Chapter 14: Dim Days of Dolor

It was well-known twins shared a spiritual connection and could sense when the other was in trouble, or had even died, which is why Tidus had no reason to doubt his daughter's intuition. Zanarkand's keepers had taken his son.

He had been sitting at the dining table giving Vidina the 'concerned-parent-talk' when he had heard his wife and daughter's anguished cries. At first, he thought it was just his daughter throwing a temper tantrum over the new house rules, but he quickly learned it was far worse than he could've ever imagined. Another promise broken. He couldn't protect his son.

Sitting on a crate in the dusty confines of his attic with the only light emitting from a single bulb swaying above his head, he rummaged through a metal trunk, searching for his old weapons. He wanted to cry so badly. He wanted to hold his wife and daughter and share in their weeping, but he had to be the pillar holding up what was left of his broken family if they were going to get through this. Instead of being consumed by grief, he channeled the one emotion he felt was a suitable replacement—pure rage.

He smiled when he spotted his blue, brotherhood sword, envisioning the blade severing off the head of that child-like demon who had turned his life into a living hell. Yes, rage was a beautiful thing, along with the type of courage it provided. He no longer feared dying or cared what anyone thought of him. All he could think about was snuffing out the lives of those twisted evil bastards that called themselves the fayth.

Carefully retrieving his sword out of the trunk, he set it on his lap and ran his fingers along the cool glowing blade. He was going to slaughter those keepers and get his son back. After all, Nymeia was god, right? There had to be some way to convince her to bring his son home.

The creaking sound of someone ascending the steps interrupted his murderous thoughts. He was really in no mood for any company.

"Tidus?"

He kept his eyes glued on his sword, refusing to meet his wife's gaze—afraid seeing the sorrow in them may cause his resolve to crumble. "Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"Preparing for battle, what else?"

"We just lost our son." The anguish in her voice was soul crushing.

"He's not dead, Yuna. He's in Zanarkand."

"He's not in this world anymore, so it's almost—"

"Don't say it!" he snapped. "It's not even close to the same thing."

"You need to grieve. Have you even cried yet?"

It already felt like his heart had been torn out of his chest and shredded into tiny bits. Her persistence on the matter was only making things worse, adding guilt to the equation. "Crying won't bring him back. Killing those twisted keepers…now that…that's our only hope in seeing our son again."

"Maybe…Maybe we should side with Zanarkand, after all."

Her shocking suggestion prompted him to snap his head up and look her in the eye. She looked broken, but serious, no less. "After ridiculing me for two days, you're suddenly all for this?"

"Things have changed. They have our son now."

"What about the rest of Spira? You're willing to sacrifice an entire civilization?"

"I've sacrificed enough for Spira!" she hollered, slamming her fist against the wall. "What about my happiness? I want my son back! I want my life back! If Spira has to burn to the ground for that to happen, then so be it!"

To say he was stunned would be an understatement. He never expected to hear those words leave her lips. She was clearly lashing out in her grief-stricken state. "C'mon Yuna, you don't really mean that. We have a chance to liberate this realm. We shouldn't dismiss it."

An anguished expression returned to her beautiful face. "Why," she sobbed, "why did you have to make a deal with them?"

Her words felt like a sharp sword being thrust through his chest. Finally, the truth came out. She really did blame him. And what was worse, she was correct in doing so. Whatever was holding his resolve together finally came unglued. The sword slipped off his lap and fell to the wooden floor with a thud. Unable to contain his grief any longer, he buried his face into his hands, and burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized with a sniffle. "I shouldn't have said that."

The floorboards creaked along with the padded sound of his wife's light footsteps approaching. He wanted to be left alone. After all, he felt he deserved it.

Her tiny fingers pried his hands away from his face, forcing him to look in her the eye as she crouched in front of him. "That wasn't fair of me. It's was the pain talking."

Fighting to regain his composure, he drew in a quick breath and wiped the tears from his eyes. "You're right to blame me. I should've told you the truth that morning. None of this would've happened then."

"You don't know that. Something else could've happened instead. Maybe something worse, we don't' know."

Her attempt to console him wasn't working. The truth hurt. Sending his father to negotiate with Zanarkand's keepers had only made the situation worse. He could no longer deny it. His son was gone as a result. "Look, I screwed up, big time. I own it. I promised to keep our son safe and I failed. But, I swear to you, Yuna, I'll do whatever it takes to bring him home. Whatever it takes..."

"I know you will," she said, laying a gentle, reassuring hand on his cheek. "We both will."

Reaching down between them, he retrieved his sword, and set it back on his lap. "We need to prepare…tonight."

His wife's eyes slightly widened at his suggestion. "What do you mean, tonight?"

"We can't afford to wait any longer." Gripping the hilt of his sword in his right hand, he stood and helped his wife to her feet. "I plan on ending this tomorrow."

"You don't even know how to use these powers yet. And Tris, she only summoned Leviathan earlier today."

"Which is why we're going to Baaj Temple tonight to train."

"That place has been condemned for years. It's a hot spot for fiends!"

"Exactly! It's the perfect training ground. If we can't take out the fiends there then we might as well surrender to those demons."

Yuna frowned. "We should give this some more thought. We really have no idea what we're up against when it comes to those keepers."

"The longer we wait, we risk something else going wrong. You know as well as I do, Vidina will be next. Only there'll be no way to bring him back. He'll be dead. Explain that to Wakka and Lulu. And if that's not enough to convince you, every day Zak spends in Zanarkand, lessens our chances of him returning home. He'll merge with that realm instead. I'm gonna be honest, I dunno what the time frame for that is. Bahamut didn't exactly elaborate. Do you wanna take that risk as well?"

