**Sorry this chapter took so freaking long. I just got major writer's block, then add in schoolwork and...well, oy. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter--and no, Ben won't be sticking around past Luca, so don't get incredibly attached to him. :-P And I'm not going to kill him. I'm not fond of killing characters. ^_^;;; So! Any suggestions, e-mail me at ara-lai@excite.com , and if you feel like it, review. So! On with the story! ^_^ Enjoy!**

Yueh awoke only when her head hit the inside of the wagon with a resounding "thunk." Rubbing her head, she sat up, blinking.

It was night outside, and crickets could be heard chirping through the thick fabric walls. Arashi was not inside, and she heard voices from the front of the wagon. Yueh crawled up through the front and peeked out into the darkness.

Arashi, Niet, and Ben were sitting around a rather large fire, each sipping from a bowl of soup. Yueh slipped out the front with a yawn and sat in-between Niet and Arashi. Niet leaned forward and grabbed an empty bowl and small wooden spoon. Handing it to Yueh, she settled back in her seat.

"Soup's in the kettle." She slurped some of her own soup down and gave a nod towards Ben. "Turns out Ben here can actually cook." Ben gave a snort into his own soup bowl.

"Of course I can--"

"Nice to know he's good for something on this trip," Yueh said with a short chuckle. Ben glared.

"I'm good for more than that!" Ben shouted madly. Yueh scooped out some of the broth into her bowl and sat back next to Arashi, grinning. Ben tried to stand, but his crutches got in his way and he toppled over into the dirt, his soup bowl falling to the ground and spilling its contents next to him. Niet and Yueh laughed wildly while Arashi set down her bowl and went to help him back up with a small giggle.

"Please, Ben, calm down," Arashi said, sitting him back up and refilling his bowl. "They didn't mean anything." She smiled. "We're just...trying to have some fun."

"Yeah, before--" Niet stopped herself and coughed. "Well, anyway..."

Yueh tried to ignore Niet's comment and instead took a sip of soup. The pleasant taste surprised her greatly. "This--this is good!"

Ben blushed and took another slurp of his own soup. "Kiri taught me."

Arashi nodded and went back to her own seat. "Perfect person to learn from."

The only sound heard for quite some time after that was the sipping of soup and the quiet chirping of insects. Ben finally spoke, breaking the silence with quite a large question.

"Why are you a summoner?"

All three girls were silent, and Yueh let out a sigh. She finished up her soup and set the bowl and spoon down next to her.

"Yueh, I can tell him," Arashi began. Yueh shook her head and put out a hand to stop her.

"Its...its my fault, I'll tell him." She sighed again. "If he's traveling with us, I suppose we shouldn't have any secrets." Even big ones like this, I guess.

Ben frowned. "Your fault? What's your fault?"

Yueh stared into the fire blankly, her soup bowl sitting forgotten in her lap.

"Sin."

There was another long silence. Ben blinked his eyes slowly and stuttered. "S-sin?"

"Yueh, we can tell him, you don't have to--"

"Its my fault." Yueh shook her head. "I should be the one to explain it."

Ben looked utterly confused. "How could Sin be your fault? I mean, if anything, its Square's for making it up, right?" He gave a shrug. "Maybe it was a parallel universe--"

Yueh held up the dolphin jewel that hung around her neck. It glinted lightly in the firelight. "This...this is what helped. This is why we can cast magic, among other things."

"But...some of the others could cast magic."

Yueh thought for a moment. "Only after eating the spheres, right?" Ben nodded. "We could cast magic from the get-go, and very strongly."

"She could cast Thundaga right away," Arashi added.

"I found this rock a while ago," Yueh began, "and found I could cast magic and bring things from video games to life..."

And Yueh began her own story, from the incident with her brother's cooking, the evil psychiatrist, the save sphere, and all the way up to arriving at New Besaid. At the end, after nearly an hour of explaining, Yueh awaited Ben's reaction quietly.

He took a deep breath, and Yueh figured Ben was choosing his words carefully. Brushing the hair out of his eyes, he opened his mouth, then closed it once more. "I--" He paused. "You didn't wish Sin here, you wished Valefore here." He tried to laugh, but it came out rather forced. "Who would have thought that it would do that?"

"The question that still runs through my mind," Yueh began, thinking out loud, "is why it took Sin along with it?"

"That's not important right now," Arashi said quickly. She stood up and stretched her arms. "We will defeat Sin, and that requires a good night's rest." She began gathering everyone's bowls and put them in a small bucket of water next to the fire. "So, Yueh can take the first watch, Niet, you take the second."

"What about me?" Ben asked.

"You wouldn't help much, with your leg hurting like that," Arashi said. "Niet and I can sleep in the wagon, and Niet--" Arashi giggled. "I, rather, can set up a tent for you." Arashi and Niet went to fetch the tent, leaving Yueh and Ben alone by the fire.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," Ben said very quietly. Yueh looked up at him from across the fire.

"What?"

"I'm sorry that this had to happen to you," he repeated. "It wasn't your fault, and...and your secret is safe with me." He gave a sharp nod and his hair fell in his eyes once more.

"I..." Yueh gave him a small smile. "Thank you."

I can still fix this. I will fix this.

*-*-*-*-*

In the morning, the four set out once more, Ben on his chocobo out front, Niet and Yueh steering and navigating the wagon, and Arashi peeking out between the two from inside the covered wagon. They talked of small things, like old video games and the like, never once mentioning Sin and their current situation. It was like it was understood that no one wanted to discuss it again until absolutely necessary, so they all remained mum about the subject.

