Wow... I keep saying they'll get shorter, but... they just keep getting longer O.o So sorry! I just can't stop writing on this thing :D THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all who reviewed:
Motet: When I just recently decided what I was for sure going to do with Aya, I decided that she would be back (as you'll see in this chapter) but she won't see Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, and Paine for awhile. I'll be getting everyone caught up with what she's up to by just shifting the story to her maybe once every couple chapters. Thank ya kindly for reviewing!
Paine3: Haha XD I would find her strange, too... I was trying for her to be spunky/cute/stubborn... you can see how well that worked out XD Thanks for the review!
7w7: I'm still really glad you like it and that you keep reading! Thanks for the review!
DarkAnimePriestess: Glad you think I'm doing good! I don't mind questions, so don't worry :D Thank you for reviewing!
Okay, everyone, you find out a bit more about Aya's family in this chapter. Sorry it's so long!
Rikku was the first girl to wake up the next morning. She crept across the room, and poked Yuna's arm. "Yunie… hey, Yunie…"
Yuna groaned, and flipped over onto her side. Rikku's eyes shot up to the ceiling in annoyance. "Hey, YUNIE!"
Yuna's eyes shot open. "What?" she demanded tersely.
"Time to get up," Rikku said. She woke Lulu, who had a much calmer reaction, and Paine, who rolled out of bed and seemed quite short with Rikku until they were ready to depart for Kilika. None were particularly excited to be searching the woods. It was basically a maze with endless dead ends, nooks, and crannies where Wakka and Tidus could easily be stored. They had already pretty much figured it would be a place where civilians don't generally go, otherwise they would have been found by now. Still, the giant, looming task of Kilika stood before them, and even Rikku seemed a bit downcast.
"We should talk to Aya again later," Rikku suggested as they rode down in the elevator to the bridge. "See if she found anything."
"How's she even going to help?" Paine asked, eyes falling on Rikku and narrowing.
"I think I can answer that," Lulu began. "She's probably going to go have a better look at that shop, and try to trace that spell. Then, she can follow it, and let us know what she found."
Paine scowled. "Like she could do that."
As the sun broke through her window, Aya stirred. Her eyes fluttered open moments later. She rolled out of bed onto the floor. She winced as she got up. "Guess I shouldn't have done that," she said with a small chuckle. She pushed the door to her small bedroom open, and walked across a living room with scattered pieces of mismatched furniture, and into a bedroom similar in size and shape to hers, but with very different objects in it. Her brother lay in his bed, spread eagle in the center, with a large grin plastered on his face.
Aya plopped down on the foot of his bed. "Hey, Ryuen?"
He woke up the instant she sat down. "What do you want? It's early still!"
"I was just wondering… I know you haven't studied much of magic other than your… well… medium, but… do you think it would be possible to trace a transportation spell?"
"If the person was messy about it, yeah," Ryuen replied with a cautious nod. "Why do you ask?"
"Because… I'm looking into something for some friends, and…"
"Not those sphere hunters," Ryuen said with a groan. "Aya, I don't want you to get mixed up with that. Especially if that kidnapping was her doing."
"Who's?"
"You know," Ryuen replied simply. "Mom told us stories about her all the time. You were amazed when you were a kid. She would tell you all the stories she had heard from the people around Spira that had seen her. She knew what that mage could do… we all did. You vowed you'd be just as powerful as her one day, and... well... It doesn't seem there are many left that can work those types of spells, so… there's a good chance."
"She can't have been that good," Aya said with a scowl. "She died, didn't she?"
"Some people think she did," Ryuen said. "Some don't. Like I said, there aren't many mages around. Black and White, sure… not many like you, though, I'm betting."
"So what's this lady's name?" Aya asked, hands on her hips.
"Kana," Ryuen replied. "I'm surprised you don't remember."
Aya's gaze hardened. "I stopped thinking about other mages a long time ago."
"Aya, I know you're still upset, but—"
"Don't," Aya said warningly. "I'm going to go try to trace this spell. Are you coming or not?"
"If you find out you're dealing with Kana, please promise me you'll leave it alone," Ryuen said pleadingly. "She'd kill you—"
"Not if I kill her first," Aya said darkly. "Besides… you can't hide it from me now that you've told me all this stuff. I know mom was killed by a mage, and you just told me there aren't many around... it was her, wasn't it?"
"I'm not telling you," Ryuen snapped. "And how do you even know how mom died?"
"You think I can't tell just by going to her grave?" Aya asked in disbelief. "I can feel it, dimwit, and so can you, so it's no use lying."
Ryuen stared at his feet. "You're smarter than people give you credit for."
"Damn straight," Aya said, glaring at Ryuen. "Now, I'm going out. Are you coming?"
"I might as well," Ryuen said, pulling himself out of bed. "After all, I want to have a look at this spell."
