Moon Says: So, like, you can tell I love me some games. My first real video game was FFX-2 (if you don't count Spyro, Muppet Monsters, or attempts at Med-I-Evil/Resident Evil. I have thought of many stories for Dragon Age or even FFX, but I just had to get down something. So I'm sorry for posted that other story, especially for those who love Spy (those people aren't reading this, I truly doubt that). But, well, sorry. THANKS to Black Dragon Mistress (who never logs in ) insaneoneX who have got me back into this fic. This fic is for you.

CHALLENGE: Still ongoing….

PAGES: 9

WORDS: 4, 220

POSTED: 1 March 2015 (I wrote this 19 Feb…why was it not posted?)

Intervention

~Chapter 4~

As soon as we got off the boat, I watched Yuna head straight for the nearest people. "Greetings, I am the Summoner Yuna. I have come from the Temple on Besaid. If there is no other Summoner here, please allow me to perform the Sending." Her words seemed practiced, like she was reading from a script like a robot.

But what she was talking about…Dancing for the Dead was always something that made me grow thoughtful. I would remember all the times that Emma performed the Dance of the Dead for us on a mission or just because we happened to be in place where the dead were. In the Squad, we, as the leaders, made sure that there was a Summoner with every team that was sent out. The Sending was important. It was disrespectful to leave the Spirits of those killed to become fiends.

Paying my respects, I watched the Sending, and my heart hardened. The people of Kilika did not deserve this. Wakka was wrong. Sin wasn't punishment for the sins of Zanarkand for relying too much on machina.

Sin is the ultimate irony. Something made to protect becomes something that is destruction incarnate.

There was so much I didn't know. Why was Sin born in the first place? From what I remember, Sin wasn't even complete. In fact, Emma said they stopped working on what it used to be because a power source could not be found. There was nothing strong enough to be able to power the thing.

Then my memories blank again. DAMN IT!

I focused back on Yuna. It showed in her movements that she wasn't used to the Dance. I wonder if she has ever even done it before? I shouldn't be too hard on her; she was doing something here that few, I assumed, in this time could do. She was guiding the dead. It was something that was respected by all.

As per the traditions, I hummed along with the Hymn of the Fayth. I ignored all around me and focused on the souls of the dead. It was the least I could as I could not perform the Sending. This was one of the times I wish I was a Summoner instead of an ordinary Chosen. Since I shared some of the blame for Sin's creation, though I knew not what, I felt that I owed them.

As Yuna came back onto the dock, I saw tears in her eyes. A part of me was glad that she cried; crying meant that she still had some feeling left in her, some connection with feeling the horror of death. Emma had long since stopped crying. She had filled her veins with Ice. She said she had to do it; she had to lose her innocence. Otherwise, she'd be buried alive by all the turmoil death leaves in its wake. Whether it as caused by her or not.

Once the Sending was done, a few of us took naps, and when we awoke, most of the Besaid Blitzball players were helping re-build what they could on the docks. A part of me wondered if this was why Kilika was punished. Wakka had said Sin was a punishment after all, so what idiots built their village on top of the water?

I paused, there was that other city…but it actually had support, unlike this one. I wonder how Atlantis had fared in the past millennia. I wondered if Yuna would stop on the way there to pick up that Aeon.

By the time I got to the forest, Yuna, Lulu, and Wakka were waiting for me. My they-want-me senses were tingling.

Lulu stepped up first, "Yuna wants to ask you something."

I raised an eyebrow, shifted weight onto my right side, and waited. Was Yuna so freaking shy that she needed Lulu to prepare or introduce the idea of her wanting to ask something of me? Fuck, just thinking of that made my head ache. Girls.

"I…want…to ask you…to be my Guardian," she sounded so nervous and shy, kind of refreshing to the demands of the one who used to look like her. Of course, time changes everyone. "Before I could ask previously, the boat was attacked." Yuna almost whispered to me. I still heard her though.

