Ten years... After ten years since Sin's defeat, Melanie traveled Spira in hopes to find answers to why she was there. She had spent most of her time at sea trying to find the new Sin knowing Jecht was inside and that he was Sin. She wanted to merge into him even for a brief time and possibly have him take her away like he had done to Auron. She wanted to have a word with him if that would even be possible. She could remember the day when Sin was defeated, the people cheered as another calm was brought. How long would this last, she thought, before they would be in despair again and pain and they would attempt at trying to kill him in a different way, not caring about the summoners sworn duties and their deaths that were to happen every single final summoning of something so powerful yet so weak... Every final summoning was possessed by Yu Yevon. She knew this... She knew all that was to happen yet she felt so stuck. She wanted to change history to maybe end something that didn't need to happen. But then that would mean not giving someone a chance at love and courage. She couldn't do that to Yuna. She let time go as it should...
There had been many nights she would dream of her home world. It always ended up as a nightmare. She could see the trees on fire, broken auroras at night filling the sky, the planet's sustainability dropping, and four elements that lie before her in death. What did it all mean? Every day she would try to piece things together but nothing would fit. All the pieces to this puzzle were hard to locate to form the proper picture. There was no guidance. She knew where she was from. She didn't, however, remember most of the events that happened there. It was like a memory was erased so maybe she wouldn't have to remember the pain... She knew a bit about the war but not of the outcome. Well, whatever was erased was now coming back to her very slowly as nightmares she doesn't want to see.
Everyone was enjoying their life until the sighting of Sin had happened recently. She had given up on finding him herself two years ago after traveling about, doing various jobs to earn some cash. She mostly stayed in Besaid. To her surprising, Yuna remembered Melanie. She thought maybe the child would have forgotten about her during her travels. It seems that little girl never forgets a face. Yuna at times would pull on her sleeve and want her to stay. She would talk to Melanie about how this Ronso had found her.
"He is a very kind and loving Ronso," Melanie could remember her saying. "Please tell me about your adventures," she remembered Yuna pleading with such delight in her voice. Perhaps it was to hear about her father, someone she never did get to be around.
Melanie was glad to tell her some of her trip. What she didn't realize though was that she was encouraging Yuna to become a summoner even more so than normal. That passion within that girl started to grow earlier with no warning. Melanie had to sneak out by nightfall. As much as Yuna begged her to stay and live here, Melanie knew she couldn't. She didn't want to sleep at the temple forever. They were nice to clothe and feed her and let her find some work when it was needed, but she felt too closed in. Before she had left, she left a note on Yuna's desk. They were in the process of building her father's statue. He was about half way finished.
It had been six years since she last saw Yuna. Melanie hadn't returned to Besaid since then. Her whereabouts to them would remain a mystery. Though she knew what she was doing, when she left right away, she passed up Luca and met Rin at the Inn.
"So you have returned after all these years," Rin started out a bit cheerfully as if to greet her back. He walked up to her with a smile on his face. "But why are you wearing those on your face? The sun is setting."
"The sunglasses? I always liked the silver-ish touch it had. All the badasses wear them." She did take them off however. "I need the headache to die down."
A chuckle escaped from his throat. "Is that what you think of him as now?"
"I rather not talk about him," she said with some bitterness. "I'm here to lend my services for a few years. All I ask is a place to sleep and food... I don't want any pay..."
"That's such a shame really. I could hire you with all that and pay. And you plan on being here for only a few years this time?" Rin was messing with a few coins in his hands, right in front of her. "I lost a few workers... I could use all of your help, even for little pay... Please..."
The clinking sound of money was enough to draw her gaze to them. A wry grin formed on his face. She was in serious need of money. Even in her mind, she knew if she wanted to get her job done, there would always be wants trying to make its way in with the needs. Rin was at least kind enough to offer. If she wanted a new blade, she would have to pay for it. If she wanted a new design... The list goes on.
"Fine," she finally spoke with a bit of gruff.
"If I knew any better, I say you are slightly acting like him."
"I said I don't want to talk about him."
He handed over the coins to her. She reached out to take them and he brought up his other hand to stop her.
"I know what you truly think of him. You can't hide that from old Rin here. But... If it does make you feel any better, rant about it. Holding it in only brings up more of that bitterness inside."
He now set the money in her hand. It took her a bit to finally look up at him and whisper a thank you to him.
"I want to see you early tomorrow! I have a trip for you. Supplies need restocking and they have not arrived yet. I want you to see what's the hold up. They were supposed to be here yesterday according to delivery notice. Perhaps a few fiends got in their way."
