((A/N: Yeah, you know the copyright thingie and whatever else it is I've said in previous chapters... Just saying now, thanks for reading. I appreciate it! Here's the next chapter for you and I'm going to go back and work on chapter nine now. Read, Review, and Enjoy! ))

Chapter Eight

Saving Traitors

The meyvn of the Youth League lent the ex-summoner a hover and an escort and gave his apologies that he could not journey with her. After all, his presence in New Yevon might just start a war. Ren claimed Yaibal for her escort and told Nooj that she understood why he couldn't accompany her.

Yaibal didn't seem too pleased with being ordered to journey with the ex-summoner, but he did as he was told and joined Ren in the hover. After Ren waved good-bye to Nooj, she boarded the hover and sat across from Yaibal, who kept his eyes anywhere but on her.

The pilot started the hover and they were quickly on their way to Bevelle. They remained in silence for a while before Ren said, "Yaibal, please talk to me." He remained silent, watching the path the hover was taking. "Yaibal." His eyes shifted to her. "Please."

With a sigh, he said, "How could you join Bevelle and New Yevon? Naoska, I..." He shook his head a bit and said nothing else.

"It's not by choice," she told him and looked away.

His eyes landed on her and they narrowed in suspicion. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"If I tell you, and by some chance it reaches the praetor's advisor, Aitigus, then what I'm trying to save, will be destroyed," she replied.

"I'm not about to tell anyone, and neither is the pilot. You can trust us Naoska," he told her, making large arm gestures.

"No," she replied. "I don't want to risk it. The best way for things to remain safe is for them to not be spoken at all," she told him. Yaibal had been one of her closest friends. If it were in complete confidence, without the pilot, then maybe she would've considered telling him. Yet there wasn't complete privacy, and she wasn't about to place her village in danger.

Yaibal seemed disappointed for a moment. He knew she wouldn't tell him if it risked the lives of others, and he wouldn't pressure her for it. "You don't want to marry him?" he asked.

"No," she replied. "I..." Her attention dropped to her feet. "I never thought I'd get married ever again." She wiped away the tears brimming in her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffled slightly. "I guess I can't think about that right now... or... ever again," she said and looked to him, putting on a fake smile that made Yaibal's heart wrench. "It's my wedding day."

They spoke casually as the hover took them as far as the Moonflow. After that, they crossed on the shoopuf, and then to Guadosalam. The two caught up on times they had missed in each others lives, and laughed at funny stories. When they began to cross the Thunder Plains, Ren began to sing a silly Al Bhed song she had learned from Naji and had taught to Yaibal. "I can't wait to see the..."

She paused for a moment and waited for Yaibal to catch on and together they sang, "Apples. Apples. Apples on the great green trees! Apples. Apples. Apples they are good to eat. Apples. Apples. Apples up where we see. The bestest time's when you're with me!" Laughing, they danced about and acted silly as they made their way to the travel agency.

Ren continued the song as she skipped ahead of him. "I can see the open road ahead of the apple trees. I can see the flowers as they bloom in the fields. I can see the chocobos, running down the Highroad roads. I can see the path I take is leading me to you."

Joining hands, they jogged up to the door of the travel agency. Pushing open the door and holding it for the ex-summoner, Yaibal sang, "I'll meet you on the edge of the apple grove. I'll stay there until you come see. The apples up high in the branches of the great big tree. We'll stay there and together we will be."

Laughing, they glanced around and the few inhabitants were staring at them. The expressions on the faces of the strangers made the two travelers laugh even harder. Grinning, Ren glanced around and then looked to Yaibal, "Want to just walk there?"

"Sounds good to me!" he laughed and, arm in arm, they left the travel agency and continued on toward Bevelle.

They continued on in peaceful, mutual silence for a moment until Yaibal asked, "What's the Apple Song sound like in Al Bhed?"

Brow furrowed slightly, Ren thought about it for a moment, and then began the song from the beginning. "E lyh'd fyed du caa dra... Ybbmac. Ybbmac. Ybbmac uh dra knayd knaah dnaac! Ybbmac. Ybbmac. Ybbmac drao yna kuut du ayd. Ybbmac. Ybbmac. Ybbmac ib frana fa caa. Dra pacdacd desa'c frah oui'na fedr sa!"

They looked at each other for a moment and then bust out laughing. "You learned it like that?" Yaibal asked, laughing.

"Yeah, and with Naji singing. It was hilarious! It sounds better when it's not Al Bhed," she told him and he nodded in agreement.

