Preach is seen riding on a train, he looks to 5 people looking at him. They are wearing ADNO armor. ADNO troops target Preach. "Can't I have enough for one day?" asked Preach. Preach had went in to a fighting stance and threw a punch at one of the troops, he had died. "Time to learn a move!" shouted Preach. Preach had span around and made a massive wind. All remaining soldiers had died. The train was about to fall down. "You idiot!" shouted someone on the train. "We're going to die!" shouted another one. The train had fell down on to a floor. Preach kicks the door open, he looks at his friends by the train. "Seems like you need some help." said Kuriki. "You guys want to kill Orphan?" asked Preach. "Yes." replied Arene. Dansho and Lonra were twins, the had helped each other in certain death. "Let's keep on walking." said Dansho. The group had kept walking they see a place that they enter to. Preach looks the sign, it says. "Thirteen centuries ago, a floating, utopian world was created in the atmosphere of a planet known as Pulse. The fal'Cie, beings of immense power and authority, willed that the continent be completely isolated from the crude and brutal wilderness known as the Gran Pulse below and commissioned machines to be the guardians of the citizens. Barriers were subsequently set up all around the newly created world, and as such was the metropolis granted its befitting name: Cocoon.
Having been secluded from the outside world for many years, the citizens of Cocoon have become anxious of what Gran Pulse really holds. Fear has spread across Cocoon, causing the Sanctum, Cocoon's government, led by the Primarch (Galenth Dysley), to issue a new edict: Any individuals suspected to be in contact with the world of Pulse or any of its artifacts or items are to be banished from the continent unconditionally and cast into the harsh environment of the planet below.
And so, when a Pulse fal'Cie is discovered in the small town of Bodhum, mass panic breaks out and soon all of Cocoon's citizens are crying out for the expulsion of the entire town to Pulse. The Sanctum's personal army, PSICOM, have no choice but to banish all of the town's residents to the world below. This event, known as the Purge, marks the beginning of the game as the citizens of Bodhum are being taken to the Hanging Edge along with the Pulse fal'Cie, Anima, contained within the Pulse Vestige."
"Whoa, long sign." said Arene. Kuriki had pointed to robotic tigers. "Look over there!" shouted Kuriki. "Pantherons, they were made to hunt." said Lonra. The Pantherons had rushed to the group, Preach fired a Kamehameha wave at them. "Get ready to fight!" shouted Preach. Dansho is seen punching an ADNO Soldier coming by. Preach had punched the Pantheron in to oblivion, it had launched up and self destructed. They had kept running an running into fight into fight. They came across a Meta Orion, the saw it as it attacked Kuriki. "KAMEHAMEHA!" shouted Preach firing the attack at the Meta Orion. Preach was hit by it's lunge, but the attack staggered it, making it unable to move. The others attack it, and then is finished by a punch lifted from Arene. A random object it seen popping out. "WHAT THE...!" shouted Preach. The thing had came and made them in to a story.
Lightning is onboard the Purge train in order to destroy the Pulse fal'Cie and save her sister Serah Farron, who became a Pulse l'Cie. Accompanying her is Sazh Katzroy, a civilian airship pilot trying to fulfill his son's Focus in a desperate bid to save him from becoming a Cie'th. Snow Villiers is trying to rescue Serah as well, as she is his future bride. Hope Estheim and Oerba Dia Vanille become involved when Hope's mother, Nora Estheim, dies under Snow's care, prompting the two to pursue him.
The Hanging Edge and the Pulse Vestige
Thus, these five characters end up together in the Pulse Vestige where they witness Serah turn to crystal, an event that only happens when a l'Cie fulfills their Focus. In the course of their trek into the heart of the Vestige, they also encounter creatures known as Cie'th, l'Cie that fail to complete their Focus in time. Lightning believes that Serah is dead, while Snow refuses to give up. Lightning, seeking vengeance on the fal'Cie, heads into the center of the Vestige along with the rest of the party in order to confront Anima, the Pulse fal'Cie responsible for Serah's transformation into a l'Cie.
