Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable in this story. They are owned by Square Enix. I just play with their characters. Familiar dialogues came from the game script.

Author's Notes:

Hello, everyone. I'm new here, and this is my first fanfiction. I have about nineteen pre-written chapters and may upload every three days.

Chapter 1: City that Never Sleeps

Auron

Zanarkand.

They call it the "City that Never Sleeps".

In a sense, it literally never sleeps. Not that it doesn't want to, but that is, it doesn't have to. Because it is powered by machina day and night, this city's citizens enjoy the freedom of pleasure that stems from being unburdened by human labor and its restrictions.

Fancy a movie with popcorn and soda along with your chick at 3 in the morning? No problem, the cinemas can cater to you. Want to settle a bet through blitzball with your mates at the stroke of midnight? Easy. The sphere arenas can cater to your every blitzball whim.

In all honesty, it really isn't all that bad. There is crime, yes. All cities have that. But there is some good here too. And I had made good acquaintances here during my stay.

But none that I would really call friends. No, it is always best to keep a low profile. Besides the people I truly call friends? One is dead, and the other is not what you would call alive.

Anyhow, watching over and raising his son isn't that bad as I thought it would be as well. Oh, there were times that he had been a big pain in the ass over the past ten years, yet now he is everything his father could have imagined. This is another story to tell.

A star blitzball player now, but a crybaby, still? No, I haven't seen him cry for five years now. He's come a long way. And I am proud of him.

But the worst part isn't over yet.

His father and I have come to destroy his beloved city and to take him to Spira. Welcome home, Jecht, my old friend. This I believe is not the welcome back party your people would have expected.

Will the kid cry over this? Somehow I don't want to find out. Because perhaps, if I were in his shoes at his age, maybe I would have.

People who knew me are now calling my name for help from the streets on this east side of town. They're panicking, screaming. Who wouldn't be? There's a giant fiend on the waters of the bay area shooting off its many spawns towards the buildings. The structures don't even stand a chance. The City Hall. The Fire Brigade Station. The Zanarkand Metropolitan Museum. They all crumble one by one. Some people are even trapped inside. The sirens of the calamity first responders are blaring. People at the parks stand still, shock written all over their faces at what's happening around them. Dust, smoke, and fire are everywhere. No one can make sense of this. And I just walk by dodging the falling debris, until I am standing at the entrance of the Zanarkand Blitzball Arena 2. The Arena 1 is already caving in.

"Auron!" He sees me, fright and relief marring his face. He looks up and finally realizes what the commotion is all about. A giant fiend is attacking his city.

"We call it Sin."

"Sin?" He asks, dumbfounded.

"We can't stay here. We have to move." I tell him, and he nods and follows obediently. We run through a couple avenues and then move to a highroad, never minding the people who were running on the opposite direction. That is when the fiends caught us. I throw him the extra sword I was carrying.

"A gift from Jecht," I say to him, "I hope you know how to use it."

We cut through the fiends that were blocking us. One by one they disappear into pyreflies. I smile at the kid as he tried to swing the sword and attack. Something is awfully wrong with his footing, but it delivers a death blow. I remind myself that I have to train him once we are in Spira.

Then we encounter more fiends. More than we can handle. I look to my surroundings to see if there is something that could help us. What luck, there is a power station generator lying on the right. I ask the kid to keep hitting it, while I defend him from the fiends. On his last assault on the power generator, it blows up and takes part of the highroad with it. We run, jumping from one falling structure to another. I reach a ledge, but the kid was barely hanging on it. Sin is hovering close to us.

"This is it. This is your story. It all begins here." I tell the kid as I lift him up. I feel the energy of Sin drawing us to him, like a vacuum in space-a blackhole.

This city's time for illusions is now over.

Let the truth become everyone's story.