Author's Notes: Again, I don't own any of the characters.  Squaresoft has 'em copyrighted "the things and the stuff", quote my choir director.  However, Kaisa and Rylen are MY creations.  DO NOT take any of them or you'll suffer a slow, painful death.  Thank you.

Note that, since this chapter centers on the Al Bhed (hence the name ;P), there is a LOT of Al Bhed in it.  I feel that translating the sentences right in the story takes away from it, so if you're unfortunate enough to not know Al Bhed, there's a link in the reviews. ;) (Or you can just go to Google and look it up.)  I'm sorry, I know that translating is a bitch, but I didn't want to take away from the wonderful language. D  (EDIT: I fixed all of the Al Bhed mistakes! W00T!)

Also, I wanted to say thank you to those of you who left reviews.  I'm glad you guys liked it! ^^  Sorry this installment took so long to crank out…I've been a little busy with RL activities and trying to plan out another story.  (And the fact that I'm a horrible procrastinator…erm, anyway…)

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            "Hold it! Is that who I think it is?"

            "Ed lyh'd pa...yna oui cina oui ynah'd esykehehk drehkc?"

            Tidus looked back at the conversing Al Bhed, curiously wondering what they could be talking about.  It's really not my business, a voice in the back of his head nagged.  Still, it's not like they can't ever talk like normal people for once.

            He turned his head back around, trying to remember where the bridge was.  This isn't as familiar as I thought it'd be…

            "Kad res!!"

            He suddenly stumbled, getting pulled backwards.  "Ooof!  Hey!  What's the big idea!?"  Tidus growled, but his face went from anger to pain as one of the Al Bhed twisted his arm.  He bit his lip and tried his hardest not to cry out.

            "Ec drec dra uha dryd High Summoner Yuna cbuga ypuid?" questioned a feminine voice.  Tidus looked up briefly to see the speaker.  He guessed that she was close to his height and age.  She, unlike the other Al Bhed, didn't cover her eyes with her goggles.  Instead, they were pushed up on her forehead, keeping some of her unruly blonde hair out of her face.  The wavy mane fell to her midback.  Her outfit, like many other Al Bheds', had a variety of buckles on it.

            He realized he was staring and immediately blurted out, "Did you say Yuna?  Where is she?  Where can I find her!?"

            "Cemahla!"  The Al Bhed who was twisting his arm gave an extra shove to his back.  The boy winced and bit down on his lip, holding back the tears that were gathering in the corners of his eyes.

            The Al Bhed girl shook her head.  "It can't be him.  Lady Yuna said that he was killed shortly after Sin was..."

            "Ra luimt pa yh unsent," pointed out a masculine voice.  A boy, looking somewhat similar to the girl, walked up beside her.  His goggles were also pushed up to keep his hair out of his eyes.  He had a somewhat typical Al Bhed outfit, as well.  He looked a lot like the girl.  The young man regarded Tidus curiously.

            There was a dead silence, causing the non-Al Bhed to get tense.  Finally, the one who twisted his arm spoke up, "Kaisa, Rylen, damm Cid ypuid drec. Ra'mm ghuf fryd du tu, yd maycd."

            The young man nodded and started off.  He grabbed the young woman's arm when he realized that she was still inspecting Tidus, dragging her off.

            "Eh dra sayh desa, E's mulgehk drec kio ib..."  Tidus's captor began to drag him away, but the boy determinedly tried to struggle from his grasp.

            "Ruf ihbnutildeja...ymmuf sa."

            Before he could register what was happening, he felt a strong blow being delivered to his stomach.  He let out a hiss before collapsing on the ground.

And everything went black.

---

            "Hey, you okay?"

            "Did someone get a license number on that chocobo…" Tidus mumbled incoherently, coming to.  He propped himself up on his elbows and looked up to see the girl from earlier.

            She gave him a funny look.  "Did you hit your head or something?"

            "You can understand me!?"  Tidus cheered and scrambled to his feet, tightly hugging the girl out of relief.

            She gasped for breath.  "Of course I can, dumbass," she managed to gasp out, "now let me go or I'll rip off your arms."

            That was enough to convince the young man.  He drew back, but still had a goofy smile on his face.  "What're you grinning at?" grumbled the girl, frowning.  She thought she knew what he was thinking and responded, "Look, I may be cute, but you're not my type."

            He snapped out of it.  "Oh, no…I wasn't…I mean, I've got a special someone…erm…"  He didn't like this girl already.  He smartly decided to change the subject.  "Well, errr…what's your name?"

            The girl placed her hands on her hips and replied, "Kaisa.  So are you actually that Tidus dude or what?"

            "That's me…"  He scratched the back of his head.  "But how did you know who I was?"

            "High Summoner Yuna told everyone you had died after Sin was destroyed," Kaisa responded.  "What I want to know is how you came back," she continued, without giving him a chance to respond.

            "Well…I'm…"

            "Are you an unsent?"

            "No…I'm not sure how I got back," he said quickly, seeing her mouth open again.

            "Well, anyway," she waved her hand dismissively, "Cid wants to see you.  C'mon."  She began to walk off, clearly expecting him to follow her.  Tidus considered stabbing her in the back out of frustration, but decided that it wasn't worth it and followed her.

---

            "Cid!  E ryja dra kio!"

            The Al Bhed leader turned around.  His eyes widened when they landed on Tidus.  "Holy shit, boy, is that you?"

            Tidus held back a grin.  "Yup."

            "Damn…how?"

            The boy felt himself growing sick of the question already.  "I don't know…I'm not an unsent or anything like that…I just sort of came back…"

            He let out a little "meep" as the man whisked him up into a tight bear hug.  Cid laughed cheerfully.  "Ah, well, as long as you're safe and well!  Glad to have you back, my boy!"

            "Cid, air," he managed to gasp.

            "…Oh, right.  Sorry."  He placed Tidus back down.  "So what brought you aboard the airship?"

            "Actually, I was looking for Rikku…"  It hadn't occurred to Tidus that he could have asked Cid where his niece was.

            "Ah.  You won't find her here.  She's in Zanarkand."

            Tidus blinked.  "Uh…'scuse me?"

            Cid chuckled.  "No one told you, did they, my boy?  The people of Spira joined together to rebuild Zanarkand, right after we rebuilt our Home."  He grinned.  "We used the memories of the people in the Farplane and history books to help us.  Maybe it'll look like your Zanarkand did, eh?"

            He laughed nervously.  "Eh, yeah…"

            "Great.  I'll make a stop there for you.  It'll put us a little behind, but it's not a big deal."  He crossed his arms and looked at Kaisa.  "Kad Tidus cusa vuut."

            The girl didn't look too happy about it, but she obliged.  "Come on," she said to the former Guardian.  She started out of the bridge.

            Tidus looked back at Cid one last time before following.

~*~*~

Again, comments and constructive criticism are welcome.  I'm sorry that there isn't much action in this one…and I think I promised it too. ;;  I'll try to get it in the next one, all right? I didn't want to make this chapter too dreadfully long… (Even though it really isn't…oh well.)

For some reason, it won't show the hyperlinks for Kaisa and Rylen's outfits.  If you want to see sketches of what they look like, go to one of the links below.

http://celes.casey-baka.net/sketchkaisa.jpg

http://celes.casey-baka.net/sketchrylen.jpg

~ Laurzie ~