The four girls and Baralai came back to the bridge. Rikku looked around.
"So what's goin' down?" She asked. Paine looked out to the monstrous mountain looming above them. The ship was stopped at its foot.
"We may have found the Fates." She answered. Rikku took a step forward.
"Ohhh really? How are we gonna get in there?" She paused. "Hey, I thought that they'd be in some kind of castle or something. I mean, what kind of self-respecting goddesses live in a dingy old cave in some random mountains?" She asked. Paine rolled her eyes.
"That's really not the issue. The point is, we think they're here, and we need to find them so we need to get going." She stated. Rikku made a face.
"I still say there's something fishy going on here." She announced. Kairi sighed.
"Even if this is most likely where the Fates are, I'd say that I'd have to agree with Rikku. There's something weird. If they can have those massive temples erected for them in the city, why would they subject themselves to a crappy cave in the mountains?" There was a long silence. Kael nodded.
"I've always pictured the Fates as living in some lavish castle, with millions of slaves and things. Not here." He said.
"Something's weird, so I guess we just have to be careful. Otherwise, we still need to check this place out." Riku stated finally. That was it, and everyone was in agreement, so the ten of them left the ship and looked up at the ominous looking mountains. All around, as far as the eye could see was wet, muddy grass covering round hills, expect for where a single set of three mountains towered above them. The grass got thinner and thinner, until the ground became completely bedrock. All sides of the mountains were sheer cliff for a good thirty feet above them, broken only by a crevasse. Emma peered inside.
"Looks like that's our way in." She said. As she spoke, a gust of wind howled through it and threw her backwards into Kairi, Sora and Riku, all of whom had to scramble to catch her without falling over themselves. Riku watched the opening in the rock carefully.
"Like I said, we'll have to be careful." Cautiously, they started through the crack in the rock. It was massive, with only a thin strip of sky above them as their light source. The silence was complete, broken only by the scuffing of shoes and a pebble or two skittering across the ground or down the sides. Just when it began to look like the strip of sky would disappear completely, they came to an almost perfectly round opening in the wall, a cave with a pair of torches glowing with white fire on either side of the doorway. There was a rough engraving over it, looking like it had been chipped hastily out of the rock, and then the wind had smoothed the rough cuts. It looked like a title, but it was written in a dead language none of them could read. Paine tapped the engraving with the tip of her sword.
"Looks like this is the place." She stated, taking a torch. Sora grabbed the other torch, and they started the long trek into the heart of the mountain. They seemed to walk forever, following a twisting pathway that was the only course. There were the occasional breaks in the pathway, but these only led to small caves covered in stalactites and stalagmites, no other tunnels. It got hotter and damper the deeper into the mountain they went. Finally, the tunnel grew bigger and there were more torches, lining the walls for as far as they could see. Paine and Sora put down their torches. Everyone was on edge and quiet. The silence was making everyone even more nervous, so Rikku decided to break it.
"It's really hot in here, and muggy too." She noted. No one said anything. It was strange though. The only explanation for the heat was the torches, but Sora and Paine had discovered that the fire was cool, and even then, the torches would have drawn all the water out of the air and the air would be dry, not heavy with moisture. Gippal sighed.
"Who knows, maybe the Fates like it this way." He said, sounding weary. Baralai hushed them.
"Look." He whispered. Ahead of them, contrasting against the light grey of the stone and the flickering light of the torches was a door, totally and completely black. They might had guessed that it was only an opening in the tunnel, since there was just about no way to see even the surface of the door, except for the gold door knob right in the middle of it, reflecting the light of the torches to make a strange golden glow on the walls around it. They came to a stop in front of it, and no one did anything. Kairi, Sora, Emma, Riku, Rikku, Gippal, Paine and Baralai wanted the door to stay closed, for fear of what they might find on the other side. They knew what had happened last time they fought a goddess, and that was only one. This time, it'd be three. Kael and Namine, on the other hand, didn't have many reservations but did have a lot of anger towards the three deities they knew were waiting for them. Together, they grabbed the door knob and pulled. It swung open, but only with a strained effort from the pair. Inside was a small room lit only with four torches, two on either side of the door they stood at and two on either side of the opening on the other side of the room. These torches shone with the gold light of normal fire. In the center of the room was a small pedestal. All around it were what was left of ancient offerings. It was clear that no one had been here in a long while. The air in this room was cool, and the gust that issued into the muggy tunnel was welcome. On the contrary to what they thought, however, the Fates were not there. Beyond the other opening, however, was light and the sound of voices. The group tip-toed across the room. As they approached the other opening, they noticed some kind of force-field covering it. It would have been invisible, except for the occasional ripple in the air that went from the center outward. Riku tapped it. A stronger ripple went out where he touched it, but it didn't hold him back. He looked at the others.
