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It was. I'd thought our problems with things beyond human comprehension were gone when we were finished with Cocoon and we were all freed from our Focus. Serah came back, but I feel like we'd lost Light in return.

[Again, he doesn't realize he'd said her name. It slipped out, because the use of her name comes very, very naturally to him.]

[Oh, another new name. Wonders who Light is. He's not going to ask, just follow along the best he can.]

So, you weren't freed of your Focus?

We were, definitely. [He was the first one to have noticed it, after all, and his left hand twitches, because he remembers pulling at the bandanna around that wrist to see if the mark of the Pulse fal'Cie was still there.] But just a few years after that, we had difficulties with time and the potential of the entire time stream falling apart around us because of the paradoxes, not just the difficulties of living in a world that had not been developed by humans for hundreds of years.

[He nods, showing he's both listening and understanding. And he is for once getting everything he's saying.]

Did you find a way to fix it?

Not me, no. But Serah discovered that she had the ability to travel through time by the use of special machines we eventually called Time Gates, and she looked for ways to right the paradoxes and stop them from occurring once again A man claiming to be from the future accompanied her-- Noel.

For my part, I stayed behind and went through time normally, but at least I had a goal in mind. Noel had told me that the future he had come from was in danger, that he was the last human alive due to a number of things, one of which Cocoon colliding with Gran Pulse due to the weakening of its crystal pillar, creating an impact large enough to wipe out cities.

I began looking for ways to either keep the people safe from the impact or keep Cocoon from falling once again.

Did you find some?

[it's still a bit confusing, but he's starting to find a way to keep the information in a way that he can start to organize it and understand in his head. The curse of an eidetic memory is trying to figure out how to keep all the information stored in your head straight.]

Yes, I did-- with the help of the Oracle Drive.

One of the other recordings in the Oracle Drive had been that of the Thirteenth Ark, a fortress created by Pulse fal'Cie long ago as some sort of stronghold for their l'Cie. Apparently it had the ability to stay in the air and I realized that if I could study it for myself, I could find out how exactly it managed to defy gravity for centuries.

However, the Oracle Drive also showed me that it wouldn't be accessible from Gran Pulse for another three hundred and eighty-seven years.

So I created a machine to place myself under an extended sleep and wake me when the time is right.

[Steve goes very still and honestly can't understand why Hope did it. He gets the reason, it's not an entirely bad one either, but at this point in his life, he can't fathom why anyone would ever do that willingly. Surely there were other ways of doing this, but he reserves his judgement and says nothing, letting Hope continue.]

[Hope quirks an eyebrow at Steve-- he's unusually quiet now, when he'd been vocal, asking questions earlier.

It definitely has something to do with his travel through time instead of confusion over the development. But he goes on, because he's most definitely not done. Not even close.]

While I'd been in suspended animation, the Academy had founded a city called Academia right where the Thirteenth Ark was prophesied to appear and gathered everyone to live within it. I woke where and... [Became a man out of time, despite all the power he still had.]

Began to work again. With the Academy, we found that the Ark had been kept afloat through a natural material called a Graviton Core. With further study, we found that it's made of crystals that could generate enough force to keep a massive structure afloat without the need for any outside help. It was then that I decided we could use Graviton Cores to power the Cocoon project we had started long ago, ten years after the fall or the original one.

Serah and Noel gathered five for us, the number we'd calculated would be enough to support our new Cocoon, but it did nothing to speed up construction-- the new Cocoon would take another hundred years to finish, and I was needed to finish it.

So I used my machine again to sleep until the last few moments of construction.

[Steve keeps a pretty calm look to himself, but he's very still and his levels of distress skyrocket at the idea of Hope doing it twice. The idea of doing it once willingly was bad enough, twice makes him want to leave the room to sort his feelings. Sure, Hope had sound logic for doing it, but Steve just can't fathom it.

Suddenly Grace is outside the room getting into a loud argument with the door guards, because like hell she's letting Steve be locked in a room and freaking out bad enough to wake her up. She's getting in that room if she has to fight to get in there.

The noise catches Steve off guard and he's standing, reaching for his shield before remembering it's not there. There's a second before he registers what's going on.]

Looks like Grace realized I wasn't accessible. [he tried to cover it up, but the altercation outside the door is definitely about to get more violent after Steve's reaction to the noise]

[Hope registers the name as Steve's Lucario and he realizes what's going on-- as Lucario are capable of feeling their trainer's emotions, Grace is most definitely reacting to Steve. And Steve's own reactions to Hope's story.

