Angel Wing Sphere Hunters
An FFVIII/FFX-2 Crossover fanfic by Darth Mongoose.
Come on, this was a fanfic waiting to happen! The idea of the FF8 girls joining the Gullwings was one that I found irrisistable, it just had to be written! Strangers from another dimension! A new danger threatens Spira! Love! Danger! Revenge! Booyaka! Can you FEEL the tension!? Yonde Kudasai! (read please!) No self insertion! No added characters! (especially not Mary Sues! blegh!) And No bringing back Lenne and Shuyin for illogical reasons!
Oh, and before I forget...This fic is based on two (Extremely good) Square-Enix games, I doubt there's much at all in here that could be deemed 'original' so just assume everything is copyright to Square Enix (The company formerly known as Squaresoft) Don't sue me please! I'm just a poor Uni student! Oh, and don't read this if you haven't completed both games (well duh!) preferably with the 'good' or 'perfect' ending for FFX-2. Eehehe, and don't expect anything too serious, if you want a serious fic, don't read this. (If you're a serious person, I can't imagine why you'd like FFX-2 enough to read Fanfics anyway).
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Chapter 1. 'The adventure starts now, even if you're a cactus.'
Isaaru stared out across the ruins. HIS ruins. He, Isaaru, former summoner, was the master of all he surveyed, the guardian of holy Zanarkand. And the monkeys were his disciples, his servants, his people. He sat down on a heap of rubble, which was difficult in his long, heavy robes and stroked the head of the nearest creature. He looked dischevelled and was wide eyed and grinning in an odd way. Perhaps he'd been living in the ruins alone for a little too long.
"Is this place not magical Sol? It's all ours." He laughed, long and hard. Even the monkey looked frightened. "I have a secret to tell you Sol." He giggled, "I found something in the ruins today, an ancient treasure! Behold!" He held up something metallic. It was obviously an ancient machina, or part of one, but it was buckled and dirty, so didn't appear to have a purpose that could easily be identified.
"I wonder what it was made for? Let us experiment with it Sol!" He looked to his right, but the monkey had run away. He turned his attention to the metal object and began to fiddle with it...
---
The Centra ruins, Centra continent. A tall structure in the middle of a desert. Why in the world they would want this horrible place clearing out, Rinoa could only imagine. What would you do with a musty old place like this anyway? She shrugged and struck down a Tonberry easily with her pinwheel. She was dressed in a Balamb cadet uniform, as were her two companions, but she seemed to be leagues ahead of them in skill, she took down the monsters so gracefully. She was stronger, more agile, more experienced, even before you brought her sorceress power into consideration. She was going to ace this test, she knew it. Squall would be so proud of her when she became a SeeD!
A little way away an instructor and a rather petite SeeD watched her progress.
"How's she doing Quissy?" Asked the little SeeD.
"As well as she appears to be doing, I've yet to find fault. I'm not the one marking her though, they thought I might be biased, marking a friend. See over there? Xu's marking her." Quistis indicated Instructor Xu, stood with Nida at the top of the ruins with a clipboard identical to Quistis'.
"Rinoa sure is getting better at controlling her powers huh?"
"She's a very powerful sorceress. She has to control it or it'll control her." Quistis noticed her companions' smile fade, "She's fine Selphie. You've seen how far she's come on, she's really grown up. It's been two years since we met her, can you believe it?" Quistis laughed her usual quiet laugh and pushed her small round reading glasses up her nose.
"Two years..." Selphie stared off into the distance.
"You've grown up too Selphie." Quistis smiled.
"I have SO not." Selphie looked up at her friend and grinned, stretching her arms so that a few centimeters of thin white wrist stuck out from the red and gold cuffs of her jacket. She looked older now, though it was hard for her best friend to tell, change happens so gradually that sometimes your friends don't seem to have changed at all until you see them in a photograph taken a long time ago. Her face was a little thinner, though she still looked younger than nineteen years, she had grown her hair out a little and used less gel on it, so the ever present flick has softer and more feathery. In her SeeD uniform she looked quite mature.
"You SO have," Quistis mocked Selphie's Trabian accent with a laugh. She supposed she had changed too, now twenty years old. She didn't feel like she'd changed much at all. "You just haven't grown any taller."
"That's mean Quistis." Selphie scowled. She was not really badly insulted by this, she was happy with the fact that she was small, but Quistis still enjoyed poking fun at her for it in a friendly sort of way.
They looked back at the cadets, who were making their way up the structure steps. They seemed to be making good progress. Quistis looked at the path ahead of them to see if there was any trouble they might run into, it was her job to look after them if things went wrong, just as she had done two years ago with Squall, Selphie and Zell. But in this case, Selphie was not just her student anymore, she has her backup, the young SeeD's magical skills were almost unrivalled in Garden, apart, obviously, from Rinoa's and as well as that she has quick and alert, Quistis' closest friend and a dependable ally. She scanned the dark corners and saw something...
"Huh." She said flatly, as if she had seen something just mildly interesting, not wanting to overreact if it was nothing.
"What's up?" Asked Selphie. Her large green eyes looked in the same direction. "What the-!?"
"That dragon! It looks kind of like Bahamut, but...different."
"That thing looks like trouble, they haven't seen it yet!"
"It looks tough. Rinoa might not have problems, but the other two..."