"It's probably there to keep whoever's in there in, not everyone else out." He stated. Emma crossed her arms.
"So then those aren't the Fates?" She asked, sounding totally confused as she pointed to the figures visible inside. There were three old, haggard looking ladies in the center of the room, huddled together and whispering.
"Aren't those the same women we saw in that crystal though?" Namine asked apprehensively. Sora nodded.
"As far as I can see they are, but why would the Fates lock themselves in a cave?" He wondered aloud. His voice attracted the attention of the old woman sitting closest, and she turned a little, her eyes searching through the darker room. She spotted Gippal and let out a gasp. The other two looked up.
"It's them!" She whispered hurriedly. "They've finally arrived!" As she spoke, she stood up and hobbled over to the entrance. "Oh thank goodness! We've been waiting for you!" She stated. Riku, who had been standing closest to the field, took a step back. Rikku narrowed her eyes at the woman.
"That's right, you've been waiting for us to come so you could get rid of us." She answered.
"You've been waiting to finally be rid of the only threat to your power." Paine agreed, keeping a sharp eye on the women. The lady was taken aback.
"I'm sorry? Get rid of you? Oh dear me, no. We need you to help us." She answered. Riku crossed his arms.
"Liar. We know the prophesy." He stated. The woman glared back at him, her eyes just as intense as his.
"Then you would know that you must destroy one Fate, not three." She answered sharply. There was a long silence. It was true, but maybe she was just playing with words? How were they to know that they weren't the ones who wrote that prophesy, purposely miss-worded, so that they could earn the trust of the group? The other two Fates had hobbled over to the door. The oldest looking one, whose scraggly grey hair was thinner than the other two had, beckoned to them.
"Come in, the door only keeps us in. You can move freely through it." She said, her voice sounding as frail as she looked. Kairi took a step forward, looking like she had trust in the woman. The rest of them gaped openly at her.
"What? You know I can just tell these things, like increased intuition or something. I trust her." She stated, taking another step forward.
"You can't trust your intuition only with something like this." Paine warned. Kairi turned around to face her.
"You can't, but I can. Do you really think I would have suggested anything about what you were doing with Baralai in Luca if I hadn't been sure that it was true? I know as well as anyone else that if I'd been wrong you would have chopped my head off in no time flat." She answered smoothly. Paine turned red and crossed her arms, muttering.
"Fine, but I won't be happy if you get yourself caught in there with all three of them to deal with and I have to come save you." Kairi smiled.
"Don't you worry about a thing Painey." She answered brightly. With that, she turned back to the doorway and stepped through. She paused, once on the other side, and looked behind her. Flashing her friends a smile, she stepped backwards, back out of the room again. Rikku grinned.
"Yay! See I knew Kairi was right aaaaaall alooooong." She announced, flouncing through the doorway with a giggle. Gippal rolled his eyes.
"I'm sure you did my meddma bnehlacc, I really believe you." He told her sarcastically, following her. She glared at him and stuck her tongue out. Kael and Namine looked at each other, and then at Paine and Baralai.
"What's a medma benelack?" Namine asked, trying to say the words. Paine took a second to keep from laughing at her mispronunciations.
"It means little princess." She answered. Namine grinned, having a little bit of an understanding as to what it meant. Her mind went back to the conversation on the airship and teasing Rikku. Her smile widened. Then, she remembered what the girls had brought her to the cabin to talk about in the first place and fought a blush, walking into the Fate's room. The lady with the scraggly hair smiled kindly at her. The woman took her by the arm and led her to the center of the room where the others were being invited to sit. As they walked, she woman leaned towards her to whisper.
"Don't you worry about that boy. Everything will turn out just fine." The woman let out a short laugh and motioned for everyone else to come over and sit. Namine, taking a seat next to Kairi, blinked up at the woman, surprised, and then blushed harder. It was really awkward being around these women who knew everything about her when she didn't even know if they were friends or enemies anymore. Kairi nudged her.
"What did she say to you?" She asked quietly. Namine became very suddenly interested in her lap, as she looked down.
"Ummm…I'll tell you later." She answered quickly. Kairi smiled a little.
"Come on…" She begged. Kael sat down on the other side of Namine.
"What did the Fate want?" He asked. Namine blushed even harder.
"N-nothing." She answered her voice wavering. Kael looked worried.
"Is something wrong?" He asked quietly. Namine shook her head furiously and Kairi snickered, catching on. Namine glared at her, and then leaned towards her.
"She told me not to worry about him and that everything will turn out. Okay? Happy?" She whispered furiously into her near-twin's ear. Kairi nodded, grinning ear to ear.
"Very." She answered matter-of-factly. "And you should be too." She stated as an after-thought.
