Disclaimer: I do NOT own Shaman King, or Final fantasy, but I do own my computer! Lol. Hope you enjoy! Reviews are welcomed with open arms. Flamers can get lost! End of disclaimer. I do own the other main character that happens to be me! No one else owns me! So tough luck people!

Hao's new destiny. Part 9.

Hao was still seething over Dona's parting words. He was glad that Sarah had figured out what was up with her attitude, but as they'd left, Dona had added something else that had left them all a little shaken.

"Oh is that so? Then try standing on your own two legs for once. Your guardians won't be able to protect you when the time comes,"

The only one who wasn't harmed by these words was Auron and Sarah. They just took it full force then threw it over their shoulders and forgot about it.

They spent the rest of the day trying to help the surviving crusaders and Al Bhed. Hao had just finished helping clear up some broken machina, then he looked up to see Sarah using some healing spells on some injured crusaders. The sun was starting to set, and the river that passed under the bridge was glittering in the remaining sunlight.

"You should heal quicker now." Hao heard Sarah say to one of the Crusaders, before walking towards the bridge and watching the sunset. Hao nervously walked towards her. He was shocked when he saw she was crying. Tears gently falling from her eyes, into the river.

Hao quickly ran forward. "What's wrong?" Sarah jumped out of her skin, and span around to face him, whilst wiping her eyes.

"Oh, I'm… fine… it's just, this whole Operation. I knew it would fail… but I thought it would help just a little bit… but no! Nothing at all!" She waved her arms around carelessly, her tears popping up again. "Yet everyone stays faithful to Yevon. Yevon this and Yevon that! Why can't people just do things their own way, like the Al Bhed?" She turned to face the sunset again, trying to dry her eyes again.

Hao wasn't sure how to react. He'd never had to deal with women crying. But he had to do something didn't he? He nervously put his arms around Sarah's shoulders. Sarah's crying faltered slightly, before she turned around, and in front of everyone hugged Hao. Hao cursed himself as his face steamed up again, and also cursed one passing Crusader (mentally) as he yelled rudely, "Get a room! This is a holy place, not a love house!"

Sarah glared at the Crusader, who shivered under its intensity, before walking back towards the Temple, leaving Hao stood still like a fool…

Hao went to bed early that night. He really needed to clear his head. He just couldn't get his head round what was going on. He was in a Shaman free world, where disaster was always waiting around the corner. It was worse when you had feelings that you weren't use to. When he thought this, he meant his feelings to Sarah. He noticed that the feeling was a lot like what he'd felt for his brothers Fiancé, Anna. But this seemed slightly different. He wasn't sure how. It wasn't an infatuation, like it had been with Anna. This was deeper. It wasn't love or anything really serious. Was it? He hardly knew her! But then again, he looked at the relationship with Tidus and Yuna. They were always talking to each other, offering advice and comfort. A lot like with him and Sarah.

He got up and headed outside, frustrated at thinking all the time, just in time to see Wakka walking off laughing, and Tidus looking at his outfit, which looked extremely filthy. For a moment, Hao thought Wakka had made a mess of Tidus's outfit, but when Tidus yelled, "You could of told me sooner!" He guessed that he'd been like that for a while, but hadn't realised.

Hao frowned at the dirt. As Wakka walked past, he whispered. "The stuff all over Tidus is sins toxin. It's meant to drive someone a little loopy."

'Sounds like an excuse to be insane…' Hao thought as Tidus got up and headed indoors, plucking at his clothes in horror…

Next day…

Hao spent most of the morning screeching with laughter, all because poor Yuna's hair was doing a good impression of a dead cat. Sarah just sighed whilst giggling weakly. Auron just politely said, "Once Lady Yuna fixes her hair we leave."

They got to the Moonflow. Hao looked around at the natural beauty. The sun looked like it was in a permanent sunset. The grass was the sharpest of green. Walking along the Moonflow cheered Hao up a little. It was just amazing.

He spotted two Ronso that were way bigger then Kimahri, and had actual horns, unlike Kimahri, whose horn seemed cut off. They sneered horribly when they saw Kimahri. They started taking the mickey out of him for being smaller then them and not having a horn.

Sarah glared at the two Ronso with bitterness. Then she spoke. "Who do you two think you are?"

Kimahri held his hand out to stop Sarah from saying more. He said coldly, "You come to insult Kimahri?"

The Ronso (Biran) sneered with his friend, Yenke. "Wrong, we came to warn Kimahri." He answered correctly.

"Summoners disappear, never return." Yenke continued to inform them.

Hao scratched his chin with interest. Did this have something to do with what that Summoner Isaaru had warned them?

Biran continued, whilst looking at Yuna. "Next will be Kimahri's Summoner." He said, almost sounding concerned. But then Yenke went back to bullying.

"Poor Kimahri." He said in a horrible mocking tone that made Sarah want to punch the Ronso's face in. "First loose his horn, next loose his Summoner!"

"Pitiful Kimahri." Biran added, no longer sounding concerned. "Howl alone. Howl alone!" Then the two overgrown bullies walked off. Sarah gave them a very rude hand gesture behind their backs that made Yuna gasp.

Tidus meanwhile, just looked annoyed. "Do those two have something against you?" He asked. Kimahri didn't reply.

"They were just picking on you?" Tidus continued, looking more annoyed. Kimahri just frowned before saying, "Kimahri deal with them."

Tidus was about to say something else, but Sarah stepped in. "The Ronso deal with Ronso problems." Tidus sighed, before slumping his shoulders.

