Ruby and Emerald (part 4 of 9)

Note: Italics indicate a flashback.

"You do this on a regular basis?" Paine asked a little breathlessly as she ran behind Rikku, glancing over her shoulder at the very large and very angry chimera that was chasing after them. It had oversouled, and when they realized that their attacks weren't doing a thing, Rikku declared it time to flee.

"Oh, yes, of course Paine. I go out each day with every intention of running for my life! Keeps me in shape!" Rikku didn't bother to look back at the fiend, her scarf flowing behind her as she ran through the Thunderplains towards the travel agency. Each strike of lightning nearby still made her flinch, but after her little camping trip she was much calmer in this particular area. Of course, that was on days that she wasn't being chased by something that wanted to eat her head.

"Oh, well, you could have fooled me." Sarcasm, Rikku was quickly learning, was a standard of speech for Paine. The warrior had only been with the Gullwings for a week, and the two women were prodding a bit at each others boundaries still, Rikku a fair bit more than Paine was.

"Pah, we've only run from three!" Rikku skidded down a small incline, mud now coating the side of her leg. She glanced over her shoulder to the dark clad, and now slightly muddy as well warrior. "A little running never..Look out!"

The chimera had managed to get closer even as they ran fast, Rikku spying the monster readying to strike. She turned and dove towards Paine, knocking the surprised girl aside as the chimera's claw swiped where she used to be, snagging on Rikku's scarf and dragging her back a bit. Paine growled and swung her sword out, striking at the fiend's arm as Rikku squirreled out of her scarf and out of the monsters reach. The chimera roared as Paine's angry strike hit home enough that it pulled back, giving them enough of a break to get near to the travel agency, near enough that the angry fiend finally stopped it's chase as the two ran into the building.

A young Al-bhed girl looked up in surprise as the door slammed open and Rikku and Paine ran into the inn. Rikku fell to her knees in front of the fire, hands on the ground and head hanging as she panted to catch her breath. Paine came to a stop next to her, bending over and resting her hands on her knees, breathing heavily as well.

"Ah..alright, are you?" The innkeepers accent was thick and her Spiran still shaky as she blushed in embarrassment. She was likely set out in the Thunder plains by Rin precisely because of that, not many people came through the area, even though the Al-bhed were jabbering about fixing the lightening towers.

Rikku lifted her head and smiled crookedly. "Fiend, oac, fa'na veha, kud yfyo vnus ed." (Fiend, yes, we're fine, got away from it.)

The girl smiled and nodded, and flipped a few pages in a book. "Room?" She looked back and forth between Rikku and Paine, blinking after a moment. Paine had to smile lightly as she saw the light of recognition in the innkeepers eyes, her smile growing a little more as she heard Rikku groan lightly as she knew what was going to come next.

"Kiynteyh Rikku!" (Guardian Rikku!) She hurried around the counter to help Rikku stand, who tried vainly to wave off the 'help' as the girl started to babble, Paine watching amused as it actually flustered the usually hyperactively talkative thief.

Paine straightened up once her breath was caught again, walking over to a chair and settling herself in it, watching as the innkeeper talked Rikku into a figurative corner, asking question after question about numerous things, many focusing on the Pilgrimage to defeat Sin. Paine knew of Rikku's time with Summoner Yuna, everyone in Spira knew of it, though a good portion of the population liked to ignore both the fact that Yuna was half Al-bhed, and that there was an Al-bhed guardian who aided in the final defeat of Sin. The Al-bhed themselves, though, were quite proud of these facts, Yuna and Rikku held in high regard among their people. Add onto it that Rikku was the daughter of the Al-bhed's tribal leader, and you got one of the higher held people in Spira. Who, Paine discovered, didn't much like to talk about either of those things.

She found it admirable. Initial impression would make one think that Rikku would enjoy the attention, and not be so humble about it, but Rikku insisted that she was only doing what anyone else would. Of course, not just anyone would do the things done, but Rikku didn't seem to consider that. From talking with Buddy, Paine learned that where Brother was happy to let it be known that he was the son of Cid, Rikku seemed to be determined to make a name for herself outside of that, and Paine could see that she also wanted to be known for something other than being a Guardian. While the girl's humility over it was admirable on one level, Paine was also a little confused, thinking that she'd want to be known for such a world altering event. The fact that she was curious over it all irritated her, though, and it was unlikely that Paine would ever actually ask Rikku directly about it.

"Alright, alright, we'll take a room. Right Paine?" Rikku's smile was a little forced as she looked to the tall warrior for help.

