A Light to Lead the Way, A Hope to Guide the Heart

by fatherbones

Six years after the end of the game, Hope and Lightning find themselves caught up in another focus after their l'Cie brands return. They must fight to protect the fragile stability of their new home, while Hope tries to express his new feelings for Light

12. Chapter 12

I know it has been quite some time since an update, but I am still here and this story is not abandoned. I've been having a rather hectic summer, between work and the woes of life taking turns in screwing me over, but I won't get into that.

This story fell by the wayside unfortunately, and I've only recently found the time and will to continue. I know it's been almost two months, and I don't know how many people are still even interested in this story after that, but this is my first fic and I want to see it through to the end.

Anyway, for those of you still reading, here, at long last, is chapter 12. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 12

Hope moved as quietly as he could through the dim halls of the ark. The lighting aboard the underground vessel was adjusted at night, to preserve the sleep cycles of those aboard, and Hope was grateful for it. Despite the empty semi-dark corridors however, Hope winced whenever he stepped too heavily and the sound of his footfall echoed around him. He cursed his ineptness at stealth, knowing that Lightning would have been off the ark already without making a sound.

Hope made his way towards the hangar that he had visited with Odin and Lightning once, to see the ship that the others were repairing to make the trip to New Eden. There had been other, smaller ships there, and Hope prayed that one of them was in working condition and that the controls of the Pulse aircrafts were similar enough to the ones he was used to from Cocoon.

He began to consider his decision to go alone to investigate Raines' claims. The more he thought about the course of action he had chosen, the crazier it seemed. He was going alone to one of the most dangerous areas of Gran Pulse to search for a millennia old temple for some unknown source of power that may or may not be able to help him. He planned to get there on an airship that may or may not be in working order, and even if it was fully functional he probably wouldn't be able to pilot it. On top of all that, he was undertaking this insane mission on the word of a dream apparition that took the form of a man who had been his enemy the last few times they had met.

As he wrestled with his better judgment telling him to stop being an idiot and go back to his room, his hand found its way into a pocket in his cloak. He gently caressed the crystal petals of the small rose he had found in Lightning's hand upon awaking. Hope felt the rose grow warm at his touch, and his doubts drained away. He was doing this for Lightning's sake, because this was possibly his only chance to save her and the rest of Pulse. Hope didn't know why he was so adamant on going alone, he knew any of the eidolons would accompany him if he asked but…he knew in his gut that this was something he needed to do by himself.

As engrossed in his thoughts as he was, Hope did not notice Alexander's bulk filling the hallway as he turned the corner and bumped into the eidolon's leg. Startled, he looked up and froze at the sight of the towering Alexander. He raised his head to meet the eidolon's gaze, and saw that Alexander was fixing him with an intense stare.

"Alexander…what are you doing here?" Hope asked, perplexed by the eidolon's appearance.

"About to pose the same question to you, Hope," Alexander responded. "I felt something…strange through our link earlier tonight, and now I can feel the same thing from you now. And here you are dressed for an expedition on your way to the hangar, so I can only assume something significant has occurred."

Hope leaned up against the wall and sighed. He quickly decided not to lie to Alexander. He took a deep breath and began to tell Alexander about the dream, sticking mostly to the parts involving Raines and keeping the more personal parts with Lightning to himself.

Alexander was definitely surprised at the mention of the temple. When Hope finished, Alexander stood in silence for several minutes, and Hope patiently waited for him to draw whatever conclusions he would from his tale.

"The temple…we knew its location but we never thought there could be something down there. Our scanner never picked anything up." Hope's heart sank at this, thinking that maybe his dream had been just a dream after all. "But our ark does not operate at its full potential like Anima's did…it is possible that his ark was able to pick up the signal through the interference of the faultwarrens."

"So you might have missed it?" Hope asked eagerly.

"We may have. But what makes you so sure that this…experience wasn't just a dream?" Alexander asked.

Hope revealed the purple rose crystal, which began to glow softly under the eidolon's scrutiny. "I see. This is Lightning's crystal…this is what's giving off the strange energy. It seems to be linked to her consciousness trapped within crystal stasis. I've never seen anything like this." He studied the crystal for another minute before handing it back to Hope along with a slow, steady nod indicating his acceptance of Hope's tale. Hope returned the nod appreciatively and returned the crystal to his cloak pocket.

"I have to go," Hope said. "I can't sit here and wait for you guys to find something else…even if it might turn out to be a goose chase or a trap…I have to see this through."

"Let me go with you, then," Alexander rumbled. Hope was not surprised by the offer, but he knew that he was going to remain adamant in his decision to go to the faultwarrens alone.

"No," Hope replied simply and firmly. "I'm going alone. I know there is something important there…and I know that it's something I need to find by myself." Hope looked down for a moment, closing his eyes and caressing Lightning's rose again. "I'm sure this is what I need to do."

Alexander seemed puzzled by the fierce determination that was evident in Hope's face as he said this. "Why?" the eidolon asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

Hope opened his mouth to voice the answer he thought would be simple, but he stopped, realizing that he didn't have one. He didn't know why he was so sure…perhaps in his desperation to find some way to help Lightning, and the small part of him that still blamed himself for what happened to her, he had convinced himself that investigating this temple was his last hope to make it up to her. Or, perhaps his feeling was genuine, that he was meant to take this path alone and he was being directed by fate or destiny or whatever you want to call it. But he was hesitant to use that as a reason to give Alexander. Somehow, Hope felt that telling the eidolon he just had a feeling wasn't an adequate answer to justify risking everything on a hope.

