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FIC: Not Just a Ghost's Heart [FFX/X-2, Jecht/Auron, Tidus/Yuna] (CH 1)
Title: Not Just a Ghost's Heart (Chapter 1)
Author: Regann
Pairings: Jecht/Auron, Tidus/Yuna
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own anything; I just play with them.
Notes: This is probably the most self-indulgent thing I have ever penned. This is set after FFX-2's "Last Mission" release, so it contains spoilers for it and the good/perfect endings of FFX-2.
Summary: Three months after his resurrection by the fayth, Tidus is happy on Besaid with Yuna. But it seems like the fayth aren't quite finished showing their gratitude -- and it seems like Spira might not be ready to deal with the consequences. Jecht/Auron, Tidus/Yuna. (aka: RESURRECTION FIC, KIDS!)
Previous Parts: Prologue
Not Just a Ghost's Heart (Chapter 1)
Jecht -- or so he decided to call himself until he learned otherwise -- didn't spend long fumbling around the cool dark of the cavernous room before he found a door out of it, a massive door that groaned under his touch as it clicked and swirled open. It opened into the outdoors, he realized immediately, blinking against the bright assault of light. After a minute or so, his eyes adjusted and Jecht looked around. The place he'd come out of was a huge, massive thing of stone spires, as ugly and ornate as its interior had been. In front of him were steps that led down to a suspended wooden bridge that stretched over a yawning drop that made Jecht uneasy to look at for too long.
Instead of heading over the bridge -- which really didn't set well with Jecht quite yet -- he headed along on the stone path that circled the building, growing more and more concerned that he didn't seem to encounter any other living thing as he did so. He had a feeling that that wasn't exactly the way things should've been. He had a feeling, in fact, that he was used to a lot of people, lights, noise, and the bustle of constant movement. Like so many other things, though, it was more a feeling than a memory and it slipped away when Jecht focused on it for too long.
He stopped following the path for a moment to look around at the tall, jagged mountains that surrounded the "home" of the mysterious, disappearing women who had brought him there. Because of those mountains, he couldn't really even see much of the sky, not enough to discern where the sun hung above him. He'd been stripped of anything that would be helpful, he realized. Without his memory, Jecht wasn't even sure of the innate instincts he was relying on were even leading him in the right direction anyway.
Jecht had almost circled the entire building when he finally came upon something living. It wasn't another person, but it was definitely alive. It was a large, yellow bird, from what he can tell, and it was saddled, like it was supposed to be ridden. When Jecht made a noise of surprise, the bird turned its head to look at him.
"Hey there," he said aloud. "Just what exactly are you supposed to be?"
The bird made a kind of squawking sound and didn't seem upset by Jecht as he crept closer. When he got close enough, he reached out and laid a hand on its soft feathers. It made another sound -- kweh! -- and seemed to readily accept petting as Jecht soothed his hand over the fluffy down.
"Well, aren't you a nice bird?" he asked, as the bird affectionately bumped its head against Jecht's shoulder. "You're all by yourself, too, huh?" Jecht looked back out toward the mountains, at the expanse of land he'd have to cover to get anywhere where he might encounter other people. That same instinct he'd been using since he'd woken up told him that it would be at least a few days’ worth of travel on foot. But it was obvious that this bird was intended for transporting people. "How about helping a guy out?"
The bird didn't protest when Jecht took ahold of its reins and it didn't offer resistance as Jecht led it down the path and toward the swinging bridge. It did seem to balk at that and Jecht had to admit he didn't blame it.
"Come on," he said, still tugging on its reins. "Don't back out on me now."
It was a slow and harrowing trip over the bridge; Jecht wondered how the bird got on the other side to begin with, given all the trouble he was having to get it back across. But when they were within a few paces of the solid ground on the other side, the bird let out a squawk, flapped its wings and took a great flying leap, practically dragging Jecht along with it as it landed on the soft grass on the other side.
"Well, I'll be damned," Jecht said with a laugh as he righted himself. The bird just stood there, shaking its feather a little as if Jecht's desperate grasp on it had knocked them out of place. But it didn't seem ready to bolt or plow him over, so he decided to call it a win. He could also see a small, sheer pass through the mountains ahead of them, a passage that looked to be his way out of the isolated little valley where those women had dropped him.
"Day's getting better and better," he muttered to himself. Something about hearing his voice in the air, even when there was no one but the bird to hear it too, made him feel a little better. A little less insubstantial, a little less like he was about to fade away like the women had. It made him feel real in a way he couldn't explain.
He shook his head to clear away those thoughts. He couldn't focus on all the things that didn't make sense or that he didn't know because that was basically everything. Instead, he needed to focus on the plan that was shaping up before his very eyes.
