Jimin looks over at Taehyung, who's buckled his seatbelt. He looks at Jungkook, to his left, who gives him a thumbs-up sign. He grasps the steering wheel tight and speaks into the intercom. It crackles a little, but Jimin yells.

"Alright guys, this isn't our first battle, but it won't be our last! We gotta survive till we get to Zanarkand! And before that, I don't want any of you dying on me, you got that?!" 

There's a chorus of "yeah" and "yes!" over the intercom, and Jimin yells, "Go!" 

A fireball lands dangerously near Seokjin's buggy as he swerves to the left, almost hitting Namjoon's one. 

"Watch it!" Namjoon yells, as the buggies speed up in different directions, almost in the shape a firework.

The seven buggies head off into the boundless desert.

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

(1) "Tomay's gone. Gone to fetch the water."

Yoongi sees nothing as he drives the buggy through the desert, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of green in the entire desert. Nothing at all except the thousands of mounds of sand--sand dunes. He carries on, far, far away from the explosions and combat behind him. Maybe he should start turning back soon...hey, what's that?

A large palm tree standing in the middle of the desert. Strange--that's the first sign of living organism he has come across after separating from Jimin and the rest. Yoongi heads on over to the palm tree and who knew? There is an oasis. The waters are clean and sparkling, even under the hot sun. But might there be a Cactuar here? 

Yoongi drives the buggy nearer, until he's almost at the water's edge and he hears a "plip". Then again, and two at the same time from two different places. One of the black things land on his windscreen, nearly shattering it, and that's when Yoongi realizes he's under attack. Quickly maneuvering the buggy until it's facing the opposite direction, Yoongi hopes to catch sight of whatever that's been hitting him with the black things, but all he sees is a shade of green as the little creature hops away, to his left. Yoongi shuts down the engine and jumps out of his buggy, bringing his blitzball with him.

A sharp sting from his neck jolts Yoongi as he curses and turns behind, to find a...Cactuar...looking at him. Is this one of the Cactuar Gatekeepers? 

A tiny glyph on its forehead notifies Yoongi that indeed, this is one of the Cactuar Gatekeepers. He remembers Cid telling him that the fabled Cactuar Gatekeepers have glyphs on their foreheads, and when defeated, will fade away and award a Cactuar sphere to the person who defeated it. So, the trick to bringing them back is to not defeat it--you may engage it in combat, but never defeat it.

Yoongi throws his blitzball at the direction of the Cactuar's feet, but the Cactuar simply jumps, avoiding the blitzball, before firing five needles at Yoongi. Yoongi dodges the needles, before flicking his wrist up, towards the sky, and he eyes his blitzball. The ball follows his hand movement, rising from the sand and into the air.

"Watch out, little thing!" Yoongi pulls his hand back, and the ball follows it. The Cactuar doesn't even have time to turn back before he squeals, caught by the ball, and flies towards Yoongi. Yoongi grabs the Cactuar, who slams against his chest, and stops the ball from going further. The Cactuar screeches and squeals and practically demands to be let go, but Yoongi is having none of that. He hugs the screaming Cactuar to his chest, continuing to head back to the buggy, where he stuffs the Cactuar in the boot of the car. He looks down at himself--his sky blue singlet has stains of blood on it. Definitely from his own body. Yoongi spends at least five painful minutes plucking the various needles from the Cactuar off his body.

One down, nine more to go.

The intercom crackles to life as Yoongi leans back against his seat, resting from the encounter he just had. Despite the combat being over as swift as it has begun, he had used quite a bit of energy (and lost quite a bit of blood) against that green thing that's slamming about in his boot right now.

"Hey, Yoongi! You okay?" It's Hoseok's voice. "Your buggy stopped moving for a while!" 

"I'm still alright," Yoongi nods. "Guess what, I found a Cactuar Gatekeeper." 

"You won, right?" 

Yoongi lets out a bark of laughter, "Of course I did. What do you take me for?" 

Hoseok laughs too, "Guess what? I see this little bit of green with a weird shape on its head. Is it a Cactuar Gatekeeper?" 

"A flower or a pattern?" 

"A pattern of a flower." 

"It's a Gatekeeper." 

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

(2) "Rovivea's gone walkabout."

"Come on, can't this thing go any faster?!" Seokjin's being pursued by a weird little green thing that keeps running after him and is shooting needles into his boot. Like, seriously? Can't it stop for a minute and take into consideration that Seokjin doesn't want to get his handsome face marred by needles? 

