Lady of Fortune
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Paine frowned. "Wait is,"
Rikku turned and put a hand on the statue of Life's leg. She shut her eyes and called on the power of Luck and the instructions and guide that Knowledge had given her. To the eyes of the other three Essentials, the mortal form of Rikku glowed about the edges with golden magic. Her form began to waver.
Donna stepped back. "She's unleashing all her power into the Essential's plane. It's too much. She might break apart and lose her hold on mortality."
"No." Gippal breathed. "No. Not when," he darted forward and placed his hands on her shoulders. He wasn't going to lose her. Not when he'd just found her. "Use my power, muja."
Pink power joined the yellow.
"Really?" Donna breathed. "Really? Him! Of all people!"
Barthello grinned.
"It's not enough," Donna shook her head. "And I'm out for the count."
Barthello reached over and squeezed her hand. "I love you, Donna." He stepped forward and put a hand on Gippal's arm.
Red and black power braided with the others.
Donna put a hand over her belly. "And a three cord strand isn't easily broken." She whispered. "Come on, Life. Come on."
The room darkened. The walls faded from sight but the statues remained. The white chocobo glowed.
The people turned and murmured to themselves.
Life melted out of the darkness. He wasn't as tall as the statue. He was a broad man colored in greens and blues. His hair fell to the middle of his back. His loincloth was decorated in green triangles edged with silver. He also didn't look happy.
"Who calls me?" He rumbled, voice deep with anger. "Who summons me back to this cursed place?"
Rikku stumbled and fell back into Gippal's arms.
"Life!" Donna held out her hand.
Life held out his hand.
"No!" Barthello dodged in front of Donna, his arms spread out. He shifted to the red form of Primal.
"Life, Death is free!" Rikku cried out. She shoved Gippal away and moved toward him. "She is no longer bound."
Life turned his head and scowled at her.
"Her fate is her own again." Rikku said and golden power slid around her, revealing Luck.
"And I am here," Death said, her voice like a soft whisper as she stepped out of the darkness. She was in shades of purple and muted reds and blacks. Skulls and scythes hung from the ends of her hair.
Life stared at her. He turned reaching for her.
Death smiled at him and grabbed his hand, placing it against her face. "Luck has freed me." She said.
"Death," Life had tears in his eyes. He stepped closer and wrapped her in his arms.
Love shimmered into existence and wrapped his hand around Luck's hand.
Donna transformed into Knowledge. "Well, I tried, but she got ahead of me."
Yuna stared at Death and then gasped. "I know you."
"I should have known it was you," Knowledge murmured.
The other Essentials began to arrive. Eight drifted down from the room above. Fire in oranges, reds and whites so bright it was hard to look at her with strands of electric blue and green in her hair. Earth in cream, tans, browns and terracotta. Metal in greys and purples with bits of gold and bronze and copper pink. Wood in all shades of green. Water in aquas and blues. Ice was white with light blues and dark teals. Wind couldn't decide on a color and shifted between them all. Lightning was yellow, white and pink and purple.
Light seemed to brighten the room though the walls didn't come back into view. She was white, her features barely grey shadows. Darkness was the opposite, a deep black with white highlights to show where his features were. Space appeared, black with white jewels sparkling across her skin, deep blues and purples and sprays of red and gold. Lastly came Time, white and light yellow.
Luck sagged against Love. "We did it." She breathed.
The chocobo trilled and ran over to Time.
Time laughed and time stopped.
"So," Time said voice filled with amusement. "Luck and Love finally meet. Were there sparks? Explosions? Or was there true love?"
Love flushed turning a darker pink.
Luck lowered her head. "A little of all three, depending on the age."
Time threw his head back and roared. "Depending on the age." He chortled. "She made a time joke."
Space sighed. "I know dear."
Life stepped away from Death. He turned to Luck. "You called me. You summoned me here. Why?"
"Um, alphabetically or categorically or altruistically?" Luck asked.
Fire stepped forward. "This world is in pain."
