Chapter 10: When all hope is lost, don't look down.

(Lightning's P.O.V)

I fastened my boots and stood up, making sure my equipment was all in place. It was my first day on the job with Fang and her squad. I hadn't spoken to Hope or Serah since my storm out, but I didn't really want to. I knew she was safe here, so I didn't need to worry. As for Hope, I don't know. I got him somewhere safe, surely that's enough for our farewell. He doesn't need me anymore.

"Farron, you ready?" Fang called from the outside of my door.

"Yeah." I called back, swinging my gunblade into the holder and opened the door. "Lets go."

"Alright, we're gone." Fang smirked, leading the way.

She led me down a rather dark hall, illuminated with blue floor lights and sky lights. It looked like something out of a Sci-fi movie, but I wasn't complaining.

"And this is where we train, plan and leave." Fang waved her hands through the air, gesturing the whole area, which was a huge hall that could fit at least five small airships. "And this beauty is ours" She patted her hand on the fron of a large airship with blue accents here and there. "We'll be using her a lot to get around. Just my squad"

"Huh. But that begs the question, how did you manage to get all these airships and equipment during a time like this?" I questioned, putting a hand on my hip. "Surely you'd have to know beforehand to plan for something like this."

I watched Fang carefully, looking at her stumble for words to say. Yeah, I had figured something fishy was up. They managed to save three cities worth of people, have several high-quality airships and enough equipment to last them years. Even for a militery devision, you couldn't have all this without planning before hand.

"Gotta always be prepared for something like this. It's our job to keep people safe." Fang finally responded, turning away and walking over to Cid, who was finalizing some last touches.

"You're all set to go?" He asked, looking at me as though I was worried about something. I shook off his stare and scoffed.

"I'm always ready. I'm sure you know how it is." I smirked, indicating I knew something they didn't want everyone to know. Cid cleared his throat at my words.

"Yes, well as a military unit, it's our job to be prepared for anything and always ready to protect our citizens." He nodded. "And I'm sure this makes you a very reliable candidate for the Gardian Corpse"

"Yeah, well that's nothing but a past dream now. I can't waste time thinking about the 'could have's' and 'should haves' now. I need to survive." I said bluntly.

"It could happen." Fang interfered. "Yeah, once we sort out all this mess and make our home safe again, you might just be able to have that dream realized." Tch, that sounded too much like Snow. Like their hopes for the future were final and nothing could change that. But they don't get it, that's what makes a person weak: having too much hope and blocking out the unavoidable truth that maybe, just maybe, you just can't have it your way. Change can be a cruel thing to some, but comes easy to those that adapt.

"Yeah, right."

Soon enough, everyone was getting into the airship our pilot was starting it out. A man named Sazh Katzroy. I didn't know much about him, except he had a son with him and he lost his wife to those 'things' That's what Fang told me anyway. He was a happy-looking man, with a big afro. But what I found weird was the chocobo chick that lived in his afro. It popped out every now and then, and it seemed to just make everyone smile. I guess the little things are what matters in these times.

"So, Light. I heard you were going to join Gardian Corpse" One of the soldiers said. He had messy, brown hair that came to his shoulders. I looked up at him from my seat and stared for a moment before he reached out his hand. " The names Rygdea." He smiled.

I didn't shake his hand, I nodded and kept my hands folded against my chest.

"Not the talkative type, huh?" He chuckled nervously, putting his hand down. "Ehhh, that's ok. 'Get the job done' type."

"So what is it we're actually off to do?" I asked, ignoring his small talk. He made a dissapointed sound before laughing a little.

"We're going to locations, clearing them out and seeing if they are suitable for our new home. You know, just until we can take it all back."

"Right." I sighed. Why do they all sound like Snow so much?

"Is something wrong with it?" He asked, noticing my sigh.

"Oh, no. It's just perfect." I said sarcastically. "But don't you have a back-up plan? What if you can't take our home back? What if there is no cure? What then?" Rygdea chuckled at my words.

