can pilot that remotely-- especially with the chaos that occurred during planetfall? Uh-uh, no way. We're definitely sending someone up in a ship, so we gotta make sure these things work, then. Maybe one that's airtight... that ought to do it, right?"
"No. We'll just need someone to get a close enough picture on what could be happening up in Cocoon, and then they'd send one person up onto the planet in a bio-suit and a camera to see what's going on." Hope got up from the chair. "We won't need any of these vehicles yet right now. But we'll need to get hazmat suits."
"Wait-- Hope, hey, wait a minute!" Maqui dropped his box of tools even as Hope opened to door to the secondary room of the garage, where he left all his spare junk. He would have just kept it outside if it hadn't been for the realization that the weather was unpredictable and would wear away at all the spare parts and equipment. Not to mention if some creature manage to get into the settlement... they were pretty close to the edge, after all, and the chances were much higher there than anywhere else...
"We'll need a camera." Came Hope's voice from the other room, slightly muffled as he shifted through items. "Something that can tell temperature, what's in the air, etc... I don't know, you've always been better at the mechanical aspects and terms than I've been."
"Yeah, so you should let me handle-- whoa!" Maqui ducked as a small gear nearly took his eye out. "Where are you throwing that?"
Hope looked up, sheepish. "Oh. Sorry."
"Yeah, you should figure out by now that I'm always going to come following you, so throwing things behind your shoulder isn't a good idea," the blond grumbled.
"Well, that's what the military's going to find out," Hope went straight back into look for things, looking unapologetic. "And they're going to send someone up there to check it out, so we could just wait until the news gets a hold of this before we try and launch a mission ourselves."
-----
Truth enough, six in the evening prompted the holo-vid screens on again as the newscaster spoke about the Guardian Corps's attempt to fly a shuffle up into the barren planet, and there being absolutely no one to greet the man there.
The images came back in crystal clarity, and there was no denying that there was definitely something wrong. There was no chaos in the streets, no power outages. The communication system was working just find when he manned it up there, and even the houses looked like a meal had just been left half eaten and cold.
"Now that is spooky." Sazh commented, even as he hefted Dahj up higher while they watched the broadcast, the little boy clinging to his neck. "Who would just up and leave in the middle of breakfast?"
From what it looked like, nothing else had disappeared other than the people and animals. No missing machinery, clothes, food, or even energy losses recorded during that time period. The man had reported the air and water to be perfectly safe, but was going to refrain from going back to Gran Pulse for the next twenty four hours in case there had been something he hadn't picked up, and even after that the GC had reassured the people that he would be contained and quarantined for a week to ensure he carried no hazardous chemicals back with him.
"We're going to write notes for you," Lebreau said to Maqui and Hope after the broadcast. "You're not going back to school the next few days. We're going to find out what happened, and we're going to need every brain we can. Although," She swatted at Maqui's head. "Yours is debatable."
After the obligatory protests, Maqui had huffed and practically dragged Hope back to the garage by the hand, already knowing all too well that the adults weren't going to start their important conversations until they were sure that the kids were safely out of range. Besides, there were things that he wanted to talk to Hope about. Like Lindzei, and why the other teen didn't think they'd need the larger transport ships.
After he closed and locked the garage door again to ensure that no one would be able to listen in to their conversation (did the others think that they'd be only ones discussing important things?), he waited for Hope to take a seat in the overstuffed chair he left in the garage just for the other boy before sitting down as well, nervous and anxious at the same time, knowing there was far too much that the younger boy knew.
"They're not going to let us go with them." Is the first thing that Hope revealed, looking somewhat irritated about his conclusion. "Getting out of school or not, they're going to make us wait here and monitor the news or some crap like that to let us feel involved. That's them wanting us safe but out of the way."
"Hey, it's not so bad staying behind from combat," Maqui tried to object, although he felt almost timid in the face of Hope's irritation and determination to do something about the situation. "It's better than getting in the way and having someone injured because they were trying to protect us instead."
"Not when we can do something to help, though." Hope sighed and closed his eyes, leaning slightly against Maqui and making the blond tense up.
Calm, calm, the older teen could feel his face heating up. Hope was just used to contact with people he trusted, and it was great to understand that the younger boy trusted him as well. No sudden movements. All he had to do was keep his arms to his sides.
Holy shit, the stupid overstuffed two-seater sofa he had gotten for the garage was the best idea he ever had in his life.
"We can still do things down here to help them," Maqui spoke up, hoping that his voice wasn't squeaking. "If they need people to monitor the situation down here. It's not always about being on the front lines of adventures, you know."
"Yeah, I know." His tone was still irritated, and Maqui could sympathize. He had always been the one left behind as well, although he never really had too much problems with that, being in the background as he was. He was the mechanic, after all, he stayed back to take care of the equipment. And the one time he hadn't stayed back, he had still been in the background, the back-up in case anything happened.
Hope had always been on the front lines, and despite being pushed to the back all the time, he must have been used to it. Maqui had a hard time imagining what it would be like to be on the front lines all the time, and then to get used to it...
"We'll provide back-up," Maqui tried to appease him. "In case anything happens... they'll have someone here who will know what to do, and then we'll be able to do something about it-- it's a really important job!"
Hope sighed, but looked more placated. "I guess. Either way, we won't be needing the transport ships. There's a much faster way to get to Cocoon."
-----
Later on in the evening, Lightning finally returned home, Serah immediately going to her sister with tea and warm food, making the older woman smile as she accepted the offered gifts.
"Any news on what happened?" Sazh asked quietly. He had put Dahj to bed not half an hour ago, and no one wanted to wake up the little boy with their worries about what was going on. The entirety of the settlements on Gran Pulse was waiting with bated breaths for news from the motherland, and their little group was no exception to that.
"No more than what was said on the news," Lightning returned, her tone clipped. "General Amodar wants a private squad up there before the population gets up in riots about the situation. It's to be kept down low; no broadcasts."
"So what are they saying, really?" Yuj asked, making the soldier glare at him for questioning. He backed up slightly with his hands raised in surrender. "Just asking!"
"They're saying that we'll be the ones going in." Snow answered for him. "Small team, right? Undercover? Not going to be missed? That's us!" He had a grin all the while, undermining the seriousness of the situation. "This time we just have to be the heroes that the world doesn't know about. Get in and investigate what's going on."
Lightning just nodded in acknowledgment. "We'll be getting suits, but no transport. Keep it quiet. We head out at sunrise."
