Hymn to Fayth- Part 11
Author: dream-edge
Title: Hymn to Fayth
Summary: AU. Ziggy awakens an ancient power within himself and ends up joining the Rangers before he could ever join the Cartels. Dillon is guided to Corinth by a mysterious voice and learns the values of trust, friendship, love, and faith.
Rating: T
Pairings: Dillon/Ziggy
Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or anything related to the franchise. I do not own anything recognizable as from one of the Final Fantasy games.
Hymn to Fayth
Chapter 11
Everything started to go wrong when Tenaya appeared. Tenaya, his sister. Tenaya, his enemy. The girl he’d been searching for for so long and who had been in front of him all this time. The one he’d sworn to protect and hadn’t. He was already tired from fighting when she arrived. Ziggy had spent an entire afternoon trying to teach him how to use the powers he was gaining being his Guardian with admittedly little success. It had made him short tempered, frustrated, and mentally exhausted. Then the alarms had gone off and the attack-bot that had given them so much trouble came back; it was then, when it had thrown Ziggy away from the team, that he had foudn the strength somehow and managed to use the technique, an armor break attack that made the entirety of his Street Saber glow red, Ziggy had taught him. That had left him physically exhausted and made it impossible to hold off his sister for long.
That was when the other Rangers, completely unknowing of what was going on, had tried to help him. A million thoughts ran through his head as he watched the light of the attack from the Road Blaster approach his sister. In the end, it wasn’t a choice. She was his sister and no matter what she had done, he had to save her. He had always been a protector after all. He pushed himself in front of Tenaya, unmorphed and unprotected, but ready to give his life for her. Ziggy’s voice seared through his mind, completely and utterly terrified, as the younger Ranger realized what he was doing and that he wouldn’t be able to shield him in time.
“DILLON!!!!”
The first thing he registered after that was pain. The second was the ends of Tenaya’s scream. He turned immediately, reaching both hands down to his sister. Pain was flying through his body but he pushed it away with fierce determination, straining against the railing. “Give me your hand!” he shouted. She looked up at him and his heart lurched at the terror in her eyes. He could read in her gaze what she wasn’t saying. She didn’t want to die. “Give me your hand, please!”
She stared back at him then reached up and grasped his hand. “Don’t let go!” she pleaded. He struggled to pull her up, unable to get much traction against the railing. His shoulders and chest ached from where he had taken the blast and his muscles complained heavily, weariness settling over his mind from use of his Guardian powers.
Another hand laid over his, clutching Tenaya's wrist just tightly as tightly as he was. He glanced to the side, staring into Ziggy’s dark, determined brown eyes in surprise. “I trust you.” Ziggy whispered. He nodded slowly, suddenly knowing with absolute certainly Ziggy would follow him to the edge of the world if he had to. Together, they managed to get Tenaya securely back on her feet on the correct side of the railing.
The other rangers approached them, their helmets disappearing in a quick flash of their respective colors. “Why did you save her?” Scott demanded. He glanced over at Tenaya, who looked back at him briefly before returning her gaze to Ziggy. Ziggy himself was staring at her with such intensity that he might as well be looking into her soul. Knowing Ziggy, he probably was.
“Because, she’s my sister.”
Confused looks crossed everyone’s expression. The twins shared a look. “But your sister is-
“-Blind.” They whispered. Realization passed across Flynn’s face. “She’s a hybrid! She must have robotic eyes!”
He glanced over at his sister, watching as she raised one tentative hand to her eyes. The poor girl looked so very confused. Before anyone could say anything else, Ziggy reached forward and grasped the hand she’d raised, pulling it back down. He stared at her for another moment then looked over at him. A smile touched his lips. “I trust her.” He whispered. Dillon felt any tension in him drain out. In the end, Ziggy’s opinion was the only one that mattered.
Before anyone could say anything to that, and it was obvious they did, a tremor moved the ground beneath them. They all immediately turned to find that retched attack-bot back and big. Just this once he thought Could they not grow? He looked over at Tenaya as the others ran off. “I’ll be back.” He promised.
Whatever caused the attack-bots to grow obviously didn’t do anything to repair them because its armor was still in pieces from his attack. He felt a perverse joy as he stared at the damage, especially the ugly gash right across its torso. Without that thick armor, the attack-bot was actually rather easy to disperse. The battle was over in minutes. Despite the short amount of time the battle had taken, when he jumped down from the cockpit of his Zord, Tenaya was already gone. A scream of frustration built up in his throat but he pushed it back, instead slamming his fists against the railing and cursing heavily.
