I saw a city. Bigger than Luca. Bigger than Bevelle. A city full of towering buildings, and blinking, flashing, glowing lights that blotted out the stars in the night sky above it. I saw hundreds of thousands of people, walking wherever they were going, passing me by with total indifference.

I was standing in the middle of a bustling street amongst all these people. I looked up, seeing a huge screen on the building next to me, and it was showing my dad's face. My dad looked back at me from that screen; he looked younger than I knew him.

I heard his voice speaking to me. "It's all you now, Riza," he said.

I felt someone behind me, and I turned around. My mom was standing there. She looked younger, too. "We always knew you were special," she said.

All of a sudden the city around me came to a stop. Everyone froze right where they were in mid-stride. Only my mom was still moving. And then I caught more movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked to the side, where I saw a small boy in a purple hooded vest. "Our dream is yours now," he said.

"Who are you?"

Before I could get an answer, the city began to fade…

"E drehg cra'c fygehk ib," someone said.

I blinked several times before I was able to make out the white ceiling above me, and the face of an Al Bhed man looking down at me. He moved away from me once my vision started to clear. As soon as I was awake enough to feel my body, I wished I wasn't. Every part of my skin felt frozen and stiff.

It took me a second to remember why. The last thing I recalled was being trapped in ice by an aeon, and while I clearly wasn't there anymore, it still felt like I was. I groaned. I groaned loud.

I lifted my head just as much as I could stand to, and saw Gippal approaching me. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"Like shoopuff doody."

"At least she still sounds like Riza," said someone off to my right. I turned my head to see Farru, already awake and sitting up in another bed past the one where Nadaleen was still out cold (pardon my pun). Vidina, Paine and Camall were still sleeping to my left.

A little while later all of us were awake and sitting upright in the beds the Machine Faction had put us in, most of us wrapping ourselves tight in the heavy blankets they'd put over us. Gippal explained to us that we were in the outpost the Al Bhed had set up next to the lake, and that it had been nearly three days since we went into the temple. He said he and his group had fought off the aeon and gotten us out of the temple, along with the rest of the people who were frozen in there. They'd spent the days since then thawing us out. While we'd woken up, as we expected the other people were still comatose, just like Rikku.

"I'd like to check on them," Paine said, shakily getting to her feet and shedding her blanket.

"You sure you're up for moving around?" Gippal said.

"Just take me to them," she said.

Gippal gave no further argument. He'd known Paine long enough to know not to try to change her mind. He guided her out of the room.

"Farru?" Nadaleen said weakly. "…I'm still cold."

Farru managed to get up from his bed, climb onto Nadaleen's and fold her into his arms. Nadaleen closed her eyes, laid her head against his chest and hummed softly.

"Get a room, kids," Camall said, arising from his bed and heading for the door. "I'm gonna find a bathroom."

Personally, I thought the two of them had the right idea. I would've liked to have been in Nadaleen's place right then, after being surrounded by all that ice… ice, ice, ice… I shivered. I could still feel the ice forming around me, sealing me in, freezing every nerve in my body… I think I have an idea now of what being dead must feel like.

To my left, Vidina was up on his feet, flexing his stiff muscles. "Hey, Vidina," I said.

"Yeah?"

"Come here a second."

Vidina walked over to my bed. "A little closer," I said, beckoning him with my finger.

He bent down closer to me. "What's up, Riza?"

I grabbed his collar and stared him right in the face. "I never, ever want to see ice again!"

***

Sadly, I did end up having to see ice again a few hours later, when we stepped outside and walked the short distance from the outpost to where Murran had landed the airship. But as soon as we were inside the airship… ohhh, I had never been so happy to inside any place in my life. It was warm in there! Ahhh, warmth! I went straight for the cabin and flopped right down on my bed, which right then might as well have been made out of clouds.

I think I must have dozed off for a while, because I didn't even feel it when the airship finally lifted off. I was just so happy to be in a warm room, lying on a soft, warm bed, and not surrounded by ice! I could already tell that being frozen was going to become a staple of my nightmares for the rest of my life.

What I remember next was seeing Vidina sitting down on the bed next to me, with a heavy look on his face. "Vidina? Something wrong?"

He turned his head and stared at me. "Riza, how are you so relaxed?"

I wrinkled my brow, puzzled by his question. "It's a skill," I quipped.

"Aren't you disappointed?"

"About what?"

"We should've found our parents down there. But we didn't."

Oh, yeah. My face fell. "I guess I've been trying not to think about it. Trying and succeeding, apparently."

"We went through all that trouble, walked through that ice box and got ourselves frozen for nothing!"

"It wasn't for nothing! We found a whole bunch of people down there!"

"A bunch of people who aren't any better off since we got them out of there, and we still didn't find the ones we were looking for. And we're still no closer to finding them, either."

"Come on, Vidina, that's cold." …We both paused while he looked at me and I rolled my eyes, neither of us pleased by my choice of words. "What I mean is, at least we accomplished something. We know that someone put those people in that temple, so that's got to be a clue."

"I don't care about clues anymore!" Vidina fumed, pounding the bed with his fist. "I'm tired of running around, chasing leads! We all know Roumsey's got something to do with this, but we're too busy trying to prove it to do what we should be doing!"

"And what's that?"

"Flying this tub back to Bevelle and choking some answers out of Roumsey!"

"Well what if we're wrong? What if he's not the one who's got them?"

"Then at least we'll know. We put the squeeze on him till he either coughs up where they are or convinces us that he doesn't have 'em!"

I frowned, and sighed. I got up and sat down on Vidina's bed next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Vidina, I know you're still upset about this. I am too. But you gotta calm down. You're not thinking."