"No transports... how are we even supposed to get to Cocoon, then?" Lebreau asked, folding her arms. "I know Maqui's got a good number of ships, but there's no way we'd be able to get up there without attracting the attention of everyone-- everyone's staring at Cocoon now, you can't just sneak a transport ship up there."
"Teleport spots." Maqui spoke up, having walked into the room in the middle of the conversation. He was quiet, finally having gotten the information out of Hope before the other boy had retired back to his designated guest room to finish up his homework and to give his dad another call. Lightning looked at him sharply, but Maqui was too tired to respond to her properly. It had been hard enough trying to get the information out of Hope, and the other teen hadn't been reluctant to give that information up. It had just been hard to get into the situation where Hope would tell him what was going on.
"That's how you're going to do it, right? You guys have teleport spots back in Cocoon."
"Hope told you." Lightning pursed her lips, scowling lightly.
Maqui just nodded, not bothering to deny anything. Of course Hope had been the one that told him, who else would tell him anything?
Lightning stayed silent for another few moments, eyes narrowed him at him, but decided to turn her attention to the others in the room who were waiting for her explanation. "He's right. We have ways of getting up to Cocoon. We'll be taking those teleport points in order to get up there and do some investigating of our own."
"And when are you going to be divulging this information to us, huh?" Gadot spoke up, looking irritated. He stood in the doorway to the kitchen, tall and looming over the rest of them, with a glare directed at Snow. It was strange, seeing as Gadot almost never got mad at anyone, least of all Snow-- Maqui could remember during the Purge when Gadot had been behind Snow's decision all the way in just about everything. Team NORA had spent their time saving people and giving Snow headway so that he would be able to head into the Pulse Vestige and get Serah. To save her.
Even now, Serah had a calming hand on Snow's arm, supporting his decisions as well.
"Look, we never thought it would come up, alright? It wasn't exactly something I could bring up in a conversation, 'hey, guys, I know ways to get to Cocoon without taking any of the transport ships--'"
"You could have told us! Fuel and power are getting more and more scarce, and if there's something that we can do in order to help everyone else... bring people up and down, bring and give supplies..."
"Then what? Would you have made these public knowledge?"
"And since when have you wanted to keep something like this to yourself?" Gadot snapped back, looking truly intimidating. "Since when you have hoarded something as precious as a teleport point between Cocoon and Pulse all to yourself?"
Lightning stood up straight from where she had been leaning against the wall, expression thunderous. "Since these teleportation points were once people, alright?"
Silence struck the room, and Maqui just quietly took a seat, wondering if Hope was going to rejoin the conversation. The one good thing that had always come from Hope and Dahj joining the conversation had been that everyone had always been so much more mild around them-- making sure not to lose their tempers or yell.
"...People?" Lebreau asked, although she was much more quiet now, one hand against her lips in contemplation. "What are you talking about?"
"They used to be Cie'th," Snow explained, although his voice was low and serious. "Cie'th who wandered of hundreds of years until they finally gave up and turned to stone... and for a price, for the completion of their Focus, they would teleport us to where we needed to go-- certain points, certain places. Not all of them can do that, of course, but some of them retained some power from when they had been l'Cie, and turned this power into something else."
"So they..."
Lightning cut Lebreau off. "That's why they don't need a power source and no one's discovered them. They're just the stones that are lying around that we're requested not be harmed- because they were parts of cultural history. But they're more than history- they were once people."
"And we'll be using them to get up to Cocoon again." Sazh finally cut in. "You see why it's hard to bring up in a conversation? Because I do. I didn't agree with everyone else's reactions when they wanted to keep the Cie'th stones a secret, but I do agree that we shouldn't be using them for our own purposes. Especially to everyone else."
"And they won't respond to anyone else." Snow said. "It's like... no one else can hear them. And they scream." His voice was uncharacteristically somber, leading the entire room to quiet.
"We heard them only because we were once l'Cie." Lightning cut him off. "It's possible that they still respond to us because they can sense that. Doubtful other people would be able to use them."
She nodded, though, when the others took their time to digest the information. "Snow and I will head out tomorrow, then. Sazh and Hope will be our back-up team."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Maqui protested, his tiredness dissipating when he heard that. That wasn't fair! He had been entirely prepared to stay behind with Hope... they were always the ones who were left behind, mostly because they were the kids. "You're taking Hope? Then I'm going with you!"
"I don't think it's a good idea to take the kids," Lebreau protested, hushing Maqui. "Either of them. Gadot and I will come with if you need a back-up team. I'd rather Yuj and Maqui stay behind as well."
"That isn't fair!" Yuj protested immediately, and Maqui agreed as well, throwing his own verbal protests in there. "We're not kids! We're just as invested in this as everyone else here-- you can't just leave us behind like that!"
"This isn't like the Purge," Snow said, his voice firm. "It's not a do or die situation-- and we need people here to moniter what's going on. We'll have two teams. One to go up, another for back-up. You guys are going to stay here and take care of things on this end, no objections."
Lightning was frowning, though. "If we're going to have three people on the team, I'd rather have Hope with me."
"Hey! We just agreed that the kids were going to stay here!" Lebreau protests, which let out another string of protests from both Yuj and Maqui as well. "They're staying here-- they're going to make sure that no one finds out about the expedition, right? Just how many suits are the military willing to lend, anyway?"
"Sis, I don't think it's a good idea-- Bartholomew will never allow it--"
"I won't leave him down here as the sole target if any of the residents here get it in their head that attacking a former l'Cie is a good way of getting results back on the Cocoon incident. Serah, they don't know about. Dahj is a hero for Cocoon. If the three of us go up, Hope would be the only one down here for them to target. I won't have that."
"You can't!" Maqui protested, standing indignantly from where he had been seated previously. "You can't just leave the rest of us behind, then! If he's going, then I'm coming with as well-- you can't say we're kids! That excuse doesn't hold out if you're going to take Hope with you."
"I don't have time to babysit you," Lightning snapped at him, eyes flashing. "What I need is experienced soldiers with me up there--"
"You said you weren't going to turn him into a soldier," Lebreau protested before Maqui could speak up, her voice just as firm. "That excuse won't hold up when you bring him into danger--"
"Would everyone please just... calm down." Serah's voice cut in, clear as ever. The room fell silent as she sighed, knowing better than to interrupt the most precious member of their group. "We won't get anything done if we're going to keep arguing. So let's start with the basics."
She turned to Lightning. "How many suits are the Guardian Corps willing to part with for this mission?"
The older woman remained stubbornly silent, but that didn't last as Serah's gaze refused to relent, and the soldier sighed. "As many as we need. We'd have enough for everyone in this room if we needed it."
