Chapter 12: Lighting a Fire

Logos sipped his coffee, pacing the oscillo-finder room. He kept looking out of the corner of his eyes at the oscillo-finder, the thought of bringing it up to life to track those idiots and see how far away they were crossed his mind, but he stubbornly kept to his plan of just waiting. A few hours later, having walked around the empty chateau to pass the time, Logos was back and glaring at the dead screen.

"What?" He grumbled at his reflection in the shadowy glass, "You want me to check? Well, I'm not. Even if it's been a day and half, and Yevon knows where they've been until now. I'm not going to swallow my pride and check on them because I'm a teensy bit lonely." He stared at his reflection, his reflection's face appearing worried.

"Fine!" He barked before jabbing the 'stand-by' button hard. Light flashed and he blinked. With approval he saw there were several waves that he can punish those idiot goons with going to go get after he tracked them down. He pulled up the H.E.A.R.T monitoring screen.

Immediately, his brow twitch and he slammed a fist down hard into the crate, toppling his mug of coffee to shatter against the ground like it had many days before, "Damnit!"

Many glowing dots pulsed on the screen, many more than there were H.E.A.R.T devices, and all in the most random of places. One was in the bottom of the Moonflow, another in the trees of the Moonflow, one in Guadosalam, another in the Thunder Plains, one all the way in Luca, another nearly to Bevelle.

He cursed up and down, before gritting his teeth and selecting different options on the screen before pulling up the radio controls.

"Fine time for your gizmo to malfunction, Taji," Logos stabbed the 'call' option with his finger so hard that the screen didn't register it at all until he took a few calming breaths and tried again, lightly. A radio voice with a familiar speech impediment immediately picked up the line.

Figured youse would try and contact us eventually.

"Ormi, which one of these blasted shiny dots are you?" Logos kept himself from roaring though he still shouted into the radio speaker.

Hmm, wanna take a guess?

"Stop toying with me and report where you are, you oaf," Logos rubbed the space over his eyes, annoyed with the cheery mood that the person on the other line had and he lacked at the moment.

Pshh! Pshh! Lo-pshh -gg-shhh-os? I'm losin' ya buddy-PSHHH!

"I know you're doing that with your mouth, now be serious, idiot!" Logos gripped the side of the crate, nearly tearing a chunk off with his nails, "Would you please just report in?"

Bwa ha ha ha! How's it like being all alone in there all this time anyways buddy? Real quiet I bet.

"Enough chit-chat, tell me where you are!" Logos felt a pulse throb in his forehead and he rubbed it again to try and calm it down..

So youse having trouble tracking us, ain't ya?

Logos groaned, irritation nearly meeting it's maximum level, "Yes, if Taji is there, ask him why."

Oh, I's can tell ya that. Part one of our secret mission was to stick the tracking wires on a whole bunch of birds and monkeys and let 'em loose. Took a whole day to do that! An' only after we went to Luca to buy more and sync them with the system. There should be about fifty glowy dots on the screen now, do ya see them Logos?

"Yes!" Logos stared angrily at the many blinking circles. Three were in the Youth League Headquarters and two more in the Mushroom Rock Road area, but there were plenty everywhere else as well.

Guess which one is us!

Logos caught the laughing, more like howling as they could not even begin to contain themselves, of the other goons in the background and ground his teeth, "Your little prank has gone on long enough. Where are you?"

"We'll be back tonight," Ormi smiled at the device in his hand, "We will call ya when we're close alright?"

There was a few noticeable seconds of no response before one came in the form of a sigh.

…good, alright…

Ormi flicked off the H.E.A.R.T. and grinned, "Yeah, he missed us."

They had been kicking it around the Youth League Headquarters, sticking as close to Leblanc as was allowed, and tried to make themselves useful. They moved crates and cannons and even cleared out some fiends for the patrols down in the ravine like they periodically used to do. Taji managed to bump heads with that Ruckus guy a couple of times too, of course, and once managed to find himself lobbed headlong over a small cliff.

