FicWad

3 months later


Demi narrowed her eyes. Staring straight at her target as she sat high in a tree. The wind blew the salty see air past her face as she drew back the arrow. Holding her breath and counting to three, she let the arrow go. It sung as it whipped back trees and bushes, taking out a fiend, letting it disperse into pyreflies. "Boo-ya!" Demi cried triumphantly from her perch, sliding down the palm tree. "Who's yo momma-OH GOD!" She cried jumping out of the way of another fiend's attack. Putting her bow up and drawing out her blades, she rolled to the side and hopped over it, giving it a hard blow behind the head. "Come on you ass!" She whooped as she took out it's legs and then itself. "I really need to start paying more attention."

Lindsey, elsewhere, sprinted down the path leading to the beach, past the waterfall and through the brushes. Behind her was a garuda, a massive bird with wide, webbed wings and huge talons aimed straight for her. Lindsey skidded over the grass and down over pieces of machina ruins. Knowing Demi was near, she gave a shout, "DEMI! INCOMING!" She ran past Demi over the sands of the beach, swerving in a u-turn and unsheathing her dual swords, "Come on!"

"Come on big bird, show me what you go!" Demi grinned as she sheathed her knives and pulled out her bow, grabbing several arrows and ran over next to Lindsey. "Aw thanks for sharing," she cooed. Saying a few words, her arrows started to freeze over. Waiting till the last second before the frost reached her finger tips, she let the arrows fly hitting their target. "Bulls eye!"

The massive fiend growled before jabbing its head forward, aimed at Demi, but missing due to its blindness from the arrows. Lindsey swooped in and sliced it with her swords, "Damn these things have a ton of endurance... Finish it off, Demi!"

"On it!" Drawing two more arrows, she pulled them back and waited for the right moment. Saying a few more words, the arrows were suddenly ablaze. "Just gotta get the shot," she grunted as the flames licked at her fingers before she shot them straight and true, turned the fiend into pyreflies. "So, that was fun," she huffed as she went over to where the beast and died and kicked around in the sand. "Hey! I got 50 gil!"

Lindsey sheathed her swords and stretched, sporting her new harness, gloves, shorts and shoes, "Very nice... I think we might be ready by now... But we still need a summoner... and maybe more guardians. Always good to have variety... Question is, how are we going to convince someone to become a summoner on such short notice... and who."

"Where was Yuna when she first became a summoner?" Demi asked kicking around in the sand some more to see if anything else had been left. "Oh! A potion!"

"Right here, in the isle of Besaid..." Lindsey explained, running her spike-toed sune-ate through the sand, "..Why? Do you have an idea?"

"We could go check out the temple, see if there's any summoner or summoner-like people there that need guardians and the like," Demi said. "I mean how hard could it be? Hey maybe it'll be Josh Groban, your husband lost at sea returned to you by the grace of Yevon!" She snickered. "I can just see it now. 'Josh is that really you?' 'Why yes Lindsey, it is me. I am a guardian, would you like to join me?' Oh it'll make a lovely Mary-Sue story for the bad forums of the ages."

"Why do you keep bringing him up? I don't care about his music," Lindsey growled, folding her arms across her chest, "I don't go mocking you about Dexter or Noodles. So why? It'd make more sense if you brought up like... Hugh Jackman or something. But... Josh Gorgonzola? I'm not a fan."

"Exactly why. I mean it bothers you to no end, that is exactly why I do that. I mean if you did it to me with Noodles or Dexter I would totally go with it," Demi laughed as she started towards the village. "Come on You anti-Groban, we've got a summoner to get."

Lindsey blinked, sighing and putting her face into the palm of her hand, "...I don't hate him... just his music." Demi was right though. They needed a summoner. One that secretly knew that they weren't going to die at the end of their pilgrimage. Lindsey followed, sprinting after her.

"Hey, I still have a few things left in our tiki hut of Satan that I need to grab before we leave though, like you know, more ammo," Demi snorted. "I think I left a sock too, not sure about that one, but definitely the ammo. You have anything that you need to get before we head out?"

