Disclaimer: I do now own anything from Square Enix, just my ideas and stuff like that.
Note: Now that the Variants battle is over, how is Rin? What is IT that Rin and Sophia talked about before? Let's find out!
Chapter 26
Getting Home
Uuggghhh....what the hell? Where am I? And what the HELL is on my back, it weighs like some 200 lb fat person!
I found myself laid on my stomach with a huge slab of stone weighed on my back. Looking around with gritted teeth, it looked like I'm in some kind of dank, dark cave. There were all these stalactites hanging from the ceiling dripping with water. And I wouldn't forget about the stalagmites, but they looked like they were bleeding.
I tried to push myself upwards but found my elbows were chained down. Across from me I saw Leila, her clothes tattered and ripped, revealing some skin. Ah geez...
Groaning, I let out a moaned, "Leil...Leila!" Her face was full of tear stains and she kept on weeping. What's going on? And that's when I heard it, hollow voices all around me. Strange, right?
I heard one voice, a female, say, "Hey everyone, Will's starting to wake up!"
I looked around, craning my neck to see where the voices were specifically located..but it was futile. I yelled out to Leila once again, but she was still staring at me with tears. Yeah, I was getting quite freaked out. This time I groaned and mumbled, "Leila..." once again. Then another female voice, which sounded really nervous, said, "Did...did he just moan my name?"
"A male voice that sounded like a kid yet not, yelled out, "Wait, what if he's having some kind of perverted dream?" Wait, perverted?
Then all of a sudden the huge slab of stone started to dig into my back, making me cringe in pain.
"We gotta wake him up immediately!" yelled out a very adult-like man. Who are these voices? And then suddenly, I saw above me a huge spiked stalactite come down towards me. "HOOLLLLLYYYYY!!!!!!"
"CLANG!" I saw billions of stars fill my eyes. I bolted up and pushed off some heavy person off my back, who landed onto his feet. I then jumped off the bed and yelled out at the top of my lungs, "Who the heck are-oh, hey.....what happened?"
I saw Anuy, Leila, Tsuki, Roen, Zelferd, and Movaak all standing around the bed I was on. I scratched my head and asked, "Um, how did I get here exactly?"
Suddenly I was assaulted by Movaak, who grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and slammed me into the bed. "WHAT were you exactly dreaming about?! I hope its nothing very pleasurable for you!"
I pushed Movaak off me -wow, when could I do that?- and looked at everyone incredulously. "What are you talking about?! I was laying unconscious on that bed and you ALL wake me up? By slamming, what?" I looked around to see Anuy holding a tin bucket. "With-with a bucket?! Come on now!"
That's when I noticed something.....I was in some kind of bedroom. "Yo, seriously, setting all this aside just for a few minutes, where are we?"
Roen sat on the edge of the bed and placed his finger on his glasses. "We're currently at the Rin's Travel Agency. Coincidentally, he's back here, safe and sound the whole entire time while we had to fight through all the Variants."
My insides started to churn. The battle with the Variants, I totally forgot about that!
"How is everyone? You alright?"
Leila placed a hand on my shoulder and settled me right next to Roen. "Calm down Will. We're all here, so we ARE okay. You should be concerned about yourself, I mean....sniff...I thought you were gonna die. Your wounds were terrible. If it wasn't for Anuy, who knows if we'll be too late to save you....." Leila then broke down and cried, with Tsuki hugging her and whispering her soothing words.
That's when it struck me. Seymour shooting out those spikes at me...just because of my stupid foolery and cockiness. Tch...how many times must I fail to eventually learn something?
"Will, it's alright. It's not your fault, there were some casualties during the battles...but we will never forget them. How that battle changed the lives of many others. That's what you should be thinking about. Not about your failures."
I was suddenly stunned. First off, I was scared because what the hell is Movaak doing? Giving me some kind of heartwarming advice? That's just not like him. And secondly, his eyes....they were changing from pure obsidian to actual, pupiled eyes. Huh?
"Heh, I knew I could make you feel better," Movaak exclaimed, and with that he left the bedroom in haste.
"You....did not make me feel any better," I said with a blank face. Anuy wheeled right in front of me and held out her hand.
