Super loooooooooong chapter this time, sorry about that! I was doing good for a couple too, keeping it short... first day of school today, so expect the updates to be a little less frequent, but not much, since I'll be on the computer anyway. I have no self discipline :D THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all who reviewed! You make me happy:
Motet: Hah, I'll stick a little Wakka and Tidus in just for you... heck, it's high time they make an appearance anyway :D Thanks, as always, for reviewing!
Musicmaker: Glad you're hooked, cuz I'm hooked on writing it! I hope it's not the baked goods that's hooking you, anyway XD Thanks for the review!
DarkAnimePriestess: As long as you're reading :D Thanks for reviewing!
Paine3: Worry not, Paine3! You shall see :D
When Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine at last arrived in the first section of the eerily quiet Macalania Woods, they all stood in a row, surveying the scene, each trying to devise a strategy. The woods was a big place to tackle, and they had to make absolutely certain that they got every place.
"Split up," Paine said immediately.
Rikku whimpered. "Do we have to?"
Paine glared at her. "Do you want to get this done?"
"Yes."
"Then yes."
She groaned. "Really?"
"I am not going with her," Paine said flatly.
As Yuna pleaded with them to stop fighting, Lulu was concentrating on a sound that was like a far away whistling… almost like wind.
"Guys, do you hear that?" she asked, slightly loudly to ensure that she would be heard over Rikku and Paine's bickering.
Everyone suddenly fell silent as they tried to listen to the mysterious sound. "It sounds like wind," Yuna finally said quietly after a few moments.
"That's strange," Paine murmured. "This woods is nearly always silent."
"Something is wrong here," Rikku agreed, sounding completely serious, which was a very rare thing.
Back in Aya's cell, she was screaming her head off, even though she was certain that nobody could hear her. "STOP IT! GET AWAY, RUN!" she yelled at the sphere, shaking with rage. There was no way that Kana could do this to them—how evil could she possibly be!
Kana looked utterly pleased that Aya was so shaken up. "Enjoying the show?" she asked with a cold, cruel laugh.
"YOU LET THEM GO RIGHT NOW!" Aya screamed, placing her face as close to Kana as the bars would allow.
"Just be quiet, or I shall silence you," Kana replied in an almost gleeful tone. "Watch, now."
Suddenly, the same type of wind spell, only considerably bigger, tore its way right into Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine before any of them had a second to react. Rikku's eyes clamped themselves shut as she whirled around. The minute she felt her feet being picked up off of the ground, she knew that her chances of surviving here little or nothing—and it scared her to tears. The last thing she remembered was a sinking feeling in her stomach as the wind stopped abruptly. She passed out, and crumpled to the ground.
At last, after what seemed like a rather long time, Rikku stirred. "Did anybody get the number of that train?" she mumbled, attempting to pull herself up off of the ground. The best she could manage was to sit up, and when she had, she instantly wished she would have just stayed laying down with her eyes shut. Lulu, Paine, and Yuna were gone.
Surely, they hadn't left her behind on purpose—even Paine wasn't that mean. She vaguely wondered how long she'd been out cold for. Rubbing the back of her head, she stood up, and looked around. At least she was still somewhere in Macalania Woods. What had that freaky wind thing been anyway? It had caught them so quickly that she hadn't even had time to scream. She closed her eyes, and thought back to before she had passed out.
"A whistling sound," she murmured after a couple minutes. She opened her eyes and stood up. "Better find them," she said, digging around in her pocket for a radio. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat—her radio was nowhere to be found.
"Whoever frickin' left me here did a frickin' good job making sure I'd never get out!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping somebody would hear her. Feeling angrier than she had in a very long time, she marched irritably down the path, eyes shifting around constantly for any sign of life at all.
Just as she knew it would, the woods remained eerily silent and barren of all life forms—even fiends. If she could only find Yuna, Lulu, and Paine! She was certain that each one had a good sucker punch coming their way after playing such a completely NOT funny joke on her. "You jerks can come out now, you totally got me!" she said loudly, spinning around so that she could get a clear view of all around her. She stopped walking, and continued twirling around, trying to keep everything in view. "Yeah, you heard me—you got me, so come out now, and let's get going!" Rikku tried again.
Nothing responded to her half-pleading voice, save a small echo.
"Poopie," she grumbled, violently kicking the ground. "Guess I better get walking, then, if I'm gonna make it to civilization by night fall."
Rikku knew good and well that the next city was Bevelle, and that it would be all too easy for her to find some place to stay there—if her body would only quit throbbing every time she took a step! She hunched over a little, trying to shut out the pain. She knew she would be done for if a fiend attacked…
Aya sat in her cell, face still pressed against the bars, watching Rikku trudge along, while trying to keep herself from crying. Kana seemed more interesting in watching Aya than Rikku. Suddenly, she stood up, and said, "I think we may have some other guests here that have some interest in seeing this, as well." She walked hurriedly out of the room.
Aya didn't care—she couldn't rip her eyes away from the struggling Rikku. She knew that Rikku would be trying to get to the next city—but in Kana's illusion, she doubted the woods ever ended. "Stop walking, Rikku, and you won't get hurt," Aya murmured. She at last stop watching Rikku, and shut her eyes to take a moment to look at the spell. "This will be hard to break," she moaned quietly after several minutes. "Just stop walking, Rikku!"
Suddenly, Kana walked back into the room, two people that Aya didn't recognize in tow. Both seemed extremely interested when they saw Rikku in the sphere. Kana tossed them in a cell that was across from Aya's, and left the room, claiming that she needed to concentrate on the spell. The two men looked completely confused, so Aya gave talking to them a try.
"How'd she get you guys?" Aya asked them softly.
