Welcome, dear readers, to the very last chapter of "Lightning Returns – A FFXIII-2 story".

Lightning was falling. Again.

To be honest, she was getting kind of tired of it. You can only plummet to your death so many times before it gets a bit dull. She could still feel the strange vibrating sensation coming from her abdominal area. Something beyond gravity was pulling her downwards, making her fall even faster. She shot a quick glance over her shoulder. Far below her was a large, flowering meadow, surrounded by an even larger forest. I'm on Pulse, she realized, smiling a little to herself. It's beautiful.
Above her she could see Bhunivelze, so alike yet so different from old Cocoon. You could easily tell it was an artificially created celestial body, but Lightning found it beautiful anyway. Hope created that, she thought with pride. Of course it's beautiful.
Lightning closed her eyes. She made a coy attempt to reach for her magical powers, but came up with nothing. Her l'Cie abilities were gone; she was finally human again. She smiled again, feeling a bit relieved. If she had to disappear from this world, she wanted to do it as a normal human girl.

Lightning was close enough to the ground to hear all of Pulse's characteristic sounds; the waves on the lake, the wind soaring through the tree tops, voices frantically shouting her name… She furrowed her eyebrows in slight confusion and took another peek at the ground below her. A handful of people were scattered around the meadow.
"No way," Lightning exclaimed when she was close enough to recognize their faces. They were all there; Serah and Snow, Sazh and Dajh, Noel – and, of course, Hope.
Hope was standing right below her, holding some sort of device in his hands. As the distance between them rapidly shrunk, he tossed it on the ground and held out his arms.
"Hope, watch out!" Lightning yelled when she realized she was going to land right on top of him.
"It's okay, I've got you!" Hope yelled back, still holding out his arms. Oh, crap, Lightning thought, hit by a sudden premonition. He can't be planning what I think he's planning.
"I'll catch you!" Hope added, confirming her suspicion. Just by hearing the tone of his voice, Lightning knew he was wearing that goofy, slightly cocky grin on his face again. She was just about to yell at him again when her fall finally came to an end. She braced herself for the collision – but it never came. Two strong arms stopped her from ever touching the ground.
"I've got you, sweetheart," Hope murmured, holding her close to his chest. "I've got you."
The impact had brought him down on his knees, but he'd caught her. He'd actually caught her. After making sure she was resting securely in his lap, he removed his arm from under her knees and let it encircle her waist instead. He rested his forehead against hers and held her even closer. "I've got you," he whispered over and over. "I've got you."

