Disclaimer: I do not own FF13.

This is my first story, I thought I would make my own Hope and Light fic. Tell me what you think. I was always annoyed with stories where Hope was in love with light from the beginning. This is not that story. This is a story where Hope is a badass, and the romance is slow. He also turns into a half fal'cie...so yeah. Tell me what you think!

Time: 2AF

"We need a test subject. Without it, we may well reach the end and find that it has been in vain! A test subject!"

"Test subject? That's against the law. There's no way we would be allowed to get away with it."

"That's why I am the Chief Scientist, Bor. Unimaginative, morons like yourself have always been relegated to the dustbin of history. Of course we aren't allowed to have a test subject. That would be morally indefensible."

"That is what I just said. Like exact words. We can't hav-"

"Ah! That word-"can't"! It doesn't exist! We can have a test subject. We just can't have anyone know about it."

The Chief Scientist, woman by the name of Irl-not much of a name, but after all there is no indication that it was her real one, pointed to a blinking monitor. They were in a brightly lit lab. Unlike ordinary labs, there were no walls, just holographic displays, charting ambiguous statistics and bar charts. The floor was tiled with marble, polished until it shone. The monitor Irl was pointing to had a picture of a body. Graphical representation is perhaps a more apt description. It was spread out a la Vitruvian Man, and all the nerves, blood vessels were emphasised through colour coding.

"Look at it! Look at it Bor! Isn't it glorious?"

"Downright terrifying if you ask me."

Irl sneered at him. "If this simulation is correct, this…this thing can be the next evolutionary step! We can actually become them Bor! Don't tell me that that is not worth investigating!" Spittle flying from her mouth, she took a small break to catch her breath. Before she could resume her tirade, she was interrupted by the sound of a door opening. The entrance to the lab, one of several in this underground facility was a blast proof door. Several hundred kilograms heavy, it lifted itself effortlessly, and in walked a tall man. He was wearing a black suit, and the sounds of his shoes reverberated throughout the lab. Behind him, were several other scientists. They fanned out into the room and started working.

"How goes it doctor?" He asked. Bisecting his face was a scar that almost seemed to pulsate every time he spoke. Nevertheless Irl considered him to be handsome. Much more handsome than Bor anyway.

"Its going as well as we could expect," she replied, tempering her excitement and ignoring the flat stare that Bor was directing at her. That fool didn't understand office politics at all.

"Well, the Chairman wants to speak with you."

Irl followed the man outside the lab, revelling in the sudden coolness. This far down, the base was fairly quiet, though as always she could hear the sounds of industry in the distance. They walked down the corridor, the white marble of the lab replaced with steel grating. Through it she could make out the gushing of water below as it fell into the chasm that the base had been built in. The grate was fairly loose, and she suppressed a shudder.

"I'm busy working Vaughn. What does Cid want?"

"I would guess that he wants an update. That thing is pretty valuable you know." Vaughn replied. They walked down the corridor before going down a set of steel stairs. All around them was the open blackness of the Chasm, alit only thanks to the efforts of several bright spotlights. They entered the elevator, at the far end of the stairs, all the whilst suffering an awkward silence. Once the elevator got moving, Irl moved to the edge so she could be alone and have an excuse not to talk. The elevator was open, dangling precariously from the single cable that it was attached to. As it was pulled upwards, she was once again stunned by the sheer size of the place. That anything of such unprecedented scale could ever be built, never mind in 2 years, simply shocked her. Since Cocoon had fallen, instead of technology lapsing, as almost everyone had thought it would, it had grown exponentially.

The elevator slowed. They were near the surface now, only a few hundred meters above. When it stopped and the laughably weak metal railings disengaged, she stepped out with a light step. The Chairman's office was not far. Cid Raines, once the Primarch of Cocoon, now a father hunted by his sons. The office was luxurious to a fault. A red carpet and gold gilded walls met her as they entered his building. After checking with his secretary, they were waved through. As usual, the corridors were busy, and it was a hassle to get past. Once outside his door, they knocked and the answer was immediate.

