The Rift-torn

Chapter 2: Baaj Ruins

World: Final Fantasy X

After a few days of travel on the open sea, the Al Bhed ship Kelvin had reached Home and the five stepped on deck to greet Rikku and Brother as they came on board. Rikku gave Shawna a big hug. Oddly enough, Joe had gotten on well with Brother, and they high-fived before joining with the rest of the crew in moving salvaged goods off the ship, and fresh supplies on board.

The team of five were no longer wearing their adventuring clothes, which they wore when performing, but instead were wearing clothes that were a mix between the Al Bhed gear and clothes they had worn from Earth ten years ago. Cid was probably the only person on all of Spira aside from the rift-torn individuals to know their true origins, though the rest of the Al Bhed at least knew they were from a different world and were trying to get back home.

Joe was the relay between those Al Bhed who couldn't speak Spiran and the rest of his team-mates, as he was able to speak it haltingly before ever arriving on Spira. Unfortunately, any attempts to teach the others tended to fall through, though they still managed to learn how to read it. Rikku and Brother had learned Spiran from Joe, though it surprised his students at how easy it was to translate, despite Brother not being able to speak it well yet.

After the changing of supplies, which included giving Cid some of the proceeds from the concert, the Kelvin left port once again, this time heading for the coordinates given for Baaj Temple. It was a long journey of five days, with the occasional stop to check out some ruins on the ocean floor. Frank and Matt liked to join in the exploration, as well as Shawna on occasion, but Joe and Ryan almost never went under.

Finally, the proper coordinates were reached, and everyone suited up for exploration. This put our main characters back in their adventuring clothes and armour, before they prepared to enter the main chamber. The big doors were stuck, but they could hear the sounds of battle on the other side, one high-pitched male voice, and the screeches of a Fiend reaching through.

Rikku glanced at Ryan, the current expedition head, and he nodded sharply, allowing her to set up a series of bombs that had been brought along in case of obstacles. Everyone stepped back as they exploded, before we charged in.

There, holding a hook-sword, was the blond image of Tidus. In front of him, temporarily distracted by the explosion, was a giant bladed insect Fiend, which was called the Klikk.

Rikku and Shawna dashed in to steal from the Klikk, coming back with six Grenades each, and they were quickly followed up by a Firaga from Frank that the Fiend nearly died against. It was then finished off when Matt and Joe cut it to pieces with their axe and sword, respectively.

The Klikk faded away into Pyreflies, and Tidus wiped his brow, letting his sword hit the ground.

"Whew! That was a close one!" One of the Al Bhed explorers then came up behind him and grabbed him by the hair. "Ow, hey! Lemme go!" Then the rest of the team surrounded him, save for Rikku and the five.

"Fryd ec dryc?" asked one.

"Y Fiend! Eh risyh teckieca!"

"Rumt ed! Dryd puo ec hud y Fiend!" shouted Joe, before giving a command. "Ra ec bynd uv dra naycuh fa ryja lusa rana. Dyga res du dra creb, fa crymm aqbmuna dra niehc vun y Rift uincamjac."

"Oac, cen," replied the explorer, before hitting Tidus on the back of the neck and knocking him out. They then dragged him off to the Kelvin, though they didn't seem to care if he hit anything on the way.

Ryan's group spent the next hour searching every point in Baaj that we could reach, leaving out only Anima's Chamber of Fayth, because we hadn't activated any of the Destruction Spheres in the Temple Puzzles. After failing to find any sort of Rift in the ruins left by Sin, they returned to the Kelvin and set back out for sea. One of the ruins the team had explored on the way to Baaj apparently had something in it that warranted further exploration.

As the ship neared the site, Tidus was just beginning to wake up. Unfortunately, the guard that had been left with him was the rude, trigger-happy fellow that had accused him of being a Fiend, but, thankfully, Frank, Joe, Brother, and Rikku quickly interrupted his attempts to beat Tidus into submission.

"Caynlr res!" he reared back with his rifle.

"Dryd'c ahuikr!" commanded Joe. "E'mm pa dymgehk du Cid ypuid drec, tu oui ihtancdyht?"

