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The Artifact	By : PandaBearzh Category: Final Fantasy Games > Final Fantasy XIII-2 Views: 1996 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the final fantasy fandom. I do not make $$ from this fiction.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
[NAN]

“So this is where you met Snow?” One foot in front of the other, the friends stepped in unison down the length of the old swaying and recently pulverized dock.
“Ah, yeah. I guess so,” Noel answered, pulling a white t-shirt off of his chest. His arms crossed as he lifted, effectively turning the shirt right-side out again before draping it over a low hanging bough. These were clothes that he had borrowed from Hope. His normal attire was folded neatly and stored under the young captain’s bunk alongside the uniform that he had returned from the New Arcadia adorned in. Both outfits were uniforms that earned their wearers’ dirty looks and skeptical glances from the town, and it didn’t take long for their owners to put them away for safekeeping. Hope had been kind enough to lend him some of his clothing. His quarters had been left exactly as he had forsaken them that day. Not a single item had been out of place, and even the floorboards had been swept free of sand.
It was common in the town to see sand used as a floor base because it was the easiest to maintain. Items could be rapidly buried if they needed to be hidden, and if something sharp were to drop, the pieces could be very easily shoveled and sifted out of the earth. It even provided a more sanitary method of flooring than wood and stone in most cases. Originally the homes with untreated bark and timber flooring became miniature homes for all various kinds of bacteria, mold and fungi. The heat of the terrain encouraged their growth and very effectively terminated the lives of newborns in particular. Now, wood was scarcely used. Sometimes it would be laid over the sand for structural purposes, but just as stone had gradually faded out of their architecture, wood was quick to follow.
Hope was studying the split planks on the dock now, kneeling down on the aged structure as it bowed beneath his weight. In the daylight, the area looked completely different than it did at night time. For one, the rocks that lined the seaside shore weren’t nearly as intimidating. This wasn’t the first time that Noel and Hope had come to investigate this spot. Earlier that day they had been here as well, searching for the gate that Noel had tumbled through. At that time the waves had washed over Noel’s ankles in pearl blue beads, leaving foaming whitecaps to break on the black sand. It hadn’t taken long for it to occur to him that it wasn’t the water that had been so opaque the previous night. The water itself had always been as clear as glass. No, what had made it difficult to see was the black sand, the black sea life and black rocks. Black, black, black. He was starting to wonder if that was why the gate had been black too.
“I wish I could have seen the look on your face when he grabbed you,” Hope chuckled, lowering his hand through the hole and mimicking Snow’s actions with an invisible person.
“I’m sure it wasn’t so fascinating,” Noel grumbled, kicking his sandals off as he had done earlier as well. The sun was beginning to set behind them now. Earlier they had abandoned their search for the portal. Hope proposed that maybe the portal would only appear under certain conditions. It had been obvious that it wasn’t presenting itself earlier; the water was so clear that Noel could see the details of everything that lived in the ocean for as far as his eyes could focus. It was their hope that now that the sun was descending that Noel would be able to locate the portal from its dim glow. Hope wasn’t of much help in locating an artifact that he would need to open it, but he had been overwhelmingly convincing to Noel to let him see the way he had arrived. Very soon thereafter, it became a case of ‘the missing portal,’ and as much as Hope seemed disappointed in its disappearance, Noel was twice as worried. This wasn’t turning out to be the sort of location that he inclined to make final rest in. “How did you know what happened, anyway? You said someone told you, but you’ve been following me around like a little shadow since you got back,” he quipped.
“You really don’t have to strip like that,” Hope realized, looking quickly back toward the shore and away from the form that was steadily becoming more and more revealed. “I know that your clothes are still wet from earlier but I’m sure I can find something for you for later tonight.” A loud splash told him that Noel wasn’t listening, and a quick glance to the tree bough confirmed it. There, folded, was all of Noel’s clothing, even his belt. Again he glanced back towards the town, raising his hand to shield his eyes from the setting sun reflecting off of the splashed puddles on the dock. “It’s impossible to see if anyone is coming. “
“No one’s coming. C’mon, get in here. You said you would help me.”
“I am helping,” Hope offered, squinting at the pale form bobbing in the glass-like water. The sun’s angle was starting to reflect off of the tips of the waves now, and they shimmered bright light back into his eyes even better than the dock did. It was both the perfect distraction and the most unfortunate occurrence known to censorship.
