The sun sets on the twelfth day, and her task is nearly over. She feels the familiar crackle of Hope's voice in her ear.
"This is it, Light. There's no more time left. It's the last day of the world."
She nods. "Right. Vanille will be getting ready to perform the Soulsong."
"She's going to liberate the dead, and release them from their suffering and despair." He sounds so sure that this is the right path, yet Fang has told her that the task requires the sacrifice of Vanille's life. Does Hope know that?
Would he still support it if he did?
She's not sure whether she wants to know the answer.
Lumina's words come back to her, said in that space between heartbeats, a place within her own mind where Hope's connection could not reach. She had said that Hope's actions were controlled by God; the same one that listened through his ears and spied through his eyes.
It's true that Hope's words hold little feeling and that his eyes are emptier than when she knew him all those years ago, but Lightning is no different. Neither of them retained the capacity to feel emotion after waking up in his world. It should be normal. She should dismiss it. But the old Hope wore his heart on his sleeve, his hurt reflected in nervous antics and the catch in his voice. He clung to her with a persistency that seemed to grow on her, time and time again. Until she agreed to help him become stronger, until she recognized his strength and began to see the two of them as partners.
The old Hope was human.
Lightning hasn't been able to read him since she awoke in this place. He is so different, and she finds it hard to trust his blank expression and empty eyes, even though he helps her so much on her journey and promises to stand with her even against God. Maybe that was why she hid so much of what she discovered from him.
It leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.
She hears Hope speak again, and it rouses her from these unwanted thoughts. "Hey, Light…?"
She tilts her head. "Hm?" He sounds hesitant. It's the most vulnerable she has heard him in all the days they have worked together to delay the end of the world.
"When Vanille saves the dead, what'll happen to me?
The concern rises. "Hope?" No response. "What's going on?"
"What about my soul?"
As she opens her mouth to say something – reassurances, platitudes, demands for what suddenly brought this on – the light engulfs her.
She didn't find herself in the Unknown Realm, like she had half-expected.
When she materialized onto the Ark, the first thing she saw was the delicate blossom atop Yggdrasil opening into maturity, petals unfolding in pinpricks of light.
The second thing she noticed was that the room she had grown so used to had changed. The entire expanse still shone with a patina of seemingly pristine white and silver, but the computer in the center of the room was gone.
He still stood where it had been, arms relaxed at her sides. His back was to her.
"Hope!" she called as she approached.
"Light." He turned, and she almost recoiled at the look in his eyes. "Welcome back."
"… What's wrong?" He had an odd look on his face. Grieved, a little pained. But she sensed that that was just the beginning. There was something terribly wrong here, and Lightning couldn't see it. She might have dismissed it, had the nearly choking silence in the air not told her otherwise.
"I'm here to say goodbye." She didn't understand.
"What do you mean?"
"Here on the Ark, I had a job. I was God's eyes and ears, made to watch over everything you did. But now it's the thirteenth day, and God doesn't need me anymore."
"You mean… he's just going to cast you aside?" The same God who would feed her lies and false promises of bringing Serah back, who would consign Vanille to death in order to "cleanse" the souls trapped within the Chaos.
She wouldn't let it happen. She'd destroy Bhunivelze before he could do anything to hurt Hope.
"He already has."
Before Lightning's mind could process that statement, Hope stepped back, into the center of the room.
"Just look."
Golden light welled up around him, his form blurring as wisps of light trailed from his body. Lightning inhaled sharply, her stomach suddenly twisting like she wanted to throw up.
She'd seen that light before, though in shades of black and violet rather than brilliant white and gold. It had been the light that composed the souls in the church at Luxerion. The light that surrounded Cid Raine's soul when he spoke to her in the Unseen Realm.
"How did you–" Instinctively, she reached out, and her hand passed straight through him. Golden sparks siphoned off of him where his arm touched hers, vanishing in tiny eddies of glittering dust. Lightning closed her fist around Hope's insubstantial fingers, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
No. The evidence was right in front of her.
I'll save you. Her previous commitment now seemed as naïve as the idea of killing a God.
The boy wore a resigned look on his face, and Lightning slowly withdrew her hand, staring at it like it held all the answers. The light faded as quickly as it appeared, leaving Hope looking the same as he always had. Solid. Real. But this time, devoid of the blank eyes she had so mistrusted.
These eyes held a different kind of emptiness.
This was the real Hope. Not Lumina's fake, not the marionette God had dangled in front of her all along.
