AHHHH all the new reviews and favorites and likes and follows and reblogs etc make me SO HAPPY. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU all from the bottom of my heart for continuing to follow and enjoy the story! The theories, critiques, typo alerts (THANK YOU ESPECIALLY FOR THESE. I think I've finally figured out how to fix them for sure... FFnet's interface is silly sometimes), flailing, outbursts, letting me know what really resonates with each of you... I LOVE IT ALL. Please keep it coming, especially after this chapter. It really picks up where 12 left off and I'm dying to know what you all think.

This chapter is quite a bit shorter than the last. Still really long, because I don't know how to shut up, but it won't take as much time to get through. This chapter rounds out the halfway point of (this part of) the story, so chapter length should hover around 6-9k for a few weeks.

BEST BETA IS THE BEST. Thank you, RainbowSerenity! Give the lady some love, readers (and this chapter too when you finish reading it okay thx i love you guys).

Chapter XIV: Brainwascht

"Snow, wake up," Serah urged, poking the man dozing away on the lounge chair in the guest room. Nora had said many times that she didn't mind the two of them sharing the room ("You are engaged, after all"), but Serah still felt awkward sharing a bed inside someone else's home when they weren't married yet, and had said as much to her fiancé. As such, he had insisted on taking the chair, which unfortunately had done nothing to help his snoring until she had belted him with a pillow around two in the morning. What it did help with was rousing him from sleep; at the moment, he was already stretching to full length, when he normally took at least fifteen minutes to reach full consciousness.

"What time is it, babe?" he yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Nearly seven-thirty," she told him. "I just got a text from Sazh asking him to call me about something, but I wanted to make sure you were up before I did."

"Huh. Wonder what's up."

"I'll let you know after I talk to him. I'm going to try and call Sis too, but breakfast is almost ready if you want to head on downstairs and help." She smiled in contentment as Snow leaned over to kiss her before standing.

"Don't take long," he told her longingly, grinning and lightly tapping her backside when she rolled her eyes in response, and left the room.

Serah touched her fingertip to Sazh's speed dial entry on her phone screen and heard only one ring before he answered.

"Serah! Thanks for calling back so fast."

"No problem, Sazh," she smiled, knowing he would hear it. "What's up?"

"This might sound crazy, but… have you ever had a dream where you thought you might have been actually talking to somebody else?"

The odd combination of excitement and dread she felt upon hearing his question left her reeling to the point where sitting on the edge of the chair Snow had just vacated was a necessity. He has some power too, then… "That's not crazy at all! We've all had them. Sis and Hope are calling them 'reveries'," she explained. "There are some good and… not-so-good things about having them, but I'll have to explain to you in person. Who did you talk to?"

"Vanille, of all people! I know nobody's found her or Fang yet. My luck must be way better here than-"

"You talked to Vanille?" Serah interrupted excitedly. "What did she say? How is she? Where is she? Is Fang with her?"

"Hold on there, missy," Sazh laughed. "My old mind can't handle fifty questions at once."

"Sorry," she giggled nervously. "Bad habit."

"I wouldn't say bad," the jovial man said reassuringly. "You just get a little excited is all. –Uh, hold on…" Serah smiled fondly upon hearing two familiar voices calling her name on Sazh's end of the line. "Okay, okay! Estelle and Dajh say hi, Serah."

"Hi!" Serah called into the phone, hoping her voice would carry enough for them to hear. "How was the first night all together?"

"Great! Dajh is adjusting really well."

Serah could hear the hesitation in his voice. "And what about you?"

There was a heavy sigh in the receiver. "Nothing gets past you, does it?" he chuckled mirthlessly. "It was just a little strange having someone else next to me for the first time in ages."

"I know what you mean," she said. She really did.

"Nothing I won't get used to soon enough, though. Anyway, about Vanille-"

"Yes!" That probably sounded a little too enthusiastic, but she didn't particularly want either of them to dwell on awkward situations. "What did she say?"

"Just that she and Fang are okay, and one of Fang's old gang buddies is with them – Adonis, I think she said? Anyway, we couldn't seem to remember where we were when we tried to tell each other."

"That's a side effect of the reverie state," Serah explained. "For whatever reason, no one can say where they are or where they're going. Nobody really knows why, though we do have some theories."

"That's a relief. I thought my age was finally catching up to me. Anyway, I told her my shop's website was going up in about a week, and to call me when she found it."

"Great! That's great, Sazh!" Serah allowed herself a moment to bask in the relief washing over her. They would all finally be back together soon. "I'll call Sis right away to let her know!"

"She's not right there with you?"

"No – she and Hope had to go to Paris with Noel…" She hesitated as her worry bubbled to the surface for just a moment before she managed to dismiss it. "That all ties into the big story with the reveries and everything, though. It'll be so much easier to explain it all in person."

"So next Saturday, then? Unless you all want to come up here for a visit," he hinted, and she laughed.

"We have to pick up Sis and Hope when they get back, which hopefully will be before next Saturday so we'll swing by then, okay?"

"Sounds good. I'll let you go, then. Got a hungry and impatient little man tugging at me right now- just a minute, Dajh, I'm almost done!"

"All right," she giggled. "See you all soon, Sazh!"

