Chapter 1: The new world.

"Soldier, Knight and Saviour" an echoed voice called through the dark chaos that was enveloping the old world. "To be trapped in a visious cycle, there is no rest" Images from the events of long ago flashed relentlessly: The falling and crystalization of cacoon. The death and rebirth of those lost, and the countless trails faced by the six.

Suddenly, the black chaos began to glitch as it rewinded. The battle against God himself was becoming undone and time reversed. This was the eternal torture for those lost souls. They were not real, therefore they had no real world to go to. Their 'new world' was nothing but a myth. It was a lie fed to them through a programme by their creators. They were nothing but puppets to be played with, over and over again for the entertainment of humans.

"You already know the bitter truth, don't you?" A young, mischievious voice echoed through the mind of a pink haired woman, who floated through the dark background, waiting to be restarted into the game.

"I already know?" She replied with a hazy voice, unsure of where this voice was coming from. However, she could recognise it clear as day: Lumina. She was talking to Lightning, but how? "Lumina?"

"Who else, silly?" The young girl mocked. "But you have to hurry up before they restart the game and you lose all your memories!"

"My memories? Restart the game? Lumina, what are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me it's already too late! You do know that unless you outsmart this system, you and your friends will be stuck here forever, right? This endless loop of torment for the human's entertainment." The young girl's words were nothing but a mess of words to Lightning, but at the same time, she was starting to understand, like recalling memories.

"Like a game?"

"Bingo." Lumina cheered.

"But how is that possible? And...how do I outsmart it? What do you mean? How do you even know all this?" Lightning spat her many questions out into the air.

"Enough questions!" Lumina yelled angrily "We haven't got time for this! I'm not going through this all over again, so hurry up and outsmart it so we can all be free and live in the new world we're promised"

"You mean...we never got there, did we? I remember now." Lightning nodded "But Lumina, the new world was never meant for you, so why does it matter so much?"

"Because if you outsmart it, I won't be trapped inside of you. I'll get my own body, my own life! We all will. So hurry up! You're the only one, Lightning. So do it quickly" Lumina's voice began to fade, as though her thoughts were being pulled away from Lightning's.

"It's starting again." Lightning gasped, whirling her body around as it floated effortlessly in the now glitchy background. Shades of green and blue flashing everywhere and encoded data flashing about. "But how do I-" She glanced around frantically, looking for a way to free her and her friends for good.

She pulled her body through the empty space, trying desperately to reach somewhere.

"Please, tell me what I must do!" She called out, but there was no response to her desperate plea. She then hit a wall that glitched out more as her body came into contact with it. "What's this?" She touched it again, noticing it was fragile and the source of the floating data and glitches. "Serah.." Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, thinking about her younger sister whome she tried so desperately to save. throughout her journey, it always came down to being with Serah again, didn't it? She didn't want to go through all that again and pulled out her gunblade. "We will be together again, no longer hoping and dreaming of a false freedom" She kicked her legs against the strange wall and her body began to float away as she pulled her gunblade into gunmode and shot a few bullets off, hitting the screen and causing it to crack more and more untill-

CRASH!

The screen broke into a million pieces that fell passed Lightning, a bright light seeping out from behind that was strong enough to force Lightning to cover her eyes.

"What...is this?" She could feel the warmth from the light, slowly pulling her body in. It was strange for her, since she had never felt something like this. In fact, it made her wonder; did she ever feel at all? Or were all her emotions and feelings nothing more than programmed into her?

The light enveloped her body, leaving nothing untouched by it's light. Whatever happened to that place after was unknown to the worrior as she felt her mind slip away into a sleep, unable to feel the warmth any longer.

"...tch" Emerald eyes peeled open to see a blue sky above, white, fluffy clouds blotting here and there. The feeling of something soft and warm on her skin, feeling it tickle her palms as she ran her hand along the surface. She pulled her aching body up to see she was in a field, green grass carressing her body. Glancing around more, she could see her friends all sprawled out in the distance, laying lifelessly on the grass before waking up and pulling their bodies up.

"Ugh..." Several moans and groans were all that could be heard as they came to terms with the new feelings. They had never truly felt pain, in fact, this was the first time they experienced anything like that at all. It really was nothing but data programmed into them before. But then, did this mean Lightning really did outsmart the system and free them all into the new world?

"Lightning!" Lightning turned to see Serah running at her, throwing her arms around her neck and hugging her tightly. "Lightning, is this real? Are we really free?" Her voice was shaky, as if filled with the fear that this was just a dream and she'd be pulled back any moment.

"I think so." Lightning smiled, pulling away to see her sister's face.

"It's about time you woke up and broke that barrier! I was starting to get fed up of waiting." Fang strutted over, resting an arm on Lightning's shoulder. "Although, I don't think I like the whole actually feeling things now." She complained, rubbing her aching back.

