A/N:
Obligatory apology for taking so long to update again.
Last chapter gave me blisters...not even joking.
We've begun, what I like to call, the final stretch. This part of the game always feels like a snowball rolling down a hill ;)
From this chapter, it's about...oh...six or so more chapters until the end. W00t! I am sooo happy about this, you don't even know, haha.
The chapters are going to increase in length, undoubtedly, as well. You might be seeing quite a few 20k monsters in the next few months. In fact, THIS chapter was about 19k before I finally decided to split it. Again. I figured sitting through 50 pages of text all at once was a bit...extreme. HOWEVER. That means that part two of this chapter is already at 10k? lol. Which MEANS—a quicker update for ch28! It had reached the point where I was threatening to hurl too many sporks around, and had to re-evaluate some posting decisions, haha. There are a few KEY scenes to next chapter that I haven't quite worked out yet, and need a few more days to mull over...HOPEFULLY, HOWEVER. There will be ANOTHER update within...two weeks-ish. After the V-day fic-a-thon ;P
Some portions of this chapter might seem truncated, even...my health was not spectacular through all the months of writing this, and I may have condensed in some areas and not in others...I don't know. This was a difficult transition chapter, what can I say? (more so the next part, than this...you'll see why when it's posted...)
Also fact: I need more adult beverages in my life. Hm...maybe I can't include that information in a T rated story...eh ;)
Lunar Bound
"This ship feels like a bag of bones," Astrid was remarking angrily, as she removed panels from the deck and checked the levers' connections.
"Astrid, you have no business rooting around in a ship that I'm flying," her father retorted, jerking the wheel and lurching the ship uncomfortably.
"Construction and engineering I leave to you, the fine tuning of the circuits and conduits are my territory," she muttered, poking around in the mechanisms. She yanked a handful of leads out of one panel. "Did you even design this ship?" she said, appalled.
Cid made a face bordering on pure outrage. "Of course I designed it!" he bellowed. "Who else in the world would have the technical skill to not only draw the blueprint but also to build it?"
"But these controls are all backwards," Astrid complained. "It's as if someone was looking through a mirror when they compared the blueprints to the completed model. Took me a hell of an afternoon making heads or tails of it in Mysidia. In fact, I'm tempted to say this looks like one of your earliest designs with some...interesting modifications. There is an entire circuit board for a system that I haven't identified."
Cid scrunched his lips into an imperceptible line. "Now that you mention it, these levers aren't as responsive as I'm used to. Power seems to be diverted to a secondary output."
"Doesn't help that you plastered a drill onto the hull, ruining the balance completely."
"I made the necessary calibrations!" Cid objected, rocking the ship again.
"What, you shifted all of the cargo in the hold to the opposite side so that it would limp more effectively through the air? Astrid quipped.
Rydia sighed as she listened to Cid argue with his daughter at the helm, and then glanced over at the dwarves who were seated as a group in the middle of the deck—their backs pressed together as they endured Cid's erratic flying. Rydia could imagine their discomfort; spending their entire lives underground, and then to be subjected to one of Cid's machines and his piloting. The dwarves spoke to each other in hushed tones and Rydia noticed that Cecil was standing beside the king, nodding to questions Giott was asking.
Rydia hopelessly shook her head, knowing the effort it would take to reassure the dwarves that they were in good hands. From the expression on Cecil's face, it was taking quite a bit of convincing.
Cid finally flew them upwards through the gaping chasm they had drilled through the ceiling of the underworld, and the steady climb popped Rydia's ears. The air plunged from boiling hot to briskly cool before Cid brought the ship to a stationary hover above the mountains of Agart.
"Where am I headed, exactly? Baron or Mysidia?" Cid called out to Cecil from the helm.
"Mysidia," Cecil shouted back, moving away from the dwarves and toward the engineer.
Rydia glanced at the helm for a moment, having been talking to Rosa about what to do with the frying pan in their possession. Neither could decide who should carry it, and then a commotion arose from the belly of the ship.
Edge strode up the cabin stairs, hoisting a small bundle of flailing arms and legs at his side. When he reached the top of the stairs, he released his captive, and a small dwarf face shook itself free of the shirt that had been pulled over it.
It was Luca, the king's daughter. She glared at Edge, who stared back at her, unimpressed.
"Your majesty, we have a stowaway," Edge informed Giott, who stood up with a start once he'd seen his daughter.
"Luca! What are you doing aboard this ship?" Giott demanded, his eyes flicking between his daughter and the ninja prince.
Luca planted her feet firmly against the deck and stuck up her chin. "You're too old to be fighting a war in the air," she declared.
"And you, too young!" he argued, striding toward her.
For her small stature, Luca was formidable as she stared up at her father. "I want to see the world for myself," she said adamantly.
"I absolutely forbid it!" Giott shouted, decidedly put-out.
"Mother would have let me!"
"Your mother would have let you hear about it from the safety of our walls. You are not a son who can bear arms!"
"It's not my fault you didn't father any sons," Luca argued, seeming to think this was not a reasonable enough excuse for her to stay behind.
Giott turned a shade darker and puffed out his cheeks, trying to craft a rebuttal to his daughter's argument, and failing.
Edge snuck away, deciding that his part in the family matter was finished, and approached Rydia and Rosa. He leaned against the airship railing beside them with a sigh while the argument between father and daughter resumed. "I never thought I'd find myself on the wrong side of this argument," he dryly remarked.
"Wrong side?" Rydia asked.
"I agree with Giott on this one," he answered.
Rydia arched a brow as she glanced at him sidelong. "I thought you always took the side of the rebel."
Edge looked back at her sharply. "Not when they're five."
She made a face at him. "That's so—unexpectedly protective of you."
"I do draw lines, Rydia," he replied with a perplexed smile.
She shook her head, thinking that whatever lines he drew were wavy at best, and noticed that Luca was gaining more ground in the argument against her father.
With one firm word from Giott, however, Luca stormed disgustedly off the ship's deck to the cabin below. Meanwhile, her father seemed ready to faint.
Cid chuckled from the helm. "You echo my sentiments exactly, your majesty! I was surprised to see my own daughter foolishly charging into the fray."
"And saving your ass," Astrid remarked, holding a variety of tools in her hands and looking none-too-pleased.
"Aye, and that," Cid added sourly.
