A/N: So, this is the start of my new Dimensional Gateway series :3 My profile goes more into depth on that, if you're interested I advise you to go check it out!
Summary: Two friends leave their dying world to seek out a new life among that of Final Fantasy XIII. There's a catch though… they know the whole story. Follow them as they attempt to change the seemingly inevitable, possibly making new friends, and enemies, along the way. FLight, Hope/Vanille, Snow/Serah, obviously some OCs. Most likely AU, since I'm lazy in doing EXACT research.
Well, that summary is a HUGE generalization, but the specifics get revealed as the story wears on. This first chapter is basically going to be confusing; it explains things by the end though, I assure you. And please don't just give up on it because parts may sound boring, it gets interesting, I promise… ONWARD! Oh yeah, and before I forget… I hate Mary Sues. If you see my OCs developing into one, tell me. Please, GOD, tell me if that starts to happen. I'm decent at not letting that happen but- crap, I'm rambling.
Warning, this included end of game SPOILERS. You have been WARNED.
Dimensional Gateway: FF XIII
Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Trinity's eyes shot open, only to quickly close them again as something wet hit her eyes. Had she just heard her name?
"Trin, you've been in there for an hour! Aren't you freezing yet?" a familiar voice sounded, muffled by a door.
Oh that's right. I was showering. Whoops.
"Just a minute Sophie!"
The girl slowly but surely sat up. She had fallen asleep in the shower. Again. The water had long since turned cold and it was a wonder how she hadn't been awoken by the sheer iciness of it. She passed it off as over exhaustion and lack of sleep. Now more aware, Trinity turned off the shower head and stepped out onto the worn tile floor, a little numb from the cold. She then quickly wound a towel around her body before opening the door and nudging her friend aside.
"You fell asleep in the shower again, didn't you?" the origin of the earlier voice, Trinity's travel mate and best friend, asked. The brown haired girl stood there with her hands on her hips as Trinity rolled her eyes. That was all the answer Sophie needed, so she entered the bathroom with a sigh, not looking forward to the icy shower.
Trinity gazed at the door Sophie had disappeared behind for a minute, waiting for the shower to turn back on before dropping the towel and getting dressed. She quickly pulled on the training garb the facility she resided at provided all its inhabitants with and looked around the metal room; that would be her last time in that room. Both of theirs, actually.
The two were part of a special task force, their task being to leave Earth, and to never return.
Three years ago the announcement was made. All the attempts to change the past using the newly invented time machine had been futile, and only ended in the present day to go from bad, to worse. The fact that scientist knew how they were better off before messing with the time stream was a paradox on its own, seeing after time is changed the previous time stream is supposed to be non-existent. And, with that knowledge, the scientists decided time travel wasn't going to save mother Earth. So, they devised a new plan. One of the main issues was that there was massive overpopulation; there was no land to grow crops on, which meant there was little food to be fed to the population of 20 billion— roughly four times the population as when the 2000's started.
This plan, to avoid legal consequences, couldn't involve murder. It also couldn't be against the 'deportees' will. But how were they to clear the planet of 10 billion people, so that the remaining could rebuild a better Earth? The answer came in the form of a book… and then movies, followed by video games, and fantasies from inside the heads of two year olds. They would send applicants into a different dimension, a fantasy.
Shortly after the discovery of time travel, scientist discovered the existence of different dimensions within the space-time continuum. With further studies, scientists found that every thought, every spec of imagination creates a different dimension in which that idea reigns supreme. This means that the second the author of a book thought up a novel idea, somewhere that idea became a reality.
The idea of this project, to move 10 billion people into different dimensions, became known as 'Project Dreamer', in reference to those who applied to participate and dreamed of having a better life.
Trinity and Sophie heard about this when they were walking through one of Earth's few remaining inhabitable cities, and almost immediately applied. Trinity recalled the events like they were yesterday, even though they were some two and a half years ago.
"This seems like it's too good to be true, and when it sounds like that it usually is," Trinity had said. She was always the first to doubt, the world they lived in didn't have much room for false hopes and dreams.
