Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Ninety-ninth Sacrifice ❯ IX ( Chapter 9 )

IX

990 S.A.

 

“Oh, Braska!” called Sara, running over to her collapsed husband. She couldn't lift his limp body for all of her efforts. “Wow, you're as limp as though you've just come out of Via Purifico!”

Auron came over and threw Braska's arm over his shoulder. Heaving to his feet, most of Braska's weight was held up by Auron. “C'mon, let's get home; Yuna will be waiting to see her parents.”

“Yes,” said Sara, lifting Braska's other arm by her shoulder. “Let's go home.”

 

Upon emerging from the temple of Yevon Bevelle they came out to a crowd of cheering people. Braska was not the only summoner to come from the temple here, but whenever a summoner emerged there were always people there to greet them. Amongst the onlookers was Braska and Sara's daughter, Yuna. She was being held back from running out by one of the nuns who took care of her. When Yuna saw her father, she slipped from the nun's grasp and ran to Braska. Without saying anything, she hugged his waist.

“Okay, Miss Yuna,” said Auron, politely as usual. “Let go of your father. He's very tired and needs to get home.”

Yuna nodded and parted from her father. She then grabbed her mother's hand and sent with them down the street to where they lived. Their house was on temple grounds because Braska had been a student there for the last five years. Around when Cid had fully established Home as a refuge for the Al Bhed on Bikanel, and Yuna's younger cousin Rikku was born, Braska and Sara moved to Bevelle.

Auron came with them but lived in the barracks. He had been admitted as a warrior monk when he moved to Bevelle with Braska and his family, but had since fallen from grace. Although Auron was a polite and handsome young man, he did not accept the hand of a Yevon priests' daughter, putting him out of favor with the maesters. He should have been promoted recently, but the promotion was given to his friend in the monk hood, Kinoc, whom was not of the same skill level as Auron.

Soon they were at their house, and Braska fell directly asleep on the couch near the entrance. Hours later Sara woke him up because she didn't want him spending his last night at home sleeping on the couch. Auron and Yuna's nanny stayed over too to get ready for Braska's departure the next day.

 

***

 

10 B.S.

 

“Why can't you get it right boy?” yelled an older man. He caught a blitzball that had gone awry. “So what, are you going to cry now?”

The little boy wiped his face and stood defiantly in front of his father. “It's called the Jecht shot mark three, not the Tidus shot mark three!”

“If you're ever going to be a great blitz ball player like your dear old dad, then you're going to learn this move!”

“No!” Tidus yelled, and ran off.

Jecht sighed and called after him, “Don't you get lost now! Your Ma will kill me if you do!”

The little boy in the distance stopped, but did not turn around just yet. Begrudgingly admitting that he had no where to go, Tidus turned around and walked back to Jecht. Taking the blitzball from his father's hands, he tried the move again. He was yet again unsuccessful, but he was trying nonetheless.

“See, practice makes perfect, so keep practicing and you might be as good as me one day.” Laughing, Jecht left Tidus practicing to go for a walk.

Jecht was a star blitzball player who played professionally with his home city of Zanarkand. Their main rivals were the team from Bevelle, the only other city their size on the continent of Spira. There were other cities they played with from other continents, but they were only usually during World Cup games.

For the last few years Bevelle and Zanarkand were having disputes over trade and labor laws. They constantly argued over who had rightful claim to the great plains that stretched between the two city states. The area was valued for both agricultural and mining privileges. Jecht feared that the disputes were only going to get worse as he noted Zanarkand amassing her armies.

Walking along a bridge in the cool night air, Jecht stopped to look over the side. He could still see the silver moonlight shine off of the scales of a fish beneath the water, even though it was night time. As he was watching the fish, he did not notice a stray blitzball coming hard at his head. The blitzball effectively knocked him out and propelled him forward into the water.

Tidus was left outside for hours still practicing his father's move until his mother called him inside. He never thought that this would be that last time he would see his father.

 

***

 

Upon awaking the next day after a fitful sleep, Braska looked out the window. The clouds were grey and moving quickly, a bad omen. On his bed sat a new robe, freshly sewn. At the foot of his bed stood Sara, his wife, who had so loving sewed the robe.

Getting out of bed, Braska picked up the robe and held it in front of himself. “Wow, Sara,” he exclaimed, looking the new robe all over, “This is really special.”

“Well,” she said, hugging him around the middle. “A High Summoner needs to be presentable.” She left the room, fully clothed, to let him dress.

Once he slipped the robe over his head, he noticed a head dress on the dresser on the other side of the room. The head dress was a little odd, but he put it on anyway. Catching himself in the mirror, he almost burst out laughing. Then he remembered that the maesters looked no odder than he.

Stepping down the stairs, he was careful not to trip on the hem of his robe. When he caught Auron's inquisitive eye, Braska said, “I know, I look like a fish.”

“No you don't Daddy,” said Yuna, running up to her father.

