Stand Solid Among The Eclipse
By: WhiteFang72
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X
This is my first time venturing into the realm of Final Fantasy X. Please tell me what you think!
…
The water is warm as it slides between her toes, and as her light steps bring her closer to the dead.
"It's easy," they told her. "This is the easy part."
But it wasn't and it's not and it never will be. Yuna hates herself for these thoughts...but she forgives them too.
They are some of many that she won't have when this is all over.
Still, she walks. Lightly on the blue-purple ripples of water beneath her feet. Lightly on the shoulders of the drowned, cast in caskets of brilliant red, that float just beneath the bay. Lightly, lightly, lightly, so they can't hear her doubt.
They probably hear it anyway. So, she folds her fingers over her staff and faces the heat of the setting sun. A sun as volatile as the Sin she must push back.
Push back without ever destroying.
She blinks and does not cry. She lets the wind blow the palm fronds above her. Lets the ruined, wooden frame of the docks spill into the dark ocean. Lets the curiously silent world go on around her.
Except it's waiting for her.
Debris floats passed her ankles. So gently, it's almost like a child placed it there to bob against the waves.
Back where the dock is intact, people are setting their eyes on her. And she sees the hooded gaze of recent tragedy there. It's in every face. One woman cannot wait and falls to her knees, shudders casting through her frame, a breeze over tall grass. Her arms are outstretched, reaching for something she can no longer have.
Yuna wonders how they can depend on her.
"You are our Summoner," they told her.
That answered it, really. Even if, in a way, it also didn't. Her father's journey. Her father's legacy.
She lifts a foot and imagines a beating drum. A measured rhythm. A chanting and joining of ancient voices. She thinks of the bonfires of Besaid. In her mind, it's not so much a dance as it is a prayer. But as her feet splash against the tide, she knows…She will do this again, and she will know then too, that she will keep going. If only for a moment's peace.
Now she doesn't focus on the dock, but on the water beneath her. She kicks, leans forward, pulls back. Her staff is a heavy weight against her chest. At that pulling back, she is no longer memory. She doesn't know her exact movements. She doesn't need them.
They told her, "Yuna, the steps are important."
But she is pressure contained. Fury and grief and something she cannot name gives her movements power. She steps on the tip of a casket, feels blood run out of her toe. She sees it absorbed in the purple of the ocean. She does not let anything show on her face.
Though she may have known the one beneath. They visited sometimes. Came to trade, or laugh, play blitzball in the evenings. With this prayer, she thinks she knows them all. She resolves not to falter.
"You are our Summoner," they told her.
And even if it means losing Auron, Lulu, Wakka, Rikku, Tidus, Kimahri. Even if it means bringing herself to the very edge of the earth. Forgetting every lesson she has ever learned. Never again seeing a flash of blue fur or purple lipstick. Never listening to bad jokes, laughter that makes your heart want to burst.
Even if it means she will never be good at whistling…
Bringing her staff before her, she lets the orange sun eclipse her makeshift star. Maybe it will bring her some of its power. Because, in this slow death...
She is their Summoner.
…
Author's Note: Okay, this was my attempt to write about Yuna's Sending. I wanted to capture the visual beauty of that scene, but also to try and create a believable voice for her. She had to have had a lot on her mind at that point. I hope there aren't too many other fic's like this, I apologize if there are…Anyway, thank you so much for reading!