"I cannot believe my child would do something so foolish!" Giott huffed, turning to look at the engineer.
Cid left the controls to Cecil and walked to the king and his band of dwarves. "Well, now that she's here, she may as well stay. It will take too much time to fly all the way back," he assured the king, patting him on the shoulder.
Giott sighed, and Rydia raised a brow, surprised that they were going to take Luca with them after all.
Cid then took notice of her and the other two leaning against the railing, watching the proceedings.
"I can't imagine my daughter was much help to you, anyway," Cid muttered, walking toward them.
Edge laughed. "Well," he admitted. "She was mostly useless, but at least she was entertaining."
"Entertaining?" Cid asked, narrowing his eyes. "I hardly see how my daughter wading through a cave of fiends would be entertaining."
"She wields tools like no one I've ever seen," Edge reflected, grinning.
Rydia giggled, also remembering Astrid's prowess in battle. Cecil had purposely left a fiend near death to provide her an easy mark, and Astrid had willingly taken the offering.
"Wielded?" Cid asked, flabbergasted. "Wielded? Against what—she surely didn't kill anything, did she?"
"She killed one fiend," Rydia recounted.
"Truly?" Cid pressed.
Edge laughed, his arms folded across his chest. "With a battle cry of 'science!'."
Cid burst into a belly laugh. "Science?" he echoed, laughing harder. "What an—that's the most uninspiring battle cry I've ever heard!"
"Hey!" Astrid shouted, striding across the deck and waving a wrench in the air. "I'll have you know that you're flying on a contraption of science as we speak. Lucky for you that it's keeping us from plummeting to our deaths with the modifications I've made!"
Rydia hazarded a glance at the dwarves who were staring at Astrid, mortified.
"True, you are," Cid answered, nonplussed. "But a battle cry should be more impressive—it should instill the fear of death into your enemy, my dear!"
Astrid made a face. "Noted."
"Perhaps for now, you should put your skills to use at the helm," her father suggested, nodding toward Cecil whose lips were set in a thin line of concentration as he kept the unwieldy vessel in check.
Astrid grinned wolfishly. "Ah." she agreed, taking his meaning, and walking over to relieve Cecil of his duty at the ship's controls.
Rydia felt Rosa's glare over her shoulder at the comment.
"Cid," the white mage said icily.
Cid simply shrugged. "What? I might get a little excited with the controls when I'm irritated, but that doesn't change the fact that Cecil has crashed more of my ships than anyone else."
Rosa sighed, but Rydia couldn't help but grin. Not everyone could be perfect, after all.
0-0-0-0
It wasn't long before they flew within sight of Mysidia. The dwarves took the opportunity to pry themselves off the deck and hesitantly peek overboard at the city.
"So this is the holy city!" Giott exclaimed, stroking his beard with one hand while clutching the railing firmly with his other.
Cid angled their descent, having taken over for Astrid, and allowed the dwarves a better view. "Aye, that's the holy city," Cid confirmed, sounding amused by the dwarves' enthusiasm.
"It's so bright!" one dwarf cried out.
"Look't all that bloo stuff!" another said.
Rydia giggled, knowing they were amazed by the sight of the ocean below as she looked over the side with them.
Cid delivered them to their destination none the worse for wear, and once Rydia and their small company were standing on the field beside the ship, did another person appear at the top of the ship's plank.
"Luca will remain in Mysidia," Giott informed them as Luca rolled her eyes, walking down the ship's ramp. The princess looked disappointed, but undefeated. "She will be safer here, I suspect," Giott continued. "The holy city will be a good place for her to learn of the world and stay out of trouble. Please look after her."
"What about you, your majesty?" Cecil asked, genuinely curious.
Giott looked nervously at Cid and the engineer smiled through crooked teeth. "I will accompany Master Cid to Baron. We will make war preparations as we deem fit."
"You just get your hands on that Whale thing-a-ma-jig," Cid shouted down to them. "The sooner you get to the bottom of this, the better I'll sleep at night."
Cecil nodded, and Luca walked the last few feet down the ship's ramp to join them on the ground. Meanwhile, Astrid and the dwarves hauled the ramp back onto the ship to prepare for departure. Rydia glanced down at Luca and noticed that the dwarf princess was doing an admirable job of appearing brave. Rydia remembered how it had felt all those years ago to leave the village of Kaipo with a stranger—to set out on her own. She rested her hand on the girl's shoulder, and the princess looked up at her gratefully.
The ship's propellers spun to life again, and Rydia happened to glance at Edge who was looking at Luca with a dubious expression. His opinions on her joining them had evidently remained unchanged.
"Why don't you go with them?" Rydia asked Edge privately.
He crossed his arms and looked back at her with a sigh, saying nothing. There was a spark of annoyance in his gaze and Rydia frowned, wondering what had changed his mind from his earlier plans.
"Good luck, Cid!" Rosa shouted up to the deck.
"Aye, and to you!" Cid called back, lifting the ship slowly into the air.
The wind from the ship's propellers buffeted them, as the party turned from the field and walked to the city.
Now that they had returned from their strange adventure, Rydia's thoughts returned to the task at hand. Had anything been accomplished in their absence, or had they lingered with Astrid too long?
"Who lives in the holy city?" Luca suddenly asked, when they were nearing the city gates.
It was Rosa who looked back at the girl with a sympathetic smile. "Mysidia is the city of magic, Luca. Mages are schooled here in the ways of the elemental and healing arts."
"They are crystal worshipers?" she inquired.
Rosa pursed her lips, trying to wrap her head around Luca's question, but eventually nodded. "Yes, I suppose they are."
Once they had reached the city gate, a group had already amassed to greet them. At their head, was Mysidia's elder who was wringing his hands—beside himself. "Four days you've been gone!" he scolded them as if they were his students and not warriors of renown. Rydia blanched, feeling sympathy for those who were his students.
"Hurry, you must be quick," he instructed, leading them to his carriage.
The chocobos pulled them through the city while the Elder explained to Cecil and Rosa the important findings the mages had uncovered. After a meandering journey through the narrow streets and vertical climbs, they were finally deposited in the courtyard of the tower of prayer.