“C’mon! You said you could swim! Look, the water is already turning red. Lookit, I’ll save you if you drown, ok?” The words he spoke were true; already the sun was beginning to pitch behind the line of trees that spanned the edge of the shore. The shadows were beginning to swarm from all corners of the horizon. Silhouettes began to grow and tier on the beach and the starry night began to reflect from the eastern tides.
“I can swim, I do not want to, that’s all. To answer your question though,” Hope offered, crossing his arms briefly over his chest, “It was a man that I encountered who isn’t from this village. You wouldn’t know of him.” He paused and waited while Noel dove into the water, approaching the edge of the dock so he could see monitor his depth. When Noel returned, the brunette grabbed a hold of the side of the dock and peered at him curiously. “His name is Rosch; he’s currently our number one target. His wife runs PSICOM but she rarely leaves Cocoon. He’s a much more feasible opponent at the moment.”
“Yeah? So how did this guy know about what was going on? If he’s your enemy he wouldn’t exactly be welcomed into the town with open arms you know?” The air was starting to get chilly now and the crisp sea breeze bit at his cheeks and ears. The brunette had half a mind to submerge himself into the warmth again, but found his curiosity and stamina stronger than his will to be comfortable. Probably, he mused, the temperature was so much lower in this area alone. The dock must have created a shadow. It was the only solution for such a sharp temperature change to occur, even if the sun had almost completely disappeared beyond the trees. The dusted sky was still ablaze with orange and red gradients, making the far off stars appearing to be flecks of gold more than actual stars. Their shimmer danced in Hope’s eyes, but the globes offered no answer to Noel’s question. Noel lowered his chin into the water and stared up at Hope, ready to challenge his silence.
“You’re a master at posing loaded questions.”
“Well if you’d only listen to me!” he spurted, spitting water out of his mouth. Surprisingly, it wasn’t very salty. “Who knows, it might actually come in handy to analyze something that’s—“ Hope wet his lips and quickly dropped down onto his knees and palms so he could murmur in quieter undertones.
“I do listen to you. I’ve heard every single accusation you’ve made over the past three days concerning Fang allegedly slipping info to Cocoon. You know, for someone as foreign to this place as you are, you certainly have a myriad of opinions about processes that you honestly have no fucking clue about. If it was Fang, Rosch would have told me. Somebody would have said something!”
“If it was Fang?” Noel echoed, a knowing grin starting to peak on his face, “So you do have a leak, and you just don’t want to believe it.” Hope scowled and lightly ground his teeth.
“You need to drop this before it comes back on you.”
“They don’t tell you everything, I’m sure,” Noel argued, blowing air bubbles defiantly against the surface, “And to be fair, I said yesterday it might not be Fang, herself. I admitted that okay, maybe she doesn’t know what Caius is doing, but it’s a bit unlikely considering what I know about her history and how buddy-buddy she is with him.” Hope was shaking his head in disagreement, and Noel reached out and grasped his collar to prevent him from slipping away from him, “You told me you’ve never seen what the Traveler looks like underneath, so you can’t argue with me when I tell you it’s him! You’ve got a serious problem you need to start worrying about. What did Rosch say to you about it?”
Hope’s hand covered Noel’s fist, enveloping his skin with a very welcome blanket of heat. Otherwise though, he committed no movement to removing Noel’s grasp. A few days prior he would have kicked him under the surface and held him there for touching him in the aggressive and dominating manner, but over the past few days he was finally able to start settling back in again. At least, all outward appearances suggested that was the case. The reality of his situation was that he had realized that it was impossible for him to fully return to the self that he previously was. The town treated him with suspicion and his own militia acted as if he were a dangerous explosive on the verge of detonation. Noel was the only person who was treating him like he was an actual human. It made sense in a way; the brunette had claimed that a connection between them had been established in other times and places. He would be accustomed to recognizing Hope with slightly different characters and personalities, and that must be, Hope decided, why he was able to greet him as if nothing had gone wrong when reality constantly reminded him it had.
“Just because some village elder told you a story about Fang and Vanille saving Cocoon from Ragnarok’s destruction doesn’t mean that it’s anything more than a fairytale. You mentioned yourself that the government structure is different. If the timeline has changed from what you mentioned then you’re probably right in that Caius is somehow changing things from what you know. But it’s a present reality for us. We’ve never known anything different.”
“You don’t trust me do you?” Noel asked after a moment.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but you haven’t given me any real proof of what you’re alleging.”
