Two excuses. Neither of them really valid, nor things you want to hear, but I figure I owe you at least an explanation.
One. I was in a huge rut of writers block. I couldn't write FFX stuff for the life of me. Second. When I finally did feel in the mood, I sat down, wrote about half the chapter, went to bed, and woke up with the nastiest cold I've had in years. I was pretty much bed ridden for a half week and the reason why I didn't try to keep writing while I was sick… was.. pathetic excuse, but, when I get sick, my mind goes out the bloody window. A thought I had a minute ago disappears and is replaced by a sort of delirious sickness induced confusion by the next. It's not much fun. I would have written if I could have, but… yeah. Alright. So here it is, finally. I'm sorry. The next update should come soon, I have the chapter already started. Yay me.
…
If this chapter seems to change at all half way through, that'll be because of the before-sick after-sick thing, I might have started paying a little less attention to detail or something… I don't know. Probably not noticeable, I'm just a worry-wort and a perfectionist. If it is glaringly painful, I will edit.
…
Again thank you for the comments (even the ones telling me to update, it's good to know people really want to read the next chapter that badly) and keep them coming…
…
In reply to comment… about how the perfect ending will have a new meaning now when I come to the end of this fic. And… you're absolutely right. And I had never intended that. In fact, I had never intended this fic to be more than… three… four chapters? I don't know. It just formed it's own story and went off. So… it might be a little weird. But I'm hoping it will work, what with the way I have the plot ending…
…
As usual FFX and FFX-2 don't belong to me, never did, and probably never will. Unless I get super rich and buy Square Enix. Haha. Yeah, right. That'll be the day.
…
Next chapter, up soon. Yes, you've heard that a thousand times before, but… It's not like I'll get sick again this week. I hope.
…
…
…
…
-Chapter 23-
…
…
…
…
"Okay, I think I've just about had it with these two." Tidus sighed, leaning against the wall where Yuna was inspecting a set of glyphs.
"What did they do this time?" She asked, not looking up, dimly aware of the sound of Dona and Barthello talking loudly to each other. It sounded as if Dona were angry about something, and as if Barthello were on the verge of tears. Yuna was suddenly unsure if she really wanted to know.
"You know, it happened so fast, it was kind of a blur. I think Barthello said something that ole ice queen didn't agree with and-"
"Tidus, don't call her that…" Yuna sighed, standing up. "That's not polite. She might be a bit… confrontational, but she is a good person. She did help all of us, even if she… well…" Words failed her, and she spread her hands a little, at a loss. Tidus seemed to catch her meaning though, and let out a deep sigh.
Biting his lip, Tidus leaned into the wall with all his weight. "Yeah, yeah… alright. I guess she hasn't been all that bad, but Yuna, listen to her…"
The two of them paused, and sure enough, the ex-summoner's voice rang through the halls with uncanny timing.
"Barthello, if you don't put that down this instant, I'll never speak to you again!"
Yuna sighed, shook her head, and turned away from the hallway.
"You see?" Tidus followed her as she began to walk down the hall, towards the end of the chamber. "She's completely unreasonable!"
"You're just mad because of what happened." Yuna grinned a little, amused by the memory even though she knew it probably wasn't very polite of her.
"Oh sure! Take her side!" He threw his arms in the air and looked completely exasperated, though there was a slight smirk on his face.
"Let's just keep looking for the sphere, and get out of here. Then we can go meet with the others."
"We've been over this hall a thousand times." Tidus muttered, idly brushing his hand against the stone hall. "And by the sounds of it, Dona hasn't found anything either."
Yuna stopped, and put her hand to her chin. "It should be around here. This is the only logical place it could be."
"By what logic?" He leaned against the wall again and closed his eyes. "You know, I'm getting kind of tired of this temple stuff, I mean, why couldn't they make anything simple? Why does everything have to be a maze or a puzzle?"
"If it wasn't, someone would have stolen it." Yuna shrugged, looking up at the ceiling at an utter loss of anywhere else to look.
"Oh, yeah. Like someone would come into a temple and steal a hunk of glowing r-OOOOCK!" Tidus suddenly flailed wildly and fell backwards, as the wall behind him disappeared into the ceiling. Completely unbalanced he fell flat on his back, with a loud 'oof' sound and a shout of something Yuna was positive wasn't considered polite.
