Sexy Author's Note- After over a month of serious procrastinating, I got this chapter out. So now you all know for sure that I haven't died………yet. The next chapter won't be too long, so it won't take long to type it up. At all. Thanks, and all of you rock!
Unsexy Author's Note- Well, enough ramblings. That's what xanga is for. Now read! Oh, and as an apology for taking so long to update, I made the chapter much longer. And dumber.
Destiny of a Not-So Final Fantasy
Chapter Five: Dyrnsyn
Darius gurgled under the water and then gurgled some more, and after some more gurgling, bobbed to the top of the water and helped out the so-called blitzball star who should've been able to help himself.
'Oh well,' Darius sighed, shaking his head free of fish, which he didn't notice to be hungry piranhas.
"You okay?" he asked Tidus, who was viewing the area.
"Hey, I'm the blitz star, remember?" Tidus snorted (not literally snorting, you know), running a hand through his hair.
"And a not-so good one at that…" Darius murmured.
"Wh- Hey, look out!" Tidus suddenly cried, catching a flying blue ball in mid-air. "Beat THAT," he retorted.
"Lucky catch. Hey, I could've done that!"
The world seemed to go silent.
"…..What! It could happen!"
As the world grew normal again, Tidus began to observe intensely at the blue ball which had, with "luck," as Darius called it, flown into Tidus's very very pruny hands.
"Blitzball!" he exclaimed happily, almost jumping ten feet into the air, even though he was still treading water in the middle of nowhere.
Glowing with glee, the seventeen-year-old turned around and saw a bunch of men in orange overalls pointing at them. 'It is rude to point,' Darius thought, narrowing his eyes at them all.
"Give us the ball!" a red haired man in overalls, Wakka, screamed.
"Say please!" Darius returned, ignoring the fact that Tidus had already shot the ball towards them.
"We already have the ball, you idiot!"
The two swam up to the shore, where the orange men in overalls stood, balancing the ball on their noses like seals. "Yo! Hiya!" Tidus greeted, waving a very very VERY pruny hand (that's one more "very" than before, mind you).
"You're no amateur, ya?" he nodded. "You wanna try that move again?"
"Su—"
"Yeah, he's an amateur, and no he doesn't," Darius put in.
Tidus blinked thrice. He then took the ball from Wakka and did the move again. "Ha!" he beamed.
"Wow, you really aren't no amateur! Who you play for?" Wakka asked, eyeing him like he had suddenly sprouted two heads.
"The Zanarkand Abes, baby!" Tidus responded almost too cheerfully. "From the best!"
Darius nudged him hard in the shoulder. "Didn't Rikku warn you about that?" he whispered from the side of his mouth. Louder, he said, "He got too close to Sin's toxin. Soooooooooooooooo, he's stupidified temporarily."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand… it worked. People are so gullible these days.
"Hey!" Tidus whispered bitterly.
"What? I could've said permanently!"
Tidus glared. "Yeah, and I could take this blitzball and—"
"Sin's toxin got to you. But," the man with red hair said sadly, "you're still alive. Praise be to Yevon!" he said, fake-coughing. He then turned toward the other overall-wearing-weirdos. "All right, back to practice, losers!"
"Shouldn't you try being nicer to them?" Darius suggested. "I mean…they are forced to wear those repulsive clothes."
One of them turned around. "What? What's wrong with our fashion? These are trendy!"
"………………………………………." was Darius's opinion on this.
"….Anyway!" the red-haired man shouted, after a long pause of silence. "I'm Wakka, coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs, brudda. And this," he said proudly, pointing to the men running around like insane maniacs, "is the team."
"Are they any good?" Tidus asked, observing one of them as he attempted to catch a ball in the air and missed, falling dramatically to the floor.
"I don't know…." Darius replied. "Let's test his reflexes." He strode over and kicked the man on the left knee.
His right arm flew off.
"Actually," Wakka sighed, "we haven't won a game in all of blitzball's history, brudda."
