![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
[FFXIII-2] Anonymous (Part4a) 7194words
Title: Anonymous
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Character/Pairing(s): ...Hope and IT'S A SECRET
Rating: PG
Warning: Wordy. I just rewrote Hope's life, part the third.
Summary: Hope's got a secret admirer who only leaves presents on Valentine's Day.
“So you’ve never even walked around Academia? Not once?”
“I have.” Hope protested, feeling his face flush at Noel’s incredulous stare. “Perhaps not every street, but I do know where everything is.”
“But you said they hadn’t finished building the city when you — left.” Noel gestured to the buildings out the window where they were situated, on one of the top floors of the Academy building with a panoramic view of the cityscape beneath them. The windows, Hope had explained to Noel, were made of a material that had only been invented within the last dozen years, and the Academy had slowly been replacing their window panels with the nanotech, starting from the top down.
Hope had barely glanced past the schematics and chemical composition a few seconds, allowing himself a brief moment to be amazed at the complexity and discoveries within the past four hundred years. It was inspiring and breath-taking and had he taken more than a few seconds to think upon it, he might have been dizzy at the sheer concept.
It was one of the reasons he sought to immerse himself in his work, sliding easily and comfortably back behind a computer terminals with a few hours to update himself on the improvements in technology the past several centuries. The first few days had been filled with embarrassing amateur mistakes, which the other scientists had borne with amazing patience and grace, smiling at him whenever the frustration at not understanding how programs worked and then taking the time away from their own projects in order to explain things to him… quite thoroughly, enough to make his mind spin.
“The schematics were not yet complete.” Hope confirmed, shifting from behind his desk to turn his attention from his work to Noel. “The Academy had several hundred submissions from aspiring architects and technicians on the development of the city. The final layout became a fusion between several designers.”
One of which had been his designs, much to Hope’s shock. It had been a pet project of his, back when he was a teenager, taking out his frustration and aggression by creating the winding streets of a design that became more and more complex the longer he worked at it. He didn’t think anyone would take his blueprints seriously at all. It had been his father who urged him to submit his design after studying the intricacies.
Noel studied him for a moment, prompting Hope to return his attention to the words on the computer screen, feeling like he was missing something greater than the confusion some of the terminology brought him.
The language, it seems, had evolved in four hundred years. Too many technical terms he had learned growing up didn’t even exist anymore, and more words had taken their place. Time had brought new trends, new methods, and new awareness from people. It was all —
“Let’s go.” Noel spoke suddenly, breaking Hope from his thoughts. “After this. I’ll show you around. It’s your city, you know, and the people here really love you. You should get to know this place — talk to the people.”
But that wasn’t right. Academia wasn’t his city; rather, it was a city built by the people and homes to thousands. If anything, it was their city. Hope could barely understand the culture here.
Besides, Snow’s prophetic warning of Hope’s assassination still rang loudly through his head.
It was something he deduced not to bring up to Noel, though.
“After this, I’ll have a project to assess.” Hope said. “The Academy reduced the budget of the New Cocoon project nearly seventy years ago and we need the funds if it’s to be completed within the next hundred years. While the crystals you and Serah brought back have shaved quite a few years off, there are still studies to be conducted regarding the various alloys we used in the core of the central —”
Noel moved surprisingly fast, one moment standing by the window admiring the cityscape and the other leaning over Hope’s table, one hand covering the scientist’s mouth. “You know, I always thought you were the quiet one. I’m happy to be wrong, but I don’t understand any of what you just said, Hope.”
Noel’s hand was warm and dry, his skin calluses and marked with rough scars. Hope could feel the thin leather that was braided around Noel’s fingers digging slightly into his skin, and he moved back in surprise at the sudden proximity, eyes widening at the touch. It wasn’t… unwelcomed, except that it was. It was a sudden reminder of a time when Hope was a child and hadn’t given further thought to sitting next to his mother and curling his arms around her waist, of when he had only sighed in exasperation when both Kai and Elida would get far too close for comfort when arguing and demanding he agree with one of them.
Once, Hope had sorely missed the proximity and contact of people. He had spent months adjusting after his mother died, after Vanille turned to crystal and Lightning disappeared. His father had been a comforting presence, but Bartholomew had never been one for hugs or encouraging touches, eventually leaving Hope uncomfortable when anyone stepped into his personal space.
Even Alyssa had — but no. She had betrayed him, and the soldiers that Snow confided in who had taken her prisoner would not allow him near her for fear for his safety. He wanted to speak with her, wanted to ask her why; wanted to know if she had hated him all this time while maintaining her part as his closest tie to humanity for so long. She used to cling to his arm, to shove her face close to his while making a point, and often reached for his sleeve when she wanted to drag him somewhere. Despite his reluctance, despite his discomfort, Alyssa Zaidelle had been one of the only people lately who would actually reach out to touch him.
(She was the one who stared that day when he declared his intention to enter the gravity well, the one who refused to let him go alone. She was the one who smiled at him after an impossible realization, and didn’t pressure him for an answer he couldn’t give.
...What had gone wrong?)
“You travelled four hundred years. One day off can’t hurt that much. It’ll be a hundred years before this project of yours is finished. That’s — how many days? A lot.”
“Thirty six thousand, four hundred and twenty five days.” The math was easy to do in his head, easily enough that the numbers just slipped out as he moved from behind Noel’s hand, his own gloved hand coming up from where it previously rested against the holographic statistics to brush the other man aside. “But that would be exactly a hundred years, when we don’t know exactly what day the projected fall of Cocoon is to take place. Based on the decline in integrity on the crystal pillar, even modern computational models can only narrow it down to year and month, but not the precise day.”
“You’ve got thousands of people working on this, right?” Noel asked, not in the least deterred by Hope’s actions. He just moved to sit atop of the scientist’s desk, grinning at Hope’s look of disapproval. It had only been two days they spent together locked up like this, but it seemed the hunter had already gotten used to Hope’s mannerisms and proved to take amusement in seeing Hope’s reactions when his usual perfectionist tendencies were poked at.
One more day, Hope thought to himself. Neither of them were the type who could just sit and do nothing, and he just had to be understanding about it. Noel was doing this because there was very little else he could do. They were both irritated by this confinement.
Come the end of the third day, Hope would breathe easier even if nothing was found by the Academy’s security team. One more day and he would head out to the very top of Academia and spend a few hours under the sunlight, even if he had to take multiple datapads with him in order to get any work done.
It was strange how he longed for the outside when confined while normally he could spend weeks upon weeks working indoors without noticing the time at all.
Or maybe he’d just take Noel up on the offer of exploring Academia. The practical knowledge of the city’s layout could come in useful one day, right?
“Perhaps.” Hope finally relented, not quite understanding why he had agreed at all and not understanding why he was lingering over the thought. He didn’t understand why Noel would put the amount of effort he did into interacting with him. Hope knew he wasn’t the most interesting person to talk to, and it had to be worse for the Hunter seeing as they had very little in common to speak about. Despite their common goal of ultimately saving humanity, their roles were diametrically opposed and left little for them to discuss. Hope knew that Noel only nodded politely whenever the scientist would start on a diatribe, polite enough not to interrupt Hope’s nervous habit of withdrawing into his facts and research when nervous.
“Then take a day off.” Noel insisted. “Spend some time in the sunlight — you’re far too pale.”
Hope ignored that, since it would be rather counterproductive to explain to Noel, once again, that he tended to get redder under the sunlight rather than darker. It wasn’t that he avoided time under the sun at all — there were several weeks in a row on excavations where Hope ultimately ignored the itching and tightness of his skin as it slowly peeled just so he could get some extra time with the discoveries.
(It was Alyssa who usually scolded him, brought him aloe, and then reminded him time and again to share to her sunscreen. How was it that he only recently discovered just how ingrained she was in his life?)
“I wouldn’t have anything to do.” Hope said instead, opting for honesty rather than just a convenient excuse. Two days stuck together and he understood that Noel appreciated the honesty, that the younger man was continuously frustrated by Hope’s unconscious looping rhetoric, an adaptation to his vernacular after years spent entangled in the Academy’s politics. Noel was like an open book at times, telling him plainly that he couldn’t understand what Hope was saying whenever the scientist dug deep into his extensive lexicon to brush off his uncertainties.
