**Finally, another chapter. And a riddle: what do you get when you cross a band concert, precalc homework, and Japanese cards? TOO MUCH TO DO IN THE SPAN OF FIVE HOURS. IE after school. Peh. So, sorry for the late chapter. ^_^;; Its a bit shorter than normal, but you get a bit of backstory on Mariana, I suppose...so, whee! Have fun and read! And in case I don't update before the holidays...Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! w00t!**
Yueh leaned out on the outer wall of the platform and shouted out to Arashi. "Arashi! You--you're--there's no ground beneath you!" She waved wildly to the blond, who was at least ten feet out from the platform. "Arashi!"
The singing continued on, like Arashi hadn't heard her at all. Niet watched placidly as Arashi remained in mid-air. "I don't think we should interrupt her. It'd probably be like those cartoons, where they walk out, and when they look down...SPLAT!"
Yueh winced and leaned back onto the full safety of the balcony. "I really wish you wouldn't say something like that." She turned her back to Arashi and looked at Lily, who was still unconscious and leaning against the wall. "I don't suppose you picked up any white magic without telling us?"
Niet shook her head. "No, why?"
"I--"
Arashi had stopped singing, and a small corner in the sky above them began to glow brightly. The glowing became brighter to the point that Yueh, Niet, and even Ben had to shield their eyes. They couldn't see Arashi spin mid-air and jump onto what flew down from the sky.
When the light finally subsided, what they did see was Arashi riding the special aeon Tsuki from before. Arashi had her whip circling over her head, and was speaking fluent Japanese to the white mare. Yueh gaped at the sight and leaned once more over the edge of the balcony.
"Arashi! ARASHI!" She waved to the summoner, who finally cast a glance at her guardian. "We--"
"Let me take care of the other fiends first, Yueh," Arashi shouted back. Tsuki took wide turns through the sky, circling the panicked arena below them. Arashi's eyes seemed to strain as she surveyed the arena. "The crusaders seem to have gotten most of them, Tsuki and I can finish off the rest! And give the announcers a potion each! I'll be back!" Tsuki's wings fluttered faster than before, and she seemed to take off at light speed, attacking the fiend crowd with her horn and Arashi with her bit of black magic and whip.
Arashi pulled a Yuna there with the aeon, Yueh thought absentmindedly. Digging out some potions, she ran back to Ben and the slumped over broadcasters. She tossed a potion to Ben. "Open their mouths and give 'em this. Should help."
"Aren't we just supposed to just...toss them in the air over them?" Ben asked, juggling the potion before getting a good hold on it. He tugged on the cork and tried to pull it out. "I mean...they always..."
"Things are different from the game, Ben." Yueh pulled out the cork without much trouble and began pouring it down one of the announcer's throats. The liquid smelled like cough medicine and most likely tasted the same. The announcer began to blink slowly. "You should know that by now."
When the man had fully regained consciousness, he ripped off his headphones and jumped up. "Where are they--"
"They're gone, um, well, they're in the process of being rid of." Yueh stood up so she could talk to the man more easily, brushing off her knees by habit. "Arashi is taking care of them--" Yueh finally noticed that the man wasn't paying attention. In fact, he was running down the stairs, screaming his head off. Yueh sighed and shook her head, and took a quick look at how Ben was faring with the other announcer.
Niet was grumbling and rubbing her forehead, where a small, red, circular mark currently adorned the space directly above her left eyebrow. In her other hand was the cork to the potion Ben was currently trying to force down the last announcer's throat, with little success. Yueh shoved him aside with a brisk, "Oh, let me do it," and poured the bottle's contents down the man's throat. He woke up just as quickly as the first, and had precisely the same reaction: he ran down the stairs, screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs, and ripped the cord to his headphones out from the socket. It trailed him down the stairs with a small "clink clink" every time it hit another step. Yueh blinked and Niet grumbled some more.
"Oh, sure, you're welcome!" she said, waving wildly down the stairs. "You can just thank us the next time we save your sorry--"
"Ungh..." All three heads turned as Lily groaned rather loudly and began moving again. Yueh immediately knelt down next to her and put a hand on one of her small shoulders.
"Are you okay?" Yueh asked quietly.
Lily nodded. "Uh-huh, just..." She yawned. "Sleepy. As soon as Mom brings me home--" The girl's eyes widened in shock. "Mom! She--she doesn't know where I am!" She struggled to get up, but Yueh held her down.
"We'll find her, don't worry." She turned around and leaned over the balcony, shouting. "Arashi! Arashi!" She waved, and a white blur came flying towards them. The shockwave of wind was almost enough to knock Yueh over.
