I still don't own Final Fantasy. Bummer.


Final Fantasy X: Apocalypse

Chapter 4: Plan B

Tidus was bored.

He couldn't help it. He was an athlete, for crying out loud. He'd made a living out of intense physical activity. Even on Yuna's pilgrimage, he'd spent most of his time playing blitzball with Wakka or training with Auron (when he wasn't fighting fiends, that is). Sitting still just wasn't something he liked to do. Wasn't in his nature.

He looked around at his friends, who looked as grumpy as he felt. Lulu was holding her Onion Knight possessively, tracing precise patterns in the air with her finger—probably practicing some enormously destructive spell in anticipation of their next meeting with Sin. Wakka was staring glumly out the window, his foot resting on his World Champion. Even Rikku looked less cheery than usual; she was sprawled out in a reclining chair, her feet swinging over the arms, looking as though she might start crying at any moment. Kimahri and Auron were camped out in the corners of the room, not doing much of anything besides glaring at everybody else. They didn't particularly like enclosed spaces, and Rikku's cabin on the airship, when crammed full of extra people, definitely qualified as an enclosed space.

With a sigh, Tidus hopped out of his chair and paced the crowded room. "Anyone think of anything yet?"

"There's nothing we can do until Sin returns, brudda," Wakka observed pessimistically.

"Says who?" Tidus motioned out the window. "Guys, we oughtta be out there, telling people what really happened, and trying to get them to help out."

They all stared at him as if he'd just sprouted an extra head. In a decidedly Jecht-like manner, Tidus folded his arms defiantly across his chest, wondering what he'd done to get stuck with such a bunch of stiffs.

"Look, guys, we can't stay holed up in here while stuff gets freaky out there," he pointed out, exasperated. "We oughtta be out there winning people over, and we haven't even gone out there yet."

"We haven't," Rikku said, "but Father has. He says there's lots of rumors going around about us and Sin and everything."

Lulu looked up sharply. "What rumors?"

"Something about the 'evil' Al Bhed sabotaging the whole plan and everyone on this ship being traitors," Rikku replied matter-of-factly. "Nothing new."

Auron chuckled softly from his dark corner, instantly drawing all attention to himself. Jeez, Tidus wondered, how does he do that?

"Let me guess," he said in a tone that suggested amusement. "It's all coming out of Bevelle."

Rikku shrugged. "That's what Father says."

"Bevelle?" Tidus scoffed. "Aw, come on. Everybody in Bevelle is, well, gone."

"Only maesters gone," Kimahri rumbled. "Temple priests still there."

A very pregnant pause followed, as everyone contemplated the sort of person who might fill the newly created power vacuum. After several completely silent moments, Auron stepped into the middle of the room, peering at the motley crew over his glasses.

"The boy has a point," he said, nodding in Tidus' direction.

"I do?"

"Yevon was in chaos before our assault on Sin," Auron continued, ignoring Tidus' surprised query. "That chaos was a direct result of our actions. I suggest we start trying to 'win people over' before they decide to take matters into their own hands."

"Wait a minute," Wakka exclaimed. "You want us to go walkin' into Bevelle—"

"Which we're pretty much banned from," Rikku reminded them helpfully.

"—and say, 'Sorry 'bout dat, you wanna be friends?'" Wakka shook his head. "I don't wanna get lynched, ya?"

"Who's gonna lynch us?" Rikku shot back. "The people who tried to kill us are all dead, and we already know we can kick those wimpy warrior monks' butts—sorry, Auron," she added hastily. "Besides, if we're in disguise, nobody'll ever know it's us. Why are you all staring at me?"

"Because," Lulu replied evenly, "we all know how foolish it would be to sneak into Bevelle…together."

Auron inclined his head in her direction, indictating agreement. Tidus let out a small, discreet snort. That was just what they needed, two people who thought like Auron.

"Agreed," the swordsman said. "We split into groups and spread out across Spira."

"That's a lame idea!" Tidus blurted out. "Haven't you heard the phrase, 'There's strength in numbers'?"

"Think, Tidus," Lulu said impatiently. "If we're all together, we'll be much easier to find. If we split up, we'll accomplish more in less time, and we'll be far less noticeable."

Oh. Well, that made sense, he supposed.

"So we're gonna run around Spira and try to drum up support for…?" Rikku stared fixedly at Tidus and Auron, her voice trailing off deliberately.

"Another assault on Sin," Auron responded calmly, as if such a thing happened every day. "Rikku—"

"Go to the Al Bhed, right?"

Surprisingly, Auron shook his head. "You'll be with Tidus and me."

"Whaaaa…?"

"Lulu, Wakka," Auron continued, seemingly unaware of Rikku's discomfort, "return to Besaid. The priests there know you. Perhaps they'll listen. Kimahri, would the remaining Ronso be willing to fight?"

Kimahri nodded once. "Ronso fight to the death."

