**
Part Six: Tricks of the Trade
**
Rikku had come to somewhat dislike mountains. She had all too vivid memories of crossing Mount Gagazet in clothing far too inappropriate for the conditions they had found themselves in. She remembered that the team had too often found themselves huddled in the shelter of a cliff, or even a niche in the rock, around a fire that whoever was awake enough to spellcast would keep alive with magic, and sometimes someone would fall victim to burgeoning hypothermia, and they would be unable to continue until they had been restored to full health.
Rikku remembered not noticing the signs of her own suffering at one point as they were nearing the summit, and collapsing in the snow next to Auron, too tired to even shiver. Which was why she, and the other Al-Bhed who had joined her on this little expedition atop one of the lower mountains in a small island chain in the east (nowhere near as tall as Gagazet but still fairly imposing in itself), were all dressed in thermal gear. Rikku had never been as glad for simple clothing before.
They were on a small plateau, which had been found at the top of a winding path. A metallurgist named Sanga had found the path, obscured by rocks at the foot of the mountain, and now they reached the top, they thought they found the reason why someone had taken such pains to hide the route.
Overlooking the rest of the island, standing proudly before a green landscape faintly obscured from this altitude by mists, was a door, all brass and carved stone, and inset into the door was a symbol easily six feet wide and half that again high. It was the symbol of Yevon, and Rikku could not fathom what it was doing here.
There were no temples or churchs nearby, indeed this entire island was uninhabited, which was why Rikku and her team had been there. The airship had dropped them off two days earlier before it departed to take other teams to islands where they could conduct their own surveys. Time was important, said Cid. The faster they found a suitable location, the faster they could begin to refound Home. And so they had split up.
Rikku wriggled her fingers absent-mindedly, attempting to get the blood in her extremities circulating a little better. She had lost sensation in her fingertips some time ago, and it was becoming difficult to manipulate any of the finer equipment they had brought with them. Not that she needed to. After efforts to locate the opening mechanism had failed, the stronger members of the party had resorted to the 'brute force and ignorance' approach and were simply trying to force the door open.
It was as good an idea as any they had at the moment, so Rikku didn't stop them. She had a feeling the medics would be seeing several sprained shoulders and thrown backs in the next few days, though.
She wondered what could lie behind. Machina weapons that Yevon was known to keep in reserve (though she had a feeling what they'd seen at Bevelle was all they had)? Could it be Gil, perhaps, some hidden cache of currency from the wealthy organisations funds? Or maybe it was rare items, kept hidden.
This was why Rikku had enjoyed treasure hunts as a child.
"Rikku!"
The girl flinched at the urgent, yet hushed call from the edge of the plateau, where Sanga was keeping guard. He gestured her closer silently, and around them the rest of the Al-Bhed seemed to take the hint that they should quieten down as well. The heaving against the door stopped, those who had been working massaging sore muscles as they looked after Rikku and Sanga anxiously.
Rikku hurried forward, gripping Sanga's arm as he indicated down the mountain path.
"Yevon," he said grimly.
Rikku swallowed, licking lips anxiously that had chapped in the cold. She narrowed her eyes and could just make out what the eagle-eyed Sanga had seen. There was a veritable entourage making its way up the thin and winding path that led all the way up the mountainside. The path was treacherous, but the group moved with such ease that it spoke of long familiarity with the area. Rikku thought she caught sight of the glimpse of metal off machina weapons, and the shine of the armour of the warrior monks.
"Damn," she said, resisting the urge to review a few of her father's choicer turns of phrase. With the speed the Yevonites were moving, it would be only a few minutes before they reached the Al-Bhed positions, and as Rikku was the leader of their group, it was up to her to make a decision.
She whirled, eyes hurriedly searching the area. They couldn't take the path back down, so what to do? Her eyes flickered upwards. There was still plenty more mountain above them. Craggy uneven rocks would provide plenty of hiding spaces, if they moved quickly enough.
