Final Fantasy XIII 1. Prologue

_First of all I don't own Final Fantasy XIII (strange why should every writer put something so obvious). The story itself takes place before the game. In order to improve the story reviewing is recommended_. _Also feel free to ask any questions, but don't expect any plot-related information. And last, dear reader, enjoy the story!_

**Prologue**

Lightning looked at the electronic watch, next to her bed. It conformed what she already knew – it was half past one. She laid in her beg and with a single click of a button the room went dark. Going out with her sister and that idiot was not the smartest thing she did this time Lightning didn't had a word on the matter. Serah insisted when she knew that the female warrior had a mission on the next day. With thoughts of the mission tomorrow, she shifted her head to the other end of the bed. It seemed to be a standard procedure in the Guardian Corps: somebody reports and aggressive activity of some creatures and they sent somebody to deal with them. What was not so "standard" troubled Lightning. The report was saying, that the beasts were deep in the forest, south of Bodhum. Why would somebody want "wild pets" so far away form civilization exterminated. Other perspective for problem was the fact that a stranger will guide her in the forest. Considering that the report was not fake, if he try anything funny, one of them will be going back with some broken bones.

Thoughts of possible worst case scenarios were flying around in her head. In the end her thoughts were taken over by some blurry images forming the shape of the upcoming dream.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

The sun kept on moving steadily, aiming for the zenith. It was at least hour away from its target. Lightning took an impatient look at her watch. She was at the place, where her guide was going to lead her into the forest. The girl looked around, paying attention to her surroundings. She was alone and a few meters from her position was an open path, surrounded by tall trees. Many paths like this existed, crossing over somewhere deep into the forest. If a person tries to trace out all the paths, it would take weeks. That was the main reason she needed a guide for the task. With hands on her waist, Lightning shifted her weight on the other leg and started wonder what was taking this guy so long. Training taught her patience, but she was getting nervous. It looked like whole hour was wasted on a fake report in waiting. It was time for her to go, so the girl turned around, annoyed by the outcome. But no steps were made. Instead she was standing still, with heightened senses. Her instincts didn't betray her. Someone was coming and judging by the sounds of heavy and quick footsteps, it was coming from the forest path.

Upon realizing that she soon will have company, Lightning reacted on her instincts. With a few quick and silent steps she find herself behind a some bushes. They were dense enough to act as an optical cover and tall enough to conceal her body. Upcoming sounds from the footsteps were telling that the subject was really close. Suddenly the sounds stopped. With caution the pink haired girl raised her head just enough to see what was going on. There was one male figure, average weight and height, dressed with casual clothes. He was breathing heavily, apparently he was in a hurry. His back was facing the girl and she could not see was he armed or not. Lightning took a quick note into the distance towards her target. With using her left hand for balancing, she took a crouching pose and the right hand, she set Blaze Edge into a sword form. The wind was blowing such direction that it was deafening the sounds from the weapon. But Lightning was aware of that before she make that move. And her next move was also perfectly calculated on her side. With a single and elegant jump, she was behind the male, with the sword against his throat. Even if his hands were not visible to her, from this position she could main him for a less than a second. With soft coldness in her voice, the girl asked a simple question:

"Who are you?"

"P-please don't kill me! I-I was just waiting for somebody to deal with some dangerous beasts in the forest! Please if you leave now, I..."

"Raise your hands and turn around."

The guy did exactly was he was told to raised his empty hands and after Lightning pulled away the sword, he turned slowly. She immediacy recognized the face – it was the guy who was supposed to guide her into the forest. The young warrior set her weapon into safe mode and put it in its hostler.

"I am the one for who was sent from the Guardian Corps to deal with the creatures."

The person in front of her had "confused" written all over his face. But Lightning had enough of time-wasting for today.

"Let's go."- she said annoyed and turned towards the forest path.- "I don't have all day."

Still confused, the guide popped single "Right!" and both he and the girl start advancing deep in the forest.

According to Lightning's watch they were walking for at leas an hour and a half. The guide had explained to her the reason why he was late-he got "a little lost" in the forest. Then he tried to start different conversations by asking questions about her and training she got through. Either he was doubting her ability to deal with the problem or he was just bored and curious. She didn't care and thus the only reply the male god was "None of your business.". Actually she was on alert. The forest was deep and full with different beasts. Not only that but the girl could not shake the feeling that she was led into some sort of trap. Few sun rays were passing through the green sky that was formed from the dense tree crown. And walking on a path, surrounded by trees was making her feel open and vulnerable to ambush.

To her surprise the guide suddenly stopped. Lighting noticed the strong smell of flesh. She looked forward in order to find the source. The forest path had an end and it was a wide clearing. The clearing itself was surrounded by more trees, meaning that this was not the end of the forest. Her attention was caught by the beasts at the clearing. There were six wolf-like creatures with long fangs and varying colors between crimson, icy blue and black. They were currently feasting on some flesh, probably from an animal, but human origin was also a possibility. The man next to the young warrior covered his nose and explained:

"That's the beasts. They keep on stalking travelers in this part of the forest. Some of the them didn't have my luck...".

