Chapter One
Day Ten
"Excuse me. I think you dropped… this…"
Margret glances up from her notes and sees the adorable pinkette looking almost fearfully at the book. The woman blinks, sees the markings shifting from black to red on the page, and lets out a happy exclamation as she takes it back and sets it on her tiny café table. "Thank you. That would have been the third time I missed this."
The mark flares out like an open eye, signaling the last moment as a l'Cie. The page shrivels, growing black and brown veins, but nothing unexpected happens. Margret hums and gets to writing notes about it, asking the woman who picked the book off the ground if she knows the time.
"Um," the pinkette swallows hard and stutters out the hour. After watching Margret write for a bit, she hesitantly asks. "What was that?"
"That?" Margret tilts her head up and blinks innocently. "You mean the brand?"
"Yes." A little surer.
"Well, I'm measuring how long it takes before the time limit to complete a focus is considered finished." Margret leans back and taps her pen on the table. "I got that brand from someone yesterday. I think the brand being off a person shortens the limit, but that's only the fifth one to turn so the findings aren't conclusive- are you okay?"
The pinkette is very pale and shaking, holding onto the table to stay on her feet. "The brand can't be removed."
"Sure it can." Margret gives her a knowing look. "Pull up a chair, dear. I'll explain how it works."
The young woman is shaking so hard that Margret gets the chair for her. Once seated and ordered a warm drink for the lady, Margret takes out a squirt bottle.
"Have you ever had a fake tattoo?" Margret asks, flipping the book's pages to show more l'Cie brands in varying stages of completion. "Where you put warm water on an image and hold it on until the ink transfers?"
The pinkette jerks a nod.
"This works in the reverse." There are twenty pages filled so far. She slips out one of the specialized, wax-like papers and holds it out for the other to feel. "That gets held over the whole brand and squirted with cold water until the mark is seen. Then it is peeled off on both sides, slowly, until the center is left. At the center is like a root. The longer the root has been there, the more it hurts to pull out. I normally spray the leftover hole with a potion or something to zap it close, but no heavy lifting for the day until it feels better."
"Could you do it now?" the pinkette says, wild hope in her eyes as she holds the paper with two fingers.
Margret is silent for a moment in understanding. She nods slowly. "As long as you don't scream, we can do it right here."
The words draw her back from hope. "There are people everywhere."
"They don't care, and they aren't watching." Margret motions the young woman over. "Unless it's somewhere sensitive. I know the fal'Cie are perverts."
That startles a laugh while the pinkette hesitates over the bandage on her arm.
"If you sit in front of me," Margret promises, "no one will know."
It takes two minutes. No one notices. The pinkette cries silently in pain and relief as she sips her drink and glances at her bloody bandage with a smile. Margret slips the paper into the book and packs it away. "May I get a name? I'm Margret."
"Serah."
She codes the name in her notes, like all the others. "It was very nice to meet you, Serah. If you ever meet anyone willing to help with my research, please let me know."
"How will I find you?"
"I'll probably be at a café around here. They have the best cookies."
Margret freezes when she gets a hug. "Thank you."
She pats the young woman. "Go be free out there, Serah. Don't worry about l'Cie or Cie'th anymore."
"I won't turn into one?"
"Without a mark you won't."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Really. Don't. Pretty sure we could all go to jail."
Serah laughs wetly. "I won't."
(Of course, she mentions it to Snow.
Of course, Snow wants to meet the person who helped her.)
Margret watches the major plot change – the reason everything crumbled for the heroes the first time – get caught up in the shopping crowd and she groans. "F**k." The woman packs up and gets out of there as fast as possible. This is why she should be careful what she wishes for.
(Of course, the strange woman has disappeared into the wind by the time the couples reaches the café.)
;;;
Day One
Things don't start nicely.
Margret opens her eyes slowly, afraid. Whatever she's expecting to see isn't there, and instead the world has turn and shifted into something gloriously frightening. Unbeknownst to her, she is there to fill one role. Open the door.
