Academia

The morning dawned bright and clear. Lightning woke up later than expected, worn out from the trek the previous night. Caius left once they got done eating, citing exhaustion, and they went their separate ways to their respective homes. Lightning had had enough energy to gulp down a snack, put on her nightclothes, and collapse into bed. Five minutes later, she was hard asleep.

From then on, things suddenly got very busy.

Starting that morning, Caius dragged her into the hunters' group and introduced her to hunters she hadn't met. At first, Lightning wasn't sure how to react to these people, but with the exception of a couple of strong-and-silent types, all of them were friendly, welcoming her with smiles – some shy, some ecstatic, some merely polite. At about nine that morning, maybe half an hour after she'd woke up, they merged into a massive group and ran off to another section of the city, one dedicated to the culture of Paddra. It was here that she was first introduced to a tradition of the hunters: a big, hearty breakfast.

Every two weeks, the hunters (those primarily on the morning and afternoon shifts, anyway) all gathered in a plaza covered by a temporary canopy to eat their fill. Caius led the group there, so she got to listen to conversations they had on the way, even getting in on a couple of them. Soon, she felt herself loosening up, memorizing their names. Janya and Yoteri were there. Nomin was there, along with women named Freya, Ara, and Mitai, and a tall, broad-shouldered, talkative man called Spry. That wasn't his name, he was quick to tell her. It's just what people called him, because he was "so spry".

Lightning thought this was roll-your-eyes lame.

Once they reached the breakfast plaza, Lightning blinked in shock. There was plenty of room in the center to sit at temporary tables, while the food line encircled it. Vendors ladled, scraped, scooped, flipped, and plopped all sorts of food onto fairly sizable plates. "Wow," she mumbled.

"And it's all free for the hunters," Yoteri said with a lopsided smile.

After a moment, Caius entered the line first, apparently tired of waiting for someone to take the initiative, and the others quickly followed. Lightning was the last in line, so she was still waiting after the others had sat down. By the time she reached the end, she had meat, vegetables, three kinds of fruit, rice, eggs, and a sweet-smelling blue drink and was trying to find a place to sit.

"Over here." Yoteri's voice cut through the racket. When she spotted him, he smiled and waved, gesturing to the one open chair across from him. It was beside Caius. Feeling suddenly shy, she plunked herself down.

"Welcome to the family," Spry said, and guffawed.

Lightning winced. With one of the smoothly-polished wooden sticks she'd been given – there were two of them, the same length – she stabbed a piece of meat. Someone snickered; Spry laughed even louder.

"What?" she asked.

Beside her, Caius snickered. "You use both of them, Claire."

"Huh– oh." Feeling stupid, she watched as Yoteri demonstrated. Caius was using them with practiced precision, just like everyone else. A few moments later, she got them in her hand correctly and began to eat. "So, only once every two to three weeks?"

"It's worth it." Yoteri picked up a chunk of scrambled egg – golden yellow and pure white fluffed to perfection – with the twin sticks and stuffed it in his mouth. "Oh, by the way," he said, waving the sticks and talking with his mouth a bit full, "what'd you two do?"

Caius gave him a blank stare. Janya, sitting beside Yoteri, snorted. "Yoteri, c'mon, swallow. Manners."

He chewed and obeyed. "Y'know. Last night. You and Claire went out."

Lightning didn't miss the implication. "Exploring."

"And what else?"

"Exploring," Lightning said.

"Sure you weren't enjoying the beautiful night together?"

"Yes," she deadpanned.

There was silence for a bit as everyone either chewed or stuffed their mouths. Spry started telling a hunting story, and Yoteri got a glassy-eyed look that told her this wasn't a new one, but it nevertheless got a laugh out of just about everyone present. It was something about a fish, a fal'Cie, and a chocobo, and while she didn't understand all of it, Lightning still laughed.

It was only then that it hit her: the vision in Valhalla, of her sitting with unrecognizable faces, talking and laughing, was here. That second, she felt a rush of life and warmth. This was how things used to be, back before her parents died, back before she'd had to grow up so fast: happy.

Taking a chance, she glanced at Caius. He seemed to look in her direction at the same time, and for an instant, their eyes met.

And whether he knew it or not, in that instant, he gave her the warmest smile she'd ever seen.

Not an arrogant smirk.

