Chapter 5: Bikanel
Rikku of the Desert- Welcome to my story! Here's chapter 5.
Spira'sSentry- Thx! I might just have to add some scenes with that in it. Thx for the suggestion! If u come up with any more suggestions please tell me them. Here's chap 5!
Eriks leadinglady- Well I'm glad u liked the way I introduced Tidus instead of having his just appear. Well, here you are chapter five! Sorry if it's a bit late but I was gone a lot and then when I was home I had a ton of Bio Homework.
The next morning Yuna rose with the golden sun creeping over the small hills settled around the village of Besaid. There was a soft westerly breeze that made the emerald palm trees wave. Yuna brushed her honey brown hair with a multicolored brush and fixed the blue beads that flowed out of her hair. She strolled over to Wakka and Lulu's hut where a delightful aroma wafted out of the kitchen. Upon walking into the hut Yuna spotted Wakka in the kitchen cooking up some breakfast. He noticed her and said "Good morning Yuna. Did you sleep well?" He returned to his cooking still listening for her answer.
Yuna strode over to the couch and sat down on the fluffy cushions. "Yeah, I had a good night's sleep. How about you Wakka?" She tilted her gaze to her cooking friend.
Wakka stopped cooking for a moment and answered his friend. "Well, with Lu hurt I didn't get much sleep between taking care of her and taking care of my son I didn't get much sleep, ya know?" He flipped an egg in one of the many pans.
"Yeah, I guess that would take up all of your time to sleep." Yuna replied to the orange haired blitzer.
Wakka chuckled. "Yeah, but you know what the strange thing about it is? It really isn't that bad after all, ya?" Yuna smiled.
The blue hut flap flew open and Rikku stood in the doorway a second before running in. "Hey, what smells so good?" She sniffed the aroma of Wakka's cooking in the air.
Wakka let out a laugh as he turned to focus on Rikku. "Just a bit of my cooking, ya?"
Rikku rushed into the kitchen. "So, what we having?" She nosed around over and around Wakka's shoulders.
"It's just some eggs. Calm down Rikku." Wakka jested.
Rikku backed into the living room and stuck out her tongue at Wakka. Yuna just smiled a big smile at her two friends. A faint cry came from one of the back rooms of the small hut. "Gotta go check on my kid, ya?" Wakka rushed back into the room where his son's crib rested.
Rikku went at sat next to Yuna. "Wakka's turning out to be a good daddy, don't you think Yunie?"
"Sure is."
"Is Paine up yet Yunie?" Rikku queried to her cousin.
Yuna pondered the question for a moment. "I don't know. But you know Paine she's probably out and about somewhere."
The sound of footsteps came echoing down one the small hallways to the back rooms. Lulu came into the living room looking tired. Yuna and Rikku shot up from their seats to make them available for the injured Lulu. Lulu let a faint smile slide across her lips before taking the relinquished seats. She let out a long sigh as she sat upon the feathery cushions of the couch. She then continued to lay down and relax upon the couch.
"How are you two today?" Lulu questioned the two cousins as they went at sat down on the other couch.
"Great!" Rikku leapt into the air a bit.
"I'm fine but how are you doing Lulu?" Yuna asked out of concern for her friend.
Lulu coughed a few times before answering. "I'm felling better than yesterday but I still have some pain that makes me not able to walk much. But it's been okay so far, Wakka has been taking care of everything."
"Yeah! Wakka is being a good daddy!" Rikku bounced on her heels.
Yuna smiled at her friends as Wakka came in carrying his son cradled in his arms. He went into the kitchen and fixed up a bottle of warm milk for his son. In a few moments the milk was warmed and Wakka let his little son drink form the bottle. After he had sucked down the warm milk Wakka proceeded to burp him. A few minute burps could be heard drifted in from the kitchen. Wakka came out of the kitchen and rested his son next to Lulu. His son snuggled up next to his mother and closed his dark brown eyes and fell asleep.
"Isn't he so cute, ya?" Wakka questioned after he set his son down next to Lulu.
"Yup-Yup!" Rikku agreed.
"Hey, hey, keep it down he's asleep." Wakka scolded Rikku.
