Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone for keeping up with the story and adding this to your favorites and alerts! I hope that you will like the next chapter of the story!

Chapter 36: The Final Fall:

Lightning went to where Orphan resided. There was an angry, but determined look on her face. "I see. The warrior herself has returned."

Lightning took out her gunblade and pointed it forward. "Save it! This whole time you've been using me and now I want to know for what!"

"To save Cocoon of course. I see that you are upset. The darkness that the Primarch has placed over you has worn off. It was supposed to help you distinguish what was evil from what wasn't."

"Evil? You're the one who's corrupted. Innocent blood was shed because of what you made me see. Just tell me what you're really up to."

"Very well. Cleanse this world of its humans was Cocoon's only means of being saved. Cocoon could be started anew again. Your parents knew of me and refused to take on this task. Instead, they kept me locked here away from humanity. That is until the Primarch came. He could see the future I was envisioning and decided to help me with it. With this, I leave one more task to you. Free Cocoon from its long suffering."

Lightning placed her gunblade out to the side and ran forward. "I'll free Cocoon all right."

Hearing that made Orphan happy. "Finally! I knew I picked right! Unfortunately, you can't defeat me with the power you have now. Let me help you with that."

Suddenly, the mark she had as a L'Cie began to glow red. Her body began to lift off of the ground. Her eyes widened in surprised. "What's happening?"

"You will be the one to destroy me!" The red mark grew brighter making pain surge throughout her body. Lightning closed her eyes tight as she pressed her teeth together. She tried to keep her cries to herself, but it became hard to keep them inside. Oprhan could feel her resistant. Through the struggle, Lightning began to lose consciousness. "You will turn for me. After all, you were the one who wanted to destroy me."

"Light!" Orphan looked over and seen an object flying fast toward it. It released the hold it had over Lightning and let her fall down on the ground. The mysterious figure caught what he threw and rushed over. "Light!"

"I see. Another L'Cie. Will you take her place and destroy me?"

The person kneeled down and held Lightning up as she had her eyes closed. "No. I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to let Cocoon be destroyed and I won't let you do that."

Lightning began to wake up. It took some time, but through it she thought she heard a familiar voice. She turned her head and slowly began to open her eyes. She lifted her head a little. She thought that her sight was fooling her. "Am I dead?"

The figure looked down at her and smiled. "Hopefully not."

Confused, Lightning lifted her hand and touched the cheek of the one who held her. "Then how are you here?"

"Honestly…I don't know." There wasn't an answer that could be given.

Lightning searched his eyes. "I don't understand. I killed you. I saw it myself. Hope-."

Hope looked toward the side. "I know. I felt it when your sword went through me." Clearly he could still remember the pain. He placed his hand on his side where the rip in his jacket was. "When I woke up, my wound was healed. You were the one who done that. For the longest time, things were just dark. I couldn't wake up at least not for a while. Then I found out you were gone. I couldn't let you face Orphan."

"You weren't breathing. I checked myself."

Hope gave a faint smile. "When was the last time you checked?"

When Lightning checked before, she wasn't sure. After giving up on trying to revive him, she didn't notice much after that. "Well the important thing is that you're alive. Next time wake up earlier before I make a call to parents saying that I killed you."

Hope nodded. "I'm just glad that I got to you in time. The Fal'Cie was just using you the whole time. The Primarch only made you think that you killed him when really he just fused with Orphan. They wanted you to destroy Cocoon."

"I know." Lightning sat up and tried to move her legs, but they wouldn't budge. "What?"

Hope looked surprised. "What's wrong?"

"My legs. They won't move."

"Then let me help." Hope was about to pick her up, but Orphan began to speak. "I believe that this is enough time for a reunion don't you think?"

Lightning looked upset. Hope did as well. "I'm not letting you use her again."

"But the beauty is I can use both of you. As long as you have those marks, then I have control over both of you. Now you two will do what I say or else I can turn you into your cursed fates."

Lightning looked at Hope serious. "You should go. Let me handle it."

Hope looked surprised and concerned. "What? No! Not after what I seen what it did to you."

"You don't have much time left. Both of you could be my eternal servants. Cleanse the world as I say. What if I offer you the alternative: eternal life?" Lightning and Hope were surprised by its offer. "All you have to do is what I ask and together you can live in a new world, never to be separated again by death. It's your choice right now. To be destroyed or live forever."

Both of them began to think about it. Neither wanted the other to turn into some kind of monster, but to live as eternal slaves to the Fal'Cie, was it any better? Hope then turned his eyes over to look at Lightning. At least if he had to be with someone for eternity, it would be her. If they were turned now, they couldn't figure out some way to stop the Fal'Cie. "I don't want us to be turned into monsters."