"It cries," Earth shuddered. "It has long been neglected."
Love squeezed Luck's hand. "The curse brought upon by Yu Yevon is gone. Yevon didn't have the power to fix this world, only to destroy it. Only you have the power to heal what Yevon has done."
"You aren't that weak yourself." Ice crossed his arms. Fog drifted around him.
"I'm love. It gets around." Love retorted. "Not expressly a healer of ills."
Wind's skirt swirled around her in a breeze that touched no one else. "We have been far from this place for a long time. They do not remember or care for us."
"That's never why we did things." Love argued. "We did not do our works in the exchange for favors or as if it was a business. We weren't immortal credit collectors or lenders."
Lightning moved from place to place as if he was actually lightning. He showed up next to Cid and the Elders. Disappearing he appeared next to Kimhari and then Tromell. He examined Nooj. "The Al Bhed remember us, though these others have forgotten."
"Long have they kept faith." Luck said.
"No doubt you had a hand in that, Luck." Light said.
Luck shrugged. "Not as much as you would think."
"Oh yes," Lightning jumped over to her. "Because you were pressed with your own concerns. Freeing your mortal boy. Toorop was it?"
"And she succeeded, to her credit," Love said. "Buzz off." He reached out and flicked Lightning in the nose.
"And your avatar is one of mine," Lightning grumbled and disappeared to reappear beside Fire.
Time snickered.
Space sighed. "You and puns."
"He made two of them!" Time chortled.
Luck let Love's hand go. She held out her hands towards Life. "Life, will you help us?"
Life looked around and his shoulders sagged. "It is too much. I cannot do it alone." He met her eyes. "You have returned to me my love. I do not know why you did it and truly it does not matter. For that alone, for the freeing of Death, I owe you enough that if it was in my power, I would heal this broken world."
Death lifted her chin. "It is in our power to do it, together. All of us."
Luck trembled.
"The curse has been lifted. The fate of this world is no longer dire." Time said. "We will work through you Fate to change the destiny of this place we all love." He paused and smirked. "As Love loves you. Love will keep you safe."
He reached out and time started again. "Together, we essentials will heal this world and separate the planes of existence to their proper order."
Fire stepped forward. "Al Bhed, your faith will be rewarded."
Cid gulped. "Meaning?"
"With our return to this world," Lightning reached out and touched Fire's hand. "So, the creatures we love will return. Seek your totems again, Elder and you will find them."
Fire and Lightning faded away.
Cid crumpled to his knees. The council woman burst into tears.
"And the leviathan egg?" One of the council men asked.
"Will be safe and loved and more shall follow." Water said, voice liquid. She turned, smiled at Earth.
"Look for my wolves in the mountains." Earth said. The two faded.
"Listen for the pounding of hooves where you wouldn't normally go." Metal nodded.
Wood smiled. "Search for the green Coeurls in the deepest woods." They linked hands and left.
Wind and Ice looked at each other.
"Oh, they'll be around." Ice said. "Somewhere." His eyes sparkled. The two bowed their heads to Time and disappeared in a swirl of wind and snow.
The ancient essentials mostly had left without being noticed. Light and Dark retreating. Luck, Love, Knowledge and Primal had faded their mortal forms while the attention was on the Elementals.
Life met Rikku's eyes. "Thank you." He said.
Death reached out to Yuna. "Your soul is pure. We would not be a good match, but I am glad to have known you in one form. Fare thee well, High Summoner."
Yuna bowed. "I am glad to have known you too." She said. "Farewell, Death."
Death and Life joined hands and faded away.
That left Time and Space.
Time scratched the crest of the white chocobo. He reluctantly stopped. "Do not regret the turnings of the hourglass that led you to this point." He looked over all of them. "Time is precious and often short. Make the most of what you have. We will be near watching over you. Though our power is great, our influence is limited. We will do what we can."
Space shimmered, the gems on her skin glowing.
"Our time here is not yet done," Time said softly.
Space wrapped her arms around him and they disappeared.