"And would you rather have teams of two or three with you?" Serah continued to ask, voice calm. The others started to protest again, but she just held up a hand and they fell silent. "This is her mission, and I trust Lightning to know what she's doing. She gets to decide who she wants there with her."
That seemed to shut Lightning up as well and she looked more thoughtful. "The original plan was for teams of two. But... if one member of the team were to go down, it would be useful to have someone else there as well to pick up the slack. That way is there's an injury, then we'd still have a someone to fight as well as someone else to support the injured."
The soldier sighed, looking more reasonable now that she was getting a chance to speak her mind. "I won't relent on my idea-- I want Hope in the other team. He has the expertise and field experience, and I need as many hands as I can get."
"You'll have plenty of hands!" Lebreau couldn't seem to contain herself anymore on her opinions. "He's a child. And I don't care if he was a former l'Cie or if he has the field experience that you need, he's just a kid now and he shouldn't be pulled into missions like this-- we don't know what's up there, or what's going on. Ten million people just suddenly disappearing? We don't know if there's a fal'Cie doing this or a virus, or anything at all. If you need hands, I'll all up for volunteering to help. Just leave the kids out of it."
"You have no right to say anything about whether Hope gets to go or not!" Lightning snapped. "As this is my mission, I'm deciding who gets to go--"
"Yeah, and if Hope's going, then I'm going, too!" Maqui pipped up.
"Stay out of this, Maqui!" Lebearu shouted. "You're not going, and neither is Hope!"
"Guys!" Serah raised her arms to calm everyone down, keeping them up until she saw that people were willing to at least seethe silently. "Please. Let's just let my sister talk. We'll debate this over once she explains her reasoning, alright?"
"I don't need to be questioned like this," Lightning said sharply. "This is my mission, and my parameters. I should have known better than to let Team NORA into this discussion at all. Seems like it'll be two man teams after all." She gave a sharp look to Snow before turning on her heels to march up the stairs. "If you're still with me on this one, Snow, then you'll have to contact me later. Without them."
And with that, she marched up the stairs, footsteps light and uniform, unwilling to bely her agitation and irritation. There was no doubt in anyone's minds that she was going up to take Hope back home... at least, over to the house shared by Lightning, Serah, and Snow.
And as much as Maqui wanted to continue his protests with the soldier, he was aware that it was a completely fruitless endeavour. Lightning wasn't going to listen to him, especially right now when she was already up to arms about being contradicted.
"Don't even think about it, Maqui!" Lebreau snapped right before she stormed into the kitchen, slamming the door behind her before banging cups and drink mixers around. It was just her way of working out stress, the teen knew, since the kitchen was pretty much her territory... even if Gadot was a better cook.
There was silence in the room for a moment before Yuj spoke up, "Dude, what just happened?"
-----
"What are you going to do?" Yuj asked before they headed to bed. "They can't just leave us behind like that, can they? I mean, Lebreau's always up and at it about us still being kids, but we're not kids, man. That is not cool. Haven't we proved ourselves already out on the Hanged Edge? We saved everyone! We kept people safe, and we didn't even get injured-- took down all those Sanctum bastards like they were nothing. And now we're going to be left behind while everyone else was volunteered for the mission up to Cocoon? Even Hope gets to go!"
"Man, it's not that bad to be back-up, you know." Maqui protested tiredly, although he didn't really have his heart in his words. At this rate, he was certain that Hope would get his wish and not be left behind while he and Yuj would be the ones left behind by everyone. For some reason, it had been much easier to stay behind when he knew that Hope would be there as well.
"What, you're going to just stay behind while Hope goes up there?" Yuj demanded, seating himself down in the chair in Maqui's room, the place little more than a closet, really, seeing as the other boy never really needed much space (his space being in the garage) and Yuj always needed a bigger room for all his fashion accessories. "You going to let him go up without you?"
"And what am I supposed to do?" It wasn't as if he wanted to go up in the first place-- Maqui was a mechanic. He was part of Team NORA, yeah, but he knew his own limits; knew what he could and couldn't do. He was great with the rest of Team NORA, but even then there were times when he didn't want to do the hero thing-- of course, not while he was doing it, though. The adrenaline would cheer him on, and he'd be proud to protect people, but...
Getting into Sergeant Farron's way? That was plain old suicide.
Yuj stared at him for a moment, completely blank, before his expression twisted and he demanded, "So you're seriously going to let the love of your life just... march up there and possibly get killed because you're too scared to face off against Lightning Farron?"
"He's not the love of my life," Maqui grumbled, head down as his cheeks flushed red. How fast did information travel, anyway? Just because Lebreau and Yuj knew about his... crush didn't mean anything. "And anyone with common sense wouldn't face off against her."
"Snow did. And he's still standing-- in fact, he's on such good relations with her that she wants him as part of her team." The blue-haired teen grunted as Maqui didn't respond to that. "Probably because, I don't know, he's actually willing to stand up to her, and he managed to win her respect."
"I'm not Snow, okay," Maqui grumbled. He remembered wanting to be just like Snow, and a part of him still did-- the older man was awesome in every way, and he always managed to get things to happen the way he wanted them to, but... even Snow had been arguing that they should just obey orders earlier. What happened to the premise of Team NORA, anyway? This wasn't want was supposed to go on-- Snow wasn't supposed to back Lightning before he backed Lebreau! And he wasn't supposed to keep secrets from them anymore.
"Yeah, but I still remember the Maqui that wanted to be just like Snow." Yuj stood up again in a huff. "And I don't know, man. I kind of liked that kid better than the one I'm staring at right now."
The older boy exited the room without a backward glance, and Maqui just glared at his desk, wondering what in the world had gone wrong that day. It wasn't as if Team NORA hadn't stood up against disasters before. Every family had their share of fights, right? But he had Yuj had never really seriously disagreed on anything before, and he hadn't wanted things to fall apart like this.
What was that supposed to mean, anyway? He still wanted to be like Snow-- Maqui hadn't changed that much. He just grew up a little and saw that maybe Snow wasn't always right, that was all. Snow kept secrets as well and made mistakes. He always managed to get through them, but that was because he was Snow, and that was him, and Maqui wasn't like him. He always got into trouble when he tried to play the hero, especially around Hope.
First with the crash, and then with the kidnapping. Sure, things had worked out, but this time everyone was completely worked up over this mission to Cocoon. Everyone had people they knew back there, after all. Even Maqui had a few contacts there-- distant friends who had wanted to stay in Bodhum for fear of the Pulsian sun. People he had gone swimming with before and gone to parties with even if he wasn't anywhere as close to them as he was to Team NORA.
