I'M SORRY I'M LATE UPDATING but my laptop charger DIED, so I had to order a new one and then wait for it to come in and finish the rest of the chapter...sorry for the wait! It's a shortish update, but the next few chapters will be fairly short as well in setting up for the next part of the series. Thank you guys so much for your patience and support! I promise I will try harder to update faster :)

Thank you to Guest (sorry, anon!) and Meyneth24 for your reviews! They really mean a lot :)

Summary: The worried glance the Director gave him mirrored his own concern. In a world where time was frozen, his team was ironically running out of it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy XIII

Bhunivelze – 501AF (Four Hundred and Twenty-Four Days after the Chaos)

"Green One taking off!" Sazh yelled into the comm as he piloted the ship off the surface of the city down to Nova Chrysalia right before the ground gave way beneath. Screams were heard as buildings fell, as the unfortunate souls that couldn't escape in time tumbled to their demise amidst the falling steel, glass, and concrete. The pilot looked away with a heartbroken expression, closing his eyes for a moment to honor them. He couldn't be more relieved that he left Dajh with Snow and the others when he flew out from Academy Headquarters; it was an immediate call for all pilots to fly out when the city began to violently shake and crumble, an emergency rescue mission to evacuate all citizens to Pandaemonium's newly-completed city- dubbed by the fal'Cie as Luxerion, the First City.

"Status report?" Director Nazca's voice said through crackled static.

"The city has fallen," the mission leader replied, tone heavy with grief. "Transporting citizens to Luxerion now."

"Good. All hospitals and makeshift health centers on the surface are standing by. Report in an hour."

"Yes ma'am."

The chairman's hands slammed onto the table, causing a few people at the table to flinch. Hope, who was standing, didn't move a muscle in the face of the extremely angry man in front of him. His face was growing steadily redder with each passing moment, causing the scientist to wonder whether it was because he was holding his breath in his rage, or because it was his natural inclination to look like a pig. Honestly, he was leaning toward the latter…not that his professionalism would allow him to say that out loud in a meeting such as the one he was in now. In those words, anyway.

"I thought Bhunivelze was built to withstand anything!" the chairman yelled in outrage.

Hope nodded. "Yes, the Ark was tested multiple times, so we know it is extremely stable whether it is deterioration from time or natural disasters. However, the Chaos is a new energy that may be affecting it adversely in ways that we have not yet discovered. My team and I are doing what we can to get to the bottom of the situation and to maintain, if not repair, the surface of Bhunivelze."

"Director Estheim," another board member spoke up, brushing her bangs back from her face. "If it is the Chaos that is causing the deterioration, does that mean that Bhunivelze is now unstable for habitation?"

He was really, really hoping to avoid this question, but he cleared his throat to answer. "No, Bhunivelze is still stable according to the information we got from the recon teams that were dispatched today. Although, it would be a good idea to evacuate the cities surrounding the one that had collapsed onto Nova Chrysalia."

Director Nazca studied his expression. "Perhaps we should be considering safety precautions and evacuation procedures for every city on Bhunivelze."

"I think it would be a good idea for us to begin preparations for the monorail on Nova Chrysalia," Hope said, a sort of sideways approach in agreeing with her. "Since the completion of Luxerion, there haven't been that many settlements on Nova Chrysalia yet, but perhaps the monorail will encourage relocation if it truly is needed in the future."

The worried glance the Director gave him mirrored his own concern. In a world where time was frozen, his team was ironically running out of it.

Sazh returned late that night to Hope's set of rooms where he found Hope, Snow, and Noel talking quietly around the dining table inside the small, open kitchenette-living room. All three looked up when he entered, all noting the heartbroken, tired, and worn expression on his face. He dropped into one of the empty chairs before closing his eyes, slumping completely against it. It was silent for a few minutes, which he was grateful for- he needed the time to decompress from the events of the day, and he knew the others would wait until he was ready to talk.

"It was bad," he muttered without opening his eyes. "The whole city was caving in. Did you guys watch the news?"

"Yeah, we followed along," Noel replied softly. Sazh let out a deep sigh and cracked his eyes open. "Was it like the news said? Bhunivelze- did it just-"

"Crumble? Yeah," the pilot affirmed. "It caved in. But it looked like it was breaking down. Deteriorating, almost, when we did a fly-over recon."

"Hope?" Snow asked gently. The silveret had been silent throughout the whole exchange, his brows furrowed in thought.

"The materials used to construct Bhunivelze were all triple-reinforced to prevent deteriorating," Hope said slowly, trying to work his way through the problem out loud. "And have been tested multiple times before settlement."

"But would the Chaos have anything to do with it?" Noel spoke up. "Maybe the Chaos freezes time, but causes a deterioration of other things. Like that Sea of Chaos we saw a few months ago? We should get that checked out. Maybe it causes deterioration of land as well. And if that is happening to natural earth, what would that do to Bhunivelze, a man-made Ark, even if it had only been launched a little over a year ago?"

Hope wearily passed a hand over his face. "We can send out a recon team tomorrow to do an aerial scan of Nova Chrysalia and compare it to the results we got last year to see if the land mass has shrunk in any way, shape, or form. I'll continue to work with the Chaos, I think we're getting close to something big."

