Authors Note: I decided to take a few minutes to update this note and tell all my readers and fans that I do plan on giving this chapter a rewrite as soon as I find the time to do so. I'm doing this because as I write more chapters and develop my style of writing this chapter looks like a rushed mess to me. No time frame on the rewrite, but I'll keep you updated.

A/N: Just FYI this is a 'What If' story in which I ask 'What if Rikku was on the Al Bhed ship in Luca? What if she joined the pilgramage and her and Tidus ad all that time to strngthen their friendship? Would it develop into something more? How would major events be affected by the ripples of change?'

Disclaimer: I am supposed to say that I don't own FFX or anything else Square has copyrighted which sucks since I wouldn't be poor.

'Italics' = Al Bhed translation

'Bold Italics' Al Bhed translation that Tidus understands

Listen to my story, This may be our last chance.

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?

A hiss and groan of pain issues from my mouth as I work to slowly sit up while trying to be careful to not make the pain any worse. I succeed in siting up, but also succeed at making the pain worse so a good shot, but no goal. I look down at my chest to check on my wounds and can't stop a grimace from crossing my face at how bad I'm messed up. I think back to that fight as I wonder if this place, wherever it is, hates me and is determined to kill me. First that stone bridge collapses, sending me into the water, which for a Blitzball player is no big deal as we practically live in the water, but it would've been nice if I at least had gotten a 'Heads-Up!' Then as I'm trying to swim to shore these green fish monsters with claws on their fins decided it would be fun to attack me and while they were annoying and did a little damage, causing me to glance at the single slice on my forearm that sliced through the thick leather of my glove and made a cut om my arm that wasn't very deep thankfully. However looking back at my chest causes me to remember exactly why I'm sitting in this abandoned building thinking everyone in this strange land is trying to kill me.

After killing two of those green 'Claw-Fins', that huge...monster attacked, first killing that last Claw-fin and then turning to face me which was absolutely terrifying and I'm not even sure I could describe that thing. The thing was freakishly huge to the point that if it were to appear in the Sphere Pool back home at my stadium, it would easily be able to touch both goals while floating in the middle, however its size was just the bump on the Blitzball because when I looked at its chest there was no skin or muscle or even any organs. It was just skeletal ribs surrounding an open space and really freaked me out, which that monster used as a distraction to hit me with its huge claw, slicing my chest open and forcing a scream of pain to escape my lips. I had depleted my air supply with that scream so I swam frantically away as it gave chase, but I was able to out-maneuver it by turning sharply while he plowed head long into a rock pile. As my head broke the surface of the water I looked around quickly in the hopes of finding a way to escape. I saw a cave off to the right and began to swim faster than I ever remembered as that monster had escaped and was once again chasing me. It gets kind of blurry from there, but I know I barely escaped being monster food and wound up here, where I was sure I was gonna freeze or starve to death, yet still managed to make a fire and find a cloth vest near a really old skeleton, which I used to make bandages for my chest.

I look up from the bloody cloth and notice my precious fire is going out on me and I slightly panic and beg

"Wait, wait. Don't go out on me."

as I softly blew on the embers, hoping to reignite the wood. However I realize that with all the rain that's leaking from the ceiling and blowing in through open windows and holes in the walls the wood has become very wet and unusable. In desperation I stand quickly and turn while saying frantically

"Just hold on, I'll get more wood."

Unfortunately it seems my theory about this place having a malicious intent to kill me may be true as I barely take three steps before I sense that I am no longer alone.

I turn quickly around as my eyes scan desperately for danger, which appears in the form of another fiend. It's eyes glow red and then it begins to run along the circular wall where the second floor walkway is. As it runs I turn to follow its movements, but make sure to so in a way that doesn't cause dizziness. I groan slightly as the constant movement causes my chest wound to throb with pain and at this slight sound the creäture jumps off the wall and lands on the floor, barely missing me, but destroying my little fire. I pull out my Dad's Longsword that Auron gave to me and prepare myself for yet another battle as

I look over this new fiend. It looks like a large four-legged spider that has three long claws, shaped similarly to my sword, at the end of each leg

"Seriously? What is it with this place and all the frelling claws?!"