"Ohhh…that's too bad," Tidus said, shaking his head. "But who knows? Maybe you'll win this year!"
"Yeah, right…" Wakka's stomach suddenly began to grumble. "Oh, you hungry?" he asked himself. "Okay, I'll get you something to eat. Come on!"
Tidus and Darius exchanged worried looks and followed behind Wakka.
"Hey! It's this way!"
"Huh?"
Darius and Tidus were abruptly shoved into the water by an anonymous figure, cough WAKKA cough, who cackled and pointed at the two. 'What fun I have,' he thought, happily shaking his head. He cannonballed into the water, splashing wet stuff EVERYWHERE (and no, not THAT wet stuff, you sickos) as two perched birds fluttered away in disgust.
"What's the big idea, Wakka?" Tidus spat, taking his sword out to be ready in the case of a fiend.
"Just some fun, brudda. You don't usually have too many visitor's in a village like this," shrugged Wakka.
"Really? Why not?" Darius stopped moving.
Wakka pointed up to a moon in the sky. It was huge, five times the size of Earth's moon, and had blue streaks covering it, with a white glow that seemed to outshine the sun, which was perched on the opposite side of the sky.
"That's why," he whispered solemnly. "That moon showed up a few days ago, for some reason. No one knows why, but it seems to have something to do with…well… Ah, I couldn't tell ya. You'll have to ask Lu."
Darius stayed watching it for a while. He didn't move.
Tidus quickly changed the subject. "It's true Zanarkand was destroyed, right? A thousand years ago? I mean…it's…not still around, is it?"
"Well, I could go into it deeply and tell you everything, or I could give you the lazy version. Which to you want?" Wakka yawned.
"Whichever holds my attention for more than three seconds."
"Well," he began, "long time ago, there were huge cities with machina, or machines, and Yevon got mad because it was against his teachings and bombed the place. Therefore, Zanarkand exploded. So…Sin's our punishment for letting things get outta hand, brudda. I wish I would just travel back in time and beat up those goofballs for the fate they've given us!" He shook a fist in the air.
Tidus grimaced. It was just as Rikku as said. They wouldn't both be lying, right? Why would they? He didn't know or care; he wanted to go back home, to his fans and teammates and friends—but his father?. It was one thing he was glad to be away from.
Tidus shook his head. 'Forget it.'
"Strange…" Darius remarked, his voice fading away from Wakka and Tidus's ears as he stayed behind, staring blankly at the moon. "What an ugly moon."
His eyes widened when a voice came from it.
Xodan, a sweet and gentle woman-like voice called. Come closer.
"Hot damn! A talking ugly moon!" But still, like a wooden dummy, Darius moved a bit closer to the moon. His gaze didn't break.
Xodan, the anonymous voice repeated. Thou..doth thou see me?
'What the hell?' The thought came racing through his mind. An uncontrollable thought it was. His gaze didn't move, but he was able to snatch out his sword.
Yeah, right. Like THAT'S going to help, moron.
It snapped in two.
'…What the f- Who are you!' was the only thing Darius could seem to think. 'I…leave me alone. I need to get to Besaid.'
He tried to turn away, but the moon only glowed brighter. Darius couldn't move.
I am Nyllia. Don't try to slip away. Doth thou see me, Xodan? He surely cast many powerfull spells to stop you. I wonder… Thou…
'Did you sa-…Nyllia? I…ah!'
Xodan, art thou ready for the journeys ahead? We shall see.
Darius's body began to shake. He tore to the right, then to the left, and soon enough his heart began to stop beating.
Tidus and Wakka continued to walk silently, until Wakka grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Hey, lemme go!" Tidus shouted, tearing away.
"Sorry, got a favor to ask ya," Wakka said, turning around and walking backwards.
Sadly, he didn't run into the tree in front of him like George of the Jungle, but instead dodged it. (Damn, so close!) "A major blitz tournament's coming up. All the teams in Spira'll be there! It's so huge, I'm sure someone there will recognize you! Then you can go back to your old team, right? It'll be fun! What do you say, huh? Come on, come on!"
