NOTE! I am not changing the name, and I can't tell you why just yet. Just bear with me, righto?

Yeelloooo everybody! Ari is back with another chapter! And since Ari loves to talk in third person and really doesn't feel like writing the usual ramble of an opening author's note, Ari is going to get on with the story! Lyke, yayzorz! (gives high five to self)

…I guess you can call that clapping?

Auron was standing on a field of flowers, white and yellow ones with wide petals. The sky was almost white; an invisible sun beat warmly—almost painfully—down on his face. It took him a while to realize that the "sun" represented not warmth, but life.

So that was why it surrounded him, burned him, made him flush with pain. The light didn't stop at his skin; it was cutting down into him to see what exposed him for what he really was—his still heart. That was what hurt the most. He looked around for some means of shelter and found only that he wasn't alone. How useless.

It was a girl in her teens by the looks of her, a bit older than Rikku. She had snow white hair that hung a few inches below her shoulders, which was draped in front of her eyes except for some strands that she had tucked behind her right ear, exposing a heavy dog tag earring with words and numbers carved into the metal. Auron thought he could make out the word "experiment" and then a bunch of numbers. She wore a pale kimono dress with red trim, which made her look…angelic.

"It hurts me, too," she said softly. Auron was silent. "But it's hurting you for a different reason than it's hurting me."

She lifted her gaze, causing some of her hair to slide away. It never left her eyes, though.

"But it wants both of us to die."

"Why?" It seemed like a stupid question, but it seemed like his only relevant option. He couldn't just waltz up to her and ask, "Hey, what's your favorite color?" That would be something Rikku might do.

"Because we are both abominations," the girl replied. "But you more than I."

Sensing a question forming from him, she lifted a long red-lacquered fingernail.

"Go to wherever you need to. But go defeat Sin. They'll tell you everything afterwards, when they're protecting you."

The red on her nail acted as a sort of transition; one moment he was staring at it, the next he was staring at—what else?—his blood on the floor of the airship roof.

With his wide-eyed comrades surrounding him.

And no explanation at hand.

…Shoot. In the words of Rikku, this was going to be a toughie.

"Sir Auron!"

"Auron!"

"Old man, hey, you okay?"

He didn't care if he was okay, or at least not at the moment. All he cared about were the words that were bouncing painfully about inside his head.

"Auron, brother, am I going to die?"

Brother. Brother.

A million possibilities ran through his head. The child could have been good friends with him and called him brother because of it, or maybe that was just his nickname with her. Maybe she was just that fond of him. Or maybe…

Maybe I have a sister that I've completely forgotten, Auron dared to suggest.

He felt sick. Sick and ashamed.

In an attempt to redeem himself he tried to delve into his childhood memories; what he pulled out were years worth of blank gaps that spanned months—and one that even struck through an entire year—which held small memories that extended about five minutes for the longest. And even those were fragmented, and only showed times when he was alone.

He felt even more sick. He had forgotten his family.

He had forgotten. Not even the more recent vision of the mysterious white haired girl could compare to how so very bad that was.

Finally acknowledging the fact that blood was on his mouth, he lifted a hand to wipe it away and stood. Everyone fell silent; he must have looked grim. Good, he thought. Let them read me, for once.

He let Yuna scan over him with a new trick she'd recently learned, an ability that enabled her to check for internal wounds and heal them effectively. She appeared surprised at what she found, which was actually to Auron's dismay: nothing.

"So nothing's wrong?" Rikku repeated before gesturing, "Tell that to the red puddle on the floor."

"I—" Yuna started before Auron took a step forward.

"Yuna is right," he said. "I don't doubt her judgment."

Rikku was still pointing to the blood on the floor when she hesitated. "But I—what about…?"

He hadn't meant to put her up against her cousin; regret dominated. Hoo, boy. He could imagine a conversation with Jecht and Braska.

"Tidus loves your daughter," he would say. Jecht would smirk before Braska would smile and say "You love my niece." End of soon-to-be awkward discussion, please.