It had taken much frustration from Noel before the hunter told him in no uncertain terms that he would resort to jabbing (he might have used the word poke, but the resulting demonstration was quite obviously a jab in Hope’s opinion) his side should Hope continue to be so purposefully infuriating with his words.
After several more demonstrations where Noel held true to his word, Hope started putting a conscious effort into letting honesty and simplicity dictate his phrasing, if only to escape from the other’s disregard for personal space and dignity.
“Huh?” Noel looked confused at the admission, and then waved an arm toward the window. “What are you talking about? There’s lots to do out there!”
Hope closed his eyes for a brief moment, leaning back into his hair before shaking his head. “I have my work. Beyond that, there’s no need for attachments to this era, not when I don’t plan on staying.”
Not now that the time capsule was deemed safe; not when he would soon accomplish what he set out to do in this era. (Not when he only brought a handful of things and a friend, and lost that friend already.) After he reviewed the progression on the New Cocoon project and ensured everything was going smoothly, Hope would once again leave.
He would put his fate to the destined day when the crystal pillar would fall. Win or lose, Hope would be there in that integral moment and risk everything alongside everyone else. It would be wrong to do anything otherwise.
“Well,” Noel said, looking somewhat awkward at Hope’s response even as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and retreated from where he had taken up space over Hope’s desk. “I’m not going to try to tell you how to do things since you’ve obviously got everything in hand, but since you’re already here, it might be nice to take a look around. Even if you’re going to leave, wouldn’t it be nice to say you took the time to talk to people and stuff instead of just passed through?”
Had the suggestion been made by anyone else, Hope may have had a good response to it, a logical rebuttal for his reasonings which would make sense to both of them and perhaps end the disagreement. Had it been anyone else, Hope would have automatically refused a trip out due to the basis that others always had ulterior motives and he just didn’t have the time to deal with things like that.
Noel, however, was different.
“That—” Hope floundered a moment, taken aback not only by the words but also by his own hesitance. Had it been anyone else… “I suppose… a day wouldn’t be too much to ask for.”
“Yes!” And there Noel made a victorious gesture, grinning at him. It was a stark reminder of just how young Noel still was; expressive and excitable. “I’ll make sure you show you around your own city. Trust me, you’ll like it a lot better than this room.”
The hunter paused there, and then leaned forward again to inspect Hope closely, causing the white-haired man to draw back, suddenly reminded of someone else who used to disregard personal space just to see how he would react to being in a situation he wasn’t used to.
“...We might have to get you something else to wear, though.” Noel decided with a nod, fingers on his chin in thought. “Everyone will recognize you otherwise.”
For a moment, Hope wanted to ask why that would be a problem, since it wasn’t as if this would be the first time he took a stroll outside in broad daylight during 400AF, but then the warning of assassins rang heavily in his mind. Just because he could survive three days and even if the military managed to root out the problem, didn’t mean it would be a good idea to parade himself in public if even the remnants of those who wanted him dead remained.
Which meant further complications to the plan.
“I. Uh.” Hope closed his jaw with a snap, feeling embarrassed. A hand came up unconsciously to grasp at the material of his jacket, the thickness and feel of it comforting. Maybe it would be better if he stayed within Academy walls, after all. There was far too much unnecessary complications to this venture. It was all rather disheartening. “I don’t — I don’t have any other outfits.”
At Noel’s surprised look, Hope found himself flustered and with a surprising urge to defend himself on that decision. “There wasn’t much room to carry items with me, and the Academy provides uniforms. I didn’t think I would need any other outfits.”
Not when he so rarely wore anything different in his adult years, anyway. Hope had not expected a deviation to his scheduled routine in the mere months he would be staying in 400AF.
“If you didn’t even get to take extra clothes, what did you bring?” Noel asked, sounding honestly curious.
(A small box of knickknacks wrapped in a red velvet ribbon. Inside, his father’s glasses and his mother’s picture smiling out at him. Elida’s farewell letter, handwritten and smeared, and a silver chain provided by Rygdea looped through a shining gold ring. A back-up datachip with all his research on it. His wallet, with his identification and his keys, had been added into the fray because he had been carrying it with him that day. His boomerang. All those items were easily carried on his person after he awoke again.)
“What I needed.” Hope told him, and it was true. He brought everything he needed to remind himself of who he was. Everything else was intangible. His knowledge, his memories, and the lessons he had learned through his years would stay with him and take up no more space than inside his head.
“Well,” Noel intoned, looking amused now. “We can stop off at one of those shops that Serah always looks at. They’ve got a lot of clothes there, I’m sure we can find you something that doesn’t look like this uniform. Might have to do something about that hair of yours — maybe a hat?”
“It’s not an unusual color.” Hope responded defensively.
“It’s pretty attention-grabbing, though.” Noel told him. “I’d be able to spot you easily in a crowd even if everyone were wearing the same thing.” The brunet paused to consider his words, and then admitted, “Actually, you’re pretty attention-grabbing in general. I’m pretty sure you’d still be the first person I could find in a crowd no matter what you’re wearing.”
“That is in no way helping your argument for me to spend the day out.” Hope grumbled, slouching down in his seat just the slightest in consternation. “Much less to expend the effort on altering my appearance if it’s all to be for naught.”
Still, he was fairly certain Noel was exaggerating. Despite the general populace knowing of his arrival, Hope had walked the streets before without being disturbed, and in fact garnered less attention in 400AF than he once had in 13AF and before. This was what Elida had been talking about, he realized soon after he awoke. Hope had grown used to a vague feeling of contempt and ill-will conveyed in his general direction the first few years after the fall, usually buffeted by his father’s presence and eventually by his colleagues at the Academy. The lack of malice as he walked the streets of Academia now was… strange.
Or perhaps there wasn’t as much of a lack as he previously thought, if the assassination had been planned before he even opened his eyes in this era.
“I wouldn’t want you to change anything!” Noel protested, arms stretched out in front of himself and waving his protest. “Just, um, hide a bit of it for a little while, I guess. Or no, not hide—” The hunter grimaced at his words, and then brought a hand to his face, blue eyes darting to the side and looking vaguely embarrassed and a little uncomfortable with his choice of words. “Urg. Never mind. That worked out better in my head.”
Hope turned away, biting his lower lip in attempts to hide a smile. It was nice to see the other flustered when Noel had such an easy time disorienting him.
It was nice to talk about what might have happen after the three day deadline.
Of course, Hope trusted in both the Academy’s abilities to root out the conflict and in Noel’s stubborn persistence at keeping people safe. Snow must have as well to make an arrangement like that.
All these years, Hope thought with a brief pang of something close to both irritation and relief, and Snow shows up out of the blue, charging in like some reckless louse. Some hero. He really hadn’t changed at all. Once again shoving himself into the situation and then rushing off with only the quip about how Hope should stay behind and stay safe.
“It doesn’t matter.” Noel amended, rubbing the bridge of his nose and looking away. “You can just wear the uniform if you want. I mean, I’ll make sure nothing bad happens, so…” he shrugged helplessly; awkwardly.
It was endearing, almost. If Hope wasn’t so used to keeping everyone at arm’s length away from himself, he might have teased Noel about the way the other was acting. As it was, he wasn’t entirely sure how to act when someone approached him so casually. In fact, it was…
“I’ll go.” He said quietly, and then flushed at the wide-eyed look Noel was giving him, turning away just slightly as he attempted to look like he was focusing on something out the window instead. It was easier than attempting to face Noel’s honest gaze. “...I have been meaning to see the city eventually. It just never really came up.”
“Alright, then we’ll go check out the city.” Noel grinned at him, looking the excited teenager he was. “Just as soon as we get rid of those assassins.”
—
The morning of the supposed assassination, Hope received several urgent notifications.
“From Augusta Tower?” Noel sounded incredulous, his arms crossed over his chest as Hope presented him with the emails. “That thing’s still up and running?”