Lightning read his eyes. Maybe he was thinking the same thing that she was. Maybe the world could be okay without them for a while. She had already given up control to the Academy and they thought that Hope was gone. If they had no choice but either those two options, then she knew what she would pick as well. She wouldn't let this world be gone even if she was away from it for a while. Next time, they would find a way to be together in another lifetime. Lightning leaned her head against his arm. "The choice is either to be destroyed as monsters or live to do what the Fal'Cie does. Hard one. Still I don't want to become a monster either. We'll find another way." Afterwards she lifted her eyes to his. He nodded.

"So? You have decided to help me?"

The two remained silence as they kept their eyes on each other. "Don't turn us. We'll live," Hope answered.

"I see. Cocoon will become anew with you two as my new servants. Now as promised. When the time is right, you will be released again to start my new world."

Hope looked over at Lightning giving a gentle smile. "I'll see you again…someday."

Lightning closed her eyes. "I'll be waiting."

Hope closed his eyes well. Their brands began to glow white.

"Wait!" Instantly, Lightning and Hope opened their eyes once they heard the familiar voice. When they looked over, they saw several elemental attacks hit Orphan. They looked over to see Serah along with Fang, Vanille, Snow, Sazh, Noel, and Yeul. Serah stepped over to where Lightning was. "Are you okay?"

Lightning nodded. "Yeah. Serah. Where did you-?"

Serah smiled. "Noel and Yeul led us here. They thought that you might need some help."

Orphan became angry. "You have betrayed us Seeress!"

Fang stepped over as well. "Well don't give up already. As long as that thing is still here, it's going to control us all."

Lightning held her hand over her legs, hoping that healing them will help her walk again. Afterwards she managed to stand up. Hope stood nearby just in case. "You okay?"

Lightning nodded. "Yes."

Snow punched his fist into his hand. "All right! Let's take this thing down!"

Lightning was surprised. "And how do you plan to help us?"

Snow held up his arm, showing off his mark. "We're all in this together so either we stand together or we fall together."

Serah looked over at Noel. "And just in case we're in trouble, Noel will be there to help us if the Fal'Cie tried anything."

Hope looked over toward Serah. "What about the plan?"

Serah nodded. "It's okay."

Afterwards, everyone turned their attention back to Orphan. It grew angry. "You think that all of you can defeat me?"

Snow stepped up beside Serah. "Looks like you're outnumbered so I think that we have a pretty good chance."

Soon, they all attacked together with magic and physical strength. The power that they shared together had overwhelmed Orphan and ended up destroying it. Afterwards everyone smiled and cheered. While the others had someone to celebrate with, Hope turned to Lightning and smiled. "Are you still doing okay?"

"Yeah. You don't have to worry so much about me so don't start asking."

Hope grinned letting it go. "Fine."

Suddenly, they all felt the room start to shake. Vanille looked down worried. "Uh-oh!"

"We need to go now. Things will not hold up for much longer," Yeul warned.

Everyone took off running and headed outside. There they could still see ships up in the sky. Hope looked up. "I just hoped that everything worked out in time. Let's go!"

Everyone kept running, but they could feel the ground crumbling from under their feet. Vanille's foot slipped through one of the holes in the ground which made her fall. Fang went back and helped her up. "At this rate, we're not going to make it!" Vanille replied worried.

Hope looked back at the others. "We have to try and make it to one of those ships." They followed after him. He spoke through his communicator, commanding one of them to come down. They managed to make it to the closest edge of Eden where a ship was waiting below them. Hope called for it to come closer. Soon everyone felt the ground breaking underneath them even more which caused them to fall down or stumble a little. Hope looked over toward the others. "We don't have a choice! We have to jump for it or else we'll end up falling without anything to catch us!"

Vanille looked worried. "That a big jump! How can we make it that far?" Hope looked toward the top of the ship. It was still coming closer, but it was still a little ways to jump. Hope looked back toward Vanille. "You'll just have to trust me." His legs rocked back and forward before he jumped. He landed feet first before he fell and rolled over on top of the ship. He managed to stop himself from reaching close to the edge. It was scary to do, but he was all right from doing so.

When he lifted his head, he saw Lightning jumped down after him. She landed feet first before she rolled once and got herself steady on one hand and knee. She looked back toward Hope. "And that's how you really do it."

Hope smirked. "Show off."

Serah jumped forward worried, but Lightning made sure that she didn't fall off the ship. Soon Snow followed and got on with the help of Hope. Noel held onto Yeul's hand as he jumped down with her. Wondering what he got himself into, Sazh jumped and with the help of the others got on safely. "Getting too old for this."

Fang looked back toward Vanille. "Don't get scared now. See you at the bottom." Afterwards, Fang jumped.