The elder was the first to disembark, and hastily led them up the entrance stairs, through the foyer, and into the crystal room. The sound of their many feet echoed all throughout the glass room, and then the elder opened a door behind the crystal dais to an impressive granite staircase. They climbed the winding stairs with its elegant friezes and ancient scripts, and Rydia suspected they were being led to a place where few people were allowed—the very top of the tower of prayer. The stairs ended at a platform that was open to the air with polished granite pinnacles rising from each corner. Between the pinnacles, were vistas looking out to each cardinal direction of the map. Standing as they were, they could see for miles—they could even catch a faint impression of Mount Ordeals far to the east.
"We have located the necessary incantation that will raise the ship," the Elder was explaining, bustling about with preparations that were unknown to the five of them. "It answers to magic of the old order, and it will take all of our prayers to bring it forth."
"I don't understand," Rosa said, inspecting the number of mages standing around them on the platform. There was an equal number of white and black mages wearing ceremonial robes and elegant tassles.
The Elder ignored Rosa's query, and began to tell his people what to do and where to stand.
Rydia's eyes turned from the mages toward the floor where a chalk outline had been sprinkled. It was flecked with something metallic and there was a feel of magic to it. Whatever had been used to make the marking was enchanted.
"Everyone take your places," the elder instructed the mages he had arranged.
Rydia and the others stepped back, giving the mages more space. She bumped into Edge and hastily made an apology, but then frowned at his lack of acknowledgement. She glanced back at him to see he was glaring in the direction of the Elder. She followed his eyes, curiously.
"What is wrong with you?" she hissed.
At that, he flicked his gaze to her, but his expression remained inscrutable behind his mask. Even so, she found it strange he had neglected to remove it. He had been acting strangely lately; ever since-
The Elder's sudden proclamation turned her thoughts back to the mages, who had all arranged themselves around the points of the compass drawn on the floor. The elder took his place in the center. "Now, everyone, pray with all your heart. Prophecy must be made reality," he said, raising his arms. "There is no other time but now!"
Rydia took another step back as she watched each of the mages dip their heads down and begin an incantation that sounded—unearthly. They spoke in unison, their voices layering atop each other like a finely tuned choir. As they chanted, thin filaments of light and color emblazoned the drawn circle on the floor, spiraling inward from red to green to blue to orange until pillars of light rose up from corners of the geometric designs drawn within the circle. The beams rose upwards and then tilted toward each other, like a prism being refocused. The individual colors merged and became one, a single focused beam that shot out of the tower and toward the ocean in the distance.
The hair on Rydia's arms stood on end, responding to a current in the room brought on by the magic; while a thunderous roar reached her ears. It grew in volume until, at last, the elder opened his eyes.
" Behold, my children!" he said, sounding drunk with satisfaction. "She has heard our prayers! The promised ship of light—the Lunar whale!" he cried, directing their attention to the west.
Rydia and the others walked to the side of the tower, staring out and over the city as a whirlpool that looked as though Leviathan himself had churned up the depths, disrupted the bay. The waves had already engulfed the shore, furiously crashing against the land; but it was what had risen out of the center of the whirlpool that made everyone gasp and shield their eyes.
A giant shape, iridescent like the tower of Babil, but flashing and pulsing like a beating heart, was rising out of the water. Ocean water fell from it in cascades to the bay below, and when it had risen high enough in the air to be fully seen from the tower, the glow it emitted shot out like a pulse, once, twice, and then a third time, before fading to a low silvery gleam.
"This is the ship that will ferry you to the moon," the elder told them, leading them back to the stairwell. "You must go at once."
"Elder?" Cecil inquired, studying the older man carefully as they hurriedly descended the stairs.
"You must be quick—the time is short, and the person who waits for you is growing impatient," the older man replied.
Rydia had to practically skip down the steps to keep up, and Luca with her shorter legs, was having even greater difficulty.
"Is there anything else about this person you can tell us?" Cecil asked as they were led down the stairs and once again across the crystal chamber.
"Nothing other than he knows something of our plight. You must go," the elder said, leading them to the courtyard and to another carriage drawn by chocobos.
Before they mounted the carriage, Cecil turned to Luca, as if remembering her for the first time. "Elder, there is something else I must ask."
"Be quick, man, what is it?"
Cecil nodded to Luca. "This is Luca, daughter of King Giott. We have been asked that she be kept safe."
The Elder beckoned to Luca. "Come here, child. We will make sure that you are taken care of," he told the princess.
Luca glanced at the four of them, looking like she wanted to go with them, but Rosa smiled down at her with a shake of her head.
"We can't take you with us," the white mage told her. "Your father wants you safe, and we can't guarantee your safety where we're going."
Luca made a disappointed face, but reluctantly joined the Elder on the stairs.
"This will take you to the field where the ship has landed," the Elder told them. "Go with our blessings, and the blessings of the entire world."
"Thank you," Cecil assured the Elder, as the four of them mounted the carriage and were swept away into the city.
0-0-0-0-0
They were brought to the ship over bumpy roads and were left to stand beside the behemoth of a vessel, wondering how they were supposed to board it. They walked along the side of the ship, admiring the sheer size of it, when a panel opened above them and a ramp unexpectedly descended to the ground.
"This looks promising," Cecil remarked, waiting until the metal ramp had finished assembling itself so they could climb it.
The ramp, they discovered, led into the side of the ship, where they found themselves invited into a small chamber lit with flashing lights.
"This can't be the entirety of the ship," Edge complained, looking around at the cramped quarters.
The floor suddenly shifted beneath their feet, and they clung to the walls as the outside panel of the ship closed behind them, shutting them in. Rydia felt them being lifted and transported somewhere else—a sensation that lasted for only a few seconds before another panel opened and they were deposited into a much larger chamber.
They stepped out gingerly, looking around.
"That was just the entrance," Cecil observed, taking a few more steps. "This must be the rest of the ship."
Edge nodded as he looked up at the ceiling above them. "Now I'm impressed."
Rydia looked up as well, amazed by the scope of the ship. It was cavernous, and the whole interior glowed dimly; streams of lights glistening through panels and wires—a living machine.
The four of them spread out to look around; touching panels, climbing stairs, and inspecting toggles.
"This is incredible," Rosa murmured, brushing her fingers over a podium alight with numerous buttons. The moment she'd made contact, the rest of the ship brightened; overhead lights flickering to life and running the length of the ceiling.
Everyone paused to look up, afraid they'd triggered a trap.
