A/N: I thought I would make the story more interesting. How about a part where we talk about a celebrity. As the campers are heading home, why don't we check on Hope in Bodhum and the songstress. With special guest star: Yuna from Final Fantasy X/X-2
Nautilus. The City of Dreams. It's late at night and thousands of citizens have gathered around in front of the stage, waiting for the concert to start. The concert of the Songstress: Yuna Akimura.
The Songstress is having a concert tour during the summer. Why not? It is summer vacation, where millions of fans are off school and can stay up all night rocking at a celebrity concert. Tonight, it's Nautlius. In four days, it's going to be Bodhum.
The lights turns off, the crowd goes slight, then begins cheering as the music plays and the stage lights go on. The concert's about to begin.
Yuna raises out of center stage. At first, you could only see her as a dark shadow, then more stage lights come on and she becomes clear to see. The Songstress is dressed up in a blue top with white frills and a laced, black miniskirt. She wears brown knee-high boots and blue forearm adornments.
Yuna walks up to the front of the stage and begins singing "Real Emontions"
Everyone in the front row starts raising their arms and hands, as if they're trying to reach the Songstress. In the middle of that crowd, there's a man in a long trench coat and black fedora. He's not all exacted and cheery like the rest of the fans. Instead, he's just standing where, focusing on the Songstress.
There's a camera hidden in his fedora. The lens in barely noticeable. He's clearly taping this, or surveilling this.
Inside a lair, Yuna's concert is being played on screen. Wing, Wade, Barret, Piros and Rio are all watching the screen. The second-in-cheif, Hiroshi, points his rod at the Yuna on the screen.
"That's our target: Yuna Akimura. The Songstress." Hiroshi says.
"You really think so?" Wing asks.
"Trust me, this plan is going to work." Hiroshi says.
"I don't know." Piros crosses his arms, looking at the screen. "We've been hunting that girl for three years. Never came close to capturing her."
"She's gonna make us a lot of money. People will pay anything to own a Songstress." Wade says.
The sound of doors sliding open starts everything. They all look to see Cain, without his mask. He's looking down, worn and exhausted, he looks up, facing his comrades. "I have returned."
Everyone but Hiroshi are pretty surprised and speechless. "You're alive? But...but how?" Barret asks.
Cain growls, he hates to think about what happened the last time he encountered Lightning.
[Flashback]
Lightning falls hard on the ground, she just lays there, moaning in pain. Cain walks up to Lightning. He takes out his sword. Cain rolls Lightning onto her back, and sets his foot on her to hold her down. Cain holds the sword right above her heart, raises it.
"It ends here!" Cain yells as he dives his sword.
"No!" Hope slams against Cain pretty hard, apparently hard enough to interrupt his attack. Cain was knocked over the edge, and he falls down from the sky.
Cain just falls and falls. It's a long fall, so this isn't going to be a happy landing. Just then, two people who are free falling arrives beside Cain. Roger and Gale.
"Hey, buddy." Cain looks at one of the them. "It's pretty dangerous falling from the sky without a parachute."
"No kidding!" Cain yells. "Any of you guys got a spare?"
"Well, Roger has a spare." Gale says.
"I do. But I don't think you want it." Roger says.
"I do! I do want it!" Cain says panicking!
Roger shrugs his shoulders. "All right, pal. You asked you it." Roger hands Cain a large pack. "Here's the spare."
Roger and Gale pulls the cord, releasing their parachute. Cain quickly puts on the pack, and pulls the cord. Something's been released, but it wasn't the parachute. It was a tire. Ha! A spare tire. He walked right into that, he didn't say a spare parachute.
Cain looks up noticing the pack released the tire and not a parachute. "WHAT THE!"
Cain goes back to screaming. Gale and Roger looks down seeing Cain dropping hard in the sky. "Ain't I a stinker?" Roger asks.
Cain falls. He's falling all the way to Sunleth Waterscrape. He crashes into the lake. At least the impact wasn't solid life ending ground. After a brief moment, Cain's mask surfaces, then Cain surfaces, with an angry look and squirting water out of his mouth. Clearly, he's not happy.
[Flashback ends]
After the crash landing, Cain had to fight his way through the wildlife. Large slimy blobs, magical spooks, monstrous Behemoths, bloodthirsty Wyverns. And that was just the beginning. When he arrived at Jagd Woods, he had to fight his way through the monsters of that forest, which is even worse then all the monsters in Sunleth Waterscape combine.
"I don't want to talk about it." Cain says, walking right in. "All I can say, is that Claire Farron and Hope Estheim are going to pay for what they did to me...and that two sky divers are going on my list." Cain stands by his men and looks up at the screen, noticing Yuna. "The Songstress? What are we planning this time to capture her?"
"I've send Xever out onto the concert to keep an eye on the Songstress. He's gonna find any useful information on the girl." Hiroshi said. "Hopefully, it'll be a private location she'll be in."
"So what now?" Cain asks.
"The concert just started." Hiroshi says. "We just wait and lay low."
Day 9
Hope and Lightning are doing much better now. Lightning is perfectly healthy and Hope was able to return to his normal self. However, he's still on a strict food diet due to his teeth still aching and cause of the holes of where his wisdom teeth use to be.
