So hey guys, and thanks for tuning into the next chapter of NR! ;3

Thanks once again, go to: Zapper90, Crystal, OscarMerrinoz96, Lightarcana, thewhitespirit, madapocket, and Mylaervain! You guys are awesome, and of course, without LadyAlaska, I don't think I could have finished this chapter. It was... that hard to write.

That being said, my A/N is clumped at the beginning this time because I don't want to 'kill the mood' of the ending of this chapter, so to speak. The first thing I have to say is... I never expected events to clump together like this. Hope was never meant to 'die' originally... so I feel kind of bad for moving onto events like this so fast. But this chapter had to be done... and it had to turn out the way it's going to turn out. To just draw your attention to something... I didn't name this chapter after the title of this fic for no reason.

Borrowing another line off a song merits some credit: I did use a stanza of Yuna Ito's Trust You in this chapter, and obviously I don't own her song.

I really, really appreciate all the support I've gotten though; leave love in reviews as always! (I know I usually say this at the end, but like I said... I don't want to ruin the ending of Chapter 43) Enjoy as always.

Chapter 43: Nascent Requiem

In the end, there had only been one way to solve the problem: they had to split up. There had been no other alternative, with time not on their side. And this time, Serah was determined not to let her sister go alone. Snow had understood the moment they'd looked at each other; he'd understood with only a wry glance from her blue eyes what she wanted to do. And when he hadn't argued, despite the barely suppressed pain in her chest, Serah had felt the rush of love and appreciation for him.

He'd held her close before they'd parted, pressing phantom kisses into her hair and tracing the lines of her chin and cheeks with rough, calloused hands. "Love you, baby," he'd whispered in her ear, gently pushing aside pale pink tendrils of hair. Pressing her own small hands to his strong, well sculpted face, she had been the one to initiate the contact between their lips.

"I love you too," she replied quietly before she felt the sad smile spread on her face. He'd given her one last tender caress before setting off alone onto his chosen path, blue scarf swishing in the darkness before it swallowed him.

Serah had followed her sister down the other path, the eerie blue light revealing nothing but a straight path, curving and twisting at odd angles. She focussed her eyes on the distinctive red cape that stood out in the lighting. Her sister had barely said a word in the time it had taken them to move into the Ice Cliff Palace, and had hardly glanced her way. Serah bit her lip.

Claire...

Her sister was doing what she always had done: hiding her pain and emotions. There had been nothing in her ice blue eyes this morning, like she was carefully keeping it devoid of emotion, her lips set in a straight line that betrayed nothing. Like she had walled herself off from everything else, like she was seeing and feeling nothing. Except this time, there wasn't any indication of fight left in her. She hadn't...

Serah found herself clenching her small hands as she moved faster to catch up with her sister, finally catching up to her side. Like this morning, Lightning's face was kept as an impassive mask, features set in a neutral expression that Serah knew was there to hide her inner torment, to hide her pain.

"Claire?"

She stopped, eyes staring straight ahead. "What?"

Trying to think of the right words was hard. There was only one meaning she wanted to give, but Serah was no longer sure if it was the right thing to say, and as try as she might, she couldn't of another way to say it. "Claire... don't do this..."

There was no response to her words. But Serah had seen her visibly flinch before snapping herself out of, beginning to stride down the hallway with an even faster pace than before, her footsteps echoing loudly off the glass panes that made the hallway seem endless yet ephemeral at the same time. She closed her lips before running after her, fighting the urge to cry.

"Claire, stop! I didn't mean-"

"I know." The assertive two words cut off the words that Serah wanted to say. The tone in it was final, and she closed her mouth, knowing it was fruitless to argue with her now. "I know." Her voice softened a little. "Going on... is the only way I can deal with this. Keeping myself moving is the only way I know I'm not going to fall, okay?"

Serah moved two slender fingers to her lips, feeling the trembling digits against the surface of her face. Keeping back the tears was hard, but she knew she had to. For her sake.

