“Lady Summoner, you’re clothes are ready.” The Guado said as they entered the inn, she handed them neatly folded piles of clothes which Wakka stashed in a surprisingly small bag and slung it over his back.
“Thankyou for your kindness.” Yuna bowed.
“It was a small thing, I wish you luck on your journey.” The Guado bowed low.
“Thankyou.” Yuna left.
They headed back towards the manor when they ran into a green clad girl.
“Shelinda?” Yuna said, bowing.
“Lady Yuna.” The girl bowed back. “Where are you going?”
“We are going to speak with Lord Seymour.” Yuna answered.
“Oh.” Shelinda looked concerned. “But Maester Seymour just left to go to Macalania Temple.”
“Oh!” Yuna held her hand in front of her mouth. “Are you sure?”
“Why, yes. Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no. We shall have to go to Macalania Temple.”
“He sure left in a hurry.” Wakka observed.
“Perhaps he did not expect Yuna’s answer so soon.” Lulu said.
“Well.” Shelinda answered. “I will be going to Macalania myself, shortly.”
Lulu pointed. “It is this way.” She led them through a tunnel and they came out on a huge, wide plain. Buffy stared, green eyes wide with wonder and fear. She had never seen anything so scary, never even conceived it as possible- well, finding out about what her mother and Giles did under the influence of those chocolates, that kinda came close. Thunder sounded and Lightning arced down towards the black, rocky, plain, rain sliced through the air at random intervals and a permanent smell of ozone filled the air. As lightning arced out of the sky Rikku squealed, falling to her knees.
“Uh, I think I left something back in Guadosalam.”
“Nice knowing you.” Auron answered.
“Alright, fine, I’ll go.” A peal of thunder shot through the air and she squealed again.
“Let’s go.” Auron said.
The journey across the thunder plains was nerve wracking, the entire plain was dotted with lightning rod towers, designed to draw the lightning towards them, they had to stay close to the towers without getting close enough to be affected by the lightning that hit the towers. Every time an arc of lightning came out of the blackened sky Rikku would scream which only made things worse. Finally, half way across the thunder plains Rikku stopped, a strange, haunted sounding laugh coming from her.
“Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.”
Everyone turned around, Rikku fell to her knees. “Eh heh heh eh eh heh.”
“Heh heh heh heh?” Tidus said. “Your freaking me out!”
Buffy knelt down, staring into Rikkus eyes and noticing, for the first time, the way a black spiral ran through them, from the outside to the centre. “Well.” Buffy said. “She’s either scared crazy or doing it for attention, my sister does it all the time.”
Thoughts of Dawn flooded her, worry coming back in truckloads, she knew Dawn was ‘safe’ but probably worried sick not knowing where Buffy was. She stood up and to her surprise Rikku crawled across the ground, latching onto Tidus’ leg.
“I wanna go home I hate lightning I hate thunder lets go rest over there, please?”
Buffy frowned. “Rikku, get up.”
The other girl made a whimpering noise.
Auron stepped forward. “This storm never stops better to cross quickly.”
Buffy, too, was anxious every time the lightning arced out of the sky, but as Auron said, the sooner they crossed it the sooner they were out.
“I know but.. just for a little while?”
Auron turned and left, the others following him. Buffy put a comforting arm around the girls shoulder. “Come on Da.. Rikku, the sooner we get out of here the sooner you never have to worry about lightning again.
“Oooh.”
They approached the building, a lightning rod tower with an inn at the base, Rikku broke free of Buffy, standing in the doorway.
“Pretty please, just a few minutes?”
“Ignore her.” Auron said, continuing to walk.
“I’m scared of lightning let’s rest please pretty please?”
“I swear, she acts just like my sister.”
“How old is your sister?” Lulu asked.
“Fourteen, my Mom’s away for the week so I’m supposed to be watching her, somehow I ended up here.”
“I’m too young to die.” Rikku wailed as they continued to walk.
“It is evident that you are a warrior.” Auron observed. “Where do you come from?”