"Not that I can think of..." Lindsey said as they re-entered the village. She looked up as crowds of people flooded the entrance of the temple in a commotion. "It's a man!" they cried, "He was born from the Fayth!"

Lindsey stopped and stared, "What...? People being born from the Fayth...?" She looked over at Demi, "Something's going on at the temple. Let's go check it out... Might be some fiends or something."

"Is that legal?" Demi asked following her. "I can't see! Stupid people have to be so damn tall," she growled, hopping up and down. All she was curly brown hair. . . That was it. "Damn it! Lindsey can you see?" She sighed looking for her friend. "Lindsey?"

"Excuse me," Lindsey said as she pushed through the crowd of frantic people, "Coming through,.. uh--erhh.. Temple control, coming through, outta the way people, outta the way." She grabbed Demi's hand and pulled her through the masses of people before entering the temple. Before them were priests and priestesses, knelt down by a limp body--of a man. A man of dark brown curls. Lindsey flinched at the sight, "You're kidding me."

"Oh. . . My. . . God. . . ITSJOSHGROBANOHMYGODITSJOSHGROBAN!" Demi screamed before shutting up. "Oops. . . Uh this man born of the Fayth, he must be the next summoner to save us from Sin," she said trying to sound sane, which was pretty hard for her.

"Quiet!" Lindsey hissed, "This is a temple, remember!?" She sighed and shook her head. She approached slowly, staring down at the unconscious man. God, why him? Why not Hugh Jackman? Or even Shia Lebouf? "Is he alright?" she asked quietly.

"Shhh!" The Yevonites of the temple hissed at Demi for her outburst before turning to Lindsey. "He's fine. The Fayth must have taken to him... But we're not sure where he came from."

"He might be a fiend!"

"Or an Al Bhed! The heathen!"

"Quiet!" Lindsey turned back at the yelling commonfolk behind them, "He's neither of those!" He may have been one of the most annoying men on the face of the planet, but he wasn't a fiend or a heathen. Or at least that's what Lindsey secretly hoped.

Demi bit her lip as she stepped forward and looked Josh over, seeing if he had any abnormal growths to prove he wasn't an alien or something. "Josh?" She whispered getting close to his face. "Hey Opera Boy, wake up."

"What is she doing to him?"

"I think he's moving."

"Hey you ok?" She asked quietly as he made a small sound in the back of his throat, like a soft whine or moan.

"--We'll take him back to our hut to rest... He doesn't look well at all," Lindsey cut in, kneeling down next to him. She took his arm on her side of the man and hooked it around her neck. She looked up at Demi, "Help me."

Demi nodded, for once keeping quiet as she grabbed his other arm and hooked it around her neck. "Oh God, he's taller than he looks," she huffed as they went straight from the temple to their hut as fast as they could. Kicking the door open, they laid him down on one of the beds. "Lindsey, now I know this is gonna sound crazy, you might even try to kill me, but I have an idea," Demi said looking from the possibly conscious Josh to Lindsey.

Lindsey sighed and shook her head as she covered the man up with a blanket, "No, I'm NOT having promiscuous sex with him while he's unconscious. That's not even funny."

"Do what? No! Now I'm not saying that it didn't cross my mind, but that was not my idea," Demi snickered. "I was going to say he could be our summoner."

Lindsey looked from Demi back down to Josh. He has been accepted by the Fayth of Besaid. ...Demi had a point, surprisingly. "Yeah... He'll have to be now since... well... He's made a pact with an aeon already, whether he knows it or not. We'll have to wait until he wakes up till we leave."

"Ok," Demi nodded reaching down and getting a stick. Sitting down next to him, she started to poke him. Gently at first before she got to where she was almost stabbing him. "Wake up summoner! I wanna leave!" She yelled at him.

"Stop it!" Lindsey snatched the stick from her and tossed it out of the hut, "What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"I'm impatient! You should now this by now! Besides last I checked, you didn't like him," she stuck her tongue out at her, sitting on Josh's lap. Feeling movement beneath her she jumped up screaming. "Ah! It's alive! Kill it!"

