Blue light filled Sora's eyes. He closed the to get the light away, but
when he opened them, he was on the beach of Besaid.
"Kairi, you mean more to me than anything..." Riku said. Sora looked up and saw Riku smiling down at him, but somehow he knew he was in Kairi's body.
"I care about you too Riku." She said. Riku laughed at her, hearing her stomach grumble a bit.
"Here," he said, handing her a fruit. Kairi looked up at him and ate the fruit, not paying attention to what it was. The flavor was unfamiliar to her, and she looked down at the fruit in her hands. It was half of a yellow star. She looked back up at Riku, surprised, and found him eating the other half. "We were meant to be together Kairi." He said softly. Kairi, unsure of what to do, finished eating the fruit, but felt completely foolish and she hated herself for it.
Sora awoke, lying on his back in a strange environment. He heard the electronic beeping of an airship, and two people arguing in a strange language.
[1] "Ra tuach'd muug mega y vekrdan du sa!" a male voice yelled. A girl huffed and said,
"Lyh'd oui zicd dnicd Auron yht pa xiead Pnudran?" Sora sat up, recognizing 'Auron'. Suddenly, the world spun and Sora gasped for breath. The girl hurried to him and forced him to lay back down by pushing him gently on his chest.
"Rikku, fa ryja fung du tu, cdub pypoehk res!" the man snapped. Sora sat up again.
"Riku? Is he here?" Sora asked, hopeful and confused. The girl smiled sympathetically.
"No, there is no boy named Riku here." Sora shook his head and pointed in the man's direction. His vision was blurred and the room continued to spin.
"He said Riku..." Sora groaned, leaning back and closing his eyes tight. His hand fell and Sora's body felt heavy.
"That's my name," she said quietly. "My name is Rikku." Sora groaned, then passed out.
He woke up, several hours later, and saw Auron sitting next to him. Sora looked around and saw that they were no longer on an airship, but in a dimly lit room.
"Where are we?" Sora asked. His voice sounded more like a croak of a frog than his voice. He coughed, then a glass of water was pressed against his lips. Sora drank, coughed, then drank some more.
"It's Traverse Town! Don'tcha recognize it?" a female voice asked. Sora barely recognized the voice and looked at the speaker. It was a young woman with tanned skin with a mass of blonde braids on top of her head and spilling down around her shoulders. Her top was yellow, and Sora blushed when he noticed how little it covered; it looked more like a bra than a top. His eyes went sheepishly back to her face. The girl laughed at him, and ruffled his hair. "It's okay Sora, I get that a lot." She said with a smile.
Sora started at her. "How did you know my name?" he asked, his voice still hoarse. "And who are you anyways?" he looked at Auron for help, but he in turn looked at the girl, his eyes unreadable behind his glasses.
"My name is Rikku. It's spells with two k's. I guess your friend spells it with one. I'm sorry about him." She said apologetically, dropping her voice. She smiled and looked back into his face. "but we can find him I bet!" she added enthusiastically.
A door banged behind her and Rikku turned to see a man with a mess of blonde hair carrying a tray being followed by a man with a blonde Mohawk, nearly covered in tattoos and earrings. The younger man was nearly screaming at the older man.
"Hey Cid!" Sora hailed, waving. Cid grinned and turned from the screaming boy.
"Knew you'd be alive boy. Too much spirit in you for the Heartless to get!" he paced the tray on a table between Auron and Sora, then grabbed the screaming boy's hair in his hand. Rikku covered her mouth with both hands and tried to detach the two before a fight erupted. By the time she was done, the boy was red faced and apparently cursing, while Cid grinned and sat near Sora. Rikku stomped angrily and faced Cid.
"Why do you have to always be like this? Come on Brother!" she pulled the cursing man after her and slammed the door.
"Sora, I hope you have a lot of patience in ya'. Them two are gonna help you defeat the Heartless. Well...my son will do the navigatin' and my daughter will help with the fightin'. And Sir Auron will be in this as well?" Cid asked, looking at Auron. The ex-guardian nodded and Cid grinned. "Ya never had a better chance in the world of winnin' boy!" Cid grinned, slapping Sora on the back. "Well, I gotta' be runnin the shop. See ya."
