Rikku was much better with weaponry than brute working machines. A small part of her was always mildly uncomfortable with the fact that she could make a gun out of spare parts, but never seemed able to get a wagon to run as well as some others could, but she also supposed that was simply due to the circumstances she had found herself in in the past; working with her Father to defend Home, working with him and others to build machina to protect the summoners, becoming one of Yuna’s guardians and having to constantly fight, as well as repair and improve her companions weaponry. It just came naturally. She smiled to herself, remembering the look on Lulu’s face when she gave Yuna the pair of guns for her birthday instead of something more ‘practical’. She cheerfully would point it out to the black mage that Yuna used the guns a whole lot more than she used the various cookware Lulu had gotten her. Lulu would just make some noise about thinking more for Yuna’s future and giving her something to start a home with, but Rikku didn’t think like that, having been on the move with her people since she was born, never staying in one Home for more than five years, though she would admit that having someplace steady to call your own was quite a wonderful thing, and loved each and every place the Al-bhed had settled in for a while. But, being able to defend yourself, that was important, and ever since Yuna had joined the Gullwings, she had plenty of times where she was looking down the barrels of her guns at some fiend.
The lithe thief slowly slid down from the metal ornament to plop down onto the surface of the deck itself, the metal warm under the shine of the sun, a welcome change from the cold air flowing past. Laying back and folding her hands behind her head, her vibrant green eyes trailed the clouds as they flew past, occasionally spying a bird and following its flight with a steady gaze. She furrowed her brow a little, wondering why Buddy was flying so low, more sphere waves could be picked up at higher altitudes, but she shrugged her shoulders and set the question out of her mind for later. Yuna wasn’t going to unlock the deck door for at least two hours, so she wouldn’t be able to ask him anyway. Sitting up and pouting a bit, she glanced at a watch and sighed upon realizing that only ten minutes had gone past since she was ‘exiled’ to the deck. It was going to be a long two hours.
Yuna grinned. “On the deck. I locked her out there for a while so I could have some peace and quiet.”
Paine smirked, a faint sound of amusement escaping her as she glanced upwards. “You locked her on the deck? Why didn’t I ever think of that?”
Yuna rolled over onto her stomach, pulling her pillow over to prop herself up with below her chest, setting her book in front of herself. “I’m family, I’m allowed to do that to her now and then. I grew up with her visiting sometimes, and walked across Spira with her two years ago.” The gunners dual-colored eyes shone with amusement. “I love her dearly, but sometimes I value the silence.” She gave Paine a look. “And you hide yourself well enough that I get the most of her attention.”
The amused look never left Paine’s eyes. It was too subtle for most to spy, but Yuna had a knack for feeling others emotions, and she had been around Paine for a while now that she had begun to pick up the small things. “You can get earplugs and join me in the engine room. Buddy seems to have managed to set up some sort of anti-Rikku field down there, she hardly ever ventures down.”
Yuna laughed softly and shook her head. “No thanks. I honestly don’t mind it now and then, but I think not having walls around her will help Rikku a bit. Why were you looking for her anyway if you were hiding in the engine room?”
Paine gestured a bit as she walked over to her bed, picking up her sword from next to it, checking the blade. “I wanted to a bit of practice, and remembering that she was bored, I thought she might want to spar for a bit. Fast little thief, she keeps me on my toes.”
Yuna nodded. “She and Tidus would do that, sometimes Khimari too, on the pilgrimage.”
Satisfied with the sharpness of the blade, Paine hefted it up easily. “Care to join us then?”
“No, I think I’ll stay here and relish the silence for a while yet.”
“Suit yourself. See you in a bit.” Paine nodded to Yuna as she slipped down the steps and out, ignoring Oaka as he asked if she wanted to buy anything. Why they had let the shopkeeper aboard the Celsius was beyond her, his prices were horrendous, but she supposed that the Al-bhed automatically helped each other out no matter what. Not a bad thing, she thought. Entering the elevator, she pressed the button for the deck and waited as the machine moved.
Paine was a bit surprised to find Rikku practicing, she supposed the girl had gotten bored enough to settle upon an idea similar to the reason Paine had come to the deck in the first place. Setting the tip of her sword to the metal of the deck, she tilted her head slightly as she watched the lithe thief move, finding herself admiring more than just the ease of motion and confidence Rikku had with her weapons. She was never certain why Rikku wore the clothing she did, occasionally speculating it was because of the climate she was raised in, but with the amount of traveling to places that were occasionally quite cold, she thought the Al-bhed would have something more…substantial, to wear now and then. Not that Paine minded, she doubted anyone really did, Rikku had quite the appealing figure, and her clothing accented it quite well. The sunlight was especially nice to the warrior today, shining off of Rikku’s hair as it flew about with her motions, highlighting the faint sheen of sweat that appeared on her body. Paine shook her head slightly, pushing those particular thoughts aside, uncomfortable that she had let herself drift towards them.
