I begin my life anew

Prologue

Serah had begun to fade from my sights, along with the others as I passed through to the new world. The fight was finally over... Everything I had to accomplish was completed and now I would be rewarded with a new beginning, a fresh start. I closed my eyes lightly just thinking of the new world and its beauties... I cracked my eyes open a touch just to have one last glance at Serah and Snow with the others, for we might be separated when we arrive but something stirred in the darkness that made my eyelids snap open. A set of armored fingers extended out of the clouded darkness and towards the others the further I became from them.

"What is that?" I shouted feeling the sudden instinct that my victory of defeating Bhunivelze was short lived. The group of people who I had come to accept as friends jerked their heads to the figure that reached out to them. The figure leaned closer to the others, exposing a face unlike Bhunivelze's, a more feminine face appeared from the darkness with a grim smirk and piercing silver eyes and didn't pay any mind to the panic that it had brought out in the others just under her nose.

With another hand emerging from the darkness, the figure placed her index finger over her glossy lips, as if to silence them. "There is nothing to fear..." She assured them nudging them all forward... They all fell from that slight nudge, they reached up screaming out in horror of the height of which they were forced to fall from. I reached out to them but they were farther away from where I floated in the air.

The echo of their voices faded after a moment, it was hard to take in such a sight... The cold grasp of this figure's hand sent chills up my spine, she neared me to her face and gave a soft smile. "I thank you for service as savior, now the chaos will no longer harm innocent souls with its madness." I tried to free myself from her grasp but it was pointless to try and escape. "In return for your service, we grant you a world in which you have fought for, but it is not a new world as Bhunivelze had promised." She said.

I stopped at that last sentence. "What do you mean not a new world?"

"We grant you a world already inhabited by a race of people, a world full of pleasure and love." Her voice was so mellow. "The inhabitants already know of your services and sacrifices, they await your presence down below..."

"How do they already know, why aren't we all being reborn?"

The figure ignored my question, "I wish you farewell for now young soul, go on, and enjoy this world." She moved me over the abyss of darkness, I panicked at the infinite height.

"Wait-" I shouted, pausing the further movement of the armored hand. I opened my mouth to speak but the only words that came out were, "What is the name of this new world?"

"Fundonia." She replied. "I bid you farewell." Her hand released me and like Serah and the others I fell into the depths of the darkness...

The prodding of my shoulder, stirred me from my state of unconsciousness. My sight was blurred, but I could fairly see petals of various flowers that stood around. Slowly I sat upward, rubbing my eyes to clear my foggy vision.

"Lightning," A familiar voice said softly. I looked to the person, and to my surprise, there stood Serah with a warm smile. "I'm so glad you're awake, get up we have so much to explore." She said tugging at my arm.

Still trying to comprehend the situation I realized Serah was pulling me from the bed of flowers. "So this is the new world?"

"Yep, it's called Fundonia." She said as she walked towards the dirt road. "I can't wait to see what this world has in store for us!"

Without having the same mindset as Serah, I began to ask, "Where's Snow and the others?"

"Snow?" She said. "He's waiting for us by the house."

"House?" I asked. "How long was I out?"

"You just arrived last night, but it's been a few months since Snow and I have been here." She said.

"Months?" I said in surprise.

"I've already gotten to see some of this world, and there's so much I've learned!" Her voice ridden with excitement. "There's so much for you to know too Light."

"Like what?"

"I'll explain later, but first we have to meet Snow!"

This reunion was something I never expected, not in the long run. I expected all of us to be separated among such a vast world, but somehow, for some reason that wasn't the case. I had met up with Snow, he was still his annoying self; his team, N.O.R.A was also in this sudden reunion. One person though I couldn't believe was standing before me, with his earthy green eyes and silver parted hair was Hope... He had been a trusted ally in the past, but after the events that followed our once close friendship, it was hard to believe him when he said he was truly Hope Estheim.

Hope had told us that he was the first to arrive to Fundonia, over a century and a half ago. At first we didn't believe him, he couldn't have lived over a hundred years in a new world uninhabited by the chaos. Mr. Estheim informed us though, that even though our physical features remained the same, we carried Fundonian blood which seems to have allowed Hope to continue living for such a longer life period.

"...So Fundonian blood, since it runs throughout our bodies we'll have the life expectancy of that of the native Fundonians." He explained.

