spira_rp | Make my way back home

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Make my way back home

Their foray into the Vile Peaks had been fruitful and frustrating at the same time. Yylfordt had got the time the day after their encounter with the stupidly overpowered-for-what-it-was Hollow to go and mooch among the old ruins left there. He'd wanted to bring back a lot more than he'd been able to, in the end, partly because of the bulk of things. He'd got some very flat looks when he'd suggested just leaving some people behind so there was more room on the Ragnarok; fortunately, they'd known he was joking.

Or had thought he was, anyway.

They'd brought back what they could, and Even and his scary Aeon level ice powers had gone off to his laboratory, and Nel had gone back to doing whatever she did all day, and Yylfordt, Apache, Tayuya, Kadaj, and Grimmjow had been left to their usual devices again.

They'd got bored after two days, and Yylfordt had got round to wiring up their coffee machine. He'd been tempted to just steal it and wire it up in his workshop and then lord it over Szayel that he had one, but he hadn't wanted to annoy Apache and Grimmjow any more than he usually did by existing, so he was working on connecting in to the Palace's electrics, and running a cable to the Sunhouse.

Which was about when he'd decided he could really do with some more insulated wire, and connector pins, and another socket adapter wouldn't go amiss, really. He had things, of course, he was Al Bhed, he'd never not have things. But that was why he needed more things, because if he used these things then he'd be running low, and something about machina and the associated gidgets and gadgets brought out the hoarder in him. He could never allow himself to get down to his last thing, because then what if he needed to use that, and ended up with no things?

He'd got some funny looks when he'd tried to explain his reasoning for wanting to trip into Rabanastre, just to pick up some basics, even though he already had the basics. It was only Rabanastre, and it would only be a day. They'd proven they could go out and come back without getting in trouble. Anyway Nel had apparently told Aizen she'd been impressed with Grimmjow's leadership ability while she was out with them.

They'd been allowed to go to Rabanastre. It was only a short hop of a journey, a shorter hop than Nel usually made to get groceries, which was probably some of the reason they'd been allowed to make it. The Arrancar overall were being given that little bit more freedom, one outing at a time.

The girls had come, because Tayuya and Apache jumped at any chance to get out. Yylfordt had, if he was honest, taken a bit of pride in showing Apache around the Al Bhed quarter. Then he'd burned with jealousy when he'd seen Kadaj give an absently friendly wave to a cute Al Bhed girl in folded down dungarees and a bra, working in the Rockbell repair shop, and getting it returned cheerily. He'd been even more jealous when Kadaj, after being asked, had said simply that she was Winry, which caused a minor meltdown on Yylfordt's part.

He'd not been allowed to backtrack and talk to her, though, as much as he'd wanted to. Kadaj had refused to take him back and introduce him, too, on the grounds that they weren't here for long enough for Yylfordt to fanboy the Rockbells.

"Bro, can't we just--?" He asked again, as they were leaving. The intention was to get something to eat, but Rabanastre Al Bhed food was a little too authentic for some. You had to go to the peripheries if you wanted something everyone found palatable, funny as it would be to try and get Kadaj or Apache to try Desert Oysters.

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Saix had been in a good mood practically since they'd got the Chocobo Eater. He'd had days, of course, where he'd been less tolerant, and there were still people he'd been less tolerant with as a matter of course, Xigbar among them. Still, it was a feat to say he hadn't been explicitly grouchy, despite working in close quarters with Demyx most days to keep the Sandsea ticking over.

Ordinarily, that would have tested his already limited patience, but he'd managed to deal with it with the minimum of threats to Demyx's continued health and wellbeing.

If he caught Xigbar attempting to help himself to drinks again, however, he'd break his hand.

Aerith had offered to treat them to dinner today, and Saix had agreed with no intention of letting the girl pay for everything. He enjoyed spending time with Lea. He even, though he'd be more reluctant to admit it, liked Aerith, and of course, Fang was always a draw.

He felt the reiatsu signatures when Aerith did. Rabanastre was always a hodge podge of mixed reiatsu anyway, picking one signature out of the crowd was hard unless you were practically on top of it.

This wasn't just one, though. He looked over at Lea, his expression severe. He had to have noticed them, too.

Grimmjow raised his eyebrows at the implication that Yylfordt would fly away and leave them high and dry if he committed that particular faux pas, but his comment on the matter didn't make it past his lips.

He knew that feeling. It was faint, suppressed and hidden amongst the throng of people, but it was there, familiar and enough to set his teeth on edge. That sensation came packaged with an involuntary burst of adrenaline and the bridge of Grimmjow's nose wrinkled as his lip curled.

He gave Yylfordt a meaningful look, eyes narrowed.

"Pretty much," she said rolling her eyes.

She stopped, looking at Yylfordt and Grimmjow. The two of them seemed off all of a sudden, like something was wrong. She glanced around at Tayuya, confused.

Lea was too distracted by the crowd and the pleasant atmosphere to be aware of the familiar reiatsu that had suddenly come into sensing range. He hadn't noticed at all, but stopped, confused, when both Aerith and Saix suddenly looked rather serious.

