Characters/Pairing(s): Cid/Hope, Lightning/Sazh
Warning(s): End-game spoilers, mild violence and sexual situations
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII and all its characters are property of Square Enix Co., Ltd. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Written for Harmode (DW Comm). Many thanks to Lassarina, who I must gush at a bit for beta reading this while writing her own awesome story. Concrit is always welcome on any of my stories.

...

Below, the Nenvan Wode stretched out across the canyon floor like a viridian sea. Giant flowers thrust out of the rippling surface, offering way stations of white and pink. Wyverns of all species drifted over the tree canopy, searching for unwary prey that climbed high enough to pluck out. One lucky svarog had apparently just caught its morning meal. Its prey's cries carried on the wind up to the Lady Luck.

Squinting, Hope barely made out the flailing outline of a Nenvan long-armed monkey in the svarog's formidable jaws. Even when Titan did not loom overhead, Gran Pulse provided constant reminders that only the strong and smart survived. Hope thought of Snow and Serah, back at their base camp with Team NORA, waiting for Serah to give birth. Even with their l'Cie powers, Hope worried they might not be strong or smart enough to protect a helpless infant from the vagaries of Gran Pulse.

The thought of l'Cie powers caused Hope to scratch his left wrist. Though the l'Cie brand had long since faded, he sometimes felt as if it were still inscribed on his skin. After all, little had changed since Cocoonfall. All the l'Cie still had magic-even young Dajh. The surviving citizens of Cocoon still hated them-now more than ever. The survivors resented the destruction of their home and the loss of many lives in the ensuing chaos. They blamed the l'Cie for the destruction of Cocoon and its fal'Cie, and refused to believe that the fal'Cie had only kept them in Cocoon to sacrifice them. Hope and the others voluntarily exiled themselves to avoid violence.

The Lady Luck rose higher into the clouds. After "borrowing" the PSICOM airship two years ago, Sazh had quickly mastered the art of flying in the chaotic skies of Gran Pulse. Now, even Lightning could not muster more than one or two complaints every time they took to the skies-and usually only about things Sazh had well in hand.

"Will they have yute cookies where we're going?" Dajh asked, mournfully staring out the window. "I want yute cookies."

"We've had this conversation before." Sazh said from the cockpit, his gaze still trained on the skies. "We don't have the ingredients for yute cookies. We can't have them anymore."

"But I want yute cookies," Dajh explained. "We might find them somewhere." He could not be accused of being a pessimist, at least.

"And they'd likely be five hundred years expired," Sazh quipped.

"I'd still eat them!"

"Oh, look," Sazh said quickly. "We're almost there."

Everyone forgot about Dajh and his cookie plight-even Dajh. They crowded around Sazh to gaze out the cockpit's main window. As Sazh lowered the Lady Luck from the cloud cover, a tower came into view. It lay embedded against the steep cliff wall like a climbing vine. Its upper levels shot high into the sky, its spire lost in clouds. The tower seemed as circular and huge as Taejin's Tower, but dressed in black and red.

"Wow," Hope said. "That's where the distress signal is coming from?" He thought of Taejin's Tower, just north of Sulyya Springs. "What if a fal'Cie lives in there?"

Lightning crossed her arms. "Might be, but that signal we picked up on the Lady Luck is a military signal. Guardian Corps. They don't go this far east. Hell, even PSICOM doesn't go this far east."

"Rescuing those people is suicidal." Sazh shook his head. "They want us dead, or did you forget already?"

"Yes, but don't we owe it to them to help them when we can?" Hope thought of his father, who had not left Cocoon alive. He had died during Cocoonfall, as had so many others. Fang and Vanille had not been able to prevent the deaths resulting from the power failure and jarring fall. The survivors of Cocoon had sacrificed their way of life-and learned to survive in a place they once called hell. Sickness, disease, and the vicious predators of Gran Pulse plagued them even now. Hope understood the wrath of the grieving people of Cocoon. That same wrath had once fueled Operation Nora, his revenge against Snow. He only hoped that the Cocoon survivors eventually realized the futility of their actions, just as he had.

Lightning nodded. "You're right. Of course we do." She glanced at the tower. "They may hate us, but we'll save them, like we did before."

Sazh glanced back. "Only with a lower body count, I hope," he said. He gestured at the tower. "I'll be dropping you two off, then parking nearby." He gestured at Dajh and sighed. "We'll be outside, waiting for the all clear, and discussing the impossible dream that is the yute cookie."

Dajh beamed. "I hope you find some!"

"Give it a rest, okay?"

Lightning moved towards the door as Sazh drew closer to the tower. "Once we check the place out, we will let you know as soon as it's safe to proceed inside."