Rydia released a slow breath when the ship remained quiet aside from a faint humming coming from the belly of its engine room.
"So this is the Lunar Whale," Edge said, glancing about the room with a suspicious expression.
Cecil, in the meanwhile, was inspecting the controls on the ship's deck. "How is one supposed to operate this ship?" he said mostly to himself.
Rydia glanced up at the paladin, at the look of frustration he wore as he inspected consoles and panels trying to find answers. Edge joined him on the deck a moment later, but after a few minutes, the both of them stood perplexed amid the machinery with twin expressions of annoyance.
"Does it require a verbal command?" Edge asked.
"But where would we enter such a command?" Cecil replied, sounding put-out.
Rydia left the two of them to figure out the ship's controls and took a walk around the room. The ship was clean, sterile, much like portions of the Tower of Babil; and blinking lights set into the floor formed the boundaries of its main cabin.
She wandered to the wall opposite the helm, following one particular trail of lights; and a panel of the cabin wall swooshed upwards at her approach. Rydia stood stock still, surprised, and saw that the wall had opened into a doorway. She peeked through it and discovered another cabin much like the first. It remained unlit until she took her first step into the room. Lights then flickered on and the overhead illumination spread upon several rows of vertical cylinders affixed to the floor. The cylinders lined the outer walls of the room and two rows occupied the room's center; each with a metal and glass door that stood open, parallel to the floor. Rydia frowned. What on earth were the cylinders used for? She walked further into the cabin and stepped closer to one of the cylinders, walking around it as she peered at the apparatus of metal, glass, and tubing.
She noticed a chair nestled into the first device, when suddenly, the front panel of the cylinder began to descend. Rydia failed to jump back quickly enough, and shrieked when the door scooped her into the cylinder, shutting her in.
She stumbled into the chair, having no choice but to turn around and fall into it. The chair was oddly conformed to the contours of her body and there was a set of buttons embedded into the armrest. Rydia glanced at them, wondering if the buttons controlled the pod or the ship. After all, there had been no chair at the ship's deck nor a wheel as she'd been accustomed to seeing. She pressed the buttons hoping to open the door, but instead, a number of other things began to happen at once. A metal device was lowered from the ceiling of the pod, and several tubes attached to needles curled around the armrest. Rydia tried to bolt out of the chair, alarmed, but found her arms and legs trapped by a set of clamps. She struggled, but was held fast as she watched the needles inject the veins of her arms with sharp pricks, and as the metal cap was lowered slowly onto her head. She cried out for help, thrashing against the machine for as long as it took for the injected agents to compel her into a deep sleep.
0-0-0-0
"Did you hear that?" Edge asked Rosa who was being more nuisance than help as Cecil attempted to decipher the controls. Edge had given up on the two of them momentarily, and thought he had heard something odd from another part of the ship less than a minute before. He hoped idly that Rydia might have found something useful in another part of the ship—but where? One minute she had been in the same room as them, and the next, she was gone.
Rosa stared at him, and then around the cabin. "Hear what?" she asked.
"It sounded like a yelp," Edge answered, frowning.
Rosa shrugged with a sigh. "All I've heard is the argument we've been having and the thrum of the engines."
"Do you know where Rydia went?" he asked.
"I think she went that way," Rosa said, pointing to the wall in the back of the room.
Annoyed, Edge left the helm and walked toward the back wall, staring at the arrangement of lights and noticing that there appeared to be a walkway indicated by how they were set into the floor and wall. Curiously, he approached where the lights ran vertically, and stepped back as the wall panel slid upwards with a gust of air.
Past the doorway, he saw another chamber that contained rows of vertical cylinders along each wall, and several in the center of the room. All of them stood open save for one, whose exterior was pulsing with lights and strange symbols. Edge approached the glowing cylinder, peering through the glass.
Within, he saw Rydia strapped to a chair. There was a strange metal apparatus on her head blinking with more lights and symbols, and there were needles attached to tubes inserted into her arms. Edge felt his pulse quicken with uncertainty—had she been injured—was she even still alive? His eyes swept over her, checking for signs of life, and sure enough—her chest rose and fell in regular, if slow, intervals. Her eyes were closed as though she were sleeping, and her expression remained relaxed.
"Rydia!" he shouted, banging on the glass. She didn't stir, and when he failed to encourage the cylinder to open, he began to press buttons on the exterior console at random.
Suddenly, the ship lurched. Edge felt his stomach drop into his feet as the Lunar Whale began to ascend, fighting gravity. So Cecil had found a way to get it to fly at last.
"I need some help in here!" Edge called through the open doorway behind him and into the main chamber of the ship.
Rosa entered a few minutes later, looking at him curiously, and then at the cylinder he was standing beside.
"What happened?" she asked, her eyes scanning the room for Rydia.
Edge pointed to the strange pod, and Rosa peered through the glass at his side. "What is she doing in there?" she asked, alarmed. "How do we get her out—is she in pain?"
Edge shrugged, tugging at panels and pushing buttons. "It looks like she's asleep."
Rosa began to breathe a little faster, her anxiety mounting. "We have to get her out of there-there's no telling what this device might do to her, or to any of us, for that matter," she continued, walking around the cylinder. "What was she thinking, even getting inside?"
"She probably thought she might lift her feet up for a while," Edge smartly replied, trying to pry the door open with his hands again.
The ship lurched, putting on a burst of speed that made the two of them waver on their feet. Rosa glanced back at the control room. "What is Cecil doing?" she wondered aloud.
"Flying us to the moon," Edge answered at her glare.
The white mage sighed, staring at the pod again. "It won't open, and she can't hear us," Rosa lamented. "What are we supposed to do?"
Edge placed his hands on his hips, glaring at the confounding pod. "Can you cast Libra on her?"
Rosa blinked as if the thought was novel to her, and then closed her eyes and began to chant. She spoke the incantation, the tips of her fingers glowing green with her spell; but once the incantation was complete, she frowned out of irritation. "It's—shielded," she said, haltingly. "My magic can't pass through the barrier."
Edge bumped his head against the glass in defeat. "We have no choice but to wait until the pod opens on its own," he muttered angrily.
"There's nothing I can do for her," Rosa concluded, annoyed. "I'm going to tell Cecil what's happened. Stay here with her in case anything changes," she instructed him.
