Fade With Me

Chapter 2

"Are you alright, young one?"

My mouth was still agape as I stared at my uncle, completely dumbfounded. Braska's face creased with worry when he noticed my silence.

"Can you hear me?" he tried again.

I finally closed my mouth to swallow the huge lump that had risen into my throat. Why do I feel like I'm about to cry? Oh, right. Because I was staring into the face of my uncle who I haven't seen since I was a toddler. The uncle who had died when I was still a toddler.

"Y-Yes…" I replied with a grimace. I had forgotten about the gash on my face from the underwater fiend, and it hurt to talk.

Braska got down on his knees and began a thorough examination of all of my wounds and injuries. When he looked over my body, a strained expression crossed his features. Maybe I was more injured than I thought I was. "Let us assist you," he pleaded.

Us?

Two men walked into my line of sight from behind me. One of them had very tan skin, with a red bandana around his head to push back some of his black hair. His body was lined with tons of scars, and there was a huge tattoo on his chest that reminded me of the symbol on the necklace that Tidus used to wear.

Jecht…?

The other man was wearing a dark red cloak, with one arm in one sleeve and one arm hanging freely without the sleeve. He had long, dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. The man also had a canteen draping from a belt on the side of his hip, and a large katana was sheathed, hidden underneath his cloak. He was apparently annoyed at the sudden delay of their trip.

…A-Auron…? He looks so different…

I wondered how I could have possibly gotten here, to this time. Nothing was making sense to me. There was no way I could possibly be here. This was ten years in the past. Not even an hour ago, I was in a place where Sin was gone, and Braska and Auron were finally resting in the Farplane. Now I was staring at all three men, who should technically be long gone.

Did that little boy in my head have something to do with this? He must have. He said something about a mission that I had to complete, or something. I speculated whether or not this so-called mission had anything to do with the people standing in front of me.

Jecht cracked a bemused smile and elbowed Auron in the chest. "Hey, even this kid here has heard about you, Auron! You're already quite the legendary guardian," he teased.

I must have said his name out loud. Cred.

"Don't be embarrassed, kid," he gestured to his friend. "Auron, here, gets that a lot. And we're not even done with the pilgrimage yet!" Jecht chuckled in a deep, scratchy voice.

Am I blushing? I obviously was because Braska was checking my temperature and pulse. He was probably worried that my face was bright red because of my wounds or injuries.

"What is your name?" Braska inquired kindly, as he continued his once-over of my condition.

"Rikku," I stated without thinking. Oopsies…Major cred!!

Braska looked up at me curiously. "Hmm. That's interesting. I have a young niece named Rikku."

Something tells me that I shouldn't let them know who I really am…

"What a coincidence," I remarked smoothly.

"Yes. A coincidence…" Braska nodded slowly. "Well, I am Braska, a summoner from Bevelle. These are my guardians," he motioned towards the other two men, "Jecht and Auron."

"My apologies, my lord," Auron gave a quick bow. "But can you just use your white magic to heal her so we can be on our way?"

Same old Auron, I thought to myself dryly.

"We've already had enough delays already, thanks to our shoopuf-slayer over here." Auron shot Jecht a dark look.

"Hey, I said I was sorry about that!!" Jecht countered. "And I didn't kill it….plus, I promised that I will never drink again, and I meant it!"

"You guys…." Braska began.

"You can leave!" I interrupted their conversation. "No need to worry about me. I'm perfectly fine." I tried to pull myself up into a seated position, but failed miserably. I couldn't ignore the intense pain throughout my whole body. Before I could fall back onto the ground, a pair of arms caught me in his embrace.

My uncle let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose you're right, Auron. Could you hold still for a minute, Rikku?"

I tried to nod, but the pain was too great. He heard me grunt in pain and took out his staff to begin the white magic on me. I closed my eyes and almost fell asleep as I let the soothing spells he was casting on my body sink in. Every part of me was feeling completely fresh and rejuvenated. There were still a few aches here and there, but it was much better. The only side-effect was that I felt a little tired.

