Hey.
Well, so far so good on the repost. By the way, you know, I always wondered why the favorites list went alphabetically from A to Z for about half the list, and then started over and did it again. Well, when I was looking at the favorites list for the repost (29 people, but I know those 29 are still reading the story and still like it, which is what I was after) I noticed that the first group were all capitalized. So first it lists from A to Z everyone that's capitalized and then it goes back and does it again for the uncapitalized ones. I don't exactly understand, but at least I know now.
Anyway, I'll go back and take Repost out of the title sometime. I'm also not sure I'm happy with the summary.
Hm, lessee...my current song favorites (as opposed to more permanent favorites) are Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance, Some People Change by Montgomery Gentry and (an oldie) If You're Gonna Play in Texas by Alabama.
An anon reviewer asked if there was a way to get in touch with me about stuff if they were, well, anon. So I set up a yahoo account. It's rr(dot)1963(at)yahoo(dot)com. You have to put in the (dot) because believe it or not, rr1963 without the (dot) was already taken.
Guess that's it. So, spoilers. Disclaimer: FFX isn't mine. Follows the story, but kind of AU. It's an Aurriku (didn't start that way). This is about characters and the gradual building of a relationship, and occasionally beating Al Bhed merchants up. Rated -T-.
Last thing, this chapter and the next one are dedicated to Auron's Fan. Thanks for the thoughtful reviews. I'm glad you still enjoy the story. (Of course these chapters are kinda heavy on the Auron/Rikku relationship. Maybe I should have picked other chapters?)
Soldier of Spira
Rikku's Diary:
We're on Besaid now, Yunies home, and Wakka and Lulu are home, and maybe even Kimahri is home after all the years he was here looking after Yuna.
I had a home once, before Dad and the Guado destroyed it.
So where's my home now? It's not that crappy little cabin on the airship. And it isn't here on Besaid. Except...maybe it kinda is. Cause this is where the people I care about are. I mean, apart from Dad and Brother, these people are my family now, you know? Even closer than my cousins. And I'm back with Auron...we're back together. And we weren't really apart, like we were back on the mountain. Then we saw each other every day, but we were still apart and alone. And now we were apart, cause he was in the south and I was in the north, and I missed him and maybe I acted a little like a spaz sometimes but it's like we were still together, even though we were apart.
But I'm glad we're back where we can hold each other again. I missed that.
I guess maybe you are home, after all, as long as you're with the people you care about. Maybe that means Auron and Tidus have a home too.
I'm with Auron, and the rest of them. For now, I guess that's enough.
Homecoming
Rikku's Diary:
He shouldn't have had to ask me, I guess, but he did.
"Please, Rikku..."
So I went to say goodbye to Pops before we left. I should have done it without Auron asking, but, well, I was still mad, and, I guess I can still be immature sometimes.
And it was awkward, with each of us thinking the other was wrong and out of line, and he said goodbye and be careful, and I said I would be, and we stood there and it was just stilted and awkward and awful, but right at the end I ran up and hugged him and he hugged me back hard and said he loved me and I said I loved him too and then I ran out.
That was the last goodbye. I'd already said goodbye to Brother and my cousins and friends
Auron told Dad to put us down on the beach near the dock, not at the village. Actually, he told Wakka to tell Pops. I guess he figured he still wasn't one of Dad's favorite people, what with dating his daughter and trying to kill Rin and all.
No one else still knew what all that had been all about and Auron just clammed up and his look dared anyone to try and get it out of him. I just said they had to ask Auron. I think Rin said his throat was too sore to talk. Maybe it was.
Auron and I hadn't really talked about it either. You know, it actually went a lot better than I hoped, even if Auron did almost kill Rin. I mean, I was scared that he would hate me, cause I knew how much he hated Masamune and I used the crest anyway. I mean, I know he loves me, but I was really scared that he'd never forgive me.
And instead...he asked me to forgive him.
He apologized to me, because he hadn't listened when I said we had to talk. I never expected that. Maybe I had forgotten, and maybe that reminded me...
Auron isn't like other people.
