When Yuna arrived in Bevelle, a cloud of mixed feelings overcame her. This was her birthplace. She remembered walking through the Palace of St. Bevelle with her father as he explained the history behind the structure. This was also the place where she was being forced to marry the infamous Seymour Guado. That memory still shook her whenever she thought about it. She was taken to the council by the two people that visited her the other day. Kurgum was nervous to see her as he had been before.

Of course, the usual crowd gathered to see the high summoner. They waved their hands at her, and called her name. She only nodded to some of them, saying she had important things to do at the palace.

"Hello, Lady Yuna," Baralai said. "Glad you could join us this afternoon."

"Likewise," Yuna said.

"As you can already tell, we've been discussing the event of this shoopuff reappearing out of nowhere, but that isn't all."

"We've heard other people talking about similar things." Nooj said.

"What kind of things?" Yuna asked.

"Take a look,"

Nooj showed Yuna the view from the top of the palace where the crowd was clustered. At first, Yuna didn't detect anything odd about the massive amount of people, but she caught something as she continued gazing at them. Some of the people were locked in a tight embrace with one another, and others were talking away. The thing that baffled Yuna was that some of these people were fading in and out of existence. The living people around didn't seem to mind this fact.

"They're… not really alive, are they?" Yuna asked.

"No, they're not," Nooj said. "Shortly after we sent those two to talk with you, we've gotten a large amount of reports about the dead reuniting with their relatives. None of these reports came from those relatives, but from the other people that were concerned about it."

"Where did they come from?"

"We're not sure," Baralai told her. "But we think that they came from the Moonflow."

"I… see."

"It's not known if summoners, or regular people have been able to do this before," he continued. "But after we've discussed it for some time, we think that these people have been brought back by an ability we call 'beckoning'."

Yuna's fist tightened against her chest. The word sent nerves through her. The experiences she'd had when Tidus arrived back on Besaid flew through her mind. The shipwreck, the argument, the island from one thousand years ago.

The explosion… she thought.

"Lady Yuna?" Baralai said. "Are you alright?"

"I… I'm sorry, I don't recall that term from when I first became a summoner."

"We'd done some research on the history of summoners," Baralai continued. "Beckoning has been long forgotten, and maybe even forbidden, but somehow, someone is causing these chain of events in this present day."

"Who do you think is causing them?"

"We're not sure," said Nooj. "It could be any of the former summoners. Possibly even ones from many years before. Maybe one of them is a sender standing in this room."

Yuna looked at the senders that were surrounding the council.

"What should we do about this then?"

"Well, as far as we're concerned, the beckoned that we've seen aren't a potential threat, so there's no cause for alarm." Baralai said. "However, if more than one summoner is beckoning, it could become a problem later on. We'd like to know if you'd be inclined to gather more information for us."

"Where could I find such information?" Yuna asked.

"You could start at the Moonflow," Nooj told her. "That's where it began."

"Would you like me to start as soon as possible?"

"Only if you have any interest in doing so."

Yuna nodded, relieved. On her way out, she noticed one of the senders was giving her a stern look. It was the older sender, who had slightly gray hair and a beard. Yuna rushed with the other two out the entrance faster.

The boat that came to Bevelle was now set for Djose shore, where they would inspect the Moonflow. Yuna was pondering what she'd just discussed with the Council. She wondered how exactly the large crowd of the dead managed to come back when Yuna was the only one that'd done this for one person. She remembered hearing that only summoners were capable of bringing someone back, but after today, she started to believe that everyone who shared strong feelings with another could revive them. It wasn't a comforting thought. Nooj and Baralai told her that none of the beckoned dead posed a threat, but Yuna could only imagine what angered people such as the Guado could do with that ability.

On Djose shore, Yuna walked with Kurgum and Chuami to the Moonflow. Kurgum noticed how distracted Yuna was during the boat ride and he attempted to make conversation with her while walking.

"Um… Lady Yuna?" Kurgum said.

"Hm?"

"You know, I'd probably be a summoner, if we still relied on summoners during this time. Instead of just a regular sender."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah… and I was wondering if I could ask you what exactly it meant… you know, to be a summoner."

"Well, you must be willing to sacrifice your freedom, and your wishes for the good of Spira. That's where I first started. You should be everyone's strength, and their hope."

"Oh…"

"Never shed a tear for your own suffering. Especially not when everyone around you is possibly suffering more than you."

"I see… but how do you know if people are suffering more than you?"

"When I was on my pilgrimage, I saw many tragic things happen," Yuna said. "I saw people lose their homes, people they loved, and faith that they would ever have a future with Sin terrorizing them. I know I've lost people too, but seeing others losing everything they had… I could just see that they needed someone to be there to lift their spirits."

