Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X

Chapter 8: Unexpected Reunion.

Guadosalam, had changed. It was entirely noticeable. More than just Guado seemed to reside here now. Ronso, Al Bhed, Hypello, and normal people seemed to have started to call this place home. It had been one of the first things that Auron had noticed when he had stepped out of the Farplane, and had made his way out into Guadosalam, a few weeks back.

But to be quiet honest, Auron only remembered ending up in Luca realizing he was truly alive again. Sure, he remembered coming out of the Farplane, and into guadosalam. (He had frightened several people when he had done this, and by the looks they were giving him, they remembered it.) but those were only vague. hazy memories.

Auron didn't know, why he could barely remember having made his way from Guadosalam, to Luca, and he particularly didn't care.

Part of the reason was 50 ft ahead of him chatting with some of the people who had taken up residence in Guadosalam,(a blonde haired woman wearing a rather showy outfit, and her cohorts--who were a tall skinny man and a shorter fatter man--both of whom were dressed in purple.) ,possibly within the last 4 years.

Rikku had been part of the reason he had ended up in Luca. It had only been a few weeks ago that he had come from the Farplane, and had run into Cid in his travels.


Cid had been out on the Thunderplains, (which Auron was surprised to see wasn't such a threat anymore, except with the excessive amount of rain.) coming up with some way to tell Rikku that she was adopted.

"..Rikku. I...don't know how to say this exactly, but um..." Auron remembered hearing Cid say as he approached the Al Bhed leader.

Cid hung his head. "Damn. Taking charge of the Al Bhed is nothing compared to this!"

Auron's head was still rather foggy, and since it had been four years since he had need to use his legs to move, he was still trying to regain his former strength. (All dead souls on the Farplane were pyreflies and all they really did was just float around lazily, until their memory was called upon--which in that time they assumed a ghostly, yet human, form-- but even there they couldn't so much as move.)

He had sort of fell behind Cid, and had obviously made loud enough of a noise to catch Cid's attention. Auron had watched the Al Bhed jump nearly ten feet out of shock. Auron assumed it was either because he hadn't been expecting anyone to have been nearby, or because possibly he had recognized Auron despite the legendary guardian's soaked clothing, and younger appearance. (then again, possibly not because when Cid had gone to see if Auron was alright, he had jumped in surprise once he had saw Auron's face.)

"What, the hell? Don't you have enough damned sense in your brain not to scare people like that!" Had been the exact words of surprise that Auron had heard Cid shouting at him.

Cid hadn't given Auron any time to answer. "Who, cares? You need help. You look awful! What the hell are you doing here in Spira anyhow? I thought you went off to the Farplane, at least that's what Rikku told me."

Auron just looked at the ground. His voice hadn't return to him yet, just like the biggest majority of his strength, so he couldn't respond well enough to be understood.

It had been a few minutes, before he had been able to tell Cid that even he wasn't sure about why he was in Spira or not, or even why Jecht, Braksa and their wives had returned before him.

Some how from there, they had ended up in a conversation about Rikku. Where upon Auron had learned that Cid was not Rikku's father, and that Rikku was now living in Luca.


The next thing Auron knew, as he stood there now in Guadosalam, Rikku was walking up to him.

"Looks like we swung and missed here. Not one person in this town is a Shinda! I asked Leblanc, that woman over there, since she knows everyone in this town, and knows if anyone is keeping a secret, and she said, she said not one person in this town would know anything about any Shinda tribe, or being apart of it." She said cheerfully.

As Auron followed her out of Guadosalam Rikku turned to him. "You're not forgiven yet. Just because I'm being nice to you doesn't mean I forgive you." She said turning around and walking backwards to talk to Auron.

Auron nodded, to signal to Rikku that he understood.

"You do realize where we're heading don't you?" He asked as they got close to the Thunderplains.

Before Rikku could answer they had arrived at the Thunderplains. Lightening struck one of the towers nearby, and Thunder boomed loudly. Auron was expecting Rikku to cower over in fear, but was a bit surprised to see that she had yet to start crying.

Rikku could see the surprise in Auron's eyes. She smiled and then put her hands behind her back. "Yup! That's right Auron! A bolt of Lightening just struck nearby, and the thunder crashed, and I didn't flinch! And you wanna know why? I got over my fear of lightening!" She said proudly, and cheerfully.

She could see that Auron was happy for her, and it made her feel good to see this.


"Why'd you do it?" Auron asked as they started across.

Rikku smiled and then looked at Auron. "Well, you see there was this certain person that I liked, who died, and you see I wanted to do something special for him, after he died. That's when I remembered how this guy had been irritated by me being scared of thunder and all and was kinda mean to me because of it. But I knew if I got over my fear no one would tease me about it and if he found out about it, he'd be happy that I did." She said.

Auron mentally smiled. He understood why Rikku had gotten up the courage to face her fear. She had done it for him. "I see." was all he managed to say to her though.

As they walked on, they came to a part of the plains before the agency that the storm was awful in. In a matter of seconds it was hard to see five feet in front of you. The rain poured down heavily.

"He's here, somewhere..." Rikku thought as she looked around.

Suddenly she took off into the rain, running away from the path.

"Rikku!" Auron shouted as the Al Bhed became a shadow in a thick gray wall of rain.

He followed her, trying to keep up with her, and not let her out of his sight, but it was difficult since Rikku was a born thief, and therefore naturally had a speed that Auron didn't have.


