**Just in time for Thanksgiving! XD I was talking to the guy who always pesters me about new chaps, and I thought, hey, maybe I can finish one up for today! Well, here it is, by requests of...well, a lotta people I talked to tonight, lol. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! And for those of you who don't celebrate it, well, happy normal Thursday! ^_^ And so, without further ado...**
"Good food, good beds..." Niet fondly patted the cot she was laying on. Leaning back, she sighed happily. "Ah, what more could a guardian ask for?"
"A fully functioning leg," came Ben's voice from the other side of the blanket divider. He peeked around the very edge of it. "How about that?"
"Oh, hush, and quit peeking!" Niet snapped the blanket back into place with a growl. "The blanket's there for a reason, perv."
"I wasn't--you weren't even--"
"As far as your leg is concerned," Arashi interrupted, "its getting better much quickly than I thought it would. At least you have feeling back in it." Arashi gave Yueh a smile, as if to say, "Everything's going to be all right." Yueh was on her own bed, staring up at the ceiling, so she didn't notice.
What more could a guardian ask for? How about for Sin to disappear? Yueh was then aware that Arashi was addressing her. She turned her head slightly to the side. "Hm?"
"I said, we'll go to the temple in an hour, so don't get too comfortable." Smiling, she went to leave the room. "We three will go, and Ben can stay here and hold down the fort."
Ben threw back the curtain once more. "Why can't I come with?"
Niet jumped up and gave Ben a nice thwap across the face before returning the curtain to its former position. "You're as bad as Keitaro Urashima! Next time ask permission! Baka!"
Arashi turned back, laughing. "Maybe we ought to leave now?"
*-*-*-*-*
Along the Djose Highroad, which was in the deep south of Oregon now, Mariana and Genki trudged along in the sunset's red light. They had been walking at a much slower pace for the past few days, otherwise, by Genki's calculations, at least, they would have been past the Moonflow, perhaps even in Guadosalam.
Mariana finally sat down next to the fork in the road. She let out a sigh and leaned back against one of the rocks. Genki hesitated before plopping down next to her and removing his overlarge backpack with a grunt.
"Milady--"
"You'd like to hear my story."
Her sudden interruption left Genki with his mouth hanging open. She gave a small, deep chuckle. "Barely even two weeks of knowing you, Genki, and already I can tell what you are going to ask of me next."
A flicker of impatience crossed Genki's face. "Are you sure its not because I've been asking you for the past few days, Milady?"
"I'm sorry, Genki, but I do not think you are ready to hear my story."
This time, Mariana knew she saw it. Genki's patience had worn through completely. "Milady, just three days ago, you said--"
"It was late, Genki, and I was very tired." She gave him a short glare, her old personality finally returning to its fullest. "I said it to make you quit pestering me." Smiling as Genki's mouth hung open, she stood up and brushed off her skirt with three short gestures. "Now, I believe I have another Aeon to get, so, let's get a move on." She marched forward, leaving Genki in a small cloud of dust.
He coughed and gave a small glare of his own towards Mariana's back as she left. Wiping the dust that had settled on his face away, he stood up and began packing everything back on his back. He mumbled to himself as he finally got everything settled.
"Genki! Hurry up! We don't have long before nightfall!" Mariana's sharp voice hurt his ears, and he let out a sigh.
"Why did I ever..." Shaking his head, he jogged ahead and went to follow his Lady Mariana.
*-*-*-*-*
"This gets really boring really quickly," Niet said, finally putting down her book. She stood up and began stretching next to the small step in front of the Fayth's Chamber. "I always wondered why it takes so long to get an Aeon." Niet then went ahead with cracking her knuckles. The cracks echoed throughout the hallway, making Yueh wince.
"Yeurgh, that sounds horrible! Cut it out!" she shouted. Yueh had been pacing about the room for at least an hour and now had plopped herself down upon the step in front of the Chamber where Niet had just been. "This is taking too long, though..."
"How long does it normally take?" Ben's voice bounced off the walls even more than Niet's knuckle-cracking had. He was currently leaning against the far wall, reading an old book that the New Besaid villagers had tossed into the wagon. He flipped a page and kept his eyes on the book.
"The last time it only took, oh, twenty minutes or so," Yueh said. She was fingering notes on her flute as she sat, running through one of her attack melodies in her mind. "This length of time is making me nervous."
"Wake me up when she gets out, will ya?" Niet laid herself out on the floor with a yawn, using her book as a pillow. "Its getting too late."
The door to the Chamber slowly rumbled open, and Arashi strode out calmly. Her goggles were around her neck, as they usually were after she visited the Fayth, and her glasses were in the V-neck of her shirt. Niet and Yueh quickly stood up, but Ben struggled to reach his crutches, which abruptly fell over and became out of his reach.
"How are you doing, Arashi?" Yueh asked. She put a hand lightly on Arashi's shoulder, testing her strength to hold herself up. "You ready to go back?"
Arashi simply nodded, breathing deeply and carefully. "Yes. Quite." Her voice was breathier than normal, Yueh noted. Maybe that's why Yuna always sounded out of breath. Yueh watched her closely as Arashi limped out of the hall, stepping gingerly over Ben's fallen crutches. Niet kicked the crutches over to Ben and followed her out of the hall. Struggling to stand up, Ben shouted after them.
"Wait for me! Hey! Wait--crap, stupid, cra--WAIT!" Going as fast as he could on the crutches, he caught up to the girls, only to find that perhaps he was going a bit too fast. His crutches went out of control, and he toppled forward onto Niet's back. This, of course, caused a domino effect, with Niet knocking over Yueh and Yueh falling onto Arashi, who fell to the ground with a deep thud and a groan.