"You get to pay for it this time." Paine replied, stretching her arms out to the sides.

"Oh, no! No need gil!" The girl shook her head quickly, walking back behind the countertop and getting a key, hurrying back to Rikku. "Here, room down hallway open, two bed." Rikku tried to object and give the girl the gil, but no matter what she said, it was refused. Finally, likely to just get away, Rikku agreed and grabbed Paine's wrist, hauling the girl up and dragging her down the hall to the indicated room. Opening the door, she almost shoved Paine in before entering and closing the door behind her. Paine smirked, walking over and sitting on one of the beds.

"So insistent on getting me into the room. I'll have you know I'm not that easy." She continued to smirk, and Rikku rolled her eyes as she flopped over onto the other bed.

"Ha ha. I'm so amused." Rikku made a slight face, and Paine ignored the slight twinge the rejection of the teasing sent into her.

Paine blinked out of the memory, shaking her head a little as the feeling from the end of the memory drifted briefly through her. She reached up and rubbed her hand against her eyes, murmuring lightly. "Even back then?"

She looked down at Rikku, frowning lightly as she noticed the pained look on the Al-bhed's features, the heavier breathing of restless dreams causing Rikku to jerk slightly now and then, the pain from her arm likely causing the unsettledness. Paine suspected it was a motion from her that had drawn her from her revery, and she reached up to stroke her fingers softly through Rikku's bangs. Murmuring a soft soothing nonsense sounds to Rikku as she reflected on the memory, she mused, speaking softly to herself.

"Well if that's not a blatant reminder of past emotions, I don't know what it was." Paine sighed softly, her eyes lifting to the stars. The entire day had seriously unnerved her, and that was worrisome enough without past emotions clouding the issue. She had trained herself to press her emotions to the background, they too often interrupted or got in the way when clear thinking was in order. With a light grunt of irritation, she realized that she had run into her old nemesis: the fact that when it came to situations like this, she needed to both be clear minded, and let her emotions come in as well. Paine loathed getting herself into this sort of mess.

"But is it such a mess?" She looked down at Rikku again, her ruby colored eyes shining in the dim firelight. "Dangerous to fall for a teammate, but at the same time...some of the best partnerships can be formed that way. And we do fight well together." The memory caused her to smile while thinking of that statement. "At least, when we're not running from an oversouled fiend."

Paine looked over at Yuna, the gunner sprawled out on her back and snoring lightly. Yuna had added an entirely new dimension to the fights with fiends, and while her skills were appreciated, Paine had initially felt that the addition of the girl to their group was more of a disruption than anything. She and Rikku had a year and a half of experience together, and she thought they did well enough alone. The fact that Rikku had been one of Yuna's Guardians, and thusly knew her cousin's fighting style, despite Yuna never having used guns before, helped them find a way to work together. It also helped that she and Rikku had the 'joy' of convincing Yuna to actually use the guns and stop being such a pacifist, teaching her to use them let them tailor the ex-summoner's skills to work with them best.

It also irritated Paine that Yuna was just so good at getting under her skin in a way that she couldn't snap at her for. Rikku had a knack for asking questions in the way that left it open for Paine to retaliate with 'respect points'. It was a playful teasing at this point, and Paine realized that she mostly did it for Rikku's reaction, which she found rather cute, despite acting as if it was annoying. Paine now understood why Gippal insisted on continuing to call her 'Cid's girl', even if the Machine Faction leader was an arrogant twit and she wanted to beat him every time he got Rikku riled up, at least lately.

"Damn, I've been crazy for you for quite a while now, huh?" Paine let herself smile as her mind pulled up time after time that showed her feelings. Everything from wanting to kill Gippal to the slight murderous rages that she would go into if a fiend managed to strike Rikku. Most obvious of them all, the issues of today and the fear that it brought up. That fear was more than just the fear of losing a teammate, that was the fear of losing someone so important, that if they were gone, one's life would never be the same.

"Oh Spira, oh fayth, oh Spira..." Rikku ran as fast as she could through the dark cave, crying out lightly when she tripped and scraped a layer of skin off of her arm. "Brother! Can you hear me!"

No response came from the Celsius, Rikku to far underground for the communicators to properly work. "Tyssed!" (Dammit!) She tripped again, just barely managing to keep herself from plummeting over the edge of a very large crevice. As she paused to regain her balance, she heard the roar of a fiend echo off the rock walls, the sound coming from somewhere in front of her. The sound of steel against stone was heard immediately after, and Rikku spurred herself back into motion.

