Disclaimer

I don't own Final Fantasy. I don't own Final Fantasy X or X-2. Or any other Final Fantasy game. Not even Crystal Chronicals. But I do own the way the story is put together in this fic, so please don't take the only thing I have. Ok?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey, uh, Rikku, Gippal?" We both glanced up."Can I talk to you?"

She grinned at her cousin's fiance. I just nodded. "Sure thing, boss man." She said cheerily, pushing a few of her braids over her shoulder.We followed him into another room, just down the hall from the happy couples living room. He waited until we turned to him, and then some. Tidus leaned carefully against the wall.

His mouth opened a few times before Rikku interupted him. "Lemme guess. Yunie's pregnant, right?"

A red blush creeped across his face. "No." He said quietly. Rikku's grin faded at his tone. "I have a request."

I paused. Something about the way he said it peaked my interest. But not in a good way. "'Request?' What kind of request?"

"It's a special mission." Tidus stated, fingering his sword's hilt. It took me a moment to realize he was mimicking me. My fingers were travelling along the barrell of my hidden pistol. "I can't ask Yuna."

I could see Rikku was curious as well. "Why not? Does it have something to with with Sin? Or Vegnagun?" I noticed Tidus wince when she mentioned 'Sin.' But ignored it and shoved it into the back of my mind for later inspection.

"It's dangerous and you don't want to risk you fiance." I stated. I noticed Rikku glance at me, so I turned to her. "What if I don't want to risk Rikku life? Let alone my own?"

"It is riksy. And if you want to help, you can't tell her-" Tidus continued.

"What?!" Rikku hissed, so as not to alert the others I guess. "Why should we risk our lives when its so dangerous you don't even want Yunie to know?!"

"-It's pretty dangerous." He continued as if Rikku hadn't said anything. "I'll understand if you don't agree to this. I won't be mad."

"Who said anything about not agreeing?" Rikku asked, when Tidus turned to leave. Both of us turned to her, with nothing short of confusion. "I was just asking what I'm doing. I mean is that to much too ask? I'm not sure what Gippal'll choose but I'll help you. It's the least I can do, I mean with all the happiness you brought my cousin."

I smirked. "Well, if she's going I'm going. Can't let a Cid's Girl be alone with someone like you for more than a minute." I shrugged. Well, at least that's what I told myself anyway. But, I just couldn't stand the thought of something happening to her. "So what're we doing?"

"We have to find something." He said, all business. It was weird seeing someone who, up until that point, I assumed only had air to keep his skull from caving in. "Rikku, you used to dive for old Machina parts before. That's how we met. I have a feeling it's underwater. It might get damaged so we need to get it soon."

I held up my hand. "Well-" I paused when Wakka came into the hallway, chasing Vidina. He followed the baby around the corner, before I continued. "Well, what're we looking for? What's so important about it? Why do we have to dive for it and not just get another one?"

"It's a special sphere." He turned to Rikku. "Remember when we found... we found... found Zecht's sphere?" His voice had hesitation, like he wasn't sure he was willing to say Sir Zecht's name. I wonder why...

"Yeah. It had a bunch of stuff he wanted to show you on it, right?" She asked calmly, fiddling with a small Machina robot in her hand. "What about it?"

"I think I found another of his sphere's. Except this one has something important for the survival of Spira." He said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "We need to find it. It could save the world again."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yeah, so I guess that means it's my turn, huh? Ah, well. Well anyway. I'm not really sure why I even agreed. Much less why Gippy did. But it was probably what he said, or the way he said it.

We were on one of those Machine sled things. It had a big compartment in the back. So it sorta acted like a carriage that travelled around Mount Gagazet. Lucky for us, me, Tidus and Kimahri had remained in touch. Actually we usually had a six-way sphere chat, with the com-thingies Shinra made not long ago, with all the old guardians, and Yuna. Anyway. Kimahri was bringing us to a small lake just outside the Gagazet borders. It's only visable during the summer, when the snow everywhere else melts and travels here. So I don't really think it's on any maps.

We were approaching the lake. No matter how many maps it was on, it was still the size of the Lake Macalania. Maybe even bigger. Anyway, all I know is that we were there in no time. Tidus told Kimahri we were there for ice-fishing. The Ronso didn't put up much of an arguement to that. He had told us there was problems with some of the fiends in the area. Apparently the arena near there had a broken wall that lead to the mountain and Kimahri had to round them up. Man! That owner guy is such a wimp! He should get a new job if he's so scared of fiends.

Unfortunately for us, it was somewhere between spring and summer. So most of the ice was cracked. Leaveing only a bunch of large ice squares floating around. So we had to jump over the gaps. When we were near the first one, I slipped and my foot got wet. Yeah. Ice melt is Lumt!

But when we were about half-way to the half-way mark of the lake, I think thats a quarter, Tidus turned to us.

Gippal was helping me cross and particularily large gap so neither of us noticed until he cleared his throat. We turned, almost in unison.

"Rikku...Gippal. There's something I need to say." He said slowly.

To be honest I had never seen Tidus so scared. Not now, not when Yuna got married to Seymour, not when Dad blew Home up... Not even when we fought Sin. But he looked scared now. I'd like to think it was because we had adrenaline working for us when we fought Sin. But I knew we had enough adrenaline now. I didn't understand why he was scared, at first I thought he was scared of the ice. Or freezing. I understand now...

"I feel... that I can trust you two..." He turned to us with a sad smile. "Promise... Promise me, that you'll help take care of Yuna."

We exchanged glances. Me and Gippal. Both thinking the same thing. I think Gippal had been thinking it for a while... but I couldn't deal with it. I didn't want to. Couldn't. Wouldn't.

"W-What are you talking about?" I asked nervously.