“She’s just scared.” Ziggy whispered, having followed him down. He looked over at the younger man. Ziggy was standing a few feet away, this time completely demorphed. There was a sympathetic but understanding look on his face. Ziggy stepped closer. “We’ll find her.” He promised.
He sighed heavily, turning his head to look down at the ground far below him. Before he could respond, frenzied shouts from the other Rangers caught their attention. They were still in the MegaZord, this time facing a new attack-bot. It was ugly and gleamed a twisted, dirty gold in the fake sunlight. Other than that, it was completely indistinguishable from the others. After a while, they all started to blur together. Before the Rangers could attack it, it started to emit a high-pitched whine and several parts of it glowed a sickly yellow. He winced briefly at the sound, trying to figure out what it was doing.
Then Ziggy screamed.
He spun towards the younger man, staring at him in horror. Ziggy’s hands were tangled in his hair, clamped down around his head, and his eyes were squeezed tightly shut. There were tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. He kept screaming, a terrible, pain-filled, tortured wail that Dillon doubted he would ever forget. He ran towards Ziggy and shook him roughly. “Ziggy!” he shouted, trying to get his attention. Ziggy just kept screaming.
The com link in his morpher crackled to life. “Series Black, knock him out!” Doctor K ordered. Dillon bit his lip but couldn’t think of any other options that would make Ziggy’s pain go away. “Forgive me.” He whispered. As gently as he could he found the pressure point at the base of Ziggy’s skull and pressed. Ziggy’s scream choked off into a brief whimper before he went limp. Dillon held him close, easily supporting the full weight of Ziggy's thin body, and ran his fingers through the curly brown hair. Once Ziggy was unconscious, the attack-bot disappeared. He glared after it, vowing he would make it pay for causing Ziggy so much pain.
--0--0--
Dillon stared down at Ziggy, fear, concern, and guilt warring for dominance in his mind. Ziggy was pale but otherwise in one piece; his breath was steady, his pulse was good. All his bones were in one piece, he wasn’t bleeding, he wasn’t even bruised. But he refused to wake up. He remained silent and unresponsive, sleeping the sleep of the dead. He looked up from his examination of Ziggy when he heard footsteps approaching Ziggy’s room. Summer paused in the doorway, staring in at the two of them solemnly.
“This isn’t your fault Dillon.” Summer told him. He glanced over at her then looked back at Ziggy, his throat tightening. “I know that. But it still feels like it is.” He whispered. “I’m supposed to protect him.” He closed his eyes, the images of what had happened dancing through his head. Summer’s voice prevented him from falling to deeply into the memory.
“You can’t protect him from everything.”
“But I should be able to protect him from the things that matter.” He reached forward and combed his fingers through the soft curls, Ziggy’s tortured scream echoing vividly in his ears. “How’s the search going for Tenaya?” he asked.
“I’m sorry Dillon, but we can’t find her.” She told him. He pressed his lips together and sighed heavily through his nose. Things had actually started to like all right for a too brief, brilliant moment. He’d had his sister and Ziggy, the only person just as important to him as Tenaya, had given him his support. Then, just like all the times before, it had fallen apart around him. Summer kept talking, unaware but perhaps guessing what was going through his head. “Doctor K said the attack-bot used some sort of energy wave that seems to cancel out Ziggy’s powers. She says he tried to fight it and that’s why it hurt so much, because the two energies were attacking each other inside him. She says he’s just fallen into a healing sleep. You couldn’t have protected him from that, Dillon. In fact, you did the best thing you could. If you hadn’t knocked him out, his body would have shut down from the pain.”
He turned his head to look at her. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.” He whispered. She nodded. “I know. It doesn’t make me feel better either.” She straightened and met his stare evenly. “Now come on. I’ve let you indulge in feeling sorry for yourself long enough. Ziggy will be fine. Help us take down that attack-bot.”
He smiled slightly at her words and stood up. Hesitating briefly, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Ziggy’s forehead, gently caressed one of his cheeks, then followed Summer down into the Garage. He pointedly ignored her amused look. The others were standing around a map of the city, several areas having been shaded out in red. Doctor K was organizing shifts to search through the rest of the city. Warmth filled him as he watched them; this was his team and they would do anything for each other. He hadn’t even realized just how close they’d all become till now, when he asked them to help the person they’d been fighting just yesterday; it had felt natural.
