Author’s Notes: Holy crap, it’s liked! This is the first story that someone actually gave me a review that I was all… “Oh I should keep writing!” T’was kinda inspiring and whatnot. XD Right then. Here it goes!

All disclaimers apply.   Al Bhed is underlined and whatnot. : )  

Chapter 2

  “So… where are we, 23?”   The amber-eyed 22-year-old looked at him curiously. “23?”   “That’s what the tag on your collar thing says, right?”   “Yeah, it does. But my name is Hige, Turkey.”   Reno smirked. “Yeah, well, the name’s Reno, not ‘Turkey,’ thanks. Hey, do you know where there’s a phone around here?”   “Bah, they shut ‘em all down around here a few weeks ago. Don’t know what it’s supposed to accomplish, but still.”   There was a moment of silence between the two men. When Reno opened his mouth to speak, a man landed in front of him with what sounded suspiciously like a growl. “Who the hell are you?” the man asked, venom dripping from every word he spoke.   Reno blinked as he found a dagger at his throat. As a reflex, he jumped back and brought out his nightstick, his finger hovering over a familiar button. Looking up, he glared at the white-haired, golden-eyed man who still had the sharp point of the dagger pointing at him. “Who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?”   “Tsume, he’s with me. Don’t kill the Turkey.”   “Hey, I thought I told you not to call me that,” Reno snapped.   “You’re a Turk?” the one called Tsume asked, his golden eyes showing a quick flash of surprise before it vanished.   “Well, damn it, I need to make a living somehow. Again, do you people have any form of communication around here besides vid-phones? They are obviously not an option.”   Hige and Tsume exchanged looks. “Well… there’s always a terminal,” Hige suggested.   “Why the hell would I use one of those?”   “Because you can if you were a Hex,” Hige pointed out with a careless shrug.   Without looking fazed by the obvious assumption, Reno scowled. “If I were a Hex, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to throw my business out to people I don’t know. Why the hell am I with you people anyway?”   Ignoring the question, Hige fixed him with a serious look. “That’s because I’m a Hex too and I know when I see one.   “,”,”,”,”,”,”,” ,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,&# 8221;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,̶ 1;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”   R ikku flopped back down in her chair across from Tidus with her arms crossed protectively over her chest and flung her copper hair over her shoulder while Yuna sat down more lady-like than her cousin.   “So… what do you want?” Rikku asked quietly while messing with the straw in her McDonald’s cup.   Tidus arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean, ‘what do I want?’”   “What I mean is that I’m not going to believe any crap you tell me since someone that looks like he could be your twin keeps looking at us.”   “Rikku…” Yuna let out in a warning voice.   “No way am I letting up now!” she whispered angrily. “I’m on a roll putting the blame on his cunno pidd. So, but to the chase bnaddo puo.” (…sorry butt… pretty boy.)   “All right. We need help. Specifically from you two.”   “Us?” Yuna muttered. “How could you use our help? I’ve been sheltered from life outside of the government for so long now that I’ve forgotten what it’s like and how to take care of myself!”   “I’m part of a band of pro-Hex called the Aurochs. We’re trying to bring down the Hex laws that your father enforced.”   “My father? Oh, please. He never ‘enforced,’ as you put it, those laws. At least not willingly. That’d be rather hypocritical, don’t you think? A supposed family man putting his own family in danger?” Yuna whispered dangerously.   Tidus grinned. “Which is why we were going to try and kidnap you. You’d obviously have been able to cover your tracks, so you’d have to be good at… hacking or whatever it is, right?”   Yuna shook her head. “It’s more like Rikku. I never go into the net without her. We can’t let people know more things that they can blackmail my father with. This country is no longer a ‘free country’ while we’re living in the twenty-fifth century.”   Tidus let another grin escape. “Even better.”   “Come on, Yunie. If you say yes, I’m with you all of the way. I told you before and I’ll say it again: I’ll protect you with my life. You’re my family.”   Yuna looked at her cousin and felt tears well up in her eyes. Her cousin had sacrificed so much for her already. She wore contacts to cover the swirls in her eyes, she wore a wig of the same color of her cousin’s own hair, she’s changed her last name, and even kept a low profile away from the rest of the Al Bhed to stay inconspicuous. Now she admitted to even giving her life if necessary. “Thanks, Ri.” Then, she turned to Tidus, a determined glint in her eye. “All right. We’ll do it.”   “,”,”,”,”,”,”,& #8221;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,R 21;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,” ,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,” &n bsp; “Sephiroth, you stupid ass. Don’t do that!”   The twenty-five year old, green-eyed, silver-haired man grinned down at his seventeen-year-old brother. “Geese. You should have seen the look on your face, Riku.”   The younger one waved his brother off and scowled. “Yeah, whatever. That’s not the point. I think you may have injured Sora’s pride.”   