I'm not quite sure what to say about this. It's been so long since I've published anything and I feel pretty bad about it. I had a good portion of this written early on, and I kept meaning to update it, but life got in the way. So much has changed for me in the last 9 months, and I ended up revising this chapter time and time again with results that dissatisfied me. I almost gave up but I had a good friend who finally got me to stop beating up on myself and finish it. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

One more thing before I start: I'd like to make a quick note that, in the process of trying to write this, I ended up rewriting a lot of content in previous chapters. This story is an ever changing work of progress and I'm trying to make it reflect the best of my abilities. That said, nothing has changed that significantly effects the plot. If you would like to go back and see what I have done, just check the authors notes for each chapter to figure it out. The only chapters in which I had changed a significant portion of anything are chapters 3, 7, and 8.

Chapter 13

The entrance to the building was narrow. Foliage had spread into every part of the hallway that was still close enough to the doorway to be bathed in light. The rest of the hallway disappeared into a seemingly pitch-black abyss. It looked like nobody had been here in ages, which lent an air of forlorning to the place that made everything feel a little surreal. Hope gazed into the gloom without a word.

Lightning, meanwhile, had her attention on something else. She watched as Cid reached into his pocket and pulled out a small translucent orb. She raised an eyebrow, giving Cid a questioning look but he didn't even give her a glance at her as he pressed his thumb to the rounded object. The ball immediately lit up, drawing Hope's attention away from the doorway and to Cid. The teen also gave Cid a questioning look.

Lightning turned her gaze back to the darkness. Like Hope, she couldn't see a thing. She brought her gaze up to the building. It seemed structurally sound. It rose above them like a mighty fortress of bricks and cement. Even with some visible deterioration to the external structure – cracked, fallen bricks, and even a few holes – it looked incredibly sturdy. She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking about her sister and what they might possibly find in this building. Then, without waiting for her companions, she walked forward.

As both Hope and Cid followed suit, the teen could see, in the light of Cid's orb, that the inside of the building was bare – nothing more than an empty hallway with white walls and a tile floor. It reminded Hope a little bit of a hospital. There was a desolate feeling to the place and a sense of anxiety that accompanied it deep in his gut. He didn't know what lay beyond, but, so far, he didn't like this place.

They didn't get far before the corridor ended, the light from Cid's ball casting a glow on the wall that met them as they moved forward. For a second, Hope thought this was it – that they had reached a dead end. He wondered if they had missed something. Should they go back? Then, as they got closer, he saw that what he thought was the end of the hall was actually a platform. The tile floor became metal with railing on all sides. Would this take them somewhere?

Indeed, there was a panel on the platform from which its movement could be controlled. As the three of them stepped onto it, Lightning pushed the single button and, after several jolting movements, the platform slowly came to life, sinking down into the encroaching darkness below.

It didn't take long at all for it to reach the bottom. As it came to a creaky stop, they were met with the sight of a hallway disappearing into a further obscurity. Here, the walls and the floors were made of sheets of metal stretching between great steel beams. It reminded Hope a lot of the hallways in the fifth arc. The ceiling and the floor seemed to be lined with lights, but some of them were shattered and the ones that weren't didn't appear to be working.

As they made their way down the hall, it quickly become clear that it was longer than the one before it. Even more so than before, Hope felt claustrophobic in the small dark corridor. He wasn't sure how long it stretched on, but his unease grew as the darkness closed in behind them, isolating him further and further from the entrance as they walked.

It was several minutes in before anything happened. As Hope put his foot down for what felt like the thousandth time, he felt something on the ground sliding underneath him. He stumbled, momentarily losing his balance. Then he heard Lightning's voice and felt a sturdy hand on his shoulder. "Thanks, Light," he said, grateful that she was there to catch his fall. As he turned his gaze to the floor, he saw that it was completely covered in bullet shells.

"Hmm," Cid murmured, lowering his orb to the floor and then raising it back up again. Hope scanned their surroundings, noting, with unease, that the walls were dented. There were even tiny bullet-sized holes in some places, revealing an intricate tangle of wires underneath the paneling.

