Heroes Of Spira
Chapter One: The Beginning
As the early morning sun slowly ascended in the sky, a young man stretched out and yawned. Leaning against a tall tree, speckles of morning rays shone through the forest surrounding him. Slowly he opened his eyes to find himself on unfamiliar turf. Not remembering what had happened to him, he looked around in panic, wondering where in the world he could be, and just how did he get there? After sitting for a moment, puzzling over what was going on, he stood up and adjusted his hat.
Several times he called the names of his friends, yet there was no answer; only the birds could be heard, and the occasional wild animal running through the forest. He began to wander, hoping he had not lost himself in an endless sea of trees and shrubbery, continuing to shout the names of his friends. After wandering aimlessly for about and hour, he suddenly found himself at the foot of a giant stairway made of stone. Seeing as he had nowhere to really go, he started up the stairs.
It was getting hotter as the afternoon carried on, and the stairs seemed to go on forever towards the sky. Before giving up on his climb to the top, he heard the familiar sounds of a battle going on not to far from where he stood. Swiftly, yet cautiously, he continued up the stone stairs and soon found himself staring at a large creature standing before three people. A few moments passed before he figured they could use some help to destroy the monster. Being an Ace Marksman, he pulled out his gun and steadied his aim on what appeared to be a weak part of the large creature. He waited patiently for just the right moment to shoot. Finally, he pulled the trigger and a loud bang echoed off of the stone steps. The monster shriveled up and disappeared slowly into the air.
Everyone on the steps turned around in shock and awe to see a man standing behind them holding the weapon that defeated the monster. Smirking, he waltzed up to the group, "Hey, my name's Irvine," he introduced himself. He gave his gun a twirl before he put it back, and grinned. The group just sort of looked at him for a moment, unsure what to say, until someone stepped up.
"Thank you so much for helping us," one of the two young women thanked Irvine. "My name is Yuna," she introduced herself, "and this is Lulu, Wakka, Kimahri, and Tidus." He nodded to each of them as Yuna said each of their names. Curiously, he looked again at each one of them. Heh… cleavage… Irvine thought to himself. His hair almost resembles Zell's in a way… And what race is that guy?! I've never seen anyone or anything like him before… And that other guy almost resembles Zell in a strange way as well… I can't say that I've ever met any of these people before in my life.
Irvine didn't recognize any of them, and a question brewed up inside of him. He couldn't keep quiet any longer, and he had to know, "Do you mind telling me where I am?" He knew the question might have sounded silly to them, but he couldn't seem to remember anything that had happened to him. His head buzzed with the beginnings of a headache as he tried to remember the last thing he could before waking up in the middle of the forest.
"You're in Kilika," Lulu answered as she shook her head. The name didn't sound at all familiar to Irvine. He thought for a moment, and searched for an answer, but nothing came up. After a moment of thought, the memory of Time Compression came back him. Could I have been sent to another world? Irvine shoved that thought out of his mind. He didn't want to think of such a thing. He could never believe he was in another world. It would traumatize him if he were to never see his friends again.
"Uh… Do you know how I can get back to Balamb?" Irvine asked tentatively, hoping for the answer he wanted to hear. If they didn't know what he was talking about, Irvine had prepared another question to ask.
After a few seconds of thinking, Wakka answered, "There's no 'Balamb' that I know of here in Spira…" He looked a bit worried, and tapped Irvine on the head. "You must have gotten too close to Sin's toxin, ya? What's the last thing you remember?"
Irvine thought again for a moment, trying to conjure up his last string of memory. He seemed to remember the Time Compression and how it could create a rift in time, sending people, places, and objects into the past or future. Suddenly his memory came flooding back to him as if his mind had been unplugged. Ultimecia… Sorceress Ultimecia - was she successful in her compression of time? Did we really lose that battle?!
Irvine decided to ask one more question, just to make sure, "Well, what happened to Sorceress Ultimecia?" If they didn't know the answer to this question, Irvine would know for sure he wasn't where he was supposed to be. Everyone just looked at him oddly for a few moments. Irvine frowned and knew by the looks on their faces that they didn't know what he was talking about.
"I'm so sorry; I have no idea what you are talking about," Yuna answered in dismay. She could tell the gunslinger was hoping for a different answer. "Perhaps you did get too close to Sin, and your memory is fogged up right now. The same thing happens to a lot of people when they get too close to Sin," Yuna looked at her friends, who were looking at Tidus.
"What you may think are real memories, might in fact be completely fictitious and made up in your mind, all due to Sin's toxin," Lulu added.
