Final Fantasy XIII: Slaves of Fate

Akira was trying to stand as something tripped her again and wrapped around her ankles, pulling her into a bright white light. She felt caught in a spider's web as she frantically struggled. Light...what's happening to us? she thought as everything went black and her senses faded away.

Lightning watched as their apprentices were snatched by the wires she remembered from Anima's branding of them. Before she could voice her disapproval of this she was hit by the Ultima. Pain radiated through her body as she hit the floor, her gunblade sliding out of her hand. I couldn't have...failed them, could I?

 

Mia had covered her eyes when the light appeared and opened them. She stood up, using her spear for support, and looked around, thinking about the image that appeared in her head. "Ryou? Leo? Jaden? Are you guys here? Where are we?"

 

" How kind of you Cid. . ."
Freyja said as she continued to travel by land, her speed inhuman but to her it seemed like a daily easy jog. She had already covered enough ground that she passed Cid and his pet by, since he was busy mounting it. Freyja's hair which had turned white earlier began the process of turning back to it's jet black hue.

 

Mya yelped in surprise as the wires wrapped themselves around her. H-hey! Let me go! She struggled out of its grasp, but it was no use. She then felt herself weakening and dropped her gunblade. Wh-what is this feeling? I feel like my strength and soul is being sapped away. She then blacked out.

 

'I can't see a thing in this darkness. Where can I find a light?!' Mia thought as she hit the end of her spear against the ground. As she did, a small ball of light appeared at the tip of her spear. Mia stared at it in shock, thinking to herself. 'Did I do it? No way, I can't do magic. I don't see a l'Cie brand on my body. How can I use magic?' She rubbed the neck of her neck and moved the hair there, if anyone was behind her, they would see a l'Cie brand on the back of her neck.

 

"Leo.
Grey.
Akira.
Mia.
Jaden.
Ryou.
Mya.
Open yours eyes, my warriors of fate."
Jenny's voice rang out, ordering the apprentices to open their eyes and view their destinies.
They would find themselves floating in space, without the need to breathe. Planets were all around, moving at unbelievable speeds. There was no sound, only the voice of Jenny and ominous chanting.

Leo followed his orders and opened his eyes. What the hell? He looked around and saw the others, seemingly floating by. Behind them was pitch black with white stars scattered about. Is this...heaven? He tried to speak the words, but they wouldn't come out. The only sound was Jenny's voice and the sound of chanting. Leo shivered and reached for Grey, but found his body unable to move. Planets were swirling around. What was going on?

"In the beginning, Muin created the universe,"
Jenny's voice rang out, now distorted as the bright light appeared before them.
"She gave birth and abandoned her offspring."
The light grew brighter and brighter as Jenny's voice continued to distort.
"The Maker of All created the first fal'Cie: the God fal'Cie!"
Once again, wires flew out from the light and entangled the apprentices' limbs.
"Hallowed Pulse, given the duty of creation. Fell Lindzei, given the duties of protection and awakening. And the accursed Etro, given Muin's visage but no power of her own!"
The wires started to burn, but the apprentices wouldn't have been able to escape.
"The Maker of All disappeared into an eternal slumber. Lindzei and Pulse, jealous of the other, created their own fal'Cie, Machine fal'Cie. Pulse created the world and Lindzei created the utopia. Etro bled and created life. Then she disappeared."
The light began to dim.
"The lonely Muin created Jenovah, her personal God fal'Cie. Approached by Etro, she assigned the powerless fal'Cie a task: protect the balance. The original Mother, Maker, Goddess, One Above All, and Omnipresence faded out of existence with her last order."
The light was now gone and in its place was a metallic and alien looking woman. Her eyes glowed bright blue and wires protruded her body. She moved closer and her mouth opened, Jenny's distorted voice ringing from it.
"Etro gave all life chaos and they named it 'heart.' The witch of death then gave Jenovah the same chaos. All life, given chaos, was now cursed to die. Balance protected, life bewitched, Mother gone."
No trace of Jenny's voice was left as the mechanical woman inched closer and closer to the apprentices, only a screeching, robotic, godly voice.
"The stubborn son created the three God fal'Cie and slept, dreaming of matricide. Pulse and Lindzei, allied and yet in competition, found themselves against their sister, Etro, and the dying Jenovah. The two pairs each wished for both Makers to return, but only in ultimate death will such an act happen!"
The woman stopped moving and her head moved to look at each apprentice.
"Lindzei's blood created the l'Cie of utopia. Pulse's blood created l'Cie of heart. Accursed Etro used the heart to send her messengers! Jenovah, cursed with infinite power, but finite life simply waited."
A l'Cie brand appeared on each apprentice as the wires started to loosen.
"I AM JENOVAH. GO FORTH, TOOLS OF FATE, AND OPEN THE DOOR! FIND ALL THE MAKERS AND BRING MUIN TO ME! DESTROY PULSE, MURDER LINDZEI, AND OBLITERATE ETRO!"
Another bright light and the apprentices all found themselves back in apex tower, Jenny nowhere in sight.





