Chapter 10: Creeps and Kidnappers

The next morning, the S.S. Winno arrived in Luca, which had to be the largest town Charlie had seen since her arrival in Spira. She stared in awe at the massive blitzball arena as the voices of two announcers rang out over the loudspeakers. As the ship pulled into the dock and everyone disembarked, those same two announcers made some rather pitying comments about the Besaid Aurochs. "Twenty-three years without making it past the first round? Good grief, no wonder everyone seems so desperate!"

The young woman winced at the dejected expressions on her teammates' faces as Jimma and Bobba went on to describe how great the home team, the Goers, were, and then steeled herself. "Ugh, I really hate crowds…but I've got to cheer these guys up!" Feeling mischievous, she quickly snatched up an unattended megaphone and clambered onto one of the nearby cargo crates. "Hey, Goers!" she shouted, drawing the attention of everyone within earshot. "You guys might want to wipe those silly smiles off your faces, 'cause the Aurochs are taking the cup this year!"

Everyone gaped at her as if she were a madwoman, but in the end, most of them decided to ignore her as she shimmied back to the ground. The rest of the group hurried over, and Wakka groaned, "Charlie, what in Yevon's name were you doing up there?"

"You know, I'm trying to figure that out, myself!" Before she could answer, Datto excitedly said, "Boy, we sure stood out though!"

"Yeah, we were on the sphere!" Letty chimed in.

"We were?"

Suddenly, an overly thrilled group of people rushed past, in their hurry to get to one of the other docks. "Maester Mika is here!" cried one member of the crowd.

"Already? Where?" asked another.

"The number three dock!" shouted a third person.

After the excited mob stampeded by, Charlie scratched her head in confusion and asked, "What the hell was that all about?"

"Maester Mika has arrived!" Yuna replied, clearly as excited as the rest of the townsfolk.

"Uh…Yuna, I don't mean to rain on your parade or anything, but what's a Maester?"

"Maester Mika is the leader of all the peoples of Spira, and he's come all the way from Bevelle," Lulu said, her voice carrying more than a hint of exasperation at Charlie's bewilderment. "The tournament is being held to honor his fifty years as maester."

"Leader of all the peoples…so he's kind of like the President of Spira, then?" Then she did a double take and said, "Did you say fifty years? That guy has to be older than dirt by now!"

"Hey! Mind your mouth, now!" Wakka scolded, scowling down at her.

The young woman opened her mouth to make a retort, but stopped when Yuna said, "Let's all go see him!"

…

The adjacent dock was heavily crowded, due to all the happily cheering people jostling each other for a better view of the Maester, and it made Charlene very uncomfortable. "I don't like this. I've got a really bad feeling about this and I really don't want to be here."

Suddenly, a loud, joyful fanfare blared out over the dock as the first of what appeared to be an escort paraded down the gangplank. The leader had to be the strangest looking man Charlie had ever seen in her life! He was tall and fair-skinned, with stylized dragon tattoos across his chest, and jagged, sky blue hair that stuck out the sides of his head like a pair of demonic horns. "He's handsome enough," she supposed, not liking the "superior" aura he radiated as he surveyed the gathering. "But…his eyes are so cold! It looks like he's staring at a bunch of cattle and can't decide which one he wants to slaughter first."

The throng went silent for a moment, but quickly began murmuring amongst themselves. "That's a Guado, right?" a man in front of her muttered.

"Who could it be?" a nearby woman wondered.

"Isn't that…Maester Seymour?" the man replied.

The gossiping hushed, however, as Seymour turned and bowed toward the ship, performing the prayer as he did so. Everyone else, except for Charlie, quickly followed suit, as a wizened old man who looked like he'd break apart in a good breeze slowly walked down the gangplank. "Boy, it'd be awful if that old man had a heart attack and died right here on the dock! All these people would probably start screaming about terrible omens and Armageddon, if he did. The stupid fools don't have any original thoughts for themselves! It would serve them all right if Sin showed up right now and stamped them out of existence for being sheep! They're as bad as the people back home!" Suddenly, the girl pulled her train of thought to a screeching halt as her face burned with shame. "Damn it, Charlie, you're such a monster! You don't have the right to judge people like that! How do you know that these people deserve what they've gotten? You're a terrible person for thinking horrible things like that! Oh God, I hope no one around here can read my thoughts, or they might decide that I'm completely psycho!"

