If it had been any other day, I wouldn't be telling you this. Of course, you probably don't know who I am. You just wanted answers, and I'm here to give them to you. Who am I to judge, right? That's how this whole thing started. We wanted answers, and like you, we went searching for them. The only difference being that our little adventure nearly cost the world and everyone in it their lives. You want to know how that happened. You want to know how your father died, and I'm the only one who's going to tell you, believe me.
I guess there isn't anything else for it. Obviously, you realise I'm going to have to speculate some of this, right? I wasn't there all the time. But I was there enough. I owe it to you, kid. I really do. It's my fault all this happened, so it's only right you learn the truth from me. And if you want, after I've finished, I'll let you take whatever revenge you want on me. That's a promise. Are you sure you're ready for this? Fine. Let's start with how we all met up…..
{-}
Lightning sighed as she walked along the platform to the train doors. She was wearing her Guardian Corps uniform; almost as though she had never changed from those old days as a l'Cie. She nodded to some passing men who recognised her and her rank, and as everyone around her saluted, she jumped onto the train just as it began to move. She slung off her pack from her shoulder and slid it into one of the racks above her head, and took a seat in one of the private booths the train car offered. She leant back, and cursed the sun for making the day so hot.
"This seat taken?"
She looked up. She recognised the silver hair with the wavy quality, and the tendency towards very orange clothing. She sat up, and smiled. "Hope. How've you been?"
"Not bad. You going to Oerba too?" Hope sat down. He hadn't changed much since the old days. Sure, he had grown up, but that was to be expected. It had been four years since she had last seen him. To not grow up would have been wrong. Yet he was still the same skinny boy, with the same youthful face and the calm, comforting eyes. He had built a bit more muscle from then, but that was probably the time he had spent with Snow and NORA having pounded him into shape.
"Yeah. Then back to Cocoon from there." Lightning sat back again. Hope nodded. When the planet had fallen, people had settled back into the ruins of Pulse, settling them and rebuilding them using salvaged Cocoon technology. Oerba had became a massive harbour and station now, with a large rail leading from Pulse into Cocoon, so people could contact those still on the planet. Places like the Yacchas Massif now buzzed with activity, of both soldiers seeking to make Pulse more safe, and of people colonising the covered areas.
"Back to Cocoon, eh? Then we're heading the same way. I heard from my dad back in Bodhum that there was someone looking for us, so I thought I'd check it out." Hope rubbed his forehead to wipe some sweat away. It was easily over thirty degrees Celsius, and even though they had gotten used to Pulse heat, it was still overwhelming sometimes. He sighed. "It might be good to be back in familiar places, you know?"
"Definitely." Lightning smiled. The kid had changed, perhaps. She wanted to see if his character had changed at all, but she didn't want to probe him. "So how was it, spending so much time with Snow? Two years with him…..I don't think I could possibly stand it. Just walking around with him was bad enough back then. Has being a dad changed him at all?"
"God no." Hope laughed. "He's still arrogant, cocky and brazen. But he's a good guy, and he and NORA have been making sure the settlers near Taejin's tower have been alright. It's been fun…..kinda." Hope yawned. "Exhausting though."
"What did he make you do, in the end? I remember him saying he was going to help make you stronger, seeing as you weren't able to use magic anymore, but we stopped talking for a while." Lightning raised an eyebrow at the boy when he smirked. "What?"
"Nothing, it's just that I know why you stopped talking." Hope shook his head. "He didn't really make me do anything. He made me do everything." He sighed, and stretched his arm up. Lightning couldn't help but look at his stomach, which was now covered in muscle rather then just skin. It also had a single scar, stretching from one end to the other in a diagonal mark. He looked at her, and she almost blushed. Almost. "He was alright," he went on, chuckling. "He and the others whipped me into shape, in no short order. I ached for months after I got away."
"Well, you shouldn't have gone then, should you?" asked Lightning, mockingly. Hope laughed. The two of them hadn't seen each other in years, and yet they still acted like best friends. Then again, even after the events of the Falling, Hope was the only one she had ever opened up to. Even Serah didn't understand the way she felt about things these days. Lightning looked at the young man. "So what did you end up doing after the training?"
