Dancer

A/N: Question: Can I write a non —Mother series piece of fanfiction? Answer: Surprisingly, yes!

Every time Edge looked at Rydia in battle, she was always dancing.

A dance of magic, lightning in her hands, the essence of the elderly Ramuh, whose age never affected his abundant energy. Streams of electricity would weave around her in fields with every step. One step forward, the sparks gather closer. A flick to the side, and the sparks would jump from the earth.

Then she would end the pattern, holding her hands in the air with a sense of finality, having it crash upon whatever creature was unfortunate enough to be the target of the Lady Summoner. The spreading light shone through Rydia – though Edge knew she didn't the light to be dazzling.

When Rydia commanded blistering cold, her dance was more subdued. It was conducted not with the sheer energy of lightning, but rather with a finesse and delicacy befitting of Shiva. A careful, weighted gesture with her hand, coupled with soft gentle steps. Snow carefully gathered close to Rydia, chilling the very air around her. Icy winds swirled close by, before quickly snapping together, sending ice shards apart.

Once, Rydia had tried to quickly use an Blizzaga spell on Rubicante when he had separated an injured Cecil from the others. Rosa has been attending to some burns Kain had taken – Edge always found him strange and learning about his dubious past didn't help.

Rydia's quick casting had been able to kill the Archfiend of Fire and save Cecil – though her quick and somewhat imprecise movements had caused the ice shards to spread out in a more wild manner, leading to one getting stuck in her hair. The proceeding escape and stealing of the Falcon meant that she didn't notice – but Edge certainly did. Beautiful and pristine, two sentiments Edge thought applied to Rydia very much.

Yet, ice was also fragile in its very nature and Edge knew enough about Rydia and her past to know that she was anything but that, most evident when Edge had inevitably done something to earn her ire – such as the one time he'd actually gotten any sort of 'proper' glance at Rydia... it's a memory Edge will cherish and shudder at simultaneously. Either way, there were many times at which Rydia took after the element she detested the most – fire.

Fire was always a tricky topic for Rydia, and Edge empathised with Rydia – after all, both had lost their family partly due to some form of it. Rydia, despite her undoubted mastery of magic would always shy away from fire spells and the beastly Eidolon that represented them.

Hence, her dance was always one of caution. For every step she took, there was a slight stutter, as if anticipating the past to repeat. For every sweeping movement she made with her arm, she always seemed to stop the motion somewhat prematurely, scared of the fire bursting into an uncontrollable inferno.

When she finally finished her cautious movements, the fire would burst on an enemy in spectacular fashion – but Edge was more than sure she always held back. For her, fire was a force of destruction, one that had to be respected, lest it unleash that destruction upon you.

But even then, Edge would always believe that for all of her glacial beauty and shocking energy, her heart and passion was one of pure fire. When he first met her, she had been the one to stop his admittedly stubborn and deadly desire to seek vengeance by himself.

She had been the one to refuse to sit by and let Cecil, Kain and himself fight Zemus by themselves. And to Edge's dismay, she was always the one to continually reject all of his advances, both subtle and direct, towards her.

It wasn't until a story session with Rosa revealed to him the hardships that Rydia has been through, as well as the company she had been raised in, that made him realise that a girl from the Feymarch wouldn't exactly know how to respond to his advances. His title simply didn't mean anything to her, unlike the countless others he had success with.