Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Okay, this is the end of the GEO storyline. The notes'll be up pretty soon. Thanks again to everyone, and have brilliant and happy and wonderful holidays.
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes in Overdrive
by flame mage
epilogue
**********
"Come on, blitzheads, get a move on!" Wedge's voice boomed over the intercom. "We've gotta get this sphere drained before the High Summoner's address!"
I cracked my knuckles, but the guy had a point. "All right, guys, you heard the man. Pack it in," I told the Aurochs, sticking one hand out to catch the ball Botta had slammed back toward left sphere.
"Man, looks like everyone else in Spira's already packin' it in. We're goin' to get nosebleed seats," Datto commented ruefully, looking around at the crowds already starting to fill the stadium.
"Yeah, if we're lucky," Jassu told him. "Let's go."
I swam over to where the oxygen tanks we used for practice were floating, grabbed them and the spare blitzballs, and hauled ass through the tunnel. The guys were right behind me. As soon as we hit the sphere pool, the shower charge started. After I shoved the seniority thing where it belonged (i.e. six feet under), we'd eventually worked out this system-whoever grabbed one could keep it. I nearly slipped on the locker room floor, but I snagged a shower and was out by the time Keepa finally showed up--still chewing.
"I'm heading out, guys," I called over my shoulder, cramming my stuff in my locker and kicking it until it finally slammed. "Want me to save you seats?"
"If you can get 'em," Letty called back.
I walked out the door, turned the corner, and slammed into Bickson two inches later. We both cursed at the same time in two different languages. "This is a stadium lobby, not a hotel lounge! Why the hell are you lurking around outside my locker room door like a damn sex offender?!" I demanded.
He rubbed his shin, looking annoyed. "You want a place to sit or not? Miyu's holding 'em in the second box."
My ears perked up and I decided to shelf the aesthetics of locker-room lurking for a while. "Second box seats? Damn, you move fast."
"You'd better move faster if you want to keep 'em." He grabbed my hand and tore off through the crowds, practically dragging me with him. "Let's go already!"
*****
"Man, ya poke," Naaga complained, pinching me as I slid into the seat next to Miyu, breathing just a little harder than usual. "It took ya long enough."
"Can it, punk. Some of us were actually working instead of just hanging around outside the Beasts' locker room hoping Isken'd walk out in a towel," I cracked. "What time is it, anyway?"
"Just before noon. High Summoner Yuna should be speaking soon," Miyu replied. I actually looked over at her for the first time and did a double-take. She'd ditched the mask and was wearing a green sundress that fluttered in the slight breeze. I kinda wished that breeze would pick up. The weather reports'd been saying it was going to be a hot spring this year.
"That new?" I asked. She knew it looked good without me having to tell her. Compliments were never part of my upbringing.
She nodded. "Mmm-hmm. It's been a while since I've been out in anything other than my uniform. I thought it'd make a nice change of pace."
"Certainly," Rin broke in. He was leaning over the bleacher row behind me. "Good afternoon, Secc Linna, Secc Naaga. Where are those blitzing comrades of yours?"
"We're comin', ya?" Jassu called. The Aurochs--minus Wakka, who was standing on the balcony behind Yuna trying to look important, and Tidus--were coming toward us at a high rate of speed, thankfully not huffing at all. Their training was paying off.
"Typical Auroch, slinking in late," sneered Bickson, in character as usual. "Look. Lady Yuna's getting ready to start."
We were level with the balcony, almost directly across the stadium. I'd fixed my goggles, but Rin had remembered a pair of binoculars, and the others were taking turns passing them around so they could see the summoner. She was standing alone on the front of the balcony with her guardians behind her, just waiting with her hands folded for silence.
When it was quiet, she began. "Everyone...everyone has lost something precious." Miyu and Rin both reacted at the same time, closing their eyes almost in sync. She noticed and lightly touched his arm, and he looked at her and nodded with the eyes of someone who's been through it too. Hmm.
"Everyone here has lost homes, dreams, and friends," Yuna continued. "Everybody..." She looked just a little off-balance, and I had a feeling I knew what she was thinking about. Aside from Redcoat, one face was painfully missing from the line of guardians. But then she straightened up and the same expression came across her face that I'd seen when we'd bowed to each other on the airship. "Now Sin is finally dead."