"Sin? What is Sin?" Irvine asked, clueless of what she had said. What is this Sin thing? Irvine had so many questions flooding his mind at this point. He was confused beyond imagination at what was going on. He knew he wasn't in the right place. And he thought that if he wasn't in the right place, his friends might not be here either, but in a different world or even another dimension. He felt helpless and couldn't help but collapse onto the ground. He sat on his knees and looked at the ground. Selphie…
"Are you okay?" Yuna asked worriedly. She could tell he wasn't too happy. A slight breeze blew by them for a moment. The afternoon sun was high in the sky and it was continuing to get hotter as the day progressed. A few seconds later, Irvine lifted his head.
"I'm… I'm okay… I think," Irvine answered. He then lifted himself off the ground and stood up again. He brushed off the dirt and tried to smile. Was he really in a different world? Would he ever see his friends again? Irvine then thought that if he ended up here, his friends must be around somewhere, too. With this new thought, he was determined to find them. "Do you think I could come with you guys?" Irvine asked. "'Cause I have some friends that might be around here somewhere. I don't know where I am and I don't want to get lost trying to find them."
Yuna smiled and replied, "Yes, you can come with us. I guess you can follow along until you find your friends." Irvine smiled back at her. He wasn't sure what to expect if he really was in another world, but surely being with a group of people would enhance his chances of finding his friends if they too, ended up in this world.
"Come on," Lulu said, "we have a pilgrimage to be on, we mustn't waste our time." Her voice sounded slightly annoyed and stern. It didn't seem as though she approved of this random guy tagging along. Kimahri didn't say a word, but the expression on his face struck a hint of fear into Irvine.
"Right," Yuna nodded. They began to climb the last set of stone stairs, finally reaching the end. Atop them was a building, a temple of some sort. Irvine stopped and looked at his surroundings, taking in everything around him, trying to memorize every detail and search in his memory for anything that seemed remotely familiar. The others continued in front of him as he continued to look around.
Soon, another group of people, who were pretty much dressed in the same clothing style, came out of the temple. The red haired man began to talk to Wakka in a sarcastic tone. Then some people dressed like Wakka appeared and stood next to him. Irvine walked a little closer, curious to see what all the noise was about. He guessed that since they were wearing identical clothing, they must be on a team of some sort. Irvine happened to catch a bit of the conversation, "Who needs to pray? The Luca Goers always win." The red haired man seemed pretty amused. Tidus then stepped in and said something back to him, but Irvine couldn't make it out. Moments later, the Luca Goers left with grins on their faces. As they walked by Irvine, one of them purposely bumped into his shoulder.
Irvine swung around to watch them walk down the stairs, and managed to mutter, "Someone's got problems…" He then walked over to Wakka and asked, "What was that all about?" Wakka didn't seem all that wild about running into the group of men.
"Ah, those were the Luca Goers, ya?" Wakka replied. "They win every year, but this year, we're gunna win! Right boys? We have Tidus!" Wakka grinned and the guys on his team cheered. "They're gunna be sore Luca Losers when we're done with 'em, ya!" Wakka added with a smirk. Irvine couldn't help but chuckle; it was pretty funny. After a short and awkward silence, they decided to head inside the temple.
Everywhere Irvine looked, people seemed to be praying to statues, which he found slightly odd. He also heard something unreal; a hymn of some sort, coming from what seemed to be everywhere and nowhere. There were no speakers in sight and he couldn't see a chorus of people singing it anywhere around the room in which he stood. Wakka kneeled down in front of a statue and began to pray, making a strange arm movement. Soon after, Tidus joined him and did the same thing. Irvine shrugged; he was unfamiliar with it but decided to join the two of them. He kneeled down next to Tidus and attempted the same hand movements. After a while, he figured it out.
"So what exactly is this that we're doing?" Irvine questioned. He wasn't too sure what was going on, so he had to ask. It was all new to him and somehow quite interesting; there was nothing like this from where Irvine came from.
"We're praying to Yevon," Wakka replied. Irvine guessed that this 'Yevon' was like a god to them, perhaps almost like Hyne, except no one prayed at the foot of any statues of him, if there were in fact any. Wakka then stopped and got up and both Tidus and Irvine did the same. They began to walk up a set of stairs and through a door where they met a scantily clad woman with a very buff and muscular man standing next to her.
"Well, what have we got here?" the woman stated as she looked at Yuna and the group, almost with disgust. "Quite a large group. Do you really need all those Guardians?" she laughed, "I only need one."
"Well, these are not just my Guardians," Yuna countered. "They are my friends, too, and I trust them." The woman smirked at Yuna's comment and raised an eyebrow. The woman shook her head and exited the room with her Guardian. After that, Yuna and her Guardians continued onto the platform in front of them. Kimahri turned around and pushed Tidus and Irvine off with his arm.
