Beyond Reality

Chapter 9: When the Soul Sleeps

It took her a long time to wake up. In the back of her mind, she knew her body was trying, but just didn't have the energy to accomplish the feat. Rather, for a few hours, she faded in and out of consciousness, finally pulling all the way through at the sound of voices. Unfamiliar voices.

Her eyes still didn't want to open, but her ears were able to take in the conversation.

"We're out here fiend hunting." It was Auron's voice. Auron, who sounded a little less severe these days, and a little more swift. "We heard rumor of a large fiend in the area and wanted to take care of it before it could get as far as the farms." A valid excuse.

"Yes, there is a large fiend in the area," whoever Auron was talking to replied. Yuna didn't recognize them. "It's not the kind of fiend that farmers should go after," he patronized. "Head back home and let the military handle this one. It's not your typical run of the mill fiend."

"Ah, I see," Auron agreed easily enough. "We'll let you handle it then." A few more words were exchanged before Yuna heard the sound of stomping feet, many, though she couldn't place the number. It had to be at least twenty—people that was—but it wasn't until their footfalls were beyond range that she finally gathered the energy to sit up. Eyes blinking open, she flinched against the light of day, her head pounding furiously.

"Yuna," Lulu was nearby, her velvet voice much preferred to some. "I thought you might be waking soon." Allowing her eyes to slowly adjust despite the pain in her temples, Yuna blearily looked around. It didn't take her long to realize she was inside one of the tents they'd brought with them, the sunlight shining in through a screen at the top. She and Lulu were the only ones there, the older woman sitting to her right and watching her with concerned brows.

"How long have I been out?" she asked groggily.

"Since the day before yesterday," Lulu replied softly, Yuna somewhat surprised to hear such news.

"That long?" she asked as she finally fully met Lulu's gaze. "Is everything alright?"

"Mostly, yes," Lulu nodded. "Nothing's happened, if that's what you mean. Except for some soldiers who just passed through. Auron got them to leave, but they're probably looking for Leviathan." Eyes abruptly wide, Yuna was on full alert.

"Where is he?" she asked hastily.

"We have him in another tent," Lulu replied. "Wakka's with him, but Yuna…" Lulu shook her head. "It isn't good."

"What do you mean?" she breathed.

"He's, well, he's healed, but…" she appeared confused. "It's like there's something inside him that just doesn't want to get better. He… he stopped breathing twice while you were out and we had to resuscitate him. Yuna, I…" She was obviously at a loss, Yuna getting to her feet rather faster than she probably should have. She swayed slightly, Lulu coming to hold her up while she took the necessary few seconds to steady herself.

As soon as she was able, she was out of the tent. Upon her leaving, both Rikku and Auron stood from where they'd been sitting around the fire pit, but she hardly paid them any mind. Instead, she let Lulu direct her to a tent on the other side of the clearing where they'd made up camp. Entering, they were followed by Rikku and Auron as well, who stayed back as Yuna approached the limp form covered in blankets at the back of the tent.

"His breathing has been getting shallow again, ya," Wakka muttered as she entered, moving away from where he'd stationed himself beside his head. "I was just about to go get you." He was looking to Lulu.

Bending down beside him, Yuna gathered as much control as she could in order to keep her fear swallowed. Reaching forward, she allowed her hands to rest against his forehead, which was, oddly, cold. No fever, but chilled to the touch. Pulling her hand back, she pursed her lips as she considered what to do.

Because she had limited time.

"He hasn't woken up at all?" she asked.

"Not once." Wakka shook his head. "Hasn't even moved, ya, other than breathing…" And sometimes that failed him. Despite how weak she felt, Yuna drew forth her white magic, willing it into her palms as she let them rest on his chest, which she'd pulled away the blankets to reveal. Closing her eyes, she searched for an injury, anything that would be causing this, but even as she set the magic through his whole body, she came back with nothing.

For all he'd been through, his body was in as good a condition as it was going to be.

"I don't understand…" Yuna murmured to herself. "What's wrong…?" Reaching back to his head again, she allowed her fingertips to rest against his temples. It was a power she'd been taught a long time ago, but one she'd never had to use. Emotional pain could be fatal as well, her eyes closing once again as she tried to search his mind for anything that would tell her how she could help him.

What she found made her pull away in shock.

"What is it?" Rikku asked anxiously.

"I don't understand," Yuna shook her head, unable to fathom what she'd felt. Or, rather, hadn't felt. "There's nothing there," she explained. "No emotion, no thoughts. This body…" her breathing became somewhat heavier as she considered the idea, "is a shell. His soul is gone."

"What?" Lulu replied, shocked. "How is that possible?"

"I don't… I don't know," Yuna replied, her voice dry. "I don't understand."

"Yuna." Auron grabbed her attention. "When you were communicating with him, while he was still Leviathan, what were you doing?"

"I was," she turned to him, so struck by what she'd just learned that she was hardly able to respond, "I was trying to… to remind him that he was human. I found the human parts of him and I tried to pull them out."

"Out of where?" Auron continued to ask, his eyes even more intent now.

"Out of… out of Leviathan…"

"Why? Do you understand this?" Lulu caught on quickly, turning her attention to Auron as the others did as well.

"I saw Yunalesca create an aeon," he replied honestly. "When she turned Jecht into the final aeon, she gave Braska very strict instructions. He was to remember the bond between him and Jecht and preserve it through the process. That was the part of Jecht that would become the fayth, even when his body became the aeon."

"I don't understand." Yuna shook her head.

"When you were trying to get through to Leviathan, you took hold of Tidus' soul and pulled it from his still living body, as Yunalesca had done to create final aeons. She pulled souls from the bodies of the guardians and placed them in an object, something on the summoner's body. I'm not sure what happened then, with Braska, but Jecht's soul was then returned to his body, giving Braska the ability to summon him into an aeon when we faced Sin."

"You think Yuna did this?" Lulu asked. "That she took his soul and unintentionally placed it inside something else?"

"I don't know." Auron shook his head. Yuna, however, her eyes searching the empty air, tried to consider what she could have done with it, if that was really what had happened.

"That's how fayth are created, right?" Rikku asked. "When a soul is taken from a still living body and put into a stone."

"Yes, but Leviathan, and final aeons, aren't like that," Auron replied. "Their souls are freed of the stone, somehow…"

"Because they use their own bodies as the holders for their souls, correct?" Lulu added. "That's what the fayth told us… I think…"

"So Tidus' soul can be… taken from his body and put into other things?" Wakka wasn't the only one that didn't understand it.

"It would appear so." Auron nodded. "However, without a soul to govern his actions, his body dies. That was probably why the other fayth were put into stones. It made them immortal even after their bodies had vanished."

"So if we don't find his soul, his body will die?" Rikku asked, once again panicked.

"I don't know, Rikku." Auron shook his head again, his previous statements only inferences. Yuna, however, was trying to calm herself in order to think straight. Closing her eyes, she took forced breaths and decided that the best way to find a lost soul was probably to pray to it. Despite how her head ached and her body waned, she forced her mind outward, a desperate attempt to search.

It took her only seconds to find what she was looking for.

She wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed it as soon as she'd woken up. Perhaps she'd been too distracted, or too tired, but it became quickly apparent that she hadn't placed his soul inside an object. No, she'd taken it into herself. She could feel the weight of it, heavy, in her chest and the back of her head. Abruptly, she realized that was where the ache stemmed from. And why she was so completely exhausted. It wasn't because of the healing, which she should have recovered from faster than she had, but because her body wasn't meant to hold two souls. Granted, Tidus' soul was inactive, perhaps incompatible with her body, but it was there.

It wasn't like when she'd been able to call upon aeons. No, this was much heavier. She'd used the souls of the fayth then—been a filter that brought them into life. But, at that moment, she was the stone. The holder. The literal container of another human soul.

Somehow, she had to return it to its rightful place.

"Yuna," Auron asked her once she opened her eyes again. "Do you know?"

"Yes." She nodded, her voice somewhat wisped as her hand came up to rest against her chest. "I know where he is."

"Where?" Rikku asked hastily. Yuna didn't answer. Instead, turning back to the empty body beside her, she tried to recollect how she'd felt when she'd pulled his soul from his body in the first place. Certainly putting it back would be similar.

It'd all happened by accident, however. She hadn't even realized what she'd been doing when she'd done it. She'd wanted to drag him from that place—that insanity. And she'd used her own consciousness as a shield against himself. That must have been when it'd happened. Somehow, she'd transferred the human parts of him to herself, which was why Leviathan had disappeared, leaving only the raw body behind.

But if she could act as a human shield to hold him back, then certainly she should be able to replace him as well. She just had to… let him go.