The sun burst through the windows and hit the walls.
Everyone blinked.
Tidus rubbed his eyes. "That was-"
"Risky, dangerous." Paine supplied.
"I was going to say amazing." Tidus glared at her. "Wow. People all colors of the rainbow coming out of nowhere."
Gippal snickered. Of course, that is what Tidus would take from that.
Kimhari sniffed. "Kimhari smell food."
Rikku smiled. "We have prepared a feast for all of you above."
"And by we, Rikku means the Al Bhed." Gippal said. "Not her personally."
Rikku poked his side. "Or Gippal, since his cooking consists of roasting meat over an open fire and not much else."
"I can boil things."
"Boiling now? You've improved. Do you remember salt?" She wrinkled her nose at him.
Gippal lifted his chin. "I do. Sometimes."
The Al Bhed laughed.
The others mounted the stairs talking quietly over what they had seen.
Yuna turned to Rikku. "I feel like I've woken up from a dream and don't know if I should be happy or sad."
Rikku smiled at her. "It's difficult to say."
Gippal put his arm around her shoulders. "You know what I say? I say I'm hungry."
Rikku shook her head and laughed. "So am I, starving." She let him lead her away and up the stairs.
Yuna looked up and around at all the statues.
Tidus took her hand. "Come on, Yuna."
"I didn't realize what a hole there was in my heart without the Summons." Yuna said softly. "Now, I have hope. Here is someone to share my heart with again."
Tidus looked down at her. "I won't say I'm happy that you'll be doing the sendings again. It always took so much out of you."
"You'll support me though."
"Yeah, since there's no pilgrimage and no big scary monster of death at the end of it." Tidus said.
Yuna smiled at him. "Come on, we better get some food before it's all gone. I know she's short but Rikku can really pack it away." She tugged him towards the stairs.
"Hey!" Tidus cried out and laughed.
Yuna laughed and they ran up the stairs together.
Paine looked up into the sky. The sun had set and above her beyond the metal sculpture of the Leviathan and the twisting water fountains were the stars twinkling back at her. She heard footsteps on the stone and turned.
Rikku smiled at her. "I thought I'd find you up here. The breeze is so nice."
Paine glanced at her. The skirt of the dress was significantly shorter in the back. "What happened to your train?" She asked.
Rikku made a face. "It's detachable." She tugged at the hem of the dress. "The wedding dress will no doubt be more formal with a longer train than this one and an even more ridiculous head piece." She sighed. "I've already nixed half a dozen designs they created without my input."
Paine shook her head. She turned back to look out over Spira. "This place, I meant for it to bring us together as friends again."
Rikku came over and stood next to her. "It's a big world out there, Paine. Too big to be alone in it."
"I'm surprised you're willing to stand up here with me given last time." Paine crossed her arms.
"Well," Rikku smiled. "This time I'm prepared. And," she sighed. "Things are more official now."
Paine glanced over. "They did it, huh."
"Yes, they declared Gippal and I will be Elders together after our wedding." Rikku said softly. "Then we cornered Pops and wrangled a promise out of him not to retire early and force our wedding sooner."
"I didn't see Rin today." Paine looked up at the stars again.
"Rin is no longer a Lord." Rikku said. "He betrayed the Council and tried to take matters into his own hands. They don't take kindly to that. He was lucky they stripped him of his titles and let him go. Sen and Gippal hold his responsibilities now."
"Lord Gippal," Paine said slowly. "I bet he hates that."
"He's not expressly happy about it. Neither is Sen for that matter." Rikku shrugged.
"So, you are a Summoner." Paine mused.
Rikku sighed. "Anyone can be a Summoner, Paine. Open your heart to Knowledge, to Space, to Darkness and Metal and you could summon the spiritual energy of those Essentials."
Paine shifted on her feet. "I'm not sure that makes me comfortable."
"Then don't. It isn't required." Rikku said. "You could open your heart to Baralai though."
"You're terrible at teasing."
