Listen to my story...this may be our only chance...
Chapter I
We had just docked at the port in Zanarkand, my hometown..I could see all of the people waiting..When they saw me come off the ship, they started to cheer and wave. I raised my hand in greeting to them, and then I ran all the way to the dock. Imeaditley I was surronded by screaming fan girls. One of them held out a blitzball, and said, "Can I have your autograph?". I smiled."Of course!". Her friend also held out her blitzball."Good luck tonight!" "Nothing to worry about!" I said, as I spun her blitzball on my finger. "Oh, if I score a goal, I'll do this!" I mimic a thumbs up. "That will be meant for you, ok?" The two girls giggled."What seat?" "East block, in the first row!" "Fifth from the right!" "Got it!" After they went away giggling, I saw a little kid, with a purple hood approach me. "The game tonight, it's very important!" he said. I nodded as three little boys came running up to me with blitzballs and huge grins on their faces."Can you sign this?", one asked. "No prob!" I replied, signing the blitzball."Please?", said another."Al righty!" "Me too!" "Heh take it easy!" I said as I signed yet another blitzball. As one of the boys balanced his blitzball on his head, I said to all the people around me,"Well, gotta go, cheer for me!" "Two, three", the little boy with the blitzball said, catching the blitzball as it fell off."Teach us how to blitz!", all three kids said in unison.I turned to them."Hey! I've got a game to play!" "Then teach us after!", one boy said. "Umm maybe tonight umm well.."I stammered as I rubbed the back of my neck."You can't tonight.", the little boy in the purple hood intervened, who nobody else seemed to have seen."Then how about tomorrow?" I asked the kids."Promise?", one asked. "Promise!", I replied. Then all of the three kids put their blitzballs down, and then made a triangle with thier hands, raised their hands up to the sky, bent one arm, and then brought them back down to form a circle with their hands, which then they bowed over.
Then I waved and ran off to the blitzball game...
Soon, I was on the road to the stadium, and and I looked to meet my father's face on a billboard on a building. I breathe in and out, and then I scoff at his picture and kept on running. I could hear the blitzball announcer announcing the game.."I was in a coffeeshop, running away from home when I heard the hero, Jecht, gone, vanished into thin air! My dad must've been his biggest fan. I knew how sad he would be.
Zanar I say to myself what are you thinking? I ran straight back home, and we sat up talking about Jecht all night..My dad and I never talked so much..Whoa, didn't mean to remince there folks! Ahem, anyway ten years later the Jecht Memorial Cup is today! The teams in the finals are of course the Abes from A- East and the Duggles from C-South! And who can't wait to see the star of the Abes? He's Jecht's blood, and a new hope for blitzball! Will he show us his father's legendary shot? I don't think I'm the only one excited here folks!" Zanar said. I just kept running, ignoring the announcement and my father's picture until I finally got to the stadium. But then I was blocked by thousands of fans! "Make way make way!", I said. "Coming through sorry!" "Hey! Let go of me!" "I'm gonna be late!", and then I finally got into the stadium, and then turned to wave at the crowd, and then I made my way in. Five minutes later, I was leaning back against a metal wide railing, with half of my body in water, and with my eyes , I opened my eyes, and the blitzball game started! I watched as the big blue electric like ball in front of me started to expand, and then finally in a bright flash of light and wind, the sphere pool was ready! I stood up, holding my blitzball, listening to the crowds cheer. And then my teamates and I dove into the water. We started out a little slow, but after a little while we managed to get in a goal. One person from the other team tried to tackle one of my teamates, so I threw him out of the sphere pool. I smirked as he landed in the stands, and then I swam upward. One of my teamates signaled to my other teamate to throw the ball out of the sphere pool, and so he did. I was going up, flipping around, about to do my new Sphere Shot, but then I saw a big huge mass of water shoot 4 fireballs out of itself! I gasped, and then it hit the stadium. The buildings around us started to crack and stadium was over come by the mass of water. I quickly grabbed hold of a slippery ledge, and tried to hold on, as the stadium below collapsed. My hand slipped, and then I was falling, falling, and I blacked out.
