FFXIII: ROB's Wheel c82

It was all her fault. Lightning, the ex-Sargent of Bodhum’s Guardian Corp, was thinking about how this whole situation went in a downward spiral.

Her little sister, out of nowhere, showed her that she was ‘chosen’ as one of the l’Cie of the lower world of Pulse.

Stuff like that was madness. There were no l’Cies from Pulse for close to a thousand years. All Lightning could think of was that her little sister was rebelling and wanting an excuse to marry that oaf Snow. 

But here she was… in an actual Purge Train to be taken to the edge of Cocoon and then to get executed… the reason? It's because her sister was indeed chosen one by one of those things.

The thing in question is a Fal’Cie, a construct created by gods long ago. All Fal’Cie have tasks they have to fulfil. 

The ones inside Cocoon are caretakers. They create food, water, and energy, all of which humans can use. While in the Lower world of Pulse? She has no idea. All there is propaganda, which she doesn’t believe or doesn’t want to believe.

However, one thing they all can do is mark people and turn them into l’Cie. The difference between a regular human and a l’Cie is that the branded people can use magic.

But there is a price for that. As l’Cies have a mission, they must fulfil it for the Fal’Cie. 

All Lightning can think of is that Serah, her little sister, was branded by that thing. Her mission is most likely to destroy Cocoon, as that's the only thing a Pulse Fal’Cie could possibly ask.

And if she fails with such a mission… her little sister will become a monster!

‘Not if I can say something about that!’

Lightning clenched her hand as she thought about letting loose the moment she was in the ‘Hanging Edge’. She will find her sister who is aboard that thing!

“So… what are we going to do once we are in that place?” The girl before Lightning spoke to the guy next to her.

“...”

The ex-military pinkette was somewhat perplexed to see how this girl looked nonchalant about the current situation.

“Well, if my memory serves me right, people will resist, and there will be chaos. We can use that.” The guy had a similar attitude to the girl. It looked like he didn’t care or that he didn’t see the magnitude of this situation.

“That sounds good enough for me. I do wonder how strong they are; their gear looks impressive. Do you think they are fire resistant?” the pinkette asked the guy.

“No idea. From the looks of it, they do have some protection against conventional weapons.”

“... it's a good thing we don’t use those.” The girl hinted at something.

This kind of conversation made Lightning question if they were plotting something once they were in that place.

‘A possible distraction…’

Lightning will use any means necessary to get to her sister’s location.

~~~

Alex was feeling nostalgic about the whole thing. He was in a video game, and it was a unique experience compared to his other visits.

Anime is anime… but story-driven games leave a unique memory behind for him.

As someone who replayed this game several times before he got bored, he knows a thing or two.

But the question is…

Does game mechanics exist in this place? He wonders how the combat is in this reality.

‘I don’t sense any strange energies which could force me to wait for ‘my’ turn.’

As he was thinking about the whole thing, he got onto the train after getting his ‘exile’ clothes.

At least they are giving him clothes before his ‘last adventure’.

“Robes? Really?” Julis complained, feeling like she was part of some strange cult…

“I don’t mind mine; I will keep these as souvenirs.” Alex, on the other hand, was giddy about his experience so far.

“Sure… I won’t keep mine.” She rolled her eyes as they finally boarded their train.

A certain someone was right behind them. 

The girl didn’t speak or look around, but Alex could see from her movement and mannerisms that she was a soldier and knew how to fight. 

She might look tame with her behaviour, but behind that facade, she is ready to break bones and even kill.

Julis looked where he was gazing. The fellow pinkette noticed the military pinkette a while ago. It’s easy to pick up when killing intent is radiating from her towards those black-armoured PSICOM soldiers.

‘No doubt she is the main character… but seriously? Does he have a thing for pink-haired girls?’ 

The Princess realised that now!

Inori, this girl, and of course her, all have pink hair.

In the end, she decided to see how this would transpire as she had no idea how this adventure was supposed to proceed.

Several minutes later, the train began to move.

“Ugh… do I have to keep these on my wrists?” Julis complained with a whispering tone about the handcuffs.

“If you want, you can take them off; just don’t make a scene or allow these blockheads to see that you have them off.” He whispered back.

“Easy enough…”

Just like that, the cuffs turned into purple crystals and shattered into crystal dust.

“Much better.”

Julis sighed in relief as she rotated her wrists briefly before looking at her side.

It was the other pinkette, the military girl!

The Princess smirked for a second before moving her hand on her cuffs.

Seconds later, they turned into crystal dust, too.

“...Thanks…”

Lightning had no idea what else to say in this situation. It was an absurd day to her, to say the least.

“No worries.” 

After removing the cuffs, the girl pretended to have them. Soon enough, the guard would do their rounds again, walking through the aisle.

Lightning was about to jump on him, but Julis placed her hand on her to stop.

The ex-military girl frowned for a second, but at that moment, the guard tripped on a crystal dropped on the ground. Before he can stand up, lightning shocks him into unconsciousness.

After that, the trio stood up and went over to check the guard.

“Let’s see…”

As Alex began to check for the master control device.

“Let me.” The military pinkette quickly grabbed it as she knew where to look.

Once in her hands, she dropped on the floor and slammed her foot on it, disabling the cuffs in the entire train.

But that caused the alarms to blare through the entire train.

Immediately, the carriage doors opened, and more PSiCOM guards poured in.

“...I will deal with them.” Inori, who had been quiet the whole time, moved forward, and her hands morphed into crystal swords.

While on the other side, the pinkette military girl jumped on other guards.

With some serious athletic skills, she made their bones crack.

Alex slightly grimaced upon hearing that. He prefers more clean cuts…

‘I think I am far too used to cutting stuff…’ 

It was evident after seeing how Inori dealt with her enemies. After all, she learned from him…

There was a pool of blood and cut-apart bodies.

Once the four were dealt with, Lightning rushed away to deal with other guards.

“That girl is hardcore. She didn’t even wait for us!” Julis pouted as she wanted to deal with some guards.

“Yes, well, she is on a mission,” Alex joked as he ignited his lightning and dashed forward.

“Hey! That is cheating!” She was about to follow him, but then she realised that there was another side to it! 

So she swiftly dashed in the opposite direction from where Inori was! At least in that direction, she will find some cannon fodders!

In the meantime, other people didn’t even release any sounds as they were horrified to see what had just transpired!

These people were able to use magic!

