A time for meteor
"It's pain…I warn you, it will not be pleasant."
Paine walked. A somber walk it was, lonely and quiet with only the wind of the paradise island to comfort her. And it was comforting. Simplicity, sometimes she found it pleasing, though she had a taste for the complex. Patterns, designs, glyphs of past embodied that perception. It was one appealing fact of sphere hunting, seeing these immensely complicated things, long forgotten in history. Complexity was beautiful, but simplicity was soothing. Flying on the airship, walking the sands, those things brought her mind back to earth. Away from all the mysteries of the future, and the pains of the past.
She had been waling on the shore for nearly a half hour by her sense of time. The Celsius was no longer visible despite its enormity around the rocks and slopes of the Besaid peaks. She thought of turning around several times. Staying with her friends and watching the rest of spheres. She should, she knew that much. She was the one. She had given the effort and she wanted to know the past. Yet Paine still felt a loathing, no a fear of returning. Something inside was apprehensive fearful of could be found. Watching those two it had some pain to it, some suffering. Him, O'Neil he looked so pitiful to her. Why? He had no connection to her. None.
"It's this dress sphere," she said aloud. Indeed, that last few days she had unexpected feelings towards things that had never bothered her before. He even annoyance at Rikku, her sudden need to go on deck several times during the day. It was all the damn dresssphere, powerful and so integrated into her garment grid that she was now stuck with it.
A rage came forth, not the sphere but her own, born from frustration with her predicaments. She reached to the sand and grabbed a stone, lobbing with a great burst of strength into the ocean. It went far, but nothing she had never performed before. It was need less though. Why be so angry? She usually kept a degree of calm. From her past…she could deal with almost anything. And she has.
The sun was still rising in the sky. It was still midday. Still time to walk and put things into perspective. There was still time to go back and see all spoils of her adventure wit the colossus. That thing that bore so much firepower that would have killed her if not for that sphere. "This sphere…Maybe I should be glad…" She starred into the sun, hoping for divine intervention, a sign of agreement, from the fayht, or anyone. None came.
Paine reached the dry sand, white unspoiled by anyone, shaded bay a palm tree with stellar view of the distant ocean. Perfect to ruin. She fell back lying in the shade, supporting her cranium with her arms. "What's your dream Paine? What are you hoping for in the Calm?" She had been asked before.
"I just want it to stop…" Time, it seemed to slow to where nothing happened. No Sin created for vengeance; no mislead operations where friends die.
She could have stayed there a long time. Not an eternity, but she was ready to fall asleep and head back to the airship when the sun was beginning to set. She could have stayed for a long time and let the world slid away from her. But she couldn't stay that long. She wouldn't leave her friends for that long, because even loneliness becomes tiring.
An hour or two passed. She wasn't keen on its passage. Hell, maybe it was three. In any event she felt calm at least. For a brief moment she had forgotten about the dresssphere and sphere hunting in general and total. That was good sign that her mind was ready to return. The sky was beautiful in twilight. The crossroads of words, of light and darkness starring into which any person even with the darkest of hearts can feel wonder. And a meteor fell…
"A meteor!" She said aloud, suddenly enveloped with warmth from her childhood. Falling stars, signs from heaven and another world. They were so rare in Spira. She couldn't imagine why they rarely reached their world. And there was one, a falling star. Something she had not seen in many years. One and then another one. "I must be lucky." One more, two more. "What?"
"You see it now." A voice from the side. There was no one there.
"You have to find him." The other side. No one.
"Who?" she said.
"You must. You see he'll die if you don't." A sword! It plunged into her stomach and she felt her soul melt away. A tear ran down her check. "Why is this happening to me?"
She noticed she was standing. The pain was gone. Twilight was begging to fade and she suddenly felt afraid for someone she didn't know and had never seen.
"Paine?" This time it was Tidus, that man she had recently met. He had come out to fetch her. "You alright?"
"I'm fine," she was really, just a little frightened. She told herself that whatever it was it couldn't hurt her. Really? "It's just…"
"The dresssphere right?"
She paused. "Yeah. So it's not important."
"Your sanity isn't important?"
She laughed. She should, she needed to get control of it. Shinra probably would come up with something. Soon? Hopefully he would not take a life time.
"You should come in," Tidus said.
"Why? I'm a big girl. I can handle myself in the dark."
"Not that. But there's a little more to that sphere Shinra found that you might find interesting."
She conceded. She was actually interest in what was in the thing. It was just that dresssphere that was getting out of hand. Maybe it would stay quiet for a while? She brushed some sand that had silently stuck to her like leeches of the beach and followed the man she had just met back to the Celsius.
"How peaceful it is here. It's starting to upset me."
-Stonehenge.