Chapter 2: Unknown Temple

Flash…

Charlene found herself floating above Zanarkand as if she was underwater. The city was normal again, for the most part, but now a strange flaming sigil burned in the background. "Where am I?" she wondered aloud, slowly drifting toward a platform where a mysterious figure awaited. "Is this some kind of crazy dream?"

The confused girl's descent finally stopped, and the waiting figure turned out to be the little purple-clad boy from before. "This wasn't supposed to happen," he said, his voice still sounding hollow.

"What? Are you talking about Tidus breaking his neck? If you are, then you're just stating the obvious, little man."

"I'm sorry, but we need your help now," he sadly replied. "You will have to take his place and do the tasks we had set for him."

"No way!" Charlie shouted, "Didn't you see that disaster in Zanarkand? I was barely able to swing that damn sword around as it was! I'm not cut out to be a hero!"

"I believe in you…we believe in you, Charlie, and we will help you. I know you don't want to do this, but you're our only hope now."

Flash…

Charlene woke up lying on a pile of rubble, and she sat up and looked around, but the only other living thing she saw was a gray and red bird preening itself nearby. "Hello?" she called, hoping that maybe another human would respond. "Is anyone out there?"

Her only response was the dull rumble of thunder. Finally, her anger slipped free, and she screamed, "Auron! You had better hope to God that I don't find you, because your ass is grass if I do!"

Startled by Charlie's outburst, the bird took flight, and as the girl watched it, she noticed that it winged its way toward a large, temple-like structure in the distance. "Okay, I really don't want to go to that creepy place," she muttered to herself, finally getting to her feet.

She jumped into the water and aimlessly swam about for a while, putting off going to the temple for as long as possible, and she noticed that her swimming ability had somewhat improved. Apparently, that was the "help" the little boy told her about. During her explorations, Charlene found a dry platform, which she eagerly climbed, hoping that it might lead to a different exit, but it turned out to be a dead-end. "Wonderful!" she growled, kicking an old wooden chest in frustration.

The lid of the box popped open, and inside it lay a black pouch made of some material she had never seen before, a belt made of the same material, several small vials of a strange, pale blue liquid, and a small pile of what Charlie guessed were foreign coins. "Well, there's no one else here, so I guess this stuff is mine now," she said, putting the objects in the pouch and belting it around her waist.

Finally, the girl decided to stop procrastinating, and she headed for the temple, but another dead-end impeded her progress. "Now what?" she wondered, looking around for another possible route.

Suddenly, a flash of movement under the water caught her eye, and the pathway beneath her collapsed, unceremoniously dumping her into the water below. "Well this is just fantastic!" she shrieked, extremely irritated by the dunking. "Do any other disasters want to come out and show themselves, or is that the last one for the day?"

Then, as if from nowhere, three fishlike monsters appeared and leapt about her in a circle before rushing her. Charlie dove underwater and barely evaded their attack, but they followed her, so she pulled her sword out and prepared to defend herself. Dodging yet another attack, the "swordswoman" managed to slash one of the little beasts, and as it died, it disintegrated into a cloud of rainbow colored lights. Before she could wonder about it, though, the other two fish charged her, and she had to swim out of the way again. Finally, she managed to slay another monster, leaving only one behind.

Instead of attacking, however, the creature watched her carefully, its green eyes glittering with hatred. Charlie glared back at it, and moved to strike it down, but then the ruins shook, and another, much bigger monster emerged from the shadows. It looked like a cross between a prehistoric fish and an armor-plated squid, and each of its many tentacles had a red light pulsing from the ends. Terrified, the small fish monster tried to swim away, but "Fishzilla" quickly caught and ate it. "Oh damn!" Charlie thought, as the beast turned its attention toward her.

The beast lashed out at the girl with one of its large, plated fins, and nearly knocked her out with a single blow! Dazed, Charlene drifted toward the floor of the ruins, and "Fishzilla" swam after her, its mouth open and ready to devour her in one bite. At what seemed like the last moment, she recovered from the blow, and somehow managed to stab the monster in the roof of its mouth, causing it to shriek in pain and back away long enough for Charlie to make her escape. "Must go faster! Must go faster!" her mind screamed, as her pursuer redoubled its efforts to turn her into dinner.

The terrified girl swam as fast as her arms and legs could take her, hoping and praying that she could make it to the underwater entrance to the temple before she became lunchmeat. Apparently, luck was with her, because she was almost completely in the thing's mouth when she made it through the opening and "Fishzilla" smashed into the doorway. The force of the monster's impact practically launched Charlie the rest of the way through the door just before the roof collapsed, effectively trapping her in the temple.

A little while later, Charlene wandered through the abandoned and mostly soaked building, trying to warm herself up in the dank chill, when she found a large, relatively empty room. Looking around and shivering, she said, "I've got to get a fire going, otherwise I'm going to end up a human Popsicle!"

Then her eyes alighted on the remains of a campfire, and she set off on a quest to find something she could use to start a new one. She managed to find a couple of pieces of flint without too much difficulty, but she didn't find anything dry enough to use as tinder until after she climbed the stairs to the second floor. With all the necessary equipment in hand, Charlie hurried back downstairs to start her fire, and finally noticed that there was another fountain of blue light welling up out of a crack in the floor. "Hey, this is just like that one I saw back in Zanarkand," she said, sticking her hand in the sapphire glow.

