Hey! I hope you enjoy this new chapter to Amour et Haine! In this chapter, TYRP must figure out how to get down into the hole and reclaim the sphere that Saharyuu left after his defeat, and must battle another creature… Anyways, I do not own Square Enix or Final Fantasy X-2, so don't sue! I hope you enjoy and please send feedback!
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"Well this sucks," Paine declared as TYRP circled around the gaping abyss, which lay just as unforgiving as ever under the water. "The Saharyuu's sphere just so happened to fall into that hole."
Rikku glanced fearfully down under the water. The crevasse looked very uninviting, and she shuddered at the thought of swimming down into its inky darkness until she could no longer see the light... She shivered. What if they got trapped down there, even worse, what if they got trapped down there with some terrible fiend?
"I'm not going," Rikku, who was now a Thief, said shaking her head defiantly. "And nothing you can say or do will make me."
"Are you sure?" Paine said, eyes narrowing. Rikku shook her head, beaded braids swinging wildly in the air as she did so.
"What if I tell Gippal how you feel about him?" Paine said with a smirk. Yuna and Tidus laughed. Rikku gasped as her face flushed red with both embarrassment and anger.
"What are you talking about?" Rikku asked, but everyone was smiling, laughing, or both. "I don't have any feelings for that slacker!"
"Well then, Rikku, I could always make up something," Paine said with a smirk. Rikku's eyes widened.
"You wouldn't... Would you?" Rikku asked edgily, and then glanced back down at the gaping pit. What mattered to her more, her feelings or her fears? She sighed. "Oh... Fine then. I'll go."
"Good," Yuna, who was now a Gunner again, said with a laugh. "TYRP is back and kicking."
"Oh poopie," Rikku said, glaring back at the hole. "Boy, I'm going to get back at you, Paine."
"One question," Tidus asked. "How are we going to breathe?"
"Shinra created the AirBubbles just for the job," Rikku said with a smile. "You just slip them on your neck and stick the large sphere in your mouth. Shinra says it holds more air than five tanks, so I think we're in good hands."
Rikku tossed one to Tidus, who slipped the small metal ring around his neck and stuck the large blue sphere in his mouth. It had a surprisingly good taste, however it felt very uncomfortable. "Let's go," he said with the sphere in his mouth, which made Yuna laugh.
Yuna made sure hers was on, and slipped it into her mouth with a click. Rikku shoved hers in, but not without whining about how uncomfortable it was. And finally Paine slipped hers into her mouth, not moving or complaining.
"How will we see down there?" Tidus asked. Rikku turned to him.
"Check your pockets," she said. He felt something in his pant pocket that he hadn't felt before. It was a small metal flashlight. Paine and Rikku pulled theirs out, but to Yuna's dismay she couldn't find hers.
"That's odd," Rikku said, her eyebrows furrowed. "Shinra told me that he made sure all the Dresspheres were equipped with flashlights."
"It's okay, Yuna. You can use mine," Tidus said. Yuna smiled, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and their fingers intertwined. "Don't let go of my hand," he warned with a smile. Yuna would make sure that she didn't.
In one swift motion, all the members of TYRP had gone under the water and were headed towards the gaping hole which seemed like the entrance to Hell itself.
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"We got transmission," Shinra said, and Brother ran up to him behind his chair.
"We did? Yuna is okay, then?" he asked excitedly. Shinra let out a sigh from beneath his mask.
"I was going to finish, Brother," Shinra said. "We got transmission, but then it instantly disconnected."
"What?" Brother asked, annoyed. "They disconnected us? How could that be?"
"Well, there is one of two things. The first is that the machine malfunctioned, and the other is that a certain condition has kicked in and thus severed the connection," Shinra explained. Brother stood like a perplexed goon.
"What?" he asked stupidly. Buddy just laughed as Shinra turned on the dim-witted Al Bhed captain with a sigh.
"It means they went into water, smart one," Shinra said, tapping on a few buttons with his mechanically-adept fingers.
"Oh. Why did they do that?" Brother asked. Shinra, fed up with the stupid questions, stood up in his chair and turned around to face the captain.
"I dunno. I'm just a kid."
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"Wow…" Yuna said all though no one heard it due to the water and the AirBubbles. But she could tell everyone was feeling her exact same emotion: amazement.
Crystal pinnacles shone in the light of the flashlights in the dark chamber at the end of the dark and unforgiving gorge. Rikku pointed her flashlight downwards, and to her fear she saw nothing but pale beige sand. Then her flashlight turned upon something else, which sparkled when the light was cast upon it. It was the sphere!
"There it is!" Rikku said, however no one heard her to her own dismay. She madly waved her flashlight, however, and everyone looked and saw the glistening sphere. However, to her own terror, she looked down at the flashlight. It began to dim, and suddenly it went out completely. Scared, she began to panic and dropped the flashlight.
