Sinful Hope(SP11)

Snow pushed groaned and moved his head, testing his body as he tried to push himself up, whatever he was lying on was very hard and very uncomfortable. His head hurt, to much stuff was going on. He pushed himself up with another groan before cluing into what had just happened and sitting up straight in an instant, "SERAH!" he yelled turning his head from side to side to try and find his fiancée whether she was crystallized or not, he was to his feet in an instant as he looked around taking steps to any and all directions still to no avail. He stopped, his body drooping as he let out a sigh, she couldn't have fallen that far away from them. They just had to find her...they...he looked around at the group he was with. He didn't know any of them except for Lightning. The two kids had been in the group he had saved from being Purged. He had no idea who the other guy was though. At the moment the only one who didn't seem to be at least getting up, if not already up, was the little silver haired teen.

Vanille pushed herself to her knees and looked around the place they had landed, she hurt all over but she guessed she couldn't really complaining, her heart was beating like no tomorrow and she tried to calm herself down, she didn't know what that dream she had just saw had been about but she didn't like the looks of that creature she saw one bit and sure hoped it wasn't real or anything like that. She managed to calm her heart as she looked around at the beautiful scenery that surrounded them. It was all crystal, like nothing she had seen before she smiled as she stood up, "Woow~" she drawled out in her high-pitched Aussie accent. Snow had gotten up and he was looking around for something but she found herself more drawn to help up Hope who hadn't gotten up. She kneeled down next to him and shook his shoulder, "Hey, hey Hope! You have got to wake up and see this place!!" she said, trying to, again, be as optimistic as possible in the situation, as she continued to shake the young teen.

Sahz was already sitting up leaning against a high wall of crystal, he tried to think of how this might have happened, this was Lake Bresha, but it sure didn't look like it, it seemed they had actually fallen here all the way from Pulse. He looked down at his lil' Chocobo friend from where he was rested on Sahz's knee looking up at him letting out a small peep of a wark in question. "I don't know what we've gotten into Chocobo...But nothing good can come of this, I know it." he looked down at the mark that had appeared on his chest and sighed heavily dropping his head and shaking it from side to side. He was an l'Cie, from what he had to assume, they all were now. He could only see a mark on the blond guy, Snow, but his seemed to be the only one in a really obvious spot, he couldn't see one at all on Lightning, but he had no way of telling for sure, and it sure wouldn't be a smart way to start a conversation with a person like Lightning he knew that much even from just knowing her for 2 days now.
((LoL Song title for the title.))

Lighting stood up warily. The last thing she recalled was seeing the dream, and not sure what it was. She didn't say anything about it though, she didn't know what it meant. Where were they? She was with Snow, the idiot her sister and fallen in love with, unfortunately. The place was bright and iridescent, a frozen mass of figures and shapes suspended in time. She wasn't sure what to make of this place, really. She looked at the group, they were none of her concern. All she needed to do was find her sister, frozen in the crystal from her completed task as a l'cie, and get out of here. She needed to protect her from Snow, whether or not she wanted that protection.

Hope woke up to the shaking of Vanille, her telling him to look at where they were. He sat up slowly, his head was feeling fuzzy. He didn't even want to be here. First the crazy female wanted to attack the thing with him around, and he wasn't meant to be around. He wasn't supposed to be here. It was especially the older man's fault here. He preached all about protecting everyone and being the hero, and that hero couldn't save his mother. He didn't have a mother now, and it was all that man's fault. He had to confront him about it, and he wanted revenge, and yet he couldn't do it. What was he to do? He looked at the bright crystalline area and couldn't help but be amazed by the situation. Devestation set in soon afterwards. How were they to get out of here?

Snow turned around to face everyone as he heard them all get up, he looked at Lightning, "Hey, Lightning, we have to go find Serah! Are these guys ready to go?" he asked in a voice as serious as he could get. He took a couple steps closer to Lightning swinging his arms slightly to try and convey his message even more then he had. he completely disregarded the other people, focusing solely on Lightning, basically because she was the only one in the group right now he had ever been on speaking terms with, he wanted to make sure everyone was okay to go, but he figured Lightning would know more then he did whether everyone was good, he didn't really think about the fact that he was dragging to kids into this, or even though of asking them if they wanted to, they were all here they would all understand, they would all help, at least, that was what Snow thought.

