Zeku, Rikku, Paine, and Yuna dashed on with their expedition. They tackled the forest just outside of the Moonflow next. They were looking for anything--any type of clue, hopefully a sphere that might lead them to the location of Yuna's dearly beloved. They'd been in the forest for a while and Zeku was just about certain that they were lost. "Hey...are we in the right place?" She felt like they were going around in circles.
"Yeah! I think..." Rikku half yelled, half whispered; she didn't seem to be sure herself, but she was still leading the way through the woods, standing out in front and turning a direction whenever a strange tree stump stood in their way...and that seemed to happen a lot...more often than usual during the past couple of minutes. The trees seemed to be looming closer to them with every step and soon it was as if they were soon to be engulfed in the dense forest.
"I have a bad feeling about this, guys," Yuna said, clutching her fist tightly onto the side of her gun. Yuna had this amazing ability to sense bad things before they came, and right now, she was getting that familiar feeling. However, as of right now, she couldn't do anything about it. They were still playing follow the leader and Rikku was still the leader, bringing them into the unknown territory. They had been walking around aimlessly for the psat twenty minutes and yet they thought they should have been on the other side by now, but Rikku said otherwise, of course hesitantly.
"Me too," Zeku nodded in agreement. They walked on just a little bit further. Suddenly, something hit Zeku from behind. She tripped and stumbled forward. Zeku looked up at who had tripped her. A familiar face stood over her, looking utterly shocked and thoroughly annoyed. "You! I remember you..." Zeku said warily.
"You survived!?" Zeku looked flustered.. what did he mean? Agh if only she could remember what he had done... what was going on and basically everything about who she was. "You're in my forest. What are you guys doing here?" Nonca demanded at once.
"We're just trying to pass through!" Yuna argued, holding her hand passionately out in front of her.
"That's nice, but I'm afraid you won't be leaving for quite a while," Nonca said and turned around and pulled branch down. Immediately, another branch much larger toppled down over them and knocked all four of them out cold.
A while later, Yuna opened her eyes and suddenly, her head throbbed with a great pain: a searing stemming from the back of her head throughout her entire body. She sighed and muttered to herself, "Why does this stuff always happen to us?" She realize that she was lying down on the floor facing the wall, so she flipped herself around with an effort and saw a dark haired man unconscious next to her, his eyes clothes and his bangs falling right in front of his face. She screamed and slapped him hard across the face.
Zeku heard the scream and suddenly, her eyes opened vigorously. It wasn't long before she realized she was lying down against a wall, a cushion behind her back. The first thing her eyes could focus on was the dark blue ceiling and then...that Nonca was standing above her. We gave her a little wave, one sick smirk on his face. "What the hell...?"
"Shut your trap," he muttered. Zeku attempted to stand right up and punch him, but for some reason her arms wouldn't move. No part of her body would. Some unnamed force was binding her down and she fought to free herself. She pushed against it mentally and physically, but she was powerless to it. "Don't even try. That should teach you to tread on my territory. So, Zeku. Is that your name, Zeku? So, I know you've been admiring me."
"Don't flatter yourself. It's not the least bit attractive," Zeku told him and he raised an eyebrow--quite the feisty character isn't she?
Yuna, Paine, and Rikku suddenly burst into the room, just as Nonca leaned in to give his guest an unwanted kiss, but Rikku punched him square in the nose. "Get away from her, you pervert!" She turned back to Zeku and gave her a hand. "Don't worry about it, Zee... he's already hit on all of us too. Now get up, let's get out of here!"
"Rikku! Wait, I can't move!" Zeku called out to her from where she was lying because Rikku had turned, assuming Zeku would follow her, and was about to leave the room. Yuna and Paine rushed to Zeku and slung her each arm around their shoulders, then started carrying her out the door, and slowly they progressed towards what they believed to be the exit. Rikku spat out bad words under her breath angrily. "Right, so what have you guys been up to while I was stuck in that room?"
"Well, I woke up and thought there was a man next to me, but it turned out to be Paine," Yuna said and they laughed. "We found Rikku somewhere down the hall and set out to look for you. Just in time too." They rushed outside, but were confronted by Nonca.
"Your little journey ends HERE!" he screamed at them. Paine stepped away from Zeku and faced him. She had her blade out and was prepared to fight. Nonca laughed; perhaps it was not such a smart thing for Paine to step out alone, but before joining the Gullwings, Paine had endured a strange mental and physical training that only furthered her as a soldier and as a person. She felt this her duty to protect her friends.
Nonca and Paine battled each other for a mere ten minutes, which was actually a long time considering how seconds could fly by during a battle, but Nonca stood victorious. Paine had attacked with all her might, slashing and attacking him at an extremely quick pace, attempting to give Nonca no chance of tackling her back, but for some reason, his skills had been enhanced and his speed was great. He took Paine down with a simple Fira magic and a few slashes at her through the blazing fire. Paine was now lying at the side, eyes shut tight in pain.
Rikku stepped out, holding a dressphere. She quietly chanted something and immediately, the dress sphere took action. She dropped her double blades and they pierced down into the ground. Rikku jumped high into the air, letting the magic of the dessphere enrapture her. Her clothes changed from her slutty Theif outfit, to her more protective and strangely patched together Trainer outfit. Rikku whistled a small tune and a monkey came running to her. She was ready to fight.
Rikku put up a good fight; she and her monkey were partners. She gave the small perky monkey treats in order for it to attack while it scratched and screamed furiously. One may not expect it to be a worthy opponent, but Rikku made sure that idea would be seriously reconsidered. Nonca yawned, obviously not impressed. Another few minutes, and Rikku was out of the ring. Now it was Yuna's turn. She propped Zeku up against the side of a tree, then pulled out her two guns and loaded them.
Nonca sat down and waited for her. Yuna fired and went a little trigger happy, but Nonca jumped aside from all her attacks. He lifted his hand casually and blew Yuna away with the flick of a wrist. Yuna fell over. How could he be this strong? Yuna fought back, but after another fifteen minutes, she was out cold as well.
Now it was just Zeku, unable to move, unable to fight.