When she awoke, Lightning wasn't in the new world like she had expected. No, she was floating in the air watching Fang and Vanille prepare to become Ragnarok. Beside her, she could hear Snow screaming for Fang and Vanille, just like it her memory of this moment so long ago. Closing her eyes, she swallowed the scream she wanted to let free.

Why this moment? Why now?

It was a stupid thought though. She knew exactly why it was this moment. In a parallel dimension, the others were going to live their lives in that new world. But she wasn't human anymore, she didn't belong there, and this was her opportunity to save this world too. She wouldn't get to be with her sister, but she would be safe. She wouldn't know what it was like to die, to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. And maybe, just maybe, it would be enough.

Knowing she only had moments left, she let go of Hope's hand. But when she went to unclasp Snow's, he held tight. Looking at him, he had a grim and determined look on his face. This wasn't the Snow that should have been here. This was the man who had lived for over five hundred years, beating back the Chaos of the world and keeping it in order.

"You've shouldered the burden of the world by yourself for too long. Let me help you this time."

She wanted to scream at him, rage that he would be leaving Serah alone again. That he had held the world together for five hundred years and that he didn't need to be a hero. But they didn't have time for that and she would have hundreds of years at the least to rage at him for being an idiot if this hair-brained scheme of hers worked. So she just nodded her head, and he let go of Sahz and together they propelled their bodies in a dive towards Fang and Vanille.

Behind them, Lightning could hear Hope and Sahz screaming at them and it distracted Fang and Vanille for a moment. Eyes wide, she could tell that the Pulsian's knew exactly what her and Snow were trying to do. But that moment of distraction was all she needed to push an Aero spell behind her and Snow so she could reach them. And when she did, she immediately grabbed hold of Vanille and watched out of the corner of her eye as Snow did the same to Fang.

Wrenching their hands apart, she flung Vanille into the air while Snow did the same for Fang, making sure that they couldn't touch each other. For good measure, Lightning sent another Aero spell at them to make sure that they would reach Sahz and Hope. She watched for a moment as Fang cursed them and Vanille screamed, but she soon turned away, unable to look at them anymore and faced Snow. He looked the same as he did all those years ago on Cocoon, same as she did, but he'd long ago lost a lot of what really annoyed her, his most detestable traits tempered by time and pain.

But even so as she grasped his hands tightly she told him, "You do realize I'm going to have the next several centuries to chew you out for this, right? And that you'll never be able to escape?"

But he just smiled that big cheesy smile he knew annoyed her. "Oh I know it. But I'm sure I'll survive." The smile drained from his face quickly though. "But this is where I need to be. Out there in the world…I don't have a purpose. Not really." She flinched minutely. So he'd realized it too then.

There were no more words after that though. Simply a building of power and then, it was darkness. Being Ragnarok, it was strange. The closest she could come to comparing it would be being a Cieth or floating in the Unseen Chaos. But unlike those times she wasn't alone and really, that made all the difference. All around her, she could feel the energy that was distinctly Snow and once, a long time ago, it might have pissed her off even more but now it calmed her. For all his faults, they'd known each other too long to be unable to not depend on each other. He wouldn't leave her alone. Not now.

But then the darkness receded and Snow's energy was no longer keeping her calm. Opening her eyes, she could see the pure molten energy that would, in moments, freeze into immovable crystal. Taking a deep breath, Lightning felt raw for a moment, before the brand on her chest burned hot and the energy around her solidified into a crystal casing around her and dragged her into her slumber.

But it wasn't a true sleep, not really. For her, it was almost like being in Valhalla again. Except, instead of the desolate temple she had called home for uncountable years, it was the field on Gran Pulse, the place where she and Snow had made their promise to see Serah again. A wry smile crossed her lips at that. They would see her again all right, but she would never see them. Not if they didn't want the world to end.

"So this is where we're going to spend our lives huh? Not a bad choice on our part."

Turning, she raised an eyebrow. Snow wasn't wearing the clothes he was before. In fact, he was back in the black leather ensemble he'd worn for several hundred years. His hair was even the same length. He simply raised an eyebrow back, gesturing to her. Looking down, she saw that she was once again adorned in Etro's armor.

Sighing, she just made an uncharacteristic shrug. "At least it wasn't that stupid dress."

Unfortunately, it just made him smirk. "I will have you know, I liked that dress! I'm the one that picked it for the play, after all."

That made her scowl at him, armored hands curling into fists. That bastard. "Why the hell would you pick a fucking ball gown for a role you very well knew belonged to me!" She was not going to punch him for this. She wasn't going to punch him. No, she wasn't going to punch him over something petty like this.

But his smirk just got wider. "The thought of you saving the world in a pretty dress and heels amused me to no end. When you actually got up on stage in it, acted out your role, then chased me down in it? It is a memory I will cherish." Bam. She'd lied. The solid punch to his face laid him out on the ground and she felt no regret. Curling her fist, she prepared to hit him again when he got up. But behind where he lay, a time gate appeared and suddenly their spat about the dress wasn't so important.