“Of course.” Hope said, surprised that Noel would think otherwise. “Augusta Tower was once a primary part of the Academy. We spent a long while on its designs and capabilities, and to let time corrode such an asset would be a waste. Of course it’s been upgraded through the centuries to match the period technologically, and we store many of our core servers there. If anyone were to take down Augusta Tower, the Academy would experience a very large setback.”
Noel didn’t look too pleased by that information. “I thought you stopped building that place when you heard Serah yelling...”
“We ceased the plans for an artificial fal’Cie.” Hope corrected him. “With the tower already built and the servers improving upon itself in order to create an AI, it was easier to let it run its program and then give it new parameters instead. The necessities for an entire planet, for one. While our scientists could do it, the data entry and conflicts would be enormous. We use Augusta Tower to run logistics and hypothetical scenarios. Should Pulse truly be flooded with crystal dust and the atmosphere turned poisonous, then we would need to exercise caution all the way down to the last molecule entering the world’s atmosphere. Filters, oxygen converters, and all the unknown variables we’d be facing should the crystal settle into water supplies or what mutations might come with its mixture into the earth—”
“I get it, I get it.” Noel pleaded, a hand resting against Hope’s mouth to stop the barrage. It was getting to be far too familiar a gesture, and Hope glared weakly at him. “The place is still up and running.”
And important, Hope wanted to stress. Important enough to the future that he would easily risk his own life to ensure it wasn’t tampered with. Augusta Tower housed countless geopbytes of data built up through the centuries based on thousands upon thousands of scenarios. It was a giant databank for various methods the Academy both approved and funded in efforts to save humanity. The New Cocoon Project was merely one amongst hundreds, although it was given priority due to the progress already made. Information on underground shelters, terraforming projects to cleanse the atmosphere of crystal dust, studies on exploration beyond the planet…
If Hope had to chose between how important his life was and how important the information contained within Augusta Tower was to the human race… well, there was no competition, no matter what Snow claimed.
Augusta Tower was the Academy’s absolute guarantee that humanity would five to live with every breath. There were backup plans of backup plans there, some classified beyond anything Hope could dream of, all of it to foil Caius’s goal of ending the world. This way, even if Hope were to be killed, even if the New Cocoon Project were to fail, there would still be numerous choices for people to make and so many paths still which ensured survival.
“I have to check on it.” Hope murmured behind Noel’s hand, mostly to himself as reassurance. He had given up on restraining Noel’s physical quirks after the first day, instead resigning himself as he often did for Alyssa unless she took it too far. Instead, he attempted to back away a step to duck under the touch only to find to his own dismay that Noel managed to corner him perfectly this time (his own fault, he had been leaning against the doorframe when he showed Noel the notifications, tired after a long night of filtering through the information the Academy sent him regarding possible threats and methods of improving his safety.
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Noel asked, having heard that statement. He didn’t look very pleased. “Today’s kind of important.”
“Even an hour’s difference can prove monumentally damaging.” Hope denied, shaking his head even as he raised a hand to push away Noel’s. “If the intruder intends on destroying the facility, then a day could mean the difference for hundreds of years worth of data collection.”
“Data collection which would mean nothing if something were to happen to you.” Noel countered, and then sighed. “But I’m not going to change your mind, am I?”
“No.” The scientist admitted. “I’ve already contacted security to provide a viable transport for today as well as a handful of technicians to help. They’ll be here in under five minutes, and I’m going with them.”
It meant that Noel would be going as well, from what Hope gathered about the young man. He wouldn’t be deterred by this, but Hope didn’t want to presume Noel was going just on the off-chance the hunter preferred to stay out of Augusta Tower. From what little he knew of Noel and Serah’s journeys, it didn’t sound like they enjoyed their little runabout of the place.
Noel raised a hand to the back of his neck, tilting his head to the side and looking exasperated. “I’m here to keep you safe, you know. You’re really not making this easy on me.”
“I apologize.” Hope demured, feeling his chest constrict slightly at those words. “But this is more important.”
“To you.” Noel said. “To me, your safety’s more important than whatever’s in that place.”
—
“It’s colder than I thought.” Noel mentioned as they existed the transport vehicle, wrapping his arms around himself and frowning. “It wasn’t this cold just a few days ago.”
They were accompanied by three engineers who left immediately for terminals outside the tower after a respectful smile and murmur to Hope as well as yet another curious look in Noel’s direction. There were two soldiers who stayed with them, a man and woman, both armored and armed, and both of whom were given quite the inquisitive glare from the hunter during their ride there.
Hope glanced up at the tower right outside the entrance, bringing a hand up to shade his eyes but still squinting under the bright sunlight. Four hundred years and the sunlight was still as bright and harsh as the day he first stepped foot on Gran Pulse.
“It’s still spring.” Hope commented absentmindedly as the soldiers went ahead of them, swiping keycards to open up the first few layers of the door. The technology and security on the place sure had improved from the last time he had been here. “We were experiencing a heatwave the past two weeks people were taking advantage of.”
Noel didn’t look appeased, but luckily the temperature was still fairly mild for the time of year. It was his own decision to not wear the extra coat Hope suggested earlier that morning, but then again he hadn’t exactly pressed about it since the majority of their time would still be spent in a temperature controlled environment. Augusta Tower maintained a cool temperature throughout the years to negate the output of heat generated by the mass of computers. The basement level (inaccessible to people now that it was hundreds of years later and completely maintained by the AI’s droids) was flooded with sub-zero temperature chemical liquids to shield the many cores from disturbance and sabotage.
“Couldn’t they send someone else if this needed to be done today?” Noel asked instead, and Hope stepped forward for the rest of the security system at Augusta Tower to recognize his identification. There was a long whir and the final doors to the first level opened, and the group stepped inside to holographic panels on every wall hiding more technological prowess than Hope could remember.
“They could have sent Alyssa.” Hope informed him without looking back, as he took in the initial damage that had already happened to the Tower which he could see. It was subtle, but glaring to his eyes all the same. While none of the actual machinery looked very broken, there were flickers on screens that shouldn’t be there, and lights which were dimmer than they were supposed to be.
This place had indeed been hacked. And not from the outside, either, according to the few skewed monitors.
The two security officers accompanying Hope entered immediately after them, weapons at the ready even as they nodded to each other to secure the area, and then brushed past Hope to scout ahead. Hope stayed where he was in deference to the officers even as Noel scowled where he stood next to the scientists, arms crossed over his chest.
“I could have told you this room was empty.” The hunter murmured defiantly.
“Then they’re the second pair of eyes.” Hope reassured him, before moving forward again as the female officer nodded when she received an all-clear and gestured them forward. He thought it was all more than a bit silly, to be honest, although it wasn’t something he would ever say aloud. This would not be the first time he had been targeted, although this would definitely be the first time in this time period. Hope had thought he left all of that behind him, but then again…
He had never expected Alyssa’s dark expression when Snow called her out for treason.
“The first floor is clear.” The female officer informed him, and Hope nodded, reminding himself to ask for their names a little later on. Perhaps when they didn’t feel like they needed to jump at every possible sound and movement around him. He would have to thank their efforts later on, no matter how suspiciously Noel was eying them.
“We’ll need to make our way up to the fifth floor.” He informed them, moving around the computer terminals and flickering monitors. That was where all the plans and data for the New Cocoon Project was being stored, and that information was vital to him right now. After that floor, he could comb through the other floors to ensure that there were no irreversible damage, but all other projects seemed secondary to the one that needed to be completed within the next hundred years. The one with four hundred years of accumulated data.
The ride up the central elevator was a mess of tense silence, and Hope nearly sighed in relief as they arrived at their destination without disturbance. Noel looked twitchy enough seeing how the two officers had their weapons at hand, and Hope was in no mood to attempt a play at peace.
The fifth floor looked meticulous, data streaming across the very walls and rows of servers blinking their greeting as proof they were still working. Whoever the intruder was, it seemed they had not made it so far yet.
“There’s a few things I need to check.” Hope told the two officers, watching them frown. “I’ll stay here.”
“Yes, sir.” The man responded, and nodded as he stepped back into the elevator. Their job was to find the intruder as well as protect him, and he could see from the hesitance of the woman’s gait that she wasn’t happy to leave him there.
