Recognise this?
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Darkness Falls
Chapter 8: Cold Voices
Tysh ed it's cold here.
Rikku had been doing her best to avoid visibly shivering, but without much success. It has to be like -20 degrees here! She thought to herself as she traipsed after the other guardians. To be honest with herself, she wasn't ideally suited to the cold, having grown up in a desert, and her clothes were not helping her out. Why didn't I buy a coat in Guadosalam? She angrily scolded herself. Just then, she heard a voice up ahead that broke into her thoughts. From right in front of her in fact. 'The likes of her are not permitted here!' shouted the angry Monk, right in her face. So, they had arrived, and she had been too cold to notice. From behind her she heard the voice of Auron, calm and authorative as always.
'She is a guardian,' he said slowly.
'An Al Bhed, a guardian? Preposterous!' said the Monk.
Hey! She thought. She approached the mad Monk. 'I want to protect Yuna, and that is all that is important to me,' she said, amid much shivering and teeth chattering.
'And that is all one needs to be a guardian,' Auron said, then pushed past the Monk into the temple.
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And so more come...
So, what do you want little humans? The same thing as always I suppose... You want my power, that's all you ever want. Tell me, why should I help you?
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Rikku stood before the fading sphere, but not seeing it. No! Not Seymour! I trusted him! She shouted in her mind. She looked across at Wakka, and for a second those thoughts were driven from her head. She thought she might have smiled at the blitzer, watching as what he believed was shattered to dust. But she couldn't, Yuna was in danger and she was a Guardian, that was all she needed to know. But it was from a person she had thought she could rely upon for some reason. She thought back to everything, their meeting at the Farplane Gates, where he had offered her his help, the Thunder Plains, where he had saved her. Had it all been a dream? Although it took Tidus a few minutes to convince Wakka of the fact, eventually Wakka surrendered to logic.
'If Seymour's bad news, then we've gotta stop him, right?' The boy argued.
'I suppose, but there's gotta be another explanation!' Wakka shouted as a last resort.
Rikku walked over to the two arguing men and decided to put aside her personal feelings for the moment. 'Erm, guys?'
They both looked at her. 'Yeah? What?' Wakka snapped.
'Nothing, except for the fact that Yuna is currently alone in a room with a man who possibly killed his father, and we're standing here arguing,' she said. He glared daggers at her, and then ran off to the trials without saying a word. For her part, Rikku regretted say it, it only made it more likely it was true.
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Why should I help? You come to me with your summoners and your prayers and you expect me to help you. Not like I have a choice either. It's this or stay here, and getting out, no matter for how short a time, is preferable to this. You want me to give you my powers, because you don't have any of your own left. Pathetic. Humanity wasn't always this dependant on outside forces, at least back then they could choose whether to call us, instead of making us come at the slightest sign of trouble.
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They ran towards the Chamber of the Fayth. Wakka slower than the rest. He didn't seem to believe that a Maester, one of the pillars of his faith, could be evil. Lulu turned to him. 'If he truly is at fault, he must pay.'
Wakka looked even more downcast. 'This can't be happening,' he moaned quietly.
Rikku ignored him and ran on. She wasn't going to let Yuna down, and after her, ahem, 'performance' in the Thunder Plains, she was going to prove she could hack it. She followed Auron and Khimari, and pushed through the doors, and stopped. This room was a work of art. Non-believer or no, she had to say she had never seen anything like it. Icicles hung off the walls and ceiling in perfectly ordered rows (although she wouldn't want to be under them, she saw. They were razor-sharp), the room was decorated in murals depicting what appeared to be a battle, a woman in blue fighting against a creature even Auron wouldn't have wanted to mess with. She guessed this was the Aeon itself. Al Bhed spies who had infiltrated the temples had reported pictures on the walls leading to the Chamber depicting the Aeon itself, usually in some heroic pose. She managed to turn away from the scene, and noticed she had missed most of the conversation, and Yuna was with them. She turned to Lulu. 'What did I miss?' She whispered.
The Black Mage smiled at her. 'They shouted at each other for a while, then Yuna came out of the chamber and said she would fight Seymour with us,' she replied quietly.
