Some Comments:

Hi, this is the first fanfiction I've ever written. I've been enthusiastic about a death conclusion for a long time, and I've decided to incorporate it into a fanfiction about Tidus and Yuna. The ending is not sad and it is not cheerful. It's bittersweet and touching, to me, at least. I took a lot of care writing it, because I wanted it to have the perfect touch of depression and happiness; the perfect mix. I like how it turned out. Please rate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX.

One Last Time

The sight was beautiful and marvelous and sad. The ship was prepared for departure, bobbing on the waves as the tide swept the water in great torrents from the soaked sand as the final strands of the sun glistened on the horizon, staining the clouds a soft pink and darkening the water into a rich purple.

Tidus stood behind Yuna, his arms draped around her shoulders, basking in the glow of the setting sun as it illuminated the ship and the dock and the small boat that had cuddled up beside the ship to take it out to sea. Tidus buried his face in Yuna's hair and sighed with satisfaction and happiness. His heart was content and his mind could convey no possible sadness. In that moment, Tidus found it difficult to believe in the Oracle and his painful words. He found it difficult to recall the figure, dressed in white linen and holding a beautiful, ornate lantern, standing on the steps of the church leading to the alter as he held the book before him, his brow furrowed with concentration as though reading from it, a great and marvelous text. But he was not reading, for his eyes were closed, each pale lid shut tight over the glistening orbs behind them, light blue and powdery. Like the snow, thought Tidus. But it was difficult to think snow and it was almost impossible to bring back the Oracle as he stood and thought and spoke out into the church to give forth the orders of Fate.

Tidus did not want to believe that Yuna would leave him. He did not want to think that he might be deprived of the one person he loved, and loved so desperately, that he felt the need to cling to her one last time before Fate acted out on her orders and gave strong jurisdiction on the matter. She was such a wonderful person, so kind and so organized and patient... He had wondered, constantly, how she would die, but the Oracle had not emphasized. As he probed through her old memories of the past, he had winced and he had moaned in terror as he experienced what Yuna had experienced and as he learned what Yuna had learned. But soon, he hurried from her past, to her present, and to her future. And it was here, in the untold mist and fog that he gasped… for he could see nothing of her future but bitter pain and sadness. He felt, at once, regretful and despondent, and shut the large book with haste and stored it on a shelf in the podium stand. Tidus felt as though someone had wrenched his heart out from his chest and had replaced it with a stone. Yuna had looked confused.

The stone in his chest shook with a sudden wave of grief as he pulled Yuna tighter to him, as though trying to savor the last moments of her presence. He felt her warm body against his and he felt the pleasure and the surprise of being able to hold onto someone as strongly as he did, for he believed that stones could sprout no emotion and that there could be no love from a stone and a soul as empty as his. If he were perfectly honest with himself, he loved Yuna too much to allow her to die. He could not live without her; his heart, already cold and devoid of emotion, would shatter and break and thus he would die, for he could not live without his heart and his heart could not exist without Yuna and so, in almost every way, he lived for Yuna and for what goodness and happiness she could bring, so easily, to his life. He felt something throb in his chest where his heart might have been and he was surprised. Stones could not throb as mightily as his did.

"Yuna," he promised, a cold grimace in his voice, "You aren't going to die."

She turned and smiled at him, and, in the sunlight, her face shone with a beautiful, almost incomparable radiance. "It's alright Tidus." She said in a soft voice, "I'm not scared of death. I'm not scared of the end. I'm not scared of anything. I have my guardian to protect me." And she giggled as she hugged him.

He felt a surge of warmth creep up his skin and onto his face as he blushed and hugged her back. Even at the end of all things, she was as remarkable a girl as he knew he would ever meet. And perhaps the last one he would ever meet. If I am to die in this lifetime, let it be tonight, thought Tidus remorsefully, so that I might continue to live in happiness in the next lifetime… with Yuna. He felt the ocean wind, cold and wet, on his skin for a last time as he stood on the deck of the large ship as it prepared to depart. He stood still and silent, completely engulfed in his embrace as he held on to Yuna tightly and securely, as though he were afraid she might be swept out on the rushing tide. He listened to the sound of the water beneath the ship, and heard the cry of the gulls, wheeling above his head. He saw the light of the sun as it blinked on the edge of the water, its long fingers stretching out above the heavens in the vaulted skies where bright stars, single specks of light, danced and reigned powerful and mighty. One final time.