"...I sure hope you know what you're doing."

"Guess we'll find out soon enough."

With no time to waste, Tidus hurried down the steps into the hall then made his way over to the living room where his daughter sat curled up against Vidina on the sofa, clearly still upset from the tears staining her cheeks.

"Look alive kids, we've got work to do." Undoubtedly, his words were insensitive in regards to the situation, but his daughter wallowing in grief and self-pity wasn't going to change anything.

The glower she gave in return, only confirmed her irritation with him. "What's with you?"

"We're heading out to Baaj Temple to train."

His daughter's eyes grew wide as she sat up straight. "Tonight? Are you crazy?!"

"Your father plans to battle Spira's keepers tomorrow."

"That's insane! I don't even know what I'm doing!"

"Well, you're gonna learn tonight," Tidus insisted.

Trista looked completely dumbfounded with her eyes darting around and her mouth slightly ajar. "I—I can't. How can I concentrate? I just lost my twin!"

"And that's why we need to do this. The faster we end this, the sooner he'll return home."

"How do you know that? Killing Spira's keepers won't bring my brother back. He's in Zanarkand."

"We'll have an audience with a god. I'm sure they can make it happen. I'll do whatever I have to in order to convince Nymeia to do so."

"And if you can't?"

Failure was not an option. He wouldn't even entertain the thought. There had to be some way for Nymeia to understand his pain, even a god had to have feelings. After all, he was her kin, which meant she had to be in love with a human at least once during her existence.

"Tris, maybe you should trust your dad on dis," Vidina suggested. "He makes a valid point. One I happen to agree with."

The disapproving glare his daughter shot Vidina almost made him chuckle. It reminded him of the first quarrel he had with Yuna. "You can't be serious? You're all crazy! We're gonna get ourselves killed!"

"Says the girl who wanted to rush out into the sea earlier tonight and investigate a strange light." He couldn't help but get that little dig in on her. And honestly, it was the best way to prove his point.

With a dejected sigh, she folded her arms over her chest. "And how are we gonna get out there? It's not like we can get an airship ride to a condemned temple."

An amused smile spread across his lips when he envisioned the look on his daughter's face once he voiced his proposal. "I was thinking we'd hitch a ride on the back of that summon of yours."

And her reaction didn't disappoint, looking at him as if he had grown two extra heads. "You wanna ride Leviathan out to those ruins?! Now I know you've lost your mind."

"Can I be the voice of reason for a moment?" Yuna interjected.

"Yes, please!" Trista implored.

"I know this all sounds risky, and it is, but we have to act now before these keepers learn what we're plotting. They're not playing games. Both sides have already proven that. Do we really want to chance them growing even more desperate? Too much is at stake…and we've already lost so much."

The mood of the room dropped to a somber one after his wife's little speech. He sensed his daughter would be a willing participant now from the sobering look in her eyes. Yuna certainly had that effect on people.

In an effort to ease the tension, Tidus cleared his throat and turned his attention to the young man sitting beside his daughter. "How advanced are your black magic skills?"

Vidina seemed a little tense by the question, now sitting up with his hands clamped between his knees. "I... Uh... I guess they're average."

Honestly, he was quite surprised by the boy's answer. "Your mother is a world renown mage and you're only average?"

"Dad, seriously!" Trista chided.

Raising his sword slightly off the ground, he inspected the blade then studied Vidina's curious expression. "Maybe you'd fair better with something like this?"

"That's a cool lookin' sword."

A warm smile spread across his lips as he fondly remembered the day he received the weapon. "It's named, Brotherhood. Your father gave it to me when we embarked on Yuna's pilgrimage. I was about your age then…young and careless. I leaned quickly not to be, though. It was your Uncle Chappu's. Your father said I reminded him of his late younger brother. I guess that's why I became the proud owner of it."

"You guys were pretty close once, huh?"

Tidus rested the blade back on the carpet and exhaled heavily. "Yeah, until I pushed him away. Your father was like an older brother to me. I couldn't risk him learning the truth. So, I moved to Luca with Yuna and joined the Goers, knowing it would piss him off. But I knew that wouldn't be enough. I had to rub it in or else he'd be around all the time and eventually get mixed up in all this…like you are now."

"Wait, so you did it to protect him?" Vidina asked, surprised.

"I owed him and your mother that much. I think this belongs to you now," Tidus said, offering the sword to the young man. "He'd want you to have it."

The stunned look on Vidina's face was priceless. It was the kind of expression he expected to see if he were the winner of a sphere break tournament. Grabbing the sword by the hilt, the young man rose to his feet, and inspected the blue blade with a lopsided grin. "Very cool, Mr. T."

Cringing at the awful nickname, Tidus waved an accusing finger at the ginger-haired Besaidian. "If I ever hear you call me that again, I'm gonna have to tackle you to the ground."

"Alright, I hear ya," Vidina replied, holding a hand up in defense.

His daughter's face brightened. "Thanks, Daddy."

"Don't mention it."

"That was very gracious of you," Yuna whispered as she ran a gentle hand down his arm.

"He's gonna need it more than I will. It's not like we can leave him here with Bahamut gunning for him. I just hope he doesn't get himself killed in the process."

"We should head out back, so Tris can summon that thing," Yuna suggested.

Tidus nodded in agreement. "Alright you two, let's get moving. We've got some training to do."