Author's Note: Sorry about the terribly long wait you guys had to endure for this chapter. I know it's really frustrating for you and I just want to say that I'm going to try and not take as long. For some reason during this chapter I hit a rut and couldn't really get out of it – then on top of my writers block I got a new job which is keeping me on my toes ; then of course Hurricane Sandy happened and gave me some extra work around the house that I didn't need.

Anyways here's the new chapter of AL. I hope you all enjoy it and hopefully I'll be updating within the month with chapter 8. As always please read and review! I'd love to hear your thoughts. ^^

Words: 2,526

The Archylte Steppe - Year Unknown

Hope… I told him I'd let him go, but, what if he was the one Yuel was talking about? What if we were supposed to meet and he was supposed to save me. If that's the case then… she trailed off her focus slowly shifting to the ground – the Steppe and everything around her seemed to vanish as her mind began to consider all the possibilities as well as the dangers.

Cocoon. The enemy of Pulse. Surely if the seeress had predicted the future, let alone her own, she would have mentioned the fact that Hope was from their enemy planet in the war! Unless… maybe I'm the one who's wrong. Maybe Hope isn't the person Yuel meant. But then… where does that leave him in all this? If he was supposed to come, she'd have seen it – I mean the seeress sees everything. How could she have missed this? She thought as she closed her eyes and recalled all that she could of him from their night together. It doesn't make sense; she finally found herself saying as she shook her head in disbelief, he saved me. And even though I want to trust him – I can't. He did know what that thing was that attacked me was – for all I know it could've been some new weapon for the war.

"Because?" she heard his voice swoop in around her bringing her out of her thoughts almost instantly – her emerald eyes jolting right up to his, she gave him a clueless expression clearly forgetting just what they'd been talking about.

"Eh?' she managed to squeak out as she gave him a small blink and sheepish smile.

"Why you didn't go back to Oerba," he repeated, "I mean you could've left me, but, you stayed."

"Right…" she mumbled as she nodded quickly, her eyes going back to the food in her hand. "I guess… I stayed because, I can't let you go," she finished apologetically as her eyes lowered to the ground – not daring to look him in the eyes.

"What!? But you sai-"

"You're the enemy!" she interrupted, her eyes finally locking onto his own jade ones. "If I just let you go like that then…" she paused as she clenched her fists, her bracelets jingling a bit. "I could be betraying my family! We're supposed to report everything to the council, even if I wanted to let you go… I'd never be able to keep it to myself."

'''''

I felt my heart beat hasten as I stood there – glaring at her for the first time in history. Vanille, the girl who'd been running through my dreams since the age of 14 was going to turn me in; just like that. I felt sick to my stomach –my mind racing over Noel's last words to me as I began to regret my actions.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled softly as she avoided my gaze – she knew I was mad. Who wouldn't be? Even still I couldn't just go with her, if I did I really would be changing things…

"So it has to be this way…" I breathed out, my heart practically stopping as my eyes slowly found hers.

The Archylte Steppe - ? AF

"Shouldn't we have some kind of plan!?" Sazh called out after them as the group made their way towards the towering gates of the hunter's camp.

Glancing back he folded his arms as he came to a dead stop, "Normally, but we don't really have time to think of something. For all we know Caius could be sitting back watching everything we do. Waiting for the perfect time to strike us down."

"But, we don't even know if these are the same people you and Serah saw! Hell, we could go in and they could be getting ready to attack for all we know!" Sazh continued as he shot a concerned eye over towards Dajh – he hated the thought of putting his son in danger, especially after everything that's already happened to him.

"Don't worry, Old man," Vanille chimed up as she made her way over towards him with Dajh, "If you want you and Dajh can wait here. Fang, Noel, and I can go and then we can fill you in lat'a." she told him.

"Sounds fine to me," Fang concurred – it wasn't that she didn't like Sazh, but rather the fact that she didn't want to see his boy put through anymore as well. Hell, she'd also wished Vanille would've stayed with 'em too.

"I still don't think it's a good idea to go rushing in, but all right," the afro-ed man finally called back as he looked down at Dajh. "Looks like we're going to wait here for a bit."