"They're not the only ones hurting, okay?" He grumbled to himself even as he flopped onto bed, staring up at the darkened ceiling after he turned out the lights. "Everyone's got people they know up in Cocoon..."
He wasn't stupid enough to not know that Snow, Lebreau and Gadot were probably still arguing downstairs. What had Team NORA come to? They had been such a tight unit... when had they started arguing like that?
If this was what it was like to be a grown up, Maqui wasn't sure he entirely wanted to grow up. He wasn't in a hurry, after all.
Maybe, he hoped as he closed his eyes, things will look better in the morning. Either he woke up and realized that the entire day had been a dream, or people wake up and realize that they still loved each other and wanted to apologize for being such jerks.
Either way, he was done with the day.
Okay, guys, this one's not like the other ones-- it's not already finished, it's a work in progress, and it's a slow one, to boot. This is day 1 and the entire story should span 3-5 days, but from different POVs. No, I won't go back once things are done to retell it, but I'm hoping to make lots of different things happen at once.
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII
Character/Pairing(s): Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Hope, Team NORA... hell, everyone. --very light Maqui/Hope
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Post-game, plot-heavy. Not so fluffy this time, guys. Action/adventure, mystery, family, friendship.
Summary: Ten million people decided to remain on Cocoon, until one day they all disappeared without a trace, leaving residents on Gran Pulse bewildered and terrified.
It was all over the news the morning that they lost communication with Cocoon.
Maqui had been getting ready for school like every morning, now, rushing down the stairs to catch Lebreau and Gadot standing in front of the holo-vid, looking especially somber and grim. He hadn't needed to ask any questions to know that something bad had happened.
According to all scans and vehicles that had been journeying back and forth between the two worlds, every living soul on Cocoon had suddenly just disappeared from the airwaves.
Cocoon had once been a bustling world supporting over thirty million in population... but that had been before the Purge, and before everything had gone downhill. Planet-fall had seen a third of their numbers dead, and even after, less than a ten million people had decided to stake their lives down on the world below. Everyone else who had grown up fearing Pulse with every fiber of their being had stayed on the dead planet of Cocoon, trying to live off the remnants of civilization and hoping to rebuild the world from the ashes of the old one. It was a hard life for those who stayed in Cocoon, but they had the familiar comforts and energy was not hard to harvest-- it had probably been easier to live up there even in the dark than to live in the light of Gran Pulse, where the population was constantly in danger and lives were taken every day from the civilians who didn't believe that the lands would drown them if they so much as looked away.
"You're staying home from school today," Lebreau had said to him, voice hushed and serious even as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a brief, tight hug. "Gadot will go get Hope as well. His father's probably going to be busy for the next few days figuring this out."
Thirty million people on Cocoon before the fal'Cie had decided that the sacrifice of everyone would make a good present to the Maker. Around twenty milllion by the time Cocoon fell out of the sky. Now... with the sudden disappearance, less than ten million people were to be accounted for in the entirety of both worlds.
Maybe the fal'Cie were succeeding, after all.
-----
It wasn't two hours later when just about everyone was huddled together in one house, even Dahj looking serious as people stared at the holo-vid announcing the news once again. It was a beautifully sunny day in the Vallis Media, yet no one could see it past the gloom of realizing that half the population had just disappeared.
"I don't like this," Serah was saying quietly in the back, hands tight around the phone she kept dialing. "Where's Claire? She hasn't called in at all, and she said she's give us a call the moment she got any information about what's going on."
"I'm sure she will," Snow tried to reassure her. "She'll get through. For all we know, this might be a huge prank that someone pulled to stop the communications system."
It didn't feel like a prank, though. The gravity of the situation felt as heavy as it had been to Maqui when he first found out that Serah was a l'Cie and trapped in the Pulse Vestige. As heavy as when he found out that Snow had been turned into a Pulse l'Cie as well.
"There are at least ten million people living up there," Sazh tried to placate them. "Now, ten million people don't just disappear into nowhere, right? I'm sure there's just some sort of satellite malfunction or something. These things are always shortin' out now that the fal'Cie aren't powering them. We just gotta make do. I'm sure the military are sending up some cameras to find out what happened-- give it a few hours and we'll all see that they're all safe and sound and we're being huge worry warts, is all."
"Think they're overreacting?" Maqui whispered to Hope, leaning in closer to the other boy. The silver haired teen shook his head, though, expression as grim as ever even has his eyes were still glued to the holo-vid screen as the news announced that they would keep the general populace updated with whatever information they could find.
"Think they'll send Light up there with the squad?" Hope asked, the question not really directed at anyone. "Maybe that's why she's busy right now. Could be why she can't call back yet."
Serah reached out instead of answering, pulling Hope closer to her in the same manner that Lebreau had hugged Maqui that morning.
"--and in recent updates, the Guardian Corps are attempting to make contact with home base to find out exactly what went wrong at 0750 this morning. They will soon be sending out troops up to Cocoon to check for disaster or power outages. Our best wishes go up to the families up in the mainland and we will do our best to supply them with whatever food and water is necessary for the duration of their crisis. I repeat, our current updates for the situation on Cocoon--"
Gadot reached to turn the holo-vid off. "Alright, that's enough. They've only been saying the same damned things over and over again for the past half hour now. Might as well be listening to some kind of radio broadcast for all they're saying. Don't know how much I'd trust the military to be able to contain the situation on Cocoon if there was indeed some sort of power outage there. We've barely got the supplies for ourselves down here, how the hell are we supposed to support everyone living up there, huh?"
"We can't, that's what." Lebreau shrugged. "But we'll offer anyway, and they'll most likely refuse help because they don't want anything to do with Pulse or even the settlers that came to Pulse. My bets? They'll just turn the soldiers away when anyone reaches them, all convinced that they can do this without help. None of them want to be contaminated with Pulse germs."
Serah hugged Hope closer to her, and the group waited.
-----
It was another three hours before Hope received a call from Bartholomew, telling him to stay put with the rest of them and that he wouldn't be home for the night... and possible the next few nights after that as well.
Maqui hadn't been able to make out the details, but he could hear Hope whispering vehemently to his father from the other room, and could tell by the boy's posture that he didn't approve of Bartholomew's decisions. Dahj had fallen asleep on the couch, and everyone was talking in whispers so not to wake him up.
-----
It was almost nightfall before they heard anything from Lightning, and even then, it had been nothing but a clipped message reassuring them that she was fine, and something about Lindzei's nest. Hope had retreated to the guest room after he had heard that, and even the rest of the room had gone silent, although Maqui was sure that it was because Sazh and Snow actually knew something about what she was saying.