Finally Lightning had reached her target. Ignoring the strong smell, she prepared her weapon and told the guide to stay here at safe distance. A dozen steps were made by her, just enough so she could see better what was going to become a battlefield. Her eyes already adapted to the increased amount of light, so she could see much clear. She took the usual battle stance and the final preparation was made. In the next moment she was going to strike and take down at least two of the beasts.

But the final moment never came. Lightning felt a blunt pain striking her back. The girl tried to turn move and take cover, but her legs didn't obey the given commands. Nether did the rest of her muscles. She fell heavily on the ground, making noise loud enough, to have the wolf-life creatures' attention. Her vision was already blurry. With eyes slowly closing, everything fade to black. What happened next, Lightning did not know.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

I am not dead. That was Lightning's first thought when she regain consciousness. And that was obvious to her because of the surroundings. Long walls, formed from rocks were obstructing every ray of light, except for one metal fence, supported by thick metal pillars. A frame was forming what seems to be the door for this room. No, cell was the right word for it. Of course that was not going to bind the female warrior here. Her vision was limited by a soft light, coming from the other end of some sort of a corridor – a natural extension of her cold 'room'. As far as she could tell there were no guards around, so escaping was going to be peace of cake. She reached for her weapon and found two things: it was gone and she was not wearing her uniform. All she was wearing was her underclothes and a white dress with short sleeves, no collar but the clothing was covering both her chest and knees. It looked like it was one of the clothing that people get when they get themselves into a hospital. Now escaping also became a problem. If this was a prison, which one was it? Probably a hidden one, because all modern prisons were not using rocks as walls. Was she underground? It looked like it, so using magic could be a double-edged sword. A couple of minutes passed in wonder if waiting until she had more information about the current situation is the right choice. Then suddenly Lightning took a few steps back until her back was supported by one of the walls. Her right hand was raised and directed towards the fence. She was trying to form a fireball strong enough to destroy the door and weak enough not to collapse this place or injure herself from the shock wave. But all formed was a cutting pain in her left shoulder. Confused, the girl gave up on that idea and gathered up the left sleeve. There was small red dot and the area around it was also becoming red, probably from the pain. Some kind of substance was injected in her body and it was blocking all magical powers. Whoever Lightning's kidnappers were, they were not an idiots. How could she be so reckless and end up here was a mystery. Built anger from the pink haired girl was released with a single loud "Damn it!" and a punch at the fence. Echo of her voice resonated in the corridor. The light was trembling as some shadow silhouettes were passing and blocking the light source. Her angry burst had attracted some attention. Another dark silhouette appeared, but it did not move. Instead additional lights were turned on, each one of them closer to the cell from the previous. Lightning's pupils were adapting to the strong light, but her ears were catching the sounds of a dozen footsteps, coming closer to her cell.

When the steps had finally stopped, the image before the girl was clear as a crystal. Five men in regular clothing were standing in front of her. Four of them were holding weapons, Guardian Corps weapons. The other guy was distinguishing from the others by the lack of a gun and intelligent look. Lightning was standing and silently waiting for the other party to start the conversation. And so the unarmed man did:

"Good to see you are awake, Miss Farron. We have some things to discuss and get to work. Of source let me introduce myself. My name is..."

"Doctor Deam Vurgul. Died in an train accident while being transported to be Purged."

The girl remembered reports two years ago. A couple of scientist were caught researching old ruins, remains from the War of Transgression. Sanctum ordered everybody to be Purged immediately. While traveling for Grand Pulse, an accident, happened and no survivors were found. Investigation pointed that the train itself was sabotaged.

"You will be surprised how hard it is to fake the death of eight innocent people. I can tell you all about it... if you behave." Lightning caught the malice in the last word.

"The rules are simple – cooperate and you will get answers and will not be tormented most of the time. Fail to do that and every day and… lets just say it will be praying for swift death." Such talk didn't even made Lightning blink. Trained not to be affected by words, her silent response was only natural. Doctor Vurgul continued:

"You don't trust this deal, do you?"

"Only deals I trust are from people who did not live long enough to see them happened." Her words were so cold that chills ran thought the guards.

"Words that fit assassin better than a soldier." The scientist was not happy with what he heard. "Anyway to show that this is serous, I will give you some information about this place." He started walking slowly in circles, while looking at Lightning and explained:

"After you were knocked out, we quickly transport you here. This place is a mine abandoned more that two hundred years ago. It's a part of an underground complex, created secretly by a Pulse fal'Cie named Emiga. Aware that a war is coming, she created the complex and powered it. It's position was not known to the people of Cocoon and only those,who were selected from Emiga as l'Cie lived in the complex. People lived happily here, protected from from the raging battles that were happening at that time." The Doctor stopped for a second, and continued with some sadness in his voice:

"Three hundred years after the War of Transgression, Emiga passed away. In memorial of her dedication, the complex was named after her. What was really amazing was the fact that no crystal formations were found, either from the fal'Cie's death or people who failed/completed their Focus." Lightning expressed her skepticism:

"A fal'Cie that did not exploited humans as slaves? Hard picture to imagine."