"Thanks for not trying to get me on a date this time," she plainly said to him.
"A pretty woman such as yourself-"
"Should do as she pleases on her own time! I still have a duty to perform once Sin is fully awakened. Don't forget this."
Before he could reply, after being cut off by her, she turned her back to him and walked into her room quickly in the back. His face expressed confusion as well as concern. There was no need to address the continued path of being a guardian. He would not mind! In his own thoughts, he knew how things were to turn out once again, as it did every ten years. To remain shut out, however, from the world, to not be grasped even by a hand if one were to fall. She was always picking herself up. But what would happen if one day she couldn't? She can't keep pushing others out of her life forever. It seemed like she was making herself bitter. Rin could not understand as to why.
The room she walked in was kept up very well. The bed was a single and the quilts looked inviting, welcoming, maybe beckoning for her to lie down and curl up and turn it all into a mess. It was all themed out to match the colors of the walls that were painted a yellow-ish warm sand. The white dresser complemented it all with golden trimmings that spiraled and curved on some places and edges. The oval mirror sat right on top of it. She was looking right at herself for a bit as if judging her very being.
"I don't belong here... I was supposed to end up somewhere else..." She set her silver sunglasses down on the dresser. "Yet you have four years to figure this all out before your adopted brother arrives and HE returns as well..."
She let out a frustrated sigh and removed her black haori and lied it flat on the bed, staring at the back of it. Maybe it was a good idea Rin was paying her. Ideas were forming into her mind. She looked back into the mirror at her own get up. Just a regular black tank top, black and white blotched pants, a bit baggy on the legs and black boots. She went back up to the mirror and took out the band that held up her hair in a ponytail. She started to mess around with it, seeing on a new look if it was good to her or not. After a short bit, she let it all fall out of her hands and stared for a good minute. Melanie walked on out of the room.
Since those ten long years had finally passed, she had started traveling again. Tidus would be here very soon, if not already. He could be on Besaid by now showing off his moves in front of a team that was not doing well at all. Maybe it was now that time. Wakka's team was the laughing stock, Tidus would encourage them all that winning meant respect. Everything seemed to have been going as it should... Nothing seemed to have changed other than Yuna's determination. She was wanting to do this no matter what anyone had told her. Melanie pushed it far enough to where her mind cannot be changed. There would be no second guessing and no pauses in her words. Something was keeping that passion burning inside of her strong.
It was on the path to Luca where Melanie stood at the very top part of the boat at night watching Tidus from below. She would have been very happy to see him, how much he had grown, how confident he had become, but now was not the time to speak to him. Stay out of sight for now...
"Look who we have here," shouted a familiar voice, sounding happy. Wakka walked on up there and had set a hand on a shoulder of Melanie's. "Where in Spira have you been? And you cut your hair?! Why so short?" His tone sounded cheerful.
"I would like you to keep it down please," Melanie almost pleaded while keeping her voice calm and quiet.
"Yuna's been talking about you. Why did you just leave like that?"
Melanie wanted to glare at Wakka. "I had my reasons as much as a butterfly would leave its cocoon."
"Eh," was all Wakka could say in such a confusing matter, not sure on what she meant including a look on his face that spoke, I am lost.
Melanie smiled lightly. "Lacking in the imagination department." She turned him around and pushed him back over to Lulu. "You two have a discussion anyway about that boy down there, if I'm correct."
"How did you know?" Lulu looked at her a bit surprised about this.
"Can't say... He is my brother and I don't need him coming up here seeing me... The time is not right yet until after Luca... Let him have his fun for now. If you can, send Yuna my regards about earlier. I watched her perform the sending."
Lulu stepped on up to her. "You know so much about our world yet your brother doesn't?"
"There is a reason behind all this, LuLu. I was told everything. This is not important right now. My brother is at this moment. It's not that he's sick. We are not from around here at all. I hope you can understand... One day the meaning will be revealed, but not now."
"Why not," Wakka busted out.
Melanie wince at his slight yelling. "Children don't get what they want by throwing a fit."
"Hey!"
LuLu shook her head with a smile. "She is right. Wakka, we need to have this talk while we still can."
She knew what was going through Tidus' head and yet she remained silent to not be spotted by him. She wanted him to do this. That ball he was jumping for and kicking as well as hitting, his father's words plagued his head over and over on failure. He could never do it. He should've just given up. His old man would always be number one. Melanie watched that last high leap along with the fast spin, he did it... That one well placed kick sent that ball flying far out there. She witnessed encouragement and determination fill inside him.
