Yes I am
I hope you think you read me
Hope I start talking crazy
Before you understand me
Are we through?
You think that I'm beneath you
But you like the things that I do
Well, wrap 'em up and take 'em with you

-"You're So Real" by Matchbox Twenty

"About time you got here," Tidus mumbled under his breath as Auron and I slid into the hallway of the Maester's palace. Everyone else seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at the fact that I actually showed up. Who, me? Miss the biggest shindig in the world? I shrunk back a bit, embarrassed, but I felt Auron's hand on my back propelling me forward into the middle of the room. Son-of-a-drunken-monkey... He was actually going to make me do this.

"Yunie? I'm here," I whispered to her, across a room filled with portraits of dead Guado royalty along the staircases and pots of plants that weren't even pretty. She turned, and her eyes lit up.

"I knew you would come!" she said, smiling. Then, she twirled around a bit, her aqua dress spinning circles around her. It was strapless, and had small ribbons everywhere. I saw Tidus watching her from a few feet away, and I raised my eyebrows at him, tsking under my breath. Wakka, also noticing him eyeball my dear cousin, elbowed him in the side, making him bend over gasping for air. Wakka laughed a bit and looked away, and Tidus took that opportunity to smack Wakka upside the head.

"I can't do this," I mumbled, turning away from the feuding boys. I started messing with my hair and the stupid, stupid sunglasses, making them slide down my face and back up again. Up and down, up and down they went, making me jittery and nervous, making me want to run screaming for my life all the way back to that little beach on the side of the Moonflow where I happened to meet this chipper bunch.

But I couldn't do that, considering Mr. Grumpypants just so happened to have a death grip on the bow on the back of my dress and Yunie was counting on me to be here for her.

Pops probably would tell me at this point, "Rikku, that's what you get for getting yourself into this mess. You had a simple mission, and you just HAD to screw it up, didn't you?"

Snatch your cousin so that we can save her, remember? That was my mission on the day that I met Yuna, and it would have worked if it wasn't for Tidus and Wakka beating the CRUD out of my super duper, underwater machina that I spent a year building. How I went from being the coolest Al Bhed Bnehlacc in the whole world who can save everyone, including saving my very own cousin from HERSELF, to someone so stupid that she helps her very own relative get to the Platform O' Death in Zanarkand is beyond me.

Yeah, I know all of the blind Yevonites want to scream out in unison, "You stupid Al Bhed, Yuna is saving the world." Sacrificing herself just so that the big fishy monster Sin can come back in ten years doesn't sound like saving the world to me. And sure, I could understand if she wanted to do this as a very last resort, if it was the first time in history that it ever happened.

But no, this just had to be her very FIRST plan of action. Sin has been around for a-freaking-THOUSAND years, but of course everyone just nods and says, "That's the way it must be." People are dying left and right, but the so-called smartypants geniuses of the world, after SO much consideration and studying, just have to say, "By skippy, I've got it! Let's kill MORE people!"

"Rikku, pay attention!" Auron hissed into my ear, snapping me out of my thoughts. I glanced wildly around the hallway, and suddenly realized that Herman the Smelly Guado was leading us into one of the billion doorways along the staircases in the room.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

He nodded, then said, "Fix your sunglasses."

"Thanks," I said even quieter this time, pushing them up on my nose, feeling the cheap plastic press against my skin.

His hand was still on my back, and he started to lead me into the doorway when I started breathing fast, nervous little puffs of air that didn't do much for my lungs at all. I could feel myself starting to panic, and I reached over and clutched onto his arm, hoping against hope that he would take pity on my poor soul and stall for at least another minute.

He stopped, thank goodness. I leaned away from him onto the wall, and breathed and breathed and breathed, trying to catch up to my very own quickness, trying to settle myself down. But, it wasn't working, and I shut my eyes, feeling some sort of attack that was totally not cool coming on. I was panicing enough for the entire smelly Guado population, and I clutched my hands into tiny fists, trying to stop it.

"Shhhh..." Auron whispered. "Settle down... You will be fine, we all will be fine, and this will be done before you know it."

I nodded, my eyes closed up so tightly that I could feel the makeup on my eyelashes fusing together into some sort of black, yucky, eye goop. "Y.. You... You're not the one..." I stuttered, gasping for air between my words, "Your life isn't on the line... But mine is... And he'll know, Auron, I know he'll know. I can't do this... Please let me go back!"

"If you run, what will you have accomplished today?" he paused, taking a moment to glare at me. "Nothing, but being a coward, Rikku, and believe me, you are far from a coward."

"You're wrong... I am a coward..." I mumbled, looking at my toes.

He looked at me and shook his head. "When you grow up, come into the room. Otherwise, say goodbye to being a Guardian."