She hung up on the man arguing with his son and immediately dialed her sister. Ring after ring she waited… surely they were up by now, right?

"You have reached the voice mailbox of-"

Serah groaned as the automated voice gave 'press one to leave a message' instructions. Recording her own voicemail message had been one of the first things she'd done after getting a phone since the default was so impersonal, but she supposed it was just like Lightning to not be bothered with such trivial matters. Finally, the beep sounded and Serah spoke quickly.

"Hey Sis, it's me. Sazh just called and said he had a reverie with Vanille, who is definitely with Fang, and that he told her to keep an eye out for his shop's website going up in a week. So we should be hearing from them soon! Call me when you get this, okay? Let me know how the thing went with Yeul so I can stop worrying so much. Love you, Sis."

She ended the call feeling worse than she had when it began. She was no longer a seeress, but she couldn't deny the sense of foreboding pitting in her stomach. All she could do was pray to whatever might be listening that she was wrong, but deep down, she knew things were going to get a lot worse for their number before they got better.

Noel leaned back in his chair and stretched his aching neck and back as best he could. He hadn't gotten much rest thanks to waking up constantly to check on Yeul, but as the night had progressed, she'd managed to almost fully regain what vitality had left her in the short time they'd been apart. He felt endlessly guilty for not insisting she go with him to find Lightning, but for such a small thing, Yeul sure could be stubborn… even a little scary. The smattering of blood she had coughed into her handkerchief last night, though, had terrified him. He'd seen more than one person do that in his life, and it usually ended in a memorial pyre before too long. For hours after Yeul had drifted into a fitful sleep, he had despaired over that handkerchief. Yeul only just reentered his life, and now it seemed he was destined to lose her again.

No, he thought angrily. I am not gonna lose her again. No matter what.

Barely conscious stirring of the girl in question brought him back from his introspection. He bent over her in concern and checked her over carefully, holding the back of his hand to her cheeks and forehead as her eyes fluttered open. "Morning," he murmured warmly in an attempt to disguise his misgivings. "How are you feeling today?"

"Much better, thank you," she replied with her typical politeness. "Though I would have preferred to conference with Caius and the others last night, I'm glad Hope and Lightning convinced us to wait."

"Didn't take much convincing for me, after seeing the napkin," Noel muttered darkly. "How long has that been going on?"

"That was only the second or third time," she insisted, and Noel visibly blanched. She raised a hand to weakly, yet reassuringly pat his cheek. "I'm sure I'll feel much better once my ability to communicate with the Unseen Realm wears off completely."

"I sure hope so," he sighed. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you again on my watch." Noel couldn't bring himself to return the smile she gave him. The situation was far too precarious to relax just yet.

In the living room, Hope had been lying awake for the last couple of hours, either considering the present circumstances or watching Lightning as she slept on the bedroll next to him. Mostly the latter, really, especially after the sun first started peeking through the windows, illuminating each delicate strand of rose-colored hair, catching each long, dark eyelash, and giving her skin a brilliant, beautiful glow. He imagined that this is how she would have looked as a goddess, even in the darkness of Chaos, had things gone that route. He also made a mental note to make sure his future home had eastern-facing windows in the master suite. Western-facing ones, too. Just in case.

Turning away from her to check the time on his phone – 7:30, after stretching across the entire length of his own bedroll, Hope pushed himself up using the heels of his hands for support and leaned back, basking in the warmth of the sun on his face before attempting to rouse his still-sleeping companion.

"Hey Light," he said in a voice roughened by that last bit of morning fatigue he still hadn't shaken off. "You awake?"

Lightning rolled away from Hope with a small grunt of protest, and he had to use a hand to stifle his laughter. Typically, she was much easier to wake – on the rare occasion she didn't awaken on her own, anyway – so her unwillingness to get up was a new experience for him. Now that he'd seen it, he had every intention of reminding her of it when she gave him a hard time for being stubborn about his extra five minutes.

"Light, come on," he urged quietly, in case Noel or Yeul were still sleeping. "If you wake up now, we can get breakfast at the bakery down the street before we do this thing with Yeul."

"Sleep better than food," she mumbled, still facing away from him. Grinning evilly, Hope carefully hovered over her, steadying himself on long, fully-extended arms in order to get a better view of her face. As he suspected, her eyes were squeezed shut in an attempt to retake sleep, but she was at least half awake now. Slowly, he bent his head closer to her ear, hardly daring to breathe lest she sense his proximity, and stopped just before his hair grazed her skin. He took a silent breath, and then dove in so close that his lips nearly touched her ear.

"Wake up, Light!" The cheerful words tumbled out of his mouth at increased volume the instant he closed that remaining distance, but he rather quickly came to regret everything ever once her head barreled full speed right into his mouth in her startled uprising. His hand flew to the affected area, wincing as the metallic taste of blood flooded his tongue.

"SON OF A-!" Her first being to unleash a string of choice four-letter words as she vigorously rubbed her head where it made contact with Hope's chin, Lightning's second instinct was to make sure he was okay. She felt a small measure of guilt upon seeing the small trickle of blood that had oozed onto his chin from behind his palm. Very, very small at the moment. Once she had determined no major damage had been done, she punched the arm opposite the hand applying pressure to his face. "What the hell, Hope!?" she hissed angrily. "You know my instincts are bad right now!"

