A/N Thanks everyone for reading. I know this chapter is a little late, my best friend is graduated from high school yesterday so I been busy. Anyways there is no HopexLight in this chapter, just a major plot development. Read and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own everything go ahead and sue me. Just kidding. Square Enix owns Final Fantasy XIII.

Chapter 6: Damn…

Hope woke up with a smile on his face on remembering what happened yesterday. Light said she loves me. Of course she was dead drunk but I heard Snow say that people are the most honest when they are drunk. He threw on his uniform, walked into the kitchen, and started to clean up the bottles since he was so excited last night that he forgot to do it. So excited that he did not go to sleep until daybreak. The empty bottles clanged as he picked them up and threw them away, which unknown to he, caused the sleeping Lightning to stir. Looking at the time on the clock he noticed that it was dangerously close to the time in which he had school, but worst of all that Lightning had work. Running down the hallway he nearly tripped himself. Hope reached the door and started banging on it.

"Light wake up!"

All he got in response was a grunt.

She is not going to like this, but I rather face the consequences of going into her room than not waking her up for work. Hope opened the door, and walked towards the sleeping woman in bed. Lightning's face was turned to the side which gave Hope a good view of her sleeping face. She looks so peaceful…well…for now. Reaching down to Lightning's shoulder he began to shake her gently.

"Light it's time to wake up. You have work in ten minutes."

All she did was turn away from him. Oh Maker. I didn't want to do this but anything is better than letting her sleep in and miss work. Hope then got a flashback of the time when she slept in and he did not wake her.

-one and a half years ago-

It was the day after Snow's and Serah's wedding. Though they wanted to have it right after they got back together, the restoration of civilization came first. But after six months of hard work they managed to find the time to have the wedding.

At the wedding reception, which was at the newly wedded Villiers' residence, Lightning had gotten drunk though Hope expected her to happen. He knew that she was sad that Serah no longer needed her protection; he could see it in her face. But Hope also knew that Lightning would keep it to herself and get mad at him for trying to comfort her. So all he could do was watch over her.

At the end of the reception Lightning was too drunk to stand so Hope had to help her home, which was about a block away. When he reached the house Hope opened the front door and lead the drunk Lightning to her room. Before he could open the door and walk her to her bed, Lightning pushed him away and closed the door in front of his face. Hope grimaced and walked down the hall and into his room.

-the next day-

Hope woke with a startle, and looked at the time.

"Oh no, I'm going to be so late to school." Hope jumped out of bed threw off his pajama shirt, pulled on his uniform pants, then a white t-shirt, and then his collared long sleeve shirt. Looking in the mirror, on his dresser, he saw that his unruly hair flew out in all directions. Trying to pat it down, he found that it was to no anvil. Hope sighed, turned, and walked to the front door, while putting on his shoes a thought crossed his mind.

Did I forget something? Hmm I got my clothes, my phone, lunch, and… oh I almost forgot. I would be in so much trouble if I didn't remember.

Hope ran into his room grabbed his backpack and rushed out the door.

Little did Hope know that he forgot something way…WAY…more important than his bag. He forgot to wake up Lightning.

-That night-

Hope was sitting down on couch watching television, when he heard the front door click and a glaring Lightning walked in. Hope looked at her wondering what happened to make her look so mad. On the verge of asking, he closed his mouth and let out a whimper when Lightning's glare rested on him.

"Hope." Said Lightning with an angry tone clearly present in her voice.

Hope sunk back into the couch but her gaze still held him. He wanted to turn away, but Hope feared that she would jump at him if he did. Icy blue eyes burning in his face; he answered her out of fear of being set on fire from her glare.

"…yes Light?"

"Why didn't you wake me up this morning?" Lightning said in a cold commanding tone that caused Hope to shiver.

He closed his eyes and thought. Crap. That is what I forgot! I was in such a hurry that it didn't even cross my mind. Uhhh how could I forget something so life threatening. Hope face palmed himself searching for words but found none that would convince her. Nothing at this point could convince her. Opening his eyes and looking up Hope saw Lightning looming over. Letting a yelp escape his lips, as he fell off the couch. He slowly pick himself up until he was standing. Still feeling the gaze of the fearful Lightning.

Knowing she was waiting for answer, Hope took a deep breath and spoke.

"I…uh…kind of…um…forgot."

Lightning raised her hand at his answer, hands spread and aimed directly for his face.

Hope let out a panicked "I'm Sorry!" and braced himself.

The impact never came, opening one of his eyes he looked at Lightning.

"Don't let it ever happen again. Got it!" she said while pointing a finger at him.

"Yes!"