As the party faces Anima, PSICOM forces begin to blast the Pulse Vestige and everything in it to pieces. Facing certain death, Anima transforms Lightning and her companions into l'Cie, giving them a dream involving the city of Eden and the mysterious Ragnarok in the process. They fall down towards Lake Bresha below, but survive due to Anima's transformation of the entire area into crystal in its death throes.
The new l'Cie set off with the intention of escaping the lake but soon come across Serah's crystallized form. Snow insists on staying by Serah's side, causing an argument to break out between Lightning and him. The party splits into two after successfully defeating a PSICOM warmech sent to kill them; Snow remains behind to dig out Serah's statue, while Lightning and rest of the group heads towards the ruins of an old city. There, they come across an airship left by a PSICOM patrol. Sazh manages to pilot the airship through the initial blockade, sustaining only minor damage to the hull in the process. While onboard, the group uses the airship's functions to view a live newscast interviewing the Sanctum leader, Galenth Dysley, and the ongoing operation being carried out by PSICOM. The airship is eventually shot down, causing it to crash in the Vile Peaks. Meanwhile, Snow receives his Eidolons, the Shiva Sisters, after nearly being killed by a PSICOM platoon sent to retrieve him. He is soon captured by Cid Raines, Rygdea and Oerba Yun Fang, members of the Cavalry, and taken aboard their headquarters, the airship Lindblum, where Cid asks Fang and Snow to find the other l'Cie.
At the Vile Peaks, the party splits after a disagreement on their Focus, which they assume to be the destruction of Cocoon. On one hand, Sazh and Vanille simply wish to run away and hide from their pursuers. Lightning, however, is intent on destroying the Sanctum and the fal'Cie, believing it to be the only way out of the current situation. Accompanied by Hope, she intends to travel to Palumpolum and then on to Eden, the heart of the Sanctum government. As she and Hope trek through the remainder of the Vile Peaks, the pressure of keeping Hope safe and dealing with the enemy soldiers begin to take their toll on Lightning. In a moment of anger, Lightning yells at Hope about how she can barely protect him when she can hardly keep herself alive and tells him to become stronger on his own, collapsing to the ground as the Eidolon Odin appears and attacks Hope, as if to force her to choose between her mission and him. Together, they bring the Eidolon under control and continue onward on their mission.
While passing through the Gapra Whitewood, Lightning learns about Hope's mother, the boy's belief that her death was Snow's fault, and that he is bent on getting revenge. Lightning tells Hope to make a strategy to help him focus on a goal and not allow himself to be driven by compassion. Taking her advice, Hope forms 'Operation Nora,' his plan for revenge against Snow, although Lightning tries to convince Hope that it was really the Sanctum that killed his mother. Arriving in Palumpolum, Hope leads Lightning underground to slip past the soldiers occupying the city. Lightning soon realizes that she has been running away from her fate by making the Sanctum an enemy for herself to focus on, and she now has Hope following suit. She tells him to stop with Operation Nora despite his protests.
Returning to the surface, Lightning and Hope find themselves surrounded by PSICOM troops. They are saved by Snow and Fang's timely arrival; however, the l'Cie are separated in the chaos, with Lightning and Fang in one group and Snow and Hope in another. Fang reveals that she and Vanille are both Pulse l'Cie and received their Focus long ago. Upon completing it, they were crystallized and woke up on Cocoon in the Pulse Vestige (Fang discovers that her brand has burnt out at this point). Fang also tells Lightning that she and Vanille were indirectly responsible for Serah becoming a l'Cie, and that she might eventually awake from crystal stasis like they had. Elsewhere, Hope confronts Snow over his mother's death and Snow's role in it, intending on taking his revenge. His plans are cut short when a PSICOM warmech attacks them; Snow manages to save Hope from further harm by cushioning their fall from the rooftops, and the two manage to settle their differences.
