Author's Note: Ain't even gonna say anything in my defense this time. Cuz I have none. I think all the hype about 13-2 has kind of discouraged me from continuing this, but then I recently realized, with all the plot details, that i could actually tie this into the universe now. And so I aim to finish it. Only one more Chapter left after this, and it's gonna be a doozy.

Chapter 11

Sazh looked as if he'd seen a ghost when the slender figure of Fang slipped into his office, unseen. With all the guards he'd posted, she'd still managed to reach him unannounced.

"Fang, I-"

"Save it." she huffed, suddenly looking very winded and tired. She slid into one of the many chairs surrounding his desk and just sat there, breathing for a bit until she could speak properly. Sazh just watched in wonder.

"Remember the creation of the Bridge? all the trouble Vanille and I went through to save this cursed blot of a planet?"

Sazh nodded, not willing to argue with a Fang so obviously hurt.

"Now it's time for someone to save us." Her piercing eyes met his soft brown ones and there was an understanding there. Of losing the one you love the most and being so close to having them back, only to have it snatched away yet again, almost beyond your grasp.

"Things have gotten a lot more complicated now. There are magics I didn't know existed and only now understand, power the goddess didn't want us to know about..." Fang stared at her hands as if they were stained beyond repair. She clenched them into fists and got up, pacing in front of Sazh's desk. He didn't move, only watched. She was like some sort of caged animal he didn't dare antagonize.

"You're my last hope. I don't why it has to be that way, because honestly I wouldn't have picked you, i would have picked that tank idiot, Snow. But it's not for me to say."

She turned and grasped the edge of Sazh's desk, her gaze like a laser through his skull.

"Do you want to save Vanille?"

Sazh gulped hollowly, wondering if he should tell Fang she was fine, home and happy with Hope, but after that phone call last night, he wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe Fang was right? Maybe something was happening...

He nodded. "If it's within my power, I'd do anything for her. I...I love that kid like a daughter."

Fang chuckled. "Alright then. So listen closely.-"

Dr. Lancaster sighed and took Vanille's temperature again. 102. She was burning up. And the contractions were coming fast and strong. It was now or never. But she was so weak...

"Is everything gonna be alright? Doctor?" Hope was devolving before Lancaster's eyes, becoming that little stubborn boy from so long ago who tried to ignore what was right in front of his nose. He couldn't ignore it anymore. He'd done a slight victory dance in his head when Hope had contacted him that night several months ago. It meant everything was going the way it was supposed to. But now, he'd run out of blueprints. He didn't know what happened next. No one did but her.

"She's running a fever, and the contractions are getting closer together. We have to decide now, either take her to a hospital or keep her here. A hospital is going to ask questions, and possibly not understand how to help her. I on the other hand-"

"-We stay here. We'll have to manage." Hope gave a terse nod and went over to the sweaty, pale form of his wife. She was resting for a few moments between contractions and looked angelic despite the pain.

Streaks of light orange hair were matted to her forehead, even though he'd done his best to tie her beautiful curls back in a ponytail for her once labor had begun in earnest. He pushed them aside tenderly.

"You're so strong. My miracle..." he sighed as she breathed evenly in half-sleep.

"If I had known this was the price of having you back...you know I would have said no...I'd rather lose you for eternity then see you go through so much pain." he sighed, rubbing her hand like she always liked.

She smiled and opened her eyes a crack. they were bloodshot, but still magically green and bright.

"That's why...I didn't tell you. The pain is worth it...I can't stay forever so, this is my best chance of staying with you...through him." she pulled her hand away and rested it on the mound of her belly. Hope felt tears pricking his eyes.

"What are you talking about? You're not going anywhere. You're staying right here with me. With us."

Vanille winced. "I wish I could. It would make everything so much easier. But I've found out...Hope, life isn't easy. It never will be. When you grow up and grow old and you see that...you'll understand. It's about sacrifices and love and magic and..."

she trailed off with a groan and grabbed the edges of the bed, biting her lip to keep from screaming in pain.

"Easy, easy. almost there. You're doing great." Dr. Lancaster murmured from across the room, watching a small monitor that recorded her vitals. It also showed him details no hospital comm screen would, like Molecular Seperation Levels and Hindsight Factor. Both were at dangerous highs. He bit his lip.

Hope waited anxiously for the contraction to end, holding her hand and not even wincing when she squeezed it as hard as she could. Finally, she dropped back against the mattress, her face blank and listless.

"Why didn't Serah and Light warn me...Tell me this was so hard..." she struggled to get her breath back. Hope couldn't smile anymore, but he tried. For her.

"Well, remember when they said, once you see your baby you forget everything else?"

She froze. A tear slipped out of Vanille's eye.

"Once you see our baby, you'll forget too."

She nodded, wiping her tears away. "Yeah. you're right. I will. Just forget this ever happened." she gave a short laugh and closed her eyes again.

"Hey Hope..."

"Right here, 'Nille."

She smiled at the pet name, but quickly grew serious again. "Do you think everything is predestined? That you can't change your fate, even if you really want to?"

Hope frowned. "No. I believe no destiny is unchangeable. It can change depending on what you want from life, or what others want from it too. Vanille, you've changed your fate before. You and Fang. Don't you remember? You were sworn to destroy Cocoon but look! You saved it. That's what made me believe I might see you again someday. That anything was possible. That Fate was not set in stone but was liquid and forgiving.

"Liquid, yeah. Forgiving? not so much." she coughed and readjusted herself on the bed.