"I assure you miss, this is not a hoax. SSICA finally got the picture and have found a way to better Earth at the same time giving people who want to leave Earth what they want," the middle man had explained. He was a gruff man, nearly six feet tall with a worn white coat. His name tag read 'Timothy Marcam', and underneath it clearly stated he was a SSICA employ.
"You mean to tell us, that after all this time, the Scientific Social and Industrialist Co-ordinance Association is actually taking into consideration of what the people want?" Sophie had piped up, unable to believe the man either.
"Well, seeing as SSICA practically owns Earth, and half the world hates SSICA, yes. We are finally taking into consideration of what the people want."
"And what's in it for us, if we sign up for your little project?" Trinity had asked.
"You will be able to live a fantasy world of your choosing, leaving whatever bad memories you have here behind. And, no offense, but by the look of you, you both have some pretty bad memories."
It was true. It was no secret that after one hit the age of sixteen, you either hit the streets on your own or found yourself a traveling mate, or in other words, a partner… not necessarily that kind of partner, but a partner nonetheless. Trinity and Sophie were no different. Their families raised them in a city in what used to be Eastern America, and when Trinity turned seventeen, Sophie sixteen, they both set off. It was almost law, after that age you were just a burden to your family, and in that case you tend not to have a very good life.
Remembering this fact, the two had shared glances, and simultaneously nodded their heads to show their consent to the man before them.
"Great! It's a mile walk from here to headquarters; I need to get a few more recruits. The goal is 10 billion, after all." The girls would never find out that this task of SSICA's wouldn't be accomplished for another few decades, due to the big number, but they didn't really care about that either.
Trinity was pulled out of her thoughts once again by Sophie, now clean and shivering from the cold shower. She had opened the door and was walking out with a towel around her own body and squeezing any remaining moisture from here wavy brown hair. Sophie huffed at Trinity in her disapproval of having her last shower to be a cold one, but nevertheless stripped the towel off and started to slip on her own SSICA training jumpsuit. At this point, Trinity had returned her gaze skywards, trying her best to make pictures out of the ceiling texture.
"Scoot," Sophie said simply, and Trinity obliged as the still-cold body of Sophie plopped on the bed beside her and joined Trinity in her musings.
"Nervous?" Trinity asked.
"A little. I mean, we signed up for the fight training course so we wouldn't be totally vulnerable, but hell. Two and a half years of training probably won't get us very far, not where we're going." Trinity nodded in agreement and sat up.
"What do you think it will be like? I myself have never seen any color other than that of artificial dyes. I… I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what plants look like. They sound so… beautiful in the books I've read, and in that game… the forests looked so heavenly." Trinity laughed at Sophie's dreamy look she had gotten in her eyes.
"That's because neither of us have ever seen anything but the color grey outside of movies and the like. I haven't even seen dye, where did you see dye?" Trinity asked.
"I think the last time I saw the true color red was before I turned five. My little brother dug up this plastic looking thing. It sort of looked like the old fashion cars, you know, the ones that ran on gasoline and had wheels?"
"The ones that couldn't fly?"
"Yeah."
"Huh. You know, I never thought back that far, because that's when everything seems to have gone downward," Trinity said, a thoughtful look on her face. "I'm not going to miss this world. Not one bit. My only hope is that they have video games and stuff there. It's been years since I've been able to play one, ever since that old playstation thing broke." Sophie laughed at her friend.
"You were so pissed, that was your only escape from reality other than books!" Trinity smiled at her friend's statement. She realized the reason that they were going over the few decent memories that they had. Part of the transportation to the different dimension involved the loss of many memories, only the truly important ones or the ones they thought of when the process took place would remain. Silence filled the room as both the girls just laid in the bed and thought of all their truly important and happy memories, however few there were.
It wasn't long until the mechanical door slid open and an armored escort stepped in.
