Weeks pass.
Hope is now in the scientific laboratory that he had visited with Fang during what seems like another lifetime ago, down in the meat packing district of old New York. The crumbling façade outside is what he enters every day to engage in all sorts of data composition pulled from hot spots all over the world, gathering data to reach a conclusive result as to what is going on in the beyond.
His mind slowly acclimates to being a scientist once more, although technically, in this world, he doesn't have the training to call himself a scientist as of yet. He retains years of knowledge and hands-on experience, and plenty of schooling from the past, however, and he feels confident as he goes about his work-station.
Fang lets him know privately one night that she, like the others, pulled some strings to get him stationed on this private front. No far-flung missions for him in a desert or jungle realm fighting against some government plot; no, he is leaps and bounds ahead of Hope's peers born on this planet alongside him who got recruited at eighteen. He is in the same cell as the rest of his friends from the old world, and they are all after the same thing-finding ways to fight a possibly re-emergence of Bhuni.
The work is tedious. There's no excruciating physical challenges here-and the days are long, mundane, tiring. He still lives at home with his parents, whom he has told mostly nothing as of this point. He only lets them know that he's doing scientific research for the government, and that he's working with his old pals from their previous life. It's not a lie-and he comforts himself in two ways: the first, that he's protecting them from knowledge of anything sinister in the ether; and secondly, that he should feel no guilt whatsoever in keeping the full truth from them. Although he has let go of his childhood anger and feelings of angst, he still understands logically that he's only doing what they would likely do if they were in his shoes-and he was raised in this incarnation, at least, to believe in the golden rule.
During the weeks where he needs to blow off steam, he and Vanille ride together from work straight to his house, where his mother usually cooks dinner for all of them while he and Vanille continue their work on crafting the perfect Bhakti. Between his mechanical hobby and his work at the lab, his time for himself cuts very short. His friends weren't kidding when they told him earlier that he should enjoy his free time when he had it-he finds himself with very little left over out of every day now. He finds that he pines for the weeks in between graduating and BT where he could lounge around and get comfortable with the thought that the friends he thought he never had were now reunited, and would be forever.
He and Claire work very closely together most of the time, and their conversation is that of work and science. Though Hope is the greenest member of the crew on the laboratory floor, he finds that everyone that works around him is quick to defer to his opinion, and he generally has the run of things with little to no resistance. He walked out of the elevator into the middle of the floor on that first day, and from the moment that he stepped out of the tube, he stepped into the role of Director without even realizing what he was doing. The role comes naturally to him, almost as if stepping into a second skin. When he speaks here, he is obeyed without question, and at first, this was a shock-since everything he has known for the past eighteen years revolved around him being young and inexperienced. According to the government, they were working on extraterrestrial research, and had cells around the globe where they interviewed spies from other countries that may be trying to vie for real estate in space. America, after all, had to stand as supreme as far as the world was concerned in efforts to colonize any extra-terrestrial planetary bodies, and the government was willing to spend money in its special ops cells to make sure that they stayed that way. The funding was put toward many units, and one of them happened to be Hope's special unit here, in his newfound home of New York. There are many sister cells, far flung out in the field, that they stay in remote contact with in order to make sure everyone operates smoothly and in cohesion.
Sazh and Snow explained to him one evening playing video games in Snow's room above the bar that they made sure to appeal to the federal grant in a way to make their operation extremely enticing to the ego of the United States. Hope remembers feeling torn between admiration of the tactics that Snow and the others picked up so easily upon learning the ways of the new world, and a strange, newfound sense of pity for the country he had grown up aligning himself with.
Is he of Cocoon? He finds himself still pondering into the wee hours of the night when he can't fall asleep. Or is he American? The best way, he finds, that he can answer those questions is to tell himself that he's both. He feels a strong sense of connection to both. After all, he's spent just as much relative time being an American as he did spending his life on Cocoon before it fell to Pulse.
Either way, he had bit his tongue and swigged on his beer in order to keep his mouth occupied when Snow and Sazh had laughed about their quick ingenuity in tricking the government into thinking that they were concerned about the nation being number one in the space race-when, in actuality, they were trying to protect the U.S. from a sinister ancient force. There was no way to get the humans of this world to believe in the old god from the past-they had shut their heart and hardened their minds against the thought of Bhuni almost immediately upon traveling onto this world.