"Light, you don't need to worry about any of that. Cid's got it covered. It's our home, and no virus is going to take it from us. Those walkers won't know what hit 'em." He smiled, fist pumping the air a little.

"Is he bothering you, Light?" Fang walked over, patting Rygdea on the shoulder hard.

"I was just explaining our mission to her." He defended. Fang sat near us, crossing her legs.

"That's my job. Your job is to make sure all your lacky's are ready for the fight ahead." She teased, putting Rygdea back in his place.

"Oh, come on. I do most the work around here and then Cid gives you the squad leader role. So unfair, Fang." He whined.

"Cheeky boy, aren't you? We'll see how long that last when you're out on the battlefield and you see your team getting munched. How quick would you be to make a good decision then?" Rygdea had nothing to say to that. Their playful fight had suddenly become a little more darker as Rygdea looked down.

"Yeah, I know I'm no good with that. I lost my whole squad out there in the first few days." Both Fang and I were silent, not just because we didn't know how to respond, but because we've both lost people and seen in happen. We knew the guilt and the pain. "So, don't ever get cocky out there, ok?" He smiled before standing up and heading off.

"And that, my girl, is why you always have to keep a sharp eye and an even sharper mind." Fang was right about that.

"And an even sharper aim." I finished. "Can't go missing your target."

"Exacly."

"All right, we're now entering Teajin's Tower" Sazh called through the intercom. A large tower built by the ancient civs. I had to admit, it was a good start. A building like this could work well for us. I mean, it was several floors high, and the only way up was a lift that no walker could use. Everyone knew about this place and it's legends. There's a legend of statue gardians that guard this place. If that's true, and they're on our side, then we'd have a pretty safe place to stay.

"Alright, an ancient tower that-" I cut Fang off.

"I know. Everyone knows about this place. There shouldn't be too many walkers in here then, right?" I asked. Surely there couldn't be any. Walkers can't use a lift, so it should be the first floor and that's it. But apparently I was wrong.

"Don't assume until you know." Fang shook her head. "That'll be your downfall. This place may seem it, but there are always tourist coming here, not to mention that place has always been riddled with monsters. Monsters can turn, but I know you already knew that. Who knows what's in there. "

Tch, typical. But I wasn't shocked, nor was I displeased. I wanted to fight, I wanted to atone for Maqui. No, I haven't forgot about him back in Bodhum. He relied on me and I failed him. I wasn't fast enough, I wasn't strong enough and he...I will avenge him.

We all jumped out of the airship and used our gravity core devices to land safely at the entrance. Sazh flew above us, keeping the ship ready for an emergency exit if needed. It was best to keep the ship in the air at all time, but that was common sense.

"Alright, you all know the drill. Kill the bastards and clear out this place. Check for any supplies or dangers. Report anything to me or Rygdea and always, ALWAYS stay on guard and watch each other's backs." Fang drilled. "Alright, lets go!"

And with that, we all marched in, weapons ready and guards up. I could feel the air in here, a musty, thick air that weighed on your chest. It wasn't pleasant. And the vision wasn't great either. It was a long, dark hallway with stone walls that have several carvings in them.

In the distance, we could hear moans and groans. Obviously we all knew what it was.

"Alright, beyond this door is going to get rough. If anything happens, you get out f here, got it?" Fang ordered before looking through the open door.

In the center of the huge room was a glowing light with four statues stood around it, guarding it from anything. Those must be the statue gardians from the legend, but were they alive? Beside that was the lift we needed to rely on. But then, just when all looked easy enough, walkers filled the floor.

In the darkness, you could see their arms reaching for the light, all their noises echoing and sounding like a chorus. There was a lot, and I could feel my heart beat speed up.

Rygdea threw in a bomb, and as soon as it went off, we all charged in with our weapons.

All I could hear were gunshots and the off scream here and there. There was a lot of us, sure enough we can take them.