Pulling both her hands up to her chest, she stared down at his body. At his familiar blonde hair and sun kissed skin. She imagined his breath on her face, his lips on her own. She remembered that his humanity wasn't something she could simply give and take, it was something he possessed himself. Something that required the body lying before her, no matter how damaged and scarred it was.

She had to separate herself from him in order for him to become whole again.

With these thoughts in mind, she closed her eyes once more and instead of allowing her mind to reach out, she instead reached inward. She swam through her own memories of him, looking for where she would have hidden his soul in the crevices of her mind.

She'd have put him somewhere safe. Somewhere none would have been able to find him.

A secret place. Somewhere that meant something only to them.

Before her mind's eye, the lake at Macalania unfolded itself. The place where they'd first expressed to each other how they'd felt. When he'd been at his most comforting and she at her most vulnerable.

Yes, that was where he'd be.

At the lake inside her memory, she saw him there. Lying in the dirt. Reaching down for him, she touched her hand to the life there, thankful when the warmth she hadn't sensed from his body flowed all through her. His soul was still—as though asleep—but it was his. Wrapping him up in her arms, she imagined pulling him back out. Out of her memories and into reality.

She heard Rikku and Lulu gasp as she opened her eyes, her own emotions seeming to sink in relief as the glowing form of a warm, pyrefly ridden light seemingly emerged from her chest. Holding it for only a moment, she considered what to do before simply lowering it to his body and letting it go.

As if returning home, the soul easily dispersed and seemed to spread back out into its body. Glowing against his skin for only a single moment, it soon dimmed back into place, Yuna feeling even more relieved when Tidus' breathing immediately normalized, the heat returning as she laid her hand atop his head again.

"She had his soul… inside of her…?" Wakka asked, aghast. Yet none could reply, not even Yuna, because none of them could claim any knowledge on the subject. Instead, they watched as, quite like a switch had been flipped, Tidus' eyes slowly began to flutter open. He was waking up, seemingly like nothing quite so horrific as losing his soul had even happened.

Rather, parched lips parting, his blue eyes focused immediately up on Yuna.

She smiled, her own relief leaving her feeling even more exhausted than when she'd had responsibility for his very existence.

"Yuna?" he choked out, his voice rough after his body had been on the verge of death for so long.

"Hey," she replied, trying to keep the thickness from her own voice as she reached down and brushed his shaggy hair out of his eyes. "We were really worried about you."

"What happened?" he asked.

"You…" She didn't quite know how to say it. "You lost control. Do you remember?"

"No…" he shook his head, his eyebrows coming together as if trying to. "Maybe… I don't know. I just…" His focus fell back to her. "I was with you, wasn't I?" Yuna blinked, unsure what to make of this. "I know I was with you."

"Yes, you were with me," she assured after a moment's pause. "You're alright now. You should go back to sleep—get some rest. You've been through a lot." He nodded, apparently having little fight in him on the subject. Soon enough, his eyes were closing again, all of them relieved to see that his breathing was even and regular this time.

For a few moments they watched him—because they were all quite frazzled over what had been happening—before Auron cleared his throat and turned his attention on the immediate once again.

"Yuna," he issued, his tone low so as not to wake up Tidus. "We have some things to discuss." Turning toward him, Yuna hesitated for only a moment before nodding. Casting one last look at Tidus, she was soon on her feet and following Auron out of the tent, her other friends trailing shortly behind—confident, now, that they had nothing to worry about concerning Tidus. At least for the time being.

They made their way over to the fire pit, Yuna sitting down gratefully on a large rock someone had situated there. Her other friends sat down around it as well, on logs or similar seats to her own. She waited silently, knowing exactly what was coming.

"You knew he was Leviathan," Auron stated.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Rikku asked sulkily. She was obviously hurt over the whole thing, Wakka as well, and even Lulu was frowning more deeply than usual.

"He didn't want anyone to know," she replied despite how he'd never said as much. She'd known how he'd felt, especially since he'd continued to try and hide it from her, initially. "He knows he's dangerous and I… I don't think he wanted any of us to be around him."

"That was why he gave up being your guardian," Auron deduced.

"Yes. He was afraid he'd be unable to control himself." A fact that had been proven twice since they'd met up with him, or, rather, Leviathan. "And when I summoned him to us back up on the farplane cliffs, I convinced him that I could control him. But…"

"You can't," Auron replied.

She had no response.

"But he's human again now," Rikku offered. "Like he was in Zanarkand those few days we saw him. If he stays that way…"

"Then he's fine," Yuna assured. "But it's his choice if he wants to remain that way." Because having that kind of power at ones disposal was hard to resist. Yuna knew that very well. If becoming a monster meant he'd be able to help others, even at a distance, Yuna knew he'd turn back again.

"He became an aeon to protect Zanarkand," Lulu murmured. "I can't believe I didn't realize it was him earlier."

"I thought maybe it could be," Auron verified, "but… I didn't want to think it was true." Because he'd seen everything Leviathan had gone through the past year. The pain and suffering. And he'd been able to imagine the loneliness. He hadn't wanted that for Tidus. Yet, somehow, he'd known it couldn't have been anyone else.

"Well, I didn't have a clue." Rikku crossed her arms over her chest sourly. "He's not very nice as an aeon…" She frowned.

"He can't help it, Rikku," Yuna defended softly. "It's like the fayth said. He… goes insane with it all."

"You did manage to calm him though, some of the time," Lulu offered. "He got us here, after all." Despite how he'd objected to the idea. "Perhaps with practice, you could get better at it. Both of you."

But Yuna wasn't sure if that was a risk she wanted to take. She said as much as well, her eyes falling to Auron. "He nearly killed you…" she muttered.

"But he didn't," he replied. "You stopped him."

"I don't know how I did it…"

"Well, maybe when he wakes up, he can tell us," Lulu offered. "If he remembers." Yuna didn't respond to this, her thoughts weighed down as exhaustion seeped into her bones. Between using so much of her own energy and then dealing with holding onto Tidus' soul, she was feeling even more tired, if at all possible.

Or maybe the stress of it was getting to her. It'd been over a year, after all, since her body had endured this kind of duress.

"Yuna," Auron said her name and she glanced up to see his understanding gaze on her. "You're still fatigued. Go back to your tent." He nodded in that direction. "We'll keep watch over you until you're back to full strength. Both of you." He'd looked to the tent where Tidus was.

"He's right." Lulu's eyes softened as she reached over and laid a hand on Yuna's knee. "Go and rest. We've talked enough for now."

Knowing perfectly well that they were right, Yuna nodded before standing. Casting them one last look, she then returned to her bed, nearly asleep before she hit the padding.

She dreamed. It was strange, and rang of things she'd seen before. Perhaps it was because she was over-exhausted, or simply because she'd been tripping in and out of the spiritual, but she saw things that were both familiar and foreign.

People she didn't know yet their names echoed in her dreaming ears. As soon as she'd recognized them, they were gone. She saw herself, a version that, had her life gone differently, she might have been. Happier maybe, and without the baggage she carried.

She was searching, searching for someone. There'd been a sphere, and a man she knew she recognized, but didn't know.

A machina. It terrified her.

She'd seen it all before, she knew—a message that had been replaying in her dreams for a while now. Yet even as her eyes fluttered open once again, it was gone. The weight in the back of her head told her she'd dreamt, but the images and people had disappeared as though they'd never been.

Once again buried in the forgotten corners of her consciousness.

Sitting up fully, she was relieved to note that the heaviness of fatigue was gone, her body in near recovered condition as she stood. She was alone in her tent, the screen above her head glowing with orange. It must have been near sunset, which meant she'd probably slept through the entire day.

Standing, she paused for only a moment to straighten her hair before pushing through the holographic flap that led outside. Glancing around, she saw that her friends were all equally occupied. Lulu and Wakka were heating fish upon the fire, their concentration quite taken as they whispered to one another. Further beyond, by the same lake in which Leviathan had retreated the night before, Auron and Rikku stood, the latter holding a makeshift fishing rod in her hands.

Deciding not to disturb them, Yuna toed her way across the clearing to the tent on the other side. Slipping in, she was thankful that she'd drawn no attention. However, as her eyes fell to the figure there, she was surprised to see that he wasn't spread out on the ground, covered in blankets, as he had been previously. Rather, standing, he was dressed, the bags Yuna had hauled all the way from Zanarkand open and the contents placed accordingly on his person. He was focused on zipping his jacket as she walked in, his machina arm already attached and in working order.

"I didn't expect you'd be up already." The words fell easily from her lips, his blue eyes snapping up in surprise. "You've been through a lot…"

"I can't lie around forever," he replied somewhat gruffly as he turned his attention back down to his jacket. Yuna sensed a barrier between them however, a frown creasing her lips as she contemplated why he'd be so obviously pushing her away. Something was bothering him.