"Come on, we should get going. Movaak is trying to get an explanation out of him."
Yeah, this whole thing kinda started because we all thought Rin was captured...but then somehow the situation changes to killing all the Variants because of their wishes to destroy the Hiends...wow.
I got up and walked out of the room with Anuy, Roen and Zelferd. It seemed as if Tsuki tried to calm Leila still. I feel kinda bad for her.
The Travel Agency was still the same it seemed. When we walked into the lobby, I saw Rin behind the counter talking with Movaak. He turned to us and with a guilty look waved us over. Movaak had a strange expression, something between angry yet forgiving.
"Hello everyone...oh? Where's Leila and Tsuki?"
"They're in the other room. It seems Leila is still not over with Will's damaged body."
"What do you mean? I feel fine." I pulled my shirt over and saw a huge scar, shaped like a circle, on my stomach. I....felt something disgusting fill up my throat for a second there.
"Wow..you all must've taken a huge beating. I'm glad that at least you're all safe and living now." Rin then surveyed all our faces. "So, do you want to know...why I was here this whole time?"
"Yes Rin, we do," Movaak replied with gritted teeth. Rin just scratched his head and nodded slowly.
"Alright then, follow me." Rin faced an Al Bhed assistant of his, telling by those runic eyes of his, and conversed in their tongue. After several seconds, the assistant nodded. Smiling, Rin turned to us and said, "Alright, now I'm free to go. I asked him to take over for me while I'm gone."
And with that he pushed the counter door aside and walked to the hallways. "Come on now, hurry up!"
"I'll stay here and read some of these interesting books on the shelves!" Zelferd called out. I stopped in my tracks, letting everyone else pass by me and I turned to face Zelferd.
"You're not coming with us?"
He picked up a random book on the shelf and opened it. "You'll be surprised about how much I know." Okay...what's that supposed to mean?
"Alright then...I'll see you later." I then caught up with the others and we all ended up at the end of the hallway. There was a door that was marked ACID-FILLED ROOM.
"Isn't that room supposed to be filled with acid? It says so on the sign," Anuy asked. Rin grinned and turned the knob. The door was open to reveal an elevator-looking room. It was all steel-made with a light strip on the ceiling.
"Please, come in." Rin then mimicked on of those elevator guys in hotels and stuff. We all got inside and Rin pressed a button.....BASE.
With a sudden jerk, the elevator went downwards. Oh, it IS an elevator after all!
"What are you trying to show us, Rin?" Movaak looked increasingly impatient for some reason.
Rin smiled. "Something that is of utmost importance to some of our little friends here." Little friends? Who?
The elevator slowly came to a stop, and with a ding, the doors slid open. We all walked out to find ourselves in a well-lit laboratory. It looked very similar to the one Zelferd had.
The laboratory was HUGE. The ceiling, walls and floors were made out of steel. Strips of light covered the ceilings for every few meters from each other. Computers and work desks scattered the place, with scientists moving and skuttering along like ants. But in the middle of the lab was a podium with a glass case. Contained inside the glass case was a blue, orbish object that glowed brightly.
As if this was a normal thing, which probably was, Rin walked up towards the glass case and beckoned everyone. "THIS is what I want to show you all. But mostly to you and 2 others....Will."
He pointed at me and everyone else looked. Even some of the scientists looked at me. "M-me? What do you mean?"
"Zelferd and I've been doing research for quite a while when you appeared. And we couldn't really find any concrete evidence on how you came to be. I believed that you weren't teleported or anything, that you're just another resident of Besaid. But Zelferd pushed the research a little further, and.....it became fruitful."
So that's why Zelferd didn't want to go. He knows that...Rin will explain everything to me.
Rin then paid attention to the orb. "This magical sphere was the cause of several incidents of mysterious people appearing and disappearing into Spira. I found it near the waters of Besaid. Underwater, to be exact."
Roen pushed his glasses with up to his nose and looked at the sphere. "So, did you test this object?"
Rin nodded. "I've already tested with 12 people, and it seems that they disappeared to somewhere. I don't know how to get them back to this world, but it seems like something supernatural happens."
