Wishes and Lost Hope
Chapter Sixteen
Endings
It had been two weeks.
The day was warm, interspersed with fluffy clouds, and everything was vibrant. It was the perfect weather for rebuilding. Escad did his best to support the grossly uncooperative brace while Elazul secured it. Strength, weight, and determination were dwindling, and he was starting to let it slip, not to mention a certain irritation at the equally annoyed, "Keep it steady!" from up top, when the man caught sight of something blonde.
Stepping back and sidestepping the falling timber, he was joined in an instant, and forgiven or, more likely, forgotten, as Elazul saw it too.
"What are you doing up...?" the Jumi tried to demand upon sliding down from his perch. In equal time, Escad was commenting on something else altogether.
"You finally lost those stupid sticks."
"I like my sticks!" Athena pouted, running her fingers through her flattened hair at the perceived insult. "Hey Lazuli, give us a moment, would you? I have to explain something."
Elazul shrugged it off and stepped off to inspect the timber. Not that he wanted to, but what could he do? Athena was Athena, and his best friend. If he could do nothing else to support her, and he prided himself in his ability to do a lot to that effect, he could step back a moment.
"You're leaving," even in guessing, Escad knew it was true. He wondered how many times she had run with a daypack lighter than what she had now, presumed at least once, and settled with how he did not care to know.
"Yeah." Athena said simply, "Poé took off this morning." She looked over his shoulder, to where Elazul was pacing about impatiently, trying to put all his attention on the reconstruction of the bar, but unable to go for a length without peeking back. "He won't take it well."
"It's okay. You run, I'll distract him," Escad promised, "And after, we can console one another... or kill each other, or something that works."
"Thanks," she turned to walk away, but stopped at a small uncertain noise. It took a few moments, then the question came.
"Why did you come for me?"
She blinked. A couple of failed attempts to speak later, and she came up with:
"People with pure hearts go to a whole new world... I couldn't leave you behind, now could I?"
Escad tried a trifle too hard in making sense of that. The spritish giggle didn't help the attempt, and in the end he merely shook his head.
"Whatever," he mumbled, then as quiet, but clearer, "Thank you."
She was gone an instant later, and he looked to see her collecting fuzzy hugs from the wolfish siblings. He stared a minute longer, as she laughed and smiled and bubbled; young, foolish Athena, who saved the world more times than he likely knew.
"What was that about?" Elazul asked, climbing back up to get back to work.
"I'll tell you later," Escad promised. He hefted the support with a backward glance, and dropped it again in shock.
"Watch it!" Elazul snapped. His companion could not reply in kind; he was too furious in his disbelief.
"That cactus is walking!"
The End
Working Title: Wishes and Lost Hope
Inspiration: The sheer desire to write a LoM fic. Afterwhich, the weird Choose bit of the Fairy arc and the desire to write some solid backstory to the game.
Noteworthy: You can trace my writing style from this story. It was a long time progressing, but it was very fun.
Disambiguation: The title refers to Athena ("Wishes") and Poseidon ("Lost Hope"). Poe is supposed to have known BlackPearl at an earlier date, and Athena was supposed to have created the Jumi while still under the influence of Evil. There's no real romance to speak of. Although I tried working in the unrequited love for those who wanted to see such a thing, I thought that the friendship angle was important for this story in particular.
Derivative work of material © Squaresoft, Square-Enix. Reformatted to abide by 'site standards. None of the original text has been modified, 'cept in case of typo.