"So, even though you're not a summoner anymore, you're still doing all of that? Today?"

"It's almost as if I never stopped,"

"How… does it make you feel?"

Yuna took a deep breath in. "There are times when I… wish I could feel what I want to, without worrying everyone else. Other times, it brings joy to my heart to know that I've helped someone with their doubts. I'm glad that I helped them feel… stronger, and happier."

Kurgum sighed. "I know how you feel…"

Yuna gazed at him. She saw him turn from being extremely nervous to completely solemn. Perhaps being a sender was just as hard emotional work as being a summoner was. Things might not have changed that much at all since then, Yuna thought.

Once they've reached the Moonflow, they were amazed at the illusionary people that were present. It's as if the dead found out that the shoopuff escaped the Farplane and came all at once to join it on Spira. Yuna saw that some of the living people came to visit with the illusions. One of them was a father and daughter, talking with a woman Yuna suspected was the mother. Yuna's heart was breaking for the little girl. She was asking her mother to come home with them. However, she was only an illusion, and she was stuck on the edge of the Moonflow, along with the rest of the illusions.

That's what Yuna originally thought. Her head perked up when she noticed that she could hear the illusion speaking to the child, loud and clear. Yuna once thought that beckoned illusions could only be heard by the beckoner, but not anyone else. These weren't only illusions. They were revived dead. Yuna started to feel slightly disturbed at the thought.

"This… this is weird," Chuami said. "I thought we couldn't hear them speak."

"We couldn't," Yuna told her.

"But… why can we hear them now?"

"They must not be illusions."

"But… if they're not illusions," Kurgum said. "How can they be brought back? If… if only summoners can beckon… unless there are more summoners than we thought?"

"I don't know," Yuna said.

"What should we do?" Kurgum asked. "Should I send them before they…?"

"No," Yuna watched as the illusions joined with their family.

"But… Lady Yuna…"

"Leave them be," Yuna said.

"Why?" Chuami said.

"We don't have any right interfering with their reunion," Yuna said. "Besides, there's no harm in letting them be together."

Yuna turned from the sight and started back towards Djose shore. Chuami was amazed at how willing she was to just let them go. If Kurgum failed to send the dead, he'd lose his status as quick as a blink. Chuami guessed things were different if you were the high summoner.

The sound of screaming was heard from the shore. Yuna and the others ran to see what happened. They were bombarded by a crowd of people running from the situation. Yuna tried not to get trampled. The scene waiting for them was horrific.

It was a fiend, but nothing Yuna had ever seen on her journey, or even in her entire lifetime. This fiend had a long, spiked tail, similar to the Sinspawn she and her crew fought. The difference was the fact that the fiend had a humanlike head, and four arms with human hands attached to them. The surface of the fiend looked similar to the layer of muscle underneath human skin. It was fleshy-looking, pulsing with large veins, and with two human legs forced out of it. It almost looked like the creature was inside out. Yuna was petrified. She didn't know where to go. She didn't know what to do. She just stood there, witnessing the fiend attacking the innocent humans.

"Lady Yuna! Watch out!" Kurgum yelled. Yuna snapped out of it in time to watch the fiend rapidly approach her. The fiend grabbed her neck with its human hand and held her high in the air. Yuna kicked and tried to pry out of the fiend's grasp. What happened next was even more mind-boggling. The fiend turned its attention away from Yuna to the pyreflies that appeared in front of it. Another creature appeared from the pyreflies and challenged the fiend holding Yuna. The abomination roared as it dropped Yuna to the ground. She backed away from the monsters fighting each other, gasping for air. Kurgum ran to her side and helped her stand.

"Are you okay?!" he asked. Yuna couldn't speak. They watched as the two gigantic creatures fought. The awful humanoid enemy was forced into the ocean. It stood on its four hands and charged the regular fiend, but the strength of both fiends were mutual. They locked each other in a stalemate as they both tried to force the other to the ground. Eventually, the non-humanlike fiend lifted the other off the shore and threw it on the ground with enough power that it managed to kill it. As the horrific fiend disappeared from view, the regular creature did the same departure. Yuna turned her head towards the area behind where the fiends were fighting. She only managed to catch a glimpse of a figure wearing a black hood scurrying away from the shore.

Yuna returned to Besaid where she shared her misadventure with her friends. They all fussed about the marks around her neck.

"What happened?!" Tidus asked.

"I… It was a huge fiend!" Yuna said. "I… I've never seen anything like it! It was terrible! It… it almost looked…"

"What?"

"It… almost looked human!"

They all looked at her as if she were talking nonsense. From the way she was shivering with fear, and the tone in her voice, they believed her, and the thought of it gave them just as awful of a feeling. Tidus held her in his arms as she recollected the attack.