Seokjin slams on a red button which has a missile on it. Most likely fires a missile, but then again, Seokjin isn't into the whole Al Bhed thing. His knowledge of machina is so limited--limited to only servant machinas that used to serve him when he was still part of the Warrior Monks. Seokjin sees, through the rearview mirror, the missile firing from the back and homing in on the green thing, which he assumes is the Cactuar Gatekeeper.

Seokjin swerves to a stop, the buggy now facing ninety-degrees to the right. He looks out of the window, and where the missile hit the green thing is an explosion of sparks and fire...and sand. There's literally a storm of sand whipped up from the blast and it's obscuring Seokjin's view. He squints as he tries to see through the sandstorm.

Right then, a sharp pain jabs into his neck. Seokjin's eyes widen as he sees a crack in the window--it wasn't there before! Had he missed something? He claws at his neck, trying to reach for the thing that's embedded in the skin there. All he can feel is the stream of blood oozing out from his wound, and Seokjin grasps the tiny thing and pulls it out. It's a black needle.

His vision begins to blur, with black dots threatening to break out all over his sight. He reaches, with shaking fingers, over to the emergency button--a white button that will fire a firework up into the air, to indicate that the person is in trouble. Seokjin presses down on it, and not more than five seconds after he does, he hears a whoosh and a a bang as his firework has been sent up to the sky and exploded. 

Seokjin sees a blur of green as the Cactuar is now standing over him, as if a predator standing over its prey.

The thing is probably celebrating its victory, and Seokjin doesn't like it. Not one bit. When the Cactuar has its back to him, Seokjin reaches out to grab the green thing, managing to close his fingers around its spiky body, before laughing a strangled laughter, blood gurgling from his throat. 

"I gotcha now!" Seokjin manages to laugh again as he opens the hatch to the boot and flings the Cactuar inside, before using the remainder of his energy to close the hatch. All he can feel now is the shaking of the vehicle as the Cactuar is furiously dancing around inside, trying to get out.

"JIN!" 

Seokjin recognizes that voice. His partner for so long.

"Oh my Yevon...what the heck happened?!" Namjoon's voice cracks. "There's a first aid kit there. It's gonna hurt a bit but we gotta apply some pressure on it." Seokjin wants to chuckle at the younger looking so flustered, but he can now only hear the heartbeat in his ears.

It hurt way worse than Seokjin thought it would.

"Sh*t." 

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

(3) "Little Chava likes big numbers" 

Taehyung looks around him, but doesn't see anything of interest. Though there are the Al Bhed ruins near the western side of the desert he ought to check out. Maybe there might be some Cactuar Gatekeepers there. On the way, there are numerous signs, saying things like "Al Bhed sale, 20% off!" and "Come to Home for the best deals!" 

"What the h*ll?" Taehyung laughs at the signs. Other than fellow Al Bhed who else would approach Home even? 

He is about to turn away when he catches a sight of green. Stopping the buggy as silently as possible, Taehyung observes the green thing. It's huddled with its knees up, as if it's trying to read the sign. On the back of its head is a glyph-like pattern. Taehyung grabs a grenade from his shoulder guards--a Frag Grenade, and proceeds to tip-toe through the sand (he ends up doing it somehow) towards the green thing.

The Cactuar shows no signs of moving as it remains sitting down, and when Taehyung is at a close-enough range, he throws the grenade. 

Unfortunately, it's almost as if the Cactuar has seen this coming. The thing whirls around as the grenade flies a few feet into the air in an arc. Taehyung is caught by surprise as he sees thousands of needles sprung his way. He rips off a cloth and a piece of Water Gem before Mixing them together. The cloth inflates and deflects the needles as they fly towards him in the thousands and probably even ten thousands.

Taehyung swears if he didn't manage to inflate the cloth in time, he would have died already. Literally. He snatches two Water Gems from his pockets and throws them to the ground, letting the water drip into the sand. 

Taehyung hears the explosion as the Frag Grenade lands on the ground and it explodes, a fountain of sand whirling upwards and falling down in a storm of sand. Taehyung raises his arms to block the sand from entering his eyes. Where is that Cactuar now? 

Five shots. Into his back. Taehyung wince as he feels the warm liquid washing over his back. He turns around and finds the Cactuar dancing there, too mockingly. 

"Dayum," Taehyung grits his teeth into a grimace. "You really know how to catch somebody off guard." 