Rikku frowned. The blue door flap was pushed aside and a figure stood in the doorway. It was Paine. She stood there will a look that said 'get over here.' Yuna and Rikku followed the intended words out of the hut. When they left the hut Paine brought out the comsphere that Shinra had placed there a year ago. Then she went onto tell them their current situation. Turns out that Gippal wants them to come to Djose temple for a favor.
Yuna went back into Wakka and Lulu's hut to say good-bye. "Wakka, Lulu. I'm sorry but we have to go."
Rikku bounced into the hut alongside her cousin. "Yeah! Gip is calling us for a favor."
"Well, you come back anytime, ya?" Wakka bid good-bye to his friends.
'Will do!" Yuna exclaimed.
"By then I should be back to regular." Lulu commented from the couch.
"Bye bye!" Rikku waved and ran outside to Paine. Yuna soon followed suit after saying good-bye one last time to her friends she considered to be her older brother and sister.
The three companions ran out of the small village of Besaid and climbed the diminutive hill right outside the village limits. They reached the top of the hill and radioed Buddy to pick them up. The Celsius approached the hill and lowered the rope ladder to the three sphere hunters. They ascended the rope ladder and went up to the bridge from the cargo bay. As soon as they were all in the Celsius took off into the clouding sky towards Djose temple.
In about twenty-five minutes they reached their destination, Djose temple. A bunch of Al Bhed engineers were running around on the ground as the Celsius drew nearer to the ground. They scattered around the landing zone making it clear for the Celsius to land. The banner out front of the little travel agency flapped in the rushing wind the landing Celsius stirred up. Dust flew in all directions shrouding all the workers in a thin film of dust.
Yuna, Rikku, and Paine stepped off the Celsius before it took off into the sky. A figure dressed in multicolored al Bhed clothing, had blonde hair that stuck up to the back. A black eye patch covered one of his Al Bhed eyes. "Hey, just who I wanted to see!" He yelled over the roar of the Celsius' engines.
"Hello Gippal." Yuna greeted the Al Bhed machina researcher.
"Hi Gip!" Rikku shouted.
"Gippal." Paine stated slowly and quietly in her usual apathetic tone.
"Yuna, Cid's girl, Dr. P." Gippal said as he went over to the three sphere hunters.
Rikku seamed a bit touchy when Gippal called her 'Cid's girl' and stuck her tongue out at him. "I do have a name you know!"
Gippal smiled. "Yeah, I just like to see how temperamental you get." He started to chuckle but then Rikku kicked him in the shin.
"Hey! No need to get violent!" Gippal grumbled hoping up and down on one foot while rubbing his shin.
Rikku stormed off into the travel agency while the others stayed and chatted. "Why are you like that to Rikku?" Yuna queried in concern for her cousin's feelings.
Gippal just smiled then spoke. "I'm just kidding with her. I don't know why she gets so upset."
"She gets upset because you are being a jerk." Paine stated in defense of her friends. "You've always started up trouble. Even back when we were together with Baralai and Nooj."
Gippal smiled a smile that said 'let's get off this topic'. "Well, let's talk about why I called you here, okay?"
"So what did you want us to come here for Gippal?" Yuna asked the Al Bhed.
"I wanted to know if you could go to Bikanel Island to check something out for me. Nhadala called me the other day and said they found some huge machina while on an excavation. I would go of course but I can't right now because we're in the middle of some important research for a new machina." Gippal explained.
Yuna nodded. "So you want us to go in your place."
"Right. All you have to do is go to Bikanel and find out what Nhadala found and then report back here." Gippal confirmed Yuna's statement.
"Okay. We'll get right on it." Yuna strode over to the travel agency to retrieve her cousin. Paine stood with Gippal in an awkward silence.
"Well, I gotta get back in there. They need me ya know." Gippal took off towards the temple doors and went back to his research team.
Yuna found Rikku inside the travel agency inspecting a treasure chest in the back. "Rikku we're gonna go to Bikanel."
Rikku stood up and averted her eyes from the treasure chest and fixed them on Yuna. "What? Why? Is it what Gippal wanted?" She went back to studying the chest.