"People of Spira, I thank you for your generous welcome," Mika said, his voice seemingly unable to go above a whisper. "Rise, Maester Seymour, and all of you as well. I present to you the son of Jyscal Guado, who departed for the Farplane a fortnight past." He pointed at the blue-haired man. "As some of you already know, he has been officially ordained a maester of Yevon."

"How many maesters are there?" Charlie wondered, still trying to shake her evil thoughts.

Just then, Seymour stepped forward and began to speak. "I am Seymour Guado, and I am honored to receive the title of maester. In life, my father Jyscal worked to foster friendship between man and Guado. I vow to carry on his legacy, and to fulfill my duties as maester to the best of my abilities."

His speech finished, his party departed, and everyone on the dock, except Charlie, respectfully bowed their heads. Wakka, who noticed his friend's refusal to bow, nudged her and whispered, "You too! Bow your head!"

The young woman ignored him, however, and continued to stare absently at the Guado, still shaking the last vestiges of her cruel musings, snapping out of her reverie just in time to lock eyes with the maester for a brief instant that dragged on for a hellish eternity. Seymour's eyes were a clear, icy blue, much lighter than Charlene's own deep indigo, or Yuna's shining sapphire, and were as cold as the dark side of the moon, as empty as the void. Charlie tried to tear her gaze away from him, but those soulless eyes held her as fast as if she were rooted to the spot. "What the hell is going on? Oh God, make it stop!"

Finally, for the briefest of instants, Seymour smiled, a calculating smile that screamed, "I know your secret", and continued looking at the crowd, where he then stopped on Yuna and stared, a sly look ghosting across his slightly alien features. He continued to stare, until the young summoner blushed slightly, and then turned and left, moving at a sedate pace. "Really psyches you up, ya?" Wakka asked, clearly honored by Seymour and Mika's appearance.

"Yeah…" Charlie weakly replied.

"All right, last meeting before the match! Hustle!" The blitzer waved his arm in the air and ran ahead, leaving the others to catch up.

Charlene trailed behind; feeling as if she had just swam through a river of sludge and desperately wanting a bath. "That Seymour guy…he's got the eyes of a demon! The way he stared at me just makes me feel so dirty! It felt like he'd just read my mind, and LIKED what he saw! He didn't really see what I thought just now…did he?" She shook her head. "Even if he DID read my mind, why would he like the fact that I thought terrible things about these people…unless he's a bigger monster than I am?"

…

A little while later, Charlie arrived in the Aurochs locker room, where the rest of the team, minus Wakka, sat, waiting for their coach in anticipation. They jumped to their feet when she opened the door, but sighed with disappointment when they saw who it was. "Hey, don't everybody cheer at once!" the young woman teased when she saw their disappointed looks. "Anyway, where'd Wakka go?"

"He's at the match-up draws," said Datto.

"We had to play the Goers in the first match last year," Letty replied.

"The year before that, and the year before that, too!" Jassu added.

"Well, we would have lost to anyone anyway," Keepa glumly concluded.

Charlene shook her head in disgust, but then stopped when she felt a familiar tugging sensation. "Hey, this is that same feeling I got when I found that weird silver disc in Besaid!" Following the peculiar pull, the young woman stopped in front of one of the lockers and opened it. Inside was another disc, only made of bronze instead of silver. Engraved on it were several tiny flames, along with the word "Tzedek". "Hmm…I wonder what this thing is supposed to do…"

Suddenly, Wakka burst into the room with a look of triumph on his face, and she quickly stowed the object away with its silver counterpart in her belt-pouch. "Cap'n Wakka!" Datto cried, nervously shoving his green bandana out of his eyes.

"We're playin' the Al Bhed Psyches first, and if we win, we're in the finals!" Wakka exulted. Everyone gaped at him with various expressions of confusion and shock, so he continued to speak. "That's right, we got seeded! All we need are two wins, and we're champions!"

The whole team cheered enthusiastically at the news, except for Charlie, who just had a terrible realization. "Oh crap! Wakka never actually told me how to play this stupid game!"

Just as she was about to make her rather embarrassing announcement, however, the big blitzer turned to her, winked, and said, "First thing's first, though, so let's go over the basics again."

…

Charlene was so busy paying close attention to what Wakka was telling her that, when Yuna and Lulu burst into the room, she fell off the bench with a startled yelp. "There you are!" the summoner exclaimed, not even noticing that her friend was lying on the floor. "We just heard someone say that they spotted Sir Auron in a café!"

"What?" the young woman exclaimed, quickly clambering to her feet.

