28It's over!
Hallelujah!
Oh my gods!
Well, I mean, I might do an epilogue if I feel so inclined, but still! Main storyline is dooooooone!
This has been so much fun to write and I can't wait to finish out the trilogy. I have few words. I'm tired, spent time making these last three chapters. Christmas is here, friends. I have finals, I have Christmas concert, I have a musical in the spring starting in January, it's all going on but for now I need to relax.
See y'all, enjoy, woot!
:)
"Find your own road to hell!"
"Use your wrath!" Orphan's head moved around like it was floating on water, and it cast Doom on the nearest person - which was Lightning in this case.
They quickly found Orphan was immune to all damage, but Sai, Charon, and Shu came together with a plan.
"Just get us a stagger and we'll handle the rest," Charon said.
"He can still be hit with debuffs and he's still got a stagger in him," Sai agreed. "Prepare yourselves for an onslaught by the time we get the stagger. We don't want to give him a chance to recover afterwards."
Orphan's head rolled back, being a spherical attachment to the rest of him, and revealed a large gray mouth - teeth and all - that opened up and screeched across the battlefield. First things first for the party were buffs and debuffs, as well as preparing a proper stagger in the meantime. Orphan's head flipped back and this time it revealed a large hand that looked to be made of some kind of gelatinous black goo which Orphan could control. It swiped across the field blindly, sending everyone in its path flying.
"What the hell was that supposed to be?!" Charon exclaimed.
"That was gross!" Shu said.
Orphan used Necrosis, which summoned pools of dark energy that climbed up its target and inflicted Pain and Fog, which slowed them down when it came to recovering from it, but in the end all Orphan's attacks could do was buy him time. Kaleidoscopic Ray had him rolling his head back to summon an eye which locked on to someone and then shoot an enormous geyser of fire and energy to do damage.
"Use your rage."
"Almost there!" Shu called.
"We've got Deprotect and Deshell at the very least; Fang and Vanille have gotten Bravera and Faithra, and Hope and Sazh had gotten Haste," Sai reported. "Not much in the way of defense."
"A necessary sacrifice," Charon said. "Get ready! Snow! Hit it!"
Snow threw Orphan an Aero spell to activate the stagger, while Charon and Shu summoned a white orb of energy and then Sai launched it forward to join Snow's spell. The entire area flashed white and Orphan disappeared.
When the light vanished and Orphan was revealed, the wheel had disappeared and Orphan gained…arms? Lindzei's symbol hung as accessories on chains from each of Orphan's little arms, while Orphan's head had been preserved and attached to a new body, resembling that of some kind of insect with a wiggling tail that had another brand of Lindzei on it in gold. He was now held within a giant white structure rather than his wheel that also resembled the shape of Lindzei's crest, like angel wings or some kind of weird heart shape. Above where Orphan's head and face had been placed, Lindzei's actual crest and symbol loomed, and surrounding Orphan were some sort of engravings with an infinity symbol at the top.
"Well…it worked," Shu said.
"I'm not really sure what I expected, but that was not it," Charon said.
Fang ran forward and Launched Orphan up into the air, now that his form had changed so that they were capable of not only damaging him, but also using Launch. Orphan, unlike all other enemies, continued trying to cast spells even as he was launched, but with Deprotect and Deshell plus Bravera and Faithra, Orphan stood no chance.
"I'ma just let them handle this one," Shu said.
"Yeah, I…don't think they need our help," Charon agreed.
Orphan began to scream, his eyes and mouth emitting a bright light as the rest of him began to destabilize. His energies started turning against him, exploding and breaking apart the rest of his body in an enormous shower of fire and heat.
"We're here to stop him," Lightning said. "We've come to save Cocoon, right?"
"Right!" everyone responded.
"Okay, Orphan's down," Shu said. "What now?"
"Hold on to your lunches," Sai said.
He held his hand forward and Etro's Gate opened the eye in the center, revealing a void within that became charged with light and overtook the area.
