Let's all imagine that we have multiple individual characters that are all fully capable of maneuvering through a puzzle that's not really hard but sometimes kinda annoying maybe. Luckily when these puzzles get harder, this labyrinth part in particular is always the same for every playthrough so you can just look up the solutions online. (And thank the heavens for whoever wrote up that program to solve the clock puzzles).
And it's the return of the boss-battle-that-became-longer-than-I-intended-and-caused-me-to-take-my-break-from-the-story! Aren't they just the best?
Lore. I added lore I hadn't intended to. Oh gosh —
When each of them awoke, they were surrounded by stars.
"What the…? Whoa…"
It was like an inverted version of the Historia Crux, with a mainly black sky in all directions filled with stars and small sparks of orange and blue nebulas here and there in the distance. The lights gathered into a tunnel shape and met at a glowing sun point in the distance. Upon further investigation, it was indeed a tunnel, one sun on each side, the stars stretching all around them, a cloud layer keeping them afloat.
They were standing on some sort of opaque glass platforms. A square for each of them, just large enough to lay upon. Barely. Opaque squares made up a floor a level beneath them, and shimmering transparent ones made up the walls keeping all of them apart.
"Where are we?" Serah asked. Her voice didn't echo, despite what the large space might suggest.
"A time labyrinth, kupo," Mog explained.
"Oh, yeah, that sounds fun," Rufus grumbled. He scanned the area. "Actually, this does look familiar."
"You've seen this before?" Mira asked.
"When we were taken from our home," Orlov explained. "Rue threw us into these columns of distortions. Rifts, weren't they called? Then, we were floating through a place like this. Rufus managed to catch us and we stayed together, but…then we woke up in New Bodhum."
"I think we're inside the paradox," Noel guessed.
"Oh no…" Serah sighed.
"Look, over there."
A short distance away, a scorched gate stood at the end of the red platforms.
"And there," Gideon announced. There was a gate on his path as well. Each of them had their own paths and their own gates to reach.
"We have to figure out the labyrinth and its puzzles before we can get out, kupo!"
"Okay, okay." Mira tapped her heel against the platform beneath her. She carefully reached out her foot and pressed down on the one before her. "Solid enough."
"Mira! The one behind you!"
Her initial platform began shaking, as though it were losing balance on an invisible stilt. She quickly moved both her feet to the next one, but soon it too started shaking. "Okay, gotta keep moving once you start. Got it."
"I guess we have to make it to our perspective gates…" Orlov guessed.
"But what about those crystal things?"
"Pick them all up, Mira!"
"Okay, I got this!" she exclaimed.
Her heels clicked along the glass as she jumped on a platform with a pair of floating crystals. They disappeared in a flash, but she didn't have time to ponder it. Her challenge seemed easy enough, and she was able to quickly plot her course to grab the other one, and then make it to the scorched gate on the other side.
"Did I do it? What do I —?" Her body turned to white light and was sucked into the gate. "Ah!"
"Mira!"
The rest of the platforms that she hadn't stepped on vanished with her, but the gate she'd disappeared through remained open and active.
"I suppose we all have to complete our challenges to catch up with her," Noel guessed.
"Okay then…here goes!" Orlov dashed across their platforms.
"What if I just try to fly — ah!" Rufus disappeared in a flash of light, as well as his puzzle. Then, he and the tiles reappeared, the crystals in a new position and Rufus back at the start. "Okay. No flying. Got it…"
"Maybe we just get reset if we fall or make mistakes," Serah suggested. She stepped onto her next platform and let it shake more and more violently until it vanished completely. Her puzzle reset just like Rufus's had.
"Well, it is a paradox," Noel shrugged. "Keeping you in here for eternity until you solve it seems rational enough."
"Doesn't seem too hard though. Come on! Let's not keep Mira waiting."
They each solved their puzzles, with Mog being the only exception. He was stuck floating above a single platform in the center, something about being stuck as an observer.
"Moogles are anomalistic creatures," Gideon concluded. He took a moment to plot his path and then started forward, having timed how long he had for each platform thanks to Serah. He neatly made it to his gate and allowed it to suck him in.
Once the others had completed, they opened their eyes to find they were all back at the start of a new puzzle.
"Ah!" Mira exclaimed. "I'm back! We're back! Right? Did we do it?"
"Guess there are multiple puzzles we have to solve," Serah sighed.
"Still, it doesn't seem too hard," Noel said. "Everyone finish their next one."
These puzzles were more intricate, with a few more crystals to collect each, but they still made it through.
