Wonderwall
Author: Chaos Valkyrie
Date Conceptualized: January 2, 2006
Posted Chapter 06: March 3, 2006
Updated: April 15, 2008
Author's Note: Whoohoo! New chapter that I didn't have to re-edit because it fit with the newer version of the story line! Yay! And thanks to everyone who's reviewed… I try to answer those things, but sometimes I forget about going over there and who I've replied to. Sorry… I'll try to be better! Promise! And we see Auron this chapter! Rrowr…
Chapter Six: Pledge
Rikku and I were to leave that night to travel with the team to Luca. It was decided that after the match, she and I would travel with the others by ship to the Mushroom Rock where Operation Mi'ihen was to commence. We eat dinner quickly and then spend the next hour packing up our meager belongings for the trip before us. Rikku finds it highly entertaining that I am so incredibly anal in my packing. She keeps glancing over my shoulder at the neat rows of ammunition and potions that I've lined up in my bag.
"I'm a neat freak, so just drop it," I tell her succinctly, and wince as I watch her throw her things haphazardly into a knapsack. All she packs is a change of clothes, her pajamas, her claw, targe, and a mess of potions and antidotes and grenades.
My bag, on the other hand, is neatly organized, my civvies folded into a nice little square with my new, better fitting pajamas on top. I'm wearing my Duggles uniform on the ship, and my bracer is strapped to my arm. I buckle my pistol about my hips, and then double-check to make sure that all my potions and ammo are neatly grouped in my bag. My mental inventory complete, I place my blitzball on top of the pile, along with my wallet full of all my battle-earned Gil and my bag of spheres on top.
Rikku giggles as she watches my pack my blitzball. She had discovered, much to my dismay and her amusement, that its name was 'Pooky'. I vowed that I would tape my mouth shut if necessary to keep any more of my embarrassing secrets from escaping in my sleep. Evil roommate.
Rikku bounces ahead of me to the ship, and I'm following her at my own pace when a burly hand reaches out and pulls me into a small alcove off the hallway. I open my mouth to complain, but stop when I see the look on the man's face. It's Cid, and he looks frighteningly serious.
"You're going with Rikku to the game, and then to Mi'ihen?" he asks. I nod.
"That's what we've decided," I tell him. He gives me a once over.
"Well, you're not much," he says, and I have to restrain myself from punching him, "But I've seen ya fight, and ya ain't bad. I want ya to promise me somethin'," he tells me, and the anger leaves me as I stare into his eyes. I think I already know what's coming as he hands me a knife only slightly longer than my hand.
"Swear to me that you'll watch out for Rikku," he tells me. Yup, saw that coming. "She's headstrong and doesn't always think before she acts. And she's my only girl," he trails off for a moment before continuing. "I'm passing the orders fer both of ya to work the cannons, which should keep her safer… but this is Sin we're fighting, so it ain't safe enough. Watch her back for me," he says fiercely. I nod.
"I would've done so anyway, Cid. She helped me when I was friendless and alone. And even if I didn't have that debt to repay, she's my friend now… and I've seen too many friends die recently to let another one go," I tell him. He nods roughly, and I seal the pact by lifting the dagger and slicing my palm open. I manage to keep the wince off my face as I squeeze the blood through my fingers and say, "I swear I'll protect Rikku for you."
Cid nods, then laughs as I try to hand the dagger back to him. He hands me a sheath and cloth, and I wipe the blade off and buckle it to the left side of my belt. I can hear Rikku calling, and after nodding to him one last time, I hurry to join her.
A couple of days later, unable to sleep, surprise surprise, I walk out on the deck and watch the skies overhead. We'll reach Luca mid-afternoon tomorrow, then play the next morning. Once the championship ends, we'll head on to the Mushroom Rock for Operation Mi'ihen. I heard some of the battle plans earlier, but I still wonder if it'll work. Sin's been here for a thousand years… wouldn't someone have tried something like this by now?
Unbeknownst to me, my roommate is a much lighter sleeper than I gave her credit for. I hear her yawn from close behind me, and I turn with a small grin.