After the confirmation, Lightning went into her room. As soon as her door click shut Hope fell on the couch in a cold sweat.

"Huh, I guess I live to see another day."

"I heard that!" shouted Lightning from her room.

In half a second Hope was under the table in the kitchen hiding.

-End Flashback-

I do not want to spend a night under the kitchen table again. After shaking Lightning even harder, he finally managed to wake her. His green eyes met sleepy blue ones; that harden into a glare instantaneously.

"Hope. What are you doing in my room?" Turning away and taking a step back to a safe distance Hope answered.

"Light…um…you're going to be late for work."

Lightning jumped out of bed and stumbled from the headache of a hangover. Reaching out and catching her before she fell Hope grabbed her arm to steady her. Shooting Hope a glare for helping her, she roughly pulled his hand off her hand. Rubbing his neck and sighing Hope walked out of the room. He was walking to the front door about to leave when Lightning rushed in front of him swinging the door open, which cause the edge of the door to smack into Hope's face.

"Argh." Bringing his hands to his nose, Hope felt blood gush out and land on his shirt. Letting out a heavy sigh Hope went into the kitchen, got a paper towel, and shoved it in his nose to stop the bleeding. Noticing the blood on his shirt; he started to undress himself in the kitchen, and going to the sink to try to wash the blood out.

"Argh, the blood isn't coming out."

"Hope let me help you out."

The paper fell out of his nose and blood started to drip down into his mouth. Hope opened his mouth to talk but got a taste of his own blood. Spitting into the sink and bring his hand to his nose. As he walked to get another paper towel, Hope spoke though his hand to Lightning.

"No Light you'll be late for work, I can be late today since I'm just going to the lab."

Lightning glared at him, no doubt to give him a lecture on being late, but soon after her attention was drawn to the side of his neck. She saw a red mark. A hickey. Lightning was on him in a flash, forcefully grabbing Hope at the neck and turning him to get a better look.

"Hope, why is a hickey on your neck?" said Lightning in a fierce, no emotion tone.

"A hickey? I don't know what you're talking about." Hope then pointed to the clock. "If you don't hurry up you're going to be really late to work." Please, take the bait. C'mon Lightning. I know you hate being late to work. Lightning let go of his neck causing him to rub the spot with his open hand and at the same time hide the love bite.

Giving him a glared, she turned and stepped out the front door, but not before giving him one last concerned look. Sighing when she left, and proceeding to clean up himself and the blood that had dripped on the floor.

I guess she doesn't remember last night if she asking me why I have a hickey. Well it's good and bad at the same time…

-At the Academy-

Hope pushed the button of the elevator to head to the lower levels. The labs. They were mostly reserved for the upperclassmen but Hope had managed to get himself one, though it was the smallest of all the labs it still housed all his projects and still had room.

Alice is going to be mad that I'm late. We are supposed to be running tests for the Vicis Warp. Though I bet she already did them cause she likes to get things over with fast.

Thinking about Alice made his lips sting, and he felt another flashback coming on.

-Four days ago-

Hope and Alice had now finished their project, the Vicis Warp, and were approaching his and Lightning's house. It was a machine coated black with white lining all around it, and it was about the shape and size of a basketball. When it was attached to the energy converter stand, which was a small black pole in the ground about four feet in height and two inches thick, that was when the real science happened. The purpose of the stand was to convert spells generated from the five mana drives, connected to it along the base, into pure energy. Once the energy was collected, and the valve between the converter and the Vicis Warp was released an area of about five meters would be an isolated time field. The time field would then be, in theory, able to accelerate time or reverse time; depending on the data inputs. The Vicis Warp involved a bunch of scientific wording and equations that would take to much time to explain.

Alice pulled up in front of the house, and both occupants got out.

"So… Hope do you want to run test on it tomorrow before we actually try it out?" said Alice as she leaned against her car door, looking at Hope's back as he started to head towards the house. But he turned around quickly and gave Alice a tired look, putting his hands in his shorts he spoke.

"Really Alice? We just finished and you want to work on it more?"

"Yes I do. I want it to be perfect so that we can graduate early. Don't you want to graduate early?"

"Well yeah, but I spent so much time with you and this project that I haven't really seen or talked to Light these past couple of weeks."

Raising her eyebrow, and with a smirk she started to tease Hope.

"The great Lightning Farron? Your protector? Your idol? Your heroine? The woman you love? That Lightning Farron?" Saying the last two parts a little louder than necessary but still low enough for no one except them to hear, but the look on Hope's face was priceless nonetheless. His face was red, his eyes wide, hands out of his pockets and waving in front of her trying to get her to stop talking, and his mouth was moving but no words were coming out. It was a flustered Hope at his best. Alice could not help but laugh. However, Hope reached over and covered her mouth; muffling her voice.