"Not a third one!" Orlov complained.
"Hey, third time's the charm," Rufus said.
"Fiiiiine. I'll race you!"
A portal flashed open and six figures and a moogle formed from light before solidifying again.
"Did we do it?" Orlov grumbled. "No more crystals, I beg of thee."
The void energy dispersed behind them as the paradox rift closed. "We appear to be returned to our former position," Gideon said.
"The machine's working!" Serah exclaimed, pointing.
Indeed, the crystals that had simply been lying dead were now hovering in a pattern, with the largest one on top. The column beneath it was now alight with electronic threads and a terminal online.
"Nice! We did it!" Mira exclaimed. "We're some good paradox solvers, eh?"
"Yeah!" Orlov gave her a double high-five.
"Let's see what it does, yeah?" Noel urged.
Serah nodded. "Let's."
"Hey, what's that?" Rufus grabbed a small crystal that had fallen out of the rift with them. "A Fragment. Delicate Crystal."
"Bonus!" Orlov exclaimed. "We're so good."
"I thought you were over crystals?" Mira said.
"If they vanish when I collect them, yeah!"
"If this is future technology, I wonder if I'll even be able to use it…" Serah sighed.
"Gideon's the most advanced piece of technology there is," Rufus pointed out.
"I'm certain it is not beyond my capabilities to interface with the terminal," he agreed.
"Worth a shot," Noel said.
The group gathered around the odd machine and let Gideon take the lead. He placed his hands on the console, his own threads lightning up in response to the device's.
"Hope this actually lets us control Atlas…" Serah muttered.
"All we can do is pray," Noel sighed.
The terminal under Gideon's hands flashed white and sent up a stream of enchanted threads into the air like thick spider silk. The device's aura expanded, like it was trying to send out a signal.
"Please work!" Serah urged.
"Connected. Online." Gideon's threads all along his body shimmered from their normal purple to the iridescent color radiating from the device. His voice deepened and became fuzzy, as though multiple voices were speaking together into one. "Sensory perception apparatus connected. Crystal-controlled AI offline. Please input your command."
"What do you see?" Orlov asked. "Can you shut Atlas down?"
Gideon's head twitched rapidly. "Error. Shutdown command unavailable. You do not have the proper authority."
"Ugh, so much for that."
"Can you weaken the offensive and defensive programming?" Rufus suggested. "Shut off everything that you can, even if you can't take down the whole thing."
"Processing. Processing."
"Here goes nothin'!" Noel muttered anxiously.
The entire room shook with another quake.
"Kupo!" Mog exclaimed.
"Please don't suck us into another void!" Orlov cried.
Gideon's entire body flashed. Only his clothes remained dim, but the threads beneath them lit up bright enough to be seen through the fabrics. "Command accepted. Physical weapons system reduced to 1%. Magical weapons system reduced to 10%. Stagger point reduced to 20%. Shields system reduced; fire elemental resistance decreased by 400%; ice elemental resistance decreased by 400%. Stamina reduced to 10%."
A screen popped up revealing Atlas's aura flashing. The barrier around its body and the fiery red accents faded as the giant sank to its knee and had to use its arm for balance.
"Error. Unable to lower system operation. Error. Unable to override crystal-controlled AI. Error. Error. Intrusion detection system online. Intrusion prevention system online. Engaging system defense protocols —"
"Gideon!"
Rufus and Orlov each grabbed one of his arms and ripped him free of the console. The earthquake finally began to settle. Mira wiped dust and rocks from her hair. Noel helped Serah rise back to her feet.
Gideon's threads flashed violently, but they finally settled to a fiery red. Eventually, they dulled back to his normal purple, and then his skin returned to its normal state.
"Are you okay?" Rufus demanded. "Uh…all systems operational?"
When Gideon opened his mouth, his voice hadn't returned to normal. "Running diagnostics. Atlas system upgrade complete. Error. Troubleshooting incompatible functionality. Processing. Processing. Troubleshooting complete. All technology compatible with all functions. System rebooting." Gideon's eyes closed and his body went limp.
"Ahh!" Orlov screamed. "He's dead!"
"Rebooting just means he's taking a quick nap!" Rufus assured them.
The communicators hissed and Alyssa's voice came through. "Ugh, finally! Can you hear me now? It looks like Atlas is starting to slow down a little."
"Sounds like we did something," Serah sighed.
"Yes! This could be our chance!" Noel exclaimed.
Gideon's eyes snapped open. "Reboot complete. All systems operational. Returning to snapshot settings."
"Yay! You're not dead!" Orlov cheered.
