12/31/11-1/19/12

Untitled Story (FF13-2 fic)

Chapter 4

-SPOILERS FROM THE GAME-

Note: The following might be wrong or mistranslated.

"Yeah, right!" Gadot laughed. "Only boss can, unless you can prove it!"

Figures, Noel thought. The muscled man leaves to carry on the expedition to find out more about the meteor.

Walking along, Noel and Serah encountered more monsters, earning more experience to battle. As each step gets closer to the meteor, there has a sudden haze on the air.

It's not fog, Serah thought. The place looks distorted, and it looks exactly like that land I've been to recently…

"Hey Noel," she spoke. "I think I'm dreaming again because of this haze."

"No," he replied. "I see it too; this is reality." Everything was confusing with the haze around them. After a few jumps off the rocks, the distortion mysteriously disappeared. Additionally, the two met Yuj who was scouting the area.

Serah ran up to Yuj, exclaiming his name. The blue haired man waved back. "Oh, is that the Noel guy I've been hearing about?"

Noel overheard the situation and replied, "I am that famous?"

"Yeah, since you saved Serah and all. Thanks; I'm Yuj." Noel nodded and shook hands. Though I 'sort of' saved Lebreau in a way, he thought. She could've gotten hurt as from the other loops.

"But Serah," Yuj cut off and looked at her. "What are you doing dressed as that? You don't normally go out nearly so well-dressed."

Well-dressed? She thought. I doubt this is well-dressed as I feel…different.

Live Trigger.

Yuj wants to know why I'm wearing such nice clothes, she thought. How should I respond?

Do you want to wear them too, Yuj? These clothes fell out of the sky. I just noticed I was wearing them all of a sudden. What about your own clothes, Yuj?

"Um…when I woke up, I had these clothes on," she answered.

"Ah, I know! You must have been half asleep at that time." Yuj looked around. "Oh no. Well, I have to go now." With that, the blue haired man left.

Up ahead, Serah stumbled to a corner of an island. There was the last member of NORA, Maqui. Trees were growing uncontrollably around, and more haziness surrounded the corner. Noel can hear the younger's soft mumbling voice, saying, "Yeah…there are only young trees around here. Perhaps the space here isn't too stable? This is really bad!"

"It might be because of the meteor?" Noel responded.

Maqui reacted and turned around to see a familiar pink-haired friend and a brunette lad. He hysterically called out, "That's right! It's strange! Ever since that meteor fell, the village was having difficulties!"

"Maqui, do you know what's going on?" Serah asked.

"Not the least," he replied, scratching his head. "It's like hundreds of years have passed in some places, while in other's didn't change at all."

Noel tried to explain the situation. "This thing's from a place where time moves differently than in this world. This world and that one is all mixed up. Two time streams are layered on top of one another...that's how it feels to me, anyway."

Hold. That means that the meteor is from a different land known as Valhalla, he thought. Valhalla is a land with no time. When the meteor stroke, a part of that land and New Bodhum's time got mixed up. This is why the events in both times fused in the village, he concluded in his mind. That should simplify my answer.

Maqui snapped his finger. "That's exactly it!"

During the commotion, Serah took her thinking cap on. She hung her hand over her chin and thought.

Live Trigger.

She thought, It seems due to the influence of the meteor, time here has gotten mixed up with time from another world. Let's ask Maqui what he thinks.

She thought of various questions. Where do moogles come from? Where does magic come from? Where did the meteor come from? You haven't got a clue, Maqui!

Well, two questions here make no sense, she figured. I don't want to talk about that last one. I'll ask about the meteor.

"Where did the meteor come from?"

"Well, he said the case came from a different world, right?" Maqui replied.

Noel joined the conversation. "It fell from Valhalla. Let's go, Serah. If we check it, we might be able to find something about it."

Advancing in each path, the invisible fog faded away. They are getting closer to Cocoon. Serah met Noel again, only to see him in a frozen state.

I thought so, he thought. As that theory states, this will always happen.

He stared at the sky, as well as Serah did. Cocoon was there a second ago; Cocoon disappeared.

Cocoon vanished right in from of my eyes, Serah thought. Why?

Noel is familiar with the event that's about to occur. A space-time monster is about to appear: Gogmagog. This will not be their first or last meeting after the battle. Gogmagog will surely return, he thought. But once this 'anomaly' is resolved, Cocoon will return.

He was certain about that. As he recalled, he and Serah would chase to said planet's location, only to be encountered by the Gogmagog.

That means that Cocoon will return, as suggested by the Attractor Field Convergence Theory. Not now, but soon.

Destiny. Fate. Are they the same meaning? He did not know. He can't be in linearity anymore. He has to decide his own options; and not play by any "prophecies" or "time loops."

Break the loop and choose to make promises. He felt faint and remembered something.

When prayers turn into promises, not even fate can stand in their way.

Who said that? he wondered. I don't remember this at all.

The fragment.

In this confounded world, the paradoxes created fragments of memories scattered in time. Noel never encountered this fragment. Above all, the voice sounded familiar, but he can't quite put his finger on it.

As the last hunter, he thought. I'll find the key. The key to an even brighter future. I promise. …That sounded a bit tacky…

"Serah, calm down. If you want Cocoon back, you'll have to take it back by fighting." He understood her feelings toward the surprise.

