AN: Originally, this chapter went on for a little longer, but when I was retyping it up (because I'm weird about word processors, okay? Also, it makes it easier to do a quick edit if you retype the chapter) I realised that really, the chapter ended before I'd set it to end. Especially considering the next part did some introducing that seems to fit better at the beginning of a chapter rather than the end. Anyways, considering what I named the chapter, this ending feels more natural and just generally better, so you lose out on a couple of paragraphs until I upload the next chapter. Sucked in. :P
Speaking of chapter names, while I'm still not sure if I'm going to incorporate them, I have been making up names as I go along, just in case. I named this chapter 'Washed Up', which I feel is very fitting in context of the beginning of the chapter and the conversation between Tidus and Wakka later on. It's one of the first chapter names that I'm really happy with, so I hope I can think up some more good ones because I'd hate to get rid of this one.
Now, I'd like to give a special shout-out to blackdragonhuntress and Lilcrek123 for following the story. I hope you and the other lovely followers enjoy this chapter. :)
I'm really getting excited about the story now. I'm one chapter closer to getting right into the thick of things and that is wonderful for me. I've been really enjoying writing this so far. I feel like I'm growing to appreciate FFX in a way that I didn't before, even through countless playthroughs. It really is a stunning game, and I really hope that I'm doing it justice.
Once again, if you find yourself reading this then I send you eighty thousand smiley faces and twelve million good days because you are a beautiful, intelligent and unique human being and you rock for having excellent taste in Final Fantasy X novelisations. :)
7
At first, Tidus' lungs were aching. Then they were screaming. As he came back to consciousness, Tidus couldn't understand why his lungs were hurting so much. All he knew was the pain, a wonderful weightlessness, and a great warmth on his back. Still, his begged him. They pleaded. Breathe, they said. And breathe he did.
Cold, salty water filled his mouth and suddenly he was awake and aware. He was floating face down in the ocean. With a start, he pulled his face up and spat out, taking a deep breath to appease his lungs. This waking up in the water thing is getting old, he thought dryly. But it wasn't the same dark ocean that flooded the temple, nor the night time waters the Al Bhed had forced him to swim. No, the water here was crystal clear and cyan in the midday sun. Calmly, the ocean lapped around him like an old friend, almost as if it were apologising for its behaviour as he'd fallen from the ship.
Tidus forgave the ocean, there were no hard feelings, but he was alone again. Where were the Al Bhed? Were they okay? Had the ship been destroyed?
"Rikku!" Tidus called out. There was no reply. Of course there was no reply. He remembered that last glance up at the ship. He must have been the only one knocked overboard. Great, he thought, still treading water. Now what am I going to do?
It was then that Tidus realised he could hear more than just the ocean. The familiar call of gulls met his ears and he looked up. Sure enough, there they were, circling in the sky overhead. Tidus' heart leapt a little. You rarely saw gulls out at sea, so gulls meant...
His train of thought was interrupted by something colliding with the back of his head. Startled, he flailed, his feet crazing the ground below him. Wait, ground? Tidus let himself sink for a moment and sure enough, the water was only a few feet deeper than he was tall. Confused, he turned around to face his attacker. Floating before him was a familiar blue and white ball.
Behind the ball, Tidus could see the sun-bleached sand and cliffy, jungly goodness of a tropical island. He wasn't too far away from the beach, he realised, and chastised himself for waking up facing the other direction. On the beach stood half a dozen men, each of them dressed in yellow.
Those look like uniforms, he mused, and this is a...
"Blitzball!" Tidus said, picking the ball out of the water. An excitement he'd rarely felt rushed through him. If this was a blitzball, that meant he had to be back in his own time, right? Maybe that whole ordeal in the flooded temple had been a dream. Maybe his brain had just conjured up the Al Bhed while he was unconscious.
From the beach, a man with ginger hair called to him. "Hey! You okay?"