He hesitated. "Had you not pulled me from the machine, I may yet have been corrupted beyond repair. And so I grant you my thanks, however hollow the mere words alone may feel."
"You can pay us back with your actions once we get back to the surface." Rufus helped haul Gideon to his feet. "Right now, we've got a giant to kill."
"Yeah. You did great, Gideon," Mira said.
"That was so cool!" Orlov agreed. "And really scary. Be more careful next time, okay?"
He nodded. "I will express due caution."
"Let's hurry up there before Atlas's system figures out what we've done and gets him back to full power," Noel urged.
"Right!" they chorused.
"Some say that time is a box full of possibilities. Until someone from the future peeks inside, the past remains uncertain. You know what I think? Maybe we're just one of the possibilities, waiting for the box to be opened. And I think this paradox phenomenon is happening because someone in the distant future can't decide whether or not to flip the lid."
Chocolina threw her feathery arms up. "If it's the giant you want to take down, then take a look around!"
"I'll take a few more Wound Potions please," Orlov said. "The one thing I can't heal…"
"Hey, these Wound Potions are potent." Rufus carefully uncorked one and sniffed it. "It'll heal a lot on top of the Wound damage."
Mira summoned her new Kore blade. "I can do some Wound damage myself."
"We're gonna need you and Knight to be helping with the damage," Serah reminded her.
She smiled. "Right. I've got your backs."
Gideon held up his hands and summoned his new red glow.
"Ooo, purdy," Orlov admired.
"I believe I can use this energy to stabilize the distortion in the area and contact Lady Rei and Lord Sai."
"And they'll know all about how to fight Atlas!"
"Nice," Rufus grinned.
"Hopefully these parts will strengthen up my monsters," Serah muttered.
"Okay, everybody ready to go?" Noel announced.
"Ready!"
They headed down the path to where Atlas had been marked on the map. Turning the corner, they found the giant once again.
"There he is!" Serah called.
"And not looking too happy!" Noel added.
"Okay! Everyone split up!" Rufus called. "Gideon, get to work on contacting Rei and Sai! Orlov and Noel! All the Synergist buffs you have! Then I want Orlov on healing duty and Noel to join in with some Commando hits! Mira and Serah! Saboteur him with all the debuffs you know, then Serah switch to Ravager and Mira get to work on that Wounding! Sentinel before every attack, you hear me?! I'm going to Sentinel, get it to follow me while you guys get us ready!"
"Roger that!" "I'm on it!" "Understood."
While Noel had only begun with his Synergist abilities, he at least knew how to cast Protect and Shell on everyone. Serah was similarly new at her Saboteur role, but she had Deshell, Deprotect, and Wound.
Atlas took notice of them when the Saboteurs began their assault. The giant was slow, but it moved plenty fast enough to fire off attacks; there were just large gaps between its recovery before preparing another one.
The enormous creation leaned forward, resting its arms on the ruins around them for leverage, before unleashing a powerful roar that shook the very air. Based on the waves of energy flowing through the air, it was also infused with AMP (antimatter manipulation principle) technology, which allowed it an artificial form of magic. Everyone was hit with Curse by the time the attack had ended, and a couple of them fell to the ground, the force having lifted them up into the air.
"I've got you!" Orlov called as they began casting Esuna. Serah swapped out her Pulsework Knight to Cait Sith to assist and remove all the Curse afflictions as quickly as possible.
"Okay! We're gonna need that stagger!" Rufus shouted.
"Defense first!"
Atlas was surprisingly fast at rearing back its fist to smash down onto the grounded group. Luckily Orlov was quick with their healing and Mira was able to protect both them and Gideon.
Serah swapped her Pulsework Knight back in while she and Noel both went Ravager to start building a gauge with Rufus running interference in the air as a Commando.
"Paradox effect stabilized," Gideon announced. He swept out his hands, threads glowing red, and shot out an aura similar to Mog's searching ability all across the area.
"Ha!" Sai appeared in mid air, striking the giant's arm as he rode the rain back up and through the sky. "Hey kids!"
He had a trident in his right hand which he seemed to be using to aim and propel himself through the air. In his left he was wielding an odd sword with thick teeth on one end and a sharp blade on the other that curved up to the point.
"Get ready!"
He aimed his trident forward and the rain swirled around him, shooting him forward like a cannon. He sliced his sword down the giant's chest. Atlas opened his hands and moved to slam them together in the sky, which was an attempt to both crush Sai as well as cause a shockwave that would do harm to the grounded team.
"Get back!"