Risking everything on a Hope…he thought, chuckling to himself at the play on his name. Hope is all I've got now, so I might as well. He looked up at the eidolon. "I don't know…" he felt a slight surge of heat from the crystal rose. "But I'm not going to ignore something like this when it might be our only hope."

Alexander looked at him for several moments, and eventually nodded. Hope tried to hide a relieved sigh; he did not want to have to argue the point to the eidolon all night. "I need you guys to find out what you can about Zalera and Anima while I'm gone," Hope said, trying to make the best of this turn of events. If everyone was going to know about his trip, he may as well have them begin to prepare for the inevitable encounter with Zalera. The more he thought about it, the more he realized this was for the best. Instead of worrying about where he had gone, the eidolons would be doing something constructive. The uncharacteristic rashness of his original plan unnerved him somewhat; Hope knew that if he wanted to make it through whatever was to come, he would need to get his head back on straight. He wouldn't be doing Lightning any favors by getting himself killed because he was distracted by her predicament.

Alexander nodding again at his request, and Hope made to continue to the hangar, but the eidolon stopped him. He produced a small metal card and handed it to Hope. "That should make it easier for you to fly one of the smaller ships. If you put that into the console it will translate the interface from old Pulsian and set up the auto pilot."

Another surge of relief passed through Hope as Alexander handed the solution to another one of his problems to him. "Thanks," Hope said as he tucked the card into his cloak. He gave Alexander an appreciative nod and continued down the corridor.

"Hope…be careful," Alexander rumbled. Hope turned back to the eidolon and gave him a slight smile and nod, continuing on to whatever might await him.

XXXXX

Zalera gazed dully out the window of the airship as the landscape of Gran Pulse passed beneath him. Not for the first time, he lamented his decision to travel to the faultwarrens on the ship; he could have flown there faster himself. But the faultwarrens was known to be home to some of the most vicious creatures of Pulse, and Zalera had decided to bring half a dozen of his new minions with him to test their combat capabilities. He looked toward the front of the craft where two of the Broken he had brought were sitting in the pilot seats, operating the ship with their still mostly human arms while their other massive crystallized arms hung to the floor at their sides, clearly useless for delicate tasks such as the one they were engaged in. Their intelligence far outstripped what he had expected, and the aspect was very impressed that they had retained enough of it to fly the ship. He knew they would be less sturdy than true Cie'th and would lack their raw power, but Zalera thought that their intelligence might make up for it.

Zalera's gaze wandered to the last member of his entourage, sitting on the other side of the ship and looking out the opposite window. He was a young man with blonde hair and was garbed in casual attire underneath a gray cloak. He turned towards Zalera with a comically blank and dazed expression. He would twitch oddly every so often, and Zalera soon turned away from him, growing increasingly annoyed by the boy's ridiculous demeanor.

He cursed Anima for foisting this last minute addition on him, suggesting that some fresh air might alleviate his awkwardness, and if that failed, the chance to kill something in the faultwarrens would do him some good. Zalera sighed, shaking his head, highly doubtful that the boy's madness would be cured by a simple outing. Zalera was doubtful that anything would be able to do that, and had argued against giving the volatile aspect a host at all. Orphan had been severely unhinged since the fall of Cocoon.

XXXXX

Hope leaned back in the pilot's seat of the small airship he had taken from the ark, watching the desert sand beneath him pass by, and eventually give way to rocky terrain. He caught a glimpse of Taejin's Tower as he passed over it, its broken structure catching his eye. Hope wondered what the place might have been like before it had collapsed into the sorry state it was in now. He knew that the place was most likely an ancient Menhirrim stronghold, remembering Odin and Alexander telling him that the statues there had been Anima's jailors. Hope wondered if the damage to the place had been a result of Zalera and Barthandelus breaking the l'Cie free of his captors.

It was a likely scenario; Anima had been the cause of the degradation of the rest of Gran Pulse. Maybe it was due to being raised in the mostly industrialized and urban Cocoon, but Hope found a strange beauty to the savage world. And if the way it was now was after centuries of decay in Ultima's absence, Hope couldn't imagine what Pulse might have been like at the peak of its glory under the maker's care. He closed his eyes and sighed, trusting the auto pilot program Alexander had given him to fly the ship far better than he could. He continued to muse over the state of the world that was now his home. Even if he did defeat Anima, Hope didn't know if Pulse would continue to decay. And even if the decay ceased, Hope doubted it would be possible for the planet to return to its former glory.

Hope sighed again and got up, trying to push the unsettling thoughts away. He stretched his arms up and yawned prodigiously, suddenly realizing how tired he was. Night was still heavy over Pulse, and a glance at a clock on the ship console told him it was three in the morning. Stifling another yawn, Hope made his way over to the small cot in the back of the airship and settled in, drifting almost instantly off to sleep.

XXXXX

The next thing Hope was aware of was sitting at a table, his head resting in the palm of his right hand while he gazed absentmindedly at his white charred brand. He looked around the room and found that he was in what appeared to be a simple kitchen, resembling those that adorned the basic homes on Cocoon. Sunlight streamed into the kitchen, reflecting off the white countertops and causing Hope to wince from the brightness. He glanced out the window behind him and saw a beach stretched out in the distance. Hope was puzzled by the setting for a few moments before he realized that he was dreaming. This realization did not dispel all of his confusion however; Hope knew that he had never been wherever he was, if it existed at all. Perhaps it was just something pieced together by his subconscious, but why?

