Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Yes, the mage is a lazy slacker-person and she's failing to update regularly like she should...I'm sorry. Anyway, I don't think I own anything new here, so please don't sue me--because if you do, at this rate the story will never get done.
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes Plays Dress-Up
by flame mage
spherechange 10: Seething Cauldron
**********
From the camera angle, I could see that Bickson was standing on the top of that hill--apparently he'd taken the Ancient Road from the beach. I could almost feel him leaning back as he walked down the steep hill toward the village. Several people were standing on that path, and as he got closer I could see that they were the Aurochs. They were tossing a blitzball around and cracking jokes with each other.
"Aww, whattsamatter, Let?" Botta was taunting Letty when Bickson got within earshot, bouncing the ball off his head. "You're gettin' slow. Season's startin' soon, ya know?"
"Yeah, like we're gonna be ready in time for the season with Cap'n LinLin gone and Cap'n Wakka back there pacin' like a Tonberry," Letty grunted as he dove for the ball and lobbed it back. "I can't do everythin'. We got enough problems just gettin' through training during the day; how're we supposedta try ta get anythin' done when that jerk's spendin' every damn day turning us into soldiers?"
What?
"Quit whinin'." Datto was still an agile forward; before Botta could react, he zinged in and snagged the ball. "We'll be lucky if we got a league to come back to, the way things are lookin' now. I hear New Yevon's stockpilin' weapons too. Maybe they'll come down here someday and blow all our heads off, ya?"
Jassu stared at the kid like he was nuts. "Ya gotta be kiddin me, man. Ain't no way a buncha puffed-up priests are gonna come down here and mess with a buncha blitzers. Only thing we gotta do is deal with Beclem."
"Only thing we gotta do is survive, brudda," Botta replied, walking over to put a hand on Keepa's shoulder. The goalie was leaning against a tree, looking worn out. "You okay there, kid?" Botta asked him.
Keepa took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Man, I wish Cap'n LinLin were here so we could get back in the sphere."
I'm not sentimental, but I gotta admit I felt a physical twinge in my chest.
"I've been looking for you guys," Bickson's voice said, breaking the flow of their conversation.
Datto looked at him a little suspiciously. "What do you want, Goer? You come to hire Vilucha again?"
Letty punched the baby of the team lightly in the shoulder. "Why don't you lay off, ya? That's Cap'n LinLin's guy, even if he is a Goer." Then, to Bickson, "You know where she is?"
"That's what I came to ask you. Has she been by here in the last couple days?"
"Nah." Botta shook his head. "We really wish she had, though."
"Why's that?" Bickson asked.
Jassu grimaced. "Because with her gone and Wakka fussin' over his kid, there's been no one around to train with us except--"
"What are you doing standing around?!"
"--him," the guard finished with a wince.
The camera view shifted up as Bickson looked toward the village to see who was coming. The man was wearing a red and blue uniform and the metal half-face mask of the Crusaders; he was a bad-ass male version of Miyu. "I assume that the fact that you've got time for this idle chatter means that you've bulked up enough to be considered men instead of mice."
"Who are you?" the Goer wanted to know.
I couldn't see Testosterone-Pumped-Miyu's eyes, but I was willing to bet he was glaring at Bickson. "My name is Beclem. I've been sent by Youth League Headquarters to whip these spineless dogs into shape. Their training so far has been absolutely pathetic."
"Pathetic enough to win the Cup for the last three years running, right?" Bickson snapped. I raised an eyebrow. Normally he would never have mentioned that; it was still a really sore point with him and he winced every time I brought it up. Maybe he was feeling defensive--or more likely he was like me and disliked the guy on sight.
"The very sport of blitzball is pathetic. Real men shoot guns, not goals. These boys have never been trained--if you can even call it that--by anyone other than that idiot Wakka and some pathetic little girl."
