Chapter 15

I clung to the ship not exactly sure of where it was going, but I knew they would have to stop or slow down sooner or later since they were after all sphere hunters. What else does a sphere hunter do besides hunt spheres. The ship seemed to be getting higher and the air was getting colder. "Hmm, high and cold, only place I can think of is Gagazet, must be a sphere here unless Kimahri moved to the top of the mountain, oh how I wish I still had all my memories of this game," I said finally noticing that we were approaching what appeared to be ruins on top of the mountain. "Looks like fun to climb, think I'll get off as close to the top as I can," I said managing to stand now that we had slowed down some. I saw Rikku, Paine and Yuna jump out and land on a beam but looked closer and noticed they were heading for a dead end. I waited till I saw an opening just below the odd dome shield on top of the ruins to jump. I barely managed to snag the edge of the platform I was aiming for. I grabed the ledge with my other hand and pulled myself up so that I could lay on the cold stone. The barrier was still there so I would have to wait to proceed, I had a feeling it wouldn't be long.

I pulled out my rifle and looked around through the scope, I spotted Rikku, Yuna and Paine fighting with Leblanc and her two goons again. I sighed, "No time for games, onward," I said kicking the barrier. It sat there for a minute then almost vanished and shattered at the same time. "Wow, that was different," I said walking into the doorway and up the stairs that proceeded. There weren't that many stairs and I reached the room above very shortly. It was a beautiful room with a long bridgeway leading to a door. "What's the point of such a long passage, couldn't they condense these down so people don't waste their energy getting to the door. Hey, who is that and how did they beat me up here," I said squinting and putting my hand over my eyes to try and get a clear view of someone I could just barely see at the door at the other side. As soon as I thought I had a clear view he moved, fast and a lot closer, and before I could react he was right in my face. I couldn't get a clear look before I got hit with a force that vibrated my entire body and sent me flying back to the top of the stairs. "Ow," I gurgled before coughing up blood, "that was a hard hit, wait, did he even hit me, what is he?" I looked up but couldn't see him anywhere. I turned and caught of a glimpse of him, or rather me, it was the evil me, but he looked diffrent somehow.

Suddenly I felt a diffrent force, similar to the first one but this time it felt like my head was going to explode and I fell to my knees. As I clenched my head and tried to deal with the horrible pain I saw a foot come at my face, I couldn't do anything and got kicked halfway across the bridge and landed facing the door on my stomach. I managed to shove myself to my hands and knees but could not physically push myself any further. I thought, I'm going to die, this is it, he's going to come over here and crush me, but I held myself there for what felt like an eternity and he did not come. Instead I heard voices, I think I had gone deaf though because everything sounded garbled or muffled. I heard someone shout what I think was my name, all I remember is that just after I felt a huge vibration, like something huge landing next to me I lost control of my entire body. I felt myself throw up from the pain, and then everything went black.

I awoke feeling no pain and instantly knew there was no way I had actually woken up. All I could see was black, I held my left hand up to my face and was shocked to see something all to familiar, it was the mutated version of my hand, but it was slightly diffrent. It looked more, for lack of a better term, vicious, there seemed to be a wave-like pattern to the spike-like scales that ran up my arm. So if I'm dreaming what the hell does this mean, I thought noticing that almost my entire body was like this except a small circle right around where my heart is. Then I saw a flash and Rikku's face appeared before me, damn riddels in dreams, I thought just before seeind two final visions. The first was Rikku stabbing me through the heart with her dagger, the second, I was entirely that thing now. I was diffrent, beastly, savage, it wanted to kill... everything, and it was going to start with Rikku.

I shot straight up and felt my heart beating like mad. "What the hell was that all about," I muttered trying to get my berrings on everything. Suddenly I felt all the pain I had missed out on after passing out. My head felt as if it was being crushed, my limbs were sore and my stomach felt as if it was in my throat. I felt like I needed to throw up but I would never be able to. I tried to roll over but I fell out of the bed I was in instead. "Ow," grumbled trying to overcome this pain. "Must," I started slamming one hand down opn the floor, "get," I put the other hand down hard, "up," I finished pushing myself to my feet only to fall back over the railing which i had not seen before and down on to the floor below. I just layed there and decided to give up moving. "Hullo there shir, what can i doo for yoo," I heard the unmistakeable voice of a hypello say. "Rikku," is all I managed to say before I decided to give up speaking since after speaking I dry heaved (you know when you have to puke but theres nothing there). The hypello just finished drying a glass, put it away and walked off, calmy, slowly, not in any rush to assist me. I was laying right next to a table, and now that I thought about it, this place looked familar, wait, of course. This is the Gullwings ship, I had remembered sneaking on when I was chasing down those memory things.