"I'm finished," Arashi said. Tsuki hovered somehow, slowly flapping her wings. Arashi leaned forward into Tsuki's mane. "All the fiends are gone, and there are no casualties. One missing person, from what I can tell, a little girl named--"
"Lily?" Yueh finished. Arashi nodded slowly, and Yueh pointed behind her. "She's right here. I met her at halftime, and while we were running--"
"I understand." Arashi spoke a few words in Japanese and Tsuki flew higher and landed in the small space that was left on the balcony. Arashi hopped off and knelt down next to the girl in pink. "You're Lily?" Timidly, Lily nodded. Holding out a hand, Arashi smiled. "Your mom is waiting for you by the main gate. The fiends seem to be gone, but I don't want to risk you walking down there by yourself." Lily clutched her mog doll in one hand and took Arashi's outstretched hand in her other. "You and I get to go on a little ride. Hop on up."
Lily gasped in shock and leaned back. "You mean, I get to--"
Arashi smiled. "Ride the aeon? Of course. Now, I'll set you up here first..." Arashi lifted the young girl from under her shoulders and set her on top of the mare, right behind the pearly white wings. "There we go, and hup!" Arashi, to Yueh's astonishment, did an anime style jump right onto Tsuki's back. Saying something again in Japanese, Tsuki hovered above the ground, and Lily shrieked with happiness. She waved before she and Arashi left.
"Bye, Yueh! Thank you!"
"Take care, Lily!" Yueh waved back and Arashi and Lily disappeared into the lower horizon. She smiled and hugged her own mog doll. "Take good care of yourself, Lily. Promise me that." Never pick up any stones and pretend to cast spells, she thought sardonically, giving a smirk to no one in particular. Her smirk turned quickly into a wince as Ben's voice began to boom over the loudspeakers.
"Hello? Hello--whoa, cool! Hey, everyone this is--urk!" Niet had yoinked the headphones off of Ben's head, and the excess cord had pulled up tight against his neck. "Niet....I...oxygen...need..." She finally released the headphones, and Ben fell to the floor, gasping. "AIR!"
Niet waved him off and pulled him back up. "Oh, come on, get up." She let go of his shirt and shook her head. "Really. Shouting over the loudspeakers..." With that, she went marching down the stairs, muttering to herself and rubbing her forehead once more. Apparently, she was still sore about the whole potion-cork incident.
Shaking her head, Yueh followed down the stairs, laughing. Ben, still gasping under the pretense that he had lost some amount of oxygen, also followed.
They met Arashi at the sphere pool, where she dismissed Tsuki with a quiet, "Arigatou." She quickly turned around and addressed her friends with a smile.
"Now, I think, we should go to the inn, sleep for the night, and then move on." Arashi gave a slight nod to Ben. "You, of course, may stay in the morning, but I think you'll have to pay for a room then."
Ben was massaging his throat. His voice sounded overly hoarse, and made Niet roll her eyes. "I might stay for a while. See some of the tournament."
"All right, then," Arashi said. She gave a small bow. "This is where we part. I wish you well, Ben. Maybe we'll meet again." Ben again tried the Yevon bow, as he had days before when they first met, but he wasn't much better this time around and just stuck out his hand for a handshake. Laughing, Arashi took it.
"Right." They released hands, and after a moment of awkward silence, Ben coughed. He made a motion with his hands, pointing towards the inn. "I'll, uh, just be off, then." He nodded and began to walk away.
The three girls stood watching him for a moment. Yueh and Niet looked to Arashi, who shrugged.
"Let's go get some rest."
*-*-*-*-*
"Macalania temple."
Her voice echoed throughout the first chamber of the temple, but Mariana wasn't listening to her. The elderly woman priest of this temple had a rather nasally voice, and Mariana was sick of it after only two words. Her attention was on the steps of the temple.
In her mind's eye, she could see him. Standing there, in those idiotic robes of his. His hair had grown even more pointy than the first time she had seen him. Those veins were still there, the tattoo was as well. She hated him with all her being, and yet, if it hadn't been for him, she would never have known.
"To become Sin...one can become Sin." The voice still rang fresh in her mind, no matter how hard she tried to push it away.
She had found him on the beach after the attack of Sin. He was watching the ocean calmly, as if bodies weren't strewn about him, some only pieces. Wandering about, looking for her mother and father, she had seen him just staring out into nothing. Next to his feet lay her mother, a sword through her chest, and her father, with a hole in his head. She could only see the back of his head, but even that was enough to make her feel like vomiting.
Falling down into the crimson sand, she tried to sob. But he had spoken instead.
"To become Sin..." He had turned at that point, and stared Mariana in the eyes. "...One can become Sin."
Her voice had choked, but she was able to get something out. "Become...?"
At this point, he had turned back to the ocean. "Become Sin, and nothing can stop you. The endless spiral...will finally end." Pause. "Suffering will end. It will all end. All except Sin...all except you."
"Become Sin." The words went through her mind again as she spoke them. "I..."
The boy, the hideous, strange, calm voiced boy, turned and, without trodding on a single body, left the beach, laughing to himself. Laughing, in the midst of murder. That horrid noise...
"Mariana?"
Again, the young man's voice broke her thoughts. She shook her head slightly.
"Mariana, we can enter now." Genki hesitantly took up one of her hands, pulling her lightly towards the staircase. "Mariana?"
She tightened her grip on his hand and strode forward. "Let's go."