Chapter 13: Caius
It had been a few hours since Noel and Hope had started their search for Lightning. So far they had been unsuccessful in locating her until they stumbled across a trail of destruction, leading to the courtyard outside the main academy building.
"Woah!" Noel gasped as he watched Lightning fighting the remnant of Caius. She was darting around the chaos infused shadow landing every blow. Unfortunately it seemed to be having no effect. Lightning thrust her gunblade forward hoping to impale the spirit. This time he deflected the blade and his own sword materialised out of thin air. He slashed at Lightning and she was off guard because of her mistake, the blow connected and cut her thigh. It didn't look too bad on the video feed but Lightning was visibly slowed by the attack. 'Oh no.' Hope thought anxiously watching the woman he loved in pain. 'I can't let her suffer like this.' Hope looked over to Noel who was already looking at him. "We need to leave." Hope said commandingly and added, "We have to hurry. I don't know how much longer she can fight on her own." Noel nodded solemnly and the two men left the Security Centre leaving no trace that they were there at all.
Lightning stood up, blood leaking out of her injured thigh. 'I just got out of the hospital.' She thought angrily before preparing to battle again. Caius's shade simply laughed. "You have no chance Warrior Goddess and when you are dead, I will kill your sister and everyone else who stands between Yeul and I." He explained and then laughed maniacally. "You will never win." Lightning was on the verge of giving up. She thought of Serah and for some reason of Hope as well and couldn't bare to see them hurt. Lightning looked at the ghost of Caius who appeared to be smirking victoriously and defiantly said, "So what's your point?" The smirk faded from Caius's face and he gritted his teeth angrily as he stabbed his sword into the ground. "Fine, I will beat you within an inch of your life and then kill them all in front of you." He said, referring to the former L'cie, Noel and Serah. 'No.' Thought Lightning as Caius approached her. 'I'm not losing Serah again.' He punched and threw her across the courtyard and she tried to block his blows but he was too strong. Soon he managed to break through her defences and land two solid punches to her ribs and one punch to her head. She swore she heard a crunch and summarised that maybe a few of her ribs were broken. She stood again noticing that Caius had disappeared. Blood was dripping from her mouth and nose and onto her clothes as she looked around for her nemesis. Her clothes were stained red and she was black and blue. "Stop hiding you coward!" she screamed through her blood stained mouth. Lightning knew she was just adding insult to injury at this point but she refused to lose. 'For Serah's sake, I will survive.' She thought solemnly. Lightning felt a presence behind her and swung her leg around preparing for the perfect roundhouse kick. Her foot swung towards Caius's face but passed right through it. 'What?!' Caius grabbed her by the neck and held her up squeezing the life out of her. Lightning was suffocating and before she knew it everything went dark…
Hope and Noel ran through the streets, the opposite way to the way everyone else was running and soon arrived at the courtyard only to see Lightning's limp body lying on the ground. "Lightning!" Hope shouted anxious about her safety. "Wait!" Noel shouted. "It could be a trap." "No, no, no, no…" Hope muttered as he crouched defensively over her body. 'Please don't leave me. Not now.' He thought childishly. Lightning was hardly breathing Hope assessed before assuring himself that she was going to be okay. 'At least she is still breathing.' He thought hopefully. He stood up and said in an extremely serious voice. "Time to die Caius, come out of your hiding place." Hope looked around but saw no sign of the malicious spirit. "Where are you?" he muttered to himself. "Right here." Noel's voice said. But it wasn't Noel's voice. It was corrupted by Chaos. He turned around to face his friend and saw that he no longer looked like himself. His hair was fully purple, his eyes were purple too and he had stretched to be an extra few inches tall. "You are mistaken scientist. It is your time to die." Noel said maliciously. 'I know Noel is still in there.' Hope thought. 'I just have to get him out.' "Noel, I know you're still in there somewhere." He said looking the approaching man directly in the eyes. "I know you don't want to do this." Hope continued. "Oh, but I do." Noel interrupted. "If I kill you both I will finally be able to get Yeul back." Hope noticed his eyes had changed to blue when he said that so he knew it was Noel that was talking. "You know that's not true." Hope began, stopping Noel in his tracks. Hope could see the conflict on Noels face, it was as if Caius was fighting over control of Noel's body. "Besides she wouldn't want this. You know her better than anyone." Hope said referring to Yeul. "Don't speak about her." Noel said clutching his head in agony. "She didn't deserve to die." He continued. "She deserved more life." He said, releasing his head and looked at Hope again with a purple gaze. "And you would deny her that!" Noel shouted angrily, even though it was no longer him speaking.
