Wonderwall
Author: Chaos Valkyrie
Date Conceptualized: January 2, 2006
Posted Chapter 03: February 10, 2006
Updated: April 15, 2008
Author's Note: Yep. Chapter Three. Yep. Don't own anything. Yep… I'll have four next weekend? And why am I saying so many yeps… Hm. Must be the coffee.
Chapter Three: Unexplained
"So, you're telling me that Zanarkand – my Zanarkand – was destroyed a thousand years ago?!"
Rikku, as the girl calls herself, rubs her head wearily. I guess I can't blame her. From what I understand, Tidus beat his head against this particular brick wall with her earlier.
"For the umpteenth time, yes," she sighs, cradling her mug of cocoa. I slurp some coffee from my own mug, my head reeling.
"But… Garen, my teammates… Janus…" I trail off, head sagging. I've already cried so much that there really aren't too many more tears emerging – right now. I'm sure more'll find their way out later, but right now I'm still stuck on… yup. You guessed it.
"A thousand years ago?!"
Rikku gives me an evil glare, which I ignore as I stare into my coffee. A thousand years ago. A thousand… years… ago… But then…
"How am I here?" I ask aloud, and she tilts her head as she studies me.
"Its Sin's toxin. You've just… forgotten where you're really from," she answers, but I can hear the doubt in her voice. Sure, she could've written all this off had it just been me, or Tidus, but both of us insisting that we're from an ancient, destroyed city… she's confused too.
"I don't think so," I answer forcefully, my eyes boring into hers. "I wish I could forget… but I watched my friends die, remember?" We both wince, then my eyes brighten as a light bulb flares to life over my head. "Besides, look at the back of my uniform," I tell her, pointing to my back. She stands up and peers at the insignia on my jacket…
"Zanarkand Duggles, C-South," I quote out loud. She frowns thoughtfully.
"But even so…" she replies. I know what she's getting at. I've been trying to scale that particular wall myself.
"I know. How'd I get a thousand years in the future?" I ask resignedly.
We decided to give up on jumping that hurdle for now. Rikku takes me on a tour of the salvage ship, but she cautions me before we leave the galley.
"Now, don't tell anyone you're from Zanarkand," she says, and I tilt my head in confusion.
"Why not?"
"Because it's a sacred place now, and some people on the mainland would be offended if you claim you're from there," she explains. I snort. Zanarkand, a holy place? I think of all the gangs and strip clubs and the neon lights, and grin. No way in hell.
Before I realize what she's doing, Rikku reaches around me, and with a quick flick of her wrist and a tearing noise, I feel something rip from my back.
"Hey!" I protest, but its too late and she's handing me the 'Zanarkand Duggles' insignia patch that I had shown her earlier.
"Most of the others on the ship can't read common Spiran, but you don't want anyone seeing this when we get to shore," she tells me. I sigh, resigned as I stuff it in a pocket. I know she means well, but my pride aches. She ignores my melancholy and grins, grabbing my wrist and pulling me into the hallway.
The salvage ship is like a huge metal quilt, I discover. The Al Bhed, Rikku's people, are scavengers of the land, sea, and Rikku assures me, soon to be air. This ship is a patchwork of various mechanical parts they've gathered from all over Spira. From the lowest hold to the highest deck, she gives me the grand tour, bouncing around like she's on a sugar high. And momentarily, because she's so infectious, I forget my pain as she opens hatches and grates and shows me greasy, spinning gears and messes of taped up wires like they're something special. And really, I guess to her they are.
My tour ends as a bell clangs overhead. Rikku grins, reassuring me that it's only the dinner alarm. Frankly, I'm starving, so I don't protest as she leads me to the dining hall. She sits me down at a table, and I sit there, embarrassed, enduring the stares and leering glances from some of the others. My eyes meet those of the man I punched earlier, and he looks away quickly, causing me to grin.
Rikku sets a tray down in front of me, and I try to force myself to eat slowly. Still, I'm finished long before she is, and I sit back, content.
"So Rikku," I begin, after having watched the others around us, "Do you think you could teach me to speak Al Bhed?" She grins, nodding her head vigorously.