Jecht let the bird munch on the soft, sweet grass for another few minutes before he approached it again. It gave him an odd look but it didn't try to get away from him as he took its reins once again. "You ready to do this?" he asked it. "Because I'd appreciate it if you didn't wait until I was on your back before you decide you don't like me."
He breathed a sigh of relief when he swung up on its back and it didn't do anything but bounce a little on its feet to accommodate the extra weight.
"All right, then," he said, "Let's go."
Jecht still wasn't clear on what favor his mysterious benefactors had thought they were granting him when they had landed him there and he still wasn't sure why he didn't have his memories, but he knew he wasn't going to get the answer by staying by himself in the secluded compound where he'd woken up. He had to assume that there were people out there somewhere and those people would have answers.
At his command, the bird jolted into movement and then the two of them were racing over the ground, intent on the pass and whatever waited on the other side of it.
**
Just as Tidus had suspected, all lingering issues with the dream he had disappeared as soon as Yuna returned. She returned with quite a story, too, about an almost-unending tower full of fiends, a tower from a time long before Yevon. Probably, she had theorized, from the time of the original Zanarkand. She'd had to stop herself a few times from calling it Tidus's Zanarkand, but it was still something they were both getting used to, now that they were together again. Tidus wasn't from some long-ago past, like Shuyin or Lenne; he was from a dream-world that had only existed as long as Sin ravaged Spira. There had never been a chance he would've gotten home and he wouldn't have wanted to, anyway.
"Yado-what-ee?" he asked that morning as they talked about it on their way to the shoreline. They didn't have much in the way of actual plans for the future, yet, but Tidus often trained with the Aurochs just because he could and Yuna often accompanied him, even getting in on the action a few times. Sometimes, he went where Yuna led, talking with people who came to meet the High Summoner or helping out Lulu with little Vidina. He heard the jokes and laughter their constant two-ness got them from their friends but Tidus didn't really care. He had come back from the dead to be with Yuna. He wasn't wasting a minute of it.
"Yadonaki," Yuna corrected with a little laugh. "When we got to the top, all we found was a broken machina but...the journey was more important than the destination in this instance."
"I'm glad you and Rikku and Paine had a good time," Tidus said. Then he scowled a little. "Although next time I see Rikku, I'm taking back that time I called her a good girl. I can't believe she called us old and boring!"
Yuna captured the hand he'd been waving around for emphasis between both of her own. "She's just never...you know," Yuna told him quietly. "She doesn't understand."
When he caught the look Yuna was giving him, Tidus felt himself flush a little. "Yeah," he agreed, lacing his fingers between Yuna's. "But still, it was totally rude of her to say that."
"As long as we know better, what does it matter?" Yuna asked. She tugged on his hand to get him to stop walking for a moment, tugging again until he faced her. "Right?"
He couldn't stop from letting his free hand creep up to brush against her cheek, then sift through her hair. "Right," he agreed. He took the chance to lean down for a quick kiss, still thrilled that he could do it, especially when Yuna dropped his hand to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him a little closer.
If what they were was old and boring, then Tidus was fine with being old and bored at twenty, then.
"You two, always with the kissyface," a voice groaned from behind them and they jumped apart guiltily to see Wakka grinning at them, that same smug look on his face he got every time he caught them. "Give it a rest, ya?"
Yuna hid her mouth behind her hand so that Wakka wouldn't see the giggle that bubbled to the surface. That left Tidus to say something snappy in reply. "Maybe you shouldn't keep sneaking up on us!"
"I'm not sneaking, I got concerned," Wakka said. "You're late for practice," he told Tidus, before looking at Yuna. "And you have a visitor that just arrived on the ferry."
Tidus glanced at Yuna to see how she reacted to the news; when she looked as surprised as he'd felt at the mention of her visitor, he frowned. "You expecting someone?"
She shook her head. "And anyone who might stop by would come by airship."
"He came on the ferry," Wakka said. "He said his name is...Baralai? Like the New Yevon guy."
"If it's Baralai, he is the New Yevon, well, guy," Yuna said. She looked concerned, so Tidus was concerned, too. "Where is he now?"
"We wouldn't let him come this way until we were sure you wanted to see him," Wakka said. "He's still down on the docks."
Yuna nodded. "I'd better go," she said. "I’ll see what he wants."
"We'll go," Tidus said, grabbing Yuna's hand again. "Tell everyone I won't make practice, okay, Wakka?"
"I'm not your messenger, ya know!" Wakka grumbled after them, although Tidus could tell it was good-natured. He flashed his friend a grin over his shoulder as he and Yuna hurried down to the beach where Yuna's unexpected visitor was waiting.
Tidus hadn't met Baralai since his return, although he had figured prominently enough in Yuna’s story about how she'd found him again that he was familiar enough with the name. Baralai was the leader of New Yevon and one of Paine's old pals, one of her old squad that got possessed by his creepy lookalike ghost, Shuyin. Tidus wondered what he wanted with Yuna all of a sudden.