The crowd burst into wild applause at that one. Reppi blasted a deafening whistle almost straight into my eardrum. The other Aurochs stood up and stomped their feet.
"Now," Yuna continued, and everyone shut up right away, "Spira is ours again. Working together...now we can make new homes for ourselves--and new dreams."
I leaned back and poked Rin. "A new Home, right?"
He smiled enigmatically. "We shall see, Secc Linna."
"Although I know the journey will be hard, we have lots of time," Yuna was saying. "Together, we will rebuild Spira. The road is ahead of us, so let's start out today."
More applause. This time I stomped with the rest of the Aurochs. I was really getting into the whole motivational-lecture mentality here.
"Just...one more thing." The high summoner's voice was shaking a little now. She leaned on the balcony railing for just a sec to steady herself, then stretched out to her full height and cried the next part out so the entire stadium could hear it. "The people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded..."
She paused. Flash! Sitting on Mom's lap as a little kid, the Psyches uniform, being told I had to be the best. Flash! Dad, just a hazy almost-faceless memory. Flash! Home, my plants, the fire. Flash! Winning the tournament, wrapping my arms around Tidus and screaming. Flash! Yuna crying on the airship.
"...never forget them."
"We won't, Lady Yuna," Miyu whispered to herself, her fists clenching. "Trust me. We won't."
*****
"So what'd you guys think?" Naaga asked as we wound our way out of the stadium and down the main drag of the city to the cafe about ten minutes later.
"I like that child," Reppi answered definitely. Even after all this time since she'd been in Luca, she still knew the way to the sports bar by heart. "She's got a good head on'er shoulders, huh?"
"I wonder if she'll just go back to Besaid now that it's all over," Miyu mused. She was fingering the hem of her sundress like she wasn't quite used to it yet but wanted to be. It was strange how much she looked at home in it. "I imagine it'd be hard to go back after seeing the whole world."
Rin had the same thought I did and smiled. "Are you talking about yourself or Yuna, Secc Miyu?"
She turned to him. "Why not both of us? Some day, not too far away, I'll try to talk to my parents, and maybe they'll understand. Either way, I could never go back to the Moonflow. It's time to put the past behind me, isn't it? My future is here, with all of you."
"What are you gonna do, Rin?" Naaga piped up.
He smiled again and looked up at the colored banners hanging above the streets, thinking. "Now that you have the freedom to see the world, Secc Naaga, would you return to a cloister in the sands of Bikanel?"
She shook her head. "No way! When there are so many cute guys out here?" I had to wonder whether or not she was kidding.
"Nor could I," Rin replied. "When I left Home ten years ago after your mother died, I thought I was running away from the world. Now, however, I believe that the only time at which I ran from everything was the time I spent there, sheltered from everything beyond those ten towers. I think it was good for you and your sister to grow up with such a strong Al Bhed identity, and after losing your parents...you needed to have a support system. But now you're old enough to know what the wider world is really like. You should enjoy it. I fully intend to."
"But where are you going?" asked Miyu.
He spread his hands. "Anywhere. Everywhere. I'd like to try my hand at some new things. I have a few new ideas for games, and now I will have the time to try them out." We were on the bridge now. For some reason, the water had never seemed so blue before.
"What about you, Reppi?" Bickson asked. "You getting back in the game?"
"You bet!" she answered, pumping her fist. "As soon as all this commotion dies down, I'm headin' straight'ta Bevelle to start my own team again."
"Bevelle? No bad associations there?" Miyu wanted to know.
"You kiddin'? I spent two years there, and I never even got'ta see the place! I'm lookin' forward ta' it. That many people, there's gotta be some blitz talent there. We're gonna be slammin' all you guys in the majors in no time."
Naaga tugged on the edge of Bickson's gauntlet. "Biiiiickson, you're staying in Luca, right?"
He nodded. "Yep--for the rest of the season, anyway. When it ends, I'm gonna travel. You guys aren't the only ones who spent their whole lives in one place. I've traveled some, but I've never lived anywhere but Luca. Maybe I'll go hiking on Mt. Gagazet, see with my own eyes if Zanarkand is really bigger than this place."
