-This chapter focuses on Tidus, since he played such a small role in part one. Though we're following three characters througout this story (Tidus, Yuna and Sheng) you may find that this happens occasionally. PLEASE REVIEW AND ENJOY!-
"Is he dead?" said a girl's voice.
"No, look he's breathing." said the deep voice of a man.
"He looks pretty beat up, you think he's from Kalm." asked the girl.
"Kalm was burned down, if he had escaped it he'd probably have burns all allover himself rather than scratches." said the man.
Tidus opened his eyes. He had stopped to rest for the night on the plains between Kalm and Midgar. A girl with black hair and large eyes was looking at him. "Hey! You're awake!" she informed him as he looked around.
Behind her stood a man with long greasy black hair, red eyes and a red cape. His left hand looked as though it was made of gold. Who are you? Did you flee Kalm?" he asked, his voice was very intimidating.
"Vincent, don't attack him!" said the girl angrily.
"I'm not attacking him, Yuffie, I'm asking him who he is." said Vincent.
"You're interrogating him! What if he's hurt?" said the girl named Yuffie.
"Uh, I'm not hurt. My name's Tidus." said Tidus, getting to his feet.
Vincent eyed him resentfully. "Are you fleeing Kalm?" he asked.
"Uh, well I came from Kalm, but I'm not fleeing it." Tidus replied.
"When were you there?" asked Yuffie.
"I left yesterday." said Tidus.
"See Vincent? The fire must have been during the night, like I said." Yuffie said to Vincent.
"Fire? What fire?" Tidus asked.
"There was a fire in Kalm last night, it killed everyone. We went to find out how it was started." said Vincent.
"Everyone? Even the Innkeeper?" Tidus asked glumly.
"Yep, everyone. Did you know him?" asked Yuffie.
"He was a friend of mine." said Tidus sadly, he suddenly felt very guilty, something was telling him that it was his fault the town was burned down.
"Sorry to hear it. Where are you going anyway?" Yuffie asked, though she didn't sound sorry at all.
"Midgar. I'm supposed to talk to some guy there." said Tidus.
"Midgar? Hey, why don't you ride with us? We're just headed there!" said Yuffie.
"Yuffie!" said Vincent, scowling.
"Oh lighten up, Vincent, it's called being nice." said Yuffie.
"Hmpf." said Vincent, returning to a vehicle that was parked behind him.
"I don't want to cause any trouble." said Tidus.
"Don't worry about it, Vincent's always like that. You can come with us, it's fine." said Yuffie.
So Tidus got in the car with Vincent and Yuffie and they drove off towards Midgar. During the ride, Tidus told Yuffie all about what had happened to him over the last few days. She looked furious after hearing it. In exchange, she told Tidus all about how she, Vincent and a bunch of others had saved the Planet from being destroyed by a giant Meteor. At this point, Tidus was sure he wasn't in Spira anymore, but he still had to ask. "Hey, have either of you guys ever heard of a place called Spira?" he said.
"Nope. Why do you ask." said Yuffie.
Tidus told Yuffie about Spira and Sin and the dream Zanarkand. "Wow, that's quite a story. But I'm sure there isn't anywhere on the Planet called Spira." she said.
Tidus was disappointed, but didn't show it. Soon, they arrived in Midgar. It reminded him unpleasantly of both his Zanarkand and the one in present day Spira. Huge but in ruins. The streets were crowded, making it difficult for Vincent to maneuver the car down the streets. "Are you going anywhere in particular?" Yuffie asked.
"I'm supposed to find a guy named Cloud Strife." said Tidus.
"Cloud?" said Yuffie excitedly.
"You know him?" asked Tidus.
"Yeah we know him! He was one of the people who saved the Planet with us, he's like our leader!" she said.
Tidus felt a surge of joy. He hadn't felt this happy since he arrived in this world. Vincent drove to a pub call 7th Heaven, where he parked and they all got out. "Here it is! This is our base, and Cloud lives here!" said Yuffie.
"That's great!" said Tidus, walking into the pub behind Yuffie.
"Yuffie and Vincent reporting for duty!" said Yuffie loudly as they entered.
There was a tall woman with long brown hair behind the bar. "That was funny the first four times Yuffie, you don't have to do it every time." she said "Who's that?" she added, taking notice of Tidus.
"This is Tidus! Tidus, meet Tifa." said Yuffie happily.
Tidus waved, Tifa gave him a smile. "Where's Cloud? Tidus is looking for him." said Yuffie, looking around.
"He's gone over to Junon. The mayor says he'd like to move the cannon back there." said Tifa as she dried a glass she'd been washing "What happened to you?" she asked Tidus.
Before Tidus could open his mouth, Yuffie started telling the story to Tifa, including some parts that Tidus was sure didn't happen. Tifa, like everyone else that heard about it, looked furious afterwards. "Sick." she said "Just sick. How could somebody do that to another human being? Do you need to rest? There's a bed upstairs and you look tired." said Tifa sweetly.
