Disclaimer : I don't own anything.
Note : I guess this is a sort of second part to the previous chapter. Next chapter should be a little more lively, and become more action filled as we continue with the fic.
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(Celsius Deck, Tori's POV)
"Vegnagun's definitely bothering me, but…there are other things we need to worry about too. Look at Spira. It's a total mess." Dustin said as he faced the rest of us with worry, the wind blowing through his hair.
Allowing myself to get distracted, I mentally questioned how such a strong wind could blow, but a force field stayed in place to keep us from blowing off the deck. Then my mind jumped to how such a different world could have my friends, and they're so similar to my friends back on earth. Changing the direction of my thoughts, I began to ponder what Blake thought about my idea, concerning Zhane.
I knew it bothered him, but he'd been nothing but supportive since I made the announcement. I wondered… Did he really know what I meant? Was he really ok with it?
"Shall we go check things out?" Cassie asked, effectively bringing me back to the present and what was going on.
Looking troubled, Dustin looked to me, then Blake, before turning back to Cassie. "I don't know if we have the time." He said honestly.
"Well…" I began as I looked to the others. On one hand, Dustin was right. Every second we spared on checking out the cities and towns of Spira, was a second Zhane could use to get to Vegnagun and destroy Spira. Then, on the other hand, we might find out some useful information and it could help us to stop Vegnagun. I guess, really… "We'll just play it by ear." I told them uncertainly.
"Way to take control" Cassie mumbled sarcastically, and I felt my face heat up.
Brothers voice rang through our coms, and I raised an eyebrow as I listened to what he had to say. "Gullwings! Round up! It's strategy time!"
Round up? I though as I blinked a moment. What, did he think were horses or something? Round up??
Ignoring his words, I led the way to the elevator as we descended to the hallway leading to the bridge. Entering the bridge itself, we noticed Adam, Ethan and Brother all standing in a semi circle with looks of thought on their faces.
Looking at me directly, Ethan began the discussion with a concerned look on his face. "We know Vegnagun is in the deepest reaches of the Farplane. The only way in is to jump into one of those holes."
Adam cut in at this point, looking totally lost. "Yeah, but which one?"
Thinking for a moment, I tried to remember each place I saw one of those holes. "There's one in Besaid, one in Kilika, and one in Djose." Not to mention, the ones in the lost temples that held the Aeons I didn't get on my journey.
Cassie nodded and frowned. "Don't forget the one in the Calm Lands. The cave at the bottom of the Gorge."
"And the hole that Vegnagun opened up under Bevelle." Ethan finished with a frown. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he gave me a sheepish look before going over to his station and bringing back two red spheres. "I almost forgot. Rocky contacted us earlier and gave us these. Said some guards found them under Bevelle someplace, and gave them to them, thinking they were useless junk." He explained as he handed them over.
"That's nice." Brother said with disinterest as I put them away for the time being.
"So…" Dustin looked at us all uncertainly and shrugged, stating that he was totally lost.
So Blake picked up for him. "So, which hole do we jump into?"
"Who cares?" Brother demanded as he hopped back into his seat. "We just pick a hole and dive! Tori! You can chose the hole!" he ordered before turning to his console.
Gee…thanks. I thought sarcastically.
"Well…for now, I think we should take a little break." Yawning, I raised an eyebrow to explain. "I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm beat!" Waving to them, I headed out of the bridge and took the elevator to the cabin where I laid down for a brief rest. I knew now wasn't the best time, but how could we stop Zhane and destroy Vegnagun when I'm about to pass out on my feet?
When I eventually woke up, I got out of the bed quietly and noticed by the small clock by my bed, that a couple of hours had passed. Making my way to the stairs, I froze when I heard voices and found myself crouching down to listen, though why, I didn't know. I knew I was eavesdropping and I knew it was wrong, but recognizing Brother's voice, I found myself listening anyways.
"What…what should I do?"
Peeking down the stairs, I noticed Brother sitting at the bar with a sad look on his face and a bottle of Spiran wine next to him as he spoke to Barkeep.
"If yoo love her, tell her how yoo feel, yesh?" Barkeep offered as he cleaned a glass.
Shaking his head, Brother sighed. "No! I have said too much." He said with a stern look.
"Mish Toori turns her back on yoo?" Barkeep inquired with a confused look.
Sighing again, Brother shrugged a little. "Maybe it is better that way. I…I like Tori's back."
"She hash nice backshide, yesh?"
Nodding slowly he let his head sag. "Yeah." Then, he seemed to realize what he said and shook his head violently. "I mean, no! No, no! These past two years, Tori has always been looking ahead…into the distance. Always, her back is to me."
I frowned and felt a little bad. Did I really seem like that? Did I hurt him? For all his flirting, he was still a good guy and I didn't really want to hurt him like that.
"I like this Tori. Even more than a Tori that is facing me. E muja ran (I love her)" he said sadly as he took another drink.
Blinking a moment, my eyes went wide and I felt my face heat up when he said that. I knew he meant it more than in the family sense, and it made me feel a little weird, but I also knew he didn't mean for it to be that way. As much as he may have loved me, I couldn't love him back. Not only was it wrong, but I love Blake.
"The heart of a man ish compaplicated." Barkeep said wisely as he put down the glass he was cleaning.
"You know what I say?" Brother declared as he stood up. "We two are born bachelors, yes?"