"Do you see? You've never known me. That Hope in the Ark was nothing but a puppet. He was just a pawn in God's game."
"But God didn't send me here today."
The brief crackle of energy, a sudden charge in the air, was Lightning's only warning.
A wave of golden energy flashed outward from Hope, blasting Lightning and everything else back with inexorable force. It was thanks only to her supernatural (inhuman) reflexes that Lightning managed to react in time to block it.
She flipped and landed back on her feet, guard up. "Hope, what are you doing?" she shouted.
The golden light hung in the air, illuminating Hope's face. His eyes were dark hollows in his face. "Isn't it obvious? I'm challenging you."
"And if I don't accept?"
Hope tilted his head, and Lightning nearly flinched at the venom that twisted his features. "You've decided, haven't you? You're going to go against Bhunivelze, and take everything he's created."
He slashed his hand through the air. "So, here I am. God's loyal puppet. Enemy of all who oppose him."
His eyes flashed. "Even if that enemy should be the Savior herself."
Was this really the Hope she had known?
"Lightning. If you truly wish to defy God–" Hope held out his hand, and an orb of light spun to life in his palm, writhing with the energy of a supernova.
"– You'll have to go through me first!" The shape stretched, warped into the shape of a weapon nearly as tall as Hope. When the light settled into a muted glow, Lightning stilled slightly.
Nue, crafted of dark gray metal found in the ruins of Gran Pulse and more vicious-looking than such a seemingly harmless weapon had the right to be. It had been Hope's final weapon back in the desperate days when they journeyed together, fighting fate and Focus. It had been a symbol of the determination that now shone so brightly in his eyes, clearer than she had ever seen them before in this era.
Hope was deadly serious about this.
Light ran down Nue's length, and runes burned brilliant red-orange in its wake. The weapon was different, suffused with the same tendrils of golden light that surrounded Hope.
"What I'm wondering is whether it'll mean going for or against you."
"Can't it be both?"
She made up her mind in a heartbeat. Lightning leaped back to avoid the spears of burning light that rained down, burying the tip of her sword in the floor. "Hope, I won't fight you."
"Time's running out, Light. If you won't decide, I'll do it for you!" Jagged blades of ice formed around him as he spoke. In an instant, the air exploded. Not just in a hail of frost, but in flames that descended to wreathe Lightning's field of vision in a roiling mix of red and blue. A quick Protect glowed around her, and Lightning stood her ground.
"Stop this!" She was more worried about him than herself. Hope might have had the mindset and maturity of an adult, but he still possessed the physiology of a child. A child who hadn't fought at all in centuries, who had turned his talents to leadership rather than combat.
But despite the near-constant barrage of magic, Hope didn't even look strained. He might have been a formidable mage in the days of Cocoon, but when had he grown this strong? What was more, how had he gotten back his magic? Snow had regained his as an effect of once more becoming a L'Cie. But Hope wasn't one, she was sure of it. He didn't have a brand, didn't have a fal'Cie to receive it from. Serah had been one of the few who retained the ability to naturally cast magic, but Hope had never regained his, to her knowledge. And even if it were so, his magic felt different. More ancient. Even Snow in the room of Chaos hadn't radiated this level of pure power.
It was the force she'd felt as she knelt before Etro's throne. It was the energy she had felt all around her as she awoke from crystal stasis, the voice of a God giving her the new role of Savior.
Hope's words from the very first day came back to her. The man called Hope Estheim disappeared a hundred and sixty-nine years ago.
I can only assume I was in the hands of God, prepared for the role I had to play…
"Hope," she murmured. "What happened to you?"
The boy before her didn't listen. He probably hadn't even heard her over the din of booming thunder and crashing swords. It was clear that he likely wouldn't.
There was nothing else to do but subdue him into acting otherwise.
Lightning readied her blade. Hope still stood in the middle of the room, gale-force winds whipping his silver hair into disarray. "You want to challenge Bhunivelze, don't you? Then I'll be your final test."
She'd jump through his hoops. But first, she'd knock some sense into him.
He raised Nue. "Prove to me that this isn't a pointless cause. Prove to me that you have the strength to defeat God!"
Lightning lunged.
Three feet from Hope, the same glowing barrier shimmered again and her Ultima Weapon slammed into it without so much as a dent. Hope's eyes flashed, and the shield reversed, throwing Lightning back towards the wall at a dizzying speed. She twisted, reoriented herself in midair. Her feet hit the wall and knees bent to take the impact, then sprang back to send her flying at Hope.
