Return to Final Fantasy X Chapter Three



Final Fantaxy X
CHAPTER FOUR: THE SUMMONER

Author: Stormforce
Rating: PG-13 for language
Disclaimer: Don't own either Buffy or FFX. So please don't sue me, all I have is 20 cents, and pocket lent.


"Is something wrong?" Willow asked Xander when she stepped up beside him.

"The Summoner hasn't returned from the Trials yet."

"Eh?"

"Well... apprentice Summoner really."

"Ah?"

"There's a room in there called the Cloister of Trials. Beyond is where the apprentice prays to the Fayth. If the prayer is heard, the apprentice becomes a fully-fledged Summoner, remember?"

"Okay, so someone is in there and they haven't come back out yet. Right, got it."

"A day has already gone by."

"Say, Xander, it isn't particularly dangerous in there is it?"

"Sometimes, yes it is."

"Well, why don't you go in and help?"

"There's already guardians in there. And besides it's forbidden to interfere."

Willow runs up the stairs to the door at the top. "Hey, what if somethin' happens? What if the Summoner dies?"

"The precepts MUST be obeyed!" The Temple priest shouts at her.

"Like I care!" Willow says before going through the door.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

Willow looks around the room she ended up running into. The only thing noticeable was a Glyph on the far wall. She walks over to the Glyph and studies it, raising her hand Willow touches the outer portion of the Glyph, and jumps back and something to her right glows bluish green. Looking at the wall to the right Willow finds that another Glyph appeared, she walks over and examines the new Glyph. She looks from the new Glyph to the one she first touched, and smiled. Slowly raising her hand she touches the blue green Glyph in the center, causing the wall to slide up. She descends the stairs when she turns the corner she finds a dead end with a small hole in the middle of the wall.

<Something fits in the hole... but what?> She thinks.

Turning back Willow finds another glowing Glyph over a small glowing sphere, she picks the sphere up and heads back to the wall. Placing the sphere in the wall causes it to open; as she walks into the opening she picks the sphere up again. Willow finds herself in hallway that turns to the right a few feet ahead turning the corner she sees a hole on the left wall, and one on the right. Not knowing which hole to put the sphere in she pick the one on the right, this causes the wall to slide up to reveal a secret room with a purple sphere.

Taking the purple sphere from the wall she walks back to the hallway, to find glowing ruins on the left wall. As she touches then the wall opens to reveal a bright green sphere, she picks this one up and places the purple sphere in the green spheres place. A small purple light flows from the side of the sphere down the side of the wall, and around the corner, causing the back wall to explode. When Willow checks it out she finds a treasure chest. Opening it Willow finds a rod, shrugging her shoulders she straps it to her back, and goes back to the last sphere hole. Placing the green sphere into the hole Willow steps back as the wall slides up revealing another room. Walking inside the room Willow sees a small flashing silver light on the floor.

"Hey!"

Willow jumped a mile into the air, and turned to find Xander standing at the opening of the room.

"What's gotten into you? Hey, it's okay. Only Summoners, apprentice summoners, and their guardians can enter here. It's tradition. Very important."

"What about you then?"

"Me? I'm a guardian."

"Guardian?"

An elevator appears under Willow and Xander and takes them down.

"Summoners go on a pilgrimage to pray at every Temple in Spira. Guardians protect time on their journey. The guardians in there now... One of'em has a short fuse, and the other one... well lets just say you don't want to be on her bad side. Well now that we've come this far... might as well go all the way in."

Willow follows Xander into a circler room with a blond haired woman standing by the stairs, and a dark haired woman sitting on the third step.

"What are you doing here? Didn't think we could handle it?" The blond asks as she walks over to Xander.

"No! It's uh... it's just..." Xander turns to Willow. "See I told you she gets mad easy." He whispers.

Willow looks at the dark haired woman, who stairs right back at her.

"Is the Summoner alright?"

"And just who the hell... are you?" The blond asks looking at Willow closely.

The door at the top of the steps open, and the most beautiful woman Willow had ever seen stepped out. Just as she was about to step down she started to fall. The dark haired woman was there to catch her in an instant. As she stood up Willow could see sweat running down her face and neck as she brushed her blond hair back with her hands. She then smiled at everyone.

"I've done it! I have become a Summoner!"

Willow follows the others out of the Cloister and back into the Temple.

Man was I surprised. And here I thought that all Summoners were a bunch of old geezers.

Willow looks up to see that the group had left the Temple and runs to catch up with them.

"Hey over here!"

Xander grabs Willow in a headlock and moves her toward the village center.