"If it happens again, you're resting again," Rikku decided.

Ahh, the power of suggestion; Auron held back another coughing fit. "Very well, then."

Her emerald spirals widened at his acceptance, but she quickly corrected herself. After all, she had awesome willpower. "Umm…to Zanarkand, then?" Apparently now she was willing to let it drop, along with all of the others—but why had they calmed down so quickly? Coughing up blood was not of the norm. Tidus grimaced.

"Yeah. To Zanarkand."

"I hate this place…"

Tidus sure could complain when he wanted to—Auron knew from past (and apparently present) experience.

"It's not my favorite place in the world, either," he growled. "Deal with it."

The boy winced as if struck, and he ignored it. He was too busy monitoring their surroundings with utmost care; he'd even taken the precaution to send out four pyreflies to act as a sort of reconnaissance team. They floated around the group, camouflaged against the other low-hovering spirits. Absolutely nothing was going to get past his notice, now. Why? He'd had a bad, paranoid feeling of impending doom ever since Yuna had announced that she'd wanted to go to Zanarkand. It had only worsened when they'd actually landed there.

Auron tapped into said four pyreflies, reading them like miniature radars. Miniature, complex, topographic radars. They sensed everything from above and below and in between, even letting him see into the ground. The stream of pyreflies above threw him off slightly because of their total and sheer mass, blocking out everything within ten feet of it. Fifty feet average diameter was a lot of blind space, but he was pretty sure that nothing was going to come dropping down in an attack. His tactician's mind began to plot against such an unlikely occurrence; anything to distract him from trying to remember his family.

Shadows covered the ever-dark city like a blanket with holes, covering up most of the light of the outside world. In the dome it was worse, even if the dome itself was open air. The sky was visible overhead, but any hopes that light might have had at reaching them vanished as they entered; they were thankful that the same ghost of an old man didn't appear to greet them. He probably wouldn't have been too happy with them, anyway.

Rikku kept stealing quick glances at him, quick because he was watching her every time she tried. She would give a little jump and keep walking, leaving him to wonder just how worried she was about him. He rolled his sword on his shoulder uncomfortably. Well he was keeping an eye on her, too, so he had no room to talk.

During their whole walk through the dome, something kept poking at the edges of his "radar," skirting around it as if in caution. He dismissed it as a timid fiend, but kept the incident in his mind for later. Just in case.

Ahh, sweet paranoia.

The visit began to pass even more swiftly than he had expected—or dreaded, rather. He soon found himself staring over the edge of Yunalesca's chamber platform, down into the abyss below. He couldn't help but wonder how long someone would fall if they jumped off.

Faintly he heard Yuna talking to Tidus behind him, talking about family. Great. The others joined in; apparently Wakka and Lulu'd had the same situation, that situation being that their parents had died when they had been in their early teens. And they already knew about Chappu. What about your family, Auron?

Wait…what?

"Yeah, what about your family?" Rikku asked.

He didn't know what to say, so the answer that escaped his throat surprised him.

"What family?"

In this case the answer sufficed quite nicely; to him, it meant "What family? I forgot them all, so they'd probably hate me for it should I ever meet them again." To the others, it meant "What family? They died. All of them."

"How old were you?" Yuna asked softly.

You were seven years old.

Bahamut? "I was seven," he repeated.

Everyone was silent, probably pitying him for the fact that none of them had lost any family until at least ten (except for Yuna, who had been the same age) while he had lost everyone at such a young age.

What happened to them? he asked the fayth, who said nothing in return. Ugh. Was everyone being mysterious today?

A spec of light in the abyss caught his eye, and he watched as it grew bigger. It was coming closer.

Approaching at an incredibly fast speed was a stream of pyreflies that was about at wide at the one that floated outside the dome, maybe thicker. He could sense all of them; each one was different, none having the same feel. He took a step back as he realized that it was going to skim the edge of the platform, earning confused glances from his comrades. They uttered cries of surprise as the stream burst into view, rocketing high above them in a single fountain that was as thick as the width of the platform itself, roaring on in one chorus.