Not a haughty leer.

A real smile.

His eyes were amethyst, she noticed, a shade of blue with enough red accents to take on a purple sheen, and in the right light – like here, under the canopy – they had a dark blue color to them. It was deepest around the pupil and faded to a pale violet at the edge of the iris. Even after he looked away, she found herself gazing at them a second longer. All those times, right up in his face, and she'd never noticed all the different hues in the iris – blue and violet mostly. They were… rather pretty.

He looked back at her. She chastised herself for staring too long; to look away now would make her seem guilty.

"Yes?" he asked.

Could she be honest? What would it hurt to be honest? It might make her seem like she was interested in him. She just thought his eyes were pretty. But what other choice did she have? In the span of three seconds, briefly stuttering to cover her thinking process, she sorted through all her options and settled on blowing it off.

"Nothin'," she said, smiling.

He cocked an eyebrow. "You'll go with us on a scout run," he said. "Yoteri, Janya, you, and I need to go back to the Steppe to check on our livestock. Nomin, you'll remain here with the others," he added when the blue-eyed man looked at him. "Are you up to it, Claire?" he asked, returning his gaze to her.

She smirked. "I can handle it."

"You seem worn thin. Was the late night too much for you?"

Picking up her sticks, she jabbed them at him mock-threateningly. "Caius," she said, waving them a little, "I swear, if you keep mocking me, I'm gonna have to take some drastic measures to shut you up. Quit being so pathetic. I'm just fine. See?" She leaned back a little and gestured at herself. "Great."

His lips twitched. "I can see that."

"Don't be sarcastic."

"Who said anything about sarcasm?"

"You're bein' sarcastic right n– well, that was more like 'feigned innocence', but you were."

"I am not trying to feign innocence, Claire." He stared evenly at her as he said this; she stared right back.

"You were being sarcastic."

"I was not."

"Now, now," Yoteri put in, patting his hands in the air, "we don't like it when mommy and daddy fight."

Caius and Lightning looked at him in turn, then each other, and went back to breakfast. She stabbed her food and pushed a bit of egg around.

Once breakfast was over and everyone was free, the hunters prepared to head off into the wilds. Lightning had to run back and get her sword, while Yoteri had to quickly get his weapon as well, but within half an hour they were out following the same trail they'd followed together when she first arrived. The terrain didn't seem as rough this time as she was a bit more used to it, and even her knee didn't bother her this time. When they scaled the cliff, she got up easily enough, slipping on some moss near the top but quickly righting herself. The sun beat down on her shoulders, very hot, making sweat pop out on her skin, as she scrambled up onto grass quickly drying in the heat. Behind her, Yoteri was the last to climb up.

As it had been before, the plain up here was beautiful, peppered as it was with trees, rock formations, and patches of thick vegetation. The sheep were still around in clumps here and there, as if fluffy summer clouds had alighted on the grass to eat. Every so often, someone bleated. She noticed about half the sheep were sheared.

"Same as before – count," Caius said.

Yoteri bounded off in one direction while Janya went another and Lightning took the fourth direction. This path took her off toward a batch of sheep standing near a basalt formation jutting out of the ground and slanted. In its shadow, they patiently mowed the grass and ripped up great tufts of what seemed to be broad-leafed weeds. None of them objected to her inspection. Most of them belonged to Paddra, but a few had unfamiliar yellow marks.

Lightning paused at the side of one. "Who do you belong to?"

The sheep bahhed and ate more grass.

Frowning, she smoothed a hand over the freshly-sheared body before straightening and shielding her eyes from the still-rising sun. She turned her back to the rock formation.

Something whizzed overhead.

Gasping softly, she sidestepped and flipped out her sword, looking around. Some distance away, an arrow was partly embedded in the soil, several yellow feathers bound to the end and twitching in the faint breeze. Before she could do anything else, another arrow went flying by, and it was only then, when it embedded much further away and in the direction of Caius, did she realize what was going on.

"Caius!" she shouted.

He was quite a ways off, but looked at her when she called his name. A moment later, two arrows came flying from behind her at once, ignoring her completely and going for him. Despite the situation, she admired the archery: the arrows were so stable that they flew in a long arc and with beautiful accuracy; she ran toward their target as the other two hunters tried to meet her as well.

"Caius," she panted when she reached him, "who's closest to here?"