"Are you okay?" She asked, rushing over to him and helping him up.
With a groan, Tidus supported himself against the wall with one arm, and with the other, rubbed his back. "Uh, no, but I'll live."
"Anything broken?" She put a hand on his arm, genuinely worried. The rock wasn't exactly a soft landing, and he hadn't been prepared for the fall.
Tidus straightened his back, and carefully rotated his shoulders. After a minute of this, he relaxed and grinned. "Nope!"
"Thank goodness." Yuna sighed, then peered behind him. "What happened?"
"I don't know, the wall just disappeared away." Tidus continued to massage his back, and Yuna got the impression he wasn't really paying attention.
"Did you touch anything?" Taking a few steps into the new passage, she found that it was dimly lit with a eerie fire glow, that didn't seem to come from anywhere in particular.
"Uh… don't think so." She heard him turn around behind her, and walk after her. "It happened kinda fast. One minute it was there…" He waved his hand, "Then it was gone."
"Hm." This time, Yuna wasn't paying much attention to him. Instead she was peering down the passage that made a sharp turn a few feet ahead of her. "I think you may have found what we're looking for." She turned and grinned at him. "Even if you weren't even trying."
"Hey! I was too!"
Tidus gave a half pout, crossing his arms. "I was just… resting,
that's all."
"What's going on?" Dona stepped up beside
Tidus and peered past Yuna. "What did you find?"
"I'm not sure, but I think this may be where the sphere is." Yuna nodded her head towards the passage.
"Hmph. Well don't just stand there, let's see if it is or not. Barthello, you stay here and make sure the passage doesn't close."
"Yes, Dona." Barthello answered quietly behind her, looking a little sad at being left behind, but proud to be doing something useful.
Before Dona could sweep forward, Yuna started down the passage, closely followed by who she was sure was Tidus. Dona couldn't possibly walk that loudly.
Turning the corner, Yuna was confronted with the same thing she'd just seen. A length of passage, then another sharp corner. She frowned, but didn't stop walking.
"How did you find this?" Dona asked, after a few minutes had passed and they'd taken what seemed like a dozen corners.
There was a slight paused, and Yuna turned slightly to look at Tidus. Dona couldn't see him, but he was grinning as if he wanted to say something that wasn't at all true. Though she knew better, Yuna gave him a little smile then put her attention back at the passage.
"Well, it's like this… Yuna was looking down in the chamber, and I was inspecting the wall. And then Yuna came over and noticed this funny looking glyph, and so I put my hand on it, and the wall opened up." He sounded pleased with himself, as if he was hoping to irritate Dona.
"I see." Dona said, considering this, then after a moment, spoke again. "Why didn't I see the glyph when I walked down that corridor?"
There was a dreadfully awkward silence in the passage as Tidus scrambled for an answer.
"I, uh, I had to cast fire on it, to make it show up." Yuna cut in quickly, glad Dona couldn't see her face. As soon as the words had left her mouth she regretted them. What was she thinking? Had she lost her mind? Where had that come from?
Another pause.
"You were casting fire on the walls?" Dona sounded completely unconvinced.
"Uh, yeah!" Tidus chirped, and Yuna could practically hear him groan.
As they turned another corner, a chamber came into view. Yuna felt a flood of relief for very different reasons.
"Hey, is that the sphere?" Tidus said quickly, probably a little too quickly.
Dona swept past him and stepped into pace with Yuna, who was already on her way towards the pedestal holding a fire red object.
"I think so." She heard herself say, just as quickly, a edge of excitement in her voice. This was wonderful, it was right here. They didn't have to run around through the temple anymore… another step closer to ending this whole ordeal.
Reaching carefully forward, she plucked the sphere free of it's place, and brought it closer to look at it. It seemed like just any Kilka sphere, except, on closer inspection, there seemed to be a strange glyph inside of it. It was a darker red than the rest of the crystal, but even then, it was difficult to see at first glance. It wasn't like any Kilka sphere she'd ever seen before, and it felt… out of place.
"Yes, this is it." Yuna nodded, holding the sphere tightly in her hand. It was slightly warm, as if there was a dim fire burning inside of it somewhere. "I'm sure of it."
