Chapter Four: Discovery
Two sets of eyes, three ocean blue eyes, and one emerald green eye watched as the outer door slid closed, the ceiling lights changed to red, and the powerful fans activated. The artificial breeze passed through the hair and clothing of the two occupants in the chamber, blasting most of the accumulated sand out.
As the breeze died and the fans wound down, the lights changed back to green and the inner door slid open. The airlock's occupants removed their goggles, and hoods, smiling at each other as they heard the voice of their host before they saw her.
"Hiya Yunie, Tidus. Good to see you both again." Rikku greeted, pulling first her cousin, then her brother-in-law into a hug, and then finally leading them into the corridors of Home. Since their time in the Gullwings, Rikku had gone back to wearing her more Al Bhed style of clothes for reasons known only to her: the peach coloured vest with the long blue trails, green shorts with yellow belt, and brown knee high boots that were cream coloured around her calves with green crosses on the shins. Yuna suspected that it might have been due to the mutual agreement to disband the Gullwings as a Sphere Hunting group, but not as friends once Tidus had returned.
Tidus still dressed primarily in his Zanarkand Abes Blitzball uniform or a Besaid Aurochs one as he now played Blitzball for them, and shared the role of Captain with Wakka. Yuna had compromised between her Summoner clothes, and her Gullwing clothes: she had kept the yellow bands on her upper arms, as well as the white vest with a frilly pink band over her stomach, pink hood, and the Abes symbol on her chest, and her knee-high black boots. However, she had swapped the shorts and half-skirt for a knee-length version of her Summoner skirt with the floral pattern. Finally, her long pigtail had gone, but her hair was still long enough to reach the middle of her back and was now in a plat.
Both of them also had hooded cloaks over their clothes, made of a sheer yellow/white material, which provided some protection from the desert weather.
For weapons, Tidus had kept the Brotherhood sword that had been a gift from Wakka, Yuna used her guns, to Tidus' amazement, and Rikku continued to use her crimson daggers with circular handle guards.
It had taken a few months for Tidus to adjust to the changes that his friends had gone through while he had been gone, especially how outgoing and determined Yuna had become, and that she willingly used guns. However, he was glad to be back, with her, and also being able to play Blitzball again.
"Are Paine and Skye already here?" Yuna queried, while once again wondering how Rikku could find her way through Home so easily. This was her fifth visit since it had been rebuilt, and all of the corridors still looked the same to her.
"Yep, they got here yesterday after dropping a few passengers off at Guadosalam using their newest airship, the Phoenix."
"LeBlanc again?" Tidus guessed, "Is she their main passenger?"
"I don't know," Rikku admitted, "Even you know how open Paine usually is. Skye seemed cheerful enough though, since their business is doing well. They are making more money than they ever thought they would."
"Good for them, those three Dragon airships have certainly been put to good use."
"Yep. Although I'm still amazed that Paine managed to work with Gippal for that time until she could afford to buy one of them from the Faction."
"So," Yuna smiled, "Did you invite us here for the dig in the desert, or for that Capsule that we found under Bevelle?"
"The Capsule," Rikku clarified with her latest project, "There has been a development with it since you were last here. The desert dig is suspended due to a sandstorm though."
"I hope it's not serious?" Yuna's natural concern for others surfaced.
"No, no, it's a small storm, so the only problem it's causing it a loss of visibility."
"So, what's happened with the Capsule?"
Rikku's grin could have lit up the central room of the former Besaid Temple in response to Yuna's question. She practically skipped ahead before stopping in front of a door that looked identical to the others they had passed.
"See for yourself."
"This is what you found close to Vegnagun?" Tidus queried.
"Yes, in a room close to Vegnagun's Chamber," Yuna explained as they entered Rikku's workshop hanging her cloak onto a wall hook, "While you were at the last Blitzball Tournament in Luca, the three of us were working on remapping the Bevelle Underground, since Baralai believes that everyone should know of it now.."
"Why the three of you?"
"Apparently, we are trusted by all, and can be seen as neutral."
"And you can certainly take care of yourselves."
"Glad you agree." Rikku grinned.
"So we found this and brought it back here for examination." Yuna concluded.
"Why here? Wouldn't Djose Temple have been closer?"
A sudden dark glare from Rikku made Tidus drop that question.