"I told you not to talk about it. Especially, not here." Spoke Hope as he was able to silence the cause of him being in a flustered mess. Alice just nodded, but Hope still did not release his hands from her afraid that she would continue to embarrass him. Giving him a look that said 'Really?' Alice had an idea that would Hope to take his hands off her mouth; she licked his hands.

Hope shot his hands back and quickly wiped them on his shirt. "You didn't have to do that."

Alice looked at him grinning. "Yes I did. Or else you would have not let me go."

"I would have eventually, I just did not want Light figuring out I love her…yet."

Hope looked at Alice who looked kind of sad for some reason, but he just passed that off as her being tired.

"So when are you going to tell her?" stated Alice who was looking at the ground, her fingers fiddling with each other.

Hope looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well…I kind of planned to tell her after we graduated…"She flinched but Hope did not notice it since he was looking away. "But since we are graduating early, I guess I'll wait until I'm older. 18 maybe?"

He turned towards Alice who was looking at him with her big steely blue eyes. Looking as she was about to cry, Hope open his mouth to ask what was wrong but Alice spoke first.

"So until then we'll be together? Then when you tell her and it is a positive response, I guess you won't have time for me."

She let a single tear fall, and Hope was speechless for the most part. He knew he had to say something yet he could not find the words that would stop her from crying. If I'm with Light, I definitely will see Alice less; we will probably start to drift apart. I know that I will probably have Light, but I still want to hang out with Alice, for Maker's sake she is my best friend. I know it's wrong of me to have both a lover and a best friend, but. But…

Knowing what he had to say, though it might be wrong, he had to say it. Hope walked towards the crying Alice and wiped her tears away with his sleeve; bringing her face down so that she could look at him in the eyes. She opened her eyes and stared at him with sad steel blue eyes, but then she saw the same caring and loving look he always gave Lightning. Shocked by the look on Hope's face he then smiled at her and pulled back to his original spot and spoke.

"Alice you are my best friend and I expect you, as well as, want you to be by my side forever."

The look of sadness vanished from the brunette's face, and she took on a soft expression. Then she got off her car and walk towards Hope, he was expecting a hug but he got something else. Leaning down to Hope's height, Alice gave him a small kiss on the lips and smiled.

Hope brought his hands his lips and blushed.

"Wha-Wha-Wha-What was t-that for?

"For good luck." She then nudged him in the arm, walked back into the car, and drove away. Hope stood there for what he thought was for an eternity. He then let out a sigh and looked at the retreating figure of Alice's car.

"I have such a troublesome best friend."

-End flashback-

Hope slammed himself into the entrance to his lab as soon as he came out of his flashback. As he rubbed his face from the pain he slid down his key card and walked in. His lab was all painted light grey, it was the size of a football field and the ceiling was two hundred feet off the ground, need you be reminded that it was also the smallest lab in the Academy. The room was opposite of clean. Finished, and unfinished projects lined the walls, tools laid on the ground, and future and scrapped blueprints littered the floor. In the center was the Vicis Warp and a dozen fresh apples located in its perimeter. It seemed that the converter was powered on but the time field was not being produced. Giving it a concerned look he then walked into his office, which doubled as a safe zone since its walls neutralized all energy pulses. If it did not then he and the whole school would had been evaporated by the explosion that the nuclear engineers set off a couple days ago.

Alice was already in the office, but she had a stern look on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. I set the calibrations and everything, but it still won't activate the time field."

Hope rubbed his forehead and thought. If it is the Vicis Warp itself then we have to take it apart, and reset everything and if it the converter then we will have to do the same thing. Hope sighed and spoke.

"What are the energy levels of the Vicis Warp and the converter?"

Alice pulled up the data up on the holographic screen and checked it over.

"Everything is normal, but it seems the energy from the converter isn't releasing itself into the Vicis Warp."

"Then it must be the valve. I'm going to go out there and check on it."

Alice nodded a confirmation and went to back to looking over the calibrations. Hope walked out and closed the door behind him. Walking over to the center of the room he took out his glasses, which he constructed to read energy levels, and saw that everything was perfect.

The valve must be too tight. Hope inspected the valve, and bringing his hands to it to make sure there was nothing out of place. Wrong move. Something in the Vicis Warp clicked and before Hope could react the time field hit him. Feeling like each of his atoms were being pulled into an empty void. The next thing Hope saw was black.

