BlueEyedRikku and ChloKes and IridescentFlight, thanks for the comments!

The past few chapters may have not been that exciting, but that is because i'm not too fond of this part in the story. As Tidus travels into Besaid, trust me, things will get a lot more lively.

Please RnR!

Chapter Three

The Salvage Mission

When he opened his eyes, he was met with the grey sky again. He stood up and realized that he was still surrounded by the strange men. But, they had escaped the hall. Now, they were on a strange, barge-like boat, floating along in the middle of the murky ocean. He looked around him. It was too foggy to tell, but he suspected that they were probably far, far away from those ruins.

"Ced, lybdeja!" ((Sit, captive!)) One of the men shouted at him. He stabbed at Tidus with the muzzle of his gun. He fell backwards.

"Hey! That hurts!" Tidus told the man.

" Hu sujehk, rayn?" ((No moving, hear?)) The man said, giving him a threatening glare.

Tidus sat on the floor of the boat, wondering what these people wanted from him. The door of the boat's cabin lifted, and out walked the girl from earlier, followed by a tall, well-built man with a blonde Mowhawk. His arms were covered in swooping, blue tattoos, which reminded him of the ocean. He approached Tidus, while the girl jumped up and sat on the boat's railing.

"Caynlr res!" ((Search him!)) The man said loudly. He looked Tidus in the eye. "Fa luimt gemm oui, pid fa'ja taletat du mad oui fung vun ic." ((We could kill you, but we've decided to let you work for us.))

Tidus rolled his eyes. These people seemed to not understand the fact that Tidus simply did not speak their strange language. "Right. Whatever." Was Tidus's response.

The man gave him a confused look. The girl watched with interest as the man spoke again. "Tu oui hud cbayg?" ((Do you not speak?))

"I said," Tidus spoke firmly. "I don't understand!"

"Ehcumahla!" ((Insolence!)) The man screamed. The girl rolled her eyes, hopped of the railing, and looked at the man with a sigh.

"Lyms tufh!" ((Calm down!)) She screamed back at him. Then, turning to Tidus, she calmly spoke. "He says you can stay if you make yourself useful."

Tidus looked at the girl with utter shock. "You understand me?" He gasped, his mouth wide-open, his eyes in a stunned gaze. One of the armed men poked him in the chest with the muzzle of the gun. "All right, I'll work." He said reluctantly.

He followed the girl to the edge of the ship as she explained the job that they needed his help with to him. "So, we found some ancient ruins right beneath us! It's not active now, but there should be some power left. Me and you are gonna go down there and activate it, that okay with you?"

"Sure, whatever. It won't be hard right?"

"Nah." The girl said, pulling her goggles back on. "If we can do that, then we should be able to salvage the big prize! Okay? Let's get to work!"

Tidus nodded in agreement, then climbed onto the railing and dove into the water, which was quite cold, but strangely refreshing. He looked up and watched as the girl did a showy, graceful dive off the railing and landed with a small splash beside him. They both dove down, and Tidus followed the girl down deep into the water.

He finally saw something near the bottom of the water. It looked to be some sort of ruins, a ship perhaps, long sunken in the water. The girl motioned for him to follow into a rotted opening in the wall of the ruins.

Inside was a small room with an old control panel, old enough that it was covered with algae and seaweed and fish had made it their home. The girl swam over and examined it, a curious look on her face. She tapped the screen of the panel with her finger tip, as if trying to figure out how to turn it on. A moment later, she pressed several of the many buttons along the panel and instantly, the screen jolted to life with a bluish glow. The girl looked satisfied and smiled as she began to press some more buttons.

Tidus began to wonder as he watched, were these people good? Or were they an evil sort, living off these ruins in the sea? He didn't know, and he wasn't too sure how he could ask her.

The girl suddenly looked up and turned to the other side of the room, where bubbles had suddenly begun to rise up. Tidus noticed this too, and sensed danger.

From the darkness rose a large head, a menacing face, followed by eight long tentacles. The girl looked alarmed, and Tidus knew, this was a fiend. He reached for his sword, but was too late.

The girl had pulled out a grenade, similar to the one that she had used on the monster in the hall earlier, pulled the cord, and tossed it at the fiend. It floated through the water and hit the octopus-like fiend hard. An explosion rocked the water, sending waves throughout the room, the fiend fell back, defeated.

Motioning for them to leave, the girl swam to the opening from whence they came. Tidus followed, and they both made their way to the surface.

The girl seemed excited as she began to speak rapidly to the men in the strange language. They nodded and began to walk to the cabin.

"Cu, fa vuiht dra yencreb! E cibbuca dryd dra naluntc fana nekrd." ((So, we found the airship! I suppose that the records were right.)) One man said to another as they headed into the cabin.