Vanille smiled at Hope as he woke up and she gestured to their surroundings, "Isn't it gorgeous!" she said looking around again. But noticed Hope didn't seem to be paying her any attention, and she noticed him glance at Snow and she frowned for a moment looking at the blond for a moment out of the corner of her eyes before smiling and looking back at Hope, "You should go tell him what's on your mind!" she said in an excited whisper grabbing onto Hope's arm and shaking it slightly, leaning in to try and keep Snow from hearing what she was saying, not that he was paying any attention anyways. She knew Hope wasn't going to be able to let this go until he spoke to Snow about it, so she didn't know why he was hesitating now, like he had been before too, before their encounter with Pulse fal'Cie.

Sahz frowned at Snow as he spoke to Lightning as though the rest of them didn't exist, or didn't have opinions of their own. The little Chocobo jumped back up into his hair and settled itself in and he stood up taking a few steps towards Snow and Lightning. "Hey, Snow, was it?" he started, getting the taller man's attention. He seemed almost confused at the fact that the other man had spoken at all. "We don't have time for finding the crystal girl, in case you haven't noticed, we have something a little more...impending, on our hands." he said gesturing to the mark on his chest, "We're Pulse l'Cie now, all of us. We've got to figure out or Focus before anything else, don't you think?" He noticed Snow look down at the tattoo on his arm that had not been there before.

Vanille looked over her shoulder at Sahz and frowned biting her lip and looking at her thigh where, at the hem of her skirt, where her mark had appeared. She was also about to bring up the dream she had had but she didn't want to drag down the mood of the group, so she shifted herself to be seated next to Hope and wrapped herself around one of his arms and watched the three older people talk to one another.

Lighting had wanted to slap Snow like he much deserved for being so impudent and so 'heroic,' but Sahz had distracted them with another more important matter. More important than slapping Snow in his smug face, and maybe a little more important than finding her frozen sister. Lightning knew where her mark was. She had felt it strike on her chest below the neckline of her shirt. She wasn't about to unzip it and check, it made her think too much. She didn't want to see it right now. What was their focus? Was it possibly the dream she had seen when she was unconscious? Had that been a dream, or her seeing things? They were on a timer now though, they were also Cocoon's enemies, they could be hunted down by the Psicom soldiers and killed. Her sister had completed her focus before it was too late. She never did ask her what it was, or how she knew it. She almost wished she had. She looked to Sahz who was, at the moment, the voice of the group. Snow was obviously not the brains of the group, and the two children who shouldn't even be here could be a hindrance. She wasn't a babysitter, she couldn't babysit them and Snow.

Hope wasn't sure what to say, he didn't know what he could tell Snow. What was on his mind? What would change if he told Snow that he had let go of his mother and killed her? Why hadn't he stopped Nora from joining with the fight? Hope needed to avenge his mother for being tricked by the loud, take-charge man. He was fidgety as the bouncy girl sat back and held one of his arms. He didn't want her touching him, but he didn't think she'd really listen to him if he asked her to stop. They were Pluse l'Cie now, as the oldest male of the group had said. They each had a mark now, and they were now targets of the law. How had Hope gotten mixed up in all this? Oh, right, Snow.

Snow turned on Sahz, there wasn't a possible way he was wrong, he knew what there fate was but he didn't want to look on the downside now, they had to find Serah right now, how dare this man he didn't even know say that Serah was unimportant, he didn't even know her. But deep down he knew Sahz was right they needed to figure out their focus, "And how do we figure that out?" Snow said gesturing with an almost sluggish movement of his arm to the group, his eyes not leaving Sahz, wondering if this guy would happen to have all the answers, "We can look for Serah while we think it over. Don't you agree Li-" he was interrupted mid sentence as he was turning to face Lightning again, by Sahz who had started up talking again.

"A person's Focus usually comes to them in the form of a vision. Did any of you see anything?" he turned away from Snow and looked more at the two younger members of their group who were still sitting down a few feet away from the adults of the group. He noticed the young girl look down at the ground and chew at her lip as she kept herself stuck to the silverette. Snow had started up talking again, "Clearly our Focus is to protect Cocoon, it's what Serah told us that has to be it." Snow said, not a hint of doubt in his words. Sahz turned back to him to talk back when the young girl stood up, letting go of the silverette.