"Up!" she ordered, in a hissed tone.
No one argued. Those who had equipment picked it up hurriedly and started for the rocks, just behind those who had been empty handed. Shale and pebbles scattered in their wake, and would hopefully settle before the Yevonites arrived. The only sounds could be heard were the scrabbling footsteps of the team and harsh breathing as they attempted to move faster than their bodies wanted to in the cold.
Rikku was last, checking to make sure everyone had secreted themselves away, and by then the Yevonites were turning the last curve of the pathway before they reached the plateau. She scrambled upwards, feeling sharp stones bite into her chilled hands, and one or two breaking the skin and causing them to bleed. Most of the better hiding places had been taken by the time Rikku tried to conceal herself, and she was forced to duck behind a rock that was far lower than she would have chosen with more time. She was simply glad that the cold weather gear was a dirty grey and so allowed her to blend all the better in with the surrounding stone.
She tried to raise her head enough to see what was going on without being spotted, pulling the hood of her jacket up to hide her hair. Having made herself uncomfortable, Rikku tried not to move, knowing any motion would give away their poorly hidden locations. She watched the Yevonites enter the platform, silently counting them off in her head.
There were nine in total, and fully eight of them were warrior monks, all of them looking rather chilled at the cold temperatures. Condensation had formed on their armour, and a few of them were dripping water onto the ground. At the very centre of their perfectly square formation was a woman, tall and statuesque, clad in the thick and undoubtedly warm garb of a Priestess of Yevon and looking distinctly more comfortable than her guards.
Rikku frowned. A Priestess with eight monks guarding her? What were they expecting to face? Had they known the Al-Bhed were there? Was this an attack? If so, it was a very poorly executed one.
Then the ranks broke apart, giving the Priestess a clear path to the door that had to resisted the Al-Bhed attempts to force it open. She took a deep breath, the moisture from it misting the air heavily. In a graceful, dance-like motion, she waved her arms in a flourish, bowing deeply in the manner of the Yevonite blessing. The symbol on the door glowed a dull pink and there was a grinding noise of stone against stone. The door slowly, painfully, ground its way open.
No wonder they hadn't been able to open it, thought Rikku, smiling unseen. You would never find an Al-Bhed praying to Yevon to open a door.
The priestess led the way into the chamber beyond, followed by the monks. All went quiet, and Rikku was starkly aware of the harsh breaths she was taking, as were all of her fellows. A wonder that the warrior monks hadn't heard them and shot them all by now.
The plateau was silent and empty for a long time. As the time they had been sitting, hidden and cramped, reached nearly a quarter of an hour, Rikku was starting to think that maybe the Yevonites had taken another way out of the mountain. What could possibly be occupying them so long?
Still, she didn't move. They wouldn't break their cover until they knew for sure that the Yevonites wouldn't emerge and try and kill them all. So she waited. She counted to a hundred in Al-Bhed, and then in the common language, before she tried to do the same in the rather tenuous Ronso that Kimahri had taught her, before giving up somewhere around thirteen. And having only passed a few minutes, she began to mentally list the names of all the fiends she knew, in alphabetical order. She reached 'Dingo' before she gave up and dully watched the cave entrance.
It was nearly an hour after they had entered that the Yevonites exited the cave, and Rikku thought she would never have sensation in her fingers again, not to mention that her calf muscles had cramped up something dreadful.
The priestess wasn't surrounded this time; instead, she lead the head of the entourage, striding briskly forward. But it wasn't this new arrangement that caused Rikku to utter a gasp she was almost certain that the warrior monks would have heard had they not been engrossed in their own task. What caused her to gasp was what they carried.
It was an egg. Its size was almost ridiculous, being ten feet long and half that at its widest point. The white shell looked hard and near hatching, and was sprinkled with the lightest iridescent flecks that caught the bright sunlight atop the mountain and reflected it brightly into Rikku's eyes. She fought not to wince.
