The Magic of Pyreflies

by darkerthanshadows

Can love come out of Spira's endless cycle of death? A retelling of our beloved story told in four perspectives. Aurikku and Tidus/Yuna.

25. The Unspoken Power of Two

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable in this story. They are owned by Square Enix. I just play with their characters. Familiar dialogues came from the game script.

AN: Holy shoopuf! I knew I said in the last chapter's author's notes that I hoped it would not take me three months to update, but geez, look at how time flew by. It's been fivemonths. What's the news about me? My manager told me I "could" get promoted for busting my ass so hard the past few months. I should be happy, right? But the magic word is "could", haha. But you know what? I am happier publishing a new chapter for this fanfiction after months of writing it in bits and pieces. Does that make the screws in my head a bit loose? You be the judge! Sorry it took long to write. This one's a real head-banger with all the research and loophole filling I had to do. Anyway without further ado, here's Rikku and Auron in Bikanel. Brace yourself as this is one hell of a 15,000 word rollercoaster ride. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 25: The Unspoken Power of Two

Rikku

It was probably one of the scariest things I experienced in my entire life. But I said one. Don't get me wrong. I had a fair share of scary experiences. You could classify them into two categories. One was emotional, the other would be physical. What did I mean by emotional? Let's take the death of my Mom as an example. When she died, I was scared that I wouldn't ever know how to go on with my life without her. That's… another story. What counts as physical? Well, every time I played around with volatile machina components when building complex machina counted as one. And that's scary as hell.

Encountering Sin in person? Yeah, that had got to be one that would be a combination of emotional and physical fear. The whole ground was shaking, and parts of the ice cliffs above us were chipping and breaking off. But instead of them falling straight towards us, they stopped midway and floated, as if they were being sucked in a gravitational vacuum. We were panicking, I knew. Everyone was looking for some place to take cover in case the floating debris fall right to us.

I found a nook, not too small and not too far from where we were huddled mere moments ago. I squeezed into it and prayed to an unknown Fayth that Sin get bored and find somewhere else where he could do his voodoo. But as if sensing my weird wish, Sin moaned and growled again, its sound very much like a thousand cattle being slaughtered. It was the kind of sound that rang inside your ears and sent chills straight to your tummy and spinal cord, signaling to your brain that you were about to die, or at least telling you that you were really, undoubtedly, undeniably fucked - just for the lack of a better word.

The sound must have lasted for only ten seconds or more. I didn't count because who bloody counts how long Sin sends out his horrible moan of death? All I knew was that everything went black, as if all the lights in Spira suddenly switched off. I didn't know what I was feeling, but it seemed like I was floating towards some place else. And I wished desperately that I would not be alone wherever I was going.

xxxxx

It was the heat that woke me. Sweltering and blazing, the kind that seeped in your skin and squelched even the sweat that was just about to appear on your pores. There was only one place in Spira that has this kind of heat. By then, I sort of knew where we were before I even opened my eyes. It was a deep grunt though that told me I was not alone, that told me that maybe now was the good time to let my green-swirling-patterned eyeballs do their work. So I opened them, and voila, I was faced with red and black cloth and felt something hard and muscle-ish beneath me.

Well, I believed you already knew what was happening. I woke up, sprawled on top of Auron, and with my limbs tangled all over among his red coat and black vest. And if realizing that wasn't embarrassing enough, Mr. Legendary Guardian spoke before I could even move my sorry, blonde ass off of him.

"Rikku... could you move?" He said, a bit strained and muffled. As if he was suffocating due to my weight on his body, which was definitely not the case because, ahem, yours truly was just ninety pounds, thank you. But this red Guardian tended to exaggerate things, I guessed. Or did he think that I smelled bad and wanted me away from him as soon as possible? I didn't know. But when I heard his voice, I quickly moved away from him, as if his skin was a hot stove I mistakenly touched. Mr. Legendary just stood up gracefully and thoroughly brushed the sand off of his red coat. Sometimes I had a feeling that he loved that red coat too much.

"We're in Bikanel..." I dully stated while standing up and brushing off the sand that was on my clothes as well.

"Apparently." He grunted again, carefully turning around to examine his surroundings while my own eyes squinted as they adjusted to the brightness of our environment.

"But how did we get here?" I asked in a sense of wonder and amazement.

"Sin." He answered with certainty.

"How?" I asked again.

"It can send people through space and time, obviously." He replied, and I swore, a nerve on his forehead was already showing itself and must have ticked.

"Duh, I get that. But how did it happen?"

"Rikku, if I knew how Sin worked, Spira would have long gotten rid of it." He said in gritted teeth and let out an exasperated sigh, which indicated to me that I was already getting a bit on his nerve. Geez, not mere five seconds with him and he was already turning into a grouch again. Was that the effect of Sin's toxin on him? I seemed to be fine and dandy on the other hand.

"Do you know where we are?" He asked.

This time I was the one who spun and looked around me. And… there was just sand. Well, what was new? That was Bikanel for you folks, in case you didn't know. "Uhh, sorry, Boss. No clue." I shrugged at Mr. Legendary, which I knew instantly was not a good thing to do to him.

"How come you have no clue? This is your home, is it not?" He asked while pinching the bridge of his nose. Even a five year old could see that he was extending his patience with me. But why the heck was he such in a bad mood?

"Yeah, and it is also the largest island that is not part of mainland Spira. Not to mention, its land mass is covered in sand which makes it easy to get lost. There are no high terrains for landmarks. And the Al Bhed Home? You will never locate it. It's shrouded in stealth shields."

"...Surely, you must have some way of navigating?"

"'Course we do. We use omni-directional radio frequency transmitters and there are signal markers buried beneath the sands. The Al Bhed Home's coordinates are encrypted, but they are constant." I told Auron, and I didn't even bother thinking if he understood what I just said.

"And do you have one of those... omni-things?"

"An antenna and receiver. That is how they work. But the thing is…" I bit my lip, bracing myself at how Auron would react to what I was about to say. Even I was already starting to panic. "It was in my backpack and… I don't think we have our things with us."

"Draw me a map of Bikanel." Auron said, again with no hint of worry in his voice. I began to wonder how he always kept his cool at situations that seemed daunting enough for me. He was acting exactly how he was when we faced the Crawler machina of my Brother back in Lake Macalania.

"…I don't think that would help, we don't even know where we are." I told him. I was not usually a pessimist, but I really saw no point in doing it. But then again, what else can we do?

"Just draw, Rikku. I would like to have a general picture of Bikanel." Auron said, handing me a small narrow dagger that he produced out of nowhere. Now where did that come from? Hmm.

"Okay, but…" I was about to do what he said when a thought crossed on my mind. Auron must have sensed my apprehension, and he knew the reason why.

"I will never tell any other soul what you will share to me, especially not to Yevonites. I just wish for us to reach the Al Bhed Home as soon as we can, Rikku." He assured me sincerely, the foul mood he had mere moments ago gone like the wind.

"…Pinky swear?" I suddenly blurted out for no reason. Okay, I really believed what he said about him keeping the Al Bhed's secret to himself, but I couldn't help but try to toy him with it. "It's not a promise unless you do a pinky swear." I added, holding my ground even when he ridiculously raised his eyebrow at me.

Nevertheless, after a moment, he moved closer to me and… raised his own right, gloved-covered pinky. "…Pinky swear." He muttered, almost incoherently as if the simple, childish words were embarrassing enough in his mouth.

I tried hard not to laugh. It wasn't everyday that you could fool Auron to do such out of character things. Why he was indulging me, I had no idea. But I grinned from ear to ear as I raised my own left pinky and connected it with his. "Pinky swear." I told him. Boy, Tidus would have a field day when I tell him I just made Auron do a pinky swear.

Knowing he had a fairly reasonable request, I started to draw a big map of the island of Bikanel on the sand before us. I put X's on coordinates that I knew by heart: the wind and solar energy farms, the desalination plants, the Cactuar Village, some Al Bhed Ranger outposts, and Home itself. Well, you might think, Rikku, you have so many landmarks, how in the world will you ever get lost? Well, that's where you're wrong. The problem? All of these landmarks were shrouded with stealth shields. Why? Because that's how crazy my Pops was in terms of homeland security. If there would ever be a war between Yevon and the Al Bhed's again, Pops would never let Yevon outsmart us. Because how could one attack a nation you couldn't even see? That's grade A+ in defense. The downside was that it will always make finding your way home when you get lost a big pain in the butt. Especially when one did not have the omni-radar all Al Bhed's carry. And what was the biggest lesson in Bikanel navigation? Never ever lose your omni-radar.

"So that's Bikanel." I concluded to Auron after I finished explaining to him each of the coordinates. He listened carefully and nodded. Then he moved to the side of the map where Home was situated.

