Chapter Fourteen: Back at Home...but with a price to pay

Hi guys, I'm back again with my next chapter. I hope that none of you had waited long for this installment to come by! =/ Let's enjoy the Aurikku development as the story goes on!

Chapter Fourteen

"Keyakku!" I ran across to see the Al Bhed who had just collapsed to the ground with a bleeding wound on his abdomen, with his hand clutching it. Holding him up a little, I proceeded to question who had did it to my close childhood friend of fifteen years. "Who? Who's attacking us? Fru tet drec du oui?"

"Yevon...Guado..." he spoke as he breathed his last, giving a final collapse to the ground. He was gone, simply gone. My best friend had just left me alone in Spira.

"Keyakku? Keyakku!" I shook his lifeless body refusing to accept his death. Tears were starting to roll down my cheeks as I tried to 'revive' him with all my might, but tried to hold them back to prove that I was not just going to let the wicked Yevonites win the fight.

"A war?" Lulu questioned as I continued to look at my departed friend. "Between Yevon and Al Bhed?"

"Dryd ec fnuhk!" I heard a familiar sharp response which made me turn to see who had snapped back at Lulu. "Guado ku vun dra summoner."

"Vydran..." I signaled to him as he approached us. Kneeling before me, Vydran took his turn to look at Keyakku. A shook on his head as he felt Keyakku's pulse confirmed that he had already passed into the next stage of Life. With a signal to make me move on, I gave a simple nod. "Oac E femm, Vydran."

Continuing to hold back my emotions, I placed my lips close to his ear. "Pacd Vneahtc Vunajan...Kuutpoa vun huf." With a heavy heart to leave his limp body by the battlefield, I pulled myself away from the scene. Vydran turned to the rest of the group.

"You Rikku's friend?" He interrogated them. "Well, don't just stand there, come on!" He signaled to help in escape, which was our most probable way of avoiding further bloodshed and atrocities committed by the damned Yevonite loyalists. Vydran continued his encouragement, with no feelings about Keyakku's tragic death, "Let's go kick those Guado out of our Home!"

Trying to ensure that I bade Keyyaku the final Spiran farwell I continued to stay for a while as the rest, with the exception of Tidus, proceeded into the large building.

"Who...?" Asked the boy from Zanarkand.

"Cid," I gave my short reply while trying to stop the feelings of revenge and impulse from entering my mind. "Leader of the Al Bhed...He's my dad."

"Let's go."

"Yeah. We have to save Yunie."

"Not only Yunie. Right?"

"Right!" I replied back before rushing into Home.

"Yuna! Where are you?" Wakka called out throughout the building as everywhere lied in ruins. It had been quite a while since we had entered the damaged Home. All of a sudden, I saw Auron pushing my away from the scene. A large deafening sound ensued as soon as I had exited my original position. What used to my original position on the floor was a blacked spot of soot.

I turned to see a Guado soldier with his 3 pet Bomb fiends. In his hand was one small grenade, the other hand empty from having to throw the other grenade at me. It was time to start battle as we proceeded to our battle engagement.

"Hand over the Al Bhed girl and the Maesters will forgive you traitors!" He stated his terms clearly, with his sharp finger pointing at me. The battle had yet to begin but this Guado soldier was aimed at capturing me.

"Why would you need a useless Al Bhed like her?" I heard the deep voice of the wizened guardian. He stood by my side with his giant sword pointing at the Guado's body.

"It is just based on the Maesters' orders, and your acts of treason will be lifted if you would hand over the wretched Al Bhed heathen over!" He stated his reasons. "Or remain as traitors of Yevon if you do wish!" As soon as he was finished, the Guado soldier locked on to his battle positions while signaling to his Bomb fiends to prepare for assault on us.

"What in Yevon's name are those Guado thinking?" Wakka queried while being shocked at what was happening.

"This is terrible!" I replied back to him, trying to tell him that Yevon teachings had been abused by the users themselves. Trying to avoid other dangers we ran into the following room that came in front of us.

