Chapter 1: A reason to live

Author's words: I did not like FF-XIII-2's ending, this is written based on the paradox ending, 'The future is Hope', which I feel is the best one among all. At least Serah is reunited with her love and genuinely happy, Noel is stuck with Hope in Academia 4XX, which is not such a bad thing. (I would not mind being stuck with Hope.) This is a story about friendship, about sorrow and above all…

About Hope. Enjoy

ooo

Noel Kriess did not have many friends.
It's not as if he was unsociable or hostile or weird in any way, it simply stood as a fact that there aren't too many people he could socialize with in his world.

When he was born, humanity consisted of a grand total of 23 people. Three dying from ailments associate with excessive sun exposure and ingesting something fatal, including his parents. Resultantly, he could not remember what they looked like.

As he grew up, some of the children who were sharpening arrowheads with him one day would disappear the next, having being mauled to death by some behemoth. Funerals were simple, unemotional events. Families would recover as much as they could of the deceased and build a bonfire. Others would stand around in silence as the body was burnt, then use the heat for roasting game, or boiling water. The eldest of the eldest would tell grim stories told to them by their father's father, of a time were the world was green and filled with food and how humans destroyed it. The younglings would drool and try in vain to pretend that the vegetable root in hand was a fresh strawberry. They were few, but it was a world where each was for his own.

Eventually everything got so scarce that people killed each other over supplies, over shelter, over a freshly picked peach, then a plague killed the rest. By the time Noel hit sixteen, his world consisted of only two people. Caius and Yeul. He understood that he was born into a generation of Guardians meant to guard the Seeress, it was his life mission, his reason to exist. But his world finally collapsed when Yeul died in his arms...

And when Caius left, he stopped believing in friends, he knew that in order to survive, one must be independent, there is no one who could be relied on. People are for making use of, it was the survival of the fittest.

He had kinda liked Hope ever since they first met in Yascchas Massif in AF 10. Hope was a humble, reserved and capable man, and he radiated the same kind of sorrow that Caius did, to have lived some and lost a lot. He does not smile alot, but when he smiles, the girls swoon. Noel found that trait kinda cool and extremely amusing.

Ooo

AF 4XX

Hope was as usual, quiet, but even more so today. He saw to the necessary arrangements to have Alyssa handed over to the relevant department for questioning.

"Mr Estheim, we know that she's your personal assistant, but this is an act of high treason. Her actions could have doomed the populace. If need be, we will use more extreme methods to find out what she is really up to. We hope you understand."

Hope only nodded then, and Noel did not fail to catch an undertone of bitterness as he said. "I understand Eric, use whatever ways you deem necessary."

"Thank you, Emeritus."

"Don't call me that."

"Well, you're supposed to call me Five, Hope." The other man reminded with a smile.

The rest of the day was spent recalibrating the graviton cores to ensure nothing was sabotaged and he followed Hope to meetings where the new Cocoon's blueprint was drawn up and the phases of population relocation planned. There was enough nitty-gritty details to give Noel a headache that was sure to last for days. But Hope seemed to take it in his strides, he was meticulous and excellent in his work. And Noel began to wonder if he was human, he did not stop to eat, nor to think about Alyssa's betrayal. Noel knew he would be angry and upset if anything like that ever happened to him, but there was no discernable response from Hope.

Noel was very hungry by mid-evening, but he tailed Hope like a shadow and refused to be thwarted by his hunger. He was a hunter, he had gone on for days without sustenance before, this is nothing. He ignored and stuck to Hope even when the other researchers looked at him like he was some filthy riff-raff. He kept his eyes and ears opened, knowing that one of these people might kill Hope in three day's time...

At some point, it was finally his growling stomach that made Hope look up from his work and gasp at the time.

Mortified, Noel tried to shrug off Hope's questioning gaze. Hope's eyes were gentle but sad, "It seems like...you're really gonna stick to me."

"Of course." He said, surprised. "Who's gonna protect you?"

"I don't think you can protect anyone if you are hungry..." Hope teased, then grabbed some documents and stood up. "Let's go."

"Go where?"

"To my house, you need a place to sleep, don't you? I'll whip up something for dinner."

"Okay…" Noel agreed, food sounded good.

Ooo

Hope's casual 'something' turned out to be a magnificent delicacy beyond Noel's wildest imagination. His mouth was almost watering as Hope set the plate down on the dining table along with silver cutlery. It smelt wonderful and looked delicious, there were fragrant spices mixed into the creamy white sauce.