"Yeah, it is Rikku."
"What do we have to do for him?"
"He wants us to go and find out what Nhadala found in the desert." Yuna informed her inquisitive cousin.
Rikku stood up and spun around towards Yuna. "Why do we have to help out that big meanie?" She drew nearer to Yuna. "He's such a jerk!"
Yuna frowned. "But he's our friend Rikku. Yes, he can be a bit of a jerk but he is a nice guy at heart."
Rikku went back the inspecting the treasure chest considering Yuna's words. She carefully picked the lock on the front of chest and lifted the latch. The lid slid open with much ease revealing a small collection of items. Rikku snatched them up and put them into the pouches around her waist. She then strolled out of the travel agency with the goods she had just acquired. Yuna followed her cousin outside. They both went back onboard the Celsius and it took off towards Bikanel.
They arrived at Bikanel Island after about an hour's flight. They landed and walked out into the harsh desert air. They approached the small encampment of the Al Bhed diggers. A peddler ran up to the three sphere hunters and tried to sell his wares to them. The companions stocked up on a few potions and other healing concoctions for the expedition ahead. They met Nhadala near the back of the encampment and spoke with her about her discovery.
"We were just digging in the eastern expanse when we came across a sunken cave below the sand. We sent down a small party of scouts and they sent back data of a massive, broken, machina down in it. We didn't proceed any further with our search till we got Gippal over here but it seems he can't make it." Nhadala explained her situation to the group of sphere hunters.
"He sent us to take his place because he had too much work to do." Yuna expressed.
"I see." Nhadala stated as she called over a pilot. "Here, this pilot will take you to where we discovered the cave." The pilot greeted the three companions and then directed them to a one of the hovering vehicles.
The three companions and the pilot got up onto one of the hovering machina. The pilot started up the engine sending a lour roar through the digging encampment. The caged fan began to spin rapidly kicking sand clouds into the air of the digging camp. The vehicle rose off the ground about two feet conveying more sand into the air. The vehicle's engine quieted to a low hum and then began to skid along the coarse sand dunes.
The parched air splashed over the three sphere hunters and the pilot. Sand flew over the four travelers covering them in a slim film before being washed away from another gust of the heated air. The pilot's goggles got plastered with the tiny super heated sand barring his sight. He removed them and wiped them off with his shirtsleeve. Placing them back over his eyes they approached the outskirts of the excavation site.
The pilot halted the hovering machina and lowered it to the humid sand. He waved the three in the back that it was clear to get off. The three followed his orders and leapt off onto the cushiony sand. The pilot started the vehicle up again and took off into the distance of the blazing horizon. An Al Bhed digger ran up to the three friends as their pilot zoomed away. He directed them to the leading excavator to find out the rest of the information on the site.
As the three girls neared the lead excavator he turned from his workers and spoke with them. "Hello, so you are the ones that Gippal sent in his stead?" He studied the three girls.
"Yep!" Rikku exclaimed leaping into the air a bit. "Gip sent us here cuz he has got too much work at Djose." The excavator nodded.
"This way." He said turning towards a group of Al Bhed diggers surrounding a massive hole. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine followed hastily behind the excavator towards the excavation site. The men around the hole parted at their supervisor's advance. He ordered the men around the hole to go and obtain the winch to descend into the fissure. The men arrived a minute later with the winch and set it up on the edge of the crevice. The group then grasped the rope ladder that was attached to the winch and were lowered down into the crevice.
The air suddenly became quite cool as they descended into the murky cavern out of the fiery wind of the desert. The men standing around the perimeter of the hole seized the rope ladder and followed the sphere hunters and their foreman. A massive light was placed over the rim of the hole to illuminate their dark descent. The workers that followed Yuna and the others carried flashlights upon their waists and quickly flashed them out. The walls around them as they descended into the massive cavern were covered with trickling water.
They reached the bottom of the well and detached from the rope ladder. The lead excavator flipped out a flashlight and took the lead. The workers encircled Yuna, Rikku, and Paine with their flashlights illuminating their path. The cavern walls down here, as well as on the descent, were covered in dripping water. The floor was a moist mixture of sand and mud. Some rocks in the wall were multicolored and tarnished by the extreme dampness of the concealed cavern.