"It might be gone by now," Aya said. "It's worth looking, I guess."
Aya got dressed, and she and Ryuen left the house together.
"Transport?" Ryuen asked hopefully.
"No," Aya replied flatly.
"Please?"
"No!"
"Pretty please?"
"Absolutely freakin' not!"
"Fine," Ryuen snuffed, sticking his nose up in the air. "I don't even really care, anyway."
Aya bit her lip to keep herself from laughing at him. They walked in silence the rest of the way to the Blitzball shop. Aya lead, and Ryuen followed close behind her through the crowded streets. The shop seemed to be opened when they arrived there. Aya pushed the door open, and heard a bell tinkle. The same old man that had been there the day before came out of the back room, and looked as though he wanted to retreat back to the room he had just been in when he saw Aya and Ryuen.
"More of you?" he asked, sounding horrified.
"Actually, we just came to look around in here," Aya replied. "Is it okay with you if we just hang around for a bit?"
"Well… I mean—"
"It's crucial to the investigation," Aya added smartly.
"Alright," the man finally agreed. "But make it snappy… don't want you scarin' off my customers."
Ryuen stifled a laugh, wondering how a five-foot tall girl with flaming red pigtails could possibly scare someone away. Aya shot him a glare, before slowly walking around the store with her eyes closed, concentrating as hard as she possibly could. She continued to walk, miraculously without running into anything. She stopped near the center of the store, and, eyes still closed, reached her arm out in front of her, as if she were trying to grab something. Her arm suddenly stopped moving and went rigid.
"Very clean… very good job indeed. This could be more difficult than I thought," Aya muttered. She plopped down on the spot, and sat there, legs crossed, looking as though she were meditating. "Gotta find it," she murmured.
She didn't move for another forty five minutes.
"You done yet?" Ryuen asked impatiently.
"No," Aya replied shortly. "They did a very good job of covering their tracks, and I've got to remove loads of other stuff before I can get to the actual spell. Very fiddly person, by my estimations. I think it'll take another two or three days before I can get down to the spell."
"Well, it's time to be done for today," Ryuen said. "I've got an errand to run on the docks, and I'd like you to come."
"Fine," Aya agreed. "Is it okay if I come back tomorrow, sir?" Aya asked the shopkeeper sweetly.
"Certainly, certainly… you weren't bugging anything, after all…" he replied.
Aya gave him one last smile before leaving the shop in Ryuen's wake.
After a quick search of the town, and after asking several people if they had seen a mysterious woman in a cloak pass through (the answer was always no), the girls were heading up towards the woods.
"I think we should split up again," Yuna said. "It worked last time—"
"Last time, we had a definite way to get out," Paine sharply reminded her.
"If we can't get out, I'll torch the whole god forsaken thing," Rikku said threateningly, pulling out a garment grid and flashing around a Black Mage dressphere.
"No need to be over-enthusiastic," Lulu said.
"Some call it that," Paine muttered. "I'd say it's more of—"
"Shut it," Rikku snapped.
"Quit fighting!" Yuna said loudly. "Just stop it right now! I think we're going to be absolutely fine. We've got the radios, and can call for help if we need it. Let's search this woods, and just get it over with. Rikku, you go with Lulu, and I'll go with Paine."
Splitting up Paine and Rikku seemed to be the obvious thing to do after the small squabble they had just had. Yuna figured that Paine was still angry about when Rikku had woken her up, and scared her so thoroughly that she had completely fell out of her bed.
The four girls walked up the main path of the woods, before coming to a fork. One path split off to the right, and one to the left. Rikku and Lulu took the right path (Rikku stuck her tongue out at Paine's back before turning and following Lulu into the woods) and Paine and Yuna took the left path.
As Lulu motored through the woods, Rikku struggled to keep up. "You walk really fast, you know," Rikku commented after a couple minutes of practically running to keep up.
"I want to get this done," Lulu replied flatly. "I hate this woods very much."
"Ooh, why?" Rikku asked, noticing that Lulu had slowed down considerably.
"It's just… eerie," Lulu said quickly. "Besides the fact that it's big. This will definitely be awhile."
"I know!" Rikku said, sounding whiney. "I really didn't want to come here, either."
"It's important, though," Lulu said. "We must find Wakka and Tidus soon, or I'm afraid… that…" her voice trailed off.
"Don't expect the worst," Rikku said consolingly. "They're tough… I'm sure they'll get through this. We'll find them, and they'll be the same as ever."
"I hope so," Lulu replied quietly. "I mean… what would Vidina do without his father?"
"I think Vidina could manage… he wouldn't remember his father, would he? I think you would have a much harder time going without Wakka," Rikku commented.
