Quite a lot of speaking this part. Sorry it took such a long time to update, I haven't really found much time to write.
Anyway, if you're wondering where the alternate names for the characters came from, here's a little useless trivia for you.
Freya-Lightning. Freya was the wife of Odin in Norse mythology, and Odin was Lightning's Eidolon
Herjo-Sazh. Herjo was adapted from the Valkryie Herja. Sazh's Eidolon shares a name with a Valkryie
Babil-Hope. Babil comes from Final Fantasy IV, and greatly resembles the future Alexander summon. Alexander is, you guessed it, Hope's Eidolon
Rudra-Snow. In Hinduism, Rudra was an alternate name for Shiva, and you know who Shiva was...
Sai-Serah. Well, she didn't have an Eidolon, I just made this name up, hee hee.
Katz-Dajh. His surname is Katzroy, I just condensed it.
Now that's over with, on with the chapter!
"You said it was question time, K- Dajh?" Fang was the first to break the stunned silence, "I should bloody well hope so."
"I told you," Rudra/Snow laughed.
"It doesn't take a genius to figure out they're going to have questions," Lightning sighed, "A fact you have just proven. So, if you'd let them get a word in, we can get on with it."
"It's not just me, sis," Snow lifted his hands, "They're-"
"Shut up," Lightning interrupted. Snow shrugged, lowering his hands before looking back at Fang and Vanille.
"You can speak now," Babil/Hope piped up.
"I'm glad of that," Vanille murmured to herself.
"Right," Fang stepped forwards, "First question-"
"Sazh," Vanille interjected, running across the room, she leant forwards, pouting a little at the old man, "Why couldn't you come up with a better name than 'Choco'?"
"Is that really the first thing on your mind?" Sazh laughed, patting his afro, "He's not a she, so I couldn't name it either after of you like Dajh wanted-"
"Thanks dad," Dajh interrupted, rolling his eyes.
"You said it, not me. Choco's a chocobo, what else would you suggest? I never was any good with names,"
"Can we ask the important questions now?" Fang whispered to Vanille, pressing her lips to the redhead's pigtails
"That was important," Vanille protested, turning to give Fang a quick kiss
"You've got a room," Katz/Dajh sighed, "Use it","
"They didn't used to be this bad," Hope/Babil muttered
"You didn't give us a chance," Fang smiled slyly. "Anyway, we're meant to be allowed questions. How the hell are you guys here?"
"Did you think we'd just leave you?" Lightning responded, "Dajh started it, back when he found the Sylph. Intelligent fal'Cie. I hate to say it, but these fal'Cie, we needed."
"The one I met stuck with us," Katz/Dajh spoke up, "Four, nine, nine years and it's still here." He lifted one hand, and, right on cue, the Sylph they'd seen a few minutes earlier flashed into existence. It twirled around his arm twice, perching on Dajh's palm.
They hadn't noticed it before, but there was a small face on the Sylph: it was like a child's drawing, an exaggerated arc of a mouth, with two perfectly round, shiny, black eyes perched, close, just above it. The two eyes seemingly blinked, turning to the colour of the pale flesh of the miniature fal'Cie for a moment.
"Of course I am," the Sylph's voice was both kind of solemn and squeaky, though its tone would have befitted a slightly deeper voice. "I don't leave a job half finished. These guys needed my help a lot in the last centuries, I took them in and out of crystal sleep, waking them up whenever the project to help you was reaching some major point. Had to take Dajh out a lot, let him age a little, and can't forget the chocobo. Lightning insisted on coming out every time, every time in those years anything was happening, there she was," the Sylph gave a chuckle as it hopped into the air, twirling over to the two Gran Pulsians and leaning close to them. With a 'hm' it flew away, landing on Sazh's hair and nestling into his afro.
"Wait a second!" Sazh shook his head, "that's Choco's seat!"
"I don't think you'll be letting him ride any time soon," the Sylph giggled, jumping and flashing before vanishing yet again.
"All the time, huh?" Fang muttered, "How long was that?"
"A little while," Lightning gave a sad smile, lifting a once-pinkish lock of hair, now stained with a few streaks of grey, "Twenty years."
