Can You Hear Me?, a final fantasy xiii-2 fanfic

Can You Hear Me?

Noel met the Serah that changed everything after Valhalla. He unaware of where he had come from before Valhalla except that it was cold, and dark, and lonely. The young Hunter jokingly called it the end of the world...and then he'd been pushed through Etro's Gate and told to save Serah—to save the past.

The world he came to wasn't like the quiet, lonely shores of Valhalla, or the cold, dark, and lonely presence of before. It was bright, and warm, and loud. There was so much noise to New Bodhum that it was almost deafening. It was here that Serah was from—the schoolteacher Serah, quiet and burdened with a secret no one knew, silently protected by her dark, enigmatic Guardian Caius.

At first Caius had closed ranks about Noel and refused to let Serah talk, touch, or be around the time traveler. Caius feared that Noel would change something about Serah—somehow he just knew that this child was trouble and they didn't need trouble. However it was inevitable, Serah meeting Noel, and no matter what Caius wanted it would happen.

So Caius forced the child to become his apprentice, to be the next 'Guardian' in line, and once he was satisfied with this intruding ruffian of a traveler did he allow Noel to meet Serah. Caius extracted a promise from Noel to protect Serah with his life just before that meeting because he knew, he just knew...it was where everything would change.

"I want to fight."

Everything changed.

The Serah that Noel knew became a fighter, a warrior. She heard Noel's story and she found herself unable to sit idly by and play the quiet schoolteacher. Serah couldn't stand by while the world suffered, not when she had the power to fix things. The young woman had known that there was something wrong with the world—that time was displaced somewhere. She had known long before Noel had appeared in New Bodhum in a flash of light through a Gate.

Before Serah thought that there was nothing she could do to fix the imbalances. She had foolishly believed it was the Goddess' choice that the timeline become as warped as it was. Meeting Noel had told her differently, had shown her that this wasn't the Goddess' design. It was an accident, and she could fix it.

Caius knew that meeting Noel would change Serah, he just hadn't realized how. This new Serah was so different from the Serah's of the past, and it was because of Noel. Caius was not the protector of a warrior, there would be no need for his presence if Serah chose to fight. Noel was the Guardian of the warrior, not the schoolteacher.

"It is the Goddess' design," he said as he knelt before her. His head was bowed and his right hand over his heart. "Know that I do not make this choice lightly. I have not dared..."

She smiled and stepped close to him. Her fingers found purchase beneath his chin and lifted it up and she stared down into purplish-blue eyes. "If it is what you want, then go. Noel can keep watch until you return, Caius. I'll be fine."

Again, everything changed. Nothing was the same. Caius left, Noel felt abandoned and furious, and Serah had grown into a fighter. Together they set off to fix things. Throughout their entire journey, and all the implications that pointed to a trusted friend being the culprit Serah remained smiling and positive. She denied that Caius had any involvement in this problem, even when the truth of it stared into her face. But Caius could never hurt her, so his connection to the problems in the timeline became nothing more than conjecture and vague appearances.

Of course Serah had not realized how traveling would affect her, too. Jumping from time to time had increased the rate of things she saw. Eventually it became too much for her body to handle and outside the New Cocoon, the majority of the twists in times corrected, did Serah see her last and Noel realized the truth.

"Serah?"

Serah was gasping from breath, unable to move from her position, gaze off into the distance. Her eyes glowed with Etro's blessing.

Noel shook his head, "No. Not now, please!" How could he have been so blind? All those times were Serah paused, touching her head with the barest looks of pain...all those times were her smile became just a bit more strained...how could he have missed this? Noel reached out and gripped Serah by the shoulders, as if the physical contact and the motions could ground her back in the here and now.

"Serah. Snap out of it. No!"

Etro's blessing faded away and Serah grew limp. Noel caught her before she could fall and pulled her close to his chest, tears in his eyes.

"Serah," he breathed and the next second Serah's eyes slid close and her breathing stopped completely. Noel fell to his knees, cradling her body, still warm with a parody of life. He let out a gut wrenching scream.

Serah was a Seeress. How could he have not known? All this time they spent, jumping from timeline to timeline, correcting the twists and anomalies and other paradoxes that had cropped up in their wake, and he hadn't realized...

They changed the future. It was changed and Serah...Serah bore witness to those changes, and it killed her.

He killed her.

Caius was right. He couldn't believe it but Caius was right...

"I want to put an end to her suffering. If that means to put an end to time itself...then so be it!"

...and he was also horribly wrong. Serah chose to fight to correct time. She had to have known what changing the future meant. Perhaps she hadn't realized how strong the strain would be jumping between timeline to timeline, but she knew she wouldn't have lived long on this path. The Serah's they had met—another two warriors, a flower collector, and a girl who loved furs—had all but alluded to this truth.

Caius desired to end time, to destroy the world itself while Serah strove to protect it, to nurture it and nudge it back on the right path.