Lulu stared fixedly at the ground. She hadn't said it; she didn't want to seem selfish. She had thought it, though. She and Rikku walked around until they ran into a small group of three fiends. There was a Red Elemental and two Taromaitis. Rikku donned the Black Mage dressphere, and the fight began.
Lulu cast a quick blizzard spell on the Red Elemental, which died almost instantly. Rikku cast her most powerful fire spell on one of the Taromaitis. It recoiled slightly, and cast Bio on Rikku. A slimy liquid shot up from the ground and completely drenched Rikku. Some of it managed to get into her mouth. The taste reminded her of the way thestalls smelled at Clasko's chocobo ranch. She started coughing almost immediately, and fell to her knees, shaking, as the poison rocked the insides of her body. She could feel her throat closing up, and suddenly, she was unable to breathe…
Several seconds later, she felt an amazing, incredible relief all over her body—she saw Lulu standing next to her, an empty antidote bottle clutched in her hand. She stopped coughing and spluttering, and could suddenly breathe again. Her body didn't feel as weak as it had before—she had stopped shaking, and Lulu was helping her up. "You okay?" she asked Rikku.
"Yeah, thanks to you," Rikku said. She turned to the Taromaiti that had poisoned her, which seemed to currently be gloating, and shot it a threatening glare. "You think you're hot stuff now, but you just wait…" Rikku pulled a garment grid from her pocket, and changed into the Dark Knight dressphere.
The Taromaiti hit her with another Bio spell, but this time, instead of drenching her, it slid off her armor like rain on a windshield. "Hah, poison immunity!" Rikku yelled triumphantly. "Eat that!" she yelled, plunging her sword into the earth as she cast Darkness.
The Taromaiti didn't fall, but floated there menacingly, seemingly angry at Rikku. She reached up and swiped at it with her sword. The monster shuddered backward. Rikku cast another Darkness, and the Taromaiti disappeared into a crowd of pyreflies. "Victory!" Rikku yelled happily. She looked around for Lulu, who had begun to fight the second Taromaiti a little further down the path. Rikku broke out at a run to help Lulu, who was in the middle of a Bio spell at the moment. Rikku quickly administered an antidote to her, and began to abuse the Taromaiti with her sword until it was gone.
"Thanks," Lulu said weakly. "I'd forgotten what that felt like."
"What, poison?" Rikku questioned. "Yeah, it really sucks, doesn't it?"
Lulu began massaging her throat. Apparently, she had felt her throat close up as well. "Yeah, it really does."
Rikku changed out of her dressphere while Lulu collected herself. When they were at last ready to depart, they continued down the path, continually calling Wakka and Tidus's names. They knew it wouldn't do hardly any good, but they kept a small sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe they would hear them calling, and give them some indication as to where they were.
"I'm not contented with blindly searching every town in Spira," Lulu suddenly said. "This is becoming a real mystery, and since we found out that it was a mage, they could be anywhere—even somewhere that we can't get to."
"I see what you're saying," Rikku replied. "But… how will we find them then?"
"We find out who took them," Lulu said. "If we can figure it out, then finding them will be that much easier."
"The person who took them must have had a motive," Rikku said thoughtfully. "Do you know any mages that have anything against Wakka and Tidus?"
"No," Lulu replied, racking her brains for any memories of Wakka or Tidus getting on any mage's nerves. "I mean, my entire life, I've only known two mages… one I believe to be dead, and Aya, who… wait a moment… she knew about it right when we mentioned it… oh, Rikku, do you think it could be…?"
"Absolutely not," Rikku scoffed. "Aya knew because she's all around that city every day helping people out. Besides, it was probably a major thing on the news and in the papers and everything. I don't even know how she'd know Wakka and Tidus, and why would she have been trying to help us if it was her in the first place?"
"To clear her name?" Lulu suggested, sounding slightly angry. "Keep us off her trail?"
"Lulu," Rikku said, "it was not Aya. She has no motive."
"That we know of," Lulu added on. "She could have some secret grudge against one of the two that we don't know of. Maybe she's angry about Wakka being a good Blitzball player and beating the Luca Goers back at that Blitzball tournament a few years ago, I don't know." (A/N: Let's just say that wayyy back in FFX, the Aurochs beat the Goers.)
"She was a bit younger then," Rikku pointed out. "I doubt a 13 or 14 year old girl would care so much about one loss that she'd kidnap a Blitzer and his best friend."
"Just a thought," Lulu said. "Besides, we don't really know any other mages, so…"
Rikku didn't say anything. She hated that it seemed like all of the Gullwings had some sort of a problem with Aya. She hadn't seemed the least bit suspicious to Rikku. She looked up at the cloudless, blue sky, and wondered if Yuna and Paine were talking about how suspicious Aya was as well…
Well... like I said, sorry for the length, but I hope that maybe this is getting interesting :D Review, please, and let me know how I'm doin'!
Thank ya muchly,
Lulala