broken pieces; au of the game verse
this is an age-reversal fic that was highly requested on tumblr ;D

The first time she met him in a proper light, she'd been scared out of her mind. Not because he was scary - he didn't seem all that intimidating - but because she and the others were now branded as Pulse l'cie.

Enemies of Cocoon.

The reason she'd lost her beloved sister and had gotten into this mess in the first place.

Lightning collapsed to the ground of the crystallized Lake Bresha, just sitting there and staring at nothing, though in the background, she could hear Snow babbling on and on about something idiotic. He'd just helped fight off some monsters - Cie'th - and was acting like it was completely normal.

She'd never hated him more than she did right at that moment.

"Hey, uh…" a different voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked up at the silver-haired man standing in front of her. Hope, she recalled vaguely. That red-haired girl had said his name in the Vestige. "Are you all right…?"

Lightning only answered by shaking her head and curling up into a ball, all of her fear coming across in her tone. "Just leave me alone!"

She must have spoken louder than she'd intended, because all of the conversation stopped short. She could hear loud footsteps crunching over the crystal ground, and she knew it was Snow.

"Look, Lightning - "

"Shut up!" She hopped up to her feet in anger, wishing she was tall enough to punch him. Though she was taller than the average fifteen-year old, it didn't help when Snow was massive in height. "All of this your fault! Serah never would've left me alone if it wasn't for you!"

"We were never going to leave you alone!" Snow argued back. "Serah and I are getting married because we both want to take care of you!"

"I can take care of myself!" Lightning stomped off, not looking nearly as threatening as she felt. She could feel eyes on the back of her head as she went on ahead in blind annoyance, just wishing everything could go back to how it was before her fifteenth birthday.

—

"So you're mad at him, too?" Lightning scuffed her boots in the dirt. Serah wasn't around to reprimand her for it, though the thought made her fists clench.

"You could say that," Hope replied, looking up at a huge, jagged wall that was in front of them. They'd ended up in the Vile Peaks after crashing an airship. Luckily, the remains wouldn't look too out of place - there was so much junk here.

"What do you mean?"

"It's sort of complicated." Hope was quiet, like he was thinking about something, but obviously chose not to reveal it and started to scale the wall instead.

Lightning instantly got to her feet. "Hey!"

"We need to keep moving, however it takes," he said, grunting a little from the effort. "We're wanted criminals. Sazh and Vanille know that, too. And Snow…" He grunted again, this time in animosity, "they're going to find him eventually. It'll take him days to dig Serah out of there."

"Stop it," Lightning demanded, hugging her arms around herself for a moment. Seeing her sister in a crystal form - as though in some sort of waking death - had been incredibly horrifying. That was her fate. That was their fate.

If they could figure out their Focus, anyway.

"…Sorry," Hope eventually replied, pausing in his climbing. He turned to her and extended a hand. "Can you get up here?"

"…Yeah. I think so."

But when she tried, she stumbled and lost her grip more than once, even with Hope's assistance. He tried to be patient with her, but she could tell he was growing more and more restless every time she slipped.

It seemed like hours before they were over the wall and had finally reached solid ground again. She took a couple of shaky breaths, resting her hands on her knees since standing up straight didn't seem like a feasible option at the moment. "How…how'd you do that so easily…?"

"I work…" he trailed off. "I used to work for Euride Gorge. I studied the fal'cie and researched ways to make their contributions even more profitable to us. Or…" He gave a hollow laugh. "I tried to do that, anyway. Mostly they had me fighting the monsters that got too close, or generating some peacekeepers. Fighting stuff like that keeps you in shape, I guess."

"Oh," was all Lightning replied, finally standing up now that she'd caught her breath. Truthfully, she'd hoped that it was only a fluke, but of course not. Was he going to let her keep following him? Maybe he thought she'd slow him down…

The thought kept nagging at her more and more as they walked. She couldn't do this alone. She had nowhere to go without Serah. Hope had to stay with her -

The thought that he might not startled her so much that she clumsily tripped over a step leading up to a bridge and crashed to the ground with a cry. Hope barely turned to her when he spoke.

"Look, Lightning, maybe you should go find Sazh and Vanille and - "

"No!" she cried, trying to get to her feet, but a sudden flash of pain gripped her chest and she clutched it in agony. "You can't!"

His eyebrows knit in concern, but his voice was telling the opposite. "I just can't have someone slowing me down on the way to Eden, all right?"