The warrior monks, all eight of them that it took to lift this great egg, cradled it in a tarpaulin that they stretched between them. The moved a great deal slower than the speed they had used to arrive at the plateau. They were obviously very wary of dropping it.
'What creature,' Rikku thought, horrified, 'Could possibly lay such an egg?'
And she couldn't help but feel ill as she realised that whatever the creature was, it was clearly under Yevon's control.
The entourage shuffled off the plateau, their steps cautious and guarded as they tried to prevent themselves from slipping. Rikku suspected that they were more worried about their precious cargo than their own lives. Expendable in the eyes of the church, she knew, and was disgusted about it.
They left the door of the cave open behind them.
The Al-Bhed remained hidden for a long time, listening to the steps faded away as the Yevonites descended the mountain path and off to wherever it was their ship was anchored. They waited more than the length of time it took to descend the mountain, and once they were reasonably sure it was safe, they started to emerge. Some curiously headed towards the now open cave, and Rikku and a few others tip-toed over to the edge of the plateau, looking down to see if they could locate the Yevonites. They were nowhere to be seen, but it seemed that everyone was loathe to speak and break the silence.
"It occurs to me," Sanga said, making Rikku jump at the unexpected noise. "We have helped save Spira. We are hailed as friends for that. And yet we still hide, certain that Yevon would strike us down if they could."
Rikku bit her lip, before she turned on her heel and followed the others into the cave.
Inside, the relief from the cold was so abrupt that Rikku felt herself break out into a sweat almost immediately. It wasn't just shelter from the elements, though. Something was actively warming the room, giving it a faintly musty smell, and she supposed that the door hadn't been opened to allow in fresh air for some time. The room was high and wide, and looked more like a cavern than anything, though the walls were too smooth to be anything other than artifically hewn.
Rikku dropped to her knees, ignoring the looks she received, and pressed her cheek against the rock and closed her eyes, feeling the gentle heat that seeped up through the stone. "Natural hypocaust," she pronounced. "Bet you this used to be a volcano. Probably blocked it off before it went completely inactive to keep things warm."
Someone nearby snorted. "Crafty little buggers."
It was obvious where the egg had lain. There was a natural indentation in the sand that covered the floor of the cave several feet deep after the halfway point to the back of the chamber. The footprints and trackmarks in the sand indicated the amount of struggle that had apparently gone into lifting the egg. No wonder they had taken so long before the Yevonites had emerged.
Other than the sand, the cave was empty, and apart from the emblem on the doorway, there was no signage to be found anything. Not even an exit symbol. There was nothing to indicate what was held within, or what had been removed, and had Rikku and the others not watch the Yevonites, they would not have known anything other than a somewhat sandy cave, remarkably well protected, existed here.
Rikku withdrew from the cavern, biting her lip as she surveyed the area, and cast her eyes downwards towards the unseen coastline, where the Yevonite ship undoubtedly lay.
"Let's head back down to camp," Rikku said, glumly sticking her hands in her pockets. "I think it's safe to say that we're not going to be building Home here."
**
Wakka had come straight around with Lulu the moment he was told about Yuna's condition, and if the High Summoner had any doubts as to his feelings, they were dispelled as he, carefully, wrapped his arms around her in a hug.
"Yuna, you should have said, ya know?"
Yuna smiled faintly into his chest as he tightened his grip on her. "I know, I know."
"Silly girl," he said, as he had so teased her when she was younger. But there was a tenseness in his voice now that he couldn't hide, though Yuna appreciated the effort. "You know we love you, right?"
"I know," Yuna said, closing her eyes a moment.
He eventually released her to sit down next to Lulu, but she didn't join them, instead pacing across her floor as they talked.
"What will you do?" Lulu asked. It was something that Yuna had never elaborated on, even when Lulu had brought up the possibilities and options available to her.