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"Drec pedac!" I heard Vydran's voice thunder through the machina system used to project voices throughout the large Home. "Rikku! Oui nayt sa? Oui ku ihtan, duu! E ys majamehk Home!" His orders came as a horror to me. So it was going to happen again; history was repeating itself once more. "Yht dra fiend fedr ed!"

"Oh, no!" I cried out in horror at his strongest point, which was to obliterate Home once again.

"What'd he say!?" Wakka questioned.

"We have to get underground!"

"Where's Yuna?" Auron showed his strong guardianship concern again.

"The Summoner's Sanctum! This way!" I replied while beckoning to make them follow me. Soon we came to a large door that was slightly open. "Over here!"

"This place's done for," Wakka commented as he surveyed the burning rooms where the Guado had laid waste to.

"You're right. You're right, Wakka," I replied softly, and sadly, to his somehow hurting comments. "We Al Bhed, we...we weren't always like this," I began my explanation to help him understand my Yevon-cursed culture and race. "Sin destroyed the island where we all used to live. After that we were scattered to every corner of Spira," I continued with my tone becoming sadder and on the verge of bursting in tears. "But then, my dad brought back the Al Bhed together again. If we put our minds to it and worked together, then we could make a new Home." I stood to pause for a moment.

"Everyone worked hard, we had our Home back again..." I reopened my eyes to continue my race's tragic story. "But now...Why did things have to turn out this way?" Before I could finish my sentence properly, two beasts commanded by a Guado soldier had apprehended us, with Auron waving his sword to fight the ambush off.

I engaged into battle as the beasts confronted us in front. Wakka gave a heave and shook as he came up beside me, "Rikku...Damn those Guado! What are they thinking?"

"Rikku, what is the Summoners' Sanctum?" Lulu questioned as I tried to find it for there was limited time left.

"The Summoners' Sanctum is where we keep the summoners," I responded to her curious question. "We keep them safe there."

"You kidnapped them," Wakka gave an unreasonable interruption. I gave several nods in response.

"I know it's against the teachings and all that..."

"I get why you did it, but..." He butted in some more.

"Well, I sure don't get it, Wakka." Came Tidus' reply to cheer the worried group up. "They might get hurt on their pilgrimage so you kidnap them?" He continued his argument. "I mean, if the summoners don't do their job, then who will beat Sin? You want to protect them, I know. But guardians are there for that." He took a small pause to look at us. "If guardians do their job well, summoners will be safe!"

The entire ambience was silent, with only Tidus trying to break the silence with a 'Right?'

"Right!?" he was getting impatient with the group's abrupt silence.

"It's quiet," came one of Kimahri's rare words. "Kimahri goes now." Upon finishing his words the Ronso continued to walk down the stairs. With me and Tidus remaining behind the rest continued on their way down.

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"Yuna, please be here!" I tried to express my hope as I ran into the Sanctum. The sight horrified me as dead bodies surrounded the room with fire still burning in it.

"Yuna!" Kimahri called out for his summoner. Silence followed with a person break its silence.

"She's not here," came another summoner's reply as she came near us. "Hello again. Wait there until we have performed the sending."

"They died...protecting us," another summoner but a male one this time came up to us. "It's not much, but the least we can do is give them a proper sending."

In an instance a young boy came up to us to Tidus. "Hey, what's 'sacrifice'? He questioned bigger brother Tidus. "The Al Bhed said summoners were being sacrificed. That summoners shouldn't have to do a pilgrimage..."

"Why couldn't they trust guardians to protect summoners..." I could see that he was getting confused about this matter too and probably unaware of the tragic fate summoners would face at the end of the long journey. "The Al Bhed have no right in stopping their pilgrimage!"

"The pilgrimages have to stop!" I had to enlighten Tidus about the dark truth behind the pilgrimage. "If they don't, and they get to Zanarkand...They might defeat Sin. Yunie could..but then..." I paused to give myself courage to reveal the truth. "Yunie will die, you know?"

