Chapter 11: Night Fever

Warning: This chapter may contain some sexual themes or adult themes.I don't think it does but I'd rather be safe then sorry.

I was closing in on the entrance to the atrium. It was completely dark up ahead, except for the two distinct torches burning brightly on each side of the atrium doors.

As I scaled the relatively large stairs, I wondered why on earth they had been built so ridiculously immense in the first place.

Finally I reached the towering doors of the atrium of my temple, barging through hastily, to find that everyone's heads had turned to face me, rather startled by my dramatic entrance.

I stared around for a minute looking over each face briefly. Suddenly the purpose of this trip back to the temple flooded my mind.

I lost my temper and yelled frustratingly, "What in the name of Zenit do you think you are doing?"

They all stared at me with confused expressions as if to say, we're working, what else should we be doing?

I suddenly realised that the only people who knew about the girl escaping was myself and the few sentinels that had heard the alarm go off. These other men had not yet found out about the events that had just occurred.

However I continued to yell, "The girl from the Zanatorium is loose and you're all roaming around in here. The city is at stake. The lives of my people are at risk. Get moving!"

I swear my face was as red as a cherry by the time I had finished.

"Yes master." Everyone said in unison and scrambled out through the door orderly.

I then turned feeling slightly awful for the way I had just treated my loyal sentinels.

"I want you to search the perimeters of the Zanatorium and the forest…even the city…I want her alive and unharmed…unless absolutely necessary." I said more calmly, figuring that I should share with them the fundamentals of their task.

They nodded understandingly and darted off orderly towards the Zanatorium that sat on the hilltop on the right side of my temple. Although my temple was on lower ground it still towered over everything in Zanarkand, so I decided to check on the sentinels once they arrived at the borders of the Zanatorium.

So I ran upstairs to my study, which gave me a clear view of the Zanatorium through the right window.

Once there I gazed out of the window and saw that they had made it there in sufficient time.

Good, at least something is going right tonight.

I turned back to look over the study.

Strange. Auron was always in here. Great he's gone, right when I needed him most.

I fixed my wondering gaze upon some papers sitting on my desk flapping quietly in the wind, which was coming from the open window on the left, which faced the city.

Well obviously Auron had been here in between the time of when we last talked and when I was at the hostelry.

I walked over to inspect them. I felt I knew what they were before I even reached them. Once I picked them up and saw the diagrams and several lines of writing I slammed down the papers harshly upon the desk.

"Damn you Auron. You're getting too obsessed with this Moonshine Mission. I'm sick of it." I cried out, breaking the silence of the room.

The Moonshine Mission was another one of Auron's experiments. He insisted on me being there in a few nights time at Mt. Demise. But I had larger problems to solve now. I had no time for his insane games.

My thoughts were broken by the words of a sentinel from behind.

"Master…" he panted breathlessly.

I turned to face him wondering what else could possibly go wrong tonight. His tone of voice didn't seem to sound like the bearer of good news.

"What is it?" I asked frustrated, but tried my best to sound calm.

"Sir Auron has requested that you meet him…at the abandoned Blitzball arena at once." He finished leaning against the doorframe with his head bowed, desperately trying to catch his breath.

"What for?" I asked eyeing him curiously with my arms folded. "It better not be for one of his mindless experimentations, if that's the case, tell him that I have more important things to do." I finished walking towards the left window to look out at the Blitzball arena, deep in thought about the main situation at hand.

"No it's not master…it's actually to do with the girl who…escaped from the Zanatorium." He explained.

My eyes widened and I turned to face him. The sentinel was now standing up from his leaning position against the door and I recognized his face. It was Docile. I was startled to see it was him of all people in my temple. There was a story to his new life, which he now served as a sentinel. His past was disturbing and I had been part of it. I had been his friend and he had betrayed my trust. He however got the easy way out. I had spared his life and arranged for him to have his memory erased and to start over, almost two years ago. The memory wipe being one of Auron's many experiments. So therefore he no longer remembered me as his friend, only as his leader.

"Very well." I replied. "You may leave now. Ensure the girl is caught unharmed as well." I added.

"Yes master." He replied obediently and left.

I returned my gaze to stare out of the window once more eyeing the abandoned arena, which Auron was now waiting at. I ran my right hand through my hair and wondered why he wanted me to go there of all places. He knew how much I hated it. Too eerie.

The only reason it still stood was because its construction was rather complicated. The bottom of the arena was built deep into the ground and embedded underneath most of the city. Almost like a trees roots growing through the earth deeper and deeper, so that if you were to remove it, there would be nothing but a massive hole and its surroundings at the bottom would crumble.

The conversation that I had with the sentinel back in the hostelry may have confused some. When the sentinel said that he and some of the other men had been playing Blitzball in the arena after the players had left, he had meant that. The question is, why would players play in abandoned arena, as if they were playing a match for people to see? Well the players were in fact dead. They were spirits reliving the same game over and over every night at the same time in the arena.

I wasn't entirely sure on how they died but I knew that no one had dared enter there while they played, and not one game had been played by the living, in the time I had been leader. Apparently the night I had become leader, their very souls had been sucked from their bodies during the game but that was just talk as Auron put it. He told me that they had merely drowned.