"Oac. Cen," bit out the man, before heading back below deck.

Brother approached Tidus, and started pantomiming swimming. "Lyh oui rumt ouin pnaydr vun y muhk desa frema cfessehk?"

"Sorry, what was that?" replied Tidus.

"Spiran, Brother," said Frank, admonishingly.

"Sorry. I ask if you swim and hold breath well," said Brother, in his stilted Spiran.

"Yeah! You're looking at the star player of the Zanarkand Abes!"

"Zanarkand Abes?" asked Rikku.

"Rikku, we don't have much time to dilly-dally, Sin could come at any moment. Especially on the high seas," Joe warned.

"Right, right. Anyway, we found these ruins that are directly beneath us right now. They're not active, but there's some still some power that we can use to activate it. I'm the only one on the Kelvin that can last long under water, especially if there's fighting, other than the bosses, and only Matt would be of any real use underwater."

"Thanks, Rikku," retorted Frank.

"Most of your spells don't function right underwater, you know that, bro," Joe returned.

Rikku shushed the two before turning back to Tidus. "Anywho, what we need you for is to accompany Matt and I down into the ruins, activate the power, and then we can get the big prize! Sound good?"

"So, what's in it for me?" asked Tidus.

"You help us, you stay on Kelvin and get food. You not help us, and you swim back where you found," threatened Brother.

"You need to work on those sentences, Brother," Joe said. "You sound like a barbarian."

"I take offence to that!" exclaimed Matt, as he strolled onto the deck.

"You're a Berserker, not a barbarian. We've been over this."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. The kid ready to go?" Everyone looked at Tidus, who began to sweat.

"W-well, what choice to I have?" he stammered. "I guess I'll be helping you out!"

"Good to have you on the team!" laughed Matt, slapping him on the back heartily, which sent Tidus face-first onto the deck. "Oops."

After that miniature fiasco, Matt and Rikku suited up for their underwater excursion (meaning Rikku put her goggles on, and Matt re-equipped his Berserker outfit) before dragging Tidus to the side of the ship and shoving him overboard. After he sputtered for a bit, they joined him, Rikku slipping under the water like a dolphin, while Matt dropped in like a cannonball.

They swam straight down for a while, until they came to the dark shadows of the ruins. There were some panels that were still glowing slightly, their blue light adding a chilling pallor to the surroundings. Tidus quickly swam up to the controls for the door that was closed in front of them, marvelling at how similar the tech in the ruin was similar to the everyday stuff "back home."

They swam down the hallway behind the door, until they came to another one. Tidus used the control panel to open that one as well, when they were ambushed by a school of Fiend-fish called, quite appropriately, Piranha.

Tidus drew his sword out from behind him, while Matt pulled his massive battleaxe of his shoulder. Rikku already had her claw-like weapons attached as they all swam in to attack the Piranha. Thankfully, Fiend-fish weren't like normal schools of fish, and killing one killed an small portion of the entire school. Matt destroyed a third of the school with one swing, while Tidus used two attacks to take one out and Rikku stole a pair of Grenades from the other third, before Matt and Tidus rushed in to Overkill the Piranha.

In the room beyond, was a slightly glowing crystal, similar to the Power Crystals of Zanarkand that Tidus learned about in school (not that he ever really paid much attention). Not having much technical expertise, he simply swam up to the generator and pounded on it a couple of times. Thankfully, all the Power Crystal needed was some percussive maintenance to shift back into place, and soon the power came back on.

And that's when Tros appeared. Tros was a large cephalopodic Fiend, similar in some ways to the Nautilus from Earth, save that it had a rounded shell instead of a pointed one. It swam in through the main entrance just as the divers attempted to leave, blocking off their entrance with its waving tentacles.

Once again, the three of them drew their weapons and swam into action. Matt quickly directed Rikku to swim to the other side of Tros, while he and Tidus attacked its face. She knew her role in most combat situations was to steal until she could no longer find anything to steal, then use any offensive items she had that weren't immensely valuable.

