Time Traveler

Chapter 1: 010AF?

It was done. The group of l'Cie had saved Cocoon from ruin. Two of them had turned into Ragnarok and created a crystal pillar under Cocoon, which prevented it to fall on Grand Pulse. The rest of the l'Cie were also turned into crystal, but a then they 'woke up' again and they were back to normal, even their brands were gone.

Even their families were okay. Lightning's little sister Serah and Sazh's son Dajh awakened from their crystal stasis as well and their brands were also gone. They were all human again. And Hope's father, Bartholomew was fine and flew with an airship to Grand Pulse. Now everyone have to save the population that are still on Cocoon and relocate them to Grand Pulse.

Because of the purge almost everyone were already moved to Grand Pulse, which was an ironic twist of fate...A quarter of Cocoon, including Bodhum, the home of Serah, Snow and Lightning, was destroyed. This also meant that a quarter of the population was wiped out. Sazh volunteered to assist PSICOM in the evacuation as a pilot. And of course his son Dajh will be there, too.

After such an incident he probably wouldn't let his son out of his sight for a long time. As they walked away Dajh waved at Lightning. They didn't know each other, but she saw what a good boy he was. She waved back and smiled slightly, before turning back to the others. Snow and Serah were discussing what they should do from now on.

Snow had the idea of building a new home, here in Grand Pulse. Why not? Cocoon wouldn't be habitable anyway, that would be alright. Hope was gone too. He wanted to meet his father, when he'll arrive. But was that really the end? No., thought Lightning. Something inside her told her that it's far from over.

She didn't know what will happen, but something would happen, that's for sure. Snow would protect Serah, so she could go and find a way to save Vanille and Fang, without destroying the crystal pillar..."Right, sis?", said Serah, interrupting Lightnings thoughts. "What?"

"We're going to build a beautiful home, right?"

"Sure."

"And you'll stay here with us, sis. I'm sure Vanille and Fang don't want you to go away to help them.", said Snow, grinning as if he had read her thoughts. Lightning thought for a moment and looked back up to the crystallized Cocoon. She couldn't see them, but Vanille and Fang were somewhere in this crystal structure and slept.

Maybe they could even watch them, who knows? And although she would never admit it, Snow was right. The two would certainly want her to stay with Serah to create a new future with her, rather than go away and find a way to save them. But yet there was still so much that she hadn't seen yet. Grand Pulse was a lot bigger than Cocoon and there were so many places they hadn't seen.

However, it would be a difficult journey. Without her l'Cie skills, it wouldn't be an easy task to make a fact-finding tour through Grand Pulse. "I'm not your sister.", answered Lightning with a stern tone in her voice and glared at him.

Three years have passed since then. Serah, Snow, Lightning and Team NORA built a new city by the sea and named it New Bodhum. It was mainly because, Snow said it's just great to live by the sea and then they picked out a nice spot and set up a kind of Bodhum copy, but there was more nature.

The Wedding of Snow and Serah was postponed, because under certain circumstances it was impossible to marry, what pleased Lightning very much. At first it's important to build up everything, before they can even think of a wedding. Snow and Serah agreed with her.

The whole l'Cie group kept in touch with each other and wrote letters to each other often. Sazh was still a pilot and has to fly across Grand Pulse. Dajh, of course, is with him all the time. Hope continues school and wants to study after that. Snow and his Team NORA were making...things, like to teach people how to fight and protected the city.

Serah was a teacher and if you sometimes see her methods, it's becoming increasingly clear that she's Lightning's sister. Lightning herself also protects the city, but refused to join Team NORA and to be put in a drawer with those guys. Although she's no longer at the Guardian Corps, Lightning still wore her Sergeant uniform. She liked this uniform and it was perfect for fighting against monsters and for other things. The older Farron often made long walks through the coastal city.

She always said it's only patrol, but in reality she wanted to be alone to think. Even though she would never admit it openly, she missed the others. Even though they didn't know each other so long, she has taken Hope, Sazh, Dajh, Fang and Vanille to her heart. She would like to visit them once, but she was without means of transport and she also had lots of things to do here.

In New Bodhum you could see the crystallized Cocoon, that still stands above Grand Pulse, very clearly and it was a quite beautiful sight. And in there were Fang and Vanille and slept and Lightning wondered how long they'll sleep...

One day as she went out into the night to 'patrol', she saw something that fell from heaven. A meteorite? It landed near the city with a nasty bang and Lightning went to the direction where the meteorite fell. The meteorite had left a large crater and Lightning looked what just landed. However, that meteorite looked more like a crystal...

She slid down the crater and went closer to the crystal. The crystal gleamed and shone in different colors in the moonlight. She held out her hand and touched the crystal. It was still quite warm and felt smooth. But then the crystal began to glow. Lightning withdrew her hand and backed away from it. The crystal shattered leaving a strange Spherical structure behind.