I was starting to notice a trend in Beclem's word choice here. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. You're the one who's pathetic, stomping around in your unstained uniform and your prissy mask with that red hair of yours while that 'little girl' is running around the desert digging up those damn guns of yours. Where do you think they come from, pal? Ugh, Benzo was getting to me; I had to stop noticing people's grammar. It wasn't until later that I realized that the fact that I picked up on Beclem's overuse of the word 'pathetic' was probably a good thing, since it was the only thing that kept me from going stark raving mad with anger.
The guys were with him, though, so they had the luxury of doing that. "Don't you dare talk that way about Cap'n Wakka and Cap'n LinLin!" Keepa exploded. "They're not pathetic! They're much better coaches than you are!" I wanted to hug him. I wanted to run from a distance of twenty feet and jump on him and wrap my arms around him and then buy him a doughnut. Man, and these were the guys that two years ago were calling me 'Little Princess' and stealing my clothes while I was in the shower.
There was a long, angry silence after this outburst, and suddenly the camera lurched as Bickson knelt and set it on the ground. He'd propped it up on a rock, so I was could see the cold fury in his eyes as he stood up again. I watched as he strode straight down the hill until he was toe-to-toe with Beclem. He had to look down to make eye contact. It occured to me that Beclem was about my height.
Slowly and deliberately, Bickson spat, "Wakka's no idiot, but I don't really like him, so I could let that one slide. But that 'pathetic little girl' is one of the best blitzers Spira's ever seen. I have no doubt that if she were here, she'd haul off and kick your ass right now. Since she's not..." He left the threat hanging for a second, just staring through the hollow owl eyes in Beclem's mask. "I'll have to do it for her."
I cheered. "Yeah, man! Why don't you beat his scrawny little head against a rock and tell Lulu to freeze it and feed it to her kid in a couple months!? Why don't you mash him into a pulp and paint the temple walls with him!? Why don't you--"
"You think you can beat me, boy?" Beclem raged. Bickson stumbled backwards as the pair of handguns the Crusader threw at him hit his hands. Blitz reflexes alone kept him from dropping them and falling on his ass. "Prove it. Run the Gunner's Gauntlet. 500 points' worth of dead fiends. Seven minutes from now, you'd better be on the beach waiting for me, or I don't ever want to see your face around here again."
Bickson's lips curled into a snarl. "Done."
The Aurochs were glancing at each other, murmering. They were afraid of this gauntlet thing, whatever it was. Everyone was uneasy. When Datto picked up the camera again and aimed it up the hill, I could see why.
"Begin!" Beclem's voice shouted. Bickson was standing on the top of the hill, the two guns clenched in his fists. About two feet away a Wild Wolf was standing on its haunches, growling as it lunged for him.
Furiously, Bickson fired five shots with his right hand. The fiend collapsed in a burst of Pyreflies. The Goer ran, already targeting the next one.
"C'mon, let's go!" Datto hissed to the others, racing off after him.
I'd never seen Bickson furious before. I'd seen him laugh all the time, I'd seen him smirk more times than I could remember, I'd seen him kick himself when the Goers lost, and, once in a while, I'd seen a warm, real smile spread across his face. I'd never seen that famous wide mouth twisted up with rage or those deep blue eyes filled with--hate. He was moving now like he moved in the sphere, but harder, faster. He swung out over the Ancient Road and the falls, both guns blazing in the hands of a madman, fiends sprawling on the ground as the Pyreflies swarmed. If Besaid had ever had a pest control problem, it didn't anymore.
The guys were running hard behind him to keep up. I wasn't sure what had happened to Beclem--chances were he'd lagged behind on the hill and was going to jump down from the bridge to the beach or something equally macho just to beat Bickson there. And I have no idea how many fiends died (again) at the hands of that blitzer. I only know that for seven minutes, I sat frozen in hell, because Bickson was shooting violently and getting gored by wild dogs, and I was totally helpless to do anything about it.
Beclem, as it turned out, twisted his ankle trying to jump from the waterfall bridge and arrived at the shore several seconds after Bickson. By that time, the guys had calmed him (this would be Bickson) down enough to stop clutching the guns so hard his knuckles were white and the murderous gleam was draining from the sapphire eyes. "Good enough for you?" he hissed at Beclem.
