May 3rd, 2006. It's so funny that I'm finally posting this chapter. I finished this chapter the same week that I wrote the first chapter, and that was in JUNE. I'm so sorry that it took forever to finish it, but like I said, I had a hell of a time coming up with what I wanted to write in the previous chapter. Anyway, I love this chapter. Whenever I needed inspiration for other chapters, I simply picked up this one and reread it, giving me direction of where to go with it. It's really long, but it's because I kept on adding onto it as the months went by. I hope you enjoy it as well.
10. Checkmate
"This is great, Tidus. You just had to go out and try to get yourself killed, didn't you?" I murmured to myself as I hid from a priest who was walking around one of the hallways. I was still slightly wet from swimming in the Via Purifico for twenty minutes, but I wasn't too worried about leaving a water trail because I wasn't planning on staying in the temple all that long. I wasn't even sure what was guiding me, but I knew that I had to find this Father Zoram and I had to find him fast.
"Going somewhere?"
I whipped around to see a priest with a gun pointed directly toward my head and I gasped. "Apparently not," I said in disbelief as several armed guards appeared behind the man. I wasn't surprised that a priest was armed, for it wasn't the first time I had seen a priest with a gun. I would still be lying if I said it was only the second time I've seen it happen, but it still didn't change the fact that I couldn't take my eyes off of it.
"I know who you are," the priest stated with a chuckle and without putting down his weapon. "You're the High Summoner's husband. Tedum, wasn't it?"
"Tidus," I corrected him and put my hand on the hilt of my sword that was at my hip.
"Ah, my mistake. Well, Tidus, I wouldn't touch your weapon if I were you," he warned as the guards aimed their guns at me as well. I was clearly surrounded and out of ideas. I knew I wouldn't be able to take them all on without some back up, and since my 'back up' was trying to find another way into the temple and didn't know where I was, I was screwed.
"I don't have anything better to do," I replied with a nervous chuckle. "Well, um, since I am around a bunch of guards, I'm assuming that one of you all know Father Zoram? Can you tell me where I can find him?"
"I am Father Zoram." The way he said that chilled my blood and made my skin break out into goosebumps. I don't know why; the man was about five inches shorter than my 5'9" build and I had more than twice the amount of muscles. Then again, it could've been the very big gun that was aimed at my head.
"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet the man who tried to kill my wife last week," I retorted sarcastically as I frowned. "Since that didn't work, you decided to go after every person that she knew except me. So, does that mean that you have some kind of vendetta against my life?"
"Hmm, your life?" He asked me as I nodded and pulled out my sword, even though he warned me not to. With a wave of his fingers, several of the guards moved in on me and knocked my sword out of my hand before I could think twice. While I watched my sword slide across the tiled floor, several other guards grabbed my arms. Now I was unarmed and unable to move.
Yep. I was in trouble.
"What the hell do you want with me?" I snapped as he turned around and motioned the guards to follow him. I struggled, but it was no use. Father Zoram might have been shorter than I, but the guards were all pushing 6 foot and 280 pounds, and there wasn't a chance I would be able to escape from them. "Okay, if you're not going to answer that question, answer this one; where the hell are you taking me?"
"Follow me," he said as I rolled my eyes. I didn't have a choice but to follow him.
The guards half dragged, half walked me to where Father Zoram was standing, and I felt as if I were marching to my own death. He cautiously looked around before moving a picture to the side, revealing a small lever. With a grunt, he pulled it and the wall started to slide open. My eyes went wide as he walked through the opening and I felt my pulse race as the guards brought me in right after him.
The wall shut after we passed through it and I prayed that there was a way out. Well, I actually hoped that I would be alive after so I would get a chance to find if there was a way out. I had no idea where they were taking me and I could feel myself becoming more and more frightened.
We entered a room that was so stark white that I felt I was going to be blinded. I squinted as they turned on another light that seemed to reflect off the walls. It was excruciating. The only thing that wasn't white in the room, besides clothing that everyone was wearing, were the bars of the jail cells that lined one of the rooms, which they promptly threw me in.
"This just proves how weak you are," I shot at them as they bolted the door shut. I grabbed at the bars and regretted it the second I did; they were charged with some form of electricity and zapped me. I yelped and jumped back as quickly as I could, but my hands felt numb for a few seconds.
