DISCLAIMER: Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, all characters and situations belong to almighty Square Enix, and are used here for non-commercial purposes.

SPOILER ALERT: Absolutely everything related to FFX & FFX-2.

AL BHED TRANSLATOR: You can Google one easily if you'd like to translate; I can't seem to embed a link here. You can probably get the gist of what's going on without translating. Most of it is swearing or clarified by dialogue in English.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the final story in my trilogy starting with 'Just a Dream Away' and continued in 'Dream a Dream and See.' (Read those first if you haven't.)

This is gonna be a LONG one, folks! Auron's part of the Gullwings, meaning the whole of FFX-2 turns out different. I'm skipping a lot of the sidequests and showing things from Rikku and Auron's alternating perspectives. If you've no taste for romance, or have an age gap squick, I recommend you go no further. Things get… complicated.

I appreciate you readers so much. Your encouragement and reviews have inspired me to keep going and keep sharing. If you find anything unclear or confusing confusing please please let me know so I can rewrite and clarify! If you don't like it or think you can do better, I encourage you most sincerely to write your own. Dissatisfaction is a fantastic motivator for creativity and fanfiction in particular.

Enjoy!

"Y. A. R. P." Rikku made a face, and continued softly into her receiver, "In position. It's showtime."

Luca stadium's crowd sounded like a thunderous tide set to drown her, and yet the only thing that really bothered her today—other than the fact that some imposter pretending to be Yuna had set up a concert to exploit her cousin's reputation—was that stupid acronym.

It was the least objectionable of all combinations of the initials of the ground component of the fabulous sphere-hunting Gullwings. With one disillusioned former High Summoner, a disillusioned Al Bhed former summoner, and a disillusioned former Yevon monk, 'P. R. A. Y.' was out of the question. Not to mention totally backwards in order of importance. Yuna was the one everyone on the team looked to, just like the rest of Spira, and the wild crowd packing Luca Stadium to the rafters.

Or so they think! thought Rikku, glaring through her binoculars at the dancing, singing imposter and thundering drum set. It was a pleasure to ride a liberated camera platform with Paine and Auron down to the stage after the opening number and face off against whoever-it-was in that blue ruffled dress with that smug so-punchable smile. Rikku's fingers tightened on her thief daggers.

"Hey, give it back, already!" said Rikku.

"Boys!" cooed the imposter, in a sickly-sweet female voice that was definitely not like Yuna's.

At her cue, two goons somersaulted onto the stage.

"Want in on this number? Then show me your moves!" said the imposter.

Auron chuckled, and he and Rikku shared a nod.

"Think you can keep up?" said Paine.

Rikku had to hand it to Paine—she was a good swordswoman, although not nearly as good as Auron, and her fighting style fit in well with the well-practiced dynamic duo. They made short work of the goons and readied to close ranks around the imposter.

The distraction of the goons had given her time, and with a saucy, "Sorry, no time for an encore," she took to her stolen heels.

"Hold still!" Rikku cried, pursuing. She heard Auron and Paine's boots clumping behind her, but the imposter gave them quite a fast and merry chase through the stadium and out to Luca's docks.

"You run too fast!" Rikku gasped, and found she was facing a tall thin man with two guns and a short man so fat he was almost a sphere. Their shapes reminded Rikku of two of the long-lost Magus Sisters aeons, Cindy and Sandy.

"You're too slow, little girl," smirked Two Guns.

"Show's over!" said Sphere Man with a laugh like a cat clearing a hairball.

Rikku shook her head with a grin. "You don't know who you're dealing with, do you?"

"Looks like a couple of jailbait hookers and their pimp," said Sphere Man.

"Oh, you did not just say that," snarled Rikku. "You're in for it n…"

The gunman fired at her and she threw herself flat. Auron leaped over her. She rolled up into a somersault and jumped into his waiting arms. He threw her at the gunman like a projectile and drew his sword to get on Sphere Man's case. Auron had given Rikku a bit of a spin to the toss so she twirled as she aimed her daggers at Two Guns' face. He squeezed off a couple more shots—one stung her shoulder, but by then he had to duck with a most satisfying look of terror. She folded and dropped on top of him.

More gunfire behind her heralded the arrival of the main attraction, the ace in the hole, the savior of Spira: Lady Yuna, sporting two pistols and a shorts ensemble worthy of Rikku's clothing style. The four of them seriously trounced their foes.

"That's quite enough sniveling, boys," came that arrogant female voice, and Yuna's doppelganger appeared. "Persistent, aren't you?" she said to the Gullwings.

"My grid," said Yuna.

"Give us back Yunie's Garment Grid right now!" said Rikku.

"Didn't you girls ever learn to share?" said the imposter.

Yuna's voice hardened, rare anger coloring her tone. "Give it back."

"Very well, it's yours." The imposter took it off, and the stolen appearance of Yuna melted away to show a blonde lady in an obscenely low-cut purple dress with an ironic red heart painted on her chest. She tossed Yuna the Garment Grid.

"But it won't be yours for long, loves!" The woman gestured with her fan at them, and she and her henchmen took up the fight in earnest. Halfway through, the three of them ran for it.

"I won't let you off so easily next time!" the woman called nastily over her shoulder.

"Get back here!" Rikku yelled.

"Rikku." Something in Paine's serious tone made her turn around.

Yuna, now in the Songstress outfit her imposter had been wearing, was dancing and making uncertain noises, looking startled.

"Are you… all right?" said Auron, watching Yuna.

