All right hope you enjoy this chapter! As you might have noticed, my chapters are getting a little longer. I'm getting the hang of writing, so expect some longer chapters than before.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFX, just my OC. Reviews are appreciated.
As they all walked up the stairs leading out of the city, Max tossed a buckler to Tidus.
"Here, I managed to make this for you. It'll be useful for defending a little." Max said.
As Tidus admired how light and most likely very durable the buckler was, the whole party noticed that Max had gone through a few changes in his gear. His bow now seemed to be made of some sort of metal, and he had blue ski goggles on his forehead. His utility belt seemed to be a bit bulkier than usual, and an additional pouch had been attached to it.
"Where'd you get this stuff?" Wakka asked as he admired the bow.
"Made it myself," bragged Max. Everyone except Auron and Tidus raised an eyebrow at this.
"Impossible," scoffed Lulu, "Where would you get the materials and how would you have crafted it?"
"Made a deal with O'aka," said Max, "He knows a few places to get them, and I paid him for it."
Mollified at this answer, the whole group continued forward until they saw a fiend. This fiend seemed to be very thick-skinned and well padded, as it seemed to be built like a rock.
"Hah! This one looks slow," said Tidus as he drew his sword out.
"Careful, Tidus," warned Max, "It also seems to have a lot of armor. You might need a lot of power to slash through that."
Tidus nodded before dashing and slashing at it. On contact, the sword reverberated through his arms at the impact, causing him to nearly drop it. The monster ran towards Tidus to bash him, but Tidus was agile enough to dodge. It ran into a boulder and crushed it to pieces before turning around. Auron stepped up this time and slashed it right through, causing it to burst into pyreflies.
"Sir Auron's the best!" yelled Wakka, obviously letting some of his fanboyness through.
Tidus merely snorted in response before they all continued forward again. They fought a few more fiends, letting Kimahri use Lancet on a few to learn more moves. An old scholar named Maechen was exploring some of the ruins before noticing the party approaching. He explained his purpose and enlightened Max on some of Spira's history before moving on.
Soon, three people riding on chocobos came nearby and stopped in front of Yuna. At a closer look, the female leader wore purple armor, while the other lady wore orange armor. The last one of the group was a slightly chubby man wearing green clothes and a metal breastplate. They introduced themselves as Lucil, Elma, and Clasko before warning them about a large fiend wandering about with a taste for chocobos.
"A large fiend…Let's go get him!" exclaimed Tidus. Everyone except Max stared
"Why?" asked Auron. Tidus was startled a little at all the staring before stating, "It's the right thing to do."
"It's the right thing to do?" Auron said in a monotone voice before he started chuckling.
"What'd I say now?" Tidus asked angrily.
"Jecht said that a lot, tool," explained Auron. "And every time he said it, it meant trouble for Braska and me." Max chuckled at this, too. Apparently, Tidus picked up some of Jecht's habits even if they weren't close.
While walking, a woman and her child were at the side of the road when the mother noticed the party. "My Lady Summoner!" she exclaimed. The child turned around from the flower she was admiring and ran up to Yuna. "You're a summoner?" asked the child who was in awe Yuna bent down to talk to her face to face, "Yes. My name is Yuna."
"I'm Calli," said the child "Lady Yuna, are you going to bring us the Calm?" "Yes, very soon," said Yuna. Calli started cheering while running around Yuna. "We're looking forward to another Calm, My Lady Summoner." said the mother. "And good luck to your guardians as well." At this, the males started preening themselves at this statement. After the two left, Tidus and Max had questions at the mother's sentence.
"What's the calm?" asked Tidus. Surprisingly Lulu took the job to explain it as if she had been appointed as the guide for them. "The Calm is a time of peace. It comes after a summoner defeats Sin, and lasts until Sin reappears." "Wait, reappear?" asked Max
"Sin dies and is reborn," explained Yuna. "I get it! I thought it was weird.," said Tidus. "Yuna's dad defeated Sin ten years ago, right? But Sin's still here! Didn't make much sense till now." After saying that out loud, both Max and Tidus had exclamation marks appear above their head as if noticing something. "Wait… If it just comes back…" said Tidus. Yuna interrupted him quickly, "Don't say it isn't worth it…Because it is."
Both Max and Tidus thought about it. It was true that being able to sleep peacefully without the threat of Sin looming over their heads, but had nobody ever tried to prevent it from ever coming back? Looking around, it seemed everyone was content with letting this cycle continue/
"Then when will Sin ever stop reappearing?" asked Max.
"By following the teachings of Yevon!" said Wakka fiercely, as if daring Max to say otherwise.
