Little Lion Man

[lowkey]

I really love this blog. It's fun, I get to nerd out, I'm subscribed to several extremely excellent writers. My extremely sporadic posting would disagree, but take my word. Please?

I mean, I really want to sit down and really, really read mako_lies's amazing post analyzing FFXIII's Eidolons (not to mention her most recent fics!), and then owlmoose went and wrote some really fun stuff on why she writes what she does that I wanted to comment on, too (was that already a week ago?!).

ANYWAYS, I'm going to be selfish and excuse my behavior because I am currently CONSUMED with my time-traveling fix-it fic that lets Hope and Lightning be together without the spectre of statutory rape.



Eight-hundred-fifty-three.

Hope was back in Leviathan Plaza -- well, the Leviathan Plaza of fifteen minutes before, or two hours after, depending on how one counted. He leaned down, hand ready on his gunblade. It looked the same as the Leviathan Plaza he had left, but he had been burned before. That one time with the sentient flan...

A recognizable laugh came from behind, and some of the tension left Hope's shoulders. That was definitely Cid, smiling at the sight Hope cut: in the middle of a wide-open park and surrounded by allies, he was crouched in an absurd defensive position, like some feral, gunblade-wielding animal. "You're back."

Hope straightened and gave a curt nod, ignoring the murmurs that always accompanied his reappearances. "Just a few moments from now, Barthandelus escaped through a series of underground tunnels," he explained. "Two hours ago, I'm preventing that."

The Cavalry commander slapped him on the shoulder. "Must you do that with your verbs?"

Hope cracked a rare grin. "Sorry, Raines. I'm only trying to be accurate."

It was a stolen moment of levity; the Cavalry had only just secured the area, and the pock-pock-pock of arms fire could still be heard in the distance. But it was a good moment to steal: the sealed doors of Edenhall lay before the rebels, and Hope had never felt closer to finally, once-and-for-all defeating Barthandelus.

"Edenhall is locked down," Hope continued, "and I was able to disable its transdimensional connection to Orphan's Cradle. It's a tough, defensible bunker, but now that's all it is."

Cid's eyes flashed. "Excellent. I'd order the Lindbulm to open fire, but the surrounding civilian population still hasn't been evacuated. Five more hours, and I'm bringing that place down on his head."

Hope shook his head. "Raines, I'm going in by myself. I've had him pinned like this before, and he's managed to escape. I need to see his body, and the easiest way to do that is killing him in person."

Cid thought for a moment. This was the culmination of months of hard fighting against PSICOM, the fal'Cie, and the very elements themselves. But they had done it -- PSICOM was broken, and Barthandelus was pinned, cut off from his fal'Cie minions. Even the elements were coming back around; separated from Barthandelus' influence, the weather-control fal'Cie had been tricked into carrying on as normal by a renegade PSICOM engineer named Sazh Katzroy.

Hope had immense respect for the man thinking in front of him, respect that even now, with victory so close, Cid was actually thinking, weighing his options. Any number of other Cids would have immediately called down the airstrike, civilians and Hope's opinion be damed. But in this timeline, the only timeline that currently mattered, Cid was a family man, and Hope realized that that made all the difference. "Well, alright," Cid finally responded, "we'll do it your way. But in the event you go in and get yourself killed, I want you to brief my men and I one last time -- let us know anything that might make the difference, were you to die."

Hope nodded, just in time for their conversation to be interrupted by someone politely excusing themselves through the encircled Skyfleet Marines. It was Serah Farron.

Serah Raines in this timeline, Hope corrected himself, though another part of him could never accept that the small girl in front of him wasn't Snow's fiance. Nor, more darkly, could he stop from suspecting that she was actually a guise adopted by Barthandelus, come to taunt him.

Cid's face darkened. "Bucko, I told you to stay back with Lieutenants Lebreau and Gadot. Just where the heck are they?"

Serah struck a sassy pose, the massive bow slung over her shoulder swaying slightly. "Listen, old man. I was tired of staying cooped up in that APC of yours. Anyways, I told Gadot and Lebreau to press the advantage against the PSICOM forces regrouping on the Ramuh Interchange; here are the casualty updates. I can also confirm that PSICOM Lieutenant Colonel Rygdea is dead."

Cid took the datalog, glancing over the numbers. "That Rygdea," he said, shaking his head sadly. "If only he'd listened to me, we could have averted this entire civil war."

Serah shrugged. "Dad, you tried everything you could. Hell, if you had killed him when you had the chance..."

Cid knelt, ruffling Serah's hair. "Your right, bucko. But what have I always said?"

Serah glanced away and stubbed her toe into the ground. "No cursing."

Cid smiled. "And?"

"And... give everyone a second chance."