“Thank you dear.” Bending down so that he could look her in the eye, Braska said, “Now you be a good girl for mommy. Daddy … daddy's going away for a while.”

“Um, Braska,” said Auron, looking at the top of the stairs.

“What is it Auron?” Braska asked, standing up. He didn't nee to be answered when he saw Sara standing at the top of the stairs. In one hand was a rifle, the other a short sword. “Sara, what are you doing?”

“There's no way in the farplane that you two are doing this alone!” she said defiantly, tromping down the stairs. “If Auron can be your guardian, then so can I!”

“Bur, Sara, who's going to take care of Yuna?”

“The temple,” answered Sara, “I already asked her to do it.”

Braska grumbled and looked at their daughter. “But, it will be a very dangerous journey. You could get hurt, and then who would take care of Yuna?”

“How more dangerous could it be than traveling with my brother for years?” she asked, her face very close to Braska's.

“But, Sin's at large again. There's no telling what he would do to a summoner's group.”

In the corner, they both heard a grunt. “Just let her come, Braska. We need all the hands we can get. I very wise man once told me that seven years ago.”

“Fine,” said Braska, knowing that Auron was talking about him. “Let's just get going, the ship is set to leave at ten this morning.”

“Where are you going daddy?” asked Yuna, holding her nanny's hand.

“We are going to Besaid first, honey,” he said. “And then Kilika, Luca, Mi'ihen, Guadosalam, Macalania, back here. And then we have to go through the Calm Lands to Gagazet and through to Zanarkand.”

“To Zanarkand?” the little girl asked. “Where they beat Sin?”

Braska felt a tear at his eye. “Yes honey, that's right.” Standing up he got ready to leave. “I promise to send you a letter from each of those places, and to see you when we come back here.” Exiting through the door, he came to the bridge that stood over the creek right in front of his house.

At that moment, his daughter broke away from the nun that was about to take Yuna to the Temple. Running up to her father who stood on the bridge that overlooked the Calm Lands, Yuna spread her arms and Braska gave her one last hug, as did Sara.

Getting a recording sphere out from his robes, Auron began to record the scene. “C'mon, Braska,” said Auron. “We should get going.”

“Alright,” said Braska, “To the docks, then.”

“Actually,” said Sara, “I heard about this crazy guy they have down in the pens.”

“What about him?” asked Braska.

“He must have been affected by Sin's toxin or something because he says he's from Zanarkand. But, then again, he was put in there in the first place because of public drunkenness.”

“You're not serious,” said Auron. “Why would we want to talk to a crazy drunk guy?”

Braska scratched his chin. “He might be a good guardian. I'm sure he'd want to go home, and that's where we're going, right?”

“I'm not so sure about this, Braska,” said Auron, following the couple reluctantly down to the governmental section.

 

***

 

“Hey, Zanarkand!” shouted a guard. “Get up, you've got some visitors!”

Opening his eyes, Jecht watched through the iron bars in front of him. When he saw three people come in, he shrugged to his feet. There were two men and one woman, the woman holding a sphere recorder. Although, this recorder was much more banged up and cracked than the ones in his Zanarkand. “Yeah, what do you want?” he grunted in his deep and gruff voice.

“Are you the one from Zanarkand?” asked the man in the red robes.

“Aye,” nodded Jecht.

“Then I would like to ask you to be one of my guardians, to guard me on my quest to defeat Sin. Our final destination is Zanarkand.”

“Are you sure about that Braska?” asked Auron. “This man is a drunk!”

“And I am a summoner, fallen from grace, wed to an Al Bhed, with a guardian who left the monk hood after refusing the hand of the priest's daughter. No one thinks that we will be able to accomplish the quest, but I do. I think this man deserves as much of a chance as we do.” Nodding to the guard, Braska watched as Jecht was released. Extending his hand, Braska said, “Welcome to our motley crew, being of Zanarkand.”

Summoner, he thought to himself, his eyes on the man in robes who had released him. Like I need to deal with another one of them loonies. Guys like them Yu Yevon, always vying for war in Spira. Probably was what happened to Bevelle, if I really am in the future. I wonder how the rest of Spira is. Snapping out of his thoughts, Jecht said gruffly, “You can call me Jecht.”

Even though he knew the answer, he asked, “So, what's a summer-ner anyways?” He didn't know if the meaning had changed in a millennium or not.

Braska smiled and said, “As a summoner I send the dead to the farplane and am starting on a pilgrimage to obtain the Final Aeon. I do all of this to defeat Sin and bring about the Calm.”

“Oh,” said Jecht, not quite understanding. “Alright then. I guess I'll be coming with you on this pilgrimage of yours.”

“Good,” said Braska, clapping Jecht on the back. “Welcome to our team.”

Having turned the recording off a few moments before, Sara added, “This sure doesn't look like the group of a High Summoner. But, what does Sin care anyways about stature a rankings? Let's go boys, a monster awaits!”

 

 

 

 

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