Dona raised an eyebrow and glanced at it, then shrugged. "Well, I suppose I'll take your word on that. It seems like a regular Kilka sphere to me, but… it was hidden, after all. Perhaps it is different."
"So we can go now?" Tidus looked from Dona, to Yuna.
"Well, we got what we came for." Yuna grinned, placing the sphere carefully in the pouch on her belt. "Let's go outside, it's kind of stuffy in here."
Dona turned without speaking a word and headed to where they had come. Tidus lingered a moment behind Yuna, but finally walked after her, shaking his head.
"Nothing happened."
"What?" She looked at him with a slight frown. "What do you mean?"
He looked around the chamber as they left it, looking a little uneasy. "I don't know. It's just… in all the other temples, something always happened when we found something important. I mean… shouldn't a big giant fiend jump out at is now or something?"
"Well, nothing happened." Yuna blinked, tilting her head.
"Yeah, that's what I said." Tidus frowned, still looking uneasy. "And that seems wrong."
"Well…" Yuna paused, turning one of the corners, just in time to see Dona turn a corner ahead of them. "Maybe Kilka is empty of things like that now. It has had a lot of traffic…"
"I guess." Tidus seemed to agree, but there was a hesitating touch in his voice. He didn't seem to feel it was a good enough answer, but didn't say anymore about it.
"Don't worry, if something does happen, it's nothing we can't handle, right?" Yuna placed her hand on his shoulder, grinning. Finding the sphere had raised her spirits higher than she had expected.
"Right." That seemed to bring out the Tidus she knew, and he gave her a smirk. He took a step closer over to her path and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, looking quite pleased with himself all of a sudden, though Yuna wasn't exactly sure why.
They continued the small walk in silence, and Yuna was almost glad for it. It was nice to just be able to feel him, not to have to think or talk or worry. She'd missed him so much, she'd never thought she'd be doing things like this, together with him. It'd been in her dreams, but… she still could hardly believe he was next to her. Everything had happened so fast, so unexpectedly. Who would have ever guessed things would have turned out this way? Everyone had been certain he was gone forever when he'd disappeared… that day. She cringed a little at the thought. But she'd never believed that. Even though she'd told herself he was gone and she'd never see him again, there was that hope that had never died, that she might be able to walk with him like this. 'Maybe…' She thought to herself, 'That hope is what brought him back. Maybe the Fayth…'
"Dona!" Barthello called, as they turned the last corner and saw the hulk of a man looming in the passage doorway. "Are you alright?"
Dona pushed past him with a fluid grace, heading directly towards the temple entrance. "Why wouldn't I be, Barthello?" She sighed, though her voice sounded somewhat happy, Yuna thought. Happy to be back with him, even if she didn't want to admit it. Yuna smiled, watching Barthello trail after the ex-summoner with a large, contented smile on his face.
"Wow." Tidus said finally, breaking their silence as the two of them stepped out into the sunlight behind Dona and Barthello. "Nothing happened." He broke into a huge grin, stretching his arms behind his back. "You know I was sure something was going to."
"I told you not to worry." Yuna smiled, looking up at the cloudless sky.
"Well, it's barely even noon." Dona said quietly, a little ways away. She'd stopped in the center of the temple grounds, staring up at the sky with a look of disbelief on her face. "I thought it was nearly dusk. It feels like we spent all day in that stuffy dark catacomb." She turned around slowly, to face Yuna.
"So, is that it?" She nodded to the pouch at Yuna's side.
Yuna patted it, and smiled. "Yes, that's it."
Dona nodded slowly, and began to turn away, but stopped. As if she were unused to it, she turned her head back to look at Yuna and gave a sort of half smile. It was the first one Yuna could remember seeing on her face that looked like she really meant it.
"Good luck, Yuna. With the Fayth, and whatever else lies in that chamber. Though… we do not share the same views or experiences, know that… as a fellow summoner I wish you… a safe end to your mission."
The smile was quickly gone from Dona's face though, as if she had rethought her words, but she didn't say anything more towards her. Turning her head towards Tidus, she gave something that sounded like a snort.
"You, hot-shot blitzer… don't go causing anymore trouble."