By the time they could see again, they found themselves hovering in the air above Eden. Etro's Gate was hovering high above them in the sky, crystal fragments raining throughout the entire city, possibly even the whole of Cocoon. Edenhall imploded beneath them, collapsing in on itself and sealing off the entrance to Orphan's Cradle.
Up above, Phoenix's light flickered, and the sun of Cocoon went out. Down below, the city of Eden - no, all of Cocoon - flickered out. Kujata the power plat fal'Cie died, and along with all of the other fal'Cie, Cocoon quickly lost all power. The whole world went dark, but from the depths of the collapsing Edenhall, the end of Cocoon signaled a light to appear down below. Etro's Gate remained above them as they began to float up into the air.
"What's happening?!" Shu asked.
"They're turning to crystal!" Charon shouted. "Maybe because they turned Cie'th and returned, maybe because their brands were frozen, but the process has been delayed!"
Indeed, lining all of their bodies was a distinct pattern of crystallization, slowly spreading and becoming more and more present.
"We have to get out of here!" Shu shouted.
"Stay together!" Lightning called.
"Hey! Grab my hand!" Sazh ordered.
"Okay!" Hope shouted, reaching for Sazh.
Lightning grabbed onto Hope's other hand while Snow grabbed onto Sazh. Charon flew over and grabbed Sai, who was floating in the wrong direction by random chance, and helped him over to the others, where he grabbed Lightning's hand. Charon also helped Shu over to grab Sai's hand, as Shu was still having trouble guiding themself when they didn't have a solid lift off - and that included being magically teleported into the air.
"Fang! Vanille!" Snow screamed.
The two of them were floating further and further away from the rest of the group. Charon saw a third person between the two girls, grabbing each of their hands and pulling them together. Her body was leaking crystal fragments, and her body was beginning to glow.
"Rei?" Shu muttered. "Rei!"
Charon grabbed Shu's hand connected to Sai's and fed power into their plant bracelet, latching the two of them together. "Stay with Shu, keep them safe until I get back, all right?"
"Charon?" Shu whispered.
He leaned down and kissed them, not short, but not nearly long enough. "I'll keep my promise, Flower."
With that, Charon turned and flew away towards the girls.
"Charon!" Shu attempted to push themself in their direction, but they found themself latched to Sai by their own vines, darkened to black and under Charon's direct command. "What-?"
"Hold on!" Sai warned before he started thrusting the group upwards and away from the others.
Shu would ponder how that was possible at a later date. For now, they just struggled to fly in the opposite direction, but was somehow being overpowered by Sai.
"No! Wait! Stop! Charon! Charon! Rei! Please! Come back!"
Charon offered his hands and both Fang and Vanille took them, creating a square with Rei and Charon across from each other and Fang and Vanille across from each other.
"Creation and Destruction, life and death," Rei said. "The key to making the perfect Ragnarok is to have multiple willing participants - both l'Cie and servants of the goddess. And one more thing. For Ragnarok to be perfect-"
"-the l'Cie will have full control over their actions and their power," Charon finished. "Cocoon is destroyed, even without Ragnarok's summoning. But we can still use it, for our own needs this time. If you're willing to help." He looked to Fang and Vanille in turn.
"Vanille?" Fang asked.
Wishes can come true. But…not if you just wait for miracles.
Vanille nodded. "Ready."
Miracles are things we make for ourselves. Here and now.
The two brands on the l'Cie began to glow brighter and brighter with a light so intense that it seemed to light the whole of Eden. The other l'Cie looked down in confusion - in some of them, dread even.
"Let's make use of some of these monsters running rampant in Eden," Rei said, before she and Charon raised their heads, their eyes glowing with the same intensity as Fang and Vanille's brands.
