[IC - update post]

[actualizedname]

 [Earlier this morning a tiny teenaged boy went out to explore ruins in camp.

Some time later, said tiny teenager reappears at the outskirts of camp, eleven inches taller, thirteen years older and very confused.]

Somehow, I think I'm lost.

Comments

[actualizedname]

To protect the future with Serah and Noel. I don't suppose you've met him yet.

[heralding]

No, the last I remember was ... being ripped away. Showing up on a shore. And then I ended up here.

[actualizedname]

For me, that happened thirteen years ago. I thought for so long that you had gone into the pillar like Vanille and Fang. Only Serah believed the truth; that you'd been pulled to the end of time.

[heralding]

The end of time ...

How would you even believe that? And—what happened to Serah? Why is she upholding everything?

[actualizedname]

Because I've seen it. I've seen you fight in a battle in a place called Valhalla, against a man who keeps appearing in the Oracle Drives. Serah told me and I believed her.

[heralding]

That's not why I thought I left.

[actualizedname]

We're all working to save Vanille and Fang. We're just also coming to help you too.

[heralding]

Heh ... Now Serah's the one coming to save me.

[actualizedname]

You did a good job of raising her. She's ... she's very like you. Very dependable, very courageous, and very good at inspirational speeches. Even if they are at my expense.

[heralding]

You were pretty good at them yourself. Though I'm concerned about why you'd need them.

[actualizedname]

It was something an alternate me did in another timeline. I'm surprised she thought of it so fast; if she wasn't a teacher I'd suggest to her to join the Academy as a scientist.

[heralding]

[fondly, with a small smile]

A teacher. She always liked learning. So—to teach others—

[heralding]

She's grown up so much. And so have you. And I wasn't there for any of it ...

[heralding]

Hope, can you tell me everything? About ... everyone. I'd like to know, just in case. Maybe I can find a way to make it back, too. There might be a way here.

[actualizedname]

I can't tell you everything, only what I know. But if there's something I can't answer, I'll tell you.

And ... from what everyone tells me, you were looking out for us, even at the end of time. You could only talk to us in our dreams, but you did.

[heralding]

How? Do you know that?

[actualizedname]

No, only that you did.

[heralding]

I'm glad I can still talk to you. Through whatever means.

What did I tell you?

[actualizedname]

That by travelling to the future, I was doing the right thing. It helped. I ... I had had second thoughts.

[heralding]

I ... why did you travel to the future, Hope? What was there?

[actualizedname]

Four hundred years after Cocoon fell, we excavated something that would float on its own. When I saw it, I thought it would work to levitate an ark over Gran Pulse, so that when Cocoon fell to the ground, humanity would be safe.

[heralding]

Then why the second thoughts?

[actualizedname]

It's a one way trip.

And the technology had never been tested before.

[heralding]

Sometimes you have to do things like that to achieve what needs to be done. It seems like you haven't changed at all.

[actualizedname]

I think I may be a little taller.