The final chapter should be up Tuesday (US Pacific time) evening. In the meantime, enjoy!
Chapter 15: Blessed Gem, Three Stars, and a Ball
They aren't here.
Of all the thoughts to bounce around in his head, Tidus wished that one would go away the most. It wasn't helpful, it was obvious, it had been determined six times over in the past ten minutes, but his mind refused to let go of that one fact.
Gone. Gone gone gone gone—
"Hey, you gonna keep poundin' the dirt or do somethin'?"
Tidus let his body rest on his knuckles and knees, taking in deep breaths. What had Clasko been thinking, dragging kids here and there?
"Clasko used to be a Chocobo Knight," Yuna said from her seat at the edge of the Travel Agency entrance. He must have spoken aloud. "I trust him with Auron and Rikku."
"Yeah, but, what do we do now?" Tidus settled back onto his haunches, exhaling deeply. "We don't know where they are, and even Buddy's gonna need more to go off of than their position in Macalania twenty-five minutes ago. For all we know, they could've gotten turned around and headed back south."
"Guard self, then guard summoner," Kimahri said, unfolding his arms. "Can't find Rikku and Auron if cannot think clearly."
Auron's words to Barthello from so long ago—something that felt like a lifetime now—made Tidus miss the old man even more. Breathing in slowly with effort, Tidus asked, "What would Auron do, then?"
"He'd turn to the one who has the knowledge," Lulu answered, stepping out from the shade of the Agency. "On Bikanel, when we were searching for Yuna, we listened to Rikku. Here, we ask Rin's agents if they've seen a man with two children and a chocobo." Lulu smiled, and Tidus wondered if anyone else felt strangely uplifted by the usually-somber woman smiling. "And we've found them."
"Seriously?" Tidus pitched forward in his rush to stand, nearly toppling back to the ground face-first. "Where? How'd you find them?"
"Rin's agent told us," Cid explained, coming up behind Lulu. "'Parently that faentu O'aka found the three of 'em, cause the agent overheard the two blathering about shops and chocobo stables." (weirdo)
Tidus had the frightening thought of Rikku in O'aka's care and finding her with the acquired taste for aggressive business transactions and strange accents. He tried to hide his grimace, but Wakka asked, "What now? Guy like you gettin' these funny thoughts all the time, it ain't good for finding Rikku and Auron, ya."
Clearing his thoughts, Tidus smiled weakly. "Sorry. Bad imagery of Rikku growing up to be O'aka XXIV or something. Where'd they run off to?"
"The Monster Rancher's stables," Lulu answered. She paused as Yuna, Wakka, Tidus, and even Kimahri grimaced at the reminder of the horrific fiends, then went on. "Clasko and O'aka decided to explore the premises. They left on two chocobos ten minutes ago."
"With two chocobos, they must be there already, then," Yuna rose, face set with determination. "Let's not miss them again."
Kimahri trotted behind the group, keeping watch for any fiends as well as tracking the scents of Auron, Rikku, and the chocobos. The birds were easy to differentiate from the number of smells in the air; chocobos were rare on Spira nowadays.
The further east they went, however, the fainter the scents became. Kimahri slowed, then drifted northward, sniffing experimentally. Yes, the smell was stronger this direction. "Stop."
The humans were slow to respond, but Yuna, so used to paying attention to him, came to a halt immediately. Tidus and the others followed suit shortly. "What's wrong, Kimahri?" Yuna asked.
"Smell goes north. They went north," Kimahri pointed.
"But," Wakka looked over his shoulder to the direction of the Monster Rancher's stables. "The ranch is east, over that way, ya?"
"Yes," Kimahri nodded. "But Auron, Rikku, Clasko, and O'aka went north."
Tidus scratched his head. "Maybe they got lost? Went north for a bit, but figured out they needed to go back south and east more?"
Biting her lip, Yuna looked between the two directions. "We can't afford to lose Auron and Rikku any longer. We'll split up. Uncle Cid, Wakka, Lulu, you go to the Monster Rancher's stables, and see if maybe they somehow managed to find their way. Tidus, Kimahri and I will follow the scent and try to catch up to them that way." Cid scowled, but Yuna preempted any argument from him with, "Auron and Rikku are the priority, Uncle Cid. We need to do this."
"Oh, alright," Cid sighed, fishing into his pockets. He pulled out a square block, and handed it to Tidus. "You know how to work one of these things?"
"A radio, yeah, sure," Tidus nodded. Kimahri had no idea what a radio was, but as the boy stuck it into his pocket Kimahri decided not to worry over it. Tidus seemed to know how to work many machina, almost as well as an Al Bhed most times.