Vanille inwardly sighed, there went not talking about the creature she saw in her dream. She glanced sideways at hope before letting go of him and standing up she put her hands behind her back, clutching them together as she took a few paces towards the older members of the group, "Excuse me, actually..." she started gaining the sure attention of both the older men. "I had a little bit of a dream, before I woke up." her voice practically drawled as she spoke for once slowly, her voice not as high pitched as it so usually was, she glanced back at Hope before turning around completely to face no one in particular, rocking back and forth on her heels. "It was a big monster, I didn't think something like that could exist, it looked kinda scary. But does that have anything to do with my Focus?" she said turning around to look up at Sahz again.

Sahz blinked a couple times before leaning back, all weight on one leg, he scratched the back of his head as the girl spoke, fully aware as Snow muttered 'Ragranok' under his breath. He glanced at everyone in the group, "Wait, did we all have the same dream?" he asked directing his question. Snow looked to Lightning, but didn't say anything, for once not finding words.

Lightning sighed though her face remained a mask of annoyance. She looked to the younger girl talking, making her realize after Sahz that they had all had the same dream. It had been a blur, a rush of time before her eyes. She wasn't sure what it had been, only chunks of the message had registered, and not even completely. She had to think a moment. Mass destruction, and it involved Cocoon. Everything involved Cocoon. Maybe they had to save Cocoon from whatever that beast had been? They had time ticking already, and with all of them having the same mission, what would they do? Compete for its finish? Snow might be on to something with the mumbled Ragnarok under his breath. Perhaps that was it...

A monster that could kill them all just by looking at them, basically, was what Hope was getting out of this. He curled his hand into a tight fist and gritted his teeth. He didn't want to be apart of this in any way or form. He didn't want to have to work with Snow to finish this mission. There was no way he could complete his Focus by himself. He and the girl had the same dream, Sahz had it too. What did the pink haired girl dream? She didn't say anything on this conversation. "How am I supposed to do any of this? This is all the l'Cie's fault!" He and his mother had been dragged into this, if that l'Cie had never existed... He shook his head vigorously.

Snow frowned and stepped forward thinking of it as a gesture to help prove his point, "Our Focus is to save Cocoon, I'm telling you guys-" He started but Sahz interrupted him since it seemed no one else was going to bother. "We are enemies of Cocoon, why would we be saving it!" he yelled at the younger man catching Snow of guard. Sahz looked to Lightning half expecting her to help him argue, since she so clearly didn't like this Snow character after how they had argued at the Pulse fal'Cie. Snow seemed very taken aback by someone not believing him though and he too looked to Lightning, but for a different reason, to try and get her to agree with him, she had to know he was right and not this guy she might have known for a couple days at most.

Vanille was the only one who caught what Hope had said and she knelled back down next to him not wanting to get involved with the arguments of the adults anyway. She smiled at him, "You don't have to do anything, at least not alone, don't worry I'll be there with you for sure." she said with a nod, the adults seemed to be ignoring the two of them. She looked over her shoulder at them then back to Hope, "Do you think he's right, I mean, I don't think it makes any sense, protecting Cocoon when we're the enemies now...but I guess that dream didn't make much sense either. What do you think of it?" she said ignoring his comment on how everything was the l'Cie's fault because no matter how he looked at it he was one of them now.

"We don't know what our Focus is, but we're now being hunted by Psicom, if Cocoon wants us out of the picture, why would it want us to save it?" she inquired, mostly to herself, half answering Sahz, and of course, ignoring Snow. It couldn't have been destroying Cocoon though, could it? They were just a team of five, if they had to get that monster to destroy Cocoon for them, then that still didn't make sense. Save Cocoon or let it fall, if they didn't know the right one how were they to complete the task set upon them by their markers.

"I...I don't know..." Hope replied nervously. "I shouldn't even be here!" his voice cracked as his emotions rose. "So, it's either complete this thing or get turned into one of those...mindless...rotting...things!" He never had to decide something so big by himself. He never had to go face to face with life. Plus, his mother was always by his side when life got rough, and she always made it better. "We...we're Pulse l'Cie now....I can't believe it..." He was the thing he hated and blamed for what happened to him. "If we're the enemy, do we turn ourselves in...?" That would cost them their life though, he didn't want to die, but he didn't want to go through the struggle and all the confusion that he was faced with.

