Gah. More writing. Not that I'm complaining… ^_-
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Darkness Falls
Chapter 18: Calm? Yeah Right…
Rikku stared out at the vast plains that made up the Calm Lands.
What a dump, she thought.
And they had to cross it. The others walked slightly ahead of her, Tidus not leaving Yuna's side for more than a few seconds. The group just stood there, staring out at the huge green fields, not speaking. Suddenly Yuna fell backwards. Khimari jumped toward her to catch her as she fell, but Lulu stopped him before he got more than a few paces towards her. Yuna lay on the floor, just staring up at the sky. Tidus knelt down next to her and put his arms over his knees. Rikku saw that they weren't going to be going anywhere soon and sat down on the driest piece of grass she could find. Auron took the hint and sat down next to Rikku, crossing his legs and staring out at the plains, occasionally glancing across at Yuna. Rikku leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. She always felt more peaceful around him for some reason. She had been feeling really irritable lately, and it was confusing. That just made her more irritable. She angled her head up to look at Auron.
"Was it like this when you came here?" she asked.
Auron looked down at her as if just realising she was there. He sighed and looked back at the plain before speaking.
"No. It was different then. People had camped out here when they heard that Braska was almost finished." He pointed. "You see those ridges up there?" he asked. Rikku looked across at them lazily and nodded. "There was people camped out all across them, wanting to be there when Sin was banished again." He sighed again. "I remember when we actually passed through. A little girl came up to us and asked Braska whether he would 'make the bad thing go away now'. He looked down and just nodded. The look on the girl's face as she ran off was so happy, she didn't know it would come back…"
"You remember all that?" Rikku exclaimed, eyes closed and head still against Auron. She felt him sigh.
"All of it," he said quietly.
"Is it any easier this time?" Rikku asked.
"By miles,"
Auron said, and wrapped his other arm around Rikku. She shuffled along the grass
and moved closer to Auron. A quick glance around showed that no-one was
especially willing to move. Lulu in particular seemed in no great hurry to get
going, which puzzled Rikku. Usually she was the one who advocated speed, along
with Auron. She close to ignore her thoughts, and just sat there on the floor
next to Auron, neither of them speaking.
A voice jerked her out of her silent reverie, and she looked up to see…
"Beautiful isn't it?"
And again with the broken record! Rikku thought angrily as Maechen approached from the rampway to the group. Yuna stood up to greet the scholar. Rikku reluctantly rose up from under Auron's embrace and took a few steps towards the man.
"This, Lady, is where the first high summoner's fought…"
It was predictable to the extreme. Rikku showed as much irritation as she dared, wishing the little green old guy would just go away and let them continue. He seemed oblivious to her thoughts though and talked for what seemed like hours about the History of the Calm Lands. She looked around at the others. Wakka and Lulu were listening politely, Yuna as well. Tidus actually looked like he was listening to the speech. No surprise, he wasn't from Spira, he wouldn't know. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to face Auron.
"Annoying isn't it?" he said wryly.
"You too?" she asked gratefully.
Auron nodded. "Braska and I got the speech when we passed through here. No matter how fast we travelled he always managed to arrive ahead of us. Jecht was always asking him how he did it, but he wouldn't say."
Rikku giggled slightly. From what she had been told and had seen about Jecht, he would have used anything to make the trip easier. And it was good to know someone else was as bored as she was. She watched as Maechen finished his impromptu lecture and began to hobble off, in the direction of Bevelle. She wondered what chance he would stand against the fiends there, then thought that he would probably be fine, if only so he could annoy them in the future.
The group turned to look at the Cal Lands in its entirety. Rikku stood there looking out over the vast and tranquil plain thinking: How hard can it be?
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Rikku ducked under the fiends blow and sliced its stomach open, dodging away to stop it's entrails spilling all over her.
Tranquil. Yeah right.
Rikku had lost count of the amount of fiends they had dispatched over the last hour. Whatever had been done to turn this place so flat and empty, it had drawn fiends by the thousands. Rikku only had to look around to see the things crawling, flying, and walking along the ground. Most were far enough away that they were ignored, but some. Rikku wiped the blood from her glove off on the grass and secured it back to her though, not keeping the holster too tightly bound, in case, not, make that when, she needed it again.
She looked back to up see the others moving off, all desperate to reach the sanctuary of the small trading post, at least for a while. She saw Auron standing there, between her and the others, waiting for her. She smiled and ran to catch up with him. They moved off when she caught up, walking to reach the others.
"What was it like watching Sin die?" Rikku suddenly asked.
Auron did not look around. "Didn't Maechen explain that?" he asked, no emotion in his voice, and Rikku feared she had hit a nerve.
"I'd prefer a more personal explanation," she said. After Auron was silent for a few seconds; "Don't make me steal your glasses again," she warned him.
He smiled. "It was amazing and horrible. I watched Braska used the Final Summoning, and Sin was utterly destroyed by the Final Aeon, but I also had to watch as the Final Aeon turned on him and consumed him." Auron did not say any more, and Rikku had to poke him.
"Do you want to tell me?" she asked softly.
