(Author's note: The gods of fanfiction are against me. For the longest time, I couldn't get my computer to work. But, never fear! I have triumphed at last, and managed to bring you a big chapter. More will follow soon, I swear)
On a world far far away, a dark figure made its way down a dark alley away from the hustle and bustle of the Town. It crept silently along until it reached an iron grate that protected a dark waterway. Ever so quietly it slipped through the bars, splashing into the murky water on the other side, where it made a noise which contrasted greatly with its dark and dank surroundings. The sound was:
"EEEEEWWWWW!"
The Great Ninja Yuffie twisted her face up in an expression of abject displeasure. She hadn't been down here in a long time, and now she was reminded why. Still the importance of her mission was too great. She'd heard there was another entrance to the underground waterway, but she'd never found out what it was, or where it was, and so found herself feeling along gushy slimy walls, praying that it was just 'water' she felt at its surface. Then came an even more daunting task. Between her and her destination was a lake of water, only navigable by stones that floated on its surface and constantly moved. Long yet fascinating story short: The sight of a naturally off-balanced young woman leaping from rock to rock, frantically repositioning herself so she didn't fall in was on that every person should see before they die. Somehow though, she managed to make it to the other side—the large island with the dilapidated hut—without incident, though not without a few close calls.
She looked at the small house, run down and dark, hardly something she'd want to call 'home'. The door didn't work anymore, she didn't think it ever had, so she moved to the side where a curtain covered a hole in the wall.
Pushing it aside, she entered.
"Oh, hello, Yuffie, how nice to see you again," Merlin greeted, gently stroking his flowing snow white beard.
"Hi, Merlin!" she returned cheerfully. "I came to ask a favor."
"Oh, of course. But first, how about some tea?"
Yuffie shook her head, black hair tossing back and forth.
"Sorry, Mer, I don't have a lot of time. Aeryth needs my help with the baby, he's quite a handful." She plopped herself down on a straight back chair which immediately tried to buck her off, but she kicked its legs and it settled down.
"Just like his father," the old wizard
observed, sitting down across from her.
"Oh! I almost forgot. Give this to him, with my
regards, won't you?"
He moved his hands around in an intricate pattern before closing them together. When they opened, a small ball of white-blue light appeared. It floated upwards, then exploded in a shower of shards. In its place flew a tiny crystal blue bird, which flew around the room several times, chirping, before coming to rest in front of the wide eyed Yuffie.
"Yes, sir!" she told him, her eyes still focused on the magical contraption.
"So, what is it you wanted to ask me?" Merlin asked, steepling his long bony fingers.
Yuffie's mouth twitched and she averted her eyes.
"It's…well, it has to do with Leon. We can't seem to call him on the space ship, and I'm worried. I was hoping you could look on your little ball thingamajig, and find out how he's doing." She looked hopefully at Merlin. His eyes were closed and he was nodding. At first she thought he was considering her question until he emitted a quiet snore.
"Merlin!" she exclaimed loudly. He started and opened his eyes, looking around surprised.
"What? What did I miss?"
Yuffie sighed.
"I just asked if we could look in your crystal ball to see Leon," she repeated.
"Oh, yes, yes, of course."
Yuffie shook her head and rolled her eyes. Merlin stood up and walked over to a bookshelf which kindly bent over so he could reach something on the top shelf. He pulled off a medium sized object, covered in a dark felt fabric.
Placing this on the table, he spoke to Yuffie.
"Now, I'll need a moments quiet while I locate him."
Yuffie nodded her understanding. The room darkened as he pulled the fabric from the glass ball, and peered into its surface. Yuffie held her breath. The furniture crept in closer, trying to get a peek. Merlin's brow furrowed in concentration, and he muttered a few words. Yuffie didn't see any change, but shadows and light played across the wizard's face. Suddenly, all the furniture in the room reared back with a screech, just as Merlin stood up and exclaimed:
"Oh, dear."
Yuffie stood up, too.
"What? What is it!"
"Uh, uh, how about some tea, dear?" he inquired, evasively.