Snow growled some at Lightning's answer he turned around and started walking off, "Well we should get going, is PSICOM is fixed on getting us we shouldn't stay in one place, right?" he looked over his shoulder at the rest of the group. Before looking back in front of him, not bothering to voice how he didn't really care about PSICOM, knowing he could easily take on whatever they happened to throw at him, he was looking for Serah, she had to have fallen with them, and she had to be around here somewhere. He started walking on, just figuring that by now everyone had figured out that he was the leader and they he was the one to follow.

Sahz sighed and shook his head as Snow walked off in a huff, though he had to be glad that he was still on Lightning's good side at the moment. At least she seemed to agree with him, or maybe she was just disagreeing with Snow, none the less he didn't care, at least they weren't all fighting. He looked at the kids and walked towards them.

Vanille looked at the adorable and emotion ridden boy in front of him and threw her arms around him hugging him tightly feeling that whenever someone was upset what they really needed was a hug. She let go of him and smiled, "We'll be fine, we can beat this thing and we won't turn into those things, and we won't have to hand ourselves over, because we're the enemies to them now, not ourselves silly. How can you be your own enemy, it doesn't make sense. And besides, when things get tough we have a bunch of people we can hide behind, and if that doesn't work, I guess we could always just run away." She said with a smile, not noticing at Sahz was right next to them until he was leaning down beside her.

"So you're going to use us as shields? That's great to know." he said trying to put a smile on his face, wanting the kids to think that everything was fine and that no one was fighting even though he knew they had watched him arguing with Snow and Lightning mere moments beforehand. He looked between the two before he realized he didn't know either of their names. "My name is Sahz Katzroy, seems we're all going to be partners from here on out." he said.

Vanille smiled at Sahz and took his hand, which was not offered to either of them, with both of hers and shaking it in a rather exaggerated manner, "And I'm Vanille, it's great to meet you Sahz." She said happily, glad to be on good terms with at least one of the other members of the group. She looked around the dark-toned man at Snow who was already very far away. But he seemed to be moving a lot slower then he could have been as though waiting for the others to join him in a very silent and slightly stubborn way. Her gaze rested on Lightning for a moment but she found the distant girl very hard to read so she quickly turned her attention to the two she was talking with. She let go of Sahz and looked at Hope rather expectantly.

Lightning knew she could hold her own with a bunch of enemies, monster or trained human pet of Cocoon. She didn't know about the kids, but Sahz seemed capable, even if he did complain a lot. Snow could fight, but he made it sound easier than he really handled it sometimes. Most of the time, really. She watched the dark skinned man interact with the kids, making them seem all friendly and buddy buddy. She didn't need to try to look annoyed. She was annoyed, and she was sure Snow knew it well. "Let's get moving then," she said under her breath, most definitely not addressing Snow.

Nearly wincing from Vanille's enthusiastic hug, but settling into it as she tried to calm him, he listened as she spoke and explained her logic. It made sense, but she didn't make sense. He accepted the information anyway, but he was still scared. They could run away if it got bad. Could they shut their eyes and it would be over? Would this be a dream? Impossible, what dream would have his mother dead in it...? He reluctantly gave his own introduction after Vanille's expectant stare made him squirm a little. "Hope... Hope Estheim." So he knew most of the group by name, but he didn't know them as people. He only knew what he saw for now, that they were all basically in the same boat as he was.

Sahz nodded as Hope spoke his name and stood up straight. "Well it's nice to meet you. Vanille. Hope." He said looking at each in turn as he said their names. He looked around noticing at Snow and Lightning seemed pretty set on leaving right away. "We should probably follow them, since they know what they're doing." he said with a smile jerking his thumb in the direction of Lightning and Snow. Vanille nodded and stood up as Sahz turned around and started walking off after Snow. He couldn't help but mutter under his breath about how there was no way any of this was going to end well. He wasn't going to complain out loud everyone seemed down enough as it was without him adding to the foul mood in the air anymore. He also had to try and figure out this dream they had all had, there had been virtually no content to it, how were they supposed to decide how to complete their Focus if they had absolutely no clue what it was.