It was only then that he felt it.

The battle in the desert came back to him, followed by the earlier one, where Aerith's timely application of her Limit Break had saved them from the blue-haired guy and some of his associates.

His eyes narrowed.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me," he groaned, his voice tight. "Here?"

Fang had proved less than useful when it came to selling flowers. Lea did better than she did and Aerith was easily the best at it, but she had still managed to sell the contents of a basket when presented with the challenge. She hadn't realised that flowers were so lucrative a market but it made sense for a desert city where survival wasn't at the top of every resident's list.

After the day was done, she was happy to go and enjoy something to eat with the lot of them. She would have preferred to have spent the day outside the city's walls, hunting them something instead of engaging with the general population, but food at the end was good no matter what came before.

She looked at Lea when he spoke, an eyebrow arched.

"What?" She asked. "Food quarter closed?"

Tayuya stopped, catching Apache's confusion at around the same time as she noticed the unmistakable reiatsu of the berserker, and his fire elemental friend, and that little Holy elemental bitch they had with them too.

She scowled. "The berserker's here," she said. She was the first one to acknowledge it out loud. "With his friends."

For fuck's sake. They couldn't go anywhere.

Yylfordt looked at Grimmjow, his expression serious. "What you thinking, bro?" He asked.

A city wasn't exactly an ideal battleground, but that went both ways. The Ryoka had vested interest in people not figuring out they were Ryoka.

Just like the Arrancar had a vested interest in people not knowing what they could do, either. But Grimmjow's feud with the berserker ran deep, and Tayuya was gunning for the fire elemental's head on a platter.

The problem was, to have noticed each other now, like this, here, they must practically be on top of each other already.

Kadaj frowned, but didn't comment. He could feel the berserker, he knew his reiatsu well enough. The problem was, Kadaj had grown to like and respect Even, and somehow, attacking his ex felt wrong. He wasn't sure how it would go over if he came back and had to tell Even that Grimmjow had finally killed Saix, something he'd attempted to do on numerous occasions with Even present.

He might not care. Or he might, Kadaj had never pried to deeply into what had gone on between them. That was Even's business. But fighting Saix now felt like it was also messing with Even's business.

Saix glanced at Fang. She was a perfectly capable combatant, but she hadn't met Arrancar yet. It looked like she was about to.

"We're in the presence of some old friends," he said, his voice low. "This could get interesting."

Interesting, in this case, being a code word for violent. That was the problem; Rabanastre was not somewhere Saix particularly wanted to turn into a battleground, but the Arrancar had been very bad at avoiding confrontations in the past.

He couldn't even summon his claymore here, if it came to it. Whereas they carried swords as a rule. He'd be at a disadvantage if they decided to make this a fight.

"We can't start shit in a city," Apache said, mostly to Tayuya. "The boss'd lose his mind."

Not just the boss, either. If she was any judge, the people and city authorities would have a less than favourable response to such a fight breaking out within Rabanastre's walls, too.

The last thing any of the Arrancar needed was an arrest for brawling and/or murder on their record.

Grimmjow looked thoughtful, if predatory. Starting a fight in a big city wasn't the best thing they could do, but it would certainly cut down on the flashy moves if they had to. On the downside, he wouldn't be able to release his mask. Still, he was confident that he could beat the berserker if it came to it.

"If we've felt them, they've felt us," he said, his voice low, on edge.

It was Lea who spotted them. They weren't hard to pick out.

Saix's best friend was there, together with the Al Bhed guy and the Summoner girl. He watched them for a moment before realising that a black-haired Hume girl and a Selkie were part of their party as well. That tipped the scales a bit.

"There," he said, suddenly wishing he wasn't unarmed. Summoning his Chakrams in the middle of a crowded city wasn't possible.

Tayuya was scouting the heads in the crowd, looking for the Ryoka. She had a personal score to settle with the fire elemental, and she had her flute to help her do it.

"There they are," she hissed." She glanced at Apache then, and smirked. "I can fuck them up without drawing blood," she said, cockily. "I've been wanting to do that to the rat bastard fire elemental ever since last time."

Other people wouldn't even have to know there was a fight going on, if she did it right. Nor would anyone be likely to notice a bunch of Ryoka going missing.

Yylfordt sighed. "I thought you might say that," he said, resigned to the inevitable meeting, and likely fight. "Have to make it quick though," he said, "before any guards spot us."

A dark part of Yylfordt said that it wouldn't be the first city they'd destroyed.

Another part of him said that Gin would be fucking pissed with them if they trashed Rabanastre.

Aizen too. Couldn't forget him.

Yylfordt took another glance at Grimmjow when Tayuya spoke. They could see each other too. There was no getting out of this now. "Let's go?" He asked, checking before he made a move.

"You can't fight here," Aerith said, clasping her hands and looking at the Arrancar. "There are too many people," she said. She didn't say that it would attract too much attention, that it would call guards, and if they used any of their more unusual abilities it would attract the attention of people who might just sell them down the river to people who might be interested in that kind of thing.

Shinra's main labs were gone, but they were far from the only ones.

