Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Akirame Norwen ❯ A Fatal Mistake ( Chapter 30 )

(A/n: wheee! Feels good to finally know where this story is going! I can hardly believe that I'm actually gonna finish it! Well... music selections, I have found. System of a Down's "Aerials" or "Suggestions" are pretty good, as well as "Atwa". Yes... I have broadened my taste in music.)

Chapter 30: A Fatal Mistake

Riku still sat in his place in the sand, watching Akira hurriedly walk towards her bag. Words couldn't express all that he was feeling. A hurricane of love, remorse, self-hatred and disbelief raged inside him, making his head spin. Finally he realized why she had left... he had been unable to respond, too shocked to move or speak. At last he willed himself up onto his feet, and started to stumble over the sand, moving as if in a dream.

He finally found her, sitting on top of her sleeping bag, resting her head on her knees, softly sobbing. As he got closer he could hear what she was saying. "Stupid, stupid... how could you do something like that? Were you out of your mind kissing him like that? *Kissing* him?! You took it too far, too serious... you ruined everything, Akira..."

Riku felt his heart break at her words. Should he approach her and console her, or would it be better to let her sort things out on her own? He stood there silently for a while, weighing the options in his mind. "Come on, move Riku, talk to her! This may be the perfect chance to tell her how you really feel."

"But... what if she only gets mad at me?"

"Come on, you should at least make her feel better, since she is your friend, after all."

Riku's mental argument stopped as soon when Akira suddenly looked up at him, her face streaked with tears. "Hey Riku." She weakly said.

Riku bit his lip and sat down next to her. "Hey."

"I feel really stupid for doing that back there."

Riku sighed. If only she knew how much it would have meant to him if that kiss had been heartfelt, and true. "It's all right... spur of the moment, right?"

"Yeah... I don't know what I was thinking." She lied. Deep down inside she knew she was driving herself to insanity. All she wanted to do right now was have him wrap his arms around her, to rock her gently and tell her everything was going to be okay. But no matter what, she was being denied her heart's truest desire.

Riku felt much the same, his heart flaring up in a flame of emotions. Dear Hyne, how he longed to kiss her back now... but was it too late? He looked up at the starts as if they would answer his questions. All they did was twinkle back at him, as if winking to either encourage or mock. "It's...all right Akira, I understand that you didn't mean to." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and then mentally continued: "But I wish you had."

Akira sighed and leaned against him, happy that she would always have his support. She gave a loud yawn, and leaned her head against Riku's chest, glad for his warmth. In return he place his other arm around her almost protectively, and then sighed and rested his cheek on her head.

Akira slowly blinked, and then looked up and watched as a huge cloud of sand came rushing slowly over the dunes, threatening to consume them. Riku was wrapping his arms around her, trying to protect her, but she wanted to run and hide.

She quickly opened her eyes. When had she fallen asleep? Blinking to clear her eyes she sat up, and looked down to see Riku laying peacefully beside her. She smiled softly at the sight, and then looked at her watch. Morning wouldn't come for at least another 3 hours. Sighing, she lay back down, and then rolled onto her side and rest her head on his chest. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat, smiling as his chest gently rose and fell with each breath he took. She lazily draped an arm over him and knew that deep down, she'd never be happy any other way.

"Everyone, wake up! It is time for us to leave!" Harid's voice shouted, arousing the slumbering travelers.

Riku moaned and tightly hugged the body that was half-draped over him, and then almost panicked when he realized it was Akira. "Not again..." He thought to himself, dropping his head back onto the sleeping bag as she stirred.

Instead she warmly nuzzled his chest before sitting up. "G'morning Riku." She sleepily said, stretching and yawning.

"Wow... you didn't attempt to murder me this time."

"Pssh.. you're lucky. I'm too tired to try and kill you." She slowly mumbled back, standing up and rolling up her sleeping bag.

Harid approached them with another cheery smile that suddenly seemed almost hallow. "Get up my fine friends. We have only but three more days until we reach an oasis where we can all rinse our bodies of this sand."

The day went by rather slowly, as expected. The caravan almost seemed to crawl over the endless wasteland. The only distraction was the stray cactaur (a walking cactus) or a giant vulture circling high overhead.

