More Confusion
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Gone away
Who knows where you been
You take all your lies
And wish them all away
I somehow doubt
We'll ever be the same
There's too much poison
And confusion on your face
Hate this place—Goo Goo Dolls
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"So what do we do with her?" Tidus asked quietly.
He glanced across his shoulders to the girl they were talking about. She was holding her hands close to the fire in an effort to warm her body. Wakka was next to her asking questions, but it was obvious that she wasn't ready to talk. She looks scared and confused, he thought. It was then that Tidus realized how pretty she was.
She had light red hair to her shoulders and it was pulled back behind her ears. She's about five-three, he thought to himself. She had a very pretty face and nice features. There was also something extremely attractive about her, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it. She also was extremely out of place. It was obvious to Tidus that she was dressed way too lightly to be out in the numbing cold of Mount Gagazet.
"What do you think we are going to do with her?" Auron asked sarcastically. He shifted the large sword is back as he talked. "We got to take her with us."
"Do you think that is wise?" Yuna asked the powerful guardian.
Yuna herself had no objection to taking in the girl. Besides, to her it was murder to leave her out here and die of hypothermia, and she was not going to be apart of that. The thing that troubled her was the way that Tidus looked at her just now. Instead of the causal glance to see if she was listening in, it seemed more to her like Tidus was studying her. In more than one way, she thought bitterly to herself. Ever since the night at the lake when they had shared their first kiss, Yuna had never been happier. It must be natural jealousy, she admitted to herself. Stop it, after all, aren't we together? She thought to herself. Regardless of those facts, she would take the mysterious girl into the group just long enough to get her to civilization.
"No." Auron solemnly said in his natural cool, collective way. "But it would be heartless to leave her out here to fend for herself. Besides" he said, pausing to look back at the mysterious girl. "I have a few questions for her."
With that being said he started walking towards her and the rest followed. Yuna looked at Tidus to see if the same gaze was in his eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn't.
"So who are you?" Tidus asked the confused girl.
Who does this guy thing he is? Faith thought to herself. Although he didn't look like the type to demand questions out of someone, it seemed as if natural curiosity had gotten the better of him. She took notice of the three people huddle over by the cliff's face and it didn't take her long to figure out what they were talking about. At one point she saw the blonde guy, who still looks vaguely familiar, stare at her once. Not like a normal stare at someone who has just seemingly fallen out of the clouds, but a stare like she had seen some of the guys at her college look at her when she passed by.
He was checking me out, she thought. And now he is demanding questions. It was kinda funny.
"My name is Faith."
The guy with the weird accent and the warm voice had a sudden look of shock on his face as he realized that she could speak. Faith paid it no attention.
"I want to thank you for saving me." She paused for a while. The silence was so thick she felt she could slice it with a knife.
"Why are you out here?" Auron said. To Faith, Auron seemed menacing, but in a way only to someone who should be afraid of him. She felt no threat from this man. But she did feel threatened from that thing, she thought as she looked at Kimahri. She was horrified by that huge beast with the large spear. After all, she had never seen a Ronso before. She wandered strangely why no one of the others felt the same way.
But she had to answer this man's question.
"We'll" she began. "I was on my way to a friend's house, and something happened, although I don't know what. There were buildings crumbling, like an earthquake, and then there was this bright flash of light, and then I remember stumbling out here in some field until you found me." She paused again. "That's all I remember. More could have happened, but that's all I can think of."
The look on their faces stated obviously that she didn't say what any of them expected her to say.
"Ok." Wakka said. "You mind explainin' all that again ya? Cuz I don't think you were on your way to anybody's house way up here in the mountains."
"Yeah." Rikku chipped in. "Plus, I haven't seen any buildings for days."
"I'm honest" Faith pleaded. "I was going to her house for a party because of the big blitzball game tonight."
"Blitzball!!" Tidus and Wakka said simultaneously.
"Woah, woah, woah" Wakka said. "There is no blitzball game today. The championship is already over with."
"What are you, kidding?" Faith asked sarcastically. "The first game of the playoffs is tonight. It's gonna be awesome. That's what we were gonna watch. We were gonna watch the game. Honest."
