Chapter One: Beginning of the End

The nightmares I've been having have arrived

They're changing my future

~Crush, Pendulum

Noel ran after Serah into the clearing that had become a battleground.

Snow, Serah's fiancé, looking half-transparent, was smacking flan left and right as they lunged at him. The giant flan had its eyes glued to the thrashing figure, looking at him as if imagining how he would taste.

This isn't right, Noel thought. Snow isn't supposed to be here. He said so himself.

"Serah, come back!" he called out, but she wasn't listening to him. She drew her bow, firing at flan. They didn't even falter in their attack as she pegged them with arrows.

Snow, however, was unmoved. It was as if he didn't even see Serah there, didn't hear either of their voices. Noel reached for his sword, but stopped with his hand resting against the hilt. There was only one explanation for this.

He never wanted to hear the word again.

This is a paradox.

"We have to get rid of the flan!" he yelled after Serah. "It's the only way to resolve the paradox!"

She didn't move as he lunged for the giant flan and began to strike it with his sword. Before even a few seconds had elapsed, the flan reached out with one of its slimy hands and struck him hard, sending him flying across the clearing. He gasped in pain, but tried to drag himself into a standing position.

"Serah! Get out of there!" Noel screamed as he looked up. The giant flan was steadily advancing on Serah and Snow, and if he didn't do something…

He leaped into the battle, dodging flan left and right. As the massive flan loomed dangerously close, he pushed Serah to the ground and out of their line of fire. Then, before either of them could even get up, the flan closed the distance between itself and Snow, reaching out and crushing him suddenly to a heap of glimmering, paradoxical dust.

Serah screamed. Then she went limp, her eyes gleaming.

The timeline had changed, and Serah was having visions of its new state.

Noel sat frozen to the spot, stunned as he waited for her to come to again. When she did, she twisted away from him, pushing herself upright. She stood with her back turned for a few moments, a few agonizing moments, her breath labored and uneven.

"Serah?" he whispered.

She spun to face him. "What have you done?" she gasped, tears streaking her face.

He opened his mouth to say something in response; he knew exactly what he had done. He had saved Serah, and erased Snow from the timeline.

"How could you?" Serah cried, calling the words out into the near-silent clearing, no longer talking to Noel. Instead of continuing, she took off into the maze of trees and vines, disappearing from sight.

Noel collapsed to the ground, staring up at the sky. I saved Serah. I saved her. But she doesn't realize that. She only sees Snow.

He watched the massive flan absorbing more of its kind, growing larger as it flailed around the clearing.

How do we fix this? How did we cause it in the first place? And where else along the timeline could a paradox have occurred?

The only thing he could come up with was defeating that flan again. But he was far too exhausted to do that, and he doubted he'd be able to get Serah to do it, regardless of whether it might bring Snow back.

His head suddenly ached. They had been so close, and then someone had gone and caused another paradox. But who else was changing the timeline? One answer stood out in his mind, but he refused to acknowledge it.

If he was right, things were very much more complicated then he'd originally thought.

A dark figure stood over the ruins, the body of a girl limp in his arms. He tossed his head, glaring out at the buildings below him, and cursed under his breath. It had happened again, but this time he knew it would be the last time.

She had fallen to her knees before him as her legs buckled under her. Racing toward her, he called out her name. Her gaze fell on him weakly and she tried to form words to explain.

"The timeline," she whispered. He drew her closer, as he could barely hear her. "The timeline… It's falling apart."

He gritted his teeth as he laid eyes on her for the last time. As the girl's remains drifted into dust on the wind, he thought he could hear her last words once more.

"Caius," she said. "There is no way to right the timeline. It has reached its limit."

Strands of his long hair blew into his face on the cold breeze. The ruins suddenly seemed empty. Contemplating the girl's words, he clenched his fist.

"I will change the timeline," he growled in a low voice. "I will save you…Yeul."

Then he turned on his heel and disappeared.

When he opened his eyes, the flan was gone.

Noel got to his feet. The Sunleth Waterscape was entirely different now than from when he'd last seen it—before, there had been no end to the plants and creatures surrounding them, but now it looked like Snow had before he'd disintegrated at the hand of the giant flan. Things seemed to be phasing in and out of focus, like they weren't really there. At the back of his mind he wondered if there was any way out of there, if the gates were still intact, but he concentrated most of his attention on Serah.

Where would she have gone?

Blinking away his exhaustion, Noel jogged into the clearing and started moving along the nearest path. He tried to distract himself, but the possibilities were coming to him too quickly. What if the gates had somehow been destroyed? What if Serah had left him, or hurt herself? He continued on, increasing his pace.

After turning back several times upon meeting a dead end, he came into a small space surrounded by trees. A gate rested against the wall of tree trunks, wound into their labyrinth. Was it open? Was it the gate they'd come through?

He heard a noise ahead of him, and suddenly he caught sight of a figure moving toward the gate.

"Serah!" Noel shouted.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, then back at the gate, and then finally she collapsed to her knees.

Noel rushed to her, knelt down beside her. "Serah, what is it? Are you okay?"

"It's…it's Snow…" she murmured, shaking her head.

He was at a loss for words. Gently he took her hand in his. "Serah…it's going to be fine. We'll fix the timeline. We'll bring Snow back."

"What can we do?" she asked.

He looked away. "I…I don't know. But there has to be something, right? I mean, we solved hundreds of paradoxes before." Looking closely, Noel thought he could still see the trails that the tears had made on her cheeks. "Maybe the answer's beyond this gate." He shrugged. "You up for it?"

She sighed, squared her shoulders, and looked up at him. "I guess," she said. "Let's go."

Together they stood, faced the gate, and watched as it opened in front of them. Together, they disappeared into the depths of the timeline.