A/N: Yep! This is chapter three, and guess what, when I was sleeping, I actually got an idea for what to write. You'll see, and stuff. I'm on a roll time wise, but once this break ends, well, hello school. And laziness.

Munches on microwave White castles and drinks ghetto version of diet cream soda while watches bad daytime Cartoon Network. –

Disclaimer: Yeah, you know the drill. I don't own Final Fantasy X; it's characters or the setting yadda, yadda, yadda.

ENJOY! D

Paint me a smile

I'm covered and colored with one, only one...

'Cause baby I'm alone,

alone without you

What am I supposed to do?

I'm alone, alone without you

and the color blue

Colors, dj Taka.

Now where were we with our beautiful, sporty blond friend? Oh yes, she was reluctantly storming up towards the titanic mansion where Maester Seymour lived. Or called a humble abode. Humble, yeah, right, humble was the term that you used when you didn't walk around high and mighty and make your status known to everyone. Especially when they already know that you're a Maester. You didn't go around making speeches about how you'll change the world because you're you. Rikku felt as if this Maester was bad news, and she hadn't even seen him, met him, or, to be honest, heard of him. But if he was asking Yuna to meet him, or talk to him, or have some kind of dinner, he's got to be bad news. Taking away cousin Yunie from poor, left out Rikku. Wonder what he looked like… She heard he was Guado, so did he have like branches sticking out from his hair. Or those weird claw like hand things. Scratching the back of her neck, she arched a single eyebrow, tilting her head to the side as she noticed that the group seemed to be standing outside, rather than inside. So Auron had no right to be telling Rikku that she needed to be hurrying up, did he?

"Hey guys, why aren't you inside yet?" Rikku asked, still curious, head still tilted to the side, much like you see a cat do when you make a funny face at it.

"We were waiting for you, and the invitation to come in," Yuna promptly responded; still, as always, the warm smile on her elegant, fragile features. A gentle breeze seemed to set her hair off, out of its perfect position. But it still looked as if even the strands that were misplaced were purposely set there. Sometimes Rikku envied Yuna's beauty.

Rikku only nodded and squirmed past Wakka and Lulu, standing next to Yuna, in front of Auron. Who gave a quiet grunt as she walked by, taking a step back so she wouldn't blame him for trying to trip her. Rikku swore that she heard a sad sounding tune of music in the background; she swore that she heard the keys of a piano being played with a violin. But perhaps that could have just been her. If she said something, what would the likelihood of anyone believing her be? Yuna would believe her, Tidus might just raise an eyebrow. Lulu would show no emotion, and Wakka would try to say something witty, and then go 'ya?' at the end. Kimahri… Well, it was almost impossible for her to tell what he was thinking. Them Ronsos, eh? Auron would scoff, roll his eye, and then cross his arms and shake his head as if she was pitiful. So best not say anything, people might think you're weird.

"Maester Seymour invites you to come in, he will be right with you, thank you for patiently waiting," a Guado man said flatly. Holding open the door politely as the party single-filed through the passage into a grand waiting room. Rikku glanced up at the walls, covered with portraits, they all looked… The same. That was kind of creepy. Was the Lord of Guadosalam the same person, or did he have, like, a million twin kiddies to rule after him. She bit down on her lower lip to keep herself from giggling or laughing at the thought, because more than surely she'd probably cause some kind of disrespect to Yevon. Or something. Then Auron would use that huge Katakana thing of his and slice off her head.

Al Bhed de Rikku head, anyone?

Sure, I'd love some.

No restraints, I guess it'd be all right to go wander up the steps and take a look at every single one of them, maybe try and find out a difference between each picture. Kind of like those: 'What's different in this picture?' puzzle that you find in the newspaper in the comic section. Quietly tip-toeing up the stairs, to get a better look at the portraits, she flinched when she heard the stern drone that was Auron.

"What're you doing? Get back over here."

"I was just getting a closer look at the Maesters, just to see… If they ha-" she broke off her sentence, can't have Auron knowing why you were really looking at them. "Just to see who was a Maester when and stuff." Nice recovery Rikku, you barely managed to escape that one, next time don't screw up, all right? A small phew of relief left her barely parted lips, but she tensed up once again as Auron spoke to her.

"Then you better be ready when Maester Seymour is ready."