I decided that since moovement and speaking was useless I would try and find something I could do, which also proved useless, since without movement or speech I had no way to respond to anyone. Just as I almost decided to go to sleep here I saw the hypello return. He walked back behind the counter and began doing whatever it was he was making it look like he was doing when I fell. Lazy hypellos not even working that hard, I thought just then noticing the person he had brought back. Rikku! I would have moved but like I said, stuck. She just stood by the door, I was guessing she hadn't actually seen me concious in a while. I felt the need to signify that I was alive, which I actually managed to do by coughing. Rikku said something the the hypello and ran over to me. Oh, joy, now I'm loosing my hearing to, I thought as Rikku tried to say something to me but failed due to my lack of hearing. Finally the hypello brought over a glass, probably the only one he's cleaned in a month, full of what I'm sure was water. Rikku put my head on her lap and poured some of the water in my mouth, god water tastes good, is all I could think as I let the water sit in my mouth for a few seconds, allowing my mouth to soak up as much as possible. I then gave a big gulp ans swallowed the water. I drank to much, to fast, to soon, because I almost choked on it. I coughed and sputtered and managed to find the strength to sit up. After I was done coughing Rikku handed me the glass of water and smiled. I sat there for a second, my brain had just stopped the only thing I could think was, say something say something say ANYTHING. "Uh, hi," is all I could manage as my throat still felt raspy, so I took as big a drink as I thought I could handle. It took a bit but I felt about fifty-percent better in a little while.

"How long, was I out," I asked Rikku when we had moved to the table and I had gotten another glass of water. "Couple days," she replied rather calmly. Holy crap, couple days, from two attacks from that thing, I thought taking another drink. "How long has it been since I died," I asked then thought, there's something no human should ever be even able to say. "It's been a total two years since I saw you last," she replied sadly, TWO years, I thought, well that would put me at the age of... 17 not 16, about half a year from 18 if my math is right, which it probably isn't. I finally noticed how sad Rikku looked right now. I got to my feet and walked around the table. She looked up at me and I grabbed her hand and pulled her to me. I held her until she stopped crying. "I missed you so much, what happened to you," she asked. I decided I would tell her everything that I could remember, which was actually everything now. I shortened the story some but told her everything important.

She actually didn't seem very shocked in fact she told me she knew for a while that the man in the cloak was me. Yuna can't keep her mouth shut obviously, I'll keep that in mind for future refrence, I thought making sure to remember not to tell Yuna any secrets. "So you're a sphere hunter now, eh," I more stated then asked. She nodded her head and then I heard a familiar voice come over the intercom. "Rikku, nadinh du dra pnetka (return to the bridge) (yea I decided to add translations instead of leaving you clueless like in Could it Possibly Get Any Worse)," I however had lost my touch with Al Bhed and was clueless as to what he said. I looked questioningly at Rikku and she realized that I lost my knack for Al Bhed. "He told me to return to the bridge, we're gonna have to re-teach you Al Bhed I guess," I groaned but didn't actually care, I kinda liked knowing another language. I followed Rikku to the elevator, "Hmm, do you really think you should be up in your condition," she said turning to scowl at me. I shrugged, "What are you talking about, I feel fine," I retaliated. She glared at me for a moment and then decided that I could come. On the ride down in the elevator I thought for a moment, there are times when I still think this is all a freaky dream, but everything here is to real and theres never so much detail in my dreams, so many people with all diffrent personalities.

The elevator stopped and I gestured for Rikku to go first and followed right behind her, I was still taller then her, she had grown quite a bit though. She walked faster then me which was no surprise with her usual upbeat attitude still intact. She ran into the bridge and jumped over the railing. I walked in and walked down down the steps two at a time. It was slightly awkward as I walked into the room since everyone was starring at me. Well, let's see here, I know Rikku, of course, I remember Paine sort of, don't know that weirdo, Brother's driving, or is he pretending to drive, theres Yuna and theres some little kid, I thought surveying each person in the room. "Hey, wait a second," I started just now remembering the unwilling redo on my looks I had, "you still recognized me even though I look like this?" Rikku stared at me like it was a stupid question as did Yuna, but Paine and the three guys had no clue what I was talking about. No surprise with Paine, the kid and the other guy, and come to think of it no real surprise with Brother either. He probably had an IQ lower then that of a rock's. "Who the heck are you," Brother asked getting a stunned response from Yuna and Rikku.

I took a deep breath in and, "How do you not remeber me, I mean come on man, I know it's been two years but how can you not remember the guy you asked to protect your sister." I yelled loud enough to wake the dead, which was impressive considering they were all in the Farplane. (lol) He then had a look on his face like he was the dumbest person in Spira, which is pretty accurate. "Hey, if you guys are done just thought I'd let you know I'm getting sphere waves from Besaid Island and the Zanarkand Ruins, but theirs been a report of high fiend activity in the ruins lately," the slightly familiar man to Brother's left said rather loudly. "So off to Besaid then," I said to no one in particular. "Let's go," Rikku yelled confirming my statement.