"Well…sure thing! I mean, with me on the team, you won't lose another game again, man! And maybe Darius could help too!" Tidus said cheerfully.
"Great! Our team is gonna rock, eh? Or at least…. it BETTER," Wakka said almost threateningly, as if he had a chainsaw in his pocket (like the rest of us). "Say, where is Darius?" he added, looking around.
"…DAMN!" Tidus bellowed, turning around and tearing through the water.
Darius was up in the air jerking uncontrollably, his dark hair slowly growing lighter and lighter with every jolt he made, until it was as golden, if not more, than Rikku. His eyes lost all color and the pupils faded away. He shouted and crashed into the water. His broken weapon was quickly forgotten as his eyes slowly shut.
"&$# IT!"
Tidus hurriedly grabbed the unconcious Darius's feet, and, with Wakka lifting my by the arms, hustled to Besaid village.
When Darius finally opened his eyes, he was lying on a bed in a small hut with Tidus and Wakka hovering over him. They slowly edged toward him as he slowly backed away. 'WOAHHHH.'
"Uh…what's going on…?" he asked, rather creeped out, and ready to make a run for it if either one of them came any closer.
"You fainted on the way here, and…well, we had to rush you over here," Tidus said, panting heavily. "It's a good thing this weird little girl assisted us, man, or we wouldn't have had the energy."
Darius looked around. He couldn't remember a thing. "Errrrrrrrrrr…THERE IS NO WEIRD LITTLE GIRL IN HERE," he remarked coldly.
"Yeah there was, ya? She was just in here… Ah, dammit, where'd that girl run off to now?" Wakka shook his head. "But she was here, wasn't she Tidus?"
"Yep."
Darius crawled out of the bed and looked under it. "Nope, no weird little Ring girl here. You must be mistaken." He yawned. "But what is this place?" he asked, observing the overly-happy little children's drawings on the walls, the rainbows on the ceilings, and the smiley face stickers on the bed. 'This place should have been torched years ago.'
"The Besaid hospital!" Wakka exclaimed. "Although it's been abandoned for the past three years… But hey, it works."
"Right… Eh…let's go."
"Are you sure you can walk okay? You don't need more rest, brudda?" Wakka asked, gesturing to the bed. "There's no rush, you know."
"Nope! I'm fine! Good as new!" he lied. "Let's go!"
As soon as the three left the small-as-hell-hut, two young men bumped into Tidus.
"Hey! Watch it, you!" he cried rudely. "Wait, you're the ones attacked by Sin recently, aren't you?" asked the shorter of the two.
'Wow, what superb stalkings!'
"Who is he?" Tidus whispered to Wakka, all the while trying to keep Darius from chucking a nearby rock at the boy.
"They are Crusaders," Wakka whispered back. "Ask 'em."
"Yep, that's us," Darius said to the thing, answering the boy's question. "Two idiots impacted by Sin's nastiness."
Tidus raised his eyesbrows and sent a hand through his hair coolly. "Speak for yourSELF," he said, dodging another one of Darius's rocks.
"You two wouldn't be…say…HIDING anything…now would you?" the Crusader, Gatta, asked.
'Of course we are!' Darius thought sarcastically. "Why would we be hiding something, Sir-Farts-A-Lot?"
"…I resent that!"
Wakka pinched his nose.
"Anyway," Gatta quickly said, "if Sin's nearby, it'll attack the island for sure. Soooooooo…we're doomed. IF you are telling the truth, that is."
Darius internally set a bomb on him. "We are telling the truth, you weirdo!" he shouted unhappily. "May the elephants of South Africa trample over you."
Tidus raised his eyebrows again. "South Africa?"
"Uh…forget that."
Gatta folded his arms and whispered something to his giggling PAL, Luzzu, who put a hand up to his mouth and chuckled girlishly.
'AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!' Darius thought, utterly and completely creeped out. Wakka and Tidus exchanged freaked out looks.
"What…is a Crusader, anyway?" Tidus asked, almost throwing up from the giggles.
"Sin!" Luzzu exclaimed nastily. "The toxin! Gatta, tell him who we are!"
"Yes, sir! The Crusaders are sworn to battle Sin! We have chapters throughout Spira, accepting all who wish to join our struggle! The hero Mi'ihen formed the Crusaders eight hundred years ago as the Crimson Blades. Later, our ranks grew and we called ourselves the Crusaders. We've been fighting Sin ever since!"
"What, you've been fighting eight hundred years and you still haven't beat it?" Tidus asked, confused as hell.
"Well, we've steered Sin away from towns many times! And that's all we can do."
"Really?"
"Yep. Sin's too powerful for us to kill, so the best we can do is defend against it and try to steer it away from the people of Spira and their homes. Ah, we'd better be going," he said. "It should be nice seeing you again!"
Darius waited for the Crusaders to walk away, then shuddered, 100 percent creeped out. "Are they always so…you know…"
"Only on Wednesdays. Oh shoot! I forgot to introduce you to the gang! Follow me!" Wakka shouted so loud the people on the BEACH could hear him.
Before stepping in, he whispered, "There's a woman with a short fuse in there, and who knows what the Ronso's thinking. Proceed with caution."
Tidus and Darius leisurely followed Wakka into the hut that he had scrambled into.
Inside was a rather…ERM, revealing woman wearing all black, whose black hair was held up by a ponytail and fell back down her back. There was also a blue-skinned being with half a horn standing next to her.
"Wakka! Where have you been!" the woman snapped. "We've been waiting for you for fifteen minutes!"
"Oh, Lu, sorry, I, ah…—"
"Always so unreliable. Have you forgotten the lady Yuna has already goneinto the temple? We were supposed to meet her there minutes ago, Wakka! Who knows if she'll obtain her first aeon by herself now? What have you got to say for youself?"
"I told ya she had a short fuse, ya?" he whispered to Tidus.
Lulu was about to smack him silly when she saw Darius and Tidus. "Burgulars?"
"No! They were brought here by Sin! Poor guys don't have a place to stay! I swear!" Wakka promised cowardly.
'Er, 'scuse me, but we weren't BROUGHT here, thank-you-very-much. We were dropped on our asses out in the sea and almost slaughtered by a BLITZBALL! DO YOU SEE A DIFFERENCE!'
Lulu slowly looked them both up and down. "What…are your names? And WHY are you kicking my walls! We just painted those!"
She glared at Tidus and Darius for a moment. "Fine," she eventually said, "but only if the daughter of the High Summoner Braska agrees."
'Oh, Lulu, cut the drama,' Darius thought. Tidus, of course, was FIRST to say something! Oh, joy!
"What's a high summoner again?" Lulu raised her eyebrows, and Tidus quickly added an excucse. "I...I got too close to Sin's, uh, toxin."
Darius couldn't help but fall on the floor laughing. 'You have REALLY got to learn to lie!'
"Wow, you really have been infected by Sin's toxin, haven't you?" she sighed, shaking her head. "Oh well. That much I fugured."
"HE might have, but I'm perfectly fine," stated Darius, standing up and scratching the wall. 'AND I remember this from the strategy guide!' "The summoners are practitioners of a sacred art, sworn to protect the people of Yevon. Only a chosen few become summoners, who call forth entities of great power: the aeons. The aeons hear our prayers and come down to us. They are the blessing of Yevon."
Lulu nodded in satisfaction. "I like him." (AND DAMN IT, NOT LIKE THAT, PEOPLE.) "They can stay. For now. But how did you know…"
"Oh, forget it. Long story."
Lulu shrugged. Kimahri grunted and left as she followed him into the temple.