"Have you no respect at all for other people!? GOD! You're despicable sometimes! If you're so damn bored, then go out and kill fiends!" Lindsey growled, taking a wet cloth and putting it to Josh's forehead, "Why can't you just act your own age for once?"

Demi stood there a moment frowning. "Fine," she said quietly leaving. She stomped off in a huff, making the villagers wary. They were always use to her loudness and energy. Seeing her in a mood like this was. . . unsettling.

There were plenty of things Demi did that Lindsey had grown used to, but that was just too much for her not to be set off. Sighing softly, Lindsey set her blades aside and removed the cloth from the singer's forehead. She looked down at him, feeling anxious about him just being there. It was as if fate was trying to tease her, like Demi does. She turned her back to it and sat down next to the bed, crossing her legs and shutting her eyes as she began taking off her harness before meditating.

Demi had stripped down to her main clothes of short and a cloth to cover her top. She walked to the end of the dock and and dove into the crystal blue water. She'd gotten good at swimming with her time here. Back home she didn't have access to a creek, let alone a pool. Doing laps from one point to the next, she worked out her frustrations and agitation.

Lindsey sat there silently, breathing deeply before cracking an eye open at the sound of a sharp breath inhaling behind her. She waited, hearing the man behind her struggle to sit up with a quiet, "Ohh... where... where am I..." Her heart and lungs jumped, but she made sure to hide it, "Someplace safe at the very least," she said quietly in response. "Who..said that...?" came the bewildered response.

"Me," she said, looking back at him over her shoulder. Man, he looked terrible. Like he had been hit by a bus. "You should lay back down and get some sleep... you look like garbage."

"...tell me what's going on... Where am I and who... who are you...?" Josh asked, squinting his eyes at her, "...Why do I feel so funny...?"

Lindsey sighed, "...Just go to sleep... I'll explain whenever you wake back up..."

Demi dove again, before surfacing and kicking the ball back over to Iyassu and his blitzball team. They had come around while she was doing laps and joined them in the scrimmaging. "Come on boys. I'm a girl and I'm kicking your ass!" She laughed, swimming naturally in the water like a dolphin kicking the ball back and forth.

"You're getting good, ya," Iyassu smiled at her as they shared a high five.

"Yeah, just go with the water's flow," she giggled. "Just like you taught me."

Josh sighed with defeat, flopping back onto the bed with a breath before closing his tired eyes and resting. A few moments later, Lindsey got up and grabbed the three-string Shamisen that was given to them as a get-well gift by a local some time ago and went to sit outside the hut. She sat in the grass next to the entrance and gently strummed the strings, almost nervously. She didn't know how to play, but she could experiment and see about making pretty songs, right?


Demi waved to the team as she went to dry out in the sun. She was in a better mood, that was for sure. Not wanting to mull over her tiff with her friend, she just splayed out to soak up the sun.



"Hey, Demi," Iyassu called swimming under dock. Looking over the side of the dock Demi giggled.



"What are you doing Iyassu?" She gave him a bemused look.



"Nothin', just waiting to give you this," he smiled up at her, tossing up a spiral shell on a strip onto the deck. "Lindsey and you are gonna go with the stranger to the temple tonight, ya?" He asked. Demi bit her lip, she didn't think Iyassu would like her, let alone her like him.



"Yeah we'll be there," she said hesitantly as she picked up the necklace. Lindsey was going to kill her.


A priest from the temple came up to Lindsey with her Shamisen and looked down at her, smile covering a serious face, "Good evening young lady. Might I ask of you to bring the man of the Fayth to the temple later this evening? We want to have a look at him... to see.. if.. he's all together." Lindsey looked up at him with distrust. She never had much love for knowing Yevonites, especially those tied to the temples. "Sure," she said sharply before going back to plucking strings.

"Good," he said icily before returning to the temple.