Hope half opened one eye and squinted at her through the tears welling in it due to pain. "I absolutely did this to myself," he chided weakly, his watery gaze following her tear-distorted form as she went to grab paper towels, some damp and some dry, from the kitchen area. "Lesson learned."

"What happened!?" Noel came rushing out into the common area from Yeul's room looking like he was ready to pounce, but straightened to his full height and watched in confusion as Lightning went about cleaning off Hope's face.

"This idiot thought it would be funny to get me up by screaming in my ear," she scowled, poking Hope's cheek firmly with her damp towel-covered fingernail before continuing to wipe up blood. Hope wadded a couple of dry towels into a ball and stuck it in his mouth, using his teeth to hold it against his split lip and bleeding gums.

"I 'ihin' heen ih 'uhd air 'oo ai' 'ad," Hope managed through the now red-stained fibers.

"Didn't catch that, Hope," Noel said slowly, and Hope sighed in exasperation, hastily removing the wadded cloth from his mouth.

"I said, I didn't think it would scare you like that." And just as quickly, the wad of paper was clenched again in the grip of his jaw.

"Clearly you weren't thinking at all."

Yeul came padding quietly out of her room in all the commotion, her eyes widening just slightly at the sight in her living room. "Are you two okay?" she asked quietly.

"Uh-huh," Hope voiced again through paper towels, and Lightning frowned at the side of his face where she was wiping off the last of the dried blood.

"For now," she grumbled pointedly at him.

"So much for an uneventful morning before the conference thing," Noel shrugged, shaking his head in disappointment.

Serah had spent the last hour and a half in the Estheims' home office using their computer to research Rennes. Asking Snow would probably be an easier way to get the information she was looking for, but she had yet to tell him about her acceptance and rejection letters. Regardless, she had taken Nora's words to heart. Even though she had enough money to pay for everything she would need, going to school absolutely free for something she loved was an attractive option, especially considering the money she would save could go towards a new home, her wedding, traveling back and forth to Alsace…

"There you are," Snow said in his signature booming voice as he waltzed into the room, coming around to her side and kissing the top of her hair. "I've been looking all over for you."

Serah had quickly opened another window to hide the one containing all her Rennes-related searches the second she'd sensed his presence. Why, she really couldn't say – this was Snow, after all. They didn't hide things from each other… right?

"Sorry," she laughed nervously, leaning against his hip. "Got caught up in some stuff."

"Wedding stuff?" Snow inquired eagerly, and Serah's face fell.

Serah Louise Farron, you stop being silly right this instant, she scolded herself. We do not hide things from our fiancé. "Actually…" she said anxiously, taking a deep breath as she brought her searches back into view and allowing Snow to look them over.

"Rennes?" he said simply in question. "You want to get married there? I mean, it's nice – the ocean is nearby, the town is great, and Gadot and the others aren't far from there. I just didn't think you'd go for a destination wedding."

Serah sighed deeply. "You remember how I was applying to university?"

Snow grinned, raising an eyebrow mischievously. "Give my short-term memory a little credit, babe," he chuckled. "Of course I remember."

"Well… I got a couple responses back already, from Strasbourg and from the Universite de Rennes," she explained hesitantly.

"…And?"

"Strasbourg rejected me." She did not expect his response to be a burst of laughter, or her reaction to be one of irritation.

"What? And miss out on having you in their school? What idiots," he grinned.

"Even with Bartholomew and Estelle on staff, they still passed on me," Serah said quietly. She couldn't help but feel a bit hurt by the rejection. "No idea why."

"Their loss."

"However," she continued, pulling up the Universite de Rennes website, "this place not only accepted me, but they gave me a full scholarship. I'll get to go for free."

"Nice! Congrats, babe!" Snow kissed the top of her hair once more. "It's… kinda far from here, though. What has Sis said about it?"

"I haven't told her yet," Serah admitted. "I don't know that she would leave here just to follow me to a city I'll only be in temporarily."

"Are you kidding me?" Snow chuckled. "She spent centuries trying to bring you two back together. Like she's not gonna move to a seaside town for a couple of years to be near you."

"What about Hope?"

Snow blinked. "…What about him?"

"She's not gonna want to leave him either. And he's not gonna want to leave her or his parents." Serah's brow furrowed at the thought. Lightning had indirectly given the impression that she felt Serah didn't need her anymore, whereas Hope had given the less indirect impression that he did. Serah wanted her sister nearby, or at least a phone call and a short drive away, but it was high time Lightning's happiness – something Serah was convinced would be found in Hope – was first and foremost, not her little sister's selfish desires.

"So what?" Snow shrugged. "First of all, Nora and Bart are like, the coolest, most easy-going people on this planet. If Hope wants to go, they'll practically push him out the door with their blessing. They've done it once already, pretty much." Snow was bending back his left index finger with his right, and then the middle finger as he continued. "Second, that boy has had it bad for Sis for lifetimes. There's no way he won't follow her wherever she goes, assuming she'll let him." Then his ring finger joined the other two. "Third, you're gonna have me with you, so no matter what happens with Light, you won't be alone."

