55 minutes
When Rygdea placed his hand on the ID card, the three-dimensional video stopped precisely where Eden's shield was being shown.
“An Ark is a military facility that was carried up here from Pulse by the Sanctum's fal'Cie. They're armories filled with monsters and weapons.”
He understood when he heard they were filled with monsters. There was no way Hope would talk about that. It must have been a place of utmost danger. Just as expected, Rygdea went on to say, “it's a training facility for l'Cies.”
P150-151
fal'Cie Barthandelus took Hope and the others to the Ark so they could obtain the strength necessary to destroy Cocoon, he said.
“Stop making that face. It wasn't all bad that they were taken to the Ark. Because, they were able to see the truth there.”
“The truth?”
“It wasn't just monsters that were waiting for them inside the Ark. Who else, you ask? Why, it was the Cavalry's commander, Brigadier General Raines of course.”
As Rygdea continued to say, “He was a Sanctum l'Cie,” his expression darkened.
“The Brigadier General's Focus was to aid the Pulse l'Cie.”
Though they were l'Cie, had there not been someone pulling the strings, they probably wouldn't have been able to continue running as well as they had. You can clearly tell just how much military force they put into the operation through what you see here.”
At the same time, he could see the reason behind why Hope and the others didn't realize there had been someone guiding them behind the scenes. There was no way they had time to think things over whilst being chased about all day and night.
“So it was attack them mercilessly on one front, and then prepare escape routes on the other, huh?”
“You're thinking why the fal'Cie did bothered to do something in such a roundabout way, aren't you?”
“It was because the fal'Cie couldn't destroy Cocoon,” he said. It seemed that fal'Cie couldn't hurt themselves or hurt what they were protecting, either. Through the eyes of humans who were capable of both, the fact that the almighty fal'Cie couldn't do such a thing was even quite intriguing.
But, it is because that was true that fal'Cie Barthandelus attempted to use such an elaborate method to guide the Pulse l'Cie and have them destroy Cocoon. He would sacrifice all of the inhabitants of Cocoon to bring the gods back to the world.
It is equally curious that the fal'Cie they revered as gods would themselves seek the gods, but that was also the truth. “It's absurd,” spat Rygdea. That absurdity itself is the “truth” they were met with in the Ark.
“Absolutely. I too thought it was absurd when I had heard about it from Hope.”
“Right? It's outrageously idiotic.”
As a consequence of that idiocy, many lives were lost at the Hanging Edge. My wife died for that absurdity...
“That is precisely why Brigadier General Raines went to the Ark. If he defeated Lightning and the others, Bathandelus's plans would fall through. The Brigadier General sought to stop the destruction of Cocoon even if it meant going against his own Focus.”
“But, don't you become a Cie'th if you don't fulfill your Focus?”
At any rate, Brigadier General Raines shouldn't have been a Cie'th at the time. He had become the new Primarch after that.
“After he was defeated by Lightning and company, he turned into crystal, not a Cie'th.”
P152-153
“Does it mean his Focus had been something else?”
“I wonder. That could be true. Or it could be he defied his Focus as a l'Cie using the free will he had as a human. Nobody knows the truth. No matter what the case was... those were the last moments of the human Cid Raines.”
Rygdea's voice sounded a little like it was cracking, but he pretended he didn't notice.
“The truth they faced inside the Ark, huh. So with that they made up their minds to go down to Pulse, then.”
“That's how it was.”
He had heard of the days they spent journeying through Gran Pulse in search of a way to solve the curse of the l'Cie. Even though there was no PSICOM in sight, they still couldn't afford to rest, he said. There were ferocious monsters unparalleled by those of Cocoon, and the inexorable advancing of their brands. Hope didn't say any more than that, so they must have been days filled with desperation and uneasiness.
The Oerba they finally reached was already in ruins and gave them no hints whatsoever. How disheartened they must have been.
“If they had given up there...”
“Both you and I would be on the other side.”
Even if Hope and the others had turned into Cie'th someplace else, Barthandelus would probably have promptly thought up another scenario. That was something his almighty self was capable of. That's why the l'Cies chose to defeat Barthandelus.
“So, Lightning and the others returned to Cocoon. Right in the midst of a festival, of all times.”
Rygdea shrugged his shoulders exaggeratedly and resumed the paused video.
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