So hey guys, and thanks for tuning into the next chapter of NR! 8D

Thanks again to my reviewers: Whistlewind Wolf (and I totally agree with your sentiment! I thought Square was going to pull another Crisis Core on me when they did that! D:), Zapper90, OscarMerrinoz96, Crystal, and Mylaervain! And of course hearts to LadyAlaska, as always. You guys are awesome. n_n

Nothing much to say this time, so we'll move right into the chapter. Enjoy as always!

Chapter 38: Black and White

Serah pressed the fingers of her left hand together as the silent guardian slowly rose up in the pearly morning air. Her sister had to be okay... It was her turn to protect her this time, and Serah was determined not to let her down.

"Alright, easy guys," she heard Snow mutter ahead of her and Hope. "It's damaged but it's obviously not down. Guerilla!" Serah raised her hand for the Slow, the only spell she'd really gotten the hang of and could cast easily. She was still working on Poison and Daze, but... I really hope the other spells are getting there... There was no time to doubt her ability to debuff at the moment - every single spell she cast had to count.

Fortunately, she saw the thing stagger dangerously the moment her spell weakened it, its movements slow and sluggish. Hearing Snow's yell of encouragement, Serah worked on mustering a Deprotect as she felt Hope's Haste and Faith brush her arms. It didn't catch the first time, there was no indication that it had, and she struggled to cast another, feeling some sort of relief when she felt the spell take effect. There was one more she knew Snow would want, and that was Deshell. Trying not to let her obvious difficulty show, Serah drew power from her brand, flinging the weak debuff at the guardian.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief when the spell took effect on the first try - she knew she didn't have the stamina for another. Snow, noticing her obvious discomfort, quickly issued a new order. "Tri-Disaster!" Casting offensive spells was easier on her - they drained less out of her shallow well of magic than debuffs. Serah sent several Aero's in a row at the weakened knight, feeling glad that their spells were doing something now, at least.

So Claire... didn't do it for nothing.

Serah wasn't sure if she was supposed to feel glad about the fact or not. On one hand, she was glad that winning this didn't seem like an impossibility that was out of reach anymore. On the other... Does that just reinforce in Claire's mind she did the right thing? Because if it had... that was precisely what Serah didn't want her to think. She didn't want to see her sister do something like that... ever again.

"Serah, dodge!" Hope's shout jolted her out of her thoughts, and she moved out of the way to avoid the staggering guardian as it stumbled her way. Moving aside, closer to Snow, she sent several more Aerora's its way, pushing it up into the air, aided by Hope's Firaga. She felt Snow rush forwards at the opening the two spells created.

"Relentless Assault!" His fists knocked it up into the air, and Serah concentrated on not hitting him with her spells as he was pummeling away at it, fists beating the knight down against the flurry of spells that were pushing it up. She saw him draw back his fists.

"Oh, you're going down!" The last blow slammed it into the floor, creating a spiderweb of cracks that spread like fault lines on the tiled marble. Serah paused, breathing hard, next to Hope as he slowly lowered his left hand.

Snow landed with a thump on the ground, giving her a grin and a thumbs up.

You truly are the ones to inherit Lindzei's will. Behold, the path to what you seek. The knight disappeared in a flash of crystal, leaving small, glittering shards clattering to the floor loudly as it vanished. She heard a small scoff behind her somewhere.

"Nice job... hero." Snow had opened his mouth to respond to Lightning's words when the crater of cracked floor tiles opened up, and a panel slid back noisily. The four of them watched in silence as it moved back all the way to reveal a flight of stone steps that led to who knew where in the bowels of the earth. That's... where we're going?

Hope found himself gravitating to Lightning, automatically.

Like she's the only person I have to cling to.

The thought was ridiculous, really. He knew Serah cared, and Snow as well, in his own way. And in the face of his own conglomeration of feelings about her he didn't have the strength nor will to sort out, he wondered, briefly, if it was even worth for him to be sorting those feelings out. And in that moment, Hope realized that he was scared to organize those feelings and thoughts.

Scared of what they really amounted to. Scared of what the discovery might be. It was better to leave things as they were, better to leave things in the unknown. That way, the answer wouldn't terrify him as much, wouldn't plague him as much. It was childish - she'd taught him not to run away from his problems. He didn't think that applied, though, when the problem included her.

