It's the Underground Show! With your host, Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiku! Yes, I did some work on this chapter and there will be another one added. Maybe two more. I don't know. We'll see where this goes, because I am unhappy with the way the last one ended, even with the bit of fluff.

I don't own FFX-2, but I do own cookies, and bananas…if only you could juice a banana…

Somebody was shaking me. And saying my name. I wanted to finish dreaming. All these people were thanking me for something. Like I'd done something important. But they kept on shaking me. Can't they see I'm trying to sleep here?

"Rikku."

"Huhhh…"

"Rikku!"

"Gippal…goway…sleepy…"

Wait. Gippal? How is Gippal shaking me awake when I died underground? Once more with the shaking, and this time I woke up. So fast, in fact, that my head connected with Gippal's chin. Not really hard, but enough of a jolt to make him flinch and rub his chin.

He looked so tired. Bags under his good eye, worry lines on his face and dust all over him. I can't tell you how happy it made me to see him. Not like he is now, just to see him. He looked a little scared too. Weird. Gippal doesn't get scared.

So I did the only thing I could do: I glomped him.

We fell off the bed (don't ask me where a bed came from cause I have no idea) and I landed on top of him, making him make a funny surprised noise. I was waiting for the string of complaints, but they didn't come. All Gippal did was hug me. And I didn't want him to let go. If he did, I might really wake up back at that statue in a pool of blood. I don't want that.

"I'll take this, if this is a dream…"

"You're not dreaming, Ri."

Not dreaming? Then, I'm not really stuck back in that horrible dead city with all kinds of cuts and wounds and bloody mess? I started crying. Not, you know, sobbing crying, just tears. And a hiccup or two. Didn't last too long. Just a minute or two of it. I was at the sniffling stage when I realized something.

I didn't hurt.

Except for where the hilt of Gippal's gun was digging into my side. (Mentally smacks myself on the head) Why do I say that stuff around you people? You always take it the wrong way. Meh. I got up and ran over to a huge mirror on the wall. My arms and legs were fine. I looked just to be sure. Not a scratch or bruise on me. No rocks embedded in my skin, no big chunck of machine in my stomach…I was all better! You'd think something was wrong with the expression I saw on Gippal's face on the mirror. It was really weird.

I was still staring at the lack of wounds when something white and soft wrapped itself around me. I jumped a bit and turned to see Gippal draping a sheet from the bed around me.

"What are you doing?"

"Ri, as much as I enjoy you running around naked, now's not the time."

"Huh?" I then realized that I was indeed naked. As a jay bird. I happen to have a lovely birthday suit. But I still blushed.

"I'll take that sheet off you later though, seeing as you like running around naked in front of me."

I'm sure I was beet red now. So I turned away in a huff. And saw the door opening and Damon padding in, followed by some unfamiliar feet. Damon was alive! I had been worried he'd been caught by some of the flying metal bits. He's alive!

"DAMON!"

My little turquoise fox made a running jump into my arms. The sheet got in the way a little, but I was too happy to see him to care. I was hugging and twirling him around when the owner of the unfamiliar feet walked in. He was wearing something strangely familiar in style to my own outfit at the moment, only his was a toga kind of thing. He was barefoot too. (Don't ask me why I liked him for that, but I did.) His face was like a wise old man's, just without the multitude of wrinkles. Long beard and hair, both white, completed the ensemble.

"I see you are awake now. Good."

His voice wasn't old at all. It was rich and velvety. I bet he told great stories.

"I have been told I am a great spinner of yarns. And I am indeed old."

"WHAT! You hear what I'm thinking!" Just a bit un-nerved here.

"Most things. Usually only what thoughts and feelings are strong enough to be projected."

Damon rubbed my cheek with his head reassuringly. This guy knows what I think, huh? I thought of him in an opera dress, complete with horned helmet and bounteous cleavage.

He smiled.

"While I like the helmet, the dress I will do without. Riah would have found that costume most amusing to wear though."

"Who's Riah?" Gippal asked before I could. I glared at him while he gave Damon a scratch behind the ears.

"The soul who became Valefor. Always a jokester, that one."

"Huh. Gippal, how do you know Damon?"

"That little guy led me here. And Ea brought me to your room here. Where ever here is."

"Carbunkle was the only one of us not caught in the trap laid out by Saphus. He'd been terribly lonely until you came along, Rikku."

I frowned at the Toga Man.

"Then who are you?"

"Ea. And your friend."

"Ea? That Avatar the Bad Man was talking about?"

"The same."

