(Warning: Contains spoilers of FFX!)

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Fade With Me

Prologue

So, it's been awhile since we've defeated Sin, ya know? One long year has passed, and I can't help but notice that a lot of things have changed.

I guess I'll fill you in on what everybody's been up to for the last year.

Yunie's been doing a lot of work in Bevelle, trying to unite Spira from the inside out. Everyone admires her there, so there won't be any problems with people not listening to what she has to say. I know she does this because it's the right thing to do, and she's always so unselfish, but there's another reason she does what she does. She misses Tidus. Who can blame her? He was my first non-Al Bhed friend…and I miss him a lot too. But she had a deeper bond with Tidus than he and I ever shared. So working in Bevelle takes her mind off of what she cherishes and misses most of all.

That can only last for so long, though, ya know? She should just go back to Besaid and let the maesters and praetors and whatnot do all the dirty work. Whenever I tell her this, she just laughs that gentle laugh of hers and tells me that no progress can be made unless someone is out there doing something about it. I've always admired my cousin for stuff like that. I wish I was more calm, cool, and collected like Yunie. Plus, everyone adores her.

But hey, if I was like her, then there wouldn't be a blonde, hyper, Al Bhed girl like me, right? When I was little, Pops always used to tell me that everyone is supposed to be exactly the way they are. Otherwise the natural balance of the universe will be destroyed, the apocalypse will come and the world will crumble into millions of tiny little pieces. If I was her, and she was him, then who would be me? It just doesn't work out. Everyone is the way they are for a reason, so we should just accept that.

Pops always was a bit extreme with some of his sayings…but he was right about the first part, at least. That's why I'm not afraid to be exactly the way that I am.

I'm just me. Rikku. A hyper Al Bhed thief, machina excavator and engineer. Oh, and one of High Summoner Yuna's former guardians.

Anyway, enough about me.

Since Kimahri no longer has to protect Yuna as a guardian, he's become the official leader of the Ronso on Mt. Gagazet! I always knew he was the leader type. He was always so silent, but he cared for everyone and showed his feelings on the battlefield by destroying tons of fiends with that powerful spear of his. I'm sure all of the Ronso look up to him a lot. I know I do.

Wakka and Lulu got married two months ago! I always knew they would end up together. I don't think they knew it at first, but it obviously ended up that way, right? I think that they maybe realized the start of deeper feelings for each other around the time that we discovered there was no Final Aeon. They were the most devout Yevonites, along with Yuna (since she was a summoner), so casting off their faith in Yevon completely was a big step for both of them. They took that step together.

I think Wakka and Lulu are really good together. They balance each other out. Wakka is an easy-going guy who's not afraid to have a fun time, and Lulu is the responsible, mature one who knows when to be serious about certain situations. I've always admired her too. She's so sure of herself, and she's calm, cool and collected just like Yunie. And Yunie and Lulu are both absolutely beautiful. Why can't I be more like them? Like a grown woman?

Ugh. Stop complaining, Rikku.

Remember what Pops said!?

Anyway, Wakka and Lulu do have one thing in common, though. They care for their loved ones and would do anything for them. That was really clear to me when they both offered to be Yunie's fayth for the Final Aeon. We obviously didn't have to do that, though. We found a new way to defeat Sin, without anyone dying!

Well…I guess that's not completely true. Two guardians gave their life, in a way. Tidus was really a dream of the fayth, so when Sin was defeated, the fayth would finally stop dreaming. But that meant that Tidus would disappear. He's such a big MEANIE! He knew he was going to disappear, but he still kept us all going with his cheerful attitude and encouraging words. Why did you have to go, dummy? We all miss you. And I think it kills Yunie everyday to have to plaster on that gentle smile and hear everyone praise her for granting them the Eternal Calm. But no one sees her cringe inside. She knows, deep down, that Sin's death meant your death. Everyone's happiness is her internal pain.

And then there's Auron. He was with us through the whole pilgrimage too. But he was unsent. When we finally defeated Sin, he asked Yuna to perform the sending for him so he could finally rest as well. I guess that's why he was always kinda grumpy and never seemed to care too much about anything but completing the pilgrimage. He knew what had to be done, and he knew he was going to die. Well, he was already dead, but you know what I mean.

I was so numb when Yuna performed the sending for him. I didn't know how I should feel. I was torn between being relieved that he finally gets a chance to rest eternally, and sad that he will never be with us again. I guess I kinda had a crush on him from the first moment that I met him. He was the one who made the final decision to let me be a guardian, ya know. That meant a lot to me. I don't think he ever knew that.

Auron was so strong and he took great care of everybody. I'm not saying he wasn't a bit cold, or even indifferent, but that's neither here nor there. I like to tell myself that he distanced himself from us and was rude and short-tempered because he knew that if he got too close to any one of us, then it would be harder to say goodbye when the time came.

I will always regret not trying a little harder to break that barrier when I had the chance, though. I figured there would always be time to get to know Auron a little better after we defeated Sin…but now he's gone and I'm left with nothing but what-ifs. If there's one lesson I learned from Auron and Tidus' 'death', it's that we should live like we're dying. Never take anything for granted and never wait to do anything that you've been planning to do. That's always been an Al Bhed way of life, but I believe in it more than ever now. During the pilgrimage, I knew there was always a chance that one of us, including Yunie, could die along the way, but some naïve part of me refused to accept that it would happen.

I made that mistake and it still hurts sometimes. At least I have some nice memories of moments when Auron wasn't a complete sayhea to me.

I enjoyed every moment I got to spend with Auron while we were on our journey. We talked a lot…well I guess I talked and he listened, but I like to think we got fairly close. Sometimes, he would act like he was going to say something really important to me, but then he'd just trail off and say something like, "It doesn't matter now." Those memories still confuse me to this day, but at the same time, they make my stomach flutter…but not in a bad way.

I miss Auron a lot.

So, I think I'll just keep those memories inside.

Hmm, I guess that leaves me, right? Well, I've been keeping myself pretty busy this past year. I've been doing a lot of work with Brother and our friend, Buddy. We've been searching high and low all throughout Spira for ancient machina that we can fix up and use to finish rebuilding Home. We're almost done rebuilding, but it's not quite finished yet.

I'm actually getting ready to do a super duper, mega-important mission today! Brother's being kinda stubborn about it, saying that it's "Jano tyhkanuic!" but I don't think it'll be that dangerous. All I'm gonna do is go to the Moonflow and dive deep down into its waters to see if I can salvage the machina that Brother's airship sensors are picking up. It shouldn't be hard at all, right?

I'm going all by myself because Buddy and Brother don't have enough underwater stamina to hold their breath for more than five minutes. Geez! The poor guys don't have very good lung capacity. I can hold my breath for a pretty long time if I try really, really hard. But I won't make them feel bad for not being able to keep up with me underwater.

So it'll just be me under there…alone…in the dark water of the Moonflow…which is actually where Wakka and Tidus beat me up (although they didn't know it was me), and I almost drowned!

Wait.

What if Brother's right?

What if this mission will be more dangerous than I thought it would be?

Ugh, why am I getting so anxious all of a sudden? I was so confident a minute ago.

…There's a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that tells me that something is gonna happen.

I just don't know if that something will be good…or bad.

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Disclaimer:I don't own FFX, etc, etc.

Translations:

Sayhea=Meanie

Jano tyhkanuic=Very dangerous