Chapter 8: Fiends, Lightning and... OH MY!

"All right, let's go," Tidus said after a few minutes. "You first," I said pushing him out into the open first, lightning striking about a foot away from him. He freaked out, came running back and ran right into Yuna. I almost started laughing but held it back so as not to embarrass Tidus more. Everyone finally got moving except for Rikku I noticed rather quickly and turned back around to go get her. "Chris, I... I'm scared of lightning," Rikku stammered. I just said, "Hey, don't worry about it, everyone has their fears," I said trying to comfort her. Then I lightly started pushing her across the plains, until lightning struck right next to us and she broke into a run to catch up to the rest of the group but luckily my friends did that to me a lot so I easily regained my balance and ran after her. We seemed to be moving along just fine besides the fiends which we disposed of quickly and Tidus getting hit by a stray lighning bolt once, Yuna quickly cured him of course. We proceeded till wehad almost reached the travel agency. Then Rikku began to freak out. She crawled across the ground and then grabed on to my leg. The way she had crawled always reminded me of a fly. She asked if we could stop and rest at the agency up ahead. When we reached it they all just kept walking but I waited back with Rikku as she called them all meanies but unfortunately something diffrent from the story happened again. One of the weird lizards with the rock hard skin and horns on its head was running straight for Rikku from behind. "Watch out," I yelled pushing her out of the way but into the wall of the agency.

The fiend was way to close and I tried to turn to attack it but it smashed straight into my left arm. I heard a loud crack from my arm and went flying back about 50 feet and landed sprawled out on the ground. I managed to sit up and pull out my sword as I saw the fiend running for me. I Stuck my sword out and tried to hold it with both hands but when I tried to move my left arm it hurt a lot. The fiend was rather foolish because it ran stright into my blade and burst into pyreflies. I gave a sigh of relief and stood up closing my eyes in pain realizing my arm must be broken. When I opened my eyes again I saw what looked like a huge sword. It hit me with the flatt side and knocked me back another good fifty feet and straight into a rock. Well, my streak of bad luck seems to be back, I thought as I slid down to the ground on my back. The fiend which I identified to be an Iron Giant came running over and lept into the air. Why do they wanna kill me so bad, was my last thought before the giant living suit of armor brought its right foot down on top of me crushing my chest. I heard several loud cracks coming from my chest this time. I felt something come up into my throat and then I coughed up a bunch of blood. That's always great, I thought as I felt the pressure on my chest increase. I tried to scream in pain but when I tried the pain increased more.

I could hear faint footsteps running towards me. I knew it was the others coming to help, I also knew that by the time they got here it would be too late. I looked up at the giant and as it raised its sword I saw a bright flash of light, felt a burning sensation and then everything went white.

I woke up, or at least I thought I had and got up quickly. How the hell am I in perfect condition, I asked my self moving all my joints to see if I was injured. "This is only a dream," I heard the voice of Mr. know-it-all Bahamut fayth say. Don't get me wrong Bahamut is actually my favourite Aeon but his fayth is just too smart I think. I quickly turned around till I saw the child who had vast wisdom for his age. "What happened to me," I asked after a brief silence. "You and the giant were hit by lightning," he replied. "Holy crap... am I... dead," I asked a little frightened that my assumption would be right. He just laughed and I sighed in relief. "No, your body is a lot tougher in this world you just have a few broken bones, but cure spells won't work on you," he said. I thought about this for a minute. I figured that the part about being tougher made sense. I mean I had my arm broken, probably a few broken ribs and fried by lightning and I was still alive, according to Bahamut anyways. "Umm, why..." I started but Bahamut cut me off saying, "Cure won't work on you since even in your new body you don't really belong in Spira so nothing here will have an effect on you," he said as I raised an eyebrow wondering what nothing included. "Yes you can still die so be careful," he yelled, then he added "potions will still work on you though, since it is their medicinal properties that heal you." I nodded. "Well you should wake up now," he said out of nowhere. "Hey no, wait a sec...

I woke up and felt an extreme amount of pain course through me. I jolted my eyes open and groaned loudly in pain. My arm felt horrid and my chest was in the worst pain I had ever felt. I also had a headache and my legs were sore. I then noticed that I was in a bed, it was comfortable but I could not feel much comfort considering the pain I was in. I was breathing very heavily and was unable to move very much. I just layed there for a minute or two and then Rikku came in. "Hey," I managed to rasp out. "Oh, you're awake," Rikku said happily but almost crying. She ran over and hugged me but then backed off when she remembered that my ribs were broken. "Why'd you have to go and do that, you didn't have to jump in front of that fiend y'know," she scolded me. I wanted to tell her why I did it but it still hurt too much to talk. She starred at me for a minute, then obviously realized that I couldn't talk with out hurting myself. She quickly said, "Dryhg oui," then she kissed me on the cheek for the second time and ran off. I layed there just thinking again, I've probably done more thinking while here in Spira then throughout the rest of my life, was my last thought before drifting off to sleep.