“Thank you.” He whispered.
They stopped and turned to look at him. Scott shrugged, looking highly uncomfortable. “Yeah, well, in the beginning Ziggy always said the team was family.” Flynn smiled and nodded, finishing for him. “Aye an’ family comes first, lad.”
“And when you aren’t searching for Tenaya 7, you will be rotating between sleeping and assisting me in finding a way to cancel out the energy wave that is affecting Series Green.” Doctor K said, bringing them all back on topic. They all nodded but before she could break them up for each shift, a soft, blessedly familiar voice drifted through the Garage.
“I might be able to help with that.”
He turned around immediately, a sigh of relief escaping him when he saw her. Tenaya was standing right next to his car, looking awkward and uncomfortable but not like she was preparing to bolt. He approached her slowly, not wanting to scare her into taking off again. She watched him come closer uneasily but didn’t back up or ward him away. He paused in front of her, staring at her for a long moment then reached forward and pulled her into a tight hug before she could react. She was stiff for a moment then surrendered to the embrace all at once, her hands fisting in his jacket and her head burying into his neck as if she didn’t want to let go.
But she did eventually, but only with reluctance and hesitance. Slowly, she turned to the rest of the team and, taking a deep breath, told them. “Shifter made that attack-bot. Its base code should be in the computers at the palace. I can retrieve them.”
“You’re not going alone. I won’t let you.” He told her sternly, making her look at him. There was relief and disbelief in her gaze, as if she had wanted him to say just that but hadn’t dared to hope for it. Scott opened his mouth to protest but Dillon cut him off. “No, I need to be the one to go. I have Guardian powers now. I’m going with her and you can’t stop me.”
There was nothing anyone could say to that really and it seemed that within minutes both him and Tenaya were heading out of the Dome to Venjix’s stronghold. Tenaya was silent for a long time, only speaking in order to point him in the right direction. He didn’t complain; his own mind was spinning with thoughts of just how many ways this could go wrong. The adrenaline of the situation was erasing the weariness of the first use of his new powers but it left his mind spinning to quickly and his throat feeling tight.
“He’s really… important to you, isn’t he?” Tenaya asked suddenly, gazing out the window. He nodded in agreement, knowing that the only person she could be talking about was Ziggy. “He is. He’s… something special.” He glanced over at her and frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Why does he trust me?”
He turned his eyes back to the endless sands in front of him and smiled softly. “Probably for the same reason he trusted me all those months ago. And he didn’t even know my name back then.” He caught her looking at him in consideration from the corner of his eye.
“And why did he trust you?”
He smiled wider now and shrugged. “He never did say.” He shifted in order to return her stare. “You’ll have to ask him yourself when we get back and get rid of that attack-bot.”
“Will I get a straight answer?”
“Probably not.”
He took his hand of the gearshift and held it to her. She paused for a moment then slowly entwined their fingers. He smiled again, squeezing her hand in comfort. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t think he needed to. That little gesture had said it for him. He was going to help her, no matter what.
--0--0--
He was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming. And this was, perhaps, the strangest dream he had ever had. He was standing on the edges of a ruined dock, facing a large sea, and was at the back of a small crowd. Torches lined the length of the dock, all of the lit and getting brighter as the sun faded towards the horizon. Ziggy looked behind him and flinched when he saw the tattered remains of a small village. He turned back to the crowd quickly, unable to bear the destruction.
He looked closer at the people around him. They didn’t seem to realize he was there at all. Their clothing was different, unique, and all together strange. A few of them stood in small clusters of three or four but many more than that stood alone, their cheeks wet with tears.
His attention was caught by a young woman at the front of the crowd who was talking solemnly and quietly with an older lady who was bent over from old age. The girl was very younger, perhaps younger than even he was. Like the rest, her clothing was strange and exotic but the basic cut of it was more familiar to him than the rest although he couldn’t pinpoint why. Her hair was a soft shade of brown, cut right above her shoulders; he couldn’t see her face because of the thick strands.