I frowned again.

"You don't look like a messenger from the gods…"

"I was an herbalist and healer in my village when Tiamat called me to his aid. They are not gods, per say, only ancient, powerful beings. It was Tiamat who made it possible for the fayth to become the fayth."

"Hate to interrupt, but there are a lot of people probably pulling out their hair right now cause we're missing. I don't fancy getting hairballs thrown at me when we get back."

"Gippal you are so rude!"

"Time here runs differently than in your world. You haven't been missing for long since coming here."

"See? If I wasn't holding Damon I'd hit you! Heavens forbid you learn something, Gippal." I stuck my tongue out at him before turning back to Ea. "Who was the Bad Man?"

"Saphus. A former priest who became demented and twisted. It was not entirely his fault. An illness had spread through the city, one that caused damage to the mind and the body if it was not cured in time. He refused to take the cure, saying that his pious faith would hold him safe." Ea sighed, a sad sigh too, like he really was sorry it happened that way. "Fool. Faith alone will not hold one safe. He brought about his own fate. He caught that wretched illness, and it was a terrible case. Even in the throws of fever he refused treatment. He survived, barely."

"He was never the same, after that. His mind was no longer whole, and the parts that were left were twisted by his newly found hatred of us. He was whole enough for others to think him perfectly well, if changed. That is understandable, a traumatic experience changes a person. Saphus had changed, but not for the better. He now thought of us as enemies, betrayers. He believed that he should be saved, that Tiamat would listen to him when the prayers and wails of the dying did not reach him."

"You see, Saphus was a selfish man. For all that he became a priest, he always set himself first. A son of the richest man in the city, he had always been put first. The cries of children in pain or mother's over the death of a child did not stir his heart. A man such as that should never have been made a priest."

"Well, if you guys are so powerful, why didn't you just stop him?"

"Two reasons. Tiamat had gone into a deep slumber. He grew tired of the human voices always begging for some miracle or another. Again, he is not a god. Very little could wake him at any given time. The second reason is that for all I am gifted by Tiamat with power, I am human. With human abilities. I am not omniscient. Nor do I hold the right to end a life, which is the only way that Saphus could have been stopped. I am a healer, not a butcher."

"By the time I had gotten wind of Saphus' plan, it was nearly too late. I woke Tiamat, but not before that abominable machine was started. He managed to shield this place and those of us within it, but at great cost. He was trapped, forever in agony, by Saphus' device." A little tear ran down his cheek.

"How come Damon didn't get caught then? He's just a little fox, even if he can stop the world from shaking." I looked into Damon's dewdrop eyes, wondering if he could hear what I was thinking too.

"Carbunkle is a law unto himself. There is nothing that can trap or harm him by rights of what he is." He smiled at us now. Not a condescending one, but an amused one. "He is a Guardian. Not of Summoners, but of life. He can and will protect what he can, when he can. Just as he protected you from the anger of Tiamat. That red light you saw, is his power. It is never ending, but there is a reason he is a fox. It reminds him that not everything or everyone in the world can be saved."

My Damon was some big, powerful being? Damon? I know he's special and everything, and he helped me and saved me not only from boredom but from that shaking. I should have known it, cause of the name Ea used. Carbunkle was the name of a constellation. It was in the shape of a man holding a shield against the Dark Hound Cerberus. How utterly cool to have your favorite myths come to life.

"You sure are full of surprises, Damon."

"Indeed he is."

I looked up at him, and then at Gippal's tired face, and suddenly I just wanted to go home.

"Come. I will take you to the surface. After that, clear out the people near the cave entrance. The city and the cave itself will be destroyed once you are safely gone from here." I thought about walking all that way back, without shoes on. It didn't make me happy. "This is a much faster way than you came by."

"Follow me, young ones." We followed. I sure as heck didn't want to stay. I like being in good, sunny-skied Spira. Not this place. I was still cuddling Damon, and since he didn't seem to want down, I kept on holding and cuddling him. It wasn't a far walk, and once we were outside, there was soft grass and flowers to walk on. No paving stones or cement. At least the flowers didn't get crushed under our feet. Gippal's boots are enough to flatten any vegitation. Including Cactuars. Back when they were enemies, of course.

We stopped at a big stone. That's all it was. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except that it was floating above the ground. That's all. It looked ordinary enough to me. Ea stepped on it, and motioned us to as well. It was a tight fit for all three of us to stand on it. Hey, snuggling next to Gippal is a GOOD thing. Especially at night, cause he's really warm.

