"Yep. It's like... if someone took a tent and set it up inside out. It still serves the same purpose, but the inside is now on the outside. And the people of Cocoon don't really know any better." They don't know what it looks like on the outside. They just know that Pulse is the "world below," though to them "below" might just mean... below the ground. Still, it felt normal being on Cocoon. Vanille just knew that it wasn't.

Seifer's next few questions bring about a different reaction. Vanille's face falls, painful memory clouding her features. "You could decide not to complete your Focus. But... the brand is like a timer. It grows over time. Once the eye in the center fully opens, it's game over. You turn Cie'th, one of those blue and purple monsters that everyone else turned into for a while in my vision. Once that happens... you aren't yourself. You're a monster, cursed to walk the earth for eternity, and there's no turning back." No known way to turn back anyway. Which does, of course, beg the question of how Lightning, Sazh, Snow, and Hope did. Or will do, if this really is Vanille's future.

"I don't really know how Fang did it. I think something in her despair must have triggered it, but... I've never done it, never wanted to, so I don't know. If she comes back, I'll see if she can answer that."