FFX-2: Ties That Bind Fanfic

Chapter 4: Fear of Dresses

"Yunnie! Awe come on Yunnie!" Rikku pleads fell on deaf ears and Yuna huddled up on her bed in the cabin, knees pulled to her breasts, currently clad in her Gunner Sphere.

"No, I…I can't I can't control the dresses. First the Songstress then the Berserker. How long before one of the others takes me over? At least the Gunner is mine, built for me not built on some other person."

"That wasn't the dresses fault; it was Lenne and a fiend. You could at least use the warrior and thief, that's me and Paine. You afraid of being Rikku 2?"

Yuna looked up smiling for a moment "Can we just forget it."

Ascending the steps was the Hero of Sin, sitting down across from Yuna on a neighboring bed. "Yuna, aren't you at least interested in the Summoner Dress Sphere, it was built on recording of your Pilgrimage. Now I'm no fan of dress spheres but I'd wear a 'dress' if it will help you work though this. Yuna you defeated Yu Yevon/Sin. You brought me back from the Farplane. You defeated Vegnagun, don't let doubt and fear control you. I joined the Gullwings to be there for you, always. There are spheres to hunt, history to unravel. Don't you want to help Shinra see his city of light? The rebirth of Zanarkand?"

Yuna was silent….

"Yuna, don't you want to at least meet Aaron? Learn his story? Why he's returned as an Aeon? I know you Yuna. The idea of the Aeon back fills you heart with hope. Don't you want to see Bahamat again?"

Slowly Yuna smiled and began to uncurl herself; her hand trembled as it reached for His. Slowly she rose and the trio walked slowly toward the deck outside the airship. Paine stood at the edge, the wind whipping her hair as she stared introspectively at the world before her. Lost in thought she did not even notice as Yuna came up behind her.

"What are you thinking about? The Crimson Squad?" asked Yuna her voice cracking in the face of her past reborn.

Paine turned around, it seemed the weight of the world on her shoulders, "Do all summoners feel this weight, like the world is pleading for help and you're too weak to save it?"

Yuna blinked, taking a sharp breath "No…not always, only when it was time for the Final Summoning and when near a place that needs Sending."

"Oh…"

"What's wrong, Paine?"

"When I was in the under city to save you with Aaron, I felt this weight, I never felt it before I became a Summoner."

Yuna nodded understandingly "The city, it's a city of Sin, of Unsent, that explains the fiends. It's a Lost Haunt. A Local infected by the Unsent."

"We have to go back, cleanse it, I feel it in my soul when in this Dress Sphere."

"Your being tainted by my own emotions, maybe you should get out of that dress," warned a cautious Yuna.

"I can't, not unless you are willing to wear it."

"I...can't," Yuna looked away.

"Then neither can I…" Paine's fierce determination was clear as ever, the Summoner Sphere only magnified it.

"Then let's get this over with quickly." Yuna said quickly.