Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Puppet of Entropy ❯ Rikku, the Al Bhed ( Chapter 4 )

The Puppet of Entropy.

 

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Sakura Hayakawa.

 

 

Chap 4: Rikku, the Al Bhed.

 

Sakura awaked feeling that an entire clan of angry dwarves were claiming first right of mining inside her head. She found herself on a ship of some kind: A modern ship apparently. She winced at the pain at the back of her skull and dragged herself into a sitting position to examine her surroundings. She sighed in relief as she saw Tidus laying several feet from her, still alive but still unconscious.

 

Of course, being on a ship, they were surrounded by the ocean. In fact, there was nothing else but the ocean. Tidus began to moan as consciousness returned to him. He was having the strange sensation of repetition. Why was that? Oh yes, it was not the first time he has been knocked-out. The young girl helped him to sit up. Unfortunately, one of the men from earlier noticed this as well and turned around to glare at them. After a moment, the man walked over and hit Tidus sending him falling back to the dismay of the Japanese schoolgirl.

 

“Ced, lybdejac!” (Sit, captives!)

 

“Hey, that hurts!”

 

“Please! We don't understand you!”

 

The man just stood there before speaking again in an equally harsh tone. “Hu sujehk, rayn?” (No moving, hear?)

 

Tidus seemed stunned by the fierceness of the man and Sakura just cringed at the threatening voice.

 

“Whoa...okay.” The blitzball player turned to the black-haired girl and tried to smile reassuringly.

 

The green-eyed Japanese decided to stay on the floor and to not do anything unless forcefully moved. She has still her manacles and collar, so she was still armed. She internally snorted. What was the use of a melee weapon, even hidden, against firearms? She looked as two more people approached them.

 

Sakura felt a little hope in her heart as she recognized one as the same girl who fought with them in the ruin. The other is a tall man with a blond Mohawk. He was also wearing goggles, the same as all the rest of the ship's crew.

 

“Ev oui fyhd du cdyo rana, oui pudr socd fung!” (If you want to stay here, you both must work!) The man then began to make a strange series of motions with his arms like he was swimming. Tidus just stared, a dumbfounded look on his face.

 

“Right. Whatever.”

 

“I think they want us to swim. But where? And why?”

 

The man walked up to Tidus, gesturing even more.

 

“Tu oui hud ihtancdyht?” (Do you not understand?) He pulled out some sort of necklace, and gesturing to it.

 

“We said we don't UNDERSTAND!”

 

Another one of the men then pointed his gun at Tidus, apparently seeing the action as a hostile gesture. “Ehcumala!” (Insolence!)

 

The girl suddenly moved towards Tidus and motioned for the other two men to stop. “Fyed!” (Wait!) She then turned to the two teenagers. “He said you can stay if you both make yourselves useful.”

 

Tidus and Sakura both blinked in shock for a moment.

 

“You...you understand us?” The man behind Tidus smacked him in the back of the head with the gun.

 

“All right, I'll work!” The young man was beginning to feel annoyed at being hit so many times.

 

The girl turned to the schoolgirl “Are you going to help too?”

 

“Yes…Of course! But help to do what?” `And why didn't you speak earlier? It would have prevented much violence.'

 

“There's an ancient ruin on the ocean floor. It cannot be operated right now but there's probably still some energy left. I think that if we work on it a little, we can probably make it come back to life again and then we should be able to salvage the big prize!”

 

Sakura stared in astonishment and pointed to Tidus. “I know he can swim fairly and stay a long time underwater. But I can't. I can swim but I have no equipment to work underwater.” She didn't bring out that she was also fairly feeble with almost no grasp in heavy manual labour.

 

The girl smiled and showed the Japanese a useful chemical of their world. It enabled the user to absorb oxygen through the skin. She also graciously lent her a pair of goggles to see underwater and explain a few things about working underwater. One of the strangest pointers was the possibility to speak underwater. The words will be garbled by the water but still comprehensible.

 

The group of three dived over the side of the ship into the murky abyss below and begin to swim towards the location of the ruins by following a chain linking the boat to the excavation site.

 

Sakura was surprised by her newfound resistance to the coldness of the water. The chemical was very useful and explained so much of the capacities of Tidus. She just had to fight the natural reflex to want to breathe after a few minutes underwater. And, of course, she had to support her clinging clothes. A school uniform was not the recommended suit to swim for long. And she didn't have to start about her shoes.