I sighed in relief.

"Did that help?" Braska calmly asked.

"It sure did!" I jumped up to my feet and twirled around twice to prove my point. "Thank you so much! I feel as good as new!"

Jecht started to laugh at me. "Take it easy, kid. You wouldn't want Braska's magic to wear off and have you collapse in a heap of limbs while you're dancing, would you?"

I froze. "White magic…doesn't wear off….does it?"

Braska shook his head, smiling. "No, Rikku, it does not. At least not the kind that I was using on you."

I smiled. "Oh." I started to bounce from one foot to the other to contain my energy.

All of a sudden, Braska's face became laced with another emotion: concern. "Rikku, you never did mention…how you got so critically injured?" He looked down at my clothes with a grimace.

Seeing his odd look, I glanced down at my body. What I saw completely shocked me. My bodysuit was completely torn to shreds, and it was only hanging onto my body by a few loose threads. Good thing I'm wearing my bikini and skirt underneath. I also saw a few marks on my stomach from where the wounds had been, prior to Braska's healing magic.

I scratched my cheek in thought. What should I tell them? "I'm actually you're niece from the future, and some creepy little boy in my head told me that I was supposed to go on a mission, so the next thing I know, POOF! I'm here!"…that would not go over too well. Even I knew that it would cause a major controversy. Not to mention the fact that everyone would think that I was crazy…

"Lord Braska asked you a question," a sharp voice broke through my reveries. I looked up to see Auron sending his powerful glare in my direction. Why is he being so mean to me?

"Um, well me and my brother went out for a swim because we love the pyreflies of the Moonflow…and…uh, we came across this big fiend," I started to spin together a complete lie…somewhat based on the truth…sort of. "My brother pushed me out of the way of one of its attacks and he got the brunt of the damage. He told me to swim away before the beast could get to me, so out of fear, I did." I looked down and closed my eyes to add more drama to my story.

"I don't remember too much of what happened next, but I must've encountered another fiend," I gestured to my appearance. "Then I woke up to see you leaning over me," I finished lamely. "That's my story."

"Hmph. Hardly likely," Auron countered. "Why would anyone want to swim in such fiend-infested waters?"

These waters were fiend-infested ten years ago? I was surprised when I ran into one during my mission…though that one almost killed me…Tysh. I probably sound like an idiot right now, then.

"Well, we didn't know that," I lamely relied. I started to tear off the ruined fabric of the bodysuit so I didn't have to make eye contact with Auron. He was such a stiff now, as well as in the future. But something did seem a little different about him. Maybe it's the fact that he was incredibly attractive ten years ago?…Whoa, Rikku! Where did that come from!?

I supposed I always thought that he was fairly handsome while we were traveling on Yunie's pilgrimage…heck, I had a crush on him! But I never knew he looked like that before he met all of us. Man, if I had known…

"So, where is your brother, then?" Auron asked harshly, crossing his arms over his chest in annoyance.

I sat down on the ground and hugged my knees to my chest. I tried to put on my saddest face possible before I responded to Auron. "I don't think he made it…"

Auron hmphed again. "I still don't believe you."

"Auron!" Braska scolded. "That is no way to talk to her."

Suddenly a new idea for a lie popped into my head. It was so brilliant, I wanted to jump up and start dancing again, but that would ruin the whole façade of the image I was trying to pull off here. "It's okay, Braska. He's right. I lied."

"Huh?" Jecht had a look of pure confusion on his face. Auron was smirking triumphantly, as though he had just won a one-on-one battle against a king sandworm.

"My brother and I weren't going swimming."

Braska looked shocked. "Whatever do you mean?"

Good thing I'm such a good actress. I sighed. "He and I were just visiting the Moonflow. We really do like the pyreflies. But a group of devout Yevonites approached us and started to harass us."

"Why would Yevonites do that?" Jecht asked, crossing his arms over his lean chest.

"You didn't notice that I'm Al Bhed?" I was actually shocked that they didn't notice right away. In my time, Al Bhed were always easily set apart from the rest of Spira because of their unusually tan skin, blond hair, and vivid green eyes with dark swirls as the pupils.

