Author's Note: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII-2 or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.


Another day, another chapter, so allow me to reply to my readers!

G.S. Phoenix: Thank you.

Rsdk525: We may or may not, I haven't decided yet.

X-Ranger1: I guess Deiru is. But while I can see the great fighter and cards player part, when was he a ladies man? Please tell me.

And so, let us go on!


Ch.28 The Search Begins

When I awoke from my dream Noel and Serah were already awake, and readying their supplies in the Historia Crux. "Finally you're awake. We were starting to get worried, kupo!" Mog said. I shook my head and flipped myself over, so that I was floating with my feet below me. "Well, I'm up now. So, are we going back to Academia to see if we changed things?" I asked. Noel nodded. "Yup. We were just getting our things ready beforehand in case... well..." he trailed off. I nodded; I knew what it meant. In case everything we had done didn't work. "We'll just have to hope that it did. Ready?" Serah said, putting her last Potion away and looking at us. We nodded, and floated through the opening in time.

Academia 4XX AF

When we passed through the gate we ended up in the same spot as last time, but around us the city was different. There were still the flying cars, massive skyscrapers, and open sky. But this time there were no clouds, the place as bright with sunlight. Around us countless people bustled, and best of all there was no shape of the Proto fal'Cie ahead. Noel smiled widely. "We did it. We actually did it," he said in relief. In a complete moment of emulating Snow, I punched my fist into the air and said "Ha ha. Alright!" "The future has been changed, kupo!" Mog said, looking around. Serah smiled. "I think Yeul must be happy now," she said. Noel nodded, and looked at the sky. "This is what you wanted to see, right?" he said.

Just then we heard the voice of Hope say "Welcome to the future you saved." We spun around to see him and Alyssa approach us, smiling. "Are they real?" Noel asked. I frowned, and Mog flew around the two of them, looking intently. Alyssa laughed, and Hope said "Now, is that a polite way to greet old friends. I mean, we haven't seen each other in, what, how many years?" "It's been all of three-hundred and ninety years. I guess you guys have been busy, huh?" Alyssa said, extending her hand towards us. Old habits died hard, and I acted like she didn't do it, meaning Noel shook her hand instead. "How are you guys still alive?" Serah asked. Hope chuckled. "I'll explain that later. Please stop by my headquarters when you get the chance. You're guests of the Academy. Alyssa," he said.

They turned to leave, and Alyssa looked back, throwing us a wave. "Later!" she said. Noel, Serah and even Mog all waved, but I kept my arms crossed. Serah saw this and frowned. "That was a little rude, Deiru," she said. Now it was my turn to chuckle, albeit rather humorlessly. "Compared to what I know, that's the least unkind thing I could do to her," I said. Noel frowned as well. "Remind me why you hate her so much," he said. I shook my head. "I'm not supposed to say, but I can tell you that you'll figure it out. And soon," I said. Although this didn't make either of them happy, I changed the subject and said "So which building do you think is the Academy HQ?"

Serah looked around. "Knowing how big the Academy must be by now, it's probably the biggest, most-impressive looking building. How about that one?" she said, pointing forward. A good distance ahead was a large building with two spires on opposite sides, and out of all other it was definitely the biggest. "That may be it. Let's go," Noel said. We began moving forward, and to our surprise they were conveyor belts with arrows along the paths. "One thing's for sure: Mankind has gotten a lot smarter in the past 400 years," I commented. As we moved along the conveyor belt, Noel said "I have to ask Deiru, what did you do to the Proto fal'Cie?" I smiled. "It was manipulating the past, so there was no reason we couldn't do the same. I called out to Hope that his machines were pissing us off, and my only guess was that he somehow saw it," I explained.

"But how did you know it would work?" Serah asked. My smile grew even wider. "I didn't," I replied simply, before looking ahead while the two of them gaped at me. We reached the Academy Headquarters and went inside, finding the lobby to be just as large as it would have seemed. Various workers, visitors and people who just wanted to look were inside, and in the center was a receptionist's desk. Further on ahead was a large set of doors, and we passed through that. On the other side was a room even more spacious than the lobby. In the center of it was a giant holographic sphere, and the walkways were in a circle around it. There were multiple levels besides the one we were on, and it looked like the only way to reach them were by constantly moving hover-platforms.

Ahead was Hope and a raised platform with a control panel in front of him, looking intently at the screen. Behind him was Alyssa, and at our approach she turned and faced us. "Glad to see that you could make it. Director? They're here," she said. Hope looked back at her from his screen, and turned once he realized what she meant. "Oh, my apologies. I guess now I get to hold up my end of the bargain: Telling you how we got here," he said. "Please do," Serah said. "Simply put, we invented a machine called the time capsule. It's meant to slow down time for its occupants. It does so by creating a powerful gravitational field and-" he began, before Alyssa cleared her throat.

