Still editing, woo-hoo, but I started playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 and then this suddenly popped into my head. As most stories do.

I've never read Fragments Before or Fragments After, so if my take on the characters conflicts with what is in the books, I apologize. What I'm basing most of my logic and versions of the characters on is mostly just from the glorious summaries of Wikipedia. If anyone has read them, then give me some tips, advice, and facts that I might be able to use.

If these five/six-year-olds are talking more sophisticated than they should be, I'm sorry. I don't know a lot of children, especially of this age, I don't exactly remember how great my speech was when I was their age, and I don't know how much knowledge (or lack thereof) they have on vocabulary. And hey, this is 700AF. You never know. I mean, kids had to grow up fast if they wanted to survive the harsh world. That's my logic, anyway. I mean, I considered myself a smart and imaginative six-year-old, but hey, that's just me. My opinion of myself may or may not be biased and/or a distorted version of what it really was.

Enjoy! :)


It all started on the first day I came to the village of Paddra.

My family - my dad, really, as my mother and sister had already died from a monster attack on our village - had to flee after the attack and ended up in one of the only places left other than our village. Actually, it was the only place left. Now, before me, were the last humans in existence.

Well, at the moment, it was actually just the last children in existence.

"I'm Rei," I introduced. "Rei Fang!"

"Noel. Noel Kreiss. This is Yanny, his cousin Rigo, and Natarle. Welcome to Paddra."

"Thanks. So, are you, like, the only kids around here?"

"There is one more," Yanny admitted.

"Yeul, the seeress," Natarle revealed.

"Ooo! I've heard of her! This is where she lives?!"

"But she lives away from the rest of us," Noel said. "My grandmother says it's so that people won't be able to use her powers for evil. And some other stuff, but I really only understood the first thing. This guy Caius is always with her too. My grandmother says he's her Guardian. He just showed up one day. I, for one, don't like him."

"So can we meet her, or is it like, forbidden?"

"Caius allows her to live a normal life, "Noel admitted. "She's just doing some seeress stuff right now. She's the youngest of us, three years younger than me."

"How old are you?"

"Five."

"Ha! I'm six!"

As it turns out, we discussed our actual dates of birth, and Noel was the only one I was older than. Him, and Yeul, of course.

"Well, welcome to the group," Natarle said. "It's good to have another woman in the mix of all these boys."

The three of them made numerous sounds of protest, but Natarle shooed them to be quiet. Liking her already. She reminded me of my older sister.

"With Yeul, now the girls and boys are even," She declared. "We'll show you around the village. There aren't a lot of us, but we get by. You're staying with my family, right? We'll make you feel at home as possible."


"Hey, Yeul," Noel said, an affectionate smile on his face.

Yeul was a small three-year-old girl, the only person in the village younger than Noel, with silver hair and green eyes. She was clearly wise for her young age, being a cool and powerful seeress and all, but she also looked like just another ordinary little girl. At least, ordinary for the times. Every person in this dying world had an inherent hardness that came naturally.

Noel seemed to treat Yeul like a little sister, and having family in this world meant a lot, as most people were dying from sickness or the frequent monster attacks. It was understandable why he'd be so protective of her, and the others seemed to like to play with her as well.

"I'm Rei," I said cheerfully.

Yeul stared at me for a moment before smiling and saying, "Hi."

I take that as a good sign. I mean, she can see the future, right? If she likes me, it means we're gonna be friends, right? And that I'm gonna have a good future? Was that how it worked?

I wonder how often she sees visions. Is everything she says important? But listing to her every word would just be tiring. Wait, she shouldn't say stuff about her visions, right? Because of all the bad things that could happen if people know what's gonna come?

I'm not a seeress, so I guess I wouldn't know all the rules.

Really, Yeul looked and acted like any kid would in these times: not exactly carefree, but still happy and always smiling. She was serious when she needed to be, but we loved playing around with her, running around the village and pretending we were traveling the world, and what it would be like where there were more people.