"I understand you lack of believe, even I didn't consider such thing as impossible at first. But let me continue." A few seconds of silence were all Vurgul needed to recollect his thoughts:

"Since there were no fal'Cie to powered the complex, everybody would be forced to go outside. Emiga knew that she cannot protect them forever. She showed them how technology here worked and to use it to survive on their own. And the people of the complex continued to live on their own for another fifty years." Suddenly the Doctor was interrupted:

"This is ridiculous! Why are you telling me this crap?" With some anger, built from Lightning's interruption, he answered:

"I want you to understand why are we doing this, what we are trying to achieve here! But first you must hear the history of our cause." After having a short sigh, the scientist started talking with calmness again:

"Around fifty years after the dead of Emiga, people's curiosity lead some of them on the surface. But they were captured and Sanctum ordered a Purge, along with an entire village. Some of then successfully returned to the complex and explained what was the world up. It was too late for their brothers and sisters. The people of the complex never came outside again, until two years ago, and saved me and my colleague. And there was a reason why we were chosen. If you want to know, you will hold on your end of the deal." Lightning was standing still in silence. Doctor Vurgul gave a sign and one of the armed men went to the door with a electronic card in his right hand.

The pink haired girl watched how her cell door was unlocked. The five man were expecting she will be obedient. "I'll show you some obedience...". When another guard came to her with handcuffs, she realized what fools they were. She instantly punched the man in front of her in the stomach with all her might. Releasing the handcuffs, he fall on his knees, gasping for breath and fighting not to lose conscious. Lightning pulled the gun from the guard's back and aimed it towards his new hostage's head. With her typical coldness, she looked at the Doctor.

"Here's the deal: you let me go and I won't..."

Something went wrong. All of the sudden she was not able to say a word. Muscles were losing all their energy. Her legs failed her and she collapsed on the ground. Blurry image, combined with deafening voices. Finally the girl's eyelids gave up and Lightning lost consciousness.

The young warrior was awakened by a weak electric jolt, and dull pain from her left shoulder. She tried to cover the shoulder with her right hand, some physical resistance was stopping her from moving any limb. Finally she became aware of her situation. She was bound to some sort of chair. Even her neck and vest were pressed by hard and thick metal frame. On her left a female voice said "She is awake.". Different people were around Lightning, sitting in front of a computer terminals and using them. Everybody were at least ten meters away from her. Straight against her was sitting a familiar face – Vurgul. He gave a few orders around and with a mechanical sound, three similar looking devices appeared over Lightning's head. They had egg like form and were half meter away from the girl. Another order was given and from each device a high-pitched sound was coming. The sounds were getting stronger, giving the idea that the machines were charging themselves. Lightning tried to from another fireball with no result. She even tried to break free by pulling off the frames that were binding her hands with brute force.

The sound of devices stopped. The room where this was happening fell in silence for a couple of seconds. Unable to endure anymore, the girl broke the silence with a strong piercing scream. And another one. And another. In return she her body was sending only one signal towards central nerve system: pain. Cutting and agonizing pain. It was so intense that she could not think even for a moment. Instead screams were coming from her. Desperate attempts to move away from the chair were made one after another. This horrifying scene continued for about ten minutes. Doctor Vurgul ordered to stop the machine and take Lightning to her cell. She did not resisted. She simply could not. When the machine stopped, she simply fainted from physical and mental exhaustion.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

A rumbling sound coming from Lightning's stomach woke her up. She was again in her prison cell, with all but nearest light turned off. Her weakened body was shivering from the unpleasant experience. What the hell was that thing? When the machine was activated, it only caused her intense pain, both physically and mentally. It was as if she was cut over and over again with incredibly sharp blade. Were they torturing her for information? Could be, but aren't they suppose to ask first for information, then perform action based on her response? Or the young warrior was some kind of a test subject?

Lightning continued to reach a reason for what Vurgul and his men did to her. After several minutes the silence was broken again by her stomach. Now that she was not lost in her thoughts, the girl spotted a large plate filled with various fruits and vegetables. Next to it was a half transparent bottle filled with water. Probably they wanted her with restored energy before using that device again. For a she knew there may be more the crap, responsible for blocking Lightning's powers. Usually such substances are efficient, but they quickly lose effect. Another thing is that such substances are toxic in higher dozes. If Vurgul want Lightning alive, they should be careful how often she is dozed with such things. With some hope she decided to try and see if the effect had worn off. The girl pushed herself again to manifest a fireball. Still nothing. Something was different. The specific pain in her left shoulder was also missing. The meaning of this fact was that she was clean from the substance. Now matter how hard Lightning tried, still there was no fireball in her hands. She was standing like a statue with clenched fist, confusion written on her face. Whatever was happening to her, there was one person that knew what it was.

