Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Final Fantasy XIII, or the other game that makes a small cameo in this story. If I did, I would allow Hope to get higher maximum health so I could actually control him for dangerous battles without the chance of wiping thanks to the fact that its game over once the leader dies. Anyway, enough ranting.

Another big gap between writing anything fictional, this time I was inspired while grinding post game FF XIII with my main party – Hope, Vanille and Fang. Inspired to write about FF while playing FF, maybe this should be one of those "you know you're addicted when..." things. Anyhow, onward!

What's in a Name?

"Don't get predictable!" Fang yelled out from the front line of the battle, her personal signal to indicate she wanted to shift paradigms. Why she didn't just say so, Hope had no idea. "Hero's Charge!" At her command, Hope transferred his Crystarium powers into synergy, and knowing full well why she had ordered this shift, began channelling the spell that would quicken their victory, and targeted Vanille first.

"Haste!" Energy spirited around his fellow magic user, and the power of the spell allowed her to finish casting the set of healing abilities that she had been preparing for Fang before their spear-wielding ally was struck by an attack from one of the goblins they were facing.

"Nice timing," chirped Vanille. Since he was focussing on the battle, it took Hope a few seconds to process what she had said, but when he did, he turned to her with an incredulous expression on his face that silently screamed "Really..?" The redhead didn't seem perturbed by his reaction to her little compliment-come-pun. In fact, she was wiggling an eyebrow at him, and if they were closer, Hope wouldn't be surprised if she was nudging him with her arm saying, "Eh, eh, get it?" He shook his head slightly, although he couldn't help his lips forming a small smile; even in the middle of a battle, Vanille's seemingly endless cheerfulness couldn't be kept down.

"Oi! Wake up you two, I said Relentless Assault!" Fang's irritated yell pierced Hope's daydream, and obediently, he began to reshuffle his powers into offensive casting. Before preparing his spells, he analysed the enemies and noticed that entire goblin pack seemed to be heavily weakened. Some would be resistant to his magic, but despite that, he decided to use his most powerful ability to finish them off.

"I decide my fate!" channelling his power, Hope raised his right arm toward the centre of the battlefield, conjuring several spheres of dark energy that joined together in a circle. "Last..." He raised his hand to the sky, and the circle of spheres followed suit. "...Resort!" He brought his hand down, back toward the ground, and the balls of energy split from their circular formation and followed suit, twisting and turning in the air before crashing upon the enemies and exploding in a pillar of both light and darkness. Once the area cleared, Hope saw that his magic had indeed finished off all of the goblins, while leaving Fang unscathed, curiously.

"Great job Hope!" Vanille cried from beside him (she had crept up to him while he was finishing his casting), a bright smile in place, displaying her joy at the victory, as well as some pride in his landing of the killing blow.

"Heh, thanks," Hope again couldn't help but smile, as well as blush slightly at her praise. It hadn't been a particularly difficult fight compared to some that they had faced before, but Vanille frequently complimented and encouraged him after battles regardless, and he definitely appreciated her appreciation. Her boundless optimism was finally starting to rub off on him, which came in handy on some of their long, hard, and dangerous days of trekking across Gran Pulse.

"'Ey kid, I got a question for you," Fang, on the other hand, didn't seem to be one for praise, and any that she dished out seemed to be reserved for Vanille.

"Yes, Fang?" he turned to face her as she strode over to them from the former battleground.

"Why do you call that spell of yours Last Resort?"

Momentarily stumped by this unexpected enquiry, Hope merely responded with "Uh... what?"

"Well it ain't your last resort is it? You use it to finish stuff off, but not cos you haven't got any other choice, its cos it does a shit load of damage."

Hope still hadn't fully got over the fact that he had been asked this question by Fang, since usually the only one who wished to discuss spell casting with him was Vanille, and even then, the subject of spell names was not something they had talked about, unsurprisingly.

"Um, well I don't know. I didn't choose the name, that's just what the Crystarium-"

"And really, what exactly is this last resort? You make a white explosion from some balls, I mean you might as well just have a wan-"

"Fang!" Vanille interjected, a bright blush adorning her features. "Not in front of children!"