“Don’t worry.” Hope told her, tone gentle. He nodded over to the scowling hunter. “I won’t be alone, even here.”
She didn’t look convinced, but dipped her head in acquiescence after a second. “Of course.”
They left to check on the other floors, and Hope breathed out a low breath as he turned back to eye the brunet who looked less tense now that the others were gone. Hope frowned at him, although Noel didn’t seem to notice.
“Better now?” The scientist asked instead somewhat dryly before he moved to take inventory on data streams. He shouldn’t have the time to bother with anything outside of concern for the irreplaceable data, yet there was a curl of amusement as he glanced over at Noel’s petulant scowl as the man leaned against a glowing wall, the brunet looking far younger in that moment than Hope had seen him previously.
“Now that you don’t have weapons that could be pointed at you? Yes. But I still don’t like this place.”
“Noted.” Hope turned his attention to the terminal he had stepped before, fingers already flying across the holographic keyboard and keying in his passcode to check for disturbances. “Although I’m afraid you’ll have to endure for the moment.”
There were some things that Hope was (grudgingly) willing to concede, but danger to the New Cocoon Project was not one of them. He trusted Noel to understand that, seeing as the other was already setting his sword down beside him vigilantly as if foreseeing the long wait ahead. To Hope, his life or death didn’t matter so much as the hundreds of years worth of research from dozens to thousands of brilliant scientists. This was the life work of so many truly talented people and would represent the very survival of mankind —
The power surge was sudden, near blinding for a brief moment before Hope realized it wasn’t so much a surge as the activation of a field generator and he could make out Noel’s shocked, grim features as the hunter immediately swung his weapon against the force field only to be repelled back by a spread of energy.
There was a slight pressure against his back, sharp and small.
“Don’t move.” A feminine (and oh so very familiar) voice warned him quietly. He tensed, muscles taut even as the movement meant he disobeyed the order to stand up straight. The pressure increased at that, digging into his uniform coat. “I don’t want to shoot you. I’m only here to wipe the servers.”
He felt dizzy, suddenly too warm in this cold room.
“Alyssa.” He didn’t have to wonder, not when he knew her voice so intimately. While her tone was usually much higher, much more cheerful, and tended toward high amounts of energy rather than the tired and somber cadence to it now, it was still the same voice. Still the same person. “You know I can’t let you do that.”
He didn’t ask how she managed to escape from the room the Academy had locked her into, not having anything like a prison. From what he had been told, it was a high-risk monitoring deck that hadn’t been used in the past few years, and she had a full rotation of guards to keep an eye out for anything devious.
It was hard to imagine her, so tiny and usually so full of life, planning anything devious. But Hope had never underestimated her intelligence or determination before. He really should have seen this coming.
It was just difficult to reconcile the image of her, spiteful and spitting as armed guards took her away, with the very same woman who would smile at him each morning and remind him to eat. The very same woman who threw everything away to go with him on what she thought was a suicide mission into the future.
“That man who came through three days ago.... he was a liar.” And here, her voice took on a strangely thin quality, high-pitched with desperation in a manner he had never heard from her before. “He’s the one trying to kill you! He’s the reason we’re here like this, see? I knew he was lying from the moment he spoke to you. I may have given Serah and Noel a false artefact, but I didn’t mean to hurt anything. It never crossed my mind to hurt you.”
She breath hitched, and Hope could feel the pressure against his back lesson just slightly. “...I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
There was something about her voice that made him believe her, despite her very actions. In her tone, he was reminded of the woman who would double check all his work, would stay as late as he did every night at the Academy, and would filter through schematics for him to read through and approve. Hope raised his hands slowly from the terminal in a gesture of peace.
“I know.” He told her, too aware of the danger he was in right now even as Noel tried to ram his way into the force field, yells muffled by the power surrounding them. He would have to find a way to take down the field, which shouldn’t be hard except for the gun pushed against his back. He would have to find a way to talk Alyssa down from the desperation that gripped her tone and the madness of her actions. He didn’t want either Noel or Alyssa to get hurt, and yet this was a situation where he had to tread carefully.
His attention was caught briefly by Noel who growled something incomprehensible and then shoved at the field with his shoulders, ignoring the sparks and electricity from the result. The hunter then drew back and cast a thunder spell, perhaps hoping to overload the system but to no avail.
Alyssa, on the other hand, wasn’t paying any attention at all to the one outside their little bubble.
“I only meant to come here,” she said, pitched and desperate. “I was going to wipe the servers. It’s the only way, you know, the only way for us to survive. To exist. Our timeline is already a paradox… so many errors. Even if we manage to save the future, we’d only wipe our own timeline out. If we save the future, we die anyway! And not just one of us. Not just some of us. All of us. We won’t have existed. We’d be just another floating string untethered and given to the wind. A string of data erased by another program despite how our data might have created that program to begin with.”
She was barely making sense and not sounding the slightest bit like herself, and Hope glanced once more at the hunter beyond the force field whose sharp blue eyes were glued to the spot where Alyssa was pressing the gun against Hope’s back.
“Alyssa.” He dipped his head, voice quiet and as soothing as he could make it. “I believe you. But your actions right now…”
She pressed the gun further into his back, cutting him off.
“It’s a last resort!” She hissed, and he was struck by the familiarity of her words. It almost felt like his own, once upon a time. She was desperate and at the end of her rope, and no matter how many people might speak ill of her and the actions she had yet to take, Hope could not help the thread of sympathy he felt. “If this is the only way… for us both to die right here, then I will die willingly knowing that I existed in the first place. That this timeline will be safe. That everyone living now will have lived.”
She shook, but continued softly, “Please. Just let me wipe the system. Then we’ll both walk away, and I’ll surrender. No one has to be hurt over this. I’ll take the responsibility for my own actions. We’ll find another way.”
It sounded reasonable. They had changed everything before, but if what she were saying was true, then this attempt would be a success. And the New Cocoon Project would be the thing that saves everyone. A project which took humanity four hundred years to create, and they didn’t have that kind of time anymore. Not to mention, any other attempt they made would fail unless Alyssa wanted to destroy everything again.
Hope closed his eyes. He couldn’t understand the weight she must have borne, knowing that she held the choice between her very existence and what may be the existence of everyone in this time against the a successful future for humanity.
If what she believed was true, then if she succeeded in destroying the information on the New Cocoon Project, then they would live out the rest of their lives, but…
Noel came from a future where they failed. The hunter never said much on it, but his reluctance was enough for Hope to understand a small portion of how bad it must have been. His awe of things in this age was enough for Hope to understand what he needed to.
He opened his eyes again to stare down at the shining console before him, holographic lines of data streaming and blinking, waiting for his input. This entire tower had been built thanks to Alyssa’s prompting, thanks to the files she handed to him one fateful day. Like so many other files on so many other days. Without her… would this place even exist?
He dealt with theoretical physics all the time, in engineering structured around paradox energy and in futures that may or may not happen depending on different actions taken in key moments and the prediction of the Oracle Drive. Snow had said the future wouldn’t happen without him, but Hope knew better than to believe that. There were some things that were bound to happen, and other things that would not change no matter what action taken.
He hadn’t objected when the military force had taken Alyssa away, when Snow insisted on restructuring the shifts of personnel around him. Maybe he should have. Maybe he should have insisted that she be given a fair trial on her behalf, but the expression on her face at that moment had been dark and hateful and in that moment Hope understood just how she must have focused her thoughts upon her betrayal.
How long must she have thought upon it? How long since she started weighing the consequences of her actions?
He lowered his hands slowly until they touched the consoles again, watching the blinking lights awaiting his input.
“I can’t do that.” He told her levelly. Regretfully. How long had she borne this burden by herself? “If you do this, Alyssa, you’ll have to go through me first. And…” he took a sharp intake of breath, willing his emotions to calm. “I don’t believe you’ll do that.”
If nothing else, Hope had known Alyssa for a good portion of his life by now. He knew what she was capable of.
She let out a shaky breath, although her grip was still firm. “...If that’s your decision.”
“It is.” He confirmed.