"How big is the Home's perimeter?" Auron asked.

"Not that big. Just around five nautical miles. There are Ranger outposts on the outskirts."

"Hm. What is this circle?" Auron pointed to an area on the map that looked different from the X's I drew. It was situated just a little southwest of Home.

"Oh, that. That's... the Dead Sand." I answered him, while swallowing a lump in my throat.

"A very ominous name. I suppose there's a reason for it?"

"Yeah. Because if you accidentally end up there, you're dead. No one gets out of there alive." I told Auron, trying to hide the chills I get every time I hear the name of Dead Sand.

"How come?"

"Fiends. Most especially the big ones like Garudas and Sand Worms. That's where they always hide. Our old folks say it was because there was a huge sandstorm there once and many Al Bhed who once lived there died. Then it became like an endless cycle. You get stuck, you die, and you end up as one big angry fiend. I think Pops tried to exterminate the fiends there before, but they're just too many of them. We just try our best to avoid that place."

"I see."

"Well, I drew you a map. What's your next bright idea, Captain Kirk? We still do not know where we are." I asked him, flopping down on the sand and absentmindedly drawing odd circles and shapes with my finger.

Auron walked around the map I drew a couple of times. I sat and watched him, engrossed on how he seemed determined to etch the map in his memory. After a while, he turned to me, and I had a feeling he came up with an idea. "Are you good at Complex Mathematics?"

"Umm. Yeah?" I looked at Auron with confusion. Why would he bring up my proficiency in Al Bhed academics at a time like this?

"I don't know how it can be done, but maybe you could figure it out." He said, and then he threw at me something black that switched on a light bulb in my head as soon as the object landed in my two hands.

It was a digital watch. An old Zanarkand-made digital watch, geared with a time, a compass, and weather information. My mind now was running a thousand paces a second. Who knew Auron had such a brilliant brain inside of his grouchy head?

"Oh, Auron, you are a genius!" I exclaimed. The mathematical equations that I would have to use to pinpoint our location manually were already resurfacing in my brain.

His head cocked to the side. "I don't think so. I hardly know Math, but I think you know how already."

"Well, of course! Leave it to me, Rikku the Pathfinder!" I took the dagger from his hand and began scribbling my calculations on the sand.

It was simple really if you have the right variables. Well, simple if you had an Al Bhed brain like mine with a whopping IQ. See, there were many theories on how to know your location when you get lost. If it was nighttime, you would easily know which way is which by looking up at the Spiran nightsky. But at daytime? You just need an objects' shadow while referring to the position of the sun, time, day, Spira's tilt, and Bikanel's coordinates which I all knew by heart. Did it sound like a mouthful? I tell you, if you put the equations on paper it will take you many sheets. Why do you think the Al Bhed built omni-radars?

Anyway, I used Auron's height and shadow as my main point and did my work. I was locked in a trance and quickly did my calculations while muttering and arguing to myself like a schizophrenic without medication. I had never done something like this before, but Auron didn't seem to mind that I seemed crazy as I worked. I didn't know how long it took me, but by the time I was finished, it was like I drew art on the sand before us. Figures, shapes, and mathematical symbols littered all over. Auron must have noticed that I was through when I moved to our drawn map of Bikanel and marked where we are with a smiley face.

"Very good." He said to me, with eyes that probably glowed with amazement. Was it just the sun on his face or my imagination?

I didn't know, but I grinned like an idiot.

xxxxx

"Eat it." He said to me for like the hundredth time, and this time, just like the last time, I just shook my head.

"Rikku, you need food in your body." He argued again, and yes, that fact seemed right enough. We had already been walking for hours in the heat of the sun. Auron and I came to a conclusion that rather than wait for help to come to us, we would look for the nearest Ranger Outpost and take it from there.

So, I was constantly navigating, calculating, and pinpointing our location from time to time aside from battling fiends that we encountered along our way. It was indeed a huge toll on my mind and body, and he thought it was high time for us to take a break when my stomach grumbled loudly as if I hadn't eaten for months. We found a small, alcove-like shelter formed by two protruding, perpendicular rocks, and we decided to rest there. Auron stepped out to get some "food", and I must have been feeling a bit woozy that I didn't bother to ask where he would find some.

He came back carrying something and started a small fire using a little black magic he knew and used only for emergency. What he cooked though was what led to our present situation.

"Think of it as a steak and fresh green salad." He insisted again.

"Hey, I know what steak and salad are, and they are most certainly not that." I said in defense, like a six year old who did not want to eat her vegetables, or brussel sprouts and bitter gourd. Holy shoopuf, I would take brussel sprouts and bitter gourd any day over what this Big Master Chef Wanna-be was trying to serve me.

Just what was the food? Or the pseudo-food? It was Sand Wolf meat and Sandragora stems chopped to bits. Well, what sort of food could you find in Bikanel outside the perimeters of the Al Bhed Home? If you say you could eat that, well, good for you. Me? There was no way in hell I was putting fiend carcass body parts inside my own body. Not even if you pay me a million gil. If it were ten million though… hmm.

But him? He paid no mind to my childish ways and grabbed a piece of the so called steak and took a bite. It made a sickening sound. I cringed at how disturbing the act looked like.

"Just like a steak." He said and bit again. "Come on, eat." He added, after swallowing.

"No way! I can't eat that!" I whined as if my life depended on it. Though maybe it did? That Sand Wolf meat and Sandragora stems could be poisoned you know.

"You can."

"Well, you can. Not me, no. But you? I bet you can even digest rocks and steel." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You're going to starve." He said to me darkly this time. I knew this tactic. It was the same one my Pops used to do to force me to do my homework instead of tinkering with the machina I had lying around in my room. Rikku, if you do not study, you're gonna end up wiping off chocobo poop in your Uncle Rin's chocobo pens forever.

Of course, that was horror. But this, on the other hand?

"I can still walk for miles! We can reach Home by then. Or a Ranger outpost that has rations." I said adamantly, and I knew it was not a distant possibility.

"I don't think so. Your calculation said they're still fifty miles out." Auron said deadpanned, bursting my bubble of fantasy. That didn't mean he wasn't right though. Even I knew I would not last another fifty miles in an empty stomach. But still...

"...Well, I'm a fighter. I'll survive." I said weakly, but not weak enough not to pout and cross my arms.

"Death by starvation is hell. You'll start hallucinating and lose your mind." Oh, nice try, Auron. Here were his stories of impending doom I knew he was going to say. Why not also say I will be very weak and dying that Garudas will be feasting on me giddily once I stumble flat on the ground?

"Then you'll just have to do the calculations and navigation yourself when I am all loony." I answered back, furiously shutting my eyes and turning my head away. Yeah, I was hard-headed that way.

He fell silent for more than a minute that I thought he had given up already. But in an almost inaudible whisper he said, "...What will become of me then? Would you wish for me to die here too?"

My head immediately turned towards his direction. Those words were not what I wanted to hear, and I couldn't believe he said them."That… that's not fair. You are not allowed to play that card." I told him, eyeing him seriously just to be certain that he wasn't joking. Auron was a master at psychological warfare; my training with him included fortifying my mind from opponents who could slice you with words as their sword.

But he looked at me calmly with no hint of manipulation at his stare. It was just the pure truth that he wanted to convey. "It will happen, Rikku. If you do not feed your body. I need you to be as strong as you can." He added, his hand stretched toward me and holding a piece of that darn Sand Wolf meat.

My gaze shifted from what his hand was holding and back to his face. For a second, I thought I saw a strange glint in his good, brown eye. Something that said he was sorry for making me go through this. That if he had a power like some magical genie, we would be feasting on something other than what he was trying to feed me. How did one ever refuse the hidden words his one good eye wanted to say?

"I meant…" I stuttered and looked away from him. Then I grumbled grudgingly, "Arggh! Alright, alright!" I took the piece of the Sand Wolf meat and bit as fast as I could before I was able to change my mind.

And it was not like steak at all. No. It was like eating a hard and rough sponge that stank like rotten fish. I swallowed it but vomited half of what I ate back up.

Oh well, Auron. Just don't tell me I didn't try.

xxxxx

"Hey, Auron! I see something!" I shouted at Auron who was a bit lagging behind me. We were travelling in the desert for a day and a half now. The heat itself wasn't also helping in mitigating our exhaustion. But then I saw something over the distance, and just by the shape of it, I knew it was an Al Bhed Ranger Outpost - one that we were desperately wanting to reach.

"But didn't your calculation say the nearest Ranger Outpost was at least twenty miles farther from our last checkpoint?" He said, and I could sense that he was strangely hesitant. Or maybe he was just being cautious? Auron was sure paranoid this way. "It also looks abandoned, Rikku. Weren't they supposed to be shrouded in stealth?"