Interesting. He was waiting.

"Chairman." Vaughn greeted him.

"Chairman." Irl did the same, in an uncharacteristically professional voice.

"Come in." Cid's voice was cold. It was always cold. They took a seat in front of him, and waited.

"How is everything progressing." he asked.

"Simulations have been run, sir. We believe that the transformation is theoretically possible."

"Theoretically?"

"We need a…subject. We need to inject the crushed fragments of the reconstituted crystal into a test subjects blood stream. From that, it is likely that we will be able to know just how practical this really is."

"We have people on the base. Use them."

"Ahem. Yes well…we have. The problem is that they all died horribly. In one case, the intestines detached, achieved sentience and started eating the woman's internal organs. One guy, which was quite interesting actually, started to turn to crystal. Very slowly luckily, so we could make extensive documentation. The problem is, that everyone who is injected dies. We need a specific type of test subject. We need someone who has been in contact with the fal'cie."

"A l'cie." Cid said softly.

"Right."

"We can't just kidnap a L'cie. They're under the protection of the government." Vaughn said.

"We don't need to bring them here. We just need to infect them, and watch."

"How many of them?"

"We'll start with one. If there is a negative reaction, we wouldn't want to waste them all."

"Then get started."

()-()-

The alarm went off, with its characteristic wind chimes. Hope moaned. The bed was warm. The bed was comfortable. Outside was cold and his mind rebelled at the thought of leaving. So he didn't. He tapped snooze and tried to get back to sleep. Unfortunately sleep eluded him, and he ended up spending the next ten minutes thinking about how he would have to get up. In frustration he jumped out of bed at the 8 minute mark, disabled the alarm and ran into the shower, trying to escape the cold. His dad would have already left for work. As the hot water washed over him, Hope thought about breakfast. He was tired of eggs, but he had the feeling that Dad had finished the bacon. A prerogative of those who get up early, he always said. He decided to forgo making breakfast, and to pick up a sandwich on the way to school. He was in his last year of compulsory education, and decided that it was going to be his last. He hadn't told his dad yet of course, but he was becoming increasingly more interested in science. Rather than spending another 5 years in school, he thought he could join an apprenticeship program. He'd rather be doing science, than learning about it. True science had been relegated to the past. Most scientists spent their time learning how to reverse engineer old Pulsian technology, remnants of advanced ancient civilisations that had been found underground. It had led to a rebirth of civilisation, but the rapidity of the inauthentic advances was slightly disconcerting.

He stepped out of the shower and dried himself. Rummaging in his closet he found (what seemed to be) a clean white shirt and he spent the next few minutes putting on his uniform. His room was fairly large, certainly larger than it had been on Cocoon, though that could be attributed to the vastly increased living space of Pulse. It had a grey fluffy carpet, and barren walls. Hope wasn't really the type to put posters up. His room was still a mess though. Discarded clothes were littered everywhere. The house was in New Cocoon, near the New Sanctum. Dad said that was because the Government had decided to repay their 'saving' of Cocoon with an address in the most hip part of the Capital. I don't know how we saved Cocoon. I'm pretty sure we made it fall, by killing Orphan.

Thinking of the L'cie adventures brought on a feeling of melancholy to Hope. He hadn't seen any of his friends for 2 years, and he missed them. Especially Lightning. She was like the older sister that he had always wanted. But he had ignored them in trying to chase a new life. He hadn't seen any of them for 2 years, and that was not due to a lack of trying on their part. He just couldn't do it. At first he had every intention of keeping in contact, but it hadn't lasted. He was no longer the weak boy he had been when his mother had died, and he had to admit he desperately wanted to see them. He heard Snow and Serah had had a child, a boy named Morty. An awful name, but hey could be worse. Could be called Hope. He had decided to take an airship to Krantos, with Dad on the weekend, and visit for Morty's second birthday in four months time. When Lightning had called to invite him, he could hear in her voice, that she didn't expect him to come. One of hundreds of excuses he had made. His acquiescence had audibly shocked her. In a good way. Probably.