"A human fiend… I never heard of that…" Wakka said.

"It's skin… it was so… it looked like muscle…" Yuna said. "It had veins… and… when it died, it was bleeding human blood…"

The thought of the monster nauseated them.

"But… how?" Lulu asked.

"I don't know… We went to the Moonflow, and we saw these…"

Yuna hesitated.

"You saw what, Yuna?" Tidus asked.

"Well…"

She didn't answer the question. After a while, Lulu took Yuna to her tent, where she tended to her wounds.

Tidus was puzzled.

"Hey, Wakka," Tidus said. "Has Yuna talked to you about… her job?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's like… every time I ask her about what she does each day she keeps telling me it's not important. I'm starting to think she's hiding something from me."

"'Course she doesn't talk about it," Wakka said. "Those people she talks to are telling her personal stuff that none of us are supposed to know, ya? She can't go running her mouth about them. That's going against their trust."

"Oh, right," Tidus said. "But what about what she found at the Moonflow? Why couldn't she talk to me about that?"

"Maybe that stuff's not for us to know, either."

"Are you sure she didn't say anything to you?"

"Nothing she didn't already tell you. You two are joined at the hip, right?"

"I thought so too, but…"

Wakka wanted to ask, but kept in mind what he just said about keeping out of personal problems. He scratched the back of his head.

"If it really wasn't anything important, then you got nothing to worry about, ya? If it was something you needed to know, she'd tell you."

Tidus got the feeling that Wakka was just as clueless about Yuna's issues as he was. Yuna and Lulu came out of the tent and they all gathered around the bonfire. Gaia was tending to the fire as they spoke of Yuna's adventure. She removed herself from the conversation, as it didn't involve her in any way.

"I don't know what to do," Yuna said. "I went to Bevelle expecting a simple talk, and then… this happened."

"What do they want you to do?" Wakka asked.

"They wanted me to investigate more. Around Spira."

"What are you investigating?" Tidus asked.

Lulu and Wakka waited for Yuna to answer.

"When… those two came here from Bevelle, they said the Council found something out in the Moonflow. I went to talk with them about it."

"And what was that thing?"

"A shoopuff."

"A shoopuff?" Tidus thought for a moment. "I haven't seen one of those in a couple years. Remember when we rode it that one time?"

"Yeah, that was interesting," Wakka kept his eyes on Tidus, in case he were to ask any more questions.

"But what about a shoopuff was interesting enough that you had to go all the way to Bevelle?"

"There were two shoopuffs."

"What's odd about that?"

Lulu sighed, but she remembered how little Tidus knew about Spira the first time they met him.

"There didn't used to be two shoopuffs. One of them… died many years ago."

"Maybe there were always two, and you just didn't know it."

"Yes. It does seem like the most viable option."

Everyone was silent for a bit. Gaia decided it was her turn to talk.

"A humanlike fiend," she began. "I don't remember ever seeing such a thing."

"Nobody's ever seen such awful creatures," Yuna said.

"I… vaguely remember this, but… I think at some point, I used to face fiends on a daily basis. In fact, I think I used to…"

Gaia stopped as she was suddenly hit with a flashback. She was standing in front of multiple creatures, with a bow in hand, striking each one of them without effort. The memory was fast, so she wasn't able to make out any of the details that pertain to where, or when this took place. Gaia massaged her forehead that was beginning to ache from the memory. Yuna sat closer to her.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine… I just… I think I just had a thought. What was I saying?"

"You were talking about facing fiends, ya?" Wakka said.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I used to see them a lot."

"Did they attack your home?"

"Probably. They attacked everything everywhere back then. I'm surprised there aren't fiends attacking us right now, to be honest."

"I hope those… particular fiends don't come here." Yuna said.

"Well, if they do, we'll be ready." Tidus told her.

Yuna was glad that Tidus had faith in their fighting skills.

Yuna received several messages from the CommSphere the next day. One talking about banshees attacking the visitors in Macalania, another saying that some of the fallen Ronso had returned unscratched, and the situation Yuna found herself in at Djose shore wasn't the last. The Council told Yuna that the banshees in Macalania were the main priority because it was the closest place to Bevelle. When Yuna spoke on the CommSphere with the council, she asked if they wanted her to either look for more information on who is causing the beckoning, or if they wanted her to take care of the vicious fiends. They told her the people's safety was their main priority, and that they've sent some of their own council members to investigate after hearing about the attack on Djose shore. Yuna wondered why they asked her and her party to fight when the council members had their own forces to deploy.

Yuna met up with the others to discuss their mission.

"I know we've already fought these monstrosities before," Yuna began. "But the council asks that we fight against them again. Do you all wish to join me?"

"I'll do it!" Tidus said.

"Yeah, me too!" said Wakka.