I swung my blade, hitting the walkers that were coming around me, swiping around in my blitz movement and knocking them all down. There was even a few monster walkers that were a little more worrying. They were fast and had sharp teeth and claws. Easy to get napped by one, but a quick shoot to the head was fine.

"Tch, get off me!" I shouted as a walker tried biting me, walking into me with all it's weight. I used my arms to hold it back and keep it's mouth away. Just then someone shot it in the head and it feel to my feet.

I looked over to see Rygdea, who quickly turned to shoot some more walkers that were surrounding him.

"Gahhh!"

"Noo"

"Ahhhh!" Several screams. Looks like people were going down a lot faster than I could keep track of, but I had to keep fighting and killing these things.

"Ahhhhhh!" Several gunshots were fired. I looked to the source of the scream and gunshots to see Rygdea in a circle of walkers, shooting around like a maniac.

I ran over, slashing at the things and shooting them with my gunblade. They all fell to the floor and revealed Rygdea stood with his gun ready.

"You looked like you needed help." I smirked. He smiled back, nodding at me.

"Thanks, Lightning."

"Call me Light!" I said, both of us standing back to back and shooting at walkers.

"Okay then, Light." He smiled.

It felt good fight with someone like this, both of us back to back against the walkers. I knew I had my back covered, and he knew his was covered. It was the ultimate teamwork.

"Everyong make their way to the lift! NOW!" We heard Fang shout as she jumped up with her lance and speared a group of walkers.

With that, the rest of the survivors ran to the lift, shooting the walkers as they went. Rygdea and I looked back at each other and nodded.

We both ran together, shooting and swiping any walkers, just like everyone else. We made it into the lift with everyone else, catching our breath like everyone else, too. I looked, but there was no Fang. Where was she.

We couldn't start the lift without her, and I don't think Rygdea would allow it anyway. We waiting, and waited when all of a sudden.

"Why are you waiting!? If I don't show, you go!" Fang yelled as she jumped in, hitting the switch and sending us up.

"We couldn't" Rygdea defended. "Like hell we'd leave you behind to die."

"And end up dead yourself?"

"If that's what it comes to, we'll deal with it." He smirked. Fang didn't argue and instead sighed.

"Alright. We'll head to one of the higher floors where it'll be less crowded. We'll clear it and come up with a new plan. There's no point in fighting all them, we'll just tire ourselves out and end up dead"

Yep, that was true. But what made her so sure the top floors were any safer. We were in a lift, if the next floor had loads of walkers waiting at the door, we'd all be screwed. We had to play our next cards carefully.

"Okay, but say we get to the top and there's more walkers theres. What then?" I asked.

"Then we'll just have to fight our way our, won't we?" Fang reassured.

"What happened to clearing the area?"

"Our job is to find a suitable home. If we can't clear this place because there's too many walkers, then it's obviously not going to be a suitable home. If we could clear it and keep it clear, it would be perfect. But sometimes that's not the case." Finally, Fang wasn't sounding like a delusional idiot. Now this I could get on board with.

"Right. Makes sense." I nodded, turning my head to Rygdea who was looking a little uneasy. "You okay?" I asked, getting his attention. He nodded his head, but his eyes said otherwise.

"I just...We lost a lot of people back there." Of course.

"Yeah, it was pretty savage. But listen to me, you've gotta get used to losing people. You fight as hard as you can to keep people safe, but don't get reckless." Rygdea looked at me and smiled a little.

"Yeah. It's just sad that this is how the world is now. The little things we took for granted, now mean so much to us. It's like the Gods are trying to tell us 'You're too ungreatful for your life and the people in it' so they're showing us. It's probably not true, but..."

"No, it would makes sense, wouldn't it? Humans war against each other, fight and argue over stupid things. We don't say 'I love you' enough and don't know how important people are to us. Then there's the things we do and enjoy that we take for granted, like hot water and comfort. Yeah, we're a pretty pathetic species in the eyes of the Gods." I could feel everyone's eyes on me, all but Fangs. She simply stared at the floor and nodded slowly.

"Well if it is the Gods, we better show them that we can do just fine without any of that. We are survivers, always have been."