Edge merely nodded. He'd had no intention of leaving, anyway.
0-0-0-0-0
Several hours passed and Edge had grown tired of staring at the uncooperative pod holding Rydia prisoner. There was nothing to be done about the situation, he'd discovered. Cecil was too busy keeping the ship on its intended course to leave the controls, and Rosa had already concluded that there was nothing to do but wait. That left Edge on his own—bored.
He had already explored the rest of that particular cabin, and even ventured into a few cabins beyond. In one chamber, he had discovered a peculiar mechanical in the fashion of a chocobo. It spoke to him in a strange language before altering its speech to accommodate his own. The mechanical bird offered to store his possessions and give information, but Edge had nothing to offer it, nor could he coax it into revealing information that he actually required. Any information pertaining to the ship and its systems required an access code, and Edge left in annoyance, wondering why everything in the damn ship required a code. There was also the matter of why the ship's main censors and panels activated for Cecil but not for anyone else.
Granted, ever since Cecil had gotten the ship to fly, it had been doing strange things all on its own. It chimed out sporadic warnings and announcements in the unfamiliar language; the pressure within the ship's cabins fluctuated at random; and there had been a moment, where Edge had been convinced his feet had left the floor.
The last time he'd joined Cecil on the control deck, there had been nothing but black sky around them; stars blinking in an eternal expanse.
Now, as Edge made his second return to the bridge, the glass windows that lined the ship's bow allowed him to glimpse an entirely different sight—their destination—the twin moon. It was much larger than Edge had expected, and bright, reflecting the light of the sun.
"Are we nearly there?" Edge asked, joining Rosa and Cecil at the ship's main controls.
It took a moment for Cecil to answer, and when he did, he stared at the ninja with a look of consternation. "I have no idea how to monitor our distance," he revealed with a grimace. "Nor do I know how to land the ship."
Edge raised his brows as he stared back at the paladin. "That's promising."
"You were able to get the ship off the ground," Rosa assured him. "Surely, you can make it land."
Edge squinted at Cecil. "How were you able to launch the ship?" he wanted to know.
Cecil gazed at the controls, and then at a dais in the center of the console that held a crystal Edge hadn't seen before.
"The ship is controlled by a crystal," Cecil said, though he seemed just as perplexed as the rest of them. "I touched one of the panels and this apparatus rose out of the console."
"You don't find it odd that you're the only person who can pilot the ship," Edge commented, walking around the crystal dais.
"I find it extremely odd," Cecil admitted. "But I'm hoping that it might have something to do with whoever asked that I come to the moon. Perhaps the ship was programmed to do exactly that—get me there."
Edge glanced speculatively at Cecil, remaining unconvinced of the fact that anyone had so much as thought of this ship in hundreds of years, let alone altered its trajectory.
"Well, then. While you figure out how to land the ship, I'll be waiting for Rydia to wake up," Edge informed them.
"She's still in there?" Cecil asked, looking up suddenly.
Edge glanced over his shoulder as he returned down the bridge stairs. "I don't have your witchy powers over the ship to get her out, if that's what you're asking."
Cecil gave him a flat look before returning his attention to the Whale's consoles.
Edge, in the meanwhile, returned to the second cabin and to the pod that held Rydia captive. It would be a long journey on the moon if they left a sleeping summoner aboard the ship.
0-0-0-0
The ship's inertia brought Edge to his feet less than an hour later. Had they landed? He hadn't felt the tell-tale jolt that was typical of Cecil's piloting, so he walked to the cabin door to figure out exactly what had happened. Before he had left the room, however, the sound of a mechanical latch coming un-snicked, and a swoosh of a door turned him back around. The pod holding Rydia had opened, and the manacles, tubes, and wires were mechanically removed from her body, though she continued to sit limply in the chair, asleep.
Edge approached her slowly, pausing when her eyes fluttered open and she attempted to rise. It was a feeble effort, as she was disoriented and dazed, and she stumbled forward over the threshold of the pod. Edge dove forward to catch her, grabbing her by the shoulders just before she hit the ground, and carefully set her down against the wall of the pod as she rubbed her head.
She groaned, swaying drunkenly. "What happened?" she asked, finally squinting through cracked eyelids.
Edge looked her over, resting the back of his hand to her forehead to make sure she wasn't ill. "You seem well enough," he grumbled. "How do you feel?"
Rydia blinked, coming more awake. "I feel—" she frowned, rolling her shoulders. "I feel fine, actually. Better than fine—I feel rested."
Edge stared at her in disbelief and took hold of one of her arms, running his thumb over the red marks in her skin where the needles had been inserted. Rydia winced and Edge glanced up, hoping he hadn't caused her pain. She gazed back at him, turning a little pink in the cheeks.
He retracted his hand, his fingertips lightly brushing the soft skin on the inside of her wrist before he took a step back, giving her more room.
Edge cleared his throat awkwardly. "I think Cecil's landed the ship."
Rydia sat up straighter. "We're on the moon?" she asked.
"I was about to figure that out when you woke up from your coma," he remarked, offering her his hand to lift her up.
She waved him off, pushing herself off of the pod behind her as she unsteadily rose to her feet.
Edge kept to her side, eyeing her closely to be sure she wouldn't fall on her face, as they walked together into the main cabin of the ship.
0-0-0-0
Rydia wondered how long she had been asleep, but as she followed Edge onto the bridge, there were far more pressing things to wonder about instead.
'Well?" Edge asked Cecil, strolling across the tiled floor beside her and bounding up the stairs to the controls. "Have we landed?"
Rydia elected to stay on the level below, receiving a warm hug and a thorough inspection from Rosa, before she glanced to the platform above them and saw Cecil standing by the flight controls, frowning at screens and panels as though they were a puzzle he had to solve.
Cecil hadn't answered Edge's question; instead, he continued to scowl as he stared at something that was casting light on his face. It took a moment for him to realize the others were waiting for his reply, and he finally glanced up at Edge and then at Rydia and Rosa below.
When Cecil's eyes fell on her, they lit up with relief. "Rydia!" he said, looking as though a weight had been removed from his shoulders.
She smiled up at him feebly. "Edge filled me in a little," she told him.
"You weren't injured, were you?" Cecil asked, frowning again as he looked her over from head to toe.