“Hope.” The two were silent for a moment, and Noel dropped his hand from Hope’s collar. The shadows were closing in on them quickly, almost appearing to be carried by the waves themselves. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t expect you to trust me but somehow it’s just disappointing.” Hope pursed his lips to speak, but thought better of it and glanced away sheepishly. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Noel specifically. It was only that the information he had learned about him was conflicting, and he was afraid to allow himself to believe either side.
He swallowed softly and wet his lips again, searching for the right words. He had done this many times over the past few days and it was a miracle that his lips weren’t starting to chap.
“You’re very important to the Empress,” he managed finally. “So, it’s very important that for now you keep a low profile. It’s not that I don’t trust you, and I’m not following you around ‘like a shadow;’ it’s that I’m trying to protect you from all of what you don’t understand.” Okay, two truths and a lie. It was close enough.
“Protect me?” Noel retorted with a laugh, breaking from the dock. “I don’t need any protecting. I mean, I’m not proud of it, but I did manage myself up to this point and I’m doing perfectly fine.” Hope didn’t appear satisfied by his reassurance. If anything, he looked even more vexed. “But you know,” he added quickly, “that I didn’t mean to do any real harm to Snow. That was just – he was being sort of – well, I’m sure you know what he was like?”
Hope adjusted his position and sat himself on the dock, not giving a moment’s concern for the way that the fabric of his slacks absorbed the small puddles of seawater into their threads. His boots plunged into the water but it was no matter. They were plenty watertight and protected his calves very efficiently. The waves rolled around the leather, guiding his ankles in small infinity type swells underneath the surface. He found himself nodding to what Noel was saying now, he hadn’t expected any less of a response, but he did hope he wouldn’t have to provide too much information to him. ‘The best way to control a leak,’ he considered, glancing down at the shine reflecting off of the treated leather, ‘Is to not fill the container with substance in the first place.’
“I told you the day we met that Cocoon was looking for you, did you forget?”
“You didn’t tell me why.”
“I don’t know why. Well—I might imagine why, but I don’t know it.”
“Serah and I sort of go way back,” Noel began, “but I don’t know if this Serah is the Serah I knew. How did she end up as Empress?”
“She singlehandedly removed all Fal Cie from operation and assumed it,” was Hopes quick explanation. Noel waited for the rest of the story.
“Wait, that’s it?”
“…Were you expecting something different?”
“Well, those were tough, legendary battles. You’re saying she just went in and beat up a bunch of super-beings and sat herself on a throne? All by herself? Without breaking a sweat?”
“Well…of course there are more details but yeah, that’s essentially the thick of it. Do you think she remembers you?”
“The Serah I knew was strong but not that strong. She would have had help, and if this is the Serah you grew up with I don’t see how she would remember me if you didn’t remember me.”
“Well, this might not be about Empress Serah Farron per se, either,” Hope admitted, raising his feet through the water a few inches and kicking them back again. The tide was starting to rise already, and the waves were starting to break just above the rim of his boots, darkening the fabric like a stain.
“But you just said—” Noel began.
“Just because you’re important to a ruler doesn’t mean that they know that you’re important. It’s possible that you’re only important to her because you’re a threat to her. Or, maybe you’re not a threat to her. Maybe you’re a tool she’d like to use.” The tip of his toes broke the water’s surface and he watched the droplets bead and vein away from the soft creases he’d created from breaking them in. “I’ve heard both reasons. I’d like to say that they’re both rubbish but I honestly am finding that for some reason I am trusting one of those reasons over the other… I think that the reason they’re looking for you is because you’re a threat to them. Instead, somehow you’re a threat to the Empress. Maybe it’s because you’re here from another time. You know what the real timeline is supposed to be so you can identify what changes have been made and rectify them. You know what they say; if you know the future you can change it.” He glanced to his companion to check his consonance and identify if he agreed or not with his hypothesis. “What’s that?”
“Eh, you’re cute that’s all,” Noel answered, positioning himself between Hope’s knees, “when you’re thinking out loud like that.” Hope flushed transparently, but it was easy to read in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter to me if I’m important or not. But, if I can somehow use it to help you out, I can tell it means a lot to you. The only question now is: would you trust me?”
“Well I think it’s a bit—”
“No no,” Noel interrupted, sliding his hands under and behind Hope’s ankles. The waves were getting stronger now, and threatened to break his balance, but there was a very small cliff that he was perched on that allowed him to remain steady. “It’s a yes or no question. Do you trust me? Be careful what you answer,” he grinned.
