Learning My Roots (Hope Estheim Love Story)

Chapter 12: Choose Our Path

Disclaimer: Everything besides Bella and her family belong to Square Enix.

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"Heads up," Lightning said. Smoke bombs fell inside the house from the windows above us. "Cough....Cough....what...cough...is this?" I tried to say. I heard the windows break. I knew that it would be PSICOM troops.

I saw a PSICOM soldier coming towards me. I couldn't throw my chakram with smoke around us. I could accidentally hurt somebody. I had to do hand on hand combat. I was okay with hand on hand combat. I was able to knock out a couple of them.

I went up to Hope. He came towards me. "Are you okay?" he asked me. "Yeah, I'm okay," I told him. We hid ourselves from the troops outside. We peaked at the windows. We turned to see Snow and Hope's father. Lightning signaled them to come closer. Hope went towards his father. His father was glad that Hope was safe from harm.

Snow took his jacket off and the troop shot at it. Snow yelled at them to stop. He walked out hands up. The leader of the troops was Yaag Rosch. He said that he understood our situation. He was the one who ordered our executions. He thought that it was safer for us to be killed in order to protect thousands of Cocoon citizens.

The place was filled with smoke again and I heard gunfire. "What's going on?" I asked. "We're leaving," Lightning said to us. "Hope tie up your dad. We threaten you and forced you to help us. Got it," Lighting instructed them both. I understood why she said that. It was a way to protect Hope's father.

His father wanted another option, but Hope stopped him. "Do what she said," Hope said facing his father. "I can't let you get dragged into this. I wanna stay here. But, there is no place for a l'cie," he said. He finished tying his father. "I'm going with the others. We'll survive somehow. I promise you that," he said to him.

I stood behind Hope. "Dad. I hate to run out on you," Hope said. "You're not running," his father cut in. Hope flinched a bit. I put a hand on his shoulder. "This is not running away. You've made a choice. You'll survive and what needs to be done," his father said. "You mean...complete our focus," Hope said. "Don't worry about that. You make the choice," his father said to him.

Hope gave his father a hug. I felt myself smile. {You're not alone anymore. You have someone to live and fight for.} They pulled apart. "Thanks dad," Hope said to him. His father turned to me. "Take care of him," he told me. "I will. I promise," I said.

Hope and the others ran forward to fight the PSICOM ship. I stayed with Snow. After they defeat the ship, we boarded on airship that Fang knew. We got our own rooms to rest. I sat on the bed thinking about everything that had happen so far.

It was so much. I couldn't believe that I survived this far. Buki would be very proud of me. I was using almost everything that she taught me. I wondered if they worried about me. If I saw them again, I would have to explain about mom and her death.

Knock...Knock....

"Come in," I said. Hope came into the room. "How are you feeling?" he asked me. "A bit tired from everything that had happened," I said. I saw him fiddle with something in his pocket. "You said something about Divinia. What is it?" he asked me.

I sighed. "The only thing I could tell you right now truthfully is that it is another world," I told him. He nodded his head. "So you're not really from Cocoon," he said. "In a way, yes," I said. I turned to him. "I will tell you and the others when I'm ready," I told him. He gave me a nod and walked out. {Was that the only thing he wants to know?}

We were at Lindblum, Sanctum Guardian Corps, an airship. We were watching the news. The Sanctum had already caught two l'cie and now had them locked up. They would be sentenced at the capital. Raines said that they would most likely be executed. They were using the locked up l'cie as bait for us.

The Primarch expect us to rescue our friends. We were all in to save them. We needed to make a plan. We needed to infiltrate the Palamecia. Hope was terrified, but he said that he would be okay. The airship dropped up off on Palamecia.

As we walked up, we heard a red alert. They knew that we were here. We had to literally fight our way deeper into the airship. It was fight after fight. We found ourselves outside. We had to watch our step. One wrong move, we would be falling to our deaths. "Need a hand," Hope asked me. He gave me his hand and I took it. He helped me balance across a bridge.

"The wind, its dying down," Hope said. "Yeah its stopping. We're decelerating. They up to something?" Lightning said with her arms crossed. "I don't suppose it means good luck," Snow suggested. We saw machine monsters appear on the ground. "That looks a lot more like bad luck," Fang said. "You got a point," Snow said back.

"Not to me. Thats something we could do about," Lighting said. "Like training," I said. "Exactly," she said in response. We continued our way fighting monsters. We stopped and saw a flying electric monster coming towards us. "So Light. How do you figure that this makes us lucky?" Fang asked her. "Because when we kill it, we'll be one step closer to Vanille. How's that," Lightning said. "Well if you put it that way," Fang said and we fought the beast.

We were able to kill it. It fell onto the ship then got swept away by the wind. "Another one," Hope said. He was right. "Again?" I said. Snow made a joke about luck. "I don't think its time to joke Snow," I said and it flew over us.

We heard an explosion next to us. There was smoke. Next thing you know, we saw a small chocobo chick, Sazh, and Vanille. Vanille and Fang were about to have their reunion when the monster decided to attack us.

After we defeated the monster, Vanille and Fang gave each other a hug. We were all happy that they were reunited. Fang pulled apart and looked at Vanille's mark on the thigh. Snow and Hope turned around. {Thats right, don't be a pervert guys.}

Sazh wanted to know our next plan. We told him that we were going to destroy the Sanctum so that the people of Cocoon could live in peace. More flying beast appeared in the sky. Fang told Vanille to fish one of them. They were able to get one.

Fang told us to hop onto the thing. I sat behind Hope. Sazh got the bad end. He had to hang on. Soon, we were getting shot at from below. The beast was able to make a hole for us. I heard someone say to jump and I did into the hole. It felt like a long fall.

I woke up on the landing area. Lighting helped me onto my feet. "Dysley's through there," Lightning said in front of a path. We made it to a big room. In front of us, was the Primarch himself with some of his "servant." A woman jumped down in front of us. She was known as Nabaat.

Rabat was going to protect the Primarch but, he told him to leave. We saw that the Primarch used magic to kill her in front of us. {Did he use magic?} He started to float up into the air and killed the other workers in the room. He saw them as tools.

Snow got really angry. He charged at the Primarch but, the primarch was being protected by a force field of some sort. "Cocoon is a factory. Built by the fal'cie. The Primarch showed his true form. He was a fal'cie. He was known as Barthandelus.