Chapter 8: first blitzball practice and an warning to the Gullwings

Since the news that Darnell had made the Besaid Aurochs team, the tide started to turn for the Aurochs and Wakka.

Today would mark the first practice for Darnell, since the Aurochs were an good team to most people but others felt like they were missing a piece to make them great but due to Wakka's confidence they hoped that Darnell was the last piece of the puzzle.

With most people getting up, especially the Gullwings due to the first practice.

The Gullwings met at the gate of Besaid before heading to the beach, each of them filled with anticipation for the practice.

"Hey guys, ready for the practice?" Tidus asked everyone, unfortunately he can't seem to sit still waiting for the practice to even start.

"Yep." Yuna answered

"You bet." Paine included in her talk, not the one to get excited over practice she had some attention on her.

"Always ready." Rikku chipped in "Where's Darnell?"

"He must have left for the beach already, he wasn't in the cabin." Tidus confirmed, Yuna wasn't surprised at this news.

"No surprise there." Rikku says "If the team wasn't there then that means he must be at the beach."

Yuna whispers in Tidus's ear what she saw yesterday between Darnell and Rikku, the results was Tidus humming a teasing tone moments later.

"What's with the humming?" Rikku asked in curiosity.

"Nothing." Yuna says covering up as Tidus continued to hum when they're walking the path to the beach.

After a few minutes of Tidus's humming Rikku is starting to get annoyed by it, "Okay, that's going to get annoying." Rikku pointed out as she stopped walking for a moment "Tidus, why you humming anyway?"

"No reason." Tidus lied to her, normally he was poor at lying but it seems he had improved at lying and this had surprised Yuna when he sounded like he was telling the truth.

Paine was trying so hard not to crack up due to Tidus's game of teasing Rikku, but of course she knew what transpired between the two.

"Damn it, why won't someone tell me what's going on with him?" Rikku protested, now impatient after a few minutes of Tidus's humming as they're halfway there to the beach.

Suddenly Paine snickered a bit, Tidus and Yuna struggle trying to hold in their laughter while stopping humming at last.

"What's funny?" Rikku demanded now no longer playing around.

Everyone but Rikku burst with laughter, "Rikku, we saw it." Yuna answered

"Huh?" Rikku said with confusion

"Rikku, me and Yuna saw you and Darnell hugging on top of the cliff." Paine explained

Suddenly Rikku's face goes from irritated to now shock and anger.

"I didn't want any of you to see that!" Rikku expressed angrily, now staring at her friends with now rage as if she was going to snap at any moment.

"Darnell and Rikku sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g." Tidus teases Rikku

"It's not like that!" Rikku yelled

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby carriage!" Tidus and Yuna both tease Rikku then laughs.

Then Rikku snaps. "That's it, I'll clean you guys!" Rikku declared as she chases Tidus and Yuna down,

Tidus and Yuna run from an really pissed off Rikku, Rikku however had the intent of beating the shit outta her own cousin and her friend rather they like it or not.

Paine just watches while the chase continued down the beach, "Don't kill them yet." Paine says as she runs after the group not wanting to miss this but also hold the group from imploding on one another.

As Rikku ran after Yuna and Tidus like a heat-seeking missile, with Paine trying to keep up with them was another thing for her to do to prevent something as childish as this from sending Rikku over the edge.

"Guys, this isn't necessary." Paine tried to plead with Rikku.

The words that Paine spoke seem to fall on deaf ears on Rikku's part, Tidus and Yuna somehow heard what Paine had said and they seem to be considering apologizing to her.

Tidus whispered something to Yuna, as Yuna goes on Tidus eventually stopped running and turned to face Rikku who was currently charging at him at full speed with only one thing on her mind, getting to her cousin and beating her to a pulp if need be.

"Rikku, stop!" Tidus ordered Rikku to hold in her anger as if that would work.

"Why should I?" Rikku asked the blonde blitzer now approaching him faster now while Yuna ran up ahead, Tidus didn't waver from his spot.