"Yeah, I think I'll take a nap. Thanks a lot guys" he added to Yuffie and Vincent before going upstairs.
The room he was sent to by Tifa was unmistakably the room of a warrior. Full of cased swords. Tidus kicked off his boots and crawled into the bed, which was very warm. He fell asleep instantly.
Sora and Sheng were flying Sora's ship through the Inter-Dimensional Network. It was a very bumpy ride. Sheng's hair was even blonder now. "We're coming up on the FF-8 Dimension. We need to fuel up, should we stop there?" Sora asked.
Sheng didn't answer. He was thinking about what had happened before they left. Whose eyes had he been seeing out of? Did this mean something? "Sheng!" said Sora a little louder.
Sheng looked up. "Were you listening?" Sora asked him.
"Erm, fueling up in FF-8 Dimension. Yes, perhaps we can ask around about Roxas, see if anyone might have seen him there." said Sheng.
Sheng looked at his pale skin. But, something was wrong. He wasn't pale anymore. His skin was now tanned as though he'd been sitting in the sun for hours. Why was this happening now? He thought.
In Zidian's office, things were still not going well. Zidian's computer was stalling and holding up their search. "This is ridiculous." said Auron.
"And I suppose you've got a better idea?" Zidian snapped.
Auron stood up and drew his sword. "Yes, I do." he said.
He swung his sword up and sliced Zidian's computer in half. "Let's get out of this useless office and go search."
Zidian's face turned a deep shade of purple. He looked as though he was about to explode. Suddenly, Mareen jumped in and said "Yes, I think that's a splendid idea, don't you Mr Zed?" she asked, looking at Zidian.
"Yes. Wonderful." he said with the most forced smile Yuna was sure she'd ever seen.
So, Zidian led them to a machine and said that they would all start searching in the KH-2 Dimension.
Tidus awoke in the room above the 7th Heaven. He felt very refreshed. Tifa was in the room rummaging through the closet. She looked at him and noticed he was awake. "Oh! I'm sorry, I just needed something out of the closet." she said, blushing.
Tidus wasn't whether she was blushing because she'd been discovered in the room while he was sleeping or because he wasn't wearing a shirt, but still said "Don't worry about it."
"I've put some of Cloud's clothes out for you to change into, those ones are filthy." she said, pointing at Tidus's blood stained Zanarkand Abes uniform which was lying on the ground "And you're welcome to the shower, no offence but you look like you need one." she said.
"Thanks." said Tidus gratefully.
After Tifa left, he leapt up and took a warm shower. It felt good to wash all the dried blood off himself. After his refreshing shower, he put on the clothes that Tifa had put out for him. They fit him perfectly. He went down into the pub and saw a little girl sitting at the counter, drawing a picture. Tidus went and sat beside her. "Whatcha drawing?" he asked.
She looked up at him, then went back to her picture. It was actually pretty good. "You're the man that got tortured. Yuffie and Vincent found you on the plains." she informed him.
"Yeah, that's me. I'm Tidus." he said.
"I'm Marlene, and I'm drawing my dad." said the girl.
"You're a pretty good drawer." Tidus told her.
"Thanks. Want me to draw you?" she asked.
Tidus laughed. "Sure." he said.
"Well stay still then?" she said.
Tidus sat still for a few minutes. Tifa walked in. "Marlene! You shouldn't be bothering people." scolded Tifa "I'm sorry about that." she added to Tidus.
"No, no it's okay, I've never had a self-portrait done before." said Tidus.
"Stay still!" said Marlene.
Tifa suppressed a smile. Marlene finished Tidus's picture but told Tidus he couldn't see it until it was colored it. "So where'd Vincent and Yuffie go?" Tidus asked.
"They've gone back to Kalm to look for clues as to how the fire started." Tifa replied.
"And Cloud?"
"Still not back yet. Those look good on you, are you a warrior?" she said noticing how well Tidus fit into Cloud's clothes.
Tidus told Tifa the story of Yuna's pilgrimage. When he told the part when he disappeared, Tifa said "Aw, that's so sad. You must've been pretty tough."
Tidus put his hands behind his head, then jumped in pain from his injured finger. Tifa giggled, but quickly covered it up with a cough. Suddenly, there was a loud rapping on the door and said to Tidus in a whisper "The pinball machine is an elevator, go down below."
Tidus did so. Tifa opened the door and Cloud came bursting in. He put his hands on her shoulders and said "Tifa! What's been going on? Some guy in black was about to break in here saying you were hiding a criminal in there." said Cloud, looking around.
"There's no criminals that I know about here." said Tifa.
Cloud ran over to the pinball machine and went down below. Tidus turned around when he saw it coming down. Judging by his attire, Tidus assumed this was Cloud. "Hey!" he said walking forward.
