Author's Note: I love Snow in Lightning Returns. I love Lumina, and I love Lightning Returns in general. It's a good finale for a series.
The beginning sequence is now a little drabble of its own in the setting of Final Fantasy XIII. It's called 'Dreams...' '...of a Monster' is therefore the original, intented complete piece.
Written to I have to let you go, song from Nightwish's Imaginaerum The Score, and Path of the Wolf by Aephanemer.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in Final Fantasy XIII / Nova Crystallis world.
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Bodhum
"Snow?"
"Snow?"
"Hmmmmm..." came the mumbling sound from the pillow. Snow rolled his head to where Serah's voice was. She was out of bed, clearly.
"Get up, come see this."
"Get up? What time is it?"
"Come on, hurry!"
Serah apparently wasn't aware Snow was still sleeping, so she had to quite literally pull him up by his arms out of bed.
Snow yawned loudly and rubbed his eyes, slowly making note that Serah was completely dressed up and with a clear full energy. Quite opposite of him, bare chest and dragging his feet. He probably overslept, then...
"What happened?"
"Come see!" she insisted, making an exaggerated sound of effort as she pulled him. She managed to bring him to the door and opened it, letting the fresh air come in and leave his skin in goosebumps. The brightness outside blinded him momentarily. "Look how beautiful it is."
The sky was a mixture of pink and orange, bright and softly changing into a fresh blue over the sea. The houses were all dyed pink as the sun slowly appeared behind them. The water reflected the midst of the color change, a sea of rose-orange-yellow-blue waves that were a gentle rumble, as if they too were just waking up. It was really nice, actually...
"Atchoo!"
...and really freezing.
Well, not freezing freezing, but as if the sunrise barely peeking behind the houses wasn't enough to tell, that chilly air screamed it was way, way too soon to be out of bed.
"What time is it?" Snow muttered again, yawning right afterwards. A quicker shiver ran through him as a cold gush went by.
"6:35 in the morning."
"Uh?!" She was joking, right? "Serah..." he didn't complain further because he sneezed again.
Serah laughed and pulled him by the hand, which considering their weight and size differences, was more than an impressive achievement. But it was too early for Snow to fully appreciate his girlfriend's new strength.
"Come see! It's a really beautiful sunrise, come on!"
"I'm seeing it, really nice and chilly and cold and it's too early, can we go back to bed now?"
"This is the start of a great day, Snow! Be less lazy too," Serah continued. Her task became more complicated when they reached the sand and their feet burried under their weight, so she ended up giving up and deciding that was the best place to be. "See?"
"I'm seeing it..." Snow hummed as he streched up, eyes closed from a yawn and head falling back.
Serah rested her hands to her waist and she shook her head, laughing. Then she saw the opportunity.
Snow let out an actual startled shriek as Serah literally jolted over him, catching off guard and making him lose balance. The mightly leader of the resistance group NORA, 200cm of mighty hero-essness, fell ungracefully to the sand out of the attack of a 164cm woman who giggled in triumph.
There was no one around to see that particularly strange episode.
"Can you look up now?" Serah asked again, brushing off the sand that had fall to his face and hair.
Snow did as told, and looked at Serah.
"I'm looking."
"Ah, don't be silly. Look at the sky!"
Finally after all the struggling, the now fully awake Snow sat up and appreciated the reason why Serah decided to wake him up so early.
"Beautiful, right?"
"Very pretty. But please, can you not wake me up before 8 next time?" Before Serah could answer, he picked her up on his arms, much to her surprise, and starting running to the sea.
"No, no, Snow!"
"Everytime you do it, I'll take you for a dive too!" And they both yelled as they jumped to the ice cold water.
As Snow rose from the water, he looked up and saw the brightness of the colors merging together and dawning. He turned and saw Serah rising too, and both laughed together.
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Yusnaan
As Snow opened his eyes, he looked up and saw darkness. The chains in the ceiling waved however slightly, from some gush of air that probably shouldn't be there.
He had no idea what time it was. No chilly air to tell it was morning, no windows to see any light.
No point, really.
Snow breathed in and out, slowly, and covered his eyes with his hand. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, and out.