Paine cleared her throat, hiding a smile as she saw Rikku jump in surprise. She swung around, blinking in the bright light of setting sun. A smile soon shone brightly on Rikku's features, causing Paine to make a comparison between her and the sun, only Rikku's smile was a different kind of dazzling. Twirling her daggers before putting them back on her belt, Rikku walked towards Paine, wiping at her brow with the back of her arm, her head tilted a bit. "Paine! Did you come to free me?" She grinned as she came up even with the warrior.
Shaking her head and lifting her sword up, Paine tilted her head towards it. "I was wondering if you wanted to spar for a bit? You seem to have had a similar idea.'
Rikku nodded and flexed a little bit, stretching her arms. "Yeah, though it was really more like me being really bored up here. Though if you give me a few moments to recover, I'd be happy to for a little. It's been a while since we have, hasnt it?"
Paine moved out towards the center of the deck, swinging her sword about a bit as she warmed up while waiting for Rikku to cool down some. "We've been fighting a lot of fiends, I dont think the three of us have really needed that much practice. But after sitting around for as long as we have, it doesnt hurt."
Looking over her shoulder, she spied Rikku looking at her out of the corner of her eye, smiling. The young Al-bhed pulled her daggers from her belt again and moved over behind Paine. "Or did you really just want to watch me sweat?"
Paine arched an eyebrow, and for a few moments, Rikku almost wondered if Paine was blushing. She looked about to vocalize it, but was cut off by the abrupt attack from the dark warrior. Dancing off to the side, she avoided the swing of the massive sword, clanging one of her daggers off of it for fun. Twisting, she sliced upwards with the other dagger, meeting nothing but air as Paine turned away from the strike. She grunted faintly as the warrior elbowed her in the back, but instead of losing her footing like Paine attempted, she used the momentum to flip herself forward and around, swinging her arms up to block the downward strike of Paine's sword with her daggers. Not having nearly the same strength Paine has, she twisted out from below the sword, sweeping her leg out to try to knock the warriors feet out from below her. Paine jumped backwards, giving Rikku enough time to get back to her feet and twist about. She crouched there, twirling her daggers as she eyed Paine, the older girl doing likewise, swinging her sword back into place in front of herself.
The staredown lasted for only a few moments before Rikku dashed forward in a low crouching run. Stepping back and raising her sword, Paine blinked in surprise as Rikku suddenly turned her back to her, staying her swing, only to be having to fall back to avoid the tip of one of the red daggers as it sliced upwards, nicking the end of her chin. Occasional wounds during the sparing matches was acceptable, as long as they werent deep, and by the shine in Rikku's eye, she knew that the thief was proud of herself for being able to contact. Paine couldn't let that one go unanswered, and dropped down, kicking at the back of Rikku's legs, catching the girl off guard much like Rikku had her. With a yelp, she tumbled backwards, her daggers sliding away, and as the younger girl fell down atop her, Paine surprisingly lost her grip on her sword. Rikku turned and rolled away, grabbing her daggers and twisting to face Paine, who had gotten a hold of her sword and was standing again, wiping at the blood on her chin.
"Getting tired?" Paine asked, covering the fact that she was breathing heavily herself as best as she could.
Rikku's bandana was a darker shade of blue as she sweated herself, but seemed quite with it yet, shaking her head and grinning. "No, why, are you?"
The warrior was about to reply when the ship lurched, sending her down to one knee and Rikku to her hands and knees. "Tyshed! Fryd dra ramm?" (Damnit! What the hell?)
"I don't know. We seem to be gaining altitude." Paine stayed on her knee as the airship began to climb, as well as increasing its speed.
"Buddy! What are you doing?" Rikku yelled to the intercom, getting only static as a response. She started moving towards Paine, another lurch of the ship knocking her to her back. Much to her horror, she began to slide as the airship started going higher.
"Rikku!" Paine dropped into a slide, using her sword to give her a hold, ignoring the screech of metal as the deck protested her grinding her sword into its surface. The ship lurched again, sending Paine slamming into the alcove of the door.
Seeing Paine use her sword to try to slow her fall, Rikku attempted to dig her daggers into the deck, but the smaller blades were unable to penetrate the metal, all it did was give a teeth shattering shriek of protest. "Paine! Oh Spira!" The ship sharply angled upwards, and one of Rikku's greatest fears involving Brother's airship came true.
