SOS

After reaching the mouth of the Moonflow and waiting a couple of days, an Al Bhedian dredging ship arrived to transport them to Bikanel, a large, predominately desert island with a singular prominent oasis.

"Man, I hate sand..." remarked Andrew, pulling up a scarf to conceal the lower half of his face. The temperature didn't bother him in the slightest, thanks to Body Temp, but the region's powerful winds constantly kicked up sand from the countless dunes stretching beyond the horizon.

Fortunately for Andrew, and everyone else, they didn't have to walk the some 200km to reach the Al Bhed's secret hideout, Home. Instead, they boarded a fan-powered craft called a Hover, sailing it across the sands of the Sanubia Desert as if it were water. It still took four hours to reach their destination, but it was infinitely better than walking...

"Then let's hurry inside~!" exclaimed Rikku, dragging Yuna by the hand as Paine followed close behind. Home was a ten-segmented, fortress-like structure produced from various machina the Al Bhed had excavated from the desert. It had a distinct, cobbled-together vibe that made it look like it might fall apart at any moment, but the interior was relatively clean and, more notably, climate controlled, a testament to the Al Bhed's capacity to repurpose machina, adapt, and survive...

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"You son of a bitch...!" exclaimed a bald, stocky, muscular man with the Al Bhed word for love tattooed above his right temple. He had bushy black eyebrows, the characteristic green spiral eyes of most Al Bhed, dark facial hair, and was wearing a predominately yellow dive suit with olive tones, a green harness, blue gloves, and blue boots. He was also throwing a punch at Andrew's face, the latter effortlessly evading the blow by leaning away as he casually remarked, "It was their decision to make. Besides, I haven't even laid a hand on your daughter..."

'Not yet, at least...' thought Andrew, catching the man's follow-up punch with his open palm, causing him to blink in surprise.

"Well, at least you ain't a complete chicken shit," spat the man, tearing his hand away from Andrew's while Rikku shook her head at the side, rubbing her forehead as she whined, "E ghaf drec fyc kuehk du rybbah(I knew this was going to happen)..."

Hearing his daughter's grumbling, the bald man, Cid, bellowed, "Oui! Ruf luimt oui yknaa du cusadrehk mega drec!? Tet oui lusa ib duu vycd tinehk ouin mycd teja(You! How could you agree to something like this!? Did you come up too fast during your last dive)!?"

"E tet ed du bnudald Yunie yht uin baubma(I did it to protect Yunie and our people)!" exclaimed Rikku, stamping her foot and balling her hands into fists. Her father hadn't taken kindly to the revelation she planned to become a Proxy. He was all for inter-world trade, but he didn't want her, or Yuna, for that matter, being used as leverage to attain it.

"Please, Uncle Cid. Andrew is a good person. Once you get to know him, you'll understand he only wants to help..." implored Yuna, her sincere, upturned-eyed expression and clasped hands dealing critical damage to the bald Al Bhed. There were some notable differences, such as their hair and eye color, but Yuna looked a lot like his younger sister.

"Grrrrr...zicd tu fryd oui fyhd(Grrrr...just do what you want)!" exclaimed Cid, throwing his hands into the air in a fed-up manner. However, before he left the room they were speaking in, he turned to take one last cheap shot at Andrew from behind, staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed when the latter casually caught his hand and wrist with his tail.

"Tyshat suhgao(Damned monkey)..." grumbled Cid, tearing his hand free and stomping out of the predominately metal room, leaving Andrew, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine as the only remaining occupants.

"I don't think he likes me..." remarked Andrew, wearing a wry but largely unaffected smile.

"Well, yeah," said Rikku. "You did kind of steal away his niece and stake a claim to his daughter completely out of the blue. What probably annoys him the most is that he understands how important trade and an alliance with the other worlds will be. The Al Bhed have barely been getting by for too long. Our people 'need' a chance to breathe..."

"Right..." muttered Andrew, deciding to change the topic by asking, "Any idea when that Shinra kid might show up?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Rikku answered, "We know he's staying at the travel agency near Zanarkand. Since it's not exactly safe for a nine-year-old kid to travel across Spira, we'll need to pick him up or have someone escort him over."

Nodding in affirmation, Andrew reiterated, "The Dressphere technology he invents is revolutionary. We need to recruit him to our side at all costs."

"Yeah, yeah..." replied Rikku, waving her hand dismissively. Then, putting Andrew on the spot, she asked, "So, when are we gonna do it? Now that my father knows what's up, we might as well seal the deal."

"Ask me again on your birthday," replied Andrew, a wry smile adorning his face. No laws in the world of Spira prevented him and Rikku from doing as they liked, but he decided long ago that girls above or below certain ages were 'off limits.'

"Huh? But my birthday isn't for another five months," noted Rikku, staring at Andrew with a confused, slightly incredulous look.

"Trust me, I 'want' to," contended Andrew, shaking his head as he added, "But I have personal morals and values to uphold. Once you come of age, though, expect that I'll more than make up for lost time..."

"Now it all makes sense..." groaned Rikku, holding her head and exhaling a sigh. She had nearly started to believe she had misjudged Andrew. Now, she knew the only thing preventing him from pouncing on her like a dog in heat was her age...

"Then, what about Paine...?" asked Rikku, earning herself a withering stare from the red-eyed, silver-haired swordswoman.