Wakka was ready to follow them, but he stopped to glare at Tidus and Darius. "I gotta go help Lulu and Kimahri out with Yuna in the Cloister of Trials. Beyond that is where the apprentice summoner prays. If the prayer is heard, the apprentice becomes a fully-fledged summoner. That's her goal today. Hey, you two stay here for a while and wait for us to come back from the temple, okay? Don't. Move. Got it?"
They nodded and he left.
Five minutes afterward, Darius grew tired of waiting and went INTO the temple.
"What do you MEAN we can't go inside!"
"The cloister of trials is for sexy people only!"
"But what about guardians!"
"Them too!"
"Then let us in!"
"No! You aren't guardians!"
"But…ARGH!"
The priest scowled and kept a close eye on the two as they sighed and moped aimlessly around the temple. Strange hyroglyphics were on the walls and the place seemed…ancient. Like, very ancient. Too ancient.
Darius turned to the priest to try once more. "Why can't we just go in and help Lady Yuna.in the Cloister of Trials?" he asked the priest kindly…okay, more like shouted frantically at the priest.
"There are guardians in there and, besides, it is forbidden!" he barked back, growing angry and spitting all over the room, forcing all of the random people wandering aimlessly to give him nasty looks.
Tidus wiped his face and glared unhappily. "But what if something goes wrong!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "What if the summoner dies!"
"The precepts must be obeyed!"
"But nobody likes the precepts!"
"You aren't going in that that's that!"
After a while, Darius grew tired of waiting. "Screw this, I'm going in," he whispered to himself.
Tidus nodded in agreement.
The two slid over to the door in a James Bond 007 spy-like way and dove inside.
"We made it!" Tidus shouted, hoping from one foot to the other and making strange caveman noises.
"Nice victory dance, Tidus!" Darius laughed sarcastically.
Then he stopped and gaped.
The place was filled with glyphs, strange markings, pedestals, and complete and utter non-sexiness. 'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, sneaking into the Cloister of Trials…' thought Darius. It was like a maze. Only larger, fatter, bigger, nastier, harder, and much more realistic.
Tidus walked forward and randomly prodded a glyph on a wall, which in turn opened up a new room, earning it multiple shouts and yelps from him.
"SHHH!"
Throwing a quick glance of irritation Tidus's way, Darius blinked and suddenly became very thoughtful and quiet. Which glyphs opened up the doors and which pedestals had to be used? He stared at the air, pondering.
In all of the stillness, a tumbleweed rolled by…
Tidus kicked it and gave it a mad karate chop.
"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"What!"
After a while, Darius gave up and realized he wouldn't be able to remember anything in the guidebook if he wanted to. And even if he could, things would be different. He suddenly remembered the strange Moon of Nyllia that had mused to him earlier, and he shuddered. If one huge thing was different, who knew what else could be different in the real Spira than in the videogame?
"Crap… We seriously have to get through this maze," were the words that came out of his mouth.
Tidus nodded and searched one corner of the room for strange signs or anything, while Darius swung into the other room.
After a while, Tidus found a staircase to another room. "Hey Darius! Over here!" he called, waving an arm above his head.
Darius jogged over and leaped down the stairs, going 10 steps at a time for the staircase was freaking long.
Tidus almost fell to the floor after seeing all of the pedestals and glyphs on the new lower level. 'This…is one…ANNOYING puzzle!' he screeched mentally, getting started on the searching.
But Darius was quick to find a Besaid Sphere lying by his feet, and he picked it up, ready to place it on a nearby pedestal. Only, he was much too lazy and tired to laborously walk over to the pedestal, so he booted it over. As soon as the thing hit the other thing (…I SWEAR you people have sick minds!), Wakka sprang from nowhere and startled them both to death.
"Have you lost your minds!" he shouted, clutching his hair like a monkey. "Only summoners, apprentice summoners, and their guardians can enter here! It's a tradition, and is very important!"
Tidus folded his arms "Oh sure, so YOU'RE allowed to come in freely? And we had to sneak in like snakes?"