The ex-Crusader's nostrils flared, but he choked out, "I suppose so."
"Good. Now that that's settled, I'm going to ask you a question, and I want a straight response sometime in the next three seconds: have you or have you not seen this woman in the last three days?" He hooked the fingers of his left hand around the gun triggers to free up his right, dug a sphere out of his pocket, and thrust it into Beclem's face. I could just make out the image of me inside. For a sec, I was worried it would be a picture of me grinning and flashing a blitz bow at the camera or something equally nonthreatening, but from what I could see it looked like it had been taken inside the sphere during a game. I hoped I was Nap Shooting someone.
"I have not," Beclem responded tersely.
"That's all I needed to know." Bickson put the sphere back into his pocket and dropped the guns to the sand. "Then I'm heading out. And...Aurochs? I know you probably hate my guts, but you want her back as much as I do. If you find her, let me know, okay?"
"Sure thing, ya?" Letty told him.
Bickson came over and took the sphere camera back, then walked down the dock to where the ferry was waiting. When he had one foot on the ramp, Beclem called out, "Who is she?"
The Goer stopped and turned. "To you," he shouted back, "she's a pathetic little girl. To me..." He hesitated. "I think she's the love of my life."
The screen went black. I have no idea whether I blushed, screamed in frustration, or threw the sphere against the wall first, but I'm pretty sure I did all three because Benzo told me that's how he found me about thirty seconds later--sitting alone in the darkened tent with my cheeks flushed red and my mouth hanging open, and the glass of the sphere scattered at my feet. I was still wearing Naaga's clothes.
*****
"So we have no emergency sphere," I told the others at dinner. I was back to the blitz uniform, but I was still in a bad mood.
Benzo had been amazingly cool about the whole thing. He'd swept up the pieces of the sphere, kept everyone away from the tent until I could change back, and hadn't asked any questions. Now I was irritated at myself as well as the situation. That jerk Beclem was ruining my team, Wakka was doing nothing to stop him, and now my boyfriend was going around making bold declarations of undying love and I wasn't there to hear them. This was terrible. And without blitz training, we'd be sitting Chocobos when the season started. Tysh, tysh, tysh.
"How'd that happen?" Jock demanded.
"Faulty transmission," I replied, daring him to keep going.
He took the dare. "Faulty?"
"Like your head." I ripped off a hunk of beef jerky with my teeth and glared at him. "We needed a better sphere anyway; that emergency one was crap. I'll get Sanna to bring one next time she comes, or maybe someone who has one will turn up at the Oasis."
"Speaking of the Oasis," Nedus cut in nonchalantly, "I was out there filling up the water tanks today and I found some strange stuff. An empty box of chocolate cream pie, a couple of spheres, and a bunch of fans with hearts on them."
"Hearts?" Redeci laughed. "Sounds like the LeBlanc Syndicate to me."
"The LeBlanc Syndicate?" repeated Tuc slowly. "Who's that?"
"Sphere hunters, right?" his older brother put in.
Redeci nodded. "Mmm-hmm. It wouldn't surprise me if they were here looking for a few spheres. I've heard she's Nooj's girlfriend."
"This would be Nooj of the Youth League?" I blinked. "Whoa. He didn't seem like the type to me. From what I've heard about her, she's kinda...out there."
Jock snorted. "In more ways than one. I'd like to take her for a ride or two in my hover, if you get my drift."
I kicked sand at him. "Divert your blood flow back to your head for a second. This is serious. If they're doing any digging here, they might be finding parts we need. What happens if they take them or--worse--junk them? Someone's gonna have to head out there tomorrow and deal with them."
"I wouldn't if I were you," Benzo warned me. "If the LeBlanc Syndicate's really out there, they're going to be armed for bear."
"Hmm." I finished off the jerky. "In that case, let's hope a solution presents itself. To both problems."
As it turned out, something did.
