You know what, I'm not even gonna' bother saying anything important in the author's note at the top. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I only read the one at the bottom. When you're at the start of a chapter you just want to read it, you don't care about some author's worthless babbling… (but I do have something kind of important to say that you kinda' need to hear BEFORE you read the chapter…) I got lazy and decided I didn't feel like fighting a giant metal-like fiend-thingy, so if you're wondering, it's just not there…

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You know what's weird?

There was no snow after the cave. There was tons of it ever since we stepped foot onto the mountain but at the very top, where there should have been a ton of snow, there was just rock.

Spira is a strange, strange place.

I walked a little behind the rest of the party, watching Rikki bounce around the others. Wakka was a little ahead of the group, cussing the Al Bhed under his breath.

I had to resist the urge to run up and rip his head off.

Yuna slowed down until she fell in step with me. "So…" She began, "What has happened with Rikku?" I sighed.

"I'm not really sure about that myself. Rikki knows more than I do, but she won't tell me everything." I explained. "She told me that Rikku's somewhere underground on Bikanel island, but-"

"Wait." She stopped me. "Bikanel Island… Isn't that where the Al Bhed's home used to be?" I blinked in surprise. Rikku told me only Al Bhed knew about the island.

Then I started to really process her words.

"Wait… what do you mean 'used to'?" I asked cautiously. She shook her head sadly.

"The guado found out that the Al Bhed were responsible for kidnapping summoners." She said slowly. "They… attacked home not too long ago. I hear it was blown up."

My hands started to shake. Home was… gone? What about the Al Bhed? What about Goma? The Al Bhed were the people who'd taken me in when I first came to Spira…

So I came right out and asked. "W-what about the Al Bhed? What happened to them?" She sighed.

"A lot of them got away in an airship. I'm not sure how many exactly, but I know at least their whole blitzball team got away safely." I relaxed a bit at that, but there was still a shard of ice lodged into my heart. Home…. Home was gone…

But the thing that bothered me the most was how this would affect Rikku. She loved the Al Bhed, and she'd seemed very attached to Home. I couldn't bear to think of how she would react to this.

Rikku…

I looked at the ground, ignoring Yuna, who was still beside me, and just thinking about Rikku. I hadn't really gotten a chance to get to know her, but… I felt like we had some sort of connection, a bond.

"Are you okay?" Yuna forced me out of my thoughts. I resisted the urge to frown- I was happy just thinking about Rikku- and nodded instead.

"Just… thinking…" I said quietly. With that, I sped up to go argue with Wakka.

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We camped out at the summit that night. We sat around a small campfire in silence for a while. I just sat there, staring at the flames. I couldn't quite understand my thoughts clearly- for whatever reason I'd started to think in Al Bhed.

After a while Rikki yawned and stretched. "I'm going to bed." She announced, standing up. Yuna nodded and followed her lead.

One by one, people retired for the night, until it was just me and the dark-haired guardian- Lulu.
"You should get some sleep, too." She told me quietly. I shrugged.

"Hud denat..." I murmured. She blinked in surprise. I shook my head. "Not tired…" I corrected myself. I was just as surprised as she was that it had come out in Al Bhed. She nodded in understanding and poked at the fire with a stick.

"So… I take it you know the Al Bhed well?" She moved over next to me so she could talk to me without waking up the others.

"Yeah, I guess." I said.

"Don't listen to Wakka." She advised me. "Even after he's seen with his own eyes that Yevon is simply a hoax, he's still blinded by the teachings." We sat in silence for a while. "So I take it Rikku is a close friend of yours."

"Yeah…" I whispered. "She was the first person I met when I came to Spira." She gave me a curious look.

"Came to Spira? What do you mean?" She asked suspiciously.

"E's vnus Zanarkand pid Sin lysa yht tacdnuoat ed yht duug sa rana du Spira..." I muttered as fast as I could. I'm from Zanarkand but Sin came and destroyed it and took me here to Spira... I purposely spoke in Al Bhed this time. Rikku had told me not to tell people I was from Zanarkand.

"Hm?" She gave a sideways glance. I shook my head, hoping she would drop it. Thankfully, she did.

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*gasp* a whisper of Tikku…

Anyway, I didn't plan to say this, but I'm sorry for the slow update. I guess I sort of took my sweet time cause I only got two reviews for the last chapter, one that was from my best friend. I was only planning to have a two week gap in this, but it ended up a month… Really sorry about that. Anyway, I would be writing a chapter a day (I mean it this time…) Except I'm going somewhere (pfft, you think I'll tell you where?) for a week where there's no internet. But I'll try to keep writing when I have time and post when I get back. Again, I'm sorry…

To tell you the truth, I'm getting a little tired of this story. But I promise I'll keep going until I reach the end and I will write the sequel, though it probably won't be very long. My summer's been kinda complicated but I hope to finish this by, at the very very latest, November.