When he caught up with Rikku she was approaching another shadow.

When they came closer, Auron could see that the other shadow was a small child of a about six or seven years of age. He had brown hair and slightly tan skin. He wore a cloak made out of a black material. The kid wore a concentrated look on his face with his eyes close. One hand was on the side of his forehead, and the other was on the ground. Tears-stained his face however.

He seemed to be inside some sort of bubble, because the rain just ran off around him, instead of falling directly on him as it was with the two of them.

As Rikku stepped nearer to the kid, he must have sense her presence. His eyes snapped open, and he looked up terrified at Rikku. Before anything else could be done though, the boy passed out.

Rikku caught him before he hit the ground.. She then looked up at Auron. He was giving her a bit of a curious look. Rikku must have known this kid was out here, because over the wind you couldn't hear anything, and the kid had been pretty silent. Plus, on top of that they were pretty far off from the road.

"Auron, this kid has been out here for two or more days! The reason that I knew he was here, was because...I heard him calling for help in my head.." She said trying to get to her feet with the kid.

She stumbled a little bit as she got to her feet. "We...have to get..him...to the...travel agency." She said as she tried moving. The kid was a bit heavy for her, and Auron could tell that, so he decided to help her out.

The next thing Rikku knew, Auron had taken the kid out of her arms and began carrying the kid. "You lead the way to the agency." He said looking down at Rikku.

"Just don't get too far ahead."

Rikku nodded and took the lead, walking a strait path back toward the road. Since it was hard to see, the only thing that Rikku could use to help her find the road again was the feel of the dirt beneath her feet.


The dirt on the road was much more hard and compacted than the road away from the road, because obviously, the road had been traveled on more, and the ground had been worn enough to where it was hard and compact.

Once on road, Rikku followed her feet until the travel agency came into view. She almost gave a huge sigh of relief when she saw it.

She and Auron entered the travel agency, soaking wet, and freezing.

Before they could move toward the counter to ask for help, they were met by two people.

"...Daren!" a man shouted in shock as Auron entered the agency, with the kid in his arms.

The man, an Al Bhed looking man in his late 30s, looked at the both of them, worried.

"Sir, is this your son?" Rikku asked trying to calm the man down.

The man shook his head. "Not exactly, My wife and I, have been taking care of Daren since his mother and father passed." The man said.

Before Rikku could say anything else, the man asked. "Is Daren alright?"


Rikku nodded and then took the kid, Daren, from Auron. "He just needs to get out of these wet clothes, and he needs some rest." she said.

The man nodded. " He can rest and get a change of clothing in the room that my wife and I are staying in." He said as he led Rikku and Auron into a small room down the hall.

"We got attacked by this guy while we were crossing the Thunderplains, he got a hold of Daren and took off. When we went to look for him, the storm got so bad that we were forced to turn back, and take refuge here." The man said as he led them in.

Auron nodded to show the man he understood what he was saying.

Once the other man had managed to get the little boy into to some diffrent, dryer, clothing he laid the kid down on one of the beds in the room. The man led them out of the room.


"Thank you so much for finding Daren." He said rubbing the back of his neck and looking over at Auron.

"No problem! He did call for help." Rikku said as she approached the counter. Once she was at the counter, she turned to Auron. "I'm gonna get us a room here, okay? The storm should let up after while. So until then, I'm gonna go take a shower, and get out of these clothes so that they can dry. Then I might go take a small nap." She said after she paid the guy at the counter the money for the room.

She then smiled and walked off down the hall. Auron just watched her, wordlessly.

"My isn't she a cute one? Sorta reminds me of my little girl, with how her eyes look." The guy next to Auron said with a small smiled, as he looked over at Auron.

Auron glanced over at the man. "You're a father?" He asked raising his eyebrow curiously.

The man nodded. "Yes I am. Well, was is more of the appropriate word. My little girl drowned while she was an infant. Makes me sad every time I think about her. She was such a adorable little child, hell, I practically fell in love with her the day she was born. She'd have celebrated her 19th birthday on the 13th, if she was still alive." He said looking down at the floor.

Looking back down the hallway toward the room that Rikku had gone into.

When he looked back, he could see that the man was examining him, as if he were familiar.

"Looks like time doesn't effect you like it does the rest of us, eh Auron?" The man said.

The mention of his name from a stranger, caught Auron off guard. How did this man know his name?

The man noticed Auron's shock. He smiled broadly and put his hands on his hips. "Now come on Auron, Surely you remember me? Mizu?" he asked.

Mizu? As in Rikku's biological father, Mizu? Was that who he was talking to right now?

"Haven't seen you seen you came and told me you killed Sora, and that little Rikku had probably drowned." Mizu said with a distant gaze.

Auron couldn't do anything but just stare at Mizu. There was no way that he had ended up rescuing a child that coincidentally was being taken care of by his old friend, and Rikku's father.

Mizu smiled and then crossed his arms. "So, who's the girl?" He asked curiously after a minute.

"Her name is Rikku." Auron simply stated, as he watched Mizu's face go from cheerful, to shocked.


(Okay, Probably going to end the chapter off there, because I feel I'm making this too long. Sorry for the delay, I've been in busy with writers block on this story (blame it for this chapter being lame if you think it is.), and other things. School is starting back for me soon, so, I don't know If I'll be able to get in another chapter by the time I go home, but I can try! anyhow, I hope that you liked this chapter, and I hope you will review.)