Serah's shoulders felt instantly lighter. "Really? You'll go with me?"

"Well, where else am I gonna go?" he grinned as he gathered her petite frame into his comparatively massive arms, continuing in a voice husky with emotion. "My home is with you, Serah. Wherever that may be. Anywhere else is just a visit away."

Her eyes glistening, Serah leaned up and crashed her mouth against his with combined love, gratitude, and relief in so sudden a movement that he laughed against her lips before eagerly returning the gesture. "Thank you," she whispered against his mouth, and he deepened the kiss in reply before abruptly pulling back. The sparkle she found in his eyes was a bit perplexing and she narrowed her eyes while considering its meaning. "What?"

"Why don't we go visit?" he suggested enthusiastically.

"Visit Rennes?" she echoed incredulously. "Now?"

"Sure, why not? We can leave tomorrow, spend a couple of days there, and come home before Hope and Lightning get back from Paris. I'll give Lebreau and the others a call to…" Snow went silent, eyes wide in realization. "Aw, crap.

"What?" Serah asked in concern.

"I, uh…" he faltered, rubbing the back of his neck. "We were supposed to call the gang to give them an update days ago."

"Snow!" she admonished. "They're probably freaking out right now! Lebreau is going to kill you. Go call them this instant!"

"Okay, okay," he laughed, backing up with his hands in the air. "Right away." Snow reached in his back pocket to retrieve his phone, quickly dialing the number he had long since committed to memory. In the meantime, Serah turned back to her research, casually eavesdropping. She couldn't stop the smirk creeping onto her face when screaming on the other end of the phone caused Snow to hold the phone away from his face as he walked out of the library.

"Good luck, hon!" she called after him.

"So. Shall we?" Yeul placed the napkin she had used to dab at the corner of her mouth back on her lap. The group had just finished breakfast, and Noel and Hope had volunteered to clear the table to afford the ladies some time to prepare before the likely risky endeavor was undertaken. Neither of the men spoke as they worked, thoroughly distracted by their concern regarding this 'conference'. Yeul still wasn't at her best, and Hope had pleaded with her for over an hour before they had all gone to bed to get a doctor to check her out. She had, however, adamantly refused, insisting she felt much better and that the effects of her continued link with her former incarnations should wear off in no time. Hope's efforts got her to agree to put off the conference until this morning, at least. Regardless, he was on high alert, as was Noel, ready to take immediate action should the circumstances call for it. Which, with their luck, they probably would.

"Yeul…"

Hope sighed as Lightning embarked on what he was certain would end as yet another vain attempt to talk Yeul out of this.

"Are you absolutely sure you're feeling up to thi-"

"Lightning, how I feel matters little. It has to be now – for more reasons than one."

Yeul's voice had a frustrated, authoritative edge to it that shocked him, and, by the look of it, Light as well. The young former seeress had never shown all that much emotion to begin with, but certainly never impatience. Even Noel looked taken aback, and he knew her best. But then, something occurred to him – She's worried about Noel. Yeul was as aware of the dangers as they were, if not more so, and she knew Noel was also at risk. Hope was certain she could see the future anymore, and as much of a repeatedly fatal curse as that her foresight had been, not having it anymore very likely terrified her. It scared him not knowing if they would all be okay, or if all this ability business would turn out to be nothing much at all or tear them apart. It was said that ignorance was bliss, but in this case – as in many others – he vehemently disagreed.

Lightning sighed heavily in defeat, hanging her head in resignation. Hope hated being so helpless. He just wanted to know how to fix everything, but on this world, doing so was currently outside his ability. All he could do was be there if and when she needed him and hope that was enough.

"Fine," he heard her say, the tremulous nature of her voice making his throat tighten. She was afraid. "Let's get this over with."

Yeul nodded once, then looked to Noel. "Would you please help me with the bedrolls? We'll need a soft surface for this."

As Noel leapt to her assistance, Hope caught Lightning's eye and attempted a reassuring smile – one he knew failed to reach his eyes. At the very least, he tried to make sure she wasn't looking into a direct reflection of the trepidation shimmering in her own.

"Lightning, please take a seat here directly across from me," Yeul instructed, once what looked troublingly like a crash pad comprised of pillows, bedrolls, and blankets had been haphazardly thrown together on the floor, well away from any obstacles. Lightning did as she was told without hesitation, crossing her legs at the seeress's suggestion. "There's a chance this could get a bit rough so you'll want to be as stable as possible," she had said.

"Gee," Lightning muttered sarcastically, shifting until she'd found a relatively comfortable position on the unevenly cushioned surface. "That makes me feel a whole lot better."

Noel knelt on the floor just behind Yeul, looking every bit the bodyguard he had always been, and Hope mimicked him by sitting just to the rear of Lightning's shoulder. He noticed her chest expanding a little faster than normal and squeezed her shoulder in a gesture he hoped would offer comfort.

"Please don't touch her while we conference," Yeul said quickly. "It might pull you into the landscape and I'm unsure if I can shepherd three minds into the Unseen Realm." Hope blinked, and dropped his hand from Lightning shoulder back to his lap.

"I'll be right here the entire time," he assured her. "You'll be fine."

