Disclaimer: Final Fantasy x-2 belongs to Square Enix, not me.
Zanarkand, the city that had been in eternal slumber, was going to awaken once more. Loud hammering and heavy machinery could be heard throughout the crumbled remains of it. A large group of Al Bhed was taking it upon themselves to give birth to the city that never slept once more. Old superstition meant nothing to them; they only saw recreating a city for the many people of Spira to live in. What was the harm in that?
A sizeable amount of people feared the reconstruction of Zanarkand, saying that something horrible was sure to happen if the city came back to life. Then again, it was all talk, no one really knew if there was a taboo to rebuilding a city that was destroyed by the evil that was Sin.
The man in charge of the group of Al Bhed was none other than Gippal. He was confident that they would get reconstruction done in no time. It was only a matter of time before Yuna would find out about it. He knew this place had a significant meaning for her, but just because she and everyone else felt it was sacred, who were they to tell others that living here was wrong? If the ex summoner had a problem with it; there was nothing she could do to stop him. He'd let her protest and petition all she liked, if it helped her through the city's rebirth. When the spry eyed girl came to him, Gippal was ready for the onslaught of insults, half expecting her to physically harm him even.
"How could you?" Was all the woman could say to him, her eyes full of pain.
"Spira's a growing world; people need more places to live. Who am I to tell them not here?"
"What you're doing is wrong."
"That's all a matter of opinion, and I'm not getting paid to listen to superstitious nonsense." Gippal bluntly told her.
After that meeting, she soon brought more people with her, sitting on the outskirts of the construction site. They held signs with statements such as "Zanarkand is scared" on them, and "What about the consequences?" They also did little chants here and there against the city's reconstruction. These things meant little to Gippal. It wasn't until one day an Al Bhed had had enough and threw a rock at Yuna that Gippal had to intervene.
"Get out, you're fired." Gippal told the man in Al Bhed. The fellow began to argue with Gippal which made the leader grip the flunky by the collar and spoke in a clipped tone, "High summoner Yuna was the young lady you hit with that rock, and if you can't control your temper on this job, we don't need you here." Gippal released the surprised other, he had not known the girl was Yuna. The nameless Al Bhed apologized and quickly removed himself from Gippals sight.
"You alright there, summoner?" Gippal casually called out to her.
Yuna simply nodded her head yes. She appreciated Gippals quick response to her attacker, but that didn't mean she'd forgive him for what he had planned for Zanarkand. Gippal understood this, and just continued about his day like he normally would.
Yuna's friends tried in vain to reason with Gippal. Brother even gave an unexpected visit to the Machine Faction leader. The two blonde Al Bhed men sat in a tent together, drinking some strong alcohol.
"So, in exchange for my sister's hand in marriage, you will leave Yuna's Zanarkand alone." Brother told him, making Gippal blanch and spit out his beverage.
"Say what now?" Said the confused Gippal.
"Is good deal, ya?"
"First of all," Began the annoyed Gippal. "If Rikku found out you were promising her hand to people like this, she'd beat the crap out of you." He watched as Brother flinched as if imagining the angry Rikku doing just so.
"And second, I don't even like your sister! She'd immature, bouncy, never shut's the hell up, and her boobs are way too small. Not to mention she's as loose as hell!" Brother did not take the last bit as well as the first, he charged Gippal. Gippal, being a lot more use to battle, pinned down the vehement Brother and ordered his workers to get him out of there.
The next day Yuna came in to apologize for her friend's actions.
"No biggie." Came his cool reply. Yuna was about to leave him be, when she held back and asked out of curiosity. "What would it take?"
"What would it take for me to quit, you mean?"
Yuna nodded her head yes in response; Gippal sat down on a nearby chair and looked at her for a moment. Somehow the look he was giving her came off the wrong way and Yuna gave the response of, "You'd be no better than Seymour Guado."
"Wow, where did you come up with that?" Gippal began, "I'm not even the marrying type. Not that you aren't pretty or anything." The last part made Yuna blush and Gippal immediately felt awkward, 'She's a hell of a lot better than Rikku,' he thought to himself as he tried to think of something to say to her.
"Listen, I know this place has a lot of memories for you, but just because you want to keep things the way they are doesn't make it right. Others should be able to create their own memories here too."
Yuna shook her head at him and looked down, "It's not just that…I have this weird feeling…" Gippal interrupted her, "I can't stop building just for a weird feeling you're having Yuna." Yuna clenched her fists and turned on her heel, stomping out of his sight.