Cid landed on the apex, just as a light faded. Is it done? He wondered as he noticed the citizens of Oerba laying down. He had both scythes in his hand and his body was crystallized. He looked around and noticed two other l'Cie, the boy from earlier and someone unknown to him. Omega was there as well, as was Lightning and Snow. "That idiot!" Cid flew forward and pushed Ryden out of the way. His body glowed and crystal wings sprouted from his back. The crystal around his head turned to horns and his right arm turned into a large claw. He swiped his claw and hit the Ultima spell, taking the full force. "Omega, don't get ahead of yourself." Cid's voice rang from the smoke that appeared.


"Light!" Snow never felt so helpless as he did now. Not when Serah disappeared, when he was turned into a l'Cie, or when he became a Cieth. The others were gone. Lightning was hit. Crystal l'Cie were everywhere. He was failing everyone. He would have been hit by Ultima, but the Shiva sisters took the brunt of the attack. Unfortunately, this caused them to disappear. Snow ran for Lightning as his forearm started to burn with the loss of his Eidolons. Shiva has never been defeated before. "Light, get up!" Snow yelled as he grabbed Lightning by the shoulders.

"It burns..." Leo muttered. He could hear explosions and feel the ground shaking, but the only thing on his mind was the burning feeling on his chest. He squeezed his hand and felt the handle of his Gunblade. "Snow...?" Suddenly, it all came back to Leo and he opened his eyes, jumping up in time to see the chaos unfold. The young boy failed to notice the l'Cie brand in the middle of his chest. "Snow!"



​

 

Mia felt a burning in the back of her neck and groaned as she got up, using her spear for support. She had never felt so weak before, 'What happened?' She gasped and shouted, "Leo?! Jaden?! Ryou?!" She ran and found Snow, "Snow!" Her hair swayed as she ran, revealing a L'Cie brand on the back of her neck. "Snow?! What happened?! What's this burning in the back of my neck?!"

 

Akira stood, tipping to one side, gripping her forearm tightly. "Ow...what...what happened?" She looked around at the others and at Lightning being shook by Snow, "Light!" She ran to her mentor, eagerly wanting to see if she was alright.

Lighting opened her eyes, pain radiated through her body as she pushed Snow off of her and fought for her breath, "Akira, Leo, Ryou, Mia, Mya, everyone, are you alright?" She noticed something odd about them. They each clutched a part of their body in pain or she could see the broad black marks of their brands perfectly. "No...not...you all too..." Fighting down her anger, Light tried to stand upright and dropped back to her knees, "Damn, I guess he hit me harder than I thought."

 

"Tch," Omega scoffed when Cid interfered, "And it was just getting fun." His bloodlust subsided, but his brand and eyes were still glowing faintly. "Cid," he blatantly greeted, "Now that you're here, would you mind informing me about that fal'Cie girl sometime today? That'd be great." Not having seen Cid like this he observed his comrade's crystalline transformation, taking note of any changes and powers that appeared. After that, his stare wandered all around the tower. There was a small crater or two from the Meteor spells and some large blackened areas on the ground from the Ultima castings. One section of the railing that circled the apex was missing, no doubt to the Wave Cannon. Alright, maybe I overdid it a little... Other than that, everyone survived and that's all that really mattered. He continued, "Or would you like to tell me now instead? Her real name at least."

 

Freyja arrived at last and jumped up top to meet them, but she kept her distance, waiting for a perfect moment to come in, after all, she did not feel like wasting her time by transforming right away, she only reserved that for her really tough customers who were rather wealthy with power. But now she could look upon each and everyone of the enemy without worrying that her stare would disrupt anyone of them. For now the grim deed of birthing new l'cie had been done and now she considered them more of a equal opponent then before. Freyja stood in the background with her arms crossed eying the fued between Cid and Omega.

