Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or any other reference to movies or music I may use along the way. The characters Ever and Shin are of my own creation however. This story is based on the song "Somewhere" by Within Temptation and a video I happen to come across depicting the idea in a different way. Credit goes out to DillyShilly of YouTube for her beautiful Video.
Prologue: Going Home
Bikanel was hot. Though when was it not? Upon arriving at the ruin that was home, it was hard to see at the time how we could ever go back. The site was abandoned. The HOME project was relocated to the south eastern coast of the island. With no more need to hide, a port city was the most desirable. It wasn't too long after that a certain machine faction hit the site with a mission. Home would be beautiful and it was through my own eyes that I would watch someone's story unfold. My name is Ever, but this is not my story. This is the story of an Al Bhed Princess finding the woman within to follow her heart. Rikku...
Chapter One: The Princess and the Pauper
Handmaiden, lady-in-waiting, ladies' maid, bodyguard; these were all words that could describe my presence in Rikku's life, but her title for me was friend. It had been almost a year since the start of project HOME. Rikku was returning to take her part in the reconstruction at last. I could see the problem a mile away. Gippal, leader of the machine faction, was also project leader and didn't take command all that well, nor did he hand it over. Rikku was next in line to lead her people.
The air was salty, blowing through my fine dark plum locks about my heart shaped face. My eyes, Al Bhed eyes stared intently past the beginnings of Home to the dunes ahead. I missed the sand. I looked down at my hands. My tan had faded horribly these past years. I looked down at Rikku beside me. Yes down. At 5'10 I stood eight inches over Rikku's 5'2. My Father had been half human, half Guado. My mother was Al Bhed. If you know your history, no my Father was not Seymour Guado, thankfully, but I never actually met my Father so I couldn't tell you his name, but enough about me. This is not my story after all.
Rikku stood at the railing, bubbly and confident as always. She wore blue today. A square cut halter bikini top with a khaki cargo skirt over her blue ankle boots. A short gradient scarf wrapped around her neck, flapping behind her in the breeze beginning at deepest midnight blue and ending all the way down at white. The color suited her well.
Cheers erupted from the dock. I turned back to see a crowd of people gathered together, jumping and cheering. I sighed.
Rikku looked up at me and said, "What is it Ever?"
I shook my head. "It's nothing, Rikku." My voice flowed smoothly, warmly from my full lips. "It's just been a long time." I left Bikanel as a child at 13. To say the other children were cruel was an understatement. I return now a woman, a better person for my personal suffrage.
The boat pulled into the dock cleanly without delay and I took my place just behind Rikku. Deep breath and down the gangplank we went, Rikku bouncing excitedly before me.
Just a little back story before we continue. I met Rikku not long after the defeat of Vegnagun. I was in Besaid when the airship Celsius blew in out of nowhere. Paine had left shortly after to work alongside Baralai in Bevelle. It had been years since I'd seen the princess herself. When word reached us that HOME would be rebuilt we had made the journey home together and became fast friends and the rest is, as they say, history. Cid had asked me personally to keep and eye on his girl when we left once more and I have not let him down yet.
As Rikku greeted each and every smiling face around her, most by name, I did notice a few missing from the gathering. One in particular, Gippal, Machine Faction and Project leader was conveniently absent. That wasn't a good sign.
"Ever!"
I turned again, sighing. Rikku bounded towards me. Everyone looked up at my name and the whispers began anew.
"Oh good grief," I murmured.
Rikku ignored them, tossing me a silver colored key. "Come on! Our apartment waits!"
"Ours?"
More whispers…
"Of course, silly, you think I'd leave you with no place to live? Let's go!"
I know I know, so the Princess and the Pauper, but I knew what the others were thinking. The Princess and the Freak Show.