I shout out as I dodge the fiends attack and swing my sword, slicing a gash in the fiends chest, however it's a short victory as the fiend swings a clawed leg at me and hits me in the chest. Thankfully I'm hit with the flat of the claws so while I groan loudly in pain from the blow landing on the gash in my chest, I know that I just got lucky and should have three new slices in my chest. I try to recover and again swing at the fiend, but I feel myself slowing down as the pain in my chest gets worse and I feel a wetness slowly sliding down my bare stomach underneath my overalls.

Oh crap. I've started bleeding again. As I look back at the fiend I realize that I'm going to die here, all alone, even if I somehow manage to kill this fiend I'm going to freeze or starve or bleed to death and I'm going to be all alone. As these thoughts started to swirl in my brain a thunderous explosion shook the room as a door off to the right that I had tried to open, but couldn't was blown to pieces and figures walked through the dust to enter the room. When the dust cleared and my ears stopped ringing I saw about five or six people standing there, all of whom were wearing what looked like wetsuits and different types of goggles. One of them stepped forward, dressed in a full body red and yellow wetsuit that made it was a girl and signaled at the fiend, who had stood in shocked surprise just like me since the explosion, to attack her. As the fiend seemed to regain its senses and started to move the strange person pulled a large grenade out of one of the many pouches on its belt, pulled the pin and threw it at the fiend. The grenade exploded on contact with a thunderous boom, killing it and releasing those colorful lights that he had seen when he killed the other fiends and again wondered at what they could be.

I looked over to the person who had saved my life and watched as they slid off a pair of goggles, allowing them to dangle around their neck, and then snap off a faceplate allowing me to see that not only was it a girl, but easily the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on. I would've continued to stare at her, but an intense throb of pain from my chest caused me to grab it and bend forward slightly, letting a groan of pain again escape my lips. As I was trying to catch my breath I heard several footsteps surrounding me before I felt someone standing behind me grab my hair and painfully pull me to my feet.

"Yyeeooowww! Hey! Lemme go!"

I shouted, which was a bad move as two of the guys standing in front of me pointed guns at my face and I heard a third gun behind me. There may have been peace in Zanarkand, but it wasn't without crime and there were always those awesome action movies so I knew what these guns could do especially at this close range. They then began talking, but in a language I had never heard before which made it clear they were definitely not from Zanarkand as everyone there spoke the same language. I tried to follow their strange conversation, but it was impossible as all I could hear was this.

"Fryd ec drec?" "What is this?"

"Y fiend! Eh risyh teckieca" "A fiend! In human disguise"

"Oac! Ed ec cu!" "Yes! It is so!"

Suddenly a guy with a face-mask held a curved knife to my throat as he said

"Fa gemm ed?" "We kill it?"

I can only assume he was asking to kill me when thankfully the girl came to my rescue, I think, when she replied.

"Fyed! Fryd ev ed ec risyh?" "Wait! What if it is human?"

This caused Mr. Face-mask to do a little toss with his knife and grab it so it was pointing at the girl while replying

"Drao yna dra cysa eh taydr." "They are the same in death."

The blonde girl again came to my defense, I think, for all I know they could be discussing whether they wanted to bake me in the oven or boil me in a pot of stew. At that point I had to close my eyelids so no one could see me roll my eyes as I thought to myself 'Really Tidus? STEW? That's it no more Fantasy Novels. Your brain is waterlogged enough as it is, don't need to make it worse.' I opened my eyes in time to pay attention to the girls response.

"E vunpet ed! Fa pnehk ed fedr ic." "I forbid it! We bring it with us."