The computers accepted his command to lower the force field the moment Alyssa pulled the trigger.
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Character/Pairing(s): ...Hope and IT'S A SECRET
Rating: PG
Warning: Wordy. I just rewrote Hope's life, part the third.
Summary: Hope's got a secret admirer who only leaves presents on Valentine's Day.
“So you’ve never even walked around Academia? Not once?”
“I have.” Hope protested, feeling his face flush at Noel’s incredulous stare. “Perhaps not every street, but I do know where everything is.”
“But you said they hadn’t finished building the city when you — left.” Noel gestured to the buildings out the window where they were situated, on one of the top floors of the Academy building with a panoramic view of the cityscape beneath them. The windows, Hope had explained to Noel, were made of a material that had only been invented within the last dozen years, and the Academy had slowly been replacing their window panels with the nanotech, starting from the top down.
Hope had barely glanced past the schematics and chemical composition a few seconds, allowing himself a brief moment to be amazed at the complexity and discoveries within the past four hundred years. It was inspiring and breath-taking and had he taken more than a few seconds to think upon it, he might have been dizzy at the sheer concept.
It was one of the reasons he sought to immerse himself in his work, sliding easily and comfortably back behind a computer terminals with a few hours to update himself on the improvements in technology the past several centuries. The first few days had been filled with embarrassing amateur mistakes, which the other scientists had borne with amazing patience and grace, smiling at him whenever the frustration at not understanding how programs worked and then taking the time away from their own projects in order to explain things to him… quite thoroughly, enough to make his mind spin.
“The schematics were not yet complete.” Hope confirmed, shifting from behind his desk to turn his attention from his work to Noel. “The Academy had several hundred submissions from aspiring architects and technicians on the development of the city. The final layout became a fusion between several designers.”
One of which had been his designs, much to Hope’s shock. It had been a pet project of his, back when he was a teenager, taking out his frustration and aggression by creating the winding streets of a design that became more and more complex the longer he worked at it. He didn’t think anyone would take his blueprints seriously at all. It had been his father who urged him to submit his design after studying the intricacies.
Noel studied him for a moment, prompting Hope to return his attention to the words on the computer screen, feeling like he was missing something greater than the confusion some of the terminology brought him.
The language, it seems, had evolved in four hundred years. Too many technical terms he had learned growing up didn’t even exist anymore, and more words had taken their place. Time had brought new trends, new methods, and new awareness from people. It was all —
“Let’s go.” Noel spoke suddenly, breaking Hope from his thoughts. “After this. I’ll show you around. It’s your city, you know, and the people here really love you. You should get to know this place — talk to the people.”
But that wasn’t right. Academia wasn’t his city; rather, it was a city built by the people and homes to thousands. If anything, it was their city. Hope could barely understand the culture here.
Besides, Snow’s prophetic warning of Hope’s assassination still rang loudly through his head.
It was something he deduced not to bring up to Noel, though.
“After this, I’ll have a project to assess.” Hope said. “The Academy reduced the budget of the New Cocoon project nearly seventy years ago and we need the funds if it’s to be completed within the next hundred years. While the crystals you and Serah brought back have shaved quite a few years off, there are still studies to be conducted regarding the various alloys we used in the core of the central —”
Noel moved surprisingly fast, one moment standing by the window admiring the cityscape and the other leaning over Hope’s table, one hand covering the scientist’s mouth. “You know, I always thought you were the quiet one. I’m happy to be wrong, but I don’t understand any of what you just said, Hope.”
Noel’s hand was warm and dry, his skin calluses and marked with rough scars. Hope could feel the thin leather that was braided around Noel’s fingers digging slightly into his skin, and he moved back in surprise at the sudden proximity, eyes widening at the touch. It wasn’t… unwelcomed, except that it was. It was a sudden reminder of a time when Hope was a child and hadn’t given further thought to sitting next to his mother and curling his arms around her waist, of when he had only sighed in exasperation when both Kai and Elida would get far too close for comfort when arguing and demanding he agree with one of them.
Once, Hope had sorely missed the proximity and contact of people. He had spent months adjusting after his mother died, after Vanille turned to crystal and Lightning disappeared. His father had been a comforting presence, but Bartholomew had never been one for hugs or encouraging touches, eventually leaving Hope uncomfortable when anyone stepped into his personal space.
Even Alyssa had — but no. She had betrayed him, and the soldiers that Snow confided in who had taken her prisoner would not allow him near her for fear for his safety. He wanted to speak with her, wanted to ask her why; wanted to know if she had hated him all this time while maintaining her part as his closest tie to humanity for so long. She used to cling to his arm, to shove her face close to his while making a point, and often reached for his sleeve when she wanted to drag him somewhere. Despite his reluctance, despite his discomfort, Alyssa Zaidelle had been one of the only people lately who would actually reach out to touch him.
(She was the one who stared that day when he declared his intention to enter the gravity well, the one who refused to let him go alone. She was the one who smiled at him after an impossible realization, and didn’t pressure him for an answer he couldn’t give.
...What had gone wrong?)
“You travelled four hundred years. One day off can’t hurt that much. It’ll be a hundred years before this project of yours is finished. That’s — how many days? A lot.”
“Thirty six thousand, four hundred and twenty five days.” The math was easy to do in his head, easily enough that the numbers just slipped out as he moved from behind Noel’s hand, his own gloved hand coming up from where it previously rested against the holographic statistics to brush the other man aside. “But that would be exactly a hundred years, when we don’t know exactly what day the projected fall of Cocoon is to take place. Based on the decline in integrity on the crystal pillar, even modern computational models can only narrow it down to year and month, but not the precise day.”
“You’ve got thousands of people working on this, right?” Noel asked, not in the least deterred by Hope’s actions. He just moved to sit atop of the scientist’s desk, grinning at Hope’s look of disapproval. It had only been two days they spent together locked up like this, but it seemed the hunter had already gotten used to Hope’s mannerisms and proved to take amusement in seeing Hope’s reactions when his usual perfectionist tendencies were poked at.
One more day, Hope thought to himself. Neither of them were the type who could just sit and do nothing, and he just had to be understanding about it. Noel was doing this because there was very little else he could do. They were both irritated by this confinement.
Come the end of the third day, Hope would breathe easier even if nothing was found by the Academy’s security team. One more day and he would head out to the very top of Academia and spend a few hours under the sunlight, even if he had to take multiple datapads with him in order to get any work done.
It was strange how he longed for the outside when confined while normally he could spend weeks upon weeks working indoors without noticing the time at all.
Or maybe he’d just take Noel up on the offer of exploring Academia. The practical knowledge of the city’s layout could come in useful one day, right?
“Perhaps.” Hope finally relented, not quite understanding why he had agreed at all and not understanding why he was lingering over the thought. He didn’t understand why Noel would put the amount of effort he did into interacting with him. Hope knew he wasn’t the most interesting person to talk to, and it had to be worse for the Hunter seeing as they had very little in common to speak about. Despite their common goal of ultimately saving humanity, their roles were diametrically opposed and left little for them to discuss. Hope knew that Noel only nodded politely whenever the scientist would start on a diatribe, polite enough not to interrupt Hope’s nervous habit of withdrawing into his facts and research when nervous.
“Then take a day off.” Noel insisted. “Spend some time in the sunlight — you’re far too pale.”
Hope ignored that, since it would be rather counterproductive to explain to Noel, once again, that he tended to get redder under the sunlight rather than darker. It wasn’t that he avoided time under the sun at all — there were several weeks in a row on excavations where Hope ultimately ignored the itching and tightness of his skin as it slowly peeled just so he could get some extra time with the discoveries.
(It was Alyssa who usually scolded him, brought him aloe, and then reminded him time and again to share to her sunscreen. How was it that he only recently discovered just how ingrained she was in his life?)
“I wouldn’t have anything to do.” Hope said instead, opting for honesty rather than just a convenient excuse. Two days stuck together and he understood that Noel appreciated the honesty, that the younger man was continuously frustrated by Hope’s unconscious looping rhetoric, an adaptation to his vernacular after years spent entangled in the Academy’s politics. Noel was like an open book at times, telling him plainly that he couldn’t understand what Hope was saying whenever the scientist dug deep into his extensive lexicon to brush off his uncertainties.