He watched as she turned and walked out off the dock and into the water. A few steps forward and there was a bright flash of power that made him turn his head away. When he looked back, the young woman was clutching a long staff in one hand, her bare feet ghosting on top of the water. She stopped and stood there for a long moment, then, with a deep breath, she began to dance. He watched as she moved seamlessly across the water, hypnotized in her rhythmic movements and caught in the spell she was weaving, the power she wielded spinning around her, creeping out slow tendrils that slipped beneath the water and others that reached up towards the sky.
As he watched, the details towards the edge of the screen bled together and resettled as something else. He didn’t give it much notice, only acknowledging that it was darker, the crowd and the village was gone, but the attitude was no less solemn or grave. And the young woman was still dancing, no longer on water but cold steel. As he watched, pyreflies appeared, caught on the tendrils of power and following their course towards the sky. He watched them for a brief minute before his attention was drawn towards something else. Lined around the edges of this new area, was a group of summons. He stared at them in surprise and with wide eyes.
Valefor, Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva, Bahamut, Yojimbo, Anima, and the Magus Sisters.
He watched as they slowly faded away into bursts of pyreflies. There was a reason he was seeing this, he knew there was, he just couldn’t figure it out. He stood there, his mind spinning with thoughts, as the girl slowly danced to an end, her staff disappearing in even more pyreflies. She turned in his direction and stared at him with tears in her dual-colored eyes. He recognized her now. Yuna, the last High Summoner of the Age of Spira, the bringer of the Eternal Calm. He stared back at her, knowing she wasn’t really looking at him. This was just another one of the former Summoners memories, all of which were available to him.
Yuna’s eyes closed, and she leaned back, letting herself fall to the ground. She landed hard and, much to his surprise, burst into pyreflies. The world around him immediately disappeared into different shades of black. It was only like that for a moment before everything resettled into that empty room with the large stone in the middle of it. He sat down heavily, staring at the stone and the half-sphere that protected it blankly.
“What’s going on?” he whispered to himself, not really expecting an answer but hoping for one anyway. Nothing came. He sighed heavily and shook his head, closing his eyes against this strange little room. It felt like everything going on was connected but he was missing that made it all make sense. He was missing the purpose of knowing what everything he was being shown was for and because of that, it was useless. But as he sat there, he was overcome with the feeling that he was going to find it all out soon.
He was running out of time.
Title: Hymn to Fayth
Summary: AU. Ziggy awakens an ancient power within himself and ends up joining the Rangers before he could ever join the Cartels. Dillon is guided to Corinth by a mysterious voice and learns the values of trust, friendship, love, and faith.
Rating: T
Pairings: Dillon/Ziggy
Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers or anything related to the franchise. I do not own anything recognizable as from one of the Final Fantasy games.
Hymn to Fayth
Chapter 11
Everything started to go wrong when Tenaya appeared. Tenaya, his sister. Tenaya, his enemy. The girl he’d been searching for for so long and who had been in front of him all this time. The one he’d sworn to protect and hadn’t. He was already tired from fighting when she arrived. Ziggy had spent an entire afternoon trying to teach him how to use the powers he was gaining being his Guardian with admittedly little success. It had made him short tempered, frustrated, and mentally exhausted. Then the alarms had gone off and the attack-bot that had given them so much trouble came back; it was then, when it had thrown Ziggy away from the team, that he had foudn the strength somehow and managed to use the technique, an armor break attack that made the entirety of his Street Saber glow red, Ziggy had taught him. That had left him physically exhausted and made it impossible to hold off his sister for long.
That was when the other Rangers, completely unknowing of what was going on, had tried to help him. A million thoughts ran through his head as he watched the light of the attack from the Road Blaster approach his sister. In the end, it wasn’t a choice. She was his sister and no matter what she had done, he had to save her. He had always been a protector after all. He pushed himself in front of Tenaya, unmorphed and unprotected, but ready to give his life for her. Ziggy’s voice seared through his mind, completely and utterly terrified, as the younger Ranger realized what he was doing and that he wouldn’t be able to shield him in time.
“DILLON!!!!”
The first thing he registered after that was pain. The second was the ends of Tenaya’s scream. He turned immediately, reaching both hands down to his sister. Pain was flying through his body but he pushed it away with fierce determination, straining against the railing. “Give me your hand!” he shouted. She looked up at him and his heart lurched at the terror in her eyes. He could read in her gaze what she wasn’t saying. She didn’t want to die. “Give me your hand, please!”