Lightning nodded tersely over her shoulder, then locked her attention on the girl before her, who was holding her hands out across the tiny space between them with palms facing up. "Place your hands on top of mine," Yeul instructed, and with a surprising steadiness, she obeyed. Yeul's eyes slid shut instantly. "Concentrate on the connection," she said through deep, even breaths.

Lightning felt a bit silly, but instinctively mimicked Yeul's posture and breathing despite how uncomfortable she felt with how… supernatural everything felt. I guess we are kind of communicating with the dead, she reasoned.

"Focus," Yeul commanded sharply, and Lightning's eyes flew open. Could she read her mind now or something? Shaking off her unease, Lightning closed her eyes again, and instead of thinking about how awkward she felt, she genuinely, intensely concentrated on the softness of Yeul's hands against the roughness of her own. "Focus," Yeul repeated, quieter this time as if she were speaking either to herself or those she was attempting to contact.

Gradually, like the light of the rising sun, Lightning felt a strange force begin to pulsate from their hands. Her curiosity as to whether or not the energy was a tangible thing prompted her to open her eyes to see, but to her disquietude, she found she couldn't move much at all. The current had crawled its way up her arms, into her spine, and throughout the rest of her body, a sort of massaging conductivity that might have been pleasant in a way if not for the circumstances. Just as she started to feel relatively at ease, the energy intensified several times its original strength all at once and she was positive her head was going to explode. Her spine snapped rigidly and completely straight with enough force to cause her head to fly back with nearly enough speed to give her whiplash.

"No, Hope!" she vaguely heard Noel yell. "Don't touch her! This is just… what this looks like."

"Her nose is bleeding, Noel!" came Hope's distant, but hostile reply. "This can't be normal!"

"Lay even a finger on her and you risk doing even more damage!"

Lightning could hear Noel and Hope continue to argue, but their voices were incredibly faint. Why did they sound so far away? Weren't they right next to her and Yeul? If not for the volume of the wind and waves, she reasoned, she might have been able to hear exactly what they were saying.

Wait… what?

"Isn't this a pleasant surprise." The breathy baritone of her old rival made her skin crawl, and her eyes flew open to reveal the last place she ever wanted to see again.

"Valhalla," she exhaled as her gaze fell on the alabaster stone walls of her late charge's palace.

"Yes," Yeul said simply, and as Lightning turned her attention back to the young girl, she gasped audibly upon seeing not only their Yeul seated in front of her just as she had been, but hundreds of Yeuls materializing one by one across the beach behind her, like stars just poking through the dim light of dusk. She couldn't believe how many there were… how many Yeuls were forced to die young all for the sake of a selfish, foolish deity who thought she knew best.

"Why have you come here?" Caius demanded. And, in a softer tone, "Why did you bring her here, Yeul?"

Lightning steeled herself before answering. "I need to know what's happening to me and my friends," she said firmly, her eyes following him as he crossed from behind her to behind Yeul's evidently frozen form. If not for the way her brows were knit in concentration, she could well have passed for a statue.

"You mean you haven't figured it out?" Caius drawled condescendingly. "I thought you were better than that, Warrior Goddess."

"Please don't antagonize our guest, Caius," the chorus of Yeuls scolded gently, and the dark man complied despite the scowl that flashed across his face. "Savior. Welcome back."

"I'm not the savior anymore," Lightning spat. "I'm not supposed to be."

"That is true," the Yeuls conceded. "You ceased to be the Savior the moment you became the Goddess."

"About that," Lightning said curiously. "Yeul – er, our Yeul – said I became the Goddess after I saved Hope and sent him off to the New World. When exactly did I stop?"

"Your powers as the Goddess should have been exhausted in the final strike against Bhunivelze," one of the Yeuls explained. "It was this power which trapped him in crystal."

"There should have been nothing active left after that," another Yeul chimed in from further back in the crowd. "Somehow, your power reflected off of Bhunivelze instead of being absorbed by him. It was then that your power was fractured by the crystal and flew into each of your friends."

"That's not what you said before," Lightning argued, more with Yeul across from her than Yeul who had just spoken. "You said I was the one who gave power to protect my friends."

"The only things you were able to give were your strength and your ability to speak in dreams," Caius interjected disdainfully. "They were given to you by Etro, not but Bhunivelze, and so you, too, were able to gift it after taking Etro's place. Despite surpassing the Creator god in power, that which he gave you was not yours to bestow in turn."

"We apologize for the earlier misinformation," the same Yeul said contritely. "Some things have… come to light since then."

"Then they… every divine power I had…" Lightning's breath quickened in horror once she fully realized just how much danger they were in. "But… but they were all with me for that last strike," she cried. "Sazh, Serah, even Dajh! You're telling me they do have some kind of power eating away at them?"

"That's precisely what we're telling you," Caius confirmed. Lightning briefly wondered how hard it was for him to hold the holier-than-thou at bay, and despite the severity of the situation, the corner of her mouth twitched. "However, who has what power remains unknown to us."

"We already know Snow can heal himself quickly and automatically," Lightning informed them. "And Hope had my old chronostasis ability until I took it away from him somehow."