It wasn't long before we were there, Brother had dropped us off right in front of the village. I looked around, the place didn't seem all that diffrent. Then I noticed something, Yuna looked nervous. While admiring the scenery I had missed a few things that were said. "I bet with the way you just took off without a word," Rikku said to Yuna, Oh right, Yuna ran away when she got that sphere and junk (I messed up the story some and stuff, wish i could fix it but it seems like a lot of work). "You said it," I heard a voice say from inside the village, I looked over and saw Wakka standing there, "you caused quite a fuss young lady." I suddenly had a weird feeling, it was like something was telling me to get away from here, I decided to heed my feeling, "Rikku, I'm gonna take off for a bit, I'll be back before you leave," I said walking off without letting her respond. I walking rather aimlessly about the island easily dispatching any fiends that found the guts to attack me.

I recognized where I was, to a point, this is part of the island where Rikku and Paine pursued me to try and get one of the orbs that were in my armor, and are in my swords right now, I thought walking up nearly to the top. Then I found the hole which I had fallen in and found the Yuna shade. Suddenly my gut told me to jump in, I was extremly reluctant though. "Why would my gut feeling to be to jump into the dark scary hole," I said contemplating all the stuff that could be down there. "Well, fine," I said drawing my swords and jumping in. I scanned theplace and walked around but found that I had no need for my swords. Then I spotted something, one of the walls was covered in square holes almost like mail boxes in apartment buildings, with no doors though. I walked over and saw that some had scrolls or books in them. I pulled one out and cracked it open. I tried to read some but in was in some weird language, so I returned it to its spot. I decided to try another, and this time I could understand it. After reading about five pages I realized something, this was a diary, and from the sounds of it this person, had travelled with Lord Braska and Jecht. It was obvious they had come from Earth, since there were refrences and memories of someplace on Earth. What I didnt understand was the last written page, this person must have learnt a lot of Al Bhed because they had started writing in it, but the last letter ended in a line across the page and a large splatter of blood. Someone killed the poor sap while he was writing something down, might help if I could remember Al Bhed, I'll have to take this to Rikku... hmm someone's here, I thought closing the book and tucking it away in my old knife pouch since it was a small book and there was enough room even with the ammo for my rifle in there.

I turned and drew my swords only to see the evil me thing standing before me again. Suddenly I heard a sound like metal shattering and felt tremendous stings of pain plastering the entire front of my body. I looked down at my swords in shock, Their completely destroyed, but... I thought, that this metal was unbreakable, except by itself. Then I was blown against the wall and fell to my hands and knees with a bunch of books and scrolld tumbling down onto me. "I wonder, are all of these, from people from Earth, all of them sent to Spira, none able to return, so they wrote their tale in these books... and you... you killed the m all didn't you," I said managing to look up at my doppleganger. He was smiling, an obvious sign that I was right. It was odd, I felt the pain deterierating rather quickly and I felt the rage of knowing that this monster killed hundreds of people from Earth, for little or no reason at all. "Oh and after I kill you, I'm going to track down and torture that girl of yours to death, I want to hear her scream out for you and then realize that you aren't coming to save her," the doppleganger cackled, and at this my rage flowed like a tremendous river throughout me. "You bastard, I won't let you leave here alive, even if it means losing my own life, even if I have to fight you through the night and on through the rest of time, I'll kill you, I refuse to be killed by someone like you," I shouted feeling the heat of my rage enshroud me. I got to my feet and trew aside the hilts to my swords. I could feel that same feeling as at the ruins, almost like when you hear a high pitched noise.

I finally realized how he was attacking me, he was creating sound waves strong enough to hurt me. The forceful waves that cause me to throw up are extremely low and this was to high for me to actually hear but I could still be phazed by the sound. However, in this case I did not falter, my rage was so great that it was almost as if it was scorching the sound before it reached me. Then I felt a huge shockwave that pushed me back but only about an inch this time. I saw a rock flying in after the sound wave but it actually melted. Then I realized what was happening, the sword had ingraved itself into me and now my rage was envoking the power of fire. I smiled and saw him flinch a bit but then the confidence came back to his face. I didn't care why I just attacked, and noticed as I moved that it was with much greater speed then before and I swung my fist with more power. I saw him move at the last moment and I hit the ground where he just moved from, causing an explosion of heat. "I see you've absorbed the sword's powers, now this will actually be a bit of a challenge," he said with a smirk. "Like I said, you won't leave here alive," I said leaping at him with all my speed and might.

Cliffhanger :P!!! Yea, thats kinda long, hope you had fun reading, please review, I would appreciate and suggestions or criticism, since my brain had been slowing down with this lately, probably cause of homework and junk. Anyways, thanks to all my faithful readers and to all those that have posted reviews so far.