"Okay, when was this world NEVER supernatural?" I mean, seriously, just being IN this game makes me excited...yet with all these things happening, its now a crazy thought.
"Exactly my point, Will," Rin replied. He then opened the case and picked up the orb, making the glow more intense. "Would you like to use it, to return back to where you came from?"
I was shocked for him to say that. Go home and leave all my memories here?! Screw that! "No....I'll have to think about it."
Rin nodded and placed it back. "Tomorrow you'll have to make your decision. We can't have stragglers who don't even belong here."
"You can't say that to Will! He deserves to be here, just like the others!" Anuy yelled that out, and it still surprises me.
Rin's face had no emotion whatsoever. "Better think about it deeply, you don't want to regret anything when you leave, correct?" I didn't say anything. He's probably right, anyhow. I'm supposed to be back at home, at SCHOOL....with my other friends! But...I'm in the game I've always wanted to be in....even though the results were quite surprising.
"Alright..."
13 MINUTES LATER
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I sat on a chair reading some kind of random book. Okay, fine, I wasn't READING. Anuy was actually right across from me, all silent.
"Will....are you scared?"
I just hmphed. All of a sudden, I felt a hand grab the book and threw it to the shelf. Anuy's eyes were actually angry...that's NOT good.
"Er....what?"
"Aren't you scared of going back? What if....what if you can't come back here?"
Ah right, Rin explained to everyone that I wasn't from this place, that I was from some 'different' universe. He's hopelessly explaining it rather humorously, even though he's not trying to.
"Well, scared isn't the word. It's more like, worried. I don't want to forget about this place. I wanna spend time with you guys, you know?"
Anuy smiled. "Don't go, and you can spend time with us all you like." She placed her hands on mine. "Please?"
I looked away from her pleading eyes, but I just said, "I guess."
5 MINUTES AFTER THAT
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Roen and I was leaning on the walls of Rin's Travel Agency, outside. The green field was bustling with fat and skinny chocobos, and they were squawking like crazy. I didn't know what to say to Roen, I mean, he's from Earth, just like me. But with those wings of his....something must've went wrong in his life. And anyways, I don't think I talked to him that often.
"I'm not going back, if that's gonna give you any ideas of where I'm heading," Roen said.
I crossed my arms and nodded. "I don't know what to do...it's kind of a hard decision to make...somehow."
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Roen turned his head a little to stare at me. "It's all up to you to decide. Whether going back and living your normal life, or staying here, living what you lived for several months now."
"Yeah, but I have a family back at home. And then I have friends here who.....who I like a lot," I said as I kicked a random stone from the ground. It skittered until it hit one of the chocobos.....the one that threw me off back then. But unexpectedly, it didn't even notice.
"Well then, choose what your heart desires." And with that, Roen walked away to one of the Chocobo ranchers. Choose what my heart desires? Hmmmm...
1 HOUR AFTER THAT
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"You were trying to tell me, weren't you?" I asked.
Tsuki was just sitting on the edge of the bed, inspecting his handgun. "Trying to tell you what?"
I sighed and rolled my eyes. He can be such an annoying person sometimes. "You live on the same planet as me, Earth, remember?"
"No shit, Will? Now how did you guess at that?" He then placed a cartridge of bullets into his handgun.
I ignored that last question. "So...are you going back?"
He shook his head. "Nah, I still wanna hang around, explore the world of Spira, you know? I don't know if I want to go back yet."
"Tch, wow, what a dream you have, Tsuki." I sat down on the chair and placed my hands on the back of my head. I looked out the window and saw the mountains, with some wispy white trails spiraling down. "So you're gonna stay, huh?"
Now inspecting his bow, he nodded a couple more times. "Yep. My answer isn't gonna change until I've explored and visited every nook and cranny of this world. Or I get really bored..." Heh, he makes it sound like a game....wait, what the heck am I talking about? This is a game...
5 HOURS AFTER THAT
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I was sitting on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the sea. I didn't even expect the sea to be THIS close, anyhow. I heard footsteps approaching me, and the person slowly sat down. The sea breeze went passed me, making me smell the salty scent.
"Wow, the sun is setting rather quickly." That voice was unmistakable. I turned my head to see Movaak sitting like a very traditional Japanese person, legs under the butt with hands on the knees. His posture was quite good.
