The battle is joined.
Hope is first, and with a huge breath, he reaches into the innate part of his soul that once housed his magic.
This is it. The magic has to be there for me when I reach, or we're doomed. Hope has the preemptive strike, and with Ragnarok focused on baiting the god, they have a critical first shot at catching the beast flat-footed.
The eidolons have backed off for now, staying at the peripheral of the fray in order to be ready, should their charges call for them. Alexander and Odin, the children of holy light and lightning, complement each other perfectly as they stand ready.
There is the rushing sound, and Hope can hear Light next to him audibly gasp. Something's happening. Hope doesn't dare break his concentration now, and he closes his eyes, reaching out with his hands. I've never done this without the familiar weight of my boomerang in my hand, he realizes. I have to do this from memory, and hope that I have enough crystarium power to cast my spell.
Soundlessly, he feels something give way, and a welling feeling drift from his fingertips.
The spell he chose to prepare for battle is a version of a Haste spell, hoping to quicken their movements and catch Ragnarok unawares. It's a spell that he learned halfway through his l'Cie deterioration, and he figures it is a good jumping-off point to see where his old powers would be at.
His heart quickens, and he feels a sudden burst of energy. A sudden feeling of sunlight washes over him, and he swears that a few chocobo feathers form out of a well of light around him for the briefest of moments.
The memory is almost too much. He can cast magic once more. He is a healer again, assisting his commander and ravager next to him in the thick of battle. The two of them are once more an unstoppable duo, and a single tear streams down his face as he hears Light audibly cry out in exuberance next to him.
They have to move fast now.
Without missing a beat, Hope casts a protection spell around them next, warding the both of them from physical blows for a short amount of time. The slightest hue of a blue ward expands around them both, like a flare only seen from the corner of an eye, but it's enough for Hope to know that it worked.
Light has changed into her Ravager role-she is slightly weakened without her signature gunblade of old-but she can still call forth elemental magic.
It's a bit odd to see in the depth space, but a blast of icy cold fury swirls toward their friends, with –ga level force.
"Vanille and Fang!" Light screams, with all the assertiveness she can muster. "If you can hear me, give me a sign! I'm coming to bring you back, we need you!"
Hope watches as his plan unfolds to his expectations, with the god being driven away by a flurry activity on the other side of his body. He can only assume that this unseen assault must be stemming from the "S" clan-Snow, Serah, and Sazh-with their prospective Eidolons at their sides.
Now, the full wrath of Ragnarok turns it gaze against Light and Hope, and issues a menacing growl.
"Looks like now's not the time for talk." Light plants her feet into a ready stance. "Follow my lead, Hope."
Hope is already fully charged, his heart primed, his teeth set. He can hardly even hear Light as he casts a shell around them both, protecting them from magical assault. His next move is to whisper a few secret words under his breath, eyes half-closed and fingers gesturing toward Light. A faint glimmer wafts from his fluttering fingers and motes strike around Lightning's body, giving her a special enhancement to her offensive attacks.
Ragnarok now charges, and Light braces herself for impact. At the last moment before Ragnarok lowers its head to plow into Light's body, Odin steps up from behind her and covers Light with his shield. Ragnarok is still much, much larger than Light and Odin combined, but the shield is able to fully cover Lightning and most of her Eidolon, only leaving part of the Eidolon exposed to attack.
There is a loud CRUNCH, and the sound of claws scraping against steel. The beast plants firmly onto Odin and his shield, gouging and tearing, then uses them as a brace to leap off for a second attack, this time turning a half-circle before wheeling in for a second assault.
Alexander is scooping Hope up before Hope can even have a chance to call out a warning or make a move. There is the sound of Alexander's huge motors churning, and Hope is suddenly picked up and carried into the air, held aloft by the shiny metal arms of his holy companion. He is lifted to Light's side, and Alexander and Odin form as one to create a hulking mass of metal against the likes of Ragnarok.
There is another horribly loud wrenching as the beast and the two warriors of old collide, protecting their charges behind them. Hope grabs hold of Light's arm, pulling her up alongside him, and as one, they lend their magical aid to their Eidolons.
A shining white light envelopes the party, and Hope and Light have no choice but avert their gaze from the brilliant iridescence that floods them.
"What's happening?" Lightning is shouting above the din, straining to hold her magical wall up with Hope to keep the roaring Ragnarok away.
"I don't know! I can't see anything!" Hope can hardly hear himself. There are a few agonizing moments where Hope isn't sure that he can keep up the impossible strain against him. He throws his magical reserves with everything he has inside him to protect Alexander and Odin from Ragnarok's claws and teeth. Though he can't see with his eyes, Hope can feel the rocking, the tearing and sundering, of the beast slamming against the thin magical barrier that is the only thing keeping Vanille and Fang from tearing through their Eidolons.
