13-2 is my least favorite in the trilogy, but its story has a lot of potential fanfic-fodder, so I am enjoying planning out my characters and how I want the story to go leading into the third game (spoiler alert, there's a third game), but since 13-2 is so open-branched with all the pathways and dialogue options, if anyone is even interested in this game anymore, I would welcome the help compiling dialogue choices that are the best with the most information or the funniest or the most sensical for the situation, etc.
I'm playing the game myself to choose which dialogue options I want (I need to move this game somewhere other than the PS3, this thing is going to give out any second), but if I go back to sections and play them again in the same save file, there are generally pieces of the story and/or cutscenes that are skipped for speed for some stupid reason (I could just skip cutscenes if I wanted to, dunce devs, what if I just don't want to have to play through another entire darn save file just to choose a different dialogue choice?!) (It's my least favorite game for a number of gameplay reasons even if the story is semi-redeemable).
I'm using the wiki to write down all of the dialogue choices to the best of my ability, but I won't be able to write the emphasis in their dialogue, the pauses, their physical motions, etc. It might end up being lines and lines of a character saying the same thing over and over again but in a different way.
I want to go to all of the optional locations too, but some of them have little story, maybe a fun quirk here and there but literally nothing worth getting invested in. I'll do the P-endings since those are pretty easy and likely won't be canon anyway (OR WILL THEY?!) (No, no they won't be) (BUT MAYBE—)
Styxcaliaja knew no concept of beginning or end. There was no such thing as an order of events, there was no such thing as life or death or time.
But here were some of the events she was witnessing.
A man waded into Styx's rivers with a girl resembling the goddess in his arms. This one was 17. She could not stop him from crossing in and out of Valhalla, in and out of the ocean of time. He laid her gently into the waters that led out into the endless sea of existences, where her body shimmered and was consumed. She dissolved, her body silently swept into dust, the last flames of her life dancing across his fingers and then fading away like the rest.
"This eternity — it was never your desire. Is that not so, Yeul?"
He clenched his hand into a fist and grunted. Styx winced. His desires of destruction and ruin, the death of millions, it swept across the very air around him and pierced through even her. Images of enormous crystal slabs breaking off, of Cocoon's pillar turning to dust, the weight of the world crushing what little remained and tilting — falling — and of the shell of the planet finally crashing into the world below.
That desire exploded through the waters of time, summoning an army of rift beasts, creatures born of destruction and fragmentation of time itself. Hundreds of them emerged and swarmed in storms of the insectoid blue glow. They ripped through the skies to open portals for more creatures consumed in shadow, big and small, some familiar and some not.
Styx could not stop them. She could only observe.
The man chuckled and turned back to Valhalla where an army of organic creatures was already moving to intercept the Meonekton swarm. Wyverns swarmed in the skies, Gorgonopsids charged on the grounds down to the sandy shore. The Shiva Sisters followed Lightning's commands while the other Eidolons led their force with Ananda and Kasyapa at the helm.
Charon split off to fight on his own. He was bearing armor black as night, his many Kozuka hovering around him, his beautiful Zanmato at his hip, his Wakizashi in hand as he flew into the fray.
"Warrior goddess…" The man reached for the enormous sword on his back, drawing it with a mighty swing and activating the glowing eye that set the weapon a light with purple eldritch flames. "Now we cross swords!"
Lightning swung out her arm and her sleek gunblade infused with Etro's power appeared in a flash, the ring of the sharp weapon and the feathers of the Goddess' champion flaring at its behest.
The very water itself parted from his aura. He swung his sword over his head and then slammed it into the sand to launch himself forward.
The armies met on every front — on land, in the skies, in the sea. Rift Beasts met Monsters, Eidolons met Twilight Eidolons, and the Children of Etro met shadowy figures, reflections of lost and forbidden timelines.
Styx would have once fought alongside them. Perhaps one of her was up there, a lost past that no longer existed.
At another moment, Styx was standing on the beaches with her brother, the pair catching up after many years of being apart.
"You have worried about me for all those years, yes? But I am very happy as I am."
"I would hope so. You're in charge of the River of Time, sis. I'm very proud of you. Though, I suppose, I don't really have the right to be proud anymore. We're…it's been a long time. And no time at all, for you."
She nodded. "Brother, there are many ways that time may fluctuate — up and down, left and right, forwards and backwards. I am the flow of time, never straight, but sometimes I go in certain directions. In every world that I have seen us in, you have always cared. I have known you to be a wonderful brother, Charon. Don't ever believe otherwise. I am proud of you as well. I am proud to be your sister."
