Wonderwall
Author: Chaos Valkyrie
Date Conceptualized: January 2, 2006
Posted Chapter 04: February 17, 2006
Updated: April 15, 2008
Author's Note: All right, I've made some changes to my outlines, and 'Song of the Chapter' titles are being struck out.
Chapter Four: Sin, the Magical Mystery Goldfish
I can't sleep. I listen to Rikku breathing softly, mumbling incoherently through some dream. I stand up and leave the cabin, stubbing my toe on the door as I trip ungracefully out into the hallway. Yawning, I walk through the darkened ship, searching aimlessly. I can hear the creaking of the ship as it's rocked gently by the tides, and the distant clanking of boots against metal as the nighttime guards keep an eye out for fiends and Sin.
I finally wander onto the darkened bridge and flop down in a swivel chair that's bolted to the floor. I spin idly for a few moments, looking around at the control rooms and all its many panels and spinning cogs. I turn to the console, lazily pushing a few buttons, more out of habit than anything else… It was so much like being in Janus's lab, running routine diagnostics on his newer systems…
My eyes widen with a sudden realization. This ship, the airship below… according to Rikku, they're all from my time. Which means that perhaps these systems still carry data from my time. Which means that maybe, just maybe, they'll have something to tell me about how to get home, tell me about Sin…
I turn back to the console, and start typing away furiously at the buttons before me.
I hear Rikku stumble into the control room before I actually turn to greet her. My search has been fruitless and frustrating. Any data the system may have possessed has long been erased and rewritten with newer Al Bhed coding. The letters dance before my eyes, a cryptographic jumble of confusion.
"What're you doin'?" Rikku asks, peering over my shoulder. I sigh in frustration.
"I thought that maybe if this system was salvaged from my time, it might contain some data on Sin. But apparently that's all gone now," I snarl disappointedly, waving a hand at the screen. Rikku shrugs.
"Well, my father couldn't make out the old coding, and so he had to wipe it in order to reprogram it to work for the salvage ship," she informs me. I guess I can't fault that…
"I'm sorry. I was just hoping that maybe I could find out something about Zanarkand, about getting home…" I trail off, turning away as I notice the look of pity she's giving me.
"Why don't you come back and get some sleep," she tells me gently. "We've got a long day tomorrow."
Silently I nod and follow her forlornly from the room.
It was a good thing I actually did manage to get some sleep, for the next day sees me working my ass off, bright and early. Apparently, Tidus helped Rikku turn on the power to this huge airship wreck under water. And now I am permitted to help them rig it up to be towed to the island of Bikanel. What fun. I've spent the entire day underwater, running lines and cables. My hands are pruney, the taste of brine has implanted itself in my mouth, but deep down, I don't really mind. I feel at home in the water, it's the one thing that is familiar in my life right now, and the hard work takes my mind off the disappointment from the previous evening…
We've been trying to drain the ship of water during the day, barring doors and using the ship's own vents to help pump the water out of the cavity. Good thing too – the airship looks like it's larger than the salvage ship, and until another ship reaches our location, we've got to do something to make this thing mobile. Turning it into a giant metal bubble sounds like a good idea to me. And I can feel hope blossoming, as I eye the panels flashing at me under the water. The salvage ship may have been reprogrammed, but this ship hasn't been touched yet… 'Perhaps once it's been drained…' I think happily to myself.
Of course, I'd be happier if we didn't have to constantly fight off piranhas and other fishy fiends. Fiends. That was something that took some explaining. So the souls of the dead that are Unsent or have unfinished business become envious of the living and turn into monsters hell bent on destroying anything that breathes. Huh. Sounds like a bad horror movie to me, but since all the fish we fight seem to turn into fairy lights and not bloody corpses, I guess I'll buy it. In any case, Rikku and I have amassed quite a bit of Gil and spheres during the day while we've worked on the ship.
It's my second conscious night here, and I'm already starting to get a little bit of the language under my belts. Speaking of which, since I wore my blitzball wetsuit to work on the ship, I've had several of the guys comment on my two belts and the widely revealing façade of my uniform. Of course, I retaliated by commenting on their overalls-slash-chaps and oversized goggles, which would've escalated into a fight had it not been for Rikku and my utter lack of comprehension of their language. In any case, I get to pass a quiet evening in the cabin after dinner, counting my Gil and spheres and learning how to curse in Al Bhed. Tysh ed, but that was fun.