"Weak?" Zoram asked me as he walked closer to me. I noticed that he had a rectangular black box in his hands and I raised an eyebrow at it. It closely resembled the box that I found in Yuna's drawer the night that she was shot. "In case you haven't noticed, we're the ones in charge of you right now. I don't think going against our wishes is such a good idea."
"You had to put me behind bars to tell me that. That proves your weakness," I informed him as he shrugged his shoulders. "You never answered my question; what the hell do you want with me?"
"You?" He repeated as he started to chuckle.
I almost reached for the bars again, but then realized that probably wasn't a good idea unless I wanted to get totally fried. It wasn't on my top ten things to do before I turned twenty-two, so instead I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists at my sides. "What the hell is so funny?"
He put the box through the bars and I reached for it, holding it in my hands but afraid to open it. "Aren't you dying to know what's inside?"
"'Dying' is the operative word in that sentence," I stated slowly as I tried to study the man. He gestured toward the box again, but I only fixed my gaze.
"In case you haven't noticed, that is the same little box that we gave your wife several weeks ago. We found it in her drawer when we went back and decided that it was ours to begin with, it was only right to take it back." I knew it. I looked down at it again and started to open it, but I just couldn't. "It was a present from us to her, but apparently she didn't want it. Pity, too."
Intrigued, I finally opened the box. Inside was a gun that looked a lot like the ones from Yuna's Gunner dressphere, only it was black instead of gray. I picked it up and realized that there was only one bullet in it. "Gee, thanks, but I'm more of a swordsman than a gunner."
"Another pity," Zoram drawled as I turned it around in my hand several times. "But at least you can use it, right?"
I didn't want to answer him right away for I knew I was more than capable. I did have a decent shot when not put under pressure. "Why did you give this to Yuna?"
"We wanted to see what she would do with it," he replied with another chuckle. Actually, I would categorize it as an evil cackle.
I set my jaw as I thought about his sentence. Yuna being shot, her and Ari being kidnapped, Rikku and Gippal being sent to the hospital, Baralai getting fired…I was fine. Everything was falling into place and I didn't like where that place was. Everything was pointing directly toward me, wasn't it?
But why?
I looked up at Zoram and he continued to laugh. I was his target. I was the one he was after all this time. Was it because the fayth recreated me even though Sin was destroyed? Did they even know I was a dream of the fayth? That information was never spread throughout Spira…was it? If anything, all that was said was I was the mysterious blitzball player from the Zanarkand Abes.
I aimed the gun right at Zoram, and he didn't flinch. "All right then. I see your motives."
"You do?" He asked me with a sigh. "It's about time. You're really slow, boy, you know that? We thought that the High Summoner would've picked out someone better as a husband."
"Let's finish this, Zoram," I stated through my clenched teeth. "Let's finish this right now. You…and me."
"Wait, you think this entire thing was about you?" I didn't like the way he said that and it caused me to lower the gun and narrow my eyes at him. He scoffed and shook his head in disappointment. "Now only are you slow, but you're self centered as well."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, regaining my posture. I didn't want to show him that he shocked the hell out of me. I thought my reasoning was right…but apparently not.
"This wasn't about you. This was never about you," he said as he turned away from me. He snapped his fingers and two of the guards nodded and pushed part of the wall, which were apparently buttons. They camouflaged into the wall very well and I never would've been able to differentiate the wall from the buttons.
The buttons caused one of the walls to slowly move, revealing another room containing another jail cell and more guards. There was someone in the jail cell, sitting on the floor with their back toward my direction, and I gasped. I could recognize that hair style in the dark.
"Yuna!" I yelled as I aimed the gun at Zoram again. She was awake, so she quickly turned around to see what was going on.
"Tidus!" She stood up and held onto the bars—thankfully the bars weren't charged like mine were. "Don't listen to them! I'll be fine!"
"Aww, husband and wife are reunited!" Zoram said in mock excitement as turned on his heel toward the guards by Yuna's cell. "But not for long."