"Shouldn't you be in bed, missy?" I ask her lightly. She bounces up to the railing, all energy even at this dark hour.
"Shouldn't you be, old lady?" she retorts, and I stick my tongue out at her in response. Ever since she had found out that I was twenty-one years old, she had been tormenting me relentlessly about being 'old', which to her fifteen years, I suppose I am.
"Well, unlike some people, I don't have a bedtime," I jeer back. She gasps in fake injury.
"I'm telling Dad!" she retorts, and we both laugh.
"Your dad would probably just tell you to suck it up," I respond. She gives me a lopsided grin.
"You're probably right."
We watched the sky in silence for a while, before she asks, in a much different voice, "Jael, do you think it'll work?"
I know she's referring to Mi'ihen, and so I turn and meet her serious gaze with my own.
"I'm not sure, kiddo. I don't know all that much about Sin or Yevon or your machina, but I think if there's a will, there'll be a way," I reply honestly. She sighs and looks out over the waters before us.
"I hope so," she states. "I want the Al Bhed to be restored. Right now, we're outcasts, living on the edge, reviled by Yevon. I don't care about Yevon itself," she says, looking me in the eyes, "But the believers of Yevon hate us."
"Why?" I ask quietly.
"I guess because we don't follow Yevon, and because we use machina, which is supposed to be forbidden. But why shouldn't we use it?" she asks me, and I shrug.
"It seems harmless enough to me," I tell her, and she nods emphatically.
"We've made all sorts of breakthroughs by studying it, in travel and medicine and communication…" she continues on about the wonders of technology, and I start to chuckle. She trails off, looking at me in confusion.
"What's so funny?" she asks.
"Nothing. I was just thinking how well you and Janus would get along," I reply.
"Janus… he's your brother, right?" she asks, and I nod in reply. "Tell me about him?"
I sigh, looking up at the stars. "Well, he was five years older than I, about six feet tall, and we looked enough alike that there was no doubt we were siblings." I look at her, and she waits for me to continue. "He loved machina, just like you. He would work in the lab all day, wiring new contraptions together, then program all night long only to scrap it and start all over again the next day. He'd wander around with grease on his nose for hours and never realize it. Some of the best memories I have of him are from working in the lab, each of us doing our own thing, but together, you know?"
"Sounds like he was a great guy," she tells me quietly. I grin.
"He was the best," I agree. Not long after, we go back to bed.
The next day passes quickly, talking over game strategy with various members of the Psyches. The ship docks in late afternoon, and Rikku gives me a slight pep talk before we left the ship.
"Now, don't let anyone get to you out there," she tells me, nodding at the city before us. I was staring at the city, deep in thought. This was the second largest city in Spira, and it still didn't hold a candle to Zanarkand. But it still looked like a nice town, warm, friendly. Probably all that much nicer for not sharing Zanarkand's neon sheen.
"Are you listening to me?" Rikku interrupts my thoughts, and I grin apologetically.
"Cunno," I tell her.
"Anyway," she snorts, "Just remember – you're with the Al Bhed, so you might get treated a little… not nicely," she finishes lamely. "And don't mention Zanarkand at all!"
"Yes, ma'am," I say with a mock-salute. She rolls her eyes at me and grabs my arm.
"C'mon, let's go look around before it gets dark," she says, dragging me off the ship.
We wander Luca for a few hours, taking in the sights. We hit the theater and browse the music spheres and movie spheres, but neither of us has quite enough Gil in our pockets that we dare wasting so much on a single sphere.
We wander into the stadium, and I'm nostalgic suddenly for the stadium back home. Zanarkand's was much bigger and cleaner, making the Luca stadium seem… almost quaint. We pass other blitzers as we mill about, and from the stands I watch as different teams practice in the blitz sphere. I try to point out different techniques to an indifferent Rikku, but she quickly gets bored and drags me back to the ship.
Of course, she gets frustrated as I spend the next few hours talking technique with Nimrook and Eigaar. She stubbornly pokes at her food during dinner and finally declares she's going to bed early. I apologize to her, and she accepts it, but I can tell she really wants a change of subject. I follow her out and we talk about machina for another hour before we turn in early.
