Chapter 1: Renascence

O God, I cried, give me new birth, and put me back upon the Earth! Upset each cloud's gigantic gourd and let the heavy rain, down poured. In one big torrent, set me free, washing my grave away from me.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay, Renascence, 1912

God was dead, and the world had been born anew. The people of Nova Chrysalia had been granted another chance at life, in a brand-new world. They could do anything they wished, be anything they desired, and most importantly, feel as human as they wanted to be for so long as their lives allowed. Thanks to the sacrifice of Yeul and Caius, the cycle of life and death had been restored. Children were being born again while the old and sick recycled their souls through death. This world was ruled by no Gods or fal'Cie. There were no deities to dictate the people's emotions or to turn them to war for their own benefit or selfish desires. This new world was owned by humanity and they didn't need God to write their stories or to shape their destinies; they were perfectly capable of it themselves.

It had been four years since Nova Chrysalia had been consumed by the Chaos. Four long years since Lightning and her friends had slain God and taken the new world for humanity. She had given the people a chance to live their lives the way they wanted to, and most of the surviving population had been more than eager to grasp that opportunity. A new world offered so many different possibilities for those who were brave enough to seek them, but most people were just happy to live in a promising new world without the threat of the fal'Cie and the war and devastation they had brought to their previous home.

Things seemed to go well at first. People were happy with their newfound independence and the opportunity to make life anything they wanted it to be. The idea of starting over on a new world was appealing and most people found it exhilarating… after all, who doesn't like a bit of freedom? The future was looking promising for mankind and if everyone rallied together they could rebuild their world into something much better than what they had before. A bit of patience and faith in each other was all that was really needed to pave the way into the future they each desired to build.

Most things never truly work out as expected, though. Many people anticipated life on the new planet to be easy. They expected to be handed a certain lifestyle that the fal'Cie had provided on Cocoon, but what they found here was anything but. This world was untamed, and more often than not, cold and unforgiving. Most of the people of the old world had been sheltered and spoiled until the very end, most of them never truly knowing extreme temperatures or climate changes, and of course never experiencing these things without the accommodations that were once provided by the fal'Cie. A large portion of them had never known what it felt like to starve or to have to work for their meals. Many of them had never used their hands to build their homes or farm the land. They'd never used tools, or done anything like that at all, really. The people had agreed to a godless life in a new world, but most of them didn't fully realize what exactly that meant, and they most certainly didn't anticipate the difficulties that came with starting over, and that's where the problem began.

Despite the hardships, life in this world went fairly well for the first six months, or so. The people actually put in their full effort and tried to work together to build something great. Bodhum, named in remembrance of their beloved home back on Cocoon, was among the first settlements to emerge in the new world. It was home to the Savior of humanity as well as those who had helped her pave the way to this golden opportunity. Of course, many people set out on their own, following their own paths in search of a new way of life, but a lot of people stayed behind. They found comfort and security in being near their Savior. They relied on her to not only protect them, but to solve all of their problems as well. After all, she was the woman who had defied her own fate many times before and went on to become the slayer of Gods.

After all of that, something as simple as protecting and providing for humanity should be simple, right? Wrong. Lightning was not the woman she once was. There was no l'Cie brand burnt into her pale skin; there were no magical powers or super human strength that accompanied it. She was no longer the guardian of Valhalla nor did she possess the divine power of Etro. Her abilities as the Savior were long gone as well, ripped from her the moment she struck down Bhunivelze, the very God who had bestowed them upon her. She was normal; just an average woman now. There was nothing special about her, except for her ability to handle a weapon; and that only took her so far in this new world. She was not capable of defending all of the people who had flocked to her seeking protection. She was not able to provide for their every want and need like they expected her to. She had no answers for their prayers nor their pleas for help. She was no longer the Savior, and most days, she felt as though she was barely able to take care of herself.

It took about six months in this new world for the people to start realizing that the person they had put their faith into wasn't special at all; that she could barely keep herself alive, never mind them. The society that they'd built began to disband and many people decided to forsake Lightning and the new town of Bodhum in search of protection and a better way of life elsewhere. The people were afraid to stand on their own and it was precisely this fear that landed their small settlement in its current state.

After the population began to disperse out into the world, the fiends began to move in. For the most part, the large community had enjoyed safety in their numbers, and the unfamiliar monsters of the world had stayed away. Sure, there were accidents and causalities here and there, but they were fewer and further between back then. When things began to sour within the community, the townspeople had quickly rallied together to build walls around their settlement and it worked well against the smaller fiends, but the larger creatures knew a good meal when they saw one and weren't so easily deterred. It seemed as though the walls were now being breached at least once a week, and with the diminishing population due to causalities and abandonment, not to mention the lack of proper tools, the job of repairing it was getting increasingly difficult by the day.

Many people began to view this as a curse, one cast upon them by Lightning when she had slayed God. They blamed her for their misfortune and theorized that the nearly uninhabitable condition of this planet was their punishment for turning their backs on the deity that created it for them. Flash forward three and a half years and these same people had gone on to join the New Order of Salvation, a near mirror image of its predecessor, which had preached the worship of the almighty Bhunivelze. These people believed that by following a strict religious code and worshipping the fallen deity, they could somehow revive him and he would come back to right all the wrongs in their lives.

