- - -
"Are we in the right place?"
"This sure doesn't look like it…"
"What the hell happened?"
Rikku waltzed onto her new bridge, wearing a crisp red-orange dress, and with her hair pulled up into a professional bun with two strands coming down in front of her ears. This was supposed to be her shining moment, approaching Besaid in her brand-spanking new airship. She had come to officially ask Lulu and Wakka for their help.
This was supposed to be her shining moment.
It wasn't.
"What's this? What are you talking about?" demanded Rikku, approaching the main viewing screen.
She gasped.
"This is the Isle of Besaid, as far as I can tell. But…something has happened…" reported the pilot. Everyone reacted.
"A storm?"
"Hurricane?"
"Sin?"
There was a rise of emotions among all the bridge crew, people scrambling to get themselves a look. Indeed, this sort of destruction was characteristic of one of Sin's attacks. It couldn't be…
"We're landing immediately! To your stations!" roared the female captain. The chattering men and women stopped, and sat down at their respective consoles. Actually, her crew was, for the most part, composed of teenagers—no one far from her own age. The chief engineer, in fact, was just fourteen, even if she was a genius.
Altogether, Rikku now was in command of about thirty-five, coming from the skeleton crew Cid has supplied for her and those who had joined from her previous mission (a few had stayed behind to take the seafaring vessel back to Home).
"Brace for landing!" advised the pilot. They were all still getting the basic controls down.
Rikku knelt and grabbed one of the rails before the main helm station, her green eyes still taking in the sights down below. Where was the village? Was it somewhere in that huge area of flattened trees, dammed rivers, and piles of debris that used to an island?
Besaid. A wasteland.
Rikku wondered why things always had to get so complicated.
-
Wakka dragged himself outside. It was the middle of the day, and the other villagers had been outside since sunrise. They were sorting through what remained of home—what a loosely applied term that was now—and trying to think of a way to put everything back together.
Wakka had not come out before because he had nothing to look for. His past had died with Lu, and now he was awkwardly confronted with the future. Two babies, so young and helpless, never to know their mother…to be born from her very corpse.
He felt ill.
The cool breeze felt good against his flushed skin, and his stomach quieted down a little bit. He hadn't eaten for days, only drinking water when he was reminded to. At least there were enough new mothers to take care of food for the children. They could at least have a mother's milk. Just not their own.
Searching through piles of broken memories had not brought him outside, but rumors of an airship landing did. The children were in the middle of a pleasant meal, so he left them behind in the temple.
"Dear Ye…" He stopped himself. Yevon. It was ingrained in the very fiber of his being. And, although he hated Yevon more than ever, Wakka couldn't shake the habit—crying out the name when he was in distress, pleading for some sort of mercy from above.
I'm still a fool, ya? Lu? he thought. No response, of course. Finally, his eyes settled in on a bright ship just beyond some of the taller surviving trees. Near where the dock was—well, used to be. He headed towards it at a moderate pace, not hurrying—he didn't care enough about anything to hurry.
He made it to the ship, where there was a relatively clean area of dirt path. Two figures approached him. He recognized immediately the young lady in the long, sleeveless orange dress as his old friend, and paid no heed to the other individual.
"Wakka! Wakka!" Rikku ran, her leather boots slipping a little in the mud. Her blond companion walked more cautiously behind her, picking his footing much more carefully.
"Rikku."
His face was smeared with dirt, and his clothes looked liked they were stuck to him. His hair was newly short, but extremely tangled and twisted. He had scars on the exposed tan skin of his body. His features lacked emotion.
"Wakka, what happened?"
"Hurricane." Another one word reply.
Something terrible had happened, but her throat was choking up. She could not ask. She mouthed the name instead. "Lulu…"
He just shook his head.
"She…" No, wait, Rikku told herself. If she didn't ask, he wouldn't answer. If she didn't ask, she wouldn't have to know.
There was silence between them for a long time. A pregnant pause. The wind played around them wistfully, making the leaves dance on the beaten trees. In the distance, the other people of the island were calling to each other, working together to move large trees and whatnot.
Rikku gulped. Wakka probably wasn't ready to say anything anyway. "Hey, let's go into the village. Maybe we can help with the…reconstruction."
