Author's note: This is a compilation between Ceara Ivory and myself. We don't own Final Fantasy X.

Ambitions: A Final Fantasy X Fanfiction

Chapter 20:

Moving Forward

Lucia moaned as she gripped at the sheets beneath her. Her breathing increased in speed as her eyes screwed shut tightly. "No… No stop it… Leave me alone… No… Help… Help me Baralai… Stop it…"

She could hear his voice in her mind… See what he did that day in her mind… "Oh, I need a legacy… I refuse to spend the rest of my days as an Unsent like Mika is, and I am not a young man, but I do want an heir to take over my skills as a Guardian… and you are a lovely specimen, you will no doubt produce strong heirs," He caressed her face with a finger.

Baralai woke up from his sleep as he heard her thrashing. He looked at her and went over. Gently he put his arms around her and pulled her into a safe embrace, whispering a prayer of comfort.

She began crying as she pushed blindly, trapped in her nightmare thinking the one holding her was Auron. "No leave me alone Auron… Baralai… where are you Baralai… help…"

"Lucia, it's okay, I'm here, let me help drive away the nightmares. Auron, leave her alone now…" Baralai whispered into her ear gently.

Lucia shook in his arms as her eyes opened, yet there was a fear in her eyes that showed how scared she really was. She looked around rapidly as her eyes took in the room and Baralai holding her as she sagged against him in relief. "Baralai… I'm sorry…" She turned her head into his chest and began crying again.

Lovingly, he rocked her in his arms and petted her hair as she wept. He sang a soft hymn for her, one his mother used to sing for him when he had a nightmare. "Dona nobis pacem, pacem… Dona nobis pacem…"

She listened to the melody and began to sing with him… singing had always comforted her which was why it had been hard for her when mother and father had told her to not pursue it as a career or even as a love for music.

Baralai sang with her softly, helping to calm and comfort her. How he wished he had Auron before him now. The man would suffer most dearly for causing her this pain.

As she calmed again, she looked up at him. "They never indicated that you sang Baralai… You have such a beautiful voice…"

Baralai smiled down at her. "Thank you… As an acolyte, future Maestor, it was of course required that I learn the hymns and growing up in a pious family, I knew them by heart even before entering the order."

She nodded, "But I know that voices can turn when you hit puberty… Even if you can sing before, some people lose their gift of song. It happened a lot in my world." Lucia blushed as she looked away, trying to not admit to how nervous she was singing for him.

Baralai nodded. "I worried about that to be honest. But luckily, Yevon smiled on me." He chuckled at her. "Maestor Seymour is lucky that he didn't get stuck with a frog as a student."

She kissed his nose, "I have the feeling even if he did, he wouldn't have cared."

Baralai kissed her lips tenderly. "Would you feel more comfortable sleeping if we shared the bed?" He asked her.

Lucia blushed brightly before nodding. "I think so... You always chase the demons away... Thank you."

Baralai climbed properly into the bed with her, his arms gently, yet protectively around her. "Let us sleep then. Aside from bringing Yevon back to size, tomorrow things will be getting back to normal around here." He chuckled. "Meaning I'll have my lessons again."

She nodded as sleep quickly claimed her again, the protective arms of her love holding back the nightmares.

Melinda slept on her cot beside Seymour. Or rather she lay on her cot, watching the blue-haired Maestor sleep. She couldn't sleep for anything.

"What is the matter Mindy? Can't sleep?" Seymour's voice came through quietly, belying his state of sleep.

Mindy blushed deeply. His eyes were closed. How had he known. "Yeah, brain won't shut up." She giggled.

His lips just slightly showed the hints of a smile. "My eyes may seem to be closed, but mostly I just rest lightly. I have had to remain vigilant during our trek with Lady Yuna."

Mindy could believe that. "What a trip it was. One I never thought I'd ever take beyond a controller. I think my brain is finally able to realize what the heck! I'm in the video game! I'm here on Spira. I think I'm kind of in awe..."

Seymour laughed, "Well did you ever think things would happen like this? I'm sure that Rikku will come with her father and brother in the morning too so we can figure out where those two jackals went. You should try to rest."

"Yes, I will try..." Mindy said, blushing again. "I never expected anything like this, ever... I expected a little excitement because of mom and dad and their careers but this never crossed my mind as a possibility."

He laughed as turned on his side to look at her, "So what kind of things then did you two do at home? Did you sing or draw?"

She laughed. "Oh we were into detective games. Like Clue or Whodunnit type games. I used to read Agatha Christie and my favorite comic book was about a detective teen who got turned into a kid with a drug and has to try and get back to normal. Though art was a second passion."

