Believe

Chapter Eight- Huh?

Where we left off- Ow, my head… this is Tidus. We just got back from my great-great- um… Rynna getting Ifrit to help us out, and Sin appeared. Whoa, bad memories man. At least it's not my dad this time. I mean, I think it's not my dad. I mean, he's dead. Then again, so was I… back to the group, we got sucked into the water! Where'll we end up?

~*~

"Ugh… ow…"

Tidus shook his head as he slowly came back to reality. At first, he thought he was in that dark nothingness again- where he hadn't been anything more than a figment of someone's imagination, only kept in existence by the barest of thoughts from Spira..

He shuddered from the memory as he realized that he was floating face up in some kind of water. And he wasn't surrounded by nothingness-

-he was directly under a big, black, storm cloud.

Tidus yelped in alarm and splashed his way out of the water before he could be struck by lightning. He climbed out and shook himself off, panting in the muggy atmosphere.

Now I know where I am- the Thunder Plains! What luck, he thought sarcastically.

He looked around, trying to figure out how to get under cover, and found himself staring, his mouth wide open.

The lightning and storm part of the plains had obviously not changed in the past two hundred years, but the inhabitants of the plains sure had. A short distance away, he could make out the towers that had been broken down from too much use to prevent lightning from striking people. Now, they were surrounded by what looked like sturdy tents, which were lit from within with what seemed to be cheerful, welcoming, and warm glows.

I really need to get in there. Hope the owners are friendly.

The sky rumbled, making Tidus jump. He wasn't as nervous as Rikku had been, but he certainly didn't want to see how getting struck by lightning felt. Not again. Never again.

Tidus looked around, trying to figure out what could calm Rikku down. The girl was driving the rest of them nuts, after all, and one never wanted to see Auron go insane from anger- he'd learned that a long time ago. So he glanced up, from where they stood at the base of one of the towers, and started to move out when it didn't seem like he would be struck down anytime soon.

Rikku moaned at the sight of him leaving, jerking one hand out to grab him. He dodged it. "Tidus you'll be hit, don't do it!" she said worriedly.

Yuna held the girl back, watching Tidus with the same worried expression. "We should really keep in a group, you know," she said.

He grinned now, and waved his arms. "Oh, come on! Rikku, I'm standing out here with nothing to protect me-"

"I noticed!" she snapped.

"- and I'm not getting hit," he continued, waving his arms more. "Yoohoo! Lightning! I'm over here!" he yelled.

The sky rumbled in response.

"Um, brudda, ya might not wanna do that, ya?" Wakka questioned.

Lulu and Auron watched, mildly amused.

"See, I'm fine! C'mon Rikku, come out here!"

The young girl hesitated.

"It's okay, really! I'm the least luckiest guy on the planet, and I'm not getting hit! You should be safe!" he said, only half-joking.

Rikku swallowed, and, with a fearful look up at the sky, started to inch towards him.

"That's right. See? Nothing's-"

The lightning decided to strike.

"…Wrong… Waaaah…" He shuddered at the feeling (which, by the way, wasn't in the least pleasant), and collapsed to the ground.

"Tidus!" Rikku and Yuna cried. Rikku shrank back into Wakka while Yuna ran forward, preparing a healing spell.

"You shouldn't do that!" Yuna scolded him as she healed him. "What if it had been strong enough to kill you?"

"… ….Ow," Tidus whimpered.

Yes, definitely a feeling best left alone. Tidus hurried towards the tents.

Before he could reach the cloth, it was flung open by none other than Rynna.

The girl's eyes widened in surprise and relief. "There you are! Get in here before you get struck and killed!" she said, pulling him by the arm into the warmth of the tent. He didn't protest.

Instead, he looked around. People were sitting around tiny fires, where food was cooking. Small cots and bedrolls were sitting in the corners of the tents, far away from the fires, but there apparently seemed to be electric lights hanging about.

Rynna pulled him over to one of the cots, made him sit down, and handed him a towel. "Dar will be here in a second to give you some new clothes," she told him. "He saw us coming in. Get out of those before you get a cold or something."

"Out?" he protested weakly. The thought of undressing where there was very little privacy was more than mildly uncomfortable…

"Yes. Get undressed. It's not like you don't have something these people haven't seen before," she told him wryly. Then she turned around to sit at a nearby fire, pointedly ignoring him.

Tidus stared at the towel, then down at his soaked clothing, wondering what to do.

"Get out of those or I'll send Brand over there," Rynna called over her shoulder.

