"HOLD ON!" 

"It's gonna get washed into the sea!" 

"The boat's turning! We're not going to make it!" 

Screams and shouts ring out through the air as the captain tries to maintain control of the boat but to no avail. Suddenly, the boat capsizes, Sin appearing right beneath the boat. Sin opens its big mouth and fires an energy beam, its strength equivalent to that of a thunderstorm. The beam fires and the boat is utterly destroyed, the remains of it scattering through the air, towards the island of Besaid. 

*************************************************

"Yah! Come back here, you rascals!"

"Hurry, Jungkook! She's gonna catch us!" Taehyung yells, pulling the little Ronso along. Jungkook nearly scratches Taehyung's arm with his horn upon his forehead as he bends down to catch his breath. 

"You're supposed to be stronger than us, Jungkook!" Jimin, who's already fled far away, cups his mouth and yells.

"Ah! I'm tired!" Jungkook continues running, using whatever Ronso energy he has left. They meet Jimin at the top of the hill where they always play, near the stone where Summoners pray for safety on their pilgrimage.They flop down on the ground and Jimin opens up the paper bag full of bread that Taehyung stole from the woman. 

"Here, have some bread, Kookie," Jimin hands a piece of bread over to Jungkook. Jungkook grabs it and munches it hungrily. Jimin lies down on the ground, his sixteen-year-old eyes looking up at the sky. He's doing it. He's finally doing it tomorrow. He's going to go back to the village and pray at the temple and finally get his first Aeon and become a Summoner. Even Kookie, fourteen with his Ronso blood and Taehyung, an Al Bhed, has decided to become his Guardians and help him. Taehyung's a thief. They don't need money and can still get fed, while Kookie's strong with his Ronso strength and his ability to learn select skills from fiends just by draining their life force away.

"Hey, you know where we can get banana jam?" Taehyung munches at the bread.

"I've never heard of banana jam before," Jimin throws an arm over his eyes. "Hey, Tae." 

"Yeah?" Taehyung is still stuffing his face full of bread.

"You can't enter the temples, you know," Jimin sits up suddenly. 

"Nuh-uh. I can sneak it. I'm a thief," Taehyung grins. "And a ninja." 

"You're not a ninja," Jimin shakes his head. "You're an Al Bhed. You're not allowed in Yevon temples." 

"Screw Yevon," Taehyung mutters. He hated his bloodline. He hated it. Al Bhed were considered the lesser race just because they don't follow Yevon's teachings. Don't use machina, don't be vain. Summoners go on a pilgrimage to get rid of Sin for a few years. Sin is your punishment for being vain and you have to atone for your sins. 

"Hey, you can't say that!" Jimin almost yells. He had been a Yevonite ever since his birth, and when his parents died due to being ambushed by fiends, he swore that he'd avenge them by becoming a Summoner and defeating Sin. 

"Yah, calm down, Jimin," Jungkook his fingers. "Taehyung can't help it." 

"Yeah, whatever," Jimin scowls, standing up. "Look, let's go back at night. The old lady's sure to--"

A blast of light catches them off guard. They look down at their village. There's a large wreckage that washed up, and it looks like some of the houses have been destroyed.

"What happened? Let's go down and check!" Jungkook stands up, unsheathing his spear from his back.

"Wait, it might be Sinspawn or Sinscales!" Jimin remembers them all too clearly. Sinscales and Sinspawn are the creatures that spawn from every piece of Sin that drops from it, be it when Sin is moulting its scales or when someone chips off a piece of it. The scales become ugly little bug-like creatures with purple eyes and wings that'd give anyone nightmares. Sinspawn are even worse. They come in many shapes and sizes. Sinspawn Ammes looks like a tree with tentacles and Sinspawn Gui looks like a giant centipede with two heads--one on its neck and one on its stomach.

"Yeah, we can take them!" Taehyung starts running down the hill. Jungkook follows closely behind him, and Jimin has no choice but to follow.

****************************************

Hoseok looks around. Strange...he thought there were fiends nearby. He sniffs the air. Guado are sensitive to the smell of the Farplane, and in essence, the smell of fiends. The Farplane is a place in Guadosalam where the spirits of dead people go to to find eternal peace.

He looks down from the hill he's standing on. There are bread crumbs on the rocky ground and an empty paper bag. He must be close to civilization, then. He hears voices. Hoseok peers over the edge of the cliff and finds people swarming around a ship wreckage. Did Sin strike this village? He adjusts the rucksack strap on his shoulders and brushes a strand of his green hair behind his pointed ear. 

He walks down the whole mountain, expecting fiends, but encountering none, other than the usual dingos and condors residing on the mountain, which he handled easily with his black magic spells of Fire, Thunder, Blizzard and Water.

When he gets down, he finds that the people of the village are gathering dead people into coffins woven out of cloth and bamboo sticks...and some Gysahl Greens. He winces. He never got used to the sight of dead bodies. Sure, fiends burst into pyreflies should they die--fiends are the incarnation of people who's spirits are left on earth for too long, and never got to the Farplane. Their attachment to the earth keeps them on this plane, and they never moved on. He has never gotten used to seeing dead human bodies.

