Ok sea monkeys! Here we go again on the Underground Cruise! It's an all expense paid trip into the bowels of Spira. And your host? None other than Rikku, the peppy yet soon to be disturbed young woman who will lead us on our journey. So come along, and bring your juke box money! You'll need it. It's a long trip…

I don't own Rikku or FFX-2; I just look like I do. So leave me and Carla alone, thankyouverymuch.

And we're walking, we're walking…still walking. I thought that fall was long, but this? This was ridiculous. The only light I had came from that weird, mossy stuff on the walls. It revealed a dreary gray tunnel that led into more dreary gray-ness. Even the moss was gray. The glow it gave off was purplish. You'd think that it would make the tunnel and everything else purplish too. But no, it stayed gray. Stubborn place.

"Why don't you conform to the laws of Rikku and turn purple? At least I would have something other than gray to look at. Stupid tunnel. Stupid moss. Stupid…stupid…stupid air!"

Yes, I was talking to myself. There was no one else to talk to. Just me and the moss. And an endless tunnel that led to nowhere land. I am sick and tired of this damn tunnel. Why didn't I just turn around, you ask? I'll tell you why. That glowy moss stuff on the walls stopped glowing after I passed it. It was either go on into the dreary stuff, or go back and sit in the dark. I don't do dark. I don't do caves either, but it's too late to say that, isn't it?

More gray tunnel. Don't caves deviate or something? They're not supposed to go in a straight line. They're not supposed to have perfectly smooth tunnels either. Or door like portals. But, how did this get here? Sure, lots of places were destroyed by Sin, but underground? There were never any underground dwellings but Guadosalam. This place had to have been made by humans. I mean, the walls were smooth to the touch. The floor was smooth too.

It was leading me further down as well. Just great. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm going deeper and deeper underground. Did I mention that it was warm? I didn't did I? It was cold by that humongo lake, but in the tunnel it was warm. That made it even weirder. The invisible cobwebs were still there, but I was used to walking through and breathing them.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a noise. It wasn't the scuttle of bugs. It was something moving. Not the gooey noises that had accompanied the Something, but the noises a small thing made when scurrying about. Please, please don't be a rat. Rats are icky.

I jumped when what ever it was came into view from the darkness that was behind me. I saw the gleam of an eye before it scurried out of sight again. There had been a hint of color too. And it wasn't gray or purple. It was almost turquoise. Turquoise? In this world of gray and gloom? Who came up with the name 'turquoise' for a color anyways? It's blue-green. The same amount of syllables. Means the same thing. So why a different name for a color?

I went back to the edge of the moss-glow, to try and peak at it. 'Isn't that a bad idea?' you say? Not really. There was no real way for me to get out. If it was a fiend, then I would go out with a fight. They'd find my bones (if they tried to look, that is) holding a sword or a gun or my knives. I'll even write 'good-bye' on the wall in my own blood. Give them a real thrill.

The creature was creeping forward just as I did, so we almost came nose to nose before we realized it. I gave a small yelp of surprise, and fell quite un-gracefully on my butt. The small thing jumped back into the shadows when I yelped. There I was, sitting on the ground and grumbling to myself, when the absolute cutest little thing came out of hiding and padded softly over to me.

It looked like a fox, only it was that turquoisey color. It had three, count them, three, tails. The tails had reddish colored tips, as did the feet. Dew drop eyes stared up at me, so dark that I could see my reflection in them. A tiny, little nose sniffed the air as it inched closer.

"Awww, don't be scared. I'm nice! See?"

I held my hand out, palm up so that it could sniff it. After doing so, it decided that I was acceptable company and rubbed its little head against my hand. How it came to this decision was beyond me. I guess if I had an acute (get it? A-cute?) sense of smell, I could deem people worthy of friendship.

"You're just lonely, aren't you?" It responded by blinking at me and then hopping into my lap for a cuddle. "Yeah, you're lonely. I'm lonely too. You want to walk with me? We don't have much else to do. Just walking and more walking. I can carry you, if you're tired." The fox jumped off of me and began trotting off down the tunnel, not into the dark. "At least you have a good sense of direction, little one."

Several hours later…

I was still walking. Only now I had company. The little fox like creature, which I named Damon, was still trotting at my side. It had more energy than it should, seeing as it was so much smaller than me and walking at a faster pace. It kept circling back to me then padding ahead, like it was encouraging me.

My legs felt all flubbery from all the walking and the previous abuse from a certain gooey fiend. All of me felt flubbery. If there were any fiends down here I think they would have bounced off of me instead of hurting me. What a new defense. I wonder if Shinra could make an accessory for flubbery-ness. Mages would have a field day with it. Imagine having all these fiends bouncing off you and just beating the tar out of them with your staff.

Note to self, ask Shinra about: Somethings, how gooey things moved and flubbery accessories. Just gotta remember those three little items. You'd think with my utility belt I'd have a pen and paper, but noooooooo. I have all kinds of items and weapons and stuff. Like my moogle key chain, and I can't leave home without my Platinum Gil Card. What if I have the sudden urge for a shopping spree and only have pocket change? And I need my moogle key chain because my keys are attached. I can't get into my house with all my shopping bags without my keys. I will need what few items I had down here, so those can't go. What if I find another Something? I'll have to take care of myself and my little fox friend at the same time.