"You sound very content."
Giving off a small-smile, he nodded. "So, you know what you're gonna do? Go home, or stay?"
I arched my eyebrows in confusion. "Why the hell would you care?"
Shrugging, he said, "Meh, I don't really care. Hell, I want you to go home."
I clenched my fist at his answer.
"But....that would'nt be a nice thing to say to a friend, am I correct?"
That's when it hit me...Movaak, my friend? No way....the whole time he's been acting towards me was nothing but malice and brutality. Oh, and teenage abuse. But inside myself, I had a feeling of happiness growing inside me. Movaak's been my friend this whole time, but he showed it in a different way....wow...which is quite unbelievable.
"Well....I'm not sure what to do Movaak. I wanna stay and have fun...but I have my real-life duties to attend to back at home." I flexed my right arm. And with this given Fiend power...it seemed like I was invincible. But some of the battles I've been in taught me some things.
I then heard Movaak stand up and walk away.
"Heh, so you came to me just to say all that? I'm surprised, Movaak." I looked back at him and saw him half turning his head to look at me.
"Just think of it as your death memorial." He then walked away into the Travel Agency.
Pfff, another one of his caring words, I'm guessing.
3 HOURS AFTER THAT
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I was in the bathroom, just relieving myself of some....liquids. While doing so, I heard the bathroom door open slightly. Wait, didn't I lock the door? Just then, with a loud roar, Zelferd came in with a white flag.
"Hey Will! Whatcha doin?!"
"HOLY SHIT!!! Zeflerd, GET OUT OF HERE!" I pointed at him with one hand, but the other was holding onto my pants.
"Oh come ON, Will! Let me inspect how a Hiend does his pissing and crapping!" I punched my right arm out and smacked it right into his chest, sending him out of the bathroom. I stopped pissing for a few, unbearable seconds, and kicked the door closed, and quickly locked it. I then got back to pissing inside the toilet....
UNTIL I heard some furious knocking on the door. "Open up, Will! I must do this for research!"
Phew....I'm done. I pulled my pants up and turned around....to find myself face to face with a smiling Zelferd. "Research.....complete."
SMACK! I punched Zelferd's face through the bathroom door and he crashed right into the bed. And he still had that jerky, perverted smile on his face.
"What the HELL are you trying to do?! Can't you see what I was doing?!"
I saw Zelferd smirk. "It's probably gonna be my last time to do this to you, Will. So I'm gonna make use of it."
I then stopped my yelling. Last time? What the hell is he talking about? I didn't even make my decision yet...
Zelferd then got up and dusted his white lab coat off. "So Will, be prepared for the departure. Or, just don't care and stay here. Those are your options right now." He then walked away to the door.
"Wait! That's ALL you wanted to say? No advice, nothing?" Gosh, Zelferd can be such a dumbass sometimes.
He turned around and held up a clipboard with some paper on it. "Well, I came here just to record some info about the relievement of a Hiend, so, hehe, I think I'm done."
I stood still for a few moments and then ran towards him. "GET BACK HERE!!!"
NIGHT TIME
-----------------
I lay awake on my bed, sleeping beside me was Leila. Now that's a person I couldn't talk to face to face, as it seem I had made a connection with her. And no, sleeping next to her doesn't MEAN anything, it's just that there were no room for anyone else to sleep next to. So I was the only one with the free space.
The moon shone through the blinds, making some kind of design on the floor. I pulled off my blanket and tiptoed to the door. Silently opening it, I closed it behind me and made my way to the elevator. Geez, it's so quiet here. It kinda feels like I'm in some kind of horror movie, like the Exorcist or the Grudge. Or even the Ring! Just thinking about it right now made me shiver convulsively. I opened the door and got inside the elevator. Pressing the BASE button, the elevator then went down quietly. Now THAT was a surprise.
When the elevator doors opened, the laboratory was all dark, save for the dim light strips. I made my way through all the desks and computers to the glass case in the middle of the room. The orb glowed a very fluorescent blue, lighting up most of the lab.