"What? Ow!"

"Wait till you see this!"

"Xander! I can't see a damn thing with my head under your arm." Willow said as she broke the hold Xander had on her.

"Ready!" Xander says to the summoner.

The summoner then raises her staff to the air, spreads her arms outward. A circle starts to glow under her feet, and moves outward. Willow looks to the sky with everyone else and sees a shape flying toward them. The shape turns out to be a giant bird like creature.

{Valefor is a female Aeon with a sharp pointed white face, with a horn on each side of her head, and two horns between her eyes. She has a downward curved horn at the top of each wing. She has a bright red neck, and waist, and her body is light blue. Her chest and the inside of her wings are a golden color. She is the energy Aeon, and her overdrive is Energy Ray.}

I had never seen anything like it in my life. Sure it was a little scary, but still... I could feel a strange kind of gentleness coming from it.

The summoner gently pets the Aeons head before it jumps into the air and flies off.

I remember... That night, we talked for the first time. I didn't know it then, but after that night, everything changed. For everyone... For me...

Later that night Willow walks around the bonfire, before being grabbed by Xander.

"Come on Willow. Let me introduce ya to the team."

Sighing Willow could only follow Xander as he ran over to the group that was practicing on the beach earlier that day.

"Okay guys listen up. This girl wants to play in the tournament so bad I let her on the team. Her memory is still a little fuzzy, so don't mind her if she says anything funny."

Xander grabbed Willow by her left arm and pulled her over to the team. "Go on say hi."

"Uh, hi guys."

The team speaks their greetings to Willow before looking at the ground and around the fire.

"So guys what's our goal?" Willow asked trying to get the team pepped up.

"To do our best!" The whole team says as one.

"Nope, we gotta new goal this year... our new goal is... victory! This means we win every match, defeat every opposing team! To bring the Crystal Cup back to our island, that's all we need to do to win. Easy, ya?" Xander said from beside Willow.

"Victory? Victory! Victory! Victory! Yeah!" The team starts chanting.

Willow smiles at the team this looks over the fire to see the summoner. Leaving the team to their chanting she walks over toward the summoner.

"You heathen!" An old man says to Willow stopping her dead in her tracks.

"Stay away from the lady summoner!" Said an old woman.

"You're a bad person!" A young girl said.

The summoner gets up from where she was sitting.

"My lady! Please be careful!" The old man says.

"But it was my fault to begin with." The summoner says to the old man and walks over to Willow. "Thank you for your help earlier. I'm Tara."

{Tara is a new summoner fixing to begin her pilgrimage. She is 17 years old and has long blond hair to the middle of her back, and she stands 5'5". She wears a thin white shirt, a yellow ribbon around her waist, a long blue skirt with splits on the left side, and dark boots. She also has an earring of a feather in her right ear. When in battle she uses a rod as a weapon, and when things get tough she calls upon the Aeons to help.}

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that... wasn't that... wasn't I not supposed to... I guess I kinda overreacted. Anyway I'm Willow." She says and sticks her hand out.

Tara takes the offered hand and gives Willow a small half smile. "Oh, no Willow it's not your fault. I went into the Trials overconfident."

"Um, anyway... I saw that Aeon thingy. That was freaking amazing! I have never seen anything like that in my life... it was so cool... I hope I get to see it again. That would be awesome... ya know."

"Really? Do you perhaps think I could become a high summoner?

"Yeah, although I don't know what that is... but yeah I think you'd be a great high summoner... no you'd be the greatest one!

Tara shyly ducks her head and looks at Willow through her hair. Willow could see a bright blush covering Tara's face and smiled. Before she could say anything else the little girl from before ran over to Tara.

"Lady Tara come play with me some more, please?"

Tara smiles at the girl and nodes her head. "Okay, Nikko." Turning back to Willow she gives her a smile. "So, tomorrow then."

"Uh... tomorrow?" Willow asks confused, but on the inside she was jumping for joy. <Yay! Maybe we can spend the day together alone... a woo and a big whoo.>

"Yes, we're going on the same boat, aren't we?

<Well crap! Okay don't look disappointed. Say something you moron she's looking at you.>

"Really? Cool."

"Yes, we can talk some more then. And you can tell me all about Zanarkand." Tara says smiling and walks over to the young girl.

<Well atleast I will be with her... with other people... but, what the hay.> Willow was thinking and didn't see Xander walk up and stand by her side, until he spoke.

"She's cute, ya?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Don't get no ideas."

"Well I'm not promising anything in that department coach. But, what if she... ya know, comes on to me?"

