Yay! This story is finally getting to where I want it to get. I loved the ending of the chapter, and I almost had a hard time ending it! Tell me what you think!! (Guess I'd better let you read it first, huh!)
Only Vance and a few others belong to me, while the rest are characters of Final Fantasy X!
Chapter 4: An Unsuspected Visitor
"Uh, Captain?" I said, walking Sheea up to the flushing Lucil.
"Oh, Vance. Nice job earlier. I'll give you proper recognition later. Now, do what you
can and find the missing groom!"
"No, uh, Captain," I said, "I need to talk to you about something important."
"I'm sorry Vance," Lucil said, and then ordered some troops to continue looking, "But
right now I'm a little busy. Our whole reputation could be ruined if Sir Pinelli isn't found soon!"
"I know Captain, and I'm sorry, but...This can't wait until later."
Lucil finally stopped barking orders for a little bit and turned and faced me.
"What is it?" she asked, and I noticed the annoyance in her voice.
"Rikku told me-"
"Even if she is your friend," Lucil said, "She should still be called, "Lady Rikku."'
"Sorry," I said, feeling myself blush, "I mean, "Lady Rikku" told me that I could play
Blitzball for the Aurochs. You see, it's something-"
"Absolutely not! We need you!" Lucil screamed before I could finish, "Elma's going to
be out for a while, and you're the only other person who knows what they are doing!"
"Yeah, but..." I said, but knew it was hopeless. Even if I did decide to completely give up
being a chocobo knight, now wasn't the time to do it. Lucil needed me, and she depended on me.
As of now, I was second-in-command, and there was no one who could take my spot.
Another rider rode up to us then, and said, "The people of Spira have requested that we
send an "undercover" knight along with them for extra protection of the Lady Yuna. The High
Summoner's guardians are not too terribly happy about this, but Lady Yuna's orders are that if
it'll make the people of Spira feel better, then we are to send in an undercover agent."
"This is just what I need!" Lucil yelled sarcastically, "Where am I to find someone to
keep an eye on the summoner while being undercover?"
"I know!" I put in, not believing my luck, "If I play Blitzball with the Aurochs, but am
really keeping an eye on Lady Yuna, then I could be your undercover agent!"
Lucil looked at me for a while, and sighed.
"As for now," she said, looking upset, "I suppose you are my only option. Tennei, go tell
the High Summoner's guardians that Vance here," she said, looking at me, "will be their
undercover agent. Explain that he is to play Blitzball with the Aurochs, but is really there to keep
an eye out. Got it?"
Tennei nodded, and rushed off, and Lucil turned back to me.
She looked rather unhappy, and I did feel sorry for her, but at the same time wasn't
believing my luck. I was going to play Blitzball and be a chocobo knight at the same time! What
could possibly get better?
Lucil sighed, and saluted me, and I saluted back.
"I will send a knight to check on you every now and then. There is an old Crusader
chapter in Besaid, and if you need any help, seek out some retired Crusaders. Got it?"
"Got it!" I replied. We saluted once more, and Lucil sighed again.
"Go prepare to leave," she said, "Oh, and as for Sheea, I'll see that she is treated well."
It was then that it hit me that I'd have to leave my chocobo. I looked down at her, and
Sheea looked back up at me, with her large, solemn eyes.
"Sorry Girl," I said, "But duty calls."
I handed her reigns over to Lucil and said my final goodbyes. After all, it wasn't really as
if I was leaving for good. I'd be back, someday.
"Vance!" Rikku said, greeting me at the temple's entrance, "How exciting is this?
You're going to play Blitzball and be a Chocobo Knight!"
"Sh," I said, "Remember, I'm technically not a Chocobo Knight."
"Oh, right!" Rikku said, but I saw her giggle anyway.
She grabbed my arm then, and said, "Come on! You should be properly introduced to the
others!"
We went over to the door that Rikku and the rest had always exited from, and Rikku
opened the door. Still pulling my arm, she pulled me into the room, and I realized that it actually
wasn't really like a room, but a series of rooms, like what were in a Travel Agency.
She led me into another room, where Lady Lulu and Sir Wakka were sitting deep in
conversation.
"Hey Wakka!" Rikku said, pushing me ahead, "This is Vance, your new player!"
Immediately I felt shy, and didn't feel too much like talking, and was wishing Rikku
hadn't pushed me ahead like she had.
"Uh, hi!" I said, wishing I could just disappear.
Rikku winked, and said, "Of course, he's actually undercover!"
"So you're the undercover agent the knights sent in," Lady Lulu said, and she shook her
head.
"Welcome to the team, Brudda," Wakka said, holding his hand for me to shake.
I shook his hand, and said, "Yeah, I'm the undercover agent."