"This isn't something that's supposed to be in the test! Why hasn't Xu moved yet!?"
"Probably expects them to handle it." Quistis bit her lip and looked up at Xu, who made a motion with her hand that suggested they weren't supposed to do anything. Xu was a good friend of Quistis', but if they ever failed to see eye to eye, it was always on how much you should help students, and how kind and friendly an instructor should be to their pupils. Xu was a model instructor, though Quistis was the superior in intellegence and skill, and more than likely in combat experience, she was also considered too lenient and approachable by some of the other staff.
"Quis!" Selphie was becoming agitated and sounded a little angry.
"You're right." Quistis gave Xu a look, "let's go."
Rinoa jumped backwards, avoiding the sword of a Forbidden, and cast a quick firaga with a flick her her hand, feeling the ancient power of sorcery tingling inside her. Her thick black hair flowed behind her in the magical blast. She pressed forwards, jumping over the pile of charred bones, metal and fabric, then stopped suddenly. The two other cadets skidded to a halt behind her.
"What's that!?" One of them shouted, wide eyed.
"Squad leader! Sorceress Rinoa! What do we do!?" The other looked at her directly.
She hated being called 'Sorceress Rinoa', as if her power was all that was important, not the person she was. But this wasn't the time. What was that thing? It looked like Bahmut, but a more charcoal like colour, it was stockier than the GF she knew and had a strange wheel floating behind it's powerful back and wings. It looked down at her.
"I-I don't know." Though she had tried to become more assertive in the past two years, she was still hesitant in a crisis, she had been through a lot of trouble and caused a lot of problems for others in the past by making rash decisions. It was coming closer, and it looked agressive and powerful. She cast scan quickly, the data filtering into her mind. So it was called 'Bahamut' as well? The other thing she realised was that the other two members of her team didn't have a hope if it came to a fight, she wasn't even sure if she could beat it herself. It had wings too, which meant if all three of them ran, it would catch them easily. The decision came to her in a flash, she hoped it was right. "Right! You two, run. Go for the sorceress statue control point down there," She pointed, "and request back up, this isn't just a normal monster. I'll stay here and keep it pinned back."
They ran obediently. Rinoa felt a small sting of anger, they hadn't even questioned whether she would be alright. Of course, she was the sorceress, that was pretty much all they seemed to see her as, the idea that she might not be able to beat it didn't cross their minds.
She squared off against the creature, setting her jaw, fighting down her terror.
"Lord Bahamut! I don't want to fight!" She shouted, her arms wide open. Her legs were shaking and her heartbeat had risen. The dragon stepped forward purposefully, it almost appeared to be grinning. "Please!"
"We have to fight." Said a calm voice next to her. Quistis had appeared to her right, and looking to her left, there was Selphie, Nunchaku at the ready.
"But it's Bahamut! Can we really-?"
Quistis snapped her whip in front of the advancing dragon's feet, it hesitated. But something was wrong, there was an odd feeling in her muscles.
"My junction is gone." She said, her voice was low and flat with fear. "All my GF, they're...gone..."
"Mine too!" Selphie was staring straight ahead, the fear on her usually amiably smiling face was more frightening to Rinoa than the slowly approaching creature. "What's going on!?"
Rinoa took a deep breath and unleashed a Tornado spell. She didn't use GF anymore, her sorceress power meant that she could cast magic without needing one. The spell had hurt it, but without their spell junctioning, Selphie and Quistis' attacks were doing very little damage to this powerful opponent. Of course! Spells. that was it! She concentrated deeply and cast aura, first on Selphie, who began to pulse with saffron coloured light.
The SeeD chuckled fiercely as she narrowly avoided a long talon sweeping to attack.
"Think you're tough, Mister Dragon?" She flicked through the spells in her mind until a combination she liked came up, "Check this out! Triple Thundaga!" She moved her Nunchaku in a special little pattern that she used to draw power from the air around her. Then held them high, conducting the magic through herself, a barrage of explosive lightning power that made her two companions wince at the sound, light and power.
"Push it back! Corner it in the chamber at the top of the ruins!" Shouted Quistis, who was now also glowing. She fired a hail of flaming gatling gun projectiles from her hands. They were hurting it now, working together the three of them made a powerful team. Quistis caught sight of Xu, who had now realised that it was not a typical monster and was making her way down with Nida to help, but she was a long way off yet, and they almost had the beast cornered now, they had been fighting him backup the steps. It looked as if the monster had originally come from the chamber where Odin had resided, the passage leading to it had been scratched by it's scales as it had pushed through what to it must have been a tight corridor. The three girls were closer together now as they pressed on in the confined space and into the main chamber.
There was a hole. A huge, black hole in the floor behind Bahamut. Strange floating, drifting, glowing entities were moving around, leaving coloured trails and making a disturbing moaning sound in the void.
Rinoa struck the final blow, flooring the Dragon lord, who turned strangely transluscent and shiny as if coated in pearl, then vanished in a cloud of more of the little glowing anatomies.
"Wh-what is this?" Rinoa stared at the darkness.
"Looks like a hole to me." Said Selphie, trying her best to sound upbeat and unphased.
"...And what are these glowing things?" Quistis watched them floating and dancing around, curiously. They were beautiful, and yet, somehow they disturbed her, a feeling in the pit of her stomach made her not want to touch them, they made her think of death. Perhaps it was the way that as they flew they made a quiet, melancholy whining sound, it was a depressing noise.