Cloud grabbed him by the throat, pinned him against the wall. Suddenly, Tidus cried in pain as he felt a cold knife slice through his right shoulder and tore out his back and into the wall. Blood soaked through his shirt. "What," said Cloud, moving the knife around to cause Tidus more pain "are you doing down here?"
He moved the knife around some more. Tidus couldn't answer. Tifa came down on the pinball machine and screamed. "Cloud! Let him down! He's not a criminal!" she shrieked.
"He's...wearing...my clothes." said Cloud furiously, still moving the knife around.
"Cloud, you're hurting him!" cried Tifa.
Tidus thought that was a bit of an understatement, but was in too much pain to say anything. Tifa pulled Cloud away, and the knife came out of the wall, causing Tidus to fall to the ground. "Cloud, what's gotten into you?" said Tifa furiously "Tidus has been through enough already without you stabbing him in the shoulder!"
Cloud glared at her and went back up the elevator. Meanwhile, Tidus was trying to pull the knife out of his shoulder. Finally, Tifa sighed, knelt down and said "Here, let me do it. On the count of three okay? One. Two. Thrrrree!" she said, pulling the knife out quickly, causing blood to spurt everywhere.
Tidus put his hand on his shoulder. "Come upstairs and I'll clean that up." she told him kindly.
Tidus followed her up to the bar and sat down while Tifa ran upstairs to get some bandages and a few stitches. Tidus had had more stitches in the last month than he had in his entire life. Marlene rushed over to him and said "What happened?"
"Cloud...stabbed...me." panted Tidus.
"Cloud did? Don't take it the wrong way, he gets really defensive around Tifa. He's really quite gentle." she said.
It wasn't helping much to tell him that the man who just stabbed him was really "quite gentle". Tifa rushed back down and sent Marlene away. "I'm going to disinfect it, that knife looked rusty" she said as Tidus pulled off Cloud's shirt.
"Okay, this is going to sting." said Tifa as she dabbed the wound with a cotton ball.
Tidus groaned and winced in pain. She then moved to the wound on his back. "I'm really sorry about that. If I'd known it was Cloud I wouldn't have told you to go hide. He's not always like that. Sometimes I just don't understand him. Could you pinch it shut?" she asked him as she prepared to stitch it up.
Tidus did so, sweat pouring down his face. After is was cleaned and stitched, she washed the blood off from around it and got him another one of Cloud's shirts, which was identical to the one Tidus had just removed. "How do you feel?" she asked him as he stood up again.
"Oh great, aside from the fact that I've just had yet another whole torn open on me in the same week" said Tidus.
Tifa laughed. "You know, you're kinda cute. Listen, why don't we give Cloud some time to cool off. It's almost suppertime, I know a nice place in Sector Seven that we can eat at." she said.
"Sure, sounds fun." said Tidus, leaping to his feet.
"Marlene, do you mind staying here?" said Tifa.
"Sure." said Marlene, who had returned to her drawing of Tidus.
So Tidus and Tifa left the pub and walked out into the town. The cool breeze felt good on Tidus's face. When they got to the restaurant, they were seated and started talking. "So...are you and Cloud...you know?" asked Tidus hesitantly.
"What makes you say that?" Tifa asked.
"Marlene mentioned something." said Tidus.
"Well...we tried after we saved the world from Meteor...but it wasn't the same. I knew it wouldn't be. Ever since she died." said Tifa sadly.
"Who's she?" Tidus asked.
"Aeris. He really liked her, and I tried to accept it but...well I guess he never got over her death." said Tifa, tears welling in her eyes.
"Sorry, I didn't- I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay. You know, if we can't find a way to get you back home, to Spira I mean, you'd be welcome to stay at the pub. I'm sure Cloud wouldn't mind." she said.
"Really? I'd like that! I'd like that a lot." said Tidus happily.
They talked some more over dinner, then went back to the pub. Tifa set up a bed for him in the attic and bade him good-night before going back to bed. Tidus tried to fall asleep but couldn't so he pulled Cloud's shirt and pants on, slipped his feet into his boots and went for a walk. The city of Midgar was dark and quiet at night. He walked onto a bridge and looked up into the sky. The moon was huge here. Tidus thought about what he had said to Tifa over dinner. You know , if we can't find a way to get you back home, to Spira I mean, you'd be welcome to stay at the pub. Tifa's voice rang inside his head.
Tidus felt guilty. Somewhere, perhaps in Besaid, Yuna was worried, wondering where he was. Tidus sat down and curled his legs up to his body, still looking at the moon. Was Yuna watching the moon too? Was she praying that he would come back? He missed her. So much. Warm tears fell down Tidus's face as he looked at the moon. She wasn't there to wipe them away. "Yuna," he said, his voice cracking as he spoke to the sky ", I miss you."