I woke up near the entrance to the stadium, I was flat on my stomach, and I couldn't see anything, but I could hear people screaming and running.I stood up, rubbing my head, and took stock of my was rubble around me, and people were running out of the stadium screaming. I started to run away from the stadium when I saw someone familar who stopped me short."Auron!", I exclaimed, running over to him. 'What are you doing here?" " I was waiting for you.", he replied, as stoic as ever."What I are you talking about?", I exclaimed in frustration. Then he walked away, and I started to follow him. Soon I got lost in the throb of people, and I lost track of Auron. I looked around, but then a bright flash made me stop short and turn around. There was the kid with the purple hood again. I sighed and started to walk over to him but stopped when I noticed that everything was frozen."It begins." I swiveled my head toward him as he spoke."Don't cry.". Then another blinding flash occured, and then everything was moving again."What the?", I exclaimed as I looked around. "Hey! Wait!", I yelled as I spotted Auron standing alone in the middle of the street. I caught up to him and bent over, reclaiming my breath as I exclaimed, "Hey! Not this way!" "Look.", I heard Auron reply. I look at him in a confused way and then I look up.I gasped as I stood straight , in the sky, was a sphere of water, as big as one of the buildings exploding around us. Inside it, I could see a faint gray blob moving around inside."We called it Sin.", Auron remarked."Sin?", I asked. He narrowed his eyes, and then we saw a huge tentacle like thing burst out of one of the buildings around us.I swiveled my head toward Auron, who nodded at me, and then I turned just in time to see strange oval things burst off of the tentacle, and land right in front of unfolded into giant bugs, which proceded to attack me.I swung at them with my hands, barely fending them off, when one them snapped its wings in front of my face, startling me so much I fell backward on my bum."Take it.", Auron said as he swung a red sword with a curve at its tip in front of me.I grab the hilt with one hand and stand up, only to almost topple over at the weight of it."A gift from Jecht.", Auron says."My old man?" I ask.I swing the sword in front of me, tring to hit the bugs, who back away the minute the sword gets near them. I almost fall back again from the weight of the sword, and as I position myself up, Auron produces a huge blade, which I remember is called a Katana."I hope you know how to use it.", he says.I nod, and then postion the sword in my right hand, in a comfortable postion. Then we start to battle the bugs. "These ones don't matter, we cut through!", says Auron. I swing my sowrd at one, catching it straight on its back. It wails and strange rainbow ripple like lights float out of its body as it cut down the next bug, and then we ran ahead, to be confronted with even more bugs."Don't bother going after all of the ones that matter and run!", Auron swings hs sword at one, and I swing my sword at the other, and then he runs ahead.I follow him, as more oval bugs rain down from the sky and fall right where we just were. I hear a boom which stops me and Auron short,making us both look up. In front of us is another part of the road, and Auron runs up it while I follow to be confronted by one of the huge tentacle like things, surronded by more jumps up into the air, with his sword in hand, and then plunges it into the ground, setting off a series of explosions on the bugs and bugs were destroyed, and the tentacle looked kind of weakened, but not much. I swing my sword at it, causing strange orbs attatched to its head to blink out. Then I did one of my battle moves, one nobody had ever seen before. I ran forward, did a series of flips in the air, and then hit the tentacle. A couple more orbs blinked out, and now it had only about 2 or 3 left. Auron and I attacked it a couple of more times, and then, I watched Auron as he turned red in color and hit the tentacle with his sword, making a red ring around it and killing it. It turned to liquid for a second, and then it exploded into the strange rainbow ripples...