Taking in more details of the area that he could see from the window, Hope had a strange sense of familiarity, that he did know this place, but he couldn't quite put all of the details together. "Where am I?" he asked aloud after several more moments of fruitless contemplation.

"Bodhum," came a reply behind him. The second that her voice reached his ears, the rapid pace of Hope's thoughts trying to dissect the scene and its possible symbolism ceased immediately. He turned to look at Lightning, who stood in the threshold that led to what looked like a living room, a warm smile on her face. She was dressed in casual clothes and had a relaxed posture as she leaned against the wall. Hope merely stared at her for several minutes in silence, drinking in her appearance. The person who stood before him was such a stark contrast to the stoic soldier side of Lightning he was accustomed to. He'd had a brief glimpse of her before all of this started, and after everything that happened he wasn't expecting to see her again. Hope knew without a doubt that this was Claire, and he was eager to get to know her better.

Lightning allowed the silence to continue, growing amused at the dazed look that was creeping into Hope's eyes. "Are you just gonna stand there or do you want to come sit down?" Lightning asked, deciding to break the silence.

The sound of her voice again seemed to snap Hope out of his thoughts. He looked at her confused, obviously not having heard what she had said. Lightning chuckled softly as she walked across the kitchen to grab his hand and pulled him to a couch in the living room. They sat down and the silence resumed, Hope trying to come up with something to say while Lightning stared at him expectantly.

"So…" he began, looking around searching for a topic, "Was this your house on Cocoon?"

"Yeah…I grew up here," she responded softly.

Hope gave her a quizzical look. "If this is my dream, how come you got to pick the setting?"

Lightning threw him a sly smirk. "Well when all you can do is dream away in crystal stasis, you tend to pick up a few things to make it more interesting."

"Oh?" Hope asked, looking impressed. "It didn't take you long to get the hang of it. Can you do anything else?"

"Not so much," she replied. "I had to focus on learning this particular skill before our next encounter. I didn't want to take the chance that you would bring us to that bar and put me in another dress."

Hope grinned sheepishly at Lightning, who proceeded to fall into a fit of laughter at his expense. Hope stared at her transfixed, shocked by the uncharacteristic, but not unwelcome, shift in her demeanor. When her laughter subsided, Lightning noticed Hope's stare. "What?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"You seem…different," Hope began slowly, gauging her reaction. "In a good way, I mean. More…relaxed."

"I guess endless dreaming stuck in crystal stasis after what we went through does that," she murmured. Hope was taken aback by the sudden sadness that had crept into Lightning's voice at this statement.

"Claire, what…" he started to say while reaching to grasp her hand, but she cut him off.

"I know I can't have been out for more than a few days, but in here it feels like a lot longer than that." She looked away and seemed lost in thought for several moments while Hope waited for her to continue. "I can't always control it; the dreams tend to take on a life of their own, and take their inspiration from my subconscious." A sardonic half-smile appeared on her face. "And with the brutally tactile dreams in crystal stasis, it's a pure and unbiased look at everything that makes me who I am. And for someone like me…it's not always a pleasant experience."

She shifted uncomfortably and did not look up to meet Hope's gaze. Hope opened his mouth to speak, but found that he couldn't think of anything to say. Lightning sighed, and Hope rested a comforting hand on her knee. She placed her own hand on top of his and their fingers interlocked. "I found out pretty quick that trying to be Lightning in here wouldn't help me…it usually just made it worse. It turns out that all the soldier training and emotional walls in the world can't help you when your enemy is yourself." She sighed again and ran her free hand through her hair, her gaze remaining on the floor.

"So that's why you're like this?" Hope asked tentatively, trying not to make the question sound as bad as it did in his head.

"I wasn't always an emotional cripple. I was just Claire once. But when Claire couldn't cope with the world, she was buried deep down and Lightning was born. In here," she gestured with her hand in no particular direction, "Lightning couldn't cope, and I found Claire again." A heavy silence settled between them again, and Hope searched around for the right thing to say.

"What did you see?" he asked slowly. Realizing this question was almost as awkward as the last, he quickly added "What was it that made…Lightning unable to cope?"

Hope felt Lightning's hand tense within his own. "Lightning let you down when you needed her the most. She was supposed to protect you…be there for you…like you were for her, but now you're alone to deal with everything by yourself." She laughed bitterly. "And I don't think it's any secret that I'm not the most optimistic person…I know happy endings don't happen often, especially for people like me. Even if you do stop Anima, there's no guarantee that I'll wake up. I just thought that before everything is said and done, you should to get to know the side of me that deserves everything you want to give her…the part of me that might be able to give you everything you deserve."

"Hey, look at me," Hope said softly, grabbing her shoulders and turning her to face him. "Claire…Lightning…they're just names. They're not separate identities…the things that Lightning mean to you, your strength, determination, and focus, and the things that Claire mean, your warmth, compassion…love, they're all a part of the amazing woman that you are…the woman I fell in love with." Hope held both of her hands in his while he spoke, and watched the steady film of tears appear in her eyes as she listened to him. He smiled and brushed the pink locks out of her face. "You might feel that you're just Lightning most of the time, but Claire isn't buried as deep as you think. If this place really gives you a look at your true self, you should be able to see that. And Claire…please don't think for a second that you let me down…what happened wasn't your fault."