"Me? Oh no, I'm a guardian. I'm allowed in," Wakka boasted, sticking his chin up to the air, as a platform raised at the end of the hallway and he stepped on it.
"Sure you are," mumbled Tidus quietly.
The platform floated in the air and took the three to a new floor with Lulu and the Ronso waiting patiently for something. "What are you doing here?" Lulu asked bitterly, turning away. "Didn't think we'd be able to handle it?"
"No, it's just… We ah… I…missed you…"
"…That cute love act doesn't fool me," she flung back, staring blankly at a shut door. Tidus took a glance at the Ronso, who angrily snatched out his spear and pointed it menacingly at him.
"Is the summoner all right?" Darius questioned.
"You! What are you d—"
Just then, as Darius was sure Lulu was about to stand up and start screaming, the door slid open and revealed a young woman with short brown hair and light skin wearing a summoner's robe with a staff in her hands. 'Yuna!'
She collapsed on the floor (of course, our kind and reliable Kimahri caught her in the air) and gasped, "I've done it. I've…become a summoner!"
Tidus only stared. 'Wow. And here I thought summoners were all fat old men with gray hairs poking out of their asses.'
"Hey, you two! Over here! Wait'll ya see this, ya?" Wakka called from outside, shoving Darius and Tidus forward.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Darius yelled madly, clawing at the ground. "Get OFFA me you dirty FREAK!"
"I'm just taking you two to see Yuna, ya?" Wakka replied, giving a look that said, 'I would never do anything like that!'
"Yeah, right, Wakka, and I'm a pregnant cow," said Darius dryly. "You know what you were doing."
"Oh, shut up, ya? Yuna's calling her first aeon!"
There she stood, in the middle of the village, holding her staff upright and facing the moon.
"Ready!"
Yuna smiled and nodded. "Okay!" Twirling her staff this way and that, a HUGE bird came flying from the clouds and landed next to her, stroking her hand with its feathers.
As soon as she did so, the entire village seemed to clap and applaud and yell and scream and do cartweels and flips all over the place like insane idiots. "Lady Yuna will defeat Sin!" one of them screamed, breaking windows in the process.
"CAN YOU BE ANY LOUDER!" Darius screamed back at him/her/it, rightfully earning him curous looks from half of the townspeople.
"Congradulations, Yuna!" Lulu cried, hugging the new summoner tightly. Even Kimahri cracked a smile. Okay, well, no he didn't, but that's beside the point.
Everyone in the town, save Darius and Tidus, gathered around the summoner to congradulate her and smother her with unwanted hugs. Knowing how Tidus and Yuna felt about each other, Darius accidentally on purpose pushed Tidus forward, into the crowd of sweaty villagers.
"Stay away from the summoner!" an old woman croaked as he edged by.
"You heathen!" a wrinkly man added.
The two old people looked at each other. "Hey, you're hot, old woman."
"Hey, you're hot, old man."
They both made long moans and groans (this time, it WAS in a nasty way) and left, hand in hand, kissing.
Shrugging and shuddering at the same time, Tidus continued on into the crowd until he saw Yuna, and stopped.
Seeing him, Yuna smiled. "Hey, thank you so much for you help earlier…Tidus, is it?And Darius?" she asked sweetly.
He smiled back. "Yeah, in the flesh!" he joked. "And uh…about that whole temple thing… Yeah, I really shouldn't have gone in…I mean, tradition, and all."
"Oh no, it's okay. I was overconfident and needed the help," Yuna grinned, fully happy.
No one spoke for a moment. The crowd had slowly faded away, and the guardians (and Darius) had all gone inside to sleep. Yuna and Tidus were the only ones still outside, strolling aimlessly through the village. "I saw that whole aeon thing. It's amazing!"
"You think so? Hey, do you think I could become a high summoner, like my father?"
"YUNA! IT'S COLD OUT THERE! HURRY UP AND GET INSIDE! NOW!" Lulu barked from ao nearby hut, and slammed the door shut again.