"Okay, Daddy."

With Sazh and Dajh staying behind, Vanille bounced on over to Noel as quickly as her yellow booted feet could carry her. The grassed crunched under ever step as she got closer and closer. Within arm's length, she finally stopped. "So who are we looking for Noel? Anyone in particular?" she asked out as she tapped his arm.

Glancing over at the hand on his arm, he nodded. "Tipur. When Serah and I visited last time he was the hunter in command. Sort of like the village chief you know."

"Tipur, huh?" Fang repeated, "Sounds like an uncommon name. We'll find him in no time."

"Exactly!" Vanille added happily.

"Yeah," Noel replied as he started walking towards the gates. Looking back at Sazh and Dajh he gave a wave, "We'll be back soon." With that the three of them took off into the camp with one person on their minds. Tipur.

The Archylte Steppe - Year Unknown

"They met…" Yuel breathed out slowly as she bent down and eyed a tiny red flower growing by the cliffside. Her words alone were enough to cause, Caius, her guardian to frown a little. Just like her, he could see the timeline thanks to his heart of immortality bestowed upon him by Etro.

"They?" Caius asked, despite seeing who she was talking about in his mind.

"Time is distorted… the moment he appeared here, the paradox began," she continued as she picked the flower and twirled it in her fingers.

"Should I go set things right?"

"No," she told him sternly as she turned around to look at him, her purple locks blowing slightly in the warm breeze that blew past. "Not yet. Let us head back to the village for now."

"Very well."

"It's the only way!" she called back clearly having second thoughts on what she was about to do. However, no matter how she thought about it this was the only thing she could do. If she let him go she was betraying her people, even her homeland! She couldn't possibly do that. Pulling out her binding rod, she tightened her grip on the handle as she got into a battle stance – her emerald eyes locked onto Hope's.

"Vanille…" he sighed out in understanding. In all his years, he'd never once thought he'd ever have to fight for his survival from the very girl he lived for. The thought alone pained him and as he stood there his boomerang out, he could feel his heart tightening in his chest. Hearing her familiar 'ya' sound as she gave her binding rod a quick flick, he barely jumped out of its pathway. Landing back on the ground, he quickly gave his boomerang a toss of his own.

Meanwhile, Fang made her way through the wilderness of the Steppe, her chocobo cooing softly with each cliff it climbed. The Oerbain scanned the ground looking for anything from a footstep in the dirt to a used campfire.

To Fang, it wasn't like Vanille to not come home- while others in the village seemed to shake it off as nothing. However, something wasn't right. She could feel it. Just as she reached the top of one of the cliffside, she heard a sound she never liked to hear.

Vanille's scream.

Before he knew it, he heard it hit as Vanille gave a small cry and fell to her knees; her binding rod a small distance away from her. His heart beat picked up, as Vanille took short breaths and held her arm where she fell.

"Vanille… I…" he began to stammer out as he realized what happened. His eyes darting from Vanille to his boomerang on the ground. Just as he took a step towards her though, a voice rang out from the cliffside ricocheting down causing them both to look up.

"Fang!" Vanille called up at the woman, her eyes wide as her hand held the wound on her shoulder where the boomerang collided.

Oh no.

The Archylte Steppe - ? AF

From what she could see the Nomads were very much like how Pulse used to be – back before the war of transgression and her and Fang's 500 year sleep; well 1,000 years by now. Just walking into the camp though, almost felt like home for some reason. Looking around she watched as nomadic eyes fell on them clearly trying to figure out who they were.

Feeling the stares, Noel stopped and looked around before asking. "Excuse me have any of you seen Tipur?" The question halted a few people as they slowly but surely began to recognize the brown haired man; while other pressed on preparing for their next hunt.

Not getting any answers, Noel ran a hand through his messy brown hair before looking back at Fang and Vanille.

"Looks like this might be tougher than we thought, eh?" Fang breathed out as she placed a hand on her hip.

"Looks that way…" he answered, just as a woman came over towards them. Tapping Noel on the shoulder, he turned her way- his blue eyes greeting her.

"You're the man who helped get rid of the Faeryl, right?"

