Everything happened for a reason, at least that's what Hope kept telling himself as he looked out upon the strange new landscape. He thought Pulse was big, this place seemed bigger and the wide variety of life was so alien to him. He had no idea how he came to be here and when he searched for his last memory of home, he kept drawing a blank.

With a soft sigh he tentatively reached for his forehead, the tips of his fingers lightly tracing a small cut above his brow and a larger bump within his silvery blond hairline.

It wasn't complete amnesia, he could remember his name and those of his friends. Their faces were fresh in his mind and he knew where he had come from and where he was meant to be but, he just couldn't remember where he was now, or how he'd gotten there.

He withdrew his hand from his brow seeing the fingertips of his gloved hand come back coated with blood and he frowned.

"What happened?" He mused aloud and focused on healing the wound, a faint green-tinted glow emanated from his hand and the warmth was quickly soaked up by his damaged skin. It stung slightly as the wound knitted together and he felt a little dizzy as he attempted to ease the bump. He'd taken quite a knock that was for sure and he needed to rest for the concussion to heal effectively. But now wasn't the time.

"Light! Snow!" he called out for his friends, his voice carrying out into the vast expanse and finding no one. He listened.

Nothing.

"Light!" He tried again, calling louder this time and hurting his throat in the process. He coughed, staggering a little as if he'd put his whole body in trying to drive his voice as far as it could go.

A bird squawked in the distance, but other than that; nothing.

He was starting to panic. What if they were hurt or in trouble? In other words, pretty much in the same situation he was right now. But that was okay, as long as they could find each other again they would be safe. Together they had battled the worst the world had to offer and came out on top. Their bond had been tentative at first, now it was unbreakable and together they could do anything.

Alone. That was a different story for Hope at least. He'd barely done anything on his own, ever. The confidence in his own abilities came from the fact he was always with one of the others or had to protect them as much as they protected him. They were a team. So where were they?

"Light!" He called for her again, desperate to see her come running to his side and make everything okay, just like she did back in those early days. He stumbled forward, this time falling to his knees and coughed away the mild irritation to his throat. "Where are you?" He whispered down into his chest and he wished for an answer. All he got was rain.

He knew he was moping and he honestly didn't care at first… but then, what would Light think if she saw him now?

"Get up and get moving, kid."

Hope closed his eyes, he could almost hear her voice as he pictured her response in his mind. She looked disappointed and that made him angry with himself. With a deep breath he pushed himself up from the now soaked ground and wiped his hands on his pants, they came back covered in mud still but it gave them something to do.

He was already soaked through but the cool of the rain washed away some of his anxiety and calmed him.

Hope didn't know what had happened or why he was now in a strange place, all he knew was that he had to find the others. He needed to be back with his friends and the only family he had left since his father had died. . .

***

The rain was relentless but its soft drum provided some comfort to the lost teen as he wandered along a vast grassy plain. The clouds above were dark, promising a storm to remember. Even now he could hear the faint rumblings of thunder. Hope kept going unperturbed but a little cold now. He brushed his hair back hoping to stop the cascade dripping down his face; it didn't work but he was able to see again at least. He winced slightly as the act disturbed the tender bump and bruise, he imagined it looked worse than it actually was but I didn't stop him feeling sorry for himself.

"Keep moving."

Hope looked up from the ground. He was sure he'd heard Light's voice. She sounded irritated, probably because he was moving so slowly again. He blinked, in actual fact he had stopped altogether. He sighed and began walking again, he'd barely taken one step when the ground started to shake. The blade of grass vibrated, tiny drops of water shook loose to fall into the larger puddles and boggy ground. Hope felt the vibrations encompass his own body and he looked around, searching through the grey misty scene trying to locate the cause. He was worried, usually this was a sign of something big coming his way, in which case he either had a fight on his hand or he needed to leg it. He wasn't sure he was up to either but it was that or being some creature's entrée.