"I can't do this without you! I - " The rest of Lightning's words were cut off by a horrifying scream and a burst of light. Out of it rose a menacing-looking figure that stood before her, brandishing a dual-sided weapon. Immediately, it moved to strike her -

- at least until flying boomerang knocked the creature's weapon out of the way.

"Leave her alone!" Hope shouted, immediately moving to position himself in front of Lightning, jumping to catch his boomerang as it returned to him. He looked over his shoulder. "Lightning! You have to fight this thing!"

"But - !"

"Trust me! You can do it!"

"…Okay." The sword she had with her might not hold up against such a beast, but she did have l'cie magic now…

The fight was brief, almost as though there was some kind of unseen force urging her on. When the beast succumbed, she felt its power within her, knowing that the steed was now hers to call on whenever she needed. Odin.

"Are you all right?" Hope asked once she'd caught her breath, sounding much kinder than he had before the battle.

"I…I think so." She nodded in affirmation. "What…was that?"

"I think it might have been an eidolon. There are legends that talk about them, but…" He shrugged, obviously not knowing much more on the topic. "Anyway, look - we can rest for a bit over there, if you want."

She nodded, following him to a couple of boulders that would shield them well enough from soldiers' eyes. After they'd sat down across from each other, Lightning curled herself up in a ball, not looking at him as she spoke.

"So…I can still go with you?"

He was quiet for so long that she forced herself to look up. To her shock, he seemed almost surprised by her question. "Yes," he finally said. "We might as well stick together. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Okay." That answer seemed to satisfy her and against her will, her eyes fell closed, her exhaustion finally allowing her some rest. Unknown to her, Hope watched on with a soft smile, shaking his head when she murmured Serah's name in her sleep.

"Not by a long shot."

—

She'd never seen anything like the Gapra Whitewood before. However, Hope seemed familiar enough with it - according to him, he'd been sent her several times for work-related reasons. Lightning wanted to ask why, but they needed to keep a lookout, since there were likely to be soldiers here.

"Okay, I'll take point," Hope declared, his boomerang already out. As silly as it was, he really was pretty handy with that thing, especially when he combined it with his new l'cie powers. "Watch my back."

The ensuing fights after her battle with Odin had given Lightning some confidence in her abilities, which may have been what prompted her to ask, "Actually…why don't you let me take point?"

He turned to her in surprise, but to her relief, he didn't seem annoyed. In fact…he looked, well, proud. "Are you sure you can do it?"

"Yes." She quickly walked up in front of him, turning around with a determined expression. "It's not a question of can or can't. Some things in life you just do."

"…You're absolutely right." He smiled at her, one that was so full of pride that she had to turn back around to avoid blushing. Still, he spoke. "Keep your eyes front. I'll watch the rear."

"Right."

Taking point felt oddly natural to her. Perhaps it helped that she had Hope right behind her, and he was always right beside her whenever they were coaxed into battle. He actually allowed her to deal with most of the offense, however, especially since that meant he was able to better hone his skills with healing magic.

She had to admit…they made a pretty good team.

That confidence carried even further as she dared herself to ask when it was quiet around them, "What do you have against Snow, anyway?"

His eyes darted around, as though he was hoping for an enemy. No such luck. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" She shrugged a bit. "Back at Lake Bresha, you seemed kind of mad at him, I guess. I don't know."

"I was," he replied easily, "but the same can be said for you. You looked like you were about to kick him the whole time."

"I should have," she agreed, rage suddenly building within her. Why did the thought of Snow always do that to her? "I've wanted to kick him ever since I met him. Serah was always going on about how great he was, saying that we'd be some kind of big, happy family, but I don't need an older brother, and I especially don't need one as stupid as he is!"

If Hope seemed surprised at any of this, he hid it well. Honestly, he was the first adult she'd ever met that didn't automatically spout out whatever stupid thought popped into his head. "He and your sister were going to get married, right?"

"Yeah." She sighed and shook her head. "They told me on my fifteenth birthday, like it was supposed to be a present. Worst birthday ever. And then all of those NORA guys came over - "

"Nora?"

"Yeah," Lightning echoed, unperturbed at the interruption. She was more annoyed at the fact itself than having to explain it. "It's this group Snow started. It stands for No Obligations, Rules or Authority. Dumb, right?"