He nodded weakly. "Still, I wish you could've met Shu again. You were friends when you were little, were you not? I wish you'd introduced me to them."
She giggled. "We were friends, yes. Just for a little while. But I will live on, a piece of me, within Saitama. He is a good man. I know he will look after you both."
Charon pursed his lips and tried to avoid mentioning that he might not ever make it back to Shu, to Sai, to Rei. He barely had any time to enjoy his family. He had so been looking forward to getting the chance to apologize to Rei, to get to know her, to ask for her blessing…
Styx gasped as a black blade twisted with paradoxes pierced her chest.
"Cali!" Charon exclaimed.
She fell back as her body exploded with energy, pushing even him back from the force. Then, her body collapsed forward into the river.
"Sister! What happened? Styx!" He scooped her into his arms, just as her body began to dissolve.
He was consumed by her dissolving essence, the timeline sweeping through him. He saw a face, a blade, a name. He saw timelines of time where time does not exist, tangled webs of fate and lack of existence everywhere.
"Noel Kreiss… Noel Kreiss will kill you."
"Brother!" Styx hovered down the beach from the temple. "The Hands summon you."
He stood in the waters, one of countless Styx forms dissolving completely. Of all the versions of his sister he had met here, he had never seen one of them die before. She knew all of time and all of non-time here in Valhalla. They could do nothing so long as they were in Valhalla.
All he had to do, however, was escape.
In another moment, Styx was walking along the quiet shores of Valhalla hearing the sounds of laughter and love. She smiled and twirled in the timeless river, but then it began leaking in all directions. Water leaked out in all directions, falling into a small fountain, then into a roaring waterfall.
Styx could no longer hear anything over the crashing waves. "Oh dear. How unfortunate."
Her river drowned the world, but it was okay. She wouldn't leave anyone alone. She would be with this world forever. She smiled at her companions and joined them in the sea.
A moment later or a moment sooner, she was sitting on the balcony of the temple with her brother. "I don't blame you, Cinthy."
"You should," he whispered. "Hundreds of years, Cal. Hundreds."
"Barthandelus did little to me. He left me with humans. Humans are the cruel ones. I am more concerned about you. You had to do horrible things for me. You killed one of your friends, you hurt Susu."
"Susu? Is that what you called them?"
She giggled. "Well, I like to call them that now, but in the past? No. We met for so many short periods of time, but we were just children."
"How many times did you meet up when you were little?"
"Oh, maybe half a dozen. Sometimes, Susu just said hello to the water — even when I wasn't even there! Sometimes I watched them from afar. Susu would always send new flowers to me. I am happy they were able to give me the first choice I had in years. The choice to free you."
"I should have been freeing you."
"It's okay, Hyacinthaja. I'm happy here. This is where I belong. Hundreds of years feels like nothing here. I get to watch so many happy lives play out. Including yours."
"Not anymore," he whispered.
"In some lives," she insisted. She handed him a hyacinth. "That's the thing about time, brother. It can go in so many directions. You should never think you know where it's going."
"Even here, where time does not exist?"
"Especially here. Time does not exist in the land, but it exists within the people. Souls have time. They are paradoxes, you know. So complicated, so capable of change. Never predictable. Just like time itself."
"We do not have souls, sister."
"We were never meant to. And yet I wonder. The Lady Etro was not able to make fal'Cie as Pulse and Lindzei did. However, we are Her creations. What are we, then, I wonder? What do we have instead of souls?"
He looked down to the flower in his hand. He could feel the distorted tinge of Shu's magic still lingering within it. "Yes, I wonder as well."
"Lose yourself in battle," Caius grumbled, swinging his charged blade over his shoulder and slamming it into the sand, "and rejoice!"
The Blast Wave carved a path through the army in front of him, destroying monsters on both sides of the scuffle.
The Shiva Sisters dodged and retaliated, hovering across the battlefield and firing blasts of ice to freeze Caius in place. Nix swooped in to smash his frozen form, but he broke free of the restraints to catch her by the face with one hand.
"Embrace the terror," he hissed.
Stiria dashed forward to assist her sister, but Caius simply threw Nix into her, sending both of the sisters crashing into the sands.
"The Sisters are down!" Charon called.
"Lightning is almost there!" Kasyapa announced.
"Cut a path!" Ananda ordered.
