Standard, Cookie-Cutter Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the plot or any of the characters from Final Fantasy XIII. The only thing that one could say I technically own the rights to is my original character, whose name will be revealed later on.

Okaaaaay!

So, this is my very first fanfiction in a very long time. My last one was a Harry Potter story that I wrote for another fanfiction website when I was 14. Complete and total disaster, blatant 'insert yourself into the fandom with a horrendous Mary Sue' storyline, and you can take my word for it. Luckily, that website went under awhile back, and with it any proof of that abomination of literature.

So...with that lovely, self-depricating introduction, I welcome you to my second-and hopefully infinitely better-attempt at fanfiction. The rough plot for this story came to me randomly almost seven months ago, and since then I've been trying to piece together the random ideas that have been floating around in my head ever since. I'm definitely glad that I went through this process, otherwise I think I would have tried to accomplish too many subplots into the story and everything would have melded together into one hot mess. If you didn't pick up from the description, this is a HopexOC story, set after the events of FFXIII.

Please feel free to provide any sort of constructive criticism that you deem appropriate. I actively want to hone my writing skills, so I am open to any opportunity for improvement.

Without further ado, I present to you the very first chapter of 'The Fell Clutch of Circumstance'.

Chapter 1- Dreams To Dream

Hope was running.

Though he was not consciously aware as to where he was going, his feet—fueled by instinct—seemed to know exactly which direction to take him.

The wind was blowing strongly against his face, whipping his silver hair back and away from him in a streamline fashion. His eyes were squinted against the wind's ferocity.

He knew that, in all good judgment, he should stop to rest; that his heart was pumping battery acid into his lungs and his legs were deteriorating into jelly. He needed to rest before his body succumbed to fatigue and he collapsed onto the soft earth beneath his feet.

His body, however, seemed to have a mind of its own. He needed to get to his destination, and he needed to get there fast. There was little time to waste.

That was when he heard her voice, soft in his ear.

"Find me, Hope."

Her words, like always, were filled with a type of ethereal urgency. The muscles in his lower body suddenly began to work twice as hard. They picked up their speed, pushing him faster forward towards his destination…towards her.

He looked ahead into the distance and saw several high, earthen spires in a familiar location. The same instinct driving him forward was telling him that his final destination was among those spires. That she would be among them. With the last of his energy he sped forward, determined to find the source of the voice.

Suddenly, everything changed. Hope couldn't feel the fatigue in his legs and chest anymore. In fact, he couldn't feel his body at all. He had projected out from his physical being and up to the top and edge of one of the spires, where a lone female stood.

Instantly, Hope began to study her features. The girl looked to be about his age, and was wearing a long, white dress that fell down to her ankles. The fabric of her dress and her long hair, the color of cherry wood, flowed behind her against the strong winds. Her hands were clasped tightly together, as if in prayer. Though her eyes were closed, he could tell by her furrowed brow and pursed lips that she was pained; locked in a private battle within herself and away from the world.

His vision expanded to the settings around. The spire was seated right next to the slowly deteriorating remains of Cocoon. The massive, fallen structure remained encased and intertwined with shining, crystal stalks created by the two individuals who sacrificed their existence to protect the millions of lives within its shell. A sharp pain of reminiscence flowed through Hope's currently non-existent heart as he thought back to those two warriors who had saved them all.

"I can save them," the voice called to him.

He was looking at the girl again, who had opened her eyes to reveal shocking irises the color of shining silver. With a look of determination, she unclasped her hands and reached her right one out and towards the tip of one of the crystal stalks. Once her fingertips touched its smooth surface, a glow began to radiate from her fingers. Hope looked up into her eyes, or at least where they should have been, and saw nothing but two bright, silver lights. The glow from her fingers began to spread down the spiraling structure, encasing it in a bright, unearthly light.

The vision shifted. Hope was deep within the central structure of the crystal shape. He could make out the hardened, lucid silhouettes of the two former l'Cie to whom he had grown so close. Their bodies also began to glow brightly as they became encased within the light. He watched in awe as their skin slowly began to revert from its current, crystalline color back to the familiar peach hue. The skin color of a living, breathing human being.

The voice called to him once more.

"Find me, Hope, and I can save them"

Hope gasped and shot up as he violently awoke from the dream. He clutched a hand to his chest, feeling his heartbeat race beneath his fingers. Instantly on high alert, he observed his surroundings and his condition.

