AN. OK, so there are two ways I might continue this. One is as a series covering how each Ultimate Weapon is uncovered. The other is as a telling of the trip to get Anima. Votes? Left on my own I'll probably do the series just because I love one shots.
018 Mermaids
"We're gonna go down there and activate it...and then we should be able to salvage the big prize!"—Rikku, ffX
Auron had always thought himself among the members of the party who were firmly landlocked. His sword made about as much sense in the water as Lulu's skirts or Yuna's airy staffs. All his strength and power was rendered useless without earth under his feet to ground him, air that did not push back when he swung his blade.
"Leave it behind", Kimahri says when Auron points this out.
"You won't need it. It has to be you two," Lulu adds. Her pupils have dilated to pinpricks despite the hazy fog that seemed to always shroud these ruins. The Onion Knight is near, and he knows Lulu can feel it the same way he felt the Masamune, lurking inside that rusty sword he had insisted they pick up. The Cait Sith doll that Rikku had spent hours modifying only a week ago sits forgotten at Lulu's feet, soaking up damp, head lolling to one side. Without the touch of the mage, the dolls are not animated.
"If you say so. Can't we just go?"
Rikku directs this last to Auron. She is the other member of the party who has been selected to dive deep under the water into the wreck of the ancient city to find the Onion Knight. She has already tugged the watersuit she was wearing when she joined the party onto her thighs, up over the inversion of her belly to clasp around her neck. Her goggles mask the green swirls of her eyes, making him unsure if she is actually looking at him or not.
"I fail to understand why it must be the two of us, Lulu," Auron says. Lulu's eyes are dusty and distant when she turns to him.
"Al Bhed and Unsent. The Onion Knight has his own guardians."
Auron had thought Geosgaeno had been guardian enough. The hulking carcass that bobbed like a cork a few dozen meters from the stone platform the party was gathered on had been disturbingly alive a matter of minutes ago. Tidus, Wakka, and Rikku had all fought from below the churning, slate colored water while from above the rest of the party watched tensely, Lulu's arms poised to cast a quick spell if the creature came above. Eventually the water had gone from grey to black with blood, and the party had regrouped to discuss the retrieval of the Onion Knight, Lulu's ultimate weapon.
At which time, Auron had been startled to discover Lulu expected him to accompany Rikku into the water. The uncurling of her long, pointed finger toward him had frightened him in a way not many things were able to do anymore. He didn't want to go into the water, did not want to squint through the murk and the cold after what basically amounted to a toy chest.
"Come on, you big scaredy cat," Rikku snarked, and he'd have been willing to bet gil she was rolling her eyes behind the goggles. "It isn't like you have to worry about holding your breath."
And so Auron finds himself shedding his outer layers, removing his boots and socks, folding his robe, making a neat pile of his garments next to the haphazard scatter of Rikku's armor and shoes. He isn't sure what motivates him most to agree to the mission. Maybe it's the way Kimahri's fur is flattening in the damp, or the slight shiver in Yuna's frame when the breeze picks up. Or maybe it's the idea of being alone under the water with Rikku, the two of them separated from the party by feet of water, surface tension and Lulu's strange order trapping them together. Even though he and Rikku share a common goal as Guardians, this feels different somehow, something the two of them must do together with no one else. Intimate. He suspects that if he had a heartbeat, it would be racing.
He entrusts the Masamune, after a moment of deliberation, to Tidus. Yuna hands Rikku the Celestial Mirror, which manages to find light to reflect even in the gloom, the surface quicksilver bright.
"Let's try to make this quick," Rikku says to him. Auron isn't fooled by her attempt to appear nervous. Auron has come to see, during the long days and nights of their Pilgrimage, that Rikku is free in the world, more free than any of the rest of them could hope to be. Sand and sky and sea all welcome her equally, each of them longing for the gasp of her breath, the insistent tug of her fingers, the long, sharp blade of her body cutting through them like a shout through silence.
It is silence that envelops them as they descend with a splash into the murky water, silence so thick that sound must fight through it to be heard. The chugging of his hands pushing him through the water is alien and almost terrifying. Auron sticks close to Rikku and the light the Celestial Mirror provides, cutting through the murk ahead of them like a searchlamp. After a few moments of swimming, the icy chill of the water is distant. He could even convince himself he is warm, if he wished.
They are close to the bottom of the reservoir now, so close he can see old cobblestones and long strands of kelp in the light cast by the Mirror. Ahead of them looms an ancient structure, the entryway with the rotted wooden door looming like a gaping mouth full of broken teeth. Pillars stand to either side like sentries, slime and moss growing up them. A temple, once…and maybe still. The area is free of animal life, probably thanks to Geosgaeno, Auron decides. He kicks his feet furiously to keep himself from touching bottom, keep his bare feet from sinking into the silt and relics of an old city.
The chest is tucked behind one of the half-broken pillars near the end, revealed by the lightning flash of the Mirror as Rikku methodically swoops it back and forth. She holds the light steady as Auron struggles with the rusted, grime filled latch, the square tips of his fingers working through decades, if not centuries, of muck.
He feels rather than hears Rikku's exclamation, the movement of water behind him startling. The light moves madly, and Auron pivots to see the guardians Lulu referenced.
They are only part human, from the waist up. Their skin is grey and scaly, their eyes wide and luminous in the underdark. Wide and luminous, green and smeared-swirled, fringed with impossibly long lashes that move like ferns in the water as they blink. Their lower halves are fin-like, a seam down the middle where not long ago two legs fused together to form one limb. Between their splayed feet, webbing has grown, tattered and translucent. A quick glance reveals they do not have gills, they do not breathe.
Suddenly the Al Bhed remnants on the ruins above make more sense. Once, they had lived here, and died here, and lingered beneath the waves. Auron holds still as the creatures approach, lets their rough, long fingers trail over his face. He can feel the will and magic that hold him together being tested; he knows that if Rikku is looking at him, she sees pyreflies, pouring from him in a small but fierce rush. He can feel the Farplane just the other side of the moment, a few seconds away, calling to him, promising rest and peace and Braska.
Braska, but not Jecht. It is this which stems the flow. The Onion Knight's guardians move away blinking to examine Rikku, pull up her goggles and look into her half-open eyes. And then they are gone, swimming off into the lake and leaving the chest to them.
It is easier to open the second try, and Auron lifts the doll from the confines of the chest in a burst of bubbles. He can tell it is orange, but little else, before Rikku kicks off the bottom and leads the way back to the surface. They break out with a crash and Auron can't resist the urge to suck in a breath or two of air even though he doesn't need it. Rikku is breathing heavily as he helps her out of the water onto the platform, and then Lulu is pulling the doll from the crook of his elbow.
The first thing Auron notices are the eyes, Al Bhed eyes beneath a pumpkin helm. Despite the state of the underwater, his sword is shining, and the ancient crest painted on his shield is as bright as if it last saw a brush yesterday. Lulu lovingly wrings out his cape, looks into the spirals of his eyes.
"Who were you, you brave one?" she croons, and Auron can't look either of them in the face.