Harry Potter/Final Fantasy X:

Chapter one

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…I don't know exactly what it was that alerted me that day; the day that someone had once again stumbled across my 'resting' place.

There had been no one else for so long – besides the Others – that I had almost accepted that I was fated to keep on Surviving and never properly have known what it was to Live.

Of course, that dismal vision of a possible future was scattered in a moment by his abrupt intrusion – like so many leaves in the wind.

It was a… welcome… change.

Of course, I do not think that he shared my perspective at the time.

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Thoughts through the Ages

Time loses meaning after so much of it has drifted by. Months feel like seconds, years feel like minutes, and the only way you have of estimating your years among the living is by centuries, or even millennia. The civilisation you had known evolves, and then evolves again and again until truths once known were lost, and new truths or new ideals replace those of old; not necessarily wrong, but never the same.

She always felt it was like a very large game of Chinese Whispers. You start out with an idea, a truth, and goal, and by the time it reaches where it began it has evolved so much through the errors that accumulate from the retellings that it is unrecognisable from how it once was.

She was among the living and the dead, but truly she was neither – not quite alive enough to be considered alive, and yet not dead enough to be considered dead.

She was an anomaly, and had been even before she set foot on this world by way of Prophesy.

But that happened long ago, and it was pointless to ruminate upon events and persons so long gone that the dust would not remain.

All she had was the word of the Others that beings yet lived and inhabited the Earth –renamed and made as Spira, now – and the Ruins that had been her 'resting place' for a long while – where she had been relocated to in the midst of the Yevon-Zanarkand war because none in Zanarkand could control her as they did those dead fayth; those created many times after her own forced creation in her image – and yet they were not the same, not even close.

They could claim to be more dead than alive.

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She groggily blinked her eyes as she rose into full alertness for the first time in a long while. "Now just… why?" She muttered to herself, taking note of the immense deterioration in the building around her – obviously it had been a while.

A faint… something made her pause. When the rustling repeated itself, a goofy smile broke out upon her face, unseen by anything other than the odd insect. There was someone coming! Finally she'd be able to get out and see things – be able to leave behind the musty old ruins!

Heh, she might even be able to get this person to come back some time and move her Stone somewhere else so the next time she was forgotten she'd have a beach-front view for it!

Yes, that was definitely the sound of footsteps – and dripping water. Well, the Others did say the water had risen to cover most of the Land.

A loud ~creeaaakkk~ echoed around the room and she span on the spot to see the large bronze doors with a broken lock pushed inward.

She studied the person that had entered. He looked to be about seventeen years old with the look and build of a fighter, heavily tanned with blonde hair and light blue eyes. He had a fairly large sword strapped to his back and wore what she easily identified as the Zanarkand Abe's team uniform. Why exactly he was wearing a blitzball uniform from a team she knew had not survived the ages was beyond her, but she did not pay much mind to it. Puzzles could only be connected if you had the right pieces, after all – and soon (if she had her way) she would be handed them.

She knew that he had seen her when he froze. His mouth dropped and he paused mid-step, almost tripping over. She didn't even try to hold back the snickers that bubbled up from her throat (for the first time in a long time) because of his completely dumbfounded face. No matter how many times she saw that look she always found it hilarious.

…Of course, had she been seventeen and stumbled upon a very ghost-like (albeit coloured) person floating in light atop a glowing stone well… she would put money on donning the expression herself, and she had been used to strange stuff popping up from her education at Hogwarts.

She gazed directly in his eyes and by way of legilimency saw exactly what he did.

A glowing woman in her teens, short and thin but with lithe muscles betraying strength. Midnight black hair falling around sharp features in waves past shoulders, piercing; almost glowing brilliantly emerald green eyes in a trapping gaze. Other-worldly appearance, strange clothes; loose robe with long sleeves and leather sandals. A striking type of beauty – unconventional; he had never seen someone quite like her.

He blinked and she released his eyes, her lips quirking up a bit. Her ego could always do with a boost – complements were always nice, after all, and it had been quite a while since her last Summoner was around for her to receive them.

"Hello, it has been a while since anyone came to visit me." She kept her voice light and teasing, and she smiled softly at him. After all, it wouldn't do to run him off.

The blonde just blinked up at her, his lips parted slightly and she knew that he was surprised that she had spoken.

"My name is Nix. What is yours?"

…

"You don't know your own name?" She was beginning to think she had broken him.

"Hello? Are you alright? I would come down there, but…" Nix gestured vaguely at the stone beneath her and 'knelt' down (well, as much as she could while to all appearances she was floating in mid-air) so she was closer to his level instead of hovering above him. She was debating whether to give him a mental jab when his brain seemed to catch up to the present.

"…oh! Sorry, I just wasn't expecting to meet anyone here… it's kinda abandoned, you know? And you wouldn't believe the day I've had… well, I guess I normally wouldn't believe I'd be meeting a floating girl, so I guess it evens out…" His voice started loud and kind of lost volume as he went on so that by the end he was almost muttering to himself.

Nix grinned and laughed – he was kinda amusing, in a slightly-naïve cute-ish way. Meh, maybe it had been too long since she'd seen someone of the opposite gender – no, it had definitely been too long. Hey, she could admire the view, right?

She coughed to get his attention and raised a dark eyebrow at him.

"Huh? Oh! Let me tell you, I'm glad you're here! I thought I was all alone. Umm… I'm Tidus, and it's good to meet you, Nix. But do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"You seem nervous. What is it that is troubling you, Tidus?" Her voice held a note of mischief, and had he not been glancing in the floor in embarrassment he may have caught it.

"Erm… well, why are you…" He gestured vaguely at her and she filled in "floating in light?"