Yes, the mage is a lazy slacker-person and she's failing to update regularly like she should...I'm sorry. Anyway, I don't think I own anything new here, so please don't sue me--because if you do, at this rate the story will never get done.
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes Plays Dress-Up
by flame mage
spherechange 10: Seething Cauldron
**********
From the camera angle, I could see that Bickson was standing on the top of that hill--apparently he'd taken the Ancient Road from the beach. I could almost feel him leaning back as he walked down the steep hill toward the village. Several people were standing on that path, and as he got closer I could see that they were the Aurochs. They were tossing a blitzball around and cracking jokes with each other.
"Aww, whattsamatter, Let?" Botta was taunting Letty when Bickson got within earshot, bouncing the ball off his head. "You're gettin' slow. Season's startin' soon, ya know?"
"Yeah, like we're gonna be ready in time for the season with Cap'n LinLin gone and Cap'n Wakka back there pacin' like a Tonberry," Letty grunted as he dove for the ball and lobbed it back. "I can't do everythin'. We got enough problems just gettin' through training during the day; how're we supposedta try ta get anythin' done when that jerk's spendin' every damn day turning us into soldiers?"
What?
"Quit whinin'." Datto was still an agile forward; before Botta could react, he zinged in and snagged the ball. "We'll be lucky if we got a league to come back to, the way things are lookin' now. I hear New Yevon's stockpilin' weapons too. Maybe they'll come down here someday and blow all our heads off, ya?"
Jassu stared at the kid like he was nuts. "Ya gotta be kiddin me, man. Ain't no way a buncha puffed-up priests are gonna come down here and mess with a buncha blitzers. Only thing we gotta do is deal with Beclem."
"Only thing we gotta do is survive, brudda," Botta replied, walking over to put a hand on Keepa's shoulder. The goalie was leaning against a tree, looking worn out. "You okay there, kid?" Botta asked him.
Keepa took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Man, I wish Cap'n LinLin were here so we could get back in the sphere."
I'm not sentimental, but I gotta admit I felt a physical twinge in my chest.
"I've been looking for you guys," Bickson's voice said, breaking the flow of their conversation.
Datto looked at him a little suspiciously. "What do you want, Goer? You come to hire Vilucha again?"
Letty punched the baby of the team lightly in the shoulder. "Why don't you lay off, ya? That's Cap'n LinLin's guy, even if he is a Goer." Then, to Bickson, "You know where she is?"
"That's what I came to ask you. Has she been by here in the last couple days?"
"Nah." Botta shook his head. "We really wish she had, though."
"Why's that?" Bickson asked.
Jassu grimaced. "Because with her gone and Wakka fussin' over his kid, there's been no one around to train with us except--"
"What are you doing standing around?!"
"--him," the guard finished with a wince.
The camera view shifted up as Bickson looked toward the village to see who was coming. The man was wearing a red and blue uniform and the metal half-face mask of the Crusaders; he was a bad-ass male version of Miyu. "I assume that the fact that you've got time for this idle chatter means that you've bulked up enough to be considered men instead of mice."
"Who are you?" the Goer wanted to know.
I couldn't see Testosterone-Pumped-Miyu's eyes, but I was willing to bet he was glaring at Bickson. "My name is Beclem. I've been sent by Youth League Headquarters to whip these spineless dogs into shape. Their training so far has been absolutely pathetic."
"Pathetic enough to win the Cup for the last three years running, right?" Bickson snapped. I raised an eyebrow. Normally he would never have mentioned that; it was still a really sore point with him and he winced every time I brought it up. Maybe he was feeling defensive--or more likely he was like me and disliked the guy on sight.
"The very sport of blitzball is pathetic. Real men shoot guns, not goals. These boys have never been trained--if you can even call it that--by anyone other than that idiot Wakka and some pathetic little girl."
