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“It’s a whole series! They made movies, too, but the books are always better than the movies. They cut out so much detail,” as Amara lamented, both Petrie and Mickey nodded their agreement of her statement.

Murdoc chuckled as he added; “Don’t go forgettin’ ta add in some action!”

Smacking Tidas’ shoulder, Murdoc said to him; “Ima gonna introduce ye ta Predator, Alien, and the Godzilla movies!”

Petrie scoffed; “Just the good ones, I hope.”

Murdoc looked genuinely insulted as he replied; “They are All Good! The originals are the foundation ta the franchise! Without them, ye wouldn’t have yer precious King of the Monsters, now would ye?!”

“It would’ve been better wit the proper effects ta begin wit! There! I said it!”

“....Where did I go wrong wit ye,” Murdoc muttered as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

“What are they talking about?” Tidas whispered to Amara.

.....

“Idiocy... Now,” Amara clapped her hands together and smiled; “Would ye two like a tour?”

“Aye!” Skye accidentally yelled, inciting shushing noises from all over the room.

As they walked towards the back, Skye looked at the few walls in between the shelves. They were an off-white color, and coated in a strange material that she wasn’t familiar with. It reminded her a bit of the sensory suits from the Mage Trials, but she knew that they weren’t the same.

Occasionally the walls would have pictures of buildings and bridges that stretched into the cloud lines. One particular picture of an enormous red bridge that had fog all around it as the sun came up in the background had caught her eye. The bridge itself looked like it was floating above clouds..

“Makes me think of Skypiea,” Skye mumbled to herself as they reached a large door in the back.

Opening it, they saw a small room barely bigger than their closet at the palace. On the other side, a similar door to the one they had just come through lay on the opposite wall. Tidas hesitated again, so Murdoc just ‘nudged’ his shoulder forward.

Giving him a gruff expression for the ‘nudge’, Murdoc felt inclined to tell Tidas; “These doors just stop the noise from getting ta the library. Can ye hear ’em? Tis pretty quiet in there today, but I still hear ’em..”

As they listened, a faint swirling buzzing noise could be heard, then a choir of yells and cheers. There were mixed sentiments as some gloated about winning something, and others yelled back various kinds of profanity.

Murdoc chuckled as he heard a familiar voice become quite colorful due to his loss. Clearing the way and opening the door, Murdoc yelled; “Quit bein’ a sore loser, Wallace! Yer too old ta be playin’ video games, anyways!”

As they entered the room, Skye marveled at the size of the various screens all over the ridiculously-sized room. Each had some kind of technological contraption in front of it. Ranging from what looked like varying forms of controllers, to bulky, oddly shaped goggles.

As Skye’s eyes darted back and forth in wonderment, Tidas watched a few Highlanders with odd headbands on. The screen in front of them was divided into four sections, and each had a person, or just arms in it. They moved their fingers around and yelled to each other in military terms.

As Tidas wondered over for a better look, Skye followed after Amara to what looked like a giant metal box with flashing lights on it. A little yellow ball with a smiling face, and a pink bow on it’s head we’re chasing what looked to be ghosts with her mouth.

“This is my favorite game! I’ve held the high score for six years! It’s called Mrs. Pac-Man, and the goal is to eat the ghosts before they can...”

As Amara went off about her game, Tidas watched as the four ‘friends’ blew each other up in a game called ‘Halo’. They even tried to show him how to play, but he kept getting taken out by a sniper. The group was in the middle of yelling at their friend when Murdoc came to retrieve the Southern Prince.

They stood talking for a minute about watching the next ‘G.O.T.’ episode with them, then bid farewell. As they walked away, the young men started chanting; “The King In The North!”

The phrase was repeated several times as they passed various groups of people playing different games, or watching movies. Right when Tidas was going to ask why they were stating the obvious, they reached Skye and Amara.

Skye was off to the side cheering Amara on as she played. A giant, genuine smile on her face as she watched. It made Murdoc grin, considering he knew how much of a game-hog Amara was when it came to this particular one.

“Ye haven’t played at all, have ye?”

Skye beamed at Murdoc; “Ima fine! Tis fun ta watch! Oh! There’s a cherry! Aye! Oh shit! Get the power pellet! Power pellet! Power Pellet!”

As Murdoc chuckled at Skye’s enthusiasm, Tidas wondered over to see what Petrie and Mickey were doing. They had a small white stick in each of their hands with a string looped around their wrists. On the screen, when the shifted their arms forward in an underhanded motion; a large black ball on the screen rolled into several standing objects.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Tidas asked; “What’s this game?”

“Tis called Wii Bowlin’, and is...just at yer level. Here, give it a go,” Petrie said as he offered Tidas his controller.

