There is a roar that sounds from outside the crystal cavern, one that matches the intensity and rage coming from within.
Bhunivelze. Bhunivelze is shouting a response to Ragnarok's re-emergence, a challenge. The sound is almost deafening as the dueling screams echo throughout the chamber.
"Look out!" Claire can barely be heard over the din. "The ceiling is starting to give way! Take cover!"
The screams have reached such a pitch that the very crystals that make up the little chamber start to pop, shattering into tiny little shards. All of the l'Cie cover their ears, close their eyes, and duck their heads into the protective arms of their respective Eidolons.
The screams are literally making the walls shatter-if the group that traveled from Kabul had remained human still, their ears would have surely bled, and they would have become deaf from the dueling sounds.
As it is, the stronger ear canals of the l'Cie can hardly handle the punishing onslaught. All have turned their eyes away from Ragnarok's rebirth, out of sympathy for their friends, Fang and Vanille. Ragnarok has now started to move, and the little cave begins to quake even more violently from the motion of the beast.
The Eidolons wrap their charges protectively into the sphere of their care, and Ragnarok bounds up to the ceiling, where a large crack has started to form. With very little effort and in no time at all, the growling monstrosity punches through the cave, causing the air inside of the room to whoosh out of the crack at an alarming rate.
Feeling the air being sucked out of the ceiling, being rocked by the concussive waves of sound coming from within and without, Hope knows that the cave is starting to disappear, taking the last remnants of Anima with it.
And themselves.
There comes the sound of millions of little crystal shards popping, and the dust from the dying cave starts to swirl dangerously around the heroes. Only the protective arms of their Eidolons save the l'Cie from the fate of being decimated by tiny crystal fragments.
The feeling of being buffeted by the wind is immediately replaced by a cold, dark stillness. Out of fear, Hope blinks, and opens his eyes.
Alexander is now carrying him, holding him through the empty void of a cold, dead plane. Looking around and beneath him, Hope spies fragments of crystal glittering all around him. It is the only testament to the cave that was their prison only moments before.
He also spies his greatest enemy.
Almost as if in unison, Hope's friends begin to stir. They all turn as one, swiveling in the darkness, being flanked by their protectors in battle to once again face down the wrath of an uncaring God.
Bhunivelze is a pitiful sight. He remains much as Hope's tormented memories remember, encased in a heavy sheath of crystal.
The great blue god rises from the dark, but there is a crack in the façade. Instead of being completely housed within the crystal, the god is exposed to the inky blackness around him, allowing him free range of motion of his arms.
How are they floating through space, alive? There is no longer any shred of doubt in Hope's mind that he is no longer human. With a sad realization, he knows that if he had not regained his l'Cie powers granted to him by the now-perished Anima, he would not be able to survive the void of space that surrounds him.
It had been a trap. Bhunivelze had somehow whisked them to his plane of dwelling in the Far Plane-hoping that by doing so, the companions of old would immediately fall victim to the harshness of space.
Well, it hadn't worked. Somehow, the spirit that remained of Anima had called to them from this realm as well, and the last benediction of the fal'Cie had been to restore the earthlings their old powers in order to be able to fight the God on his turf once again.
Light was no longer the savior of a dying world-that time would forever be in the past, due to the fact that they are beings of Earth now. But they could still fight on a far older bond that resided in each of their memories.
"Bhunivelz-AAAAH!" Hope screams, and somehow his voice shouts through the quiet of space, something that his highly intellectual mind doesn't want to fathom as a possibility.
The god's cat-like eyes swivel to Hope, immediately locking gaze on his escaped prisoner first.
"We will always battle, through time immemorial. Never let anyone else convince you, in any lifetime, otherwise. I'm glad that you remembered me, even through your desensitivity training that those toil-dwelling mortals inflicted upon you."
"Give it up. Though you may be immortal, we will always win. The platform remains unchanged. We have the combined power to topple you, in any incarnation." This comes from Claire, who looks mighty surrounded by darkness atop her gleaming steed Odin.