There was silence for a sec, and then I realized everyone was staring at me. "Whaaa?" I demanded.
"You've been pretty quiet, 'Secc Linna,'" Miyu teased me. "Come on, share it with the class. Got any big plans for the Calm?"
"I'm gonna sleep in until noon tomorrow," I deadpanned.
Naaga punched me in the arm. "Be serious!"
"You think I ain't?" I laughed. She scowled. "All right, fine. Let me think."
The crowds were even higher than usual in blitz season, and we were fighting our way through the throng of sunkissed bodies and banners. I remembered seeing pretty much the same scene the first time I'd come to Luca and getting freaked out, but now I leaned back and enjoyed it. I was realizing for the first time how gorgeous the city is in the daytime--the sun glints off the water, streamers and balloons and ads pouring out of the buildings and over the railings.
"I want to see the world too," I blurted out without even having to think about it. It'd never even occurred to me before I'd said it that this was what I wanted to do. "I want to go camping at Mushroom Rock. I want to go swimming in the spring in Macalania Woods. I want to ride Chocobos in the Calm Lands. I want to do all the things I've never gotten to do before." I grinned and pumped a fist like Tidus. "And I want to become the best blitzer this wreck has ever seen!"
"One-track mind, huh?" Reppi chuckled to herself.
"Oh, let Secc Linna have her dreams," Rin told the goalie, raising a hand to cut her off. "After all, that's all they are. She'd have to beat me for them to come true, and...with apologies, I don't see that happening."
"Who are you kidding, ya geezer?!" I snapped. "I could take you right now."
He grinned. "Could you now? Well, then. As I believe your generation says, Secc Linna, 'you want a piece of me? Come get it.'"
We were passing the sphere theater, where the whole adventure had started three weeks ago. Just ahead of us, I could see the square. Mitza was still hawking his blitz stuff, and I had to laugh at the beach towels with my picture on them. I wondered if the bar would have my virgin strawberry daquiri ready with an Aurochs umbrella when we got there.
I laughed. "Bring it on, babe. Bring it on."
Okay, this is the end of the GEO storyline. The notes'll be up pretty soon. Thanks again to everyone, and have brilliant and happy and wonderful holidays.
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes in Overdrive
by flame mage
epilogue
**********
"Come on, blitzheads, get a move on!" Wedge's voice boomed over the intercom. "We've gotta get this sphere drained before the High Summoner's address!"
I cracked my knuckles, but the guy had a point. "All right, guys, you heard the man. Pack it in," I told the Aurochs, sticking one hand out to catch the ball Botta had slammed back toward left sphere.
"Man, looks like everyone else in Spira's already packin' it in. We're goin' to get nosebleed seats," Datto commented ruefully, looking around at the crowds already starting to fill the stadium.
"Yeah, if we're lucky," Jassu told him. "Let's go."
I swam over to where the oxygen tanks we used for practice were floating, grabbed them and the spare blitzballs, and hauled ass through the tunnel. The guys were right behind me. As soon as we hit the sphere pool, the shower charge started. After I shoved the seniority thing where it belonged (i.e. six feet under), we'd eventually worked out this system-whoever grabbed one could keep it. I nearly slipped on the locker room floor, but I snagged a shower and was out by the time Keepa finally showed up--still chewing.
"I'm heading out, guys," I called over my shoulder, cramming my stuff in my locker and kicking it until it finally slammed. "Want me to save you seats?"
"If you can get 'em," Letty called back.
I walked out the door, turned the corner, and slammed into Bickson two inches later. We both cursed at the same time in two different languages. "This is a stadium lobby, not a hotel lounge! Why the hell are you lurking around outside my locker room door like a damn sex offender?!" I demanded.
He rubbed his shin, looking annoyed. "You want a place to sit or not? Miyu's holding 'em in the second box."
My ears perked up and I decided to shelf the aesthetics of locker-room lurking for a while. "Second box seats? Damn, you move fast."
"You'd better move faster if you want to keep 'em." He grabbed my hand and tore off through the crowds, practically dragging me with him. "Let's go already!"