"Oh, who cares about my calculation? It is a Ranger Outpost! Maybe I missed one out. I don't have all the outpost coordinates memorized to plot them on the map. And even if it was abandoned, we may still find some supplies there, or omni-radars, or even a radio to use to communicate to Home." I answered back, thrilled to imagine that we were just a radio call away from help to get to the Al Bhed Home. And food? For sure we will find rations there. Goodbye icky Sand Wolf meat, and hello, real food!

This was a miracle one did not ever refuse.

Auron looked at me, and I could see that he was really thinking it through. I didn't know what it was that was bothering him, but my arguments seemed compelling enough. Eventually, he slowly nodded in agreement, and upon seeing that, I took off as fast as my feet could go, the arid breeze behind my back feeling a bit unnaturally balmy on my skin. I heard Auron's chuckle at my enthusiasm, and he followed me, running on the same pace I was on. Just a few more hundred meters and we were about to reach the Ranger Outpost, until…

"Rikku, look out!" Auron yelled for me loudly. I barely realized what came out of the sands on my right. It sprang and moved swiftly despite its huge mass. Then it rose to its full height of around forty feet, baring its big red mouth that was filled with sharp teeth and disgusting, sticky, transparent drool. It was a Sand Worm. I stood and stared at it for a few seconds, feeling my legs shake and unable to move in fear. Then it suddenly burrowed itself to the sands again, as if preparing for its hidden, surprise attack.

"Come on, Rikku! To the outpost, quick!" Auron shouted again, grabbing my arm and forcing me to move myself. We ran and ran as fast as humanly possible to the abandoned Ranger Outpost. On my left, two more Sand Worms sprang from the ground and growled menacingly. It was as if our footfalls woke them up from their restful sleep, and they wanted to attack us as revenge for our little sin. We reached the inside of the Ranger Outpost, exhausted and panting for our breaths.

It wasn't long until I voiced out my confusion in between my heaving. "Sand Worms? W-Why are there Sand Worms?"

Auron shook his head and wiped the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve. "I do not know, Rikku. You told me they are concentrated in the Dead Sand. Unless…"

"No, no, no, no! I checked our route multiple times. I designed it to specifically avoid the Dead Sand. I swear I –"

"Do not fret. Catch your breath first." Auron told me as he stood up and looked at the Sand Worms menacingly patrolling a few meters outside the abandoned Ranger Outpost we were in. "It doesn't seem like they are interested in attacking us here?"

I looked to where Auron was facing and tried to hypothesize why the Sand Worms didn't dare come close to the outpost. "They say Sand Worms are territorial. Or probably this Ranger Outpost's solar-powered sonic barriers are still working."

Auron looked at me with interest. I decided to explain to him this technology to take my mind off of the thought of the Sand Worms outside. "A sonic barrier is a sound-emitting device that gives off sound at the highest frequency. Our human ears don't hear it, but fiends can, and it is completely hurtful to their ears. Perhaps, the ones here are still active, that's why they can't go near."

"In short, we are safe as long as we are in the confines of this outpost?" Auron nodded his conclusion.

"Yes. But let me look around. Maybe we'll find clues on where we are and why we ended up here." I said to Auron, obviously avoiding both our hunch that we were already in the Dead Sand. Maybe there was another reason for the appearance of the Sand Worms? Maybe they acted like birds who migrated to different places due to the changing seasons? I wanted to delude myself because the hard fact of being stranded in the Dead Sand wasn't really what I was hoping for.

"Maybe I could find some supplies we could use." Auron said and headed to the other side of the outpost where he thought was the storage room.

I took the path that led me to the western side. Ranger Outposts usually were not bigger than a hundred-fifty square meters. The basic layout was that in the east were the storage room and the huddle room. The west usually held the sleeping room and the Captain's quarters. I headed there and saw six, empty bunk beds, lined up by three's and facing each other. I shuddered at the thought that there were Al Bhed Rangers that slept there once. What became of them? Parking the question to not imagine horrible things, I went inside the Captain's quarters.

Just like the rest of interior of the outpost, the Captain's quarters was filled with dust and cobwebs. There were brown cabinets lined up along the right wall. I opened them one by one and found that they were empty. No radios, or omni-radars. This was not what I was expecting. I tried to suppress a shiver. I moved to the desk at the north of the room. There was a map of Bikanel pinned on the top of the surface, the kind of map that was filled with contour lines and varying numbers marking each.

It was a map that specifically outlined the magnetic fields in Bikanel.

My heart must have stopped beating as I immediately realized something. I made a mistake, a very big mistake. The note at the bottom of the map didn't help either. It was scrawled hurriedly in Al Bhed and red ink, dated five years ago.

I'm so sorry, Cid. We should have given more buffers in the demarcation of this base from the start. Now they surrounded us, and they're just too many of them. But we'll go down fighting. Know that we went down fighting.

- Kaunka, Captain of Ranger Unit 153

"Rikku, I found a few rations. They seemed five years old, but I think they are still edible. At least the labels say they still are –" Auron paused immediately as he saw me shuddering. My shoulders must have been shaking so hard that I became startled when he softly placed his hand on me. "...What's wrong?"

I bit my lip as I fought hard not to cry, but the tears still flowed and stained my cheeks. I couldn't look at him, even if I tried. "Auron, we are… we are in the Dead Sand."

xxxxx

Magnetic deviation.

It was the simple phenomenon of a magnetic compass being tilted erroneously or deviated significantly due to local magnetic anomalies, thus misdirecting you from your true assumed destination unless you accounted for it and adjusted your bearings in your navigation. And that always put it to the number one spot in Things to Never Forget in Bikanel Navigation 101. Bikanel was an island filled with magnetic anomalies on its crust and outer mantle due to the abundance of core power sources hidden underneath its arid landscape. It was both a blessing and a curse. We got free energy to power up our machina; in turn, it always messed up our navigation systems in these easy-to-get-lost lands. It would not do you harm, unless you knew that it was there. Unless you remembered to factor that phenomenon when navigating.

So yeah, magnetic deviation. The sole cause of our being drifted unintentionally to the middle of the Dead Sand. And by the magnitude of the magnetic anomaly in that horrid, fiend-infested place, it threw us off-course at about twenty degrees. Like getting your spaceship sucked inside a black hole unwillingly, even though you desperately planned to avoid it, only because you forgot to take into account the heavy pull of its gravity. I meant, I never experienced that, but I imagined it would be the best analogy.

What were we going to do now? Mr. Survivor counted the supply of rations he found. It could feed us for ten days, provided we eat once a day. He even argued that he'd give me his share, stretching it to almost a fortnight for me.

"I was once a soldier, Rikku. I could last a very long time without food." He insisted, but I shook my head adamantly. I didn't want the thought of him starving to death to be added to my already guilty conscience, I told him. He fell silent to that and didn't add anything anymore.

So, after settling in the open hall and eating some rations that probably had more preservatives than nutrition, I set out to do my work. Like an architect who was determined to know how his building fell apart, I retraced my calculations and found where it all went wrong – where the magnetic deviation started kicking in and messed up our compass. I had a real map now as I took the one in the Captain's quarters. I found the red ballpoint pen inside the desk's drawers, and I used it to scribble at the back of the map. I worked furiously on getting a course on the next nearest Ranger Outpost – a real one with living people. And this time? I made sure that that darn magnetic deviation was taken account for in every quarter-mile. When I was through, I presented all of it to Auron.

"So, our last checkpoint was already twenty degrees off-course. But we know where we are now, thanks to this map. This outpost is at least forty miles away from Aycdanh Vnuhd – the Eastern Front outpost – our original destination. The Dead Sand stretches at least twenty-five miles more to the east, but if we run for it, we can make it."

Auron was silent as he took in my words. I knew he was deliberating the pros and cons of my suggestion. I gave him time to think about it, handing him the map and the sheet of paper where I did my calculations. He studied it for a few minutes, and then he spoke his mind. "...No. You know no other shelter in the east of this abandoned outpost. That means twenty-five miles of facing constant threats of Sand Worms and Fayth knows what. I won't let you go through that, Rikku."

"Yeah, well, I thought of that too. You know the sonic barriers that we have here? I could break them to miniature versions. They would be less powerful in terms of distance covered, but they can still ward off the Sand Worms and other big scary fiends." I told him, wanting him to see that I got every angle covered.

Again he fell silent. I had a good point, you know? But he looked at me intently and said, "No."

"W-What?" My voice must have gone up a half-step of pitch in shock. "What do you mean no?"

"You heard me. I am still saying no. We are staying here." He replied, stubbornly handing back to me the map and my papers where my calculations were scribbled..