"How long do they usually live for?" Serah asked. "I doubt it could be long."

"Oh contraire, they do live pretty long lives." He replied. "At least six hundred years, three hundred if we lived back on Nova Crystallis, every year for them is two years in normal time."

At the sound of such a thing, we all widened our eyes in disbelief. "So six hundred years?" I asked. The nod of his head seemed to bring a close to the topic...

After hearing such information it made me eager to go and see what other astounding mysteries were hidden in this alien world... After all, I still had quite a lot of time on my hands to do what I wished before my time on this world would end. Some of this time would be used to find the others who were unfortunate enough to be separated from us; Fang, Vanille, Noel, and Sazh.

At first, my time wasn't spent so much on searching for them; instead this time gave me a foreign sense of freedom, which intoxicated me to its full extent. Never was I granted such a thing, never was I granted such opportunity, never have I felt so... Happy.

Sometime later, when my mind erased the aim of finding the four missing members of our group, it felt like it wasn't even necessary to find them, they had to be feeling the similar bliss we had felt. A freedom from the Fal'cie and the threat of the Chaos, it was certainly something we all fought for, it had to be, otherwise why would we fight together?

I moved to a small house in a rustic part of the world called Baruch, a few neighbors lived on the road but I never had the chance to meet them. Out in the distance a large castle towered over the hills of Baruch, it seemed to be abandoned, perhaps part of a long forgotten dynasty of the sorts.

After beginning my settlement into this new life, a man paid me a visit. The man looked to me with a grin, his lilac eyes practically gazed into my soul. His lips moved but to me his words were inaudible, he looked all so familiar, as if we had come across paths at one point in the past.

"...I am not sure if you remember, but my name is Caius Ballad."

That's when it clicked. We had met in a distant realm, a chaotic realm, inhabited by the divine goddess, Etro. We had fought, shed blood, all for different purposes. Normally, I wouldn't even continue to share the same air with such a man, the same man who controlled the chaos and brought our former world to ruins, eventually to be non-existent. Although, something had come over me and I saw something different with Caius, I wasn't sure what it was but he certainly was not his usual self.

"Might I enter your home?" He asked after a few minutes of silence.

"...Sure." I stood aside to allow him to enter. "Make yourself at home." I said with a grin, just to make it polite.

With my acceptance to his request he entered. Caius stood by the door for a moment and observed my house, prodding little knick-knacks and such as he proceeded to the living room.

"This house is not very spacious." He said.

I closed the front door and followed him. "It doesn't need to be, it's only me living here."

Caius sat on the couch and was silent, I expected him to continue asking questions but he just sat there, like I wasn't even present in the room.

"Do you want something from the kitchen?" I asked hoping to start some sort of conversation.

"...No." He replied before continuing the awkward silence. I sat on the other end of the couch and was silent with him. It took a while before he turned to me and asked, "Did you ever have feelings for another, but didn't know how to express them?"

I was surprised by his sudden question, my head didn't move to face Caius when I finally replied, "I've had feelings for another and I do express them in some sort of way to that person... Why?"

"When we were in Valhalla... I sort of had a soft spot in my heart for a woman..." He said placing his hand over his chest.

"Yeul?" I asked.

"No... You."

"Me?" My eyes widened. "You had feelings for me?"

"Indeed I did, and I still do."

"Why did you fight so hard to kill me then?"

"I wanted to stop you from trying to ruin my goal, but that goal doesn't seem to matter much now... Now that we live in a different world." He replied with a softened tone.

My eyes met the floor, as I was unable to respond to his confession. Caius moved closer to me, I felt my chest begin to tighten. "Could you give me another chance?" He asked.

I was hesitant to answer, a tight feeling in my chest made it hard to breathe, and the lump in my throat made it difficult to finally respond. Caius sat there staring at me, awaiting my answer, I could almost feel his anxiety. "S-sure, why not?" My throat became sore.

Caius smiled, "Thank you Lightning."

My relationship with Caius started out as awkward tension; we didn't talked much but after a few years, my heart made room for him to stay. I felt that this world gave me a sense of direction, like there could be no sudden surprises or change of fate. Whatever needed to be changed, I had the power to change it on my own. This world truly was filled with love and pleasure as the armored woman had said.

A/N: Don't forget to Review and follow the story!