"Me? What did I do?" Tidus blinked, as Dona turned away and walked off, towards the stairs leading down to the village. Tidus stood somewhat confused as Barthello quickly walked after her, still smiling contentedly.
"What was that all about?" Tidus sighed, after they were out of sight, leaving the temple grounds clear of anyone. Even the temple priests weren't in sight. Everyone was probably off eating, out of the heat of the sun, Yuna thought as she walked softly to the center of the grounds.
"She means well." Yuna said to the air, perhaps more to herself than really to Tidus. She heard him sigh but he didn't really seem that upset. In fact, he sounded just as happy as she was.
"So not only did we find the sphere… but we found it quickly? This is turning out to be a great day." He grinned, striding around in a circle around the grounds. "So what do we do now?"
Yuna considered this, watching him as he walked. "Well… I don't know. I guess we just wait for the others to come pick us up."
"So we get some time to ourselves finally?" He stopped, and she could see a grin in his eyes.
Yuna blinked, felt suddenly a little nervous despite any thoughts in her mind that told her otherwise, and turned away. "Well, maybe, we should call them. They might be done already."
Tidus groaned, loudly, and for a moment Yuna was worried he was hurt. Spinning around she found him with one hand over his eyes, looking somewhat distraught.
"Yunaaa! Don't tell me you want to go back already?"
She blinked, and brought her hands together absently. "Well… We need to get back to the Hidden Temple, soon…"
"Well they're not here to pick us up! So let's have some fun while we wait!"
"Fun?" Yuna echoed, unable to think of anything that could be considered fun, in Kilka, to Tidus.
"Yeah! I don't know, let's go… get something to eat?" He seemed to be at a loss of ideas himself, as he sounded half hearted with his question.
"Okay." Yuna shrugged, heading towards the stairs. It felt awkward somehow, that they were suddenly alone, and had free time among themselves. It had been so rare since he'd gotten back… she felt giddy and nervous at the same time.
She heard him sprint after her, and turned just in time to see him stop beside her, grabbing her hand with a grin and starting off down the stairs at a break neck pace.
"Hey!" She cried, a little startled, as she just about lost her balance. "What's the rush?" She managed a moment later, once they'd reached the lower plaza, just above the forest path.
"Race you to the forest?" Tidus was grinning, in a way she hadn't seen him grin in a while. He seemed just as giddy as she felt.
"Okay!" She started before she spoke, and she heard him shout in protest behind her. Laughing she kept running as fast as she could, skipping down the stairs as fast as she dared for a slight fear of falling and breaking something.
Just as she neared the forest however, she saw him leap into view from the corner of her eye, right beside her. Though it was such a childish game, she'd never really done anything like it before, and couldn't help but feel the urge to want to win. She increased her speed and made it to the forest, leaping off the stairs and onto the dirt path just seconds before Tidus. Stumbling to a halt she managed to stop short of falling on her face, and turned just in time to see Tidus crash into a nearby bush.
Her laughter stopped as she felt a pang of worry. "Tidus?" She called, walking the best she could over to where he'd gone in, her legs shaking from the hectic sprint. "Are you okay?" She peered into where he had fallen, and was surprised to see him no where in sight. "Tidus…?" She repeated, frowning.
"Gotcha!" He grabbed her from behind and lifted her up, and in spite of herself she let out a light yell.
"What are you doing!" She cried, not so much in protest but in utter bewilderment as he held her in his arms.
"Uh… It seemed like a good idea at the time?" He was grinning, and didn't seem to want to put her down any time soon.
"You scared me!" She frowned, and she would have put her hands on her hips for effect had she been able.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't know a High Summoner was so easily scared." His face tried to look severe, but his voice had hints of laughter.
"I didn't mean that!" She sighed, pretending to sound agitated. "I meant, when you fell in the bush, I thought you were hurt."
"Hey, I meant to do that." Tidus frowned.
"Oh sure." Yuna
giggled, shaking her head. "Now put me down."
He made a long,
loud sigh, as if he were deeply upset about her demands, then gently
placed her on her feet.
"Thank you." She smiled, taking a step back and feeling just a little bit more nervous. This was so much different than before, when there had always been others around. It was different… but she liked it.