But there was a hidden treasure chest down there so that seemed to take care of itself.

Now the time to depart was arriving, and Logos's call came not a moment too soon. Ormi gave a very secretive grin to all of his fellow conspirators, some of which broke into a new fit of giggles.

"What are you guys doing in here?" Leblanc pulled the tent open and Ormi jammed the H.E.A.R.T. behind him and Nago non-conspicuously took it to hide in his coat.

"Nothing~!" Taji and Daji each grabbed and arm of Leblanc and walked out, dragging her along. She had seen to some business with Nooj and the other higher commanding officers about the mounting Yevon problem, but returned shortly. The goons hoped that meant it wasn't a serious problem yet.

The other goons leaped and flipped after them, now that Leblanc had a segment of time to spare again. Ormi, in his steady pace, caught up to the little procession to grab Nago by the back of his uniform and wiggled his fingers, his palm up in a demanding fashion. Nodding vigorously, the goon pulled up the H.E.A.R.T and shoved it into his hand. Then he passed him and was heading to the front where Leblanc and Mara were talking about the latter giving her a massage later if time permitted.

"I don't know though, we do have to leave soon if we're going to make it back in time." Mara said sadly after some time discussing the topic.

Leblanc's brows arched upwards, "Leave…already?"

"Nooo!" Taji and Daji zipped to her side and clutched around her middle, "We don't want to leave!"

"But we told Logos-!" Mara started.

"We'll go pretty soon," Ormi interrupted absentmindedly, and whistled a bit as he pushed a command on the screen of the H.E.A.R.T, then with a bib! he pushed it into his pocket and looked up, "But tomorrow morning. Makes no sense trying to go through the ravine in the dark, ya know?"

"YES!" The twins cheered and quickly took up Leblanc's arms again to skip forward.

"Where are you going?" Leblanc turned, but was still trapped in the duo-embrace of the twins that had reinstated their hug.

"To the bathroom." Ormi smiled, "I'll be back."

"Alright…"Leblanc said slowly before screwing her face a little sideways, curious, at the doctor goon that started trailing behind the shield barring warrior, "And where are you going?"

"Oh! I-uh, um, gotta go to the bathroom too, I'll see ya in a minute," Rouk excused himself with a bow of his head before following after Ormi, who was quickly disappearing.

"Hey! Hold up!" Rouk yelled-whispered and Ormi stopped all together, a dopey smile on his face, "Where are you really going?"

"To the bathroom, like I's said, come on," Ormi motioned with his hand and he stepped behind the tent with the privies in it. Rouk lifted his head a little higher to get a better look as Ormi once again took the H.E.A.R.T from his pocket, stared at it, then jammed his thumb into a button on the back.

From there, he started to rock on his heels.

"What are you doing, now?" Rouk rasped, looking around a bit before finding a loosely lidded barrel, for trash, and sitting on it, giving his joints a rest. "I saw you mess with that thing, what did you do?"

"Nothing really. We just got to be patient." Ormi inflated his cheeks with air before letting it out slowly, "Shouldn't be too long though."

"Why?"

"Just wait."

Meanwhile, Logos returned into the oscillo-finder room with a fresh cup of scalding hot coffee, having finished sweeping up the last mess and disposing of it proper. He sipped it slowly before tapping the screen to pull up the screen again that monitored the H.E.A.R.T.s It wouldn't do too much good of course, but one of those dots was bound to have moved closer, giving the goons away.

His fingers froze against the screen.

There was only one glowing circle, and it was right in the middle of the Youth League. His digits were shaking when he pressed call again, his chest squeezing a bit, until he took a gulp of searing liquid and hissed, even to him the heat hurting but it snuffed out the other annoyances running through his veins and dancing up his spine at least for the moment.

Ormi smiled yet again, only a bit more victorious than usual, at Rouk sitting on the barrel. The H.E.A.R.T was making the series of techno sounds that signaled an oncoming call. Rouk raised a brow and Ormi motioned for silence with a 'Don' say a word while I talk, alright?' to the Dr. Goon, who scarcely nodded in agreement before Ormi pressed the red button.