The three of them knelt at the pit, looking into it. It had no visible bottom, it was just black and a cold breeze came from it.
Selphie glanced behind her. There was a man stood there.
"Agh!" She jumped up. "Who are you!?" The others turned around.
Not much of his face was visible, he wore a high grey collar and dark glasses, he looked weathered, there was a scar running down his face and his hair was thick and black, turning silver. His body was quite tall and very powerful looking, dressed in an ornate black carapace under a long red jacket held shut with a very thick, decorative belt, and heavy looking dark grey trousers. One of his arms rested in the front of his jacket almost as if lying in a sling, the fingers relaxed. The other arm was gauntleted and held an enormous black sword over his broad shoulder.
"Jump into it." He said. He had a level, husky voice.
"What!?"
"Jump into the hole." He said slowly and clearly.
"We're not jumping down there! Who are you anyway!?"
The man looked at them in turn and laughed to himself. As he tilted his head a little, Quistis, the tallest of the three saw a little of his mouth, it was full lipped and was wearing an ironic smile.
"I am merely a plot device."
"A...plot device?"
"I am the means, for you to begin a story."
"Who's story?"
"That is for you to decide."
They stood staring at him, unsure what to do. Suddenly without warning he charged forwards as if to attack with his blade, but simply barged the three of them. His stocky body sent them flying into the pit, along with himself. He was still laughing.
Xu came in a second later and found nothing there. They were gone.
---
Pacing...pacing...pacing.
"GRRRRR!!! I can't stand this any longer! I'm SO BORED!"
One of the useful things Yuna had learned from that young man, two years ago, was that screaming was a great way to relieve stress. She was stood in the centre of the temple, dressed in her ceremonial kimono that she had worn as a summoner. It felt so restrictive now that she was used to a more practical way of dressing. The temple, that was restrictive too, and these people who were asking her dull political questions were restrictive, even Besaid island, her home, seemed to be strangling her.
She noticed that was was being stared at.She stared back levelly.
"Perhaps you guys should continue 'dis conversation with the high summoner another time ya?" Said Wakka carefully, ushering the men out. He waited a moment, then turned to Yuna. "What's gotten into you?!" He asked, his face showing sheer astonishment.
"I'm sorry Wakka, I just..." Yuna looked at the floor.
"You know, for the person who brought us the Calm, you sure ain't calm yourself." The former blitzer laughed. "You wanna go for a walk?"
It was sunny and breezy in Besaid, as always. The way the island was so peaceful both drew Yuna and at the same time constricted her so that she felt the need to travel. She loved her home in the village, but now she loved her home on the Celcius too and she missed it.
"If you're wondering where 'he' is, he's down at the beach, trainin' da Aurochs." Said Wakka, before Yuna had asked the question. "You wanna see him?"
"No, I'll leave him for now." They left the village gate and continued up the hill together.
A rustling in the bushes alerted them just before a Dingo jumped out in front, ready to attack. Wakka readied his favourite Blitzball to throw it, but before he could do a thing, Yuna unexpectedly pulled a silver pistol from the folds of her kimono and shot the creature through the head. The guardian stared at her.
"Where you been keeping that thing!?"
Yuna giggled.
"It's more practical than a staff." She explained, not really answering the question.
"You know, I think you miss sphere hunting. Why not go back?"
---
Rikku lay on top of her bed on the Celcius, staring at the ceiling.
"You asleep Paine?" She asked, tilting her head a little towards the next bed along. The third bed was depressingly empty.
"That's the third time you've asked. Keep disturbing me and I'll start deducting respect points."
"I just wanted to know if you were awake too."
"Yes I am."
"I miss Yunie." Rikku stared at the empty bed. There was a pause.
"....Me too." Replied the warrior at length.
"Things aren't as fun without Yunie to get us into trouble...And Brother's whining...urgggh!"
"I could hurt him again." Offered Paine amiably.
"That's tempting..." The Al Bhed girl grinned to herself, "Ohhhh, but that wouldn't bring Yunie back."
BRIDGE TO GULLWINGS!!! IMPORTANT SPHERE WAVE COMING IN! TO YOUR POSITIONS! NOW!!!
Brother's voice blasted from the intercom speakers all over the ship. He sounded even more agitated than usual.
"...Does he have to shout?" Rikku rubbed her ears.
The pair of Sphere hunters jumped up and changed from their nightwear quickly by activating their dresspheres, then ran for the lift. On the Bridge, Brother and Buddy were hunched over Shinra's chair watching the screen.
"YOU TWO! We have an absolute emergency of the most important kind!"
"What is it!? A sphere!? Another Vegnagun!?" Rikku danced about, wringing her hands.
"NO! More important! YUNA IS BORED!" The mohawked Al Bhed indicated the screen, motioning them to watch.
---
"I'd like to go back. But...shouldn't I stay here with him? It feels wrong that I spent so long getting him back, and now...well, I love being with him, but I miss being with Rikku and Paine too."
"If you went away for a while, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."
"I'd like that. But...I'm sure they're fine without me. After all, after I left them like that, can I go back?"
---
"She misses us! We have to go and tell her we miss her too!" Rikku jumped on the balls of her feet.
"Might I ask how many comspheres are on Besaid island?" Paine was looking at the screen carefully. "There wasn't one on the monument last time we went."
