“Oww.” Buffy anounced, pushing herself to her feet. She was standing knee deep in freezing water in what appeared to be ancient ruins. She washed the blood off her sword, sheathing it and beginning to look around. She could hear a singing, the same as the song she had heard back in Guadosalam. She walked through a pile of rubble, finding herself face to face with Rikku.
“Oh, do you think Yunie’ll be okay.” Rikku asked.
Buffy looked in the direction Rikku was looking, Yuna lay on a piece of timber, the remnants of some old building. Her usually ivory white skin was bluish in colour.
Buffy looked around, remembering that Wakka had all their spare clothes in his bag, she ran over to him, he was shaking his head and moaning, Buffy snatched the bag off him as Tidus approached.
“I have to help Yuna, can you deal with him?” Buffy said.
“Yuna’s hurt?” Tidus’ eyes were full of concern.
“She’ll be fine just.. Wakka.” She turned and ran back to where Yuna lay.
She pulled Aurons long, black coat from the bag, laying it over Yuna as she lay on the platform.
“Come on.” Buffy said. The blue tinge slowly faded away and Yuna’s eyes fluttered open.
“Yuna!” Tidus called, running over.
Buffy looked at the summoner as she sat up, pulling Auron’s coat over what she was wearing. Auron came walking over, Buffy realised that the black coat was identical to the one he wore during the day with long, open sleeves and a piece of material around the middle to hold it on.
Buffy listened to the singing in the background, it was repetitive and slow. Lulu spoke.
“We are under the ice, aren’t we, that’s the base of the temple over there.”
Buffy looked in the direction Lulu pointed, the base of the temple was there and the singing seemed to be coming from it.
“What’s that singing?” Buffy asked.
“That is the hymn of the Fayth. It is Yevons gift to us, the Fayth sings and it lifts the hearts of the faithful.”
As Buffy listened the singing stopped, no-one else seemed to have noticed, the ground suddenly shook and Rikku called out.
“The singing, it stopped.”
“What’s that!” Wakka yelled as the ground shook harder.
“Sin!” Tidus yelled.
“Watch out, the toxin!” Lulu said warningly.
Huh? Buffy thought, Toxin? The ground gave another heave and Buffy blacked out.
Buffy turned in her sleep, a faint buzzing noise could be heard in the background, she rolled over and reached for her pillow, it wasn’t there. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked around, she appeared to be in the desert, though how she got there she didn’t know. She was asleep at the base of some sand dunes, she stood up, rubbing her eyes.
Off in the distance she could hear a faint buzzing, almost like machina, she shook her head. Why would there be machina in the desert. She decided to look for the others, walking between the dunes she looked around, there didn’t appear to be any life or water either. She came around a corner to see Kimahri trying to walk up a sand dune, he kept slipping down and trying again. “Kimahri!” She called, running over to him.
“What’s wrong.”
“Kimahri lose Yuna.” He answered, dismally.
Buffy shook her head. “Don’t worry, we’ll find her.”
After walking around for ten minutes they located Lulu, Tidus, Wakka and Auron. Rikku and Yuna were nowhere to be seen. They continued walking between the sand dunes, seeing a pile of rubble in the distance. Kimahri sniffed. “Rikku this way.”
They walked over to the rubble and found Rikku, she was examining a blue monitor.
“Rikku!” Tidus called, she looked up, waving.
“I think I know where we are.” She explained as they approached.
“Where?” Buffy asked.
“Well..” Rikku stubbed the toe of her boot into the sand. “It’s kinda a secret and, well, I need you all to promise not to tell anyone.”
Buffy looked at Wakka’s face, a look flitted across it, one she had seen so many times before on Xander’s. Wakka was a lot like Xander, not that either of them were bad people, just very set in their ideas, often making them seem pigheaded. She knew, as she would have with Xander that he was going to argue the point to death.. She glanced at the sky, if they stood around much longer they were going to bake, and the longer they stood around the less chance they had of finding Yuna again.
“Wakka..” Buffy said, glaring at him.
Wakka took one look at Buffy’s face and his arguments slipped away, he held his hands out defensively. “I promise, ya.”
“Okay, we’re on an island owned by the Al Behd, our Home is here, it isn’t far and I can lead you all there.”
