I haven't really taken the time to really properly thank all the people who read this :) So, thank you! Especially xX Katie-San Xx and Lightarcana, cause you guys review my chapter everytime and my face lights up for every review! Oh, Lady Alaska if you've made it to this chapter since you're done with yours, hiii! XD

Oh, right, hospital update. I'm just got out today! Which is cool, cause then I'll have my xbox and I can play FFXIII all over again, and then FFXIII-2. Yay! And homework, since I can't go back to school this entire year since it's gonna take me another month to fully recover.

So. Onto the chapter! Thank you for reviewing and just reading it in general, because I do generally like writing it and I'm getting a bit more... structured, I guess you could say? ;) Oh, and longer, too.

"Hey. Snow."

"Oh, Lightning, what's wrong?"

Lightning leaned against Snow's door a couple of hours after Hope went to bed, casually crossing her arms. Snow sat at his desk on his laptop, eyebrows raised.

"Thanks."

"For what, Light?" Lightning sighed and tightened her jaw, swallowing hard to prevent her tears. She finally let in an awkward breath.

"Thanks for saving Hope."

"...It was nothing."

"UH, no it wasn't. Snow you brought someone back to life." Snow's eyes filled with pride as he continued to try to keep a straight face.

"I mean, if you didn't do anything… if we didn't find him fast enough..." Lightning's eyes filled with tears as she slid down Snow's door. He ran up to her and wrapped his arms around her. He'd never seen her like this in the 4 years he'd known her. She continued to shake with sobs.

"I was so terrified! I didn't know what to do or where to go, if he would live, or if he would die..." Snow held her tighter, not noticing when Serah came and wrapped her arms around both of them.

"I'm still scared about the whole l'Cie thing! You don't even know what it's like, being in the middle of a Guardian Corps and getting a phone call saying he was a l'Cie! What if Serah became one? What if you became one? What if it never happened to Vanille, she would've lived... she would've lived!"

"Lightning, I thought you didn't know Vanille that much..."

"I took her for granite. I'm such an idiot. I should've known about the earthquake. I could've gone and gotten you two..."

"Lightning! Look at me! You can't blame yourself. I'm not a l'Cie, Snow's not a l'Cie either; we're safe!"

"Vanille wasn't safe. And Hope isn't safe." Snow finally looked back up at Lightning, his eyes solemn and guilt clouding his eyes.

"Light, if anyone is to be blamed, it would be me. I could've gotten Hope and Vanille out of there right after the earthquake happened. We were supposed to evacuate anyway; school procedure. I'm sorry. It's hard, since Hope's gonna be crystal now in less than a couple of years..."

"Or a Cie'th ."

"Lightning, stop." Lightning stared into Snow's eyes and waited a moment for him to say something.

"I'm sorry... I'm just a little freaked out right now," Lightning whispered, finally standing up, nodding to them.

Lightning walked over to Hope's room, not bothering to knock. She slowly opened the door.

"Hope?" she asked, looking around the room. She walked over to his bed. Her eyes growing wide in shock.

He was gone.

Lightning didn't even realized she was screaming. She lost him. Her life was over. Despair made everything fuzzy. Hope was gone. He was gone. He was gone...

"LIGHTNING!" Snow ran into Hope's room, his eyes drenched in fear as he grabbed the continuously screaming Lightning by the shoulders. Lightning finally realized she was screaming and stopped. She stared at Snow with a slightly disoriented expression. Snow moved his eyes over to Hope's bed.

And noticed the open window.

"Lightning. Where is Hope?" Snow asked, preventing himself from panicking Lightning any more. She stared at Snow for a split second then began hyperventilating. Snow shook Light slightly, yelling for help when Serah ran in.

"CLAIRE. You have to listen to me. You need to calm down!" Snow shook the dorm room as Lightning continued to have a panic attack. Serah stared at Lightning for a moment and it immediately came to pass in her mind that Hope was missing.

