Requiem of a Hunter

Part I

Careful preparations. Miscalculations.

It all made sense before. Now it was nonsensical.

She had been smiling just a moment ago. Those blue eyes holding an ocean of emotion had faltered into nothingness. Her form was nothing but an empty shell as he clung almost desperately to it.

This was not reality.

What was he to do? Every single effort made in order to restore things for a better tomorrow had been washed away in mere seconds. The moment made him loathe being the one still alive. If the future would have been better without him, then it should've ended up that way. Not like this.

His lungs pierced into a never-ending flame as his screams enveloped the atmosphere. The sun cast harsh shadows over his form just as it disappeared from the world, taking a soul in its wake.

A lone hand moved to afford a slight comfort, and soon it began to shake the shoulder which it had fallen upon.

"Noel...we should head back."

Numbly the man adorned in blue began to lift the one woman who had become his best friend. Her body slid into his tan arms easily, but he still handled her in the most delicate of manners. It was his own way of still showing her respect even though her eyes were now closed to him.

Every step taken was a battle to choke back more tears. This was not something he did. He didn't cry. Only when tragic events that tore his heart apart was he ever seen to have a single tear fall. Even now, he knew, he needed to calm down in order to rationalize the situation.

The journey back through the gate was far too short, and it hardly gave him any time to his thoughts or to cope. The liveliness of Academia would have been appreciated on any other day. The moment they stepped back into the main area, the blonde assistant already began running over.

"Hey, it seems like you two got out all right but-"

The moment her eyes focused in on that woman in his arms, the moment she realized her fair chest was not rising and falling, a soft scream filled the room.

Hope quickly shuffled the others into another room. It was another part of the research lab. His key card swiped over a console to lock them inside in complete seclusion.

The blonde woman was already in hysterics, sobbing with uneasy gasps of air as she held onto the lifeless hand of Serah Farron.

"W-what happened to her...?" Alyssa was hardly able to breathe out the words as the director began to explain.

It was evident that the silver-haired man had undergone his own series of tragedies. The remorse still reflected in his eyes as he spoke, but he was clearly taking the stronger standpoint amongst them all. If he wasn't to remain strong, then they would all fall apart.

"The Eyes of Etro. She had another vision, one that brought her to this point."

He decided to refrain from stating the word, even though it probably would've been wiser if he had. The reality was that the younger sister of Lightning was now dead. It didn't fail to make him hope that somehow they would be able to correct this somehow.

"I know things seem bleak right now, but I still believe that Lightning would not just let things end like this. Especially if she knew her sister would end up like this after it was all said and done."

Alyssa sniffled quite loudly, trying to steady her breathing as she nodded at him. There hadn't been a day since she started working under him that she didn't believe a word he spoke.

"I believe you Hope."

The fingertips that were holding the unmoving form clutched slightly as Noel tried to understand that statement and convince him it was true. There was no way that the woman securing Valhalla would allow such a thing to come to pass, much less let it be carved into eternity.

Hope had wondered off to the other section of the room. As he began typing a few things out onto a nearby computer, the floor shuddered as something began to rise from below.

It looked to be a holding case, large enough to fit a human body.

"For now, we can keep Serah's body here. It is set up to keep the body intact, avoiding any sort of decomposition. We'll also sync her up to life support so if she ever re-awakens, we'll be the first to know."

The capsule made a soft whooshing sound as it opened. Noel reluctantly moved over to the device, slowly lowering the woman's body down to a resting position. It was far too strange watching as the researcher began to set up the necessities for life support, and soon thereafter closing the capsule.

Alyssa stood leaned against the wall as she was still in the process of controlling her crying. The brown-haired man stood there with his arms having fallen at his sides. His thoughts were blank and he had no idea how to function in that moment.

As Hope gradually moved closer to him, he let his gloved hands move to both of the other man's shoulders.

"She'll be back. We won't let it end like this."

Irony in the name but complete honesty in his voice. Noel let his sapphire eyes stare up at those hazel ones that were striking him in a prominent gaze. For some reason, hearing that and just having the man hold him like this was giving him that grip on his sanity that he needed.

"Yeah, I won't let there be a future without Serah."

The escape in the lab lasted less than an hour. After Hope had managed to get the lone time traveler to shift his focus on a new goal, Alyssa had finally excused herself to retire to her room. Although it had still been early, the two were exhausted after such grueling circumstances.

Simply having gone into the elevator and proceeding up to the guest room had been even more tiring for the man in blue. As he exited, Hope followed out closely after him. They approached the door and Noel went to open it just as he noticed the other figure was heading past him towards the large office nearby.

"Where are you going?"

"I figured I should let you be alone."

His hand reached out on its own and grabbed onto the white jacket that clung to the director. As he felt him stop, Noel stared over at him with a steady gaze.

"I'd rather you come in with me."

The last thing he wanted to be was alone right now. That's all he had ever known. Loneliness had been his companion in the years of the future. And now having had another of his closest friends taken from him, he honestly just needed to have someone by his side.

"Well, all right." Hope conceded, inwardly not minding the invitation since he would find it difficult to concentrate on anything else at the moment.

The duo entered into the vast guest room. As weapons and shoes were left near the door or on the nearby table, the night sky peeked in through the large, glass windows in the common room area. The light switch was pressed to let the overhead lights provide a soft glow in the room.

"I believe we should order something to eat. I know you probably don't feel like eating, but it won't help your body any if you skip a meal."

Noel let himself fall back onto the couch as he watched the man move to call in an order from the kitchen. It was funny, now that their shoes were off; Noel was visibly taller than the older man.

