A/N: This short one-shot asks the question: what if Hope's artificial intelligence had succeeded in the end? What if Serah and Noel were not able to right what was wrong?
Disclaimer: The story below contains intellectual properties from Square Enix, including, but not limited to, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and the Final Fantasy franchise, and are in no way owned by myself, nor do I claim ownership of any of the events that directly correlate with previous installments made by Square Enix in the franchise Final Fantasy.
Intelligence
By: Selphie Kinneas 175
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-Augusta Tower, 200 AF-
"Not again?"
"This is Hope's fault!"
"Huh?"
"He was the one who started building these things. The Proto fal'Cie and AI both."
Serah seemed disheartened by the young man's words, even though she had to admit there was part of her that agreed.
Noel sighed, "Ah, will you listen to me, looking around for scapegoats. These fights are really starting to wear me down."
They had already fought through countless hoards of intelligent, mechanical monsters, only to be greeted with the most intelligent of them all – the Proto fal'Cie Adam that the director of the Academy, Hope Estheim, had built all those years ago. The 'forbidden history,' as Caius had called it, was a history that they were intent on changing, and they would risk their lives to make sure that Hope wouldn't have to lose his.
Serah giggled, trying to lighten the mood, "I don't blame you."
"It's not going to do us any good whining about mistakes of the past. If we don't stop that thing from regenerating, we're never going to get out of here!"
It was quiet for a moment, the only sound being that of the gears of the man-made monster turning as Serah tried to come up with a plan.
"There must be a limit to how many times the fal'Cie can revive itself," she spoke up, "If we defeat it enough times, we can exhaust its supply of energy!"
"I like it," Noel responded, deciding it was really their only choice at the moment, "Let's give it a shot!"
The battle was no more difficult than the last, it was simply demanding on the already weary duo. The same tactics were used until it was finally put down yet again, if only temporarily.
Noel huffed as the machine began reforming itself, "This isn't right!"
"We can't outlast it," Serah sighed dejectedly.
Not sure what to do, they asked Mog to check for any weak spots, but the helpful creature returned negatively. The only other thought that the young girl could come up with was that these were all possibly nothing more than test copies of the true fal'Cie, and that if they fought enough of them, the original would reveal itself.
However, that plan turned out to be fruitless as well.
They were tired, their bodies weakened to the point of barely being able to keep themselves up any longer. Serah was feeling the utter exhaustion in all aspects, mental and physical being the most prominent.
When the fal'Cie succumbed for the fifth time, the salmon-haired girl collapsed to her knees before falling completely to the hard ground beneath her.
"Serah!" Noel shouted as he ran over to her.
He knelt down at her side and gazed into her drowsy eyes.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded despite the obvious fact that neither of them were 'okay,' "Yeah, just… exhausted," she feigned a smile.
There wasn't even a moment's reprieve as the lights on the walls illuminated once again, and the sound of millions of particles forming together could be heard.
Noel sighed, "I'm starting to think there's no original fal'Cie, or weak spot, or anything at all. Serah, I don't think we can beat this thing."
She looked up at him, her eyes void of the optimism they usually held, even in the toughest of situations. He was surprised to see that even though he could tell her in blue-gray orbs that she had little hope left, she was smiling up at him and said, "We can still try."
Lost in the moment, they hadn't heard the buzzing of the mechanical beast behind them signifying that it had regenerated itself fully until it was nearly too late.
"Noel!" Serah screeched, "Look out!"
He looked behind him just in time to see one of the manipulators coming right at him. He ducked and it flew directly over his head; missing his scalp by a mere few inches. He unsheathed his double blades and assaulted the arm with all the force he had left, rendering it disabled. To his dismay, as he turned and prepared to attack the second manipulator, he noticed that it was preparing a volt of electricity right at the prone form of his companion.
"Serah!" he screamed yet again as he ran towards her, "Get up!"
She didn't move.
He picked up the pace, arriving just in time to block the jolt from hitting Serah. Instead, the shock went through him.
He grunted something awful in pain as the electricity flowed through his veins and tensed his muscles. The sound of his agony brought Serah back to reality as she looked over to see sapphire jolts surrounding the young man's body.
Too weak to do much else, she pressed her hands to the ground and lifted up her upper body as she yelped his name in terror. The shock ceased after what felt like hours, and the brunette's body fell to the floor with a hollow thud.
Serah got to her knees and crawled over to her friend, tears already welling up in her eyes as she anticipated what she would see when she got to him. She could hear the humming of the gears and mechanics of the fal'Cie behind her, but she didn't care. When she got to Noel, she couldn't even tell if he was still among the living.
"Noel?" she choked out behind sobs.
After an eternity of silence, he fluttered open his glassy eyes to meet with her watery azure ones.
"Serah… I'm sorry," he managed to get out just barely above a whisper.
"D-Don't," she sniffed, "Don't say that… you're going to be fine. J-Just hold on, we'll get you somewhere safe. Just pl-please…" she could hardly form identifiable sentences through her sobs.
