Wind of Change
Kupo!
Clarifying: This is actually connected to my other story "Nothing compares to you", that's written from Noel's perspective. I thought about putting them together but it didn't feel right. This story focuses on Serah and takes place during different times during the "game play". However, note that Serah's story takes place before Noel's.
Again, I'm really sorry for all the incorrect grammar this entry contains. English is not my first language so I hope that you can bear with me.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Characters, names, scenes and settings etc. belongs to Square Enix and Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Wind of Change
Leaving New Bodhum 003 AF
She hesitated. His hand was still reaching out for her, waiting for her to take it in her own.
"Are you sure that you are ready? You know, once we go through, there might be no coming back." His words were still echoing inside her head, making her feel even more uncertain. No coming back… She gazed around her, taking everything that was New Bodhum, her home, in. It was a beautiful place, no doubt. But something was missing; she knew it with all her heart. But still. She was safe here, content even. Was that worth giving up? She could stay here, she could. Everything would be back to normal; it would be like he'd never existed. Like the alternative wouldn't. She'd teach and wait. And wait. And wait. As she always did. Alone.
Silently, she shook her head. No. She'd waited long enough. For her sister. For Snow. For a sign that she wasn't going insane. Maybe this was it? Maybe Noel was the sign? Noel, the boy with the artefact in his hand. The artefact that could lead her to Valhalla, to Lightning. Suddenly the reality she'd lived in until now seemed like a part of a strange dream. Maybe it had been? Everyday had been the same, it had felt like she'd been embedded in cotton, unable to feel the world around her, and since Snow had left it had just gotten worse. He'd been her rock, the one she always could rely on, and when he'd gone, nothing but emptiness was left to her. Suddenly, knowing her path, she stretched out her hand to Noel who took it in a steady grip and placed both of their hands on the portal.
"You sure?" He said once again, as if to reassure himself that she really was ready.
"Yes." She could hear how weak her voice sounded and it made her a little frightened. But every great adventure started in doubt, did it not? She took a deep breath, pressed Noel's hand a little tighter and then everything began to spin. She should have been even more afraid now, she knew it in her heart, but in some strange way, the spinning made her calm. When New Bodhum seemed to vaporize before them she could feel no regret, only a shiver of hope. This was it. This was her beginning. Her future.
The Historia Crux was like nothing she'd ever seen before. When you finally found something to fix your eyes upon, it was gone, replaced by something entirely else. It was a place, forever moving forward, and yet still a place caught between times. She found it impossible to actually tell time inside of it, it was like there was none, or maybe it was just too much of it. A minute and a day would feel the same, making it hard to focus on a goal ahead. At least for her. Noel seemed eerily comfortable floating around in the nothingness that was the Historia Crux. If it hadn't been for his hand in hers, pushing her forward, she was certain that she would remain in this place. Forever, floating through time.
He was smiling at her and somehow it made her heart ache for him. They were going to save the future. The certainty in his voice when he'd told her his plans had been enough to convince her that he was real. That his plans were. He'd lost everything, but he still got hope. Hope in her, in their journey, in the future. But still, she ached. For the boy who was holding her hand so tightly. It must be so different for him, she thought, coming from a place without a sun, a place without a future. He'd come to save her, he'd said, and in some way she wished that she could save him too.