He frowned. "Tesrai, the plains-dwellers."

"Tesrai?" She looked back at the rock formation. "I think you're their target."

Snick. He sidestepped away from an arrow that sunk into the clay to the right of him and behind – if the wind hadn't picked up a little just then, it would have struck him instead. "You may be right," he murmured, and looked at the rock formation as well.

"But why w–"

A hail of arrows, black against the sky, sailed over the rocks. Caius took off, shouting over his shoulder, "Later!"

"No shelter here!" Janya felt the need to point this painfully obvious fact out as more arrows came for them. "Think we're trapped or somethin'!" There was a hostile look in her eyes while she held her twin blades tight in both hands, watching the rocks and ready to move. "How'd they find us?"

"Why does it matter?" Lightning snapped. "Why would a fellow nation try to kill us?"

"Not 'us', me," Caius corrected her.

"You're the next Guardian," Yoteri said, but she suspected it was more for her sake than anyone else's. "Look, we can talk about the politics of international conflict later, alright? This happens sometimes, Claire. Right now, we just need to get out–"

"Cai–" she tried to say.

The figure snapped its hand, from which came a bright pearl of energy, as she spoke. It flew fast; she shoved her companion off to the side, which forced her to take the brunt of the impact. It blasted her off her feet and knocked her some distance, where she finally landed within ten feet of the edge of the cliff. Her vision swam and her knee suddenly throbbed like she'd landed on solid pavement knee-first. The sunlight abruptly switched off; only by blinking did she realized someone was blocking it.

"Claire!" a familiar voice called to her. "Can you–"

Hissing, she forced herself to her feet. "Don't worry about me!" she snapped at him. "You–" Her knee gave out and she half-collapsed, barely managing to get the rest of her weight on her good leg instead. "Caius, get–"

There was a small explosion, and suddenly he was gone.

Horror flooded her, suddenly giving her fresh strength as adrenaline pulsed through her veins, as the force of the blast tore Caius right off his feet… and sent him over the edge to the valley floor.

Noel and Serah stumbled out of the gate coughing and sputtering. She seemed to be allergic to time travel, or else the constant running back-and-forth was getting to her. Ignoring her headache, which had been festering for some time now, she stumbled a few more steps before coming to a halt, looking around. Beside her, Noel finally stopped coughing.

"We're here," she breathed, looking around. It was Academia, only it looked different than the last time they had visited. There were no people on the streets and the sky was pink with a sunset. The enormous buildings were not as polished and shiny as they had been in their last visit. Things were quiet – no vehicles flying by, no sign of life at all. Serah glanced around, first in curiosity, then confusion.

"Noel," she muttered, "notice something?"

The dark-haired boy came up beside her. They looked at each other. "It's too quiet. Think maybe–" He hesitated, squinting dead ahead. Across the labyrinthine steel canyons formed by the silent skyscrapers were the still-gleaming spires of the Academy. Between the two tallest ones, Hope's new Cocoon could be seen, still tethered. Serah had a strange feeling as she gazed at it, thinking that something was off about all of this. "Yeah. Bet he's here. We gotta find him."

For the briefest of seconds, Serah wondered who "he" was. "Even after everything that's happened, he's still going through with his plan?"

"Serah," he pointed out, "we haven't exactly given him a reason not to."

"Then where's everyone run off to?"

Noel started to answer, but before he could say anything, his eyes glazed over a little, and he seemed confused. "I guess… he's trying to interrupt history. Force the prophecy to happen after all. In two hundred years, Cocoon's still standing, but he's tryin' to bring it down now. So everybody ran off, getting off the ground, finding shelter if he gets it done, if he succeeds."

Serah shifted her weight uneasily, rubbing her arms and once again cursing her choice of dress. The wind was soft, but colder than she was used to, like the sad future they'd seen a short while ago. "C'mon. There might be someone around who can tell us what's going on."

She darted off alongside Noel, who took a second to follow before keeping pace with her easily enough. They ran across the bridge spanning the abyss in the center of the city. It stretched for a fair distance, the belts ferrying traffic at a dead stop. As they ran, Serah became unnerved, uneasy, thinking something was wrong but unable to tell what.

"Serah!" Noel shouted, and grabbed her arm, suddenly jerking her back.