Following her sister wordlessly, she kept her hands pressed to her mouth, feeling her breathing through her slim fingers. Like Claire, Serah was only able to keep pain from pervading her mind when she kept going, when she wasn't still to let the painful feelings invade. And even still, there were the painful echoes that reverberated through her mind, and Serah forced herself to think about something else... except nothing came. There was nothing except the 'what if's' that she could find no way to keep away from her.

Things didn't have to be this way.

That much was clear. There was no way that things could have been this way. Why couldn't we just have a happy life? Why did we have to be targeted like this? Why... The harsh, angry thoughts flowed from the resent in her mind like a downhill stream. Why couldn't people be happy with the fact that Claire, Hope, and Snow saved Cocoon and gone on with their lives?

There were no answers to the bitter questions, not that Serah had expect any. She set her gaze on her sister's back again, watching the blue light play with the lighting of her blush coloured hair as she walked

You deserved so much better than this, Claire.

A happy chirping interrupted her morose thoughts as she heard a wild flapping of small wings beating behind her in the dim light. Her sister turned the same moment as she did, watching a familiar small yellow fuzzball grow larger in the darkness, cheeping madly in the gloom.

Hope's feet crunched through the frosty snow as he and Sazh made their way to the entrance of the Ice Cliff Palace, following the footsteps that stood out starkly in the pink tinged drifts of early morning. He spared one glance up, watching the stars and indigo sky quickly fading, as if the heat of the sun was chasing them away. Light... I really hope you're okay.

She wouldn't have abandoned him, that much he knew. She didn't give up unless there was no hope left and there would be none that could be found. If there was even a slim chance she thought she could have saved him, she would have. I have to believe that. It was better than the alternative, and he could not let himself think of the alternative.

A cold breeze blew through the snowbanks, sending handfuls of white powder spinning into the air, locked in a celestial dance with the wind, reflecting the rosy hue of the rising sun. The sight was familiar, but it would be a few heartbeats before Hope could place it. Just like... They look like the crystal dust in Oerba. The first time they'd all gone for Lightning.

The thought, along with the sudden drop in temperature with the wind that was picking up, made him shiver, and he felt Sazh place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You cold, kid?"

Hope shrugged, but in truth, he was glad for the attention. It made him feel protected, loved, like the kid he still wished he could be. "Kind of." He rubbed his neck; the skin felt strangely exposed without the teal piece of cloth. "Your chocobo stole my scarf," he complained.

The older man laughed. "Guess the little thing was a little too excited to see you. Speaking of the featherball... where is it?"

Now that Sazh had mentioned it, Hope hadn't seen the yellow chocobo in awhile, not since it had taken his scarf and flapped away with it, the teal cloth dangling awkwardly between its small talons. They'd been walking for awhile, and it hadn't come back. He wasn't too worried about the chocobo though; Hope knew perfectly well the little bird was smarter than it looked, and whatever Snow wanted to believe about it. The only thing was that it was a little cold without his scarf, but he pushed the thought from his mind. Now... is not the time to be thinking like a kid.

The deep blue sculptures of the Ice Cliff Palace rose in front of them in the morning light, the beryl glass tinted a pale pink in the dawn as they all stopped at the lip of the small crater that led down to it. Hope could see a dark, rectangular entrance into the shrine, and immediately, he knew that the name 'Palace' was a misnomer. There was no structure above ground apart from the glass creatures that stood guard over its underground entrance.
There were murmurings in the soldiers that stood behind them as Hope began carefully making his way down the slippery slope, closely followed by Sazh.

There was an eerie whistling that came from the stone entrance, but he couldn't see anything in the gloom.

"Doesn't this place give you the creeps," he heard Sazh mutter behind him. "It looks as damp as a marsh in there... my old bones can't take much of that..." The older man continued to muse to himself about his back and developing arthritis, and even in their current situation, Hope had to suppress a smile. That was what he liked and admired about Sazh - the older man saw the brighter aspects of all situations.

