Final Fantasy X: Revisited
Disclaimer: Even though this is a story, I still don't own any part of it. Final Fantasy and all its characters are the sole property of Square Enix, formerly Squaresoft. No lawsuits, I only have a old school Game Boy and 20 bucks, anyways. For all the non-lawyers, enjoy!
Chapter 3: Bedlam
The stadium was a lot bigger than he first thought as Bruce traversed the many steps to go inside. It was absolutely gigantic, easily seating about 60,000 people. Bruce walked up level after level of stairs, glad that the boots were making it rather easy. Glancing around at the various booths he looked for anything that would tell him where Auron was. The different writing system didn't help a lot, either. It was like kindergarten all over again, trying to make out the symbols that vaguely resembled the normal alphabet.
'Like a needle in a haystack,' Bruce sighed as he stopped at a booth on the top floor selling Abes shirts, hats, and small spheres with pictures of players in it, probably some form of trading cards. The man attending the booth had his back turned to him at the moment, looking up at a large sphere stationed conveniently just above him. Bruce glanced up at the sphere, which showed the blitzball game, already in progress. He watched as the camera zoomed in on Tidus, replaying him tackling a player. Hard. So hard, in fact, that the attacked fell out of the sphere full of water and landed hard in the stands. The announcer's voice could be heard: "Would you look at that, folks! Man, what a tackle by Tidus of the Zanarkand Abes! Boy, oh boy, it looks like he won't be playing for this game any more, folks. It looks like….yes, he's getting up! A little shaken, but okay. You can bet that he's gonna have something to say to the Abes later, ho boy!"
Bruce remembered this. Sin was right about to blow the whole thing over, and he still had no idea where he could find Auron. Forcing a smile on his face to cover up the mood he was in, he turned his attention to the man still engrossed in the game. "Excuse me, sir?" Bruce said to the man. As if waking up from a trance, the man jumped, purely shocked, and turned around quickly. He was clearly a business man, as he immediately plastered on that can-I-help-you smile that made you forget that he was so spooked just moments before. His attire was as clean as could be, with brown slacks that had a slight shine to them, a lighter brown vest on that had a long line of silver buttons down the middle, finished with a neat array of dark locks surrounding his face, combed neatly and pulled behind his head into a small ponytail. He had his arms folded politely in front of him, and he bowed his head with a nod. With a low, soothing voice, the man spoke. "Welcome to the Abes' Store. Here, you can find just about anything related to the star team, whether it be pillowcases or trading spheres, autographed blitzballs or bubblegum chewed by the players. Could I interest you in some books on how to improve your game, or perhaps a biography sphere on Tidus, the star player?" The man was clearly good, as Bruce felt the urge to buy something in the store. "No, thanks, sir. I was just wondering… have you seen a man with a scar across his face and wearing a big red coat go by recently? It's really important that I find him." Bruce felt, more than see, the smile on the man's face falter a bit.
"Well, I see a lot of people, kid. Big stadium, as you can see. I don't remember just any face, you know. Hmm…" the man crossed his hands comfortably in front of him. Bruce couldn't put his finger on it, but something about his posture seemed…off. "Let's see, a man with a big red coat… I might have seen a man like that, but, oh…." The man directed his eyes to Bruce, with a half-smile played across his lips. "Maybe I will need some sort of…inspiration…to help me think harder."
Bruce's smile dropped almost immediately. Of course. A business man only knows how to do business, not charity. "I see…" He would have, under any other circumstance, told him to shove it, and find another, kinder person to ask. However, he noticed with the corner of his eyes, a change in the ocean far away. He looked behind him to focus more on the ocean, and saw….
Bruce's eyes widened as he felt a chill work its way through his body. 'No….' He was unable to turn his eyes away. 'Too late…' The salesman saw Bruce's eyes focusing behind him, and turned to look at what he was looking at. Bruce snapped his eyes away to see the man beginning to turn around. "NO!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, the echo ringing clearly after. The man stopped his turning to look back at the boy, clearly insane. "Uh…" Bruce looked at his hands, which were now in tight fists, his knuckles beginning to lose color. "I, uh…" He swallowed the bile beginning to rise in his throat, which felt like acid down his throat. "Here, here's some money." He ungripped one hand long enough to open the pouch violently, diving his hand in and retrieving what looked to be gold coins of some sort. With a hint of malice, he threw them at the man, who caught some of them as the rest scattered to the floor. "Now, I'm through with this shit. Tell me where he went, or I'll be sorry for whoever will find you after I'm done with you." Bruce felt himself go into survival mode, and with a surge of urgency reached over, grabbing the man by his shirt and looking at him with a look that surprised even himself.