That was when everything became clear, and Noel made his way back to Valhalla.

In Valhalla there lived two souls, forever separated by time and age and distance. One lived in a high and lofty tower, decorated in shining armor and gentle feathers with sword and shield at beck and call. The other resided near the flowing sea, clothed in tight fitting, dark leathers with a monstrous blade at his back. The soul in the tower would often stare down at the soul by the sea, and the soul by the sea would stare back up at the soul in the tower. Each longed to be with the other, but only in a world where time passed and their moments was forever short could they be together.

It was a curse, Caius had felt, forever apart from his beloved in a realm where they could live forever, or together with her for a few short years before its all torn away and he's alone again.

Noel disagreed.

On the shores of Valhalla, far away from the tower yet still beneath its watchful gaze, Noel and Caius fought. Noel for the world Serah wanted to protect, and Ciaus championed its destruction.

"You think this will make her happy?" Noel yelled, racing forward.

"Which are you talking about? I've known and protected hundreds!" Caius forced himself to stand and brace for Noel's attack. He dodged and countered as he continued, "Although they had the same soul, every one of them was unique! One who collected flowers, one who loved to sing, one who was a schoolteacher!"

They came to an impasse as Noel halted at the veiled, worded blow. A schoolteacher...

"They all died," Caius said lowly. "All of them! Before my eyes!" He spun around and brought his blade down with a resounding crash against Noel's dual swords.

Caius could recall the first Serah he attended. Back then she had been so different, part of the tribal community that had practically worshiped the child with Etro's blessing. In her position her hair had to be covered by a specific headdress that made it appear as if she was wreathed in strands of pale, pale blue instead of the light pink he knew had been hidden beneath. He could remember, in the Pass, how she had just collapsed suddenly, a few feet away. They had been admiring the stars.

Within a minute her strength had left her, but she had enough time to grip his hand and tell him a soft thank you for his service before she died. Caius' heart broke. He had sworn to protect her, had even taken a fal'Cie's mark to do so, and she'd died so suddenly without warning. She was too young.

He had wondered then how many times he would see the Seeress die, unaware at the time that it would be the same girl, each time, who would perish in his arms.

Then there had been the Serah after Noel. The first natural born warrior Serah. Caius had only watched the proceedings from the shadows. For some reason he couldn't find it within himself to interact with this Serah, this warrior goddess destined to die young. Serah however knew exactly where he'd been every time and eventually she'd confronted him. She had demanded that he help her—he was supposed to protect her wasn't he?

"I cannot protect you from time..." he'd said, and clenched his fist. The next second he knew Serah—his Serah, wearing his promise ring that he'd given her as a child in a failed attempt to sway her from being a warrior—perished again. Only this time it wasn't because of her visions, but a sword through her back.

Caius did not even get the chance to hold her in his arms, unable to look away as the necklace broke, just like his promise. He'd failed to protect her.

"But despite that," Noel strained, "she chose to live again!" She chose? Shock trembled through Caius' frame and he resisted the urge to look to the tower. "So she could be with you!" Noel took advantage fo the shock and pushed Caius' blade away and kicked him in the chest. The Guardian went flying.

Weakened Caius got to his knees. Noel strode forwards and aimed his blade towards Caius, not as a weapon but as emphasis.

"Was it really a curse?" he asked. "Do you really think that she wanted to die and not come back? She knew her next life would be short. She knew! Because she wanted to see you!"

Caius looked up in shock, his gaze turned towards the tower, and he couldn't help the burning, racing, feeling in his chest and the thought that crossed his mind.

Could it be...?

Had he been wrong?

Until one boy broke down the barriers, and showed them that even through their time was short, what mattered was that they were together and perhaps one day they could really be together forever.

A sort of alternate take on how Final Fantasy XIII-2 could've been. Honestly I absolutely adored the beautiful tragedy that this game had become, and I can't wait for further installments. While I was upset that Square decided Serah was expendable, and that in the end she perished and Lightning was forced to become crystal, I was moved by the Noel/Yuel/Caius dynamic throughout the story.

It was really a beautiful tragedy in the end, and I think Noel got it right. Yuel did choose to come back, again and again, because she wanted to see Caius. And Caius couldn't deal with the constant loss of Yuel, so he reasoned it away as the Goddess' fault and figured if he destroyed the world they could be together for real instead of having to deal with stolen moments that always ended with Yuel dead and him alone.

I also thought Caius was a giant flirt and that he had some sort of twisted thing for Serah too. Perhaps he was Seeress sexual, and with the introduction of a second Seeress...well, it was interesting and jaw dropping.

So on a whim I decided to mash Serah and Yuel together, and thus this was born. The story is a oneshot made to accompany a video up on YouTube. Same title, by editor XadoheSaruvi. Feel free to check it out. Its heartbreaking.