The sound of a thousand glass planes shattering and hitting the floor one by one came from the tunnel in front of them like a cacophony of sounds. Hope took off running, several soldiers running behind him as Sazh spluttered about leaving elders behind. He could hear, strangely, each piece of glass hit the ground, as Hope took off in the direction of the sound.

Dim light gave way to a flickering blue atmosphere as they burst into a large chamber twisted and embellished with the same glass planes, formed into shapes and creatures that Hope had no name for. The same blue as the glass outside, this time they weren't touched with pink, but stained a deep blue that reminded him of twilight and night clouds partially lit by the moon. There were two paths that twisted into the darkness, but it was impossible to tell which one led to the sound of glass.

Hope could only hear his own breathing, short and erratic, in the dim light as he tried to discern where the sound had come from. There were only two paths, but if they happened to pick the wrong one it would only be a giant waste of time. There was no sign that Lightning had been here, no sign of where they had gone.

He'd just been about to ask Sazh for his opinion of an idea when the second, ear splitting crash of glass hit his eardrums, echoing from his left.

The small chocobo chick chirped happily in Serah's palm, clearly very pleased with itself as its beady black eyes blinked contentedly up at her. It had deposited its parcel of the length of teal cloth in her sister's hands before it had flapped to her, pecking at the small glass bead she wore on a black elastic around her left wrist.

At first, neither of them had gotten the implication of the teal scarf that the chocobo had given to Lightning until her sister's hands closed around it so fast Serah saw it crumple in her strong grip, the white and black patterns on the blue green cloth distorting under her fingers. Her expression had been unreadable, and the seconds had stretched into long, uninterrupted moments as her sister stared at the neckerchief in her hands.

"He's... okay?" Her voice had been hushed and hoarse as she looked up, finally, at the small chocobo nestled in Serah's hands, as if she expected the bird to speak to her. The chick had bounced happily at the two words as it flapped its wings excitedly, making happy kweh kweh! sounds.

Serah felt the unmistakable relief rise like a swelling balloon in her chest as the chocobo confirmed the hoarse, unsure question that her sister had voiced. Hope's really... okay? The chocobo was clearly ecstatic as it bounced happily, blinking its eyes in a proud way in her hands. Hope had to be. The chocobo chick knew more than it acted like it did. She'd heard the story, of how the chick had flown back to Vallis Media to warn her sister on their journey about Hope's brand. It wouldn't lie if Hope was gone.

She heard a sigh of something like relief come from her sister's direction. Her sister was holding the scarf tightly in her left hand, her right pressed against the back of her mouth as she leaned back against the glass wall of the hallway, her blue eyes full of uncharacteristic emotion that strangely, Serah couldn't read. Moving close to her, Serah pressed her shoulders against her sister's, her hand finding the black sleeve on Lightning's left arm and holding it.

"He's alright... Claire..."

There was no reply, but this time, Serah didn't press her for one. She would leave her to figure out her feelings for herself.

For the moment, Serah could just let herself enjoy and relish the realization that Hope was okay, that her sister was going to be okay. The small piece of cloth had brought them more empowerment than any of supports could bring in battle - the scarf was worth about a thousand Braverys and Faiths. For the first time that day, she let a smile not hampered by pain and despair warm her own feelings as it spread slowly on her lips. She held the chocobo chick close; it had done more for them than it realized.

The tired, happy chirp was its response to her attention as Serah smiled down at it.

"You're a lifesaver. You really are. I hate to think of what might be of us if Sazh didn't buy you at Euride Gorge." The chick flapped its wings again, nestling down into a yellow ball of fluff in her hands.

"Come on." Her sister's voice broke into her thoughts, and Serah looked up. She still looked as impassive as ever, but there was a spark of something in her eyes that hadn't been there this morning.

"Aren't you going to wait for him?"