For the second time within minutes, Hope turned to her with an incredulous expression. "Vanille, I'm fifteen."

"Actually, on second thought, maybe it's appropriate after all," Fang continued with one of her customary smirks in place. "Since that kind of is the last resort when you can't get some company."

Hope was becoming pretty irritated; instead of being congratulated for finishing their battle by wiping out every enemy in one attack, he was being teased about his misfortune in spell names. "This is a bit rich coming from you Fang, I mean what's your ultimate? You stab them with a spear. Because you don't do that with every single attack you dish out-"

"At least mine's actually useful, I can take out a staggered Adamantortoise leg with just one of 'em."

"Well mine can be useful too, or did you think those goblins just died of boredom from waiting for you to finish them?"

"Um, guys lets not fight. I mean we won and..," Vanille's vain attempt to defuse the argument was drowned out quickly by her companions' rising voices.

"Oi! You cheeky little shit, who do you think got them so weak your stupid ball smash actually did something besides being a waste of Crystarium points?"

"Well next time I'll just let you finish them off with your own spells then. Though I wouldn't hold out hope for that, since your Ruinga spells couldn't ruin an enemy's clothes, let alone their lives."

"I won't need to, I'll just get Vanille to finish them with Firaga, its nearly as strong as your little light show and takes half the time to cast. Well I can if you're not flirting with her again in the middle of the battle, like you were just back then. I guess its her you'd rather aim your 'last resort' on wouldn't y-"

"That's enough!" exclaimed a very red-faced Vanille, caused from a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Mostly embarrassment. She turned to face Fang with her hands on her hips, facial features determinedly trying to express her irritation. Unfortunately for her, the attempt at looking cross appeared hopelessly cute to Fang (and likely would to anyone else she tried it on), and the taller Pulsian couldn't avoid the small smirk that formed from her lips.

"Fang, your ultimate ability is indeed very useful, and we all appreciate your leadership in battle, but please give Hope more credit instead of making fun of him, he has come such a long way since I first met him after all." The redhead then turned to Hope to continue her lecture. "And Hope, I know you put in a lot of effort to our battles, but Fang was only poking fun, like she does to everyone. But your spells are also very useful and your ultimate in no way resembles a.., err.., um..," she trailed off.

"How he'd like to 'finish' a long, hard 'battle' with you?"

"Fang!"

Hope tuned out Vanille's admonishing of her older friend's insinuations to think about what Fang had said. Despite Vanille's attempt at mediation, he realised that the lancer did have a point – his ultimate could simply be replaced with his third tier elemental spells for most situations, and there would be little difference.

He decided that when he had time, he would study the Crystarium to see if he could figure out a way to modify his spells to gain a new ultimate ability. One which could enhance their team's battle advantage and put them one step closer to being able to defy their L'cie fate and save Cocoon from destruction.

And more importantly, wipe the damn smirk right off Fang's face.

After many fruitless attempts at breaking through the supposed limits of the Crystarium, Hope had finally managed to learn a new ability. Unfortunately, since he was working outside the boundaries of their knowledge of the Crystarium, he had no idea what this new spell would do. In fact, he wasn't completely sure how he had achieved his goal, but that didn't stop him from feeling elated at the possibility he might get to show up Fang during the battle they were currently fighting.

This time, their enemies were a small pack of Sahagins that had taken up residence with the chocobos within their small clearing in the Archylte Steppe. Vanille had insisted that they clear out the monsters to protect the chocobos from harm. Hope had considered pointing out that the chocobos of Pulse had managed to survive for centuries without their help, but he didn't wish to argue with Vanille when she was so determined to safeguard the yellow-feathered beasts. Besides, he figured that the Sahagins would be a good test run for his new ability – not very strong but long enough a fight to try the mysterious new spell.

Fang was once again on the front line of the battle, unleashing her melee attacks upon their enemies. She had agreed to come on Vanille's little wildlife preservation mission mainly because of the fact that once they had eliminated the Sahagins, they could use the chocobos as mounts to search quickly (faster than on foot anyway) for any new active C'ieth stones.

