A/N: I'm officially stopping making promises about long updates. Now we're going to cause a little more confusion, then in the next few chapters, everything will be understood. The chapter title "The Best" means, this is the best they can get. You know, since the last chapter ended with "Let's hope for the best" yeah, you get it?
-Chapter Nine-
-The Best-
The Dandilily landed outside Besaid Village. It was a quiet morning, even for Besaid. Piper, Zalèa, Nari, and Evan hid behind a hut, watching everything carefully. They knew if any of the adults caught them, Piper would be sent home, and the others would never see the light of day for a long time. Yuna and Tidus exited their hut, walking across the path.
"I just hope she went back to her home," Yuna said quietly.
Tidus smiled at his beloved, "You really think she would? If she's anything like her mother, she's probably out finding all the answers."
"Along with Narianne and Evan," Yuna said, causing the blonde to stop in his tracks. "And Zalèa."
"Meaning we'll have to deal with all the questions," Tidus moaned. "Not fair."
Yuna chuckled, "You can explain the dream of the Fayth part."
"Oh ha ha, very funny," Tidus punched her playfully in the shoulder. They walked into another hut, where Zalèa and her parents lived.
"Dream of the Fayth?" Nari looked at her brother, puzzled.
"Who knows," he shrugged.
Piper grinned. She wasn't the only one stumbling through the dark in her parents' pasts. "Well come on guys, let's go!" she said in a hushed whisper.
Nari and Evan led them through the tall green and yellow weeds behind the huts. They had explained they had a special door in back for late night returns. Opening the small flap, they found themselves in most likely Nari's room. "Now where did you put the key?" Evan asked.
"On a table in the other room," Piper said. They walked into the next room where Piper had woken up two days before. "Here it is!" she said, picking up the time-key.
"Good, now let's get out of here!" Zalèa said, peeking out the front entrance. "Oh crud! Hurry up!" she whispered hurriedly.
"Who's coming?" asked Nari.
"Paine and Neal!" she squealed. "Run!"
There was a massive scramble for the back door, but it didn't go well. Zalèa tripped over Nari who fell to the ground. Nari grabbed Piper's leg, causing her to fall into Evan, knocking them both to the ground. "Ow! Can you get your foot out of my face?" Piper asked someone.
"That doesn't matter! We're going to get caught!" Zalèa hissed.
Piper didn't even know who Paine and Neal were, but they were probably friends of Yuna's. That was not good.
A couple walked into the hut, looking at the four teenagers sprawled over the ground. The young woman dressed in all black, her silvery gray hair worn just below her chin. "What's going on here?"
"Nothing!" all four exclaimed at once.
"That can't be too comfortable of a position, can it?" the man laughed. He was an Al Bhed, his blonde hair cropped short. "Need some help?"
"Uhm, no, that's okay!" Evan said, climbing out of the tangle. "We were just leaving anyway."
"Okay," the woman shrugged. "Where's your parents?"
"At my house," Zalèa answered quickly. They managed to untangle themselves and get up.
The woman stepped back, looking at Piper again, "Are you...?"
"Yes, I'm Aeris' daughter," Piper answered, a bit annoyed. Just how many people here knew her mother?
"Well when you go back, tell her Paine says hi," the woman smiled crookedly.
"I'll do that," she assured. The two reminded her of Andre, one of the guys she had played blitzball with a few days before.
The young man looked at her, tilting his head slightly to one side. "Nice to meet you Piper."
"Yeah, nice to meet you too... uh... Neal?" she guessed.
Neal nodded, his emerald eyes locked with hers.
"C'mon!" Nari hissed. "Let's go!" she pulled on Piper's arm, dragging her out of the hut.
Piper sprinted after the others back to the Dandilily, clutching the time-key in her hand. What was with that guy...? she wondered. He gave her the creeps, just looking at him. Especially the way he looked back at her. And how did he know my name?
Charis Kisaragi shivered, her teeth chattering. She was wrapped up in a bundle of old, thin blankets, wishing to get out of the cold. The place appeared to have been abandoned long ago. She had found a sign buried under the snow outside that said, "Lake Macalania Travel Agency." Her cropped black hair dripped cold pieces of ice onto her forehead, and they melted down along her face. It was hard to remember any other time she had been so cold. There was one that stuck in her mind. When she came to Spira. She and her mother had lived in Midgar ever since she could remember. They lived in her best friend's old house. Then, about three weeks ago, she found a strange key hidden in the wall. She hadn't meant to make the hole there. Usually her practice shuriken would bounce off the wall, but this time it had punched out a square hole. When she asked her mother what it was, she began to go into one of her extremely hyper modes and continually talked about someone named Rikku. Apparently, she knew what it was for and how to use it because she grabbed Charis' hand and ran out the door with her.
Charis remembered the instant freeze that her ran through her body as she fell into a deep pile of snow. It was unbearably cold, and there was no one around. The wind howled around her, kicking up loose snow. She couldn't find her mother anywhere, and remembered thinking she was going to die. She must have been in the snow for at least an hour, and it was beginning to get dark. That was when she first met Sephianna and Ahriana. Ahriana was a sweet little girl, or so she thought. And Sephianna seemed so kind. They both helped her down the mountain and brought her someplace warm. Mount Gagazet they had called it. She didn't care much, just as long as she never had to be that cold again. Sephianna and Ahriana asked her about herself, and she just poured out everything she knew. About Midgar, her mother, and her best friend, Piper. It didn't seem to bother her at the time how much they asked about Piper. She must have told everything she knew about her, but she wished she could have taken it all back.
What surprised her most was the intelligence the girl Ahriana held. She was only about seven years old, but claimed it was because of a spell gone wrong that she had been trapped in a child's body. Ahriana and Sephianna offered to help Charis around Spira and find her mother, but in return, she had to help them on a mission. If she hadn't been so deathly sick at the time, she would have asked about the mission, but instead, readily agreed. Then Sephianna touched her shoulder, and a strange, black symbol appeared there. Occasionally it burned, or itched, but she never knew what it was for. Sephianna and Ahriana began to tell her everything. Who their parents were, what ties they had to Piper's mother Aeris, and Aeris' story. If that hadn't scared Charis enough, they told her what they had to do to succeed in their mission.
It was something she could never bear to do. But there was no escape. Not even in death. They had told her, they could bind her spirit to Spira, and she would be 'undead' until she helped finish their mission. Charis wanted to go home, but she didn't even know how she had gotten to Spira in the first place. She finally found Piper, just a few days ago. Sephianna and Ahriana warned her not to speak a word about the mission, or them. She didn't care. All she wanted to do was convince her friend to return back to her home before it was too late.
Somehow, the two had found out she was spilling all she could about them. They stopped her. When she woke up again, she was in the snow at Lake Macalania. Left to freeze to death. Only to be bound to this world, kept away from the next. At fifteen years of age, she wondered how she could live to tell the tale. Her mother had defeated Sephiroth and Meteor, a secret she must have planned to always keep from her as Aeris kept it from Piper. Charis knew everything now. But she didn't want to. She wanted to go home.