His hand found her shoulder to support her as she limped towards Snow and Serah; his heart lifting ever so slightly when she didn't try to rebuke him for helping her and didn't make an effort to shrug him off. Either she's really exhausted, or...

He didn't want to think about the 'or'.

Hope saw the concerned look sweep over Snow's gaze as he gave the soldier a critical look, then exchanging a knowing glance with Serah.

"Why don't we take a break? It's not like the entrance is going to run away from us - it's right here. We could all use a breather." Lightning hissed something that sounded like a tone of contempt under her breath, but she didn't argue, instead finding a fallen column to sit on, one hand pressed to her temples. Hope watched Serah settle herself beside her sister, and begin to pick the glass in her skin out, carefully, one by one.

I should be helping.

He didn't want to make it too obvious, though. Snow's here... will he laugh if I go over to her? Hope had a feeling he didn't really want to find out.

"Hey, kid. I could use a Medic over here, you know." Snow's voice sounded behind him; his tone was irritated a little but it held its usual warm, playful tone. Hope chuckled to himself. So typical of Snow. Going over, he saw that the blond oaf had picked out the glass from his face, small red fragments littering the tiled white ground underneath their feet.

Hope closed his eyes, drawing from the now familiar well of magic inside him, and the Cura left his fingers without him having to push. The magic responded to his will instantly now. He felt a big hand ruffle his hair.

"Thanks, kid." He smiled again, Snow gave him an appreciative thumbs up before leaning down and whispering in his ear. "Why don't we help Sis out now, eh? She looks like she needs it."

Hope returned the small smile, before making his way to Lightning, following Snow. He couldn't help but feel glad that this was a chance to spend more time with her. She gave them a half hearted glare as they approached her. Snow smirked in her direction, and she turned her attention to him.

"Snow, what-?"

He didn't give her a chance to finish. "See, Sis? We can handle anything. Didya see how I took out that creep?" Hope stared at him for a few seconds before he winced - Lightning was not going to react well to that. And he wasn't disappointed.

"You do realize... you were only able to attack it because I figured it out...right? Where would you be if I didn't?" she snapped back. Hope was relieved to see a half amused look in her irritated expression as she exchanged a look with Serah. At least she isn't mad...

Snow just laughed again, unaffected by the sharp tones. "Whatever, Sis."

Hope rested a tentative hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn to him. "What... Hope?"

The way she spoke made him feel better about the whole situation. She hadn't snapped, she hadn't... She genuinely sounds curious as to why I'm touching her. And for some reason that caused a small bubble of something akin to happiness to rise in his chest. The realization was sharp and astonishing, as bad as the latter sounded. She's... not mad at me.

"Light... you're okay, right?"

She scoffed a little at the sound of the words, shooting him a look that screamed really? before she brushed his touch impatiently off of her. A sudden realization that he couldn't understand flooded her eyes, and she quickly looked downwards, away from him. "Hope, I thought I told you not to worry." As if to prove the point, she waved her left hand, sending the Cure spell down her arms, leaving the skin unmarked as the spell passed. "See?"

She got up, raking a hand through her pink hair before grabbing her gunblade off the surface of the rounded column she'd left it on, turning her blue gaze to the yawning hole they'd created in the middle of the floor. Hope felt a small spark of relief that indeed, she looked okay, even in in the uncomfortable aftermath of her irritated reply to his question.

"That's enough dawdling around. Let's go."

The descent into the cold, deep stairway felt pressuring and claustrophobic after the tender peach and serene light of the newly restored dawn. Gripping her gunblade tightly in her hands, Lightning tried to wrench her mind away from the interaction with Hope she'd just had a few moments earlier, focussing on the fact that she almost felt normal again. Her head still felt light and her body had seen better weeks, but there was no way she was going to show that. Walking ahead of everyone else, trying not to limp, helped; no one could see in her in the darkness and no one could probe her expressions: Serah, for one, could read her expressions like a book. And that left her to her own thoughts.

She didn't know why it felt so natural to snap at Snow, while at the same time, it felt okay to not be angry at Hope for something so trivial... like asking her if she was alright. She didn't know how she was supposed to feel about it... was she supposed to snap back?

For some reason... the hurt way he looked at me after when I looked away bothered me. Bothered me in a way usually only Serah can bother me in. Maker... what the hell? Why am I feeling this way?