"Good," Cid nodded. "You keep that on you. If you find the kids, you hail us, and we'll do the same."
The six of them parted. Kimahri watched for Cid, Lulu, and Wakka until their figures were lost even to his sharp eyes. Turning his full attention to tracking the scents, Kimahri led the way northward, out of the Calm Lands and into the border between Mt. Gagazet and the Calm Lands.
"Uh, Kimahri, you sure this is the way?" Tidus looked up at the mountains, just before the passed underneath the bridge heading into the gorge. "This is…pretty out of the way, don't you think? I'm sure O'aka and Clasko would've known bett—"
"Chocobos!" Yuna exclaimed, just before Kimahri pointed them out himself.
The two birds milled about outside the entrance to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, tethered so they couldn't run away. They greeted the party with echoing warks, but otherwise showed no timidity toward people.
"Oh man. Don't tell me they went in there!" Tidus groaned, pulling out the radio and speaking into it. "Wakka, Lulu, Cid! They're at the Stolen Fayth Cavern. We're heading in."
The three of them sped inside. As they rushed deeper into the cavern they spared only seconds to take care of the fiends that crossed their path. Shouting their comrades' names, the three ignored the side paths; if Auron, Rikku, Clasko or O'aka had been down any them, they would have heard their yells.
Down one of those pathways, an enormous beast stirred awake, hearing the yells and smelling prey-scent. Rising to its four legs, the monster followed the three, sideswiping smaller fiends from its way.
The cavern smelled bad, like Brother's room at Home with no air circulation. Dark like his room, too. Rikku only knew the cavern was tiny because an eerie glow seemed to come from the walls themselves. Otherwise their room was dusty-floored and featureless. Pretty boring, compared to the vast Calm Lands or sparkly Macalania.
Then again, no fiends. She'd take boring over being gobbled up.
Uncle O'aka and Uncle Clasko didn't know what had happened. They were talking to each other, panicking about their entrapment. Oddly, Rikku didn't feel worried, or scared. The relocation to this room rang familiarly to her. As though she'd done it before, and it was only a matter of solving the puzzle in order to get back to the first room. Auron sat by their two uncles, drawing in the dust. He looked calm, too.
Sighing, Rikku lowered herself, chin on knees and arms wrapped around them. She wished she could remember the puzzle. Or if her head could give her a clue; one of those weird visions would be yfacusa— (awesome)
"Rikku!"
Blinking, Rikku lifted her head. A look over her shoulder showed her no one had heard anything. Rising, she put an ear to the wall.
"Rikku! Auron!"
Kimahri's bass voice felt loud enough to rattle her bones. Everyone else heard it, too; Clasko and O'aka had stopped speaking, and Auron came to his feet. "Kimahri?" he asked plaintively.
She heard more noises, all too high to be echoes of Kimahri's shout. "And Yunie and Tidus!" Rikku squealed. "They found us!"
"Tidus? Kimahri, Yunie?" Clasko stammered. "Like High Summoner Yuna and her guardians? But why are they here?"
"We're here!" Auron shouted, leaping up and down across the floor. Rikku doubted their friends could hear him, even if his voice was higher than her own—
The room's glow sharpened to a bright flash. Rubbing her eyes, Rikku blinked her tearing eyes. She gasped as she realized Auron had disappeared. Where he'd last bounced the dust was now settling, covering lights in the ground.
"I remember!" Rikku exclaimed, running to the lights. Carefully she blew on it, revealing a diamond set in the floor, an arrow pulsing dimly with light. "We musta stepped on this back in the other room. Come on, we just step on it and we'll go back!" She didn't wait for either of the adults; she hopped onto it, and quickly shut her eyes before the flash blinded her again.
"And here's Rikku!" someone shouted; she was swept into arms and twirled. Tilting her head back, Rikku saw strands of blond hair. "Oh, man, Rikku, you and Auron gave us a scare! No more wandering off, you hear?"
"No, I won't, I promise!" Rikku hugged Tidus around his neck, blinking as tears filled her eyes. She'd missed Tidus and Kimahri so much! "But Uncle Clasko and Uncle O'aka took good care of us!"
"Where are O'aka and Clasko?" Yunie's voice asked. She stood behind Rikku, holding Auron in her arms.
"Yunie!" Rikku wriggled until Tidus set her on the ground and she wrapped her arms around Yuna's legs. "I missed you!"
"I missed you too, Rikku," Yuna hugged her. "You led us on quite a chase."