And for the first time in a long time, Serah saw a small smile twitch at her sister's lips. "No. If he's alive... he'll find us. I know it." The brief smile was gone as fast as it appeared, but she'd seen it. Seen that underneath the soldier and the cold exterior, there was perhaps a small vestige of 'Claire' that still existed. Serah didn't question it as she set off down the twisting glass hallway behind her sister.

Hope... I knew, somehow, that you'd be able to find 'Claire'. Even now, when you're so far away from her, you can make her smile.

The air was steadily growing colder the further they went, but Serah was no longer scared. If her sister was going to be okay, then there was no longer anything to be scared of. Maybe it was naive of her to think this way, but when there was nothing tormenting her sister, there was nothing she wouldn't fight.

We're really going to be alright... aren't we?

There was no reason they wouldn't be. They'd taken everything that had been thrown at them, every harmful thing that had been tossed in their direction, and they were alive to show it. There was only one more crystal, and if they could get their hands on it before Yorun then they at least had a better chance of winning, didn't they?

Serah had never let herself believe otherwise, but with what had almost happened to Hope, that confidence had been shaken, and for the first time, she'd wondered and questioned their fight. Watching her sister stride purposefully in front of her, Serah thanked, once again, the Maker for having mercy on them. For saving Hope... and for giving her the purpose she needed.

Without realizing it, Serah bumped into her sister's right shoulder, having not seen that she'd stopped. Beyond her was a deep blue steel door, set almost inconspicuously into the end of the maze of glass panes.

"You ready?" Lightning asked her quietly. Serah noted that she'd stuffed the teal scarf away in her gunblade case; her omega weapon was out. She nodded, as her sister pushed open the door with a shove of her shoulder.

The centuries old door opened none-too-gently and she winced at the loud, long creak as rusty hinges and nails struggled to move past each other without jamming. The door only opened so far before the rust stuck it in its place, but it was enough to let them slip through.

The world beyond the door was light, lined with the first signs of its namesake. Ice pillars melded almost perfectly with concrete columns, forming a long open room that led to only one thing: a pedestal with a small blue green jewel sitting innocently at its centre, glistening as it reflected off the light transmitted by the ice statues. The smooth marble floor amplified their footsteps as Serah followed her sister slowly to the other end of the room, hands clutched together at the centre of her chest. Her breath crystallized in front of her, and Serah couldn't control the small shivers that threaded through her body. They had to be very far underground and yet, the enormous shafts of ice still spread enough light from the above world for them to see.

They had just crossed the halfway point in the hallway when the door slowly eased shut behind them, causing Lightning to turn with an angry and surprised hiss. Serah didn't even have time to react in any other way before a cold voice washed over both of them, and she backed away until her back met the crook of her sister's elbow.

"I've been waiting for you."

Snow punched aside the seventh clone that came at him, sending the figure crashing into the glass, shattering it. He didn't mind if the large glass pieces pierced the body, dealing it more injuries than it already had. The more the better. In the seemingly endless wave of enemies, he'd wondered, briefly, if Lightning and Serah were having the same issues down on their path. The path he'd taken got more and more circular, until he'd arrived at a dead end in the centre of a maze of swirling glass hallways. That was when the enemies had appeared, and all hell had quite literally broken loose.

Sinking his foot into the face of another, Snow had to wonder just how many clones Yorun had managed to procure in such a short time. We just took out Maker knows how many of these creeps yesterday... the bastard got a factory somewhere or something? The fighting helped with the immeasurable inner pain - doing something always did. If he couldn't deal with it, then he saved it for later, until he could. And it wasn't like the clones were much of a difficult enemy, so long as none of the scythe wielding creeps came along.

A blade barely missed his bandanna, ripping a few stray threads out of his scarf. Speak of the devil... Blocking the next blow with a Steelguard, Snow sent the man flying into some of his comrades with a Aquastrike, drawing his fist back for another powerful strike as the gap he'd created suddenly closed. The large weapon clattered to the ground, making an ominous clanging noise as steel scraped against glass.