"Of course! It's real easy to learn! You just…" and she's off, explaining about how to switch the letters around and how to translate from Spiran (which I had no idea that that was what I was speaking) to Al Bhed. The conversation lasts through the rest of dinner, where I learn a few basic words like "oui" meaning "you" and so on.
After the meal ends, she introduces me to several of the other crew members. The blond boy who had been with her I discover to be her brother, named oddly enough, Pnudran, or 'Brother' in Al Bhed. How original. The man I had punched was Nulg, and the captain of the ship was Rikku's cousin, named Maytan. They all seem friendly, but as Rikku jabbers away in Al Bhed, I notice most seem confused about my presence. Who I was, where I was from… I never hear her mention Zanarkand, so I assume she must've made something up. About Sin's toxin or whatever.
Rikku and Maytan seem to come to some sort of agreement, for she grabs my arm excitedly and half-drags me out of the room. She doesn't stop or let go of me until we reached a metal door. Dropping my arm, she looks at me and grins.
"You and I get to share sleeping quarters for right now, until we get back Home," she tells me, showing me the sequence of buttons to push to allow access to the room. Its sparse, two cots with non-descript bedding, a tall dresser and a small porthole. My bag is resting on the far cot, and I look at her questioningly. Her smile turns wistful, one foot toeing the ground self-consciously.
"Well, I was hoping Maytan would let us room together," she mumbles, and I grin.
"That's fine," I say, unzipping the bag. My normal clothes were inside, my ball, everything. I see something flying at my head from the corner of my vision, and I manage to catch the pajamas before they can smack my face. Rikku chuckles.
"Good catch," was all she said as she changes into her own pair. I slip out of my uniform and into the pajamas – and as I thought, the pants rise several inches above my ankles, while the camisole top bares my midriff. I grin as Rikku laughs behind me.
"Well, it would seem you've got some more growing to do," I tell her, and she sticks her tongue out at me in reply. I pull out 'Pooky' and play with it idly as I sit on cross-legged on the bed. Rikku's sprawled on her stomach, eyeing me thoughtfully.
"You play blitzball, right?" she asks. I nod, spinning the ball on my finger. "Well, there's a tournament coming up in Luca," she says thoughtfully, "Maybe you could go with our team. You might find someone who knows you there," she trails off. "Maybe we'll find Tidus there… I told him that'd be the best place to go."
I stop playing with the ball as I hear the doubt in her voice. I smile at her, softly. "I'm sure he's all right, Rikku. Tidus has always been the luckiest pain-in-the-ass I've ever had the displeasure of playing against."
She giggles. "Do you really hate him so much?" she asks. I stop and think about it.
"Well, maybe hate is too strong a word. More like… I guess I hated what a big deal everyone made about him. His father was a famous player, and so now everyone treats him like he's the best player in the world, all because of his dad. I mean," I correct myself, "Tidus is a good player and all, I'll admit it, but he's also reckless and has a history of bad calls. He's just not a team player sometimes…" I trail off. In a way, just thinking about blitzball and Tidus has me sad again, thinking about the games we've played… my teammates…
"Jael," Rikku cuts in, and I realize I'm crying again. I curse inwardly and forcefully wipe the tears away. Crying won't bring anyone back.
"Sorry… just… remembering," I tell her. I smile, sadly reassuring her that I'll be all right. She frowns before hopping over to my bed and giving me a hug.
"It'll be okay," she whispers, and I just nod and hug her back. She hops back over to her own bed, and we make idle chit-chat for a few more minutes until I see her trying vainly to hold back a yawn.
"We should go to sleep," I tell her, and she grins sheepishly and hops over to turn out the lights. I hear the cot next to mine creak as she settles in, but my eyes stay open to the darkness long after I hear her gentle breathing fill the cabin.
Why was I here? Myself, and Tidus? If we were really a thousand years in the future… what of it? What was it that we had to do? And would we ever get home after it was done?
And most importantly, what kind of home would we have to return to?
Song of the Chapter: Unexplained – Meat Puppets. All the chapters now will just be named after their song inspirations… just because. I picked this song because it talks about how things are the same but not… "They are not stars/we are not human/I don't know the reason why/a firefly is just a candle, just a flower in my eye/and so a rose is not a rose by that or any other name/things remain unexplained." Jael's in a world where things look the same, but aren't. Go figure.