He narrows his eyes, before throwing his arm in an upwards swing. The Cactuar tilts its head in what seems to be annoyance and questioning. The Cactuar got his answer two seconds later, when the water originally thrown into the ground by Taehyung earlier in the battle erupts from the sand and splashes into the Cactuar, the force and pressure of the water hurling the green thing up into the air, screeching.

Taehyung pants as he dashes forward towards the burst of water. He slams his fists together and the water stops flowing, seeping back into the soil. Without even taking time off to catch his breath, Taehyung runs forward and catches the tired Cactuar. He laughs as he weaves together a net from Chocobo Feathers before caging the Cactuar in it.

"Hah...I gotcha now," Taehyung breathes a sigh of relief as he drags his catch to the buggy, throwing the net into the boot, before attempting to get rid of the needles on his back. He grunts as he pulls them out one by one, feeling the pain every time one of them comes out. 

Deciding that he should probably rest a little before heading out to find the rest of the Cactuar Gatekeepers, Taehyung leans against his seat, ignoring the biting pain in his back. He checks the radar, to see if there's anyone near him. There's a little dot to his left--he wonders who that is. 

Taehyung can hear the bumping about in his boot as the Cactuar is trying to escape from his net, but he didn't use Chocobo feathers for nothing. Thread made from Chocobo Feathers is probably one of the strongest types of threads around.

Well, let him just rest for a while.

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

(4 & 5) "Alex and Aloja play tag in the ruins of men." 

"Dayum," Jungkook gulps down the water in the canteen stored in the side of the buggy. He places the canteen (still half-filled) back into the holder of the buggy, before continuing driving his buggy across the golden sands of Bikanel Desert. "It's hot." 

It isn't long before he comes to the ruins of the Al Bhed. His ears twitch as he tries to pick up any sound, or change in wind direction indicating any possible existence of anything, but boy is his tail getting a little squished sitting down for so long. He looks at his radar. Well, at least there's someone near him. A small blinking dot to his right. 

Jungkook stops his buggy outside the ruins. It's unlikely he can get through the ruins without bumping his buggy into the already crumbling stone, and it might even cause the stones to fall...and destroying a possibly historically important monument-looking ruins isn't part of Jungkook's plan. Nope, not at all.

Jungkook continues on foot--with such a large patch of ground occupied by ruins, he's more than likely to find a Cactuar Gatekeeper or two.

There. Two things running around in circles, in the middle of a foyer-like place. D*mn, if Jungkook didn't look at every single inch of the ruins he'd never have seen them. They are playing with...needles? Well, sure, considering they're basically covered in needles anyway. Jungkook has his spear clutched tightly in his hand, aiming for the larger one. Can it be that he'd be able to capture two Cactuar Gatekeepers? 

"Come on, Jungkookie, you can do this," Jungkook aims his spear, and throws. 

Unfortunately for him, it only hits one. The bigger Cactuar dodges, and the spear hits the smaller one. The smaller Cactuar screeches and is flung to the ground, trapped between the three points on his spear. One down, one more to go.

The bigger Cactuar begins firing needles at Jungkook. A thousand needles, to be exact, and Jungkook be d*mned if he gets hit by any one of them. Like a skilled Ronso should, he leaps onto the ceiling and dodges the needles that have flown towards him, before lunging at the Cactuar, growling. Jungkook hits the Cactuar full-on, body pressing against the green thing and pinning it to the ground, like how a lion would its prey.

Jungkook grabs the little thing and then tucks it under his arm, ignoring the spikes poking into his side. He walks over to the smaller Cactuar still trapped underneath his spear and he hears an explosion in the distance. He tucks both squirming Cactuars under his arms and heads back to the buggy, dropping off the things in the boot, before he hears a roar of a motor coming towards him.

The buggy comes to a stop, and when the person steps out, Jungkook realizes who it is.

"Tae!" Jungkook grins, waving. 

"You alright?" Taehyung asks, and Jungkook nods. "Yeah, I'm fine." His smile fades when he realizes the elder has blood-soaked clothes.

"Yeah," Taehyung nods. "Got attacked, but I caught them anyway. Hell, if not for water I would've died." He presses his lips into a thin line. "Jungkookie, did you see the firework?" 

"Firework?" Jungkook looks over blankly at Taehyung. 

"There was an explosion, so I thought it was Angra Mainyuu, but I looked around and it was so far away, but the explosion was quite near," Taehyung mumbles. "You think that...?" 

