Chapter 3: Praise Be to Yevon
Shion was all bandaged up now, thanks to Jin. She had one around her right arm where some glass had cut her on impact, one on her left cheek, and one on the back of her neck. Jin teased her and said she looked like a walking zombie with all of the wrapping- probably a comeback from her teasing earlier.
It was dark now and there were no signs yet of the others. Allen had just finished washing the fruits he had found for dinner when they heard a faint creaking noise from the ancient bridge above them.
"Shion, Jin!" shouted the familiar voice above them, "We found a village not far from here!", it shouted once again. Shion looked up from their rocky alcove to, very faintly, see chaos above her. He was hard to make out for several reasons, the first being that it was dark, the second was that he had to at least be twenty-feet above them, and lastly she was without her seeing glasses. Note to self- get contacts out of Dinah.
"Chaos! Chaos can you hear me?" she replied.
"Yeah I'm coming back down. Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah we're ok, how far is the village?" this time Jin was shouting.
"I'll explain everything when I get down there." chaos shouted once more, and started down a long, sturdy-looking row of vines. That must have been the only way back up.
When chaos was about four feet from the bottom, he jumped down with the utmost grace. He smiled at the three people and android before him as he grabbed an orange from Allen's bucket. As he began peeling the sub-tropical fruit, he explained, "We're on a place called Besaid Island. It truly is a… unique place…"
"Besaid Island, I've never heard of it… what planet are we on?" Allen rightfully questioned, a hint of panic and doubt could be heard in his voice.
"There's no way I could be sure, the man we spoke to gave us no name for the planet," chaos continued to explain, taking a piece of the peeled orange and eating it before continuing his sentence, "but it appears to be a rather primitive place. There were no power sources to be seen, and the people lived in tents. The man we talked to also spoke with a strange accent, although those around him said nothing. It would appear that we are on an uncharted planet." chaos shook his head at Allen's expression, he was panicking.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN UNCHARTED? ARE WE GOING TO GET EATEN BY NATIVES AND DIE? AW CHIEF WHAT ARE WE GANNA DO?!" Allen was shaking and sitting on his knees. Shion pitied him, she wanted to panic too, but had enough dignity to keep it in.
"Allen, we'll be alright ok. Besides if we can take care of gnosis, Albedo, U-TIC, and countless rogue robots, we can handle a few natives if they try to eat us." Her comforting was half sympathetic, half sarcastic. Something told her these "natives" weren't going to eat them, they were obviously civil enough to speak with chaos in their language. Then again, chaos was pretty mysterious himself and maybe just happened to know theirs from years of experience. Either way, they would have to get some help. They couldn't live in a watery rut forever.
"Allen Ridgely, it is my objective to protect all vector personnel. You may take comfort in the fact that my systems will eliminate all threats to yours and Shion's lives." It was an odd thing for KOS-MOS to say, but it was true none the less. Whatever is in that village or this forest is no match for KOS-MOS. That thought made Shion smile with pride. She could tell it made Allen feel a little more confident as well.
Chaos had left a little while earlier for the crash site, passing on Wakka's dinner offer. Jr., however, never passed the chance for free food, and after all of that walking and running, his Besaid bean and rice dish hit the spot. The food tasted like nothing else Jr. had ever tried. It was spicey and tangy, yet hardy at the same time. The beans in particular gave it flavor, he had never seen them before and thought that they must be native to the island.
They were in a small tent, about seven of them including he and MOMO, Ziggy was outside. There was Wakka, and who he referred to as his "team" and then there was a blonde boy asleep in the simple white bed to the back. Jr. wondered how the hell this ruckus wasn't waking that guy up, but just shrugged it off and enjoyed his Besaidish delicacy.
"So, where you travelah's from?" Wakka obviously wanted to start conversation with his guest, and Jr. gladly answered, hoping for more information.