Barkeep shook his head sadly and sighed. "Shpeak for yoorshelf, shunny." He said as he pointed to a door and a female hypello came walking in.
"Hi, shweetie." The female hypello greeted in a warm tone as she hugged Barkeep. Turning to Brother, she waved.
Nodding slightly to her, Brother watched in shock, the two hypello.
"This ish my Darling, yesh."
"Wha…?" Shaking his head, Brother gaped at the two in love hypellos. "When?"
"It ish the deshign of deshtiny." Darling offered with a small shrug.
I giggled silently at how cute she was. Poor Brother, I felt a little bad, but it was nice to at least see Barkeep find love.
"We in love at firsht shight." Barkeep admitted.
"Oh, shtop!" Darling giggled as she hugged Barkeep.
"Ynkr, E lyr'd dyga ed (Argh, I can't take it.)" Brother mumbled to himself as he left the cabin.
Shaking my head, I walked down the stairs and waved with a smile to Barkeep and darling, before taking the elevator to the engine room. Whatever the reason, I wasn't quite ready to go to the bridge and, well….jump into the Farplane.
Standing by the engine, I stared at the giant machina, before going over to the treasure chests and opening them to find some rather common items which I placed in my pouch. Turning to leave, I was surprised to find Adam walking over with a small smile.
"Better keep your distance." he warned with a warm smile. "Wouldn't wanna lose a finger or something." Looking at the engine, he smiled and nodded to himself with a proud look. "Hm, that's my baby." he said fondly.
Giggling, I shook my head and raised an eyebrow at him. "It's like you're talking about a person."
"Of course!" he exclaimed with a laugh. "After all, the ship is one of the Gullwings, too."
"She's been around longer than me, huh?" I asked with a fond smile as I once again looked at the engine.
"Me and her met for the first time, not long after you brought us this calm of yours." he said as his eyes glazed over and he seemed to reminisce. "I'd caught word that an old airship was at the bottom of the sea way in the north. Me and Brother made our way through a sea of ice. A fog moved in, so thick we couldn't tell west from east."
By now, we were both sitting cross legged on the ground as I listened to the story of how the Celsius came to be around.
"On top of that, we were freezing our blitzballs off. Yep, I thought we were done for. Then it appeared above us, a single gull flying along out of nowhere." Chuckling a little, he shook his head at the distant memory. "As if it had come to save us, right? We didn't have a lot of options, so me and Brother chased after that gull with everything we had left. And by some stroke of luck, we found this airship nestled within the ice. Along with our winged rescuer."
I blinked for a moment before raising an eyebrow and biting back the urge to giggle. I knew he wasn't lying, that that this was a very serious story for him, but it was kind of funny to listen to. "Oh!" I thought I got it now. "So that's why we're the Gullwings?"
"And that's not all." He said as he raised his hand.
I nodded and settled down. "Yeah?"
He opened his mouth to say something, when he suddenly just closed it and shook his head with a slightly disturbed look on his face. "Actually, never mind." He said with a sheepish grin.
Now I really wanted to know and leaned forward a bit with a pout. "Adam! Please?" I begged.
He sighed and nodded slowly, a slight grimace on his face. "We were lucky to find the airship, but we were still on thin ice, so to speak. See, we had nothing to eat. We were nearly dead from hunger. Yep, I thought we were done for. (Yes, he actually repeats this part) Then, it appeared above us, a single gull flying along out of nowhere. As if it had come to save us, right? With the very last of our strength, we bagged that bird, and, uhh…."
"Adam." I cut him of there, feeling utterly disturbed and disgusted. When he turned to me, I shook my head slowly and managed to give him a weak smile. "Thanks. I think…I've heard enough."
"That bad?" he asked with a sheepish grin. Sighing, he nodded and stood up to leave. "That bad, huh?"
He agreed not to speak of it again, and we walked to the elevator to head up to the bridge. Once we were there, he went straight to his seat and began typing as I walked over to the others.
After a few minutes, we went over collectively and waited to see what Adam or Brother would have for us. As if sensing us, Adam turned in his seat and gave a huge grin before turning back.
"We got a message from Besaid a little while ago. Looks like Kelly and Skyla finally had their babies."
"Really?" Dustin cried excitedly as he turned to us with a huge grin.
I felt the corner of my lips turn up before I was smiling fully and brought my fists in front of me as I jumped a bit and bounced over to Dustin. "Let's go see them!" I cried with a giggle as I turned back to the others.
I noticed Blake had a far away look in his eyes and a small smile. I had a pretty good idea what he was thinking of and walked over to hug him tightly, making him jump a little in surprise.
"There's a message from Kilika too. Apparently things are getting a little messy."
Heaving a big sigh, I turned around and clasped my hands behind my back as I shook my head, frowning. "More bickering."
Chuckling dryly, Adam nodded. "Sort of. Now it seems like they're bickering over the fact that all the bickering's stopped."
"Figures." Cassie mumbled, just loud enough for us to hear.
So I guess we had our plan now. We weren't ready to jump into the hole just yet, and there were places Spira was still falling apart. For now, we'd travel Spira one more time, trying to fix what we could, and when we were done… That's when we'd face Zhane and Vegnagun.
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So, a shorter chapter, but I needed to cut it off there….
I hope you liked it.
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Now, it's time to get revenge on those power punks…
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R+R please. All comments are welcome, even con-crit.
Thank you.
Tenshi