A wave of silver and gold swords intercepted Atlas's attacking hands
"Rei!" Serah exclaimed.
She waved her hands out and her blade threw away the giant's arms. "Attack now! We need to take down that barrier around its body!"
"Right!"
Noel switched to Commando and began throwing his javelins, while Serah used Ruin spells with her powerful magic. Rufus and Sai flew across the sky to strike at Atlas from all angles, causing the giant to switch its attention back and forth between trying to swat them and trying to crush the ones on the ground.
"Now!"
Sai and Rufus struck Atlas, forcing its golden stagger to lower its defenses. The giant lurched and fell forward, leaning on its arm in something like a kneel. Now that it was helpless, they battered it with spells and attacks alike.
"Almost there! Sai! Get to the crystal!"
"Another crystal?!" Orlov complained.
He jumped and used his water whirlwind to shoot himself up to the giant's head. "Ready!"
"Just a little more! Hit it with all you got!" Rei ordered.
They threw everything they had at the giant while it was helpless to attack back. Finally, its body flashed and the rippling barrier around it vanished.
"I got it!" Sai announced. He used his trident to soar up into the sky again and then raised his sword above his head as he came down on the giant's head.
Atlas struck out, sweeping its hand over their party at an almost astonishingly bad angle, but it became clear what the giant's goal was when Gideon was slapped by the enormous hand back into the stone wall of the ruins behind him. The area rippled with the distortions.
"Gideon!" Orlov screamed.
Sai and Rei vanished through the warping effect, right before Sai brought his sword down on a crystal resting on Atlas's head between its horns. "No —!"
"Zan!" Mira cried, holding up her knife. It flashed from the pale blue color palet to one that was golden at the hilt fading into oranges and reds until it was a deep purple at the tip.
An enormous Death spell formed around the giant, the whirling winds of the dark magic overtaking its entire torso before exploding in a blast of the gathered energy.
Rufus flew up to where Sai had been aiming, noticing the crystal perched on Atlas's head was pulsating every time the giant moved. "The crystal! Take it out!"
He flew in, but Atlas twisted its body and knocked him out of the air with one of its shoulder pauldrons. Rufus fell through a distortion and vanished.
"Rufus!" Orlov had dashed over to help heal Gideon, but they weren't able to help Rufus recover if he was in another timeline.
"I can find him," Gideon said. "Just let me…"
His threads flashed back and forth between red and violet.
Sai reappeared in the air where he had been, trying to strike the crystal on Atlas's head, but now that the giant had moved, he ended up slamming face-first into its shoulder before vanishing again.
Atlas's body began flickering between blue accents and red just like Gideon.
"It's…fighting back…!" Gideon strained.
"The control console must've linked Gideon and Atlas's operating systems," Mira guessed. "Which means if he can control the paradox energy…so can Atlas."
"How would the AI even know how to use the paradoxes to its advantage?!" Serah shouted, firing her bow up at Atlas's face. While the giant was staggered and couldn't physically hit them anymore, it was shaking its head and body back and forth to try and deflect the attacks.
"It must have absorbed some of Gideon's consciousness and intelligence."
"So that giant's as smart as Gideon now?" Noel followed.
"It's a new lifeform and unaccustomed to my thought patterns," Gideon said. "A sense of self will not be easy to assimilate into a machine that is not as advanced as my core makeup. All it knows is the base instinct of self preservation — but that is more than enough to order the distortions to protect itself."
"So to stop it from being able to use the distortions —"
A blade sliced through Gideon's torso. His body was set alight from within, burning with flames the same colors as Mira's Zan. Every thread on Gideon's body flashed the same color before blinking out, the light fading from his extremities first and then moving inwards to his chest. All the light was sicked into the blade that had pierced him, before the life faded from his body entirely, and his skin faded to a dull gray. His eyes had gone blank, pupils completely gone.
"GIDEON!"
Rufus warped past the stunned group and appeared behind Gideon's attacker, as though he'd cut through the distortions themselves in his anger. He held Sai at knifepoint, though his victim still had his weapon holding up his friend's limp body.
"I'll kill you…I'll kill you right now if you don't tell me why the fuck you did that!"
"I disrupted Gideon's connection with Atlas and therefore Atlas's connection with the distortions," Sai said calmly. He didn't seem perturbed in the slightest. "I brought you back here just so that you could threaten me. Kill the giant, resolve the paradox, and he'll live again. You know where to aim —"
Sai was sucked into the paradox once more, weapon and all. Rufus dropped his blades to catch Gideon's body and gently lower it to the ground — along with Orlov, who had already been there to support Gideon.
