Disclaimer: Don't own a single thing except this story and one character in it.
A/N: Hello everyone! This fanfic is a one-shot basically about Yuna after the Vegnagun incident. It has a dramatic twist in the end so I really hope you'll all enjoy it!
Now, on with the story...
Without You
Yuna walked along the Mi' ihen Highroad, which would take her to Rin's travel agency.
Thinking: This was the same road that she and him had taken on her pilgrimage those many years ago, with Lulu, Wakka, Rikku, Kimahri and Sir Auron.
The roadin which they' d found laughter and learned how to ride a chocobo.
The road I'd taken with Rikku and Paine to find you.
Tonight, though, all those memories led to one place: Her life without him.
The setting sun behind her, she decided to stop walking and start running, hoping to lose those difficult but tenacious thoughts.
Don't think about it!
She shook her head and ran faster, running away from her past, running towards a new life.
A life without him.
She glanced down at her hands and clenched them together. She knew only too well it was her fault for life without him. Only too well.
Stop it! Think about Dale.
Dale, the man she was about to have an out-door dinner with opposite the Mi' ihen ruins, on the cliff with the beautiful view of the setting sun, the first time she'dbeen out with a man in a long while.
She'd met him through an ad in a magazine. They'd spoken throughthe CommSphere network and after considerable waltzing around on both their parts, she'd felt comfortable enough to suggest meeting in person.
She had no problem with dating. In fact she was looking forward to it, in a strange way. She'd meet interesting men; she'd actually have a life back again.
But a thought stirred in her mind: Would she ever actually fall in love again?
The way she'd once been so completely in love with him?
And would anybody love her, the famous lady Yuna who not only saved Spira from Sin, but Vegnagun as well?
Ohyes, I can't live my life thinking about you, I'd find a man who is right for me.
She finally reached her destination and found no Dale. He had told her to meet him on the cliff near the travel agency where he'd bring a packed dinner for two. Seeing as her host hadn't appeared yet, she sat down on the grass and stared at the sun, deep in thought.
This was it. This was a new chapter in her story.
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In his tan coveralls Joseph now walked onto the front doorstep of a house. He double-checked the address to make sure he had the right place then rang the bell. A moment later a pretty women in her late twenties opened the door. She was thin, her hair a little frizzy, and even through the screen door she smelled of alcohol.
"Yeah?"
"I'mwith the cable company," He showed her the ID. "I have to reset your converter boxes."
She blinked. "My new TV?"
"That's right."
"They were working yesterday." She turned to look hazily at the grey glossy rectangle of the large set in her living room. "Wait, I was watching that women Shelinda give the news earlier. It was fine."
"You're only getting half the channels you're supposed to. We have to reset them manually. Or I can reschedule if—
"Naw, it's okay."
Joseph walked inside, felt her eyes on him.
"I'm Barbara."
"Hi Barbara."
She led him through the house to each of the cable boxes, sipping her drink as she went. She was drinking straight bourbon, it seemed.
"You have kids." Joseph said, nodding at the pictures of two young children on a table in the den. "They're great, aren't they?"
"If you like pests." She muttered.
He clicked buttons on the cable box and stood up. "Any others?"
"Last box's in the bedroom. Upstairs. I'll show you. Wait..." She went off and refilled her glass. Then joined him again.
"Where are your kids tonight?" he asked.
"The pests're at the bastard's." she said, laughing sourly at her own lame joke. "We're doing the joint custody thing, my ex and me." She turned away to lead him upstairs and as soon as she did, Joseph came up behind her with the rope that he'd taken from his pocket. He slipped it around her neck and twisted it tight, using a pencil for leverage. A brief scream was stifled as her throat closed up and she tried desperately to escape, to turn, to scratch him with her nails. The liquor soaked the carpet as the glass fell to the ground and rolled against the wall.
In a few minutes she was dead.
Joseph sat beside the body, catching his breath. Barbara had fought surprisingly hard. It had taken all his strength to keep her pinned down and let the garrote do its job.
He pulled on latex gloves and wiped away whatever prints he'd left in the room. Then dragged Barbara's body to the center of the room. He pulled her sweater off, undid the button of her jeans.
But then he paused. Wait. What was his name supposed to be?
Frowning, he thought back to his convo last night.
What'd he call himself?
Then he nodded. That's right. He'd told Lady Yuna his name was Dale. He had plenty of time to finish here and get to the place he was supposed to meet the great lady Yuna.
He unzipped Barbara's jeans then started tugging them down to her ankles...
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Yuna sighed, cradling a glass of wine in her hands she'd gotten from the travel agency behind her.
A moment of panic. Should she tell Rin to leave a message for Dale and tell him that she just wasn't ready for this yet?
Go back to the Celsius. A voice in her head urged her. Hang out with Paine, chat with Rikku. Be content with your own company.
