Paradox | Noel Kreiss (Final Fantasy XIII-2) ✓

Chapter II | The Wanderer across Time

"Time and memory, frozen in crystal."

- Historia Crux

Chapter II | The Wanderer across Time

Tangles of mist hemmed you in from all directions.

You didn't know from where it had come, when it had even arrived. One moment the sky was a clear, glossy blue, the next it had been swept away behind a curtain of gossamer spider's silk, too tightly woven together to see through, almost tangible.

You reached out a hand, expecting to feel the mist thicken to web against your skin, but your fingertips passed straight through it, feeling nothing but damp and coldness.

Where were you?

Your head was as clouded with mist as the air was around you, swathing your thoughts and memories in a shroud, concealing them from sight. Your last lucid thought was returning to the Farseer village to find Noel and the others gone, but that felt like it had happened years ago.

You continued walking forward, hands extended out before you, expecting something to grab at you from the fog. But nothing did, and you felt nothing but the same frigid air against your skin, untouched by living, breathing occupants.

You felt as though you'd been walking for hours too, the mist thickening around your legs and making it increasingly difficult to move, as if it was purposely holding you back, warning you not to go any farther. But what choice did you have? You couldn't turn back. You didn't have anything to return to. The only way was forward, into the unknown.

Then you saw something. An anomaly in the mist, the blur of a shadow, a shadow that shouldn't be there.

You opened your mouth to call out to it but the air felt heavy and wet on your tongue, the back of your throat cracked and dry, and no words came out. Instead, you pushed on towards them, chasing the shadow of an invisible body.

You managed to gain on them, your fingertips ghosting the smudged outline of their silhouette, but then it pulled out of reach and you ended up stumbling over something on the ground. Catching your balance, you peered down to see what your foot had caught. The mist was too thick to see through, however, so instead you reached down and searched blindly, fingers grazing nothing but cold, hard ground, before they eventually seized something else. You picked it up and turned the strange artifact about in your hand; it was heavy, fabricated from a glowing blue crystal and inlaid with glittering silver veins. You'd never seen anything like it before, but it struck you with a strange sense of timelessness, of being caught between two worlds, past blurring with present, overlapping futures. It hummed with its own, supernatural energy.

"[Y/N]."

You turned with a start, surprised to hear the voice, so sharp, so human amongst the ethereal murmurs that swept through the fog. You looked around wildly, searching for the person to whom the voice belonged, but the mist taunted you with its illusion of obscurity.

You finally found your voice as you cradled the glowing crystal close to your chest. "W-who's there?"

"[Y/N]," the voice said again, more distant, not quite of this time, of the present. "This way..."

The mist thinned out, parting in front of you, and you stepped forward tentatively, untrusting of your own senses. Was someone really there? Or was it another cruel illusion, a deception playing on a desperate mind.

But then the shadow returned and stepped forward, and you were struck with a cold, choking dread as you recognised that someone.

Caius Ballad.

One of the few survivors of the Farseer tribe, guardian of the Seeress Yeul. One who had betrayed you, surrendered you to your fate of solitude, abandoned you to the ruins of a dying world. You had never liked Caius. He was ruthless, too idealistic, always running from the truth. He left his home to rot in pursuit of nothing but a fantasy.

The spectre that resembled Caius said nothing, just stared at you with that same calculating sneer he always seemed to don. You in turn fixed him with a steely look, like cold fire, until another figure stepped out beside him, and you faltered completely.

Noel Kreiss.

Your best friend, saviour, partner in arms. The boy who had taught you to survive, to fight. The boy you had once called home.

And yet also the boy had turned out to be another illusion, a deceit to your heart.

"Noel," you whispered, the callous look on his face finding the cracks in your armour and exploiting them, forcing them wide open, leaving you exposed, vulnerable. The pain of returning to your village and finding him gone was all too raw. "Why... Why did you leave me? Why did you have to go... and leave me all alone?"

But the boy's face remained unchanged, uncaring, and the translucent quality of his skin told you he was not real. An illusion, facade. Was anything in this place real? Were you real?

"What's... what's going on? Where am I? Where did you go?"

The apparition of Caius stepped forward, smiling his porcelain smile, beautiful but so easily cracked, so easily faked. "You're lost, child. A lonely wanderer," he said, his voice reaching you through touches of wind. "A traveller across time. You have no place here... or anywhere."

You saw the bitter truth to his words. You had no place, you weren't needed, weren't missed. Everyone you'd loved had abandoned you. What else did you have?

"But... why..."

Noel stepped forward this time. "Because that is how the Goddess Etro has dictated your fate," he answered, his voice nothing more than a whisper, brushing against your skin like a flame. "She has no need for you in this time."

"This time?"

Noel retreated with an odd smile, not the one you remember. A mirror-image, but cracked, distorted.

"Find the gate," a voice spoke from behind you this time, female, gentle. Paddra Nsu-Yeul. "Find the gate and you will pass onto the next time. Find the gate and you will find your place."

Then the voices and the apparitions dissipated and you were alone again, lost, a misplaced object, crossing paths of past and future, searching for your place, a wanderer across time.