After we defeated it, Auron just kept on running, ignoring the oval bugs that rained down. I saw a blue sphere with a bronze ring around it, and I decided to investigate. I touched it, and then I felt instantly healed. I started to run after Auron, and then we passed the building with my father's face on it, it's lights blinking on and off."What are you laughing at old man?", I say as I look up at him."Auron! Lets get out of here!", I say. "We're expected.", he replys. "Huh?", I reply, confused. Then he runs off."Give me a break man!", I groan as I run after him. Then, we are confronted by thousands of the bugs. There seems no escape. " could be bad.", Auron remarks. Then he motions with his head to a tanker near us. "That! Knock it down!". "What?", I exclaim. "Trust me, you'll see.", he replys. Then he proceeds to do what he said. I follow his lead until the tanker falls into the fire beneath the bridge, making the whole building explode and all the bugs dead."Go", Auron directs. I nod and then we both jump and start to run across the broken building. A series of explosions went off as we ran. When we got to the end of the bridge, I grunted and pushed off with my feet, jumping up and over the fire beneath me. I grab on to a ledge of another part of the broken road and shout Auron's name, who has mysteriousley appeared right in front of me."Auron!", I shout again as we are levitated into a huge portal like thing that is Sin."You are sure?", Auron asks, to no one in particular. I grunt and get half of my body up on the ledge."This is it.", says Auron as he reaches down, grabs me by the collar, and pulls me up."This is your story. It all begins here.". And then he disappears in a bright light. I see a huge white hole, and I yell,"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", as I was sucked into Sin. A few minutes later, I heard a voice.."Hey! Hey!" "My..old man?", I thought as I realized I was in a strange bubble like formation, with buildings around me, and a huge flaming Zanarkand symbol made out of rocks behind me. I spotted a blue platoform, with someone on it. I started to swim toward it, to only be stopped short. In front of me, was a little boy with brown hair, and a blue and yellow outfit. I thought about a lot of things..Like where I was, what I had gotten myself into. I started to feel lightheaded, and then, sleepy.I think..I had a dream..A dream of being alone.. I wanted someone, anyone, beside I didn't have to feel alone anymore...I woke up on a slab of stone, with half of my body in water. I looked up and saw a bird perching on top of the slab. I looked around and saw I was in some kind of ruins. "Anybody there?", I yelled. "Auron!" "HEY!" I watch as the bird flew away, toward a big castle like thing, with dark clouds around it. I started to swim toward it, and I climbed up the steps of one of the stones blocking my path. I see a blue circle on one of the crumbling pillars ahead of me, and I investigate. "What's this? Nope, can't read it.", I sigh, as I see a brown chest in front of me. I stoop down to open it, and I find a bag of gil inside! I estimated about 500 of it.. I put it in my pocket and then kept swimming on until I finally got to the big castle structure. I walk up the steps to it, and I find another one of those blue spheres with a bronze ring around it. I again walk to it and touch it, and once I again I feel instantly healed. Then, I see a long platform going across the water. I start to walk on it, and when I see a fork, I take the left, and find another chest with a strange clear vial inside it. I shrug and put it in my pocket with the bag of gil. Then I go back to the fork and start going the other way..As I walk across the path, I hear a strange rumbling noise, and then the path collapses under my feet and I fall into the water below. I start to swim to land but I am stopped by a strange green fish jumping out of the water above me, followed by two more of them! I dive down after them, and unsheathe my sword, and begin to fight them. I swing my sword at the first one, effectiviley killing it, and then the two other fish swarm me! I could feel their teeth biting into my flesh, and I felt much weakened. I reached into my back pocket, looking for something to use against the fish. My hand grasped a vial of some sort, and when I brought it up to my face, I found it was in fact indeed a vial, with light green liquid inside it. I pull the stopper off of it and then drink it down. I could see some sparkles form above my head, and then I felt much better. I attacked again with my sword at the 2nd fish, to have only it evade it! I try again, and this time I sucessfly hit it. It died in a colorful pattern of rainbow ripples, like it's companion before also did. The 3rd fish just stared at me, like it was plotting it's next move. Then, a huge monster like fish came up behind me! It had a big mouth, and a cage like underbelly. It swam past me, grabbing the 3rd fish, and then let go of it, instead focusing on me. I drew my sword once more, and proceeded to attack it. I dodged as it lunged forward, almost chomping my leg off! I swung my sword at it, and when I hit it, it just stared at me. I took the hint and quickly tried to swim away. It started to chase me,so I quickly swam toward a wall, and then turned