I wonder if... Snow sent a Blizzaga into the air; as the ice blossom bloomed into icy spikes with very deadly petals, the spell caught several figures in its frosty embrace. Smirking despite the situation, Snow felt the adrenaline beginning to pound through his body. He'd just been about to take out the next few closing in when an Aeroga sent them into the air, followed by several quick gunshots.

"Looks like the hero could use a little help, huh?"

Snow whipped around, ocean blue eyes widening when he saw two very familiar figures standing just behind him.

"Sazh! And... Hope?" He could barely work the muscles in his lips around the names, and for a moment all he could do was stare at the silver haired teenager.

Hope smiled a little, seeing the surprise on his face. "Nice to see you too Snow."

He walked up to the teenager, unsure of what he was seeing was real. Snow had to rub his eyes for a few times as he looked down, almost not believing the sight beneath him. This time, Hope chuckled.

"I'm real, alright? Sazh fished me out of the lake." His tone grew serious. "Where's Light?"

Of course.

Snow beckoned in the rough direction of the path Lightning and Serah had gone down. "Went the other way. How did you find us?"

Sazh laughed out loud this time. "You're not exactly the most discreet person here on Pulse, hero. Besides, we've got some soldier backup gunning down the rest of these creeps outside. We'll let them do the mopping up while we go find soldier girl and your wife, yeah?"

Snow gave the older man a thumbs up. "You got it."

Lightning slowly pushed Serah behind her, watching as the single black wing slowly let the man's feet touch the ground. She raised her omega weapon as the man slowly walked towards them, but he didn't have a weapon and there were none of his subordinates with him. That doesn't mean... She knew all too well what he could do; weapon and subordinates or not, there was no way she could underestimate him.

She narrowed her eyes. The man was blocking the way out, and Lightning highly doubted that he would allow them a free run at the crystal. Why he hadn't stopped just before the altar, she didn't know, but there had to be a good reason. He'd played them like puppets the whole way long - there was no way he didn't have something planned.

"What... do you want?" she snarled quietly, raising the omega weapon to shoulder height, the gun aimed at his forehead. Slowly, he began to walk towards them, and she heard Serah gasp, her own muscles tensing the closer he got to them.

"What I want, my dear Lightning, is something you want to prevent." His voice was quiet, musing... almost as if he was entertained by the fact that they were chasing him. "But of course... you wouldn't understand it."

She couldn't hold back a low growl. "What won't I understand?"

He smirked at her again. "How very pitiful your power is next to mine."

What the hell is that kind of answer?

He'd passed them, walking slowly towards the pedestal, black wing lifted slightly. Lightning felt the ends of the ragged black feathers brush her as he walked by - instinctively, she cringed away from it, not wanting any of those dark feathers to touch her skin. Following his movement around the room with her eyes, she heard her sister's short, accelerated breathing behind her.

Yorun stopped just in front of the steps that led up to the pedestal. "Funny how... you're not trying to stop me. Have you finally realized your efforts are fruitless?"

Lightning didn't even want to bother with a reply. "Slash and Burn," she hissed to Serah. Moving forward, she threw a Ruinga at the foot of the steps, but she didn't really expect it to hit - it was more of a distraction than it was a serious effort. She wasn't disappointed: the man moved with a flurry of feathers that threw him into the air, avoiding the spells that Serah had sent at him, as she moved forwards towards him,trying to close the gap between them . A spear materialized in his right hand, but its target wasn't her. The target was Serah, who was at least two dozen feet away from them.

"Die."

There was no way she could move as fast as the spear. "Serah, run!" Her scream echoed around the icy chamber, bouncing off the tall columns of ice, the tones of her voice reflected back somehow louder than she'd actually yelled.

Serah hadn't moved fast enough before the spear caught her knee, grazing a deep cut in its side as she collapsed, clutching it. The weapon speared into the ground vanished from the small crater it had created before reappearing in the man's hand. Lightning sent a Cura at her sister, breathing a sigh of relief to herself when the mint green brush of magic wiped away the evidence of the wound. She was only a few feet away from her sister when the man took aim again, a low chuckle reverberating around the room.

