001 - Lux Concordiae

A/N: If you read in half it's a little easier to read!

After leaving the Historia Crux, they proceeded to land on their backsides. Serah got to her feet much quicker than Mog, who grumbled about it.

Serah wondered why Noel hadn't given her a hand up, since he always (frustratingly) landed with perfect posture.

Looking around at her surroundings, she soon forgot about that- she wasn't on Cocoon. Or Gran Pulse, either. She was in the remains of a stadium, and for some reason, small huddles of light danced around the area, though many chose to follow Serah as she paced around the giant sword lodged in the center.

Mog kupo'ed in confusion, looking to the orange mist below them- it reminded Serah of the seas by Bodhum when there was a storm, except this looked far more otherworldly.

"Noel?" She tentatively called. A frown marred her features. "Are you here?"

She heard a few footsteps behind her.

Fine. Time for Meanie Miss Farron.She folded her arms. "If this was some kind of joke, I suggest you quit it. Don't make me any more mad."

The steps stopped, but still Serah heard no voice, no slight chuckle... In fact, apart from the slight humming of the lights, she heard nothing. Mog had taken to scout the stands, but he had found nothing.

"Watch out, kupo!"
The scathing sound of metal against metal made Serah snap into realisation.

She turned around just in time, to duck from the chain that threatened to skewer her.

Rolling out of the way of the pull back, Serah hastily called Mog in sword form, and finally got a decent look at her assailant- a man decked in light armour, complete with flowing cape.

As it stood its full height, she noticed that it was completely expressionless, and even the cape hardly moved at all, not even reacting to the wind that plagued the stadium.

What puzzled Serah the most was that all the man seemed to be made of yellow and brown crystal, yet he obviously had no trouble moving, since he had drawn forth a bow and arrow with relative ease.

Serah lifted the sword up and pointed at her attacker.
"What do you think you're doing? What do you want?"

His lips remained unmoving, and he drew the arrow back and aimed right for her head.

Noel rubbed the back of his head, groaning.
What happened back in the Historia Crux...?

He got to feet, gazing round. "Serah?"

He checked his swords, and they were still there. Phew, at least he had some way to defend himself.

In some sort of twisted luck, Mog was nowhere to be found- at least he was probably with Serah, so she could look after herself. But that also meant he had no clues as to where he was. Since the moogle did seem to be knowledgeable about everything.

Only after noticing these things, did Noel take in his surroundings. He was stood on a brown platform in an eerily red and pink area and not to mention, the place just reeked of Fal'Cie...

He knew this place could be in neither Pulse nor Cocoon, because he found no entrance or exit. Even the gate he'd come in by had vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

"Great. But first things first, I need to get out of here." he muttered to himself, rolling his shoulder.

He walked to the edge of the platform he stood on, only to see that this place had no floor. And the next platform was at least a foot away from him.

He turned around, sighing. Was there anything the other way?

When a figure jumped down, shooting at him, from the arch above him, however, Noel thought nothing of jumping the gap- anything to get away from the gunfire.

Unsheathing his swords, he came face to face with an image much like Lightning but made completely of a solid pink crystal.

When a blue aura surrounded it, though, Noel proceeded to run further away, knowing the Ravager set-up had powerful long range spells.

When he saw the onslaught of fire, he blocked with the larger of the two blades, but it was too late to retaliate, as the Lightning-clone ha already dashed up to him and began a slash upwards- one Noel knew would not end well, judging from the battle in the Arena.

He sidestepped out of the way, only finding himself in mid-air, falling into the endless nothing that was below him, until it went dark. He felt what he believed was his very life being drunk from him and the next thing he knew, he had found himself back where he started, the Lightning was still wondering where he had gone.

I guess they're not that smart, then.Smirking, he took the oppurtunity to buff himself with Bravery, already in the Synergist paradigm, then he ran forward, ready hit the back of her head with a well tuned Galestrike.

However, when the imitation's head shattered into crystal shards, Noel stepped back, shocked, and felt his blades clatter to the ground.