"You let her go, you son of a bitch!" I aimed my gun again and right before I pulled the trigger, some of the guards unlocked Yuna's cell and dragged her out closer to me. I was confused, so again I lowered the gun. "Yuna, you're okay!"
"Yeah, she's fine for now," Zoram said, answering for Yuna. She shot him a dirty look, but he ignored her and faced back at me. "Now, you listen to me."
"As long as you don't harm Yuna, I'll listen to you as long as you'd damn please," I replied as I looked at Yuna's appearance. She obtained several scratches, her hair was disheveled, but otherwise she looked untouched, so that calmed me down a little bit.
"This is just the part that I love," he explained with a happy sigh. He tapped his fingers together as he spoke, relishing in the moment. "All the pieces are in my control and there is one little pawn left. Okay, maybe I lied, this is slightly about you, Taydus."
"It's Tidus," I snapped with a scoff. I didn't think that my name was that hard to remember, then again he was old and, well, evil, so I guess that explained a lot. "Again for the millionth time, what are you talking about?"
"The last pawn in my game," he reiterated with a sardonic smile. Yuna whipped her head toward him as she tried to struggle free of the guard's grasp. He walked over to her and ran his fingers through her hair, receiving a rather disgusted look from her. She tried to bite him, so he yelped and moved his hand out of the way. "Fiery, aren't ya?"
She huffed at him, her eyes full of anger. I have never seen that look in her eyes and it terrified me more than the thirty guards that were surrounding us. "You let my husband and I go!"
"What's your hurry? He just got here!" Zoram said as he snapped his fingers yet again. Nothing happened for a while, so he snapped them quite a few times until a guard holding something ran toward us. It only took me a second to realize what it was that he was holding.
"Ariana!" I yelled as she looked toward me. She squealed with delight and bounced in the guard's arms, yet didn't want to come to me. She had a stuffed moogle in her hands and it was amusing her greatly.
"What do you want with our child?" Yuna asked as she tried to struggle against the guards' grip.
"I just wanted to let you two know that you have the friendliest baby," Zoram stated and walked over to her. He pinched her cheek, and although she made a face—she hated that—she continued to play with her toy and didn't make a fuss. "We simply walked up to her and bribed her with the moogle. No crying, no screaming, nothing. She's a sweetie. I'm just surprised that she doesn't talk yet. She does look old enough to do so."
"Why the hell do you want all of us here?" I questioned, still holding the gun in my hands.
"I can't decide if you're intuitive or just annoying," Zoram said with another amused laugh. "So many questions!"
I wasn't amused, so I snapped, "If you answer them, I'll stop asking!" My patience was running thin, mainly because I had no idea where he was going with any of this.
"Very well. This is the point where you come in, Tayde." I wasn't about to correct him a third time, so I simply scoffed as he walked closer to me. "Your wife, as beautiful as she is, refused to marry me for some reason. I just can't put my finger on the reason why."
"Well, gee, let's think about the reasons," she interrupted with a sarcastic laugh, her eyes shooting daggers at the old man. "Actually, I think the fact that you're insane covers it all."
Instead of replying to her, he walked right up to her and smacked her across the face. She didn't protest or make a scene, that's not in her nature. She simply looked back at him and glared.
Well, Yuna wasn't one to make a scene, but I was… especially under those circumstances. That was the last damn straw. "Didn't you learn your lesson the last time she tried to marry a man of Yevon?" I shot out at him, sparking his memory of the Grand Maester Seymour. Yeah, 'grand,' my ass. "Not only did the rest of her guardians and I interrupt their wedding, but we ended up killing him. Four damn times! So I'm the last pawn in your game! So what? What does that mean?"
"It means this, O Impatient One," Zoram retorted with another snap of his fingers. This time, one of the guards pointed a gun right at Ariana and the rest pointed their guns at me.
"Ari!" Yuna cried as I gasped.
"You'd kill an innocent child!" I asked in complete disbelief that this was happening to me at this moment. I wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare, but by the way my hands were trembling as I held the gun, I could tell that I wasn't asleep.
"Well, that's solely up to you," Zoram stated with a mocking chuckle. "Go ahead."
"Go ahead?" I repeated in shock. "Are you telling me that I get to shoot anyone in this room? Well, that's a hard decision."