"Twenty years…" Vanille gasped, a slow whisper. "I-we're s-"
"Don't," Lightning interrupted, "Don't you dare say you're sorry. You saved the whole of Cocoon, you have nothing to be sorry for. Anyone would have given their lives to help you back then, twenty years is nothing, I'd do it again if I had to. You didn't deserve to spend forever in crystal."
"Besides," Hope spoke up, almost bitter, "There was nothing for us back there."
Lightning closed her eyes for a brief second, resting a hand on Hope's shoulder. Subconsciously, Hope lifted one of his own hands, resting it on Lightning's.
"Oh yeah! Your dad," Vanille looked down,
"When he died, there was nothing keeping me there," Hope said, hand tightening around Lightning's, "Besides, I wasn't going to just leave you."
"We started planning it as soon as we could," Serah at last spoke up, "We didn't want to just forget about you, but we couldn't help, not until now."
"Wow," Vanille murmured, amazed by the depth of devotion the friends in front of her had shown. All those years, and they hadn't forgotten, especially Lightning. Twenty years, all for one specific aim.
You couldn't say that about many friends. How many people would use so much of their life just to help you?
Then again, Vanille pondered, could she honestly say she wouldn't do the same?
"Thanks," Fang spoke, surveying the group.
"Just don't do it again, right?" Sazh put in.
As they all gave a short chuckle, the Sylph native to the house, who'd followed Lightning under her many names, over many years, appeared just outside the window with a flash. The typical white diamond, the one that appeared each time a Sylph moved that way, appeared extremely vivid that time, almost real enough for a corner to cut the glass next to it.
Sylph peered in the window, tilting its head. The leaf-like trio of limbs around its head fluttered, while the ones around its middle seemed to shimmer slightly.
"Change," it spoke the word in a voice deeper, more melodic than its previous tone. Sylph recoiled, as if surprised at itself.
"I crave…change," it whispered in that same, different voice again. Quiet again, confused itself, it peered in through the window, surveying Fang, Vanille and Lightning especially, as well as Snow, Serah, Sazh, Dajh and Hope. It looked over to Lightning, leaves crinkling. Silent, it drew a line in the air with one leaf, as if nostalgic.
"Why?" it mumbled, voice back to the normal Sylph squeaky tones, before it vanished with a flash.
Back inside the house, Dajh led Fang and Vanille out the room. The sun had set during the questioning period, and now only darkness drifted through the windows, though the walls seemed to be luminescent, illuminating the house interior.
"Ask some more tomorrow if you can think of much," Dajh informed them as they began to climb stairs, "We live nearby, we'll come to see you in the morning."
"Do we have to be awake then?" Vanille yawned.
"It'd be best if you were," chuckled Dajh, stopping as he reached the top of the staircase.
Relatively fast, he opened two doors just to the right of the staircase.
"Sorry about this," he muttered, "The builders weren't expecting a couple, so you've got two single rooms. We'll fix it tomorrow, I promise, but you'll just have to survive tonight," he looked down at them apologetically.
The room on the right was decorated with plenty of things; a few pictures on the wall, some hangings resembling dream-catchers, and a lampshade throwing impressive shadows on the pale orange walls. The bed in the middle of the room was a pale pink.
On the left, the room appeared slightly more Spartan, pale blue walls and a darker, marine blue bed.
"That's yours, Fang," Dajh pointed to the one on the left, "and that's yours, Vanille," he finished by gesturing to the one on the right.
"Hey! Wait!" there was a flash as the Sylph squealed into life. It peered at Fang and Vanille before shaking on the spot, leaves fluttering like ribbons. "You could just ask," the Sylph seemed to smile, darting into the far end of Vanille's room.
Instantly, the room was filled with a pale white light, like a diamond, like the Sylph was vanishing, only the light was larger, brighter, than normal. For a brief second, the diamond was clear, almost substantial, like glass. Far within it was the Sylph, tense, leaves in a parallel pair of trios, rippling. A curl of pale blue shone, the spark rolling down the side of its body.
Then the diamond turned opaque, the otherwise flawless sides turning to a silvery sheen, like fog. The almost-blinding light shone out from within the diamond, most of Vanille's room engulfed by the glow. A split second later, the same kind of light appeared in the back half of Fang's room.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, the light gently faded away. Only three seconds had passed.