"Fayth preserve you Paine, if you get yourself eaten down here I swear that I'm actually going to go to the Farplane to bitch you out. And that's saying a lot from me!" A teensy part of Rikku's ever active mind felt a twinge of guilt in how she hadn't visited the Farplane since about a month after Sin was destroyed. Sure, the Al-bhed didn't really believe that the figures the pyre flies showed were actually the person who passed on, but after finding out more about the Unsent, and having a bit of a heartbreaking crush on one, Rikku tried to go, to see Auron, and talk to him. She knew that Yuna had visited almost monthly, trying to summon an image of Tidus, but never successfully, only managing to call forth her father, and by reports from Lulu, the monk as well. Rikku had found after that first time that she went, that she never really could bring herself to face those memories again, the pain from losing him still fresh in her heart, despite remembering his rejection of her feelings when she had worked up the courage to tell him.

A greater part of Rikku's mind reminded her of why that pain was fading though, and the irony of Paine's name wasn't lost on the girl. It was nearing the year mark since Paine had joined the Gullwings, and Rikku had come to the conclusion that she had developed feelings for the dark warrior, things she thought she'd never feel again after everything with Auron. She was also currently deathly afraid of losing Paine down in this cave, the thought once again kicking greater speed to her flight.

The sounds of battle got louder as she approached, and skidding around a corner, Rikku entered into a large cavern, lit by several fires burning in some unidentifiable fluid near the walls. A positively immense drake stood in the center of the cave, one of it's forepaws laying cut off on the floor, blood covering half of the cavern's base. Paine stood on the far side of the cave, wielding her formidable sword in one hand, her off arm hanging uselessly at her side. She was coated in blood, hers or the fiends, it wasn't really clear. The fiend seemed to be weakening as blood flowed from it's leg, but at the same time, so was Paine. It took every ounce of self-control for Rikku to keep from screaming at the sight, not wanting to distract Paine but not the fiend.

Rikku felt a rage building in her that she hadn't felt since facing Sin, only this time there was no fear getting in the way. Anger boiled to the surface, abject hatred for the fiend clouding her mind of most rational thought. She could feel it burning inside of her, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the handles of her daggers with such force that she would later discover that she had slightly dented the metal. The fiend struck out with it's head, striking Paine in the side and throwing the warrior against the far wall near one of the pools of flame, the older woman sliding down to the ground without a sound, eyes closed.

A scream echoed through the cave, confusing the fiend as it looked down at it's unmoving foe. Rikku charged into the room, leaping up upon the fiend's back, her daggers driving down into it's shoulders with two satisfying 'thunk's. The next scream came from the drake, the monster tossing it's head and bucking about to try to dislodge the creature on it's back. Rikku held tight to her daggers, she had angled them in to prevent from being easily removed, her legs clamped around it's sides. The fiend slipped in it's own blood, falling down onto it's chest, Rikku pulling her daggers from it and slashing them across the back of it's neck. It managed to toss her from it's shoulders and she tumbled easily back to her feet, landing in front of Paine, not seeing that the warrior's eyes were open again.

The drake stood on it's bloody stump, letting it strike out awkwardly with it's good arm, claws hissing through the air. Rikku easily dodged, dancing to the side and slicing upwards with both daggers. A roar of pain was her reward as she severed a tendon, two of it's toes curling uselessly. It's huge head struck downwards, jaws agape as it tried to bite the small thief. Rikku slid below it's neck, the tip of her dagger digging into it's neck just above the collarbone, a snap and a roar showing that she managed to break bone. Her chest was coated in the fiend's blood, the red rage in her mind now red vision as well as some got into her eyes, drawing a string of curses from the Al-bhed as it stung. She refused to close her eyes, rolling out from below it as it tried to crush her below it's weight. Slipping in the blood on the ground, she cried out as it's claws dragged down her back, lurching forward and feeling her own blood mingling with it's. A teeny part of her mind hoped that it wasn't a poisonous fiend as she twisted around just in time to see it's head coming down at her. Dodging to the side, she brought both daggers up to bear, stabbing one squarely into the beasts eye, the other striking down as it shrieked in pain, the sound echoing through the cave and stabbing into Rikku's mind. Abruptly, the sound was cut off, a dull, wet thud as the severed head fell to the ground with something of a splat. The body stood for a moment, teetering back and forth before it fell with a thundering crash onto it's side, the soft hiss of pyreflies leaving the body following as it dissolved.