"What's this?"

"This...?" Hope hesitated, as if unused to having to explain what he cooked. "...Is baked fish with mushroom sauce, asparagus and potato salad, coupled with pumpkin soup. Nothing fancy, I hope you don't mind my cooking. I've been told it's a little bland..."

"Can I really eat this?" Noel gushed, most of the worlds they visit were rural and lost. Hence he and Serah usually resorted to scavenging for meal options, it was usually roasted behemoth with ground vegetables and wild berries. Behemoth meat was leathery and had a strange metallic aftertaste, Noel considered the berries a treat, but it gave Serah an upset stomach more than once.

Hope only widened his eyes, bemused, then consented. "Dig in."

Noel was delighted, he began to wolf down the contends of the dish.

"Aren't you gonna use the fork and knife...?" Hope asked gingerly, and Noel stopped only long enough to lick mushroom sauce from his thumb, then shook his head. He did not know what those were, they usually eat with their hands.

The fish! It was the first time he had fish. It had a soft and fluffy texture and each flake parted readily from the last, the mushrooms were fresh, fragrant and well-sautéed, the potato salad was divine, the asparagus! He had hardly seen any vegetable so healthy and green and crunchy and sweet.

It was only when Noel had licked the plate clean that he realized Hope was staring at him in wide-eye wonder. Suddenly, he became worried that he had accidentally eaten both their shares. He put the plate down and asked consciously , "Erm...what?"

"No...Nothing..." Hope said, "It's just...you finished everything in under four minutes..."

Noel sighed in relief, noting that Hope had another plateful just like his, but had not yet put the first forkful of fish into his mouth, he did not look quite as appetized as Noel.

"It's good!" Noel said, then looked hopefully at Hope, who nodded as he took the empty dish to the kitchen and ladled out the last of the soup and heaped more potato salad onto Noel's plate. Then set it down before him once again, "Finish up, if you're still hungry we can have dessert."

"What's that?" Noel asked in spite of himself.

Ooo

"Do you eat like this every day?" Noel asked after he devoured a one-liter tub of chocomint ice-cream all on his own, they were sitting in front of a film of moving pictures, Hope said it was called a TV. And Hope had insisted he bathed and changed into something clean, Noel's own usual clothes are tumbling around in the the wash, which Hope assured will run itself and deliver the clothing nice and dry in two hours odd.

"Erm, no. I usually don't eat desserts." Hope replied uncertainly.

"Not the I creme!" Noel said, "Like this! The fish, the tasty mushrooms, asparagus so green." With a moment of afterthought as he licked the spoon, he looked Hope in the eye and complimented. "You're a great cook, you know."

Hope was taken aback, but evidently glowing with pride, and also a little embarrassed as he coughed twice and awkwardly hooked a stray strand of silver behind his ear.

"Thank you." Then added with a small sigh, "Anyone can cook well if the ingredients are fresh. Academia was built atop a lake...Whenever it rains, a filtration system would cleanse the rainwater as it flows down, then pump it into people's homes. The farmlands are mostly on the lowest peripheral areas to capture sunlight and let the cattle graze. We are self-sustainable, everything we ate just now was homegrown, even the fish fillet was from the lake."

"Hmm, what about this, Hope? The I creme?"

Hope laughed, "It's made from sheep's milk, they produce good quality wool too. And anyway, it's ice-cream."

Noel rehearsed the word a few times, with Hope trying to correct him and sighing every time.

Eventually Noel looked into the empty ice-cream tub, and thought of Yeul, with a bitter-sweetness in his heart...

Will she ever get a chance to see and taste this world that Hope had built? When she died in his arms and smiled serenely at him, was she having a vision of a world where cars float off the ground and travelled at super-sonic speeds, where water was crystal clear and flowed from metal pipes, and vegetables were plump and the land fertile and abundant? This is a place where every child was given a chance at education, and people will not kill each other over a peach.

"Noel...?" Hope asked in concern, bringing him out of his dark thoughts.

"Nothing..I just wished...Yeul could see this...?"

"Who's Yeul...?"

Noel shook his head, then looked directly into Hope's sky blue eyes.

"I'll guard you with my life."

"...What?" Hope muttered in surprise.

"I believe what that big-headed idiot said, the world could only be like this... if there's you, Hope."