"Oh, a little of this, a little of that. I thought about joining the Guardian Corps, to help protect New Eden on the Central Expanse, but then I realised that I would be better off joining the local contingent of the Hunter Corps. You know, the soldiers who go out into the world and gather information about monsters and take down groups of beasts?" Hope sighed. "I wish I hadn't, especially," he said, pointing to his scar, "During Behemoth mating season."
"Ouch. That's how you got that thing?" Lightning shook her head. "Idiot, you should have known by then that-" she stopped, like the train did. It didn't slow, it just ground to a halt immediately. On a track several hundred feet from the ground, that wasn't a very good thing to do. Lightning fell forward, off her seat, and Hope caught her with one arm. She was surprised. Before, she probably would have broken the boy if she had fallen on him.
"You alright?" asked the young man.
"Yeah. Thanks for the save," she said, struggling up with his help. They looked out of the window. They had stopped in the middle of the sky, above the Archlytte Steppes. This posed an interesting dilemma, as now every Zirnitra in the area would be bearing down on them. Lightning swore loudly and ran out of the booth, into the corridor. Hope followed her.
"What are we doing?" he asked, as always blindly following her. Then again, she usually knew what she was going to do. She thought about it, and the headed down the corridor, pushing through the milling crowds of people who were just as confused as she was.
"We're going to go see why the train stopped," she said, opening the door to the next car. Hope grabbed her and pulled her back just in time, as a large mouth grabbed the train car in the middle and tore it off the track, going up, breaking it away from the other cars. It wasn't any kind of creature that Lightning had ever seen before. It looked like some kind of Cie'th, so she reached for her Blazefire Sabre, only to remember it was in her pack. Why did she have to stop carrying it now?
"Here you go," said Hope, holding out her sword. "I thought you might want it, even though you left it back there, so I took it out of your pack." She took it, and nodded in thanks. Unfortunately, the large Cie'th was already to high up in the sky to shoot well, and Lightning watched in horror as it dropped the train car, which plummeted towards the ground and crashed onto the Expanse with a large explosion. Hope pointed and shouted, as the Cie'th came back around for another approach, towards their car.
Lightning fired off a shot at it, but the Cie'th dodged and sped towards them with a turn of speed Lightning would have considered impossible. She was just about to swear when another shot rang out, this one hitting the breaks at the end of the car, which slid along the tracks and hit the one that had previously been cut off from it. As they slammed together, the motion was enough to start them rolling down the slope of the track, evading the Cie'th, which flew past the train and down towards the ground.
Lightning and Hope were flung across from one car to the next as they slammed together, but someone caught them and dragged them inside. Lightning looked up as the man who had save their car slid a gunblade into a holster like Lightning's. He was a tall man, thin like Hope and with muscles that looked like they could punch through steel. He had bleach-blonde hair messy and swept to the side, and a black jacket over a white undershirt which bore what looked like a NORA cat logo on the chest. He wore baggy black trousers and military-issue boots, and had on similar gloves to the ones Hope wore, with white palms but black backing. He was quite handsome, and his face radiated youthful energy just as his eyes seemed to radiate warmth and friendliness.
"You two okay?" he asked, leaning down to help Lightning up. "I'm Trayze Bardow, with NORA. Sorry about that. Didn't realise what was going on till it happened, and then I only saw the one option," he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he helped Hope up too. His voice was a little raspy, yet it had no accent and seemed to be seducing the ear that listened to it. He smiled at them. "Anyway, that should keep us away from that thing long enough."
"Why are you smiling?" asked Lightning, horrified at him. "Those people down there just died, and you're smiling?" Lightning grabbed him by the shirt, but although she made to pull him back and strike him, she found herself unable to even make him budge a little. He stopped smiling.
"Sorry. But let's deal with that Cie'th first, shall we? Then we can get along with hitting each other later." Trayze moved to the door that Lightning and Hope had fallen through, and grabbed the ladder beside it. He looked to them both. "Are you two coming or what?" He disappeared from view, and the two of them looked at each other with shock.
"Who is that guy?" asked Lightning.
"He's with NORA, I know that. I remember Snow saying he was having his man Bardow explore the Cie'th nests on the Expanse, maybe this is the Bardow he was talking about. It would fit the story." Hope shrugged and walked over. "Anyway, he wants to help, so let him. Come on," Hope climbed up the ladder as well, disappearing. Lightning sighed. The kid had changed, after all. Before, he would have waited at the back to see what everyone else was doing, but now he was leading her into dangerous and idiotic situations.