"What's wrong?" she asked straight out.

He sighed, once more looking up at her as his hands fell to his sides. She didn't miss the redness that was leaking across his cheeks, or the same feeling in his gaze. His focus then fell to the holographic flap that led out into the camp, a look of complete and utter guilt falling down upon his shoulders.

"I can't go out there," he reasoned quietly, Yuna furrowing her eyebrows questioningly. "I almost killed Auron… you…"All of them, really, had it been allowed to go that far.

"Auron really doesn't seem all that torn up on the subject," Yuna tried to reassure, assuming he understood that she felt much the same. "No one holds it against you, what happened. They understand you couldn't help it."

"That makes it even worse," he admitted as he crouched down, his finger dragging across the dirt as he, once again, refused to look at her. "It's not safe for me to be so near people. I could never forgive myself if… if something happened." A situation he didn't even want to think about. The friends that were so important to him; the only family he really had…

"You're… you're no danger now," Yuna replied, unable to hide the shallowness to her argument. "So long as you're human, you're okay. And you… you really should stay this way for a while. There are Bevelle soldiers hunting for you. But if you're not Leviathan, then they won't know where to find you."

"Bevelle?" he asked, flicking his gaze again to her own.

As best she could, Yuna then explained all they'd discovered and deduced since coming upon the Bevelle camp, Tidus taking it all in with a contemplative brow. He didn't understand it any better than she or their friends did, and was able to offer no helpful ideas on what they should do about it.

"I thought I sensed something when we first flew in here," he was saying as Yuna finished telling him about feeling the "fayth" nearby. "I hadn't realized that was what it was." But it had been familiar. Like when he'd touched the fayth in Gagazet.

"I can only assume that… that something is making them call this place into existence," she replied. "As Yu Yevon did to the fayth of Zanarkand. But…" She had no answers or even hunches to offer.

"That woman from the farplane knows something," Tidus decided rather firmly. "This must be what was beyond the Edge that she and that other man were protecting."

"I was thinking that too." Yuna nodded. "This Dream though, we have no idea how big it is. If all of Spira has been called into existence, then finding anyone will be difficult."

"Searching is the only option," Tidus decided as he stood once again. "I don't like this, Yuna. Forcing the dead to dream. If all of Spira has been pulled up into existence, then that's thousands of people, millions potentially, that have been recreated." And that, if they managed to stop the dreaming, would vanish once it was over. It seemed cruel, or so the hard look on Tidus' face seemed to imply.

"Certainly…" Yuna tried to find the right words. "Certainly they won't know the difference…" Between being alive and then disappearing again.

"That's not fair, Yuna," he replied quietly, turning away from her. "That kind of attitude doesn't justify what's happening."

"I'm not saying it does," she replied, realizing she'd hit a nerve. "I just… I don't know what you want me to say…"

"There's nothing to say," he replied, oddly bitter. "We're just dreams, after all. Our world isn't real, right?"

"Tidus, that's not what I meant…"

Pause.

"I know." He sighed. "I don't even know how I feel about it sometimes." Turning back to her, he forced the stress from his face before casting her a soft smile. "It's not worth thinking about until we know more anyway."

"You'll stay with us, then?" she asked, her eyes widening as the question she'd been afraid to ask finally left her lips. She didn't mean to sound so hopeful, but, based on the slightly amused look on Tidus' face, she'd failed.

"You said it yourself that Bevelle is hunting me down." He shrugged. "It might not be so bad to be human again for a little while." Or a dream—whatever it was he actually happened to be.

"The others don't think badly of you," she assured once again as she took a few steps closer to him. Reaching out, she took his hands in hers, trying to make her voice as reassuring as possible. "They're mostly just worried about you, I think."

"Perfect…" That vaguely red tint had returned to his face. Lips tight, Yuna stood silently for a moment longer before closing the distance between them. Wrapping her arms around as much of his middle as she could, she buried her face in his chest, more relieved than she'd realized to have him at her side once again.

He returned her embrace, his lips finding her hair as he breathed in the familiar scent of her. "Thanks for bringing my stuff, by the way," he muttered. "You were really thinking ahead."

"I decided you'd need it eventually," was her muffled reply, her actions giving away the fact that she'd had every intention of reuniting with him even after he'd told her to avoid him. Perhaps he shouldn't have expected any less.

"Yuna, Tidus," Lulu's voice echoed just outside the tent. "The food's ready. Come outside." Whether they were hungry or not, the order was given. She'd been civil, apparently either having heard them or seen Yuna go inside. Odds were, they were all waiting to talk to Tidus. He had a lot to answer for.

"Don't worry," Yuna assured as she backed away, taking hold of his hand. "I'll be with you." She smiled, Tidus returning the expression shortly before the two headed outside. Their hands dropped away as they approached the fire, both unaccustomed to displaying their relationship to each other, let alone others. If they were in a relationship at all. It felt more like they were clinging to anything they could get, which didn't necessarily justify the term "relationship."

Perhaps it didn't matter so long as they were together.

"Ah, 'bout time you got up, ya!" Wakka was smiling as he came up beside Tidus, the couple having reached the fire pit. Laying his hand heavily on his shoulders, Wakka shook him around good-naturedly, Tidus cringe-smiling in response. Mostly because he was both happy to see his friends now that the truth was out, but also equally shamed by it.

"Oh, you look so much better now." Rikku was grinning broadly as well. "We were really worried about you." Her eyes snapped to the white and silver mechanical arm attached to his shoulder, her eyes widening. "Does that arm work?!" She was on her feet in seconds.

"Well, yeah," Tidus verified as she came up and shoved Wakka out of the way, who frowned at being bullied from his best friend so thoroughly. Grabbing hold of it, she yanked it up so she could get a better look before reaching forward and pinching some of the elastic skin. "Ah, Rikku!" he yelped. "I can feel that!" Quite like it was real, he pulled the makeshift replacement to his chest protectively, rubbing where Rikku had inflicted the damage.

"That's amazing," she awed through a gape. "You have to let me take it apart and see how it works."

"What? No!" he replied defensively, Yuna smiling to herself as his voice reached that affronted high pitch she'd grown used to over the course of the pilgrimage. It was gravellier though, aged slightly, but she was still thankful to hear it. "If you can't put it back together right, I don't have an arm!"

"Just who do you think you're talking to?!" Rikku asked harshly, her hands slamming to her hips.

"Don't touch it," he made perfectly clear, not caring in the least what Rikku's skill level with machina was. She glared at him in response, but it was all in good humor, which was relieving to Yuna. She didn't want Tidus to feel out of place around them, not after all they'd been through together. Though Wakka and Lulu were like her family, and Rikku actually was, they'd all grown similarly close during their previous journey. Even Auron, who was actually more like family to Tidus than anyone.

"Not even together five minutes and already acting like children," Lulu commented, though there was a partial smile on her lips, hinting at the jest behind her words. The adoration in her eyes for the group was also obvious.

"This surprises you?" Auron asked dryly, only looking up quickly to watch them before continuing on with his undecorated meal of fish.

"Harsh!" Rikku accused as she plopped back down around the fire, her eyes trained on Auron, who was next to her. "Sorry we can't all be as serious and boring as you." He didn't reply to her comment, instead appearing quite as though he was ignoring her.

Tidus, however, upon hearing the older man's gruff statement, felt his guilt spill through him all over again. Never one for really being able to hide his emotions, Yuna and Lulu took note of the change right away. Wakka, who was once again trying to engage Tidus, soon fell silent, having realized that the mood of the group had altered some. Taking a step away, he gave Tidus space as his blue eyes slowly focused on Auron, Rikku looking between them all in bewilderment.

Auron said nothing, either disregarding the change in attitude or deciding it wasn't his to address.

Tidus, though—as Yuna could very well tell—needed to bring to light what had happened if only to give himself some relief. After a few more seconds of tense silence, he finally found the courage to speak again.

"Auron." He said the older man's name with a kind of thickness Yuna had only heard from him during poignant conversations either with or about his father. "I'm sorry about what happened," he managed to get out. "I don't… I don't have any exc-"

"Forget about it, Tidus," Auron interjected, the others all listening in silently. "It's over with and no longer worth considering." The older man hadn't looked up upon speaking, but this didn't seem to insinuate any bad feelings on the matter. Rather, it appeared he wanted to breeze by the subject and move on, deeming it of little consequence. And had Yuna only met Auron, or been shallowly misunderstanding of his attitude, she might have assumed his words stemmed from cold indifference. However, she'd detected how truly concerned he'd been when Tidus had been missing and knew that he didn't want to get by the subject merely for the sake of moving on—though that was likely part of it—but also because he didn't view the attack as something Tidus had personally done and saw little point in holding a grudge for something that was easier to forgive.