So he didn't hate me. But we still needed to talk, about us, and about the crest, and about the Al Bhed and what Rin had told me. I knew we would, pretty soon. I wasn't really looking forward to it. In fact, my stomach hurt whenever I thought about it. So I didn't think about it. He always says I'm so brave, but...I just didn't think about it. For right now I was just excited to see Besaid again.
Auron:
The airship let us off at the beach near the dock. I didn't want to frighten the villagers. I was pretty sure that the people here would welcome Yuna if we didn't do anything stupid to alarm them. We only had one agent on the island—in spite of the temple being here—but he reported that Yuna was still popular.
If I can trust him, now that I know the Luca network was actually being run by the crest that I was carrying in a bag in a deep pocket of my coat.
It changes everything.
The question is how.
I felt a small warm hand grab mine and looked up.
"Com'on, Auron! Everyone's already off the ship!"
Smiling, Rikku tugged me down the ramp to join the others on the beach. Yuna was looking happier than I've ever seen her, and Tidus looked happy because Yuna was happy. The others all wore smiles too. Yuna laughed as some children ran up and greeted her, calling her name, asking if she had defeated Sin. Her smile slipped a little bit then, but only for a second.
"Nooo," she said, leaning down to speak to them, "No, Sin got away from us this time."
"Awww!"
"But we're going back out soon and we're going to run him down and send him away forever!"
"YAY!" they cheered her, jumping up and down in the sand, and Rikku actually joined them, jumping up and down with them, and then Tidus joined in, and then Wakka, and the three of them pulled in Yuna who yelped and then they tried to pull in Lulu but she stepped back with a small smile.
A little while later the happy group was walking down a forest path to the village.
"Hey," Tidus said to Wakka when we came to a fork, "That's the way you took me when I first came, and then you pushed me off a cliff!"
"Ahh, quitcher' whining. It was all good fun, ya?"
As we turned left and followed a steadily climbing path, I remembered that more than ten years ago, Jecht did the same thing to me.
It was good to hear them all laughing and joking back and forth. Rikku had told me that the time they spent in the Calm Lands really had been good for all of them, even though she had missed me very much. She didn't say, but I knew that her possession of the crest had weighed heavily on her mind. I'm sorry I put her through that, but she forgave me...and I let her forgive me.
I didn't hold on to the hurt.
It felt...strange. Not to hold the hurt. To let it go.
So.
"Wakka? A word?"
I walked with the blitzballer a part of the way, and he gave a summary of their accomplishments in the north, happy to be home on Besaid, but proud of what they had managed in the Calm Lands.
"Yeah, we finished up catching the anacondours, we caught a bunch of ogres, a couple of chimera brains, and even a coertrl, and another malboro, cept we hadda use Shiva for that."
I congratulated him on the strategy he'd devised to beat the mega-behemoth named Catoblepas, and we discussed where he had gone wrong in trying to beat Don Tonberry. And then I asked him just how it was that they were here in the south at all when I distinctly wished them to stay in the north until I returned. He flushed a bit, but looked me in the eye as he told me it was more or less a group decision, and that he agreed with it.
Well. So be it. I suppose you can't train someone to be a leader and to exercise initiative and then be surprised when they do so.
I decided to let it go.
This time.
We broke out into the open with the cliffs falling away to the sea on one side of us and Rikku dashed here and there to try and see everything at once, palm trees and colorful birds and flowers, and the waterfalls that fell to either side of us.
She stopped and leaned against a railing, leaning far out, and a fine mist of water-droplets settled in her hair, and I stood and watched her watching the rainbows hovering over the spray from the falling water until we had to go catch up to the others.
"Rikku," I said once when she had dropped back to walk beside me and hold my hand for a while, "Haven't you been here before?"
"A long time ago," she answered, swinging both our hands back and forth. "When I was a kid I came to visit a couple of summers. But that was waaaaay back then, and now everything is new. And I'm seeing it with you!" she said with a smile.
I smiled too.
"Rikku," I said, "You are full of life and joy, and you always want to rush ahead and see more, and I love you for that. But there is also value sometimes in looking back."
"Uhh...huh?"
"Look back."