He gave a long, exasperated sigh when he realized he was alone in his room; moonlight shining through his bedroom window. He turned to his bedside table at his clock, where the time 2:03 AM blazed from its face in angry, red letters. Hope buried his face in his hands let his body fall back against the bed, his head slamming into his sweat-soaked pillow as he let out a groan.

The night's events weren't surprising as they were maddening: After all, it was the same dream that had plagued him for the last six months.

Removing his hands from his face, Hope stared at the ceiling as he reflected, as he always did, upon what he had just witnessed. He was determined to take notice to new clues, new meanings as to why this dream came to him every night. Even more, he was desperate to know more about the woman.

Who was she? Did she truly exist, or was she merely a figment of Hope's imagination? Was she a simple manifestation of a multiple-year-long quest to free his dear friends from their slumbering stasis?

Seriously, no human soul on Gran Pulse had the power to overpower l'Cie crystal and re-awaken its inhabitants with a simple touch…right?

Abandoning any hope of a good night's sleep, Hope sat upright again and pushed the covers off the remainder of his body. He swung his legs over the bed's edge and stood up. Giving his neck a violent crack, he walked out of his room and tiptoed towards the hallway bathroom. Snow and Serah had been nice enough to allow him to reside as a guest in their house during the weeks before his initiation training for the New Bodum sector of the Guardian Corps. He gave a grimace as he reflected to how his recurring dreams and the state in which it left him was probably putting strain on his welcome. He was quite sure his bumbling around in the halls each night had woken up his two hosts several times over. Not good, especially with Serah being six months pregnant with her and Snow's first child.

Hope grasped the cool steel of the door handle to the bathroom and turned it to let himself in. After feeling around the wall for a few minutes, he flipped on the light switch before clutching the sides of the porcelain sink and allowing his body to slump forward. Worn out with mental exhaustion, he lazily lifted his head to gaze into the mirror. The image of his reflection resonated with the exhaustion that consumed his body. His hair was matted in patches to his face from the cold sweat in which he awoke. The skin below his eyes was beginning to darken with a purple hue of fatigue, while the rest of his face looked ghastly pale. Turning the sink's cold water faucet, Hope cupped his hands and splashed his face with the cool liquid. It provided some soothing comfort, but—as always—it was never enough. His body was just as tired and his mind was reeling just as much as it was before.

Hope rested his back against a wall as he let his thoughts reflect back to the girl. He was desperate to know something more about her. He sighed loudly with aggravation when he thought to how he didn't even know her name. He waited for something to come to him, as if his unconscious would magically generate the name of this mystery woman…but nothing came to him. Overcome with frustrated rage, his balled his hand into a fist and slammed it against the flat surface of the wall behind him. Through his weariness, he felt his body slide down the wall until he was seated on the cool, tile floor. He closed his eyes and thumped his head against the wall.

"Who are you?" he whispered out to no one.

Hope's eyes shot open when he heard a knock coming from the door.

'Nice one, Estheim. Waking up the whole house with your horrible sleeping habits. Real nice...' He thought to himself as he felt his face heat with embarrassment.

"Yeah?" he called out, inwardly kicking himself for not keeping quiet.

Slowly, the door creaked open and Hope watched as a familiar blond head of hair peaked through the opening and he found himself looking at the concerned face of his good friend and former l'Cie companion, Snow Villiers.

"Hey, kid." Snow said quietly, with Hope internally scowled at the address. He hated being called a kid. He was 19 years old now, for Eden's sake. Plus, his part in—oh, he didn't know—saving the inhabitants of Cocoon had mentally aged him drastically. He went through more trials at 14 than many grown men did throughout their entire lifetime.

"Sorry. Did I wake you?" Hope asked, and immediately chastised himself mentally for asking such a stupid question. 'Oh, of course not' he thought sarcastically, 'he just happened to be awake at two in the morning and decided that it was an appropriate time for a friendly chat in the hallway bathroom.'

Snow shrugged dismissively. "It's alright. I just wanted to make sure you were okay and that nothing was bothering you. I've heard you up and walking around this early for several nights, now."

Hope clenched his eyes shut in embarrassment and let his head fall on his knees for a few moments for looking up at Snow apologetically.

"I'm really sorry. I've been having a hard time sleeping. I didn't wake Serah, did I?"

Snow shook his head and smiled "No, and don't worry. Serah has always slept like a rock, even with the pregnancy. I don't think anything short of an explosion would wake her up before sunrise."

Hope sighed in relief. Last thing he wanted was to be the source of added stress on Serah and her unborn child.