"Yes, Sir Auron!" she nodded. "Let's go find him!"

Charlie moved to follow Yuna to the door, but then Wakka yelled, "Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! The game starts like real soon!" The two girls gaped at him for a moment, and then he added, "C-come back quick, ya?"

"Hey, it's not like I'm running all the way back to Besaid, or something," Charlie told him. "I'll be back, I promise."

"Yeah, okay." Wakka sounded doubtful.

Suddenly, Charlene realized that Wakka was nervous. "Scared stiff is more like it!" "Hey, Wakka, you need to relax!"

"Huh?"

"You look like you're about to pass out at any moment!" She walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Look, just take some deep breaths. Inhale, then exhale, but don't try them both at once, 'cause that won't work very well."

He cracked a smile, but did as told, while Yuna giggled and Lulu let out another one of her long-suffering sighs. The young woman walked back to the door and said, "Wakka, I won't let you down."

The two girls entered the hallway, where the ever-silent Kimahri stood watch. Yuna turned to Charlie and said, "Maybe we can find Sir Jecht now."

"How are we going to do that? I thought you said he disappeared."

"Sir Auron was also one of my father's guardian's, so he might know where Sir Jecht is. Let's go now!"

Charlene followed Yuna, all the while thinking, "You know, it doesn't really matter if Auron knows where Jecht, or rather, SIR Jecht is or not. As soon as I find him, he's sending me back home, even if I have to force him to do it!" She stopped and shook her head. "Me? Force him? Yeah right! I've got like two months of self-defense lessons under my belt, and he'd probably break me in half if I tried to force him to do anything!"

Just then, the young woman noticed that a pair of Al Bhed stood in the hallway, staring after Yuna and speaking to each other in their bizarre language. "Hey, you two are from the Al Bhed Psyches, right? Some Al Bhed saved me a while back and…" She stopped, and weakly said, "You…don't understand me…do you?"

They continued to stare at her, their expressions unreadable, and she finally sighed, "Anyway, if you happen to understand any of this, then tell Rikku I said thanks."

Charlie hurried outside the stadium, where she found Yuna and Kimahri standing in the middle of a crowd of wildly cheering people. "I'm sorry," she heard the summoner say. "Please let me through."

Amazingly, the crowd parted for Yuna, and she turned to Charlie and said, "Let's go."

"You're really famous, aren't you?" she replied.

Yuna giggled, and then the three of them continued to thread their way through the crush of people who were hurrying toward the stadium. Suddenly, the summoner stopped, looked around nervously, and said, "I hope we don't get separated."

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Charlie called to her friend, and when Yuna turned around, put her fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle that easily soared above the din of the crowd. "What was that?" Yuna asked, staring at Charlene with amazement.

"I used to do that to cheer Marcus on whenever he played soccer back home," she replied.

"Marcus? Soccer?"

"Uh…never mind." The young woman quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, why don't you try it now?"

Yuna tried to imitate Charlie, but couldn't make a sound. "It's not working."

"You just need to practice, that's all."

"Okay."

"We can use it if we get separated, but…it'd probably be best if we stick together until then."

"Yes, ma'am!"

The three of them continued to make their way through town and Charlie finally stopped and said, "This is a pretty big town!"

"Luca is the second largest city in Spira," Yuna explained.

"You know, I kinda thought that all the towns were small…like Besaid and Kilika."

"Towns don't usually get much bigger than that," the summoner sadly replied. "When a lot of people start to gather…"

"Sin shows up, doesn't it?" Yuna nodded, and Charlie continued to speak. "Is it safe here in Luca?"

"It's not any different, but the stadium is here, and the Crusaders fight to protect it with all their strength."

"Why?"

"Blitzball's really the only entertainment we have, and Spira's a little short on fun these days."

"That must really suck!"

The summoner nodded sadly, but then perked up and asked, "I know you said you weren't there long, but is Zanarkand like this too?"

"There were more buildings there, and they were all tall and crammed together."

Yuna's eyes widened as she looked up at the sky. "They must be so tall! Didn't you get dizzy?"

Charlie laughed. "No, but I'm glad that Greenwood wasn't like that. I don't think I could stand living in a place where all the buildings loom over my head like a curse."

Yuna grinned and said, "Let's go find Sir Auron."

…

A little while later, Charlene, Yuna, and Kimahri found the local café and quickly looked around. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Auron anywhere. "He's not here…" the young woman sighed in disappointment.