"If you shoot me, you and your daughter both die," he informed me as I pointed my gun right at him. My finger hesitated on the trigger as sweat started to bead on my forehead from nerves. "Hmm. Now that I think about it, we might just kill your wife at the same time. You would think I would have the rules and guidelines already made up since this is my game and all."
"You brought me here to kill my own wife?" I asked in total disbelief that this was happening to me.
"Tidus, do what you have to do, but please don't let them kill Ari." I knew she was going to say that, but I wasn't about ready to kill her. I would sooner shoot myself before I would take a shot at her. I was thinking about doing just that, but what would happen to Ari and Yuna afterward?
"At first we wanted her to marry me, but that didn't work. So then we tried plan B, which was how we wanted her to kill herself, but that didn't happen either. Therefore, we decided to make you do it, making it plan C." Zoram laughed again and I put the gun down. "Not only that, but if you shoot the High Summoner, you'd be spending the rest of your life in a tiny cell or they would give you the death sentence. You would be out of my way, and hey, that would make me happy."
I swallowed the lump that was in my throat as I backed up until I met the wall. The world started to spin around me and I thought that I was going to pass out. That's why the box was in her room. They must've sent her the box so she would kill herself and it would look like suicide. Now they wanted me to do it, just so the name of Yevon would live on unscathed. I started to pant and I felt the gun slipping out of my grasp.
"Get a move on and make up your mind! I'm certainly not getting any younger!" I heard Zoram say to me, but he sounded so far away. My mind was a tangled mess and I wasn't sure what to do. Kill my wife? She and Ariana were the two most important things in my life. I would never be able to live with myself. "Oh, by the way, if you kill yourself to try to get out of it, I will kill your little brat and make your wife watch. Then I'll probably kill her for the hell of it anyway. You can't win."
"What do you get out it?" I asked, trying not to stutter over my words from anger. "This is your game, I get that. You set it up, you move the pieces, then what? What's in it for you?"
"What isn't?" He shot back as he threw his hands up in the air. "I'm next in line. Since there isn't a Praetor anymore, thanks to me, the High Summoner is in charge. Get rid of the High Summoner, and I'm in charge, understand? Yevon will live on again. Your wife is the High Summoner; someone who is supposed to live up to the name of Yevon! She should be in Bevelle giving speeches about the wonders of Yevon, yet she married an idiot and lives in the middle of nowhere! Yevon is the one thing that held this world together for thousands of years, and now the world is crumbling. Do you honestly think that we can live on with the 'treaty' that was made between New Yevon, the Youth League, and the Machine Faction? It's just a false piece of paper that three young men put together that means nothing! Oh yeah, and one of them is an Al Bhed! How are we supposed to live in the same world as people who use forbidden machina?"
"Get a grip," Yuna snapped at him as her hands clenched into fists and tried to lunge at him. Again, the guards held her in her spot. "You're the only one who feels this way!"
"You think so?" He put his arms out and pointed to the other guards that were in the room. "What do you think their opinion is on this entire circumstance? Why would they be pointing their guns at your husband and your child if they believed in what you did?"
"You have the power right now," she said, her eyes burning as she spoke. "People are driven by fear, and right now, you have fear in the palm of your hand. I have defeated Yunalesca, Yu Yevon, and Sin; the three largest threats that have ever reigned on Spira, so let me tell you something… I am not afraid of you!"
"Hmm. Let me see what I can do about that," he replied calmly and walked over to the guard that held Ariana. Before anyone could blink an eye, he grabbed her and held her upside down by her feet. Without thinking, I grabbed the bars, getting electrocuted. In the year that she had existed, I have never heard her scream like that and it terrified me more than anything.
The tears that Yuna had clearly been holding in finally escaped and I could see them streaming down her face as she struggled against the guards' grasp. Shaking my hands to regain some feeling in them again, I felt tears of my own form in my eyes, but I shook them away. I hated to cry; crying reminded me of Jecht. I didn't want to think about him, therefore I hadn't cried since he died, but this was just too much.
"When you fought Yunalesca, Yu Yevon, and Sin, you had the Aeons and your guardians to protect you," he shouted over Ari's cries. "Look at your surroundings now, Lady Yuna, you're alone!"