The orb inside was white and shined brightly and had a curved, golden shell. It kinda reminded her of Serah and Snow's chains. Lightning was about to turn around and go back to New Bodhum, but then some white bands came out of the orb and tied her, just like the fal'Cie Anima, 3 years ago.

"Let go!", shouted Lightning, and tried in free herself. Then she was pulled into the orb. She struggled even more and tried to reach for her Gunblade, but these light bands wouldn't let her do this. The last thought she had when she was pulled into the orb was: Serah...

Lightning woke up, several hours later and found herself lying on a grassland. She remembered that she was floating through a strange place. She sat up and looked around. She was no longer in New Bodhum...But she knew this place. Behind her was this strange structure, only this time it was closed.

How do I get back?, she wondered, and looked at it for a while. Was it perhaps some kind of teleportation device? She shrugged and went away. She met some soldiers and monsters here and there and slowly but surely, she knew where she was. She was in Yaschas-Massif. It looked different though.

She was about to enter a ruined city, but she was stopped by a female soldier. Only authorized persons may go there, she said. Lightning didn't want to make any trouble, turned around and went away to go another way. However, she stopped when she heard a scream. She turned around again and saw that a monster has appeared and attacked everyone.

The pink-haired soldier immediately pulled out her Gunblade and attacked the monster. Even though she had no longer her l'Cie skills the fight against this monster wasn't a problem for her. It was a Behemoth, but a very small one. I probably was a baby. The small Behemoth fell to the ground and Lightning went to him carefully to make sure that it's dead.

However, as she approached it, it snapped at her. Lightning hadn't even time to dodge, but then something hit the monster, that gave him the coup de grace. Lightning's eyes widened as she saw what had hit it. It was a bright yellow and blue boomerang with the inscription 'Hawkeye' written in the alphabet of Cocoon.

She knew the subject more than any other, and also the owner. She followed the trajectory of the boomerang with her eyes and saw that it flew into the shadows and was caught. Her gaze was fixed on this point, hoping to see someone she hadn't seen for three years. From the shadows emerged a man with short, silver hair and emerald green eyes.

He wore a uniform that resembled the former PSICOM. In his right hand was said boomerang. He flipped it shut and store it away, and then he went to Lightning with a smile on his face. His eyes shone brightly and he looked joyfully at her. Lightnings gaze was fixed with his. This couldn't possibly be Hope, right? He's only seventeen and now he looks like in his early twenties...

However, she would always recognize this silver hair and these, still childish looking, green eyes. The closer he came to her, the wider his smile grew. "Lightning?", asked the man and now it was clear to her. This WAS Hope! His voice was somehow deeper, of course, but it was his. "...Hope?", she asked back, still puzzled to see him like this.

He stopped in front of her and now she noticed how tall he was. He probably was at least a head taller than her and she had to look up to him. Is it normal to be this tall in the age of seventeen? He nodded cheerfully, and went on before Lightning could say anything. "I'm glad you remember me."

That confused her even more. Why should she not remember him? "Sure I remember you. Why not?", she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I just thought...well that's not important. It's nice to see you again, Light. It's really having been a long time."

"It wasn't so long.", she replied, and saw Hope frowning. Were three years without having seen her or others so bad for him? "Anyway...", began Hope and cleared his throat. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Where have I been? Well in New Bodhum. I once wrote that I live with Serah, Snow and Team NORA.", she replied, looking at him with raised eyebrow as he frowned once again. "What?", asked Lightning as he scratched his head thoughtfully. "But that was...What did you do then?"

"What do you mean? Then I was here all of a sudden." They were talking past each other...now she wanted even more to know what he meant. "What is it? Do you know something I don't know?"

"Well...", began Hope. "The last time you wrote was seven years ago.", he said, while Lightnings eyes widened. "Seven years?! But how is that possible?", she wondered and had suddenly the idea that this orb is something like a time machine...The very idea! Time machines doesn't exist and you can't just travel through time! That's impossible! "Light?" Hopes deeper voice pulled her back to reality. "You know what's going on?"

"I'm not sure..."

"Let's talk somewhere else then.", said Hope as cheerfully as ever and went to the ruins, while Lightning followed him. They went to a small base, and sat down at a big table. Lightning told him what happened, about the crystal, that fell from the sky and that she was dragged into a glowing orb and suddenly appeared here.

Hope thought hard what the cause could be and uttered his first idea. "The only thing I can think of is, that you've traveled through time, Light."

"But that's impossible."

"That would be the only logical explanation. Besides, you don't look aged. I mean you still look exactly the same as ten years ago, and uh, you were nowhere to be found the last seven years and you don't even have memories of what you've done so far, so..."