"Big-headed idiot..." Hope repeated thoughtfully. "Tell me Noel, what's the world like? Your world. I know Serah explained who you are and what you guys are doing. But I can't wrap my head around it."

Noel looked at him, hesitating, there was nothing proud for him to speak of in his world.

"Who's Yeul?" Hope pressed, curling up on the couch and hugging a down pillow to his tummy.

"The oracle drive..." Noel began, "Is a recording of all the prophecies that Yeul has ever seen, past, present and future."

Hope widened his eyes, "The undying Seeress of Paddra..."

"A Seeress, but hardly undying. Seeing the future takes a huge toll on the life-force, the Yeul I know died when she was only fifteen. Caius is her guardian, but a guardian has no power over mortality. Caius is the undying one."

"Oh my...It must have been...terrible...For Caius, I mean."

"Why do you say that...?"

Hope looked strangely pensive. "I've screen through most of the memories in the oracle drive, enough to memorize some of their contends. When I fell asleep in the year AF 13..." Hope closed his eyes, sighing.

"I... already knew which of my colleagues would be swallowed in the paradox flux and turned into red orbs...I have seen many things, many possibilities. I've seen Serah dead, you dead...Mog dead...Lightning encased in crystal stasis. I tried...to warn them, to change history. But...it never worked...That feeling of helplessness…is horrible." Hope whispered, his hold on the pillow tightened.

"Noel...you don't have to do anything to protect me, I am prepared to die in three day's time, if I lived...chances are I'll only become another paradox. Someone else will take up my mantle where I fell, someone always will, that's how humans are. I don't believe what Snow said, I don't believe that I'm the only one who can build humans a future. I'm not special, I'm no fal'cie. I just...believe, and sometimes I believe too much. Just take Alyssa..." He trailed off, such utter anguish on his features.

"Hope…"

Hope shook his head, and whispered grimly. "Alyssa is a good example that I err, I should have suspected that she was working for Caius all along, I should have noticed her disappearances..."

"No Hope, it's..." But Hope would not let him finish.

"I apologize...to you, to Serah...my oversight could have cost you your lives."

"Hope...it's not You fault, it's not as if you betrayed us..." Noel tried to laugh it off. But Hope was not having it.

"I believed her, that we are the same, that we would give anything to save the future, that's why she was the one person I asked to come to the future with me, that's why I confided in her. It was stupid, Noel. I was wrong..."

"Don't say that. You're doing your best and you've been a great help to us! And...it's not selfishness to want to save yourself, it's a simple instinct of self-preservation, surely there's no fault in that."

Hope only shook his head. "I'm not afraid to die, and I thought she was the same…"

Noel was rendered speechless, he had thought that anyone will be afraid if they were told that they will be assassinated in three day's time. But there Hope was, saying all that without a trace of fear in his eyes, his voice. It made sense, when he pieced Hope's words with his actions, all that Hope did today was what he had done in AF 10, to set it up, and let others take over and take credit.

"...You're an idiot..." Noel muttered eventually. Oddly enough Hope did not get angry.

"Funny...Alyssa always said that."

Ooo

"These are the changes to the city layout that should be made. These are just suggestions, we will have to discuss it with the architects. I have a new design for the water tanks in the new cocoon. Phase one of the movement should be..." Noel watched in amazement as Hope dished out instructions, wondering if Hope slept at all after retreating to his room last night.

"Mr Estheim..." One of the female researchers asked, her uniform was different, it was somewhat more expensive looking.

"Elaine? Just call me Hope, please. Yes?"

"...You looked tired." She muttered.

Hope smile gently, "What's new? Hey, has the rendered gravitation levitation field diagrams emerged? I would like to have a look."

"Yes...but..."

"But...?" questioned Hope.

"We...The council of thirteen has voted and we have decided you need a holiday!"

"Huh?" Both Noel and Hope went, before both of them were swiftly, ruthlessly and unceremoniously ejected from the building.

"What was that?!" Noel exclaimed as he shook the dust off himself outside the main building. Hope was equally stunned, but they were a littler gentler in shoving him out of the premises.

"I can't believe it..." Hope said quietly, then sighed. "Let's go, Noel..."

"Huh? What about your work?!" He asked incredulously as Hope started walking away.

Hope stopped in his tracks, turning around to face Noel. "Don't you see? Because of what happened, they don't trust me anymore..."