She hadn't been the only one, after all, to have noticed—even during the pilgrimage—that Auron had a soft spot for the young man. When he hadn't been lecturing him or scolding him, he'd been mentoring him. More so than he had anyone. Granted, Tidus had needed the guidance from all of them, but Auron had always had a kind of patience with him that he hadn't with other people (like Rikku). It had taken Yuna nearly the entire pilgrimage to realize that, despite Auron's coldness and Tidus' knack for complaining about him, their relationship was indeed built on true trust and fondness.

Which was probably why it was so hard for Tidus to face what he'd almost done.

However, following Auron's response, nothing more was offered as apology. Tidus' blue eyes had fallen to the ground, the shame that had previously plagued his expression slowly seeping away into acceptance. Yuna wondered if, in the past as a younger person, Tidus had made mistakes and this had been Auron's choice way of parenting. That was, when the mistakes made had been accidental and caused no lasting damage. For, despite the chilly execution of the conversation, it was clear by the slumping if Tidus' shoulders that he took comfort from the response.

An exchange communicated more efficiently without words than with them.

"Uh…" Rikku was the first to break the momentary silence that had overcome the group, Tidus pulling his attention back up while Auron continued to eat without pause. "So… speaking of that…" she awkwardly continued the subject. "You're Leviathan…?" The topic they all wanted to address, but had been somewhat hesitant to ask about. Rikku, however—being as naturally outspoken as ever—managed it with little fuss.

"Uh… yeah…" Tidus replied to the awkward question, his hand reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

"How'd you do it though?" Wakka approached Tidus once again, his open expression managing to pull the subject around to a less awkward mood.

"I…" Tidus' eyes clouded somewhat, his expression once again tinted red. "I honestly don't remember." He shook his head. "Everything over the last year is… foggy…" Shame again—even as his friends stared at him in understanding. Pity even, which likely wasn't helpful. "The only reason I remember what I did last night was because I… I remember hearing you whistle." He smiled sadly, his gaze falling to Yuna. "So I knew I had to come back."

Yuna's lips tightened.

"So… do you not remember anything that's happened?" Lulu questioned, obviously concerned.

"No, it's just… jumbled, and vague sometimes. I can recall some things, but only the things Leviathan thought were important." He spoke as if the serpent were a different entity to himself. "Like distances and locations, and smells, and…" He trailed off, Yuna able to see the pain that had crossed his expression only quickly.

"So you really do become like an animal…" Rikku murmured, quite unaware of the affect her words would have.

"More like a monster," Tidus replied, his words causing Rikku to pale. Mostly because there was obvious warning in then. He was cautioning them, reiterating that what had happened with Auron, and Yuna previously, wasn't something to be taken lightly. Yuna wanted to offer some kind of objection otherwise, but none came. Because what he said did hold truth.

When he was Leviathan, he was dangerous. Which, perhaps, was the whole point.

"Well…" Wakka laughed, trying to brighten the quickly drowning atmosphere. "So long as you're you, then we got nothin' to worry about, right?" He smiled broadly, Tidus decent enough to take the ill-executed comfort for what it was worth and not how much good it would do.

"Right," he agreed, grinning back despite how fake the expression appeared to the more intuitive individuals.

"Then we should be focused on what we're doing next," Auron interjected, done with his food as he finally looked up to survey the group. Tidus and Yuna took seats around the fire, completing the circle.

"I think we should go to Bevelle," Yuna decided abruptly, everyone glancing her way. Except for Tidus, who was quite content to let plans be made around him while he reached for the cooked fish they'd left out on a makeshift platter of stone. Not to say he couldn't lead, but he knew when his insight was needed and when it wasn't.

"Why?" Rikku asked in distaste.

"Because it's the nearest city." At least to their knowledge, or so Yuna reasoned. "Besides, we don't know how big this Dream Spira is, so we should investigate."

"It does seem like the most logical place to go," Lulu agreed, seeing as it was both the closest metropolitan area and obviously a dominant power. "If we're going to search for that woman as well," the one they'd met up on the farplane cliffs, "then we should start where there's the most people."

"How are we even going to find her?" Rikku asked. "We don't have any leads."

"Sitting around here isn't going to help," Auron interjected. "Besides, we need to know how far this dream stretches. If we know that, then perhaps we can narrow down our search."

"What about Zanarkand, then?" Rikku asked, Tidus managing to look up from his food. "Those Bevelle soldiers in the camp said they were going to war with them. Do you think there's another dream Zanarkand up there?"

"I find that hard to believe," Tidus mentioned after a single swallow. "If this really is a dream, then it's the souls of the dead that have to be dreaming it, right?" Somehow, even if the details eluded the group. "Those of Zanarkand are back the way we came. And since the dream is made up of memories, who would be left to remember Zanarkand?" At least, during the time period that had been recreated. Perhaps there were some that might be able to do it, but it seemed like their numbers would be too low to actually create a full dream. Mostly because the Dream Zanarkand where they'd come from originally was so entirely complete, the number of citizens who hadn't been forced to summon the dream couldn't logically be very high.

"So those Bevelle soldiers are preparing to fight a battle against something that's not even there?" Rikku asked with a frown.

"As far as their memories serve, it's there," Auron replied. "Those that lived in Bevelle during the time of the Machina War remember that there was a Zanarkand, which is all the dreams know to think. At least, at the moment."

"So…" Rikku crossed her arms over her chest, "I guess I'm trying to figure out how this whole dream thing works. Do they just… pop up out of nowhere or…?"

"I don't really know." Tidus shook his head, supposing he the only one who could answer. Him and Auron anyway, if Auron really was a dream at that point. "I remember my childhood, and Auron was there." He'd watched him grow up. "So Zanarkand wasn't completely static." It wasn't as though he was born as a young man. Auron's presence proved that.

"It's hard to say though," Auron interjected. "Tidus and Jecht were obviously singled out by the fayth to come to Spira." At one point or another. "What the dream was like before that I can't really say. Whether it was static or if Jecht and Tidus are the result of dreams living like normal people for a thousand years, and are thus not the product of the original creation. Only the fayth could know that." Whether Tidus had been born a dream as a baby or created as a child.

It was somewhat strange to him really, discussing his own existence. It was different for Auron. He'd been real, lived life as a person on Spira. He knew where he came from, his transformation into a dream, if, again, that was really what he was, merely part of his journey. Tidus, however, had always been a dream. Yet, oddly enough, he found that the fact wasn't overly bothersome to him. He didn't need proof that he was who he was and not the result of someone else's memory. Maybe it was because he'd been to Spira and touched Sin, as the fayth had said. He'd become something more.

He remembered pondering the notion back before they'd defeated Sin—trying to understand it. He'd come to realize that it wasn't some kind of literal change that made him more than a dream. It was the fact that he'd stepped out of his fixed, pre-designed world and learned realities that those of Zanarkand had never had to fathom. Yes, they understood death and birth, and the technical details of what it meant to be alive, but they hadn't seen Spira's suffering, or destruction, or ever been threatened by war. They knew only the life Yu Yevon had created for them—a Zanarkand without the summoners and powerful magic it'd possessed in the real past, and without strife and conflict. They'd been secluded, knowing nothing outside their own perfect city.

That was how he and his father were different, were something more. They didn't exist just inside the dream. There were people in the real world that knew of them, had met them, shared experiences with them. Even if the dream faded, they'd be remembered somewhere by someone. In that way, they were more. Not total victims to the fate of the ones who did the dreaming. Even after they disappeared, their presence would remain. Which was perhaps why Tidus didn't have some sort of identity complex. He'd grown up with Auron, who was a variable unexpected in the dream world. And had come to Spira, changing more as a person and learning more than he'd ever thought imaginable in the short time he'd been there. Whoever had dreamed him up, whoever he'd been inspired by, he wasn't that person anymore. The original path his predecessor had followed had been broken as soon as Auron had entered his world. Even if there was a dead man to whom his identity had been inherently related, it was safe to say he'd deviated from whatever path that life had taken. The fayth didn't address him now as a dream, but as a person.

Because he knew what it was like to live.

"You think it's impossible then that Zanarkand could be up over Mt. Gagazet?" Lulu asked him directly.

"As far as I can tell, it wouldn't make any sense." He shrugged.

"I guess the question is whether we feel it necessary to investigate or not," Auron deduced.

"We have no idea where this woman could be or what she's after," Lulu reiterated. "If there does happen to be a Zanarkand here as well, by not investigating it, we're leaving out a very large area."