The god smiles, and something wicked shines through his teeth. "Yes, you have the power to stop me, but I will continue to fight. You also cannot protect everyone. While you are battling me, I have the ability to focus my strength elsewhere to reach those that you love that you have left behind." His gaze turns to all assembled, floating through the dark with their respective Eidolon champions with them.
"Who is this?" A slight flicker of-fear?-washes over the God in a shudder as he beholds the being Ragnarok. "You are new to my sight, but there is something of-familiarity-to you as well. A new Eidolon?" The god shakes his head. "You are missing two of your company. Bahamut and Hecatoncheir are not before me. You are the construct Ragnarok. Anima's last curse-but it will not be enough to save those that are not here."
With a twisted smirk, the God turns to Sazh. "Where is your precious boy? And-" He swivels his head to look at Hope. "Your mother, your father, and yes…even your lover are all ripe for the razing."
With a tremendous roar that reverberates through all present, Ragnarok silences whatever was going to come next. With the long, snakelike tendrils of hair and muscular frame, the beast of wrath is truly a sight to behold.
Eyes red with fury, maw dripping with anticipation, the beast charges. Ragnarok goes from floating in space in one instant, to gaining traction through the void with the next and gallops toward its foe.
There is a clash of light that is too blinding to penetrate. All turn their gaze and shield their eyes, and the sound of glass shattering assaults the eardrums.
The light dims, and Hope raises his forearm to look, blinking, at the two figures before him. Bhunivelze towers over the diminutive Ragnarok, but Ragnarok can get where the god's giant blue arms can't reach. Having quickly run under the giant's guard, the beast begins to claw mercilessly at the God's face and neck, raking claws over the shining blue skin.
The god is making frustrated noises, as if he's trying to swat a bothersome fly. The arms swing wildly this way and that, trying to snuff out the beast that's mauling his skin. The companions remain just out of arm's reach of the ensuing chaos, floating in the blackness of space.
"Come on, we have to get under his guard!" Sazh's anxious voice pipes up from Hope's left. He turns to look at his friend, Sazh's face silhouetted against the light that the god's body emanates. "We have to help Fang and Vanille. With Ragnarok distracting, we can go in from behind and-"
"And what? I'm no longer the savior-our world isn't ending, and my powers are all gone. I don't know how we are going to keep the god in his crystal. And we can't kill him-he's immortal, we learned that last time."
Hope is thinking furiously. "Maybe-maybe we don't keep him in the crystal. Maybe keeping him in his prison isn't the answer." All gazes fix on Hope, sporting differing looks of confusion.
"Hope-what are you talking about." This is Serah speaking, staying close to Snow. "We can't let the God roam free across the realms. It's our job to keep him contained in this corner of the universe."
"I don't know about you, but I'm sick of being paranoid, wondering if what's happening around me is the result of Bhunivelze-" He swallows as he says the god's name aloud, looking past his friends to see his biggest nightmare in front of him. "I say we keep better tabs on the god, closer tabs. We can't monitor him from across the universe. If what he says is true, and we will always be locked in an eternal battle with one another, we also have to be closer."
"You're not making any sense, bro." Snow shakes his head. "I mean, how do we keep this guy closer, if what you're saying is even right? It's not like we can take him back to Earth with us."
The group nods, but Hope thinks even harder, squinting his eyes to watch Ragnarok joyfully biting the God's earlobe, hanging from the tender piece of flesh, dangling like an earring. The god howls, but Ragnarok stays just out of the God's reach.
"I think I have an idea. It's the only way that this is going to work." He thinks for a moment, bowing his head and closing his eyes in order to make peace with what he is about to do. If he is right, and this works, that spells the end for the simple, earthly life that they had all hoped for.
"How do we get Fang and Vanille back?" Hope asks Serah, who has more experience than any of them on how to come back from another form of existence. "We need them to turn back to the l'Cie they were. That's the only way that this is going to work."
Serah shakes her head. "I wasn't around when Cocoon fell-this is the first time I have seen Ragnarok. I don't have any idea how to make them be Fang and Vanille again."