Vanille stepped forward as she held her hands together. "Fang! Don't leave me!" If the others made it, then she guessed she could too. Just had to do it without being too scared. Vanille jumped and with the help of the others landed onto the top of the ship. Afterwards the ship took off at Hope's command. When they got enough distance, they looked back to see that Cocoon was falling from the sky.

Vanille became surprised and worried. "What? Cocoon is falling you guys!"

Lightning looked back surprised. Was this the result of defeating Orphan? When he wanted Cocoon to be cleansed, did he mean like this?

Hope looked back as well, but then noticed Lightning stand up and walk forward. "Light? What are you doing?"

Lightning looked back at him. "We have to find some way to stop Cocoon from falling." She looked toward the fallen planet. "There has to be a way." Lightning was about to jump off, but Hope quickly grabbed her hand stopping her. Lightning was surprised that he stopped her. "Hope? What are you doing?"

Hope had a serious look on his face. "You're not going!"

"Listen! I'm the cause of why this is happening. We can't let it just fall."

Fang and Vanille stood up. "Lightning's right. We need to find a way to help." They looked at each other coming to a decision. They knew a way they could save Cocoon. "You ready?"

Vanille nodded. "Yeah."

Fang looked over toward the others. "We'll handle this." They were about to walk away, but suddenly they felt their hands being grabbed. When they looked back, they saw Hope holding onto them. "You too. Both of you sit down. Let Cocoon fall."

Vanille, Fang, and Lightning couldn't believe that Hope told them that. "Hope? How can you say that? We can't-."

Before Lightning could finish, Hope interfered. "Let me explain. Days ahead of time, Yeul told me what would happen so the Academy and I have been working nonstop to get people safely off of Cocoon. With the estimated impact of what the planet would cause on Pulse and the predicted area of where it would fall, we ensured that everyone was evacuated at a safe distance. It wasn't easy, but we got the news to everyone on Cocoon."

Lightning stared at him surprised. "So this whole time you knew what would happen?"

Hope nodded. "I knew there was no other choice than to let this happen and I tried to avoid it, but I couldn't take any chances."

"And the whole time you knew what I would do?" Lightning asked.

Hope gave a slight shrug. "More or less. I'm just glad you've given us enough time before this all went down."

"How did you even slipped this pass me?"

"I had some help. I couldn't let the Fal'Cie know what we were up. With their focus on you, if you would have found out, then they might have and they might have tried to stop us somehow." Hope lifted his eyes toward the falling planet. "As much as I don't want to let Cocoon fall, no longer will the Fal'Cie be truly in charge and everyone can live in peace on one planet. Things can easily be rebuilt. It's going to be a long transition, but it's one we'll have to get through together."

Fang and Vanille sat down along with the others. Everyone sat on the ship staring up at the sky. From there, they could watch where Cocoon fell. Hope hoped for the sake of everyone that his plan worked.

The sun rose early in the morning over Academia. The last few days had been hectic with people transitioning from Cocoon to Pulse. It was hard to sleep putting people in temporary places to stay, but today would start a new beginning for Pulse. On the edge of the bed in his room, Hope finished buttoning up his jacket after taking a shower and getting dressed. Last night, he managed to get some sleep after the very little sleep he got with helping coordinating people to move. Now things would get busier for the leader since he would be traveling around helping to get the new settlements ready.

He glanced back to the other side of the bed. The view he saw before him made him smile instantly. Beside him, Lightning was still sleeping with the sheets covering over her body. Her head was lying next to her arm. He was glad to see that she was sleeping somewhat peacefully. He knew that she didn't want to admit it, but he could tell that she was still somewhat blaming herself for what happened with Cocoon. Beside the work she had been putting in to help people move, he knew that her guilt was making her sleep less. Hope stood up from the bed and grabbed the bag he packed in secret so that Lightning wouldn't know. For now, he wanted her to take some time for herself to deal with what she had been through. Quietly he left from the room. When he looked back, she was still sleeping. He would make up for not saying goodbye to her later.

Outside of the Academy building, Hope headed toward the ship, but not before he heard someone calling for him. "Hope!" Hope stopped and looked back. He saw Serah, Fang, Vanille, Snow, Noel, Yeul, and Sazh carrying a child on his shoulder coming toward him.

Hope smiled, not expecting a goodbye like this. "Hey!"

Serah let out a smile. "Leaving without saying telling us huh?" Lightly Hope scratched his head as he looked nervous.

"Where are you headed?" Snow asked.

Hope lifted his eyes toward the sky. "I'm traveling around Pulse helping people to get settled in. It's going to take a lot of time, but I'm personally overseeing that everything goes right."

Fang placed her hands on her sides. "Still you have some nerve leaving without telling us especially this early in the morning."