"I want to go to bed for a year," Yuna said. "I want to hide away until it all goes away, as childish a thought that may be."
How long would the gestation period be for a child that was part Human, part Al-Bhed and part Guado? Yuna hadn't asked the healer, and suspected she wouldn't receive an answer.
"You can't hide this forever," Lulu said, "It will become apparent, and you are a high profile personage, Yuna. People-" Lulu broke off, and looked away, a disturbed expression crossing her face as the thought occurred to her. "There are those who would think they could use the child of the High Summoner for their own gains."
"Who could do such a thing?" Wakka said, somewhat angrily.
Lulu gave him a steady look. "Yevon has been sending young men and women to their deaths for centuries, has it not?"
Wakka didn't have an answer for that.
"So, what will you do?" Lulu asked Yuna again.
"I don't know," Yuna said, pacing a few steps to the side, dancing away from their eyes. "I don't think I had considered it." She raised a hand to her face, pushing her hair out of her face. "I wish... oh, I wish that I could just see him again and shout and scream and do those things I shouldn't." She laughed slightly, mirthlessly. "Or perhaps just ask: why me?"
"The Farplane."
Yuna turned her head to look at Wakka, who had been staring at the blue and white orb he held between his hands for most of the conversation. "Wakka?"
"You should go to the Farplane." Wakka spun the blitzball that he had once left in Yuna's hut between his index fingers, having picked it up off the floor. "Maybe you should see that Seymour's there. And it might put your mind at rest, ya?"
Yuna swallowed, turning away from both of them so that they couldn't see the fear in her eyes. She had spoken to neither of them regarding the fear she held that what she saw in the Farplane wasn't real, wasn't truly the dead, only the reflections of her memories, woven by sparks of magic that no one truly understood. But then Auron had been real enough, forged through those same pyreflies, and regardless of whether it was real or not, the Farplane only showed those who had died and been Sent.
Perhaps that was what she needed. To see his face and know he no longer walked Spira.
"Yuna?" Wakka again, and now he had also stood, looking at her worriedly. "You don't have to go, if you don't want to."
Yuna turned to him, and she saw the startlement in their eyes as they caught sight of tears lying unshed in her eyes.
"I think," she said, her breath hitching in her chest, "I think that I need to see him, to know that he is gone. What it will accomplish I do not know, but perhaps it would ease my own mind."
Actually, she didn't know what would happen at all.
Lulu was tapping her lips with her elegantly manicured nails, which she had somehow kept pristine in spite of spending several months fighting all the way to Zanarkand and back again. "If people know you are going to Guadosalam, you will be mobbed," she said, "We do not want people to know in advance you are going. Too many would ask questions."
Yuna bit her lip. "I do not see how it could be otherwise. Word spreads quickly, faster than ships sail or birds fly."
Lulu's expression told Yuna that the mage had already thought of a plan before she had begun speaking, and now the woman revealed it. "Then as far as anyone will be concerned, you will not have left." She glanced between Wakka and Yuna folding her hands in her lap and nodded sharply in agreement with herself. "Wakka and I will remain here, to continue the illusion that you remain on Besaid. You need to rest and recover from a brief 'illness' after all which necessitated the healer visiting you at home. The Al-Bhed airship can take you to Guadosalam and back again faster than any other transport. I'm sure Cid will be obliging."
Yuna felt like saying that she didn't want to put Cid out by asking to use his people's only major form of transportation, not to mention the temporary home to many Al-Bhed refugees who hadn't wanted to settle in formerly Yevon-controlled territory, preferring to remain amongst their own kind.
But, she thought, she had done so much for Spira. Was it so dreadful she ask for this one small favour?
Fighting down the thought that she was being selfish, Yuna nodded before she could say anything to refuse Lulu's idea.
She would go to the Farplane. She would face the ghosts that haunted her even after she had banished them from her presence. And then she would decide what would happen next.