"and that would be..." continued Max, not getting a complete answer from Wakka.
"By repenting for all our sins, Sin can be exorcised by complete atonement," stated Lulu. Tidus and Max picked out a voice of desperation in that tone but decided to ignore it for now.
Everyone continued forward on the path, fighting some more fiends on the way. They met up with Luzzu and Gatta, who seemed to be transporting a large cargo ahead. They congratulated Wakka on the win and made some small talk before Lucil came forward and scolded them for not doing their job. Luzzu managed to show Gatta how to please a commander when getting in trouble, something that caused everyone to the party to chuckle.
As they left, Luzzu left a message for Yuna, something that slightly chilled Max. "Hey, Yuna. Even though Yevon rejected us… we still believe in you. That won't ever change."
Then they saw a female acolyte arguing with a male Crusader. As they drew nearer, the Crusader looked like he was about to lose his temper and dismissed the acolyte, walking away from her as fast as possible.
"Are you all right?" Asked Yuna. The acolyte seemed surprised that someone was talking to her before she responded "Lady Summoner…?" "Yes, I am Yuna," she told the acolyte. The acolyte bowed in respect before responding "It is an honor, my lady. My name is Shelinda. I am a disciple of Yevon."
"What was all that about? The Crusaders' operation?" Wakka asked.
"You mean the one Gatta and Luzzu were talking about?" Tidus added.
"I heard they were to use forbidden machina! I had to stop them," told Shelinda. "Huh? Why?" asked Tidus. "The use of machina is strictly forbidden by the Yevon priesthood," explained Lulu.
'I was right,' thought Max, 'apparently some machina are forbidden. It's a good thing I didn't bring out my arm computer or have my guns with me.'
"Let them use whatever they want. They still won't defeat Sin," declared Auron.
"But, it's not about defeating Sin!" asserted Shelinda, "The teachings of Yevon must be upheld!" Wakka was cheering for her for following the rules. "But you don't understand! The Crusaders won't even listen to me. And it's all because I'm just a lowly acolyte," moaned Shelinda, sad she wasn't able to convince the Crusaders.
"Don't say that," said Yuna as she tried to cheer Shelinda up. "Well, I haven't been a summoner for very long myself, you see. Still, I can't put myself down every time I fail. People are depending on me. They're depending on both of us!" This seemed to cheer her up a lot. "Yes! Yes, you're right, my lady. Absolutely right! Thank you so much, Lady Yuna! Now I feel I have the courage to finish my training."
Ending on a high note, she rushed after the Crusader, apparently not giving up on convincing them.
"Soo, is there a book on Yevon's teachings?" asked Max. He wanted to know more about this religion in detail. Wakka looked like he was about to have a heart attack, imagining that Tidus and Max still didn't "remember" anything. Lulu just gave a disgusted voice, but Yuna smiled.
"I'll be happy to help you two," she said. While walking, Tidus and Max stayed near Yuna while she tried her best to answer their questions. Max had some more controversial questions but decided keep them hidden as he didn't want Wakka, who seemed to be a very devout follower, on his tail.
It was 5 hours afternoon that they reached an inn. The inn seemed to be very colorful and had a great view of the sea. A great place to relax for travelers, except it seemed to be owned by an Al Bhed based off the design. However, this didn't deter Auron for he gave the command to rest. Wakka wanted to refuse, stating that he wasn't tired, but gave up when Auron said he was. He wasn't willing to go against the command of a legendary guardian, so everyone went inside to get rooms. Three rooms were rented out, with the pairings of Yuna and Lulu, Kimahri and Wakka, and Auron, Tidus, and Max. Auron most likely requested Tidus and Max, knowing that it would be safer if Max didn't show his gear yet. As Tidus and Max went into their rooms, they made sure nobody was listening in before Tidus turned to Max.
"Alright, what's in my buckler?" demanded Tidus. "Knowing you, just a shield is way too boring for you."
Max chuckled, "Alright I installed a hand cannon inside it. Flick your wrist up first and hold it for 2 seconds before flicking it down."
Tidus quickly complied and saw that his shield slightly parted, showing a muzzle.
"I put in my explosive ammo in there, so use it in very dire situations. Can't let them find out we're carrying 'forbidden' machina, and also I'm very limited on that ammo series too," explained Max.
Max took the time to explain more of what he had on him right now, causing Tidus to chuckle. Here was Max, being a guardian for Yuna while carrying everything Yevon had or will forbid him from carrying.