Yuffie growled in frustration.
"I don't want tea, I want to know what's going on!"
But Merlin had already disappeared. Yuffie marched around the table so she could see what had scared everyone so much. She bent over the ball and stared.
Her eyes widened…
She screamed…
In exactly three minutes and twenty seven seconds she had run from Merlin's house (leaping over the floating stones as if they were nothing), all the way to the Small House in First District, and was flinging open the door.
The baby began to cry, but Yuffie didn't have time to bother with it.
"Where's Cid?" she demanded. Aeryth pointed outside, by the gate to Second District. Yuffie bolted out the door and up the short steps.
"Cid!" she called, desperately. The blonde haired engineer took the ever-present toothpick out of his mouth.
"Yeah?"
"We need to get a hold of Leon NOW!"
"And so, how are my two stalwart fighters?" Mirt asked, cheerfully. He looked between them. They glanced at each other then retreated to opposite ends of the ship. Mirt blinked a few times, making him resemble some grotesque giant fish.
"Well, in any case, I'm here to warn you about some opposition you may encounter. The treasure you're seeking is guarded by evil vile creatures called Guardians."
Leon saw, out of the corner of his eye, Paine jerk. His memory flashed to the creature on the Crash-and-Burn planet.
"They wouldn't happen to be gray creatures with really big mouths would they?" Leon queried. Mirt's smile faltered.
"Ah, I see you've met them."
Leon held up a finger. "One."
Mirt's smile grew wider, if exponentially faker.
"Then, good, now you know what you're up against."
Leon's cobalt eyes flattened. He crossed his arms and leaned against a wall.
"So now that we've come this far, you wanna tell us what we're after?"
Mirt shifted, uncomfortably.
"Well, actually, I can only discuss that with the Warrior. You're just suppose to pilor her there."
Pain sucked in a breath. Leon, she knew, would not like that. She was proven right when Leon slowly walked to the holo-vid monitor and leaned in so his face was only centimeters from the screen.
"You listen to me. This is my ship, and I'm not taking her into one situation after another, just to shuffle your ward to a shopping center. You wanna keep secrets from me, I'll pump her out the airduct and you can come pick her up."
Paine was learning to recognize the voice as 'Dangerous Leon'. It became a low guttural growl like the lion he wore around his neck. She had no doubt he would make good his thread. She decided it was up to her to salvage the situation so she forced herself forward and put a hand on Leon's shoulder. He turned and fixed her with a fiery glare, but she just pulled him back so she could talk to Mirt.
"So far, Leon's help has been necessary and invaluable. There's no question in my mind that I'm going to need to depend on his fighting capabilities to help me acquire the treasure. Anything you say to me can be said in his presence."
Leon stared at her, trying to read her face, but she was almost as good at blankness as he was. Mirt shrugged, apparently unconcerned.
"It's called the Stigmon. It's a small gold object that gives its bearer incredible power. Its origins and initial purpose has been lost to antiquity. It is held in an archaic temple on a dead world. The Guardians stole it from its original resting place and now they horde it away and will protect and keep it at any cost. You must retrieve it from them."
Leon seemed less than enthusiastic.
"And exactly how far are we from this dead world?" he asked, obviously wondering how much longer he would have to be in Paine's presence. To be honest, she was ready for this mission to be over, as well, it had already cost her more time and energy that she had wanted to invest. The entire speech she had just made had been done through gritted teeth, and swallowing her hard earned prize was not something she wanted experience again.
"Not far, only a—ew---sec---ay," Mirt's face began to distort and break up, his words becoming garbled. Paine looked at Leon.
"What's going on?" she asked. He shook his head, uncertain. Finally, the screen went completely dark, but only for a moment. Then Yuffie's worried face appeared.
"Leon! Paine! Are you alright?" she inquired, gripping her head with her hands. Leon's brow creased.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't we be?"
"It's a lie! The whole mission! You've got to get out of there! They don't want to preserve the artifact, they want to use it and when they do, they'll—ll—ryone! Y—st—ou—there!" Now Yuffie was breaking up, static and noise interfering with her message.