He nodded and glanced back up, but as he did another cool breeze swept through the room and his arms closed around himself convulsively – it was cold, then. She smiled to comfort him and said "You have stumbled upon the fayth of these ruins. You may be worthy of my help, but is my help what you truly desire?"

By the confused face he pulled, Nix derived that he did not know what a Fayth was, and that was strange in a world that had been focused our existence for such a long time – even before Yu Yevon and his manufactured religion made use of the fayth and their aeons in his plot to avenge his dying world.

A harsher wind swept the room, and Nix was mildly concerned to see his breath mist out in front of him, along with increased shivering.

"C-can y-you make a f-fire?" He hunched into himself further to conserve body heat.

"Yes, that is within my capabilities." That had to be in the top-5 list of weirdest reasons that summoners had given to gain her aid.

"Then yes I want your help!" His voice was brash and exasperated at the same time, and he looked expectantly at her. Nix tilted her head to the side. Almost all of her recent summoners – the ones from Zanarkand – had been painfully polite and properly awe-struck when appealing to her for use of her aeon. It was almost a novelty to be treated like… a normal human, and she was put off-balance at the change.

Now she knew he could have never heard of the fayth – at least in the view of any of the recent civilisations.

His impatient gaze was still fixed upon her, and she found herself curios and almost… excited about travelling with this strange boy as her summoner. She recognised the look of one who was important to the future, so no doubt whatever this Tidus was in for would at least be fun to watch.

She smirked and shrugged before converting to energy and rushing him, flooding his magical core with her strength.

He was out cold from the blow, but she ignored that and settled the connection required for summer/aeon properly, before calling up her power actively for the first time in ages.

The air next to the passed-out blitzballer shimmered, and that was the only sign of something happening before it wound together and a figure materialised.

Nix took a deep breath of the icy-air and swiped her fringe out of her eyes, revelling for a moment in feeling solid ground under her feet and smelling the stale air. The blonde boy on the ground shivered and an echo of his plight ran down the newly-formed bond. She sighed but figured she may as well start a fire for him – he was the reason she could walk around again, after all.

A few muttered words and she had a blue fire burning away that wouldn't need fuel. She grabbed him under the elbows and moved him into a better position on his back. Nix paused for a moment and pursed her lips, watching his sprawled position – he was still shivering. Scowling, she also tossed a warming charm his way, muttering darkly to herself about going soft.

Nix reclined back against a pillar and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully on her newest summoner. He really had no idea what he had gotten into – by agreeing to house her aeon, he had essentially given her free reign to summon her being into reality, so she could bug him as much as she pleased and he couldn't do a thing about it.

That was the difference between her and the Others. The Others, when gifting their aeon to a summoner, could see into the person's thoughts as well as talk to them and give them directions mind-to-mind. The summoner controlled when the aeon was brought into being, and then controlled the aeon's actions.

Nix had full consciousness and control of her actions, had the ability to bring her 'original' form into being and could either appear solely to her summoner or choose to be seen by all as just a regular (albeit strange) person – although she could not venture very far away from her summoner lest her form dissolve. She didn't have to take any orders (well, mostly) and fully controlled her own actions when in aeon form (although the summoner had to consciously bring it into being and could give suggestions).

Those differences were what had the Zanarkand summoners (and all those that came before) very wary and careful of her.

Why was she so different from those other aeons, one may ask?

It was because she was the First.

Very suddenly, a fiend crashed down from the upper levels and apparently kicked up enough sound and shaking up enough fuss that it woke Tidus from the dead-sleep induced from suddenly accepting Nix's aeon.

He drew his sword and dashed in without anything resembling a strategy, slicing a gash across its side before darting back away. Nix hadn't moved from her spot and as he desperately dodged the creatures attack he yelled "Hey! A little help? Didn't you say you'd help me, Nix? 'Cos a bit of help would be very appreciated right now!"

Nix didn't move and watched dispassionately as he hit the thing across its front leg "Naw, you're not going to die."

"WHAT! Come on!" He then yelped as a large claw caught him across the side and sent him crashing into a pillar.

Nix was unmoved and watched the fight idly from the sidelines. Now, seeing Tidus fight, she could tell he was a total novice with that sword. Sure, he had muscles, but they had been honed through blitzball and not fighting of any description – and it showed.

Tidus was getting kicked around when the sealed door behind him was blown open and a small group of Al Bhed entered. Tidus' eyes widened as the girl, dressed in an Al Bhed diving suit with goggles on, stepped up beside him and settled into an attack position, "You on my side? Finally!"

Tidus threw a half-glare at Nix, who had still not moved from her position, before he focused on the battle again.

Nix shrugged to herself. The Klikk was ignoring her because it felt her power, so who was she to step in? Tidus needed all the training he could get if he wanted to get even half as strong as her usual summoners.

With the help of the girl and her grenades (heh, she could get to like that girl) Tidus killed the fiend. "Whew! That was close!" He threw another look over at Nix and said "Of course, if you had helped, it woulda been easier!"

Nix just smirked at him, and the Al Bhed girl removed her goggles and looked over the blitzballer's shoulder confusedly thus missing one of her friends roughly grabbing Tidus' hair.

"Hey, lemme go!"

The Al Bhed that had a hold of Tidus yelled "Fryd ec drec?"

What followed was a conversation in Al Bhed, Tidus freaking out completely at not understanding anything, and culminated in the girl that had helped Tidus before punching him in the stomach to stop her friend with the knife from straight out killing him. Of course had she thought for a moment that she would allow him to knife her first summoner in ages... well, by that point he would have been dead. No way was she getting stuck back in that rock so quickly after hitching a ride out! Nix knew that Tidus would probably bitch at her when he regained consciousness because she hadn't stepped in to help him at any point (but what was she, a babysitter?).