Snow extended his hand to help Hope up to his feet, which Hope gladly accepted. Once standing, he shook out his head and ran a hand through his silver hair, which he wore shortly cropped above his ears since last year when he turned 18 at the advice of Serah.

"New adult, new look!" she had said to him as she excitedly dragged him into a chair at the local barber shop. The haircut definitely made him look older, he admitted. Not to mention, at the notice of an extremely smug Serah, it helped him catch the eye of many of the local girls in town. It didn't hurt that he also experienced a phenomenal growth spurt in the years after his quest as a l'Cie, finally rounding off when he reached a height of six feet and four inches. Hope was, apparently, "absolutely delicious," as he had overheard one giggling admirer describe him to her friends. He inwardly gave a rueful smile. The last thing he wanted to plague his mind were thoughts of another girl. This "dream girl" was enough to keep him at bay for the next five lifetimes.

The sound of Snow's voice snapped Hope from his inner reflections.

"Sorry, what?" he asked.

Snow frowned. "I was just making sure you were okay. It looks like something's been bothering you. I've noticed you staring off like that at random times ever since you got here a few weeks ago."

"No, I'm alright" Hope lied smoothly. "I've just been thinking about my upcoming initiation. Lightning's been wearing me out with all the combat training she's putting me through."

Snow grinned and slapped Hope on the back, causing the younger man to wince at the force behind the blow. "I still can't believe that you're joining the Corps and becoming a soldier. I mean, it should have sunk in at this point. Sis hasn't stopped talking and lecturing about it since you told us three months ago."

Hope smiled as his thoughts drifted to his dear friend and mentor, Lightning Farron. She was positively thrilled, a rarity for her to display such emotion, when Hope had told her his plans to enlist in the Guardian Corps. Lightning had quickly been reinstated into the Corps following the completion of the l'Cies' focus, and even earned herself a promotion to Lieutenant within the year and to Commander only recently. Since then, Lightning had talked to him almost every day, with everything from a brand new piece of advice for excelling in basic training to informing him of various strings she was attempting to pull with the higher-ups for such luxuries as better housing and setting up informal meetings with Hope and important Corps officials.

Hope looked down at the floor and shrugged. "Yeah, well, her enthusiasm makes up for my dad's lack of it, I guess. He's still hoping that I'll decide to take a job in the government, instead."

"Hey, now." Snow said, noticing his friend's apprehension. "Your dad supports you and whatever you decide to do with your life. I think he's just going to miss having you close, what with him being the governor of District 4."

Hope nodded. In the past 5 years since the Cocoon's plummet from the sky (often referred to as simply "The Fall"), its inhabitants have been constructing new settlements and forming new colonies. The mandatory evacuation of Cocoon took place roughly 3 years ago, when officials deemed the once majestic and floating world to be structurally unsound. After all, no one knew when the "saviors of Cocoon" would awaken from their crystal slumber and, thus, send the orb crashing to the ground with the dissipation of its crystal stronghold. By then, government officials had built enough structures to house the remaining civilians and, in some rare cases and showings of engineering and physics mastery, managed to uplift several structures from inside Cocoon from their foundation and have them airlifted and situated in various settlements. New Eden, the quickly-established capital of the new settlements, resided in District 4, in the region Fang and Vanille had once informed him was, long ago, called the Archylte Steppe. Serah, Snow, and Lightning all resided within District 6, which encompassed the lush lands of Yaschas Massif and the ruins of the once-majestic city of Paddra. Its stone structures made the hollow remnants a perfect location for PSICOM to construct well-encased, fortified military base. The Guardian Corps had also built their headquarters nearby, which helped the sector to become known as the "The Warrior District."

Thinking back to the two native Pulsians immediately brought his thoughts back to the woman from his dreams. He sighed, knowing that she would indubitably be plaguing his thoughts for the remainder of the night.

Hope forced himself to smile as he brought his attention back to Snow. "Well, I should probably try and get back to sleep. I'm sorry, again, for waking you," he said.

"It's cool. I'll see you in the morning, kid."

Hope immediately frowned at once again being addressed as "kid", but shook it off as he strode past Snow and back to his room. Once there, he shut the door behind him before letting his body collapse onto the bed. Turning onto his back, he once again found himself staring at the ceiling as he thought back to the "dream woman," with her silver eyes and russet-toned hair.

Something in his gut told him that this girl wasn't just some incarnation of his imagination; that she was real and was somewhere amongst the vast expanse of their new home on Gran Pulse. He swore to himself that he would find her, to discover if she truly was as remarkable of a being as she was manifested in his dreams.

If she had the power be the savior of those who had saved Cocoon.