Mistake
Interlude II: Odyssey
She had done all she could. She had, not for the first time, put her life on the line for Yuna's happiness. She had shoved aside her own safety, her own security, her own feelings, and had given everything for her cousin.
Because after all, if anyone deserves to be happy, it's Yunie.
Of course, it wasn't just for Yunie. The world needed saving, and, if something needs doing, then you should do it yourself, right? It was that philosophy that had earned her that tiny modicum of respect among the Al Bhed so early in life.
To the Al Bhed, it doesn't matter who you are. Everyone wears masks in the desert, anyway, so there's no point in counting on people to recognise you and give you passage for your name or face. No, for the Al Bhed, respect had to be earned. And she had achieved that; her early move into the salvage engineering sector, toiling away on the odd-jobs no-one else wanted, then slowly making her way through the ranks until she had got onto a salvage crew and became the captain of a recovery team. It was what had lead her to Baaj, after all...
Rikku sighed, closing her eyes as the wind whipped her braids around her face. She welcomed the feeling, enjoying the freedom of flight. It helped to clear her mind, shifting it on from dwelling on what could have been. She had been burying these thoughts for so long, it had become second nature. Every now and then, of course, something would remind her of her past. What could have been her future-
She stopped herself again. Memories are nice, but that's all they are, she had once said. Time to start listening to her own advice.
As she and the rest of the Gullwings hurtled from Bevelle on the Celsius with no particular destination in mind, she thought back on the last couple of days. After finishing off Vegnagun and leaving the Farplane, the lot of them – Gullwings, Syndicate, and faction leaders alike – had had a few hours kip before calling an emergency press conference in the Blitzball stadium in Luca for that morning. They all felt it was time to put a stop to the infighting holding Spira back from truly moving on from its past mistakes. From the cheers of the crowd, they all allowed themselves to believe they had finally gotten through to the masses.
It was a fitting conclusion to an epic journey, one which had changed all of them forever. Paine had opened up at long last, Yuna too had broken out of her shell, Leblanc had found it within herself to actually be nice – even if it was just for Nooj's benefit – and the three heads of factions had finally made cranium-rectum separation and started working together, instead of against each other. Even Gippal had co-operated!
Of course, aside from the whole saving the world again thing, the mission had begun with them looking for a certain someone. Kimahri had given her a sphere, she had shown Yuna, and suddenly they were off all over the world searching for someone they had both believed gone. But there was no denying the light of hope in either of their hearts. Not that she had let it on, not to Yunie. That would never do.
After all, if anyone deserves to be happy, it's Yunie.
Would Rikku ever get her own happy ending? She had no idea. But first she had to make sure Yunie got hers. She had put her life on the line for that goal twice now, and she'd be damned if she failed to deliver this time.
"Girls, you might want to see this," came Buddy's voice over the intercom. "I just picked up one heck of an energy spike."
"Coming!" Rikku called, as Paine nodded. At Yunie's pleading look, Rikku waved her away, telling her to stay up on deck. She could understand the desire, after all.
As Rikku and Paine made their way to the bridge, Rikku wondered after their other friends. Lulu would be very close to giving birth by now, if she hadn't already. Wakka had said she was close on the commsphere. It would be nice to drop by and lend their support, she thought. Maybe they could go and collect Kimahri and bring him over. Take the chance for a reunion of sorts.
They stepped out of the lift and onto the bridge, passing Shinra on their way to Buddy. Rikku allowed her eyes to linger on Shinra for a moment, feeling a burst of pride in the little guy. He was so young, and he had so much potential. She could see herself working for him, in the future. He would probably be in charge of the entire Al Bhed engineering department in a decade. Either that, or goggles-deep in research & development.
She reached Buddy, peering over his shoulder at the readout from oscillo-finder. He filled her in as she read. "I was sitting here, not doing any kind of local scan, when suddenly the passive Spira-wide scanner raises all kinds of alarms and I've got red alerts all over my screen. It registered a massive yet unfocused energy spike off the coast of Besaid. Right here," he said, pointing at the screen. "Check it out?"
"Yeah," I mumbled. This was more than a little worrying. The magnitude of that spike had been on a level they had never sensed before. Not only that, but its frequency spectrum bared no resemblance to any of their previous readings. After all they'd been through in the last month, heck two years, she hoped against hope that it was nothing sinister.
Buddy directed Brother toward Besaid and began a detailed scan of the area surrounding the spike. He told her to kick back and take a rest, as they were unlikely to learn anything new until they got within ten or fifteen miles of the epicentre. At their current air speed, that would take a couple of hours.
She and Paine headed for the cabin, where they both settled in and tried to entertain themselves. After they had both tried to avoid the topic for the last hour, Paine finally asked her, "You do know that spike was like nothing we've seen before, right?"
