Final Fantasy X and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy X storyline (such as Rayne and Marcus) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
(The Ochu, The Upstage, and The Training)
By the time Rayne got to the forest, she was excited and ready for battle. She remembered fighting the Lord Ochu from the game, and she remembered being terrible at it. But she was determined to make this time different. This time, she was actually charging into battle knowing the Ochu's weakness; fire. And this time, it was something she could personally control. And, most importantly, this time she had something to prove; that she wasn't a liability.
When she saw the blue orb she remembered as being a save point, she was a tad confused as to its presence, seeing as she didn't have a memory card. But, when she touched it, she felt all of the exhaustion she had built up from running flee her body. She felt rejuvenated. So rejuvenated, in fact, she grinned widely and tore her staff out of the sleeve, spinning it around a few times. She hadn't noticed until then how perfectly balanced it felt, or that it was just a few inches shorter than her, making it the perfect length. It really had been made for her.
She heard a roar tear through the trees, making her face turn serious as she ran deeper into the forest, leaping over any obstacles that crossed her path, sprinting on branches over rivers like they were bridges, and dodging all fiends that leapt at her as if she had been fighting her entire life.
When she had reached the actual fight, she skid to a halt and fell down beside the man in the back. He wasn't anyone she knew, but she recognized him to be a Crusader by his uniform and sword. He was watching the summoner's party fight the Lord Ochu with a look of horror on his face, giving no regards to his wounds.
"Soldier," he jumped and looked at Rayne fearfully, not relaxing even when he saw she wasn't a fiend. Rayne dug into her pouch and handed him a blue vial, "Take this and go back to town. It's dangerous here."
He nodded slowly, standing and limping away as he opened the Potion and rubbed some of the liquid on his larger wounds before drinking the rest. When he was out of sight, Rayne got back to her feet and turned to the men and the fiend, regarding them with a false look of skepticism on her face.
"You boys having fun?"
They stopped and turned to look at her before another of the Lord Ochu's planty appendages swung at their heads, forcing them to turn back and dodge.
"Kid, what are you doing here?!"
She put her hands on her hip and snootily replied, "Not helping, that's for sure." She could have laughed at the game she was playing, but kept her face clear of all humor and continued to watch.
"We can see that!"
She raised a brow and let the smallest smirk cross her face, "Oh? What's this? Do you actually want my help, Auron? Because that's what it sounds like."
"As if you could." He growled through gritted teeth as he fought off one of the green tentacles. When he managed to throw it off, it shot passed him and headed straight for Rayne, "No!"
The other two stopped with him and turned to see the bodily damage she had sustained, but their eyes widened in shock when they saw her holding off the tentacle with a staff.
She grinned, "Ya like? It's new." Charging the staff with a bit of 'Fire' magic, Rayne threw her body forward and sent the tentacle spiraling back, its spiny tip burying itself into the Ochu's body, making it screech in pain.
Tossing her head back, Rayne strutted forward and walked passed the trio of now ogling men. "Do you boys know what the Lord Ochu is?"
Jecht raised a brow and looked at the wailing monster, "A fiend."
"Ah," Rayne paused and raised one hand, turning back and smiling, "But what kind of fiend?"
When she received no response, she turned her back to them and loudly stated, "A plant fiend."
Moment of silence, followed by Jecht speaking again "Yeah, so what's your point?"
Rayne sighed and shook her head, turning to face the men with her hands on her hips. "And what do plants hate?"
"Uh…" The three men exchanged glances.
Sighing again, Rayne slapped her forehead. "Do I have to spell everything out for you? Ugh, fine. Plants hate," She paused dramatically, and from the looks of horror on the men's faces, she could tell the Lord Ochu was on the rebound.
"Uh, kid, ya might wanna—"
"Not just yet, Sir Jecht. Plants hate…" She paused and waited, closing her eyes and listening. When she heard the whirring sound she was expecting, she spun around and slashed her staff in a wide right to left arc, screaming, "Fire!"