She laughed uneasily. "It is getting kind of late, you know. I'll see you on the boat? We can talk more. You can tell me all about Zanarkand!" He nodded, and with that, Yuna went running off into some random place that no one cares about.
'Boat? We're all getting on a boat?' he asked himself as Wakka opened the door to his hut and walked up to him.
"I saw you two strollin' down the street, ya?" he chuckled. "Hey, don't get no ideas!"
"Hey, no promises, big guy. I mean, what if she comes on to ME? What then?"
"Trust me. That won't happen. But don't worry about it. Right now, you should get some sleep," Wakka suggested. Tidus nodded in agreement. "But don't sleep in too late! We have to get up early to go the Kilika in the morning."
Tidus yawned and went into the hut across from Wakka, which, by the way, was a small motel, NOT some random person's house. Darius was already snoring loudly.
Tidus lay down on the small bed and stared up at the ceiling for a while. Slowly closing his eyes, his last thought was of Yuna. And when you think about something constantly just before falling into a deep sleep, you all know what happens, right? You dream about it. That's kind of what Tidus did that night. Actually, it was more like a nightmare to him. He didn't tell anyone about it. Interestingly enough, Darius had the same dream:
Yuna and Tidus had been standing together, looking out into the sea with worried looks plastered onto their faces. The boat hadn't come yet, and time was moving on faster and faster.
"Where's that boat?"
Yuna looked worried. "Everyone will find us if it doesn't come soon…"
"Do you really think this is okay?" Tidus asked.
"Yeah, it's fine." Yuna nodded. "Oh, Tidus…, could you take me to Zanarkand?"
Rikku suddenly appeared from behind. "Hey, you said you'd go with me!"
"What?" Yuna shouted angrily. "He's not going with you!"
"And why not, huh?"
"Because I said so!"
Rikku strode over and snatched out Yuna's hair. "He likes ME!"
"BITCH! He likes ME!" Yuna slapped Rikku hard in the face.
"BASTARD! No he DOESN'T!" Rikku exclaimed, taking out her earrings.
The brunette pulled out her staff and got into a fighting stance. "Oh, what? You wanna go?"
"Bring it, bitch!"
"It's been brung!"
Suddenly, Rikku stopped. "But wait," she said, stroking her chin, "what about Darius? Who's going to go with him?"
Both were silent for a moment. Then, they both grinned and Yuna said, "forget Tidus. Darius is mine."
"What? No, he's mine!"
Tidus gaped. "What about me?"
"…what ABOUT you?" the girls asked in unison. "Darius is much better."
Happily, they strode off, calling for Darius.
Darius awoke with a grin at the sound of two familiar voices screaming outside.
"He's DEAD, okay? DEAD!"
'Ooh, this oughta be good,' he grinned maliciously, surreptitiously, A.K.A. slyly, peeping outside.
Wakka and Lulu were pointing fingers and barking nastily at each other.
"He does look a lot like Chappu. I was surprised, too, the first time I saw him. But no matter what he looks like, he isn't Chappu. You shouldn't have brought him here in the first place! And what about the other one? Haven't Sir Auron's talks had any affect on you? Don't you remember what he said about the girl?"
"Yeah, I DO, but…they needed our help!" Wakka protested defensively. "And they still do! Just LOOK at them!"
"Thanks a lot, Wakka," Darius murmured quietly to himself.
"Excuses again?" Lulu snapped.
"Yeah, but…"
"I don't want to hear it. That's enough, Wakka! I'm going to the beach. You," she ordered, "go wake up Darius. The rest of us are waiting." She stomped off.
"…And don't come back, either!"
"What was that all about?" Darius asked, fully confused, and walking outside. "Another fight?"
"Oh, it was nothing… Just conversation is all, ya?" 'Oh, right, CONVERSATION, that's what it was.' "But that's not important."
"I guess..."
"Oh, I got somethin for ya! I found it by your bed when you were asleep!"
