CoWR - Bastion of Sanctity

Chapter 1: Traveling

DISCLAIMER: Kay, just going to say this once per story in the first chapter. A lot easier that way...*ahem* All characters are property of Square Enix unless their tekteks are in my profile.

Hey all, if you're wondering what this one is all about, this is where all the interaction in the Cosmos base around Order's Sanctuary goes. Decided to post this and the villain base topic first seeing as it's a good starting point. Not sure what will come after that, but I do know what will be last in this "arc".


Rikku, having given the destination to her Pops, revisits Yuna and Tidus. "Hey uh... I think that Cosmos lady said something about a... Jecht? He was your dad, right? AND he was working with those Chaos jerks? Hey, you don't think...?"

"Yeah, I heard. Chaos must have brought him back...He must have been the one that trashed Luca!"

"Why would he be with Chaos though...?"

"Doesn't matter! I say we find him and kick his ass for joining them!"

Rikku cringes at the thought of fighting Braska's Final Aeon again. "He just about womped us the last time we fought though..."

"All we gotta do is knock some sense into him! C'mon, we can do this! Maybe if we beat him, he'll see sense and join the GOOD guys!"

"Yeah, you got a point, I guess. Even Pops can see sense once in a while."

"Alright! So we'll go find my old man after we get to that...bastion...thing."

"It might be a long trip. Hope ya packed a lunch."

"Lunch! Aw no...I didn't...we have food on the ship, right?"

"...Don't know. Well, Zanarkand isn't far from here, but who knows what's beyond that if there's a lot more world than there was before?"

At hearing Tidus's food enquiry, Yuna had started rummaging around in her bag. Triumphantly, she pulls out 3 large sandwiches, causing Tidus to grin. "You're the best, Yuna"

Yuna smiles "Thanks." Tidus takes his and she offers one to Rikku.

Rikku snags it greedily and starts munching down, all while anticipating what they'll find up north.

Yuna munches her sandwich while looking out the window thoughtfully. "I wonder what the other worlds are like..."

"Horizon sure looks bigger, doesn't it?" Rikku says with a mouthful.

Yuna gives off a sad smile and nods "If only there wasn't a war..."

"Hey, no sense worrying when we have a chance to do something about it!"

Yuna nods. "You're right. Changing the subject, what do you think the bastion might be?"

"Uhhh... I don't know. What is a bastion anyway?"

Yuna thinks for a moment "Uhhhm...I THINK it's part of a fortification...So...maybe there's a fort to the north? Or a small castle?"

"So we're trying to find a fort then? Alright. That cuts our work out for us. Time to go top deck." Rikku gets up and sprints off to go up to the top deck of Fahrenheit. "See ya when I see ya!"

"'Kay, see ya." Yuna sits back, finishing her sandwich, and continues looking out the window. Tidus already devoured his and looks out the window with Yuna, an arm around her shoulder.

0-0-0-0-0

"Hey!" Rikku runs into Tidus and Yuna's cabin. "I think this is it!" She dashes out, to go up to the top deck.

The two of them run up onto the top deck after Rikku.

On the horizon, a helicopter is seen traveling toward the Bastion as well. Its contents? Two Turks.

"Hey! I see... wow... what kind of Machina is that?" Rikku sees the helicopter land a good distance away from their own airship, and gets off of it to go check. Some would call this reckless, but Rikku herself was anticipating this meeting.

Tidus watches the helicopter fly in. "Huh, never have seen anything like THAT before...it's kinda cool..."

Yuna immediately follows her cousin, wondering what's up. "Hey Rikku! What's going on?"

Tidus doesn't wanna be left behind, so he runs after the two girls.

Cissnei jumps out of the helicopter to stretch her legs after the fairly long ride. Katana is talking to their boss at the moment as to why they aren't at HQ at the moment like they should be, that is until Cissnei notices Rikku and co. "Hey Katana! We've got company!"

Rikku skids to a stop in the shallow moat that encompasses the vicinity outside the Bastion. "You're... friends, right? I mean, I caught a glimpse of you in that dream and all so..."

"Yeah. I noticed you too." Cissnei nods to Rikku "I guess we're all early, or everyone else is late."

"Or the only ones buying it..." Rikku hoped that wasn't the case, partially because she didn't feel a group of five would be enough to take on saving several worlds, and the other part because she'd feel embarrassed that she bought into some sort of supernatural scheme. She turns to the doors of the Bastion. "...I suppose we let ourselves in..."

Tidus and Yuna skid to a halt next to Rikku, Cissnei, and Katana. Tidus waves hullo. "Hey! I saw you two in the vision! I guess that mean we're all allies right? I'm Tidus." He extends his hand, with a friendly smile.

"I'm Yuna." She smiles as well, and extends her hand also.

Katana just nods to Tidus "Katana," he answers simply, and then turns to the doors "I guess we should."

Cissnei smiles warmly at Yuna and shakes her hand "I'm Cissnei."

Tidus frowns. "Aw c'mon man, don't leave me hangin'!"

Yuna smiles back. "It's nice to meet you Cissnei! If you don't mind me asking, who exactly are you two? You seem important, what with that strange Machina."

Katana glances over at Tidus 'He reminds me of someone...'

Cissnei blinks "Well...we're Turks! And this uh...Machina is a helicopter!"

Tidus sighs and lowers his hand.