*****
"Man, ya poke," Naaga complained, pinching me as I slid into the seat next to Miyu, breathing just a little harder than usual. "It took ya long enough."
"Can it, punk. Some of us were actually working instead of just hanging around outside the Beasts' locker room hoping Isken'd walk out in a towel," I cracked. "What time is it, anyway?"
"Just before noon. High Summoner Yuna should be speaking soon," Miyu replied. I actually looked over at her for the first time and did a double-take. She'd ditched the mask and was wearing a green sundress that fluttered in the slight breeze. I kinda wished that breeze would pick up. The weather reports'd been saying it was going to be a hot spring this year.
"That new?" I asked. She knew it looked good without me having to tell her. Compliments were never part of my upbringing.
She nodded. "Mmm-hmm. It's been a while since I've been out in anything other than my uniform. I thought it'd make a nice change of pace."
"Certainly," Rin broke in. He was leaning over the bleacher row behind me. "Good afternoon, Secc Linna, Secc Naaga. Where are those blitzing comrades of yours?"
"We're comin', ya?" Jassu called. The Aurochs--minus Wakka, who was standing on the balcony behind Yuna trying to look important, and Tidus--were coming toward us at a high rate of speed, thankfully not huffing at all. Their training was paying off.
"Typical Auroch, slinking in late," sneered Bickson, in character as usual. "Look. Lady Yuna's getting ready to start."
We were level with the balcony, almost directly across the stadium. I'd fixed my goggles, but Rin had remembered a pair of binoculars, and the others were taking turns passing them around so they could see the summoner. She was standing alone on the front of the balcony with her guardians behind her, just waiting with her hands folded for silence.
When it was quiet, she began. "Everyone...everyone has lost something precious." Miyu and Rin both reacted at the same time, closing their eyes almost in sync. She noticed and lightly touched his arm, and he looked at her and nodded with the eyes of someone who's been through it too. Hmm.
"Everyone here has lost homes, dreams, and friends," Yuna continued. "Everybody..." She looked just a little off-balance, and I had a feeling I knew what she was thinking about. Aside from Redcoat, one face was painfully missing from the line of guardians. But then she straightened up and the same expression came across her face that I'd seen when we'd bowed to each other on the airship. "Now Sin is finally dead."
The crowd burst into wild applause at that one. Reppi blasted a deafening whistle almost straight into my eardrum. The other Aurochs stood up and stomped their feet.
"Now," Yuna continued, and everyone shut up right away, "Spira is ours again. Working together...now we can make new homes for ourselves--and new dreams."
I leaned back and poked Rin. "A new Home, right?"
He smiled enigmatically. "We shall see, Secc Linna."
"Although I know the journey will be hard, we have lots of time," Yuna was saying. "Together, we will rebuild Spira. The road is ahead of us, so let's start out today."
More applause. This time I stomped with the rest of the Aurochs. I was really getting into the whole motivational-lecture mentality here.
"Just...one more thing." The high summoner's voice was shaking a little now. She leaned on the balcony railing for just a sec to steady herself, then stretched out to her full height and cried the next part out so the entire stadium could hear it. "The people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded..."
She paused. Flash! Sitting on Mom's lap as a little kid, the Psyches uniform, being told I had to be the best. Flash! Dad, just a hazy almost-faceless memory. Flash! Home, my plants, the fire. Flash! Winning the tournament, wrapping my arms around Tidus and screaming. Flash! Yuna crying on the airship.
"...never forget them."
"We won't, Lady Yuna," Miyu whispered to herself, her fists clenching. "Trust me. We won't."
*****
"So what'd you guys think?" Naaga asked as we wound our way out of the stadium and down the main drag of the city to the cafe about ten minutes later.
"I like that child," Reppi answered definitely. Even after all this time since she'd been in Luca, she still knew the way to the sports bar by heart. "She's got a good head on'er shoulders, huh?"
"I wonder if she'll just go back to Besaid now that it's all over," Miyu mused. She was fingering the hem of her sundress like she wasn't quite used to it yet but wanted to be. It was strange how much she looked at home in it. "I imagine it'd be hard to go back after seeing the whole world."
Rin had the same thought I did and smiled. "Are you talking about yourself or Yuna, Secc Miyu?"