As the lights flickered on in the workshop, Yuna's eyes were drawn to the Capsule, and she instantly spotted what had changed about it since her last visit.
"You got her out?"
"Yeah, I managed to locate a switch that opened it and…"
Yuna followed Rikku's stare to Tidus' face, which had a rare expression on it: thoughtful.
"Tidus?"
"Sorry," He blinked a few times, "I was remembering a time when I had to be placed in a Medical Pod like that one."
"A what?" Rikku demanded.
"I think it's called a Medical Pod," Tidus shrugged, "They were used on injured people, often Blitz players, to monitor and record things like heart rate, breathing, pulse and so on. The more advanced ones could even dispense medicines to their occupants as a spray or injection."
He turned to Yuna:
"Did you say there was someone inside it?"
"Yes. A woman who appeared to be asleep. Maybe she's from Zanarkand?"
"We're not going to find out Yunie," Rikku sounded sad, "She wasn't asleep, or dead."
"I don't…"
"Come on, I'll show you." Rikku cut her off before leading them through to a smaller room linked to her workshop. Except for the small bed, there were no decorations of furniture in it.
Both Yuna and Tidus' eyes were drawn to the mass of silver hair that was spread across the pillow of the bed, and the slim body of a woman who appeared to be their own age underneath the dark green sheet.
"In her current state, she won't be able to tell anyone anything, although I understand why she was so heavy now."
Rikku reached for the sheet, and pulled enough of it away to reveal an arm and hand that had numerous holes in it.
"Yeah, that was my reaction," Rikku nodded at Yuna's gasp of shock, "Once she was out, I took a close look at her. I couldn't find a pulse or a heartbeat, so I took off one of the gloves she had on. This metal," she now lifted the hand up, "Seems to spread through her whole body, and I think it works like the bones would for humans."
"So she's not dead?"
"I don't know. It's like…"
"Like she is a mix of person and machine." A cool voice interrupted.
"Paine! Did you have to steal my punch line?" Rikku scolded as the taller woman entered the room.
"Hello Paine." Yuna greeted her friend, getting a polite nod in return.
"She's not a relative of yours is she?" Tidus asked Paine, earning him a slap on the back of the head from Yuna.
"No."
"I think she would be too old to be related to anyone," Rikku added, "As far as we can tell, the Capsule is even older than Vegnagun."
"What about the symbol?"
"No luck. Nothing in our remaining history records matches it."
"What symbol?" Tidus' question got a piece of paper handed to him.
"Brother may have his issues," Paine knowingly glanced at Yuna, who simply shrugged, "But he's a surprisingly good artist."
"Where's Skye?" Yuna asked, suddenly noticing the absence of Paine's business partner.
"She's trying to sleep. She's been having a lot of strange nightmares recently."
"Strange how?" Rikku asked, stretching herself out before she sat back on the side of the bed, covering the woman's arm again.
"She won't tell me everything," Paine shook her head; "The only thing she told me last time was that she had seen a woman with black wings surrounded by flame."
"Black wings?" Rikku frowned, seeing Tidus do the same, "Why would a person have wings? Yunie? Yunie!?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Yuna blushed as she realised she had been spoken to, "But that sounds familiar."
"Hey guys," Tidus called, "Didn't you say that New Yevon were sharing their history records now?"
"Yes, why?"
"There's something really familiar about this symbol," He turned the paper around to show the black and white symbol, surrounded by four blades that were at equal distance from each other, "And I think it might have something to do with Zanarkand History."
"Maybe you two should go to the Bevelle Library then," Paine suggested, "Since you both seem to know something about what we're dealing with."
"I'll contact Baralai," Yuna nodded, "And ask him if he can assist."
"I'm sure he will; you're still High Summoner remember?"
"Would you mind giving us a lift to Bevelle?" Yuna looked back to Paine after a look from Tidus told her that he also wanted to investigate this.
"Of course not. And I don't charge friends."
"Thank you," Yuna allowed Tidus to pull her to her feet, "Are you coming Rikku?"
"No. I'll stay here and see if I can figure out anything else about Machina Lady here. Maybe her skin will tell me something, as I don't think it's natural. Our skin wouldn't be able to have holes in it like that."
"Ok, good luck then, use the comm. sphere if you need to contact us."
"Yeah, good luck Yunie."