She thought it through with a small frown on her face, and then she turned, and stood open-mouthed, staring back the way we came. The waterfalls that we had passed were pouring down from the cliffs above and into the sea, blue sky and green land and white water...
Her eyes were wide and her mouth formed a silent O, and her two hands squeezed mine.
And then we heard a roar from up ahead.
It was Kimahri. The others had run into fiends. It was over before we arrived. The common fiends this far south are rather weak. There are many theories to explain why.
"Couple dingoes and a water flan, Sir Auron," Wakka reported, as Rikku went to pick through the remains.
"Huh," she said, turning, "Just a couple of mana spheres and a couple of speed spheres. Hey. You know what? You shoulda caught them! For the zoo."
"Oh man," Tidus said, "She's right! Wakka! Why didn't you think of that?"
"ME? Hey brudda, you're the one—"
It seemed an opportune time to step in.
"We don't have any need to go catching—"
Three sets of voices interrupted me, Tidus, Rikku, and Lulu.
"Cool monsters!"
"Rare stuff!"
"Hard cash!"
"Uh, Auron," Rikku went on as I shook my head, "We really will get some way-useful stuff if we collect these fiends for that old zookeeper guy. I mean, that's what it says in Catching Fiends for Dummies, you know? If you can trust what it says."
I sighed.
"I know the one that wrote it," I said. "You can trust him with anything but your women."
"Oh, uh...okay. Well, then, I mean if we're gonna be in all these places anyway, why not catch fiends and get cool stuff?"
"And cash!"
"Uh, yeah...so, Auron?"
"Hey, Sir Auron?" Wakka said. "Uh, you know, we can use all those spheres we get, ya? Feed 'em to Bahamut, right?"
"And I bought some sphere distillers!" Rikku said brightly. "Mana distillers and speed distillers and power distillers!"
"All right," I said, exasperated.
I remember when I could quell them all with a glance.
So we agreed that we would use capture weapons where we could on the second pilgrimage, trying to capture fiends for the zookeeper, and we would feed the spheres to Bahamut for now.
I also decided privately that I would have Tidus use his special attacks when he could. I usually don't like to use such very often, but I knew that Tidus was capable of more than he was doing. He just needed more practice. And they were right, after all. The spheres we won while catching fiends would help power up Bahamut, and perhaps Shiva.
"We'll be like, I dunno, sphere hunters or something!" Rikku smiled.
I don't think I'd put it quite like that.
We worked out the details as we walked, and soon we were passing in and under some ruins. Spira is full of such places. It is an older world than we know.
"Auron?"
"Yes Rikku?"
"Whatcha smiling about?"
"These ruins," I answered the young girl by my side. "My family tells a story about them."
"I LOVE stories," she said, dancing in circles around me. "Tell me the story, Auron!"
There was another roar from ahead of us.
"Later," I said, as we both ran forward.
"Aw!"
Rikku's Diary:
But it wasn't fiends at all! Tidus had pushed Wakka and Wakka had pushed Tidus back and then Tidus had stumbled against Kimahri and Kimahri's foot slipped in a patch of mud and he ended up with his, uh, he ended up sitting in a mud patch, and now Tidus was hiding behind Yuna trying to stay out of Kimahri's reach.
"We thought it was fiends," I giggled.
"No," Lulu shook her head, "It was fools. Fiends stay away from these ruins for some reason."
"Hah," Wakka said, "That's it! It's the ruins, ya? Whenever we pass 'em, something makes Kimahri try to jump Tidus, eh?"
Lulu smacked him in the back of the head.
"Aw, Lu!"
Heh. You know, Auron told me once that Ronsos are really good with knots, and I think Kimahri wanted to demonstrate by tying Tidus into some really fancy knots right then, but Yuna talked him out of it and soon we were passing by a little shrine and getting close to the village. I can almost remember it real good from the last time I visited when I was like five or six years old. The day was sunny and cool, and I'm used to sunny, being from Bikanel, but cool was nice, and I was with Auron and everyone and I was really excited to see Besaid and all the new stuff all around us, but also sometimes I took a moment to look back, and whenever he saw me doing that Auron would smile.
