A Generation of Aeons
Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X or X-2

Last Time:

Kiron looked at her slightly confused. "To show your rank as a summoner. My apologies, you must still be tired from earlier, Seru and I'll leave so you and your guardian can get some sleep."

Takoire stood up and followed them, "Uh, Lady Seru, was it? I was hoping I could talk to you," he put on a cheery smile, "you know, guardian stuff."

Seru tried to give a smile back. "Of course, we can talk outside?"

"Sure," Takoire replied back and followed her out of the room.

A few hours later, Kiron took Lenne to the temple priests to find her clothes new summoner clothes, but the new made summoner turned all of them down. Instead, she found an old object that had long been forgotten by the summoners and priests of the temple of Suzaku. A necklace a with a silver chain and a silver plate, Lenne found it at the bottom of a rusty, old trunk the priests had stored away years ago. Unbeknownst to all, the moment Lenne's fingers had touched the age-old necklace, her summoner's brand and the image of Suzaku had been engraved into the necklace in the form of a chokin.

Afterwards, Kiron took it upon himself to show Lenne around the city, under the impression that Lenne, herself, was from Zanarkand. One of Kiron's guardians, Zaon, had accompanied them the whole day, but had never said a word. Lenne wondered whether or not he was the Zaon her parents had mentioned, but that was not her primary concern. Lenne had not seen her newly made guardian since he had left earlier that morning with Kiron's other guardian, Lady Seru.

The day was coming to a close, only a few hours left before the sun went down. Kiron, Lenne, and Zaon returned to the temple. They spotted Seru chatting with one of the priests just outside the door.

Kiron yelled to her. "Seru! Where have you been? We've gone through the entire city and we never ran into you!"

She bowed to the priest and turned to Kiron smiling. "Sorry Kiron, I was just going over a few questions Takoire had. Sorry I took so long."

Lenne looked around. "Where is Takoire by the way? He, uh, he said he'd take me somewhere later."

Seru gave an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, we split up an hour or two ago. He said there was something he needed to take care of. Sir Takoire said it couldn't wait."

Not a moment sooner, Takoire came into view jogging to them. He waved to them. "Hey!" he greeted them with his usual grin. "Miss me?"

Kiron gave a quick reply. "Not particularly. I believe Lenne had a fine time with us today. Didn't you, Lenne?"

She laughed. "Yeah, it was great. You should have come, Takoire."

The guardian gave a playful shrug. "Sorry, wish I could have. I'm your guardian now, right? But I'm quite sure I left you in Sir Zaon's capable hands." he glanced at the armored guardian. "But I did promise I'd take you somewhere later didn't I?"

Lenne nodded. "Right, hey! Why don't you all come too! How about it Kiron, Zaon, Seru?"

Kiron looked at her with an intriguing smile. "Where is it we'll be going exactly?"

"Takoire promised to show me the chokin on the beach at sunset."

The prince of Zanarkand slightly turned his head towards his two guardians standing behind him. "What do you think? I believe that's the only thing left we have yet to see." Kiron threw a smile Lenne's way. "I believe we would all like that very much."

Lenne faced Takoire. "It's ok, right?"

He smiled at her. "Course! The more the merrier right?" Lenne gave a nod of approval. "But there's something I need to take care of in the city first. I have a press conference…"

"Promoting your career I see," Kiron noted.

With a clenching fist only Kiron could see, Takoire's expression remained the same. "Not quite." the guardian looked to Lenne, "You should go with them. I'll catch up with you later."

"I'll go with you," Lenne suddenly interjected.

"Huh?"

"I'm your summoner, right?"

Takoire nodded his head unsurely. "Right…"

"So any business of my guardian is my business too, right?"

"No…" Takoire groaned and shook is head. "Why do I have a feeling that no matter what I say you're going to be coming along anyway?"

She gave him a look that said, sorry, no wait I'm not, you don't really have a choice. "Kiron, why don't you, Seru and Zaon meet us down on the beach later, just before sunset?"

Kiron nodded. "Of course."

With a final wave from Lenne, the two began the trek back towards the city. They faded from view, and Kiron whispered into his guardian Seru's ear, "Seru, I think I just had my heart stolen."

She could only grimace.

Takoire and Lenne sat in a small room, a deafening cheering just outside the door made the tiny space seem even more diminutive.

"Remember Lenne, once I make my announcement, I can almost guarantee that at least one person is going to suspect that you're my summoner. Things are going to go insane at that point. Don't, under absolutely no circumstances, do not say anything." the blitzball player finished fiercely.

The new summoner nodded. "Fine, I won't say anything."

He raised an eyebrow. "I would prefer you not being there at all, staying inside would have been enough." Lenne gave him a look that he couldn't resist. "Ok, so it wouldn't have been enough, for you anyway." Lenne responded with a smug smile.

The room's door opened suddenly. "Mr. Takoire, we're ready for you."

Takoire shrugged and stood up with Lenne following his example. They walked through the door, the blitzball captain leading out first, and what once was a deafening crowd of cheering became ear-splittingly intense as the crowd realized he was emerging.

Complying with their wishes, Takoire smiled brightly and took his place behind the podium while Lenne stood behind him on his right. She looked to his other side and saw a man so alarmingly familiar she couldn't help but notice. Before she could ponder it, Takoire began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to make an announcement!" within a few moments, the crowd had quieted enough for Takoire to continue."

"First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for coming out. But to get straight to the point," Takoire said, "I would like to announce that in the past forty-eight hours… I have been a guardian."

The crowd began to stir, speaking to one another in confusion. The sphere recorders stayed glued to him while the blonde man standing next to Lenne watched Takoire with a gaping mouth.