"Dunno," one of the guys said. His orange hair was sticking up all over the place, and he had a heavy accent. He was wearing something that looked like a Blitzball uniform. Aya knew nothing about Blitzball, of course, so she couldn't be sure. "I remember her making everything in the Blitzball store in Luca fly everywhere—and next thing we know, we're here."
"We don't even know why we're here," the other guy added. He had blond hair and was wearing some yellow boots that stood out very clearly to Aya.
Suddenly, something clicked in Aya's head. Blitzball store in Luca…? "Oh my god, you're Wakka and Tidus!"
The blond guy's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah… how'd you know?"
Things made even less sense to Aya now that she knew that it had been Kana that had kidnapped them all along… but why?
FLASHBACK"I don't have to do anything!" Kana yelled angrily back. "Besides, I shall only mess with their heads a bit… no need to worry, I won't be killing any of them… today… if I can help it. When I do… it will likely be in person." Kana finished her sentence speaking from behind gritted teeth, and Aya vaguely wondered why she would have something against one of the completely innocent four girls.
…ooo…
Aya raised her head and gazed at the sphere, eagerly watching her friends. She could hear Rikku shrilly complaining, but she couldn't make out the words. The tone, however, was unmistakable. "Why are you doing this to them?" Aya asked Kana, voice quivering with anger. "They're looking for their friends, and you're doing this for your own SICK AMUSEMENT!"
Kana's eyes narrowed almost immediately. "Sick amusement? I will not deny that I shall indeed be amused as I watch them fail against my illusion. Unfortunately enough for you, there is a much deeper reason as to why I am doing this."
END FLASHBACK
"Well… I ran into your friends, Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine in Luca… that's where I live… when they came there looking for you guys," Aya explained.
"They're looking for us, ya?" the orange haired guy repeated. "This isn't good… they're bound to get hurt against that woman!"
The blond guy nodded. "This is bad, Wakka… what are we going to do?"
"There's nothing we can do," Aya said sadly. "I can't beat her like this, my magic points are gone, and so are all of my accessories."
"What's your name, anyway?" the orange haired guy asked her.
"Aya," she replied.
Wakka and Tidus quickly introduced themselves, even though she already knew who they were. "What's going on with this sphere?" Tidus asked, eyeing Rikku worriedly.
"Kana has developed an illusion spell… she cast it on them, and now, they're lost in Macalania Woods," Aya explained. "I've had a little look at the spell… not a good one, of course, she's got wards up… but it's going to be very hard to break."
Wakka and Tidus eyed each other worriedly. "Now we have to do something."
"One toe out of line, and she'd kill you with a snap of her fingers," Aya reminded them. She bit her lip in thought. "Do you even know why she kidnapped you?"
"No," Wakka answered immediately. "We've asked her loads of times, but she don't say more than one word to us at a time."
"Do you recognize her at all?"
"Nope," Wakka answered.
From what I remember, I think it's safe to say she has something against one of the girls in the woods right now…
FlASHBACK"Unfortunately enough for you, there is a much deeper reason as to why I am doing this."
END FLASHBACK"I think…" Aya began uncertainly. "I think she's holding some kind of grudge over one of them."
"This is a little extreme for just any grudge," Tidus said, gesturing at the cell around him. "Besides, how do we tie in to all of this?"
"Good question…" Aya said, biting her thumbnail. "Wait… you're Lulu and Yuna's boyfriends!"
"So it's got to be one of them," Wakka said with a nod. "Makes sense, ya?"
"Yeah," Aya replied absently.
Rikku struggled on, feeling more pain with each step she took. She had already figured that that wind was no ordinary wind, but couldn't figure out why it kept hurting. She had healed herself several times, with hardly any results. She continued walking, deep in thought, trying to ignore her head, which was sufficiently throbbing. Suddenly, she heard large footsteps and what sounded like claws scraping the ground coming from behind her. A huge fiend that she had never seen before was running after her! It bore certain resemblance to a werewolf, and howled at Rikku maniacally as she started running down the path. She screamed as it started to gain on her. Urging her feet to go faster, she jumped over a fallen tree, and proceeded to trip over her own feet. She pulled herself up, left side covered in scratches from the ground, and tried to put some distance between herself and the werewolf-like fiend. She had no idea where she was—this part of the woods didn't look at all familiar to her. She continued to run until, predictably, she was trapped at a dead end, almost as if somebody had planned it.
She whirled around to face the fiend, and quickly selected the Dark Knight dressphere. She changed as fast as she could manage, and the second she was finished, the werewolf charged her. She held her sword out in front of her threateningly as the werewolf snapped at her with its huge, white teeth. She cringed as it spit on her face, and swung her sword at its stomach. It left a gash there, but the werewolf didn't seem at all bothered by it. It continued lunging at her and growling fiercely, sufficiently scaring the crap out of her.
She hit it with a darkness attack, but immediately felt the after-effects—something in that wind had fully messed her up, and she decided it was better not to suck out any more of her own energy. She tried a bio spell, which it dodged with ease. The werewolf attacked her almost like a human—it stood on its hind legs, while attacking her with its front. It eventually got a good hit in on her shoulder—she could have sworn she felt it pop out for a second before sliding back into place—that sent her flying across the clearing. She couldn't believe a wolf could punch her with such force—she ended up against a tree, panting and holding her shoulder. If she didn't come up with a plan soon, she'd be toast…
Oh geez, Rikku is in a life threatening situation (again!) and Wakka, Tidus, and Aya are just starting to figure things out! What happened to Yuna, Lulu, and Paine anyway? In next chapter, you will perhaps see at least one of them fighting the illusion... can they win? Read to find out, and don't forget to review :D
Thank youuuuuuuu!
Lulala