Weeelllll... I'm back with yet another chapter of The Final Paradox. I feel like the beginning's moving really slowly, so apologies if you think so too.

I edit everything like fifty times, but obviously I don't catch every single error I might have made. If something doesn't make sense to you, let me know so I can fix it. 0_o

And finally, thanks to everybody who's followed The Final Paradox so far!

By the way, again, everything belongs to Square Enix, not me. I hope you enjoy this chapter and those to come!

Chapter Three: Another Gate, Another Paradox

Take this happy ending away

It's all the same

~Beautiful Things – Andain

Somewhere else along the timeline, another gate opened and two figures materialized on the shores of New Bodhum. At first it was as if everything was the way it should have been.

"Is this… Is this New Bodhum?" Serah breathed in disbelief.

The two of them strode next to the water until they reached the main village. There was a sudden spring in Serah's step. "Maybe it was all just a dream," she murmured as she walked.

Noel was quiet. He was reluctant to accept the change in their luck. "What did we see, then?" he finally asked. "When we were in the Sunleth Waterscape—"

Just then Serah ran ahead, cutting him off. When he looked up to run after her, he saw that she was moving in the direction of NORA House, toward where her friends would be. A certain person in particular stood on the front steps, watching. Noel could barely suppress his double take. Snow Villiers was both in New Bodhum and the Sunleth Waterscape.

What did we see? he wondered again. I could have sworn I had done something to erase Snow from the timeline. Was the whole Sunleth Waterscape thing a fluke? Just a dream…or what could have happened? A detour in the timeline?

He was right to question what he saw. As Serah approached Snow, things began to change rapidly before their eyes. First Snow disintegrated in front of them, just as he had during their earlier incident with the flan. Then, one by one, the members of NORA House started to disappear as well, along with the rest of the residents of New Bodhum. When Noel finally caught up to Serah, who was standing frozen in the middle of her old bedroom with a worried expression, he stumbled.

It felt like a rock had just hit him in the back of the head. Noel staggered, but managed to stay standing. "What the—" he gasped.

When he regained his balance, he blinked a few times. Something was missing. He felt light-headed for a second, but didn't realize what the problem was or what had just happened.

Serah was staring at him. "Noel?" she asked gently. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he muttered, "I'm fine." He started slowly toward the door of the house. When he looked out on New Bodhum, he expected to see the place they'd come to through the gate, the place they'd just encountered.

The village should have been familiar, but instead they set foot on the site of their fears come true.

Serah opened her eyes and stared dazedly at her village, hoping to see the scenery she knew well, but instead her gaze passed over what looked like remnants of death and destruction. Not a soul walked along the once-colorful shores. The houses looked like they'd been ravaged by bombs over and over again. Overall, the place just looked…dead.

Noel's footsteps were quiet as he moved closer to stand beside her. "What did we do?" he asked.

They'd both been there, seen the village how it was supposed to be. It had seemed real, unlike the backdrop they stood against now. They were meant to come back to that place, not this one.

Noel turned away, facing the water. He ran a hand through his hair in irritation. "It just doesn't make sense. We defeated that flan; we got Snow out of the Sunleth Waterscape. Yet he and that thing were both where they shouldn't have been. Then he was here in New Bodhum. Then he wasn't. And we're back in this place…that isn't supposed to exist this way."

Serah shook her head. Neither of them could break the silence; they had no answers for their current predicament. Despite their lack of understanding, Serah started to walk slowly through the dust that was once New Bodhum, taking in her surroundings carefully.

Noel followed, though his steps were more impatient, agitated. They took their time making their way through the village. NORA House was completely demolished, but Serah insisted that they take a detour through it again.

She held back tears as she witnessed everything. "What's happened?" she gasped as she stood on the front porch looking out at the dusty remnants. "Why is New Bodhum like this?"

"Something's really messed up," Noel said quietly. "We've got to figure out what's wrong."

They began their search on the remainder of the village, looking for something, anything that might help.

But as they stood at the edge of the water, on the docks, the sky ahead of them changed. A dark space distorted the light grey, chalky clouds, expanding at once and swallowing up the water and the sun. Serah stared at it in astonishment for a split second before Noel grabbed her arm, shouting, "Run!"

"What's going on?" Serah gasped as he dragged her along. "What is that?"

"I don't know, but we have to get back to the gate," Noel responded breathlessly, "or it's going to take us with it!"

The void continued to consume behind them. Serah looked back and watched New Bodhum disappear into the space beyond, the darkness without shape. She didn't understand what was happening, but it terrified her more than anything. Her village had been whole, and then right in front of them it had deteriorated into nothingness.