Final Fantasy X and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy X storyline (such as Rayne and Marcus) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
(More Than A Dream)
When Rayne faded into her dream that night, something was out of the ordinary. Rayne had always been a 'lucid dreamer', meaning that she was always aware that she was dreaming when she was dreaming, and she sometimes had control over the actions of the dream. That night, though, instead of coming to in a field of pancakes or standing in an immense library where all of the pages of all of the books were blank, she woke to a white void.
The white stretched all around her, above her, and below her. She was actually surprised that she was standing. But, as soon as she thought that, she fell straight down into the white void, whatever solid mass that had existed beneath her gone. She screamed, the sound both muffled yet echoing.
Remembering her earlier action of making the ground disappear, Rayne wished that the ground were back, and then it was. She suddenly crashed back down onto the white 'ground', the wind knocked out of her body. She shakily got back to her feet and glanced around, still wheezing as she tried to make some reason out of nothing.
"Alright," she began, "This is just a dream, I know that. So I have control here, and I can make this place do whatever I want. Hmm…" She glanced around the void, trying to think of something simple to do to make herself more comfortable. "Let's see… I want a… rug, right beneath my feet."
She looked down and watched as color bled out from beneath her bare feet and spread out in a wide rainbow. Once the size was laid out, the colors began to rearrange themselves into a specific pattern and an image began to form. Eight different symbols in eight different colors were placed at even intervals around the now black rug, and Rayne herself was standing in a small white circle in the very center.
Rayne inspected the symbols from her position, not recognizing any of them. She crinkled her brow, "What in the he—"
Suddenly, all of the symbols began to pulsate, and the waves made Rayne drop to her knees and scream in shock. She clutched her head in her hands and waited for the throbbing to stop. It ended as abruptly as it had started, and when Rayne looked up she screamed again.
Standing before her were three people; a young man, an older man in mariner attire, and a woman dressed in what appeared to be religious robes. Rayne shakily stood and stumbled backwards, only to bump into someone else. She tilted her head back and stared into the hardened face of another man, who was glaring down at her but still holding her on her feet.
Rayne screamed again and stumbled away from the man, noticing a glint at his waist and nearly fainting when she saw he had a sword strapped to his side. Rayne walked unsteadily back to the center of the rug and spun herself in a circle, now noticing that she was surrounded by people on all sides. There were eleven people in all, but three females were all standing in one group while the rest stood by themselves.
"A-alright," she began, her voice pitchy, "Just-just who the hell are all of you, and what are you doing in my dream?"
Some of them looked at her sympathetically and a few of them laughed at her, but the man with the sword and the mariner just stared at her. Rayne spun around when one of them walked towards her, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw who it was.
"You-you're the boy from the game!"
The boy in purple nodded solemnly, "Yes, in your world, I am the boy from the game."
Rayne shook her head, "Alright, then, this really is just a dream. The rest of you," she gestured to the others around the circle, "must be characters, too. But…" her brow furrowed, "I don't recognize any of you, other than you." She looked back at the boy in purple pointedly.
"Actually," Rayne spun to face the young girl who spoke, "You have seen two others."
After looking over all of the people again, Rayne shook her head in confusion. "No, I'm pretty sure that I've only seen him." She raised a finger and pointed to the boy.
"Oh, how easily you humans forget." Rayne looked at the slightly older boy who was standing next to the girl. He crossed his hands over his chest and huffed, "You really don't remember either of us?"
When Rayne shook her head slowly, the boy frowned and the girl giggled and spoke, "Well, you might recognize us if you see us in our… more well known forms."
They both melted away and were replaced with two creatures Rayne was quite familiar with. "Valefor and Ifrit!"
Both of the aeons nodded and turned back into their human forms, the boy still frowning and the girl still giggling. Rayne stared at them in confusion, her arms held tightly to her stomach.
"Wait, if you're both the aeons Valefor and Ifrit, then the forms I'm seeing you in now are your original forms, back before you became the fayth, right?" When they both nodded, Rayne turned back to the boy in purple, "Then are you a fayth, too?"
The boy nodded, "Yes, we all are."
Rayne studied them all again and, when she looked at their feet, she noticed that each of them were standing on separate symbols, except for the group of three women, who were all standing on three separate symbols that were smaller than the rest and placed close together in the form of a triangle.
She then shook her head and turned back to the boy in purple, "Hold it, hold it, hold it. You're all the fayth, meaning that you're all aeons, but how can I be dreaming about you if I've never seen most of you? I mean, dreams may be crazy most of the time, but this is beyond crazy; it's impossible. I cannot be able to correctly imagine several fayth I've never seen before and then match them up to aeons."
The boy nodded, "True. Then, in light of all of that, what conclusion have you come to?"
Rayne hugged her stomach tighter and frowned, "That this is all a crazy fictitious dream and the fact that I have seen three of you before is pure coincidence when it comes to the other eight. This is just a dream."
"Maybe it's not."
"If it's not, then what is it?"
"A doorway to reality."
Rayne's frown turned into a scowl, "That game isn't real."
"Are you sure?"
She glared at him, causing him to chuckle.
"Alright, believe that if you want. But, even if it is 'just a game', you certainly can learn something from it, can't you?"
"Oh? And what could I possible learn from it, hmm?"
The boy smiled, his eyes hidden by his hood, "That it's time to wake up."
Rayne's eyes snapped open and she sat up, looking around herself in shock. She found herself sitting in the dark on a wide path, tall grass growing up on both sides and bits of old buildings jutting out here and there, all silhouetted by the light of the nearby city. Looking around wide eyed, it only took Rayne a few seconds to realize where she was, but she could hardly believe it. It just wasn't possible!
"The Mi'ihen Highroad…"
Yep, just as you expected readers; Rayne was in Spira.