Final Kingdom
Chapter 7: Meeting
They were finally nearly to Macalania. Kaori had been traveling for several days now, wanting to be able to get her next Aeon. For some reason, she felt like she didn't belong, but when she went to get her Aeon, she felt okay.
It was another couple of days, but they got to Macalania, and saw Cid there even. They soon found out that he had been waiting for them. Though they had yet to find out.
"Hey pop. What are you doing here?" Rikku asked, walking up to him.
"I need to talk to Yuna and Auron. I've got news from Besaid." Cid said, lowering his voice.
Yuna and Auron walked a distance off and started talking to Cid most earnestly. No one could hear what they were saying, but all knew that it was important.
When they finished talking, Cid went off on his way, to get back to home, but when Yuna and Auron came back over, everyone saw that they didn't look to good.
"Are you okay?" Rikku asked, waving her hand in front of both their faces. "You guys don't look to good."
"Yeah, fine. We need to get in there and hurry though. Lets go. Come on Kaori, and also, if possibly, hurry this time." Yuna said, pulling her into the temple.
They got inside, and through the trial, and this time, thankfully for Yuna and Auron, it just took a few hours for her to get Shiva.
"Good. Lets go." Auron said, already outside the door.
"What's the big rush? We just got here. Aren't we going to take a rest?" Kaori asked, wanting to sleep in a bed, instead of on the ground.
"We must hurry and get to Besaid. There is something wrong there." Yuna said, hurrying after Auron.
"Will we be able to stop in Djose and Kilika to get those Aeons as well? I would hate to have to backtrack, again." Kaori said, running to catch up with everyone.
"We may be able to, if we make good time. We need to see about getting a ride, or buying chocobos. Then it would go much faster." Auron said, walking to someone with a hover.
The hover was not for sale, or even able to rent, so they went around for a while in this fashion, and finally gave up on the hovers, and just decided that they would get some chocobos if they could find any.
It took an hour or so, but they finally found some chocobos that they could buy, at a good price, and with enough of them for everyone.
From here the journey would go much faster. Since the chocobos were young, they had a lot of energy, but they were actually trained.
They rarely encountered fiends now, but they were in Djose in three days, and quickly got Kaori' next Aeon. After that, they did not rest, but kept going, even through the night, and soon came to Kilika.
They rested here for a day after Kaori got Ifrit, but then they were on their way again. Next to Besaid.
No one would talk much these days, but they kept looking towards Kaori, like something was going to happen soon, and she would either cause it, or be in the middle of it. It seemed that everyone but Kaori knew what was going on, and what was happening.
It had really started to annoy her, but she just kept ignoring it, along with just about everything else that was going on.
They were making pretty good time, considering that they hardly let the chocobos rest. The chocobos only rested when they stopped, and that wasn't very often.
From Kilika it took three long days, and they hardly even stopped when most Summoners would stop to rest, and possibly think about what they were going to do.
They got there not too long before dark, and just had enough time to take care of the chocobos and put everything where they would be staying. Then Yuna pulled Kaori aside.
"You have to go and get Valefor now, and hurry, there is something going on here that you must know about, but you will also need all your Aeons, so after you get Valefor, we will be going to Baaj, and you will get Anima." Yuna said, pushing her towards the temple with Tidus following to be the only Guardian to go with her this time.
"What is going on?" Kaori asked Tidus, since Yuna was already walking the other way, and would not be able to hear her.
"Something has gone terribly wrong, and we have to stop it, but the only person that has to be there, is you. We don't know why, but you're the one that has brought this on, and we don't know how, but things have gotten even worse since you got here." Tidus told her, not wanting to, but feeling that she had a right to know.
"So whatever it is is my fault? Do we know what has gone wrong?" Kaori asked, looking over to him, in the middle of the trial.
"I wouldn't say that it's your fault, but people seem to know who you are, and what you are able to do, and so they are trying to take advantage of that." Tidus said, as they just finished the trial.
Kaori went into the Aeon room, and while Tidus waited outside, since he had been smart enough to bring food this time, then he ate a bit, and surprisingly, shortly after he finished Kaori walked out.
Everyone that could remember her as she used to be, thought that the reason that the Aeons kept her in there so long was because she didn't actually live here, and she wasn't born here. So when she walked out after such a short time, it was surprising.
"You're out earlier than usual." Tidus remarked, standing up.
"Yes, I know. I don't know why, but Valefor said that I needed to rest. So she hurried as fast as she could, even though I'm not tired." Kaori said, walking towards the door, stifling a small yawn.
When they walked outside, Yuna was walking out of the inn, and saw them, she walked over to them and asked why they weren't in the trial getting Valefor for Kaori.
"Because, I've already got her. It really didn't take very long this time. She said that I needed to rest, for some reason or other." Kaori said, stopping just long enough to tell her this, then walked into the inn to get some rest like she was told.
