A/N - Sorry it took me so long to update, don't worry, I didn't forget about it. I have some out-of-state time coming up next week, so I hope to get some more out before I go.
I want to thank you all for reading and reviewing this story, that makes me feel really good and hope to never disappoint. ;) Thank you all very much!
If you are wondering about the scenery to this, all I have to say is "too much Silent Hill". Hehe. But it fit into this, so... that works. Okie dokie!
Looking up into the darkening sky from the aircraft window, Rikku sighed heavily from her bed. The others were sitting at the bar eating a hot meal, but she wasn't in the mood for anything. They had all decided it was too late to head to the Farplane that night, and best to wait until morning with a solid plan. Rikku almost voiced that the last thing she wanted to do was wait. Horrible images pasted into her head, and nothing could shake them.
What if he's being killed right now? Or being hurt and we could stop it? She felt the burning of tears and closed her eyes slowly. Can he be killed? Is he even alive? Why wouldn't the pyreflies respond to anything? What the hell is going on?
Turning onto her side, she opened her eyes and felt hot tears fall down her cheeks. Why was this happening?
"Rikku?" Gippal walked up the stairs and seen Rikku laying on her side, her back facing him. He just as figured she was asleep and didn't blame her at all. She had a hard and confusing day. He walked over to the side of her bed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't you worry," he whispered gently with a smile. "We'll find out what's going on." With a small squeeze of her shoulder, he went back down to the floor and rejoined the others. Rikku didn't want him to worry, so she kept quiet. His words touched her and made the tears flow harder, hoping silently she didn't start crying out.
"How big is the Farplane anyway?" Tidus rested his elbow against the top of the bar and sighed. That question earned him two and a half pair of wide eyes. "Uh..."
"It goes on forever." Gippal sat back down in his chair and picked up his drink. "When me, Nooj, and Baralai went looking for Vegnagun, it seemed that we were lost and stuck there."
"It goes on for about that long." Yuna sighed and rested her hands against the bar, the cool marble against her palms. "It is going to take us a long time."
"But, hey! We can do it!" Tidus looked around at all of them and they all gave confident smiles.
"Damn right we'll do it." Gippal put his drink down and yawned. "But not until tomorrow. So, what is the plan?"
Paine stood up from her stool and brushed her pants off, shaking loose some of the fallen breadcrumbs left over from dinner. "We go into the Farplane and start looking."
Yuna nodded and then looked to Gippal. "When the three of you were looking around, have you ever seen anything like what was in there sphere?"
Gippal pursed his lips in thought, his one good eye focusing on a spot on the counter. "Nothing like that. It seemed to be some dungeon or something. Then again..." His head turned up and closed his eye to rack his brain. "I remember there was something under Vegnagun, like... some kind of door to something."
"Hmm... Hey! I think I remember that too!" Yuna sat up and looked over to Gippal. "What Vegnagun was perched on seemed to have more to it."
"We could start there, then." Paine finished her drink and began to walk from the counter. "We leave early."
Gippal laughed at Paine and her take charge attitude and how different it was from the Crimson Squad. He shook his head and turned back to Tidus and Yuna. "She has a point. I'm turning in." He waved at the two lovers who sat together and went up the stairs to the bedrooms where a cot was set up for him. When he got there, he frowned at Rikku's sleeping body and went to lay in his bed. He was fighting an internal struggle. He wanted to help find Auron for her, but that would mean losing her. He shook his head as he pulled off his boots. He wouldn't lose her, he never had her. And it hurt him. But seeing her happy was what mattered.
"We all ready?" Tidus turned back to the others once they all stepped out of the airship. It seemed to be a mix of emotions through the group. Yuna looked worried about what was going on, Rikku's face was drained of it's color, but determination swirled in those emerald colored orbs. Gippal looked worried for Rikku, but ready to get things done, and Paine. Well, was Paine.
"Let's go." The gray-haired warrior began to walk to the opening of the ship where Brother would drop them off. They had already pinpointed Vegnagun's whereabouts from the last time they were there, making it easier for the group. Once Paine jumped from the ship, Tidus looked to Yuna and took her hand, nodding gently.