Lightning scratched the back of her head before sitting up, realizing she was on the couch in her dorm room.

"Oh, Light, you're awake! Are you all right?" Lightning stared at her for a minute, confusion clouding her head.

"...What?"

"You passed out. Who knew that something could be too much for the great Lightning Farron!" Lightly felt proud of herself, happy that she had made that impression on people.

Lightning began to recall what happened. Her first tears since the hospital, her outburst at Snow, her feeling dizzy...

And Hope. He left. He was gone. He was injured. How could he leave when he was injured? Why would he want to leave?

Hope.

"We wait." Lightning jumped at the sound of Serah's voice. She must have said his name aloud.

"What do you mean we wait? Hope's out there, he's probably close to death! How are we supposed to save him?"

"I said, we wait, Light. Hope'll come back. I promise. He wouldn't just come and leave us like that. He was too weak to even stand, let alone move at all."

"We can't just wait forever!"

"Light…"

"We'll wait for 2 more hours, then I'm looking for him, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, even if I had a gun to my head, you're not stopping me." Serah waited for what felt like forever for Lightning to speak again, feeling relieved when she finally heard her speak.

"Where's Snow?"

"In Hope's room. He's waiting for him to come back through the window." Lightning stared at the floor then got up, walking over to Hope's room and sitting next the blonde, who was sitting anxiously by the window.

"Can I stay here? And wait with you?"

"Yeah, of course." Lightning sat next to Snow, which she knew was probably going to be on her list of regrets in her life later, but this wasn't the time.

Lightning stared distantly out the window, a blue haze casting over the city. Light could see all the classrooms glowing with light from kids in cram school and study hall. Every second felt like an entire lifetime, every minute feeling like the course of history.

And there she waited.

For her Hope to come home.

Hope neglected the blurriness in his eyes as he ran towards the fountain. He didn't know if he was going the right way, or if he was moving at all, but he would get there. He would get there without a doubt. He had to able to see Vanille again. He wanted to make sure everything that was happening was truly real. That all his visions and phone calls had led up this one moment.

He knew he was just going to see a friend he thought was dead, but it felt like so much more. He wanted to prove to Light, Snow, and Serah that he was stronger. That he could make it to the fountain, and come back with their friend that meant so dear to them behind him.

The world felt silent besides him. There was no one yet. Everyone was asleep, everyone was studying; there was no reason to be outside. Unless you had the same reason as Hope.

Hope suddenly felt something hit his knees as he slammed himself into something hard. He felt gentle arms catch him, and sit him down. Hope looked up and noticed where he was.

He was at the fountain. He dipped his fingers in the water, letting it ripple outwards, the moon reflecting on the surface of it. He looked straight ahead and saw a face that he recognized.

He found Vanille.

Hope smiled and wrapped his arms around her, Vanille giggling with excitement. She whispered his name and stared into his eyes for a moment before taking hold of his wrist. Hope met her eyes again with a look of confusion in his expression. Vanille put her other hand on top of his l'Cie brand, closing her eyes and letting tears fall. Hope felt a strange feeling toward the bottom of his stomach, butterflies beginning to travel up and a tingling sensation in his arm. He looked at Vanille once more when she opened her eyes, still not saying a word. Hope looked at his arm, his eyes widening with shock, fear, awe, and happiness at what he saw.

His brand was gone.

Hope's mouth gaped opened, his heart beginning to race. Vanille grinned again, pulling Hope in for another embrace and whispering his name.

"H-How did you-"

"I'm a seeress, Hope."

"But that has nothing to deal with-"

"I know. I just needed to let it out. That's why I died earlier. A vision."

Hope gazed into her as if she was an interesting book and finally blinked. What did she see? That means she would have to die…

Over,

And over,

And over again.

Vanille studied Hope for a minute, their faces solemn. Vanille was almost telepathically communicating with him; Hope knew what she was trying to say. She would have to go soon.

"But I thought you were going to come back with me?"