But suddenly a memory came to her. A memory when she was training to master being a gunner.
She was training with both Rikku and Paine, a man in his earlier forties training them to become the best Gunner, thief and warrior in the whole of Spira.
Yuna had also decided to learn how to ride a chocobo in case the occasion called for it. She recalled the lean old man calmly draw out a gun and sight down on a rattlesnake that was close to her chocobo. The sudden shot blew the snake into a bloody mess on the sand.
"Ew!" Rikku had said covering her eyes.
"Now don't worry missy. His soul's on its way to heaven."
Yuna'd frowned.
"What's the matter?" Her trainer had asked.
"That's too bad. I want him to go to hell."
Yuna had missed that tough girl those past years. And she knew if she canceled this, she would have failed at something important. It would be like letting the snake bite the chocobo., you know?
No, Dale was the first step, an absolutely necessary step, to getting on with her life without him.
Through the windows on the inn, she saw a couple sipping champagne and sitting close together, a handsome pair. He was tall and in very good shape, plenty of sandy blonde hair, and she, also blonde and pretty. They were laughing and talking. Flirting like crazy. Then, finishing their champagne, they disappeared down the cabin.
Yuna sighed again, taking another sip of wine.
"Lady Yuna?"
She looked up and noticed a good-looking man giving her a charming grin. "I'm Dale."
"Nice to meet you, Dale."
He held out a picnic basket and sat down next to her.
They chattered for a few minutes, eating dinner and drinking wine. Yuna refused to eat anything, wanting only to drink.
They made small talk. He was divorced and had no children, though he'd always wanted them. She and him hadn't had children either, she explained.
They talked some more, finishing a bottle of wine he'd brought, then she had one more glass, though it seemed to her that she drank more then he did.
She was getting tipsy. Watch out; Keep your wits about yourself.
But then she thought about him and drank down a glass.
It was then she glanced down and saw a twisted length of white rope protruding from Dale's pocket, about to fall out.
She nodded at it. "You're going to lose something."
He glanced down. Picked it up, flexed the rope in his fingers. Unwound it. "Tool of the trade," he said, looking at her querying frown. She appeared drunk.
"That him in there, the handsome guy?" he asked nodding his head in the direction of the inn.
"Yes." Yuna murmured feeling a bit dizzy. "That's him. That's him." She shivered again from the cold and the disgust as she watched the blonde man kiss the petite blonde.
She started to ask Dale if he was going to do it tonight, to murder her former lover, him, but then decided that Dale, probably like most professional killers, would prefer to speak in euphemisms. She asked simply. "When's it going to happen?"
They started walking away from the inn, he'd seen what he needed to do.
"When?" Dale asked. "Depends. That woman in there with him, who's she?"
"One of his new little girls. I don't know. Calliegh, maybe."
"She's spending the night?"
Yuna continued drinking from her glass, knowing she was drinking way too much. "No. I've been spying on him for a month. He'll kick her out about midnight. He can't stand clingy mistresses. There'll be another one tomorrow. But not before noon."
Dale nodded. "Then I'll do it tonight. After she leaves. I'll make it look like an accident."
"You always make it look like one?" Yuna asked.
"As often as I can. That job I did tonight that I mentioned? I was taking care of a woman near Luca. She'd been abusing her own kids. I mean, beating them. 'Pests' she called them. Disgusting. So the husband hired me and I made it look like a rapist broke in and killed her."
Yuna considered this. Then she asked. "Did you..? I mean, you were pretending to be a rapist..."
"Oh, Spira, no." Dale said frowning. "I'd never do that. I just made it look like I did."
"Okay, well, Dale. He won't feel anything?" she asked, back to the situation at hand. "No pain?"
"Not a thing. I promise."
They'd reached the end of the road and were heading towards Luca. Dale asked. "You're sure about doing this?
And Yuna asked herselfeth same question.
Am I sure about wanting you dead?
You. The man who tells me you go blitzball training with the boys every weekend but in truth takes some girl he meets out for an affair. Who spends all my Gil on them. Who announced a few years after I finally found you that you'd had a vasectomy and didn't want the children you'd promised we'd have. Who complains whenever I wear sexy clothes in public but who stopped taking any interest in me years ago. Who gets violent whenever I bring up divorce...and because you're a sick control freak.
Yuna suddenly pictured the shattered corpse ofthe rattlesnake lying bloody onthe hot patch of yellow Bikanel Island sand.
That's too bad. I want him to go to hell...
"I'm sure" she said clearly.
Dale shook her hand and said. "I'll take care of things from here. Go home. You should practice playing the grieving widow."
"I can handle that," Yuna said. "I've been a grieving widow for a long time."
Yuna turned around and descended the stairs that lead to Luca, smiling at all the people waiting there, greeting her as the famous lady Yuna. She quickly got lost in the crowd, thinking about her future.
Thinking about her life without him.