"Alright now. I'll have Rosch here escort you back to the Interchange. I'm certain that they could use your sharpshooting abilities. Now get going -- we have a war to win!"

Everyone was smiles after that, and it was clear that Serah was as much the good-luck charm of the entire Skyfleet, as she was the apple of her adopted father's eye.

"You know," Cid said covertly, after the forward base had been secured and the maps unfurled, but before Cid's officers had begun to trickle in for Hope's last briefing. "I think she has a crush on you."

"uhh..." Hope responded, wide-eyed. "She didn't even look at me."

"Bah, that's how I know!" Cid chuckled. "You should see the look on your face, Estheim. I didn't expect such a well-traveled man to blush so badly!"

"She's an amazing woman in any timeline," Hope lamely replied.

Cid glanced over the maps and datasheets strewn in front of him. "I figured you'd say as much." A long pause followed. "I guess you've visited timelines where we haven't even met. Where her real parents are still alive, or..."

Hope rarely volunteered information about other timelines, and Cid had never asked. They had a gentlemen's agreement to not talk about such things; to do so, they both quietly felt, might cheapen the world they were trying to build now.

That Cid would start talking about it... things were about to end, one way or another, and both Cid and he knew it.

"In my original timeline, her older sister wasn't with her parents in the car accident. She raised Serah as best she could. But... but in any timeline I've ever visited, you're the best father Serah has ever had," Hope said, and he meant it.

"Well... that's a damn shame. My girl deserves better, whatever timeline she's in." Cid slowly exhaled, then continued. "I don't... I don't know what kind of man I'd be if I hadn't adopted her. I know that you're not directly responsible for the... uniqueness of this timeline, but you're helping me carve out a world safe for the people I love. Whatever else you've done, Hope, you've made my life better. Thank you."

Hope was opening his mouth to respond when an alarm went up: Rosch was back, carrying a bloody Serah. In the grey-haired man's arms, she was sickeningly small and still.

"What happened?" Cid asked, sweeping the maps to the grass to clear a place for her. His voice was calm, but his eyes were wet.

"I don't know, sir. One minute, she was fine, picking off PSICOM troopers -- the next, she was spitting up blood."

"Is she..."

"No, no wounds, nothing to out of the ordinary." The concern in Rosch's voice was evident, and his skin was pale. Pale to an unnatural degree, Hope realized with a creeping dread. "Maybe something internal. We didn't have a medic with us, so I brought--"

Serah's eyes fluttered open, and she coughed up more blood. Cid ignored it, holding her closer. "Stay with me, babydoll," he was saying between shouts for a doctor, "It's going to alright. Just... please, don't leave me."

She reached up and cupped Cid's face with her hand. "I love you, dad," she said one last time.

The silence stretched out for an eternity.

Eventually: "Signal the Lindbulm."

"You don't have to do this," Hope said hollowly. It was a fact -- Cid didn't have to do this -- nothing more. But whatever Cid decided, it didn't matter anymore; this timeline was doomed.

"Then go back in time. Stop my daughter from dying."

"I can't, Raines. I mean, yes, I can go back--"

"Then DO IT," Cid screamed.

"-- I could, but... you're all already dead. It... it was my mistake."

"What do you mean?" Cid asked angrily.

Hope slowly sat, defeated. He motioned at the table. "In the timeline I first saw this in, it was called the Red Death. People are fine the morning, by lunch they're dead, drowning in their own blood. At least Rosch is already sick, and you certainly are now, too. Serah was the first to die, probably because of her size."

Hope buried his head in his hands. "I... I thought I'd stopped PSICOM from creating it, three hundred years ago. I guess not."

"Then go back. Stop it. Save my daughter that way."

"I can. I will. But the changes, they'll radiate out..."

"And this future. It won't happen. I won't get to... I won't..."

Cid straightened, a good man till the end. "Then do it. My girl deserves better, whatever timeline she's in."

Comments

[mako_lies]

WHY CAN'T MY LIFE BE AS SIMPLE AS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TURTLE AND A TORTOISE? AND WHY CAN'T VANILLE UNDERSTAND IT'S NOT A TURTLE???

(God, that vid is win...)

[lowkey]

Sazh did a poor job covering this HE WAS DEPRESSED ALRIGHT

[mako_lies]

besides, Fang taught her the difference and she knew it would piss Lightning off, so she taught it WRONG and to Vanille, whatever Fang says GOES. PERIOD.

[lowkey]

This is how Fang flirts.

[lowkey]

She sends Vanille to go do it for her.

[mako_lies]

HELL YES. Because people tend to spontaneously COMBUST when Fang flirts with them directly.

[lowkey]

SHE IS THE HERALD OF LLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEE

[mako_lies]

XD XD XD OR THE HERALD OF LUST, BECAUSE SHE IS JUST THAT WAY.....