"Defeat is not an option! We can't give in - no matter what!"
A familiar brunette on queue; jumped into the sky before bringing down both his arms in a violent arc, his two swords slashing across the rock skin surface of his foe; a white behemoth. It did little but scratch the terrifying beast, as that very beast counterattacked, swiping the air his perpetuator had originally occupied. The slender man had retreated with a backflip, after another damage-less exchange . He snapped his head back up as he landed, analysing the beast before him.
A blue incredibly quick wave of electrical energy then was expelled from the gloved fingertips of the brunette man's female companion; the energy striking the beast from a higher altitude, but only doing as much as flinching it slightly. She with pink hair, ignored this and continued firing off the spells she had charged and stored.
The behemoth roared in anger, to their dismay, stunning them both, and forcing them to rethink; or maybe think up a strategy.
"We switch into something defensive – now!" yelled out the male.
"To what, Noel?" she yelled back. "Which one of us can actually take a hit from that thing?" 'Anything white must be avoided at all costs' was the general message received by the two as they ran through various descriptions of Pulsian wildlife throughout their journey.
Without further ado, Noel ran in front of the pink haired girl and in the path of the now charging behemoth. "Guess we'll just have to find out. It's been stalking us all this time, Serah." He readied his blades. "Come here you – you white piece of Pulse trash!"
The behemoth changed the rhythm of its gallop slightly, presumably adjusting it's course to the taunting man with brown hair. Noel clenched his swords tightly with anticipation.
Mere inches from colliding with Noel, the beast suddenly stopped dead in it's tracks – using it's thick legs to absorb the momentum. Noel mistimed his guard. "Not good!"
The horns of the behemoth crushed into Noel's parried blades he threw underneath his magic guard, and he was literally heaved into the air in a trail of blood.
"Noel!" screamed out Serah, who had the clearest and worst possible view of the hit.
Immediately, she changed her output of magic into something more necessary. Her hands glowed green as she threw him a bout of curative magic as he was in the air. She acted fast.
If Noel was knocked out, her cure would have done nothing. If that were the case, they would both be doomed, a revive took a lot more concentration and energy to pull off. She would be left vulnerable as the behemoth by then would make a meal of the two.
Noel finally landed on the floor, and wasn't in need of a revive.
To her complete and utter relief, the cure worked and Noel gingerly got up, feeling as though he had been hit by a freight train. If Noel could take an unguarded hit from this monster, they could definitely survive this battle, the pinkette thought.
"…That hurt!" Noel exclaimed. "That hurt so much!"
"Don't be so overconfident, Noel!" she yelled back. "It almost knocked you out! Please be more careful… We could've just continued dodging it." She reasoned.
Noel looked over at her, giving her a grin as his placid blue eyes met with her concerned ones.
"Now where is the fun in that? What's the point in levelling up your HP if you can just dodge every attack that comes your way, or hide up in trees and shoot opponents with Mog? Don't worry about it… I'm used to this anyway. I'm a hunter." He turned back towards the behemoth.
"Now focus, start loading up some spells - don't forget to switch into using Mog as a bow every once in a while and deal some more damage." He said.
"We always have to do stuff the hard way, huh?" Serah affirmed his order with a huff and nod, as she clenched her weapon.
"It's going to take a while, but we can defeat this thing!" He roared.
Noel had tensed up and increased his body's physical sturdiness at the eve of the white behemoth's claw swiping attack. "Youch!"
It hit as he stood in place, only bruising his arm, though he felt a familiar pang of drained HP. It was almost agonising, a very unsettling pain without its edge.
He was encompassed in a cure from his female counterpart, and took a breather as the behemoth did. He glanced over at Serah's form as she now began casting her spells of different attribute.
He wavered from the fight suddenly.
Serah was amazing. No girl of her time would be strong or resilient enough to do or even contemplate doing the kind of things she had accomplished in their journey together. She had already saved his life for the umpteenth time already. He also understood why the task of correcting the timeline had also fallen on her shoulders.
It felt like months, but in all honesty it could've been just a week or two together.
She was strong, but she was also incredibly beautiful. She undoubtedly was the fair and loving goddess of Noel's dreams, and he would often contemplate whether this threat to the universe's existence and a call of arms was truly a bad thing, or a blessing in disguise; for the man who once had nothing.
They were alone on an epic journey together, in the wilderness you might add, he should've been the happiest hunter in the once desolate planet known as Gran Pulse. He had escaped the loneliness of his world and was now traversing worlds, graced with her will and companionship. But there was only one problem on Noel's mind – apart from the whole human extinction dilemma.
"Youch!"
She was soon-to-be married. She was taken, by a man who abandoned Serah to chase after her older sister. Everything was too clearly put in place for it to be just a simple misunderstanding.
Noel had met her sister in Valhalla before arriving in Serah's timeline, but he still couldn't understand why you would abandon your own fiancée for her.
They're both from the same tree anyway, and Serah's personality would make you want to give your very being to her. He just couldn't understand it, why Serah was still so optimistic about finding him.
This filled Noel with a despair that could only possibly be paralleled with the threat of their universe and other parallel universes being erased from time, as time itself is erased.
Noel stopped thinking with that in mind. He didn't have the time or the patience to think about it. He gathered up his experience and focused back onto his ready target as he propped up his blades in defence.
He wanted to ask her how she felt about this, and resolved to once they had reached the ruins.
This was going to be a long fight indeed, he thought. The behemoth charged once again.