I shook my head, finding his answer incredulous. "Don't be ridiculous. It's a good plan. Why the hell stay here?"

"...It's dangerous." He whispered softly, in an almost resigned state.

"Of course, it is! We are in the freakin' Dead Sand! Don't you think I know that?" I told him, not even holding back from raising my voice.

"And do you know how Kaunka's unit died?" He asked, his voice sounding deeper with what I could only think of as restrained anger. That tone was so unnatural coming from him that it made me put brakes on what I was about to say.

"...I-I don't know." I admitted rather timidly.

"Think, Rikku. There are no radios or omni-radars left in this outpost, but there are some rations left. What does that mean? It means they did the exact same thing you are proposing. They must have communicated to the Eastern Front to provide backup for them from the other side at a certain range of perimeter. But the defining factor was that they didn't make it close enough for a rescue rendezvous. Do you know what's even worse? We have no radio or omni-radars. By the magnitude of the magnetic anomaly here, even the navigation attempt while fending off fiends would be suicide."

"I've already taken account every magnetic deviation. I can navigate–" I protested, but he immediately cut me off.

"You can navigate? Look where we are now."

His seething voice resonated in my head, like the sound of a glass shattering and breaking the silence. I couldn't believe what I was hearing from him. Dumbfounded, I asked again to know and dig deeper in what he was implying. "Are you… are you blaming me for leading us here?"

Auron fell silent, but he stared at me as if I was some disgusted, unwanted insect in his shoes.

"Y-You are, aren't you?" I felt tears threatening to flow again from my eyes. But I bit my lip and fought them hard. I will not display weakness. No, not in front of him, especially with the kind of row we were having now.

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The fact remains that your mistake, no matter how unintentional it was, led to our present situation and made a very big impact." He said, in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. The one he often used every time he became tired and angry and wanted everyone to stay the hell away from him when we were not performing as he expected. I often understood that tone, often understood why he wanted some time alone and let everyone munch on some proverbial words he previously said while walking away like some significant pause in a dramatic cliffhanger.

But this time? It felt like he stabbed me with his dagger and pulled it out after five grueling seconds.

"And you are not even man enough to say outright that it is my fault. Do you think it hurts less when you sugarcoat it with your boring political correctness?" I replied to him, anger laced in my voice now, never holding it back anymore. If he wanted a war with words, well, I could produce my own verbal ammunition to fire at him.

I will not cry in front of him. I will not cry in front of him.

"Forgive me. If that attempt of stating a fact while being mindful not to bruise your ego already offended you, Rikku, then you are not even mature enough to handle any sharp truth this world will hand you."

There it went, and my tears flowed uncontrollably, staining my cheeks. Auron was indeed always a master at psychological warfare. He knew everyone's weakness, and he knew that, even though it would be uncalled for, a derisive comment on my incompetence because of my young age would be enough to defeat me, equivalent to him firing a headshot at me point-blank.

So, incredibly hurt like some kicked and abused puppy, I fought back the only way I knew how. "...I hate you. I wish it was never you that I got lost with here in Bikanel." I half-whispered, clenching my fist and restraining myself from launching myself at him and punching him like I did when we were in Thunder Plains. That would just prove his point of my immaturity.

"We are staying here. That's final. This has a higher probability of survival rather than the ridiculous idea you were suggesting." He repeated, ending our argument. But I already had resolve in my head that I will not listen.

I stood up carefully, brushed the tears from my eyes with my forearm, and walked away from him. I wanted to create distance between him and me as far as how Zanarkand Ruins was against the Besaid Islands. If he was surprised or disappointed that I did not throw any barbed retort anymore, I could not care less.

I will not rot in the Dead Sand wishing and waiting for a rescue.

No, I will find a way out myself.

xxxxx

I slept on one of the bunk beds in the sleeping room, after peeling and dusting off the worn-out, dirty sheets yesterday night. If Auron slept in the room as well, I didn't know for sure, because it was just me alone in the room when I woke up. There was only silence in the Ranger Outpost. It was daytime, and I assumed the Sand Worms that popped out a day before became utterly bored and burrowed in underneath the sands.

I patted my face a few times to clear my head. I already knew what I had to do. I just need to them quickly, or else, I would drive myself insane here in this Outpost. I didn't want to be stuck here with Mr. Cyclops. Anything but that. So, after fixing my hair, I padded to the open hall quietly. As I was nearing, I heard the sound of steel scraping into something like a smooth stone.

Cred. Mr. It's-all-your-fault was already up and sharpening his broad katana. What a nice thing to see first thing in the morning. I was already feeling the beginning of sore eyes. And if that wasn't bad enough, his sixth sense triggered and immediately noticed me lingering in the open hall entrance without even looking at me.

"You have food here. Get them."

Sure enough, my eyes wandered to the center of the hall where there were two packs of rations. I immediately knew what it meant. He was giving me his share. But if that was his way of apologizing instead of saying the he was sorry, I didn't want it. Feeling rebellious, I walked right past the rations and into the door leading to the front perimeters of the Ranger Outpost.

But he must have known what I was about to do all along, because he spoke again and halted my steps without even looking up from his task of sharpening his broad katana. "Don't be stubborn. You need food in your stomach."

"What I need is to calculate the voltage needed to successfully power a high-functioning miniaturized version of a sonic barrier. Do you have an answer to that? No, I think not." I snapped at him, starting to get annoyed that he still wasn't even looking at me. It was making me want to grab that smooth stone and pummel it on his head.

Instead, I shook my own head. How was it that I always wanted to become violent when I was frustrated with Auron? Probably because we were both hard-headed in a similar yet different way. Didn't know what I meant? I guess you could say that I was like a tornado, and he was like a volcano; two unstoppable forces of nature. And when we clash… well, you probably got the drift already.

"Suit yourself." He said tersely, still not withdrawing his eyes from the sword-sharpening that he was doing.

I paid him no mind and ventured outside to the perimeters of the Ranger Outpost. I looked at the expanse of sand far ahead of me. The gentle breeze seemed to softly push small waves after waves of sand. If I didn't know that there were Sand Worms underneath the sand dunes, looking at the horizon of the Dead Sand was calming in a way. But still, I will not be fooled.

I immediately set out to find the sonic barriers. They weren't that hard to find. I located one on the northeast of the Ranger Outpost entrance. Its small solar panel stuck out, and I carefully dug around it to pull it out. When I dug enough, around four feet deep, I pulled out the device as cautiously as I could. It was like eight feet long, wrapped in steel and weighed heavy like twenty pounds. This weight really meant I had to miniaturize it without a doubt. It was divided into three sound-emitting sections, each with a flickering green light that meant it was working its high frequency sounds.

I smiled inwardly knowing what I had to do. I just had to rewire the sections and separate a block off to lessen the weight. Of course, that may sound easy, but rewiring requires a lot of voltage calculation and estimation for it to work, and I only had one shot at it. I cannot compromise the safety of the Ranger Outpost. No matter how much I hated Mr. Sword Sharpener right now, I wouldn't want him to get eaten by Sand Worms by destroying all the sonic barriers because I tampered with all of them. I was not that evil.

I did not know how long I worked. But it must have been long enough that the horizon already changed to an orange hue, and I felt a shadow looming over me. It was Auron, no doubt. He didn't speak, but I knew he was watching me.

"...No one goes to the Dead Sand. Not even rescue teams; it only causes more deaths. It has been a long unspoken rule for the Al Bhed's since The Second Extermination. That was what prompted Kaunka and his unit to leave this outpost and try to save themselves." I told him, not missing a beat. I didn't want to burst his bubble of fantasy of getting rescued, but this was one fact in Al Bhed rules that even a blindly hopeful, stubborn ass like him had to know.

"Are you more afraid of knowing that Cid will not rescue you – his very own daughter – or of being disappointed that he did not after hoping that he would?" He replied in an inquisitive tone, almost like a how a shrink would attempt to psychoanalyze you to bits and pieces. I didn't want to indulge him in his mind war again, so I did all that I could to fend him off.

"Who said you could disturb me? If you are not helping me in my plan, then fucking bugger off."

He must have been offended with my vulgarity because I heard his fading footsteps. But after a good twenty seconds, he spoke again, reminding me that he was still close by. "…I have faith in Cid." He said with certainty.

"Yeah? Well, go away and meditate on your faith. Hell, you could even pray to a stone Cactuar and ask it to save you. I. Do. Not. Care!" I shouted at him, fighting off the urge to fling the separated section of the sonic barrier at him. Damn him and all his off-hand ways of messing with my head.

He only chuckled darkly, and before he went back inside the Outpost he said, "You have food inside the Outpost, Rikku. Do not neglect your hunger just because you are mad at me."

