"Child of miracles. Traveler of time, guided by Etro. Listen to me. Each time you fulfill a wish of your heart, someone else's dream is shattered. You conjure miracles, but when you do, the seeds of tragedy are sown in other lives."

- Caius Ballad

Chapter VIII | The Dying World

You were back in that dark place, cursed once again with that eternal twilight, perpetual darkness, just like the eclipse back in Yaschas Massif, a world that felt so far away from this abyss. This was your retribution, Caius had said, for your sins. This was your atonement, your punishment. Those who messed with time messed with the fates, and for Caius, Guardian of the Seeress Yeul, that was the ultimate sin. To tamper with time exposed Yeul to different futures, different fates. Each vision took a life. That was the price, the curse of her gift.

But what was your sin? Why were you destined to be damned to eternal darkness?

Your travels between time had been out of your control, a consequence of Etro herself, the Goddess of Death.

What had Noel said? Nothing good ever came from the Goddess of Death. Only Chaos.

You could hear those voices again, swelling around you, blanketing you with whispers that felt soft and cool against your skin, but you couldn't hear what they were saying. You caught only fragments, pieces of words... Etro... Chaos... Valhalla. They spoke of the End, of the destruction of Etro, of the Chaos of Valhalla. They spoke of the end of time itself, of warped histories and overlapping timelines.

It didn't make sense. Where was your place in all of this? Why were you here? Did you serve a purpose, or were you just another glitch in the timeline, another paradox.

"[F/N]."

You recognised the voice instantly. It was the voice of he who had trapped you, he who had sanctioned you to the darkness, caged you in this eternal twilight. The one who spoke of bringing about the Chaos.

"Caius. Where am I?"

"Nowhere. You are nowhere. You are where you belong." His voice came to you in parts, not soft like those whispers, but harsh and grating against your skin, stinging like thorns. "You have no place. You deserve no place."

"Caius, why are you doing this?"

There was a beat of silence, thick and tense, throttling. "To save Yeul."

Then he was gone. You didn't realise you could feel him before, but there was now a sudden emptiness in the dark, more space than you remembered. You reached out a hand, fingers ghosting the place where he'd been stood, hoping to grasp something, and you did.

It was a handle, to a door, a door to nowhere perhaps, but somewhere different to this suffocating darkness. You had no other option.

You pulled and the door opened. You couldn't see it, but you could feel it, a short blast of air, warm air, as the door swung open.

You stepped through.

And then you were falling again.

You knew where you were the instant you woke up.

Home.

You were home. Back in the Dying World, the world where civilisation had ceased to exist, where living was a futile affair, where you had survived only for the sake of the others.

It was just how you had remembered it, a ruin, an ash-covered wasteland, with its perpetually overcast grey sky, blotted with the black skeletons of trees and the bones of ramshackle buildings, like smudges of ink, indecipherable, meaningless. The sky that never saw a setting sun.

You stood up, clumps of dirt and sand tumbling off your shirt as if you'd been laying there a while and the wind had begun to bury you beneath the ash. More dust and bones.

"Noel? Serah?" You called, your voice echoing in the deserted landscape, a mirage of companionship that only made you feel more alone. You continued shouting their names as you walked, hoping they'd landed in the same place as you. Or if you were back where you belonged, alone in a dying world. The last hunter.

You walked for what felt like hours and yet seemed to get nowhere, going in circles around the dusty landscape, wire mesh fences that had once been put up to keep the monsters out but had now been torn and ripped apart, exposing the village to whatever creature drew close enough. But even the monsters had died out and were scarce in these parts. Nobody could hope to survive in such a desolate place, and yet you had, somehow.

"Noel? Serah? Mog? Anyone?"

"Nobody can hear you."

You spun sharply on your heel, kicking up plumes of dirt. "Caius, where are they?"

The purple-haired man laughed and you felt the ground tremble beneath your feet, the trees bowed their twisted branches, subservient, bowing to the man whose ribs caged the heart of Etro. "They are not here."

You bared your teeth in frustration. "Why are you doing this, Caius? Yeul is a Seeress, you cannot hope to save her from what fate has intended."

"Of course, I do not hope. I know I will save her. Once I destroy Etro, and unleash the Chaos of Valhalla, time will be mine to control, to manipulate. I will not have to see another Yeul die again."

"Where are the others?" You asked again, ignoring his pointless ramblings. "Why am I here?"

He sneered and his whole face twisted into a mask of wickedness, his eyes like poisoned briers. "But you're not here, really. You never were," he said cryptically, and you felt a lump form in your throat. "Don't you understand, little Hunter? You're not supposed to be here. You are but an anomaly, out of place. You're back where you belong, in a world of death."