Tidus looked at the girl. "What's an airship?"

The girl giggled. "Isn't it obvious? It's a ship that can fly. But, this one might not. It's been underwater for a long, long, long time!" She walked towards the cabin, Tidus followed.

One of the men let the girl in, but pushed Tidus back when he tried to enter. "Oui, uidceta!" ((You, outside!")) He shouted, before closing the cabin hatch.

"Hey, I helped, didn't I?" Tidus screamed at the closed door. He sighed and and sat down, leaning his back against the railing.

He waited a long time, probably hours, until the hatch door opened and the girl walked out, thankfully, carrying a tray of food.

She strolled over to Tidus and dropped the tray of food in front of Tidus, along with a canteen of water. "Woah! Right on!" He thanked her cheerfully. He gobbled up the food as the girl watched him with intreuge.

He laughed once he finished eating, realizing that he could finally ask the girl some questions. He started out simple. "Hello there, what is your name?"

The girl was quiet for a moment, perhaps deciding whether or not she could trust him. She must have decided that she could, because she beamed and said softly, "Rikku."

Tidus nearly jumped and hugged her, which surprised her quite a bit. "You really do understand!" He let go of her and introduced himself, then asked her, "Why didn't you tell me so earlier?"

Rikku laughed. "You didn't give me a chance! Everyone thought oui were a fiend!"

"Um...'we?'" Tidus was unclear.

"Oh! Oui means you." She explained.

"Who are you guys anyway?"

Rikku looked surprised. "We're Al Bhed, can't you tell?" She suddenly looked alarmed. "Wait, you're not an Al Bhed hater, are you?"

Tidus shook his head. "I don't even know what an Al Bhed is." It was true. He'd never heard the word before.

"Where are you from?" Rikku asked curiously.

"Zanarkand." Tidus told her, proudly. "I'm a blitzball player. The star player of the Zanarkand Abes!"

Rikku gave him an odd look and was quiet for a moment. "Did you...hit your head or something?" She asked after a moment.

"You hit me." Tidus remembered.

"Oh yeah! Sorry. Do you remember anything before that?"

So, he told her everything that there was to tell about Zanarkand. About life there, blitzball, and Sin's attack. Also, about how Auron and he were engulfed into a light in the sphere. But then he started to wonder, especially because of how solemn Rikku looked.

"Did I...say something funny?" He asked.

"You were near Sin!" Rikku said, alarmed and concerened. "Don't worry. You'll be better in no time. Your head gets funny whenever Sin is near. Maybe you had some sort of dream?"

Tidus was confused. "You mean I'm sick?"

"Because of Sin's toxin, yeah."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Rikku said. "You see, there is no Zanarkand anymore. Sin destroyed it a thousand years ago. So no one plays blitzball there."

This was shocking news to Tidus. "What do you mean, a thousand years ago? I saw Sin attack Zanarkand! You saw that happened a thousand years ago? No way!"

Rikku was silent for a while. Both stood at the edge of the boat, staring into the depths below. She spoke again.

"You said...that you play blitzball?"

She grinned when Tidus nodded. "You should go to Luca. In a few days there's gonna be a big blitzball tournament there. Tons and tons of people are gonna go. You might find someone you know there, or someone you might recognize."

"Luca?" He questioned. "That a city or something?"

Rikku sighed. "Don't worry. I'll get you to Luca, I promise!" She held up her hand to show it. When Tidus looked slightly worried she asked, "You'd rather stay here?"

"No way!"

Rikku smiled. "Wait here. I'll go tell the others!" She ran towards the hatch, but then skidded to a stop. "Oh! One more thing!" She turned and faced him sternly. "Don't tell anyone you're from Zanarkand, okay? Yevon says it's a holy place, and you might upset someone."

His Zanarkand? Some kind of holy place? Yeah right, he thought, since when? And Yevon? Sin? Luca? He thought that Sin took him to some faraway land, that he'd be able to go home in a day or two. But a thousand years into the future? "No way!" He shouted, and the boat began to shake uncontrollably.

The Al Bhed ran out of the cabin to find the source of the shaking. "What did you do?" Rikku asked. He didn't have time to answer.

"Sin!" One of the men screamed. "Sin ec lusa!" Sin is come!

"Ihtan ic! Ihtan ic!" Another shouted. Under us! Under us!

Tidus recognized the it as the beast who had attacked Zanarkand. It seemed to be creating a large whirlpool beside the boat. Water sprayed up onto the deck. Tidus slipped, and fell off of the boat and intot he waves. Rikku screamed and tried to reach for him, but it was too late. The last thing he remembered was falling, falling intot he whirlpool.