In a flash, all of the monsters in Eden were transformed into ashes, which were all sucked into the epicenter of where the four of them had disappeared. The ashes gathered and reshaped themselves into a new being - a Ragnarok with four main arms, a dozen extra arms similar to Hecatoncheir rather than just hair, a crown similar to Alexander's, frills like Brynhildr's, enormous teeth, sharp and pointed, and it was at least twice as tall and resilient as the Ragnarok made by Fang alone. Complete Ragnarok landed on one of the buildings and then stood at full height, releasing a loud roar that had once haunted the l'Cie in their vision of the future when they had first been given their Focus.
Cocoon was plummeting, and the base of the planet was beginning to heat up from the speed it was falling. Down below the floating city of Eden were the barren lands that were melting into molten lava and rock. Ragnarok charged and dived off the edge of Eden to dive right towards it. Though it had to tolerate a couple impacts from rocks, it eventually dived right into the lava with a small splash.
For a moment, nothing happened, but then the lava began to explode outwards, taking the shape of large hands, and eventually it was revealed that the lava was mimicking Ragnarok itself, expanding an even larger version of the beast. Ragnarok concentrated and forced itself to get even bigger, taking all of the lava and heat from Cocoon's fall to stretch its arms out further, wrapping around the entire lower half of Cocoon and summoning lava that had already fallen to Pulse to rise back up and meet the falling lava half way. The waves of lava spread upwards like a tidal wave, all across the intact part of Cocoon - specifically avoiding going around Hanging Edge where Cocoon was scarred from the War of Transgression. Ragnarok kept pushing, more and more lava forming and wrapping around Cocoon as Ragnarok's image almost seemed to be trying to hold Cocoon upon its very back.
And then, everything exploded.
With one final roar from Ragnarok, it turned to crystal, taking with it all of the lava that it had assimilated into its being. The lava that had been connecting Gran Pulse and Cocoon now solidified and created a giant pillar that held Cocoon up, and the crystal dust that drowned Oerba was pulled by the winds to surround the pillar and strengthen the crystal even further. It wrapped around all of the lava that Ragnarok had put into place, freezing it to crystal right then and there, forming strings of crystal as the lava flowed as liquid.
Within the crystalizing lava, the voices of Fang and Vanille could be heard as two humanoid figures swam through the chaos.
Rei held her hand out to Etro's Gate. She felt Etro's will reaching out to her, but it was slowly fading. The goddess had stretched her limits, she had done so much to help, but it was taking its toll. She needed to close the gate a soon as possible.
"Time to go now."
The gate shimmered, consuming Rei in its light as she felt the familiar pull of traveling through time.
"I've done my work. Don't worry, I remembered the others too. I sent them home, wherever that may be."
Rei felt the will of the goddess tugging on her once more.
"Really? Well…I suppose he'll be happy to hear that, anyway."
"Let go of me! Let go of me gods dammit!"
Shu was struggling to pull against Sai, but they were still firmly latched together by Shu's vines, and somehow, Sai was able to walk at normal speeds against a struggling Shu. Not only would a normal struggling passenger impede someone, but a struggling passenger with the strength of a fal'Cie should've utterly blindsided Sai.
"Don't make me transform! Cuz I will if you don't let me go!"
"No, you won't."
"Huh?! What do you know?! Let me go, Sai! What the hell is happening to you?!"
"We're almost there."
"Almost? We've been walking for hours! What in the name of Etro is going on?!"
"There."
"What? What is so-?"
Shu paused when they saw what Sai was looking at. Standing in the empty plains of Gran Pulse were four crystal statues of four different people. As they got closer, Shu recognized Sazh's distinct afro, Lightning's hair swept all to the left of her head, Hope's short hair that seemed to stick out in the back, and Snow's long hair unconcealed by his bandana.
"They're here. They're okay!"
"One last blessing," Sai muttered.
He closed his eyes and Shu suddenly felt their hand released from Sai's. His entire body flashed, glowing with the familiar blue-white aura as his body transformed into crystal, and a base grew at his feet to support him as he was held a few inches off the ground, his hands clasped in front of him as though in prayer.
"Sai?" Shu muttered. "No, no, no, no…! No! You can't leave me alone! How could you?! How dare you?! How dare you all leave me! Why?! Why…!"