Rydia hugged her arms to her chest. "I feel as though I've slept enough to last a year, honestly," she answered with a grin. "But I feel perfectly fine."
Cecil sighed, looking grateful that she was up and about, and then grimaced at the panel he had previously been tinkering with.
"As for the ship, I believe we've landed," he said hesitantly, walking to another panel and inspecting that one as well. He touched something, and suddenly a voice chimed overhead.
It was the voice of a woman, giving instructions in a calm and even tone, but speaking in a language none of them knew.
All of them looked up and around, expecting something to happen, but the voice simply seemed to be relaying the same information over and over again. Rydia began to recognize a few brief phrases, and she looked at Cecil who had crossed his arms and was frowning again.
"Cecil, what is it?" Rosa asked, disturbed by his reaction.
Cecil sighed, glancing at the white mage. "The ship is telling us that we've landed and that the environment is stable for departure," he said. "And also something about security measures for when the ship is vacant."
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"What?" Edge asked.
"How do you know that?" Rosa seconded.
Cecil was just as confused, and he shook his head. "I have no idea," he muttered, crossing his arms.
Rydia looked at Edge who frowned back at her, before she looked again at Cecil. "Cecil, you understand what the voice is saying?"
There was a look of uncertainty on the paladin's face, a fear of what he didn't comprehend.
"I might—it's—I suppose it's possible," he answered hesitantly.
It was Rosa's turn to frown again. "Cecil—if that's the case..."
"I was summoned here, after all," Cecil quickly rationalized. "Perhaps this ship chooses who it wishes to communicate with."
They were all silent for a moment as they considered this.
"If the ship says it's safe, then maybe we should test that advice. We don't have much time," Edge reminded them briskly, climbing down from the control platform, and leading the way to the place where they'd first entered the ship. He stood there, irritated, as the ship did nothing but ignore his presence.
Cecil joined him a moment later and then the small teleport chamber opened, revealing the elevator that had lifted them to the bridge in the first place.
"Typical," Edge grumbled under his breath.
Rydia and Rosa hurried to catch up, and the four of them stood in the elevator together, watching as the door revolved shut behind them.
Rydia felt the elevator shift beneath her feet as they were lowered down the side of the ship; and held her breath, not knowing what to expect on the other side. Before long, the opposite door of the elevator swiveled open and the metal gangplank extended down to the lunar surface, exposing them to this new environment and all that lay beyond.
Rydia hesitantly released the breath she'd been holding, amazed that even on the moon, so far from the earth, there was air to breathe. It took the four of them a moment to collect their bearings before they walked down the ramp—like children testing their legs for the first time—as they cast wary eyes at the landscape around them.
"Where are we?" Edge asked, glancing at plateaus and craters that stretched out around them for miles.
Rydia was less concerned with where they were and more by what she saw. She gasped, looking in the opposite direction of everyone else, and seeing something in the distance that glistened like a thousand twinkling crystals. "What is that?" she asked, pointing to the brilliant edifice until her eyes adjusted and she made out more of its shape—something palatial in scale and form.
"I saw that on the map the ship provided," Cecil said, turning in the direction she had pointed.
"It seems to be the only structure on the moon," he explained.
"If it's the only structure, why are we so far away?" Edge asked, annoyed.
Rydia glanced at Cecil, noticing how he clenched his jaw to prevent himself from saying anything sharp in response—though, she too wondered why this was the case.
"Because the craters and ravines were too steep to set the ship down anywhere else," Cecil brusquely replied, clearly not wishing to discuss it further.
"We'll have to walk, then," Edge remarked unhappily.
"But in which direction?" Rosa asked, surveying the place where they'd landed the ship.
The four of them reached the bottom of the ramp and stood there, puzzled, for a moment. "That way," Cecil suggested, pointing to crystal palace in the distance. "It's the only real lead that we have."
0-0-0-0
Rydia followed Cecil across the length of the plateau, impressed by how empty the lunar landscape was. There was little variation—no plant life—and no fiends to accost them. In fact, there was nothing but a strange tawny-gray dust that shifted like sand under her feet. That, and a strange low buzzing that had filled her ears. It was a tone that was at once constant as well as easy to ignore, but she wondered as to its source. Was she imagining it?
Rydia wasn't sure how long or how far they had already walked, but despite the ship having become quite small behind them, the crystal palace didn't seem as though it was getting much closer.
"The emptiness of this place is skewing our perceptions," Edge groaned at her side, casting his eyes about.
Rydia glanced at him. "I had thought there would be fiends, at least," she admitted.
Edge exhaled sharply, obviously irritated. "That's what worries me most," he said. "They're here, we just can't see them."
"What?" Rydia asked, alarmed, hastily checking the surroundings.
He grinned at her and she frowned. "Stop doing that!" she scolded, trying to calm her heart.
His expression became more serious. "They're not here now," he explained, patronizingly patting the top of her head. "They're keeping their distance."
Rydia swept his hand away and looked again at the flat plateau around them. "How do you know?"
"They've been keeping to our blindspot," he said, nodding to their left. "But not well enough."
Rydia glanced behind them, seeing nothing. Still, she had learned enough about Edge's senses to know that if he said something was there, it must be.
"By the way," he said after another moment, his brow quirking upwards. "Do you remember anything from being inside that pod?"
Rydia rubbed her arms with her hands, trying to forget the experience altogether. In truth, she remembered very little. "No," she said. "But it was the deepest sleep I've ever had."
"No dreams?" Edge fished.
Rydia frowned, suddenly remembering flashes of things that she couldn't tell were real or imagined.
"No—but—I'm not sure."
Edge's eyes met hers, searching for a better answer.
"It was strange," she admitted, peeling her eyes away. "That crystal palace, this place—it seems familiar to me."
"You didn't hear any voices, did you?" Edge asked her with another grin.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not crazy," she insisted. "I just feel that I've seen this place before."
He nodded slowly. "That's—interesting," he concluded, mulling over her answer.
"How long was I asleep, anyway?" she asked curiously.
He shrugged. "At least five hours," he said, and she could tell he was grinning again.
"What?" she asked, annoyed.
"Why did you step inside to begin with?" he asked. "Were you hoping to pilot the ship yourself?"
She angled one brow out of frustration, having sensed he might try to tease her. "How about you explain something to me," she said instead.
He looked at her sidelong. "What is that?" he asked.