"What exactly is a 'Turk'? I'm sorry for all these questions, but, I'd like to know a bit more about the different worlds." Yuna smiles apologetically.

Cissnei thought for a moment. She couldn't exactly tell them what they were and are, but she can't lie eithe-oh, yeah she can "We're bodyguards to a very important man in our world."

"Oh, really? Interesting...Tidus and Rikku used to be my bodyguards, along with some others. That was back when Sin was still around..."

Rikku, who's already at the front gate, turns around. "Rikku! Expert Sphere Hunter at your service!" And turns back around to inspect the gate again.

Cissnei blinks and looks at the three "Sin? What's Sin?"

"Oh, sorry. Sin was a MASSIVE whale...monster...thing that ravaged our world for 1000 years. Summoners, like me, went on pilgrimages to temples, accompanied by their guardians, so they could acquire Aeons. When a Summoner gets every Aeon, he or she traveled to Zanarkand to summon the final aeon; the final aeon defeats Sin, and the Summoner and Sin die. A few years later, Sin comes back. It was a terrible, endless cycle...until Tidus, Rikku, the rest of my guardians and I defeated Sin and ended the cycle...I guess that makes us heroes...doesn't it?"

Tidus grins. "That's probably why Cosmos wants us to help! Hey, you guys were there too, are you heroes as well?"

Cissnei thought for a moment, again, thinking of all the things she and several other Turks, Katana included, did in a game that wasn't released in the US "I guess you could call us heroes..."

"Cool." Tidus walks over to Rikku. "What's up? It won't open?"

"So...Now the three of us are sphere hunters. Rikku's my cousin, and Tidus is my, uh..." She blushes.

"No, it's opening. I was just wondering if you guys wanted me to go on ahead and check it out."

Katana nods "That probably would be our best bet at the moment, there's no telling if this is a trap or not."

Cissnei stares at Yuna "Your...?"

"Oh. Well then, let's go!"

"My uh...boyfriend..." She hears the others talking about entering. "Alright, lets go. And I doubt it's a trap, Katana...Cosmos IS on our side. I hope."

Cissnei chuckles and turns toward the door "Yeah."

The group opens the doors to...

Swarms of ferocious monsters. "Oh no way! Well, guess it's just up to us..." Rikku pulls out her twin daggers and gets ready to leap into action.

Yuna pulls out her guns. "Is it a trap? Or is the fortress just...in disrepair?" She fires at the oncoming monsters, as Tidus draws his sword and charges at them, pulling off a spiral cut.

Katana unsheathes his sword and slashes at several foes while Cissnei throws Rikka at some flying enemies.

Rikku's daggers glimmer with a flash of light, and rematerialize as pistols. She fires a burst of Trigger Happy, unleashing a rapid barrage of bullets upon a swooping aerial foe.

As the foe is shot down and skids towards Rikku, she leaps over it, and once again rematerializes her weapons into a sword, which she slashes a charging quadruped foe with. The foe counterattacks, but she brings the weapon up to block, and counter attacks with a combo of slashes, ending with a powerful spin.

Yuna fires more bullets...

Tidus, meanwhile, is slashed at by an enemy, but he back flips out of the way and hurls his sword at it, cutting it in half, then the sword flies back and he catches it. "This is easy!" Another one tries to attack him, but he leaps up into the air, over it, and while spinning brings his sword down upon the monsters skull.

Katana does a draw slash on several foes, slaying several. Cissnei switches from using Rikka as a long ranged weapon to a short ranged one, slashing at the foes she encounters.

Another foe charges Rikku, but she rolls as she changes her weapons and retaliates with a swift dagger combo, and a back flip kick that sends it upwards. While airborne, she shifts to gunner and fires a barrage of bullets, leaps above the foe while switching to warrior, and brings her blade down on it with a powerful slash, sending the monster rocketing into an impact on the ground.

Tidus is swiped at, but back flip kicks the monster, sending it flying, and he charges at it while it's stunned, impaling it.

Yuna fires scatter shots, hitting most of the enemies, the fires some magic bullets.

...And you know what all these back flips remind me of? John Freeman. And yes, I just added this in the middle of the narrative. Problem, readers?

Rikku soon finds herself blindsided by a monster, and pinned down. As three more close in, she struggles trying to break free.

Yuna yells "RIKKU!" and fires a burst shot at the monster, 'sploding it. She runs over-shooting at the other monsters-to back her cousin up.

Tidus is busy dodging the attacks of a monster, infuriating it. It takes a massive swipe at him and he flips over it, lodging his sword into its skull.

Rikku gets back up, kicking a monster free of her. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it!" And again, she rushes into battle. "They're almost mopped up!"

"Okay...be more careful though! I don't want anything bad to happen to my favorite cousin!" Yuna fires scatter bursts, taking out a group of monsters, as Tidus continues his epic acrobatics, barely having a scratch on him.

Cissnei casts Blizzard to thin out the Flans who I am conveniently stating to be there.

Katana continues to slice and dice enemies that thankfully do not have physical immunities.

After a few moments... a large flying beast descends and lands with a thud. It lets out a loud roar that shakes the hall of the Bastion.

"Guess we found the head honcho guys..." Rikku proceeds to follow the others in the clash against this foe.


WhiteLycan: Rikku,

Link: Tidus, Yuna,

Me: Katana, Cissnei,