Hmph, my A-Levels are coming up now. Please pray for me. My sincerest thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. At least I know some people are reading.

I skipped the rest of the Thunder Plains sequence, as I'm sure we all know what happens. Yuna still says she is going to marry in this fic.

I have decided. This will be an Aurikku eventually. Just give me time, lots of time. Say, chapter 12…

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Darkness Falls

Chapter 6: The Crystal Forest

Rikku ran into Macalania Forest ahead of the others, joyful beyond measure to get out of that forsaken plain. She smiled happily and turned to face the others, who were also looking more cheerful that they had left the barren and scarred landscape. She waited until Yuna caught up to her and began to walk. Might as well take another crack at it, she thought, and turned to face her. 'Are you really going to marry Seymour?' she asked, as casually as she could.

Yuna just frowned. 'Yes,' she said.

Rikku could tell that she had something on her mind. 'Are you going to go to Zanarkand together?' she asked.

Yuna looked across at her. 'I'm... not sure. I think the Maester has other things he must attend to, even if I am his wife,' she replied.

Rikku tried again: 'Why don't you just leave the pilgrimage for a while and go with Seymour?' she asked, eyes focussed on Yuna's.

She just shook her head though. 'I must finish the pilgrimage,' Yuna said, almost to herself.

Rikku sighed and tried to change the subject, getting her to talk about her mother. Rikku had never met her father's sister, and wanted to know about her.

Yuna smiled. 'I didn't really know her that well before she died. I know she was a kind person, and my father was almost excommunicated for marrying her, an Al Bhed. She died while I was young, in an attack by Sin. I think that was what made Braska go on his own Pilgrimage for the Final Aeon, he didn't want anyone else to suffer by Sin, even if it meant me growing up without a father,' she said sadly.

Rikku dropped it, and slowed her pace to catch up with Tidus. 'What do you think about Yuna getting married?' she asked.

The boy's eyes narrowed slightly. 'Why is she even doing it? I know she doesn't love the guy. That sphere has something to do with it, I know it,' he whispered.

Rikku got the impression he would have been talking even if she hadn't been there. She sighed and ran forward to catch up with the others. As she ran past Auron the old guardian addressed her.

'You're feeling better I see,' he said.

Rikku skidded to a halt and turned to face him. 'Yeah!' she said cheerfully.

'Thanks to Seymour,' he said, a statement, not a question.

'Yeah,' Rikku said guardedly.

'Do you not find it strange that he should be passing at the exact moment you were hit by lightning?' he asked her.

Rikku drew back slightly. She knew what he was getting at. 'Coincidences happen,' she said emotionlessly.

'And so do 'accidents,'' he said, 'careful Rikku, the man is not what he seems.'

Rikku looked harder at him. 'Why do you care?' She asked.

Auron shrugged. 'I do not wish any harm to come to you,' he said. This time, it was he, not her, who moved ahead. He turned back to face the others. 'We move on, there is an inn at the end of the forest.' The others all looked at him.

'How long?' Tidus shouted from the back.

'One day,' Auron said, and the others either groaned or sighed in resignation. He sure was a stickler for speed for such an old guy.

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Rikku was getting tired about halfway through the afternoon. The constant regime of walking and fighting was beginning to grate on her usually cheery nerves. Auron had called a rest halfway (according to him) through the sparkling forest, and they had all sat down immediately, Rikku perched on a branch up a tree, Lulu on a log (or whatever it was) and the others had sat down on the floor, the ground seemingly clear of dirt. Either this place had it's own army of caretakers, or the dirt had some kind of frictionless surface. Rikku turned to Auron, and didn't even have to ask the question.

'Ten minutes,' he said, 'I want to reach Rin's by nightfall.'

Rikku sighed and laid back down against the tree, she was becoming an expert at falling asleep against hard surfaces, and at least this one wouldn't electrocute her. She didn't believe that Seymour had engineered her little accident, Auron had to be too paranoid.

'Beautiful isn't it?' a familiar voice said below her.

Does that man always have to open a lecture with those words? she thought, and looked down to see Maechen talking to the others. She swung her leg around and dropped silently behind Khimari, and tapped him on the shoulder. He whipped round, saw it was her, and took his hand off his weapon. Pal, you are wound up far too tight, she thought with a silent giggle. She looked back at Maechen, who was taking with Yuna. The summoner seemed to be quite impressed with his knowledge as he explained the origins of the forest.