They eventually got to a nearby lake, where there was full of strange flowers, like lilies, that were surrounded by a few Pyreflies. Tidus gawped at the lake in amazement. Lulu sighed and said simply. "This is the Moonflow."

Tidus didn't reply. He seemed too starstruck by the Moonflows appearance. Hao was amazed too. It was so calm and welcoming.

Sarah ran down to the bank happily. Yuna followed and bent down, stroking on of the flowers that was swaying above the water surface. "These are moonlilies." She told them. "They say clouds of Pyreflies gather here when night falls."

"Really?" Tidus whispered, speaking for the first time since he saw the Moonflow.

"The whole river glows." Lulu said with softness that Hao had never heard before in Lulu's voice. "Like a sea of stars."

Tidus grinned. Hao grinned too. They both said simultaneously, "Hey, we've got an idea…"

Auron interrupted, as though he'd read their minds, "No, we are not waiting till nightfall."

Tidus slumped his shoulders. "Aw…then, we come back once we've defeated sin!"

Hao immediately stiffened, whilst the others just looked uncomfortable. Sarah just quickly walked ahead; trying to avoid the sense of depression that hung in the air from such a very simple sentence that they all knew would never happen…

Hao noticing how she'd walked ahead ran after her, whilst the others followed. Hao froze though when he saw what they would be travelling on. Tidus was so shocked he didn't even notice that Wakka had just banged into him from his sudden halt.

"That's one weird elephant!" Hao said loudly. Sarah just laughed.

"You baka! (Japanese for idiot)" She exclaimed jokingly. "That's a shoopuff!"

Hao stared at the giant rubbery looking thing with no ears for another minute, trying to guess if Sarah was sure it wasn't an elephant. It was certainly big enough to be one.

Sarah walked towards the shoopuff, and patted it happily. A strange blue creature with funny bulging eyes hobbled towards her.

"Are yoush shure it will not harm you's?" The creature asked in a funny voice. Sarah smiled.

"Yes I am sure." She said, tickling the Shoopuff. It made a loud groaning noise. She grinned. The Shoopuff must have been ticklish or something.

Yuna walked forward smiling up at the Shoopuff. The creature turned to face her. "Ride zee Shoopuff?" It asked. Tidus frowned at the creature. Lulu whispered, "That's a Hypello." Tidus nodded.

"Thank you." Yuna said smiling politely at the Hypello.

"All Aboards?" The hypello called. A giant crane type of Machina lowered down for the whole group to climb on.

Hao was a little nervous. "Won't this thing sink?" He asked nervously. Yuna laughed softly. "No, it won't. Shoopuffs are actually very good swimmers."

Tidus meanwhile was peering over the edge of the compartment. "What's all this down here?" He asked Wakka, pointing out the strange ghostly buildings that were just about visible through the murky water.

Wakka frowned, then went on explaining how people had tried building a machina city over water. The others started saying how Machina was what had lead to Sin. Sarah just coughed lightly as if hinting, " So not!" Hao just lounged back, relaxing for the journey. This was probably the only time they'd be travelling, but not walking.

"AH!" Yuna cried. Everyone turned around just in time to see someone had grabbed Yuna and pulled her into the water.

"BLOODY AL BHED!" Wakka bellowed, before diving inot the water head first, along with Tidus, as they were the only ones who could swin. Or so they thought...

"Sarah, what are you doing!" Hao cried as Sarah jumped clumsily into the water. Hao wasn't the strongest swimmer, but he could tred water. He needed to help out in case someone got hurt too badly to help Yuna. But this was more for Sarah's sake. He threw himself over the edge of the shoopuff, and landed into the surprizingly warm water.

Hao nervously looked around, trying to spot the others. He spotted Sarah swimming almost lazily towards a strange underwater Machina which had a giant glass bubble on top. He looked more carefully to see that Yuna was trapped inside it.

Hao wasn't very good at holding his breath, so he quickly resurfaced and yelled to Lulu, Auron and Kimahri, "We know where Yuna is! Sarah, Tidus and Wakka are trying to bust her out!"

Auron raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, bust her out?" Hao rolled his eyes.

"She's jammed. In a big glass bubble on a Giant machina that is." He explained with sarcasm. Auron did his own eye roll. Hao dived back downwards, just in time to see Wakka aim his blitzball as hard as he could at the Machina. Hao, deciding that to sit around and watch wasn't going to be any help, shot a thunder spell at the machina. Sarah quickly dodged out of the way of the spell as it shot passed her, and hit the machina. It gave a very unstable shudder, before continuing with battle.

Eventually, the Machina crumbled, releasing Yuna free of the glass sphere. Wakka and Tidus grabbed her by her arms and dragged her to the water surface. Sarah was out of breath, and was having trouble resurfacing. Hao grabbed her by her hand and tried to pull her to the surface. They broke the surface and clambered back onto the Shoopuff.

Wakka spent the rest of the journeycursing the Al Bhed. Hao was getting pretty annoyed, andhe could see Yuna was getting upset. Hao was more then thankful when Tidus was able to shut Wakka up.Sarah was thankful too. But she really wasn't paying much attention. She was fighting the urge to gently stroke the hand that Hao had grabbed to help her out of the water.

'Why do I want to do that anyway?' She asked herself, looking down at her necklace in hope it would answer all her questions. But of course, it didn't...

Ah… the chapter 9 finally completed! Took me a while, but I hope this will do okay! Please review if you enjoyed this and DON'T FLAME! Constructive criticism is fine though, just don't be too harsh!