Noel Kreiss x Reader | Final Fantasy XIII-2
✓ COMPLETED + UNEDITED | 2018
After the fall of Cocoon had rendered much of the land infertile and uninhabitable, the existing civilisations were forced to resort to hunting and foraging for natural resour...
"Ruins are places where memories gather like dust. So many layers of time... Probably the easiest place for a paradox to occur."
- Alyssa Zaidelle
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Chapter IV | The Fal'Cie Fenrir
Like a grey dusk, an unlit sky, Noel's eyes were dark and shadowed. Abandoned by the stars, haunted by his memories, he saw ghosts everywhere he looked.
Serah turned to her companion, noting that sad, wistful look in his eye as he stared out across the landscape they had landed in after coming through another time gate. "Who was she?"
Noel frowned across at Serah, that look faltering for a moment as reality pulled him back. "Who?"
"The girl," she said quietly, lowering her eyes to the ground, "the girl you keep thinking about."
"She... it doesn't matter. She's just someone from my past. She's long gone," he said, his voice low and hollow, reflecting the darkness that still hung over his eyes. Ever since they'd solved the paradox of that ruined settlement, his eyes had been like that, tangled with guilt and regret, for a past he refused to acknowledge. It was almost as if seeing the devastation had reminded him of a point in his own history, and now those memories wouldn't leave him alone.
Serah remembered Noel telling her that ruins were places where memories gathered like dust. His head must be full of places like that, she thought. Places full of sadness and regret. But she knew better than to push him further, and let the matter drop, turning her head to the sky instead.
According to the Historia Crux, they'd found themselves in 10AF, in the southern Yaschas Massif region of Gran Pulse. In every direction stretched high grassy plains and steep escarpments. Small copses of trees and more crumbling structures partitioned the valleys that hemmed them in from either side. In the distance, they could see the ruins of a city, pieces of a forgotten past, another picture of fallen splendour.
The sky above was dark, grey clouds sidling across the horizon, blotting out the sun. It basked the surroundings in a monochrome light, everything looking grey and washed out, bleached, skeletal.
Dust and bones.
"What is that?" Serah said, keeping her eyes on the blackened sun, rings of light struggling to work through the tightly woven web of darkness.
"In ancient times, the Fal'Cie devoured the light, darkness cloaked the sky, and the earth knew only night," Noel recited in a hollow voice, his eyes fixed on the skyline. "This must be the eclipse."
Serah let out a short mutter of surprise. "You know what this is?"
Noel nodded, turning to look at her, his fingers resting thoughtfully against his chin. "They said five hundred years ago, a massive Fal'Cie appeared. For a while, it blotted out the sun and turned everything dark. An eclipse. Only... something's wrong. This is 10AF, so there's no way this happened five hundred years ago from when I was born."
