She awoke, sunlight streaming through the window onto her face through the
bare windows above her. The sky was cloudless and light blue, which was to
be expected as the airship Celsius flew above the clouds continually
seeking orbs.
Her life hadn't changed drastically since she had joined the Gullwings although she'd never be influenced by Rikku and Yuna's cheerfulness to change from her stoic ways. Her whole life up to this point had been a series of trials and she smiled wryly as she felt so far that coping with Rikku was the hardest.
Rikku's constant prying was a problem, especially now she had shed some light on her past what with how their situation was changing and the arrival of Shuyin, the double of this Tidus character that Yuna was so stubbornly seeking.
The truth was that she was forged by a lifetime of suffering under Sin like all people of Spira and then survived the hell of the Den of Woe when she had been chosen to participate in Operation Crimson. Strange how the other three survivors Baralai, Gippal and Nooj all came to become the leaders of the three main factions that arose after the fall of Yevon. The fact that the Gullwings had been pulled into this mystery of Vegnagun and were constantly being opposed to those three meant she had to reveal more of herself than she liked.
But now Paine had a new secret, one that had plagued her ever since that bitch of an Ice Queen Shiva got in a lucky hit. Her nightmares of the Den of Woe had been replaced by an eerie and perplexing figure, a strong young man with a strange sword merged with a gun. He dressed in black, with slashes of red, his brown neck length hair billowing around his face.
She watched him from overhead as if floating above him unnoticed by him, unable to tear away from his somehow familiar presence. She watched him square off to a taller young man with blonde short-cropped hair and a perpetual smirk. This figure also wielded a strange sword-gun and was shrouded in a grey trench coat that rippled in the wind.
She watched them fight, blades clashing and sparking under the ferocity of the blows. The familiar figure seemed to be winning but was caught off guard as the smirking figure's hand erupted in a ball of flame, knocking him back and to his knees. She saw his grey eyes open wide as the smirking figure's sword came sweeping down and slashes his face in an explosion of blood and pain that made Paine wake up every time the dream recurred.
She didn't understand what it meant or who those figures were. Had she been touched by the remnant powers of the Fayth when Shiva impaled her shoulder, seeing one of their dreams just like how Yuna's Tidus was their dream made flesh?
She decided not to dwell on it, she had enough on her plate with Vegnagun and she didn't want anything affecting her concentration or being brought to Rikku and Yuna's attention.
"Paine" a soft voice whispered making her spin round. The only person present in the cabin was the hypello Barkeep and she knew it wasn't his voice.
She sat up on the bed wondering if she was imagining things or that it was the after effect of the dream. Her forehead ached and she placed a hand to it only to be surprised when it came away wet with sticky blood. She fought the urge to panic and stood up to look at her reflection in the glass above her and was puzzled to find there was no marks on her forehead at all, yet the blood still stained her fingertips proving she couldn't be making this up.
Fear and anger rose in her mind, dark and sharp, as she cursed Shiva under her breath. She couldn't let the others see her in this state of confusion, she wouldn't let them see her weakened, not after all they had been through.
'What's happening to me?' she thought wildly, the pain in her forehead coming to an agonising crescendo before fading away.
'Interdimensional linkage.' A voice whispered in her mind.
Paine leant her forehead against the glass closing her eyes. 'I think the Den of Woe has driven me insane at last.' She thought to herself.
'No my child you are very sane.' The voice said softly yet seemed to reverberate.
'Then who are you? Why are you inside my head?' Paine asked her lips moving slightly trying to keep a sense of normality by voicing the words.
'In your language my name is Death, one of the Four High Ones.' The voices answered.
'Death like with the bones and scythe?' Paine asked sarcastically.
'That's just your limited human metaphorical representation of how you sense me. I have no true form, yet I exist in all mortal beings. I am the flow of life, the clock that counts the seconds of mortal existence.' Death replied.
'So I'm dying is that it?' Paine asked hollowly.