I took the glass case off gently and placed it on the ground. I then held up the blue orb and looked at it. I noticed that there were some wispy white clouds floating inside it. Cool...
"So you were planning it all along, weren't you?" a female asked from the direction of the elevator.
I jolted and turned around to face....Leila. I then lost a grip on the orb and dropped it, but before it fell to the ground, I used my foot to kick it up like a soccer ball and caught it in my hands. Hehe, that's one beastly skill.
"What...do you mean, Leila? I just wanted to look at it, that's all. You should go back to sleep, I'll be there in a minute."
But she didn't budge. "Don't do it, Will. Please, don't." She started walking towards me slowly. Her eyes, from the glow of the orb, had tears forming.
"Leila....nothing's gonna happen. I'll be back in the room, very soon, alright? So just go back and sleep..."
Leila then rushed towards me and grabbed for the orb. I held it close to my armpit and stomach like a football, while she continued pounding on my back and arms.
"Let it go! I'm not letting you go anywhere!"
I then pushed against her stomach with my shoulder gently, making her slide back a foot or 2, and I wrapped my arms around her waist, with the orb in one hand. Her arms were wrapped around my neck. I saw a close-up of her face, and felt really bad inside. She was already crying....geez, she cries more than Anuy. But that's because of me, I guess.
"Leila, please don't cry. Man, that's why I didn't want to wake anyone up when I did this..."
She placed her face onto my chest, her tears were starting to wet my shirt. "But Will! You're supposed to stay with us, defeating the remaining Fiends! I don't think I can live on...without you."
Great, there we go with the dramatic crying and weeping and the sobbing! "Leila -I whispered to her- I'm gonna sound crazy.....but I'll be back."
Just then, the orb turned purple in color. The whole room was filled with a bright, purple light. Leila and I turned around attention towards the now changed orb, and its shape distorted like some kind of blob.
"It....activated....." I was stunned. The hand that was holding the orb was starting to feel....quite numb.
Leila then turned to me and spluttered incoherent words.
"Leila....L-Leila, calm down!"
"R-Rin told me that when you want to warp out of this world......y-you should know several things. You'll be w-warped, but you get to make 1 wish. A-any wish! But it'll o-only apply for the current world you're in, not to the world you're heading t-to!"
A wish? .....That's awesome! But right now, Leila's going crazy.....because I'm starting to disappear. My hand was already fizzling into pyreflies.
"No, no, no, no, no! Don't go, Will! We need you! I need you!"
"Leila.....I had a great time with you and everyone else."
"Don't say that! You're gonna stay here, and you know it!"
"And....well, I hope I can meet with you again...very soon."
I didn't hear Leila sobbing. I looked at her, and saw her eyes looking at mine. She then inched her face really close, SO close, she then closed her eyes...I did the same. But I didn't feel anything. I opened my eyes to see her eyes wide in shock.
I looked at myself, and saw that my whole body and half of my face was already turned into pyreflies. Only my eyes, forehead, and hair was all that was left...yet I could speak.
"I'm sorry, Leila.....maybe later?" And with that I closed my eyes and gave in to the feeling of sleep.
UNTIL a bright filled my eyes, bringing me to awake mode. I opened my eyes to find myself in a distorted, orange-yellowish wormhole. Well, you know when people travel back in time in cartoons and stuff, they go through some kind of wormhole? Yeah, same here. All these weird stars and streaks of light passed me. It was amazing! I looked back to see a huge hole showing, in a bird-eye view, of Rin's Travel Agency. It was a huge blur though.
In front of me, there was a tiny hole there. I was pretty sure I knew what that was....my room. As I got closer, the stars and streaking lights started to go faster and faster, creating spectacular light shows. My bed and TV with the PS2 was starting to appear in the hole. I'm....so close!
But then...
"Heh, he's finally fucking here!" yelled out a cocky, sounding male voice.
"Shut up, man. Come on, grab him, " a cool, collected voice said.
I reached my hands out for the portal for home, but felt something wrap around my ankle. I looked back to see 2 white, long coated figures who looked like Organization XIII, except with the whiteness, one who had his white gloved hand on my ankle. The other one had both of his hands in his pockets.
"You sure this is what he wanted?" asked the cool, collected guy, he was the one with his hands in his pockets.
