After Fall

I was pretty relieved when I spotted Hope from the airship. I'd been looking for him for hours, making two rounds over the Pass of Paddra before deciding to look over the Ascendant Scarp. Have to admit, I never expected to see the kid climbing up over the ledge.

When I landed the ship and ran out to meet Hope, I saw that he was a mess. His jacket was torn all along the back, the knees of his pants were pretty much worn through, and his gloves didn't look much better. There was blood on his hands and knees, and dirt pretty much smeared all over his body - it would've been funny, if I hadn't almost had a heart attack worrying about him.

Hope tried to tell me that he was okay, that it was just a bit of dirt. Like he hadn't run off without telling me where he was going, like I hadn't seen him climb up one of the steepest gorges in the whole of Yaschas Massif. I wanted to be angry with him, but I was so relieved that he was unhurt... Even though I knew Lightning wasn't gonna be happy with either of us, I just wanted to get him home before Hope could find more trouble to get himself into.

He must've felt the same way, because he didn't put up much fuss when I told him to get in the ship. The sun was starting to set, so I had to fly higher than I'm normally comfortable with - Amphisbaena and Svarog have a tendency to really come out at night, and the higher you fly, the more likely you are to hit one with an airship. It happened over in New Eden a few months ago, and everyone in the ship was pretty much killed instantly. It's not a way I'd prefer to die, and I just kept praying to Etro that it wouldn't happen to us after I'd finally found Hope.

Thankfully, we arrived in New Bodhum free of any unexpected run-ins. I landed the ship beside the one Sazh typically uses, the one he normally parks on the other side of the village. I knew that I was probably gonna get an earful from Lightning and Sazh about that, too - I'd turned off the radio when I'd gone to look for Hope. It was pretty much the first rule of piloting that I'd broken: you never turn off your radio, and you never ignore a transmission. Even though I think I had a pretty good reason for doing it, I knew Lightning and Sazh wouldn't agree.

New Bodhum was pretty quiet when we made our way home, but seeing the lights in the house that was typically reserved for out-of-town visitors, I had a feeling that there'd been more excitement at the ruins than just a missing teenager. I thought if we had a little bit of luck, I could get Hope home and cleaned up so that maybe Lightning wouldn't freak out as much when I told her that he'd been missing for a few hours.

Of course, that didn't really work out. We'd barely gotten to the stairs when Lightning and Serah walked in. I thought for sure that Lightning would carve out a chunk of my hide right then and there, but apparently she was just really happy that Hope was okay. She didn't even bother to yell at me, saying that it'd been a long day and that we'd all talk in the morning.

And wasn't that fun, being forced awake before the sun even came up. It wasn't really Lightning's fault that Aschelle chose that moment to start pounding on the door. Serah was half-asleep when I got up and followed Lightning downstairs, just to learn from Aschelle that apparently Cayerin Wroth had died only a few minutes before, and Urich Gilz - the amputee - was looking like he was gonna go soon. He was worried that something like a trap had been released during the earthquake, and he was afraid it was gonna spread to the rest of his team.

The coffee is barely enough to keep me awake, but I drink it anyway. Serah's busy whipping up breakfast in the kitchen over my shoulder, and Hope just looks miserable as he sips his juice beside me. Can't say it's a surprise - kid's a walking bruise this morning.

"You never did tell me just how you ended up in the gorge yesterday." I say. Behind us, Serah gasps and I can hear the spatula she'd been using clatter to the floor. I never did get around to telling her about that last night. Oops.

"You remember that shrine I was telling you about? The one to Bhunivelze?" Hope asks. I nod and take another sip of coffee. "That road map I found yesterday, the one by the ship, kinda showed me the direction it was located. I followed a hunch and found the shrine but I, um... kinda got stuck. I tried to get out through this tunnel, except that it kinda collapsed when I was walking."

"And you fell into the gorge of the Ascendant Scarp." I add.

Hope dips his head in embarrassment. "Uh... yeah."

"Just where was this shrine, anyway? How the hell did you get in?"

"It was where the Pass of Paddra meets the Ascendant Scarp." Hope murmurs. "I found the symbol of Bhunivelze carved into the rock. Back when I was working to translate that tablet, it mentioned needing a 'crystal key' to open the door, and I -"

"Used the eidolith!" Serah exclaims. "That's why it was in your jacket pocket!"

Hope turns and nods at her, then starts to tap his fingers nervously on his glass. After a long moment of silence, he looks up at me through a fringe of silver-blond hair. "It was really... really terrifying. I thought I was dead for sure."

"Yeah, well, I know you really scared the crap outta me." I growl. "One minute I'm doing my job and you're translating by the ship, the next minute the earth is shaking and you're gone... I'm telling you now, Hope, if Lightning doesn't ground you, I will."

The kid winces and looks away, just as Lightning walks through the door.

"That's a relief." she says. "To think, Snow and I finally agree on something."

"I'm... I'm really sorry." Hope stands up and bows his head to Lightning. "I should've told someone where I was going, and I should've waited for someone to go with me."

"Yeah." Lightning agrees. She brushes past Hope and sits down at the table across from me. I pour her a cup of coffee from the pot in front of me and slide it towards her. She nods her appreciation, takes a sip and closes her eyes.

"And... I shouldn't have let you and Snow worry so much. I really could've been hurt, or killed, and I should've thought about that before going off on my own." Hope continues.

Lightning nods. "And?"

"And...?" Hope looks confused, hesitating a glance first at Serah and then at me.

"And." Lightning repeats. "As in, 'and I should have listened when you told me not to go.' Or, 'and I understand why I should be grounded.' People died yesterday, Hope! It could have been you!"

Hope's face pales when he hears the word 'died'. "Who..?"

"The Wroths and Gilz, though when I left this morning Nabhuo wasn't doing much better. I won't be surprised if she's gone by tonight." Lightning stares down at her coffee in disgust, then fixes Hope with her nags-like stare. "As Snow was saying earlier, you are so grounded. I don't want to hear the words 'Paddra' or 'Bhunivelze' or 'Farseer' out of your mouth for the next three weeks, got it?"

Hope nods silently and takes a small step towards the table. I can tell he's trying to hold back a flood of emotions - he's known the archaeologist team members almost as long as he's known the rest of us, and losing even one of them would be like losing a friend. But to find out that three of them are dead is probably a pretty big shock.

"We'll go to the service tomorrow morning." Lightning announces. "And after that, you're going to be Serah's shadow until your grounding is up."

Hope doesn't argue, just returns to his seat and stares into his juice.

Then Lightning turns her gaze on me, and I know that I'm next. Damn.

"As for you," she growls. "You abandoned people who needed medical attention to go after a kid who wasn't supposed to be at the ruins to begin with. You ignored Sazh's transmissions, probably turned the radio off altogether, and then tried to cover it all up when you brought Hope home."

"It's not like -" When Lightning glares at me, I can't help but swallow thickly. She'd probably try to eviscerate me with a spoon if I gave her a good enough reason to.

"I'm grounding you, too." Lightning says. "No flying for you until you've proven to Sazh that you won't go pulling that kind of crap again. Until then, you're on night patrol. That ought to keep the both of you out of trouble for a while."

I push my coffee away and glance back at Serah. She looks a little upset with her sister's decree, but not upset enough to argue. Guess I'll just have to try to get back in Sazh's good graces as fast as I can. As for Hope... well, I think he's probably learned a valuable lesson.

~fin?