With a small smile, she nodded back and they began to walk to the opening. "You going to be ok?" Yuna turned to Rikku who gave her a tiny hint of a smile. "We'll find out what's going on." Her cousin stated and waved her hand to the end of the ship. "Let's go!"
The feeling of determination swept through Rikku and she shook her head. "What the hell am I doing? Let's go, Gullwings!" A true smile broke through her once scared and saddened mask.
"That's the spirit kiddo!" Gippal patted her shoulder and began to jog forward. "Come on!" Rikku let out a small laugh at being left behind and was soon leaping off the ship into the valley of the dead.
"What's going on?!" Rikku landed on the ground softly and was greeted by Yuna's frantic words. Without asking, she knew just what was wrong.
Foggy clouds of deep crimson red replaced the glowing orbs of the pyreflies, an ominous feeling hung in the air. The temperature that was normally in the Farplane was usually warm, but now it was a bone-chilling cold. Rikku gasped at the fact and hugged herself tight.
"Wh...What happened?" She shivered, looking around scared. She was never one to go into the Farplane, but she knew it had never looked like this before.
The rest of the group stood on top of the stand Vegnagun once stayed, mouths all open in shock. "Yuna, have you heard anything like this?"
Yuna turned to the voice of Gippal and shook her head. "Through all my years learning of Yevon... Never. Nothing like this. Something is horribly wrong."
Gippal folded his arms across his chest, pouting as he looked around the scene. "Well, we can stand here and gape or get going."
"Right." Rikku pulled out her daggers and looked around at the others. "This is obviously something bigger than what we came for, but..." She sighed gently. "Let's go see what's going on."
Paine pulled out her sword and gave Rikku a comforting smile. "Exactly." Walking to the other side of the platform, the group soon followed. Yuna sent up a message for Shinra to come check out what was going on, take some documentaries.
"He said he'd contact us if he found out anything." She put the small commsphere in her pocket and Rikku turned her head with a small nod. She was about to open her mouth for a response, when two large hands shoved her forward, knocking her down to the ground.
Stunned for a moment, she hesitated to stand up when a icy cold feeling pass over her back, sending chills through her. She turned her head to see Gippal pull out his machina gun and firing it at something in the distance.
"Hey!" She jumped up and bushed off her skirt. "What was that about?"
Gippal turned his head at her, gun still in hands and pointed to the side. "Something just mauled you." He responded grimly, then turned to look off. "Huh, it's gone." He put his gun on his shoulder and turned back to Rikku. "You should really start paying attention."
Rikku's eyes narrowed as her hands rested on her hips. "I was! It's just... Well, for a second..."
"A precious second that would have taken your head if I didn't get you out of the way. Start paying attention." Gippal moved passed her to walk ahead of the now stopped group.
Feeling numb, Rikku moved her feet to walk and the party led on. She knew he was right. Something was wrong with the Farplane and she had to be on full alert to watch for the fiends in the area. She drew her daggers in front of her as they stopped.
"Here is the passage." Gippal turned to the rest and Tidus sprinted forward to help pull the large metal casing that covered the entrance.
"You ok?" Yuna's small voice made Rikku jump slightly as it came up on her side.
"Yeah, he had a good point." Rikku smiled to her cousin and turned back to the guys pulling up the door. "Weird, fiends usually just don't charge like that."
Yuna shrugged. "I didn't see it fully. Just kind of a blur. It was fast." She began to walk to the men once the clattering subsided, meaning they got it off.
"Alright." Gippal picked up his gun that he had set down and looked into the hole. "There are some stairs, we should be alright." He nodded to Tidus who went down them first, followed by Yuna and Paine. He held Rikku back for a minute when she neared. "Hey, I hope you aren't upset."
She waved her hand in the air. "No way. Not at all. You were right, things aren't right around here." She shivered at the thought as she looked around her.
"I just want to make sure you are ok." He placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Come on, let's go before they leave us." He let her go first so he could watch the back of them and before long they joined the others in the pit.
