Lost in Spira 13- Moving On

"Sorry! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me." Yuna runs out of the temple and Lulu sighs.

"Really, there's no rush…here, your hair." Wakka laughs.

"A Summoner with bed hair! What's the world comin' to?" I stand up and yawn.

"What's with all the noise?" Lulu stares at me.

"Did you sleep outside last night?" I shrug.

"I guess I fell asleep on the way in last night." Yuna frowns.

"You could have woken me up!" Wakka laughs.

"We called to you, but with all that snoring…" Yuna frowns.

"Mmm…what is it today? Everyone's picking on me!" Tidus points at my hair.

"Hey Zuri, you've got a leaf in your hair." I stick out my tongue and pull the leaf out.

"Not just you, Yuna." I stretch out and punch Tidus in the gut. "Okay, I'm set." Tidus clutches his gut in pain.

"Hey! What was that for?" I laugh.

"Checking your morning reflexes. You still suck at dodging in the morning!" He frowns.

"Hey!" I dodge away from Tidus and laugh as he chases me around.

"Can't catch me!" I turn and stop, just as he gets close enough and I get him in the gut again. Everyone laughs at that and I smile.

"You too, Sir Auron?" Auron chuckles.

"Once Lady Yuna fixes her hair, and Lady Lezuri finishes checking her cousin's reflexes, we leave!" I laugh slightly and stretch again. Yuna fixes her hair and we head out. When we get to the other side of the bridge, heading for the road, Lucil stops us.

"Off so early?" The guy with Lucil smiles at me and Yuna.

"Lady Yuna, Lady Lezuri, you both must be exhausted after working so hard last night. Will you be okay?" Yuna nods.

"I feel that I have rested enough. But, thank you for your kindness!" I nod as well.

"And I as well. Will you be leaving, too?" Lucil nods once.

"Yes, first we cross the Moon-flow, and then we head north in search of Chocobos to replace those we have lost." Elma nods.

"Once we find Chocobos, our Mounted Forces will ride again!" Tidus looks around.

"Huh? Aren't you missing someone?" The guy that was with them is trying to catch up.

"Captain! Wait for me!" Elma sighs.

"What took you so long? We're leaving!" The guy gasps.

"You expect me to keep up with a Chocobo?" Lucil shakes her head.

"Lady Yuna, Lady Lezuri, I wish you both good fortune. Elma! Clasko! Let's go!" Elma salutes.

"Ma'am!" Clasko gasps for air.

"Eh? C-can't I just rest a sec…?" I laugh slightly

"No complaints!" We get to the road and stop for a second.

"Where to next?" Auron sighs.

"We cross the Moon-flow." Tidus punches the air.

"Gotcha! Moon-flow, baby, here we come!" I shake my head and smack Tidus on the back of the head before running up the path. We run into Shelinda.

"Good day, everyone. We can all learn a lesson from what has happened to the Crusaders. Only the truly faithful have a hope of defeating Sin." No. The lesson is that the Clergy will support something, and then force people to see things their way when it goes awry. I've already figured out that the system is corrupt. It's just a matter of figuring out how it got corrupted. We continue down the road.

"Look! One of Kimahri's friends. Looks just like him." We look over at the pair of Ronso, ridiculing Kimahri as we approach.

"What?" The bigger of the two scoffs.

"Both follow Summoners on all fours! Hornless goatlings!" The other nods.

"Hornless! Hornless!" The two Ronso laugh and Kimahri steps up.

"You come to insult Kimahri?" The first laughs once.

"Wrong. We come to warn little Kimahri." The other one nods again.

"Summoners disappear. Never return." The first laughs again.

"Next will be Kimahri's Summoner." Both laugh and the second waves a hand.

"Poor Kimahri! Lost his horn, next lose his Summoner!" The first joins in.

"Pitiful Kimahri! Howl alone! Howl alone!" The two laugh and run off. Tidus turns to Kimahri.