And me, his voice seemed to echo into the quiet of the hallway.

And with those hushed words, and a piercing look that made me feel about two inches tall, he spun away and walked into the room.

"Auron, wait..." I called, but he didn't respond. Tears filled my eyes, and I breathed in deep and took a moment to ponder my options. On one hand, I could walk into the room and face an almost certain death, due to the fact that I was born into the uncool crowd.

Or, on the other hand, I could just walk away another almost certain death, and skip off into the sunset, happy as a clam. I could pretend that I never met Yunie or any of the others, could pretend that it wasn't my cousin who was dying any day now in Zanarkand, could pretend that it wasn't my friends being killed trying to protect her.

And I could pretend that I never met the man of my dreams, whose face I cannot recognise but whose smell I could pick out of a crowd of a billion, stinky clubbers.

The thought of it snapped me back into reality, and with a deep breath and a determined look on my face, I stomped right into that room, dress flailing about in the wind. The room was covered in tables filled with every single kind of food that I've ever dreamed of in my whole life, but my mind wasn't even on eating. I slammed the door behind me, which caught the attention of the whole room, including Herman.

"Hey! Wait a second, aren't you..." he started, but he stopped the second he felt the tap of Auron's katana on the ground next to him.

"Shut up if you value your life."

"Aye, that I do, sir," he mumbled quietly. Then, brightly, to everyone in the rest of the room, "If you would wait just a moment, Maester Seymour should be here any second. Make sure to help yourself to the food."

"We don't have all day," Auron stated simply.

"Sir Auron!" Yunie hissed. "Thank you... Herman? Yes, that's your name. Have a lovely day!"

"You too, Lady Summoner," Herman mumbled as he slid out of the room.

Tidus looked back and forth at everyone, but his eyes finally rested on me. "Rikku, he knew you... right?" he asked, looking mighty confused.

"You could say that," I mumbled, not looking him in the eyes. "But, anyway, are you going to have something to eat?" I asked brightly, directing my voice to the entire room.

"I'm not very hungry," Yuna said.

"You should eat something, ya?" Wakka said, concern for Yunie showing on his face.

"Come here, Yunie," I said, grabbing a hold of her and propelling us both towards the food tables. "I'm not very hungry either, but lets both fix a plate and pretend that we're loving this stuff, okay? I mean, when will be the next time that we have this much yummy foood at our disposal?"

"I agree with Rikku," Lulu said. "We should all take the time to eat at least a little something, regardless of how hungry we are."

"Kimarhi needs a plate," Kimarhi said from beside me, the very first time that he ever spoke in my presence.

"Here you go," I smiled at him, handing him one of the delicate glass plates. Yuna handed some plates over to Lulu, who handed them all out to Wakka, Tidus, and Auron. We all then spread out, everyone grabbing small spoonfuls of all of the different kinds of food. I, of course, skipped right over everything healthy and moved right over to the dessert table.

"Rikku, what are you doing?" Yunie asked, confused.

"Well Yunie, considering I'm not hungry, I'm going to eat the stuff that I really want, which at this point of time is cookies and cake. Care to join me, darling?" I said rolling my eyes wildly and making her laugh.

"No, thank you, I'll save that for last."

"Suit yourself," I said, scoping out all of the cookies in front of me. There were chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin and... cinnimon cookies! "Oh my God!" I yelped. "I can't believe they have these!"

"Have what?" Auron called out, making his way towards me.

"Cinnimon cookies! They're so awesome," I said excitedly, piling my plate full of them. The smell of them spun around me, and I just felt like dancing around in the goodness of it all. "It smells like cinnimon cookies... Mmmm..." I said, stuffing three into my mouth at the same time, spewing out crumbs in all directions.

"Save some for me," Auron said, smiling at my excited display of love towards these wonderful cookies. "I would think that you would like chocolate cookies, or cake covered in frosting."

"Oh I do, but these are so much better... You like them too?"

"They're my favorite," he nodded, scooping a large pile of them onto his mostly empty plate.

I stopped, frozen in wonder at his statement. "You... your favorite?" I whispered.

He turned, surprised with my reaction, and started to say something. "Well..."

But the second he opened his mouth, the large doors at the front of the room swung open. All of our eyes were pulled in the direction of the movement, and there, in all of his Guado glory, was the Maester.

I gulped nervously, and pressed my sunglasses into my face.

"Welcome, Lady Yuna and her Guardians. I am Maester Seymour."

AN: Hi everyone! I hope you guys like this chapter, and maybe with this one I'll hit the big ONE ZERO ZERO in reviews!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee skippy! But, I have to say, I probably won't be back for about a week, due to holiday celebrations and all of that good stuff. So everyone, have a wonderful Christmas, and I'll see you after the New Year!