Taken Away

"Just point and shoot and you'll be fine," I said to myself before firing the Manufacted Nethicite bullet. I remember the blast of Mist that hit us all but it felt different to me, like something had shifted.

I had no idea where I was. The place rippled in places, showed flashes of locations but it didn't feel like I was anywhere specific. It was like when I was thrown into the Rift by the Superiors. I supposed I should have wandered until I found another portal to get through, end up saving whatever world I ended up on.

"Hey! Is anybody there?" Wait, I knew that voice. "Irv where the fuck are you mate?"

"Lysander?" I shouted. Nothing. Maybe he didn't hear me? "Lysander? Lysander!" Nothing again.

"Grace?" He heard me! "Grace is that you?"

"Where are you?"

"In the middle of fucking nowhere, where are you?"

"Same! What happened?"

"Time Compression happened," What the fuck is Time Compression? "It's starting to split apart again. Where are you?"

"I don't know!" I don't know why we were shouting. If we talked normally we probably could have heard one another fine.

"Wait! Think of the Farplane! Just do it!" The Farplane? I could think of that. I thought of Pyreflies and flowers. I was surprised when the area started to appear before me. The Farplane. I wasn't sure if I was back on Spira or if this was just an illusion. It felt so real though, like when we came back again. "Grace?"

I turned around and saw a man. A man with dark skin and familiar sharp blue eyes. His face was covered in piercings on his right eyebrow, his right nostril, lower left lip, multiple earrings. His clothes were more modern than the clothes I wore. He had two guns and a crowbar. He looked so different from when we last saw one another.

"Lysander!" I called and ran to him, grabbing him in a tight hug. He seemed just as relieved to see me and hugged back. Big softie. "What happened? I thought you were gone."

"Same here, mate," He said, brow furrowed together. "Fuck where have you been? I almost didn't recognise you."

"Same, when did you get a face full of metal?" I asked. "Where did you end up? You need to tell me everything."

"Grace not now," He said seriously. "Time Compression isn't going to let us stay here much longer. We need to go back." Go back? To where we came from?

"So we have to go back to where we were?"

"You didn't like it?" He asked.

"No I did," I answered. "But, travelling again, I did a lot of thinking. Then I see you now and after everything that's happened do you really expect me to think this will be a five minute reunion?" He was unreadable. He seemed to have changed from the boy I knew before. "After everything we've been through. I'm not letting you disappear. If I met with Christie I would do the same. We stick together, like we did back then."

"What about your mates?" I remembered Lucifer telling me about the Rifts. About how they were thinning and would soon fall apart and cause the worlds to collide. I would see them all again, I knew I would.

"They'll be fine without me," I said. "I don't want to leave them behind but this is important to me. I'm going with you." It was impulsive and probably could lead to more problems than it was worth. I knew everyone I travelled with though. Fran and Balthier were Sky Pirates, they would fly wherever they pleased. Ashe would become Queen and Basch would probably end up protecting her as he always did. Vaan and Penelo would run off and be pirates themselves while Janos would probably go back to Rozarria and Reina would go back to being a Hunter. Lucifer, I didn't know what the fuck he'd end up doing. It wasn't like Spira when I went back to Earth before coming back and going to Ivalice. Somehow I knew I'd never be able to go back home like that stroke of luck in Spira. I wasn't prepared to be alone.


I don't know how it happened but Lysander took me back with him. He took me to the world he ended up in, a world called Gaia. We were in a place called Balamb Garden, in the Infirmary. A blonde man was unconscious and Lysander said he would watch him for a few hours, taking me there to get checked up by the doctor. Everything seemed fine apart from me feeling a bit dizzy from the whole Time Compression business.

I wanted to talk to him about what happened back in Spira. He seemed to shrug off the subject and tell me that it was fine, that he had moved on and realised it was a stupid thing for him to be upset by it, especially when he was a hormonal fifteen year old. He had certainly grown up and matured a lot since I had last seen him. It made me smile.

"So, who's this?" I asked as I drank my coffee. We both sat with the unconscious blonde.

"His name's Dante," Lysander said. "He's a mate. He's a bit fucked up in the head but he's a good guy," I nodded and drank more coffee. "You going to be okay? You've been moved about a lot, you going to get used to here?"

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself," I smiled. "Hey you mind if I take a look around the place? Nothing big I'll just take a walk around."

"Go ahead, just come back here if you get lost," He smirked. He was an asshole. I got up and left him in the Infirmary with Dante and took a look around the place. Lysander said it was a school, a military one. We still both had to give each other the finer details of our travels but we'd get there in the end.

Then I saw a very familiar blonde haired and green eyed man. He was contently wandering around the place they called the Quad, humming to himself and wandering in his own little world.

"Lucifer!" I shouted, grabbing his attention. I gave him a big hug but he seemed a little shocked. I furrowed my brow together. "Lucifer? What's gotten into you?"

"Oh am I meant to know you?" He asked. I stood confused at his question. "Oh we're on the same page of being utterly confused now?" Lysander said something, that Oblivion mentioned a time paradox, that while he was here, we were all travelling in Spira as we did two years ago. He said that when he asked where I was I was in Spira with him. So it made me think that the events of Ivalice hadn't happened yet. They would happen in two years time when we would return to Spira and be banished into the Rift. This Lucifer, this past Lucifer, has no idea who I was. It made me smile.

"Grace Buffay," I introduced, making him nod.

"Ah yes, Lysander's spoke about you quite a bit," He smiled. "Although I have the feeling that you know me better than I know you. Dare I ask how and why?"

"In two years you'll see me lost in the crowds of Rabanastre," I told him. "You'll take me to Rook's Tailor's, give me these clothes, and ask me to make something with Machina," I showed him the last Machina shell I had as an example. "Just to know that I'm the right one." He grinned at me when I stopped.

"Anything else I should know?"

"That you're a weird bastard," I told him. He kept grinning. "I should tell you that The Horseman of Famine will be there as well. Just a head's up."

"Interesting," He nodded, then spotted someone behind me. "Another time. A lovely pleasure to meet you Grace." He hobbled away like he always did. It felt weird, speaking to him when he didn't know me at all but I knew him well. It was going to be weird, having to get used to another world, and I would miss everyone from Ivalice. Still I knew, I just knew, that I would see them again.