Chapter Ten- Crystal Blue

Hope walked into the large structure still holding onto Light's hand, who had by this time started to sweat. They walked through the corridor and the wind blew upon both of them causing them to shiver. The air had the scent of an old mosque that hadn't seen the light of day in hundreds of years, still clinging to the dead that rest there.

They stopped for a moment taking in the sight they saw before them, the most beautiful blue crystal structures that could be imagined. Every staircase and even the tiles were a bright blue and lit up the otherwise morbid structure.

"Oh shit...."

Lightning let go of his hand and stood in awe at the sight in front of her. Hope was equally dumbfounded at what he saw and stood there looking at it alongside her.

"Wow... this is.... amazing."

The two slowly made their way through the structure and the light illuminated both of their eyes as they gasped at the detail that surrounded them. The most amazing of which happened to be carvings that were absolutely gorgeous in the amount of detail.

They came upon many different statues, all of which had an X placed on where the l'cie mark would have normally been. They walked through the hall that was massive in size ,both stopping dead in their tracks, looking at the statues of two very familiar figures.

"Fang....and Vanille..."

Although Lightning stated the obvious both her and Hope were too gobsmacked to even notice the obvious "duh" moment. Hope just looked up with his mouth agape.

"But why?"

He looked at lightning and threw her a 'what the hell?' look. Light looked over at him and could only look at the statues trying to roll over in her mind what it could all mean.

"I'm not sure.... look at them though.... in these.... it seems...."

She tilted her head and moved closer to the statues, reaching out her hand and accidentally touching Vanille's crystallized chest.

"Uh... umm..."

She quickly withdrew her hand and looked embarrassingly at the young man who had a smirk on his face. The burn of a blush was on her face and she looked down for a moment gain her composure.

"It seems that their l'cie marks have been replaced by X. They are also hand in hand and seem to have a calm look on their faces..."

Her face returned to its normal stoic expression and she forced, quite convincingly that all the embarrassment from the previous moment had passed. Hope just looked at her and then scrunched his forehead as he looked back at the two carvings.

"What do you think it means?"

His eyes were questioning and Light just looked at the statues for a few moments and seemed to fall deep into thought. He kept looking over at her in the expectation that she might have all the answers. She then opened her eyes and began walking away from the statues.

"I'm not sure, lets continue forward... standing her won't answer any of our questions."

He nodded and they both continued through the room and began to walk up the stairs that seemed to spiral forever into the heavens.