"It's time you two, come on, I haven't got all day," came the electronic static through the guy's helmet. The girls briefly looked at each other with a mixture of expressions before getting out of the bed and following the uniformed SSICA military unit down the long hallway. There was no sound in the hallway, only the click of their boots and the breathing coming from the escort. What should have been a ten minute walk felt like a couple of seconds; the girls truly were nervous.
The three came upon a large room, longer than a football field and taller than what was left of the statue of liberty. All around, scientists in worn out white lab coats bustled to work and send the new set of Dreamers to their new 'homes'. The escort led Trinity and Sophie to the other side of the room, and stopped in the middle of a large metal circle on the ground.
"You stay here." The two girls nodded and watched as the escort left the room to his other duties.
"Okay, what have we here? I assume you're the next Dreamers?" another man walked up to them. He was dressed like all the other scientists, except he looked a little more worn out and carried a clipboard.
"Yes sir," the Trinity replied, and Sophie nodded with a smile.
"Well of course you are!" he said with a warm smile of his own. "Now, before we set you off, we need to ask a few last minute questions, just to be sure you're ready and that we have everything on record." Trinity and Sophie waited patiently.
"Names?"
"Trinity Anderson."
"Sophie Aster."
"Age?"
"Twenty."
"Nineteen."
"Origin?"
"New York."
"I'm from New York, too."
"Okay… and it says here that you have both taken about two years of special training?" The girls nodded. "And this would be because your destination is… where?"
The girls glanced at each other once again, and answered in unison; "Final Fantasy XIII." The scientist looked up in recognition.
"Ah, it's been a while since we've had one of those. Mostly they go for Final Fantasy VII or Harry Potter or something along those lines." Trinity smiled knowingly.
"That's what we figured. We like to be unique… and we hated they way that game ended." The scientist smiled and walked back to stand behind a desk, but motioned for the girls to stay put. He turned on a microphone and started speaking.
"Okay, what you stand upon now is what is known as a dimensional gateway. Basically, we are able to use its magnetics along with our time travel equipment to send you to another dimension. Before we do this however, I'm going to recite to you what you should be doing and thinking as we prepare for your depart. One, don't move a muscle if you can help it. Two, if you want to change your name for the next world, now is the time to do it, this is a fresh start for you, you only get one chance. Three, you have three minutes from initiation to your actual transport. Aside from your training that we've put you through physically, as we have embedded that deep enough you won't forget, think of any and all important thing you will need to remember. Usually, the storyline is a good choice." Both of the girls nodded.
"Four, the way this happens is that an electric shock courses from the platform into your body. Normally, this would kill you, but we open the dimensional gateway and instead of dying you will end up into the dimension you are thinking of. Finally, and I cannot stress this enough, at some point in the three minutes you are given you need to think of the place you are going, and before we start you both need to have contact if you want to end up in the same place." At the mention of this, Trinity linked hands with Sophie, who looked as if she was getting apprehensive. "Again, think of the place you are going to. If you don't, the electric shock will kill you." With the nods of understanding as a sign of approval, the scientist flicked a few switches and a countdown of three minutes appeared on the front of the desk.
"Remember, don't move, and follow the instructions. And one more thing, if you are asked at any point in your new lives concerning your origins, a good thing to say is 'Portallion', meaning you came through the dimensional portal. But don't tell them the last part!" the scientist exclaimed, laughing at his subtle joke. The girls would have laughed nervously, were they told not to move or if they weren't concentrating on what they needed to remember.
Trinity knew Sophie adored the name Claire, but that was out of the question for a name change for obvious reasons. Trinity's name was already fake; much like Lightning she changed it to forget who she used to be, her old life with what she called family. Both girls rounded up whatever good memories they wanted to keep, and tried their hardest to remember the FF XIII storyline. They tried to recall all the skills they would need, even though they were told they wouldn't forget anyways. They also thought hard on where and at what point in the plot they were going, though it was easy enough seeing as they had discussed it numerous times.