The man, normally suave and sophisticated, was shaking. His eyes, that previously oozed confidence, now portrayed the look of pure terror. His forehead now had a light sheen of sweat trickling down to his jawline, and he swallowed hard, his adam's apple bobbing up and down. "Uh, h-he went in there," he pointed to the stadium entrance roughly 100 feet in front of him, which was now eliciting a cheer as the Abes regained control of the ball. "Just, don't hurt me!" He was now whimpering softly, any semblance of a strong man long gone.
Bruce looked away from the man back to the sphere one more time, to show Tidus with the ball in hand, racing frantically towards the goal. The announcer shouted, "It looks like Tidus is about to attempt the Sphere Shot, he's passes to his teammate, he's now swimming to the top of the sphere, and--" was all that Bruce made out before he was beyond the sound of the sphere and into the shouting of the fans in he stands. He ran down the darkened corridor before skidding to a halt just before it opened into a staircase into the bleachers. He couldn't believe what was before him, even though it was in plain sight. The figure was walking up the stairs, slowly but with determination. His coat was just as he'd seen it, big and red, and there could be a glimpse of his sword hitting the glow of the stadium lights, creating an arc of light on the walls of the tunnel. Bruce couldn't believe it. "Auron…"
With a smooth turn on the steps, the said person suddenly cut the distance between them in half, with his left hand behind his back, grabbing the hilt of his sword. His one brown eye pierced into him from behind his sunglasses, making Bruce step back once as a reflex. With the gruff voice he was dying to hear, Auron spoke. "How do you know my name, boy?" A chill entered him as he heard it, and he was almost tempted to ask him to say it again, but he knew better. He had some explaining to do, and before Auron's sword left its place in his back. "Uh, my name is Bruce. I'm here because, well, I don't really know how, but I do know what is about to happen, and, well…" geez, how would he be able to escape Auron's wrath without making him look foolish? "Listen, uh, sir Auron, sir, uh, I know Sin is about to attack Zanarkand." He thought he saw Auron's eyes flash slightly with surprise, but just as he saw it, it was gone. With no less acid in his voice, Auron cut him off. "Boy, I don't know how you know me, or how you know Sin, or how you know Sin will attack here. However, I have no time to engage in small talk with a child. Leave me at once." With that, Auron turned around, with just as much grace as before, deftly climbing the stairs and turning the corner, disappearing from sight.
Bruce blinked, marveled at who that just was. He was the legend that was his best character in the game. He was just as nonchalant and badass as he's hoped. He was…not there anymore. Without hesitation, he scrambled up the stairs, two at a time, and rounded the corner, following Auron who was now 10 yards ahead of him, with the crowd quickly swallowing up his red coat. "Wait! Sir Auron! I need to get out of here! You're the only one who can help!" Auron's coat was quickly diminishing behind the crowd, with just traces of red to let Bruce know where he was. Now, he was screaming. "I need your help. You're the only one who can get me out of here! I gotta reach Spira, I wanna be one of Yuna's guardians, and I can't get out of this stupid place unless you help me!" The tinge of red vanished, leaving just the crowd in his vision. Bruce looked to his left, out across the top of the stadium to see the bulbous form of Sin begin to emit a light in the distance. "Crap!" He was going to be left here. "Crap oh crap oh crap..." Bruce whispered to himself, still running forward as he glanced over his shoulder, unaware of what was in front of him.
He saw Tidus jumping out of the sphere below him, readying the Sphere Shot.
All of a sudden, he collided with something. No sooner than he reacted, he felt something grab his shirt and lift him up, leaving him on his tip toes to try to stay grounded. He turned to see the face of Auron, now clearly surprised behind the glasses and coat rim. "How do you know about Lady Yuna? Who are you? Talk, if you value your life. Now." Auron said icily, emitting yet another chill. Obviously, Bruce needed to say something, but time was running out, and they both knew it. Sighing, Bruce tried to look Auron in the face, but the look he was giving him forced him to look down at his shirt instead, now ruffled by Auron's grip. "I can't explain everything now. Both you and I know that there isn't any time. Sin is readying his attack as we speak. You have to make sure Tidus survives, and I have to follow you both. I promise that I'll explain later, but…" Bruce heard a single shriek from the crowd as they began to see the spectacle in the ocean. "Look, for now, just let me prove to you that I can be a good guardian, please, this is my only chance to get home." He knew that he wasn't making any sense, and that he was as good as dead unless Auron let him go, but he was desperate.