- End of Part Six
Part Six: Tricks of the Trade
**
Rikku had come to somewhat dislike mountains. She had all too vivid memories of crossing Mount Gagazet in clothing far too inappropriate for the conditions they had found themselves in. She remembered that the team had too often found themselves huddled in the shelter of a cliff, or even a niche in the rock, around a fire that whoever was awake enough to spellcast would keep alive with magic, and sometimes someone would fall victim to burgeoning hypothermia, and they would be unable to continue until they had been restored to full health.
Rikku remembered not noticing the signs of her own suffering at one point as they were nearing the summit, and collapsing in the snow next to Auron, too tired to even shiver. Which was why she, and the other Al-Bhed who had joined her on this little expedition atop one of the lower mountains in a small island chain in the east (nowhere near as tall as Gagazet but still fairly imposing in itself), were all dressed in thermal gear. Rikku had never been as glad for simple clothing before.
They were on a small plateau, which had been found at the top of a winding path. A metallurgist named Sanga had found the path, obscured by rocks at the foot of the mountain, and now they reached the top, they thought they found the reason why someone had taken such pains to hide the route.
Overlooking the rest of the island, standing proudly before a green landscape faintly obscured from this altitude by mists, was a door, all brass and carved stone, and inset into the door was a symbol easily six feet wide and half that again high. It was the symbol of Yevon, and Rikku could not fathom what it was doing here.
There were no temples or churchs nearby, indeed this entire island was uninhabited, which was why Rikku and her team had been there. The airship had dropped them off two days earlier before it departed to take other teams to islands where they could conduct their own surveys. Time was important, said Cid. The faster they found a suitable location, the faster they could begin to refound Home. And so they had split up.
Rikku wriggled her fingers absent-mindedly, attempting to get the blood in her extremities circulating a little better. She had lost sensation in her fingertips some time ago, and it was becoming difficult to manipulate any of the finer equipment they had brought with them. Not that she needed to. After efforts to locate the opening mechanism had failed, the stronger members of the party had resorted to the 'brute force and ignorance' approach and were simply trying to force the door open.
It was as good an idea as any they had at the moment, so Rikku didn't stop them. She had a feeling the medics would be seeing several sprained shoulders and thrown backs in the next few days, though.
She wondered what could lie behind. Machina weapons that Yevon was known to keep in reserve (though she had a feeling what they'd seen at Bevelle was all they had)? Could it be Gil, perhaps, some hidden cache of currency from the wealthy organisations funds? Or maybe it was rare items, kept hidden.
This was why Rikku had enjoyed treasure hunts as a child.
"Rikku!"
The girl flinched at the urgent, yet hushed call from the edge of the plateau, where Sanga was keeping guard. He gestured her closer silently, and around them the rest of the Al-Bhed seemed to take the hint that they should quieten down as well. The heaving against the door stopped, those who had been working massaging sore muscles as they looked after Rikku and Sanga anxiously.
Rikku hurried forward, gripping Sanga's arm as he indicated down the mountain path.
"Yevon," he said grimly.
Rikku swallowed, licking lips anxiously that had chapped in the cold. She narrowed her eyes and could just make out what the eagle-eyed Sanga had seen. There was a veritable entourage making its way up the thin and winding path that led all the way up the mountainside. The path was treacherous, but the group moved with such ease that it spoke of long familiarity with the area. Rikku thought she caught sight of the glimpse of metal off machina weapons, and the shine of the armour of the warrior monks.
"Damn," she said, resisting the urge to review a few of her father's choicer turns of phrase. With the speed the Yevonites were moving, it would be only a few minutes before they reached the Al-Bhed positions, and as Rikku was the leader of their group, it was up to her to make a decision.
She whirled, eyes hurriedly searching the area. They couldn't take the path back down, so what to do? Her eyes flickered upwards. There was still plenty more mountain above them. Craggy uneven rocks would provide plenty of hiding spaces, if they moved quickly enough.