This place is not Earth, and she is not marked. Something has gone wrong equally for the world and for her.
Things do not start out nicely.
It does not get better from there.
(Oh yes, Margret opens the door. The woman picks up her supplies, searches, and leaves.)
The Pulse Vestige door is open, and so triggers the awakening of those with the mission of creating Ragnarok. What is supposed to happen is the gatekeeper returns to slumber until deemed necessary.
Margret walks into the night and realizes where she is soon after. She gets as far away as she can before blurting out, "I didn't mean it literally."
Except she did.
Marget's last words on Earth were, "I just want to change something for the better."
And now she's in a place where even if the heroes don't die, it still leaves them with a Bad End.
She is out of place and in the dawn, it takes all she has to keep her head up and look like she knows what she's doing.
I wanted to do something for the better, she thinks. The only idea she can come up with is removing the brands. Get rid of the brands, and people are no longer fodder. There would be no monsters, no needless death. Play her cards right, and no story.
She is stuck on how to go about any of that until she finally sits and takes stock of her belongings. There is a folder of wax paper she doesn't remember every having, and a note tucked into the bindings. Instructions on how to remove the brands, and a 'Sorry I couldn't be there to help'.
There is a gap in her memories, between her last words and how she ended up here. The only thing Margret is certain of is that she would never have entered this world willingly.
When she wanted to better the world, it was to do a small, reasonable task. Not this.
This is impossible.
(And still, she stands. She is living the impossible.)
Margret walks on, partly hoping fate will throw her some rope and partly hoping the nightmare is almost over.
Nobody looks at her twice.
(Serah Farron is not the first person to enter the new door at the Pulse Vestige. In fact, she won't enter until the next day.)
Margret backtracks and goes looking for a way to make a Good End.
;;;
Day Three
In the poorer districts of Bodhum, several people have had new tattoos removed. The woman removing them lives with the homeless kids and their self-proclaimed caretakers. Some kids were, after all, her first customers.
(Some people say test subjects.)
The rumors are quiet, and those who know the truth are too scared to speak of where they really got their tattoos.
Today, Serah is branded and found by the two former crystals, Fang and Vanille. It is today that an eighteen-year-old feels she loses everything.
(According to the seeress Yeul, this should be the day Serah's life becomes forfeit. The girl is the problem, and the reason their souls survive. Serah should be a tool from this day forth, and a crystal by the end of the Purge.)
In a decrepit house, Margret doesn't realize the stirrings. She's counting down days, adjusting to the new world, and focusing on keeping those around her alive. She doesn't know a pink haired young, young woman has been branded. There is no recollection, because Serah was never a main character in the first game. At least, not to the player.
What Margret does remember is Lightening getting on a train to follow her l'Cie sister. Margret remembers a terrible birthday party. She recalls a young boy being branded when Fang and Vanille go searching for answers.
Margret thinks of a woman who dies protecting her son. She thinks of Nora and listens to the gossip about NORA.
There are too many fragments for her to be useful to the characters, and so she protects the ones who took her in.
"Mar," whines a teenager in the doorway. Margret looks up from the history book, eyeing Jephra critically. "Ya got anot'er customer."
"Alright," Margret perks up a bit. This, she can handle. "Anything I should know?"
There are a few giggles in the shadows, where the kids are eavesdropping. Jephra grins, "Mark's on their breast."
Margret rolls her eyes. Of course it is. Just another fal'Cie proving how perverted they are. "At least they're not hitting below the waist again."
;;;
Day Ten
Caius Ballad moves with single-minded determination towards Cocoon.
He will destroy the anomaly before their actions cause any more harm to Yeul.
Disclaimer: I have no claim to Final Fantasy 13 or the franchise. All rights belong to their respective owners.
A/N: I've struggled with this chapter for years… thought maybe posting it might motivate me to write the story… Guess we'll see.
Thanks for reading