Final Fantasy X and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy X storyline (such as Rayne and Marcus) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
(Thunder Plains Part 1: Freaking Cacti!)
Great… I'm drifting again… been a while since this has happened…
You there, Bahamut? …
"I am. Welcome back."
Bahamut… what's going on? …
I keep… seeing things…and, the Farplane…
"It's only natural, considering what you are."
Which is? …
"Someone older than you think, and more tied to this world than you could ever imagine."
That doesn't… really help…
"You'll see."
As always…
"You're waking up. Don't worry, we'll talk again."
Wait! … Bahamut, can I… see my brother? …
"Yeah."
A flash of light, then an image of Michael lying before the TV, the screen blank and his eyes closed.
He's… asleep?…
"You can't blame him. He's been playing nonstop since the beginning."
So… will this happen every time he sleeps? …
"I can't assure that you'll be talking to me, but yes, there will be some sort of interlude."
Can you… communicate with Michael… somehow? …
"Perhaps. Why?"
I'm sure that… time passes differently there than it does here… but still…
I don't want him playing so much that he collapses out of exhaustion…
Could you tell him… to take breaks more often? …
"I'll try, don't worry. Goodbye."
Thank you…
Bye…
Rayne woke with a start the next morning, moaning and reaching up to grab her throbbing head. Her left hand reached its destination, but her right stayed firmly in place, a soft yet heavy weight pressing down on her arm. She looked down and smiled. Auron, trying to be true to his word, had attempted to stay up all night, but had apparently dozed off and was now sleeping heavily on her arm, face turned towards her.
Pushing the headache aside, Rayne had awoken feeling slightly more normal than she had the previous day, and felt a need to do something in character for herself, and Auron was her target. She watched him for a few moments, trying to think if the evilest way to wake him. After a moment, she decided that a bit of magic torture was long overdue.
Charging her fingertips with a bit of 'Thunder', she softly touched his cheek with her forefinger, an electrical charge running from her skin and slapping his. He twitched, then settled down and dozed on. Rayne upped the voltage a bit and touched him again, this time delighting in the slap he delivered to his cheek before settling back into a deep, disturbed sleep, shadows crossing his face. After a moment, Rayne tripled the voltage and poked the top of his head, causing Auron's eye to snap open.
He scooted backwards and, his chair getting caught up in his coat, fell over, landing heavily on the ground. Rayne started laughing, and laughed even harder when he sat back up and glared at her. His hair was standing on end, static snapping and flashing between the strands, the hilarity of it acting to cancel out his glare.
"That wasn't funny."
Rayne's laugher reduced to giggles and she smiled innocently, "Of course it wasn't, Sir Auron! Are you alright?"
He narrowed his eye and stood, "Hmph." He gathered her things and walked into the bathroom, dumping them unceremoniously onto the counter. Walking back into the room with a glare still set on his face, he helped her to her feet and led to the restroom, leaving her leaning against the sink. "Get ready. We leave shortly."
When he had shut the door, Rayne stuck her tongue out at it and grumbled, "Sourpuss."
Turning to the mirror, she sighed at the state she was in. Several clumps of hair had come out of her braid, several of the smaller braids had completely fallen apart, her face was smudged and covered with red lines, and she was oily. "… Wow."
Blinking and shaking her head in disbelief, Rayne proceeded to unbraid her hair, both on the larger and smaller scales. She then took a thorough shower, scouring her face and hair repeatedly. When she was done, she then scrubbed her night clothes and travel clothes scrupulously, restoring them to their former, if a bit faded, glory, drying them with 'Fire' magic. She then dressed and strapped on her weapon, armor, and all of her items. Seeing one important item missing she walked out of the bathroom, hair down and jacketless, and looked around for it.
Only to have the missing object in question smack the side of her head. "Do you deliberately ignore what I say to annoy me, or is it just situational coincidence?"
Rayne pulled the jacket on and rolled her eyes, "As much as I am dying to say the former just to tick you off more, I must admit I desperately had to shower."