You felt a crushing pressure on your lungs, making it difficult to breath. What did he mean by that? Why were you an anomaly? "I don't... understand."

Caius grinned. "You will soon enough." Then he was gone.

You fell suddenly to your knees, hitting the ground hard, the impact making your bones rattle. Caius' words went over in your head. Did that mean you were stuck here again? Left out here to die alone. You'd suffered enough loneliness in the past to make the very idea haunt you, loneliness was the stuff your nightmares were fabricated from. You couldn't face that again.

You lifted your head when you felt something in the sand, a small tremble, a murmur of power. Your hands were buried an inch into the dust, and you could feel small shivers of energy grazing your fingers. Where was it coming from? Frowning, you looked around, and that's when you saw it.

Half-buried beneath the sand, your spear sat a few paces away from you. It was glowing slightly, a strange bluish-silver coating, and it was where the energy was coming from.

Quickly scrambling to your feet, you ran over to the spear and yanked it out of the ground. It was hot to the touch and covered in strange glowing runes.

It didn't take you long to piece it together. Your spear was an artefact, to open a time gate. You'd seen Serah use the one Hope had given her to open the gate to Oerba, and it'd had the same silvery markings etched into it.

But if your spear was an artefact, where was the gate? And where did it lead?

You found the gate by the old fountain, with it's cracked skeleton, dried up bones. Your spear began to tremble in your hand as you drew closer, the energies mixing with those from the gate and creating a reaction that broke the seal and opened it up, to another timeline.

You gave the dead land another, bitter glance, then stepped into the gate.

You weren't expecting to land back into the Dying World.

It was almost as if you'd never stepped through the gate, but you knew you had. There were subtle differences in your surroundings. The fountain was no longer broken, but it was still bone-dry and probably hadn't seen water in years. There were some shelters still standing tall, rafters sticking out through holes in the roof but at least they weren't reduced to dust like before.

Only the sky, instead of its usual grey, was red, like an inferno.

You were in the Dying World, but in a different timeline.

You heard voices then, from behind you. Real voices. Familiar voices, and you felt your heart give a hopeful lurch.

"Noel?!"

You ran towards the voice, passing the fountain, the buildings, running out into the wildlands. Then you saw him - Noel - standing beside a slain behemoth.

"Noel?" You said as you walked up to him, but he didn't seem to hear you, didn't seem to see you.

"Guess I should head back," he muttered to himself, still not acknowledging you as he dusted down his hands on his trousers. Then he took off running, barreling right towards you... only to pass straight through you, like a ghost. This Noel wasn't real either.

"Noel, wait!" You shouted, taking off after him.

You followed him all the way back to the village, feet pounding the sand, the fiery sky making everything look ablaze. "Noel!" You called breathlessly, knowing he wasn't real but still harbouring a small glimmer of hope that he would hear you. The thick air burned your lungs, feeling tight in your throat, as you came to a stop next to the fountain again, where Noel was facing Caius. The gate was no longer there.

"Why does there have to be one true Guardian? I don't get why I have to replace you," Noel was saying, throwing out his hands in exasperation.

Caius stepped forward, shifting his sword from hand to hand. "Because, Noel, that is the way. You are ready to challenge me to a duel, and prove to me you are worthy of becoming Yeul's Guardian. If you defeat me, the sacred pact passes to you."

"But-"

"No, Noel. This is the law of the Guardians. There can only be one."

Noel looked down, hissing each breath through gritted teeth.

Caius dug his heel deep into the sand, bracing himself. "Noel, if you wish to succeed me... you must kill me."

Noel scoffed again, walking away a few paces before turning back to face the older man. His fists were clenched. "There's no way, Caius. I want to fight you, not kill you. I just... can't."

The pain in Noel's eyes was undisguised, bitter blue.

"Noel," you muttered quietly under your breath, touching a hand to your chest. You remembered how hard he'd trained to battle Caius, only to find he had to kill his mentor if he was ever to protect Yeul how he wanted. It broke your heart to see him so distraught again, so desperate to save Yeul from her fate. You knew he had felt helpless and weak by letting her go through what she did as a Seeress, no matter how many times you'd tried to convince him that there was nothing he could do.

"So, Noel, are you ready to kill me?"

"No, Caius. I'll fight you, but not to the death," Noel repeated, resolute. "After I win, I'll receive the power of chaos and we'll protect Yeul together."

"Then if you cannot kill me," Caius said, moving towards Noel, dragging his sword through the sand beneath his feet, "you must die instead."