What is Spira coming to when I have to take care of another living creature? I'm not the motherly type and I have no idea what Damon needs to live. Not much apparently. I mean, if he (I think it's a he) can live down here all by himself then he doesn't need much. Maybe he eats shadows or something. There's nothing else down here but that mossy stuff, and I don't think eating glowing plants is a good thing.

That begs the question, what am I going to eat? I am getting pretty hungry down here. My jelly beans were ruined and like I said before, eating glowing stuff was probably a bad idea. Oh well. I just trudged along and hoped for an end to this gray tunnel that remains gray despite the purple glow from the moss.

Damon gave a small 'yap' and dashed ahead of me at break neck speed. I hadn't heard anything, so I was guessing that we weren't in danger. Then it hit me. A gust of air. It wasn't fresh air, but it was not full of spider silk either. The end was near! YES! Wait…that didn't sound right. Heh heh heh.

I ran after my little fox friend, trying to catch up before something bad happened to him. He was my only friend at the moment, so I didn't want to have anything happen to him. I was running down hill, a very steep down hill, and in danger of falling flat-damn, too late.

WHOMP

That was me falling on my face by the way. I was skidding down in an uncontrolled way, head over heels and then side over side…it wasn't very far to the bottom, but the floor was so smooth, it tried to keep my skin in place while the rest of me was going forward and down. Can we say 'friction burns' everyone? A long series of yelps and cries followed me down and did not stop until well after I came to a hault.

Friction burns suck, did you know that? Now I was even more bruised up and covered with red marks that stung like the dickens. I was wobbling to my feet when I noticed how the air had changed. No more spider webs, sure, but this? This was almost claustrophobic. The air was heavy, like a fat chocobo sitting on your shoulders. And it was stale. I could almost taste it it was so stale. A bit like chips that have been left out for a week or so. Blech.

I didn't notice at first how I was not in the tunnel anymore. It was so dark and black. I could feel this place was big, though. Huge. Giagantic you might say. Just really really big. I could hear my movements echoing despite the claustrophobic quality of the air. I got my wobbling feet moving again, only to find that I couldn't see where I was going. There was no more of the mossey stuff to light the way. I wonder if Damon really did eat that junk. Maybe that's why it's so dark in here. Where's a flashlight when you need one?

I tried to walk forward a bit, but I found that there was a bunch of stupid rocks in my way and I tripped and fell again onto the hard floor. Damn it! Why does this place have to make me fall so damn much? I didn't do anything to it. It was the Something's fault for breaking the floor, not mine! All I did was fall down. Now I'm being punished for what a fiend did. Just great!

There was a noise from the room I was in. It wasn't from Damon or me either. It was a 'boof'ing sound. You know, that sound you get when you hit someone with a pillow? That's the sound I heard. I heard it and then there was this flare-up of glowy light. I was blinded by it, considering I had been in complete darkness for a while. I don't think it was even that bright. My poor eyes were throbbing with pain from the flash regardless of how strong the light was.

After a while, I found that I could squint my eyes open a little without too much pain. It was kind of hazy, but I could see that there were large boulder thingies in front of me and around me, made up of the same gray stuff as the tunnel was. Only, the boulder thingies weren't boulder shaped. There were planes and shadows that you just don't see in nature.

Ok, so I'm not in a cave. Not a natural one, anyways. But what is a man made cave doing here? People don't live in caves anymore. Maybe some stupid men do, but they're stupid, what can you expect? I bet a man made a cave down here. No self respecting woman would live in a cave. For one thing, they're cold. Okay, so this one isn't, shut up and don't cloud the issue with facts. For another, it's made up of rocks. Rocks aren't comfy to sit on or have around. If you fall, you'll break something. I should know. I broke a couple of ribs with the Something thwacking me into a wall. I think I did some more damage with that tumbling routine. My ribs are killing me. So is all of me. I am a mass of bruises and stinging burns. Did I mention that I had little bits of rocks digging into my skin? There were little bits of rocks digging into my skin. I could feel them, but there were so many that I would have no hope of getting them out. I was kind of going numb from the pain so I guess it didn't matter. It was a little tingly feeling. Almost like when your foot goes to sleep, but just before it is too painful to walk on.

Another reason people don't live in caves is because all those scurrying little whatsits that live in them. You just can't get rid of those crawly things. Where there's one, there's a million-jillion of them. I don't do bugs. I can deal with mice and stuff, but not anything with more than four legs. They creep me out.

So, great. I'm in a fake cave, I'm injured and I have a little fox friend that is missing somewhere in this maze of rocky rubble. Where did he go? This was no place for a little fox to be running around alone. This was no place for a little Rikku either.

Too bad I was already here and not somewhere else with my five cat lives still left. I think I'd used up about two of them. Only three left. That's not very many. All I needed to do was get out with one left. And my little fox friend. I wouldn't leave him down here alone. That would just be too aweful. I can't let my little buddy get lost or hurt.