"Vurgul! I know you can hear me! If you want a deal, get yourself down here!". Her words echoed lonely in the corridor. They were listening, probably there is camera somewhere. Lightning was too valuable not to be monitored all the time. Even if they choose to ignore her, she could use other more dangerous methods to attract their attention. Such drastic measures were unnecessary as after ten minutes Doctor Vurgul himself came to visit Lightning. Of course he was not alone – two armed men were accompanying him. He stared at the girl, which was stopped shaking, and started:

"This is interesting. The prisoner wants a deal. Was your will crushed by the 'unpleasant' experience or you also have demands?". Although he said that much, Lightning was getting pissed of the way the Doctor was talking.

"You want me to cooperate, don't you? Then give me answers, not history lessons!"

"Fair enough." Vurgul was interest by the idea and dropped the sarcastic voice. "What do you want to know?"

"For starting why I can't blast you off the face of the world?" Showing niceness was not the purpose of her question.

"You mean why are your magical abilities missing? Well to put it simple, it is because you don't have any...".

"What! What the hell are you talking about?"

"First we used omnilision to temporary stop you from using magic. Then you were threaten by the WARP device."

"You mean tortured. So now I can't use my powers permanently?"

"For now. If your treatment is complete, you will be able to use your magic again. Of course then your purpose will be greater than escaping from here."

"How is putting you on that machine for greater purpose?"

"I assume you don't have any more questions for now? Then after four yours we'll send you for the next treatment." Doctor Vurgul and his men turned around and started to walk away. After a few steps he stopped, and said to Lightning:

"And please, try to eat something and rest until then. If you don't have your energy recovered, it will take longer for your treatment to complete." After those words, he left with his men.

"Like hell I will!"- ran through the young warrior's head.

Four hours passed unnoticeable as Lightning was thinking over Doctor Vurgul's words and what to do from now on. She needed more information about her surroundings. Gaining their trust will help her obtain other crucial info as how Vurgul did knocked her out when she attacked the guard. Also it will make them lower their guard and provide opportunity for escaping. She needs to play ball for now. When Vurgul came again, Lightning did not resist. With hands tied, she was lead out the corridor. From there, she passed through several people, all dressed in civilian clothing. They did not payed any attention to her as if something natural was happening. After passing several corridors, she ended up in a familiar room. Everybody there was using their terminal, probably preparing the WARP device for the girl. Doctor Vurgul turned around and said to Lightning:

"Good. Your cooperation will be rewarded." Then he turned his left wrist. There was an electronic bracelet with buttons. He pressed one of them and looked at Lightning. And the effect almost kicked in. She closed eyes and her head handed down. Now that she was once again unconscious, it was safe to untie and prepare her for the treatment.

Hours have passed before Lightning regain consciousness. She was again in her cell, trembling and weakened from exhaustion. "This really starts to get on my nerves...". Now there was no way to tell how many hours, or even days had passed since she left for that fake mission. For all she knows, right now the Guardian Corps might be looking for her. If all Vurgul said was true, they will never find her. She have no choice but to be patient and wait for the moment. When the time comes Lightning will have to be at her maximum, even if she cannot use magic. The hunger was stronger and it is part of the reason she feels so weak. A decision was made and the girl looked at the food plate. It's content was replaced with fresh fruits and vegetables. She walked over, bend down and grabbed an apple. It was no different than the ones back at Bodhum. With a here-goes-nothing expression, she started eating it. The young warrior was still shaking, mainly because her body was again put through the effects of the so called WARP device. Was it really going to return her powers? More importantly, why are they doing this? To Lightning Vurgul and his men were zealots with some strange cause. Their goals were still hidden from her, but it was told that she is important to it. Whatever was it, her escape will surely put their plan in a frozen state. And then Sanctum will deal with them. She only wanted to take care of Vurgul alone. That was the payback for what he was putting her through. Lightning's plans were interrupted by the sudden illumination of the corridor, signaling for somebody's arrival. The girl stand up and looked at Doctor Vurgul, who was accompanied by two of his men. He started the conversation:

"Good to see that you finally gave up on your hunger. It would be pity to see you die back on the chair." He expected a response from her, but all she gave him was blood freezing look and silence.

"I'm sure you want to know we have chosen you for this. But first allow me to finish..."

"The history lecture?" There was the awaited response.

"Call it whatever you want. More important is to hear it than name it." Vurgul had a quick breath before returning to his story:

"Around three years ago I discovered unknown signal. It was so strong that I detected it two hundred kilometers away from it's origin – ruins from the War of Transgression. Of course the ruins were heavily guarded by PSICOM, but I had to find what was emitting that signal. I kept my discovery among my colleagues and after a year of deep search, we found a way to enter in that area, without being discovered. And when we did, we discovered the WARP device. For over a month we stayed there and studied that machine. We were troubled by no one because fear from Purge were stopping even PSICOM from entering. What we found was amazing – the device was older than earliest recording of fal'Cie or human civilization."

