Sonofabitch! Chapter nine had serious formatting problems, and in no way was supposed to appear like that. I apologise. If my re-upload didn't change it, then e-mail me and I'll send you the real chapter, formatting and all.

On the very last chapter, I am going to swear profusely on behalf of anyone who ever read any chapter of mine where the formatting got f*cked.

There will be an extended Home scene in this fic, before the airship lifts off.

Also, to whoever it was asked about the commandos in the last chapter, they only have minor roles in this fic, but keep an eye out for them in Echoes of the Past, where they're major players.

______________________________________________________________________

Darkness Falls

Chapter 10: Home Sweet Home

Rikku stared down at the scene of destruction below her. Smoke billowed from the building she had called home, bodies lay scattered around the dunes as fiends wheeled and screeched through the sky above the huge machina towers, directing pot-shots at the defenders. She held her hands to her head in shock. No. Then the shock went, to be replaced by blind rage.

Rikku ran down the dune towards her home at the nearest attacker, who happened to be facing away from her. In one motion she drew her glove and swung it around at the Warrior Monk as hard as she could, slicing through his skull and leaving him dead on the floor. His companion was slightly luckier, hearing his partner's dying gurgle and looking around to see the young girl approach, weapon in hand. He fired his gun (A machina weapon! Rikku thought) at her, catching her in the shoulder. Rikku ignored the pain and kept running, swinging the spiked glove at him. He ducked, and instead of taking his head off it merely knocked the man unconscious. Rikku was about to pummel the man to death when she felt a restraining hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Auron looking at her. He shook his head and said one word. 'Survivors.' Rikku nodded slowly, and looked around for any Al Bhed left alive. She looked to her right, and saw a person she knew.

'Keyakku!' she screamed, and ran to her fallen brother's side. She knelt down and felt the man's pulse. Nothing. She felt Lulu's hand on her shoulder and she bowed her head, whispering to her dead sibling. She felt a shadow pass over her, and stood back up to see her father standing next to them.

'You're Rikku's friends? Well don't just stand there! Let's kick these Guado out of our Home!' the man shouted, and ran into the huge complex.

Auron looked at her. 'Your father?' he asked. Rikku nodded slightly. Then Auron approached her. Back to business.

'Where's Yuna?' he asked gently but firmly.

She pointed towards the door, too hyped and distressed to speak, and the others ran towards it. She took a few seconds to look around her at the carnage and then ran into the complex that had once been called Home, but was now a metal tomb for the dead of Yevon's weaponry.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rikku ran through the innards of Home, trying not to look too hard at the bodies. She and the others looked around as the PA crackled to life, and Cid made his dire announcement.

No, not after all our work! she felt like screaming to the air. But she still had a mission to do, as Auron reminded her. 'Where is Yuna?' he asked.

Rikku turned and indicated down the stairs. 'The summoner's sanctum,' she said, 'we keep the summoners there, we keep them safe.'

Wakka seemed to have a different view. 'You kidnap them,' he said, arms crossed over his chest.

'We don't think it's worth the price!' Rikku said, trying to make him understand.

Auron did not seem to care though. 'Where is the summoner's sanctum?' he asked.

Rikku pointed back down the stairs again, and he pushed past everyone and ran down. Lulu sighed in resignation and ran after, the others following. Rikku hung back for a few seconds and then ran after her, feet pounding on the floor as the group ran towards where the Al Bhed kept their captives. She turned the corner and ran across the others fighting some Bombs and a Guado. She hesitated slightly and then ran into the fray, aiming for the Guado and slicing the Bomb on the way past. The Guado saw her coming and turned to face her, bringing up his hand and directing a bolt of lightning at her. Rikku ducked and slid under the bolt, aiming a kick at the man's knees. He screamed and collapsed onto the floor. Rikku raised her fist over her head for the final blow when the Guado addressed her.

'Seymour sends his love.'

Rikku stopped, eyes wide. Auron saw this and ran towards her, shoving her out of the way and slicing down with his sword at the Guado as the bomb behind Rikku flew over where she had been standing. Rikku wriggled out from under Auron as the warrior stood up.

'Are you OK?' he asked the girl.

'Fine,' Rikku gasped. 'I just lost it for a moment, that's all,' she said. Auron smiled at her slightly, then looked at something over her shoulder, and his eyes widen.

'EVERYONE DOWN!' he shouted. Everyone looked for some cover, and leaped behind it.

Rikku jumped behind the nearest pile of rubble as the last remaining Bomb self-destructed, damaging the ceiling, raining dust and metal down on the guardians. Rikku held her hands over her head as the shower stopped, then peeked out from under them, to see that a solid wall of metal had been erected between her and the other guardians, and she was on the wrong side. 'Are you all right Rikku?' Auron shouted through the rubble.

Rikku coughed. 'Yeah, just a little shook up,' she replied.

'Can you get through?' he asked.

'No, there's too much here. Go and find Yuna, I'll catch up!' she said, then gave directions to the summoner's sanctum.

'Are you sure you'll be alright?' Lulu asked.

'I'll be fine! Go get Yunie!' Rikku shouted, and then heard the footsteps of the others as they moved farther away from her. She would have to find another way around.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tidus jumped down the next set of stairs. 'Why'd they have to build so deep?' he asked.