Rikku tilted her head and shrugged.
Paine frowned. "I misjudged you."
"You pushed me off a tower." Rikku leaned over towards her. "I call that active dislike."
"I'm sorry." Paine said.
Rikku raised her eyebrows. "Thanks. I think."
"I'm glad you didn't die."
"Better," Rikku muttered.
"Don't disappoint anyone." Paine pointed at Rikku's nose.
"Ohkay, well, that's harder. There is always someone who is going to be disappointed no matter what you do." Rikku pushed Paine's hand away. "The joy of being a leader."
"You were never this philosophical with the Gullwings." Paine said.
"Once again, apply force type of problem. I'm good with those. They don't require moralizing or preaching, just the occasional on the spot lying, which I'm not good at, and lots of punching which I'm great at." Rikku waved her hands. She stepped away and spun around with her arms out. "This, this is different." She stopped spinning. "This is magic and alchemy and a use my brain problem."
"Funny. I didn't think you had one." Paine hid a smile.
"I know. Surprise!" Rikku smirked.
Paine uncrossed her arms. "I did have fun. You know, as a Gullwing. You made it fun. It wasn't just Yuna."
"Paine?" Rikku stepped forward, pursed her lips and tilted her head narrowing her eyes. "Was it possible that you were a wee bit jealous?"
Paine looked away.
"Ah," Rikku said.
"You and Yuna already had this bond from the Pilgrimage." Paine said. "Then, you knew Gippal and were his lover no less. Nooj thinks highly of you. It became a final straw."
Rikku leaned back. "Nooj thinks highly of me? I did not see that coming. Um. Wow. Well. There's that, I guess."
Paine grimaced. "I never understood why you kept doing all those missions. Why you continued being a Gullwing on your own."
Golden light suffused the top of the tower. "I was looking for this for answers." Luck said softly.
Paine turned. "Ri-Luck?"
Luck smiled and the wind tugged at the scarf at her waist. "You won't remember much of this. Only the understanding of why Rikku kept going. The fate of Spira was still in danger after Sin, after Vegnagun, the world was still headed towards destruction. The answer was somewhere in the past. As long as I kept searching, I would find it. Being Fate, Luck and Fortune, I would stumble across it. Destiny would put it in my path."
"You're an Essential."
"An avatar of an Essential. I'm mortal. To use my full powers and make outcomes certain would mean giving up my mortality." Luck held her hands out and golden strings formed around them and spread out from her and away from the tower over Spira. "I can influence fate. I can tug on the strings and move them but a little. But it takes time."
"Why are you telling me this?" Paine stared at her.
The strings faded and Luck turned. She reached out and touched Paine's forehead. "You asked."
"If you can't make outcomes certain." Paine grumbled. What good was being an Avatar of Luck?
"What can I say? I'm fickle." Luck waved her hands. "Or else I wouldn't be luck! There is bad luck too."
"How did you know the answer was here?"
"I didn't. Not until you pushed me off this tower and I fell onto a room we hadn't tried accessing." Luck said. She shimmered and turned back into Rikku.
"You could have died." Paine said.
"You would have killed me, yes." Rikku said softly. "Answers are not an easy thing, Paine. If you had pushed me off the other side. Perhaps I would have hit the airship docks, perhaps not. I wouldn't have found that room. I wouldn't have seen that lock. I wouldn't have seen the Statues of the Essentials. Luck, Fate, Destiny had different plans. And you did and I did. If you hadn't. I wouldn't have come back here at all, thinking I had seen everything there was to see. Luck is fickle. Chance is slim. But here we are."
Paine looked up at the stars. "Don't you hate me?"
"Hate is a powerful emotion that I don't have the energy to waste upon anybody." Rikku said. "Not Yevon. Not Sin. Not you."
"Things are changing again and I'm the one being left behind." Paine looked over the land. "You're becoming a leader and are going to save the world."