"What, did the Maker built that thing? That is ridiculous!" The Doctor responded with words, filled with excitement :

"But the lack of any activity from ancient civilization and the fact that the signals were coming from a crystal only support this theory! Even it had writings on it, written on fal'Cie language!" He returned his voice to a normal state and continued:

"We translated some of the text. According to it, this device was capable of giving extreme power only to people, who were capable of using magic. The crystal itself was a power source, and it was almost dead, so we were unable to powered and test it."

"Seems you found a way around it..."

"Not we, but the people of Emiga! They also had found the signal, but because of Sanctum, they never went to explore it. Eventually we had to leave this place, and then... PSICOM found us. They didn't care at all how we got there, they just wanted us Purged. On our way to Pulse the people of Emiga came to our aid, and made everything look like an accident."

"And they just happened to know of your discovery?"

"Of course not. After their crude experience from the world above, they begin to monitor all radio transmissions, in case Sanctum found out about the complex. And that's how they found about me and my men. What's even more impressive is that after I told them about our discovery, the people of Emiga successfully recovered the device. They even had a almost fully charged crystal from the fal'Cie. The machine was operational, and my team started to study it more deeply. Two years we experimented with it, and when we confident enough that it works... we captured you."

Lightning turned her head around, remembering with anger how she was deceived.

"The truth is we needed someone in excellent physical and mental condition, someone that is strong enough to withstand the pain from the WARP device, someone capable of using advanced magic. The members of the Guardian Corps were covering perfectly our requirements. And they sent you."

After Vurgul's last words, Lightning couldn't hold her anger back:

"You're telling me that I'm here by chance? And that machine will give me more power? This is insane!"

Doctor Vurgul and his men did not pay any attention to the girl. She tried to control her emotions as they were walking. But before he leave, Vurgul had one last thing to say:  
"Believe whatever you want, Miss Farron. In the end you will see things our way and... just accept it."

With those words left to echoed, the corridor went dark again. Only a single light in front the jail cell was left to work. Lightning was finally calm, but her hatred for this guy had reached new level. "You bastard, what are you trying to accomplish?"


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

Days had passed, or so Lightning was thinking. Exactly how long she was prisoner is a question with ambiguous answer. She had gone through over twenty treatments with the WARP device. The routines were pretty simple and straight forward, so she had little useful information. Doctor Vurgul had stopped talking to her, even if the girl had questions for him. Either things were not going well for him or she demanded too important information. His goals were still remaining hidden. Instead of supplying Lightning with answers, Vurgul was offering something different in exchange of her cooperation. Richer meals were not rare. Sometimes there were clean clothes, next to the food. She even had the luxury of taking a shower twice. Also there were a couple of cases when the linear routine was broken.

What was most surprising was that recently Vurgul took Lightning out from the cell and showed her around major parts of the complex. That time she gained valuable information about its structure and possible escape routes. Unfortunately she still didn't have any clue how Vurgul was knocking her out, so escaping that time was out of the question. Of course the Doctor showed the girl around for a reason. Lightning was shocked by the fact that the people here were actually living by using fal'Cie technology without non-human help. Several generators were carefully monitored so there was power for everything. The fresh food that was given to her was coming from a special place, where strong sunlight was coming from some sort of a dome. The light itself was used for agriculture and power generation. Some places there were even farms with all sorts of herbivorous animals. But what was most amazing to Lightning was that everybody was living happily in peace, without the grip of fear that most of Cocoon's resident population was captured. The people here managed to live in harmony for over three hundred years. The reason was obvious – no fal'Cie to change human life forever. And that was exactly what Doctor Vurgul wanted his prisoner to see. That experience made Lightning wonder was it possible for the people of Cocoon abandon this floating paradise and live without any fal'Cie help. Such thoughts were floating in her head for several hours, ending in the "probable, but not achievable" ideas.

Once when the girl was taken again for treatment, on the way for the room Vurgul gave his men an order to hold and went forward. A couple of minutes passed and the guards brought Lightning into the room with the device. Some terminals were broken by brute force, there was even blood at some spots. The reason for this was unconscious on the floor. A blond man, dressed in similar to Lightning's clothes and probably couple of years older that her. His fists were covered with bruises, cuts and blood. After Vurgul confirmed that his life was in no danger, two men took the injured one out of the room. Then it was her turn to "ride" the WARP device. But there was no doubt about it – that man was also part of the Doctor's twisted experiment. Who knows how many people were actually getting treatment with the device. Vurgul said that Guardian Corps had what he needed, meaning that this guy was also part of the military. The girl remembered few recent cases of missing-in-action, all of them with different time and place. Many questions were bothering her, but Vurgul left them unanswered. Still the fact that she was not the only one made Lightning realize that she is valuable to the Doctor, but not irreplaceable. The most likely reason to use more then one subject was that not everybody will do Vurgul's bidding. Or this experiment has high death ratio on the lab rats.

