Prologue

A gentle, cool breeze rushed onto Tidus's face as he stared out below him, the mountainside sloping down behind him, leading to the small village he called home. He loved this spot. Three years ago, travelers would stop here to pray to Yevon, the accepted and common religion back then. Tidus sighed at the thought of those times. So many mysteries and hidden agendas, false beliefs and lies had spun around in a never ending spiral of death and destruction at the time. Spira had held true to its name- the spiral of agony had seemed to continue on forever, while hope had been fragile and small to its people.

He stood up slowly, taking in the beauty of the day, listening to the birds chirping faintly in the lush forest not too far away. Looking towards the path leading to Besaid Village, memories began to flood through his mind like a river, a constant flow of images before his eyes.

Back then, three years ago, the world had been plagued by an entity called "Sin". Yevon had taught the people that Sin was Spira's punishment for the great machina war, a devastating conflict that cost Spira the lives of many people, including the entire city of Zanarkand, one of the greatest metropolitan areas of its time, almost one thousand years ago. However, the lives of Zanarkand's people were taken by a summoner named Yu Yevon. Yu Yevon took their souls and made them dream forever, thus keeping Zanarkand alive for all eternity, turning them into something called "the fayth". This was his solution to the war, for he knew they would be destroyed by Bevelle's powerful machina. Zanarkand's summoners, even with their magic, were no match for the cold machinery of the flourishing city to the south.

Kicking a small stone down the path, Tidus mulled over his thoughts. His world had been the Dream Zanarkand the fayth, imprisoned by Yu Yevon, had dreamed of for a thousand years. He was nothing more than someone's dream come to life. That had been the beginning of his story, and how his had merged with hers.

The very thought of Yuna always made Tidus smile. She had been an apprentice summoner when they had first met, here on this very island of Besaid. She had come from Bevelle with Kimahri, her Ronso protector, after High Summoner Braska, her father, had defeated Sin.

Tidus frowned at that thought. Braska had not defeated Sin forever. He had gone on a long and difficult pilgrimage, having traveled to each temple of Yevon and, by communing with the fayth that had been sealed within each statue, obtained their dreams and manifested them into a very real and powerful creature, known as an "aeon", in hopes of bringing peace to his people.

Completing this pilgrimage and defeating Sin would then bring about a time of peace, called the Calm, lasting until Sin is reborn, starting the never ending cycle of death and despair. That Calm had lasted ten years, and Yuna had endeavored to become just like her father, and bring the peace back again. Such was the cycle, and Tidus had chosen to help her in the end, though not entirely willingly at first. After a while, he became a guardian to her, a person who protected her as she went about her pilgrimage. It had been a very educating experience for Tidus, who had matured slowly as the journey progressed, going from whiny and insolent boy, to a slightly more mature and knowledgeable person.

However, at the time Tidus had not known summoners gave their life for their cause at the end of their long trek, earning them the rank of High Summoner after defeating sin by giving up their life to summon the Final Aeon. In fact, for half of his journey with Yuna and her guardian companions, he had remained blissfully unaware of that fact, making comments about a future Yuna would never have. He still kicked himself mentally for that sometimes, for it had caused her pain, though she never admitted it until later.

Unfortunately, that was the only way anyone knew of to defeat Sin at the time. It was a long tradition of sacrifice, of people valiantly giving up themselves for the people's happiness, no matter how short lived. Yuna was, in fact, named after the first of such people; the first High Summoner- Yunalesca. Lady Yunalesca gave up her life to defeat Sin, and her husband Zaon was the first Final Aeon.

At the thought of the Final Aeon, Tidus immediately began to think of his father, the last Final Aeon, and the last Sin. Jecht had given up his life for Braska's cause, for he had been Braska's guardian. He too had been a dream, though he had somehow managed to cross into Spira, and was taken in by Braska. The summoner and his two guardians, the young former Yevon military leader Auron being his other guardian, had defeated Sin. Auron had been the only guardian who remained, to fulfill his promises to both Jecht and Braska to protect their children- Tidus and Yuna.

Thinking of Auron made Tidus smile, as he continued down the path, ambling along lost to his thoughts.

Auron had been a tough one, and Tidus still missed the old man, especially picking on him. Wakka, the amiable blitzball player turned father, only went so far with his sense of humor. He was not exactly the smartest person out of the bunch, and he had his hands full with his little one year old son, Vedina, and his very cynical and harsh wife, Lulu. All of these people had been Yuna's guardians three years ago. There were six of them in all: Auron, Yuna's Al Bhed cousin Rikku, Lulu, Wakka, her childhood protector Kimahri, and Tidus himself.

Tidus recalled member of the guardian team with fondness. Rikku had been the one to find him first after he made his way into Spira through Sin. She was an Al Bhed, which was a race of people who used machina and were hated by the anti-machina people of Yevon. Ironically enough it was Sin that separated them again, and washed him up on Besaid, where he ran into blitzball captain Wakka. Wakka had taken Tidus under his wing after seeing that the boy was a star blitzball player, in hopes of winning the tournament. He promised that he would help Tidus find someone he knew in return, and he did: Auron. But before that, Wakka had introduced him to Lulu, who had not been too receptive of him at first.

Later he ran into Yuna when he went charging into the temple upon hearing that the summoner in there could be in danger. From then on, after Yuna learned that Jecht had been Tidus's father, she wanted to know everything about his Zanarkand, and did not want him to leave. After a while Tidus became her guardian, upon meeting Auron in the blitzball city of Luca, and learning that it was what Jecht had wanted.