"Uhm, Hope?" Lightning wheezed after a while. "I can't breathe."
Hope eased his grip a little, but kept her in his arms. At first he looked a bit confused, but he soon grasped the underlying meaning of her words. "You're human again," he stated, gingerly caressing her cheek as if he'd break her if he wasn't careful enough.
"I'm human again," she confirmed. She beamed at Hope, and a soft giggle escaped from her lips. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd felt so… free. The feeling was intoxicating. She was human. She was alive. She was home.
She wrapped her arms around Hope's neck and kissed him softly on the lips. Hope's startled look made her giggle again. Her laughter was interrupted moments later when Hope left his state of shock and shut her up by hungrily kissing her back.
Somehow, it never ceased to amaze her how Hope could act like the goofy kid she used to know and then change into a self-confident, possessive male from one moment to the next. The man currently kissing her didn't have a single trace of the 14 year-old's awkward shyness. Lightning made a mental note to never, ever underestimate Hope Estheim.
Hope, now more aggressive than gentle, tilted her head backwards and deepened the kiss. Lightning entangled her fingers in his silver hair, and she could feel the hand placed on her waist start to wander upwards. A sigh escaped from her lips, a tiny exhalation of air sounding suspiciously like a moan.
"Oh my- sis!" an aghast voice yelped from behind Hope's back.
"Serah?" Lightning was out of Hope's arms and back on her feet in less than a second.
"I knew it!" Serah was practically bouncing. "Oh, this is just perfect! I'm so happy for you." Lightning didn't know what to say, so she settled with a smile. Everything she'd been through felt distant now that Serah was alive and safe. Happy. Glowing. Lightning suddenly noticed the very well-defined bump on Serah's stomach.
"You're… You're pregnant?" Lightning asked, unsure how to react. She'd never been the motherly type, and had never even really thought about having kids.
"Seven months," Serah cheerfully admitted. She grabbed Lightning's hand, and before Lightning could come up with an excuse Serah had placed the hand on her stomach. "He's been kicking like crazy all morning, can you feel it?"
Oh yes, Lightning could definitely feel it, and she was just as terrified as she was astonished. "I'm… I'm becoming an aunt. Wow. I'm becoming an aunt. It's a 'he'?" Serah nodded. "Hi there, nephew." Lightning awkwardly patted Serah's belly and tried to calculate for how long she'd been gone. Serah hadn't been pregnant when she'd stayed overnight in their guest room, had she?
"I think the word you're searching for is 'congratulations'," Snow said with a chuckle, wrapping an arm around Serah's slim shoulders. Lightning remembered when the two had just started dating. She couldn't understand at all what Serah had seen in that easygoing giant back then. She didn't fully understand it now either, but even she could see that these two belonged together. Even though they looked a bit ridiculous with their height difference.
"I never thought I'd say this, but yeah, you're right." Lightning grinned at Snow's attempt to look offended. "Congrats. To both of you."
Serah slipped out from Snow's half-embrace and threw her arms around Lightning's neck, almost making them both fall over. Serah was a lot heavier than she used to be.
"Thank you, sis," she said with tears in her eyes. "You're going to be a great aunt."
Lightning had her doubts about that, but went with it anyway. Serah was happy, and that was all that mattered.
"Please don't cry," she said, stroking Serah over the back. "If you cry, I cry. And it's embarrassing."
Serah just laughed, letting her tears roll freely. "I don't care. I'm pregnant, I'm allowed to cry whenever I want to."
"There she goes, pulling the pregnant card again. She gets away with anything nowadays," Snow added teasingly.
Serah glared at him. "I'm the one who's going to give birth to a giant. I do get away with anything."
Lightning grinned at their quarrel. Their kid wasn't even born yet, yet they still felt like a family.
"Hey there, soldier girl!" Sazh, finally catching up with the group, came up from behind her and gave her a few friendly pats on the back. He then ruffled Lightning's hair in his usual, fatherly way, and gave Hope a not very discrete wink. Hope was up on his feet now too, waiting awkwardly for Lightning and Serah to finish their reunion procedure. He was still wearing a faint blush on his cheeks.
"They grow up so fast, don't they," Sazh muttered to himself, shaking his head.
"Hey, Noel!" Serah shouted to the last member of the group who standing a couple of meters away from the others. "Come over here!"
Noel reluctantly strolled towards them. "Lightning," he said, fixing his gaze on the ground.
"Hi, Noel." Lightning entangled herself from her sister's arms. "What's up?"
Noel looked up from the ground and stared at her incredulously. "Are you serious?" he hissed, quickening his pace. Lightning took a step back, almost tripping over Hope, who'd placed himself right behind her. She glanced up at him, silently asking him what was going on, but Hope looked just as confused as she felt.
Lightning didn't know what to expect when Noel finally reached them. "Are you alr-"
"Shut up!" Noel yelled. "Just- just shut up!" He fell to his knees at Lightning's feet. "Don't treat me like- like everything's okay. Everything's not okay."
"What did I do now?" Lightning asked, perplexed over the whole situation.
"Not you," Noel growled, "me. It's my fault you ended up in Valhalla. I messed up badly in Academia, and people are dead because of me. You saved the world, you saved me, and what do I do to repay that favor? I just let you walk right into there. I let you sacrifice yourself, even though I'm the one who fucked shit up-"
"Language," Serah and Lightning remarked simultaneously.
"Noel." Hope kneeled down next to the boy. "Light always sacrifices herself. That's what she does." He glared a little at Lightning. He hasn't forgiven me for that yet, huh, Lightning thought, fidgeting a little with her cape.
"Anyway," Hope continued, "you couldn't have stopped her. I tried for two full days – I was with her day and night – and she still went through that portal." Serah, Snow and Sazh immediately turned to Lightning at the day and night comment, giving her matching quizzical looks. Lightning ignored them.
"He's right," she said instead, joining the conversation. "I would have done it anyway. Etro was becoming really chatty up here." She pointed at her head. "It was the only plan we had, and it worked. Stop being silly." She reached out her hand and Noel took it, letting her pull him up from the ground.
"I'm sorry, Lightning. I really am."
"It's okay, I promise." Lightning smiled and flicked him on the forehead. "I came back, somehow. Everything's fine now."
Hope looked at them all expectantly, and was just about to speak up when Serah noticed Noel's pants.
"Ugh. Grass stains," she groaned. "I hate grass stains."
"You don't have to wash them," Noel sulked.
"Well, if I don't, no one will. You do not walk around in dirty clothes under my roof," Serah proclaimed, using her schoolteacher voice.
"Oh come on!" Hope suddenly yelled, abruptly interrupting the group's chit-chat. "I can't believe you guys. You haven't asked me a single time how I pulled this off. Did no one notice how I just pulled Lightning out of the realm of the dead without a portal? Huh?"
And there he goes, turning into a 14 year-old again, Lightning thought with an amused snort.
After glaring a little at his companions, Hope suddenly hooked an arm around Lightning's waist and pulled her towards him. He then pulled up the vest of her GC uniform, baring her midriff. Lightning had to make a physical effort not to punch him in the face. "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed instead, trying to pull the vest back down again.
"Just look." Hope pointed at her stomach, or more exactly, her bellybutton piercing. It was still in the shape of a lightning bolt, but the pink gems were now softly blinking in an eerie shade of green. Lightning noticed that the weak, vibrating sensation she still felt in her midriff pulsated in the same rhythm as the blinking gems.
"Hope. What on Pulse did you do?" Lightning growled.
"Saved you." He let her pull down the vest again, but kept his arm around her waist. "It's a transmitter. You've all got one. Mine is on my keychain, Serah's and Snow's are in their Cocoon necklaces, Noel's is in his ring, Sazh's one is in one of the buttons on his jacket…" While Hope talked, everyone in the group began checking their personal items for weird blinking lights.
Hope sighed and made his I'm surrounded by idiots face. "They're hidden until they're turned on, and you'd have to… Never mind." He shook his head in resignation. "I never fully believed that the timelines were completely stable again. That's why I took safety measures. If anyone of you would be cast out of the timeline again, I would be able to call you back here. I'm really glad you found yours, Light. Getting you back here would have been even harder otherwise." He let out a tired chuckle.
"You never gave up for a moment, huh." Lightning leaned against his body, and was once again overwhelmed by how well they just fit together.
"Never."