"Looks like breaking the system has it's effects on us too." Hope shrugged. "But it's a little price to pay for freedom."

"That's right. Serah and I can finally get married and the ache she feels now will be nothing comapared to how she'll feel in the morning" He winked at Serah, making her cheeks flush a shade of red.

"S-Snow!"

"That's quite enough from you" Fang shoved moved him away, shaking her head back and forth. "Still a cheeky boy, aren't you?" Despite their personalities being nothing but a programme, they were all still pretty much the same. Except now, they were going to make their own futures and deal with being human. It was also made pretty easy given the fact they still had the common knowledge they were programmed with. They weren't completely fresh out and unknowing of the world, but they still had a lot to learn.

"Hey, daddy. Where's Chocolina?" The young boy asked his father, who was still sitting on the floor. "She's not here."

"Are you sure?" Sazh, looking confused, shook her head a little to see if the sneaky chocobo chick was hiding in his hair, but there was no movement. "Chocolina?"

"I don't think...chocobo's exist in this world, Sazh." Vanille said sadly, cupping her hands near her chest. "It looks like not even her human form could exist here."

"Wait, I thought Lumina said we'd all be set free? Doesn't that mean everyone?" Lightning scowled. "Speaking of that devil, where is she?" Everyone glanced around to see no sign on her. It was only Lightning and her friends she had shared a focus with, including Serah and Dajh.

"Looks like not everyone can get out."Serah sighed. "But that's okay. We'll just make the most of our lives for those who couldn't be here, right?"

"Right" Lightning nodded.

"But what about Noel? I mean, he has every right to be here too." Snow has a point, but just like the rest, Noel was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I didn't fully break the system." Lightning shook her head, lowering it as she thought. "Maybe-"

"Now that's enough." Fang interrupted. "We don't need to worry about them lot. We're here now and that's all that matters. We were freed from that cursed place, the system is broke. Maybe they were sent to another world or even another location. Either way, it's impossible for them to be trapped when you broke the system that held us all in there."

"Fang's right. I'm sure we'll see them again, and if not, we shouldn't worry about it." Hope finished. "But we're not like we were before. We need food and water in order to survive and we don't have any of that. We better make our way to a nearby town and figure it out from there"

Lightning couldn't help but smile at the young boy. Even after all this, he was still the responsible young man he had grown into. He wasn't trapped in his 14 year old body anymore, but he wasn't quite the age he had grown into either. He was inbetween, that of an 18 year old. Everyone else, however, was the same.

"Alright, lets go!" Vanille cheered and everyone began to follow the nearby road for what seemed like hours.

"Ugh, are we there yet?" Dajh complained, sulking his head and dragging his body along, beside his father.

"Almost, son." Sazh chuckled, patting his back. "Hey, you want a piggyback ride?"

"Yeah!" Dajh cheered, jumping up with excitement as his father got on his knee and helped Dajh jump up onto his back.

"Oohh, ouch." Sazh groaned as he stood back to his feet and continued to walk. "Looks like I'm not as strong as I was, huh? Yeah, but that's reality for you."

"Come on, pops! You're not that old." Vanille chirped.

"Hey, look!" Hope pointed off into the distance to a town. "It's a town, let's go." They all nodded and began to run towards the town, Sazh a little more behind, of course.

Apon arriving in the town, they recieved several stares from the towns people. Like they had never seen anything like it, although none of them understood why they were recieving such stares when they were the same kind.

"I really don't like this." Vanille huddled closer to Fang.

"Do you think they know?" Fang was holding her lance, ready to attack anyone who came near. "What if they send us back?"

"Don't be silly. It's probaby the clothes we're wearing. I mean, look at us compared to them." Lightning remarked. Of course, she was right. The clothes they were wearing were like something out of...well a game.

"Excuse me, can I help you?" A man called out to them, startling them all. "You're not lost, are you?" He was tall with messy, brown hair and deep, green eyes.

"Uhh, yeah." Snow pushed passed, reaching out his hand for a handshake. "The name's Snow and these are my friends. We're not from around here and were looking for a place to rest." Nice save. For once Snow wasn't an arrogant idiot.

"Oh, I see." The man eyed them all before smiling brightly "Well I'm Johanes. Nice to meet you." He shook Snow's hand firmly. "I don't think the local hotel actually has anymore room for new comers." He stated, rubbing his chin in thought.

"So does that mean we're gonna have to find somewhere else? Because I don't think my poor back can take much more of this." Sazh complained, setting his son down.

"How long do you plan on staying here?" Johanes asked curiously.

"For as long as we need. I mean, we'd like a place to live for a while." Snow answered, making Johanes nod.

"I see. Alright, well this is a pretty large town, you know. We have several new houses under recronstruction that are almost complete, so I can't give you one yet. However, I can give you a place to stay in the meantime."

