"Go now!" Rikku sent the message to Keyakku over the intercom, and he nodded through the water. Kicking hard, he swam to a nearby ruin in the underwater city of the Moonflow and pressed a few buttons on the bomb they had set on it. Rikku braced herself as a huge thump resounded through the water. It had worked perfectly.

The huge shoopuf walking through the water stopped as if he had hit a wall. Every shoopuf was sensitive to noise, no matter how minute. And kidnapping Yuna into the underwater maze of ruins was perfect. Rikku made her way over to the machine that they had prepared for this, slipping easily inside the control room just as Keyakku burst out of the water onto the shoopuf's back.

Seconds later, he reappeared with a terrified-looking Yuna in his arms. She was dressed in a long blue skirt with a white-wrapped top and half-sleeves- in short, she was beautiful. However, the terrified look in her eyes only increased when Keyakku pushed her, as gently as he could, into the orb atop her machine. Rikku could hear her. "Yevon, protect me. Bring Tidus or Wakka to help me."

Tidus? He was with Yuna?

Her prayer appeared to work. Seconds later, Tidus and a man with red hair came down with weapons in hand to face her. She gripped the control handles in front of her, ready to fire if they attacked. She didn't want to hurt them- she had affection for Tidus- but she would, if it would save Yunie. She pressed the depth charge button.

Tidus' lips seemed to be moving. She couldn't tell what he was saying underwater, but he looked vengeful. Suddenly, she felt the stab of fear. Unless she could fire enough charges to knock these two out, their mission would fail. The missiles fired from her machina's guns, but they dodged the projectiles and charged her. The man with the red hair threw what looked like a blitzball at her face. While trying to brush it from her eyes, she felt the sudden stab of pain near the lower half of the machine- Tidus had rammed a sword into the circuitry. She kicked at him, striking him far into the water. She heard Yuna cry out, as if she herself had been struck.

Tidus spun and kicked with the grace of a blitzball player. The other man turned to him as if to see if he was okay, then threw his ball at her again. It struck her hard, and confused her for a second. She knew then that it wasn't going to work- she should just give up now. But she couldn't before Tidus swam down on her and drove his weapon into her shoulder, shattering her control of the machine. It began to convulse, striking her inside, bruising and cutting her. She cried out and pressed the release button.

The orb holding Yuna broke, releasing her into the water. Rikku watched dimly through her watersuit's goggles as Tidus took Yuna safely into his arms and the redheaded man swam back toward the surface. Rikku's newly injured body, in combination with the wounds from Djose, assaulted her brain. She couldn't handle the pain, and her body gave up to the current as she passed out.

"Are you sure about this, Rikku?" Yuna looked into her cousin's bright green eyes as they stood a little off from Wakka and Tidus. "It's a long way still, and I wouldn't want… to inconvenience you."

"Of course I want to, Yunie!" She stuck her hip out and put one finger to her cheek. "I just want to protect you… even till the end."

"But do you have the skills?" Lulu looked through her black eyes at the small girl standing before her. "We have Guadosalam ahead, and then the Thunder Plains, filled with fiends. And beyond, it's even tougher."

"I can handle it. I'm tougher than I look." Rikku smiled at the tall girl and her skirt of belts, looking down her nose at her. Bold and stubborn, she'd had never been scared of anyone.

"If you would like to join us, I would be honored to have you… as my guardian." Yuna smiled at her, but suddenly, her gaze drifted to the side. "That is," she added, "if Sir Auron is okay with it."

Rikku's gaze flew to where Yuna was looking and saw Auron walking toward them, his bright red coat wrapped around his waist, his arms for once swinging free. For the first time, she noted the attractive definition of his muscles as he walked toward her. She ran over to him to stop him from giving her away as an Al Bhed. "Hello," she said, as if to any stranger.

"Rikku would like to be my guardian." Yuna said from the side, and Tidus nodded emphatically. He probably would have agreed with anything Yuna said, gauging from the look on his face.

"Let me see your face," said Auron in his usual tone. Rikku lifted up her face with her eyes shut. But it seemed silly, so she opened them slowly.

"As I thought." He looked deep into the curls of her pupils, telling her through his gaze something that she couldn't interpret.

"No good?" She said softly with a smile.

"It's fine." He nodded to her and looked to Yuna. "Let's go." A tall Ronso trailed up behind him, and Yuna nodded.

