Chapter 17: Love Spell
"How are you sure that Fang and Vanille are going to be able to wake people up. I mean, historically, Lightning and I are the only ones who managed it." I said.
Fang made an awful grunting noise. She sat back and put her crossed ankles on the table. Lightning had already personally gone over the details of our accidental trip with Rygdea. However, he insisted on having a formal meeting after dinner.
"Trust a boy to doubt the abilities of women. Get your shit together."
Rygdea kicked at the conference table, signaling Fang to remove her feet. I admired the way he had a no nonsense attitude with her. When we'd first met, she'd been the same age as Lightning but completely terrifying. We were now only three years apart, but I still remembered how easily she'd helped me with Alexander. The woman was practically superhuman. Rygdea, however, had known her first and pictured her as an equal.
"Though I'd given Lightning the rundown, I never actually explained to Hope how it works. I guess everyone else at the table is probably wondering too. Shall I?" Vanille said, waving her hand whimsically around.
"By all means, Miss," Rygdea said.
"I have no idea how the six of them first woke up. I doubt we'll ever know, but because they did, their magic got a little scrambled. All of our focuses were interconnected, which is why Fang and I were crystallized together. But our relationships went deeper than that. Sazh and Dajh are genetic family so they weren't given the talent that we have." Vanille spun her finger to point at the remaining l'Cie. "Fang and I have always been a couple. Serah and Snow's partnership resulted in marriage. Undoubtedly, Lightning and Hope's will result in one too."
Trust Vanille to bring up something I'd said in confidence. I blushed and tucked my neck into my shoulders when Rygdea winked at me. It would probably be in my interest to apologize about attacking him. Though, his haircut resulted in plenty of the women on board mooning over him.
"All of you Cocoonians, Cocoonites, Cocooners? Anyway, all of you never got a good look at l'Cie magic like those of us from Pulse did. It's far more extensive than the battle and healing magic we used. The particular Fal'Cie who branded us only needed the skills we'd been given. We were in the midst of a war after all."
She held up the same glowing vine she'd tried on Fang that morning. "But whoever saved these guys gave them something, well, in layman's terms, a bit more akin to sex magic."
Snow sputtered out the water he'd been sipping. The man had impeccable timing.
"I guess that wasn't the right word. Fertilization magic? How about that?" Vanille said cocking her head toward Snow. "Picture spawning. A fish swimming in the water. She lays her eggs. Then later on, along comes her man fish and sprays his semen all over the nest. The eggs become fertilized and soon you have adorable baby fishies.
"Snow and Serah, and Hope and Lightning each have magic that comes in a set. First, Lightning cast a particular spell on my crystal. A 'love spell' if you will." Vanille covered her mouth as she giggled. "And then Hope used the same one. This combination not only awoke me, but also made me their progeny. I then inherited their ability to use it."
"Which is why Vanille and I are perfectly capable of leaving your teenage behind at home," Fang said, holding up a mirror glittering vine to her partner.
"What about those crystals you plan to mess with. They aren't going to be partnered up like us." I grabbed Lightning's hand under the table. "Isn't it a little unfair to bring them into this world? What if they're miserable? One of the only reasons we were able to cope with surviving the Purge and its aftermath was having each other."
Lightning lifted our hands to the tabletop. "So you're telling me that you'd rather still be a crystal?"
"No."
"Then you woke up and knew that we'd ever be more than comrades?"
A modest gasp echoed from onlookers in the conference room.
"No."
"So why should romance have anything to do with helping people who were treated as slaves?" She let go of me and crossed her arms.
"Everyone here keeps treating all of this as a science experiment. I only came to help because Vanille and Fang are my friends. I don't want any of you responsible for setting off a chain of events that could result in another planetary catastrophe." I frowned. "Once is enough for my lifetime, thank you very much."
"Stop being a worrywart," Snow said.
Rygdea spoke, "With that, everyone can get on with business; I need to talk to these guys alone for a bit."
Finally, everyone whose names I had not known left the room.
"I just wanted to thank all of you guys for humoring my crazy idea. There's just something about you Fang. Kindred spirit or something, but I couldn't just leave you frozen like that for the rest of my life."
"Did you miss the part about my shacking up with Vanille?" Fang raised one eyebrow at the man.
"That's exactly what kills me about you. If there were ever a person I needed on my team, it's you, darlin'. Call me selfish, but I put on this whole thing just so you could be my second in command." He laughed and walked over to her to stick out his hand. "Work with me, kid."
She grinned, baring her teeth, and shook his hand.
"Now that, that's out of the way," Rygdea turned to me. "We're currently floating above Oerba. Tomorrow, I'm gonna fly you guys down on my personal transport. You, Snow, and Sahz can catch trains back home from there. It's been a long week. But, like I said, thanks."
All of my friends filtered out the doorway, but Rygdea grabbed my shirt and pulled me back into the room.
"Before you go."
"I'm sorry I bit you like a rabid animal," I interrupted, raising my hands between us in defeat.
He threw his head back and laughed. "Never expected that. But no, this isn't about an apology. This is just a reminder. We only plan on being gone for five months. Sometimes things don't work out as planned, especially with something we know so little about. Take this mission for example, we were supposed to be in and out with the crystals. Then we expected to spend years trying to figure out how to rescue Fang. Somehow you asshats did it in less than two weeks.
"There is always a possibility this upcoming mission will be short. But I doubt it. Most likely, we're going to spend a long time out there. You won't be seeing Farron. Make the most time of your time together." He slipped something into my pocket. "You're probably going to need this."
Then he patted me on the back and showed me out the door.