As Rikku was walking through the cavern paths stepped in a sloppy puddle of mud. 'Ewwwww!' She thought as she shook her foot. The mud was flung off of her shoe and struck one of the workers in the face. "Sorry." She apologized lowering her head. The worker said nothing but turned his head and continued walking, wiping the mud off his face.
The group continued strolling through the clammy cavern fro some time. About an hour into the trek Rikku noticed something odd. A pyrefly was drifting around the ceiling around a stalactite. "Look!" She showed Yuna and the rest the lone wandering pyrefly.
"What is a pyrefly doing down here?" Yuna queried as she strode over under where the pyrefly was in harmonious flight. "And how did it get here?" It dove down at her. She ducked under the charging pyrefly as it flew over her head and deeper into the cavern.
The chief excavator hurried them along deeper into the cavern after the pyrefly. They walked for about another hour till they came across a dead end. "What? A dead end?" Yuna complained as she felt the clammy wall.
The chief excavator scratched his head. "There was something down here yesterday." He looked dazed and confused.
The workers went over to the wall with their flashlights revealing the moss covered slimy wall. They began to touch and feel it for any sign of anything. Rikku began to follow what they were doing out of boredom, thinking that she might find something they could not. As luck would have it she found a small stone that was jutting out from the wall. She pressed upon it and it slid into the partition. The barrier slid into the wall to their right. She let out a cry of success and leapt into the air.
The group set out once again traversing through the sunken cavern. They continued deeper into the cavern until they came to a colossal open space. The flashlights could not detect anything in the vast expanse. One of the workers was carrying a rather large high-powered light and set it upon the ground on its bi pod. He flipped the switch casting a brilliant shaft of pallid light throughout the open expanse. In the center of the vastness there stood an immense machine.
The machine appeared as though it was a head of something. It had two massive demonic looking eyes. A colossal mouth with teeth grinning sat upon the middle of this machine head. A pair of massive silver colored tusks jutted out from either side of the mouth. A multicolored piano like thing sat upon the crown of the machine's skull.
Yuna, Rikku, and Paine gazed at the colossal machine head in terror. The workers and their chief gazed upon it with wide wonder. They ran over to the massive machina and began to search it all over. The three sphere hunters stood back and conversed with each other in awe.
Yuna was the first of them to speak. "What? How? Why?" She stammered. "Why is it still alive?" She glanced at the colossal machina the workers were crawling all over.
"It seems we didn't destroy all of it." Paine stated with apathy.
Rikku began to shiver with thoughts of a year ago. "How did Vegnagun survive?" She cowered behind her friends. "But it exploded, we dismantled it!"
Paine shook off her friend from her back. "It is a very powerful machina, you know? It's not that big of a deal that it's head survived."
"But…how can we be sure that it's just its head and not the whole thing?" Rikku questioned nervously.
"It can't be because it is all right here." Yuna pointed towards the base of Vegnagun showing torn and stripped wires reaching out from under it.
One of the workers had now positioned himself atop Vegnagun and plopped down into the leather chair resting near the multicolored piano like thing. He shouted something to his friends in Al Bhed a raised his hands above the keys as if he was going to play the piano. His hands lowered towards the keys as the silence broke. "No! Don't play that!" Paine shouted across the vast expanse. He could not stop his hands in time; they had already plunged upon the keys sending an echoing of cords through the cavern. "You fool." She whispered. Vegnagun's mouth opened up wide launching pyreflies into the vastness.
Rikku and Yuna let out a minute cry of horror at the sight of the pyreflies being ejected out of Vegnagun's mouth. The pyreflies soon condensed into fiends ending their melodious flights. The fiends hastily assailed the workers and their chief. The workers and chief drew out small pistols from pouches on their waists and pumped the fiends nearest to them with led. The fiends burst into pyreflies and ascended through the roof of the cavern on towards to the farplane.