The group began walking down a narrow path through the forest towards Snow's and Serah's house. They'd sold their old house and moved into a new, bigger one, situated in the outskirts of Oerba. The meadow Lightning had landed in was a part of the forest right outside their garden. When Hope had told them he needed a large, empty field, the meadow had been their immediate suggestion. They hadn't even asked Hope how he was going to bring Lightning home; they'd all just decided to put their trust in him and wait.

It was quickly decided that Lightning was going to live with Serah and Snow in one of their many guestrooms. She would begin her life anew in Oerba – a calmer life, where she wouldn't have to fight anymore. Lightning really liked the thought of that.

"You should probably remove that piercing," Hope suddenly stated. He and Lightning were walking a couple of meters behind the others, who had decided to give the two some space.
"Why?"
"I'm not completely sure how that energy source works in Valhalla. It might be a liiiittle bit radioactive." Hope shrugged apologetically.
"Oh." Lightning fidgeted a little with the silver lightning bolt, which gems were now pink again when Hope's device was turned off.
"Really, you should take it off."
"Uh-huh." She kept playing with the piercing, somehow unable to bring herself to remove it.
Hope chuckled softly. "I can make you a new one, I promise."
"You made it yourself?"
"Yeah. I wanted to be sure it worked. Does that mean you like it, then?"
"It's perfect."
Hope chuckled again, squeezing her hand. He'd grabbed it when they'd first started walking, and hadn't let go ever since. Lightning didn't mind it at all – her hands felt empty when they weren't holding his.
"You really, really should take it off, though," Hope said in a more serious tone.
Lightning sighed. "Alright. Just wait a sec." She let go of his hand and leaned against an old oak, taking off her gloves. The piercing's opening mechanism was easy to find, and the piece of jewelry was out of her body faster than she would have liked. She looked at it longingly before handing it to Hope, who absentmindedly put it in a tiny container from his pocket.
"You will make me another one, right?" Lightning asked.
"Definitely," Hope grunted, his gaze still fixed at her midriff. He was wearing that look on his face again, and it sent shivers down her spine. In two quick strides he was on her, pushing her up against the tree. She wrapped her arms around his neck and crashed her lips into his. She didn't know how long she was stuck in Valhalla, but it was way longer than the five months she'd apparently been missing in the real world. Being without Hope had been the worst part of it. Everything else had been pretty bearable, but missing Hope? Her body and soul had ached the whole time for not being near him. Without him, something inside her felt perpetually wrong.
"I'm sorry I took so long," Hope huffed between kisses. "I had so much to fix at the Academy. Had to clean up Academia after Caius. Otherwise, I worked on the transmitter every waking hour." He let out a short laugh. "And I barely sleep."
"It's okay. I'm here now. I'm home."
"But you always disappear. I don't want to let you out of my sight." Hope trailed soft kisses down her neck.
"Then don't. Come live with us. Serah wouldn't mind it." A gasp escaped from her lips when those soft kisses started to involve teeth. "If you go, I'll come with you. If you stay, I'll stay."
Hope's lips left her skin for a moment. "Do you really mean that?"
"Yes." Lightning looked at him with sincerity in her eyes. "I want to be with you. I…" Lightning paused, afraid to say the words out loud. "I…"
"Say it. Please, say it." Hope stroke some of Lightning's unruly pink locks out of her face and tucked them behind her ear, a motion that had already started to feel familiar.
"We belong together. And…" She took a deep breath. "…And I love you."
She almost laughed at the ease the words actually came. "I love you," she repeated, grinning widely. "I love-"
Hope interrupted her by attacking her lips again. "You have no idea how long I've dreamt of those words," he murmured as he kissed her senseless.