Eventually it slowed and the spirits parted, floating down to bundle into tight spheres, one massive one and one that seemed a hundred times smaller. Auron had backed up to stand with the others at this point, well out of the way of the gathering.

The smaller sphere began to spread and take the shape of a human. The human began to gain more color and form and detail, and Auron froze. He recognized the person before anyone else did; it was Braska.

He sort of…hung there in the air looking as if he would fall to the floor at any moment, as if being held by someone. Auron knew the memory quite well. Too well. As the bigger sphere mimicked its brother's actions, it took the form of Jecht as the Final Aeon, big and great and mighty. His massive hands were cradling Braska in despair, and it then occurred to the others that Braska was already dead. The summoner began to fade away as even his unmoving body lost the strength to exist among the living, the strength it needed being sapped away by Jecht himself. When the last of him was gone, Jecht clenched his fists and lifted his head to the sky to roar in agony as he began to disappear as well. But unlike Braska, he was going to live.

And soon he was gone, crafted into the unholy armor that was Sin.

Rikku had clamped her hands over her mouth to keep from squealing with despair; Tidus was just balling his fists and biting his tongue while Yuna tightened her grip on her staff. But it was Auron who was affected the most.

He went…numb, in a sense. Numb and still, never blinking once as he lost strength. He brought his sword around so he could hold it instead of balancing it on his shoulder, but it abruptly clattered to the ground. His hand dropped to his side.

"I never…" he began, still speechless. "I never thought that I would have to watch that again."

He suddenly felt a hand in his; he didn't turn toward the Al Bhed. For the first time, he didn't want to look at her at all. He simply wanted to fall to the floor and sleep and never wake up.

"You didn't have to come if you really didn't want to," she said.

"I'm sorry for bringing everyone here," Yuna said—he heard her bow to him from behind. "Had I known that this would happen…"

"No," said Auron, his voice strong again. "You wanted a reminder of why you're fighting, what you're fighting for." He turned his head to the side to look at her, not surprised in the least at the fact that she was wiping away tears. "That is it," he said. "You are fighting for the people who sacrificed themselves and for the people who knew them; you are fighting to break a seemingly never-ending cycle—an exchange of death for happiness. You're fighting so that people can feel that same temporary happiness—forever."

He freed his hand from Rikku's small but faithful grip to stoop down to pick up his sword, hoisting it to his shoulder with ease. "Never forget that," he finished. Yuna looked up, scrubbing away the last of her tears.

"I won't."

Bahamut stared up at the board at the back of the White Room, reading the information it held over and over again.

Statistics—hundreds of them, and they were all about Auron. His Flashfire level, his predicted Balefire level, his predicted wingspan, everything down to the average thickness of his skin was on that board.

No wonder it took up most of the wall.

"He just asked about his parents," he said to the others, who each raised an eyebrow.

"Did you tell him anything?" asked Mindy.

"No," said Bahamut, "Nothing but the fact that he was seven when they were killed."

"Ohh, studying Auron, are you?"

Ender appeared silently next to the child fayth, a fake sneer on his face. "Bad aeon. Very bad."

"Hello, Ender." The greeting was as empty of expression as the room was devoid of color, but the others' glares were as malicious as Ender was evil. The man grinned.

"Now, now. Be tolerant, little ones. Is that not what Bahamut has ordered you to do?"

They restrained themselves from attacking.

They had to.

"What have you been doing to him?" Bahamut asked.

"Why, absolutely nothing." Ender raised an eyebrow under his hood. "Why?"

"Lies. You've just sent one of your henchmen after Auron and his comrades."

"Ohh, now you're studying me, too? I'm sorry to say that you won't learn much."

"Are you planning to kill him?"

"No, no." Ender snickered. "Just to test him in a very painful way."

