A silver star shrieked as it fell through the atmosphere and dense storm clouds of a dead planet. It left behind a tail of streaking orange flame. Lightning darted around, taunting it, booming their snide laughter. Inside the burning jerking mass, two individuals were dealing with their own problems.
Leon was struggling to maintain control of his ship. The equipment wasn't responding properly and now besides free falling, the ship was going almost straight down.
His face had grown shiny from perspiration but he ignored it. The muscles in his arms stood out from tension and his jaw was clenched in concentration.
Visibility was zero; all he could see was green gray clouds, flashes of white light and a sea of fire that surrounded the small craft. A few moments more and the wings would snap off. After that, it wouldn't be long before the hull melted.
Behind him, hands clenched on the arm rests, eyes closed as the ship tossed and bounced, Paine was reliving and remembering.
"How would you like to go on a real adventure? Not just wandering from town to town getting into bar fights, but a true fight with real danger."
"So you've really never left your planet? What was it called, Spiral?"
"Spira. And no, I'd never left before. I didn't even know there was any reason to leave."
"Tell me about the Keyblade Master."
"Did they betray you?"
"Yes, they betrayed me."
"Take care of the big guy for me, will ya?"
"I don't think it's as black and white as all that…"
"Sure it is. Good is good and evil is evil. There's no two ways about it."
"What bothers you more? That I could be in her room? Or that I'm not in yours?"
"It's called the Stigmon. It gives its bearer incredible power."
"It's a lie! The whole mission! You have to get out of there!"
The muscles in her jaw twitched. She HATED being lied to. And yet, it seemed like this whole mission had just been one big con. And the one thing she hated more than being lied to was being used.
Leon sucked in a breath and Paine opened her eyes.
They had cleared the cloud layer.
What greeted them though, was an almost even more bizarre sight. The planet itself was upside down. At least, that's the way it appeared. The Temple was on the underside of the land mass, and it seemed like an ocean separated the air from the land. Panic gripped Paine as she wondered how they were going to get through.
The light flashed again, and suddenly, the world had flipped over, becoming 'right side up'. So it had taken another turn for the strange. By now, Paine didn't think she could take much more oddity, but then, with all she'd seen, 'odd' didn't mean much.
The ring of fire around the ship dissipated now that they were through the atmosphere, though the hull was steaming, and the wings had become deformed.
"I'm going to try and hit the water!" Leon informed her, "But no promises that won't be just as bad."
Paine nodded her understanding even though he couldn't see her. She wished that she was as sure as she looked that she was doing the right thing. But then again…someone had to do it.
They kept falling, so fast, spiraling out of control. Leon grunted against the controls, trying to get the wings up, to even out the craft so that it didn't do a total nosedive. The ocean rushed up to greet them, rolling and crashing. The dead planet had only the one island with the temple. Everything else was just dark water.
Just as they were only a dozen feet from the surface, he managed to raise the wings just enough that they slowed down, and crashed at a fraction of their original force.
It was still enough to make Paine's strap snap and as her head struck the navigation console, her last thought was the hope they didn't sink to the bottom of a turbulent sea on a nameless planet.