Shu fell into the dirt, sobbing into the short grass and causing it to grow around them as though to comfort them.
"No! No they all left me! Why would they all leave me! How could they…?!"
'Wake up.'
Shu jumped, looking around frantically. "Vanille?"
The crystals all began to glow faintly, before each of them released the humans - the crystal bases crumbling to dust in an instant. Their clothes reappeared fully intact (thank goodness), and all five of them breathed heavy breaths of surprise to be dropped on their feet again, free of their crystal form.
"You're back…" Shu muttered. "You're back!"
Lightning looked at her hands in awe before she looked up and noticed Cocoon in front of her, framed by the rising sun of Gran Pulse - not an artificial sun like Phoenix, but a real sun.
"They did it," she whispered. "They saved the world."
"No, they gave us a new one," Snow said.
Lightning turned to see her comrades restored behind her as well.
Sazh scoffed in amazement at the sight of the pillar. "That's one gift I'll forgive 'em for not wrapping."
Hope chuckled. "Yeah."
'This is as much as we can do. The rest…is up to you.'
"Does this mean we…completed our Focus?" Hope asked.
"Cocoon's seen better days, that's for sure," Snow admitted.
"Yeah, and I'd say that qualifies as a demolition," Sazh agreed. "Focus complete."
Fang's scoff could be heard through the air. 'Whatever you wanna believe.'
Lightning gave a light 'tsk.' "It really is a miracle."
Shu sighed. "Yeah, a miracle. I've nearly died from stress, but it's a miracle all right."
"Defeating Orphan was what completed your Focus," Sai said. "I guess the Focus was specific enough to believe that Orphan's defeat was a guaranteed destruction of Cocoon. No one could've predicted this would happen except for the goddess herself."
The chocobo chick flew from Sazh to Shu, jumping on their head and dancing around and trying to cheer them up.
Shu chuckled. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just really worried for a second there."
"Sorry," Sai said. "I probably should've explained better, but I was in a rush."
Shu rose to their feet. "Yeah, you should've done some explaining, mis…ter."
Shu blinked when they saw Sai's eyes had changed. They were a deep purple, vibrant and beautiful and definitely not his pretty blue ones. And they had no pupils.
Shu squeaked. "What happened to your eyes?"
He sighed. "If you'd just let me explain-"
"No, wait, hold on a moment, why did you…how did you…what is…argh!"
"Just calm down at let me speak. All of you." Shu pouted but waved for him to go on. "Rei managed to use the Etro's Gate in order to return to the world of the living, and through some juggling she managed to bring with her the gifts of the goddess. The first thing she did was restore all of you from your Cie'th states and revert Ragnarok back from Fang. Then, she gave me the powers of Styx in order to help better help you."
"Styx…" Shu repeated.
He nodded. "These are her eyes. Styx was blind. Her physical form was something she had to create herself, and therefore she gave herself proper eyes, but she never truly needed to use them. She was a river, an observer, a listener. With her gone, the balance was disrupted between the four important fal'Cie. And so Rei needed to choose someone to pass her power onto here in the living world."
Shu smiled. "I wouldn't have anyone else, really. But you were kind of a jerk back there."
"You try being a human with a finite lifespan and memory space and then have the powers of an infinite, immortal deity implanted on you after the trauma of being turned into a Cie'th while also thrown into the stress of trying to save the world and all your friends and still stay patient and relaxed."
"Fair enough."
Hope looked down at his arm, pulling aside the bandana he wore on his wrist. "My brand! It's gone!"
Lightning turned to him in surprise before placing her hand over her chest where her brand had previously been to find that she didn't feel it anymore. Sazh looked down at his chest and found no brand peaking out from his shirt, while Snow held up his arms and saw only his bare skin. Even Lightning couldn't help her smile and sigh of absolute relief and joy. Hope chuckled, while Sazh laughed and threw his arms out in celebration.
"As I said," Sai smirked. "One last blessing."