It's early in the morning. Hope is sitting on his computer chair, all tired and exhausted. He has been up since two in the morning. He's trying desperately to get tickets to the Yuna Akimura concert in Bodhum. He just hope that it's worth it, cause he's clearly very tired, about to give out any minute.
Tickets go out on sell any moment, and status was posted hours ago. Clearly, no one really knows when it's coming out or what's the hold up.
Hope unleashes a loud yawn. His eyes are about to drop, but he focuses, trying hard to stay awake. "Must. Get..." Hope starts to lean forward. "Tick..ets."
The boy becomes very dazed from exhaustion and then his face crashes onto the desk. He starts snoring through the wooden desk. He's fallen asleep.
Serah walks down the hallway, making her way to Hopes room. She hums songfully, happy and cheerful. When she arrives at Hope's room, she knocks on the door. "Hope. Breakfast is ready." Serah realizes where Hope's at, at his computer with his face flat down on the desk. "Hope?" Serah walks up to Hope, until she's beside him. "Hope?"
Serah gets a good look and hearing on the kid. She can hear the kid snoring. She turns his head so she's facing her, noticing he's asleep. Serah puts her hands on Hope's shoulders, shaking him. "Hope. Wake up."
Hope becomes startled, instantly sits up and causing Serah and flinch back. "I didn't do it!" Hope shouts. Hope shakes his head, knocking the sleep out of his head, then rubs his eyes. He clearly sees where he's at, then suddenly remembers what he was doing. Hope turns to see Serah beside him. "Oh, hey Serah."
Serah gets a close look at Hope, noticing the tiresome look, the dark circles under his eyes, his eyes only half open and struggling to stay open. "You okay? You seem tired."
"Yeah. I'm fine." Hope rests his arms, returning his attention to the screen. "I'm just...trying to get tickets to the Yuna Akimura concert in Bodhum."
Serah looks at the screen, noticing the post. "Oh yeah. That's right. I heard she is coming to town."
Hope looks at Serah. "You going there?"
"Not really. I love her music and all, but I'm not a big fan." Serah looks at Hope, concerned. "You stayed up all night just to get tickets?"
Hope can tell from that tone in Serahs voice that she doesn't understand. "Yeah. Sorry. I've been trying to get into her concert ever since her first tour. But every time I tried to get tickets, they're always sold out before I even had the chance."
"So you really think staying up all night is the best solution?" Serah asks.
Hope gives Serah an irritated look. "The last three concerts tickets, I was there for the moment they were on sale, and they were sold out before I could even get one."
Serah is surprised to hear that. "Oh dear. I'm sorry about that."
"Yeah. Well, I'm hoping I'll get them this time." Hope says.
Serah takes over the computer mouse, she refreshens the page. "Well, you're not going to get them in a while. Look."
Hope pays attention to the screen. He's disappointed at what he's seeing: The tickets won't be on sale for the next couple of hours. "What?" Hope slams his arms on the desk. "You've gotta be kidding me."
"Sorry." Serah puts her hands on Hopes shoulders, she gently rubs them, trying to relax his muscles. "Why don't you take a break and come down for some breakfast."
Hope sighs tiresome. "Okay. I'll be down in a minute. Just...need to..." Hope slowly leans his head forward until it crashes onto the desk, and falls asleep again.
Serah just giggles, he's clearly tired. She decided to let the kid sleep. Serah walks up to Hopes bed, she grabs the cover and lays it over his shoulders and back. She then moves to Hopes side and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
"Sleep well, Hope." Serah makes her leave, then closes the door behind her.
By afternoon, Snow, Fang and Vanille returns from their camping trip. Snow was very pleased and excited to be home. Spending one day in the wilderness made him missed the sunny beaches and the warm air so much. Fang and Vanille goes back to their home and Snow visits Serah and Lightning's house.
Hope is finally awake, he was able to get a good day sleep. Now he's sitting on the table, eating his breakfast, which Lightning had to warm up in the microwave. Of course since it's lunchtime now, it's a brunch to him.
"Did you really have to stay up all night?" Lightning asks.
"I had to." Hope says. "I can't afford to miss this concert. I've already suffered four years of not being able to go, all because I couldn't get any tickets!"
Lightning just sighs and rolls her eyes. She thinks he's overreacting, all though she does understand his irritation.
Snow walks right into the dinning room. "Hey sis, Hope. Glad to see you two are feeling better."
"Hey Snow." Hope says with a smile.
"I'm not your sister!" Lightning shots at him.
"Okay, okay." Snow sits on the table, next to Hope and across from Lightning. "Hey, sport. Have you heard? Yuna Akimura is coming to town."
Now the last thing Hope wants to hear or think about is the Songstress concert. "Don't remind me. I'm already upset." Hope says.
"What's the problem?" Snow asks.
"He's trying to get tickets to the concert, but he can't cause they're still not on sell." Lightning says.
"Yeah. I've been trying to go to her concerts for the past four years, but I couldn't cause every single one of them are always sold out!" Hope says, with an upset tone.