It cant be because Hope's background is terrible-- more terrible things had been told before this point. She would have tried to intervene earlier, so it's Steve's reaction to suspended animation.

And Hope immediately feels guilty about that, striding across the room to open it for her.]

It's fine, Paladin, Valkyrie. She can come in.

[If Grace wants to hit him... well. Hope probably deserves it for doing something to Steve.]

[Steve does something he rarely does and sighs. There's not much to be done as Hope answers the door to let Grace in. He hadn't realized his emotions got that strong, but Grace gives Hope the nastiest look, and he knows it'll be a while before she forgives the man, even if Hope did nothing wrong.

After glaring at Hope, she calmly walks in, brushing past him like he's worthless to her, and makes her way to her trainer. She gives him a once over and then settles by his chair, calmly waiting for him to resettle into his seat like nothing just happened.]

Sorry, she doesn't take no for an answer.

It's fine-- it's most definitely my fault. [Hope closes the door, reinforcing his orders to the two Bisharp.]

We could move on to your story instead of mine, if you want. Postpone the ending for later. [Or never, even.]

[Steve shakes his head] No, no, it's not your fault. You can't be faulted for things you're innocent of.

[he takes his seat, Grace quickly placing her head on his lap and snuggling closer to the chair. There's a comfort there for him, even if he's still deeply distressed, but he doesn't let it stop him from hearing out the rest of Hope's story.] It's fine, honest. Please, continue.

[Though if Hope did it a third time Steve will have to excuse himself and leave for a long period of time. That will be too much for him.]

If you're sure.

[Yes, he's fairly sure the notes of suspended animation did indeed trigger Steve's moment of distress, and at the very least, Hope has only undergone it twice.

He rests his back against the door to get back to where they left off.]

I woke up, we finished the new Cocoon on schedule and had moved the population into it-- and on time for an attack initiated by the man behind the outbreak of paradoxes, whom Serah and Noel had been chasing from the beginning.

He eventually retreated into another world, one called Valhalla, and as I had no ability to follow myself, I let Serah and Noel do so. Instead, I focused my attention on the original Cocoon, as the attack also coincided with the day the crystal pillar would fail, and we had to work fast. I sent out a crew with a pilot I know and trust to extract the crystal statues of my old l'Cie friends, because I knew they would have shattered along with the crystal around them.

Despite most of the civilians staying in our new construct, the new Cocoon would have been damaged by the impact, so we had deployed a powerful shield to isolate the crash, thus keeping the damage to a minimum.

At the same time, we managed to deploy the new Cocoon, Bhunivelze.

[Pause. That had been a day full of adrenaline, excitement, but then had quickly turned into something completely horrible.

Hope rests the back of his head against the door, looking up at the ceiling.]

Serah and Noel returned a little while later. But she died almost immediately, and a tear had opened in the sky, letting some sort of energy from Valhalla inside.

[Valhalla, wasn't that something to do with Thor's culture? Wasn't that a place almost like heaven or the like. He wasn't the most read up on Nordic myths, but he's sure that was a place of honor. Strange that Hope had something similar in title. Maybe one day he can speak to Thor more about it, maybe question Hope as well. It's a curious thing.

He continues to pet Grace's head for comfort, listening to Hope, he's still a bit off from before, so he stays quiet for now]

I'm sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself again. But to be honest, I never knew about many of the things Serah and Noel had been doing up to that time-- I knew of the man, of course. Enough to know his name, Caius Ballad, and that he was using some sort of power to create the paradoxes and make the timeline unstable.

I just didn't know other details.

[He's already given Lightning the details of Serah's death, but until now he still has difficulty putting all of these to words.]

Serah had the ability to see the future, the same ability of the seeresses that used the Oracle Drives. However, the girls never lived long due to the power of their visions.

The moment Serah and Noel defeated this Caius, the timeline was righted, and Serah saw everything. Every little change to both past and future due to the lack of paradoxes and the vision... The weight of this one vision was enough to kill her.

The Valhalla issue is something else entirely. The energy from it began to seep into our world because the goddess that had presumably been holding it had died-- or so it had been said. Noel did not give me details, but he said something about killing her himself, and from the look on his face, it was an accident.

[Hope musters enough energy (and when did his legs start to feel like Flan?) to march back to his bed and sit on it.] I never managed to get any more out of him, as next I know I was waking to the sight of a woman claiming to be my mother, and a Pokéball in my pocket.

[One thing Steve knew for certain from all of this was that Serah meant something to Hope, so he feels for his loss.]

