Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X and all characters and locations therein are owned by SquareSoft. This work is not sponsored or authorized by SquareSoft, and the author is making no money for having written it.
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Tidus stared at Yuna across the airship's deck. He didn't want to leave, but he also knew that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Without the fayth to dream, he would become nothing; he had no place in existence. Yet the fact that he was fading away was not the cause of his despair. It came from seeing the anguish in Yuna's eyes as she watched him slowly disappear.
He could see Yuna's lip tremble as she tried to contain the grief she felt inside. She was staring into his eyes, silently begging him to say there was some way, any way, that he could stay. They had grown so close since they'd first met in Besaid. He didn't want to lose her, and he knew she didn't want to lose him. Unfortunately for them both, they had no say in the matter.
It wasn't that long ago that we met, he thought. I used to want nothing more than to get back to my Zanarkand, but now…I just wish I could stay in Spira forever. He sighed. Looks like I won't get that chance. My story's ending here.
Yuna launched herself at him, desperately trying to keep him from leaving her life. He opened his arms, praying for one last chance to hold her. However, he was only half surprised when Yuna passed right through him and collapsed onto the deck behind him.
As his other friends gasped, Tidus looked down at the pyreflies that were beginning to fly away from his body. He cursed inwardly at how unfair fate was. He'd lost the father he'd always hated, then the mentor he'd never really understood. Now, he was going to lose the woman he'd fallen in love with, yet had never told. He could not bear to turn around and see her lying face down on the metal deck. He knew he wasn't imagining hearing her sobs over the rushing air currents. The one thing he'd sworn to himself he'd never do was hurt her.
He heard a rustle behind him, and assumed Yuna had finally stood up. He couldn't even bring himself to look. He so urgently wanted to run to her, to tell her that the fayth was wrong, and that he could stay with her forever. They'd be able to do all those things he once said they'd do after they beat Sin. But, deep in his heart, he knew none of that would happen now.
We found a way to save Yuna's life, but we couldn't save mine, he thought. Although he felt true fear at the loss of his own life, Tidus took some solace in the fact that, given the choice, he was able to take her place as the human sacrifice for Spira's new Calm.
"Tidus," came Yuna's quiet voice. "I love you."
Tidus squeezed his eyes shut, bitter tears flowing out of them. Yuna. I…I love you too… The words flowed out of his mind, but he found he couldn't make his voice work to say them out loud. In surprise, he turned around to find himself facing Yuna's back. As he did so, he saw swirls of light dance around his skin, as his hands started to become transparent. I'm almost gone, he realized. Not much time left.
Tidus walked up to Yuna and stood so close behind her that he should have been able to feel her warmth against his partially exposed chest. Yet…he felt nothing. His senses were beginning to grow numb.
In his last tender gesture, Tidus wrapped his arms around her, miming an embrace for a moment. He tried to brush his cheek against her silken brown hair, and instead felt nothing but air. He closed his eyes, sighed, and then stepped right through her.
Once he was a few paces ahead of the young summoner, he glanced back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lulu, Kimahri, and Wakka staring at him in disbelief. Rikku was jumping and waving at him, but he couldn't hear what she was saying. As cold as it seemed, he didn't really care anymore. Yuna looked up at him one last time, and he watched a tear fall from her cheek onto the airship deck.
I'm not going to put them through the pain of watching me fade away, he decided. Tidus took a deep breath, and ran with all his might toward the bow of the ship. With a final silent goodbye, he leapt off the deck and dove headfirst into the amber clouds below.
He'd expected to feel the sickening sensation of his innards pushing themselves toward his hips as he accelerated downward. Instead, he felt as if he were floating tranquilly, and that the sky was only a giant image that was speeding past him.
When he reached the inside of the clouds, all features of the world around him faded into a solid gray. So this is what it's like to become nothing, he thought.
Yuna, don't forget me.
He fell for a few more seconds, before finally seeing a figure standing in the distance. His descent seemed to be slowing, although with the featureless air surrounding him, he could not tell for sure. He squinted his eyes, and then opened them wide when the person's features became more distinct.
Tidus had never met the man, but could recognize him from the sphere recordings Auron had left behind. His well-oversized robe and headgear had once looked almost comical to Tidus, but he knew the man wearing them deserved his total respect.
Braska. Yuna's father? But he's…in the Farplane, right?
Braska smiled at him and nodded in what looked to Tidus as a grateful gesture. The blitzer immediately understood Braska's sentiment, and smiled back. I saved his daughter from having to sacrifice herself. He never wanted the summoner's life for her.
As he passed by Braska, he saw another figure, one that he had met firsthand. He wore a large red kimono with a tall collar that always seemed to stay up over the bottom half of his face. His red glasses partially hid one good eye, and one scarred, closed eyelid.