"Well, that's tough. Yuna is very famous. I heard even posers become popular just pretending to be her." Snow says.
Lightning and Hope seemed both confused and disturbed hearing that. How can people be popular when they're known as posers? Guess that's just how famous the Songstress is. Snow pats a hand on Hope's shoulder. "Well. Good luck, kid."
Snow stands and makes his leave. Snow moves to the living room. "Hey Serah."
Serah looks up. "Snow." Serah stands up and hugs her boyfriend. "How was camping?"
Snow pulls himself away from Serah. "Terrible. I just wanna forget the whole thing."
Serah seems concern for Snow. "What happened?"
"Trust me, you do not want to know." Snow says.
Snow really believes that Serah shouldn't know what happened. For another reason, he doesn't want her to know cause of what he's been through with the Toxic Blossom. That would pretty much drop his Hero reputation. Even so, Serah would've still loved him.
"I'm going back to my room." Hope gets off of his chair, leaving the table.
"Let me guess: Concert tickets?" Lightning asks.
"I will get them!" Hope says.
Lightning watches Hope leaves, until the kid is out of sight from walking up the stairs. "Good luck with that." She says under her breath, taking a sip of her coffee.
Nighttime comes once again. Hope is still on the hunt for trying to get his concert tickets. They still haven't gone on sale just yet. The poor kid is suffering, even Lightning's concern.
Another night in Nautilus, Yuna just finished her second concert in the City of Dreams. Next concert is in Bodhum in three days. Now the young Songstress goes into her dressing room, getting some well deserved rest from all that singing and dancing on stage. Yuna sits in front of her mirror, fixing up her hair a little.
Just then, a security guard walks in with that man, Xever. His fedora no longer has the hidden camera.
"Ms. Yuna. This man says he needs to see you." The guard says.
Yuna looks to see the man. To her, he seems a bit suspiciously dark with the expression, hat and coat. "Uh...sure." Yuna stands up and approaches Xever.
"Yuna Akimura." Xever removes his hat, holds it over his chest and leans forward down greetfully. "Xever Bulgaria. Pleasure to meet you."
His accent sounds strange. (Dutch accent) which makes Yuna a bit more suspicious. Nothing bad really, just curious. "Uh...sure. What can I do for you?"
Xever stands up straight, putting his hat back on his head. "I ask for big favor. My Daughter, Veronica. She big fan. She vish to come to concert. But alas." Xever remove his hat, holding it in front of his chest, rolling his eyeballs up. "She sick." Xever rolls his eyes directly at Yuna. "Sahagin Pox."
Yuna seems a bit shocked to hear that. "Oh...I'm so sorry. Is she okay?"
"Da." Xever puts his hat back on. "She seven. She be small, but is strong. Anyvay. Concert ticket alvay paid, hate to vaste it. But I vish I could make daughter happy. Feel better."
"Where are you going with this?" Yuna asks, suspiciously.
Xever can tell she's wondering if it's something like she should come visit Veronica. "Don't vorry. Nothing serious." Hearing that calms Yuna down. Xever takes out a rolled up poster and unrolls it, revealing a Yuna Akimura the Songstress poster, much like the one Hope has in his room. "I only ask for autograph. Signed poster of Songstress. You can do that, da?"
"Oh...sure thing." Yuna takes the poster to her table, starts signing it. While she is, Xever slowly, quietly moves aside, to one of Yuna's luggage. He sticks a very small camera, barely visible, on it, then returns to his pervious position. By then, Yuna is done with the poster and she hands it to Xever. "Here you go."
Xever looks at the poster, noticing the autograph that says 'Rock on. With love Yuna Akimura.' with a purple lip-stein next to it. "I hope she feels better." Yuna says.
"Da. I do too." Xever rolls up the poster then puts it away. "Vone other thing." Xever takes out a silver chain necklace with a green crystal on it. "This necklace, is gift she bought vith her money. She vant to give you."
Yuna smiles. "It's pretty." Yuna takes the necklace and puts it on. "Tell her I said 'thanks'."
Xever nods then smiles, then he grabs Yunas hand and shakes it. "Pleasure doing business vith you." Xever makes his leave.
Xever walks down the hallway and out of the station. Xever walks around Nautilus, then his phone rings. Xever takes it out and answers it. "Da?"
"Has the package been delivered?" Cain asks.
"Da. Songstress took bait." Xever says.
"Excellent. Everything's going according to plan." Cain says. Cain hangs up. He goes to the computer and activates the tracking the device and the camera. On the screen, shows Yuna sitting on her chair, humming peacefully while doing her hair.
"Is this gonna work?" Wing asks.
"Trust me, this plan won't fail." Cain says. "The necklace Xever gave her has a tracking device inside of it, and the camera will show us everything. Once she's alone, we'll make our move." Cain takes out the phone and calls Xever again.
"Da?" Xever asks on the line.
"She'll be in Bodhum soon. I need you to go there." Cain says.
"And I capture Songstress?" Xever asks.
"Yes, but not until she's alone." Cain says. "When that's done...I need you to pick up the 'special target'."
"Da. I'm on it." Xever answers.