Radnorock.

I woke up to hear more of those voices, most are the phrases I already heard- or at least something similar to them, and yet a different word- Radnorock. When I opened up my eyes, a sight held me. The waves of Lake Bresha crystallized and far off was the crystalized Fal'Cie. It was dead and gone.

"Serah!" I gasped and turned to see Snow reaching out to the sky, panicked as he seemed. I saw my baby brother coming around as well as Lightning, Afro, and Vanille. The first one I went to was Hope.

"Hey!" I cupped his cheek and checked on him, "Hope, are you okay? You feeling dizzy at all?"

"I'm fine..." He said with a sad smile. "Thanks for trying to help me..."

I checked him for any injuries or scars. That's when I saw something that made my heart stop.

The Mark on his wrist... It was a L'Cie mark. He was an enemy of the state and a being beyond human. His mark was the same as mine so I had no room to judge... Not that I would. This situation was dire for the both of us, all the more reason to protect him.

"Hope..." My eyesight became blurry with tears. He shook his head and hugged me.

"How about you?" He asked and I smiled, nodding to confirm I was okay.

"Is this... for real?" We heard Snow say as he looked around the crystalized waves. That's what I was thinking about the crystal too.

Slowly, each of the others collected our bearings and examine our surroundings.

"This place is amazing..." I said, though it truly peaked my curiosity.

"This must be... Lake Bresha?" Afro asked. I looked around more and recognized it from books when I was a scholar. "I guess we fell from... Up there? And the lake turned to crystal?"

"That's crazy..." I stared at the crystal horizon, which was indeed a pleasure and an amazing opportunity to study. I just wish I brought my field journal...

"Help me out here!" The poor old man was still trying to figure out some answers. "I mean, did the Fal'Cie do this? How in the world did we end up here?"

"The hell should we know." Lightning said, really cold as a GC would.

Vanille fell to her knees, assuming it was an act of disbelief and relief, "We're... alive. How?"

"Serah!" Snow said and I rasied an eyebrow at him. How was that even possible? Better yet, how did he even come up with that? "No one survives a fall from that high, not without a miracle! Serah saved us!"

"Yeah? How so?" I frowned, "Just because she's your love, doesn't mean that she saved us! I don't even know her! Neither does Hope or Vanille! Why would she save-"

"One, she is kind hearted, and two, she is a L'Cie like us!" Snow glared.

"All the reason she wouldn't help us!" I shouted and Lightning intervined, pushing me away from him.

"Listen you two, the army might be nearby." She frowned at us, "As for you, Snow, it's all your fault she got-"

The sound of the ground crackling behind us made me quickly turn- to be face to face with a towering Cie'th. I yelled in shock, Lightning quickly grabbed me by my shoulder to pull me away, Afro yelled "Hey!" repeatedly, and Snow ran up and shoved me and Lightning to fight off the monster. Snow threw a fist at the monster, and his hand… it… glowed? Ice surrounded his hand, and when it collided with the Cie'th, the ice shattered. He was somehow able to throw the Cie'th back with strength even Snow has never mustered up before. He pulled his hand down in shock. "What did I… just do?"

"You used magic!" Hope said, panicking. I ran to cover for him as more Cie'th started togather the noise we were making. "You used the power of a L'Cie! The Fal'Cie cursed us! We're L'Cie now!"

"Hope, we're fine!" I summoned my Engine Blade. There were so
Many of them, we had to fight one on one until they lessened. Slobby, I know.

I saw at the corner of my eye, the others were using magic so I took a deep breath in and out. When I tried to cast a simple fire spell, green bubbles surrounded them. It smelled a bit like poison in the air and it surprisingly didn't affect us. That's not what I wanted though! I freaking wanted fire!

"Dammit! I want fire!" I yelled and there was one about to hit me. I gasped and dodged the attack and Vanille casted fire.

"There's your fire!" Afro said and shot the last Cie'th with his pistols. I sighed in relief, dismissing my blade.

"Thanks, Red..." I said to the Redhead and she giggled.

"I like that nickname! I'll call you... Mar!" She grinned, putting up her weapon along with everyone else.

"Could you worry about that later?" Lightning growled, "We are in a bad situation right now."

It took me a minute but I remembered something- we used magic!

"We really are L'Cie..." I looked down, sadly. Boy, am I glad I quit the Guardian Corps. "This, indeed, isn't good... What are we going to do? Vanille? Snow?"

"Looks like..." Snow looked at his L'Cie tattoo on his forearm.

"Yeah... Me too..." Vanille said and lifted her half open skirt. Surely enough, it was on her upper thigh, of all places. I sighed and Hope fell to his knees.

"Why... Why me?" He mumbled and I sighed, trying not to cry. This burden was just too much for him. My suddenly found a new found rage in my gut towards the Fal'Cie. Hope's anger came from his sadness but it was directed to other people. "I don't even know you! But you had to go and attack that thing?" Next he looked to Snow, who was getting closer to him. I stood in between them.

"Could you leave him alone?" I asked a bit. Though it wasn't full of sarcasm or hate. I filled it with sympathy for Hope, but then Hope glared up at Snow.