“It’s not exactly where I come from, it’s who I am, I am the Slayer, the ‘chosen one’ a bit like Yuna. I have to save the world and protect the innocent, it’s a whole big thing. But mostly I just kill demons, vampires, zombies.”
The faces of those around were blank. “You know- dead stuff.” She frowned, looking at Auron. “I mean, not all dead things, some dead people are perfectly nice. I had a boyfriend once, a vampire, well, he used to be nice and now- there’s Spike. Well, he’s mostly nice, a bit annoying but perfectly harmless…”
Her talking was interrupted as Rikku called out in one last attempt.
“You’re mean, cruel your moms would be ashamed of you…Are you having fun doing this to me.”
Auron sighed. “Fine, we rest she’s worse than the storm.” Buffy raised her eyebrows, Auron giving in to a fifteen year old girl? She grinned.
An hour later they escorted an apprehensive Rikku back outside and continued on. In next to no time they reached the edge of the thunder plains, as it gave way to a huge, dense forest, thick with giant trees- and crystals.
Buffy looked in wonder as they entered the forest, Rikku breathed a sigh of relief. The forest was comprised of long paths which gave way to thick branches and roots, as wide as a road which they often had to walk up, their path snaked through the trees, up and down, often they were attacked by fiends breathing frosty air or summoning small blizzards. These were soon dealt with and they continued on their way. Soon they reached the edge of the forest, icy air blew out at them, Buffy was glad for her jacket and watched in horror as Rikku walked out across the snow in her shorts.
“Rikku.” Buffy ran up to her as she began to shiver.
“Here, wear this.” She fished her white coat out of Wakka’s bag, putting it on Rikku, it covered her arms and provided some shelter around her legs.
Yuna stood there, teeth chattering, as she cast a spell over each person. The spell, she told them, was actually designed to prevent them from being hurt by fire magic, but it created a small whirlwind of flame around each of them which warmed them slightly.
“This way.” Auron pointed.
Yuna ran on ahead, looking at the icy landscape, she stepped onto a wide sheet of ice, perfect- Buffy thought- for skating on, as she was thinking this Rikku gasped.
“Oh no!”
Buffy ran to the edge of the ice to see men in what looked like scuba gear, wearing goggles like the ones Rikku wore on her head. They were dressed mostly in yellow and either drove snowmobiles or ran along the ice carrying guns.
“I thought you said there were no guns in this world?” Buffy asked as they ran to surround Yuna.
“The Al Behd!” Wakka spat.
Someone stood on a ledge, high above, his chest bare but for a large blue tattoo. “Rikku.” He called out. “Tuhd ehdanvana un oui kad drec.”
Rikku shook her head. Buffy spun around, the Al Behd were surrounding her as it began to snow. Through the snow she could see that not all the Al Behd wore yellow, some were dressed in blue, some in green, red and even purple and one of them was completely dressed in black.
“Ouin bnaleuic magic yht Aeons yna icamacc.”
As he said this a huge machine, like a tank, drove over the snow, something zipped around through the air like a wasp.
Tidus turned to rikku. “Translation?”
“He's going to use an anti magic field on us.” Rikku answered, distressed.
The machine came rolling towards them. “Where do I aim?” Wakka called.
“Aim for the flying thing.” Rikku answered. “If you knock it down Yuna can summon.”
“Okay.” He hurled a large, blue and white ball at the wasp thing, the ball smacked into it, damaging a propeller and causing it to list slightly.
“I can get it.” Buffy said, confidently. She ran at the machine, using it to jump off, she leapt into the air and delivered her best knock out, slayer kick, to the device, shattering it and knocking off it’s propellor. She landed like a cat, the machine falling out of the sky with her.
“Yuna, summon.” She called.
Yuna nodded, holding her staff before her as a circle of light appeared underneath her. She flicked the staff sideways, pointing it into the air as lightning shot from it, as Buffy watched a mirror appeared in midair. She stared at it as it shattered, a horse diving through the glass and landing on the ground. Lightning sparkled off it’s fur and Buffy realised it had a huge horn on it’s head.
