I am sooo back from the evil cabin of doom! I'm a little late with this update, sorry! I tried so hard to keep writing, but I got a little bit stuck, so I had to take a break. I mean, I know where I'm going with this fic--it's just getting there that will be the issue XD Anyways, I wanted to kick out a good update, so I decided to take a bit more time on it to make sure it was good. Even still, I'm not sure, but... anyway, THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH to all those who reviewed!
DarkAnimePriestess: Thank you for reviewing (again), and I will most definitely keep posting : )
Seymour Guado: Don't worry--there will be some Vidina! Thanks for the review!
FinalFantasyFangirl:I'm glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!
Paine3: YES, Paine cracking jokes IS a sign of the apocolypse! Haha, just kidding--I love writing Paine, she's so fun XD
Motet: AH, thank you (AGAIN!) for reviewing, and I'm suuuuper happy that you likey!
"Random thought—if the radio broke when Rikku fell, then how are we going to call Brother?" Yuna asked.
"I guess we'll just have to walk back, and call them from the village," Paine said.
Rikku and Yuna simultaneously let out loud groans.
"We've walked so much today!" Rikku whined.
"Besides, we don't even know where we are!" Yuna pointed out.
Paine didn't look up at them—she just continued examining the sphere. "I know it," she said. "This damn sphere won't play! This is what you should be worried about, not the stupid radio!"
"Maybe the color has something to do with it," Rikku suggested. "I mean, it might just be so old and deteriorated that it just won't work."
"All of that had better not have been for nothing," Paine growled, poking the sphere.
"Maybe Shinra can fix it," Rikku offered. "I mean, if it's deteriorated, he might be able to—"
"He better be able to," Paine said in a voice that almost sounded like a snarl.
"Should we start walking back?" Rikku asked.
"I guess," Paine answered, handing the sphere to Yuna, who carefully placed it in one of her pockets.
As they carefully made their way back through the forest (Rikku was avoiding any dips in the ground obsessively, drawing a scowl from Paine), Lulu was still in Luca, not quite sure what she should do.
"Thank you, sir," she said to the shop owner weakly. "I guess I'll have to go look for them, then."
"Where will you start?" the man wondered aloud.
Lulu thought about this. "I'll have to talk to my three friends who are sphere hunters. They know all the secrets about every single area here in Spira, and I'm sure we'll be able to find them." She sounded much more certain than she felt. Deep down, she was worried that Wakka and Tidus were gone. Don't think about that, she told herself. They couldn't be gone—she knew they could take care of themselves, they wouldn't just—no, it wouldn't happen that way! Not if Lulu could help it. She was going to find Vidina's father if it was the last thing she ever did.
She thanked the man again, and walked out of his shop. She looked around the crowded square for a clock. When she at last spotted one, she let out an enormous sigh. Brother wouldn't be coming back for her for at least another hour and a half! For a fleeting moment, she had thoughts about hitching a ride back to Besaid with someone else that was leaving around now, but stopped herself. Brother would be coming back soon, and she'd just have to wait until he did.
It was mid-afternoon before Yuna, Rikku, and Paine made it back to the village. When they returned, they found that Lulu, Wakka, and Tidus hadn't come back from Luca yet. They marched into Rikku and Paine's hut, and radioed the Celsius.
"Brother!" Paine barked into the radio.
"Yes, Paine?" Buddy answered. "It's Buddy."
"We found the sphere," she announced, an angry edge on her voice. "It's a dud."
"We think Shinra can fix it," Yuna said, snatching the radio from Paine. "It turned gray after we got it out of that horrible cavern, but Rikku thinks it might have just deteriorated."
"Excellent," Buddy said. "We'll come have a look once we've picked Wakka, Lulu, and Tidus up, which we're on our way to do."
For what seemed like a long while, Paine, Yuna, and Rikku just waited. They were too exhausted to do anything, not to mention that none of them felt like doing anything other than sleeping.
When they finally were called by Buddy, all three of them seemed rather slow getting out of the hut. Sphere hunters or not, running around in a hidden cavern and fighting your way through a woods for the better part of the day was hard on their bodies.
"I think I need someone to carry me," Rikku groaned, rubbing the back of her head, which was still bursting with pain from her fall.
"Don't look at me," Paine said. "You're walking fine, anyway."
"My head just hurts," Rikku said, sounding whiney.
"We'll get you some ice when we go back," Yuna said kindly with a glance at Paine.
When at last they reached the outskirts of the village where Buddy had told them they had landed, they found Lulu in complete hysterics, while Brother and Shinra tried to calm her down.
"It's okay, we will find them," Brother was saying.
Lulu looked somewhere between extremely angry and horribly upset. She looked almost close to tears, though her facial expression mirrored the look she would give Wakka when he was doing something she didn't approve of.
"What's wrong, Lulu?" Yuna asked with concern.
"Oh, Yuna, it's awful!" Lulu began. She retold the entire story of what happened in Luca—everything from the moment Wakka and Tidus had set foot into the blitzball store to right before Brother and Buddy had come to pick her up. By the end of her story, tears were slowly pouring down Yuna's face.
"So he's gone again," Yuna said quietly, hurriedly wiping the tears from her face, looking as though she was hoping none of the other girls had seen them. "Why?"
"I don't know," Lulu answered. "But I guess we're going to find out, right?"
"Well, of course we'll have to look for them," Paine said, her usually expressionless face nearly contorted with concern. Somehow, seeing two of her friends so distressed seemed to have softened her attitude.
"We'll find them!" Rikku said optimistically. "I know it! With the Gullwings on the case, there'll be no hiding them from us!"
Good or bad, I like to know, so drop me a review, please! Plus, if you review, you get a cookie from me :D
Love, Lulala