Sorry it has taken me so long to update, exams and the revision for them is partially to blame XD. Thanks guys for the reviews, it's really appreciated. As I said before, I'm not sticking to the original game dialogue, so please don't flame me for changing things, it is done deliberately. I'm following aspects of the story, certainly for now, but I really don't want to rehash a story that's already been done with just an extra character. I want this to have elements of both the story and the way I wish to tell it.

Disclaimer is as before, I still don't own.

Granted Wishes-Chapter 3

Rikku grinned at Auron as she came to a relatively flat platform amongst the uneven crumbling ruins. "And what's wrong with 'disasteriffic'?"

Auron rolled his eye."It's hardly a proper word."

"It works for me." Rikku shrugged waited for Yuna and Paine to catch up before continuing on.

Yuna and Paine had been walking behind at a steady pace watching the antics of Rikku and Auron's stoic replies if he proffered any. "Were they alway's like this?" Paine asked.

"Yes." Yuna giggled at the memory. "They were just as bad, except Sir Auron spoke even less then. Wakka and Tidus were going to place bets on which fiend Sir Auron would feed her to."

Paine hid a slight smile. "What fiends did they pick?"

"As a summoner, I could not condone such a thing and didn't ask." Yuna grinned and whispered conspiratorily. "A Chimerabrain and an Ochu."

They both fell silent as they came level with Rikku and Auron. "What'cha talking about?" Rikku asked.

"Just the pligrimage." Yuna covered smoothly.

They inspected the platform. "Do you think it still works?" asked Paine.

"I'll press this button and we'll find out." Yuna reached out a hand and touched the button in the stone wall. The sound of ancient machina coming to life could be heard, if machinery could have felt pain, this one was undergoing agony by the sound of it. The platform began a slow comfortable descent until the machina within the walls made a noise that sounded like a screech of metal tearing and the platform started to suddenly plummet.

Everyone braced themselves for the impact at the bottom, all except for Rikku who had lost her balance and had fallen onto Auron. The platform stopped sharply, jarring everyones legs. Rikku extricated herself from clinging to Auron with an air of embarrassment. "I..um..yeah, so which way now?" She asked, totally avoiding the incident.

Auron said nothing about it but looked at her slightly disapprovingly over the top of his sunglasses. "There would appear to be only one way to go." He walked over to the ledge and began to climb.

Yuna and Paine followed closely behind. Rikku in contrast to her usual behaviour lagged slightly behind the other two girls feeling embarrassed at hanging on to the stoic guardian like that, even if it was involuntary. There was something familiar about it though, and comfortably reassuring. Obviously, despite their differences Rikku felt something of a comraderie with him.

Auron, ahead of the group, kept to himself as usual. The small girl clinging to him had brought back memories of the time she clung to him in the Thunder Plains once when thunder had struck particularly close. He had extricated her forcably when she had buried her face into his coat and refused to let go, prefering to face a disgruntled Auron than the thunder that so frightened her. Mild irritation is all he felt at the time, though he would concede that he had no objection to her being one of Yuna's guardians. He had never doubted Rikku's devotion to her cousin.

They had reached a flatter part of the ruins, so the walking was easier going from here. Nearly reaching where a large stone slab had fallen to create a walkway further into the ruins proper, a noise behind them caused the small group to turn.

"Hello again, loves."

"LeBlanc." Stated Paine.

"What do you want?" Rikku moaned. "Haven't you got anyone else to bug?"

"Now, loves. What would I possibly want with the Dullwings?" As LeBlanc spoke, Ormi and Logos came up either side of her.

Yuna stepped forward. If you think you'll get the sphere before us, you will be disappointed."

"I think it's you who will be disappointed, loves." Leblanc motioned to her lackeys. "Let's get 'em boys."

"Here we go again." Rikku sighed as everyone got ready to fight.

The fight was over quickly, LeBlanc, Ormi and Logos were no match for the more experienced team. Instead, LeBlanc set off a smoke screen and disappeared.

Yuna and Rikku caught the worst of it and were temporarily gripped by a coughing fit. As the smoke cleared it became obvious to all that that LeBlanc had used her advantage to try to get ahead of the Gullwings and claim the sphere for herself.

Auron turned on his heel and headed off after them. Rikku, having temporarily forgotten her earlier embarrassment, caught up and was keeping pace with him. "You're..keen.." She puffed as they ran.

"You want this sphere don't you?" Auron replied showing now sign of exertion.

"Well..yes."

"Then let's go."

The girls ran harder to keep up, Rikku come to the conclusion that for someone who seemed so slow and big, he could really shift when he wanted to.

They kept up a steady pace through the ruins, working their way higher and higher. Auron always just in the lead. On reaching nearly the top, they found LeBlanc, Ormi and Logos hanging precariously.

Auron walked past. Yuna stopped. "Don't you think we should help them?"

"Nope, I think we should let them dangle." Rikku said as she passed.

"Come on Yuna. They can get themselves back up. It's not that difficult." Paine walked past too.

Yuna sighed. She was so used to helping people, taking an unfair advantage was something she was still trying to get used to. She followed the others to the top

On reaching the top, they walked down the pathway down the centre of an open space that was surrounded by beautiful architecture. Ahead of them there was a small doorway. Heading towards it, they nearly reached it when a huge fiend landed in front of them.

They looked up to see a large fiend in the shape of an arachnid blocking their path. It made a strange unnatural screeching noise and moved in to attack. Auron brought up his Katana and blocked the downward swipe of a front leg. Rolling out the way to avoid another leg-swipe, he saw that Paine had circled around the back of it and Rikku and Yuna flanked it's left and right sides respectively.

Yuna opened fire whilst the others simultaneously attacked from their sides. The spider couldn't physically attack but it spat out webbing at Rikku, who side jumped out of the way.

The spider jumped to face Paine. "Yeah, bring it Boris!" she taunted as she ran towards it to land a blow to a leg. Under the relentless attack of the four of them, the spider weakened. With a final blow from Auron, it dispersed into colourful pyreflies that faded.

Their way now unimpeded, they walked into the small doorway and into a small chamber. There on the a small stand sat a sphere glowing in the dim light. Yuna lifted it triumphantly. "The Gullwings get the goal." She crowed.

"Let's get back to the airship and see what we've got." Paine said.

"Good idea. Maybe it will give us more clues, Yunie." Rikku grinned.

Yuna, sharing her cousin's optimism smiled. "I hope so."

"Clues to what?" Auron questioned.

Oh! How could I forget." Yuna exclaimed. "I'll show you the sphere when we get on board the Celsius. Maybe you might know something."

Rikku called Brother, but recieved an answer from Buddy instead. "What's he done now?" Rikku asked, not sounding overly concerned.

"You don't want to know." Came Buddy's reply. "I'll come and pick you up."

Rikku saw Auron look at her. Feeling uncomfortable under his gaze like she was responsible for her brother's unknown antics, she smiled sheepishly at him and hoped they would be leaving real soon,