Hey guys. :3 Sorry, it completely escaped my mind that I should've written something about the story in the first chapter, so I'm sorry. XD Anyway, I watched some of the Final Fantasy XIII-2 walkthrough on youtube, and while the graphics were great, and the battles scenes were pretty darn awesome, the story line wasn't exactly what I had in mind. After the first game ended, so many things could've happened between these characters, and for some reason, I always envisioned them staying together. I personally think they brought Lightning to the future so he and Hope could get it on without it being strange, and I guess that could be a legitimate reason, but I just didn't like it as much as FF13. Maybe it was because Serah was the main character, and she wasn't really one of my top five favorites. It was pretty cool seeing each character in the future and how they're grown since the experience though.
Anyway, I'm not exactly sure where this story will land, but I plan to keep working with it. Now, I'm also working on other stories too, so if they are slow at coming out, sorry. D:
I hope you enjoy chapter two!
BY THE WAY: While I'm writing from Dahj's point of view I'm retraining myself from large vocab words, and write in a way that makes it seem like a child would describe it. :3
Disclaimer: I don't own the game, nor its characters.
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Hope was falling through the darkness, suddenly unaware of who he was, and his purpose. He simply glided upon the air, going farther into the endless abyss. His ears begun to ring dreadfully, and Hope quickly realized that he was being smothered by blackness. He began to choke, and desperately attempted to catch his breath, but nothing worked. A sudden fear clenched at his insides. Was this death?
"HELP!" he cried pathetically, reaching out to anything that could pull him out, and save him.
He knew no one heard, and that's when he started to panic. What if he was already dead? What if this was hell, and he was stuck there for eternity? The thought alone was petrifying. He looked around, finding everything to be the same. Dark. However, he heard something that immediately knocked the fear from within him. He listened to his heartbeat, it was quick and erratic, and Hope knew that he was still alive. Though why he was there, he didn't know.
"Where am I?" he asked aloud. A small hole of light burst through the darkness below him, and he swam down towards it with pure excitement, yearning to find his way back to wherever he came from. When he finally reached the small speckle of light, he felt a strange pulling sensation, tearing him away from the darkness, and before he knew it, the scenery changed. Images overwhelmed his mind, images of the most horrible.
War. Blood. Death. Anger. Pain. Destruction. Cocoon. Vengeance. Wounds. Explosions. World domination. Fighting. Tears. Helplessness. L'Cie.
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Snow was the first one to react the moment Hope dropped to the floor like a rag doll. He knelt down beside the younger boy. He remained unmoving, and Snow took note on how pale Hope was. He began to yell his name, shaking his shoulder roughly. When that didn't work, he moved onto lightly tapping the side his face which he noticed was colder than usual. He paid little attention to Lightning, who whispering something into Hope's ear, and Serah who ran from the living room to find a wet compress. Sazh had hastily pushed a pillow beneath Hope's head and began cursing under his breath. Being a single father, he's had to deal with everything tossed at him that had to do with his son. The first time Dajh had gotten sick was possibly one of the most terrifying moments of his life. He remembered it being a slight cold. He sneezed, coughed, and complained of being plugged up, but after a few days it had progressed into a raging fever, throwing up, and nightmares. He panicked of course, and brought him to the emergency room. He'd gotten the flu, and the doctors had given him some antibiotics that worked to bring his fever down. He was better within days, though the experience still haunted him to this day.
"What's wrong with him?" Dajh, who had long forgotten the card game, sobbed. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew that his friend was in pain! He looked at the rest of the people in the room, and he cried even harder when he realized no one else knew what was wrong with him either. Lighty (his nickname for Light), who was usually calm and collected forgot all of her pride at that moment. Her eyes were wide and frantic, her voice cracking at the attempt to keep from yelling. Dajh knew whatever happened to Hope, it was nothing good. His daddy wrapped his arms tightly around him for the second time this evening, which he found odd. Since he was freed from the pretty crystal, his dad had been awfully touchy, always being reminded on 'how much daddy loves him'. Dajh knew things were getting worse again, he just didn't understand why.