Why the hell dream with that now? He didn't even know how long it had been. It was way too long ago. No one should live this long. Specially not alone.
No point, really.
He opened his eyes again and sat on the bed. He looked up and she was there.
Snow still had no idea who she was, where she had come from, or why she had the powers she did. Most of all, why she looked like Serah.
Suddenly, a heavy ice cold anger he couldn't quite explain took fell down his chest and he grimaced, the total opposite of the girl's expression.
"Someone's an early riser!" Lumina teased with a grin. "Here I thought I could hang out without you noticing me."
"Why would you hand out in my room?" Snow noted. He realized that more than angry, he was feeling tired. The weight wasn't anger but exhaustion. He was awake for five minutes, so that didn't foretell a good day ahead of him.
"Room? I call this a cell," Lumina bounced to the wood container boxes pilled on one side of the division and waved to the utter delipidation of a space he had turned into his quarters. She giggled softly when she pointed at the bars that were one of his walls. "Nice wall decoration here."
Snow didn't reply to her. The demon kid quickly got distracted of the surroundings and looked up.
"I specially like the chains. Why hang them? It's not like you're gonna chain yourself to the ceiling after you've sacrificed yourself, your cell is too far away from the Chaos. Do you like, do push-ups with them?"
"What do you want, Lumina?"
"Did you have a good dream?"
He certainly didn't know if she was supposed to be a penance brought by the chaos to punish his actions. He could only hope it wasn't a penance sent by Serah.
"No reply?" Lumina seemed disappointed for just a moment, but soon her expression changed again. She never looked anything by amused, and now she was hopping to try to catch the chains hung way above her, looking nothing more than a child playing. "You probably thought you couldn't even dream anymore, right? A monster shouldn't dream."
She pretended to let out a surprised gasp and giggled again.
"Oh, does that mean you're not a monster yet?"
Breathe in, and out. If he had to endure this, so be it. He pushed the bedsheet away and stood up, towering over Lumina, and went past her, ignoring the girl. She didn't sound too pleased, but then something caught her attention and she gasped.
"Ah, you are a monster, Snow."
He turned, seeing her dart in direction to the desk. When he realized what she was going to do, a jolt ran through him and the weight in his chest returned.
"Don't touch it!" Despite the shout, Lumina already had her gloved hand locked on the string, and the pendant fell and dangled in the air.
"You abandoned your pendant! You've completely abandoned Serah and your feelings for her!"
"What do you know?!" he balwed, and there was shrieking clash as ice scratched and overlapped where Lumina had been. The ice pillar threw the table flying against the wall, but the girl was gone.
Snow blinked and his arm twisted and pitched as in warning. He grit his teeth from the pain.
Lumina clicked her tongue, now sitting on one of the chains like it was a swing.
The pain brought the exhaustion back. He was so tired of having to breathe in and out. There was no use. He looked up, defeated.
"What are you, Lumina?
"Hm? Well, I'm certainly not Serah, if that's what's you're thinking."
"I know you aren't. You couldn't be more different from her."
"Bigger question though, what are you, Snow?"
Whereas before, Snow would have snorted and laughed at the useless question, now he fell silent and it was Lumina's turn to smile.
"Look at yourself. Locked away, physically and mentally, all gloomy, sacrificing yourself, that's not who you were. What are you supposed to be now? Just a pitiful mourning soul eager for its own demise?"
Snow tried to cut her off, but Lumina continued.
"You see, your life is precious. You should value it while you have it. Everything will end soon anyway after all, right?"
"Why are you here?"
Lumina hopped down the chain, softly descending to the floor while the metal clanged above her. She landed without a sound, her back turned to Snow.
"I'm just a reminder, Snow. A reminder of better days that you should hold on to instead of just tossing them aside. Serah wouldn't want that."
She turned and threw the pendant that Snow caught by reflex, not knowing what to feel about that reply. Did it mean that she brought the memory back in the dream? How? Or was she just messing with his head again?
The girl smiled again and waved, disappearing in the darkness and leaving Snow alone once more, now holding the pendant tightly in his hand.
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~the end~
Author's Note: Thanks for reading, I'd like to know what you thought of it.
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