Snow had taken a few minutes to think and then talking quietly with Serah before he nodded and requested from Gadot, "How many transport vehicles do you think we have to spare right now?"
Gadot looked at Maqui pointedly, and the teen shrugged. "About two dozen, maybe? I've been fixing up some of the stuff we salvaged off what was brought down from Cocoon and some of the older parts here already on Pulse, but... well, I've been a bit busy with school lately." He felt sheepish saying that, but Snow had approved of his decision to go back to school (even before he had admitted that Bartholomew Estheim had requested he look after Hope at the private school they attended) and everyone had accepted the longer time period for Maqui to fix things up now that he had homework to deal with again.
"Can't take that many up with us anyway, man." Sazh told Snow softly, and the blond man sighed.
"Wait, what in Pulse are you talking about?" Lebreau demanded, hands on her hips. "Don't you dare think you're keeping anything from us again, oh fearless leader! We're a family, and we've already done this crap before. You want to start something, you better tell all of us what's going on."
Snow was stubbornly quiet even as Serah looked at him curiously, and it wasn't until Hope's voice came from the kitchen that the silence was broken.
"Lindzei. We've heard that name before. It was supposed to be the one who created Cocoon at least thirteen centuries ago. At least, that was what Fang and Vanille tried to explain to us. It's what people down here on Pulse believed, anyway. But we never encountered a Lindzei before... never even heard of that name before recently."
Snow coughed nervously, and everyone's attentions was turned to him. "We don't even know anything for sure yet. But if there's still something up on Cocoon that could be endangering the people... well, we gotta check it out, right? Being the heroes and all."
"Do you even have to ask?" Gadot asked with a laugh, slapping Snow over the shoulder. It seemed like they were the only ones who could take each other's rough-housing, seeing as everyone else would have doubled over from such a playful hit. "So what are we up to this time, oh fearless leader? Gunna find our own way up to Cocoon and check it out? Leave some supplies for people?"
Snow looked like he was about to affirm this, but then he looked down at Serah for approval, which made the girl smile. She nodded at him, knowing that it was what he wanted to do, and he grinned back. "What are we waiting for, right? The heroes will be there to the rescue!"
Maqui cheered along with the rest of Team NORA and Serah and Dahj, although he noticed that Sazh looked appropriately embarrassed and Hope... was silent in this endeavour.
"You in this with us, Hope?" Maqui asked quietly, voice covered by the loud planning that was already going ahead. He focused his attention on the younger boy beside him... not that it was a hard thing to do for him.
Hope just nodded, although he didn't look enthused. "Yeah, of course I am. If people need help, then... we should help them, right? And I'm pretty sure Light already knew that's what Snow would do, anyway."
"That's right, so there's no worries!" Maqui said cheerfully. "We won't get into trouble for what we're doing from her if she already knows!"
Hope just smiled. "That's not how it works, Maqui."
"Sure it's how it works." The older teen stretched a bit and then jerked his head toward the directions of the door. "Wanna help me prepare the transport vehicles? I don't know what Snow's planning it, but he usually likes it big and flashy." It wasn't like they wouldn't be debating over their lack of a plan for the next few hours, anyway. It had been like that ever since Snow got married to Serah, and he stopped charging into situations without a plan. Had something more important to him than being a hero waiting for him back home, he'd explain.
Hope just nodded again, although he followed along as they walked toward the garage and away from the excited planning (or was it really just yelling?) in the house. Sometimes Maqui wondered how their neighbours could stand them, and then he'd realize that the yelling was probably the reason that most people decided to build a few houses length away from them instead.
"What's on your mind?" Maqui ventured as they entered the garage and he pulled the large door closed behind himself. The place was as messy as ever, seeing as he hadn't had time to clean up before this morning, and he had been in the middle of disassembling a vevlocycle the past week for its gattling guns and hovering capabilities. The two of them hadn't too much time to just talk about things lately, seeing as everyone was always so careful with what they said outside. The only times they could really talk had been at Hope's house, or even Lightning's... or just in the garage.
After he had realized that the Estheims were presenting themselves as a flawless image to the rest of society, Maqui had taken a few days to study up on whatever EMP devices he might be able to scrounge up, and within a week had covered his garage walls with gadgets that would ensure nothing foreign got in, and nothing foreign could get out-- least of all sound signals that could be tracked by radio and cellular waves. Everything they talked about in the garage would be completely private once the door closed.
"Nothing." But the sigh that Hope gave even as he plopped down in his usual seat claimed otherwise. "It's just... nothing. At least, not much."
"C'mon, you know we can talk here." Maqui claimed cheerfully even as he grabbed his box of tools and waved a spanner at the younger boy. "What do you think about the whole communications thing going on this morning, then, huh? I mean, that's got everyone spooked-- think ten million people really did up and disappear all within the same minute this morning? Just... poof! And gone?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," Hope muttered under his breath, but shook his head before Maqui could ask what he was talking about. "I don't think we'll be able to get big transport ships up there, Maqui. At least, not the first trip around. If Sazh can get any sort of word in, we'd probably have a recon mission first to make sure that everything's safe. For all we know, something really did manage to kill ten million people up there-- and the only thing that can kill that fast is some kind of airborne virus."
"A virus? C'mon, Hope, the fal'Cie would never--" Maqui trailed off in his words when he realized what he was saying, and attempted a few coughs to cover it up, even as the younger boy gave him a pointed look. "Right. Okay. So that's a possibility. But we can't exactly send an unmanned ship up there to check it out, man. Not even Sazh can pilot that remotely-- especially with the chaos that occurred during planetfall? Uh-uh, no way. We're definitely sending someone up in a ship, so we gotta make sure these things work, then. Maybe one that's airtight... that ought to do it, right?"
"No. We'll just need someone to get a close enough picture on what could be happening up in Cocoon, and then they'd send one person up onto the planet in a bio-suit and a camera to see what's going on." Hope got up from the chair. "We won't need any of these vehicles yet right now. But we'll need to get hazmat suits."
"Wait-- Hope, hey, wait a minute!" Maqui dropped his box of tools even as Hope opened to door to the secondary room of the garage, where he left all his spare junk. He would have just kept it outside if it hadn't been for the realization that the weather was unpredictable and would wear away at all the spare parts and equipment. Not to mention if some creature manage to get into the settlement... they were pretty close to the edge, after all, and the chances were much higher there than anywhere else...
"We'll need a camera." Came Hope's voice from the other room, slightly muffled as he shifted through items. "Something that can tell temperature, what's in the air, etc... I don't know, you've always been better at the mechanical aspects and terms than I've been."