They traveled with little incident for two days, and had just reached the desert early the third morning. The problem was with the wagon.

"Its...not...working that...well!"

Niet was trying to dig out the wheels from the soft sand of the desert landscape, while Yueh tried to ease the chocobos further forwards to pull it out. It wasn't working, to say the least.

"Maybe we should take some things out?" Yueh suggested. She only received a few angry grunts from Niet as a reply. Sighing, she went back to pushing the chocobos slowly forward.

Arashi scooted herself out front and took the reins from Yueh. Yueh began to protest, but Arashi turned around and shouted out to Niet. "Hop in! I have an idea!"

"Nani?"

"Just get in!"

Niet did so, and Yueh watched as a wild grin came across the summoner's face. A whirl of magic surrounded her, the wagon, the chocobos, and Ben and his chocobo standing nearby.

"Hya!"

The wagon and Ben's chocobo took off with a start, gliding across the sands with such speed you could barely see anything go by you on the outside. Yueh was flung into the wagon, and Arashi barely managed to hang on herself. She laughed over the wind, and gave a sharp, joyful scream when the wagon hit a large hill of sand and sent everyone a foot in the air.

"What did she do?" Niet shouted over the wind.

"I guess--Haste!" Yueh yelled back, beginning to laugh herself.

For the moment, all three girls and their male companion completely forgot about Sin, about Aeons and fiends, Fayth, and everything. Instead, they were just four teenaged kids, enjoying a wild ride through the desert, laughing and shouting as they hit bumps and valleys that sent them flying.

When the Haste spell finally wore off, they had arrived at their next stop: the slightly larger town of New Kilika. The first person to greet them there was none other than--

"O'aka! How nice to see you again!" Arashi greeted, waving a hand at him. O'aka turned his head and gave a great grin when he saw Yueh and her sitting out on the front of the wagon. Niet was busy trying to put everything back in its place in the rear of the wagon.

"Is that...the O'aka?" Ben asked, as quietly as he could from his position on his chocobo.

"Its his son, I guess," Yueh said, shrugging. "O'aka the 24th, he said."

Ben paused. "Oh."

"'Ello, Lady Arashi! 'Ow are you this fine day?" Arashi pulled the wagon to a stop right next to O'aka and he gave a large bow. "Doing well, I hope? 'Ow is the pilgrimage?"

"Its doing wonderfully, O'aka. Your map has helped us tremendously." At this point, Yueh nudged Arashi. "What?"

"We should probably pull all the way into the village first, Arashi," Yueh pointed out. Arashi's eyes blinked rapidly as she nodded.

"Oh. Right." She jogged the reins lightly and the chocobos trotted forward at a human's walking pace. Presumably, she wanted O'aka to be able to keep up with the wagon. "How's business, O'aka?"

"Wonderful, Milady!" O'aka said, grinning. "When I tol' people that a summoner trusted me wares, plenty o' them handed o'er gil!" He suddenly blushed. "I, ah, 'ope you don't mind, me usin' Milady as a, ah..."

"Testimonial?"

"Righ', righ'. Thank ye kindly."

"He has a worse accent than his father," Ben noted, leaning next to Yueh. "I'm having a hard time getting what he's saying."

Yueh let out a chuckle. "Arashi seems to be doing just fine with it."

At this point, Niet popped out from the back. "Please tell me we're spending the night here? I want a bed." She rested her chin on the border between the inside of the wagon and the back of the "seat" where one directed the chocobos from. "With a real pillow. And some more eggrolls..." She licked her lips. "And teriyaki..."

Yueh's stomach let out a rumble. "Now you're making me hungry." Yueh tapped Arashi lightly on the shoulder, interrupting what seemed to be a rather boring conversation about different advertisement styles. "I think we should get some food."

"Ah, then Milady and 'er guardians would be pleased t'know that th'best cook 'ere 'appens to be a frien' o' mine!" O'aka said suddenly with another smile. "Jus' as good as lil' Kiri back in New Besaid!"

Niet perked up at this. She took her head off the border. "Really?" She scrambled out of the wagon and managed to find space to sit on the outside of it, pushing Arashi and Yueh to the very edges of their seats. "Do, ah, do they make eggrolls? And teriyaki?" Yueh rolled her eyes and giggled. Whenever we get into a town...she asks about food.

O'aka let out a laugh as well. "So ye also liked Kiri's food, eh? Good taste ye have there! An' it just so 'appens that she does, Guardian! She'll be more than 'appy to accomodate ye, I'm sure. Park your wagon o'er 'ere, and I'll go talk to 'er." With that, O'aka jogged off into one of the nearby wooden huts.

"Food food food," Niet said, jumping down from the wagon. "Food!"

"You sound like you haven't eaten in weeks, Niet," Arashi said, trying not to smile.

Ben dismounted and tied his chocobo (with a little help from Yueh) next to the two that pulled the wagon. He seemed confused.

"What is it?" Yueh finally asked.

"Do you guys always get free food?"

Yueh snorted, trying very, very hard not to laugh. "Yeah, why?"

"Uh, can I be a, um, temporary guardian?" he asked quietly. His stomach growled. "I'm, uh, kinda hungry."

Yueh patted Ben on the head, giving him a "pity" look. "I'm sure they'll feed you, too, Ben." Shaking her head and laughing quietly, she followed Arashi and Niet into the hut where O'aka had disappeared.

Ben blinked. Struggling with his crutches, he hobbled forwards as fast as he could. "Hey! Wait for me!"