Author's note: To all you He Sees Her lovers; I put up the third chapter. ^^ Be appeased. Currently working on the fourth one right now, since it's Spring Break and all, and I actually have time to write. Good recommendation: Play Xenosaga! Talk about a great game. I'll be writing fiction for that next but for now FFX remains my favorite. Also, I do understand that this will, in the slightest of ways, run parallel to FFX-2 but know that this story was made before most of the information came out and I had no intention of that happening. Anyway, enjoy, I hope this chapter will be good. ^^; Monique is a wonderful muse!
Cavalieri Della Pistola
Her blonde tresses brushed past her shoulder as the youth looked to the empty screens. "What… happened?"
"Get the medical supplies ready here. I lost signal after the explosion." The woman's harsh tone was not enough to stir the youth, and she growled impatiently. "Now, Rikku!"
Rikku half-jumped, being startled by the tone that Lulu used on her. She had seen Lulu angry before, plenty of times… One of the times she was angry enough to throw a computer screen across the room. Still… this time the older woman seemed angry beyond any point, or was it worry? Her green eyes still stayed on the satellite feed screen, seeing nothing but blackness. There was too much electrical interference. Now she could understand why Lulu was so worried. All of them were out there…
By the time Lulu had turned to snap at her once again, Rikku had bounded off to the small bedroom that all of them shared. Her eyes scanned over the area, the room, and the small kitchen with a two-seater bar. There were a few pieces of equipment in the bedroom, yet most of it stayed in the living area where consequentially was the place that Lulu seemed to live in. As Rikku looked to her again, she noticed Lulu sorting through the wires with her delicate fingers, all of the wires looking the exact same… She wondered silently if the older woman had named them yet, since she knew them all by heart.
All she could do was sigh, as she pulled the comforter back to reveal the sheets, and set to work.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Tidus was doing everything to keep the unshed tears behind his eyelids. It would hurt too much to cry. It already hurt too much to breath, and yet he found his chest hitching, trying to find more air that was filled with dust and the smell of death. His chest would not expand enough – thanks to the concrete slab on top of him that had smothered him completely… he knew he had cracked ribs, all to the blood that filled his mouth periodically. When he tried to swallow it, his stomach burned, and he felt the faint need to vomit with the warmth it left inside him.
The metal frame that had made up the concrete slab had shaken loose from the explosion, and one of the ridged pieces had lodged itself into the blonde's side to meet with the ground below him. Every breath was hard to manage, and now he could not even keep the blood inside. When he breathed outward, small drops of blood mixed with saliva landed on the white concrete on top of him. He felt as if he was drowning in his own blood.
There was silence. Auron had been talking to him to keep him talking – to make sure that he was still alive. He couldn't see Auron, and he still could not understand why… Auron never answered that question. Why wouldn't he help him?
"Auron? Auron!" Tidus' voice was unsteady, and with the effort he used to yell, his lungs wrenched. He had no time to close his mouth before he coughed up the red liquid, feeling it run down his chin and neck… seeing it in his line of vision.
Auron could hear his coughing. He could hear the youth's strangled breathing, the way he called for him… He could even hear the heavy blood hitting the concrete. Yet the location that he was in did not allow him to leave, and the laceration on his chest did nothing to help him, either.
Tidus groaned with effort as he tried to push the concrete off. The simple effort proved to be far too much, and he found himself vomiting blood… There was so much of it. He could hardly breathe. His throat was burning with the flow of his stomach acids, and he found his eyes closing. He just wanted to rest… He wanted it all to go away.
"Don't even think about closing your eyes." Auron's voice came out harsh, and he spoke as if he had read exactly what Tidus had been thinking.
"Don't think… I'm gonna give up that easy…" Tidus managed to give a small smile, even though no one was there to see it. He could hear the gunshots now and knew them to be Wakka's, by the heavy tone of the shotgun. The gun was his trademark weapon. It was his and his alone. "At least… he's ok…"
Auron turned his gaze to nothing as the fiend gave a sound of fury that shook the ground under him. He heard more gunshots, many of them… Before he heard the beast's fierce growl turn to a whimper of pain. The smell of death was so thick in the air, yet the smell of Tidus' blood and sweat permeated even that, to make Auron's stomach churn slightly within his body.
Tidus found himself desperately wanting to leave… to go back to the safety of four clean walls that encompassed his only world. He wanted to go back to the life he used to have… where he was part of the innocent masses that these people strove to protect. Now he wasn't innocent anymore… he secretly wished he was. If he was… he probably wouldn't be clinging onto life with every breath.
He just couldn't understand… He wanted to, strove to, tried to… Yet he could not understand. He had always looked up to Auron as the father he never had, the father he had always wanted, the father that his own father never was, or never could be. He hated his father. He hated his father more than anything, more than he could ever hate anyone… He had abandoned them, and even now he never spoke to him. He always had more important things to do.
In those times he had turned to Auron as his father, who never let him down… Auron, who was always there for him when his own father was not. And now… Tidus could not understand… Why wasn't he helping him now?
He had been one of those innocent people… once. Now, as the blood stained the concrete and Wakka's gunshots faded, he felt his breath slow. He wanted it. He wanted it to be over… He was tired. The only words that could pass his bloodied lips passed them then:
"…please take this pain away…"