"What?" Noel muttered, "But you're not Alyssa..."

"It doesn't matter...Alyssa came here by my endorsement. The Council of thirteen are the current governing leaders of Academia. Elaine is Thirteen, domestic affairs. Eric, the man earlier is Five, he's the police commissioner. Number One is the current director, the woman chairing the first meeting. When we woke up, I simply walked up to them and asked if I could help further the research. It was nice of them to offer me a job title and put me on payroll, but the fact remains...that I am an outsider in this time. I think I have made them a little nervous, they have been tracking me, probably looking for an excuse to be rid of me for a while...now they succeeded."

"That's not true!" Noel cried, "You don't know how important you are! You founded the Academy! You laid the groundwork of this place! They can't just undermine your achievements! They...they don't know what they are doing..."

"Too bad, they are also in-charged." Hope said simply, Noel's insides boiled.

"It's not fair...How can they do this to you?!"

"No use shouting about it...this is called politics." Hope said whimsically, then cautioned Noel, "No, you can't simply kill them, they are not monsters."

Noel was startled, Hope had read him like a book. And it was the first time he realized that people can be so much scarier than monsters...

"I'm going home to work...it's up to you whether you want to follow me. It will be boring." Hope warned.

Noel could hardly believe his ears, Hope is still going to work hard for these ungrateful people.

"No, come!" He grabbed Hope's arm, "Let's find something we can kill!"

"What...?" Hope exclaimed as he permitted himself to be dragged off by a suddenly very enthusiastic Noel.

Ooo

"Hit 'em hard, Hope!"

Hope raised his boomerang, and fireballs struck the creature repeatedly without him muttering a single incantation. Noel whistled as he lunged forward, bringing his swords to bear, cutting the creature down further.

Due to elemental weakness and skill, the damage Hope dealt was massive. Suddenly Hope changed his gesture, "Firaga." as Noel dished out his final attack. It was the finishing blow that put the creature out of his misery.\

"Take that!" Noel shouted triumphantly as he sheathed his swords, Hope kept his boomerang behind him, wiping prespiration from his brow. The Chocobo-eater came crashing mightily to the ground, sending up a massive screen of sand and smoke.

"Goodness, they did it!" exclaimed the owner of the Chocobo farm.

Noel had brought them to the periphery of Academia's base and there they began slaughtering monsters much to the delight of the farmers and the researchers on site. Eventually it was a distraught Chocobo farmer who asked Noel for help to kill the beast that has been devouring his Chocobos. Hope agreed that they should help the poor man out, the man almost fainted with glee. Of course he recognized Hope, who didn't?

Now the middle aged man who was bigger in the middle than anywhere else hopped forward with surprising stealth and gave each of them a bone-crushing hug, threatening to kiss them. "Ye lads did it, me'chocobos are saved! Thank you thank you!" Noel watched as Hope reluctantly received a generous armload of mimett-a luxury in Noel's time, an alcoholic drink made of fermented gyshl greens-from the man. Noel's mood was marginally better after sweating it out, and he tossed his hair back and stretched.

"That was fun...!" He thrilled, Hope smiled, suddenly looking a few years younger.

"Feels good doesn't it? To know that you're helping someone out." Noel asked.

Hope looked thoughtful for a moment or two, then nodded. "Let's go for lunch, I haven't had a chance to show you around Academia. Let's go for a walk before we go back." Hope said.

Noel did not think it was such a good idea. "Erm... Are you sure you can even walk around in Academia?"

"Why not?" Hope questioned after a moment.

Noel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You don't understand your current status."

"What status? I'm just a jobless guy lost in time, remember? It will be fine." Hope assured.

Ooo

Noel was right, and Hope was not.

Back in Academia they could hardly take five consecutive steps on the streets without someone squealing, gushing or screaming, 'Oh my God! Mr Estheim! It's Hope Estheim!" And crowds engulfed Noel and Hope, trying means and ways to touch some part of the latter. By the time Noel managed to rescue Hope from being mobbed, Hope had shook hands with seemingly half the town, posed for photographs, autographed for schoolgirls, been asked to form a boy band with Noel and made to hold a newborn. Some of the silver adornments on his uniform had been mysteriously plucked off. What made Noel glad was that many of the citizens expressed their gratitude for what Hope had done and thanked him for his sacrifice. They squeezed through the crowd, awaiting a chance to shake Hope's hand and say thank you, or just give him a friendly pat on the back. The ever-shy Hope was so mortified with his deity-like celebrity status that he froze up and stammered repeatedly, 'You're welcome...it was nothing.'

