Hello! This is a post Lightning Returns fanfic that follows Hope and his experiences. I kinda got this idea of a fic after trying to torture my friend and fellow user Thunder of Friendship. What if Lightning had no memories of the new world? And what if Hope was the one to first find that out?

It was a warm June day and the sun was shining, yet Hope did not feel the warm rays. In fact, while he was pleasantly warm in his light blue button up shirt and khaki pants, he felt cold on the inside.

Six months. Six months since he first came to the new world that Lightning, him, and everyone that had fought so hard for. The last thing he remembered was flying up in streaks of light of blue and green, going towards Lightning's outstretched arms that waited for him above…

And then he came here. In a place known as France. He woke up, and before he knew what was going on, it was like his body knew what to do. He got dressed, went on the train, and then went to work. He was Hope Estheim, researcher Academia Inc., and he was already rising in the ranks with hopes to become a head researcher. He was born in Orleans, to Nora and Bartholomew Estheim. He went to university in Paris. For a few days, he completely thought this was his life. He was just a researcher.

And then he remembered. He remembered Cocoon, the purge, the fal'Cie that started his journey. Then memories of Light, Sazh, Vanille, Fang and Snow. He remebered becoming a leader of humanity, helping Noel and Serah, and guiding everyone after the chaos flooded. He vividly recalled the loneliness, the phantom, and the pain at Bhunivelze's hands. Then the last thirteen days, guiding Lightning, fading away, and finally Bhunivelze's downfall.

Hope didn't understand at first. Why did he have two sets of memories? His memories of the old world came flooding back, and he recognized the faces of some of his colleagues. But when he questioned them about the old world, they stared at him like he was delusional and gone mad. He quickly realized that most people didn't have memories of the old world. The new world came with a price, and the price was those memories. These people had the same bonds, the same positions as before, but without all the pain of the old world, of the wards that existed. These people were happy, ordinary, and clueless.

But Hope was not happy with that. He did not want to sit in the laboratory day in and day out and be happy with that. He had to find his old comrades.

The first one he found was Serah. Hope's job required lots of research, and many of the times in cooperation or at the University of Paris. When he stepped off the train from Chantilly into Paris, he bumped into Serah. Quite literally. He didn't watch where he was going and he walked straight into her shoulder. When he sputtered an apology, Serah turned and saw him, and her eyes lit up with recognition. They were very close to, how would you say it, "freaking out" about finding each other, but did so quietly in a cafe when they had lunch. It turned out Serah was there studying language arts with hopes of becoming a teacher. Snow was living close by to Paris, and was in contact with Serah.

When Hope talked of his memories of the old world, Serah looked relieved. She revealed that she too, had memories of the old world and so did Snow. She knew that most people did not. The two of them quietly agreed that not knowing of the events and wars were better for everyone, and later that day parted ways.

Hope did lots of tracking. Snow was easy to find from Serah, and then Sazh was found working for an engineering company. Fang and Vanille were next to be found, living in Perpignan near the Spanish border where it was warm. Noel and Yeul proved harder to find, but at last Hope found them in a high school in Lille. He was quite happy to find his parents also well and good living in Toulouse.

However, six months had gone by, and there was no word of Light.

That brought Hope to today. He was in Paris for a summit in recent discoveries in biotechnology, yet his heart wasn't in it. He might've been, back in the days he had no memories of the old world. But seeing how backwards the technology here was compared to Cocoon, made him very bored. The reason he was promoted so swiftly was that he "discovered" and "invented" several advances to the technology, but truth be told, it was just him remembering his old research notes. It also wasn't like he could just introduce several theories, there were tests to be run, experiments to be done, all to prove the theories he already known to exist and work. Research was a rehash of everything he had learned back in Cocoon's high school.

Paris was not new to him, but on this particular Saturday, he walked in the Tuileries Garden, among the green grass, and beautiful fountains. There were multitudes of people milling, children laughing, and tourists pointing at different things and talking in a myriad of world languages. Hope wanted to come here to see the people, to remind himself of the world he had made with everyone. Yet, he was totally alone. He occasionally called Fang, Noel, Sazh and Snow to talk to them, but they had their own lives. Noel was working hard to get into university, Snow was looking for work, Sazh had Dajh to raise, and Fang was settling into her new life with Vanille. Serah was the most accessible and Hope had lunch with her from time to time, but he wished that everyone was closer to him.

Light would have liked this, Hope thought as he spied the pink water lilies floating serenely in the fountain. One day Light divulged to him her love for flowers, and that her favourites were the roses, magnolias, and water lilies that grew in Bodhum's warm climate. He couldn't help but think of her, and the shade of her rose-coloured hair as he gazed into the water. Hope sighed, ruffled his silver hair, and sat on a bench, looking out onto the park.

He looked again, at the smiling faces to people….

And then it hit him like an electric jolt. He saw it, the unmistakable rose coloured hair that only two people he knew possessed. It waved in the wind, as a slim figure in a white blouse and light white jacket with fashionable jeans walked by on the other side of the park road. He didn't see her face, but he knew the quirk, the way she pushed back her bangs and smoothed them out as her curls blew around the breeze.

It was Light. It was her.

Hope's heart pounded, and he leaped off the bench with more energy than he had all month. A grin stretched across his face and his heart felt like it would burst in joy.

"Light!" He shouted as he ran close to her. "Light! It's me!" But the rose-haired woman did not turn around, and for a moment he felt fear. Could it be that I was mistaken? Hope thought. No I can't be wrong, it has to be her!

"Light please! It's Hope!" He shouted again, more desperately than before. Was she avoiding him? Thanks to his running, he was caught up, and tapped her on the shoulder. "Light I was looking all around for you—"

The woman turned around. It was Light. The same curls, the same blue eye the colour of the sky. Yet this wasn't Light. The woman standing before him had an open expression, and a smile stretched across her features, as easily as it would've been for a child. There was a dancing mischief in the way her eyes moved, and a twirling grace when she turned around.

"Light, I um, called your name, but I didn't, uh, know if…uh…you heard." Hope stammered awkwardly. Light smiled at him, but it was the polite look of a stranger, and she looked at him quizzically, with her head tilted to one side.

"Sir, don't mind be asking, but who are you?" She said.

"Do…do you not know me?" Hope began to feel cold ice drip down his spine. "Light…I…I'm Hope Estheim."

The women looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry sir, but this is the first time we've met. I think you have the wrong person. My name is Claire."

Thanks for Reading! If you would review, it would mean a lot!