I flipped my head towards his direction to glare at him, but by the time I did so, he already had gone inside. I shrugged my shoulders then and decided to go back to work.

I finished rewiring the separated section of the sonic barrier well into the night. By the time I did so, I had a grin plastered on my face which I always had after doing some improvised machina tinkering. There was one little question that bugged me though. I had not tested the full strength of the sonic barrier yet, although my calculations did say the miniaturized version could ward off big fiends at a spherical circumference of two kilometers. Guess, I would only know how it will perform by the time I use it.

I entered the Outpost and found three packs of rations in the center of the hall. I could only assume that Mr. Faithful didn't eat again and was giving me his share. Well, I was not his mother to scold him and remind him to eat. I opened one pack and ate while studying again my Bikanel map and navigation calculations. I went to the storage room and tried to pack some supplies that I would need for tomorrow. I gathered some medical kits and rations. After I was through, I went inside the sleeping room, tired and wanting to shut my eyes. I had to wake up at the break of dawn to start my travel out of the Dead Sand.

I found him sitting on the floor and leaning on the right wall near the entrance of the sleeping room, knees drawn near his chest and his broad katana resting on his shoulder and in the middle of his legs. I studied Auron for a few seconds, silently wondering if he was awake or not. When I padded silently in front of him, I found out that he wasn't. Perhaps, this was how he always slept, always ready to jump into action, being a soldier of Bevelle for a long, long time. Feeling absolutely childish, I stuck my tongue at him and made ridiculous faces in front of him before feeling giddy and deciding to hop on the bunk bed I slept on the night before.

Tomorrow, I'll be out of this Dead Sand.

xxxxx

I woke up with my nerves wracking me, but I knew I had to calm myself. What did Pops always say? Nervousness are just extra adrenaline in your veins when you step out of your comfort zone, Rikku. I repeated that to myself three times, after fixing my hair and preparing the things that I would bring. Finding a renewed resolve, I started to walk out of the sleeping room but stopped when I was in front of Auron. I studied him again; he was exactly how I last saw him yesterday night, sitting on the floor. But when I decided to leave, he suddenly spoke surprisingly.

"What you are about to do is stupidity." He said as he raised his head and opened his good eye to look at me.

"What you are doing is stupidity as well. Guess, we'll just know who is more stupid between us in the end, eh? Wanna bet?" I smirked at him, but he just lowered his head as if wanting to go back to sleep again.

"Hmph." He grunted.

"Don't worry. When I get to the Eastern Front, I'll send back up so I could fulfill your fantasy of getting rescued."

"I doubt you'll reach that far. You'll just crawl right back here at the end of the day." He chuckled darkly without even looking at me. I clenched my fist angrily, realizing how much he belittled my abilities again. Auron could really get nasty to someone if he wanted to. Not wanting to fall for his verbal war bait, I just stepped out of the sleeping room in silence and proceeded to the front perimeters.

He, on the other hand, made no move to stop me again. I didn't think I could be stopped though, even if he did. I looked at the expanse of the Dead Sand before me, strapped on the digital watch I had for navigation, readied my map, and powered on my miniature sonic barrier. This was it. I held my breath, counted one to three, and started to walk out of the Ranger Outpost perimeters with shaky legs.

I didn't know if it was the time of day, or if it was the sonic barrier, but I was able to walk around ten miles without encountering Sand Worms, not counting the Garuda that flew right above me. I looked at the sky, and the sun was shining already. It must have been mid-morning already. Feeling hunger striking my tummy, I flopped down on the ground, unpacked one of my rations, and started to eat. I began to reflect on how far I would have to go and smiled to myself. I was already around a third on my estimated travel distance. Two-thirds more and I will be out of the Dead Sand and will be trekking the distance to the Eastern Front. Satisfied, I began my travel again.

This was where things began going downhill. Auron was right. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Over the distance, I saw two Garudas flying in circles. Upon sensing me, they flew towards me. Fearing they'd catch up with me, I ran and held the sonic barrier tightly. Before they collided with me as they swooped downwards, at around five-hundred meters, they recoiled as if they were hit invisibly by something. I felt relieved. Maybe I overestimated the distance covered of the miniature sonic barrier by twice the amount, but it still worked. I ran again, desperately trying to shake off the Garudas. But then two huge Sand Worms of about seventy feet immediately sprang up from the sands in front of me. They motioned to attack, instinct made me evade and swerve to the right. The same thing happen: the Sand Worm recoiled at about five hundred meters.

However, the other Sand Worm recovered, poised to strike on my left, and I evaded as hard as I could, but tripped as I did so. The sonic barrier fell out my grasp in quite a distance. Vilg! Vilg! By the time I had sense to run after it, the two Sand Worms kept attacking, and I evaded and evaded as they recoiled, recovered, and attacked again. It wasn't long until the other Garuda fought and broke through the high-frequency sound the sonic barrier was producing and plucked it away from the ground where it was thrown. Vilg! Vilg!

I was on my own, without the protection of the sonic barrier. Good grief, fate wasn't really kind to me. The two Sand Worms rose to full heights, growled loudly, and bared their mouths that were dribbling with disgusting drool. I changed my stance to fight mode. It was a long shot; my attacks would be weak, but if I had to fight my way out of this mess, I would have to defeat these horrible fiends. The Sand Worm on the left struck first, and I evaded. Then the Sand Worm on the right struck straight through with the intent of swallowing me whole. I defended with my targe as best as I could, but the other Sand Worm was about to strike again. Vilgehk ramm! I was cornered, and I could really feel in my bones that I was about to die.

Until… the Sand Worm on my left let out a growl with pain before it could attack me. It all happened fast. There was a red blur, and suddenly, I was pushed to the ground by something, and I saw Auron standing in front of me, his broad katana drawn and ready to fight.

"Run, Rikku." He said, turning his head towards me.

"But…" I hesitated. The two Sand Worms rose to full heights menacingly. I couldn't leave him here fighting alone, even if he wanted me to. I stood up to my feet, wanting to fight as well.

He must have known my stubbornness because he shouted again, "I said run!".

And then he immediately went after the two Sand Worms, slashing, slicing, and piercing with his broad katana. I watched in wonder as he fought the two fiends by himself, but when the other Sand Worm was about to strike him without him noticing, I immediately threw the grenades I was saving for emergency in my shorts' pockets.

The other Sand Worm recoiled, and then in between heaving breaths, he looked back at me for a second in surprise and said, "Didn't I told you to run?"

"I will not leave you here." I told him adamantly.

He raised his eyebrow and smirked. Then he smiled, "Stupid, stubborn brat."

"Stupid, infuriating prick." I stuck my tongue out again at him, and he laughed, the sound like a melodic symphony. Which was something I really shouldn't think about in the middle of a battle with scary fiends.

"Fine." Auron agreed grudgingly. He bounced his broad katana over his shoulder, which he often did when he was thinking deeply. The two Sand Worms seemed like they were waiting for us to come to them. "Remember our fight with the Wendigo in Lake Macalania?"

I grinned, knowing what he meant. "Divert attention and attack?"

"They'll sometimes burrow, but they'll spring up right where you are standing. You'll feel it in the ground." Auron advised, and I wondered how easily he recognized that pattern in just a few seconds of fighting with the Sand Worms. "I'll use my Overdrive by then."

"Roger that." I confirmed, not even minding how dangerous his plan was. Somehow, no matter how impossible to defeat the fiend was, Auron seemed to have something under his sleeves. This seemed to give me more confidence than necessary, compared to when I was struggling with the Sand Worms alone.

He nodded his head. "Let's go."

We rushed to the two Sand Worms which separated in different directions. Auron chased the one on the right, slashing as he got close. The one on the left burrowed to the sands, and I knew I had to stay right where I was to feel the ground and act as bait. Sure enough, I felt some trembling and in half a second, I evaded as the Sand Worm sprang up straight out.

"Auron!" I shouted as a signal to him. He wasted no time, changed his targets, and then unleashed his overdrive, Shooting Star. But instead of him just hitting with one slash like the one he did in our training in Moonflow, this one was filled with constant, multiple slashes that lacerated the springing Sand Worm horizontally and vertically as it moved upward from beneath the ground. By the time he was through, pieces of this Sand Worm carcass were everywhere around us.

"No rest for the wicked." He grinned and was back on his feet. "Another one, Rikku."

I nodded, feeling energized that our plan worked flawlessly. I rushed to where the other Sand Worm was and repeated the same tactic. It worked just the same, with Auron sending bits and pieces of the Sand Worm everywhere. After we were through with that last one, we flopped to the ground panting but laughing. We escaped another brush of death.