They made it down to the deck in record time and Tidus immediately picked him out among all the familiar people milling about. He had pale hair and was dressed in robes similar to what Tidus associated with Yevon priests. He was young, though, much younger than any Tidus had remembered meeting from before.
When Baralai noticed their approach, he offered them a smile, rising from where he had made use of a crate to sit on. "Yuna," he said, offering a bow, one which Yuna returned.
"Baralai, this is a surprise," she said. "To what do I owe the honor?"
"The honor is mine," he told her, even as his eyes trailed over to Tidus. "And you must be Tidus."
"Yeah," he nodded. "How did you know?"
"Actually," he said. "You're the reason I'm here. I was hoping...we could talk." He glanced around at the people gathered near. "Somewhere more private?"
The three of them ended up walking a little farther down the coast until the population thinned away. Tidus and Yuna had exchanged several looks behind Baralai's back, both concerned and confused over Baralai's mysterious words.
Once she deemed them at a safe enough distance, Yuna spoke. "What do you know about Tidus?" she asked. "And what does he have to do with why you're here?"
"Paine came to visit me recently," he said after a moment of gathering his thoughts. "She told me all about why you'd been in such a hurry to get home a few months ago. I can't say I blame you."
"I didn't know," she said. "I mean, I wasn't sure, just..."
Baralai raised a hand to stop her. "But the reason I came was to see for myself if it was true." Baralai glanced at Tidus again. "Did he really come back from the dead, from the Farplane?"
"Yeah," Tidus admitted. "I did."
The appraising look Baralai shot his way wasn't like the ones his friends had given him when he'd first appeared. It was more reserved and more clinical. "You have to admit that that's something amazing, Yuna," he said. "Unsent, yes; we've all experienced that, but...he came back from the Farplane, as if he'd never died. It's a miracle."
"I didn't really die," Tidus said. "I more like...faded away? Less like dying, though."
"Do you remember anything?" Baralai asked. "About the Farplane, I mean."
"Not really," he said. "I mean, a little, but it's vague."
"Yuna, Tidus," Baralai began. "I would really love to talk more with you about this. If you don't mind?"
"Why?" Tidus asked.
"I could say because I'm the Praetor of New Yevon and this is the kind of thing that matters to our religious doctrine," Baralai said. "But the truth is, I'm curious."
"I thought you were going to disband New Yevon," Yuna said. "Just like Nooj did the Youth League."
Baralai winced; Yuna's question looked like it had hit a sore spot. "Even if I do, people will still look to Yevon, to Bevelle for spiritual guidance. It'll take more than two years to change that."
"I don't mind talking to him," Tidus said to Yuna. "If you think it's okay?"
Yuna seemed to think for a moment. "He's a friend," she said. "If you feel comfortable..."
"Thank you," Baralai said to both of them.
And it was with that strange introduction that Tidus found himself relating the entire tale of his life, death and rebirth for Baralai, the Praetor of New Yevon.
**
As Auron sat in one of the quarters of the Al Bhed ship that rescued him from his days of solitude among the ruins of Baaj, he tried to make sense of his very unexpected resurrection. It wasn't even as if he hadn't died before, or risen from death, but this wasn't the same thing at all. Refusing to accept death in the face of Yunalesca's treachery, in the face of the promises he had left unfulfilled was one thing, but what had happened now was something alien to all of Auron's reckoning.
He had been in no mood to deal with questions from the Al Bhed salvagers who had found him, so he had refrained from asking the ones he'd wanted, only if to stave off their curiosity about him. Gippal, the leader, hesitated only slightly in the face of Auron's stony silence before he had plowed on, asking questions and delivering information even when Auron ignored him. From Gippal's ramblings and from what he'd overheard from the other members of the crew, Auron knew it had been years since the defeat of Sin, years during which Auron had been somewhere that he wasn't any longer. The teachings, so ingrained in him, said the Farplane but the teachings of Yevon had never mentioned that it was a realm from which people could return. In fact, no teaching ever discussed such a thing -- Auron, himself, had expected the Farplane to be his end. But he had nothing but a few hazy impressions from the moment after he had let Yuna's sending unravel his being and, after them, there had been nothing.
That is, until he came to consciousness in the ruined chamber of the Baaj Temple.
Auron wasn't sure how others might've reacted to such an event but the more he thought about it, the more he was unsettled. Until he better understood what forces had brought him back, he could do nothing but ask himself why -- why him and why now? Why not others who deserved a second chance? Why not Braska, who had a daughter who missed him? Why not Jecht, who suffered for a decade as Sin? Why not so many others?
