Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII.

A/N: Sorry if that was really lame and rambly. I'm trying to do it as if Serah is telling the story. I won't do it so much anymore, since there's actually going to be things happening now, instead of just talking about stuff. Hope you like!

Crystalline

Chapter One

Stuck

I opened my eyes and blinked, my vision hazy. How long had I been asleep? Or had I even really been sleeping?

Realization hit me, and with a gasp I sat up. I must've woken up from my crystal stasis! But was it possible? How long had I slept for? Were Snow and Lightning waiting for me?

My heart pounding, my face breaking out into a smile, I stood up -

- and staggered, falling back down onto my knees. I braced myself with my hands and yelped, tensed. Why was I so weak? It was almost hard to move, but it wasn't my body that was slow. Almost like the air was thick, like I was wading through a pool of liquid instead of gas.

Only then did I notice my surroundings. And when I did, my heart fell and shattered.

I was no longer in the Vestige. I was in a round room that resembled a dome, with many uneven facets shifting light in different directions. The walls looked almost translucent, but all I saw outside was white-blue, like the floor. Sharp things pointed out on either side of the room, and one end seemed darker than the rest; I deemed that the back. So if that's the back, I thought, then the front is...

I turned around, and my heart - which had just so recently broken into a million pieces - glued itself back together and swelled until it felt like bursting.

Snow was there, kneeling in front of me, looking like he was digging something up. Each thrust of the rusted makeshift pick in his hand came with a grunt of effort, his teeth clenched, his lips drawn back, his eyes narrowed. I felt like I was looking down on him; his black bandana consumed most of my somewhat limited vision.

"Snow!" I cried, running to the nearest wall. I reached it and hit it with the palms of my hands, trying to get his attention. "Snow! Can you hear me? Snow! Look up, look at me!" I was growing desperate, pounding at the wall with my fists, raising my voice, pleading with a man who seemed to be miles away. "Snow! Please hear me! Snow! Snow!"

It was useless. He just kept on digging, oblivious to my cries. I pressed my forehead to the wall, halfheartedly slamming my fist against it. "Snow, please... I need you..." I slid down to my knees, tears in my eyes. "I... I'm scared again..."

"Are you stuck, too?" a small voice asked.

I opened my eyes and lifted my head, body tense and waiting. I turned around but saw no one. I furrowed my brow, trying to calm my racing heart. Don't be scared, I told myself. Snow isn't here to help you now.

"Who's there?" I asked loudly, scanning the room for something, anything. "Where are you?"

"Right in front of you." It sounded like a little girl, but the voice bounced off the walls so much and got so distorted that I couldn't be sure.

Confused, but trying to understand, I sat on my knees and faced directly in front of me, staring into the darkness of the back of the strange room.

A shadow formed, an outline of something lighter against the dark, and began to take a more defined shape and color as it walked forward. My eyes set on a little girl with big green eyes set off by strawberry blonde hair and pale skin. She wore a simple blue sundress and pale sandals. She was so small, she would hardly come up to my hip if I stood next to her.

I blinked. What was a girl doing in a place like this? Better yet, what am I doing in a place like this? I thought, but pushed it away. I'd figure that out later. Maybe this girl could help me.

I wanted to seem open and welcoming, lest I scare her off, but all I could ask was a blunt, "Who are you?"

She smiled, her tiny pink lips lifting at the sides. "My name's Ellie," she answered. "So, are you stuck, too?"

I stood up slowly, still unsure of whether or not I should trust her. "What do you mean, stuck?" I asked.

She walked forward, a childish bounce in her step, holding her hands behind her back. When the light refracted from one of the panels hit her, she seemed to grow, and suddenly I was looking at a young woman just about my age, a spitting image of the girl I'd just seen.

"How did you -" I stammered, pointing at her and beginning to back away. This was too weird...

"By stuck," she started, seeming to ignore my unfinished question, "I mean that you haven't come to terms with your Focus yet." At my confused expression, she continued. "Meaning, you've completed your Focus and gained the gift of eternity, but you're not ready to go there yet. You still have to say goodbye to your old life. Something's holding you back."

"Say goodbye?" I repeated. "But... I can't! I still have things to do!"

"So do we all," she explained, stopping in front of me, clasping her hands in front now. "That's why we're here."

"We?"

She smiled, a secretive little grin, and lazily wandered in a circle around me. "You'll meet them," was all she told me.

I swallowed. So I'd completed my Focus, that much was clear. But was this all that I had to look forward to? "That thing you did before," I said. "When you... you know, fastforwarded yourself. How did you do that?"

She cast me a glance before answering. "Time doesn't exist here."

"But it's eternity," I argued. "Doesn't it last forever?"

"And how long does forever last?"

I had no answer.

"No one knows how long forever is. We just assume it's a long time, but it could be any amount of time, perhaps not even a length of time at all. And that's what happens here. Forever is timeless, so eternity is, too. Age is relative." She gave me another smile, and became a child once more. "Go ahead, you can try if you want."

I shook my head numbly, trying to wrap my head around this new concept. "I'm fine like this."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself." By this time, she had her back to me and was bouncing her way back to the back of the room.

"Wait!" I called after her, taking a few hesitant steps after her. "Where are you going?"

She glanced over her shoulder at me. "Back to the others. Do you want to meet them?"

I wasn't sure if I wanted to meet more people like her, but I had no choice if I wanted to learn more about this place, and how to get out of it. "Sure," I answered, and forced myself forward.

We walked the length of the room, and I shivered as the darkness of the back engulfed me. For some reason, I felt like I'd never see this room again. I turned around and took it all in once more, trying not to cry as I watched Snow continue to dig away. I'll be back, I told him silently. That's my promise to you.

