The sky was a smoldering gray of convulsing rage.
No, that wasn't right. It had been clear that day, bright and happy. There weren't any churning clouds and angry winds.
Why was this different?
She stood there frozen, just like before.
A flash of blonde hair, a glimpse of a care free smile.
"Come on, grouchy pants. Let's just kill the fiends, get the goods and go home!"
Eyes of sea and sky, a kind warm smile.
Wait. Something's wrong.
But they didn't hear her, she couldn't call for them. Wait.
They disappeared into the darkness. Thunder blundered across the air. It was the only sound in a world of stillness.
Then the screaming started.
She ran forward, dropping her sword in haste. A wall of solid rock rose up in front of her, blocking, halting, keeping her from reaching them. She pounded against it, scratching at it, willing to do anything to destroy and remove it. Rocks and pebbles tumbled off but the cliff remained. Tears formed, blinding her. She punched and kicked, yelling, frustrated, scared and angry. The rocks and the cliff began to bleed…
Now she couldn't move, her arms were bound to her side. She felt choked, exhausted and empty, and stumbled backwards. Something stopped her fall.
"Paine, stop."
Her eyes, as red from tears as anything else, opened slowly, fearfully. Twin ice storms drew her out, brought her to full consciousness. Leon studied her face, soaked with salty tears and sweat. Slowly, she reached up to feel stained cheeks. He waited for her to shut off, to close down inside and turn away. But this didn't happen. Instead, what he saw was shame.
'Are you alright?' was quite obviously a question bordering on idiocy so he stayed silent, strong hands still grasping her shoulders.
Paine's eyes left his face, which gave her full view of his torso, quite a sight.
"Oh," she said simply, seeing the red stains of blood running down the white fabric. She looked at her hands, skin and blood leaving no doubt as to what happened.
She was completely drained, even of guilt.
"Sorry," she muttered, hollowly.
Many worlds away, Mirt was considering his options. Running was not one of them. He knew—probably better than anyone else---that there was no distance you could run where the Master couldn't reach you, nowhere to hide.
The only thing he could do was go along with it, and there was always the world he was promised.
A world all his own. Yeah. Right, remember that.
Paine was sitting in the corner of the cargo hold, arms wrapped around her knees, staring into space through slit eyes, the black bag by her side. Leon leaned against the opposite corner in a fresh shirt but not a new mood. Paine's face was calm, clean now, dark and passive.
"It happened around two years ago. We were doing what we do best: finding spheres, getting into trouble. It had been a slow year, the fiends were all but extinct, the only ones left were kept in cages for entertainment or experimentation. At least, that's what we thought.
We'd gotten a hot tip about some sphere waves emanating from a cave in the Calm Land, so we went to check it out."
Paine laughed quietly in bitterness.
"Yuna said it would be our last run for a while. That we'd take a break, go somewhere and kick back. Just one more, then we'd be free."
Distantly, she knew that Leon had next to no idea what she was talking about, but she didn't feel the need nor the inclination to explain it to him.
"I had a bad feeling about the cave almost as soon as we landed. I don't know what it was, just a feeling of emanating evil. Rikku…she said I was just being grouchy. I couldn't…seem to get across to them what was wrong…so they went in without me."
She stopped, eyes still unseeing, or perhaps just not seeing what was there at the present time. Leon's face remained passive, except for his eyes that darkened with personal painful memories and regret.
"The shadows completely engulfed them, and they were gone for a while. I stayed behind, waiting for them to reemerge and tell me I was being foolish. But the didn't come back and the next thing knew there were screams echoing off the walls. I dropped my sword and ran in, not thinking, just trying to get them out."
She shuddered.
"I've never been in darkness so deep, so thick. Didn't take long for me to get completely lost. I could have walked in circles and I'd never know. Eventually, all I wanted was to get out." She swallowed hard, gearing herself up for the hardest part.
"I fell over something soft, and gashed my hand on a sharp rock. Blindly, I felt around…until I found the braid. I followed it up until I found her face, all there. I kept going and eventually found the other body. I think I stopped thinking at that point because I don't remember much.
The next thing I DO remember is standing over the two of them. The sun shone brightly on their bloody broken bodies. Someone showed a little mercy though: both of them had their eyes closed. I stayed there with them for—for hours before Brother and Buddy came to check up on us."
She looked up at him, eyes sharp as razors.
"I should have been there. I shouldn't have let them go, but I thought we were safe. I let my guard down and they died. How dare they, what right did they have to be stupid and get themselves killed!"
It was hard to tell who she was more angry at, them or herself. Paine turned her head to the right, facing the wall, eyes closed tightly to block out he pain.
He hadn't demanded that she explain herself, hadn't made a big deal over the fact she had ripped a good chunk out of his chest. All he had done was stand there, with an expression that was almost as recognizable as it was unreadable.
Maybe she figured he just wouldn't care if she told him, and that had taken the pressure off. He motioned towards the black bag.
"And what's in that?"
She looked towards it, having forgotten how perceptive he was. Jaw firmly set, she opened the bag. For a moment, she hesitated, a look of fear marring her features. Then she flipped it over, spilling its contents on the grated floor.
There were small orvs of light, most of them golden orange or blue. Leon marveled at how many of them there were: there had to be over twenty. They covered four other objects, which Paine gingerly withdrew from the pile.
One was a pair of daggers, crimson red with yellow, cog-like circles in the handles. The blades were wickedly curved; obviously made for speed and agility more than strength. Paine held them for a moment, then put them down at her side.
The next pair of weapons she brought out were quite different. Two pistols, predominantly silver, made for smaller hands. It appeared that once upon a time they had been shiny and clean but time and tragedy had dulled their glow. Paine held these in her lap, staring. Leon observed her, wrestling with his own thoughts and feelings.
"Paine, it wasn't your-"
"Don't you DARE say it wasn't my fault," she growled, darkly. His mouth closed. Her eyes were a frightening shade of bloody red, the same eyes he had seen on feral animals.
"Don't…you…DARE," she repeated, through gritted teeth.
Time slowed down, the air was thick with absolute nothingness. The spell was broken by the red light and klaxon call of the sirens.
"We're coming up to the dead planet. I need to control the ship," Leon told her. He looked into the cockpit for a moment then looked back. He was mildly shocked at the change. Paine didn't really stand up as much as she unfolded, eyes closed until she was upright. Then eyes opened, dark, determined and unreadable again. Her shoulders were squared, her head high and daring. She was closed off again and had even had time to erect some new walls in the brief moment he had glanced away. She was all business again with a job that needed to be done and the willpower to do it. He wasn't sure which version concerned him more.
It was impossible to see the surface of the dead planet, it was covered in a perpetual storm, the clouds black and green.
Thunder roared a warning that no sane person should attempt to traverse the danger fraught sky. But Leon knew he could handle it, as long as the ship wasn't directly hit by a lightning bolt.
"Strap in," he ordered, and Paine immediately obeyed.
They screamed downward through the atmosphere like a falcon in the dive.