That easily? Her legs still stiff, Rikku quickly fell behind the main body of the party. It was huge for a summoner party- no wonder they'd failed at getting Yuna. Seven people, counting herself; usually, summoner parties were no more than three or four.

She found herself walking beside Auron all of a sudden, who was obviously slowing his normal pace to match her injured one. "Thanks for not ratting me out back there," she said, quietly enough to where the main party couldn't hear.

"You're welcome. Just guard Yuna," he said, not looking down at her. "It was my promise to Braska."

"Ah." She looked down at the road, her legs feeling better already. Then she thought of something. "Hey, back there, when you looked at me… why did you say that? You knew I was Al Bhed."

He paused. "I knew Yuna knew that you were Al Bhed too. And-" He stopped himself.

"And what?" Her curiosity got the better of her, and she leaned in to give him a funny look.

"And your eyes. They're… interesting."

She knew that from Auron, this was a compliment. She lowered her head and smiled to herself shyly. They walked for awhile in silence before she asked, "What are the others' names?"

"Yuna, Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri." He indicated with his head as he spoke each of their names. Rikku had talked to him enough to be able to decipher his ever-so-slight tones, and she could hear the affection in his voice when he said the first two names, and the respect for the last three.

"I'll probably have to ask you again sometime."

"You'll learn." His mouth tipped in a slight smile.

Should I…? She looked up at him, and he looked fairly serene against the backdrop of the green woods. His presence calmed all fear, somehow; maybe it was his strength. Either way, she felt at peace around him. So, on impulse, she looped her arm through his.

He stiffened at first, as if alarmed by physical contact that he couldn't control, but gradually relaxed. As they were behind the main group, no one saw. "Thank you for letting me… be a guardian," she said softly, walking beside him. The woods were quiet- fiends were sparse today. Appropriately, too; enough fighting had been had for a lifetime between the two of them. After awhile, he replied.

"It wasn't just for Yuna."

"Wow."

Rikku breathed out as she looked over Seymour's complicated but beautiful sphere. All around her, the lights of a city a thousand years dead lit up the holographic black night. Standing on air, they raced through the crowds and machina of a world that no one remembered. This was truly a magnificent thing.

Auron stood near her, but not too near- the wonder on the others' faces would have made it odd. He had seen the city before, of course, but it was not his home, which put him somewhere emotionally between Tidus' and the others' reactions. Wonder and loss; amazement and longing. He looked at Rikku again.

Her blonde hair trailed down to frame her face, her tan desert skin glowing in the dead city's lights. She stood a half foot shorter than he, but the graceful way she moved made her look like a tall, elegant dancer. It occurred to him that she was beautiful, but somehow, the fact felt like it didn't affect him. He'd seen the affection with which she treated Tidus- a far more appropriate connection, and in good time, considering the boy's misplaced crush on Yuna.

The summoner turned in wonder, her two different-colored irises flashing in amazement at the complexity of the sphere as they rushed into Yunalesca's- the first High Summoner and Yuna's namesake- room. Seymour stood beside her, in all of his half-human, half-guado mystery. Auron didn't dislike him, but didn't trust him, either.

The sound here seemed muted. As he stood next to Rikku, he could hear her breath come slowly as she watched Yunalesca greet her husband, the great Lord Zaon, in silent kissing and caressing. The scene was one that had been told throughout history as the great strength, the wonderful determination that defeated Sin. He looked down at Rikku, and smiled when he saw the red tint in her cheeks. Embarassment, from a woman her age? Somehow, deep inside, it was attractively… cute? He banished the thought.

Suddenly, before their eyes, the scene dissolved into a watery mist, every glowing facet of the room in its own individual drop of sphere, and then it vanished in a blinding flash. They stood again in the main hall of the Guado palace, with Seymour standing close- too close; what is he doing?- to Yuna. Yuna clamped a hand to her mouth, lowered her head, and walked quickly to a table and downed a cup of water, breathing heavily. Worried, he gathered around her with the other guardians in a cluster.

"Your face is beet red!" Rikku teased her cousin in good-natured worry, bending down to look into the lady summoner's face. Tidus asked in hesitant worry, "You okay?"

Yuna drew a deep, shuddering breath. "He… he asked me to marry him."

(Thank you all so much for reading so far- I appreciate your reviews and subscriptions. Make sure you read the next chapter- it's the first climax of the story. )