"Up!" she ordered, in a hissed tone.
No one argued. Those who had equipment picked it up hurriedly and started for the rocks, just behind those who had been empty handed. Shale and pebbles scattered in their wake, and would hopefully settle before the Yevonites arrived. The only sounds could be heard were the scrabbling footsteps of the team and harsh breathing as they attempted to move faster than their bodies wanted to in the cold.
Rikku was last, checking to make sure everyone had secreted themselves away, and by then the Yevonites were turning the last curve of the pathway before they reached the plateau. She scrambled upwards, feeling sharp stones bite into her chilled hands, and one or two breaking the skin and causing them to bleed. Most of the better hiding places had been taken by the time Rikku tried to conceal herself, and she was forced to duck behind a rock that was far lower than she would have chosen with more time. She was simply glad that the cold weather gear was a dirty grey and so allowed her to blend all the better in with the surrounding stone.
She tried to raise her head enough to see what was going on without being spotted, pulling the hood of her jacket up to hide her hair. Having made herself uncomfortable, Rikku tried not to move, knowing any motion would give away their poorly hidden locations. She watched the Yevonites enter the platform, silently counting them off in her head.
There were nine in total, and fully eight of them were warrior monks, all of them looking rather chilled at the cold temperatures. Condensation had formed on their armour, and a few of them were dripping water onto the ground. At the very centre of their perfectly square formation was a woman, tall and statuesque, clad in the thick and undoubtedly warm garb of a Priestess of Yevon and looking distinctly more comfortable than her guards.
Rikku frowned. A Priestess with eight monks guarding her? What were they expecting to face? Had they known the Al-Bhed were there? Was this an attack? If so, it was a very poorly executed one.
Then the ranks broke apart, giving the Priestess a clear path to the door that had to resisted the Al-Bhed attempts to force it open. She took a deep breath, the moisture from it misting the air heavily. In a graceful, dance-like motion, she waved her arms in a flourish, bowing deeply in the manner of the Yevonite blessing. The symbol on the door glowed a dull pink and there was a grinding noise of stone against stone. The door slowly, painfully, ground its way open.
No wonder they hadn't been able to open it, thought Rikku, smiling unseen. You would never find an Al-Bhed praying to Yevon to open a door.
The priestess led the way into the chamber beyond, followed by the monks. All went quiet, and Rikku was starkly aware of the harsh breaths she was taking, as were all of her fellows. A wonder that the warrior monks hadn't heard them and shot them all by now.
The plateau was silent and empty for a long time. As the time they had been sitting, hidden and cramped, reached nearly a quarter of an hour, Rikku was starting to think that maybe the Yevonites had taken another way out of the mountain. What could possibly be occupying them so long?
Still, she didn't move. They wouldn't break their cover until they knew for sure that the Yevonites wouldn't emerge and try and kill them all. So she waited. She counted to a hundred in Al-Bhed, and then in the common language, before she tried to do the same in the rather tenuous Ronso that Kimahri had taught her, before giving up somewhere around thirteen. And having only passed a few minutes, she began to mentally list the names of all the fiends she knew, in alphabetical order. She reached 'Dingo' before she gave up and dully watched the cave entrance.
It was nearly an hour after they had entered that the Yevonites exited the cave, and Rikku thought she would never have sensation in her fingers again, not to mention that her calf muscles had cramped up something dreadful.
The priestess wasn't surrounded this time; instead, she lead the head of the entourage, striding briskly forward. But it wasn't this new arrangement that caused Rikku to utter a gasp she was almost certain that the warrior monks would have heard had they not been engrossed in their own task. What caused her to gasp was what they carried.
It was an egg. Its size was almost ridiculous, being ten feet long and half that at its widest point. The white shell looked hard and near hatching, and was sprinkled with the lightest iridescent flecks that caught the bright sunlight atop the mountain and reflected it brightly into Rikku's eyes. She fought not to wince.