It had taken much frustration from Noel before the hunter told him in no uncertain terms that he would resort to jabbing (he might have used the word poke, but the resulting demonstration was quite obviously a jab in Hope’s opinion) his side should Hope continue to be so purposefully infuriating with his words.
After several more demonstrations where Noel held true to his word, Hope started putting a conscious effort into letting honesty and simplicity dictate his phrasing, if only to escape from the other’s disregard for personal space and dignity.
“Huh?” Noel looked confused at the admission, and then waved an arm toward the window. “What are you talking about? There’s lots to do out there!”
Hope closed his eyes for a brief moment, leaning back into his hair before shaking his head. “I have my work. Beyond that, there’s no need for attachments to this era, not when I don’t plan on staying.”
Not now that the time capsule was deemed safe; not when he would soon accomplish what he set out to do in this era. (Not when he only brought a handful of things and a friend, and lost that friend already.) After he reviewed the progression on the New Cocoon project and ensured everything was going smoothly, Hope would once again leave.
He would put his fate to the destined day when the crystal pillar would fall. Win or lose, Hope would be there in that integral moment and risk everything alongside everyone else. It would be wrong to do anything otherwise.
“Well,” Noel said, looking somewhat awkward at Hope’s response even as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and retreated from where he had taken up space over Hope’s desk. “I’m not going to try to tell you how to do things since you’ve obviously got everything in hand, but since you’re already here, it might be nice to take a look around. Even if you’re going to leave, wouldn’t it be nice to say you took the time to talk to people and stuff instead of just passed through?”
Had the suggestion been made by anyone else, Hope may have had a good response to it, a logical rebuttal for his reasonings which would make sense to both of them and perhaps end the disagreement. Had it been anyone else, Hope would have automatically refused a trip out due to the basis that others always had ulterior motives and he just didn’t have the time to deal with things like that.
Noel, however, was different.
“That—” Hope floundered a moment, taken aback not only by the words but also by his own hesitance. Had it been anyone else… “I suppose… a day wouldn’t be too much to ask for.”
“Yes!” And there Noel made a victorious gesture, grinning at him. It was a stark reminder of just how young Noel still was; expressive and excitable. “I’ll make sure you show you around your own city. Trust me, you’ll like it a lot better than this room.”
The hunter paused there, and then leaned forward again to inspect Hope closely, causing the white-haired man to draw back, suddenly reminded of someone else who used to disregard personal space just to see how he would react to being in a situation he wasn’t used to.
“...We might have to get you something else to wear, though.” Noel decided with a nod, fingers on his chin in thought. “Everyone will recognize you otherwise.”
For a moment, Hope wanted to ask why that would be a problem, since it wasn’t as if this would be the first time he took a stroll outside in broad daylight during 400AF, but then the warning of assassins rang heavily in his mind. Just because he could survive three days and even if the military managed to root out the problem, didn’t mean it would be a good idea to parade himself in public if even the remnants of those who wanted him dead remained.
Which meant further complications to the plan.
“I. Uh.” Hope closed his jaw with a snap, feeling embarrassed. A hand came up unconsciously to grasp at the material of his jacket, the thickness and feel of it comforting. Maybe it would be better if he stayed within Academy walls, after all. There was far too much unnecessary complications to this venture. It was all rather disheartening. “I don’t — I don’t have any other outfits.”
At Noel’s surprised look, Hope found himself flustered and with a surprising urge to defend himself on that decision. “There wasn’t much room to carry items with me, and the Academy provides uniforms. I didn’t think I would need any other outfits.”
Not when he so rarely wore anything different in his adult years, anyway. Hope had not expected a deviation to his scheduled routine in the mere months he would be staying in 400AF.
“If you didn’t even get to take extra clothes, what did you bring?” Noel asked, sounding honestly curious.
(A small box of knickknacks wrapped in a red velvet ribbon. Inside, his father’s glasses and his mother’s picture smiling out at him. Elida’s farewell letter, handwritten and smeared, and a silver chain provided by Rygdea looped through a shining gold ring. A back-up datachip with all his research on it. His wallet, with his identification and his keys, had been added into the fray because he had been carrying it with him that day. His boomerang. All those items were easily carried on his person after he awoke again.)
“What I needed.” Hope told him, and it was true. He brought everything he needed to remind himself of who he was. Everything else was intangible. His knowledge, his memories, and the lessons he had learned through his years would stay with him and take up no more space than inside his head.
“Well,” Noel intoned, looking amused now. “We can stop off at one of those shops that Serah always looks at. They’ve got a lot of clothes there, I’m sure we can find you something that doesn’t look like this uniform. Might have to do something about that hair of yours — maybe a hat?”
“It’s not an unusual color.” Hope responded defensively.
“It’s pretty attention-grabbing, though.” Noel told him. “I’d be able to spot you easily in a crowd even if everyone were wearing the same thing.” The brunet paused to consider his words, and then admitted, “Actually, you’re pretty attention-grabbing in general. I’m pretty sure you’d still be the first person I could find in a crowd no matter what you’re wearing.”
“That is in no way helping your argument for me to spend the day out.” Hope grumbled, slouching down in his seat just the slightest in consternation. “Much less to expend the effort on altering my appearance if it’s all to be for naught.”
Still, he was fairly certain Noel was exaggerating. Despite the general populace knowing of his arrival, Hope had walked the streets before without being disturbed, and in fact garnered less attention in 400AF than he once had in 13AF and before. This was what Elida had been talking about, he realized soon after he awoke. Hope had grown used to a vague feeling of contempt and ill-will conveyed in his general direction the first few years after the fall, usually buffeted by his father’s presence and eventually by his colleagues at the Academy. The lack of malice as he walked the streets of Academia now was… strange.
Or perhaps there wasn’t as much of a lack as he previously thought, if the assassination had been planned before he even opened his eyes in this era.
“I wouldn’t want you to change anything!” Noel protested, arms stretched out in front of himself and waving his protest. “Just, um, hide a bit of it for a little while, I guess. Or no, not hide—” The hunter grimaced at his words, and then brought a hand to his face, blue eyes darting to the side and looking vaguely embarrassed and a little uncomfortable with his choice of words. “Urg. Never mind. That worked out better in my head.”
Hope turned away, biting his lower lip in attempts to hide a smile. It was nice to see the other flustered when Noel had such an easy time disorienting him.
It was nice to talk about what might have happen after the three day deadline.
Of course, Hope trusted in both the Academy’s abilities to root out the conflict and in Noel’s stubborn persistence at keeping people safe. Snow must have as well to make an arrangement like that.
All these years, Hope thought with a brief pang of something close to both irritation and relief, and Snow shows up out of the blue, charging in like some reckless louse. Some hero. He really hadn’t changed at all. Once again shoving himself into the situation and then rushing off with only the quip about how Hope should stay behind and stay safe.
“It doesn’t matter.” Noel amended, rubbing the bridge of his nose and looking away. “You can just wear the uniform if you want. I mean, I’ll make sure nothing bad happens, so…” he shrugged helplessly; awkwardly.
It was endearing, almost. If Hope wasn’t so used to keeping everyone at arm’s length away from himself, he might have teased Noel about the way the other was acting. As it was, he wasn’t entirely sure how to act when someone approached him so casually. In fact, it was…
“I’ll go.” He said quietly, and then flushed at the wide-eyed look Noel was giving him, turning away just slightly as he attempted to look like he was focusing on something out the window instead. It was easier than attempting to face Noel’s honest gaze. “...I have been meaning to see the city eventually. It just never really came up.”
“Alright, then we’ll go check out the city.” Noel grinned at him, looking the excited teenager he was. “Just as soon as we get rid of those assassins.”
—
The morning of the supposed assassination, Hope received several urgent notifications.
“From Augusta Tower?” Noel sounded incredulous, his arms crossed over his chest as Hope presented him with the emails. “That thing’s still up and running?”
