Hey everyone it's been too long and I'm extremely sorry, Medical college is taking most of my time. Anyway could I make a request? This story has more than 450 hits, so how about you make me happy by giving me three reviews for next chapter. Just tell me what you liked/didn't like and I'll work on improving. I promise! Will you do that? Thanks.

Thank you hayden p576 for reviewing

Disclaimer: I own zilch.


Surprisingly, Hope woke up early the next morning, even earlier than the other soldiers, except of course, the one's keeping watch. He stepped out of his tent at dawn, chose a direction and walked in it not caring where it took him, hoping that the fresh air would clear his jumbled mind. He walked until he could no longer see the camp, then sat down on the thinning grass determined to clear his messed up thoughts.

He closed his eyes and all his problems crashed into his mind. His mother's death, the brand, his father's fate, his focus, the way he treated Carn last night and the torture. All hope of a better future seemed to drain out of him. He sat there very close to tears when a thought made itself known in his mind.

What would Light say if she saw me like this? He asked himself, but he already knew the answer. She'd tell me to stop moping around like a baby and focus on the task at hand.

But I can't do this anymore! I can't carry on living after everything that had happened. He retorted, withdrawing the knife that Light had given him a while back. He placed it at his throat and was about to slice through skin. His hand trembeled as he once again heard Light's voice in his mind.

It's not a question of can or can't, you just do. Hope smiled. He closed his eyes, withdrew the weapon and hid it. In his mind's eye he saw all of the people he cared about, His parents, Lightning, Vanille, Fang, Sazh, Snow, Roran and Carn. All of them were smiling at him, encouraging him to get back up and not let this depression get to him and showing him that he still had people who cared about him and who would miss him.

"Thanks guys." He whispered to no on. A part of him told him that he was talking to grass and imaginary people, which is usually a sign of insanity, but he was too happy to care.

He looked at his cuts then decided it was time to let them go just like his depression. "Cure!" he muttered and all his wounds were healed. Finally feeling better, he walked back to Camp, determined that he would fight the depression.


Hope reached camp just in time for breakfast and he was starving after all, he had slept without dinner. He barely had time to wonder what they were having for breakfast before seeing what was cooking in the fire. Honestly, chicken for breakfast is that all these people eat, meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He thought, mentally rolling his eyes.

He took a chicken drumstick from the fire and started munching it. Not exactly the most civilized way to eat a chicken, but who cared he was hungry. Afterwards he washed up from a nearby stream and started looking for Carn. He eventually found him talking to Roran by his tent. "Good morning," he greeted them.

They were stunned, both thinking what's wrong with this kid one day he's furious and doesn't want anyone to talk to him, the next he's walking on clouds. "Good morning to you too, Hope." Roran was the first to recover, however Carn's mouth hung wide open until Roran physically closed it for him. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Never better" he beamed. Then turned to Carn his expression sober, "I'm really sorry for yelling at you yesterday and last night, I wasn't thinking straight and I promise it won't happen again."

"Oh so you think that after what you did yesterday you can just come here, apologize and everything will be fine." Carn glared at Hope till he looked away.

When the teen finally gathered the courage to look back at the man to see why he was so angry, he saw that he was smirking at him smugly.

Hope didn't even give Carn a chance to dive for cover. He whispered "Watera!" and Carn was immediately soaked from head to toe in cold water that seemingly came out of nowhere.

"You really have got to stop that!" Carn exclaimed while trying to dry his blond hair with his hands and not doing a very good job at it.

"Stop what?" Hope replied giving Carn his most innocent look, then walked off to get ready for the trip ahead.

Carn turned to see that Roran was barely suppressing his laughter. "Ha Ha very funny." He said dryly.

"At least he's feeling better."

"Yeah and I feel like a wet dog, but who cares," Carn added cynically.


An hour later, they all hit the road, apparently they should be at the Varden's camp by tomorrow noon if they kept up this pace. Hope rode alongside Carn and Roran, cleaning his boomerang and ensuring it was in good condition when he realized that he didn't talk to the soldiers as he planned with Roran.

"Roran what happened to the plan?" He asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about it, everything will be fine. Just let me do all of the talking when we meet the Lady Nasuada."

Silence descended on the trio and nothing could be heard save the sound of the horses' hooves hitting the rough ground. Hope continued working on his boomerang but with seemingly greater difficulty as if he couldn't concentrate.