Her attack landed right inside of the liquid pool in the Ochu's head, making the fluid burst into quick and wild flames that rapidly consumed the fiend's entire body. When she was sure the flames had reached their peak, Rayne turned slowly and deliberately back towards the trio, chin tilted downward, face blank and her mouth opened slightly.
When she was absolutely sure she had their attention, she lifted her head and said, "That is how you take care of an Ochu." To her sick delight and inner worry, she saw that Auron was 'Poisoned', a slash on his arm puffy and purple, and his face taking a green tint. Spinning her staff once, Rayne deftly sheathed it and reached down with her unoccupied hand, pulling out a purple Antidote vial and throwing it to him. "You look like you need this."
He reached up and caught it just as she turned and walked off, striding straight through the smoldering ashes of the Ochu. "If you want to reach the Temple, take the right turn. The straight path has been blocked for some time."
She heard Jecht call after her, "I thought that you weren't going to help."
"I wasn't," She called back without turning around, "The Ochu was in my way."
Braska called out, "If the straight path is blocked, why are you taking it?"
She paused, then turned and smiled, "Training."
She turned away again and walked into the dappled forest, knowing that soon the odd lighting and faint haze would make her vanish from sight.
As she did, indeed, vanish from sight in the dappled light and haze of the forest, Jecht let out a laugh, making the summoner and other guardian turn to stare at him.
Jecht saw this and explained, "She's really adjusting fast, isn't she? We were here fighting that thing for twenty minutes, barely wounding it, and she comes in makes it explode like a Bomb. She showed us up!" He laughed again.
Seeing the faint humor in that, Braska laughed a bit, as well. Auron, on the other hand just stared at the spot he had last seen her at, the Antidote clutched tightly in his hand.
"Hey, Auron!" He turned to face Jecht, who grinned again, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she showed us up to prove a point to you. You agree?"
Auron narrowed his eyes and grunted, walking away and wincing with every step he took. With a loud laugh, Jecht walked passed him, Braska passing him not long after. When they were far away enough, Auron grudgingly opened the Antidote vial and downed the bitter liquid, an image of her flashing through his mind, making him squeeze the vial until it broke when he was finished.
Had anyone come down the path she was on, they would have thought her insane. When she had turned the corner that she remembered leading to another treasure chest, Rayne broke down into a fit of giggles. She, literally, dropped down onto her knees, covered her mouth with one hand, her stomach with the other, hunched over, and fell into seemingly endless streams of eye watering giggles.
She could tell that her deliberate tough act had affected the men, even if they recognized it as an act later. Truthfully, she had been afraid that her timing would be off, and it was only sheer luck that the Ochu had attacked with its tentacle, rather than use one of its poisonous skills. But it hadn't; and her timing had been perfect.
Her eyes had been silted when she had twirled, so she saw the looks of shock on their faces, and she could have sworn that she even saw a bit of …well… something else in Auron's eyes. Was it regret? envy? appreciation? guilt? She wasn't sure, and it didn't matter, because it was there; she had seen it; she had proven herself, at least somewhat, to that bonehead. When her fit was over, Rayne got back to her feet and continued down her dead-end path, still giggling once or twice every now and then.
When she reached the end she found the chest, like she had expected, but she had found something she hadn't expected inside. It was a stone tablet, about as big as a CD case, with grooved concentric circles, some connected with straight groves, and dappled with little engraved domes. She saw that, towards the center, four of them had already been filled out, small purple balls in them outlined with silver. She flipped it over onto the back and saw that several words and numbers had been etched into it in silver.
Flipping it back over, she studied it closely, soon realizing what it was. It was a Sphere Grid. She looked back into the chest and saw other items; an ash colored velvet bag with a black drawstring, several small glowing spheres and a long piece of rolled up paper. She put the Sphere Grid back into the chest and pulled out the piece of paper, unrolled it and read it:
To Whoever Finds This:
If you are a Black Mage, have no clue what this is (or just don't have one), Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of your very own Sphere Grid!
If you are a Black Mage, but already have one of your own, please put this back so a Black Mage that doesn't can have it.
If you aren't even a Black Mage, you suck! Put this back so the REAL backbone of the fighting force can find this and use it to their hearts desires!