"Whoa! Look out!" I heard Wakka yell, and a blue flan and a condor dropped in front of us. I ran forward, pulling out a mana distiller, and Wakka called, "Rikku, throw it on the Condor!"
I threw the distiller-thing on the bird-thing just before Tidus slashed it out of the sky, and we saw it burst into pyreflies and the pyreflies got sucked into the sword. Then Auron rushed past me and took care of the flan, and that was that. They dropped four mana spheres. We ran into a few more fiends the rest of the way. None of them were very tough. Besaid only has a few kinds of fiends—a kind of dog-thing, a kind of bird-thing, and a flan. By the time we saw the village in the distance and Yuna broke into a run we'd already captured ten of the flans.
Rikku's Diary:
Besaid village was pretty as a cupcake! There was a wall to keep it safe, and inside huts huddled under swaying palm trees with the blue sea in the background. The only thing that spoiled it was the temple rising at the far end. I guess every paradise has got snakes.
The people ran up and surrounded Yuna, shaking her hand and hugging her, and Lulu and Wakka too, and even Kimahri. I heard a little kid in a green headband saying to Wakka, "We got letters from the Aurochs! They're doing great in Luca, ya?"
"Really, ya?"
"Yeah, really, ya!"
And they both laughed.
Auron and Tidus and I were kind of on the outside, watching. A bare-chested man with a red armband standing nearby turned to us and said, "I hear you're traitors now?" He snorted. "Who's responsible for that nonsense?"
And a nun standing next to him shook her head and said, "Even here in Besaid we've got orders to arrest Lady Yuna. Nobody knows what to do, but we certainly won't do THAT!"
A stooped man turned and frowned, "We Besaiders all know Lady Yuna's no traitor."
Now THAT'S what I like to hear! I guess not everyone is some brainwashed, brain-dead Yevon follower! And then I felt the smile sort of freeze on my face when he went on, "The daughter of Lord Braska turning against Yevon? Hogwash!" And a girl about my age added, "I can't believe Lady Yuna would ever turn her back to the teachings! Never!" And a woman in a brown skirt said, "If Lady Yuna defeats Sin I'm sure those nasty rumors will go away."
"We simple folk ain't got a clue what them temple elders are thinking," the stooped man said.
And while they carried on the discussion around us, I was looking at Yuna...she was smiling in the middle of a crowd of people not far away, all of them wishing her well, and hoping she'd kill herself for them.
Cause I guess I forgot for a minute.
This is Spira.
I felt a hand on my arm. Auron of course. He leaned down and spoke quietly in my ear.
"Yes, Rikku," he said gently, "The people here support Yuna, and will not believe she is a traitor. But for many that means they still support the old pilgrimage. Nothing is simple, Rikku, and nothing is easy. It will take time to change people's beliefs. But we can do it. And we will. It's why we're here."
Yeah, I thought, smiling and laying my hand over his.
That's why we're here.
We're writing a new story.
Auron:
For what it was worth, my information was accurate. The people on the island were strong for Yuna, even the clergy. But it doesn't mean they were against the Church. There was some discontent—that the warrior monks that had come to the island looking for Yuna had thrown their weight around—that the Church was concentrating on looking for traitors and ignoring Sin—that the warrior monks had abandoned the south and pulled back to the north. And the people of Besaid weren't about to try and arrest Yuna, but being ready to defy the Church is not the same as being ready to overthrow it.
I was talking to a man who worked as a weaver here, when Rikku ran up to us and he broke off.
"Uh...hey, Auron?" she said, looking at him curiously, "The guys are wondering if we should go on up to the temple now and stuff. Um..."
I said, "Thank you, Rikku." She half-turned to go, looking at me, and I put a hand on her arm for her to stay. I nodded at the man.
He looked at Rikku, and then at me, and I nodded again, and he said, "There's a reward being offered for news of the traitors. No one here'd think of saying anything, but watch out on the road."
He smiled and added dryly, "I wonder how things are on the mainland. We don't get much news down here."
"They think they were attacked by a giant taco," I said. "You're not missing much."
He looked puzzled as I let Rikku pull me away.
"Auron? Was he...?"