Before I could respond, Wakka jumped in. "What? Yuna, no. He already has a Summoner," he turned to me and rubbed his head. "I'm sorry. I forgot to tell everyone that you was a Guardian already."

"Really?" Lulu asked, her skepticism in her voice. "If so, where is your Summoner?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's okay, Wakka. We got separated by Sin. I was actually heading to the Kilika Temple to ask the Fayth where she is. He'll know." I chuckled. "He's obsessed with the frozen Fayth, so he will know where my Summoner is."

Yuna's eyes went wide. "You who are not a Summoner would talk with a Fayth?"

I blinked; of course in this time, they don't have the Chosen of the Fayth. What has this world come to? "You were passed out before, but I talked…argued with the Fayth on Besaid."

Lulu and Wakka stayed silent. I could tell they weren't sure what to believe.

Yuna seemed to deflate a little as she took in what was said. "If you won't be my Guardian, would you just stay with me temporary? Just until you find your Summoner?" she added the last part quickly.

I closed my eyes and barely stopped a groan from leaving me. She looked so young and innocent, and I knew if Emma was here, she'd tell me to protect the girl. But that was what started that whole fucking mess in the first place. Or was this a trick? Did she think if I was with her for just a little bit of time I would succumb? Damn it all! Yuna didn't seem to be that kind of person…of course, her previous self wasn't like that in the beginning either—I think Emma and I corrupted her. It was always weird; the girl was practically a saint and kind to everyone else but the two of us. Maybe we just brought that out of her?

Besides, Yuna already had three Guardians; she didn't need another one. But really, they were weak, and I wondered if they really had ever been in a serious fight before. Sin was one thing; there was a lot of us there, but in these woods? There is always at least one Ochu slugging along in these woods. No matter what I did, I couldn't make them go extinct.

"To the Temple," I said as I gave in. "But only through the Woods because I'm not sure the four of you could handle an Ochu by yourselves."

I prayed to Kami that this wasn't a mistake.

~Tidus~

Yeah, they didn't know what to do. I had to keep having Yuna cure them of poison because they couldn't dodge Ochu's attacks. The Ronso was good, though, because he didn't get poisoned once. Lulu was the best for this fight as she had her Black Magic, but Yuna…the only thing she kept on doing was curing the poison.

But it was fun. The plant wasn't that much of a challenge, but it got my adrenaline pumping. It always feels good to be fighting. I always feel myself when I have a sword in my head, and I'm slicing the shit out of something.

Going through the forest wasn't that much fun, though, because those Crusader pussies kept on blocking the way. Don't go there; don't go here, too many fiends. Maybe for the weak.

I got us through the wood by going through the tree tops. Yuna and Lulu had a hard time following, though. But we avoided those cut offs from the Crusaders.

As we go up the stairs, Wakka's buddies decided they want a race…a race that Yuna totally won despite being the one who was supposed to send them off.

I only laughed at them as I walked up the stairs at a regular pace, but halfway to the top, I hear the guys scream and run back down toward us.

Wakka and Yuna are waiting at the top. "Sinspawn!" Wakka so helpfully informs me. Like I couldn't have known that by seeing or feeling the thing. Yuna goes off to the side with her Ronso, and the rest of us stand to attack.

Two tentacles come out of the ground in front of us, and behind us is a shell. Obviously the shell is protecting the damn thing within it, so I wonder if I kill its fingers, or whatever they were, it would come out.

"Hit the…finger tentacle things." I ordered as I took a stab first.

Once the three of us kill the finger things, the shell comes open, and it reveals that it was hiding a plant like object, like the Ochu. What is with Sin having Spawn that having waving finger/tentacle things?

This one liked to hit us with its foldable fingers as well as what felt like a poison fog, though no one gets poisoned from it; it only knocked us back. The poison though came when he spat at us. Once hit, you got poisoned. Disgusting.