Jecht scratched the back of his head. "Eh, even if I did notice, I wouldn't care." He shrugged. "I have no problem with the Al Bhed."

Neither did Tidus…

"So what did the Yevonites do to you and your brother?" Braska urged me to continue.

"Well, they cornered us, deep in the woods area of the Moonflow, and a huge group of them started beating us up. We didn't even do anything to provoke them!" I balled my fists together tightly. This was kind of bringing back bad memories of some of the stories I'd heard during my childhood. "They beat us until we were unconscious. The next time I opened my eyes, I was on a shoopuf with a couple of Yevonites. They laughed when they saw me regain consciousness. They told me I'd be joining my brother soon, and then they whacked the back of one of their guns against my head, knocking me out again. They must have tossed both my brother and me overboard…so we would drown…"

Jecht cursed loudly and Braska shook his head sadly. "I know what it's like to be discriminated, as well. I am not Al Bhed, but I married a beautiful Al Bhed woman."

Whoa, I've never heard this side of the story before…all I'd ever heard about was Pops' biased view of how his sister ran off with some Yevonite.

Braska continued, "I am now a summoner, as you can see, and I still get ridicule from various people throughout my pilgrimage, even though my wife is now dead."

I gasped. "I'm so sorry!" I wondered if he would tell me the one thing Pops never told me…"How did she die?"

"Sin," he answered simply. "I suppose I owe my role as a summoner to her death, though. I would have never been motivated to become one if I hadn't been so incredibly heartbroken when she passed."

"I am so sorry," I said again.

Braska laughed softly. "It is surely not your fault. If anything, the Al Bhed are working just as hard as summoners to defeat Sin, and that is truly honorable."

I smiled brightly. "I'm glad you think that!" Before I met up with Yunie for her pilgrimage, I had helped out with a lot of summoner-kidnappings and attempts to defeat Sin. The only one I had missed was Operation Mi'ihen…I'm glad I missed that one…

Jecht clapped his hands together loudly. "So, Rikku. Do you have anywhere you can go home to, or anything? I really don't wanna leave you here after those Yevonites did that to you."

I wrapped my arms around my body in embarrassment. Why would Tidus ever think that this man was such a jerk? I really don't see it. He didn't even come off as a bad person while he talked to us before the big battle inside of Sin.

"Um…my brother was the only person I had left. Yevon and Sin have made sure of it."

"Oh, no," Jecht shook his head slowly. "That's pretty bad, ain't it!?"

Braska joined in too. "I would feel awful, as well, if we left you here. Please allow us to accompany you to Guadosalam? That is where we are headed to next for my pilgrimage."

My head perked up. That didn't sound like a bad idea at all. Since I was stuck in the past, I might as well surround myself with familiar people…who don't actually know that I should be familiar to them. Otherwise, it wouldn't work out right.

If I tried to go to Bikanel, I would risk seeing my past-self and I might mess up the future. Plus, I've been told that I look a lot like my sudran, so if Pops saw me, that might mess up the future too! As if being here already isn't messing up the future! I thought bitterly.

I started to get angry when I thought of the little boy who sent me here. Why did he do it? Why me? I don't understand what I'm supposed to do!

I'm just glad that I'm around people that make me feel comfortable. Kinda like when I was on Yunie's pilgrimage last year…

"So whaddaya say, Rikku?" Jecht pressed. Auron scoffed and turned around.

"Yeah, that'd be great, guys," I replied. "Thank you."

Thank you so much.

---X---X---X---X---X---

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX

Translations:

Cred=Shit

Tysh=Damn

Sudran=Mother

Author's Notes:

Dun-Dun-Dun (insert intense music here)

Will Rikku stick with them for the rest of their journey? Or will the three men dump her off once they get to Guadosalam?

Stay tuned!

Oh, and there will be aurikku-ness in this fic…but just not yet!

But I promise it's on it's way sooooon!!! =)

Thanks for reading!!

-koalababay