Dajh jumped up. "Oh! I sense lots of Pulse power in there!"

"Pulse power?" Lightning scowled at the tower. "Fal'Cie?"

Dajh nodded. "Definitely." His ability to sense Pulse power remained undiminished-and apparently extended to Pulse fal'Cie, as well.

"Wonderful." Sazh scowled. "You two better be careful."

"Can I come with you guys this time?" Dajh asked.

"Oh, no!" Sazh shot his son a glare. "Ten-year-olds don't go into fal'Cie lairs!"

"But I'm a l'Cie, too! And Hope went to go fight with you when he was only four years older than me!"

"There's a big difference between fourteen and ten, and we had no choice at the time. Besides, you can't even pop off a Fire spell without burning my damn hair off."

"Your hair got in my way, Dad. It wasn't my fault."

Sazh glared at his son. "I was in the opposite direction of the wood you were supposed to burn!" Though he looked younger with his close-cropped haircut, he still apparently mourned the loss of his locks.

"You look really good with a haircut, though, Sazh," Hope said with a smile.

"Don't encourage the boy." Sazh continued to glare at Dajh. "You're not going with them."

Dajh flopped back into his seat and crossed his arms, his bottom lip jutting out. Hope laughed and patted his fluffy hair. "It's okay, Dajh. Once it's safe, you can follow us."

"I see an opening on the side, and it's probably our best shot of getting in, if it's like Taejin's Tower," Sazh observed. "I'll drop you off near it. Just a quick jump for you acrobats."

"Ready?" Lightning asked as the Lady Luck sailed up to the tower. Apparently uninterested in Hope's answer, she opened the door just as he opened his mouth, and the wind stole his breath and voice.

Dajh laughed at the wind, and his mirth followed Hope and Lightning as they leapt from the Lady Luck onto one of the tower's ledges. A wild feeling of falling possessed Hope, but his l'Cie reflexes saved him, as they always did. He landed on the ledge and scrabbled at loose stones until Lightning helped him find his purchase. Grit blew into his face, and Hope coughed to clear his lungs before following Lightning. She climbed towards the tower's opening-a crumbled wall, worn down by time. Hope wondered if this tower might be older than Taejin's Tower.

"It's dark. Be careful," Lightning murmured as she disappeared inside the opening.

Hope climbed through the opening a moment later. Lightning had not lied-the diffuse light from outside only stretched a few feet inside the opening. The further Hope moved inside, the more the darkness swallowed him. He could hear his and Lightning's footsteps echoing on stone, but as they quested further in the dark, disorientation settled over Hope. He could feel cool stone against his fingertips when he stretched his hand out, but there appeared no end to the tunnel. He could tell it curved, but he had no idea where. Left, right, up, down-all these directions seemed meaningless in the dark.

"Here," Lightning said, still ahead of him. Hope wondered if she ever felt disoriented in the dark. "I found something. Some sort of knob or button. Maybe if I push it in-"

A loud rumbling sound interrupted her, and Hope gripped the wall beside him as the floor shook beneath his feet. He prepared for the worst, for the dark void to open up beneath him and swallow him whole, but instead the wall opened. Light spilled into the corridor, revealing Lightning standing in front of a door, her hand still outstretched. A man walked towards her, his booted heels loud upon the stone.

"Now, this is a surprise," Cid Raines commented, arching a dark eyebrow as he peered inside the corridor.

Surprise would be too mild a word for what Hope felt as he saw a man he had thought dead for four years. Surprise was a description best left for the gifts his l'Cie family gave him on his birthday. His reaction to seeing Cid Raines-the man who had taken responsibility for his father's safety-was not surprise.

It was fury.

"Raines," Lightning ground out.

"You bastard!" Hope screamed, leaping forward. A Fira spell burst from his hand, though he did not recall casting it. He felt as if it were still inside him, boiling his blood.

Raines blocked the spell with a well-timed Shell. The Fira dissipated across him, crisping the edges of his dark cloak but leaving him otherwise unharmed. "Hold! I am not your enemy. Like you, I have been freed."

"To hell with that!" Hope cried. Lightning grabbed him from behind and pulled him back. It was then he realized the frost forming over his hand was a Blizzara spell. "What about my father? You were supposed to protect him! He died in your so-called safehouse!"

Raines shook his head. "I don't know. I don't remember anything after awakening from my crystal sleep."

"Crystal sleep?" Lightning asked, still holding Hope. "I thought Rygdea killed you for becoming Primarch!"

Raines blinked. "Killed me?"

