I got bored so I thought I would go ahead and post this. Let me know if you find any errors, I've read over it a couple times but I'm still not for sure that I found all of them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X.

Journey of the Hunted

Chapter 1: Besaid Temple

A couple hours before daybreak this morning we had made it to one of the caves near the ruins here on Besaid Island. Opening the door would have required this sphere key thing, and we didn't have it… so we dug through on one of the sides. It took the three of us about an hour, but once we were through we managed to find some brush to cover our make-shift door. Then we crawled in. It was pitch black inside. I turned on my little flashlight, that Kimahri had found one day a while back when shopping for us, and looked around. There was some cute little drawings on the walls, one said "L+C 4-Ever" I couldn't help but wonder if that meant Lulu and Chappu forever. I laid down next to the wall using my bag as a pillow and studied the drawings until I fell asleep.

Sometime later Auron woke me up. I started to ask him what time it was but he covered my mouth and nodded towards our make-shift door. I followed him over looked out. Two warrior monks were standing beside of a small campfire that was about ten feet away from the cave.

"I guess its time to go to work. I'll give you a yell if I let anyone through the checkpoint." one of them says and begins walking towards the beach. The one left behind sits down and begins drinking from a water bottle. After a few minutes watching I reach inside on of my pouches and pull out a bag of sleeping powder. Auron grabs my hand and holds it shaking his head.

"We wait." he whispers as he points at the warrior monk. Waiting hasn't ever been my thing so I walk back to where I was sleeping and begin looking through my bag. Suddenly Mr. Legendary Meanie Butt turns and waves me back to our door.

The guard has left his post apparently so now is the time for us to move. I crawl through the door and stick to the shadows as I walk towards the path leading to the village. As I pass a path leading away from the village I see the guard standing, with his back turned taking a leak. I don't know what I would have done for the past three years if the human bladder had a larger capacity. I sneak onto the path leading towards the village and keep to the shadows.

Suddenly Auron grabs my arm and pulls me down a hill. I trip a couple of times before realizing we are in a woods like area. Auron helps guide me over fallen logs, and through vines as we steadily go down the hill. After a while my eyes adjust enough to see the outlines of things, but I still can't make out very much detail. It seems like we have been walking forever when Auron stops and kneels.

"We climb down." he whispers. I kneel beside of him and he begins climbing down. I wait for him to get over the ledge and then I start. 'One foot down, feel for a groove in the rough surface that feels like a rock, another foot down feel for a groove in the rock, one hand down, find something to hold too, another hand down, lower than the first… nice little handle… oops no good it broke off… okay find another… this one will work… one foot lower… nice big groove… the other foot lower.. Ouch what was that? Thank the Gods I am wearing pants or else my knee would be scraped up pretty good right now. What's next? Move my hand lower… nothing here to hold too… move to the right a little… there we go… the other hand lower… that feels firm… grip it and lower one foot… nice groove… nope I hope Auron wasn't below me… or had his eye shut. Remember one trip-up and I'll be falling down farther than I want to think about right now. Jeez how far down could this thing be? Ten, twenty, maybe thirty feet… okay… never mind. Don't want to think about it. Why couldn't we do things like this during the daytime? Oh yeah don't want to lose my head to those Yevon bastards. Oopsie here I am dangling from a cliff that I have no idea how high it is and I am thinking words like that… sorry whatever higher being there is out there. Maybe nothing will strike me down with lightening for thinking that. Jeez girl get a grip! Very funny. Okay what next? Foot down, find a groove, remember just like Pops taught me on all those excavations. But that was during the day! I could see what I was doing, and where to grab next. Oh Gods please don't let me die!'

After what felt like was forever, but in reality was probably only an hour or so, I felt Auron's hands on my waist as he pulled me away from the cliff. Believe me I was holding on tight! I stood there for a moment on shaking legs and caught my breath, not to mention let my fear settle as I leaned against the cliff. A moment later he took my hand and led me through the woods. Again we were stepping over what I would guess was fallen logs, crawling through patches of vines, and sliding down little hills until we came in contact with another cliff.

"Don't tell me we are climbing this."

"We're not climbing it." he says. "We follow it."

"Oh." I said. I guess I sounded a little too relieved because he chuckled. "Hey don't laugh at me."