Charon swept his Kozuka blades across the battlefield and then snapped his fingers, causing them each to emit a small explosion. He blew a path open for Lightning to come riding in on Odin, blade drawn and ready.
Caius merely chuckled and swept out his sword, and enormous summoning circle appearing at his feet. "Husk of the wandering comet…" He threw his sword upwards and shot a beam into the sky, the summoning circle flying up and outwards to blanket the clouds over Valhalla. "I summon thee!"
The summoning circle ripped through the land beneath it, forcing Odin to come to a halt to avoid the massive chunks of stones forming and flying in all directions. They were all beginning to levitate from the sheer force of the summon.
The summoning circle multiplied the concentric rings pulling apart vertically and the beam from Caius shooting through it pulling down a meteor bigger than Valhalla's temple. The clouds swirled to open up a path for the rock to come through, along with dozens of tinier projectiles that charged up with blue energy and began forcefully shooting down in all directions like bullets the size of grand pianos.
"Get down!" Ananda ordered.
All of the smaller meteors exploded on impact on top of simply being enormous deadly projectiles. The monster armies of both sides were obliterated, dozens of buildings in Valhalla were smashed to pieces, and the army of summons, good and evil, were pounded — though at least not instantly defeated.
Odin jumped and dashed along the floating rock formations that had emerged as a result of the summon. Caius stood confidently up on a platform right beneath the center of the summon, ironically enough creating a safe zone for himself from all the meteors.
Lightning urged Odin forward, a master with her Eidolon. They launched from rock formation to rock formation even as meteors came down and destroyed all of them, slowly eliminating any path to Caius that didn't involve flying.
"How do we stop it?!" Charon shouted. He swung his sword and sliced through a meteor that exploded in his face. He flipped through the air and coughed away the dust and soot from the blast.
"We have to break the summoning circle!" Kasyapa called.
He sighed. "So we have to fly into the giant meteor shooting exploding bombs at us."
"Basically!"
"We will handle the summons!" Ananda cried. "Go!"
Odin jumped to a rock formation just as a meteor slammed into it, sending Lightning, Odin, and Lightning's sword flying in all directions. Her sword embedded itself in one platform while Lightning flipped in the air and landed feet-first on the bottom half of another.
Charon dived down through the air as Lightning launched herself from the floating stone just before it was destroyed by a meteor as well. He grabbed her hand and launched her towards her sword. She grabbed it and then twisted it free of the stone, swinging herself up and right towards the final platform in the middle.
"Caius Ballad!" She charged her sword and swept it out as she came down upon him.
He launched a Blast Wave at her, which she blocked with her shield in mid air.
"Give it!" Charon shouted.
She twisted her shield and redirected the Blast Wave's energy, reflecting it into the sky towards Charon. He caught it with his Wakizashi and then tossed the blade into the sky as hard as he could. Right underneath the center of the meteor summoning circle, he smashed straight through the rings of enchantment.
The circle shattered like glass. The bright pink aura swept outwards in all directions before dissipating. The meteor vanished, as if it were nothing but an illusion made of the clouds itself.
Ananda and Kasyapa swept through the last of the Twilight Eidolon armies, flying back to the temple of the goddess to defend Etro's throne.
Lightning landed on the platform behind Caius.
He chuckled. "Impressive."
She swept her sword to her side, readying it to swing. "Save it."
Together, the two turned and smashed their blades together.
Charon threw his Kozuka and teleported to retrieve his Wakizashi. It was still charged with the power of Caius's Blast Wave, and not in a good way. It was trembling and sparking from the energy stored into it thanks to both the Blast Wave and dispelling a summon by force.
As the floating rocks came crashing down thanks to the summon's disappearance, Lightning and Caius clashed and jumped back and forth between the rubble. Lightning's sword was smaller with a shorter range, but she had her shield and Caius's bigger weapon was slightly slower.
He dodged a swing and retlitated. She blocked his sword still charged with the Eye of Bahamut using her shield and pushed it aside, attempting to parry, but he was able to lean back out of her range before slamming his weapon down at her again. She jumped to dodge and swept her blade out at him again. This time, he caught it with his bare hand (well, he had gloves on, but regardless).
"Damn you…" Lightning muttered.
He smirked and then moved her blade down from his neck where she'd been aiming, instead pointing it towards his heart. "Enough. Let's end this."
His chest started pulsing with an insidious red light beneath his armor.
Lightning ripped her sword back. "That glow…?!"