The changes he had underwent with his resurrection struck him as disquieting, too. It hadn't taken Gippal's tactless and vocal observation within moments of their meeting for Auron to know that he had come back different. After his ten years as an Unsent, most of those years spent in Sin's dream Zanarkand, the heaviness of Auron's heart had been reflected in the lines of his face, the white in his hair; he had looked as old as he'd felt. Now...it was as if no time had passed since the day he had seen his summoner die at the hands of Yevon and the Final Aeon, since he had demanded retribution from Yevon's daughter and received only death for his trouble. His face was unlined, his dark hair untouched by silver and even his scar -- remnants of that final blow against him -- existed only as a thin, white line along the same old path, nothing like the gash he had borne before.
It was another uncomfortable mystery.
Auron's contemplation was interrupted by a knock at the door of his quarters. When he didn't bother answering, he wasn't surprised to see the door open anyway and Gippal appear.
"So, uh, how's it going?" Gippal asked.
"Fine," Auron said. He rose to his feet from the edge of the bed where he'd been sitting. "Did you want something?"
Gippal gave him an unimpressed look that said he was tired of Auron's terseness. Auron ignored it as he had for the last three days. "We've landed at Bikanel," he explained. Then he shook his head. "And I'm still not sure what to do with you exactly."
Auron snorted and turned away from the Al Bhed, instead looking out of the small round window the room had. "I asked for transport to a main island," he said. "Not a baby-sitter."
"Regardless..." Gippal began, but trailed off. Auron could see the young man's reflection in the glass of the window and watched it as Gippal ran a hand through his hair. "I still wasn't sure. And I'm not really heading back to Spira proper for a minute. So I...called someone who might be better equipped to deal with you."
Auron turned back toward Gippal, mouth open to demand to know exactly who Gippal had called when there was a commotion coming from the corridor behind where the salvager stood. Auron tensed and noticed that Gippal did the same.
"Okay, Gippal, you better have a good explanation for this!" The feminine voice announced before its owner arrived. "Because you go months -- months!! -- without a word and now you demand that I come here A-S-A-P? What gives? Tell me now!"
Gippal gave Auron one last look before he glanced over his shoulder, out into the hall, and then stepped more fully into the chamber, unblocking the door’s opening. "How about you just see for yourself?"
Even though it was far from a surprise, Auron still started when Rikku burst into the room. She had a similar reaction when she laid eyes on him, her eyes going wide as she lifted her hands to cover the "O" of surprise her mouth had formed at the sight of him.
"Auron," she squeaked, much the same way Gippal had. "It's you, isn't it?"
Auron nodded. "Rikku."
He barely had time to register the obvious changes that the years had brought to her before she threw herself at him, thin arms closing around his neck like a vice.
"I can't believe it!" she exclaimed, still holding on. "It's you! You're really here! And you're -- you're young! Auron!"
"Rikku," he said, voice pitched toward a growl.
He didn't have to say anything else for her to get the message and she pulled away, although she didn't move far. "Auron!"
"You said that all ready," Gippal said from where he hovered near the door. "Are your braids too tight or something?"
"Crid ib, zylgycc," she told Gippal. "He's back! From the Farplane! And he's young!" At that, she turned back to him. "Why are you young again?"
Of all the things to focus on, it wasn't Auron's first concern. But, of course, it was Rikku's. "I don't have an answer," he admitted. "For any of it."
"What happened?" she demanded, looking between him and Gippal.
"I was doing a salvage run near Baaj," Gippal said. "Since you said Cid found his airship out there? Anyway, we found him instead, stranded out there."
"How did you get there?" she asked Auron, still watching him with her wide, spiral-irised eyes.
Auron shrugged. "I just was," he said. "As of a few days ago."
"I didn't know what else to do, Rikku," Gippal said, sounding much more serious than he had a few minutes before. "All I could think to do was comm you."
"For once, you did the right thing," she told him, and Auron had to stifle another snort at the grin Rikku's approval brought to Gippal's face. Then Rikku was smiling at Auron. "It's so good to see you!" As if she couldn't help herself, she threw her arms around him for another quick squeeze before she darted away.
"Why aren't you more freaked out by this?" Gippal asked her. "He came back from the dead, didn't he? You told me Yuna sent him!"
"She did!" Rikku said. "And he did! But it's a good thing, right?" When Gippal didn't seem convinced, she added, "Plus, he's the second person I know who's come back!"
Hope was an ugly, dreadful knot in Auron's chest. If he came back, who else might've come with him? "Did you say second?" he asked.
She nodded, beads and braids swinging with the motion.
"Who?"
"Tidus," she told him. "He came back. To Yuna! Like, three months ago. He just appeared outside of Besaid! That's where he is now -- they both are, along with Wakka and Lulu."
A complicated series of emotions clutched at him with the news. "Can you get me there?" he asked. "I'd like to see them."
She laughed, a bright, happy sound. Auron was surprised at how much he enjoyed hearing it again. "Of course, I can," she told him. " Off to Besaid, we go!"
