Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic - Saviors of Heroes

Chapter 1

Laura felt the ground underneath her crumble. Launching herself forward, she just barely was able to grab onto a railing that still stood. A loud shriek echoed across The Hanging Edge, coming from the Pulse Vestige. That must be the Fal'Cie. It didn't surprise her; PSICOM was completely destroying the Vestige. The falling debris was destroying the surrounding tracks.

Laura had been on duty during the night of the fireworks. As a part of the Bodhum Security Regiment, it was her duty to protect the citizens of the seaside city of Bodhum. Her superior, Lieutenant Amodar, told her she could go home and care for her sick mother. As she questioned him farther, he had revealed that PSICOM had found something in the Vestige. The following day, The Purge had been ordered. Even though Laura hadn't been obligated to participate, being a soldier, she willingly volunteered to be exiled to Pulse. Her mother was going, and she would need somebody to protect her.

Laura did not expect the full-out slaughter that resulted. As soon as they had reached the Hanging Edge, PSICOM had started killing the passengers, starting an all-out revolt, lead by the popular vigilantes of NORA. No Obligations, Rules, or Authority.

Laura tried hauling herself back up to the platform, engaging all her muscles. It took about ten minutes, and she almost gave up, but she soon dragged herself away from the edge of the broken road. She lied there, her arms on fire and her breath gone. Others stood around her, looking for a way out of the Hanging Edge. The other side of the road must have been destroyed as well.

She felt sick as she felt the ground against her back begin to crack. She heard a collective gasp from the people around her, and one cry of distress. Before she even registered it, she was falling. On the way down, a flash of light pulsed from the Vestige, blinding her. When she finally regained her vision, she still hadn't hit the water of Lake Bresha. Or maybe she had? It was dark all around her, and she didn't feel like she was falling.

Looking around her, she saw a few other people nearby. They all seemed to be staring at something above them. Laura followed their eyes, to see a monstrous beast far above. A Pulse Fal'Cie. She thought she could see some other shapes near it, but she couldn't make them out.
What's happening? She wondered, her eyes locked onto the creature. It let out another terrifying shriek, and beams of light shot from it. One traveled right to Laura. She was shocked when she felt it pierce her. She felt a searing pain on her palm, like it was being burnt.

She heard cries of pain around her, and knew the other citizens were experiencing the same thing. Darkness began to edge around her vision, until it engulfed her and she felt nothing.
Then, something flared in her vision. Six individuals. She only recognized two: Lightning Farron and Snow Villiers. Lightning was in the same regiment as Laura. She didn't know her personally, but she could recognize her. Everybody in Bodhum knew Snow; he was the leader of NORA. Laura couldn't recognize the others.

Why she was seeing Snow, Lightning, and a bunch of strangers confused Laura. At first, it was just their bodies floating there. Then, in a flash of light, everything was moving. They were fighting a Behemoth. Then, another flash, and they were fighting an Orion. Then another, and another, until it eventually showed them fighting a Fal'Cie. Laura didn't recognize this Fal'Cie; it must be from Pulse.

Before she could make sense of anything, darkness engulfed her again, and she could feel herself falling. She passed out before she even hit the water.

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Laura was so surprised when she opened her eyes. The impact should have killed her. If not, she would have drowned. Instead, she could see the ruins of the Hanging Edge above her, and crystal surrounding her. She sat up quickly. Too quickly, for darkness began to edge her vision again as she got light headed. After regaining her sight, she slowly looked around. A group of five others surrounded her. A woman with brown hair in a pixie cut, a few years older than Laura. A man around Laura's age, with black tousled hair. Another woman, a couple of years younger than Laura, with blonde hair up in a messy bun. The other two were much younger, around fifteen. One was a boy with fiery red, shaggy hair, and the other was a girl with neon pink hair up in a ponytail.

Laura was the only one who had awoken. She slowly got to her feet, taking another look around. She was below the Hanging Edge, so where was Lake Bresha? Last she checked, there wasn't a world of crystal in Cocoon. Upon further investigation, she realized it wasn't a crystal field. In fact, it was anything but flat. It was almost as if they were waves, frozen in time...
Is this Lake Bresha? she wondered. She was distracted from her thoughts by movement from the young girl. She was waking up. She had landed on her stomach, so Laura watched her prop herself up on her elbows. "What the...?"

She rolled onto her back, spotting Laura. "Who are you? Where am I?"

Laura didn't reply, just looked around as the others began to awaken. Once they were all, to their feet, she said, "I don't know where we are, but it's probably not safe. I'll scout ahead."

"No, wait," the older woman said. "It's not a good idea to split up in an unknown area."

Laura looked at the blonde girl a couple years younger than her. "What's your name?" she asked, taking a step toward her.

"Er...Nyla," she replied. "Why?"