"Cast your shadow over all!" His eyes flashed the same beautiful yet unnerving color and he pulled his sword in front of him. The Eye of Bahamut mimicked his glow and flashed, releasing an enormous amount of power. "Wings of night!"
Lightning was shoved back from the force of the transformation, the remaining rock platform they'd been standing on crumbling from the force. They were consumed by a billowing storm of Chaos, which dissipated as Caius revealed he could transform into the Chaos Bahamut.
He flew forward to slice his enormous claws at her. She jumped away, but there were no more platforms to jump onto. She could only brace herself as Caius pursued, this time charging his claw as Lightning used both her sword and her shield for leverage to hold him back
Unfortunately, Caius had two hands. He swiped at her while she was distracted holding back just one of his attacks, and she was bashed hard enough to send her flying. The world went white.
Charon flew down and slammed his charged Wakizashi into the enormous Bahamut summon. "Rude."
He kicked his knee into the Chaos Bahamut's stomach. Thanks to the sharp protrusion on his knee, his armor was able to pierce its tough body and cause him to roar in protest. He charged both of his clawed hands with an Umbral Vise and smashed into Charon point-blank.
Charon felt a horrible shock run through his entire body as it was set on fire from the attack. Every inch of his skin was electrocuted, but luckily his armor managed to protect him somewhat. He was blasted back by an Ignis this time, spinning through the air before finally regaining his balance.
"Cheeky bastard. Come and get it!"
Lightning, meanwhile, regained consciousness in the air as she fell. Her eyes shot open, she twisted so she was falling forward and then threw her arms and legs out. "Odin!"
The steed came running up the beach of Valhalla along the crashing waves of time and jumped up to meet her. She swiftly remounted and landed, continuing forward just as Charon dodged the charging Caius and the Chaos Bahamut smashed into the sands behind her. He quickly recovered and flew after her.
Lightning charged up a Ullr's Shield which healed her up and gave her Protect and Shell. He rained down blasts of Inferno around Lightning, which her protection plus Odin's speed and evasion were just able to outmaneuver.
She threw her sword up into the air and shot down Lightning Strikes, alternating between the more draining bolts and just Sniping him with the long range of her gunblade.
Caius roared in protest and swooped down to physically strike them. Lightning urged her steed onwards. "Not kidding around, huh?" she grumbled.
Caius charged his enormous orbs of energy within his clawed hands and smashed them with an Umbral Vise before following up with a rain of Ignis and an Inferno to finish off. She retaliated with a pair of Lightning Strikes and clung to Odin as they dodged another of Caius's physical swipes.
Charon flew past, throwing a Kozuka at Chaos Bahamut's wing to knock him off balance so that Lightning could Snipe him while he was caught off-guard. He roared and turned to attack Charon, who flew back and out of range by simply dropping out of the sky. Lightning hit him with a Lighting Strike and then Sniped him right in the face as he turned back to her.
He swooped forward, flying past Odin and transforming into Gestalt form and charging a Megaflare that he launched straight at her. Charon summoned a Blizzaga and created a ramp for Odin to launch himself up and off of through the explosive carnage.
Odin hopped between the buildings of Valhalla that still remained intact. Sometimes, in the middle of fights, buildings would suddenly be repaired, as if they had never been part of the war up until them. Nothing ever changed in Valhalla, at least for long.
Odin sprinted up the architecture of one of the buildings that handily shaped itself into a nice ramp.
"Come on, then!" Lightning shouted. She swapped out her gunblade for Odin's twin Zantetsuken blades, split so that she could wield them in either hand.
He shot beams of Obliterating Breath at her, destroying the building behind Odin before then transforming through the explosion and preparing to smash her with an Umbral Vise. She launched up off of Odin to avoid the hit and then spun up and around to slice her Zantetsuken blades into Caius instead.
Bahamut retreated back into Gestalt form as Lightning landed back on her steed. Then, Chaos Bahamut began flying away.
"What's he up to?" she murmured.
Urging Odin onwards, they moved to chase after him. Odin launched off the building, prepared to follow wherever Caius was going, but as they came around the building, they were met with a charged Megaflare instead.
"Lightning!" Charon shouted.
The entire area was engulfed in the blast. Buildings came crashing down, delicate architecture that was never meant for battle crumbling in all directions.
Charon moved to dash into the blast zone, but was met with a blade swiping at his face instead. He ducked and twisted to hover past them, but was kicked in the stomach and sent flying instead.