"I can't. And I'm so sorry about your injuries, you'll find out who did it later," Vanille's face changing to a bit of an aggressive expression. She continued on:

"I can get rid of your brand. It's too hard to explain why, you'll find out later. But I have to tell you that I really wish I could help you with your gunshot wounds." Hope nodded, smiling slightly. He closed his eyes for second and felt warmth inside of him; golden light blinded his green orbs when he opened them. Vanille's voice echoed through Hope's soul as he felt a relaxing aura surrounding him.

"Hope, even though you don't know me all the well, I knew you so much more than you thought. Be prepared for the journey ahead…"

Hope nodded to her voice and let the glowing light come into him.

He was back at the dorm room. He was standing in front of the window.

Lightning waited next to Snow for what felt like forever until she finally left to check on Serah. She was going to leave soon. There would be no way she could wait any longer. She would search in hell for him if she had to.

Snow waited impatiently , leaning against Hope's bead, staring at the window.

And there he waited.

Hope could feel his body was drained of all energy. He was losing more blood, his head was hurting. His side was making it hard for him to breathe. Hope took hold of the window and was able to pull himself up, a whimper escaping from his lips.

Snow jumped when he heard a yelping sound coming from the window. He immediately snapped out of his daze and ran over to the window, just then realizing Lightning wasn't in the room. He saw something that he wanted to see, but also wished it didn't happen in the first place.

He grabbed Hope's waist then quickly grabbed his arms instead when he heard Hope scream in pain from his side. He dragged him in, staring at the teenager in horror or a moment then trying to shake him awake.

Hope fluttered his eyes open and looked up. He saw Snow hovering over his body and felt relief. He made it back.

"Where were you, Hope? Why?" Hope heard Snow's voice echo in his ears, and looked to the left of him.

And saw Vanille. Hope tried to motion his eyes to Vanille, and when Snow looked over, he saw nothing.

"What were you looking for? Hope, stay with me, talk to me, buddy. Tell me where you were."

"The... fountain" Hope squeaked, staring at Vanille. "Looking for..." He saw Vanille wave to him and disappear.

"You." Hope was staring into Vanille's eyes, ignoring Snow...

Snow watched, mortified when he saw Hope's eyes closed. Why was he looking for me? I don't understand, I was here the whole time... he saw me when he went to bed... what's going on with him? He didn't know why Hope said the words that came out of his mouth. He finally realized that no one knew Hope was back yet.

"SERAH! LIGHTNING! FANG!" Lightning's voice echoed through the hallway.

"Oh, Fang's gone. She left about an hour ago. She said she would be back tomorrow. Oh, and I'm-" Lightning finally came up to the door, gasping in despair and skidding over to Hope.

"You found him." She whispered.

"He came back, just like I said," Snow said, visibly shaking.

Lightning noticed this and looked at Snow, as well as Serah, who was at the doorway.

"...What?"

"Light, he said he was looking for me."

"What?"

"I don't know why! I just know now that we can't leave him alone, I'm afraid he'll do something dangerous to himself again..."

Lightning stared at Snow, finally realizing that she was holding Hope's hand.

Hope opened his eyes and began to focus around his room. Everything was dark except for the hint of moonlight seeping through the window. He finally focused on a person in the corner of the room. Squinting, ne realized it was Lightning.

Her face was filled with an emotion that Hope had never heard of. Was it sadness? Was it anger? Was it both?

"You're awake." Lightning said, finally looking up from the floor she seemed to be so fascinated with.

Hope nodded, his green orbs begging Lightning to come over to him. Lightning finally stopped resisting and stepped over to Hope, almost cautiously.

"Can I ask you something?" Lightning asked, kneeling beside him. Hope nodded again, his expression impatient.

"Why were you looking for Snow?" Hope was a bit taken back with confusion for a moment.

Snow? He wasn't going to look for Snow. He was looking for Vanille. And she...

"Lightning!" Hope yelled, making her jump and lean closer. It finally came to pass in his mind that he didn't tell her about his brand suddenly disappearing.