'Everyone is dying, that's what to live means. I'm afraid my colleague seems to be losing their grip. You shouldn't be able to sense what you're sensing.' Death told her their voice ringing inside her head, never heard by her ears.
'Colleague? Can't you give me a straight answer? Stop the riddles.' Paine demanded her eyes still screwed shut.
'Why should I tell you? I am not at the whim to a mere human.' Death retorted imperiously.
Paine was aware of another voice in the back of her mind, a series of memories unlocked. Information she had never known becoming available to her.
'But you are at the mercy of balance, if I were to die right now then your colleague's influence would be unravelled.' Paine threatened in a voice not her own.
'Fate warned you! Now leave her mind!' Death growled.
'Fate?' Paine murmured softly.
'My colleague. The one who brought you here, though it seems they did not complete the separation and the link is growing again.' Death replied reluctantly.
'Brought me here? What are you talking about? This link... is that where that voice just came from?' Paine asked confused further.
'You are not originally from Spira. Fate transported you here from another world.' Death answered.
'So I'm just a tool to be used by you?' Paine snapped angrily.
'Not me, Fate. Someone was needed here at this time and it was just coincidence that it was you. It could have easily been your brother.' Death accidentally told her, an imminent force showing signs of the humanity to which they were inextricably tied.
'My brother? Is he the one who I see in my dreams? The one with whom this "link" is growing?' Paine demanded opening her eyes.
There was an awkward silence in her mind before Death finally replied. 'Yes.' They said simply a tinge of embarrassment to their tone, which Paine found amusing.
'And does he know about me?' she asked pressing the advantage she had come to have over Death.
'It is because of him that you see him now. His dreams of you forced Fate to explain to him the truth. Little did Fate realise that his influence over Shiva would cause her reflection to open you up to the reality of his existence.' Death said hoping to confuse her.
'Wait... so Shiva exists in his world too? So why would Fate tell him everything if Fate is all-powerful and he's just human? Why are you talking to me for that matter?' Paine asked, no longer affected by the haze of the dream and her full concentration had returned.
'Shiva is a servant of Fate. She will exist wherever they decide she should be. As for him, Fate explained all as a kind of reward I suppose. Your brother was the point on which the fate of the world balanced and he was able to tilt it to Fate's and our advantage. Which is why I'm talking to you since what is good for Fate is good for me. You must survive to save Spira, we cannot let this world be given over to the Other after all we have done.' Death explained, ambiguous as ever.
'I see and when Spira is saved then what? Will I go back? Will I be able to meet my brother?' Paine asked.
'When Spira is saved you will carry on your life here however you wish, but you can never go back. Fate told your brother all this too but it seems his stubbornness will not let you go.' Death replied their voice becoming soft once more.
'Then I will not let him go neither.' Paine retorted.
'You have no choice! What has been done cannot be undone! If you stop this foolishness then I may grant you both your wish when the time comes.' Death snapped.
'And I'm to take your word for it?' Paine said angrily clenching her fist.
'You do not trust me? No I guess you wouldn't, your brother doesn't trust in Fate.' Death said softly.
'You're hiding something from me. You can't even mention my brother's name, what do you fear of him?' Paine retorted grinning maliciously.
'I fear nothing!' Death roared imperiously. 'Why should I lower myself to human standards and equal myself with one?'
'Because regardless what you say it is we who win your battles!' Paine yelled.
Paine felt Death's presence in her mind slip away defeated, and wondered what price she'd pay for pissing off a supposedly supreme being. Whatever it was, she reckoned it was worth it.
She had a brother out there somewhere, one that knew of her and was desperate to meet her. She wondered what was happening to him. What had happened to him at the end of her dream. But most of all she wondered what his name was.
She closed her eyes her cheek pressed to the cold glass once more as she sought a connection to that place again. The place where he hid in her mind, locked away from her subconscious. Then slowly a name bubbled up from deep inside, winding its way to the surface and onto her lips.