He grumbled into the sand as he rose, grip tightening on his blade. "You…you are really starting to piss me off!"
"Oh? Just starting to?" A Chaos-coated Hotareichan stepped forward, sweeping her finger down her golden blade in her hand while the rest of her weapons hovered behind her in the shape of wings. "I guess I must not be trying hard enough. I'll be sure to be a worse pain in your ass from now on, 'kay?"
He sneered and drew his Zanmato. "Would you just die already?!"
She flicked her wrist and summoned her silver blade in her other hand. He had longer weapons, but the bigger swords weren't meant for close-range combat or to be wielded by one hand each in concert.
She was swifter and better at multitasking with her blades, sweeping them in waves so that she was striking with a dozen weapons at once, switching them out mid-swing so that his parries often missed because her weapon was suddenly coming from a different angle. He relied on the greater strength of his swing and brute-forced his way through most of her defenses, using his floating Kozuka to try and counter her more annoying and distracting swings.
Meanwhile Odin had transformed and shielded Lightning from the blast — in turn, using up the remaining energy of his summon period. He landed, carrying Lightning in his arms and dropping her onto her feet. He nodded towards her just as he vanished, his body turning into green light and dissipating to recharge.
Thanks to this being Valhalla, Odin's recharge was far faster than in the mortal realm, and Lightning had had plenty of time (not-time?) to practice mastering all of Odin's abilities when they were working in concert.
Caius, in turn, transformed back into his mortal form and dropped onto the building across from her with a smirk.
She swung her sword into position for battle once more. "Right."
He immediately began charging up an energy circle for a powerful spell around him, slamming his sword into the building beneath him. The Eye of Bahamut opened and his eyes flashed red. "Let's not waste time."
Lightning took up a defensive stance. He reared back his hand, gathered with the energy of his spell, and launched it through the Eye to enhance it into a powerful gathered concentration of magic.
Lightning blocked it with her shield and then fired her gunblade as rapidly as she could to reverse its course right back at him. He held up his sword to block it, but was thrown back through the rubble of the building behind them.
Caius rose to his feet with barely a scratch, but Lightning had already sent a trio of Ruingas his way that combined to create an enormous explosion. The green glass architecture above them instantly shattered, raining down shards across the area and causing the entire structure to fall apart moments later.
Caius calmly stood amongst the raining debris. "The goddess made a wise choice." Just as a large metal structure was to fall on him, he turned his head up towards it, eyes glowing red. "Power of chaos, bend to my will!"
Chaos magic exploded outwards in an enormous dome with Stop magic. Caius was now able to jump on every platform of debris, each with their own center of gravity. They were able to rotate and spin thanks to any forces applied, but they were otherwise held in place.
Lightning was strong enough to move even through the dense Chaos spell, quickly catching on and following him amongst the maze of metal debris. She ended up on a platform that was nearly completely above (below?) him, both standing at completely different angles.
"Keeping up?" he said.
The Chaos binding them whined and shrieked, holding everything in place and distorting a world that was already quite distorted anyway.
"So you wanna destroy everything?" she said, almost exasperated at the simplicity and yet complexity of it all.
"Oblivion is the fate of all things," he replied with the same tone.
Both didn't bother with any more information than that. There was no appeal to the other's beliefs, describing their motivations or their questions. There was nothing more to say. They were against each other, they were going to fight until one of them lost — and maybe even beyond that.
Both tightened their grips on their weapons and charged. Lightning, straightforward as ever, focused on attacking physically instead of resorting to magic. She sliced and smashed Caius back into some floating debris as they both moved to recover their positions.
"Now it's my turn," he said, this time landing above her.
She held up her hand and taunted him. "Come and die."
"We shall see!"
Preferring melee over her gun, she let him shoot towards her and slam his blade down against hers. She fell back and twisted out of the way so that she could kick him right in the stomach. He twisted in the air and landed feet-first to return without a moment's rest. They dodged and twisted and swung their blades in the air, both going flying back down towards the actual physical building beneath them.
Both of them charged up spells.
"Let's end this," she grumbled. Lightning went for Ruinga as a more offensively damaging attack while Caius shot out a dense Gravity spell. "You're done!"
"Not today!"
Their spells clashed in the air, distorting and charging everything around them as the clashing forces slammed into one another, neither giving in. Both of them forced as much power into their attacks as possible. With a final push, Lightning's attack managed to blow Caius back, the clash ending with a giant explosion that simply was closer to Caius when it went off.
