HIYA!!!! sorry its been a while...sickish...school...etc, etc,etc...i'm sure you understand! here's a powerful chappie with some interesting twists! the next may be long in coming but it'll rock even harder! love ya all! ~~~sa~~~
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Ch.8 Second Chances
"...can you be? I mean, we don't even know if it was a normal Poison spell or what!" Gippal's frantic voice sounded dulled by the fever coursing through her body. Auron's voice joined his, calmer and more reassuring. "There's no reason to get upset. She's going to be fine." "Why are we still talking? We need to heal her NOW!" Brother's voice was loud enough that Rikku didn't have to struggle to hear it through the hot haze that seemed to be surrounding her. Coughing suddenly, she sat up, desperately trying to breathe. Gippal, Brother, and Auron were all standing around her bed in the cabin. Yuna, Tidus, Paine, and Gankee were no where to be seen. "Rikku!" Gippal cried, gripping her shoulders and looking into her glazed eyes. She tried to speak, say anything, but her tongue was swollen and all her body hurt. She felt like she was on fire. The room started spinning and she passed out again, sleeping fitfully while the others watched faithfully.
When she woke up again, Gippal was pacing around by the foot of her bed while Auron discussed stronger Remedies with Barkeep. Brother and Buddy weren't in the cabin. Sitting slowly, she took a deep breath before talking. Her tongue wasn't too swollen and she actually made words this time. "Gippal..." Rikku wheezed, sounding small and scared. Immediately, he was at her side, holding her hand and nodding her on. "What...where's...Yunie? Paine?" Gippal closed his good eye briefly, relieved that she was well enough to speak. Rikku's whole body tensed; she took that gesture as a bad sign. "Rikku, they're calming down the rest of Spira. The Guadosalam incident stirred up a HUGE ruckus at Bevelle and Youth League HQ. Not to mention that all the Al Bhed are freaking, too. Your Pops is all over this one." He gushed all of this, expecting her to pass out at any second.
Looking way too pale and more than a little shakey, she attempted to get out of bed only to be stopped by the gentle, but stern Gippal. "No way, missy. You're stayin' in bed until Auron and Barkeep can come up with something to get all of that toxin out of your system." Groaning, Rikku laid back down, staring at the weird looking stars that had suddenly appeared in her vision. Gippal was talking but she couldn't hear him all too well; that fever haze was back. Suddenly, she saw Auron hand Gippal something which he made her drink. Gagging on the bitter mixture of a powerful curative magic and Remedies, her vision and hearing cleared immediately. It was like someone had shoved her energy and her will to live back in her body all at once. Her cheeks got their color back and her eyes didn't look so glazy anymore.
"Whoa! What WAS that stuff?" She squeaked, sitting up again. Gippal smiled and hugged her fiercely. "You're better!" He cried, happily rocking back and forth. Rikku chuckled, completely ignoring the side of her brain that told her to shove him away. She hugged him back, smiling. Auron, who smirked almost triumphantly, turned away out of respect for their privacy. He cleared his throat when he spotted Yuna rush into the cabin. Rikku jumped out of bed when she saw her cousin, too, swaying a little and leaning against Gippal for support. "YUNIE!" She screamed, making both Gippal and Auron flinch. Yuna squealed and ran all the way over to her still-a-little-weak friend. She half hugged her due to Gippal's arm already around Rikku's waist for support. "Rikku, I was so scared that...well, I'm so happy you're better!" Yuna was crying onto Rikku's shoulder and the blonde shed a few tears, too.
Paine, Tidus, and a timid looking Gankee trailed along after Yuna. Paine hugged Rikku, too, half hugging Gippal in the process. Gankee reached over like he wanted to hug her, but saw Gippal and scooted away. Tidus clapped both Gippal and Rikku on the shoulder at the same time, grinning maliciously. "Sooooo, when's the wedding?" Everyone burst out laughing except the two Al Bhed love birds who blushed furiously and looked anywhere but the other's eyes. Auron once again cleared his throat for attention. They all looked at him, respectively silent. "I'm glad we're all happy to see each other again, but there are a few very pressing matters at hand." With that somber, mood wrecking statement, they all shuffled off to the bridge for a discussion on how to best deal with this crisis.
Rikku leaned on Paine while Gippal gave them all a status update on the energy levels. "BOOM! That's all I have to say about this stupid energy thing. It exploded outwards at the Farplane entrance, destorying the guado in its path. Plus, now millions of fiends are pouring out of that hole as we speak. Of course, we know that most of them are no ordinary fiends. They're big, bad, and ugly." Tidus chimed in, serious look on his face and confident gleam in his eyes. "Not to mention unkillable. That mutant thing just wouldn't die." They all nodded, silently remembering the horrors of that battle. Gankee cleared his throat making Rikku look at him with that "GOD! That is SO familiar!" look on her face again. "Uh, when Rikku, Sir Auron, and I were in the Farplane, we witnessed it being destroyed by that energy mass. There really is no Farplane now."
'Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Buddy interrupted. "Are you saying these dead things have no place to go?" Brother's face paled out. "Th-the dead walk among us!" He screamed, running to his cockpit seat. Auron rolled his good eye, stifling a chuckle. "That's all an understatement. If all the pyreflies of the dead, unsent and sent are free, we have a serious crisis on our hands." Paine nodded, thoughtfully rubbing her chin with her free hand. "This could get bad for all of Spira. Very bad." Gankee, his eyes fiercely bright suddenly, looked from person to person. "This looks like a job for Yuna and the Gullwings, no?" He ventured, his voice calm and placid like there wasn't really a problem at all.
Rikku nodded, pushing away from Paine and standing on her own. "Yeah! Let's go, Gullwings! We've gotta help all the people in Spira...AGAIN!" Spinning around and clapping, she struck her YRP pose. Paine grinned and joined her. "Dr. P's special dose of hurt, coming right up!" Yuna thoughtfully hesitated before smiling slowly. "Gullwings, its fiend huntin' time!" Joining the YRP pose trio, Yuna grinned at a speechless Tidus who seemed shocked at this show of simultaneous team spirit. Gippal stood up and crossed his arms, closing his good eye and nodding. "Yup, time to lay down some serious smack on those crazy fiends." Tidus, feeling slightly left out, thrust his fist into the air and pumped it down (AN: He did this A LOT in FF10). "I might be a little rusty, but I'll give it my best slash and dash!" He winked at Yuna with his quirky little smile.
Auron glanced at all of the happily confident, brave young heroes who had saved the world going on three times now. Gankee stood right next to him, his mismatched eyes fixed on Rikku sadly. She was skipping around with Yuna and flirting with Gippal right and left. Auron motioned to the bouncy blonde with his good arm. "With her, its best just to let her be. When she needs you, she'll find you." Gankee, not the least bit surprised that Auron sympathized with him, pushed some of his messy hair out of his face. "This doesn't concern me. I'd better leave before it gets too messy." The gruff guardian nodded, following the younger black haired man to the cockpit where they discussed his departure with Brother. Surprisingly, Auron wanted to leave with Gankee. All he had to say when Buddy asked him why was "I have my reasons."
Shrugging, Gankee slipped past the group of exuberant world-savers with Auron trailing him. Neither spoke all the way to the deck and there was total silence as they waited for Brother to land the ship near the entrance to the Macalania Woods. As soon as the Celsius was close enough to the ground, both shockingly similar men leapt off at the same time. The airship lifted up and kicked its thrusters on to head back to the Mushroom Rock Road for a meeting with Nooj. Gankee brushed some dust off his shorts while standing up and glancing around for Auron. The legendary guardian was standing at the edge of the woods, staring up at their fading branches morosely. "Horrible, isn't it? The fading of one of Spira's most beautiful treasures. What a wonder Calm we have." Gankee snorted at his own sarcasm, adjusting the glaive across his back. He looked ready to stomp right through the fragile trees if they got in his way.
Auron glanced critically at the boy, his eye roving over the tatoo on his arm and the gem set in his weapon. "Why are you so keen on going to Macalania anyway?" The older man asked, moving his gimpy arm in its sleeve-sling. Gankee started walking, adopting an air of purpose and reason. Compared to Auron's laidback version of this 'air', his wilted and soon became fidgety and weird. "My mother lives there, in the ice caves." Auron, who had been following Gankee at his usual leisurely looking pace, froze suddenly, his good eye wide with surprise. Memories washed over him in waves forcing him to stand there motionless until the boy realized he wasn't following anymore. "Sir Auron? Is something wrong?" Asked the suddenly horribly familiar boy as he hurried back to grasp Auron's good arm.
The guardian shook his head at the realization he had come to, staring into the boy's mismatched eyes. One green, one amber. Al Bhed and regular Spiran. His own eyes were amber; that dark, almost reddish hue of the color. Odd that the boy would have eyes those two colors out of all the others in the world. Before speaking his half-baked ideas, Auron strode forward shakily, questioning Gankee as he walked. "Your mother, what is her name?" Gankee, a little confused by the old guardian's antics, jogged to catch up with him. "Maea. She's an Al Bhed researcher of the forgotten race of Spira, the Kohlso." Auron sped up this time, his footsteps echoing in the empty woods. Gankee, convinced that Auron knew his mom, ran along side the man, explaining his reasoning further.