"I'm definitely willing," affirmed Andrew, directing a playful wink in Paine's direction before adding, "But consent is very important to me. Even if she says she's okay with it, I'm not an idiot. I can also read between the lines, so it's best to leave things as they are until she's ready."

Though she furrowed her brows and looked away with crossed arms, the faintest of smiles adorned Paine's lips. Like Rikku, she also expected that Andrew would throw himself at her, irrespective of her personal feelings or mood. Instead, he was very considerate, seemingly content to wait as long as necessary. She assumed this was because he had a considerable number of 'reserve' women to choose from, but still...

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"So, it's impossible...?" asked Andrew, standing behind a tiny figure wearing a full-body suit with lime green mittens, a blue collar, and an ocher visor behind a gas-mask-like breathing apparatus.

"Nothing is impossible," replied the youth, his voice raspy and synthetic as he added, "But your makeup is fundamentally different from the people of Spira. My current scanners don't work on you, so the calibration would need to be done manually. Even then, it won't work unless you find a way to infuse Pyreflies into your body artificially. I'm frankly not sure how you can exist in this world without them."

"Well, I'll leave you to figure things like that out..." said Andrew, more of a doer than a thinker. He was a little disappointed that he wouldn't be able to use Dresspheres, but so long as a certain trio could use them, even if only in their world, scouting and sponsoring Shinra's research was bound to pay dividends.

"This is incredible~!" exclaimed Yuna, feeling alive and full of energy as she twirled a pair of short, saw-guard daggers. More notably, her body was garbed in a rather skimpy outfit that consisted of a metal bustier that barely covered more than a bra, a short, three-piece skirt that resembled a loincloth formed from white, blue-tinged flower petals, red gloves, cloth wrappings around her arms, red leg wraps, and smooth-soled shoes that allowed her to move around without making much noise.

"Just be careful you don't catch a cold~" teased Rikku, poking Yuna's exposed abdomen with a cheeky smile on her face. She was also wearing a different outfit, a full-body white robe with a hood, so while she couldn't summon, her and Yuna's roles had temporarily reversed, with her being a White Mage and the latter a Thief.

"Stop it~!" exclaimed Yuna, smiling and laughing as she swatted away Rikku's hand. Dresspheres were able to influence the personality of their user, so she was feeling particularly 'bubbly' since the Thief Dressphere was formed from a combination of Rikku's memories and the experiences of a famous female Thief named Bonnie, allowing her to move and fight as if she had been a Thief her entire life.

"Knock it off, already..." grumbled Paine, standing with crossed arms in an outfit nearly identical to Lulu's, albeit lacking in the chest area. Paine was well aware of this, so she had a surlier-than-usual look on her face, tinged by a faint shade of red.

"Let them have their fun," mused Andrew, grinning mischievously as he brushed the silver-haired Black Mage's ass with his tail. There was still a considerable amount of distance between them, but after eleven days of cohabitation, exercising together in the penthouse's gym, and relaxing in the same steam room, Paine's defenses had waned considerably.

Curious to see how far Paine would let him go, Andrew moved closer and began snaking his tail between the manifold leather belts of her skit when a message window appeared, thwarting his mischief.

Noticing the sudden change in Andrew's demeanor, the blush in Paine's cheeks diminished as she asked, "Did something happen?" with a serious, battle-ready expression.

"I need to go," said Andrew, abruptly disappearing before anyone could ask for an explanation. The very next moment, he found himself under a barrier light, protected from a torrent of flames. The location was betwixt two cliffs, and the sky overhead appeared dark due to the presence of a fiery, eclipsed sun.

"Glad to have you with us, my friend!" exclaimed a man with short brown hair and stark blue eyes, his body adorned in the distinctive black armor of a Warrior as he clapped Andrew's shoulder.

"The barrier won't hold for long...!" shouted a female Lalafell with platinum blonde hair fashioned into twin tails, her body garbed in the hooded white robes of a White Mage as her tiny feet left cracks in the ground due to the force imposed upon her shield.

"Then let it fall...!" shouted the man, smiling as he charged forward with his axe on his shoulder. Others would at least hesitate to charge into a wave of flames, but the man, Ardbert, showed no fear as a barrier of pale blue light protected his body.

"Damnable fool...!" exclaimed a female Miqo'te with short, wavy brown hair framing an alluring face and light green eyes, her lithe and athletic body adorned in the attire of a bow-wielding bard. Her bow resembled a modified harp, and when Ardbert charged forward, she strummed it to produce a green light that surrounded everyone in the vicinity, increasing the potency of healing they received for a short while.

To prevent Ardbert from burning to death, the Lalafellen White Mage, known as Lamitt, cast a Regen spell on him before looking to Andrew and exclaiming, "What are you waiting for, an invitation!?" in a soft yet audibly incensed British-sounding accent.

"I'm going, I'm going~" mused Andrew, leaving the relative security of the barrier to join the fight against the horned, demonic-looking entity leaping around the battlefield, spewing flames at them. It was more than 5m tall on all fours, somewhat emaciated, possessed fiery spines, a long tail, and fearsome claws that could melt reinforced steel, but Andrew couldn't help grinning at the notion that the fiery monstrosity, the Primal known as Ifrit, might present a real challenge...

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