"When the goddess dies, the chaos of Valhalla is unleashed. The chaos has the power to warp the timeline and destroy the past."

- Caius Ballad

Chapter VII | Visions of Valhalla

The main thing that struck you about the Paddraean Archaeopolis was the silence. It was oppressive, hanging over everything like a web, subduing everything into a soft murmur. Your footsteps were mere ghosts as you made your way down the slope, towards the time gate Hope had pointed out from the map. Dark lanterns hugged the cliff-face either side of you, casting muted grey light over the grass. "The gate's at the bottom of here, I think," Serah said, squinting to see at the foot of the slope, but the rough crags made it difficult.

"Let's hope so," Noel said dryly, walking close to you, close enough so that your arms brushed every so often, creating friction, static warmth. "I wonder what's going to be on the other side."

"Does it scare you? That uncertainty."

Noel glanced warily at Serah, then tilted his shoulders into a brief, casual shrug. "A little. But don't tell Serah," he added with a wink. "She needs to think I'm the brave protector."

You shot him a look. "You are brave, Noel. You're a hunter, a survivor. But courage won't amount to much if you don't have hope, or a drive. Or intelligence, of course. That's what gets you through another sunrise."

"You always know what to say, huh," Noel mused as Serah waved the two of you over to the glowing gate a few paces away.

"Over here, I think this is the gate Hope was talking about," Serah said as Mog tumbled over his head in a playful little roll, making you laugh. "Shall we go through?"

"Don't see why not," Noel said, nodding, then raised his brows at you. "Ready to step through your first time gate?"

You felt a slight flutter of apprehension in your chest, like butterflies trying to break through the cage of your ribs, but Noel's hand found yours and gave it a tight squeeze. "We can go together."

Serah quickly turned to hide a smile, then, using the artefact that Hope had given her, opened the gate and stepped through. You and Noel followed, quickly being pulled through the motions of twisting time itself, feeling it warp and bend around your body, until you landed on the other side. Your feet hit gravel and you almost went flying forward had it not been for Noel's fingers still laced tightly through yours.

"You okay?"

"Never better," you said dryly, letting go of Noel's hand to brush your hair out of your face. Almost immediately the colour drained from your cheeks as you lifted your eyes to the horizon, and you stifled a gasp.

The blackening sky was torn asunder by huge pieces of floating debris, fractured by strange whorls of light that looked like nebulae in deep space.

"W-what's happening?"

"It looks like the world is... falling apart," you said in a hollow voice.

"Is this a future where everything has been destroyed? Or is it a distant past, before the world has even come into being?" Noel questioned, his eyes following the floating debris that blotted the sky, pieces of ancient structures torn apart by the paradox.

"It reminds me of... of home. Of the Dying World," you said quietly, and Noel squeezed your hand gently, his skin warm.

"I know. But it can't be. We're only in 200AF," he said.

It was Mog who stepped up with an answer, his ears twitching as he flew in front of the three travellers. "Spacetime has doubled and twisted on itself. The past and future are tangled together as one, Kupo."

"The paradox... is doing this? Disrupting the very spacetime?" You said with incredulity.

"Looks that way. The overlapping timelines have caused a Temporal Rift. We need to fix the anomaly before we can do anything else," Serah explained, tapping her chin as she looked around. You kept your eyes on the sky, witnessing the true power of a paradox. Why did everything have to come to ruin? "There, look. An anomaly." She pointed to a part of the air where something was shimmering, a tear in translucent fabric of the universe. "Noel and me will need to go inside and fix it. Will you be okay out here?"

"Guess so," you said with a shrug, bouncing the sharp butt of your spear against the ground, sending up small puffs of dust.

Serah followed Mog over to the Rift, but Noel hesitated for a moment, then came back over to you. He met your eye firmly. "I'm coming back," he said seriously. "I'm not leaving you again, okay. I'm coming back." Then he turned and walked away and disappeared with Serah into the Rift.

Oerba was a ghost town in 200AF. You remembered hearing about the War of Transgression that ruined the land and forced the natives to leave or fear starvation and death. The ground around the village was covered in a layer of thin crystals, like dust, presumably left over from the fall of Cocoon.

You were sat on a crumbling wall, your eyes flickering between the Rift and the sky, the huge fissures splitting open the very seams of the universe, wondering if they'd come back, or if you'd be left alone again, if fate had dictated your life to be a solitary existence.

But fate had also delivered you into the arms of your childhood friend, he who had been a living home, a place of sanctuary when your real home had fallen to ruin. That had to mean something.

