Try Me

Explanation

Chapter Summary: The first time Lightning hears the small two letter demand, she has no idea of the emotions it is a plea for an explanation. One, she thinks with amusement, Noel Kreiss will not even remember her giving; but, she realizes, it is the beginning of something.

NOTE: This story is set in an alternate universe mainly for this very chapter. This all started because I had an idea that just wouldn't leave me alone. I had planned to end it after this chapter, but it would feel incomplete.

The harsh landing knocked the breath from Lightning's body. She had only gotten a fast glimpse at her surroundings before darkness took over. Still, even as she slipped into unconsciousness, she knew Etro had found a way to save her. There had been an opening just before the explosion. Lightning had shot straight into it as the buildings of Valhalla fell to the ground below. Her last thought had been of Serah and Noel. Had he made it to the gate before the debris could fall onto it?

"What was that?" Noel muttered as he stood from his spot on the pier. He had never felt more lost. Caius had left them. Yeul was gone. He could still feel her there in his arms before she disappeared in blinding golden light. Through the emotional pain, Noel began to walk toward the spot that he had seen the falling figure. His best friends had just left him to this desolate, damn-near empty world.

"Noel!" He turned his head to see the sick young woman that had lived next door to him all of his life. Her name was Ume. She would be beautiful if it weren't for the lifeless look in her eyes. Like many here, Ume had lost her family. Noel was the only one she had left. He shivered underneath the weight of the knowledge. "Did you see that?" She coughed. He nodded sharply.

"Going to check it out now," he told her. She nodded. Her faded brown eyes regarded him with affection and care. It made him shift uncomfortably. All of these people here looked at him as if he were salvation.

"Be careful," she wished of him. Noel nodded again and began to walk away. He could feel her eyes, along with the eyes of many others, tracking his movements. He felt caged like the animals that he hunted. Noel was the only one walking toward the site. The only few people left did not dare to venture out so far away from the young. Used to that consisted of Yeul, Caius, and he. Now, it was only him.

Desperation and fear used his throat to clench up for a moment. Fear, not of the unknown, but for the people that waited just in their huts not a few feet back. They all put so much hope and faith in him. He knew he would fail them. What could he do to save them? There was no magic cure for this hell. Briefly, he thought of the gate that rested a few feet into the pier. He shook his head roughly. No. That was the easy, cowardly way out. He wouldn't leave, not so long as people needed him.

He froze dead in tracks as he reached the site. He knew every man and woman that had ever passed through this land. The beautiful woman that lay at the bottom of the crater was not one he had ever seen; surely he would remember such a beauty. Her ice pink hair was clustered around her neck. Armor of old adored her body almost sensually. Feathers branched out from her armor and draped over one leg. He slid down into the crater to check if she were breathing. He could feel the thrum of her pulse underneath his fingers.

Noel glanced at her body for injuries. The armor she had worn was badly bent in many places. One area in particular worried him: her ribs. The armor was dented deeply just in that area. She more than likely had a few broken bones. Noel cursed his luck. He had enough to deal with back at the small village, but he could not leave her. He studied the armor for a moment. She would breathe easier if he removed it. He reached the ties and loosened them. She moaned low in her throat from the painful relief. Noel flinched. A fall like that should have killed her.

"Just what are you?" He wondered as he scooped her into his arms. It would be a little awkward to walk back into camp with a woman such as she draped into his arms. He would have to deal with the hopeful looks in the eyes of the Ume and the elderly men. He swallowed and unconsciously tightened his arms around her.

Consciousness hurt, Lightning decided. She pushed her pain away and focused on her surroundings. She could feel warm, soft fur over her. After so long of not being able to lie down or even sleep, it felt like a foreign heaven. She could feel the snug bindings of something around her chest and waist. Her foot and ankle were also bound. She was naked except for those bindings, she realized. Something cold touched her overheated forehead. Her eyes flew open in shock at the sudden temperature change. A pale, sickly woman with faded blonde hair and even more faded brown eyes greeted her sight.

"I patched you up the best I could…you'll have to rest for a while though…" The woman whispered. Lightning blinked in confusion as the woman scuttled out of the room. She heard light whispering coming from outside the hut. In that next moment, the flap opened and in stepped a familiar face, a familiar body.

"Noel?" The beautiful woman croaked as she sat up. The cover fell from atop her revealing white bandages stained slightly with the red of blood. She winced in pain at the discomfort in her ribs. Noel tilted his head to the side at the whisper of his name. She knew his name, but he could not recall ever meeting her. His hawk like eyes took in the flinch that she gave at the pain.