Vanille was about to take a step forward when she turned back around to Hope the smile on her face not faltering at all. "So now we're going to be travelling with Snow, so are you going to talk to him? You have to tell him how you feel about what he did, you don't have to forgive him, but how can you move forward without saying anything. I mean...he does seem like the brightest person he's not just going to clue into what happened unless you tell him, and you know that." She said putting her hands on her hips, before offering one of them to Hope to help him to his feet. She did wonder what exactly they would be doing and where exactly they would be going, but she guessed it didn't really matter as long as they all kept the fighting to a minimum and stuck together, even though so far she wasn't sure how that would work out between all of them who already seemed to have so much tension between them.

Snow climbed to the top of one of the crystal cliffs to get a good look at the area. Not seeing anything, though picking out Serah's crystallized form here would be like finding a needle in a haystack. He jumped back down and noticed the other members of his makeshift group had started to follow him, he smiled his big toothy grin and gave them all a thumbs up, unable to keep an upset demeanor for the life of him, he had to be the ever stable leader. "Alright, let get out of this place." he called loudly to the group. Sahz, gave him the weakest of thumbs up he had ever seen. He expected Lightning to just ignore him but the younger girl with the pigtails falling around her shoulder who had started to follow him stuck both thumbs in the air and smiled brightly, he couldn't help but have some respect for the overwhelming sense of optimism he got from her, maybe she would even be able to even out the pessimistic moods the little silvertte and Lightning had.

The young boy took the youngest girl in the group's hand, muttering a small and timid thanks for the help. He would have sat there until his Focus timer had run out if she didn't keep helping him out with everything that was overwhelming him at the moment. Tell Snow what was the matter? That was like confronting the fact vocally that his mother was gone forever. "Maybe..." he sighed. "Maybe I'll tell him later. When we're out of this place." And most likely when he was alone with just the man. It wasn't really the other's business to get involved with this. He didn't like the idea of traveling with his mother's killer, but it had to be done if he wanted to live. He didn't bother with the thumbs up thing everyone seemed to be doing, he wasn't a thumbs up kind of guy anyway.

Lightning disregarded the man's leadershipping and ready to make her own moves as she decided. Did all of them believe this big idiot could lead them out of here as he said? The little girl and maybe the older man might, she wasn't too sure about the younger brat here. He seemed very unwilling to do anything right now but complain. As far as Lightning was concerned, all of these people were useless baggage getting in the way and lagging behind. Time was of the essence, and they were ruining it.

Vanille let out a sigh at Hope's words putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head. "Alright, but I still think you should tell him as soon as possible." she said leaning towards Hope slightly as she spoke before straightening herself up and twirling on her heel to face the others in the group. She pointed forward, her hip gutting out to one side, "Alright let's get going. We can do this!" She said loudly, her accented voice seeming to bounce off the crystal that surrounded them. She giggled slightly, though on the inside she couldn't help but be a little scared, she wouldn't let these people know that though. She looked over her shoulder and shot a very caring smile at Hope before running off catching up to Snow who was way out in front no problem and running out past him.

Snow looked at the girl as she ran by him, "Whoa, whoa, slow down, do you even know where you're going?" he asked with a laugh speeding up himself trying to keep up with Vanille in turn. He heard the older man behind him sigh and then heard him speed up as well, Snow was confident he could move forward at this pace for a long long time to come and he didn't really care about how the other people in the group would keep up.

Lightning could say a few hundred times right now that she didn't care for the group she was with. Little miss cheerful who seemed to boost the moral of half the party wasn't that bad, although the optimism was grating dangerously rough on her nerves. Snow, well, the norm of getting on her nerves more or less, maybe a bit more considering how obsessed he was being right now. Anyone who couldn't hold their own was a pest, the kids right now she could do without.

Hope wished he knew where they were going, like the older man said to Vanille. He wasn't even close to trusting that this man knew where he was leading them. He had the strut of a proud peacock but the intelligence and drive of an idiot. The quiet lady would be a better leader, even though she was more focused on her own goals. Whatever got him out of here was fine by him really.