AN: I'm posting this chapter earlier than I planned. I wasn't going to do it until tomorrow but my mom being the wonderful person that she is bought me a game. She bought me the new Kingdom Hearts game. She dropped of all excited. She like 'Look you can play it on your DS!'. She was so happy I didn't have the heart to tell it that it was for the 3DS so now I am just sitting there staring at it wishing that I had the money to buy the system. Since I had nothing better to do I posted this chapter!

Time Explanation: I was going to post it here but it's more complicated than I thought so I put it on my profile. If anyone else is confused please let me know and I will try and explain things better.

Review Thanks:

xXcutsandstitchesXx: Thanks! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.

Redmoon1997: I thought they were underused too. Actually most of the characters were underused.

NekoEiko: Thank you!

thewhitespirit: Thanks!

ben4kevin: Thanks. I am trying to update faster!

rebirth-flame: Glad you like the cover! As for Hope being taller on the cover they are actually the same size. You're right though Noel is taller in my story. But unfortunately I can't draw to save my life. My Noel actually looks very different than that. Taller, broader, and has long hair. *Sigh* Wish I could draw. C'est la vie!

xXAngelWithDragonWingsXx: Thank you. As for how long it will take Noel to save Hope well...

Now on with the story! Please leave a review and tell me what you think!

Chapter 13 Chasing Hope

Noel was trying to come up with a plan when he saw someone coming running towards him. He immediately recognized it to be Hope but not the Hope that he knew. This Hope was smaller and much younger. He guessed his age to be anywhere to be from eleven to thirteen. The young Hope stopped not too far away from him. The boy pulled out his weapon.

"Who are you?" Hope asked distrust and fear reflected in his eyes.

"I'm a friend," Noel said as he held up his hands to show the boy that he wasn't going to draw his weapon. He wasn't use to a distrustful Hope and he wasn't sure how to handle him.

"L'cie don't have friends," Hope countered. Noel looked at him in surprise. If Hope was a l'cie that meant that Hope's nightmare had something to do with his past. It would make sense that being a l'cie again would be a nightmare for Hope but then that meant that the others had to be close by.

"But I am," Noel tried to persuade him. "I am a friend of Serah's." Hope looked at him quizzically and Noel didn't know if the boy believed him or not. He was even more nervous of how Hope's dream friends were going to react to him. He knew in Hope's current state that he would believe them before he believed him.

"That may be true," Hope said not lowering his weapon, "but that doesn't explain how you got down here." Noel racked his brain trying to come up with a plausible answer. It looked as if even as a child Hope was smart.

"I…I'm not really sure. I…I just woke up here," Noel said. He had a feeling Hope wouldn't believe him no matter what he said.

"Are you a l'cie too?" Hope asked as he relaxed his stance slightly.

"No," Noel told him.

"Then you're here to hunt me," Hope said once again on the defensive.

"I'm not here to hunt you," Noel told him not missing how Hope said me and not us.

"Why? I'm a l'cie. You should be terrified of me," Hope said looking confused.

"I don't buy into all of the propaganda," Noel said giving the boy what he thought was a reassuring smile. Once again Hope relaxed his stance and looked at him his eyes wide with confusion.

"You're odd. Everyone else they…" Hope started to say but his voice trailed off. Noel could tell from the look on his face that Hope was remembering something unpleasant. Noel itched to try and comfort him but he doubted that this Hope would react well to that. In fact he was pretty sure that he would be attacked.

"I'm not everyone else," Noel reassured him.

"Right," Hope said as he gave him a scrutinizing look. "I'm Hope by the way."

"I'm Noel," he told the boy with a tight smile. This was the third time that he had introduced himself to Hope although this time it hurt do to so. It upset him to no end that Hope didn't know him and didn't trust him.

"Noel," Hope repeated quietly his eyes gaining an unfocused look. For a moment Noel thought that Hope might have remembered but the boy shook his head as if in pain and his eyes once again turned cold and untrusting.

"Are you alright?" Noel asked to see if Hope would react differently to him.

"I'm fine. Just have a cold that I can't seem to shake," Hope said as he rubbed his forehead. Noel frowned remembering how Fang and Vanille had warned him about the nightmare feeding off of Hope until there was nothing left. He was not about to let that happen though. He would save Hope no matter what it took.