"Just rest now, you've got a lot of work left to do tonight. Want some water?" Hope kissed her head and got up. Vanille nodded vaguely before closing her eyes again, desperate to rest before more pain began. He gazed at her one last time, so small and so broken, before rushing out of the room to fetch the water, unable to trust himself anymore.

He was downstairs by the time his resolve gave way. Pressing his back to the wall by the stairs he slid down, giving over to his sobs, where no one else could see. Light did though, from where the others were gathered in the kitchen, pacing and worriedly chatting to ward off the night. She came over to the door, but knew not to intrude, watching Hope with sadness in her eyes. He wasn't the only one who felt helpless tonight.

"Goddess, I'd give anything to keep her here..." he whispered, tears sliding down his nose and to the floor. "Anything..."

By midnight, it was finally over. Dr. Lancaster had rushed the baby away for testing with his assistants and Hope, then helped Vanille finish up with the afterbirth and it was all over. The stars were high in the Gran Pulsian sky and no one else in the budding city could know what had transpired.

Vanille was restless. She'd been told to stay in bed the prevent blood loss, but she was tired of lying down. Her legs were weak from the months spent off of them, so she propped herself up on the balcony railing, gazing out and feeling the cool night breeze on her face.

"So this is it, hm? I have to leave them all? Just like that?" no one answered, the wind taking her question high up into the sky, to the gods. But they rarely answered.

"I don't even get to say goodbye this time..." she whispered sadly as she turned away and faced the warmly lit room that she'd single-handedly started a family in.

"I wish I'd known all this...when I come the first time...There is so much I would have done differently..."

She pressed her hand against the door to the study, where Dr. Lancaster had set up the bassinet and was running tests to make sure Aren was healthy. She could hear Hope cooing softly.

"I love you." she mouthed and let her hand fall, walking to the door downstairs and slipping out without a sound. She could still hear Serah laughing and Snow's big booming voice from the kitchen. But-

She froze, halfway out into the fields at the back of the house.

"It's alright. I won't tell anyone." Light's soft low voice reached her from where the woman sat, hidden by shadows.

"Thank you." Vanille answered, nodding her head in acknowledgement.

"Hope always thought he had this big bad secret, ever since you got back. Really, he should've known better. I'm not that stupid."

Vanille didn't answer, already seeing the rushes moving, where the younger her had just appeared and hurt herself.

"He has a lot left to learn. Help him." and with a final gaze between them, Vanille slipped off into the waving reeds, a flash of orange among the green. She saw the dark shadow of herself pass close beside her, and her heart leapt to her throat, but she kept moving.

As the house got further and further away, her worries seem to drift away with them, knowing at least one incarnation of herself was there to make sure Aren had a mother, for a little while. To lie with Hope for the first time, even if he thought it was the hundredth. She didn't cry, didn't mourn.

It had to be this way.

But here, she didn't know where to go. She hadn't seen this far ahead. What she had seen seemed to show that after she left, two years into this future, she'd never come back. But so where did that leave her? Still weak from giving birth and feverish?

"It is time for you to come to me now. One last time..." the voice was soft and soothing, brought to her by the winds of Pulse, like a secret hundreds of years old.

There was no pain this time as she slipped seamlessly into the darkness beyond. As it was, her own physical pain seemed to slip away, like a burden left behind. She felt weightless and whole, healthy and strong again. Here, her molecules didn't have to make sense. They just had to be.

"Hello."

The voice was Fang's, and yet someone else's at the same time. Vanille closed her eyes, useless to her in the dark, floating as she was. Finally she felt her feet hit something solid, and she sat down on it, slowly looking out over what was there.

It was a pedestal, tall and bottomless in a realm full of colors and lights. Clouds drifted close by, as if the floor was in the sky and not on the ground. It was beautiful beyond belief.

"I have been waiting for you, Vanille. The time has come to make the final choice."

"Who are you?" Vanille asked tentatively, looking around frantically. The disembodied voice was frightening and seemed to be far off yet very close all at once. A soft chuckle answered and a small cloud drifted over the pedestal in the air, taking form slowly, until it resembled Fang, and yet not Fang.

"I am the goddess Etro, the creatrix of all you see and all that has been and has yet to be."

The figure twisted in shadow and cloud a bit more, then emerged as Fang, a cocky smile on her lips as she helped her friend to her feet.

"Not bad, eh? It's truly amazing what I'm capable of now...now that I let go and became One with the Bridge. It is a peace I never thought could exist...And because of it, I am in a position to help you this one last time."

Vanille sighed. It was as her nightmares had foretold. Fang had given in, given up to the power of the In Between, and now she was simply a spirit, in control of so much power. But there was no coming back now. No more life, at least in a physical body. But the stroke of Fang's hand on her cheek was enough to dispel that thought in her, for a moment at least. Her skin was cool and calloused, just as the older warrior's hands had been in life. But for one who had control of everything that manifested in this other realm, this was most likely child's play to imitate.

"A friend of mine...or ours, as you choose to see it, made a request long ago, in a time I don't think you can remember, simply because you never see it. I mulled the question over for just as long a time, trying to figure out what it could possibly mean. I knew what i didn't want it to mean, but that simply left a list of things it could be anyway. It bred a jealousy in me I was unable to banish, something that poisoned my spirit. But that is in the past now. I have gained much in the way of knowledge thanks be to Etro and the others. And now I know it isn't my place to understand, but simply to ask. And so I shall."

Fang had been pacing around Vanille all this time, looking out thoughtfully over the vast expanse of colorful nothingness all around them, as if recalling a deeper memory. All Vanille felt was numb, unable to move, too many thoughts and questions rushing through her head to even begin to contemplate this answer that Fang would want...

"Was it worth it?"