Her shoulders heaving as she struggled for breath, Rikku stood and watched the fiend fade away to nothingness. "Just once, I want a trophy from these fayth damned things." She scowled, wiping ineffectually at her eyes with the back of her hand, dropping her daggers to the floor of the cave with dual clanks as the stinging pain rocketed through her head, causing her to drop to her knees. "Vilg, vilg, vilg." (Fuck, fuck, fuck.)

"Rikku?" Paine's voice was shaky and weak, but to the thief, it was one of the most beautiful sounds in all of Spira.

"Paine?" Rikku opened her eyes again, cursing as she found her vision cloudy. "Are you okay?"

"I've been worse, I'm...great fayth, Rikku!" Paine just clearly caught sight of the blood soaked thief, a dark blurry shape detaching itself from the wall and moving over to her, Paine having to somewhat crawl. "What's yours and what's the fiends?"

Rikku shrugged a bit, hissing lightly at the stinging that sent down her back. She had been in worse pain in her life, but this, this was like a thousand small superheated needles dragging over her skin and stabbing into her eyes. "I think most of it's from the drake. Can you stand?" Rikku stood, fumbling a little before finding her daggers, the motion not lost on the warrior.

"No...you can't see well, can you?" Rikku felt Paine's hand lightly touch her thigh and she turned towards it, reaching down and resting her hand over Paine's.

"Just from the blood in my eyes, once I wash them out I'll be fine." The cave went dark as Rikku closed her eyes again, only a little flickering light from the fires visible behind her closed lids. She crouched down next to Paine. "Here, put your arms over my shoulders, I'll carry you out on my back."

"Can you.."

"Yes."

Paine sighed lightly and wrapped her arms about Rikku's neck, using what strength she had to help the smaller girl stand. Rikku was half doubled over as she reached back, hooking her arms behind Paine's legs and holding the warrior up. "I'll guide you."

"Good, cause the other option is me blindly stumbling through the cave and hitting things." Rikku turned her head slightly so Paine could see the slight smirk, which also let her see that Rikku was just barely covering the fact that she was in pain, likely from something other than the blood in her eyes. Paine leaned her head back a little and glanced down between their bodies. The fiend's blood was darker red than Rikku's, so she was quite easily able to tell that Rikku's back was coated with her own, and spy the claw marks.

"Rikku..."

A soft touch against her forehead began to draw Rikku from her dreams, the echoing terror and sense of fear from the memory of nearly losing Paine to the drake that day slowly fading as consciousness returned. "...little thief." She became aware at the end of something Paine said, furrowing her brow and shifting a little, gasping softly as she disturbed her arm.

"Buh?" She managed to say, her eyes opening to the dim light of the approaching dawn. For the barest of moments she wondered if she saw Paine blushing, deciding it was nothing more than the red light from the rising sun.

"Rikku...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Paine faintly stroked her fingers along Rikku's good arm as the blond girl shook her head.

"No, it's okay. Bad dream anyway."

"Oh?"

"Yeah...remember that time about half a year ago when we had split up in those caves, and that drake attacked you?"

Paine furrowed her brow for a moment, glancing up to the horizon as she thought, before blinking lightly. "The big poisonous one that nearly made you go blind? Yeah, I remember..."

"Yeah, the one that also nearly paralyzed you? Stupid pycdynt." (bastard) Rikku reached up to hold Paine's hand in hers, her eyes shining with a sudden clarity. "I was...I never told you how scared I was of losing you that day."

This time Paine did blush, the soft pink dusting over her cheeks. She threaded her fingers with Rikku's, squeezing softly. "If...if it was anything like how I felt when we were out in the boat looking for you, I think I can say that I understand the feeling.

The silence that fell was heavy like the fog that developed in the cool morning air, ruby lost amid emerald as the two looked to each other, both seeking answers to the question they were too afraid to ask. Nothing in her training had prepared Paine to help her find the right words, while Auron's rejection sang loudly in Rikku's mind and stirring up fears of forever altering their relationship for the worse.

As the sun rose over the horizon, casting it's warm rays over the sand, both Paine and Rikku opened their mouths to speak at the same time.

"Rikku, I..."

"Paine, I..."

"..." Each paused, holding her breath while waiting for the other to continue. Paine was lost in the swirls of Rikku's eyes, wondering if that was the reason for them, while Rikku herself was entranced by the shine of Paine's, thinking that no ruby ever stolen could compare to the sight. Each was about to speak simultaneously, as these things are wont to happen, when they were interrupted by a sharp scream that caused them both to jump, Yuna leaping to her feet and stumbling back towards the water, one hand over her mouth while she pointed towards the center of the island with the other.

"Great fayth!"