Rikku didn't respond, just waved him off as if he was a fly pestering her ears. In a way that's all he really was to her. A mutual relationship, assuming Auron thought of her as nothing more than an obnoxious fly. To be honest, that's probably one of the most accurate descriptions of Rikku that he thought of her as. If that makes any sense. Staring at one of the portraits, she extended her hand, running her finger gently below the title of it. Her eyebrows were raised, giving her a fairly innocent look, only if you were paying attention to her. Which, obviously, none of them were, so it doesn't matter. Moments later, she found herself running her hand gently down the wall, curiously looking at it, as if it held some kind of subliminal message behind the patterns. Rikku had no idea what was making her act this way, but it was as if she felt her mind being tweaked. Within moments, her hand was back to normal, resting at her side as if it hadn't acted differently at all.

"I'm sorry to keep you all waiting," a cool, slick voice said. Sounding as if out of nowhere.

"Maester!" Wakka looked over sharply, coming to attention, giving a slight bow to show respect. Which only seemed to make Maester Seymour get even more full of how much power he had.

"Maester Seymour, I thank you for inviting us." Yuna said, in that same voice that she always used. Now even more graciousness in it than usual.

"It's a pleasure having another summoner, especially one suck as you. The daughter of High Summoner Braska, it truly is an honor." Sharp blue eyes flicked about the room, landing on everyone at least once. He took his time to scan who was there, who her guardians were. Mentally calculating what their weaknesses and strengths were. Then those eyes fell upon the tall figure of Auron, when they did, a small smirk twitched at the corners of his lips. "Ah, The Legendary Guardian Sir Auron himself."

Auron didn't bust a move; he didn't take on a groove, kept his cool. Only making a mall nod, he didn't find anything that he needed to say, because, well, quite frankly, there was nothing to be said.

"But enough of this, I'm sure you're exhausted and famished from the long trip through the Macalania Forest. I hope you didn't run into too many of those horrible fiends that reside there." Something about his voice made Tidus feel unsafe in this place, maybe it was something that this Maester Seymour guy seemed to be too nice for his own good. But Tidus wasn't quite able to place it. Best just ignore it for now; it'd probably be a bad idea to go jumping to conclusions based on a first impression. "Come, follow me, you'll find yourself comfortable, and something to eat," Seymour finished his little offer with a smooth hand motion. Turning on his heels, as if perfectly planned out, then strode on through a heavily decorated door, the rest following close behind.

"Rikku!" Auron hissed quietly to catch her attention.

Hearing his voice, she spun around, startled, beginning to go down the stairs, two at a time. Almost immediately she lost her balance, tumbling down the stairs, head first and landing at the bottom of the flight ungracefully. "What?" Rikku took on a whiney tone of voice as she asked this to Auron. Instead of giving him eye contact though, she was staring blankly up at the ceiling. A lack of emotion in her eyes, aside from maybe a little embarrassment, but only a little.

"I told you that you needed to be showing the proper respect towards the Maester. Now come on, they've left this room." Auron stared down at her scrawny frame for a moment, shaking his head, embarrassed that she was in their group.

Hearing Auron's statement, Rikku stood up, brushing herself off, and glancing down at the palms of her hands. Furrowing her brow as she saw just a small cut on the middle of her pointer finger. Oh man… This wasn't good. She was just a little squeamish, just ignore it, you'll be fine, besides, it'll stop in like two minutes. "I'm coming," she said, though unlike the norm, she didn't sound disgusted with him. Just trailed after like a dog obeying its owner.

As the door opened, the group of people glanced over towards the newcomers to the room. Yuna looked a little shocked, she swore that Rikku was with them, and because Rikku's clothes looked to be a little out of order. As in, well, not as perfect as they were. "Oh Rikku, glad you made it. You too, Sir Auron."

"Yunie!" Rikku leapt over with ease, grinning from ear to ear, completely forgetting the fact that Seymour was busy talking about something. Though the look that she was given from her cousin made Rikku look up towards Seymour, and suddenly she felt so small. Her eyes grew wide in nervousness, and she mumbled a quick sorry. Swallowing hard, something about that Seymour guy made her feel uncomfortable, made her feel as if she was nothing, maybe even invisible. As she bit down on her lower lip, she swore she could feel the gaze of Auron burning a hole into the side of her skull. Feeling to scared to bother looking over at him, and I don't blame her, I'd be scared too.