"How do you know me?" He demanded. She blinked at him for a moment. Noel swallowed back his impatience as she glanced around at her surroundings. Lightning had seen this setting before, she realized. When Noel had prayed for a miracle, he had been in this place. The bed underneath her was covered with black fur. It was soft underneath her fingertips. She fought off the urge to fall back and curl into the fur again. The area around them was eerily silent. There were none of the sounds that she had grown accustomed to in Valhalla or even the sounds of the Gran Pulse. She turned back to him. She was in his time then, but why had Etro send her here? "Who are you?"

"Lightning," she answered easily. She completely ignored his first question. How would she answer that? The longer she sat underneath the covering of his bed, the more tired she became. How long had it been since she had last slept? How long had she been battling Caius on the other side? The thought of Caius brought another worrying thought to her. If she was here then where was Caius? Had she left Etro unprotected? Her heart raced as she threw her feet over the side of his bed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where are you going?" He asked her as he flocked in front of her. His hands landed gently on her forearms. Lightning tensed. Her very being wanted to strike back against him for touching her, but what would mean to her in Valhalla stopped her. He was her only chance at getting her sister with her. So, she needed him in one piece.

"I need to-" She moved to answer him. She moved to push his hands off of her, but she couldn't complete the action. The pain in her ribs robbed her of breath. It hurt to pull that same breath back in. His blue eyes softened slightly, but she could still see the stern resolve in his eyes.

"What you need," he said softly, "is to lie back down and recover." She bristled slightly at the suggestion. "You'll be of no use to anyone if you go now." He reminded her gently. "You have three broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and numerous lacerations."

'Damn him!' Lightning cursed Caius. The battle before Noel appeared had taken more out of her than she had thought. Physical pain in Valhalla was minimum. Her foot brushed the floor. Experimentally, she pushed her foot down. A sharp stab of pain rocketed through her leg. She clenched her teeth together tightly. 'I had forgotten how badly my body hurt after battle…' She thought. Lightning glanced at the man that still had his gentle, calloused hands on her shoulders. She could feel the smooth metal of his ring against her bare shoulder. His blue eyes implored her to lie back down before she injured herself further. 'Given the state of me, I have no other option…' she thought as she tucked her feet back underneath the warm cover.

"Where am I?" she asked. Noel backed away from her. He leaned against the opposite wall. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"My hut," he answered. "I found you in a crater. Care to explain?" He asked with a tilt of his head. His bangs flicked over his eyes. The blue of them seemed to become more startling in his curiosity. Lightning couldn't stop the smirk that ticked onto her lips.

"I don't think you would believe me," she told him. 'You would not remember anyway,' she added. 'Assuming that all of this has already happened…' He raised his eyebrows at that.

"Try me." So, she did. After a moment, he moved. He didn't leave like she thought he would; instead, he shifted onto his left leg, folded his right arm over his chest, and touched his hand to his chin. Clearly, he was thinking. It was oddly attractive, Lightning decided. Before-when she met him in Valhalla, she hadn't studied him closer than the glance it took to make sure he was alright and listening to her. When she had first seen his tiny form (tiny in relevance only to Serah's first choice of protector-Snow), she had doubted him capable of the job. It was only the hope and strength she saw in his blue eyes that made her want to give him the chance to prove her wrong. Those same blue eyes were now regarding her silently. He removed his hand from underneath his jaw. "I believe you." He said finally. Lightning blinked. He read the questions in her green eyes easily. A small smirk twitched onto his lips. "You fell out of the sky," he pointed out. "You looked like some sort of fairy tale goddess with all of that feather decorated armor. We certainly don't wear that here…" She raised an eyebrow at the description of her. Caius Ballad frequently called her the same thing during their battles, but with Caius it was mainly in mocking. Noel sounded completely in awe of her. It threatened to cause her to blush like the school girl she no longer was. "It's really not all that hard to believe." Noel watched her eyes dip closed for a moment. "Sleep," he told her gently, "there's no real danger here." The end of his sentence hung heavily in the air: 'not anymore.'

'No,' Lightning thought as she curled underneath Noel's fur blankets, 'it's just been unleashed upon the past and Valhalla…' Her worry for the Goddess Etro returned full force and lured her away from the hands of sleep. 'I'll only stay until I recover…'