AN: Yay, I got the chapter done and Yay I got a review! I'm so proud of myself. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll make sure to check out your story Blu Rose. Thanks for reviewing!

Ryu: Really?

DT: Yes, I will check out her story! Why don't people believe me!

Ryu: Actually I was talking to Kyle.

DT: Oh.

Kyle: She's so overly dramatic.

Ryu: So I've noticed. Desert-tiger does not own Kingdom Hearts or FFX-2. Enjoy the chapter.

Ch 1 Kidnapping

Rikku, Yuna, and Paine were widow shopping around Luca. More specifically, they were shopping for a wedding dress. Yuna and Paine couldn't believe that Rikku was going to get married with Gippal. Cid had planned this little arrangement a year ago. He conveniently forgot to tell anyone until a month ago. After the announcement everyone volunteered to help out with the wedding. It was to take place in five months. They had been looking at dresses for about two hours now. This made Yuna remember when she was shopping for her wedding dress. Her wedding with Tidus had been a big deal for everyone in Spira. Rikku noticed that Yuna had drifted off into dream land. Most likely she was dreaming about Tidus. She sighed as she looked at some dresses. Yuna snapped out of her daze and noticed her cousins less than enthusiastic sigh.

"Is something wrong Rikku?"

The young Al Bhed turned away from the dresses. "I'm not sure I can do this."

"What do you mean?" Paine asked.

"Well, it's not that I don't like Gippal, it's just that I don't like him like that. I mean I use to have a crush on him when we were younger, but that was a long time ago. Now he's just a really good friend and I can't even imagine being married and…..."

"Rikku, you're babbling." Paine interrupted.

"Oh, sorry."

"You don't have to apologize." Yuna said. "Have you talked to Uncle Cid about it."

"Yeah, but you know how my dad is. He said there isn't anyone out there that he would allow me to marry except for Gippal and that he needs someone to be a good leader to the Al Bhed. If I don't go with this he'll disown me."

"Tough choice." Pained said sympathetically.

"That does sound like Uncle Cid. Well, why don't we take a break and go get something to eat. Maybe we can help you with your problem."

The girls nodded and they headed out to find a restaurant. A figure looked at them from a rooftop. He took out a pair of binoculars and focused it on Rikku.

"Found you."

He ran along the roof tops and ahead of his prey. With a wave of his hands shadows began to surround his target and her companions. The shadow creatures popped out and looked at them with their glowing yellow eyes.

"What are these things!" Rikku exclaimed as she pulled out her daggers.

"I don't know but they don't look like fiends." Yuna said drawing her guns.

Suddenly, all of the shadows attacked them.

"Look out!" Paine yelled at her friends.

Rikku and Paine sliced through the shadows while Yuna shot down as many as she could. From the roof the figure jumped off and ran towards the fighters. The shadows moved out of his way and gave him a clear path to Rikku. He took out a rope with a small iron ball on each end and twirled it in the air. He threw it towards Rikku and it wrapped around her. She dropped her daggers.

"What the…." was all she could say as the man ran to her and heaved her over his shoulder.

"Rikku!" Paine and Yuna yelled and gave chase to the man. However, the shadow creatures would not let them get too far.

"Someone please stop him!" Yuna yelled.

At a bar entrance, a young man stood to the side guarding it. He had blond spiky hair with some strands of hair over his ocean blue eyes. A pair of sunglasses sat on his head. A long black coat sat loosely on his shoulders. Were it not for the collar clasped together, it would fall off. Under the coat he had a sleeveless black shirt and a necklace with a wolf medallion. He wore black pants with combat boots that had metal soles. He heard the commotion and saw the man running in his direction. He also heard the plea the other girl made. With out giving it much thought, he stepped in to help. He walked in the path of the man.

"Move aside or I will move you!" he yelled.