"Tidus?" said Yuna aloud to the cold night, "I think that's tight enough. I feel well protected now." She grinned at him with an undeniable happiness, and his heart melted. He could not bear to see that smile vanish. He could not imagine a life without Yuna. She had brought so much to his life, once so desolate and sad. He could not imagine her dead.

"Alright then," he said, his voice almost hoarse from lack of use as he tried to smile back down at her, "Let's get inside then. It's a little colder than I thought it would be." He carried her back down the side of the deck and through the doors that led into the heart of the ship, where light appeared and darkness was no more. The ropes were cut from the side of the ship as a large horn blared in triumph. The ship set sail, moving from the pier as the smaller one steered it clear of the port where the seabed was shallow and dangerous. The sails on the ship were unfurled as the ropes, coiled so snugly about the mast, were unbound and thrown askance. The sails blew open, caught in a strong wind and filled with a warm, twilight breeze as the sun shone and paled on the cloth, staining it a delicate pink, like a spring rose. Oars extended from the ship, sloshing down into the thick mud on the seabed as chains clanked to secure them in place. The rudder turned experimentally on its steering rod and the bow of the ship swung forward in the water to catch the last incandescence of light as it shimmered for a final second on the edge of the horizon. And then it vanished. And the darkness was absolute.

The dinner that night was not a sad and solemn affair, for Tidus was anxious to see that Yuna was well fed on this night, one of the last nights in the long chapter that she had shared with him in the colorful and painful book of her life.

He was a gentleman that night, but he was worried that he did not perform his role dutifully, for he had little practice and had never tried to be a gentleman before. He approached Yuna as she sidled down the staircase in a bottle green dress that shone faintly in the bright light from the candles in the dining hall. He smiled and held out his arm, like he had seen gentlemen do on countless occasions at parties and dinners.

Yuna giggled and took his arm, following him to a small and private table, laden with silver platters and forks and knives. A server approached them and set down two small menus onto the white linen along with two cups of tea and a plate of baked croissants.

Tidus pushed the plate toward Yuna and settled his head on his arms to look at her while she ate her bread and sipped her tea. He watched as she took a sharp knife from her silverware and scooped a piece of butter from the butter dish, applying it to her bread and spreading it around in neat circles, then cutting it up and chewing with satisfaction. His heart throbbed in his chest, for he knew that he would not be able to see her delighted for much longer. But, for that night, he pushed at the pain and urged it to leave, because, he pled with it, he wanted a night alone with Yuna for once. A night without pain and without sorrow, but one filled with nothing but love whilst he sat and watched her eat her food.

"What?" she said after taking another bite of French bread.

"Nothing," he said, sighing lovingly but not taking his eyes from her. "It's just that… life seems so short. There's not quite enough time to enjoy all that was meant to be enjoyed, you know?"

Yuna looked at him in confusion. "Oh, come on Tidus," she said in amazement. "This isn't about my death again, is it? Look, Tidus, if this makes you feel better, I've known ever since I was a little girl that I was going to die young. I never believed I would see the age when I would sit down on a chair and require help getting back up, or when I would read a book and need glasses to see the page in front of me. In fact, I'm quite surprised that I've gotten this far in life. I never expected to live this long."

"Don't say that," said Tidus, and the stone in his chest returned again as he sat up straighter. "You were meant to live and bring happiness to other people. You were destined to heal and give hope. You were meant to become a summoner, Yunie… I don't want you to die."

"Tidus, I have given happiness and I have healed and I have given hope. But this life was not intended to be long and I was not destined to become old or aged. If it were possible, I would like to die right now… while I'm still here, with you." And she glanced down at her knife, still stained with butter, grinning, as though deciding on an impulse.

Tidus snatched the knife from her plate in an instant. "Don't you dare, Yunie. I couldn't bear it."

She laughed and the sound tingled in the air like music, but it was a music much more delicate and much more peaceful than any he had heard before, and it was a music that could not compare to those that are orchestrated and sung, for it held a definite soul and a definite heart, like that of a beating person; the heart and soul of a summoner. "Then eat your food, Tidus." She said. "Let's enjoy our dinner tonight… the final night of many nights."