"Yeah, so you should let me handle-- whoa!" Maqui ducked as a small gear nearly took his eye out. "Where are you throwing that?"
Hope looked up, sheepish. "Oh. Sorry."
"Yeah, you should figure out by now that I'm always going to come following you, so throwing things behind your shoulder isn't a good idea," the blond grumbled.
"Well, that's what the military's going to find out," Hope went straight back into look for things, looking unapologetic. "And they're going to send someone up there to check it out, so we could just wait until the news gets a hold of this before we try and launch a mission ourselves."
-----
Truth enough, six in the evening prompted the holo-vid screens on again as the newscaster spoke about the Guardian Corps's attempt to fly a shuffle up into the barren planet, and there being absolutely no one to greet the man there.
The images came back in crystal clarity, and there was no denying that there was definitely something wrong. There was no chaos in the streets, no power outages. The communication system was working just find when he manned it up there, and even the houses looked like a meal had just been left half eaten and cold.
"Now that is spooky." Sazh commented, even as he hefted Dahj up higher while they watched the broadcast, the little boy clinging to his neck. "Who would just up and leave in the middle of breakfast?"
From what it looked like, nothing else had disappeared other than the people and animals. No missing machinery, clothes, food, or even energy losses recorded during that time period. The man had reported the air and water to be perfectly safe, but was going to refrain from going back to Gran Pulse for the next twenty four hours in case there had been something he hadn't picked up, and even after that the GC had reassured the people that he would be contained and quarantined for a week to ensure he carried no hazardous chemicals back with him.
"We're going to write notes for you," Lebreau said to Maqui and Hope after the broadcast. "You're not going back to school the next few days. We're going to find out what happened, and we're going to need every brain we can. Although," She swatted at Maqui's head. "Yours is debatable."
After the obligatory protests, Maqui had huffed and practically dragged Hope back to the garage by the hand, already knowing all too well that the adults weren't going to start their important conversations until they were sure that the kids were safely out of range. Besides, there were things that he wanted to talk to Hope about. Like Lindzei, and why the other teen didn't think they'd need the larger transport ships.
After he closed and locked the garage door again to ensure that no one would be able to listen in to their conversation (did the others think that they'd be only ones discussing important things?), he waited for Hope to take a seat in the overstuffed chair he left in the garage just for the other boy before sitting down as well, nervous and anxious at the same time, knowing there was far too much that the younger boy knew.
"They're not going to let us go with them." Is the first thing that Hope revealed, looking somewhat irritated about his conclusion. "Getting out of school or not, they're going to make us wait here and monitor the news or some crap like that to let us feel involved. That's them wanting us safe but out of the way."
"Hey, it's not so bad staying behind from combat," Maqui tried to object, although he felt almost timid in the face of Hope's irritation and determination to do something about the situation. "It's better than getting in the way and having someone injured because they were trying to protect us instead."
"Not when we can do something to help, though." Hope sighed and closed his eyes, leaning slightly against Maqui and making the blond tense up.
Calm, calm, the older teen could feel his face heating up. Hope was just used to contact with people he trusted, and it was great to understand that the younger boy trusted him as well. No sudden movements. All he had to do was keep his arms to his sides.
Holy shit, the stupid overstuffed two-seater sofa he had gotten for the garage was the best idea he ever had in his life.
"We can still do things down here to help them," Maqui spoke up, hoping that his voice wasn't squeaking. "If they need people to monitor the situation down here. It's not always about being on the front lines of adventures, you know."
"Yeah, I know." His tone was still irritated, and Maqui could sympathize. He had always been the one left behind as well, although he never really had too much problems with that, being in the background as he was. He was the mechanic, after all, he stayed back to take care of the equipment. And the one time he hadn't stayed back, he had still been in the background, the back-up in case anything happened.
Hope had always been on the front lines, and despite being pushed to the back all the time, he must have been used to it. Maqui had a hard time imagining what it would be like to be on the front lines all the time, and then to get used to it...
"We'll provide back-up," Maqui tried to appease him. "In case anything happens... they'll have someone here who will know what to do, and then we'll be able to do something about it-- it's a really important job!"
Hope sighed, but looked more placated. "I guess. Either way, we won't be needing the transport ships. There's a much faster way to get to Cocoon."
-----
Later on in the evening, Lightning finally returned home, Serah immediately going to her sister with tea and warm food, making the older woman smile as she accepted the offered gifts.
"Any news on what happened?" Sazh asked quietly. He had put Dahj to bed not half an hour ago, and no one wanted to wake up the little boy with their worries about what was going on. The entirety of the settlements on Gran Pulse was waiting with bated breaths for news from the motherland, and their little group was no exception to that.
"No more than what was said on the news," Lightning returned, her tone clipped. "General Amodar wants a private squad up there before the population gets up in riots about the situation. It's to be kept down low; no broadcasts."
"So what are they saying, really?" Yuj asked, making the soldier glare at him for questioning. He backed up slightly with his hands raised in surrender. "Just asking!"
"They're saying that we'll be the ones going in." Snow answered for him. "Small team, right? Undercover? Not going to be missed? That's us!" He had a grin all the while, undermining the seriousness of the situation. "This time we just have to be the heroes that the world doesn't know about. Get in and investigate what's going on."
Lightning just nodded in acknowledgment. "We'll be getting suits, but no transport. Keep it quiet. We head out at sunrise."
"No transports... how are we even supposed to get to Cocoon, then?" Lebreau asked, folding her arms. "I know Maqui's got a good number of ships, but there's no way we'd be able to get up there without attracting the attention of everyone-- everyone's staring at Cocoon now, you can't just sneak a transport ship up there."
"Teleport spots." Maqui spoke up, having walked into the room in the middle of the conversation. He was quiet, finally having gotten the information out of Hope before the other boy had retired back to his designated guest room to finish up his homework and to give his dad another call. Lightning looked at him sharply, but Maqui was too tired to respond to her properly. It had been hard enough trying to get the information out of Hope, and the other teen hadn't been reluctant to give that information up. It had just been hard to get into the situation where Hope would tell him what was going on.
"That's how you're going to do it, right? You guys have teleport spots back in Cocoon."
"Hope told you." Lightning pursed her lips, scowling lightly.
Maqui just nodded, not bothering to deny anything. Of course Hope had been the one that told him, who else would tell him anything?
Lightning stayed silent for another few moments, eyes narrowed him at him, but decided to turn her attention to the others in the room who were waiting for her explanation. "He's right. We have ways of getting up to Cocoon. We'll be taking those teleport points in order to get up there and do some investigating of our own."