Suddenly, a pair of Ronso males strolled into the bar and Charlie felt her jaw drop. She had thought Kimahri was big, but both of the strange Ronso stood a full head taller than him, with gold and black manes and unbroken horns that looked dangerously sharp. The two of them spotted Kimahri and immediately harassed him. "Why not talk, Kimahri?" growled the one with the black mane. "Not see Yenke for ten years! Say something! Kimahri forget Yenke? Forget Biran?"

"Leave Kimahri, Yenke," said the Ronso with the gold mane. "Kimahri is small Ronso. Kimahri so small can't see Yenke and Biran's faces."

"Kimahri forget Ronso friends?" Yenke growled. "We taught you much at time of horn-molt! Biran taught Kimahri to be strong Ronso!"

"Maybe taught too much," Biran jeered, shoving Kimahri.

"Take 'em out, Kimahri!" Charlie yelled, angry with the bullies.

Yenke laughed uproariously, but quickly hit the floor after the smaller Ronso guardian pegged him in the jaw with a massive uppercut, much to the surprise and dismay of the rest of the people in the café. The barkeep fixed the group with a baleful stare and shouted, "Hey, take it outside! The tournament's starting, you hear?"

Charlene turned around to stare at the odd-looking screen on the far wall. On it was Maester Mika and Seymour, and the old man was making a grand speech about the tournament. Then, the scenery changed, and the Aurochs and the Psyches started the first round of the tournament with a rush for control of the ball. "Hey, the guys are really looking good out there, aren't they, Yuna?" When there was no response, the young woman looked around and finally realized that the summoner was missing, and Kimahri was still staring down Biran. "Oh shit!" "Kimahri! Yuna's gone!"

The Ronso whipped around, and his much larger adversary punched him in the jaw, but he ignored it and rushed out the door, quickly followed by Charlie. The two of them got outside just in time to run into Lulu. "Where in Spira have you two been?" she demanded, looking very much as if she would love to hit the two of them with a Fire spell. "Yuna's been kidnapped by the Al Bhed Psyches, and in exchange for her safe return, they want the Aurochs to lose."

"WHAT?"

"If they're only blitzball players, I doubt they'd do anything drastic, but let's not take any chances. Let's go get her."

"I'm going too!" Charlie announced, her defiant expression daring Lulu to say otherwise. "This won't be a problem at all…but why would they tell the Aurochs to throw the game? How good a team could they be?"

"Wakka said the same thing," the mage replied. "He'll take care of the game, but in the meantime, we should go get Yuna. The Al Bhed boat is in dock four."

…

Lulu, Kimahri, and Charlene managed to get to the docks with very little difficulty, but then several groups of small blue and yellow robots showed up and things quickly turned downhill. "Where the hell did these damn things come from?" Charlie yelled as she haphazardly whacked one of the offending machines with her sword.

"They're ancient machina salvaged by the Al Bhed," Lulu explained while blasting another drone with a Thunder spell. "We must have been expected."

Finally, their battle ended, and the three of them looked up at another crystal screen in time to see Wakka barely withstand an attack by three members of the opposing team. "Ooh!" Charlie winced in sympathy as the announcer made some choice comments. "Hey, he's still hanging in there, so that has to be good, right?"

"He won't last," Lulu coldly stated. "Wakka's always like that."

"Well, that's just rude!" The young woman kept her comments to herself, however, as she followed the two guardians to the dock. Just then, the Al Bhed vessel pulled away, and the three of them rushed after it, but it was obvious that they would have to jump in order to reach it. "What the hell am I supposed to do? I can't jump like that!"

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang in Charlie's head and said, ::Here, let me help you.::

"Hey, it's you!" the young woman replied, recognizing the voice of the little boy in purple. "Where the hell are you at, and why are you talking inside my head?"

::There's no time to explain that now! Just listen to me and jump::

"Whatever, little man. I just hope this works." Charlene ran as fast as she could to the far end of the dock, and put all her strength into a leap that, miraculously, carried her onto the swiftly departing vessel. She landed on the deck with a thump and whooped, "Woohoo, I made it!"

Lulu and Kimahri both turned to fix her with surprisingly identical death glares, and Charlie chuckled nervously and said, "I thought I was about to end up in the harbor! Can I help it if I'm happy to not go swimming just yet?"

Before the mage could answer, however, the deck opened up and a huge robot emerged. It was squat, with many gangly little legs and a pair of twin dynamos above its round, humanoid head. With much clanking and whirring of gears, the robot stepped toward the group and fired a high-velocity blitzball in a clear warning shot. "That…could be a problem," Charlie said, quickly drawing her sword.

