First, I would like to thank Insane Child of the Night and DarkmoonswolfKocora2300 for reviewing, along with good ol' Chaka. In case anyone was wondering, the monster at the end of chapter 9 was supposed to be Emerald Weapon. (Remember, I did say that I was adding a few things from FFVII and VIII for a little flavor.) Sadly, Sin is NOT returning, and I cannot tell you why because it would give away the plot. Anyway, here's a new chapter.
Chapter 10: Bikanel Island
Wes was in a state of panic. The fayth saw his sister lying facedown in the ocean, and she was not moving. "Ria! Ria, can you hear me?" was his frantic call.
When she did not respond, he shifted himself into the plane of existence that had many names, but known best as Purgatory: the realm that divided Life and Death. It was there that Wes found her, drifting lost in the darkness, unaware, but not yet dead. "Ria, hold on, I'll go get help."
The fayth returned to the living world, where he scoured the shoreline of the unfamiliar island, hoping that he could find the others. His persistence was rewarded, and he found Auron lying in the ivory sand, with Bob standing next to him attempting to wake him up. "Auron, you have to wake up!" Wes implored, his voice pleading. "Ria is going to die if you don't help her."
Bob looked up in surprise. "Where is she?" the Tonberry demanded. "Wes, where is Ria?"
Her brother pointed at her lifeless form floating not far from the shore. "She's out there, but I can't help her because I don't have a physical form anymore. Damn it, Auron, wake up!"
Wes aimed a kick at the guardian's ribcage, but his ghostly foot just floated through and did nothing. "Bob, stab him with your knife," he commanded.
"What? How is that going to help Ria?" the little fiend stared at him incredulously.
"You don't have to kill him; just stick him so he'll wake up."
"If you say so," Bob shrugged, taking Auron's left hand. "You DO know that he's probably going to hit me for this, don't you?"
The Tonberry Prince poked the swordsman's palm just hard enough to draw blood, and then quickly backed out of reach. "Wes told me to do it," he quickly explained when Auron gave him a murderous look.
The fayth immediately placed himself face-to-face with the guardian. "We don't have time for this, now," he said, biting off the words as he spoke. "Get off your sword-swinging ass and save my sister!"
Auron looked to where Wes was pointing, and hurried into the water. He managed to get Ria up onto the shore without too much difficulty, but when he turned her over onto her back, he saw that her face was ashen and she wasn't breathing. "She's not breathing, Wes," he said, his voice full of anguish.
"Quick, use CPR," answered the fayth.
"C…P…what?"
Wes sighed in exasperation. "Tilt her head back, pinch her nose shut, put your mouth on hers, and blow!"
When Auron gave him a doubtful look, the young man bellowed, "If you don't do what I say, right now, I swear to God that I'll sic Alexander on you! Save her, damn it!"
The swordsman did as he was told, and breathed into her once, but it had no discernible effect. "Try it again," Wes told him, his voice brooking no argument.
He tried it again, breathing into her once more, then again as she failed to respond. Meanwhile, Bob's round yellow eyes filled with tears as he prayed, "Let her be all right! Oh, please wake up, Ria!"
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Ria coughed and spat out a rather large amount of water. "Auron, you did it!" cheered the Tonberry.
Wes smiled and said, "Thank you. This means more to me than you could ever know."
Auron inclined his head and returned the smile as the fayth vanished once more. "Ria, are you all right?" he asked, turning his attention back to the sorceress, who finally stopped coughing.
"No…of course not…" she croaked before passing out again.
"Ria? Come on, we can't stay here," said the guardian, shaking her.
When she didn't move, Bob reached inside one of the sleeves of his robe and pulled out a small bottle filled with what appeared to be a sparkling red-gold dust. "Here," the little fiend said, handing it to Auron, "Sprinkle some of this on her face."
"A Phoenix Down? Where did you get this?"
"I found it."
When the swordsman stared at him, the little fiend relented. "Okay, okay! I stole it from O'aka back on the ship," he admitted. "Anyway, use it on Ria so she'll wake up."
Auron sprinkled the contents of the bottle over the young woman, and she sat up as suddenly as if someone slapped her in the face. "What the hell was that? What did you just do to me?" she gasped, her eyes wide with shock. "It feels like I just swallowed a bolt of lightning!"
"Phoenix Downs have that effect on people," he explained as Bob rolled on the ground, overcome by laughter.