Soon Fang, Lightning, Hope and Snow are reunited, after which they head onward to the Estheim Residence. There, Snow recovers from his injuries while Hope informs his father of Nora's fate. While the party is busy formulating a plan to deal with the Sanctum, PSICOM officer Yaag Rosch arrives with a multitude of PSICOM troops. Snow demands him to stop the Purge, but Yaag tells him that the Purge was demanded by the people of Cocoon. After a confrontation with an attack shuttle, Snow, Lightning, Hope and Fang are rescued by Rygdea and taken onboard the Lindblum with help from Cid, who seeks to fight back against PSICOM in the name of the Cavalry.
After making their way out of the Vile Peaks, Sazh and Vanille travel through the Sunleth Waterscape towards Nautilus. Sazh confesses to Vanille about how he went to the Hanging Edge to try and save his son, Dajh Katzroy. Dajh became a Sanctum l'Cie at Euride Gorge and Sazh suspected that his Focus might have been to destroy Anima when Dajh uncovered the Pulse Vestige at Bodhum. Vanille is racked with guilt as she knows that her and Fang's presence at Euride Gorge caused the fal'Cie Kujata to turn Dajh into a l'Cie (all of this takes place during Lightning and Hope's trek through the Gapra Whitewood).
Sazh and Vanille arrive at Nautilus where they witness the Pompa Sancta parade, a dramatic reenactment of the War of Transgression between Pulse and Cocoon 500 years ago. Sazh, tired of remaining in hiding from the pursuing PSICOM soldiers, decides to turn himself in with the intent of seeing his son one last time. Vanille protests and is about to reveal the truth when Jihl Nabaat, PSICOM's supreme commander, arrives with a PSICOM company. Sazh could do nothing but watch as Dajh turns to crystal in front of him, after which Jihl reveals the truth of the events at Euride Gorge; Dajh's transformation into a l'Cie was the result of Vanille and Fang's presence at the facility. Furious, he confronts Vanille, triggering the appearance of his Eidolon Brynhildr, which he brings under his control with the assistance of Vanille. In his grief, Sazh tries to shoot himself, but is unable to do so, prompting the PSICOM soldiers to take him and Vanille into custody. They are taken on board the Palamecia, where they are to be transported to Eden and executed before a live audience.
Lightning and the rest of the party immediately mount a rescue mission upon learning of Sazh and Vanille's incarceration, with help from Cid and the Cavalry. They manage to board the Palamecia using a stolen PSICOM shuttle. However, their ruse is discovered immediately upon their arrival, forcing them to fight through a number of PSICOM soldiers and automata. Meanwhile, Sazh and Vanille are able to escape from their holding cell in the chaos and fight their way through the ship's engine core. The l'Cie are reunited at a forward portion of the Palamecia's exterior, and, using one of PSICOM's militarized wyverns, head towards the bridge. There, they come face to face with Galenth Dysley, who immediately kills Jihl and the entire bridge crew without hesitation. Dismissing the l'Cie's assumption that he is one of them, Dysley reveals a horrific truth - he is the fal'Cie Barthandelus, the true master of Cocoon, and that the l'Cie's Focus is to become Ragnarok and destroy the fal'Cie Orphan.
Barthandelus departs after suffering defeat at the hands of the l'Cie, leaving behind his familiar Menrva to serve as an airship for them to utilize in their escape from the now-sinking battlecruiser. With no alternative, they're forced to board the airship and make their escape, avoiding pursuit from Yaag Rosch onboard The Proudclad, eventually ending up inside the Fifth Ark, located underneath Eden. Fang recalls a legend concerning the purpose of the arks; armories and training grounds for l'Cie. The l'Cie venture deeper into the ark and, after a long and grueling trek, come face-to-face with Cid, who informs them that he is a Cocoon l'Cie and that every single action of the l'Cie's had been carefully orchestrated by Barthandelus and the other fal'Cie. He goes on to explain the reason behind the fal'Cie's desire for Cocoon's destruction; it would serve as a means of recalling the Maker, the creator of both fal'Cie and humankind, back to this world. Cid attacks the l'Cie in order to stop them from fulfilling their Focus and destroy Cocoon, but is defeated and turns to crystal (having inadvertently fulfilled his Focus of empowering the Pulse l'Cie).
