Two Liars

This story contains spoilers to the end of Final Fantasy X. This is a work of fiction. I do not own the rights to Final Fantasy X, or anything Square-Enix.

You're both liars.

You came to us with promises, stories and hope. You both knew how to tell amazing stories, you know? Sometimes I'd lie wide awake at night and think about what you said. Everything seemed so much more manageable once you two arrived… complicated, but somehow manageable. Everything would be alright. You made us believe that we could do this together – and that it would always be that way: together. We would dine together, smile together, cry together and laugh together – heck, given the chance we'd probably have died together. But you know what? We didn't.

We chose to live.

Why did we choose to live? Because you made us believe that there was no other way. We had to live, it was as simple as that – or it was for me, anyway. Because… we did everything together, which meant that if one of us lived then the rest of us would too, right? So… I said that I would fight and live. We chose together.

We were all supposed to live!

And both of you had us believe in the fairytale ending, you know? The gorgeous prince fell in love with the beautiful maiden (who, in truth, did need to be rescued), and they lived happily ever after. Everyone got their fairytale ending: the black mage and loudmouth blitzball captain had their beliefs torn away from them, only to find a new hope within one another; the lone Ronso earned the respect of his clan and become their leader; and the awkward, Al Bhed teenager finds out that maybe she's grown (just a bit). And the lonely knight finds something inside himself that tells him that his life is still worth living.

And everyone lived happily ever after. Together.

Not.

You two lied to our faces – you lied in your stories, your beliefs, your feelings and everything! You lied and you filled us with hope and you made our hearts warm and… we felt like maybe we could change the world together. Together, okay?

We weren't ready to let go – we'd already let go of so much. Homes, dreams… laughter... But when we were all together, we were able to feel warmth, and hope, and I think we even may have dreamt, too. Even Wakka and Lulu, who had lost their faith in Yevon, managed to find something to believe in because together we were so strong.

And as we pushed forward, we kept losing bits of ourselves because we believed that we would never see Spira ever again, and that hurt so very much. But we hurt together, and that's better than hurting alone. And… maybe that's why this feeling hurts so much now. It's that we're separate, and apart and sometimes I feel so alone. Hurting alone.

At the end of it all, how much was it worth to you two? I think you broke everyone's heart, maybe just a little. A dream and a… fiend. You broke our hearts.

And what hurts worst of all is that you lied to all of us, even though we loved you and trusted you. Wakka, Lulu, Yuna, Kimhari… we all loved you – both of you. And right now, we're hurting – some more than others. And I know that it's something that can't be fixed too easily. You're not coming back. Neither of you are.

We believed so much that one of us would die – in fact, we knew who was going to die. Or we thought we did, anyway. We believed in Yuna's forthcoming death as much as Wakka and Lulu believed in Yevon. And when Yuna chose to live rather than die, our belief was shattered and we were disillusioned.

So we fought for the chance to live, 'cause if one of us died then we all died. So… if we fought hard enough, we'd all live. We would change the world by choosing life over death – something uncommon in Spira. We would become legends, right? And legends don't die.

Legends don't die.

I guess that we forgot that we were really just ordinary people, not legends or things of make-believe. But, come on! Just look at our story and tell me that it isn't legend material! … but I guess that's not what the problem is. Not really, anyway. Because I know it's legend material, and the rest of the world knows as well, but what they don't know is why two of our team never returned from the battle with Sin. The world can speculate all they want, but all the guesses in the world still haven't amounted to much.

Why not?

Because people still believe that Legends don't die, and that Dreams are never really gone. The people of Spira still believe that some day – as long as you believe – Legends will prosper and dreams will come true. And I shock myself because even now I find myself stirring when I hear a whistle, and when I see a glimmer of red in a forest I chase it down – only to have it disappear before my very eyes. And I still haven't found you; I still haven't found either of you.

And I realize that somewhere deep inside me I still believe that legends prosper and that dreams will come true.

But… we're supposed to believe that you're dead and gone forever, because you taught us that Dreams don't suddenly become reality even when they fight for it, and you also taught us that Legends are not real, they're only souls afraid of dying. And I think that if I was anyone else I would hate you for hurting me and for hurting us, and I would never forgive you for leaving us. I think that if we hadn't learned so much on the pilgrimage, and that if you two hadn't made us believe in ourselves and others that we would want to believe that you're dead and gone forever so that you would never hurt us again.

But we're a team, and teams stick together, right? So we can't hate you, much less believe that you're gone forever, 'cause forever's a hard bargain.

Fact is that everyone lost something during this pilgrimage, so we're all sore and broken. And it hurts more than ever to think of either of you suffering, alone, when we need one another more than ever before because we're a team, so we should bear this burden together, right?

So… you'd better show up soon, you liars.

End.

Hey. So if you had the patience to get all the way to the end of the fic in hopes that at the end the author's note would bestow you with some sort of greater knowledge… you read the wrong story.

I've gotten to the point where I read this fic and can't edit any more, and my first beta is currently AWOL, and my alternative beta is too lazy. So if you found any errors, please let me know in a message or your review. Or you can carry some sort of grudge until late into your life, always remembering that stupid 'oddlyintrospective' author that had all those typos.

Whatever suits your fancy, I guess. Well, I believe I've carried on quite enough. I hope you enjoyed this fic! - oi