Saix looked at Aerith. She was right, of course, and Saix was happy here in Rabanastre. He didn't want to leave it to escape whatever he might bring down on all of them now.

The rest of the Thirteenth Order had enough of a grudge against himself and Lea as it was, without fueling that particular fire, anyway.

He looked over at the group of Arrancar. He could see Grimmjow already, a person he'd fought many times, but whose name he'd only learned in their second to last encounter. That woman then had tried to prevent it coming to a fight. The next time they'd met, they'd headed for each other, Saix and Lea because they didn't want to be caught off guard. Had they done it for the same reason, perhaps?

For what little it mattered, he thought, but the fight had always been between himself and Grimmjow. Everyone else simply got involved. It was Grimmjow that wanted to fight, and if Saix was honest, he did too. He liked fighting Grimmjow. Or he had done, until the last couple of times they'd met. Lea being put in danger had raised the stakes beyond Saix's comfort. Aerith was in danger from it too. Now there'd also be Fang.

"Stay here," he said, and then walked off towards the Arrancar.

Grimmjow noticed Saix's approach and he too stepped forward, ahead of the rest of his party. He knew that they could defend themselves, they'd more than proven themselves to be capable fighters, even Apache, but he was the Clan's leader and he wasn't about to hide behind any of them.

He rested his hand on the hilt of Pantera, not quite making a threat of it, but so he could draw it if he had to.

Lea, of course, didn't listen.

He wasn't going to let Saix approach a known enemy party by himself whether it was in a crowded market square or not. He followed him, a few paces behind, close enough to provide backup should it be needed, but far enough away that he wouldn't be seen as so much of a threat as to spur them into action they otherwise wouldn't have taken.

Fang had spent enough time around Saix to know that when he said 'interesting' a moment ago, he meant 'messy'. Aerith's comment about not being able to fight didn't come as much of a surprise to her.

When Saix headed off to meet them, warning the rest of them to wait, she didn't take the instruction any more seriously than Lea did.

If there was likely to be a fight, the more people there to head it off before somebody ended up dead or arrested, the better.

Yylfordt watched the berserker make his way over, followed close behind by the rest of his group. "Who's the new chick?" He murmured, eyeing Fang in particular. Another unknown quantity wasn't what they wanted in a fight, the last time it had been the Holy elemental girl and she was, to put it bluntly, a pain in the ass when it came to fights.

He put his own hand on Del Toro, ready to draw it if necessary.

Tayuya sneered, her upper lip curling as the berserker approached. He walked ahead of the rest of them, and she kept her eyes on the fire elemental in particular.

That bastard was going down.

Kadaj already had his hand resting loosely on Souba. He gripped her when Saix started to make his way over, and his companions followed. He'd only heard about Saix's new companions from the others; he hadn't seen them himself yet.

He loosened his grip again and straightened up when he saw exactly who they were. He knew those people.

"Lea," he said, softly, watching the red head. Aerith, too.

Shit.

Aerith had heard Saix ask Lea if he wanted to take her and go before, and Lea seemed about as prepared to do that then, as he seemed to stay behind now.

She followed after them, sticking close to Lea, and looking over the people before them.

Most of them, she recognised. One of them she didn't.

One of them, she recognised against all expectation. She knew Kadaj. He'd come into Rabanastre with a beaten up motorcycle, which Lea had helped him get repaired. She'd met him then, when he'd thanked Lea with a drink afterwards. He'd seemed a quiet, slightly shy kid, but he was in possession of some serious power under that surface, and the mako glow to his eyes told a story he hadn't gone into, and she hadn't asked about.

He was a Hollow Hunter, he'd said, specialising in Fiends.

What was a Hollow Hunter doing with Arrancar?

Saix glanced back over his shoulder with a hint of irritation. Lea was monumentally bad at taking orders, and sometimes, at recognising when something was an order.

He huffed as he approached the Arrancar, his eyes on Grimmjow. He didn't look at the rest of them, yet.

"I'm not going to fight you here," he said, stopping a few feet away. He was close enough to talk, he wasn't close enough to get hit without warning, at least, not under normal circumstances.

If Grimmjow wanted a fight, he'd give him one. But he'd give him a fight somewhere else, at some other time, and without their friends getting caught up in it all.

If Grimmjow insisted on trying to start one, however, things would get more complicated. Saix was willing to bet that Grimmjow enjoyed fighting him, but they both matched each other power for power. If Grimmjow had, even once, started a fight by going in with everything he had, he'd have beaten Saix long ago.

But that wouldn't have been fun, which was why Saix had never done it, either.

Was he willing to bet their safety on Grimmjow having no interest in fighting him if he refused to fight back? Saix wasn't entirely sure.

He hoped he didn't have to find out.

Apache looked at the impending altercation with a small amount of apprehension. She had no problem with participating in a fight, but the location was bad and she'd heard about this Berser--

When he got close enough, she stopped thinking. Instead, she stared past Grimmjow at him, eyes a bit wide. She recognised him, but not from battle, like the others did.

"You--" she said, not giving Grimmjow a chance to respond to the berserker's attempt at composed diplomacy.

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