"Come on, buddy, wake up. Open your eyes," Snow urged. He was just about ready to yell when he heard a quiet groan come from Hope. At first he wasn't sure if he'd heard correctly, so he leaned in closely and listened again.
"I'm sorry," Hope moaned. Snow felt an unnatural relief, as did the rest of the room. Lightning squeezed the teenage boy's hand tightly inside of hers, and brought it to her lips where she placed a small kiss on his knuckle. (I don't so much look at them as lovers, more like a brother/sister or a mom/son relationship, but if you really want them to be together in the story, I won't stop you. XD) She was so caught up on getting her heartbeat back under control that she nearly missed the look of pain that crawled upon Hope's face.
"Are you alright?" she asked softly, gently pushing the hair out of his eyes. Hope still seemed to be confused as to where he was. His eyes were blinking rapidly to adjust to the light that issued from the lamp a few feet away from them. His breathing was shallow and quick, as though he'd just run a good distance, and a sheet of cold sweat drenched his face. Serah moved cautiously to press the wet washcloth to his face, wiping the perspiration away.
"M' arm," Hope frowned. A strange pain radiated up from his forearm, and while it wasn't as horrible as what he'd felt before, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park. He attempted to lift his head to look at the problem, but failed to as he realized his body felt as heavy as lead, pinning him to the soft carpet beneath him, which surprisingly felt cool against his exposed skin. His eyes, which had finally grown used to the light in the room, focused in on from Snow, to Lightning. Both of them looked weary from the events that had just progressed before them, though neither of them spoke. Snow slowly lifted Hope's arm, and Hope heard a distinct gasp in shock emit from the usually Happy-Go-Lucky guy's mouth. His eyes grew to the point that Hope thought they would fall out, and prepared himself for the worst.
"Damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT," Snow screamed, jumping to his feet. Hope couldn't hear anyone else's reactions besides his, because it was so terribly loud. He stomped his feet, he punched everything near him, he smashed his fist through the wall. Hope's fear had been proven at that point. Those images he'd seen in that dark, ominous world, hadn't actually been images. It had been his focus, just as the first time. Hope knew the dream felt familiar, as though he'd seen it before.
But how? It had no sense. How could he have been branded by an invisible enemy, unseen by everyone? How was it possible to become a l'Cie without having some sort of physical force persuading this change? Most importantly, how could these marks come back in such a short time, or even at all? The focus was completed, the world was saved.
"How?" Lighting murmured, who was utterly horrorstruck. There was always a reason behind everything that happened. Not everything had a distinct timeline, but there was always a reason. Even now, thinking back on it, she didn't know exactly what came to pass first. Had the purge caused the branding? Vise versa? Had it been the Fal'Cie to start that massacre, or the people of Cocoon? Had she of become a l'Cie even if Serah had never come to such a terrible fate?
So many unasked questions. So many points, that very possibly couldn't be answered. Nothing added up, not a single point in time had any of them, besides the bad feeling Hope had experienced, gotten any sort of clues that the same disaster would strike more than once.
"Why?" Serah whispered, "why is this happening to us again?"
That was a question no one could answer, not even her big sister, who she looked up to in every aspect. Serah rarely saw Claire's face anything but cold, and stern. Ever since Hope and the others came into her life, she smiled a lot more, she even laughed. It was the most amazing thing Serah had seen happen in the time since their parents had died. The only emotion that was rarer than happiness was fear, or any sign of distress. Before she had turned to crystal, she saw it in her eyes.
Her body felt weak though Snow was grasping her tightly against him, whispering frantically. She suddenly felt very tired, and was slowly getting dragged down to the depths of sleep. Serah knew this was the end, she had completed her focus, no matter how badly she wanted to prevent it. She would've rather gone Cie'th than bringing her fiancé into this mess. She felt so worthless, she knew her time was limited, and the amount of time it would take to explain was too catastrophic. The look on Lightning's face frightened Serah. It was one that was unfamiliar, foreign. For one ghastly moment, it reminded the young girl the night the doorbell had rung, and a few minutes later seeing her older sister, stumbling into the room, pale and disoriented, mumbling nonsense about their parents. She was brought back to reality as she felt hot tears burn her tear ducts and the last thing she remembered was staring in the eyes of her dear sister, and the love of her life.