"What...what is this?" he asked softly, taking several steps forward as he stared at their surroundings. He nearly jumped when he felt something being crushed under his foot with a crack. Glancing down, what Hope saw caused his blood to run cold.

He was stepping on bone.

He let out a yelp that surprised even himself and stepped back. Cid turned around, bathing the light on Hope, and the teenager saw an entire human skeleton laying before him. Hope couldn't hold back the shiver that ran up his spine. He didn't know why it bothered him. It shouldn't have. He had seen far worse things. Why should this bother him?

Cid crouched over, studying the remains. "It's a male," he said after several moments, "Too short to be Snow."

"You can tell just by looking?" Hope asked.

"I can tell by the shape of the pelvis," Cid responded with a shrug. He didn't seem too fazed by it.

Lightning had already turned away by this point, showing no interest in the bones. As she walked on, Hope and Cid followed suit. The farther they got down the tunnel, the more strange things they saw: More bullet shells, signs of burning, several discarded rifles. They even discovered a crushed chocobo skull, though Hope couldn't, for the life of him, even begin to fathom how such a large bird could have gotten down this narrow hallway. Even farther down, they began to run across the bones of beasts. They had been picked bare, though telltale bullet holes made it clear what fate had befallen them.

Finally, in the light of Cid's sphere, the end of the tunnel came into view. The passage ended in a big solid sliding door, split down the middle like the door of an elevator. To the side, it looked like there had been some sort of panel that allowed one to open the door, but it had been ripped out of the wall, the wires haphazardly sticking out in every direction.

Lightning stopped before the door, studying it for a moment before rapping her knuckles against it. A solid, metallic cling echoed through the hall. Lightning sighed. "Have to open it somehow," she murmured. She began to wedge her fingers between the area where the two sides of the door met. "Hmff," she murmured, straining with the effort.

Hope leaped in to help her, then Cid, and soon the three of them were grunting and straining with the effort of trying to open the door. The door, however, wouldn't even budge. After several minutes of pushing, Hope gave in, panting from the effort as he sat down on the floor.

"I don't think it can be forced open," Cid said, taking a step back. Hope wanted to agree but he was still too out of breath to respond.

Lightning made a sound between a grunt and an intake of breath. Then, without warning, she drew her gunblade, pointed it at the door, and began to fire.

The first bullet ricocheted off the door. Hope held his head and ducked. The sound of bullets kept coming and, for a moment, Hope wondered if she had gone mad.

Finally, the firing stopped and, as Hope looked up, he found Lightning standing there, her arm drooping to one side as she held the gunblade. She looked furious yet exhausted and the only thing she had done was leave several dozen tiny dents in the door.

Lightning raised her gun to try again and, without thinking, Hope found himself standing up and grabbing her arm. "Wait, Light," he said, a hint of distress in his voice, "I don't think that's going to help."

Lightning regarded him for a moment before looking away. She gently pulled her arm out of his grasp and took a step towards the door.

Cid crouched down, studying where the panel had once been. Hope looked at the wires and thought back to when they had first awoken from stasis. "Light," he tried, feeling cautious "Remember that shop in the city we awoke in? You got that save station working? Perhaps you could...do something?" He turned to the wire-filled gape in the wall, hoping she would get what he was suggesting

She shook her head. "That was different. Like Vanille's robot. The components were there. The components here are missing entirely."

Hope slumped. What could he possibly do to help?

"Hm...if the door is being held closed by a power source of some sort, we might be able to open it by short-circuiting the entire system..." It was Cid. He looked expectantly to Lightning, who gazed back at him challengingly, as if to say, 'So what? You expect me to fix it?'

It might have turned into a staring contest if Hope hadn't broken the silence with a sneeze. Both eyes were suddenly on him and, for a moment, he didn't even know what to say. Then he looked to the absent panel, back to Cid, and finally to Lightning. "It sounds like it might work," he said rather meekly, though he really knew nothing about it.

