"Rikku, before we depart for the temple," Braska's voice trailed off. He was not sure how to broach the subject. "Please take no offence but--"
"Lord Braska would like you to change before we leave." Auron gestured at her outfit. "That is not appropriate for a temple, much less for a summoner's guardian. It makes you look like a--"
"Auron," Braska cut him off.
Rikku flailed her arms. "Oh, totally-- I mean, I understand. Give me a minute!" She pulled her Garment Grid out and thrust it at Jecht. "Hold that for a minute, 'kay?" Plopping to the ground, she pulled out the rest of her dresspheres. She, Yuna, & Paine had split the Gullwings' spheres when they went their separate ways so her selection was not as good as it once was. Grabbing her Grid back, she emptied it and went to work putting all six of her dresspheres back in place. She hesitated as she popped the Samurai and Dark Knight dresspheres in, again hoping she would never have to use either one of them. "Okey-dokey, all done!"
Jecht helped to her feet. "You gonna get naked again?"
"You're such a pervert! It's not like that." Rikku scrunched her nose. "I think it's pretty."
"Could you just get on with it? We need to leave soon." Auron had no time for his fellow guardians' petty arguments.
Rikku nodded, stepping back. Sticking her weapons in the ground, she felt the transformation take hold. The long boots, the robes, the hat-- she felt them all materialise. Pulling Yunie's old rod out of the ground, she was grateful to have a connection to her cousin. "Is this better?"
Jecht snickered and, looking at the other two men, she could tell they were both amused by something as well. "What? Is there something wrong with this? Do I need to change again?"
"That'll do fine, Rikku." Braska chuckled.
"Oh, come on! What's so funny?" She pouted.
"'I'm gonna put you in a cast, and I don't mean the broken bone kind'-- that's quite a battle cry you have." Auron rolled his eyes, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.
Rikku shrugged. "Paine got all the good lines. Oh, um, Paine was a warrior I used to--" Fight with? Live with? Hang out with? Save the world with?
Braska, realising that Rikku's mind was wandering off into her past, spoke up. "If you are ready now, we should leave."
***
Auron and Braska watched as Rikku and Jecht ran off after a Snow Wolf. They were making quick work of the fiends on the lake trail, with her magic and his quick sword.
"Those two, they're like children."
"Don't be so hard on them, Auron. I know you distrust them both, but I have faith in Yevon's plan for us. Our journey to Zanarkand would have been difficult, my friend, even with your considerable strength and skill. A man from Zanarkand appears and we have another swordsman to accompany us. I receive the great aeon Bahamut and a young woman from the otherworld appears. Her abilities are incredible. I feel extraordinarily blessed to have such guardians."
"Yes, my Lord." Auron knew there would be no dissuading Braska from his optimism. Catching the stench of burnt flan in the air, he looked up and saw that his fellow guardians were now in battle with a pair of Ice Flan. Rikku was yelling at Jecht, trying to get him to stop attacking them.
"You're worried because she is an Al Bhed."
His attention now back with Braska, Auron nodded. "Even if she is, as you said, an unsent, it does not make sense. An Al Bhed as a guardian?"
"Perhaps not in this time, but Rikku has yet to reveal the full details of her life to us. She may have been wandering for quite a while."
***
Rikku pushed the brim of her hat up, relieved that it had helped conceal her eyes from the monk at the entrance. She wasn't sure if Auron would have rushed to her defence again. Sitting on the stairs, she watched Braska and Auron greet the people as they approached the summoner.
"Braska's pretty popular." Jecht sat down beside her. "Back in my world, I was probably even more popular than him! Everyone wanted my autograph. I was the star player for the Zanarkand Abes!"
She shushed him. "Don't say that around here, okay? These people, to them Zanarkand's a holy place. No one plays blitzball there anymore."
Jecht got quiet and Rikku regretted her familiar choice of words. "You'll get back to your Zanarkand, Jecht. Things'll work out."
They sat together in silence until Braska was ready to approach the Cloister.
***
The Cloister of Trials was as annoying as she remembered. She tried to assist the others as best she could, suggesting that maybe that Glyph sphere went in that spot or that pedestal should be moved that way, but she stayed back and let Braska lead the group. This was his pilgrimage, his responsibility.
Having already bested the Bevelle Cloister, Braska was able to figure out the pattern out quicker than Rikku had expected. As the group approached the antechamber, she cursed herself for not using that time to prepare. As they stepped into the bright room, her heart lurched.
This was where they had killed a Maester of Yevon.
She put on a happy face for Braska, wishing him luck, and watched as he disappeared into the fayth chamber. Each of his guardians moved towards a different part of the large room, an uneasy silence in the air. Jecht was still not talking very much and Auron was just... being Auron.
Rikku sank to the floor, resting her head against the cool stone.
It was disconcerting to be in the Macalania temple again, and not just because she had committed murder in it. The temple in her time was gone, lost at the bottom of the lake. Shiva and the fayth were all that kept Macalania alive.
She wanted to rush into the fayth chamber and beg Shiva to tell her what was going on, ask Shiva what she was supposed to do.