“We need to find Yuna.” Auron pointed out.
“Well, if the Al Behd found her, that’s where she’ll be.” Rikku said.
“Take us there.” Auron answered.
After walking for over half hour Rikku pointed to a sand dune. “Right over there.”
Rikku reached the top of the sand dune and stopped short, holding her head in her hands. “Aahhh!” She cried.
Buffy ran up the hill as Tidus yelled “What?”, stopping short at the sight before her, a giant city sprung out of the ground, the buildings at strange angles, resembling a tussock of grass but the strange architecture of the city wasn’t the problem, the giant bird creatures were flying around the city, fire sprung out of the walls and people were running everywhere, calling in a strange language.
Rikku raced down the slope, Buffy ran after her, as they reached the bottom they saw fiends running everywhere.
Rikku stared in shock, how could this be happening? She stared in fright as a fiend jumped out of nowhere, attacking her brother, Keyakku, she couldn’t get to him through the chaos. “Keyakku!” She yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth. “Keyakku!” She watched in horror as the fiend knocked him to the ground, ready to finish him off. At that moment a black clad leg swung through the air, connecting with the side of the fiends head. An Al Behd that Rikku had never met helped Keyakku to his feet. Rikku waved her hand at them, Keyakku waved back.
Rikku looked around, Buffy was battling fiends away from some children as they huddled in the corner, Rikku raced through the mess to where her brother was.
“Keyakku, what happened?” The Al Behd that had helped her brother frowned, Rikku stared at him as he seemed to sniff her.
“Hey..”
“The Guado.” Keyakku cut him off. “They attacked Home, everything is chaotic.”
“Hey, Rikku, can you believe the Guado?”
“Vydran!” Rikku gasped as her father, Cid came out of nowhere, looking furious.
“Everyone here has to get to the airship. Come on Keyakku, Spike, let’s go.”
Buffy stabbed with her sword one last time, the fiend dissolving into pyreflies, she pulled the frightened children to their feet, spinning as she felt the ‘danger’ tingle at the back of her neck, the area, however, was clear of fiends. She frowned, herding the children towards where Rikku was waving her over.
“Hey, where’re the others.”
“Right behind you Buffy.” Tidus called cheerfully, running up.
“We must decide on a course of action.” Auron said.
“The summoners sanctum.” Rikku said, drawing blank looks from everyone.
“The what?” Buffy asked, blinking.
“This way.” Rikku headed off at a jog, into the burning building. As Buffy ran through the place she looked around. The place was huge and carefully put together. They came out on a set of stairs and looked around, Wakka shook his head.
“This place done for?”
Rikku hung her head, tears welling in her eyes. “You’re right, you're right, Wakka we Al Behd weren’t always like this our island was destroyed by Sin we al Behd were scattered, spread to all corners of the earth my father united us, he brought all the Al Behd together again. He told us if we put our minds to it and work together we can make a new Home for ourselves. We worked hard, we had our Home again.”
Wakka shook his head. “Damn the Guado what are they thinking?”
Buffy ducked as an explosion sounded. “We’d better go.”
Rikku nodded. “This way.”
“Rikku.” Tidus called, stopping to catch his breath.
“No time, we have to get going.”
“what is the summoners sanctum?”
“The summoners sanctum is where we keep the summoners, we keep them safe there.”
“You kidnapped them!” Wakka said, more a statement than a question.
“I know it’s against the teachings and all that..” Rikku started.
“I get why you did it, but..”
“Well, I sure don’t get it, Wakka. They might get hurt on their pilgrimage so you kidnap them? I mean, if the summoners don’t do their job, then who will beat Sin?”
Buffy gasped to herself, the whole time, a curtain of sadness had been in the air, everywhere they went, they acted happy but.. The looks Yuna got, Buffy remembered when she found out she was going to die fighting the master, she knew what it felt like, she realised that Yuna wasn’t going to defeat Sin and eat cake. Puppies and bunnies weren’t in her future. Somehow, Yuna knew she was going to die.
“Tidus, shut up.” Buffy said.
Tidus turned to her. “Don’t you see, Buffy, we all want to protect Yuna, the Al Behd want to protect Summoners, I know but Guardians are there for that. If guardians do their job well, summoners will be safe!”