She clambered up the ladder moments later, and Hope helped her up onto the metal roof of the train, which was moving quite quickly despite the lack of engine power. Trayze was walking ahead, disconcertingly well balanced for a man walking on a moving train down the slope of the metal roof, which was ridged and not easy to stand on. Hope and Lightning had to struggle to stand up straight, but he made it look easy.
He looked back at them, and stopped. He then looked at the sky to the left, and pointed. "It's over there!" he shouted, and ran back to them, fast for a man running up a metal slope. Hope looked just as the Cie'th curved down and headed straight for him. He raised his hand, and, feeling his Manadrive having charge, unleashed a fireball directly into it's face. It swerved, and flew around the train, coming back round on a second approach.
"Don't use lightning, Hope," said Trayze, arriving at his side and drawing his gunblade, which, unsurprisingly, was black. "It's resistant to thunder. Use fire and maybe ice magic. I'll draw it to me, you hit it's wings with spells, and Lightning can get it as it falls, alright?" he said, not waiting for a response. As it swerved back around, he swung the blade around until it changed into it's gun form, and fired. Unlike Lightning's blade, which fired single shots, his fired like an automatic rifle, firing in short bursts. It struck the Cie'th, which screeched and swerved to target him instead. He ran down the length of the train, and turned back around.
The Cie'th swooped down and over Hope and Lightning, who ducked to avoid it's talon-like feet. It hovered along the roof of the train, heading down towards Trayze, who unloaded a few more shots into it's face. It screamed again, and folded it's wings, merely dropping down towards the man. He cursed, and jumped back, landing on the metal of the train just as the Cie'th slashed with it's bladed wings, the beast flying over him by a few inches at most.
Hope flung a spell at it, but the magic just bounced off. It turned back around, speeding back through the air and towards the young man. Lightning swung up her blade, knocking down Hope and cutting the Cie'th along the stomach. As blue blood dripped over her, Lightning could feel herself being dragged away by the blade stuck between it's ribs, but Hope, sensing danger, grabbed her and dragged her back down, the blade coming free from their combined weight.
"You two alright?" shouted Trayze. Hope raised a thumb, and Trayze ran back over. He helped them up as the Cie'th came back around. It scraped it's talons along the length of the train as it opened it's mouth and screamed. Trayze groaned, pushed past Lightning, raised his free hand and clicked his fingers. A blue pulse of energy shot out into the air, and as it hit the Cie'th, the beast froze, what looked like a blue haze of energy curving across it, halting it in place. It did not root it to the spot but merely froze it, and so it plummeted down towards them.
Trayze extended his blade and, as the Cie'th fell past, spun around, his blade trailing blue blood, cutting off it's head with a curving sweep. The beast faded into black swirls of mist before it had gone a few feet, and Trayze was sheaving his blade before it had even done that. Lightning looked on in astonishment as the man walked towards them, but then the train stopped for real. It jarred immediately, and Lightning was once again flung off her feet. Unfortunately, there was nothing and no one behind her to stop her this time, and she sailed straight off the edge of the train.
"Light!" shouted Hope, and although he made a grab for her, she slipped out of his hand and fell. He then jumped after her, grabbing her in mid air as the ground got ever closer. Suddenly, just before they hit it, a cushion of purple energy appeared underneath them and slowed them, meaning that rather then splatter across the rocky terrain below, they merely softly alighted onto it. As they stood up, brushing themselves off, Trayze hit the ground next to them, his shoes crackling with Manadrive power as he hit the ground, dispersing the shock and therefore sparing his life.
"You two really aren't good on your feet, are you?" Trayze laughed, making sure they were alright. "Anyway, the word's out. Another train will be along shortly to push that one to the next station, and the engineers are going to reactivate the power." He turned around. "Looks like we're near the Maharaba underground."
"Who are you? Are you really with NORA?" asked Hope, walking over to him. Trayze looked back, a look of mock pain on his face.
"Not nice, Hope. Do I look like a liar to you?" he asked, smiling. "Yes, I'm with NORA. Snow and Gadot want me to bring you back to the NORA camp on the Eastern Tors. Hopefully, you'll be able to help us out with a little situation."
"Situation?"
"The Cie'th are approaching in massive numbers, Hope." Trayze pointed. What looked like a pillar of dust was, in fact, a large collection of flying Cie'th. "We think it might be an invasion force. The Undying are coming to wipe us out."