In the ensuing blast, Lightning was forced to retreat as well, but Caius managed to land on another platform.
"I must thank you," he said. "In these final moments, I have met my finest opponent."
Lightning revealed herself to have circled around behind him, spinning across one of the metal debris and shooting herself at him, sword primed.
"You're finished, Caius!"
She swiped, punched, shot, and kicked at him using an Army of One. In a flurry of motion, she bashed him with all she had, leaving him no time to put up his guard between each hit.
Caius went flying into the building beneath them, his Chaos bubble dissipating and dropping all of the falling debris at once. Lightning dashed up and out of range, leaving Caius to be crushed by at least two buildings' worth of rubble.
On the beaches, Charon slammed his blades against Rei's in a clash, every one of their weapons matched up with another.
"Look at you!" she exclaimed. "You've gotten stronger! I wonder how long it's been since you—"
He roared and swiped his Zanmato past her blade blocking it and sliced straight through her stomach. All of her blades dropped. She slumped forward, but she was laughing through the choked pain. "I wonder how much longer it will be before you won't be able to wield that blade anymore." She grinned, blood trickling down the corners of her mouth. "When that day comes, you'll be mine, Matecharonsan."
He tore the blade through her and ripped it out through her side. Rei's body flashed and vanished into white particles along the shores of Valhalla.
Sighing over their respective fallen enemies, both Lightning and Charon were both taken back by a light in the sky above the Temple of Valhalla.
"Etro's gate?"
The Gate only ever opened if Etro was sending something through personally, which could mean miracles or a world of problems depending on the situation.
'Of course. The one from the vision. I know your name. Noel Kreiss.'
A person came falling through the Gate, unconscious, but slowly coming to the realization that they were plummeting.
Lightning held her hand to her chest and summoned her Rose Eidolith. She jumped off the building and sliced it with her sword. Odin came flying through his summoning circle in a new airborne Gestalt mode that Lightning had unlocked thanks to her time training with him in Valhalla. She landed on Odin as they dashed through the skies to intercept him.
Meanwhile, Chaos Bahamut smashed through the debris that had crushed Caius, roaring into the wind and flying after them. Charon launched from the sandy shore to attack Caius, buying Lightning as much time as he could.
Noel, finally realizing he was falling to his death, cried out and began flailing his arms.
Odin's bird form screeched as they dashed upwards. "Quickly!" Lightning snapped.
"What in the…?" Noel turned at the sound, falling towards Lightning as straight as he could manage.
"I'm here!" Seeing Lightning reaching out, he returned his hand to reach for hers.
Lightning swiftly caught him and safely threw him on the back of Odin. "Where am I?"
"Valhalla. You prayed for a miracle, and that brought you here. Or am I wrong?"
"How did you know?"
"From Valhalla, I can see everything," she said, her voice tinged with both awe and regret. Sometimes, from Valhalla, you could see too much. In more recent days, not being able to see things meant far worse.
"But…who are you?"
She frowned, deciding to be succinct. "Lightning."
Charon and Chaos Bahamut came flying in, dragging Odin and Lightning into the scuffle. Charon was foring lightning blasts with his Kozuka, but now Caius was aiming towards Odin with his Pulsar Burst
"Time for a real fight," Lightning declared.
She fired off streams of Focused Bolts in return, which she released all around her that then shot at their pursuer. Odin flipped in the air to avoid another round of Pulsar Bursts, Noel hanging on for dear life, while Lightning was able to remain standing on her ride. He launched a round of exploding Inferno blasts at them, blanketing the air with fire and heat.
"Look out!" Noel exclaimed. "Here it comes!"
Bahamut transformed and prepared an Umbral Vise. Noel ducked as it smashed together the orbs of energy into an enormous explosion.
"What now?!" he cried.
"Gonna get worse," she said flatly. "Charon!"
He flew up beside them and nodded. Lightning charged up a War's Benediction, throwing a healing aura around them and bestowing Haste. He let himself fall slightly behind Odin and launched some Graviton Mines, releasing them to let the winds carry them right into the pursuing creature. They exploded on impact and even just in the air around him if they missed.
They circled high above Valhalla, dodging Caius's blasts, but then he launched a Megaflare that blew up the whole area in a nuclear blast. The air turned to plasma, electricity shot out in all directions and warped the air around them. Lightning and Odin managed to shield Noel from the blast, while Charon summoned a Ullr's Shield to pull up their defenses and heal them.
"Are you the…goddess of war?"