"So Lulu and Wakka are going to Besaid, and Kimahri's going to Mt. Gagazet," Tidus summarized, counting the people on his fingers. "What about you and Rikku and me?"

Auron gazed coolly at him. "We return to Bevelle."

Tidus moaned softly. The belly of the beast. Literally. And they were taking poor Rikku with them.

"How we gonna stay in touch wit' each other?" Wakka asked suddenly. "I mean, we can't send messengers if we're always movin', can we?"

Everyone's heads swiveled toward Rikku, the resident machina expert. She shrugged.

"I'm sure we've got stuff for long-range communication," she said, still glaring evilly at Auron. "I'll ask Father."

"Hey! I'll go with you!" Tidus declared, feeling a sudden need to get out of this room.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Lulu wondered. "Your last meeting with Cid didn't go well."

"Oh…I'm sure he's gotten over that." Tidus grinned at Rikku. "Right?"

"Umm…yeah, of course." She grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door. "Come on! Let's find out."

* * * *

"You're going WHERE?"

"Bevelle. You know."

"Yeah, I know," Cid growled, eyeing Tidus suspiciously. "Taking my niece into Bevelle…Was that your idea, boy?"

"No, it was Auron's," Tidus shot back, peeved. Why did everyone insist on calling him boy?

Cid muttered something under his breath. Something about ripping Auron a new one, Tidus didn't want to imagine what. Then he sighed.

"Well, you'd better get some kind of disguise together," he said. "Don't want you to get hurt."

"I know, Father. I told them the same thing. Oh," Rikku added, as if she'd just remembered, "do we have any little gadgets for communicating over really long distances? Like…oh, I don't know…all of Spira?"

Cid's eyebrows shot up, then immediately furrowed together. "Why? Y'all plannin' to separate?"

"Well, yeah." She told him the plan, and Cid's brows bunched up even more.

"Okay," he said slowly. "We oughtta be able to throw somethin' together. Gotta be somethin' on this ship, we still don't know what half this stuff is…just one problem, though."

"What's that?"

"The engine's busted. We ain't movin' until it's fixed." He looked at Tidus, a calculating gleam in his eyes. "Hey, you're from Sin's Zanarkand, bustin' at the seams with machina, right?"

"Uh," Tidus said rather dumbly. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I know how to fix it, right?"

Cid thumped on a nearby computer panel. "Can you use one of these?"

"A computer?" Tidus eyed it doubtfully. "I guess. I mean, I'm okay with them, but—wait, you're not gonna make me fix this thing, are you?"

"Hell no, boy! I already know you're no mechanic." He gave Tidus a solid thump on the shoulder. "See that just by lookin' at you. No, you just try to find some sort of useful information in there, some kind of building plans or somethin', and we'll do the rest." The Al Bhed leader leaned close to Tidus' ear, adding in a conspiratorial whisper, "And then we'll have us a little chat."

Tidus gulped. "What kind of—"

But Cid was already out the door, running off to shout orders to some other poor unsuspecting sod. Tidus looked at the panel with an enormous sense of hopelessness, wondering how he was supposed to find anything in this thing when he couldn't even understand the characters on the screen. Crap, he thought, this is gonna take a while.

"Hey, Rikku…?"

She grinned. "Don't worry. I'll just tell the others to go on ahead." And, with a cheery wink, she disappeared.

Tidus watched her leave, then looked at the computer panel again. It was a computer, he told himself, an innocent computer. Surely he could figure out how to operate it. Well, he had to do that, or Cid would probably rip him a new one, too. Perhaps he should have told the man that all he'd ever done with computers was play games on them.

Or not.

He pulled up a chair and took another look at the characters on the monitor. Right. He still had no idea how to read them, and yet they looked so…familiar. It was almost as if he'd encountered this language before.

Shrugging the thoughts aside, he pressed a few random keys. To his amazement, a map of the airship popped up on the screen, with many areas labeled in that foreign-yet-familiar script. If nothing else, he could pick up a few key words. Or, better yet, perhaps he'd stumble upon some sort of translation program, like the ones he'd always used on his foreign language homework. A long shot, sure, but who knew where this thing had been before the Al Bhed found it? Maybe it did speak their language, it just didn't know it yet.

For the first time in days, Tidus felt almost optimistic. He liked a good challenge. A nice, rough game of blitzball would have been better, but at least now he had something to keep his thoughts off Sin, off his father…and off her. With his best game face on, Tidus settled himself in and got to work.


Ah, 1700 words. I'm getting better!

To answer the question I'm sure somebody will ask, yes, there will be lots of Dona and Isaaru before too much longer, and eventual pairing of people. Hehehehe. Don't worry, though. I'm not a lemon writer. ^_^

Thanks to reviewers:

Rin,

Noacat,

The Angel of the Lion (twice!),

FishOutOfWater,

ThingBling,

FF Fanatic,

Star,

RocketGurl,

Evrae Altana, and

Any missed newbies. Hi. :-)