Vanille slowly approached Hope, who was sitting on the edge of the cliff in the grass, looking at Pulse. She came up beside him and leaned down.
"Something on your mind?" she asked, making him jump.
"Huh? Oh, I, uh- I was just thinking," he replied.
"About what? Something complicated?" she asked, tilting her head. He shook his head.
"I was just taking it all in," he said. "The sky here, the trees, the sunlight, the smells… When I was on Cocoon, I never even dreamed a place like this could exist. But now? Here I am, on Pulse. If I hadn't gone to those fireworks, if I hadn't been sitting in that same train car during the Purge… If anything had been different, I'd never have had a chance to see this."
Vanille shook her head and went to sit down next to Hope.
"No, I'm sure you would have wound up here. Don't you remember you promised me?" she asked, holding up her pinky finger. "You promised me that we'd come and see Gran Pulse together."
"Uh…really? I…when did I do that?" he asked, looking at her. She smiled and took his hand, wrapping her finger around his and shaking it.
"Oh, I don't know. How about another lifetime?" she asked, standing up.
"What does that even mean?" Hope asked.
"To tell you the truth, I've told so many lies, it's all a blur," she replied.
"Well, you know, sometimes you have to lie about stuff. To keep yourself going, because you're afraid. Or to protect someone else, so they don't get hurt. Sometimes, even the things that everyone in the world thinks are true turn out to be lies. At the end of the day, though, it's not the lie that matters, but what you do after you tell it. Work hard enough, and you can make it true," he said. He stood up and stepped forward. "I mean, maybe we both forgot. Maybe we did promise to see Gran Pulse together-and Cocoon." He stretched.
"Thanks, Hope," Vanille said.
"Do something for me, will you? Keep smiling," he said, turning and facing her. "I-it makes me happy when you smile."
"I-I didn't know you felt that way," Vanille said, blushing. She turned away with her hands on his face, but looked back at Hope when he started laughing. "Wait a minute. You mean you were joking?"
"Now we're even!" he said smiling, running past her. Vanille growled and turned.
"Hey! Wait!" she called, running after him and jumping up and down while he laughed.
Suddenly, a portal opened up in front of Hope, stopping him and Vanille. It swirled around like mercury as a tall creature stepped through. Hope and Vanille backed away cautiously. The creature was tall and thin, and appeared to be made of only armor. It had a long cape on that faded away into smoke. The creature stepped forward.
"We require one being from this world. And you have been chosen," it said, its voice masculine. It pointed to Hope. Vanille was suddenly pushed back as the creature appeared next to them, grabbing Hope's arm. Before Vanille could realize what had happened, both the creature and Hope were gone, and the portal was closing. Lightning and the others rushed into the clearing, calling Hope and Vanille's names, but Vanille ignored them.
"Hope!" she exclaimed, jumping forward toward the portal. She heard Lightning shout something, but she didn't care. She jumped through the portal just as it closed. Lightning ran over and examined the area before cursing while the others searched around frantically for any sign of either of them.
Vanille was pulled up by some strange force, a blue line, to a floating island, or rather a big floating rock. When she reached it, she was pulled up onto it. There was a fence (or something like a fence) surrounding a small spring that had changing images in it. She looked up and found a young man with blond hair looking down at her. He was wearing a golden and white jacket on it with fur on the collar, along with goggles. Underneath he had a yellow shirt and black pants.
"Well, helloooo there," he said smiling, extending his hand. Vanille scoffed and pushed it away before quickly standing up on her own, dusting off her skirt before looking at the man.
"Where did that creature go with my friend?" she exclaimed, looking around.
"Hey, slow down there. Lemme explain. That creature was called a Yuke. That particular Yuke has gone kinda mad…and it thinks it has to save the world by going around to a bunch of different worlds and gathering up people to use. And your friend, I assume that's who the Yuke just came through with, is one of its targets, the first actually. You just missed 'em, they went through to the next world."
"What's gonna happen to him?" Vanille asked. The man shrugged.
"I don't know. No one knows yet. The Yuke didn't talk to anyone or tell anyone about his plans. He just went right at it despite everyone trying to stop him," he replied. Vanille looked at the spring.
"Where did they go?" she asked.
"The next world."
"How do I get there?"
"Through that spring," he said. Vanille started to go toward it, but the man stopped her.
"Whoa, whoa. Slow it down. I'd be happy to take you there. The Yuke took my friend, too," he said. "I'm Layle."
"Vanille," she said, her eyes locked on the spring. "Well? Can we go?"
"Heh. Whatever you say, madame. Right this way," he said, walking her to the spring. The image in it changed to a castle surrounded by a town. "Ladies first."
Vanille gasped as he pushed her forward and into the spring.