The warrior monks, all eight of them that it took to lift this great egg, cradled it in a tarpaulin that they stretched between them. The moved a great deal slower than the speed they had used to arrive at the plateau. They were obviously very wary of dropping it.
'What creature,' Rikku thought, horrified, 'Could possibly lay such an egg?'
And she couldn't help but feel ill as she realised that whatever the creature was, it was clearly under Yevon's control.
The entourage shuffled off the plateau, their steps cautious and guarded as they tried to prevent themselves from slipping. Rikku suspected that they were more worried about their precious cargo than their own lives. Expendable in the eyes of the church, she knew, and was disgusted about it.
They left the door of the cave open behind them.
The Al-Bhed remained hidden for a long time, listening to the steps faded away as the Yevonites descended the mountain path and off to wherever it was their ship was anchored. They waited more than the length of time it took to descend the mountain, and once they were reasonably sure it was safe, they started to emerge. Some curiously headed towards the now open cave, and Rikku and a few others tip-toed over to the edge of the plateau, looking down to see if they could locate the Yevonites. They were nowhere to be seen, but it seemed that everyone was loathe to speak and break the silence.
"It occurs to me," Sanga said, making Rikku jump at the unexpected noise. "We have helped save Spira. We are hailed as friends for that. And yet we still hide, certain that Yevon would strike us down if they could."
Rikku bit her lip, before she turned on her heel and followed the others into the cave.
Inside, the relief from the cold was so abrupt that Rikku felt herself break out into a sweat almost immediately. It wasn't just shelter from the elements, though. Something was actively warming the room, giving it a faintly musty smell, and she supposed that the door hadn't been opened to allow in fresh air for some time. The room was high and wide, and looked more like a cavern than anything, though the walls were too smooth to be anything other than artifically hewn.
Rikku dropped to her knees, ignoring the looks she received, and pressed her cheek against the rock and closed her eyes, feeling the gentle heat that seeped up through the stone. "Natural hypocaust," she pronounced. "Bet you this used to be a volcano. Probably blocked it off before it went completely inactive to keep things warm."
Someone nearby snorted. "Crafty little buggers."
It was obvious where the egg had lain. There was a natural indentation in the sand that covered the floor of the cave several feet deep after the halfway point to the back of the chamber. The footprints and trackmarks in the sand indicated the amount of struggle that had apparently gone into lifting the egg. No wonder they had taken so long before the Yevonites had emerged.
Other than the sand, the cave was empty, and apart from the emblem on the doorway, there was no signage to be found anything. Not even an exit symbol. There was nothing to indicate what was held within, or what had been removed, and had Rikku and the others not watch the Yevonites, they would not have known anything other than a somewhat sandy cave, remarkably well protected, existed here.
Rikku withdrew from the cavern, biting her lip as she surveyed the area, and cast her eyes downwards towards the unseen coastline, where the Yevonite ship undoubtedly lay.
"Let's head back down to camp," Rikku said, glumly sticking her hands in her pockets. "I think it's safe to say that we're not going to be building Home here."
**
Wakka had come straight around with Lulu the moment he was told about Yuna's condition, and if the High Summoner had any doubts as to his feelings, they were dispelled as he, carefully, wrapped his arms around her in a hug.
"Yuna, you should have said, ya know?"
Yuna smiled faintly into his chest as he tightened his grip on her. "I know, I know."
"Silly girl," he said, as he had so teased her when she was younger. But there was a tenseness in his voice now that he couldn't hide, though Yuna appreciated the effort. "You know we love you, right?"
"I know," Yuna said, closing her eyes a moment.
He eventually released her to sit down next to Lulu, but she didn't join them, instead pacing across her floor as they talked.
"What will you do?" Lulu asked. It was something that Yuna had never elaborated on, even when Lulu had brought up the possibilities and options available to her.
