24 Ransom of Death

I watched the Ronso speaking nonsense about some horn-molt or something. I had no idea what was going on. Suddenly Kimahri let out a roar and punched one of the two Ronso, knocking him out. I was surprised and completely caught off guard. The other Ronso punched Kimahri in the jaw; the barkeep shouted for them to take it outside.

I glanced in all directions for Yuna, jumping out of their way as they plowed through the diner. I didn't see her anywhere. I went around the corner, hoping to high heaven that she was here. She wasn't. Remembering how famous she was, I began to feel nervous about her safety. I went outside an looked around. Again, I couldn't find her. I called to Kimahri. "Yuna's gone!"

He turned from his attacker, and that was his big mistake. The other Ronso saw his chance and took advantage it. He hit Kimahri hard on the side of his neck, instantly knocking him out. I now had a choice. Find Yuna, or try to defend Kimahri against this huge Ronso. There was no contest. I ran away yelling, "YUUUUNAAA! YUUNA!" The farther I ran, the more panicky I felt. I knew she wouldn't have left the diner without us, something must have gone wrong.

I could only imagine what. After several minutes, Lulu ran up to me. "What happened?!" She growled. She didn't wait for an answer. "Yuna has been kidnapped by the Al Bhed Physches!" "What?!" I practically screamed. "In exchange for her safe return, they want the Aurochs to lose in the tournament tomorrow." I was astonished, at a loss for words. Lulu went on. "If they're only blitzball players, I doubt they'd do anything drastic," I cut her off. "Let's go get her! Where's the Al Bhed locker?"

She seemed irritated by my interruption, but shook her head. "No. She won't be in the locker. They wouldn't bring her somewhere so easily accessible." I thought hard. "Where would she be?" There was a long silence as we both racked our brains. "Where's Kimahri?" She asked as she began to walk in the general direction of the locker rooms. "He got knocked out by some giant Ronso." I said almost casually. She looked alarmed at this, but only walked faster. "We'll have to find her with Wakka. Kimahri comes after Yuna."

After thinking the entire way to the Auroch's locker, I had a thought that just seemed to come out of nowhere."The ship!" I yelled. "She's probably on the Al Bhed ship!" Lulu barely acknowledged that I had spoken. We burst into the locker room as I exclaimed, "Yuna's been kidnapped by the Al Bhed Phsyches!" "Wha?!" Wakka's jaw dropped. "Come! We are going to look on their ship."

Lulu commanded, Wakka followed. We took off running to the docks. It took about half an hour to find the ship. Once we did, Wakka and Lulu had to catch their breaths. I had no problem, I could run for almost two hours before getting out of breath. The ship started to move away from the docks, and I shouted, "Let's go!" I ran recklessly towards the ship, diving on.

I grabbed Wakka's wrist, who grabbed Lulu's. We worked together to all get on. I grabbed Chappu's sword out of the air, turning around just in time to see an Al Bhed with a gun. "Duck!" I shouted, diving to the ground. Several shots rung out before I reached him. I felt sick as I killed him with my sword. I fought back nausea as two more appeared from inside the cabin. I begged no one in particular not to make me kill them. I raised my sword to attack, but I got a queasy feeling that something was wrong.

A blitzball struck one of the Al Bhed, electric sparks flying from his body. He died instantly, and I heard a scream of pain come from behind me. The second Al Bhed fell just as quickly by Lulu's lightning. A machina gun rose out of the ship, and began to shoot electric shocks around the deck.

It didn't seem to be controlled by anyone, as it shot completely at random. I felt myself going faint, I looked down and saw blood flowing freely from the base of my shoulder. As I passed out, Wakka and Lulu somehow vanquished the machina, and rescued Yuna. When I woke up, she was slumped over me, and the pain in my shoulder was gone.

I sat up feeling awkward, and Lulu pulled her off of me. "What happened?" I asked. Yuna shook her head slightly, blinking her eyes as if to clear a bad dream. "We need to go…um, go get Kimahri." She was struggling to remain sitting upright. I stood, feeling strength flowing back into my limbs. I inspected my shoulder to find it completely healed; Even the bullet hole in my vest was completely gone.

I looked and saw that we were several hundred yards from the dock. An incredibly easy swim for me, but I knew Yuna would never make it, and I had no idea if Lulu could swim. "I'm gonna try to get this ship turned around." I stated as I walked into the cabin. There was a metal wheel in the middle of a huge control panel with dozens of buttons and switches and blinking lights. I decided that since the ship was still moving at a fairly slow pace, I could just turn it around with the wheel, without messing with the control panel.

It took about seven minutes to get back to the dock. Once we arrived I went out and the button on the role of chain which was connected to the ramp. Conveniently, it began to unroll. Inconveniently, it was going very slowly. I went back over to the group. Yuna was still seated, but she appeared stronger, so I took hand and slowly helped her to her feet. When I tried to let go, she clenched onto my hand, wobbling back and forth as if she had never stood before. "Do ya need ta be carried, Yuna?"

Wakka offered to the poor girl. She nodded weakly, her face downcast as if she felt guilty. It confused me, but I chose to ignore it. Wakka gently lifted her into his arms and took her down the lowered ramp. Lulu and I followed. Once safely on the docks, I turned to them. "I know where he is, so I'll lead." "Okay, lead on Brudda." Wakka said, glancing at Lulu. She didn't look happy about the plan, but then again, she never looked happy.