They walked together at a leisurely pace, passing through the woods and to Kilka village. Along the way they chatted about various things, from silly things to the last time they'd been in Kilka together. But they never branched into anything that was serious, or in any way painful to remember. Though neither spoke of avoiding it, they both seemed to want to. Instead they laughed together and Yuna found herself feeling better than she ever had in her life.
After perhaps a hour's walk, they finally arrived at Kilka, after going though a few 'short cuts' Tidus had decided on through the woods. Of course they hadn't been short cuts, and they'd ended up walking through bush for most of the time, Yuna couldn't think of anywhere else she'd rather be.
"So, where to now?" Tidus stopped in front of the village, stretching and looking quite satisfied with the world on whole.
"I don't know, I haven't been here very often. I guess we should just walk around and see."
"Sounds good." Tidus started off, dragging her with him, though she was far from reluctant.
It didn't take them long to spot something that looked promising. A shopkeeper was sitting behind a shaded table, a table which was covered in every fruit Yuna had ever seen, and some she hadn't. Not feeling particularly hungry, nor much in the mood for anything else, she pointed it out to Tidus.
"Great! We never got many fruits in Zanarkand. Climate wasn't right, everything we got was imported, and you wouldn't believe the cost." He grimaced, as Yuna smiled at the shopkeeper and looked over the fruits.
"So the hot shot blitzer couldn't afford food?" Yuna grinned, picking out a few fruits as Tidus made a face.
"Ah! Don't call me that, I'm getting the feeling it's not a good term anymore."
"Oh, it was once?" Yuna paid for the fruits with gil from her pouch, and handed Tidus a few of the fruits. She was grinning, though trying to sound perfectly serious.
"Yeah! That was a good term in Zanarkand, all the girls used to…" He suddenly trailed off, as Yuna raised an eyebrow at him.
"Girls?"
"Uhh…" Tidus considered this for a moment, taking a bite of the fruit he was holding and looking slightly embarrassed. "Most of the girls liked Blitzers in Zanarkand."
"I see." Yuna said, blinking, completely unsure of how to answer. It wasn't something she'd ever thought about. And wasn't sure she wanted to think about it.
Tidus paused, looking at her. Then his face changed and he seemed to consider what he'd said.
"Uh, forget it, okay? I'm sorry, Yuna." Tidus sounded out of place and more embarrassed than she'd ever heard him.
"It's okay." Yuna nodded slowly. She wasn't really upset by what he had said, it had merely provoked thought. She could understand why he had attracted attention. Why, she herself was starting to. Not only was she a High Summoner, but her recent concerts hadn't helped her much. More and more people were stopping to speak to her, and though most of them were simply thanking her for Sin, there were a few here and there that were… somewhat frightening.
"Yuna, are you okay?" They sat down on the edge of the docks, overlooking the ocean that spanned between Kilka and Besaid. Tidus was looking slightly concerned.
"Oh, yes." She smiled, carefully taking a bite of a fruit she held in her hand. "I was just thinking, that's all."
"Okay." Tidus nodded slowly, and seemed to take her response as a sign to drop that topic. Which was probably for the best, Yuna was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable about it.
"Do you like being back?" Yuna asked suddenly, an impulsive thought that suddenly came to her. Even as the words left her mouth she was wondering why she said it.
Tidus stopped in mid bite, looking over to her with a look of confusion on his face. "Do I…?" He swallowed. "Of course!" He smiled, not his usual carefree grin, but a smile nonetheless. "It's great. I missed being here. I missed… being with you. Don't worry about me. I don't want to go back to Zanarkand."
She tilted her head and looked at him, thinking about it all.
"I know now, what was going on. It's…" He sighed, as if fighting for the right words. "It's the past. I've come a long way, I think. This is my home now."
Yuna slowly took another bite, and they sat in silence for a long moment. Nothing felt as though it needed saying, after all, they'd spoken of things before.
Taking the last bite of the fruit he was holding, Tidus threw the core into the water and scooted over beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and hugging her sideways. She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and ignoring the fact people could probably see. What did it matter, what the people thought about the High Summoner, and what she was doing. It wasn't any of their business, and she was happy.
"Love you." He said quietly, kissing her forehead. She smiled at him, still with her eyes closed, and snuggled closer to him.