I could see Tidus' shocked expression. Refusing to be hesitant on the truth, I continued with my enlightenment. "You know, don't you?" I questioned him. "Summoners journey to get the Final Aeon. Yuna told you, didnt't she?" I was insistent on telling more. "With the Final Aeon, she can beat Sin...but then...If she calls it, the Final Aeon's gonna kill her," more forbidden words came out of my mouth. "Even if she defeats Sin, it will kill Yunie too, you know?"

With my last word, I fell onto the floor in anguish and angst. It was definite that Yuna would have to die when she obtains the Final Aeon at Zanarkand. Keyakku had already left me, and I did not want Yuna to join the list of dead people as well.

"Was I the one who didn't know?" Tidus came to me for answers. "Tell me why! Why were you hiding it? Why didn't I know?"

"We weren't hiding it," Wakka explained.

"It was just...just too hard to say," came Lulu's soft reply. I turned to look at both Auron and Kimahri being the only ones left to remain emotionless. Kimahri had a clear reason for being so; he had already knew the consequences. Auron, on the other hand, looked like he was indifferent to the possibility of Yunie dying. Tidus gave a shriek as he fell to the ground.

"Lulu! How could you? How could you? Isn't she like a sister to you?" Tidus was angry at the lot of us now. "I thought you were family! Why don't you do something, Wakka?"

"Don't you think we tried to stop her?" the black mage replied in irritancy. "She follows...her heart."

"She knew what she was doing when she chose to become a summoner," Wakka told. "To face Sin, ya? Yuna knew!"

"But Wakka, that's just totally wrong!" I tried to oppose his idea. "Summoners shouldn't have to sacrifice themselves...just so that the rest of Spira can be happy, right?"

"But that is our choice..." the male summoner butted in.

"We all live in fear of Sin. You know that," the other summoner added on to inform Tidus of the life of summoners.

"A world without Sin...That is the dream of all Yevon's children," the former continued his words. "And we will use that power, even if it means our lives!" Suddenly, the two summoned aeons that had started to attack the new fiend that had being formed from an unsent.

"And I've been telling Yuna," Tidus looked down at the floor with guilt. "Let's go to Zanarkand together! I told her all the things...we could...we could...But Yuna, she'd...jus smile." With that everyone had remained silent, with me squatting down to think of how stupid was I to tell the truth to Tidus.

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"Haqd, fa ica dryd!" Vydran instructed Brother to press on the deadly button that would obliterate anything.

"Frydajan oui cyo," Brother gave a reply and began to sing the Hymn of the Fayth. This gave me a signal to sing it too, attempting to remember every memory that I had at this beautiful Home where I grew up at.

"What's goin' on?" Wakka asked me as he knew that I was wearing a sad expression on my face already.

"We're...we're going to blow up our Home."

"How?" Lulu asked with some uncertainty.

"With one of the forbidden machina!" Vydran gave the rejoinder. Facing to another Al Bhed who had always been good at maneuvering aircrafts, he gave the instruction. "Nayto? Vena!"

I turned to look at the window side as the missiles from the flying airship flew out to bombard Home, which enveloped in flames instantly. My horror was true as Home was obliterated. It was never going to come back ever, with us Al Bhed having to be on the run again without a stable life again.

Remembering my best friend again who had now departed tragically, I turned to look at the fast approaching flames of the explosion. "Keyakku, Pacd Vneahtc Vunajan."

Imagining an image of Seymour and the winged woman alongside each other on the glass window that showed the clouds being passed by quickly by the airship, I clenched my fist as I looked at my imaginary picture with feelings of revenge.

'Seymour yht oui femm byo vun drec...'
There! Done like dinner! At this point there is not much Aurikku development yet 'cause most will happen in later episodes. At this moment, please take a rest to imagine how my next installment of this story will be. Until then, farewell! =)