Hope channelled his magical energy, focussing on the ethereal sensation he had felt upon discovering his new ability. Although his eyes were closed in concentration, he could see flashes of confusing imagery – a man clad in red and orange armour brandishing a sword, and the same man again, but this time wearing a purple cloak and wielding a bow and arrow. "Burn this life to punish my enemies." He was close now, he could feel enormous magical energy surging within him, curiously, centred in his chest. He opened his eyes, placing his gaze on the closest Sahagin, and prepared to unleash his conjured power.

"Blast H..ARRRGGGHHH!" An agonising pain, greater than any he could remember feeling, surged through his body, and then Hope fell to the ground, unconscious before even hitting it.

"Well sunshine, you don't get any points for common sense. Maybe you should think twice next time before using a spell called 'Blast Heart'."

Hope attempted to lift his head from Vanille's lap, where she had placed it while she attempted to heal the damage that casting the spell had done to him, but this only resulted in him letting out a miserable groan and adding another dash of pain to the load that he had already inflicted upon himself. "Didn't... think it... would *cough* be my... heart getting *cough* blasted..."

Fang simply shook her head, only a small smirk donned on her face. Despite their argument from a few days ago and her tendency to tease him more often than the rest of their band of L'cie, the Pulsian woman did care for the boy's safety, especially when she was in charge of their battle group. After he had performed his near self-destruct stunt, the shear amount of visible magical energy pouring from his heart, plus his ear-splitting cry of agony caused both of his companions to whip their heads around to face him immediately. When he had fallen, face down, into the marshy ground they were battling on and lay completely still, both women thought that he had killed himself. Vanille had been in hysterics.

Thus most of the humour she would have usually revelled in due to his situation was eclipsed by her concern for his well-being, and also a bit of anger at how he had (inadvertently) brought Vanille to tears. She began to walk away from the pair of young L'cie, intending to patrol the area while Vanille continued to try and heal Hope. Although, if the remaining effect was just intense pain rather than any serious injury, she was fairly sure any more curative spells would not do much good. But she knew Vanille would insist on making sure, and she also figured Hope wouldn't be in a rush to have his head removed from her lap. Fang allowed her smirk to widen at that thought.

"Hey Fang..," Hope wheezed from his position on the ground. The raven-haired woman turned around to face him, and waited for him to continue. "I'm sorry I... got angry with you the *cough* the other day.., I know you... *cough* were just joking. And your ultimate is pretty cool."

Fang was momentarily taken aback by his apology, but quickly allowed a happy grin to replace her usual smirk. "Hey kid, no worries, sorry I got pissy with you and all. Vanille was right, you did good in that battle, and you have come a long way in a short time. Don't think I don't know how important you are to us, even if I can't say it as easily as Vanille or Snow can."

Hope returned her smile. "Thanks Fang." He was suddenly struck with an idea for learning a new ultimate ability, hopefully an idea than trying random, mysterious spells. "Fang, think you can... *cough* help Lightning with... *wheeze* with teaching me how to... *cough* to fight in melee sometime?"

The Oerban woman cocked her head to one side, considering his request. "Yeah, sometime I guess." She allowed a smirk to creep back onto her face before continuing, "But you gotta get a better weapon first, I mean a boomerang, seriously kid? And as for where you put it after a battle, did someone tell you to shove it up your arse once and you took 'em seriously?"

A.N.: In case anyone is curious, the Blast Heart spell is Raven's mystic arte from Tales of Vesperia. Well, why bother coming up with my own spell ideas when there's a fountain of RPGs to ste- I mean borrow creativity from. The "nice timing" response from Vanille when Haste is cast on her actually happens a lot to me in game, I know its probably just the standard response when she is buffed or healed, but it still set off my bad pun detector.

By the way, if anyone is wondering how Hope can break the rules of the Crystarium, I have no idea, but if you do, please do tell me so I can at least pimp him out with 10K more health if not a brand new ultimate. Also, anyone else notice that Hope's Last Resort is pretty much the Holy spell graphic from FF 10 with a darker texturing and an explosion added?

This story turned out a little more friendship-ey than I'd originally intended towards the end, but given Hope and Fang have almost zero communication with each other in game, I guess it wouldn't hurt to provide a bit here instead.