"And when are you going to be divulging this information to us, huh?" Gadot spoke up, looking irritated. He stood in the doorway to the kitchen, tall and looming over the rest of them, with a glare directed at Snow. It was strange, seeing as Gadot almost never got mad at anyone, least of all Snow-- Maqui could remember during the Purge when Gadot had been behind Snow's decision all the way in just about everything. Team NORA had spent their time saving people and giving Snow headway so that he would be able to head into the Pulse Vestige and get Serah. To save her.
Even now, Serah had a calming hand on Snow's arm, supporting his decisions as well.
"Look, we never thought it would come up, alright? It wasn't exactly something I could bring up in a conversation, 'hey, guys, I know ways to get to Cocoon without taking any of the transport ships--'"
"You could have told us! Fuel and power are getting more and more scarce, and if there's something that we can do in order to help everyone else... bring people up and down, bring and give supplies..."
"Then what? Would you have made these public knowledge?"
"And since when have you wanted to keep something like this to yourself?" Gadot snapped back, looking truly intimidating. "Since when you have hoarded something as precious as a teleport point between Cocoon and Pulse all to yourself?"
Lightning stood up straight from where she had been leaning against the wall, expression thunderous. "Since these teleportation points were once people, alright?"
Silence struck the room, and Maqui just quietly took a seat, wondering if Hope was going to rejoin the conversation. The one good thing that had always come from Hope and Dahj joining the conversation had been that everyone had always been so much more mild around them-- making sure not to lose their tempers or yell.
"...People?" Lebreau asked, although she was much more quiet now, one hand against her lips in contemplation. "What are you talking about?"
"They used to be Cie'th," Snow explained, although his voice was low and serious. "Cie'th who wandered of hundreds of years until they finally gave up and turned to stone... and for a price, for the completion of their Focus, they would teleport us to where we needed to go-- certain points, certain places. Not all of them can do that, of course, but some of them retained some power from when they had been l'Cie, and turned this power into something else."
"So they..."
Lightning cut Lebreau off. "That's why they don't need a power source and no one's discovered them. They're just the stones that are lying around that we're requested not be harmed- because they were parts of cultural history. But they're more than history- they were once people."
"And we'll be using them to get up to Cocoon again." Sazh finally cut in. "You see why it's hard to bring up in a conversation? Because I do. I didn't agree with everyone else's reactions when they wanted to keep the Cie'th stones a secret, but I do agree that we shouldn't be using them for our own purposes. Especially to everyone else."
"And they won't respond to anyone else." Snow said. "It's like... no one else can hear them. And they scream." His voice was uncharacteristically somber, leading the entire room to quiet.
"We heard them only because we were once l'Cie." Lightning cut him off. "It's possible that they still respond to us because they can sense that. Doubtful other people would be able to use them."
She nodded, though, when the others took their time to digest the information. "Snow and I will head out tomorrow, then. Sazh and Hope will be our back-up team."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Maqui protested, his tiredness dissipating when he heard that. That wasn't fair! He had been entirely prepared to stay behind with Hope... they were always the ones who were left behind, mostly because they were the kids. "You're taking Hope? Then I'm going with you!"
"I don't think it's a good idea to take the kids," Lebreau protested, hushing Maqui. "Either of them. Gadot and I will come with if you need a back-up team. I'd rather Yuj and Maqui stay behind as well."
"That isn't fair!" Yuj protested immediately, and Maqui agreed as well, throwing his own verbal protests in there. "We're not kids! We're just as invested in this as everyone else here-- you can't just leave us behind like that!"
"This isn't like the Purge," Snow said, his voice firm. "It's not a do or die situation-- and we need people here to moniter what's going on. We'll have two teams. One to go up, another for back-up. You guys are going to stay here and take care of things on this end, no objections."
Lightning was frowning, though. "If we're going to have three people on the team, I'd rather have Hope with me."
"Hey! We just agreed that the kids were going to stay here!" Lebreau protests, which let out another string of protests from both Yuj and Maqui as well. "They're staying here-- they're going to make sure that no one finds out about the expedition, right? Just how many suits are the military willing to lend, anyway?"
"Sis, I don't think it's a good idea-- Bartholomew will never allow it--"
"I won't leave him down here as the sole target if any of the residents here get it in their head that attacking a former l'Cie is a good way of getting results back on the Cocoon incident. Serah, they don't know about. Dahj is a hero for Cocoon. If the three of us go up, Hope would be the only one down here for them to target. I won't have that."
"You can't!" Maqui protested, standing indignantly from where he had been seated previously. "You can't just leave the rest of us behind, then! If he's going, then I'm coming with as well-- you can't say we're kids! That excuse doesn't hold out if you're going to take Hope with you."
"I don't have time to babysit you," Lightning snapped at him, eyes flashing. "What I need is experienced soldiers with me up there--"
"You said you weren't going to turn him into a soldier," Lebreau protested before Maqui could speak up, her voice just as firm. "That excuse won't hold up when you bring him into danger--"
"Would everyone please just... calm down." Serah's voice cut in, clear as ever. The room fell silent as she sighed, knowing better than to interrupt the most precious member of their group. "We won't get anything done if we're going to keep arguing. So let's start with the basics."
She turned to Lightning. "How many suits are the Guardian Corps willing to part with for this mission?"
The older woman remained stubbornly silent, but that didn't last as Serah's gaze refused to relent, and the soldier sighed. "As many as we need. We'd have enough for everyone in this room if we needed it."
"And would you rather have teams of two or three with you?" Serah continued to ask, voice calm. The others started to protest again, but she just held up a hand and they fell silent. "This is her mission, and I trust Lightning to know what she's doing. She gets to decide who she wants there with her."
That seemed to shut Lightning up as well and she looked more thoughtful. "The original plan was for teams of two. But... if one member of the team were to go down, it would be useful to have someone else there as well to pick up the slack. That way is there's an injury, then we'd still have a someone to fight as well as someone else to support the injured."
The soldier sighed, looking more reasonable now that she was getting a chance to speak her mind. "I won't relent on my idea-- I want Hope in the other team. He has the expertise and field experience, and I need as many hands as I can get."
"You'll have plenty of hands!" Lebreau couldn't seem to contain herself anymore on her opinions. "He's a child. And I don't care if he was a former l'Cie or if he has the field experience that you need, he's just a kid now and he shouldn't be pulled into missions like this-- we don't know what's up there, or what's going on. Ten million people just suddenly disappearing? We don't know if there's a fal'Cie doing this or a virus, or anything at all. If you need hands, I'll all up for volunteering to help. Just leave the kids out of it."