"Part of the Luca Network. Our agent here on Besaid. He works here as a weaver. They hear all the gossip. As much as I can trust him."
"You don't trust your own agent," she looked up, surprised.
"I didn't trust them completely when I thought Rin had put together the network. Now I know it was the crest."
"Oh."
We were almost to the others when she said quietly, "We have to talk, you know."
I know.
Later.
"Sir Auron," Yuna said with a wide smile, turning to me from a young girl she had been speaking with. "Watch this!"
"Yuna?"
She started to dance and we all scattered as Valefor fell from the sky. What the—?
"Valefor!" Yuna cried, "Energy Blast!"
The hovering aeon gathered itself and then unleashed some sort of power beam out to sea, and drew a line of boiling water fifty yards long.
As we slowly picked ourselves up coughing out of the dust, I growled, "Yuna..."
And I heard a voice behind me say, "Uh, did I forget to mention that? Heh heh...oopsie?"
Yuna had the grace to apologize a little shamefacedly as we all climbed to our feet, and they explained to me that a dog belonging to a young girl had dug up something strange. The girl showed it to Yuna and Rikku (she evidently showed it to everyone she met) and between them they recognized that they could use it to teach a new special attack to some aeon. On the spot they taught it to Valefor (Yuna doted on that aeon—it was her first—but it probably wasn't a bad choice) and then couldn't wait to show it off.
Useful, I suppose. And convenient.
Very convenient, I thought, watching the young girl in shorts and sandals and tiny white top run off after her dog. A sharp elbow jabbed me in the ribs.
"She's too young for you," Rikku said wryly.
"And not Al Bhed enough," I agreed.
"Um, Sir Auron?" Yuna said. I turned to her. "I, um, I think we should go up to the temple now."
The others frowned a bit, pausing in checking their bruises.
I said, "Yuna, all of you, when we enter the temple it will be the start of the Second Pilgrimage. You've just gotten home, and it's getting late now, and there are people who still want to talk to you, and we have to get settled in here. Your minds are on a hundred different things right now. I think we should take this night to rest, and clear our minds, so that we can enter the temple in the morning with our spirits at peace—the start of a new day, a new pilgrimage, a new future."
Yuna's eyes were shining as she listened to me.
I just didn't want to have to deal with the damn fayth tonight.
They all agreed to my proposal and we broke up to go our different ways. Yuna and Lulu pulled Rikku away to Yuna's hut, Wakka and Kimahri wandered off to their own homes, Tidus decided to visit the Crusader Lodge, even though he would stay with Wakka. Wakka also offered to put me up, and so did Kimahri (and so did Lulu, with a sidelong glance at Rikku—who just smiled—and at Wakka, who didn't smile at all). But I think I will stay in the Crusader Lodge. In the meantime I wandered around the village, trying to get a better feel for the mood of the place.
It is odd, when you think about it. That agent of ours said that they don't get much news down here, and Besaid does have that kind of feel...a little set off from the real would. But I'm not sure why it should be. The island has more than one traveler's sphere, or comm sphere as Rikku's people (and many others in the south) call them. The comm spheres help to bind Spira together. They are the heart of communications. Personal notes, public announcements, news bulletins, weather warnings, Church dictates, blitzball scores...they all arrive over the comm net.
Communication isn't instantaneous, of course. On any given day the comm sphere is full of new posts of all kinds, and people can read them and enter their own posts. But the posts that people enter into a sphere don't go anywhere, not until the middle of the night when the comm spheres all somehow begin communicating with each other, receiving and passing along data packets from one to the next. In the morning your post has been transmitted to every sphere.
Back in Dream Zanarkand there was a lively debate among scholars as to just how the spheres communicated with each other. I remember a harmless crank who would stand everyday on the steps outside the Government House yelling at passersby that little creatures called mogs lived inside the spheres and carried the messages back and forth. But the most popular serious theory was that the spheres bounced communications to one another off the moon at night. That begged the question of how they could do that when most of them were actually inside, many of them under several yards of solid rock. The scholars would then mutter something inaudible about very long wavelengths. I suppose the theory makes some sense, especially when you consider that if two spheres are in line-of-sight they do communicate instantaneously. That's rare, of course.
