A New Dawn

[Military housing block B, Sergeant-Major Farron's residence]

Yawning and stretching her back, Lightning reached over to silence the alarm clock. As she fully regained all her senses she noticed two things were wrong. One, it was 5:26am which was 34 minutes earlier than she'd set her alarm. Two, her alarm still haven't stopped beeping. Upon closer examination, she realized it wasn't her alarm, it was the comm. device next to it. Swinging her legs out of bed and sitting up into another quick stretch, she answered the call.

"Lightning?" Hope's voice rang loud in her ear. She winced slightly.

"Hope? Why are you calling me at 5:30 in the morning?"

"Sorry to wake you but I thought this was too important to not inform you." Lightning yawned into the back of her hand before asking.

"What's going on?"

"It's better if you come see for yourself."

"Alright," Lightning agreed through a sigh, "Where are you?"

"At the base line." The words snapped Lightning fully awake instantly. Base line? The Crystal Pillar? She practically jumped out of bed, grabbing the nearest set of clothes she could.

"I'll be there in 5." She said before hanging up.

[Meanwhile, at Baseline]

"Did you reach her?" Amodar asked Hope as the First-Lieutenant caught up with him at the Pillar Perimeter checkpoint.

"She's on her way." Hope reassured.

"And the report? Is it accurate?"

"I really don't see why or how anyone would falsify reports like these." Hope answered quickly and honestly but found no comfort in the words. The both of them presented their IDs to the guards at the checkpoint and were cleared to pass. They made their way to the main entrance to the pillar where they were met with a few other officers.

"First-Lieutenant, Councilman." The officers greeted the both of them respectively.

"What exactly is the situation here?" Amodar asked.

"A random intervals last night, the perimeter monitoring station picked up some unusual readings from inside the Pillar but nothing that suggested anything was wrong." One of the officers began to explain, "then, this morning it was discovered Baseline had been hit by a tremor."

"A tremor?" Hope repeated, "How large?"

"It would have been classified as a moderate threat."

"Moderate? Then why wasn't it reported? Or the rest of the district affected?" Hope motioned over his shoulder with his thumb.

"That's just it sir, it would have been if it hadn't been small enough to just effect the area of Baseline." The second officer clarified.

"You mean the tremor occured directly under the pillar, affected only the area in it?"

"Yes, sir." Hope sighed audibly before before nodding, "Alright, what about inside? Was there any damage?" Again the officers looked at each other before turning back to him.

"What is this, twenty questions?" Amodar suddenly spoke up, throwing his hands up in exasperation. He pat Hope's shoulder, motioning with his head towards the main entrance to Baseline. Hope turned back to the officers and gave them a salute. They responded in kind.

"Thank you, we'll take it from here."

Hope followed Amodar towards the large entryway that'd been carved into the base of the Pillar. Tilting his head upwards, the First-Lieutenant couldn't see any visible damage but there was something significantly different about the Crystal Pillar. And while he couldn't place exactly what it was, he had a feeling that once he found out, he wouldn't like it. he eyes drifted back down towards the entranceway he and Amodar were talking towards.

Almost immediately after Cocoon's crystallization, the remaining members of the Guardian Corps had already begun clearing the area around the base, using both the debris and scattered crystals to build camps. The Guardian Corps would eventually shift to form the Crystal Council and the camps would eventually evolve into the Crystal City—Crystallinus.

Around the same time the CRYSIS Corps had started to form, the large crack that would eventually become an entrance way was discovered in the base of the Pillar (Baseline). The CRYSIS Corps. had carefully cleared out the rubble and debris from inside and found the inner shaft the Pillar seemed to be protecting.

It'd been a huge debate whether or not to study the inner shaft. From what initial investigations turned up, the shaft was directly linked to not only the Crystal Pillar but to the crystal energy used to build and power the city. But it wasn't the shaft that concerned certain members that were either on and related to the Crystal Council—such as Hope, Lightning and Amodar. What concerned them was at the tip of the inner shaft. No science teams had managed to get anywhere near the top but they knew what was up there and were adamant to keep it undisturbed.

"This is..." Amodar started as he stepped into the main chamber of the Crystal Pillar. Hope followed and reviewed the scene.

The inner shaft, usually giving out steady pulses of light, was dim and almost flickering. Large cracks in the Crystal ground zigzagged outwards from the base of it, emitting a thin mist that had begun shrouding the floor. But the ground wasn't Hope's greatest concern—as serious as the damage looked, it wasn't the cause of the unpleasant feeling in his gut. Raising his gaze upwards, his eyes widened at what he saw.

"Amodar, Hope." Lightning's voice broke his gaze away. He turned to see Lightning making her own way into the chamber. She'd noticed the cracks and mist, slowed her pace, watching her steps.

"Sergeant-Major." Amodar greeted her.

"Light." Hope added softly.

"What... happened here?" She asked looking between the two of them and the surrounding Crystal. Hope swallowed another lump as she finally stopped to stand next to him. He watched her shift her eye upwards. Hope noticed her reaction wasn't much different from his, "What... H-How...?" He followed her gaze and once against found himself in disbelief at the sight.

The top half of the shaft had shattered, effectively disconnecting it from Cocoon. The usually bright source of light near the base of the dead planet was dark, hollow, empty. And while they couldn't see it, Hope knew Lightning could feel it just as he did. The crystal statues that spun there gently, locked in time, were no longer there.

[Meanwhile, somewhere between Crystallinus and Neo Oerba]

In a small, unnatural clearing within a forest layered in a thick mist, two figures lay side by side. Both lay still, shattered crystal shards littering the ground around them. They remained unmoving, un-breathing.

Then as dawn broke; as the sunlight began filtering through the trees illuminating the clearing in a dim orange light; two sets of green eyes snapped open and—were anyone around to hear it—two deep gasps for air broke the silence of the morning.

A/N:

DUN DUN DUN!
The plot thickens! ...even more!
...or something o_0

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know "Finally! S'about time you brought them back!"
I'D BEEN GETTING TO IT, AIGHT!