Just then the lift door opened, leading out to a long balcony with several doors all along the side. The area seemed clear, no walkers in site, but hat didn't mean to let our guard down just yet.

"Alright, you all know the drill. They can be sneaky little bastards" Fang stanced out first, followed by Rygdea and me, then everyone else followed. At the start, there was at least 20 of us. Now it looked like there was hardly 10, including Fang, Rygdea and me.

It's sad how fast things can turn sour, but we were still alive, and to me, that was all that mattered. I had to survive no matter what.

"This room is clear!" Rygdea called as he checked in one of the rooms.

"Alright, this room will be our station for now. We go around in groups of three to cover this floor and check the rest of the rooms. Any problems, you call for help and we'll be there." Fang made the task clear.

"You three take the next room over, then you three the next" Fang pointed to the six remaining survivors. "Rygdea and Lightning, you're with me in the furthest and last room. There's another lift in there and we need to check where it goes and if it's safe. Everyone use their com devices to talk to each other, ok?" She looked at everyone carefully. "Alright, let's go!"

And with that we all cleared out, going to our given rooms to check and clear.

Now that I thought about it, Fang was quite a good leader. Of course she wasn't perfect, but no one was. She's lost over half our team, but the rest of us are still alive.

"Alright, I can hear something in there." She said, motioning to the room. We all headed in carefull and looked around. It was pretty dark, but not enough to block out vision. We could see the lift too, but when we checked it out, it wasn't functional. The switch had been broke to the point of being unable to move it at all.

"Great." Rygdea sighed, kicking the machine. "Now what?"

"We make it work." Fang examined the machine for the way to move it.

"But shouldn't we figure out what did this? I mean, no walker could do that kind of damage, could they?" Rygdea looked at me, nodding as if to agree.

"She's right. Walkers do some damage, but none of them could snap a whole switch off. Especially these switches."

"Whatever did this could be long gone by now. Don't forget monsters can turn, too. If a walker-monster did this, it wouldn't surprise me." Fang replied, sticking her lance in between the machine and the switch and twisted it, making the switch flip. "Told you it wasn't a problem"

The lift closed and sent us up to the very top floor. There was literally nothing up here, just a few broken gardian statues and blood staines. Some machinary was broken too, so we couldn't get the lift for all floors to work, which would've been perfect for us.

"Isn't that just perfect." Rygdea shook his head with a sigh.

Fang and Rygdea examined the machines some more when something caught my eye. It looked like a piece of paper with blood stains on it. I walked over, picking it up and examining it.

It was a photograph of a young girl with an older girl-they could have been sisters- with a note on the back.

To whoever finds this,

You must leave. This place is not safe and you must leave now! If you've made it this far, then I'm sure you've noticed things being broken far beyond the strength of a walker. That's because it isn't, it's something far worse. The Fal'cie that used to roam this tower long ago still exist and when the virus broke out, it came out and turned several tourist here into L'cie. Our focus was to stop the focus and save mankind, but we couldn't. In turn, we're all turning into Cie'th one by one and for some reason, the virus is infecting them. It seems that becoming a Cie'th means death, and when you die, regardless of being bitten, you come back as a walker. There are infected Cie'th wondering around this tower and I hope and pray you leave. However, I would be greatful if you could put us all to rest.

-Please save us.

The note ends there. I was in shock, the suffering these people went through in only a short amount of time. I stand up, turning back to Fang and Rygdea.

"Look here." I handed them the note. They both read it, their faces dropping as they read it.

"This is horrible." Rygdea turned his head away. "We have to at least give them their peace"

"And where do you suppose we start? We haven't ran into any Cie'th or a Fal'cie. And if there is a Fal'cie around, do you really wanna be hanging around if it shows up again?" Fang had a point, but it was cruel to just leave knowing these people were suffering.

"We'll do what we have to do here. If we run into any Cie'th, we'll take care of them." I spoke up. It was the best we could do in these situations.