"I never said I was a goddess."
"Lightning!" Charon called.
She nodded and held her sword up to release her Focused Bolts. Charon summoned his Graviton Mines and combined them with her Bolts before firing them all directly at Chaos Bahamut. But this time, instead of just sending one or two waves, Charon and Lightning sent out dozens of waves of their combined forces to explode into Caius at once.
They aimed for every part of his body — wings, face, claws — knocking him out of the air and pursuing him even further beyond that.
Charon sheathed his weapons and then held his hands out, swirling them in a circular motion and forming a summoning circle in the air. "Valefor! Energy Blast!"
A bird-like Eidolon smashed through the summoning circle and flew around him, charging up energy into a symbol spinning in front of him. Valefor threw her beak forward and Charon pointed his fingers, the two charging up energy and forming a circular symbol of destruction. It began shooting out dozens of lasers that blanketed an entire block of the city below where Chaos Bahamut had been pushed back. The attack demolished the area, ripping through Chaos Bahamut and sending him tumbling into the ground.
Valefor vanished into a pale pink light and Charon moved to join Lightning and Noel.
Odin flew them in towards the Temple of Valhalla. Noel followed Lightning as she launched herself off of her Eidolon onto an open protruding roof of one wing of the large structure. Lightning landed gracefully while Noel had to roll to a harsh stop, but at least he hadn't broken anything.
Ananda and Kasyapa jumped down from one of the balconies, hovering to a stop in front of Lightning.
"Report?" she said, standing straight.
"We lost around a third of our forces outright," Ananda said. "We'll have them up and running soon enough. Rearguard took a hit from the Husk of the Wandering Comet attack."
"I've always loved that summon," Kasyapa muttered. "Too destructive to be used in most situations though."
"It was an indiscriminate meteor attack. The monster forces were wiped out on both sides. The Twilights are getting more annoying, but we're learning how to better combat them."
"Prepare for the next wave," Lightning ordered. "Keep the Temple secure. I will handle my battles, you handle yours."
"Obviously," Kasyapa sighed.
Ananda bowed his head curtly. "Lady Champion."
The two flew off. Charon flew in now, armor clanking as he rolled out his joints. He got blown up too much, honestly. It was getting annoying.
"I took him down, but it will only last so long," he said. "Tenacious behemoth of a roach."
"Unsurprising." She paced across the edge of the roof, staring down at the city. A great deal of it had already been reset from the battles that happened minutes before. The giant crater of destruction where the Chaos Bahamut last was still remained.
"How do we fight him?" Noel announced. He'd stood and dusted himself off from his fall.
"This is not your battle," Lightning said. "There's something else I need you to do."
"What?"
Lightning's sharp gaze locked onto him. "Bring my sister to me. Her name is Serah."
Charon waved him over to the edge of the room, looking down on the city below. "See that?"
In a ceremonial hall at the base of the temple, a stone pathway led to a glowing structure surrounded by walls of stone in a semi-circular pattern. It hadn't been active before Noel had arrived, but now it was glowing so brightly it was just a white orb of light in the distance, the design near impossible to make out.
"You'll need to use the portal," Lightning explained. "Your time-gazing friend should have told you how it works."
"That's a gate…?"
"It's open," Charon said. "It's waiting for a recipient. You can go through it. You can take me with you."
Noel's eyes rose to him. "You can't go through on your own?"
He shook his head. "If I could have, I'd have already left this place long ago. But you can use that gate. You can bring me through with you."
"But…why me?"
"Because you're the only one who can," Lightning said. "You crossed the Void and made it to Valhalla. You can find Serah, and together you can change the future."
"Wait…" Noel looked out upon the barren, empty city of the timeless land. "I can change the future?"
Charon nodded. "Yes. I can teach you how."
Lightning held up her hand, gathering a small puff of glowing dust-like magic into her palm. She threw it up above them and it flashed pink before taking shape and transforming into a moogle.
"Kupo-po!" It flew down before Noel, who backed away in surprise. "Kupo!" It shimmered, rolling in the air to transform in a poof of pink into a high-tech bow. "Kupo!"
Noel quickly threw out his hands to catch the weapon in awe.
"A good luck charm," Lightning explained. "Give him to Serah."
"Right," he muttered. He took the bow by its handle and threw it over his shoulder, confidently pumping a fist. "You got it. I'll track her down."
Charon nodded. "Good. I'll take you to the gate—"
The entire area rumbled and the skies darkened immediately.