Seeing as how Tidus didn't feel sleepy, he stepped outside to view the sunset. Max followed shortly and saw that Tidus had already approached Yuna and started talking with her. He didn't feel like interrupting such a good atmosphere between them, he went back inside the inn after taking in the sunset. There, he found a few Yevon scriptures and books to read. After reading through them, he was confused at such a religion. Apparently, exorcising Sin meant everyone living had to repent. This should be impossible, as even one dark thought would be considered a sin according to their teachings. Reading more about it was giving Max a headache, so he decided to head to sleep instead. As he went to his room, he saw Tidus was already walking over with a subdued aura. They went into the room before discussing Spira and Yevon. That night, they exchanged information about all they knew of Yevon and the final aeon. When it came to the subject of Sin, Tidus was reluctant to reveal that Sin was actually his father. This surprised Max, but he decided to reserve judgment about that later. Both agreed something was up but decided to sleep on it. They never heard Auron step in even after they fell asleep.
Max woke up first and looked around to see that Auron had either never come in or was already up. Thinking it was the latter, he stretched before chucking a book into Tidus's face to make him wake up too. After a few weak arguments and a nursing headache, they got up and were about to step out of the inn when they almost ran into someone.
"Byntuh sa," said the tall, tan man with yellow hair flowing down to his shoulder blade. His apparel was a yellow jacket and pants, leaving his chest and stomach bare.
"Sorry," Max said automatically until his mind caught up with what the man said, "say what?"
"Ah, forgive me, sir. I meant to say 'pardon me,' but it came out in Al Bhed," replied the man.
"Oh, you're an Al Bhed?" asked Tidus.
The man nodded, "Mm-hm. I am Rin, owner of this establishment. Hela du saad oui." Seeing the confusion on their faces, Rin added: "It means, 'nice to meet you'." "Ah!" said Tidus, bopping his fist into his hand, "Well
"Ah!" said Tidus, bopping his fist into his hand, "Well helly doo sad wee to you, too." Tidus tried to copy the pronunciation but botched it horribly.
"If you are interested…" said Rin thoughtfully. "Here is a book on learning our language. You can keep it as a commemoration of our meeting. It might interest you to be able to learn it, although you might want to be careful where you speak our language."
"Yeah, I hear Al Bhed aren't liked much," chuckled Tidus before realizing his folly, "Oh, sorry!"
"It is a shame," Rin said morosely. Max took the book for now. He planned to have his computer analyze this language and have an interpreter handy just in case. However, before he could open the book, a scream could be heard. Tidus and Max rushed to where the scream was and saw Auron and Kimahri already there. Yuna, Lulu, and Wakka followed shortly after them. There they saw a big fiend grabbing a chocobo. It's head was huge, and it seemed like instead of a body, two stubby legs came out from the head. It's arms were twice the length of its head and had claws with scales on it. The fiend's skin looked like it was made of tough skin and muscles. Turning to the guardians, they noticed that the fiend had two horns, a huge mouth with two tongues and many sharp teeth. Drawing their weapons, they charged at the fiend.
It was not an easy battle. The fiend was tougher than it looked and kept shielding himself with his claws, nullifying the damage. Luckily, Lulu cast Fire on it, causing it to stumble. Seeing that its weakness was fire, Max unloaded some arrows onto the fiend, making the burst into flames on contact. Wakka used Dark Attack, causing temporary blindness on the fiend. With this combination, the fiend was unable to get any easy hits on them. As the battle went on, something astonishing happened to Tidus. The fiend, named Chocobo Eater, managed to stumble upon Yuna by complete luck. The fiend swiped his hands out, causing everyone else to fall back to prevent from being hit by those claws. Yuna scooted back only to find a cliff behind her and no way to escape. The fiend grinned as if knowing that his prey had no escape and threw a right straight towards her.
"NOOO!" yelled Tidus as he started running towards Yuna. Time seemed to slow down for him as he was running towards Yuna. The other guardians were already running, but they would never make it in time. Tidus saw Yuna close her eyes as if accepting the fact she would die.
'I can't let this happen, I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!' Tidus mentally screamed at himself to go faster. Suddenly, he saw his body start to glow a little as he was running, but didn't care. An orange glow surrounded his body, and soon he found himself running even faster than he imagined. Using this burst of speed, he ran towards Yuna and grabbed her out of the way of the fist.
A few seconds earlier
'Crap,' thought Max when he saw the fist going towards Yuna. He was already reaching into his utility belt and was about to pull out an item that he had crafted. He didn't care if it was forbidden, if it was to save Yuna, might as well be exposed than let her die. However, he then saw Tidus become a blur, running much faster than he thought was possible. 'Whew,' Max thought as he saw that Tidus managed to grab Yuna out of the way. 'My secrets safe for now.'
