A Race to Peoples Deaths and a Not Very Good Impression on Maester Kinoc
The Al Bhed ran to dock four. There was a boat leaving port that had Kimarhi, Tidus and Lulu on it. They were fighting some piece of machina. Meanwhile the friends saw some Al Bhed sneaking away. They ran after them knowing they were the ones who'd taken Yuna. Yuna's guardians had already rescued her by the time they caught up with the Al Bhed. The summoner and her guardians watched.
"We warned you!" Arkinlae shouted in Al Bhed, "Yuna's our friend and we won't have her being held hostage for a stupid Blitzball cup by anyone!" With that Arkinlae pulled her staff off her back and pulled it in half revealing two blades on the end of each 'broken' end. The four Al Bhed went into a battle. It was a relatively short one. Arkinlae's party came out victorious; it was a battle of machina, grenades, gunfire and blades. The defeated Al Bhed lay there on the floor.
"Be grateful we're letting you go and do yourself a favour, don't go capturing summoners for blitz cups again." Arkinlae said ferociously. With that the Al Bhed fled.
"Thank you Arkinlae. I am now glad you are travelling with us." Yuna said, "I will admit I didn't exactly trust you in the past, but for you to go up against your own kind for me, I now am glad to be your friends." Yuna then gratefully shook Arkinlae's hand
"It was nothing." Arkinlae admitted, "Right the other temples better watch out now because this summoners made of stronger stuff!" The others stared at her before Zen grabbed Arkinlae in a headlock and ruffled her hair affectionately.
"Hey are we here to watch you brag or are we here to watch the Aurochs win?" The others cheered and made their way to the stands to watch the match. It was a great event to watch for Arkinlae it would be her first, and most probably her last blitzball match she'd ever see. At first the Goers had the upper hand and were winning, but the Aurochs made a great comeback.
"Go Aurochs!" Arkinlae screamed and then whistled.
"How do you know how to do that?" Yuna asked, "Tidus taught it me. He said you do it at matches in Zanarkand."
"I know." Arkinlae replied thoughtfully.
It ended up with the Aurochs winning. All the Aurochs apart from Wakka who was still in the sphere pool went to receive the cup from Mika who congratulated them, Seymour at his side. Arkinlae whistled and chanted 'Aurochs!' and eventually the rest of the stadium went in an uproar of people chanting 'Aurochs'. Suddenly someone screamed. Fiends were storming the stadium. First Arkinlae and her guardians went and took some out but more kept coming.
"Kinny aeon!" Seshay shouted
"Do you think it will work?" she replied shouting over the pandemonium
"We may have no other choice!" Zen added.
Arkinlae though instead of summoning her version of Valefor looked over the edge of the upper stands. On the lower ones there were even more fiends, it was only the flyers and the fiends who were brave enough to tackle stairs that came up to upper ones. Arkinlae suddenly not thinking for a blind moment jumped over the edge. Loads of people trying to get near Arkinlae to be safe gasped as she jumped. Arkinlae however on her journey down experienced a change. Her long V-shaped sleeves acted as wings and she glided to the top of the sphere pool and landed on top. Her overdrive was full thankfully.
Okay fiends get ready. She thought
Nearly everyone in the stadium including both the maesters stared at Arkinlae. Arkinlae swished her hair round as she had on the boat and used Energy Blast. It took out a lot of fiends, but the stadium was still swarming with them. Arkinlae it seemed had distracted people who had been looking at her wondering how in Spira could she have used Energy Blast let alone flew. People including Seymour and Mika.
"It's no good!" she called to her guardians. Arkinlae's voice seemed to have amplified since 'The aeon change' as it was soon christened, "I've used Energy Blast but there are to many fiends."
Suddenly a flying fiend came up behind Arkinlae. Doing Energy Blast had worn Arkinlae out. The flyer attacked Arkinlae with Sonic Boom, her knees buckled and she fell out of fatigue on to the top of the sphere pool. After Arkinlae's 'display' as someone might call it Seymour went to the edge of the maesters stand. He did the prayer, again staring at Arkinlae who was pulling herself up and summoned his aeon. The head of the aeon came to the top of the sphere pool where Arkinlae had got up. The aeon looked frightening, the fiends seemed to be scared by it, but Arkinlae wasn't she went towards it as far as she could go without falling of the sphere pool and looked at it.