Lulu did most of the damage as it was weak against magic, but some physical attacks from the Ronso and I helped it die quicker. Wakka may be good at hitting the flying fiends, but his damage output was not as good.

As we went up the stairs after killing the Sinspawn, Wakka asked me a question that actually stunned me. "Do they have fiends in Zanarkand?"

I didn't tell him that was where I was from! My eyes cut to Yuna, she looked embarrassed. So she told him what I said. Bitch.

I wondered…did I tell him about the fake or real Zanarkand? They were kind of the same really.

"They're actually rare considering the amount of magic the Summoners, Guardians, and the magical section of the army give off. When they do show up, everyone's surprised. They never do any damage really, because the Guard comes and kills them quickly—that is if a Summoner, Guardian, or one of the squad isn't nearby and gets to it first."

Then Wakka came up with a crazy theory, one that actually got me thinking. Sin was able to come into the fake Zanarkand. And my father was able to leave and come here…how did this happen? Could Sin really connect between the two and bring/take others with it? I didn't think that because I'd never seen Sin or heard about it before in the fake Zanarkand. The only thing connecting the two worlds were…the Fayth. What did Sin have to do with the Fayth? What really was this Final Summoning?

There was still so much I didn't know.

Lulu was one for the harsh truth of reality. She tore into Wakka about his brother Chappu, and then she said something about no one can replace "Sir Jecht" or especially "Lord Braska."

One, I would be happy to never be compared with that man again, let alone trying to replace him. Two, I guess the girl did want to surpass her father or at least live up to his name. I knew what that was like. Lord Zalon and Lady Yunalesca had big shoes to fill, but Emma and I tried. Considering how everything ended up, I think we kind of failed.

But moving on, while I needed to figure out what happened in the past, I needed to move on and deal with the consequences and try and fix this mess.

As we came upon the temple, I truly smiled for the first time. This is one of the only places I ever felt like home. The feel of the Fayth's magic and the fire washed over me. I breathed it in and let it out, feeling at peace for just a second. Then I remembered why I was here and just how fucked up the Fayth's involvement could be and what that would mean.

I hated that my own doubts took away the peace and happiness I felt here. It was so hard to remember that despite what we made the Fayths out to be or what values we gave them, they were human once upon a time. Even if they had tremendous power that is wrapped in chains, they are still the people they once were. Either paying penance for a crime or giving everything they had to give, they were still people.

And if there was one thing I knew about people: they fuck up whenever and however they can.

After steeling myself, I walked toward the entrance, and I tried my damnedest to put my person feelings aside. I saw three players dressed as if they were about to play Blitzball—did people actually just walk around in their uniforms? I only wore the uniform during the game except that last night when Sin attacked. I had something I wanted to do afterward…

I was in the temple before I heard them start going down on Wakka and his team. Bullies, just like my old man.

Once Yuna's group trickled in, I saw another Summoner come down. This woman needed pants just like Wakka needed a shirt. Maybe they should get together and coordinate.

When she came down, the woman said. "A Summoner." Were Summoners really rare in this time? I knew that there wasn't thousands of Summoners in my time, but there was at least over a hundred or so. I think. I never did ask about a headcount.

Yuna, in her nervousness, walked over to the woman quickly and started recited her name and her location of origin. It reminded me of when she came off the boat. Was this normal? Or was she just a beginner that this is the only way she knew how to do things?

"Dona. So, you're High Summoner Braska's daughter. That's quite a name to live up to. My, my, my. And all these people are you're Guardians? My, what a rabble. If I recall correctly, Lord Braska had only two Guardians. Quality over quaintly, my darling, whatever were you thinking? I have only need of one Guardian."

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm not her Guardian, but you do make a point. Not many Summoners have more than one or two Guardians. But calling them rabbles? Do you even know them or are you talking out of your ass?"

Dona seemed taken aback by my defense of the girl, but she didn't stop to think Yuna could fight for herself.