And so, he picked up a piece of bread, and bit into it.

Later that night, he sat with Yuna on their bed and thought about what the Oracle had said.

"Tidus?" Yuna said in a soft voice.

"Yes, Yuna?" he asked, looking down at her with a loving gaze.

"I love you."

She senses the end is near, thought Tidus to himself; that is the reason she is letting her emotions spill so carelessly, surely. Outwardly, however, he did not show his fright. He concealed his worries and disguised them. "Wow, Yunie, that's really sweet." He said, "But I don't need you to tell me that. I already know." He hugged her tighter and pressed his lips against her forehead.

"I know… it's just... I wanted to say it… one last time. It feels right."

"Oh Yunie, I told you that I'd protect you, didn't I?" he said adamantly, "I'm not going to let you die tonight, Yunie… I'm just not letting it happen!" He kissed her again on her cheek but fought back the tears that stung his eyes and trickled down his face like small and fragile rivulets of water, flowing down the side of a giant piece of stone. For that was what he had become; a giant stone, and nothing more.

"It's alright Tidus," she said, sitting back and resting his head in her lap. She wiped the tears from his face and kissed him. "I don't mind death… as long as I get to be with you."

He gasped softly, and then choked out, "Don't say that Yunie… of course I'll stay with you… until the very end. It's just that…"

"What?" asked Yuna, placing her hands on his head and turning him around in her lap so that his bright eyes shone up at her, blue and luminous in the candlelight and filled with his transparent tears.

"I don't want you to die, Yunie," he whispered, and suddenly, in an instant, he sat up and kissed Yuna, much like a brother might kiss a sister, in a quick and simple fashion. She smiled at him and pushed him down on the bed, hugging him tight to her as she bit his ear and giggled.

In that instant, he felt a great rush of emotion, as though it had welled up in him, bottled and corked, over the past several hours of their evening on the ship and it had accumulated and collected and was prepared to burst with great force, through his entire body, streaming through his blood like liquid happiness carried on a current and shaking his bones, rattling them about uncontrollably as he tried to hold still and failed, still clinging on to the one person in the world that he cared so much for. The love that filled him in that one instant was so powerful, he felt an overwhelming urge to never again feel an emotion so utterly insignificant and depressing as sadness and understood Yuna's desire for a quick death, for he felt that, should death appear at his doorstep, he would be well dressed and groomed and prepared to take it out on a date with as much glamour and as much frivolity as he had just done with Yuna.

He would take it out to a large dinner and assist it along the way and they would sit at a table, laden with platters and silverware and small tea cups on thick, white linen, drinking the finest of wines and sipping the most delicate of ciders. Tidus could imagine, in that one instant, how he would feel after drinking through several courses with her, for he would surely feel a slight throb in his head and an inability to focus and concentrate and he would see light and darkness at the same time and he would see good and bad at the same time and Life dancing with Death on the beautiful, marble floor of the vast dining hall, so similar in size and no less magnificent in décor to the one he had so recently left.

As he relived and as he imagined what had happened and what might have happened at the dinner in the heart of the ship, he felt a great sense of happiness and security, for he was where he should be: with Yuna. He curled up against Yuna and felt warmth spread through his entire body, starting at his fingers and running up through his bones, melting all the hard and dead stone that encased him as though it were nothing but wax, and the heat intensified as it traveled up his arms and down his chest, surrounding his heart in a wonderful, pulsing energy that refused to give in and refused to surrender. He felt, for the first time in many long and bitter months, content. He indeed, would not resist Death if it were to appear at the bedside and swamp them both in her cold embrace, for he had Yuna and she could provide a warmth and happiness that could not be destroyed; a tall and slow burning candle whose wax did not melt and whose wick was everlasting and whose scent was a mixture of all things good and right and just.

He felt sleep invade sometime and, in his mind, his thoughts turned to another part of the marble hall, where Romance, dressed in his beautiful black robe and bottle green tie danced with Love, dressed in Yuna's dark green dress, waltzing around the marble floor with an undeniable gracefulness that was equal in delight as Death was in abhorrence.

The ship continued through the night, plowing through the water and over the rough surface of the waves. So great was the size of the ship that there would be no disturbance to the people of the ship, for it did not follow the roll and bend of the water as smaller ships might have, but plunged through it, like a dart, skimming through with the smallest of effort and slashing through the surface like a hot knife, its sails flapping far and wide and askance, like flags.