"Ha, ha, very funny, Bob!" she muttered. "Anyway, where are we?"
Auron looked around for a few moments and finally replied, "I think we're on Bikanel Island."
At her confused look, he said, "We've landed on Spira."
"Good. That means we're getting closer to our goal." Ria scrambled to her feet, but stumbled and almost fell. "Well, that wasn't very smart of me," she said, wincing as a wave of dizziness threatened to fell her.
Her guardian handed her a Potion and chuckled, "You haven't fully recovered from your brush with death."
"I almost died?"
"Yeah," said Bob, "And if Wes hadn't told Auron how to use kissy-face magic on you, then you'd be gracing the Farplane now."
"That's NOT what it's called! He called it CPR, not what you just said," the swordsman was actually embarrassed.
"Aw, I got kissed and I missed it? What a shame," Ria grinned as she finished off her Potion. "Auron, if you wanted a kiss that badly, then you should've said something, instead of sneaking around like that." Her eyes twinkled wickedly as she spoke.
She winked once and walked away, leaving him and Bob standing on the shore: the fiend was laughing hysterically and the guardian's mouth was hanging open. "That's not what happened!" he spluttered.
"I know," she replied, "I was just messing with you, that's all. Besides, I'd much rather have you sneaking kisses than trying to grab my ass." She smiled again as he smacked his forehead and sighed.
A little while later, the three of them were walking through the desert, with Auron in the lead. Where, exactly, he was taking them had not yet been revealed, so finally Bob decided that he needed to know. "All right," the little fiend said, stopping and planting his feet firmly on the ground in an attempt to look intimidating, "Where are you taking us?"
"Do we really need to discuss this now?" the swordsman wanted to know.
"Yes. I'm not moving until we do, and Ria's not going to let you just leave me out here."
"We're going to the Home," he shortly replied.
"Is that like the nuthouse or something?" Ria was curious.
"No, it's where the Al Bhed live, or did, until it was blown up when the Guado invaded."
"If it was destroyed, then why are we trying to find it?" Bob asked.
"Because the Al Bhed are more than likely trying to rebuild it!" Auron shouted impatiently. "Now, can we go, or do you want to ask me some more irritating questions?"
"Well, excuse me for living!" the little fiend retorted.
They continued their journey, and it seemed like various fiends were dogging every step of the way. First, a flock of small birds attacked, but Ria managed to dispatch them with an accidental Firaga spell that she had used while trying to use Cure on Auron, attacked the three of them. "What the hell is wrong with my magic?" she muttered to herself.
"Have you been practicing?" asked the guardian.
"It's kind of hard to do so, when everyone and their brother keeps popping up out of nowhere, trying to kill me," she answered.
Next, a pair of doglike creatures assaulted them, but they were killed without mishap, and those were the last fiends that the three of them spotted for some time. A little while later, however, proved to be more aggravating than anything else that happened to them that day.
Auron, Ria, and Bob decided to take a break in the shade of some ancient ruins, when they heard an odd giggling coming from behind a collapsed pillar. "What was that?" the sorceress whispered, eyeing the structure suspiciously.
Suddenly, a little green creature popped out of hiding. It was about the same size as Bob, but looked more than anything like a tiny cactus person. "Wow, it's so cute," said Ria.
"It's a Cactuar," Auron explained, "It'll either try to fight us or run away."
It made some kind of announcement in an odd language that the two humans did not understand, but seemed to be perfectly clear to the Tonberry. "He says that we're surrounded and that we won't be harmed if we surrender peacefully," Bob told his companions.
"Surrounded, huh?" was the swordsman's response.
"Yes," the Tonberry replied as another ten or twelve giggling cacti appeared behind them.
One Cactuar separated from the rest of the group and approached Bob, gesticulating wildly and speaking in its bizarre language. "Oh, George! Wow, I haven't seen you in ages," the little fiend exclaimed. "How've you been?"
George spoke, and Bob nodded and said, "Yeah, I kind of got lost when everything went all funky, but these two were nice enough to offer me a lift home."
The Tonberry turned to Ria and Auron and introduced them to his friend. "George, this is Auron, and the nice lady is Ria. You guys, this is my friend, George. Go on, say hello. Don't worry, he understands human language."
"Why are we being captured?" Auron demanded.
George made an unintelligible reply that ended with a giggle. "He says that Lobo was exaggerating, and that we shouldn't mind him," Bob translated.
