When I regained my consciousness, I realized immediately that I wasn't alone. The sound of heavy footfalls reached me long before their owner. Though my vision was still clouded from my recent encounter with my cousin's guardians, I could make out the form of a single person approaching along the shoreline. I closed my eyes and set my head back down, not wanting to betray myself to my visitor. The footsteps grew slower and slightly more regular as the stranger came upon my position.
A familiar voice issued from the visitor, filled with excitement and incredulity, "You're...not dead!" That voice, where had I heard it before?
I sensed no immediate danger from the voice's owner, so I stood as rapidly as my body would allow. I shook my head one final time to clear my vision and finally identified Tidus standing in front of me. How was I going to explain myself to him? I shed the wetsuit, goggles, and the rest of my swim gear as I frantically searched for something, anything to say.
"Thought I was done for, back there," was all I managed. Fatigue overtook me again and I sank to my knees.
"Rikku! You're Rikku!" Familiarity flooded his gaze and his voice, then relief. Maybe he wasn't going to interrogate me, after all. "Hey! You're okay! How have you been?"
Unbelievable! Not fifteen minutes ago we had been opponents in the battle over Yuna! If I had been a follower of Yevon, I'd have thanked him for encountering Tidus first, instead of Yuna's other likely shocked and bewildered guardians. I shook my head slowly. "Terrible..."
Tidus hunched down to address me at eye level. "Yeah, you don't look so good. What happened?" So he hadn't been able to put it all together. Thank goodness!
There was no getting around it. Best to tell the truth, I figured. "You beat me up, remember?"
Tidus was visibly shocked and lost his balance, falling backward. "Huh?" He got to his feet again and scratched his head. "Oh! That machina...that was you?" He sounded as though he didn't quite believe that the Rikku he knew was capable of such a thing. And maybe I hadn't been...at least until I had been charged by my father with keeping my cousin safe.
"That really hurt, you know. You big meanie!" That caught him off guard and I seized the opportunity to regain my feet. It really had hurt. I regretted not packing a potion or two on the off chance the mission went badly. It never occurred to me that I might fail, I mean, I never have before...
"W-wait. But you attacked us!" Tidus accused.
I shook my head. "It's not exactly what you think." I looked to my right and prepared to make a hasty exit, should the need arise. Yuna and her guardians were approaching on foot. There would be no escape. Time to make the best of a bad situation.
Luckily, Tidus stuck up for me when the rest of the group arrived. After a round of introductions, I managed to get Yuna's attention. She and her black mage companion, Lulu, took me off to the side, where I explained as much as I could without betraying my father's plans for rescuing the summoners. There was no way I could dissuade Yuna from her pilgrimage, so we agreed the best way for me to protect her was to join the ranks of her guardians, once they got the okay from their de facto leader.
Yuna approached the group hesitantly. What was there to be afraid of? It was her pilgrimage after all, and she could make whomever she chose a guardian, couldn't she? Yunie looked down, then deferentially addressed one member of the group in particular. I glanced at the man, and immediately understood the reason for the change in her behavior.
He was an imposing, almost fearsome presence. My gaze swept over him from the ground up noting the heavy boots, dark pants, and thick red coat he wore over the sturdy, well muscled frame of a warrior. I was mildly surprised when I saw his face for the first time. His dark hair was combed back away from a face that was as much hidden by his high collar and dark glasses as his neutral expression. A curious, deep scar marred the skin of his forehead and disappeared beneath the dark glasses. Nothing, however could hide the faint frown lines that creased his brow and radiated from the corners of his covered eyes. Wisps of gray upset the perfect obsidian of his hair at the temples. The whole of his presence suggested a man of vast experience and knowledge, but with much to hide as well.
"Sir Auron," Yunie began, "I would like Rikku to be my guardian."
The man in red, the one she'd addressed as Auron began to step toward me. My first instinct was to back away from him, but something made me hold my ground. I...wanted to impress him, I had no idea why, but I didn't want him to think me weak, or pronounce me unworthy.
He now stood toe to toe with me and fixed his gaze on me. My apprehension got the better of me. I broke eye contact, glanced down, and closed my eyes, hoping - praying for the moment to pass.
"Show me your face," he instructed me.
I heard his words, and tried to comply, but was frozen.
"Look at me," he said in the same level voice he'd used before.
"Oh, okay," I responded meekly, tilting my head upward, but keeping my eyes closed.
I thought I detected a faint hint of annoyance in his voice when he spoke next. "Open your eyes," he said.
I obeyed, and opened my left eye - not wanting to try his patience further. His penetrating gaze locked on me once more and I could feel him searching me. At this angle, I was able to see underneath the dark glasses that had obscured his eyes from a distance. The scar I'd noticed on his forehead continued downward through where his right eye should have been, but instead sealed the lid shut over the empty socket. His good eye was deep brown and unrelenting in its intensity. I had the unmistaken and uneasy impression that he saw more with that single eye than most of the rest of us saw with our two.
What was he searching for, anyway? Did he think I would betray Yuna? Did he believe me to be a threat to her safety? A liability to the group? The last angered me as the possbility went through my mind. What right had he to pass judgement on me? What was his connection to my cousin, and why did she obey him without question? At once, Auron changed from authority figure to rival in my mind - a mystery to unravel and an opponent to defeat. I was up for a challenge...that is...if he allowed me to accompany them...No doubt he already knew more about me than I knew about him, but that would change, I told my self resolutely.
"As I thought," he concluded simply. As I thought! That was all he had to say after subjecting me to this?
I fought the urge to shout. Not that my body would have allowed me. Something about him compelled obedience. "Um...no good?" was all I could manage. I was forced to play the game by his rules at the moment.
But he did not say no. "Are you certain?"
He was going to let me go, after all! Some of my opposition to him faded, and I found myself according him a grudging respect. My eagerness got the better of me.
"One hundred percent! So anyway, can I?"
"If Yuna wishes it," replied Auron.
"Yes, I do," Yuna said.
With that, Auron released me from his merciless gaze, turned and walked away. So he wasn't in complete control of the operation, I noted. That would be good to know later on, when the time came to convince Yuna to give up the pilgrimage. I had no intention of letting this mysterious, calculating Auron drag Yunie to her doom. My father had entrusted me with protecting her from the fate that befell summoners who completed their pilgrimage. He had finally begun to treat me as the adult I was becoming instead of the child I was afraid he'd always see me as. Yet, all Auron had to do was look at me and all my adult composure, all my maturity, all my perspective was gone. With one gaze, he had been able to deflate my ego and reduce me to the child I feared I still remained. I tried to convince myself that I would prove him wrong, that I would win, and that Yuna would not have to go to her death to save Spira from its fate.