I really, really, really love this chapter and the way that it turned out. There were some details that I had to tweak to fit it in with canon, but overall, it was a really fun and painless process. If anyone was lost, I want to clarify that Nue was the name of Hope's ultimate weapon in XIII, and I hope you guys caught the lightning bolt pun when the [SPOILERS FOR LIGHTNING RETURNS] Angel of Valhalla (Odin) showed up! [END SPOILERS] There was also a FFX reference in there, if anyone caught it. Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this chapter as much as I did.

Summary: Etro's Temple- their one hope at finding Lightning, one more piece of the puzzle that needed to fall into place to bring their family back together again.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy XIII series

The New World - 500 AF (Two Days after the Chaos)

"This place just looks like the Archylte Steppe, except with all the rubble and ruins," Snow commented as he looked over the side of the airship to the ground below.

"And all the wildlife that weren't ever on the Steppe," Hope added. He turned to Noel. "What did the world where you come from look like, Noel?"

The hunter frowned, trying to pull up specific memories. "Well, I came from seven hundred years after the fall of Cocoon," he said slowly. "And the pillar came down quite some time before that. It was after the war that decimated Pulse and mankind. Everything was covered in Ashensand. Everything was dead, all the trees and plants, and the sky was always red. We didn't really have a name for anything; we just called the area the Wildlands."

Snow and Hope looked at each other and grinned, as if sharing an inside joke. "Why don't we just call this area the Wildlands, then?" The Academy Director suggested. "Chaos terraformed Pulse anyway. We'll have to relabel a lot of places, if not all of them."

Hearing his words, Noel nodded and smiled. See, Serah? We can do this. We can keep fighting and rebuild the world you gave your life for. We will. We'll continue the fight.

Sazh set the airship down on some rocky crags near the Temple with astounding skill; he didn't scrape or hit anything despite the narrow space.

"Hey, old man," Snow called into the intercom.

"What, you big buffoon?" A smile twitched on Noel's lips.

"I was thinking-"

"Always a dangerous thing," Hope jibed, cutting him off. That drew a laugh out of the brunet; Snow pointedly ignored them both.

"I was thinking, maybe Hope, Noel, and I should go in there ourselves. We don't know what's inside, you should stay here and watch Dajh and the ship."

A sigh. "All right, kids. Bring soldier girl back." Sazh's words left no room for doubt. He just had to believe Lightning was in there. The three jumped straight from the side of the ship down to the rocky surface below. There in front of them was a bridge, swinging over a chasm that led to the interior of the Temple. Etro's Temple, even in ruins, loomed above them, its spires casting long shadows whose fingers clawed at the ground. Snow punched his fists together, Noel took his swords off his back, and Hope drew his Nue as the three of them cautiously made their way across the bridge, suspended over a canyon so deep there was only darkness below. The brunet silently breathed a sigh of relief when they had their feet on solid ground again at the Temple entrance.

With only one look at each other, Snow set one foot on the stairs that led up to the inside of the Temple when a loud squawk caused them all to jump, weapons at the ready. Hope's left hand was held in front of him, a massive ball of thunder ready to be unleashed, until the source of the sound revealed itself.

A white blur appeared on the Temple spires, jumping and making its way down to the entrance toward them. When it finally stopped a few feet away, Snow let out the breath he had been holding as Hope dismissed the thundaga spell he had ready- it was a white chocobo that had startled them. All three men lowered their weapons, their tense muscles relaxing. However, the hero's eyes narrowed.

"Guys, is it just me, or is this chocobo a little off?" he asked his companions.

The chocobo's body was white in color, and its plumes were much shorter than those of a regular chocobo. Even stranger was the fact that the tips of the feathers of the crown and those at the base of the plumes were a light green color. And above its left eye…

Noel had noticed it too. He held out his hand, gesturing to the creature that he was harmless. Evidently, after a look-over, the chocobo trusted him and moved closer until the hunter put a comforting hand on its long neck. Hope peered at the strange gray insignia Snow had pointed at, something tugging at his memory.

"Noel, does that symbol look familiar to you?" The young Director asked softly, careful not to startle the creature. "Snow?"

The brunet shook his head. "Nothing like I've seen."

"I definitely know this from somewhere," the bigger man answered.

It hit Hope like a lightning bolt, and he smacked himself for not noticing sooner. "Snow, that's Odin's Zantetsuken!"