Lightning gave Cid a look that could only be described as contempt before turning to the panel. She seemed to know what to do as she placed her hands over the wire and focused on it. She closed her eyes and, for a moment, a spark of electricity surrounded her, lighting up the darkness around her with an eerie glow. Then she channeled her energy into the wires. Abruptly, everything around them lit up, the ceiling lamps coming on. They flickered for a moment. Then, without warning, they shattered completely, sending shards of glass raining down on them. Everything went dark – even Cid's orb as it fell to the floor.

For a moment, Hope groped about in the darkness. Pain spiked up his arm as he felt something pierce his hand. Then, just as abruptly as the light had gone out, the light from Cid's ball came flickering back on. Again, their surroundings were bathed in light. Hope found that he had several shards of glass imbedded in his hand. The pain and the concern for his own well being, however, completely faded away when he saw Lightning. She was laying back across the floor, her eyes closed.

"Light!" he yelped, quickly going to her side. He shook her shoulders and, when she didn't respond, reached to her neck to feel for a pulse. Before he could get there, however, a hand swatting his own hand away. There was a great sense of relief upon realizing that the hand belonged to Lightning.

She opened her eyes. She looked like she had gotten a good jolt, but other than that, seemed okay. She sat up, turning to Cid and glaring at him. Her eyes seemed to say 'This better not have been for nothing.' Then she seemed to notice the glass imbedded in Hope's hand.

"Hope," she said, crinkling her brows at she took his hand in hers. Hope found his face going warm as she examined his palm. There was a mild disappointment when Cid took over and mended it with a cure spell.

With everything back together, they could finally turn their focus back to the door. This time, when Lightning tried to slide it open, with some difficulty, it budged. Both Cid and Hope jumped to her aid and, with their help, she eventually got it open far enough for them to turn sideways and slip through one at a time.

Lightning was the first to go in and Hope soon followed. As Cid finally came through with his light, the three of them found they were in an elevator-like room. There was another door but, when Lightning tried this one, it opened relatively easily. As the light shined into the corridor, Hope heard a sudden clicking noise.

There was a moment where time seemed to stand still as the barrel of a gun came into view. Then Hope found himself shoved up against the wall, wedged between the plaster and Lightning's body. There was barely time to comprehend what was going on as the sound of rapid gunfire filled his ears. By the time he even thought that maybe he should be afraid, it was already over.

There was a brief moment of tension as Lightning continued to hold him against the wall. He could feel his own rapid heartbeat and heavy breathing. Or maybe it was Lightning's.

Then a light filled the room and this time it wasn't from Cid. It appeared that the ceiling light had come on.

Lightning let go and Hope stepped away from the wall, feeling just a little dizzy. His eyes wandered to the machine gun mounted on the ceiling, and then the door they had come through. While Lightning's gunblade had barely left a dent in the door, the bullets from the machine gun had completely torn it asunder.

Lightning fired several bullets at the machine gun, effectively decommissioning it. She didn't look too pleased by this turn of events.

"I believe that was a booby trap," Cid said, staring up at it. Somehow, in the midst of everything, he had managed to remain unscathed.

Lightning snorted. For a moment, she looked like she was going to say something. But in the end, she turned away. "Let's just keep going," she said. "I didn't come all this way for nothing."

As they crept through the door, the three of them found themselves in a lengthy hallway. Like the hall they had just come from, it was sterile looking place with metal paneling stretching along its length. A number of heavy-looking steel double doors lined the walls.

"Let's look down here first," Cid said, coming to the first door. It had a large panel above it on which there was a single letter: B. Hope wasn't sure what it meant, but he followed as Lightning and Cid took the lead.

With a creak, Cid opened the door to another hallway. The hallway was lined with solid steel doors, each labeled with a number next to B – B1, B2, B3, etc. Lightning tried for the first door but found it was locked. "Hnng," she grunted, glancing at the door then back to Cid.

"Maybe we should check out that room," Hope suggested, noticing that the door down the hall was slightly ajar.