"One of us is in trouble?" Jungkook finishes. A sense of dread fills his heart. "Let's go find them." 

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

(6) "Vachella seeks the shining blue." 

"Hmm...Al Bhed tents here, random ruins there," Hoseok hums a little tune as he continues on with his search...but finds nothing. Travelling for such a long time through the desert is really taxing, even if you're in a buggy. The heat really gets to you.

"Come on, there must be something..." Hoseok mumbles to himself, desperately training his eyes on every single sand dune in the entire desert, trying to look for any shade of green, be it dark green, turquoise, leaf green, light green, plain green. Even cyan will make him happy.

And...there he has it. A cyan...thing. No, it's not a Cactuar. In fact, Hoseok doesn't even know what it is. It's a shining ball of cyan-ness. 

Hoseok approaches it. He heard about such things--Save Spheres, they were called, where travellers and Summoners on their pilgrimage can record all their journeys here, by letting the pyreflies store their memories. Pyreflies are trapped in this sphere, and they can store memories, and heal whoever touches it. That's why it's a fiend favourite. He gets off the buggy. Well, better to investigate on foot than in a buggy.

But truthfully, Hoseok doesn't see any fiend nearby. All he sees is...a green thingy? 

Approaching it quietly, Hoseok readies a fireball in his hand. Is it one of those Cactuar things? 

The Cactuar looks entranced by the Save Sphere, staring at the shining blue ball. Judging by that face and the color of green, Hoseok has to say it does look like a Cactuar, and there's a glyph on top of its head.

Hoseok throws the fireball in the direction of the Cactuar, but what he didn't expect is for the Cactuar to suddenly jump up and start firing needles at him...needles that fly through the fireball. Flaming needles are headed straight for him now. Flicking his wrist, Hoseok conjures a barrier of ice. The needles sizzle as it hits the ice wall, falling to the ground like flies. 

Hoseok looks around for the Cactuar, which has incidentally disappeared. He curses, wondering where the green thing has went. Obviously, this Cactuar Gatekeeper is more dangerous than he gave it credit for. With all those needles...Hoseok can't use fire or he'd be assaulted with needles. This needs strategy, and Hoseok is the worst strategist ever to grace the earth. 

But not this time. This time, he, Jung Hoseok Guado, will display his prowess to the entire world (consisting of the Cactuar and the Save Sphere and himself)! Hoseok places his palms on the ground, pumping water into the sand. Immediately, in places with looser sand, water begins to fly into the air like geysers. And now...here comes the ice. 

The water immediately freezes, the geysers remaining where they are, frozen in time. There are mirrors everywhere now, and Hoseok can see a three-sixty around him. So when the Cactuar springs out from behind an ice pillar, Hoseok sees him just fine, and aims a thunderbolt at the Cactuar, without even turning around.

"Yoongi would've called it swag," Hoseok laughs, picking up the tiny Cactuar and brushing dust off its spiky body. The Cactuar is completely knocked out. Hoseok whistles a tune (it's a tune he made up all by himself and he'd like to call it Silver Spoon) as he walks back towards his buggy, but then...he realizes something.

The buggy isn't where it's supposed to be. Instead, it's high in the air, stabbed through by an ice pillar.

D*mn, Hoseok thinks. Maybe he should have watched where the water was emerging. Hoseok looks around. Other than the ice pillars, there's nothing. Absolutely nothing, and with the buggy destroyed, he'd have to travel on foot. He's given another chance at life, and Hoseok isn't going to let this go to waste. He decides to start walking in a general direction, in the direction where he remembered he last saw the ruins. Maybe the ruins will act as a landmark for him to head back to Home. No choice now, anyways.

Hoseok starts walking.

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

Cactuar: 

Angra Mainyuu: 

**Pictures are not mine. Credits to Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura!! 

Sorry if these two chapters are going to be a little boring (because they need to hunt for the Cactuars and all as part of the storyline.) And yeah, I noticed that in every chapter someone seems to keep dying omg--First it was Yoongi (from the Sinspawn Tyrallis back in Luca) then Tae (from the Gorgon's Eye at Mushroom Rock Road), then Hoseok (who seriously died and disappeared but came back. He died 500 years ago, disappeared in Guadosalam and came back in Macalania Temple :D). Then Jimin died and came back (in Bevelle) and then there's Jungkookie who contracted some mysterious illness in Baaj Temple. And it's Seokjin's turn now. 

Anyway, a little Taejin coming up in the next chappie just a heads up!