A Generation of Aeons
Chapter Thirty-Two
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X or X-2
Last Time:
Kiron glared back. "I'll leave the line if I have to! You won't notice! You have Yunalesca as your heir! You don't need a prince! She can't use me if I'm not royalty, father! He didn't wait for an answer, but stormed from the hall, not speaking until the doors were safely closed behind him.
"I can't believe you did that!" Seru said, her eyes wide.
"I can't believe I did that!" Kiron sighed and looked at his guardian. "Seru, I know you probably think I just said those things back there because of my father, but… I really do want to marry you," he stumbled, blushing furiously, "and I'll do whatever it takes. I'll wait however long before you feel the same way… If you want to marry me at all… I'm probably still a spoiled prince to you-"
A single tear fell from the corner of her eye before Seru shook her head and smiled, placing a finger on his lips. "Of course I want to marry you."
Kiron kissed her, and Seru wrapped her arms around him as he lifted her in joy. Putting her down, he frowned. "I wish I could make him see reason." He let out a dry laugh. "If I was a maester he might have listened to me…"
The sphere's glow dimmed, and the walls of the Zanarkand palace retreated into the sphere; Lenne, Takoire, Zaon, and Arkon were left in the small, brown room designated to guardians. Everyone remained silent as the blue sphere fell from Zaon's hands. Lenne let her head fall into her arms and felt herself falling deeper and deeper into a hole she couldn't climb back out of.
"Kiron was desperate," she heard herself say, "that's how much he wanted to be with Seru. How much they wanted to be with each other."
"Seru-" Zaon began, his voice muffled and shaky, "Seru didn't- Seru didn't have the heart to talk him out of it. I-I saw the way they felt about each other, and I didn't stop them either."
Takoire moved and touched Lenne on the shoulder. "I'll take care of him. I want you to go and get some sleep." Lenne tried to argue, but Takoire placed a finger on her lips and gave a stern stare. "I don't want to hear anything about me. I want you to take care of yourself and only you. I'll come up to see you later." He bit his lip, brought his hand to Lenne's face, and lingered there before turning back to his cousin, still standing in the doorway. "Arkon, could you take Lenne to her room?"
He nodded and helped Lenne stand up. The heir of Bevelle let the high summoner lean against him for support as he took her across the wide hallway. Arkon saw the young summoner to her bedroom and watched her sit on the edge of her bed.
Arkon's stomach was all in knots. From the moment of birth, Arkon had been surrounded by the world of politics. Growing up in a world where whatever you said had to be planned out, you could never take anyone's word at face value. He had been trained to be the ultimate politician and was one of the most eloquent speakers of his generation. But at this moment, Prince Arkon was speechless.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Lenne," sounding horribly blunt to his own ears. "I didn't know Prince Kiron for very long, but I did know he was determined, honest, and a good man. I- I know he would have served Zanarkand well." He paused. "Seru was my cousin, but I didn't know her that well. In the time she spent here, though, I was glad to get to know her. She was a very big-hearted person."
It was obvious he wasn't going to get a response, so Arkon left Lenne alone in her room.
The sun was beginning to fall as Takoire made his way back to the Bevelle temple-palace. He had just left Zaon by Maester Yevon's personal airship, meant to bring the former guardian back to Zanarkand.
Zaon had rested for the day while the temple-palace took care of Kiron and Seru's bodies. Takoire had helped Zaon clean up and put on his official guardian uniform. He looked at Kiron's summoner's brand, an outline of Zanarkand with a sword placed in front of it. Something made him twitch when he saw it; the information that Lenne had told him flashed before his eyes, but he was unable to think of any correlation between them.
Before embarking onto the airship, Zaon had turned to Takoire and said, "Kiron and Seru bargained with the Cheribum to let me live. The Cheribum agreed… it said there was still something left for me to do, and to forsake it would destroy the natural order. Kiron and Seru also told me to tell you not to waste the time you have left with Lenne." With those words, Zaon had returned to Zanarkand.
Takoire entered the grand hall of the temple-palace; he noticed the council room's doors were closed. The two guards standing outside and the maroon flags stationed outside told Takoire the council was in session, no doubt squabbling over how and why Zaon had survived the Cheribum's wrath.