'Thanks!' the young Al Bhed whispered back. She turned to watch Seymour, and heard his grim proclamation;
'Well, if you're offering your lives, I'll just have to take them.' The Maester said, and raised his hands to...
'STOP!' Rikku shouted at the Maester. To her surprise, he did, and his eyes went wide.
'Rikku?' he asked.
'Why are you doing this?' she asked him, eyes wide and pleading, the others looked at her in amazement, but she carried on, heedless of their gazes. 'I thought you were a good person, was it all lies?'
'Rikku, I can explain,' he said softly, and held out his hand. 'Let me explain.'
For a second Rikku felt the urge to run to him and grasp it, but then she remembered Jyscal's last sphere and drew back. For a second she swore she could see true sadness in his eyes, then he looked back at the others and they became hard again.
'Well, if you are offering your lives, I'll just have to take them,' he said, and attacked. But Rikku knew that during this fight, no serious harm would come to her. Seymour wouldn't let it.
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Interesting, hasn't been a fight in here since the execution of those spies last century... I sense great darkness from that one. You aren't real. You're dead. You two don't seem to want to admit to yourselves what you're feeling. I met you, summoner. You're a Ronso with a broken horn, good luck to you when you go home with that. You're an Al Bhed...
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Rikku watched as the other two Guado carried Seymour away. As he passed her, he suddenly lunged and grasped her arm. The other stared in alarm, but she waved them off and knelt down beside him.
'What is it?' she asked gently. He whispered in her ear, and her eyes went wide as his aides carried him off. Auron also heard what Seymour said, and he blinked, but he did not comment.
Rikku didn't hear what Tromell said next, her head was still spinning from the blow Anima had dealt her in a lapsed moment of concentration. She had seen Seymour wince from it. He still cared. She knew it. She didn't like Phoenix Downs, and especially didn't like having them used on her. She looked across at the rest of the group. Wakka and Lulu were devastated by Seymour's actions, that much she could see. Khimari was watching Yuna for any sign of fatigue, ready to catch her if she so much as stumbled. The summoner in question looked like she was in a dream, not focussing on anything. Auron looked disinterested as always, unsympathetic git that he was. No one seemed to be bothered about Seymour and Rikku's short exchange before the battle.
Tidus however, was another story. 'Can't we just explain?' shouted the young blonde guardian.
Auron and Wakka looked up at him in disbelief. 'We attacked a Maester. We're finished.' Said Wakka.
Auron was not much help either. 'Seymour can say whatever he wants, the only witnesses to this are him and us, it's our word against his. No one would believe us, not under these circumstances,' he said.
Tidus did not want to give up however. 'But we have evidence! The wounds! The other Guado! Yuna, you're a summoner, people like you, they'll listen to you!'
But Auron discounted these by ticking them off on his fingers as he went, the excuses Seymour could use. 'He defended himself against an unprovoked attack, the other Guado will soon dissolve into pyreflies, Yuna will have no credibility when people find out she helped kill a Maester of Yevon.' He paused, and then looked over at Rikku. 'Plus we're travelling with an Al Bhed. That will not help our chances.'
She lowered her head. That was not what she wanted to hear. She looked around at the room again, ignoring the argument. She looked again at the murals, those figures…
She heard a noise, almost a voice, but whispered. Guado! She thought. She span around, looking for the source of the disturbance, but seeing nothing, she kept looking around, expecting to see Yevon Monks hiding in the rafters, or Guado, but there was nothing. She put it down to nerves, and started to turn back to the others. As she turned, her gaze swept over the entrance to the Chamber of the Fayth. Then everything went red.
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Simple, blame the Al Bhed girl you fools. Tell them she did it. Tell them you had no idea she was an assassin. Typical summoners troupe, unwilling to sacrifice one to save the others. You all have that problem, even Zaon and Yunalesca...
Wait a minute. Did you hear that? You, girl, you heard me didn't you? No? Don't try and fool me, I know you did. Answer me! I know you heard, you're looking for me, but you won't see me, not even with eyes as good as those. I said answer me!
...Alright then, try this;
ANSWER ME!
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The others heard a scream, and turned to see Rikku clutch at her head and collapse onto the floor.
Yuna ran over to her and turned her over onto her side. 'Rikku what's wrong?!' she shouted.