Hope stood up, pulling Lightning to her feet with him. "I don't know if I can beat Zalera and stop Anima, but if there is a way…I'll find it, and I'll keep fighting until the end, no matter what that end may be."

Lightning blinked away the tears that had begun to form and gave Hope an approving smile. "I guess you really have grown up, Hope. I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I'm proud of you…I've always been proud of you. You've dealt with things in the time I've known you that most people couldn't fathom in their wildest dreams…and you didn't let them get to you, you still managed to become the wonderful person you are now." She took a step closer to him, their faces only inches apart. "How do you do it?"

"I had a good teacher," Hope said to her as she grew closer. "And…" he kissed her deeply, savoring the sensation. "I have something worth fighting for," he whispered breathlessly when they finally broke apart. As he looked at her, Hope knew that it was true. He would not give up; he would go to any lengths necessary to defeat Zalera, Anima, and whatever else might come along just for the chance to be able to see Lightning again, and not just in these dreams. He had all the motivation he needed right here. Hope was startled out of the moment when the room began to fade around him, and he knew the dream was ending. "Looks like I gotta go," he said sadly, and Lightning offered him a parting smile.

Lightning sighed after Hope was gone, running her hand through her hair as she wondered what would be next in the dream existence that crystal stasis had exiled her to. She was distracted from her contemplations by a constricting feeling and looked down to find herself in a skimpy black dress that didn't leave much to the imagination. "Dammit, Hope!" she swore.

XXXXX

As soon as the thick black smoke came into view on the horizon, Bahamut knew that something was wrong, but was not surprised. The eidolons were all on edge from the news of Hope's solo mission; the idea of the final piece that Anima needed to carry out his ambitions wandering halfway across Pulse alone was not a welcome one. Bahamut in particular had been vocal in criticizing Alexander for letting the boy go, but they couldn't blame Alexander too much; they all knew how stubborn humans were, especially the ones that they had all bonded with. Hope's friends had not taken his choice to leave very well, but despite the circumstance, Bahamut admired Hope's decision.

While the rest of them tried to scour the planet for signs of movement from Anima and Zalera, Bahamut had volunteered to run a scouting mission to New Eden. Out of all of them, Bahamut was the fastest and best suited for the trip, and the eidolon was convinced that Anima was not done with the city of the humans. Bahamut and the rest of the eidolons knew first hand the extent of the power and cruelty of Anima and his minions; the fact that they were the last of Ultima's chosen guardians, the Menhirrim, was testament to the renegade l'Cie's brutality and determination to wipe out any and all who could stand in his way. During the war, the humans had suffered almost as much as they had. Anima's forces had annihilated whole cities just to get to the Menhirrim fortresses within them. Even now, Bahamut could still remember walking through the devastation left in Anima's wake, the once proud civilizations of Gran Pulse reduced to rubble strewn with the corpses of humans and his fellow Menhirrim alike.

Even with those images fresh in his mind, Bahamut was not expecting the horrific scene that greeted him as he flew over New Eden. The gleaming adamantite walls that had once protected the human's bastion of civilization had crumbled. Huge chunks of the metal littered the ground on both sides of the wall, and the part of if that was left standing was jagged, torn, and twisted with extreme violence. The metal itself was degraded and corroded beyond recognition. Adamantite was impervious to rust and most other forms of decay that other metals were susceptible to, but judging by the look of it, this metal had suffered several centuries worth of rust and exposure to the elements.

Past the outer wall, the city itself was in a state of even worse destruction. More than half of it was still burning, filling the sky around the city with thick smoke. Undisturbed by the suffocating fumes, Bahamut searched the city for any signs of life; the expected screaming of survivors was conspicuously absent. The eidolon did see blasted and burned out buildings and roads, along with entire blocks that were reduced to smoking debris. After another minute of flying and searching, Bahamut began to spot them. Twisted, warped, and disfigured, a group of what the eidolon assumed was Cie'th shambled across a street. Getting a closer look, Bahamut realized that these were not any type of Cie'th he was familiar with. They appeared to be slightly less monstrous, and still retained a discernable human figure. He watched them for a few minutes, trying to identify the uneasy feeling that they caused within him. Suddenly, realization hit him as Bahamut put the pieces together, and he plummeted several feet in shock before he caught himself.

"This isn't good," the eidolon said to himself as he turned around and sped away from the ruins of the once grand New Eden.

XXXXX

Zalera was snapped out of his bored stupor when the Broken pilots began to shift and make low gurgling noises that the aspect had learned was their way of communicating with each other. Zalera stood up, stretching the stiffness of the uneventful trip from his limbs. With a quick glance at the infuriating aspect of death still twitching in his seat, Zalera made his way to the cockpit of the ship and stood behind the Broken. One of them turned to him and gurgled something incomprehensible which, judging by the jagged rock and steep cliffs of the faultwarrens sprawling below him, the aspect took to be something along the lines of 'we're here.'

XXXXX

Hope was awakened by a beeping from the ship's console. Yawning and stretching, he rolled off the cot and groaned, waving his hand through the air in an attempt to silence the horrible noise. With a few stumbling steps towards the console, Hope managed to regain his senses, and read the words flashing across the screen that told him the ship was about to begin its descent into the faultwarrens. He looked out the window to confirm the console's claim, and the memories of his last visit came to the forefront of his mind as he surveyed the craggy landscape. The violent nature of most of those memories cleared away the remainder of Hope's drowsiness, and he quickly gathered together the items he had brought with him. He was impressed on how thoroughly his possessions had managed to scatter themselves during the flight.