"Why, when you had ample opportunity, didn't you stay behind with Cid and Giott and the others? I thought you said you would rather take your chances with them, than hazard a trip to the moon where nothing was certain? And what did Astrid say to you on our journey to Mysidia? I thought the two of you were fast friends," she shot at him all at once.
Edge stared back at her, astonished. "That's more than one question," he pointed out.
She pursed her lips. "I only get to ask one?" she asked archly.
His expression was bemused. "When you say something instead of somethings, I take you at your word."
"I still only get to ask one?" she pressed.
Edge smiled, exasperated. "Since you're so nosy, Summoner, I'll tell you—the answer to all those questions is the same."
She frowned at him, wondering what that answer could possibly be.
He looked back at her in all seriousness. "Someone had to come along and look after you," he told her.
She missed a step, staring at him incredulously. "Excuse me?" she demanded.
He smiled wickedly. "Or was I supposed to say that my curiosity out-weighed my duty to my kingdom?"
"Just about anything else," she coached him, her eyes narrowed. "I refuse to believe that you stayed just to keep me company."
"That's your choice," he answered with a shrug.
They both came to a halt when they noticed Cecil had stopped walking at the edge of the plateau.
"There's no getting past this," Cecil said, distracting them both from their conversation.
Rydia glanced ahead at where Cecil had stopped. At first, she had thought it was just the beginning of a hill, until she joined him and stood with her toes at the edge of a cliff that dropped steeply into a ravine.
Edge and Rosa also leaned forward, admiring the sheer drop-off. "We could always climb it," Edge suggested half-heartedly.
Rosa scoffed. "And then have to climb back out again on the other side?" she said, nodding to the opposite side of the ravine.
Rydia looked as well, noticing how the ravine's far wall looked too steep to climb. It might be possible for a ninja, perhaps, but not for the rest of them. They would have to find a completely different route altogether.
"The pitch doesn't seem so bad over there," Cecil said, pointing to their left where the plateau gently curved downward and seemed to skirt the ravine.
They tested this theory, and walked along the cliff's edge until they arrived at the point where the plateau formed a narrow bridge that had seemed to span the ravine. They soon found their way blocked by pitfalls and terrain that was too perilous to navigate, however, and gave up on the route altogether.
Edge hopped atop a rise and peered into the distance.
"Anything?" Cecil asked wearily.
"There looks like a path was cut between the plateaus," Edge said, squinting. "Not part of any ravine—it's too even—but an actual path. Getting to it is going to be the problem."
Rydia sighed, already tired of walking.
They returned in the direction they'd come; but Edge, walking ahead of the group, steered them away and toward the southern face of the plateau. Here, there was a gradual descent and an easily discernible path that cut its way down the plateau's side and wound its way into a wide valley; though, it was in the opposite direction of where they wanted to be. The valley was surrounded on either side by the cliff of the plateau and the rim of a steep crater, but it didn't have as perilous of footing as the other routes they might have chosen.
"We're hedged in," Cecil observed, checking both sides for danger.
"I think we were meant to come this way," Edge remarked from ahead. "But it's a damn good way of warding off unwanted visitors."
"By making them walk through a bottleneck?" Cecil asked.
"Makes it easy to get rid of us," Edge admitted, "And, whoever invited us has a twisted sense of humor, knowing we'd have to walk all this way."
Rydia raised a brow, looking up at the cliffs around them. The path was broad, but at times, winding, and she wanted to know who it was that had requested their presence here, let alone why they hadn't come to meet them.
From up ahead, Edge suddenly held up his hand for them to stop.
They all halted, looking around cautiously but saying nothing.
Rydia's ears were tuned to the moon's silence, but now she noticed that the buzzing from before had increased in volume-becoming harder to ignore. It grew until it became a whine, and Rydia strained her ears, wondering what she should be listening for at all, or whether what she heard was entirely in her imagination.
Suddenly, she picked up on a strange shuffling noise from ahead, different from the whine in her ears. Not that of feet, but of something...fluid? She pivoted, looking behind them and around. There couldn't be water on the moon, could there?
But this was more strange—like something thick and viscous; like skin coming unstuck from glue, or mud being sucked out from under a footfall in the rain.
The sound became louder, reverberating off of the valley walls. The four of them tightened their formation, their backs together.
"What is that?" Rosa whispered anxiously, holding her bow in her left hand.
Out from around a bend in the path, slid four peculiar creatures, bobbing and creeping laboriously forward like snails. Rydia recognized the species; or at least, their Earth counterparts, and relaxed a little.
They were what she had nicknamed "jellies" as a child, and she recalled the ease at which she had disposed of them in her earliest travels with Cecil. A well placed spell and they were all but taken care of.
She closed her eyes, seeking the aide of Thundaga; a spell she had become more familiar with than her others in recent days. Her tongue shot forth words like angry arrows, but where she had once felt harmony and compliance, she now felt rebellion. The source of her magic felt far away, like throwing a rope a very great distance and then trying to reel in a heavy load with a poor center of balance. She struggled to maintain her spell's cadence, frustration coloring the edge's of her tone and melody, as the buzzing in her ears seemed to drown out the music of her spell. When she finally completed the invocation, the most meager of lightning bolts skittered out of the air, colliding into the creatures and doing nothing but tickle them. Their gelatinous bodies glowed with ire as they prepared to counterattack; and Rydia doubled over—out of breath.
She could sense everyone's eyes turn toward her in surprise, but there was no time to dwell on it. One flan had quickened its pace and approached them with revenge on its mind. Cecil dodged the long gelatinous arm it sent his way, his sword and shield battering away the rest of its amorphous mass. Every stroke of his sword did nothing but jiggle the creature's bulbous body and deflect his arm, as the four of them spread out to avoid the flailing arms of the angered flan.
Rydia recognized their predicament, but was too stunned by her magic's failure to be of much help. Magic was the only remedy for these particular fiends, and if she was unable to cast it, they would spend the next hour on the run.
Another flan had slithered past Cecil's defenses and come for her directly. It hurled out dense globs of gel, and they struck like clods of wet sand—painful and unexpected. Edge pulled her out of the way of its primary attack, a barrage of blows from its ever-twisting limbs. He stabbed the flan, his blade being half absorbed by the creature's body before it was repelled, and he with it.