"Anima." She said definitely. The aeon seemed to acknowledge to her that she was right. Then Arkinlae opened her mouth and the Hymn of the Fayth came out. She sang the words and got the notes perfectly. She stared in amazement as Anima killed all the fiends in one blast. For part of Arkinlae it was beautiful to look at. She also heard something far off, distant. When all the fiends had been killed Arkinlae flew down to her guardians.
"Are you okay?" she asked them in a sort of horrified way.
"We should be asking you that." Zen said, "You seem pretty down since the aeon change."
"I've just learnt something that's all." Arkinlae replied
"Yeah never go flying in a stadium full of fiends, cos chances are you'll get hit by a flyer." Zen continued and they all laughed.
Arkinlae was glad to have Zen not only as a guardian but also as a friend. He was her pillar of strength and always made her laugh when she was down, but he also helped her with her problems. And now spending possibly her last days with him made the time with him gold dust.
Then Seymour came down from the maesters stand. Bekayla who had been very quiet for most of the time in Luca was now fascinated with aeons. He went over to Maester Seymour to compliment him and ask some questions.
"He says he thought Anima was-." Arkinlae translated
"Amazing." He finished, "I can speak Al Bhed you know." He said unfeelingly. He then laughed, "Not as amazing as your display Lady Arkinlae. A summoner who can't summon trying to summon and failing what a classic. Anyway I know Anima was amazing people have told me so often." He was about to leave, but then he realised something. Bekayla hadn't used 'Anima' in his sentence and Arkinlae he knew had just translated, "Wait how did you know he was called-." Before he could finish Bekayla started to ask him more questions, which distracted him. But Seymour shooed him away.
"Who are you when you aren't a guardian? The press?" he asked rudely
Arkinlae who had been making her way to join Yuna and the others to go to Djose turned round.
"He just paid you a compliment." She said angrily through gritted teeth, "And all you can do is be mean to him? Not many Al Bhed's would pay a maester a compliment. And there's no need to laugh at my summoning." She added, "I can summon aeons better than the great Lord Braska himself." With that Arkinlae and her guardians left the Blitzdome.
They saw Yuna and Tidus at the top of the steps next to the Mi'ihen Highroad going 'Ha ha ha' at the top of the voices. The next minute they were both laughing for real. It made Zen, Sesh and Bekayla laugh too. Arkinlae also laughed but wasn't smiling. After that the set up the Highroad. Seshay lingered behind the procession of people and talked to Tidus.
"Kinny say on boat she see you before." She said to him
"Well she might not be wrong." He replied, "I think I've seen her before too. Once."
"Poor Kinny." Sesh said mainly to herself
"Why?" Tidus enquired
"Me no think me seen her smile really."
"You seemed pretty happy on the boat and in Luca."
"Hard to tell what real anymore." Seshay said rather earnestly for her, "At first when little she smiled and laughed. As older it stopped. Me now know why." Tidus next got the wrong idea because when Seshay said now it had sounded like no. But after thought Seshay thought maybe it was better left like that.
"Maybe she'll be happier when Sin's been defeated." Tidus said though the thought of Sin being his father as he just found out now sickened him, but he kept neutral for everyone's sake.
"Depends who defeat it." Seshay replied.
The party had then stopped to talk to some people riding chocobos. Arkinlae then swapped places with Seshay and she started talking.
"Seshay meant him." She said when they resumed walking.
"Huh?" Tidus said
"Sin. She meant depends who defeats him."
Tidus suddenly realised she knew.
"You were listening!" He exclaimed, "How do you know?"
"Jecht told me." She answered.
After Arkinlae made no other attempt to talk about how she knew about Jecht.
"So," Tidus sighed, "Seshay told me you never smile anymore."
"Well I suppose not." Arkinlae said sadly, "I laugh and joke when I'm with my guardians dancing or singing or reading, but when I saw you and Yuna laughing, I just didn't feel happy enough to laugh."
Nothing more was said and the Highroad never proved to be a big part of Arkinlae's pilgrimage until the reached the Agency. The one thing that happened after that conversation was Arkinlae sitting on the edge of a cliff dangling her feet over the edge. She stared out at the sunset Zen sitting beside her.
"It reminds me of Bikanel a bit." She said. "That last night we were all there together waiting for the boat, just looking out at the sunset."
"Yeah," Zen replied, "You seem sad." he said putting an arm round her shoulder. She moved closer to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I guess it's the Final Summoning, part of it is scaring me I think." She finished.