It was night and the two adventurers had made a palm leaf shelter, built with mere sticks as they were somewhere in the middle of the Yaschas Massif. They could time travel, alter the future and the past, but they were only humans. They had limits. They needed rest, of course, and sadly it was in the middle of nowhere this time.
The ruins which Noel presumed he'd be meeting Hope Estheim again, were half a day's trek away.
He was rested his back on a flat log, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain hitting the biggest palm leaf hung above his head. Even if he wasn't on guard, he wouldn't be able to sleep. The night felt strange.
Noel looked over to his companion. Serah was not too far away, sleeping on the soft green grass directly under a tree. She made not a sound and had her back facing Noel, an unsteady rhythm in her breathing. She, like Noel had bruises and cuts embedding her skin with slightly damaged clothing.
"Can't sleep?" Noel asked, leaning over slightly to check on Serah's face, with complete utter confidence that she was awake.
"Nope," she admitted.
As Noel backed off, she feverishly propped herself up, rubbing the skin underneath her eyes.
She wanted to speak, but decided not to, so she sat down with her arms draped around her legs with her chin awkwardly lying on top of them. The one time they actually got enough peace for a decent rest was the one time they both couldn't sleep. It hanged heavily on both of their minds.
"It's good... times like this." Noel spoke up. "…Even if we can't sleep."
Serah looked up and Noel glancing back at her, decided to elaborate.
"Think of it as a break from our journey. Listening to the sound of the rain, smelling this incredible dew of the forest…" Noel clenched his teeth, before continuing. "To me, it brings back what is important to us, and that we are only just humans… Just humans in a… very strange world."
Serah chuckled at this. "You got that right." She spoke. "Humans in a jungle surrounded by terrifying monsters out to kill us!"
"You may not be used to this… but sadly I am," he said seriously. "Well in my case there were not as many trees and plants to hide yourself in, if a beast saw you and started running towards you, it was a fight."
"Yeah, if it wasn't for your 'survival instinct' I would've been food or in a coffin in Bresha by now." She jeered on. Noel modestly shook his head.
"…No, you survived through your own means. Despite Mog, you would have to be pretty amazing to accomplish the things this far into your journey…" Noel started delving towards his earlier point made. "So – I have to ask you, what are you fighting for?" he asked pointedly.
"Isn't it obvious? To find my sister." Serah then and there suddenly realised another goal of hers; lying dormant in her mind. Finding Snow.
Why didn't I think of him before?
She then remembered why. She was upset at him, and refused to think about him or 'miss' him after the idiotic stunt he pulled at her makeshift home in New Bodhum.
I use to run away and try to escape from the world around me when I was a kid, I would get yelled at the following night by my caretaker though." A soft, sad chuckle.
Serah understood what he meant. It is has been plaguing her mind for the past day or two, actually the factor in why she couldn't sleep.
"We are only human, Noel." She stated. "I-I've been thinking about this." This earned a surprised glance from the brunette.
"But... we have to do this, it means a lot more than us." she spoke unsure of her words, but gradually they grew coherent. "Our lives, should be used to create a better and happier timeline... for the sake of millions of other people..."
"Have you ever thought about quitting?" Noel asked pointedly.
A quick incredible silence.
"Yes" Serah spoke less hesitant than Noel expected her to answer. "This - I just want to go back home so badly, but I - this..."
A tear escaped her left eye, but she didn't feel sad. She felt overwhelmed. Confused, she didn't even know how to continue her sentence. Her strength suddenly was drained and a leaping anxiety tried to rip right out of her chest.
"I want to go back too." Noel interrupted, pointedly but optimistically. He let that sink in.
"But not how everything is now... that's why I'm fighting. You, on the other hand, you have a home. I have nothing… nothing to get back to apart from just destruction."
He looked back at Serah and then walked towards his log. The rain got quieter and the grey sky darkened slightly.
"The time we have now, together like this… is precious to me and is what keeps me going." He says this before laying down, face turned away.
Serah wiped the tear away with the back of her glove. Noel had a brutally honest trait, she could tell that much from the mysterious man after only a week together. This somehow put her at ease, though she still couldn't fully trust him...
He has it way worse off than me…
Fifteen or so minutes later, Noel looked on at the quiet sitting form of Serah, remorse flickering in his eyes.
"What are you fighting for Serah?" he asked.
Serah took time to collect the thoughts she had been juggling for a while. Noel looked really keen into getting a reply as he leaned from his log, eyes fixed on Serah.
"I want to find Claire… Lightning, that's all" she finally answered. Nothing else was added. Nothing about changing the timeline or about fulfilling her promise. Nothing about reacquainting herself with her "fiancé".
"Good answer." He chuckled and grinned. His heart felt like leaping out his chest, something which he had never felt before.
"You know Serah, you truly are amazing." Noel blurted out. "Here I was worrying I had broken your confidence or something…" Noel instantly regretted
"You think I'm a girl that's easy to break?" Serah pondered lightly. "Wow Noel, you're hard-headedness knows no bounds!"
"Hard heads are harder to break" Noel tried joking suddenly.
Though to his credit, this remark had made Serah blurt out laughing. Uncontrollably so, and it lasted for at least a minute.
"Now come on Serah, I know and you know it wasn't that funny, so stop mocking me." Noel said seriously, in the midst of all this.
She laughed harder. Was Noel really this dense? She thought.
Noel now glanced away chuckling, unsure himself why she had been laughing so hysterically. It wasn't that funny… or was it? He just didn't know.