"I'm not."

"Okay good."

"We better get moving if we want to reach our camp by dawn."

"Camp?" I asked. "What camp?"

"We are camping for the day."

"Camping for the day! Auron we could be at the temple right now if we had of taken the road!"

"Kimahri went ahead into the village today while you were sleeping. There is six checkpoints along the way, all guarded by warrior monks."

"Oh." I say. "Lead the way old wise one."

We follow the side of the cliff until it ends. I think I hear water running near by but I can't be for sure. He takes my hand and leads me a way from where the cliff ends to a large rock. He kneels and begins digging brush out from under the rock.

"This is it."

"Okay." I say. We dig brush out from under the rock until we have a nice little hole dug out. I crawl back in the hole and lay down. Ya know I'm not really fond of sleeping on the bare dirt under a rock, especially when I can feel something squirming beneath my back but, I suppose I have slept in worse places in the last three years. Suddenly I feel something big and warm crawl in beside of me. Then it turns towards me and places a hand on my forehead.

"Get some rest." he says.

"Auron, what will happen if they do find us?"

"Rikku, you know the answer to that."

"Oh." I say, "We'll be executed."

"Yes, a public execution."

"Why are they blaming me for the failure of Yuna's pilgrimage?"

"Because Yevon is in chaos. It needs Spira to believe in it again and what better way to do that then pin a failed pilgrimage on the Al-Bhed. If they can get the people of Spira focused on the Al-Bhed instead of the falsities of Yevon then they have a chance at restoring the old beliefs."

"You mean they want to get everyone focused on how evil we are instead of Seymour killing his father and Mica being unsent?"

"Yes." he says.

"So since Yuna's pilgrimage failed and I was the only Al-Bhed guardian, that made me the perfect scapegoat?"

"Yes." he says. Ya know he used to would have said something like, "Its your story, you must find out for yourself." or something, now he actually tells me these things when I ask him. Maybe traveling with me for four years has made him fond of me, or maybe he thinks I need to know these things. Anyway he's not always in a hurry like he used to be, maybe he has started missing being alive, maybe he's just decided to slow down and take time to smell the flowers, or maybe its just that doing this pilgrimage while being hunted down like those fiends with the ivory tusks requires a slower pace than a normal pilgrimage would. I think it's a little of all three. I close my eyes and let the sounds of the nightlife lull me to sleep.

Sometime later I wake up and crawl out of the little hole. Its daytime and we are in a clearing. A stream runs past us separating us from an area that looks like a jungle. I look around and see Auron sitting propped up against a tree, his hand dangling in the stream, and his eye closed. I stand up and stretch before walking over to him. Ya know during Yuna's pilgrimage I never thought I would see him without his shades or his big red coat, now he doesn't wear them at all. He also insists that I don't wear my cute little orange shirt. Who would've ever thought that he would be telling me how to dress… and getting by with it?

I sit down beside of him and follow the stream up to where it begins. It appears to run around the side of the mountain and down. "Auron?"

"Yes Rikku." he says

"Does that stream come from the falls?"

"Yes it does Rikku." he says. "When Kimahri first brought Yuna here the road wasn't where it is now. It came through here. This was the only way to get past the falls to the village. Then I guess someone built the bridge and this place was forgotten. Weeds and vines grew up over the paths, trees fell, and fiends stopped lingering here. I would guess we're the only people to come through here in years."

"Oh." I say letting it all sink in. "Why would people want to forget a place like this?"

"The roads are much easier to travel than the trails here are." he says looking at me.

"I can't believe I wanted to take the road and miss seeing this." I say, and he chuckles. Then he reaches into his bag and pulls out our rations. We eat in silence and discard the wrappers in a small hole before covering it up. Then Auron takes our water flasks and holds them level in the stream letting them fill up before dropping a small tablet into each flask. I really don't want to know what I would be drinking if it weren't for those tablets. Then he stands, puts the brush back under the rock we slept under, and grabs his bag. I stand and grab my bag, then we leave.