"Nyla, do you have a weapon?" Laura asked. "Anything that can be used to fight?"

"I have a double-bladed sword," Nyla replied, pulling out two blades, and connecting them.

"Great, protect them while I scout ahead," Laura said, beginning to walk away. "I'll be back in a couple minutes."

"Wait!" the man with black hair called. "You shouldn't go alone. I'm Kane, a member of the Woodlands Observation Battalion for Gapra Whitewoods."

"Well, we better hurry up, then," Laura sighed. "Come on."

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"I'm Zora," the young girl with neon pink hair said. "I came all the way from Eden to see the fireworks."

"I'm Penny," the older woman said, "her mother."

"I'm Jay, resident of Bodhum," the young boy said. After a few seconds of studying him, Laura decided he did look slightly familiar.

"I'm Laura, Bodhum Security Regiment," Laura introduced herself.

"Nyla, resident of Palumpolum," Nyla re-introduced herself.

"And I'm Kane, Woodlands Observation Battalion," the last one said.

"Great, now that we've got introductions out of the way, we can work on figuring out what is happening," Laura said. "I think we're on Lake Bresha. But, it's all crystal for some reason."

"Maybe something turned it to crystal?" Nyla suggested. Laura chewed her lip, knowing she was most likely right. But what had the ability to turn something to crystal? The only story she knew of that included something turning to crystal was about a L'Cie that completed their focus. Thinking about L'Cie reminded her of another pressing matter.

"Did all of you see the Pulse Fal'Cie?" she asked.

"Yeah," Zora nodded. "Who were those others, closer to it?"

"That doesn't matter," Nyla said. "We need to figure out what happened."

While the group began to discuss what had happened, Laura remembered the pain she had felt in her palm when she had seen the Fal'Cie. She examined her right palm, and saw a tattoo she didn't remember getting. It was an odd design, with arrows pointing away from a closed eye. Weird, how the beam just happened to pierce it.

The more Laura thought about it, the more convinced she became that it wasn't coincidence. She had never gotten a tattoo in her life, and if she had, she certainly wouldn't have chosen this. What if...what if the Fal'Cie put it there.

"Did any of you get pierced by beams of light?" Laura asked, interrupting their conversation. They looked at her like she had three heads, and nodded. "Where?"

"My neck," Nyla said, rubbing the area right above her collarbone. Laura walked over, and moved her hand away. She had the same symbol.

"Anybody else?" Laura asked, turning back to the group. Jay shifted the sleeve of his shirt to reveal one on his shoulder.

"Do we all have it?" Kane asked, lifting his shirt to reveal it on his abdomen. "Do you think...the Fal'Cie branded us?"

"Are we L'Cie?" Zora asked, her eyes widening. "Is that why I saw a vision of all those people fighting? Is that my Focus?"

"You saw people fighting?" Laura asked. "Did you recognize any of them?"

"I think I saw Hope," Nyla said. "Hope Estheim. He lives in Felix Heights. He lives a few houses away from me."

"I saw Snow, and somebody I've seen around," Jay said. "She's a soldier, like you."

"Did we all see the same thing?" Penny asked, looking around the group. "Does that mean...we have the same Focus?"

"Wait a moment!" Kane exclaimed. "Back it up. We don't even know if we're L'Cie. I mean, that makes no sense. Why would we be made L'Cie?"

"It only makes sense," Nyla said. "We saw the Pulse Fal'Cie, and we had a vision."

"Why us, though?" Kane asked. "Think about it. We're just random people who have never met! Why would that Fal'Cie decide to make us it's slaves?"

"It was dying," Penny said, looking up at what used to be the Hanging Edge. "Perhaps it still needed a Focus to give out."

"Hands up!" a voice shouted suddenly. At least five PSICOM soldiers came around the corner of a frozen wave, their guns at the ready. The fugitives slowly raised their hands into the air.

"Survivors?" Laura heard one mumble to another. "Shouldn't we just eliminate them?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what we're doing," the other soldier whispered back.

They're still murdering everybody, Laura realized. As the PSICOM soldiers exchanged glances, she lowered one hand, grabbed her whip hanging on her belt, and snapped it toward one of them. Luckily, it just happened to hit his neck, killing him instantly.

 "Fire!" A soldier yelled, pulling his trigger.

Penny grabbed Jay and Zora, pulling them away from the rain of bullets. Kane and Nyla, on the other hand, ran up beside Laura, their weapons at the ready. Nyla had her double-bladed sword, and Kane had some sort of brass knuckles, but with a blade at the top.

As Laura faced her enemies, she realized this was her first real battle. The only things she had to deal with in Bodhum were a few stray Silver Lobos. These were real people, who knew how to fight properly. Funny how just yesterday she would have been considered their ally. Now, she had to kill them.