My stomach hurts. Real bad. Not like I ate that two-week-old tuna bad, but like I think I'm gonna hurl out my guts bad. I guess that's to be expected. You can't just blow up your home and continue about your day like nothing's happened.

I wanted to be alone. I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. Not listen to Pops giving orders, or Tidus' questions, or Wakka's lame attempts to comfort me. Honestly. Happy festival fireworks? I've met fiends with more sensitivity.

Somehow I found myself in the bar. Yep, there's a bar on this airship. Kinda makes you wonder what people used to do with these things. Fly around and drink? It was empty though. The only place on the Fahrenheit that Pops hadn't refurbished. I sat down at the empty bar. It was old. Not, covered in cobwebs-old, but I think those may be barnacles growing on the stool old.

I started thinking. I'm used to losing people. I guess it shouldn't upset me. Watching my friends die before my eyes. It's all routine for an Al Bhed. So why did I feel like I had just been shot? Like there was a hole in my heart? Maybe it was because I realized how alone I was without Home. Maybe it was because I realized how alone I was period.

"Rikku!"

For the love of machina, Pops. Can't you give me five minutes to myself?

"Rikku! Report to the bridge. Now!" I may not be the smartest monk in the choir but I know an order when I hear one. Two shakes later I was back on the bridge.

"What is it?" I asked. "Did ya find Yunie?"

Pops looked at me and shook his head. Then what did you summon me for at a dead run, Pops?

"Then, what's up?"

"Red coat. Cranky guardian. I need you to talk to him."

"Auron?" Like I knew someone else in a red coat that was blessed with the title "cranky." "Why?"

"I need you to tell him in no uncertain terms what will happen to him if he tries to get her to continue this fool pilgrimage!"

Right. Talk to Auron. That's about as much fun as taking a road trip to Guadosalam. "I think he already knows, Pops."

"Well tell him again! I'm not gonna let some stuffy monk force Yuna to give up her life."

Yeah Pops. Jump into action to save Yuna. Don't get me wrong; I want the same thing, but what about me? Don't I mean anything to you Pops?

"Pops, he's gonna help Yuna on her Pilgrimage as long as she wants to go. He promised Braska."

"Does it look like I care? Just talk to him!"

"No."

"What's that?"

"You heard me. No! I'm done taking orders from you! Talk to him yourself!" I then stormed out of the cabin, tripped over my feet on the way out and landed spectacularly on my bum. Great job, Rikku.

I heard a grunt. Now, let's think. Who do I know who considers grunting a word? Oh, that's right.

"Hey Auron."

"You ever said no to him before?"

I wanna say 'Yep, loads of times.' Instead I say, "I dunno." Liar.

"You can't live under your father's shadow forever." I don't know what that means, but I think I've just been insulted.

"What's that supposed to mean? Hey! Get back here!"

"It means that you should try to write your own story."

What is it with that guy and stories? But, I've always wanted my own story. Not a story about Yunie, or Tidus, or Kimahri, or Wakka, or Lulu. Just me.

So listen up! This is my story! It all starts with Brother, a machina excavation, and a fiend.