Hope had wondered why the people of this world, of all the cultures dotted across the globe, had collectively and in unison abandoned the memory of Bhuni. That was an experiment and thought process for another time, however-a peacetime experiment, perhaps. They manifested the old god in legends of evil, genocidal gods that they believed their ancestors worshipped, and "modern-day" peoples scoffed at the ridiculousness of what they thought their predecessors believed.
In actuality, Hope surmises now that the human race is technically very young, and that they came here in beams of light to enter into the mammalian creatures that had been roaming an already old planet long ago. It's a hybrid spiritual/Darwinist theory that Hope believes is more true to what happened to their race, instead of it being one way or the other, but of course that is a thought that he keeps to himself. Science and spiritual reasoning didn't mesh well with one another in this world, and it certainly isn't Hope's calling in life, either in this time period or the last, to let people know the truth of the matter. He has a world to protect, the way of life for everyone to uphold.
In no time at all, Hope finds himself ingrained in routine, and all thoughts of personal happiness and love are cast aside in the light of finding a way to make sense of the patterns. He sees almost right away, the moment he is officially on board with the military funded project, the importance of the mission. He sees anomalies from all over, reports on the lam from people who have witnessed strange phenomena that point to the old god's re-emergence.
People point to signs of Chaos that seem to be floating around, and instead of monsters, there are factions of people who at one point were friends and family turn to infighting around each other. In each instance, there were reports of a strange, hazy film that seemed to blanket the area of each hotspot. When rescue teams and first responders arrive at the scenes, they all tell the same tale of seeming to pass through a curtain before walking into the fray.
Other reports are far scarier, but far less certain. People from all over the world tell reports of hearing strange whispers enter their heads at night. Usually the thought of hearing voices in a dream would be considered almost normal, except that people from opposite sides of the globe repeat almost word for word about hearing the same thing.
They tell the tale of a voice speaking to them from across the ether, and of seeing a face that is frozen in crystal. The voice speaks to them from the frozen open-mouthed entity, and they wake up when the enormous crystalized statue opens its eyes.
Hope understands what his friends have been up to now-why they all have been gone for so long at different times. They all stay on alert and hear reports of things that might lead to Bhuni's return, and when a situation becomes escalated, they use their diplomatic immunity to travel to the hotspot and neutralize the situation. Normally, this is done by quieting the people down and presenting falsified scientific data that could explain the phenomenon. The team from Cocoon spearheads the missions, dispatching doctors and scientists to explain away the problems. The people that are hired on to accompany their little l'Cie crew believe that they are doing their work in the name of peacekeeping and to keep situations from escalating, so they feel good about their work. There is always some sort of tangential reason to be at each occurrence, they make sure to make it seem so to the government. There is always some documented form of spatial movement, or papers that each country has been working on to bring back to the States and give a reason for going. It keeps the money flow to fund the missions going, it keeps all of the worker bees happy, and it gives them focus.
Occasionally, Hope had been warned, the government would send someone, and at times even a team, to randomly search the premises and make sure that everything being done was for the name of government security and science. All of their papers were very proper, each employee properly documented, and work hours were proven to be beneficial to the endgame scenario of what they stated their mission being here was.
This was why Hope had to go through the training and the formal steps to be admitted on the property. All of it is a game, and Hope is being led into the dance…and now, somehow, he's starting to lead the orchestra.
He takes up the baton wearily, but in the understanding that he is the only one that can put the clues together. It's his job to stay safe at home base, where his movements can be easily traced, and so that he can also try to form some sort of pattern from the Chaos. That's why he was never put on any far-flung mission, that's why he can't leave New York. It's all to keep him safe and watched. He realizes this very early on into his work, and he turns slightly bitter with the knowledge.
It's something that must be done, it's a burden that must be shouldered. Sometimes he ponders what exactly would happen if he were to somehow ask for a leave to go on vacation out of the country.
Eventually, Hope ends up an extension of this factory, he the nucleus of a giant machine with far-reaching arms. It's his job to make sense of all this. All of these scientists and peers running about-they all look up to him. Of course the fact that they all migrated to this world in soul form from another is a secret-to the flock of white coats in the New York building, all they see is a boy take up the podium. Being military trained instead of normal civilians, they keep their opinions to themselves about taking orders from Hope. Mostly.