A long silence ensued between them as more people began to see Sin in the distance, and all chaos began to unfurl around them. All in a single moment, people were jumping bleachers and running towards the exits in a crazed fashion. A continuous wave of people went by them as Bruce felt the wind of their path whip by his face. Screams of everyone were heard as Auron continued to stare at him with that piercing gaze of his. Even amongst the shouts of the panicked people around them, Bruce still heard his voice clearly. "Boy, I usually don't associate with people such as you. However, we are expecting company soon, so I will need your help to dispatch them." He glanced at the swallow, hanging on his back. "Can you use that?"
Bruce, not wanting to be left with the panicked crowd, looked at Auron and hurriedly nodded his head.
"Good. Then, follow me." Auron released him immediately, allowing gravity to take him down and cause him to lose his balance. Auron continued to glare at him. "But, I will get answers from you when we meet again, whether you want to or not," Auron spat with a promise that that wasn't an empty threat. He turned and started walking to where Tidus was, who was now hanging onto a ledge not 50 feet away. Bruce quickly patted down his shirt so it was once again comfortable and ran after Auron, swiftly avoiding the people who were still not stopping.
Then, he heard it. An explosion, louder than anything he'd ever heard. Covering his ears with his gloved hands, Bruce looked at where the source was, and gasped— The attack that Sin unleashed just took out the support beam that helped to keep up the level he was on. The ground began to tilt slightly, causing the whole stadium to shudder unsteadily.
Damn it. It just got worse.
All Bruce could think of was how he would survive something like this. All around him, the stadium began to quake with such intensity that he began to lose his footing. Ahead of him, Auron was beginning to sprint up the falling plane towards the only even ground in the whole stadium. His voice could barely be heard over the massive sounds of the falling stadium. "Run, boy, and don't stop!"
Run, boy, and don't stop. That was all he needed to hear.
Bruce turned towards where Auron was running, and began to run after him. Before long his lungs were burning with adrenaline and exhaustion, but he knew that there was no losing this one. He was now facing a 20 degree incline, roughly, and it was getting harder to make the next steps. The ground under him began to split, making jagged rocks jut out from under his feet, one edge cutting his leg at the calf . Shouting a curse, he kept moving, watching intently the ground under him as it began to deteriorate and rise up even further.
Looking ahead, he saw Auron, already at the top of the steady ground, looking at where he last saw Tidus hanging, not even worried about him at all. Seething at such lack of sympathy at his life in jeopardy, Bruce began to double his efforts to make it to the top, which was now just 40 feet from where he was. However, the falling floor was now at a harsh 45 degrees, and Bruce's left leg was throbbing from the wound, now coating the back of his leg in blood. 'I can't die. Not now,' was all he was able to think.
Just 30 feet away, and the ground began to veer at an even higher angle as he struggled to keep his boots from slipping off. To make things worse, the ground was dangerously close to splitting, and the crack in the middle was threatening to crack the track in two as he got closer and closer to his goal.
Without warning the ground split with a loud snap, creating various cracks in the ground to open up in jagged, uneven edges. Bruce, in a reflex, looked down and saw his legs, now just hanging on to the cement by the fronts of his feet. The cut on his leg was now opened more, causing him to lose more blood as each second went by. The ground then went too steep, as Bruce lost his footing and began to fall, no longer able to catch on to the traction the wall was giving him.
Time slowed to a crawl as he began to fall down, towards certain doom. His heart was now doing quadruple overtime, his legs were aching beyond anything he could remember, the wound on his leg was angrily pulsing at him, and his lungs were crying out to end their suffering. It was then that Bruce finally understood the truth.
That this really wasn't a dream. And he was about to die.
'No…' Bruce looked down at his feet, which were now in a freefall against the now-almost-vertical plane, now with jagged edges protruding outwards in all directions. 'I can't end like this, I just started.' Bruce continued to feel the scraping of the ground against his boots, waiting for anything he could do to stop falling.
Then, his foot grazed across one of the cracked slabs of cement. On instinct, he pushed with his leg, propelling him upwards as the ledge began to fall more rapidly. Bruce, with his other leg, began to search for another ledge to propel off of. 'Not now. I'm not dying this way.' He felt his right foot connect with another protrusion, and pushed, giving him more momentum. 'I haven't even met the others yet.' His eyes were squinted now, burning with the dust now all around him. But he couldn't stop. He felt another ledge. 'Not even seen the Moonflow with my own eyes.' Pushing with all his might, he continued upwards, and decided to ignore the pain that his left leg felt. Through the slits in his eyes, he could make out the ledge that he needed to get to, now just 10 feet away from him. Auron was looking at him now, with no intent to help him.
