A rewrite of a fanfic I deleted a long time ago. Let's see how well this can turn out.

I don't own FFX but I own the girl named Maira.

Prologue

There was not much he could do when he found the girl crying nonstop into the void called the sea, kneeling amidst debris and dead bodies that were still fresh from the disaster caused by Sin. All he knew was that she was the only one alive, and that the two bodies beside her were her parents, while her sister was nowhere to be found. When he tried to get her to leave with him, she struggled against his grasp, screaming to leave her with her loved ones.

"Don't take me from Mommy!" was her cry. "Daddy! Please wake up! Don't leave me alone!" And then she would be lost in her own world, forcing the couple to open their eyes to assure her that they were still alive. "Mommy! Please!" she sobbed, pushing her mother's corpse in a vain attempt to bring it back to life. "PLEASE!" And her voice was no more but a fit of sobbing and choking, her eyes closing shut as if in hope that everything was just a dream. "Please…I don't know—where Sis is… Daddy…Mommy…" Petite hands clenched the soaking clothes, weakly pulling. "Don't leave me…"

He sat beside her and waited for her to calm down. Time passed them, though he could not remember how much or if they even exceeded an hour just sitting like that. People watched them as they worked on to pick up the pieces of the wrecked ship and find all the bodies for a proper sending. He had told them to leave the girl's parents alone while she mourned their deaths, knowing that it would only cause her to act up again. Despite the apprehension, he had assured them that there would be enough time before the couple turned into fiends. What he was worried about was the possibility that the girl would be permanently damaged by the incident, enough to render her in a state of shock for days on end. But when all he could hear were sniffles and the occasional sobs, he knew he could not let her alone and decided it was time to speak up.

"What's your name?"

At first he thought she would not answer. A child would always be afraid to answer strangers, and also because he did not think she was in her right mind to think properly, much less mind her surroundings because of shock. So when she rubbed her eyes and answered after a long while, he was relieved, even if externally he was as neutral as stone.

"…Maira…" Her voice was soft and hoarse, almost gone from all the crying and pleading and calling that the silence had suffered from. She did not look at him, nor had she moved an inch. He could tell that she was still in some sort of a daze, still absorbing the calamity that had befallen her family. She was staring at the face of her mother.

"Maira…" he repeated softly, nodding a bit, attempting to soothe her by letting her name roll off his tongue comfortingly. "A nice name."

No response.

"Do you know where your parents are now?" he asked as gently as he could make himself be. Trying to comfort someone, let alone a girl of seven years, had never been his forte.

"…"

"Maira?" It stung him to try to let her see the harsh reality at the young age she was in, but he had no other choice. He wanted her to give them the right to take the bodies away. Seeing her cry was hurtful enough.

"…The Farplane…"

He nodded. "Do you know what that means?"

"…We need to bury them…or they'll turn into fiends…" A sniffle.

Her voice was getting softer with each answer he was getting from her, and he got the inkling that she was facing reality even though she did not want to. In a manner, he was surprised by the awareness she was showing. That kind of answer was not the type he had expected to get from a seven-year-old. But he was in a way relieved that he did not have to be the one to force the reality on a kid. "Will you let us?"

"…Okay…"

He nodded again, and was about to stand up when she whispered.

"I want them…to be sent…without anyone else…" She hiccupped.

He fully understood that. She wanted her parents sent separately. With a soft answer of yes, he proceeded to carry the bodies to an isolated place so that they would not be sent together with the other victims. The girl stayed sitting on her place, never moving an inch, but with tears silently treading her cheeks.

When the other victims had been sent, he went to her and stooped. "Maira," he murmured. "It's time."

The girl had only twitched in response; in silence she stood up and he led her to the sending area. The summoner had knelt before her to stroke her head and mutter a few words of comfort, but she did not respond at all. She only stared at the ground, like a statue that had been given limbic animation, and could have been mistaken for a mute. He watched the summoner sigh and begin the sending, standing beside the girl to let her know she was not alone.

It was a beautiful dance. Graceful, elegant, but worse than sad. It was mournful, it was miserable, and it signified death. Despite the wonder of the dance, seeing it being performed was never a good occasion. At intervals, a sniff or a hiccup would come from the girl beside him, and he would glance at her out of impulse. She had raised her head a little now, of course to watch her parents exit this world, examples of the death that plagued their world every after ten years of a Calm. How long had it been since the last Calm? When will the next one come?

When the sending was done, the summoner approached them, murmuring how sad that the girl had been orphaned at such an early age. She suggested bringing the girl to the orphanage, but as her hand reached out to touch the girl, the latter retreated and hid behind his legs, holding onto his pants like her life depended on it.

"Oh… Auron…" the summoner said softly. "She seems to want to stay with you."

He looked at the girl, sighed, and nodded. "I will take her with me," he said with finality. The summoner nodded and did the prayer bow. "Then please take care," she answered. "And do not think twice about coming to me if ever you need help." After a small smile, she was gone.

Now the two of them were alone, the girl clenching her small hands on his pants. Gently prying her hold off, he stooped and peered into her face, and he found himself glued to the blue eyes, as blue as the trees of Macalania, that stared helplessly back at him, silently pleading him to not let her go.

"My name is Auron," he gave her a soft smile, shaking himself out of his own daze. "From now on, you will stay with me. Is that all right with you?"

The girl swallowed, nodding mutely. She was still obviously shaken, but was calmer now than when he had first found her. In all honesty, he did not know what to do with her, or take care of a little girl when he himself was only fifteen and just training for monkhood, but he had not wanted to see her being taken against her will. She had already suffered enough to undertake any more despair. Anyway, he had already felt he wanted to take care of her during the time he had waited for her to calm down.

"Then, let's go…" He stood up and took her hand, and gently led her out of the beach and to her new home.

Some of you guys must have seen my pen name before already. So if you've seen the FFX story I had a long time ago, yes, this is the rewrite of that one. I took years to try to come up with a more interesting plotline, but I'm not sure how plausible or definite I can be with it, so we'll just have to see about this.