"You have a power all your own, you know," yet another Yeul spoke up. "Unification. It is you, and you alone, who can bring everyone together and rejoin the divine powers of god. Once you have done this, I fear you will face the greatest trial of your life."

"What could be harder than going against the Creator?" Lightning sneered. "That was pretty hard. Though I won't deny that damn Aeronite took forever to take down…"

"That, we cannot tell you," Caius said, looking off across the great ocean of Chaos.

"Why the hell not?"

"Because we do not know exactly what it will be," Yeul – their Yeul, this time – told her, with some difficulty as maintaining the connection was clearly straining her.

Lightning's frustration reached astronomical levels. She still needed more answers, but it seemed they were either unknown or kept from her deliberately. In the end, she supposed answers didn't matter as much as the solution to the problem. "So what do I do to fix this?"

The Yeuls smiled, which was quite the sight to see as an almost ethereal glow flickered around their vast number. "You must again become the Goddess. Only then will you have the ability to save your friends and yourself."

"As well as the world," Yeul closest to Caius added, her tone full of warning.

Lightning blinked. "The world? What danger is the world in?"

"The new world is in peril so long as your powers remain in it," Caius explained, sounding annoyed. "They aren't meant to be there. The world itself was born of the Eternal Paradox, and so its continued existence is delicate. Your magic is tearing both it and your friends apart little by little."

"The 'eternal paradox'? What's-"

"The only thing that isn't destructive is your ability to communicate through dreams, since that is a remnant of the crystal and this realm, not of God," their Yeul interrupted. "But, just as my ability to communicate with the Unseen Realm like this is steadily fading, so will the ability to do that. Best to take advantage while you can."

Lightning sighed. "So I just have to get everybody together and take back all my powers, and then I'm the goddess again."

"No," Caius said quickly, cutting off the end of her sentence. "You must kill a god, save a soul, and offer it rebirth. Those are the three requisites to godhood."

"Do you qualify as a god now?" Lightning asked sarcastically. "I wouldn't mind a little payback-"

"Not me," he replied simply.

Lightning narrowed her eyes angrily. "If you haven't noticed, the new world is a little short on deities."

"Think again, Warrior Goddess."

"…Are you saying I should kill myself? I thought you said I wasn't the Goddess anymo-"

"No, Lightning, think again," the Yeuls chorused. "Think about what happens when people are trapped in crystal stasis."

"What do you mean 'what happens'?" Lightning shrugged. "Nothing. People in crystal don't really do anything."

"Wrong," Caius barked. "They dream."

At once, the truth behind their implication smacked into her with tangible force, freezing the blood in her veins. "You mean… Bhunivelze is…" She trailed off as her breath quickened to a hazardous speed. "Oh no… please, no, no no no…"

"Judging by the color draining from your face, I believe you've finally caught on," the pompous man smirked.

"But he… we killed him!" she cried. "We killed him and he was entombed in crystal, out in some realm I have zero access to. You're telling me he's still alive?"

"Where do you think your new world's infrastructure came from? Its history?" Caius sneered. "Do you think all your belongings had souls as well and were reborn alongside you? You weren't the Creator god, you know. You were merely a guide."

Lightning shook her head repeatedly, unable to wrap her mind around what she had been told. "Well… how am I supposed to defeat something I can't find? And what souls are there to save when I've already saved all of them?" Her heart crumbled the more she realized how hopeless their situation was. "And since I can't do any of the things you suggested, how does that fix anything?"

"You can do that which we have suggested," the Yeuls said. "A path will open for you and you will have no choice but to follow it. This path will lead you not only to the sleeping god, but to the final souls in need of salvation."

"Souls? As in more than one?"

"Everything will reveal itself in time, Warrior Goddess," Caius cut in before any of the Yeuls could answer. "But your Yeul needs to be set free from all of this, now. Look at her!"

And Lightning did, eyes going wide at the way the girl had slumped forward, as if she hadn't the strength to hold herself up anymore or draw anything more than the shallow ragged breaths she was currently. "Yeul! Don't you dare die on me," she yelled, squeezing the girl's hands from where they had been resting against hers the entire time. When Yeul failed to respond, Lightning's heart raced again in panic. "What am I supposed to do!? She's the one who brought us here!"

"Let go of her," he instructed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That will break the link and you will both wake up."

"Is that even safe?" she asked, not caring how evident her terror was.

"It will be… unpleasant," Caius responded, frowning at the earthbound Yeul's condition. "But it will work and you should both be safe."

"We will end the connection with Yeul forever once you both have left this place," the other Yeuls said in congress. "She must live. For Noel."

"We will contact you again directly if it is deemed necessary," Caius told her. If she didn't know better, she would've sworn he actually cared about what happened to them. "Now, let go of one hand, and one hand only, to break the connection. You will need a hold of the other in order to guide her back. And, when you do get back, inform Noel that I will haunt him mercilessly for the rest of his days if he allows that girl to come to harm."

Gaze flying between the host of Yeuls, Caius, and the Yeul with whom she had arrived, and then casting one last glance at the green-lit, gloomy magnificence of Valhalla, Lightning nodded. "I will," she told Caius. "And thank you. All of you."

"We wish you luck, dear Goddess," the Yeuls told her sadly. "You will need it."