Named in honor of their Divine City of Light, Neo Luxerion quickly rose from the ground as a sanctuary for those who still believed in the teachings of Bhunivelze. Founded by the surviving members of the previous religious organization, the New Order offered their town as a safe haven for those seeking refuge from the harshness of this world, an offer that many people in Bodum began to take up once things began to sour within their own settlement. In exchange for a safer environment, the people had to devout themselves to the fallen deity and praise him for the blessing. Lightning didn't have the heart to tell them that the safety they were now enjoying was no different than what they'd experienced in the beginning, before things got too hard and people began to leave their settlement.

The New Order was established almost immediately after arriving on this planet. In the beginning, it made the people nervous, mostly because they feared that the organization would fall right back into their not so peaceful way of handling things, but the group had been pretty amicable, so far. Perhaps they had learned their lesson or maybe there was even still some residual fear that kept them in their place. Lightning really didn't care the reason, so long as they maintained harmonious with the rest of the world. They could worship and pray to their dead god all they'd like, they could hold on to the old ways and believe that he was essential to their survival, they could even blame her for the unfavorable state of this world and curse her name all they liked. None of it made a difference to her. Of course, that didn't mean that Lightning trusted them. In fact, it was quite opposite. Despite their peaceful nature so far, she knew that it was only a matter of time before they slipped back into their previous state. The group seemed to be growing at an alarming rate and if left unchecked, they could easily take this world for themselves.

Of course, not everyone in the world felt the same way as those religious fanatics. There were still many that distrusted them and opted for a Godless life. These people believed in doing things for themselves and working hard to make this world as good as it could possibly be. There were still people that believed in shaping their own destinies and that a god wasn't necessary for their survival. There were many that didn't blame Lightning at all for the hardships in their lives, and there were those that still rallied behind her as their Savior.

When the New Order first surfaced, these people had immediately called for war to stamp the organization out, but the idea had been quickly shut down. Lightning hadn't rescued a world from destruction only to throw the new one into war and chaos as well. This wasn't what she'd envisioned and so she wouldn't allow it to happen. The religious group was small at the time and she'd hoped that they would have disbanded quickly once they saw that their God wasn't coming to their rescue, but sadly, that's not how things worked out. They were growing by the day and their presence was making the population quite apprehensive, and Lightning soon began to wonder if she was making the right decision.

It seemed as if the Bodhum townsfolk talked of war every day now. Each of them seeing the New Order as a threat that needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible. It was a concern that Lightning understood all too well. She had her own list of reasons for why she wanted them gone, but without them doing anything wrong, she couldn't exactly feel good about sending her people in to slaughter them. It wasn't like the town was running off to grab their knives and pitchforks anyway. They were calling for war, but not one of them seemed prepared to fight it themselves. Instead, they were relying on the Savior to extinguish the treat for them. They had big dreams and wanted to make this world great, but they were fools. Not for believing in themselves, but for believing in her. After all, she was a shell of the woman she once was and had nothing to offer them anymore.

Her physical age, twenty-one. However, spending hundreds of years fighting destiny eventually takes its toll. She had been so strong at her peak, both physically and mentally. She had been the recipient of so much strength and power during her previous roles, that it's absence now left her feeling somewhat empty inside, as if a part of herself had been slain as well when Bhunivelze was cast from his throne and into the unseen realm. Physically, she was every bit as strong and agile as she was before her very first taste of power, but mentally, she just felt drained. It felt as though the weight of the world still hung from her delicate shoulders, but this time around, she didn't feel strong enough to carry it.

She wasn't alone, though. There were people that cared for her and tried their best to share her burden, but alas, they weren't the Savior that the people needed either. Although, it didn't stop them from trying, and Lightning hated to see the looks of disappointment on their faces when they ended up failing as well. The duty of guiding the people into the dawn of the new world was no easy task, especially when the planet in which they had arrived seemed to reject them every step of the way. But still, they had hope—hope that they could mold this world into the one of their dreams; that they would overcome the perils and obstacles that they were faced against; and most importantly, to prove their own strength, determination, and resilience… that they could stand on their own without God.

The hope that her friends possessed was like a candle that burned within each of them. It was what guided them through the chaos of the apocalypse and it's what brought their souls together in the end. That fire still burned brightly in the hearts of her friends, but Lightning felt as though hers was fading, as if it were being extinguished under the heavy weight of demand and her responsibilities. Of course, she never told the others this. She never allowed them to see the true nature of her crumbling spirit. She pushed forward and persevered because that's what everyone expected their high and mighty Savior to do when faced with adversity… that, and she didn't have another choice. It was either press forward or die.

A/N:

Howdy, Final Fantasy XIII fans! My name's Lady A, and I write for and pretty much live in the VII/XIII crossover fandom. I have an ongoing story for that category called I'll Never Forget that I've been working on since 2016. I'm 33 (long) chapters deep into it and was looking to work on something else during those moments when I needed a break from that story but still wished to write. This story was born from that desire and I hope to do great things with it. Assuming there's interest, I will update it on a semi-regular basis, but INF will be my priority until the day I mark it complete. Anywho, I hope you all like it. Please leave your (hopefully positive) feedback in the review section.

Thank you to my trusty beta reader, Wolf777, for looking over this for me and helping brainstorm future chapters.

Until next time,

Lady A

P.S. If you like this story and get bored between updates, give my other story a read. It's updated pretty regularly :)