They had just come to the point where clothes start to feel uncomfortable, when they were once again interrupted.
"Hey, sis? Hope? Where did yo- oh no. Oh no. I did not see that." Serah turned away from them, running back the way she came from. Lightning laughed, both at Serah's reaction and at Hope's frustrated sigh.
"So this is how it's going to be when we stay with them, huh," he muttered, brushing twigs and leafs from Lightning's hair.
"I think we'll manage it." She took his hand in hers, entwining her fingers with his. They fit together perfectly.

They began walking towards Serah's and Snow's house again. Home, Lightning corrected herself. We're going home.
She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so free. She no longer bore the burden of protecting a goddess, and the world was finally safe. She was human again, and was finally allowed to live a human life. Every day since her mother died, she'd put on her soldier façade. On her mother's death bed, she became Lightning; an invincible, untouchable warrior. She put off her own life to make sure Serah would be safe – and now, she'd finally succeeded. Her work was done. It was finally her turn to live.

"What are smiling about, Light?" Hope asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Nothing. Everything." She looked down at their hands, so perfectly intertwined, and smiled again. She took a deep breath, and shed her final armor.
"Hope?"
"Yeah?"
"You can call me Claire."

fin

Hello, dear readers. Yes. That was it. Wow. Just… wow. I don't know how this happened, really. This is my very first fanfiction. It's also my very first work of fiction written in English. When I started writing this fic, I had no idea what I was doing. I had just finished playing Final Fantasy XIII-2, and I was crying my eyes out. I just couldn't stand the ending – so I made up my own. That's where this fic came in. In the beginning it was just a therapy, a method of getting over that traumatizing ending, but then it developed into something more. There was a story inside me that just wanted to be shared. So here it is, dear readers. This is my little therapy fic that somehow grew into a 30k+ words novella.

As you may have noticed, some parts of this fic is inspired by trailers to Lightning Returns. Every time a new trailer was released I tried to incorporate parts of it in this fic. It was therefore always my goal to finish this fic before the game itself was released, but hell, it was a close call. I'm writing this at 00:54, November 16th. Lightning Returns is released in five days. Close call, oh yes.

I'm probably going to write oneshots based on this fic in the future. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to post them in this fic or as separate pieces, though. We'll see.

I want to thank you, dear readers, for all the reviews and feedback you've given me. You kept me going, even when school threatened to swallow me whole there for a while. University's a bitch. I don't think I can fully express how much your comments mean to me. I'm not kidding when I say that every single one of them completely made my day. Thank you, lovely readers. Thank you.

Finally, I want to thank my bestie Suzanna. Before I met her, I didn't even read fanfiction. I didn't even ship things. She's always been there for me, even when I suddenly in the middle of the night start typing OMG SUZ I JUST CAME UP WITH WHY NOEL'S FUCKED UP I THINK THIS MIGHT WORK and things like that. She's my rock. She's my person. This fic wouldn't exist without her.

I wish you goodbye for now, but we will meet again. I promise you that.
Love,
Your friendly neighborhood writer
Cia