Sora stared at Cid as he left, then sure that they were alone, he looked at Auron.
"Those two are Cid's?" Sora asked, amazed. Auron nodded and took a piece of cheese from the try Cid left.
"And not one with any sense among them." He said, and then ate the cheese. Sora watched him and looked on the tray. There were some foods he recognized from his previous stays in Traverse Town, but some of it was strange to him. He picked up a waffle stick surrounding strawberry filling. He noticed Auron was watching him as he stared at it. "It's called Pocky. That one is strawberry." Sora fought a smile, trying to imagine the straight arrow Guardian eating something as dainty as a strawberry.
"So...Cid's kids? They don't seem to get along. With each other or Cid." He watched Auron's face, but Auron was as serious as the moment he met him, just slightly more relaxed. Sora assumed that it was because the Heartless weren't nearby.
"Cid's methods of raising his children since his wife died are contradictory. He constantly tells Brother that he is lazy and inept, while not allowing him to become otherwise, and always treats Rikku like a baby girl, when she's trying to prove herself among others as a fighter. The conflict between Brother and Rikku is the same one between every brother and sister." Auron left it at that, and Sora noticed that three cubes of cheese and a stick of Pocky were missing from the tray. He looked up at Auron, who had taken up a cup of tea and was currently ignoring Sora.
"Where are Donald and Goofy?" Sora asked. Auron looked down into his tea (yes tea, he's a recovering alcoholic, alright?) with distaste, still ignoring Sora. "So...what do we do next?" he asked again. Auron set down his cup and looked at Sora evenly, then seemed to make up his mind about something.
"Sora, you know that small chain of islands you live on? The largest island, Besaid, along with the smallers, are not just one world. Just before your friend Wakka was born, the world split apart. The separate pieces of the one world became their own worlds. Your friends landed on one of the pieces. They've been there all of this time."
"So they're safe?" Sora asked, excited. Auron calmly nodded.
"I believe the one called 'Goofy' is in the Bikanel Desert with the Al Bhed. I've just gotten Rikku and Brother around long enough to pick us up from Twilight Town, but she is mentioning a character that seems to fit Goofy's description. Other than that, Brother keeps interrupting or Cid enters the room, and I'm not experienced in Al Bhed, but I think they're insulting each other from then on." Sora absorbed this.
"How come he wasn't searching for me or Donald?" Sora asked, a bit hurt and agitated. Auron watched Sora through his dark glasses.
"There are few Al Bhed that speak any language besides their own. Even if they understood him, they only recently began making AirShips, or Gummi Ships." There was a pause, and Sora said nothing. "If it makes you feel better, he volunteered to be the first to test drive the first Gummi Ship to leave that world. Unfortunately, he couldn't get permission or a translator for the trip." Auron stood, and walked to the door in slow, but determined steps. "But we found you on a world, so I volunteered to get you. Now all you need to do is find Donald." Sora nodded, and Auron left.
Sipping tea, he looked around the room and realized it was the same one that he had formally met Leon and Yuffie in. It was the same one he, Donald and Goody had shared between saving different worlds and fighting in the Olympus Coliseum.
"You're lucky; he's usually not nearly that talkative." Rikku said, sitting in a chair. Sora jumped, wondering when the girl came into his room. She continued talking, trying not to giggle at Sora. "He usually says a short sentence or two, grunts or nods." She explained. Sora nodded slowly.
"Hey...Auron said that you found someone in the desert...?" Rikku thought, with a finger to her chin, then nodded.
"Yeah! A tall guy with a green hat, weird pants and a goofy voice!" she said. "He had strange ears too. I thought he was a hypello at first, but they are only blue. I never got to talk to him, but he seemed like a fun guy!" she said cheerily. Sora smiled for the first time in ages and nodded.