Tidus had no idea what was happening, but his thought was only on getting Yuna into a safe zone. The fiend seemed surprised that he missed, and launched another fist at Tidus. Tidus dodged it before running off with Yuna. He jumped with her still in his arms in a bridal carry and landed behind Auron and Kimahri, who looked mad that Yuna almost died under their watch. Kimahri used Fire Breath that he learned earlier, stunning the fiend. Auron charged in and started hacking the fiend into pieces, with Lulu, Wakka, and Max backing him up.
Yuna still had her eyes closed when this happened. 'That's weird, I don't feel any pain or impact. Rather I feel warm like I'm being carried. It's soo comfortable,' thought Yuna. She wanted to snuggle her head into the warmth before realizing she was still in the middle of a battle. She opened her eyes and noticed that she was still being carried by Tidus. Both of them locked eyes with each other for a few seconds, not saying anything until Max yelled out, "A little help here!"
Both blushing, Tidus set Yuna down, allowing her to walk forward a little.
"Everyone, I'm going to summon Ifrit!" Yuna shouted.
She brought her hands out to her sides with the staff on her right. The four lights in green bulbs and the usual summoning glyph appeared as usual, with the lights ascending upwards. However, instead of ascending into the skies like it did for Valefor, she brought her hands together in front, grabbing the staff with both hands at its center. She started to spin it clockwise twice before stopping. While she spun, fire suddenly appeared at the ends of the staff, following it and gathering at the middle before dropping into the ground. She kneeled down, and the fire suddenly split off in four directions in an x shape. The ground transformed, and a glyph could be seen on it before the ground suddenly shook. Bursting upwards, a flaming rock tower suddenly formed, with Yuna on top of it. At the center was a burning sphere, where Ifrit was contained. As if breaking out of its seal, Ifrit roared out loudly before the whole tower broke. Ifrit jumped up first , catching Yuna on its shoulder before landing onto the ground with a thump. After letting Yuna off, Ifrit turned to the Chocobo Eater before roaring a challenge at it.
Admiring it for the first time, Max and Tidus took a close look at Ifrit. Besides having the obvious two huge horns, it looked extremely muscular. It had orange fur on and hair on its brown skin and had a face like a jackal. The fire seemed to flare off its skin at random intervals. Looking at its hands and feet, both of them shuddered. It had huge sharp claws on its hand, good for ripping things apart.
This fierce aeon soon ran up to the fiend, fighting it hand to hand. Blow after blows was traded, with the fiend losing after already taking some damage in conjecture that Ifrit was a fire aeon and ultimately its weakness. The fiend was left lying on the ground, unable to move when Ifrit decided to end it. It opened its mouth and a big ball of fire came out. Ifrit punched the ball right into the fiend, and with its speed, the Chocobo Eater had no way of dodging it. Taking it right in its face, the fiend burst into pyreflies, signifying it was dead.
A voice rang out after they had defeated the fiend, "Have you an interest in renting some chocobos?" They turned around and saw that Rin was walking up to them with an attendant. "As a token of our gratitude, the first time is free of charge. Please ask the attendant, if you wish to rent."
"Thank you so much for saving the chocobos!" cried out the attendant.
After a short discussion, they decided to rent out the chocobos, as it would allow them to reach their destination faster. Tidus was thankful for this. The orange glow had worn off after the battle, and he felt overwhelming exhaustion suddenly come up. Drinking some water, he got on the chocobo with the others before they rode on.
"So, Tidus, How'd you get that fast?" asked Max. The other guardians looked at Tidus, who shrugged.
"I dunno. One moment I'm trying to run to save Yuna, the next moment, I was glowing orange and became so much faster. Although I was extremely fatigued afterward." said Tidus.
"That was the white magic spell Haste that you cast!" exclaimed Yuna. The other guardians looked impressed that Tidus was also able to cast spells now. "Since you did it without any training, it's no wonder your exhausted. You just need to be able to control the flow of magic and soon, you'll be able to cast it on anyone without exhausting yourself too much," explained Yuna. "Thank you for saving me."
Tidus blushed, remembering what he had thought of when trying to save Yuna. Luckily, nobody seemed to have noticed and they continued on the road in style.
Tidus learned Haste! It was around this fight when I played ffx that Tidus learned haste. However, since I didn't introduce the sphere grid, I decided to have him learn in dire situations. Also, instead of Primers, i just had Rin give them a book. Kinda weird to learn a new language by only have one letter translate. Plus, it helps with my story.
I will be describing aeon summoning and maybe thier overdrives once. It was fun trying to describe it. I'd like to know if you guys want me to continue this trend or not. Put it in reviews or pm me. Hope you enjoyed the inventions I had Max put in!