themusemanor | PSL - Noel Kreiss | Oerba Dia Vanille ---> If I knew there was a chance

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PSL - Noel Kreiss | Oerba Dia Vanille ---> If I knew there was a chance

Vanille had long ago lost count of how long she'd been in that crystal pillar, holding Cocoon up in the sky. It probably didn't even matter anymore, not after Noel and Serah had jumped around the timeline so much recently. Time was such a relative term anyway. Nothing mattered but that it be straightened out.

She'd lived in a dream-like state again, a familiar feeling, one that wasn't particularly pleasant. So was the sensation of waking up, the crystal fading away piece by piece to leave her lying on the ground. And for the first time in a length of time only Etro knew of, Vanille started to wake up.

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A flash of light. Between that, and his eyes opening to a bright blue sky, Noel didn't know what happened, but his breath caught as he found himself in a situation he'd like to be less familiar with--free falling from thousands of feet in the air.

"Wh-whoa!"

What he wasn't used to was being able to control himself when he landed. He didn't crash into the ground so much as land, though it still involved some stumbling.

But the landing was less on his mind the moment he looked up. A figure, breaking out of crystal.

Just one figure, just one crystal. Fang was somewhere else, a realization that had Vanille crying out with worry. "Fang!"

She hadn't yet noticed that someone else was in the area, her attention focused entirely on the fact that she wasn't crystal anymore and Fang wasn't anywhere nearby.

Did he just hear someone yelling "Fang?" No...no way. That couldn't be her. Two l'Cie, from Pulse...

"Hey!" No sense in worrying about all that Guardian stuff right now. Not if this was who he thought, anyway...

The sound of the other voice brought Vanille out of her confusion. Pushing herself to her feet, she looked in the direction that voice had come from. Well, at least this was someone--

She squinted. Wait, was that who she thought it was?

"Hey! You're Noel, aren't you? Serah's friend?"

It was a start. Vanille offered him a smile as she started walking over, hoping he might have some answers for her.

Well, that answered his question.

"You...You really are Vanille, aren't you?" He couldn't believe his eyes.

But how could she be out of the pillar? That would mean that Hope had...no, no. He messed up the entire timeline when he...killed Caius. Could Hope really have still been able to free his old friends? Even after Noel had made such a huge mistake?

She nodded once, stopping in front of him.

"Yep." A frown creased her face as she noticed he was alone. That didn't seem quite right. "Where's Serah? And do you know where Fang is?"

That question pierced his new heart. For all he knew, Serah had already met her fate. He hadn't seen her in what felt like centuries.

He shook his head. "I haven't seen Serah in a long time. In fact, you're the only other human I've seen for ages."

"I'm sure she's fine," Vanille answered, giving Noel a bright, encouraging smile. She knew what it was like to be missing people she cared about. "Serah's strong. Like you. You'll find her again. I'm sure of it!"

But he's supposed to be with her, protecting her. That's the entire reason that the power of the Guardian exists.

He hides the thoughts behind a smile. Vanille just came out of crystal stasis...a second time. She had better things to worry about than him. "Yeah, someday I will."

The trouble was that Vanille could read through those thoughts anyway. Not that long ago, she'd done the exact same thing. She tilted her head at him, still smiling. "You're not convinced, are you?"

Hit the nail on the head. Noel cringes, and looks to one side, so she can't see his face as well as he frowns. He clenches a fist and raises it, only to drop it again.

"No...I'm not." He turns to look at Vanille again. "But right now, I'm more worried about you. Not that often someone just comes out of crystal stasis. I bet you're hungry, or something?"

His thoughts probably weren't going to leave Serah anytime soon, but until he was by her side that was just how things were going to be. He couldn't let it get in the way of meeting new people, or helping someone out.

Well at least he was being honest about that. Vanille peered up at him for a moment, lifting one hand to cup her chin thoughtfully. "It's not the first time I've done that. I've got an idea, Noel." Her hands dropped back to her sides and she smiled, hoping he would agree to this suggestion.

"How about the two of us go looking for our friends? Fang's only one of the people I want to see and you're looking for Serah, too! I think we could help each other. What do you think?"

And she could get food on the way. That was no big deal. This time, though, there would be no accident at Euride to mess things up.

"I think that sounds like a great idea." Looking for Fang might help keep his mind off of Serah. And if he was going to met one of them, he might as well meet the other, right?

Caius' memories echoed in his mind like a swirling vortex, reminding him of his duty as Guardian over and over, but he didn't even have a way to search for the Seeress right now...not really. Maybe once they found Fang, they could come up with a plan to look for Serah.

"First thing's first," Vanille mused, glancing around and trying to get a feel for the land, "where are we? Are we on Gran Pulse or Cocoon?"

Either way didn't really matter to her. She just knew Gran Pulse would be far easier to navigate than Cocoon.

"Gran Pulse, I think." Noel pointed to the sky. "See, no ground up there."

Vanille nodded, shading her eyes as she looked upwards. "Right." Glancing around, she paused just long enough to close her eyes and smell the air. If she could get a good breath of the animals and plants around, she might be able to figure out where they were--

"I think we're near Oerba! That way!" she gasped, pointing. She could smell her favorite flowers and that gave her hope, but she knew her nose would either lead her to Oerba or the Yaschas Massif. Either way, they might find some answers.

"Come on!" Reaching for Noel's hand, Vanille started jogging off in the direction of the flower smell.