Little did either of them know that something was stirring within Zanarkand. Something that had been sleeping for a long time was about to awaken once more. If Yuna's bad feelings had only been taken into account, then maybe they could have stopped it in time.
Shortly after Yuna's visit was when Gippal and his crew unearthed the bodies. Thousands of years ago these people had died, their bones lying in grotesque positions. The group quietly re-buried them, a few miles away from their original resting spot. All were sworn never to mention the unearthing, knowing full well the whole of Spira would have an uproar over it. It was not long after accidents began to happen on the job site; stone falling on men, machines not wanting to work right. Little trivial things that Gippal automatically dismissed.
Yuna began to hear things while she protested in Zanarkand. Voices whispering something low enough she could not make out what they were saying. These voices gave her an even bigger feeling of unease. Perhaps Zanarkand was responding to the reconstruction. Something from inside of her was pulling for her to enter the construction area. She slipped in unbeknownst to the workers and followed her guts. She soon found herself where she imagined the blitzball stadium had once stood. To her surprise, Gippal was there too, he appeared to be alone as well. He had his back turned to her, so she could have easily slipped away when something from inside told her not to. Carefully she walked closer to him, stopping next to him and watched as he turned his head to look at her.
"What are you doing here?" He asked her.
"I could ask the same of you."
Gippal seemed a bit off, his skin a little paler than usual. "You'd think I was nuts." He told her.
"Try me." She said.
"Something told me to come here." He began. "I've never had this type of feeling in my entire life."
"As if it's pulling you to this spot, right?" Yuna asked, knowing the same feeling.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" He asked, surprised.
"I felt it too." She took another step closer and inspected a broken slab of stone. "I wonder…If it's him."
"Him who?" Gippal inquired.
"Oh, nothing, just forget I even said anything." Yuna pushed her memory of Tidus back, feeling foolish for speaking out loud about him.
Suddenly the earth beneath the two began to rumble, the walls around them began to shake, "Yuna!" Gippal called, reaching out for her. Yuna stretching her hand towards him, feeling a warm sensation when they met. "What's happening?" Yuna yelled over the rumbling sounds around them.
"I don't know but we better get the hell out of here before it collapses on us!" He told her, trying to pull them towards the entrance, finding that his feet would not move. Before he could figure out why, the two were both suddenly engulfed in a bright white light, some strange force seeming to pull at their very souls as they were transported into another realm…
Everything seemed to be shrouded in shadow; a sense of unease filled the two as they felt a presence nearby.
"Zanarkand was never to reawaken; their dreaming must never be disturbed." A deep monotone voice spoke to them.
Gippal and Yuna looked around for where the voice had come from, finding nothing but thin air.
"Who are you to make that decision?" Demanded Gippal.
"I am the one who put Bevelle and Zanarkand at odds, I was the one who created the hatred between the two cities. I am Spira's decider." The being told them.
"Spira's people should decide, not a long forgotten entity like you!" Gippal challenged the thing.
"Summoner!" It called to Yuna, "You were the one opposed to the awakening, yet I sense in your heart you feel no hate towards this soul that would tread on the sacred ground? How can this be? How can you love a creature that would sully your most precious memories?"
When he said love, Yuna tried to counter that statement with, "I love all who live on Spira."
"I will make you an offer, summoner. Kill this infidel that would awaken Zanarkand once more, and I will not release hell upon your beloved Spira."
Yuna could not believe those words, "No more, I will never sacrifice a life like that."
"Ah, but what if I promised you more? I could bring him back you know, it is within my power." Suddenly a vision of Tidus was shown to Yuna. He called out to her, smiling that familiar smile. She went to take a step forward, when she heard Gippal.
"Yuna, there's nothing there."
Her eyes went from sad, to angry. Gippal stepped towards Yuna, reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"You foolish mortals, we will see how much you really care for one another!" A strong wave of air swept at the two, shrouding them in darkness once more.
Gippal awoke to find himself in a cabin on a ship. He looked to his right and found Rikku working on something at a small desk.
"Where are we?" He asked her, getting up from a cot he'd been sitting on.
Rikku turned and smiled at him, "In the middle of the ocean, silly." She got up and walked over to the confused looking Gippal. "Have a nice nap?" She asked, taking her arms and placing them around his neck.
"Nap?" He asked, dumbfounded. Then he realized the way she was acting towards him and pushed her off him. "What happened to Yuna?"