"Do you think they'll be good enough to eat?" I asked Auron, indirectly hinting at the fiend carcasses all around us.

"I may have a strong stomach, Rikku, but I don't think I could eat Sand Worms." He said, while flicking off his broad katana to remove the sliminess that accumulated on its spine.

"Yeah, me too." I stood up, brushing off the sand on my shorts. We then looked at each other. He was eyeing my strangely, but he had a smile on his face. I smiled back, and I was about to say thanks to him for saving my butt, when…

Another Sand Worm sprang up from the ground where he was standing and swallowed him whole.

"Auron!" I shouted, but he was gone in an instant. "Fuck! Auron! Auron! VILG!" I shouted and shouted in shock. I couldn't believe what happened. He was just right in front of me, and then… the new Sand Worm was suddenly there in his place. No, this could not be happening. This could not be happening at all!

But instead of this new Sand Worm attacking me too and swallowing me whole. It turned its head in a different direction and started crawling away. It was taking Auron away right before my eyes. And I want him back. For the love of all Fayth, I want Auron back.

"No, give him back!" I shouted and ran after the new Sand Worm. I unleashed the claws of my targe and started attacking the new Sand Worm's behind. "Give him back! Give him back!" I shouted as I struck and struck in blind rage. But it didn't work. My attacks were too weak, and without even paying attention, its tail swung at me full force knocking my down over and over as I got up and attacked again. After one more powerful swing that sent my head buzzing, it began to crawl away faster.

It was taking Auron away. And I couldn't even do a damn thing to save him.

Tears began to well up in my eyes. Auron. Cred! Vilg! Why was I always this useless? Why can't I even save someone, anyone, when it was their turn to be saved? Why was I always like this? I felt anger rising inside of me. It was becoming a raging fire that coiled in my spine and burned all the way to my chest. I screamed and screamed as I felt something, a surge of energy erupting, unleashing, and exploding.

Before I knew it, huge meteors were falling from the sky and hit the new Sand Worm constantly. The last thing I remembered was whispering Auron's name before I blacked out.

xxxxx

A gentle breeze woke me up. I didn't know how long I was passed out, but my body still seemed exhausted. I opened my eyes and saw brown rocks above my head. We were again in an alcove-like shelter, like the one we were in a few days before our being stranded in the Dead Sand. It made me wonder if it was all a dream. Was it? I turned to my side and saw Auron sitting on the ground without his red coat. Hmm, unusual. Then I looked at my torso to see that it was draped over me.

"W-Where are we?" I asked him, my voice cracked and hoarse.

"I wouldn't know Rikku. But definitely somewhere in the Dead Sand." He looked at me with surprise to know that I was awake. Something like relief washed over his pale face.

"It wasn't a dream?" I asked again, still trying to get my bearings.

He chuckled dryly. "I wouldn't know what you were dreaming of. But being in the Dead Sand? No, this is not a dream, or a nightmare."

I suddenly felt memories rushing to my head. Losing the sonic barrier. Struggling to fight the two Sand Worms. Auron suddenly saving me. Us defeating the Sand Worms. Him getting swallowed by another one. Then the meteors. I sat up quickly and then winced as I felt a strong pain on my arms. They were wrapped with bandages. Auron was beside me in an instant helping me sit up.

"Easy." He cautioned, while handing me a flask of water. I drank all of it, feeling dehydrated. "Your arms were bruised and wounded heavily. I didn't have potions, but I used some Al Bhed medical ointments I found in the medical kit you brought."

Now that he explained my injury, I then remembered their cause. The tail of the Sand Worm that swallowed Auron struck me over and over. I tried to peek under the bandages. The bruises were in a sickening color of dark purple and red. But all of them didn't matter to me. What mattered was that Auron was still alive, right here beside me. But the man must have thought something different as he saw tears threatening to flow from my eyes.

"They won't scar. Do not worry." Auron told me softly as he brushed his thumb over the newly bandaged wounds on my left arm. "You'll still be beautiful."

"That's not… I don't care about scars…" I said in between gasping breaths as the dams broke and tears finally escaped my eyes and I sobbed heavily. "S-Sorry… You almost died. For the love of Fayth, you almost died. It's my fault, Auron, and I know I'm so stupid and –"

"Hush. Don't blame yourself, Rikku." He commanded gently, placing a hand on my shaking shoulder. "You were right, you know. At some point, perhaps we'd have to make a move out of that abandoned Outpost. And I should've trusted you. This is your home after all. And I shouldn't have blamed you, when you did the best you could..."

"Will you forgive me?" He added with sincerity that I knew was genuine. I nodded my head in acknowledgement, and he closed his good eye for a moment as if he was absorbing all my forgiveness.

"I just… I don't want to die here, Auron. Not in Bikanel. Not in the Dead Sand." I told him my greatest fear that drove me to where we were now. I wished he understood what I really meant.

"Look at me, Rikku." Auron placed his hand at the back of my head, brushing my golden hair in one smooth down stroke. His good brown eye looked at me sincerely. Then with a soft voice that was almost like a whisper he said, "I won't let you die here. You have my word. But for now, for now… let's rest?"

Still feeling exhaustion, I nodded to him obediently and laid back down.

"Will you… will you lay beside me?" I asked Auron, rather shyly. If he was shocked by my request, he did not show it. Instead, he nodded his head and laid down on his back beside me, our shoulders and arms touching each other.

"I'm scared, Auron." I quietly admitted to him. Even though we escaped the brush of death caused by our encounter with the Sand Worms, there was still no telling what we would face in another day in the Dead Sand. How were we going to survive? I just wanted to go home.

"Will it make you feel better to know that you are not alone in that feeling, Rikku?" He said, almost fifteen seconds later after my admission that I had thought he didn't hear me voicing out my fear like a child scared of the dark.

"You're scared too?" I asked in disbelief.

"All the time." Auron confessed. And then he turned to his side to look at me, cushioning his head with his right forearm. Something in his honest admission told me that it wasn't just being here in the Dead Sand that scared him. It might be the pilgrimage, Sin, or Yuna's sacrifice. Almost everything that would make living difficult in Spira.

"But you never show it." I concluded, and I also turned to my side to face him, mirroring his position while being mindful of my arms' bruises.

"If one can control one's fear, one can control everything." He stated with his good eye closed as if trying to recall the words as they were spoken to him back then. But by the time he opened his good eye, I failed to hide the confusion in my face. He noticed it, smiled lightly, and added, "...Words from my Warrior Monk Master when I was his apprentice."

"If I understood what it meant, I would say he's very wise." I bit my lip, a habit I that I usually do when I was confused.

"In dire situations, most people would think they already have no control and likely give up. But the truth is, you can control almost everything, Rikku. Identify your fear, and then defend your mind with rationality. That is what that saying meant." He explained to me, his voice going back to teaching mode, confident and commanding but in a way that invites one to listen attentively. And even when we were not in our daily break-of-dawn trainings, I figured that people, especially the rest of our Summoner's party, did listen to Auron, not just because he was the Legendary Guardian, but because he did know what he was saying.

"You mentioned earlier that you are afraid to die here in this part of Bikanel. But you are still alive –physically hurt, yes – but still with full limbs." He continued. "We have no food, but we can scavenge food from fiend carcasses and water from water cactuses – distasteful but enough to keep our stomachs from complaining. We may encounter Sand Worms again, yes, but we now have a strategy to defeat them. No one may rescue us here, but we still have determination to survive this. So you see, Rikku, with enough thinking every fear can be overcome."

I tried to contemplate on all the things he said. He was right. With enough thinking, we could still survive the Dead Sand. I looked at him, and he looked back at me. Then I remembered something.

"...I take my words back." I admitted to him.

"What words?"

I bit my lip to prevent my cheeks from reddening."When I said I hated you and didn't want to be stuck here with you."

"Ah. What made the change of heart? I admit I earned those words fairly."

"Yeah, well... I also did some rethinking. See, if it was Wakka or Tidus I was stuck with, we would have been dead in the first day because of their stupid ideas. Especially Wakka, he'd always be stubborn towards me and get himself killed even if I try to help because I am just a heathen to him. If it was Lulu or Yuna, we would have been so fearful of the Sand Worms that it would've stopped us from moving at all, and we would've died in hunger and dehydration as well, refusing to eat fiend carcasses."

"That leaves Kimahri or me." He concluded prematurely.

I smiled, wanting to share to him my comparison for them both. "Kimahri… Kimahri would be the same as you. He'd always risk his life to protect me too and get us out of here. Buuuut – he is too quiet! I will die from his insane silence, no matter how many Ronso jokes I crack."

"...So I won because there was no other choice you liked?" Auron asked, pretending to be hurt but still smiling.