Kairi giggled at the position that Sora found himself in on the ground. “Eet taks moo dan at du eenhurr mmm puheaidee…”   Sephiroth kicked the sixteen-year-old brunette in the butt, making him flip over and onto his back. Sephiroth leaned over the kid and Sora blew at Sephiroth’s long, tied back hair that was hovering over his nose, in hopes that the attempt would stop it from tickling his nose with no success. “What was that?” Sephiroth asked with what the teens had dubbed as his evil grin.   “Nothing. As a matter of fact, I think that my pride is very wounded.” He rolled over and away from the man. “I mean… you actually kicked me in the butt.”   “Sora, he’s almost a decade older than you. He can kick you in the butt when he wanted to,” Kairi pointed out.   “I resent that!” Sora said, pointing to the ceiling in a over-dramatic gesture.   “… Holy shit, I’m old,” Sephiroth mumbled. He then looked around at the three teens. “So, have you come up with anything?”   Kairi looked between the two boys. “Apparently not. I’d find help if I could--”   The two boys glared at her. “No, you aren’t!”   “Well, I’ve got to help sometime. And it’s not like you two are doing anything to help yourselves!” she pointed out with a huff.   “Kai, it’s too dangerous,” Sora pointed out, exasperated with the argument already.   “I can take care of myself!”   “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re not doing it,” Riku snapped with finality.   Sephiroth crossed his arms. “Give the girl a break, will you. I’ll bet you two haven’t even listened to her suggestion.”   “Seph, you for get what we are! If she gets caught, who knows what’ll happen? She’ll either be put to prison or have the same fate as all the Hex who are caught: death!”   “And you, little brother, forget what Kairi can do.” He then turned to the sixteen-year-old girl. “What’s your idea Kairi?”   “I have this friend… she’s a Hex too. She’s part of this pro-Hex group or something… She comes into town every now and then for supplies and I saw her yesterday; she suggested that we all go there and that we’d be safe.”   The three stared at her in a moment of silence and they all seemed to blink as one. Slowly, a grin made it’s way across Sora’s face. He ran over to her, picked her up, and started spinning her around in circles. “ALL RIGHT KAIRI!”   “,”,”,”,”,”,” ;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,& #8221;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,R 21;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”   “Oi! Ali! Wraith! I think you should see this!” a nineteen-year-old, amber-haired boy shouted.   A pale, 27-year0old man with pale, white-blonde hair shaved down in a buzz cut came into the room. His blue eyes scanned the room and came to a rest on the vid-screen where two girls were pictured. When he was finally standing behind the chair that the boy occupied, he noticed that the two girls looked oddly familiar…   “Hey, isn’t that the daughter of the president of the United States?” a female voice asked.   The two males looked at the blonde, 22-year-old woman standing in the doorway. Allison Marie Tarrel, the woman who tried to keep things on track after Raven. People were lost when Raven disappeared, yet Ali managed to keep a cool head and took charge, no matter how uncertain she was about it. The fight for their freedom in England through the government was over, but in the eyes of the public it was just beginning. Their freedom in England was just a dent in the problem of the matter. They still had to fight for it all around the world if they ever wanted to leave the country. The people of the world still feared the Hex, though now it wasn’t because of fear of what one does not know. It was for a reason: no one wanted to believe the truth, which the kids Gift and Talent had on their person. It helped in stopping the corruption of the English net. The very information that the CPS had killed many for, so as to stay in high power…    >The HEX gene is a discovery unparalleled in the history of human evolution. The melting of mind and machine is a development that has awaited the human race since its creation. To the HEX no space is a void. The universe can’t be traveled in an instant. The HEX is a mind ready to transcend the narrow boundaries of the body and become thought without flesh. It takes not trauma to unlock the potential of the HEX. Recognize that there are no boundaries and there will be none. < (1)   Though the Ghosts had leaked this information out, it was only leaked out to the world leaders. Through that system, they found who the most corrupt leaders were by seeing if they’d remove their anti-Hex laws, or if they’d leave them so they could keep their power over the people. The majority of them had chosen power. Ali shook her head and focused on the vid-screen in front of her.   “… daughter of President Anderson, Yuna Anderson, was kidnapped yesterday, last seen with her cousin, Rikku Johnson (2), who was also deemed missing. The two girls were last seen at a local mall not far from the white house. How…”   Ali clicked off the vid-screen and wrinkled up he nose. “They’ll be saying the same thing all day, I’ll bet. What do you make of it, Kez? Wraith?”   Kez shrugged. “I really don’t know. Maybe it’s a pro-Hex gang rebelling out there. Some sort of ransom, maybe. Or maybe it’s just people who want their fifteen minutes of fame. Who knows?”