Rikku, Yuna, and Paine drew out their weapons and made haste over to the battling workers. They easily cut down these weak fiends as they rushed into help the workers who had much less fighting experience then they had. A fiend was bout to rip one of the worker's head off but Yuna squeezed off a shot into the fiends brains. The worker silently thanked Yuna and returned to his target practice.
The chief was in a duel with a one eyed flying fiend colored yellow. The fiend grasped the chief's gun arm and wrenched the pistol out of his hand. The fiend cast the gun about two hundred feet off in the distance before returning to its prey. It plunged upon the chief full tilt. The chief did what he could and barely evaded the flying fiend's reckless tackle. The fiend spun around in the air after missing its target and drew its wings over its one orange eye. It pulled its wings away from its eye and to its sides with incredible force sending a beam of swirling energy at the chief. He was struck with the fiend's attack and became confused.
The chief spotted Paine drawing nearer to him. She rushed past him and leapt into the air bringing her skull sword down upon the flying fiend. It burst into pyreflies as she landed upon the murky ground. The chief ran over to her and began to punch and kick at her wildly. She dodged all his blows with ease. She then struck him in the face with a commanding blow. He collapsed to the ground and regained control over his body. Paine extended a friendly hand to him. He grasped it and was hoisted upon his sturdy feet.
One of the other workers was not so lucky as the chief. He was fighting with a wolf like fiend as it knocked his pistol away and began to maul at him relentlessly. He was knocked to the ground on his back and was wrestling the wolf fiend. He finally succeeded in knocking it off of himself. Just as he stood back onto his own two feet another fiend jumped him and buried its piecing claws into his spine. He cried out in horrid pain as he fell forward while his crimson blood gushed out his back wounds.
Rikku charged through the masses of fiends flashing her twin yellow and orange daggers into their warm flesh. She continued on towards one of the worker who was backed up into a darkening corner fighting against five fiends at once. He was lashing out at the fiends with his fists and feet but to no avail. The fiends overtook him and smashed him against the ground knocking him out cold. Rikku finally got over to the downed worker smacking the five fiends to the side with her daggers burying into their flesh. She lifted the worker's head cautiously and slipped out a blue colored vial. She popped the cork off and opened the worker's mouth. She poured the fluid into the worker's mouth and down his throat. He awoke staring into Rikku's jade swirled eyes and coughed. She helped him to his feet and found his pistol for him. He thanked her as she took off to help out Yuna.
A pocket of fiends near Vegnagun was ensnaring Yuna. Her twin pistols blazed as she circled around in an attempt to hit all the fiends possible with the heated bullets. One by one the fiends fell by the scorching bullets but there were too many to hold off easily. Rikku leapt into the circle of fiends to the aid of her cousin. Yuna and Rikku stood back to back and fought off the never-ending tide of fiends. Rikku's twin daggers slashed open many a fiends' side a drawing their purple colored blood onto the already soggy ground. Yuna fired her identical pistols into fiend after fiend's skull as they kept up their unyielding assault on the two cousins.
Paine was off on top of Vegnagun saving the worker who had stupidly played the piano like thing atop it. A large sized fiend with a very hard hide charged at Paine with its hard head. Paine stepped to the side of the charge and bored her blade into the large hard-shelled fiend. The fiend let out a cry of horrid pain as it plunged off the side of Vegnagun's head. Another fined crept itself up onto Vegnagun's head and jumped Paine. She was flung to her stomach by the leaping fiend and her sword was knocked to the very edge of Vegnagun's head. She flipped the fiend off her back into the piano seat. She hurried over to her blade just before it tumbled off the edge and grasped it as it began to flip off the edge. She then ran over to the piano like thing where the fiend was now upon its back and thrashing to get up. She drove her skull blade into the fiend's soft white stomach. It burst into pyreflies and retreated to the farplane.
Yuna and Rikku were fighting off fiends left and right with all their strength. The fiends just kept coming at them and as they cut down one fiend another would assume its place. They were being pushed back into a corner at which there would be no return. Yuna was breathing hard by this point and was losing her strength rapidly. Rikku glanced at her cousin and saw the look of exhausted on her face. Rikku fought her way over to Yuna through the never-ending tide of fiends.