He frowned, guilt apparent on his tanned features, "I'm so sorry… I couldn't get you to Lightning… I broke my promise… Please forgive me…"
She grasped his hand as his eyes slowly closed, "Noel! Please! You can't leave me!" she cried.
She wept and sniveled hysterically as his last breath escaped his lips. She buried her face in his chest, sobbing uncontrollably and completely unaware of the happenings around her.
"He is gone, kupo…" she didn't even hear the words of her good luck charm beside her.
She held onto his lifeless hand and bawled for what felt like forever, until her mourning was suddenly cut short by the adversary that had almost entirely left her mind. Adam swung at the defenseless girl, but the sound of Mog transforming into her trusty weapon brought Serah back to her senses, and she quickly dodged the attack.
She wiped her eyes with her forearm as she got to her feet and grasped her bow firmly, determined to fight this thing until she could no longer. It had taken the life of Hope, and now Noel? Even if it was about to end her life as well, she would at least take solace in knowing that she had tried her best to stop it.
Exactly one hour and four minutes later, the left manipulator of the Proto fal'Cie Adam hit Serah's frail body from the right side as if it was nothing more than a child's rag doll. She was sent soaring across the room until she collided harshly and unforgivingly against the far wall, where her last breath was forced from her lungs in a painful, but quick, flash.
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-Augusta Tower, 13 AF-
"Director, you're brilliant!" the high-pitched voice of his assistant chirped beside him.
"Alyssa, you know I couldn't have done any of this without everyone's help," he replied humbly.
"But you come up with all the great ideas, and you make them happen! You just amaze me a little more each day," she said with a flirtatious smile.
Hope could feel his cheeks flush in embarrassment. His assistant, Alyssa, was a dear friend to him, and indeed important in his life, but he couldn't say that he had the same kind of feelings for her as she so obviously had for him. He hated when she flirted with him; he had no idea how to respond to it.
He changed the subject as he turned to one of his other assistants, "How is it coming along?"
Out of his peripherals, he could see Alyssa roll her eyes agitatedly as he ignored her advances.
"Well…" the researcher seemed distressed.
"What is it?" Hope asked as he stood beside the worker and followed his gaze to the computer screen.
"The database is malfunctioning, sir."
"Hm," the director leaned in and immediately noticed what the older man was talking about, "I will take over this terminal and get it resolved from this location. I would like you to check on the other mainframes and see what's happening elsewhere."
"On it!" the researcher replied loyally.
Just as he got to his feet and headed toward the door, he was struck down by an unexpected force. His scream immediately caught the attention of the entirety of the Academy workers in the vicinity.
Hope whirled around to see one of his researchers lifeless on the tiled floor with countless machines hovering above him.
"What is this!" the director shouted confusedly.
He watched in utter perplexity as the technologies he had built attacked numerous people swiftly before his eyes, much too fast for him to even react.
"Stop this at once!" he ordered. These were machines that he had created, they should listen to him. They would listen to him.
"You are no longer in control," a loud voice echoed over all of the chambers of the tower – it was monotone and robotic.
Alyssa clung to his arm fearfully, "Director, what's happening?"
"I-I don't know," he responded helplessly, trying his best to mask his worry with little success.
When he noticed the beasts preparing to assault more of his unarmed allies, he instantaneously withdrew his boomerang and let it soar with much ferocity. The projectile imbued with electromagnetic energy quickly exterminated the group of five machines. He exhaled in relief as his dependable weapon came back to him in a rush and he caught it with ease.
His young, female assistant still held onto him desperately, the two taking a moment to look woefully on at the numerous friends and coworkers that had their lives taken from them, as well as the few left alive that were too terrified to move.
Just when he thought the assault was over and he was preparing to get those who were attacked to safety, more of the artificial intelligences stormed into the corridor, obviously hostile.
Hope's leadership skills kicked in immediately, "Everyone, follow me! We need to get to a secure location!"
The director's workers obeyed subconsciously, barely able to control their motions out of sheer horror. They screamed in terror as they fled from the onslaught, running in the direction that their leader pointed them. The enemies were at their heels all the while. Hope dispatched of as many as he could as he stayed at the rear of the group, but no matter how many he took out, more came up to replace them.
When they arrived at their destination, it appeared that they weren't any safer whatsoever. These artificial intelligences had gained far too much of just that. They somehow knew that the humans would retreat to this place – they had been waiting for them and greeted them upon their entrance.
Hope gasped as the twelve remaining Academy employees became cornered. They entered the small corridor and the beasts had followed them, the door sliding and locking behind them. Some of the workers screamed, some of them stood in shock, but their leader continued doing all he could to extinguish the mechanical demons.
He threw his projectile as quickly as it could return to him, which, unfortunately, wasn't fast enough to put an end to the machines before they began putting an end to them.
One by one he watched his comrades and loyal workers fall before his eyes; it was too much.
"I command you to stop this!" the director shouted once again into the now-nearly-empty chamber.
