[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]

I will. There'll be something here that holds the answer to what's going on.

[heralding]

If I don't just wake up one morning with the knowledge myself. Anything's possible.

[actualizedname]

That would be fine as well. It would save us some time.

[heralding]

I'll keep looking for some kind of answer. Either way.

[actualizedname]

There'll be an answer out there, and we'll find it. Together.

[heralding]

Of course.

... If you went to the future, none of us went with you, did we?

[actualizedname]

No, because you were already there. It's a very long story.

[heralding]

Still, that doesn't mean it could've been any easier for you.

[actualizedname]

Some things are just not going to be easy. But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be done. If it was me lost in the future, you'd move heaven and earth to get me back; why wouldn't I do the same for you? For all of you.

[heralding]

Of course I would. But that wasn't ...

[she shakes her head]

Are you even happy, Hope? Because that's what I wanted for all of you. Above all else. Even if there was no other way, even if I approved of it and I understand, I look at you and I don't see what I wanted. It makes me think about Serah, too. Sazh. Snow. You've grown up, but ...

[it's like you're no different from me]

[actualizedname]

Right now ... I'm happy. I don't think I can describe how happy I am, to be here, to see you and Vanille, and to know that there's a second chance.

[heralding]

Then you haven't been for a long time.

[a soft laugh in that Lightning way of hers]

I was stupid to believe that I could go off and fix things, especially with what happened. It's like I'm no better than Snow.

[actualizedname]

I've been busy, you could say. Leading an organisation involves a lot more administration than I knew.

You and he are a little alike. You both will do anything to save people, no matter what it costs you.

[heralding]

It sounds like we're all prone to rash decisions. Even in the long term. We just want to protect what's important. It's not just me or Snow. It's all of us. Even if Vanille is a little afraid sometimes. It sounds like Serah's right up there with us. Guess that one's my fault, too.

[actualizedname]

...yeah, Serah put everyone first too. Just like you.

[heralding]

Serah's ... she's fine, right?

[actualizedname]

[he takes a breath and lets it out slowly, a little shaky.]

No. But she will be. Now that I have the time...

[heralding]

[give her a moment to look wounded]

[actualizedname]

We can change the future. Serah and Noel told me that. They showed me that. Together, we can do anything. You said, before, that we make the impossible possible. We can do that again.

[heralding]

What are you trying to change? What happened to her?

[actualizedname]

Serah ...

Serah could see the future. Like the seeresses of Paddra. The more she saw, the more it burned her life away. She knew this. She knew this all along.

[heralding]

Sounds like doing the impossible just made things worse.

[at that, she just turns to start walking away]

[actualizedname]

Lightning, wait! It shouldn't have happened. That wasn't the future as it was meant to be. I don't believe that this was how things were meant to go.

[heralding]

Sometimes people die, Hope. You can't bring back the dead. The lost. Maybe sometimes we should just stay gone.

[actualizedname]

No. In one timeline I died. I was killed by a fal'Cie I had created to raise Cocoon. Serah and Noel, they saved me by warning me of what was to come if I continued down that path. I listened, I cancelled the project, and I lived. She didn't give up on me, and I won't give up on her. And I don't think you will either.