Rikku snorted. "I'm getting bored with doing that. After this, I want a new challenge. Parenthood sounds good. Something normal. Practice on my new little sisters for a bit. Sidda and Illiam will be happy for the respite."
"Yuna and Tidus are merging the Youth League and New Yevon forces." Paine murmured.
Rikku shook her head and smiled. "Paine. I think you're missing that I've given Kessi, an Al Bhed linguist the beginnings of a translation key to ancient writing. You have an entire library to explore and things to learn. That's what brought you to the Gullwings, the search for knowledge."
Paine flushed. "I didn't know it was that obvious."
"In hindsight, yes." Rikku nodded. "With all those books filled with all that information and all those leads, who knows what you might find or where you might go."
Paine bit her lip. "I might need better training."
"A new set of weapons," Rikku said. "Some new clothes. You are worse than Gippal."
Paine looked down, flushed and messed with her hair. "That is, if you don't mind making me a set. I mean," Paine said. "I would like one if you'd consent to making me one, please."
"Since you're asking." Rikku's eyes sparkled. "I guess I can make you one."
"It's on the Celsius." Paine said.
"Yes. I had ones for you, Yuna and Tidus already made when you sent those silly letters. Just in case any of you wanted to come back. Then you two decided you wanted to use the dress spheres in this tower." Rikku waved her hands. "You could have just shown up at Luca and asked to join back up if you were that lonely."
"I didn't think you'd have me." Paine looked uncomfortable. "I'm not the easiest person to be around."
"Right. Which was why we were trying to get you to loosen up and have fun?" Rikku's voice rose.
"I did! I did have fun." Paine smiled. "We made a good team."
"We did." Rikku said. "So, do you want to know a secret?"
Paine's eyes widened. "Um."
"You might want to keep it from Yuna."
"Uh, I don't know."
"Leila wanted me to tell you because she thinks you'd appreciate it." Rikku fiddled with her jewelry.
"Fine. Out with it. You know I hate secrets."
Rikku grinned. "Leila was Leblanc." She bounced away and headed towards the elevator.
Paine gaped at her. "Wait, Leila is, Rikku!" She shouted and dashed after her.
Rikku lightly rested her hand on the rail and walked down the stairs of the Hall of Essences. Everyone had gone for the night and she wanted to be sure everything was in place before she closed the Hall.
Light glimmered at the base of the stairs.
Rikku's brow furrowed. She kept going down and turned around the last curve of the spiral.
There at the base of the stairs in the room of Ancient Essentials hovered a rod. She looked down before stepping off the last stair. At her feet were two metalwork gauntlets. She blinked.
The rod was taller than she was. Not that it was extraordinarily difficult for that to happen. She was short and she knew that. The top of the rod was metal work sculpture in red gold, gold and copper. The middle of it was a large flame. At the base of the flame was the two headed phoenix with her wings spread out. And the tail of the phoenix curved upwards, around and over the flame. Under the phoenix instead of tassels like the Yevonite Summoners like to put on their summoning rods were chains decorated with beads and ended with orange feathers.
The top of the rod was fancy, like someone had turned it on a lathe like a fancy table leg. But instead of being wood, it was gems of different sizes and lengths. Gems in the color of the rainbow. They met at a staff that was two metals, one dark and the other bronze twisted around each other. The dark metal had silver star bursts incised into it and the bronze had lightning bolts. The base of the staff was a decorated gear and then another round gem.
Rikku slowly reached out and wrapped her hand around it.
The staff thrummed and then stopped glowing, casting off a few sparkles.
Rikku stared at it. "Thanks," she said to the statues. "I think," she added in a mutter.
She knelt down and picked up the gauntlets. They looked delicate made of copper, bronze and yellow gold. There were forms of lightning, interlocking gears and the thunderbird worked into the designs.
"I don't think these are for me," she murmured. "Too big. They're really serious about Gippal being my defender and guardian." She stacked them in the crook of her arm
With a last check around the room and satisfied that the white chocobo was actually gone and not hiding. Rikku walked back up the stairs and shut the doors.