"It was hard," Auron continued as way of an answer. "We didn't speak much after we had obtained the thing; we just went to the Calm Lands. By the time we got there it was swarming with people. A Ronso must have informed someone of our return and the word had spread that a new Calm would begin. Everyone cheered when Sin was banished, but no-one paid any attention when Braska fell, they were to relieved." The last sentence had almost been spat out, and Rikku knew what had been going through his mind when he had watched his best friend die. "They stood and they watched and they thanked their precious God that the monster was gone and they didn't even spare breath for the summoner that had saved him, they just assumed that there always would be one handy when Sin came back, and it never even occurred to them to find another way," he said, voice becoming more and more acidic as he talked. He stared ahead, remembering the looks of joy on the faces of the people as the light had flashed over them all and their worst fear had vanished. No-one except him had cared. They put their statues to him up and proclaimed him High Summoner, but he was dead, and everyone just accepted it as The Only Way. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked down at Rikku, who stared back.
"Some of us believe there is another way," she said softly.
Auron looked at Rikku, and was reminded of a girl Braska had known when they were both children. She had also been against the Pilgrimages, and had objected to Braska becoming a Summoner. When Braska had been adamant about going, she had left, giving as an explanation only 'I do not want to watch you die for life.' Braska had later met his future wife. Auron had once tried to locate the girl, and had discovered the Maesters had executed her for heresy several years later. He had quickly forgotten about the entire thing when Braska had announced his marriage to an Al Bhed. Rikku brought the episode flooding back, and Auron knew that the forgotten woman had been right.
"I know," he whispered. He linked hands with her. Well, he would have, if at that moment a fiend had not jumped them.
"Auron!" Rikku screamed, as the beast knocked the man down with a single blow to his unguarded side. Auron's good eye went wide as the wind was knocked out of him and he fell to the ground. The yell alerted the other. Tidus looked around in puzzlement, then instantly drew his sword when he saw the huge thing rear over Rikku. She took one step back, and was unlucky enough to trip against a bump in the field. She fell on her back and stared up at the thing. She instantly recognised it. It was a Chimera.
She looked up, at any instant expecting the final blow. She looked across at the others, but they were too far away to be of any help this time. Rikku slowly reached down to her holster and glove. Before her hand had moved too inches the Chimera's growl intensified. She slowly removed her hand, and it returned to normal, just staring at her. Finally she became sick of the things. Home, here, Macalania, everything just came to a head.
"What do you want from me!?" Rikku screamed at the creature. The creature drew back slightly, then resumed it's impassive stance. Rikku stared at it for a few seconds, then looked into its eyes. As she did so, she saw something that chilled her to her core.
The Chimera's eyes were blue and black swirls.
Her breath caught in her mouth, and she didn't move an inch, she just stared into those so-familiar eyes and was silent.
Tidus ran back to Rikku bit stopped when he saw the strange sight clearly. Why wasn't it tearing her to shreds? He and the others just stared at the two figures, one small and blonde, the other massive and inhuman. Yuna walked over to Auron slowly and got him to sit up, whispering softly. A small blue encased Auron's side, and soon he could stand up. Suddenly Wakka spoke up.
"What the hell!?"
They watched, speechless, as Rikku lifted her hand to the Chimera, as if to shake it's hand. This in itself was weird enough, but then they all were silent as the Chimera slowly extended it's own arm, and helped Rikku to her feet. She brushed herself off calmly, as if a huge monster was not standing in front of her, and looked at it. She said something the others could not hear, and the Chimera turned, slowly moved away from the group and out into the open fields of the Calm Lands.
Wakka and Lulu just stood there, staring alternately at Rikku and the Chimera as it lumbered off into the distance. Finally Yuna plucked up the courage and the vocal commands to speak up.
"Rikku? What happened?" she asked.
Rikku turned to look at Yuna, and the summoner noticed the far-away look in her eyes.
"I asked it to help me up," Rikku said, then walked towards Auron as if in a daze. The team watched as she reached the man and looked up at him. Without warning, she suddenly collapsed into him and started weeping uncontrollably. Tidus took a step towards the pair but Lulu held him back. The blitzer turned to complain, but Lulu shook her head slowly, and he stood back.
Yuna watched as the two just stood there, Rikku crying into Auron's jacket. Auron whispered something into her ear and she stood away from him, wiping her eyes and sniffling softly. Eventually, she turned back to the team.
"Can we keep going?" she asked.
Yuna nodded, and the group continued on to the trading post, occasionally taking quick glances at Rikku, who did not smile for the remainder of the trip.
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Auron and Rikku walked side by side, behind the others, Rikku held her head down, staring at the ground and saying nothing. Auron did not ask her what had happened between her and the Chimera. He had no idea. Fiends speaking was strange enough, even for a man who had travelled through time to Zanarkand and back, but one actually helping someone up was just impossible. Fiends were not friendly citizens. Rikku took in a breath, and she answered the question he would never have asked.
"It said it had not known I was one of them when it knocked me down, and would I let it help me up to say sorry," she said.
Auron just stared at her. Fiends thought? Throughout all of Spiran history fiends had been seen as the unfortunate dead, unthinking and jealous of their living cousins. Rikku, in ten minute, had blown that theory to hell and back.
"What else?" Auron asked, and then cursed himself for his bluntness.
Rikku did not seem to notice. "I asked it what it was," she said.
"What did it say?" Auron asked softly, seeing the distress Rikku was in.
"I aM lIKe YOu, I HAvE nO HoPE."
Auron shivered slightly. It wasn't the reply that made him do it, but something else. Rikku had replied…
But she had replied in the exact same voice as the Chimera.
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I love being able to write my own plots. ^_^