Auron growled and handed her another steaming mug, "Good to see you back to your old self. Drink and let's go."
She quickly downed the tonic, gagging slightly, then set the cup on the dresser and walked to the door. Auron, who was waiting for her, opened the door for her, his anger fleeting when she gasped and leaned against the doorframe. When the door had been opened, Rayne felt the waves of the Farplane wash over her and immediately set back into their old places, dazing and tiring her.
Auron wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned her weight against him, "Come on. The quicker we get out of here, the sooner this sickness will pass."
Rayne nodded slowly, pallor creeping into her face and her eyelids drooping to near closing. "Jeez, and to think I liked this yesterday. All that damn tonic does is make me a bit more aware of what's going on. I'm still just as weak."
The swordsman chuckled as he led her to the lobby, "Better it does something rather than nothing."
"I suppose," She muttered. Everyone was already waiting for them at the entrance, chatting lowly. When she saw Yuna, Rayne's eyes widened as she remembered something. "Yuna, something really big happened yesterday and I have the oddest feeling I didn't react properly to whatever it was."
Yuna blinked, then solemnly stated, "Maester Seymour asked me to marry him."
Rayne blinked, then flatly replied, "Oh."
The chatting ceased and they all watched Rayne, who continued to stare at Yuna expressionlessly. Auron was the first to see the muscle spasm developing in her cheek, and quickly turned to the others and said, "We're leaving." He then hurriedly pushed them out of the inn and marched them directly to the entrance to the Thunder Plains.
Their first glimpse of the Thunder Plains revealed the magnitude of its dangerousness. It was solid rock, pitted with great holes where huge bolts of lightning struck. Tall metal towers stuck up out of the ground like nails, giving little protection to travelers, as Lulu was explaining to Tidus.
Once they were outside, attention shifted between Rayne and Rikku, the young Al Bhed having suddenly become very shifty. Rikku jumped and yelped when a violent bolt of lightning stuck one of the nearby towers.
"Umm," Rikku mumbled, "I think I left something back at the inn."
Auron shrugged and walked to the Plains, "It was nice knowing you."
"Alright, alright, I'm going! Sheesh." Rikku then glared at the older guardian. "You know, you could be a little nicer! Like try to comfort me, or something? You don't understand me at all, do you? Hey, are you even listening?! Auron!"
Ignoring her, Auron walked beneath the arched entrance to the Plains, glancing down at Rayne briefly, "You ready?"
She looked out across the Plains, pushing herself out of Auron's grasp and walking out into the strike zone.
"H-hey! Look out!"
Heading Tidus's warning, Rayne jumped back at the last possible moment, narrowly avoiding a bolt of lightning. Rayne turned back to the group, a wild grin on her face, "I can definitely get used to this place. Let's go!"
The party sighed, then cautiously walked out to join her. After a few moments of walking, Lulu ventured up beside her fellow Mage. "Rayne?"
"Yeah, Lu?"
"Listen, about Yuna's engagement—"
Rayne's eyes flashed, her cheek muscle spasming again, "Did you have to remind me?"
Lulu sighed, "I just wanted to thank you for not reacting violently when Yuna told you. It makes things easier."
Rayne grinned sadistically, eyes still flashing and cheek still twitching, "Oh, no need to worry, I won't be taking out my anger on Yuna. I'll be taking it out on the other party…"
"Rayne!"
Glancing at her fellow, the elders eyes flashed again, "Make no mistake, Lulu: there will be serious consequences for him should anything go wrong, like I fear it will. He will not get away with putting this on Yuna. And I will play a major role in his punishment, should it come to that."
Lulu sighed and shook her head, "Just keep in mind, Yuna is the one who will pay, so please don't do anything too rash."
At that moment, the ground shook violently, causing everyone to drop to their knees. Everyone glanced around them, and Lulu screamed out in anger, "Tidus!"