Hope’s toes wiggled and fanned in his boots. He could feel the pressure of Noel’s grip on his ankles, but he wasn’t sure why he had placed it there. Surely it would have been easier for him to hold onto the dock than his ankles… ‘He’s going to pull me in, isn’t he?’ he realized. Instinctively, he moved to jerk his feet out the water, but Noel wouldn’t permit it. Instead his grip fastened tightly around his ankles, ensuring that if he did pull on his boots it wouldn’t only be the boots that would topple into the water.
“Yes or no?” Noel asked again. Hope grinned. He couldn’t help himself.
“Yea, I guess I can trust you. So, I know you’re not going to pull me in with you by my heels, right?”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t do that,” Noel answered, reaching for his hand. Hope took it and started to his feet so he could better help his younger friend out of the water. This is exactly what Noel had in mind however, and he seized his opportunity without hesitation. With a splash, he grabbed Hope’s wrist with his other hand and pulled him right off of the dock and into the ocean with him. “But I won’t let you back out!” Hope popped back up to the surface immediately, coughing and spitting out the water that had gone up his nose in the fall.
“You! You—I told you I didn’t want to get wet!” he groaned, jerking his hand from Noel’s grasp.
“Aw, c’mon man. Take a joke. It’s just water. You can swim all right.” Hope gave him a dirty look. “Well, dang. I’m sorry I just thought that you said you’d help and this whole time you’ve been—” Hope’s grim expression broke into the carefree grin he was hiding, and he jumped on top of his friend’s shoulder, dunking him back into the depths in retaliation. Noel’s arms swung at him wildly before managing to grab him around his waist and pulling him under the surface with him. The two bobbed back up at the top again in unison laughing.
“Oh, my god,” Hope snorted, “I forgot you were naked. I don’t know how I forgot, but I forgot.”
“What?” Noel asked, jerking his head over his right shoulder to try and get some of the water out of his ears, “Just do it then. No one’s around and it’s a lot easier to swim.”
“Oh, I’m not – no, no way,” Hope laughed, swimming backwards a little bit and putting some obvious distance between he and his companion.
“Why not?” Noel asked, following him in a predatory manner, “What’s so wrong with showing a little skin? You’ve seen mine a few times now and I’ve never seen yours… It’s just a little nudity, Hope… a completely natural thing…”
“Hey, you stay away from me, you little punk,” Hope warned, splashing Noel in the face. “Fuck trusting you. I’m done trusting you,” he added with a chuckle. Noel wiped his eyes, ecstatically enthused that this ocean wasn’t nearly as salty as other bodies of water he had encountered. “I don’t even know if there is a portal out here. I still don’t see one anywhere!”
“Well, I’m serious about that, actually,” Noel commented, rubbing his eyes again. “Damn, Hope. That really stings.” Hope frowned and swam closer.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think… it didn’t really bother my eyes that much, only a little bit.”
“I wasn’t talking about my eyes,” Noel grinned, reaching for the young captain’s waist.
“Hah, nice try,” Hope declared, jerking out of the way in time for Noel’s grasp to secure around a fragment of floating kelp.
“C’mere!” Noel advanced, “If you think I give up that easily then you’re the dumbest smart person I know!” Despite Hope’s efforts, he snared him in his arms and pulled him tightly against him. His friend searched his face in disbelief and wriggled none-too-convincingly against him.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” he said. As curiosity dawned on his face, his efforts to escape decreased and transferred themselves to efforts to remain afloat. “Now that you’ve caught me, what are you going to do with me?”
“I hadn’t planned that far ahead,” Noel admitted, allowing his left arm to help tread water. He grinned slyly and nodded his chin over Hope’s shoulder. “I’m sure I can think of something fun though,” he whispered invitingly. Hope was about to answer when he became distracted by something over Noel’s shoulder. It was pretty far in the distance, and extremely small but it appeared to be growing rapidly.
“Someone’s coming,” he warned, recognizing the ‘something’ as someone’s silhouette. “Quick! Hide!”