Of course, not all fun gets to last.
"Rikku, tell me about Sin?" I ask suddenly. She drops the technical manual she's flipping through and eyes me strangely.
"What about it?" she asks cautiously.
"Well, firstly, what is Sin? It seems like a big fish of some sort, but how could a big fish float in midair? How did it bring me from a thousand years ago to today? Were Tidus and I inside it for a 1000 years, or did it somehow carry us through time?" I'm rambling now, and she's staring at me like my head's suddenly turned into Pooky.
"Why are you even asking all of this?" This question I'm prepared for.
"I'm confused and curious and everything else. Why am I here?" I ask her, some of the pain I've been feeling leaking into my voice. "Why did I make it here and no one else did except Tidus? And how did Sin do that in the first place… I don't know anything about it. What it is, how it does what it does… And I guess I'm scared. Like there's some danger looming over me and I don't know what it is, much less how to stop it. So please," I beg her, "Tell me. Everything you know about Sin."
And so she did. She told me about the summoners and the pilgrimages and how they always died in the end. She told me how the Final Aeon could defeat Sin and how the summoners always died, presumably from the effort. And that's when my doubts began, and more questions were raised than answered. We go to sleep soon after, and once again I lay awake, listening to Rikku sleep.
Okay. So what do I know now about Sin? It's a big fish. A big magical fish. It has non-fatal weakness to the Final Aeon. Summoners are the only ones able to summon the Final Aeon. The summoner-sacrifice thing obviously does not work, since Sin has never been truly defeated in one thousand years. And somehow, its appearance is linked to my Zanarkand.
I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm not ever going home. And I'm starting to accept that, even if it still leaves me full of sorrow, because I honestly don't think there's much a home left to go back to. Going home means burying my friends, possibly my brother, but staying here means that I can avoid confronting that reality. I know they're dead, and I know that I'll have to face that fully eventually, but right now, I feel so distanced from the fact. Going to Zanarkand, whether it's the one in this time or the home I just left, will be a huge slap in the face that I'm not willing to deal with right now.
I'll deal with it eventually. The tomorrow after tomorrow. But right now, I can distract myself and tell myself that everything is going to be okay. Even if I still see them dying in my dreams…
The next day, another salvage ship comes into view. I watch in good humor as Rikku hugs and then promptly begins to argue with the bald man who emerges from the other ship's cabin. I am then introduced to Cid, Rikku's dad and leader of the Al Bhed. Of course, Rikku hadn't thought to warn me about that ahead of time, but I play it cool. I then get to spend another day helping Rikku, Pnudran, and Nulg rig this new ship up to the airship below, earning more Gil from numerous fiends.
Once the sun sets and work pauses, I manage to argue over dinner with Pnudran in Spiran over his clothes and curse him in Al Bhed while Rikku giggles madly nearby. Pnudran would've probably argued longer, but a combination of his father's stern commands and Nulg's cautious reminders told him to break off the fight before I punch him. Too bad, I was kinda looking forward to that…
Day four. I don't know why I'm bothering to count the days, really, but it's something to do. We've got the ship up off of the rocks without too much extra damage, and now we're towing it behind the two ships. I'm standing on the deck in my civilian clothes of jeans and a dark red tee-shirt, watching it drift behind us when Cid approaches me.
"Rikku tells me she found ya in the ruins," he states, leaning on the rail next to me and watching the airship with a fond eye.
"Yeah, I got left there by Sin," I tell him. I'm hesitant to mention Zanarkand, after Rikku's urging. He snorts.
"If I've got my way, Sin won't be a problem anymore," he says, nodding at the airship. I look at it thoughtfully.
"Do you think the airship can destroy it?" I ask, unsure. A thousand years ago, there may have been ships capable of such a feat… but this relic doesn't look like it's up to the challenge.
"Probably not… but there are other plans," he tells me before he gets up to leave. I ponder this until Rikku comes bouncing up to me.
"Hey, c'mon! Dad wants me to get you better outfitted to fight fiends," she tells me. I look at her in such confusion that she laughs and drags me across the network of cables to his ship.