"Alright. Now lets go back down to the rest and let them know. We'll take this note back to Cid." With that, we headed back for the lift, but before we could get there, we heard a loud screetch. The floor began to shake as the large, serpant like monster few over us. It was the Fal'cie who was said to have been dormant for hundreds of years. But, why now?

"Get the lift now!" Fang shouted, signalling both, Rygdea and I to run for the lift. Just as we got in, the Fal'cie shot out a huge blast of magic, blowing up the floor around the lift and sending everything crumbling to the floor below us.

(Hope's P.O.V)

I walked out of my room, heading into the main hall where Snow and Serah were waiting for me. Everyone was doing their usual things: chatting and enjoying themselves, forgetting about what was going on in the world. I'll admit, as much as I wanted to forgoet too, I couldn't. The reality still glinted like a knife, and to forget or deny it would be reckless and stupid. We have all lost people, and to just forget that or ignore it...it seems weak.

"Hey, Hope. You alright?" I was taken out of my thoughts by Snow as he put his large hand on my shoulder.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, just thinking." I responded, trying to play it cool. "Have either of you spoke to Lightning since yesterday?" Both Serah and Snow shook their heads.

"No, I haven't." Serah sighed. She was clearly missing her sister, and I felt the need to restore the peace between them all. I mean, after all that fighting she did just to reach Serah, just to be on bad terms. I couldn't let that be.

"Well I'm going to go look for her. There are some things I need to talk to her aboutl." I nodded and walked off.

"Alright, Hope. You let her know from us that we've missed her." Snow called out, sticking his fist in the air.

I knocked on her door, hoping she was there. But there was no answer and the door was locked. Heading back, I decided to go ask Cid if he knew where she was.

"Hey, Cid." I walked over, getting his attention from his Pad device.

"Hope. Can I help you? You're not due for training yet"

"No, I, uh...have you seen Lightning?"

"Lightning? Didn't she tell you she was going on a mission with Fang and her devision?" That caught my attention, making me look up in seconds.

"What?"

"Yesterday we signed her up to an elite devision with Fang. They're off on a clear out mission at Teajin's tower currently." Cid informed me.

"Why didn't she tell me? Light..." I felt a pang in my chest. I really don't mean anything to her, do I? That's twice she's left without a reason. Of course, I was just another little problem to her, wasn't I? She helped me get somewhere safe, and that was it. I don't matter to her beyond that. But why didn't she tell Serah? Surely she would let her own sister know where she was. I looked up at Cid "When are they due back?"

"Well...we don't know." He looked away. "And we can only make contact with the ship pilot. No one else is responding on their com devices, which is unusual for Fang." I felt my knees go weak all of a sudden.

"You mean they could be-" I shook my head, wanting to deny it all. "Send a recovery team to see if they need help or something! If the pilot is still hanging around, then they must be ok!"

"I'm afraid not. He can only inform us that he cannot get in contact with them either. He did tell us that there was a large explostion from the top of the tower, and several floors went down." Again, I felt strange. I felt almost numb to it, like the words weren't going in.

Lightning could be dead, and there was nothing I could do to help. But why did it hurt so much?

(Light's P.O.V)

My legs, I couldn't feel the. All I could feel was a tingling sensation. My body was still, and I couldn't move it. Where was I? And what was going on? Was I dead? No, I had Serah to protect. I had Hope to take care of. I had too much to do yet.

"Tch..." I could feel my fingers again. As my eyes slowly opened, I could see light. "Ugh..." I could feel my legs again. My body was no longer numb and I could feel pain. I surging pain shoot through my body. I faught through the pain and pulled my body up slowly, taking in the scenery. It was dark, with little light, but I could see Rygdea and Fang.

"Lightning, you're alive." Fang called out as she held Rygdea up in her arms as he layed there still. "Get over here and help me."

Without hesitating, I forced my body over to Fang and Rygdea. With each movement I felt pain, but it soon subsided to nothing. Was this the strength I had? No, it wasn't strength.