'Ask Rikku when she re-joins us,' Auron said, not even stopping for breath. The group had been running for what seemed like half-an-hour, following the directions Rikku had gave and following the turns.

'If she re-joins us,' Wakka whispered.

Suddenly Tidus stopped and turned to look at Wakka. 'What is it with you two!?' he asked, out of patience. 'You didn't mind her when you didn't know she was Al Bhed, so what changed?'

Wakka looked shocked, he had never seen the boy like this before. 'It's just...' he began, only to be cut off.

'Maybe you should cut them some slack, huh? They rescued Yuna from the desert to protect her, not to ransom her or anything!'

'Yeah but...'

'Wakka, just forget about that hang-up you have and look around you. If anything, they're the victims! Yevon are destroying her Home!' Wakka looked indecisive, then just nodded. Tidus calmed down and nodded back, then they both smiled. 'Now come on, like the lady said, we gotta save Yuna!' he turned, and ran deeper into the doomed complex.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rikku ran through the building, dodging past fiends and rubble with equal ease, trying to find the path through to the sanctum. The attack had scrambled the internal layout of Home so much she only vaguely knew where she was or where she was going. She ran around the next corner, and felt something hot whip by her shoulder. She ducked behind the nearest piece of rubble as gunfire ricocheted off the walls around her.

'Identify yourself!' a familiar voice shouted.

Rikku breathed a sigh of relief. 'Ivan! It's me,' she shouted.

'Rikku? Thank the... we thought you might be dead!' the SAS commander shouted back to her. She got up and walked back around the corner to see Ivan, Alexia, Kirsten, Zion and a haggard-looking Caryl safe their weapons.

'Good to see you Rikku,' said Zion. The others just nodded.

She turned back to Ivan. 'I need to find the summoner's sanctum, is there a path still open?' she asked quickly.

Ivan nodded and pointed down the hallway. 'Service staircase down that way leads to environment controls, from there you can get to the lower levels,' he said in the same tone.

Rikku waved her thanks and ran off. She heard Kirsten's 'Good luck!' shout as she left.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ivan watched Rikku run off, and turned back to the others. 'She was in a hurry,' he said emotionlessly. He turned to look at Caryl, who was squatting on the floor. 'Anything?' he asked.

She looked up. 'That way, after one-hundred metres there's a way out,' she said.

They didn't think of it as running. Cid had ordered the evacuation of Home, and they were damned if they were still going to be here when it went down around their ears.

Ivan nodded. 'Lets move people. Team-2 will meet us at the Cactuar Valley, we'll take their transports to the mainland,' he said.

They nodded and followed their leader from their collapsing Home.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rikku took the maintenance stairs four at a time, bounding down them as fast as she could.

Nearly there.

Her speed meant she wasn't looking properly when a fiend came out of a doorway to her right. She was nearly on top of it when she looked up and noticed it. She skidded to a halt barely an inch from it's tail. It heard her stop and swung around to look at her, both of them surprised at the appearance of another being right in front of them.

A Chimera, not another one... She thought.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Auron was running to catch up with the others when he caught a flash of red in his peripheral vision. Stopping, he looked through the door to her right, and saw Rikku standing in the adjacent corridor, staring at something above and ahead of her. Auron breathed a small sigh of relief. He moved towards Rikku and was about to shout to the girl when he saw the Chimera standing in front of her. He stopped dead. Then he heard something he had never thought he would hear.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rikku stood dead still in the centre of the path, hunting frantically in her pockets for another grenade. It opened it's mouth and snarled at her. Still she did not move, there was no-where to run to. That might have saved her life. Chimeras were not usually used to prey standing up so close to them. It bent it's lions head next to her and sniffed her clothes, saliva dripping on to her t-shirt. Still Rikku did not move. It actually looked confused for a second or so, and then it did something Rikku had never heard about before. It spoke to her. It leant down again, and though it's speech was distorted by it's teeth, she could still make out the words.

'As yOU ARe, wE oNCe WeRe. AS wE aRe, sO YOu wiLL Be.'

Then it reared up, and began to move past Rikku, barely brushing her arm as it made it's way to the stairs. She just stared after it, face pale. She was pretty sure that had never happened to anyone before. She was about to turn and continue on when she happened to look through the doorway and see Auron staring alternately at her and the distant fiend. She walked up to the older guardian.

'What did that thing say?' Auron asked as she approached him, seemingly not at all surprised at the fiend's little performance.

Rikku heard footfalls, and turned to see Wakka running back down the hall towards them.

'Rikku! You safe?' She nodded her head. Wakka gestured behind him. 'Up ahead, buttons, we can't get in,' he said.

Rikku nodded and walked off, Auron staring after her for a few seconds before walking to join the others. He finally thought he was figuring it out.

Rikku ran past everyone and up to the door where Yuna should be, punching in a code onto the keypad that had the others stumped and pressing the Door Release handle. It whirred opened and Rikku ran in.

'Yuna!' she shouted, and then looked around. Her face fell as she realised she had addressed empty air.

______________________________________________________________________

Talking fiends! Man what a mess...