An annoyed Paine grabbed Rikku by the arm, and she was now shivering madly and complaining about how she wanted to get out of this horrible place. No one could hear her whining, but they could hear her wild thrashing. Paine growled and gripped tighter, and the thrashing Al Bhed finally calmed down to a slowing extent. Paine rolled her eyes, all though no one could see it.
Tidus and Yuna were off looking for the sphere and simultaneously gaining some "alone" time. Yuna remembered the spring in Macalania Woods, and suddenly she found herself there, swimming with Tidus. Tidus was smiling... She remembered that well, even though the forest was fading away after the end of Shiva's fayth. She never wanted Tidus to ever leave her.
The two lovebird's fingers interlocked as Yuna's face met Tidus's. They kissed passionately, and it was only disrupted by Rikku who was pointing and silently laughing. Paine just rolled her eyes as Rikku's actions and smacked the Al Bhed girl on the arm. She turned to Paine with a hurt look on her face.
Suddenly, Paine felt a current of water against her hand, causing her to drop the flashlight. Rikku watched in horror as the flashlight descended only to fall against the sands with an ominous plop. Rikku swam down to the bottom of the chamber, grabbed the flashlight, and panicked in horror.
The sand was shaking wildly, and she watched in fear as the sphere was dislodged from its resting place and rolled into the gaping mouth of some hideous nautical fiend. The creature, who had been entombed with the sands, had now emerged. It was long and slender, much like the Saharyuu. However, it was covered in pallid skin with no claws. A ridge of luminous spines covered its back, and rows of small glowing dots lined its body. A long antenna protruded from its head, curling over with a bulbous, luminous light. Its beady eyes were intent on Rikku, who was startled by the creature.
Suddenly, Rikku was taken over by a false tranquility as she gazed into the depths of the light. "Wow..." she murmured, almost taking off her AirBubble to say the words aloud. She was obviously not thinking clearly.
"What are you doing?" Paine shouted, swimming down to Rikku. No one heard her words, however. A concerned Yuna swam with a faster Tidus to the scene, picking up a thrashing Rikku. Her sanity was only returned to her when the creature, now annoyed by the newcomers, bared a mouthful of shimmering silver fangs.
"Oh no..." Yuna said, turning to the luminous creature. "This looks like a fight." No one heard her inaudible, silent comments.
Rikku, Paine, Yuna, and Tidus lined up in front of the creature, ready to engage. The creature made the first move by enveloping itself in a familiar golden sphere: it had cast Haste.
"Well this isn't good," said Rikku silently as she felt the bulbous light lash against her body. She groaned and countered with two slashes from her masterful knives.
Yuna made that the white sphere upon her belt was correctly in place, then smiled. A White Lore was very useful in times like these. "Dispel!" she called aloud, all though no one heard her, and the Haste effect immediately dissipated.
"That was a short-lived rush," Paine said as she dove at the creature, digging her claws into its pallid flesh. Figuring that no one could hear her, she refrained from speaking.
Tidus picked up his pistol, and then concentration came to him. With fury in mind, he began to rapidly fire a chain of attacks, each bullet landing into the pale creature who roared angrily. The creature turned to him, body glistening, unleashing a chain of powerful Thundaga attacks which shot from the bulbous light.
Paine was suddenly struck with an instinctive idea as she dove at the creature. Instead of aiming for its body, she aimed for the suspended light, which was obviously much more vulnerable and seemed to be the main source of weaponry for the creature. Rikku quickly followed suit, quickly weakening the bond between the light and the creature as the fish-like fiend groaned in pain. It counterattacked with a whip from the light, and Rikku felt the full force of the blow.
Tidus and Yuna initiated a chain attack and shot the light in almost perfect unison. The creature let out a load moan and again rapidly shot a stream of Thundaga attacks from the light. However, the light was quickly dimming. Rikku officially severed it and evanesced into the water, leaving the creature rather defenseless. However, it still countered with a blast of water from its toothy grimace.
Paine groaned as she slashed the creature's stomach. It countered by crunching down on her arm, causing intense pain. Paine couldn't keep from groaning again, and Yuna prayed. A sphere of shimmering light surrounded Paine as the Curaga spell fully healed her limb. Tidus shot a well-aimed bullet at the creature's stomach as it turned upon him, glistening with the aspect of charging up another move.
The creature opened its mouth, and streams of mauve toxins began to weave their way towards the quartet of aquatic warriors. Tidus felt the poison sink into his veins and he felt his strength begin to deteriorate. Yuna rushed to remedy it with a clear shot of Esuna; however she turned around only to find that Rikku and Paine were also afflicted. Paine drank an Antidote, and Rikku faced the poison like man, only to find that she wasn't going to be able to. Tidus healed her by tossing her an Antidote, which she eagerly consumed.