"She could also be anywhere else," Rikku added, which wasn't helpful no matter how true, and obvious, it was.

"Not only that, but we have to consider the political state of affairs here," Tidus added, such talk coming from his mouth taking a few of the others by surprise. He ignored their wondering looks, however. "The Spira where you guys come from is a united front," he reasoned. "Here, Zanarkand and Bevelle are enemies, and Mt. Gagazet, as well as a huge mountain range, is in-between." A mountain range that wasn't so large in their world. Sin probably had something to do with that. "Firstly, the roads, if there are any, aren't going to be well-traveled. I don't know much about airships personally, but it seems more logical to fly than walk. Even if we could get an airship though, the borders between the two cities are going to be controlled, and that includes air traffic. It's not going to be easy to simply fly through. Sure, we flew around Spira fine, but there was no one to stop us. Even back in my Zanarkand, there are strict rules and regulations on who can go where, how fast, and in what vehicle. Bevelle won't be any different, and will probably be more strict where the military is concerned."

"I'm impressed," Auron joked. "I didn't expect such an insightful deduction from you."

Tidus glared at him. "Thanks." Sure, he'd grown up in a place without conflict, but perhaps that was why he saw these things more clearly than the rest of them. Spira had known nothing but fighting together against a common cause. Even prejudices against the Al bhed were overcome where Sin was concerned. All of them had grown up that way, in a world where, even when differences were many, the people could come together without too much fuss if they truly had to. The fact that they'd gotten the entirety of Spira to sing for them spoke volumes on that.

Tidus imagined that not all peoples worked together so fluently. War was evidence enough.

"So do we think that investigating Zanarkand is worth the trouble or should we set our sights elsewhere?" Lulu kept them on track.

"I think we should investigate elsewhere," Yuna interjected. "We don't know how big this dream is and if what Tidus says is true, it might be easier to first go south." Because none of them really wanted to hike over Gagazet again. Especially if the path was going to be even more formidable. "We have no leads, so it really makes no difference where we go first."

"But I don't want to go to Bevelle," Rikku whined childishly.

"Why?" Lulu asked sharply. "It's not a Yevon city here. It's one of the great machina cities, and led by an Al bhed apparently. I thought you'd be excited to go."

"I'll never be excited to go to Bevelle…" she sulked.

"We'll backtrack to the Calm Lands then." Auron was becoming an expert at disregarding Rikku. "Or whatever the place is called here."

"And then south to Bevelle." Wakka finally entered the conversation, quite content to state the obvious.

"We leave tomorrow morning," Auron added, seeing as there was only some few hours of daylight left. Somewhat more settled now that they'd decided on an objective, everyone was able to comfortably return to dinner—those who hadn't eaten anyway. There were some moments of silence until, Yuna once again noticing a rather preoccupied look to his face, Tidus began to speak again.

"Hey, guys…" He sounded hesitant, which really wasn't like him. Yet it was the second time since he'd come back to himself that he'd approached them as such, thus they all focused in on him immediately. "I, uh…" He glanced down at his hands, Yuna feeling her concern for him rise at the somewhat torn look etched into his eyes. "I just… I'm glad that," his gaze flicked up to them, "that you're all here."

Maybe it was a strange thing to say, but the thickness in his voice made it obvious to everyone exactly what he was implying, Yuna feeling her own heart constrict as she considered it.

He'd been fighting alone the whole time they'd been separated. There'd been no one to look out for him, no one to care. It was a scary thought really, and a reality they could all understand. Because it was the loneliness that everyone who'd lived in a world with Sin understood.

Tidus had lost both his parents at a young age, as had most of them. He'd then come to Spira and found a new family, only to have them ripped away too. For the first time, some of them really understood how much they meant to him, Wakka managing a comforting grin as he once again dropped his arm over Tidus' shoulders and shook him. Mostly because he found Tidus' sensitivity, no matter how justified, rather uncomfortable (which wasn't new for Wakka).

"'Course we're here," he offered with a laugh, his ability to turn the attitude more positive showing as the others offered Tidus encouraging smiles. Even Auron nodded. "Someone's got to deal with this mess." Tidus grinned as well, Yuna reaching out and allowing her hand to rest on his knee for a few moments before returning to her fish.

Around them, the sun continued to set, the silence of the landscape calming even to those whose thoughts were most reckless.

oOo

"Ugh, we should just take an airship!" Rikku drawled, the late afternoon sun pounding upon on them as they made their way down the decline leading back into the plains that would eventually come to be known as the Calm Lands. They were on the edge, deciding that it would be wisest to find the coast and follow it around to where Bevelle had been located in their Spira. Hopefully Dream Bevelle would be much the same. High up on the cliffs, they could see the waves smashing against the rocks hundreds of feet below. Beyond, the ocean was restless.

"It doesn't matter how many times you say that, none of us are going to magically have enough money to afford one," Auron said through gritted teeth, quite on his last nerve with the girl. It wasn't like they hadn't walked across Spira once before. "You've gone soft," he added.

"What do you mean 'soft?'" She bounded up next to him, quite in a huff. "There's nothing wrong with appreciating convenience, okay? We're the only people crazy enough to walk anywhere in this world, you know! We haven't seen a single stranger all day."

"All the better," Auron rebuked. "If no one sees us, then no one needs to know we're here." Which was true. If the woman or that mysterious Shuyin individual knew they'd made it this far, they'd likely come after them.

"Just think of it like old times," Tidus offered her, his hands pulled up behind his head, Brotherhood strapped to his back. "The pilgrimage all over again, only backwards." And without the whole Yuna dying bit, but that hardly needed to be brought up. "And without Kimahri." He furrowed his eyebrows then, turning to Yuna, who was walking beside him. Wakka and Lulu were on either side of them, Rikku and Auron up ahead. "I'm surprised Kimahri didn't come with you."

"He's the elder for the ronso now," Yuna replied. "I think he would have come, had we known what we were getting into, but, initially, all we were doing was investigating the Farplane. I didn't see any reason to get him involved." She frowned. "I hope he's not too worried."

"I'm sure all of Spira is worried," Lulu added. "The High Summoner and her legendary guardians have disappeared. The whole world, I'm sure, is in an uproar." Her words rang of bitterness however, Tidus casting her an inquiring grin, which caused her to sigh. "Let's just say people don't know how to mind their own business."

Catching on, Wakka took up the explanation. "People been coming to Besaid from all over Spira to interview Yuna lately. At first, people stayed away, you know, respect and all that, but they seemed to have forgotten that bit. Bah! Always askin' all kinds of nosy questions!"

"About what?" Tidus asked curiously.

"The pilgrimage," Rikku was walking backward now, explaining. "You and Yunie mostly."

"Me?" He could understand Yuna, but what did anyone want to know about him for?

"Oh yeah," Rikku nodded. "People got it in their heads that you and Yunie were, you know, together," Tidus furrowed his brows, "and it made you as popular as her. Something about 'young love ending in tragedy.'"

"What?" Tidus laughed, not at all bothered that his and Yuna's relationship was being blatantly talked about. Yuna blushed some, not saying anything, but Tidus handled it far better. A majority of the reason he kept his distance from her in "public" was because he could tell it made her uncomfortable. He didn't have a preference either way, really, about displaying affection in front of others. It didn't bother him, but Yuna had always been private, so he'd respect that.

"It's true, ya," Wakka nodded. "People got obsessed with it. Gonna build a statue of you and Yuna like they did Yunalesca and Zaon." Tidus gaped then before, quite uncontrollably, bursting into laughter. "I'm serious!" Wakka was grinning as well however, having also always found it amusing. "They been hunting for pictures and spheres of you and everything!"

"I don't quite see what's so funny." Yuna was frowning as Tidus finally got control of himself. "It's not like you weren't one of my guardians or something. You are considered a legendary guardian just like everyone else. They talked about making statues of us all." A detail Wakka had left out, though it had only been a passing idea.

"I guess I just find it… weird." Tidus shrugged. "I dunno. I never set out to be a 'legendary guardian' I guess. It just sort of… happened."

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit." Lulu chuckled lightly to herself. "Between Yuna's unyielding determination and your choices to disregard every rule we lived by, we managed to finally eradicate Sin." In other words, had he not been there to object to everything they'd done, things might have turned out differently.

"Is that an insult or a compliment, Lulu?" he asked with a sly grin.

"Take it however you want."

"Hey guys, look, look!" Rikku was standing on the edge of the cliff, Auron coming up behind her and pulling her back slightly as she pointed out across the sea. "Look over there!" Coming up beside her, the group glanced out across the water. Miles and miles out, they could see a thin line of land, the slight protrusions dotting its surface too sharp to be natural.