Lightning stared at Hope, nervous for what he was about to say. She could tell it was something very important.

Hope weakly lifted his hand and rested it on Lightning's, causing her to look at it.

"What?" Lightning wondered, looking at Hope's face glowing from the moonlight, tears shimmering from his eyes, back to his wrist. He was smiling slightly. It looked normal, why was he showing to her? Hope looked desperate. He finally began to speak.

"Light. My..." Hope suddenly felt dizzy again and let the black cloudiness overwhelm him; Lightning couldn't figure it out.

"Tch." Lightning sat up and looked at Hope one more time, before sitting down in the corner of the room again.

"Want me to take over?" Snow's voice echoed coolly through the room. Lightning nodded immediately, leaving the, room, leaving Snow surprised by her answer. She wanted this all to be over. The last couple weeks have been absolute chaos. She would've much rather just sat through the long days of school than this.

Snow looked at Hope for a second until he walked over to the window. He pulled out a window lock and made sure it was so tight that it would be impossible for anyone in the house other than Snow to open it.

Stepping over to Hope, the blonde shook him slightly, causing Hope's eyes to open instantly. He was obviously not in a deep sleep at the moment.

"What is it?" Hope whispered, looking around for Lightning.

"I need to ask, you, Hope, why were you looking for me?" Hope closed his eyes for a minute to try to tell his answer to Snow, who was staring at him anxiously for a response. He finally spoke.

"I wasn't looking for you."

"But you said-"

"Someone else was in the room when ... when you asked me." Hope stared at Snow for a minute, trying to ignore his almost scared expression.

"Who?"

"Um... Vanille-"

"Hope. We – I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"Vanille is dead, Hope. She died back in the caves..." Hope of course already knew this. He didn't know what to tell him. Should he tell Snow that he knew all along?
What if he got mad? What if he kicked him out because he already knew and he wouldn't be able to see Lightning? Ok, he was having irrational fears now. Maybe he should just tell Snow and get it over with.

Or he could just pretend that he didn't know Vanille was dead and he could pretend to just find out, and be sad. But it would be hard to be sad, since he knew Vanille was alive. He knew. And he tried to show his brand to Lightning, but she figured she had forgotten about the brand at the moment. He had proof Vanille was alive. His brand was gone. He was a l'Cie no more. No crystal stasis, no Cie'th, nothing he would have to worry about unless he was branded for a third time.

"Hope." Hope blinked a couple of times to realized Snow was hovering over him, moving a hand over his eyes, trying to catch his attention.

"Oh, good." Snow said pulling Hope in his arms.

"Look, kid, I know this must be hard to deal with Vanille's death so sudden. But I need to know why you were calling Vanille's number and trying to look for her... Did you know she's dead?"

Hope immediately looked down and tried to come up with something. He needed to stop lying. One lie leads to another. There should be no reason that he shouldn't tell the truth.

"Vanille is alive, Snow." Hope finally flung out of his mouth, mortified to see Snow's reaction. He just looked solemn.

Snow felt so bad for the kid. He was going crazy. One thing kept happening to him after another. Ever since he came. Snow now was 22, and he had never been through something like this in his life as much as the 14 year old did. Besides the fact that he was an orphan, too, Hope was really in a bad way.

"She took my brand away." Snow darted to Hope's green orbs that were pleading for some sort of answer. Snow immediately grabbed Hope's wrist and examined it, then the other one, just in case.

"What?" Snow felt shivers go up his spine. Why was his brand gone? Was Hope really telling the truth? Hope was grinning slightly, excited that Snow had some form of belief in his eyes.

Hope wanted to stand and run to Lightning to confess to her everything that had happened. He wished his stupid leg would have dodged that bullet.

Then again, he may had not have been able to see Vanille again.

He had to get everyone to see Vanille.