 

The descent was not a picnic in the park as several big fishes decided that the three teenagers were comestible. They looked like piranhas made of metal. To her stupefaction, Sakura manifested her chained sword almost unconsciously when she saw the threat. With three fighters, two who are familiar with underwater combat, the battle was promptly expedited. It was then that the Japanese girl witnessed another strange thing about this world.

 

The pyreflies were absorbed by her gems but the creatures have left a few things behind them. The dimensional-displaced girl squinted as she considered what she was seeing. Several differently coloured little spheres were floating with some objects. Their guide smiled and reached for one sphere. It diffused energy into her body and then disappeared.

 

“What is that?”

 

“Those spheres? They are spheres for the grid.”

 

“The grid?”

 

“Yes. It's the name for the complex weave that those spheres enable to activate within someone.”

 

“I do not understand.”

 

The foreign girl sighed. “Look. Those spheres grant powers or skills and boost the capacities of the person which absorb them. The more spheres you absorbed, the more powerful you are. If you concentrate enough you can even feel the grid within yourself and know in advance what type of sphere and how many you need in order to learn this or that skill.”

 

“And the objects?”

 

“Partial material transmutation. When the pyreflies are released by the death of the fiend, they are transmuted into objects by the combination of your will and the nature of the fiend.” She smiled wickedly. “This is also how I could steal grenades from them. I learned to partially transmute a part of their energies into matter.”

 

Sakura numbly nodded. It was true that grenades were not standard equipment for a fish. This world was weird, dangerous and weird. She frowned. She still didn't know how this world was called. In fact she knew very little of this world. Knowledge was power, but in this case, it was more knowledge was survival. The thing that was screaming wrong in her mind was the money left by the dead fiends. It was a stereotype of videos games: The vanquished enemy left money, points of experience and items behind.

 

As she reached for a sphere and felt the energy entering her, she really hoped that she wasn't into a giant video game or worse into something like this American film where reality was computer-generated for the entire earth population.

 

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The group finally arrived to the excavation site without any more problems. It was a good thing because Sakura was really feeling the pressure of the water now. Worse, she was famished and the lack of sugar in her blood combined to the cold was making her shake like crazy and seeing swirls in the corner of her vision. Their guide gently reached to the schoolgirl and popped something in her mouth.

 

It was food. It was a little bland but to the Japanese it was a taste of heaven. She swallowed rapidly and found her energy renewed. She smiled and turned her attention to the door of the ruins. Their guide opened the doors and the two teenagers followed her inside.

 

It was obviously the remains of a lab. There were dead computers and many others technological non-functioning devices in the big room. The foreign girl smiled to Tidus. “Time to earn your pay.”

 

Tidus swam to the consol in the middle of the room and looked at it critically. He shrugged and prepared to use brute strength to activate it.

 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

 

He blinked as he considered the horrified face of the black-haired girl. “Huh? I'm resolving the problem. Why?”

 

Sakura slapped her face with her hand. It was so typical of a male. “Give me your place. You obviously don't know how to operate a computer.” He could have provoked the destruction of the lab with such a move.

 

The schoolgirl examined the console and found that it was not too different from her world. They were even using a Romanji-type keyboard. It was a very durable design since she managed to reconnect it underwater. On the screen, various icons appeared. Interesting, it reminded her of the cyberpunk counter-culture and the icon-domination of the future Net. She reset the program and asked for rebooting the whole facility. Behind her goggles she could see the widened eyes of their guide. She was apparently familiar with such technology but not to the degree of the Japanese girl.

 

The group proceeded to activate all the power-sources of the site by a combination of sheer luck, brute strength and know-how earth science. When they activated the last consol, the three teenagers shared a smile for a good job done and proceed to the exit. It was unfortunately at this moment that the guardian of the facility struck.

 

A giant squid-like monster blocked suddenly the exit and a fierce battle began. The squid has the advantage of fast swimming and long reach with his tentacles. The three teenagers have their numbers for them and surrounded it when it became obvious that the creature withdrew when it was wounded and waited for its regenerative capacity to bring it back at full power.

 

A ferocious lash sent Sakura into a wall. The pain combined with the fear of dying seemed to unlock something in the Japanese. She took advantage of several grenades lobbed by the foreign girl and concentrate on her sword.

 

“SOULS! BE MY STRENGTH!”

