A Generation of Legacies
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X, X-2, or any of Square-Enix's characters.
Last Time:
They stood face to face with a moderate space between them, and Koiray found that he had to smile. Here he was, looking into Hara's eyes, and he didn't have to hide how nervous he was. He didn't have to mask the quiver in his voice. There was something different about himself, and he liked it.
Hara stepped forward and embraced him in a chaste hug and whispered, "Welcome home."
Hugging her back, Koiray felt the surreal feeling disappear, and he suddenly felt truly at home. "Thank you."
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"If you were any other guardian, I would have charged you with absence without leave, your career as a guardian would have ended, and there would be a new Deputy Crimson Knight of Besaid… however, you are not any other guardian, and any Crimson Knight would be blessed to have you…" Baed paused and leaned back in his chair. "You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this, and I'm sure you want me to just cut to the chase."
"….I'd appreciate that, sir."
"You're still Deputy Crimson Knight. Your dad took the liberty of approaching me not long after you disappeared and partially explained the situation to me."
Koiray's face immediately turned to a new kind of discomfort. "He did?"
Baed laughed. "Of course, and he told me all the embarrassing stories about you growing up too." Koiray looked mortified. "Oh don't give me that look, Koiray. He was very professional. He scheduled an appointment with my office, explained your situation or what he believed it to be at the time, and shared to such stories about your childhood." The Crimson Knight kept a smirk, placing a hand on his sphere station, a screen projected before him and the terminal connected to it pushed out. "Don't worry, we managed without you. About six months before Sir Fier retired, he had me doing the duties of both Crimson Knight and Deputy Crimson Knight so I just maintained the workload a little longer… but you owe me. My fiancée's ready to kill me with the hours I've been putting in."
"Sorry, sir."
"I said don't worry, but I'm not going to lie and say there isn't a mountain of evaluations and memos waiting for you. Oh, and once you get through those, I'm taking a vacation. I think I deserve it."
Koiray nodded his head softly. "You got it, sir."
"Now," the Crimson Knight motioned to his door, " you can't keep a lady waiting."
"Sir?"
"I'm not stupid. Summoner Hara's waiting outside my office, and I don't have an appointment with her until next week."
He let out a small scoff. "Yes, sir." He moved from his seat and offered a salute. Baed returned it, and Koiray exited the office. As the door swished closed behind him, he looked to see Hara sitting with a small smile on her face.
"Wait, don't tell me," she began. "You're still Deputy Crimson Knight of Besaid, Sir Baed was completely understanding, and you have enough evaluations so that once I print them off I could literally bury you."
"…How do you know these things? All the offices in this building are sound proofed."
Standing up, she began to move towards the circular transport in the middle of the room. "Call it a woman's intuition." From the center of the floor transport, she looked to him. "Coming? I know you don't want to actually start working until tomorrow."
Koiray ran the few steps to join her, and the transport began to float slowly down.
It was his third day back, and Koiray was beginning to relearn the life he had left behind. His first day back was spent unconscious in bed. The shift back to his time was more exhausting than any other he had undergone, and he had practically collapsed in his old room. His second day, he had told his tale to his parents, grandparents, Aunt Gaia, Uncle Darka, Maru, Teyh, Desa, Ro, and Hara, beginning with Alor all the way to Kokon. Takoire II had seemed particularly quiet and thoughtful as he told of his encounter with Sareth. Lenne had seemed the most interested as he told them of Kokon and his transformation from an unsociable high summoner to a protective father and husband.
They had all asked him questions save for Hara. He answered all with no qualms. It felt good to get it off his chest. His grandmother had cooked dinner, and that night they had all eaten together as a family.
"You knew my dad had talked to Sir Baed, didn't you?" Koiray asked accusingly.
As the circle settled on the ground floor of the guardian building, Hara moved towards the exit. "If I'd told you, it would have just added some unnecessary stress. I know how much your career matters to you, Takoire, and how you don't want any help from your family."
He frowned, following her. "Sometimes I think you know me too well."
She smiled softly but did not look back to show her expression. "Not as well as you think."
Ruffling his still uncut hair, Koiray took an extra large step to walk adjacent to Hara and caught the hint of uncertainty in her eyes. "Than it looks like we're both stumped because lately, I don't seem to know myself that well either."
Skimming the medals and ribbons of his uniform, Hara smiled softly up at him. "You're the dashing, charming, debonair, Deputy Crimson Knight of Besaid, Takoire III, fondly known as Koiray. Every girl's dream guy."
Cocking his head, Koiray remained skeptical but cheerful. "I'm not sure about the last part. I could think of a few girls who could argue." He paused. "So tell me about you. You've heard all my adventures, it's only fair that I hear what you've been up to."
"Nothing as exciting as you," Hara answered, continuing their stroll. "I've pretty much kept up with my work."
"You're right, that is boring." She glared. "What about the social scene? Break any hearts lately, milady summoner?"
"You're the one who was probably breaking hearts. My love life is non-existent as always, while you probably left a trail of broken hearts," she laughed, her eyes remaining forward the whole while.
"I'd hardly call it a trail," he joked. "I just don't think I'm the heart breaker type."
"With that handsome face, I find that hard to believe." Hara continued to look ahead, but Koiray felt Hara's arm slip around his own.
Quickly glancing at her, Koiray bit his bottom lip and turned to look at her. "You're right. I've been lying to you this entire time; in the past few months, I've had more women fall madly in love with me than I can count."
"That sounds more like it," she teased.
Hara met his gaze, and Koiray laughed easily, releasing the tension that had slowly built between them. "However, to what do I owe the pleasure of having your company?" Koiray asked in his Bevelle accent. "You probably had better things to do than spend the day with me."