Giving a throaty groan, Bruce put in all of his energy, hopping from one ledge to the other. Never keeping his eyes away from the goal, now just three feet away, he realized that his right foot was on the last portion of the breaking cement before he hit air. With a yell, he summoned all the energy in his entire body and pushed, launching himself upwards as the cement he was on collapsed to the ground with a resonating crash. Stretching his arms as far out as they could go, Bruce closed his eyes and made a quick Hail Mary as he prayed for any sort of object to hold on to.
His hands scraped across the jagged edge of the ledge Auron was on. And he felt it. Immediately, he grabbed on, struggling to keep his tired body from disobeying him as he pulled himself up, coughing with the iron-like taste of blood in his mouth as he collapsed onto the ground below him, his body shutting down automatically as he began to drift off into unconsciousness, despite the sounds still heard below of people and destruction.
He would never again ride a Stairmaster as long as he lived. He swore it. So tired, though. Maybe I can just sleep for a couple of minutes, no one would care. Yeah, sleep….
"Boy! Wake up, boy!"
Huh? Bruce thought he heard something. Guess not.
"Boy, I'm warning you, we're not done yet!"
There's that annoying sound again. Maybe it will go away if I ignore it. Back to sleep.
Then, pain. Not just any pain. A hard, swift pain in his side. Enough to get his eyes to open.
"Ow! Jeez!" Bruce flinched, then looked down to see Auron's boot just inches from his torso. "Jeez, it's not as if I just ran a freakin' marathon in 5 minutes! Throw me a bone here!" Bruce winced sharply as he started to get up. "Not to mention the Stairmaster from hell, and a cut in my leg large enough to require stitches, but, nooo, big bad Auron's gotta get a piece, too!" By this point, Bruce was shouting, glaring hard at the floor below him, crouching on weakened, exhausted limbs. He was still very tired, and his rude awakening reminded him just how much.
Auron was glaring down at him. "Then perhaps you aren't ready to become a guardian, then. I'll leave you in peace."
Bruce looked wide-eyed at Auron. "No, uh…" Auron tossed him a vial, with some blue liquid in it. "Pour this on your wounds, drink the rest. Then, follow me." With that, Auron jumped down from the ledge, where Tidus was recovering from the drop, leaving Bruce with the vial, standing on the pinnacle of destruction. He picked up the glass vial and, without much thought, pulled the cork with an audible 'thoomp'. 'This should be interesting,' he thought as he sat back down and started dripping the liquid onto his leg. The instant it made contact, Bruce yelled out in surprise. It felt like it was burning, somehow, but with no pain. Bruce hissed instinctively as the potion began to work into his cut. In any other situation, he would be disgusted, but now, he hurt too much to care. With about half the bottle left, Bruce stopped pouring, leaving the bubbling liquid there to do its duty. 'What does this stuff taste like?' Bruce threw caution to the wind and chugged the whole thing down in one quick gulp. 'Blech,' he thought as he finished the bottle with a hard belch. Resisting the urge to gag, he tossed the bottle over his shoulder. Shuddering with the sudden drop in his body temperature, he glanced down at his wound, now just a bubbling and hissing pile of liquid. He pushed the excess liquid off his leg with his gloves. The liquid slid off his leg, leaving just his leg with a few splatters of blood on it, and nothing else. 'This is some good stuff,' Bruce grinned, his body temperature also returning back to normal, His lungs were working great, too. "Yes!" Bruce shouted, glancing down to where Auron dropped from, looking at him confront Tidus. In the distance, he saw the Sinscales start to emerge from the buildings. 'Oh, crap, I better get moving,' he thought as he grabbed a stray wire hanging off the alcove and, with a quick prayer, hopped off the ledge and began shimmying down.
Author's notes: I hope you are enjoying this, cause I am sure enjoying writing it. Just for you people who are very attentive to detail, keep in mind that I don't own a copy of FFX, let alone a PS2, so I'm doing this pretty much from memory, and from the groovy guy who put up the game script on so bear with me if everything isn't perfect. Besides, it's considered sad if you can even pay that much attention to a video game anyways. As always, constructive criticism is always appreciated, even needed, so feel free to give me some pointers, especially from you authors who already put good stuff onto this site. Thanks!