Sorry this is taking me so long to update this story, but I have been on a MAJOR roll with Zanarkand A-East that I have been shirking on this one. (I think I explained this last time I updated this story as well...hee hee) So I hope you enjoy this!

13. Back to the Underground

We arrived on the High Bridge of Bevelle a couple of hours later, and the rain finally stopped. I hated rain. It always made Spira feel gloomier, and this was the Eternal Calm; Nothing bad was supposed to happen. I shook my head and sighed. Maybe thinking that thought will keep my hopes up. It was times like this where I could feel the Eternal Calm crumbling away from beneath me, and once again I felt like I had to save Spira again. Sometimes I just wanted to stand on the top of Mt. Gagazet and scream, "Why me?!" It didn't seem fair, but then again, life never is fair, is it?

"You okay, Yuna?" Gippal said to me as he noticed me staring off into space. I'm not surprised Tidus didn't ask me the same question; he was still yawning and trying to wake up from his nap. I nodded my head as we all walked off the airship to stand on solid ground.

"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine," I said as I smoothed my hair and my shirt as we started to walk toward Bevelle. We were all quiet as we took in the environment around us.

"Why is everything still?" Although we were all looking around frantically at what was going on around us on the High Bridge, I don't think any of us realized that there wasn't anything going on outside of Bevelle until Nooj said that. We all stopped in our tracks and looked at the entrance. There were the usual couple of guards standing there, but that's it. No priests wandering or nuns trying to keep things calm. It was oddly quiet, and it made me uncomfortable.

"I thought you said that you heard that Bevelle was in a huge state of panic, Rikku," I said to my cousin as she shrugged.

"Guess ya can't believe everything you hear?" She said as looked around.

We continued to walk up the rest of the way to the Bevelle entrance and we weren't stopped as we walked through the door. The guards simply nodded at us in greeting. Maybe it was the fact that I was high summoner that they didn't stop me. Bevelle practically was where I was supposed to be residing, but I just chose not to. I love the little town of Besaid, and I don't think that I could leave it for anything. We walked up to the temple, and Isaaru was standing in the hallway.

"Yuna? Is that you?" He walked up closer to get a better look at me. "Ah, Yuna, it is you! How have you been?"

"I've been great," I said as I put my arm in Tidus'. "How about yourself?"

"To be honest with you Yuna, I haven't been all that great." I gave him a look that said to go on further into detail and he continued, "Well, as I'm sure you know, our Praetor has gone missing. We don't believe he was kidnapped, but he and another girl went into the Via Infinito for some reason. I would be grateful if you would go check things out for us, Yuna."

"Well, hopefully he's all right," Gippal said with a relieved sigh. "It's almost a relief though, because I'm sure he and Paine can handle fiends."

"That's what I said too!" Rikku said as she bounced on her toes. "Well, I say we go shakey shake our way down there and check things out!"

"Yep," I said as I got a smile on my face. I couldn't believe how excited I was to start another adventure. Five minutes ago I was dreading it, but now that it was at my doorstep, I couldn't wait to get up in fiends' face again and kick some ass. Paine once told me that I enjoy destroying fiends, and at that time I denied it. However, when I look back, I realize that she was right.

Isaaru led us to where the Via Infinito was located and we all warped to Cloister 0. It looked exactly the same as it did a short time ago; dreary, cold, and dimly lit. I was aware of the hard battles that were going to be ahead of us, so I made sure that we all were prepared. My guns were loaded, everyone's swords were sharpened, and everyone was pretty pumped.

"Yeesh," Tidus said as he made a face. "I certainly don't want to spend any more time down here than we have to."

"Eeeh, it's not that bad," Rikku said as she tapped Tidus on the shoulder. "The 100 floors go by quickly."

"100 floors?!" Leblanc whined as she grabbed onto Nooj's arm. "Noojie, can't we just wait on the airship?"

"Let her go, Nooj," Gippal said as he rolled his eyes. That sentence received a smack in the chest from Nooj and Gippal groaned. "Ow!"

"No, Leblanc." Nooj started as he kissed her on the cheek. Rikku and I both made a face and had to look away. "We'll be fine."

"But...but!" She started as she looked around. "It's damp down here and it will kill my hair."

"Don't worry, Leblanc," Gippal said as he put his hand on her shoulder. "The fashion police don't like to be down here"

"Besides, if they did reside here at one time, I'm sure the fiends killed them." Leblanc let out a high pitched whimper as Rikku said that. The rest of us just stifled our laughter.