Hope still hears the whispers, even when the others think that they are being discreet. He can feel the eyes on him when he walks by the break rooms in the morning. The very worst part is when he first steps off the elevator into the main lab room. Every time, he feels like he's entering a room where all of the inhabitants were talking about him just a moment before. Every time, he feels the awkward silence, the heightened tension, the pointed glances looking away from him intentionally.
It's all right. Hope tells himself. He would have felt the same way if he were them. He just has to prove himself in his position. They aren't the type to disobey a direct order, and they understand that now they are receiving their orders from him, the boy.
The mantle of becoming something like the Director of this little facility falls so easily on Hope's young shoulders. It was a world ago that he assumed similar tasks at around the same age. He wasn't sure at first just how he would react to being thrust into a similar role after so long, but after a while, he realizes that reactionary thinking doesn't change, no matter how much time has passed. He begins to look at his padded white prison as his own, and the air of command falls naturally around him. Even the scientists so much older looking than he don't seem to balk too much at his leadership role, when they are face to face with him.
The others are his working arms, ready to work on location at the twitch of his finger. He is literally now the leader of the ground team that is comprised of his oldest and dearest of friends. No more figurative thinking- all he has to do is tell them where he thinks they should investigate, and off they will go-no questions asked, without hesitation. His prison is also his shield, and his friends are there to link arms for his safety from any point on this globe.
It's touching, but it's also eternally frustrating. They are out there working hard, gathering data, mining sources for info-but ultimately, it's all up to Hope to put it all together. If he doesn't find some sort of definitive link to everything Bhuni related, then all this work and cover up is for nothing. None of the workers around Hope understand that the efforts they are doing every day are nothing more than a ruse to blow smoke around the paths that Hope is trying to weave. They believe that they are doing something good, and that Hope is just a rookie who got into his positon of power or by influence somehow. They are integral, and Hope allows them their insubordinate whispers and thoughts. It's all part of the game, and they are part of the ruse. It's their part to play to act like they should have his position, yet not really knowing what it is.
With the military, things are so easy to cover up. No one around Hope has to be told the why of what they do. All anyone has to be told is, is that it's "classified," and that's that. No further discussion on the matter.
The setup is genius, Hope has to give his friends credit for all that was going on around them each day.
All that they needed, was him. He was the linchpin. He was what they had been waiting for.
It's amazing that with such little time that they had, and armed with such little knowledge about the way the Earthly world works, that they came up with this. It's flawless, seamless, foolproof. Snow had told him right after his 18th birthday that they had woken up in different parts of the world, in different work positions. Snow had admitted that he came to this world already his age and in the United States Military. So it's not like they had to start from scratch-they had some resources already that were laid out for them when they "woke up" here. But still-this operation deserves due praise.
It's just-he can't give any himself.
Oh, it's necessary all right. Even if someone had walked up to him and cut the reins holding him here, had told him that he could start down another work path and leave all of this behind-he'd choose to stay. Bhuni's threat is the real yoke holding him down here. Though he hates it, Hope can understand the necessity behind everything that he does each day.
Claire had been willing to give him the choice. Hope understands not too long after taking up his new position. Claire was the only one out of all of them willing to say goodbye to me, and never have me know. Hope recalls the moment that they had met on the beach his birthday night, and her telling him that he doesn't understand, that he couldn't understand-she would walk away from him if that's what he truly wanted. Hope didn't know about the threat from the old god still that night-all he wanted was to be reassured that he hadn't been crazy for all those years, and that he still had the friends that he remembered out there waiting for him.
That was why she fought all of the rest of their friends-for me. Hope remembers feeling strange and sad when he heard that Light had fought with the rest of their group for him to stay a child, to stay oblivious-to keep him safe by never revealing the truth that might reside inside him. The rest had pressed for Light to bring him in, and she finally had to give in to the overwhelming democracy of the majority group decision. She came to visit him, admittedly in spite of what she truly wanted. She had no problem voicing aloud her displeasure even then at being saddled with the task.