For a moment or two, Hope thinks that he is lost. What's worse, he fears that his friends will unknowingly, in their berserker state, be the ones that kill him and Light where they stand.
The loudness, the strain, is unbearable. Just when he thinks he will give way to the powerful feeling of hopelessness, something snaps, and he feels the pressure release.
Somehow knowing that he can let go of the magical field now, Hope releases his spell and falls back a step, looking beyond the steel of Alexander and Odin to where Ragnarok should have been. The next moment later, the two Eidolons give way soundlessly, slinking to either side to reveal a startling sight.
Vanille and Fang are pulsating around one another, swirling in a vortex of light. Little silver beams bounce off their skin, and they are looking into one another's eyes as they come to a stop. Ragnarok is nowhere to be seen.
"Vanille! Fang!" Hope runs over to their side, then stops, breath heaving. "It worked!" He doesn't know HOW what they did worked, but whatever it was, he knows that it was successful in bringing his friends back from their wrathful state.
Light is hot on his heels, but much more guarded. "Hey…guys. You, you alright?" Hope glances out of the corner of his eye, and is a little shocked to see that her hand is clenched at her side. Odin follows a little too closely behind to be considered a watchful sentry.
Vanille nods once to Fang, and as one, the duo turn to look at Light and Hope. Fang sizes up Light's battle-ready stance, her eyes sweeping over her target in one practiced gaze. "Yes, we are alright. Are you?"
"Stand down, Light. They're back. We're safe." Light blinks at the tone that Hope uses toward her, but he knows that not only is he right, but this is the role that he was always meant to play. Light is the number two of the original team, right on his heels in terms of authority, but he is the one who was always meant to have control. He had to be groomed for it, and he learned from the best, but he has become what he was always being primed to be. She must trust in her teaching and his level-headedness. Both she and Fang had the same fatal drawback that prevented them from being permanent generals-their impulsiveness and inability to listen to reason at crucial moments. Light was a soldier, prepped to take orders, and Fang is a wild card.
Fang turns to Hope, and cocks her head. "You knew that you and Light could save us. Your plan worked. But how did you know?"
"I didn't." Hope shook his head. "But I thought that we had to try. We needed you two, in your l'Cie forms, too badly to not try and get you back. I didn't know what we could do, but I know that we will die without us all working together again to take Bhuinvelze down. In your state, you would be too much of a risk on the field. You could turn on us just as quickly as you attacked the god."
"Yes, but, how did it work? No offense, but, how are we here now? In this form? The last time that Fang and I become the legend of old, we…we turned to crystal. And the time before that. We aren't crystallized this time. By all rights, we shouldn't be talking to you right now. You'd be either dead or on your own."
What Vanille is saying is true, but the answer really doesn't matter now, even if Hope had one to provide to her. He has a hunch about how they could come out of their state, but he can't contemplate all of the mechanics just yet. They are only halfway through the battle-the hardest part is about to happen next.
There is a loud commotion from behind them, and Hope and the girls turn toward where Sazh, Serah, and Snow are in the midst of a fight. Nix and Stiria are on the offensive, grinding and pirouetting against Bhunivelze's face and neck. They look even more beautiful against the backdrop of the stars around them, their darker blues a stark contrast to Bhunivelze's lighter tone. Bryndhlir spins circles round and round the enraged God, making Him lash out with a closed fist only a few moments in time behind where the Eidolon had just zipped past. Sazh is behind the wheel, using his ingrained reactionary techniques to keep a few moments ahead of the god's flying fists. And Serah is the most breathtaking of all to behold, closing her eyes and crossing her arms in front of her chest pharaoh-style. Beams of light cascade from behind her, and her magic courses through the air to blind Bhuninvelze, striking his eyes and face. The god can't see Sazh and Bryndhlir, only hear the sound of the car as it streaks past, due to Serah's damaging light. Tears are streaming from the God's eyes, and Snow is standing behind his wife, holding her aloft as she concentrates on focusing her magic welling up from within her.
"They've got the God blindsided-literally. That's good. I just hope that Serah can hold out a few minutes more." Hope knows that he instinctively wants to be by Serah's side, helping her with her magic.
"I want to hear more about the plan." Fang isn't budging. Her eyes are narrowed. "I know Vanille and I could have done more damage to the God as Ragnarok, than we can in our normal state-even with our combined magic. So I want to know why it was necessary for you to attack us and bring us back to this reality."
Hope was hoping that he could have held off a little longer, hoping that instead he could have everyone focused on incapacitating the God first. Then, after the God was encased mostly back in crystal to the point that he wasn't as much of a threat…then, he could have safely told them.
Damn Fang's foresight. He thought that she would be too bloodthirsty to think clearly after emerging from Ragnarok's dual embrace. Even Claire is nodding, and of course Vanille wouldn't speak out against her partner's thought. They stand, the three women, silent and brooding.