'It's easy to lose sight of things in a world as wide as this one. But if you keep going, you're sure to find what you're looking for - sooner or later.'
Shu looked up at the crystal pillar. They wondered if the others could hear Vanille and Fang, or if it was just Shu and maybe Sai.
"Now this one wasn't mine," Sai said. "You can thank Rei this time."
Slightly hidden by the glare of the sun, there were figures walking towards them in the distance. The group looked on in awe, almost unable to believe what they were seeing.
"An', an', an' there was this whole big bunch of chocobos there!"
"There was, was there?"
"How fluffy were they?"
"Suuuuuper fluffy!"
Sazh stuttered, trying to look closer to make sure he wasn't mistaking it. "It…" His chocobo flew out of his hair and surged off ahead of him.
"Hey, look there."
There was a small gasp as the figures hurried their pace, and there was no mistaking it.
"Serah!" Snow called, rushing forward to meet her.
"It is," Lightning said.
"Dajh!" Sazh cried, running forward to embrace his son.
"Daddy!"
"Snow!"
"Serah!"
The Snow pulled Serah into a hug and spun her around while Sazh laughed heartily at having his son back, with the chocobo chick flying around them and squeaking in celebration.
"You're all right, aren't you?" Sazh asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Dajh replied.
"Rei! Charon!"
Shu surged forward and tugged them both into a tight hug, holding them with an iron grip to make sure that they were real and that they weren't going anywhere.
"Told you they'd go for both of us at the same time," Charon muttered.
"Never doubted you for a second," Rei chuckled. "Hey, little gem, come on. Let us see your face."
"No!" Shu sobbed. "I'm an utter wreck right now thanks to you two, worrying me like that!"
Charon rolled his eyes and pushed Shu off of him, taking their face into his hands and wiping away their tears with his thumbs. "You're still handsome, even when you're crying your eyes out, Flower."
Shu sniffled. "You're rude," they muttered.
"And yet you love me anyway."
"I couldn't possibly fathom why." Shu wiped their eyes. "You owe me a lot of ice cream for that scare, you hear me?"
Charon chuckled. "I'll buy you all the ice cream you want, deal? It might take some time, of course, considering that I have a bit of an important job now."
Shu sniffled again. "What?"
"He's head of the government now," Rei reminded them. "Cocoon might be saved, but restoration and rebuilding are gonna take some time. The people have lost trust in the fal'Cie as well, and they might not be happy to learn that another fal'Cie is taking over."
Shu heaved a heavy sigh. "Can't you just quit and we can all just run off together into the sunset?"
He laughed. "I'd love to, Flower, but first I need to make sure that whoever is left in charge has the people's best interests at heart and has the skills needed to do so."
Shu sighed. "Whatever. As long as you don't ever pull a stunt like that again!"
Charon pulled Shu into a hug. "Never, Flower. So long as I can help it."
Hope ran forward and looked across the empty field, but no one else was coming behind them. Snow and Serah excitedly spoke to each other, Shu turned from Charon and nearly tackled Rei in a hug, and Sazh knelt down to lift Dajh onto his shoulders with the chocobo chick resting in Dajh's hair.
Despite the happy scene in front of him, Hope hung his head. "They're gone, aren't they?"
Lightning wrapped her arm over his shoulder while Sai reached out to do the same from the other side. "Hey…"
Hope lifted his head. "I guess they meant for this to be goodbye. Then again, we've changed our fates before."
Sai smiled. "Don't give up hope, kiddo. You never know in this life. You really don't."
"Come on," Serah urged, taking Snow's hand and pulling him back towards Lightning.
Lightning, in turn, stepped forward, leaving Hope to Sai, and then finally hugged her sister.
"I missed you," Serah said, her voice breaking.
"Serah…I'm sorry."
She pulled back, smiling on the verge of tears. "It's okay."
