A World I Know
Chapter One: On Our Way
By: The Bourgeois Babe
Yunie will be thrilled when she sees it: thousands of lights illuminating the busy streets, machina everywhere, and maybe…just maybe, her beloved Tidus.
It had been three years. The seven of us had gone our separate ways. Khimari headed out to Mount Gagazet to teach the Ronso children their culture. Lulu had returned to Besaid to bring up her child. Yuna had gone on a personal journey. Wakka was in Zanarkand helping with the Zanarkand Restoration Project. I was teaching the ways of the Al Bhed and how to use machina. Auron and Tidus…well, everyone knew what happened to them.
Zanarkand was being rebuilt and only days remained until it was complete. Wakka had organized for the first Blitzball game in one thousand years at Zanarkand Stadium was to be the Besaid Aurochs at the Zanarkand Flashes.
After this morning, I was to board my father's airship and head out to Zanarkand for the opening festival. Almost all of Spira was to be there.
Thinking of my plans made me think about my comrades. Thinking of my comrades made me think about Wakka. Dear, sweet Wakka. Sure, I'd had crushes before. Many, really. But never before had I been in love except this man. The man with the red flaming hair and tall posture. The man with the accent I loved and the honesty I admired. I was in love with Wakka, and I thought being away from him would help, but it didn't. Not one bit. He was too old for me, though. He was 25 and I was 18. Legally, I could be with him, but legality was a different story with my father. Not just age held us back, but the mere fact that he used to be a Yevonite. I would see him in a few hours when I reached Zanarkand. Fear crept over me as I thought of what I might be stupid enough to say to him.
The night turned into day. The sun rose over Kilika, making the water glow with a yellow warmth. Palm trees lined the small, bayside town.
"Your wake-up call, miss," a peppy voice called from the other side of my hotel room door.
"Yeah, thanks," I groaned groggily. After turning over from the blinding sunlight, I clumsily tumbled off of my bed, landing on the floor with a loud clunk. A moan escaped my lips. "Owww…"
The spinning of propellers in the distance came to my ears.
"Dad," I whispered. "Dad!" Escitedly I grabbed my luggage and practically crashed through my door. After tripping down the stairs, I regained my balance and walked outside, seeing the large airship docked at the beach.
My walk proceeded to a dash as I made my way to the airship. After going inside the doors, I saw the entry bustling with people hitching a ride to Zanarkand for the festival.
"Rikku!" my father's voice called. Brother, Ranna, Bakku, and my father were standing near the doors, getting ready to close them.
"Dad!" I called back, running and giving him a hug.
"Nice to see ya," he said.
"Yeah, right back at ya."
"Ed'c hela du caa oui," Brother said. {It's nice to see you}.
"Oui cdemm muug payidevim," Bakku stated. {You still look beautiful.}
"Bakku!" Ranna said, poking her boyfriend in the chest.
After laughing, he said, "Zicd gettehk!" {Just kidding} He gave a wink in my direction, making me chuckle.
"Gate closin'!" Dad exclaimed, pulling the cord that shut the large, steel door. "Okay, we'd better get going to the cockpit. Join us there after catching up, huh?" he told me, making his way to the stairs.
The airship suddenly revved up and lifted from the ground. A sigh came from the crowd and the rumble of speech proceeded.
"So, yeah, guys! We have to really crack down on Wakka and Bakku. They're the ones that will really give us some trouble offensively. Ced, you even listenin'? We have a game in two days and you're screwin' 'round! Oy!" a deep female voice commanded. I looked in that direction to see a Blitzball team standing in their own corner, the other people far away from them. There was one girl, quite pretty with blonde hair and blue and green eyes. The other four were guys. The two black haired ones were tall and muscular, towering over the girl by about a foot. The brown haired one was sitting down, an elbow on his knee. The most handsome, though, was bouncing a Blitzball on his head. His deep burgundy hair didn't even move as the light blue and white ball touched down on his head. Each person was wearing a variation of the same uniform: a pair of blue shorts, blue and white all-star converses, yellow socks, yellow tank tops, and yellow and blue bandanas.
The redhead accidentally hit the ball too hard and it flew in my direction. I stared at the ball dumbly.
"Hey, could you get that?" he asked, his deep voice mesmerizing.
"Yeah."
I picked it up and threw it to him, sending him back a few steps.
"Woah, quite the arm!" exclaimed the brunette.
"Oh, thanks," I replied.
"You're Rikku, right? Yeah, I've heard a lot about you! You defeated Sin two years ago, right?" one of the black haired boys said.
"Yeah, that's me!" I stated confidently. I liked that people knew who I was.
"I'm Elly," the blonde said.
"I'm Nick," the black-haired boy said.