'Squall.' She whispered softly to her own ears.
Her life hadn't changed drastically since she had joined the Gullwings although she'd never be influenced by Rikku and Yuna's cheerfulness to change from her stoic ways. Her whole life up to this point had been a series of trials and she smiled wryly as she felt so far that coping with Rikku was the hardest.
Rikku's constant prying was a problem, especially now she had shed some light on her past what with how their situation was changing and the arrival of Shuyin, the double of this Tidus character that Yuna was so stubbornly seeking.
The truth was that she was forged by a lifetime of suffering under Sin like all people of Spira and then survived the hell of the Den of Woe when she had been chosen to participate in Operation Crimson. Strange how the other three survivors Baralai, Gippal and Nooj all came to become the leaders of the three main factions that arose after the fall of Yevon. The fact that the Gullwings had been pulled into this mystery of Vegnagun and were constantly being opposed to those three meant she had to reveal more of herself than she liked.
But now Paine had a new secret, one that had plagued her ever since that bitch of an Ice Queen Shiva got in a lucky hit. Her nightmares of the Den of Woe had been replaced by an eerie and perplexing figure, a strong young man with a strange sword merged with a gun. He dressed in black, with slashes of red, his brown neck length hair billowing around his face.
She watched him from overhead as if floating above him unnoticed by him, unable to tear away from his somehow familiar presence. She watched him square off to a taller young man with blonde short-cropped hair and a perpetual smirk. This figure also wielded a strange sword-gun and was shrouded in a grey trench coat that rippled in the wind.
She watched them fight, blades clashing and sparking under the ferocity of the blows. The familiar figure seemed to be winning but was caught off guard as the smirking figure's hand erupted in a ball of flame, knocking him back and to his knees. She saw his grey eyes open wide as the smirking figure's sword came sweeping down and slashes his face in an explosion of blood and pain that made Paine wake up every time the dream recurred.
She didn't understand what it meant or who those figures were. Had she been touched by the remnant powers of the Fayth when Shiva impaled her shoulder, seeing one of their dreams just like how Yuna's Tidus was their dream made flesh?
She decided not to dwell on it, she had enough on her plate with Vegnagun and she didn't want anything affecting her concentration or being brought to Rikku and Yuna's attention.
"Paine" a soft voice whispered making her spin round. The only person present in the cabin was the hypello Barkeep and she knew it wasn't his voice.
She sat up on the bed wondering if she was imagining things or that it was the after effect of the dream. Her forehead ached and she placed a hand to it only to be surprised when it came away wet with sticky blood. She fought the urge to panic and stood up to look at her reflection in the glass above her and was puzzled to find there was no marks on her forehead at all, yet the blood still stained her fingertips proving she couldn't be making this up.
Fear and anger rose in her mind, dark and sharp, as she cursed Shiva under her breath. She couldn't let the others see her in this state of confusion, she wouldn't let them see her weakened, not after all they had been through.
'What's happening to me?' she thought wildly, the pain in her forehead coming to an agonising crescendo before fading away.
'Interdimensional linkage.' A voice whispered in her mind.
Paine leant her forehead against the glass closing her eyes. 'I think the Den of Woe has driven me insane at last.' She thought to herself.
'No my child you are very sane.' The voice said softly yet seemed to reverberate.
'Then who are you? Why are you inside my head?' Paine asked her lips moving slightly trying to keep a sense of normality by voicing the words.
'In your language my name is Death, one of the Four High Ones.' The voices answered.
'Death like with the bones and scythe?' Paine asked sarcastically.
'That's just your limited human metaphorical representation of how you sense me. I have no true form, yet I exist in all mortal beings. I am the flow of life, the clock that counts the seconds of mortal existence.' Death replied.
'So I'm dying is that it?' Paine asked hollowly.