Lightning's expression mirrored the one from her memory, and she shivered inwardly. She suddenly realized that the riots lately had not been because they were angry. The civilians were scared, some of them must have been branded somehow, going through the same exact situation as their's, and didn't know how to handle it. Suicide rates had suddenly spiked within the passed few weeks, and no one knew why. It was very possible that the people who had seen their brand panicked and killed themselves. Hope had been right to be untrusting towards the new leaders of Cocoon. Instead of dealing with the situation, they've simply brushed it off, as though it were nothing to worry about.
"We have to get outta here!" Sazh demanded in a hard tone, "if this is happening to Hope, there's a good chance the rest of us will go back to being l'Cie, and we can't wait until then to ditch down! I say we pack our stuff and run to the hills."
"Run?" Hope murmured wearily, "if we all end up l-like this again…why would we run? We have to complete our focus…"
Sazh looked enraged as he stared at the small boy who still remaining lying on the ground.
"You think we'll actually make it out this time around? It took all the luck and skill we had to beat it last time, and I know damn well what'll happen if we don't-but I can't take the risk. My son needs me, and if there's something I can do to prevent him from turning back, I'll do it. No one will touch him again."
Lightning was on her feet by now, staring down at Sazh, glaring daggers, "you actually think leaving will accomplish anything? If we turn back, it doesn't matter where we are. This disease is already in our body, flowing through our veins. If you can't deal with that, then you're just as bad as the people who run this place."
"Shut your mouth! You think that staying here will do us any good either? If we turn back, who will be the first to know? You think that they'll just us meander around, supposedly "infecting" over people? They probably already know about Hope, and you're all sitting here on your asses like you've got all the time in the world to just lounge about."
It was Snow's turn to step in as a jab of agitation sent him over the edge. He had been at the window, staring out it, half tempted to shatter the weak thing just before Sazh went into a rage.
"And you think leaving the only support you have is smart? You think that taking your son away and running will only improve your chances for living? I thought we said we would ALWAYS stay together through the hard time. Now get a grip, and think this over, because I'm fully prepared to punch the living daylights out of you."
Dajh was close to tears again after seeing his Daddy scream like that. He knew he was scared, he knew someone was going to come after them again. Dajh thought back to the mean lady that was almost always by his side when he'd turned into crystal. Was it going to be someone that heartless? Or like the other old man? The look in his eye had been really scary, it lacked any sort of emotion. Dajh knew the man wasn't human, because humans couldn't float on the air. Whenever he was around, he could feel something evil about him, and it was frightening.
"Daddy please," Dajh begged, "no more yelling. Please don't make us run away. The mean people will get us."
Before Sazh even had time to open his mouth, a loud explosion came from just outside the door, which shook the foundation of the house. The reaction was immediate. Snow scrambled towards the door to see who it was. He was unsurprised when he was a large ship drifting in the sky, the guns locked directly on the room in which they were in. Lightning read his face almost instantly, and she pushed Serah towards the back door, and pulled Hope onto her back.
The group of people hardly had time to make it out before the house burst into flames from another shot, and they ran into a small nearby forest to hide, and think of a plan. They couldn't stay in Cocoon, that much was certain, but they had to stay, to complete their focus. It was impossible choice. It was like picking a fast death, or a slow one.
Hope felt his eyes begin to flutter shut as Lighting ran with him on her back. He'd become so overly worried by what had unraveled through the night, and felt the best way to deal with it was through welcoming the darkness that yearned to overtake him. The last thing he saw was a flash of green and brown from the trees that quickly zoomed by his head.
Sorry, I know the end of the chapter was kind of weak, but I was tired, and I had to get ready for school. XD I'm so sorry for keeping all of your lovely people waiting for the second chapter, but I've been busy with the play (Seussical!) at school, and it's finally show week!
I'll try to get the next chapter out as quickly as possible, but I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to. Please review, I'd really like to know what I'm doing right, and what I could improve!