Chapter III

"I'm sure Yunie's okay. She's breathing fine and all. How are Lulu and Wakka?"

I stood in water, amidst the ruins of an ancient city. Rikku was the one that had spoken to me. We had survived the battle against Seymour. Yuna had emerged to replace Sir Auron, and summoned an aeon called Shiva. Anima defeated it, though, but we killed the huge and mighty fish thing shortly after that. Then we went after Seymour again, and defeated him aswell. Then he asked Yuna to pity him, which to me was disgusting. Yuna didn't have time to send him to the farplane, though, since some Guado people came to mess things up. We had to fight many of them, and as a result of some strange things that happened we ended up here.

"Wakka's in shock," I told Rikku. "And Lulu, well, she's just the same as always."

"She's so together. All grown up, I guess," Rikku commented. "Well, just give me five or six more years."

I couldn't stop myself from smiling. It was hard to imagine Rikku ever being like Lulu. In fact, it was hard to imagine anyone ever being quite like Lulu, but Rikku was still worlds apart from her. Lulu was special to me, unique. But I'm pretty sure anyone would have a problem imagining a Rikku that was like Lulu. How do you combine a cold and calm woman with a hyperactive and happy teenager?

I went to speak to Lulu. We would have to wait until Yuna would be able to carry on the journey so I had some time. I wasn't sure if this was the right time for this, but I trusted that Lulu would let me know if it wasn't.

"Uh, hi," I started. I'm a jerk, no need to tell me that.

Lulu smiled at me. Before our trip through the Ice Lands (or from Lake Macalania to Macalania Temple) I couldn't recall seeing Lulu smile too often. Now it seemed like she was smiling at me all the time. I considered that a good sign.

"Are you all right?" I asked. "I mean, I saw that the aeon hurt you pretty bad..."

"Humph," was all I got as a reply to my question. Later, I learnt that even if she were badly hurt, she would never say that aloud to anyone. Like admitting you're weak would make you even weaker. And being weak was a thing she really hated.

"I'm all right, so stop worrying about it," she said softly.

"Okay," I said. Oh God how much I love her voice...

We sat quiet for a while. Though I had come here to speak with her, I suddenly felt like just being with her was enough. Just sitting next to her, knowing that she's there if I need her. Or, at least if I need to talk to her or to hear her sultry voice.

"How about you, then? Are you all right?" she asked me.

Her concern felt warm to me. She wanted to know if I was all right, so it mattered to her whether I was hurt or not. Still, we had the same problem about weakness and admitting it.

"Oh, come on... I'm always all right, no matter what!" I said with a smile.

"Yes, you certainly are..." Lulu said, her voice sounding distant.

I wanted to ask, playfully, was she even listening to me, but then decided against it.

"So, then, not talking about the battle, how are you otherwise?" I know I have a problem with forming sentences the way I want to express things.

Lulu was silent for a long while before answering.

"I'm... I guess I'm just a little...messed up. You know. There are so many things all new to me."

"Yeah. You need to organise your mind about them," I agreed. "That's the way it goes."

Lulu nodded her head, still thoughtful. I glanced at Yuna. Please don't wake up, please not just yet, please... Yuna lifted her head from the cold stone she had been lying on. Wakka and Rikku were by her side in a minute.

"Yunie! Are you okay?" Rikku wanted to know.

I was disappointed. Every moment I had with Lulu seemed to end too soon.

"Maybe we should go to Yuna," Lulu suggested.

I shrugged, unwilling to go. I was surprised about this, though; I sure cared about Yuna, too. But right now it felt like I didn't care whether Yuna was okay or not.

"Yeah," I said reluctantly, getting up and standing in the water again. I gave my hand to Lulu. She took it and I helped her up. I looked at her, and met her eyes, just standing there in front of her and still unwilling to move. She looked at me, and I saw a lot of emotion in her eyes. I wanted to hug her. To kiss her. I almost did, but then realised I couldn't. The pain of that realisation felt too much to bear. The moment I saw compassion in Lulu's eyes I knew she had been thinking exactly the same thing as I had. That made me feel even worse.

Lulu hawked. "Let's go and see if Yuna's all right."

We did. And Yuna told us some ugly facts about Seymour – well, nothing that we didn't know already. Seymour had killed his father, Lord Jyscal Guado. And he had asked Yuna to marry him, when we were at his place in Guadosalam, and right after it he left to Macalania Temple. Yuna had thought to confront Seymour about the death of his father, but we had ended up in a battle.

Just when Yuna was finished and we were wondering how to get away from the bottom of the lake we were in, we got assaulted by Sin once again, and it threw us around and apart from each other. Those weird things it tends to do when I'm around.

I woke up much like I had when I first arrived in Spira; floating in water, face down, near a beach. I swam ashore and gazed around for the rest of our bunch. I saw no one, only sand and a few miserable trees. A desert.

I started walking away from the beach, hoping I would find the others somehow. Before I could go too far, I encountered a zu. A zu is a large bird that likes eating humans. The bird was getting the better of me, when I heard an old and grumpy voice.

"You need help?"

It was Auron. I was grateful for the help he provided, but still anxious. We still had problems with the big bird, nothing grave though, but when I heard a sultry voice calling at distance I knew we would be off a lot faster. You all know to whom they refer when they mention the words 'sultry' and 'voice'... I was relived to see her again, to see she had survived.

Lulu burned the big bird to ashes, and so our journey continued. We met Kimahri, Wakka, and Rikku again, so Yuna was the only one missing. And I can tell you that's bad: a party of six guardians without a summoner. Some guardians we were indeed, losing our summoner. If we wouldn't find her again, we would all end up being between-jobs.

"Umm..." started Rikku suddenly.

"Yeah?" I said.

"There's something I wanna tell you, but promise not to say anything."

Wakka gave her a suspicious look.

"No glaring either!" Rikku ensured. "I know where we are. We're on Bikanel Island."

"Oh?" Wakka said, still suspicious.

"There's a place us Al Bhed call Home near here. Yunie's there, I'm sure of it! Other Al Bhed must've come and rescued her!"

"Rescued? You mean kidnapped!" exclaimed Wakka in anger.

"What does it matter as long as she's safe?" I pointed out.

"That's right!" Rikku agreed. "Anyway, I will take you there if you promise...that you won't tell anyone about it."

We promised. That meant a long walk through the desert, until we came to a huge – I mean huge – steel complex right in the middle of the sand. Climbing on a dune we could all see it in a valley, nicely hidden between sand dunes. If you can hide something as big as Home.

There was a riot down there.