"We have to attack Ragnarok." Snow punches his fist into his palm, and that trademark gesture makes Hope feel calmer. When Snow goes on the attack mode, that means that things are usually going to pan out all right in the end.
"What do you mean-ATTACK RAGNAROK?" That's crazy!" Sazh explodes, waving his arms. "I'm not ready to die? And-and that's our friends in there. I just can't attack them, even if they do look like they could rip my face off right now! No way!"
"Good, Sazh, then it makes delegating a little easier. You attack Bhunivelze, then. Take Serah and Snow with you." He looks at Claire meaningfully. "Claire-I meant, Light-we'll handle Ragnarok together."
"Wait-we're going to be fighting BOTH?" Snow interjects once more. Hope answers his friend, all the while never taking his eyes off of Claire, who has remained silent with arms folded over her chest.
"Yes. We need to split up, to create a diversion. I grouped the three of you together-with your skills, you can create enough of an intense diversion, just enough for us to come at Ragnarok and focus the beast's eye on us. We can accomplish more, easier, when we work toward the same goal."
"And what goal is that, Hope? Care to fill us in on your little plan?" Claire speaks up for the first time in quite a while, and there is a brief pause as all wait for him to respond. Silhouetted against the backdrop of starts, she looks so beautiful, like a goddess herself, floating in the infinite stretch of time and space. The only sounds ensuing in this stretch of quiet are the sounds of the God roaring in the background, matched by the growls of Ragnarok as the two continue their dance.
"Our goal is to get Fang and Vanille back. I think a strategy of fighting the beast, as well as reminding it of who it is inside, will do the trick. Once we all have our brands back, then we'll focus on the next step." He pauses. "One goal at a time, soldier. One foot in front of the other. Can you be Light again? If just for a little while."
Claire sighs, her eyes closing. "Yes, for Vanille and Fang, I can be anything."
"Good." Hope nods. In a way, this is just like giving orders in New York not so long ago. Except this time, he plans to be in the thick of the battle, right in the swing of things. He was always meant to become their leader, their strategizer, to come up with the ideas that no one else wanted to accept.
He wants them to be focused on their immediate goal of turning Ragnarok and distracting Bhunivelze. Having two loose cannons to fight right now is too much; Ragnarok is a wild card, and the unpredictability of having the beast possibly turn on them is something that Hope can't risk. They cannot be focusing their group efforts on taking down a God and fighting the beast of wrath at the same time. Once Fang and Vanille are collectively focused along with them, then they can bring the God down once more. Subduing the God was never a question-they had done that before, after all-but the way that Hope thinks that he can do so this time is pretty dicey.
Was there ever a chance that we could live happily? Or was this all an illusion? Hope dashes the thought away with a shake of his head.
"We don't have our weapons." This is Serah speaking up.
Snow laughs, and throws an arm around his wife's shoulders. "Don't worry about that, babe. I'll protect you, as always." Even when things are looking dark, something about the way that Snow never fails to be predictably glib about intense situations makes facing the harsh reality of their situation a little bit better. Snow clenches a fist. "I've always used my hands."
"But that doesn't mean that everyone here has." Sazh is the first to point out, practical and cunning to a fault. He shrugs. "Honestly, I don't even know how we are managing to have a conversation out in the middle of space."
"We aren't human." Claire interjects. "We don't need our weapons. We should still be able to tap into our magic. And that also means that we don't have the same frailties as humans do. Which is why we're still alive."
"I'm counting on using my magic." Hope never missed his old boomerang as much as he does right at this moment, and curls his fingers around the exact diameter of empty space where he once held his Airwing. He looks up from the sound of a slight grumbling noise behind him, and smiles when he turns and faces Alexander. "We are also all counting on our friends, the Eidolons. With them and our wits, we should be able to defeat our old enemy."
With a nod, the group turns as one. Ragnarok is throwing jabs at the god, delivering blows to Bhunivelze inside the god's reach. Every time the beast lands a blow, the god roars in pain, waving to and fro within his crystal prison.
"Let's split up and kill a god again." Claire levels her eyes on her target, and at that moment, once again becomes the Lightning of old.
