"I've got mine," Ghiki announced as he leapt from the branches of the three-trunked tree and landed on the ground.
"About time," Kogoro said, scratching behind his ear. Already his pendant was around his neck, hanging down slightly behind his chin.
Ghiki stuck his tongue out at Kogoro. "Where's Flurry?"
"Don't know," Kogoro replied, looking upwards. "He was here just a moment ago..."
"Don't get your fur all in a bunch," came a voice from behind them. As the two of them turned, they saw Flurry landing and fluttering his wings behind them. "Just my host. Can you feel them?"
"I noticed it a few minutes ago," Kogoro replied, turning his body fully around to face Flurry. "Stronger, it seems."
"Do you think they've bonded?" Ghiki perched on top of Kogoro's shoulders again, peering at Flurry.
"The darkness has grown stronger, anyway," Flurry replied ambiguously.
"It's about time," Ghiki said, folding his arms after making sure his sacred pendant was hanging properly around his neck. "I thought mine was going to continue to fight me forever."
"I think they're confused," Kogoro offered, wagging his tail.
"What's there to be confused about?" Ghiki paused for a moment, seeming to think. "I mean, all we did was drag them to this secret place, scare them half to death, put them in sanity-reducing situations, and use their momentary loss of control on their own minds to take control of their bodies for our own use--"
Flurry blinked. "Do I sense sarcasm?"
"No," Ghiki replied, smirking again. "Never."
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"So," Ghiki said, perching on the edge of the cliff, looking down onto the snow-covered plains of Macalania, "what's the plan, guys?"
The black haze had descended on the whole area, making it almost impossible for any of them to see each other. The only reason Ghiki knew that Kogoro was here was because he was perched on the dog's back. "We really have to play this by ear," Kogoro said, his voice not being impeded by the haze really. "Go in there and see what's going wrong and then--"
Suddenly there was a loud roar from above their heads. Ghiki, surprised, jumped off Kogoro's back and cowered in the blackened snow.
"Flurry!" Kogoro shouted, rearing up on his hind legs.
Ghiki looked up. Flurry had taken off, soaring up into the sky -- at least, that's what Ghiki thought he was doing. He could only make out a vague blur moving through the black haze.
A few moments later, Flurry's voice returned as calm as it ever was. "It's an airship."
"An airship?" Kogoro padded over to Flurry, and Ghiki followed. "What are they--"
Whatever Kogoro was going to say next was obscured by a loud explosion, followed by a plume of flame from the center of the iced lake.
"What are they doing??" Flurry was angry, and he ruffled his feathers. "Do they not realize what they're tampering with??"
"They're only going to make it worse for themselves," Kogoro said saidly, stepping forward to get a closer look.
Down in the ravine, on the lake, the black haze was growing thicker now. Where it had been nearly impossible to see before, everything was now completely obscured. Black smoke billowed up into the air, getting caught on the winds aloft and spreading it throughout the upper atmosphere to drop wherever the air pressure lessened.
Part of the black smoke attached itself to the airship, too, causing it to fly in a convoluted pattern... steadily falling toward the ground.
------
------
In a deafening explosion of crashes and metallic screaming, the airship crashed not far from where the three sacred animals perched. The black haze and smoke coated the outer portion of it, seeping in through the engines and the air vents. The three animals hurried over -- Ghiki rode on Kogoro's back as he ran, but Flurry inevitably arrived first. The ship was in a sorry state of affairs, but it couldn't have crashed in a better place. The huge drift of snow protected the main body of the ship, even though its outer engines were completely destroyed. The people on board would be okay, if a little injured.
Unless the black haze got to them. Without protective relics, it would eat their bodies alive.
"There are people on board," Kogoro exclaimed, looking in a window.
Ghiki thought that was rather obvious, as one of them -- a girl with blonde hair held up in elaborate braids -- was leaning and pounding on the window.
"The virus will get to them," Flurry remarked, looking rather disinterested.
"We can't let that happen," Ghiki replied, putting his paw up against the window near the human's hand.
"Why not?" Flurry sounded disappointed.
Kogoro gasped. "Because," he said, looking at Ghiki incredulously, "these are the ones with the other half of the sphere."
"Exactly," Ghiki said, nodding. He looked at the blonde girl sadly. "And if we let it get them, we'll have to start all over--"
"Troublesome," Flurry interrupted, taking off and flying up into the air. "Spira would be doomed. Shall we?"
------
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"It's them," Yuna affirmed, nodding at Rikku. "That's definitely Ghiki, look at his paw..."
"And back there, that's Flurry, I think," Paine added, leaning over to get a better look.
"I don't get it," Rikku said, looking back and forth between Yuna and Paine. "How did they get out there? We're not even in the right dress sphere!"
"Um," Yuna said, smiling shyly and looking at Rikku. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes, of course I'm sure!" Rikku turned away from the window and crossed her arms at Yuna, but then stopped short and looked down at herself.
Paine couldn't suppress the snicker. "Sometimes I wonder if Rikku's certainty is worth anything."
"How did this happen??" Rikku stamped her foot, her toes almost catching on the hem of her Trainer dress. "I didn't even change to this dress sphere! At least, I don't remember it--"
"Maybe they did it," Yuna mused quietly, still looking out the window.
"The animals?" Paine sounded a little incredulous.
"Why not?" Yuna shrugged. "They had to come from somewhere, right? Maybe they're using a dress sphere too..."
"So wait a minute," Rikku said, waving her finger at Yuna, "are you saying that they," she indicated out the window, where the three animals had now disappeared, "are controlling us?"
Yuna smiled wryly. "Maybe."
"Hey girls," Paine said from the window. "You should look at this."
The other two turned and looked out the window as well. When the airship crashed, they had fallen into a thick fog of black haze that had coated all the windows and made it nearly impossible to see more than a foot past the glass. Now it seemed like there were little beads of light running back and forth along the glass, and the air around the window was clearing.
"That black fog," Rikku said, pressing her hands against the window, "that's the virus, isn't it?"
"It's what made us so sick before," Yuna replied, mimicking Rikku's position against the window.
Paine smirked, looking upwards as Flurry descended from the skies. Her eyes followed his flight path down to the ground, where the other two animals joined him. She widened her eyes in surprise as the monkey -- Ghiki -- turned around and waved at them before hopping on the dog's -- Kogoro's -- back and disappearing into the fog. "It seems like they're protecting us," Paine said softly, folding her arms.
"Protecting us?" Rikku leaned back from the window, hands on her hips. "We don't need protecting! We saved the world -- twice!"
"But then we knew what we were up against," Yuna added sadly, leaning back against the window. "We can't do anything against an enemy that we can't see and don't know how to fight."
"Yuna?" Paine tilted her head. "It sounds oddly like you're giving up."
Yuna opened her mouth in surprise. "Never!" She put her hand over her open mouth indignantly. "I'm just saying that... that..."
"We need to lay low for a while!" Rikku raised her arm in the air triumphantly. "So we can... assess the situation!"
"Yeah, that's it!" Yuna smiled, nodding in agreement with Rikku. "We can't just go running off into a black haze without knowing what we're getting into!"
Paine blinked at Yuna, then shook her head with a snicker. "Riiight..."