His large head bowed slightly, and he turned around and began pacing back toward the village. The two Al-Bhed pursued, cautious.
They came to the temple and spoke with the people there. Most of them looked up wearily, defeated by nature and heartache. Wakka left his companions here, and journeyed deeper into the building.
"Oh, Lady Rikku," bowed a kindly woman who seemed to have many years of living under her belt.
Rikku bowed to her elder, and said, "I am sorry about what has happened here. My ship and I are at your service. If we don't have all you need, I will radio New Home and get more."
"Delightful!" The woman clapped her hands together. She seemed just ready to delve into a long list of needs when the high-pitched wails of a baby arose on the other side of the giant room. "Oh, do excuse me…those are our new arrivals." The woman said it as though she should be smiling, but instead a grimace emerged from her wrinkles.
"Oh…" Rikku was confused, but she felt a tinge of intuition. "Zysac," she said, "You go around the village and ask everyone what they need—in terms of supplies, you know? Then go back to the ship and get whatever we can spare—oh, and radio Home. Vydran should help." She was already walking backwards after the old woman.
Zysac nodded slowly.
Rikku came with the woman to a crude bed made of straw and blankets. There, on it, were two bright-faced babies, all aglow with new life. Around them fussed a young woman with a toddler attached to her leg, crying out insistently for something.
The old woman said, "Lady Rikku. These are…"
"Lulu's?" guessed Rikku.
"Yes…"
"And Wakka's…"
"Why, of course…"
"Lulu is…?"
Rikku looked up when the woman didn't say anything. "She's gone, isn't she?"
The old woman cast her eyes downward, not even seeing the two children as her focus made way for the cold stone floor. "…gone…"
Rikku fought back her emotions. Those would just have to wait. She knelt to the ground and offered her hand outward. Her index finger was snatched into the eager grasp of the baby on the left (later this turned out to be the boy).
"Hello there," cooed the Al-Bhed. "Famlusa du ouin haf funmt. Welcome to your new world." Saying this was a very old custom that had always puzzled Rikku, but it seemed appropriate now. Spira truly was a new world now, after all.
Rikku twisted her arm around, the baby's tiny hand swinging slightly to maintain its death grip on the captured finger. She found it in her heart to giggle, but only because of the baby. But then, she looked into the eyes, and found them to be Lulu's.
Rikku jerked away.
"Lady—"
She was standing up now, next to the nursemaid. Rikku turned from the children. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. She—he?—looks like…the eyes…I…"
"He does take after his mother," the old woman said softly. "It has only been a few days since they were born, and already I know these children. I looked after her…a long time ago. And now again I see her…in the children's faces."
"The poor things are so small."
"That's the way it is with twins. They came a little early, probably due to the stress of the storm. But their mother was strong for them… She was so happy to have her child born into this peaceful world, she told me. The Eternal Calm." The woman bent, in spite of her years, and touched each of the faces with as much softness as a feather.
"Can I ask…was it the storm? Did Lulu…?"
"No. It was childbirth… The babies were in a bad position inside of her, so she…could not… We had to…the children…" Her words were all a blur now, and she fought back disturbing memories. She remembered vividly her cursed task. To take life from the lifeless…
Rikku bit her lip hard, and it bled. She licked the salty liquid away. "How is Wakka?"
"Sir Wakka is…like the walking dead himself. He will just come and sit with the children for hours… Either that or be by himself in the Chamber of the Fayth—like he is now, I fear. It simply is not good for him." She shook her gray-haired head.
"The Chamber?"
"It is where Lady Lulu… During the storm, you see, it was the safest and warmest place in the temple."
"Yes…"
Lulu. You died in pain… without us, you died in the dark… You never got to see your own children. Lulu…
"Lady Rikku?"
"Excuse me… I have to go…" Rikku turned and ran for the sanctuary of the ship, somewhere to be by herself.
Somewhere to weep.
-
The days passed quickly. Luckily, there was good weather for the next two weeks, which was when the greater part of the building was done. Cid, upon receiving Zysac's message, had immediately sent a small supply ship, filled to the brim with the finest Al-Bhed engineers and all the latest machina tools.