I was starting to notice a trend in Beclem's word choice here. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. You're the one who's pathetic, stomping around in your unstained uniform and your prissy mask with that red hair of yours while that 'little girl' is running around the desert digging up those damn guns of yours. Where do you think they come from, pal? Ugh, Benzo was getting to me; I had to stop noticing people's grammar. It wasn't until later that I realized that the fact that I picked up on Beclem's overuse of the word 'pathetic' was probably a good thing, since it was the only thing that kept me from going stark raving mad with anger.
The guys were with him, though, so they had the luxury of doing that. "Don't you dare talk that way about Cap'n Wakka and Cap'n LinLin!" Keepa exploded. "They're not pathetic! They're much better coaches than you are!" I wanted to hug him. I wanted to run from a distance of twenty feet and jump on him and wrap my arms around him and then buy him a doughnut. Man, and these were the guys that two years ago were calling me 'Little Princess' and stealing my clothes while I was in the shower.
There was a long, angry silence after this outburst, and suddenly the camera lurched as Bickson knelt and set it on the ground. He'd propped it up on a rock, so I was could see the cold fury in his eyes as he stood up again. I watched as he strode straight down the hill until he was toe-to-toe with Beclem. He had to look down to make eye contact. It occured to me that Beclem was about my height.
Slowly and deliberately, Bickson spat, "Wakka's no idiot, but I don't really like him, so I could let that one slide. But that 'pathetic little girl' is one of the best blitzers Spira's ever seen. I have no doubt that if she were here, she'd haul off and kick your ass right now. Since she's not..." He left the threat hanging for a second, just staring through the hollow owl eyes in Beclem's mask. "I'll have to do it for her."
I cheered. "Yeah, man! Why don't you beat his scrawny little head against a rock and tell Lulu to freeze it and feed it to her kid in a couple months!? Why don't you mash him into a pulp and paint the temple walls with him!? Why don't you--"
"You think you can beat me, boy?" Beclem raged. Bickson stumbled backwards as the pair of handguns the Crusader threw at him hit his hands. Blitz reflexes alone kept him from dropping them and falling on his ass. "Prove it. Run the Gunner's Gauntlet. 500 points' worth of dead fiends. Seven minutes from now, you'd better be on the beach waiting for me, or I don't ever want to see your face around here again."
Bickson's lips curled into a snarl. "Done."
The Aurochs were glancing at each other, murmering. They were afraid of this gauntlet thing, whatever it was. Everyone was uneasy. When Datto picked up the camera again and aimed it up the hill, I could see why.
"Begin!" Beclem's voice shouted. Bickson was standing on the top of the hill, the two guns clenched in his fists. About two feet away a Wild Wolf was standing on its haunches, growling as it lunged for him.
Furiously, Bickson fired five shots with his right hand. The fiend collapsed in a burst of Pyreflies. The Goer ran, already targeting the next one.
"C'mon, let's go!" Datto hissed to the others, racing off after him.
I'd never seen Bickson furious before. I'd seen him laugh all the time, I'd seen him smirk more times than I could remember, I'd seen him kick himself when the Goers lost, and, once in a while, I'd seen a warm, real smile spread across his face. I'd never seen that famous wide mouth twisted up with rage or those deep blue eyes filled with--hate. He was moving now like he moved in the sphere, but harder, faster. He swung out over the Ancient Road and the falls, both guns blazing in the hands of a madman, fiends sprawling on the ground as the Pyreflies swarmed. If Besaid had ever had a pest control problem, it didn't anymore.
The guys were running hard behind him to keep up. I wasn't sure what had happened to Beclem--chances were he'd lagged behind on the hill and was going to jump down from the bridge to the beach or something equally macho just to beat Bickson there. And I have no idea how many fiends died (again) at the hands of that blitzer. I only know that for seven minutes, I sat frozen in hell, because Bickson was shooting violently and getting gored by wild dogs, and I was totally helpless to do anything about it.
Beclem, as it turned out, twisted his ankle trying to jump from the waterfall bridge and arrived at the shore several seconds after Bickson. By that time, the guys had calmed him (this would be Bickson) down enough to stop clutching the guns so hard his knuckles were white and the murderous gleam was draining from the sapphire eyes. "Good enough for you?" he hissed at Beclem.