"Well....haha...we...I..." Brother flushed.
"You added tonnes of spheres to spy on Yunie!?" Rikku kicked her sibling in the shins fiercely.
"AAAAAGHHH!!!!" Brother hopped around. "I didn't put one in her bedroom though!"
Rikku ignored him and looked back at the screen.
"Perhaps we should pay her a visit." Suggested Buddy.
"I have a better idea." Rikku grinned, "let's kidnap her!"
"Kidnapping the High Summoner..." A small smile showed on Paine's dark lipped mouth. "Sounds entertaining."
"WE KIDNAP YUNA!!! YAHHHOOOOOO!!! Gullwings! Moooooove out!" Brother waved his arms wildly and danced. Buddy leapt into position at the left had console, Rikku ran to the right hand and Brother to the central cockpit. Shinra jumped to his data desk. Paine stood still for a moment, then shrugged because she had nowhere to run to and started to polish her sword.
---
"Owowowowowowowwwww....." Selphie brushed the dust off herself. "That hurt!"
Nearby Quistis stood up and refastened her Adamantoise shell hairclip. She looked around her with a curious expression.
"Strange." She remarked, "We just landed, but where did we fall from? This doesn't look like the bottom of a hole."
It was true, above them was an expansive blue sky with grey clouds drifting across it. The sea was close and audible.
"It doesn't look like anywhere in the world." Rinoa was sitting on a rock hugging her knees to her chest. She looked pale.
"You okay?" Asked Selphie.
"My powers have gone." She replied in a small voice, they just went...somewhere."
"Your sorceress powers just vanished?" Quistis looked torn between exploring the strange landscape and checking on Rinoa. She had always been inquisitive and practical by nature.
"First our GF...Now this..." Selphie frowned."You feeling okay? You look a little..."
"You know 'GF hangovers'?"
"Yeah, that wobbly feeling you get when you unjunction a GF, right?"
"They happen because your body is used to the boosted strength and such." Explained Quistis in her 'instructor' tone, "You feel weak without the boost to your metabolism."
"It's like that..." Said Rinoa weakly, "but fifty times worse."
Selphie sat with her and put a small hand on Rinoa's shoulder in a consoling way, and while she did it gave her a quick check over. She was shaking, not enough to be seen, but enough to be felt and her pupils were dilated, it was hard to tell from a distance with Rinoa because her eyes were so dark. The small SeeD gave Quistis a glance with a serious expression and a tiny nod to show that Rinoa wasn't in a state to be moved just yet. She pulled a canteen of water off her belt and offered it. The dark haired girl gulped some down thirstily. Quistis had turned her attention to the landscape and was examining the rocks.
"Hmmm...volcanic rock formations...looks like it must be ferrous from the colour. Mushroom shaped. There must have once been a lot of volcanic activity around here."
"Mushroom rocks huh? Any real Mushrooms?"
"Nothing much looks edible here." She replied, "But we're on a road, which means there must be people near looking at the tracks that have been left."
"Lots of footprints, look like boots rather than trainers...and what are these? Ski marks? They look like the tracks of the snowmobiles we used to ride around on in Trabia."
"Maybe we're in Trabia?" Hazarded Rinoa.
"Nuh uh," Replied Selphie, "If we were on a road in Trabia, I'd know exactly where we were. Besides, it's waaay to warm."
"It's humid. We're close to the sea, in a warm place with strange rock formations..." She looked at a rock a little more, "I'm stumped. I have no idea where we could be."
Selphie stared down the road, then jumped with a little sound of delight.
"Chocobos!" She squeaked.
"Chocobos? Hmm, there's a man with them."
"Is he wearing...armour? How strange."
"Maybe they're really fierce chocobos?" suggested Selphie, "or maybe he likes armour? Or maybe there's some kind of fair going on!"
"Where do you come up with this stuff?"
The man was sat on a chocobo, while two other birds followed him, they were fine looking creatures, their silky feathers showed that they had been well cared for, and the armoured youth seemed very attached to them. He himself was not as impressive as his mount, rather short, with a round face and a dreadful pudding bowl haircut, but he certainly seemed happy. He was speaking to the chocobos in a soft voice.
"Come on Chino, Lois, not far now...You'll like Elma and Lucil, they'll be really nice to you guys."
He stopped his little procession for a moment on seeing the three girls. He raised his eyebrows a little, they certainly were funnily dressed. He also noticed that all three of them had unusually pale skin, normally only mages and really obsessive temple dwellers were that pale. The blonde one at first he assumed was Al Bhed, until he noticed something really strange, she had blonde hair, but blue eyes with normal pupils, something he hadn't seen since that crazy Blitzballer guardian of Yuna's...what was his name again? The short one had green eyes, but with non Al Bhed pupils and brown hair. The other one, though she had pale skin like the other two, was a little more normal looking, with dark hair and eyes, her hairstyle reminded him a little of the High Summoner. All three were dressed in uniforms he had never seen. They certainly were puzzling.
"Excuse me," Said the tall blonde one in a slightly foreign sounding accent. "could you tell us where we are please?"