"I knew you could do it," she said to him.
Tidus looked up to see who that was. Melanie was already gone. He stared up there wondering if that was who he thought it was. The voice to him sounded very familiar. But that didn't matter any longer when Wakka and his team walked up to him curious about what he just did there. Yuna was on the side, watching him as he performed that move one more time.
"That was the Jecht shot, wasn't it," Yuna asked him.
That caught Tidus a bit off guard. "How do you know that?"
"Sir Jecht showed it to me when I was a child. He called it he Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark three." Yuna was trying to hold in a laughter while saying all that.
"You know, I thought i heard her voice up there,"Tidus spoke, changing the subject from his father. "I thought it was my sister..."
"Melanie?" Yuna asked him.
He looked at her with a bit of a surprised expression. "You know her too?"
She nodded with a partial smile. "She told me about her adventures with your father and mine. This is why I believe it's the same Jecht. She gave me a note six years ago. She mostly said she was sorry, but she had to do something. She didn't want LuLu or Wakka to be mad at her."
"What did she do?" he asked out of curiosity.
"Oh, it wasn't anything bad. They didn't want me to become a summoner. She thought she was encouraging me. In a way, she was... But I kept that hidden well until I finally made up my mind."
"Is that how you became a summoner?"
Yuna nodded. "Well... Only part of it. My father was a great man. I wished to be like him one day."
Tidus watched Yuna turn away slowly, looking at the deck they stood on. "And? You wanna find her, don't you? Maybe even make her your guardian."
Yuna only nodded. Why not have to two best known guardians that helped out your father along his journey? "I want her to join us," she finally spoke, ending the silence between them. "What would you do if you saw her again?"
Tidus didn't reject to that but he also did not look approvingly to her decision. To him, these could be two other people she was talking about probably with the same name! But it was also a hard coincidence that two different others with the same name were travelling together... Before he could even respond, a ball had hit him on the back of his head.
"Show me that move again," Wakka called out.
Tidus was glad to.
All that from his mind flew away like leaves in the wind when they all finally arrived the following day. To him, it was a wondrous thing. The Blitzball stadium! As much as he wanted to join them, he knew it was their show to rise up from the falling stands. When Wakka got hurt, it was his time to shine. Tidus understood how the Luca Goers were. They were a snobby team and all that was on their mind was a way to win by any means. Even if it did resort to cheating...
As soon as the last half was in play, the whole crowd was shouting for Wakka. The game was tied to four. No one had seen a failing team actually succeed like this! It was one hell of a turn over. The goal was reached and a point was added as soon as time ran out! Wakka had won this round and everyone was off their seat cheering.
The cheering soon turned to screaming and running when fiends out of nowhere started to appear and attack in every place known possible in the stadium. It was one hell of an army! Lives were at stake. It certainly didn't take long for Auron to show up and take down a few large ones. Tidus spotted him and joined up with him. Their chances of winning against a group seemed minimal. No matter how many they took down, a new fiend took place of a fallen one. A solar eclipse happened... All of the fiends seemed blinded, a black cloud in their face, and most poisoned. Auron was the only one who spotted two swords from a great distance. The tips were together, one overlapping the other... Once they parted, the eclipse went away. This didn't stop a summoning from happening, however. Semour had called for Anima to attack all of the fiends, clearing them away fast and with such ease.
It baffled everyone on where all those fiends came from. The damage was minimal but many were injured. At least no lives were lost. Auron had pulled Tidus away from everyone else to have a private talk with him at the docks. He only wanted him to know about his father and what Jecht was. Once Tidus stopped throwing his tantrum, he asked about Melanie.
"Is she even still alive?" He asked a bit quietly.
Auron nodded. "Melanie is a tough one. It took me a while to realize that."
"Where is she?"
"Just up ahead I believe. We found her in the Inn on our journey. I have a feeling she might be there like last time. We should meet up with the others now and don't tell Yuna about Sin."
Auron had turned around and took a few steps, thinking Tidus would follow, but instead, he seemed curious.
"I think she has a right to know, though," Tidus stated. "I mean... What if she finds out later and regrets everything?"
Auron stopped and looked annoyed, yet he didn't turn around to show it. "She does, but not this soon." His brows furrowed. "I need her at her best... I hope you understand..."
Nothing had changed on the Highroad. It was still a rough road with tough and seemingly endless fights along the way till they all had finally had approached the Inn and Shop. After Wakka had is small bicker about the Al Bhed and Auron making a good point on where her guardians were, he walked inside to only be greeted by a blade pointed directly at his chin, merely inches away.