And this time, sudden clarity flooded every aspect of her consciousness as she saw him raise the weapon again. Serah hadn't yet gotten up from the previous attack, and just like before, just like back in the Demonsoul Tower, there was no other way to save her. There had never been any doubt as to what she would do for her sister, and this time, just like before, she didn't hesitate. And this time, there was no Shiva to save them.

The spear embedded itself in her flesh just below her diaphragm - there was one brief moment that seemed to suspend time in a frozen, eternal heartbeat, before she was pinned to the ground, one hand weakly grasping the weapon that felt like it was tearing her apart. But she couldn't, couldn't wrench the weapon out of her, and it was only seconds before the hand she had raised to hold the weapon was slick with her own blood. She couldn't move - whatever had happened, she could no longer feel the lower half of her body. There was only one thing she could do, and that was to bite her own tongue and close her eyes so that she couldn't scream out loud.

"Claire!" Serah's hands were suddenly on her shoulders, and through the miasma of pain, Lightning thought she was returning her sister's desperate grasp on her fingers. She couldn't really tell anymore; the feeling of rapidly spreading liquid warmth below her back and the cold deadness in the lower half of her body was messing with her sense of perception. "Claire, say something!"

The desperation was hard to miss, but Lightning knew the moment she opened her mouth the only thing that would come out would be a senseless, hoarse cry, and that was what Serah did not want to hear. The only other conscious thought that she could process was that the only response she could give was to hold on tighter, however uselessly, to her sister's hand. There was a feeling of something wet that trickled into her hair, something that caught her failing attention even through the throbbing, unrelenting agony that permeated through her upper body, aided and abetted by her own heartbeat.

"Claire, please... no!"

There was something else. A laugh? She couldn't really hear anymore, but even in her current state, Lightning could feel the gust of wind that tore at her hair. Opening her eyes was hard; it was like fighting back against gravity that would drag her to earth no matter how high she jumped. The faint, familiar outline of Yorun's Supernova attack stood out even in the dark fog that was filling her vision rapidly. It was getting harder to breathe, but even she knew the implications of the attack.

"Serah... run..." Those were the only words she could rasp out before her voice caught in a moan of pain.

"No! Claire... you're always trying to protect me. You and Snow... you're always there. Always taking the blows so I don't get hurt." Her sister's voice was so soft she almost couldn't catch the gentle words through the sound of her own uneven heartbeat. There was a slight increase in the volume of Serah's voice as she continued, a determined tone entering it as she continued. "But this time... this time, Claire, it's my turn."

Lightning felt her sister's hand detaching itself from hers, and her own hand dropped to the floor, feeling the sticky warmth of blood under her fingertips, her body no longer able to sustain the small height that Serah had elevated her hand to. Now, there was nothing to hold onto, nothing to stop her from slipping into the darkness and pain that threatened to drown her like a tidal wave.

"Carbuncle!"

For a moment, the entire world stood still. In the space between two weak heartbeats, she could hear the sound as the megaflare met the shield, and the sound of a hoarse cry that belonged to both a beautiful, lithe Eidolon and the tones that belonged to the one person who had been her inspiration to fight since she was able to. But there was no impact on her body, and no sound of anything else. Not even the sound of an enemy, not even the sound of a footstep.

In the dark, nightmarish images created in the consciousness that was leaving with each unsteady thump of her heart, Lightning heard one last resonance: the ringing, echoing note of a small crystal hitting the floor. In that one space between her own hoarse gasp for breath, the utter eclipse that marred out her awareness won against the overwhelming rip of agony in her abdomen, the last thought that Lightning had was that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, out there anymore. For the longest time, she thought she had died.

She wished she had.

Just as the flowers dance, swayed by the wind,
and the earth is appeased by the rain;
This world lives by being closer together, and yet...
Why do people hurt each other?
Why are there separations?

*hides under a rock behind Snow's Steelguard and hopes that no one can come after her now*