"Hope, since when have you become such a smarty-pants?", asked Lightning him teasingly and smiled slightly, while Hope answered. "Since I'm with you.", he laughed before he recognized the ambiguous in his sentence. "I mean...since we met...", he corrected quickly and blushed slightly. "Well, yeah.", said Lightning to let him believe that she haven't heard the ambiguity in his words. The two were silent for a while before Lightning came back to the topic. "Then I need to get back."

"Now?", he asked with a touch of sadness in his voice. "No. I'd like to sleep a bit, before I go."

"Of course."

"By the way...", began Lightning, before Hope was able to get up to walk her to a accommodations. "You are now...how old?" Lightning knew the answer, but wanted to make sure. "Twenty-four."

"And what have you done the past few years?"

"After school I was studying and now I am the director of Academy." Lightning looked at him in amazement. Academy was established in her time and now the little Hope is the director...She couldn't suppress a little smile. "The Director, I see. Then you have to do so much, right, Mr. Estheim?", asked Lightning amused, while Hope grinned and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Yes, but that's a little thing for me." Before Lightning was able to say anything else a blonde girl tackled Hope in a tight hug. "Director!", she called and hugged him tightly. Lightning looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Who's this?", she asked her former partner who pushed the blonde away from him. "This is Alyssa, my assistant."

Pretty pushy assistant..., thought Lightning and grumbled mentally, while eyeing her suspiciously. "Alyssa, this is Lightning Farron."

"Ah, so this is the one you've spoken all the time?"

"You've told her about me? I hope you told her just good things about me.", said Lightning and grinned slightly. "O—of course they were all just good things!"

"Oh yes VERY good.", chimed Alyssa and laughed. "Alyssa don't you have anything to do? Elsewhere?", asked Hope in his business-like tone. "Well actually...", she began, but stopped in midsentence, as she saw Hope's red, but stern face and grinned at him innocently. "Oh yes, I forgot. I'm gonna take care of this! I'm off.", she said and went away, leaving the two alone. "Wow, Hope, you can stand your ground. Where have you learned that?"

"Well, a soldier taught me that, you know. She's from the GC."

"I would love to meet her."

"You will certainly be the best friends." Then Hope began to laugh. He really missed this sarcasm of her. Lightning giggled slightly. That reminded her of the old days when they were l'Cie. "Say, do you know something about Serah?", asked Lightning to come back to the actual topic. "Yes. She still lives with Snow in New Bodhum. And she's deeply sad that you're gone. And I'm pretty sure that Snow's gone too, to search of you."

"And he calls this protecting? I've told him to take care of Serah and what is he doing? He leaves her alone." Hope sighed. "You know him. But that also means that you mean something to him."

"It's not bad, but this idiot should rather stay by Serahs side."

"Tell him that." Lightning stood up and held his forehead. How can people be so stupid and leave his fiancée all alone? When she was a crystal he was with her the whole time. She sighed deeply and then looked back to Hope, who stood now next to her. "Where can I sleep?", she asked. In this time it was still in the late afternoon, but the events she'd gone through worn her out.

"Follow me.", said Hope, and led her to his quarters. "This is my accommodation, but you can stay here as long as you want." Lightning looked around. It was small but well equipped. "And where do you sleep?"

"I'll have to do so much and certainly can't sleep, so you have it all to yourself." Lightning sighed. He reminded her so much of herself. If she doesn't look after him and draws him in the right direction, he'll gonna be a workaholic, just like her. "Don't overdo things, Hope."

"Don't worry.", he said and smiled at her. "Rest, I'll make sure that nobody's bothering you."
"Thanks." Then Hope left her alone. Oh man, I still can't believe that I'm in the future..., she thought, and went to bed. It was still strange to see the adult Hope. Twenty-four...So she guessed right. And now they're the same age...She went to bed and after she made herself comfortably, she fell asleep.

Hope's POV

Hope left his quarters and went back to the others, to continue on with his work. However, he couldn't focus, all he thought about was Lightning. As he saw her how she fought against the small Behemoth, his breath caught in his throat.

Ten years passed, since he last saw her. And not only that...he had a crush on her back then. He thought that these feelings will pass eventually, but they became even stronger. That's why he was so shocked when he was told that Lightning was gone. Together with Sazh and Snow, he'd looked everywhere for her, but never found her.

And now she's suddenly here. And it looks like she's traveled through time. He never thought that this could be possible. He also had never seen these 'spherical structures' Lightning has told him about. But it would be a shame if she would immediately travel back seven years again. In this time she could finally see him as a man and not as a child...

They had the same age now, he had a great career and was even able to fight better than before. If she would go back again, she would be with the Hope who's seven years younger than her and will stay a child in her eyes forever...Maybe he could convince her to stay in that time? He really hoped she'd say yes...