Information wasn't much, but Lightning had enough of this place. Next time she was showering, her plan will be executed. Although it wasn't perfect, she wasted too much time here. There was no telling when the experiment will be completed, even if she was going to be the first to finish the treatment. If she fails to escape, only thing left was somehow to destroy the WARP device. Without the machine, all of Vurgul's prisoners would become useless and probably executed. The girl was hoping that it wouldn't come to this.

Lightning was awaken by a feeling of uneasiness, air distortion, even building heaviness. Something was happening. Could it be that Vurgul has finished one of his prisoner's treatment? She didn't have time to think about it, because the awaited opportunity has come. All of a sudden, the lights went off, even the camera that was monitoring her had stopped. It was a power failure, but it wouldn't last long. The female soldier stand up, gathered as much energy as she had and performed a powerful straight kick towards the cell's door. And another one. The pain from meeting foot with metal was tripled. Shifting the weight on the right leg, she did another kick with the left one. The hollowed sound from the previous attempts was followed by a strong crack and the door opened. It was just in time, as the emergency power turned on and all lights went on again. A small bolt of lightning was shot from the mechanism that was supposed to keep the cell door sealed. Limping with the right leg, Lightning started moving quickly along the corridor. Guards could come any second, so she had to be both careful and on alert. Quickly showing her head behind the corners, she saw only empty hallways.

A Strange feeling from before was back stronger than before. It was pulling her toward the room with the WARP device. The girl was trying to fight it, but mental exhaustion was blocking every attempt. Like a puppet on a strings she was walking towards her target. Half a minute later she was there. Knowing what was inside, it was strange that the entrance was unguarded. Lightning slowly entered inside the room and stared at the machine. Some major parts were missing, more like ripped off. On the chair in the middle there was body of a girl. A headless female body, still bounded to the chair. Now the strange feeling was turned into a pulsing echo, combined with crushing pulling force. The female warrior was standing still, adjusting to this new feeling. She made several steps, ending up next to the corpse. As the echo was getting louder, Lightning reached and put her hand on the lifeless body's shoulder. Now she listened as the echo was changed from muffled sound to clear words. But the words weren't understandable at all. At some point the voice went silent.

The trance was broken as four of Lightning's senses begin to overflow her brain with information. She was shocked to find out that the surroundings were covered in blood from the dead people that were lying all around the room. Some of them had gigantic holes in their bodies, some were missing limbs, some were even split on half. Strange wet feeling was coming from the area around the girl's feet. She was actually standing in a pool of blood. Making a few steps away from it, she notice the background sounds that were coming not too far away from here. Orders. Shooting. Screams. More shooting. Something here had really went wrong and it was continuing. Unfortunately, all ways for escaping from the complex were in the same direction that was the origin of the gunfight. From one of the bodies on the floor Lightning ripped off piece of clothing and wiped the blood from her feet. Next she took one of the few weapons that was lying next to its previous owner. It was a small sub-machine rifle, standard issue in the Guardian Corps. Accurate, but not very powerful, this was the best she had right now. All other weapons had half of them missing. If only she could find where Vurgul had left Blaze Edge, it could make thing a little easier. The screams were increasing, while the gunshots had almost stopped. Lightning took deep breath, concentrate the way she had trained to do. It was time to move and get out of here. And hopefully she wouldn't have to face whatever was doing this massacre.

With each step further Lightning could tell that she was getting very close to the action. There was blood and partially torn bodies. Because of the emergency power generators, the lights were softer and leaving strange look at the place. The combination of that and coming agonizing screams, the atmosphere was giving the idea of a horror movie, with the young soldier as main character. She recognized this corridor. It was leading to the dome, the place where people were working hard to supply the complex with food, power, and where the sounds were coming from. Her planned path was passing through that place. Whatever was there, she had to face it. The horror that was happening was hidden by two bloody glazed doors. Shadows were the only thing that were passing around, smaller ones almost instantly consumed from a bigger one. Another scream made Lightning grip her weapon and prepared mentally to face this. Suddenly something literally went through the doors, shattering them into tiny pieces. The girl had already reacted, covering herself behind a corner. The object that destroyed the doors had landed close to her. She identified it as a human – one of the residents of the complex. Both his left hand and leg had taken an unnatural pose. The head was missing, just like the girl from the WARP device. Lightning looked at the direction where the body came, but strong sunlight was obstructing her vision. From this position to the door was around five meters. If she was going to fight the thing that was doing this, it was better to act quickly and use the element of the surprise. The gunshot was long gone, screams were fewer than before. The young solder took quick steps and took cover behind a wall next to the million glass pieces. As she tried to look what was going on, her vision took some time to adapt to the strong luminance. When her pupils were wide enough, the nature of this nightmare was finally revealed to Lightning.

