Disclaimer: Don't own any of the healing items/ summons/ jobs, those are Squaresofts. This is non-profit fun.

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I am a little bit of loneliness a little bit of disregard
Handful of complaints but I can't help the fact that everybody can see
these scars
I am what I want you to want what I want you to feel
But it's like no matter what I do, I can't convince you, to just believe
this is real
So I let go, watching you, turn your back like you always do
Face away and pretend that I'm not
But I'll be here 'cause you're all that I got


(I can't feel the way I did before)
(Don't turn your back on me)
(I won't be ignored)
(Time won't heal this damage anymore)
(Don't turn your back on me)
(I won't be ignored)

I am a little bit insecure a little unconfident
Cause you don't understand I do what I can but sometimes I don't make
sense
I am what you never wanna say but I've never had a doubt
It's like no matter what I do I can't convince you for once just to hear
me out
So I let go watching you turn your back like you always do
Face away and pretend that I'm not
But I'll be here 'cause you're all that I've got


(I can't feel the way I did before)
(Don't turn your back on me)
(I won't be ignored)
(Time won't heal this damage anymore)
(Don't turn your back on me)
(I won't be ignored)

(No)
(Hear me out now)
(You're gonna listen to me, like it or not)
(Right now)
(Hear me out now)
(You're gonna listen to me, like it or not)
(Right now)

~Faint, by Linkin Park

$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$%

"They never really left you, not completely anyway." Smoke leaked out with the serious words as the little old man sat on his ball across the fire from Ashen. Ashen hung on every word the older summoner said, scrutinizing all the information being given. "They've been watching you from afar, they like what they've seen. It greatly angered them when they learned of the death of the girl you loved, the deaths of all those unfortunate people."

"You can speak with them?" Ashen hunched closer.

He said exasperated, "Yes, but your missing the point." Ramuh looked up from the fire, "They want you back. Your loss and the loss of the summoner race are the same. They burn with rage and thirst for revenge as you do. You are the only one who can help them quench this thirst."

"Why not you?" the young man asked rather snippy. The warm orange light of the fire danced in his red eyes.

"Because they want you," the older man stated the matter o'factly.

"Heh," the younger summoner huffed, shaking his head while his scruffy white bangs bounced in his face, "So they want me to help them get revenge?"

"Isn't that what I just told you?" Ramuh's voice carried frustration with it as he pulled the agizlik from his lips.

The young man smiled bitterly. "Tell them- they can suffer like I did when they abandoned me. They can wallow in their desire for all I care, I'm not going to be their little vessel."

The old summoner grit his teeth, "Oni Baka-" he quickly restrained himself and nearly calm continued, "They didn't abandon you, I just told you that!"

"Then what do you call it, old man? Powerless for five years, almost killed because of it, sure looks like abandonment to me." Ashen snapped resentfully.

"I call it a necessity!" the wizen little man's voice escalated. "Do you even know what you were doing? You were using the Great Helpers for evil! They are greatly revered by all summoners and are only used for personal protection! AND YOU used them to massacre an entire race of people! They couldn't allow you to continue on in that horrific fashion."

"Sure didn't bother them for the other six years I spent doing the same thing"

"They wereunaware of what was happening," Ramuh uttered cautiously. He continued in a more morose manner, " They didn't become aware until it was too late"

"What's that supposed to mean?" The young man's face scrunched in confusion.

Ramuh sighed, frustrated with Ashen's lack of understanding about his own culture, "It means" He sighed again, "The Great Helpers are intimately attached to their vessels. Sometimes so much so that the awareness of their own existence is compromised. Their functions become decided on by their vessel." The old man brought the agizlik back to his mouth and took a drag. Exhaling the smoke, he began again, "In your case the lines of wrong and right were blurred. It continued as such until another addressed them and thus brought them into awareness of their true existence."

The younger summoner's troubled eyes fell absently to the floor. Staring blanking at the dirt trying to remember what happened that day five years ago when he lost his summoning abilities. An image of a child appeared in his mind. Why do you do this?' she said in her child like voice, it was never meant for him, but for them. He suddenly felt jaded, not knowing whether to be bitter at the little girls innocent action or to feel pity for himself and his own blindness.

"There is nothing more you can do for our dead race that will redeem youbut as a summoner to avenge the fallen will mean they did not die in vain."

Ashen's eyes passed up to the old man as he spoke into the fire.

"You say you are not Oni this is your time to prove it. Which path will you decide?"

Under his darkened goggles, Ramuh's beady red eyes rolled to Ashen's from across the fire. They seemed to meet eye to eye for a moment and then the younger's eyes passed back to the floor, a grim look on his face.

"No," the young man hissed. "I'll do this on my own."

"Tehf." The old man's head shook, inhaling the smoke from his nargile, "You are a selfish child."

Ramuh rapped on the metal ball and it lifted up with small tinks and beeps. "You're tired, we'll try again in the morning."

"Are you deaf, old man?" Ashen snapped his head to the wizen tiny figure who's back was slowly floating away, he continued sharply, "There's nothing else to discuss, I made my decision and I'm not going to change it."

The old man inched his wrinkled face over his shoulder, his ball halting momentarily in mid-air. The corners of his hair-covered mouth seemed to lift in an acerbic smile, "That was not your decision, trust me. When the child in you grows up he will be able to make adult decisions."

"I'm not a kid!" the young man barked back, but it went ignored by the older summoner. His round wrinkly face turned forward again as his metal ball glinted on its way out.

"It's late, or early depending on how you look at itwe'll talk in the morning, Oni."

Ashen growled to low to be heard by anyone else. His eyes danced about the fire, his mind going a mile a minute with many thoughts. Finally he muttered under his breath, "I don't care what that old man thinks. I'm not going to do it."

Moments of silence past and in anger the young man got to his feet. His rushed steps heading to get his coat and leave this place, uncaring whether he knew where to go or not just the need to get to Ghri. However, his steps where halted just beyond where the dimming firelight that crawled over the walls.

A fierce gale tore through the innards of the little cave dwelling, so strong Ashen had to put his arms up to defend his face from the chilling gusts. Metal parts and pots clanked against the far wall as they flew past Ashen, though drowned out by the roaring wind. Loose papers fluttered violently from the wooden table and shelves. The windstorm seemed to blow out every fire lit in the cave, including the fire that was blazing warmly moments earlier. Now everything was dark and cold.

Ashen's arms gradually slid away from his face, gazing wide eyed in the pitch-black dwelling. Fruitlessly, they traveled the room as if to find something, but saw nothing. He knew somewhere and some how, he was being watched. They were making their presence known, they wanted him here, and just like the old daysthey would get their way.

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AN: Whelp, another Friday another chapter. People liking the story so far? Song up top I've been listening to a lot, it's my fave on the Meteora CD. It may sound like an Ashen song, but really I was thinking about Ramuh when I chose to use it. It just really sounded like Ramuh's relationship with Ashen, very "I can't stand you, but you're all I have to work with." So give the old guy some booming rap metal! Thank you all for reading, see you next week!