Shaken by this turn of events, the l'Cie continue their journey deeper into the ark until reaching a dead end. Snow finally decides on their course of action. He says that they should forget their Focus and fulfill Serah's final wish; saving Cocoon. While everyone agrees to this new plan, Fang turns on the rest of the party, proclaiming that though they might wish to save Cocoon, she would never allow this; having seen the suffering that all Cie'th experience, she would rather die than see any of her friends become one of those monstrosities. Through her emotional turmoil, Fang unwittingly summons Bahamut, eventually bringing it under her control with help from the others. The l'Cie discover a new path following Bahamut's "taming" and a Pulsian airship at the end, which they use to traverse a portal leading to Pulse: their only way forward.
During the flight, the airship is attacked by a wild wyvern in the skies above Pulse, causing it to crash and the l'Cie to become stranded in the valley of Vallis Media. After spending days wandering the wilderness and finding no trace of civilization, they are ready to give up hope until Vanille finally suggests where they should go; Oerba, her and Fang's adopted home. After that the chocobo comes to warn the party that Hope's brand is acting weird and he is unconscious. Lightning suggests that the party has to find him. After they find Hope, they bring him back to the basecamp. At the basecamp, Hope wakes up and tells them that if they want to find out their focus they need to get to Oerba. Hope believes that he should remain behind until his Eidolon Alexander is summoned and brought under his control, leaving the rest of the l'Cie to speculate about the true purpose of the Eidolons and giving Hope newfound strength in the process. Finally discovering a path to the Archylte Steppe, the l'Cie begin their journey towards Oerba.
While traversing Mah'habara, Vanille claims that she alone became Ragnarok and destroyed Cocoon's outer shield as her previous Focus, but Fang does not believe her and tricks Vanille into revealing the truth; it was Fang who became Ragnarok. The reason that she hadn't gone on to destroy Orphan was because Etro intervened and turned Fang back to normal. Later, Barthandelus moved the Pulse Vestige where the crystals of Vanille and Fang were placed afterwards to Cocoon in the hope that they would awake and finish their Focus. Vanille's shock from having her lie exposed causes her Eidolon Hecatoncheir to appear. Vanille and Fang defeat it after a long fight, after which Vanille resolves to finally come to terms with her fate and stop running away.
The l'Cie continue their on their journey, traversing the remainder of the Mah'habara mines and the Sulyya Springs, eventually reaching Taejin's Tower, a massive crumbling mechanical tower where the fal'Cie Dahaka makes its home. The Menhirrim there help them to destroy the errant fal'Cie and reach the top of the tower. From there, the l'Cie ride a capsule down to the slopes of Oerba. Upon entering the village, they find it covered in a blanket of snow-like crystal dust and infested by Cie'th. Vanille and Fang lead the party through their old home, where they still find remnants from the past including Vanille's old pet robot. At the end of a crumbling railway overpass, the l'Cie are shocked to find Serah waiting for them.