"Hold it right there, Zoram!"
Yuna and I looked up to see Baralai, Paine, Gippal, and Rikku hanging from the ceiling by ropes. I have no idea how the hell they got there, but I didn't care. Zoram watched as they slid down the ropes, knocking down guards as they landed.
"Ah, Baralai," Zoram stated calmly, turning Ariana right side up again and using his other hand to wave to the ex-praetor. She had horror in her eyes and tried to squirm out of Zoram's grasp, but it was no use. He held on to her tightly, and by the pained look on her face, he wasn't being gentle about it. "It's been a while."
"Yeah, you were in charge of the insubordination, in case you forgot by now," Baralai snapped, causing Zoram to laugh.
"Ha, laugh at this!" Rikku yelled, dressed in her gunner dressphere, shooting one of the guards. "That's what you get for attacking my cousin, you psycho!"
That was enough for the other guards to charge at the four of them and they began to attack them and destroy them one by one. They were enough of a distraction to throw everyone off guard, so Yuna elbowed both guards that were holding her, then kicked them both in the groin to knock them down in an immense amount of pain. It was perhaps the most feminine way to knock a guy down, but it worked, so I wasn't going to say anything about it.
Yuna started to make her way toward Zoram, knocking out guards on her way. I aimed my gun at Zoram, but I knew that if I pulled the trigger, I would kill Zoram and he would drop Ariana, or I would accidentally hit her. Before I could make up my mind, he grabbed his gun back out and put it right against Ariana's head.
"Nobody move!" He shouted and everyone obeyed. The room became silent, the only sounds from Ari's cries and everyone else panting. I aimed my gun and closed my eyes. "One more move and I'll kill her right now."
"Tidus!" She shouted as she rushed toward Zoram and I heard a gunshot.
I opened my eyes and panted as I dropped the gun I was holding. I looked around to see what had happened and through my blurred vision, I could see Paine, Baralai, Gippal, and Rikku fighting off the last of the soldiers, and Yuna was able to grab Ariana just in time. She was consoling the baby as she held her close to her chest, her tears falling down her face.
Wiping the sweat out of my eyes, I saw Zoram on the ground, surrounded in a puddle of his own blood. My aim was perfect and the bullet went straight through his heart. I was still shaking when everyone walked closer to the jail cell I was in, and no one knew what to say.
"Sorry we were late," Gippal quipped with a half smile, breaking the silence. Yuna and I glared at his attempt at humor for we weren't in the mood for it, but he could tell that we were both eternally grateful that they did show up. They had impeccable timing.
"How did you know about this place, Baralai?" Yuna asked as she kissed Ari on the top of her head several times.
"Like I told Tidus, I know every inch of Bevelle," Baralai stated with a nod. "This place used to be the secret headquarters for the Maesters. It guards against pyreflies, so they would be able to have their meetings without being disturbed by them. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this would be the best place to keep Yuna secret."
"Can you get me out of here?" I managed to squeak out as Baralai looked at the electric bars. They were about twelve feet high and three inches apart, so unless we turned off the charge, there was no way I was going to be able to get out. "They used a key to get me in here."
Rikku, who was now in her Thief dressphere, picked up the gun that Zoram was going to use on Ari and aimed it directly at the lock. The gunshot elicited more screams out of the baby, but it managed to open the lock and the door opened. "There ya go!"
"What did they teach you at Home?" Paine asked as Rikku smiled.
I ran out of the cell and toward my wife and child. I held them both as close to me as possible without crushing either of them, then passionately kissed Yuna in front of everyone; I didn't care.
"I thought I lost you," she whispered as she buried her head in my chest.
"You never will," I whispered back and kissed her on her forehead.
"Whoo, it's getting hot in here," Rikku joked as she started to fan herself off with her hands. "Come on, you two lovebirds, let's get the hell out of here."
"Agreed," Baralai said and put his arm around Paine's waist. "I don't think I want to come back to Bevelle for a while."
"And they wonder why I won't live here?" Yuna said with a small laugh. "I love Besaid. Less crazies."
"Let's go home," I stated. Everyone nodded and we all walked through the Temple to the Rekrfeht outside.