An explosion sounded behind them, filling the room with a bright flash of light and a smell like burning rubber.
“Right. Right!?”
Another explosion sounded as if emphasising Tidus’ desperate tone, Buffy shook her head, as he tried not to believe what his every instinct was screaming at him, and for some reason, in that moment, Buffy thought about Spike. She didn’t know why, it was completely crazy but recently when she had finished a fight with Riley she would sometimes go patrolling with Spike to calm her nerves. It was at these times that she saw in the vampire the qualities that she seemed to be missing in Riley. She had told herself that it was the stress, she had even reasoned that some part of Spike must be good and it was her minds way of searching, in futile, for his good properties. But the look on Tidus’ face now was one she had seen, flickering across the blonde vampires features recently, a look she hadn’t been able to place until now. It was sorrow, mixed with something that made the slayer sick, and yet strangely comforted, love. In some crazy way she realised that something had changed in Spike, something good- granted unendingly disturbing and never EVER going to happen- but the fact that Spike could feel it, that it etched it’s way across his face the way it was on Tidus now, it told Buffy that he was something more than the beast she knew him for. Her mind snapped back to the present, to the look of sorrow on Lulus face, the worry she had seen so often on Wakkas, the gut wrenching pain she saw in Tidus’ deep, blue eyes and the tears Rikku tried to blink back.
Kimahri stepped forward, long, determined steps showing his emotion where his lion-like face seemed blank. “It’s quiet, Kimahri goes now.”
Buffy nodded. “Yeah, we should find Yuna, maybe.. maybe if we can find her we can help her.. maybe.” The look on Lulu’s face told Buffy that this wasn’t likely but with a purpose matching that of the Ronso Buffy turned and headed down the stairs, the purple scarf blowing in the hot breeze.
“Yuna, please be here!” Rikku called as they walked into the huge, room.
“Hello again.” A woman said, walking over to them. Buffy frowned. She’d seen some strange clothes on Spira, some she didn’t mind, some she hated, but these.. up until now she hadn’t seen anything truly skanky.
“Dona.” Tidus said in the same tone of voice one would say ‘plague.’
“Wait there until we have performed the sending.” She said, walking away.
The room was littered with the bodies of dead Al Behd “They died protecting us, its not much, the least we can do is give them a proper sending.” A young man said as he walked over.
Buffy frowned. “They’re both summoners?”
Tidus nodded as a little kid came running over.
“What’s sacrificed? the Al Behd said summoners were being sacrificed, that they shouldn’t have to do the pilgrimage.”
Tidus shook his head, Buffy wondered why, surely by now he knew.. “Why couldn’t the Al Behd trust the guardians to protect the summoners, the Al Behd had no right stopping the pilgrimage.”
“The pilgrimages have to stop!” Rikku called, desperation in her voice. “If they don’t and they get to Zanarkand they might defeat Sin, Yunie could but then she’d.. Yunie’ll die you know, you know don’t you?”
Tidus shook his head, he didn’t want to know, he couldn’t know..
“Summoners journey to get the final Aeon, Yuna told you didn’t she? With the final aeon she could defeat sin, but then.. but then.. It will kill Yunie too. Even if it kills Sin it’ll kill her too.”
Tidus’ eyes widened with shock, fiends he could have faced, for Yuna he would find a way around anything, but the final Aeon, the one thing that could defeat Sin. He shook his head, they really were sending Yuna to die. He remembered on the way to Macalania temple, he had been riding with Rikku and she’d said that Yuna was sacrificing herself. He didn’t understand at the time, he had thought- no, he had known -that as long as he and the others were protecting her nothing could happen.
“Was I the only one that didn’t know?” He looked at them all reproachfully, turning to grab Rikku by the shoulders. “Tell me why, why were you hiding it?”
Buffy grabbed him, pulling him away from the other girl before he broke her, he tried to push out of Buffy’s grip, as she held his arm behind his back, but she was too strong. A sob escaped his throat.
“Why didn’t I know?” He almost whispered.
“We weren’t hiding it..” Wakka began.
“It was just.. too hard to say.” Lulu finished.
“Lulu! How could you, how could you isn’t she like a sister to you? I thought you were family! Why didn’t you do something, Wakka!?”