"All of this is your and Serah's fault!" Hope shouted and I looked at him, surprised by his out burst.

"Watch it, kid!" I was shoved to the ground, but my quick wits and reflexes told me to knock him down too. I tripped him by knocking his feet out from underneath him. I climbed on top of him and was ready to punch the daylights out of him. "H-Hey!"

"You better apologize, you bastard!" I growled until Lightning and Afro pulled me off him. "Let me go!"

After things calmed down, Snow apologized and so did I. Red, me, and Hope decided to explore more. Soon Snow and Afro followed, but I looked back at Lightning. She had her back to me and I sighed.

"So... You're a GC too, or at least was?" I asked her and she simply nodded. I waited for her to say something but she didn't. I nervously laughed, "Well, me too... I was part of the Woodlands Observation Battalion as a field resercher. I suppose you were Bodhum Security Regiment?"

"Yes." She said. I sensed she was slightly mad and Irritated. Course with Snow, I wouldn't blame her. She turned to look at me. "You seem to be a little young to be in the army anyway. Are you 15?"

"Actually, I'm 17. I'm flattered that you think I'm younger though, I wish I was younger...." I rubbed my arm and blushed slightly.

"Hm, so why did you join?" She asked and I smiled.

"Well, I did it because I wanted to give my little brother something to dream and imagine..." I looked down, "But I realized we are small people, even the army people. We only should look small to stars outside our planet."

She widened her eyes and blinked, "You seem really mature for someone so young..."

"I have to be....for Hope" I told her, walking with her, "We lost our mother during the purge and our dad... Well, I'm not sure if he will except us."

"You seem to me a strong, beautiful, young lady." She smiled and it seemed my inners flipped. Not to mention my cheeks went warm.

"Oh, t-thanks but I'm not beautiful, I'm just trying to protect my family." I started to walk after everyone until I heard Lightning.

"Right..." She turned back to her regular cold self. I could sense something inside of her, her true self. She was softer than she lead on but I'm not sure why she has this mask.

~

"Okay, if we don't know what our focus is, how do we complete it?" Lightning asked and we all shrugged.

"My mythology class teacher told us nothing about this... I think he said it would never happen to anyone here but..." I scratched the back of my head.

"I think... I saw it..." Vanille told us and I was confused.

"Saw it?" I tilted my head curious, wondering what she meant by that.

"Saw what?" Lightning followed up with a question.

"That is how a focus comes down, people." Afro said and I looked at him surprised. He knew about L'cie? My inner curiousity can out. "The Fal'cie? They don't spell it out with clear-cut instructions. All you get is a hazy glimpse, according to legend."

"How about you?" Lightning asked Hope who avoided looking at her, "Did you see anything?"

"I, uh... I just..." He gulped, nervous from Lightning's serious face. "It's all kind of foggy... but  I saw this big- I mean towering-"

"W-what a minute." Afro walked closer to us, "Hold on now, did we all have the same dream?"

"Radnorock..." Lightning and Snow said together and I frowned at the name.

"The one who threatened to destroy our home..." I looked at my palm with the mark on it, thinking back to the vision I saw. "Hmm..."

"We heard that same voice..." Afro said.

"So that was our focus?" Hope asked and Afro nodded, "But how are we supposed to know what to do from that?"

"Ugh... That's going to be hard..." I groaned in annoyance, shaking my head.

"But it's still our job to figure it out!" Vanille said with a confident gleam in her eye.

"If we're Pulse L'cie, enemies of Cocoon, Does that mean..." Afro trailed off, "Are we supposed to-"

"Save her."

"Say what?" Sazh looked at Snow like he was crazy, which was understandable.

"Our focus is to protect Cocoon." The blonde told us.

"Really? Okay, and why is that?" Vanille asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Yeah, you are going to have to tell us how you come to the conclusion of that." I raised an eyebrow, "What are you thinking?"

"Serah told us. Let's do it!" Are you serious? I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "We're all in this together. I'm going to look for Serah, she has to be nearby." He began to run off and Vanille gasped.

"I'll come too! Wait!" She ran after him.

I growled, still mad at Snow for being so stupid and ignorant, "He's beyond stupid at this point..."

"Well, we know he can't stay still." Afro began to walk after them.

"He's a pain in my ass..." I huffed and put my hands behind my head, following the other three with Lightning and Hope close behind. "Oh! Hey, Afro! What is your name?"

"Sazh. Sazh Katzroy." He said and I smiled, "You, girl?"

"Call me Maria. My brother's name is Hope." I told him and he nodded.

"Well, despite the circumstances, nice to meet you!" Sazh said and we saw a lot of winged Cie'th up ahead. I sighed and got ready for more fights. This was difinitely not what I hoped my unpaid vacation would turn out to be.

~~~

AN I think I'm going to work on this on a bit and take a break from Kingdom Hearts series! Kh3 fans, I know I was just getting to the second zone of the game, but I'm putting it on hold because I wanted to work on some Final Fantasy XIII stuff. I'll still try to update every Friday and, if I can, Tuesdays. So let me know what you guys think! Stay curious and love to all my readers and followers.