Her best chance was to go on a close-up physical assault. Hope was a mage that relied on using ranged magical offense to keep the enemy at a distance. He had limited defensive capabilities and couldn't keep up his own attack if he had to constantly defend against a barrage of magic.
It was just a matter of wearing him down.
Black energy danced along the length of her sword, and it cracked against the barrier with blistering power. Hope's eyes went wide for a second, and the shield held for a heartbeat before it shattered beneath the blow.
The boy backpedaled, but not quickly enough to avoid a slash from shoulder to forearm. It was shallow – Lightning had aimed to disable, not kill – but the boy wore a pained grimace that quickly smoothed into a blank mask. The green light of a Cure wiped out the injury like a smudge of soot, leaving only the trail of blood down his forearm. Hope retreated.
Something in her chest twisted at the look on his face, but she beat it down. Now wasn't the time to give into petty vulnerabilities. He was Hope, and he was the enemy. The two didn't go together, but if she won – well, they wouldn't have to.
"Hope!" she shouted. "You told me you believed in me, didn't you? You said that you'd stand behind me, no matter what."
Hope would never just turn against her. He had to have a reason, and she would find out what that was. If she had to drag it from him at the point of her blade, so be it.
Her friend tilted his head. "Funny. I find it hard to believe in anything. These days, all I see is Chaos."
"That's a lie," she retorted. "Out of all of us, you were the one who dared to hope. You believed in a better future for everyone." Strongly enough to leave his own time to ensure its safety, and to throw everything he had into maintaining the world's stability as the future he dreamed of collapsed around him.
Hope's eyes darkened. "Maybe at one time."
Liar, her mind whispered, but Lightning had no time to vocalize that thought. She felt something rumble beneath her feet and threw herself sideways on pure instinct. A glance black, and her eyes widened at the spire of rock that had pushed up through the metal floor four feet away in the blink of an eye. If she hadn't moved, she would have been impaled.
Even a Curaga would have had a hard time fixing that one.
Hope wasn't joking around – she hadn't believed he was. But that was fine.
She wasn't either.
Lightning held out her free hand, and a Thundaga crackled through the chamber, a massive screen of twisting energy. It only took Hope a second to react – Nue scythed the veil in half, her thunder spell manipulated and dispelled with a gesture, but she used the time to cast her own defensive magic. Protect, Shell, Veil, elemental guards. Hope wasn't the type to resort to status spells, but Lightning wasn't taking chances.
She couldn't read anyone anymore. Not her friends, not Serah, and least of all Hope.
A quick Cure took care of the minor cuts and abrasions she had sustained in the fight, a measure of relief that a fresh surge of adrenaline quickly pushed away. Lightning deflected a spear of ice with her sword and cursed as it jarred against the missile, spinning out of her grasp across the ground. She flipped backwards just in time to avoid another one and summoned a quick Fire to cover herself. Lightning dove in the general direction of her weapon, rolling until her hand closed around the familiar leather of its hilt.
She twisted around and directed a torrent of elemental magic towards Hope, who countered with his own brand of power, and they met in the middle in another blast that rocked the Ark.
Time melted into a blur. Her field of vision was a whirlwind, spent dodging sweeping bursts of magic and pillars of light that burned thick layers of soot onto the walls around them. Somewhat miraculously, the Ark was still afloat, its frame for the most part undamaged by the explosive magic and swords that gouged deep trails in the walls where Lightning's attacks missed their mark.
They were both wearing down. Lightning could feel the searing hurt of a not-quite evaded Thundara across her shoulder that burned when she moved. She hadn't known how many of her battle stances used those muscles. Numerous trails of red painted her sleeves and face from since-healed wounds, and several fresher stains from minor abrasions she hadn't bothered to cure. Lightning had tried to soften the force of her blows in the beginning so she wouldn't permanently injure her friend, but had reluctantly abandoned the tactic as Hope caught on and his own attacks became far more punishing. Her self-moderation in the beginning had cost her. If she didn't end this soon, blood loss might start catching up to her.
Hope looked better off in that he had healed over virtually all of his injuries. But no matter how godlike his powers might have become, they were still contained in a mortal body that was unused to stress of such magnitude. Hope looked ready to drop from exhaustion.
She wasn't naïve enough to believe he would.
