Message: Hello everyone!.
This is a warning before the start of the reading. English is not my native language, I am Italian, history has been translated with the help of a dear friend. Forgive and report any errors, thank you!
This is the first time I write on a website in English, I'm nervous.
My idea is a bit different than usual, it takes place after LR and before the novel Tracer of Memories, but it will connect everything at the end.
I really hope this story has intrigued you and that you will be pleased to follow it. Please, if you notice any errors reported to me as well, any comments will be appreciated.
I know it's just a prologue and maybe uninteresting but please if you liked it (but even if it isn't) just let me know.
See you soon!
SelhinFlowergirl
Disclaimer : Final Fantasy XIII does not belong to me
Rebirth
Lost
* Prologue *
[ It's a new world. A world of hope.
And it's waiting for you… to be born again. ]
The first time she realized she hadn't just dreamed of another world; another life. Was when, at age five, her sister asked her a whisper in the wind.
" Sis, where's Cocoon? "
She turned around surprised staring into the same deep blue eyes like her own, only a little brighter with darker undertones, and just smiled at her. A sparkle of light in her knowing gaze. She extended her arms and held her tightly as she has never done before. Before that new life. Crystal clear tears slipped through her dark eyelashes as the awareness invaded both of their minds. They could hear their hearts beat through their embrace so full of unspoken words.
For they didn't say anything else, they didn't need to. They were finally together, and that was all they needed. They had won they had done it.
They just knew.
After that moment, the images of that world began to accumulate in their minds faster and faster, with more and more force. As if, in a way, the question had opened down the wall of memories letting their flow run fearless and without being able to be stopped in any way.
They saw a vast wilderness plain surmounted by a floating globe, pure crystal dust fluttering all around. A quiet white beach, the sound of the sea waves mingling with their childish laughter, flashing lights of cold neon, and the sound of gunfire echoed in the air. There had been suffering, so much, too much.
Fear, struggle, death.
But something else drove them to dig deeper, dream after dream, memory after memory, because there was more, there had to be more. A sympathetic pat on the shoulder, a triumphant fist in the air, the smell of a roasted dinner in an improvised campfire. A cheerful voice, an arrogant but loyal grin, bright green eyes full of trust. A family not bound by blood but by a more profound sentiment. Claire smiled holding her sister and sinking her face into her hair as the words spoken by herself from another dimension surfaced in her head.
It was that they had fought for.
It was because of what they had done to make the impossible possible.
They stopped asking their parents questions the day they turned seven. Claire woke up early that morning, silent tears were flowing from her blue eyes but she couldn't explain the reason until Serah joined her in her bed sobbing desperately. As she caressed her sister's curls trying to calm her down, she was suddenly aware of the reason for that heartbreaking and unexpected sadness that weighed on her chest choking her breath.
Without being able to stop herself, she stood up, and taking Serah's hand, they ran straight into their parent's arms who were still blissfully asleep on that lazy summer day.
Claire wrapped her arms tightly around her father's neck and the man became concerned when he noticed his daughter's tears. Serah was also crying in his wife's embrace, who stared at him with the same confusion reflected in her eyes. They dismissed the episode with a polite smile and a shrug of the shoulders, decreeing that they probably had a nightmare, something that happened quite often actually.
The two little girls crawled under the covers in the middle of the bed, holding each other, savoring the warmth of their parent's love while listening to their mother's voice sweetly singing a soothing lullaby. They fell asleep again in a matter of minutes, lulled by the gentle, soft voice they knew that had heard in that other life, so many centuries ago, grateful they were not alone. Nothing would happen to their parents this time, they would be happy and safe, they just knew it. They deserve it.
" We can't talk about it anymore, not with them. Do you understand Serah? " Claire told her that afternoon as they played on the porch, a complicit whisper barely audible in the air, her father drinking a cup of coffee in the kitchen while her mother tended the garden humming softly. Her sister nodded firmly, understanding. She knew that if they kept bringing up the subject they would only make them worry. It wasn't their fault that they could not remember as they did after all.
That would remain a secret, at least for the time being.
The years passed and their memories grew more vivid, more real, more intense each day. A curse and a frantic journey to avert it, hundreds of paths lost in time to change the future, a tormented God bathed in light. But most of all they had that constant, lingering feeling of absence.
Those people who in their dreams laughed, cried, screaming and fought by their side where were they now? Who were they? Were they looking for them?
They couldn't remember any names, their faces remained blurred as soon as they tried to define them better. But they knew they were there somewhere in the world. They had to be because, at the end of it all, they had been by their side and smiling.
There was a promise that echoed in Claire's mind, so persistent and obstinate it almost hurt. It was always there no matter what she did. It was there in her father's adoring gaze as he taught her to play the guitar, it was in her sister's sweet smile. Reflected in her mother's as they played in the backyard. In the laughter of strangers who passed her on the street.
It was always there in the light of the thin line that separated dream from reality.
It was a gentle voice reminding her that it would be okay, that they would find each other again sooner or later.
" We'll be together. "
And she shouldn't help but believe it.