**
End of Chapter 1
Author: Regann
Pairings: Jecht/Auron, Tidus/Yuna
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own anything; I just play with them.
Notes: This is probably the most self-indulgent thing I have ever penned. This is set after FFX-2's "Last Mission" release, so it contains spoilers for it and the good/perfect endings of FFX-2.
Summary: Three months after his resurrection by the fayth, Tidus is happy on Besaid with Yuna. But it seems like the fayth aren't quite finished showing their gratitude -- and it seems like Spira might not be ready to deal with the consequences. Jecht/Auron, Tidus/Yuna. (aka: RESURRECTION FIC, KIDS!)
Previous Parts: Prologue
Not Just a Ghost's Heart (Chapter 1)
Jecht -- or so he decided to call himself until he learned otherwise -- didn't spend long fumbling around the cool dark of the cavernous room before he found a door out of it, a massive door that groaned under his touch as it clicked and swirled open. It opened into the outdoors, he realized immediately, blinking against the bright assault of light. After a minute or so, his eyes adjusted and Jecht looked around. The place he'd come out of was a huge, massive thing of stone spires, as ugly and ornate as its interior had been. In front of him were steps that led down to a suspended wooden bridge that stretched over a yawning drop that made Jecht uneasy to look at for too long.
Instead of heading over the bridge -- which really didn't set well with Jecht quite yet -- he headed along on the stone path that circled the building, growing more and more concerned that he didn't seem to encounter any other living thing as he did so. He had a feeling that that wasn't exactly the way things should've been. He had a feeling, in fact, that he was used to a lot of people, lights, noise, and the bustle of constant movement. Like so many other things, though, it was more a feeling than a memory and it slipped away when Jecht focused on it for too long.
He stopped following the path for a moment to look around at the tall, jagged mountains that surrounded the "home" of the mysterious, disappearing women who had brought him there. Because of those mountains, he couldn't really even see much of the sky, not enough to discern where the sun hung above him. He'd been stripped of anything that would be helpful, he realized. Without his memory, Jecht wasn't even sure of the innate instincts he was relying on were even leading him in the right direction anyway.
Jecht had almost circled the entire building when he finally came upon something living. It wasn't another person, but it was definitely alive. It was a large, yellow bird, from what he can tell, and it was saddled, like it was supposed to be ridden. When Jecht made a noise of surprise, the bird turned its head to look at him.
"Hey there," he said aloud. "Just what exactly are you supposed to be?"
The bird made a kind of squawking sound and didn't seem upset by Jecht as he crept closer. When he got close enough, he reached out and laid a hand on its soft feathers. It made another sound -- kweh! -- and seemed to readily accept petting as Jecht soothed his hand over the fluffy down.
"Well, aren't you a nice bird?" he asked, as the bird affectionately bumped its head against Jecht's shoulder. "You're all by yourself, too, huh?" Jecht looked back out toward the mountains, at the expanse of land he'd have to cover to get anywhere where he might encounter other people. That same instinct he'd been using since he'd woken up told him that it would be at least a few days’ worth of travel on foot. But it was obvious that this bird was intended for transporting people. "How about helping a guy out?"
The bird didn't protest when Jecht took ahold of its reins and it didn't offer resistance as Jecht led it down the path and toward the swinging bridge. It did seem to balk at that and Jecht had to admit he didn't blame it.
"Come on," he said, still tugging on its reins. "Don't back out on me now."
It was a slow and harrowing trip over the bridge; Jecht wondered how the bird got on the other side to begin with, given all the trouble he was having to get it back across. But when they were within a few paces of the solid ground on the other side, the bird let out a squawk, flapped its wings and took a great flying leap, practically dragging Jecht along with it as it landed on the soft grass on the other side.
"Well, I'll be damned," Jecht said with a laugh as he righted himself. The bird just stood there, shaking its feather a little as if Jecht's desperate grasp on it had knocked them out of place. But it didn't seem ready to bolt or plow him over, so he decided to call it a win. He could also see a small, sheer pass through the mountains ahead of them, a passage that looked to be his way out of the isolated little valley where those women had dropped him.
"Day's getting better and better," he muttered to himself. Something about hearing his voice in the air, even when there was no one but the bird to hear it too, made him feel a little better. A little less insubstantial, a little less like he was about to fade away like the women had. It made him feel real in a way he couldn't explain.
He shook his head to clear away those thoughts. He couldn't focus on all the things that didn't make sense or that he didn't know because that was basically everything. Instead, he needed to focus on the plan that was shaping up before his very eyes.
Jecht let the bird munch on the soft, sweet grass for another few minutes before he approached it again. It gave him an odd look but it didn't try to get away from him as he took its reins once again. "You ready to do this?" he asked it. "Because I'd appreciate it if you didn't wait until I was on your back before you decide you don't like me."