"I have only Guardians as people I trust, and I trust them with my life. To have so many is an honor and a joy. Even more so than being my father's daughter. Of course, I would never think of questioning your way, either."

I wondered though, something about her made me question rather or not she had the right to act so high and mighty. "How many Fayth have accepted you?"

Dona titled her head at me as she considered. "Two. The Fayth of Bevelle and the Fayth here."

I blinked, "Bahumet accepted you? And he was your first?"

Dona smiled as she realized that I was someone who knew the value of a Summoner.

Yuna of course didn't understand. "Why would the order of the Fayth matter?"

I took a breath. "It is known that the pilgrimage of the Summoner is one that is tradition. Traditionally, it starts in Besaid, as the Fayth there is accepting of most, if not all, who come to her. She is also considered among the Fayth who require…less of the Summoner who asks for help. As you follow the path of Fayth, each Fayth requires more of the Summoner than the previous one. Bahamut is the last on the journey before coming to Zanarkand which holds the most powerful Fayth, the undying some say, but never before has a Summoner been able to pass that Fayth's test."

Wakka voiced his confusion. "But what about the High Summoners? Don't they gain this Aeon to defeat Sin? Brudda, I think Sin's toxin is still messing with your head."

I rolled my eyes just as Dona spoke up. "He's right. No one knows what or who the Fayth is that gives the Final Summoning, but it is not that Fayth. If it was, Sin would be no more."

Dona considered me as the others let it sink in. "You are not her Guardian, and yet you no more than most Summoners or others know of the Ancient Art. Who is your Summoner?"

"At the moment, lost. Sin separated us, and I was hoping the Fayth of Fire could help."

Dona laughed. "Since you are not a Summoner and yet wish to speak with a Fayth, I'd assume that you Chosen?" she asked, but I could clearly see this is a test.

I smirked. "Of course, how else would I be able to pry their attention away from any and everyone who needed something? Besides, this one," I pointed to deep inside this temple, "needs a few to pry him from all the ladies coming in here. He may not grant them what they want, but he'll listen to them, especially if they…" I trailed off as I waved my hand over her.

Dona smiled and tried to hold in her laughter. "You are special, indeed. Too know so much and yet dare speak the truth in front of fanatics who know next to nothing." The half-naked Summoner paused as she considered something. "I can help you find your Summoner, and I have contacts that this one won't have. Describe her for me, maybe I have seen her."

I thought about it for a second before I nodded. "She isn't an ordinary Summoner; she's more like a Guardian. She carries twin blades on her back not a staff. Her hair is blood red and her eyes—"

"Are pits of Darkness, a gateway to the Void." Dona interrupted to finish my sentence. Her eyes looked confused though. "How long have you been her Guardian? She's the reason I became a Summoner," she paused as if she was trying to find the courage to say something next. "I saw her when passing the Fayth of Lightning, she said she would be in Luca to watch the games. It reminded her of someone she used to know. She hadn't aged a day since I met her in Bevelle ten years ago. How long have you been her Guardian?"

I considered her question; I wasn't going to answer it because I wasn't sure, but I knew deep down she was cursed, and her curse was probably to watch what damage Sin caused for a thousand years. Dona said she saw her in Bevelle ten years ago…

"I'm surprised she was in Bevelle…I thought she'd hate that place, especially since that's where it happened…" I trailed off, my words becoming mummers in the end. But I looked back up at her. "Thank you for telling me, but I think I can find my way myself. The next boat to Luca would be tomorrow anyway. And I still need to interrogate a Fayth."

Dona smiled again, was she flirting with me? Hmm…not good. Why do I attract women? I attract them when I don't want them. Horrible.

I put my hands together palms facing each other and brought them so my thumbs were touching my breast bone. Then I put crossed all my fingers except the pointing one and the thumb, then I bowed.