He should have been expecting it, after all, this was a being of glass, but the thought of a silent victory confused the brunet. Even Cie'th, which faded with no lingering debris, cried a terrible shriek upon departure.

When all he could see is white, however, Noel swore he could hear ominous chuckling.

Fiercely blocking strike after strike, Serah tired. This man was relentless, and no attacks she had landed had made any difference to the warriors strength.

She was getting desperate.

"Mix it up, kupo? Try something else?" Mog questioned from her bow.

In a last ditch effort, Serah needed a miracle, so she pulled back her bowstring, the arrow already formed and let all hell loose on her attacker- Ultima Arrow.

The man, finally had shattered, and Serah fell to her knees, downing a potion quickly.

After a minute or two, she rose to her feet once again, to see the world around her fading to a harsh white.

"Well, who might we have here?"

"She's unconscious. I hope that she'll wake soon..."
"C'mon. We've got to get to the Sanctuary, right? Can't we just head on?"
"If you go through life like that it's a wonder you'll have any friends! Come on, Vaan, it'll only be a little while."

Who on Pulse was that?

"Lookie here! Sleeping Beauty's waking up. Told you it wouldn't take long!"
"Yeah, yeah."

Serah sat up as quickly as she could, surrounded by three very curious people.

"Are you alright?" the sole female of the group looked at Serah worriedly. She wore a long kimono, and a long hair accessory hung on her left shoulder. "My name is Yuna," she said, then pointed one by one to the other members of her group. "This man here is Laguna, and this one here, is Vaan."

Laguna gave a grin, then offered a hand to help her up. Vaan shrugged and put his hands behind his head, muttering something about time.

"So, who might you be?" Laguna asked, after Serah had found Mog again.
"My name is Serah. And, thank you." Serah nodded, and before she hastily added. "You didn't happen to see anyone else before you got here? I was with someone called Noel before..."

Yuna shook her head in apology. Vaan then butted in, finally facing Serah. "Who are you for? We can't be making friends with the other side, you know that, Laguna."

"Other.. Side? What are you talking about?" Did I end up in something I shouldn't be involved in?

"You don't know? You must have only just been summoned..."
Still, Serah remained confused, and upon noticing this, Laguna piped up.
"Well, you see, these two gods Cosmos and Chaos, are at war with each other, and they summon a bunch of us from other worlds to fight for them... Vaan's asking which one summoned you."
"We're for Cosmos," Yuna added.

Serah wanted to run off right now, find the gate and Noel and forget all about this. A war of gods? What did she do to deserve this?

She didn't know who she was for, she didn't know anything. Why, Etro?Her sister wasn't here, no paradox affected the area, why was she needed?

"Hey, if you don't know, you don't know. Hear me out, ok? Say Serah comes with us, until we get to Cosmos. Then we just ask Cosmos. Sound good?"
"Laguna, you've gotta be an idiot to think tha-"
"Think about it- there's three of us, and one of her, not counting this cute little thing."
"But-"
"Now, Vaan, Laguna only means for the best. Besides, I don't think she's for Chaos. She just doesn't have that aura they seem to have. Give Serah a chance?"

Vaan huffed, then carried on walking. "If you're gonna come with us, you better hurry up."

Laguna laughed. "He's normally a bit happier. I'd say he remembered something about home which is why he's so moody."

Vaan just sighed. "It's not like that. I just wanna get to Cosmos' before nightfall. And with you taking the scenic route its taking a lot longer."

"I'd like to see you giving directions, Vaan." Laguna retorted.

Yuna raised her hands. "You two, please stop arguing. We're not going to gain any ground at this rate."

Lightning, what have I gotten myself into?

A/N: Thank you for sticking with me, if you already read the original. It'll be removed, soon. I'm sorry it took so long, too! But as you can see, I'm slowing it down a little bit, and starting it completely from scratch. I hope you don't mind, but I should be able to update it a bit more. Sorry if it seems a bit jumpy, too!

A review or two would be lovely if you could? I'm always looking to improve!

-Blitz