A/N: Many thanks to readers, reviewers, subscribers and the one and only beta. In response to Firespray, I'll try my best to stay loyal to canon and the characters therein; however, this chapter may very well evidence that I might need to work a little on pinning down the dialogue of some characters more than others. Also concerning this chapter is its format -as the ending implicates Fang and Vanille to be sentient crystals, descriptive narrative has been left out in favour of 'dialogue'.

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2

"Fang?"

"I'm all ears."

"How are you?"

"I've had better days. Course, it's nice to be able to remember the events leading up to this. What about yourself?"

"In the same boat, I guess. Only..."

"Yeah. I see what you're getting at."

"It could be worse, I mean. I'm not sure if I could stand another year with nothing but my thoughts to listen to, much less a century."

"Just you wait -I bet you'll tire of my yammering before the next rainfall-"

"Don't be like that! It's not funny!"

"Come on, Vanille. You're too easy."

"If Hope were here, he'd never-"

"Have let us go through with it?"

"..."

"Hey. I didn't mean it like that."

"It's alright. I shouldn't have thought about-"

"Vanille."

"It's unfair to just up and abandon-"

"Quit dodging around the matter."

"I don't want to miss them -it's not right to. What if he's already finished his education? What if Lightning has grandnieces and grandnephews by now? Maybe... maybe Dajh is already a grown man -an old man... Why must it hurt like this?"

"Had we done this all that time ago, it would have been the same, Vanille. We would still be leaving everyone we knew and loved behind. We might have killed a number of them, taken out a whole village along with all of Cocoon. This time around, we knew what we were getting ourselves into. They helped us realize that. Because of that, Gran Pulse is alive again. Because of that, we are still human."

"Then there's no reason to not worry."

"What's this, Missy? Last I checked, Light was right quick about taking down a Behemoth King. One-on-one -and that's not even getting started on how those lads of ours can show the Raktavija what's what."

"But that's obvious. I'm more concerned about all those hundreds of thousands of sacrificial lambs, wrapped up in naivety now that the Sanctum isn't there to herd them to the slaughter yard."

"Our folks will sort them out. They've come a long way from being all talk."

"... Unless She has something to say about it."

"Far as I'm concerned, She was too little too late when we needed her."

"But She still heard us plead for Her to act where Anima had failed us, failed our families. She still answered and made it so that Cocoon was still under repairs when we woke."

"She slept nearly as long as we did, Vanille. It'll take some while for Her to shake off the dust and bare brittle teeth."

"They have to know, Fang. If they're not ready-"

"They've had a hand in saving people before; they'll be able to do it again. Be it a time of peace or a time of war, you still need to be on your guard. Besides, we've not been able to reach them since the aftermath."

'I guess it's sort of right that they can't hear us. Hearing voices in your head isn't exactly a sign of good health.'

"Not really. I'd think you've got yourself a clean bill of health if you be a good girl and obey that absolute lovely tone of voice your conscience has."

"Oh, you."

"Admit it, Missy. I transcend pragmatic thought in every sense of way."

"And I was the one who wanted to see what would happen if we installed rotors on Bhakti."

"Bugger off-"

'''Don't you worry that pretty little head of yours,' you said 'I know exactly what I'm up to.'"

"I was twelve-"

"We were none the wiser, back then..."

"... Now we're here."

"Until the crystals turn to dust?"

"If only we knew."

"Fang... I don't mean for this to sound wrong, but I'm glad you're here."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."