We step across the stream and begin crawling through the vines, climbing over fallen logs, and making our way through the area. After a while of this it seems like there aren't as many vines as there was before, and then there aren't any vines. Auron stops and quickly walks back into a patch of vines. Then he takes out the binoculars that Kimahri bought us a while back and looks through them. After a few minutes he smiles slightly and offers them to me. I look through them and see rolling hills, and then pretty far off in the distance at the top of a hill sits the temple.

"It should be dark within an hour, then we move on." he says. I sit down beside of him and we drink some of our water. After a few minutes the brush rustles behind us. Auron is on his feet in no time watching. After a moment he sighs and sits back down. "It's only Kimahri." After another moment passes the big furry Ronso walks up to us. Kimahri sits down beside of me and pats me on the shoulder with his big furry paw.

"Tonight big night for Lady Rikku. Kimahri got Rikku present."

"Thanks." I say and give the Ronso a bear hug. Sometimes he is so cuddly, like a giant kitten. A while back, while we were stowaways on the S.S. Liki I think he may have gotten a fear of hairbrushes. I mean a Ronso can only take so much of having his fur brushed before his patience snaps, and a Rikku can only take so much boredom before brushing a Ronso's fur sounds like fun.

Kimahri hands me a bag. I take it and open it. Inside I see a dark gray shirt and dark gray pants. Gray has never been my color, its always been too depressing but, at least it has plenty of pockets. I make Kimahri and Auron stay turned away and change into my new gray outfit. I feel depressing in this, but maybe it'll make me harder to see once inside the temple. I fill my new gray pockets full of the goodies from my other outfit and sit down between my guardians again.

After a while it gets dark, and we move on. Kimahri sneaks on ahead of us and we lay low until he gets out of sight. Then we move. We stay close to the ground and walk around the hills until we make it just below the temple. Then Auron lies down flat and begins crawling up the hill. I follow him and soon we are at the top, in the bushes just outside of the wooden fence surrounding the temple. Kimahri sits pointing towards something on the main end of the fence. Auron nods and shakes his head.

"What?" I whisper. Auron points to the thing on the fence and I look but still can't make it out.

"It's a sphere recorder." he whispers in my ear.

"Oh." I whisper. "Do you think they know about our little pilgrimage?"

"Probably."

"So what do we do?"

"Go around it." Auron says. We begin moving through the bushes away from the sphere recorder. After a few minutes we make it to the back of the temple. Auron touches the fence and begins climbing over it. Moments later we sit inside the fence leaning against the temple wall. We slide against the wall to the side of the temple and then up towards the entrance. We make it to the platform just below the entrance and raise up just enough to see one lone warrior monk leaning against the wall reading something.

"Use the sleeping powder." he whispers into my ear. His breath is hot and his cheek feels damp with sweat. I dig into my pocket and find a packet of sleeping powder. One packet would be enough to knock three fiends out for like four hours, surely an entire packet would be enough to knock this one guard out for the rest of the night and for part of tomorrow… at least if things go to hell that'll be one less guard to worry about. I pour the powder out into my hand careful not to inhale any, then I raise up and toss it on the preoccupied guard. I ease myself back down and wait. After a few minutes the guard begins to yawn and then finally snores. We wait a couple more minutes for good measure and then I climb up on the platform, Auron follows and we slide through one of the little columns surrounding the walkway to the entrance. Then we quietly slip inside.

Inside its pitch black. We move back against a wall and slip around towards the stairs. Suddenly Auron stops. One guard stands on the other side of the temple, rifle on his shoulder, comm sphere in hand, looking around carefully. Finally he turns his back to us and steps up to one of the statues. Then he turns around and walks to the door and looks around, and then he walks into one of the priest's rooms, stays in there a moment, comes out, and walks back to where he stood before. After a while of watching him we slide on around the room a little. After a while it becomes a pattern slide, stop, wait, slide, and so on until we are very close to the stairs. We wait until he goes into the priest's room on the opposite side from where we are and then we move to the stairs. We stand against them and wait until he comes back out and goes back to one of the statues before we move around the stairs.

He begins his patrol again and finally walks into the other priest's room. We get on the stairs and quietly but quickly walk up them. Once at the top Auron opens the door leading to the cloister of trials, lucky for us it doesn't even squeak. We go inside and ease the door back together. Then we start making our way through the trials.

