"Well, this certainly will be an interesting match, Bobba."

"It certainly will, Jimma." I was beginning to think they said that about every match. "It looks like the Aurochs are heating up for the tournament again, if yesterday's game is any indication. Their innovative offense brought the crowd to its feet in the first match."

"Today they're facing the Al Bhed Psyches, the team they defeated in the semifinals of last season's Yevon Cup tournament. The rivalry between these two veteran teams is sure to be bitter, given the beating former Auroch captain Wakka took at the hands of the Psyches' defensewomen during that game."

"The Psyches' defense is well-known for being ruthless, Jimma. Let's see how the underdogs hold up against them."

I wondered if, somewhere in the middle of Sanubia, Naaga was watching this on the sphere. I wondered if she still had a sphere to watch it on, or if the bill collectors had taken that, too. No, she was probably still on the submarine with Cid and Brother. Gritting my teeth, I wondered if Brother was keeping his hands off her.

"Ready to go?" Tidus asked, shaking me out of my haze.

I nodded. "Yeah, let's bring it!"

Datto sidled up to me. In a low voice, he muttered, "Yeah, you'd better bring it." I strained not to punch him.

"...the Besaid Aurochs!" Bobba was yelling. Wild cheers from the stands - even as unpopular as we were with the home crowd, apparently the Aurochs were still better liked than the Psyches. I jumped into the pool and swam out through the tunnel into the sphere. Miyu was out there somewhere cheering for me, I knew, and Bickson would be sitting with the rest of the Goers, watching with only half their attention as they thought about their own next match a few hours away. Rin would have a good seat and be watching with a coach's eye, cataloging every mistake to bring up when we met this evening. But I couldn't afford to get distracted thinking about any of them right now, and I kept my eyes forward as I swam out to my place in the center of the sphere to greet the opposing team.

There they were in the flesh, their black-and-rust uniforms looking like dried blood against the clear blue water. As used as I was to being around people with goggles, for just a second I saw them the way the Yevonites must: totally impassive, like stone statues or soldiers. There was no pity in those faces, and with a jolt, I realized that was how I must look to the rest of the Aurochs too. I couldn't see it, but I could feel their eyes on me.

We broke after the requisite greetings and I swam to my position in centersphere, flanked by Tidus and Botta. Berrik turned and mouthed something I couldn't see to Nimrook, who nodded and mouthed back "Normal" in Al Bhed.

I snagged Tidus' sleeve and told him, "They're going in for the standard formation. Just go straight for the goal and don't stop." He nodded and tensed for the blitzoff.

Blitzoff #1 almost didn't go to anyone - Berrik and Letty both leapt at the same angle and their hands ended up crashing into each other. Fumbling wildly, Berrik came up with it and tried to break through the line between Letty and Tidus. They both turned in on him. He broke Letty's Venom Tackle, but after that he cocked his arm and sent a pass sailing toward Blappa. Tidus leapt up and took about half the momentum off it, but the ball still went spinning straight into the forward's hands.

Blappa tried to break up the right edge of the sphere. I dove for him, but I was too slow, and he was already grappling with Botta when I got there. He took Botta's tackle in the chest stoically and kept dribbling. His first mistake came when he tried to shoot from the center of the sphere and Botta snagged the ball out of the water like he was picking a cherry.

Botta cut up the center, trying to get Judda out of the way so he could pass to Tidus. She was faster, though, and she intercepted the pass easily. Immediately, both of them sprang back at her. Botta's tackle left her winded, but Tidus couldn't block her attempt at shooting. She wasn't a forward or even close, though, and her shot had almost completely run out of momentum by the time Keepa picked it up and sent it spinning straight back to Jassu.

Jassu streaked up the left side and converged with Tidus almost directly in front of the Psyches' goal, but Judda and Berrik had recovered and met him there. Desperately, Jassu tried to pass the ball off to Tidus. The guard couldn't touch it, but Berrik was ready and nailed it. Tidus just managed to catch it and run it straight up to the goal.

Judda doubled back and she and Lakkam put themselves between Tidus and Nimrook, circling like alycones. Tidus tossed his head at them in annoyance, let the ball go, and punched it hard. I stared, wondering what the hell he was doing, until it hit Lakkam square in the chest and rebounded back into hands. He was using the ball to tackle! The second time he bounced it off Judda's shoulder. When it returned, he leapt up, spinning wildly, and then shot his leg out and kicked that blitzball with all his strength.

Nimrook was probably as totally bewildered as I was, but he was better at hiding it. As I watched him, I was amazed by his ability to look dignified and calm even while lunging at the ball. He, like Miyu, had one of the best qualities in a goalie - a kind of fluidity that made every motion look graceful.

As impressive as it was, it turned out to be worthless. The shot went in.

1-0. Great. But it wasn't my shot. I'd have to break our defensive formation to get the winning goal I'd promised, but they'd thank me when it worked.

The second blitzoff was automatically awarded to Berrik, and the Aurochs glided into a tighter defensive formation. The midfielder swam straight towards me, but I was ready with a Nap Tackle and my foot hit him square on the chest so hard I was a little off balance coming out of the tackle. I'd really wanted to see him sleeping when I spun back around, but he was blinking his eyes and recovering. I must've left him with almost no endurance, but almost doesn't cut it in blitzball, and now he was past me.

He sent the ball to Eigaar, who broke far to the left edge of the water and ran straight into Jassu and Letty. Without breaking, he hurled a long pass across the sphere to Blappa. Both of the Aurochs jumped for it, but it was still going. If I hadn't been holding my breath already, I would've started then as the ball slowed down, but it was still just barely moving as Blappa caught it. He ducked past Tidus and tried to get around Botta, but it was no use. Botta got the ball, broke midfield, and passed it to me. He was too far away, though, and I almost fumbled before regaining control.