Rikku was just about to reach Yuna when a fiend dove form the sky and took her in its talons. The fiend flew over the entire battlefield and took Yuna to a perch set high in the cavern. Rikku could only watch in horror as her cousin disappeared from her sight into a high recess near the cavern's ceiling. Rikku was overtaken by a small group of fiends and taken to the ground. She violently and franticly kicked and punched at the fiends to get them off of her but to no avail. One of the fiends stabbed her in the stomach. As her vision raced around the vastness of the cavern she saw no one to help her. She began to blackout, her vision reducing every second as the fiends continued to attack her as she lay helpless on the damp ground.
The chief saw the patch of fiends upon Rikku and began to fire hastily into their mist. One by one the fiends were shot off the incapacitated Al Bhed girl. The chief wadded through the tides of fiends over to the body of Rikku. He made it over to her and lifter her head carefully with his right hand. He yanked out a large bandage and placed it around Rikku's stomach wound. Then he slipped out a bluish vial and popped the cork off. He opened her lips and forced the warming liquid down her throat. She coughed at the sense of the liquid and opened her jade swirl eyes. The chief smiled at her recovery and lifted her onto his right shoulder. Then he began to wade through the masses of fiends to Vegnagun's head to meet up with Paine and his worker.
Paine saw the chief with her incapacitated friend as she slew a fiend and cast it over the side of Vegnagun's head. She ran over to the rim of the machine's head and reached an arm down to grasp Rikku. The chief handed her up to Paine and then climbed up the side himself. Somehow one of the other workers clamored up the back of the machina's head to his friends. Now there was only four left to fight the tides of fiends that splashed upon them.
Yuna awoke in a recess high up in the cavern wall. She gazed over the edge and became dizzy from the sheer height. She did not remember how she got up here but her arms were stinging with a sharp pain. She winced in pain as she crawled back into the recess away from the edge. She began to panic after she heard a shout from Vegnagun's head that sounded too much like a cry of death. She mustered up her courage and glanced over the edge to see her friends fighting atop the machina's head. Rikku was lying upon the ground with what she could see to be various wounds. She began to cry at the thought that her cousin might be dead. She could also see Paine and the three workers battling the endless flood of fiends.
Yuna thought up the idea that she could climb down the side of the cavern and make it to her friends. She then cast that idea aside when she looked down the cavern wall and realized not only was it too steep but that it was extremely slippery with condensation. She gaped around to find another way down to her friends but found none. Then a sharp screech shot through the cavern and a large bird fiend flew towards Yuna. She took the chance and when it came close enough she leapt upon its back and rode it.
The bird like fiend did a sharp barrel roll in the air in an effort to knock off its rider. Yuna clutched onto it with all her strength, which was starting to fail her again, and weathered the roll. The fiend plunged down towards Yuna's friends who were fighting gallantly. Yuna saw her chance and shot the fiend in the head with her twin blazing pistols. The fiend began to collapse to the ground and she leapt off its back and onto Vegnagun's head with her friends.
Paine greeted her friend as she fell form the sky with a slight nod. Yuna picked off a fiend that was just about to jump Paine. She nodded once more and continued fighting the masses of fiends. Yuna went over to her cousin who was lying upon the chill metal. Rikku opened a quivering jade eye to see her cousin over her and let a slight smile slip onto her lips. Rikku mustered the strength to mouth the words 'I'm fine' at that a wolf like fiend leapt onto Yuna's back knocking her to her stomach. Yuna wrestled the wolf fiend off of her back and squeezed off a scorching bullet into its skull. The fiend's body recoiled with the shot then exploded into pyreflies.
The chief was now placing explosives around the top of Vegnagun's head. He occasionally tossed a few explosives into the flood of fiends and detonated them. The ear shattering explosions that followed the explosive detonation shook the very foundation of the cavern. The orange colored flames licked the fiends as they spread out burning many fiends in the vastness of the cavern. Large smoldering craters appeared where each of the explosives had been thrown. The cavern was soon enveloped in hundreds of pyreflies fluttering around from the smoldering craters.