"I'm beat." Zen then said, "Mind if I go?"
"No." she replied quietly.
Arkinlae sat there longer. As Yuna was Arkinlae was making a sphere. She had made a sphere of all the stages of her journey so far and even the Mi'ihen Highroad was no exception. She spoke to the sphere and filmed around with Bekayla's sphere camera. One minute she looked at the bottom of the cliff she was sitting on the edge of. She stared fixedly at the bottom for a minute the sphere camera too and she muttered to herself. Seshay went over and saw her. It didn't take long to click for Seshay to click what her friend was thinking. She then went to talk to her to take her mind of things.
"Come on Kinny, you look tired." She said and then ushered her back into the Agency and turned the camera off. In her room that she shared with Zen Seshay warned him about Kinny.
"Zen can't let Kinny twist you round finger. Oui can't ignore things." She said as she climbed into bed.
"What?" Zen replied confused, "What do you mean? I don't let her twist me and I don't ignore her." Seshay gave an exasperated growl.
"Zen it obvious what want to do. We need to finish pilgrimage quickly."
"What! And let Arkinlae die quicker no way!"
"Zen Kinny want to do Final Summoning. We don't do it quickly. She find 'nother way of getting the same effect without aeon."
"Whadda ya mean Sesh? Go to sleep."
"She try-!"
"Sesh SHUT UP!" Zen bellowed
"Oi can you shut up in there!" Wakka banged on the wall and then muttered, "Stupid Al Bhed." Before going into a pattern of rhythmic snores.
The next day Arkinlae ran in and woke up Seshay and Zen.
"Quick the chocobo fiend has come."
Zen and Seshay hastily got up and ran with Bekayla and Arkinlae to the chocobo coral. Before they got out Rin the proprietor of the Agency came in.
"Uncle Rin!" Arkinlae exclaimed,
"Quick," he replied you'd best get out there. Knowing my little Kinny she'd want to help, being a summoner."
"Oh you heard?" she said disappointed
"No matter I'm proud of you. Now quick go."
"I hope I'll be able to talk with you again."
Zen went to fill their pack with equipment and then all four of them ran to where the chocobo fiend had already started to attack Yuna and her guardians. It had knocked them back to the edge of a cliff. Quickly Bekayla fired his gun at it, which distracted it. It turned round as fast as it could and was about to hit Arkinlae, but she glided into the air and it missed. It pointed a warning finger at Arkinlae.
"Your next." It said and Arkinlae glided back in surprise. Understanding a fiend? First it seemed absorbing aeons powers then finding out Sin was Jecht then talking to fiends. What more would happen to Arkinlae? It wasn't exciting from her point. It was frightening. Seshay was worried also when she saw Arkinlae's face. She was now more wary of Arkinlae's safety. Both sides of summoners and guardians attacked the chocobo fiend. It missed quite a few times, but when it did it was a powerful attack. It decided to take on the least defended guardians. It saw Yuna's guardians on the edge of the cliff and decided it was weakness enough. It went forward and pushed the guardians and Yuna off the edge.
"No!" Arkinlae cried throwing on of her blades, which were poisoned at the fiend. It inflicted poison as soon as it came into contact and remained lodged in the fiend's side. Zen and the rest attacked and the poison weakened the fiend until they defeated it. It went into a shower of pyreflies. Arkinlae went to collect her blade and shared out the spheres left by it. She then went to the edge of the cliff. Yuna and the others were there recuperating from their fall
"You okay!" Arkinlae called down to Yuna
"Yes we're fine!" she replied, "We'll meet you at the bottom of the road."
"Will do!"
Yuna and the others then walked off to the end of the Mi'ihen Highroad. Rin came out once he'd heard the coast was clear. Arkinlae started to talk to her uncle about things that had already happened on her journey, how some of Rin's friends at Bikanel were and things like that. Until Sesh had an idea.
"Race." Seshay said when they started walking and Arkinlae and the others didn't
"What's the point they'll have won anyway." Arkinlae said but realising her guardian meant it all in the spirit of fun, "Yeah why not?" she said after some deliberation, "Ready, set, go!"
They summoner and her guardians ran along laughing and cheering until they got to the end of the Highroad. Yuna and her guardians were already there and Seymour. They'd all crossed a barrier guarded by crusaders and had turned round to look at them. All of the Al Bhed had drawn and had nearly collapsed panting and laughing.