Slowly the group came to trust Harid. He was a man of his word, always looking out for their well-being. The only thing that still unnerved them was how secretive he was about the contents of the crates they were transporting. Jerdania had inquired him about it that night at the fire, and she had received a cold, eerie smile that sent shivers up her spine.

The days slowly passed, and at last they arrived at the oasis. It was a large, beautiful pond of sky-blue water surrounded by palm trees and a small shelf of rocks that reflected the dancing light of the water. Erik quickly dropped his pack on the spot and ran, yelling like he was crazy as he whipped his shirt off and jumped into the water. "Man, this feels great!" He happily shouted when he came back up for air.

"We have to drink that water, you know!" Kairi scolded him.

"It is quite all right my friends. We have more than enough water with us. This oasis is strictly for bathing and relaxing." He assured them.

Jerdania watched as everyone approached the oasis, leaving the chocobos unattended. She decided to take advantage of the distraction, and sneaked around to one of the birds bearing the large crates. She slowly untied the ropes holding the box down and gently laid it down on the sand. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, she pulled a Swiss army knife out of her pocket and pulled out a long blade. She wedged it into one of the small spaces where the sides of the box came together, and began to wiggle the knife back and forth, trying to pry it open. At last the crack finally widened, and she peeked in, trying to make out what was in there. She suddenly froze when she heard someone walk up to her. "Looking for something?" Harid asked her, reaching down and grabbing the back of her neck, pulling her up.

"It fell, and I was going to put it back for you!" She hastily tried to explain, feeling her feet slowly leave the ground.

Harid laughed and shook his head. "Foolish girl. You should know better than to meddle in the affairs of the nomads."

With that he kicked the side of the crate, and the side of the box fell down into the sand, a large number of rifles, gunblades and ammo belts tumbling out.

Jerdania gasped and struggled. "You! You're supporting the Al Bhed war, aren't you?" She accused, futilely thrashing about.

Harid gave another laugh. "But of course! The Khashkabald nomads have been making a generous living by making them weapons and selling them to the Al Bhed army. Osama! Sadam! Come here!"

Two of his lackey friends came running up obediently. "Yes Harid?"

"I'm afraid our guests are no longer welcome with us. We will follow through with our plan now." He told them both.

The lackeys nodded, and quickly ran back to the oasis to carry out their orders. Jerdania tried to shout out to her friends, but Harid's large hand quickly covered her mouth. She struggled against his firm hold, and jerked when she felt something prick her neck.

"Shh.. calm down now. You're going to feel very sleepy.. don't worry about fighting it.. go to sleep." Harid's vile voice softly whispered in her ear as her vision began to blur.

Jerdania felt exhaustion overtake her, and at last he released her from his grip. She took a step forward, and then fell limply into the sand.

Red groaned and slowly opened his large reptilian eye. He tried to stand up, but found that someone had tied his feet together. Growling, he raised his head quickly and discovered that he was muzzled and hitched to one of the palm trees. He moaned again and winced as the sun glared in his eyes. Around him he could hear the other members of the group slowly waking up and moving around. He squinted and moaned as his head began to pound. He couldn't remember a thing that had happened.. he couldn't even remember morphing into his dragon form. Slowly, bit by bit, it started to come back to him. Harid had been holding a dart gun.. he couldn't understand what he would be doing with it. Suddenly the gun was fired, and Irvine fell to the sand unconscious. To protect himself, he had morphed into his dragon form.. beyond that everything was a blur.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Erik slowly sitting up. His hands were bound behind his back, and his feet were tied together. He looked around him as if in a daze, and his eyes widened when he spotted his dragon friend tied to the tree. "Red, are you all right?" He asked, trying to stand but falling back down.

Red rolled his eyes and rest his head against the tree. Perfect. They were all tied up, and had been abandoned in the desert. Even if they managed to get untied, they didn't know where to go. Nearby Riku slowly woke up and looked around. Like Erik, he was completely confused. "What the.... what happened? Where's Harid and the others?" He asked, looking around in a daze.