Tidus paused in his thinking as his thoughts wandered over Auron again. The old guardian had been with them throughout the entire journey. In fact, he was the one who crossed over into the Dream Zanarkand and sent him to Spira in the first place through Sin. But, Auron had died at the hands of Yunalesca the very day Braska sacrificed himself, and had to finally rest forever.

In Spira, the dead were sent to the Farplane, the very core of Spira itself, by summoners who perform the sending ritual. If they do not do this, the soul will become an unsent, or worse, over time, hatred twists them into a monster known as a fiend. Auron had been such an unsent, and when their battle against Sin was finally over, the old man finally faded away.

Tidus himself should not exist, he thought with some wry amusement as he sped up his pace a bit. He was merely scattered memories the fayth had pieced together again and recollected in Besaid. He was still just a dream, but as long as Yuna thought of him, and cared about him, and he did the same, he would exist. The thought made him very happy.

Walking around the bend of the path, he could see the walls of Besaid Village. The smell of food wafted through the air, and Tidus began to run forward, wanting to go home.

So much had happened during his journey with Yuna. He had been her friend, her guardian, and now her beloved.

They had defeated Yunalesca, who had been an unsent turned into a malicious fiend over the one thousand years since her self sacrifice, upon arriving in Zanarkand. The unsent woman had claimed that there was no other way but to continue down the vicious spiral of agony and death that had enveloped Spira. It was the only way to give the people their small glimmer of hope, Yunalesca had said to them.

Tidus beamed at himself proudly. He had been there supporting Yuna when she had decided to cast aside the false hope of the Final Aeon and find a permanent way of defeating Sin. He had been there when they made their way into Sin itself after realizing that Yu Yevon was the root of it all, the source of their agony. Sin was Yu Yevon, who immortalized himself by attaching himself to the Final Aeon, eventually turning it into Sin, thus rendering the pilgrimage into a never ending cycle of death and sorrow. Tidus had never liked that twist of fate. The very people seeking to give Spira hope were the ones also perpetuating its despair.

In the end, Jecht was the one who was finally defeated, the one who wanted to fade away so he would not have to kill anymore, finally giving him peace. Tidus had been there when Yuna had to destroy her aeons in order for Yu Yevon to have nothing to leech off of. They had been her helpers, her companions, and her friends, and it had pained her to destroy them.

He had been there when they defeated the being that was Yu Yevon, and at least freeing Spira from Sin's destruction and pain. He had faded away after that, having released the fayth from their summoning; from their dreaming that was his reality.

Making it to the village Tidus paused, his thoughts still flowing around him as people ran about doing the daily chores and things that made up their peaceful lives.

After fading away, he remembered nothing, but Yuna had filled him in. Two years had passed while he slept, or rather while he was being pieced together again. In those two years, Spira had realized what it had hoped for so long. There was no more Sin. The Eternal Calm had come at last, and Yuna was the big hero. However, she had wanted nothing more than to make her own way in life.

Tidus laughed mentally to himself. In the end she had just missed him, and wanted to become her own person. Her whole life had been devoted to making her people happy. That had been realized, to an extent.

Things can't stay happy for very long here, Tidus thought to himself in good humor, recalling the story Yuna had told him.

Soon Yevon, now newly formed and renamed New Yevon, and a new faction called The Youth League, which had been created by former Crusaders, people renounced from Yevon as traitors for using the forbidden machina, were at each other's throats.

As things unfolded, it was discovered by Yuna, who had become a spherehunter, which was a treasure hunter of sorts, and her companions Rikku and Paine, that there was a person behind all the angst. His name was Shuyin, and he was simply a soul from one thousand years ago who was full of despair at being unable to save his lover, Lenne, from throwing her life away to try to save Zanarkand.

That had been at the time of the machina war, and Shuyin had wanted to use Bevelle's secret weapon, the ultimate Vegnagun, to destroy the enemy in a desperate attempt to save Lenne, but she had stopped him, saying it was not right. Vegnagun was a very unstable machina, and could hardly distinguish friend from foe. It could have easily destroyed the very people Shuyin had unleashed it to save. Because of her intervention, they both perished in the secret tunnels under Bevelle's sacred temple. Shuyin remained unsent and became a thing so full of despair at being unable to save his beloved Lenne that his despair was burned into the very place itself, and eventually he took over Nooj, the Youth League's leader. From there, he took over New Yevon's leader, Baralai, whom he used to get to Vegnagun. Yuna and friends were able to stop Shuyin from doing that by telling Shuyin Lenne's true feelings.

A year had passed since those events. Shuyin and Lenne were able to rest in peace at last, after one thousand years of suffering alone and separated. Tidus did not think he could have fared any better had he been put in Shuyin's position. In fact, he almost had been put in that position, and never wanted to be put there again.

Walking past the first hut on the right, he turned to the small local shop to his left, wondering if he should get anything for dinner that night, this train of thought successfully interrupting his constant flow of thoughts of the past. Laughing a little to himself, he simply shrugged and decided he should ask Yuna first.

Three years had passed, and it had been his story back then. Yuna had her own story as well, and a good one at that. Now it was their story, and he never wanted it to be any different.

Strolling towards their newly built hut, which was right next to Wakka and Lulu's, he saw Yuna standing outside the door, talking with Lulu. Little Vedina, Lulu's son, tried his hardest to run forward to Tidus, but fell onto his little face. Both Yuna and Lulu laughed lightly, their voices melodically twirling in the air as Lulu bent to pick up her mischievous young son, who was wailing loudly.

Tidus smiled, waving to the two women as they noticed his approach. Yuna beamed at him happily, and he grinned back in return. This was his world now, and he could not have asked for a better one.