~~~

Lightning rushed to get her weapon. She is certain that it was stored on the train. Before she could check the storage areas, more guards came to greet her.

Before she could do anything, bolts of lightning slammed into them.

The guards collapsed on the ground, with smoke leaving their bodies.

The pinkette turned around and saw the guy from before walking over to her side.

Instead of commenting, she looked for the weapon’s storage.

“Here…”

He walked over and grabbed one of the guards. A tattoo on his hand glowed, and he pulled out a sabre-like weapon from the downed guard’s body!

“...What…the…” Lightning’s reaction was that of shock.

What she just witnessed was ‘magic mumbo jumbo’.

“I extracted his soul and gave it a form with my crystal manipulation. The weapon manifests a unique ability depending on a soul.” As he explained, he did a couple of swings, leaving sharp gusts of wind.

“Oh, so it's wind.” He commented after seeing what it does.

“Anyway…” Alex walked over and offered the weapon to her.

“You can have it.”

She took it, inspecting the strange weapon. The DNA-like particles spinning around the weapon were slightly disturbing.

“...And you just hand it over like that?” She swirled it around, realising it was extremely light and impressive balance.

“Not that I will complain.” The girl commented more before slamming the weapon into the storage area’s doors.

Her eyes widened slightly when she saw how casually she could cut through the steel doors!

“Well, you do have reason to cause the commotion, so I might as well help you out.” As he explained his reasons, one of his hands crystalised, becoming a sword, and then he helped her enter the storage area

She looked at his hand for a second, but then she returned to her mission. While his abilities spooked her, she had her mission. 

While crazy, she can work with it.

“Fair point. But I won’t be assisting with whatever you have to do.” She grabbed her gun blade and sheathed in her scabbard.

“Don’t worry about the details.” He smirked before looking at all of the weapons stored in this train.

“Kind of crazy that this train has this many weapons.”

“That’s because it is a military train. They had no time to retrofit for something else.” She explained before spotting a rocket launcher.

“Can you carry some extra?” The ex-military girl asked him.

“Sure.”

A device appeared in his hand. He pressed a couple of things, and a translucent wall appeared above them.

He then grabbed the rocket launcher and all of its extra ammo, and the translucent wall collected all of it! It got stored away somewhere else!

Lightning looked intrigued by that! If she had something like that…

All of the tools and gadgets she could have!

“Done.” He twirled the device before it disappeared.

“...Good. We should remove all of the PSICOM before we reach the Hanging Edge.”

It wasn’t a suggestion as she immediately began to walk towards the front of the train.

“Sure. Let’s see if you can wield the ability of that sabre.” 

The ex-military girl looked at her weapon for a second before wondering how this worked. Well, if it doesn’t work, she can always rely on the sharpness of the blade instead of relying on magic mumbo jumbo.

They didn’t need to wait for long as they arrived at another carriage, which was sealed from the inside.

“Damn, we can allow them to contact others! They could stop the train in the middle of nowhere, and we will never reach the Hanging Edge!” The girl said that after realising what was going on.

These guys most likely saw the footage of what they could do and sealed themselves…

“In that case, we just cut it open and make the driver see reason,” Alex suggested.

“...Sounds like a plan.” She swiftly nodded before dashing to the sealed door and stabbing the Void Sabre, which began to cut it open like a tin can. 

“Ho… not bad, you are concentrating the wind to create an even sharper edge.

You are natural at this.”

‘Duh… didn’t this girl kill a god later on?’

Albion ‘duh’ him all of a sudden.

“Less talking! Don’t your hands change into blades?” She exclaimed.

“Yup!”

He walked over and stabbed one of his hand blades into another section of the sealed door.