"Alright then," Noel growled. "Enough's enough."
Atlas's stagger had worn off. The giant rose back up again, its layer of protections reforming across its body.
"Oh no you don't!" Serah summoned her Zwerg Scandroid and the two of them began throwing Ravager spells. "You're going down! Rufus! Noel! Steady the stagger! Mira, you're with me! It's not going to hurt anymore of my friends!"
"Right!"
"I'll protect you!" Orlov clasped their hands together and summoned a Protectga spell.
Rufus flew up and summoned all of his blades to slam into the giant's chest together. Swinging just the swords in his hands caused all the other floating blades around him to strike as well just because they were following his movements, effectively hitting Atlas with a non-stop wave of Commando attacks that quickly steadied the stagger.
Atlas reared back and punched the ground team, but thanks to Mira they took minimal damage that Orlov didn't even have to heal. The giant kept trying to swat at Rufus, but Rufus kept moving and made sure to avoid getting sucked into the paradox voids that kept popping up trying to grab him. With Gideon gone, the distortions were going crazy, appearing and disappearing everywhere. Sometimes one of Rei's blades would come soaring through, strike the giant in the arm or shoulder to prevent it from attacking or at least force it to ready its attack again, before falling into another distortion and vanishing.
"Now!" Noel shouted.
"Multicast!" Serah ordered.
Her Zwerg Scandroid concentrated its power and then jumped up, throwing its head down to cast a Thunder spell, and then another and another, then a Thundara and another and another. It rose higher and higher until it finally threw all its power into a Thundaga spell, collapsing onto the ground in a heap with its metal rectangular ring flopping beside it. Luckily, it picked itself up a moment later and hurriedly recovered enough energy to charge up again back to normal levels.
Atlas flashed bright with its stagger, being brought back down and helpless.
"You're done!" Noel twisted his weapon together into javelin form.
"Zan!" Mira pointed her knife not at the giant but at Noel's weapon as he threw it as hard as he could right in the giant's chest.
The Death spell swirled around the javelin, and then the powerful spell exploded right as Noel's weapon made contact. Atlas was struck by the Death spell, and it looked as though Noel had knocked the titan completely over.
He returned his weapon to his hands and split it back into swords. Serah and Mira joined him, breathless as the giant fell backwards, completely knocked off its feet and unable to stand up again.
"So how'd we do?" Noel ventured.
"We did it!" Serah exclaimed.
But the stubborn giant wasn't done yet. It reached above its head and closed its fist around something. A distortion formed in the air, allowing its to pull an entire pillar of stone through and chuck it down at the group.
Serah moved first. She pulled up her bow to aim at the projectile. "Noel with me! Mira — Gideon and Orlov!"
Mira sprinted back towards them and then summoned a Steelguard. Serah's Pulsework Knight appeared beside her as well, protecting the pair.
Noel spun his blades back into a javelin. "I'm on it!"
Serah charged as much magic energy into her bow as she could in the short amount of time that she had. Her arrow hit dead center, light pouring through the already old and crumbling pillar. Noel launched himself up and twisted in the air, pushing his foot into his javelin so that he could strike Serah's arrow and cause the entire column of stone to explode.
"Below!" Noel screamed, realizing that the debris of the column was still falling all around Serah and could still crush her, but there was no more time for her to move.
Rufus swooped in and caught Noel in the air, sending one of his blades down to slam into Serah. He then dived through the nearest distortion portal that appeared in the air, sucking himself, Noel, and Serah — because his blade had made contact with her and his blade was getting pulled through along with him — into the void.
Serah was screaming, unsure if she had been crushed or not. All three of them tumbled through a sea of chaos before finally falling out into the open air. Noel twisted and landed on his feet, but then Serah came crashing down on top of him, knocking them both down.
"Oof!"
"Ah!"
"Hey!"
"Get up!" Rufus urged. He pulled them both to their feet.
"What the…?" Serah admonished. They had landed on the shoulder of the giant.
Noel ran to the edge to see the rubble of the column that had nearly crushed Serah fading into the distortions from whence it came. "How did we get here?"
Rufus shook his head, staring up at the void portal that they had fallen through, which faded alongside the column. "Must've been a connection between the pillar and the —"
"Guys, look out!"
The giant reached up to its shoulder pauldron where they were standing.
"Move!" Noel shouted, grabbing Serah and tossing her before he and Rufus jumped in either direction themselves.