"Yeah, he's a good friend. I miss him..." he trailed off and looked away from Rikku. He did this for two reasons: one, he wasn't sure if he should be unburdening his feelings to someone he didn't know, and two, he found her extremely cute and her clothes made his eyes wander. Okay, maybe that was three, but two were also very good reasons for him to look at her again. He jerked in surprise and Rikku hugged him and ruffled his hair.
"Don't worry! I promise Brother and I will help you find everyone! You just need a day to relax, then we'll head to Bikanel Desert and find Goofer!"
"Goofy." Sora corrected patiently.
"Right! Then the two of you can train in the desert for a bit while some of us Al Bhed look for Donner!"
"Donald." Sora said, with a smile. He had to admit, she was really cute, which made up for her forgetfulness. Rikku kissed him on the cheek and got up.
"Get some food in ya and take a nice sleep! I'll make sure Brother doesn't wake ya too early. Nite!" she looked down at Sora, smiling happily, then left. Sora took another good look, then ate the dinner that some refugee had made for him. It was made of some type of meat and vegetables, but Sora's mind was drifting all over.
He was finally rid of that accursed City, Goofy was found, he had another team to help him find the Heartless and a way to finally know the history of his world, and an extremely cute girl to help him---
'No, what about Kairi?' Cut in a thought. Sora sighed.
'She's with Riku, he loves her and she loves him. Besides, they ate the PaoPu fruit...'
'Is that fruit really magical, or is it some sort of dopey legend that we think has power? You know Kairi loves you...'
'As a friend...she's had four years with Riku...'
Sora shut his eyes tight and tried to block out the thoughts that were flooding his mind. Somehow, they left him, and Sora lightly snored.
_______________________
Al Bhed translation: [1] "Ra tuach'd muug mega y vekrdan du sa!" "He doesn't look like a fighter to me!"
"Lyh'd oui zicd dnicd Auron yht pa xiead Pnudran?" "Can't you trust Auron and be quiet Brother?"
"Rikku, fa ryja fung du tu, cdub pypoehk res!" "Rikku, we have work to do, stop babying him!"
Authoress's Note: Sir Auron, Ex-Guardian to Summoner Lord Braska and High Summoner Lady Yuna, likes to munch on cheese and pocky!
"Kairi, you mean more to me than anything..." Riku said. Sora looked up and saw Riku smiling down at him, but somehow he knew he was in Kairi's body.
"I care about you too Riku." She said. Riku laughed at her, hearing her stomach grumble a bit.
"Here," he said, handing her a fruit. Kairi looked up at him and ate the fruit, not paying attention to what it was. The flavor was unfamiliar to her, and she looked down at the fruit in her hands. It was half of a yellow star. She looked back up at Riku, surprised, and found him eating the other half. "We were meant to be together Kairi." He said softly. Kairi, unsure of what to do, finished eating the fruit, but felt completely foolish and she hated herself for it.
Sora awoke, lying on his back in a strange environment. He heard the electronic beeping of an airship, and two people arguing in a strange language.
[1] "Ra tuach'd muug mega y vekrdan du sa!" a male voice yelled. A girl huffed and said,
"Lyh'd oui zicd dnicd Auron yht pa xiead Pnudran?" Sora sat up, recognizing 'Auron'. Suddenly, the world spun and Sora gasped for breath. The girl hurried to him and forced him to lay back down by pushing him gently on his chest.
"Rikku, fa ryja fung du tu, cdub pypoehk res!" the man snapped. Sora sat up again.
"Riku? Is he here?" Sora asked, hopeful and confused. The girl smiled sympathetically.
"No, there is no boy named Riku here." Sora shook his head and pointed in the man's direction. His vision was blurred and the room continued to spin.
"He said Riku..." Sora groaned, leaning back and closing his eyes tight. His hand fell and Sora's body felt heavy.
"That's my name," she said quietly. "My name is Rikku." Sora groaned, then passed out.
He woke up, several hours later, and saw Auron sitting next to him. Sora looked around and saw that they were no longer on an airship, but in a dimly lit room.
"Where are we?" Sora asked. His voice sounded more like a croak of a frog than his voice. He coughed, then a glass of water was pressed against his lips. Sora drank, coughed, then drank some more.