"Oerba, huh?" Oerba...as bleak as that town was...how horrible must it have been for Vanille the last time she saw it? Noel shook his head, trying not to think about it too hard. If she was happy to think of the place, there must still be something there for her, right?

"W-whoa! Hey!" He jerked forward at first, stumbling as he was dragged along until he matched her pace. He didn't expect her to be so excitable.

Noel was in for quite a surprise if he didn't think Vanille was excitable. She grinned, released him from her grasp as they jogged. After a while, she slowed her pace to a walk so they could talk while they went.

"Can I ask you something?" she began, continuing before he could answer. "How long have I been in there?" She had a relative idea that years had passed, but it was hard to say with how everything had gotten all messed up.

She wasn't going to get any arguments from him about letting go, that was for sure. Vanille was almost kind of...cute? Was that the word he was looking for?

He shakes his head at her question. "I can't say. Serah and I jumped around the timeline so many times I never know what era I end up in any more. Right now, I have no idea what year it is."

Vanille was far too calm about the idea of finding out what year it was. Then again, she'd had to do that once before already.

"Well, at least we're on Gran Pulse. It's easier for us to work our way through here than on Cocoon. Trying to pretend to live there while knowing nothing about it was hard!"

Briefly, Noel was tempted to remark on how little he'd known about any era or place he had been to, but wasn't so sure this was a good time for that. Not phrasing it like that, anyway.

"I know what you mean. I hardly knew anything about all the places we visited. Although, I never had to pretend I was a local, either. The clothes made me stand out everywhere, just about."

He didn't exactly agree with her that Gran Pulse was easier to navigate than Cocoon, either. Both had changed so many times as he went through different parts of the timeline he'd probably be totally lost no matter which world they landed on.

Vanille giggled in response, lifting her hands to cover her mouth for a moment, as though she was trying to hold in her laughter. "Yeah, and I had to try to fit in with my Gran Pulse clothes and speech and everything!" It had definitely been difficult, but she'd done what she could. Or had to at the time.

But she didn't want to think about that. Not now. Instead, she wheeled around to face Noel as they walked. Moving backwards and letting her arms fall back to her sides, she tilted her head to look up at him.

"Did you get to see a lot of Cocoon?"

"Only bits and pieces. Mostly we ended up on Gran Pulse, with the odd trip to Cocoon here or there."

Noel took a moment longer to think on it.

"I never got to see it in its prime, we never went that far back."

"Aww, you should have!" Vanille declared with a bright smile. "I really liked Cocoon... when they weren't trying to hurt us for being Pulse l'Cie." She frowned at that for the briefest of moments before shrugging and grinning again.

"It might not've been something you'd like, but at least Bodhum was really pretty."

Before the Purge, anyway. Vanille didn't know what it looked like after that. They'd never returned to find out.

"We didn't have much choice a bout where we ended up. The gates only took us to places where there were paradoxes that needed fixing."

As to what he might like or not, Noel didn't really have much to compare to. He didn't know what Bodhum looked like, so he'd probably be impressed just because it was a bigger place than Serah's village of New Bodhum was.

"Well that's sad. You'll have to ask Lightning about Cocoon, then."

Vanille seemed completely convinced that this was possible. Whether or not she really believed that was anyone's guess at this point.

"I only saw some of Cocoon, not all of it, but what I did see was very nice. Impressive! I really liked it."

Except for the whole being chased and almost killed several times over thing.

"Guess I will, if I ever manage to find her."

Noel wasn't exactly feeling optimistic about that right now, since he didn't even know if he had any way to make it back to the Historia Crux.

"But I liked what I saw too. The Sunleth Waterscape in particular."

"You will."

Good thing Vanille had plenty of optimism to spare. She peered up at Noel with a warm smile on her face, clearly confident that he would be able to find Lightning again.

"I didn't get to see much of it, but it was gorgeous when I was there. Sazh and I couldn't stay very long. I wanted to come back, but we never had the chance."

The question was, if he ever did find Lightning, would he be able to face her? He couldn't be sure. Right now, everything was just a big mess in his head.

"Not much time to stop and smell the roses when you're saving the world. That is, unless you're time traveling."

He'd gotten to have a lot of down time with Serah, time to just sit, and chat. Since the time gates took them to the exact moment they were needed, they were never really in much of a hurry. They didn't have to be.

Vanille hesitated at his words, finally turning away. She knew the truth of the matter, how she hadn't been out to save the world at first, and it hurt her to remember how many deaths she'd caused. Crouching down, she reached out to gently brush her fingers against a flower, feeling the wind in her hair and letting it comfort her.

"We weren't trying to save the world back then. I was still running from my Focus."

"Funny how little details like that get lost in history. You're not remembered for running away, Vanille. All six of you are remembered for saving the people of Cocoon. I don't think you did that by running."

He wasn't about to let her get down in the dumps too. He'd spent too much time there--not that he had any idea how long it had been in the Historia Crux. A timeless body made it hard to figure out how much time was passing, when you were floating through the time stream itself.

She missed half of what he said, just staring at him in surprise for a while before she could grab her voice back.

"People... remember us?"

Her hands shot upwards to cover her mouth. That sounded a little frightening and she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about being remembered like that. She didn't feel like someone who had saved the world, even if she had helped do it.

Edited 2012-07-17 23:02 (UTC)

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PSL - Noel Kreiss | Oerba Dia Vanille ---> If I knew there was a chance

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