Anndddd I've been gone over a month. Sorry! I spent a lot of time trying to work out the new chapter for my other fic, which turned out to be really long and overly complicated, but I think the end product was pretty good.
Also, I started a new job! Was pretty busy last week, but I managed to finish this chapter during my down times. It's...not long at all, and I know I said there would be more action and stuff, but what I REALLY meant was that it would be the chapter after this one that has all the action.
A big thank-you to Meyneth24 :)
Stay tuned! Next chapter is going to have a pretty significant impact on the rest of this series ;)
Summary: "The Academy is debating on whether or not to just hand this whole place over to him."
Sazh's head jerked back to look at his younger friend. "Those bigwigs would actually do that?!"
"I think they're just nervous because of the fal'Cie," the silverette replied slowly. "And if Snow is willing to do the grunt work, then to the Academy, he's just another- granted, more powerful as a l'Cie- body for them to use."
Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy XIII series
Yusnaan – 503 AF (One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifteen Days after the Chaos)
Hope sighed, feeling the breeze ruffle his silver hair on one of the incredibly rare days he took off work (read: Stacks, Pidge, and the rest of his team actually threatened to manhandle him and throw him out of the lab if he didn't. 'It's not like we're running on a deadline or anything,' the brunette scientist said with a smug grin on her face).
In the end, it really wasn't a horrible idea. Pandaemonium had completed the construction of the second city- Yusnaan, a glittering city full of big plazas and an enormous central building (thus dubbed The Palace of Yusnaan) that Snow had all but moved in to. He had been, according to the majority vote of the Academy Board, the one deemed most suited to distribute supplies to Bhunivelze and the rest of Nova Chrysalia. The silverette almost snorted. Right. As if Snow wasn't the last l'Cie in the world, with the strongest connection to the fal'Cie and had more power than probably the whole of the Academy combined.
Hope's eyebrows furrowed. His and Noel's magic and combative abilities weren't any laughing matter, his magic especially, even without the powers of a fal'Cie, but with the boosted power from Pandaemonium, Snow made a formidable opponent, one that the Academy Board did not want to have against them. They just wanted the appearance of being in control, when in fact, they had very little power. Those bastards.
He ran a hand through his hair, aquamarine eyes watching Snow give orders to different distribution personnel, people who had volunteered to move to the newest city to start work. It was a smart move on Snow's part when he first requested the help and laid out the benefits; with the (dis)organized chaos, pun intended, as he had said once, even after a few years, it would be helpful if people threw themselves into a routine. The best way to do that? Employment. Genius. The Academy Board ate up the idea, and people from all over converged to begin as soon as possible.
In the three both simultaneously long and short years since the Chaos influx, Pandaemonium had completed Luxerion and Yusnaan, two urban centers in the otherwise-shrinking world. The monorail Hope himself had proposed merely a year before had also been finished, with stations in each major area of Nova Chrysalia, whether they be populated or not. However…when Pandaemonium declared itself done, there were only four stations- Luxerion, Yusnaan, the Wildlands, and what was found and named the Dead Dunes, a dry desert that contained the remains of what Hope recognized to be the Mah'habara Subterra along with the now-immobile ancient Pulse fal'Cie Atomos. It no longer dug tunnels, haven't for almost half a millennia.
When asked about the curious placement and construction of only four monorail stations, Pandaemonium gave no answer, even to Snow. Instead, it only settled itself in Yusnaan, creating supplies and food from the raw Chaos, something that disgusted most people, and fascinated the young scientist.
His team had been busy experimenting with different AMP tech and how to bend it to affect the Chaos. Hope was positive that any day now, either Pidge or Stacks would encounter some sort of breakthrough. In fact, just yesterday, Pidge very nearly physically kicked him out of her office, muttering something about 'time' and 'echoes' before she threw him out, obviously busy in the middle of a theory and formulating her hypothesis. She didn't even answer any of his bemused questions. If she had bothered to look up from her work and see his amused grin while tossing him out, Hope was certain he would be hurting somewhere the sun didn't shine.
Hope's smile fell, and he shivered. Best not to go down that road. The brunette was both small and terrifying, and he sent up a silent 'good luck' to her husband, Keith, whom he had met on all of one occasion. From what he had been told, the man was a pilot, one of the Academy's best, Sazh's right-hand man and second-in-command, skilled both in the air and in combat; that was good, really good. In the times to come, they would need all the help they could get.
A loud crash startled him out of his thoughts; from where he was standing in the Warehouse Distrcit, full of cargo containers ready to be shipped out, he could see a palette of something that had fallen off the forklift. Snow's large, blond figure bounded up to the incident, inspecting the damage and conversing with the person who had been operating said forklift.
"Who knew? Snow Villiers would make a good politician," Sazh said, walking up next to him with a chuckle. Hope almost snorted.
"Yeah…never saw that coming," he murmured. Lightning would have scoffed, and Vanille would have been right down there with the sentinel. Hope could never stop referring to Snow as that, the tank of a man who had stood in front to protect them, even with his big head and Savior Complex and his infuriating pride that almost bordered on arrogance on more than one occasion, no matter how many years it had been since their first adventure. "The Academy is debating on whether or not to just hand this whole place over to him."
Sazh's head jerked back to look at his younger friend. "Those bigwigs would actually do that?!"
"I think they're just nervous because of the fal'Cie," the silverette replied slowly. "And if Snow is willing to do the grunt work, then to the Academy, he's just another- granted, more powerful as a l'Cie- body for them to use."
The older man whistled lowly. "Man, that's cold."
"It is, but if Snow is up for it, I would rather him take over than someone else who doesn't know what they're doing. Who knows, maybe in another few years, he'll be running this place for real, not just an extension of the Academy and whatever they want."
They quietly observed the scene in front of them, neither breaking the companionable silence.
A busy Snow was a good Snow. Busy Snow wasn't mindlessly grieving, heaping blame upon blame on himself. Hope frowned and tried very, very hard to not think of the lifeless girl lying in the AMP field in his lab, had been lying there, waiting for them, for three years.