Ria asked, "Well, if we aren't being captured, then what do you want with us?"
"Marne wants to see us?" the little fiend gave his friend a curious look. "You mean Lady Marne? As in the leader of Cactuar Hollow?"
The Cactuar made a rather long speech, and the Tonberry nodded gravely, and turning to Ria and Auron, said, "I have to go renew the treaty between the Cactuar and Tonberry Nations. George said that Marne wants you two there as witnesses, so you have to come, too."
"And if we refuse?" asked the guardian.
Lobo, the first Cactuar, pointed his arm and fired off several needles into the sand next to Ria's foot. "Lobo says it's not a request," Bob translated.
The Cactuars escorted the three of them to a dusty hollow filled with normal cacti. "This is Cactuar Hollow," their translator announced. "We Tonberries and Cactuars have been allies and friends for as long as anyone can remember, and each heir to the crowns of our respective people is, by law, required to venture to each other's lands and renew our treaties."
"I didn't know that fiends had such things," Auron said, surprise evident on his face.
"Yeah, we try to keep that kind of thing a secret, but as far as I know, only my kind and the Cactuars have any kind of real intelligence," Bob explained. "Well, there are some who think that the Malboros may have some kind of social hierarchy, but I digress."
George piped up and said something to a large, ancient-looking cactus, and the plant actually responded in the same tongue. "What did she say?" Ria asked Bob.
"She says that she's glad to see that we all made it here safely," he replied.
"Speaking of which, how is it that you were unharmed, Bob?" the sorceress inquired.
The Tonberry wagged his tail at her. "This fin isn't just for looks, you know. If it weren't for the fact that we're so short, and that most humans are afraid of us, then we Tonberries would be great at blitzball."
Marne said something in the Cactuar language, and Bob responded, "Yes, my lady, I am ready to renew the treaty."
The Tonberry Prince stepped forward and solemnly raised his knife and lantern. "By the knife, and by the lamp," he intoned, "By these things that the Tonberry Nation hold sacred, I, Prince Bob do hereby renew the ancient treaty between our peoples. Let my knife be sharp to guard you, and may my lamp be bright to light your way."
With that said, the Cactuars filled the valley with cheers, but the celebration was short-lived. Out of nowhere, the earth began to rumble, and the largest Sand Worm ever seen in the Bikanel Desert erupted to the surface. The massive fiend let out a thunderous roar and thrashed wildly about, trying to catch one of the Cactuars, but they proved too nimble for it to handle. "Can we go now?" Auron asked Bob.
"We could, but that big worm is blocking our path," was the little fiend's mild response.
Finally, Auron's temper frayed, and then snapped. "Move, now!" was his blunt command to the Cactuars, who impeded his progress.
The Sand Worm, sensing what it thought to be an easy meal, slowly advanced on the swordsman. Auron pulled out his katana and charged at the fiend, swinging the great blade like a baseball bat, and stuck the Worm with all of his strength. Ria, Bob, and the Cactuars all watched in silent awe as the guardian's blow connected and the giant fiend sailed quickly out of sight. "Does anyone else want to get in my way?" he demanded, his voice surly.
Wide-eyed, everyone in Cactuar Hollow shook his or her heads in a mute negative, and Auron shouldered his sword and said, "Good, let's go then."
Bob quickly said his good-byes to George, and he and Ria followed their ally out of the valley. "Ria, the next time I get the urge to harass that man, smack me, okay?" the Tonberry asked her.
The young woman nodded in agreement, but "God almighty!" was her only fervent response.
"Ria?"
"Yes?"
"What is this 'God' you keep talking about?"
"Never mind."
Meanwhile, several hundred miles away, a pair of chocobos, one black and one white, washed up on another shore. At first, it seemed like they were dead, but when the white one got to its feet, anyone who saw them quickly forgot that notion. The ivory chocobo ruffled its feathers, then nudged its ebon counterpart. The two of them looked around, taking in their surroundings with their intelligent sapphire-blue eyes, and then headed northward, searching for the companions that they had come to think of as members of their flock.
You didn't REALLY think that I was going to kill off Snow and Shadow, did you? Oh, and by the way: no, Ria is NOT a religious person, she just likes to use God and Jesus a lot. I thought that it might be fun to use Shooting Star in this story at least one time, and I just had to harass the living hell out of Auron. Anyway, keep those reviews coming and I'll keep on writing.