"Quite all right," he paused, realizing he didn't know her name, taking a step down from where he was and approaching cautiously. "Your name, I'm afraid I never got to hear it."

"Rikku," her voice was small, and she deliberately avoided looking up at Seymour.

"Look at me," he whispered, his voice seemed almost tender. "There's no need to be scared, no need to feel small."

Like her meeting with Auron, she hesitated before she looked up at the one who was asking. Again, her eyebrows were raised, in worry that he'd do something because of her Al Bhed heritage.

Seymour gave a smile, "You shouldn't be trying to hide your eyes, they're more beautiful than you think they are."

Quite literally, her heart leaped out of her chest. Rikku swore she saw it propel out of her mouth and run down the hall. Deathly wanting to chase after it and stuff it back down. Having no idea why she was so scared, or feeling as if she was up in space and was weightless. It was that feeling that there was a butterfly that wouldn't stop fluttering in her stomach. The feeling of her heart pounding so hard against her ribs she swore she heard them shatter to a million pieces. To get a compliment like that was wonderful, but from someone with such power would probably be even more a compliment. For once, she looked up, almost confidently, and stared in his pale blue eyes. "… Th-Thank you."

"You are most welcome." Seymour paused, and gave a smile, before turning back around, and gracefully walked up to a small, raised area. "I'm sure you all have heard of the farplane, it's quite amazing how it works. It works in a way something like this does," a flip of the light turned the room pitch black. But within a moment, it was lit up again, not with lights. No. But with something more spectacular, eye-popping, amazing, and other overly cliché words of that same sort; it was Zanarkand, not how it is in Spira, but how it was. Before Sin had come. Before everything was turned upside down. Lights shone brightly in the dark, the buildings towered over everything, and the walkways were bustling with life.

Yuna gasped softly, her eyes were filled with awe, how could such a thing be replicated, even if it only was an illusion. She glanced over to Tidus, who seemed to look a little sad; along side of that sadness was something that looked as if his homesickness was being relieved.

"This was home," Tidus whispered to Yuna, "before I was warped to Spira."

"It looks like quite the place to live, it's so fancy, so busy," she responded, looking up to Tidus for a moment, and giving him a broad grin, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ears.

"It was busy, and it was amazing." That statement concluded their small conversation, both became silent as the illusion continued on.

Rikku was just plain stunned, she couldn't believe her eyes, illusion or not, this was what her dream was; ever since she met Tidus, she wanted to travel to the Zanarkand that they were seeing right now. She wanted to see it as it was. Mouth open slightly ajar, her eyes seemed to find themselves placed upon Maester Seymour. His perfectly blue hair, neatly styled, that tattoo, the clothes, everything. Her cheeks flushed red, as she quickly looked away. Doing her best to avoid looking at him.

"Don't stare, Rikku, it's rude." Auron whispered in her ear.

Literally jumping in her spot, she spun around to face him; "I wasn't!" she defended. Shaking her head once. His breath was warm when he spoke to her, and how she knew this. Well, he was that close. For some reason, she found his voice to be soothing, rather than, harsh like it had been so many times before.

Shaking his head slowly, he returned to watching the illusion before him. It did perfectly replicate every feature of Zanarkand; it was fairly impressive, he had to admit.

Seymour had strode over to Rikku once again, standing at her side, towering over her short frame. "I can take you there if you'd like. Take you to see the real Zanarkand one thousand years ago."

Startled, her eyes widened, remaining completely silent as the lights were restored to their original brightness. How did he know about her wanting to visit Zanarkand? Could he… read minds? Maybe he had been following her for time, learned about her, found out her dreams. Nah, that's nonsense! You'd have to be crazy to think something like that. Her voice lodged in her throat, she found it almost impossible to move. Eyes glancing about the room, she found that everyone was looking at the two of them speaking. The look in Auron's eye… Was it… warning?

A/N: I'll leave it there. What's Rikku's answer to Seymour's question? Well, you'll see. Now please review. PLEASE. I'm begging, I'll give you cookies, milk, canned whipped cream, all the orion.78 remixes. Anything. (: I look forward to writing more. But I want reviews.

This is my last day of midwinter break, so I'll probably take longer to update. Then again, probably not, I slack in school, and stuff.