The young man brushed off the threat and stood his ground. The man looked pissed. He drew a sword and prepared to slice through his opponent. He did a horizontal slash, but the young man jumped to evade it and delivered a kick to the man's face. It sent the man flying to the ground and he dropped his hostage. The man stood up glaring dagger at the young man.

"I'll teach you to mess with me!"

The man was surrounded by a black aurora. He had a look of complete insanity. He picked up his sword and lunged at the young man. Said young man drew his katan and also attacked. There was a clang from the swords and the two fighters stood on opposite sides. The man was smiling, but then his swords broke and a large cut across his chest began to bleed. He fell to the ground in pain. The young man sheathed his katan into the scabbard on his back. He looked in the direction of the two girls fighting the shadows and noticed the shadows disappeared. The girls ran towards his direction. They immediately went to Rikku's side. Paine cut Rikku loose while Yuna made sure she wasn't injured. The young man shifted his attention back to the man on the ground.

"NO, NO! Give me another chance! Please! Nooooo!"

The man was overtaken by the shadows and disappeared. The young man looked mildly intrigued at what happened. He shook his head and walked towards the girls. He stopped in front of them.

"Is she okay?" he asked.

"Umm, yeah. I'm fine." Rikku responded.

"Good."

He walked away with out another word. They observed his retreating form. He didn't even give them a chance to thank him properly. Yuna helped Rikku up and they decided it was best to leave. They called Brother and went to find Cid. It turned out he was at Djose temple. While they were on the ship they got something to eat and tried to figure out a way to tell Cid what happened without getting him too excited. Brother announced they arrived. They got off and proceeded to look for him. After asking several people they were directed to Gippal's office. They walked in. Gippal and Cid turned their attention to them.

"So, how'd the shopping go?" Cid asked gruffly.

"Well, I'm afraid it was cut short." Yuna answered.

"What do ya mean by that?" Cid asked more intently.

"Well,……"

"Someone tried to kidnap Rikku." Paine answered bluntly.

"What!" Gippal and Cid both exclaimed.

Yuna and Rikku groaned. "What? It's not like beating around the bush was going to do it." Paine told them.

Gippal went up to Rikku. He grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Are you okay?"

Rikku put a smile on for him. "Of course! Some guy stopped my kidnapper."

"Really? I'm surprised Yuna and Paine weren't able to help you." he said as he let go.

"We would of, but there were these shadow creatures keeping us from helping." Yuna fought back.

"Yes, those creatures weren't like fiends. Once the kidnapper was beaten; they took him and disappeared. Whatever they were, it seems we don't have to worry about them…for now." Paine concluded.

Cid paced around the office. "I can't have my daughter going around with the possibility of being kidnapped. Especially when we have a wedding to plan." he stopped pacing and looked sternly at Gippal. "Yuna and Paine can't always watch Rikku. They have other stuff to do. You need to go with her whenever she needs to go out."

Gippal put his hands up. "I can't and you know that. I'm helping Baralai and Nooj and also dealing with machina distribution to people around Spira. I'm just too busy."

Cid crossed his arms over his chest. "Well then what the heck are we suppose to do!"

"Why not just get her a bodyguard?" Paine suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Gippal said.

"But I don't want one! I can take care of myself just fine!" Rikku retorted.

"Like you did today?" Paine pointed out.

Rikku groaned in defeat. "Fine, who do we hire?"

None were sure. So Cid went off to send an announcement. Whoever wanted to be Rikku's bodyguard had to come to Djose for an interview right away. Yuna had to return to her husband, but promised to come back for the interviews. Paine stayed behind to keep Rikku company and to keep an eye on her incase something else happened. Gippal got back to work and Rikku decided to sleep. She had had a long day.

It had been three days and by now everyone in Spira knew Cid was looking for a bodyguard for his daughter. Many people were considering the job and many were heading to the temple. The amount that was going to be paid was the big attraction. There was already a line for the job. Brother and Buddy had been going around gathering people since the day of the announcement. Cid was quite pleased with the turn out. Gippal walked out and whistled.