As Hope reached the door and peeked inside, what he saw caused his breath to hitch in his throat. "Come look at this," he whispered, unable to hide the discomfort in his voice. Like the hall, the room was in disarray. The floor was cracking, various tiles were missing from the ceiling, and the paneling was peeling from the wall. Several technologically sophisticated-looking machines lined the wall and in the very middle was what looked like an operating table. Next to it was a tray that hung from the ceiling in what looked like an intricate array of mechanical arms. The tray was filled with a number of rusted tools. But what made Hope most uneasy about the room were several red streaks across the table and tray.

Lightning and Cid were silent as they arrived on the scene. The three of them walked into the room, examining its contents. Cid picked a tool off tray, weighing it in his hand, while Lightning walked over to a sink along the wall, running a finger along the concave, dust-coated surface.

"Let's go," she said after a moment. "There's nothing here." As she turned and walked towards the door, all Hope could do was follow.

As they moved from room to room, the same scene replayed over and over: identical rooms with identical machines and an identical operating table. Sometimes the tray was filled with medical tools; other times it wasn't. A number of the rooms had traces of blood smeared across various surfaces.

There was an air of uneasiness as they explored these rooms but they didn't seem to hold anything other than the remnants of some sort of medical facility. What it was used for was a complete mystery.

Lightning remained silent through the whole affair, her features void of any sort of emotion or reaction to what they were seeing. This only added to Hope's unease.

"I've seen enough here," Lightning finally growled, obviously growing impatient.

Cid looked to her with a nod. "We should check another area," he said.

Hope didn't need to be persuaded further.

They left the wing, moving back up the hall to wing A. The door was locked, but it didn't take more than a bullet to the lock to open it.

Inside, they found what appeared to be a prison. The entire right side of the hallway was filled with cells. None of them held life, but some of them did hold the bones of monsters. These ones were closed, but other cells were opened.

"Look at this," Cid said, walking into one of the open cells. He opened a small door at the back. As Hope leaned down and peered inside, he found himself looking back into one of the previously visited medical rooms.

"Guess we know what was on those tables now," Cid commented.

Lightning didn't have anything to say. She walked silently from cell to cell, studying their contents. Hope hesitated for a moment before walking up to her. "Find anything?" he asked as casually as he could muster.

Lightning turned to look at him before shaking her head. She remained silent, though Hope didn't mind. Being in Lightning's proximity made him feel just a little less anxious about this facility. He was a bit surprised when Lightning spoke. "I don't trust this place." she said, her voice low as she glanced to him.

Hope looking into her eyes. "I don't like it here either," he said without much hesitation. "I mean...I..." he started, wanting to be careful with his words on the topic. "Your sister," he finally continued, swallowing. "Do you think she is here?"

Lightning's expression remained fixed, not even changing when her sister was mentioned. "No," she said. "But...if we leave now..."

Hope could sense her voice cracking ever so slightly. He hesitated for a moment. Then he reached out and touched her hand, unable to look at her as he gently took it in his.

Her gloved hand was cool to the touch. He was mildly surprised. But it wasn't unpleasant. He simply held it, unsure what else to do to show his support. He felt her fingers tense slightly under his grip. Then he heard a voice from down the hall and, without thinking, he let go.

"I don't think there is anything here," Cid's voice echoed down the cooridor as he walked towards the pair.

Lightning turned towards him. She studied him for a moment as he approached them. "Right," she said, meeting his gaze. She walked up to him, giving him a brief nod before striding past him.

And so it went. They moved on, checking out one wing after another. C wing, which was also adjacent to B wing, was filled with cells that housed the remains of more beasts. D wing was filled with labs equipped with various sorts of equipments and machines. Curiously enough, they didn't run into any more booby traps. That didn't, however, stop Hope from seeing things out of the corner of his eyes –or at least thinking he had seen something. But whenever he turned to face whatever he was seeing, there was nothing there. He pushed it to the back of his mind, thinking he must be seeing the flicker of shadows.

It wasn't until they reached wing F that they discovered the first curiosity. This facility had been strange, seeming to be a conjoint facility with labs and pens for storing what Hope could only assume were chocobos based on the bones the pens contained. It was in one of these conjoined labs that they made the discovery: a man trapped in crystal stasis.

He was a man in a steril lab coat. He looked to be in his late forties, his expression frozen in a state of mute shock.