"DAMON! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Ok, no answer. Never a good sign for that to happen. I hadn't heard anything moving but me, but that didn't rule out a fiend with a taste for little turquoise foxes. Somethings apparently had a taste for Rikkus, so it goes to follow there is a fiend that likes foxes. Stupid fiends. Why did they have to exist anyways? I find midges and stuff more annoying and disturbing than fiends. You can kill fiends. You can't ever get the little midges to go away. They follow you and always have reinforcements for when one goes down. If the midges of the world united, Spira would be done for. No one would be safe.

Worry had set in and I began stumbling around, half blinded, looking for Damon. The boulders were everywhere. I didn't trip again, but the threat was always there. My hands strayed to touch the boulder thingies, and found them smooth, like the tunnel walls and floor. Except for where they had broken apart. They felt ragged and sharp against my hands. Fine grit was being flung into the air from my steps, choking me.

There was almost a path to follow, like on Gagazet where all the columns are. I felt like I was disturbing this place. The farther I walked, the more that feeling grew until I was percolating with it. But I couldn't leave Damon. No matter how wrong the air felt in here, I wasn't going to leave him. I'll be damned if wrong-feeling air can keep me from a friend in need!

Then there was this noise. It just came from no where, but it was everywhere. All around me there was this groaning sound. Only, it wasn't a groaning from a living thing. Or from a machina. It sounded like the world was, well…crying. It grew louder and louder, filling my ears up and forcing me to the ground. I cowered on the ground, hands over my ears, trying to keep it out but it kept getting louder.

It felt like something was pulling my heart into my stomach. You know the feeling you get when something bad happens? Like when your boyfriend breaks up with you for no apparent reason and you feel like you're sinking into a big, black pit of dispair? That's what it felt like. I could hear it in my head now, so it didn't matter if I covered my ears. I still tried though. I kept them covered. I screamed, trying to drown out those aweful, painful groaning sounds. I screamed and screamed, and cried and cried. Nothing stopped it. How could I hope to stop a noise? I just wanted it to stop.

It stopped.

All of a sudden, it stopped. My ears and heart were still ringing with the dreadful groaning sound. But I could see around me now. The same glow from the mossy stuff was here now too. And it was still a purple glow that made the rocks still look gray. Gray gray gray. I'm never having the color gray anywhere again. Even the ceiling was gray. It was lit up there with the mossy stuff. Exactly in the pattern of the stars in the sky. Only Tiamat should be more to the right and farther down in the 'sky' and the Undine should be lower too.

How come the mossy stuff didn't grow? It was a plant right? So it should grow and get bigger and not still be in the perfect spot. And how did they get it up there? That is waaaaay too far away for a ladder and no airship was small enough to fit in here. I mean the place was humungo, but not humungo enough for an airship. So I looked away from the 'sky' and found that not only was there a bunch of boulders and rocks and think dust on the floor, there was city.

Or what was left of one. It looked like a blast wave had come through it, knocking down solid walls and tumbling pillars like so many building blocks. The remnants of the buildings were incredible. The sphere of Zanarkand that Stinky Seymour showed us was the only thing I could compare it to. Even in ruins, they were incredible. The hollowed rooms and gaping windows seemed to capture my attention. 'Look at us. Think of what we once were. What wonders have we seen pass? What horrors have we seen as well? Come and ask us…'

Is it bad to think that crumbling walls and windows are talking to you? It is? Damn. Here I was hoping it was normal. Oh well. So this old, decrepit city was talking to me, and I was looking for my little turquoise fox. I didn't see any paw prints. Where could he have gone? I started poking around; trying to find any hidey-holes Damon might have hopping into. So you can imagine just how startled I was to see a shadow pass over me and keep in passing by.

Jumping up revealed something out of a nightmare. There were people down here now. And not just any people. These were unsent people. I could see right through them. They were walking and milling about the ruined city like it was still a thriving place. Children were running after their mom's and playing with toys and each other.

None of them seemed to see me. One old lady walked right through me. Uhg. That was an experience I could have done without. Remember those spider webs I had to walk through and breathe? Well it felt like those webs turned into icy filaments and drifted right through me. Cold and creepy at the same time. At least I had been warm before.

I wonder why they don't see me. All of the other unsent people I've met have been interactive. None of them just walked through or by you without noticing you. But these people were going about what had once been their lives without a care for what had happened to destroy this place and them along with it.

Then they stopped. All of them stopped, even the kids. They turned to what looked like the center of cavern. A brilliant light flashed from the center and then that same light came rushing out and away. I felt a wave of hot air before the light hit me. Then the light hit me.

Damn that was a long chapter! I have to try and cut them down more. Anyways, thank you reviewers! I lurve you with a passion! And Angel, thank you for the word 'boof'.

Scroll down and hit the little 'GO!' button! Make Tagg a happy person! Let me know if there are any errors, cause I know I missed some. Probably a lot. Anywho, hope you enjoyed it!