After several minutes of scrambling around the ship, Hope threw his cloak over his shoulders and rifled through his pockets and bags to make sure he had everything. With a start, he realized that Lightning's crystal rose wasn't in his pocket, and he whipped his head around several times until he spotted a small telltale glint from his cot. He quickly crossed the ship and gently scooped it up, the rose giving off a gentle pulse at his touch.

Hope sighed heavily; Lightning hadn't come to him in his dreams since the night a few days ago when he had first set out from the ark. He knew wishing to see her in that manner was unhealthy, he had to concentrate on finishing the monumental task that fate had dumped on him, not only for her sake but for everyone who lived on Pulse. Hope had also noticed that the enhanced dreams that he could only assume were brought on by Lightning's crystal stasis had a side effect. They felt incredibly real, with vivid input to all five senses, but they apparently engaged his mind to the point where he didn't get any rest. He had woken up from the last encounter with Lightning feeling much worse than he had before he went to sleep, and had consequently slept most of the day away.

Despite all of this, Hope still couldn't help but wish he had one more chance to talk to Lightning. Aside from the native beasts of the faultwarrens, savage even by Pulse standards, Hope did not know what awaited him within the temple Raines had told him of. He brought the crystal to eye level and gazed intently into its multi-faceted depths, as if waiting for Lightning to appear within them. He felt the ship touch down, but did not break his gaze until a distant howl snapped him back to reality. With a heavy heart, he deposited the rose into his cloak pocket and stepped off the ship.

XXXXX

For the past hour or so, Zalera and his company had wended their way through a narrow path between two sheer cliffs. Once again, for the sake of his…companions for lack of a better term, Zalera kept a slow pace. However, unlike the monotonous air ship ride, this trip was infinitely more interesting.

The fighting skills of the Broken were everything that the aspect could have hoped for. Working as a group, the six he had brought with him made short work of every bestial encounter so far. Zalera knew that normal Cie'th wouldn't have had too much trouble doing the same, but the manner in which they dispatched the creatures was what pleased the dark aspect. Their physical strength and endurance were greater than he had expected, though still not on par with some of the hulking Cie'th that infested Pulse. Zalera was even more surprised with their proficiency with magic, which was as good as or better than what Cie'th were capable of.

What made them truly stand out as superior to Cie'th in Zalera's eyes, however, was their sense of strategy and self preservation. Like humans, each one of them had varying levels of proficiencies in different fighting styles, and after just three fights, the group had apparently decided amongst themselves their strong points. Three of them had taken up the role of close combat fighters, and drew the attention of the creatures they were fighting. Meanwhile, the forte of the other three seemed to lie in magic; two bombarded the distracted enemies with harmful spells while the third provided support for his comrades. Zalera was astounded that they were so easily controlled considering their intelligence. Thinking back to the problems he had trying to force the same domination of full Cie'th though, the aspect reasoned that the near-human minds of the Broken were what allowed him to gain control of them.

Zalera remembered the few attempts he had made in the past to exert his considerable willpower into the minds of Cie'th, but no matter how hard he tried to force his way into their minds, even the weakest specimens were able to rebuff him every time. The failed l'Cie that populated Gran Pulse were primal beasts, driven by pure rage that stemmed from their anger towards their fate. This anger seemed to be what gave them their immunity to coercion, particularly from a fal'Cie like himself. He had been able to use Cie'th a few times before, especially during the incident that lead to Cocoon's fall, but the most he could do was unleash them, not direct them. As the Broken engaged another group of beasts, he had to admit that he liked the way things turned out. They were far more effective servants than Cie'th. He cast an angry glare to the side. His fellow aspect however…

Orphan's behavior had not changed. His face still held a blank expression interrupted only by occasional twitches and jerks. He kept pace with Zalera, and when the Broken fought, Orphan would watch them transfixed, his expression still blank but he did not twitch. Several times Zalera had tried to prompt the aspect to join the fights, thinking the chance to exercise his power would help the boy. The attempts were all failures however; whenever Zalera spoke to Orphan, he would receive nothing but a silent, wide-eyed stare devoid of emotion. Zalera had been the one to concede in these staring contests, in an effort to not throttle the infuriating aspect on the spot. As they continued on however, Zalera was beginning to think physical violence was the only thing that would elicit a response from Orphan.

To get his mind off of his unresponsive companion, Zalera tried again to sense the energy of the Esper he had come here to find, and once again he could feel nothing from his surroundings. As great as Titan's power should be, the minerals that made up the rock walls pressingly tightly around them absorbed the traces of power that the aspect would normally be able to pick up on like a shark smelling blood in the water. Zalera sighed. This was going to be a long day.

XXXXX

Bahamut's mind was still racing as he returned to the ark and sped through the corridors until he reached the control room. Only Odin was present when he walked in, and the eidolon turned to greet his fellow.

"You're back sooner than expected," Odin remarked, growing concerned as he noticed Bahamut's frantic demeanor.

"Call the others," Bahamut said quickly, forgoing a polite greeting and getting right to the matter at hand. "We have a problem."

Twenty minutes later, the rest of the eidolons had gathered in the control room to listen to Bahamut's report. As Stiria and Nix filed in last and closed the door, Brynhildr pushed off from her leaning position against the wall and gestured to Bahamut. "So what did you find that's so important? Did you get to New Eden?"

Bahamut turned to her. "I did…what's left of it."

"What do you mean? What happened?" Stiria asked.