Now, Fang's room was blue right up until a point exactly half way across, where, as if a switch had been thrown, there was a sudden jump to a pale pink and orange. In Vanille's room, the opposite had taken place: the room was a normal pink/orange shade, up until half way, where it transformed into the blue of Fang's room.
The beds had been arranged so they were both in what used to be Fang's room, the blue one closest to the door, with the pinkish one the other side of it, pressed right up close to it.
"Thanks," the Sylph hovered over to them, coming out of Fang's room. For that one word, its voice was slightly deeper. Then it frowned at itself, before flashing, vanishing, and reappearing behind Fang. "I'll do what I can to help," the Sylph squealed, high-pitched voice again, before vanishing once more.
"Fine," Dajh chuckled, "Trust a Sylph. You never know what they'll do next. Well, I guess tomorrow we'll try and make the transition between rooms somewhat smoother," he slowly paced into the now shared bedroom, tracing his finger across the divide between the once-Vanille's room and the once-Fang's room.
The paint went surprisingly well together., despite the clear contrast. There was no blur, no break in the colour, just an instant where it was orange, and then, a millimetre on, an instant where it was blue. Totally smooth.
"Sylph swapped the halves of the room," Dajh muttered, "Never knew they could do that."
Curious, he knelt down on the far side, Vanille's side, of the bed. The two Gran Pulsians heard a chuckle. Dajh straightened, holding a glossy pile of paper.
"So Serah wasn't kidding," he muttered, "Magazines," he spoke louder, dropping them onto the bed. He'd been holding three of them, each with a stylized image of Cocoon, Fang and Vanille on the front. "I'd wait until tomorrow before reading them," Dajh informed them, "Maybe later. The last few days, speculation has been rampant. Trust me, you don't want to read some of the things they've come up with."
"Ooh!" Vanille squealed, taking that almost as a cue to jump onto the bed and flick through the first magazine. A few moments later, she shut the magazine and dropped the rest onto the floor, kicking them under her bed, shivering.
"Yeah," she proclaimed innocently, "Let's wait."
"Which did you read?" Dajh chuckled, kneeling down and withdrawing one of the magazines. "Ah," he at last said, upon reaching the centrespread, "Yeah, some speculation was a bit insane. I'm assuming you didn't have anything to do with my dad."
Dajh dropped the magazine, closing the article illustrated with a hand drawn image of Vanille in Sazh's embrace, and throwing it under the bed.
Dajh looked out the window behind him as a trio of Sylph flashed by, twirling in some elaborate dance through the night sky. Quietly, he closed the curtains, once orange, one blue thanks to their native Sylph's meddling.
"I'll leave you two alone," he said, walking out and closing the door.
There was an all-consuming silence lasting a few minutes, as Fang sat on one side of the bed. She lifted her lower half up, lying back on her deep blue side. Vanille, in a considerably more jumpy manner, did the same, facing up at the pale ceiling.
"Just like old times, huh?" Vanille spoke, perky and yet, almost, sad.
"No," Fang replied, staring up at the ceiling, acting intent on examining the small discontinuities down the centre of the ceiling, where the two rooms had been blended. "No, nothing could be like old times."
Vanille made an odd noise, signifying agreement, before rolling over to Fang. She lifted something she'd been holding for a while. Fang blinked, letting her eyes adjust, so she could focus on the tiny orange cuddly toy she'd bought a while ago. The Vanille doll.
Vanille giggled at Fang's bemused, cross-eyed stare. The redhead quickly lifted up the blue garbed Fang cuddly toy. She lightly placed both the teddies on the wooden headboard, the Vanille doll above Fang, and the Fang doll above her own side.
"There you go," the redhead withdrew, smiling, before lightly giving Fang a kiss.
"No snoring," Vanille wagged a finger, jokingly reprimanding Fang before she lowered her red hair to the pillow.
"I don't snore," Fang murmured in response, putting her head on the pillow, facing Vanille.
"You do," the redhead smiled back, before looking down. "We really need to go clothes shopping tomorrow, or you'll be all smelly. You've worn the same thing for the last five hundred years."
"Watch it!" Fang laughed a reply, "So have you."
"Mm," the redhead mumbled a response, snuggling closer to Fang and closing her eyes.