She turned to him. "Why not both of us? Some day, not too far away, I'll try to talk to my parents, and maybe they'll understand. Either way, I could never go back to the Moonflow. It's time to put the past behind me, isn't it? My future is here, with all of you."
"What are you gonna do, Rin?" Naaga piped up.
He smiled again and looked up at the colored banners hanging above the streets, thinking. "Now that you have the freedom to see the world, Secc Naaga, would you return to a cloister in the sands of Bikanel?"
She shook her head. "No way! When there are so many cute guys out here?" I had to wonder whether or not she was kidding.
"Nor could I," Rin replied. "When I left Home ten years ago after your mother died, I thought I was running away from the world. Now, however, I believe that the only time at which I ran from everything was the time I spent there, sheltered from everything beyond those ten towers. I think it was good for you and your sister to grow up with such a strong Al Bhed identity, and after losing your parents...you needed to have a support system. But now you're old enough to know what the wider world is really like. You should enjoy it. I fully intend to."
"But where are you going?" asked Miyu.
He spread his hands. "Anywhere. Everywhere. I'd like to try my hand at some new things. I have a few new ideas for games, and now I will have the time to try them out." We were on the bridge now. For some reason, the water had never seemed so blue before.
"What about you, Reppi?" Bickson asked. "You getting back in the game?"
"You bet!" she answered, pumping her fist. "As soon as all this commotion dies down, I'm headin' straight'ta Bevelle to start my own team again."
"Bevelle? No bad associations there?" Miyu wanted to know.
"You kiddin'? I spent two years there, and I never even got'ta see the place! I'm lookin' forward ta' it. That many people, there's gotta be some blitz talent there. We're gonna be slammin' all you guys in the majors in no time."
Naaga tugged on the edge of Bickson's gauntlet. "Biiiiickson, you're staying in Luca, right?"
He nodded. "Yep--for the rest of the season, anyway. When it ends, I'm gonna travel. You guys aren't the only ones who spent their whole lives in one place. I've traveled some, but I've never lived anywhere but Luca. Maybe I'll go hiking on Mt. Gagazet, see with my own eyes if Zanarkand is really bigger than this place."
There was silence for a sec, and then I realized everyone was staring at me. "Whaaa?" I demanded.
"You've been pretty quiet, 'Secc Linna,'" Miyu teased me. "Come on, share it with the class. Got any big plans for the Calm?"
"I'm gonna sleep in until noon tomorrow," I deadpanned.
Naaga punched me in the arm. "Be serious!"
"You think I ain't?" I laughed. She scowled. "All right, fine. Let me think."
The crowds were even higher than usual in blitz season, and we were fighting our way through the throng of sunkissed bodies and banners. I remembered seeing pretty much the same scene the first time I'd come to Luca and getting freaked out, but now I leaned back and enjoyed it. I was realizing for the first time how gorgeous the city is in the daytime--the sun glints off the water, streamers and balloons and ads pouring out of the buildings and over the railings.
"I want to see the world too," I blurted out without even having to think about it. It'd never even occurred to me before I'd said it that this was what I wanted to do. "I want to go camping at Mushroom Rock. I want to go swimming in the spring in Macalania Woods. I want to ride Chocobos in the Calm Lands. I want to do all the things I've never gotten to do before." I grinned and pumped a fist like Tidus. "And I want to become the best blitzer this wreck has ever seen!"
"One-track mind, huh?" Reppi chuckled to herself.
"Oh, let Secc Linna have her dreams," Rin told the goalie, raising a hand to cut her off. "After all, that's all they are. She'd have to beat me for them to come true, and...with apologies, I don't see that happening."
"Who are you kidding, ya geezer?!" I snapped. "I could take you right now."
He grinned. "Could you now? Well, then. As I believe your generation says, Secc Linna, 'you want a piece of me? Come get it.'"
We were passing the sphere theater, where the whole adventure had started three weeks ago. Just ahead of us, I could see the square. Mitza was still hawking his blitz stuff, and I had to laugh at the beach towels with my picture on them. I wondered if the bar would have my virgin strawberry daquiri ready with an Aurochs umbrella when we got there.
I laughed. "Bring it on, babe. Bring it on."