"Oh, of course." Clasko was reassured by the young lady's good manners, if she was a strange forgeigner, at least she was a polite strange foreigner, "This is Mushroom Rock Road, you're a just a little way from Djose temple, that way," he pointed behind him, "Luca's a little further, back that way, but if you rent a chocobo or a hover ride along the Mi'hen Highroad you'll get there in no time. And down this way here is the base of the 'Knights of Spira'."
"The Knights of Spira?"
"Oh, yeah, I guess not everybody will have heard of them yet. The Youth League and New Yevon finally settled on a really good plan, they combined into a group to make Spira safer for travel and trade. I'm just taking these Chocobos up to the base so Lucil can start a Chocobo knight unit, like when we were in the Crusaders." He smiled in a friendly way, somehow oblivious to the looks of bewilderment on the faces of his listeners.
"Er....thanks."
"Any time! See you later!"
They watched him leave.
"What the heck was that guy talking about!? Jozey Temple? Luca? Mee-hen Highroad? I've never heard of any one of those places!"
"I'm worried. He didn't look like he was crazy or joking. Talking about Chocobo knights and wearing Armour as if it were the most normal thing in the world."
"He was staring at us as if we were the funny looking ones."
"I say we head the way he said 'Luca' is. It sounds like a town or village or something. We won't find much at a temple."
There was about a minute of silence, where the only sound was the crash of the sea.
"We're in another world...aren't we?" Rinoa drew her knees closer to her chest, "We've fallen through a hole into another world." The other two hadn't seen her like this for over a year, lately she had been much more confident in herself and her abilities and had become more open and friendly with the Garden Students, feeling equal to them rather than inferior. Now she was threatening to draw in on herself, and Squall wasn't there to comfort her.
"You're probably right." Said Quistis. Though she was serious, her tone was bright, she was praising Rinoa for her observation, it was something she had discovered about her friend and favourite student, so long as you made her feel useful, she would be much happier.
"Wow...another world. Is that cool or scary?" It was a typical thing for Selphie to say. And Quistis felt the same way. As frightening as it was to suddenly be somewhere unknown, it was at the same time incredibly exciting, a sort of excitement she hadn't felt for two years.
"That man in the red coat said he wanted us to start a 'story', then barged us down the hole." Rinoa was growing in confidence, "And the hole lead us into this other world...So to get back, we'll probably need to find that man again...right?"
"Right!" Selphie was in full on 'adventure' mode. She was twitching with energy and grinning broadly. "We find him, we find out who he is and we get back home! Booyaka!"
Quistis and Rinoa looked at each other.
"Well, she's said the 'b word'."
"That means there's no stopping her."
"I guess the adventure starts now."
---
Yuna stood at the top of the hill, still in her kimono, firing her pistol at rocks to make them jump. Wakka had left her on her own and gone to check on Vidina, his beloved son, who he was adamant would become 'da best blitz player ever!' a statement that always made Lulu laugh. She looked over Besaid village, strange how at one time she had looked over this same view believing that she would never see the temple again. Here she was alive. And he was alive too, and Spira was at peace. So what was she so angry about? The High Summoner sighed. But then she suddenly stiffened. Something was wrong.
The birdsong had stopped. Yuna scanned the area quickly, her mismatched blue and green eyes darting. She edged toward a bush that was shaking, aiming her pistol carefully. Footsteps behind her made her spin, somebody had just run right nearby, somebody very fast, and probably quite small. she was about to turn back to the bush, but realised that looking behind had been a mistake. She had been grabbed before she knew what was happening. Her arms were held behind her back by somebody very strong, she could feel leather gloves against her skin. She struggled, and took a breath to scream, when a small, deft fingered hand clapped over her mouth. So there were two of them. A tall strong one holding her, and a small agile one keeping her quiet. But for kidnappers they were being awfully gentle with her, she thought. If she had been in pain she would have been preoccupied, but as she was being held firmly, but not uncomfortably, she began to notice things. Firstly and most obviously from the size of their hands they were both women, one of them smelled strongly of leather, the other was wearing a scent that was sweet and flowery, a very familiar smell, and she noticed was wearing fingerless gloves. She glanced down at the hand and just noticed the thumb nail...bright yellow nail varnish. There was only one person she knew who had the guts to wear bright yellow nail varnish.
"We're here to kidnap you High Summoner." Said an easily recognisable deep female voice.
"You're not gonna get away! Hahahaa!" Added the chirpy voice of the girl with buttercup fingernails. She took her hand away from Yuna's mouth.
"Well, if I'm being kidnapped, I guess there's nothing I can do. I'll have to go along!" Yuna relaxed her body, and behind her, Paine relaxed her iron grip. Rikku promptly fell over as she had been stood on tiptoe leaning on the other two Gullwings.
"Owie." She muttered.
"Can I tell Wakka that I won't be eating this evening because I've been kidnapped?"
"Already taken care of!"
"Buddy went and saw to it."
"Since when have you guys been so organised? I hope it's not because I'm not there."
"For some reason we're more organised at kidnapping our own people than at finding spheres." Muttered Paine.
"Well, like we say, anything goes for the Gullwings!"
"-Even if you're a cactus!" Added Rikku. The other two looked at her. "Geez, don't you guys remember that? Oh well..."
"Hey you guys! You never stopped long enough for me too meet you last time." Yuna looked up to see that 'he' was there, stood looking at them all with a grin. Last time they had been to Besaid, they had left Yuna to her happiness and made a quick get away on the Celcius.