"You're going to drive him insane."

"That's a bad thing?"

There was a long pause as Ender chuckled. "Auron is surrounded by darkness. Who will tell him of the sun?"

More silence. "This is going to be entertaining. Do you have any popcorn?"

Bahamut almost scowled, and Ender merely chuckled again and vanished.

They were about halfway through the dome when Auron picked up…something to his southeast with his handy pyrefly radar. When he reached out to touch whatever it was with his mind, it rebelled, which meant that it was hostile and dead, and this was only supported by the fact that it had the same feel as the creature that he had recently dismissed for a fiend.

It was also heading right for Rikku.

Without thinking, Auron whipped around and launched himself at her, shoving her out of the way of the creature's path just as it shot into view and bared its long teeth, raising claws attached to black hands. He had just enough time to free his other arm and bring his sword up to block the creature's onslaught before time seemed to speed up again and he had trapped its claws.

The others gasped—well, why wouldn't they? The whole charade had happened in a total of three seconds, and the attacker didn't look like a fiend. Resembling a human more than anything, it was almost a black shadow of a man with massive wings on its back, similar to the ones on one-eye fiends, plus it was about four or five times bigger than Auron…on second thought—

There was no time for a second thought. Auron slid to the left as the thing's right hand/claw swiped with blurred speed, having to let go of its claws before turning back to deliver a kick to the fiend's stomach. Air left what they guessed were its lungs with a whoosh, and before it got the chance to recover Auron stepped forward and used the momentum to bring his sword around to slash across the thing's long neck. It reacted like Yunalesca had; no blood, but a cry to show that his strike had been dealt. It staggered back, giving Auron some time to adjust.

"Whoa!" Tidus had just drawn his sword. "What is that thing?"

"A fiend, I suppose," Auron replied. "Stay back."

"Why do you have to hog all the fun?"

"I didn't say you couldn't help."

"Huh? But you said 'stay back'!"

"That only means 'don't get in my way, otherwise have at it.'"

"Augh! Same difference."

Auron tried to dodge as it came back with unexpected speed and delivered a punch to his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. He suffered a few more lightning fast blows to his face and chest before there was an inhuman cry and the creature was blown to the side by a strike from Tidus and Wakka. He felt the stinging on his face disappear by Yuna's doing.

There were explosions as Lulu cast a few Flare spells before resting; Kimahri and Tidus followed up by bringing their weapons down on the creature's exposed wrists. It roared predictably and whipped around to face Auron, who had been the first to strike and was on the "maim first" list because of it. Its arms dragged swiftly around with it, and just as they were about to connect he leaped into the air and its claws swung under him and (unfortunately) out of harm's way, or at least until Auron landed and drove his sword straight through said arm. That earned a satisfying roar as he ran up to the creature and dragged his sword with him, actually slicing the creature's arm in half. Black liquid poured out instead of blood; it seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he'd seen the stuff before—

"That's oil!" Rikku cried. "Everyone get out of the way, then cast a fire spell, Lulu!"

Everyone fled from their positions to a safe distance before Lulu did as she was told, sparking the oil with the weakest fire spell she had ever cast. The resulting explosion made all of their ears go numb for a few seconds as they watched the fiend burst into flames, collapsing and shrieking in anger and pain. Eventually the black flesh burned away (with no scent, thankfully).

Through the smoke Auron noticed a body—could the thing still possibly be alive? But no, this one was smaller than the original.

Or maybe its first appearance wasn't the original at all.

The smoke floated away and mixed with the dust in the air, revealing the body to be an averagely dressed man, unconscious. No, dead. He had something in his hand, but what Auron noticed first was the large dog tag earring he wore. He walked over, avoiding what leftover oil there was left, and squatted to lift the earring for a closer look.

EXPERIMENT:

F25W1790

Male U.

Experiment. It was like the earring that the white-haired girl had worn; the word hung in his mind.

"Yuna," he called, stepping back. "Send him."