"He's not so bad Lu," Wakka said, "He's the one who found Yuna."
"Not only that," Rikku said, "But he has awesome aim with his sling. Show 'um,
Vance!"
"Um, okay," I said, wondering what it was I would aim at.
Rikku giggled and put an apple on her head. "Shoot it off!" she cried, giggling as she did
so.
"Okay," I said, and grabbed out my sling and loaded it with a medium sized rock. I
aimed it quickly and fired, hitting the center of the apple right off of her head.
Wakka looked amazed, but Lulu just leaned back. I figured it was more of her
personality than anything, because I could tell she was just as amazed as Wakka.
"Can you do that in Blitz?" Wakka asked, "I mean, your aim and all?"
"Uh," I said, "I've never really...uh, tried."
"As soon as we get to Besaid, you're tryin', ya?"
"Definitely," I said, and then wondered how I would look training with the Besaid
Aurochs. I had never touched a Blitzball in my entire life!
"How's Yunie," Rikku said then, taking a seat on the floor.
"She's...Distracted," Lulu said, "I can't figure out what's wrong with her."
"It must be tough ya, to be her right now," Wakka said, looking at his hands which were
clasped.
The three of them continued talking about Yuna, things I didn't understand. I sat back,
just listening, feeling as if I truly didn't belong.
Before I knew it, it was late, and Rikku showed me where my room was. She told me to
get enough sleep, because the next day we were traveling to Besaid.
I didn't ask her how we were traveling there, but didn't really care, either. After the long
day, I was feeling plenty tired, and it was nice to think that while the rest of the knights were on
patrol, I would be sound asleep.
Someone was knocking on my door. That's what woke me up. I looked quickly out a
little window, and noticed sun rays pouring in. I jumped up, and told the knocker I'd be ready in
just a few seconds.
"Just meet us out in the courtyard!" it was Rikku, and she laughed and said, "Do you
always sleep in this late?"
"I'll see you at the courtyard!" I just replied, feeling rather tired still from the day before.
I quickly readied myself for the day and ran out of my room. Everything was empty, and
I found myself hoping that I wasn't the last one up.
I rushed outside to the courtyard and almost stopped dead in my tracks. Sitting there in
the middle was a large machina airship.
Feeling sick, I saw Rikku standing by it and she waved me over. I ran to her, and, out of
breath, said, "Don't tell me we have to ride that thing!"
"Aw, come on Vance!" Rikku said, "You're an Al Bhed whether you like it or not, so
come on already!"
She smiled and ran onto the ship, and I just stood there staring at it. It wasn't because it
was a machina or that it was Al Bhed that scared me. What scared me was that I was deathly
afraid of heights.
Swallowing my fear, I boarded the airship with shaky legs to find that as I had figured,
everybody was already there. Wakka and Lulu sat in the hall, and greeted me as I passed. I
asked them where Rikku was, and they directed me ahead, telling me that she had gone into the
main control room.
I went through the whooshing doors and saw Rikku talking to an older man.
"Why if it isn't Vance," the man said, turning around.
I immediately recognized him as being Cid, Rikku's dad.
I nodded, and said, "Hello Cid..."
"Please don't say anything in Al Bhed!" raced through my head.
"Where's my little niece?" Cid said, directing his conversation back to Rikku, "She upset
about her wedding being ruined like this?"
"Oh yeah," Rikku said, "But her stup-, I mean, Pinelli can't be found."
"We'll find him!" Cid said, "Anything for her."
Rikku gave a scornful look and said, "Why anything for her?"
"She's the one getting married. I'm not seeing you rushing out to get married," Cid said,
crossing his arms in front of his chest, "Had I raised you right..."
"Father!" a voice said, interrupting their conversation.
I turned around then and saw Rikku's brother. For some reason, his name slipped my
mind...
"Brother!" Rikku said, "What are you doing here?"
"I can be here if I want," Rikku's brother said, and I instantly wanted to smack myself.
How could you forget a name like that?
"Don't start your bickering you two," Cid said, looking out the large windows, "And
Rikku, Brother's here to navigate for us. Got a problem with that?"
"Nope," Rikku said, "I don't care if we get lost."
Brother began to mumble something in Al Bhed then, and Cid threw him a dirty look.
"Whatever," Rikku finally said, shaking her head, "I'm going to go see how Yunie's
doing." She looked at me and smiled and said, "You can come too, Vance. You shouldn't need
to be stuck here with Brother!"
I gave a weary, "I'm just here" smile, and followed Rikku out the door and back into the
hallway where Wakka and Lulu were.
"When are we taking off," I asked Rikku in a shaky voice. For a second, I had forgotten
we were on an airship, "Will we know when we're flying?"
Rikku shrugged. "Kind of. Ooh, and we can look out the windows and everything!"
