Chocobo! Chocobo!

DISCLAIMER: Final Fantasy X is not mine. Begone, foul lawyers! RETURN TO THE HELL WHENCE YOU CAME!

Oh, and yes, that attack last chapter was Janus's first Overdrive. I call it Rocket Slash. No, to answer some questions that arose, this is not going to turn into a romance fic with Rikku. I'm planning on Janus and Rikku becoming close friends, and nothing more.

Narrations

Al Bhed

(Translations)

Chapter 4: Meetings

"Janus!" the redhead groaned; someone was yelling at him, and there was the feeling of warmth on his face.

"Janus! Wake up, man!" Janus's eyes opened to the sight of Tidus's face bending over him, with several people behind him.

"Hey, your friend okay?" Janus groaned; he knew that voice all too well. Wakka…

Janus coughed slightly, gagging at the taste of saltwater in his mouth, and sat up. "Yeah, I'm okay… Tidus, what happened?"

Tidus stood, shaking his head. "I dunno man, I just woke up out there in the ocean. I guess you drifted ashore, cause Wakka here saved you."

The boy stood, dusting the sand off his pants. "Well, thanks Wakka. I appreciate it."

But the islander's attention was elsewhere. He was eyeballing Tidus, as if sizing him up. "Hey, you look like a pretty good athlete, ya? You blitz?"

Tidus only smirked, picking up a ball. "Heh. Watch this!" He kicked the ball up, balancing it perfectly on his head. Everybody stepped back, giving him room. Then, Tidus launched the blitzball up in the air, doing a backflip in midair, and kicking the ball out over the water.

There was a collective gasp at the blonde's skill. "Showoff," Janus muttered, but no one seemed to hear this, or care.

"You're no amateur," Wakka observed. "Who you play for?"

"The Zanarkand Abes!" Tidus said proudly. Wakka's teammates all gasped, muttering to each other in low voices; Janus was certain he caught the words 'blasphemy' and 'insane' among them.

"… What team you say again?"

Tidus seemed to realize his mistake in that moment. "Uh, I meant… forget that. I got too uh, close to Sin, and my head's all foggy-like…"

Insert another collective gasp. Wakka and the Aurochs performed what Janus recognized as the Prayer of Yevon, and utter confusion was written on Tidus's face. "Man, Sin's Toxin got to ya," Wakka shook his head, pity evident in his voice. "But, you're still alive. Praise be to Yevon." After a few moments, he turned back to his teammates. "Alright, back to practice!" He looked back at Tidus and Janus. "And now for the intros, ya? I'm Wakka, coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs, brudda!"

"Janus and Tidus," the redhead replied quietly. Tidus, meanwhile, made an embarrassed look as his stomach growled rather loudly, which caused Wakka to laugh. "What, you hungry?" both nodded. "Okay then, back to the village! I'll get ya somethin'!" the orange-haired blitz captain (Janus still asserted that Wakka's hair looked like a quail) strode up the sandy path to a grassy area, after which a fork in the road was visible.

"Hey, Wakka!" Tidus's voice came from behind. The older man turned around. "Ya?"

I could see the doubt written on Tidus's face; the idea that his whole life had been a lie must have been really heartbreaking for him.

"It's true Zanarkand was destroyed, right? A thousand years ago? So, it's just a big pile of rubble now, isn't it?"

Wakka gave sort of a sad smile, looking out into the lagoon at some of the ruins. "Long time ago, there were a whole lot of cities in Spira. Big cities with machina--machines--to run 'em. People played all day and let the machina do the work. And then, well, take a look," he gestured around at the ruined towers. "Sin came, and destroyed the machina cities. And Zanarkand along with 'em. Yeah, that was about a thousand years ago, just like you said." He paused for a moment, shrugging. "If you ask me, Sin's our punishment for letting things get out of hand. What gets me, though, is we gotta suffer, 'cause of what some goofballs did way back when! Course, we must always repent for our sins! That's important! It's just that, it's hard to keep at it sometimes, you know?"