Eventually, at the lunch place, the boss would not let Hope pay, the ramen chef was apparently related to the Chocobo farmer by blood. In turn, Hope insisted that he took all the mimett.

Ooo

"Elaine called, she says I need not go back to work tomorrow either..." Hope whispered miserably.

"Then don't go back, you don't need them. You are not 'Just a jobless guy lost in time.'" Noel remarked once they were alone on a vintage point that overlooks Academia. In a distance was the setting sun, beautiful and glorious, shrouded by it's crown of red and orange aura.

Hope did not reply, he folded his arms on the fence and rested his head in the nook of his elbow, there seemed to be something bothering him.

"I never knew...never thought..." He cut himself off, simply at a loss for words. "All this while, I was just...giving my best. Aiming to save the people I love..."

"You love humanity then..." Noel suggested before Hope could continue, Hope did not look at him.

"Hope..." Noel sighed, "Listen. When some people die, it's like a mere ripple in the ocean, but when great men die, it's not about them, but about who they are and what they represent..."

"I'm no great man..." Hope objected.

"Too bad, the townspeople think so...I think so too. So you can't die, you're legend."

Hope did not respond, only continued looking in a distance as if the conversation had nothing to do with him.
"Hope." Noel pressed, "If you are killed, can you imagine the chaos? These people hero-worship you..."

"Therefore..." Hope whispered, his voice muffled by the fabric on his sleeve? "...I'm obligated to stay alive somehow? Because I represent something, I am not permitted to die...Just because that something would die with me...? Is that it? How different am I from a C'ieth then?"

Noel sensed that he had said something that rubbed the wrong way.

Hope took a deep breath, then breathed it out very slowly. He buried his head in his folded arms then, such that Noel could not see the agony on his face.

"How laughable." He whispered in mockery of himself.

"Hope." Noel touched his shoulders, but Hope slapped his hand off indignantly.

"Don't touch me." He said coldly, and Noel realized that the similarity between Hope and Caius grew stronger, it was the moment when sorrow became despair.

"Admit it, you are the same as Alyssa, as the council of thirteen...You're just making use of me."

"That's not true!" He protested.

"Listen to yourself, Noel." Hope said, "I'm only alive today in this time because I chose to be, but what right have you to interfere with my choice when I chose to stop existing if you don't care for me as merely a person...? I don't know what happened between you and Yeul or Caius, but I am not them..."

Noel was suddenly afraid, he had been good friends with one great man who was eventually broken by despair. Now they were friends no more.

Noel realized in shame that somehow he had been using Hope as a mere substitute, a little bit of both Yeul and Caius. He had anchored his existence to guarding Hope's life, and demanded that Hope be great just like Caius. Hope has noticed it, and it has cut him deeply.

He knew then that he had been a coward. Just like when Yeul died, he could not face the fact of his own existence without her...His fist tightened.

"I thought you were my friend..." Hope whispered brokenly, the expression on his face so grieved it beggared description. With that, Noel felt a little part of him break. Realizing for the first time how alone Hope was.

Hope had been betrayed by the one friend whom he thought he could trust, banished from the one place he fought to build, rejected as an individual by the only person beside him.

"I don't know what you truly expect of me, but it won't happen. I'm sorry, Noel..."

Noel could not find words, but before he could find something proper to say, his mouth went off faster than his brain.

He snarled. "Who would want be your friend?!"

Hope only widened his eyes, pain so apparent in them.

"You're just a coward...!" He went on, unsure whether he was talking to Hope or to himself, his hands were shaking uncontrollably.

"You're just afraid to be left behind!"

Hope's expression darkened, and for an instant he looked like he might strike Noel, and Noel would let him. The moment passed and Hope simply looked down in disappointment, Noel would have very much rather have Hope hit him…he deserved it.

A time space distortion suddenly appeared behind Hope, and Noel knew something was terribly wrong when dark energy started congealing in the depth of the space.

"Hope, get down!"

Hope's eyes widened fractionally, the swiftly did as he was told, flattening himself on the ground. Unfortunately for Noel, in his haste to save Hope did not have sufficient time to duck. A ball of pure chaos energy shot out of the distortion and hit him on the right side of his chest, it's force knocking him backwards. He crashed into the fence with an impact human bones are not built to withstand, in that instant he felt his collarbone snap, he cried out sharply.