Auron? This is the Farplane then, isn't it? Does that mean that I was…real?
Auron nodded with acknowledgement at his protégé, but said nothing. Tidus smiled at him as he floated past the man that had watched over him all those years.
Tidus' next sight nearly made his heart stop.
Dad?
Before him floated the man that Tidus had hated all his life. Yet, in absentia, that man had driven him to pursue his full potential in everything he had done. Not only in blitzball, but in his duties as a guardian to Yuna.
Jecht, the bearded, dark-skinned, longhaired star blitzball player, was in the Farplane.
Tidus' hope began to grow. If he's here, and he was a fayth dream, then maybe I'm real, too! Maybe...somehow, I can see Yuna again! If she visits the Farplane, that is.
As Tidus neared his father, Jecht held out his right hand. In his newfound excitement, Tidus brought up his hand and slapped his father's palm. It was a blitzer's signal of victory.
"Never thought I'd say this, but it's good to see you," Tidus said. He found that his descent had stopped, and he was floating freely directly in front of Jecht.
Jecht smirked at him with his usual bravado. "Yeah, well, don't get all mushy on me yet, kid, 'cause yer not stayin' for very long." Jecht crossed his arms, but somehow, he looked a lot less threatening that Tidus had ever remembered him. The older man put his feet down, and seemed to be standing in mid-air, just as Braska and Auron had been.
"Wha…whaddaya mean?" said Tidus.
"Your work isn't done yet, Tidus," came Auron's voice. Tidus spun around in the air to see Auron walking toward him. Auron scratched the hand that hung out of the front of his kimono, and then pushed up his glasses.
"What work? Aren't I dead, or something?" Tidus shook his head, still in mild shock that he continued to exist.
"You'll find out what we mean soon enough. We can tell you no more now," said Braska, approaching from behind Auron. "Just one thing, please…never forget Yuna. She will need you to be with her. You must find a way."
Tidus tried to read their expressions, but couldn't tell if they were of sadness or grim determination. He spun back around to look at Jecht. "What are you all talking about? Am I going back?"
"You'll find out. See ya around, kid," said Jecht. "Better not be too soon, though, ya hear?" Jecht roughly grabbed Tidus' shoulders and pushed him downward. Tidus gasped as he was quickly propelled away from the three men. He watched as they vanished into the gray fog, and then suddenly everything around him turned bright white. He shut his eyes against the glare.
He fell for what seemed like hours, through the silence of nothingness. As he plummeted downward, he asked himself, What's happening to me? He opened his eyes slowly and allowed them to adjust to the brightness.
In frustration, he screamed out, "Where am I? What's happening to me? Can anyone hear?"
This can't be the end. If I'm not dead, and I haven't disappeared, then I've gotta be somewhere. But where the hell am I?
As he continued to descend, he heard a shrill sound in the distance. It almost sounded like…a whistle.
He remembered the time he'd tried to teach Yuna to whistle, just before they'd first arrived in Luca. She'd eventually figured it out, with a bit of practice.
"Hey, use that if we get separated. Then I'll come running, okay?"
The words he'd spoken to Yuna from the dock at Luca returned to him in a flash of memory. He'd promised to only be a whistle's distance away. By the time they'd escaped Bevelle, she'd learned pretty well. Wasn't all that long ago. We only were on the pilgrimage for…
He heard the whistle again. It wasn't perfect, as if it were coming from someone that had just barely learned how. That is Yuna. Gotta be!
He tried to shout back to her, but all that came was a dull groan. What the…? What's happening? Abruptly, he felt his body grow numb. He tried to turn his neck, but felt a sharp jolt of pain on the side of his head. Caught by surprise, he shrieked out.
*"Hey, did you hear that?"
"Yeah, it came from down there!"
"Get the Double-EJ over here now!"
Tidus opened his eyes weakly, but could see nothing in the darkness. His entire body was numb, his mouth was dry, and his head hurt. He tried to move, but his limbs were immobile, as if they were trapped. What little movement he had managed sent waves of searing pain throughout his body, and he again yelped out. The shouting burned his throat, as if he hadn't used his voice in days.
"There, I heard someone! Hey, can you hear me? Is anyone down there?"
Tidus could pick out several voices talking at each other, and tried to call out. However, so intense was the throbbing in his head that he could only manage a muffled cry before his energy gave out. Minutes later, he heard a metallic crunching directly behind him. He squeezed his eyes shut, unsure what to expect, when suddenly, he felt a cool breeze on his back.
"Get a stretcher over here, stat!"
