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Summary- Lightning and her friends have won. Now they have a new world that they must make their own. Though they know that together they can do anything.

Chapter 3: Reuniting the Family

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Hope and I walk in silence the rest of the way to the meadow where I woke up. It's starting to get later and I can tell that the sun will set soon. I hope that the others have managed to find some fire wood. I wonder if they were able to find any of the others. I begin to make a mental list of everything we will need to do in the next few days. We will need to find some sort of shelter, we need to find a better source of food (we can't live off of just apples), and we need to start looking for other people.

As we near the meadow I can hear Snow talking loudly. He seems to be telling a story. I can hear laughter, though it's definitely not just Serah, Fang and Vanille. We finally reach the meadow and I can see where they've managed to start a fire and they are all sitting around it. The four of them are there, as well as Noel and Yuel. I don't see any sign of Sazh or Dajh though.

Serah is the first to notice us as we approach. She gets up and runs to us.

"Light! You're back! Oh and you found Hope! What's in there?" She is smiling as she pointed to my cape full of apples.

"I found an apple orchard a while back, so I picked a bunch. That's also where I found Hope, well more like he found me." I say as we walk back to the others. I set the apples down while everyone else jumps up to greet Hope.

Vanille runs up to him and practically jumps on him and manages to knock him down. I feel a slight pain in my chest at the sight, but quickly brush it off. When he stands back up Fang walks up and smacks his back, knocking him to the ground again, and comments on his height. Snow grabs him and messes with his hair while laughing.

Noel briefly says hello to me as he goes to talk to Hope. They stare at each other for a second. At first Hope has a guarded look in his eyes and Noel looks unsure.

"Hello Noel. It's been a long time" Hope's voice is steely, as if he's worried that Noel could attack any minute. I decide that I need to ask him about that later.

"Hello Hope." Noel takes a deep breath. "Look man, I'm sorry. You were right and I should have trusted your judgment. Who knows, maybe if I had things wouldn't have ended up going so wrong."

Hope still looks unsure but then looks to me and his eyes soften. I know he can see the questions in my eyes and he smiles at me lightly. He looks back to Noel and the softness in Hope's eyes and his smile disappear.

"I'm glad you finally see that, but it's a little late. Don't you think? Besides I'm not really the one you should be apologizing to." He nods towards me. By this point Snow, Fang, and Vanille have all backed away. "If she forgives you then I guess I can too."

"Hope, there's nothing for me to forgive. I understand why he did what he did. In fact I would have done the same thing." I stare intently at Hope as I speak. He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly.

"Alright Light. If that's how you feel, then I'll play nice." I smile at him and he smiles back, but there is still a wary look in his eyes. Noel just nods and goes back to sit with Yuel. There is a thick tension in the air until Snow decides to speak up.

"Okay now that that's taken care of let's why don't we work on our game plan a bit."

We all move to sit around the fire and I pull out my cape full of apples and everyone takes what they want. I sit back down and everyone starts to eat. Hope comes and sits close to me. Our arms brush each other and it sends a tingly sensation up and down my arm. I can tell there is something he wants to say to me but he keeps silent. I decide that later I will pull him aside and talk to him alone, most likely after everyone else is asleep. He rests his arms by his sides and I gently brush my hand against his. He looks at me and I mouth the word 'Later' to him. He seems to understand what I mean and nods.

"Right. First thing we need to do is find more reliable sources of food. As we mentioned earlier Hope and I found an apple orchard and on the way there is a stream, so water is not an issue. However we cannot survive on apples alone. Did any of you guys find anything?" I look at the others and Snow speaks up.

"While we were out Serah and I saw some animals. I thought maybe we can try to make some sort of spear or something and we could probably eat them. Most of them are pretty fast though, so maybe a few traps would work. Oh, and we found those two." Snow points to Noel and Yuel.

"That's actually not a bad idea Snow. I'm sure we can find some rocks and sticks to make a spear, and if we can find some rope or vines I can make a snare trap. Fang, Vanille what about you too? Did you find anything useful?" I ask looking at them.

"We found a river and there were lots of fish!" Vanille says excitedly.

"Yea, it's probably the same one that trickles into that stream of yours. We followed it for a while and found a couple of caves at the bottom of a waterfall. Way I figure it we can use those for shelter if need be."

"That sounds good. If we can find a shallow enough spot in the river then we can catch the fish with our hands, or once we managed to get some spears put together we can use them. It's getting late, so I think we should stay where we are for the night and in the morning we can go take a closer look at those caves. Just to be safe we should set up a watch schedule. I'll take first watch. With as many people as we have we can probably work it out so no one has more than a 2 hour watch."

We agree that I will take first watch, Fang will take second, Snow will take third, and Noel will take fourth. Hope volunteers to take first watch with me.

"One more thing, I know this is probably a moot point, but was there any sign of Sazh and Dajh, or anyone else? I ask everyone as they continue to eat. They all shake their heads. "Okay that is another thing we need to add to our to-do list. After we've managed to gather some supplies we will start to look for anyone else. With luck we'll be able to find Sazh and Dajh soon."