Lightning wasn't sure anymore about how she was supposed to feel - things were different with Serah, who'd known her her entire life, who could pry things out of her like flicking a stone out of a stubborn peach. But with Hope... the kid she'd at first pushed away and abandoned; he'd quickly put himself into her life in a way that made him almost impossible to take take out. And it wasn't like she minded that much - in a way, he was her way to make it up to the world for the mistakes she'd made with Serah.

Even if her reasons were selfish, even if her reasons for first wanting to protect him and to guide him were half for her own self gratification, it had taken her awhile to realize something.

I'm glad I did.

There were things that were easier to speak to him to with than with Serah or Snow, and she realized she trusted him. She still wanted to protect him, still wanted to give him the life she intended to give Serah, but she didn't know, or perhaps didn't want to know, what other factor motivated her to fight for him. In a way, she supposed he was something of a soul mate, someone she could relate to, and trust her moments with. But anything apart from that, removing her motivations from their relationship, she didn't know what there was; what their relationship was supposed to be.

Do I... really want to find out?

She didn't know, didn't want to do the soul searching that would no doubt turn up an answer that would take awhile for her to accept.

And she didn't even want to think about their physical relationship: the awkward physical moments, some by accident, some purely on purpose that just left her even more confused about what they were supposed to be.

Small fingers of heat crept their way up her neck and cheeks the moment she thought about the few heartbeats they'd held hands... and the night he'd slept leaning on her shoulder. Get a grip, Farron, you're supposed to be a soldier, not some hormone rampant teenager... Shoving the thoughts angrily away, she tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

Things weren't made easier for her when she heard small footsteps behind her on the stairs as they rapidly descended into full darkness.

"Light?" Hope. And she'd just been thinking about him too.

"What?" Her voice came out sounding resigned, and she instantly regretted the tone for creeping into her voice.

"Did I... are you mad at me?"

Great.

She tried not to sound more irritated and guilty than she already felt. "Why... What gives you that idea?" She was glad her voice came out sounding stronger than she felt.

He didn't say anything, but she felt his presence just below her right shoulder. It was awhile before either of them said something.

"Thanks... Light."

For... what?

Her foot hit the bottom of the steps before she could voice her thoughts out loud, and the sight in the dim lighting ahead of her pushed all trivial thoughts about him out of her mind as she raised her omega weapon, expecting an attack at any moment.

Slowly moving forward, Lightning found that she was glad for Hope's presence just beside her left shoulder. The hallway was dark, but it was only a little way before it opened into some sickly blue grey area... full of what she could identify at the moment as fungus balls of a sort.

"What the hell... are those things?" Snow's husky voice sounded just behind her back as they slowly made their way forwards. She turned for the briefest moment, feeling somewhat reassured that Snow had her sister bundled in his jacket, one hand wrapped firmly around Serah's shoulders. Good... she'll be safe... right?

And the moment they crossed the threshold into the area with the fungus growths, Lightning had to pause and consider how very wrong she could be about that one simple statement.

It was hard to breathe.

That was the first thing that hit him as soon as they left behind the choking blackness... into a different sort of suffocation. The moment he filled his lungs with the stagnant air, it sent needles of pain into his chest and it made his head spin. The air suddenly felt too warm, too thick to breathe properly. Instantly suppressing the urge to puke and run, he glanced sharply to his left the moment he heard Lightning gag.

The soldier was holding her hand over her face, clearly trying to do the same thing everyone else was: not breathe in. But the what she'd done at the top of the Sealed Tower and their subsequent fall had taken more out of her than she had let on, and Hope hated himself for not noticing earlier. The dirt on her skin had hid the paleness of it, and the darkness had hid the barely suppressed limp.

Maker, Light, why?

Serah was pressed against Snow - the big man was keeping her face pressed into his shirt, and Snow had a hand over his own mouth, his expression panicked. The intent was clear though: Hope knew he had to help Lightning.

Slowly, he eased her weight onto him, the worry increasing when she didn't resist. He heard her laboured breathing as he half dragged, half supported her forwards; her hand was over her face and he couldn't tell what she was thinking at the moment. Her other hand was still firmly clenched around her weapon.

I can't even cast Cure here... why did I believe her when she said she was okay?