 

The gem on the sword seemed to burst into a dark blue aura of power that chilled the blood of the two others fighters.

 

“Demon Sword! Ready!”

 

For once, the controlling entity and the schoolgirl had the same idea: Destroying the squid-like monster.

 

Sakura pointed her right hand on the fiend. “I have chosen the element to deal with the likes of you!” A yellow sphere of light appeared in her cupped right hand. “Swift death from above that shatters the sky!” She inserted the sphere in the gem on the guard and the blade took a yellow sheen. “Light and burn the Heaven. LIGHTNING BLADE!”

 

The green-eyed girl threw herself to the squid, crackling sword in hand and slashed the creature which erupted into a cloud of pyreflies promptly absorbed by the polychromatic jewels.

 

“Yeah! I've got it!” She floated unmoving into the water as her body reminded her that she was not in good shape. “Oooh. I don't feel so good.”

 

Tidus approached his comrade and gave to her a small turquoise vial. “Drink this, you'll feel better.”

 

The liquid soothed her aching body and closed the various wounds she got until now. Amazed, she didn't see a scar even on the most serious ones. “What is it?”

 

“A potion of health. Good stuff, right?”

 

The group exited the ruin and examined it from above as they swam towards the salvage ship. The power was turned back on and the external lights shined the ocean floor, showing the vague outlines of a ship.

 

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After she managed to climb aboard the salvage ship, Sakura simply fell down on the floor, completely exhausted. She managed to send a weak glare to Tidus who appeared quite refreshed by his underwater labour and the still hyperactive foreign young girl. Around the three teenagers, the rest of the crew seemed quit excited by what has been discovered.

 

“Fa vuiht dra airship!” (We found the airship!)

 

“Dra naluntc fana nekrd.” (The records were right.)

 

“E lyhhud pameaja fa vuiht ed!” (I cannot believe we found it!)

 

“Huf, ruf du tnyk ed ib?” (Now, how to drag it up?) The man with a Mohawk entered the crew quarter with the rest of the men. As Tidus attempted to follow them he stopped him. “Oui, uidceta!” (You, outside!)

 

“ Hey, I helped out didn't I?!” The door slammed shut in his face.

 

“How do you like that? We do all their dirty work and they won't even let us sit in on their little meeting!” He then remarked that the black-haired chick has not moved since they climbed aboard. “Hey? Are you all right?”

 

“Nothing that rest and food can't heal.”

 

Tidus looked like he was of the same advice as he started to massage his stomach “Uh…hungry…”

 

Somewhere behind him, a door opened and the foreign girl exited with two trays of food. As she approached Tidus she gave him a swift kick in the shoulder and as he turned round, eyes flaming, she gently slipped the plate down in front of him.

 

“Whoa, right on!” Tidus started gulping the meal down as though it would be his last one.

 

She smiled and approached the slumped young girl with the other tray. “Vuut?” (Food?)

 

Sakura opened an eye wit some difficulty. She was so cold, she was not even shaking. “Huh…?”

 

“Oh sorry, food?” She frowned and examined the schoolgirl. With dismay she came to the conclusion that she was near hypothermia. She put down the tray and rushed to bring back a rough blanket. After wrapping the Japanese, she forced her to drink an alcoholised preparation.

 

Liquid fire entered the throat then the stomach of the frozen teenager and revitalized her enough to sample the tray. Food, drink and a warm blanket, she was in paradise. Funny how such little things can bring so much when one was in a dire situation. She was so famished that the strange taste of the food didn't faze her.

 

The foreign girl sighed as she saw Tidus swallowed so fast that he nearly gagged on the food and she handed him a jug of water to wash it down. Finally no longer hungry, the blond blitzball player looked to their guide.

 

“Hello there. What is your name?”

 

“Rikku.”

 

“Whoa! You really do understand! Why didn't you say so earlier?”

 

“I didn't get a chance to. Everyone thought `oui' were fiends.”

 

Tidus was a little puzzled by the last sentence. “Uh…'we'?”

 

“Oh, `oui' means `you'.” Rikku removed her goggles, exhibited her emerald green eyes.

 

“Who are you guys?”

 

“We're from the Al Bhed tribe. You should know from our language. Hey, you probably hate the Al Bhed people.”

 

“We are strangers here, Rikku. We don't…At least I don't know anything about the Al Bhed.”

 

“Sakura is right. We don't even know you.”