"That must be the city," Auron deduced. They were still a ways away however. The cliff continued on for quite a while, likely leading them around the bend in the land that would take them to the city. Unless they decided to travel into the night, they wouldn't reach it till the afternoon of the following day.

"It really must be a great city if we can see if from here," Lulu murmured.

"I am kind of excited to see it," Rikku admitted sheepishly, Lulu giving her an "I told you so" look as they picked back up on their previous pace. They were forced to pause a second later, taken aback by the scene developing before them.

So much for not running into any other people.

"Should we help her?" Yuna asked as they watched the lone woman attempt to take on a smallish fiend some ways down the cliff side. Likely she'd come from somewhere further into the plains, which was why they were only just then running into her. Holding a long staff of some sort in her hand, she remained undaunted by the fiend despite the trouble she was having. And Tidus, who was never one to not help, soon pulled his sword from his back before jumping forward. Running up on one of the taller rocks sticking out of the rough terrain, he threw himself into the air above the fiend before skillfully coming down and slicing it into pyreflies.

His actions took the woman so by surprise that she fell backward with a gasp and landed back first in the grass, her staff bouncing down beside her.

"Sorry." Tidus laughed as he approached her. Holding out his hand, he pulled her back to her feet as the others slowly came up behind him. Looking somewhat dazed, the young woman bent down and fumbled for her staff, her eyes continually flicking back up to Tidus.

"Are you alright?" Yuna asked as she came up beside him. The woman couldn't have been much older than Yuna herself, her long brown hair loose and falling just above her hips. She had an open face, big brown eyes, and heavy, beaded earrings hanging down on her shoulders. Dressed in blue with a black skirt and brown boots, she didn't exactly look like the wild, travelling type.

"Uh, yes, thank you." She bowed quickly, finally seeming to pull herself together. Still, her gaze kept flicking to Tidus. Perhaps his sneak attack really had thrown her for a loop. "You surprised me," she admitted, a pretty smile breaking across her face. "I wasn't expecting to run into anyone else out here."

"Why are you out here all alone?" Rikku asked, her eyebrows pulling together in concern as her head cocked to the side. "It's dangerous."

"I'm going to Bevelle," she replied.

"Oh, us too!" Rikku grinned happily.

"Really?" Her smile widened more, portraying her friendly disposition. "I really am surprised. Normally no one walks the distance."

"Well, we're-"

"We're fiend hunters," Auron interjected before Rikku could give away more than what needed to be said. "There was a large fiend sighted west of here." The woman's expression seemed to falter then, her smile vanishing.

"You didn't catch it… did you?" she asked, Auron furrowing his eyebrows at her odd tone of voice. Almost as though she were concerned.

"No," he verified, Tidus remaining purposefully silent. "It's gotten away."

"Oh." Her hand went to her chest, a blatantly relieved smile making its way back onto her face. A few of the group looked between each other curiously, though they didn't question. And the woman, who was intuitive enough to notice the stares, quickly cleared her throat and tried to move on. "I'm sorry, pardon me," she begged their attention once more. "My name is Lenne. It's a pleasure to meet you." She bowed her head respectfully.

"I'm Rikku!" The blonde raised her hand up in her typical welcome before going on to introduce the rest of them. Auron was, by far, the most unappreciative of Rikku's inviting attitude. The rest of them, however, had little issue with having come across the woman.

"If you're going to Bevelle," Tidus followed up after Rikku, "you might as well come along with us. Maybe then you won't have to worry about that fiend issue again." His hands went up to twine behind his head, his own warm disposition combined with Rikku's doing well to overcome Auron's lack of such. "We're all going along in the same direction anyway."

"Yes, why don't you come with us?" Yuna bowed her head in invitation as well.

"I… I suppose I could." She was clearly surprised. "If you're fiend hunters though, I swear I won't be a hindrance." For they must all excel in battle if so. "I'm perfectly capable of fighting, I assure you." She returned her attention to Tidus, who grinned at her allusion to what he'd done previously.

"The more the merrier, ya," Wakka assured.

"You okay with that Auron?" Rikku turned to him.

"I suppose I have little choice in the matter," he replied in his typical cold fashion, none of the others at all affected by his attitude, which did good in assuring Lenne.

"Why are you going to Bevelle?" Rikku asked as they began their walk once more, her attentive personality taking her right up beside the newcomer.

"I'm actually only passing through," she explained. "I'm on my to Remiem." And Rikku, because she really did lack all subtly, gave her a clearly questioning look. Auron, had he been the type, might have face-palmed himself. Before any real damage could be done, however, Lulu swooped in.

"Forgive her," Lulu said evenly. "She's a real country bumpkin. Doesn't know much past the end of her own nose."

Rikku was clearly offended.

"I see." Lenne laughed. "Remiem is a city-state to the east, on the far coast to the other side of the Lo Mountains."

"Really?" Rikku kept on as she'd been, deciding to play to the supposed ignorance. And, for once, Auron was glad to see her act the part. "That must be a hard trip. Why don't you take an airship or something?"

"I, well," Lenne laughed a little awkwardly, "airship passage is very expensive between city-states." She didn't elaborate further, both Lulu and Auron, as well as Tidus, getting the idea that she wasn't telling the entire truth. "No need to worry," she assured. "I'm meeting up with some… friends in Bevelle, so we'll continue the journey together."

Wanting to change the subject, she questioned them next. "Why do you all make the trip to Bevelle?"

"We're looking for someone," Yuna replied honestly as she came up on Lenne's other side. "Can you tell us," she was trying to find the best way to word her question without potentially sounding strange, but ultimately decided there was really no way, "if there are summoners in Bevelle?"

The reaction she got was what she'd been afraid of.

"Summoners?" Lenne asked in obvious surprise. "In Bevelle? N-no, I would imagine not." She shook her head hastily, eyes falling to the ground.

"I see." Yuna nodded, not entirely sure what to make of how she'd reacted.

"If I were you," Lenne looked up to her again, "I would refrain from asking anyone else such a question." Yuna furrowed her eyebrows. "Those in Bevelle do not take kindly to summoners."

"Really?" Tidus was surprised. "Why?"

Auron supposed that pretending they knew anything was quite out of the question at that point.

"Well, because," Lenne glanced back at him as though she were replying to a ridiculous question, "summoners come from Zanarkand." And Zanarkand was at war with Bevelle, which explained the sensitivity.

"There aren't any summoners in Bevelle?" Yuna asked, quite shocked.

"No." Lenne shook her head. "There are no summoners anywhere else in Spira. Except for Zanarkand." Abruptly, a few of them were wondering if perhaps they should have gone north instead of south. "At least, there shouldn't be…"

"What do you mean?" Yuna continued.

"Summoning is a… a sacred art taught only to the citizens in Zanarkand. The knowledge of it is lost to the rest of Spira." Which was somewhat of a curiosity to Tidus. He'd come from the Dream Zanarkand and known nothing of summoners. When Yu Yevon had called upon the fayth to summon it, he must have made sure to leave out such potentially powerful wisdom.

"And no one from outside of Zanarkand has ever journeyed north to learn?" Yuna just couldn't wrap her head around the idea that summoners had existed in so select a location. Not when they'd been so depended upon where she'd come from.

The look Lenne gave her seemed to spell out that they'd finally said too much. She paused to stare at them, to survey them all. Her eyes fell to their weapons, their clothing, before her lips tightened in discomfort. Auron didn't like it.

"We're sorry if we've said something out of the ordinary." Lulu tried to patch up the situation. "We're not from around-"

"Do not go advertising such things," Lenne cut her off shortly, taking them all aback. "I don't know how you managed to get… here, but if anyone finds out that you're all from Zanarkand, they'll have you killed immediately." This assumption on her part was also surprising to them, but gave them an outlet to ask more questions.

"We're sorry." Yuna bowed her head.

"The citizens of Bevelle are very superstitious about such things," Lenne continued. "They hear talk of such and you'll be arrested. Magic too, for that matter. They don't understand it and have no desire to. So do not bring it up." She was clearly warning them, which caused Auron's own suspicion to stir.

"Why do you warn us then?" he asked coldly. "If such things should not be spoken or known, how do you claim such knowledge?" Because the fact that she was able to explain the source of summoners insinuated that she knew more than a commoner of Bevelle.

"I, too, am from Zanarkand," she bowed, doing the familiar prayer that Tidus recognized as the sign for victory in blitzball. The same one used on the real Spira. "And I feel I need to warn others like me to be careful."

It occurred to Tidus then that, though she spoke of Zanarkand, they were from two very different cities. A dream like her, one outside of the Dream Zanarkand, would have knowledge of the city different than his own. She would remember the Zanarkand that had actually existed on Spira, not the manipulated version in which he'd been raised. Somehow, it made him feel even more disconnected from her, not the other way around.