However, no one noticed what the creature was doing this entire time. It was shimmering again, readying another attack. Rikku glanced upwards, and finally noticed the fact just as the creature shot four massive spheres of black ooze from its mouth, lodging themselves around TYRP.
The effect was not poison, but serious damage. Yuna struggled to free herself from the goop; however she was powerless against the oozy force. Suddenly she felt a hand grasp her arm as the spherical figure of the ooze began to collapse, and she found that Tidus had pulled her out. Yuna gazed into his eyes, a feeling of utmost love filling her from her head down to her toes. Tidus smiled and Yuna hugged him, glad that he was back for at least the fifteenth time in the past half-day.
Paine actually grinned a bit as she dove into the creature. She watched as it writhed into a pallid coil and exploded into a swarm of pyreflies which in turn evanesced like its bulbous light into the water. The sphere began to descend back to the ground again, and a triumphant Rikku snatched it and held it up as it glittered in her hand.
"Let's go," she said inaudibly as the four headed up back to the surface.
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"What happened to you?" Shinra asked as four drenched sphere hunters entered the ship, still panting for breath. Yuna was clutching Tidus. Rikku looked like she'd been dumped in a bucket of water headfirst upside-down, and Paine merely stood as the water dripped off of her face.
"A stupid sphere, that's what happened," Rikku snapped as she threw the glistening blue sphere at Shinra. He caught it nimbly.
"Let me guess... You want me to analyze it?" Shinra asked, and Rikku and the others nodded. "It'll take be at least an hour, seeing how wet this is. Get dried off and come back when you guys are done."
"One question, Shinra," Tidus said, turning to the small genius who was listening intently. "What was that thing we faced?"
"That was a Lumeviper, otherwise known as a Fathomfish," Shinra explained. "They are quite common in dark aquatic places, especially in swamp. They are known for the light that they produce from a single bulb that extends from their forehead, and also for the intense toxins they create within their body by utilizing their habitual pressure and the impurities within the water itself. Want me to explain?"
TYRP nodded negatively in unison, and Shinra shrugged and sat back down to begin analyzing. Rikku headed off to the cabin, followed by the others to get changed and dried off.
An hour later, TYRP was officially dried off and ready to watch the sphere they had so fervently sought after. Yuna stood near Tidus, whose arm was wrapped around her shoulders. Paine stood off to the side, and Rikku stood on the other side, gazing at the screen that Shinra was operating. He inserted the sphere and instantly the vision began.
"Wow..." was all Yuna said as it began. She saw a beautiful human woman gripping a tightly packaged bundle. It was only seconds until she realized the bundle was an infant.
"Minnal, is the ship ready?" the woman asked, turning to a Guado maidservant who was packing various items of clothing into a bag. Minnal looked up at her mistress, and gave a silent bow. The sphere recorder followed Minnal and the woman as they exited the small room that was increasingly hard to see and entered onto a balcony. A huge swarm of Guados and humans stood under the balcony, booing at the woman and Minnal. Yuna could tell easily that the Guados were separated from the humans, however.
"This is blasphemous! A Guado cannot be with a human!" shouted a priest from below, and the humans roared along with him. The Guado turned back to them, hissing.
"Their filthy blood should not be permitted to combine with that of the sacred Guado!" one Guado nun shouted, and the others roared along with her, challenging the humans in a battle of mob psychology.
"Hurry, Minnal," the woman said as she and the maidservant quickly walked past the balcony and into another door, where Yuna could distinguish someone. Yes, he did have a lighter, turquoise hue in his hair and not such a thick beard, but Yuna could tell that the Guado she saw was Lord Tromell with just a small glance.
"Lady Phiska, the ship is ready. Just go through these doors and we will escort you to your new home in Guadosalam," Tromell said. Suddenly Yuna knew who the lady was, and who her baby was. The baby was Seymour Guado. And she knew that Lady Phiska had to be his mother.
Lady Phiska nodded, and then turned to the entrance to the airship. "Thank you, Tromell. I am sure that Seymour and I will be much happier in Guadosalam then we ever could here in Luca." And with that Lady Phiska entered the airship and sped off.
"That was Seymour?" Rikku said, eyes wide. Paine, however, did not remark Rikku's inquiry. Her eyes were transfixed upon the now motionless screen, as if she were still watching it intently.
"That was Seymour," Yuna said to Rikku, who gasped. "I knew it was him. Lady Phiska must be his mother... And that was Lord Tromell, I know it."
"Do you think we should ask Tromell about it?" Rikku suggested, and Yuna shrugged.
"Seymour," Tidus said, and he was immediately flushed with what seemed like an eternity of hateful memories.