"Rydia, are you alright?" Rosa asked, trying to pierce the amorphous creatures with arrows to no avail. The white mage flicked her gaze at Rydia and their eyes met.
"I'm fine, but—" Rydia said, leaping out of the way of another projectile attack. "My magic isn't heeding me!"
"How convenient," Edge complained, throwing shurikens into the bodies of the creatures only for them to bounce off again.
Rydia closed her eyes, putting some distance between herself and the others, and tried again. This time, she called upon fire. She summoned the furnace of the underworld to her command, but what should have been a firestorm of embers and flames, became muddled somewhere between her mind and her tongue, and resulted in a mere spurt of a candle's wick. The whine in her ears had become unbearably loud, drowning out everything else.
Rydia opened her eyes in time to see Rosa take a heavy hit and buckle, and Cecil lunge forward to defend her with his shield, only to be barraged by the twisting and flailing gels himself.
At her side, Edge had finally giving up on trying to physically wound the creatures, and briefly closed his eyes, arranging both of his hands into the forms that made up the language unique to his people and their magic. A shower of lightning bolts rained down on the flan, sizzling through them and burning their protective mucous into a dry skin. This slowed them down, but didn't kill them; and Rydia stared at him jealously, wondering why his magic had remained unaffected while she couldn't seem to make a single word obey her. Cecil took the opportunity of the distraction, to strike one of the flans with his sword, sheathed, and used the full length of the sheath as a bat to knock it backwards.
Edge adjusted his strategy, altering the signs he'd made with his hands—deft and quick—and flame swirled around each fiend like coiled snakes. This finally did the flans in, and they succumbed to Edge's magic, melting slowly to puddles on the lunar dirt.
For several minutes no one said anything, catching their breath. Finally, Rosa tended to her own injuries, wincing as she examined the state of her wounds and wove her words into healing spells.
"What happened?" Edge asked, turning toward Rydia.
Rydia heard the question as an accusation, and she refused to meet his gaze, staring at the puddles on the ground. "My magic feels...far away," Rydia said, all of a sudden overwhelmed with weakness and a painful headache. Her knees shook, and she collapsed to the ground, clutching her legs for balance. She recognized the fatigue she felt, the same fatigue as when she cast more than she could withstand. It disturbed her—that her magic had failed her in such a way—and especially since the buzzing in her ears had persisted.
"Mine seems unaffected," Rosa reflected quietly, completing her ministrations and tending to Cecil next.
Cecil glanced in Rydia's direction, and she felt, rather than saw his gaze.
"Has your magic ever done this to you before?" he asked.
She shook her head, wondering if she had spoken the incantations wrong—but no, they were just as she'd learned them.
"The crystals wouldn't answer me," she admitted.
This got odd looks from everyone.
"Wouldn't answer you?" Cecil inquired.
"I called and they—they wouldn't answer," she repeated, recalling the separation she had felt.
"And you hadn't noticed it before this?" Cecil asked quietly.
Rydia shook her head, not comprehending how she was supposed to have known.
"Rydia, if you feel your abilities diminish, I hope you would tell us," Cecil told her, concerned.
She nodded, feeling betrayed, and then stood unsteadily; her head making it seem as though the moon was tilted. She didn't notice until a moment later, that Edge was holding her up by the shoulder. His expression was inscrutable.
Rydia buried her frustration, resolving to get to the bottom of what had happened later; and once they had all regained their breath and their faculties, they continued.
With some measure of chagrin, Rydia noticed that Edge had given up his position at the front of the group and kept to her side instead.
She sighed out of frustration. "You don't have to keep me company," she complained to him.
He simply glanced at her, unaffected. "Your magic's never done that before," he observed.
"No," she admitted, wincing.
"And if I'm honest, combat is not your strong suit."
Rydia pierced him with an offended glare. "Are you saying I'm helpless without my magic?" she huffed.
Edge shrugged. "You're a summoner and a mage, so—yes."
"You are so lucky right now," she seethed, holding up her hand and pretending to squish him between two fingers. He shook his head, amused.
The path they traveled became narrower and narrower, until finally it came to an end at another steep crater wall. A cavern burrowed through it, and they paused to wonder if they should venture inside.
"We either climb or we go beneath," Edge said, inspecting the height of the cliff.
"It looks like something made this cave," Rosa said, staring at the cave entrance in trepidation.
Each of them turned their attention to the cave, dreading what might still be inside it.
"It could also lead us through this crater and closer to our destination," Cecil said.
"I'm game," Edge answered with a shrug. "It's not like I saved any dignity by coming here in the first place."
Rydia and Rosa shared an unenthused look.
"What about Rydia's magic?" Rosa asked, worriedly. "Wouldn't it be better if we weren't stumbling around in the dark without her spells to aid us?"
Rydia's spirits sank a little, but she knew Rosa had every right to be concerned. What if they encountered more fiends like the flans? What if they had no choice but to resort to magic? Her magic might not be lost entirely, but she certainly wasn't eager to find out.
"Thanks for that, Rosa," Edge said, clearing his throat.
Rosa glanced at the ninja and frowned. "You know what I mean," she appealed.
"She's not the only one on this team with magic," Edge reminded her, annoyed.
"What about the Eidolons?" Cecil asked Rydia.
Rydia crossed her arms and sighed. "I'm...afraid to try," she admitted. "Their lives are bound to mine, and if—" she trailed off, trying not to imagine the consequences of a summoning gone awry. "I wouldn't want to place them in danger until I knew exactly why my magic isn't behaving the way it should."
Cecil pursed his lips, weighing all of their options. "I still think this is our best chance," he said, turning back toward the cave.
"So let's go," Edge prodded, taking a few steps forward.
"Rydia?" Rosa asked, noticing how she was firmly rooted in place.
Rydia shoved her doubts to the back of her mind again, thinking that perhaps her previous failure had only been a fluke. Perhaps her experience on the Lunar Whale had had an unknown affect on her abilities. She smiled weakly back at Rosa. "Someone is waiting for us, after all," she said, finally walking ahead.
"Stay together," Cecil instructed each of them as they stepped into the darkness of the lunar cave. "There's no telling what fiends the moon has prepared for us."
0-0-0-0
A/N:
Again, sorry about the long delay. Thank you to my readers and reviewers! :)
I appreciate all of your support!
Till next update,
~Myth