"Hope, listen, buddy, I want to, I really do, want to believe that Vanille is alive. But she was more dead that a rock when we left her. Something happened back there that I still can barely remember. I don't know how your brand is gone, but what I do know is that it couldn't have been Vanille..."

Snow tried to force himself to imagine that Vanille was alive. But it was too hard to comprehend in his mind that the person he failed to bring back to life was here in the same planet as them.

"Hope, what did Vanille tell you?" He saw Hope's eyes lighten a bit before speaking weakly.

"She told me that she could take my brand away, and she... did, which you saw." He smiled slightly. "But she said she couldn't heal my gunshots wounds but she could take me back and I came back here and I saw her again when you were able to pull me out of the window when you rescued me and then I-remember-her-looking-at-me-before-darkness-"

"Hope! Shhh. It's okay, you don't have to say anymore." Snow couldn't understand him from his rambling. He saw the teen immediately close his eyes and go to sleep.

"Serah." Snow called, a serious expression on his face.

"Take over for me, I need to think." He practically ran out of the room, Serah slightly awestruck by his actions as well. She looked at Hope, then quietly sat by the window, looking at the moon slowly beginning to leave, the sun starting to peak out from its darkness.

Looking closer, she looked at a blurry image outside the window. She squinted her eyes to see better and noticed that it looked like a person. Her white dress flowed slightly as she walked eerily towards what looked like her. Serah closed her eyes for a moment, feeling her tiredness catching up to her.

When she opened them, she screamed for what felt like forever, though it was only half a second. She saw her staring at her, eyes glowing slightly and a solemn expression on her face.

"Serah, it's me," Vanille said, waking towards Serah. Serah backed up, slamming her back into a desk, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Please don't freak out," Vanille whispered, attempting to place her arm on Serah to comfort her. Serah panted heavily as she watched her friend she thought to be dead back away from her. Biting her lip, Vanille walked over to Hope, shaking him awake.

"Don't touch him." Serah cried, realizing it came out of her mouth. Vanille's my friend. Why am I so scared? I should be happy...

Hope opened his eyes and smiled at Vanille's face.

"Why... didn't you come back with me at the fountain?" Hope whispered, his eyes begging to close.

"I don't have much time." She grabbed a pen from the desk where Serah was at, and took hold of Hope's wrist. Serah wanted to do something. She wanted to punch Vanille, she was terrified. Why was she here? And what was she doing to Hope? Serah leaned in closer, struggling to see over her shaking.

Vanille was writing numbers. Lots, and lots of numbers. Hope just stared at Vanille, his face with a slight content expression on it.

Serah finally managed to pick herself up, stumbling over to Vanille.

"Vanille... what are you doing?"

"Serah, you may or may not remember I was here, okay? But we will meet again. Soon."

"V-Vanille, I'm confused... what's – what the hell is going on?" She ran up to touch Vanille, feeling her fingers go right through her. Gasping, she fell to her knees and waited for her to stop writing the numbers.

So this Vanille was a ghost. She knew she couldn't be alive. She looked over at Hope, awestruck that he didn't look horrified. She finally stopped writing the numbers. Hope looked up at her, his eyes perked with curiosity.

"Should I call them again? W-what do I say?"

"They'll know." Vanille smiled, and leaned in towards Hope.

And wrapped his arms around her.

Serah's eyes widened as she saw his hands not going through her; Vanille finally let go and climbed out the window. Serah gave her one last mortified look at Vanille before she saw Hope screaming at the top of his lungs at both of them. Serah felt tears pouring down her eyes before everything went black.

Serah opened her eyes and noticed she was in Hope's room. It was light and beautiful outside, and Hope was asleep soundly.

What just happened?

All done! That was the last chapter of the story, so haha Just kidding! Anyway, yeah don't tell me in the reviews it didn't make since at the end, because again it wasn't supposed to XD I love you all and see you later next week! HAPPY FRIDAY! Thank you for reviewing, it means the world to me!

Next chapter: Serah finds out what actually happened, and we learn more about the fal'Cie. SO basically the answer chapter :D