Snow thought that Serah was safe. But even Serah wasn't invincible.
All of them but the sisters, Mog, and a couple of reds gathered on a balcony overlooking Valhalla's shores.
"We've been flyin' on a wing and prayer for a while now," Sazh said. "I guess we should have seen this coming."
"Speak for yourself," Cater said. "Our plans have always worked in the past."
Trey looked away, uncharacteristically silent, and Deuce paced the beach barely within view.
"Perhaps we could use time," Queen said. "It's disordered throughout the worlds, maybe one of them has written evidence of this that we could use… no. That would cause a paradox."
"Phantoma?" King asked. "Why couldn't we just take his phantoma?"
"I don't think it works that way," Seven said.
"It might."
"Mwynn's power is different. If we use it to take Bhunivelze's…"
They kept talking. Yeul, Fang, Vanille, Seven… they talked and talked about things like the Void and Crystals and paradoxes and dead people and plans.
Amongst the chatter, Dajh scooted closer to Sazh. "We're safe here, right? We can't hurt anyone if we're here."
King muttered to no one, "We also can't stop any hurting."
"We'll find a way to track him and trap him." Vanille stood, fists clenched. "We have to!"
"We've got who knows how many broken souls out there," Snow said, "But we're not killing a single one of Bhunivelze's victims. Is that clear?"
"For now," Queen said.
Sazh gave her a cold look. "Forever."
"We won't hurt anyone we don't have to," Eight said.
"We keep fighting," Snow said. "We'll save Hope and every other poor bastard like him, and we'll kill Bhunivelze."
"And how do you plan on doing that, big guy?" Fang asked. "You got a way to force a god from the kid's head?"
Vanille perked up. "Hope might do it himself."
Queen shook her head. "If he hasn't done it by now, odds are he won't. We can't even say if his soul's still in that body."
Cinque frowned and said, "Why can't we at least kill the other pawns and prove Bhunivelze wrong?"
"Because that's called sinking to his level," Sazh said, "and we don't do that."
"Hey!" Jack yelled from the water. Snow's heart leapt to his throat. Jack was the first one returned from Gaia III. "Why are you guys so far away?"
Jack hurried to join them and the group fell into hushed chatter while he made his way through the palace. When he arrived and saw Trey, he asked, "You okay?"
Trey took a while to respond. "I'm alive."
"What about Serah?" Jack asked. "She went long before me."
"Still waiting on the body," Fang said.
Sice looked between them. "Keep talking, Jack. Didn't you at least catch that Kefka guy?"
"Hard to catch spirits," Eight said.
"Kefka?" Fang asked. "Did you just—?"
Sice said, "Add it to the damn list."
"Screw the list!" Fang leaped from the balcony.
"Wait, Fang!" Vanille ran to the edge. "Where are you going?"
"I'll be back soon!"
Deuce didn't seem to notice Fang running past.
"What about Ace?" Cater asked. "He's still not coming back?"
Jack shook his head. "He doesn't want to leave those guys alone."
The water burst again and Mog flew straight up to them. Lightning and Serah emerged moments later.
Lightning trudged out of the water like she carried a weight heavier than herself. Serah followed, head down.
"Kupo…" Mog floated wearily into their room and dropped to the ground. "Such a mess, kupo."
Snow leaped from the balcony and scrambled off buildings to get to Serah. His light and his everything and he snatched her in a hug. He said, "Talk to me, babe. What do you need? Maybe if I had more shards, I… I'll go and fight. I'll find more shards and I'll punch Bhunivelze so hard he'll bleed." He let go of Serah and faced the group. "We stay focused and we fight! That's what'll carry us through! We can do this!"
"He was there." Snow drew up short at Serah's broken voice. "Hope was there. I saw him."
"It wasn't Hope," Lightning said. "It was Bhunivelze. In Hope's body."
Serah sobbed, "But he's still in there, isn't he? How could—? Why didn't he stop it?"
Lightning said, "One way or another, he's lost."
"We haven't lost." Snow clenched his fists.
"Maybe not. Maybe we can't lose. Maybe we can't win."
"You can't believe that! You can't say that, not when we have so many people relying on us!"
"It's not about the people," Serah said. Her voice cracked.
Snow took Serah in his arms again. She felt so small against him, he wondered how she ever survived making it back here. He wondered where the woman went that stood with him against the world.
Lightning turned to leave. "Gaia II drove itself to hell without divine intervention. We can't stop people from getting hurt."
Serah grabbed Lightning's wrist.
"We can't stop everything now," Snow said. "But we'll destroy Bhunivelze and kill his disease. Serah… you wait here. I'll make it better."
Serah ripped free of him. "You'll leave? Again? You want me to sit and wait for you? Again?"
"We have to fix this!"