After Rikku and Tidus stole and roughed it up enough, Matt brought down his massive axe into the shell of the Fiend, practically splitting it in two. The remains of Tros spasmed for a few seconds, before it dissolved into water and Pyreflies, freeing up the entrance for the dive team to leave through. As they exited, the ruins now completely lit, Rikku and Matt made note of a shape very close by that resembled the tales of a ship that could fly through the air.

An airship. Lost technology from the time before Sin. The trio swam back to the Kelvin as quickly as they could. Tidus, because he was getting hungry and wanted to eat, while the other two were going to report the discovery to the rest of the crew and send a communiqué to Cid, who had been waiting for word from the other-worlders about the airship.

Tidus dragged himself onto the deck, where Ryan, Frank, Joe, and Shawna sat, two extra trays of Al Bhed cuisine sat beside them, another four already stacked up and empty.

"Rikku, would you mind sending the report to Cid without us?" asked Ryan. "We would like to speak with our friend here."

"Nikan!" Rikku chirped, slipping back into Al Bhed for a moment, before she skipped below deck to write up and transmit the findings of the airship and what coordinates it was found at.

Tidus sat down beside Matt, who was already snarfing down his food like a rabid wolf.

"So... Uh... Whadja wanna talk about?" asked Tidus nervously.

"Let's start with the basics," said Ryan. "Such as your name and how you came to be in the Baaj Temple Ruins, where we found you."

Ryan didn't really have to ask, as he and the rest of the team already knew Tidus's story, but they needed to actually hear it before they could start using it. Frank, Matt, and Joe grimaced noticeably when Tidus pronounced his name with a long "i", but Tidus was too caught up in talking about Zanarkand and Blitzball that he didn't notice.

As his story drew to a close, he noticed that Rikku had joined them just in time for the end of the attack of Sin, and Auron drawing him up into the monstrosity. She had a kind-of-sad/kind-of-confused look on her face near the end.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Well, you were really close to Sin, right?"

"Yeah."

"They say your head gets kind of funny if you get too close to Sin Some kind of toxin or something."

"So you're saying I'm sick or something?"

"It is difficult to believe," drawled Joe. "After all, Zanarkand was destroyed a thousand years ago in the Bevelle/Zanarkand War because of Sin. So there's no Zanarkand Abes, and no Blitzball stadium to play in."

Tidus turned as white as a sheet. "Wh-what?! A thousand years ago?! But I was there! I saw Sin attack Zanarkand!"

"Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. It's all a part of Sin's Toxin," said Frank, a small smirk on his face. Rikku, on the other hand, looked a bit thoughtful.

"You said you play Blitzball... Maybe if we take you to Luca, you'll meet someone you recognize and get your memories back! Luca has the only stadium in Spira, you know!"

"Luca? But we just left there a week ago! There might still be some fans hanging around!" groaned Shawna. Ryan looked pointedly at her. "Alright, alright. We'll go."

Matt looked over at the blond boy he had fought beside and said, "Oh, and don't say you're from Zanarkand. The place is considered holy ground these days, so you might upset one of the Yevonites."

"The whosi-whatsits?" Tidus looked bewildered, when suddenly the ship started shaking.

Several people came rushing onto the deck, one of whom pulled out a telescoping telescope and looked out at the sea.

"SIN! SIN RYC LUSA!" The ship began to pitch harder. Matt, who had not changed out from his Berserker outfit, pulled out his axe and slammed it into the deck. Everyone nearby grabbed the handle, except for Tidus, who fell closer to the water as the Kelvin shook hard enough that it seemed it was going to fall to pieces.

"SIN RYC KUHA PAHAYDR IC! PNYLA VUN ESBYLD!"

Tidus fell into the water, and suddenly, the sea calmed, returning the Kelvin to normal.

Calmly, Joe looked over to the captain. "Lybdyeh. Dyga ic du Luca. Fa ryja y Blitzball duinhysahd du yddaht." He turned to Rikku. "Yht tuh'd funno ypuid dra puo. Fa'mm caa res drana."