'Legend says that Lady Yunalesca, when she became a summoner for the first time, chipped off a piece of the Fayth she had used, and took it with her as a pendant. When Zaon and Yunalesca passed this way on their journey to Zanarkand, they saw the Thunder Plains, which were much bigger then, and Yunalesca was horrified by the destruction of the area. She took her pendant and placed it on the ground, it started to glow and sunk into the soil. The entire area grew from that one small seed of hope, and that is why this place is called the Crystal Forest…'

Rikku wasn't really paying attention. She had heard all of this before from her father on their scavenging trips together. She looked around the area, and agreed that it was beautiful, but there was also danger here, as in the rest of...

'Fiend!' Rikku spun around, and saw Auron draw his sword as a huge half-beast half-bird part-snake hybrid lumbered towards them through the dense undergrowth. Rikku cursed, and drew her spiked fist from her holster, running towards the thing, checking her supplies. Only one grenade left? Where in the hell did the others go? she asked herself. The others all prepared their weaponry, and Maechen ran away, demonstrating he had at least some sense. Rikku took her place next to the others, surrounding the creature. Should be fairly easy, at least there was only one of them. The Chimera instantly debunked this theory by shooting a huge fireball at Yuna, who only just got her Null shield up in time, the impact still throwing her back. Khimari ran up to the it from the side and took a swipe at it's feet, trying to hamstring the beast. One of it's heads turned to face him and fired a blast of water at him, the Ronso dodging in time to get merely soaked, instead of drowned. The fight turned into a game of deadly who's-going-to-move-first? The beast turned slowly around, observing them all, the snakes-head tail preventing them from attacking from behind and not getting a face full of venom. Auron ducked under one of the massive claws, slicing into the thing's side, it roared in pain and threw it's fist in an arc at him, Auron abandoned his sword and ducked backwards, now weapon-less. Yuna stood at the back casting cure and protect spells on the team. Rikku wasn't really worried, until…

Thrum. She spun around, and saw an Ice Elemental shimmer into existence behind her. She turned to Lulu. 'Behind you!' Lulu turned to face the new threat, as did Yuna, both being the main magic users. Rikku turned back to the Chimera and gulped. Elementals weren't usually that smart, attacking the thing nearest to them, but if this one went for one of the group fighting the Chimera, things could get nasty. Fast. She ran at the Chimera and tried the same thing as Auron, punching the thing in the side with her spikes. It screamed in rage and swiped at her, but since her weapon was a part of her she easily withdrew it. She ducked under it's fist and rolled behind it. She heard a hissing noise and Auron's shouted warning. She leaped to the side again; barely dodging the stream of venom the snake had fired. Auron ran in while it was still distracted and put his foot on it. Tidus moved up behind him and sliced down cleanly, serving the thing's tail and bringing down the amount of things they had to watch out for by one. Survival of the Fittest was fine, but some of these creatures took it to new extremes. The Chimera noticed the sudden loss of it's eyesight behind it and spun around, dislodging Auron and sending Tidus flying. It reared over him and raised it's hoof to try and step on the blonde, but Rikku had another idea. Taking a deep breath, she took a running jump, and landed on it's back. Khimari looked surprised and was distracted, earning him a blow in the chest with a fireball. He yowled and began to roll around on the floor away from the beast's claws. Rikku clung on for dear life as it tried to shake her off, her hands wrapped around it's neck. She disengaged one of her arms and slowly reached down to her pockets. In one smooth motion she opened it, drew out her last grenade and shoved it right into the thing's mouth, letting go as she did so, her momentum throwing her off. The thing made a short hack-ing noise, as if trying to clear it's throat. Then it's head exploded.

Rikku whooped with delight, and turned to see how Lulu and Yuna were doing, having disposed of the damned Elemental. The former looked OK, the latter slightly cold, shivering. Maybe those Null spells weren't all they were cracked up to be. She waved at the others, who waved back. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Auron looking at her.

'That was dangerous and stupid,' he said.

sRikku's eyes widened, and she held out her hands in a semi-shrug. What?

'If that fiend had decided to use it's claws you'd be dead by now,' he continued.

I am dead now you old fogey, she thought at him, but decided to say something else. 'Well, it didn't, so no use thinking about it now right?' she said.