With a slow hand he reached behind into the waist of his shorts and pulled his collapsible boomerang from the pouch Light had made for him. He snapped it open, taking a few cautious steps back having figured out the direction the pounding was coming from. It was strange, he'd heard nothing like it before, it was like a giant's footfalls but it was too rhythmic, the timing between each step precise. Like a marching band, except this one had enough might to shake the very ground.

Hope looked from left to right, but all he saw was a wide open expanse curtained off by falling rain, there was no where to hide as the march closed upon him. He just had to hope that who ever these people were, they were not out to kill him.

He swallowed down his worry with some difficulty and prepared himself as the first bright uniforms dimly shone through the mist. Their tunics were pale blue with white trimming, black trousers and black shoes. Each wore a sash from their left shoulder and under the right, at its tied edges a kind of tassel with tiny bells that chimed softly in time with their march. Each man and woman wore a black mask, eyes completely covered he wondered how they saw where they were going. Only their lips were visible, it reminded him of blinkers on a horse. . .

As more became visible through the mist Hope could see their ranks. They marched in rows of ten across, the space between each column exact and Hope scurried for the nearest gap as they strode towards him steadily, seeming not to realise he was there.

He barely made it and he stood still as one by one on either side, hundreds possibly thousands of men and women passed him by, where they were going he didn't know but they looked very serious and deadly as each bore a similar weapon to that which Light used. He stayed silent as they passed, giving him no thought at all.

"E…excuse me?" he began meekly turning on the spot as they continued to pass by. "Hello?" He tried again but still they marched on and Hope wondered if they were even real or just a figment of his imagination. He had taken quite a bump.

He wandered a bit to close to the column behind him and was shoved away. They were so sturdy it was like colliding with a brick wall and Hope found himself in the mud once more and there he remained until the troops passed him by completely.

"Twelve rows by ten, that's. . ." He closed his eyes working it out. "One-hundred and twenty, and there's nine regiments that I can see. . ." He slowly stood, squinting trying to see how many more. "That's one-thousand and eighty that I can see." He ran a hand over his face. "How many more that I can't?"

Hope squinted as the sun finally broke through the clouds, the small amount of rain still falling caused a rainbow and he looked up into its colourful arc. Where it ended looked to be a small town nestled neatly by the coast and as the grey mist retreated Hope could see far out to sea. He had never seen anything like it, even Oerba village back on Pulse wasn't as pretty. Of course that had the disadvantage of being overrun by Cie'th and covered crystallised dust, turning it into a kind of desert. This was just breath taking. He just wish he knew where it was!

With a weary sigh he started down the slight decline towards the village, praying someone there could finally tell him where in the world he was.

***

As he drew closer to the village Hope got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was an awful smell coming from the built up area carried to him by a salty sea breeze. Smoke plumed above the thatched roofs and there was a definite sound of panic and chaos on the streets.

Hope jogged down, his legs protesting the use but the sounds of distress and cries for help spurred him to act. He ran into the main street under a fallen archway which boasted the name of the town. In its current condition the name remained a mystery and Hope carefully negotiated his way over and past the rubble.

He coughed as smoke billowed out at him from a dwelling burning to his right, while a scream from his left startled him. He surveyed the scene, his heart racing in dread while many hands and feet ran two and fro trying to extinguish flames and assist those injured. Hope decided to lend what little assistance he could and ran towards the source of the scream. A small girl lay trapped under a fallen beam, her left foot wedged painfully under the wooden debris. She was crying and dangerously close to another fire.

He rushed to her side and smiled.

"Hey there." He took her hand as she sobbed. "What's your name?"

"Saxon." She sniffed, her bright blue eyes gleaming with tears.