'Everyone is dying, that's what to live means. I'm afraid my colleague seems to be losing their grip. You shouldn't be able to sense what you're sensing.' Death told her their voice ringing inside her head, never heard by her ears.
'Colleague? Can't you give me a straight answer? Stop the riddles.' Paine demanded her eyes still screwed shut.
'Why should I tell you? I am not at the whim to a mere human.' Death retorted imperiously.
Paine was aware of another voice in the back of her mind, a series of memories unlocked. Information she had never known becoming available to her.
'But you are at the mercy of balance, if I were to die right now then your colleague's influence would be unravelled.' Paine threatened in a voice not her own.
'Fate warned you! Now leave her mind!' Death growled.
'Fate?' Paine murmured softly.
'My colleague. The one who brought you here, though it seems they did not complete the separation and the link is growing again.' Death replied reluctantly.
'Brought me here? What are you talking about? This link... is that where that voice just came from?' Paine asked confused further.
'You are not originally from Spira. Fate transported you here from another world.' Death answered.
'So I'm just a tool to be used by you?' Paine snapped angrily.
'Not me, Fate. Someone was needed here at this time and it was just coincidence that it was you. It could have easily been your brother.' Death accidentally told her, an imminent force showing signs of the humanity to which they were inextricably tied.
'My brother? Is he the one who I see in my dreams? The one with whom this "link" is growing?' Paine demanded opening her eyes.
There was an awkward silence in her mind before Death finally replied. 'Yes.' They said simply a tinge of embarrassment to their tone, which Paine found amusing.
'And does he know about me?' she asked pressing the advantage she had come to have over Death.
'It is because of him that you see him now. His dreams of you forced Fate to explain to him the truth. Little did Fate realise that his influence over Shiva would cause her reflection to open you up to the reality of his existence.' Death said hoping to confuse her.
'Wait... so Shiva exists in his world too? So why would Fate tell him everything if Fate is all-powerful and he's just human? Why are you talking to me for that matter?' Paine asked, no longer affected by the haze of the dream and her full concentration had returned.
'Shiva is a servant of Fate. She will exist wherever they decide she should be. As for him, Fate explained all as a kind of reward I suppose. Your brother was the point on which the fate of the world balanced and he was able to tilt it to Fate's and our advantage. Which is why I'm talking to you since what is good for Fate is good for me. You must survive to save Spira, we cannot let this world be given over to the Other after all we have done.' Death explained, ambiguous as ever.
'I see and when Spira is saved then what? Will I go back? Will I be able to meet my brother?' Paine asked.
'When Spira is saved you will carry on your life here however you wish, but you can never go back. Fate told your brother all this too but it seems his stubbornness will not let you go.' Death replied their voice becoming soft once more.
'Then I will not let him go neither.' Paine retorted.
'You have no choice! What has been done cannot be undone! If you stop this foolishness then I may grant you both your wish when the time comes.' Death snapped.
'And I'm to take your word for it?' Paine said angrily clenching her fist.
'You do not trust me? No I guess you wouldn't, your brother doesn't trust in Fate.' Death said softly.
'You're hiding something from me. You can't even mention my brother's name, what do you fear of him?' Paine retorted grinning maliciously.
'I fear nothing!' Death roared imperiously. 'Why should I lower myself to human standards and equal myself with one?'
'Because regardless what you say it is we who win your battles!' Paine yelled.
Paine felt Death's presence in her mind slip away defeated, and wondered what price she'd pay for pissing off a supposedly supreme being. Whatever it was, she reckoned it was worth it.
She had a brother out there somewhere, one that knew of her and was desperate to meet her. She wondered what was happening to him. What had happened to him at the end of her dream. But most of all she wondered what his name was.
She closed her eyes her cheek pressed to the cold glass once more as she sought a connection to that place again. The place where he hid in her mind, locked away from her subconscious. Then slowly a name bubbled up from deep inside, winding its way to the surface and onto her lips.
'Squall.' She whispered softly to her own ears.