The summoner offered him a smirk. "What? Sick of my company already? You could have just said something earlier. Oh, you did give me a hint. You disappeared into thin air on my doorstep just as you were about to take me to dinner."
Koiray frowned at her. "That's ridiculous."
"I don't know, Koiray," Hara answered softly, "like I said, you're pretty hard to read most of the time."
"Funny… I was just about to say the same thing about you."
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"You're out of shape."
"Give me a break, I was unconscious half the time I was gone. There weren't exactly a lot of chances to train."
"You're still out of shape."
Koiray swung his right sword low while he brought his other down with the best amount of his strength. Takoire frowned at his feeble attempt and merely stepped on the low sword while parrying the other. Using Koiray's own momentum against him, Takoire angled his sword so that Koiray's own sword stopped only a hairline from the Deputy Crimson Knight's neck.
Takoire raised an eyebrow at his son before withdrawing his sword and sheathing it. "Told you so."
With a small sigh, the Deputy Crimson Knight sheathed his own two swords and plopped into the sand. "Fine, I'm out of shape. I've been back barely four days."
The sun was beginning to hide behind the ocean, and several marks had passed since Koiray's meeting with Sir Baed. Hara and Koiray had parted ways a mark earlier with Hara having to finish reports due the next day. The Deputy Crimson Knight had run into his father on the way home and had somehow been persuaded into a sparring match on the beach. Too bad he hadn't realized how out of shape he was compared to his father.
The summoner's guardian gracefully took a seat next to him, and a flash of silver caught his eye. Without a word, Takoire lifted the dagger from his son's waist before he could protest and examined it with care. "This is beautiful." Unsheathing the blade, Takoire admired the steel with a skillful eye. "This had to have been made by a master craftsman," he said, noting the engraving.
Koiray beamed. "It was a present from Kokon. He said it took a year to finish."
"…Kokon sounds like an interesting person. I haven't actually met himself yet." Takoire's voice was traced with a hint of hesitation.
"He was. He's a good man. I think you'd like him, Dad." Taking the dagger back in his hands, Koiray fastened it on the side of his belt. Looking back up, he suddenly paused. "Uh, Dad, why didn't you tell me that you talked to Sir Baed?"
"…because I didn't think of it." Takoire smiled. "I assume Hara was the one who mentioned it to you."
"How did she know?"
"I ran into her as I was leaving the building. At the time, I hadn't seen her since the night you disappeared so I told her what we thought was going on." Shifting his clothes, Takoire continued to smile softly. "You really had her in a panic when you left."
"I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing," Koiray admitted.
Pulling a canteen from the ground, Takoire took a sip before handing it off to his son. "Depends on what you're looking for." Turning grim, he turned thoughtful. "Koiray, there's something I need to ask you."
"What?"
"When did you meet Sareth?"
"What do you mean? As in a timeframe?" Koiray asked.
"Yeah."
The Deputy Crimson Knight paused. "I can't say anything for sure. I didn't exactly look for a calendar while I was there, but I do remember that just before I left, Zanarkand took Kilika."
"I see…"
"Where were you when I was in Bevelle?" Koiray continued.
Letting out a deep sigh, Takoire looked towards the setting sun ran a hand through his hair. "I was in Luca, trying to survive."
"…how long had it been since you… escaped?"
"Nine, maybe ten months."
"Dad, if I had known where you were I could have done something-"
"-no." Takoire shook his head. "You can't change history. We don't know what the consequences could be and the future's too unpredictable. That's why they call it the future. I'm sure the Cheribum mentioned it to you."
The Deputy Crimson Knight nodded. "Once or twice."
"Koiray," he started again hesitantly, "I want you to understand something. The last picture I have of Sareth is a twisted, dark, and lost man, but the picture you painted of my brother reminded me of something my cousin Arkon said to your mom. He told her that Sareth didn't realize what he was doing."
"To be honest, Dad, when I met Sareth, he didn't seem at all like how you and mom described him. Especially when he took me out to the city."
Taking his canteen back, Takoire sighed. "I never really knew him. I was always with Arkon and then I left Bevelle for training. I never took the time to get to know him like I should have; he was my brother. I wish I had done things differently," he let out a dry laugh, "but we both had a part to play, and we played it… just like you did."
The bridge of Koiray's nose crinkled. "What do you mean?"
"You saved Sareth's life, didn't you? If you hadn't done that, then when I reunited with your mom, I would have moved on, and you would never have been born." Takoire smiled. "Funny how the world works, isn't it?"
"Sounds more like destiny, if you ask me."
Takoire's mouth turned into a smirk, and he turned to look at his son. "Destiny is nothing more than living with the consequences of our actions."
"That's pretty deep, Dad, even for you."
"It's what the Cheribum told your mom and I after she took his test. It makes sense."
"How do you figure that?"
"One thing effects the other. It's what makes up the universe." Koiray kept a skeptical look. "I'll tell you something your Grandpa Tidus told me. If I hadn't chosen to run away from Bevelle, then I wouldn't have met your mom. Or if I had stayed in Bevelle, Sareth would have probably never killed our family, Bevelle would have never gone to war with Zanarkand, Sin would never have been created, and Spira would be a very difference place."
"One thing effects the other…"
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Author's Notes:I've been on the go for the past few weeks so I haven't been able to update as often as I want. For those of you who ask, this is not the end of Koiray's story, he still has a tale to tell, and the epilogue to explain. I'll attempt to update again before Thanksgiving, but until then, please leave me a review and tell me what you think!