Chapter six
Misled Friendship
Deeper they roamed into the darkened cave. Pyreflies and purple smoke crept from the eerie walls. Rikku began to get shivers, but Cloud was perfectly fine. He had seen worse. She clung onto his arm like a frightened rabbit, as they made their way through. The shadows soon began to thicken. And she only squeezed harder.
"Will you let go!" Cloud snapped. "You're the one who dragged me in here!"
Rikku slowly let go, "meaney!" she said under her breath.
They eventually came across a dead end. The only thing there was a strange device on the ground.
"So…do we go back?" said Cloud.
"NO! It's a teleporter. It can lead us anywhere." said Rikku starting to gain confidence and stepping up to the device.
"Does it even work?" said Cloud eyeing it.
"hmm…looks like it might need power." Rikku said tinkering with it.
"Are you an idiot? If it needs power then that means your friends couldn't have used it."
"But it could have ran out of power after they used it!" said Rikku sticking her tongue out at him.
Then she continued to tinker with it. Cloud ignored her gesture, and started to look around. Every corner looked the same, except one. It was blocked by a few stones, but it still seemed wide enough to fit a few people through. So, he unsheathed his Sword, then sliced away at the stones like butter.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Said Rikku from the transporter.
But Cloud didn't answer, he just continued to work until it revealed a passage.
"You can stay here and tinker with your toy all you want, but I'm going in!" he said sheathing his sword. Then he headed in. Rikku stared for a moment, then looked down at the transporter, then back up at the passage. Then she got up and ran after him.
"You better be right!" she said.
The path was a lot narrower than before. And it only became darker. "Are you sure you know where you're going?" said Rikku behind Cloud.
"…"
"HEY! Could you answer me?! You're creeping me…"
Cloud stopped.
"What? What is it?" she said.
"This was a mistake…" He looked back past Rikku, "RUN!" Then he sprinted forward deeper into the path clutching Rikku's arm.
"WHY ARE WE RUNNING?!" yelled Rikku, nearly stumbling.
"…" Behind Rikku, the roof of the cavern was collapsing, and falling faster, and closer.
Rikku managed to see behind her, and her eyes bulged at the sight of the cave-in. "AHHH!" She ran nearly next to Cloud, but it was still too narrow to pass him. They continued to sprint forward as fast as their legs would carry them, until finally, they could see some light. But it was a cliff! And they had run straight off of it. Everything went dark.
Visions of the girl from the church rang through Clouds mind. He kept seeing her, she sat on her knees, praying. It was exactly what he had seen at the farplane. But now, a little more was shone. The vision would skip to a falling pearl, and visions of water would cloud the rest. But what did it mean?
He awoke in a strange place. It was nothing but ruins. Rikku was nowhere in sight. The starry sky lit up the destroyed buildings, and gave it a more calm feeling to the place. But he still didn't know where he was. He looked around, and no one was there. It was quiet, again. He pulled out a spare potion, and drank it, he could feel his strength returning. He got up, and pulled his sword from the water nearby.
"How did I survive that fall?" he asked himself, then continued his exploration of this new, unknown world.