I could see it in his eyes, this was hurting him. Wakka continued, laughing loudly. "But you from the Zanarkand Abes, that was a good one, huh?" he put his arm around Tidus's shoulder. "Look, I ain't sayin' the team never existed, ya? But ya gotta figure, a team livin' in luxury like that'd be pretty soft, eh?" He grinned that big, obnoxious, trademarked Wakka-grin, and headed up the path. Tidus, visibly disheartened, followed him. Janus elected not to follow them; he'd had more than enough water for the day, and preferred to remain dry, at least until he could get a shower or something in the village. That, and he really did not want to put up with Wakka, whom he had always considered an annoyance at best. The blitzer called out to him from the edge of the cliff, but he shook his head, pointing in the direction of the forest path. Wakka and Tidus both looked worried, but Janus sighed, responding, "Look, there's a path, isn't there? I'll be fine. I just really don't want to get any wetter than I already am, okay?"

Wakka frowned, walking forward, but Tidus, once again in a stroke of genius, somehow managed to stumble and fall backwards off the cliff. Wakka turned around, sighed, and walked over to the edge. "You be careful, ya? I gotta take care of this guy so he doesn't hurt himself!" the boy nodded, and Wakka was gone.

With a sigh, Janus proceeded to climb up to the forest path, walking down the dirt road. He was surprised at how beautiful the island was; the game had made it look pretty, but in 'real life', the locale was absolutely breathtaking. There were waterfalls, plants, and various flowers all over the place, and on the other side, looking out to the ocean, Janus could see the horizon perfectly clearly. This was nice, much better than swimming around in a piranha-infested river.

Janus looked up, hearing a voice. It was certainly female, and was that… singing?

"Though you're gone,

I still believe that you can call out my name…"

The tune was very familiar. Janus looked around, searching for the source of the voice, but couldn't find the mystery-singer.

"A voice from the past, joining yours and mine,

Adding up the layers of harmony…"

The moment I heard that song, I knew that there was some connection between Earth and Spira. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I could tell. The song was Melodies of Life, which was probably my favorite song from Final Fantasy, save for One-Winged Angel.

Janus looked around; the voice was closer. He got to a bridge over a small waterfall, and realized that the voice was actually coming from beneath him. Curious, he looked over the edge of the bridge. Whoever it was, she was out of his field of vision. He tried to lean further, but without warning, the rope snapped, and Janus tumbled over the edge, landing with a splash in the water below.

He dimly registered a shriek, and pushed up out of the water, spluttering. A hand viciously smacked him across the face, and he was knocked back into the water. When he came back up, he almost immediately regretted this course of action; before him was a girl roughly his age, who was of course very much naked, and understandably very angry, clutching a cloth over her body in the interest of preserving modesty. Janus was able to register short black hair and the emerald eyes of an Al Bhed before her fist connected with his cheek. "Fryd dra ramm fana oui tuehk?! Ku yfyo! (What the hell were you doing?! Go away!) Janus, too stunned to do otherwise, scrambled up the rocks, which had been (thankfully) carved into stairs, and sat on the grass, waiting for whatever might happen next. So much for staying dry… A few minutes later, the girl climbed up over the stairs, fully clothed this time, and scowling.

"Just what the hell do you think you were doing? I ought to make you a eunuch for that, you pervert!" Janus paled; she was clutching a Jian in her left hand.

"Look, it was an accident, I swear! I was just walking along and--"

"And thought you'd get a bit of eyecandy before heading back to the village, huh?!"

"No, no! I heard singing and--"

"Oh, and I suppose it had nothing to do with the fact that I was naked?"

"No, please, it's just that I heard that song and I was wondering who in the world would have known it!"

The girl froze. "You know that song?"

Raphael nodded. "My sister used to sing it all the time," Which was true; Monique had always liked the song. "Where did you pick it up?"

The girl blushed. "My mother sang it to me when I was little. She said she learned it from one of Lord Braska's guardians, she never got his name. She says all she remembered was he had red hair…"

Yet another mystery around Braska's Guardians… Red hair, that sounds like Jecht. "Huh. Well, uh… sorry about that. The rope snapped," he gestured towards the bridge.

The girl sheathed her sword, shaking her head. "It's okay. I overreacted. I was just startled, is all,"

Just then, Janus realized something. "Hey, you were speaking Al Bhed!"

The girl paled, and looked away. "That's because… I'm an Al Bhed."