"What's happened?" I asked, sitting beside the two and looking at them both.

"We had a nasty fall. Who knows what floor we're on now, or if the other members are still alive. Tch...and this idiots got his legs stuck under the rubble" Fang shook her head. "I can't believe this...I had one task and I couldn't even lead my team through it safely."

I grabbed Fang's wrist tightly and looked at her with stern eyes.

"No. You survived, you recieved the date and information we needed. It's not a suitable home for us, especially with a Fal'cie roaming the skies. If we didn't sacrifice, we wouldn't have known. Yes, people died, but they chose to do this. They died, but others will survive." Fang stared at me, unsure of how to respond for a moment.

"Tch, yeah...I guess you're right." She sighed, lowering her head and shaking it. "Just help me get him out so we cat find a way out of here and get to Sazh. I'll be damned if I die here."

"That's the spirit" I smiled. That was probably the first time anyone's seen me smile in a long time.

"You two don't need to worry about me, ok? Just get to Cid and tell him everything." Rygdea spoke up, chocking a little.

"Are you serious?" Fang growled. "After all this, you're giving up over a little injury?"

"No, Fang. I'm not giving up, I'm doing what's right. I'll just weigh you down." He tried sounding strong, but we could hear the pain in his voice.

"Listen, you have to survive." I looked at Rygdea. "There must be someone you want to get back to. Someone who gives you the motivation to go on in this mad world."

"yeah. For me, it's Vanille. I'll do whatever it takes to make it safe for her and be with her." Fang nodded.

"Not me. Everyone I knew and cared for, they're all gone now." Rygdea breathed.

"You know us." He looked up at me, unsure of what I meant. "We're friends, we have each other's back. You and Fang have been through a lot together, right? And you and I will go through a lot more." I smiled at him for a moment and he returned the smile.

"Alright." He nodded. Fang and I began to pull him out carefully. His legs were all cut and bleeding, and even though we were being careful, he was still feeling a lot of pain.

"Ahhh...ugh" He yelled out, clenching his teeth as we managed to finally bandage his legs and stop the bleeding as much as we could in our state.

"Alright. Now you sit tight while Lightning and I find a way out." Fang said, standing up and patting the fallen rubble.

"Yeah, but the question now is how? We're caved in completely." I looked around some more. There were small holes that let in light, but not nearly enough space to climb through, and even if we did climb through, we have to be careful of what's waiting out there.

"Goddamn it!" Fang growled, hitting the wall.

" *kshhhhhh* Hello? *Ksshhhhh* Fang *ksshhh* alright? *kssh* right out- " the intercom went off. It was Sazh calling us. Fang ran over and grabbed the com..

"Sazh! Can you hear me?"

"...yeah" The system cleared, making it easier to understand him. "Where are you? are there any survivors?"

"Yeah, Lightning, Rygdea and me. No one else made it-they couldn't have." She sighed. "But when the floor fell, we got trapped under it all. We're okay, but Rygdea's been badly wounded." There was a moment of silence.

"Alright. I'll let Cid know and then think up a plan from there. Give me a minute." The com then went silent.

"Alright. I guess we wait." Fang sighed, sliding down the wall and sitting down.

It was probably 30 minutes since Sazh contacted us. We'd been waiting and just about to give up hope and start finding our own way again when the com went off.

"Alright, I'm back. We've set some bombs around the fallen mess, so it's gonna get a little rough. It should give you a clearing though, and when it does, I'll be waiting for you. Move fast. There's no telling when that Fal'cie'll show up again."

"Alright, about time." Rygdea smiled, fist pumping the air.

Just then, there was a loud boom and the whole area was spinning and shaking. I couldn't control my body at all, it was like the explosion went off in my head. Fang and I managed to cover Rygdea from any falling rocks, seeing as he was the weakest at the moment.

"A clearing!" Fang shouted, pointing up and a wide hole. We exchanged looked before nodding at each other and helping Rygdea up and helping him walk.

We moved as fast as we could, seeing Sazh's ship and making our way to it fast, but just then several walkers all came out.

