'I wonder?' Serah Farron thought to herself, it was a beautiful day in the city of Academia and Noel and herself were spending it digging through a file cabinet. She turned to her friend who was sitting beside a stack of papers towering well above his height and the look on his face was of pure determination. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, it was obvious. Serah herself was anxious too, she had a lunch date with Snow and plans with her sister and she was almost beside herself in excitement. They were deciding a type of flower and color scheme for the wedding, a very important matter which Snow of course didn't believe was that important. Afterward she was heading dress shopping with Lightning whom was the designated maid of honor.

'I wonder why Hope send us on the mission of doing this instead of the hundreds of subordinates he had the power to control?' She thought. The man had asked Noel and Serah to head into the file room to locate a misplaced document. By the way Hope has described it it did sound important, but either way the two accepted the task.

"I think I found it." Noels voice broke through Serahs thoughts and she leaned over to look. It was exactly what Hope had described, a plain white sealed off folder. It looked like many of the others currently scattered around the two, except for one very outspoken detail. On the front was the name 'Lightning' written carefully in pen, Serah recognized it was Hopes hand writing. She would have ignored that detail except for the fact that now a days people mainly used computer text for addressing documents and yet this looked like it was written with the utmost precision and care. Why was Hope writing letters to her sister? She looked over at Noel who must have been thinking the same thing because his fingers carefully slid over the seal as he began to disengage it. Serah reacted immediately grabbing for the object while crashing her hand into a carefully stacked pile causing the tower to collapse between the two of them. Noels face lit up and he laughed as Serah recovered and snatched the document from him.

"Whats the deal?" He asked still a hint of amusement in his voice even though they both knew was a mess to clean up.

"Its not yours so why were you trying to open it?" She snapped back a little too harshly then added in a softer tone, "I wouldn't think Hope would want us to open it. He just told us to find it."

"Alright relax I wont look at Hopes love note to your sister." He said putting his hands up in defeat. while giving her a smirk he added, "You have a mess to clean up." and with that he was gone.

After nearly an hour of cleaning and reorganizing Serah left the file room, envelope in hand went to go find Hope. He was always where he was of course, standing in the center of the room pressing brightly lit buttons on the screen. It didn't look like he was getting very much work done with Mog fluttering around him asking him countless questions.

"What's that one for, Kupo?"

"That button simply shows the time." Hope replied without the slightest edge to his voice, unlike Noel who wants to throw the creature every time he asks something. Hope must like explaining things, he is a scientist after all. He saw Serah and smiled in relief, Mog could get slightly annoying at times.

Serah strode over to him and handed him the envelope. "I found it." She said in a sing song voice and Hope nodded.

"I can't thank you enough for spending the majority of your morning in a closet." He chuckled. It was true, he couldn't thank her enough but she would never admit that. She simply nodded holding back a laugh whilst Mog occupied himself by pressing the time button non stop.

"Can you do me one more favor?" Hope asked smiling sheepishly, Serah blinked. She couldn't afford to go into another closet. It was already steadily approaching 11:30 as she saw flashing across the screen above thanks to Mog, and her lunch date was at noon, giving her twenty minutes to get there, five minutes to wait for a table, two minutes to-

"Can you just give this to Light for me?" He asked handing her back the envelope breaking her chain of math related thoughts. "I know your seeing her today so I thought you could just hand it to her. Its pretty self explanatory."

"Of of course, I mean if I'm going to be seeing her than sure!" She was glad it was such a simple task, she hated letting people down. After saying goodbye and dragging Mog away from the pretty array of technology she was out and walking at a brisk pace toward the front of the building.

"Where are we going, kupo?" Mog asked floating at a steady speed next to Serah as the two of them began heading toward the restaurant. Serah forgot, Mog was banned from all restaurants in Academia because of a little incident that involved three waiters and a misplaced roast pig. Needless to say, Mog couldn't come with her.

"… darn." Serah realized. Now she would either have to send Mog flying back to Hope and risk something happening to the fragile little thing or walk all the way back. She eyed Mog carefully, he could make it right? Nothing would happen to him.

"Well Mog, I'm going to a restaurant with Snow. I need you to fly back to Hope and hang out with him a while longer alright?" She hoped Mog wouldn't question her too much and waste any time.

"Alright, kupo! I like Hope better than Snow anyways!" with that said Mog was already flying in the opposite direction. She paused to make sure he was going the right way and picked back up her pace.

Academia was a large maze of buildings and suspended walkways so when Serah discovered new shortcuts to places she would always take advantage of them. She was coming up to one of her favorites that went right to the restaurant and didn't think anything when she saw a few people standing and conversing. She began to walk past them when one of them quietly spoke her name.

She quickly turned to see who it was, maybe it was someone she knew? When all of a sudden she felt something prick her in the back of the neck and almost as soon as she felt it her throat began to tighten and her legs gave way. She would have hit the ground if someone hadn't caught her. It was a girl with long dark hair that hung in Serahs face as she supported her weight and lowered her down to the ground. Though Serahs mouth and limbs might not have been working her eyes and ears still were still functional.

"Don't worry, we wont hurt you." The girl that was holding her tried to reassure Serah who, on the inside was terrified and panicking, the only emotion showing on her face were her wide eyes.

"Glory don't lie to her." The man had pitch black hair and eyes but didn't seem all that intimidating, a laugh erupted from him, it was a sincere laugh which also seemed a bit creepy. Serah hoped that she wouldn't be left alone with him under any circumstances. Her eyes flickered back up to Glory, who seemed about as uncomfortable in this situation as Serah herself when all of a sudden the third accomplice spoke, another female.

"Okay guys we need to get out of here, Glory give her the full dose." Fiery red hair in contrast with deep blue eyes, she spoke like the leader.

"Do I have to Aria? She can't move or anything in the first place." Glory argued which Serah was thankful for, whatever was coursing through her veins, she didn't want more.

"I found something!" The male sang and Serah looked over to see him pick up the envelope meant for Lightning. He didn't hesitate tearing off the seal and ripping out the handwritten letter. He cleared his throat and Serah was amazed how nobody passed by and saw what was going on.

"Well then get on with it Sebastian!" Aria ordered.

"Dear Lightning, as you know valentines day is coming up. I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me Saturday? Sorry I couldn't ask in person as my work is getting a bit out of hand with a new discovery of a way to travel through time that expands on the matter of controlling without much more effort than thought itself! It that has completely baffled my entire department. Anyways, I wont go on about it too much. If you accept then give me a call and I'll try my best to answer. Have a nice day with Serah shopping. Yours truly, Hope."

If Serah wasn't in such a dangerous situation she would have laughed. Noel was right! It was a love letter! She could almost feel the corners of her mouth turning up.

"Whats the point of this?" Sebastian asked turning the letter over in every direction as if there was a hidden message somewhere.

"I think its useful" Aria said snatching the letter from him and folding it up to place in her pocket. "It mentioned a way to control time, and its Hope Esthiem were after so this little thing", she gestured at Serah as if she was some sort of garbage, "Is our hostage."

"You really think this will work?" Glory asked.

"Its either this or we never see Emily again." Aria responded earning a quick nod from Glory. Serah didn't like the sound of this. She couldn't feel the second prick but soon the corners of her eyes began to blur and she couldn't fight the fatigue that was washing over her. She blacked out.