"Hey, what's the big deal?" Tidus questioned.
"Only Guardians can enter the Cloister of Trials," Lulu answered. "And you two, are not Guardians." The platform made its descent to the bottom floor and moments later returned. Before Irvine and Tidus could turn around, the scantily clad woman had come back with her Guardian. Using one arm for each of them, the woman's Guardian tossed them over his shoulders and dropped them down onto the platform. The woman snickered as the platform lowered, and Irvine knew he and Tidus were going to be in some serious trouble.
The platform stopped on the bottom floor, and they found themselves inside the Cloister Of Trials. Yuna and the rest of her Guardians were already finished the Cloister of Trials when Tidus and Irvine had just begun. "So… uh…" Irvine tried to make conversation, "where are you from?" It was a pretty pointless question to ask, since Irvine knew this world wasn't his. He looked at the blonde boy who stood next to him.
Tidus turned to Irvine and answered, "Well, this might sound crazy, but I'm from Zanarkand." The name didn't seem familiar at all to Irvine. "I'm hoping I'll be getting back home soon," Tidus began to walk while Irvine followed. "So, where are you from?" Tidus asked.
"Well, this is probably going to sound more crazy than your answer, but…" Irvine began, "I think I came from a completely different world…" Tidus stopped and looked at Irvine. A completely different world? Tidus could relate to Irvine on this subject, as he too felt almost like he was from a completely different world. Although his Zanarkand existed in this world, Tidus had no recollection of anything else.
"How did you get here then?" Tidus asked. He seemed really interested. Maybe Irvine had come from Zanarkand and his memory was just fuzzy because of Sin. Tidus wondered if they might have even known each other before getting too close to Sin's toxin. It seemed like a farfetched idea, but anything seemed possible. Irvine thought for a moment as they aimlessly wandered the corridors of the Cloister of Trials. His memory slowly caught up to him in waves.
"Okay, well, here it goes," Irvine started. He had a lot that he was going to tell Tidus. As Irvine told the story, they made their way through the Cloister of Trials. "My friends and I were on a mission to destroy the Sorceress Threat. When I first joined the group, I never thought this would happen though…" He explained how he became a part of the group in the first place, and all the things that followed. "…So we had to save Rinoa from Sorceress Adel and at the same time, destroy Adel, who was inside Lunatic Pandora. We were successful, but after the battle, a future Sorceress, Ultimecia, had started Time Compression," Irvine explained it as best he could. "It was very confusing, but we managed to survive through it and make our way to Ultimecia's Castle in the future. We worked our way through the castle and finally came upon Ultimecia's room, where she sat upon her throne. The Time Compression had set us quite a few years into the future in a matter of seconds." Irvine paused for a moment and thought of something, then continued while Tidus listened, "It was a long hard battle, we fought as hard as we could, but…" his voice quivered slightly as he continued, "it wasn't enough. Once she junctioned herself unto Griever, she summoned some sort of Apocalypse… Ultimecia was successful with her Time Compression, and my friends and I had gotten tangled and lost in its web…" Again, Irvine paused for a moment.
"Well? What happened next?" Tidus had never heard of anything like this before. He wasn't sure if he could believe Irvine's story as it seemed all too surreal, but the tone in Irvine's voice insisted it was true. They were nearing the end of the Cloister of Trials and Tidus wanted to hear the rest of the story. "Go on!" Tidus urged.
Irvine nodded and continued, "I just thought of something. Maybe I'm not from another world. Maybe I am from this very world, but now I'm thousands of years ahead of my time. Time Compression couldn't have sent us to another world. This has to be the world I am from. It only takes seconds of Time Compression to be sent thousands of years into the future. This must be it. So that means that Selphie, Zell, Rinoa, Squall and Quistis are here too. The Time Compression must have worn off recently." It was a hell of a story, and a lot to take in. Irvine thought up his theory as he went along, believing more and more that it were in fact true.
"That's a lot to take in…" Tidus said. "Well, this is it. The end of the Cloister of Trials." Tidus inserted the last Sphere into the hole, and they entered through the door. As they entered the room, everyone looked their way. They didn't seem to be very happy at their sight.
"What are you two doing down here!?" Wakka demanded. He didn't seem pleased at all. Irvine looked at the room he was now in. He could hear the hymn even louder than before. It was pleasing to his ears, and he liked it. It was calming and tranquil.
"It was that woman and her Guardian!" Tidus explained to Wakka and the others. Moments later, Yuna emerged from the finely decorated door behind Kimahri. After some small talk, they exited the temple. Their next destination was the dock to board the S.S Winno to Luca.