Serah yelped, stumbling. "What the–?"

Ahead of them, the bridge was shattered. A few more steps would have sent her plunging into the abyss below. She backed away from the edge, watching as Noel crept up to it to look down. "We'll find a way around," he said. "We can't cross this, obviously. There's nothing all the way to the other side." He pointed, demonstrating. Sure enough, there was no bridge at all ahead.

Serah suddenly grew suspicious of the half they stood on. "Noel, let's get off, okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Might break off, too."

They hurried back the way they came and circled around. As they ran, Serah glanced down alleys and streets to see some of them blocked off entirely while others were filled with security bots. Security screens of varying colors also stood in some places.

By the time they reached the promenade, they were down to a jog. "Hold up," Serah said. "Need to catch my breath a second."

"Yeah." Noel wasn't panting as hard, nor sweating as much. "But not long."

Leaning on her knees, Serah caught her breath, looking around. Things looked so desolate, and it was indeed raining slightly, but out of a cloudless sunset sky. The once-bustling city was silent. Unnerved, Serah kept looking around, searching for some sort of familiarity. There was none. Everything was alien. Nothing moved. Even the shadows seemed to be utterly still.

"Noel–" she began, and paused.

She saw something. It wasn't much, akin to a shadow flitting across the sun, a brief instant of darkness in the midst of light, but it seemed to linger. There was golden sunshine, white clouds, the smell of rain and wet earth, the sound of vehicles zinging to and fro, shining towers of steel, people walking back and forth – the image of Academia in 400 AF. Interspersed with that image, though, were quick frames of something else – a dark, rainy city with broken bridges, monsters in the shadows, and golden tesseracts constantly moving through the air, their shapes changing, merging, and splitting, with the streets of the city suspended in silence between them.

"Serah! Serah!"

And then she was abruptly yanked out of it, greeted by Noel's worried face and a splitting headache. "What?"

"You had another vision, yeah?"

"Noel, I'm fine."

"You didn't even hear," Noel told her. "He came right up, and you didn't notice." He nudged her and gestured; she looked over her shoulder. There was a small crowd of people. Standing at the head of that group was Hope himself, looking rather grim. "He's got something to say, looks like."

"Hope." Serah frowned.

The silver-haired man would forever be working on not looking like a boy to her. In her eyes, he was still the same boy she'd last seen in New Bodhum before he and his father had moved to settle what would become Academia. Even now, when he stood before her looking regal and in charge of himself, she had some trouble believing it was really him. It didn't seem real.

"You turned up right on schedule." Hope came up to them, and the small crowd – PSICOM and a couple of Academy members, she realized now – followed almost obediently. Something about it was unnerving. "Things are looking grim. We have done what we can, but we can't be sure if we can prevent the prophecy. Caius is determined to make it happen."

Serah found herself becoming quickly confused. Cocoon had been standing in 700 AF, its pieces removed bit by bit, but now Caius was trying to bring it down after all. What prophecy? Things were muddied. Cocoon wasn't supposed to be standing – it was likely a gorgon, as Snow had told her – yet it was. Yet in the past things were going to make it come down. Yet she had seen the Cie'th-infested Academia and a city of golden tesseracts in her brief vision – a vision that had lasted far longer than she'd initially believed, it seemed. Even after his talk with Snow, Caius was still going through with his plan? Or was there something else at work here? Were they interacting with entirely different timelines, convergent, concurrent, yet different in all the ways that mattered?

Serah kept her confusion off her face. "Alright. What do we do?"

"We have to find and stop him," Hope told her. "He is going to crash Bhunivelze into Cocoon and bring them both down. That will open the portal."

Serah blinked. "Bhunivelze?"

"Ah, yes. My apologies. That is what we named the New Cocoon." He raised a hand and pointed to the massive sphere still tethered to the ground. "It will be our new home, our paradise. We managed to get the majority of Gran Pulse's population up there, or as many as we could find, but we are still finalizing the evacuation and need more time. You must find him, and soon."

Serah rubbed her forehead. "Okay…"

"Serah," Noel said, gently prodding her shoulder, "are you okay?"

She still had a splitting headache, but smiled at him anyway. "Of course. I'm just a little tired from all this running around. Haven't had enough sleep, I guess. Alright. We'll find Caius and stop him."

Hope nodded. "Swift wings."