At this time Jerdania finally awoke, and her conscience was quickly overwhelmed. She looked around at her friends, tied and confused, and couldn't stop reminding herself that it was *her fault*. She had to let her prying eyes get the best of her, that deadly need to know... and it was going to most likely cost them their lives now. Gratefully she noticed that Harid was not entirely heartless; he had left them their supplies, and in the shade of the rock shelf next to the oasis was several large leather waterbags, all full. Somewhat more at peace she closed her eyes and began to twist around awkwardly on the sand, desperately trying to reach the pocketknife that was certainly still in her front pocket. After several minutes of painful stretching, she saw something glint in the corner of her eye. A metal point stuck partway out of the ground just a few feet away from her. Wiggling about insanely she scooted closer, and then rolled onto her side. Slowly and carefully moving, she felt relieved when her tied wrists finally touched the metal point's edge. She dug into the sand, and soon unburied what she was sure had to be her pocketknife. It must have fallen into the sand when she collapsed. The process of positioning the knife proved to be stressful, but at last she managed, and began to slowly saw away at the ropes that bound her wrists together. She tried to slow her breathing and concentrate as the hot sun rose higher into the sky, and the sun glared directly into her eyes. A breeze began to stir up sand, which got into her eyes and crept into her mouth.

She almost felt like giving up when finally the rope snapped, and she quickly slipped the severed ties off and rubbed her sore wrists. "Guys, I'm free... I'll get you all untied." She quickly told her friends, many of whom had been watching her all this time, silently cheering her on.

The first one she untied was Riku. After all, he was the leader, and in she was going to forever be at fault with him for this incident. She kept mentally berating herself, swearing to never let herself live it down, not unless she found some way to forever make up for this. As soon as Riku was untied she quickly moved on to Irvine. After all, who was she to leave her beloved lying in wait in the sand?

The day slowly drew on and finally all the members of the group were freed, and began to cluster around Riku, looking to him for guidance. Jerdania never let her eyes leave the ground, feeling to ashamed of herself to feel like she could possibly be of any help. "All right guys... please calm down! Panicking obviously never helps." Riku quickly requested, putting a hand up to his head as if fighting off a headache. "I don't know what happened here... I don't believe any of us do. Apparently Harid has betrayed us for some odd reason."

"But why would he do that?" Kairi quickly asked.

"Maybe it had something to do with the cargo! Maybe there was something in there that he didn't want us to find out about."

"Then why would he let us join him in the first place then?"

Jerdania quietly slipped away and climbed the rock shelf, seeking solitude. She sat down and faced the oncoming sunset, her guilt growing greater by the second as she heard the questions being asked below grow in quantity. She shifted a little, and found it hard to get comfortable, for something was in her back pocket. She reached her hand in, and pulled out a thickly folded square of tan paper, tied neatly with a string, as well as a small compass. She gently untied the string and the square quickly unfolded. It was a map. As the map unfolded another piece of folded paper fell into her lap. She refolded the map and then picked up the paper from her lap and opened it. It was a letter from Harid.

"Dear Friends," It began. "I am most apologetic that I must leave you like this in the desert. For you see, it was truly my innermost wish only to be of help to you, but I am afraid that when you did not respect our right to the privacy of our business, you put the only way we nomads can make a living to support our families on the line. But I assure you that I am not entirely ruthless, for I have left you with a map, a compass, and an adequate amount of water that should last you long enough, given that you do not get lost in a sandstorm. Hyne being merciful, you will have a safe passage. I wish you luck. Harid."

Jerdania bit her lip. So Harid really wasn't so bad after all... or was he? When she had pried into their affairs, she had not only put her friends' lives on the line, but if what Harid said was true, he had also put his families on the line as well. "Wonderful, Jerdania... now their blood is on your hands. Never will a moment pass by when you don't regret this." She muttered hatefully to herself, feeling almost like bashing her head against the rock she sat on.

Of course, killing herself wasn't going to really solve anything in the end. She considered going on down and telling everyone what had happened, and then quickly decided against it. She didn't want to provoke everyone's anger. Maybe if she just spoke to one person alone, it would work... she could tell Irvine. Irvine was the most understanding person she had met, and she was certain that no matter what she did, he would always forgive her and point out the positive things that could be done to correct her mistakes. She finally began to climb back down the rock, and found that Riku was waiting with Irvine at the bottom for her.