Just as it had in Zanarkand, the light sent a surge of strength rushing through her body. However, it didn't warm her up, nor did it do anything about the now-obvious growling in her stomach, so she left it and started her fire. Sitting close enough to get warm without burning herself, Charlie ignored her hunger and finally drifted off to sleep…

Flash…

She stood alone in her living room, wondering if everything she just experienced was some kind of dream, when someone walked up behind her. Charlie turned around, expecting it to be her mother, but instead, Auron stood there, staring down at her over his high collar and through his dark sunglasses. "What the hell are you doing in my house?" she demanded. "Wait, I've got a better question: HOW did you get in my house? You're not even real…at least, you aren't supposed to be."

"I need your help," he told her, his expression unreadable.

That simple sentence stunned her into silence. Auron asking her for help seemed about as likely as Saddam Hussein handing out Christmas presents! What did he want from her? "What are you talking about?" she wanted to know. "How in God's name am I supposed to help you?"

"Come with me," he replied, grabbing her wrist.

"Hey, wait a minute! I just got back here, and I'm not letting you drag me off to some other screwed-up place!"

Auron didn't say anything, nor did he let go of her wrist. Instead, he just stared at her, and it made her angry. "Auron, let go of me!" she hissed, trying to pull herself free.

He shook his head at her, and Charlie hit him, or rather, tried to, but he caught her other wrist, and refused to let go. "Let me go, damn it!" she shouted.

She glared at him, swearing profusely, but she stopped when she saw the look in his eye. It was one of great and terrible sorrow. "I know that look…" she thought, "I know it all too well. He lost someone he really cared for, and he's trying so hard to hide the pain…"

Flash…

Charlie's head jerked up as she snapped out of her doze. "Damn it, girl!" she berated herself, "You need to stop thinking about that and concentrate on getting the hell out of here!"

Then she realized that her little fire was sputtering and dying. "No! Hold on just a little longer while I go find some more wood!"

The frantic girl turned away, and then looked up as a terrible screech rang out overhead. Hanging on the railing of the second floor balcony was a huge insect-like creature with virulent yellow eyes and a huge barb growing out of its back! The monster shrieked again, and ran along the walls of the room in a huge circle before dropping in front of Charlie and flashing its sword blade claws at her. Fortunately, she had kept her sword out, and she was able to get to it and evade the creature's attack before it sliced her to ribbons. She retaliated with an awkward two-handed slash that didn't do much damage, but managed to give her some breathing room. "Either that weird kid made the sword lighter, or made me stronger, because there's no way in hell I could have swung this damn thing around like this earlier!" she thought.

Charlie paid for the momentary distraction, however, because the monster leapt at her and scored a nasty slash on her right arm. If not for the armguard, she would have lost that limb, quickly followed by her life. The two foes fought for quite a while, when a previously sealed door exploded off its hinges, stunning both Charlene and the monster. "What the hell…" the startled girl began, but fell silent as the dust cleared.

In the doorway stood a group of what she guessed were commandos with rifles, goggles, and strange outfits. Leading them was a girl in a pink and beige bodysuit, and as she stepped up alongside Charlie, she nodded at the monster and flashed what looked like a set of clawed metal knuckles on her right hand. "Woohoo! Someone's finally on my side!" she cheered as she and the mystery girl teamed up on the bug.

The new girl obviously knew more about monster slaying than Charlie did, but her attacks relied more on speed rather than power, with a couple of hand grenades thrown in for good measure. Finally, the two girls defeated the creature, and it, too, collapsed into a cloud of lights. Turning to her partner, Charlene stared as the mysterious girl pulled off her goggles, revealing a pair of leaf-green eyes with spiral pupils. "Weird…but cool," she thought, while sighing, "Thank God that's over!"

Suddenly, one of the other commandos, a bald one with a heavy blond beard grabbed her by her hair and wrenched her head back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled, struggling to free herself.

Then the rest of the squad, except for the girl, pointed their rifles at her, and she stopped moving. To make matters worse, the bastards started babbling angrily in a language she never heard before in her life! Finally, a man in a bright yellow gas mask pulled out a wicked-looking knife and held it against her throat. "Oh shit! They're probably deciding whether they should slit me open lengthwise or crosswise!" her she screamed in her head, trying not to panic when she saw that she couldn't read anyone's expressions.

The man with the knife barked a question at the girl, and she responded in the same language. Charlie just hoped that it meant something along the lines of "let her go". The knife wielder pointed his blade at the girl and said something else, but she shook her head, babbled some more, and finally the commandos let their captive go. The mystery girl strode up to Charlie, gave her a regretful look, and quite clearly said, "Cunno."

Before she could try to figure out what that meant, her "savior" punched her in the stomach, and she went down without a sound. Charlie's world spun around, and slowly faded to black as the commando girl walked away and the rest of the squad gathered around her. "Damn it! I think I'll add that brat to the ass-kicking list for dragging me into this mess!" she thought savagely as the darkness finally claimed her.