A/N:
ZOMG before I forget, there's a special, hidden, super delux ultra bonus Chapter available in my deviantART gallery.
I decided against uploading up onto here because... I had a fear... of death... by pixel-flames _
MOVING ON.
And it Just Keeps Getting Better
Hope ran a hand through his hair as he walked down the hall. He'd been with Amodar for a little over an hour gathering information on the situation. Crystallinus was still experiencing tremors and Cie'th were still being spotted in certain parts of the city. He offered to lead a squad out himself but Amodar had requested him to remain at HQ—if only to keep an eye on a certain Sergeant Major. Hope didn't argue with the General.
He put aside attempting to contact Lightning for the moment and instead chose to first check on the situation with DeFluo and her sister. He'd instructed the Lance Corporal to take her to the nearest Medical Center, which was conveniently in the same direction he and Light had been going. From what he could tell, the younger sibling had lost quite a bit of blood but had confidence in her recovery. Honestly, he'd been more concerned with DeFluo. He didn't need to have arrived any earlier to read the general enmity of the situation—particularly between the young officer and Oerban warrior.
In helping Amodar deal with all the chaos erupting throughout the city, Hope had been too distracted to really think about the return of Fang and Vanille. He was almost positive their return was linked to the Cie'th plaguing the city and that both were linked to what had happened at Baseline. If he was going to find answers, that'd probably be the best place to start.
Finding himself in the medical center, he scanned the general area, searching for either DeFluo and her sister or Light and their... guests. Upon asking a member of staff he was instructed down one of the quieter halls. As he turned the corner though, he almost ran into Lightning.
"Hope." The Sergeant Major recovered from the near-collision first.
"Li-"
"HOPE!" Vanille all but shrieked. The First Lieutenant almost jumped as his gaze shifted to the smaller Oerban practically tackled him, "Is that really you! You're all grown up! Look at you! You're so tall! And your hair is different!" Hope silently thanked Vanille and her natural ability to lighten any situation. He couldn't deny it was slightly amusing at how small she seemed now, compared to him.
Glancing at Fang, he was intrigued by the change of clothing—though he couldn't argue she pulled off the half-jumpsuit-look quite well. His eyes returning to Vanille, he saw she had changed too, but not into a CRYSIS uniform of any sort. She seemed to have lost most of the necklaces he remembered her wearing and her hair was no longer in pigtails. It hung freely past her shoulders save the small half-ponytail. She wore a light pink top, slightly less revealing than her previous one but remained sleeveless. Her skirt was a deep purple skirt, a white belt hanging loosely around her waist.
"Eve lent me some clothes." Vanille explained, as if reading his mind, "Alva had these in her bag." Hope looked past the group down the hall where Eve was sitting in on one of the seats outside the room he assumed her sister was in.
"She's asleep." Lightning stated.
"She said Alva's gonna be fine, she just needs to rest for the night." Vanille added, a happiness in her tone that only she could pull off. Turning his attention to Fang and studying her expression, he found it difficult to read. With a one last glance toward the Lance Corporal he motioned over his shoulder.
"Why don't we all go grab some fresh air for now?" He suggested, "We haven't really had the chance to... talk." There wasn't an immediate answer, "Y'know between waking up from a crystal sleep, Cie'th popping out of the ground-" he motioned down the hall toward Eve with his chin, "-bizarre doppelgangers-"
"Having guns shoved in your face." Fang muttered.
"Oh grow up Fang!" Lightning responded with a fed up look as she turned to walk away.
"Oh, yeah," Fang called after her, "Walk away Sunshine, that's real grown up!"
"I don't have time to deal with you right now Fang, I have a city to protect-" The Sergeant Major stopped. Hope had caught one of her arms and forcibly caught her eye. He knew that while Lightning could have truly felt she needed to be the Sergeant Major, she was being torn up inside by the presence of the Oerban warrior. He'd seen signs when she'd come across DeFluo—basically a look-a-like. Now with the real thing, he was afraid she'd break completely. The situation needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. Between the safety of Lightning and the Crystal City, he had no qualms picking the pinkette.
"Light, this needs to be done sooner or later," He said in a low voice, "I've talked to Amodar, he can keep the situation in the city under control. The Cie'th are still appearing but less frequently and smaller in size." The Sergeant Major responded by pulling her arm free but didn't continue her departure. Nodding victoriously, Hope turned back to the other two women, "First things first, I think it's best we start at Baseline."
"Baseline?"
"The bottom of the pillar connecting Cocoon to Gran Pulse." Hope explained, ignoring the pointed look of discomfort on Lightning's face, "I think its a good place to start figuring out what's going on."
"I don't kn-"
"Sounds like a plan!" Vanille interrupted her taller companion, practically pouncing on Hope again, "Oh, what about Eve?" The orange-haired Oerban turned to look down the hall again.
"Let her sleep." Lightning instructed, already making her way in the opposite direction. The other three shared looks before following.
The walk to Baseline took around 10 minutes but the awkward silence—save for Vanille reporting on more or less anything and everything of interest to her along the way—made it seem like hours. Most of the CRYSIS personnel had been ordered out into the city, leaving CRYSIS Headquarters relatively empty. They found little security around the Pillar area. A pair of guards just outside the entrance requested identification from them—Fang and Vanille included—but almost immediately withdrew when they recognized Lightning.