Hope struggled against Lightning, but her grip was like steel. The anger drained out of him with every frustrated movement, fizzling like his Blizzara spell. However, his sense of loss remained. Because of this man's carelessness, Hope had lost his father as well as his mother. He stared at Raines with a trembling jaw.

"Rygdea never killed me. I never became Primarch." Raines took a step closer and extended his hand, as if in peace. "I don't know what you mean."

"This is going to take some explaining, then," Lightning commented.

...

The tower's interior appeared made of dull gray stone, which oddly left the inside bleaker than the ominous black and red stone that decorated the outside of the tower. The lack of lighting only added to the interior dreariness. Even with a burning torch in every sconce, shadows clung to the vaulted ceiling and along the cracked and aging wall.

The dining table had worn away at the edges, but Hope felt no dust on the table or the stone chair he sat on. He knew it was silly, to be in an ancient tower with a man thought dead until recently, thinking about dust, but it seemed easier than thinking of anything else.

Raines seemed genuinely confused by their story. As Lightning explained the fate of Cocoon, he glanced about the room, eyes darting around as if to process the information faster. She told Raines how they all killed Orphan, how Fang and Vanille saved Cocoon as Ragnarok afterwards, how Fang and Vanille awoke all the l'Cie from their crystal forms and set them free, and how all the surviving l'Cie had exiled themselves from the survivors of Cocoon to avoid violence.

Hope listened to all of this, adding nothing, wondering if all his emotions had abandoned him for more fertile grounds. Raines' shadow stretched into Hope's lighted area. He looked up.

For a moment, Raines glanced down at Hope with a furrowed brow. The light glittered off the silver buckles on his belt, and his clothes seemed rather clean and well-kept for a man living out in the middle of nowhere-almost brand new. "I am sorry for your father's loss. I had no idea-"

"Don't talk about it. Please," Hope replied, preferring the numb state he had settled into.

"But you do need to start talking about other things," Lightning told Cid. Her arms lay crossed under bosom, and her blue eyes seemed sharper than ever. "Like how you survived, for one."

Raines rubbed his lips. Then he began to pace, his long legs moving in stiff military fashion. "There isn't much to tell, I'm afraid. Barthandelus said he brought me back as a puppet to become Primarch? He lied. It must have been some sort of imposter or illusion. I was in crystal form the entire time-I know nothing of being Primarch or even what happened to the Calvary." He stared down at the floor. "Knew, rather. I suspected them all dead, but Cie'th-" He sighed.

Lightning scowled. "Fal'Cie smoke and mirrors. We all thought your 'resurrection' was odd."

"To say the least. I awoke in the Fifth Ark about four years ago, same as you." The ghost of a smile passed over Raines' face. "I heard the voice of your friends, Fang and Vanille. They told me our dream had been realized, and our purpose fulfilled. Cocoon had been saved from the tyranny of the fal'Cie. My life was mine to do with as I pleased."

Lightning exchanged a glance with Hope, for this had been almost exactly what happened to them.

"When I emerged from the Ark," Raines continued, "I found myself in the wreckage of Cocoon. I believe your friends freed me some time after Cocoon had evacuated-thanks to your story, I now believe they did it to protect me from the repercussions of my imposter's actions."

Lightning nodded. "It took the survivors less than a month to clear out Cocoon-without fal'Cie power and support, the place dried up."

"Yes, it certainly was a lifeless husk when I emerged. I salvaged what I could of food, clothing, water, and supplies, and set out. I apparently avoided most of the Cocoon survivors, and what few people I met, well-they tried to kill me. I now understand why if they thought I was the Primarch who failed them. It took me a year of travel, but I wound up here."

"What is this place?" Lightning asked. She uncrossed her arms and pushed herself off the table to glance around the dining room. "Dajh said he sensed fal'Cie presence. I don't see anything like that, unless you're hiding it."

"I am not sure what this place is, but there are indeed fal'Cie here. Observe." Raines gestured at an ornate and rusted dumbwaiter door. "Three cups of hot saju tea, please."

The dumbwaiter door rumbled to life, and its ornate patterns glowed. The door slid up and revealed three steaming cups on a silver tray. Behind the tray, the polished metal interior revealed a human-shaped face on the back wall. Raines took the tea tray out, and the rusty door slid shut.

"A fal'Cie!" Hope cried, belatedly. All other thought seemed to pause and reroute itself to cope with this revelation. He had not seen a Pulse fal'Cie in years, not since they had headed east. This small fal'Cie did not produce the fear and awe the larger ones always had, but tension still spread through his body.

"Yes, your powers of observation are astounding," Raines remarked and set the tray down on the table by Hope. He sighed. "Forgive me, that was sarcastic and inappropriate."