"Drat! Lost." Seshay said after a while. Yuna looked bemused.
"Race." Zen said bluntly doubled up and panting, "Fayth Kinny you're fast. For a summoner." He finished jokingly
"Well we expected too." Arkinlae just managed to breathe to Sesh and then turned her attention to Zen, "Are you saying summoners are slow?" Arkinlae replied in a similar manner to how Zen had addressed her and winked at Yuna who winked back.
"Right let's go to Djose." Arkinlae said and then noticed Bekayla, "Oh come on Bekayla not the sphere camera." Arkinlae went up to the guard who refused to let them passed.
"But I'm a summoner!" she complained, "You let Yuna through."
"She had permission from Maester Seymour." The guard explained.
"Well we're Al Bhed doesn't that count for something in this operation?" Zen asked.
"What operation?" Arkinlae asked, "You know what this about?"
"Well I was told about it after I'd agreed to be your guardian." Zen said
"I'm sorry, we can't make any exceptions." The guard continued
"But you've already made one!" Arkinlae shouted at him exasperatedly. Then she had an idea. "Fine." She then said. She walked away from the guard and whispered to Sesh, Zen and Bekayla who still had the camera on. They all grabbed around each other's waists and they ran and Arkinlae took off over the guard's head the others holding on for dear life and everyone else staring.
"Anyway!" She called, "I'm with Yuna!"
"She is!" Yuna confirmed half laughing.
"Did you see their faces?" Arkinlae laughed doubled up.
"You shouldn't have flown." Said Zen
"Why?" Arkinlae asked, "Oh I know. Such is unbecoming of a summoner." She and Zen said together in an impression of Mika. "Sorry Tidus. Couldn't resist using you're impression." She said to him walking backwards
"No sweat." He replied.
"Kinny!" Bekayla and Seshay chorused
Then bump. Arkinlae who had still been walking backwards and not looking where she'd been going collided with Maester Seymour and Arkinlae fell backwards flat on the floor and Seymour knocked forward. He rolled his eyes as Arkinlae was laughing.
"I never thought I'd say this, but sorry." She said as she got up grabbing hold of Seymour's sleeve to pull herself up. Seymour then started talking to Yuna and her guardians about Operation Mi'ihen and how he thought the Al Bhed intentions were good. His last words were 'Then pretend I didn't say it.' Arkinlae couldn't help saying something.
"That doesn't make sense because if you just said it and left it then people would forget it, but in saying 'pretend I didn't say it' then people are going to remember the 'pretend I didn't say it' bit and therefore the rest of it's going to run around in their heads all because you said 'pretend I didn't say it'." Seshay was amazed but confused
"Huh me confluseded Kinny me no get it."
"Then pretend I didn't say it." Arkinlae then said and her guardians all saw the funny side of it. Arkinlae ran ahead and her guardians then joined her laughing.
"Bekayla SHUT THAT CAMERA OFF!" Arkinlae shouted kindly at Bekayla.
Soon they came to the beginning of Mushroom Rock Road. Arkinlae didn't really approve of going this way, but the guards prohibited them from going to Djose temple and Arkinlae was curious to see what would happen. On the way she and Sesh joined in song until it came to Arkinlae having a solo.
Little town it's a quite village, everyday like the one before
Little town full of little people waking up to say…
Then crusaders, men and women and Al Bhed came back and forth on the road and started greeting Yuna and the others. A few even recognised Arkinlae. Arkinlae then carried on almost regardless.
There goes the dealer with his pack like always the same old items has to sell
Every morning just the same since the morning that we came on this pilgrimage
An Al Bhed then went over to her and started talking to her. When Arkinlae replied he started to move away. All Al Bhed who had known Arkinlae had though her a strange kid and since becoming a summoner most people thought she was gone in the head. But in truth Arkinlae was as sane as any other person, she just felt lost.
"Now there she goes the girl that's strange no question, she's quite distracted you can tell." One female crusader said.
"Never part of any crowd, cos her head's upon some cloud." Explained an Al Bhed
"No denying she's a funny girl Arkinlae."
There were even more hellos and good days from more people, some who had even greeted each other before which made Arkinlae a bit bemused and annoed about how the could just go about their lives acting the way the were then all the time.
"We need success." Some crusaders were talking to Al Bhed about the operation.
"That's to expensive!" a crusader exploded at the dealer that had just went past the party
"There must be more than this simple life!" Arkinlae sang kind of aggravated and then was silent. Suddenly some elementals ambushed Arkinlae and Sesh.