"It's Traverse Town! Don'tcha recognize it?" a female voice asked. Sora barely recognized the voice and looked at the speaker. It was a young woman with tanned skin with a mass of blonde braids on top of her head and spilling down around her shoulders. Her top was yellow, and Sora blushed when he noticed how little it covered; it looked more like a bra than a top. His eyes went sheepishly back to her face. The girl laughed at him, and ruffled his hair. "It's okay Sora, I get that a lot." She said with a smile.
Sora started at her. "How did you know my name?" he asked, his voice still hoarse. "And who are you anyways?" he looked at Auron for help, but he in turn looked at the girl, his eyes unreadable behind his glasses.
"My name is Rikku. It's spells with two k's. I guess your friend spells it with one. I'm sorry about him." She said apologetically, dropping her voice. She smiled and looked back into his face. "but we can find him I bet!" she added enthusiastically.
A door banged behind her and Rikku turned to see a man with a mess of blonde hair carrying a tray being followed by a man with a blonde Mohawk, nearly covered in tattoos and earrings. The younger man was nearly screaming at the older man.
"Hey Cid!" Sora hailed, waving. Cid grinned and turned from the screaming boy.
"Knew you'd be alive boy. Too much spirit in you for the Heartless to get!" he paced the tray on a table between Auron and Sora, then grabbed the screaming boy's hair in his hand. Rikku covered her mouth with both hands and tried to detach the two before a fight erupted. By the time she was done, the boy was red faced and apparently cursing, while Cid grinned and sat near Sora. Rikku stomped angrily and faced Cid.
"Why do you have to always be like this? Come on Brother!" she pulled the cursing man after her and slammed the door.
"Sora, I hope you have a lot of patience in ya'. Them two are gonna help you defeat the Heartless. Well...my son will do the navigatin' and my daughter will help with the fightin'. And Sir Auron will be in this as well?" Cid asked, looking at Auron. The ex-guardian nodded and Cid grinned. "Ya never had a better chance in the world of winnin' boy!" Cid grinned, slapping Sora on the back. "Well, I gotta' be runnin the shop. See ya."
Sora stared at Cid as he left, then sure that they were alone, he looked at Auron.
"Those two are Cid's?" Sora asked, amazed. Auron nodded and took a piece of cheese from the try Cid left.
"And not one with any sense among them." He said, and then ate the cheese. Sora watched him and looked on the tray. There were some foods he recognized from his previous stays in Traverse Town, but some of it was strange to him. He picked up a waffle stick surrounding strawberry filling. He noticed Auron was watching him as he stared at it. "It's called Pocky. That one is strawberry." Sora fought a smile, trying to imagine the straight arrow Guardian eating something as dainty as a strawberry.
"So...Cid's kids? They don't seem to get along. With each other or Cid." He watched Auron's face, but Auron was as serious as the moment he met him, just slightly more relaxed. Sora assumed that it was because the Heartless weren't nearby.
"Cid's methods of raising his children since his wife died are contradictory. He constantly tells Brother that he is lazy and inept, while not allowing him to become otherwise, and always treats Rikku like a baby girl, when she's trying to prove herself among others as a fighter. The conflict between Brother and Rikku is the same one between every brother and sister." Auron left it at that, and Sora noticed that three cubes of cheese and a stick of Pocky were missing from the tray. He looked up at Auron, who had taken up a cup of tea and was currently ignoring Sora.
"Where are Donald and Goofy?" Sora asked. Auron looked down into his tea (yes tea, he's a recovering alcoholic, alright?) with distaste, still ignoring Sora. "So...what do we do next?" he asked again. Auron set down his cup and looked at Sora evenly, then seemed to make up his mind about something.
"Sora, you know that small chain of islands you live on? The largest island, Besaid, along with the smallers, are not just one world. Just before your friend Wakka was born, the world split apart. The separate pieces of the one world became their own worlds. Your friends landed on one of the pieces. They've been there all of this time."
"So they're safe?" Sora asked, excited. Auron calmly nodded.