 

Omega sheathed Masamune and went Sentinel as he heard Grey coming in his direction. As the sword was dropping down on him, he made a quick dash backwards to evade the blow and lunged forward to thrust his arm into Grey's chest. Planning ahead, should that attack fail, he quickly changed back to Commando and prepared to blast the new l'Cie with Ruinja, firing a small bolt of magic that detonates into an explosion larger than Ruinga so that it can release five Ruin spells at the launched target. "Don't let becoming a l'Cie get to your head. All that means is that I can beat you down harder than before." he told Grey. Then again, the vice versa also holds true...

 

Jaden staggered onto his feet, Mia's call had snapped him out of his coma-esque state...
His body felt numb, his brain like Jelly... and he clutched his burning right wrist.
So... that meant he was alive at least...
"Right... I am not going to give the crazy lady who put us on that ride a tip..." he said, grinning a bit groggily.
He looked around at everyone else who was either just getting up, about to get owned by Omega, or still floored.
He staggered after Mia, still a little disorientated.
"Hey old timers..."

 

Ryou watched the scene unfold before him as he was being branded, it hurt like hell as if it was being a part of your very skin as he didn't scream, more like, he couldn't and his pride as a man refused to do that as he found himself laying on the ground of the apex tower, clutching his upper-left arm as his brand was clearly visible to anyone's eyes but then he heard a voice, Light's as a matter of fact and felt the pain slow go away as he forced himself to get up, ignoring what his body was feeling then he stood up and with some effort walked to his comrades, feeling the burning on his upper-left arm still there and he pulled up the sleeve as far as he could, seeing something of a mark, well a bit of it.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me..." was all Ryou thought to himself.

 

Mia tried to take in what Grey had said, she could clearly see the l'Cie brands on her companions. But where was her l'Cie brand, she had a good guess why the back of her neck hurt so much, and probably guessed that was where her l'Cie brand was. Though she felt grateful her hair was long enough that it hid her brand, she stared at her companions, some of whose brands she could see.

 

Jaden noticed the guys who were already up, were checking out these weird marks on there bodies, or where looking for said marks.
A thought occurred to him and he rolled the right arm of his coat to reveal a tattoo like mark on the underside of his wrist. So... he was a L'cie huh? Well... correction, they were all L'cie?
"Hey crazy lady!" Jaden called out to Jenova wherever she might be.
"I want a refund on this tattoo! You didn't even give me a choice in design!" he shouted mockingly, it might not have been the best time to joke around... But meh.
He was Jaden, it's what he did. He wasn't going to change just because he was suddenly a L'cie.

 

"Jaden, calm down." Mia said, tempting herself to hit him. "We're l'Cie now, there's nothing we can expect complete the Focus we have been given." Mia turned around and lifted her hair, revealing the brand on her neck. "I wish I could understand what our Focus is."

 

"Calm down? How can I calm down if I'm not even angry?" Jaden asked honestly.

"Look right... I don't understand any of that mumbo jumbo 'crazy lady' spouted kay? All I know, is whatever this focus is... it's bound to be bad news. So I'm not even gonna bother trying to complete it. I'm plain as anything going to continue doing what I always do." he said, folding his arms behind his head in a relaxed casual manner.
"It's simple really. I just live in the moment and follow my heart." He told Mia and the others how he honestly felt.

 

Mya ht the floor and let out a groan. Her head hurted and pounded, but her waist seemed to burn a lot as if someone branded her in the side. She slowly got up, grabbing her gunblade and clutching her side. She saw that everyone was alright, but weren't the same. She looked down and widened her eyes as she saw a Li'cie Brand on her waist. N-no! This can't be happening! I don't want this! She shook her head in disbelief. All she knew was if you didn't finish your focus, your life will be left into a damned figure walking this land.

 

Noah watched as everyone returned from the light and smiled, standing on his feet with renewed vigor. "Hahaha, now you guys are just like me" he said sticking out his tongue to show off his own brand. He stumbled towards everyone slowly, "But what happens now?" He grabbed at the gash on the side of his head "And what about my aching head?" His vision blurring.

All the talk about l'cie and focus was also not helping, it only added to his overwhelming confusion and massive headache, ""What's our........focus is it all the same?"