[bells and footfalls and soldiers and dolls] -army of we.





Not gonna say much about it -- if you came looking for the scarily popular phenomenon known as Aurikku (second only to Pokemon), I'm afraid you've missed your boat. Or shoopuf. Whatever. This is just a conversation between the two -- feel free to delve into subtext, but it's not what I'd intended. And, as has been done many times, this is my version of the scene in Guadosalam, where Yuna goes off to talk to daddy, and all sorts of dead buddies/family pop up. Hooray for beating a dead horse...this one's blue, though, I think, so you just might enjoy it.

warnings: none. A little twisting of the Rikku and Auron characters, but still pretty in-character; I just went a little deeper into the serious nature of the first FFX uber-genki character that didn't make me want to go for my gun.

fun with disclaimer: Not mine. I don't even have action figures, yet. (Though Auron /does/ hang on my wall.) I'm so not making money out of this.

army of we
a Final Fantasy X fanfic by miriya valentine


- - -

'there's nothing we cannot ever fix' I said
can't stop what's coming,
can't stop what is on its way
-tori amos

- - -

She watched amusedly as Tidus slipped his hands into the strange field surrounding the Farplane, watching the surface ripple and waver like some iridescent pond. Did he think it was going to eat him or something? She shook her head, and waited for him to get out of earshot, the last of the Farplane-seekers to enter.

"So," she said as soon as he'd found the courage to pass through, "do you think they've figured it out, yet?" She raised an eyebrow, and stared pointedly at the man sitting on the stairs.

"Figured what out." Came Auron's gruff reply. He looked decidedly uncomfortable, so close to the Farplane -- she wondered what exactly he was thinking, but figured she'd not want to be in the position to find out. Rikku rather liked life as the living.

She shrugged, nonchalantly. "A lot of things, I suppose. But mainly, the part about you being dead." She watched Auron's face closely for some sign of emotion. His expression didn't change, but Rikku could feel his surprise like a low current of electricity, a steady thrum in the haze of emotions caught in this strange place. She felt a small ripple of pleasure, knowing she'd actually managed to truly surprise him for once.

He was quiet for a moment, throat working slowly beneath aged flesh. Then, "what makes you say that?"

Rikku sighed. "Cut the bull, Auron. I mean, I can just /tell/...but it's not that hard to figure out, really, if you think about it."

He didn't answer, but he was watching her, and she could feel that, too. She pulled a moonfruit from her satchel and pretended not to notice; instead, she kept in the rhythm of this little waltz and offered one to him, which he oh-so politely declined.

"After all, no Yevonite ever stops to think about the things that are going on. Like why no successful Summoner's guardians ever return." She gestured at him, punctuating each point with a dip and swing of the pale fruit in her hand. "Now don't get me wrong -- I really have nothing against most Yevonites, I mean they're just people. Even that airhead Wakka with his anti-machina fixation, he's still a nice guy -- but none of them ever stops to think about why those guardians just don't come back. Fiends aren't going to get them /all/ -- from what I've seen, they'd have a hard time taking a bite out of you, that's for sure." She frowned. "But here you are, leaking pyreflies like an old fuel tank."

Auron glared at her, intimidating even behind dark lenses. "I am /not/ leaking pyreflies."

Rikku pointed at his left shoulder, where a lone pyrefly drifted slowly from him, as if struggling to escape the heavy fabric of his robe. His lips pressed together in a tight line, and he refrained from commenting. She just shrugged. "A Sending must be hell."

She perched on the stairway's ledge, and took a bite of her moonfruit, chewing thoughtfully. "I suppose..." she swallowed, "you're probably the only one around who /does/ know what happens. And Sin knows you're not real helpful with the information -- not that it's any business of mine, but still. You're pretty hard to figure out."

He leaned back on one elbow, still managing to look dignified, even half-sprawled across the stairway. "What's there to figure out?"

Rikku just rolled her eyes, fighting the urge to lob her lunch at his head. "Well, first. Why you're even here. It's pretty rare to see an unsent walking around, and even more rare to see one doing the same thing that got them into trouble in the first place. And second. Why you're leading yet another Summoner down the same path of destruction as the first."

She thought she might have seen him flinch, but his eyes were shaded behind those dark sunglasses and he remained perfectly still -- frozen, even. Relentlessly, she continued on. "What I'm saying, is you and I both know /exactly/ what's going to happen to Yunie when she gets that stupid Aeon. Sure, she'll beat Sin back for a while, but she's gonna die, and in ten years it isn't gonna matter at all. If you've got some brilliant idea about how to skip the Yunie dying part, you're sure taking your sweet time with letting the rest of us know."