"I want to go to bed for a year," Yuna said. "I want to hide away until it all goes away, as childish a thought that may be."
How long would the gestation period be for a child that was part Human, part Al-Bhed and part Guado? Yuna hadn't asked the healer, and suspected she wouldn't receive an answer.
"You can't hide this forever," Lulu said, "It will become apparent, and you are a high profile personage, Yuna. People-" Lulu broke off, and looked away, a disturbed expression crossing her face as the thought occurred to her. "There are those who would think they could use the child of the High Summoner for their own gains."
"Who could do such a thing?" Wakka said, somewhat angrily.
Lulu gave him a steady look. "Yevon has been sending young men and women to their deaths for centuries, has it not?"
Wakka didn't have an answer for that.
"So, what will you do?" Lulu asked Yuna again.
"I don't know," Yuna said, pacing a few steps to the side, dancing away from their eyes. "I don't think I had considered it." She raised a hand to her face, pushing her hair out of her face. "I wish... oh, I wish that I could just see him again and shout and scream and do those things I shouldn't." She laughed slightly, mirthlessly. "Or perhaps just ask: why me?"
"The Farplane."
Yuna turned her head to look at Wakka, who had been staring at the blue and white orb he held between his hands for most of the conversation. "Wakka?"
"You should go to the Farplane." Wakka spun the blitzball that he had once left in Yuna's hut between his index fingers, having picked it up off the floor. "Maybe you should see that Seymour's there. And it might put your mind at rest, ya?"
Yuna swallowed, turning away from both of them so that they couldn't see the fear in her eyes. She had spoken to neither of them regarding the fear she held that what she saw in the Farplane wasn't real, wasn't truly the dead, only the reflections of her memories, woven by sparks of magic that no one truly understood. But then Auron had been real enough, forged through those same pyreflies, and regardless of whether it was real or not, the Farplane only showed those who had died and been Sent.
Perhaps that was what she needed. To see his face and know he no longer walked Spira.
"Yuna?" Wakka again, and now he had also stood, looking at her worriedly. "You don't have to go, if you don't want to."
Yuna turned to him, and she saw the startlement in their eyes as they caught sight of tears lying unshed in her eyes.
"I think," she said, her breath hitching in her chest, "I think that I need to see him, to know that he is gone. What it will accomplish I do not know, but perhaps it would ease my own mind."
Actually, she didn't know what would happen at all.
Lulu was tapping her lips with her elegantly manicured nails, which she had somehow kept pristine in spite of spending several months fighting all the way to Zanarkand and back again. "If people know you are going to Guadosalam, you will be mobbed," she said, "We do not want people to know in advance you are going. Too many would ask questions."
Yuna bit her lip. "I do not see how it could be otherwise. Word spreads quickly, faster than ships sail or birds fly."
Lulu's expression told Yuna that the mage had already thought of a plan before she had begun speaking, and now the woman revealed it. "Then as far as anyone will be concerned, you will not have left." She glanced between Wakka and Yuna folding her hands in her lap and nodded sharply in agreement with herself. "Wakka and I will remain here, to continue the illusion that you remain on Besaid. You need to rest and recover from a brief 'illness' after all which necessitated the healer visiting you at home. The Al-Bhed airship can take you to Guadosalam and back again faster than any other transport. I'm sure Cid will be obliging."
Yuna felt like saying that she didn't want to put Cid out by asking to use his people's only major form of transportation, not to mention the temporary home to many Al-Bhed refugees who hadn't wanted to settle in formerly Yevon-controlled territory, preferring to remain amongst their own kind.
But, she thought, she had done so much for Spira. Was it so dreadful she ask for this one small favour?
Fighting down the thought that she was being selfish, Yuna nodded before she could say anything to refuse Lulu's idea.
She would go to the Farplane. She would face the ghosts that haunted her even after she had banished them from her presence. And then she would decide what would happen next.
- End of Part Six