A Generation of Aeons
Chapter Fourteen

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

Last Time:

Takoire couldn't help but give his summoner a smirk. "Another one of your aeons I'm guessing, Lenne."

She smiled cleverly at him. "Takoire, Ifrit. Ifrit, Takoire."

The aeon again roared aloud, this time, catching even more bystanders' attention. Takoire looked at it with a grim and skeptical look. "Ifrit…"

With a nod towards Ifrit, Lenne smiled. "Thank you."

Ifrit waved one of its arms away and jumped back briefly before he pushed back on his legs, disappearing to wherever he came. Ryak ran to the spot where Ifrit had been and looked around in amazement. "What-What was that thing!"

Lenne just smiled and glanced at Takoire who was laughing nearby. "Just Ifrit."

Night had fallen on Kilika, and all the summoners, priests, nuns, and guardians sat in what seemed a dinner hall. Ryak sat at the head of the table while Lenne, Takoire, Kiron, Zaon, and Seru sat around him.

"Milord Kiron, we must send word of this to Zanarkand. He needs to know what is happening! Once word reaches him that assassins from Bevelle attacked you…"

"Enough, Zaon!" Kiron yelled out. "Why? If my father finds out about this, it'll be an excuse to launch a campaign against Bevelle!"

"And if word reaches your father's ear from someone other than us, how would your father react then?" Zaon retorted.

"Either way, we will be all stuck in Zanarkand, and this pilgrimage will be over.

"Look," Seru said, switching her view back and forth between Kiron and Zaon, "I think both of you are definitely over exaggerating everything, but both of you do have a point. I do think that we should send a message to Maester Yevon," Kiron opened his mouth to speak but Seru continued, "shut up. I'm not done yet. If Maester Yevon hears it from anyone else but us, then yes, I believe we will be pulled back. So just send him a message saying you're all right and that yes your guardians were with you, and we'll have it over and done with."

Ryak bowed his head. "This is all my fault. As head summoner here, I should never have allowed it to happen."

"Ryak," Takoire started, "I'm in as much trouble as you, not to mention Zaon and Seru. We're their guardians, and we shouldn't have left them alone."

"But this is the Temple of Byakko. Summoners should be able to walk freely. This is a holy place," Ryak insisted.

Lenne grimaced. "Let's stop playing shift the blame, shall we? The point is assassins did get into the temple and we have to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

"I don't think we need to do that," Takoire said. "The temple won't have to worry about it anymore."

"Why?" Lenne asked.

"Because," Zaon, the man of few words among their group, said, "the temple was not the assassins' target. Kiron was."

"But that's stupid," Lenne insisted, "why would anyone try and kill Kiron?"

Seru frowned. "Remember how I told you that cities tend to take sides?"

"Yeah."

"Cities with temples tend to side with Bevelle. Kilika happens to be one of them."

"And don't forget," Takoire continued, "Kiron is also a prince of Zanarkand; strong supporters of Bevelle see that as an opportunity."

"They wanna see a war," Lenne completed.

"Mind you, it's only the radicals who want that," Seru said.

"Maybe this is how the war starts," Lenne whispered to herself. By the time she had gotten over the shock, she smiled uneasily at Kiron. "I want you to take care of yourself, 'kay?" Standing up, she bowed slightly in Ryak's direction. "I'm sorry. I've lost my appetite, and there're some things I need to think about."

Seemingly half-dazed, Lenne walked over to Kiron and kissed him on the cheek before leaving the hall.

Kiron put his hand on the cheek where Lenne had quickly kissed him and slumped down into his chair. "Wow," he muttered.

Takoire frowned as servants brought the food to the table, but it seemed that he had lost his appetite as well.

"Get a hold on yourself," Seru said bluntly. "We still don't know whether or not there are any more assassins sent from Bevelle."

Kiron grinned weakly and tried to sit up. "Right."

"Like I said earlier," Takoire responded, "I think the danger's passed. They seriously underestimated Kiron and Lenne."

"But if it wasn't for Lenne's summoning," Kiron countered, "those assassins would have more than done their job."

"Summoning?" Ryak repeated, confused. "What do you mean if it was not for her summoning? There's no room in the forest to summon."

Seru grimaced. "It's too complicated to explain, Ryak, but let's just say Lenne can summon more than Suzaku and Byakko."

"More than Suzaku and Byakko?" Ryak insisted. "What do you mean? Did she get the aeons out of order or something?"

Takoire looked at his old friend with a trace of sympathy. "Just drop it, Ryak. You really don't want to get into the whole mess. I get a headache just thinking about it."

Sitting nearby, Zaon interrupted them. "We should leave at first light tomorrow."

They all looked to him, and Takoire nodded. "Sir Zaon's right. If we stay here, we'll only bring more trouble to the temple."

Seru agreed. "I think our next stop's Luca?" Kiron and Zaon looked to her for an explanation. "Luca is the third largest city in Spira and an ally to Zanarkand. We can cool down there, send a message to Maester Yevon, and hopefully draw the assassins off us for awhile."