I've never been better. "Hey!" Tidus called back, bouncing up in the water and giving a big wave. He'd never been so happy to see other blitzers in his life.
Almost immediately, his ego took charge and decided to give them a taste of his abilities; let them know that he too was a player. Leaving the ball floating on the surface, Tidus dived down as far as he could, lining himself up beneath the ball. Once in position, he swam up to it, head-butting it out of the water as he jumped high into the air. He twisted his body around, suspended high above the ocean, and with one forceful swing of his leg, he kicked the ball.
The ball whooshed through the air, heading straight for the beach. The men all ducked as they watched the ball zoom past them and off into the tropical vegetation. The orange-haired man chuckled as he stood straight, obviously impressed with the shot.
Tidus swam for the shore, feeling almost giddy with relief. When the water was too shallow to swim, he waded awkwardly on, almost tripping over more than once in his haste. As he left the water, the men kind of crowded around him, eyes wide and mouths gaping. Tidus felt strangely comfortable under their gaze. It wasn't until the tall guy with the orange hair turned to him that he felt nervous.
The man was broad and muscular, his dark, tanned skin taught over his well-developed chest. He stood almost a foot taller than Tidus, with a wide blue headband wrapped around his forehead. His fiery orange hair was mostly cropped short, thought the front was longer and was styled to stand upwards at an improbable angle before curving back.
Tidus scratched the back of his head as he looked up at the man. "Yo!" he said in greeting, though the word felt overly cocky on his tongue. "Hiya!"
The man's face was blank, but when he spoke his voice was gentle. "You wanna try that move one more time?" he asked, his accent lazing over his words.
Finally, things were starting to look up.
Tidus agreed and one of the other men handed him a ball. He punted it hight in the air as the men hurried backwards. He looked up at the ball as it descended and caught it with his head, balancing it with ease. He could hear the gasps of the guys around him, and someone mumbled something about concentration. This is all skill, he thought to himself before springing up from the ground. The ball bounced off of the crown of his head just high enough, so as Tidus arched his back and began to flip, his foot connected with the ball and sent it skimming over the water.
He landed on his feet and grinned as he heard the others murmuring amongst each other. Behind him, the broad guy spoke again.
"You're no amateur," he said, folding his arms across his chest. "Who you play for?"
Tidus turned, still grinning. "The Zanarkand Abes!" he announced proudly.
He felt the change of atmosphere almost instantly. The other players began to whisper to each other again, though they were not words of praise this time. Suddenly, Tidus knew why he didn't recognise their sunny yellow uniforms. It was all real – all of it, the battles, Sin, the Al Bhed, everything. His stomach sank as he remembered Rikku's words: Don't tell anyone you're from Zanarkand. You might upset someone. Oh how he wished he'd heeded them.
"What team you say again?" asked the tall guy. His voice was careful, measured, and quiet.
What am I supposed to do now? "Uh, I meant... Forget that," he said, waving his hands in a nonchalant way. "I got too, uh... close to Sin and my head's all foggy-like." Good one. He looked to his feet, hoping to hide his uncertainty. "So I don't know where this place is. Or even where I came from."
"Sin's toxin got to you," the man responded. Tidus recognised the note of sympathy in his voice. Nailed it. "But you're still alive. Praise be to Yevon."
There was that word again. Yevon. After the man said it, each of his team mates joined him in performing the blitzball gesture for victory. Tidus cocked an eyebrow, unsure of why they did, but he didn't get a chance to ask.
"All right, back to practice!" the ginger-haired man announced to his team. The men grumbled but dispersed over the beach all the same. The man turned to Tidus, raising one hand in a friendly attempt and an unconventional handshake.
"I'm Wakka," he said as Tidus complied with the handshake, "coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs, brudda."
At that moment, Tidus' stomach thought it was an acceptable time to chime in with a loud grumble and a sharp hunger pain. "I'm Tidus," he replied, trying not to double over as he spoke.