Quickly glancing over his shoulder, Takoire pushed aside the large tapestry of his family history against the far wall and pushed the stone behind it, giving him access to a dark passageway. He lifted a torch off the wall and made his way inside as the wall closed behind him.
Kiron and Seru were gone. Looking back, Takoire remembered how he had hated the Zanarkand prince. When Takoire had lived in Bevelle and had been the lord marshal's apprentice, his family had told him that Prince Kiron was his Zanarkand counterpart; his Zanarkand rival. Later, after he had run away to Zanarkand, he hated the prince even more, for the spoiled prince had the power to destroy the life he had built in Zanarkand with a snap of his fingers. He hated the fact Kiron once openly flirted with Lenne, and the fact that two summoners could openly have a relationship, but a relationship between a summoner and their guardian was taboo.
But Kiron had changed; he had, too, for that matter. Now he held Kiron in the same esteem as Arkon. And now he was gone.
Seeing Seru that day in Besaid had chilled Takoire to the bone. She knew the secret he kept; she could bring his life down in an instant, and no maester could stop her. She reminded him of all the things he had left behind in Bevelle. The family he pretended that never existed. A legacy that he had been born into unwillingly.
But it turned out Seru was hiding a secret too. She was trying to run away from something that refused to let her go. Seru had become a friend. Not something that had caused him to runaway from his home and family.
Now Seru was gone too.
Takoire knew he would never openly admit that he had broken down when Arkon had told him the news. He didn't know how long he was in his room,alone, but he couldn't accept that Kiron, Seru, and Zaon were all gone.
He remembered running down to the Cheribum's summoning circle, still unable to believe all three were dead. He had pushed the crowd aside and made his way to the bodies; seeing them felt like someone had ripped out his insides. Kiron and Seru's eyes remained open, glazed over looking into nothing. Takoire had reached for Zaon, and found the smallest heartbeat.
He was alive.
What happened afterwards was all a blur… the next thing he remembered was Lenne waking him outside of Zaon's room.
As he climbed the stairs in the darkness, Takoire's mind raced.
At a time when Spira falls into chaos at the arrival of old friends. Learning of ways long gone. Bringing forth creatures the like of which have never been seen. Their eyes will remain closed to what their future is as their world crumbles around them. Leaving them in the thickest of fogs…
Takoire shook his head wearily.
"Why is the Prophecy of the Summoner of Yore running through my head at a time like this?"
Reaching a dead end, Takoire placed his torch in a holder positioned in the middle of the wall and pulled down on it. The stone blocks gave way with a heave, and he walked through the growing hole in the wall.
The guardian found himself exactly where he wanted to be: the summoners' hall. Stopping at a door on his left, Takoire breathed deeply and opened it.
He cautiously stepped into the room and made his way to Lenne.
Lenne was curled up on top of her bed, rocking back and forth, trying not to let the tears fall. Two of her friends had died, and the high summoner wasn't sure what to feel. A million thoughts ran through her head as she held her face in her hands, breathing heavily. One thing kept popping into her mind. Why?
Appearing out of nowhere, Takoire stood in the doorframe of her bedroom with a solemn look on his face. He motioned to the door. "I would have knocked, but I know you wouldn't have answered." He paused. "I saw Zaon to Maester Yevon's airship. He's headed back to Zanarkand, and he's going to try and explain everything that happened." He walked over to her bed and sat on the edge looking at her with a concerned expression. "How are you doing?"
Although the weather was quite warm, Lenne shivered like it was the coldest winter night, and her head ached and felt as if it was never going to stop aching. Lenne smiled and tried to put on a brave face, but failed. "I still can't believe they're gone. Kiron… Seru…"
Takoire moved closer to her and tried to look at Lenne square in the eye. Bending his neck slightly to look at her, the guardian brushed away the locks of hair that hid her face and tucked them behind her ear. He tried to be strong for her and smiled, but he succeeded no more than his summoner.
"Why are you doing this to yourself?"
She looked up. "Doing what?"