"Do those two got something against you?" Kimahri shakes his head. "What, they were just picking on you?"

"Kimahri will deal with them." Tidus nods.

"And I'll help!" Kimahri shoves Tidus aside.

"Kimahri alone." Tidus pauses.

"But…" Wakka sighs.

"It's Kimahri's problem. We can't interfere; it's a rule." I frown.

"I'm worried." Wakka shrugs.

"Let the Ronso deal with Ronso problems, ya? That's how it's always been." I shake my head.

"I mean I'm worried about those Summoners disappearing." Lulu frowns.

"They aren't just disappearing into thin air." Tidus laughs.

"Hey, if we guardians do our job…no problem, right?" Wakka laughs.

"Whoa!" Lulu smirks.

"Confident." Tidus nods.

"Yea!" I roll my eyes and sock him in the gut. "Hey! Quit that!" I grin.

"Quit what? Acting like myself?" Tidus glares at me, clutching at his side.

"I thought you'd gotten over hitting me for no reason!" I laugh.

"There's plenty of reason to hit you! You're an over confident idiot! But it's probably nothing more than a kidnapping situation or something like that." We continue down the road and run into Belgemine.

"We meet again. I heard you took part in Operation Mi'hen. You've seen that Machina aren't the answer. In the end, only Summoners can hope to defeat Sin." Yuna nods.

"You are right." I nod as well.

"We must train harder." Belgemine smiles slightly.

"I can help with that, if you like. I propose a contest of Aeons. A friendly contest, of course." Yuna nods.

"We're ready." Belgemine nods.

"That's the spirit! But before we begin…I have healed your Aeons. Well, shall we? Which of you wants to start?" Yuna and I look at each other and I nod.

"I will." Belgemine nods and Yuna steps forward. Belgemine summons Ixion and Yuna summons Ifrit. "Don't hold anything back! Show me what you've learned!" Ifrit defeats Ixion in two hits. "Stop! That is enough! You're good. Lady Lezuri?" I nod and wait for her.

She summons Ifrit and I summon Ixion. It only takes two hits for Ixion to defeat Ifrit and I smirk. "Amazing! You both bested me fairly. Here, your prize. Go on, take it." She hands us a few scales and I recognize them as dragon scales. I saw a few in a shop in Zanarkand. "I look forward to meeting you again. Till next time, Yuna, Lezuri." She walks off and we continue down the road. We get to the Moon-flow and I look in awe.

"This is the Moon-flow." Tidus whistles and I roll my eyes. It's still gorgeous!

"These are moon-lilies!" Yuna crouches and points to the plants in the water. "They say that clouds of pyreflies gather here when night falls." Lulu smiles behind us.

"The entire river glows, like a sea of stars." Tidus smiles.

"Really? Hey, I got an idea!" Auron sighs.

"We're not waiting till nightfall." Tidus frowns.

"Then, once we beat Sin, we're coming back!" Petals twirl upward and Yuna stands up.

"Hey, we better hurry or we'll miss the Shoopuf!" Tidus looks confused. Heck, I'm confused about that one.

"Shoopuf? That some kind of boat?" Wakka points down the river and Tidus tries to see. We go along the river edge. "Whoa, what the…whoa!" A giant beast walks by, leaving me and Tidus in shock.

"This is a Shoopuf." Tidus' eyes widen.

"Whoa…let's ride! Come on, let's go!" Wakka laughs.

"All right! We board soon as we're ready, ya?" We go and look around the dock a minute before telling the driver that we're ready to board. We get on the Shoopuf and it heads out. "Hey. Take a look." I frown.

"What?" Tidus and I look over the edge.

"Whoa!" Tidus grins.

"A sunken city!" Wakka nods.

"A Machina City—a thousand years old! They built the city on top of bridges across the river." Wakka starts an explanation.

"But the weight of the city caused the bridges to collapse, and it all sank to the bottom." And Lulu continues it. Wakka nods.

"Right. It's a good lesson." Tidus frowns.