As they entered the forest, Ren's mind began to race. Baralai should be there, but if he wasn't, then she had to take a stand and take the blame and as just as fast as she would have entered the city, she would be killed. As they neared Bevelle, Yaibal began to notice the change in his friend. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"More or less," she replied and shrugged slightly, tensely.

Before entering Bevelle, Ren stopped by the two guards after they saluted her. "Has... the praetor returned?" she asked and the two guards glanced awkwardly to each other and shook their heads. Taking a deep breath, she entered the city, Yaibal close behind. The two guards didn't even bother challenging the ex-summoner as she brought a member of the Youth League into the New Yevon Headquarters.

As they looked down the bridge ahead of them, they saw a large crowd of people leading up to the gates. The two of them stopped in their tracks for a moment and stared at the gathering. Taking a deep breath, she continued on, her escort at her side. The crowd noticed her arrival and began to part as she neared, giving her space to approach the New Yevon Headquarters.

The quick pace the ex-summoner bore brought her straight up to Aitigus, who stood atop a platform at the head of the crowd. "Where is the praetor?" he asked, angry.

"He's not here?" Ren asked, a dull, careless expression on her face.

"No!" the advisor growled.

"Hm..." She shrugged as she added, "I guess that means he's dead after all."

Aitigus stepped back, shocked. "You... you killed the praetor of New Yevon?" he said, louder than intended and the word was spread back to the guards at the entrance of Bevelle.

Ren shrugged. "What can I say?" she said, and a strange, malicious grin crossed her lips.

The advisor backhanded the ex-summoner across the face and called the guards. Yaibal watched in horror as his good friend was seized, restrained, and led away. Confused and afraid, he backed away from the area, knowing there was nothing he could do for her without the rest of the Youth League backing him up. When Ren didn't look back to give him some sort of sign, he turned and fled Bevelle. His new assignment was to report to the meyvn.

The guards took her down to the jail cell where she had been only once before, yet she wasn't freed to make her comfortable. The chains that bound her wrists were placed over a large hook in the stone ceiling, that she either hadn't noticed before or it was newly installed. Standing on her toes, for the hook was higher than she was tall, Ren shifted slightly to relieve a pain in her shoulder. The stretching to stay slightly comfortable made the wound on her side painfully reopen.

Hours passed where the only sound was the chains moving against the hook. Every little movement brought a suppressed whimper from the ex-summoner. "Lady Naoska," one of the guards said. When she looked to him, she saw a saddened expression on his face. "Please stop moving. It will only make things worse."

Ren's hazel eyes slowly dropped to him. "Either way, I'll end up dead. After all, I killed the praetor."

"I don't believe it," the guard said and the one on the other side of the cell nodded in a agreement. "You went to defeat Sin to save Spira. It wouldn't make sense for you to kill the praetor unless there was something to be saved from it. But there isn't. What's going on, Lady Naoska?"

She remained quiet, not answering him. This guard knew how she was, which meant others did as well. They would side against her for her actions, but few would believe she actually did it.

"Aitigus is going to announce the news to Spira tonight. You'll... be executed tomorrow morning by a firing squad," the other guard said.

"Good to know I'll go out with a bang," Ren told them, smirking, though inside she was petrified.

"The spherewaves will take the message to every corner of Spira and a larger crowd will gather by morning," he continued.

Slowly inhaling, knowing that this was it, she closed her eyes and tried to steady her nerves. Just as her eyes had closed, she heard the cell door slide open. Opening her right eye, she said, annoyed, "Hello there."

Aitigus waved the guards away and they obeyed. "I should destroy your puny little village," he told her after the guards were gone.

"You do that and you start a war with the Youth League," Ren said, grinning.

"So you sided with those rebel bastards," the auburn-haired advisor said, glaring into her eyes.

The ex-summoner had wanted to say that it was because destroying the village meant destroying the only home Meyvn Nooj had ever known and possibly angering him to no end, but she decided to leave Nooj out of it. She hadn't joined the Youth League, but she would let Aitigus think she had. It might not buy her out of her execution, but it might be enough to save her traitorous village. In response to the praetor's advisor, Ren merely smiled.

((A/N: To those of you who made it this far: Congratulations, you get a cookie! ... not a real one, but you get the point . I wanted to clear something up down here, which is: Ren wasn't married to Nooj. It should all get cleared up next chapter, so be sure to come back and read that too.

P.S. A happy writer is a reviewed writer, so review the ones you love! XD --- that equals randomness due to a sugar high... ; ))