"Looks like that little bomb of yours did more than give us an opening" Fang called as she looked back and saw a heard of them all fall out of the large hole.

We reached the ship and put Rygdea on first, before I jumped up.

"Fang, give me your hand!" I reached out for her, but she turned away.

"I'll be there now, just let me take care of a few of these." And with that, she ran off to attack some of the walkers. It wasn't long before there was more than she could handle. They were closing in fast.

"Tch, come and get it!" She yelled. Just then, I shot a gun at some, getting them right in the head as Sazh moved the ship around more, ready to take off.

"Fang, come on!" I yelled out. With that, she smirked and ran to the edge of the building and jumped off, landing on top of the ship. Several walkers followed her, but ended up falling off the edge and all the way to the floor.

She jumped in through the door with a tired sigh.

"That was fun." She smiled, taking a lot lighter than she should.

"Alright, home we go!" Sazh cheered before sending the ship to it's location.

(Hope's P.O.V)

I sat there, playing with my thumbs in hope that Lightning survived somehow. I know, I was being stupid now, but I...It's too much.

"Hope." I looked up to see Cid standing in front of me. "You've been sitting here for almost an hour now."

"Yeah.." I sighed. "Sorry."

"No, I actually wanted to speak to you." I looked up again, waiting for him to continue. "It seems there were three survivors, Lightning being one of them. They were trapped, but with planning, we've managed to recover them. They should be arriving soon. Now if you'll excuse me" He smiled before walking off.

I felt my heart jump. I was so relieved that she'd be coming back. I wanted to put some things straight with her before anything though. I wanted to know what I was to her and that I care about her.

And just in the nick of time as an airship pulled in. Several people ran over, helping someone out and putting him on a medical bed. I waited and watched carefull when at last, I saw pink hair.

"Lightning!" I ran over, unable to control the feelings bursting out.

(Lightning's P.O.V)

I turned to see Hope running towards me, a worried expression on his face.

"You go on. I'll let you know how Rygdea is later." Fang smiled, patting my back. I nodded and walked over to meet Hope half way with a small smile on my face. It was good to be back and know I had survived.

"Hey, Hope." He caught his breath for a moment.

"Why didn't you tell me? I was worried sick, Light!" He yelled, his hair falling low and covering his eyes. "When they told me, I thought you...I thought..." He couldn't finish his sentance and thats when I realized, Hope wasn't just someone that helped me. We were friends now, we had been through so much together and that made a strong bond between us. How could I have been so selfish and blind to have ignored it.

"I'm sorry, Hope." I turned away. " I didn't realize you were worried. I thought that I didn't need to tell anyone, that I'd be coming back so it wouldn't matter. But after today, I realized anything is possible and I shouldn't have shut you out like I did Serah."

"Light.." He looked at me. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about. About how you acted with Serah. I know you don't like Snow, and I won't tell you that he's a cool guy-you clearly have your reasons- but please don't be hard on her."

"Hope, do me a favour and stop." I said bluntly. "If she wants to be with that idiot, then let her-" Hope cut me off.

"You don't get it, do you? Serah cares about you just as much. You're her only family left, Lightning." He stared at me with still eyes. "She's your sister! The whole time we were out there together, your whole motivation was getting to her. Don't give her the cold shoulder now because you'll regret it later!" His words cut me like a knife. I couldn't even find the words to respond with.

"Hope I..."

"There you are." We were inturrupted by Cid. "Fang told me you had something of value to our research" I thought for a moment before remembering the note.

"Yeah." I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to him.

"Excellent." He smiled. "You'll be pleased to know this will help us a lot. And Rygdea, he'll be making a fine recovery. You can see him later."

"Okay." I nodded, smiling slightly.

"So...everything went well then?" Hope asked. I turned to him and smiled.

"Hope, I was blind to it before, but just now, you made me realize. My experiance today...I don't want to die and leave Serah with nothing. I'll protect her." I patted his shoulder before walking away.