He breathed a sigh of relief when he swung up on its back and it didn't do anything but bounce a little on its feet to accommodate the extra weight.
"All right, then," he said, "Let's go."
Jecht still wasn't clear on what favor his mysterious benefactors had thought they were granting him when they had landed him there and he still wasn't sure why he didn't have his memories, but he knew he wasn't going to get the answer by staying by himself in the secluded compound where he'd woken up. He had to assume that there were people out there somewhere and those people would have answers.
At his command, the bird jolted into movement and then the two of them were racing over the ground, intent on the pass and whatever waited on the other side of it.
**
Just as Tidus had suspected, all lingering issues with the dream he had disappeared as soon as Yuna returned. She returned with quite a story, too, about an almost-unending tower full of fiends, a tower from a time long before Yevon. Probably, she had theorized, from the time of the original Zanarkand. She'd had to stop herself a few times from calling it Tidus's Zanarkand, but it was still something they were both getting used to, now that they were together again. Tidus wasn't from some long-ago past, like Shuyin or Lenne; he was from a dream-world that had only existed as long as Sin ravaged Spira. There had never been a chance he would've gotten home and he wouldn't have wanted to, anyway.
"Yado-what-ee?" he asked that morning as they talked about it on their way to the shoreline. They didn't have much in the way of actual plans for the future, yet, but Tidus often trained with the Aurochs just because he could and Yuna often accompanied him, even getting in on the action a few times. Sometimes, he went where Yuna led, talking with people who came to meet the High Summoner or helping out Lulu with little Vidina. He heard the jokes and laughter their constant two-ness got them from their friends but Tidus didn't really care. He had come back from the dead to be with Yuna. He wasn't wasting a minute of it.
"Yadonaki," Yuna corrected with a little laugh. "When we got to the top, all we found was a broken machina but...the journey was more important than the destination in this instance."
"I'm glad you and Rikku and Paine had a good time," Tidus said. Then he scowled a little. "Although next time I see Rikku, I'm taking back that time I called her a good girl. I can't believe she called us old and boring!"
Yuna captured the hand he'd been waving around for emphasis between both of her own. "She's just never...you know," Yuna told him quietly. "She doesn't understand."
When he caught the look Yuna was giving him, Tidus felt himself flush a little. "Yeah," he agreed, lacing his fingers between Yuna's. "But still, it was totally rude of her to say that."
"As long as we know better, what does it matter?" Yuna asked. She tugged on his hand to get him to stop walking for a moment, tugging again until he faced her. "Right?"
He couldn't stop from letting his free hand creep up to brush against her cheek, then sift through her hair. "Right," he agreed. He took the chance to lean down for a quick kiss, still thrilled that he could do it, especially when Yuna dropped his hand to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him a little closer.
If what they were was old and boring, then Tidus was fine with being old and bored at twenty, then.
"You two, always with the kissyface," a voice groaned from behind them and they jumped apart guiltily to see Wakka grinning at them, that same smug look on his face he got every time he caught them. "Give it a rest, ya?"
Yuna hid her mouth behind her hand so that Wakka wouldn't see the giggle that bubbled to the surface. That left Tidus to say something snappy in reply. "Maybe you shouldn't keep sneaking up on us!"
"I'm not sneaking, I got concerned," Wakka said. "You're late for practice," he told Tidus, before looking at Yuna. "And you have a visitor that just arrived on the ferry."
Tidus glanced at Yuna to see how she reacted to the news; when she looked as surprised as he'd felt at the mention of her visitor, he frowned. "You expecting someone?"
She shook her head. "And anyone who might stop by would come by airship."
"He came on the ferry," Wakka said. "He said his name is...Baralai? Like the New Yevon guy."
"If it's Baralai, he is the New Yevon, well, guy," Yuna said. She looked concerned, so Tidus was concerned, too. "Where is he now?"
"We wouldn't let him come this way until we were sure you wanted to see him," Wakka said. "He's still down on the docks."
Yuna nodded. "I'd better go," she said. "I’ll see what he wants."
"We'll go," Tidus said, grabbing Yuna's hand again. "Tell everyone I won't make practice, okay, Wakka?"
"I'm not your messenger, ya know!" Wakka grumbled after them, although Tidus could tell it was good-natured. He flashed his friend a grin over his shoulder as he and Yuna hurried down to the beach where Yuna's unexpected visitor was waiting.
Tidus hadn't met Baralai since his return, although he had figured prominently enough in Yuna’s story about how she'd found him again that he was familiar enough with the name. Baralai was the leader of New Yevon and one of Paine's old pals, one of her old squad that got possessed by his creepy lookalike ghost, Shuyin. Tidus wondered what he wanted with Yuna all of a sudden.