"New Eden," Bahamut began slowly, unable to keep the emotion out of his voice as the scenes of destruction flooded back into his mind, "has been destroyed. The city is in ruins."

The other eidolons all expressed cries of shock and horror, but Odin remained silent, staring at Bahamut intently. Odin could tell that Bahamut was severely shaken, and knew that things were much worse than what his simple description had implied. After the others quieted down a little, Odin asked "How bad was it?"

Bahamut slowly turned his head to look at Odin, knowing the other eidolon could understand the sobering effects of devastation on a grand scale better the rest; Odin alone had been beside Bahamut during nearly every siege that had occurred during the war with Anima so long ago. The others, fortunately for them, had not witnessed the worst displays of Anima's brutality.

"It was as bad as Midgar…probably worse even," Bahamut responded after a few moments of silence. Odin took a step back and tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, taking his time in digesting what Bahamut had said. Midgar had been one of the humans' greatest cities, and the Menhirrim stronghold it held had been an important base of operations for them during the final years of the war. Because of this, Anima had personally accompanied the force of Espers that laid siege to the city. This attack occurred soon after Anima had learned he could consume the strength of his Esper minions, and he was apparently eager to showcase his new strength. While his Espers tore through the city, slaughtering every person and destroying every building in their paths, Anima had single handedly laid waste to the Menhirrim stronghold. As far as Odin and Bahamut knew, they were the only ones who had made it out of the city alive. The Menhirrim did not recover from this particular blow; Ultima was forced to intercede soon after Midgar fell.

"The people?" Odin asked, dreading the answer.

"…Gone," Bahamut replied.

"Dead?" Odin pressed, still sensing Bahamut was holding something back.

"…No, not dead…at least not most of them. Cie'th," he said in answer to the puzzled looks his fellows were giving him. "But, not anything like Cie'th I've ever seen," Bahamut clarified. "They seemed more…human that normal Cie'th. I think they were something different."

"Perhaps Zalera altered the transformation process," Alexander rumbled in response.

"But why?" Nix asked.

"Most likely in an attempt to create controllable minions," Brynhildr suggested. "Cie'th are about the only thing left on this planet, but they are more or less immune to any form of mind control or mental intrusion. Zalera and Anima have probably been trying to recruit some of the roaming Cie'th for some time, but not even they can penetrate the veil of hatred that protects their minds."

"If Zalera found a way to stop the Cie'th transformation halfway," Hecatoncheir reasoned, "they might still be human enough for him to be able to control them, but still have combat abilities that could stack up to full Cie'th."

Bahamut and Odin exchanged glances, and Odin could tell that Bahamut had already formed all of these conclusions and wholeheartedly believed the worst case scenario had occurred. "From what I saw, there were no people left. It looked like Zalera turned the entire population." Bahamut said. "If he can control them, we're in trouble."

Odin made to say something, but was interrupted when the door opened to admit Snow, Gadot, and Sazh, all of who looked around at the congregation of eidolons in surprise.

"You guys having a party without us?" Snow asked, walking over to Stiria and Nix while flashing one of his winning smiles. Gadot followed in his wake, wanting to get to know the exotic looking women that Snow always seemed to have knack for attracting.

Sazh however, noticed the dark and somber looks that the eidolons were exchanging as they entered. He turned to Brynhildr and cocked an eyebrow. "What's going on?" he asked. "You guys look like somebody died."

XXXXX

Hope had been travelling through the faultwarrens for several hours, trying his best to remember the path that Raines had shown him. The problem was, there wasn't much difference from one rock formation to another in the gorges, canyons, and cliff faces of the faultwarrens. He was on edge the entire time, his mind submerged in his power center and his veins coursing with magic, a spell always at his fingertips for whatever might lurk around the corner. His state of awareness had begun to wear on his nerves however, for the fautwarrens seemed oddly vacant; he had had a few run-ins with local wildlife, but definitely not as often as he should have been.

The rational side of his mind told him it was nothing, he was just being paranoid, but he could not dismiss the nagging feeling that something was wrong. The eerie stillness that permeated the area was far more ominous than the gauntlet of savage monsters he had expected to encounter. There wasn't anything he could do to get to the bottom of it now, though, so Hope pressed onward, trying to find a familiar landmark to jog his memory, but trying harder to quell the uneasy feeling rising in his gut.

XXXXX

Zalera sighed with relief as he and his entourage finally came out of the seemingly endless ravine they had been trudging through for the better part of the day. The aspect's relief was almost immediately extinguished however, when he took in the view before him. They had exited at the top of a rock formation that gave them a spectacular view of the labyrinthine pathways of the faultwarrens.

Growling in frustration, Zalera walked to the edge of the cliff and surveyed the area for signs of an Esper, but found nothing. He was getting ready to start bellowing the Pulse fal'Cie's name when Orphan began to gesticulate wildly at the horizon, towards what appeared to be another large rock formation in the distance. Zalera looked at his companion in surprise; this was the first sign of life that Orphan had shown, and the aspect was glad to have at least some indication that Orphan was alive inside the human shell he occupied. The wild, frantic gesturing however, was certainly not enough to convince Zalera that Orphan hadn't suffered permanent brain damage from the beating his l'Cie had given the already unstable fal'Cie six years ago.

Before Zalera could calm Orphan down, the ground began to shake, and the mound of rock that Orphan had been pointing to began to shift and rise. Zalera watched as the mound rose to reveal a humanoid form. It turned around slowly and Zalera found himself staring into a glowing, mechanical face.