Tidus started, then obeyed, muttering something about rude granddaughters and treating elders more politely. This time, Rynna ignored him for real. Thankfully, so did the other people in the tents, so he managed to strip off the wet clothes and wrap himself in the big, warm towel with a minimum amount of embarrassment.

And just in time, too- Darian, the redhead who claimed to be related to Wakka, appeared with a yellow T-shirt and what looked like blue jeans but had a much softer texture to them. "Here," the redhead said apologetically. "They don't have any extra shoes or anything- you'll have to live with those."

Tidus merely shrugged his thanks and slipped into the clothing as quickly as he had slipped into the towel. Though he was still a bit damp, and the clothes didn't quite fit, it was a lot better than being cold and soaked.

Darian sat beside him on the cot when Tidus was dressed, saying, "We were wondering where you were. Rynna called up on all of the Towers to ask if anyone saw you. Thankfully you found us here."

"Where's Amie and Alex?" Tidus asked, rubbing his hair with the towel.

"At another Tower, not far from here," Darian replied. "Come on, let's get something to eat."

Tidus followed Darian over to the tiny fire and sat down, looking around himself still. "When did this all happen?" he asked. "And how come there isn't any leakage?"

"This is the best cloth you'll ever find, from the area 'round Moonflow," Rynna said, overhearing him. "It's not really that warm, but it will keep you out of any weather- rain, snow… you know the drill."

"This happened about a century ago," an elderly woman nearby added. "You haven't been around here before, lad?"

Tidus opened his mouth to reply that he had- about two hundred years ago- but closed his mouth instead, shaking his head.

"Ah. Well, a century ago, a man named Rolan discovered that real lightning is twice as effective for operating machines than mere magical lightning," the woman explained. "So, he set about fixing up the towers to make them work. Then he started to set up a small network of tents around the towers, where people could live off of the rainwater, and store the energy. That's how we get produce and the like, lad- from trading energy for food and the likes."

"Oh," Tidus said weakly.

"Tidus," Rynna said, catching his attention. Her expression was grave. "Do you know how or why this happened? Us showing up here, I mean."

Tidus looked at the food that was cooking on the fire with a sigh before answering. "Sin has connections to all bodies of water, as you probably know. However, not all bodies of water are connected, even underground. So Sin had- or has- some sort of ability to teleport, as long as it's to another body of water."

Rynna nodded. "Okay. That explains how you once all ended up in the Bikanel Island Desert…"

"Tidus? Sin?" The elderly woman looked from Tidus to Rynna. Then she laughed. "Oh, I see. The ceremony, right?"

"Only partially, ancient one," Rynna said hesitantly. "There is a monster out there now that's being called Sin."

"Eh?" The elderly woman frowned. "What are you talking about, dear?"

"Nothing," Tidus said quickly. "This is part of the old conversations in the story."

"Oh, well, carry on, lad. I won't be listening too hard." The woman stood up, and wandered over to the other side of the tent to talk to a younger woman. The younger woman was speaking to a man, and seemed reluctant to talk to said elderly woman, but did so anyway.

"Anyway," Tidus said. "When Sin was my father, he often used this transportation to get us to see something he wanted us to see, or do what he wanted us to do." He frowned then.

Rynna reached out to pat him on the shoulder awkwardly. "I'm sure it's not your dad," she told him.

"Yeah. I would've felt him if it was," he answered.

"Hmm." Rynna considered this. "Well, no matter what we do, the ceremony's shot to hell anyway. We ought to warn these people about Sin, and then head over to Do'sal to figure out what to do next."

"Right," Darian said.

Brand, who Tidus was just noticing, also nodded.

"Um…. Do'sal?" Tidus asked.

"Yeah. It's where this race of people called Guado live."

"Oh! Guadosalam!" Tidus exclaimed. "What's with the name change, though?"

"Well, not only Guado live there anymore," she said. "Humans began to move in after the defeat of Sin, nearly kicking all of the Guado out, and into the Barrens." At his questioning look, she sighed. "Where Macalania Woods once stood."

"You mean they're gone?"

She nodded. "They disappeared the same way you did, apparently, though they took a longer time."

"Oh." He turned away slightly, to look at the fire.

"Look, I know this is all weird for you-" Rynna said, after a moment.

"You don't know the half of it," he said shortly, catching her by surprise. "Let's call the others and get out of here."

"Yes." Rynna nodded. "Perhaps we'll find our way in Do'sal. It's much more likely than finding it here, anyway. Not much other than lightning, rain, and tents."

"Hm."

Rynna gave him a concerned look. Then she looked at Darian, who shrugged. Finally, she said, "I'll go call the others then."

This time, Tidus didn't even bother making a sound.

~*~