Disclaimer: Nope, don't own anything.

Author's Note: This was a prompted entry into a fanfic competition; it won that category. I'm also itching to play Dissidia again so I figured I'd post this and then go find my PSP. Enjoy!

ALONE TOGETHER

Twelve useless cycles, and a war that will never end. That was how Lightning saw the conflict.

She hurriedly glanced amongst the rag-and-tag team totalling six, some who had seen battle before and others who had not. What stood out to her was that they were all very young and very tired as they sat huddled behind rocks near the Interdimensional Rift, lightly resting. After all, the impossible fight that was to come would be the most important one of their lives.

The time was approaching. The time to really make a difference in this war by delivering a sacrificial huge blow to Chaos' Warriors and their manikins, so that when their comrades awoke for the Thirteenth Cycle, they would end the conflict, destroy the dark God, and win. Then, and only then would they all return to their home worlds and be at peace, never to be summoned by Cosmos.

It wasn't fair.

To be torn from her home world, forced to forget those dear to her – her own sister, for God's sake – and then made to fight against something that truly could never end... was worse than anything she could imagine. Lightning refused to admit that it frightened her. She was better than that. She would beat it.

Behind her, she could hear the manikins, the cursed mockeries of Cosmos' and Chaos' Warriors, flowing forth from the Rift. Their mangled voices seeped through to her very bones and caused her to shudder. They were all heading to Cosmos with the intend of destroying her, winning the cycle once more and starting their torment anew; and yet here they were, wasting time, allowing more to go through because they decided it was best to 'rest up for a bit'.

A puff of air rushed from Lightning's lips.

As much as this needed to be done, she still felt it was pointless.

"Y'know, it is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn."

Craning her head to her right, she noticed that Laguna had come to sit beside her. She studied him for a brief moment, from the bright shine of his eyes to the slight uplift of his mouth, before speaking in a hushed voice, "And when did you tiptoe over here?"

"No offense, but when you're in deep thought like that, you're easy to sneak up on," he grinned. He shuffled a bit beside her, "I figured you could use some company. We could be alone together!"

She said nothing to that, instead choosing to look back at their companions, who continued to doze lightly. Even Kain was resting, something she found surprising. He was the one who had found out about the Rift and its strength, and he was the one who seemed most concerned about putting his 'plan' into action. And yet there he was, asleep and with a hand within an inch of his beloved spear.

Beside him lay Tifa, who was curled in a small ball, fists clenched tightly against her form. Next to her was Vaan, who was outstretched and even snoring; and then Yuna, who was leaning against a rock, heterochromatic eyes sealed away from the world around her.

"What did you mean?" Lightning suddenly blurted, now focusing on the patch of ground before her feet, "About the darkest hour?"

Laguna paused for many moments before looking to their de facto leader with a challenging, yet kind smirk, "I would've thought you were smart enough to figure it out."

She huffed, folded her arms, shut her eyes and tilted her head upward. She tried to think calming thoughts, "I don't have time for you to treat me like a kid. I've got a fight that I need to prepare myself for."

"Don't be a stick in the mud," Laguna chided lightly, reaching out and giving her a friendly shove, almost throwing her off balance from her sitting position. He chuckled to himself, lowering his voice thereafter. The others were still dozing, after all, "I know it looks grim, but –"

"Shut up, Laguna," she hissed.

He blinked before forcing himself to swallow what he was going to say next. As he pulled his legs to his chest, he was surprised to hear that Lightning continued.

"I don't want to hear anything about darkest hours or dawns because I don't want to believe that this is the end. That even if we fade away here, we might not get to go back to the people we truly cherish," she opened her eyes and pressed her fingers to her temples, "I hate feeling like... like I might not even come back to my home world, regardless of what happens here. I don't want to vanish!"

There was nothing for many moments, nothing but the distorted growls and splutters of the thousands of manikins they were to soon fight and die against.

"But it doesn't matter what I think, or what I feel," Lightning remarked idly, clenching her fists so hard that she could feel her fingernails bite into her skin through her gloves, "It doesn't matter what any of us think or feel, because we have a job to do and we have to see it through. We have to seal the Rift."

"No one wants to die," Laguna replied softly, his voice tinged with a hint of sadness.

She gritted her teeth, "No, and no one had a say in it."

He could've reminded her about a few warriors that would be reborn in the Thirteenth Cycle as Cosmos' own because of the choices they made, but instead he shuffled closer and placed a friendly arm around her. She did not rebuff him, though it was obvious that she disliked the contact greatly.

When Lightning looked to Laguna again, his face was stern and showed not even a trace of the light-hearted, fun person he truly was. She did nothing, instead staring back and furrowing her eyebrows when he spoke, "Why don't you actually sit and think about what I said for a moment?"

And so she did.

It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.

It was poetic, for sure, and to her it didn't sound like anything Laguna could think of himself. She assumed there was a message there, but she was so consumed in her frustration at the situation that at a first glance, she could not see it.

So she deconstructed the sentence, running her fingers through her hair. In this cycle... this right here, right now was definitely the darkest hour. It was so dark and important that she felt as though she was suffocating under the pressure. Surely that was what he meant. But the rest of it was not clicking straight away.

At least, until she looked to Laguna again, who still had that same, resolute expression. He smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder as Lightning slowly repeated what he said to her, "The darkest hour... of the night comes just before the dawn."

It will be bad before it gets better. All will seem lost until the final moments. The war...

"We will win this," Laguna said firmly, nodding, "We might not get to see the victory ourselves, but by doing what we are about to do, we're ensuring that Chaos' begins its sharp decline to defeat. To make sure that those who survive will definitely beat them in the next cycle."

She nodded stiffly, managing to ease herself from his grip, and resumed her comfortable position against the rock. When she looked to her comrades again, they were all still asleep – Yuna, though, looked like she was waking up. But what intrigued her the most was not the people themselves and how they differed in so many ways, but rather the haunting patterns of light on their body.

"Laguna, look at them... the light."

"Yeah, it's sort of... creepy."

"We should wake them soon," she said, "We need to get moving."

"I wouldn't be so quick to."

She gave him a half smile, and was rewarded with one. She supposed they could enjoy their rest a little while longer, and she could watch them illuminate what was otherwise a dank location.

And so they sat silently, alone and together, watching the light that the Rift cast on the world they would never see again.