The ex-Crusader's nostrils flared, but he choked out, "I suppose so."
"Good. Now that that's settled, I'm going to ask you a question, and I want a straight response sometime in the next three seconds: have you or have you not seen this woman in the last three days?" He hooked the fingers of his left hand around the gun triggers to free up his right, dug a sphere out of his pocket, and thrust it into Beclem's face. I could just make out the image of me inside. For a sec, I was worried it would be a picture of me grinning and flashing a blitz bow at the camera or something equally nonthreatening, but from what I could see it looked like it had been taken inside the sphere during a game. I hoped I was Nap Shooting someone.
"I have not," Beclem responded tersely.
"That's all I needed to know." Bickson put the sphere back into his pocket and dropped the guns to the sand. "Then I'm heading out. And...Aurochs? I know you probably hate my guts, but you want her back as much as I do. If you find her, let me know, okay?"
"Sure thing, ya?" Letty told him.
Bickson came over and took the sphere camera back, then walked down the dock to where the ferry was waiting. When he had one foot on the ramp, Beclem called out, "Who is she?"
The Goer stopped and turned. "To you," he shouted back, "she's a pathetic little girl. To me..." He hesitated. "I think she's the love of my life."
The screen went black. I have no idea whether I blushed, screamed in frustration, or threw the sphere against the wall first, but I'm pretty sure I did all three because Benzo told me that's how he found me about thirty seconds later--sitting alone in the darkened tent with my cheeks flushed red and my mouth hanging open, and the glass of the sphere scattered at my feet. I was still wearing Naaga's clothes.
*****
"So we have no emergency sphere," I told the others at dinner. I was back to the blitz uniform, but I was still in a bad mood.
Benzo had been amazingly cool about the whole thing. He'd swept up the pieces of the sphere, kept everyone away from the tent until I could change back, and hadn't asked any questions. Now I was irritated at myself as well as the situation. That jerk Beclem was ruining my team, Wakka was doing nothing to stop him, and now my boyfriend was going around making bold declarations of undying love and I wasn't there to hear them. This was terrible. And without blitz training, we'd be sitting Chocobos when the season started. Tysh, tysh, tysh.
"How'd that happen?" Jock demanded.
"Faulty transmission," I replied, daring him to keep going.
He took the dare. "Faulty?"
"Like your head." I ripped off a hunk of beef jerky with my teeth and glared at him. "We needed a better sphere anyway; that emergency one was crap. I'll get Sanna to bring one next time she comes, or maybe someone who has one will turn up at the Oasis."
"Speaking of the Oasis," Nedus cut in nonchalantly, "I was out there filling up the water tanks today and I found some strange stuff. An empty box of chocolate cream pie, a couple of spheres, and a bunch of fans with hearts on them."
"Hearts?" Redeci laughed. "Sounds like the LeBlanc Syndicate to me."
"The LeBlanc Syndicate?" repeated Tuc slowly. "Who's that?"
"Sphere hunters, right?" his older brother put in.
Redeci nodded. "Mmm-hmm. It wouldn't surprise me if they were here looking for a few spheres. I've heard she's Nooj's girlfriend."
"This would be Nooj of the Youth League?" I blinked. "Whoa. He didn't seem like the type to me. From what I've heard about her, she's kinda...out there."
Jock snorted. "In more ways than one. I'd like to take her for a ride or two in my hover, if you get my drift."
I kicked sand at him. "Divert your blood flow back to your head for a second. This is serious. If they're doing any digging here, they might be finding parts we need. What happens if they take them or--worse--junk them? Someone's gonna have to head out there tomorrow and deal with them."
"I wouldn't if I were you," Benzo warned me. "If the LeBlanc Syndicate's really out there, they're going to be armed for bear."
"Hmm." I finished off the jerky. "In that case, let's hope a solution presents itself. To both problems."
As it turned out, something did.