He shook his head. "Torturing yourself. If you bottle up your feelings inside, it'll hurt you more than you realize. Trust me, I know." Takoire held a hand to Lenne's face and gazed at her with soft and reassuring eyes. "I see the way you try to keep things to yourself. You don't like to share how you feel, and you don't want to show anyone the slightest bit of weakness. The way you try to do everything you can by yourself… Just let it out, Lenne."
The way he looked at her, she couldn't hold it back anymore. A flood of tears erupted from her eyes, and she fell into her guardian's arms. She sobbed and couldn't seem to stop, and Takoire didn't discourage her. He wrapped his arms around her, stroking her hair soothingly, whispering words of comfort in her ear. "It's okay. Everything's going to be okay. Keeping things in isn't good for you. Does more damage than you think."
Lenne leaned her head against Takoire's chest, and he seemed to have no objection as she continued to cry, not knowing where the endless tears were coming from. "You know, after I left Bevelle, I kept all my feelings to myself. I never talked to anyone about anything that I thought was my business, good or bad. I shouldn't have done that. I didn't realize how it affected me until now. But you know what finally got me to open up?" The high summoner shook her head. "You," he answered simply. She lifted her head up and sniffled, the tears finally slowing. Takoire wiped them away with his thumb and gave her a reassuring smile. "Feeling better?"
Lenne gave a small smile. "Little bit. Thanks." She paused, enjoying the feeling of his arms around her. "Why?"
"Why what?" he asked curiously.
"Why me?"
"You mean, why did I open up to you in particular?" Takoire asked. He felt Lenne nod her head. "I don't know really. You're a special person, Lenne. That day in Zanarkand, during my last blitzball game, I saw you and I remember thinking, what the hell does she think she's doing?" He let out a laugh, and Lenne couldn't help but join him.
She sat up and looked at him, her face inches away from his. It wasn't hard to get lost in his eyes, those eyes that seemed to look right through her. Underneath his right eye, Lenne noticed a scar that she hadn't before. The high summoner took two of her fingers and ran them over it, flinching slightly as if she had incurred the wound herself. "I don't remember this. Where did it come from?"
He shrugged. "The battle at Macalania. The idiot leading the army managed to get a gash across my face when I was looking over to check on you."
"I'm sorry," Lenne apologized. She kept her hand there, running her fingers over the scar. Takoire put up his own hand to keep hers there.
"Don't be," he answered. He leaned his forehead against hers. "It gave me something to constantly remind me of you every time I look in the mirror."
She turned away slightly. "You got hurt, and it was because of me again."
"Hey," he lifted her chin, "it came with the job, remember? I chose this. I chose to become your guardian. And that came with risk of injury, death, and/or your crummy comebacks."
Lenne pushed him on his back and scowled. "Crummy comebacks!"
Without a thought, Takoire pulled her down with him, and he smiled up at her. "The point is, Lenne, I knew full well what I was getting into, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant I could be your guardian."
And without another thought, Takoire kissed Lenne.
It wasn't a friendly kiss on the cheek or a short kiss on the forehead. Takoire was kissing Lenne.
He kissed her gently, barely skimming her lips. Takoire held her at the base of her neck while Lenne's hands remained on his face. The guardian could taste the salt on her lips from her tears but was afraid to deepen the kiss anymore.
Takoire pulled back slightly in shock and saw Lenne equally as dazed. The high summoner looked away from Takoire as if she was on the verge of fresh tears. "Takoire, you know I have to take the Cheribum's test. I have to before I go back to my home."
But he shook his head. "No, I don't want you to." He sounded so unlike the cocky blitzball captain Takoire put out as a front. Now he sounded like a small child, whining about something he couldn't have, knowing deep down he would never get it. "I care about you, Lenne. More than you realize. You're all I care about. You're everything to me. I don't want anything to happen to you."
"You can't protect me from everything, Takoire."
"Why not?" was his childish response.
"It's just something I have to do," Lenne answered simply. She lowered her head and brought it to his face. "I want to kiss you again."
The guardian smiled softly at her and reached up to kiss her. He ran his fingers through her hair, but at the same time kissed her so gently that Lenne whimpered against him. Unable to say what she felt, Lenne deepened the kiss. And Takoire happily replied.
Author's Notes:
Final Revision