Letting Iyassu get back to his team as the sun started to set, Demi calmly put her clothes back on, buckling her quiver securely over her vest. When she was out of sight from the beach, she took off sprinting towards her hut. Seeing Yevonites at the front, she dove into the bushes behind it and crawled around to the back wall. Climbing in from under the hutch, she dropped to the ground eyeing a sleeping Josh for a moment. "Pst! Lindsey!" Demi whispered, making a motion with her hand stuck out between the door and the frame.

Hearing Demi back and calling to her, Lindsey got up with the guitar and returned inside, shutting up the hut behind her and locking it. She looked at Demi and said instantly, "We have to leave soon. Like tonight soon, when he's up and walking around," she noted Josh.

"No, sooner," she sighed, knowing she was gonna come off as 'despicable' again, but there was good reason for that this time. "We'll have to put him in a bag or something."

Lindsey glared at her, "That's not even funny. He could get hurt or suffocate. He hasn't the strength to even think right now. Plus, if we left now, EVERYONE would notice us dragging a huge bag around out in the open sun. Not. Smart."

"Good, cause I WASN'T trying to be funny," Demi glared bag, her new necklace dangling along with her Hawaiian fish hook. "Look, they're gonna come sooner than they say they are so we can't skip town. We'll have to dress him up or something. Disguise him somehow."


"AND we'll have to carry him! Look at him! He can't even sit up! It's not like the people here are that stupid! They're going to recognize a man they pulled from the Chamber of the Fayth not even two hours ago!" Lindsey cried, exasperated.

"Then what do we do Lindsey? Hmm? You seem to have all the ideas here and are always right, so what do we do 'Oh Great one?' Huh?" Demi hissed.

"We WAIT until he's actually mobile AND we wait until DARK. Where no one will actually see us," she growled, "I'm not going to go out parading like we're trying not to look suspicious in front of everyone. It's called discretion, you should study it."

"Yeah, that's gotten us pretty far don't you think?" Demi spat back. "I already told you, they are not waiting till tonight to come get him Lindsey, they're gonna come earlier than that. For all we know they could be coming now. You're gonna have to suck it up and do some dirty work if you wanna help keep him alive. It's not all cherries and berries for fuck's sake."

"It's certainly done us pretty damn well, a lot better than you yelling nonsense at the top of your lungs every 5 minutes. And who says they won't pursue us when they see us carting off with him like a sack of shit? I'M not going to be on the receiving end of that blade and NEITHER is he!" she growled, "And besides, who the hell TOLD you they were coming? The priest JUST came to me like two minutes before you showed back up!"

"Look it doesn't matter alright," Demi huffed. "I'm getting out of here while I still can. Apparently I'm not really needed since all I do is yell nonsense at the top of my lungs every 5 minutes." She grabbed her pack and her extra ammo. "I've got my fair share of the gil and so do you. Best of luck." Giving Lindsey one last glare, she stormed off.

"Good luck," Lindsey huffed, turning her back and folding her arms across her chest. She sighed and sat down next to Josh's bed and rest her head in the palm of her hand, closing her eyes.

Demi kept up the frowned as she trekked to the ferry, her boots clinking on the hard ground. She'd never had a fight like that with Lindsey before, well once and it was over when she bought her cat. Piggy ended up staying, but Lindsey made sure that Demi was the one taking care of her. This though. . . This was a whole 'nother level of fighting. Demi's feelings were hurt more than anything and being as stubborn as she was, she wasn't about to let Lindsey get the satisfaction of always being right, even when she was right, or in this case and in Demi's mind, wrong.

Of course, it was never about being right, at least not to Lindsey. It was about good decision making and keeping Josh safe. Lindsey didn't take pleasure in fighting over anything, but the mere mention of shoving a 5 foot 10-ish man into a bag and dragging him out was just stupid to her. No matter what they did, Lindsey saw it as a lose-lose situation. No matter when they left Besaid, the monks at the temple might contact those in Bevelle and put soldiers out on the watch. But then again, Besaid seems like such a humble village. They didn't seem to have many methods of communication either. Lindsey stayed on the alert though, if they did come early like Demi said, she'd have to think quickly.