Paine protected the chief as he was placing and throwing his explosives. Many fiends assailed her as she fought to keep the chief from failing. Her strength was beginning to dissipate as she fought on and on against the countless fiends. At one point she tripped and fell to the cool metal with a loud thud giving fiends a chance to overwhelm her and the chief. She hastily recovered and impaled a fiend, as it was about to devour the chief. He continued to place his explosives all around atop Vegnagun's head while being protected by the warrior.
Yuna protected her incapacitated cousin with her twin pistols spewing their fiery bullets. A wasp fiend was approaching Rikku as other fiends were distracting Yuna. She quickly noted the fiend and tilted a pistol towards the wasp. A shot was fired at the fiend and split its head open as the bullet rushed pass. Yuna beat a fiend in the face with a pistol before it could snap her left arm into its dripping jaws. The fiend recoiled from the attack and charged again. Now the fiend was far enough away for Yuna to squeeze off a shot into its chest.
The chief signaled that he was out of explosives and began to fire wildy with his pistol. "You three must get out of here. We will hold them here and set off the explosives blowing them back to the farplane." He commanded the three sphere hunters to leave.
Paine and Yuna looked at the chief in wild-eyed confusion. "Just go!" He barked the order at them.
"But we can't just leave you." Yuna opposed.
The chief turned to her. "You must go. We can't risk losing you to these fiends. We are ready to give our lives for you, the protectors of Spira. Now go!" He turned away from Yuna and commanded his men to cover the three friends till they got out of the vastness.
"We cannot win this fight Yuna, we must go." Paine agreed with the chief. She went over to Rikku and placed her upon her shoulders. "Now, let's go."
Yuna still didn't want to leave the chief and the others to their fate but she had no choice. The chief and the other two workers covered Yuna and Paine as they ran out of the void in the cavern. The chief then assessed that the three sphere hunters were far enough away from him and pressed the triggering button. A deafening explosion ripped through the sunken cavern behind the three escaping companions. The orange colored flames washed over the fiends and the workers disintegrated them to nothing but ash.
The flames continued up the long tunnel to the outside desert. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine reached the rope ladder connected to the winch just before the flames reached out of the vastness the immense battle had just taken place. They grasped the ladder and held Rikku as the ladder was hoisted out of the deep hole. When they breached the surface they hurtled away from the hole and forced the workers around it to do the same. As they cleared the fissure the orange colored flames splashed out of the hole scorching the earth around in. The hole then caved in with a riotous noise and the hole disappeared only leaving sand. The workers in the dig site gazed in wide wonder as they realized that only the three girls had made it out of the cavern.
"Wha…what happened? Where's the chief?" A random worker babbled. He gazed at the three girls who had just narrowly escaped the deadly explosion.
Yuna caught her breath. "He saved our lives by giving his to set off an explosion to destroy all the fiends down there." She explained what had taken place.
The workers all looked down at the scorching sand. "Here, it looks like you've been through a lot down there. We'll take you back to the main encampment so you can get some rest." He called up a hover machina and escorted them to the main encampment where Nhadala awaited their results.
The hovering machina approached the encampment and Nhadala stepped out of a tent. She saw Yuna, Rikku, and Paine and noted the bad shape they were in. The machina stopped in its designated spot and lowered to the sandy ground. Nhadala rushed over to the machina, as did a rather large crowd of others. The worker from the dig site stepped off the vehicle and spoke with Nhadala.
"What happened to them?" She exclaimed.
The worker stood in front of her. "They went down into the cavern as you asked them to and they found that machina we saw in the scout videos. Then somehow, we aren't sure of all the details yet because they were too tired to speak, a massive number of fiends attacked them and the chief. They fought for a while against the fiends until the chief set explosives. He then continued to make these three flee and he set off the explosives destroying the fiends and himself. Then the fissure caved in." He elaborated to Nhadala.
"Oh, my." Nhadala exclaimed. "Get theses girls into the med tent."
A/N: I'm sorry once again for the delay of this chapter. I just had too much stuff to do over this past week and had no time for my story. Well, I hope you liked this chap and I'm open to any suggestions or complaints.