“Of course.” Hope said, surprised that Noel would think otherwise. “Augusta Tower was once a primary part of the Academy. We spent a long while on its designs and capabilities, and to let time corrode such an asset would be a waste. Of course it’s been upgraded through the centuries to match the period technologically, and we store many of our core servers there. If anyone were to take down Augusta Tower, the Academy would experience a very large setback.”
Noel didn’t look too pleased by that information. “I thought you stopped building that place when you heard Serah yelling...”
“We ceased the plans for an artificial fal’Cie.” Hope corrected him. “With the tower already built and the servers improving upon itself in order to create an AI, it was easier to let it run its program and then give it new parameters instead. The necessities for an entire planet, for one. While our scientists could do it, the data entry and conflicts would be enormous. We use Augusta Tower to run logistics and hypothetical scenarios. Should Pulse truly be flooded with crystal dust and the atmosphere turned poisonous, then we would need to exercise caution all the way down to the last molecule entering the world’s atmosphere. Filters, oxygen converters, and all the unknown variables we’d be facing should the crystal settle into water supplies or what mutations might come with its mixture into the earth—”
“I get it, I get it.” Noel pleaded, a hand resting against Hope’s mouth to stop the barrage. It was getting to be far too familiar a gesture, and Hope glared weakly at him. “The place is still up and running.”
And important, Hope wanted to stress. Important enough to the future that he would easily risk his own life to ensure it wasn’t tampered with. Augusta Tower housed countless geopbytes of data built up through the centuries based on thousands upon thousands of scenarios. It was a giant databank for various methods the Academy both approved and funded in efforts to save humanity. The New Cocoon Project was merely one amongst hundreds, although it was given priority due to the progress already made. Information on underground shelters, terraforming projects to cleanse the atmosphere of crystal dust, studies on exploration beyond the planet…
If Hope had to chose between how important his life was and how important the information contained within Augusta Tower was to the human race… well, there was no competition, no matter what Snow claimed.
Augusta Tower was the Academy’s absolute guarantee that humanity would five to live with every breath. There were backup plans of backup plans there, some classified beyond anything Hope could dream of, all of it to foil Caius’s goal of ending the world. This way, even if Hope were to be killed, even if the New Cocoon Project were to fail, there would still be numerous choices for people to make and so many paths still which ensured survival.
“I have to check on it.” Hope murmured behind Noel’s hand, mostly to himself as reassurance. He had given up on restraining Noel’s physical quirks after the first day, instead resigning himself as he often did for Alyssa unless she took it too far. Instead, he attempted to back away a step to duck under the touch only to find to his own dismay that Noel managed to corner him perfectly this time (his own fault, he had been leaning against the doorframe when he showed Noel the notifications, tired after a long night of filtering through the information the Academy sent him regarding possible threats and methods of improving his safety.
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Noel asked, having heard that statement. He didn’t look very pleased. “Today’s kind of important.”
“Even an hour’s difference can prove monumentally damaging.” Hope denied, shaking his head even as he raised a hand to push away Noel’s. “If the intruder intends on destroying the facility, then a day could mean the difference for hundreds of years worth of data collection.”
“Data collection which would mean nothing if something were to happen to you.” Noel countered, and then sighed. “But I’m not going to change your mind, am I?”
“No.” The scientist admitted. “I’ve already contacted security to provide a viable transport for today as well as a handful of technicians to help. They’ll be here in under five minutes, and I’m going with them.”
It meant that Noel would be going as well, from what Hope gathered about the young man. He wouldn’t be deterred by this, but Hope didn’t want to presume Noel was going just on the off-chance the hunter preferred to stay out of Augusta Tower. From what little he knew of Noel and Serah’s journeys, it didn’t sound like they enjoyed their little runabout of the place.
Noel raised a hand to the back of his neck, tilting his head to the side and looking exasperated. “I’m here to keep you safe, you know. You’re really not making this easy on me.”
“I apologize.” Hope demured, feeling his chest constrict slightly at those words. “But this is more important.”
“To you.” Noel said. “To me, your safety’s more important than whatever’s in that place.”
—
“It’s colder than I thought.” Noel mentioned as they existed the transport vehicle, wrapping his arms around himself and frowning. “It wasn’t this cold just a few days ago.”
They were accompanied by three engineers who left immediately for terminals outside the tower after a respectful smile and murmur to Hope as well as yet another curious look in Noel’s direction. There were two soldiers who stayed with them, a man and woman, both armored and armed, and both of whom were given quite the inquisitive glare from the hunter during their ride there.
Hope glanced up at the tower right outside the entrance, bringing a hand up to shade his eyes but still squinting under the bright sunlight. Four hundred years and the sunlight was still as bright and harsh as the day he first stepped foot on Gran Pulse.
“It’s still spring.” Hope commented absentmindedly as the soldiers went ahead of them, swiping keycards to open up the first few layers of the door. The technology and security on the place sure had improved from the last time he had been here. “We were experiencing a heatwave the past two weeks people were taking advantage of.”
Noel didn’t look appeased, but luckily the temperature was still fairly mild for the time of year. It was his own decision to not wear the extra coat Hope suggested earlier that morning, but then again he hadn’t exactly pressed about it since the majority of their time would still be spent in a temperature controlled environment. Augusta Tower maintained a cool temperature throughout the years to negate the output of heat generated by the mass of computers. The basement level (inaccessible to people now that it was hundreds of years later and completely maintained by the AI’s droids) was flooded with sub-zero temperature chemical liquids to shield the many cores from disturbance and sabotage.
“Couldn’t they send someone else if this needed to be done today?” Noel asked instead, and Hope stepped forward for the rest of the security system at Augusta Tower to recognize his identification. There was a long whir and the final doors to the first level opened, and the group stepped inside to holographic panels on every wall hiding more technological prowess than Hope could remember.
“They could have sent Alyssa.” Hope informed him without looking back, as he took in the initial damage that had already happened to the Tower which he could see. It was subtle, but glaring to his eyes all the same. While none of the actual machinery looked very broken, there were flickers on screens that shouldn’t be there, and lights which were dimmer than they were supposed to be.
This place had indeed been hacked. And not from the outside, either, according to the few skewed monitors.
The two security officers accompanying Hope entered immediately after them, weapons at the ready even as they nodded to each other to secure the area, and then brushed past Hope to scout ahead. Hope stayed where he was in deference to the officers even as Noel scowled where he stood next to the scientists, arms crossed over his chest.
“I could have told you this room was empty.” The hunter murmured defiantly.
“Then they’re the second pair of eyes.” Hope reassured him, before moving forward again as the female officer nodded when she received an all-clear and gestured them forward. He thought it was all more than a bit silly, to be honest, although it wasn’t something he would ever say aloud. This would not be the first time he had been targeted, although this would definitely be the first time in this time period. Hope had thought he left all of that behind him, but then again…
He had never expected Alyssa’s dark expression when Snow called her out for treason.
“The first floor is clear.” The female officer informed him, and Hope nodded, reminding himself to ask for their names a little later on. Perhaps when they didn’t feel like they needed to jump at every possible sound and movement around him. He would have to thank their efforts later on, no matter how suspiciously Noel was eying them.
“We’ll need to make our way up to the fifth floor.” He informed them, moving around the computer terminals and flickering monitors. That was where all the plans and data for the New Cocoon Project was being stored, and that information was vital to him right now. After that floor, he could comb through the other floors to ensure that there were no irreversible damage, but all other projects seemed secondary to the one that needed to be completed within the next hundred years. The one with four hundred years of accumulated data.
The ride up the central elevator was a mess of tense silence, and Hope nearly sighed in relief as they arrived at their destination without disturbance. Noel looked twitchy enough seeing how the two officers had their weapons at hand, and Hope was in no mood to attempt a play at peace.
The fifth floor looked meticulous, data streaming across the very walls and rows of servers blinking their greeting as proof they were still working. Whoever the intruder was, it seemed they had not made it so far yet.
“There’s a few things I need to check.” Hope told the two officers, watching them frown. “I’ll stay here.”
“Yes, sir.” The man responded, and nodded as he stepped back into the elevator. Their job was to find the intruder as well as protect him, and he could see from the hesitance of the woman’s gait that she wasn’t happy to leave him there.