"I… I…" stammered Yuna. Fortunately she seemed to get control of herself and stopped, panting. "I… think so. Thank you, Sir Auron."

Auron laughed, but it sounded forced. "Just Auron. Hard to break the habit, is it not, Lady Yuna?" The two shared a grin, and Yuna looked relieved.

"You sure looked like you were enjoying yourself. Victory dance?" Rikku asked Yuna, on the bridge of the airship Celsius.

"I was," said Yuna. "It felt like some other person's excitement just took over."

The littlest member of the Gullwings, Shinra, in his odd survival suit, piped up: "That can happen when you use the Garment Grid. The emotions of the person recorded in the sphere pass to the user."

"That sounds dangerous," said Auron.

Shinra stood up on his chair, at his station panel, and swiveled to face them, hands braced on the back of the chair. "I can't really say."

"But it's your invention!" protested Buddy, Celsius's captain.

Shinra shrugged. "I'm just a kid."

Pilot Brother, in his never-changing overalls and blond mohawk, cleared his throat. "Dancing Yuna? I want to see!" He gestured grandly, hungrily.

Rikku rolled her eyes at Auron, who grinned.

"It'll cost you," said Yuna, unexpectedly.

Brother frantically patted his pockets. "One moment…"

"She's kidding," said Paine.

"What?" said Brother, dismayed. "No dance?"

The sphere oscillo-finder's alarm shrilled, filling the bridge with both sound and excited anticipation.

"Ehlusehk tydy! Gullwings, du ouin cdydeuhc!" said Brother, reverting to his native Al Bhed tongue in his excitement.

Rikku sidled over to Auron and gave his rear a smack. "Nice one today. I liked the spin toss."

Auron made to return her swat, but she was expecting it and swayed out of reach. He grinned. "Our timing has improved."

"Think you could teach me?" Paine said to Auron.

Auron eyed her. "Which one of us, exactly, were you hoping to toss?"

Rikku couldn't help her bubbled laugh. Paine's stony face didn't show a crack.

"I mean, you could throw me," said Paine. "If we practiced."

Auron shrugged, his look impassive. "I suppose, if you are interested…"

"I am," said Paine.

Rikku gave her a puzzled frown, but it cleared when Yuna came over to talk to Paine, and then Rikku.

"Having fun?" said Rikku.

"You bet!" chirped Yuna.

"Glad to hear it," said Rikku. "For a while there, I was starting to feel like a kidnapper."

"With this one around, it's hard not to loosen up, isn't it?" Auron scrubbed at Rikku's explosion of tiny braids barely contained by loops and a headband. She squawked and punched his arm.

Yuna giggled. "I think you're both a good influence on me!"

"Oh, just wait," said Auron. "You think we're a good influence now, but soon you will be just as much a delinquent as I've become."

Yuna lowered her voice. "What about Paine? She seems so serious."

Auron laughed. "I was even worse, once upon a time."

"Good point," laughed Yuna, drifting across the bridge to check in with the rest of the ship's crew.

Paine sidled up to Auron. "Want to practice up on deck?"

"Now?" said Auron.

Rikku yawned hugely. She had zero interest in watching someone new trying to learn the killer trick she and Auron had perfected through years of practice. "You two kids have fun, I'm beat."

"Yes, at your age, you need your beauty rest," said Auron, himself sporting a peppering of grey hairs through his black spiky 'do. "Mind your rheumatism."

Rikku stuck her tongue out at him. "Whippersnapper."

"Are you sure you don't need assistance? A cane?" Auron called after her as she left the bridge.

"Banjand!" she yelled back as the doors shut behind her.

Despite her claims of exhaustion, Rikku writhed in her bunk. Her brain frustrated her with thoughts of Auron tossing Paine. It was a patented Auron and Rikku move, and they were the original killer Sphere Hunting team. They predated even Yuna and Buddy and Brother with the Celsius. It was their funding and their work that made it possible for the team to expand and get all this technology to help the hunting.

Rikku couldn't figure why it got under her skin to share this battle technique with someone else. After all, no one else on the ground team could effectively toss the others like Auron could, and maybe Yuna would want to get in on the action, too. The more options they had as a fighting team, the more baddies' asses they could kick.

Rikku sighed explosively.

"Something wrong?"

Rikku turned over and saw Yuna in the act of getting into the next bunk over.

"Nope," said Rikku, and felt a little confused knot of guilt in her stomach. It felt like a lie, but she didn't know the real answer, so she covered it by saying, "You were great out there today! I love your moves with that Gunner Sphere."

"Thanks, you're pretty handy with your Thief Sphere!" said Yuna.

"The outfits are totally pedlreh', too," said Rikku.

Yuna laughed. "They are! I never thought I'd turn into a clotheshorse, but I love the way everything fits and looks with the different fighting modes. It's just so much fun!"

"Quite a different…" Rikku interrupted herself with a yawn, "…look for you. It suits you."

"You think so?"

"Don't you?"

Yuna looked thoughtful. "It's strange. It's a whole new life, seems like. But… it's easy to enjoy. Easier than I thought."

"You deserve it. More than anyone else, I think." Rikku turned over in her bunk, pulling the blankets up.

"Hey, cousin?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for making me part of the team."

Rikku grinned. "Thanks for coming." I wonder if you even know that though you were the last to join, you're really the heart of the Gullwings now. You can't really help it… it's part of who you are. The only people who don't wind up loving the crap out of you are losers and baddies.

…And I really hope we find what you're searching for.