"So, because of my new position, I will be resigning as captain of the Zanarkand Abes." No sooner had the words left his mouth, an uproar took hold of the crowd, they all spoke angrily to each other in confusion, taking hold of the man on Lenne's side, Takoire pulled him over and the expression of shock remained on his face.

"Shuyin is to be the next captain of the Abes, starting from right now. I encourage everyone here to cheer on either the Abes or Aurochs in tonight's championship game. I'll try to remain as neutral as possible, cough, cough."

A few in the crowd laughed but most were still uneasy at Takoire' prior announcement. "Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for coming out today, and enjoy the game tonight. I'll be seeing you around."

The former captain gave a serious nod in Lenne's direction and one up of the up close sphere recorders had seen it. One of them lunged towards Lenne. "Hey! Are you Takoire's summoner?"

Lenne looked at Takoire, slightly alarmed as more and more people's attention came to her. Takoire glared down at the sphere recorder who had grabbed hold of Lenne's left with a fierce gaze, and locking eyes with him, the sphere recorder quickly let go. "Shuyin! Get Lenne out of here now!"

With a loyal nod, the man called Shuyin took Lenne and led her back to the small room from earlier. "Sorry I sort of grabbed you like that. But Captain Takoire…."

The man with shortly cut blonde hair and piercing blue eyes looked at her with the most sincere face of disappointment Lenne had ever seen. "So, the captain wasn't kidding huh?"

"Trust me, if I had known I would have found some way to stop him. I didn't even have any idea of what he was doing." Lenne responded, finding it strangely hard to look at him too long.

He didn't seem to notice. "Huh, who'd have thought? Typical of him though, doesn't exactly show the game plan until the last minute."

"Is he always so impulsive?"

Shuyin shook his head. "At first glance, it looks rather impulsive, trust me, I know. But Takoire's actually analyzing everything out, then he makes the best possible decision." Shuyin laughed. "Jeez, it's like he's had military training or something, and he sees a blitzball game like a battlefield. But that's why the Abes need him, I don't know why he made me captain, I know Kaenig would have been a good leader for us."

"You're right, but instead I chose you." Takoire's hand fell on the new captain's shoulder. "Kaenig would and still could be a good captain of the Abes, see, you can already see the qualities a good leader needs. You're always thinking about everyone's else's good and you almost never think about yourself."

"But-but, why not do this tomorrow? After the final championship game was over, don't ya think this is kind of bad timing?"

Takoire looked at Shuyin with an amused smile. "I think the timing couldn't have been any better. If you win tonight's game, and I know one hundred percent you will, I'll be old news and you'll be the buzz around Zanarkand."

"But, they're not going to follow me."

Takoire couldn't help but smile. "Maybe not, but they'll follow what I thought was best for the team and they'll respect you for it," Shuyin continued to look at him unsurely, "even Kaenig."

Lenne as well tried to give the new captain a reassuring smile. "Try not to worry about it too much. I've found that it only makes matters worse."

Shuyin looked at Takoire. "I'm guessing this is your summoner?"

The ex-blitzball captain and now guardian nodded. "Lenne, Shuyin, Shuyin, Lenne."

The young man held out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Studying him for a moment, Lenne accepted his hand. "Yeah, you too."

"Lenne's a pretty name," Shuyin commented, trying to be as friendly as possible to his mentor's summoner.

But in Lenne's eyes, a cloud of confusion suddenly dispersed. "Trust me, I'm sure you'll meet someone else named Lenne who you'll get along with just fine."

Taking a glance out a window, Takoire motioned to Lenne, "We should get going if we want to catch that sunset. And Shuyin," Takoire added, "would you mind telling the boys for me that I'm sorry I couldn't make it."

With a defeated smirk, Shuyin nodded, "Whatever you say captain."

"I thought I just told you that I'm not your captain anymore."

"You'll always be a captain to the Abes Takoire." Shuyin said as he held out his hand.

Takoire took it gladly, "Ok then. It's time to get going. Lenne and I have a prior engagement. And by the way, good luck tonight, I can almost guarantee you won't need it though."

The light over Besaid was beginning to dim and Takoire and Lenne made their way down to the beach, they watched as the sun began to hit the chokin built into the buildings of the city.

Takoire grinned. "See, I told you we'd get here in time."

In return, Lenne rolled her eyes. "Right, as soon as we had made a 'quick stop' at the blitzball stadium."

"Hey! I had to make sure that Shuyin and the boys were doing all right."

"But I thought you said he'd make a great captain!"

"Well yeah," Takoire said, "look, there's this saying in my family. If you believe you're ready to be a leader or that you are a leader, you're as far from it as you can be. You don't know when you're ready, but those above you do."

The sunset was over and the darkness was getting deeper and deeper by the minute when Lenne spoke. "Speaking of your family, if you don't want to talk about it, it's ok, but you really don't talk about them much."

"Oh, my family," although Lenne couldn't see his face, Takoire's voice carried a wave of discomfort.

He tried to walk away, but instead, he tripped over Lenne's feet, falling down onto the sand in the process and taking his summoner down with him.

"Oh shoot! Sorry Lenne!" he shouted as they fell, hitting the sand. He looked at her sheepishly. "I forgot to tell you that I'm a little bit of a klutz." He finished by pushing himself off of Lenne, leaning on his hands for support.

"Ok, so now you're a former hot shot blitzball player captain and now guardian, who likes to keep to himself, never has company, and sometimes has a good sense of humor, but at times, shows a glimmer of deep thinking as well as being a klutz." Lenne finished her monologue with a stern stare before a summoner and guardian began to break into laughter.

Standing on the summoner's bluff, Kiron watched the pair thoughtfully as he could see Takoire's outline helping Lenne up. "It seems there is a new reason for us to be rivals, Lord Takoire…"

Author's Note:

Final Revision.