Vanille grinned. "Fang doesn't like to get up before noon. If she does, she gets a little cranky."

Fang's eyes traveled over to Vanille upset. "Who are you calling cranky?"

Hope looked curious. "What are you guys doing up this early?"

Vanille held her hands together as she smiled. "We wanted to thank you for all you've done before you left."

Fang turned, showing her arm and pointed toward it. "Thanks to you, we got rid of those L'Cie marks. No longer are we under anybody's control."

Hope looked down at his arm. His brand too was gone. Vanille looked over to Sazh. "Your turn!"

Sazh smiled and walked forward. He held out his hand. "And thanks to you, you helped me find Dajh again."

Hope smiled and shook his hand. "No problem. I was just glad I could help."

Serah looked over at Hope. "We didn't get a chance to, but we wanted to thank you for everything you've done for us."

"We just wanted to do it before we forget," Fang added.

Noel and Yeul stepped forward. Hope smiled. "You guys don't have to worry. Everyone is free to stay at the Academy as long as they need to." Noel and Yeul looked at each other and smiled. Hope looked over at Yeul. "I think that if you hadn't told us what was happening then we all wouldn't have been here safe today."

Yeul looked down. "But I was the one who got all of you into this."

"Even if it started that way, the important thing is that you helped to make things work out for the better," Hope told her.

Snow wrapped his arm around Serah's shoulder. "I should thank you too for looking out for Serah and sis."

Serah reacted surprise as she just remembered. "Wait a minute! Where's Lightning?"

Nervously Hope smiled. "I haven't exactly told her I was going, but if she asks, could you tell her in a way that she wouldn't be mad? I just wanted her to relax for a while after everything she's been through."

Serah shook her head. "I don't know... That's going to be kind of hard. How long will you be gone?"

"About a few month or so," Hope answered.

Snow smiled. "Well you're definitely not keeping that from Light."

"You're right about that," they heard a voice at the back of the crowd.

When everyone looked over, they saw Lightning standing in the military uniform that was given to her when she took control of the Academy while Hope was in his dream state and a bag over her shoulder. They stepped aside so that she could step over to where Hope was. When Hope looked at her, she didn't look happy. "Good morning…?" Hope said to try and ease things over with her.

Unfortunately that didn't work. Lightning placed her hand on her hip. "Trying to leave without me I see."

"You were sleeping so I didn't want to wake you."

Lightning frowned. "Right… It's not like you didn't already have this planned ahead of time. I already knew what you were up to. When you didn't tell me, I figured you didn't want me to know. Instead of dragging the truth out of you, I did out of one of your subordinates. I just wanted to see if you really weren't going to tell me."

"I thought that it might be better if you sit this one out and take some time to relax."

Lightning crossed her arms. "Leaving for a few months and you weren't going to at least tell me that?"

Hope's eyes traveled to the side. "Well…"

The others smirked and smiled. They knew that he was in for it now or at least later. Lightning noticed their expressions, but then turned her attention back to Hope. "Regardless I'm still going with you."

"Are you sure? I mean-."

"Hope. I'm not some basket case that you need to leave behind just because you think you need to. Besides, you leaving me in charge of the Academy, I'm not doing that. The place would blow up in a week." Hope grinned silently as he closed his eyes. "I go where I'm needed and since I'm military and they won't be here, I'm going with you."

Hope shrugged. "Not like I can stop you anyway."

Lightning looked over and saw Serah step over to her. Serah hugged her. "Be careful. I'll see you in a few months." Lightning parted from her and nodded. She took a few seconds to look at Serah before she moved her hand away from her. Hope and Lightning said goodbye to the others before they headed back to the Academy.

Once they were out of short distance, Hope leaned over looking at her. "How did you get ready to go so fast?"

"It wasn't easy especially after not getting that much sleep for these past few days or how tired I was after last night. I found the bag you packed that you tried to hide from me. I did some packing while you weren't around. After you went asleep, I packed the rest of my stuff and took a shower since I wouldn't have time to take one before you left." Lightning turned toward him and stood in front of him. "Was putting me to sleep last night apart of your plan as well? So I wouldn't get up this morning?"

Hope looked curious. "What do you mean?"

Lightning crossed her arms. "The two of us didn't exactly go to sleep right away yesterday."

He smiled. "I just thought that it would be nice for us to be together last night after being separated for a while."

"I see. Anyway we better get going." She turned and started walking. "Next time don't try to hide something like that from me again."

Hope turned and followed behind her. "Sorry. I guess nothing gets passed you."

That's it for this chapter! Next time will be the final chapter of this story and don't worry it will be a happy ending! As always, let me know what you think and I'll be back to update the last chapter!