"I see," Yuna replied with the same prayer, the motion striking them all with a feeling of déjà vu. It wasn't pleasant. "We apologize for our ignorance. We'll be more careful from now on."

"You came from the west," Lenne said then. "You saw the fiend there? The one all the soldiers are looking for?" So she'd actually seen Leviathan. Perhaps she'd been in the camp, or near it, at the same time they had been. "Were you truly hunting it?"

"No." Yuna shook her head. "We were looking for it, but not to hunt it."

"You know what it is, then?" Lenne asked excitedly, seeming to warm back up to them now that she thought she'd figured out the truth. "Did you find the summoner that had called it? And their partner? Are they alright?"

"The… the summoner that called it?" Tidus asked. "N-no." he was even more interested then. "We… lost track of it."

"That's a relief," she breathed. "If so great an aeon was never found, then the summoner must have dismissed it. When I first saw it, I was truly grieving for the one who was fool enough to call it. I nearly went looking for it myself." So she knew what Leviathan had been then? How? What had given it away? Those were the questions Tidus asked himself. "I'd… rarely seen an aeon so great."

"Truly?" Yuna asked. "I, too, thought it to be quite abnormally… great," because there were few ways to actually describe what Leviathan was.

"You know of summoning?" Lenne asked.

"I… I know a little." Yuna nodded, unsure how much of her knowledge would actually translate to how summoning had been done in the past. "I was… in training, before I left."

"Really?" Lenne's eyes got big, a small smile creeping across her lips again. "How far were you into your lessons? Based on your age, you must have been nearly done. Had you chosen your partner yet?" She was clearly much more interested now, though she did glance around as though looking out for anyone outside them who might overhear.

"My… partner?" Yuna had no idea what she was talking about. "No, I had not."

"I see." Lenne's shoulders dropped. "Once you make your decision, I'm sure you'll be successful. I can see it in your eyes. You've seen and learned much, I think."

She had no idea.

"You seem to be rather well-versed in the intimacies of such things," Auron cut in, eyeing her pointedly and saying no more on the subject. Lenne visibly shrank under his sharp scrutiny, like a blue flower suddenly overcome by a shadow.

"I worked in a temple," she explained after a moment. "Back in Zanarkand." And despite the fact that this meant little to nothing to them—because they knew not what temples had been used for in Zanarkand—they all took her words as though they understood. Because to ask further, if they were to pretend to be citizens of Zanarkand, would be to give themselves away.

"It's a good thing we met you then, huh," Rikku sliced through the thick atmosphere happily. "Turns out we have a lot in common." Lenne smiled some, appearing as though she might have wanted to say something more. However, she was clearly holding herself back, her eyes once again flicking to Tidus before she focused back on Rikku. Despite what they'd discussed, there was still distrust between them. Neither was being completely honest, that was obvious to both parties. Still, they continued on together, the conversation falling to less heavy topics as they fought their way across the plains. Lenne did comment once on their ability to use magic, specifically Lulu, but the fact that they had utilized it made her less shy to do so as well, her skill with such powers proving to be far more fruitful than her physical prowess.

She showed to be a helpful asset, the group far less hesitant around her when they finally decided to stop for camp about an hour before sunset. So long as they stayed further from serious topics, then having her around was no large burden. Thus, after they'd set up, Lulu and Wakka went about cooking dinner—as had become per the usual—using the dried and easily sustainable food they'd brought with them. Auron headed out to gather more firewood, Rikku bouncing after him. And Tidus, who had been putting up tents with Yuna (no great effort, really), found his curiosity getting the better of him. Wandering away, he was soon approaching Lenne, who'd posted herself on the edge of the cliff once it'd been made clear there was nothing else she could do.

Yuna, who'd expected to spend the evening at Tidus' side, watched him head across the grass toward the newcomer. Part of her was spurred to follow, but, thinking better of it, she took up a position on the other side of the fire from Wakka and Lulu, her ears trained back toward Lenne and Tidus. Unfortunately, none of their conversation was audible and she felt rather ashamed that she'd tried to listen in to begin with.

"Careful or you'll fall off," Tidus was saying as he approached her. Looking over her shoulder, Lenne smiled quickly at him, her legs dangling high up over the water.

"I'm not too worried about it," she assured easily. Turning back, her eyes fell to the sunset, which was far softer than it had been the night before. Back up in the cliffs, it'd had a much more aggressive disposition.

"For being out here all alone, you don't seem to be worried about much of anything," he replied as he plopped down beside her, some foot and a half between them. Much like her, he wasn't concerned with the cliff, his legs dangling in a similar manner to hers as his reference to her previous journeying fell between them.

"I think concern should always be justified," she replied simply. "I've… seen enough to know that there's little for me to be worried about out here."

"You and me both," he replied with a knowing sigh, his thoughts travelling momentarily back to the beginning days of the pilgrimage when he'd known so little. About the world; about life. It abruptly seemed like such a long time ago.

Leaning back on her hands, she stared at him for a moment, seeming contemplative. And Tidus, returning her look, raised his eyebrows questioningly, finally addressing something he'd noticed since they'd first met.

"You stare at me a lot," he stated honestly. "Why?" He'd wondered, quickly, if she could tell. If, somehow, he was giving away Leviathan. It made him paranoid.

"You…" she looked away quickly, "remind me of someone."

Not what he'd been expecting. "Oh." He glanced back out to sea, unable to form a response to the sadness in her voice.

"You look a lot like him." She nodded, almost more to herself than to him. "I'm sorry if it came off as strange. I was just surprised is all."

"You sound sad," he observed, looking back at her. She'd already turned her attention back to him, a bitter smile soon falling down upon her lips.

"Maybe," she verified. "He… he died, a long time ago." Her hand came up to caress the bridge of her nose, as though she could rub away a headache.

"Funny how this seems to happen to me," he replied. "Reminding people of those they've lost." He recalled the Chappu episode. "I'm sorry if it bothers you. You don't seem old enough for 'a long time ago' to be a legitimate idea."

She laughed shortly before shaking her head. "It doesn't bother me." She finally turned a genuine smile his way. "I'm happy you look so much like him. It reminds me to remember him." And the way she said as much, taking a sad situation and turning it into something to be happy about, reminded Tidus greatly of Yuna.

"You remind me of someone too," he verified honestly, her eyebrows becoming curious. "Yuna." He nodded back to her with a slight laugh.

"Mmm." She nodded. "I see the way you look at her."

"That obvious, huh?" He laughed. "Yeah, it's no great secret." Which seemed to take her by surprise. Though Tidus couldn't understand why. She didn't know any of them so a relationship between some shouldn't shock. Because of such reasoning, he mentioned as much.

"I just assumed she was… alone," she explained. "When she said she didn't have a partner, that is." A reference to their conversation about summoning.

"Uh, well." Tidus tried to find an appropriate way to respond. Thankfully, Lenne continued on before he had to.

"I can understand being hesitant, however," she clarified quietly. "The choice to become a summoner affects more than one person. Sometimes I… wonder if I made the right choice."

"You were going to become a summoner?" he asked, not that entirely astounded.

"I… did become one," she admitted. "But I was irresponsible and lost my partner. Sometimes I wish I hadn't gone through with it. Maybe then we'd… still be together." Tidus frowned, once again feeling a kind of familiar connection with what she said, though more in reference to Yuna. Abruptly, he wanted to get up and go back to her, but realized that doing as much would probably be considered rude.

"I'm sorry," he replied honestly.

"Don't be." She managed to pull some of that happiness forward again, smiling. "You had nothing to do with it. And… it was a long time ago. I have other things to focus on now. Seeing you though, it was nice. Thinking about him again." Because she'd spent so much time trying to avoid the subject.

And Tidus, sensing that the conversation was coming to an end, reached out and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. They exchanged simple, tight smiles, his hand resting for a few moments before he stood. Nodding to her once, he took his moment to retreat, his feet taking him directly to Yuna.

He didn't notice the way Lenne watched him go.

Instead, relaxed enough to finally take joy in being around Yuna again, he smiled as he rounded the spot in the grass where she was sitting. Plopping down beside her, he leaned back on his elbows and crossed his ankles, his head falling back to look up at her. She was sitting with her knees folded up, her hand reaching out to stroke his hair as he closed his eyes.

"What were you two talking about?" she asked, making quite sure her voice echoed only of curiosity. Beyond them, Wakka and Lulu glanced up at the two only quickly, focusing once again on their task and giving the couple the space they knew, from experience, they probably wanted.