Dona was shocked, then she shook her head and a bemused tone exited her mouth as she performed the same bow as I did. "Why am I not surprised you know the Summoner's Prayer? May the Protector watch over you and guide you to the lost," she said at the end of her bow, and then Dona left with her Guardian.

Wakka proceeded to scold me for talking of the Fayth that way, and Yuna just looked at me as if I hung the moon.

"Where did you learn such things? And are they really real?" Yuna questioned as she stood in amazement at me. I know I'm good, but seriously girl-woman, stop being so love sick. Had it been this obvious before? Because seriously, I never noticed Emma's sister going all goo-goo over me.

I looked over to Lulu for help because this really needed to be stopped, and she seemed to be the only smart one around here that actually cared about Yuna.

I wondered if I said I learned it from my lover would that deter her. I didn't need to say anything because Lulu stepped in and reminded the girl about what she was doing here and it wasn't interrogating me.

Maybe I should wear a sign that says "Not Available."

When we came to the lift to go down, I made no motion to go with them, and before Yuna could question me, they went down. I waited a bit, hoping they would be finished, and then I followed afterward. As I had told Wakka before, once you complete the Trail, you don't have to do it again. Besides, I had always wondered if this Fayth would make me do it again…just to fuck with me…he probably would.

When I got down there, I waited at the entrance of the chamber, to wait for Yuna to leave before I went inside. When she left, I came forward to go in the still open chamber but Lulu stopped me.

"What are you doing? Only Summoners can go in there."

I blinked at her. "Since when? The Fayth is for all; yeah, mostly Summoners are the ones that go talk to them, but since when has only Summoners been able to go in?"

My question confused them, and I took that chance to step inside the chamber. It closed right behind me.

Emotion always welled up inside of me when I went into a Fayth's Inner Chamber. To see their body frozen in crystal…I honestly never knew how I felt.

"So, it took you long enough," a deep voice spoke and a red headed man appeared in front of me as I come to a stop at the frozen Fayth's circle crystal.

"What do you expect when I get attacked by Sin twice and the damn thing tries to drop me on Besaid. It fails once, and it attempts again." I countered as I tried to decide whether to sit or stand. I stand.

The Fayth snorted, "What do you want?"

My eyes narrowed. "I want quite a few things. Answers for one, but the greatest want I have is to find her. And before I find her, I want to know what the fuck is going on! Sin? The Fake Zanarkand?"

The Fayth that chose me so long ago, yet it doesn't feel so long, looked at me and showed his age. "We failed. We were given great power, whether by choice or punishment, to protect those of our world. Wars come and go as do those in power. Yet, it was what we suggested, what we allowed, what we helped create that has undermined all we have done. Not only this, but the pain she has gone through is our fault as well. She was punished for following us, for trying to do what we could not, and for what damage she and yourself wrought upon the three of you."

I took in his words, and my eyes closed in pain. My Fayth spoke in riddles. He confirmed what I had thought, assumed, but he answered not the specifics.

"Do you know what she did for you? Does thou know what she sacrificed so thee would live though thou did not?"

My eyes snapped to him, his choice of words confusing me. Why did he speak like that? I always thought when he was getting upset he started to use words we didn't use anymore.

"What did she pay for my life?" my voice was only above a whisper.

He didn't reply for a moment, but then what he did say wasn't the answer I wanted. "She should have been specific. She healed you but not fully before they dragged her away. You were…locked away…somewhere. We grabbed you before you died, but I'm not sure it was enough."

With that answer, I knew he would say no more that would reveal the secrets I wish to know. The answers I had thought I would receive when I came into the temple did not come. I should have not expected it to.

I turned to the door and before it started to open, I spoke. "Don't tell me what I wished to know. But know this: if all of this suffering that she has endured, if…she has been used to the point of being broken, or Protector forbid shattered, just to fix your fucking mistakes, for they are more yours than ours—or if we have fault at all," I turned and looked him straight in the eyes. "I promise you, everyone of you fucking users will suffer."