It doesn't take us too long to figure out the puzzle. Then a small round lift takes us down. Once at the bottom we get off and walk to the door that leads to the Chamber of Fayth. Auron stops outside of the door and motions for me to go on in. I stand in front of the door, it opens, and I walk through.

Okay, this is kind of creepy. The small hall is dimly lit by the round thing in the center of the room. 'Okay, I can do this. I can do this. Yuna did it, so can I.'. I walk up to the glowing thing and kneel.

"Fayth, um can I call you Valefor? Since I don't know what else to call you. My name is Rikku, I am Al-Bhed, I am Lady Yuna's cousin, I was one of her guardians. I miss her ya know. Erm anyway, Bevelle is claiming that I sabotaged Yuna's pilgrimage. Okay let me get to the point. Ya see I've never done this, I've never prayed, not to Yevon at least and I am not for sure what to say, but Valefor, if it's okay that I call you that, Sir Auron, Kimahri and me are starting a new pilgrimage… that is if you'll help me. So um, Valefor would you help me to defeat Sin for good." I say and suddenly a woman appears.

"Child, you can call me Valefor. I know that you are Al-Bhed, Yuna's cousin, and was one of her guardians. It is alright that you do not believe in Yevon, we Fayth give the summoners power it does not come from Yevon. You do not have to be afraid of us." she says, "You would like to become a summoner?"

"Yes." I say.

"You will be willing to face the trials ahead?"

"Yes."

"Why do you wish to become a summoner?"

"At first I wanted to become a summoner and kill Sin to avenge Yunie and everyone Sin killed. They were some of my best friends. I had spent a few summers with Yunie when I was smaller here on Besaid, but I hadn't really gotten to know her… then when I joined her pilgrimage we kinda made up for lost time, and we became closer than just cousins we were more like best friends maybe even sisters. I met Tidus after Sin brought him here, and we became friends pretty quickly. He was the only non Al-Bhed person I'd ever met then that didn't hate me because I was Al-Bhed. After Sin attacked our ship he went missing and then we met again when I joined the pilgrimage. He was like a big brother to me. Lulu was kind of like a big sister too, I wasn't as close to her as I was to Yunie, but she was like family also. And Wakka after he accepted that I was Al-Bhed he became kind of like a big brother to me. Then we faced Sin and they died." I say as I begin to cry again.

Sometimes I still cry over them. Ya know it hurts knowing that you protected your cousin, and went with your best friends supporting them in the decision that brought their deaths. Sometimes I wonder if they would have died if I hadn't of been with them. I feel two warm arms wrap around me as I cry. I open my eyes and see the Fayth of Valefor holding me and trying her best to comfort me. I'd never thought that a Fayth could be kind of motherly, but she is. I cry a while before finally stopping. Somehow I feel more peaceful than I did before.

"Ya know," I continue, "I still want to avenge my friends, and my family that have been killed by Sin, but there are more reasons now. I want to kill it partly to clear my name, so I won't have to hide from everything anymore. Also if Bevelle keeps blaming the failed pilgrimage on me, eventually everyone in Spira except for the Al-Bhed will hate us, and maybe declare war on the Al-Bhed, we've been through so much just trying to survive here, and I don't know if we could survive a war or not. Maybe if I kill Sin people will stop hating us, or at least some people will. I also want to do it to help Sir Auron keep a promise he made years ago, and I want to do it for everyone on Spira… so they can live without constant fear of Sin."

"Rikku, I will help you. If you are sure that you wish to have the life and death of a summoner."

"Valefor, dying for at least 40 or 50 more years really isn't in my plans. Fiends or something may kill me, but I don't plan on sacrificing one of my friends as the final summoning and then dying the traditional summoner's death. I plan on beating Sin without the final summoning."

"Okay." the Fayth says beginning to smile. "Stand before me."

I stand up and wait. The Fayth comes towards me and somehow merges with me. I feel kinda dizzy and light headed. I turn around slowly and walk back out of the chamber. The door opens for me and I walk through it. Then I wobble down the steps. Auron stands as he sees me coming and walks over to me.

"I did it." I say. He helps me over to the wall and we sit down. "So what's next?"

"Getting out of here."

"So how are we planning on getting out of here?"

"The way we came in." he says.