"He wanted information about you Roran," he spoke suddenly.

"What?" Roran asked, not understanding what the teen meant.

"The man who… interrogated me in Melian," Hope shuddered at the memory. "He wanted to know your whereabouts. He knew that you were in the area, going on some raid and he wanted to know your exact location."

"Did you tell him?"

"No, that's why he tried breaking into my mind, but I stopped him. Then he got frustrated and cut me up." Hope looked at his body, where the cuts used to be, with a mixture of disgust and relief. "Hoping that the pain would make me confess."

Carn noticed that Hope had refrained from mentioning the more 'intimate' parts of the interrogation but didn't comment.

"Thanks Hope I owe you, a lot." Roran said sincerely.

"See, I told you he wouldn't betray us." Carn smiled smugly at the other two.

But Hope was not paying attention, he was staring into the distance. "Is that water I'm seeing?" he said, squinting at the horizon.

"That must be the Jiet River," Roran confirmed, "We'll rest there for a while then continue on our way."

When they reached the riverbank they refilled their water skins and let the horses drink. Then they sat down for lunch. Some of the soldiers managed to hunt a deer and they had prepared it. Hope found himself thinking of his mom's homemade Caesar salad. How he wished he could taste it right now. Hope sighed but otherwise, ate in silence.

After lunch Hope approached Carn and Roran and heard them arguing over the best way to cross the river.

"We should build a raft out of these trees," Roran was saying gesturing to the clusters of oak trees that surrounded the place. "It's safer."

"The river can't be very deep we can cross it on our horses." Carn argued.

"And what if it is too deep?"

"It's not and we don't want to waste our time building rafts that are strong enough to carry twenty five soldiers including the Urgals and the horses."

Hope had enough of their argument. It was giving him a really bad headache, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. "Blizzaga!" He exclaimed and the river water froze in a straight line from bank to bank, wide enough for the horses and soldiers to cross.

That took care of the quarrel and they both decided to cross the river "Hope's way" much to the blonde's relief.

The crossing went without incident, except the one time Carn accidentally slipped and splashed butt-first into the river. Thankfully nothing was broken, well except his pride, and he was able to pull himself back up without help and continue leading his horse across the makeshift bridge. Soon they were all back on their horses feeling very excited, as the day drew to a close, meaning that there is not much time left till they reached the Varden and their families.


Hope lay on his mattress trying to sleep but without much success. He couldn't put the fact that he might be finally returning to Gran Pulse tomorrow, that he'd finally be reunited with his friends out of his mind. He was so excited, but also miserable because he'd be leaving the friends he had made during his short stay.

He finally gave up on sleeping and slipped out of his tent as quietly as possible. He walked stealthily away from the camp and was surprised to see the figure of a person sitting on the ground and facing the starlit sky. As he moved closer he realized it was Roran.

"Couldn't sleep too?" Hope asked and sat next to the man.

"Yeah big day tomorrow," Roran said.

"Anyone you're excited to meet?" Hope asked for the lack of anything else to say.

"Yeah my cousin and wife," his tone softer when he said 'wife' and Hope could sense the man's longing. "She's pregnant."

"That's amazing, congratulations," Hope felt genuinely happy for Roran.

"Any advice for tomorrow, I'm not sure what I should be expecting?"

"Well, first of all we'll have to report to Lady Nasuada, I suspect that my cousin would be there with Saphira and Princess Arya, she's an elf. They'll probably ask you some questions.

"Can I trust them?"

"Yeah, they're all trustworthy." Roran tried to comfort Hope, then something occurred to him. "I should probably warn you that my cousin doesn't look quite… human anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"He lived with the elves for a while and when he returned he looked, for a want of a better word, elfish."

"Thanks for the heads up, Roran I really appreciate it." Hope thanked Roran with a smile. He stood up,"I think I'll try to sleep again, after all tomorrow will be a big day." Hope walked off back to his tent.

Roran sighed after he was confident that Hope was out of hearing range. Can he really bring himself to do what he had in mind to save Hope from being lashed, Katrina certainly won't like it but she'd understand and Nasuada would probably kill him herself if he even hinted at it. But he didn't care after all the boy saved his life.


Please review so I can update sooner and tell you what happens when they reach the Varden...