The next morning dawns, and I feel the jittery butterflies dancing in my stomach as I put on my uniform and prepare for the match. After a quick breakfast and lecture from Berrik, the captain, we head for the stadium as a team. I wave goodbye to Rikku, Nulg, and the crew as they wish us good luck from the ship. They'll come to the stadium later, after we've discovered when and who we'll be playing.
We enter the stadium and we're veering towards the locker rooms when I see him, my only other link to Zanarkand besides Tidus. A flash of red, a glint on sunglasses; I'm not sure what it is that attracts my attention to him, but as soon as I spot him, I gasp in recognition. I jerk past Lakkam and run over to the man I see, yelling incoherently in a mixture of Spiran and Al Bhed. The spectators are staring, but I don't care, and suddenly I'm heaving as I stand before him, and he's just so… aloof. One eyebrow quirks over his glasses, and I can't see his eyes through the tinted lenses…
He's impatient, I can tell. But now that I'm standing here, what the vilg do I say?
"You…" I pant. He snorts and I blush. Great beginning, me.
"I have no time for fan girls," he states in that deep, monotonous voice. Cocky bastard. Mmm, deep voice. I shake my head to clear my thoughts, and suddenly blurt out…
"Hey, we're dressed kinda alike…" I don't even wait for his eyebrow to quirk before I smack my own forehead with my hand. True, we do both have the red-black-silver thing going, but I really need to think before I speak. Rikku must be rubbing off on me. He turns away from me, slowly walking up the steps to the stands, and I can hear Nimrook behind me, shouting to me impatiently in Al Bhed.
"E'mm pa drana eh y vilgehk sehida!" I yell back, then charge partway up the steps after the Red Guy.
"You! I'm not done with you!" He pauses, but I can tell he's not going to turn around. Sure enough, he starts walking again.
"I saw you! With Tidus!" I yell, and this time he freezes for real. His head turns quickly, and this time I can see his left eye peering at me over his glasses, fathomless. He turns fully, and now I see that it's his only eye – the other is closed by a scar, destroyed by some ancient injury.
"And you… you were standing… on the bridge… in the light," I say, my voice lower, breaking. The crowds are jostling past us, no one paying us any mind, like we're the only two people standing here on the stairs. "The night Zanarkand was destroyed." I gulp, and we're just staring at each other, confusion radiating from both of us. No one else matters at this point, it's just me and him, and hopefully the answers he can give me. "How…"
The moment breaks when Eigaar grabs my arm and yanks me down the steps. I'm so off-balance that I half fall and he supports me, yanking me through the crowds and cursing in Al Bhed. I look back, and he's still standing there, a rock standing firm in the tides of the masses, staring at me. But then a group of tall cat-like creatures pass in between us, and when they've moved out of the way, he's gone.
I pull Eigaar to a halt, and before he realizes what's going on, I've decked him one and he's staring up at me from the floor. Without another word, I march towards the locker room, wiping a tear from my eye.
I've got to stop crying. I'll have my answers soon enough.
Apparently, we're playing the worst team in the history of blitzball on Spira. I snort, still distracted by the Crimson Avenger I spotted earlier. Berrik is impatient with me, but I continue to ignore his pre-game pep talk. Then he's got a comsphere, and I watch disinterestedly as Nulg's face comes up. Going back to my internal debate, I only vaguely hear talk of summoners and something to do with the game.
A few more minutes, and suddenly the team is standing. I shake myself out of my reverie…
There's a game to play, after all, and blitzball waits for no woman.
Chapter Six Al Bhed Translations:
"E'mm pa drana eh y vilgehk sehida!" "I'll be there in a fucking minute!"
End Notes: Mmmm… Auron goodness… I just kicked Yunalesca's butt last night in my game, and can I say I really hate her? Not only is she skanky, but she killed young-hot-Auron. And yes, I was ogling a video game character throughout all those flashbacks they show in Zanarkand… meh. Not that older-gruff-Auron is any less attractive… hm. Think I'll stop while I'm not ahead…