It was difficult to not let his thoughts trail off to feeling depressed out the series of events that had happened earlier that day. Although darkness now tainted the sky and time continued forward, those blue eyes still had a glimmer of uncertainty in them.

He wasn't sure how to feel. No emotion was set in his being. For some reason, he still felt that small measure of faith that was now lingering because of the other man in the vicinity. But even still, he felt like a blank slate in terms of how to act at that very moment.

As Hope finished off the conversation he had been carrying on the phone, he let his eyes continue to fixate on the figure on the couch. For some reason, he was inexplicably drawn to the idea of having an evening together like this. Maybe it was because from his childhood to that very moment in time, he had never experienced the simple notion of having a best friend.

Someone you could rely on, someone you liked spending time with, and someone you wanted to make smile more than anything. It killed him that he had yet to see a single smile from the man. Not that he blamed him at all for his lack of wanting to do just that, but it always made his day seem a bit brighter whenever he saw those lips turn into such a marvelous thing.

Hope sighed inwardly. Letting his body lean back against the counter just as he heard a rustling noise and soon the other man's presence was acknowledged as he now stood in the kitchen.

"I know it's a bit much, but you could at least stay in the same area as me."

The tone was rather serious but the silver-haired man took to the lighter side of things. A smile appeared on his lips as he watched Noel rub the back of his head.

"Sorry, I just had a moment of laziness." His body was still leaned up against the counter as he watched the hunter stare at him, a bit of a smile finally running over those lips.

"I never envisioned you to be the lazy type."

Hope shook his head, the smile still etched on his lips as he gradually removed the gloves that were still on his hands. As they were set on the counter, he watched as the fridge was opened and then closed. A bottle of soda appeared just as Noel moved to reach past the man.

"I usually only let my laziness show whenever exhaustion gets the better of me."

"I think that's just an excuse."

That smile now shifted into the trademark smirk and Hope swore that he felt his heart leap. Just the tiniest of mannerisms from the young man was making him feel more emotions in a single instant than he ever had before. As he leaned to the side a little, Noel had more room to reach up into the cabinet to grab two glasses.

"Everyone's entitled to be lazy now and then, don't you agree?"

"I think everyone's entitled to being and doing a lot of things given the right circumstances."

For some reason, that gave off a whole series of questions in both men's mind. Noel had stated it, but it even made him stop and ponder on just what type of scenarios that he would ever find himself going through with. The researcher was delving into even more complex thinking since that was how his mind operated.

Even still, the statement was innocent enough. However, given how messed up the hunter's mind was at the moment, he couldn't help but start to feel a need that he hadn't felt in a while. As he set his glass down on the counter, he let his sapphire eyes openly stare over at the other man.

It was obvious that they both wanted the company of one another. They both needed it. It was insane to imagine how far that need for another person would go through. And even still, this wasn't just one person. This was Hope. The man had become someone irreplaceable to him in a matter of a few months' time.

"So what would you do?"

The question was sudden and the surprise was visible on both Hope's face and in his voice.

"Given what circumstance?"

"This one."

Those were words that only the two of them understood. Those words were heavy with the grief of past events, and it made him want nothing more than to tear away the sadness so that he didn't have to see anyone else go through the same pain he had to.

The loss of his mother when he was younger was difficult to undergo. But his mentor and almost like a second mother had taught him the way of perseverance and continuing on through the hard times. And then he lost her as well. The loss of both Farron sisters was hard, any loss was hard.

And now he had to watch as his first, true best friend had to go through it all. Hope was accustomed to the pain, so he knew how to deal with it. But he knew that the other did not.

Noel tried to keep his face stoic as his thoughts were anything but. Watching others die around him in the future was easy enough; he had learned not to grow close to another person. Only two exceptions had been made to that rule, one was Serah and the other was Hope.

And now only one remained.

"I would do whatever I could to help."

Hope watched as Noel seemed to be having an inner conflict with himself. It was intriguing yet somewhat terrifying to witness. A sudden shift of blue was all his eyes caught sight of just before he felt warmth close to his own. Those once calm eyes shifted to a dark tone just as that voice was lowered, almost rough.

"I just, I need to know that you're alive-that I'm alive."

The atmosphere had changed drastically. In less than a minute it had gone from light-hearted and transformed into an obscurity only with an underlying sensual attachment.

"In what way..?"

Just from how the man was staring at him, it was just as if he had become his prey. So fitting for the hunter, yet Hope still couldn't help but to feel his mouth suddenly go dry. It wasn't out of fear, more so out of a slight nervousness. He hadn't even thought of doing anything in that area of things in quite a while, not to mention, he never had with another man. Not that his thoughts had never trailed into such things since he never really had any luck in finding a girl that fit his tastes.

Noel felt his instincts soar and it only heightened whenever he heard that gentle question come from the man in front of him. Admitting to himself, he knew that he had never had another person catch his interest the way Hope had. Even if he was a man, to him, his personality was far too striking. The way he let his name roll off his tongue whenever he had questioned him about their time travels-it had always made him feel a twinge of an uncertain emotion.

But now as those green eyes were transfixed on the man in blue, Noel knew how to label that feeling.

"I believe I can show you better than I can tell you."

Hope was not even given a moment to rebuttal. The hunter moved in on his prey, crashing their lips together in an unprecedented kiss.

All they had was each other. It was not out of desperation for Noel to do this. It was out of utter sincerity to say that this man had become one of his best friends. The only grip he had on the true reality, but also the comfort that he needed and the strength that allowed him to continue forward into that reality.

And so the hunter began the quest to mark his territory.