"The Kohlso are the long forgotten cousins of the Ronso. They live in the northern ice caves of Macalania where the ice fish and hunt white wolves. They're white instead of blue like the Ronso and have ice blue eyes. Their weapons are rock spears with ice points and they-" His ramblings were cut short when Auron pulled out his blade and slashed through an overhanging crystalline branch in his frustration. "I know all about the Kohlso!" He cried, angrily shoving his sunglasses further up his nose. Gankee smirked. His clever bumbling had squeezed that little confession right out of the not-so-clever older man. Still jogging to catch up with Auron's steadily increasing pace, Gankee caught a glimpse of his companion's anguished face. 'What about my mother and the Kohlso could be upsetting him that much?' Thought the still curious Gankee.
The thick silence of the woods and the tension between Gankee and Auron closed in around them as they made their way through the dying woods. Focusing on the depressing nature of the dying trees and fading spheres, Gankee tried to take his mind off the nagging questions swimming through it. How did Auron know his mother? Maea was one of the only people to know anything about the Kohlso, other than Maechen, of course. Maechen taught Gankee all he knew about the white cousins of the Ronso people. In so doing, he taught Gankee all about his mother. Why was the information about Maea and the Kohlso upsetting Auron? What connection was there between his mother and this brooding guardian? Why was everything swirling through his head in question form?
By the time they reached the snowy borders of the woods, Gankee was about ready to burst with all the questions in his mind. "Auron!" He cried, just as the guardian was about to stroll into the Agency. The red garbed man turned abrutly, his eye narrowed behind the shield of a pair of sunglasses. The mere tilt of his head was answer enough for Gankee who forged ahead through the snow and his questions. "How do you know my mother?" Auron's facade broke and he gazed up at the darkening sky. A frigid wind whipped around them, bringing sharp ice chips from the north. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled its lonely song to the hidden moon. Slowly looking back at the tall, dark young man, Auron's voice rang out, harse and sharp in the night. "She was my lover and the mother of my only two children. Kuron and Gankee. You." As slow and hoarse as his answer was, Gankee's reaction was much quicker. He ran to the man he never got to know as father and embraced him for the first time. And to think he never got to call him 'dad'.
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AN: hope you liked it! please, feel free to ask anything or rant or anything! update coming...in a while...LOL!!! peace!~~~sa~~~
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Ch.8 Second Chances
"...can you be? I mean, we don't even know if it was a normal Poison spell or what!" Gippal's frantic voice sounded dulled by the fever coursing through her body. Auron's voice joined his, calmer and more reassuring. "There's no reason to get upset. She's going to be fine." "Why are we still talking? We need to heal her NOW!" Brother's voice was loud enough that Rikku didn't have to struggle to hear it through the hot haze that seemed to be surrounding her. Coughing suddenly, she sat up, desperately trying to breathe. Gippal, Brother, and Auron were all standing around her bed in the cabin. Yuna, Tidus, Paine, and Gankee were no where to be seen. "Rikku!" Gippal cried, gripping her shoulders and looking into her glazed eyes. She tried to speak, say anything, but her tongue was swollen and all her body hurt. She felt like she was on fire. The room started spinning and she passed out again, sleeping fitfully while the others watched faithfully.
When she woke up again, Gippal was pacing around by the foot of her bed while Auron discussed stronger Remedies with Barkeep. Brother and Buddy weren't in the cabin. Sitting slowly, she took a deep breath before talking. Her tongue wasn't too swollen and she actually made words this time. "Gippal..." Rikku wheezed, sounding small and scared. Immediately, he was at her side, holding her hand and nodding her on. "What...where's...Yunie? Paine?" Gippal closed his good eye briefly, relieved that she was well enough to speak. Rikku's whole body tensed; she took that gesture as a bad sign. "Rikku, they're calming down the rest of Spira. The Guadosalam incident stirred up a HUGE ruckus at Bevelle and Youth League HQ. Not to mention that all the Al Bhed are freaking, too. Your Pops is all over this one." He gushed all of this, expecting her to pass out at any second.
Looking way too pale and more than a little shakey, she attempted to get out of bed only to be stopped by the gentle, but stern Gippal. "No way, missy. You're stayin' in bed until Auron and Barkeep can come up with something to get all of that toxin out of your system." Groaning, Rikku laid back down, staring at the weird looking stars that had suddenly appeared in her vision. Gippal was talking but she couldn't hear him all too well; that fever haze was back. Suddenly, she saw Auron hand Gippal something which he made her drink. Gagging on the bitter mixture of a powerful curative magic and Remedies, her vision and hearing cleared immediately. It was like someone had shoved her energy and her will to live back in her body all at once. Her cheeks got their color back and her eyes didn't look so glazy anymore.
