Aha! Chapter two is here! I'll try to update this story with a new chapter at least once a week. Maybe I'll be able to do it more frequently, but a chapter a week is guaranteed. Thank you very much to the ones that are reading it and thanks a bunch for the reviews! Chapter Two: Different From The Beginning
Ah, I forgot to mention in the previous chapter that English isn't my native language, so I'd like to apologize in advance for any mistakes I might end up making.
Having him around was different. He responded to life differently, he talked to her differently, he expected different things from her, he was the embodiment of a new perspective, a new way to look at things, a different way to see the world. Of course she didn't realize all this immediately, no. It took time, like most valuable lessons do, like most cherished experiences and relationships in life do. She took her time getting to know him, observing the way he flowed through life, listening to what he had to say, studying all his many different expressions, and most importantly, experiencing, intensely and completely, the multitude of feelings he caused her.
It was different from the very beginning, and sometimes she would wonder if all this wasn't some sort of dream of hers, since, funnily enough, she met him shortly after waking up from a nap. It had been a long day, she had taught an awful lot of classes, the kids had given her a fair share of trouble, and to top it all off, she had offered Lebreau some help at the cafe later that night. She threw herself on her bed and closed her eyes only for a minute, but it was enough for her to have yet another nonsensical dream about her sister riding some sort of mechanical horse along a desert shore, engaged in what seemed to be an extremely vicious fight against a man she had never seen before. She felt a rush of panic, as she usually did when these kinds of dreams plagued her, and woke up quite suddenly, calling out her sister's name. Only this time, she was wearing weird clothes, which she most definitely did not remember putting on. The weirdness took a turn for the worse when she began hearing screams coming from outside. She rushed out of the house, only to find her town being attacked by a horde of some sort of weird mechanical beasts. Some NORA members were trying to shoot them, while others helped the people escape to a safer place. She didn't have much time to make sense of the whole situation before one of the weird creatures landed right before her and prepared to attack. She stepped back and ended up losing balance, falling on the sand. Lebreau rushed head on from behind her and killed the beast with multiple shots from her gun. She was out of breath and had a very angry and distressed expression on her face, much worse than the one she usually had during busy hours at the cafe.
"Come on Serah, get up! Now!" She screamed, pulling the girl back on her feet. "Get a grip! Your sister's not here anymore to protect you!"
Serah felt a quick rush of painful emotions after hearing those words. Sadness was there, as usual, but there was a tint of anger mixed to it. She wasn't angry at Lebreau specifically, but at the whole situation, at having the others feel the need to say such things to her, like she wasn't capable to take proper care of herself, like she expected her sister to always be around to shield her from the dangers of the world. It was disheartening, really, to realize that her very nature gave the others the impression that she would forever remain a little girl.
Shortly after that, Lebreau was hit pretty bad by an explosion caused by a group of beasts that had attacked them simultaneously. Serah rushed to her and tried her hardest to lift the girl up and take her somewhere safe. Other beasts gathered around them and were already closing in. Serah began to panic, searching with her eyes for a path to run away, but realizing it would be in vain, for Lebreau was nearly unconscious and she couldn't even carry the girl on her own, let alone run anywhere with her. One of the monsters charged in and Serah closed her eyes in a quick reflex, terrified and full of despair, but the pain never came. She heard a loud noise of metal clashing and opened her eyes to find a tall figure standing before her and protecting her from what would've been a deadly blow. It was a man, judging by the way he was built and the tone of his voice as he wrenched free from the monster's grasp and pushed it away. He was carrying two weapons in his hands, one looked like a sword of some sort, the other appeared to be a knife, and they both seemed to be made of the same material and had the same colors. With a swift move, he managed to slice the remaining beasts and scare away the ones that dodged his blow. He turned to her and Serah could finally take a good look at his face. He must've been the same age as her, either younger or older by no more than two or three years. His hair was brown and nearly shoulder-length, a bit wet with sweat, probably from all the running around and fighting. His clothes were different from the kind of garments she and the rest of the townsfolk were used to. But what struck her the most were, by far, his eyes. They were hauntingly blue, and though his face showed no signs of age yet, his eyes were a whole different story. They were far too deep and intense, filled with complicated emotions, as though they've seen far more things than a person that young normally would've. She had never seen eyes like his.
"Get up, Serah." His voice brought her quickly back to reality, and she gently set Lebreau's unconscious body on the sand. She looked up at him again, confused as to how he knew her name, and he was handing her some sort of metallic bow.
"Can you fight?" He asked, looking deep into her eyes, beads of sweat running down the sides of his face. She took the bow from his hands and stood up, looking at it with a puzzled expression.
"If I have to…" It was the first time someone asked her that. Usually everyone, be it her sister, Snow or anyone from the NORA gang, just assumed that she needed to be protected, and it was the very first time she ever held an actual weapon in her hands.
"Good. And more thing…" he began, as he reached for his back satchel and pulled yet another small knife, the kind that you quickly throw at your enemies during battle. "…and wait to die!".
The monsters were swarming in from all sides, and it was a tiring battle. The two of them fought together, side by side, and even though it was the first time she had ever seen him in her life, she couldn't help but get a feeling of familiarity. Like she was supposed to be there, fighting by his side, protecting herself and the people dearest to her. She was, however, considerably clumsy with that metallic bow thingy, given how that was the first time she had ever used a weapon. Still, she managed to stand her ground and keep the strange monsters away. The fact that she was still able to use magic, even though she was no longer a l'Cie, was a huge help, for it enabled her to do away with monsters that were too far away for her to shoot at.