Sure enough, Hope raised his free hand again, and a leaf-green mist descended around him, healing the latest of his wounds. He looked up, and their eyes met across the room. She saw his lips move.
"This ends now."
A shadow passed across Hope's face, and Lightning felt something in the air change. The atmosphere thickened abruptly, and she realized that the entire area was starting to crackle with tiny points of light, flashing in midair like sparks siphoned off fire.
Everything suddenly seemed to go still and quiet.
The sparks in the air began to move, gathering in a swirl of silvery orbs around Hope, and Lightning immediately recognized the attack.
She retreated quickly, angling her blade in a guard. A new shield shimmered into existence around her.
It wasn't enough.
She saw the blinding flash and experienced a momentary urge to laugh hysterically as the eight beams of light materialized, converging upon her. Then everything was bright white, her world shaking as an impossible force pounded around her. It almost felt like she was being ripped apart, like Hope's strongest attack wanted to split her down the center and raze her into a pile of soot.
Somewhere along the way, the shield broke, and the pain tripled.
When the glare faded, Lightning saw her chance.
After a spell that powerful, Hope had to have his guard down as he recovered. An opening.
The only problem was that she was having trouble getting rid of the ringing in her own ears, or even seeing straight. Lightning blinked dazedly, and three Arks danced in her vision.
Was the sky supposed to be mustard yellow?
Through the settling dust, she thought she saw a figure shrouded in smoke and acted on nothing but instinct.
She lunged. The flat of her sword met flesh, and Hope crashed out of the smoke cover, hitting the opposite wall hard. Lightning almost saw the breath whoosh out of his lungs, saw Hope's body crumple as he slumped to the floor, his golden aura sputtering out like a doused candle. Even then, he struggled to his feet, trying to push himself back up on one knee.
Lightning didn't let him. A heartbeat, and her sword lay across his shoulder, edge ominously close to his jugular vein.
She would sooner slit her own throat than his, but he didn't have to know that.
"Hope. It's over."
He stiffened, but his next words nearly unseated the weapon perilously close to his neck.
"What are you waiting for? Finish it."
Yusnaan Palace resurfaced in her mind. Snow, gripping her collar and demanding answers, heedless of the sword at his throat. He had wanted to save everyone by absorbing all the chaos ravaging the city, but she thought that a part of him had wished for salvation. For an end to everything. If Lumina hadn't intervened just then, would Snow have gotten his wish?
What reason would Hope have to desire the same end?
She tightened her grip on her weapon. "You know I won't."
The boy smiled weakly, even as pain twisted his face. "God would not have it otherwise. Even death was too much to ask for, right?"
"So that was it? You wanted to die?"
"At the time, it seemed like the only way to escape my fate." Hope looked down. "I should have seen that coming. You were always noble, Light."
"I don't think refusing to take a friend's life is anything to brag about." She cautiously lifted her sword from Hope's neck, trusting that he wouldn't try to shoot another round of fireballs at him.
It was only then that Lightning realized that Hope was starting to shine for the second time.
"Hope–" Seized by a sudden constricting fear, she reached for his hand, and something in her clenched as it passed straight through her palm. No. Not now. "What's going on?"
She thought she already knew the answer.
"Just the Maker, coming to collect on debts owed." Hope didn't seem at all concerned. But his expression tightened. "Like I said. My task was to watch your every move. And now… I'm just going to disappear.
"At the moment my soul should have faded away into the Chaos, Bhunivelze relinquished his control. I… I couldn't let it happen. I tried to force myself to stay together. The power of free will, right?" His head drooped a little, and he caught himself with a wry grin. "But the fight sapped too much of my energy, and now the connection's fraying. I don't have much longer."
It didn't make any sense. Lightning opened her mouth, and realized she had little to say. There was just one question left. "Why would you do this?"
Hope's smile faded into something gentler, a quirk at the corner of his mouth. "I knew you'd win from the beginning, you know. I had to see how strong you'd become for myself. With that strength, I believe that you really can challenge God. Win, even.
"I suspect God isn't done with me yet, despite everything that has happened. I wanted to deny him another triumph, even in something as small as this."
"I'm sorry." All the apologies in the world would never be enough. This was her fault. She never tried to understand him. She was so focused on saving the others and getting her sister back that she had been blind to the world around her.
How much of those twelve days had been Hope? Had Bhunivelze truly possessed him or had Hope been able to control his own actions to some degree? Lightning tried to remember whether Hope had ever acted out of the ordinary. She simply couldn't recall.