"Whoa! What WAS that stuff?" She squeaked, sitting up again. Gippal smiled and hugged her fiercely. "You're better!" He cried, happily rocking back and forth. Rikku chuckled, completely ignoring the side of her brain that told her to shove him away. She hugged him back, smiling. Auron, who smirked almost triumphantly, turned away out of respect for their privacy. He cleared his throat when he spotted Yuna rush into the cabin. Rikku jumped out of bed when she saw her cousin, too, swaying a little and leaning against Gippal for support. "YUNIE!" She screamed, making both Gippal and Auron flinch. Yuna squealed and ran all the way over to her still-a-little-weak friend. She half hugged her due to Gippal's arm already around Rikku's waist for support. "Rikku, I was so scared that...well, I'm so happy you're better!" Yuna was crying onto Rikku's shoulder and the blonde shed a few tears, too.
Paine, Tidus, and a timid looking Gankee trailed along after Yuna. Paine hugged Rikku, too, half hugging Gippal in the process. Gankee reached over like he wanted to hug her, but saw Gippal and scooted away. Tidus clapped both Gippal and Rikku on the shoulder at the same time, grinning maliciously. "Sooooo, when's the wedding?" Everyone burst out laughing except the two Al Bhed love birds who blushed furiously and looked anywhere but the other's eyes. Auron once again cleared his throat for attention. They all looked at him, respectively silent. "I'm glad we're all happy to see each other again, but there are a few very pressing matters at hand." With that somber, mood wrecking statement, they all shuffled off to the bridge for a discussion on how to best deal with this crisis.
Rikku leaned on Paine while Gippal gave them all a status update on the energy levels. "BOOM! That's all I have to say about this stupid energy thing. It exploded outwards at the Farplane entrance, destorying the guado in its path. Plus, now millions of fiends are pouring out of that hole as we speak. Of course, we know that most of them are no ordinary fiends. They're big, bad, and ugly." Tidus chimed in, serious look on his face and confident gleam in his eyes. "Not to mention unkillable. That mutant thing just wouldn't die." They all nodded, silently remembering the horrors of that battle. Gankee cleared his throat making Rikku look at him with that "GOD! That is SO familiar!" look on her face again. "Uh, when Rikku, Sir Auron, and I were in the Farplane, we witnessed it being destroyed by that energy mass. There really is no Farplane now."
'Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Buddy interrupted. "Are you saying these dead things have no place to go?" Brother's face paled out. "Th-the dead walk among us!" He screamed, running to his cockpit seat. Auron rolled his good eye, stifling a chuckle. "That's all an understatement. If all the pyreflies of the dead, unsent and sent are free, we have a serious crisis on our hands." Paine nodded, thoughtfully rubbing her chin with her free hand. "This could get bad for all of Spira. Very bad." Gankee, his eyes fiercely bright suddenly, looked from person to person. "This looks like a job for Yuna and the Gullwings, no?" He ventured, his voice calm and placid like there wasn't really a problem at all.
Rikku nodded, pushing away from Paine and standing on her own. "Yeah! Let's go, Gullwings! We've gotta help all the people in Spira...AGAIN!" Spinning around and clapping, she struck her YRP pose. Paine grinned and joined her. "Dr. P's special dose of hurt, coming right up!" Yuna thoughtfully hesitated before smiling slowly. "Gullwings, its fiend huntin' time!" Joining the YRP pose trio, Yuna grinned at a speechless Tidus who seemed shocked at this show of simultaneous team spirit. Gippal stood up and crossed his arms, closing his good eye and nodding. "Yup, time to lay down some serious smack on those crazy fiends." Tidus, feeling slightly left out, thrust his fist into the air and pumped it down (AN: He did this A LOT in FF10). "I might be a little rusty, but I'll give it my best slash and dash!" He winked at Yuna with his quirky little smile.
Auron glanced at all of the happily confident, brave young heroes who had saved the world going on three times now. Gankee stood right next to him, his mismatched eyes fixed on Rikku sadly. She was skipping around with Yuna and flirting with Gippal right and left. Auron motioned to the bouncy blonde with his good arm. "With her, its best just to let her be. When she needs you, she'll find you." Gankee, not the least bit surprised that Auron sympathized with him, pushed some of his messy hair out of his face. "This doesn't concern me. I'd better leave before it gets too messy." The gruff guardian nodded, following the younger black haired man to the cockpit where they discussed his departure with Brother. Surprisingly, Auron wanted to leave with Gankee. All he had to say when Buddy asked him why was "I have my reasons."