"Nothing really," he replied. "Though she did tell me that she actually was a summoner once." This caused Yuna's eyebrows to rise in slight surprise, but Tidus couldn't see as much, not with his eyes still closed. "But that her… partner died and so she's not now?" He supposed it was fine to relay the information. Lenne hadn't taken any issue with telling him, after all. When Yuna didn't respond right away, however, he finally cracked open his gaze. She was staring off to the side, a serious look on her face. "What?"

"This whole 'partner' thing," she started. "I've been thinking about it all afternoon." Tidus tried to remain focused and not become sidetracked by the way her fingers were messaging his scalp. "When we finally reached Zanarkand back during the pilgrimage, Lady Yunalesca said that the final aeon required a bond between summoner and guardian to create. The process required two people."

"You think that the same kind of thing is how everyone in Zanarkand used to summon?" He could easily follow her train of thought.

"Lenne said that summoning was an art that only the citizens of Zanarkand knew," she reasoned. "When Sin came, the fayth started being used in a different way and Lady Yunalesca was the only one with knowledge of the final summoning. She was the only summoner from Zanarkand that made it out alive before Sin destroyed the city."

"So then…" Tidus' eyes narrowed, "any summoner in Zanarkand would have had a final aeon, not multiple like what you had?"

"I don't know." She shook her head, finally meeting his gaze again. "I suppose I could ask Lenne, but I don't want to give away that we're not actually from her Zanarkand."

"But I thought the power of the final aeon killed the summoner?" Tidus recalled.

"I don't… actually know if it was the final aeon that killed the summoner or if it was Yu Yevon after he possessed it. I suppose we could ask Sir Auron. He might know." Because, if it had always been the aeon after it'd been possessed by Yu Yevon that killed the summoner—thus making it possible to take complete control of the aeon—then that changed one of the details she'd been taught to expect from the final summoning. What if it wasn't a final summoning at all? What if it was an age-old tradition passed down from Zanarkand that Yunalesca chose to teach only the select few that were experienced enough to take on the burden? By everyone in Spira, it'd been viewed as an extraordinary accomplishment, but to the people of Zanarkand, it may have been what was expected. A test one had to pass to actually become a summoner.

Thinking about it that way, Yuna felt even bitterer toward Yunalesca. If the summoners of Spira had possessed such knowledge, such power, could they have found a way to stop Sin sooner? Even with Yu Yevon being capable of possessing aeons, certainly a fleet of summoners with the power of the final summoning would have been able to destroy him before things had deteriorated the way they eventually had.

Even then, after having abandoned Yevon long before, she was figuring out that more of what she'd thought she knew was a lie. At least, potentially.

"Yuna?" Tidus' questioning voice pulled her from her thoughts, a soft smile pulling at her lips as she focused back down on him. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," she nodded, coming back around entirely to their conversation. "I was just considering what it all meant. I'll remember to ask Sir Auron if he was there when our fathers fought Sin directly. Certainly if Yu Yevon had possessed my father's final aeon before killing him, he'd have seen a sign of it."

"Yeah, if he wants to tell us anything at all." Tidus rolled his eyes. "I swear he gets a kick out of being cryptic."

Yuna laughed lightly. "I think he used to be like that because he knew so much more than we did about the truth. Now that we're all equally aware, I think he'll be more likely to help on the subject, if he can. Besides," she glanced over as both Rikku and Auron came up over the grassy hill, firewood in their hands, "he seems different now than he used to be."

"Yeah, I've noticed that too," Tidus observed with furrowed brows, his eyes also following Yuna's gaze. "I remember when I first met him back in Zanarkand. He was always so…" The word he wanted to use was "dead," but that hardly seemed acceptable.

"I know what you mean," Yuna agreed. "I think being brought back has made him feel… alive… again, you know? I can't claim to understand what it's like being an unsent, but the only reason such people can take proper form is because they're bound to the world by some inherent feeling or desire. They stay until they fulfill that or are sent. If Sir Auron stayed around only because he felt he had to satisfy something like that, I'd imagine considering anything else would be very difficult."

"What do you mean?" Because Tidus could tell by the tone of her voice that she was insinuating something else.

"I'm not saying that he didn't feel friendship for us as an unsent," she explained, "but I think now it's more like he can… act on it. He reminds me much more of the Auron we saw in the memories of Zanarkand than the one that journeyed with us. Like he's more… human." He'd always been so focused during the pilgrimage, so determined to get to the end. It hadn't been until they'd learned the truth about Jecht, and seen his memories, that Yuna had realized it hadn't been for her benefit that he'd rushed. Auron had died with so many unfulfilled promises. To both his friends and himself. Sworn to look after both Tidus and Yuna; determined to avenge Braska; desperate to save Jecht. Those had been his motives, and why he'd been unable to go to the Farplane. Only when Jecht had finally been laid to rest, the last of his vows fulfilled, had he been able to fade.

Really, when considering how often his words had encouraged them, pushed them on, Yuna found it somewhat ironic that he really hadn't cared at all about Spira anymore. Maybe, had he been alive, he would have, but his entire focus had been on those few things that had kept him in their world.

Currently, he was free of those chains. He was as good as alive again, his ability to see the world past his own personal promises restored. Though he had his memories of being dead, of his second pilgrimage, he wasn't that exact same person. Rather, he seemed more mixed. As though he felt he should be that dead-man-walking, but was torn by the influence of his younger image.

"Now answer me this." Tidus had sat up, his thigh against Yuna's knees as he leaned in to speak to her more closely. "Am I the only one that's noticed how those two have been acting?" Because Rikku and Auron were now within some twenty feet of the camp and might overhear.

"No, you're not," Lulu answered his question before Yuna could, the knowing glint to her eyes telling Tidus all he needed to know. Yuna nodded once in agreement, a tight, girly smile pulling against her lips. Tidus returned the look skeptically, somewhat struck by the idea that Rikku and Auron could possibly grow to tolerate each other, let alone anything else. Sure they'd fought well enough alongside each other during the pilgrimage, but that hadn't meant they were "friends."

"Rikku is attached to his hip constantly," Yuna muttered just before the two joined the camp. It was one of those situations, though, that made it completely clear to the newcomers that they'd just been being talked about. The heavy silence and lack of conversation made that blatantly obvious.

"What?" Auron asked coldly as he dropped the firewood he'd found beside the pit. Rikku didn't seem nearly so sensitive to the atmosphere however, dropping off her own load before distracting herself with sticking her finger into the sphere of soup Lulu was controlling with the water magic at her disposal.

"Nothing," Tidus shrugged far too innocently, refusing to meet Auron's gaze. Being the type to not care for such things, Auron sighed after a few seconds and took a seat rather away from either of the two groups already seated. And Rikku, after being swatted away by Wakka, huffed and made her way back over to him. Sitting down as well, she retained a good amount of space between herself and Auron, but not enough to somehow eliminate the idea that she'd plopped down beside him on purpose.

Tidus found it to be incredibly weird.

"Lenne!" Wakka called a few seconds later. "The food's ready!" Answering accordingly, she stood and made her way over, smiling gratefully as she took a seat across from Auron and Rikku. Soon bowls were being passed around, which Wakka had skillfully and quickly crafted out of leaves. Like on the pilgrimage, the habit had easily come back to him. They weren't hearty or re-usable by any means, but did well for what they needed and didn't have to be carried around later.

Lenne was quite astounded by it actually, the others taking the soup Lulu passed around without a second thought to what they were eating out of. Upon seeing the way Lenne was examining the bowl, Lulu paused, the soup hovering near Lenne's head until she realized it was there and held out the bowl hastily. With a skillful drop, the soup landed easily inside the leaves, the rest of them either drinking it or using the leaf-spoons Wakka had made alongside the bowls.

"I've never seen something like this before," Lenne finally stated as she took the oddly stiff leaf-spoon and placed it in her bowl. "How is the liquid staying inside?" The others had glanced up at her question, Wakka smiling broadly at being pseudo-complimented on his handiwork.

"It's all in the weave," he replied. "And the thickness of the leaves." They'd had a considerable more difficult time being able to eat when they'd been in places like Gagazet or the Thunder Plains (though they'd had the travel agency at the latter). Usually they'd either ended up eating things dry or finding suitable rocks to use as dishes.

"Don't wait too long to eat though," Rikku piped in. "The heat does get through eventually." Because Rikku had also once been equally impressed and had waited so long examining the bowl that the soup had soaked through, beginning to drip away. Nodding in understanding, Lenne soon went about her meal as well, the group once more falling into light conversation as the day waned.

The contentment, despite their agenda, was felt by all. The easy progress of the day was something they wished would continue, but knew, one way or another, couldn't last forever.

The dawn always came.