“What? Why?” Noel asked, releasing his friend and turning towards the shore. “Oh sh—t!” He could see her form emerging from the trees and he quickly dropped himself beneath the surface. He knew it would sting, but he opened his eyes anyway and searched for some sort of place he could hide. Although the sun was setting fast, the moon was rising just as quickly behind him and with him being so pale in contrast to the black sand, he knew there was a high risk that he was about to be spotted “full frontal.” Maybe if it was just some other male it wouldn’t have been an issue, but it just felt weird to be seen by a woman while skinny-dipping—especially when Hope was still fully clothed all the way down to his footwear. ‘But where the hell can I hide?’ Hope was moving above him. Where was he—the dock! ‘You’re such a genius,’ Noel appreciated, quickly diving deeper and swimming underneath him until he could pop up underneath the area that he had first breathed Pulsen air. Immediately after breaking for air, he realized that Hope was peering at him through the split planks on the external side of the dock.
“Stay quiet,” he whispered just above the crashing waves. Noel reached above him and set his fingers between the knots on the underside of the rotting timber to keep himself from rolling out from underneath. “I’ll keep this quick. Look for the portal.” Smartass, Noel thought. Of course he’d look for the portal, but he’d do it after hearing what this girl had to say. He didn’t get a good chance to identify her in the brief moment that he had seen her turn down the path, but he could already hear the wood creaking under her weight as she stepped over the dock. Whoever she was, he didn’t intend on letting her be completely alone with his friend in his current state. Just as he had been considered an outsider for his ability to cast magic, Hope was being treated as a traitor simply because he had survived.
“What are you doing in there? Are those your clothes on the shore, Captain?” she asked, her voice drawing in volume as her form approached Hope. He pulled himself up onto the dock a little bit, folding his arms over the edge to keep himself in place casually.
“I just needed to clear my head,” he explained, leaving Noel to wonder if Hope actually did swim in this ocean for fun at sunset often. The speculation in the girl’s voice alluded otherwise however, and he had to remind himself that Hope had probably gotten quite skilled at deception but those sorts of habits were probably ones that the towns people would remember.
“Really? Where is that guy you’ve been escorting everywhere?”
“Which guy?” Noel heard Hope ask. He rolled his eyes, even he knew who this voice was talking about. There was a soft squeak that made Noel temporarily drop his grip on the planks above him. She was seating herself above him and across from Hope. Perhaps this exchange wouldn’t be as swift as the young men had wished.
“There is a man from the village that Snow caught using magic. There was apparently some sort of freak accident and they both got shocked by it. Well, Fang says that he never casted any magic at all, and it’s just some sort of misunderstanding. I saw you with him earlier, but I never got a chance to ask you about him. I never got his name, but I wanted to interview him and see what really happened. It’s not that I don’t believe Fang, but… I don’t know his face just wasn’t familiar to me, that’s all.”
“Ah. I see. I didn’t ask his name. He’s just like you said: a nobody from the town. Er, say, Alyssa, where is Snow anyway? I haven’t seen him around, is he doing ok?”
“Oh!” her voice perked up, “He’s fine! Well, I think he’s—you know Snow. Ever since that day that he saw that villager out here he’s been poking around trying to make sure that it’s all it was!” Her cheerful giggle was none-too-convincing.
“He’s not doing intel ops, is he?” Hope asked in a slightly worried tone.
“Oh no, not alone. Only with me. After what happened to us, he insisted on coming with me most of the time. I told him he would get us caught but he seemed to be afraid that Rosch would get angry that I escaped. He seemed to think that there was some sort of bounty on my head but the whole thing was absolutely ridiculous! But yeah, Snow… he’s just out there somewhere trying to find the bad guys and keeping them as far away as possible.” Noel couldn’t believe what a terrible liar this Alyssa was. She had always been able to keep her true feelings at bay so easily whenever he had encountered her in the past. Something else that he thought was a little strange was that it didn’t appear that she was touching him. The rising moon was very obviously casting shadows through the dock, and he could see her entire outline perfectly as it rose and fell over the forceful waves. He couldn’t recall a single event that the two had been together that Alyssa hadn’t been touching Hope in some uncomfortable sort of way. Did she act differently around him when she was alone with him? Hope didn’t appear to notice any sort of change in her physical behavior though, so perhaps it would be best to chalk it up to one additional difference about this world.
“That does sound like Snow,” Noel heard his trusted friend admit in a tone that he had very quickly come to recognize as the one he elected when he didn’t believe what he had just heard but for whatever reason preferred to keep up appearances that he did. “Can you help me with something, Alyssa?” Noel saw her head’s shadow nod deliberately to accompany a soft ‘mm!’ of eagerness.