Auron looked back at her, impassively, and she wondered how good it would feel to knock some sense into him with her claw. "I'm not going to let Yunie die," she said in a low voice. "No matter what -- I don't care if it means defying Yevon, or whatever. There's no way in hell I'm gonna let you lead her to her death, too."

Sensing the ferocity in her tone, he lifted his head, coming closer to anger than he'd been in a long time. "Mind your mouth, girl," he growled, "as much as you think you know, there's still too much you wouldn't understand. Ever."

She bowed her head and pretended to study the green-blue stone of the stairway, knowing that he was hiding more pain than anger. She admitted she'd gone a little too far, especially with that last jab -- but she wouldn't give up, not now. She threw the mostly-uneaten moonfruit over the ledge, and looked repentantly towards the farplane. "Look. I'm sorry, Auron...it's just...I don't want her getting hurt. I know she's willing to die and all for this, but there's got to be another way. I wanted to become her guardian to /save/ her...and I just won't accept this. I /can't/."

"Rikku -- look. I'm trying not to make the same mistakes as last time. I...think I know better, now..."

"But...?" She said it, finishing what he'd left hanging.

He didn't answer.

Rikku sighed. "All right, let's put it like this. Knowing what you know now, would you have let Uncle Braska go? Or would you have done everything you possibly could to stop him? Tell me that much, Auron."

He didn't answer for a long time -- she tried to trace his gaze, but it was wandering and unfocused. So she waited.

"Braska was like Yuna -- no matter what, he wanted to make this world happy, no matter that it was only for a short time. But I would have stopped him...I would have tried harder."

Rikku nodded, and hopped off the ledge, pacing until she stood just in front of him. "Then you know exactly how I feel. Even if I don't know what you did, I know you loved Uncle Braska, and you know I love Yunie -- hell, we both love her. We're the same, you know? Kinda like a weird little family" She crouched, balancing herself on the tips of her fingers and stared into his dark glasses. "So let's fight it. I /know/ we can save her."

He didn't move, but she could sense his understanding.

She smiled and stood, once again pacing the small, flat area, tracing the circular pattern of stone with her footsteps. "But for now, let's just pray that she decides not to marry that rat Seymour. That guy just gives me the creeps!"

He snorted.

"Yeah," she smirked, "I figured you didn't like him much, either. Even Wakka has to force himself to be nice, and he's totally devoted to that whole Yevon thing."

"Not that you have anything against Yevonites," Auron reminded her.

"Of course!" She laughed, then, and turned away -- it seemed like her moment of seriousness was gone. But when she looked back at him, her strange green eyes were burning.

"You know, the Al Bhed don't protect /just/ the summoners. We don't want the guardians getting hurt, either. I mean...I wish we could have saved you, too...and all the others. I know it must sound silly coming from a kid like me, but I don't want Lulu or Tidus or Kimahri or even Wakka getting hurt. Or killed...even if..."

He lifted his head. "Even if they come back, like me?"

"I'm sorry -- I didn't want to offend you." She bowed her head, biting her lip.

Auron shrugged. "None taken. It happened, and I'm just sticking around a while longer. I've still got things to do."

There was a moment that Rikku just looked at him, and he wondered what she was thinking. Then she smiled. "You must have been real close."

Maybe he smiled -- it was gone so quickly she thought she might have imagined it. "You're a perceptive girl."

Rikku laughed and winked at him. "It's all part of my Al Bhed charm," she said, as if confiding some great secret. "And cuz I'm omnip...onimpo...um..." Her face twisted up into a scowl; the word had eluded her.

Neither his expression or tone changed a bit. "Omnipotent." He supplied.

"Yeah. That's it."

Then there was the sound of footsteps and hushed voices. Rikku and Auron both looked up to see Yuna leading the procession of guardians from the Farplane, each solemn with the weight of decisions and resolutions that the Farplane seemed to give. Rikku wondered what her cousin had decided.

Rikku looked towards Auron, and a hint of a smile crossed her face. She mouthed 'I won't tell about you' in his direction, and he shrugged.

'They won't ask'.

She poked her tongue out at him, and knew that Yuna would be okay.

--- owari ---

Okay, okay...don't hit me for this. It was 3 am blather, and Sin knows how fooked up my head gets at that time of night. Still, though, I think Rikku deserves more credit than she gets...

And pardon the abrupt ending. I didn't want to go into the whole Jyskal thing...must sleep. x_x So anyway, if you liked it at all, or wanted to beat me senseless, give a shout out and give me the dilly yo. ^_^ I'm listening.