As their summoner began the graceful dance of a sending, Auron backed away as far as he could as to not have to struggle against her will and his own at the same time. As always, he began to feel a pull as the sending reached him, but at such a distance it was easy to resist. Still, he endured the uncomfortable sensation until the ritual was finally over. He shook his head as the feeling vanished, stepping back over.

"Hey, look what he left behind," Tidus said, presenting yet another crest. This one said "The Sun."

"At least we were rewarded," Lulu said, of all people.

"Let's go," Auron said. Wow—two words and everyone turned to stare at him. At least they obeyed.

And in the shadows of a broken structure, Ender watched as they left the dome and their precious airship collected them.

"No Flashfire usage and no popcorn?" he asked himself. "Today is not my day." He vanished again, taking refuge in deeper shadows.

"Are we going to the Farplane next?" Tidus asked. Yuna gave a small nod.

"That was the plan, unless anyone—"

"I'm coming," Auron said. "I just won't go in."

"Same here, I guess," Rikku agreed. "Pops, take us to Guadosalam!"

Cid nodded, giving a small salute out of habit before turning to head back to the control room. "You got it!"

Auron turned to look out of the window at the clouds that they were skimming through; it was like a ship sailing over a fluffy mass of water. Very strange—he felt a tinge of amusement at how he had actually stopped to notice that.

If he could actually make himself stay, then he would treasure that ability.

"Why are you in Guadosalam? What business have you here?"

My, what a polite, friendly greeting.

"You wanna start something?"

What a courteous, respectful reply. Well done, Tidus.

Tromell showed no sign that he had taken any real offense. "If it would please you to harm a defenseless old man...then burn me, boil me, it matters not. Lord Seymour is gone. No lord rises to take his place. The Guado merely wait for Sin to come and finish us off."

"Well someone's Mr. Happy-Smiley," Rikku muttered. Auron had to smile at that—Tromell of all people had stolen his title.

"Why should I care what you do to me?" the new Mr. Happy-Smiley continued. "If it meant rejoining Lord Jyscal and Lord Seymour, then your taking off my head would be the greatest kindness."

The Guado strode off, his long legs carrying him away quickly to leave the party a bit disturbed.

"Well, let's go where we came here for," Tidus said, leading the way.

The shimmering blue portal loomed overhead at an angle, giving Auron the impression that at any moment it would fall and swallow up anyone in the room. He stopped about halfway up the treelike stairs, and so did the others.

"Not coming?" Tidus asked.

"Never have been to the Farplane before," Auron said. "I plan to go there when I plan to stay."

Rikku gave him a weird look. "Oh, come on! These are only, like, the outskirts of the Farplane. If you go in there, you won't actually be going there." She suddenly grabbed his hand and jerked, catching him off guard and making him stumble forward.

"Rikku—!"

"You're not gonna go in, are you?" She asked.

"If I go to the Farplane now, I may not be able to leave," Auron said.

Rikku seriously hesitated before she began to tug on his arm again. "Come on! If you go, I'll go!" She smiled. "We'll go together!"

His jaw almost dropped—everyone else's did. They knew how much not going to the Farplane meant to her.

"Rikku," he sternly began, "I'm not ready to leave yet. I don't want to take the risk, understand?"

Her shoulders sank in defeat and she dropped his hand—but just as he thought that she was going to leave him alone, she went to his side and hooked her arm around his.

"We won't let you leave. Because you're not allowed to leave yet—" she beamed up at him— "got it?"

The others turned and walked through the portal, leaving them alone. She stepped forward and took his hand again, and this time he allowed himself to be dragged forward. She stayed one step ahead of him until they reached the portal, and she glanced up at him before stepping through.

And he followed.

He froze as soon as he stepped out into the open; he heard Rikku gasp in delight next to him. But that was it. He heard her.

"Rikku," he said softly, "I lost my vision when I stepped through."

"Huh?" he heard her say, her grip on his hand tightening. "You can't see at all?" He grunted.