Auron pointed, and Rikku turned to look at her shoulder. She gasped slightly when she saw a small tear in her shirt, hardly enough to scratch the fabric, but really close to her neck.

'Another inch, and we would have been reviving you again' he said simply then walked off.

Well, you didn't exactly do a great job of that the last time either! She shouted in her head at him. She turned, to see a grinning Tidus. Why does there always seem to be someone behind me when I turn around?

He grinned at her, out of breath. 'Rikku! That thing... with the... jumping, and... the hanging on, and... the boom!' he said breathlessly. 'Great job!' he finished, and then went to sit down beside a tree (or whatever they were. Is there a technical name for crystal trees?) and closed his eyes to sleep.

Auron walked over to him, shook him awake, and whispered something in his ear. Whatever it was, the boy groaned and sank back against the crystree for a few seconds, then walked up to Yuna and whispered something in her ear. She simply nodded and stood up.

Auron looked at them all and crossed his arms. As one, they all got up from where they were resting and began to walk off, Auron stopping only for a second to withdraw his sword from the corpse of the dead Chimera as it dissolved into pyreflies. They followed him to a fairly innocuous piece of dense thicket, and he began to hack through it, pausing only to say something to Tidus that Rikku didn't catch.

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Rikku sat on the floor as the movie-sphere shut itself down. The fight against the giant sphere-blob-thingy had been fairly easy once Lulu had discovered it's weak point. Stupid fiend, to have weak point as obvious as that. She drew in breath and stood up. Everyone had been furious at the monster for making them fight yet another creature after that Chimera, and they had attacked and killed it with pleasure. Auron and Tidus were the last to leave the clearing, talking about something private, and Tidus had walked out with a thoughtful look on his face. Although not as downright-terrifying as the Thunder Plains had been, the forest had more fiends in it, so it balanced out. And it was always too cold. Rikku would be glad to leave Macalania behind full stop, although Auron said they still needed to cross a glacier to get to the temple.

Why the hell do they have to put these temples so far away from civilisation? And fires? she asked herself as Auron and Tidus argued with the nearby merchant. After about a minute of haggling they managed to argue down his prices, the fact that both of them had neglected to stow their swords properly added to the fact, as the merchant could see the sharp blades poking out from behind their backs. They stocked up on potions and ethers and continued on towards the forest. After what seemed like several hours they finally saw…

'Natural light!' Tidus shouted, and ran towards the end of the forest. The others also let out sighs of relief. Maybe they had been as bored as she had been in that place. She walked out into the first glimpse of clear sky she had seen in two days. She looked back over the forest, and could see the ever-lasting storm that marked the Thunder Plains behind the spiked canopy of the Crystal Forest.

Rikku wondered if they hit it with a tuning fork, would it shatter? Would make an interesting experiment. Definitely harmful to the environment and wildlife, although why anyone would care about the monsters in that place... It seemed that no matter how sensible a proposition was Yevonites could always make an excuse to say NO! Although maybe turning Macalania Forest into shards of flying crystal would be taking it a bit too far. She laughed, and the others turned their heads to look at her. She just smiled and waved back. They continued towards the inn.

Auron argued with Rin for a room for a few minutes, and then walked through the door towards one the Al Bhed man pointed out. Rikku reached hers and collapsed onto the bed, giving a small warning to Rin (again) not to tell the others about her lineage. She turned over and looked at the ceiling, closed her eyes and began to drop off. She vaguely wondered why she would need sleep, but she didn't really care at this moment. She remembered Seymour's advice and smiled. Whatever Auron said, Seymour was the only person who really understood what she felt. She moved her hand to over her chest and felt the spike resting next to her heart. Whatever happened, at least she had someone she could go to. She remembered their conversation in Guadosalam. You are not the first lost soul to wander through here. Most come here to die, but others find strength, and continue travelling, until they seek peace, then they return to end their existence.

What Seymour had neglected to tell her though, and what Rikku could not know, was that few of those who had continued travelling had ended their existence as humans.

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I made the part about the formation of the forest up, although I do think it's a nice idea. Thank you to all who reviewed so far, and especially so those who reviewed my other fics. I have a clear view of where this fic is going to go now. It will end (fairly obviously) at the ending of FFX, so at least I'll know where to stop.