"She should be what?" Kael asked curiously. Kairi grinned evilly. Namine looked horrified, her eyes pleading with Kairi not to tell.
"Well, seee….I should tell you, but I won't because I think Namine will sing something bad about me and light me on fire if I did." She answered. Kael opened his mouth to speak and then shut it again, confused. Kairi giggled. Namine's face was red as a tomato. Gippal elbowed Kairi in the side and Kairi spun around, rubbing her ribs. He glowered at her.
"How can you be so relaxed? We're at the disadvantage here, in a room with three enemy goddesses!" He hissed. Kairi crossed her arms.
"You should relax some too, Gippal. I trust them." She answered knowingly.
"How can you trust them!" Gippal asked, sounding both surprised and infuriated.
"Do they seem evil and intimidating to you?" She asked. He groaned.
"Come on, you should know as well as anyone that looks can be deceiving!"
"Everyone says that, but I've never actually seen that. I mean, all the Heartless were pretty evil looking. So are fiends. So was Maleficent and Ansem. So was the Heartless Goddess. So was Drakonis. Shall I continue?" She watched him, waiting for an answer. Gippal glared at her.
"What about that Cid guy, and Yuffie? Neither of them looked very intimidating, but look how that turned out." He said after a long pause.
"Maybe, but guess who it was who figured out that Yuffie wasn't really Yuffie? Me, remember?" Kairi replied coolly. "I trust them." She stated.
"And so you should." One of the Fates stated, walking over and taking her place in the ring of people around the loom. "It was we, after all, who reunited you with the Keyblade Master. It was also we who made it so your possessed friend would be born with a will so strong that he would be able to fight the darkness. It was we who gave the dreamer her power to take her to you and allow the Mana Sword to save you from death. And it was we who did countless other things to allow you to come here." As she spoke, the other two had also taken a seat. The three of them looked mournfully at their loom. All eyes followed and settled on the golden loom. Only now did they notice that there was only a partly finished weaving on it, and that all the threads hung loosely at the end, shredded and tattered. The second Fate spoke now, her voice quiet and sad.
"About six hundred years ago now, we were known to the people of Pandora as the Sisters of Destiny. That is our proper name. We foresaw our own downfall; our mother, Lady Fate, would claim her power from us. She abused her divinity by enslaving the creatures who worshipped her, so we overthrew her and imprisoned her. The High Court of the Gods demanded to know what would keep us from abusing our power just as she had, but there were three of us, so no one of us could abuse our power without the other two putting a stop to it. Once we foresaw her escape, we realized that we could not stop her, so in our last years, we wove all the worlds' destinies to point to one event; your battle with the Lady Fate. Every event in the past four hundred years has pointed to it. As we expected, she escaped and came to us, cutting away at the threads on out loom and therefore taking our power from us. She could not, however, destroy what was already woven. Knowing this, we drew your threads out of the weaving, having you destroy the destinies that tied you to the darkness, and then carefully wove everything else to point you to this planet and to this place." She explained. There was a long silence.
"So…are we going to win?" Rikku asked finally. The youngest looking Sister of Destiny, the one with the hollow cheeks, shook her head.
"We don't know. We can not weave the destiny of the gods, so we cannot weave our mother's downfall. Neither can we weave your victory, because we had to cut your threads early in order to give you any chance of survival fighting Lady Fate." She answered. Kael frowned.
"Wait, you said you'd never abuse your powers because there were three of you, but Pandora has been ruled by you for hundreds of years, and cruelly so." He accused, his eyes flashing. The Sister with scraggly hair sighed.
"No, no, we haven't been in power for four hundred years. Our mother has been the one abusing her worshippers. You worship the Fates, or more accurately, the Fate. Not the Destinies." She answered. Sora scratched his head, confused.
"So, there's a difference between fate and destiny?" He asked. All three of them nodded.
"There's an enormous difference. It's not chance that you were raised on the Destiny Islands. In fact, there were twin Islands to the ones you were raised on, called the Fate Islands. It, however, was one of the first to be destroyed by the Heartless. Its patron goddess, the lady of Fate, did nothing. We, however, used all the powers left within us to ensure the safe reconstruction of your home. That was the last thing we wove into the destinies of the worlds before we were locked away." She looked like she was going to say more, but there was a loud rumbling.
"Oh dear…" The oldest one murmured. "It looks like Lady Fate has discovered that you are here much earlier that we had anticipated." She stated, standing up and motioning towards the door. The ceiling was beginning to crumble. "Run! Now!" She ordered. The group stood and dashed towards the door. Namine skidded to a stop.
"What about you? Will you be alright?"
"We'll be fine dear." The Sister with scraggly hair told her. "What's important now is that all of you get out of here safely." She answered, nudging Namine towards the exit. Kael came back for her, taking her by the hand.
"Let's go! The cave's collapsing!"