I'm sorry about Serah.

[Seems like a rough time to come to this world, but at least here Hope had his sisters again, in whatever fashion. Steve's a bit of a silverlining kind of guy though, so it's no surprise he tries to find it for Hope, but he wouldn't say it out loud. It's something that many people would find offense in, being told that they're lucky to have a little something left. Nor does he want to belittle the losses up to this point.

It must be hard not knowing the fate of your world too.]

Mm.

[He pauses for a bit, just to get his thoughts together, before he pulls out his PokéGear to impart one last secret to Steve. Hope loads the two contacts listed with 'AA-' before the names, thus making them the very top of his list despite their names being 'Lightning' and 'Vanille'. He holds the Gear out for Steve to see their pictures.]

These are my sisters-- or so I told you and Carol earlier. We're not related in any way, but they're as close as can be to my family. They're two of the other l'Cie with me when I was a child.

Lightning [points at her picture] is 'Light'-- Serah's sister. [The one he thought had died but in fact was elsewhere.]

Vanille is one of those who sacrificed themselves to become crystal for us.

But they don't know this yet, because I'm from the future-- the last time they'd seen me in their timelines, I was a small boy. When we were still l'Cie. Light knows as much as you know now, but Vanille doesn't know yet.

[Steve can understand that, he's had brothers who were never blood related. Blood only goes so far in defining who is and isn't family in his book.

He is sure to memorize the faces, he doesn't want to make an idiotic remark, which is entirely possible with him.]

I won't mention it to her, don't worry. Seems bittersweet to have the person you lost here. [To have any of his would be both devastatingly sad and joyous.]

Thank you, Steve. It's difficult, but I take comfort in the fact that they are in fact here, and they in return can see me as I am now.

[He pockets his Gear, making sure to turn it off. Because they're still not done yet, and he's most definitely not letting anyone else know about Steve's own background.

Any knowledge freely given in this room will stay in this room.

Hope sits up, straightening his back.] I suppose that's all there is to tell. [For now, anyway. He may reveal actual names in the future when they become relevant.]

[Steve supposes it's his turn to tell his story, it's difficult to even think about, even more after hearing about Hope sleeping like that willingly. It's an idea he doubts he'll ever fully understand why anyone would submit themselves to that willingly.

There's a pause before he nods.] Makes it my turn, huh? Okay, where to start...

[He's not sure how to explain a lot of it without going into some details on the culture and economic status of the world at the time. It's such a massive part of his life.] I'll need to explain the world at the time for you to understand the significance of some things.

... I imagine you would need to. [Which, honestly, is something he should have done in more detail himself, thinking about it. Damn.]

[He's not sure where to start, but at this point, he figures he'll talk and make sense of things as he goes. The Great War, the Depression, Gremany, the Second World War, all of that is deeply connected, both for his life and the world.]

My country is very young, it's made up of fifty states [well, not at that time but details] that're united together as one. The United States of America. We're a melting pot, a country founded and populated by immigrants and their descendants. The land of dreams and freedom. [as he speaks, he gets out his drawing pad and pencil, sketching out a quick map as he continues to speak]

In the early 1900's, the world was going through an industrial revolution, we were swiftly becoming a powerful country, but we were separate from the older countries, oceans on both sides of America separated us. And because of that, America adhered to isolationism.

[He leans forward to show Hope the basic map and point out America, then the other countries as he mentions them] When Germany, a country in Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, started a massive war in Europe, it lasted for over four years. In the last year, France and Great Britain implored America for help, we gave it. My father, who was newly immigrated to America from Ireland and now citizen, volunteered to go over to aid them. Ireland was involved in the war, he had a lot to fight for.

He died a couple months before I was born from Mustard Gas. It's a horrible way to die. [Horrible is a gentle word for it, but Steve doesn't say it sadly, he heard only hero like stories of his father, he idolized him and his sacrifice.]

[Hope leans forward to study the simple map of Earth. It seems like war can happen in any world. Hope doesn't know a lot about Earth, but he does know that there are in fact countries and such. Just not their names or how different one country is from another.

It seems though that there are a lot of differences. Possibly even as different as Cocoon to Gran Pulse to Academia. There are regions where the countries are inside of, not just regions or 'states' within them, if this Europe land is anything to go by.]

I'm sorry, Steve. [He doesn't know what this mustard gas is, but Hope knows the death of a parent-- both, in fact. He never mentioned that his father had died as well, but it's... It's very heavily implied at least.]

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