Snow looked closer before his face split into a huge grin. "So then if this bird has a Zantetsuken tat, it must be connected to Odin somehow, right? I mean, chocobos don't just show up with tattoos. That must mean Odin is close. And we know that he wouldn't be far from Sis, which means she's close by too!"

It may have been Noel's imagination, but he could swear up and down that the chocobo rolled its eyes. The big bird shook its head, kwehing softly and pointing its beak to the stairs.

"If your theory is true, then maybe Lightning is inside after all," the brunet said, petting the bird's neck. The chocobo then walked back to the side of the Temple, jumping back up the spires. "Looks like Odin-bird wants us to go find her."

Hope chuckled, gripping his boomerang tighter as the three men made their way into the Temple proper. He had no idea what they might find inside, but gently tugged at the flow of magic he felt inside him all the same. Looking up, he saw a thin black mist spilling slowly down the stairs- the Chaos. "Ready?"

Squaring his shoulders, Snow took the first step, the other two following close behind. "This is a lot of stairs," he huffed after a minute. Noel almost laughed.

"What, don't tell me you're getting tubby already!"

Their bantering came to a stop when they reached the top of the stairs to see the interior of the antechamber. The inside of the Temple was in complete ruins; there were piles of rubble and debris everywhere. Fallen rock coated the checkered floors, all stacked on top of each other. Although there were no torches or lights, a strange, almost eerie, green glow lit the place. Even then, Hope summoned a small fire in the palm of his hand as both a source of light and comfort. The only way to proceed was to climb the stacked boulders on the side of the room, and that was exactly what they did, walking through the labyrinth of ruins.

"Something about this place doesn't sit well with me," Noel murmured.

"No kidding, gives me the creeps," the bigger man replied before turning to Hope. "So, I never got around to asking, but what's with the magic?"

The implication of his question was so obvious the Academy Director almost sighed. Snow would never change, something he was both grateful for and exasperated with.

"No, I'm not a l'Cie again like you; don't think I didn't notice your brand, Snow," Hope stated, shooting his friend a glance. As if still being able to summon his Eidolon wasn't clue enough for him back on Bhunivelze. The blonde's longer, undoubtedly more interesting backstory would have to wait. "I'm the same as Serah. It's what everyone called 'crystal powers' back when some people would randomly be able to use magic. As if coming to Pulse amplified our abilities or something without having a fal'Cie channel their power through us."

"You know, that would make a lot of sense," Noel spoke up. "When Lindzei made Cocoon, land was taken out of Pulse. Pulse was created first, more in touch with the original magic of the gods. At least, that's what the stories all say when they were passed down to us. I can use magic just because I follow the line of the Guardians, so I never really gave it much thought."

Both Hope and Snow raised their eyebrows, mulling over his theory as they continued walking. The farther in they got, the stranger things were- some of the rubble floated in the air, and it felt as if the Chaos itself was closing in around them tighter like a vacuum. Room after room it was the same, debris everywhere that the trio would have to climb over, sometimes some stairs, a long hallway, and then another rubble-filled room.

Hope growled in frustration, making the other two stop.

"Hope, what are you-"

"Hang on," the silverette said through gritted teeth. He raised a gloved hand and a burst of wind came out, surrounding them and lifting them off their feet.

"Hope, what the hell in holy Etro's name are you doing?!" Noel shrieked as the wind carried them from the bottommost floor of the room they were in to the top of the rubble where another hallway waited. As soon as his feet touched solid rock, he fell to his knees, gasping. Snow laughed.

"Out of anyone, I'd trust Hope most with magic with whatever the hell he was doing. The kid was the best ravager of all of us by a landslide," he chuckled.

"I got tired of climbing," Hope said sheepishly, waiting for Noel to stand up. The three men continued to the end of the hallway where an enormous set of stairs waited in front of them.

"Wait," the brunet murmured. His hunter senses were in overdrive. "Do you feel that? The air," he said, pointing to the top of the stairs. "The air feels different here." And he took off running.

When Snow and Hope reached the top, the first thing they saw was Noel's posture. Shoulders stiffened, an arm held out defensively in front of his body, and his feet apart, as if he just skidded to a stop. Then they noticed the room itself- it opened to the outside, letting in a dark, dismal sky which Snow was sure was clear and sunny when they left Sazh and Dajh with the airship. Finally, they saw the tall structure in front of them, a marble white throne on top of an enormous blue crystal. But it was the thing resting on the throne that made all three of them stop breathing, their hearts hammering.