Rikku continued to scream, the pain all she could feel.
Yuna extended her staff and tried some cure spells. They succeeded in turning the screaming into a quiet whimper. She tried to stand the young girl up.
Auron lost his look of disinterest and wandered over to the young girl, concerned for a fellow Guardian. He grasped her chin softly and turned her head to him. 'Rikku, look at me,' he said quietly.
Rikku slowly opened her eyes, and Yuna gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Where once there had been two black spirals on emerald-green eyes, there were now two harsh red spirals on a background of pure black. They backed off. Fast.
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Well, well, well, interesting. You're not who you say you are, and your friends don't know it.
Why are you still here?
You're on a pilgrimage aren't you? Inconvenient. Come back here when you're done girl, and we'll talk some more.
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Rikku turned her head slowly, and looked up at the pale Yuna. What happened? She tried to say, but all that came out was; 'Wha...?'
Yuna stood over her, not a little panicked
'We don't know!' she nearly cried. 'You just fell over and started screaming!'
Rikku got to her feet, slowly, and promptly staggered into the form of Kimhari, who put his arm out to steady her. She looked around at everyone's staring faces and she closed her eyes. 'I'm OK, I'm OK,' she said, over and over, until she convinced herself it was true. 'I'm OK guys, really.'
Tidus looked sceptical. 'Are you sure, you looked like you were in a lot of pain,' he said.
'Really!' She quipped, cheerier than she felt. She was still shivering though, and not just because of the temperature. 'Lets go, it's really cold in here,' she said.
Auron moved off towards the Cloister, seemingly bored once more now that the event had passed and no one was in any immediate danger. They had almost made it to the foyer when the floor collapsed under Tidus' feet, and they had to spend half an hour solving the trial.
Rikku looked back at the closing door of the Chamber. What was that? Who was that? Then she made a decision. I'll be back, after all this is over. She walked off to stand near her summoner, as they argued with Tromell, then fought their way out into Macalania's freezing night.
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Rikku reached the frozen lake last, having got in a running battle with two Guado lackeys. She skidded to a halt near the others and would have slid past if Khimari hadn't grabbed her. She was still reeling from Seymour's betrayal, and his betrayal of her. He had promised he would help her, but he had lied. She only vaguely heard Auron's warning shout as the large four-armed fiend landed next to them. Her patience snapped, and she screamed and started hurling grenades at it. The creature itself looked surprised as explosive fragments started to rain down on it. Auron and Tidus took the opportunity and ran straight at it, swinging at its eyes and chest respectively and gutting the creature.
Wakka looked back at Rikku in shock. He had never seen her like that before. Whatever she had used, it had taken care of that thing in seconds.
Rikku heard the ensuing battle as if through a muffler, and had to take a back seat as the other proceeded to pound it into dust. She looked up when she heard a whoosh, and saw the creature jump onto the pool, exactly where it had taken off from. What the? She thought, then looked down and saw the crack in the ice. She barely had time to stand up before the entire lake collapsed around her.
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She woke up to find herself under a dark-blue sky, Lulu watching over her. The Black Mage started slightly when she sat up.
'Are you OK?' she asked. Rikku gulped down air and nodded. She knew where they probably were, and a look up confirmed it when she saw the thin spiral of rock that marked the base of the temple. She got up and stretched her legs, looking around her. Seems like they were all OK, small favours... She looked across at where Yuna, Auron and the others were talking, and walked over, hearing what seemed to be an argument between Wakka, who favoured turning themselves into Yevon, and the rest, who didn't want to. Rikku watched it for several minutes before getting bored and wandering off. She was about to turn around and walk back when...
'SIN!' Yuna shouted.
Rikku spun around, and saw the silhouette of the great beast hovering in the water beyond the ice. Her vision started to blur, and Rikku moved back towards the others, seeing them all clutch their heads and fall to their knees. The last thing she thought about before she lost consciousness was what Seymour had whispered in her ear as he had been carried off.
We are the same now, you and I.
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It's late and I'm tired, so I will write no more now. I know I massively abridged the under-the-temple scene, but be happy with this all right? I promise to try harder next time, after I get a good few days rest. Damn A-Levels.