Snow hurried forward and wrapped his arm over Serah's shoulder, pulling her back to both of their surprise, with Lightning giving a genuine 'What the hell, Snow?' face.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Come on, the apologies can wait! We've got a wedding to plan!" Snow put his hand on Lightning's shoulder. "You are gonna allow it - right?"
Lightning put her hands on her hips and ducked her head, but she couldn't hide her smile as she chuckled at Snow, while Serah giggled blatantly.
"What?" Sazh asked.
"He said 'wedding,' Dad," Dajh provided helpfully.
"You don't waste any time, do ya?" Hope asked.
"Nooooo, I don't," Snow said shamelessly.
"That's right," Sazh sighed. "Just charge in, guns blazing!"
Shu gasped. "A wedding! Yes! Let's do it! I wanna see how it's done! Can we go, Chare? Please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeeaaaaaaase?"
Charon chuckled. "Of course we're going, Shu. We've listened to Snow ramble on about Serah so much that we're practically a part of this relationship too."
"Oh? I hope he's said good things," Serah said, crossing her arms.
"All good, I promise!" Snow waved his hands defensively.
Charon chuckled. "It's nice to finally meet the woman who can manage to keep Snow in line." Charon lowered his voice. "And the one who gave him hope even when it seemed like there was none left. Without the hope you gave him, I doubt the rest of us would've been able to go on."
Serah's smile grew wider. "It's nice to meet you…?"
"Charon."
"And I'm Shu! Oh! It's so nice to meet you in person! Without the whole crystal thing, of course. Can we be friends?! I wanna make more friends now that the world's saved and we're not fugitives anymore!"
Serah chuckled. "Of course we can be friends."
Snow leaned in close to Lightning while Serah was distracted. "I swear to you, I will make her happy."
Lightning chuckled. "I believe you," she said genuinely. "Congrats."
Rei walked up to Sai and held her arms out. He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. "You really had me worried there for a while."
"I'm sorry things got a bit confusing. But I'm back. And Styx gave me a gift. I'm never letting you go now, you got that? You're stuck with us now, for however long we can last."
He chuckled. "Doesn't sound too bad, honestly."
She smiled and hugged him tighter.
Hidden deep within the crystal pillar where Ragnarok had disappeared were two crystals floating together within a large crystal sphere, rotated 180 degrees so that one of the was holding the other's hand with both of theirs.
When prayers turn to promises, not even fate can stand in their way.
We held the light of hope in our hearts, and achieved the impossible. Now we live on, to greet a new dawn.
And there we have it! Oh my gods I finally found the time and inspiration to finish this story! I might end up doing an epilogue if ever I have an epiphany - which is likely to happen just randomly. I wanted to make a story where the events of the second game never interfered with the ending of this game, but it might not turn into a whole story since it's just an idea swirling in my brain without a plan.
Gosh, 'My Hands' by Leona Lewis is an amazing soundtrack and watching the ending cutscenes makes me so nostalgic. FF 13 is such a great game since it's long enough to see the character development. By the end of the game they are both the same and different people, Serah and Snow are able to get married, Sazh gets his son back, Lightning finally gets to apologize to Serah and admits that during their journey she came to respect Snow. Hope's moment when he realized that Vanille and Fang are gone really hits hard when you realize that, without the context of the second or third game, Hope expects that he might never see Vanille or Fang ever again because their crystal stasis would long outlive him - if they ever came out of crystal stasis again. He never got to say a formal goodbye to them. If they ever come back out of stasis, they'll be in a whole new world all over again, and who knows what it'll be like? But it won't have any of their new friends and family in it anymore - Fang and Vanille had just come to terms with the fact that they'd found a new family worth fighting for and now they have to go back into crystal stasis to let centuries pass and lose their family all over again. It's so bittersweet because they made their sacrifice because they were going to protect their new home and they saved an entire world when they had destroyed so many lives in the past; they're at peace despite the fact that they might never see their family again.
I gets the feels when I play this game, I really do.
Anyway, thanks to anyone who managed to stay with me this long, and stay tuned because I'll be started the second game soon enough.