"Maybe I'm not supposed to see this place until I'm actually ready to stay here," he said.

"That would make sense," said Tidus off to his left.

"Oh well." Rikku pulled him forward; he had no choice but to follow. "I'll guide you."

The amount of time that they walked seemed extended due to his temporary blindness. He heard a soft roar far below, and he guessed that it was water. Hearing stone under his step, he formed an image in his mind that they were on a platform high above a river or a body of water in general. If they were on a platform, then he would have to be careful.

But how was he in here at all? he kept asking himself. This was impossible—he was defying the laws of nature…he thought. Dead people were supposed to be here to stay. Would he be able to go back through the portal?

"Wow!" Rikku cried, rushing forward and dragging him with her before stopping abruptly.

"What?"

"Just…this place!" she said, her hand changing angles. "It's so cool!"

He realized that she had sat down most likely at the edge of the platform he was imagining and took a seat next to her, releasing her hand but positioning himself so that their knees were touching—just to know she was there. "Describe it to me."

"Huh? Oh, okay. Ummm…" he could picture her scanning over their surroundings with wide eyes. "Well, first of all we're on a big platform high above the real Farplane…I think. Down there there's an oval-y canyon that's pretty much just one big waterfall, and there's a bunch of flowers on the ground—so many that you can't even see the ground. There's a lot of pyreflies. And…further away there's a huge lake and above that is, like, this big blue moon that looks like it's being held in the air by this black smoke coming from the very middle of the lake."

She paused as he formed the image in his mind. "Are you going to call anyone?" Auron asked.

"No," she said. "Just because I came in doesn't mean I have to see anyone."

"I see."

There was a long silence before she sighed. "I'm glad."

"For?"

"I'm glad that this is the place you're going to go—if you leave, that is."

Oh. He didn't know what to say to that. Fortunately he didn't have to reply when she took his hand again and lifted it to her face, placing his fingers over her lips.

She was smiling.

It was always the quiet of the White Room that bothered Ender; the quiet here, in his home, surrounded him and…comforted him. His dark robes trailed over the black alchemic symbol on the marble floor as he glanced up. Seven massive portraits hung on all four walls of the prized entrance to his home—in each portrait there was a person staring blankly ahead at the viewer, looking almost dead. One of those portraits was of Ender himself without his hood—he avoided looking at that one—another of Mazrim, the one who had actually had the gall to imprison him. Of course, he'd gone mad afterward and the seven Farplane lords had sealed him away in a prison of his own, so Ender considered them even. Especially because poor Mazrim's prison sentence was forever.

Ender avoided that one, too.

Those two paintings were on the wall with the double door exit; there were four more total on the walls to the left and right, all of the powerful men that he had once known and used as pawns. But the largest and most important one was on the wall above his split staircase, facing across from the portrait of himself. It was blank. And yet Ender stared at it in wait. Something would appear there, he knew it.

It was only a matter of time.

Just as that thought brought itself into his mind, a small line began to appear on the canvas. It began to move swiftly, drawing a face and immediately filling in the details. Ender's grin widened as paint abruptly spread across the image, completing the portrait in its entirety.

Auron stared forward blankly, as if unconscious with his eyes open.

"And now there are seven of us," Ender said, triumphant laughter bursting forward as a raging fire swept through his body and those of the five others—wherever they might have been—alerting all of them that the seventh had been born. For a split second he sensed those five other minds, sensed the excruciating pain that Mazrim was suffering—he was suffering the most pain from this new piece of knowledge.

And as the fire began to die, Ender laughed harder.

Augh. Another cliffhanger…sorry.

I'll work on this next weekend—that's the only time I can work on it. School is getting to be tedious, but it's all worth it in the end, yes?

Oh, I almost forgot.

Random Auron image of the chapter: Picture Auron running around in circles with pants on his head yelling, "Flannel! FLANNEL!!"

…Don't ask.

-Ari Elisianete