The four stayed there for a moment, Ben too embarrassed to move, and the others who couldn't move due to the weight upon them. Finally Niet took her book and reached around her back to smack Ben on the head.
"Ow!" Ben sat up, off of Niet's legs, and rubbed his forehead, wincing. Niet brushed his crutches off of her back and went to help the others up. "What was--I didn't--"
"You did it, though, and--"
Screams came through the dank stone walls up ahead, and everyone froze. Ben scrambled back up and hobbled forward without his crutches.
"Your leg works?" Yueh was still helping Arashi get up, but had definitely noticed Ben walking without the click-clack noise of crutches.
Ben flexed his bad leg around a little. "Kind of. I think I--"
The shouts and screams from outside increased. Yueh's question remained unanswered, and all four teens ran out of the Cloister of Trials, carefully down the stairs, and out of the temple. Awaiting them outside, attacking the villagers, and generally causing mayhem was another Sinspawn, which had sprung up from the earth itself.
Niet was flipping through her book already while Arashi, Yueh, and Ben readied their weapons. "Sin...spawn...sinspawn Geneaux! Four tentacles--" She looked up from the book and snorted. "Well, that's obvious. Anyway! Weakness to fire, the tentacles absorb magical attacks on the main body, and it gains health if you use water! 3000 HP on the body, and 450 per tentacle!" She again tossed the book aside on the main step to the temple and removed her rapier.
Arashi put her glasses back on and gave a nod to Yueh.
"All right. Let's go!" Yueh headed up the charge on them, with Ben slowly bringing up the rear as he limped along. Two of the tentacles reached for Niet, and she quickly rolled around them and sliced the very tips of them off. The thing roared wildly, and the tentacles reared back.
"That'll teach you! Nyaa!" Niet barely had time to get this out before the tentacles had come back for another round.
As Niet fenced with the first two tentacles, Ben was poking at the third one, mainly working on not getting hit himself. His leg still wasn't up to par.
At least he's not dead, Yueh, remember that, Yueh chided herself. She casted a quick Fira on the last tentacle, which shriveled up and crumbled. Unfortunately, the dust from the dried tentacle hit Yueh right in the face. She spit as much of it out as she could, and began silently cursing the wind. "Watch out for the dust from the tentacles! It--" She coughed loudly. "It tastes bad...ergh." Yueh went into another coughing fit.
"I'll finish this!" Arashi began her dance, dodging one of the tentacles that had originally gone after Niet. She ended with her belt outstretched in front of her, and a small flame fell from the moon-shaped charm onto the ground. Yueh recognized it immediately, before the Aeon even popped up from the ground seconds later.
"Ifrit..."
Arashi had flown in the air along with the ground that had been scattered upon Ifrit's arrival. Just as Yuna had always done, Arashi landed gently on Ifrit's one outstretched arm before both touched the ground. Arashi pumped an arm in the air after she had gotten out of his way.
"Dante! When it goes into its final form, give it a good couple of tackles!"
"Two tentacles left, Arashi! And--" Yueh watched as Niet sliced off the rest of the first tentacle. "One left! Get ready!"
"Here Ben, lemme help!" Niet shoved the struggling young man out of the way and took the brunt of the last tentacle's attack. It grabbed her around her waist and held her high above the earth. Niet wasn't at all scared, Yueh noticed. She simply stabbed the thing right below where it had her held with a determined look on her face. It dropped her quickly as it shriveled up, and she landed with her knees bent and one hand on the ground.
"I coulda done that..." Ben trailed off, poking his sword into the ground. Suddenly, the whole earth around them began to shake as the Sin spawn began to rise from the dirt it had been embedded in. Ben's sword was the only thing that kept him up, but the others managed to stay standing on their own. When it rose to its full height, the two armored plates opened and revealed the weak insides of the fiend.
"Dante, ikimashou!" Arashi pointed to Geneaux. "Ganbatte!"
"Dante?" Yueh said to herself. She yelled across to Arashi. "You named it Dante?"
"I always name him Dante!" Arashi shouted over his roar. The ground rumbled as he ran forward and whammed into the insides of the fiend. There was a great fire that arose on its insides as Dante made contact, and he jumped back to reveal the fiend burning up. A damage amount rose up from the Sin spawn--2358.
"Yatta! Dante, yoku dekimashita!" Arashi sent him off with a flourish and turned to Yueh. "Can you do a Fira?" She gave a quick glance at Geneaux, who was still aflame and screeching. "That should finish it off."
Yueh stepped up, giving a smile. "I can do better than that!" Putting her flute to her lips, she began the tune she had been practicing earlier. A few seconds into it, she stopped suddenly and shouted. "Firaga! Do your worst!" She blew one final note, which released the attack from her flute's end.
The red flame shot out in a straight line, piercing through the fiend and ending its time at that moment. It began to dissolve into pyreflies, and the four adventurers came together in the center of the square.
"We got it before it did any major damage," Arashi said proudly. She smiled and began to help Ben back to the inn hut were she and the guardians were resting. Niet followed, teasing Ben for not being able to take care of the last tentacle.
Yueh smiled, and surveyed the area, letting the wind that was blowing lightly move her hair slowly across her face. She didn't even spit it out when it got in her mouth.
So little damage… She closed her eyes and let the setting sun's warm light shine on her face. We fixed it, this time…we can do it. We really can…
And we will.