Serah informs the l'Cie that they must destroy Orphan and become Ragnarok, but they refuse to believe her, causing her to abandon her disguise and assume Barthandelus's human form. The fal'Cie explains the reason why Cocoon was created in the first place; the fal'Cie, desiring to summon the Maker back to Gran Pulse, need a sacrifice large enough to attract the Maker's attention. The deaths of Cocoon's millions of human inhabitants would cause a large enough disturbance in "the great beyond", according to the fal'Cie, to summon the Maker back. Shocked, the l'Cie engage Barthandelus in battle, determined to prevent this atrocity from being committed. After defeating him yet again, Barthandelus goes on to gloat how the humans on Cocoon are beginning to fight among themselves now that Cid has become the Primarch. He warns them that the Cavalry are mounting an attack to destroy Orphan and that they have a choice: destroy Orphan themselves or let the humans destroy it. He leaves behind another airship and returns to Cocoon to oversee the final stages of his plan.
The l'Cie come across another Cie'th stone which gives them the hope necessary to continue on. They decide to return to Cocoon and save Orphan or die trying. They board the airship and use a portal in Pulse's atmosphere to return to Cocoon.
The l'Cie arrive in the city of Eden and disrupt an ongoing race, causing mass panic among the spectators and the deployment of a full PSICOM battalion along with the resident Guardian Corps unit. To their horror, they discover that Barthandelus is using portals to warp Pulse creatures and automata from both the surface of Gran Pulse and the Fifth Ark, causing massive damage to several locations around Eden. With no other choice, the l'Cie press on, fighting their way through soldiers and monsters alike. Meanwhile, the Cavalry have successfully infiltrated the Primarch's office, where Cid, no longer under the thrall of Barthandelus, tells Rygdea that his own actions will lead Cocoon into ruin. At his request, Rygdea shoots and kills Cid, ending his torment, and proceeds to lead the Cavalry onward to confront Orphan at Edenhall, the seat of the Sanctum's power.
Many of the citizens are taking shelter at the Edenhall, one of the few locations safe from the chaos engulfing the capital. At the very center of the complex, the l'Cie are shocked to see the same snow-crystal dust present at Oerba floating in the air. Barthandelus appears and tells them that its presence signals the inevitable return of the Maker and that he has their 'loved ones' inside. The party is also shocked to see that the Calvary soldiers and PSICOM troopers in their vicinity are turning into Sacrifice Cie'th, the result of Barthandelus branding these people without giving them a focus. They are confronted by Yaag Rosch, who, after being defeated for the second time, helps the l'Cie by ordering his soldiers to evacuate the city rather than search for the l'Cie and by detonating the Proudclad's wreckage, ensuring that the party won't be followed into Orphan's Cradle, the true command center of Cocoon.
Inside Orphan's cradle, the l'Cie discover that the remainder of the Calvary soldiers sent inside before them have already been converted into Cie'th. Guided by the trinity fal'Cie Eden, they eventually arrive at the Narthex, Orphan's resting place. Barthandelus appears and, after destroying Serah's and Dajh's crystallized forms, commands the l'Cie to fulfill their destiny by destroying Orphan, thereby cutting the power fueling Cocoon's functions and causing it to crash into the surface of the world below. The l'Cie refuse, and an enraged Barthandelus engages them in battle one last time, only to be defeated and sent sinking into a mysterious pool behind him. Menrva appears, however, and dives into the pool after him, allowing Barthandelus to rise up once more as the protective shell surrounding the dormant fal'Cie Orphan.
As the thing is defeated, the group see Orphan. "Alright, this is for our misery!" shouted Preach. "But time to put you out of it!" shouted Orphan. Orphan had launched a high damage wind attack, it had hurt them. Preach threw a Kamehameha wave at him. Orphan wipes everyone except Preach away from him. "Now it's me and you!" shouted Orphan. Preach had sent a punch and a high kick at Orphan. He was staggered, so the group came back to help Preach. "KAMEHAMEHA!"shouted the group. The Kamehameha had nearly destroyed Orphan. Preach sent a flying punch to Orphan. He was destroyed. The group had cheered they're work was finished, but not Preach. "We aren't done yet, I have four more." said Preach. The group stopped cheering. "What is it Preach?" asked Lonra. "I'm doing this alone, Goodbye." said Preach Iming...
Word Count:3700
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