Cid walked up to the man, his brow crinkled as he studied the crystal. Hope glanced to Lightning. Her lips were drawn into a thin tight line. She looked tense.

"I guess he completed his focus," Cid said.

Hope didn't know what to say. He didn't recognize this man. "And why would I?" he thought, his mind turning back to their situation. He had been frozen for over 300 years. It was still something that he couldn't quite fathom

"His focus..." Lightning mumbled.

"It could be why this place was abandoned so suddenly..." Cid responded.

"That doesn't help us," she snapped, sounding irritated.

"And why wouldn't it?"

As the two debated the meaning of the find, Hope found himself looking around the room. It looked to be a lab of some sort. Broken glass – the remains of beakers and petri dishes – littered the floor. Several incredibly bulky and advanced looking microscopes lined the counters. A couple of notebooks stood on the counter, tattered and discolored from the advance of time.

Lightning said something but Hope missed it. Gazing at the notebooks, he noticed that one of the pages that was sticking out of the book and a very familiar word jumped out at him: fal'Cie.

He walked over to the book, staring at it, almost afraid to touch as his hand hovered above it. The thing was hand written. It looked almost like some sort of diary. In the background, he heard Lightning and Cid's voice, probably arguing over something, but he drowned it out, his mind entirely focused on the book. He flipped to the page that had the word 'fal'Cie. The ink was blotched in some places but he managed to make out one passage:

"Subject XIII seems to be doing well. All aspects of his physiology are normal. His growth is on par with his human peers. Doctor Vonnegut has suggested that we keep an eye out for any irregularities associated with his genetic makeup but, by all accounts, he seems to be a perfectly normal human child. There doesn't appear to be an ounce of fal'Cie in him."

An ounce of fal'Cie in him? Were they refering to a l'Cie? But what sort of experiment would involve a l'Cie?

"Hope?"

Hope gave a little start and turned around. It was Lightning. "Huh?"

"Let's check the next room down. There might be more," she said, turning her gaze to the crystallized man.

"Alright," Hope said, nodding at Lightning. Before they left, he stuffed the book into his back pocket. He wasn't sure why. But it seemed like it was information that might come in handy.

As they checked the rooms all up and down the hall, they found nothing more of interest. No more crystallized people. Nothing but more broken down labs and skeletal remains. And after methodically searching several more wings with similar results, they found themselves back in the main hall.

"I don't get it," Lightning murmured, her voice low. "There's no sign of her." There was no emotion in her voice. It sent a chill down Hope's spine.

"We haven't covered everything," Cid said, though he looked rather uncertain himself.

Hope wasn't entirely sure what to say or think about the situation. It was seeming like the more they searched, more hopeless their search seemed. Still, as he looked at Lightning, he felt obliged to say something. It was almost eerie how she was remaining so calm and emotionless in the face of her situation.

Hope started thinking about what he could say when, without warning, a low, unnatural noise filled the air. The hair on the back of his neck was suddenly standing on end. It was somewhat wispy – almost like a bizarre, high-pitched moan – and it sounded like it was coming from wing A.

"What is that?" Hope croaked. His face had visibly paled.

Lightning hesitated. She didn't like the sound. Still, she found herself moving towards it. The sound of her boots clacking against the floor suddenly seemed too loud as she made her way to the door. It had been left slightly ajar. She reached out slowly, hesitantly. Gripping the handle, she took a deep breath. Then she swung it open. What she saw caused her heart to skip a beat.

Each and every last cell contained a Cie'th.

"H-how?" Hope said, coming up from behind her.

Lightning shook her head, closing her eyes and opening them again. This was not possible. This couldn't be possible. These cells had been empty before. How could they now be filled with Ciet'h? Someone had to have done this. Were they not alone?

As she stepped into the room, Cid and Hope following. She gazed at the row of cells lining the room. They were like no Cie'th Lightning had seen before. They were thin and spindly, their backs sloping downward as they stood on all fours. They were mainly a dark, inky black, barb-like protrusions jutting from various limbs and joints on their body. Despite their appearance, they still somehow managed to retain the humanoid shape of most early stage Cei'th. Some of them were stumbling about in the small space while others just sat there, their bodies turned towards her as if they were watching – regardless of the fact that they had no eyes.