"I'm Hope, I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" She nodded and sniffed again, watching as Hope took the wooden beam in his hands. "Pull your foot free soon as you're able." He instructed before lifting the heavy beam cursing his slight frame when he realised that anyone else in the group could have lifted it clear completely. Well, except maybe Vanille. He grunted and pulled harder, latching on tightly with his hands and using his legs to do the lifting, very aware of how close the flames where now.

Saxon whimpered as the beam itself caught a small flame and Hope pulled harder. Finally he lifted it high enough that the girl's small foot came free and she scurried up and away.

"Hey wait!" he wheezed, dropping the beam and falling back onto his ass. "You're welcome!" He called a little put out by the lack of gratitude, but he smiled nonetheless.

He stood dusting his hands on his pants before looking around. The main street led right down to the dock where a dozen or so fishing boats where ablaze. A handful of uniformed men and women ran carrying buckets trying to save the village's livelihood; if he hurried he could discreetly cast an elemental spell and put them all out at once. The boats would get a bit of a soaking but that was nothing they weren't already built for.

He pulled his left glove higher to hide his L'Cie brand and hurried to the docks, avoiding more fires and falling debris as he went. The last thing he wanted was for the people of the town to turn on him, fearing his curse.

The smoke was thicker here, the wind blew the smoke right at him and he was coughing like a trooper by the time he made it to the quayside.

"Move, move!" Came one of the men shouting, his dark-blue uniform burnt in places and covered in ash. His face was dirty with charcoal smears and his green eyes watering as he coughed and passed a now empty bucket back along the line before accepting another. "It's no good, we need to use our junction reserves!"

"We don't have permission!" Came a quick reply, a woman in a similar state to the first man.

"Did anyone contact Balamb Garden?"

"We tried!"

"Where the hell are they!"

Hope ducked behind one of the few buildings not on fire, half wondering what they were talking about. Junction? Balamb Garden? He'd never heard phrases like that before. He shook away his curiosity and focused on the boats. If he timed this right he might even extinguish the fires in the surrounding buildings too. His strength lay in his magic despite reluctant to use it at first he had come to depend on it and through it, his friends depended on him. His abilities were unsurpassed in the offensive elemental casting as there was very few creatures that could stand against him because of it.

What he needed here was water and lots of it.

He clenched his left hand, drawing the energy from deep inside of him and he felt it flowing to the tips of his fingers. He drew more and more from within, building up the amount till it felt like he held a raging sea in the palm of his hand. He had to be careful when he released it, he had to control it and that was the hard part. If he let it loose now the boats would be torn asunder.

Holding it was hard, once summoned the maelstrom just wanted to be free to run its course. It wanted to dance wildly, smash upon resistance and break it. He grunted as he slowly let the water within his hand flow from it. It swirled from his slight fingers cascading against the boats and ships. As it crashed against each hull great plumes of water would rise up to rain down on the surrounding area killing any flames. The tiny dock was like a raging sea and Hope called out, trying to control the rate at which he unleashed the energy, luckily the sound of the crashing water and the creaking of the wooden hulls drowned out his cries.

With a final push, Hope released the last of the storm into the air, the currents swirled and flowed in a torrent in the sky, huge droplets raining down and killing many of the fires, the flames that were left having nothing to burn through as most of the town was sodden and that included the people.

The uniformed teens stood awestruck, the boy at the front of the line looked at his empty bucket seeming to wonder where all the water had suddenly come from. Hope took pleasure from the look on their faces as he staggered out into the open, smiling.

"Trey, what the hell. . ." one of the girls asked and the rest of the uniformed teens started asking questions of their group leader who clearly had no answers.

That had taken it out of him but he couldn't just sit idly by and do nothing. He slumped down to the floor, not caring he was sat in a huge puddle, he was wet anyway. He imagined what Light would say if she could see him now and he smiled, closing his eyes briefly with a sigh. He would rest up a little and then seek out some answers.

***

"…ey." Hope grumbled as he was pulled from sleep and immediately tried to ignore the person calling him and slip back into his quickly fading dreams. It didn't work since the more he tried to ignore it the more he woke. Why was that always the way? "…kid…time to…up. Jeeze you're soaked!"