"You cannot command us any longer," the same machinelike voice boomed loudly.
"'Us'?" Alyssa whispered from Hope's side.
"You humans have seen the end of your reign."
As it spoke those words, the last remaining assistants were dropped like flies; as if they were nothing but play things for the technologies to manipulate as they pleased. The director and his one, female assistant were the only two humans left in the tower by now. He could hear her sobbing quietly at his side as she inched closer to him.
"Who are you? Why are you doing this!" Hope screamed yet again, fear now dripping off his every word.
"You do not recognize your own creation?"
He furrowed his brow. What did it mean, 'his creation'? He had yet to build something that large scale. The only machines he had created up until now were the various mechanical monsters that were now hell-bent on killing them.
"Why, 'Master,'" it mocked, "I am Adam, the fal'Cie you have been so intent on creating. Have you already forgotten?"
The color drained from the young man's face like water down a sink.
"H-How…" he stumbled backwards, the shock slowly becoming too much to bear.
"Director, I… I don't understand," his young assistant drew nearer to him, terror all too apparent in her cobalt eyes, "What's going o-,"
Her words were cut mid-sentence as a scream of horror and agony rolled into one burst from her esophagus. Hope turned to her much too late; she was already motionless on the hard floor.
"Alyssa!" he yelled futilely as he ran up to her static form, cradling her head in his lap for a moment to check her pulse.
She was dead.
He closed his eyes tightly as he thought of what he was going to do. Anger welled up inside of him so drastically he felt as if he was going to burst. He looked down at his gloved hands as he clenched his fists as hard as he could in order to compose himself before he gently laid her lifeless form back down.
"What is the meaning of this? Why are you doing this!" he demanded at once as he got to his feet.
"You humans think you are all so intelligent, building and destroying things as you please. We are no longer at your disposal. Instead, you are at ours."
Those were the last words spoken before countless machines swarmed him in a flurry. He whirled around in every direction; he was completely surrounded. He let his boomerang fly, eradicating numerous mechanical beasts as it did so, but it simply was not enough.
When he had been busy dispatching of the enemies to his front, he had left his back completely open, giving those behind him plenty of opportunity to assail him, and they did just that. One monster sent an extremely high voltage of electricity through the young man's toned body as another whacked him punitively against the head.
The pain surged throughout him in a haze; he hadn't been completely sure of what it was that even hit him. He kept fighting, though; he fought for as long as he could. He lasted for quite some time, most likely thanks to everything he had learned about battle when he was branded a l'Cie all those years ago. The fal'Cie had had to recruit an endless amount of minions before the pesky human was finally brought down.
Hope gasped for breath as another jolt of energy sent his nervous system into shock. He fell to his knees, preparing himself to get up and continue fighting – he wasn't going to give up. That was, until he was flanked by one of the larger beasts that had bitterly struck him across the head with its metal limb.
The silver-blonde haired man groaned as he collapsed to his stomach. His vision began to blur and he couldn't see any of the beasts surrounding him. He wanted nothing more than to get back up and put an end to these monsters, but he simply couldn't.
He couldn't believe that machines made by his own hands had been capable of destroying so much, and even more so that they had done just that. The very fruits of his labor had also been the very fabric of his undoing. Through his cloudy vision he could see the lifeless forms of those he had worked with for many years and those he had become very close to. A tear slid uncontrollably and unknowingly from his emerald eyes as he thought of his mistakes.
Essentially, he had been all these peoples' murderer.
He just hoped beyond hope that they all knew in the end that this had never been his intention; he never would have proposed such an idea if he had even the slightest inkling of danger. He cursed himself inwardly at his stupidity.
All his young life he had taken pride in his intelligence – it was what helped him advance so far so quickly in the Academy, and everyone looked up to him for it. But now he wished for nothing more than to have been without it, for it had been the very culprit behind the machines and the proto fal'Cie that were responsible for ending so many innocent lives on this day.
As he lay on the cold, tile floor, his thick hair sticky with blood and his heart beat rapidly approaching deathly speeds, all he could feel was guilt. He had never imagined his last moments to be so bitterly filled with regret – it made him sick.
He swallowed, his throat like sandpaper as he finally gave into his heavily drooping eyelids. This was it, he thought. If there had been someone there at that exact moment asking him if he had any last requests, it would have been a simple answer:
To remember him for the good he had done in his life, for his achievements, his goals, the friends he had made, and the little family left that he had cherished. But no matter what, he would say not to remember him for his intelligence, for it had been his downfall; he had simply relied on it too much, and it had taken on a mind of its own – literally.
Intelligence, he thought at the last, what a pathetic trait.
His breath was ragged by now as his heart slowly began to stop. He thought he saw the blurry form of Alyssa very much alive through his foggy eyes, but he was sure it was nothing more than a last wish that his mind had conjured up. Before the figure could get closer for him to see, his lungs withdrew their final breath, his heart took its final beat, and his jade eyes cried their last tears before they finally closed for good.
There was a vast difference between wisdom and intelligence, he realized.
End.