"And Jerry," the other stated.
"I'm JC," the brunette announced.
"And star player of the Zanarkand Flashes, Cedric! But, you can call me Ced!" the handsome one said. A little cocky, he was.
"You're on your way to Zanarkand, then?" I asked, approaching them.
"Yup! You going, too? Oh, I bet you're on the Auroch's team, huh?" JC asked.
"No, I'm not on the team, but I am headed to Zanarkand."
"Great!" Ced said.
"Rikku!" a strange accented man called. I jetted behind me to see Wakka at the top of the stairs.
"Wakka?!" I shouted, running towards him, falling into his arms for a hug.
"It's great to see you, ya?" he stated.
"Yeah, wonderful! What, it's been two years?" I asked.
He hadn't changed that much. He was still the strange accented, wacky haired, tall, ripped man I knew. All that had changed were his clothes. He now wore blue shorts, green shoes, a green vest, and his trusty blue bandana.
Compulsively, I went in to kiss him, but leaned back out of the embrace before I could. Cred! Shit! Almost kissed him! Bad Rikku! Man, now I'm cursing in two languages!
"You look…great, ya?"
"Thanks, you too, Wakka," I replied. "So, what are you doing here? I thought you were still in Zanarkand."
"Well, I was, ya? But then I heard that you…ahem…and Yuna were coming in on the same ship so I came with Cid to accompany you…ahem…and Yuna, ya?
"Yunie's here?!"
"Yeah. Do you want to see-," he started.
"C'mon! Take me to her!" I shouted. I tugged on his hand, pulling him a little ways.
"Okay, okay."
He showed my down two corridors to the small engine room. We went inside. Usually only the Al Bhed Psyches stayed in here, but today it was reserved for two…er…three very special people.
Yunie looked up from baby Auran and saw me. "Rikku! Oh my goodness, you've changed!" She embraced me and stood back.
She was still in the disguise I gave her: the 'hot pants', the tank top, the black lace up boots… She resembled what I used to look like. I became more modest because of the men I worked with for a while. There were rumors flying around that not even I wanted to hear.
So, now I wore loose black jeans, a tight fitting black tank top, black boots, and a belt that held all of my machina tools. My hair had grown out a little so I usually put it in a red bandana and let it off to one side.
Lulu sat quietly as she fed her baby. "Hey Lulu!" I said.
"Nice to see you," she said calmly. I always wanted to be like her, that's why I started dressing in black.
"Oh, baby Auran is soooo cute, you know?" I asked Wakka.
"Yeah, I guess, ya?"
I was still overjoyed that Lulu's child wasn't Wakka's. The baby, unexpected to everyone, was Auron's. It all made sense because Lulu was pregnant shortly after the pilgrimage ended. Baby Auran even looked like her father: Raven black hair, black eyes…
"She is, isn't she?" Lulu said. "Takes after her father."
A long, awkward silence came. I broke it by saying, "We should be in Zanarkand soon, don't you think?"
"Yeah, probably. It's not that far by airship," Yuna said.
Yuna had told me about what happened while she was on her journey in a letter. She had gone to the farplane to see Tidus. But, strangely enough, he wasn't there when she called out to him. This made her somewhat happy. Maybe the sphere was right. Maybe Tidus was still alive.
{This is for all of you who haven't seen Final Fantasy X: Another Story.} A year ago I dug up this sphere during one of my student excavations. When I watched it, I saw Tidus on it, still alive. I showed it to Yunie in Besaid. That's when she started her journey. She was taking a break to come to the opening festival with the lot of us.
"Rikku, I need to speak with you, ya?" Wakka stated, pulling me outside and closing the door.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Well… Listen, Rik. Try not to give away the surprise, ya?"
"What surprise?"
"You don't know? Okay, well, I was giving it some thorough thought and I came to the conclusion on how to bring Auron and Tidus back."
"Oooo! How?"
"If everyone in Zanarkand thinks about them at the same time, hears about them or something, then we should be able to bring them back, ya? They lived on people believing, ya? Well, if we all believe they're back, they could be…"
"That's a great theory…that's why you started rebuilding Zanarkand?"
"Precisely."
"When did you get this smart?" I joked, nudging him in the stomach.
"Maybe I always was and you didn't realize, ya?"
"Could've been."
"Rikku and Wakka having moment. Khimari leave."
"Huh?" Wakka and I said in unison. Khimari had walked in, thinking something…else was going on.
"No, no, Khimari, wait! We were just talking, you know?"
"Okay. Whatever Rikku says," Khimari stated, walking back in. He hadn't changed a bit.
"Let's go inside, ya? We should introduce you to Lu's girl," Wakka said.
Was that actually a 'moment'? Man, was I blind.