The days were hot and steamy, especially under the fire of a few dozen welding torches. Most of the new homes and buildings were begun with metal frames, said to be sturdy enough for Mother Nature. Wood was harvested from the fallen trees, and grasses were dried on tin sheets to be woven into new cloth.
It took several days for the mood to switch over from melancholy to hopeful. Everyone felt the pain of Lulu's death, and a proper funeral was held at the seaside, where flower petals were flung out to be carried away by the tide. Wakka could not bear to go, and Rikku herself made an excuse. Instead, she climbed a rock face and watched mournfully from above, shedding as many tears as all the villagers together.
And yet, after this, the children were laughing again, darting around their parents' legs as they began to play tag once more. The adults scolded them, told them to help out, but always a smile shown on the mothers' lips, and always a gleam in the fathers' eyes. The elders chuckled, and went back to their weaving; sketching intricate patterns into what would be a wall soon, adding the finishing touches to a new blanket.
Rikku sometimes paced through the village, Zysac at her heels, looking carefully around. Besaid was rising from the ashes. Sort of like a phoenix. Stronger than ever before, maybe. Rikku wanted to smile, but found she could not. Perhaps all her smiles had been used up in happier times.
But then, two weeks after construction began, when foundations and frames were built and only the finishing touches were needed… This day found one Al-Bhed in despair. She retired to her captain's quarters, the sole occupant of the ship.
-
Zysac returned to the ship early. He had come to send the daily message to New Home. He did so, again reporting that progress had been swift and bountiful, and that the engineers would probably be back by the end of the month to again take up their previous work.
When he was about to disembark, the young man remembered not seeing Rikku anywhere outside for the past few hours. He went to her room, and found the door slightly ajar.
"Miss Rikku?"
"Mmm?"
He heard sniffling. "Miss Rikku…"
"Um…come in…"
He came in to see Rikku stuffing tissues into the pockets of her dress. She straightened her hair with quick fingers. "Oh, Zysac," she sniffed. "Need something?"
"Well…"
"Yeah?"
"I don't mean to interrupt… Um, I'll go…" He turned around, but stopped himself. Facing the empty metallic corridor, he spoke. "Do you need anything?"
Rikku fell back on the bed, holding her face in her hands. "What I need…" She laughed, the sounds muffled, and it honestly scared him.
Zysac looked at her, concern filling his spiraled, green eyes. He lifted up his goggles and went to sit at her side. Was there anything to say?
"I didn't even tell her goodbye," Rikku declared suddenly, darkly. Her eyes were focused straight ahead. "Yuna and I didn't want Wakka to stop us, so we left right away. He was going to go get her… I could've seen her. Maybe, if Yuna had been there, she could have done something with her magic… Maybe, if I hadn't taken Yuna, Lulu would still be alive…" And Yuna wouldn't be captured somewhere…
"You didn't know what would happen."
"I should have! What kind of friend am I? I hadn't seen Lulu for months and I just…!" Her face was in her hands again.
Zysac froze.
She was sobbing.
What was he supposed to do? He couldn't help anybody. Especially Rikku. Rikku was strong. She was happy and confident. She was his captain, his senior, his mentor. He was an assistant. Her assistant.
But he couldn't help her.
"Zysac," she moaned, and fell into his arms. "What am I supposed to do now?"
Still frozen, he managed to wonder about the same thing. Gradually, he melted, and placed his hands on her back. "Miss Rikku…"
She cried into his chest, her hands clutching at the ties on his green jacket.
Cautiously, he touched her hair. What could he do, what could he do? He could hardly carry her luggage or steer a vehicle. His fingers fumbled over the communicator buttons. All the other boys had always made fun of him. And yet…
"Miss Rikku, don't worry. I'm here for you."
He gulped.
"Thank you," she whispered, pressing her cheek against his chest. "Promise me, Zysac… You won't go away. Please…please don't. Everybody I care about dies…"
Zysac's shaking hand stroked her hair. "I won't."
She clung to him for a long time.
- - -
Author's Notes:
Whoops, a little short again. Sorry. Ooh…but what's happening to Yuna? Stay tuned!