"Um, Director? I think the full-blown explanation might be a a little hard for the, to understand. Nothing against you guys, but it contained some rather abstract and advanced scientific principles and procedures," she said. Noel grunted. "I hate to admit it, but she's got a point. I'm a hunter, not a scientist," he said. Hope laughed rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I guess you're right. Basically, it slowed down time for its occupants, Alyssa and I, while the rest of the world flashed by," he said. "But what about the Proto fal'Cie? Wasn't that something you guys had been working on?" Serah asked. "It was. Back in 13 AF, Alyssa proposed the idea of using an artificial fal'Cie to re-levitate Cocoon. I found no problems with it at the time, and after careful consideration we began research," Hope said.

It was then that Alyssa giggled. "But then we saw a certain prophecy in an Oracle Drive," she said. We looked at her, and Hope said "I saw all of you fighting the Proto fal'Cie. And Deiru yelling at me. 'These machines of yours are making me go completely insane!'" Serah and Noel looked at me, and I looked away pridefully. "Hey! It was the best thing I could think of at the time!" I said. Hope smiled. "Well, it worked anyway. We were force to re-evaluate the project, and eventually abandoned it," he said. "Okay. So you saw Deiru getting mad at you, canceled your plans, and poof, the Proto fal'Cie vanished. It didn't disappear so much as it never existed in the first place, right?" Noel asked.

Hope nodded. "We were following the wrong path to the future. If the Proto fal'Cie had managed to get control of Cocoon, it would have made itself the second Eden, and we'd be back where we began," he said. Serah nodded. "Yeah. It would have been just like it was on the old Cocoon," she added. "We realized that we couldn't let that happen. We had to levitate Cocoon using only human technology," Alyssa said. Noel and I chuckled. "Right. Not to mention that if you had kept with the original plan, your machines would have killed you," Noel said. At that Hope and Alyssa gasped, and Hope put a hand to his chest. "Really? Then we owe you our lives. Thank you," he said.

"Funny. You lose your temper and the whole future changes," Alyssa commented. I frowned but kept myself from glaring at her. "So how is the Academy on re-levitating Cocoon?" I asked. "We have come to the conclusion that it would be impossible to keep the Cocoon we have now afloat. So instead, we are planning to build an entirely new Cocoon, one not powered by the fal'Cie," Hope said, waving his hand at the holographic sphere in the center of the room. Serah's eyes grew wide. "A whole new Cocoon? How are going to get something like that to float?" she asked. "We are basing our idea of one of the Arks left behind by the fal'Cie- the Thirteenth Ark, to be precise. This one is able to levitate due to a mineral called a Graviton Core," Hope said.

"If we manage to obtain that kind of ore, we can use it raise the new Cocoon into the sky!" Alyssa said happily. "That's great!" Serah said, amazed by the plan. "However, we do need the three of you to help," Hope said. Noel nodded. "Sure. What do you need?" he asked. "The good news is that, after all our testing, the Graviton Core is definitely able to levitate the new Cocoon. The bad news... is that each ore cluster provides only a certain amount of power. While the Thirteenth Ark only needs one to sustain it, something as large as the new Cocoon will require several Graviton Cores. And we can't seem to find them," Hope said. "Can't find them? Are they in another time or something?" I asked.

They nodded, and Alyssa said "That's why we need your help." "Well, we do have the Historia Crux. And if there's one thing we're good at, its finding weird objects," Serah said. Hope nodded. "Thank you. With the three of you on the case, we'll have all the cores we need in no time," he said. I shrugged and smiled, indicating that it was no problem, and Alyssa said "I"ll put together what data we have on the Graviton Cores. Check in with the Academy front desk." Noel nodded and laced his fingers together, stretching them out. Bones cricked and I did the same. "Okay, let's do this," he said. "You have our thanks," Hope said, and Alyssa added "See ya!" We nodded, and left the room.

In the lobby we approached the front desk, and the receptionist said "You two must be the people assigned to finding the Graviton Cores, correct?" We nodded, and she handed us a holographic panel. "All the data as to their locations is on there. Good luck!" she said. We took the panel, and headed back for the gate.


Once we were back in the crossroads of time I took out the device, and Noel said "Okay, so where do we need to go?" I hit a few buttons, and a list appeared. "Okay, from the looks of this we need to collect at least five Graviton Cores. There have been reported readings of them in New Bodhum 003 AF, Bresha Ruins 005 AF, Oerba 200 AF, Sunleth Waterscape 400 AF and..." I said, trailing off as I blinked at the screen. "What?" Noel said. "This is odd. From what I remember, there were no Graviton Cores in this last location, and yet there have sightings of one there," I said. "Where?" Serah asked. I looked up at them. "According to them, there's been a core sighted in the Vile Peaks, although it doesn't say what year," I relayed to them.