All eyes flew to the boy, who was kneeling before a glowing stone with a caricature of a cactus carved into it. He grinned and scratched the back of his head, "Ehehe, oops."
Rayne was about to 'Thunder' him when she was forced to redirect her attack and hit the small green blur that jumped at the boy's head. The green thing stopped in midair, froze for a moment, then dropped to the ground. Tidus looked at it with confused eyes and picked it up, holding the small cactus by one of its arms. "Huh?"
The cactus shook and Yuna yelled, "Drop it! It was only 'Confused'!"
Tidus complied and dropped the cactus, which turned to him and squeaked out "1,000 Needles!" in the most annoying squeaky voice Rayne had ever heard. It annoyed her so much that, without even thinking, Rayne lifted her arm shouted, "Thunder!"
The cactus shook and fell to its side, but didn't burst into pyreflies. It did, though, continue to squeak, annoying Rayne even more and making her cast 'Thunder' after 'Thunder'. Finally, the little squeaky cactus exploded into pyreflies and the squeaking stopped.
"Finally," Rayne grumbled, "Stupid freaky little squeaker." She continued grumbling as she picked up the spoils of the little squabble.
The upside to the little squeaker was that it left behind lots of Gil, lots of spheres, lots of items, and lots of experience. The downside was Rayne was now more ticked off and she had developed an eye twitch to accompany her cheek twitch.
As the party progressed, they encountered more and more battles, some of them with the little cacti. Whenever these battles came around, the party sat back and let Rayne handle it, knowing better that to get in her way when she was irritable. Soon, when the cactus battles had become more and more infrequent, Rayne took to taking over multiple fiend battles, her full anger finally catching up to her, leading to her staff being bathed in blood.
As the others watched her frenzied killing spree, Wakka turned to Auron, "Is… is she gonna be okay?"
The older guardian chuckled and sighed, "She's done this once before. On Besaid, when Braska broke it to her in a rather… unorthodox way that he wanted her to be a guardian. Once she has time to rest, she'll calm down. Just stay out of her way until then."
"Ahh! I remember you telling us about that." The orange-haired ex-blitzer nodded, "So that's why a lot of the fiends avoided her." He then watched her slaughter another group of fiends, wincing when she began to beat in the head of a dragon. "Jeez, scary, ya?"
Walking along, they found a familiar face standing beneath one of the lightning rods, and (for some reason or another that they could never fully explain) the party walked over to talk to the young acolyte. Shelinda smiled when she saw them and hurriedly pulled Tidus (her designated information giver) and began to talk to him away from the others.
Rayne watched suspiciously as the girls lighted face rose, then fell, then morphed into a look of curiosity and confusion. Finally, she walked away from Tidus, looking extremely dissatisfied, and made her way over to Rayne, who bristled at her approach, still remembering their last encounter.
Shelinda apparently remembered, as well, for she preformed the prayer in the deepest and most complicated form Rayne had ever seen. When she rose again, Shelinda looked down and refused to meet Rayne's eyes as she spoke, "I have read the scriptures and thought much about what you told me, and though it still confuses me, I have found nothing to disprove that those in Operation Mi'ihen died only to prove that those who disobey Yevon will perish. Yet, at the same time, I find that I must agree with your opinion, in that it is pitiful for a benevolent god to kill only to prove such a point. I plan on going to Bevelle and researching this more." She then bowed again, "Thank you for the epiphany that your words brought, Lady Guardian."
Rayne nodded, "May you find many more revelations, and may you be able to get others to rethink the way they 'praise' Yevon. Good luck, acolyte."
Without another word, Rayne turned the party down the path and silently pushed them on.
As they progressed, the storm seemed to get worse and worse. When a particularly bad succession of bolts struck the ground, Rikku froze and whimpered. The group stopped to look at her, jumping when she began to giggle insanely at the next flash, then dropped to the ground and began to crawl around like a spider. She then clamped onto Tidus's leg and held on for dear life, crying and giggling at the same time.
"What's your problem?!"