"Well I'm originally from Miltia, but we all know what happened to that place," Jr. began, Wakka and the team raised an eyebrow at him, "You actually may have heard of me before, I'm Gaignun Kukai Jr. My dad owns the Kukai Foundation and I live either there with him or on the star-ship the Durandal most of the time." everyone in the room, save for Momo and sleeping beauty in the back, was looking at him like he was Albedo. Nevertheless, he continued his explanation. "Anyway, we crashed our ES' here a few hours ago after a gnosis attack and we're trying to find a way off this planet. So if you know where an ES-repair shop is, I'll be happy to pay you for dinner." At that very moment, the blitz ball team and their captain, roared with laughter. Wakka pointed and slapped his knee, and the rest of them mockingly chuckled at Jr.
"Damn it guys! This is not funny! Now shut it right now. Or I'll-" Jr. was absolutely enraged by the alleged mockery and Momo was hiding behind him. Wakka wasn't about to let him finish that sentence, and attempted to lighten his air.
"That's funny yah. Almost betta dan playing for de Zanarkand Abes!" Jr. looked at Wakka about as awkwardly as he had Jr. a moment ago. "Poor fella.", Wakka pointed to sleeping beauty, "Sin got to 'em and now he thinks it was a thousand years ago." he shook his head as if he were morning the dead, "Sin does dat to ya, messes with your memories and makes 'em fuzzy. But he's alive."
Momo was clever enough to catch a key word in Wakka's description. She grabbed the back of Jr.'s coat to prevent him from leaving the tent out of offense. "Wakka," she spoke, "what is Sin? Can you explain a little further, please?" she was so polite, another contrast she had from Jr. Despite this, the team gasped at her question as if it were taboo not to know. Wakka raised his hand to stop any comments from the team and stepped forward to answer.
"Sin, is our punishment," he began, "1,000 years ago, dare was a great war between da cities of Zanarkand and Bevelle. De people used machina and destroyed everything. Many people died and da whole world was divided and torn apart. " Wakka folded his arms and looked down pityingly at the two children. "So Yevon, yah, he got tired of it. He sent Sin to punish da people until we atone for our mistakes."
This wasn't quite the explanation Momo had hoped for. She expected to hear about an illness, or a gnosis, or something else. She didn't expect to hear religious philosophy. Jr. didn't know what to make of it either, to him this sounded a bit like the awkward theories people had back home about gnosis punishing people. These were poppycock to him anyway.
"Hmm… I've never heard that story before. What does Sin look like? Is it a monster?" Momo asked, in her usual innocent manor. She had a feeling the reaction would be the same and this was common knowledge among Besaid Islanders.
"Nevah heard of it? You have to be joking yah?" She was right. Momo and Jr. both nodded no, not knowing what to say, so Wakka replied for them. "Hmm maybe Sin got to ya too. You know dat man in da bed ova dare? He your friend?" they nodded no again, perfectly in sync this time. "Well, dat's da only explanation I can think of. It's another miracle. Praise be to Yevon." Wakka and his team made an odd motion with their hands. They stretched, one knee bent out, and bowed, making an oval shape with their hands as they finished. This looked like some sort of native prayer or symbol, so Momo replied back via mimicry. Jr., however, didn't pick up on this ritual. "Forgot dat too, yah?" he said walking to Jr.
"Uhh yeah I guess." Jr. shrugged and rubbed the back of his head. This was sort of uncomfortable, not knowing anything.
"It'll be okay. Yer memory will come back eventually, it's gotta. And when it does you'll find yer fatha and his Kookai place." he pronounced it wrong. It also bothered him that these people treated him like a child, but they didn't know any better.
Jr. looked over at blondie one more time to see if he could recognize him. He didn't. But he could tell what he was dreaming about.
"Rikku," snore, "I need to", snore "go to Zanarkand" snore again "blitz ball" snore snore snore breath wiggle. Jr. guessed he was dreaming about a girl back home.
KOS-MOS had carried Shion up the cliff, while Jin, Allen and chaos climbed. Shion was tired, and the whole walk was a blur until they saw the faint lights of the various tents in the village. It was just as chaos described, unique, primitive, yet beautiful in a way Shion could not describe, yet appreciate. Only one man was standing in the town now, and his face was a familiar one.
"Ziggy?" Shion called out. "What are you doing? Where's Jr. and Momo?"