"I believe the one called 'Goofy' is in the Bikanel Desert with the Al Bhed. I've just gotten Rikku and Brother around long enough to pick us up from Twilight Town, but she is mentioning a character that seems to fit Goofy's description. Other than that, Brother keeps interrupting or Cid enters the room, and I'm not experienced in Al Bhed, but I think they're insulting each other from then on." Sora absorbed this.
"How come he wasn't searching for me or Donald?" Sora asked, a bit hurt and agitated. Auron watched Sora through his dark glasses.
"There are few Al Bhed that speak any language besides their own. Even if they understood him, they only recently began making AirShips, or Gummi Ships." There was a pause, and Sora said nothing. "If it makes you feel better, he volunteered to be the first to test drive the first Gummi Ship to leave that world. Unfortunately, he couldn't get permission or a translator for the trip." Auron stood, and walked to the door in slow, but determined steps. "But we found you on a world, so I volunteered to get you. Now all you need to do is find Donald." Sora nodded, and Auron left.
Sipping tea, he looked around the room and realized it was the same one that he had formally met Leon and Yuffie in. It was the same one he, Donald and Goody had shared between saving different worlds and fighting in the Olympus Coliseum.
"You're lucky; he's usually not nearly that talkative." Rikku said, sitting in a chair. Sora jumped, wondering when the girl came into his room. She continued talking, trying not to giggle at Sora. "He usually says a short sentence or two, grunts or nods." She explained. Sora nodded slowly.
"Hey...Auron said that you found someone in the desert...?" Rikku thought, with a finger to her chin, then nodded.
"Yeah! A tall guy with a green hat, weird pants and a goofy voice!" she said. "He had strange ears too. I thought he was a hypello at first, but they are only blue. I never got to talk to him, but he seemed like a fun guy!" she said cheerily. Sora smiled for the first time in ages and nodded.
"Yeah, he's a good friend. I miss him..." he trailed off and looked away from Rikku. He did this for two reasons: one, he wasn't sure if he should be unburdening his feelings to someone he didn't know, and two, he found her extremely cute and her clothes made his eyes wander. Okay, maybe that was three, but two were also very good reasons for him to look at her again. He jerked in surprise and Rikku hugged him and ruffled his hair.
"Don't worry! I promise Brother and I will help you find everyone! You just need a day to relax, then we'll head to Bikanel Desert and find Goofer!"
"Goofy." Sora corrected patiently.
"Right! Then the two of you can train in the desert for a bit while some of us Al Bhed look for Donner!"
"Donald." Sora said, with a smile. He had to admit, she was really cute, which made up for her forgetfulness. Rikku kissed him on the cheek and got up.
"Get some food in ya and take a nice sleep! I'll make sure Brother doesn't wake ya too early. Nite!" she looked down at Sora, smiling happily, then left. Sora took another good look, then ate the dinner that some refugee had made for him. It was made of some type of meat and vegetables, but Sora's mind was drifting all over.
He was finally rid of that accursed City, Goofy was found, he had another team to help him find the Heartless and a way to finally know the history of his world, and an extremely cute girl to help him---
'No, what about Kairi?' Cut in a thought. Sora sighed.
'She's with Riku, he loves her and she loves him. Besides, they ate the PaoPu fruit...'
'Is that fruit really magical, or is it some sort of dopey legend that we think has power? You know Kairi loves you...'
'As a friend...she's had four years with Riku...'
Sora shut his eyes tight and tried to block out the thoughts that were flooding his mind. Somehow, they left him, and Sora lightly snored.
_______________________
Al Bhed translation: [1] "Ra tuach'd muug mega y vekrdan du sa!" "He doesn't look like a fighter to me!"
"Lyh'd oui zicd dnicd Auron yht pa xiead Pnudran?" "Can't you trust Auron and be quiet Brother?"
"Rikku, fa ryja fung du tu, cdub pypoehk res!" "Rikku, we have work to do, stop babying him!"
Authoress's Note: Sir Auron, Ex-Guardian to Summoner Lord Braska and High Summoner Lady Yuna, likes to munch on cheese and pocky!