Serah landed on the giant's head, Rufus took flight, and Noel ran up along Atlas's arm while it was still raised to use as a bridge to reach its other shoulder. He drew his blades as he ran, though unsure of really where to aim.
Serah stood, realizing that the glowing crystal beside her had a small distortion rift flowing through it. "This is where they were aiming… Noel! I think I found his weak spot!"
Atlas shook its head as if to get her off, but seeing as its head wasn't exactly very mobile, she just had to jump to the crystalline structure supported by the rest of Atlas's torso. Since the giant had been knocked off its feet, it couldn't move its body independently and it couldn't reach up behind its head, so she had a steady and safe platform.
"Ready?!" Serah called.
Noel twisted his weapons into javenlin form. "Do it!"
"Together now!" Rufus shouted.
Serah drew her bow and charged it with her magic. "Wait for it…!"
"Now!"
Serah fired her charged shot, Noel threw his javelin, Rufus came down on the crystal through the air, plunging his swords into the glowing device.
The crystal shattered, the small rift inside scattering as well and raining down a brilliant shower of fragments that then in turn faded into nothing but light. The clouds parted above them, finally allowing sunlight through and parting the rains.
The giant staggered forward, hands falling to the ground first as it knelt in defeat. It was deactivating.
"Uh oh!" Noel exclaimed. He began to slip against the smooth stone as Atlas tilted over.
"I got'cha!" Rufus swooped in and grabbed Serah in one arm before then catching Noel just as he lost his footing.
Luckily, Rufus was stronger than he looked, able to easily carry two passengers in a controlled descent to the ground. They were only human, after all. Barely weighed anything.
"Nice job!" Mira exclaimed. She ran up to the trio as they met her a short distance from the fallen titan.
"I think you popped his brain!" Orlov exclaimed.
"What now? Do we have to —?"
The ground began shaking. They turned to find Atlas's body beginning to glow and fading into the distortions, but this time…it was different.
"Whoa! Now what?!" Noel complained.
An enormous flashbang of light ripped through the sky above Atlas, spreading into a giant portal of distortions. Atlas pulsed and then faded into light, vanishing.
"The paradox is dissipating…!" Serah realized.
The light above began spreading to certain objects like the stone pillars that Atlas had knocked over, picking them up and reversing time. They returned to their original states before the giant had appeared, the ruins and the Academy's scaffolding itself returning to where it belonged — including the excavated hand of Atlas.
Then, the paradox coalesced onto one final object: a stone wall that had been blocking the path behind where Atlas had stood. The distortions vanished, leaving a path to a new area revealed.
"Gideon? Wake up. The paradox is gone." Orlov knelt to shake him. "Gideon, come on! Do the…the thingy! The rebooting thing! Gideon!"
Rufus dropped his weapons as he joined Orlov in examining their limp friend's body. "His systems are still shut down. All the life has been…drained out of him. He's just a hunk of advanced tech now…"
"No! He can…he can repair! It was just a stab wound! It should've gone right through him! Gideon! I order you to wake up! I'm keeping you, remember? That means you wake up when I tell you to wake up because you're scaring me!"
"He won't wake up because his soul is gone." Sai and Rei appeared out of the paradox energies. They had sheathed their weapons, all but a long sword in Sai's hand with a colorful hilt and an iridescent sheen to the blade.
Orlov rose to their feet. "You said he would be okay if we resolved the paradox! Why did you kill him?! Did you lie?!"
"I merely displaced his soul," Sai said calmly. "It's the equivalent of killing him without killing him."
"Sai…?" Serah hardly recognized her friend, the gentle man who had helped rebuild New Bodhum with her and the others. He looked indifferent to Orlov's distress; Sai was always concerned with reassuring the ones around him that everything was going to be all right.
Rei shook her head, staring around the area as the rain began to slowly thin. "Must be early days for you. 5 AF? Early days for us all — time travelers and the rest."
"Why?" Mira asked. "When are you from?"
She shrugged. "Oh, who's keeping count anymore? Somewhere around 400 AF?"
"That's a long time…" Orlov whispered.
Sai stepped forward and held his blade out to Gideon. Rufus stood and summoned his sword, much shorter and less imposing as the weapon Sai was holding, but Rufus didn't care. "What are you doing?"
"Returning his soul." He held up the blade so they could get a better look.
Mira gasped. "You…why do you have that?"
Sai grinned. "Spoilers."
"What is it?" Noel asked. "Mira, what is that weapon?"
She summoned her Zan. "The parent blade of mine. My father's weapon."
"My father's weapon too," Rufus reminded them. "That's the Zanmato."