Then came my big mistake. Visions of scoring a glorious goal and laughing in Datto's face were still dancing in my head, and I broke formation to start heading toward Nimrook and victory. Stupid timing. I made it three strokes before I got surrounded by Judda, Berrik, and Lakkam.

There was no way, even a fluke, that even a Nap Shot 3 could get through that wall and score. My only chance was to try to break through all of them and hope I could get the ball back to the others. Clenching my teeth, I tightened my grip on the ball and braced myself.

Judda sent herself into a spin with one leg straight out. It hit me hard in the stomach. Involuntarily, I bent over double, struggling to keep from gasping for air. While I was bent, Lakkam hurled all her weight at my right shoulder. My body shuddered and curled up into a ball, white-hot pain shooting through my entire torso. I was on my side clinging to the blitzball like it was the only thing I had left in the world when Berrik reared back, totally inverting his body and slamming into my chest.

The hours of practice with Bickson had done nothing to prepare me for this.

I think I cried out, because I heard a strangled, animal-like noise and saw the bubbles rising from my mouth. It wasn't until I wrapped my arms around myself that I realized I no longer had the ball. Through the haze of pain, I lifted my head to watch Berrik shoot past Tidus and Botta and sink a shot. Keepa was still cursing as the buzzer rang for halftime.

The announcers were saying something, but I couldn't make out what. As I floated, a sharper, louder sound cut through above the rest of the noise: "Linna! Linna!" It was garbled, but I could make it out. I blinked - the sunlight suddenly seemed so bright - at Tidus, and realized dimly that he'd literally been yelling. Whatever he was shouting about, it didn't seem important right then. I was losing consciousness.

I must've inhaled when I started to black out, because all of a sudden I was aware of pain stabbing like a knife through my lungs and I was choking. Right away I was awake and panicking. Sitting down to freeze to death in the snow in Macalania was one thing, but with water rushing into my lungs, I didn't want to die.

The bright water was starting to fade into darkness. I was losing it again when I felt a pair of strong arms around me, pulling me through the water.

As soon as we surfaced in the pool, I came to enough to gag and gasp for air. Someone was pressing gently on my chest, but I made a croaking sound and the pressure stopped. I was being cradled in someone's arms and sat up until I had coughed up all the water in my lungs. My chest was still burning when Tidus carried me into the locker room and set me down on the bench, but most of the choking had stopped.

"What was that?!" Wakka demanded as soon as I opened my eyes. Tidus had my goggles off and was running a cool cloth over my forehead. "What happened to the formation we agreed on?!"

Tidus turned on him. "Wakka, calm down! Can't you tell she's in trouble?"

"I don't care! Look, you, so maybe you can shoot. Big deal! Doesn't mean you can break formation whenever you feel like it, ya?"

I spit out a mouthful of sphere water and gave him the evil eye. "Get off my back!" I sputtered angrily. "I did what I thought was best."

"No, you were being a show-off, and-"

"Enough, you guys!" Tidus was really getting angry now. We both shut up immediately, glaring at each other. "Linna," the captain continued, "I'm not gonna yell at you. I know how bad you want to win. But you gotta pick your times, okay? Now the score is tied, and we're not going to be able to use you in the second half."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded, struggling to sit up. "You're using Datto?!"

"We don't have a choice. You're half-drowned, and you took a major beating."

"Oh, not on your life!" I shoved myself up into a sitting position. "You guys got any medical tape?"

No one moved. I reached out, hooked my finger on the opening trigger of the nearest locker, and grabbed the medical kit. Shakily, I stood up and staggered into the shower. I only had a few minutes.

Inside, I dragged the curtain across the metal bar and sat down heavily on the floor. It took some effort to peel the sopping wet vinyl of my uniform off my skin, but once I had the top off, I inspected my upper body. My shoulder hurt like hell where Lakkam had hit it, but I was reasonably sure none my ribs were cracked and nothing was broken - I wouldn't be moving as well as I was if something was really wrong. I'd just have some nasty bruises. Like battle scars. I knew someone who might be into that.

Viciously, I ripped the end of the medical tape off and wrapped the entire roll tightly around my ribs, just in case. In the bottom of the kit, I found two painkillers in a plastic bag. I didn't have a cup, so I popped the two little blue pills into my mouth and ran the shower water down my throat until I could swallow. Then I put my uniform back on, pulled myself to my feet, and hauled myself back out into the locker room.

"All right, team, let's go do this!" I said with every drop of energy I could wring out of myself.

Datto was already gearing up to go in. The Aurochs were staring. Even Keepa stopped chewing.

"There's no way," Wakka insisted. "Those Al Bhed really did a number on you. And you oughtta be benched anyway."

I yanked the neckline of my uniform down with two fingers. Wakka's face flushed, but when he looked, he could see the shell of medical tape encasing my chest and ribcage. I let the material snap back and stared him down with the full force of my green eyes.

"This is my responsibility," I said quietly. "Fine, Wakka. I screwed up. But let me back out in that sphere and I'll fix it."

"You're not gonna let her back out there!" Datto interjected. "Look at that her! She's half-dead!"

I was going about this the wrong way. I turned to Tidus instead. "Captain, please," I begged. "You know we're not going to come back from this if you don't have another strong tech shooter out there. Their defense is totally on fire today. I'm not seriously injured, and as soon as the painkillers kick in, I won't even feel a thing. But if you don't want to watch the Psyches walk off with the Yevon Cup, let me out there."

No one spoke. Finally, Tidus asked, "You sure you're all right?"

"Never better," I lied through my teeth.

He sighed and tossed me my goggles. "Let's get back out there."