"I… can't do it," Lulu said.

"Right, you're the mayor, after all, and you have to take care of the baby." Yuna said.

"I can fight them, Yuna," Wakka said. "I'll take Lu's place."

Lulu turned her head towards Wakka.

"You're going to fight them?"

"Yeah, I'll be Yuna's guard again."

Lulu looked troubled when he said he was going to follow Yuna and Tidus to complete a battle they've already fought and barely made out alive before. Wakka saw the change in demeanor on her face and gave her a questioning look. She turned around and walked the other direction.

"I guess the council can always send help if we need it, but I doubt it's anything the three of us can't handle." Yuna said.

"Yeah, how bad can these things be, really?" Tidus said.

"Then it's settled," Yuna smiled. "I'll give the council a call and tell them we'll be leaving tomorrow morning for Macalania."

Yuna walked back to her room in the temple. Gaia was trying hard to not look like she was eavesdropping, but Tidus and Wakka knew she was there the whole time. She spotted them looking at her and walked up to them.

"So… you guys are going with Yuna to fight those creepy things?"

"Yup." They both said.

"How come you guys are going? Doesn't the council have guards they can send her?"

"We were Yuna's guardians when she was going on her pilgrimage." Tidus explained.

"Really?! So you guys are legendary guardians?"

"Yup, we helped her fight Sin." Wakka said.

"Wow, you guys are way cooler than I thought!"

"Thanks?"

"I mean… never mind that. But aren't you worried about getting outnumbered? I mean, there's only three of you."

"If we run into trouble, we can call for backup, ya?"

"Are you sure there's no one else you'd want to take with you?"

Tidus looked at her. "Do you have a person in mind?"

"Maybe. You never know, there might be someone wanting to, who's anxious to travel through Spira since she never got to."

"Is it you?" Wakka asked.

"Well, now that you mention it," Gaia said. "I'd be happy to come on this trip too."

"We're fighting against things way bigger and taller than Wakka. You sure you want to risk your head just for the sake of adventure?"

"I've been thinking, and I really don't know anyone here in Besaid except you guys. I've been hanging out with Lulu and I got a feeling she thinks I'm just annoying. She told me I reminded her of Wakka except at least Wakka goes out every now and then. How can I go anywhere if there's nowhere to go?"

"You know how to fight?" Wakka asked.

"I'm good enough at fighting fiends, I guess."

"We'll talk to Yuna about it and see what she says. I don't think she'll say no, but we gotta make sure it's alright, ya?"

"Let me know how it goes." Gaia said.

Wakka was thinking about how Lulu looked after he said he was going to go fight fiends. He's known her to have disapproving looks like that before, but they usually weren't about Wakka putting his life at risk. Wakka searched through his belongings for a small chest he'd gotten for his prized possession.

Lulu walked behind him. "What are you looking for?"

"Just a little something to help us on our mission, ya?"

Lulu sighed heavily. "You're really going…"

"Well yeah, I mean… Yuna needs us to help her out, and you can't go."

Lulu sat on the bed with Vidina on her lap. "You haven't fought fiends that strong in three years. Don't you think it's a bit rash to start out at Macalania? And Mt. Gagazet?"

"Relax! We survived those things before, we can do it again. Especially since we beat Sin, ya? Plus, once I find this thing, it'll be easy going for all of us."

"Oh, really? And what thing is that?"

Wakka pulled out the mahogany chest. "My secret ultimate weapon. The big one."

He unlatched and opened the chest to bring out the spiked blitzball decorated with a star in the middle, and perfectly fit for slicing.

"You're not going to use that against those things are you?" Lulu said.

"That's exactly what I'm planning to do."

He put the blitzball back in the chest and put the chest where he could remember it the next morning.

"What about Vidina?"

He turned to her. "What about him?"

"Well somebody has to be there for him."

"I'm not going to be gone forever. Also, I thought you didn't trust me to take care of him. You're always telling me not to do this and that whenever I do things with him, ya?"

"Well, yeah but…" Lulu broke eye contact with him. She looked at the ground.

"What's wrong, Lu?"

"Nothing, it's just… can you please use something else other than a stupid blitzball to defend yourself?"

Wakka came closer to her. "Lu, are you… scared?"

"No! I mean… no, I'm not."

Wakka sat on his knees in front of her. He ruffled his son's hair and held his tiny hand.

"Hey, don't worry about me, Lu. I promise I'm coming back for you two. I'd never leave you guys. Ever."

"Wakka…"

Wakka traced the lines of her jaw and lifted her head to look him in the eyes. He smiled at her and felt good knowing how worried she was about him putting himself in danger.

"It'll be alright, Lu. Trust me." He pressed his lips against hers. She closed her eyes and kissed him as if she were kissing him for the last time.