Author's Note: Here's a chapter that's finally on time! I'm going to try and stick to my "every Friday" schedule from now on, to keep it predictable for you guys, and to give myself a deadline, so expect another new chapter next week!

(But if you're looking for something more to read sooner, I'm going to update my story "Storm" later today too, so you can keep your eye out for that"

Chapter 4 - Back Home

She was following him.

He knew it, yet he still didn't stop. In all honesty, he knew running wouldn't fix anything, it never had. But he needed to breathe, to think without a source of guilt directly in his face. He also knew he was being childish, spewing excuses left and right, breaking trees, but...he just couldn't go back. As far as Lightning staying with him…

She couldn't see him dream again.

He ran until it grew too dark to see, and Lightning's footsteps could no longer be heard. It took him all of two seconds to catch his breath, then he perched himself on a low-hanging branch, clenching all of his muscles over and over to try and release the energy he built up. He could run for days and never run out of energy. Quite literally, he had done it several times.

Hope sighed, and buried his face in his hands, massaging his skull a little. What would he do when Lightning caught up? He supposed he would have to let her stay with him. It would be impossible to change her mind, like convincing a fish not to swim. Perhaps when she saw how he lived, she'd go back?

One can only hope, even if it's foolish.

He closed his eyes once he could hear her again, and kept them closed even when she stopped.

"Are you trying to kill me, Estheim? Or have you not grown up in the past six hundred years?" Lightning started walking toward him again. "I mean it, I'm not leaving you until you come home."

"Tell me something, Light."

She stopped.

"How is everyone?"

"...Tsk." Her feet shuffled a bit on the ground, she was probably shifting her weight. "Are you serious? You think you have the right to just ask that after-"

"Really. I want to know."

Lightning huffed very harshly. "They're fine. Serah and Snow never managed to have kids of their own, but they're in the middle of adopting again, so they're happy. Dajh kept growing up like you did, he's training to be a doctor right now, he's done just about everything else. Sazh is content doing odd jobs for people." She sighed. "But no one ever stopped missing you, or Fang and Vanille."

Fang and Vanille.

Hope's chest constricted.

"You...mentioned that Snow looked for me?" He asked, guilt flooding him.

Her tongue clicked. "Yeah. For at least fifty years before Serah finally convinced him that it would kill him." He heard her shuffle again. "We all looked at first, but after a few years, Sazh decided that you'd come back when you wanted to. Serah and I went along with that, but Snow…

"Serah was affected the most after you left. She cried all the time for months, and after we gave up looking, she barely spoke to anyone for weeks. And it didn't help that Snow was still out trying to find you." He heard her begin to pace, and was glad he had decided to keep his eyes closed. "I was...tsk, angry doesn't even cover it. If we'd had our meeting within those first few years, I'm pretty sure I would've shot you regardless. Hell, I half considered doing it now, if that gun weren't melted to shit."

She had finally let her anger loose. He expected it, and perhaps subconsciously encouraged it to punish himself. He'd spent a cumulative of decades wallowing in how his leaving had hurt everyone. He hated himself quite often for making that choice, but after a while, going back was just painful.

"I tried, you know."

Another shuffle, she spun. "Tried?"

"Going home." He finally opened his eyes again, and found that Lightning was closer than he'd thought. She was only a few feet away, glaring up at him, her eyes just daring him to say that he'd gone home. He sighed. "It was about fifteen years after. I decided I'd finally gotten over myself and hopped a train to the next town, since it had the closest station at the time. I was fine on the train. But...while I was walking over, everything caught up with me and...I got sick. My guilt took over me and I vomited. I was convinced I got sick because I wasn't ready to come back, and I turned around. I've been everywhere on Pulse except New Bodhum since…"

He waited impatiently for Lightning to respond. The silence seemed to stretch on for days. It might have, he sometimes felt he had a diminished sense of time caused by living for so long. She turned away from him and shook her head. "I can't believe this."

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but you don't understand, I…"

You can tell her about the dreams, Hope, come on.

"You're right, I don't understand. Being the way we are sucks, but that's why we should stick together. My men died today. But I was going to outlive them all no matter what. The only people you don't have to bury are back home, Hope. You have to get it through your damn thick skull that we are the only ones who can understand what you're going through. You just have to let us in."