"What's happening?" Noel exclaimed.
"Enjoying your little chat?" In a small cloud of Chaos, Caius emerged on one of the higher balconies of the Temple with a light chuckle.
"Caius?!" Noel exclaimed.
He raised his hand into the air with a grunt and then threw it to the side. Up in the air, another enormous summoning sigil blanketed the sky.
"Shit," Charon grumbled.
"Get to the gate," Lightning snapped. "I'm counting on you."
Noel nodded. "Okay."
"Good luck," Charon said to Lightning.
Caius jumped up and held his sword before him, transforming once more into Gestalt form. She tightened her grip on her sword. "Charon, go!"
He tapped her on the back and then grabbed Noel's hand, jumping off the balcony and taking Noel with him just as Caius swooped down to attack. Lightning ducked and the pair landed on another balcony just as the summoning symbol in the sky broke open to reveal the Husk of the Wandering Comet.
"What the…?!" Noel exclaimed.
"No time! Let's go!" Charon snapped. He continued to pull Noel along.
"Not this again," Lightning grumbled, reaching to her chest for her Eidolith and launching up as high as she could. She sliced the crystal as she flew and her companion appeared in a flash. "Odin! Do it!"
She took his hand and he twisted in the air to fling her with as much force as the supernatural creature could manage. She held up her shield as she bashed straight into the comet itself with a battle cry. Unleashing her power in a large explosion, Lightning ended up making the entire comet itself explode. Right on top of Valhalla itself.
The Temple exploded, the meteor was coming down right at the epicenter of the whole island that made up Valhalla.
"Gotta go!" Charon shouted. "You need to focus on Serah! The gate will take us right there!"
"But what about Light—?!"
"We can't help her now! She'll be fine!"
Noel doubted that, but Charon gave him no room to argue as they dived off the balcony right towards the gate. Rock and metal from all of the buildings were coming down around them. The entire area was coming undone. They'd be buried if they didn't make it.
Noel desperately reached out for the gate and thought of Serah. He thought about changing the future.
They were sucked through just as the entire comet made impact and blew up the whole of Valhalla itself.
'My hopes go with you, Noel Kreiss. Become an arrow through time, and speed your way to Serah. Be there for her…because I no longer can.'
If anyone can hear what Noel's line is before Lightning says "I never said I was a goddess," please inform me what he's saying. Every time I pass that area, every video I look up, Caius is always firing his stupid Pulsar Burst or the music is hitting one of its loud points. I went over a video a thousand times with my volume basically at max and I hopefully managed to hear what he's saying, but these non-subtitled battle quotes are gonna get annoying, aren't they? I think it's something fixed about the battle's flight path, and yet somehow I can ALWAYS hear Lightning saying "I never said I was a goddess" immediately afterwards. Clearly. Beautifully. I think it might just be Noel's line was physically recorded/edited to be decibels lower than Lightning's, or that girl's voice just carries like no one's business. I mean, technically…
So yeah anyway, me and my thorough ass was dedicated enough to throw as many battle quotes and dialogue from the side characters in the first game as I could into my fic, but even I wasn't dedicated enough to go through with every single character as a side character so that they would say their dialogue lines. In this case, we also have randomly occurring battles that just cut off dialogue, but at least the subtitles on the side of the screen tell me what they were saying. But I still don't get to hear the emphasis or sarcasm or dry humor in their tones, so that's…that's a not good thing.
(I'm going to be very unhappy with a lot of this dialogue, okay?)
Luckily this game only has three people who speak to each other (most of the time) and not too many talking enemies since they are literally, like…all monsters except for our DLC bois. Instead they gave me branching dialogue choices. Not only branching dialogue choices, but multiple dialogue branches! For those of you who don't know, every time you go back to an area to repeat them, some of the dialogue choices change to a different set of four! So there are actually eight choices! Not four! This is why I hate these kinds of games! If you give me quick replay value, I will be more forgiving (ETRO BLESS YOU Life is Strange, YOU ARE MY LOVELY I CAN JUST REVERSE TIME AND CHOOSE ALL THE OPTIONS AT ONCE! Though the annoying permanent choices lead to different dialogue but I mean you can't have everything) but by Lindzei, don't make me have to deal with alternating choice sets on top of having a choice at all!
Long story short, I'm going to not transcribe what is too variable or too difficult or just repeating information, etc. I'm going to let it go. I'm going to be more chill. Not going to be OCD. Not going to.
So yeah, enjoy the series.