She stared back at him then reached up and grasped his hand. “Don’t let go!” she pleaded. He struggled to pull her up, unable to get much traction against the railing. His shoulders and chest ached from where he had taken the blast and his muscles complained heavily, weariness settling over his mind from use of his Guardian powers.
Another hand laid over his, clutching Tenaya's wrist just tightly as tightly as he was. He glanced to the side, staring into Ziggy’s dark, determined brown eyes in surprise. “I trust you.” Ziggy whispered. He nodded slowly, suddenly knowing with absolute certainly Ziggy would follow him to the edge of the world if he had to. Together, they managed to get Tenaya securely back on her feet on the correct side of the railing.
The other rangers approached them, their helmets disappearing in a quick flash of their respective colors. “Why did you save her?” Scott demanded. He glanced over at Tenaya, who looked back at him briefly before returning her gaze to Ziggy. Ziggy himself was staring at her with such intensity that he might as well be looking into her soul. Knowing Ziggy, he probably was.
“Because, she’s my sister.”
Confused looks crossed everyone’s expression. The twins shared a look. “But your sister is-
“-Blind.” They whispered. Realization passed across Flynn’s face. “She’s a hybrid! She must have robotic eyes!”
He glanced over at his sister, watching as she raised one tentative hand to her eyes. The poor girl looked so very confused. Before anyone could say anything else, Ziggy reached forward and grasped the hand she’d raised, pulling it back down. He stared at her for another moment then looked over at him. A smile touched his lips. “I trust her.” He whispered. Dillon felt any tension in him drain out. In the end, Ziggy’s opinion was the only one that mattered.
Before anyone could say anything to that, and it was obvious they did, a tremor moved the ground beneath them. They all immediately turned to find that retched attack-bot back and big. Just this once he thought Could they not grow? He looked over at Tenaya as the others ran off. “I’ll be back.” He promised.
Whatever caused the attack-bots to grow obviously didn’t do anything to repair them because its armor was still in pieces from his attack. He felt a perverse joy as he stared at the damage, especially the ugly gash right across its torso. Without that thick armor, the attack-bot was actually rather easy to disperse. The battle was over in minutes. Despite the short amount of time the battle had taken, when he jumped down from the cockpit of his Zord, Tenaya was already gone. A scream of frustration built up in his throat but he pushed it back, instead slamming his fists against the railing and cursing heavily.
“She’s just scared.” Ziggy whispered, having followed him down. He looked over at the younger man. Ziggy was standing a few feet away, this time completely demorphed. There was a sympathetic but understanding look on his face. Ziggy stepped closer. “We’ll find her.” He promised.
He sighed heavily, turning his head to look down at the ground far below him. Before he could respond, frenzied shouts from the other Rangers caught their attention. They were still in the MegaZord, this time facing a new attack-bot. It was ugly and gleamed a twisted, dirty gold in the fake sunlight. Other than that, it was completely indistinguishable from the others. After a while, they all started to blur together. Before the Rangers could attack it, it started to emit a high-pitched whine and several parts of it glowed a sickly yellow. He winced briefly at the sound, trying to figure out what it was doing.
Then Ziggy screamed.
He spun towards the younger man, staring at him in horror. Ziggy’s hands were tangled in his hair, clamped down around his head, and his eyes were squeezed tightly shut. There were tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. He kept screaming, a terrible, pain-filled, tortured wail that Dillon doubted he would ever forget. He ran towards Ziggy and shook him roughly. “Ziggy!” he shouted, trying to get his attention. Ziggy just kept screaming.
The com link in his morpher crackled to life. “Series Black, knock him out!” Doctor K ordered. Dillon bit his lip but couldn’t think of any other options that would make Ziggy’s pain go away. “Forgive me.” He whispered. As gently as he could he found the pressure point at the base of Ziggy’s skull and pressed. Ziggy’s scream choked off into a brief whimper before he went limp. Dillon held him close, easily supporting the full weight of Ziggy's thin body, and ran his fingers through the curly brown hair. Once Ziggy was unconscious, the attack-bot disappeared. He glared after it, vowing he would make it pay for causing Ziggy so much pain.