"Well, you still won at least, silly." I lightly pushed his forehead with my pointing finger. He chuckled genuinely, a deep rumble that resonated in his chest that told me he didn't expect what I just did to him.

I didn't know what it was when I was with Auron. We seemed to be more carefree when we were with each other, or specifically, alone in each other's company. He seemed to talk more freely, and I seemed to be more at ease when I was with him. At least, that was how I saw it. We may fight, we may argue, we may call each other names, but at the end of the day, there was no one in the party that I trusted more than him. He was… I did not know what he was, and I did not know if I could put a name to it right now. Maybe I was feeling a bit tired as well to even contemplate what we were. But today, he risked his life for me to save me without hesitation, without an inch of care for his own life.

And I never thanked him for that yet.

"Auron…" I called for his attention since he closed his good eye again. I knew that perhaps he was still a bit tired and drained due to the Sand Worm almost digesting him and sucking out his energy, but I wanted to get something out of my chest as soon as possible.

"What is it, Rikku?" He asked, opening his good eye again.

I looked straight into his good brown eye. The warmth in it never faded. "Thank you. For saving me from the Sand Worms."

"If I had let the Sand Worms eat you, Rikku, I don't think I'd be welcomed in the Al Bhed Home with open arms." He replied high and mighty again, like he always did.

"Hey! I'm serious, you know." I lightly pounded his chest with my fist.

"You are forgetting that you were the one that saved both of us, Rikku. Do not demean the skill you brought on the table." He caught my fist gently, but never let go and looked at me again. "Though it still makes me wonder what you did to the new Sand Worm? Specifically to the one that swallowed and regurgitated me out."

"When… it swallowed you, I tried to fight it with regular attacks, but it wasn't working. Then, it took off, as if I wasn't worthy enough to be swallowed. It crawled farther and farther from me, and it was taking you away right before my eyes... and I wanted you back. I wanted you back so bad." I told him, so frantically that I didn't notice that I was already leaning close to him and that my head was inclining to his chest, under his chin, while my hand gripped his left arm tightly. "I felt a surge of energy inside me. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was immense, like it was building up rapidly. And I wanted it to be out. So I let it out. The next thing I knew, there were meteors falling from the sky aimed towards that Sand Worm."

"Meteor." Auron repeated, and I looked up at him with confusion on my face. He didn't seem to mind that I was leaning close to him and was rather interested more on the events that I told him. He explained further, "A very highly complex black magic. It is a combination of bending space and time to produce a meteor that would deal a deadly, non-elemental damage. Only few black mages know how to cast it."

"Well, I don't know if I could cast it again. I suck at black magic, you know." I shifted a bit to give him room. I didn't want to make him uncomfortable with my proximity suddenly.

"If you did it once, it would be possible that you could do it again." He told me in assurance.

"You think I could be like Lulu?" I wondered aloud.

"All black mages are different. Some have strength in standard black magic. Others thrive in complex ones. Do not aspire to become like Lulu. You have your own identity." He said to me, and just like that, he built my self-esteem again the way only he could do.

"I...Thanks, Auron." I mumbled, trying to hide the blush on my cheeks.

Good thing the man already closed his good eye. In a strained voice he then said, "Forgive me, Rikku, but I feel low on energy. May I rest for a while? We can talk in a few hours."

"Stupid. Why didn't you tell me? 'Course, Auron, feel free to rest." I chided him. Stubborn, hardheaded man. He must have been up for a long time, never resting even with depleted energy, just to guard me until I awoke.

"Thank you, Rikku." He said before closing his good eye and breathing in deeply.

"Auron?"

"Hm?"

"Sleep well." I said to him and smiled even though his good eye was already closed.

"You too." He mumbled, and after a few minutes, he was fast asleep. I spent a few seconds studying his face again. It was surprisingly more relaxed. It was a carefree sight that I often did not see and he often did not let others notice.

Feeling completely safe with him just beside me, I let my eyes close too and urged my mind to go back to dreamland.

xxxxx

It was a different sound that woke me up this time. It was a combination of a deep moan and a silent sob. I thought I just imagined the sound, but when it happened again, I realized that it came from Auron.

"Mother… No, please, don't kill her…" He moaned in what seemed like a strangled voice. I suddenly knew that he was having a nightmare. "Auron? Hey, Auron?" I sat up, shaking his shoulder to wake him up. I did it a few times but to no avail. He was deeply trapped in his nightmare.

"Father, help me… Please…" He moaned again, incredibly pained and hurt. It was highly disturbing in its strangeness. I had never seen him like this before, and never will I wish to see him in this state again.

"Wake up, Auron!" I shouted with determination. He really needed to snap out of this, or this kind of nightmare will consume his mind. I pounded his chest strongly a couple of times, but his reflexes were quick and strong, and he was suddenly on top of me, his hands choking the air out of me.

"I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!" He screamed, his hold over my neck tightening and tightening.

"A-Auron! Auron, it's me…. It's Rikku! LET GO!" I tried to utter sounds as he strangled me bit by bit. But it was no use. "AURON! LET GO OF ME!" I struggled again, trying to grab away his hands from my throat. He was really choking me. I was losing air, and I knew he might kill me if I didn't do something to wake him up soon.

I desperately tried to grab something I could use to hit him with. On my right, I felt a medium size stone within my reach. Within seconds, I flung it at him, hitting him square on the temple with a loud thud, so strongly that it pushed him back and loosened his grip on my neck. Blood started to run down his fhead. When Auron came to, he realized his hands were on my neck, and he immediately retreated far away from me.

"What did…?" He immediately lost his words, breathing heavily and too shocked when he realized that he hurt me. He looked at both of his hands as if he wanted to chop them off.

"Auron… it's ok." I told him, a bit strained while I was nursing my neck. It still hurt, and I knew there will be slight bruises, but I didn't want him to feel bad when it was just an accident. "You were having a nightmare. I tried to wake you. But… I guess I should've known that you'd have quick reflexes."

"…Forgive me." He whispered so softly. This was different when he asked for forgiveness the day before. The way he said it this time, it was as if he wasn't expecting me to forgive him at all. I wanted to comfort him. Knowing Auron, I knew he'd feel really bad about something like this. I moved closer to him, but he backed away even more as if he didn't want me anywhere near him.

"Auron. Auron, I'm ok." I took both of his hands, and I felt his chills. I realized then that something was very wrong with him. "It was an accident." I tried to assure him once again.

"I almost killed you..." He said and shook his head.

"And you didn't. Do not come to the conclusion that you did." I reminded him. He was breathing deeply and raggedly, as if trying to get a grip of himself. He was quiet for a few seconds and stared at something very far. I wanted to make light of the situation, so I waved my hands energetically in front of his troubled face. "Hey! Spira to Auron!"

Auron then looked at me, his eyes filled with something akin to so much sadness that I felt my heart constrict at the sight. Immediately, I pushed him to lean on the alcove wall. He looked confused but obeyed without question.

"Alright," I told him. "You definitely need a talk."

"Rikku…" He protested very weakly.

"See, the thing with nightmares, they don't go away unless you share them with another person. And then they become afraid, 'cause you know, they'll be two who could fight the nightmares away. That's what my Mom always said. Know what I mean?" I told him enthusiastically, eager to let his fears come out so I could help him. "So, buster, spill and let Rikku the Nightmare Fighter do her magic!"

After I did my over-enthusiastic spiel, Auron just looked at me as if I had turned blue and grown two Hypello heads over my neck. I laughed at the sight because it was as rare as the thought of my Brother donning pink-laced panties and dancing horribly. But I knew I had to push him so we could start something like psychotherapy in his clearly too traumatized mind.

"Um, ok. Let's start. What was your nightmare about?" I asked him.

"The night my foster parents died." He said with gloom and a hint of hesitation. "I believe I told you about it already."

I nodded my head. Yes, he told me about this vaguely in the Thunder Plains. Then he confirmed it in our drive to the Macalania Temple. "But… there was something more, right? Something you haven't told me yet."

"Yes. How I survived."

It was like a light bulb switched on in my head. I never really did think about that certain event when Auron told me about his past. He was only eight years old back then, and now the certain mystery on how young Auron survived such a tragedy intrigued me.

"How did you survive that night, Auron?" I asked him gently, knowing that this certain memory would be painful for him. Maybe he never really had anyone to talk to about it profoundly, and that was why it was still haunting him even in his nightmares.

It took a few minutes before he responded to my question, and I waited patiently every second.