"Hey, cool! So am I! Well, half anyways…"

She looked up, seeming heartened. "Oh, well that changes things a little. I'm Kazume," she held out her hand, which was taken.

"Janus Lenoir," the redhead smiled. He then looked at her armor, which didn't look like an Al Bhed's clothing at all. She was wearing a breastplate over a red shirt, with black pants and boots, and had simple-looking metal gauntlets. "Um, your clothes aren't exactly typical Al Bhed stuff. What gives?"

She walked onward. "Well, it's simple, really. I'm a Crusader," Janus was shocked at this revelation, and followed her.

"Hold on! If you're an Al Bhed, how come the Crusaders let you join?"

"Well to put it bluntly, I was captured by the Yevon priesthood when I was eight. They taught me Spiran, and apparently made an experiment out of seeing if a 'heathen' could be 'converted'. It didn't really work completely, but I got shuffled off to the side into the Crusaders. I'm a private under Captain Luzzu, but if the Operation goes well, Luzzu told me himself that he'd try and get me promoted to Captain,"

"Oh," Janus said quietly. He remembered all too well what the outcome of Operation Mi'hen had been. "So Kazume, are you headed towards the village?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. My patrol is over, so I'm heading back to the lodge. Come to think of it, I've never seen you around before, and wearing those clothes, I think I'd remember you. Where are you from?"

Janus froze. Damn. "I, uh… I ran into some Al Behd out in the ocean, and they helped me, gave me food and clothes."

Kazume's expression softened. "Really? You must have run into Cid's people. They're nicer than most Al Bhed; I've dealt with them before. The Psyches are my favorite blitz team, and I can't help but notice you're wearing their uniform."

"Yeah, some guy named Blappa gave it to me."

Her eyes widened. "Wow, you actually got a uniform from Blappa?! As in, THE Blappa?"

Janus nodded. Kazume's mouth opened slightly, as if she didn't know what to say to this.

"Kazume!" the two of them looked up to see a boy of around 18 running up the path toward them. Kazume sighed.

"Gatta, I'm okay, you don't have to send a search party every time I'm more than five minutes late…"

"But there are fiends on the road! You can never be too careful!"

"Gatta, go back to the village. Tell Luzzu I'm coming."

The Crusader looked doubtful for a moment, but nodded, heading back the way he came.

Kazume shook her head, smiling. "Gatta. He means well, but he's a little on the dense side…" They finally came to a strange-looking statue, which Kazume scowled at, and continued on down the path.

When they finally came to the village, Janus saw Wakka and Tidus off to the side, Wakka apparently teaching him the Prayer, eliciting only confusion from the blonde.

Of course, I knew what was going through his head at the time. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor guy. I mean, he was completely clueless as to this world, and here I was knowing everything that would happen before it happened.

Wakka turned, noticing the two. "You sure take your sweet time, ya?" He looked at Kazume, and frowned. I forgot… Wakka doesn't like the Al Bhed… He looked at Kazume, who bore an equally sour look of disgust.

"I guess this is goodbye, Janus, seeing as how I'm leaving tomorrow," she smiled at him before heading towards the blue Crusaders' Lodge.

"Stay away from her, ya? Al Bhed like her are nothin' but trouble…" Wakka grabbed Janus by the arm, leading him over to Tidus. "Okay, go present yourselves to the temple summoner. Maybe a little prayer will help heal the Toxin, ya? I'm gonna go cook lunch," he walked over to his little hut, disappearing inside.

"Well, we got nothin' else to do…" Tidus muttered. "So why not?"

"Yeah, let's go," Janus agreed.

Inside the temple, Janus looked amazed at the architecture; the place was so much bigger than it looked in the game. Tidus went to examine a statue of a man in a robe, while Janus looked up at the statues of the people he recognized as Yunalesca and Zaon. Suddenly a voice caught his attention. He turned around to look at a priest, who was looking at him intently.

"Excuse me, can I help you?"

"Pardon my intrusion traveler, but can you tell me your name?"

"Janus Lenoir, why?"

The priest's eyes widened. "Janus Lenoir? Forgive me, but is there any relation to a Domovoi Lenoir?"

Cliffhanger powers, activate!