The four men were quiet for a moment, taking in the several minutes of stillness and peace they had before the continued insanity would begin again the next day. Sazh was the first to break the silence, yawning as he stood up to stretch. "I could do with a shower," he said. "Dajh?"

Hope pointed to the spare bedroom next to his. "Fell asleep a couple of hours ago."

With a grateful nod, Sazh entered the room to carefully pick up his sleeping son.

It was just as Noel had predicted- the Sea of Chaos that surrounded Nova Chrysalia had moved forward an exact measurement of a hundred square feet in comparison to the Academy's charts from last year's reconnaissance mission. There was nothing left; the Chaos had completely swallowed the land, including half of the Sulyya Springs. Snow was upset when he found out, the sadness evident in his bright blue eyes and his slightly-off smile. Hope had a whole week to work with that information as well as continued research into the properties of the Chaos alongside Stacks and the other scientists without interference from the board or the media, courtesy of Snow. How he managed to get them off Hope's back for a whole seven days he would never understand, but was extremely grateful for nonetheless.

Hope frowned at the swirling Chaos in the containment unit in front of him, tapping his index finger to his chin- a habit he recognized as one he had picked up from Vanille, and allowed a smile to slip onto his lips before he refocused his concentration. The frustration of their situation drove him up the proverbial wall; he was used to dealing with big projects, but his gut told him this was bigger than any question, any puzzle he's ever come up against, even with his study of the Oracle Drive, with the construction of the New Cocoon Project and Bhunivelze, with even motherflipping time travel. He almost snorted at the thought. Even time travel wasn't complicated enough to be the biggest thing he's ever tackled. The silveret sighed, his thoughts as jumbled as the Chaos in front of him.

Think, Hope. What would Vanille do?

He mentally winced at the question, deciding that knowing her, it was better left unanswered. What would Fang do? Probably take her spear and smash the containment unit out of pure frustration. Which, Hope mused, was not a bad idea. He was pretty close to drawing his boomerang as it was.

Hope shook his head. That would be a terrible idea.

Focus. What would Light do?

Groaning, he slumped into the chair he was sitting on and pulled out his boomerang anyway, fiddling with it just to have something to do with his hands. That's what Lightning would do, get frustrated and start demanding answers. Only this time, he had no way of demanding anything from a cloud of intangible dark fog. He nearly fell from his chair in surprise when the door slid open and one of the scientists came rushing in, a short, brown-haired young woman with her haired tied into a hasty ponytail and glasses askew, named Pidge. She gaped at him with his weapon, and Hope could do nothing but stare awkwardly back at her, waiting for her to say something. Idly, he wondered whether she thought he was going to destroy the thing like he so wanted to.

Finally, Pidge cleared her throat, finding her voice. "Sir, um…what did you do?"

Hope looked at the weapon in his hands and then back to her. "Uh…nothing."

She straightened to look at him, pushing her glasses up her nose and clearing her throat once again. "We've detected a small change in the Chaos in the past thirty seconds- of which you were the only person in the room with the Chaos. So…what did you do?"

He stared blankly at her. "I…took out my boomerang?"

Pidge's brow creased in concentration, then her eyes lit up as an epiphany hit her. She dashed back out of the room, tossing instructions behind her. "When I leave, put it away, wait thirty seconds, then take it out again!"

Hope looked at her retreating form with a gob smacked expression before he gathered himself, sighed, and put his weapon away.

30…29…28…27…

After what felt like thirty seconds, he took it out again, and managed to not tumble out of his chair as Pidge ran into the room a second time. "Oh yeah, it's definitely your thing," she said breathlessly with a wide grin. "As soon as you took it out, there was a blip in the Chaos. Something in your boomerang is affecting it."

Surprised, Hope stared at Nue, squinting his eyes at it. One would think, after fighting with this weapon for over a decade, he would know all of its secrets by now.

What are you keeping from me?

He mentally ran over the list of possibilities- was the Chaos reacting because it was a weapon? No, that made no sense. If that were the case, the Chaos would be haywire on the charts right now due to the sheer number of them in the world. Was it because of the components that went into making it? Some sturdy bones, some other organic components, a few superconductors, a trapezohedron…could it be the trapezohedron? He would need Sazh and Snow here to make sure with their weapons. Somehow, something in his gut told him that wasn't it.

Then, the answer smacked into him like a ton of bricks crashing down, and he wanted to hit himself for not thinking of it sooner.

So much for trying to think like Light.

Nue got a kick added to its powers because of the AMP tech imbued in the weapon. It had to be AMP. Five centuries ago, AMP technology had been the peak of technological advances because it had the ability to synthesize the effects of magic and could manipulate phenomena like gravity. Who's to say that at this point, AMP hasn't developed until it could control other phenomena…like time?

Hope leaned forward in his chair, his brain calculating a mile a minute. The Academy has no shortage of AMP tech he could sign off for the team to utilize in their research. If his hypothesis proved true, then the possibilities of how to solve this problem could be endless.

Think like Light.

"Keep your mind on the battle. We can win if we stay focused."

He thought of the soldier with the pink hair, the warrior who wore blue, and the girl who took his hand and laced their fingers together roaming the wilds of Gran Pulse, and of the home he wanted to give them when they finally awoke.