 

“So where are the two of you from?”

 

“Zanarkand. I'm the ace of the Zanarkand Abes, the city's Blitzball team.”

 

Rikku stared at Tidus. “Did you hit your head too hard one time?”

 

“Nope, but I was hit struck by you guys.”

 

“Do you remember anything before that?”

 

Tidus told Rikku everything, from life and competition in Zanarkand, Sin's attack during the Blitzball competition, to escaping with Auron and being wrapping in the light... Rikku became uneasy.

 

“Did I say something odd?”

 

Instead of replying, Rikku turned back to Sakura. “Is this your story as well?”

 

Sakura shook her head. “No. I didn't know about Zanarkand before I awake in the city just a few moments before this monster you called Sin attack.” She smiled a little. “I come from a big island called Japan. I am a student here and I don't know how or why I am here. Heck, I don't even know where we are or how this world is called.”

 

Rikku nodded as she came to her own conclusions. “You two got close to Sin. That's okay. We can fix you up. People who get too close to Sin usually get their heads mixed up. So, you're not the only ones who have seen strange dreams.”

 

“We're sick?” That seemed a little far-fetched to the Japanese girl.

 

“I think you're poisoned by Sin.”

 

“What?”

 

“Anyway…Zanarkand doesn't exist anymore. It was destroyed by Sin 1000 years ago. So, you can't be a blitzball player from Zanarkand.”

 

“What? How can it be? 1000 years ago? I saw…I mean, WE saw Sin attack Zanarkand. That was 1000 years ago!? I can't believe that!”

 

When Rikku didn't say anything it seemed it had finally hit home. The eyes of Tidus were wide and unseeing and he was clearly in shock. He just couldn't take in the magnitude of what Rikku had told him. He turned to Sakura, desperate to have, at least, a witness on what happened.

 

“Rikku. I remember perfectly what happened in Zanarkand. The people, the buildings and Sin were too real. I don't think two persons could have the same dream at the same time.”

 

Rikku was dubious and thought about it a moment. “Hey...”

 

“What?”

 

“You're a Blitzball player, right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Maybe if we go to Luca, we can figure out something. Maybe there's someone there who knows you. Maybe it'll help you remember something.”

 

“Luca?”

 

“Okay! Just leave it to me! I'll take the two of you to Luca! It's a big city so Sakura could find a clue to her land.”

 

Tidus hesitated and Sakura looked doubtful although the young girl couldn't but hope that it was possible to find something familiar to her in a big city.

 

“Don't you want to go? Wait here for a second while I speak to the others.” As she walked away, Rikku remembered to tell Tidus something. “Ah, from now on, remember this. It's better to not tell people that you're from Zanarkand. I think some people will be mad because Zanarkand is Yevon's holy place.”

 

“Sure...” `Zanarkand is Yevon's holy ground…I didn't know what to make of it. Yevon? Sin's poison? Luca? I had thought only that I and Sakura have come to a far away place, and that we will return soon. 1000 years have passed?'

 

Sakura was worried. She was not very happy about the situation but she could see that Tidus was more and more angry.

 

“I can't believe it!” Tidus turned around and kicked the base of the crane. The whole ship shook, knocking him off balance. In the distance Sakura could hear the blast as something came out of the water. Doors started opening all around the ship and Al Bhed poured out of them running and trying to make sense of what was happening and what to do about it.

 

“Sin ec rana!” (Sin is here!)

 

“Ihtan ic, ihtan ic!” (Under us, under us!)

 

Sakura was not proficient with Al Bhed after such a little exposition but the word `Sin' was self-explicatory. Her blood chilled as she considered that the monster responsible of the destruction of a city was here.

 

Tidus rushed to help his comrade against the lurches of the ship but a wave generated by Sin washed them off the ship and into the ocean... Once again darkness devoured the consciousness of the two teenagers.

 

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Notes: Sakura seemed absorbing the shock to be in another world? Don't worry, it's just that she didn't have the time to recuperate from the ordeal. A nervous breakdown is due when she will unwind a little.

 

Tidus and Sakura appeared to be a couple? Wrong! It's just that they are the only familiar person to each other in vicinity.

 

I'm not sure that I could develop a romance for Sakura. Her personality and the available partners do not permit such a thing for now.

 

However, I'm going to create deep friendship with a few characters of the game.

 

Thank you to Drachegirl14 for her review.

 

Read and review please.