Walking closer, while making sure to kick Snow as she walked over him, Lightning peered into the twisting structure. She didn't need it, could feel the ties in the back of her mind that would let her check on them like she used to in Valhalla, but she supposed that Snow needed some way to keep an eye on everyone as well. But looking into it she could see the base of the pillar, all of their friends sitting there in their intricate crystal casings.

Almost unwillingly, she raised her hand to the gate. Then, the words came to her like a long forgotten dream. Vanille had said it before, but it was her line now.

"Wake Up."

And she felt Snow step up behind her, and together they watched their friends glow and their crystals ease away. Fang was the first to overcome the momentary disorientation and take in the new crystal pillar that held Cocoon aloft. Anger colored her face and she strode forward, lance in hand and was yelling at them. What was being said though, neither she nor Snow could say for certain. While they could observe, they couldn't really hear. Not like Vanille and Fang had seemed able to hear them. Beside her, they could see Vanille crying and Hope was on the verge of it. Sahz just looked at them all and shook his head.

Beside her, she saw Snow mirror her and send his own message to them.

"Stop it." And they did, surprisingly. Fang looked disbelievingly at the pillar though. "There was more at stake than you could possibly understand. It had to happen this way."

This is where Lightning picked up. "This is all we could do though. We'll hold the fort here, but the rest is up to you."

They went mostly silent after that, until they found that they were missing their brands. And in the distance, she could see Serah and Dahj. So she gave one last message to them, one last plea to the remnants of her rag-tag family.

"And please. Take care of Serah for us." There was so much more she wanted to say, but the gate was growing dim and the words wouldn't form in her mouth. So in the end, Lightning pulled her hand away from the gate and turned away. Without a doubt in her mind, she knew that Serah would cry and she couldn't watch that. Couldn't know that she'd done that to her sister. But before she could walk away from it, Snow grabbed her arm and twisted her around.

"No. You don't get to walk away. You're a lot of things, Claire Farron, but you're not a coward." There was anger in Snow's words, but she supposed that she deserved it. "We've made our choice, and while we hope it's for the better, we still have to live with it and how it effects Serah." His voice lost that edge though and was barely above a whisper. "I love her too, you know. Maybe not the way I thought I did and maybe not enough, but I love her too. Her memory carried me through centuries of hardship that I probably wouldn't have been able to get through alone. She deserves having our full attention for the short time we can give it."

And he was right. She knew he was. So without really moving, she shifted her eyes back to the gate she'd turned away from. Serah wasn't crying like she had expected. She was clutching the survival knife like a lifeline, she was hysterical, but she wasn't crying. It reminded Lightning that Serah's strength hadn't all come from her journey with Noel. No, the base of it had come just from her being a Farron, from being herself.

"She's going to be okay, isn't she?"

It was phrased as a question but it wasn't, not really. Snow answered her anyways.

"She was always going to be okay. For the first time, she's also going to get to be her own hero."

Together, they watched as Vanille collapsed at her sister's feet, most likely apologizing. They watched as Serah dropped down next to her and hugged her tight. Eventually, it turned into a group hug between the six of them plus little Chocolina and that's the last image Snow and Lightning saw before the gate sealed itself, closing them off from the living world. They stood there for a moment until Snow eventually got antsy and started stretching.

"Guess that's that, huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. That's that." And she turned, walking away from the gate and from Snow. As she walked, a throne formed near to the gate but for now Lightning ignored it. When she got bored of the dream, she would fall deeper into her slumber. But for now, she wanted to explore the world that somehow, her and Snow's subconscious had agreed upon. When she didn't hear him following she turned around arms crossed.

"Come on, hero. We have a whole new world to explore, at least for now."

Word Count: 2,012

What is this, I don't even know. But anyways.

So, this is obviously post LR for Lightning and Snow, but it's set at the end of XIII in both world and for everyone else, so I decided to set it there. We know that the Paradoxes originated from when Etro interfered and released the L'Cie from their crystal prisons, but I decided to narrow that focus on Lightning and Snow. Hence the references to there more being at stake and such. When I first played through XIII in it's original release in 2010, I always felt that it should have been Lightning and someone else, not Vanille and Fang, who became Ragnarok. LR gave me a bit leeway for my imagination to make that happen.

Originally, I was going to use Hope (because God!Hope and God!Lightning are probably my favorite head cannon right now.) but I didn't for two reasons. One, physically right now, he's too young. I have a personal preference for Older!Hope and I logically couldn't write him like that. The second being that the world needs him in a way they don't need Snow. Remove him from taking over the Academy and who knows what would happen.

As for the shifting emotions. Lightning has, at this point, reabsorbed everything that made her Claire. While she's still a highly controlled and reserved person, there is a lot more fragile emotion to her now. Not to mention that she's known Snow a long time. He knows her a lot better than pretty much everyone other than Serah and as such, she can be a bit more open with him. Still probably OC, but I'm working on that. Along with playing all three games again.

That's that. No beta, as always. Tell me what you think.