"What? You hungry?" Wakka asked, slightly amused. "Okay! Back to the village. I'll get you somethin'!"
Wakka ran off upt he beach, stopping to wait at a break between the cliffs. Tidus took a moment to look around him. The team were practising passes and bouncing the ball on their heads, but it didn't take long for him to realise that they were rubbish. While the guys passing seemed to be doing an alright job, the others were struggling to keep the ball in the air for more than a few bounces. Tidus watched as one guy looked up at the wrong moment and caught the ball with his face. One man with particularly dark skin was kicking the air and falling flat on his back, or at least, so it seemed. After watching a moment longer, he realised that the guy was trying to replicate the sphere shot. Tidus shook his head, unable to watch any longer.
Further along the beach, Tidus noted a few small shacks, fishing nets in wooden frames, and what appeared to be a dock. Tidus wondered where a boat would even travel from that dock. Where was this island?
He heard Wakka give a holler and jogged over to him. As Wakka turned to head off into the jungle, Tidus motioned for him to wait.
I felt like I could trust this Wakka, so I just had to ask.
"It's true Zanarkand was destroyed, right? A thousand years ago?" He could barely hide the tremor in his voice. "So it's just a big pile of rubble now, isn't it?"
Wakka smiled kindly. "Long time ago, there were a whole lot of cities in Spira," he said. "Big cities with machina – machines – to run 'em. People played all day and let the machina do all the work. And then, well, take a look."
He gestured to the top of the cliff beside them. Hidden among the brush, Tidus noticed the rusted, ruined left-overs of what once must have been a large building. Further along the bay, a decaying roof hid its shame inside some bushes.
"Sin came, and destroyed the machina cities," Wakka explained. "And Zanarkand along with 'em. Yeah, that was about a thousand years ago, just like you said. If you ask me, Sin's our punishment for letting things get out of hand. What gets me though..."
Tidus noticed Wakka's voice getting harsher, and the man spit at the ground before continuing. "...is we gotta suffer, 'cause of what some goofballs did way back when! 'Course, we must always repent for our sins! That's important! It's just that, it's hard to keep at it sometimes, you know?"
Wakka stopped speaking. His eyes looked past Tidus and gazed at the sea. Tidus felt uneasy and looked away. Wakka's words were heavy in his mind.
It was just as Rikku said. Wakka and Rikku couldn't both be lying. Why would they?
Suddenly, Wakka began to laugh. It was a full-bellied laugh, loud and obnoxious, snapping Tidus back to the present moment.
"But you from the Zanarkand Abes – that was a good one!" he exclaimed, reaching his arm around Tidus' shoulders in a rough man-hug. "Hey, I'm not saying the team never existed, ya? But you gotta figure a team livin' in luxury like that'd be pretty soft, eh?" He laughed again, ruffling Tidus' damp hair.
Wakka let Tidus go and began to walk along the path between the cliffs. He beckoned for Tidus to follow, but Tidus wasn't sure he could move. He felt hollow, and not just because of his empty stomach. He needed a moment to gather himself, and wandered a little closer to the ocean. The gentle lap of waves on the shore was comforting to him. It whispered reassurances and soon he found himself smiling.
I appreciated the fact that Wakka was trying to cheer me up. But at that time, all I could think about was... everything that happened to me – all of this – started with Sin. Maybe if I could find Sin one more time, I could go home! For now, I'd just live life until that time came. No more worrying about where, or when, I was. Sure it was hard not to think of home. But I started to feel better already. A little better... maybe.
There was no point dwelling on all that had transpired, Tidus decided. He turned back to Wakka, nodding as he caught up with him. The scenery changed from beach to jungle quite quickly, and he found himself in a small clearing. To his right, part of a ruined building was buried inside the cliff face. It appeared that someone had taken advantage of this and made a path up it. It seemed they weren't heading that way, however. As Tidus reached Wakka, he raced off to the left, laughing.
"Hey!" he called back to Tidus. "It's this way!"