Hope hadn't understood that night, or for many nights thereafter, why she would seemingly abandon Hope before even reuniting with him. Now, facing the laboratory day in and day out, he understands. She knew he'd hate it. She knew that they would be robbing him of his childhood innocence, of his fun years and of the fact that he didn't have to worry each night about an old threat coming to visit him. She understood the pressure-and knew just how much his loss being there at the helm would effect the rest of them. Without Hope's position at the helm of the home base ops, that would mean that someone else in the core crew would have to be pulled from the field and try to piece occurrences together. Everyone from the old world was confident in their strengths and weaknesses-and they all knew Hope is best suited for the position of Laboratory Director. They would have effectively cut off their own plans if they had chosen out of kindness to just watch over Hope instead of bringing him in. Their own work would suffer, and they'd have to work twice as hard to try to catch Bhuni on their own without Hope there.
But Claire alone was willing to do it. Hope realizes. Claire was willing to seriously jeopardize their work, their plans, their happiness on being reunited with him again-everything, just to spare him the realization that their world might not be safe. She was willing to sacrifice where the others wanted him brought in-not only for their selfish needs, but for the good of the planet.
He had no idea. He feels like his own selfish wants and needs have propelled him to this point, his want to be justified of his memories, to be with friends, to find happiness. He still hasn't found the happiness-and now his friends might be in danger.
At least I'm helping. He resolves within himself to find the answer. The others seem to think that only his brain can be the one used to find resolution to everything. They're right-there has to be a connection somewhere.
And so he resolves to not lead his friends' trust in him astray. He works like his life, and the lives of the rest of the world, depend on the work that he's doing. He works past hours, he stays up at night. His life is riddled with pins on a map with strings tied to connecting points of interest. Coffee, coffee, coffee. Delving clues, and contacting agents and friends out in the field, Hope tries to tell the interrogators what questions they should ask during their next capture.
One thing's for certain in all of this-Bhunivelze IS out there-stirring, trying. They have to face the threat-but how? They no longer retain their powers as l'Cie. The only option that they have would be to somehow come clean to the government, and the world-and use armed American force at any sinister attack that could physically come hurtling out to the sky.
Yes, Hope is using Bhuni's full name nowadays, even mentally to himself. He can't be afraid any longer. He can't afford to. He has to act as if the threat of being made a puppet again can come at any moment, and although this line of thinking has left him paranoid, it also makes him less afraid. He becomes single-minded and full of focus, sharper and less prone to distraction. In a sense, he becomes a true soldier in spirit and discipline.
Then, one day, out of the blue-the final piece of evidence comes rolling in.
It's Sazh who finds him.
Hope is leaning over the instrument cluster in the middle of the room, with noise and furor happening instantaneously in various states around him in concentrated, measured workstations. Above all that, his ears are primed for the hissing of the elevator door that empties into the middle of the room, and he turns, curiosity piqued. Only the clan from Bodhum or his top-tier associates have the key to be let out directly onto this floor, and all of his Earth crew are currently in the room.
Sazh walks out of the elevator, beelining straight for Hope. He knows at once that something isn't right-and it can't be good for Sazh to be here. He is currently supposed to be reconning in South Africa.
"Hey, Sazh, great to see you." Hope forces a smile for one of his oldest friends, and straightens out his back from being bent at the station.
"I would say likewise, in other circumstances, but-"Sazh scratches the back of his head, then darts his eyes around the room. "Can I, uh, talk to you alone for a minute?"
Hope nods wearily. "Sure thing boss, let's go outside."
They take the elevator to the exit out on the roof, where Hope blinks to find himself being deposited out under a canopy of stars. He's been so entrenched with the happenings of events in other time zones on the opposite ends of the earth, that he's forgotten his own time. He could have gone home hours ago.
"So, what's with all the dramatics, Sazh?" Hope feels tired, out of sorts, and just wants to cut to the point.
Sazh picks up on the silver-haired man's frustration. "Sorry, I just couldn't speak freely in front of the hired help." He places a hand on Hope's shoulder, closes his eyes for a long moment, then opens them. "I'm just going to say this flat-out, since I don't really know of any other way to say it. Hope, we've got a suspect who says that he has spoken directly to Bhunivelze. And they're asking to speak to you."