Chapter Nueve (9)

Throughout the following days the group went through a few challenges together. Yx questioned everything, and spoke her mind no matter the consequences, which were few, except for a few harsh words of rebuke from Auron from time to time.

They took the Moonflow in short time, considering the battle with the Extractor to rescue Yuna and their meeting up with Rikku. Tidus, it seemed, already knew the Al Bhed girl. Encounters with enemies were even shorter with Rikku on their side when they involved machinery, as she knew most of the machina both inside and out.

Guadosalam was a test for everyone, even those who knew little of what was going on and had few strong feelings for the quest. Harper and Vincent valued life but knew little of Spira's politics or what the rest of the group wanted. To Harper, Seymour was becoming more and more of a problem as she heard and saw more of him. His proposal to Yuna was disturbing, even to Harper though, for some reason she could somehow picture the two being happily wed in the future. When she realized what she was thinking, she always received a shudder as she recalled Kadaj… Who could ever forget him and his darling brothers?

While in Guadosalam, the company visited the Farplane as was planned. Harper, Vincent, and Yx entered too, though no one knew if they would get anything out of the experience. Auron stayed behind, not giving any explanation that could be understood. Vincent stood by and watched as Harper talked with Sephiroth. How that was possible…well… "The rules…" Sephiroth was not allowed to divulge that secret; he barely gave Vincent a passing glance even though he knew very well who he was. It was the same for Vincent as well. He didn't care what Sephiroth was doing here, only for Harper's happiness…and she was quite happy to speak to her father again. Still…she called him Sephiroth out of sheer habit… or was she still reluctant to accept him as her father?

Vincent seemed to have come out of whatever state of depression he was in and went back to being his old self. Part of that was staying in-doors all night, instead of wandering off whenever he felt like it. He didn't talk about what had happened in his mind, and in turn no one asked. When in the Farplane, as Sephiroth mentioned the rules he was then abiding by, he wondered if he used that as an excuse to avoid the fact that he just didn't know. Of course, Vincent didn't know if that was the case or not. It was only a thought that when thought about, made sense. Briefly he wondered why Lucrecia hadn't come to see him, but he dismissed it and instead paid more attention to Sephiroth and Harper's conversation, which was headed in the direction of "I'm sorry about everything I did a few years back…" "You've told me that already." "I suppose I'm out of things to really talk about if I'm repeating myself, then." Altogether not that interesting.

Tidus talked to Yuna for a while, then they left and Yuna went off to make her decision about Seymour.

Upon leaving Guadosalam they entered the Thunder Plains, where Yx felt right at home and Rikku…almost left the company for fear of thunder. She later said, at the travel agency, that her brother had once misdirected a thunder spell and hit her instead of the creature attacking her. Apparently, that was a traumatic experience for her in her childhood. Yuna disappeared down a hall…and Tidus followed her. Wakka, who had gone before them to his own room, later came out rather unhappily dragging Tidus with him…by the ear, it looked. Finally they left the agency and continued north to Macalania.

Yx stood a short distance away while watching skeptically as a few of the others chased butterflies around in the woods surrounding Macalania. Even Vincent seemed to be enjoying himself as he and Harper let a particularly friendly insect flit around on their fingers, stop, stretch its wings once, then return to the other's hand for the same routine.

Tidus had gone off a while ago to look for Yuna, and when she, he, and Kimahri had returned, they continued on to Lake Macalania. There they battled Rikku's fellow Al Bhed, the Crawler, and the Negator before finally making it to the icy temple of Macalania. Upon entering the Cloister of Trials, those there called out for backup-if-needed people…for there stood Maester Seymour.

Seymour's aeon, Anima, in the end called Shiva forth. Shiva was the very aeon Yuna was there to obtain, but she completed the cloister anyway…after the battle. It lasted for what seemed like years. It wasn't entirely too hard to figure out that the guardians of Seymour had to go before any real damage could be done: they only kept healing each other and attacking their attackers. Once they were out of the battle's picture for good, things got sticky between Shiva and Anima, who fought for another seeming number of years. In the end though, the High Summoner's party prevailed, completed the trial as said, and exited the cloister…only to have another surprise rained upon them.

Va.

She fell from a momentary gap between worlds, aeon and human, in the ceiling. Apparently she was Shiva's companion, as Yx was Ixion's; and yet, Yx and Va knew nothing of each other. They were complete strangers.

All of that was determined later though, as just after Va's humpty-dumpty act, they all were forced to run for their lives while they were chased out of Macalania by numerous Guado. When they reached Lake Macalania again, everyone thought they were safe and began conversing…until a great blue beast and two Guado showed up on the crest of a hill of snow and yet another battle ensued, the ending of which landed them beneath the ice of the lake.

The hot sun beat down on her, melting her, it felt like. It was the heat that woke her in the first place, but what was worse was that she woke with a cactuar staring her in the face.

Va immediately jumped to her feet and tried to freeze the alien thing, only to find that she was as devoid of water as the sand upon which she stood. With her movement she scared the cactuar; it went running and soon disappeared in the vast yellowness of the Sanubia Desert.

She was alone. Not one of the others was to be seen, and there was no answer when she called out. Running a hand through her black hair and shaking some of the snad out of it, she scanned the dunes with her violet eyes. There was no telling if there was an oasis anywhere near her, or even if one was to be found. There was also no route to determine, and no direction to go in. Not even the spire of a tower, or the hum of a busy city was to be found. Va was utterly alone in the wilderness.

Not so bad, she thought. It's not so unlike home… but I'm going to melt eventually… WATER…

"Want something to drink?"

Va turned around silently, not expecting anyone to really be there behind her. Some how, she knew the tricks heat could play on the mind.

But there was Tidus, looking a little bit wet. He was holding a canteen full of water.

"What?"

Tidus retracted his arm and the water. "You seen anyone else?"

"No…" Va couldn't help looking hopefully at the canteen.

He re-offered it to her. "There's an oasis just… over a dune somewhere."

When Va had stilled the worst of her thirst she again looked around. "I don't see anything."

"It's just a little thing. Hardly any trees… a low outcropping of rocks… and water."

Va nodded that she understood. "Do you have any idea as to what to do?"

"…" Tidus shook his head. "Only just to pick a direction, and walk. Maybe we'll bump into someone."

For a moment Va wanted to say, "what makes you think I'm going with you?" but then reconsidered the situation.

The two new nomads decided to keep the sun to their right until noon, when they would keep it to their left. Hopefully that would keep them from getting more lost, or stranded in the middle of the desert.