"Fiends, fiends, fiends." Was all Arkinlae said shaking her head. She and Sesh were read to battle. Sesh flicked her hands out and on the fingers of her gloves were blades. (AN like Deathstrike's nails on X-Men 2 for those of you that have seen it.) Arkinlae however now decided to summon her new aeon. She did so and as with the first aeon the same effects happened. One attack from 'The aeon change' would do it against these Arkinlae knew.
"While there here, we might as well take something for ourselves." She said hinting.
Sesh who wasn't often bright in the English department wasn't stupid. She cast haste on herself and ran quickly and stole some items from both the fiends. Arkinlae then attacked
"Meteor Strike." She uttered and the ball of flames hit the two elementals on her turn. The two elementals exploded into pyreflies instantly. Sesh and Arkinlae who had dismissed her aeon picked up the two spheres left by the fiends and the party continued up Mushroom Rock Road.
Soon the came to the top of the cliff of Mushroom Rock where the operation would take place. Arkinlae went to the edge off the cliff and looked at all the warriors down at the beach.
"This isn't going to work Zen!" she said
Wakka was complaining about using machina and had already kicked a cannon.
"They're forbidden for a reason." He finished.
"It's not machina that brought Sin you know!" Arkinlae shouted at him, "In Zanarkand using machina was fine until we became dependent on it. Humans started to make machina do all the work. It's human arrogance that brought Sin!"
At that moment Yuna couldn't help agreeing with her friend for most of it, but she said then that she thought it was good that the people were doing their best to defeat Sin, just like everyone else. Arkinlae sighed and she and Yuna and the others went into the place the Crusaders called The Command Centre. There sat Maester Kinoc. He talked to Auron about where he'd been. It seemed a strange thing to talk about right before a battle Arkinlae thought and Auron it seemed agreed with her. Kinoc then noticed her.
"Who is that?" he asked Auron
"An Al Bhed summoner travelling with Lady Yuna."
"Al Bhed!" Kinoc exclaimed confused analysing Arkinlae's appearance
"That's what everyone else has been saying." Auron continued who was still laughing to himself at Kinoc's reaction to Arkinlae being Al Bhed
Kinoc then said words, which angered Arkinlae maybe more than anything ever that she could recall at that moment.
"This won't work you know that." Were his words, "We'll just let them dream a little longer."
Arkinlae spun round and lunged at Kinoc threatening to knock him of the cliff edge with a punch. Her guardians ended up grabbing her by the arms to hold her they knew that knocking the leader of the Crusaders of a cliff before an important operation wouldn't be the best thing. Arkinlae immediately threw out all the swear words she knew at him and talked fast and angrily in Al Bhed. Kinoc moved back apprehensively. When Arkinlae stopped swearing she started him straight in the eyes and breathed heavily. Seymour and indeed Yuna's guardians and Yuna herself looked at Arkinlae as if she was crazy.
"Calm down Kinny." Zen said comfortingly and releasing her from his grip as the others did, "I'm sure he didn't mean it like that."
"Lord Kinoc." Came a voice that Arkinlae would rather not have heard at that particular moment. Seymour entered The Command Centre. As he approached Kinoc he noticed Arkinlae being held back by her guardians and staring daggers at Kinoc. He giggled, if you could call it that, quietly to himself at the sight.
Arkinlae then relaxed and the others let go.
"Oui'na kuehk du ku tufh Kinoc." (You're going to go down Kinoc.) Was all she said before spitting in his direction.
Suddenly they all realised the Sinspawn had escaped from its cage. It towered over Arkinlae who stared at it.
"Why?" she whispered.
"Kinny!" Sheshay shouted and pulled her friend out of the way.
"Okay." Arkinlae said to no one in particular so it seemed, "If it's a fight you're looking for, you've got one."
The Al Bhed summoner and her guardians then ran in to fight the Sinspawn…
AN: I just realised something. Right the aeons just to clear this up. You know on the game you can name your aeon whatever you want? Well it's the same here no summoner will have given their aeon the default name. Only Yuna and Seymour will have given their aeons the default names. Every other summoner even with the same aeons would have given theirs a different name so there is no other aeon called Valefor in this story only Yuna's. Hope that cleared it up, that's why Seymour wondered why Arkinlae knew the name of his aeon. Oh and no one apart from the summoner knows their aeons name.