"Hiya!" 

He hears a voice from behind him, and sees three boys, all around the age of sixteen, with the youngest looking fourteen.

"Uh, hi," Hoseok waves. He's seventeen, so that means these boys are younger than him, right? 

"You know what happened?" the one with red hair asks.

"I don't," Hoseok says. Well, he just arrived, didn't he? 

"You're a Guado," the youngest one sneers.

"Well, yeah," Hoseok mutters. As if it isn't obvious from my green hair and blue eyes and pointed ears? 

"I don't like Guados. Too stinky," the youngest one turns away, folding his arms. The orange-haired one slaps him on his head. "Be respectful to every race, Kookie!" 

Cookie? What a weird name.

"Don't mind Kookie," says the red-haired boy. "He's a Ronso." 

Hoseok rolls his eyes. As if it isn't obvious from his horn and somewhat blue skin.

"Ronsos and Guados seem to have something against each other," the red-haired boy bows and grins up at him. "Sorry. I'm Jimin. The orange-haired one is Taehyung, but you can just call him V. The Ronso's Jungkook, but we call him Kookie." 

"I'm Hoseok," Hoseok introduces himself. "But you can call me Hope." 

"Hah, yeah right," the boy named Jungkook snarls. "You can get your a** out of this village." 

"KOOKIE!" Jimin growls. "No food tonight!" 

Jungkook huffs and storms away, back to a tent. 

"He'll cool down," Taehyung says, scratching his head.

"You're an Al Bhed," Hoseok half-whispers.

Jimin and Taehyung exchange looks. Jimin sighs, "It's not gonna work, Taehyung. Your eyes give you away." 

"Damn," Taehyung stamps his foot on the ground. 

"BOYS!" someone yells from the wreckage of the boat. "Stop talking to some Guado and help here! Guado, you can help too! There are survivors!" 

"Survivors?" Jimin runs over. "Come on, Hoseok! Let's go!" 

*****************************************

"This one, and that one," the man hauls one of them up. He's covered in multiple bruises and stab wounds. No doubt from Sinscales. But he's really pretty, Jimin thought. But you don't usually use "pretty" for boys. The other one's blond hair is matted with blood and plastered against his forehead in a messy mop. He also has a lot of bruises and cuts. Both of them have swords in sheaths.

Hoseok helps with the blond one while Jimin and Taehyung carry the other one. 

They lay the two warriors on beds in a tent. 

"The wounds aren't too deep," a medic lady informs the boys. "They should recover mostly by tomorrow. If not fully. Get me a few more potions, Yoongi!"

Yoongi, another boy sleeping at the far end of the room, gets up lazily and hurls a vial of blue liquid towards the lady, who catches it expertly. She pours the liquid into the mouths of the unconscious warriors.

"The potion will take a while to work, so you don't have to wait here," the medic lady smiles at them. She shouts at Yoongi, "Yah, Min Yoongi! Go practice with your Besaid Aurochs!" 

"I don't wanna."

"Or I'm coming to drag your a** off to the beach!"

"Fine, fine, fine!" Yoongi gets up, albeit a little unwillingly. He pushes himself off the bed with with muscular arms and grabs his spiked blitzball off the shelf.

Whoa, Hoseok stares at the blitzball in amazement. 

"That's kind of why the Besaid Aurochs always loses. No one likes training with Yoongi's spiked ball," Jimin whispers to Hoseok. "But it's pretty good when he uses it against fiends!"

Hoseok suddenly remembers watching his first blitzball match ever. He watched it, and he loved it. It was at Luca, during the annual Blitzball Fest. Blitzball was sort of like basketball in water, and that the whole game takes place underwater. Blitzball players have been training to hold their breath for at least ten minutes ever since they are young, so that they can hold their breath for longer when they get older. Not to mention that the games get pretty rough, with the players tackling each other and sometimes even ended up with cracked ribs. 

He had cheered really loudly when the Guado Glories, their team, won that match, but felt sad when their team lost against the Luca Goers. 

"Who are you?" Yoongi looks at Hoseok. He's at least a few centimeters shorter, but Yoongi's glare is very fierce...given his stature.

"Jung Hoseok," he introduces himself, extending his hand for a handshake.

"Stay away from me," Yoongi growls, nearly snarling at him as he walks away, blitzball still clutched in hand. Hoseok notices that Yoongi's hand is covered in bandages and the spikes are practically drawing blood from his hand.

**************************************************

"This is where we usually come," Taehyung says. He came up to the stone with Hoseok, to show him the night view of Besaid. It wasn't much, really, but afar, Hoseok can see the shimmering lights of Luca, the Blitzball city. Jimin is back in their makeshift home in Besaid, staying with Jungkook because Jungkook refuses to go up with Hoseok and stayed in the tent, curled up with his knees pulled to him. Hoseok said he needed some fresh air, and Taehyung had followed him, just in case any fiends pop up while they're there.

"It looks nice," Hoseok nods. "Come to think of it, I didn't see Yoongi come back." 