Windows? I felt sick. Maybe it would be wisest if I went into the hallway with Wakka
and Lulu that had no windows.
We were now going down another narrow passage, and I asked Rikku where we were
going.
She was interrupted then, as we heard the airship start off.
"We're going to be going soon!" she said, and I thought my legs were going to give way
any second then.
I clenched onto the railing, and must have looked rather white, because then Rikku said,
"Hey, you feeling alright?"
I nodded, not knowing if she'd buy it or not.
She stood there next to me, chatting away about something I couldn't concentrate on. I
could feel the airship being lifted off of the ground, and then entire thought of it was making me
feel quite ill.
"So then Kimarhi had to return to Gagazet. We were like, "Hey, we'll give you a ride!",
but Kimarhi said he'd just walk from Bevelle. Hey, guess we were close to the Calm Lands, we
could've just gone and seen your friends. You do have friends there don't you? Anyway, last
night I had this dream that I was singing and-"
"Rikku," I said, interrupting her pointless babble, "I am feeling kind of queasy. Can we
talk later?"
"You sick?" she asked.
"Maybe," I finally replied.
"How come?" Rikku asked.
There was no way I could tell her I was afraid of heights, so I just shrugged.
We stood there in silence for a while, and I began to get the hang of the whole flying
thing. I was still deathly afraid of looking out a window, but I had somehow managed to
convince myself that I was still on the ground, and not in the air.
"Wanna go check on Yunie?" Rikku asked after the moment of silence had passed.
"Sure," I said, mainly because I was feeling better, and because I had to remind myself
that if anything did happen to Yuna, I would have let Lucil down.
We walked through another passage into an area where Rikku said the cabins were.
Rikku walked ahead of me and went to the third door and knocked.
"Just a second!" the two heard Yuna's reply, and they then waited until Yuna came to the
door.
"Hello there Rikku," she said, giving us one of the usual smiles, "and hello to you too,
Vance."
"Hi," Rikku and me said at the same time.
"We just came to check on you, Yunie," Rikku said, "You okay?"
Yuna smiled and said, "Yes, I'm fine. I'm just still a little tired from yesterday, that's
all."
"Oh, okay Yunie, bye," Rikku said, and we stood there until Yuna had shut the door. We
walked down the hall a little further, and Rikku said to me, "I just don't get it!"
"Get what?" I asked her.
"Yunie...She's not always like this you know. But lately, she's just been, I don't know,
weird. She's always to herself, and she never really talks to us about anything. Did you know
she met Pinelli three times and then announced they were getting married? I was really exited,
because I hadn't met Pinelli and thought that it would make her happy. But then, she only acted
stranger and stranger. Then, when she introduced us all to Pinelli, he acted like a total jerk, but
she didn't really say anything. Later, I asked her if she loved Pinelli, but she didn't even answer
me!"
"You know Rikku," I said, "Maybe she does love Pinelli. In fact, maybe she really is
happy, and you're just paranoid. Think that's it?"
"Yeah right," she said, rolling her eyes at me, "Then why does she act so weird?"
"As for now, she probably missed Pinelli, and is worried about him. After all, she could
love him." I was trying to make Rikku feel better, and to perhaps stop worrying about something
that wasn't worth worrying about. However, I knew somewhere, that what she was saying about
Yuna must be true. It had Rikku all worried, anyhow. This was the first time I had seen Rikku
upset over something. It had to be real, and not just Rikku's imagination.
"Rikku!" Cid's voice suddenly exploded onto the Loudspeaker, "You need to report to
the deck, and bring Vance with you. The ship has a problem, and I need Vance and you to fix it.
Got it?"
"Sure thing Pops!" Rikku said, although I wasn't sure if Cid could hear her or not, "Come
on Vance, let's go see what's wrong!"
"Where're we goin'?" I asked, as Rikku pulled me along with her.
"To the deck. Hey, I know you're no good with machina, but you can still be of some
help. Come on!"
Pretty soon we were running up a flight of stairs and into a room that had windows
everywhere.
I started to feel queasy again, but didn't have time to think about it, for Rikku was pulling
me quickly by the windows.
We jumped onto a platform, which began to rise. I looked down, as we went up, feeling
queasier and queasier.
We reached the top, and two doors opened, revealing the deck, as well as clouds. I
stopped, making Rikku drop my arm.
"What's wrong Vance?" she yelled over the sound the engine of the ship was making.
I couldn't answer. I was standing thousands of feet high in an open area, about to fix
machina of all things. It was too much. My body gave way, and the next thing I knew, I blacked
out.
"Hey, you okay?"
I felt my eyes flash open. I was in a well-lit room, but I knew I was still in the airship.