Puzzled, Tidus followed him. He found Wakka standing at the edge of a cliff, looking out over a clear lagoon. There was no path forwards, however. "Huh?" he muttered, unsure of why Wakka had led him here.
Though he was confused, it didn't take long for him to appreciate the view. Tidus smiled as he took in the untamed beauty of the area. This island was gorgeous, there was no denying it. It felt almost like paradise. The mountains surrounding the lagoon were covered in foliage, adorned with the same ruins Tidus had noted at the beach. There must have been a city here at some point, he mused, thinking of home again for just a moment. Is this what Zanarkand looks like now?
Tidus didn't have long to ponder the state of Zanarkand, though. A rough hand shoved him in the back and before he knew it he was falling into the water. With a splash, Tidus found himself immersed in water once again. He surfaced just in time to see Wakka dive into the lagoon in front of him. He spat out the water he'd nearly swallowed.
"What's the big idea?" he yelled, annoyed. From behind him, he heard Wakka laughing. He turned to see the islander swimming freestyle in the other direction. Tidus sighed and swam after him, letting himself smile a little.
The water was salty to taste, but not nearly as much as the ocean. In fact, it was rather calming to swim in the cool water of the lagoon. Tidus followed Wakka carefully at first, but there was something enchanting about this place. Below the surface, the world was aquamarine and silent, yet there was so much colour. A proverbial rainbow of plants grew at the bottom of the lagoon, some muted and demure like a green carpet on the floor, others bright and perky, swaying in the gentle current and of such a rich hue that the water couldn't mask it.
Together, Tidus and Wakka swam around the bend and continued through the lagoon. In this part of the water, a few tall remnants of a building stood with their tops peeking above the surface. The stone was covered with algae and weathered from the water, but they still stood, remnants of the city that was. These ruins didn't take away from the beauty of the lagoon, but added a tinge of sadness to it. It felt like there was always going to be another ruin, another forgotten building to remind Tidus that he was misplaced.
These thoughts slowed Tidus a little, and when he looked up Wakka was nowhere in sight. Thinking the man had just swam further ahead, Tidus continued on. With the bluish-grey rock walls surrounding the water, he couldn't have gone far. When Tidus reached a dead end and still couldn't see Wakka, a tiny shock of panic ran through him. It was quickly exacerbated when he heard a splash behind him and felt a strong, muscular arm wrap around his neck. The choke hold was followed by a deep, chesty chuckle. Wakka was quite the joker, it would seem.
"Lemme go!" Tidus grumbled, trying to squirm out of Wakka's grip. It wasn't particularly tight, so he could breathe easily, but it definitely wasn't comfortable.
"Got a favour to ask ya," Wakka said.
Tidus rolled his eyes. He had wondered when this would come up. He'd seen the Aurochs practising on the beach, and quite frankly they were horrible. "You want me on your team, right?"
Wakka released him then, leaving a writhing Tidus to sink underneath the water a little way before kicking back up tot he surface. Mental note: don't stop treading water next time. Tidus lay back to float as Wakka began to explain himself.
"A major blitz tournament's coming up. All the teams in Spira'll be there! It's so huge, I'm sure someone there will recognise you! Then you can go back to your old team, right?"
Tidus kicked gently, moving away from Wakka. My old team is dead now, Tidus thought to himself. I doubt there'll be any ghost blitzers at this tournament.
"It'll be fun!" Wakka reassured. His voice was full of enthusiasm, and it reminded Tidus of Rikku. "What do you say, huh? Come on, come on!"
I really hope she's okay. Tidus sighed and tried to push those thoughts to the back of his mind. "Sure thing," he replied, though he couldn't mask the note of apathy in his voice.
Wakka chuckled again, oblivious. "Dude! Our team is gonna rock, eh?"