at the last second. CRASH! It slammed right into it, but it was more angry then hurt. I quickly came up for air, and then as I went under the water again, it was right behind me. I swam forward, spotting a door like hold in the wall ahead. I swam as fast as I could, and right as I reached it, I could feel my legs in the creatures mouth. But then, it slammed into the wall, letting out a huge gush of breath and bubbles, propelling me through the darkness.I woke up lying on a slab of stone once more. But in front of me, I could see some rubble, and a set of stairs. I decided to run up them and see where they took me. When I got to the top, I saw there was some rubble blocking my way. I pressed my hands against one of the pieces and grunted, and pushed it out of the way. I finally pushed all of the rubble out of the way to make a clear path, and then I stepped into a large circular room, with even more rubble, pillars, and water leaking everywhere. "Cold..", I muttered to myself, rubbing at my arms."Need..f-fire." I looked around and again saw another blue sphere with a bronze ring around it. I touched it once more, and again felt fully healed. I looked around once more and then saw a fire pit, with three charred, wet looking logs inside it. I sighed, and then spotted a door in front of me. I walked into it, and found my self in another room filled with rubble and leaks. In front of me was a desk like thing, with a drawer stikcin gout, I peked inside it, and found two pieces of flint! I exited the room to be back in the large one, where I then entered another door, only to find a dark hallway awaiting me. I sighed and turned around, to find myself staring at another treasure chest! I grinned and bent down to open it, to find another strange clear vial. I put it into my pocket, and then proceed to climb up a set of stairs. I stop abruptly and and look to my right. A dead bouquet of flowers in a holder on the wall catches my eye. I grabbed them and then kept running up the stairs. I was met by more rubble, and as I ran around them, I could see the bottom floor. I almost ran into another treasure chest as I was looking down. I crouched to open it, and found a dark green vial. I quickly stored it in my back pocket and then I ran back down to the first floor. I crouched by the fire pit and then proceeded to light the bouquet of flowers with the two rocks I had found. Sparks flew, but it didn't light. All of a sudden, a huge lightning bolt struck right near me. I jumped back in panic, only to see the fire was going strong. I smiled and laid back. "I need food!", I grumbled to myself. And then I fell fast asleep..A bright flash before my eyes took me to a dream.. I was in a strange place, with some stairs and a desk in front of looked like a house. Then, Auron appeared. " What do you want?" I grumbled. "It was a bad call. Your team lost because of you." Auron said as he looked at me. "You came to say that?" I snapped. "It's been..ten years.. I thought you would be crying..", Auron murmured, walking own the stairs and right past me. "Who me?", I asked, waving my arm in front of me to prove my point. The little boy with the purple hood from Zanarkand appeared at the toip of the steps. "You cried.", he murmered. Then, there was another bright flash, and then I woke up. I was sitting down, in front of the fire, with my head and hands resting on my knees. Bleary, I lifted my head up, only to panic and lunge forward. The fire was going out to a few embers. "Wait! Wait!", I yelled. "uh, Agh! Just hold on! I'll get more wood!", I said as I quickly got to my feet. I stopped short when a lightning bolt struck, lighting up the whole room, also illuminating a spindle thin creature with fangs and a purple hide. It quickly ran around the room and then jumped right in front of me, making me jump back. I quickly drew my sword, and jumped toward it, trying to hopefully get a hit. I hit it, and then I jumped back, and then it jumped at me with its claws and ran them on my chest, and then jumped back. I stifiled a shriek of pain, and then I jumped toward it and hit it once more. It kept going like this for about another minute, and then the door behind me exploded in a shower of rubble. In the midst of it, a young girl and about four other men stood with guns. The girl was wearing a red, green, and peach bodysuit like thing, with a red mask and black goggles. She calmly walked over to me, and then got into a stance, and held out her hand to the creature, beckoning it. "You're on my side? Cool!", I exclaimed as she pulled a small grenade out of her pocket and threw it at the creature. It exploded, hurting the creature while I kept running in and hitting it. Then, she threw one more grenade, and the the creature was no more. The girl stood there for a minute, and then took off her goggles. My mouth hung open for a second, but then I quickly closed it and put my hands on my knees. "Whew!", I exclaimed. "That was close." The girl looked at the men and they quickly ran to me, with one of them yanking me up by my hair. "Hey! Lemme go!", I yelled. They all pointed their guns at me. "Fryd ec drec?", one said. "Y fiend! Eh risyh teckieca!", another said. "Oac! Ed ec cu!" another said. One of them quickly drew a short knife and held it to my throat. "Fa gemm ed?", he grunts.