Wraith shook is head. “Whatever it is, I say we wait. If they contact us, it’s pro-Hex. Otherwise, we have nothing to go on.”   Ali and Kez watched him leave the room. Ali shook her head at the 27-year-old’s back and sat down on the armrest of Kez’s chair. “I don’t see how he does it. I mean all of his family is gone.” (3 ::spoiler::)   Kez nodded. “For Raven, Revenge and himself, I guess. Besides, I’ll bet that she would be proud of him, even though she wouldn’t show it on her life,” he pointed out with a smile.   “,”,”,”,”,”,”,”, 221;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,” ;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,& #8221;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”   Rikku grinned as she watched the vid-screen. She and Yuna had been considered missing for about a day. She found it very amusing, for her picture looked nothing liker her. She had taken off her brown wig, making her golden hair flow down her back from her ponytail and her eyes were once again green and swirled. That girl on the screen was a brunette with bright blue eyes with normal, round pupils. Yuna looked a lot older than she did in the picture, for she had gotten her hair cut to a shorter length, took the blue contact from her right eye, showing it’s bright emerald color equal to that of Rikku’s. Instead of holding her mother’s beaded blue earring in her purse, she had put it back into her ear, feeling comfortable around the strange group of people that had “kidnapped” them.   Rikku exited the room that the vid-screen was in and made her way towards the conference room where she knew that the others most likely were.   She opened the door and grinned into the room. “So… what’s up?”   Six heads looked up at her. She felt the hairs on her arms and neck raise slightly as the all peered at her. There was her cousin with her bi-colored eyes sitting next to a beautiful girl with pretty, power chocolate brown hair with eyes identical to Yuna’s blue one (4), long strings of yellow, white, and pink beads flowing over her shoulders from her ears. What freaked Rikku out was the slight resemblance between the two women; not just in their looks, but also in the way they held themselves as well.   Shaking the feeling off, she looked over to the twins, Shuyin and Tidus. They were both rather attractive with their golden blonde hair that flipped out, and yet it was plainly obvious who the younger of the two was. Shuyin tried to jeep at least on of the moderately innocent and, yet, Rikku knew that Tidus was a lot more mature than he let on. She would know; he’s talked to her about deeper things than anyone ever has in the short conversations they’ve had together in the few hours that they’ve known each other. No one has ever treated the nineteen-year-old as the adult that she was. … It felt kind of good.   Shaking her head slightly, she looked at the last two people at the table. There was a woman with black hair in an intricate design of braids on top of her head and her brown eyes looking relatively… red in color. The man sitting next to the woman had red hair held back by a headband. What was odd was that his hair stuck up in the air somewhere between six inches to a foot up, the top curling back like a wave. She found that it defied gravity in the most unusual of ways. It made her want to find some scissors and just cut it off while he was asleep.   “So, you’re Rikku, ya?”   “Uh-huh. So…” she paused for a moment and looked around the table again. “Why do you need us?”   “Rikku!” Yuna warned.   “What? I really wanna know! I know it’s rude and all, but come on! Someone’s life is or will be in danger whether we’re here or not.”   “That’s not the point!” Yuna argued back. “I don’t want to go back and I know that you don’t either. I’m getting sick of lying!”   “… Sorry, Yunie.” The blonde glanced up and locked eyes with Yuna. Breaking the contact, she grinned again. “So… why are we here?”   Yuna rolled her eyes with a slight smile on her face as Rikku sat down beside her.   “We need your help.” Tidus offered after a moment of silence.   “Well… yeah. But…”   Yuna put a hand over Rikku’s mouth with a sigh. “There’s more to it than the Hex cause isn’t there?”   “Out little brother was taken by the Seccies,” Tidus sighed out.   “So, how do you know he’s not… you know…?”   “Dead?” Shuyin finished. “We know because he keeps contacting us through the net.”   “You’re all Hexes?” Rikku asked, a little surprised.   “No. My little brother and a majority of the other Aurochs are, ya?”   “So… again, why are we here?”   Tidus sighed. “We just told--”   “No, I mean, why can’t they do it? Why do you need us? Why go through all of the trouble to kidnap the president’s daughter?” As soon as the question left her mouth, she knew the answer. It gave publicity to the Hex cause. “Ah… don’t answer that. So… what now?”   “,”,”,”,”,”,”, ”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”, 221;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,” ;,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,” & nbsp; (1)- I don’t own any of that bold stuff. All written by Rhiannon Lassiter, that was. :)   (2)- Real last name is Zurhcuh which translates to Johnson.   (3)- SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! Spoiler for the Hex series. Wraith had lost his whole family, Raven and Revenge, because they… I dunno… DIED. O.o Right then.   (4)- Does anyone have any idea what Lenne’s eye color is?? I’m just sticking with blue for now…   Author’s Notes: HURRAH! I finished chapter 2! It’s been written for MONTHS, but whatever. I finally sat down and felt like typing. XD Right then. I’m out of town for a week! Hurrah! Right then. Peace. Review! (I know you people are out there. Just… glancing at the page and leaving and whatnot, looking at the hits I’ve gotten compared to reviews. XD)