I didn't know how long I had been sleeping but when I woke up again I felt quite a bit better. I managed to sit up but as soon as I did I heard Rikku shout, "Lay back down mister," from the doorway. I decided I didn't want to argue on this since I would probably lose so I layed back down. She then walked over and sat down next to the bed. We sat there in silence for a few minutes then she asked, "Why... why couldn't Yunie's cure spell heal you, we had to use a potion but they won't mend broken bones?" I just looked at her thinking of how I could answer this until I had started thinking so much that I started to do it out loud and at the worst time too, "Cure won't work because... I don't belong here," I thought aloud forgettting Rikku was in the room during my train of thought. "What," she asked loudly and immediately. "Ack, nothing no nevermind I was just thinking out loud," I said nervously, "I just remembered that from a dream I had." I finished trying to explain why I had said something that sounded so ludicrous to Rikku. She seemed to accept my explanation cause she now moved on to a diffrent question, "Why, did you jump in front of that fiend," she asked sounding like she would have rathered it hit her. "I did because... umm, err... Rikku... I," I started but I couldn't continue, for several reasons. First, I just couldn't find the words to tell her I loved her. Second, I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her. Third, I was pretty sure she had figured it out since she was now kissing me. Not just a peck on the cheek either right on the lips.

I sat there for a few seconds a little shocked and then I kissed her back. It lasted for a few minutes more then I heard a voice by the door, "Whoa, awkward... I'll just leave you two lov..." Tidus was really starting to get on my nerves by now so before he could get near finishing his sentence I yanked my sword out of its sheath and whipped it as hard as I could in his genral direction. It went right through his legs and stuck in the wall behind him. He stood there shaking for a second then managed a wimpy little squeak and fell over sideways. "He passed out again," I said almost laughing. Rikku giggled, "You probably would too if you had a sword almost hit you in the groin," we burst out laughing as she finished. The laughing hurt but not all that much. Wakka walked over and asked, sounding flustered, "Again ya," then began to drag Tidus towards his room, which just added to the hilarity for Rikku and me. "We'll wait one more day," Rikku said to me after we had finally stopped laughing. I nodded, and then asked, "How long have we been here already?" She held up two fingers, "Two days," she clarified, making sure I knew days and not hours or something. "Hmm, we should go now," I said, "I've delayed Yuna's pilgrimage enough already." She shook her head, "Yunnie said it's fine if we stay one more day and besides I'd rather her not complete the pilgrimage anyways," she said sounding sad now. Then she shook her head and poked me in the arm, "You get some more sleep, it'll help you get better," she said to me. I nodded and tried to go back to sleep.

I had managed to sleep for a little while. I was tired of lying around though so as soon as the others went off to bed I got up. I managed to get my shirt back on, since they had removed it to bandage me up, the only thing I was unable to put my left arm in though since it was in a sling still. I also grabbed my sword, daggers and everything else they had removed from my pockets. I walked out into the hall after poking my head out to make sure no one was arond. I turned the corner and saw Kimahri standing in front of what I guessed was Yuna's room. "What is injured boy doing," Kimahri asked. "I can't sleep or lay there anymore so I'm just gonna strectch my legs, and call me Chris please," I told Kimahri who just nodded and let me pass by.

I stepped out into the storm again. Wait, where's my camera, I thought checking my pockets, and then looking around for it since I couldn't find it in my pockets. I spotted it in about the place the first fiend had knocked me too. I ran over and quickly picked it up. It was okay besides being a little wet from the rain. I was walking back to the agency when I felt the ground beneath me crumble a bit and I fell sliding down what I guessed was a hole. I wasn't very deep, the hole I had fallen through lit up everything. The light was dim and added an eerie effect to the small chamber beneath the ground. Then I noticed on the far side of the chamber was what looked like a pedestal and then I noticed something was sticking out of it. I got a little closer and I determined it to be the hilt of a sword. It actually reminded me of my current sword, except for the fact that my sword had not started with its elemental power this one already had a small marble connected to the hilt. I slowly walked right up to it and reached out to grab it with my right hand.