"Of all the things to call it," Hope muttered, running a hand through his hair.

Immediately, Lightning could tell something was wrong. "What is it?"

He looked as though he was debating on whether or not to answer, but then nodded, as though deciding the affirmative. "You're not the only one who has a problem with Snow."

Her brows knit in confusion. "What are you talking about?" Had Hope and Snow been friends back in Bodhum? But then surely she would have seen him around…and anyway, Hope had mentioned earlier about working for Euride Gorge, which wasn't all that close to Bodhum.

"It was during the Purge," he continued in a low voice. "Snow - or I guess those NORA people - were looking for volunteers to take down some of the soldiers. I was with my mother - her name is…was Nora - then, and she…she volunteered."

"What happened?"

He was clearly fighting to keep his voice steady. "The bridge they were standing on collapsed. Snow basically watched her fall to her death without doing a damn thing." His jaw clenched and he started pacing around a little. "Not a damn thing!"

"Hope…" Lightning wanted to say or do something comforting, but she didn't know what. She knew what it was like to watch your parents die in front of you - though at least Serah had shielded her from the worst of their mom's illness. "I…"

"Actually, that's a reason we're headed in this direction," Hope interrupted, running a hand through this hair. "Palumpolum is past the Whitewood."

"What's over there?"

"…My father." He let out a long, low breath. "We don't really get along so well, but I need to tell him what happened. I don't know what's going to happen when we get to Eden to fight the Sanctum." He gave her a tiny little half smile. "Sorry I didn't tell you."

"It's okay, but…" She wrung her hands a bit. "What will your father think? About you - us - being l'cie?"

"I…I don't know." Hope lifted his arm and stared at the brand there before turning and starting to walk off. "I guess we'll find out."

—

Seeing a Cocoon fal'cie - Carbuncle - up close was a little unnerving, maybe because they were enemy. Hope seemed relaxed enough, however, perhaps because he'd worked close enough to them before.

"It's kind of admirable that you try and figure out new ways to make stuff without the fal'cie," Lightning said as they wandered along. "Most of us have basically just been following whatever they do ever since we were born."

"Yes, we…we do," Hope agreed. "We're…we're pets to them."

"Pets?"

"Don't you see?" He paced around in circles. "We just obey them all mindlessly because it's what we were trained to do. We have no other way of living or thinking."

"I don't get what you're saying."

"Light, listen to me." He looked at her, serious as he'd ever been. "You need to forget about getting back at Snow. That's not the objective here anymore."

"What?!" She stepped up to him, her eyes wide with horror and shaking her head. "What are you talking about? He's the reason both of us became l'cie!"

"That doesn't matter now! You just - " He rested his hands on her shoulders. "Trust me, okay? We need to think bigger than just our grudges."

"No!" She shoved his hands off. "Snow has to pay to what he did to both of us, and now I'm powerful enough to stop him from hurting anybody ever again!"

"Light - "

"Shut up," she hissed, stomping over towards an elevator. "You're acting just as bad as he is. When you have a goal, you need to focus on it. Why can't anybody see that?"

"H-Hey!" Hope didn't answer her since she'd already slammed a couple of buttons on a nearby console and he had to race to catch up. She didn't even really know what she was doing - she just had the urge to run away from this whole conversation.

All she really wanted to do, though, was run away from her fate.

—

"L'cie aren't people. They're targets."

Lightning had never seen so many soldiers at once, not even during the Purge. It didn't help that every single one of them had their weapons pointed at her and Hope.

Hope already had his boomerang out, confidence oozing in his stance. "Run. I'll keep them busy."

She stared at the back of his head in horror. "What?"

He didn't quite look at her, but she could easily imagine the determined expression that must have been on his face. "You survive."

Her eyes widened and she took a couple of steps back, immediately realizing what he was up to. Hope was going to potentially sacrifice himself in order to let her escape…

…because he didn't want to watch anyone else he cared about die.

Her heart thudded, but she didn't move, still too shocked at his incredibly stupid plan. Before either of them could do anything, there was a sudden burst of ice that knocked down a bunch of soldiers. She heard an engine rev, and there was more ice everywhere, covering Palumpolum and turning it into some frozen city.

That was l'cie magic. And the person casting it -

"It's him!" she cried, starting to rush forward, but Hope immediately yanked her back and started knocking down more soldiers with his boomerang and magic. Lightning pulled out her sword and did the same.