After explaining the basics of bowling to him, Petrie, then Mickey played Tidas. He’d lost to both of them, but his score had drastically improved from one frame to the next. By the time Amara had run out of coins, Tidas had nearly won against Petrie.

After being gone for nearly two hours, Skye thought that it was time to head back to the RMC bunker. She didn’t want any of the soldiers to attempt to start wandering out in search of them. It would only cause problems so early in their peace pact.

When it came time to leave, they had to pry Tidas away from the bowling game. He ‘just wanted one more game’ twice before Skye had put her foot down. He knew that she was right, but he still sulked the entire walk back to Mead Hall.

Amara and Murdoc poked fun at him part of the way, then began bickering over her addiction to Mrs. Pac-Man. Skye and Petrie laughed often as Mickey observed them all..

‘Tis odd that these two really be Southerners. They act like everyone else around here, and Skye even talks like us. Is Alcon even all that different?’

As Mickey began to ask himself questions he never had before, the group re-entered Mead Hall...

“King! King! King!”

The chanting started up again as soon as Murdoc’s head was visible. They called out to him to play games with them, but he explained where he’d just come from. Right as everyone was giving up, one man called out: “Shields!”

Murdoc’s face lit up with an evil smirk as he replied; “I’ll be a Barrier if Prince Tidas will be a Challenger!”

“Aye! Tidas! Tidas! Tidas!” the crowds screamed.

He glared at Murdoc with murderous intent; “I don’t know how to play!”

Petrie patted his shoulder; “I don’t suppose you’ve seen the movie ‘The Thirteenth Warrior’, have ye? Antonio Banderas? No? Aye, yer screwed..”

“What’s a movie?!” Tidas yelled as several Highlanders dragged him over towards a ring of men.

Mickey was suddenly at Tidas’ side; “We don’t do it exactly like the movie: this is real life. Someone could die doin’ it the other way! What ye do here is ye have ta stay on the shields no matter what! The Barriers can only move when you do, and only their shields!”

“What the hell are ye talkin’ about?!” Tidas yelled back as they were separated.

“Time yer self! Stay on the shields!” Mickey screamed until he disappeared from sight.

As they dragged Tidas towards the crowds, he muttered; “Don’t kill them, don’t kill them.. It’s Murdoc’s fault, don’t kill them..”

Shoving him forward, Tidas found himself in the middle of a large circle of Highlanders, with shields on the ground all around him in a circle pattern. Some men were holding them in place on the ground, and some were standing in behind the gaps between the shields.

The idea was that two challengers would race around on top of the shields while the ‘Barriers’ tried to knock them down as they jumped the gaps. Tidas watched two other men race to see who would go against him next. Both of the men were speed-based Tanks, and zipped around the shields at dizzying speeds.. to most.

As Tidas watched them, he watched Murdoc switch himself out with one of the current Barriers. As he held the shield in hand, the Highlander King took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, Murdoc steadied himself, and waited to strike..

*BAM!*

The first challenger was not only knocked out of the ring, but knocked unconscious from the impact. The shields that the Barriers used were several inches longer than the rounded ones on the ground. When Murdoc had stuck out his shield, because of his size, he’d hit the side of the man’s head, too.

Scooping the challenger up, Murdoc looked at Skye and asked her to heal him. She nodded in the positive, but with an angry expression. He knew that they were trying to get back to the RMC bunker, but he’d wrapped Tidas up in a challenge anyway.

Shaking her head, Skye focused on healing the man in front of her. He had a concussion and a contusion where his head made contact with the wooden floor. She thought his new injuries were all that were wrong until Skye noticed that his bones were incredibly porous and brittle.

Checking him over once more, she realized that his liver was also breaking down, albeit at a much slower pace. As she looked up at Amara with a serious look in her eye, Skye said; “Ima need milk..A lotta milk. His bones-does he work near that field that ye were tellin’ me about?”

“I’d have ta check, why?” Amara asked with growing concern in both her voice and expression.

Skye looked down at the ground and wondered out loud; “Because if he doesn’t, ye got a much bigger problem than just an unusable field..”

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

As Skye tended to the wounded man, Murdoc took his position again. The Challenger that remained was a crowd favorite during major competitions. He neared Murdoc in size even though he was a speed Tank. The lad personified the name ‘Tank’, and Tidas knew that he was really a Hybrid; albeit a natural one.

Tidas had to work his body hard into being a Hybrid Tank, but those that were naturally build for power, but went the speed route during training usually ended up as a natural Hybrid.

As Tidas looked at the man, he wondered if there was even a point to playing when the Challenger was that size. Most of the ‘Barriers’ were half his size, and most likely unable to move him even if they did hit him.

Stepping onto a shield, Tidas braced himself to play the strangest game he had ever heard of...