They weren't moving forward at a very fast rate, and Hope couldn't see the end to the sickly fungus growths that lined their path, pressing in on the underground space. There wasn't any doubt that whatever they were breathing in at the moment came from the fungus - their bone white colour all but spelled poisonous in his face. There were a few spores lazily floating around, and he tried not to breathe those in - the pain in his chest was getting worse and he could only begin to imagine what it was like for her.

The hallway seemed endless. It was the same, even the fungus puffballs looked the same in the slightly bioluminescent light they shed. There was absolutely no way forwards except to keep going... and he wasn't even sure if she would last going back now. The amount of path they had left was indeterminate.

They were really moving on only a gamble, to make it there before one of them collapsed in the poisonous miasma that surrounded them.

We have to make it!

The thought sliced into his mind like a brand, and Hope gritted his teeth, unconsciously tightening his hold on Lightning. They hadn't made it this far to defeated now by this: it wasn't even an enemy! It pushed away the numbness that was beginning to take hold of his extremities, and he felt it steel his resolve again.

"We have to do this..." His words came out as a hissed whisper.

"You got it, kid." Snow's voice was barely audible in front of him, as he faced the big man's back, but Hope could imagine the look on his face. "We'll make it through. For sure."

For sure.

The blackness crowding at the edge of her vision was steadily winning - Lightning wasn't even sure now if she was in full grasp of her mental functions. She focussed on the one thing left that she had to cling to, and that was Hope's grip on her. He was pulling her up - every step, gravity threatened to drag her down. She was beginning to regret not casting Cure on herself repeatedly before descending down here, but then again she hadn't expected the path to be full of poisonous fungus spores.

And she could only hope that Serah was okay.

Her sister hadn't looked her best either - she guessed that the fight with Asgard had taken a lot of of her, especially with the amount of debuffs that had been needed.

Fighting for a breath, she tried to ignore the fact that her fingers and lower legs were beginning to turn numb, even numbing all sensations of pain in the ankle she'd landed hard on.

Don't give in, don't give in... Fuck.

She tried to focus on only her breathing and footsteps.

Put one foot in front of the other. Don't think.

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly in a vicious cycle with no end.

The support vanished from her shoulder as her feet sank onto hard stone and not the spongy material that the fungi were no doubt made of, and for a moment, all Lightning could comprehend was how easy it was to breathe. Dropping to one knee, she tried to wrap her fuzzy brain around the fact that her lungs no longer felt like they were breathing live coals, and even though she was still struggling for a breath, it was easier. Each lungful of air soothed the fire in her chest rather than aggravate it even more.

She heard and felt Hope sink to the ground next to her, breathing hard.

"Is everyone okay?" she heard Snow gasp from a foot or two away from her. Serah's small whimper of acknowledgment made her feel better. She's safe... Concentrating on pulling air into her lungs, she didn't bother replying, slowly clenching her fingers to try and get rid of the numbness in their tips. Her omega weapon felt like it was frozen in her grasp.

Her silence wasn't taken well.

"Lightning!" The sound of her own name was close to her left ear, and finally, she opened her tired blue eyes, looking up at Snow's worried glance. Serah was right... you do care... don't you?

He bent down to her eye level, his face pale as his namesake. "Maker, Sis, don't scare me like that! Answer when I ask if you're okay."

She could only muster a nod, unsure if she wanted to know how her voice sounded at the moment. Probably can't even speak. Her throat felt that way, at any rate.

A Cura washed over her body, erasing some of the aching muscles in her back, and the pain in her leg. There were injuries, and exhaustion, mainly exhaustion, that ran deeper though. It would be a few days before her body would recover from this strain, for example.

"Thanks." Her voice really was a guttural rasp, and she winced. Great. Now Serah... and Hope, for that matter...

She appreciated the silence that greeted her voice after she spoke into the darkness. There was only the sound of breathing in the small, enclosed, space, but the air wasn't thick and oxygen deprived anymore. There was a taste of wind and freshness that spoke of the world above. Just how far down... are we?

There couldn't be any plants down here, could there? She heard rustle of cloth as Snow stood up, stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles. "Aight, guys, I'm gonna take a peek ahead of us. You guys stay put, you hear me? Your hero's got this!" Before she could yell at him for being stupid and idiotic, the blond had already marched off, boots crunching on the ground.