"I thought there were others. Where are they?" Noel asked wondering where they could be. From what Hope had told him they weren't fond of letting Hope wander off alone. He regretted asking though when Hope's face fell and he looked even more upset.

"I don't want to talk about them with you. I don't know you well enough for that," Hope said his voice cold. Noel flinched at that statement. Hope had never spoken so coldly to him before. He knew Vanille warned him but it still hurt. "You better come with me though. The monsters come out in force when it gets dark."

Hope then dashed off and Noel ran after him. As Noel chased after him he couldn't help but to wonder how this nightmare world differed from what happened in reality.

After they ran for what felt like ages and the sky was dark they reached a little outcropping maybe even a small cave craved into the side of the mountain. Hope went inside without a word so Noel followed him. It wasn't very big but it was a good size for one or two people. There was a pile of old blankets and a few pelts which Noel assumed that Hope used for a bed. There was also a small contraption made from scrap metal near the back. Noel had no clue as to what it was let alone what it was used for. What was painfully obvious to Noel though that Hope was staying here alone and it looked as if it had been for a while.

Hope gave him a sheepish look as he walked to the back of the cave. He picked up a rather large rock from the ground and held it in his hand until it glowed a bright red. He then opened a door on the contraption and stuck it inside.

"The smoke attracts the monsters," Hope said as he quickly looked at him before quickly looking away. "So I use this instead."

"Then that contraption you have must come in handy. Did you build it?" Noel asked him.

"Yeah," Hope said looking anywhere but at him.

"That's pretty ingenious," Noel said wanting to get a reaction out of Hope besides mistrust.

"Thanks," Hope said and then coughed lightly. "You ah…you hungry. I don't have much. I haven't hunted the past few days."

"You don't have to go out of your way," Noel started to say but Hope shook his head.

"I wouldn't have offered if it was going to be a bother!" Hope snapped. "Now are you hungry or not?"

"Sure," Noel said not sure how to deal with this sullen and angry Hope. He watched as Hope threw what looked like dried meat and wild vegetables in a pot with some water and then began to heat it on the makeshift stove.

As Noel watched Hope cook he couldn't help but compare him to the Hope that he knew. This young Hope was so different to the man that he became. Noel knew that what happened while he was a l'cie was a big part in who Hope became and his nightmare world was changing that and not for the better. It was upsetting to see him so mistrustful and in such emotional pain.

He needed to gain Hope's trust so he could get him out of this sad place.

After a tense ten minutes later without talking Hope handed him what looked to be a handmade bowl with a small piece of metal twisted into a shape of a spoon with prongs. Noel looked down at the bowl with trepidation. It didn't look very appetizing and it didn't smell the best either. He looked up and saw that Hope was watching him. Noel took a small bite and found that it tasted better than it looked.

"Not bad," Noel said as he took another bite. Hope then started taking small bites of his own meal but he still continued to watch him. "I know that you don't trust me so why did you invite?"

"You're right I don't trust you," Hope said as he set his bowl down, "but…I don't know how to explain it. I want to trust you. I feel like that I know you but I don't remember ever meeting you. Does that make any sense?"

"It does," Noel reassured him. It seemed whatever Alyssa had done Hope was trying to fight. Not that he was surprised. Hope was one of the strongest people that he knew. "I feel like I've met you too."

Hope nodded and Noel thought that he was going to say something but he let out a long painful sounding cough instead. Noel just sat there once again wanting to go to Hope's aid but knowing that Hope wouldn't accept it.

"I'm not very hungry. You can finish my portion," Hope said as he pushed over his uneaten dinner. Hope then crawled into his pile of blankets and curled up. Noel frowned.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I already told you I have this cold that I can't shake," Hope told him as he closed his eyes. A moment later the boy's breath evened out and he was asleep.

Noel couldn't stop from watching him. Seeing him looking so vulnerable and young made Noel want to protect Hope in a different way. He knew that Hope was young when he became a l'cie and fought that battle with the others that changed the fate of the future. But seeing him lying there like that he saw how young he truly was. It wasn't right that a child should go through something like that and everything that came after.

Not wanting anything to happen to the sleeping boy Noel settled himself by the entrance so he could keep watch. As he listened to Hope's quiet breathing and watched the night monsters run on the planes it was hard to believe that his world wasn't real. It wasn't though and what made it even worse it was slowly and surely killing Hope.