Anyway, if you're still reading, that means you're a new up and coming Black Mage, and you're definitely going to want this by your side. Now, whenever you beat fiends in battle, they almost always drop small colored spheres (and if they don't, they suck). In order to gain power, you have to take these spheres and place them into the little dome-shaped groves.
But hold it right there, Sparky! You'll notice that, when this Sphere Grid has imprinted you as its owner, one area in particular will shine brighter than the others. This means that that is where you are currently at on your way to power. In order to be able to use spheres on this Grid, your location has to be near an empty Sphere Node, or the area where the spheres you earn go. Following me so far? Good!
Now, let me tell you about compatibility, and not the romantic relationship type. If you join up with others in a party and the 'you' space is located near a line that leads off of your Grid, no fear! Just place your Grid near someone else's, and you can transfer their grid information onto yours (and vise versa). This way you can attain different levels of power that usually aren't available to you. Oh, but are you worried, now? What if you hadn't finished working out on your previous Grid?! Once again, No Fear! Just make the 'you' space backtrack to where you previously entered the new section of the grid and hop off of it, and it will transfer you right back over to your original Grid! Hurray!
But, I'm not done just yet! Now that you've used one particular line to cross over to someone else's Grid, you can't use that same line to skip over to someone else's, you dig? Taking this into mind, you'll notice that there are a limited number of cross-over lines (only seven), so pick your cross-overs carefully!! There are hundreds all over Spira, so look before you leap!!
Another thing, every now and then you'll run across smaller versions of the Sphere Grid. These are special Grids with special abilities, and they are usually quite rare and powerful abilities. But, are you worried about using your cross-over points? No Fear! Using these little guys doesn't cost any of you cross-over lines, it makes more! You just place the smaller one next to your original and the two will temporarily meld together, allowing you to store a copy of the new Grid onto your original. A new line will appear, showing you that the transfer was a success. You can then allow your fellow party members to use it or, if you're on your own, pass it on to someone else! But, please, keep in mind that everyone in Spira deserves a fighting chance to find these little rare Grids, so when you're done with them hide them in a good place or pass them on to someone else. And don't forget, just like everyone else in Spira will be looking for these, so will you, so play fair!!
One final thing; sometimes when using the Sphere Grid, you'll run across a Sphere Node where there will be the letters 'Lv.' followed by a number (1-4). You'll notice that when you reach these, the 'you' space won't be able to move over the groove that these Nodes are guarding. These require the Level Spheres that you might find after beating a particularly hard fiend. In order to properly unlock these areas, you have to have the correspondingly numbered Level Sphere to unlock the Level Sphere Node, otherwise you won't be able to move on to that area. It sucks, I know, but that's how this game of power is played.
Well, that's about all I fell like explaining. If you happen to run across something I didn't go over (which you probably will), then ask someone who also has a Sphere Grid (preferably longer than you have). Trust me, they'll know. This system has been around for a long time, so there are probably very few secrets left to it.
Oh, and one last and final thing:
GOOD LUCK!!!
A Fellow Sphere Grid User
(P.S. I left you a few spheres and a little baggie to get yourself started with.)
(P.S.S. I thought this letter would be pretty boring without a cliché, so be warned that this message will self-destruct as soon as you read the following word.)
(P.S.S.S. BOOM!!!!)
Rayne screamed and threw the letter into the river, watching with wide eyes as it did, indeed, self-destruct, making a small boom and burning in a matter of seconds, only ash touching the surface of the water. 'That person was insane…' She jumped three feet into the air when she heard a mocking laugh echo through the woods, looking around quickly but finding no one. 'Or is insane…'
A bit hesitantly, Rayne picked up the Sphere Grid and looked it over, talking only a few minutes to figure that the thing already had imprinted her as its owner, meaning the stats on the back were hers… Man! Did her strength SUCK! Hmm… she was going to have to steal Auron's Grid and remedy that…
Speaking of Auron, the trio should probably be out of the Temple soon, if they already weren't, so she decided she had better get to training!