"Fyed!" "Fryd ev ed ec risyh?", the strange girl says. The one with the knife points it at her. "Drao yna dra cysa eh taydr." he says. ""E vunpet ed! Fa pnehk ed fedr ic!" the girl says commandingly. Then she puts her hands behind her back and tilts her head, looking at me. Then she walks over and says into my ear, "Cunno", as I gasp and feel her knee jamming into my stomach. As I pass out, I see her look at me one more time,and then walk away, two of the men follow her, and then turn around and walk back toward me. Then I black out. I wake up on a metal surface, and I see two of the men standing guard. I start to get up, but then one of them notices and jams me in the chest with his gun, making me fall backwards on my bum. "Ced, lybdeja!", he grunts. "Hey that hurt s!",I exclaim. ""Hu sujehk, rayn?" "Whoa..ok..", I say as a door lifts up behind him. The man turns around and bows quickly. One of the men, with a bright yellow mohawk, blue overalls, and a tattoo on his chest walks over to me, with the strange girl not far behind. "Caynlr res!", he commands. One of the guards pull me to my feet. The strange mohawk man makes grunting noises, and strts to make motions with his hands that look like they might signify swimming. "Right, whatever.", I scoff. "Tu oui hud cbayg?", he asks confusingly. Then he points to a necklace of some sort and then to the water. "I said I don't understand!", I say, shaking my head. "Ehcumahla!",one exclaims, thrusting his gun into my chest. "Fyed!", the strange girl exclaims. "He said you can stay if you make yourself useful!", she says. "You..you understand me?", I exclaim. One of the men hits me in the back of the head with his gun."Alright, I'll work!", I grumble. The men leave me, and then it was just me and the girl. "Oh, almost forgot!", she exclaims. She shows me how to teach new spells and ablities for myself. I walk over to the side of the ship and then spot a huge machine. "What's this?", I wonder. "Some sort of crane?". "Rao, oui! Kad yfyo vnus drana!" the man with the mohawk shouts. "All right all right you don't need to shout!", I grumble. I go and talk to the other men and one of them gives me another vial with a light green liquid inside. I grin and stuff it in my pocket, hearing it clank against my other belongings. I spot another blue sphere with a bronze ring, and I go to touch it. After I am healed, I go and try to talk to the strange girl again. "We've found some ancient ruins right beneath us!", she exclaims. "It's not active now, but there should still be some power left. We're gonna go down there and activate it,..and then we should be able to salvage the big prize!" I murmer in agreement. "All right! Let's get to work!" 'Roger!", I say, and then I jump on the railing on the boat and dive off, while the girl signals the other men to dive also. I see the girl follow me as I follow a deep chain going down. We are met by some razor prihanas on the way, but she quickly takes care of them by stealing more grenades from them and chucking them, while I hit them with my sword. We quickly defeat them,and we press on. We enter a strange room, with a glowing panel. I swim over to it and start pounding it with my fist. The girl just looks at me with a funny expression on my face, and then the door opened. I swam through, with the girl not close behind, and found myself face to face with a big metal contraption.I ignore it for the moment and see another door. I swim through it to find another metal contraption. I do the reasonable thing to do. I hit on it with my fists a couple of times, and it starts to glow a bright blue and spin. I swim back down the hallway, only to be met by a huge squid like creature. I draw my sword, and I see the girl get her grenades ready. I quickly murmer a spell I had taught myself, and I could see a blue and white hue form around me and the girl for a second and then disappear. I felt much stronger, and so I tried to hit the squid and see if my strength had gotten better. It defenitley had, because the squid roared in pain and went after me with its tentacles. It wrapped them around me, and then I could feel a painful electrical shock, like it was draining the life out of me. Then I heard a explosion and saw smoke, and I knew the girl had thrown a grenade. With the squid distracted, I quickly wriggled my way out of its tentacles and hit it with my sword. It roared once more and then swam around the metal contraption. I quickly signaled to the girl, and she went around one way while I went around the other, trapping it. The girl and I took turns hitting it and throwing grenades, and then I hit it with my sword once more, and it dissolved into rainbow ripples. The girl pointed to a hole in