--0--0--
Dillon stared down at Ziggy, fear, concern, and guilt warring for dominance in his mind. Ziggy was pale but otherwise in one piece; his breath was steady, his pulse was good. All his bones were in one piece, he wasn’t bleeding, he wasn’t even bruised. But he refused to wake up. He remained silent and unresponsive, sleeping the sleep of the dead. He looked up from his examination of Ziggy when he heard footsteps approaching Ziggy’s room. Summer paused in the doorway, staring in at the two of them solemnly.
“This isn’t your fault Dillon.” Summer told him. He glanced over at her then looked back at Ziggy, his throat tightening. “I know that. But it still feels like it is.” He whispered. “I’m supposed to protect him.” He closed his eyes, the images of what had happened dancing through his head. Summer’s voice prevented him from falling to deeply into the memory.
“You can’t protect him from everything.”
“But I should be able to protect him from the things that matter.” He reached forward and combed his fingers through the soft curls, Ziggy’s tortured scream echoing vividly in his ears. “How’s the search going for Tenaya?” he asked.
“I’m sorry Dillon, but we can’t find her.” She told him. He pressed his lips together and sighed heavily through his nose. Things had actually started to like all right for a too brief, brilliant moment. He’d had his sister and Ziggy, the only person just as important to him as Tenaya, had given him his support. Then, just like all the times before, it had fallen apart around him. Summer kept talking, unaware but perhaps guessing what was going through his head. “Doctor K said the attack-bot used some sort of energy wave that seems to cancel out Ziggy’s powers. She says he tried to fight it and that’s why it hurt so much, because the two energies were attacking each other inside him. She says he’s just fallen into a healing sleep. You couldn’t have protected him from that, Dillon. In fact, you did the best thing you could. If you hadn’t knocked him out, his body would have shut down from the pain.”
He turned his head to look at her. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.” He whispered. She nodded. “I know. It doesn’t make me feel better either.” She straightened and met his stare evenly. “Now come on. I’ve let you indulge in feeling sorry for yourself long enough. Ziggy will be fine. Help us take down that attack-bot.”
He smiled slightly at her words and stood up. Hesitating briefly, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Ziggy’s forehead, gently caressed one of his cheeks, then followed Summer down into the Garage. He pointedly ignored her amused look. The others were standing around a map of the city, several areas having been shaded out in red. Doctor K was organizing shifts to search through the rest of the city. Warmth filled him as he watched them; this was his team and they would do anything for each other. He hadn’t even realized just how close they’d all become till now, when he asked them to help the person they’d been fighting just yesterday; it had felt natural.
“Thank you.” He whispered.
They stopped and turned to look at him. Scott shrugged, looking highly uncomfortable. “Yeah, well, in the beginning Ziggy always said the team was family.” Flynn smiled and nodded, finishing for him. “Aye an’ family comes first, lad.”
“And when you aren’t searching for Tenaya 7, you will be rotating between sleeping and assisting me in finding a way to cancel out the energy wave that is affecting Series Green.” Doctor K said, bringing them all back on topic. They all nodded but before she could break them up for each shift, a soft, blessedly familiar voice drifted through the Garage.
“I might be able to help with that.”
He turned around immediately, a sigh of relief escaping him when he saw her. Tenaya was standing right next to his car, looking awkward and uncomfortable but not like she was preparing to bolt. He approached her slowly, not wanting to scare her into taking off again. She watched him come closer uneasily but didn’t back up or ward him away. He paused in front of her, staring at her for a long moment then reached forward and pulled her into a tight hug before she could react. She was stiff for a moment then surrendered to the embrace all at once, her hands fisting in his jacket and her head burying into his neck as if she didn’t want to let go.
But she did eventually, but only with reluctance and hesitance. Slowly, she turned to the rest of the team and, taking a deep breath, told them. “Shifter made that attack-bot. Its base code should be in the computers at the palace. I can retrieve them.”
“You’re not going alone. I won’t let you.” He told her sternly, making her look at him. There was relief and disbelief in her gaze, as if she had wanted him to say just that but hadn’t dared to hope for it. Scott opened his mouth to protest but Dillon cut him off. “No, I need to be the one to go. I have Guardian powers now. I’m going with her and you can’t stop me.”
There was nothing anyone could say to that really and it seemed that within minutes both him and Tenaya were heading out of the Dome to Venjix’s stronghold. Tenaya was silent for a long time, only speaking in order to point him in the right direction. He didn’t complain; his own mind was spinning with thoughts of just how many ways this could go wrong. The adrenaline of the situation was erasing the weariness of the first use of his new powers but it left his mind spinning to quickly and his throat feeling tight.