A dog-like beast with approximately size of a average human. Glowing red eyes were easily distinguish from the black as coal fur. Bloody claws and teeth, both reaching width up to a human finger. It was the fist time she saw something like this. Lightning found the best word to describe it – hellhound. She could not believe that a creature from mystic and horror novels was actually real. The beast itself had brought down a young woman and was gnawing her left hand. She was screaming in agony and panicky tried to push her attacked away. The young warrior instantly reacted – without aiming she pointed the rifle towards the bloody scene and filled the air with bullets. Most of them didn't hit anything, but it was pure luck that the rest landed precisely in the beast's body. The hellhound turned his head at Lightning, pulling its pray aside. High-speed lead was still hitting him, but it seemed to have no effect at all. Its eyes started glowing even strongly, as if it was happy to see new food to play with. The hellhound spit the chewed arm and with one swift swing its victim was decapitated. Covered in fresh crimson liquid, with a powerful leap it charged towards Lightning. Such action was not unexpected, still she almost dodge it. The beast landed just next to her and she used that in her advantage. Since bullets didn't even made the hellhound bleed, the girl grabbed it by the end and swing it towards the creature's head. It did not see the blunt object and it collided perfectly with its skull. But it just stunned it for a short time. Lightning gathered her strength and hit it again. The rifle's rear end broke from the hit leaving the hellhound still stunned. It was no use and she knew that. Using the little time she had bought, Lightning ran towards one of the many lying dead bodies. There she found a perfectly sharpen army knife. The light reflected from the metal end have her the hint for a knife just before the beast attack. Just when she picked the blade, her survival instincts started screaming one word :"move!". With a quick roll she evaded another attack, causing the hellhound to crash into one generator behind her. It got instantly shocked by high voltage electric discharge. Then the generator stopped working, making the other emergency generators unable to handle the power demands. Then the entire complex plunged into darkness. Because of the sunlight, the only exception was the agriculture section, where Lightning was not done fighting. Although it had taken some beaten and it was electrocuted, the hellhound was still standing.

Lightning tried to use the knife to finish it off, but agonizing pain low in her left leg had foil any attempt to move. She looked at it and realized that some muscle tissue was missing. If it wasn't for her instincts, she would have been maimed. Struggling not to faint from the pain, the girl ripped her left sleeve and bandaged the flesh wounds. She could only hope that it would be enough to stop the bleeding. With strength leaving her, she managed to finish the task at hand. Because she was sitting with her back against the beast, Lightning was unaware of the upcoming danger unit it she was facing it face to face. The hellhound had started moving and it was now just less than half meter away. It was walking slowly towards its victim, looking her in the eyes. Like a cat toying with its injured pray before the feast. Now it was so close, that mixture of blood and saliva was falling from its mouth all over the girl's bandaged leg. Finding deep within her last fragment of strength, she reached for the knife. But on the way through her hand was intercepted by a bloody paw, pressing down Lightning's left hand to the grounds with a crushing force. Now the hellhound's face was a few centimeters from the girl's. With its jaw widely opened, the beast went for for her neck.

What happened next Lightning described in her mind as a pure miracle. Before her neck crushed from the beast's fangs, she put her free right hand against its chest. From the open hand a fireball ball with dark flames was formed and blasted the hellhound a few meters away. It was such perfect attack, that it did not damaged its user. Somehow Lightning's magical powers were coming back, and just in time. She changed her position from lying to sitting, and looked for the threat. The creature was alive, although there was deep round wound in the area around its chest. The fact that it was still breathing was another prove of its toughness. But this wound was in a critical spot and probably it was a matter of time before the hellhound dies. Lightning was ready to take any chances. It took her more than a minute, but she formed another dark fireball and shot it towards the thing that caused this nightmare. The explosion from the attack was so strong that it shaken the room for a second. When it faded, the girl conformed that what was left from the creature was only dust. Then she fall backwards on the ground, facing the dome over her. She was lying in a pool of a blood, her blood. With eyes closed one last thought passed through her mind: "An ending, but... is it mine as well?"


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

Voices. Calling her name. Lights and shadows. Darkness. Unfamiliar faces. Mixture of colors and burred images. That was all that Lighting was seeing unit she opened her eyes. The ceiling was different than what she last remembered – all white and solid, with a single light ball in the center. Turning her head on the left she saw only curtains that were protecting her from the strong sunlight coming from outside. On her right monitors were filled with diagrams and numbers. No doubt about it – she was in a hospital. Many questions came on her mind only to be pushed away from a particular object on a small round table, next to her bed. Flowers all sorts of colors in a vase. Lightning changed her lying position so her back was supported by the wall that was behind her. Her hand reached and pulled a card that was between the flowers. She opened and read a short sentence: "Get well soon, I'll be waiting for you!" No name to identify the author, but Lightning didn't need one. She recognized her younger sister's handwriting. This was too real to be a dream. But how she ended here? How long she was unconscious? And where was this place? Her thought were interrupted by a sliding sound coming from what was the door of her room. And she saw a familiar face to enter thought it.