"I'm Paine." Said the warrior simply.
"And you already know me!" Added the Al Bhed.
"I already...?" He stared at her for a moment. His brow furrowed, then his eyes suddenly widened. "Is that?- Wh-! Is that Rikku!?"
"Hey! What's THAT supposed to mean!?" Rikku nudged him angrily.
"Heh...Guess you haven't changed that much after all. But you're certainly looking....well." His eyes flicked down and up again viewing her toned, scantly clad and undeniably adult body, "Besaid seems to have changed so little that I'd kind of forgotten that I've missed out on two years. You're seventeen now, right?"
"Wait...if you've missed out on two years, does that mean we're the same age now?"
"Errrrrr." He rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully.
"You know." Said Yuna, "That's a good question, you don't look any different to how you did two years ago."
"You mean I haven't gotten any older so now Yuna's two years older than me and I'm the same age as Rikku?"
"How interesting." Paine looked at him, "I'm sure you're older than Rikku mentally at least."
"Ohhh, I dunno, this guy's pretty hyper. And he eats way too fast."
To the young man from Zanarkand, it seemed so strange, it had been the same Rikku who had found him when he first entered Spira and given him food. Though she was only two years younger than him, he'd thought of her as a kid. Now he had to readjust to the new Spira. Yuna was a gun toting Sphere hunter and Rikku was growing up. To her meeting him on that ship was over two years ago, a distant memory, but to him it was only few months in the past.
"It's nice to know you think so highly of me Rikku."
"Hey! Don't be like that! I was really worried about you you know!? I mean, I knew you'd come back, but still." She frowned suddenly, "You sure kept Yunie waiting!"
"Well it is pretty tough trying to come back from non existance you know." He grinned and looked at Yuna for a second, then seemed to remember something. "Hey Rikku, hold up your hand, I owe you something."
Rikku looked puzzled, but held her hand up as asked. The blitzer slapped a high five.
"Huh?"
"That's for the victory celebration we never had." He laughed, "We did it Rikku, our plan worked. Yuna's still here and Sin's gone!"
"Well...Yeah, it...kinda worked. But what about you and Auron?"
"I'm back. And as for Auron...hmmmm, that grumpy old man probably just wanted a rest."
"That's a shame..." Rikku looked at the floor and blushed. "I'd like to tell him that I'm not scared of thunder anymore...You know, back then, I kinda had a crush on Sir Auron."
"Back then you said in two or three more years you'd be like Lulu."
"Rikku said that?" Paine was smirking.
"When did Rikku say that?" Asked Yuna.
"You were unconcious at the time. It was down under Macalania Temple when the lake had just collapsed."
"You guys were responsible for that huge hole outside Macalania temple?" Asked Paine.
"Heh...I guess we kinda were."
"You just can't do anything without changing the world, can you Yuna?"
"Oh you know me, Spira's Superhero." The High Summoner tilted her head and smiled.
---
"It's...hot."
"Kind of damp too."
"I think it's becoming more and more obvious why the people here wear so little clothing." Quistis pushed her damp hair out of her face. "And why they all stand around not doing much."
"It's too hot for running around if you don't need to."
The two SeeDs had stripped off their ornate black jackets, Selphie was wearing an orange and yellow striped vest top and Quistis a simple grey blouse. Luckily for Rinoa, the cadet uniform was lighter, it was made from a finer, less expenive fabric and had a shorter skirt and jacket. She had still unzipped her jacket, under which she wore a plain white t-shirt.
"This place must be the 'Meehen Highroad' that armoured chocobo nut was talking about."
"More like a big dirt track than a Highroad."
"I guess this world is less advanced than ours or something."
"There's a lot of ruins around..." Quistis stopped suddenly, looking at the hollow remains of what must have once been a tall rounded spire. There were several of them scattered around.
"Huh? Heeey, yeah. That's pretty wierd."
"As if this world has been though something terrible and is only just recovering..."
"How about we sit inside that one for a while to rest, it's really hot out here." The Instructor pointed to a large piece of ruin on a small round hill. They walked up into it and breathed deeply. In the shade it was much cooler.
"Hey! Can we sit here too!?" Called a small voice. Looking down from the hill, the three girls saw there were about five children in a group. Their leader was a friendly looking boy with brown hair.
"Yeah, sure! Come on up!" Selphie loved children. She shifted up to give them more room to sit.
"Man it's hot, not even the fiends are out today! Maroda said it'd be hot 'cause it's midsummer's day...guess I shoulda listened. Oh, he said I ought to introduce myself to people didn't he? I'm Pacce, leader of the Kinderguardians, the most feared sphere hunters in Spira! ...'Cept the Gullwings of course, and these guys are Taro, Hana, Bocchi and Raio. You guys are sphere hunters too right? You sure look wierd enough to be sphere hunters anyway."
"Errrrr...."Selphie glanced at her companions, "Sure! Yeah, we're sphere hunters!" She flashed a smile.
"So whatcha called?" The boy nudged in closer, feeling a little more comfortable. They were a little pale and wierd looking to him, but they seemed friendly.
"I'm Selphie, and this is Quistis and Rinoa."
"What's your sphere hunting team called!?" Asked Hana eagerly from behind Pacce.
