Disclaimer: All copyright laws go to square enix for FF 13 but i own any characters i make up and idea twists.
Author's note: Hello readers i have uploaded a new chapter for this story and i hope you all enjoy this one. I would like to thank Senninfatih for marking this as favourite. It makes me happy to know there are readers who enjoy my first story. Any reviews are welcome and i would like to hear your opinions :)
Chapter 9 Operation Nora Begins
The two l'cie got through all the animal pens and climbed up a pillar to reach a platform. They stopped after a few moments and Hope sat on the floor staring at the hunting knife. He was making agitated noises while playing around with it and Light noticed this "What's eating you?" she questioned "Okay I can tell you are hung up on something" "Is it the l'cie thing?" she questioned but she then remembered what he said about Snow and his gang "it's Snow isn't it?" she asked once again this time getting a reaction from him. "What happened with him?" she said as she walked towards him "You wouldn't understand" hope replied back
Light knelt down in front of him "You and I are partners Hope" she stated. Hope looked down before he explained "My mother was killed, because of him" he explained, flashback memories of his mother came showing her getting up, going to snow and falling from his grip. "It's his fault" he said while tapping the knife hilt on the floor. "And he needs to pay for it, I'm not ready yet but I will be. Soon" his voice was filled with determination that his silver started glowing a bit brighter. "That's why I followed you" he said as he stood up then walked past light. "Snow dragged us all into this, you, me, your sister Serah, he's got to pay" his veins shined as he was saying those words. Hearing those words Light knew that one of his goals is to get revenge on Snow. So his need for vengeance for his mother is one of the reasons why he was chosen to possess his new power, what's the other one I wonder she wondered.
The two l'cie carried on climbing down another pillar into more animal pens, battle after battle like a never ending cycle until they finally reached another pillar to climb up to reach a platform. Light saw that a sliver leaf was blocking the path so she got her gunblade from her holster and chopped the leaf and it dissipated. "Can I use one of those?" Hope asked. "Bit too heavy for you" she replied while putting her gunblade back. Hope nodded and got the knife out revealing the blade. As light stared at the knife it was reminding her of the day on her birthday when Serah revealed that she was a pulse l'cie and Light pushed her away ignoring her surprising reveal but Snow sticked with her. In addition to opening a present from Serah was a hunting knife and hearing news on the tv stating that a pulse fal'cie was discovered in the Bodhum vestige.
"Serah, I should've listened to you" she said with hint of regret. They continued onward, more battles came in their way improving their strength and magic. Hope and light reached another elevator and used it to get to another platform but this time they found a couple of dead soldiers. "What happened here?" he questioned "They came looking for us and found something worse" Light explained "We can't just leave them like this" he reached for him but Light grabbed his shoulder "Don't touch anything!" she order as she pulled Hope away and he landed on the floor "Control your emotions. If you want to survive, you forget about sympathy" She turned in thought but said "How can I explain?" She turned to Hope and knelt in front of him "Think of it like a strategy. Focus on your ultimate goal and shut out everything else. Still your mind, move on instinct" she then stood up "Let doubt take over, and despair will cripple you" After hearing her explanation Hope stood up calmly
"Strategy good. I'll take anything to help me get through this" Light nodded in understanding as Hope walked forward "I'll call it Operation NORA" he said "NORA?" light questioned "My mother's name" Hope explained "Your revenge?" light asked once again "Yes" hope replied "Don't tell me, I know that killing him won't … bring her back" "I know that!" he shouted as he turned around with his silver veins glowing bright and his emerald eyes shining "But sorry won't cut it" he turned to walk on but Light intervened "Snow didn't kill your mother, the Sanctum did" she reasoned "Who's side are you on?!" he shouted in anger "The side of truth" she reasoned in confidence
"Fine then I'll fight the Sanctum with you, I'll learn to survive" he said as he walked away. Light then stared at the floor. Those eyes of his look entrancing while they shine. No Lightning don't think like that, he's too busy being filled with anger at the moment she argued with herself thinking of such things. They pressed on further until they reached a wide circular platform and found a floating object, Hope touched it and the platform was moving upwards until it reached the very top. All of a sudden a creature jumped out of the trees and it appeared to be an Aster Protoflorian. Light got her gunblade out while hope got his boomerang. "This is it, Operation Nora!" he shouted in a war cry while running towards the beast.