"You have no right to say anything about whether Hope gets to go or not!" Lightning snapped. "As this is my mission, I'm deciding who gets to go--"
"Yeah, and if Hope's going, then I'm going, too!" Maqui pipped up.
"Stay out of this, Maqui!" Lebearu shouted. "You're not going, and neither is Hope!"
"Guys!" Serah raised her arms to calm everyone down, keeping them up until she saw that people were willing to at least seethe silently. "Please. Let's just let my sister talk. We'll debate this over once she explains her reasoning, alright?"
"I don't need to be questioned like this," Lightning said sharply. "This is my mission, and my parameters. I should have known better than to let Team NORA into this discussion at all. Seems like it'll be two man teams after all." She gave a sharp look to Snow before turning on her heels to march up the stairs. "If you're still with me on this one, Snow, then you'll have to contact me later. Without them."
And with that, she marched up the stairs, footsteps light and uniform, unwilling to bely her agitation and irritation. There was no doubt in anyone's minds that she was going up to take Hope back home... at least, over to the house shared by Lightning, Serah, and Snow.
And as much as Maqui wanted to continue his protests with the soldier, he was aware that it was a completely fruitless endeavour. Lightning wasn't going to listen to him, especially right now when she was already up to arms about being contradicted.
"Don't even think about it, Maqui!" Lebreau snapped right before she stormed into the kitchen, slamming the door behind her before banging cups and drink mixers around. It was just her way of working out stress, the teen knew, since the kitchen was pretty much her territory... even if Gadot was a better cook.
There was silence in the room for a moment before Yuj spoke up, "Dude, what just happened?"
-----
"What are you going to do?" Yuj asked before they headed to bed. "They can't just leave us behind like that, can they? I mean, Lebreau's always up and at it about us still being kids, but we're not kids, man. That is not cool. Haven't we proved ourselves already out on the Hanged Edge? We saved everyone! We kept people safe, and we didn't even get injured-- took down all those Sanctum bastards like they were nothing. And now we're going to be left behind while everyone else was volunteered for the mission up to Cocoon? Even Hope gets to go!"
"Man, it's not that bad to be back-up, you know." Maqui protested tiredly, although he didn't really have his heart in his words. At this rate, he was certain that Hope would get his wish and not be left behind while he and Yuj would be the ones left behind by everyone. For some reason, it had been much easier to stay behind when he knew that Hope would be there as well.
"What, you're going to just stay behind while Hope goes up there?" Yuj demanded, seating himself down in the chair in Maqui's room, the place little more than a closet, really, seeing as the other boy never really needed much space (his space being in the garage) and Yuj always needed a bigger room for all his fashion accessories. "You going to let him go up without you?"
"And what am I supposed to do?" It wasn't as if he wanted to go up in the first place-- Maqui was a mechanic. He was part of Team NORA, yeah, but he knew his own limits; knew what he could and couldn't do. He was great with the rest of Team NORA, but even then there were times when he didn't want to do the hero thing-- of course, not while he was doing it, though. The adrenaline would cheer him on, and he'd be proud to protect people, but...
Getting into Sergeant Farron's way? That was plain old suicide.
Yuj stared at him for a moment, completely blank, before his expression twisted and he demanded, "So you're seriously going to let the love of your life just... march up there and possibly get killed because you're too scared to face off against Lightning Farron?"
"He's not the love of my life," Maqui grumbled, head down as his cheeks flushed red. How fast did information travel, anyway? Just because Lebreau and Yuj knew about his... crush didn't mean anything. "And anyone with common sense wouldn't face off against her."
"Snow did. And he's still standing-- in fact, he's on such good relations with her that she wants him as part of her team." The blue-haired teen grunted as Maqui didn't respond to that. "Probably because, I don't know, he's actually willing to stand up to her, and he managed to win her respect."
"I'm not Snow, okay," Maqui grumbled. He remembered wanting to be just like Snow, and a part of him still did-- the older man was awesome in every way, and he always managed to get things to happen the way he wanted them to, but... even Snow had been arguing that they should just obey orders earlier. What happened to the premise of Team NORA, anyway? This wasn't want was supposed to go on-- Snow wasn't supposed to back Lightning before he backed Lebreau! And he wasn't supposed to keep secrets from them anymore.
"Yeah, but I still remember the Maqui that wanted to be just like Snow." Yuj stood up again in a huff. "And I don't know, man. I kind of liked that kid better than the one I'm staring at right now."
The older boy exited the room without a backward glance, and Maqui just glared at his desk, wondering what in the world had gone wrong that day. It wasn't as if Team NORA hadn't stood up against disasters before. Every family had their share of fights, right? But he had Yuj had never really seriously disagreed on anything before, and he hadn't wanted things to fall apart like this.
What was that supposed to mean, anyway? He still wanted to be like Snow-- Maqui hadn't changed that much. He just grew up a little and saw that maybe Snow wasn't always right, that was all. Snow kept secrets as well and made mistakes. He always managed to get through them, but that was because he was Snow, and that was him, and Maqui wasn't like him. He always got into trouble when he tried to play the hero, especially around Hope.
First with the crash, and then with the kidnapping. Sure, things had worked out, but this time everyone was completely worked up over this mission to Cocoon. Everyone had people they knew back there, after all. Even Maqui had a few contacts there-- distant friends who had wanted to stay in Bodhum for fear of the Pulsian sun. People he had gone swimming with before and gone to parties with even if he wasn't anywhere as close to them as he was to Team NORA.
"They're not the only ones hurting, okay?" He grumbled to himself even as he flopped onto bed, staring up at the darkened ceiling after he turned out the lights. "Everyone's got people they know up in Cocoon..."
He wasn't stupid enough to not know that Snow, Lebreau and Gadot were probably still arguing downstairs. What had Team NORA come to? They had been such a tight unit... when had they started arguing like that?
If this was what it was like to be a grown up, Maqui wasn't sure he entirely wanted to grow up. He wasn't in a hurry, after all.
Maybe, he hoped as he closed his eyes, things will look better in the morning. Either he woke up and realized that the entire day had been a dream, or people wake up and realize that they still loved each other and wanted to apologize for being such jerks.
Either way, he was done with the day.
Okay, guys, this one's not like the other ones-- it's not already finished, it's a work in progress, and it's a slow one, to boot. This is day 1 and the entire story should span 3-5 days, but from different POVs. No, I won't go back once things are done to retell it, but I'm hoping to make lots of different things happen at once.