Hope struggled to save a dying world for hundreds of years before Bhunivelze trapped him for a hundred and sixty-nine years more, torturing him into an emotionless shell. Meanwhile, Lightning had slept all her problems away, only to wake up and realize that all she'd done was make everything worse. She had promised so long ago to protect him, and all she could think was that she had failed.
"Don't be. You stood by what you believed in. There's something to be said for that." Hope hesitated. "It's… it's harder than I thought, talking to you like this. But now, I'm just glad I had the chance to be myself again. Here at the very end."
"You deserved a lot more."
His expression twisted. "I made another mistake. Fighting you… it made the pain and the fear go away. Nothing else seemed real. But… I was just running away. I didn't want to disappear without making some kind of difference. And you took the hit. Literally."
Lightning half snorted. Nothing about the situation was remotely funny. "Don't think you can try that again, by the way."
Hope chuckled, and the sound hurt her ears. "Sorry about that." But his gaze sharpened, turned serious. "Listen to me. Vanille intends to perform the Soulsong, and throw her life away."
"And all of those souls will be erased along with our memories of them, Lightning interrupted. "Perform the ritual, and no one will know they ever existed."
Hope nodded. "You have to stop her. Tell her the truth: they don't have to be destroyed. She has the power to send those souls to the New World. Do that for me, will you?"
He always cared about others more than he ever did for himself.
"I know her. As long as she knows the truth, she'll do the right thing. And once you do, you'll be able to see Serah again."
"But –" What could she say? That she couldn't see anyone's souls anymore. That it seemed like ever since the day she woke up to God's voice and this entire stupid mess she had been making the wrong choices. She had served God and damned Hope, all the while pushing Serah farther and farther away from her.
Would her sister even accept her after all of this?
Hope's gaze softened a little, like he could guess what she was thinking. "You're more human than you think. God may be able to take away our emotions, but it's our choices that determine who we are. At the end of the day, I know you'll make the right choice. Just think of the world Serah would want. The person she wants you to be."
"But don't you see?" she burst out. "Maybe once, I would have known what she wanted. But now, it just seems like I'm pushing her farther away. Both of you. I missed all of the signs. I couldn't help either of you."
"That's not your fault," he insisted. "Don't worry about me. Keep your eyes front, remember?"
The glow around him had become brighter now. Even as he spoke, his outline blurred, and Lightning knew he had little time left. She still had far too much to say, and no idea how to start.
"But I didn't. I couldn't–"
He smiled bigger, brighter than she'd ever seen before. "But you did! More than you know." He stepped back. "I'm not afraid anymore, even now. Because you're here."
His form wavered, but his eyes still blazed turquoise through the gauzy mist that enveloped him. "When we were all together… it really felt like I could do anything."
He turned, began walking, and Lightning knew this was the end.
"Thank you, Light. I'm glad we met."
She lurched forward though she knew she was too late, stretched out her hand though she knew it was pointless. The light instantly grew brighter and brighter around him, Hope's features dissolving into blinding white that coalesced into a shining core –
And then he was gone, and Lightning stood alone in a ruined Ark.
.
.
.
Her vision seemed washed out. Her heart felt like it had been wrung out and hung to dry. Her mind was empty of thought.
Something in her sparked when she reached for the grief she knew had to be there, and found only a detached regret.
Her final task was utterly clear.
She would save Hope. Save Vanille. Save Serah. Rescue as many people as she could before this world came to a finish.
And at the end of this, Bhunivelze would get a taste of her own sword.
A/N: I was reading this awesome translated comic and suddenly realized that the Ark would make the perfect place for a boss fight. Minus the stuff in the middle. Plus I always wished there was a fight against Hope in the game.
Sort of inspired by Cid Raines too because he and Hope are super similar in LR. Their circumstances, rather. I'm just completing the parallel. What the heck, I wanna go kill Bhunivelze. And Barthandelus again too while I'm at it. /sob
If anyone thinks Hope is superpowered, it's because I envisioned him as a mini Bhunivelze boss. Puppet of God and all that. Heh.
I didn't want to copy everything from the game, and I know the whole disappearing scene is done to death, so some (all T_T) dialogue is different. Hoping that it's not too out of character. I feel like it's choppy in some areas, sigh. Lightning's dialogue in particular seemed rather bland.
Hope you enjoyed the read, cheers!