"Of course, dumb shit! Why'd the hell wouldn't he? Come on, help me! He's fuckin heavy!" The other guy then grabbed my other ankle. What the hell were they doing?!
"Hey, let me go!" I started to fight back, trying to wriggle my ankles free. I then tried reverting my right arm....to no avail. "What?!"
I saw the cocky guy's mouth turn to a smirk. "Pff, dumb ass. You're close to your reality, so anything you gained physically at Spira won't have any effect on Earth. So....you're comin with us!" With a strong tug, I was pulled back with the 2 white coated figures.
"No! NNOOOO!!! Let me frickin go!" I yelled at them.
The calm one slammed his other hand into the back of my knee, making me paralyzed for a few seconds. Damn, that was one strong karate chop.
The cocky one laughed. "Hahaha! Hey kid, that isn't the Fiends way to get home! Your home....is Spira."
I tried reaching out for the portal...but it was no use. I yelled out loud while disappearing - and I cried when this happened - into black mist.
I didn't make it. I-I couldn't even....
SCREW THIS!!
I crumpled up the piece of paper I was writing, which was my life testimony, and did a hoop shot, making a 'swish' into the garbage bin at the corner of the room. I placed my elbow onto the desk table and covered my face with my hands.
God, why am I here? I've been here for frickin 5 years! Working...toiling....for this stupid syndicate. I looked at the garbage bin between my fingers. I was supposed to write a life testimony to him...but no, I can't. It was his fault in the first place...
I spun the chair to the right a bit and looked inside the mirror. I noticed several things then.
I was wearing a white long coat that pretty much fit me snugly. And it obscured all my features, save for my mouth. And then the other thing was that there was another white long coated person at the doorway, staring right at me.
I sighed. Now what?
"What do you want with me? I'm trying to write-"
"He wants you to delay the writing for now," said the female figure. I could tell, her voice was quite...sultry.
I arched my eyebrows, but of course she couldn't see me do so, almost my entire face was covered. "Oh? So it's an assignment eh? What does....he want me to do?"
The female coated woman closed the door behind her and walked up in front of my work desk. She then leaned forward and her mouth formed words slowly. "He wants you to head to Home, the city in the middle of the Sanubian Desert."
I narrowed my eyes at her without any doubt of what the mission objectives were. "He wants me to kill another priest? Damn, I've already killed several others...."
She placed her gloved hands onto my shoulder giggled. "You shouldn't be having any nervous breakdowns, you're probably the most experienced fighter in this whole organization."
I rolled my eyes and stood up, brushing her hand off me. "Alright, I'll do him a favor." I grabbed 2 obsidian brass knuckles from the desk and put them on both of my knuckles. "I'll be right back."
I then closed my eyes and felt my body become light. I opened my eyes to find myself in the city of Home, the Al Bhed people's utopia. I was standing on top of a mosaic roof, the sun's rays filtering into the room below.
"Well then, let's just finish this quickly..." And with that, I jumped up and when I landed, my feet crashed through the mosaic glass and I fell onto a podium, where an aged, old man was reading some kind of Bible like thing. Wow, the Al Bheds are now stirring up a religion?
I slowly looked up, seeing the surprised look on the old priest's face. Pieces of glass from the mosaic rained down to the ground from above.
I smirked, reeled my fist, and smashed it into the old priest's face, caving his face in and blood spurted out of his nose, eyes, and mouth.
The power of evil...can be quite consuming.
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A/N: Whew....I'm not really happy with this chapter for some reason. I think I could've made it much better than it was. But well, it was still good to see the ending. Leila and Will together? Looks like its a not for them both.....although, will they meet again? And why the heck are there SO MANY WHITE LONG COATED GUYS?! And what's gonna happen to Will? Thanks for reading this story! Hoped you all enjoyed it and please R&R!!! :D
I'm also gonna be writing a sequel to this story, but it'll be 5 years later. So yep, thank you everyone! :D
And thanks for Chiharu chan, zephyr, Cerberus Tsuki, Zakuo, Your Own Little Euphoria, and Grenada for reviewing and helping me becoming a better writer! Thanks! :D