"Wow, people are still coming for the job?"

"Well they sure aren't here to dig." Cid said with a laugh.

"So, Rikku's still not helping choose?"

"Nope, her bodyguard is going to be a surprise."

"Then what are we waiting for? Lets get started already. We have a lot of people to go through."

Cid nodded and they ushered in the first person. After interviewing 30 people, they decided to take a break for lunch. They had eliminated a good number of people from those 35. About 8 were kept and the others were gone. Cid checked to see how many people were still left. He estimated around 25. They decided to interview the remaining and then make a choice. After lunch they continued again.

"Alright send in the last one."

The doors opened and in walked a young man with a long black coat and spiky blonde hair. Yuna and Paine gasped.

"It's you!" they exclaimed.

He seemed unaffected by their outburst and simply nodded. Cid eyed the young man.

"So, this the guy that saved Rikku?"

Yuna nodded her head. "Yeah, that him alright." she looked sternly at the young man.

"Why did you leave before we could even say thank you or get your name?"

The young man shrugged. "I had to get back to my job. I don't get paid to help kidnapped princess."

"Lets just get this over with." Cid said tiredly. "Okay, so what's your name kid."

"It's Ryu."

"What makes you think you can protect my daughter?"

"I already saved her once. I can protect her with no problem."

Cid didn't say anything. He nodded and looked over to Gippal. "Bring out the other candidates."

Gippal got up and summoned the eight candidates. They lined up in front of the them. Cid stood up and paced back and forth in front of the them.

"Boys, my daughters safety is my top priority right now. Are you willing to do anything to protect her? Well!" he yelled into the face of a candidate who took a step back from Cid. "I guess you're out kid." Cid said with a laugh.

The boy left and now they were down to eight. Cid laughed. "That's better. It'll be easier for the elimination phase."

"What do you mean?" one of the candidates asked.

"I want the best of the best. So, you guys are gonna fight each other tomorrow. Whoever, is left standing will get the job."

He saw the unexcited looks on some of their faces. "What's wrong? If you're all too scared to fight then leave now. It'll be easier to eliminated you."

One of the candidates spoke up. "It's not that we're not willing, but we've been waiting for three days now. If we're not getting this job then some of us want to look somewhere else."

"You shouldn't be worrying about loosing if you know you can win." Ryu told them.

They looked angrily at him. "What did you say? Are you saying we're weak?"

"I never said that, but if you think so then who am I too tell you otherwise."

"You wanna fight?"

"It doesn't make a difference to me. If that's what you want then lets take this outside." Ryu answered.

Cid shook his head. "Kids these days."

"Is it a good idea to let them do this?" Tidus asked Cid.

"If they settle this now then it's better for us."

"Whatever you say Cid." Gippal said with a sigh.

"Shouldn't we watch them?" Paine asked.

"Lets go see!" Cid said excitedly.

The five of them hurried outside to see the battle. Ryu had gone to one side and the others had gone to the other. They stared each other down. It looked like the other seven were going to take Ryu down. Cid knew it was an unfair fight, but Ryu didn't seem to mind. Cid found this intriguing.

"I wonder if he can take them." Tidus asked to no one in particular.

"Who knows, but that boy there doesn't seem to care. Let him handle it if he thinks he can."

The seven fighters drew their swords. Ryu continued to stared them down. With a scream, the seven fighters charged at Ryu, who was patiently waiting for his moment to strike.

AN: Well, I hope you liked it. So, what do you think is going to happen. Will Ryu be beaten into a bloody pulp or will he be able to beat his competition.

Ryu: I better win otherwise this story isn't going anywhere.

DT: You are so negative.

Kyle: Not negative, just realistic.

DT: You know you're not even in this story. What are you doing here?

Kyle: I don't know. You should ask yourself that. You're the writer!

DT: Oh, you're right. Umm, go review! Now! Pay no mind to this conversation. Later!