"Huh?" He forced his eyes open, flinching as the sunlight assailed his eyes burning white hot pain right into his skull. He groaned and closed his eyes quickly.

"Feel that good huh?"

"Worse. . ." He whispered and turned away the light managing to burn through his lids and irritate his headache even more.

"It's hardly surprising." Came the wry response and Hope attempted to roll clear of the light. "Here. . ."

"No, I'm fine."

"Sure you are."

"Okay, maybe I'm not, but I can do this." He stated stubbornly and as soon as his head had stopped spinning and he was in adequate shade, he forced his eyes open once more and looked at the young man who had woken him. His grin was huge, with blond spiky hair and a black tribal tattoo that covered the left half of his face. Hope narrowed his eyes trying to keep his vision focused as it shifted and blurred.

"We're evacuating the area so SeeD can move in and make repairs."

"Who?" Hope shook his head looking up at the much taller young man who blinked down in confusion at first before his eyes lit up in realisation.

"Oh! Sorry, the name's Zell."

"Huh?" Hope squeaked completely confused. He turned from the energetic guy who reminded him a lot of Snow, though a lot smaller. He took in the area seeing most if not all of the boats where fine, mostly cosmetic damage. Across the dock the group of uniformed teens stood reporting to what he guessed was their superior, the no-nonsense figure had his back to Hope so he couldn't really tell what he looked like, only that he wore a fur-lined leather jacket and carried yet another Gunblade.

The area was swarming with more of the uniformed young men and women, though these were substantially older than the group who had been trying in vain to save the ports fishing fleet.

"Look, we've got a medical tent set up just outside of the town. I think I should get you there." Zell reached for Hope but he was his usual stubborn self. Relying on himself was something he was very proud of, it was everything Light had trained him to be and he wasn't about to stop anytime soon.

"I can make it."

"Whoa, okay little dude. Just doing my job, ya know?"

"Yeah well, I can manage fine." He sounded convincing, it was just a shame his body really wasn't up to living the lie and down he almost went.

"Not so fast." Zell said cheerfully as he grabbed Hope's arm and held him up. "Sweet tattoo!" He stated suddenly and Hope snapped his hand back like he'd been scolded. "Wazzup?" The guy looked genuinely confused leaving Hope even more so. "Hey! Look out!"

In his effort to get away from the crazy young man and hide the brand on his arm, he stumbled very close to the edge of the dock. A coil of thick rope was the missing piece of the equation and down he went. He fell in sickening slow motion watching as Zell reached in a feeble attempt to save him from hitting the water below. The rope he had tripped on following him down tangling around his ankles as he sank dazed from the impact of the icy cold water so when he finally started to kick for the surface he couldn't, instead he went deeper as the rope was attached to a heavy lobster cage which was half the size of the teen and twice as heavy.

Hope held his breath and reached around his ankles as he was dragged deeper into the darkness, bubbles of precious air fleeing in a desperate bid for the surface and Hope wished he could follow.

He grunted as he tried to pull free, managing to get one foot free but the heavy rope snapped closed around the other, yanking the limb painfully.

His descent stopped as the cage hit the bottom of the dock and Hope began his struggle anew, blinking in the murky water spotting a blurry blond-topped figure swim down behind him. The guy actually grinned and gave Hope the thumbs up but the young L'Cie shook his head and began tugging on the rope again, this time with Zell's help.

His lungs burned, filled with stale air that had to be expelled and the need to draw in another breath was too hard to resist. He coughed, bubbles breaking free from his lungs and he felt the icy water enter his body as his lungs tried to sate their addiction for air.

He screamed, though the sound was suffocated by the water around him. He was still struggling, desperate to live he instinctively called for the one thing he knew could save him, but as consciousness left him, so did Alexander's name die on his lips.