"But we can't stay there more than two days," Takoire settled. "No less than a day and no more than two. Then we should start on Djose temple."

"Sounds about right," Seru commented.

"What about you, Sir Zaon, will this work?" Takoire questioned. The third guardian nodded. "Good, it's settled then. We'll leave before first light."

"Lenne, Lenne," Takoire whispered as he shook her in bed, "wake up; it's time to go. Lenne." She groaned. Frowning, Takoire looked down on her and looked out the window. There wasn't a single trace of sunlight, and the wind was still chilly. It was near morning though, and the airship would leave for Luca soon.

A knock on the door came, and Seru poked her head in. "Is she awake?"

Pushing his summoner softly on the shoulder, Takoire responded as he watched Lenne refuse to stir. "No, she must have been exhausted."

"So what are we going to do?"

Looking around her room, in the corner, Takoire found Lenne's sword leaning against a corner and picked it up, weighing it in his hand. "Here." He threw it to the other guardian.

"What?" Barely catching it, Seru looked at it strangely as she held it. "Why'd you give me this?"

Takoire shifted the blankets around Lenne and threw her boots on her feet, not bothering to tie the laces. "I don't feel like putting the effort into waking her up, and we can't leave her behind, so I'm carrying her."

"You're carrying her? You're saying that it takes less effort to carry her than it is to wake her up?"

He tucked his arms under her back and the crook of her knees and lifted her up from the bed. "Yeah, sounds about right. Now get out of the way, Seru."

The rest of the walk back to the entrance was rather quiet; the two guardians didn't speak much, only once or twice. As they exited through the temple's opening, Kiron, Zaon, and Ryak stood waiting.

"I see your summoner is still fast asleep, Takoire," Ryak commented.

"I swear that if the Cheribum itself was summoned in her tiny room, she wouldn't even notice."

Ryak pointed to Lenne. "Aren't you tired carrying her like that? The Temple of Byakko is fairly big."

Takoire shrugged. "Trying not to wake up Lenne, blitzball practice, carrying heavy objects, literally, it's all the same to me."

"Aren't you nice about it?" the head summoner responded.

"You know me."

Seru laughed. "Unfortunately."

Takoire rolled his eyes. "I think it's time we left, don't you, Sir Zaon?" He only nodded his head. "Not a morning person are you, Sir Zaon? Well, I guess that was a rhetorical question if there ever was one. Ryak," he paused, "it was good seeing you again… after all this time."

Seru stepped up and hugged Ryak, holding away Lenne's sword in her right hand. "It really was great seeing you again."

"Likewise," was Ryak's response, "both of you. I was glad to see you both well. Hopefully we can keep in touch?"

"Hopefully," Seru answered.

Zaon spoke up. "Let's go."

"What the?" The soft surface beneath her felt like a bed, but it was vibrating to the beat of a steady hum.

Lenne opened her eyes and found herself in a different room than the one she went to bed in. Her sword was lying across a chair nearby, and she slowly stood up and looked around. She found her boots lying carelessly at the foot of the bed, and fixing her clothes, Lenne walked outside of her room and into a somewhat long corridor.

Reaching a fairly large room she assumed to be some kind of lobby, Lenne saw Seru standing somewhere off to the side by herself. "Hey," Seru greeted, "look who's finally awake."

"Seru, where are we?"

Lenne tried to look out a window, but all she saw was darkness.

"We're on the way to Luca. We'll be spending a day or two there. Not long."

"Oh," Lenne glanced around the room, "so where is everyone?"

"Kiron went to get some more shut eye, I think Zaon's off somewhere judging the security of this airship, and your guardian's who knows where. He dropped you off in your room and kind of disappeared."

"Wait," Lenne paused, "what do you mean?"

Seru smirked. "How do you think you got on the airship? But seriously, Takoire carried you all the way back from the temple."

Looking out a window, Lenne saw a tint of orange graze the skyline. "Seru, would you mind if I catch up with you later? There's something I wanna check it out."

Kiron's guardian shrugged. "Sure."

"You know, Takoire, you're a real sucker for sunsets and sunrises."

Hearing a now familiar voice come from behind him, the former Zanarkand Abes captain turned around with a bright smile on his face. "What? You spying on me or something? Or is this one of your guardian's business therefore summoner business things."

Walking towards him, Lenne shook her head. "No, it's one of those things that your best friend notices."

"Well," Takoire sarcastically responded, "my sincerest apologies, best friend. How ignorant of me."

"Now don't you sound all prim, proper, and egotistical" she replied. "But onto other things... So what's this I hear about you carrying me from my room?"

"Would have you preferred to stay behind?"

"Maybe," Lenne raised an eyebrow, "if I'd known you were going to carry me." They eyed each other seriously for a moment before they both broke into laughter.

Author's Notes:

Final Revision