"Errrr....we're....ummmm...." Selphie glanced again at her friends. Rinoa shrugged slightly and just as she did, the sun glinted a little off her shooting star pinwheel, a little shimmer passing along the ridges of the metal wing shapes. Selphie turned back and without any further hesitation, answered. "The Angelwings!" She glimpsed back at the other two, who were both trying hard not to laugh.
"Heeeey! That's a cool name! Where are you guys going to anyway? Luca?"
"Anywhere cool where they serve drinks." Quistis pushed her glasses back up her nose.
"Hmmmmm, how about this....We'll show you guys the best cafe in Luca...But only if..."
"...If?"
"Only if you buy us all drinks too!"
"Ahhhh....Well...You see, we're from a...long way away. Can you tell us if this money's okay?" Quistis was a little more awkward with younger children, even though she was an Instructor she tended to deal more with teenagers than little ones. She held out a selection of gil in notes and coins.
"Whoa! You guys are rich! Dunno 'bout this paper stuff, but you got a lot of gil just with these coins! You guys must be great sphere hunters!"
"Ehehe, yeah...we hunt lots of sphere alright..."
"Come on! Luca's not far, just this way!"
"Booyaka! Let's go!"
Selphie jumped up and began walking after the diminutive sphere hunting team.
"You're not related to Rikku by any chance?"
"...Who?"
"Uhhh, nevermind."
Quistis offered a hand to Rinoa to help her up, she seemed a little shaky on her feet still. She dropped the coins back into her purse on her belt.
"Well, at least our money is okay. But if only our coins can be spent, we don't have that many, if we get stuck here for a while we might just have to become 'Sphere Hunters'... whatever they are."
"I thought we already were? 'The Angelwing Spherehunters,' right? Selphie sure is coping well with all this."
"Being cheerful is the only way she can cope with things. She's just as terrified and confused as you or me, she's just good at distracting herself from it. I thought you knew that."
"I dunno, it's hard to think Selphie can be that...deep."
Quistis laughed to herself.
"I thought you'd understand her better than anybody else. You were able to unravel Squall after all. Selphie's just the same thing, she hides her emotions just like he does, but in a more acceptable, less dangerous way. She once said herself that you two are the same, you just march to a different beat."
"She said that?"
"Well, she wrote it. I'm suprised you two aren't closer."
"I always find her...hmmm....difficult to approach, you know? She's so cheerful, even when things are bad that I always think she must think I'm useless."
"I think that she thinks that you don't like her."
"Hey! You two c'mon! You gotta check out this town!" Selphie's chirpy voice carried from a little way ahead.
The path, or 'highroad' as it was called ended abruptly and descened steeply in beautifully carved stone steps. From the crown of the hill, the town that lay ahead could be seen clearly. It was built on a thin peninsula sticking out into a sparkling blue ocean and had several docks, built on the water itself, sticking out like spokes, the hub of this wheel shaped town was a huge dome like structure. There were colourful flags and balloons everywhere. There were also more people here, it seemed that as the SeeDs and cadet had observed on the highroad that people in spira tended to wear little clothing compared to the people of their own world and that bright colours were popular, tatoos were common and most people it seemed were tanned golden by the sun.
"This is Luca, biggest town in all Spira! The big building in the middle is the Blitzball stadium, but there's no games now 'cause it's not Blitz Season."
"What's with all the balloons and stuff, is it festival time?"
"Naw, they're always there. Even when Sin kept attacking, before the High Summoner got rid of it, Luca was like this. Maroda said it's a 'celebration of life' or something."
"My kinda town! So where's the drinks?"
---
"So where are we going?"
"...Er...We hadn't planned that far."
Yuna and Rikku were stood in the bridge of the Celcius. The high summoner felt comforted by the vibration and noise of the engine under her feet. She was back, though it felt like a dream.
"Kidnapping you was kind of a spur of the moment decision." Said Paine.
"Well....How about we go to..." Yuna looked at the digital map that was on Shinra's console screen. She raised a hand, shut her eyes and jabbed her index finger randomly. "Luca!"
"Why?"
"Who cares about why Paine!? Let's just follow the finger!"
"Well, we've come out so well depending on sheer dumb luck in the past, why stop a treasured Gullwing tradition?" Paine sighed, but she was smiling as she did.
"We could go and get drinks or something and decide our next move. It's too hot for Sphere Hunting today."
"Alright! We go with Yuna's orders! Luca, here we come!" Brother revved the engine and the ship gave a sharp jerk as it set off suddenly.
"Man, we sure have missed you." Buddy glanced at the three girls. "The gullwings just aren't the same without the whole of the YRP."
"It's nice to be back Buddy."
---
"Heeeeey, nice cafe! Reminds me of one I used to go to a few years ago."
Quistis had ordered drinks. Most people in the cafe were either drinking fresh, brightly coloured fruit juices, home brewed, sandy hued beer, or small beakers of light rice wine. They bought some Spiran food to sample, it was light, spicy and beautifully presented. Fresh fruits were laid out in patterns with rice crackers and small containers of various sauces.
"Mmf!" Pacce washed a cracker down with a large mouthful of bright green juice. "So where are you guys going to look for Spheres next? We tried the Zanarkand ruins, but there's not much there now, we found some treasure, but no spheres. We were thinking that now the lightning rod towers are fixed, maybe we could try the thunder plains...The only problem is getting there."
"They're a long way?"
"Sure are. A loooooong way."