"We have to take him back to Earth with us." There's no point in mincing words. "We have to carry him with us, inside of ourselves. In our brands. We freeze our brands, somehow, since Anima is gone. We stay l'Cie, forever, for eternity. We become the God's caretakers. You can't kill a God, right? Well, we're no longer human anymore, either. We can't just ignore him across the oceans of time, Bhunivelze is immortal. We have taken on this responsibility now-and all of the negatives and positives that come with it. We just have to seal him within us. We have the capacity to do so now, now that we've got our powers back."
"How do you suppose that you're going to get all of this to work?" Claire is right on Vanille's heels, without a breath of silence between two speaking. "Suppose that you're right-and I don't want to think that you are-but suppose we assume responsibility of this God and agree to take him back to an innocent world. Just how are we supposed to manage that? Placing a God inside of a brand is no easy feat."
Hope tries to find the right words from deep inside himself. "I DON'T know that it will work. I think that if we merge our thoughts onto one focus, then we might just have a chance. We can use our magic. If all else fails, we can still encase him in crystal like we did last time. There at least is a backup plan. IF this does work, we take him back, and use our Eidolons to take us back to Earth."
Fang is the first to break the triumvirate of silence. "I think it's worth a shot."
"What?" Vanille whips around, her brows drawing down in a frown of worry. "I don't know about bringing such a great evil down to a planet that is ignorant of his existence-"
"I wouldn't say that our planet is altogether ignorant of Bhunivelze's presence out here anymore. You might have had a point, up till we found that fanatic out in the desert. There are cells out there, just waiting to do his bidding-"
"-Which is why I don't think it's right to bring their God directly down to this new cult of worshippers! It's only inviting disaster!" Vanille picks back up where Hope had cut off, and grabs Fang's arm in frustration. "Please, Fang, you have to see how this is only abetting the God. We are going to be the instruments of what he wants-gaining a foothold, a new beginning, on a fresh planet. He already has set up a groundwork of worshippers there, and we are the instruments that bring him to them! We are literally going to be the means which he becomes powerful on a mostly innocent world. And, what's worse, is that we're freeing him ourselves from the prison that WE put him in. He doesn't have to worry about escaping-we're relieving that burden ourselves!"
There is a moment of silence as the young man and the two ladies sit and ponder, well-almost silence. The sounds of Bryndhlir and the Shiva sisters pierce the background with their antagonizing of an enraged God, who continues his blind flailing.
"Hey! Whatever you guys are talking about over there, we could really use some backup right now! I hate to interrupt your meeting, but-"Sazh pauses as he swings his upper torso to drift into a turn around the God's ribcage "-we are running out of options here!"
"So are we." Hope mumbles under his breath. A sharp flick of Light's chin from the corner of Hope's eyes tells him that she has picked up on his sulky teenage retort.
"We can't keep him from reaching out to our world from this corner of the universe. We thought we were putting him away for good out here-apparently, we were wrong." This is Light talking, and all turn to listen to the warrior woman. "Vanille's right-we are bringing Him to his followers. But, we can't ignore the fact that the terror those followers are causing on our world won't stop, or slow, by leaving him here." She turns to look at Vanille. "I'm interested in hearing a more viable alternative."
Somehow, the decision on what to do has fallen on Vanille's shoulders, a move in the conversation that Hope hadn't expected. He is agitated that somehow she is calling the shots, but the way that the tide of the convo has turned doesn't allow for a retort now. He will have to abide by this fresh turn of events, grinding his teeth at the stall from the inevitable.
Vanille bows her head, much the way the Light does when she is thinking. The two are so similar, and for a moment, even out here in the midst of battle, Hope is struck by just how close he came to being attracted to Vanille instead of Lightning in their old world. They both had the same pink hair, the same slight build, the same skin and eyes. In fact, there for a while when Hope was more foolhardy and childlike, he thought he had some sort of connection with Vanille.
But the real Vanille had always been pining for someone else, looking for someone else, putting on a front to show the world. She had secrets that she kept locked away, and Hope only grew to know the front that Vanille threw in front of him. That wasn't true love.
Light had been the same way, but he had somehow, over the span of much more time together, gotten to know the real woman behind the show. It was to him that she confided the origin story of the warrior woman, it was to him that she took off her mask when it was just the two of them together. They had fought side by side for what had seemed like eons now-and in a way, he guesses that it had been that long.
"I don't have a more…viable alternative. I just go with what's in my gut." Vanille finally states, not afraid to look Light in the eyes as she speaks.
"What's in your gut hasn't always been the best choice for everyone." Claire's eyes narrow, but then she sighs, unfolding her arms and relaxing her pose. "But, then again, my gut reactions aren't always the wisest either."