"The Vile Peaks? Isn't that the place where the fal'Cie tossed out all of the wreckage from rebuilding Cocoon?" Noel asked. I nodded. "But that's not all. From what I remember, it's also the sight of a massive paradox," I said. "Really?" Serah asked, and I nodded. "Let's save that for last then. We'll collect the other four Graviton Cores, and then go after that one," Noel suggested. Serah, Mog, and I nodded, and Mog said "Let's head back to New Bodhum first, kupo!" Serah nodded. "Yeah. It'd be nice to see Lebreau and the others again," she said. Noel, Mog agreed and we passed through time and space until we reached Serah's hometown.

Once we passed through the gate we landed in the same crater that we had left through, and sitting there was Maqui, eating a sandwich. Upon our arrival he shouted and fell over, dropping his meal in shock. "Hey! You're back!" he said, hurriedly standing and dusting himself off. "Yep!" Serah said, smiling. Maqui grinned hugely and said "Wait right here! I'll go tell the others!" and sped off like a bullet. I shook my head in wonder and stood there, while Noel and Serah did the same. A few minutes later there was the sound of voice, and Maqui reappeared at the edge of the crater along with Gadot, Yuj, who was holding Snow, and Lebreau. "Hey, Serah! Good to see you back!" Gadot called, waving.

Serah waved back, and Lebreau said "Come on up, guys! You've got to tell us what's happened since you left!" I looked at Serah and Noel, who shrugged while Mog just said "Kupo." We ran up the side of the crater and climbed the rocks at the edge, Yuj and Gadot helping us up. "Why don't we head back to NORA house? I can make my special," Lebreau offered. "You're special? What does that taste like?" Noel asked curiously. Gadot chuckled. "Oh, you have to taste it for your yourself," he said. "Well then? Are we going back?" Yuj asked. Before we could answer Snow suddenly meowed loudly, jumping from Yuj's arms towards Serah. She shouted and caught her, and Snow immediately began purring loudly.

"I guess that answers that question," I said, scratching the cat behind the ears. "Okay then! Let's go!" Maqui said, and we all nodded. We walked back along the path to New Bodhum, and any monster that came closer stopped when they saw how many of us there were. As such we got back without any trouble, and once we were back at NORA house Lebreau immediately went to work in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Serah and Noel sat at the counter while Yuj and I stood, Maqui sat down in a regular chair, and Gadot laid back on the coach. "So, exactly what have you guys been up to since you left?" Gadot asked. "Well..." I said, and I began retelling everything that had happened to us so far.

Whenever I forgot something or hesitated Noel or Serah would talk, and the group together showed a myriad of emotions. Maqui's eyes lit up in wonder when I described all of the technology in Augusta Tower, Yuj was amazed by the size of Academia, and Gadot was dumbfounded when I tried to create a good mental picture of the size of Atlas. "Damn. And you guys actually fought that thing?" he said, to which we nodded. By the time we finally arrived to the part about the Graviton Cores, Lebreau announced "Okay, here it is! The NORA special!" She handed each of us a bowl filled with slices of apple, meat and others assorted foods all mixed together. The others, Serah included, cheered at this and dug in, while Noel I looked uncertainly at the meal.

"This is the NORA special?" he asked, looking at it. Gadot nodded, his mouth too bulging with food to talk. Instead Yuj spoke, saying "I know it looks a little weird, but it tastes like heaven! Back in the old Bodhum, we tried convincing Lebreau to open a restaurant with this as the specialty." "We could never get her to expand beyond a bar, though," Maqui added. Lebreau crossed her arms. "Hey, I'm not into managing a huge business, alright? I just like small workplaces where there's not many complications," she defended. I looked again at the meal, before shrugging and stabbing a bite with my fork. I looked up to see Noel doing the same. We both said "Aw, what the heck," and took at bite.

At the exact same time our eyes shot wide open, blown away by the divine flavor that was now upon our taste buds. "Whoa!" we both said, and hurriedly swallowed before taking another bite. Serah and the rest of Nora laughed, and even Mog fell over in the air, clutching his sides. "That's what I said the first I ever tried it," Serah told us, eating hers a lot more slowly. In no time at all Noel and I had bowls as empty as the Void Beyond, and Lebreau happily refilled them. We spent the rest of the day and into the night talking, having fun, and Noel and I even got into an arm wrestling contest with each other. To my surprise Noel won, but then again he had been training to become a Guardian. We both lost to Gadot anyway.

"Why don't you guys just stay the night? You can find this Graviton thingy or whatever tomorrow morning?" Maqui suggested. I paused, unsure whether or not to accept, and Serah decided for us by saying "Sure, we'd love that." Noel and I conceded, and after a few more hours Serah laid down in her bed, I let Noel take the other, and I crashed on the couch. With such good food in our stomachs we quickly fell asleep, glad to have had such a nice and peaceful day.


Well, that wraps up this chapter. Starting next chapter the search for the cores will be getting into motion, and we all know what happens when we get to the Vile Peaks!

Please review! If you flame me Liam Neeson will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you. (I'm just kidding... or am I?)