In any event, the spheres are how most Spirans not only get their news, but also correspond with each other. Actual mail is rare and expensive, although the Crusaders and the Church maintain their own courier services. There are only a few private companies who will transport and deliver packages or sometimes letters, and they charge high fees.
I know there is a sphere at the Crusader Lodge here. The Crusaders probably discourage its use. They wouldn't want the entire village walking through their headquarters every day. So that means hiking up the promontory and braving the fiends if you want to get the latest news or send a message.
I think maybe the Besaidians are simply too laid back to do that very often. They figure that if the news is important they'll hear it soon enough. I suppose the impression of being out-of-touch has more to do with the people here, than the spheres.
Rikku's Diary:
I was going to stay with Yunie. I thought Lulu would stay with us too, like always, but she has her own home, of course, and she hadn't seen it in a long time. So Yunie and I went and settled into her little hut. There were only three rooms, plus the bath, and it was a little dusty, but I liked it. It wasn't cluttered, but it wasn't neat neat neat! There were pillows, and books on healing and Yevon aaaaaand...what's this!
Yuna blushed as I snatched up a steamy romance novel from the couch and she chased me around and around the room grabbing at it until I tripped and she caught me and we both fell down giggling. Yunie's place felt warm and nice and sensible and dependable, just like her.
It felt like home.
And I can't believe that if everything had gone the way everyone wanted, she wouldn't be here now. No Yunie. No one to read the trashy novel and hit me with a pillow and slip a little picture of Tidus into a drawer when she thinks I'm not looking.
I'm not crying.
I'm not crying! We saved her. And we're gonna save all of us.
You watch.
So, we put our things away, and then the two of us went ahead and powered up Bahamut a little with the mana spheres we'd collected so far. You know, they add up pretty fast. That'll make a nice little surprise for Auron when I tell him later on. Then Yunie decided she would cook, and she went out to take a look at her little garden in back and I went out to go get a few things at the market.
It was nice here in this village. I remember how much I liked it here when I came to stay with Yunie when I was a little kid. We'd go play at the beach or the lagoon or sneak away into the forest to look for treasure, scaring ourselves that we were in danger from fiends every minute, but really knowing that Kimahri was always there just out of sight.
"Hey, Miss Al Bhed?" Huh? Oh. A little girl in red shorts was talking to me. Um... "Is Lady Yuna going to bring the Calm soon? When the Calm comes, Lady Yuna has to come back so we can celebrate!"
"Oh, uh, well..."
"Well, if it ain't the traitors!" someone said, "You got some nerve coming here!"
I looked up and saw three men and one sour–looking old woman standing in front of me.
Traitors!
"Hey!" I said to the one in the purple coat and yellow pants, "Take that back! We're no traitors!"
The old woman looked daggers at me and said, "What trick have you pulled on the good lady Yuna?"
"We didn't do anything!" I said, "We just don't want Yuna to die!"
The first man opened his mouth again, then looked past me and flinched, and said, "Hey, hey, just kidding! No need to glare, ya?"
"Then you should be careful what you say the next time," a voice came from behind me, and Lulu stepped up next to me. The man sort of bobbed his head with a worried look and quickly ducked away into a nearby hut.
"And you?" Lulu said to the others.
The man in the green coat scowled and said, "I hear the Guado blew up the Al Bhed home. I got no love for the Al Bhed, but that's going too far."
The other man nodded and said, "Who cares who they're calling traitor. Defeat Sin, and it'll all be forgotten!"
And he turned and went into the hut after the first man. Lulu turned to the old woman. She had a nasty sneer on her face, and she said, "I made up my mind to pray every day till Lady Yuna's Calm begins," and she walked off towards the temple. The man in the green coat shook his head and followed after her.
"Rikku," Lulu said, "I hope they didn't upset you? Every village has its idiots."
I took a deep breath, and let it out.
"Naw. I'm okay. Hey!" I said, smiling, "You sure gave it to them! I don't think Auron coulda done it any better!"
Her mouth quirked a little and she said, "Sir Auron is a legend. But these people know me."