Wakka laborously pulled out a long, narrow sword. Standing straight up, the gleaming sword reached his chest-level. Its sharp edge, Dar guessed, could most likely tear down the entire village without a scratch made on it, and its handle was surrounded with tight leather. The word, "Dyrnsyn" was engraved lightly on its handle.
"What the...?" he stumbled with bulging eyes.
"I thought you would know…. I suppose its name is Dyrnsyn, since, well…you know, ya? But anyway, I'm giving it to you, since the incident… it seems very powerful.."
Darius snatched it. "But, you said it was on my bed, right?"
"Yeah."
"But...that doesn't make any sense. How could it just show up on my bed in the middle of the night? Someone must've either placed it there, or..." He stopped, looking up in the sky at Nyllia. "That, or...something else happened."
"Hey, well, I certainly didn't see anyone else there but you and Tidus, ya? It was surrounded by pyreflies when I first saw it, but...they're gone now..."
The fourteen-year-old turned it over. "It...fits into my hand perfect... Like, I feel like a true swordsman," he whispered.
"But you're not."
"I could be!" he laughed. "Hey, can I try it out on you?"
"No need to be so eager!" Wakka said hurriedly with bulging eyes. "But anyways, we're already late. We'd better hurry and get to the boat, ya?"
Darius nodded. The two powerwalked to the beach, but halfway there, stopped and stared at a ten foot tall blue being standing in the way. "Hey move it, Godzilla, we're trying to get through!" Dar shouted impatiently.
The being squinted through cat-like eyes and instead of politely moving to the side of the path, he raised his spear. "You no worthy!" he bellowed loudly to the skies.With that, he charged with all might toward Dar's body.
Darius was wide-eyed for a moment, but then regained his common sense and nimbly dodged the attack. The beast swung his lance swiftly and powerfully at him, ripping his shirt and forcing him to stagger back.
"Don't touch me, you asshole!" Dar snorted, pulling out Dyrnsyn. 'Let's see what this baby can do!' He charged toward the fiend, about to lash the sword across his face, when Wakka began crying out.
"No! Stop! Quit it! That's Kimahri!" he yelled, jumping between the fight and holding up his hands. "He's Yuna's guardian! What are you doing?"
"What am I doing? He charged at me and swung at my clothes, the bastard. I was just defending myself!" Dar cried, silently putting away Dyrnsyn. "The question is, he was he doing?"
"Kimahri no allow Yuna to be hurt," he barked back simply. "Kimahri no trust Tidus or Darius."
"What did we do to Yuna, damn it! Nothing! Back off!"
Wakka kicked the ground. "STOP it! NOW.. We're going to be late. And the last thing any of us needs right now is this. Got it?"
Kimahri grunted and left, while Wakka still glared at Darius as if he had just shot someone.
"It wasn't me who started any of it. Stop staring at me, Wakka," he said bitterly. "Yuna needs us, anyway."
"You're right. And I'm walking in front from now on."
'Good. The perfect spot for me to maim you from behind.'
When the two arrived at the beach, there was gigantic crowd of musty, stinky people screaming and waving to Yuna and her guardians on the deck of the boat. Darius had to push them all out of the way for him to get to the pier. "Pardon, ma'am! Excuse me, sir! Move it!"
He also noticed the same old man and woman from yesterday, but kept walking.. "Heathen!" they yelled at him from behind. "Stay away from the summoner!"
He turned around. "Oh, bite me!"
The boat had already started to take off, with Wakka, Kimahri, Tidus, Yuna, and Lulu already on it, and the second Darius saw this, he broke into a frantic sprint, and had to leap from the pier to the side of the boat. Half way in the air, time slowed, and he rolled onto the deck skillfully.
"Yu-na! Yu-na!" the crowd chanted, rolling their eyes at Darius's superior skills.
"Goodbye, all!" Yuna waved cheerfully.
"BYE, YUNA!" they all shouted in unison, quite creepily indeed.
"Oh, brother…"
-S