"I'll 'see' the dead person I'm thinking about... I don't know. What if... somehow... I'll see my wife? Or Tidus?"
"Why would they be dead?" Auron asked.
"Anything can happen, expecially in this world. I don't know... dammit."
"Come on. Maybe you'll find out how you got here."
Jecht thought Farplane was quite an eerie place as he walked inside. He hesitated a bit but decided to go on. He had nothing to lose but maybe something to win. That's what he told himself as he tried to think about Tidus. His hands were shaking because of fear - fear that shouldn't have existed. Then he thought how stupid his thoughts were; Tidus had to be alive. There was no reason for him to be dead. It was just a stupid sensation.
"Tidus..." he quietly said to himself. Nothing. There was nothing.
Tidus was alive and that was enough for Jecht. He walked out of there.
Auron was talking to his mother. She appeared before him as beautiful as she had been two years ago, before her death. She was smiling happily.
"Mom... I'm a full-fledged guardian now. I know you wanted me to get a steady job and start a family but this is what I want to do. I was out that day when you... killed yourself." A tear came to Auron's eye. "I could've stopped you from doing that. You were so down because dad left and I should've been there for you. But I wasn't. Now I want to make up for that by protecting those who need help. I know you would accept that."
Auron looked at his mother's gentle eyes and found comfort from them. He took a deep breath to prevent himself from crying, said good bye and slowly walked out. Jecht was waiting outside.
"Did you see any ghosts?" he asked.
"Kind of. Old memories. Did you see anyone?"
"Nope. It means that Tidus is still alive, although I had no reason to suspect that. He must be in Zanarkand."
"I guess. Sounds unbelievable, though. It won't take long for us to get there."
"You don't sound too happy about that."
Auron looked at Jecht. He didn't know about the Final Summoning? Of course he didn't!
"It's because of the Final Summoning, Jecht. I would've told you about it but I didn't realize you didn't know. A summoner needs to summon the Final Aeon in order to defeat Sin... And that Final Aeon... is really final. The summoner dies."
"Dies! You mean... Braska will...?"
"...die. Yes."
"You're cool about it? I thought you were friends. But the only thing that matters to you is that fucking temple thing! Braska will die because of Yevon! I thought we're gonna beat it like we beat normal fiends!"
"Look, Jecht..."
"I can't accept that. Either we beat it normally or you can count me out."
"You don't understand..."
"Tell me what you've decided. I'm gonna take a walk."
Auron sighed in depression.
Jecht walked away. He couldn't force himself to accept that one's life would be sacrificed because a bunch of priests demands so. He didn't know that the Final Summoning was the only way to defeat Sin - that they had gone to all the temples to acquire the Final Aeon. In his mind the whole temple was nothing but an organisation full of murderers. He kicked a tree in anger.
"Is something wrong, my friend?" A voice from behind asked. Jecht turned around to see a priest standing there.
"Hmph. You fucking bunch of murderers."
"Excuse me?"
"You send people to die. You could build a bomb to get rid of Sin. Or would that violate your teachings? Is it better to make people die!"
"W-what are you saying? Are you suggesting we should use f-forbidden... machina!"
"Or an army. Whatever. Yevon - if he EXISTED - would hate you more because you murder people than for using machina."
"You SWINE! How dare you mock Yevon!" The priest - a well-built man in his thirties - cried. "SWINE!"
The priest pushed Jecht. Jecht pushed him back. Then he tried to strangle Jecht but Jecht managed to dodge and draw his sword. He wasn't going to do anything to the priest but the people around them didn't know that. Two strong Guados grabbed him by the arms to hold him back. At the same time Auron made his way through the crowd surrounding them.
"Stop! He's my friend! We were in Lacya when Sin attacked and Sin's toxin is still affecting him."
"That swine mocked Yevon and his teachings!" the priest said.
"Yes, that's because of Sin's toxin. Now you see what it does! Horrible, isn't it?"
The Guados holding Jecht looked at each others and let go of him.
"Get out of here. You're no longer welcome."
Auron wasn't sure if that meant them both. He dragged Jecht to the entrance of Thunder Plains.
"Jecht... when we get to the Travel Agency I want to have a word with you."
"What about Braska?"
"He's just gonna have to follow us. We can't stay here, and we definately can't wait at the Thunder Plains."
AUTHOR: Haha, almost a month without updates. A new record. I came back over two weeks ago, I've just been two lazy to write. Heh heh. Anyways, to the chapter: I can do better but a break this long affects my writing. I'd like to hear comments, though.