"I'm still on board. We can't be caretakers of a thing that we don't have control of. We need to keep this God under complete lock and key, and the only way to do that is to have Him with us at all times. Our idea of throwing Him to a corner of the Void hasn't worked, or we wouldn't BE here. Look around. This isn't the end to a job well done. We have to try something different than just leaving Him here again, no matter what happens. If Hope has a half-cocked plan to try to take Him back, then that's just what we'll have to do." Fang states, and she has an air of finality to her.
"Well, when you put it that way-let's go give these guys a hand." Claire nods in agreement to her words, and the democratic majority has it. Vanille looks slightly dejected, then shakes her head when Fang lays a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine, really." She looks up at her partner, smiling. "Truly. This IS the best way. I have my doubts-but if there isn't any other option, I'm in."
"There isn't." Hope states. "I've thought this through. We have to try something different."
Vanille agrees, then waves over to where the fighting is continuing its paces. "Look out guys, we're about to come in!"
Snow laughs as he holds Serah in place. "Hey! Looks like we got our girls back! Great work, guys! We're a team once again!"
Fang and Vanille hitch a ride on Alexander as they are transported over to the other side of the God, joining the rest of the party as both halves of Ragnarok.
Sazh can't comment at the moment, as he is the one keeping the God's heavy arms at bay, and Serah still needs to concentrate in order to focus her magic powers on blinding Bhunivelze to the point that the God is incapacitated.
Hope still can't understand why, or how, Fang and Vanille are back with them. Ragnarok should be an unstoppable, unthinking beast. Once they succumb to the feelings of rage and frustration within them, the two women form something that can't be contained. Reversing that shouldn't have been possible, but Hope had his private thoughts on what had made it work, in the end.
He glances over at Light, who is assessing the oncoming battle with a calculated eye. Right now, she's in the moment, and can't be bothered with emotion or stray feelings. All that mattered now was the next target-he understands her training well.
But, repressed within the shell that Light is putting up in the face of adversity right now, he also understands Claire within. The Claire inside is who he loves, and that love that he feels for her, and her for him, has fostered over the breadth of lifetimes. It is a love that Serah and Snow share, and it's also a love that Fang and Vanille have.
He believes that their combined magic touched some inner part inside of Ragnarok, the part that still contained Vanille and Fang. He isn't sure about his theory, but he was confident enough with the idea to bet his life on the fact that the emotion that runs between Claire and him would communicate to Vanille and Fang. Claire's life had also been on the line, but whether or not she understood that it was his theory about their love that had saved them all, is still unknown. Results are inconclusive, but Hope wants to believe it had to do with love. Love is the only thing strong enough to break down the walls of Ragnarok, since it was out of love and self-sacrifice that Ragnarok had come into being in the first place. Love supersedes logic, in any realm, and it is their best weapon against not only Vanille and Fang's monster, but the God in front of them now as well.
"Well, look who decided to join the party!" Fang announces, and those in the group who can, turn and look to where Fang is facing.
Out of the stars emerge two hulking figures, one winged, and one many-armed. Vanille takes a moment, then lets out a squeal.
"Hecatoncheir!" Vanille squeals, raising up on one foot and waving excitedly. "I knew you'd come to us!" Bahamut roars an unintelligible cry, and Fang huffs to herself, smiling her characteristic half-smile.
"It's about damn time you showed up, too. I was starting to worry that you were going to miss out on all the fun we were having." The two Eidolons of the duo come to rest behind their respective charges, and the ladies take a moment to embrace their old fighting friends. It had been literal ages, but they still remembered each other's movements, and how to fight alongside one another.
"We are now strong enough." Claire says, with Odin's shield close by her side. "We have all of our Eidolons, and though Ragnarok helped with getting us out of Anima's cave, we can now face the truest threat to our existence once more. I am no longer the savior, but we are now l'Cie with a renewed single focus. Carry Bhunivelze home."
"Whoa, that's crazy!" Snow is saying. Serah doesn't say anything, as she is concentrating on keeping the party alive in order to have this conversation, but the troubled look on her face speaks volumes on its own. Sazh, unfortunately, has to be left in the dark for now, due to the fact that he and Bryndhlir are fully engrossed in keeping the God busy.
"It IS crazy." Hope speaks up for his own plan now, interrupting whatever Light had thought of to say. "But it's the only thing that works. We can't leave him here. He's already infested our world. We are l'Cie now. As long as we have the God with us, carrying him with us, he won't let us turn C'ieth. We will be eternal watchers of the God. We cannot die, we become immortal alongside him. His protectors-his keepers, his prisoners. In a way, we are imprisoning ourselves."
Hope takes a breath here, steadying his nerves even now, after so long, and looks straight into his adversary's face. "I will now become the eternal puppetmaster."