At this the guys let me go and I watched her walk toward me. As she got closer I noticed she had green eyes that looked beautiful, but there was something off about them. As she walked up to me, she looked into my eyes before turning her head to whisper in my ear. In that moment I saw that here irises were actually just a swirl pattern and although they were strange I thought they were amazing and I wished I could look into them longer. However at that moment I heard her whisper and even though I had no clue what

"Cunno" "Sorry"

meant I just knew it was bad news.

She didn't hit me hard, but she decided to hit me in the solar plexus, right where that giant fish monster had slashed me and I immediately felt the wound, which had been partly opened during that fight with the Claw-Spider, now fully opening again. Although it wasn't a deep slash it was long enough that I could bleed to death if I didn't get some help soon. I'm sure it was luck that I managed to stop the bleeding last time, although I still couldn't figure out what that weird dream was, that kid in the purple hooded jacket, it was just weird. All of this flashed through my mind in a second as I let loose a long and loud groan of pain as I quickly put pressure on my wound, the blood once again darkening my overalls and sliding down my stomach as I fell to my knees then to my side as the pain continued to throb. The girl must have immediately realized what happened as she knelt down and helped put pressure on my wound as she yelled at the guys watching in surprise.

"Ku kad dra satel! Xielgmo! Ra syo tea ev fa tuh'd ramb res! Huf Ku! KU!" "Go get the medic! Quickly! He may die if we don't help him! Now Go! GO!"

Immediately a couple of the guys ran off out the blown out doors and I could only hope she sent for help. I looked at her face and she was starting to cry, which actually hurt me more, though I'm not quite sure why. As she looks back at me she keeps repeating herself over and over.

"Cunno! E's cunno! E's cunno!" "Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

She takes a shaky, tear filled breath as a couple of the guys that stayed behind seem to be putting something together, something with metal rods and fabric, a cot or a stretcher to carry me? It's hard to tell as everything seems to be getting blurry and slowly darker. The blonde girl is again crying and repeating herself again, however this time I'm surprised to hear her speaking my language

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Well at least now I knew for certain what 'Cunno' meant. Keeping one hand on my bleeding wound I reached over and took one of her hands in mine. She looked at me with a mixture of shock and surprise. I said softly.

"I'm Tidus. What's your name?"

She was silent for a couple of seconds and then replied with just a hint of a blush in her cheeks.

"My name is Rikku. I'm so sorry for this. I promise we will fix you up as soon as we can."

I nodded at this as the two guys that ran out earlier returned with a third man who I assumed was the medic and he began to immediately examine my wound, taking the old cloth bandage off and throwing it aside. He reached into a pouch and pulled out a vial of liquid and I immediately knew what it probably was and my assumption proved true as Rikku placed a hand on my shoulder while squeezing my other hand and said

"This is gonna sting Tidus, but try not to move too much, alright?"

I barely had time to reply with an

"I'll try"

before the medic placed a firm hand on my free shoulder and emptied the vial of alcohol on to the gash, causing me to loudly hiss and arch my back in pain, but after several seconds the sting went away and the medic began taking out what looked like stitching supplies and handed a small bottle of a bluish liquid to Rikku who opened it and leaned close and said softly.

"Tidus this will help you sleep so the medic can fix you up easier. When you wake up we'll be back on our salvage ship, OK?"

I was ready to agree, but I had to ask her something first.

"Will you be there when I wake up Rikku?"

This again caused that small blush to enter her cheeks, but as she poured the sleeping liquid into my mouth, which didn't taste that bad, although I couldn't quite describe the taste either, Rikku whispered into my ear so only I could hear.

"I'll be sitting right beside you until you wake up. I promise."

As the waves of darkness and sleeping began to wash over my brain I was able to whisper two words before succumbing to the inevitable.

"Thank you"

A/N: I added in Al Bhed translations and modified it so the dialogue is easier to read thanks to my reviewers Destria Cosplay and Erin Primette. I also want to thank kaito136 and Duke Scarlet for your reviews. I welcome more suggestions from writers with more experience so I can learn to be better.