"Well, we're wasting time just standing here," I said as I started to walk on ahead. "Let's go find Baralai and Paine."

/--/--/--/--/--/--/--/--/--/--/

I forgot how the Via Infinito feels like it's going to go on forever. We were only at Cloister 17, and the reason why I knew that was because Rikku was keeping count. She said that if no one kept count, she was going to go insane. I agreed with her, so she kept a tally as we went from floor to floor. It was good to fight fiends again, it really was. Not to mention that I loved seeing Tidus fight. The way he stood in his fighters stance, the way he moved like an expert, and the way he would look at me after I destroyed a fiend. He hasn't seen me in action in over two years, and I definitely have improved. I didn't have the aeons to rely on anymore; I had to fight physically. I wasn't an amazing gunner like the legendary Irvine Kinneas that I've read so much about, but I could definitely hold my own. Guns were easier to work with than that stupid little staff that I had over my pilgrimage. I'm glad Rikku convinced me to change my look and I held a mental note to thank her later while I was thinking about it.

"This goes on forever!" Leblanc whined as she sat down on the ground.

"Why are you sitting down?" I asked her as she pouted and looked up at me. I was not patient enough for her at the moment. "What is Spira is wrong with you?"

"I'm tired."

"You're tired?" Rikku said with a laugh. "Yeah, no wonder the Gullwings were better sphere hunters! We never got tired!"

"You're such a liar, Rikku," Leblanc said as she started to rub her ankles. "The syndicate could've kicked you ass."

"How many times did you try?" Rikku put her hands on her hips and smiled at Leblanc. Leblanc only harrumphed at Rikku and continued to rub her ankles.

"Fine, we'll rest for a little while," Gippal said as he lied down on the ground. Everyone else sat down until I was the last one standing. I wasn't tired, and I was not in the mood to stop. I strongly considered going on ahead and leaving everyone else behind, but Tidus, who sat against the wall, grabbed my hand and tugged, motioning me to sit down. Sighing, I sat down between his legs and he put his arms around me.

"I can't believe you guys are willing to just sit here when we don't know what is going on with Baralai and Paine," I said as I put my head in my hands.

"Yuna, are you okay?" I looked over at Rikku who was sitting next to Gippal and playing with his hair and I gave her a confused look. "I mean, you've been like go go go go go ever since Guadosalam. Are you sure you're not taking this mission personally?"

That was the first time my cousin has called me Yuna in so long. She only used my real name when she was completely serious, and I could tell that she wanted to know what was going on with me. Take the mission personally? Heh, that was a huge problem with me in the first place; I always get too involved.

"Well, since Lenne and Shuyin are coming into play with Tidus and my personal life, I guess I have a right to take this situation personally," I said as I hugged my knees. Tidus rubbed his hands against my stomach to calm me down a little as a shiver ran through my spine. "It's cold down here."

"You're not shaking because you're cold, Yuna," Tidus said as he held me closer. "You're rather warm actually."

"Yeah...I know." I didn't know what was going on, I was just so confused with everything that was going on.

"Ooooh, look, someone wants to play!" Rikku said as she grabbed her swords and stood up to face the Malboro that was coming our way.

"Duty calls," I said as we all stood up with our weapons out, ready to kick it's ass all the way to the Farplane. Tidus, Rikku and I got into fighting positions and I said, "This'll only take...two rounds!"

"Give me one!" Rikku said with a huge smile on her face. She was right though. With Tidus doing Blitz Ace, her changing into the Lady Luck dressphere and using Four Dice, and me doing trigger happy, it burst into pyreflies and the fight was all over. "Oh yeah!"

"Whoo! That never gets old!" I said as I put my guns in their holsters to give Rikku a celebratory high five.

"Oh please," Leblanc said with a sigh and put her hand on her hip. "Can we give up the girl power bit for a few minutes?"

"I think it's cute," Tidus said as he gave Yuna a kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, you would," Leblanc retorted back as Tidus smiled at me.

"I love my girl, what can I say?" he said as he wrapped his arms around me. I couldn't help but glow, and everyone else just smiled and shook their heads at us. I knew no one would say anything because it's not every day that the love of your life returns to you. I'm sure my case was one in a million, but I'm not complaining.

"All right everyone," I said as I looked around the Via Infinito. "Let's keep going. The longer we sit in the same spot, the further away Cloister 100 will be."

Everyone nodded in agreement and we continued to go though the Via Infinito, Cloister by Cloister...with Rikku keeping track of every floor.

I'll update some more soon. :) Happy reading!