There on the marble sat the too-still, too-familiar figure of Lightning Farron with her legs crossed and gunblade in hand...frozen in crystal stasis. Hope forced his body to move, only able to utter a half-hearted "wha…" at the sight of his mentor. His voice brought Snow back to his senses, causing him to run toward the throne, intent on reaching Lightning before a powerful blast of magic sent him flying backwards. Instantly, Noel's swords and Hope's boomerang were raised, a ball of raging fire in the latter's hand, ready to be thrown at any second.

A figure stepped in front of the trio from the shadow of the throne, causing Noel's heart to leap to his throat. His mouth dried and his head spun; this couldn't be real. Snow's voice, however, anchored it to reality.

"Caius Ballad."

Caius' face bore no grating, satisfied smirk, nothing as he said in his deep, booming voice- "You can't have her."

That did it. That cracked through the shock that bound Noel, his former mentor's voice causing the hunter to see red. With a loud yell, he charged at the purple-haired man, slashing at him wildly with his two swords. Caius, able to see that his opponent was fighting in a blind rage, only blocked his strikes with his enormous sword.

"YOU!" Noel bellowed, attacking again and again. "How the hell are you here?! You killed yourself with my sword!" None of his attacks made a difference; Caius simply parried. "You fix this Chaos mess! You can't be alive!" He continued screaming, lunging at him. "We defeated you! We saved the timeline and fixed the damn paradoxes like we were supposed to!" Another angry, frenzied slash. "Serah died to save the timeline!" he roared.

The last statement shattered both Snow and Hope's hearts as they stood on the sidelines. At that, Caius raised his hand and blasted Noel back, causing him to land on his side in front of the other two. Snow instantly lifted him up as Hope cast a quick cure spell on the brunet. His chest was heaving, both from anger and from the tears streaming down his face. Surprising them all, Caius returned his sword to his back, speaking in the calmest voice they had ever heard from him.

"The Chaos. It won't let me die."

Shocked, the three others only stared at him. Caius put a hand on the crystal base of the throne. "The Chaos that was released from the Unseen Realm was the splintered, broken soul of all the Yeuls. They did not wish me to leave; they brought me back. Time and time again," he continued his explanation without looking at them. "One Yeul wants me to live forever with her. Another wants me to die, to gain salvation." A dry chuckle left his lips. "I am bound to this place, as is the warrior goddess. She has been defeated by me, by the death of her sister. Now she sleeps, never to wake."

"We're not leaving here without Lightning," Snow grunted, readying himself for a fight. "Even if we have to kill you over and over-" he was cut off as the Chaos swirled in front of him, a black mist that then became someone else the party didn't expect to see, and Noel found himself unable to breathe for the third time in five minutes.

"Yeul?"

The blue-haired girl turned toward him, noting the crazed distress in his eyes. "I am not the Yeul you knew," she said gently, turning back to where Caius and Lightning were. "Caius is correct. You cannot bring her with you when you leave. She will wait here until her time comes. The Savior, she has a part to play in destiny. As do all of you," Yeul looked at each of them in turn. "Noel Kreiss. Snow Villiers. Hope Estheim. All of you must play the roles that fate has handed to you. I am so sorry," she finally said, sadness and regret evident in her tone. "I am so sorry."

They didn't have the chance to ask her what she meant before Caius raised his hand and Chaos came rushing at them, completely enveloping them. For a terrifying second, Hope couldn't breathe, couldn't get his lungs to work, until the three of them found themselves not in the Temple, but right outside where Sazh and Dajh were waiting. The pilot himself was leaning against his ship when they appeared, his two pistols in his hands.

"What happened?" he demanded as soon as the three of them got their wind back. "Where's Lightning?"

Quickly, Snow gave him an extremely condensed version of the story. Sazh's face looked grim at the end of it.

"So, Lightning is now full-time MIA, and the big bad is back. There's another problem to add onto the list."

Alarmed, Hope looked at him. "We have another problem?"

Sazh's afro bounced as he nodded. "My scanners picked up something a little ways from here. It shouldn't be there, but it is."

Noel raised his eyebrows. "A monster?" he asked.

The pilot shook his head, taking a deep breath. "No," he replied. "A fal'Cie."