the wall, and beckoned me to follow her and swam through it. As I followed her up the chain back up to the ship, I could see the thing we were just exploring clearly. It looked like a huge airship. I stared at in wonder for a minute, and then climb back up on the ship with the other men and the girl. I could overhear their conversation as they earnestly talked amongst themselves. ""Fa vuiht dra airship!" "Dra naluntc fana nekrd." They start walking toward the door in the middle of the ship, and I started to follow them. "Huf, ruf du tnyk ed ib?" One of them notices me and shoves me back. "Oui, uidceta!" he says. "Hey! I helped out didn't I?" I yelled as the door closed. I sighed and walked over to the side of the ship and sat down. "Uhhh..hungry..", I grumbled. Then, the strange girl came out of nowhere and placed a tray of food in front of me, kicking me in the shoulder to get my attention. "Whoa! Right on!", I exclaim, as I scarf down the food. Then, I couldn't breathe! I started to choke, and the girl exclaims, "Hey!" and quickly tosses me a canteen of water. I quickly chug it down, and I felt much better. "It's because you eat too fast!", the girl says. I stand up, laugh, and stretch. The girl walks up behind me and exclaims, "Hey!". I turn around to face her and I smile. "Why hello there, what's your name?" "Rikku.", she replies. "Whoa! You really do understand!" I jump up and wave my arms and laugh. "Why, didn't you say so earlier? I ask questioningly. "I didn't get a chance too!", she explains. "Everybody thought oui were a fiend!" "Uhh,"we"?, I repeat, confused. "Oh, oui means you!", Rikku explains. I pause. "Who are you guys anyway?" I ask. 'We're Al Bhed! Can't you tell?", Rikku asks. "Wait, you're not an Al Bhed hater are you?", she asks suspicously."I don't even know what an Al Bhed is.." I say, utterly confused. "Where are you from?", Rikku asks. I smile. "Zanarkand. A blitzball player! Star player of the Zanarkand Abes!", I cheer. Rikku looks at me in a strange way, and then asks, "Did you..hit your head or something?". "Umm, you guys hit me.", I clarify. "Oh, right.." Rikku remembers. "Do you remember anything before that?" So I told her all there was to tell about Zanarkand..about life there, blitzball, and Sin's attack...and about how Auron and I were engulfed in this light..I just said things as they came to mind..But then I started to wonder..I turn to Rikku, who seems to be thinking.."Did I..say something funny?", I ask, confused. "You were near Sin..", Rikku replies. "Don't worry! You'll be better in no time! They say your head gets funny when Sin is near..Maybe you just had some kind of dream?", Rikku asks. "You mean I'm sick?", I ask. "Because of Sin's toxin, yeah.", Rikku replies. "You sure?", I ask. "Yeah, there is no Zanarkand anymore..Sin destroyed it a thousand years ago..So..no one plays blitzball there..", Rikku explains. I am in shock, but I quickly recover. "What do you mean, a thousand years ago? But I saw Sin attack Zanarkand! You're saying that happened a thousand years ago? No way!", I exclaim. Rikku stays quiet, thinking some more.."You said..you play blitzball?", she asks slowly. I go "uh huh". "You know, you should go to Luca! Someone might know you, or you might find someone you recognize!", Rikku exclaims. "Luca?", I repeat. Rikku shakes her head and starts pacing back and forth for a bit, and then stops and taps me on the shoulder. "Okay! Leave it to me! I'll get you to Luca! Promise!" She scoffs. "You would rather stay here?" "Oh no uh uh!" I say quickly. "Okay, I'll go tell the others. Wait here." She struts away, and then stops and turns around."Oh, and one more thing, don't tell anybody your from Zanarkand okay? Yevon says it's a holy place, you might upset someone!", and with that she turns and walks inside the ship once more. I say "Oh, uh huh", and then lean back against the railing. My Zanarkand, some kind of holy place? Yeah right, I thought. Since when? Yevon? Sin? Luca? I thought Sin just took me to a faraway place, that I could go back in a day or two. But a thousand years into the future? "No way!", I exclaim, kicking the crane like contraption. The boat starts to shake, and I fall backward. I hear a large rumble, and a large spout of water rises from the sea. Two of the men come out and then roll head over heels over the deck. Rikku and the other men look over the of them shouts, "Sin!". They all shout to each other in their strange language in panicked voices. "Sin ec lusa!" "Ihtan ic! Ihtan ic!" Sin hits the ship, I fall overboard and I am sucked into a gigantic whirlpool. The last thing I see before I black out is the men and Rikku looking over the side of the ship. Then everything turned black.