"Maybe because I'm tired of thinking. I wanna start doing!"

This was a twist, I realized. I was usually the impatient one of the two of us. Vidina had always been the patient, cautious one. I thought back on all the times back on Besaid when he'd tried to talk me and Farru out of our latest adventures, sometimes even alerting our parents when he really thought our plan was a bad idea and we couldn't be dissuaded (which never exactly endeared him to us). But then, that was just it: he'd never been as brave as I was. He didn't have the same kind of courage to deal with this the way I was dealing with it. As much as I'd been out of my mind for the last—I'd totally lost count by now of how many days it had been—not knowing where my parents were or if they were even alive, I could only imagine how Vidina was handling the same situation.

I sat there for a long while, trying to come up with anything I could say to him. I got nothing. I mean, come on, who was I to try to talk down someone who was looking for trouble? Trouble is what I do best.

I guess being calm and thinking things through was what Paine was there for. "We should talk to Paine, and see what she thinks."

Vidina looked at me, not looking happy with that, and then finally got up and started walking for the stairway. "Fine. I'll go talk to Paine."

I felt an unpleasant feeling in my stomach watching him walk away unfulfilled like that. "Vidina," I said, getting up and then stopping blank. Vidina looked back over his shoulder at me, waiting for me to continue. Which is exactly what I was waiting for, too. "I don't mean… I mean I… I understand what you…"

"Riza, I don't need you trying to give me talking to right now, so just skip it." And then he left.

I sat back down heavily. Ugh… that could've gone better. When I thought about it, though, Vidina was right about one thing: we needed to do something. We just had to figure out what, and with the mood he was in we should probably figure it out sooner rather than later. I decided I should find the others and discuss our next move.

I exited the cabin in time to find Camall approaching. "Oh, hey Camall. Did you see Vidina come this way just now?"

"Yeah, he was heading back that way," he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.

"Paine that way?"

"Last I saw her. Something up?"

"Vidina's frustrated. We should start working out where we go from here."

"Already? Don't you think we oughtta take a while to relax after what we've just been through?"

I kind of chuckled to myself. "Yeah, that's exactly what I thought, but I don't think Vidina's capable of relaxing right now."

Camall looked back behind him. "That guy needs to unwind."

"Can you really blame him?"

"You seem okay."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's just work on getting everyone together. Do you know where Farru and Nadaleen are?"

"Nah, but they're around here somewhere."

"I'm gonna go look for them."

A curious smirk crept into Camall's face. "You do that," he said before turning and leaving. I creased my brow, wondering what was going through that head of his when he said that.

So I started wandering the corridors, looking for them. It didn't take me all that long; I mean, honestly, the airship really wasn't that big. But as soon as I turned a corner and found them, I came to an instant stop. Farru had his back up against the wall, and he was clutching Nadaleen to him tightly. But that wasn't the reason I froze so suddenly.

The fact that they were in the middle of an intense lip-lock was.

"Whoa!" I gasped.

They immediately broke their kiss and looked up at me. "Riza…" Farru said bashfully. Nadaleen put a hand over her bright pink face and turned away giggling. "Well, I guess the secret's out," Farru said.

"What secret?" I said. "Everyone's seen you two making googly eyes at each other! Heck, Camall's been gabbing about it all the time," I added, realizing Camall must have known I was going to find them like this.

"Well, we just… I mean…" Farru stammered.

"Hey, don't worry about it," I said, stepping forward. "Everybody's happy for you guys. Anyway, we're getting everybody together for some planning, so we should head to the bridge."

"Yeah, okay," Farru nodded.

They started walking hand-in-hand when I had another thought. "Actually, Nadaleen, why don't you go ahead, and give me a Farru a minute to talk."

They looked at each other a moment, and Farru nodded. They came together briefly for another kiss, and then slowly pulled apart, keeping their hands together for as long as possible. Farru kept staring after Nadaleen as she walked away. I stepped up to him chuckling. "Glad to see something good came out of this mess."

Farru didn't answer. He just kept staring in the direction Nadaleen had gone. "Uh, hello? Farru?"

"I think I love that girl."

"Hey, Farru! Can you step out of the clouds and rejoin the rest of us on Spira please?"

"What?"

"Look, Farru, it's great you've found someone who makes your head go all flooey, but I'm talking to you here."

"Sorry, I'm listening."

"I'm worried about Vidina."

"Vidina? Why?"

"He's not handling what happened in that temple so well. He's really disappointed that we didn't find our parents, and he's acting like he wants to kill something."

"Vidina?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Well… I don't know what you want me to do. You're the one whose parents are missing too; I don't know what I'm gonna say."

I paused, shrugging. "I don't know what to say to him either. I just think… look, except for me, you know him better than any of us. I don't know, maybe one of us can get through to him or something…"

Farru sighed. "All right. I'll try talking to him, maybe I can get him to gear down."

***

A few minutes later we were all gathered on the bridge. Vidina had his arms folded and was staring out the front screen past where Murran was sitting. "So, where do we go now?" I asked.

"I think I might have an idea," Murran said. "There's some big hubbub going on over at Bevelle."

"Hubbub?" Farru said. "What kind of hubbub?"

"Seems you got the Youth League really riled up with your speech in Luca," Murran said. "Now they're banging on New Yevon's door, demanding that Roumsey release the High Summoner and the others."

"And you think we should intervene?" Camall asked.

"I think we should at least check it out," Murran said.

"So it's back to Bevelle," said Paine.

Vidina slapped his fist and open palm together. "About time, ya?"