A tall mountain of monolithic ice towered in the night.

"Tidus!" shouted Yuna, and he awoke with a start.

Yuna was still on the bed with him, but the lights in the delicate lanterns on the walls had been extinguished and there was a new sound that invaded the ship and shattered through the walls in a great magnitude, like an animal in pain, a dreadful, roaring sound, as though a giant leviathan of the depths were screaming and bellowing in agony, a sound so dreadful and so loud, it echoed continually across the great expanse of cold water, hitting the ship with such force that the walls seemed to quake with the sound, reverberating and continuing onwards and onwards, in one unbroken note.

Tidus gasped from the pain it inserted, like a hot needle, deep into his chest where it struggled and writhed and punctured his heart, searing and burning. In that instant, he realised that something bad would happen, and it would happen soon, and for him, in that instant, all time appeared to stand still, though with an unknown cause and a mysterious purpose such that he felt the urging need to clutch his heart and attempt to extract the needle that had caused such a tremor and quake in his mind and soul. He looked to the window. The ship was not moving.

"What was that, Yuna?" he asked, staring back at her.

She didn't respond, but smiled in a most uncharacteristic way. She moved toward him and grasped his arm, pulling him back down and onto the bed in a tight hold. "Nothing." She pushed her lips to his and kissed him.

"Erm, Yunie?" asked Tidus, breaking off, "I don't think it's the right time to…"

Yuna pushed harder against him and kissed him again with more passion and urgency, as though she too detected the needle, no matter how vague and blunt, and as though she too could see the purpose and the cause that it had inspired, whether unknown or not. "Oh, I think it's the right time, Tidus. Listen, please? It's the sound of the water, bringing me what I've always wanted; an eternity in heaven… with you." And again, she hugged him, so hard and so tightly he felt that he might break if she pressured him further. But she did not let go, and he placed a hand on her shoulder and a hand on her face.

"Yunie?" he asked tenderly, "You didn't drink too much, did you?" he asked.

She looked at him, her eyes deep and consoling. "No," she said, "I didn't. Listen."

He strained hard. And he heard it. It was the sound of trickling water.

The last thing he remembered doing was placing his arms on Yuna's neck and hugging her tight. He did not want to let go. Not now, not ever… He lay in the bed for a long time, never again to rise from it as water rushed through the room, silent and cold and delicate, like molten glass. His fingers intertwined with Yuna's. He imagined a beautiful piece of music, orchestrated to perfection, and the music was so loud and so dominant in his mind, sending joy cascading in thick torrents through his heart where it was reinforced and reinforced again, that it drowned out all noise and sound of water rushing around him and Yuna; bound together like his heart and intertwined forever. It was the Song of Love.

"Yuna?" he said. He peeked at her for a single moment and in that moment, the rushing sound of water split into his mind for an instant, causing him to blink in frustration as his heart seemed to wilt for a second. In that second, the needle reappeared with renewed vigor and thrust like a sharp dagger and his heart became cold and stone like and without emotion.

"Yes?" she asked her voice even, controlled, and soft.

"I love you," he said. He closed his eyes one last time.

"So do I," said Yuna. She breathed for a moment with a regular and measured and precise cadence, and then said, "The Oracle was wrong, Tidus," she said, "He told me that I would die in unhappiness." She turned around and Tidus could imagine her smiling as she kissed him on his closed eyelids and pulled him ever closer. "I'm not going to die in grief. I am not unhappy. I have you."

Yuna closed her eyes and placed her face against Tidus' shoulder, biting softly into his neck, one last time. He moaned quietly, but whether out of pain or pleasure or delight, she would never know. And in that moment, even Tidus did not know. He did not care.

The darkness settled… and the Song of Love was dominant; the orchestra was peaceful and the music became smooth and soft and sweet; unbearably sweet. It sung like a chorus of phoenix song, so delicate and so tender, as Tidus held on to Yuna…

One last time.

End Notes:

So. How did it go? I loved it when I finished writing it, but I made a lot of changes from the original version, which was a little less poetic. I like the descriptions I used and all the imagination that there is in the dreaming. It makes it more beautiful, to me. Please rate it.

Signed, thecorrespondent