Yuna sat alone—well, not entirely alone—in the silence of the Chamber of the Fayth inside Besaid Temple. It had been a while since she had entered a temple and prayed to the fayth to obtain a new aeon. She hadn't thought she would ever do so again, not after the aeons had been slain and the fayth freed to rest.
The Summoner looked over at her companion—Angelo, the dog that had arrived with the visitors. Angelo looked back at her, seeming to be expecting some direction. "I don't know," Yuna said out loud to the dog. "I don't see how this is going to work."
The dog whined and tilted her head to the side.
"Yes, of course, I'm going to try, I told them I would try." They had given her a feather, they said it came from Rinoa; Yuna tied it with a ribbon to the end of her staff as she considered what she would do.
Zell had been equal parts confident and insistent when he woke everyone in the middle of the night to declare that Yuna should try to summon Rinoa.
"I summon aeons, not people," Yuna had patiently explained.
"But Rinoa's a Sorceress! She has powerful magic; she's different from most people," Zell replied.
"You know how to summon, why don't you summon her yourself?"
"I can't summon without junctioning, and I can't junction Rinoa. Anyway, you're more of a professional Summoner."
"I have to pray to the fayth before I can summon an aeon."
"We have Angelo! She's better than a fayth! She's alive, and connected to Rinoa."
At that point, Yuna decided Zell would not be dissuaded and she'd agreed to try. She knew, however—even if Zell could not be convinced—that a sorceress was not an aeon and a dog was not a fayth.
Yuna had come into the temple not because she thought being in the temple would help, but rather to get some space away from everyone. She knew Rinoa's friends' hearts were in the right place, but they were intense and excitable, and she found it difficult to concentrate around them.
Before she'd enter the temple, Yuna had told Rinoa's friends that she needed to know the essence of the aeon before she could summon it—that was what she learned from the fayth. They had offered all kinds of information about Rinoa. She loved shooting stars; she possessed angel wings when she activated her powers; she was passionate and strong; she often butted heads with her father, a General; they'd met her when she'd been part of a resistance movement in a small occupied town; she used a wrist-mounted projectile weapon called a blaster edge; she'd taught Angelo to fight beside her.
Shooting stars and angel wings, a weapon on her wrist and a fluffy warrior dog at her side: these were things that described Rinoa, but they were not her essence. Was it even possible to know the essence of another person? Especially one you hadn't met?
"You tell me, Angelo, what's Rinoa's essence?" The dog moved closer and nudged her nose into Yuna's chest. Yuna pushed the dog away. "That's not polite," she gently chastised.
Angelo whined and bumped her nose into Yuna's chest again, this time with a little more force. Yuna fell back a bit, but laughed despite herself. "That kind of hurts, you know. You're hitting me right at the heart."
Yuna paused, considering her own words. A strange thought flitted through her mind. She had thought a lot lately about how Tidus was in her heart, and would remain there forever. Then there was Rinoa—she'd gone into the Void to be with Squall. Yuna would have done the same, she would do anything, go anywhere to see Tidus again. Maybe that was it. Maybe Rinoa's essence was the same as Yuna's: Young love. Devotion to another so deep it defied logic.
The movements came to her quickly after that. She knew exactly what she would do if she saw Tidus again. She would whistle to get his attention, then run to him; he would lift her off her feet, swing her around.
Suddenly she had it, she knew how to summon Rinoa. Yuna didn't really expect it would work, but at least it would be an attempt. All she could do was try.
She rose to her feet and looked down at Angelo. "I am ready."
"Do you hear that?" Rinoa asked. Squall and Tidus shook their heads. The three of them had been taking a walk—they had long ago discovered it was impossible to get anywhere, but sometimes it felt good to move around. Now someone was calling Rinoa, she was certain of it, though it wasn't heard so much as felt. She felt someone beckoning to her. Confused, she grabbed onto Squall's arm. In a bolt of sudden pain, her wings burst out of her back. "Hold onto me!" Rinoa pulled Squall closer with one arm and threw the other around Tidus's waist. She didn't know what was happening, but she knew she wanted them close.
For the first time in a very long while Rinoa felt a breeze against her skin. The air was hot and then cold, windy and then still. She flinched from a sudden bright light, then was immersed in darkness. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against Squall, vaguely aware that there was no longer ground beneath her feet. She wasn't sure if she was falling, or flying, or standing still while the whole universe shifted around her.
A sudden jolt struck her. She opened her eyes and was horrified to see Squall falling away from her. As he fell he was briefly able to hold onto Tidus ankle, but then he slipped away completely. Tidus had been knocked away from her too, but she still had a strong grip on his wrist. She held onto him as tightly as she could, but somehow he too slipped from her grasp. In an instant it was over.
She was falling, definitely falling now, and she saw grass below her. She landed in a crouch, hitting the ground more softly than seemed possible.
Yuna finished summoning with a flourish of her staff. Angelo, who had been at her side the entire time, now looked up into the sky and barked. Yuna followed the dog's line of sight and saw, suspended many feet above the ground, a girl dressed in blue with white angel wings extending from her back.
The girl fell to the ground softly and immediately sprang to her feet. The wings were gone in an instant. "Squall!" she screamed. She spun in a circle, her gaze passing over the faces of those gathered, but none of them was whom she sought. "Squall!" She looked skyward, brought her fingers to her lips and whistled. "Tidus! Squall! Where are you?" She stared at the sky in silence for several seconds. She breathed hard and her lower lip began to tremble.
Angelo pushed her nose into the girl's palm. The girl sank to the ground and buried her face in the dog's fur. Yuna could hear her sobbing as she walked over and knelt beside her.
The girl—Rinoa, it had to be Rinoa—looked up at Yuna. "I had them. They were with me." Yuna could sense that Rinoa knew exactly who she was, even though she'd never seen her before. Rinoa collapsed against Yuna. "I'm sorry," she cried into Yuna's shoulder. "They were with me."
Rinoa had been clutching something in her hand, and it fell into Yuna's lap as she sobbed. Yuna, one arm around Rinoa, used her free had to lift and examine the item. It was a black leather glove. Made of extremely supple leather, it looked quite a lot like the gloves Tidus wore. Then again, one black glove looked pretty much like the next, right? Still, it immediately brought to mind memories of Tidus setting a hand on her shoulder, brushing her cheek with his thumb. For the first time since his hands had passed through hers, Yuna allowed herself to believe, for a moment, that he might not be gone forever. "This glove, does it…does it belong to Tidus?"
Rinoa looked up at Yuna but didn't get a chance to respond. "Watch out!" Quistis yelled. Yuna felt herself being lifted by her arms and dragged backwards. She glanced back to see it was Irvine who had picked her up. Zell had similarly pulled Rinoa away. There was a sound like a fan blade slicing through the air, and then Yuna saw a sword falling from the sky, tumbling end over end toward the earth. It landed with the tip of its blade embedded several inches into the ground they had just vacated.
"Keep moving!" Selphie threw herself against Yuna and Irvine, who in turn bumped into Zell and Rinoa. As they all struggled to stay on their feet, another sword appeared in the same manner as the first. It too ended its journey with blade embedded in the ground.
"Oh, man." Zell walked up to the first sword. It had a handle that resembled a gun and a cerulean blade that seemed to glow from within. "Is this…Lionheart?" With some effort he removed the weapon from the ground and swung it around. "This can't be good…"
Yuna's gaze fell on the other sword, an aqua blue blade that seemed constantly to move and bubble like water. As far as she knew, there was only one sword in existence that looked like that: Brotherhood, the sword Wakka had given Tidus at the beginning of their journey.