He got on his Velo, a velo-bicycle that didn't fly. It was basically a glorified bicycle. If bicycles could hover. He rode to Main Corridor, the street directly in front of New Sanctum. It was a cold day, the sky a gloomy overcast, with the sporadic clump of greyer sky. The street was bustling, and Velocars (what wasn't Velo nowadays; the corporation basically had a monopoly) zoomed overhead. Deciding to forget the sandwich, after walking past a hot dog stand, he looked over at the glossy building in front of him. It was huge. A giant block of glass and steel, rising hundreds of meters into the air. Without Pulsian Fabriking, all of this would have been impossible. His dad was probably somewhere in there.

"Hey Hope!" a voice called out to him. Hope turned around, and broke into a grin.

"Vin!" he cheerfully laughed out in between mouthfuls of sausage. "What you doing here?"

"I need to get to school early. There's band practice today. I can't believe that you're eating that so early in the morning." Vin grinned. He knew that Hope had a penchant for shitty food.

"What's the difference between eating it now and eating it later? If you're gonna eat it, you should just eat it. Wait, did you say Band practice? Isn't that on Thursdays?"

"Ya but this Thursday is parents evening, so its been rescheduled."

"Ah crap! Parents evening!"

"You forgot? Ha! Dumbass!"

"It's not funny, Foley is going to destroy me, just like she did last year."

"You shouldn't sleep in her class then. Like every time."

"Shut up Vin. Its not as if you're never on your phone. Plus she's always first period."

"Got a point there buddy. Catch up in school. I have to head out before I'm late."

"Later," Hope replied with a grin. Once Vin had gone, he refocused on his hot dog.

He stopped to take a bite and groaned as mustard spilt on his jacket. He looked back. That was odd. In the corner of the street was a car. Why is a car on the ground? It was a purple salon. The windows were shaded, so he couldn't see what was in it. He walked closer to it, but decided to get a napkin first. The last thing he wanted was for it to stain. He relocated the hot dog stand and edged his way through the crowd to it. Before he could reach it, the purple car erupted in a ball of fire. It engulfed the multitude of people that surrounded it in a cacophony of death and screams. Hope was thrown forwards and slammed into darkness.

"Hey. How are you doing?" a deliciously soft voice called out to him, and he opened his eyes slowly, quickly squinting them when the brightness proved too painful. His whole body was on fire, and he gurgled.

"Shush," the woman held his arm, and waited for his eyes to acclimatise. For some reason, his right eye was taking longer. When they did, she raised his bed, and she showed him a mirror. Hope cried out, though it came out as more of a gurgle. He was ruined. The explosion had taken a toll on him to put it lightly. There were sounds outside, and the nurse let go of his arm. She took out a syringe out, and showed it to him.

"Do you know what this is?" she asked. Hope shook his head.

"It's a new regenerative serum. Top secret. It will heal you." she whispered. She raised the spring in both arms and slammed it in his chest. Hope convulsed. When he came to again, the lady was gone.

"I'm hallucinating." he thought. "Maker."

The doctor walked into the room. He was bestride by several nurses. The terrorist attack had killed several tens of people and wounded a great many more. The Central Hospital's resources were overburdened. Hope had been patched up and left to rest, as his condition had been deemed stable. His father on the other hand was very much dead. His l'cie friends had already been contacted. They were on their way. Apparently. Idle gossip and rumours. She looked down at Hope and sighed. Such a handsome boy. Well, he wasn't anymore. He was partially blind in his right eye. His right ear had been torn, as well as his nose and upper lip. His tongue had been shredded by a piece of shrapnel that had torn his left cheek open. He would recover, but would be heavily scarred. Several of his teeth had been knocked out, and his left knee had been smashed, beyond recovery. He would also, barring some miracle, be confined to a wheelchair. His L'cie friends had also been notified. Probably.