"Noel!" You cried, reaching out, but your voice remained unheard.

Quick to respond to Caius' attack, Noel drew his blades forward in a low uppercut and they clashed, steel on steel, a metallic ring. You jumped back, out of the way, as the two swung blades and fought with powerful aggression, each collision making the air tremble and spark with energy.

Noel grunted as Caius knocked one of his twin swords out of hand, leaving him armed with only one, and he stumbled back, panting heavily through his nose. He was clearly outmatched.

"It is as I feared," Caius growled, shaking sand from his sword. "You are too weak."

"No you're not, Noel," you whispered, hoping he would somehow hear you but you knew he couldn't. This Noel wasn't real. Where was the one made of flesh and bone?

Noel lowered his head, his body rising and falling with each trembling breath. You could see his hand growing slack, the blade slipping between his fingers.

"Don't give up," you urged, squeezing your hands tighter. "Don't let him win."

But Noel was deaf to your words and the sword fell from his hand, landing with a dull thud on the ground. Caius sighed in disappointment, shaking his head.

"You cannot save Yeul. You are simply too weak," he said with a disgruntled look, stalking towards him with his sword raised. Noel barely put up a fight as the blade was hovered over his head. And in one swift motion, the blade came down...

... and bounced straight back off your spear, blue sparks fizzling on contact. Your arms burned from the impact, your wrist bending painfully as you drove Caius' sword into a wide arc and he was forced to step away.

"[F/N]?" Noel gasped, lifting his head, his eyes glazed.

You raised your spear and pointed it at Caius' chest, the sharp end burrowing easily through his armour. "Lower your weapon, Caius," you said lowly, keeping your steely eyes on his.

Caius began to laugh, a deep, throaty chuckle that sounded like thorns. "You think you can stop me. You're not even real," he sneered, knocking your spear away as easily as if it were a matchstick.

Ignoring him, you pushed Noel back and raised your spear again. "If Noel won't kill you, I will."

"Foolish child," Caius said, his eyes dark enough to be black. "You will soon see the truth of your fate. You should not trust the Goddess of Death." And with another cold smile, Yeul's Guardian disappeared.

Gritting your teeth in frustration, you turned to Noel, studying him cautiously. "You can see me?"

The boy looked confused, taking your face in his hands, the material of his gloves feeling rough against your skin. "Of course I can. Why are we back here? What's going on?"

"I think... I think this is a dream. Or a memory. At least, it's not real," you said, stabbing your spear into the ground and taking Noel's hands from your face, holding them gently in front of you. "At first you couldn't see or hear me. But when I stepped in to stop Caius, you could."

Noel frowned. "So how do we get out of here?"

You dropped his hands with a sigh, looking around, at the charcoal mountains and bone-white sand. "Honestly, I have no idea. Where's Serah? And Mog?"

Noel shook his head. "I don't know. This is all of Caius' doing. He's trapped us here. How did you find me?"

"I came through a gate," you answered, scratching your head. "My spear was the key, the artefact I needed to open it. I was stuck in another Dying World before. A different time to this."

Noel grabbed your arm and started pulling you after him. "Where was the gate?"

You tugged yourself loose. "Noel, wait. It was by the fountain," you said, gesturing behind you. "But it's gone now. I don't know-"

"Noel! [F/N]!"

The two of your turned with a start to see Serah running towards you, her feet kicking up crystals of sand in her wake. Mog followed behind as a shadow.

"Serah! You're okay," you said as she met you, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow.

"Yeah, I'm so glad to see you. I thought I was trapped here alone."

"We're all here, that's great," Noel said, "but how do we get out?"

You pursed your lips thoughtfully. "We need to find another gate. That's the only way out, right?"

Noel and Serah exchanged a glance and nodded. "Guess so."

"But... if there's a gate, surely we need an artefact to open it," Serah pointed out, folding her arms.

You picked up your spear and inspected it. It was no longer glowing with runes. "Maybe my spear will work again," you suggested, shrugging. "Let's just find the gate first."

With a noise of agreement, the two time travellers began to walk, but before you could follow them, a strange energy swelled in your chest and held you back. A white mist abruptly sprung up from the ground and obscured them completely from view, swirling around your feet and anchoring you to the ground like ghost-forged shackles. You tried to call out their names but the mist choked you, thick in your lungs, and the words were lost.

The mist seeped into your eyes and your head and you were back in the place of lost dreams and memories, back in that nothingness, chasing fragments of people, ghosts.

Caius' words rang through your head like a curse.

You will soon see the truth of your fate.