The screen not only went black…it exploded, raining hot sparks down on the two very confused warriors. Paine turned and put her arms up, to shield herself from the blast. When the electrical storm had quieted, they looked at the damage navigrid screen. It had been completely decimated. She looked at Leon.
"Did you get all that?" she asked, still trying to fix it all in her own head. He didn't answer, just stared into nothingness.
"What happened? How did the ninja thief get through?" The Master hissed. Mirt trembled in the corner of the room.
"I…I-I don't know! I cut off communications from everyone but us! It shouldn't have been possible!" he cried, his voice warbling uncontrollably.
"And now they know, the puppets have become aware of their strings. You must do everything in your power to eliminate them. Send in the other teams. And this time…no mistakes."
Mirt hid his face in the wall, and waited for the shaking to stop.
"Think they got the message?" Yuffie wondered, her petite face becoming a gigantic frown. Cid shrugged uncertainly.
"Hard to say for sure. I knew there was a good reason I put that emergency line in there. Never thought I'd actually have to use it."
He saw Yuffie's expression of worry and guilt.
"Hey, kid, don't worry about it. Leon can handle himself. He'll be fine. I'm sure he'll do the right thing."
He turned back towards his shop before hesitating.
"At least, I'm almost sure."
Paine sat on the mat in the cargo hold. Leon leaned against the opposite wall, his face covered by a hand to his forehead.
"So what do we do now?" she finally asked, almost as concerned by the silence as she had been by Yuffie's message.
"We have no choice, now do we? We have to abort the mission. Go home."
Paine stood up.
"What do you mean we have no choice? You heard her, if they get hold of the Stigmon and use it, they could destroy everything!"
Leon shrugged as if to say 'Hey, that's someone else's problem'. Paine could only stare at him. This was the same man who had rescued a little girl, just cause she'd told him some half-cooked sob story? And now, when the fate of whole worlds rested in his hands, he was just going to shrug off the responsibility. She looked away, surprised by her own intense disappointment.
"Look," she finally managed to bring herself to say, "Just drop me off. Just put me down on the planet and you can go. Back to Severn, back to your world, wherever you want."
He snorted.
"Listen, I don't know if you noticed, but we don't know the location of the world. And-" he pointed towards the navigator's console, "-we have no way of finding it."
Paine hesitated.
"I know where it is," she stated. He looked at her through slit eyes.
"The closest world, the ONLY world, for long distances, is a dead one. It's been dead for so long that no one even remembers its name. But it is home to an ancient temple of a long forgotten religion."
"And do you remember the coordinates? I assume you acquired this knowledge from all your reading."
For a moment, Paine looked unsure, but then she nodded.
"Yes, I remember where it is."
He walked towards her, and she tensed. His dark eyes bored into her skull, as if he was trying to make sure he understood her true intentions.
"And do you really think you will be able to protect this treasure? Fighting off those…those things and whatever Mirt and his boss sends after you? Is it really worth it?"
She steeled her jaw and looked him squarely in the face.
"I will not let innocent people die because I stood by and did nothing. Not again."
He stared at her for a long time, his mind working out all the possibilities, all the strategies, costs and profits.
"Fine," he growled, and strode past her to the Pilot's chair. She breathed a silent sigh of relief, tucked her bag under a box, and followed him to the cockpit.
He shouldn't have been surprised. But he was. For some reason, he had her pegged as the kind of person who would see reason, know when they were beat, and throw in the towel. And yet, she wanted to keep fighting. Not for profit or gain, but be cause it was THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Vaguely, he remembered when he had been like that, as well. It seemed like life times ago. Before SHE had died. And now, history was repeating itself, all over again. A woman, strong and beautiful, who was willing to die for a cause she believed in…had asked for his help. He had gladly given it before, and had been proven inadequate. Did he dare try again? What if he failed? No way could he handle the shame and guilt. So he would do exactly as she requested. He would drop her off, and then he would go home, no harm, no foul.
But…what had she meant when she said 'Not again'?