"I…"

Lightning held her hand out for him. "Come on down from there. If you won't come back, you can at least talk to them, right? After I report the explosion, we can call Serah. She'd love hearing your voice again."

Hope hesitated, but only for a few moments. Talking he could do. He took her hand.

Long grass blew gently in the breeze, sending waves of green rippling softly over the great plain beneath Cocoon. He walked toward the meeting place, anticipation coursing through his body and electrifying the earth when his fingers brushed against the turf. It had been so long, would she recognize him? Would he recognize her? Of course he would, she hadn't changed a bit.

Himself, on the other hand…

The breeze picked up a bit, and the grass kicked into a mesmerizing dance, twisting and floating in a choreographed performance. He stopped at the crest of a small hill, looking out over the monochrome sea for that one splash of color. Had he dreamed the whole thing? Was she not coming?

"Over here!"

He turned towards the sound of her voice, his heart taking off and a smile spreading quickly across his face. She was here, just a few yards away, waiting for him, just as she said she would be.

She bounded over to him, stopping just before she ran into him. Her eyes were as bright as ever and her smile could blind a man. She wore a slightly reflective blue dress that almost matched the suspended world behind her.

She laughed, a sound that made flowers bloom. "You're here! I almost didn't recognize you, you're all grown up!" She stood on her toes. "And look how tall you are!"

He smiled. "Yeah. It's a whole new world up here."

She giggled as rays of sunlight reflected from the crystal planet and bathed her in their gentle glow. From his end, she looked like an angel. From hers, she was blinded, and blinked as she shifted until she could see again. For a long while, they simply watched each other, perfectly content to stay that way forever. Goddess, if the last thing he ever saw in his whole life was her face, he would die a happy man.

All too soon, she looked away, her gaze drifting to his former home, now raised in the Pulsian sky through a sacrifice he'd been unwilling to make, but unable to stop.

"It's time for me to go…"

The sky dimmed, his heart fluttered slowly back into place.

"So soon? But we've only just got here, are you sure you can't stay?"

Her lips smiled, but her eyes betrayed her. "I'm sure. But it's okay. You'll see me again, won't you?"

He looked away, refusing to add those images to her beautiful face. "Not like this, I won't… Please, just a little longer? What could it hurt?"

"Hope...Look at me…"

He didn't, stalling. The more time he could even just spend in her presence…

"Hope, please…"

He sighed, and obeyed. There were small tears in her eyes, but none fell. She reached out to him, hesitated, her fingers curling into her palm, and pulled her hand back. "I...I have to go. I don't want to, but…"

He took her hand. "Then don't…"

She almost immediately gasped in pain, and yanked away. She cradled her hand to her chest in surprise.

"I - I'm sorry!" He stuttered. "Did I hurt you?"

She looked down at her hand. "I…" Shock crossed her face; she held her hand back out just a little, and almost immediately, her fingers crumbled, and were carried away by the wind as dust. The rest of her began to slowly follow.

Fear swallowed him, he sky went dark, and his heart sunk into his stomach. A massive crack rang out, followed by a million more. Cocoon began to fall.

He...he'd killed her. He'd killed everyone.

She'd been blown away past her elbows now, but she didn't seem to be in any pain. She just seemed...sad. The way she looked at him…

"P-Please, no." He nearly sobbed. "I - I can't lose you again, I'm sorry, I - I can fix this, please…"

Behind her, Cocoon collapsed entirely, the cacophony drowning out her response, the crystal debris rushing toward them in a wave of death. Her face was blowing away, and taking his heart with it. The breeze was a full-blown wind now, specks of debris were starting to hit them.

"No…"

The debris was breaking her up. She couldn't seem to move anymore, but the eye she had left was still watching him, she would be gone any moment.

"No...I'm sorry, no, please…"

His words were ripped away by the storm. Cocoon's fragments were getting larger, hitting him, nearly knocking him over. A huge one caused him to stumble, it's sharp edges battering him, blood spilling onto the crystal dust at his feet.

Because of this, he almost missed the one that hit her.

"NO!"

The massive crystal shard flew right through her, puffing the rest of her body out of existence.

"Vanille!"