"Yeah!" he replied surprised to see someone willing to help.

"If you're looking for Tipur, he ran out towards the Plain's of Eternity."

"The Plain's of Eternity?" Vanille repeated shooting a glance over in Noel's direction to see if he knew what the huntress was talking about. Luckily for them, she saw his eyes light up in recognition. Guess he knows where she'd talking about…

Nodding at Vanille the woman turned back to face Noel. "Yeah, there was a report of some abnormal activity there. If you leave now you should be able to catch him in less than an hour."

"Abnormal activity? Did he say what kind?" Noel asked as his mind began to wonder just what was going on. With Caius and Yeul both gone and everyone back where they should be the timeline should've been fine, but something changed… The change that Serah saw… what was it? What could've happened down the timeline that could've changed everything we did, just like that?

"No, just that he'd be back later after investigating." With that the woman took her leave, leaving the trio there in the center of the camp; eyes still lingered on them, as gossip began to go about – from their strange clothing, the otherworldly weapons, but mostly gossip of how Noel and Serah took out the Faeryl.

"Well than, guess we should go get'em." Vanille chimed in finally calling Noel out from his thoughts. Looking up and over at the red head he gave a small nod, "Yeah, guess so."

"So where is this Plain of Eternity?" Fang finally asked as she lowered her hand from her waist – her blue eyes locking onto the hunters.

"Not far from here, if we leave now we'll definitely catch him before he leaves. Plus I want to check out this abnormality. For all we know it might be some kind of paradox."

"A paradox? You think so?" Vanille found herself asking as her mind slowly began to shift back to Hope and his sudden time disappearance. The thought alone was enough to shatter her smile as a frown took its place. Taking notice Noel continued.

"Yeah. When I first met Serah, there was a similar thing in New Bodhum. It was like time moved forward several hundreds of years. If that's the case, we might be able to find some kind of clue as to what's going and who knows… maybe it'll lead to Hope too." He threw in to get Vanille on the band wagon. Hearing Hope's name the ginger haired girl instantly perked up a bit as she gave their 'new' leader a nod.

"Let's get goin' then."

Exiting the camp, the gang went back to Sazh and Dahj who sat right where they left them hours ago. Hearing the grass crunch beneath their feet, Sazh looked up from his seat on a nearby rock as he raised a hand towards his lips to tell the party to talk softly.

"See you're back," Sazh whispered with a grin as he patted his son's sleeping head. "Any luck?"

"We couldn't meet him," Fang answered. "Apparently there's some kind of time distortion and he went out to check it out."

"Time distortion?" he questioned as he gave them a look of disbelief.

"Yup. That's what we were told anyways," Vanille chirped in as she twirled back and forth uneasily. She didn't know what it was but, ever since she heard of the abnormality she'd been on edge. Something was going to happen, she could just feel it. Though whether it was going to be good or bad she couldn't tell.

"Either way, we're going to head on over to the Plains to check it out with him," Noel added. "Are you going to come along?"

"Well, we can't let you all have ALL the fun," Sazh replied with a smirk. Fang and Vanille smiled at his response as Noel began to lead them. Looking back down at Dahj, Sazh gently shook the boys shoulders.

"Come on Dahj, it's time to get going." Rubbing some sleep from his eyes, Dahj slowly woke up as he mumbled, "Okay."

Just as the woman in the camp told them, it took them a little less than an hour to make their way into the plains. Coming to a stop, Noel raised a hand to his chin and gave it a small rub as his eyes scanned the area. Nothing seemed out strange, at least from where he could see.

"Do ya see him?" Vanille asked as she walked up next to him, her own emerald eyes eagerly looking around.

"Not yet," he answered as he glanced over his shoulder at her. "Come on, he might be in the trench." Following him the gang made their way into the vast trench that separated the plains from the Clearwater Marshes – their boots kicking up dirt here and there. Rounding a corner, Noel stopped in his tracks as his eyes saw a sight for sore eyes. There he stood. His arms folded and his graying locks slicked back in a high pony tail.

Seeing the familiar face, Noel's worrying about the timeline ceased for a moment as he tossed up a hand in greeting, "Tipur!"