We sometimes went further away from the village, where the Farseer's Relic could be seen standing tall in the distance.

"I'm gonna be strong when I get older," Yanny declared to me, Natarle and Rigo. "I'll protect the village from anything!"

"Yeah, well I bet I'll be stronger than you!" I challenged. "My sister used to say I was the strongest person she knew, and I'll grow up to fight really big monsters!"

"No way! I'll be the strongest there is!"

"Wanna bet?!"

"Yeah! I'm older than you, and I'm a boy!"

"That's not fair! A girl can be just as strong as a guy!"

"Come on, ladies, you're both powerful," Natarle began. "Let's just say you're both gonna be the best."

"That's impossible." "There can be only one!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Yanny protested, realizing she'd just called him a girl.

Everyone laughed at his embarrassment, as he quickly tried to recover.

"I'll show you all! I'll be amazing!"

"Bring it on, Yanny!" I challenged.

And so began the years of rivalry between us as to who would end up the strongest.

Of course, we were still kids back then, and though hunting and survival skills were a necessity in these times, we were still too young to be given any real weapons.

Still, Yanny and I would always be lashing out at each other verbally, though neither of us dared to throw a punch, as we were still friends, after all.

Noel, Rigo and Natarle always tried to put a positive spin on things, claiming that we'd all be great fighters, to protect the village and Yeul.

Overall, things were going well in my first year at Paddra.


Noel, Yeul, Yanny and I were playing in the outskirts of the village.

We liked to talk about trivial things, keeping the mood upbeat. We laughed, ran around, talking about the sky, and imagining what and where we'd be later in life. There wasn't much to do or entertain ourselves with, and even our dreams were limited, but we tried our best to keep entertained.

I suppose we walked too far from the village, and our noise caught the attention of the local monsters.

I had seen Cie'th before, not that I'm proud of it. I believed I would one day be strong, and that I was brave, but I had no weapons with me, and no skill. None of us did, despite mine and Yanny's big talk. Maybe, in the future, the beast would've been nothing, but right now, we were still children.

It seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. It loomed over us, and might as well have been as tall as an Adamantoise. It was one of the bigger Cie'th, not tiny bat-like, or those ones that just seemed to be a head and a hand. It wasn't human-sized, either. It's blue crystal skin looked hard as armor, and I had no doubt that punching and kicking wasn't going to be very effective, especially with our small strength.

"Run!"

We did so. We had been caught by surprise, but we were still a good enough distance away from the large Cie'th that we could get a head start. This type of Cie'th might have been powerful, yet it was also relatively slow, especially compared to us kids.

But the creature let out a screeching wail, as though crying out at it's eternal misery, and head was wracked with pain. I couldn't move. I could barely think straight. All I knew was the pounding in my head, and the ringing echo of the scream.

"Rei!" Someone shouted. I think it was Noel, but it was hard to tell in my current condition.

"Come on, get up!" I shouted to my limbs. "Run!"

I stumbled forward, though I wasn't coordinated enough to get to my feet. Every movement made my brain feel like it was turning to liquid and sloshing around in my skull. No matter how hard I pushed my arms and legs to get a move on, they didn't seem to fully understand and weren't able to properly take my commands.

Someone grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. It was Yanny.

"You're not dying on me now, Fang!" He said. "I'm gonna grow up and be the strongest fighter out there, but who else is gonna be there as the second best?"

Under normal circumstances, I probably would've knocked up upside the head, but right now, I just focused on his words and leaned against him as he lead me away as quickly as we could move.

Noel was pulling little Yeul to safety a short ways ahead of us. He was taller than her, and faster, but not strong enough that he could pick her up and carry her, so they were severely limited in their progress. So much so that Yanny and I actually managed to catch up even though my head was killing me and Yanny was basically carrying my dead weight.

"Hurry!"