"When they killed my parents in front of me… they said they wanted to play a game with me. We lived in the temple quarters, you see, and in its back lie the forest of Vakarus. They had set me free there, told me to run as fast as I can. Their intentions were to make me a prey and they, the hunters. It was the dead of night. I couldn't see anything, but they had night vision equipment. In fear, I tripped, fell, and stumbled noisily as I ran for my life. They were silent, and I could hear their gunshots aimed far from me as if toying with me and creating more fear. For a moment, I wanted to give up. To let them kill me. But I remembered how they killed my parents, and I wanted to fight them for revenge even if I knew it would be a losing battle."

Auron stopped to look at me. I stayed silent, wanting him to continue his story. He looked away from my stare and continued.

"I ran to the forest shed, where my father, Amias, used to store a small sword. But they caught up with me before I could take the small sword out. One of them saw it, picked it up, and charged towards me. Filled with so much adrenaline and no care, I met it head on. He... stabbed me in the gut, but he was leaning close… or at least his neck was… and so I bit his neck… hard. I hit his jugular vein, and his blood spurt out unstoppably, but I held on, biting and biting at his flesh and veins until he pulled out the small sword from my gut and fell down. The other guy was in shock with what I did. He shot his gun several times at me but his aim was bad, and I was able to get close enough to knock him down and stab him multiple times. He lost consciousness from my assault, but he was still breathing. And I wanted him dead so fiercely, so I brought my hands to his neck and…"

He stopped again. But this time, he brought his hand to my right cheek; his thumb brushing away tears that I didn't notice were flowing.

"Forgive me. This must be already too horrible." He said somberly.

I covered his hand on my cheek with my own hand, knowing that it was only through touch that I could give comfort. "No. It's just that… you went through so much. How come you still blame yourself for your parents' deaths?"

"It was I who brought those murderers to the temple quarters. It was the height of racial war in Spira. Many strangers were living in Vakarus, migrants and refugees of every races, others who might have had hidden agendas. My parents told me not to go out without their company. But I didn't listen; instead I snuck out of our home to be able to play with my friends. They… found me and cornered me in the town's alleys, threatened to kill me if I didn't give them food and money. I told them I have none, they said my house should have some. And I... I… feared for my life, so I led them to the temple quarters, and the rest you know already. But if I had faced them without fear that time in that alley, and if I probably had just let them kill me… then my parents… they would've never died in those murderers' hands."

I knew that feeling all too well. The guilt of having caused something. The regret of not doing the opposite of what was advised by others. I didn't know that Auron and I had this in common. Wanting to let him know that he was not alone in this, I shared my deepest secret. "I blamed myself for my Mom's death too. I mean, sometimes, I still do."

He was definitely shocked by my confession. His face never hid it. "Why…?"

I withdrew his hand on my cheek, but I never stopped holding it. "Because I too… blame myself for my Mom's death." I told him, mindful not to let myself cry at the memory.

"How?"

"I was five, and I was playing with highly unstable machina components. Pops… he left a machina in the garage. He told me seriously that I shouldn't touch it, but curiosity got the best of me. I had a core power source I was toying with, and the machina's power slot looked compatible. But it wasn't. The next thing I knew, I was in the Home's hospital bed. Pops said the machina exploded with positronic beams because of the incompatibility of the core power source I inserted. The initial blast pushed me out of the succeeding explosions. My Mom though… she was cooking in the dirty kitchen next to the garage. The struts of the house fell over her due to the explosions and…"

I stopped for a second, wanting to repress the hurt that reliving this memory gave me.

"Pops never blamed me, you know. But for the longest time I blamed myself. Many people extended their sympathies. Told me it happens, these machina accidents. And I tried to connect with people, especially with Pops and with Brother. But I had this feeling that made me feel separate... that felt like I was –"

"All alone in this world –" He suddenly said.

"Like wishing I was never born –" I nodded and added.

"Like wishing what happened had killed you instead…" He continued with certainty. "Do you still feel that way?"

I shook my head lightly. "I didn't know what it was. But… one day a thought came to my mind. Like a voice or a whisper. That my Mom wouldn't want me to keep blaming myself. That she still loved me in spite of what happened. I know it's hard, but… do not blame yourself anymore, Auron. I know your parents would never do."

"It is difficult, Rikku. I am not sure I could not..." He said, and I knew it was the same as confessing his weakness.

"I know. But think of your parents. They wouldn't want that for you. They would want you to remember them not just in that night, but before that. My Mom, she was always happy, you know. She had countless stories, endless jokes. And when she died, there was only silence in the house. As if she took all the laughter with her passing. I missed her so much… so I tried to look for ways to make Pops and Brother happy. The first joke I cracked with them, they smiled. And I wanted to see their smiles even more. Then it sort of grew on me. Wanting to be happy." I paused and saw him looking at me. Out of curiosity, I asked him, "Tell me, what were your parents like, Auron?"

"…I was their adopted, but they loved me like I was their flesh and blood. My father, Amias, he was very kind, not for Yevon's sake, but for goodness itself. He could never say anything bad about anyone. He liked books. I remember he had a room in the temple quarters dedicated for it. It was on every subject Spira has. Geography, history, magic, politics, novels, and philosophy. He was always reading, and he read to me every night. My mother, Agape, she loved music. She could play every instrument, the harp, flute, and strings. She would always sing and compose songs about love and friendship and family, and then she would ask me how they were. I always told her they were lovely, and every time she sang I asked for more –"

Then he suddenly paused, as if wanting to say something else but could not. Instead, he shook his head and smiled. "Thank you, Rikku."

"What for?" I wondered. I didn't think I did anything praise-worthy except to ask a few questions about his past.

"It has been a long, long time since I remembered my parents. I thought these memories were already lost on me."

So that was the reason, I realized. The bad memories he had about his family suppressed and overpowered the good ones he had. So much, that he only remembered the bad things now, continuously haunting his head like ghosts that would not leave. I wanted to share this discovery I learned about him, but I guess, it would be better if I just help him uncover his buried good memories, so he would have strength to fight off his bad memories from now on.

"Hm. They're always with us, you know. That is the magic of love, especially their love, I guess. It lives on and comforts us even when they're not alive to do so themselves." I told him, feeling unbelievably weird that I was the one sharing words of wisdom this time.

"I see." He said, while trying to stop his light chuckle.

"What? You don't believe me?" I asked him, pretending to be a little hurt.

"No. My apologies, Rikku, please do not take it the wrong way. It's just that… you surprise me." Auron said sincerely, trying to clear out the misconception I took from him. "There was just more things about you that I didn't know, I suppose."

"Heh. That goes the same for you, you grouchy Warrior Monk." I said in jest. I was about to add something more when I heard a familiar sound over the distance. "Hey, wait – did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" He asked, and I seriously wondered if he had gone deaf from the Sand Worm almost digesting him. I knew I heard something.

I stood up immediately, following the sound and wishing that I was not imagining things. It didn't go away, instead it became louder and louder, intensifying after every second. I knew that sound by heart. It was the sound of a combusting piston engine and rotor blades slicing the air. Definitely! I was sure of it. Brother and I were working on that machina right after we uncovered the airship in Baaj. It was still under development from what I knew, but I was sure glad it was working now.

"The rotorcraft!" I said aloud and rushed from the confines of our alcove to the outside. And there it was a black dot on the horizon. "Auron, come! It's the Al Bhed Rangers! Quickly! They're here!"

He followed me out of the alcove, and then we were jumping and shouting at the top of our lungs. Then as if sensing our presence, the rotorcraft turned to our direction. I couldn't contain my excitement, and I jumped and waved my hands and shouted even more. Second after second, it became clearer that they were the Al Bhed Rangers. They came to rescue us.

We were saved, and I was finally going home.

AN: So how do you like this chapter? Hope it justifies the long, long time it took to write and was well worth it. Drop a review and let me know. As usual, some notes for things in the chapter:

Cred = "Shit"

Vilg! = "Fuck"

Vilgehk ramm = "Fucking hell"

Some of the Al Bhed technology I described here is derived from air navigation and flying which I just tweaked to suit the story. (I used to fly small airplanes for fun). The omni things are derived from the actual device called VOR. In real life, it is not buried in the ground, but situated on a control tower. The magnetic deviation is also one phenomenon that happens when flying in continents with magnetic anomalies, or near magnetic poles. If you are interested, you can google them. They're interesting stuff.

As I said before, the romantic development between Auron and Rikku will take time. I can't make them just smooch each other senseless, but this chapter was specifically designed to make Auron see Rikku as more than a hyperactive teenager. He needed to get past his preconceived notion of immaturity regarding her. Rikku also needed to know that she has the ability to save Auron, not just the other way around.

Where's Yuna and Tidus? One more Auron POV in Bikanel, and we'll get those lovebirds back. My idea is that Bikanel is Auron and Rikku's moment, while Bevelle and the coming night in Moonflow are Yuna's and Tidus'. So, stay tuned! Cheerios, everyone!