"Noel!" Hope got up and started running towards him, but another round blasted past Hope's right arm, burning through uniform and flesh. Noel threw himself to the one side and the round melted the dented fence, it's force undiminished as it slammed into an office building.

That was when the screaming started, people poured out onto the streets, looking for the source of the destruction.

Ooo

Hope used one hand to cover over his wound in shock, blood and charred flesh met his fingers, the pain was excruciating.

"So you are Hope Estheim. Blessed of Etro..." Someone droned behind him, and a gloved hand leisurely sifted through his hair, causing the fine hairs on the back of his neck to rise involuntarily. Then the same hand grabbed and twisted his arm such that white-hot agony shot through his body, he bit his lip to prevent himself from crying out. The force spun him around, it was either that or dislodge his shoulder joint.

The man appeared to be examining his wrist, his thumb tracing over where the l'ciel brand once was. "Ah...You have lost the power...Alyssa had lied."

Hope froze, this man was the one who appeared in the vision in the oracle drive, he is the one who tried to kill Lightning. Tall, dark hair, a great sword, there was no mistaking it, this man was...

"Caius!?" Noel cried, it confirmed Hope's dread, Caius had likely come to destroy him. He had wondered, who would try to kill him? The council of thirteen may be scared of him, but they won't kill him for the simple fact that they are even more afraid of the people...

Caius pushed him roughly aside, and he fell harshly to the ground, Caius then stepped over him towards Noel.

"No…Noel…!"

He swung his sword, pointing it at Noel's nose, Noel gritted his teeth. "Caius...What are you doing...?"

"You are weak, you can't defeat me, you can't protect anyone. Not Yeul...not anybody."

"You are the one who left Yeul behind!" Noel retorted bitterly.

There was some bad blood between this two. Hope thought.

"But I can save her, you can't..." Caius said, with that, a bout of chaos energy congealed at the tip of his sword. Hope watched Noel's predicament, gnashing his teeth, angry that the pain was crippling him. He dragged himself upright, staggering forward, realizing Caius was going to hit Noel at point-blank range and he was the only one who can save Noel.

"Die."

The ball of dark energy blasted into Noel's chest, and he was blown off the ledge.

"NOEL!"

The moment, time stopped. It was not figurative, time really came to a halt. The background screaming stilled, all motion ceased, even the air molecules stayed still as Hope lunged forward, his right arm reaching over the edge of grab hold of Noel's ankle just in time while the left one held on to the remnant of the still red-hot fence. The metal started to melt through his gloves upon contact, he had no choice but to hang on grimly as the surface sizzled and heat bloomed across his palm.

"Hope...?!" Noel exclaimed incredulously.

Hope shook his head just as blood began to dribble down his injured arm in rivulets, staining Noel's clothing.

He hadn't forgotten, who could forget such a hurtful statement? But he know Noel was still a child…Adults don't get angry over children's words.

The pain worsened as the muscle stretched. The metal had eaten through his gloves and steam rose as the hot surface cooked his palm.
"Hang...hang on…Try to get up." He bit his lip, tasting blood, he was unsure how long more he could hold on for. Caius's foot was too close, and Hope knew he was terribly vulnerable, but he could not just let Noel die.

For some strange, unfathomable reason, Caius did not use the chance to finish either of them off, he simply grabbed Hope's wrist-the one still desperately clinging onto Noel's leg- and lifted both of them up with super-human strength. Hope released Noel the moment the latter could land safely, Noel dropped and rolled away, brandishing his sword.

"Hope!"

Hope realized that he only used one, he had probably broken something, it was unlikely he could still fight. He was also further off than expected, and Hope realized that Caius was levitating off the ground.

As if on cue, he lifted Hope to face level and shook him up as if he was drying laundry, "Stop it...!" Hope almost begged, containing his pain through gritted teeth, every tiny jolt of movement was pure agony to his injured arm, more blood dribbled down his shoulder, blossoming across his uniform.

"Hope Estheim, I didn't want to kill you, without the power of a l'ciel you won't be a threat to me."

Hope's cheek-in-tongue reply was, "Please, who needs a l'ciel's power to stop you?"

Caius smirked in apparent amusement, "How then, will you propose a plan to stop me from say, killing you here and now?"