"Titan, I presume," Zalera yelled as the colossal Esper lumbered towards them. With a quick motion, Zalera sent the Broken back to the Ravine exit to watch their backs and turned back to Titan with a cocky smile, dipping into a bow as Titan stopped moving and lowered its head to regard them.

"Who are you pathetic creatures to enter my domain?" Titan spoke, his raspy mechanical voice echoing around the two aspects. Orphan had stopped waving about and stood stock still, giving no indication that he was at all unnerved by the massive entity before him. Zalera wasn't sure if it was backbone or pure stupidity; he hoped for the former, but was more inclined to believe the latter.

"I am Zalera, here at the behest of my lord Anima. He wishes to call the Espers to fight by his side once more, and you, the mightiest Esper remaining, have answered that call," answered Zalera in a confident tone.

"I expected Anima to come himself, not send his lackeys to do his dirty work," was Titan's response. Zalera took the insult in stride, knowing the assistance of the Espers could be invaluable to their cause.

"Anima is…indisposed at the moment, but I assure you I am no mere flunky," Zalera called up to Titan.

"You will have to prove your worth to me if you wish to speak on behalf of Anima. I will not barter with weaklings," Titan rumbled.

Zalera sighed, expecting something like this. He nodded his acquiescence to Titan's demands, and waited for the Esper to call whatever monster he would have to slaughter to gain his attention. After a moment a savage roar echoed up at him, followed by the creature who had made it sprinting up a sloped path towards him. Zalera glanced at the monster and found himself facing a behemoth, distantly recognizing it more specifically as a humbaba. The creature was already on its hind legs holding a large club-like weapon. The humbaba came level with him and swung its massive weapon down at Zalera, who rolled his eyes and held up one hand. He casually caught the club, stopping its descent and absorbing the full impact of the blow while not moving an inch himself. He almost laughed aloud at the comical expression of surprise on the behemoth's face as he wrenched the club out of its hand and spun it around to catch the grip. Before it could react, Zalera swung the club sideways into the side of the brute's head, grinning at the resounding crack that splintered the air as its neck broke. It tumbled lifelessly backwards down the slope, and Zalera tossed its club after it.

Two more humbabas, similarly wielding their clubs ran up the slope, taking no notice as their dead companion slid limply past them. One did take the time to scoop up the discarded club in its free hand though, and swung its two weapons menacingly as it made a beeline for Zalera. The aspect was surrounded in a dark aura and vanished, causing the humbaba to stumble as it lost sight of its prey. Zalera appeared behind the beast and held his palm out. A surge of dark energy erupted from the beast's chest, causing it to fall to its knees. The two clubs fell from its hands as the creature's strength left it, and it gave one last pitiful moan as it fell forward, the last dregs of life leaving it before it hit the ground.

Zalera turned to look for the third humbaba, and quickly spotted it charging for Orphan. Zalera could have easily stopped it, but hesitated, far too interested at how the aspect of death would handle the behemoth. Orphan stared at the beast, smiling stupidly up at it as it swung its club down with all of its might. The creature's bulk blocked the strike from Zalera, who shifted to see the strike, but was too late. The aftermath was obscured by the cloud of dust and debris kicked up from the impact, and Zalera waited impatiently for the smoke to clear.

As the scene came into view, Zalera's eyes widened. The humbaba was on the ground, struggling to get to its feet with one arm, the other shaking unsteadily over a deep, cruel gash across its stomach as it tried to prevent its innards from spilling out onto the ground. Orphan stood over the creature, his left arm soaked in blood up to the elbow. He gazed at the stained appendage intently until his clean right hand began to glow with power, the energy a shade darker than the crimson blood spilling from the humbaba. Orphan pressed the glowing palm to the creature's flank. The behemoth groaned as the energy engulfed its body, and Zalera watched as the beast's skin and muscle was slowly burned away, revealing a thick skeleton that also quickly succumbed to the corrosive power of the aspect of death and dissolved into dust.

Zalera overcame his surprise and walked over to Orphan, whose left arm glowed with the dark red energy, evaporating the blood coating it. Orphan turned to Zalera with a huge grin on his face and a new gleam in his eye, and the aspect of darkness chuckled at the sight. "There may be hope for you yet," he said, patting the boy on the back.

A slight tremor caught Zalera's attention, and he turned to Titan, who was shifting to get closer to them.

"Well," Titan said, clearly impressed by the display of violence, "I'm listening."

XXXXX

Hope's uncomfortably calm trip through the faultwarrens had reached its longest period of inactivity; no creature had crossed his path for over two hours. His reflexes were on the very edge when the first huge tremor rolled through the ground, causing him to shout in surprise and shatter a nearby boulder to pebbles with the thundaga spell that had been waiting eagerly at his fingertips.

After scrambling around for several minutes to find the source, he peered around a rock and found himself staring up at the back of Titan, who was walking away from him. He stared at the resident fal'Cie's back for a long moment, and when he was about to leave and continue with his search, he heard the sound of Titan's voice rolling over the faultwarrens, but was unable to decipher what he had said. His curiosity eventually overcame his desire to avoid an encounter with the fal'Cie, and he began searching for path that would take him up to a cliff with a better view.