Wakka was looking over at me, and I sat up.
"Hey, take it easy, ya!" Wakka said, as I looked around.
"What happened?" I asked, leaning my head back.
"Don't know. I was hoping you could tell us!" Wakka gave a chuckle, "Seems to me like
being out on the deck was too much for you."
It all came back to me then, and I smiled. Wakka didn't seem my smile, but I then
realized that the engine had just turned off.
"What's going on?" I asked, looking around.
"Welcome to Besaid Island!" Wakka just said, and I figured we'd landed, "Ready to go?"
"Sure am!" I said, feeling happier than ever that the unpleasant flight was finally finished.
I hopped off of the bed that I was lying on and followed Wakka out the door. I followed him to
the door that we had entered the airship through, and we went out, being greeted with gorgeous
weather.
The rest were already out there, and Yuna was discussing something with Cid.
"Hey!" Rikku said, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah," I said, "Uh, did you get whatever it was fixed?"
"Uh-huh, though it would have been easier if you stuck around!" she gave me a teasing
look, and then smiled.
Yuna finished her discussion with Cid, and turned to us. Rikku waved goodbye, and,
almost making me sick all over again, the airship took off.
We were on the beach, which was a lovely sanded area that stretched for what seemed
like forever. Old ruins loomed in the distance, and I wondered what I had been doing spending
all my time in the boring Calm Lands when I could have been here.
"This is where we practice Blitz," Wakka began to explain to me.
Wakka continued talking about drills and such then, but I was too busy looking over at
Yuna, who was staring off at the horizon, as if deep in thought.
Rikku noticed her too, and then noticed me. She cocked her head at Yuna, giving me a
look that said, "See! I told you something was wrong!"
"By the way, Yuna," Lulu said, going over to Yuna, who immediately broke off her stare.
"Lu, you're going to tell her now?" Wakka said, running over by Lulu and Yuna.
"Hey!" Rikku said, "What's going on?"
"Aw!" Wakka said, covering his eyes with one hand, "Not now Lu!"
"Wakka and me have decided to marry," Lulu said, more to Yuna than to Rikku and me,
"We hope it doesn't upset you or anything."
Yuna smiled, and I could tell it was one of her real ones.
"That's great!" she said, "Of course I'm not upset!"
We were now heading through a lovely path on our way to the village, or so I supposed.
Rikku made faces at Lulu and Wakka, calling them lovebirds and made cooing noises, and ran up
ahead. I followed behind Rikku a ways, and Yuna, Wakka, and Lulu followed from the farthest
behind. I wondered slightly where Kimarhi was, but remembered that he had to go to Gagazet
for some reason or another, or at least as Rikku had been babbling to me about before.
"Besaid is really kind of neat," Rikku said, still racing around. We had reached a large
cliff area above the village, and I looked down next to Rikku.
"Wow!" I said, looking at the tiny village, "This is pretty neat!"
As soon as Yuna, Wakka, and Lulu passed, Rikku made snoring noises.
"Also a great place for a bore," she said, "Let's just say that nothing too exciting happens
around here."
She ran down the hill then, following the rest who had passed us earlier. I ran too, mainly
just to keep up with Rikku. Even if I tried to hide it, I knew I basically still was just a boy, and
was really just as immature as Rikku. I just knew how to contain myself.
The two of us now took our time following the other three, as Rikku babbled on about the
dream that she had been trying to tell me about earlier. She was walking backwards, facing me,
and wasn't paying any attention at all of where she was going.
"Hey!" she said as she slammed into Wakka, "Whatchya stop for?"
I ran over to her. Wakka, Lulu, and Yuna all stared ahead of themselves as in some sort
of hypnotic state. In front of them stood a man who looked actually a little like Wakka, with his
orange hair and the same basic outfit. He also wore a smile that was quite similar to Wakka's.
"Hey!" he greeted them, walking up to them. The three ahead of us still didn't move.
"Hi!" Rikku said, going ahead of Yuna, Wakka, and Lulu, "I'm Rikku!"
"Chappu," the man said, shaking hands vigorously with Rikku, "Where have you been,
you guys?" Chappu now walked over to Wakka and gave him a little prod on the back, and gave
Lulu a little kiss.
He went over to Yuna, as to say something, and I looked at Yuna, only to notice that she
had tears streaming down her face. Before Chappu could say anything to her, Yuna sprinted off
toward the temple.
Rikku watched the whole scene, as if not knowing what was going on. I too was
confused, but was now quite used to feeling that way.
"But Chappu!" Wakka started, "You're dead!"
"Dead?" I repeated, and looked over at Lulu, who was as pale as a ghost, "What's going
on?"
"I don't know," Rikku said, backing up by me, "And really, I don't even know if we'll
find out..."