Ellie walked through a pitch black doorway that I hadn't seen before, and I reluctantly followed, my eyes flitting from here to there. I wasn't completely sure if I trusted her yet, and I certainly didn't trust my surroundings. On guard every step of the way, we emerged into a room much like the first, but much larger, with innumerable bridges leading from the small cicle of land in the center. The bridges led to doorways, and the walls seemed to cave into the darkness of those doors.

"What is this place?" I asked in wonder, staring around, trying to see inside the dark doors around me.

"This is the Crystarium," Ellie told me, gesturing around. "The central room of this whole place. All those doors lead to different viewing rooms, where the l'Cie here can see through their eyes."

I furrowed my brow. "But don't they already see through their eyes?" I asked.

Ellie laughed, a childish giggle. "Of course they do. But in the viewing room they can see through their crystal eyes, back on their world. We were just in yours."

"Oh! So then..."

She smiled. "Your body on... Cocoon, is it? turned to crystal, and in your viewing room you can see through your body's eyes."

"So Snow was..." I left my sentence unfinished. He was trying to get me out of somewhere, all by himself. Just as stubborn as always... but where was Lightning? Did she get hurt? Or... did she just leave me?

I had been so deep in thought that I didn't notice how close we were getting to the center of the Crystarium. We were a little more than halfway across the bridge, plotting along lazily, when many sounds hit my ears at once.

Ellie turned her head and gasped, instantly becoming a woman with feral eyes and long, flowing hair. A huge crash sounded from my left, shards of crystal hitting the bridges with small tinkle-tinkles. A roar vibrated through the dome, hard wingbeats blowing my hair in my face. I moved it away, and stared, wide-eyed and frozen, at the giant creature making its way toward us. It had a long, thick tail waving through the air, leading into a wide torso and chest, atop which sat dark blue fin-like structures behind enormous white-blue wings. It's neck was long and curved, its face sharp and angular, with a long snout and rounded horns, one broken halfway off. Spikes seemed to grow off of it in random places, crystal growths on its scarred, sleek body. Hard ice-blue eyes glared at us with the intent to kill.

"Salehuka!" Ellie yelled, loud enough so that it was heard through the room, bouncing off the walls. She grabbed my wrist, her nails digging into my skin, and tugged me forward, bolting for the center. It suddenly seemed so far away, and the dragon - the Salehuka - was getting closer and closer with every passing second -

Its roar bled my ears dry, and I ran faster, pushing my legs to reach farther, longer, cover more distance, get me to the other side before -

Another roar, but not from the dragon, from... a man? I didn't stop to look. Ellie had let go of me by now, pumping her arms to go faster. She was a much better runner than I was; she'd already made it to the center. She waved me forward, eyes darting from me to the dragon, back.

Just a few more steps, and then a few more beyond that. Always just a few more steps. I was getting closer, almost there...

The dragon screeched, and I felt the bridge crack at the same time I heard it. Everything seemed to turn at an angle, and my feet gave from beneath me, and I was sliding down, screaming, trying to find something to hold onto, the dragon just behind me, jaws open, waiting -

Then another screech, but one of pain, mixing in the air with my cry of distress. Something was grabbing my wrist, my eyes shut tight, unable to see who - or what - and they were dragging me up. My arm felt like it would pop out of its socket, but I twisted my hand around until I could grab onto their wrist, too, and I scrambled up and up, away from the Salehuka, that terrifying, hungry monster -

And I was on solid ground once more. I could open my eyes. Ellie had helped me up, her bloody hand clasped around a shard of crystal. She must've used it to stab into the broken bridge, like the way a rock climber uses clips. I laid on the ground, breathing hard, trying to gather myself so I wouldn't cry. I couldn't cry, I wouldn't let myself. I had to be strong here, no one else would do it for me. I had Ellie, and she seemed to be fully capable of taking care of me, but I refused to rely on her. She could be gone in an instant, could leave me. I had to find a way to take care of myself.

Even so, she'd just saved my life. I lifted my head to look at her. "Thank you," I breathed.

She just nodded, eyes trained in the direction of the broken bridge, watching. In case the dragon comes back, I concluded with a shiver.

It did. The beast flew back up into our vision, but was preoccupied with something else: a man with a huge crystal weapon that resembled a spear, jumping from limb to limb - though the dragon didn't have many, as it was missing arms and legs - and attacking it with war cries. His dark hair flew wild around his face, his body covered only in a breastplate, a sash around his waist, and lightly armored half-pants, tapered in at his knee. His shoes were flat, very Spartan in their designs, like something from a history textbook. In fact, he himself was practically from a history textbook.

"Kylar," Ellie said from behind me, now standing.

I blinked and turned to look at her. "What?"

"His name," she explained. "It's Kylar. He's our best warrior, but with the way he throws himself at monsters like the Salehuka, we're not sure how long he'll be with us."

I nodded, standing with her and backing up cautiously, always with my eyes trained on Kylar and the Salehuka, in case it decided to try to eat us again.

Ellie, now my age once again, touched my arm and whispered, "This way." I followed her, practically walking backwards, and we crouched and ran to the biggest doorway of the Crystarium. The darkness enfolded me, and I lost sight of the dragon. I was safe for now, but who knows what was awaiting me?

A/N: How was that for a first chapter? I think I did good =) Hope you guys like! I, like you, can't wait to see what happens next! Cuz I really have no idea! My fingers have all the ideas D They tell the keyboard what to do. Well, I need to finish a library book, so I'll leave this for now. Chapter two's a-comin'! Review please!