The first thing to hit my ears is the sound of rustling on grass. Images flash before my eyes: Barthandelus, falling through the pool; Barthandelus, fusing with Orphan; Orphan, no more than a broken clock with a scream etched in its face. Cocoon fell, and Vanille and Fang got separated from us. And then? Nothing. Peace, quiet, until a whisper entered my mind and urged me to wake up.
Gran Pulse met my eyes as Vanille spoke to the others. My limbs felt stiff, tired, and for a few moments I sat on the ground with my legs splayed around me as I tried to regain full control over them. To my left stood Snow, my right Hope, and in front of me Sazh. We all locked eyes before our gaze turned upwards, to what was left of Cocoon. To Fang and Vanille, sleeping inside the crystal pillar that saved the world.
The wind whipped my hair across my face and the sun blinded me, but the grass was soft against my exhausted body, and my mind begged for rest until I saw, in the distance, two silhouettes. It was without any mind to my body's aches and pains that I stood and staggered in their direction.
Snow was over there before I was. He picked her up and spun her around and the two of them fell into a heap of childish laughter on the grass. Sazh was there, too, holding the owner of the second silhouette: a boy, no older than four years old, whose hair was as big as Sazh's. The chocobo chick buried herself in the boy's hair as he laughed, and Sazh cried at the little boy's happy face.
Hope stood next to me, and yet despite the apparent sadness in his face, he turned to look at me with a smile. I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, he wrapped his around my waist, and the two of us lumbered towards the other four of our party.
My sister embraced me with tears streaming down her face. "Lightning," she whispered, resting a hand against my cheek. A smile lit up my features, and I felt a sob bubble up from the back of my throat. Lest I embarrass myself in front of our company, I buried my face inside the crook of her neck as my shoulders wracked with the reality of it all whamming into me.
Serah, my only family, who I spent years pushing away because I only wanted to protect her; Serah, who I should have believed no matter how ridiculous or horrifying the situation; Serah, who left me with tears in her eyes and a brand scorched into her arm, burning more intensely with each passing minute - she was warm, safe, even, in my weary arms. Weeks I spent trying to make up for years of losing her, weeks of all-night patrols and attacking every enemy in sight because I needed to be strong enough to make up for the fact that I could not protect her.
I felt Snow wrap his own arms around both of us, enveloping us in his bear-like presence in a way that, strangely enough, was encouraging and even slightly soothing. Hope rested a hand on my back in a loose embrace - more of a reassurance that "yes, I am here for you, Light, if you ever need someone".
Pulling away, I pawed at my cheeks, trying to erase the tears that puffed my skin up and irritated my eyes. Serah smiled at me, nestling once more inside Snow's chest. I looked at Sazh who held the boy up on his shoulders. "Dajh," he said to the boy, smiling up at him through watery eyes, "meet Light and Hope." He gestured to us respectively, and the little boy waved his chubby hands at us with a grin on his young face.
"Hi, Light and Hope! I'm Dajh Katzroy!" he replied brightly, and Sazh's breath caught in his throat.
I turned to face the crystal pillar, narrowing in on the very center where the crystal was densest. That's where Fang and Vanille were, I knew. Hope reached for my hand and grasped it firmly. Beside us, Snow was laughing about their wedding plans: how soon government would be ready on Pulse, how soon they could get someone together to create the wedding dress Serah dreamed of. Sazh told Dajh all about the wild chocobos, and how soon he would take him to visit their den in the heart of Gran Pulse.
Once again emotion boiled in the back of my throat, and I gripped Hope's hand as if to stave off the brunt of it. This was how things were supposed to be: warm, bright, happy. Hope squeezed my hand back before giving me a kind smile.
"It'll be okay, Light," he told me, and I believed him.