A creaking sound suddenly filled the air. She turned around just in time to witness the door snapping shut behind them.

Lightning immediately went to it. She tried to handle but it was locked. "Dammit," she hissed, pulling on it, but it wouldn't budge.

There was a sudden rattle and, all at once, the bars to the cages began to slide upward.

"Another trap?" Cid suggested, looking quite calm for the situation.

"You think?" Lightning snapped.

Hope looked between the door and the Cie'th, his heart throbbing madly. The Cie'th began to crawl out of their cells. Like most Cie'th, their gait was lumbering and unsteady. Still, it had an intention to it that spooked him. The way they moved their bony limbs almost reminded him of ants – ants homing in on a potential kill.

"Open up!" Lightning snarled, pushing furiously on the door. Cid joined her, but the door would not budge. Then, without warning, the lights dimmed and flickered. The gentle humming that seemed to fill the facility came to a sudden stop.

Then the lights went out completely.

Hope froze. The complete and utter darkness seemed to amplify every little sound: his own breathing, Lightning cursing under her breath, Cid's feet gently brushing against the floor. What spooked him most, though, was the gentle scratching noise that permeated the darkness – a sound not unlike a hundred rakes being scraped simultaneously across a wooden floor.

"It won't work," Cid hissed.

Hope could hear a rattling noise and a soft metallic clink. For a moment, things lit up around them. Hope could see Cid was holding the ball, tapping it with his hand. But the light was brief. The ball suddenly went dark.

An inhuman scream rung through the halls. Hope tried to back up but found he couldn't move. His limbs wouldn't even budge."Wail" Hope thought. It was a move designed to paralyze. The breath seemed to leave his lungs as the scraping got louder. He was completely defenseless.

Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hope! Move!"

It was Lightning's voice. The temporary paralysis was wearing off. With his body starting to respond, he took the survival knife out of his pocket and moved back towards the door. A flash suddenly filled the room and he could see Lightning bearing down upon one of these creatures, one hand on her gunblade and another filled with electricity. Then, just as fast, the light went out and all her could hear was the clunk of her gunblade as it hit something in the darkness.

He turned about, confused and disoriented without a source of light. It suddenly occurred to him that he could make his own light. Bringing up his wrist, he flicked it into the gloom, and for a moment, everything lit up around them: his companions, the hallway, the Cie'th. The monsters were bearing down on them. The light went out with the flames and Hope realized that their only choice was to blindly fight these creatures in the dark.

Hope aimed a firaga at what he hoped was the nearest Cei'th, managing to just barely jump away from a Ruin aimed in his direction. Then it was dark again. He found himself backing right into the wall, preparing to aim a second spell. Before he could get it out, though, something hit him, knocking him to the floor completely. In the dark, he hadn't seen the attack coming but, as the light from his firaga once again temporarily illuminated the hallway, he could see a Cie'th towering over him.

Hope moved in towards the door. He felt himself backing up against another body. He wasn't sure if it was Cid's or Lightning's, but as another flash from Lightning's thundaga filled the hallway with a temporary light, he saw that the Cie'th were gaining on them at a whole. They were cornered and more were coming.

Then, he felt a hand on his wrist, and suddenly he was being dragged. "This way!" Lightning shouted and as another tundaga illuminated the hallway, Hope could see they were heading towards one of the cells. There was a Cie'th in their path. Again, a piercing shriek rang through the hall, but Cid already had a wave of esuna ready.

"I'LL CATCH UP," he shouted and Hope found his legs moving, Lightning still gripping him around the wrist. Another light illuminated the hallway – another thundaga – and Hope could see that Lightning was opening the trap door in the cell that led to the lab on the other side.

It wasn't large, but he aimed right for it. The lights went out again.

"Light?" he said, panting as he stood up on the other side. In the pitch black, he couldn't see a thing. Then he felt an arm on his shoulder.

"Be quiet."

Hope did as she said. An unsettling silence filled the room. Not even the sounds from the room over permeated the air. Hope nearly jumped when he heard the trap door being pushed open.