"Thanks, we appreciate it." Snow chuckled. "So where is this place to?"

"I hope you don't mind, but it's next door to me. It's my second house" Second house? Somehow that was pretty convienient for them now, but it did raise the question of why he had a second house next door to his actual house.

He walked them all the way to his place, which took a while since it was pretty far from the centre of town. "So don't you guys have any stuff?"

"Stuff?"

"Yeah, you know...like bags full of clothes and other belongings."

"No, we don't have anything at all." Serah sighed, realising this was going to be harder than she thought.

"Well, I can get you started. But then, where are you guys from? What's your story and why are you wearing such weird clothes?"

They all fell silent, unsure of how to reply. They couldn't tell him the truth, not at all. They had to make up a story, but how could they? What would they say?

"We don't want to talk about it right now." Fang broke the silence.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Do we have to explain ourselves to a stranger? You might be providing us shelter, but that doesn't mean we have to tell you things we don't feel comfortable telling. We'll tell you when the time is right." And with Fang's quick save, Johanes dropped the subject and opened the door to his second house.

"Alright then." He sighed. "Well there's already furniture in here. Beds, a sofa, tv's ect." He walked through the house and into the kitchen. "I'll figure something out for your clothes, but for now, you're stuck in those..." He scanned their clothes again, unsure if he should go out and grab some things straight away.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Our clothes are off." Fang snapped, feeling irritated by his constant judging stare.

"S-sorry." He rubbed the back of his head. "Well anyway, we can go shopping in a bit since this place needs a restock on food. So how about we split into groups after, yeah? I'll take you on a tour first." He smiled, gesturing to the house. "There are 4 rooms in total- I'm sure you can devide yourselves up."

He led them through the living room that had a large, flat screen tv on the wall and a long, leather couch along the wall with a coffee table in the centre. The kitchen's counter seperated the living room from the kitchen, that was glistening. A large fridge, decent cooker and several other things. Upstairs was a large hallway. At the end was a large bathroom with a shower, bath, toilet and sink. Either side of the bathroom were 2/4 of the rooms, both large with two beds. A little furth down was another two rooms. These two had their own bathrooms, but only had one bed in each.

"So, take you pick of the rooms. I'll wait downstairs and we can start. Also, I only know Snow's name..so I'll want to know when you come down." He chuckled, leaving them to it.

Lightning watched him leave, her eyes narrow. She was suspicious of him alright. What human would go this far to help a group of people he didn't know?

"Alright, I say Serah and I should get one of the rooms with a double bed." He smirked, snaking his hands around Serah's waiste.

"Snow, stop that.." Serah blushed, giggling like a silly schoolgirl.

"Alright, cut it out." Lightning frowned. "You two are not sharing. Snow, you and Hope can share one of the other rooms. Serah and I will share the double bed room." Lightning didn't give them any room for debate and dragged her sister along into the room she picked out. It was clean with a nice, big double bed and a large window and walk in wardrobe, not forgetting their own bathroom.

"Alright. I guess we're in here then, Hope." Snow chuckled, rubbing the back of his head before heading into his room with Hope. Two single beds, a wardrobe and a nice view. "I guess it'll do. Hey, we can have late nights playing video games!" Snow cheered, noticing the console on the floor with two remotes.

"It'll be weird considering we're from one ourselves." Hope laughed.

"Hey, Vanille, we'll take the one next to Lightning's. Then you and your son can take the one near Snow's, alright, Sazh?" Fang turned, heading into her room. It looked just like Lightning's, except it was a little smaller.

"Alright. I guess that leaves us in here." Sah shrugged, heading into his room with Dajh, who picked the bed closest to the large window.

After a few moments, they all came down and met with Johanes in the kitchen.

"Alright, I've devided a few groups: Food shopping, clothes shopping and other essentials" Johanes chirped. "So, uhh...names?"

"I'm Serah"

"Hope"
Vanille"
Fang"

Sazh, and this is my son, Dajh"

"Lightning..." Johanes raised an eyebrow, looking at Lightning.

"Lightning? That's an unusual name."

"It's more of a nickname, actually." Snow smirked. "She likes to act all cool, you know."

"Snow, shut it." Lightning scowled, elbowing Snow in the stomach.

"Alright, sorry...ouch.." He rubbed her stomach, wincing slightly.

"Right...well, lets just get shopping done okay?" Johanes interrupted.

After a while of debating over who does what and Johanes informing them of certain things they'd need, they finally devided themselves. They'd all do their own clothes shopping last, but first, Serah, Vanille, Hope and Fang were going to get the food while the rest got the essentials.

It was a stressful ordeal for Lightning, who decided she didn't like shopping at all. But eventually, they all managed to come back with everything ticked off the list and all that was left was clothes shopping, The girls went together with a budget of £300, and the boys on their own with £200, since they bought less anyway.

