Final Fantasy XIII: The burden of truth
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII
Title: The burden of truth
Rating: G
Characters: Oerba Yun Fang, Oerba Dia Vanille
Notes: Spoilers for Chapter 10
***
They say memory hits you like a sledgehammer, but for Fang it was more like spilt wine spreading over a table cloth. Raines, with his words of sincere but misplaced belief, had tipped the cup over and now the truth that had been buried so far within her in guilt and self-loathing splashed across her mind.
Ragnarok. Vanille. Oerba. Anima. Madness. Vanille, no!
For a moment, staggered, she almost dropped to her knees and wept. But Vanille was beside her, Bind Rod held in a white grip, scared but trying to be strong, fighting as best she could, even though it had never should have been her burden to bear…
Taking the burden for my sake.
As the vestiges of forgotten memory soaked into her consciousness, Fang suddenly saw with clarity. Vanille, you’d been lying to me all along.
Her heart burst and she felt the tears sting her eyes, even as Raines raged his anger and despair upon them. To her left, Snow was launching himself forward with all the righteous confidence of a boy drunk on the first taste of True Love. To her right, Lightning fought with the grim intensity of a soldier condemned to a last and fatal stand.
And Vanille too, slinging spell after spell on Raines in a voice growing desperate and hoarse.
Have to save her.Please, I have to save her.
It was a chant that Fang had repeated to herself countless times, but now, as the weight of old memory pressed upon her, she found her knees weak as a newborn chocobo.
To the others, her hesitation might have been little more a few seconds, but to Fang it felt like eternity until her limbs finally obeyed her, and she leapt into the air with a scream and brought her spear down on Raines back.
With that, the man collapsed. Stunned, Fang realized the battle was over and they had defeated a fellow l’Cie of great power. A l’Cie who had been tasked to help them fulfill their Focus, and who had had chosen to give his life away in a final act of defiance, but now lay in a crumpled heap.
Raines was saying something, but Fang could not hear. In her mind’s eye, all she could see was Vanille, laying a same bloody heap, rot spreading through her limbs, wracked in agony, begging Fang to end her pain before she succumbed to the fal’Cie’s curse completely.
As Cid Raines intoned his final words, Fang gave a choked sob and ground her teeth. Never again. Vanille had paid enough for Fang’s sins and weakness. Never again would she let her carry that burden. Damn the fal’Cie, damn their Focus, damn Cocoon, damn it all. This time, she’d make sure that nothing would hurt Vanille anymore.
Fang gripped her spear tighter and blinked away the tears. She looked at Vanille, barely standing, still holding her rod in front of her like a shield, trying so hard to be strong, for me, and made a promise to herself.
Even if I have to destroy the world again, I swear, this time I’ll keep you safe.