"Yoongi's very snappy at times. I'm sorry," Taehyung says. "The thing is, Yoongi's dreams were smashed when they didn't accept him into the team during the tryouts. He tried out for the Luca Goers, but he didn't get in--in fact, he was the only one who didn't. After he left, they taunted him and stuff, and he's never been the same since." 

"That must've been a blow to his reputation," Hoseok says.

"Come to think of it, why're you here?" Taehyung asks. "You should be in Guadosalam."  

"I wanted to adventure, you know," Hoseok says. "And its not just going back and forth to Luca as a Blitzball player. I wanted to explore Spira." 

"But people don't really like Guados," Taehyung points out. "Like the Ronsos and Yevonites and Al Bhed." 

"Yeah, but well..." Hoseok sighs. It's true. Practically no one has ever helped him in his journey. No one wanted to sell him things. No one wanted to give him a room to sleep in, not counting the few Rin's Travel Agencies where the Al Bhed there were surprisingly kind to him. 

"Hey, you...wanna be a Guardian?" Taehyung asks, turning away from Hoseok and staring into the night sky.

"A Guardian?" Hoseok's eyes widened. The only Guardians Guados have ever been was to Maester Jyscal, a revered Summoner in the Guado world. Other than that...maybe one of Summoner Ohalland's Guardians was a Guado? Guados are known for their magic skills, but no one has ever heard of a Guado as a Guardian to a human. 

"Yeah. Jimin's gonna go and become a Summoner tomorrow," says Taehyung. "Said he was gonna pray to the fayth and then get his first Aeon and set off on his pilgrimage. We needa visit Kilika temple after getting our first Aeon to get our second one and...yeah. We're gonna go Kilika, then Djose, then Macalania, then Bevelle, and I heard there was a ruined temple called Baaj temple too." 

Taehyung continues to list the number of temples they're going to visit--two more to add to the list above.

"Guess what, Yoongi's coming too," Taehyung says. "We found it weird, but we didn't ask him why. I mean, he's that guy who sleeps the day away and is very depressed. So...do you...still wanna come?" 

"Yeah, I suppose." It's dangerous, but well, Hoseok thinks to himself. These boys, younger than him, are going on a pilgrimage all the way to Zanarkand, a ruined city where they supposedly summon the Final Aeon and defeat Sin.

"Whoa, cool! I'm gonna tell Jimin now!" 

Hoseok watches as the boy runs off back towards Besaid. 

"Guado..." 

Hoseok hears a weary and weak voice behind him, and he whirls around, prepared to face any fiend that's come his way.

But he comes face to face with Min Yoongi, his eyes bloodshot and his shirt covered with blood.

************************************************

"I told you not to mess with those piranhas!" the medic lady scowls at him and proceeds to bandage up his chest. Yoongi coughs, and winces in pain as the medic lady tugs the bandages tight. Blood is already beginning to seep through the bandages.

"It wasn't the piranhas," Yoongi closes his eyes. "It was the fiends." 

"Fiends? There aren't any fiends for quite a while now," the lady says. 

"A lot of them," Yoongi breathes out. "Peppering the road to the shore of Kilika. It really is...a lot. Someone...something...is creating them or...something."

"That isn't possible...unless there are many unsent spirits," Jimin mutters. 

"Maybe a large city got destroyed or something," Taehyung suggests. "Then there's no Summoner to send the spirits...but there hasn't been word of any destroyed cities..." 

"It's that ship," Hoseok suddenly thinks of it.

"Y-Yeah, that's probably it!" Jimin cries, jumping up. "The people are unsent, right?" 

"That's true..." the medic lady nods. "Then we need to send out the fiend extermination team again..." She sighs. There hasn't been so many fiends in a long time. 

A Sending is performed when a person dies, to make sure the person's spirit makes it to the Farplane, instead of hanging around and becoming fiends. 

"I need some sleep," Taehyung yawns. "Hey, Hoseok, we got a spare bed in the back. You wanna come?" 

Realizing he doesn't really have much of a choice, Hoseok nods, swinging his rucksack over his shoulder and follows Taehyung to the back of the room to make acquantaince with his bed for the night. 

*******************************************************

"Sorry." 

Jungkook walks outside of the tent to find Jimin staring up at the sky, at the stars in the sky. He sits beside Jimin, looking like a lost puppy--what with the tail and his horn and his ears flattened against his head. Not to mention his head buried between his knees.

"For what?" Jimin asks.

"For being rude," Jungkook doesn't look up at Jimin. 

"Hey, it's okay," Jimin hugs him. "Aren't you tired? It's way past your bed time. I bet you Taehyung and Hoseok and Yoongi are already asleep." 

"Yeah," Jungkook nods, still not moving. 

"You know, Taehyung asked him to become my Guardian," Jimin grins. "I'm gonna set out on my pilgrimage tomorrow. I can't wait." 

Jungkook nods again.

"Come on, let's get back," Jimin extends a hand out to Jungkook, who takes it, and walks back.

*********************************************

Hi, this is the first chapter! If you don't understand anything, feel free to state in the comments. I don't think I explained everything clearly...well, next chapter...we're finally going to see Rapmon and Jin waking up and Jimin performing his first summoning. Hope you enjoy!