Prologue: Alive

"Thank you..."

As soon as the words left her lips she felt the pain. She couldn't move or breath, everything hurt. She gasped and heard Noel call out her name, and beg her to snap out of it as he gently shook her, but she had already seen the vision.

Her eyesight had already begun to fade as Noel pulled her close into a tight embrace, as if it would keep her from dying. She closed her eyes for the last time as she let out her final breath, and died there in Noel's arms.

Serah felt like she was floating on the water's surface, but felt heavy, and sluggish as if some unknown force was weighting her down. The pain was gone, but she felt tired and weak, and didn't want to open her eyes. Se heard faint distant voices, all telling her to relax and fall asleep. She felt lighter and stronger as they grew a bit louder, but then they all suddenly went silent and disappeared as quickly as they had come.

The floating sensation had also stopped. She felt the soft ground below her, and a strong peaceful scent of flowers. A quiet set of footsteps approached, then she felt a gentle hand brush against her face. She groaned softly, the heavy sensation quickly returning as she strained to open her eyes. Everything was bright and out of focus, but she could make out a blurry face smiling down her.

"Claire?" she asked weakly, wondering if it was all some kind of dream.

The figure shook her head softly.

"Then who-

"You don't belong here," She told Serah calmly. "Not yet."

Everything began to fade out into darkness, but Serah heard her say one last thing before everything disappeared completely:

"I will take your place."

Serah gasped suddenly as she woke up in Noel's arms. The pain was gone, but she still felt heavy and weak from the pain the vision caused. Looking up at Noel's face, she saw that he seemed rather shocked, as did Hope and Mog. They all looked as if they'd seen a ghost.

"S-Serah?" Noel asked, still in shock.

"I'm ok." she assured him as she slowly sat up.

She still felt weak, but the pain had subsided.

"What happened?" she asked, only to be hugged tightly by Noel as a few tears ran down his cheeks.

"I thought you were dead..."

She couldn't believe her ears, but glancing over at Hope she could tell by his expression that he had thought the same. She remembered the dream she had, and what the mysterious woman had said to her. She realized that she probably had been indeed died like Noel said, but something had been done to bring her back. The future had changed.

"I'm alright now Noel." she said as hugged him back, trying to calm him.

"Are you sure?" he asked as he gently pulled away and looked her in the eyes.

"Yes."

"But what did you see?" Hope asked.

"Was it bad?" Noel added.

Serah blinked, trying her best to remember what she had seen before she had collapsed, but her memory was blank. Sometimes she only remembered bits and pieces, or the whole thing was blurry, but this was the first time she had a vision and forgotten it entirely.

"I don't remember..." she said softly, glancing down at her feet.

"Nothing at all?" Noel asked.

She nodded.

"That's strange, kupo."

"Yeah..."

Could the memory of her vision be what was taken for her to come back?

"Serah!"

She glanced up immediately, recognizing the voice that called her name. She brightened up when she saw his face, and ran to him as he descended from the sky riding Shiva, with Lightning riding with him. She leapt into his arms the moment the cycle touched the ground, laughing with joy as he spun her around. Reunited at last, this time for good.

"I won't leave you ever again" Snow told her.

"Thank you," she said as she wiped a tear away.

She then turned to her sister, who was smiling proudly at her. She was no longer in her armor, but back in her old clothes. It was like she had never left.

"You're not going anywhere either right?" she asked, unable to bear it if she lost her sister again.

Lightning shook her head. She wasn't going anywhere, no matter what happened.

"Light..."

Hearing her name, she glanced up at Hope, who didn't know what else to say. She smiled at him, seeing how much more mature he was now since she had seen him last. He was no longer the scared confused teenager, but a strong handsome young man.

"You've really grown up Hope." she told him, causing him to blush.

"I...Uh...Yeah..." was all he could say turning away in embarrassment.

She chuckled softy, causing him to blush even more.

"Well it looks like we might have more than one wedding to plan soon." Snow joked, earning a death glare from Lightning.

"I-It's not like that!" Hope lied, making it worse.

Snow chuckled, then put a hand on Noel's shoulder.

"Thanks for keeping her safe for me."

"You better take care of her now." Noel told him.

"I will," he said with a smile. "Now what do you all say we head home?"

Despite how calm and peaceful everything seemed to them now, things were actually quite chaotic. Having the time line change over and over again had upset the balance of things, and Caius' death had made it even worse. The world was on the brink of being overflowed with chaos, and without the Goddess the lifestream could only post pone the inevitable. Gran Pulse was in grave peril, and no one even knew it.

Author's Notes

Not much of an exciting or long prologue, but still important if you couldn't guess. I also did not hand this to my normal beta reader (shippudenfanatic) instead I had PSPGamerGirl graciously volunteer to help me with the plot and other things since I was extra paranoid about plot bunnies. This will also include some very lightly implied onesided NoelxSerah and NoelxYuel, as well as the other pairings listed in the summary (wasn't enough room) So enjoy ^_^