Shrugging, Gankee slipped past the group of exuberant world-savers with Auron trailing him. Neither spoke all the way to the deck and there was total silence as they waited for Brother to land the ship near the entrance to the Macalania Woods. As soon as the Celsius was close enough to the ground, both shockingly similar men leapt off at the same time. The airship lifted up and kicked its thrusters on to head back to the Mushroom Rock Road for a meeting with Nooj. Gankee brushed some dust off his shorts while standing up and glancing around for Auron. The legendary guardian was standing at the edge of the woods, staring up at their fading branches morosely. "Horrible, isn't it? The fading of one of Spira's most beautiful treasures. What a wonder Calm we have." Gankee snorted at his own sarcasm, adjusting the glaive across his back. He looked ready to stomp right through the fragile trees if they got in his way.
Auron glanced critically at the boy, his eye roving over the tatoo on his arm and the gem set in his weapon. "Why are you so keen on going to Macalania anyway?" The older man asked, moving his gimpy arm in its sleeve-sling. Gankee started walking, adopting an air of purpose and reason. Compared to Auron's laidback version of this 'air', his wilted and soon became fidgety and weird. "My mother lives there, in the ice caves." Auron, who had been following Gankee at his usual leisurely looking pace, froze suddenly, his good eye wide with surprise. Memories washed over him in waves forcing him to stand there motionless until the boy realized he wasn't following anymore. "Sir Auron? Is something wrong?" Asked the suddenly horribly familiar boy as he hurried back to grasp Auron's good arm.
The guardian shook his head at the realization he had come to, staring into the boy's mismatched eyes. One green, one amber. Al Bhed and regular Spiran. His own eyes were amber; that dark, almost reddish hue of the color. Odd that the boy would have eyes those two colors out of all the others in the world. Before speaking his half-baked ideas, Auron strode forward shakily, questioning Gankee as he walked. "Your mother, what is her name?" Gankee, a little confused by the old guardian's antics, jogged to catch up with him. "Maea. She's an Al Bhed researcher of the forgotten race of Spira, the Kohlso." Auron sped up this time, his footsteps echoing in the empty woods. Gankee, convinced that Auron knew his mom, ran along side the man, explaining his reasoning further.
"The Kohlso are the long forgotten cousins of the Ronso. They live in the northern ice caves of Macalania where the ice fish and hunt white wolves. They're white instead of blue like the Ronso and have ice blue eyes. Their weapons are rock spears with ice points and they-" His ramblings were cut short when Auron pulled out his blade and slashed through an overhanging crystalline branch in his frustration. "I know all about the Kohlso!" He cried, angrily shoving his sunglasses further up his nose. Gankee smirked. His clever bumbling had squeezed that little confession right out of the not-so-clever older man. Still jogging to catch up with Auron's steadily increasing pace, Gankee caught a glimpse of his companion's anguished face. 'What about my mother and the Kohlso could be upsetting him that much?' Thought the still curious Gankee.
The thick silence of the woods and the tension between Gankee and Auron closed in around them as they made their way through the dying woods. Focusing on the depressing nature of the dying trees and fading spheres, Gankee tried to take his mind off the nagging questions swimming through it. How did Auron know his mother? Maea was one of the only people to know anything about the Kohlso, other than Maechen, of course. Maechen taught Gankee all he knew about the white cousins of the Ronso people. In so doing, he taught Gankee all about his mother. Why was the information about Maea and the Kohlso upsetting Auron? What connection was there between his mother and this brooding guardian? Why was everything swirling through his head in question form?
By the time they reached the snowy borders of the woods, Gankee was about ready to burst with all the questions in his mind. "Auron!" He cried, just as the guardian was about to stroll into the Agency. The red garbed man turned abrutly, his eye narrowed behind the shield of a pair of sunglasses. The mere tilt of his head was answer enough for Gankee who forged ahead through the snow and his questions. "How do you know my mother?" Auron's facade broke and he gazed up at the darkening sky. A frigid wind whipped around them, bringing sharp ice chips from the north. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled its lonely song to the hidden moon. Slowly looking back at the tall, dark young man, Auron's voice rang out, harse and sharp in the night. "She was my lover and the mother of my only two children. Kuron and Gankee. You." As slow and hoarse as his answer was, Gankee's reaction was much quicker. He ran to the man he never got to know as father and embraced him for the first time. And to think he never got to call him 'dad'.
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AN: hope you liked it! please, feel free to ask anything or rant or anything! update coming...in a while...LOL!!! peace!~~~sa~~~