They made it down to the deck in record time and Tidus immediately picked him out among all the familiar people milling about. He had pale hair and was dressed in robes similar to what Tidus associated with Yevon priests. He was young, though, much younger than any Tidus had remembered meeting from before.
When Baralai noticed their approach, he offered them a smile, rising from where he had made use of a crate to sit on. "Yuna," he said, offering a bow, one which Yuna returned.
"Baralai, this is a surprise," she said. "To what do I owe the honor?"
"The honor is mine," he told her, even as his eyes trailed over to Tidus. "And you must be Tidus."
"Yeah," he nodded. "How did you know?"
"Actually," he said. "You're the reason I'm here. I was hoping...we could talk." He glanced around at the people gathered near. "Somewhere more private?"
The three of them ended up walking a little farther down the coast until the population thinned away. Tidus and Yuna had exchanged several looks behind Baralai's back, both concerned and confused over Baralai's mysterious words.
Once she deemed them at a safe enough distance, Yuna spoke. "What do you know about Tidus?" she asked. "And what does he have to do with why you're here?"
"Paine came to visit me recently," he said after a moment of gathering his thoughts. "She told me all about why you'd been in such a hurry to get home a few months ago. I can't say I blame you."
"I didn't know," she said. "I mean, I wasn't sure, just..."
Baralai raised a hand to stop her. "But the reason I came was to see for myself if it was true." Baralai glanced at Tidus again. "Did he really come back from the dead, from the Farplane?"
"Yeah," Tidus admitted. "I did."
The appraising look Baralai shot his way wasn't like the ones his friends had given him when he'd first appeared. It was more reserved and more clinical. "You have to admit that that's something amazing, Yuna," he said. "Unsent, yes; we've all experienced that, but...he came back from the Farplane, as if he'd never died. It's a miracle."
"I didn't really die," Tidus said. "I more like...faded away? Less like dying, though."
"Do you remember anything?" Baralai asked. "About the Farplane, I mean."
"Not really," he said. "I mean, a little, but it's vague."
"Yuna, Tidus," Baralai began. "I would really love to talk more with you about this. If you don't mind?"
"Why?" Tidus asked.
"I could say because I'm the Praetor of New Yevon and this is the kind of thing that matters to our religious doctrine," Baralai said. "But the truth is, I'm curious."
"I thought you were going to disband New Yevon," Yuna said. "Just like Nooj did the Youth League."
Baralai winced; Yuna's question looked like it had hit a sore spot. "Even if I do, people will still look to Yevon, to Bevelle for spiritual guidance. It'll take more than two years to change that."
"I don't mind talking to him," Tidus said to Yuna. "If you think it's okay?"
Yuna seemed to think for a moment. "He's a friend," she said. "If you feel comfortable..."
"Thank you," Baralai said to both of them.
And it was with that strange introduction that Tidus found himself relating the entire tale of his life, death and rebirth for Baralai, the Praetor of New Yevon.
**
As Auron sat in one of the quarters of the Al Bhed ship that rescued him from his days of solitude among the ruins of Baaj, he tried to make sense of his very unexpected resurrection. It wasn't even as if he hadn't died before, or risen from death, but this wasn't the same thing at all. Refusing to accept death in the face of Yunalesca's treachery, in the face of the promises he had left unfulfilled was one thing, but what had happened now was something alien to all of Auron's reckoning.
He had been in no mood to deal with questions from the Al Bhed salvagers who had found him, so he had refrained from asking the ones he'd wanted, only if to stave off their curiosity about him. Gippal, the leader, hesitated only slightly in the face of Auron's stony silence before he had plowed on, asking questions and delivering information even when Auron ignored him. From Gippal's ramblings and from what he'd overheard from the other members of the crew, Auron knew it had been years since the defeat of Sin, years during which Auron had been somewhere that he wasn't any longer. The teachings, so ingrained in him, said the Farplane but the teachings of Yevon had never mentioned that it was a realm from which people could return. In fact, no teaching ever discussed such a thing -- Auron, himself, had expected the Farplane to be his end. But he had nothing but a few hazy impressions from the moment after he had let Yuna's sending unravel his being and, after them, there had been nothing.
That is, until he came to consciousness in the ruined chamber of the Baaj Temple.
Auron wasn't sure how others might've reacted to such an event but the more he thought about it, the more he was unsettled. Until he better understood what forces had brought him back, he could do nothing but ask himself why -- why him and why now? Why not others who deserved a second chance? Why not Braska, who had a daughter who missed him? Why not Jecht, who suffered for a decade as Sin? Why not so many others?