Cid's salvage ship is much larger than Maytan's. Rikku waves to several different people, who smile and greet her in return. She doesn't stop, however, until she has dragged me inside to an armory of sorts.
My eyes widen at the array of guns, swords, knives, and various armaments scattered across the walls, shelves and tables. Rikku giggles at my expression, but her voice is serious when she addresses me.
"The fish we've been fighting are relatively weak, but once we get to Bikanel, they'll be a lot stronger. You'll need a better weapon than just your two fists. And armor too," she adds as an afterthought. I nod absently, looking around at all the various weaponry. A glint of steel catches my eye, and my attention is drawn to a seemingly innocuous brown belt and holster. I pick it up and release the leather buckle that holds the heavy pistol in place. The gun is a little bulky, certainly not a 'lady's' weapon, but I like it. I hold it up with one hand and aim, wondering what it would be like to fire it. Rikku giggles behind me, and I turn my head to see her standing there with a big claw covering her right arm.
"You like it?" she asks. I nod, grinning.
"Yeah, I think I'll take it, if it's okay," I tell her. She nods.
"That's fine. Pops said to take whatever you wanted. Here," she says, rooting through a haphazard stack of boxes. She tosses me a box, which clinks as I catch it. "That gun will either run on normal bullets," she says, nodding at the box, "Or on those elemental spheres that fiends sometimes drop. I'll show you how to turn those into ammo later," she tells me, rooting out another box and tossing it to me. I peek inside to see a selection of glowing orbs, and I assume they must be the elemental gems she was referring to.
"Now for armor," she mutters absently, rooting through a chest of drawers on the far end of the room. I quickly buckle the gun belt around my waist, shifting the holster so that it's within easy reach of my right hand. I practice drawing a couple of times, trying to see how fast I can have the gun out and ready.
Rikku is tossing armbands and bracelets and all manner of things about the room as she roots through the drawers. She finds a shield-like something that glitters with a strange light, and lashes it onto her own arm. "This is a targe," she tells me, rooting again in the drawers. I shake my head, peering over her shoulder as she mutters unintelligibly in Al Bhed.
"That one," I say, grabbing a silver and black wrist guard from over her shoulder. She looks up at me as I strap it to my left wrist.
"Um, that's a bracer," she tells me, grinning.
"Okay," I say, lifting my wrist and twisting it. It seems to fit all right.
"It's typically a guy's armor," she tells me, a twinkle in her eye.
"And I don't care," I smile at her. She grins wider.
"All right, I warned you," she tells me. She grabs a tool kit and lugs it and me to a table set across the room. "Now I'll show you how to customize your weapons and armor," she says, flipping the box open and setting to work.
The next few hours are spent customizing. Rikku informs me that a lot of the fiends on Bikanel are weak against fire, ice, and lightning, so she shows me how to make ammunition from the elemental spheres and how to differentiate between them. She then roots around the room again until she finds some small pouches that I can clip on to the gun belt to hold my ready supply of ammunition. She also finds a couple of spare clips for the gun for faster reloading.
We pull out all the spheres we've collected the last few days, and Rikku helps me add the Sensor ability to the pistol, so that I'll more easily be able to tell what the different fiends' weaknesses are. She then explains about Overdrives and stealing from enemies and differing battle conditions, then laughs at my confusion. She decides that we'll practice on Bikanel, where it'll be easier for her to demonstrate these things in battle, rather than trying to tell me.
The bracer we rework to up its defensive properties against magic and physical attacks. As I restrap it to my wrist, I can feel the energy pulsing off of it. It feels strange to me, but ultimately makes me feel safer. I grin as Rikku works on her targe, something bubbling up through me. I realize its gratitude.
"Rikku, I just want to thank you," I start, and she looks up at me, "For everything you've done for me the past few days. Just… thanks," I feel lame, but she just smiles.
"That's okay," she tells me, and we smile at each other in understanding.
"You're like the little sister I always wished for," I tell her, and she sticks her tongue out at me.
"And you're like the big sister I always wished I could trade my brother for," she returns, and we both chuckle as the dinner bell rings overhead.
End Notes: I reworked this chapter from the original draft. I've got some new ideas for this story, and its going to deviate behind the scenes somewhat from the main plotline. This story may end up longer or slight shorter than what I have planned, but not by much. Look for Chapter 05 next weekend! Toodles!