“Of course, anything!”
“What happened that day that we separated? I’m having trouble remembering.” Noel was dumbfounded. Was it all that these people did but lie to each other? Earlier that very same day, Hope had confessed to him that he had never been able to get the actions of the day out of his head. That many times during his incarceration, the events would play over and over in his head like some sort of broken movie.
Alyssa emitted the softest of gasps. “You don’t remember? Hope set his chin on his arms and continued to kick his feet soundlessly.
“A lot has been suggested to me over the past five months,” he explained, “and I just can’t seem to keep it straight. I remember, I was there with you when we discovered their routes. All of the branches were snapped, I couldn’t believe that they were so incredibly careless about it. You wanted to go on ahead alone, but somehow I knew that it wouldn’t be just a few spies like you thought. There was no way that PSICOM would be that careless.” Alyssa shifted uncomfortably, but waited until Hope was finished speaking before continuing the story. “We followed the trail. It went on for about an hour. I can’t believe they were that close and we hadn’t caught them earlier.”
“It was a trap, Hope. They were trying to catch me but they caught you instead.”
“We arrived at the camp. They didn’t even notice us. How did they not notice us? We cut through the clearing and Bam! Suddenly right there! We were right in the middle of the camp and it still took them ten minutes to realize we didn’t belong there. We weren’t prepared. We weren’t wearing disguises. We should have stuck out like a sore thumb.”
“Sometimes if you’re not looking for something you don’t see it. I think we hid rather cleverly. You give me and PSICOM too much credit. I just wish I hadn’t gone to split up with you. If I had just stayed with you they never would have found you because I never would have tripped over that box.”
“There was a box?” Noel imagined Hope furrowing his brow as he tried to remember the scene.
“Yes—I guess—I thought you saw what happened but I thought I could get my hands on the data chip that was on the table outside of that orange pitch tent. I did get it, but on my way back I tripped over a box and the soldiers saw me. I tried to hide, but I guess they saw me trying to find my way back to you. The rest was sort of a blur for me. I saw them grab you and I wanted to help – but I can’t fight like you can. I just can’t.”
“It got pretty crazy pretty fast, didn’t it?” Hope offered after a moment. His voice was soft, but Noel could tell that it was expected for Alyssa to continue. “I saw Rosch talking to you.”
“Yes,” Alyssa affirmed with an odd strength of finality. “Yes, Rosch was trying to intimidate me. He had them hold me in a tent but it was really easy to slip out the back. I guess they thought that you were the one stealing information this whole time, not me. I think they just thought that I was weak and underestimated me. So—I ran back to the village and I told Fang what had happened. But, by the time we got back to the PSICOM camp everything had been torched. Like that,” she added with a sad sounding snap, “Everybody was gone. You were gone. I thought I had lost you forever.”
“I’m fine,” Hope added a little too quickly.
“Yes, but I thought that I had lost you forever… Fang was really upset. She wouldn’t talk to anybody for a few days. She wouldn’t talk to me for a few weeks. Everyone was so worried. Nobody knew what to do without you. It was really hard. One day, Fang just seemed to move on. She just woke up and started issuing orders like she always did. It was as if she had given up on you. That was really hard too. Our men didn’t know what to do either. Half of them tried to follow what Fang did and the other half held out for your return. That group dwindled in number by the day. But still, it was a weird time.” She leaned back onto her palms and glanced upwards at the sky, “I don’t know if maybe that’s why everything went all weird.”
“Went all weird?” Hope inquired. Noel strained to hear Alyssa’s words over the sound of the waves pouring into his ears. His legs were starting to tingle, and he feared that if the conversation didn’t end soon they might cramp and go numb. It was true that they had been kicking underwater for a few hours now. He wasn’t that experienced of a swimmer that he could tread water non-stop for hours, so it came as no surprise to Noel that it was happening. Although, he would have bargained for a little bit more time. His fingers found themselves around the spaces between the planks behind Alyssa, slipping up and over the wood well enough that he could hold on and let the tide carry his body around like deadweight. Just so long as she didn’t turn around or move her hands over his, he would be perfectly safe.