Tidus just grinned that strange grin of his, the one that always meant trouble for us Guardians, before he turned to Gippal. "You know why I brought you?"

Gippal just nodded. Without another word, Tidus pulled his sword out and had sliced it across his lower arm. Leaving a large gash there. I gasped and I could see Tidus wince. A trail of blood leaked down his arm and into the water. The swordsman pulled a cloth from his pocket and wrapped his around his arm. He and Gippal, pulling me with him, took a few steps back. I barely noticed that Gippal had taken his canon-thing out. Without thinking, I pulled my daggers out.

Then, my whole life turned up and down so many times, I'm still dizzy!

The iceberg we were on began to crack. Tidus jumped towards the iceberg on our left and Gippal pulled me to the right one. I could hear Tidus yelling something at us. But it was muffled by the ice.

Without warning, a large, brown Walrus-looking fiend shot out of the water. I froze. The thing was probably bigger than a house! Bigger than two houses stacked on top of each other! I was brought out of my mental images, of a giant Vidina, stacking buildings on each other to make this thing, when a loud explosion sounded next to me.

My first thought was that another one had come, but then I noticed the smoke billowing out of Gippal's gun barrell. The creature let out a large roar. I actually thought I couldn't hear anything until a scream met my ears. My head shot up. The creature was flailing around in pain. It's large fin-things were shooting in all directions, one hit the iceberg next to me and Gippal. The other slammed right into Tidus's.

"Tidus! No!"

I'm not sure when, but it occured to me that the screaming had been me. Tidus was calm. He was standing with his sword held loosely in his hand. The tip resting on the snow. Gippal was still trying to take aim at the flailing creature.

Then it happened. The fin slammed into the iceberg. Into Tidus. Everything seemed to freeze. I'm not sure why, but ever since I met him on that ship, I always thought he was... Superman. Like he was invinsible or something. And that image kept growing the more we did. When he stood up to Wakka, to protect me and my Al Bhed heritage. When he stopped Yuna from getting married.. When we escpaed that underwater jail thing. And each time we beat Seymour to the curb. I think he surpassed Superman when we defeated Sin, though.

My eyes snapped back into focus when a feral battle cry hit my ears. The creatures fin split in two. From between the thin material, Tidus came. His sword held high, aiming for the fiends eyes. Within seconds the sword was shoved to the hilt in the fiend and blood was oozing down its face. It was all I could do to hold my lunch down.

A explosion echoed beside me again. But I didn't flinch, Gippal shot the fiend through the heart, (Do fiends have hearts?) It was over. The walrus thing fell not far from us. I could see Tidus pull his sword out and land on the ice next to the slowly disipating fiend, I set my head down so I could focus on where to put my feet. Didn't want to slip and fall in, now did I? That wouldn't have been cool.

By the time we reached Tidus. The fiend had turned into a flock (Flock? Or is it herd?) of pyreflies. A small orb was half in the snow from where it disappeared. Gippal made a bee-line for it. I did the same, Tidus didn't. He was laying face down in the snow. Poor guy. Must be exhausted. It never really occured to me, that the blood he was coated in wasn't the fiends. But it did when I approched. I could see a large gapping hole in his stomach. His arm had a slash that went almost all the way through. There were numerous cuts and bruises lining every other piece of skin.

I dove forwards. Sitting on my knees I pulled him towards me, so he was on his back.

"Tidus?" I asked. I could hear all hope, joy and every other good, happy emotion disappear from my voice. "Hey, Tidus wake up."

I heard a soft chuckle come from the swordsman and felt my heart relax, but only a bit.

"Did'ja get it?" He asked. His voice was no more than a slurred, raspy whisper.

"Don't talk." I said weakly, quietly. "We'll... we'll find Kimahri. And a doctor."

"No." Tidus said slowly. "Where is it?"

"I have it." Gippal responded, holding the sphere up so it was in the swordsman's vision.

"Good."

I could see his eyes turning glassy. They started to fade and become dull.

"Tidus. Tidus." I said slowly, as if testing it out. "No!"

"Rikku." Gippal said quietly.

"No! Don't die!" I screamed. Yeah. I could hear the hysterics in my voice. "You can't die! No!"

I barely felt Gippal's hand on my shoulder. My whole body was numb. Not from the cold, though. I actually felt warm. It was probably my anger. I get like that sometimes.

"What will happen to Yuna?!" I screamed at his body. I begged at it. As if that would bring him back. "You can't die! I won't let you!"

"Rikku." Gippal repeated. I could vaguely feel him reach into my pocket and pull out the comsphere Shinra gave me. All us Guardians, Paine, Shinra, Buddy, and, I think, Brother all had one. So we could keep in touch. I could hear him talking. "Hey, Kimahri. Can you...pick us up? We're... a...a man down."

"Of course." Was Kimahri's response. "Anything to get away from these fiends." I knew that was his attempt at a joke, but no one laughed. No one. No one will laugh. Not for a long time.

"Don't...just don't die." Even with all that going on behind me, all I heard was my own voice. It had become no more than a whisper. I guess yelling does that. I was losing my voice. "Please...don't leave Yuna behind."

I heard Gippal close my comsphere and I felt him shove it back in my pocket.

"Don't leave again, Tidus." I mumbled again.

"Rikku..." Gippal said quietly. I could feel his hand on my shoulder again. It was warm. It felt nice. The feeling spread across my body like a calming effect. I stood up slowly, testing my legs. "We have to leave..."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lumt---------------------------------Cold

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Authoresse Note

Yeah... *sobs*. Well, I'm trying different POV's for my stories. Which was better Rikku's or Gippal's? Rikku's showed her happy-go-lucky side a bit more than I showed Gippal's personality. But to be fair he knew that Tidus was going to die. Would you be happy if that happened? Probably not... Anyway R&R!