"That's Zanmato…?" Serah's hand rose up to her chin. "I'd heard the stories, about how it could store the souls of victims it had killed. Rei, Shu…they were killed by Zanmato, but the blade could revive them as well."
Sai tossed the weapon up, flipped it in his hand, and then jabbed it into Gideon's stomach like he was planting the weapon on his grave.
The group exclaimed in surprise, but no one moved to stop him. The blade flared to life, set ablaze with its colorful phoenix flames which then seeped throughout Gideon's body. The threads of his body lit up once more, starting from the point of the blade's contact and spreading outwards to his extremities — the reverse of his death. When the light had overtaken his whole body, Gideon's body seized. His threads flashed iridescent and his eyes finally opened.
"Gideon!" Orlov practically fell on top of him as Sai retrieved his sword.
Gideon carefully blinked. He didn't have to breathe, but Rufus had a feeling he would be attempting to if he did, just to confirm he was alive. He was regaining his bearings, slowly recognizing that there were people around him.
"Rufus," he said first.
"Gideon," Rufus replied.
"Gideon!" Orlov squeezed him hard enough that he winced — which was impressive, considering his fal'Cie state. But then, Orlov was a fal'Cie too, and far stronger than they looked.
"Was I stabbed?" he asked flatly.
"You were stabbed and you died and you really scared me! Don't ever do that again! You need to be more careful!"
"I cannot promise outside forces will take the choice of my current state of being from my —"
"Oh, just promise you're not going to intentionally scare them," Rufus grumbled.
Gideon glanced up at him, then back down to Orlov. He carefully pulled his hand up to pat them awkwardly on the back. "I will not intentionally scare you."
"Good!"
After a short period of calming Orlov down and Gideon assessing and healing from his injuries, they finally managed to get him upright again.
"Your body will still be suffering from injury, but your systems have already begun healing," Sai said. He made the motion as if to sheath Zanmato, and the weapon vanished. "Might need another day of rest, but you are resilient, so I knew you could withstand the temporary state of death."
"You never answered our question." Mira's heels clicked across the stones as she moved in front of Sai. "Why do you have Mataecharonsan's weapon? That sword was born from his soul, the power of ultimate destruction."
"The power of desire," he corrected. "Your father was a warrior bound to duties he hated, duties involving the care of others and the neglect of still more. This weapon was born from his soul in an attempt to appease him, to strike down any who would threaten him, because he had become so helpless to destroy the ones who had taken away from him in turn — namely, King Barthandelus. When he met Asushunamir, he learned that what he wanted wasn't entirely death. He wanted something to die, it's true, but he also wanted that which he loved to live. Now, this weapon holds the power of both life and death."
"So he gave it to you?" Rufus pressed.
"He gave it to me…in a future I hope you'll never have to see."
The paradox over the sky swirled like a maelstrom and then began to fade.
"We were to defeat Atlas before it could cause the fall of Cocoon," Rei explained, "but the giant was implanted with a paradox rift in time that kept allowing it to slip away from us. Thanks to your efforts, Atlas is defeated, and the paradox should be lifting as well."
"Back to the timeline for us," Sai sighed.
"But…who placed the source of the paradox inside of Atlas in the first place?" Mira wondered. "I mean, that couldn't have happened naturally, right?"
Rei crossed her arms. "Atlas was naturally a very strong point in the timeline. It would magnetize any nearby paradoxes to it just from the sheer weight of the fate of the future it held on its shoulders."
"But that still means it wasn't the direct source of the paradox, just the tool used to cause it because of its big impact, that about right?" Noel guessed.
She nodded. Her skin began to shimmer with the paradox energy. "Back to the timeline we go, then."
"Wait!" Serah called. "If we stopped Atlas here in the past, does that mean we also stopped him in the future? You said it could cause the fall of Cocoon —"
"We can't tell you," Sai said.
"Because of spoilers?" Rufus grumbled.
"Because now that the paradox is resolved, the timeline is going to change again, and we honestly have no idea how it will end up. Maybe Atlas never even exists anymore. Maybe it doesn't cause the fall of Cocoon."
"We are at the whims of fate," Rei shrugged. "But I believe we'll be seeing each other again soon. Perhaps a younger version of us. Good luck."
"And remember to tell Gideon to be careful with that new power of his."
Sai gave a salute before the two of them transformed into pure light that flickered out and vanished.
"I wonder what caused the paradox effect," Serah muttered. "Atlas might have attracted the distortion, but that still leaves the question of where the paradox came from in the first place."