"Fight what?" she asked. A portal with a strip around it summoned a frightening monster. The monster resembled a Ghoul Cie'th, with zombie-like features. Objects that appear to look like nails were on its face, as if it was hammered on. Only half of the giant's face, torso, including one arm, only made though the portal.

Noel pulled out his weapons and Serah took Mog who immediately became her weapon. They took their battle stance against the monster and prepared to fight.

Transition. Battle commence.

First move. Noel spoke to Serah accordingly for tips. "Serah, this monster hits hard. You should change to a Sentinel when that happens; I'll do the same. Think of defending."

The monster growled. "Speaking of the devil," he continued. With its swipe, Noel cued the change.

Paradigm Shift: Twin Shields. The two Sentinels took minimum damage from the thing. In one second, both of them thought of the same thing.

Paradigm Shift: Slash and Burn.

In a matter of seconds, Serah was building up the fiend's stagger point, while Noel launched up in the air to physically attack above ground.

The teamwork of shooting elemental fire from Serah and the constant attacks from Noel worked quite well.

Until the monster growled, they switch back to Twin Shields and there was no problem at all—after that, the whole process repeated until the battle ended.

With the monster's last screech, it faded back to the foggy portal and disappeared.

Fragment discovered.

If Noel remembers correctly, then this fragment would serve a purpose to the Time Gate. He would not use it yet, but that would definitely be recommended to keep it for now.

Noel swiftly ran to the meteor with Serah left in the dust. "W-wait!" she exclaimed, tagging along.

The crashing site was filled with ashes and dust, looking like nothing compared to the live village. The place is different. The meteor emitted the space with hazy, orange lights with smog of dirt. Cocoon is still gone.

Serah looked at Noel, who gave permission for her to examine the foreign object. She looked around, noticing the difference of air and land. She spoke, "Hm? What is this scenery? Do you recognize it, Noel?"

He answered, "Yeah."

"Why can't I see Cocoon?" The sky is filled with what appears to be a vision. The vision has a wasteland filled with no life whatsoever. The dust and dead trees covered the whole landscape.

Noel looked at the frail girl. "This place is all mixed up with another world. Over there…that's the world I live in. In my world, Cocoon doesn't exist anymore. It has been that way since I was born." He turned around. "It's been three years in your time when Cocoon trembled under the force of Ragnarok, right?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"I was always told that it happened seven hundred years ago. I grew up seven hundred years into the future." Noel walked towards the meteor.

Serah followed her eyes to him. "Then…you're from the future?" He turned his back over her and slowly touched the meteor.

"I'm the…last human." He felt hesitant trying to say those words. He is the last human of his time at 700AF. But, Serah and the others were gone at 500AF back there. He can assume that only he and Hope Esthiem survived the overflowing Chaos at that time.

He is the last human who went back in time.

No Serah. No Mog.

Maybe, he thought. I should tell the truth by now. About my time traveling, Lightning, and…Serah. He resolved his reason. "Serah, I—"

"Hey!" A shout from Gadot cutted off his sentence. Yuj and Maqui were following the man as well.

Noel released his hand from the meteor and glanced at Serah. Now's not the time, he thought. I need to tell her everything later; alone. He chose to talk about Lightning. "Serah, I'll guide you. Let's look for Lightning. I'm sure she wants to see you—!"

Gadot pulled on the man's shirt and yelled, "You fool...!"

"That's not possible!" Maqui added.

"Yeah, Lightning's no longer…" Yuj paused. Serah ran up to Gadot and softly clung on his shoulder. "Where's my sister?" She asked the future boy.

Right here. Noel swiftly grabbed her arm and held his against hers on the surface of the meteorite. Despite wearing gloves, Serah could feel the meteor; not just the rough and ragged meteor. She felt some sort of magic, not the one she used during battle.

I can't describe this feeling…she thought. Light sprouted out from her hand and reacted to the meteor, making the inanimate object shine in bright golden light. Like snow, the crystals that were jagged around melted away to reveal the familiar object—

—to Noel, however. This Serah knows nothing.

"What's this…?" Serah backed out, looking majestically at the transformed object. There were patterns of roots that seem to emerge from the ground. The roots were covering and orb-filled light, with occupied rings spinning around like a globe. NORA knew nothing of the object, questioning its presence. "Wait, what's that?"

Noel would reply, "A Time Gate. The door towards time."

"…What?"

"Lightning's on the other side of the Gate," he responded. "In a place called 'Valhalla.'"

I just can't turn away, Serah thought. I know that there is an answer to that feeling I have recently, as if something's not right.

Noel stared at the awe-struck audience. "I…suppose that there should be explaining to do." The whole group of NORA nodded.

Serah's eyes were filled with confidence. Noel may be from a destroyed future, but why does he have these kind of information? Sis, did you meet him somewhere?

I want to go the other side of the Gate, she decided. I want to find you, Lightning.

Hello readers; I know you miss me (not really). Made some parts up because I just realized that I was simply retelling the plot! Don't worry, after a few chapters, I'll start off from scratch! The real story begins. Also, I might be on hiatus again, since the game's getting closer to the release date, allowing me to play-but unfortunately, I have to study for midterms;;; which means more delay.

I'm currently writing other stories/one-shots, but I don't plan on abandoning this story, so stay tune.

-NazoLuk3