The uneasy indifference was a feeling that Tidus didn't like, but he embraced it for this one moment. He could confront his feeling when he had time to himself, but for now he'd have to indulge Wakka. The islander showed him a tunnel that ran beneath the surface of the lagoon and came out on the other side of the rocks. He assured Tidus that it wasn't a long swim, and they both took deep breaths before diving again.
I thought then that blitzball and sin were the only two things that Spira and Zanarkand had in common. I wasn't too far off, either.
The tunnel was short, and after only a few minutes of swimming they emerged on the other side. They broke the surface of the water to find themselves in a small extension of the lagoon, surrounded by trees. Before them, the dirt bank rose sharply out of the water. A wide dirt path lead from the bank up the incline of the hill and on to what Tidus expected was a clearing at the top. The two of them climbed out of the water, shaking themselves off before ascending the hill. Wakka assumed the lead, and though neither of them spoke, Tidus felt like he was the only one being quiet. Wakka walked with the lazy confidence of someone who knew the area well. His silence felt natural, as though he were listening to the quiet song of the birds in the trees around them.
Eventually, they reached the top of the hill. Tidus felt quite spent after the trek, his limbs a little shaky from hunger. There were no trees atop the hill, just a worn dirt clearing and a strange pill of rubble and rocks that Tidus assumed was part of another ruin. A rope fence ran along the edge of the clearing, and Tidus was soon to find out that they'd climbed higher than he'd thought.
Wakka walked up to the fence and waved for Tidus to follow. He pointed down over the edge. The hill that they stood on seemed more like a mountain from this point, and now his exhaustion made sense. The fence was there to stop people from standing too close to the edge and falling down the sheer face of a cliff. Below, the tops of the trees seemed a mile away, and in the centre of all those trees there was what appeared to be a small village.
"This is where I was born," Wakka announced as he pointed to the village. "I started blitz when I was five. I joined the Aurochs at thirteen... ten years ago. Ten years... and we never won a game."
Tidus was taken aback by Wakka's words. Ten whole years without a win?!
Wakka paused, scratching the back of his head. "Well, after last year's tournament, I quit. Time seemed right." He crossed in front of Tidus, headed for a path just right of the way they'd come up.
Tidus' stomach grumbled louder than ever. He wondered just where this conversation was going and looked longingly down at the village. He could almost smell the food on the wind. He steeled himself against the hunger and followed Wakka to the second path. It gradually worked its way down the side of the hill, almost as if it were deliberately trying to take the least steep route.
"So, after quitting, I got this new job, ya?" Wakka continued as they walked. "But every time my mind wandered, I thought about the game."
Tidus scoffed. "Ten years without a single win'll do that," he said, still astounded at the losing streak. There hadn't been a single team in Zanarkand that had lost that hard. Not ever.
Wakka grunted in agreement and paused to look over at the ocean. From here, it looked like it went on forever, kissing the clouds on the horizon before stretching into eternity. "My first match last year was my big chance," he said. "But something else was on my mind. I couldn't focus."
"Nice excuse," Tidus replied jokingly.
"Hey, hey!" Wakka narrowed his eyes at Tidus, but there was an air of defeat about him now. Tidus hadn't known Wakka very long, that much was certain, but it bothered him that enthusiasm had left the man.
"So, you want to win the next tournament – go out with a bang," Tidus offered. Wakka turned and nodded. Good, I can work with this, Tidus thought.
"So, what's our goal?" he asked Wakka.
"I don't care how we do. Long as we play our best," Wakka responded earnestly. "If we give it our all, I can walk away happy."
Wakka's voice was honest, but Tidus wasn't satisfied with his answer. "No, no, no, no,no. If I say, 'What's our goal?' you say, 'Victory!'" He punctuated the word by punching the air with a clenched fist. "When you play in a blitzball tournament, you play to win!"
Victory? You serious?" Wakka replied as though it were a new concept to him.
Well, I suppose it is a new concept, really. Ten years... damn. Tidus nodded and grinned at Wakka, who smiled back and took the lead once more. Together, they continued down the hillside.