"We did... this?" Vanille—who'd been strangely quiet since they'd drawn close to the giant mass of crystal, "This is..." She skipped ahead, into the main chamber, "This is so..."
"Yes, it does have that affect on people." Hope spoke up, chuckling as he noticed even Fang looked rather staggered, "You two never really did fail to impress." Adamant on keeping Vanille from distraction, he cleared his throat, "So, do you either of you remember anything? Before you woke up?"
"I remember falling asleep to your voices." Vanille asked, poking at a rather interesting crystal formation near the inner shaft, "Then becoming crystal," Her voice lowered in volume but lost none of it's spirit, "I remember it was a weird feeling... like it was cold but warm at the same time." She turned to her taller Oerban companion, "You felt it too, right Fang?"
"It was... it was something." Fang attempted to elaborate, "It was definitely different than the time before—well, maybe apart from the world ending."
Fang had a rather unnerving point. Going by the Oerbans' track record, taking into account the worsening tremors and reappearance of Cie'th, it seemed the price of a shortened length of their crystal sleep was a world of trouble. Hope couldn't remember either Oerban talking in length and detail about their first crystallization. He threw a glance over at the pinkette who remained silent. He had the inkling of a feeling if any of the other l'Cie had come to know about it, it would have been Lightning—through Fang.
"How long was it this time?" Fang asked. Hope found himself actually surprised it hadn't come up earlier, or that neither he nor Lightning had brought up the length of time passed.
"Ten years." Hope answered. Vanille continued to be distracted by the surrounding area while Fang slowly nodded, processing the information.
"Well, that's better than a hundred or so." The smaller Oerban called from behind a large wall of crystal. Once again, impressing Hope with her skill of listening without appearing to be.
"Ten years..." Fang repeated under her breath.
"What about just before waking up." Lightning finally spoke, her voice steely, in full Sergeant Major mode, "Do you remember seeing or hearing anything? Something must have triggered you awake early."
"Maybe a prince charming gave us a little kiss." Fang's nip at the pinkette's side was answered with a rolled eye, "Though he coulda kept the Cie'th back at the castle-"
"Fang-" Hope began to warn her, though admittedly slightly amused.
"This was a waste of time." Lightning began walking toward the entrance.
"Funny, I thought we were trying to figure out what was going on." Fang's snark stopped the pinkette. Hope had half a mind to interrupt but was beginning to realize that whatever this tension was between Fang and Lightning, wouldn't go away until they'd both gotten it out of their systems.
"No, we-" The Sergeant Major motioned between Hope and herself, "-are trying to figure out what's going on, with the intention of saving the city from being destroyed by violent quakes or roaming Cie'th." She then motioned to the Oerban, "You are messing around, being childish." She then threw her hands up in exasperation.
"Light-"
"It's nice to know some things haven't changed." Lightning interrupted Hope again, "Everything is still a joke to you."
"And you've still got a stick up your-"
Fang was cut off when a heavy pulse echoed through the chamber. Hope had felt it too, like a small yet surprisingly strong shock wave from the middle of the room—from the shaft. Looking over at it, he saw Vanille standing shocked, her hand on it.
"Oh..." She looked over at Hope, a sheepish look on her face as she yanked her hand away, "...was I ...not supposed to touch that?"
She was answered with another pulse, this time more powerful. She stumbled backwards. Fang moved to rush over but before she could get two feet, there was another pulse through the room. Hope felt a heavy sensation in the back of his head before his vision suddenly blacked out. Moments later the dark was replaced with flashing images accompanied by a voice that managed to be deafening yet difficult to really hear at the same time.
HEARTBEAT
"You are l'Cie. Creations of the fal'Cie."
Memories of passages through broken land and shattered ruins.
HEARTBEAT
"You are human. Destroyers of the fal'Cie."
Flashes of flowing lava.
HEARTBEAT
"A necessary ending that leads to unnecessary destruction."
Memories of the crystallization of Cocoon.
HEARTBEAT
"The fal'Cie fade while the humans struggle to survive."
Images of an evolving Crystallinus.
HEARTBEAT
"But the world will break beneath them."
Flashes of a huge beast covered in shadow and Gran Pulse shattering completely.
HEARTBEAT
When the voice finally faded and the images behind their eyes stopped. Hope, Lightning, Fang and Vanille were on their knees on the ground, recovering from the sensory overload.
"That... kid... DeFluo?" Fang gasped, looking directly at Lightning, "I... I saw her, she was here..."
"They both were." Vanille added softly.
"Wh-What...?" Lightning was still attempting to regain her bearings.
"It couldn't be... that voice..." Hope's thoughts were more focused on the voice they'd heard, "Was... Was that...?" He trailed off, the disbelief too much for him to complete the inquiry.
Meanwhile, 10 minutes away in the medical center, Eve had woken from her sleep. The Lance Corporal was up off her chair and clutching the oppose wall of the hall, clutching at her heart. She was struggling for breath, a single word escaping her gasps for air.
"Titan."
A/N:
Do you hate me?
Yes, you hate me.
But it's okay! Y'know why?
BECAUSE I LOVE YOU ALL!
But in all seriousness, can we all just take a step back and remember that-at least in my little messed up universe-it's been 10 years and people have grown up. Light included.
Yes, she'll always be Lightning from the game and I'd never want to totally disregard that but She's BOUND to have changed a little over a decade.
And it was a decade without Fang! She's entitled to a little crazy, okay?
Okay, seriousness over.
...and apparently so is this note =\