That last word tugged at Tidus' emotions. The way she said it, she almost pleaded them to believe her. Boy I feel for her, he thought to himself. I don't know what happened to her, but I've been where she is now. Briefly he recalled his first days in Spira where nobody believed him about Zanarkand.
"I'm telling the truth." She said again in that pleading tone.
Faith looked away as she tried to hold back her own emotions.
"Nobody is saying that you are lying." Yuna said to her. "We just, don't really understand you yet. But we'll figure it all out soon."
Yuna always knows how to put someone at ease, Tidus thought to himself as he glanced towards her.
"Yea, we'll." Wakka began "I don't think you're lying to us, but I don't think it's really the truth. After all, I know the blitz championship is over, cuz the Aurochs took the cup."
"I don't know who the Aurochs are." Faith responded slowly and thoughtfully. Finally, she thought to herself. I find something that they recognize, and I end up looking more like an idiot.
"Are they Division Two?" She followed up. "All I know is that the Zanarkand Abes are taking the championship this year. At least that's who I'm pulling for."
"Whoa wait a second." Tidus exclaimed. "Did you just say the Zanarkand Abes?"
Faith's eyes lit up as she realized that someone knows, or at least had a remote idea, of what she was talking about.
"Yeah." She said enthusiastically. "They're my team, I grew up in Zanarkand and I've always been an Abes fan. I went to all of their home games this year."
It was then that sudden recognition took off in Faith's face. All this time, this blonde, young man looked familiar, like somebody she should know. In that moment she knew exactly who he was as she blurted out: "Oh my God, you're Tidus, the star player of the Abes. You're starting in the big game tonight."
The implication of her knowing Tidus struck Lulu like a shoopuf falling off of a temple. "Don't tell me." She said in her own cool stature as she continued, "Don't tell me, that you are from Zanarkand too."
"Of course I am, I just told you so." Faith responded with a sense of casualness that irked Lulu.
"This is foolishness." Auron said blatantly. "You can not be from Zanarkand."
Tidus shot a look towards the long since fallen monk. Is there anything else about this guy that he isn't telling me? he thought to himself. Like about this girl. He felt like asking Auron "how would you know if she is from Zanarkand?" but he held his tongue.
"No offense Faith." Wakka said, "but I have heard all of this before." With that last sentence he looked Tidus right in the face.
"Hey hey. Don't look at me. I've never seen her before in my life."
Faith, getting more and more confused by the minute, tried to reason it out. "But there are thousands of people in Zanarkand. It wouldn't make sense for us to know each other. Haven't you ever been there?"
There was an awkward silence that fell on everybody.
"No." he slowly answered. "But I will by the end of the day. The only Zanarkand I know, is the one right behind you."
Faith stood up and turned around. As she walked toward the end of the cliff, she fully expected to see Zanarkand with all of its lights and tall buildings and the large sphere pool in the very back. But what she saw was a city of ruins. And more than that, she thought, it looked as if it had been in ruins for hundreds of years.
"What, is this a joke?" she said as she turned back to Wakka.
"No." Tidus answered for him. "This is for real. This is Zanarkand." He paused before continuing. "A thousand years after me and you lived here."
She didn't want to believe it, but something in the young man's eyes told her she should.
She turned back to the fallen city. I can't believe it, she thought to herself. There's no way. But something stuck out in her eyes. It was not really noticeable, unless someone was looking for it. But there it was, in the back rear side of the city. It looked like a blitzball stadium, over a thousand years old.
"No." was all she said as she stood in disbelief. "It can't be." She said aloud. But deep down, something told her that it was.
"No." she repeated to herself.
"No."
Authors notes:
1—The characters, places, events referred to, etc., are copyrighted by Squaresoft.
2—This story however is created by me.
3—Faith is my character, don't use her in any way she wouldn't appreciate.
4—Yeah, I know, her being from Zanarkand isn't that much of a shock is it?
5—No, I don't really know what a shoopuf falling off of a temple would feel like, I just image that it would take more than a potion to help you out.
5—Any comments, complaints, advice, bashings, etc., hit me at rune_paradigm@yahoo.com, or just put it in a review.