Noel crossed his arms, brow tightening in thought. "This is just a theory, but I think there might be someone out there derailing history and bending the timeline. That's why Atlas and these gates are appearing out of nowhere."
"Is this why Cocoon has been destroyed in your future?"
"Hm. I hadn't thought of that possibility. You're saying that I was born in some kind of alternate timeline just like Rufus, Mira, Gideon, and Orlov?"
"You did arrive on the same night of the meteor," Orlov pointed out.
"If that's true, then is someone trying to destroy the pillar? And is Lightning trying to stop them?"
"Then could this 'someone' be responsible for Lightning disappearing?" Mira followed.
"Could be," Rufus shrugged. "You remember your sister coming home, right? You have memories from before everything got twisted."
She nodded. "But why only me? Maybe Rei and the other fal'Cie believed me, maybe they remembered the truth and knew about the distortions even back then. But they're fal'Cie — special fal'Cie at that. I barely played any part in saving Cocoon like my sister and the others…"
"That's the question. We'll keep looking for an answer."
"Well, you were the one who brought your friends together and woke them up to the dangers of Cocoon and the plot to see it fall, right?" Mira pointed out. "Maybe someone targeted you to chance your history, and Lightning was just a side effect."
Serah's face tightened into a pensive stare. "Who would do something like that?"
"I don't know," Noel admitted. "Someone who has the power to change history. And since we can use the gates, we'll have to stop them."
"This ability to control monsters and use the gates…could it be a gift from Lightning?"
"You mean maybe Lightning's the reason you also remember the truth," Orlov followed. "I dunno, Serah. Maybe you're just special all on your own!"
"We'll just have to find her so you can ask her yourself!" Noel chuckled.
Mira tapped her chin. "So someone is messing with history. Lightning's fighting them, we have the power to fight them too. Any ideas as to who it might be?"
Rufus knocked his knuckle against his temple. "I feel like I'm forgetting something, like I know someone who could do something like that."
"Are your memories acting up too, Rufus?" Serah frowned. "I hope all of you won't start having memory issues."
"Maybe our culprit is trying to mess with our memories to keep their identity hidden," Orlov sighed. "I think…there was someone who we were afraid of, someone who ripped us from our timeline and threw us into the Void until we ended up at your village."
"Yeah," Rufus agreed. "I was…I was really scared of her…"
Noel sighed. "Maybe it's…no, that's impossible. But if it is who I think it is, the only person who can stop him is another Guardian, and that means me…"
"If it ends up that all of our suspicions are correct, that might mean we have a big fight on our hands," Mira sighed. "There's someone I'm worried about too."
Serah wasn't listening to the group's speculation. She had begun staring at the rain-soaked ground, deep in thought.
'Free me from the bonds… of the goddess. I only wish… to be with him.'
"Who was talking just now?"
"Serah, are you hearing things? This can't be good…"
"The bonds of the goddess…to be with him," Gideon whispered.
Orlov shook their head. "We're all tired. Maybe we should get some rest."
"What about that place?" Mira pointed ahead to where the rubble of the ruins behind the giant had been. Now, there was a small area filled with deliberately-placed stone monuments.
"Are those…gravestones?" Rufus realized.
"Wasn't Alyssa looking for gravestones?" Orlov recalled.
Noel dug through his pockets and pulled out his communicator. "Alyssa! We took Atlas down. That place you were looking for is right in front of us."
The static crackle fizzed to life immediately. "That's great news! I'm on my way! Stay there! I'm tracking your location!"
Serah shrugged. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a look around."
They made their way over to the grave site. Orlov knelt in front of one of the old crumbling stones. It clearly wasn't a proper grave marker — just a random stone hastily carved into by someone without the proper tools.
"These ruins were recently excavated, were they not? But these stones were moved into position recently." They placed their hand along the thin layer of grass. "This dirt was disturbed barely…no, not even a decade hence."
"What's this…?" Serah had found the tallest and most cared for stone, which looked properly carved and newer than the regular gravestones.
"There's an epitaph," Noel noted. "Cocoon script, I'd say. Old Cocoon script. Sorry, it's hard to read. I was taught both Cocoon and Pulsian script in school, but…"
Gideon knelt before the stone, running his fingers along the writing. "'Here lie the innocent victims of chance, cast out and cast down. May their souls find the path that leads them home.'"
"Cast out…" Serah muttered. "These must be victims of the Purge."
And yes, I'm imagining Sai flying around like you can in Minecraft when you're wielding a Trident in the rain. It was a happy coincidence, but it is now part of his skillset. Woo!