And with that, Lightning pried one of her hands away from the girl – which was much easier said than done – and if not for the solidity of the link between the hands still joined together, she was sure she would have been tossed aside in the violence that followed. In the back of her mind, she knew she was still sitting in the living room with Yeul, Hope, and Noel. She clung desperately to that knowledge as her consciousness thrashed wildly in the storm of Chaos that appeared the instant Lightning let go of Yeul's hand.

It took almost everything Lightning had to concentrate enough just to keep her hold on Yeul, never mind trying to guide the two of them back to safety. Her head whirled in every direction looking for a landmark by which to navigate back to their bodies, but all she could see was the Chaos. Desperation set in like a plague, until something occurred to her in a rare moment of blind optimism.

Hope found me in this once, she thought. Maybe he can find me again.

"Hope!" she called into the crackling darkness, barely able to hear herself over the whistling and moaning of the dark torrent. "Hope, please!"

But there was no answer, no light, no nothing. Desperation becoming panic, Lightning cried out again and again as she concentrated on his face, his voice, every precious word he had said to her in the last several days… but he didn't come. At the continued lack of response, she nearly gave up, but something inside kept her going. Hope needed her. Serah needed her. They all needed her now, because all of this was her fault. She'd be damned if she let them down willingly. Lightning filled her lungs with the stinging air in preparation for what was guaranteed to be a struggle to the surface of their consciousness, tensing her muscles before pushing off into what she hoped was the right direction.

"Noel…"

All the air left her in one shocked exhale as Lightning looked to the girl she had assumed was unconscious. Yeul's eyes were still closed, but her lips were moving, albeit barely, as she chanted his name over and over. To Lightning's surprise, a light shone through the suffocating darkness – a beacon to show them the way. Gritting her teeth in resolve, the ex-soldier kicked and pulled with her free arm, doing whatever she could to guide them towards the light, dragging Yeul's light, but dead weight behind her. Her muscles screamed as she fought against the winds still trying to drag them down, and just as doubt flashed in her mind, the wind shifted, shooting them with alarming speed towards the light. Lightning found herself struggling to slow down their approach, but her attempts were in vain. Using her free arm as a shield, she squeezed her eyes shut as they were thrust into the dizzying brightness.

Two cries of surprise and discomfort and her back slamming against something were the next things Lightning knew. Her head was throbbing, and the light shining behind her lids was painfully offensive. No way was she subjecting herself to that.

"Light! Light, please, wake up…"

If not for the hysterical edge to Hope's voice, she might have kept her eyes closed, but she let them slowly flutter open until they focused on his frantic expression. "Hope… my head…" she mumbled, bringing a hand to her furrowed brow. All at once, Hope scooped her up in his arms as all the air left him and burrowed his face in her hair.

"Oh, thank god you're all right," he breathed in little more than a whisper, as if he didn't trust his voice at full volume. Lightning still felt incredibly disoriented, but she melted into his embrace anyway in tired relief.

"What… what happened?" she eventually asked once she felt like she might be able to sit of her own accord. In a flash, everything came back to her and she shot up straight, only swaying for a moment. "Yeul! Is she okay?" She crawled over to where the girl was gathered limply in Noel's arms, shocked at the distance she had to cover considering they had originally been seated close enough that their knees had been touching. She saw her own fear reflected on the young man's face and went cold.

"…Noel?"

"I can't get her to respond," he choked, his voice wavering dangerously. "She's alive, but…"

"I'm calling an ambulance," Hope announced, rushing across the room to retrieve his phone. "She can't argue with me about it now."

As he went about making the arrangements to get Yeul to the hospital, Lightning knelt over the girl as Noel continued trying to gently rouse her, but didn't dare touch her.

"What the hell happened in there, Lightning?" the broken man pleaded. It sounded like he wanted to be angry but couldn't quite manage it through his concern. "What's wrong with her?"

"I wish I knew, Noel," she replied quietly. "One minute she was fine…ish, and the next, Caius was telling me to let go of her hand to get her out of there. She wasn't looking too good-"

"Paramedics will be here in two minutes," Hope interrupted after hanging up his phone and tossing it on the countertop. "Noel, carry her down to the street. Light and I will get everything locked up here and be right behind you."

"Okay," Noel said in a hollow voice as Lightning helped him to his feet, careful not to disturb the fragile body cradled in his arms. "Thanks, Hope."

"Don't worry about it," he clipped, ushering them out the door. Once the door had shut behind them, Hope leaned his elbow against it, his forehead pressed to the back of his hand. Lightning's heart sank at how utterly defeated he looked with his shoulders slumped and ribs expanding and contracting at a decreasingly rapid pace. Once his breath had calmed, he turned to face her with a pained smile plastered on his face, as if it simply being there would make everything better. A naïve superstition, but a nice thought nonetheless. When it faltered, he broke eye contact and busied himself with packing a bag for the two who had just left the flat.

"Do you need me to do anything?" Lightning asked hesitantly, wringing her hands together nervously as she watched him rush around the apartment. He was clearly upset, possibly with her. Rather than get defensive about it like she normally would, she decided walking on eggshells was currently the better option.