"Sorry girl that ain't gonna happen. Anyway let me know when you get tired I had a bed made up for you at the lodge."

"Yeah sure Xander."

Willow walked around the village for another thirty minutes before she got tired of the dirty looks she was receiving from the older villagers.

"You ready for bed now?" Xander asked as Willow stepped beside him.

"Yeah."

"Okay this way."

Willow followed Xander into the Crusaders lodge where she showed her to her bed. It was the first one on the right side of the room. The small single bed looked comfortable to Willow who was now feeling the effects of running all over the place that day.

"Well, sleep tight." Xander said as he walked out the door of the lodge.

As soon as her head hit the pillow she was asleep and dreaming.

Dream

Willow looks around and notices she is standing on a boat dock. Toward the end of the dock she sees a figure, and walks over to find Tara looking out over the ocean.

"Hey, Tara, where's the boat?"

"Everyone will find us if is doesn't come soon."

"Um, are you really sure this is okay? I mean I don't want you to get into trouble because of this. Cause that would suck."

"Would you take me to Zanarkand?"

Out of nowhere Buffy comes running along the dock.

"Hey! You said you'd take me to Zanarkand!"

"Yikes! I... uh, that is... uh."

"Anyway I thought Xander told you NOT to get ANY ideas?" Buffy spoke causing Willow to flinch.

"H-he did?" Tara asks as she turns away from Willow.

"Yeah! So Willow you're going to take me!"

"Hey! Stop your dreamin'!" A new voice shouts.

Willow looks over to see Ira her father standing on the beach.

"You with a woman? Ha! You can't even catch a damn ball. So what are you gonna do with a woman? Oh what's the matter? Gonna start cryin' again? Cry, cry, cry. That's all you'll EVER be good for!"

"I hate you!" A younger version of Willow said.

"Huh? I didn't hear that. What'd ya say?" Ira says from the beach.

"You have to speak loudly to be heard." Tara says standing to Ira's right.

"I Hate You!" Her younger self shouts.

"Eh? Still can't hear you."

"That's the spirit!" Buffy says standing to Ira's left.

"You can do it!" Tara says.

<End of dream>

Willow jerks up in her bed.

I HATE YOU! She screams to nothing but air.

"She's dead, okay? Dead."

Willow hears the voice of the blond guardian from outside. Slowly getting off the bed Willow walks over to the door, and peeps out. She sees that the woman is talking to Xander.

"But Anya!"

{Anya is 18 years old she has shoulder length blond hair, and she stands 5'4". She wears a long black dress that buckles up the front. And always carries a stuffed doll of some sort with her, she says it helps her to focus. When in battle she uses black magic to defeat the enemies.}

"She does look a lot like Hikari. I was surprised, too, the first time I saw her. But no matter what that girl looks like, she isn't, and NEVER will be Hikari. Don't you understand? You shouldn't have brought her here in the first place!"

"Yeah, but... she need our help, Anya! I couldn't just leave her out there, what is something worse had happened to her? Huh?"

"Excuses again?"

"Yeah, but..."

"That's it! No more! That is enough Xander!" Anya says to Xander and walked away.

Bowing his head Xander walks over to the lodge and spots Willow who is standing beside the door.

"Damn, that girl is scary. Remind me NOT to get her pissed at me, will ya?"

"Yeah I know what you mean, Anya has a short fuse and when she's mad you wanna stay away from her."

"So, uh, Xander, I couldn't help but overhearing her talking... uh... who's Hikari?"

"My little sister Hikari... she looked like you."

"She's dead?"

"Yeah, she was fighting Sin with the Crusaders last year. She didn't make it. I heard on the day of the tournament." Xander said and sat down on the bed Willow was sleeping in.

"Oh, so that's what you meant when you said you were thinking about something else the day of the tournament." Willow sat beside Xander.

"I became Tara's guardian to help her fight Sin, ya?"

"Oh, I see you want to avenge your sister then?"

"Yeah that was the idea. But now I'm more worried about some stupid game than revenge. Well no matter... after this tournament, I'll be a full-time guardian. I know it looks like I'm using you, but I'm not." Xander looked at the floor as he spoke.

"Hey Xander." Willow said and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, okay? I mean... I owe you a lot. You really helped me out, by bringing me here and all, especially when I screwed up and ran into the Trials. Anyway, what I mean is... thanks, Xander."

"Stop, you're embarrassing me!" Xander smiled at Willow and stood up. "Well I'm gonna hit the sack, and you should to. We have an early start in the morning."

"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning. Good night." Willow said to Xander as he left the lodge.


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