"Because me and Yuna were just having fun, we didn't mean to offend you in any way." Tidus explains

"Like I believe that." Rikku denied not wanting to hear him.

"Cause it's the truth." Yuna says running back to her trying to get Rikku to at least relax a little.

"What really?" Rikku asks, she was near Tidus by about a few inches ready to beat the mess outta him first then she'll move for Yuna but when this was said she stopped from wailing on Tidus completely.

"Rikku, you should relax a bit more." Tidus suggested now smiling as if the fight didn't happen.

"Yep, you seem tense." Yuna noticed as she looked at her, Rikku was normally merry and energetic but lately she was stiff as a board. Maybe she was copying Darnell's walk at first Yuna sure didn't know what the cause was.

"Maybe we'll go back towards the Hot Springs in Gagazet." When this was said, Rikku blushed pink on her cheeks. "If you're trying to get me in the springs with him, it's not happening." Rikku says in defense to Yuna's suggestion.

"We're not trying." Yuna says possibly implying that she has a crush on the boy but neither of them knew at this point.

"At the rate we're going, I might be late." Tidus says as he runs to the beach taking Yuna's hand and running with her.

"You're not beating us there!" Rikku points out as her and Paine run to the beach to see the Aurochs practice as if it was a race to get there first.

By the time they get there they see the team is practicing hard, they spot Darnell headbutting a blitzball beside him is Wakka helping him out.

"Hey Wakka." Yuna greeted once freed from Tidus's grip "How's practice?"

"Going well ya, the team is coming together since Darnell made the team." Wakka says in his thick accent in confidence.

"At this rate, you guys might win the crystal cup." Rikku theorized hoping not to get the team's hopes up.

"Hope you're right." Tidus says as he go practices with the team kicking up a blitzball practicing his shots

"We'll watch from here." Yuna points out as they each stand a bit further from the team's practice.

Several hours later the practice was over, "Alright team, get a good night's rest and see you in the afternoon." Wakka instructs as the team leaves the beach past the girls as the sun appeared to set.

"Whew, practice was intense." Darnell says, still out of breath from the practice walking with Tidus to the girls.

"Now Darnell, what's our goal?" Tidus asks the warrior to see if he remembers the goals for the team.

"Victory!" Darnell and Tidus say then laugh about it as the two high-five each other, it seemed like the two had become best friends already which surprised Yuna and Rikku but they were happy about it regardless of how it started.

"The guys are sure enjoying themselves ya?" Wakka asked walking over to the group.

Everyone nodded.

"Like the practice?" Rikku asked Darnell as he walked up to the group still catching his breath but having some of it as he looked at her, he noticed the eventual sunset made Rikku stand out a bit more in his eyes as the brief image of her in the sunset made him blush but Rikku doesn't notice it.

"Yeah, intense." Darnell answered, he's in his blue sleeveless vest, one-sleeve trenchcoat and sword were in their own place on a rock as he walked over and retrieved his stuff.

"But fun also." he added with a small smile on his face.

"I'll be heading back to the town, catch you guys later." Wakka informed as he leaves the beach.

But soon after that the Gullwings are unaware that fate had something else for them.

At the undisclosed location...

Time: 8:00 pm

"How's your limit Jose?" Shadow King asked

"Near ready." Jose answered as one shadow attacked him, obviously now he was already felt drained of most of his energy, but focused what he had left for the eye-opener as his sword felt a bit heavy in his hands even though it was clearly designed to be light and agile but starting to feel as if he lifted that sword a little too much.

"Now's it's time." Jose declared evilly as this darkish-purple energy surrounded him. This power is what made the shadows look on in awe, it formed around him like a cloak as one part of the energy made a wing that was made of pure darkness. He knew he could control this power with ease as he grinned his trademark evil grin seeing the shadows frozen in fear.

"The powers of Ruin will spread." Jose says as he slashes the air itself making a gigantic fireball similar to a super nova and theresult was the seal on the top being destroyed as the hole itself was there.

