At this time, I would like to go ahead and thank Chaka and Insane Child for reviewing, and I would like to say that I'm glad that everyone enjoys my story so much. I'm also glad that you understand why I edited Ria's tirade. Well, you've all been patient, so here's the next chapter.
Chapter 12: Ruby's Treasure
Bob stood close to a garbage can near one of the windows on the Airship. The Tonberry had begun sweating profusely when the ship took off, and now he trembled violently and his face turned an unhealthy greenish-gray color. Ria and Rikku watched the little fiend with extreme concern on their faces. "Bob are you okay?" the Al Bhed asked him.
"Who, me?" he squeaked, "Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?"
The ship lurched, and Bob stuck his head in the trashcan, vomiting noisily. Ria rubbed his back and asked, "Are you airsick? I didn't know you suffered from something like that."
When he finished, he looked up at her. "I'm a cave-dweller, so when I see all that empty air beneath me, I…"
The Tonberry started throwing up again, and Auron sighed. "Why don't you just stay here? The girls and I will go handle Ruby."
Rikku nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it'll be all right Bob."
Ria said nothing, but gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, and she, Rikku, and Auron went to the deck of the ship. When they arrived, Cid's voice blared through the loudspeaker. "All right, we're gonna have to take this baby in passes, because the Airship doesn't turn quickly. You'll only have one chance to hit it during a pass, so make your attacks count."
"Right, Pops!" Rikku replied.
The Airship began to make low circles around the monster Cid named Ruby, and the battle began. The Al Bhed girl pulled several small, round objects from her belt pouch and lobbed them over the side, where they exploded with bright bursts. Meanwhile, Ria cast various elemental spells in rapid succession, but Ruby absorbed them all. "Ice, Lightning, and Wind: it's eating ALL of them!" the sorceress moaned.
"Then try a non-elemental spell," Auron suggested, attempting to strike the fiend, but missing.
"You didn't tell me about any non-elemental spells, Auron," she snapped.
"Just use Flare, or Ultima," Rikku shouted, tossing another grenade.
Before Ria could respond, however, Ruby lashed out with its long arms, catching the Airship with its tripartite claws. Cid gave the order, and the vessel unleashed a salvo of missiles at the fiend, but the huge beast still hung on. "Damn!" swore the Al Bhed leader. "You guys hurry up and get that leech off my ship!"
The three of them cautiously approached it, but Ruby shrieked and belched out a great wave of flame as the Airship slowly dragged it across the desert sands. The monster screamed again, and actually attempted to climb the side of the ship. The Airship shuddered violently and leaned to one side, threatening to fall from the sky. Auron swung his katana and chopped off one of the offending claws with a resounding crack. "We have to get rid of this thing before we crash," he shouted, plunging his blade into the floor in order to keep from falling off.
Unfortunately, Rikku slipped and started to slide across the deck, and when Ria tried to help the Al Bhed, so did she. The two girls tried to recover, but they had too much momentum, and they slid off the side of the Airship…right into Ruby's open mouth! "NO!" shouted the guardian, who helplessly watched the whole event with a look of undisguised horror.
"What happened?" Cid called.
"We just lost Ria and Rikku!"
The sorceress and the thief were in a state of near panic as Ruby swallowed the two of them. They were about halfway down its throat, when Rikku pulled out a pair of daggers and buried them in the sides of the monster's throat, finally stopping their descent. "Ria, we have to get out of here," she grunted when the sorceress landed on top of her.
Ria squirmed for a moment, trying to take some of the weight off her companion, and replied, "How? It's not like this thing has handholds, you know."
The Al Bhed girl struggled for a moment as she dropped a little further, and shouted, "I don't know…but you're not exactly a featherweight, and I don't think I'm going to be able to hold on for much longer…"
They were nearly deafened by another shriek, one of Rikku's daggers broke off at the hilt, and the girls found themselves sliding again. Panic finally overwhelmed them, and they as screamed, Ria's vision was flooded with emerald green light. "Oh…my…"she trailed off as a roaring sound filled her ears.
Auron stood on the deck of the Airship, filled with grief and anger at the loss of his friends. Ruby stared at him, lime-colored eyes flashing with malice, and the swordsman returned the hateful gaze. The fiend bellowed, its head thrashing wildly, and Auron pulled his blade/anchor from the floor, bracing himself as he did so. "You want me?" he asked belligerently. "Then come and get me, you son of a bitch!"
Suddenly, Ruby's head and neck exploded in a pulse of green light shot through with blue and purple flashes. Auron was thrown backward by the shockwave, and he nearly fell off the ship. He was sliding toward the edge, when the now-decapitated Ruby fell from its perch, freeing the Airship from its death spiral.
"You did it! You killed Ruby!" Cid's voice was triumphant.
"No, it wasn't me," Auron replied, getting to his feet when the ship righted itself.
The voice on the intercom went silent for a moment. "If it wasn't you, then who killed that thing?"
"Someone who can cast Ultima."
"But we don't have anyone who can do that."
They landed the Airship, and went to salvage what they could from Ruby's corpse before it turned into a pyrefly swarm. Bob, recovered now that he was on the ground, joined them. "I can't believe they're gone," the little fiend sobbed.
"They died helping save us all," Cid told him, "So they died as heroes."
Auron shot the Al Bhed leader a dirty look. "That doesn't change the fact that they're dead," he said flatly.
"Yeah, well so are you, and you're still here."
"I really don't know about that anymore," he replied, looking away.
Cid, Auron, Brother, who was weeping uncontrollably, and Bob arrived at the spot where the fiend had fallen, and found something unexpected. Ruby's body collapsed into pyreflies, which pulsed with hatred and disappeared, and left Rikku and Ria lying in the sand. They were bruised, battered, and covered in slime, but they were definitely alive. "Rikku! Ria! I thought you both had died?" Auron shouted, while Bob whooped with joy, and Brother fainted.
"It was a very near thing," Ria replied, while Cid tearfully caught Rikku in a crushing embrace.
"Pop, you're squeezing my liver!" the thief wheezed.
"Oh, I thought I lost you, girl," her father wept.
"Hey, what's that?" Bob suddenly asked.
Everyone, except Brother, looked in the direction the Tonberry was pointing. A sparkle caught Ria's eye and she picked up the unusual object. It looked like an eagle's wing feather, but it was a vivid sunset orange. When the sorceress waved the feather, golden sparks drifted off it and floated away on the breeze. "It's beautiful," she reverently whispered.
"You should keep it, Ria," said Rikku.
"Me?"
"Why not? If you hadn't used Ultima, then we'd be dead now."
Ria shook her head. "Yeah, but if you hadn't used your daggers to slow us down, then we'd have died before I could do anything. Besides, I only cast it by accident. If I'd tried to do it on purpose, I probably would have cast Quake, or something."
Auron watched them both for a moment, and said, "Ria, you keep it. You defeated Ruby, so by all rights, it's your treasure."
"All right," she surrendered, putting the strange feather in her hair. "I'll keep it here until I can get a bag to carry things in."
They revived Brother and went back to the Home, where the Al Bhed had a celebration for the heroes. "Don't forget your promise," Ria said to Cid, a little while later. "You said that you would take us to Zanarkand if we helped you out, and I expect you to keep you word."
Rikku's father nodded. "Yeah, I'll take you tomorrow, but right now we're gonna celebrate!"
I had this battle stewing around in my mind for a while, and now I've finally written it! So review, and tell me what you think. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I used the "Armageddon" theory on explosions in enclosed places for the whole Ultima thing. Anyway, see you next time.