Alice looked up at the sound of the Vicis Warp coming to life and saw that Hope was still in its target area. She panicked and shut the machine off as quickly as possible. Then running out the door towards the machine and Hope. Reaching the Vicis Warp she saw a dozen rotten apples and a tattered clothed Hope.

"Damn…"

-Outside of New Bodhum-

The Behemoth stood up and swung down his massive sword at the pink haired soldier. The soldier leap in the air, dodging the strike, and landed on the Behemoth's arm. Then she ran up the arm and struck its jugular vein with her gunblade. Next, the Soldier back flipped off the Behemoth, to avoid the gushing blood coming from its neck, and landed in front of it. The massive beast stumbled and then fell backwards to the floor as the blood drained from its neck causing a puddle to form.

"Good work Lieutenant Farron!" praised her Sergeant as he walked towards her. Shooting him a glare, which made him flinch and freeze where he stood.

"What are you still doing here? Go and report back to HQ." she barked, more anger in her voice than need be.

"Yes ma'am!"

The scared man ran away toward his vehicle and drove off in a rush. Lighting sighed trying to quell her anger but nothing seemed to do the trick. Even after killing seven Behemoths did not even sate her rage.

"Why does Hope have a hickey? Shit!" instead of sheathing her gunblade she shoved the tip into the already dead Behemoth imagining it was someone else. How dare that woman touch Hope. My Hope! Taking her blade out of the dead carcass and aiming to slash it again but was stopped by the ringing of her phone. Lightning pulled out her phone and looked at the caller id. It was the source of all her troubles, Hope. She almost threw the phone on the ground to smash it to pieces but she decided against it. Pressing the answer button and bringing it to her ear, Lightning answered in an annoyed tone.

"Yes?"

The person paused because of the tone of Lightning's voice, but after seconds of silence the caller responded.

"Uh..Hello. Is this Lightning Farron?"

The voice on the other side was that of a woman, and Lightning recognized it instantly. Lips curling up into a sneer she answered.

"Yes and why are you on Hope's phone." Lightning said this with a snarled earning a high pitched yelp from Alice. Damn right you better be scared. But consider yourself lucky because if you weren't Hope's friend you would've been like this dead Behemoth when I saw you kiss him. After another long pause and a sigh from Lightning the caller answered.

"That's not the problem here…something happened to Hope ."

Lightning's heart dropped but she had to steady herself so that she could figure out what happened, she could deal with Alice later. She tried her best to recompose herself but her voice came out a lot weaker than her previous comments.

"What happened?"

"Well…it is kind of hard to describe. So it would be better if you came to the Academy's labs. We are the lab on floor B51. You can take the main elevators there. I'll leave the door open for you"

Before Lightning could demand that the brunette to tell her everything now, or else she would wring her head, Alice hung up. Anger swelled up, but the worry in Lightning's heart won. She ran towards her military issued car and sped off towards the Academy.

-The Academy: Hope's Lab-

Lightning rode the elevator to level B51. She was quickly tapping her foot anxious to see if Hope was okay. In the elevator she imagined the worst case scenarios, and that made her heart falter, having to grip the railing to keep her standing. If Hope is hurt I'm taking out all my anger out on you Alice. He better be ok for your sake…and my sake too. The elevator dinged when it reached its destination, the doors opening soon after. Lightning dashed out at the speed of her own created namesake. The door to the lab was opened as promised and she bolt through knocking into Alice in the process. They both stumbled but each on their own managed to keep their balance. Lightning glared at her and spoke.

"Where's Hope?"

"He is um…" A voice interrupted her.

"Hey, Alice did you managed to get me some clothes?"

Lightning turned and watched a man walk out into the room. Her eyes widened. He has to be the most handsome man I have ever seen. The man stood at 5'11", had a very slim yet muscular build, which was revealed by that the only clothing on him was a white lab coat around his waist, platinum hair and green eyes. When the man saw her, his face took on a shocked expression but that did not stop him from speaking.

"Uh…Hey Light."

Lightning answered through a shocked daze, though her response was something she wished she could take back.

"Damn…" Her face produced utter shock when she figured out who the man was and her voice came out as a gasp.

"Hope?"

A/N Told you Major plot development. Sorry this was late, had a hangover this morning so the story had to wait. So yea the Vicis Warp –Vicis is Latin for time well one of the words, my college roommate had a Latin language class, so I used Latin. I wanted to use Greek but here is why I didn't use it: εποχή try reading that, by the way that is time in Greek, well one of the words that mean time. Anyways Hope aged because of the Vicis Warp and now he is of legal drinking age in the US(this is for those who want to know how old he is now sorry if I spoiled it). I'll have another chapter out soon possible tomorrow. Well that the end of my rant. Read Review Comment Enjoy.