Hope jumped back and released his airwing from one of his pouches, he threw it at Noel, hoping for an instant knock out but was disappointed as it just bounced off Noels head. It returned to Hope. 'Maybe it's time to use my secret weapon he thought as he quickly fished a modified manadrive out of his pocket. Hope attached it to his hand and launched a Fira spell at Noel. Noel simply deflected the flames with Caius's blade. "Ahh crap." Thought Hope.
Lightning was slowly regaining consciousness and through her blurred vision could see Hope fighting Noel. Lightning got to her feet and picked up her gun blade ready to join the fight, but stopped as her head began to throb. 'Great.' She thought. 'That's exactly what I need right now.' She thought angrily. Hope launched a Aero spell at a Noel and it actually seemed to have some effect. "Lightning. You're okay!" Hope said while Noel was distracted by the spell. "Thank the maker, I don't know what I would have done if you had died." He said smiling broadly. Lightning didn't know what to say and could feel blood rushing into her cheeks. "You're so cute when you're flustered Light." Hope mentioned while winking at her mischievously and casting another spell to subdue Noel. Lightning tried to speak but her voice was croaky. "It's Claire." She managed. Hope simply looked at her astounded, as he blushed too. "Enough distractions." Claire said. "Let's finish him off." Lightning finished. Hope nodded and cast a Bravery spell on Lightning to boost her strength, then cast a healing spell to try and heal her a bit. Lightning felt refreshed and attacked Noel, immediately beating him into submission while Hope pummelled him with magic. They seemed to be getting somewhere and Noel was looking a bit beat up. "Enough!" He shouted as he released a shockwave of energy which forced both Lightning and Hope to the ground. Lightning couldn't find the strength to get up and Noel was going in for the kill. He attacked from the air with a downwards thrust with Noel's sword. Lightning closed her eyes waiting for her inevitable death…
She felt a scratch on her abdomen as the blade pierced it but for some reason blood was already falling upon her skin. She opened her eyes to see Hope standing over her with Noel's sword straight through his stomach. He collapsed next to her. Lips trembling as he looked into her eyes. "I'm so sorry L-Light…" He stuttered. Lightning now found the strength to get up and tried to help Hope by tearing bits of fabric off her clothes and trying to bandage him. "Lightning…" Hope whispered. "Don't worry about me. At least you're okay." Lightning hadn't noticed but she was crying and her blood was mixing with Hopes. Noel had returned to normal and was looking down solemnly on the disaster he had caused. "Hope. I'm so sorry." He muttered trying to help Lightning stop the flow of blood. There were tears in the young man's eyes as well. "I didn't know what I was doing." Hope stopped him from talking by interrupting. "It's okay Noel. I understand. I would have done the same in your position." Hope said grimacing through pain. Lightning noticed his face was getting paler by the second and his eyelids were starting to close. Hope looked at her and smiled. "Why'd you do it?" Lightning asked. Hope was struggling to answer but with his final breath said. "B-Because sometimes in life… there are s-some things you just do." Lightning felt as if her heart had exploded and now there was a massive hole. Hope was gone. Lightning's vision blurred suddenly and she was dragged into her own mind by Caius's shade.
He was confronting her directly now. "It was a shame he had to die." Caius said. "He was the only one who could have brought Yeul back. Unfortunately he was too weak." Caius finished solemnly. Lightning could feel her anger reaching epic proportions. "He was anything but weak." She argued. "He is the strongest person I have ever met." "You say 'is' like he is still alive. Do you not see that his blood has stained the pavement?" Caius questioned rhetorically. Lightning simply gritted her teeth as she felt her anger rise again. She felt the sword in her hand but could not see it and before she knew it she had stabbed Caius through the heart. She looked down at Caius impaled on his own blade. "There's the ending I was looking for…" he muttered. "I'm finally released from this wretched life." Lightning finally understood why he had been fighting them. Caius noticed and laughed. "You finally understand don't you, Warrior Goddess. I'm free to be with her now, on my own terms. Thank you." He said as he died.
Lightning awoke from her dream and saw Noel carrying Hope bridal style. "Back in the world of the living I see." Noel exclaimed. "Come help me get Hope to the hospital. I did CPR and managed to get him breathing again, but I don't know for how long." Lightning nodded and ran to catch up but looked around as she exited the court yard to see a pure white ghost of Caius picking up his sword, turning around, smiling and disappearing…
Authors Note
Well we are nearing the end of this story now. I was thinking of doing an epilogue and a bonus chapter but only if you, the readers would like it. So, show me some love by reviewing or favouriting this story and if bonus chapters are requested enough I will probably make them.