"Hey Pacce! Look! It's Lady Yuna!" Hana, the small girl who wore a helmet over most of her face, was pointing to the doorway of the cafe.
The three otherworldy visitors looked over. A young woman, about their age had just entered. She was about the same height as Quistis and of a delicate, graceful build, easily seen due to the fairly minimal amount of clothing she was wearing. Her hair was mousy brown, fine and feathery and she was beautiful enough to stand out from the crowd. Her mouth rested in a smile and her eyes, one sapphire blue, one emerald green, were wide and compassionate. She was followed by two others, the first was marginally shorter than Rinoa, quite small it seemed by Spiran standards. Her wild blonde hair was braided, beaded and held back by a wide blue bandanna. Her daring yellow bikini top, brown suede skirt and cream coloured butterfly sleeves seemed almost contridicted by the enormously long knitted scarf that hung from her neck to around her knees. Her eyes were easily as green as Selphie's, but had rather strange spiral shaped pupils. The final member of the trio was a tall woman, Rinoa guessed about the same height as Squall, and was rather imposing with spiked silver hair, pale skin, dark lips and crimson eyes. She was dressed entirely in leather and metal and wore a serious expression as she surveyed the cafe, as if looking for potencial danger, but even as she did this, she walked with a nonchelant swagger.
"Check it out you three, those three ladies are the Gullwings! I bet you've heard of THEM right? They're the very best, 'cause they beat Vegnagun and they've got a cool airship, and-" he took a breath, ready to finish his sentance, but before he could, he was distracted by the three Sphere hunters approaching the table.
"Hello Pacce."
"Hey Lady Yuna! Looks like all the cool sphere hunters are in Luca today huh? There guys here are the Angelwings!"
Quistis wondered why the child was refering to the young woman as 'Lady', she guessed that perhaps she was some kind of noblewoman, she had the right sort of bearing and refined manners to be one. She had learned from Rinoa that a person could come from a particularly priviledged background and not look it. The two groups exchanged greetings.
Yuna looked at the three girls that Pacce had introduced. They were small and pale, the tallest of them, the blonde woman was only as tall as she was, the dark haired one was barely taller than Rikku and the smallest, though a full grown woman, wasn't much taller than Pacce. Their dark clothing, decorated with metal in intricate patterns on the shoulders looked extremely hot and had the secondary effect of making them look even paler. All three of them were as light skinned as she remembered she had been when she was a summoner spending all her time indoors training.
Rikku tended to approach things by gut instinct. These people sure looked a little strange, but that kind of thing had never bothered her. She sat down on a spare stool quite comfortably and ordered juice for herself and her companions, motioning them to sit. She glanced at them, wondering who to talk to first. The tallest of the three she guessed was their leader, she had struck up conversation with Yuna and Paine without hesitation, the one in the blue jacket seemed a little less mature and self assured, she was listening to the conversation with her arm wrapped across her body, probably somebody who needed to warm up to people. So that left...
Two pairs of large green eyes met. Some gut instinct in both girls immediately told them that they had met some kind of kindred spirit. They grinned at each other and leaned in across the table, grasping their small hands into a firm little handshake.
"Selphie."
"Rikku."
"Nice to meet you!"
"You too!"
"These guys are my friends, Rinoa and Quistis."
"These two are Yuna and Paine. Yunie's my cousin."
"And you work together? That's cool! Quis is kind of like an adopted big sis, we grew up together. But I don't really have a family."
Rikku gave an understanding nod.
"Sin huh?"
"Sin?"
"Sin...killed your family? Er...Sorry, that's not a good subject..Maybe we should talk about something else."
What was this 'Sin' that people kept talking about? Selphie wondered. The way they said it, it was clear that it was being said with a capital letter, as a name or title rather than the usual use of the word. She pondered for a moment, then it struck her, the ruins everywhere, they must have been caused by Sin.
"Er, no, it's okay, I don't remember them at all." It was true, even if she had originally had memories of her family, before the sorceress war, they would have been wiped out by GF use. "So you can talk about 'Sin' all you like."
"Ahaaa, you wanna hear THAT story huh? That's the story everybody wants to hear, but they always ask Yunie to tell it. Everybody want's to know-"
"Wants to know what?" Yuna butted in, having heard her name mentioned.
"These guys want to hear your story Yunie."
"That AGAIN?" Paine made a rather angry noise.
The newly formed 'Angelwing Spherehunters' looked blankly at each other.
"I don't mind telling it, but 'He' tells it better than I do, I think it's more his story than mine."
Just as Yuna was about to begin the tale there was a crash from outside. A man stumbled though the doorway.
"HELP! Th-There's a huge creature attacking the stadium! Please! Lady Yuna!" He stumbled towards her desperately.
"Let's go." The high summoner drew her pistols and began to run.
"We've had Yunie back with us for less than two hours-" Sighed Rikku.
"-And we're already in mortal danger." Paine finished the sentance.
"I've really missed her." The Al Bhed drew her small red katal blades and Paine pulled out an enormous dark silver sword with a skull decoration on the hilt. "C'mon!"
Quistis glanced at her companions.
"We should help them!"
"We're with you Quis!"
---
And let's end there on a cliffhanger. Muahaha! Thanks for reading this very first chapter. Please review, I like reviews. And read the next chapter when it's up. And recycle people! Booyaka! (okay, got carried away).