"Hey," the little girl said from where she'd been watching nearby, "What's a trader? I asked the monk, but he won't tell me."
Lulu sighed and went and kneeled down next to her, and I waved and went on to the market.
I guess Lulu's right. Everyplace has people like that. I can't let it get to me. Most of the people here were friendly enough, even the Yevon clergy. When I got to the store the people in there just carried on talking. A couple of them nodded to me.
I listened while I looked around. They were talking about how Gatta had been all gloomy when he got back from operation Mi'ihen, but he was better now that he was in charge of the local Crusaders, and the nun was there, saying that the warrior monks that were here before were just a bunch of crooks, ya? (That was funny!) A woman in a green skirt was talking to the man in the green coat from outside—the one who said the Guado had gone too far. She was saying maybe she should learn to weave and stay here on Besaid and make a life for herself, and he was agreeing that she should, because it was nice and peaceful on the island. "No matter what happens in the temples, it's life as usual here."
And sure, I thought to myself. It is nice here. But it could be better.
But then, I guess...it could also be worse.
Auron:
I was moving in the sky forms, reacting to imagined enemies—fiends and men and fayth. I flowed from one stance to another, moving on instinct, always random. I lost track of time...in some ways time doesn't exist in the middle of the sky forms, but at some point it was just...finished, and I stood, pleasantly fatigued, staring out at the ocean. It had been afternoon when I first came to the headland between the temple and the sea, and now the sun was sinking in the west.
"Rikku," I said, and she stood up and joined me, her hand finding mine. "How long have you been watching?"
I usually know when someone is there.
"Dunno," she said. I could hear the smile in her voice. "Lost track of time."
We sat down together and watched the dying sunlight play across the surface of the water. There was a cool breeze that carried the tang of salt spray.
"Do you like it here, Rikku?" I asked.
"Yeah," she said. "It's cool and sunny, and there's a beach, and some of the people are jerks, but most are nice."
"It's the southern culture. Hotter food, stronger music, less clothing. More...relaxed attitude towards things, even about the Church. You know about the northern and southern dominant cultures on Spira?"
"Duh. I have an education."
"I wasn't sure. Yevonite's aren't taught that sort of thing."
"No?"
"No. No one in the Church wants anyone to realize that the northern culture is gradually extending southward."
She shuddered a little.
"Does that mean this'll all be like up in Bevelle one day?" she asked.
"Maybe. Except that we're going to stop it."
Rikku's Diary:
Oh. Oh yeah.
Auron:
She snuggled up closer. She felt warm and pleasant in the cool Besaid evening.
"Auron?" she said. "Why were you practicing with that ratty old katana that condor dropped? It doesn't even do anything. You've got a pretty good sword, you know. I made it."
"I know. I suppose...I suppose I was trying to recapture a feeling from when my life was simpler than it is now."
"Oh wow," she said. "I know that feeling. So, uh, when would that be? For you, I mean?"
"I suppose before I was twelve."
She leaned into me. As close as she was and as hard as I was practicing, it's a good thing the coat is temperature-regulating and self-cleaning.
"Hey Auron?" she said. "I know it's good to look back sometimes, but not too much, okay? That's what makes people old before their time. And that's not you, you know?"
"You're probably right," I said after a minute. "But...Rikku, have you seen that man, the large sailor with the red bandana, walking around the village?"
"Uh, yeah, I think so?"
"He found me here this afternoon. He was on a ship attacked by Sin, and he suffered from the effects of the toxin for a long time."
"Okay."
"The toxin wore off, and he's all right now. But...when they found him, one of the only things he had in his possession was an old memory sphere."
"One of yours!" she said, sitting up straight.
"Yes," I said, pulling the sphere from my jacket. "I'm not actually on it, so he wasn't able to figure out it was mine until his head cleared up a bit. Then he did, and I was here, so he gave it to me."
"What's on it?"
"Nothing very exciting. Want to watch?"
"YES!" she said, rolling her eyes and swatting my arm.
Rikku's Diary:
It was Uncle Braska, and Sir Jecht. They were here, in this village, and Uncle Braska was asking Auron to bring Yunie here after...afterwards. Sometimes I had trouble remembering that Yunie didn't always live here on this island, but of course she didn't. Kimahri brought her here, and Auron went to Zanarkand to look after Tidus.