Rikku gave a hurt look at being pushed away from him, then shrugged at his question. "Who's she?"
"Don't play games with me Rikku, this is important, where is she?" He demanded, stomping over to her and shaking her by the shoulders.
"Hey! Take it easy! I really don't know who you're talking about!" Rikku watched as he slowly let go of her, his eye lost in deep thought.
"Maybe you were dreaming?" she suggested, making Gippal shake his head.
"What happened in Zanarkand? I was running a crew to rebuild, why am I on a stupid ship?"
"Zanarkand? Wow, you really must have been dreaming. You know you and pops have been working together on bringing up old machina." Rikku told him, "By the way, he's expecting us for dinner, we should get going."
"No, damn it. What about Yuna? You know the high summoner who defeated sin? Your cousin, who you went on her pilgrimage with? Where the hell is she?" Gippal demanded.
Now it was Rikku's turn to look confused, "Uh, the last summoner to defeat sin was high summoner Dona. And I don't have a cousin, my aunt who married Lord Braska was barren, they never had any children."
Gippal could not believe it, was she just trying to be funny? No, there was also the fact he was here on this ship and not Zanarkand. Something had gone horribly wrong. A life that didn't have Yuna in it? Spira without its savior? He needed to go to Zanarakand, to see for himself that what Rikku was telling him was true…
"Wake up Yuna." Came the familiar voice she always heard in her heart. She opened her blurry eyes and looked into his familiar face, "Is is…really you?"
Tidus smiled at his beautiful lady, "Who else?" Yuna slowly got up from her bed, looking down and noticing something off. Why was she wearing her old summoner clothes? She'd gotten rid of them a long time ago. She looked up to see Tidus watching her curiously. "Are we really in Besaid?" She asked of him, remembering the familiar type of home they were in.
"Were you dreaming?" Tidus asked.
Yuna ignored her long lost friend and began to look around her, noticing that they were in a new hut, not Wakka and Lulu's. "Are we…together?" She asked him.
"Almost two years now."
"What? Didn't you disappear? When we defeated sin, you just disappeared!" She explained, Tidus giving her a strange look.
"Did you hit your head or something? I never went anywhere! We defeated sin, celebrated, then came back to Besaid and got married. It's like you've lost your memory or something, what's with you today Yuna?"
"Married?" Yuna couldn't believe it; she had lived happily ever after? That didn't sound right, something was way off, all her memories she had had couldn't be completely bogus.
"Where's Rikku, I just really need to talk with her." Yuna tried to explain to the perplexed Tidus.
"They put up those new com-sphere things; try using that to contact her."
Yuna exited the hut, leaving Tidus behind and began to make contact with the com-sphere. Rikku answered right away, her familiar face making Yuna feel a little less uneasy.
"Hi Rikku, I was just calling to make sure Gippal was alright."
Rikku gave her a confused look, "Who's Gippal?"
"Rikku, quit playing around. You know the Machine Faction leader? Paine's friend from the Crimson Squad?" Rikku looked blankly at Yuna.
"Yunie, if there's nothing else you wanted, I got important Gullwing stuff to do." Yuna couldn't believe Rikku was so serious.
"That's another thing, aren't I a Gullwing too?"
"We offered, but Tidus wouldn't let you have a life of your own, so no, you're not." Yuna listened to her cousin's response.
"Anyways, I gotta get going Yuna, I'll talk with you later." And like that, the com-sphere went blank and left the former summoner with a million questions.
Yuna turned to run into Tidus, who smiled at her, "So where are you going?" He asked her.
"I think, I need to visit Zanarkand, then maybe my head will be a little clearer." She told him, watching as his face stayed in a happy smile.
"I don't think so Yuna, you can't just run around doing whatever you like, there's things you need to do here." Tidus informed her, Yuna frowned at him.
"I'm a big girl; I think I can handle a few fiends." She told him, going into their hut and beginning to look around for more comfortable attire.
Now that they were in the privacy of their home, Tidus's real words could be spoken. "Yuna, you aren't going anywhere."
Yuna turned around to find Tidus holding a rope, "Even if I have to tie you to the very bed you sleep on." Yuna could not believe her eyes, was he for real?
"Now Tidus, I'm going and that's final."
Tidus smirked, "You haven't been this spirited in a long time, Yuna. Maybe this time you'll remember what happens when you don't listen to your husband."