"Rikku!" Yuna ran to embrace her cousin. I smiled to see their hug linger.

"Hey, where ya been?" said Wakka, poking Rikku. "You missed one hell of a…"

"I'm glad to see you," Yuna interrupted, pulling back to survey Rikku at arm's length. "When we saw that airship land, we knew it had to be you! You sure know how to make an entrance."

"We've brought you something." Rikku took the sphere out of her satchel. "Found it on Mt. Gagazet."

"I have something for you, too!" Yuna pulled her own sphere out of her sleeve, and the two exchanged spheres.

"Might want to watch yours first," urged Rikku.

Yuna activated the sphere, and the four of us crowded round the display.

"No, I'm not sorry!" said a man in a cage, the spitting image of Tidus. "I haven't done anything wrong! I know you're listening. If she was your girl, what would you do? How can you blame me for trying to use your weapon? It was the only way I could save the summoner! What would you do if you were me? Let me out!… I want to see her…" The image faded out.

I watched Yuna. She stared at the dormant sphere in her hands while Wakka babbled:

"What is this? What's he doing? I mean, is that really him? Is that… is he… what's going on?"

"We're not sure," said Rikku. "But… you wanna find out, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but…" said Wakka.

"Yes!" burst out of Yuna.

"Let's go, then!" said Rikku, punching the air.

"Go where?" said Yuna.

"Well, that's the tricky part," said Rikku.

"We found the sphere on Mount Gagazet," I said. "Kimahri may know more. We neglected to stop to ask him."

"Whoa!" said Wakka. "Slow down, there! You sure you're ready to just run off? Can't you wait until we find out a little more first?"

"And just who's supposed to do the finding out?" said Rikku. "Auron and I can't do everything on our own, magnificent though we are."

The Youth League stranger who'd been standing a little too close for comfort piped up, "Leave that to us! I'm sure Meyvn Nooj will agree to help. In fact, I volunteer to ask him myself!"

"Beat it, ya?" Wakka said to him.

"Understood! I shall return as soon as possible with a full report of our investigation!" said the man, saluting, and ran off. I shook my head.

"Look," said Rikku. "I'd really like Yuna to come with us, and it sounds like she wants to go."

"She can't," said Wakka.

"Why not?" said Rikku.

"Because she's booked solid for three months, ya! And everybody wants to see her," said Wakka.

I chuckled. "Isn't it up to Yuna to decide?"

"Well… gee…" Wakka rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable.

"I want…" said Yuna, and stopped. "I want…"

"C'mon, Yunie. Everyone's getting to live their dreams and do what they want, and you have more of a right to that than anybody," said Rikku. "It's your life."

"I'll go," said Yuna.

"Yuna!" said Wakka.

"I know it's selfish… but this is my story," said Yuna, and snuck a glance at me. I nodded to her.

"I knew it!" said Rikku. "Didn't I say? And Auron and I talked about it, and we're getting new clothes in Luca in honor of an all-new sphere hunting team: the Gullwings."

"Don't look at us, the name came with the airship and the sphere oscillo-finder," I said.

"Wait, you three! I'll go get Lu!" Wakka ran down the path into the village. Yuna watched him go, then turned to us.

"Let's leave!" she said. "Let's leave right now!"

"That's the spirit!" cried Rikku.


I had changed my mind about where my bunk would be, and claimed the small but private room in the cabin situated under the raised platform of bunks. It had a door, which I prized much more than space and a view. In the cramped space I divested myself for the last time of my monk robes.

A new life.

I eyed my garment grid warily.

A new mission.

I activated the Warrior dressphere.

A new team.

It felt creepy to have clothes swirling around me tightening, encasing my body, sliding over my skin.

New 'duds.'

I rubbed my chin, eyeing critically my small mirror. I hopped up onto the bed to survey the lower half of me. A perfunctory rap at the door was followed by Rikku shoving it open and coming in. She whistled at my skintight black leather pants and sleeveless top, the studded leather sword holster on my back, and boots with more buckles than any sane man should need in a lifetime of belts and shoes.

I jumped down with a thud, staring at her outfit, or lack thereof. Endless ruffles of white sleeves, a hairdo that looked like it had been hit by dexterous lightning, a teeny tiny yellow bikini and the merest whisper of a little skirt, in the back of which I saw her underwear riding up.

"I hope you're not expecting me to beat off amorous males with a stick for you," I said dryly.

"I'll take that as a compliment. I have bad news and good news, stud," she said, plopping her rear on my bunk.

"Shoot," I said, sitting beside her.

She looked grave. "The bad news is, sphere hunting is finished. Over. Done. Kaput. Finito. No more."

"And the good news?"

She produced a sphere. "This is because Yuna has given us the ultimate sphere, the sphere to end all spheres, that which makes all others obsolete and unnecessary, not to mention worthless, null, and void. I hold in my hands the most precious and valuable sphere ever discovered on Spira."

I rolled my eyes. "What a build-up."

"I'm perfectly serious. You'll be dumbfounded by what is on this sphere, I guarantee it."

"Enough already, let's have it."

She activated the sphere. The display showed a jerky handheld sphere-recording of ocean waves. It zoomed in, jerked a bit, and then I saw…

I put a hand to my face with a loud sigh. "Yuna…"

Rikku rolled on the bunk, laughing. In the face of that laughter, so infectious to me, I grinned and soon started to chuckle myself. She sat up, her face beaming like I hadn't seen since Yuna's pilgrimage. I watched Rikku watching Yuna's sphere recording of me surfing unsteadily off the Besaid coast, clad in a pair of Wakka's loudest blue and electric yellow batiked swimming trunks, my arms flung wide in desperation.

Eventually Rikku managed to get her laughter under control, and we could hear Yuna's tinny voice on the recording: "Wooooo! Oh yeah! Go AURON! Woohoo!"

"Anytime I think about unsent Auron," said Rikku, "I just have to look at this. You're so alive. Look at you! So alive." Her eyes, fixed to the recording, shone. She glanced up at me with that sunny expression I'd missed so much.

"Thanks to you," I said softly, just audible over the roaring surf on the recording and Yuna's yelp of 'oh no!' as I wiped out.

She inhaled, and let a deep satisfied sigh out, holding my gaze. "…Ditto."