Title: Risky Business
Author: SleeplessRebel
Rating: PG (So far anyway.)
Disclaimer: I know it's gonna be VERY HARD TO BELIEVE, but I did NOT create Final Fantasy X or any of its characters! Who would've thought!
Comments: Here's the first chapter of a story I haven't quite figured out yet. Thing is, I don't want to waste my time writing the rest of this story, or even THINKING about it, if nobody's going to want to read it. So I'm posting this here, and if enough people like it, then I'll continue. If I do end up continuing, I'll be slow about it, so please don't kill me. The only way I'll know if you like it is through reviews, so please, help me out here. Communication is essential! And if you don't like it, also review saying you don't, because...that'll influence me to stop writing and wasting my time with this story that probably won't turn out to be very good anyway.
Whew! Done with the self-bashing, on with the story!
Oh, and try to guess what the couplings are gonna be. Shouldn't be too hard.
-----
"Are you stuck?"
"I don't know, am I stuck?"
"Well, did you try moving your foot?"
"No."
"Why not!?!??"
"Because I'll have to climb that...thing."
"The sooner you climb it, the sooner Yuna will be safe!"
Tears welled up in Rikku's eyes as she yanked her foot out of the crevice it had fallen into. In a lame attempt at comfort, Tidus wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Ready to go?"
"Do I have a choice?" Rikku frowned.
At every strike of lightning, Tidus felt Rikku's heart jump as she clung more tightly onto him. He couldn't even imagine how it must have felt for her to be surrounded, inescapably, by her greatest fear. From her hollow eyes and staggered breathing, though, he surmised that her fear was greater in magnitude than the pain of birthgiving. Guilt flooded through him for what she was about to have to undergo, but this was an essential risk. Besides, Rikku had volunteered to do this job, knowing that she was really the only one capable of doing it. Their assailants probably planned this all along, crafting a task that would have to be completed by the person who would be most traumatized. Dirty sadists.
The rest of the group was waiting for them at the lightning tower. They watched in shock as Rikku bravely pushed Tidus away from her and advanced with no hesitation towards the monolith. She lifted her chin, barely able to see the tower's tip. One deep inhale. Two deep inhales. And then, a strike of lightning hit the tower, travelling down its length until it buried itself into the ground. Tears exploded from Rikku and her body fell limp, convulsing at every sob.
"Rikku..." Tidus reached out to her, but Lulu caught his hand before he could touch the girl.
"The only way she can do this is alone."
"Why does she have to do it!? Why can't Wakka do it!?"
But he knew the answer. When Wakka offered to climb for her, Rikku refused. Something this dangerous needed to be finished as quickly as possible, and she could climb twice as fast as him.
"Hey, Rikku!" Tidus called out, "If you get this done, Auron will carry you the rest of the way through here! All right?"
Rikku turned to face him, smiling gratefully through the tears that soaked her face. She said nothing in return, though. Fear had paralyzed her vocal cords.
Auron was glaring daggers at Tidus, but the boy only laughed and patted his shoulder. "Come on, Auron, she deserves it. Do her a favor, won't you? Besides, the reward will motivate her."
A sigh escaped the man's lips as he returned his attention to the poor mess in front of him. Still, the Al Bhed had not budged. She couldn't even stand.
"Maybe we should think of another way to do this, ya?" Wakka suggested.
Apparently, Rikku found her breath again. "What did you have in mind, a ladder!?!?!? There is no other way!!" Her voice was unrecognizable. "Look! I said that I would give my life for Yunie, and I'm not going back on my word!" Those words provided the strength for her to crawl closer to the tower, until it was inches from her face. She slapped her hand on it. It was time.
The speed at which she raced up that tower was breathtaking, and also humorous in a way when compared with her drawn out pause beforehand. At any rate, she flawlessly proved that she was, in fact, most fit for this job. Reaching the top in a matter of seconds, she grabbed the only item she saw and slid back down. But not entirely untouched. The tower inevitably attracted another lightning bolt that chased her down, singeing her shoulders as she was thrown off ten feet above the ground.