Don't touch that I heard a voice in my head say, at least not with your right hand, it finished. I decided to listen and pulled my right hand back. Better not be a bloody trick, I thought as I reached forward with my left hand, which I had managed to pull out of the sling, this time and grabbed the hilt. I pulled at it and it came out rather easily. It was close to my other sword except the flame pattern on this one was black compared to my red. It had a black aura hovering around it as well. Suddenly there was a flash of light and once I had regained my vision I noticed I was now holding another sheath in the right side of my belt. I decided that instead of sheathing the sword, that I had guessed had the power of darkness I would test them out a bit. I pulled out my other sword from its sheath on the left into my right hand. I stayed in the hole swinging the swords around for about an hour or so. It was odd the sword had seemed to heal my arm when I pulled it out.

I then sat there and thought for a minute. Wait a second, When I got that orb that gave my first sword the power of fire... I was underwater. Then I got this sword which presumably has the power of darkness, frome the pattern and whatnot,in the Thunder Plains. The Thunder Plains have lightning which closely resembles light which is the oppisite of darkness. I've gotten both these swords in their oppisite element. After I had thought this over I decided to use the swords as sort of picks to drag my self out of the hole. It took awhile but I managed. When I came out of the top there was another of those fiends that had rammed me, waiting about two feet away. I pulled myself up and slashed it with my brand new sword. It fell over and burst into pyreflies but then something odd happened. The pyreflies which usually just float away, flew into my sword. I sheathed my swords not even wanting to ask about this right now. I just ran back over to the agency so we could continue as soon as the others had awakened.

When I got back Auron was already awake, or rather not laying in his room. I didn't think that an unsent could sleep, well I was pretty sure of that. "Sleep well," I asked as the legendary guardian took notice of my pressence. He simpled grumbled something under his breath and stared at my newest choice of weapon. "Where did you get that," he asked seeming rather curious. "I found it, why, do you know something about it," I replied not really sure as to where I was when I found it or why he wanted to know. I figured he was just either doing his job as a guardian again, or just being his strange old self again. He shook his head and wandered over into a corner. I started to wander the halls and eventually ended up in the kitchen. Yum, food was all I could think while exploring the room trying to find something that suited my taste. "Wonder if they have any sweets," I said to myself as I took notice of a jar of what appeared to be either small gumballs or a mini-jawbreaker of sorts. I took a few and poped them in my mouth. They obviously had lots of sugar since they were very sour. Then I remembered what happens to me when I eat sugar. I either, cravve more, or go extremely crazy. Unfortunately I was craving more so I instantly grabbed the jar and poured as many of the sugary candies as I could into my mouth.

Several minutes later everyone was awake and a little weirded out since I was running around like a mad man, stopping only to talk to people at such a high rate of speed you could maybe catch one word of the sentence. I continued doing this till finally everyone tried to stop me. First, Tidus tried to hit me or tackle me but coudn't get near me and ended up falling flat on his face. I laughed at him and put a rotten fish on his head and ran away.

Then, Wakka tried hitting me with his blitzball but missed until he hit me in the foot and I stopped. He threw it again, straight at my head now. I pulled out a dagger and popped it in the air. Wakka cried and I continued my sugar rush rampage. Kimahri didn't even want to try to stop me, and neither did Yuna. Lulu tried to hit me with any spell but they always hit where I just was.

Auron tried to hit me with the flat part of his sword but also couldn't land a hit and eventually just gave up. I continued running around and just noticed that Rikku hadn't tried to stop me yet when I suddenly turned a corner and was knocked over by something. I felt myself pinned to the ground and when I looked up I saw that it was Rikku. She had her face about an inch away from mine and was staring straight at me. She kissed me again for the second time in the last twenty-four hours. Just after she did so though the others walked in. "You got him..." Wakka started but then I saw a look of shock on his face. "She got him all right," Yuna said after a few seconds and me and Rikku getting up off the ground blushing a million shades of red. "Shall we get on with the journey then," I said after a few more seconds of awkward silence. Everyone agreed and we left and headed for Macalania woods. On the way there Yuna talked to us about her decision of wheter or not she was going to marry Seymour. I acted surprised since no one had told me and I was not supposed to know. So then I was told the story of what happened and we finally reached the woods.

Yep done chapter eight now. I would like to thank all the people who have reviewed my story so far. All right heres the deal. You ppl can bug me ONCE about liking Rikku if u want but no more then once. P.S. there is a reason I can't touch that sword withmy right hand but you'll have to read and find out. Cause even if you guess I won't tell you why!