Hope backtracked for a bit until he found such a path, and emerged on a high cliff with scattered boulders that he ducked behind to stay out of Titan's line of sight. He edged around the boulder in an attempt to see who Titan had spoken to, and he caught sight of two people standing on a stone ledge below the massive fal'Cie. Hope strained his eyes to try and make them out, and when he recognized the taller man, he felt a rush of several emotions, chief among them anger, panic, confusion and disbelief. Hope had seen this man's face in his mind's eye since Lightning had been crystallized, a focal point to direct his anger at. There was no mistaking it; Zalera was in the faultwarrens.

Hope didn't know why Zalera was here or why he was meeting with Titan, but he knew it couldn't be good. From his new vantage point, he could make out what the fal'Cie was saying, and heard "Well, I'm listening." Whatever the reasons for Zalera's visit, he was about to find out. He could only hope that the energy absorbing minerals in the rocks would keep him hidden long enough to do something about it.

XXXXX

"As I said, my lord Anima wishes to renew the alliance that once existed between himself and the Espers long ago. He is close to achieving the power he needs to break free from the prison he was contained in at the close of the war. Once we find the missing piece of the puzzle, our plan will be put into motion," Zalera said smoothly.

"And that's where I come in?" Titan asked.

"Indeed. You alone can influence the rest of the Espers, and with all of them searching across Pulse, it will not take long to find what we need. When Anima is free, you and your kin will be rewarded with power beyond your imagining."

Titan made a sharp rasping noise that Zalera took to be laughter. "Power? I have no need for power, I have enough of it."

Zalera narrowed his eyes. "Is that so?" The aspect flexed his hand. If that was how the Esper felt, he was ready to prove him wrong.

"There is something else you can give me, however," Titan continued, unknowingly avoiding the wrath of Zalera. "I know more about you and your master's plans than you think. I have felt the stirrings of a familiar power in the past months; I felt the power you used to slay the behemoths. You are aspects of Ultima."

"How…perceptive of you," Zalera said evenly, keeping the slight surprise out of his voice.

"Anima is gathering the fragments of the maker," Titan pressed on. "He will be free from Ultima's prison and will gain his power…becoming the new maker."

"That is indeed Anima's intentions," Zalera said, not knowing what the Esper was getting at.

"Since the war, I have watched this world stagnate and eventually begin to decay. With both Anima and Ultima lost, there were none strong enough to prevent this. I have done what I could to preserve the strength of Gran Pulse, but the sphere of my influence is limited; this world is dying." Titan dug a handful of rocks out of a cliff wall and let the boulders fall through his fingers to accentuate his point. "I believe that if he succeeds, Anima will be able to make Pulse strong again, perhaps stronger than it once was under the care of Ultima."

Zalera smiled triumphantly. "Your faith is well placed. Anima desires to reforge Pulse to be strong again, in a way that Ultima could not. But for that to happen, we must find the last remaining aspect of Ultima's power, which currently resides in a human host. The human is in the company of the last handful of Menhirrim tucked away in one of their hidden refuges."

"I see. I will contact the other Espers. They will scour their own domains, and we will locate your human," Titan declared.

"Excellent," Zalera said, turning on his heel. "Let us know when you find something." He waved to Orphan, who was staring up at Titan, to follow. When the aspect did not respond, Zalera snapped his fingers several times in front of the boy's face until he turned his attention away from the Esper. The two exited back to the Ravine, where Zalera motioned for the Broken still there to follow him, and the group began to make their way back to their ship while Zalera mused happily over his success. They walked through the ravine for another ten minutes until Zalera decided that he didn't want to ruin his good mood with another air ship ride.

"Take the ship back to the vestige," he said to his Broken. He turned to look for Orphan, but quickly realized that the boy was gone; he had lost track of the twitchy aspect during their short hike. He shrugged his shoulders, assuming that the boy had wandered off to find more beasts to kill. Zalera had noticed that he seemed to enjoy killing the humbaba, and the act seemed to have settled his jitteriness a bit.

"He'll find his way back to us soon enough," the aspect said to no one in particular while he focused his energy and hovered off the ground. Zalera smirked to himself and without a backward glance, rocketed off into the sky, already noting how much better the feel of wind was over the cold glass airship window.

XXXXX

Hope lay flat on his back behind the rocks, waiting for the thunderous footsteps of Titan to fade into the distance. His mind was abuzz with the weight of the conversation he had just overheard. Anima was recalling the Espers to his side, specifically to hunt him. There was something unsettling about knowing that all of the remaining Pulse fal'Cie, entities as old as the planet itself and no slouches in terms of power, would soon be scouring the world to look for him. And here he was, in the domain of the apparent leader of those fal'Cie.

With these unnerving thoughts running through his head, he remained in his hiding place for a good ten minutes after Titan's movement could no longer be heard. Hope got to his feet and surveyed the landscape below him, now determined more than ever to find this temple and get out of the faultwarrens as fast as possible.

He eventually spotted a rock formation that stood out and recognized it from the path that Raines had showed him. An hour later he came upon the cave, its inky black depths strangely comforting after what he had just happened. He stood in the mouth of the cave, when he felt a slight tingle, a warning light going off in his head. He turned quickly and saw a young blonde haired boy that looked about his age, and realized with a start that this was the boy that was with Zalera. Hope reached for his magic and felt a strange sense of urgency from the deepest part of his power center, the place where Eden's consciousness dwelled. He shook it off and readied a spell.

The boy's hands took on a dark red glow and a demented smile spread across his face. "Eden…" he hissed as he took slow, deliberate, and eager steps towards Hope.

XXXXX

So next chapter, the aspect of life vs. the aspect of death. Should be good.