"I hope they are at least together." Serah adds solemnly.

"Hey don't worry babe. All of us woke up close to the people we love the most, so I'm sure they're together." Snow says trying to comfort her. I can see that it works.

She smiles at him and says "Yeah, I'm sure you're right. And we all woke up close together, so maybe they aren't too far from here. They just weren't as close as everyone else." She smiles some more and snuggles into her fiancé.

By the time everyone finishes eating it is dark so everyone except Hope and me go to sleep. I start out by walking around the perimeter of the meadow looking for any signs of danger. After I am reasonable assured that nothing is lurking about I head back to the fire where Hope is sitting. He is watching me as I approach.

Before I manage to sit down he stands up, silently grabs my hand, and leads me away from where everyone is sleeping. He leads me over to a group of large rocks and we sit down on them. The fire light casts shadows over his face making it difficult for me to read what he's feeling. He lets out a small sigh before he speaks.

"I got the feeling earlier that you wanted to talk to me. Everyone is asleep now, so I thought it would be a good time, you know since everyone is asleep." He looks a little sheepish.

"Oh, yea. I wanted to know what that was about earlier with Noel. I know he tried to kill me and all, but I don't blame him for doing it. You know that, so what's with the hostility?" This time he took a deep breath and massaged his temples for a minute.

"It wasn't that, exactly. I mean yes I'm not thrilled that he tried to kill you, and even more so that I couldn't really help you. It was more about before that. Way back before you woke up, before I was captured by Bhunivelze. Within the first hundred years after time stopped. We had…a fight."

"A fight?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yea. Noel Snow and I were working to try and keep civilization together. Things were going well. We were all a little depressed due to loosing you and Serah, but we kept it together for the sake of the people. Snow established Yusnaan and Noel and I were working to build Luxerion. The Wildlands and Dead Dunes kind of established themselves. Anyway as we were working the rumors about the Savior started. It wasn't difficult to figure out it meant you. Not for us anyway. The Order of Salvation was established, and soon after the Children of Etro. We tried to remain impartial, at least outwardly. I will admit I was sympathetic to the Order, since they didn't want you dead, and it seemed that Noel agreed with me." He stands up and starts pacing.

"Then one day out of nowhere he started spouting all kinds of crazy stuff. Like how maybe it would be best if you never woke up and maybe the Savior was out to destroy the world. I couldn't believe it. I just lost it. I started yelling at him. How could he say such things? After everything you did, everything you sacrificed. How DARE he turn his back on you? Especially knowing everything I went through to try to get you back. He knew how much you meant, and still mean, to me. He started yelling back and I told him to leave and he did. The next I heard of him was the rumors about the Shadow Hunter. How the Shadow Hunter was going to kill the 'evil' Savior. I didn't want to believe that it was him and until you fought him I didn't know for certain, but in my heart I knew." Hope stops pacing and is standing right in front of me, looking right in my eyes.

"Light that is what I couldn't forgive. He turned his back on you, on all of us. And then he tried to kill you. I finally got you back, even if I wasn't in control of my body, I was still with you. I got you back and he tried to take you away again. I just… I just couldn't handle that." Hope turns away as he finishes speaking. I stand up and put my arms around his waist and rest my head on his shoulder.

"Hope. I am sorry. I am so so sorry. I don't think I will ever be able to forgive myself for everything you had to go through. But like I said I understand why he did everything, including trying to kill me. I hate that it hurt you so much, you have suffered way too much because of me. I forgive Noel. He was just trying to do what he thought would give him back the one he loves. I would, I have done the same for Serah. And to be honest, I would do the same for you."

Hope turns around, still in my embrace. He stares into my eyes and it's like he can see right through me. It was always so difficult for me to hide from him. Even before when we were L'Cie he always seemed to know what I was feeling. He cups my face with his hands.

"Light." He says, his voice just a whisper. Then without thinking about what I was about to do I move my head forward and press my lips against his. He doesn't respond at first but then he kisses back. I can feel all of his sadness, his loneliness, and his love. So much love. He tangles one and in my hair and wraps the other around my waist. I grab the sides of his face, running my fingers through his hair and kiss him deeper.

When we finally have to stop and breathe we stare into each other's eyes. In that exact moment everything comes crashing down on me. I start to panic and pull away. Then I do the only thing I can think of. I run.

…

A/N: Okay so please don't hate me for the cliffy. I have a plan and it will have a happy ending. This just felt like what she would do. I have decided that next chapter will have some of Hope's pov. I want to thank those who have reviewed and invite the rest of you to leave one as well. Also I would like to ask that if there is a specific part that you feel I need to relook at then please put it in the review. For example some have mentioned tense changes, so I would appreciate it if you could tell me exactly what part is the issue. Either copy and paste the text into the review or describe it so I can know what part you mean. Thank you all. See you next chapter!