Noel grinned. "If we had 'em."

Hope almost cracked a smile at this one, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Vanille and Fang are safe," he said, nodding. "We removed their crystal this morning. No matter what happens, they will survive. I suppose we have learned crystal is indestructible."

"My crystal survived the plunge to Lake Bresha," Serah put in. "Don't worry, Hope. I know they're safe. You'll see Vanille's smile again."

This time, Hope's façade let a thread of shyness through. "You're right. Now, we'll finish working on the metashield and making sure its ready for deployment."

Metashield? But Cocoon was being taken down piece by piece… right?

"We have the best pilot we could ask for – an old friend." He nodded at the airship waiting behind them. "Wherever you need to go, we can take you immediately."

"Okay," Serah said, "so, if I were Caius, where would I be?"

"Waiting," Noel said, "where he can see everything and know when Bhunivelze's loose." He frowned. "That name sounds familiar."

Serah ignored him. "Where can you see the whole playa?"

"From the highest points in Academia," Hope said.

She blinked. "Uh, and… where's that?"

Noel gave her an exasperated look. She couldn't blame him. Oftentimes, she'd asked admittedly stupid things and failed to grasp a concept without having it explained to her twice. This wasn't new, but it still seemed to irritate him enough.

"The towers of the Academy," Hope said patiently, and pointed up at them. Serah squinted at them, silhouetted black against the ever-darkening evening sky. "That's your best bet. We can take you up there. I know Sazh can maneuver in that tight of a space."

Serah beamed. "Sazh? Oh, yes, he's a great pilot!"

The crowd raced off to the airship, the majority boarding through a side hatch, but Hope instructed the two travelers to climb on the deck atop the airship. Nervous about the potential for plummeting off, Serah still clambered up with some reluctance. Noel was much more eager, practically tripping over himself in his excitement. That, or he was just eager to find Caius.

"All aboard?" a very familiar voice asked over the PA system. Serah grinned from ear to ear.

"That's Sazh," she told Noel. "Yes! We're aboard!"

"Hang on up there," he responded, and the airship quickly gained altitude, heading for the towers. Somehow, he guided the massive bulk of the craft in a tight turn to run the perimeter of the towers. Serah and Noel clung to the railing and squinted into the setting sun. Still tethered to the ground, Bhunivelze awaited the signal to rise into the sky. Meanwhile, Cocoon still stood on its crystal pillar. Serah felt drawn to it, struggling not to stare.

"Don't see him," Noel grumbled to her.

"Just keep looking!" she insisted. They had to stop him. They had to. "Come on, Noel, he's gotta–"

"Wait! There he is!"

Serah twisted and looked down the line of Noel's arm. Perched rather precariously on a foot-wide overhang on one of the towers was a purple-and-black figure staring over the playa at the two Cocoons. He didn't seem to notice their approach – or, more likely, he just didn't care. Serah felt a jolt of adrenaline, scared. If they faced him, would they stand a chance?

They had to. There had no choice now.

"Knock him down, Sazh!" Noel shouted. "We've gotta get him in the air!"

"Fight him on his own turf?" Serah was desperately hoping she hadn't heard right. "Are you crazy?"

"Maybe," he responded. "Let 'em have it!"

The airship swung wide, then went straight for Caius. At the last second, the man looked shocked, as if amazed anyone would dare come after him. Sure enough, the airship's portside turret narrowly missed him, which was enough to get him to scramble back. There wasn't enough room. But instead of falling, Caius seemed to change his mind mid-step and instead leapt onto the deck, landing squarely in front of Serah. She yelped and stumbled away from him.

"Even after all this," Caius said, standing, "you still came. I admire your determination."

Serah fumbled for her bow and unfolded it into a sword. Noel whipped out both blades. Together, they assumed a battle stance.

"You wanted to see how well you've trained me? Well–" Noel pointed his sword at him. "–now's your chance!"

I've been getting some worrisome comments from my readers, telling me things seem a little haphazard in the story and there's too many unanswered questions (basically). This is intentional - it's foreshadowing, and admittedly the story is filled to the brim with it. There are ten chapters left, so we are over halfway through the story. All of these threads, unanswered questions, and strange events, such as future-Caius's sadness in the previous chapter, will be explained as things unfold through the climax. Thanks for being patient!