Dance and smile
The beast shudders and roars in pain. Its legs give in, and it sinks into the dust, the roar that turns into a whine sending billowing clouds into the air. Paine moves in for the kill. A swift cut, and dark blood glistens briefly on her sword before dissipating in a small cloud of pyreflies.
Many lost souls still roam the lands of Spira as fiends. It's been two years, and their numbers are dwindling. But it could take two thousand years to find them all and send them on their way.
Send.
Her feet still remember the steps. Her arms feel the pull, fingers wanting to rise and grasp an invisible staff, to guide it through the steps of the dance. The pyreflies emanating from the fallen beast cry out before fading. She can hear their voices, angry and afraid.
Every time she Sent, she cried. Try as she might, she could not keep the tears at bay. They always came. But the wood of her staff was warm and reassuring in her hands. Resolve held her spirit unwavering, and his smile set her heart alight.
The metal of her guns is cold against her skin. Death flies out of their barrels, piercing the hide and shattering the bone. It is not death to the dead but rest, but they still feel the pain. She knows, because she can feel them.
The memory pulls on her muscles. It calls her, insists. Send the dead on their way, summoner. Send them to their rest.
She doesn't care if Rikku would fidget uneasily, or if Paine would gawk and think she had lost it. She doesn't care that the lost can find their way on their own, now that Yu Yevon is no longer there to lead them astray. The souls of the dead call to her, needing to be soothed.
Her hands fall to her sides, holstering the guns. Then they wipe off the sweat on her pants. And come to rest on her hips.
She might not even be able any more. She doesn't know. Her last Sending was the aeons, and Sin. She's felt the pull many times since, the need to dance, but she never has.
Send the souls on their way. Soothe the dreams that have ended. Help them let go, and accept.
Yuna no longer dances. She cannot. She is a summoner no more. She is a Sender no more. She cannot help the dead do something that she cannot do herself.
She is afraid sometimes, in the middle of the night, when she thinks of false hope. It's been two years, but the pain has not dwindled. Memories are still as fresh as from yesterday. She still whistles out at the sea when no one sees.
"Yunie, let's go!" Rikku cries, waving her arm high in the air.
When she trained to become a summoner, she learned to smile even when she was feeling sad. She used to smile for the people of Spira, to give them hope.
"Right!" she answers brightly, and reaches up to slap her cousin a high-five. Rikku grins like a maniac. Paine snorts, but Yuna can tell she's amused.
The people of Spira no longer need her to smile, but she still does. And she no longer cries. He wouldn't want her to be sad.
Only those who accept can dance. Those who don't, stop. Now she knows why.
One day, Yuna will dance again. One day, she will cry. But until then, she will carry on smiling.
fin