title: these little wonders

dedicated to: everyone i love. nutella. and to daybreaks who was kind enough to critique my story.

notes: i have no idea what i'm doing. this is new for me and i hope that this ride's going to be unforgettable.

disclaimer: i own nothing.

PROLOGUE

the hardest part is over

Hope Estheim had been, for most of his past life, utterly alone; wondering where his friends had gone to and when they would be back.

He was losing hope—every fragile shard of it—that his friends and his mother were ever coming back. He tried, oh how he tried, bringing them home. He led a scientific research group and he studied time and space continuum itself for the sake of them.

Then, when every ounce of his supposedly unwavering faith and theoretically lasting optimism were finally being sucked out of him by the sheer helplessness of his dismal situation, the countless machines in the research room beeped furiously. They were almost screaming what they had observed.

He found it funny the manner of how he ran as swift as a swallow to the monitors, complete with wide blue-green eyes. He almost-kind-of shoved his assistant, Alyssa Zaidelle, out of his path on his way.

He grabbed the desktops and he looked on the screens intently as Alyssa narrated what the engines detected. His heart began to really thump against his chest.

At first, he couldn't believe what he was seeing; what he was hearing. Alyssa babbled on but all that really stuck on his mind was: "There are two people travelling through time, sir, but only one is recognized by the system: Serah Farron."

Those two words had lighted up the fire of hope in his heart. He thought Serah's appearance under his radars was too much of a convenience that at first he had hesitated to even believe it. "What if life wants to play with me more?" he had thought suspiciously, doubtfully. But the ringing and whirring of his contraptions that served as his lifeline drowned every uncertainty and skepticism away into nothingness.

There it was—proof that he could be reunited with Lightning, Vanille, Fang, Sazh, Snow and his mother—proof that nothing really was impossible; that everything was possible.

But then he saw Serah in her pure, virtuous and angelic glory and it just made his emotions go into haywire mode. There was just too much Lightning in her that it sent him rushing toward the little Farron, grabbing her dainty, lady, hands and expressing how relieved he was with her being safe.

He told Serah and her companion, Noel Kreiss, about his research and his motives. And when he learned about their aims, he had not given himself a choice but to help. He wanted to see everyone again, feel the same invincibility that exhilarated through him when he was with them.

And then came the seemingly infinite battles. Hope was tired but he was far from losing what he held so dear: his desire for the time when everyone was still alive.

The skirmishes came and went. Sweat and blood dripped and were wiped clean. Wounds were treated and scars healed. Caius was defeated and Lightning was saved. The maiden, Paddra Nsu-Yeul, died one last time, because for the second time, they defied their fate. She said that she'd rather die there, than fall where she came from, claiming she disrupted the flow of time. Serah expressed her grief, saying that it was all her fault, but Yeul denied her that. She said that it was all predestined by the divine, that Serah saves her sister and that she brought peace to her friends' minds.

Paddra Nsu-Yeul died smiling like an angel.

Noel Kreiss, as Hope assumed, was back to his time. He had faded slowly moments after Yeul had died, smiling faintly at them and saying: "I'm counting on you to build a better tomorrow."

They had tainted time so greatly, as Caius said in his last breath, but Lightning stated that, "No, we didn't taint time. We painted something better."— this was what led Hope and Serah to believe that Noel was, in fact, back to a time where he would not be alone anymore.

Alyssa, on the other hand―she had been lost in the rubble of the fight and though Hope wanted to look for her, Lightning suggested that they didn't. "She's not here," she had said mysteriously, though how Lightning could possibly know; that was one topic Hope didn't want to look deep into. Yet.

His sweet, loyal assistant; never in a million years would he think that she had been spying on his research party and that she was working with that sinister Caius. Ever.

But now she was gone— gone with her master; her charming aura withered by her baleful motive.

The Goddess promised a happy ending for them if they promised not to give time-travelling a try again. She had also told them to wait.

Wait? He wanted to scream, I've waited long enough!

Another thing that the Goddess had told them was that they should have never brought back those who had already died; they could but they shouldn't.

Hope accepted this whole-heartedly, though he was dejected that his mother could not walk the face of the earth again. He wonders even now — though regretfully— how things might've been different if he didn't insist on watching those fireworks; his mother might still be alive, right? But then he wouldn't have met Lightning or Snow or Sazh or Vanille and Fang; he wouldn't had gotten the chance to have some closure with his father; he wouldn't have the chance to see Gran Pulse or Oerba.

But was his mother's death really worth all that?

No, I'm sure you would have wound up here. Don't you remember you promised me? You promised me we'd come and see Gran Pulse together.

He remembered vaguely a conversation he had with Vanille on Yaschas Massif. She said that they had promised to see Gran Pulse together possibly in another lifetime.

Was that predestined, too? He wanted to ask the Goddess but didn't have the gall to, like how he didn't have the gall to ask if he would be able to see Vanille and Fang again. He didn't know what stopped him but he had a nagging feeling that it was because he was scared, scared to know that the answer could be something he wouldn't be able to take.

And now they were back to their times, Lightning back ten years ago, Serah back seven years ago. And he was back in his original time.

When they—Lightning, Serah and Hope— said goodbye to each other, they didn't seem sad. They would see each other again, after all. They didn't have any foreboding feeling in their chests as they watched each other fade into colorful glitters dancing in the wind.