And only seconds after that thought had crossed your mind, the Rift shuddered and the three travellers tumbled out of it. All at once, the floating debris froze in its tracks and the sky began to brighten, the very foundations of the earth began to shift and warp and return back to its natural state.

"It's... stopped."

"We fixed the anomaly, dissolved the paradox," Noel said, dusting down his hands with a grin. "Told we could do it."

"And you came back," you added quietly, and Noel's eyes caught yours, glittering like the blue crystals that warped around the time gate behind you.

"And we came back," he echoed. "We'll always come back."

"I hate to break this up, kupo, but I can sense something," Mog interrupted, spinning his clock staff anxiously. "By the old schoolhouse over there, kupo! Something isn't right."

Noel frowned. "Didn't we solve the paradox?"

Mog nodded, his small wings fluttering. "It's something else."

Serah and Noel exchanged a glance. "Then I guess we should check it out."

Scrambling over fallen structures and shifting through sandy dunes, you soon reached the schoolhouse on the other side of the village. Half of the front facade was missing, exposing the inner rooms, and the crooked stairs leading up to the rooftop. Mog waved his staff over his head.

"Up there, Kupo. I sense a strange energy."

Noel patted your shoulder, gesturing for him and Serah to go up first. You rolled your eyes but allowed them to go on ahead while you walked behind, making sure nothing ambushed you from the back. Noel offered you a hand to help you through the small trapdoor at the top, but you swatted it away and pulled yourself up with a teasing smile.

Up on the rooftop, wooden planters were ablaze with flowers. It was a sudden spot of colour against the monochromatic greys and browns afforded by the rest of the village. It seemed out of place.

And so was someone else, stood at the other end of the roof.

Noel immediately stepped in front of you, spreading his arms protectively. "Caius."

The purple-haired man smiled, but it was a cold smile, overshadowed by the darkness in his eyes. "Noel."

Before the boy could say more, another figure stepped into view and Noel's facade faltered for a moment. You tasted the bitterness on your tongue when Noel said her name.

"Yeul!" He gasped, stepping in front of her and taking her into his arms. But she pulled away and the hurt in Noel's eyes was undisguised.

"I am not the Yeul you know."

Noel stumbled back. "But..."

"As you know, there are many Yeuls," Caius said as she went to his side, bowing her head, almost subserviently.

"Caius... what are you doing here, in this time?" Noel asked. You kept quiet, staying behind the Hunter with your eyes lowered to the ground. You couldn't face Caius, a traitor to his own kind.

"I've been following your journey, between the timelines," he answered, spreading his hands. "You're messing with things you do not understand. Your actions have caused changes, and for that you need to be punished." His voice adopted a hard edge then, acidic, and he drew his sword forward. "You will pay by blood."

"Caius!" You said forcefully, stepping out in front of Noel despite his warning glare.

The man's expression remained unchanged when he saw you, but you detected a slight falter in his movements. "[Y/N], the biggest issue of all," he muttered with tight amusement. "The girl with no place. What is your purpose here, I wonder."

Your chest clenched. The girl with no place. What exactly did that mean?

"Why are you doing this? Don't you want to save us, what's left of the village. We were the survivors, weren't we?"

Caius laughed. It was harsh and bitter, forced. "Times have changed. I am not the Caius you once knew. You mean nothing to me now." He launched at you suddenly with his sword and you felt hands pull you back, out of the way. Your foot caught on the edge of the stone platform and you hit the ground hard, scraping your hands and arms against the rough grit, inlaid with more of those crystals that cut like glass.

Scrambling back to your feet, you saw Caius' sword now level with Noel's head and cried out for him to stop, but he wasn't listening. Serah had her bow pointed at Caius' head but he didn't care either. His focus was on Noel. "To change history is a sin," he said thickly. "You have sinned, Noel Kreiss, and you will pay. The Goddess demands it so."

All of a sudden, a loud rumble spread through the building, shaking the rafters, spreading wide fissures in the stone.

"What's happening?"

Caius lowered his sword. He was smiling.

The sky was darkening again, thick whorls of cloud and midnight covered up the sun, basking everything in a hazy dusk. The building was still trembling and chunks of brick were already falling away.

Before you knew it, the ground beneath your feet split and you were falling, Caius' voice trailing after you like a poison vine.

"Retribution."

A/N — Only a few more chapters left! I told you this was only going to be a short story. Has anyone guessed the twist yet?