"No," he said. She frowned at his overly polite tone, but again – eggshells. So she got up just long enough to transfer from the floor to the couch and sat on the edge of it in anticipation of the bomb he wanted to drop. She didn't have to wait long.

"We are never doing that again," he yelled suddenly, dropping the bag in his hand and whirling around to face her. Lightning's hands were much easier to look at than the pain and anger on his face, and it was there her eyes focused. "Do you have any idea what it was like from where I sat?"

"No-"

"You looked like you were dying, Light. It looked like you were in more than enough pain to kill you, your nose was bleeding, and you were white as a sheet…" He trailed off, his breath racing again as he paced back and forth like a road-bound squirrel trying to determine which direction to run in to avoid oncoming traffic. "You were sweating and your skin was all… mottled… and I had to just sit there and watch! I couldn't even clean you up until after you flew into me!" Hope was outright yelling now, his voice cracking with raw emotion. "And poor Yeul looked even worse! I've never seen Noel so scared in his life, but there he was, telling me everything would be fine and to just let you two do your thing. He was trying to calm me down when Yeul was worse off. It was horrible, Light. Don't ever put yourself through something like that again, do you understand? We will find another way. We always find another way. I can't lose you, Light, not again! I can't…"

Hope uttered a strangled grunt of disgust before turning away and storming over to the window a few feet from where Lightning sat. She chanced a look in his direction and was crushed by the way he rested his forehead on the glass, gripping the windowsill so tightly his arms shook with the effort. Even so, she was glad he had lost it since he was often just as guilty of internalizing his problems as she was, even after telling her it wasn't a healthy thing to do.

Cautiously, she stood and shuffled closer to where he stood. She could hear his uneven breathing once she was next to him, and slowly so as not to startle him, she gently snaked her arms around his waist from behind, resting her cheek on the broad space between his shoulder blades. A large part of her knew his anger wasn't truly directed at her, but at himself. He was the one who had believed they had no choice, and had said as much the many times she had protested.

"I'm sorry, Hope," she murmured, tightening her hold on him. "I'm so sorry."

It took longer for him to respond than she would have liked, so when she felt his hand trail along her skin until it rested on top of hers, she released the breath she had been holding and pressed her forehead gently against his spine in relief.

"No, Light," he finally said, so quietly she barely heard him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled like that."

"You were afraid," she said simply against his back. "I've snapped at you for less." Hope released her arm and turned his body until it faced her head on, enveloping her in a desperate embrace.

"You can't die, Light," he whispered next to her ear. "You can't. Not after everything we've been through to get here."

Lightning let out a little bark of a laugh before she replied. "I don't plan to any time soon. Besides, I haven't kept my promise to you yet." Then, shyly and quickly, she lifted herself onto the balls of her feet and kissed him chastely on the cheek to accent her point, withdrawing from his grasp immediately after in embarrassment.

"We, um… need to get going," she said hastily, busying herself with her belongings until her cheeks returned to their normal color. Had she looked back at Hope, she would have seen his fingers ghosting the skin her lips had just grazed, the burgeoning half-smile giving stark contrast to the worried frown it had replaced. Before she could, he shook himself out of his stupor and gathered the rest of what they needed to take to the hospital without a word.

Twenty minutes later, following a passing employee's direction, he and Lightning were walking briskly through the sanitary white halls of the hospital Yeul had been taken to until they finally reached the emergency room waiting area, where Noel was pacing restlessly.

"Any news?" Hope asked, setting the bags he had brought down on the nearest seat.

"Not yet," Noel said automatically. "I've asked the front desk a lot, but I think I'm starting to tick them off."

"That's ridiculous," Lightning scoffed. "Wait here, I'll see if I can find somebody-"

"Mister Kreiss?"

All three of them whirled around towards the interruption, and Hope was relieved to see a doctor standing near them. By the way Noel had snapped to attention, Hope surmised this doctor was the one treating Yeul. However, the way the woman motioned for Noel to follow her into the hall was worrisome.

"Are we supposed to go with them, or…" Lightning wondered, and Hope shook his head.

"She would have just talked here if we were supposed to hear whatever it is she has to say," he said. Lightning sank into the nearest chair and leaned her head against the wall behind it. Hope joined her from the next seat over, opting to lean forward and rest his forearms on his thighs. He could move quicker from this position if he had to.

The minutes passed, and Hope found himself cursing the noise in the room; if not for the incessant coughing to his right, the television blaring on the wall across the way, or the teenager talking loudly on his phone in the corner, it might have been possible to hear some of what the doctor was relaying to Noel. He didn't know Yeul very well aside from his research on the Farseers, which said nothing about her individual personality, but he did know Noel and he knew how much the guy cared about her. For that reason as much as any, he fretted for the girl's well-being. If anything happened to her… well. He knew how he would feel if anything happened to Light.

After several agonizing minutes had gone by, Noel walked back into the waiting room alone, his movements mechanic and face completely devoid of emotion. That can't be good, Hope thought.

"What did the doctor say? Is Yeul okay?" Lightning pried in Hope's stead. Noel's answer chilled both of them to the bone.

"She's alive, but… only just. She may never wake up."

[end ch. 14]

Yeah, I know.

See everybody next week!