"Those Cie'th. I think they have been experimented on."

It was Cid's voice. Hope could hear him feeling around, knocking things over. Then, suddenly, there was a click and everything around them became illuminated, his orb once again working.

"This isn't the-" Lightning started, but a banging on the other side of the trap door interrupted her.

"We've got to get out of here," she finished, heading towards the lab's exit. Hope followed her. As she swung the door open, however, they were met with the site of a Cie'th. Lightning immediately shut it.

"We need to block both entrances." Lightning said, moving to a large machine and trying to push it. Hope got up to go help her and soon the three of them were dragging things in front of the doors together: anything to keep the Cie'th from getting in.

"There are too many Cie'th. We can't take them all on. Not without the synergist paradigm ." Lightning said, going to fetch a chair.

"Perhaps we can get out of here without running into them again," Cid said, his eyes wandering to the wall. It took Hope a moment to see what he was looking at, but when he finally saw the cover over the vent, he realized what Cid was suggesting. It was several feet off the floor and it looked like it was just large enough to crawl into.

Lightning didn't seem against this at all. She kicked the cover in and examined the crawl space. "It's worth a try." Lightning said after a short pause.

It was indeed large enough to fit the three of them; even Cid managed to squeeze in, though with a bit of difficulty. Still, the space was cramped. Hope couldn't help but feel a bit claustrophobic as he took up the lead. "How far do we need to go?" he asked, turning his head back to glance at his two companions.

"As far away from the Cie'th as this will take us," Lightning muttered indignantly. She didn't seem too happy about the situation.

It was a task easier said than done. Hope was doing okay, crawling through the air ducts, but it was slow going. For Lightning, who was larger than him, and Cid, who was larger than both of them, it was a bit of a struggle. They were constantly bumping up against the sides and hitting their elbows. Hope couldn't help bunch wince. It sounded painful.

If that didn't make things bad enough, the vents were stuffy. It was obvious they hadn't been used in years. Every movement seemed to kick some sort of dust into the air, obscuring their vision and making it hard to breath. Eventually, Hope pulled his bandana up over his mouth and used it to keep the dust out. Even so, it wasn't long before exhaustion began to take hold.

Hope stopped, taking a moment to rest his head against the floor. There was a vent underneath him and, below, he could see anther room. He was about ready to continue when something caught his eye.

He glanced down into the room and his heart gave a sudden jolt. 'I must be hallucinating,' he thought, shaking his head as he stared down between the bars. He couldn't be seeing what he was seeing...could he?

"Hope?"

It was Lightning. He glanced back to her, and then down to the room. "Light...there's something in this room," he said. He took out Lightning's knife, using it to unscrew the screws keeping the lid to the vent in place. He dropped down to the floor. The entire room was dark, but what had caught Hope's attention was glowing brightly.

He walked over to it, disbelief in his eyes as he gazed at the star-shaped object before him. It was sitting in a glass container perched on the counter.

He wrapped his fingers around the container, his eyes glued to the glowing green shape inside.

It was an eidolith. More specifically, it was his eidolith.

I'm slightly curious about something. I've had very iffy feelings about Hope's age throughout this fic. I promised, from the start, that there would be no mature content. (In other words, i'm not going to write a sex scene.) My original plan was to simply keep it chaste and ignore any darker implications completely. That said, I feel slightly torn now. While part of me still wants to keep the HopexLightning chaste and innocent with little mention of age, another part of me wants to explore the taboo nature of such a relationship. I see this manifesting itself in three possible ways: the original idea of a chaste relationship that mostly ignores the issue of age, a chaste relationship that touches up on the issue of age more deeply, and a third option. The third option would be exploring the issue of age and completely throwing chastity out the window. Again, I reiterate the fact that I am not going to write any mature content. At the same time, this would involve the implication that something happened between them, perhaps even going as far as having a deeply intimate scene that stops just short of being mature. I don't, however, want to squick my already established audience if that would be too much for you guys. So please tell me your thoughts and feelings about this. What do you guys want? How much can you handle?