Lightning found herself looking into Hope's worried eyes when she pushed herself back into a sitting position, arms wrapped around her knees. He didn't need to ask for her to understand the question in those green orbs.

"I'm okay... alright?" She hoped she didn't sound like she was trying to convince him.

He didn't look like he believed her at any rate. "Someone told me... to survive once. Clearly she didn't think about applying that term to herself."

Lightning felt her muscles freeze in shock to hear him quoting her. For a moment, all she could do was stare, until a light touch to the back of her shoulders made her realize that she wasn't alone.

"He's right... you know. You have to tell us if you're still hurt. Claire... I told you..."

She didn't want their pity.

"I get it!" The angry words burst out before she could stop herself. "I get it..." The repeat of the sentence was softer than the previous one, as she hugged her knees closer to her, fingernails digging into the bare skin on her legs.

Lightning felt something like gratitude fill her chest cavity when no one argued with her.

"We know. So you stay safe too."

Somehow, Hope's sentence didn't trigger any sort of negative emotion in her, and she gently leaned back against Serah's light grip on her shoulders. The simple request didn't bother her at all, and it was only then that she realized that for their sake if not for her own, she would have to.

I get it.

Weeping walls met his fingers as Hope quickly drew his gloved fingers back from the stone, the tips of the cloth covering his hands wet from the liquid that was slick on the dark rock. Serah was pulling her sister along while he walked ahead with Snow - the big man had returned after claiming that 'the path was too long' for him to explore on his own.

There wasn't much to see by, but Hope could make out the silhouette of the blond ahead of him; Snow was really too big to miss. The water on the walls of the winding stone path surprised him - maybe they were just beneath a water table, but he doubted it.

And there was also the fact that the maze of poisonous fungus had been there to greet them the moment they descended the stairs. Obviously another measure against people who wanted to nab the crystal the castle housed, Hope thought it was a bit excessive - they had almost died in the path and they were more capable than most.

He could only hope that the fungi was as much a deterrent to Yorun and his gang of clones as it had been to them. He hadn't exactly forgotten they were in the castle too, but...

But so much as happened in the last few hours that it's kind of a pain to remember that they're here too.

Bumping into Snow was a distraction from his musings. The big man had stopped in the middle of the path, and he could hear Lightning's irritated growl somewhere behind him. Hope pressed himself against the rock, squeezing by Snow to stand in front of him.

There was another lithoplate lit by a single spot of bright light, and Hope made his way over to it, backed by Snow.

Traveller that has made it past Pieta, you will be rewarded for your trial. Raise the power of wind in this hall, and what you seek will be yours.

"Pieta..." he murmured quietly to himself. The name was familiar, and Hope was sure he'd heard it somewhere before. He couldn't place his finger on it though, and he turned back to the metal plaque.

"Must be that goddamn poisonous stuff," he heard Snow mutter darkly beside his shoulder. "Anyways... shall we?"

Hope nodded, and raised his left hand, focussing his eyes on the spot where the lithograph was fixed into the ground.

Several Aero spells hit it at the same time, before the plate amplified it into something much, much larger. Hope was forced to close his eyes as the gusts of wind swept around him, pulling his hair into wild strands and taking up the corners of his clothing. The buffeting winds were so strong it was hard to breathe, hard to pull in a breath of air that was channeled by the place into a tornado.

When the roaring finally stopped, Hope opened his eyes again, lowering the arm that he had raised to shield himself. The lithograph was gone, replaced by a gently swirling display of pristine white feathers. The feathers were embellishing a small pedestal with a silver jewel on it, and Hope felt his heart skip a beat as he and Snow moved towards it, closely followed by Lightning and Serah. Here, at last, was the prize they'd fought so hard for, nearly lost their lives more than once for.

We did it...

Snow's big hand had just been about to close around the small silver jewel when black feathers mixed with the white, creating the illusion of a nightmare imposed on purity.

Black feathers... I wonder who that could be? *raises eyebrows*

I'm sure it's quite obvious to most of you guys, ha. At any rate, I must say, the segment I'm most proud of in this chapter is Light's little moment there in the middle when she's thinking about well, Hope. I know Hope had a mirroring segment like that several chapters ago, and that was intended, heehee.

Anyways, leave love as usual, and I'll see you all next time! I have work tomorrow afternoon, so I probably won't have time to crank out the next chapter. Until Thursday then, my lovelies!

Hearts!