When all of them had been slain and the whole ruckus had died down, she was just standing there, still in shock, staring blankly at the horizon. What in the heavens had just happened? What had she just done? What exactly were those creatures and were did they all come from? Who was that young man and how did he know who she was? It was simply too much to take in all at once.
Maqi's voice snapped her out of her confusion, asking if she was okay. She didn't reply right away, for she was still coming back to her senses, slowly turning around, and noticing the mysterious man heading towards her house, carrying the unconscious Lebreau in his arms.
"Okay…" she answered meekly, without taking her eyes from Lebreau and the strange man.
Gadot gathered the other NORA members and military townsfolk around, ordering them all to go towards a so-called "meteorite" had hit. She didn't know what they were talking about, but whatever that was, she would deal with it later.
Rushing towards her house, she saw the young man gently set Lebreau down on the floor, close to the entrance doors. She laid down new to her friend and was overcome with relief upon realizing that she was still breathing.
"You're gonna be okay." Serah whispered to her ear, smiling at her friend's incredible luck. "And thank you… Whoever you are."
"Noel. Noel Kreiss." the man smiled softly at her, as though they were already friends. "Oh and, before I forget, it wasn't just me who helped you. You should probably thank this little guy too."
He pointed at the weird bow thingy in her hands, and before she could ask what he meant by that, it began to lightly shake and shine, wrenching away from her hands and transforming into a floating little creature. She recognized it as a toy moogle, the kind that they saw back in the Nautilus theme park when she was a little girl.
"He's supposed to be some sort of lucky charm, you know? Your sister gave it to me. Told me to hand it over to you." Noel explained, and the mere mention of her sister startled her and made her unconsciously hold the floating moogle tight.
"Wait, you know Lightning? You know my sister? How? And how do you know who I am?"
"She's the one who told me to come here and find you. That's how I knew your name. You two are very similar looking, so when I saw you, I just assumed you were the one I was looking for."
"But where? Where did you see her? And when?"
It was too much for her. It was the first time she received any form of confirmation that maybe, just maybe, her memories of her sister being alive and well weren't a dream or some sort of illusion. She started flooding the man named Noel with questions, most of them about Lightning, and some about he himself. She learned that he had met her in a place named Valhalla, that she had been fighting a mysterious man named Caius, and that she desperately needed her help. That the toy moogle was no toy at all but the actual real thing, and that she was supposed to use it to protect her on her "journey", whatever that meant.
Noel explained everything and answered her questions to the best of his ability. There seemed to be much he still didn't understand either, and was hoping to find out eventually.
***
That night had been a defining moment in her life, though little did she know back then. Gadot and the others came back a few hours later and explained that the meteorite was actually no meteorite at all but a gate of some sort. Serah, however, was too tired and shaken up to absorb any new information, let alone to come into contact with another mysterious object or being that challenged her understanding of life and the world. They all agreed to further inspect the confusing gate later, and focused on taking care of Lebreau and learning more about their mysterious visitor.
Noel explained that he came from the future, from nearly seven hundred years in the future, to be exact. That there wasn't much left from humanity and civilization where he came from, and that he prayed for a miracle to change his sad reality. That miracle is what led him to Lightning, and Lightning led him to New Bodhum, to look for a girl named Serah.
As he carried on with his explanation of the events, everyone seemed both extremely curious and confused. Yuj and Maqi asked their own silly questions about time traveling and the future, all of which Noel simply didn't know the answers to, much to their dismay.
Gadot, on the other hand, looked less and less happy, and she noticed that. He seemed to find the new visitor all too suspicious, especially his elusive connection to Serah. In his own way, he was probably just trying to protect her, as the whole group usually did, but Serah knew he was most likely thinking of Snow too. Of what would happen if Snow found out that a mysterious man came looking for his fiancé and was also quite keen on staying by her side the whole night, until they all decided it was better to get some rest and try to make sense of what happened tomorrow.
Lebreau's injuries had been taken care of and she was already fast asleep on her bed, in the bedroom she shared with Serah. Yuj and Maqi's snores could be heard all around the house, and Gadot was just finishing taking a quick shower before heading to bed too. The little moogle guy's name was Mog, as Serah had found out, and already was he fast asleep on a little cushion in her bedroom. The only ones left in the living room were her and the mysterious Noel. She had taken an extra blanket from the boys' room and was trying to turn one of the couches into a comfortable place for Noel to crash on that night.
"I'm sorry we don't have any extra beds. You can sleep in mine, though, I don't mind. I probably shan't sleep a wink, anyway, after all that's happened."
"Thank you but there's no need for that. I'll be okay sleeping here. It actually looks way more comfortable than what I'm used to back where I'm from." He had a soft smile on his face, and he looked extremely tired. Serah felt a little bit sorry for him for a moment, having heard the kind of world he was actually from. She could only imagine what it was like to live in a world where there's nearly no one left, and very little to hope for. She tried to quickly imagine what his home must've looked like, but was too tired to actually come up with anything.
"Well… I guess I'll turn in, then." She began, looking down at her own hands on the cushions she had set aside for Noel to use as pillows. "We'll talk more tomorrow. There's a lot I still don't understand and wish to know."
"I'll be here." He simply said, sitting down on the couch and then looking up at her, his expression unreadable. "Sleep well. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes, you too. Sweet… er, dreams." And with that, she made for her bedroom, feeling his stare follow her all the way towards the door.
Lying in her bed, a multitude of confusing thoughts and questions plagued her for a while, mainly about her sister's whereabouts and brief encounter with the man named Noel. Her last thought, however, before finally succumbing to her tiredness, was of the latter. Of his eyes, more specifically. She wanted to know more about him, about what was it that he had experienced that made him have such a piercing and yet understanding stare.
***