“Don’t worry.” Hope told her, tone gentle. He nodded over to the scowling hunter. “I won’t be alone, even here.”
She didn’t look convinced, but dipped her head in acquiescence after a second. “Of course.”
They left to check on the other floors, and Hope breathed out a low breath as he turned back to eye the brunet who looked less tense now that the others were gone. Hope frowned at him, although Noel didn’t seem to notice.
“Better now?” The scientist asked instead somewhat dryly before he moved to take inventory on data streams. He shouldn’t have the time to bother with anything outside of concern for the irreplaceable data, yet there was a curl of amusement as he glanced over at Noel’s petulant scowl as the man leaned against a glowing wall, the brunet looking far younger in that moment than Hope had seen him previously.
“Now that you don’t have weapons that could be pointed at you? Yes. But I still don’t like this place.”
“Noted.” Hope turned his attention to the terminal he had stepped before, fingers already flying across the holographic keyboard and keying in his passcode to check for disturbances. “Although I’m afraid you’ll have to endure for the moment.”
There were some things that Hope was (grudgingly) willing to concede, but danger to the New Cocoon Project was not one of them. He trusted Noel to understand that, seeing as the other was already setting his sword down beside him vigilantly as if foreseeing the long wait ahead. To Hope, his life or death didn’t matter so much as the hundreds of years worth of research from dozens to thousands of brilliant scientists. This was the life work of so many truly talented people and would represent the very survival of mankind —
The power surge was sudden, near blinding for a brief moment before Hope realized it wasn’t so much a surge as the activation of a field generator and he could make out Noel’s shocked, grim features as the hunter immediately swung his weapon against the force field only to be repelled back by a spread of energy.
There was a slight pressure against his back, sharp and small.
“Don’t move.” A feminine (and oh so very familiar) voice warned him quietly. He tensed, muscles taut even as the movement meant he disobeyed the order to stand up straight. The pressure increased at that, digging into his uniform coat. “I don’t want to shoot you. I’m only here to wipe the servers.”
He felt dizzy, suddenly too warm in this cold room.
“Alyssa.” He didn’t have to wonder, not when he knew her voice so intimately. While her tone was usually much higher, much more cheerful, and tended toward high amounts of energy rather than the tired and somber cadence to it now, it was still the same voice. Still the same person. “You know I can’t let you do that.”
He didn’t ask how she managed to escape from the room the Academy had locked her into, not having anything like a prison. From what he had been told, it was a high-risk monitoring deck that hadn’t been used in the past few years, and she had a full rotation of guards to keep an eye out for anything devious.
It was hard to imagine her, so tiny and usually so full of life, planning anything devious. But Hope had never underestimated her intelligence or determination before. He really should have seen this coming.
It was just difficult to reconcile the image of her, spiteful and spitting as armed guards took her away, with the very same woman who would smile at him each morning and remind him to eat. The very same woman who threw everything away to go with him on what she thought was a suicide mission into the future.
“That man who came through three days ago.... he was a liar.” And here, her voice took on a strangely thin quality, high-pitched with desperation in a manner he had never heard from her before. “He’s the one trying to kill you! He’s the reason we’re here like this, see? I knew he was lying from the moment he spoke to you. I may have given Serah and Noel a false artefact, but I didn’t mean to hurt anything. It never crossed my mind to hurt you.”
She breath hitched, and Hope could feel the pressure against his back lesson just slightly. “...I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
There was something about her voice that made him believe her, despite her very actions. In her tone, he was reminded of the woman who would double check all his work, would stay as late as he did every night at the Academy, and would filter through schematics for him to read through and approve. Hope raised his hands slowly from the terminal in a gesture of peace.
“I know.” He told her, too aware of the danger he was in right now even as Noel tried to ram his way into the force field, yells muffled by the power surrounding them. He would have to find a way to take down the field, which shouldn’t be hard except for the gun pushed against his back. He would have to find a way to talk Alyssa down from the desperation that gripped her tone and the madness of her actions. He didn’t want either Noel or Alyssa to get hurt, and yet this was a situation where he had to tread carefully.
His attention was caught briefly by Noel who growled something incomprehensible and then shoved at the field with his shoulders, ignoring the sparks and electricity from the result. The hunter then drew back and cast a thunder spell, perhaps hoping to overload the system but to no avail.
Alyssa, on the other hand, wasn’t paying any attention at all to the one outside their little bubble.
“I only meant to come here,” she said, pitched and desperate. “I was going to wipe the servers. It’s the only way, you know, the only way for us to survive. To exist. Our timeline is already a paradox… so many errors. Even if we manage to save the future, we’d only wipe our own timeline out. If we save the future, we die anyway! And not just one of us. Not just some of us. All of us. We won’t have existed. We’d be just another floating string untethered and given to the wind. A string of data erased by another program despite how our data might have created that program to begin with.”
She was barely making sense and not sounding the slightest bit like herself, and Hope glanced once more at the hunter beyond the force field whose sharp blue eyes were glued to the spot where Alyssa was pressing the gun against Hope’s back.
“Alyssa.” He dipped his head, voice quiet and as soothing as he could make it. “I believe you. But your actions right now…”
She pressed the gun further into his back, cutting him off.
“It’s a last resort!” She hissed, and he was struck by the familiarity of her words. It almost felt like his own, once upon a time. She was desperate and at the end of her rope, and no matter how many people might speak ill of her and the actions she had yet to take, Hope could not help the thread of sympathy he felt. “If this is the only way… for us both to die right here, then I will die willingly knowing that I existed in the first place. That this timeline will be safe. That everyone living now will have lived.”
She shook, but continued softly, “Please. Just let me wipe the system. Then we’ll both walk away, and I’ll surrender. No one has to be hurt over this. I’ll take the responsibility for my own actions. We’ll find another way.”
It sounded reasonable. They had changed everything before, but if what she were saying was true, then this attempt would be a success. And the New Cocoon Project would be the thing that saves everyone. A project which took humanity four hundred years to create, and they didn’t have that kind of time anymore. Not to mention, any other attempt they made would fail unless Alyssa wanted to destroy everything again.
Hope closed his eyes. He couldn’t understand the weight she must have borne, knowing that she held the choice between her very existence and what may be the existence of everyone in this time against the a successful future for humanity.
If what she believed was true, then if she succeeded in destroying the information on the New Cocoon Project, then they would live out the rest of their lives, but…
Noel came from a future where they failed. The hunter never said much on it, but his reluctance was enough for Hope to understand a small portion of how bad it must have been. His awe of things in this age was enough for Hope to understand what he needed to.
He opened his eyes again to stare down at the shining console before him, holographic lines of data streaming and blinking, waiting for his input. This entire tower had been built thanks to Alyssa’s prompting, thanks to the files she handed to him one fateful day. Like so many other files on so many other days. Without her… would this place even exist?
He dealt with theoretical physics all the time, in engineering structured around paradox energy and in futures that may or may not happen depending on different actions taken in key moments and the prediction of the Oracle Drive. Snow had said the future wouldn’t happen without him, but Hope knew better than to believe that. There were some things that were bound to happen, and other things that would not change no matter what action taken.
He hadn’t objected when the military force had taken Alyssa away, when Snow insisted on restructuring the shifts of personnel around him. Maybe he should have. Maybe he should have insisted that she be given a fair trial on her behalf, but the expression on her face at that moment had been dark and hateful and in that moment Hope understood just how she must have focused her thoughts upon her betrayal.
How long must she have thought upon it? How long since she started weighing the consequences of her actions?
He lowered his hands slowly until they touched the consoles again, watching the blinking lights awaiting his input.
“I can’t do that.” He told her levelly. Regretfully. How long had she borne this burden by herself? “If you do this, Alyssa, you’ll have to go through me first. And…” he took a sharp intake of breath, willing his emotions to calm. “I don’t believe you’ll do that.”
If nothing else, Hope had known Alyssa for a good portion of his life by now. He knew what she was capable of.
She let out a shaky breath, although her grip was still firm. “...If that’s your decision.”
“It is.” He confirmed.
The computers accepted his command to lower the force field the moment Alyssa pulled the trigger.