'What's the big idea?' She pleaded silently, in case the fayth could hear her.
"We had forgotten what it was like to feel love," answered a familiar voice. Bahamut. Rikku looked around to see if the others had noticed him, but the men were still lost in their own thoughts. Realising that the voice was in her head, she waited for it to continue. "Our dreams were occupied by death and destruction. Tidus allowed us to rest, but the Farplane became an unstable place. When you visited us, we were reminded of the Summoner Yuna. Your pure heart shines as brightly as hers. You love with all your being."
'But why am I here? What did you send me here to do?'
"With Braska's death, the cycle will continue. Jecht, the first dream to become flesh, will become Sin. Auron will bring Tidus to Spira and the second dream will become flesh. Spira will have hope, real hope, for the first time in 1000 years-- but Auron will be without hope, without love. So, Rikku, daughter of Cid, will you become his hope?"
***
'Am I alive?' She silently asked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer.
"You are not alive or dead, nor real or a dream. Those terms have no meaning. You walk the line between the past and the future, what has happened and what is to come. Live in the moment, listen to your heart, and the fayth will watch over you."
***
Long after Bahamut's voice had faded from her mind, Rikku and the others were still waiting for Braska to emerge.
"She must be giving Lord Braska a hard time," she commented.
"Huh? She who?" Jecht looked up the stairs. "Is there another chick like you in there or something?"
Rikku snorted. "I'm talking about the aeon. Shiva was a priestess before Yevon took her soul away. Her personality is like her temple, a bit cold."
"Sounds like my kind of woman!"
"Try it, Jecht," Rikku laughed. "You'd pee pure ice for a week."
"Could you two please refrain from committing blasphemy in a temple? Please." Rikku stuck her tongue out at him but Auron ignored the childish response. "Your summoner, Rikku, I take it she received the fayth of this temple?"
"Yep!" She scratched her cheek, not sure what she should say about it. "We had some... complications afterwards."
Auron raised an eyebrow but did not pry any further.
Hearing the Hymn faintly, Rikku looked up as Braska finally emerged from the chamber of the fayth. From his appearance, Shiva had definitely given him a rough time. Jecht gave him a hand down the stairs while Auron retrieved his jug. Braska took a few sips and handed it back. "I'm all right now."
"So, Braska, this Shiva chick, she hot?"
"Quite the opposite, actually," Braska laughed. "Shall we be going?"
"Are you sure you're ready, my Lord? You should rest here for a little while and regain your strength."
"I'd rather rest beside a warm fire, Auron."
Rikku giggled. "Like I told you guys, she's a cold one!"
***
It was dark by the time they reached their campsite once again. Rikku, exhausted from using magic on nearly every fiend they encountered on the way back, fell asleep before the fire had even been lit.
"Why couldn't we have stayed in that place back there?" Jecht poked the logs with his sword.
"We can't waste our money on agencies all the time or we won't have enough to purchase the important things, like potions and weapons." Auron nodded towards Rikku's tent. "A bed is a bed."
"Tomorrow we head south and cross the Thunder Plains." Braska took his large hat off and sat it on the ground next to him. "It will be difficult, so I plan to rest for a short time at the Travel Agency there."
"Wouldn't it be better to cross quickly, my Lord?"
"Perhaps," Braska conceded, yawning as he nodded his head. "The intensity of the storm will dictate our actions then. Now, I'm sorry but I think I'm going to turn in for the night."
"You should also rest well tonight, Jecht," Auron warned him. "The Plains are not to be taken lightly."
"Then I guess you're taking the first watch because I need my--" Jecht faked a yawn. "I need my beauty sleep."
***
"Rikku, wake up."
Wiping sleep from her eyes, Rikku blinked before realising that Braska stood at the foot of her tent. "Is it morning already?"
"Yes," Braska laughed. "Auron, Jecht, and I are going to go back to the Travel Agency and pick up a few supplies. I thought you could use the time to bathe yourself privately. You will be alright by yourself, won't you?"
"Totally. Go knock yourselves out, I'll be fine."
"We should be back shortly."
***
Rikku had just finished cleaning herself off and was pulling her boots back on when she heard them return. Auron stormed past her without a word while Jecht fiddled with a sphere. Braska smiled at her. "I take it you're ready."
She nodded but pointed to the path Auron had disappeared down. "What's wrong with him?"
Jecht waved the sphere he was holding. "Braska and me took some shots back there for our kids and he's got his panties in a wad about it. Thought it was a waste of time or some bull like that."
Rikku remembered that sphere, remembered the argument it captured. 'What's the hurry, man?' Jecht had asked, unaware that a pilgrimage was also a race. The first summoner to reach Zanarkand and die was the winner.
Braska sighed. "We should be going. Auron is right, we don't have the luxury of time."
I made the decision to have Braska obtain Shiva immediately after Bahamut despite the fact that, using the Jecht Spheres as a guide, it's not canonically clear if he visited Macalania Temple at the beginning or the end of his journey. When Braska & his guardians return to Macalania on their way to Zanarkand, I hope that there will be enough going on to make up for this little canon tweak. ;)