"You can't scare me, Caius." He replied, "...Only I know where the Oracle drive is, if you kill me, you will never find it. If you find it, you will never break the eternity code I encrypted into it. I know all the possibilities, but you don't. Knowledge is power, therefore I am in the position of power."

"You are a smart man, but your so-called power cannot save your life." He mocked.

"My life already ended with the last of my friends and family I left behind in AF 13." Hope whispered. It hurt, because it carried a grain of truth. Life has indeed left him nothing to go by, he was completely alone…

"...You mean with Alyssa." The smirk never left Caius's face. "That woman lied, egging me to kill you, saying that you, like Snow Villers, exchanged your life for the power of a l'ciel."

Hope felt his heart skip a beat, a sour feeling of betrayal arose, but he retorted swiftly.

"How different are you from her if you murder me?" He dropped his voice, leaning forward deliberately. "You can't protect Yeul, and you didn't bother to protect her precious memories. Noel's not weak, you are."

"Hope...?!" Noel muttered, his eyes wide.

"You are the true failure." Hope declared. A flash of anger crossed the other man's features, and Hope's blood ran cold as he knew he had crossed the line...

Hope could only watch as Caius lifted his great, black sword, and with a swift thrust, sent it piercing through Hope's heart...

"HOPE!"

Hope felt no pain, only a cold, ethereal feeling of his very being; his soul being sucked right out of his body. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came forth. Someone was screaming his name, but he no longer knew who. The last thing he knew was Caius's sinister, satisfied smile as he plucked the sword from his chest and released his wrist.

Hope fell, but did not even feel himself hit the floor...

Ooo

Noel screamed as Caius's sword impaled Hope. Casually, he retrieved his sword after a moment of satisfaction watching the expression disappear from Hope's face, then released his hold. Hope collapsed onto the floor in a heap, and Noel dashed to his side, propping him up against him and patted down his back, examining for wounds.

Hope's eyes were half-opened, he appeared to still be alive, surprisingly there was no bleeding, no wound on his chest nor back, Noel was surprised.

Suddenly his body shuddered, and he mouthed words that no one could hear, but Noel read his lips.

Run, Noel.

After that, he closed his eyes, his head lolled back and remained completely still.

"...Hope...?" Noel's mouth had gone dry, "Hope!", he shook Hope's cold body fervently, there was no more response.

"Pitiful, he had no need to die...I wouldn't have minded an ally like him..." Caius commented.

"He's not dead!" Noel yelled forcefully, Hope was thankfully still breathing.

"That is but a transition phase." Caius replied haughtily, "His heart has been unmade, the body lives but as an empty vessel, unable to sustain without a soul, in 24 hours he will be dead." He gazed at Noel, contempt and cruelty in his gaze.

"I'll let you live...maybe then, you'll understand how helpless you are."

He turned to leave, retreating back into the time distortion, and disappeared just like that. His laughter echoed in Noel's head long after he was gone.

Realization dawned on Noel, and he felt hot tears well up in his eyes, gazing at Hope's pale, unconscious face.

Hope had treated him like a friend, and did his best to protect him till the very last waking moment…

Yet I hadn't been able to do anything for you...

Hot tears trailed down Noel's cheeks, his despair burst out of him as a strangled cry.

Time resumed, and the place came alive. Only that the sun was just rising out of the opposite direction, it was already morning, but Noel could not even feel the warmth on his face…

Oooooo

Disclaimer: FF XIII-2 and its characters belong rightfully to Square Enix, to the victims of the Japan earthquake, to those who need hope.

Hope you guys like this chapter One! There is more than sunshines and butterflies if one wakes up after 400 years and takes control of the situation, there will be resistance, politics, humans have the tendency to destroy themselves once left unchecked. This aspect is something left unaddresed in FF XIII-2.

As for Snow...I have no idea how he got branded again, unless he found some gran pulse Fal'cie...

Mimett, this is something that apparently exist in the FF XIII world, ask captain Cryptic, lolz. (And Behemoth jerky and raucous cheese.)

Number One will become an important character.

Among all the characters, Hope was amazingly the only one who did not see nor hear Lightning, yet he kept on believing in a future where she could live. That belief is beautiful, but also insecure to a certain extent and altogether tragic with the official ending. His mission and driving force is to 'save everyone', which simply does not happen...

I believe in happy endings.

Yours

Ming