Foreword & Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy. All of them. All the characters and places and what have you are not mine. I am merely an avid player of video games, who was struck with the fancy to write. Possible spoilers. I just wanted to be able to play with the characters. Tidus and Squall begged me to make them a couple. Seriously. Later though. Oh yeah, and um, pretend that Aeris never died, in FFVII, okay? I loved her, and well, my fic, she's alive. Enjoy.

Shadows

2. Of Friends, and Brothers

Hands pushed at Tidus's body, shaking him into consciousness. He opened his eyes and looked up, expecting to see Yuna. Instead, he saw green Al Bhed eyes blinking at him.

"Where are we?" Rikku asked, reaching up and trying to push her hair out of her face. In the half-light, Tidus could see that it was almost brown with ash and dirt. He wondered absently what he looked like.

"Huh?" he asked. Nothing quite registered yet. Then he remembered. The heat, the bright light of the explosion. His fingers slipping from Yuna's as the Summoner and her guardians were sent flying. He groaned. "What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know!" Rikku said, her voice almost a whine. He heard the soft clink of her claws hitting the ground as her arms dropped to her side. "Something happened and when I woke up I was here!"

"Where is here?" Tidus asked. Something on his scalp tickled, but he was too tired to lift his arm to see what it was. He hoped it wasn't some sort of bug.

"It's a cave, or something, you know?" Rikku said. Tidus decided that then was the time to sit up. He pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around.

"Oh... my head..." he moaned. Moving had made the pain he had not been feeling connect with his body. Tears sprang to his eyes. He could hear voices, and he hoped that they were real, and not just a figment of the head injury that he seemed to have.

Rikku stood up. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her legs bruised, cut and bleeding. Tidus thought that the dirt on her face might be streaked by tears. She reached down a hand, offering to help Tidus to his feet. The voices grew louder, then stopped abruptly.

"Did you hear that?" Rikku asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah," Tidus said. He wavered on his feet. Rikku steadied him, careful not to ut him with her claws. He wondered if she wore the weapon out of habit, or because she had seen something and was ready to defend them.

"We have to find a way out of here, you know?" she said. Tidus nodded, and rubbed the back of his head, scratching at the itch there. He winced in pain and pulled his hand away, looking at his blood covered fingers. Great.

When they'd set out, they hadn't been all too prepared. They hadn't expected to have to fight, and if they had perceived some random battle, they never would have counted on the explosion. Tidus wished that he knew what had really happened, and that he knew where Yuna and Kimahri and Auron were. Auron most of all. He would have known what do with this situation.

Rikku started walking into the darkness, then came back to him.

"There's a wall that way," She said. "And water to our right. I swam down into it while you were still unconscious. It ends in a wall."

"So to the left or straight ahead?" Tidus asked.

"Straight ahead." Rikku replied, a look of fear coming across her dirty face. "I think I heard growling that way, you know?"

Tidus nodded. "Straight ahead then," he said, and started walking. Rikku leaned down and picked up his sword from the ashes and dirt of the floor.

"Hey Tidus, don't you..." She began, but stopped. She realized that no, he wouldn't. Not without Yuna there. She sighed.

She hoped that it wasn't a long walk.

~`~

"I give up," Zidane said, throwing himself back onto the floor of the cave. Mikoto swished her tail against the floor but said nothing, as she often did.

"We're not ever going to find a way out of here," Zidane continued. "And I was supposed to meet Garnet…"

"You just have to find a way to open it." Mikoto said. Zidane lifted his head slightly. "Maybe if we called out to the people on the other side."

"Mikoto, there aren't people on the other side. What are you talking about?" Zidane asked.

"Be silent and listen, my brother," she replied. Zidane frowned and concentrated on listening, but the only thing he could hear was their breathing, and the occasional sound of Mikoto's tail against the rock floor.

"I don't hear anything," Zidane said, getting to his feet and dusting off his pants.

"Then listen."

Zidane sighed. There was no one there. They were trapped inside this cave until they died, unless his sister decided to get up and actually help him. He paused and listened.

"Okay, I listened, and I didn't—" He froze. He did hear voices.

"Call to them," Mikoto commanded.

"Why don't you…" Zidane began, but yelled anyway. And kept yelling.

The voices came toward them, and the rock wall ahead of them slowly moved away, flooding the room with light. Zidane covered his eyes, while at the same time reaching out with his tail for his knives.