"A lesson?" Wakka nods.

"Yea. Why build a city over a river, ya?" Tidus nods slightly, understanding the concept.

"Uh…well, it would be convenient, with all that water there." That's how it was in Zanarkand. Built over a large body of water for convenience. Wakka shakes his head.

"Nope, that's not why. They just wanted to prove they could defy the laws of nature!" I frown.

"Hmm? I'm not so sure about that." I jump into the conversation, speculating in my head. Wakka frowns.

"Yevon has taught us: When humans have power, they seek to use it. If you don't stop them, they go too far, ya?" Tidus and I both turn around. I narrow my eyes at Wakka.

"Yea, but don't you use Machina, too?" Tidus nods, agreeing with me.

"Like the stadium and stuff, right?" It doesn't make sense, that there seem to be machines that can and cannot be used.

"Yevon, it decides…which Machina we may use, and which we may not." Of course, it's all rooted to Yevon. Could have guessed that one, Lulu.

"So what kind of Machina may we not use, then?" And that would be obvious, Tidus.

"Remember Operation Mi'hen? That kind." Ring-ding-ding! We have a winner, and his name is Wakka!

"Or war will rage again." Wait, war? I frown.

"War?" Yuna's eyes widen.

"More than a thousand years ago…Mankind waged war using Machina to kill!" Oh just get all into it, Yuna.

"They kept building more and more powerful Machina." Why do I feel like I've heard Wakka get on this soapbox before?

"They made weapons so powerful…it was thought they could destroy the entire world." And here comes the whole 'destroy the world' ploy from Lulu.

"The people feared that Spira would be destroyed." Kind of figured that out when Lulu used to 'destroy the entire world' line, Yuna. But thanks for telling us.

"But the war did not stop!" I never would have guessed that, Wakka.

"Wh-what happened then?" Sin happened, Tidus you idiot!

"Sin came, and it destroyed the cities and their Machina." Yes, thank you for the brilliant answer, Wakka.

"The war ended…and our reward…was Sin." Obviously, Yuna.

"So, Sin's our punishment for lettin' things get out of hand, eh?" Again with the redundancy…seriously Wakka? We've established that Sin was a punishment.

"Man, that's rough." Really, Tidus? Would never have guessed that one! Lulu nods once in response.

"Yea, it is." I laugh slightly and sit down.

"So, we're stuck dealing with the punishment for people who screwed up a thousand years ago? Sounds like a pretty fucked up situation to me. I mean, seriously? I can understand the whole, 'if things get out of hand' thing, but for Sin to just keep coming back and randomly attacking places? It's pretty whacked out." Everyone stares at me.

"Huh?" Wakka's eyes widen and he stares at me.

"You're a Summoner! How can you just talk like that?" I shrug.

"I'm just speaking from the point of being a person on the outside of this. I mean, what if, and I'm only theorizing here. But what if it's not really all of this stuff that we're told huh? I mean.

"Say...there's a totally different reason for Sin being around and the Clergy's just trying to keep the flow going smoothly, and in their favor. What if it's just a political power thing, the whole 'no killing Machina' thing? Think about it.

"At the tournament, I saw a few of those warrior monks at the Maester's ship carrying around guns. If they're supposed to be the enforcers of Yevon's teachings, shouldn't they have less powerful weapons? Or do they say that it's okay for those in extremely high positions to have things like that? As long as it's not the majority who can fight against and overpower the clergy?"

"Hey! Stop it right there!" I laugh once.

"It's not like Machina is any worse than the user." Wakka frowns.

"It's because of the Al Bhed screwing everything up!" Wakka gasps.

"You just…" The Shoopuf shakes and I grab Tidus' hand to keep him from falling out of the seat.

"Sit down!" Tidus gasps.

"Sorry! Ah!" Wakka stands up.

"The Al Bhed!" A guy grabs Yuna from behind and Tidus and Wakka automatically jump out. I sigh and lean out.