"There's your exit." Jose says simply as the energy that surrounded him went away.

"And yours too, come on shadows we're leaving." Shadow King declared as he leads the shadows out along with Jose.

Back to the Gullwings...

A big disturbance that rocked Spira can be felt from Besaid to everywhere in Spira, even the Gullwings felt it as the disturbance felt like the whole earth was shaken to it's core.

"What's going on?" Yuna wondered as the shaking continued for a few seconds more.

"I have no idea, but something big must have happened." Darnell theorized in power as the disturbance reminded him of an image, the image was none other than Jose in this strange energy that surrounded him as he remembered that day. The day where he barely defeated him but left him wounded gravely. 'That power...It can't be, Jose?' Darnell wondered as the shaking slowly came to a stop.

"It must be pretty big to rock all of Spira like that." Rikku points out as the disturbance makes her fall on her ass.

Darnell helps Rikku to her feet, "I never expected that kind of power." He says, hoping no one may have noticed this but he sounded like something had knocked him off his center.

"I know, let's head to the ship." Yuna says as they go to the airship.

Up at the airship everybody felt the disturbance, Shinra is currently analyzing the situation as the alarm is ringing like a telephone with incoming calls.

"Anything?" Yuna asked Buddy

"No, the radar's having a hard time picking it up." Buddy explained to her, even though he sounded smart this problem was probably out of his reach.

As everyone tried to figure out what happened the fayth appeared in front of the Gullwings, no one expected anything from the fayth as if the fayth was in the room the whole time but no one paid attention.

"It's you." Tidus says looking at the fayth as now the full attention was on the fayth.

"Fayth, what are you doing here?" Yuna asked

"I came to warn you of a new evil." the fayth answered "It looks like they escaped, and after so many years."

"What did escape anyway?" Darnell asked observantly, naturally he was trying to keep himself composed.

"The shadows." the fayth answered as everyone's faces were blank. "The shadows were once sealed up about 400 years ago, somehow they're released."

"400 years ago?" Paine repeated in shock of how long they were sealed.

"Who could have freed them?" Rikku asked

"I'll show you." the fayth says as he opens up a small time window of what happened earlier today...

"How's the limit?" Shadow King asked

"About to break." Jose declared "The powers of Ruin will spread." as he makes a super nova destroying the ceiling that indeed was the seal.

The fayth then closes the window, "I believe one of you knows him well." he said as Yuna looked at Darnell causing the attention to shift to him.

"So Darnell, you know him?" Buddy asked

"I do, that's Jose on the left." he explains to everyone that didn't know him.

Jose had long black hair, medium-skin and his long sword with him, not a surprise he's a bit buff but had long arms and legs making him at least 6 feet tall.

"Apparently, he's the one that freed the shadows." the fayth confirmed

"What are these shadows anyway?" Yuna asked, never heard of them before she had to ask.

"Evil that has been locked away for years, with them free Spira is in danger." the fayth explains urgently.

"Like danger when we had Sin?" Rikku asked in curiosity.

"Yep." the fayth answered "The Shadow King appears to be the leader of the shadows, Jose looks like to be second-in-command."

"Jose's mine." Darnell declared as then everyone looked at him in shock in why he made a rash decision like that.

"Why him?" Yuna asked

"Because he's my target." Darnell explained "Also he's an elite swordsman."

"So it looks like we have ourselves a mission, we must defeat these shadows and save Spira once more." Yuna declared "Now who's in?"

Tidus, Rikku, Paine and Yuna each put their hands in the middle of their circle as Darnell seemed uncertain to join this mission

"Come on Darnell, join." Rikku pleads to him, Darnell seemed hesitant to do so.

Darnell puts his hand in along with the group, "I'll make sure no lives are taken by him." he says but he knew he had to keep himself together for the mission's sake and for everyone that accepted it including himself.

"Good, let's check around Spira first to see what's happened." Brother says as the Gullwings check for shadows throughout Spira.

End of chapter 8