"Yuna?"
She blinked her eyes open, looking around. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Tidus seemed to snap out of a sort of daze, and looked around as well. "I didn't hear anything."
"I heard someone call…"
"Yuna!" This time it was louder, and … filled with static.
"Oh!" Yuna cried, suddenly realizing, and she reached into her belt pouch to pull out her comm sphere.
Paine was standing in a small projection, looking a little cross. The first thing Yuna noticed was the fact her hair was full of feathers.
"Paine?" Yuna blinked, turning up the volume on the sphere.
"Yuna, finally. I've been trying to reach you for the last hour." Paine was outright frowning, not even trying to give a blank face. But somehow Yuna sensed she wasn't angry at her.
"What's going on?" Tidus asked, peering down at the comm sphere Yuna placed in her lap.
"What's going on?" Paine echoed, and Yuna could almost swear she heard a slight snap in the woman's normally calm voice. "I'll tell you what's going on. Rikku."
"Oh." Yuna sighed, somehow she had expected that. "What happened?"
Paine let out a very long sigh. "We went to the temple, and we looked for the sphere. We must have spent about three hours, but we couldn't find anything. Finally the priests kicked us out, saying something about how we were wrecking the temple of the High Summoner."
"Oh dear." Yuna tried not to smile.
Paine continued, reaching up to pick a feather out of her hair. "So Rikku gets this idea to scan for the sphere using one of Shinra's little devices."
"How'd she get that?" Tidus interjected.
Paine shot him a look. "I don't know. She probably stole it. She's a thief, after all." Paine didn't sound very happy with Rikku at all. Yuna was starting to dread hearing the story.
"Anyway, so we go off looking around Besaid. Rikku gets a signal on the device, and runs off up this hill shouting. Then I don't hear from her. So I have to go up this hill. When I get to the top, there I see, Rikku. Standing in this huge nest, fishing around in a collection of feathers and sticks."
"A nest?"
"Please, if I may finish." Paine looked as though she were grinding her teeth. "Rikku is convinced the sphere is in the nest. I decide to stand watch. To make a long story short, Yuna, the fiend came home, and Rikku got the bright idea to climb on it's back to distract it while I got the sphere."
"And?" Yuna didn't really want to hear the rest of it at all.
"I got the sphere. And the fiend took off with Rikku."
There was a moment of silence while Yuna tried to take all of this in.
"Why didn't you just kill the fiend?" Tidus asked, taking advantage of the pause.
Paine looked quite annoyed at that question. "That was my suggestion, but Rikku demanded we couldn't kill it, because of the eggs."
"Oh dear." Yuna sighed again.
"So why did you call us?" Tidus cut in before Paine could start again.
"Because I thought I should warn you, we might be late picking you two up. The fiend is still flying around with Rikku attached to it, and she still won't let us kill the damn thing."
"Is she
alright?"
"Yeah, she's fine. But I can't promise she'll
be fine when she gets down here." Paine crossed her arms, and
looked even more agitated than she had before.
There was an awkward pause of silence, before Tidus cleared his throat and waved at the sphere.
"Well, thanks for telling us. We're doing fine here, take your time." Tidus was grinning, and Paine seemed as if she wanted to say something in reply to that, but all of a sudden there was a great shriek in the background of the comm sphere, accompanied by a fiend's screech, and something in Al Bhed Yuna couldn't catch.
"I have to go." Paine growled, and before anyone could say another word, shut the sphere off.
"Well… That was interesting." Tidus commented, as Yuna placed the sphere back into her pouch.
"I hope Rikku's okay." Frowning, Yuna placed her hands in her lap and stared out over the water.
"Oh, she'll be fine. Paine was just joking." He didn't sound exactly sure of that. "Anyway… now that we've got more time, let's not waste it! What do you want to do?"
Yuna thought about that for a moment, then looked down at the water.
"How about a swim?" She said after a pause, and looked up with a grin.
"What do you think?" He matched her grin and reached for her hand.
…
…
…
…
…
…
AN: So there you have it. A slightly lighter chapter than was probably expected, what with the whole temple quest thing. Next few chapters will probably be in this kind of tone. It's fun to write, and I think we've had enough dreary stuff for the moment.