Hope blinked. "Ah," he responded eloquently.

"I suppose what you mean to ask is why there is a fal'Cie who produces food here, much like Carbuncle once did in your home town?" Raines handed Hope a cup of the tea. It felt hot against Hope's hands and smelled of real saju. "A reasonable question. But one I don't have the answer for."

"You set us up for the fal'Cie again, didn't you?" Lightning ground out. She whipped out her gunblade as quick as her name and pointed the tip at Cid's throat. "Lies and deceit. You never change."

Raines did not appear concerned. He lifted a cup of tea. "If you'd like the last cup, Lightning, you're welcome to it." He glanced at Hope. "It's not poisoned. Drink up."

Hope neither drank nor set the cup down. "Answer her question, please."

"Since you asked politely." Raines glanced at Lightning and took a sip of his tea. "There are many fal'Cie here. Easily two dozen. All of the minor and mindless variety found in Cocoon that once made our food, our clothes, formed our bulwarks, opened our doors, and even maintained our climate control. The fal'Cie here were designed to care for this tower and its denizens. Denizens who have long since died out, and the fal'Cie, as you can see by the tower's condition, have suffered without anyone to care for."

"But why are they here?" Hope asked.

"I don't know." Raines took another sip of his tea and studied Hope's face. "I wish I did. I arrived here through ground floor entrance, which I found in the wooded canyon valley below. I fought my way up through several floors of decidedly unpleasant automata. When I reached these top levels, I was quite surprised to find them designed for human residency. I admit that I'm very much a product of Cocoon. I far prefer living here, being cared for by fal'Cie, to constantly wandering Gran Pulse in search of my next meal."

"There's no other fal'Cie here?" Lightning demanded. "Just the lower hierarchy?"

"Yes. And even their numbers are depleted." Raines gestured at the torchlit walls. "I think the lighting fal'Cie died before my arrival. It's difficult to interrogate these fal'Cie. Instead of answering my questions, they keep asking what I would like to eat or wear."

Lightning glared fiercely at Raines. "If you're lying to us-"

"Yes, yes. I'm sure I will find my head in my lap." Raines tore his gaze from Hope and onto Lightning. "I swear to you, I am no longer your enemy. You reminded me what it was like to have my own will. And I owe your two friends my very existence-since I cannot repay them, you are all I can repay."

"But why send the distress signal if you're so comfortable here?" Hope asked. He felt oddly neglected without Raines' attention fixed on him.

"Well, that I can explain." Raines set his empty cup back on the tray and rewarded Hope with his gaze again. "I was lonely here, with only fal'Cie to talk to-and fal'Cie no brighter than a well-trained sheep, at that. I hoped other humans might come here and stay with me."

"How convenient," Lightning spat, though she lowered her gunblade. "You want to stay here? Did you forget that the Cocoon fal'Cie only took care of us to use us as sacrifices to the Maker? What do you think these are here for? And what if a real fal'Cie threat shows up?"

"I've been here almost three years, and I haven't seen any other fal'Cie. I suppose it could be a set-up, but why? I doubt more than a score of people could fit in the tower's upper levels comfortably, and that's hardly a big enough sacrifice to warrant attention from the Maker."

"You could always be lying. Setting us up."

"Yes. I could be." Raines gestured at Hope's cup. "Your tea's gone cold."

Hope glanced down at his cup, wondering what to think of all this. Something seemed extraordinarily suspicious about minor fal'Cie caring for parts of a tower designed so humans could live comfortably, yet Hope could think of no reason why Raines would betray them again. Barthandelus was dead, and though he once fought as their enemy, Raines had crystallized because of his human passions-not his l'Cie Focus. Hope took a sip of the tea. It tasted just like the saju tea his father would drink for breakfast-bittersweet, yet gentle in flavor.

"If you like, you can stay here and see for yourself. You defeated Orphan and many beasts of Pulse. I'm sure you can handle anything, even if I should turn out to be a liar and a traitor once again," Raines said, his tone dour, though his gaze remained intent-and on Hope.

"Gran Pulse." Lightning glared at Raines. "It's Gran Pulse." An insistence that they all kept, in honor of Fang and Vanille.

"Gran Pulse, then," Raines said with a nod.

Hope set his cup of tea down. "Lightning, why don't we call up Sazh? Tell him we can make some yute cookies for Dajh and sleep in a real building tonight?"

Lightning hesitated, then she nodded. "If you trust him, then," she said, before pulling out her communicator.

Hope smiled, realizing that Lightning trusted his intuition. That had to be his greatest accomplishment yet in life. He turned his smile on Raines. "Now, about those yute cookies."

...

To be continued...