"Lieutenant Amodar!" The girl was caught off guard. The tall man, wearing his military uniform, just smiled and replied:

"Glad to see that you're finally awake, Farron. How do you feel?"

"I... I'm fine. My left leg hurts a little." Then she remembered the picture of that leg back in the complex. Ignoring the man in the room, she revealed where weak pain was coming from. Except for a very small scar, it was good as new. For an almost maiming injury, this was not right. Lightning turned her attention back to Amodar and he started talking:

"The day you went gone, we started searching for you, mainly in the forest. After a week I was ready to call the search off, when we found a giant dome. After cutting a hole into it we lowered some people down. And there we found you, lying in a pool of blood. Despite the loss of blood you were stable, so we transported you to the nearest hospital. And a week later you have regained consciousness."

"Stable? From my point of view I was as good as dead. And what happened with that?" She pointed at her scar. "Flesh from my leg was torn off! It can't just heal like that for a week!"

"Everybody in this hospital is confused about your recovery, myself included." Lieutenant Amodar change his expression to a serious one and continued: "The underground complex, from which we saved you... we found some... strange things. Human adapted fal'Cie technology, torn apart dead bodies, missing Guardian Corps people and weapons, scientists who were send to be Purged..."

"Vurgul! Is he alive?"

"No. There were no survivors, except for you." The lieutenant stopped for a second and asked:

"Farron, what happened down there?"

That question made Lightning think about everything that happened to her. After a minute of silence she put her thoughts into words:

"I was knocked out. When I awoke, Vurgul had imprisoned me in one of the complex's jail cells. He used some substance to block my magic. I tried to escape, but he used something to make me lose consciousness. He only let me out from the cell to do some experiments on me."

The girl looked at the bright curtains, trying to see the sunlight with her eyes and said:

"Vurgul had more lab rats, all of them people of Guardian Corps. Who knows for how long he was doing this. That bastard was lucky that I didn't get to him first."

She made another pause and continued:

"That day a power failure happened and I used the opportunity to escape from the cell. I was looking for a way out, but something had gone very wrong. Everywhere I go there were corpses and sounds of gunshots and screams. Eventually I found what was doing this – an enormous dog-like black beast with glowing eyes."

Lieutenant Amodar reached for his pocked and pulled out a small piece of paper. He looked at it and gave it to Lightning with the words:

"Is this the creature you are talking about?"

She picked the picture and was shocked by the image on it. It was a beast, looking as the one that almost killed her.

"How..."

"It appeared four days ago in a village, close to the forest where we found you. It killed brutally nine civilians and two of our men. Because it resembles the beast from the storied, we call it hellhound."

"How did you kill it?"

"Not easy. It took a lot of beating, but eventually we stop it. You have encountered the same thing in the complex?"

"Yes, it's the same. I stopped it, but it almost maimed me. Didn't you find the body?"

"No, but it does not leave one. When we killed it, it turned into dust. How did you stop something that took out two men from the Guardian Corps?"

"I... It was injured from the people which it killed. Bullets were doing small, if no damage at at. Also it was shocked by a high voltage electricity, but it did not stop it. In the last moment I had somehow regained my powers and finished it with them. Then I passed out and now I'm here."

"Any idea where this creatures came from?"  
"No. Vurgul didn't mention anything about them,... or about the experiments for that matter."

Amodar was little surprised from what he heard.

"He talked to you? What did he say?"

"Not much. He and his men were rescued from the people of the complex. Vurgul said that he needed strong magic users for his experiments. That's why he kidnapped people from the Guardian Corps. Last think he talked about was how what he was doing is going to change the world. Maybe the hellhounds are his doing..."

"Whatever they are, they did not came from there. Currently the complex is off limits and we're still exploring it. You will have full access to everything we found while you're recovering."

Now Lightning was looking at her superior officer. Staying here was not making her happy.

"I'm ready to be back in the Guardian Corps. I said I'm fine, didn't I?"

The man smiled from her response.

"Even if that's true, I want you to stay here and rest. If at the end of the week the doctors say that everything is normal, you'll be back on duty."

"But..."

"Do I need to say that is an order, Farron?". Those strict words were said with gentle voice, reminding that this man was worried for the girl as if she was his daughter.

"I understand, Lieutenant."

"I'll keep you in touch with whatever we find. Now I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

And with that Amodar turned around and left the room. He almost closed the door then he stopped. Because of the the door, Lightning could not see what he was doing, but she could hear him talking to somebody.

After a half minute the door opened again. This time Serah came through it. She literally ran to her sister's bed and wrapped her hands around the hospitalized girl. Lightning was not surprised - she knew Serah all too well and how caring she was. The soldier finally felt like she could drop her guard down and hugged her younger sister back. But her mind was not giving her a rest. She was still thinking about how she lied to Amodar and hid information from him.


End file.
