Author's Note: This is basically what happens during and after Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission, which I thought fit well under the circumstances. Enjoy!
Epilogue: When Worlds Collide
It couldn't be… Rikku sprinted up the last of the metal stairs, making no motion to be quiet. Yuna heard and she turned, confusion on her beautiful face. "Eh?" She had changed very little, other than the fact that she seemed less worried, more peaceful, and happier. Her kind face always had a promise of a smile, warmth and fire in her blue and green eyes. She was the very incarnation of Spira: strong yet gentle, beautiful and energetic, intelligent and tranquil. Everyone in Spira loved their savior, Lady Yuna. Rikku included.
"What's this?" Rikku exclaimed, barely containing the overwhelming joy she felt at seeing her cousin…her comrade…Yuna. She gave a last-ditch effort and leapt over the last few stairs, landing on her feet.
Yuna also looked thrilled. "What are you doing here Rikku?"
Rikku grinned. "That's exactly what I was asking myself about you! Ah!" Then it dawned on her and she reached for the packet stuffed in her back pocket. She brandished it like a sword.
"You got one too, Rikku?" Yuna asked, pulling an identical envelope from her own shorts.
"That's what it says." Rikku said thoughtfully, inspecting the package as she had done a thousand times before. When she first got it, for a moment she thought it had been from…him. "But it doesn't say anything on who it's from…It might even be a prank but, for some reason, I don't think so." Shaking off the tinges of depression, Rikku covered the last few feet so she was standing in front of Yuna. "I'm glad I came! Yuna, it's been so long! How've you been?"
Yuna's blue and green eyes sparkled. It was a rhetorical question. Having found Tidus, she was undoubtedly happier and more at peace than ever before. "Fine. You? I haven't seen you in Besaid for…almost three months now."
Rikku scuffed her boots on the metallic surface of the stadium. "Always, I've been thinking about getting back together with you… But I've been doing so many things-all over the world."
At first, Rikku had just been traveling aimlessly, trying to forget the future, forget the fact that no one was coming for her. Then, in the Moonflow, she had met Zell Dincht from the cool and mountainous world of Gardens, where he and his friends rescued sorceresses, lived in a floating school, and traveled through space. Even now, a part of her couldn't believe some of the things that he had told her about his world. But one thing she did believe.
The last night she'd seen Zell, in the Macalania Woods, he had told her that he loved her and that even if the Void tore them apart, he would come back to her. In the morning, when she woke, all that was left of him was a memory, burned onto her flesh and into her hips, as the Void had stolen him back in the night.
Her sorrow had been extreme, but she persevered with the knowledge that Zell was honest and brave and reliable. She knew he would come back to her. And she would wait, for years if necessary. She would wait for Zell…
She loved him.
She put a smile on her face for Yuna's benefit and walked with her cousin through the stands of the empty stadium…
….
When Rikku, Yuna, and Paine exited the tower, Rikku felt simultaneously lighter and on the verge of tears. The three of them had argued and realized the fact that they had been splintered beyond repair. Nothing would be the same again. Rikku was trying to stay positive, but inside, all the pressure that had been building up was causing her heart to feel as though it was cracking apart. She was having trouble breathing…
Yuna smiled benevolently, grasping Paine and Rikku's hands in her own. "Let's stay in touch girls. I realize that I love Tidus, but you two are also very important to me." She meant it, but it still hurt Rikku; nothing would ever be the same again, no matter how hard they tried.
Rikku let a tear fall, a painful tremor rippling through her chest. Paine nodded curtly.
"Ok…" Rikku whispered, trying to keep her hands from shaking.
As Yuna and Paine began to walk away, splitting further and further apart with every step, Rikku felt her happy façade crack a little more. She was rooted to the spot.
'Don't leave me…' Rikku cried out inwardly. 'Please…don't leave me!'
Yuna, Rikku, and Paine screamed in unison as the earth gave a sharp tremor, splitting some of the soil they stood on. The wind picked up violently, creating a whirlwind in the sky. Yuna and Paine fell back against the ground, staring openmouthed at the sky; Rikku remained standing, watching the colors twist through the cyclone that was rapidly moving toward her.
It could have been her imagination, but the colors in the sirocco seemed to have comprehensive form: she thought she saw spiky brown mountains coated in ice-blue snow, flat green and brown plains dotted with tough wildflowers, and even (maybe) a silver building that floated lazily above the earth. Sprinkled amongst the tendrils of the wind were ethereal pyreflies, floating lazily, even in the strong cycle.
Rikku could not find it in her to move, even as the tip of the tornado shot towards her, like a spear.
"Rikku!" Someone screamed and her legs finally gave out.
She would have hit the ground hard, but the vortex exploded in a plume of pyreflies and flowers petals, and strong arms, cool as stone wrapped around her bare waist.
There was nothing at that point. There was no sorrow, no pain. Yuna and Paine's expressions of amazement were not there. There was no tower, no vortex, no Spira, not even Gardens existed.
All of a sudden her world was encompassed entirely in his sky blue eyes, his wiry cool arms around her stomach and chest. Even his smell, so rare in Spira, cool air, wet soil, slight musk and mint caused her heart to swell so much that it hurt. Tears poured down her cheeks, but she laughed, laughed at the feeling of him against her.
"Rikku…" He said, pulling her close so that his lips were nearly on hers. "Rikku…" His hands wove themselves into her golden hair; she'd forgotten how much she'd missed his hands.
"Zell."
Under the warm Spiran sky, two more lovers were, again, reunited.