Auron was there to catch her fall, though, as Tidus had promised.
Sending the staff clattering onto the ground, Rikku clutched Auron's shirt and coated it with her tears, trembling so tumultuously that the man actually had to use some muscle power to keep her in his grasp. He tried his very best not to touch her newly acquired second-degree burns.
Picking up the staff that Rikku had dropped, Tidus smoothed out its light scratches with his thumb. He began to quiver himself, running his fingers along its breadth, this rod that was practically an extension of Yuna's body, and handed the thing to Lulu before it could pull any more emotion out of him.
"Rikku, that was impressive--" Wakka began, but Auron's glance shut him up. Compliments would do nothing to ease her at this point.
"Found it." Lulu ripped a sheet of blue cloth from the edge of the staff. Burned into it was a message that she read aloud: "High, high, up in the sky."
"That's no help!" Wakka scowled, kicking a pebble and plopping onto the ground.
The black mage pulled a piece of paper from her pocket, reading it for a second time. "If you want Yuna back, climb the lightning tower. Otherwise, we'll gut her like a fish!" Their first clue. The first thing Rikku saw when she noticed Yuna was missing. The death sentence so neatly laid out on Yuna's bed at the inn, flecked with red rose petals that mocked the entourage, the beauty that laughed at their horror.
At least their antagonists hadn't been too cruel. There were ten lightning towers to choose from, and the one closest to the inn was the logical one to start with. Perhaps the enemies were teasing them, saving the real torture for later.
Kimahri broke the silence. "Home."
Lulu cocked her head at him questioningly.
"Mt. Gagazet..." Tidus lit up. "Yeah! Mt. Gagazet! There are only two ways to go, right? It's gotta be around there somewhere!"
"I say we go for it." Standing up, Wakka snatched the cloth from Lulu's hand. "High, high, up in the sky. Mt. Gagazet's tall, and it's North. Makes sense either way, ya?"
Lulu looked to Auron for confirmation, and he granted her a quick nod. The girl in his arms was in too much of a wreck to contribute any opinion. She probably wasn't even aware of the conversation they were having. Sympathetic, Auron held the traumatized girl closer to his chest, shielding her face and torso completely from the lightning as the group trekked onwards.
---
Rikku's eyes fluttered open to a mosaic of crystals enveloping her. She sat up, rubbing her eyes and greeting the night with a thick yawn. Licking her lips, she tasted her dry tears, and flinched at the memory of what caused them. She tried to stand up, but could not.
"Hm?" A blanket. No wonder she was so warm. It was snagged on a crystal, and she pulled it free, wrapping it around her shoulders as she hobbled forward.
Sitting on a log in front of a roaring fire, Auron was the only other person awake. Rikku made her way forward, sitting down next to him and allowing the blanket to drop to her lap as her skin absorbed the flame's heat.
Auron didn't even acknowledge her, and it was several minutes before any word was spoken. "Thank you," she breathed, staring blankly into the fire.
"How are your shoulders?"
"Huh?"
Turning his head to face her, Auron traced his gloved fingers along the scars on Rikku's right shoulder.
"Can't even feel them." Rikku smiled genuinely, and the return of her personality greatly relieved her elder guardian. "What time is it?"
"Well past midnight." Auron stood up.
"Wait, where are you going?"
Stopping, the man looked back at Rikku. "My job was to stay on guard duty until you woke up. I'm going to sleep." He began to walk off, but Rikku tugged at his sleeve before he could move any farther.
"Here." She unwrapped herself from the blanket and held it out for him. "You'll need it. It's pretty cold over there."
Blinking a few times, Auron accepted the offer. "Thank you," he muttered, making his way to the tangle of tree roots that had been Rikku's bed only moments beforehand.
Rikku's attention returned to the hearth. She hugged her legs, rocking back and forth and turning over the day's events in her mind. "Yunie..." She sighed, one lone tear travelling down her cheek. It was all she could muster up after being drained by her recent trauma. "We'll find you, Yunie. You just wait. We'll find you."
The fire died.