“Don’t you think we tried to stop her she follows.. her heart” Lulu’s red eyes filled with emotion, sorrow and pride made a strange combination, playing across her face.
“Yuna she knew what she was doing when she chose to become a summoner, to face Sin, ya, Yuna knew.”
“But Wakka that’s just totally wrong!” Rikku called. “Summoners shouldn’t have to sacrifice themselves just so the rest of Spira can be happy, right?” She turned to Buffy. Buffy frowned, thinking of what she would do to protect the people she loved.
“Rikku, I.. I fight evil every day, okay? And I.. I would do anything if it meant that the people I loved, my friends, my family, were safe. I would die for them. I have died for them once.”
Isaaru, the male summoner nodded in agreement. “But that is our choice. We all live in fear of sin, you know that a world without Sin that is the dream of all yevon’s children and we will use that power even if it means our lives.” As he spoke Aeons filled the room, coming to rest on the ash covered floor.
Tidus groaned, turning to Valefor, the giant bird that had helped Buffy defeat Anima. “And I’ve been telling Yuna ‘lets go to Zanarkand, let’s defeat Sin, I told her all the things.. we could, we could and the whole time, she’d just smile.” He stopped beating his wings on the muscle bound chest of the Aeon, sinking to his knees on the ground. In a gesture so heartbreaking that Buffy’s breath caught in her throat, Valefor placed his large wings around the distraught boy, rubbing his softly feathered cheek on him and purring gently.
Tidus rose to his feet. “I can’t let her die, I’ll find her!”
Valefor looked pleased with himself as Tidus found his feet again, flapping into the air he disappeared, the other Aeons all disappeared in much the same way and the two summoners followed the group as Rikku led them out of the room and across a huge bridge, following the direction the children had gone in.
They stopped outside of what appeared to be some sort of spaceship, Rikku looked around as though she were saying goodbye, then they ran through the door.
Cid stood at the control sphere as they ran into the ship. “Hu desa! Ku ku ku!”
Buffy blinked, not understanding a word he said.
“Draa sehidac mawd” The guy from Macalania with the big tattoo called.
Cid called to the Al Behd. “Rinno rinno, oui ryja uha sehida”
“Where’s Yuna?” Tidus yelled at him, Buffy blinked in surprise, the guy was fairly big, built much more strongly than Tidus.
“Ajanouha un puynt?” Cid called in the strange language.
“Ajanouha ymeja.” Someone else called back.
“I said where is she! Answer me, answer me, damn you!” Tidus yelled.
“What’ll you do when you find her eh?” Cid said, suddenly speaking English.
“I.. I didn’t know anything about what a summoner is supposed to do, and I told her all those things without even knowing. I’ve gotta tell her.. I’ve got to tell her I’m sorry!”
“That’s it, you’re gonna tell her you’re sorry?” Cid’s voice was heavy with sarcasm and bitterness. “And then you just drag her to Zanarkand and make her fight Sin? You’re all the same, let the summoner die so we can live in peace!”
Buffy stared as Cid hurled Tidus over his shoulder.
“I’m not gonna let Yuna die!” Tidus jumped to his feet, dusting himself off.
“Hah, words, show me action.”
Buffy realised with a start that Cid was testing Tidus.
“I’m telling you she wont die!” Tidus yelled at the bald man.
“Boy, don’t forget those words, cos if you do… I’m, gonna make you regret it.”
“I won’t.” Tidus said.
“Uhla fa kad dra ahkeha nabund fa lyh ku.”
One of the Al Behd said.
“Huh?’ Buffy asked Rikku, tired of not understanding what was being said.
“Once we get the engine report we can go.” The blonde girl answered.
“Ymm naydo du ku.” A voice stated, coming out of a hatch, Buffy turned to see the Al Behd who had spoke as he stood up and turned to look at the group waiting on the bridge.
They both seemed to freeze in time. Spike looked- and Buffy laughed at the possibility- but he looked as though he would cry. She stared at him, her face completely white.
“Spike.”
“Buffy?” They both spoke at the same time.
The thoughts rolled round and round in Spike’s head, she was here, he had found her, she was here and alive and Buffy. He lost everything in that moment, nothing was important and he collapsed to his knees, heedless of anything but the beautiful, fierce goddess, the golden warrior who’s light outshone the sun of any world.