She fell from the deck. Everything had been going so fast, but suddenly, it all seemed to be in slow motion. Locking eyes with Paine, she realized it was almost more frightening to see the look of terror in the warriors eyes, the first clear show of emotion that she ever remembered seeing, then the horror of falling, fast, towards the ocean below. Still holding her daggers, she twisted in midair, knowing that slamming into the water on her back would be a bad idea, positioning her body into a dive position, hands and daggers poised to cut into the water first and make it sting just a little less. At least, she hoped.
The next thing she saw made her blood go cold, not even seeing Sin for the first time gave her such a feeling inside. Rikku fell past the window, a look of complete terror on the girls face, the expression cementing itself in Yuna's mind. "No, Rikku!" She screamed, twisting around and leaping over the railing, falling hard to the tilted floor of the cabin, scrambling forward towards the emergency stairs at the side of the elevator. Ripping up the panel, she slipped in, grasping the handles at the sides of the ladder and sliding down, quickly getting to the control center of the ship. Slamming open the emergency door, she was greeted by chaos. Brother was laying at the foot of the stairs, Shinra crouched next to him. Buddy had managed to prop himself up against a railing, using a fire extinguisher on the main controls where Brother usually sat. Yuna blinked, moving forward towards Buddy.
"Buddy!" She stumbled a bit, grabbing the back of Shinra's chair to steady herself.
"Yuna! Get to my seat and get control of the ship!" Buddy shouted to her, not taking his eyes off the fire.
Yuna nodded and scrambled forward, dodging behind him and jumping up into his seat, grabbing the controls. Buddy had given her a few lessons on how to fly the ship, and she used what she knew to try to level the machine off. "What in Spira is going on!"
"I don't know, Brother's controls just exploded as he was getting into the seat and blew him back there, started a fire and sending the controls all psycho!" Buddy managed to get the flames out just as Yuna found the brake and leveled the ship off.
"We have to go back to where we were!" Yuna sounded hysterical, and Buddy noticed the tears streaming down the gunner's cheeks as he moved to his seat.
"What? Why? We have to take care of Brother and fix the ship." The navigator glanced over to where the Al-bhed lay against the stairs, Shinra tending to him.
Paine slammed through the doors, the raw, fierce emotion on the pale woman's face something none of them had ever seen before as she swung her sword out in front of her, looking ready to kill. Her crimson eyes quickly took in the state of the room, and her eyes leveled on Buddy. "Rikku. She fell from the deck."
If he werent wearing the goggles, people would have been able to see Buddy's eyes go wide. He gestured wildly to Yuna, the gunner slipping out of the seat and letting him sit down. "Right, lets see if the engines are still okay, we went about twenty miles." The airship shuddered, the engine undamaged but the controls still shaky as Buddy grimaced, fighting to turn the ship. Yuna moved back to Paine, the look in her eyes desperate, though she was clearly a little unnerved by the fierce expression on the warriors features.
"Paine, what happened? When the Celsius lurched like it did, I didnt know what was going on, then I...oh Spira, I saw her fall!" Yuna raised her fist to her mouth, biting down on her knuckle. Paine began to pace, walking forward to look at the burnt and now soggy seat where Brother had been, then looking back to the lanky Al-bhed laying on the floor. She shook her head slightly, then looked at Shinra.
"Shinra, this was an accident, right? Brother didn't do something stupid and have this happen?" Her voice was like cold venom, and the young boy shrank back a bit from where he was pouring a potion into Brother's mouth.
"I don't know. Brother said something about the controls acting funny since when we stopped in Kilika, and how they were really acting up today. He had opened the control panel to see why they were sticking so much, but he hadn't reached in before they exploded and blew him back. He wasn't even touching the steering or the throttle." Shinra quickly explained, for once not taking his usual 'Im just a kid' excuse. Paine seemed to accept this, espically when Buddy voiced his aggreement of the explination, and turned to face Yuna, her crimson eyes meeting Yuna's dual colored orbs.
"Lets get down to the engine room. Once Buddy gets us back to where we were, we take the raft out. You learned to swim, right?" She didn't pause to wait for an answer as she walked past Yuna, who was still on the verge of panic, but followed.
"Yes, Rikku taught me. I'm not as good as she is, she's the best of any other Al-bhed that was ever on a salvage crew!" Remembering Rikku's ability as a swimmer seemed to brighten Yuna, the girl clinging to that with all her might.
"Good, because where we were, there's nothing but a whole lot of ocean."
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