Serah dropped Lightning's hand and backed toward the water. "Didn't you ever stop to think about me? Snow, you left to find Lightning without giving me to the chance to follow! You left because you didn't want me sad anymore, not because you thought about me!"
Snow stepped toward Serah, but she just moved away from him. "I left to find her for you. I thought you wanted her back!"
"Of course, I wanted her back, but not at the expense of losing you! You left me alone with Lebreau and Gadot and everyone, but I didn't want them, I wanted you! I was alone for two years, Snow!"
Lightning shook her head. "I wasn't meant to be found."
"It wasn't fair what you did, either!" Serah said. "You think you can tell everyone what to do and then just drop it? You run away to Valhalla, you serve Etro, and then you try to sacrifice yourself for the rest of us!"
Lightning's expression turned hard. "Someone had to stay in Valhalla. That was the toll of our supposed freedom."
Serah choked back tears. "Even with you here, Lightning, you're not… here. You're both leaving me alone to wait for you again!"
Snow reached for her, but she flinched away. "We're leaving so that we'll never be apart again," he said.
Serah shook. "I can't wait any longer! I need you here and now! I don't want to spend five minutes with you every few dozen years and spend the rest of time in limbo!"
Lightning finally looked at her sister, expression unreadable.
"What can I do?" Snow asked. "I can stay here, but then who'll save the universe? Someone has to do it."
"I don't know," Serah said.
"And what about the people getting hurt, tortured, and killed? These worlds teeter on the brink of destruction!"
"I still want to fix it! I want to bring Hope back and I want us all to be together. But for real, this time!"
"Then come with us," Snow said. "Please."
He didn't want her to leave the safety of Valhalla. After what she went through, he just wanted her to sleep and he wanted to watch her rest, eyes closed to the horrors outside.
Serah blinked back tears and took Snow's proffered hand. Her lip trembled and her face was flushed, but she nodded to herself in silent agreement and tugged at his arm. She was so much smaller than him, yet all he needed was that tug to near slam into her and pull her close. Serah held more power over him than the gravity that bound mortals to their planets.
He pulled her in and breathed deep the smell of wild animals that clung to her. Serah, the most wonderful person he had ever met and the most powerful.
Serah pulled Lightning in too and said, "So long as we fight together, it'll be okay.
Lightning huffed and pulled away. "Fine." She left without another word.
"We'll both be heroes," Serah whispered into Snow's chest.
Snow kissed her forehead. "I'll be yours and you'll be mine."
They stayed together until Serah's breath leveled and Snow forgot the meaning of time.
"Seven."
She didn't acknowledge Trey. Of all times, now was the worst for a zigzagging lecture. Still, he came to stand beside her, despite the dozen other options behind her. People willing to put up with him for up to a few whole seconds.
He leaned on the indoor balcony rails beside her and said nothing. A trap, then. He was waiting for her to say something he could go off on.
Seven tuned out the voices behind her. For every inch they gained, they lost two more. The path forward, once so clear, looked murkier than it had since Tempus Finis. She should know this. She was supposed to know this.
"What are you thinking?" Trey asked.
If anything happened on III, they would hear. Which was how they got down there in time for the fight in the first place. For all the difference that made. She caught Jack staring her way.
"Perhaps you intend to join Ace?" Trey asked.
Seven slammed her hands on the rails. "I'm really not in the mood for this. You want chit-chat, you find someone else."
He winced, refusing to meet her eye. "I don't mean to offend."
"You never claim to, and yet you make yourself such an expert at it."
She regretted it the minute the words left her mouth. Trey slumped his shoulders. He was nothing if not proud and long-winded. He took a shuddering breath and said, "I'll leave you."
"Wait." Seven took his wrist. "One death and that's it? You couldn't handle a KO?"
"With these bodies, we can be incapacitated," Trey said. "Bhunivelze will, undoubtedly, recognize this sooner rather than later. He'll trap us and—"
"You got out."
"Only because Jack was there. And it still hurts."
Ace was silent on the communications. Deuce flinched at, and made no comment on, any reference to the events of the Cottage. Trey was broken. Cater still struggled after Gaia VIII, despite Noel's return. Cinque showed more bloodthirst than before, as did Sice. Eight said less. Nine asked no questions. Jack played at ignorance. Queen and King… she didn't know what they thought.
"Pattern recognition."
Trey looked up.
Seven took a moment to form the words. She said, "We know several places Bhunivelze has been. And you took the throne of knowledge."
"Bhunivelze doesn't—"
"Get yourself out of your misery pit and pick up your threads. Of all of us, you stand the best chance of figuring out what he's doing next."
"I suppose there could be a pattern to his movements."
She waited for him to inevitably go off on a tangent about things he already put together but weren't relevant to the matter at hand.
It didn't come.
"Work on it." She didn't know how else to make him feel better, so she left him alone to figure it out himself.