Yes?

"It's fixed." Logos growled, "I know where you are, idiot."

Hah! Youse do? Welp, that's a shame.

"What are you doing there?" Logos lowered his shoulders, "I don't care if you visit that Boss. Why go through all the trouble to hide it from me?"

I's didn't hide nothing! We said in the note we left youse coulda come with us if youse were awake and not hungover.

"Look, Ormi, are you planning on coming back or not?" Logos let his face crash into his palm, which connecting elbow was rested on the screen of the oscillo-finder.

What kinda question izzat? Of course I'm planning on coming back!

Logos sighed, "Alright…good, but when?"

What are ya a kid? I's said we'll be back soon!

"When is soon? And I should be calling you a kid! I'll kindly remind you this is a job! This isn't something you can just walk away from and not come back to for days on the shortest of notices I've ever seen! You're an adult, use your head!" Logos shouted before lowering his voice to a growl, "So what are you still doing there? Shouldn't your 'secret mission' be over already? We both know it was just to pull my leg, so hurry up and get back to Gaudosalam!"

Yeah, we will, jus' a soon as youse cut the crap.

"What?" Logos, surprised, lifted his face from his palm, before sighing so heavily Ormi could hear it all the way at the Youth League Headquarters, "Ormi, if this is one of your plans you need to lay off. I'm far too tired of trying to fight you and the Goons on this. This thing with the Boss-"

Enough excuses Logos, if youse don' want the Boss, then I'll take her from Nooj and youse.

Logos's eyes widened. A loud mechanical screech met his ears and he backed away, clutching the side of his head against the sound.

More dots appeared on the screen, the missing H.E.A.R.T.'s no doubt, all in the middle of the Youth League Headquarters, but the single dot from before was completely gone. Logos stared at it unblinkingly, slightly numb in his fingertips.

Ormi lifted his foot from the crush H.E.A.R.T. device before frowning, "Taji ain't gonna like that." The warrior than looked up at Rouk, who was staring at him with mouth agape and his iris pale blue-gray in the wide span of white. "Whut?"

"Are you serious?" Rouk sputtered, regaining his former senses slowly, before taking in Ormi's straight face gravely, "Are you?"

"Whut do youse think?" Ormi smiled again, his eyes closing half way, "Come on, youse don' think youse are the only guy who can light a fire under Logos's butt, do ya?"

Rouk's still widened eyes slowly became smaller, a grin cracking across his lips, "So- that was-"

"I mean, youse got to do whatever youse got to do, right? I jus' didn't haveta punch him. This was better." Ormi shrugged, before his eyes rolled back over to the Dr. Goon, waiting for a response.

Rouk nodded slowly, his chin lowering a bit as he watched Ormi carefully over his glasses. For a long moment, Ormi didn't even twitch, then suddenly he stretched his arms and yawned. His big mouth closed, finishing the yawn, and he let his arms fall back down to his sides, "Well, they's are waiting for us, ya know?"

"R-right," Rouk pushed up his glasses with the palm of his hand and pulled the black mask back over his face to hide his expression. Which had to of been confused. With amusement, Rouk accepted it gladly, having never been confused in quite a bit of time, and was wonderfully even more confused that it was Ormi that invoked it.

"Youse coming?"

"I'm coming," Rouk hopped from the barrel, flipping once in a goony action, before landing firmly and following after Ormi, hands in his pockets.

This is why he loved working for these people. They were, by far, the most interesting specimens of human life in Spira. It was one of the reasons why he joined in the first place, and stayed so long. Maybe Ormi was right. Leblanc might just come back, if she saw the same thing in them as he did anyways.

A/N: Yo! See what a new review does? Two chapters up in one day! I love reviews since I barely ever get them. :D More reviews means more fuel for my creative ego and more chapters yeah!

Or something as equally crazy and making no sense whatsoever!