As his senses began to orient themselves, Tidus realized he'd been lying face down, trapped underneath something. What it was, he couldn't be sure, nor could he be sure how he'd gotten there. He found it hard to believe that his father, Auron, and Braska would send him off to die like this.
As he heard more chatter above him, another thought entered his head. Dead people don't feel pain. I'm…I'm alive! I'm back in Spira! I don't care how hurt I am; I'm going to go find Yuna.
"Are you all right?" asked one of the voices, now much more audible in the open air.
Tidus tried to ignore the pounding in his head, but it refused to be dismissed. "N…no," he said weakly. He felt as if he could close his eyes and die right there, so strong was the pain and the fatigue. Only his drive to see Yuna again kept him from giving in.
"It's okay, sir," replied the voice. "You're going to be okay. Can you tell me your name?"
Tidus felt several pairs of hands grabbing him gently, lifting him slowly out of his would-be tomb. When his body was turned face-up, the pain in his head amazingly doubled in intensity, forcing him to squeeze his eyes shut and moan in misery. When he worked up enough strength to open his eyes, he could see the night sky above, dotted with a handful of stars. He tried to look to the side, but one of the men was fastening some kind of brace around his neck, locking it onto position. Instead, he rolled his eyes to the side, and saw a city skyline dotted with lights.
This looks like…no, can't be. Am I hallucinating? Has to be. I must have landed pretty hard.
"Hey, man, are you with us? Do you remember your name?" The voice was getting more insisting. Tidus wished whoever was speaking would leave him alone so he could think.
"T…Tidus," he finally replied, wincing as they moved his arms and legs. His damaged limbs shot even more needles of pain up his body.
"You're a blitzball player, aren't you?" asked the man, now shining a light into Tidus' eyes. He reflexively shut his eyes, but the man forced each one open, just long enough to check them. Once he released the lids, Tidus closed them again. "Left forward for the A-East Abes, right?"
Tidus looked at the man in confusion. The Abes? The Zanarkand Abes? But…I thought no one knew who they were…
"Where…am I?" asked Tidus. He grimaced as his neck was pricked with a hypodermic needle, injecting a very warm liquid into his jugular vein. Once the needle was removed, his arms and legs were wrapped up with bandages and splints.
"You're lucky to have made it, son," said another one of the voices. Tidus forced his eyes open again and looked the man over. He wore a silver jumpsuit, one that he recognized instantly. It was the uniform for EMTs from Zanarkand. His Zanarkand.
But that was only a fayth dream, wasn't it? Or am I in the past, in the real Zanarkand?
Tidus glanced at the other men as they laid him down in the stretcher. He heard a low-pitched hum as the stretcher rose from the ground, on its own accord. Antigravity stretchers? Everything felt so familiar to him, but he couldn't bring himself to believe he was home. Zanarkand had been a fantasy; Spira was his real home. He'd accepted it, and even been happy for it.
He looked over at the other rescuers as they dug through metal and stone rubble. His eyes wandered past them over to the scene behind them all. Now that he could focus, what he saw would have caused him to jump to his feet, had his injuries not locked him onto the stretcher.
He saw the familiar skyline of the Zanarkand in which he'd spent his whole "life", before leaving with Auron during Sin's attack. Before his whole adventure in Spira had begun. Many buildings were lit, but many more were partially or totally destroyed. The horizon had a red glow to it, and he heard the sirens of rescue crews and fire engines as they rushed around the city to put out the fires causing that glow.
"Where am I?" he repeated, his throat burning with exertion.
The lead EMT looked down at him as he led the stretcher toward a waiting ambulance. "You're in what's left of the blitzball stadium, son. Those Djose bastards attacked us during your game. But Zanarkand's strong. It takes a lot more than that to put us down."
Tidus stared at the man in shock. But that…that's not how it went! I made it out of the stadium, escaped with Auron, and got pulled into Sin! Sin was the one that attacked Zanarkand, not…who did he say? Djose! Sin attacked…wasn't that what happened?
The EMT, reading the look on Tidus' face, said, "Hey, don't worry. After a couple weeks of R and R, you'll be back blitzing like nothing ever happened." The man's voice was overly cheerful, as if he were only saying the words so his patient wouldn't give up and die on the spot.
As the EMT pushed Tidus' stretcher into the ambulance, Tidus tried to concentrate on figuring out what had happened. When he could find no answer in his exhausted mind, he shut his eyes and simply refused to believe what they were telling him.
Yuna, where are you? I can't be back in Zanarkand. I can't. I promised you I'd come here with you. I can't be without you.
He heard the ambulance's sirens blare as the vehicle lifted off the ground and sped away. The more Tidus thought about his situation, the more drained he became. Eventually, amid the sudden panicked shouts of the EMTs, he slipped into warm, blissful unconsciousness.