“He’s really… important to you, isn’t he?” Tenaya asked suddenly, gazing out the window. He nodded in agreement, knowing that the only person she could be talking about was Ziggy. “He is. He’s… something special.” He glanced over at her and frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Why does he trust me?”
He turned his eyes back to the endless sands in front of him and smiled softly. “Probably for the same reason he trusted me all those months ago. And he didn’t even know my name back then.” He caught her looking at him in consideration from the corner of his eye.
“And why did he trust you?”
He smiled wider now and shrugged. “He never did say.” He shifted in order to return her stare. “You’ll have to ask him yourself when we get back and get rid of that attack-bot.”
“Will I get a straight answer?”
“Probably not.”
He took his hand of the gearshift and held it to her. She paused for a moment then slowly entwined their fingers. He smiled again, squeezing her hand in comfort. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t think he needed to. That little gesture had said it for him. He was going to help her, no matter what.
--0--0--
He was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming. And this was, perhaps, the strangest dream he had ever had. He was standing on the edges of a ruined dock, facing a large sea, and was at the back of a small crowd. Torches lined the length of the dock, all of the lit and getting brighter as the sun faded towards the horizon. Ziggy looked behind him and flinched when he saw the tattered remains of a small village. He turned back to the crowd quickly, unable to bear the destruction.
He looked closer at the people around him. They didn’t seem to realize he was there at all. Their clothing was different, unique, and all together strange. A few of them stood in small clusters of three or four but many more than that stood alone, their cheeks wet with tears.
His attention was caught by a young woman at the front of the crowd who was talking solemnly and quietly with an older lady who was bent over from old age. The girl was very younger, perhaps younger than even he was. Like the rest, her clothing was strange and exotic but the basic cut of it was more familiar to him than the rest although he couldn’t pinpoint why. Her hair was a soft shade of brown, cut right above her shoulders; he couldn’t see her face because of the thick strands.
He watched as she turned and walked out off the dock and into the water. A few steps forward and there was a bright flash of power that made him turn his head away. When he looked back, the young woman was clutching a long staff in one hand, her bare feet ghosting on top of the water. She stopped and stood there for a long moment, then, with a deep breath, she began to dance. He watched as she moved seamlessly across the water, hypnotized in her rhythmic movements and caught in the spell she was weaving, the power she wielded spinning around her, creeping out slow tendrils that slipped beneath the water and others that reached up towards the sky.
As he watched, the details towards the edge of the screen bled together and resettled as something else. He didn’t give it much notice, only acknowledging that it was darker, the crowd and the village was gone, but the attitude was no less solemn or grave. And the young woman was still dancing, no longer on water but cold steel. As he watched, pyreflies appeared, caught on the tendrils of power and following their course towards the sky. He watched them for a brief minute before his attention was drawn towards something else. Lined around the edges of this new area, was a group of summons. He stared at them in surprise and with wide eyes.
Valefor, Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva, Bahamut, Yojimbo, Anima, and the Magus Sisters.
He watched as they slowly faded away into bursts of pyreflies. There was a reason he was seeing this, he knew there was, he just couldn’t figure it out. He stood there, his mind spinning with thoughts, as the girl slowly danced to an end, her staff disappearing in even more pyreflies. She turned in his direction and stared at him with tears in her dual-colored eyes. He recognized her now. Yuna, the last High Summoner of the Age of Spira, the bringer of the Eternal Calm. He stared back at her, knowing she wasn’t really looking at him. This was just another one of the former Summoners memories, all of which were available to him.
Yuna’s eyes closed, and she leaned back, letting herself fall to the ground. She landed hard and, much to his surprise, burst into pyreflies. The world around him immediately disappeared into different shades of black. It was only like that for a moment before everything resettled into that empty room with the large stone in the middle of it. He sat down heavily, staring at the stone and the half-sphere that protected it blankly.
“What’s going on?” he whispered to himself, not really expecting an answer but hoping for one anyway. Nothing came. He sighed heavily and shook his head, closing his eyes against this strange little room. It felt like everything going on was connected but he was missing that made it all make sense. He was missing the purpose of knowing what everything he was being shown was for and because of that, it was useless. But as he sat there, he was overcome with the feeling that he was going to find it all out soon.
He was running out of time.