However as I stared through the window out towards the arena I felt a strange feeling wash over me. It seemed to be beckoning me for another reason other then the fact that I was to meet Auron there.

Speaking of which, I had better get moving. It wasn't often that someone escaped the Zanatorium and if Auron had a way of stopping the girl, then I was with him all the way.

So I turned on my heel and bolted out of the study door. I made my way down the stairs and found that this time the atrium was silent, and large crates and papers lay over the floor from when the sentinels had left abruptly, not being able to pick up after themselves.

Oh well, plenty of time for a clean up later. Not on my list of priorities right at the moment anyhow.

I proceeded towards the atrium doors and noticed that they were left wide open waiting for me to jog through.

As I made my way through the doors, down the stairs and onto the natural earth below I felt the moonlight greet me as it shone so brightly above.

Well at least there's some good light tonight. She'll have a hard time trying to hide in the dark.

Right then I felt a most unusual, welcome shiver pass throughout my body. I shook it off.

Okay I'm leaving. There's no time to spare.

So off I was again, heading left in the direction of the city, towards the abandoned Blitzball arena.

A few minutes later I had entered the city and began to see a few people hanging around in the streets having a good time. Most of them were the same age as me, perhaps even older, without a care in the world. They were all just having a good time. Something I would never be privileged to.

I began to head deeper into the city, finding that I was slowly heading into a crowd of some sort. A crowd of ordinary people looking like they had all just been sitting under the sun. The stars shined upon their skin, causing their sweat to glisten. I could hear loud music blaring all around and the moist bodies were dancing rapidly, in tune with the beat. They didn't even seem to be bothered by the rather inclosed space they were dancing in, which gave them hardly enough room to get a proper breath.

As I watched, making my way through the bodies which managed to rub up against me nearly every second, I somehow felt connected to this life.

I began to feel disorientated from the lack of air and began to run into people, whom I so clumsily brushed past.

A few girls decided that it was appropriate to accidentally on purpose rub their chests up against mine as I passed.

I decided that if I just ignored them then I would have less hassle trying to get through the crowd.

They didn't seem too disappointed anyway, they just moved onto the next available body in sight.

I actually managed to run into one person with a few manners no matter how promiscuous they looked.

"Oh excuse me…I'm in a hurry." I apologized thinking that they wouldn't even notice me anyhow.

"No need for that master…it happens." The girl in front of me said politely as she disappeared behind me into the crowd.

The streets had not been a familiar place to me. I was usually cooped up inside my temple, working away at Zenit knows what. I wonder how that girl even knew me. I actually started to notice a few other people in the crowd point to me and start whispering before they went back to partying. I mean I hardly ever showed myself in public for them to recognize me by my appearance, and for them to pick me out in a crowd like this…it was even more mystifying.

Suddenly I heard a loud crack and a rocket like object pierced through the night sky up above. My gaze followed it until it detonated into colours of pink and blue. As the shimmering dust began to fall slowly over me and the crowd I was standing in, I realised how these people knew.

My face was in the fireworks.

I felt strange at the fact that they did things like that to show their respect. I hardly ever showed myself and never even spoke to them.

I was getting closer to the arena and I was finding it much more difficult to fight my way through the crowd, as the people became overexcited about the glittering dust that landed upon their skin from above.

Suddenly I felt someone tugging on my cloak. I spun around to take a look at my new opponent. If they thought that they could rid me of my cloak, then they had another thing coming. However as I turned to snatch it from their hands I realised that it was a young boy no older then fifteen. He was holding onto my cloak for support as he began to rise from where he had obviously fallen to the asphalt road below. My attitude changed and I outstretched my hand to the boy, who looked up at me gratefully with his large green eyes and took it.

"What's a boy of your age doing out here in this?" I questioned folding my arms as he regained his balance.

He brushed off his clothes and said, "Nothing…I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about…I promise never to come out here again. Just don't hurt me." He finished shielding himself, with his arms raised protecting his face.

I stared at him confused and upset by his plea.

"What do you mean…why would I hurt you?" I asked trying to make myself heard over the loud music.

"Sir Auron says you have great power and that you will punish whoever displeases or offends you. I just displeased you…did I not?" he questioned waiting for me to answer with a yes.

What in Zenit did Auron actually tell these people when I was too busy to attend a speech or meeting? I would talk to him about it later.

"How about you go home now. I don't want to hear that you were found dead in the street in the morning." I said firmly.

"Yes master. Right away." He said disappearing into the crowd and leaving me bewildered as to how I was actually seen to these people of Zanarkand.

Was I an evil being who only showed himself at a time of crisis? A monster who hurt people at random?

I brushed the thought aside and continued my journey to the arena. Finally I saw its bright lights coming closer. Auron had obviously restored power to the building, because usually only one light on each corner shone so as to not confuse flyers in the sky at night.

I at last made my way out of the perspiring mass of people and began to straighten out my clothing, which was by now soaked from people's wet bodies, and the material clung to me irritatingly.

However there were bigger things to worry about tonight. Much bigger things.

A/N: I'm back everyone. Finally. Yey! Anyway here's chapter 11 all typed up and ready to be read and reviewed. So I'll update again tomorrow too hopefully. Enjoy!

P.S. I changed my pen name for the last time for an important purpose.

Yunie Tidus!