She looked up at Tidus with wide eyes, "I hate thunder! I hate lightning! Can we stop? There's a place right over there!" She pointed to a building with familiar Al Bhed symbols on it. "Let's go! Please?"
Auron grumbled and said "No", but the girl disregarded it and grabbed Yuna's hand, dragging her towards the Al Bhed shop, giving the group no choice but to follow her.
When they arrived, Auron pulled Yuna away from Rikku and glared at the Al Bhed girl, "We are not stopping. We still have half a day to burn, and we will burn it traveling."
That said, Auron walked away, pulling the rest of the group with him with his magnetic anger, but Rikku, Tidus and Rayne remaining; Rikku still unwilling to leave, Tidus not wanting to anger her, and Rayne genuinely worried about the girl… and still feeling some of the effects of the Farplane Sickness, including the sleepiness (but she wasn't about to divulge that to the others).
As the group walked away, Rikku began to whine and complain. "Please!"
They walked further away.
"Just for a bit?"
They walked further away.
"Do you enjoy doing this to me?"
They walked further away.
"You're terrible!"
They walked further away.
"You're awful! Your mothers would be ashamed of you!"
They disappeared behind a rock, only to run back a moment later when Rikku whined again.
"This isn't fair!"
Auron slapped his forehead and groaned, "Fine, fine! Just stop whining already!"
Rayne laughed silently as the others walked inside, a grumbling crotchety swordsman walking in last. He saw Rayne's shoulders shaking with her silent laughter and looked imploringly at her, "She's worse than the storm!"
The door shutting, Rayne finally laughed out loud, "She's just a young girl, Auron! She hasn't built up the endurance you have, and there are still simple things she's afraid of. Honestly, lighten up, old man!"
Auron sighed heavily, "Young people…"
Rayne smiled and patted his head, "You stick to what you're good at, like being grumpy and pushing us ever closer to our destination, and I'll do what I'm good at, namely dealing with the younger people. Now, you ready to head in, or are you going to sulk?"
"Hm."
"Sulk, then? You want company, or are you alright?"
"…"
Rayne leaned back, "Alright, I'll stay."
Auron sighed and leaned against the wall beside her, "You sure that you're only here to handle the younger ones?"
Rayne smiled, watching the storm, "Well, if I didn't keep an eye on you, too, Wakka and Tidus would be long dead."
He chuckled, "Last time I checked, you were the one who was going to kill the rooster."
"And keeping an eye on you stopped me."
There was a large flash of lightning, then the thunder rolled over them, leaving a tangible shockwave. Rayne sighed, "We'd better head inside, the storm is actually getting worse." She saw the look on Auron's face and laughed, "Don't worry; you can go sulk in a room."
He grunted, following her grudgingly into the shop. The group was scattered around the shop and Rikku was cowering beneath one of the tables. Rayne noticed Yuna was missing and automatically began searching for her, gradually getting more frantic as she progressed.
Lulu noticed her and called, "Don't worry, she just headed back to one of the rooms. Said she needed rest."
Rayne frowned. The only time Yuna needed 'a rest' was when something bad had happened or she was hiding something… or both. Rayne wasn't sure which, but she knew that even one of the former alone could be oppressing the young summoner's mind. She was about to walk back to the rooms when Wakka stepped in front of her.
"Whoa, there, Lady Rayne. Yuna said she needed rest, so she needs to be alone. I'm sorry, but you can't go."
Rayne leaned in close to his face and smiled eerily, "Have you forgotten who you are talking to, little Wakka?"
The ex-blitzer gulped, but held his position and looked around to the others for help. Lulu sighed and came to his rescue.
"Lady Rayne, even if something is wrong, perhaps it's best to leave her be? She'll tell us when she's ready."
Rayne backed away and sighed, "You know, some of the greatest people went mad because no one ever forced them to talk about things, and their problems ate them alive." Seeing no one was about to relent, she sighed again and sat at one of the tables.
No one noticed Tidus sneak to the back.