He casted Libra on it to find out information "According to the Libra information Light, it changes colour for different elements" "Okay Hope" Light acknowledged. The creature crawled towards them and swiped with it's claws, they were able to dodge the attacks and Hope casted protect and shell on himself and Light "This should give us the extra protection" He casted spells in ravage form while Lightning charged as commando. The Protoflorian felt the impacts of the attacks and changed colour into a white covering and Hope noticed the change "It seems to be covered in ice so we should attack with Fire" Light nodded and changed to ravager.
Both l'cie started to attack with fire damaging the protoflorian. It shuddered feeling the damage but carried on towards the two and bent forward opening its plant on it's back spinning the petals hitting the l'cie. They were both knocked back and hurt but thanks to the protect spell they didn't suffer the full damage. Hope and Light casted cure on each other since Light gained Medic spells. They pressed on casting fire spells but the creature changed colour once again. "It's blue now light so now we have to use thunder attacks" he started casting thunder on the creature drawing it's attention. Light noticed that it was being distracted and ran around it so she was behind it.
Light then striked it with sparkstrikes damaging it from the back. The protoflorian was making noises in anger because it knew that it was being attacked on both sides suffering major damager so it jumped in the air and slammed on the floor with it's claws near Hope. He felt the shockwaves and went flying backwards "Hope!" light shouted noticing him but she didn't realise that the protoflorian kicked her with it's back legs knocking her backwards and landing with a thud. The protoflorian crawled towards Light and was about to strike with it's claw but it felt a harsh thunder attack on it's back. Losing it's balance nearly, it turned around seeing Hope with cackles of thunder coming out of his hands. Hope casted thunder as the creature was walking towards but because of his attacks it was being delayed. Light got up from her and healed herself, she got into her concentration and saw that the creature flipped Hope into the air jumped and slammed him on the floor causing him to be in great pain. She ran in front of Hope and attacked the protoflorian's head with a sparkstrike knocking it backwards. With this chance she healed Hope with cure, at the last moment she noticed a big claw coming towards and blocked it with her gunblade.
Hope woke up from his impact and saw that Light was struggling a bit from the pressure of the protoflorian pressing downwards on her blade. She managed to pushed back the claw with a bit of extra strength but it used it's other one to smack her arm disarming her. Light closed her eyes to feel the smack but nothing happened. She opened her eyes to see that Hope is in fact holding the claw blocking it from attacking her. "Hope what are you doing?!" she ordered "You're my partner Light, I want to protect you as you are protecting me" he explained. He was struggling because of the strength difference but he thought about what operation NORA means to him as well as wanting to protect Light.
This caused him to cry out in anger and his silver veins started to glow very brightly, Lightning could see that he was pushing back the protoflorian holding it's claw. In one final attempt Hope cried out in anger and determination and pushed the protoflorian back sending it flying. The protoflorian landed on the floor with a loud thud, seeing his chance Hope ran towards it, grabbed it's claw lifting it up and slammed it on the floor with a harsh impact. Seeing how strong Hope suddenly became sent a tingling sensation throughout her body causing a pink blush to appear on her cheeks Since when did Hope get so strong? she wondered.
But she shaked her head getting out of that trance because they're in battle. Hope casted aero on the ground so he could fly upwards hovering above the creature "Light stab the protoflorian with sparkstrike now!" he ordered. Light nodded, retrieved her gunblade and stabbed the creature with sparkstrike. The protoflorian cried out in pain and Hope casted a thunder spell on Light's gunblade to increase it's damage. With the extra power the sparkstrike managed to transfer it's power through the wound into the protoflorian damaging it from the inside.
This managed to kill the protoflorian ending it permantly and Hope slowly landed on the ground retrieving his boomerang. "Operation Nora, stage one complete" he stated as they walked towards the exit "You did well" Light said as the exit opened. As they were leaving the gapra whitewood she stopped and turned to Hope "What happened back there?" "How were you able to overpower that protoflorian?" she questioned. Hope looked up to her "I guess that's a new power for me" he reasoned. Light widened her eyes in surprise "So like absorption and flight you've got a new power which is super strength" Hope pondered at that statement "I guess so, which means that I'm getting stronger with this" he said as he was looking at his silver veins. "Impressive" Light said complimenting him. Hope heard what she said and blushed a bit "Thanks" he said with a smile.
They continued onward until they reached a cliff seeing a town in the distance "That's it, Palumpolum" Hope stated "That's where you live right?" Light questioned "We'll stop in when we get there" Hope shaked his head in disagreement "No, we're l'cie now and there's no one there but my dad" he reasoned "Hope you need to tell him what happened" Light explained hoping that by doing that Hope would feel much better about his mother's death.