The armies of Gran Pulse had made their move, and the war was on. During the initial attack, all PSICOM and Guardian Corps units were deployed in response to the invasion. However, as the battles raged on, the scene unfolding across Cocoon quickly became anything but an organized military campaign. Had the Pulsian forces truly caught them so off guard? The opening conflicts saw Cocoon’s military as a completely reactionary force, as if there had been no preparation for what most considered an inevitability. So many lives already lost because of this war, so many who were left without the ones that they loved…

Madeleine L’amouruex stepped into a train car, crowded with frantic passengers, at the station in Eden, the floating city at Cocoon’s center. Eden had not yet seen the worst of the conflicts in spite of the number of casualties that threatened to exhaust the resources of its hospitals and clinics. Madeleine clutched her staff closely as the doors shut and the train departed, her own emerald eyes staring back at her in the reflection of the window. How many soldiers were able to see another day because of her efforts with this instrument of healing. And how many more had been just beyond her reach, both in the treatment rooms and on the battlefield. She sighed and pulled her long blond hair over one shoulder as the train sped her away towards Palumpolum, Cocoon’s “city of commerce”.

But this was not a shopping trip; Madeleine was on a mission. She had been out with special units countless times during the war, her sole purpose to ensure that everyone lived to fight another day. However, this time the assignment was very different. She had practically no details concerning what the task would be or who was requesting it, other than that he had information that could help end the war. In fact, Madeleine still was not sure why she had accepted the call to join what felt to her like the beginning of an anti-government initiative. Perhaps she had long since recognized that no amount of lives saved today would stop the war from continuing tomorrow. Perhaps the feeling of responsibility that she had for all people had driven to her to take this radical change in direction, in the hopes that it would end the suffering. 

What Madeleine did know, in the deepest places of her heart, was that the purpose behind her decision to serve had been eluding her day after day, month after month, ever since [i]he[/i] disappeared, and with him had gone a large piece of her soul. If leaving her home and unit behind on a whim could get her closer to the path he had taken…

[i]Sebastian… where are you?[/i]

The car doors opening in Palumpolum jolted her from her thoughts. She stepped into the drafty station, which was just as full of pandemonium as everywhere else . Madeleine had dressed light, a long cloak over her white dress, which was emblazoned with the Eye of Etro. Occasionally her missions required her to wear heavier protection, but this was not only a hindrance to her craft but was quite exhausting on her small frame. But today there was no room for error. Madeleine needed to focus; her new teammate would be here to meet her. Together they would continue on to the Outer Rim, where the conflict was at its worst, and eventually end up at the appointed destination of Bresha. 

She walked further into the station, the entire experience feeling suddenly very surreal. It was a great departure from anything Madeleine had ever done before. Why had she been picked to take on such a strange assignment? She looked nervously into the chaos around her. Who was this other person that had been selected to accompany her?

Madeleine could not have possibly prepared herself for what the answer to that question was about to entail.