I took them through the city, now thankful for my innate sense of direction, making it easy to navigate the city even though I had only been there once. We arrived back at the pub, and I was momentarily surprised to see Kimahri was no longer there. Then I realized that it would be kind of absurd for the hundreds of people who passed by since he fell here to simply ignore the Ronso lying unconscious in the middle of the street.

I called to a young man about my age who was walking by. "Hey! Do you know where they take injured people?" The guy gave me a glance and passed by without saying a thing. I then asked the same thing to a middle aged lady. She looked at me kindly and pointed to a building nearby only marked by a strange symbol. "Try that building. May Yevon be with you." She then went on. "Thank you!" I called after her, but she had already disappeared into the crowd.

I motioned to the others as I pushed through the throng to reach the building. It was warm and pretty dark in the small room. My eyes took several seconds to adjust, and then I saw the room consisted of several cots, one of which Kimahri lay on, and a few chairs. A young woman dressed in a modest robe sat beside Kimahri, who was still either unconscious or asleep. The woman rose when we entered. She said nothing, she just swept her hand towards Kimahri with a questioning expression.

"Wakka, I think I'm strong enough to stand now." Yuna whispered. He put her down and steadied her. She walked over to Kimahri, Wakka following her and helping her to stay up. She knelt by the Ronso, who was hanging halfway off of the cot that was hardly large enough to hold him up. She put and hand on his forehead and bowed her head in prayer. Her head jerked and she yelped, but then Kimahri bolted upright.

He looked around and scrutinized Yuna. She didn't look any weaker from her waking him up. Kimahri quietly snorted at her, I guess that was his way of saying thanks. "Shall we leave?" Lulu asked. "Yes." Yuna said, pushing herself to her feet. "Um, I don't think that I can walk all the way back…" Kimahri responded by quickly picking her up. She looked tiny and almost frail next to his large frame. I wondered how such a beautiful delicate young woman could defeat the monster that killed millions.

Once we arrived back at the locker rooms, we all rested while the Aurochs went out to bring us some food. While we waited for them, Yuna told us what had happened. As she described her kidnapping, I felt my cheeks grow very hot in shame, I knew that my face must be a dark shade of crimson. I felt angry at myself for my irresponsibility, knowing that that small slip could have caused her death.

Yuna described the awful feeling she got when they injected her with the strange drug. "After everything went black, I don't remember anything until I woke up curled tightly in a tiny compartment. I still couldn't see anything and I could hardly move. After several minutes, I heard gunshots and felt the slight buzz of electricity moving through the ship."

I started praying, hoping that it was you coming to rescue me. It turned out that it was…and, here we are." Just then, the Aurochs got back with some delicious stew and bread that tasted a little like the cornbread my neighbor used to make for me, after Mother died…

We rested for a couple hours, but as usual, I wasn't as tired as the Spirans. I couldn't figure out what it was with them and sleeping excessively. Yuna didn't seem to have that problem, though, as she was just as awake the whole time as I was. I decided it would be fun to sneak out and hang around the lockers.

I'd keep a sharp eye out for trouble, though. I got up and silently walked to the door. I opened it as quietly as possible. As I left the room and turned to closed the door, I jumped when I saw Yuna standing there, a small smile playing across her lips. I stepped back to let her out, and closed the door. We danced gleefully down the hall, but we where caught by that dirt bag of a team; the Goers.

"My, my, my! What children you are!" said the dark haired woman. Her team mates laughed, and the other girl jeered, "And you, m'lady! What is a summoner doing with this idiot?" I clenched my fists in anger. "Don't call him that!" Yuna's voice carried more than a hint of anger. Another of the Goers laughed, "But he IS an idiot. He thinks the Aurochs are gonna win!"

The Goers broke out in scoffing laughter. "Well they will, now that I'm here!" I growled, trying to stop myself from punching them. "Yes, they will win!" Yuna chimed in. "He is the star player of the Zanarkand Abes!"

I could hardly believe what I was saying to them, but I was too angry to make sense of it, I just blurted out what I wanted to say. The red haired leader laughed along with his cronies. "Yeah, as if anyone lived in those ruins!" Again, I let my heart take over my words. "It's not ruins! There's a big city there!" The Goers stared at me in disbelief. Tidus tried to make excuses for my display. "Um, I got too close to sin and-" I interrupted him, not wanting him to have to make excuses for my actions.

"There is a city, really!" I turn my back on them, signifying the end of the conversation. They snickered. "Whatever you ladyship says." One of them mocked. They then walked off, leaving Tidus and me alone, our fun completely ruined. I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall, irritation written on my face. Tidus was no more happy. "I believe your Zanarkand exists! I don't care what they say."

He smiled a bit before his face turned bitter. He looked down the hall to where the Goers had disappeared. "Putting people down. They're as bad as my old man!" I looked up, surprised. "But, Sir Jecht was a kind and gentle man!" Tidus looked down, crossing his arms. "Not my Jecht." We stood in silence for several moments. "I-Maybe we should go back." I said. I knew there was no way we where going to be able to have any fun now. "Yeah." He mumbled. We snuck back into the locker and laid there until we eventually fell asleep.

TidusxYuna Always