"This is it." Rikku felt her heart drop when she seen the dark stone walls, the smell of damp musk invaded her sinuses making her turn her head, hand over nose and mouth. "Ugh! What is that?"
Gippal turned his head to the side and sneezed twice before shaking his head. "I don't think I want to know. Horrible!" Coughing, he looked at the other who were taken over by the dampness. "I didn't know there was water in the Farplane?"
Yuna waved a hand in front of her face, her visage pinched from the odor. "Not that I know of. It has to be something. Smells like... Huh, I can't even describe it."
"Dead bodies." Paine turned to them and frowned. "Decomposing bodies, to be more precise." The others gave her weird looks, but she shrugged it off. "And musty water..." She turned to the passageway and shrugged. "Shouldn't waste time thinking about it."
The other four followed suit and headed down the narrow hallway, in total silence. The only sounds around them were soft footsteps and the dripping water that echoed off the cold walls.
Rikku held tight onto her blades until her knuckles turned white under her gloves. She knew also that her palms we hot and sweaty, contrasting the cold that swept through her. She realized it wasn't just the air that was cold, but the feeling behind it. Something was really wrong, and she was terrified. The silence began to build in her ears, almost deafening, as her eyes scanned around. She felt something close, but didn't know if that was true, or just that bad feeling inside of her.
"YUNA!" Tidus' cry made her gasp out and jump. She looked past Paine to see what was going on and spotted a large fiend blocking their path. Yuna was no where to be seen.
Before asking question, she knew they had to take out the main problem first and was ready to strike when Tidus' hand shot out to stop her from charging. "No! It has Yuna!" Rikku stopped and seen that the fiend did in fact have her cousin.
"It would be wise for you to stay where you are."
The four gasped as the fiend, an Omega Weapon, began to speak in an eerie voice that made Rikku shiver harder.
"You will all drop your weapons and follow me. Or the summoner dies."
The clattering of weapons hit the floor in sync as the monster put it's large arm over Yuna's throat, making her cry out softly.
"What are you doing?" Tidus shook with anger as his hands fisted into balls along his side.
"Come with me." The Weapon turned around and began to walk down the hall, still holding Yuna in it's grasp. "Don't think of leaving either."
Rikku's eyes looked back and heard a low growling sound and walked faster. Gippal watched as they walked from their weapons and frowned deeply.
"This is so not good." He sighed and put an arm around Rikku tightly. "We'll be alright, ok?" He whispered and gave her a hopeful half-smile.
She nodded and returned the grin as they headed further down the hallway. The stench that hung in the air became thicker as they went on. Rikku's eyes watered and her stomach turned making walking seem like such a hard chore.
"In here." The fiend stopped as they reached a row of bars, bound together much like a jail-cell would be. The giant fiend pushed Tidus, Paine, Rikku, and Gippal into the cell before shutting and locking the door.
"NO! Let her go!" Tidus ran to the bar and shook it violently. The Weapon gave a deep bellowing laugh, and turned to walk further down the hall. "Yuna!"
"Tidus!!" Yuna cried out, before the figure of the Weapon and Yuna's voice disappeared.
Tidus kicked the door hard and growled. "What the hell is going on?!"
Rikku stood up from the ground and brushed off her legs. "That big meanie..." Turning to Gippal, who was a step-ahead of her and looking at the lock, she grinned. "Think we master Al Bhed can break this open?"
"You betcha!" He turned to her with a large smile. "That is... if we have some tools."
"Machine Faction Leader my butt..." Rikku dug through the pouch along her hip and handed him a few things to use.
"Hurry up! We have to go save Yuna!" Tidus moved from the door to give Gippal some space to work, his arms crossing his chest.
"Always out to play the hero."
Rikku felt her blood freeze, the voice that haunted her through dreams and reality had come from the back of the cell, which had been too dark to notice anything before.
Whirling around quickly, she heard Tidus confirm it. "Auron?!"
Gasping out, her hands covered her mouth as her eyes got used to the dim lights. A lump of crimson in the corner began to stir as a fresh wave of tears spilled down her cheeks. "Oh... Auron..."