The changes he had underwent with his resurrection struck him as disquieting, too. It hadn't taken Gippal's tactless and vocal observation within moments of their meeting for Auron to know that he had come back different. After his ten years as an Unsent, most of those years spent in Sin's dream Zanarkand, the heaviness of Auron's heart had been reflected in the lines of his face, the white in his hair; he had looked as old as he'd felt. Now...it was as if no time had passed since the day he had seen his summoner die at the hands of Yevon and the Final Aeon, since he had demanded retribution from Yevon's daughter and received only death for his trouble. His face was unlined, his dark hair untouched by silver and even his scar -- remnants of that final blow against him -- existed only as a thin, white line along the same old path, nothing like the gash he had borne before.
It was another uncomfortable mystery.
Auron's contemplation was interrupted by a knock at the door of his quarters. When he didn't bother answering, he wasn't surprised to see the door open anyway and Gippal appear.
"So, uh, how's it going?" Gippal asked.
"Fine," Auron said. He rose to his feet from the edge of the bed where he'd been sitting. "Did you want something?"
Gippal gave him an unimpressed look that said he was tired of Auron's terseness. Auron ignored it as he had for the last three days. "We've landed at Bikanel," he explained. Then he shook his head. "And I'm still not sure what to do with you exactly."
Auron snorted and turned away from the Al Bhed, instead looking out of the small round window the room had. "I asked for transport to a main island," he said. "Not a baby-sitter."
"Regardless..." Gippal began, but trailed off. Auron could see the young man's reflection in the glass of the window and watched it as Gippal ran a hand through his hair. "I still wasn't sure. And I'm not really heading back to Spira proper for a minute. So I...called someone who might be better equipped to deal with you."
Auron turned back toward Gippal, mouth open to demand to know exactly who Gippal had called when there was a commotion coming from the corridor behind where the salvager stood. Auron tensed and noticed that Gippal did the same.
"Okay, Gippal, you better have a good explanation for this!" The feminine voice announced before its owner arrived. "Because you go months -- months!! -- without a word and now you demand that I come here A-S-A-P? What gives? Tell me now!"
Gippal gave Auron one last look before he glanced over his shoulder, out into the hall, and then stepped more fully into the chamber, unblocking the door’s opening. "How about you just see for yourself?"
Even though it was far from a surprise, Auron still started when Rikku burst into the room. She had a similar reaction when she laid eyes on him, her eyes going wide as she lifted her hands to cover the "O" of surprise her mouth had formed at the sight of him.
"Auron," she squeaked, much the same way Gippal had. "It's you, isn't it?"
Auron nodded. "Rikku."
He barely had time to register the obvious changes that the years had brought to her before she threw herself at him, thin arms closing around his neck like a vice.
"I can't believe it!" she exclaimed, still holding on. "It's you! You're really here! And you're -- you're young! Auron!"
"Rikku," he said, voice pitched toward a growl.
He didn't have to say anything else for her to get the message and she pulled away, although she didn't move far. "Auron!"
"You said that all ready," Gippal said from where he hovered near the door. "Are your braids too tight or something?"
"Crid ib, zylgycc," she told Gippal. "He's back! From the Farplane! And he's young!" At that, she turned back to him. "Why are you young again?"
Of all the things to focus on, it wasn't Auron's first concern. But, of course, it was Rikku's. "I don't have an answer," he admitted. "For any of it."
"What happened?" she demanded, looking between him and Gippal.
"I was doing a salvage run near Baaj," Gippal said. "Since you said Cid found his airship out there? Anyway, we found him instead, stranded out there."
"How did you get there?" she asked Auron, still watching him with her wide, spiral-irised eyes.
Auron shrugged. "I just was," he said. "As of a few days ago."
"I didn't know what else to do, Rikku," Gippal said, sounding much more serious than he had a few minutes before. "All I could think to do was comm you."
"For once, you did the right thing," she told him, and Auron had to stifle another snort at the grin Rikku's approval brought to Gippal's face. Then Rikku was smiling at Auron. "It's so good to see you!" As if she couldn't help herself, she threw her arms around him for another quick squeeze before she darted away.
"Why aren't you more freaked out by this?" Gippal asked her. "He came back from the dead, didn't he? You told me Yuna sent him!"
"She did!" Rikku said. "And he did! But it's a good thing, right?" When Gippal didn't seem convinced, she added, "Plus, he's the second person I know who's come back!"
Hope was an ugly, dreadful knot in Auron's chest. If he came back, who else might've come with him? "Did you say second?" he asked.
She nodded, beads and braids swinging with the motion.
"Who?"
"Tidus," she told him. "He came back. To Yuna! Like, three months ago. He just appeared outside of Besaid! That's where he is now -- they both are, along with Wakka and Lulu."
A complicated series of emotions clutched at him with the news. "Can you get me there?" he asked. "I'd like to see them."
She laughed, a bright, happy sound. Auron was surprised at how much he enjoyed hearing it again. "Of course, I can," she told him. " Off to Besaid, we go!"
**
End of Chapter 1