The Cie'th may have been slow, but it suddenly it seemed to speed up after us, walking with its normal limp, but much faster, as though someone had cast a Haste spell. Now that it was chasing us, it had a clear intention, and that seemingly encouraged it to come after us at high speeds.

"Yanny, you need to leave me," I muttered.

"Not a chance, Fang! Don't go being all heroic now. It's just a Cie'th. Come on, we can make it."

But I was slowing Yanny significantly, considering I could barely stand on my own two feet, let alone move forward. Yanny was hauling my whole weight, and though he was strong and I was light, he wasn't exactly the warrior he boasted about yet.

Yeul and Noel were running faster than us, and though it wasn't noticeable at first, the distance between our two groups began to show, and we were still a good distance from the village. We could see it maybe 100 meters away, but at the rate Yanny and I were moving, we'd be caught in not half that distance.

"Come on, come on, come on…" Yanny muttered.

"Yanny-"

"Quiet! I'm trying to concentrate."

There was a small, light blue glow and suddenly my head cleared and I felt rejuvenated, as though I'd just taken a long nap and was sparking with energy again.

Yanny knew healing magic? Since when?! No fair! I'd been working on using magic for ages now! Ever since I can remember! I can barely muster enough energy to create a small Ruin spell!

And then Yanny collapsed from exhaustion.

Well, that explained things.

I'd hazard a guess that Yanny had never actually done magic before now. Though my Ruin spells weren't exactly combat worthy, and they usually drained me significantly, but technically I still learned magic before him. I feel accomplished.

"Yanny, come on! Don't you start being all heroic now! You are not giving me a lecture about it and then doing it yourself two seconds later."

I had to take over pulling Yanny instead of the other way around, and we didn't exactly speed up because of it.

"Come on, you guys!" Noel shouted. He took Yanny's other arm and helped hauled us forward.

Still, with our increased speed, we weren't gonna make it. To make things worse, now that Noel was with us, Yeul was lagging behind with our group as well, slowing her down to our slow pace despite her potential to go much faster if she wanted to.

Then, Yanny fell because we were trying to move far faster than he could keep up with, bringing both Noel and I down with him and causing Yeul to stop with us as well. Next thing you know, the Cie'th was upon us.

"No!"

There was a large rumble, and a loud cry of pain from the Cie'th. The three of us turned to find Yeul had been standing in front of us with her arms out, but that guy who was her Guardian, Caius was attacking the Cie'th with his hefty sword. He struck surprisingly fast for such a large weapon, driving the monster back with ease. It didn't stand a chance.

There were a few moments of shock and confusion once the attack was over as we all tried to catch our breaths, calm our nerves, and realize what had just happened.

"You…you saved us?" I asked.

"I protected Yeul," He corrected. "As the Guardian of the seeress, it is my job to keep her safe under any circumstances."

"Well, still. You saved us, even if by accident."

"That was awesome," Yanny declared.

"Totally," I agreed, giving him a fist bump.

"Yeah, nearly dying is so cool," Noel muttered. "But still, you're…not bad, Caius."

"Come, Yeul. Let us get back to the village."

Yeul nodded, waving for us to follow.


So after that day, Yanny and I went to train under Caius. Though first opposed to it - still untrusting of Caius - Yanny, Natarle, Rigo and I finally got Noel to join us. Yanny and I must've rubbed off on Noel, as after that day, Noel seemed inspired to become strong like Caius. Plus, he was also driven by the prospect of becoming a new Guardian for Yeul, as he was very protective of her already, and wanted to be strong enough to defend her for real.

Natarle, being the nice person she was, declined the offer of joining us as well, saying having three pupils might have been more than enough for Caius to deal with - especially the three of us (I have no idea what she meant by that. I mean, we're totally mature and not impulsive at all). Rigo, on the other hand, said he could become stronger all on his own, and without training.

And that's how Yanny, Noel and I began our training under Caius to become strong.

So yeah, I'd say my first year in Paddra was going well.