What? Everyone thinks we're a couple, so why not take advantage of the situation? It's COLD at night in the deset. Like, snow cold, if there had been any rain. It's not like Gippal's such a horn dog that he can't control himself. I'm pretty sure he WANTS to misbehave, he just doesn't for some reason.

The rock started to glow, and then, the world was zipping by at super-light speed. It was only for a few seconds. We stopped without any kind of jolt or bucking from the rock.

"Here we are." 'Here' turned out to be a big patch of grass. "Stand in the center, please." Once we got there, he raised his hand, and voila, there was a light on the ground and a hum in the air.

I left that place a lot better than I came, that's for sure. Can we say one giant glyph teleporter? We can? Good people! You're so smart! Here's a treat! (Throws treat) Remember to chew it before swallowing! Hehe. Anywho, that glyph was HUGE. I bet the whole gang of Yunie's Guardians could fit on it with ease. Ea just lifted a hand, and it lit up and then everything went all wavy for a little while and then we were…at a cave entrance? Sure there was an opening to the sun-lit world above, but no cave had hand rails carved into vines and flowers, or pillars with the same flowers climbing all over them, and certainly not any regular steps. No rubble or pits marked these steps.

"This entrance is protected by magic. No one will find it again once you are gone."

"Hmmm. Damon? I guess you'll be staying here with them, huh? I'll miss you…" Damon licked my ear, but made no move to jump down.

"He wishes to go with you. You'll hurt his feelings if you ask him to stay."

"Really? You wanna stay with me and Gippal?" Damon blinked at me, as if to say 'yes'. "WOO! You're going to have so much fun!"

I think Ea and Gippal thought that I wasn't listening, because they were talking to each other about me.

"Is she always so…enthusiastic?"

"Yup. Always. Even when she was little. It's one of her more endearing qualities."

"She will make an excellent mother. Do say hello to your children for me when they are born."

"…what did you just…"

"Rikku." I turned, blushing a bit cause he was implying something that would be just great if it turned out true. Oh please. Like you never fantasized about marrying your childhood love, who also turned out to be your Always Love. Its kinda cool though. We'd see if it really happened. I just wanted to be in sunlight again. "Take care. And you, Gippal. Farewell."

Ea then disappeared before we could answer, and we shared a look, and shrugged, and then walked up the stone steps to the opening. I stopped for a minute, staring outside.

"Gippal?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't step on my sheet when you walk, please."

"Damn, you found out my plan!"

"You want all of Spira seeing me naked, do you?" I said, quickly turning to face him.

"If you think" An arm snaked around my waist. "That I'd let anyone but me see you naked, you've got another thing coming." I smiled. "But I have every intention of taking that sheet off you, Ri." I smiled more.

"We'll see about that mister. You have to get me alone first."

"Not a problem. This road is riddled with caves. I'm sure we can squeeze into one. And if I remember correctly, you are able to squeeze into tight spaces easily."

"You're the one who threw a bucket of Malboro slime on my sleeping bag! It was take yours and let you freeze to death, or share it. I'm not a cold hearted woman. I shared. And you liked it, so no complaining."

"Oh I liked it."

"Uh huh."

"You squirmed too much."

"Uh huh."

"And you drooled on your pillow."

"Uh hu-! I DID NOT!"

"You also wouldn't let go of me in the morning."

"You were warm! And I was comfy and you sure didn't try too hard to get up."

"I'd say something, but I won't do it, to save your fox's ears from burning."

"What? Oh man! You are so perverted. Are there any thoughts in your head that don't revolve around sex?"

"Occassionally."

"Like when?"

"Like, when you fell down that hole. And when I found you by that statue, covered in blood. And when you disappeared from the machine's sensors…don't do that to me again, Ri. I think I lost a dozen years of my life cause of you."

Guilt trip, party of one! You're train is leaving! Yeah. I deserved that I guess. I could have just waited by that lake. With the jelly remains of the Something.

"Gippal…I didn't mean to…"

"I know."

"If I ever want to go into a cave again, never let me near another bag of jelly beans."

"HA! Sure, sure."

"One more thing?"

"If it involves you getting naked again, I'm all ears."

"Later."

"I'll hold you to that, you know."

"Yeah. But promise me something?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't leave me alone, kay?"

"Promise."

So we walked out. No more underground city for Rikku! No more ghosts or wind or mossy stuff or purple light! Just fresh air and sunshine and Gippal. And I had a new friend with me too. The trip underground wasn't a total waste after all.

And that's then end to the former ending chapter that is no longer the ending. 