It seemed like ages before it was finally quite enough. She glared at Snow, more than ready to give him a piece of her mind, but before she could, she felt Hope's hand on her back, gently pushing her towards Snow and…a motorcycle?

"Look after Light for me, would you? I've got something to take care of."

"I'm not going with him!" she protested, but Hope was already running off, a sight that angered her more than it ought to have.

"And I ain't lookin' after some kid," an unfamiliar voice said with a cocky smirk. Lightning didn't recognize her at all - she didn't look like anybody from Cocoon, with what her wild black hair and weird clothes - and was that a l'cie brand on her arm?!

Before she could observe it, though, the newcomer held up three fingers. "And then there were three. Heh." She jogged off in the direction Hope had gone, presumably to follow him.

Snow didn't give her any time to take this in and hoisted her up on the motorcycle, which Lightning suddenly realized was an eidolon. He climbed on in front of her and looked over his shoulder with a stupid grin. "So, how've you been?"

She didn't get a chance to answer as more soldiers appeared and Snow drove off. All she could do was hang on and fear for her life.

—

"What happens when your actions end up ruining someone else's life, Snow? What then?" Lightning's frustration and anger had been building up inside of her. It was a slow-building fire that was about ready to explode. "What are you doing to do so about it?"

"I told you," Snow replied, sounding anguished. He gripped the railing he'd been standing against. "I will do whatever it takes to bring Serah back to us. Not just to me - but back to - "

"It's not just that!" she cried, her hand automatically coming to grip the hilt of her sword. "It's not just my life you ruined. What about Hope's?!"

"W-What?"

"Nora Estheim," Lightning said in a low, dangerous tone. She whipped out her sword, aiming it straight up at Snow's chest. "That was his mother's name, and you killed her! It's why he became a l'cie!"

Snow's eyes widened hugely. "Wait, so she - that was - ?"

"And now you're gonna pay for everything!"

The sword rose high over her head, but before she could make a move, an explosion was set off from close behind her, the sheer force laughing her forward over the now-broken railing. Snow immediately jumped after her and tried to hold her steady in a way that would shield her from the worst of it, but it didn't stop the two of them from crashing into various things before they hit the ground.

The last thing Lightning saw were search pilots in the sky before she blacked out.

—

Though she felt she'd been holding her own against the monster that'd come to attack her and Snow - who was unconscious - Lightning was still grateful when Hope and the black-haired woman, who she now knew as Fang, showed up. The battle was much easier with them to back her up and it went down in no time.

When it was over, she turned to Hope, wondering why she felt like she was about to blush at the concerned look on his face. It felt like it'd been months since she'd seen him, not hours.

"Umm…" she started, wondering how to put this into words. "I…"

"It's okay," Hope said gently.

Even though everything was far from okay, even though she'd very nearly had Snow's blood on her hands because of her anger, and even though she had no idea what they were going to do next, Hope's reassurance in those two simple words seemed to release a flood of rarely-felt emotions within Lightning. It just completely overwhelmed her that he still saw her in such a positive light even after everything that had happened.

Maybe that was why she suddenly couldn't stop herself from stepping forward and flinging her arms around his waist.

"L-Light…?" Hope stuttered, obviously surprised.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into his chest, more for causing so much grief than for the hug itself.

Slowly, she felt his arms come around her, embracing her gently. "You'll be okay," he murmured. "I'll keep you safe."

Though she wanted to argue that she could look after herself, Lightning knew that it wasn't entirely the truth, so she replied with a promise she knew she could make. "Me too. I mean…I'll watch out for you too."

At that declaration, he pulled away from the hug slightly. There was a relieved smile on his face and he teasingly poked her forehead, to which she playfully swatted his hand away.

Before either of them could say anything else, Fang's voice interrupted, "Don't forget about this one." She was kneeling down by Snow, who was still unconscious.

Hope started walking over there to assist in carrying him and Lightning followed. "I'm sure he'll be all right. We can get him patched up at my place."

"Besides, he's too stubborn to die," Lightning added from next to Hope, who smiled at her and offered his free hand for her to take. Though she initially didn't want to - she was perfectly capable of following them by herself - something decided to let her give in and she slipped her palm against his.

Hope smiled again and squeezed her fingers gently, wordlessly letting her know that he would always have her back. They were partners.

No matter what their fate as l'cie held for them…at least she knew the truth in that.