"Ohh Shion you're okay. That's good." Ziggy nodded. He appeared to be examining one of the statues that stood outside the temples' entrance. "Momo and Jr. are in one of the tents eating dinner."
"You didn't join them?" chaos wondered. He had insisted Ziggy stayed behind with Momo, but he really just wanted to be by himself for a bit.
"Cyborgs don't eat remember. Be sides, I think this body of mine would crowed the tent to much." Ziggy just shrugged.
"Amazing," Jin walked forward, "simply amazing! Look at this architecture, it's so ancient. You would never see anything like this anywhere in our galaxy!" Jin didn't pay to much attention to Ziggy- all his attention was spent on the marvelous Yevonite temple before him. He examined the text on the doors' textile with care. He didn't know what it said, but it sure was fascinating. Shion knew as soon as chaos compared this place to Lost Jerusalem that Jin would eat it up. "Look at this dialect. Have you ever seen anything like it before in your life Shion? There's not even anything like this in the Y-Data!" Jin was going on and on. Shion didn't pay attention.
"So Ziggy did you find out any more about where we are?" asked Shion in an attempt to ignore Jin.
"No. I talked to a vendor shortly after Momo and Jr. went in for dinner, but he didn't offer anymore information than Wakka did."
"Wakka?"
"The man chaos spoke with."
"Oh. Did you get any supplies from the vendor? He didn't happen to have any med packs with him did he?" Shion asked, rubbing her sore arm and neck.
"No. They had some potions, but I don't think they'd work and he didn't accept our currency anyway." Obviously any mystic ju-ju potions from an ancient people were poison anyway right? Shion nodded in agreement. And just as she did, she could hear the sound of children walking from a tent. KOS-MOS turned to scan, but said nothing. It was just Jr. and Momo.
"HEY WAKKA!" Jr. shouted. Inside the tent this caused sleeping beauty to awake from his slumber. "My friends, they're back!" Wakka and his ball team came running out. Sleeping beauty stumbled out behind them in his hazy stupor.
"Ahh, dis is dem!" Wakka said as he approached Shion, simple smile showing his white teeth through the darkness. "You're alive, praise be to Yevon." He repeated, the team minus blondie all made the same symbol as before. "I'm cappn' Wakka, and these are de Besaid Aurochs' ! Jesu, Letty, Botta," he motioned to each one as he said their names, "and Tidus." He motioned to blondie.
"Uhhh hiya..!" greeted Tidus, dazed and confused.
"By de way, I never gotta proper introduction, Mr. Gaignun Kookai, Jr.!" Wakka pointed out that Jr. didn't even as much as mention Momo back in the tent. Although Wakka still pronounced Kukai wrong.
"Well uhh, this is Momo, chaos, Shion, Ziggy, Jin, KOS-MOS, and Allen." He gestured to each one similarly to the way Wakka had introduced his own team. "And you can call me Jr. I don't like formalities too much." He pointed to himself that time.
"Alright, Jr. Well you guys can stay in de inn ova dare." Wakka pointed to a large tent about half way up the east row. "Sleep well, may Yevon guide you." Wakka bowed one more time and was about to retire to his tent before he saw Tidus following him. "Hey I needa place to sleep to. Go stay in da in with de utters. We'll blitz tomorrow." He shooed blondie away from him and shut the curtains to his tent. His fellow team mates all allocated themselves to their own houses.
"So uh…" uttered the blonde one, not knowing what was going on and who his strange new acquaintances were, "Goodnight?"
Well another chapter is finished. I wanted to make this one extra long, I don't know the word count yet though. Ohh well at least I tried. I'm also trying to improve my sentence structure. Anyway the next chapter should be exciting, I'm going to have to go over the FFX story line again and try and go as accurate to that as possible. But of course there might be alters, and with Xenosaga characters there the dialogue and prospective will change. And there are twist. (eheheheh *ploting*) Anyway if you have any questions PM me.
Also, keep reviewing guys! I really appreciate it! I also have guest reviews turned on for anyone who doesn't have an account. Although I highly recommend one, this site is fun. ;)
---TOO (AKA Jessi)