The robot took another step forward, but quickly retreated when Kimahri and Charlene lashed out at it in a double attack. When they backed away, the big machina fired another ball at its attackers, which exploded on impact and released a thick cloud of oily black smoke. "It can respond with various attacks depending on the type of assault it faces, so be careful!" Lulu cautioned as she launched another bolt in the machine's direction.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Suddenly, the smoke thinned out, and the young woman spotted the control panel for the nearby crane. She quickly ran toward it, barely evading another blitzball volley, thinking, "Maybe we can use this to rip that stupid blitzball launcher off its back!"

When she punched the keys, however, nothing happened, and she realized that the crane had no power. "Power…hey, wait a minute!" Charlie quickly turned to Lulu, who had just tossed a Potion to Kimahri, and shouted, "Lulu, this crane needs some juice! You think you could give it a hand?"

The black mage nodded, her garnet eyes flaring brightly, and she raised her hands to the sky. In response to her soundless call, a great volley of thunderbolts fell from the heavens, striking the crane and the rampaging machina repeatedly. Finally, the deadly rain ended, and the crane came to shuddering, sparking life, waiting for its next command. Charlene quickly punched several keys, and slowly, the huge arm rose up, swung over the robot, and dropped its claw on the target. Then, the claw closed around the machine's dynamo and quickly hauled it into the air. "Go…go…GO!" the young woman yelled as the robot was lifted higher.

Suddenly, the sound of tearing metal forced the three rescuers to cover their ears as the dynamo snapped off and the machina dropped to the deck, where it promptly shorted out and caught fire. Fortunately, it didn't explode, and as the crane dropped the now-useless dynamo into the sea, the ship stopped, the hatch opened and an unconscious Al Bhed man fell out. Behind was Yuna, and she was completely unharmed. "I hope you hurt them," Lulu said, rushing forward to embrace the summoner.

"Just a little," Yuna modestly replied. Then she noticed Charlie looking around the ship and asked, "What is it?"

Some Al Bhed saved me when I first got here, and they took care of me in exchange for some help with an excavation of theirs. I was sort of hoping that this was their ship, but it's not." The young woman sighed, "I wonder if they're all gone."

"What happened?"

"Sin came up near us, and I fell overboard, so I don't know what happened to their ship."

Suddenly, Yuna's expression turned apprehensive. "Um…was there anyone called Cid on that ship?"

Charlie shrugged. "I don't know. They all spoke that weird language of theirs, so I couldn't understand a word they said."

"I see…"

"Wait, who's Cid?"

"He's my uncle, but I've never actually met him."

"So you're an Al Bhed, too, then?"

"On my mother's side, yes, and Cid is my mother's brother. He became distant after my mother married, but she told me to seek him out if I ever needed help."

"Oh, so you're worried about him. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything more."

"Don't tell Wakka about Yuna's lineage," Lulu suddenly commanded. "The thing about Wakka…he's never had much love for the Al Bhed."

"Oh God, he's a racist? Of all the stupid…"

Just then, Yuna let out a startled cry and said, "The game!"

"Oh!" Lulu quickly turned around and launched a ball of bright fire into the sky, where it exploded like a signal flare.

…

A few minutes later, the four of them made it back to the dock, where they caught the last bit of the Aurochs' game, which they won 3-2. "Woohoo, we won!" cheered Charlie.

"We did it! We're in the finals!" Yuna added, practically dancing with joy.

"Not the most…graceful win," Lulu sighed, when she saw Wakka collapse in the blitz pool. "If it was Chappu, he'd still be standing."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Charlene snapped. "He won, didn't he?"

"Excuse me?" the mage demanded dangerously.

"I know that no one could ever take Chappu's place," the young woman said, irritated with the rude comparison. "You were the one who told Wakka that, remember? Look, he may be 'lacking in the imagination department', but I know he'd never try to take Chappu's…"

"You don't want to finish that sentence," she flatly replied before storming off.

"Whatever." Charlie fell into step behind a worried Yuna and impassive Kimahri. "That woman really needs to get a clue! Wakka likes her, no matter how much he tries to hide it, and he knows better than to try to compete with a dead man, but constantly comparing him to his brother is really uncalled for!" She sadly shook her head and sighed. "Hell, it's not my problem though, so I guess I just need to keep my two cents to myself."