"Ugh, can't I just not be here?" Lightning complained, crossing her arms and rejecting the clothing rack.

"Come on, sis. This is fun!" Serah chirped before a cute top caught her eyes. "Ah, look at this! It would look so cute with these shorts" Serah pulled out a pair of shorts she had already out in her basket and looked at the two together before throwing them both back in her basket. It was the first time Serah had ever felt excitement, and she had a real excitement for clothes shopping. Vanille was the same, and both her and Serah would squeel every now and then after seeing something they liked. Fang was more concieted, but still had a lot of clothes in her basket and saw it more of something she needed rather than something she enjoyed. Lightning, however, hated it.

"Come on, sis. This would look so cute on you." Serah giggled, holding a thin-strapped top up to Lightning's chest.

"I said no." Lightning frowned, shaking off her little sister.

"Aww, come on." She pouted, looking as sad as she could. Lightning felt guilt for the first time, and she didn't like it. The fact her little sister had this much power over her made her uncomfortable, but just like before, Serah meant the world to her and she couldn't bring herself to be mad at her and took the shirt and threw it into her basket

"Fine." She huffed, feeling her cheeks heat up a little from the embarrassment.

"Yay!" Serah chirped, running off to fing more clothes for herself. Lightning sighed, giving in and following her sister, browsing through some clothes she thought were nice and occasionally throwing some into her basket.

"Fang, what's this?" Vanille asked, holding up a lacy, rather sexy-looking piece. Fang glanced over and felt her cheeks heat up and lost her composure, stuttering a little.

"V-Vanille, put that down." She pulled Vanille's hands down so she wasn't holding the piece up for everyone to see. "You do realise what that is, right?"

"No, that's why I asked." She tilted her head to the side innocently.

"Jeez, Vanille." Fang closed her eyes, composing herself and inhaling deeply before turning to Vanille and explaining, placing her hands on Vanille's shoulders. "That's a sexy garment."

"Whaaa?" Vanille blushed, looking back down at it. "You mean...Serah should have it for Snow then!"

"I wouldn't want Lightning to hear you say that." Fang sighed, but it was too late. Lightning was stood not far off, a hot steam coming from her as she clenched her fists tightly. "O-oh..hey, Lightning." She chuckled.

"Don't put that idea into her head. If I see Serah with one of those, I'm holding you responsible." Lightning said bluntly, not turning to face them at all and walked off to pay for what she bought.

"That was close." Fang sighed in relief. "Now put that back. A girl your age can't be buying one of those."

"A girl my age?" Vanille frowned, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm over 1000 years old!"

"Not here you're not. You're the age your physical body shows now, Vanille." Fang chuckled, patting her on the head. "Lets just go and pay."

After paying for their things, the girls headed back and put their things away. Serah had hung all her clothes up neatly in the wardobe and was busy sorting out Lightning's, who had just thrown hers in there without a care.

"Seriously, sis. You need to put more care into things." Serah scolded, finally finishing with neating it up and walking back over with the pj's Lightning had bought for herself. "Put these on your bed, ready for later."

"Yes, mum." Lightning mocked, taking the neatly folded clothing and tossing it on her side of the bed.

"You're terrible!" Serah frowned, hands on hips.

"Sorry." Lightning chuckled, unable to resist at how funny Serah looked when she was mad. Lightning had never really saw this side of Serah, but she knew she had it. She saw so in Valhalla, but she had never witnessed it first hand.

"Lets just go down and wait for the guys." Serah sighed, flopping onto the bed. "Today has been so busy. I never thought being an actual person would be so tiring."

"Yeah, you and me both, Serah." Lightning chuckled. "But it makes me wonder, how come no one has come for us? We broke the system and got out, but surely whoever created us knows and can come get us, right? And what about this world? Does our game not exist here?"

"I don't think so, sis." Serah replied. "I mean, Lumina was the one who told us all about breaking from this place, but since she's not here, we can't ask her." Serah pulled her tired body back up and pursed her lips. "But I wonder if they'll be able to find us and send us back too. Of course, there's no point in worrying about it, right?"

"Right." Lightning nodded, but there was an unpleasent feeling growing inside her. She wasn't ready to brush it off just yet. If they did come and get them, what then? Would they have their memories of this erased and go back to being programmed puppets? No, she didn't want that. She saw Serah smile a real smile today. Everyone was so happy. There was no way she was going to give that up.

AN: Don't worry! Just because Lumina, Noel and other's havent appeared yet, doesn't mean they never will :p just be patient. Also, yes, I'm using OC's for this. I may also throw in some romance, but I don't know yet. Please don't tell me what ships to do either because if I do romance, I already know who's with who. Peace out.