When Kaori fell asleep, she dreamed about all the things that were coming up, but she also had a dream about a little boy. She thought she recognized the parents, but couldn't tell who they were to her. When she looked at the little boy, still covered in a little bit of blood from having just been born, she had a name come into her mind. I don't know this boy, Kaori thought, how could I know his name? The name that had come into her mind was Dustin. There was also a little girl there that had just been born. It looked exactly like…Kaori.
She saw the boy through a quick version of his life, till he was about four years old. She also saw the little girl playing with him. They seemed to be happy and they were twins, which also helped, since they couldn't get any other friends. Everyone thought that they were too weird.
After that, Kaori woke abruptly and Yuna told her it was time to go to Baaj.
Kaori didn't tell anyone what she saw, since she thought they would just think her weird. Instead she kept in to herself, and tried to figure out what it was, or what it was trying to tell her. They all loaded the barge, and it started towards Baaj.
All the way there, Kaori was preoccupied with her dream, and didn't notice when Yuna came to sit by her. She was just starting to show that she was pregnant with her second child. They had decided that if it was a girl, they would call her Leonita, and if it was a boy, they would call him Leo.
Yuna sat there just watching Kaori while she was working things out, and then decided that it was time to see what was on her mind.
"Kaori, are you alright?" Yuna asked, putting her hand on her shoulder.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking." Kaori said, looking at her, then back down.
"What are you thinking about? You can tell me." Yuna said, leaning down a little bit.
Rikku heard that something was about to be told, so she ran over. "You can tell me too!" She said, sitting down in front of Kaori.
"It's nothing, really." Kaori said, shaking her head.
"Were you dreaming about Dustin when I woke you?" Yuna asked, looking down as well.
"How do you know about Dustin?" Kaori asked, turning her head fast enough to snap it.
"Before you lost your memory, you talked about having a little brother named Dustin. You said that you were twins, and that you were the older one by seven hours, yet he was always the one who would take care of you. And when you came through the mirror, you thought he came after you, since you saw him in your dreams again, only then he was here. You said that you were mad at your parents because they had made him mad, and he ran away not to long before." Yuna said, in a soft voice, trying to get her to remember her old self. "You don't really live here, you just came here by accident."
"But I don't-" Kaori said, getting cut off by Auron.
"Time to go." He said, always talking as little as possible.
Kaori still trying to digest this new information, just closed her mouth from her last little sentence, and then nodded her head firmly.
She got up, and with everyone else, walked to the temple so that they could let her get Anima. They went through the trial, though Kaori was very little help, since her mind was still on everything else.
When they got inside the room, Kaori walked over to the door, and opened it, looked behind her at Yuna, and walked in. The door slowly closed behind her.
Everyone outside waited for about four hours, which was the average time these days. About half way through the fourth hour, the door opened, and Kaori walked out.
"I have gotten all the Aeons." Kaori said slowly, like she hadn't slept in a week.
Since her last Aeon had been so powerful, and so hard to get, then Tidus and Wakka had to help her out of the temple and to the barge so they could go back to Besaid.
When they got back to Besaid, it was getting dark, so Yuna and Tidus told her that she could sleep at their house. When they got there, a little girl with blonde pig-tails came running at Tidus.
"Daddy!" she screamed, jumping in his arms.
"Aiko, you act like the house is on fire." Tidus said, always teasing her.
"No, but they said that you wouldn't be back until a long more time, but I didn't believe them, and said that you would have to come back for a visit before you left, and so I've waited, and you're here now." Aiko said quickly in one breath.
"Have you been practicing your techniques? Before we leave, we could play a little bit more. And maybe practice your fighting." Tidus said, mentioning her two favorite things to do.
"Yeah! Please! Now. Can we go now?" Aiko said, wriggling down from his arms, to run to her room and get her sword.
"Well, its getting dark, and mommy probably won't let us. Besides, we have a visitor." Tidus said, finally helping Kaori over to a seat.
"Aww. But we haven't been able to practice for a long time!" Aiko whined, her shoulders slumped.
"It hasn't been all that very long. And besides, I need some help in the kitchen making dinner." Yuna cut in, taking her hand.
Laughing a bit, Tidus sat down, and got himself comfortable.
"How old is she?" Kaori asked, looking down the hall at the kitchen.
"Almost four. She is a character though, she loves Blitzball and fighting. She says she training to do the same things as Yuna and I, so she can be just like us." Tidus said, a twinkle in his eyes.
"She is very cute, and seems like she is well behaved and very nice. Very energetic, but I was too, and it was always fun." Kaori said, starting to fall asleep.
"Hey, if you fall asleep now, you won't be able to have some of Yuna' good cooking." Tidus said, getting up, since Yuna told him it was ready.
"I'll go ahead a stay here if that's ok." Kaori said, closing her eyes again. She was hungry, but she didn't want to be a burden and have them have to bring her out here again.
"Well, I'll just bring some food out to you." Tidus said, going into the kitchen, and grabbing two plates.
After a small meal, Kaori was finally able to fall asleep before someone else started talking to her again.
Sorry that it's been taking me so long to get these out. Life has been getting really busy. Anyway, let me know what you think. R&R.