And then Trinity decided to try something… the two wouldn't get anywhere as humans, even if they had acquired decent fighting skills. So in conclusion to the rest of her recallings, Trinity's last thoughts were,
… and I am a Pulse L'cie. She only wished she could have told Sophie, but even if she were allowed to move, immediately after these thoughts were finished a searing pain travelled up her feet and through her spinal cord as the countdown reached zero. By time it reached her heart and mind, everything went black.
It was dark out, she could tell that much. Her head hurt too, and she sat up slowly with a cringe as every part of her body throbbed in time with her heart beat. In that moment, the thoughts Trinity deliberately remembered came flooding back, but everything beyond that was a black abyss, and if she tried to enter this abyss another wave of pain would travel down her spine. Immediately after gaining understanding of what had just occurred, she rapidly turned and searched for Sophie, breathing a sigh of relief when the girl was still unconscious only a few feet away.
Trinity crawled over to her friend and pulled her arm over her own shoulder and hoisted both of them to their feet, wincing at a larger pain in her right leg… she must have scraped or twisted it.
Trinity didn't really know where they were, she had thought she had specified the confrontation at Palumpolum as their destination, but supposed it was either a little early in a different location or… something along those lines. Nevertheless, wherever they were, Trinity knew it probably wasn't safe to be out in the open.
As she limped on down what seemed to be a street, lit dimly with street lights, she could just barely tell the outline of something in the distance… it looked sort of like the city of PalumPolum from what she could remember and make out. Having no other destination, that's where she set off to.
"Trin?" The addressed girl looked down at her companion, once again sighing from relief and happy to see her friend awake.
"Hey, sleepy head. Have a nice nap?" Sophie scoffed quietly and once again rested her head on Trinity's shoulder.
"Where are we?" she asked, her eyes still closed.
"As far as I can tell, on the way to somewhere we should have been. Must not have been specific enough." Sophie grunted weakly in agreement, causing Trinity to look at her in concern.
"Hey… you okay?"
"Mm… yeah, just a little tired, I suppose. Aren't you?" Trinity shook her head, and continued walking. It took a few hours to finally reach the outskirts of the city, and another half hour to get somewhere in the city where they could rest. Trinity sat Sophie on a couch that had been disposed of and quickly took her place beside her.
"When do you suppose this is?" came another of Sophie's questions. Trinity put her arm around her best friend and shrugged.
"Well, since the city isn't in mass chaos yet, and I know for a fact that I thought 'at the confrontation', my guess is that we are a little early. Maybe a day or two, I don't know." A couple passed the alleyway the girls were seated in, as if to prove the not-yet chaotic state. Then Trinity realized something.
"I don't feel like I'm wearing the training jump suit…" she looked down at herself but it was too dark to see anything clearly. All she could see was that instead the one-piece jumpsuit she usually wore, she was definitely in some sort of shirt and pants. Sophie grunted again to show she agreed, though her eyes didn't open and her head didn't leave Trinity's shoulder.
Trinity looked away from her friend and replaced her worried look with a hopeful one, and sighed. She looked up, and through the gap of the two buildings the girls were between, Trinity noticed the stars the first time that night. That was the first time she had ever seen the stars, since her home world was too polluted to allow such pleasantries. Trinity smiled and nudged her almost sleeping friend urgently and pointed up. Sophie's eyes opened and looked in the direction of the gesture, and a genuine smile appeared on her face. Trinity's smile grew wider and she leaned her head on Sophie's.
"'Night Sophie."
"'Night Trin."
The girls fell asleep that night, filled with hope that this second chance at life was just what they needed. And yet, Trinity couldn't push away this feeling of apprehension. She couldn't place her finger on it, but she felt she had forgotten something important. No matter what it was though, it wouldn't pull her away from the true happiness she felt that night. How grand it would be… this new beginning.
A/N: ANNNNDD 'scene!' How'd you like it? Drop me a review, tell me if you want me to continue. Next chapter is the mini-battle and escape from Palumpolum, so the girls will be meeting the canon characters next chapter. Don't worry though, I've been told I'm pretty good at keeping people in character… Again, review!