“A unicorn?” The creature shot towards the machine, digging its’ horn into it as the machine shot round after round of bullets at it, one lot imbedded deep into the unicorns side and blood began to drip onto the snow, disappearing with a sparkle as it hit the icy surface.
The unicorn suddenly neighed, rearing up and shooting a blast of lightning at the machine, disabling its’ wiring and leaving it a useless lump on the snow. Almost without thinking Buffy leaped on the machine, ripping off the hatch and pulling a terrified looking ‘Al Behd’ out and holding him up by the throat.
“It works like this.” She said calmly. “Either you leave Yuna, me and all my friends alone or I snap this guys neck.”
The bare chested one made hand signals and all the Al Behd ran off, where? Buffy had no idea, but as long as they were gone… Buffy dropped the one she was holding off the vehicle, he fell to the snow, scrambling to his feet and running off.
“Rikku E femm damm vydran!” The, now angry looking, tattooed man roared.
“E ys dra guardian uv yuna, oui caa, Yuna ec cyva! Fa femm kiynt ran, cra ec cyva!” Rikku answered, waving her hands.
“Oui tu drec ymuha cecdan.”
“I told him I was a guardian well, I guess I had to really.”
“How come u speak Al Behd?” Wakka asked. “Why?”
Buffy shook her head. “Where I come from the answer to this question would be ‘duh’.”
Rikku lowered her head. “Because I’m Al Behd and that was my brother.”
Wakka stared at everyone else. “You knew?”
Everyone nodded. Buffy put her hand up. “I didn’t ‘know’ I worked it out.”
“Why didn’t u tell me?”
“We knew you’d be upset.” Lulu answered.
Wakka groaned. “This is great, I cant believe I’ve been travelling with an Al Behd, a heathen.”
Rikku shook her head emphatically. “you’re wrong, we have nothing against Yevon.”
“God!” Buffy announced. “That’s what this is about, she’s a different race and religion to you? Can I say ‘get over it’ enough? I can’t believe I’m travelling with a racist prick!” Buffy folded her arms in front of her chest.
“But.. the Al Behd use the forbidden machina. You know what that means, Sin was born because people used machina.”
“I don’t know why your Sin was born, but we have ‘machina’ in our world and there’s no Sin. Do you know what most people use it for? In hospitals, to help sick people get better, we have cars to get us from one place to another, this walking business, really sucks. Of course, I can’t drive but that’s what friends are for.. Oh, and, entertainment, Seymour wouldn’t have been able to pull off that ‘it’ll make people happy’ crap if you had television, or computer games, even the vampires have computer games- Spike..” Buffy frowned, her mind going into overdrive.
“Hey, just leave it.” Spike said, “I’m about to beat the snot out of Seymour.”
“Uh huh.” Buffy sounded sceptical. “What, you can’t be violent in real life so you have to play video games?”
Buffy stared at Wakka, a look of horror on her face, she shook her head, top lip beginning to curl upwards. “No way, it’s impossible...”
She stared at the people around her. “I can’t believe it.”
Wakka looked incredibly sorry, he thought the look on Buffy’s face was attributed to his reaction to the Al Behd. “Hey, I’m sorry, you’re right, I was a big jerk. I just, I can’t stand the fact that the Al Behd defy Yevon like dat.”
Auron called out. “Rikku.”
The girl ran over to where he was playing with one of the snowmobiles. “Will this move?”
Yuna walked over to Buffy, looking concerned. “Are you, are you alright?”
Buffy bit her bottom lip. “Yeah, I.. I’m fine.”
“Kimahri think not.” The Ronso said, frowning at Buffy. “Slayer sad?”
“No, really, I’ll be fine.”
“Kimahri hopes.”
Wakka looked
upset. “W-we’re not using that are we? Wait- sir Auron isn’t Al Behd too is
he?”
Tidus waved his hands. “Come on Wakka, you just said you were sorry.”
“Okay, alright, I just hope Yevon will forgive us.”
“Let’s go!” Tidus said, pumping his fist in the air.