Rikku nodded. She had most definitely noticed, and it troubled her far more than she liked. "Yeah. I just hope it's nothing bad, y'know? Not so soon. I haven't even had a chance to have a rest or a big meal or sunbathe or -"
She stopped as Paine let out a chuckle, despite herself. So rare were moments when Paine's shell cracked that she couldn't help but stop and truly take it in.
"You should laugh more often, Paine."
"You should laugh less, Rikku."
She rolled her eyes, giggling slightly. Of course, that only served to reaffirm Paine's statement. Oh, well.
As her eyes came back to rest on Paine, she spotted movement over the warrior's shoulder. Yunie was walking through the doorway, looking thoroughly mussed up by the wind and with a big smile on her face. She came over and lowered herself primly into the chair next to Rikku, before ruining the image completely by putting her feet up on the table.
"So, what was that all about?" Yuna asked, watching the both of them expectantly. Rikku and Paine filled her in as best they could, concluding by restating Buddy's belief that they were unlikely to know much more until they got close to the location of the energy spike.
Yuna shrugged her shoulders slightly, agreeing with their assessment. Rikku could tell she was worried, but there was no use fretting until they got to Besaid.
It was a tense few hours wait.
As the time stretched toward four in the afternoon, the three Gullwings could be found trying their best to keep themselves occupied. Yuna had laid down on her bed and tried to have a nap, Paine had left for the bridge, and Rikku could be found in the engine room.
She had always found it soothing amongst the oscillating machinery. As the pistons moved back and forth around her in an entirely predictable pattern – assuming Brother wasn't being an idiot - with a consistent noise, she could allow her mind to rest. She sat with her back against the wall at the rear of the room, legs stretched out before her. She had allowed her mind to clear, driving all her worries and fear about the unexplained energy spike with a strong burst of mental willpower. She had been in that state for the last hour, simply allowing the engine to continue its calming effect.
Her rest was finally broken by the crackle of the intercom. "Alright, girls, it's T-minus ten minutes. You'd best get up here and get prepared."
"Roger," Rikku mumbled to herself, knowing Buddy wouldn't hear her over the ambient noise in the room. She picked herself up, the butterflies returning to her stomach now that they were nearing their destination.
When she arrived at the bridge, the others were crowded around a visualisation of the scan on Shinra's monitor. It showed very little so far, the only distinction to be made being the difference between land and sky. It would improve as they got closer.
"Anything new?" she asked them, sliding her way in-between Paine and Yunie before leaning to the side in order to get the best view she could past Shinra's head. Paine huffed at her, while Yuna cracked a smile at her antics.
"Nothing as of yet," Shinra said in disappointment. "The feed should update about... now!"
As he finished speaking, the visualisation sharpened suddenly. The beach of Besaid could now be seen curving before them. The oscillo-finder reading visualiser showed a series of energy waves, starting on the sea bed about a mile from the shore. The pulses of energy were concentrated there, as if whatever was causing the release had spent a great deal of time in one position. However, the source of the waves had clearly moved toward shore, as a weaker trail of readings could be seen in a path leading toward the beach.
"Looks like we've got a monster of deep on our hands," Rikku said, putting on an ominous air. Paine scowled at her, crossing her arms.
"Keep quiet and wait until we get a visual feed." Rikku huffed in annoyance, grumbling to herself about sword fighters and their preferences for where they keep their sword when it wasn't in use. This brought another smile, as well as a slight chuckle, from Yuna.
An uncomfortable five minutes passed as they all stared at the screen, waiting for more information. When it eventually did update, they could see that, whatever the target was, it was moving closer to the shore. Not quickly, but almost as if the current were pushing it along, carrying it to the beach.
A few minutes later, Shinra suggested they try the visual feed. He brought it up and set it side-by-side with the oscillo-finder visualiser. They couldn't yet make out individual figures, the feed merely showing the nearside of Besaid as the sun began to make its' way toward the horizon. Beautiful as it was, it wasn't what they were looking for.
Finally, they spotted something. Just as the visualiser updated once more, showing the target had breached sea level, they saw a tiny figure raise appear in the water. Still too far to make out any distinguishing features, they merely continued to watch and wait for the image to clear up. They didn't have to wait long, what with the speed they were travelling.
There was a man, straightening himself in the water and shaking himself off. As the image improved in resolution, she let free a gasp, hearing one released equally as loud by her cousin standing next to her.
Unbidden, her mind flicked back to the brief conversation Yunie had had with Bahamut in the Farplane. She had thought little of it at the time, but now...
No, it couldn't be, she told herself. No way. No fucking way.
But it could. And now that her mind had considered the possibility, it couldn't dismiss it. That's what love is like, after all.
Unexplainable. Uncontrollable. And, if what she saw before her was what she thought it was, about to make her life a whole lot more complicated.
She was operating on auto-pilot. She turned for the lift and began sprinting. It only registered once she had got to the lift and mashed the call button a few times that Yunie had already left and jumped into it. She ran for the emergency stairs, already knowing that Yunie would beat her to the beach.