“We’ve had a very boring five months, absolutely nothing has happened. Well – that isn’t true. I guess, what I mean is that PSICOM hasn’t done anything to us directly. It’s more like, everything that Fang tried to do failed miserably when you weren’t at your side.” She paused her story a moment and glanced at her superior officer. His complete and undivided attention had been successfully captured. “Okay, here’s an example. You remember that the Gran Banquet was supposed to take place months ago. Well, it’s taking place tonight because the night before it was supposed to take place someone lit the storehouse on fire. Fang said it must have been PSICOM, but even if it was PSICOM how would they know about the banquet? That’s not all either. I discovered an outpost not far from the PSICOM camp that you and I discovered. But, by the time our boys arrived it was vacant. There had been something like thirty people there, and they had just vanished! Their coffee was still hot and everything! To this day, I don’t know where they went, and I don’t know how they knew to leave. It’s just been one problem like this after another. We’re really lucky that PSICOM hasn’t blitzed us. We thought that that’s what was happening when Cid returned you to us.”
“Hmm,” Hope mumbled, dropping himself off of the dock and back into the warmer water. The night air was starting to become quite cold, actually, and he could see wisps of silver beginning to form from Alyssa’s breaths. Being wet as he was, he didn’t enjoy the temperature shift very much. It did this every night though. In the daytime, the sun would bear down on them as if they were in a desert. At night, the sun would set and the land would steadily lose its temperature until sunrise. The coldest part of the night undoubtedly was twilight. “What do you think about it?” he asked finally, kicking away from the dock a little bit so that Alyssa wouldn’t try and peer straight down into the water and see Noel. Wow, he had already almost forgotten that was there. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and he voiced it, interrupting what Alyssa was about to say, “What did Rosch tell you?”
“He said,” Alyssa posed slowly, as if she was trying to remember something insignificant. “He was talking about how…Oh-my-gosh! Hope!” She chirped, sitting straight up and covering her mouth with her hand. “Someone is passing information to them! I didn’t realize it until now but that’s what he meant!”
“What did he say, exactly? Did you tell Fang?”
Alyssa shook her head wildly. “I didn’t realize it until just now—until you put it together like that! Of course I didn’t get a chance to tell Fang anything. Do you know anything about it?” Noel couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Obviously the person who was passing information was Caius.
“No,” Hope answered bluntly.
“Hope—er—Captain! I think I know who it is!” Alyssa added, lurching forward to the edge of the dock teeming with excitement. Hope’s expression softened when he heard her words and he stole a quick glance at his friend who was balancing underneath the dock. “I think it’s Fang’s advisor, Noel Kreiss! I saw him in the woods once, and I could have sworn that he was using magic. I just wasn’t able to confirm it and isn’t it true that the only people who can use magic have recently been to Cocoon?”
‘It’s C-A-I-U-S!’ Noel mouthed to his friend, realizing that he had his attention for a split second.
“Captain?” Alyssa asked, leaning down over the water. She had realized that Hope was looking under the dock but luckily for the two males, Hope had quick reflexes when the situation called for it.
“Alyssa, this is very important information that you’ve shared with me and I appreciate your candor and honesty. I’ll talk about this subject with Fang myself, so please don’t bother her with it, okay?”
“Oh! That’s right! Fang was looking for you, that’s why I came down here to find you.” She sat back on the dock quickly. It was too quickly. The bridge of her palm crashed down on Noel’s fingers and he quickly slipped them underneath the dock and with a large intake of air, dove as deep as he could. A few moments later, a hand grabbed his arm and tugged him back towards the surface. It was Hope.
“Did she see me? Is she gone?” Noel asked, spinning his head wildly around to see if he could locate the departing lieutenant.
“Yes, she left but I don’t know if she saw you,” Hope admitted.
“Well what did she say?”
“Put your clothes on. We have to go back. Did you find the portal?” his friend advised, swinging away from the dock before Noel grasped his shoulder to halt him.
“What did she say!” he demanded.
“Literally? ‘You have a friend in me.’”
“What? Well what the hell does that mean? She just said that and then got up and left?” Hope jerked his shoulder out of Noel’s grasp and climbed up the sand. His uniform clung to his body tightly and looked appropriately heavy from the way that the ocean rained out of its folds like rivers.
“Yeah. She just said that and left.” Noel scampered after him, but was a little more cautious to look around before dashing over to receive his clothes.
“My clothes are gone! She took my clothes!”
“No, they should be around here somewhere…”
“They’re not! They’re gone! She took them! She must have seen me after all!”
“That’s… strange then,” Hope commented, his gaze drifting off towards the village.

[NAN]
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The Artifact