I know there's more to the story than that, but I also know Auron would tell me if he could.
You never saw Auron in the sphere...he was holding it. You just saw Uncle Braska and Sir Jecht and you could recognize some of the villagers, a little older now, I guess. Well, it was ten years ago.
When it was done, I turned it over and over in my hands.
"This is what got you thinking about the past?" I asked.
"Yes, Rikku."
"Are you gonna show it to Yunie? I think she'd really like to see it."
Auron:
I suppose I will.
But that isn't what troubles me.
That sailor was touched by Sin. And now he has a sphere in his possession from my first pilgrimage. Is there some significance in that? Is there something special about that sphere?
Is Jecht trying to tell me something?
"Auron," Rikku said suddenly, "AreyougonnahurttheAlBhed?"
"What? Rikku?"
She took a kind of gasping breath.
"Auron, don't...don't kill Rin...but, but he said, you're...hesaidthatyou'reagreatdangertotheAlBhed...to...to us. He said...he said you're a great danger...to us."
She sat there with her shoulders hunched, not looking up at me, as if she was ashamed to ask the question.
"Rikku," I said slowly, "I am potentially dangerous to anyone, to everyone. Rikku, is this...did they tell you this to convince you to accept the crest?"
"Uh huh," she sniffed miserably. "They said...uh..."
"They didn't say I wanted to hurt the Al Bhed?"
"No. They said that you didn't care. They said that you had something so important to do that you didn't care who got hurt, that you couldn't care. They said you had to win, they wanted you to win, but...but they didn't want the Al Bhed destroyed while you did...and you...that you just didn't care."
I took a breath.
We sat there for a while in the gathering dark. Neither of us really wanted to say anything. But I love her, and I shouldn't make her ask.
"Rikku..."
"Auron! Auron, I know you have something important to do, more important than even Yevon, or Sin, I don't know what it is, but I know it's your duty, and maybe you'll tell me someday, when you can. So, so okay, but, but Auron? Someone has to protect the Al Bhed! I love my people, Auron, and there are so few of us left, and, and, someone has to watch out for us, you know? And, and Rin said that that's why he made the bargain with, with Masamune, you know? That they agreed that they'd help you and protect the Al Bhed at the same time, you know? And then they said, um, that, that you, um, you love me, and I said" --"I wouldn't use that against you, I TOLD them Auron,"-- "that I wouldn't spy on you or anything like that, but, --"but they said..."--
"Rikku? Rikku! You're speaking in Al Bhed, you're going too fast, I don't understand..."
--"I won't betray you Auron, just like I'd never cheat on you!"--
"Rikku!"
Suddenly she threw both of her arms around me and held me tight, and whispered into my old red coat.
"Auron...someone has to watch out for the Al Bhed! Tell me you will, Auron...tell me you won't let my people be hurt...my family..."
Rikku's Diary:
Lie to me, Auron...I'll believe you if you lie to me...
Auron:
I...
If...
"Rikku, I..."
"Auron?" she breathed, clinging to me in the dark.
"I...can't...promise that."
It seemed like everything was still for a moment. Nothing moved. And then I felt her take a breath and pull away from me.
We sat for a moment, not saying anything, and the she started to stand. I reached for her hand, but she pulled it away and stood up. Then she laid her palm on my cheek, rubbing in gentle circles with her little thumb.
"Rikku..."
"Auron," she said. She sounded tired, in the dark. "Auron, we're not going to break up over this. We're not going to lose each other again, not now. We've been through too much for that. We'll be okay, I promise, but...but I just want to think about things for a while now. Alone, okay? Please?"
She turned and started to walk away.
Rikku's Diary:
"Rikku."
Damn.
Let me go Auron, I begged him silently. This one time I don't want to cry in front of you.
"Rikku."
I turned. He was holding something out to me in the moonlight.
A small bag.
"Rikku..." he said slowly, "Better take this."
So I took it, and I left him sitting there on the grass, and I walked away to think about love and life and trust.
Next: 87 Days