The cave flashed with light, meaning her uncles had come back. But the flash lit the passageway out of the room, and the form of a ginormous fiend.
She yelped, pointing and backing away quickly. Tidus moved in front of her to join Kimahri, who was already fighting the monster. Yuna put Auron down, and Rikku was grabbed from behind; Clasko had her, and O'aka was hurrying to the other side of the cave with Auron in hand.
Kimahri with his big lance and Tidus with his sword were cutting at the fiend, but the fiend was huge, too huge. Yunie was helping with healing and protection spells, but it was all the three could do to keep the monster at bay. One swipe even brought Kimahri down for a moment, and Tidus nearly fell, too, before Yuna revived Kimahri.
She had to do something! She couldn't let that fiend kill Yunie and Tidus and Kimahri—
Pressure, pressure, she never did well under pressure. Digging through her pack, dropping one ingredient after another, she tried to reason out what would make the biggest bang to kill this stubborn fiend.
"Rikku, now would be good!" Tidus yelled at her, dodging a tentacle.
"Ah, ah, cred," she yanked at her hair, snagging a trio of miniature gold stars and a gem with a cross sunk into it. She had no reason to believe they would inflict too much damage, except for their explosive reactions with other materials. She combined them.
Sparks flew from the concoction; heat burned her fingers through her thick gloves. "Ah! Oh, cred! Take cover, it's gonna blow!"
"Rikku, what is that?" the big meanie-head snapped, eyeing the sparking, bubbling container in her hands.
"I dunno! I just put it—Uf, dryd'c rud! Ah, ah!" (Oh, that's hot!) She threw it, barely taking any time to aim at all. From the corner of her eye she saw Auron rushing for her, just before he tackled into her and was backlit by blue-hot black-red fire—
Rikku blinked, and for a moment she felt ready to be sick. Something pricked her fingers.
Her hand had found its way to her pouch. The treasure hunt in the Calm Lands seemed so long ago, but her two treasures remained safe. Pulling out both objects, she inspected them. A trio of small gold stars and a pretty gem with a cross inside. They were the same from the dream.
"Uncle Clasko!" she kicked at his shin as she worked to mix the two together. "I need you to help me!"
"Rikku, I don't think this is the time—Whoa!" he jumped as, just like in her dream, her mixture popped and burned.
"Hurry, throw it!" Rikku shoved it into his hands and screamed at her older friends, "Move! I made a bomb!"
Only Kimahri looked back, but he recognized what Clasko lobbed from his hand. He grabbed Yuna and Tidus, the latter in the middle of a leap, and rushed Clasko and Rikku. Rikku shrieked as Clasko snatched her and ran to the back of the cave toward O'aka and Auron.
The cavern filled with light once more, this time a violent, black-red color that burned into Rikku's eyes even past her eyelids. An explosion deafened her; heat filled the large cavern unbearably. The adults fell atop of her and Auron, both in an attempt to protect them and from the concussive force.
Minutes later, the explosion had subsided. Peeking with one eye, Rikku saw the gigantic fiend's silhouette, prone on the ground. Her bomb had killed it.
She totally needed to show Tytto and Brother how she did that.
"Is…is it over?" O'aka whispered. He lowered his arms, rising from his crouch slowly.
"I think so," Yuna said, her quiet voice almost too faint to hear. She giggled nervously. "Rikku, that was…very quick of you. I'm so proud of you." Her giggles erupted into laughter.
Tidus joined her in laughing, falling to sit on his behind as his sword clattered beside him. "I thought we were toast for a minute there! Good job, Rikku! C'mere, Auron." He scooped the boy up, hugging him tightly. "You okay, kiddo?"
Auron blinked up, sniffling. "No more 'ventures," he asked pleadingly.
"I agree, little guy," Clasko nodded. "Why, I thought we were gonna be fiend-food—"
Kimahri's head jerked, and he brought his spear up with a snarl. The others turned, too shocked to gasp in fear.
The fiend had rose to its feet, its eyes glowing red with hate. It snarled, took a step forward—
Only to jerk with a howl as something shot off its head, ricocheted against the ceiling, smashed back into its bleeding head, and bounced back further into the passageway. With one last groan of defiance, the fiend dropped, exploding into pyreflies.
The group stared, confused. They started when a voice yelled, "Hey, you all okay? You find Rikku and Auron?" Wakka, his World Champion braced on his hip, came racing in. His eyes scanned the cave briefly before landing on them, and the tension abruptly left him. "Jeez, you guys, you know better than to leave fiends lying around, ya?"