He laughed again. "So tell me then, what did your parents do that made life so dangerous as to awaken Yevon and bring you to our world. Lucia explained about that night, but not much beyond that in history."

"They were federal agents who spent their lives tracking down very dangerous criminals like mafia or high ranking crooks," She explained.

He nodded, "That explains a lot. So aside from your detective stuff, did you like doing other things?"

She nodded. "I used to doodle in school, I liked art class. Like Lucia and singing though, my parents feared us getting into hobby that could draw attention to us and they thought drawing or art might."

He shook his head, "Pity... In the morning or afternoon you'll have to do a drawing of me to show me how I looked in that game of yours. I might have to suggest it to Baralai too." He chuckled.

Mindy laughed, blushing and turning her head into the pillow to muffle it as best as possible. "Okay but warning the character designers were either sadistic or just plain horny."

He raised an eyebrow, "What did they do to me?"

She giggled. "Let's just say the biggest problem with the game was the absurd character designs." She giggled again. "You'll see tomorrow."

Seymour sighed as he sat up, hearing the chime of the morning bells. "It's morning already Mindy. We should go check on your sister. Make sure poor Baralai got some sleep." He chuckled.

Mindy blushed. "I'm sorry I kept you up... You'll probably be exhausted the whole day." She said as she got up.

He shook his head. "We really have not had much time to sleep since Guadosalam and my body just kind of got used to it. Part of being a Maestor."

The pair left the room together to go to Lucia's room as Seymour knocked on the door. "Baralai? Lucia?"

Inside the bedroom, Baralai slowly woke up and looked around, then to Lucia. He had held her the entire night. And it felt so good waking up with her in his arms. He kissed her lips gently.

She moaned softly as she responded to the kiss, knowing it could only be one person... The one who kept the nightmares away. "Baralai..." She whispered.

He looked into her beautiful brown eyes. "Good morning, beautiful. Did you sleep better this time?"

Lucia blushed and nodded. "But I think you had something to do with it more than just prayers..." Her fingers went to the locket around her neck. "I'm sorry I never got to tell you how beautiful this is..."

Baralai kissed her forehead. "It has a special sphere in it too. We can record happy memories in it, so that you can always remember those and bury the bad ones. And I didn't really expect the prayers to necessarily help, but I know the song always helped me when I had bad dreams, just hearing my mother sing it was helpful. And speaking of which, your voice was beautiful."

She shook her head. "In our old world, our voices were considered average because of things called synthesizers. They essentially morph a voice, so a frog could sound like a robot."

Baralai shook his head disappointedly as he got up. "People in your world… why morph a voice to sound like a robot? Why waste money on such things when you could just use people with genuinely good voices, like yours?"

Lucia shrugged, unsure of the answer herself. "I should get changed out of the mass clothes and into something else... Save this for the special masses that I go to. After yesterday... I don't know if I could go to one today."

Baralai nodded. "I don't expect you to go if you don't want to. It's perfectly fine if you don't. It's your sister who will be expected to attend… Seymour will most likely be named Grand Maestor after all."

She nodded before explaining, "I want to go... To support you... But after what they said to show they disapprove of us, even though you didn't care... I just don't know if I could."

He kissed her gently, "I don't care what those narrow-minded fools say. If they can treat you that way, even after seeing your despair on live television yesterday… they are the heathens. If you want to come, I would love to see you there. But if you don't want to come, I understand and I won't judge you for it."

She returned the kiss before backing away to go behind the screen to remove the dress. Her body wasn't so stiff that day as it had been yesterday. After some shifting, she got it off and pulled on a pale yellow dress that was floor length with an option to remove part of the bottom to make it knee length. Coming around the corner, she looked at him with a gentle smile. "Shall we? I've got the feeling that..." There came a knock on the door. "Seymour and Mindy are just outside." She giggled.

Breakfast was a quiet affair as Seymour smirked, "I do believe Mindy owes me a drawing of how I looked in that ridiculous game of yours."

Baralai chuckled. "Lucia, could you try drawing me?" He asked as Mindy giggled and blushed at Seymour's statement.

Mindy nodded at Seymour. "Yes I do. Just remember, don't kill the messenger," She laughed as she began sketching.

Lucia gave a small nod to Baralai. "They had you mostly... But not entirely." She began to sketch him as the game had showed him with the cowlick and the high collar with the red cord going around it through the silver eyelets. "The rest of you is the same, but this was the biggest difference." She gave him a small portrait of how he looked.

Baralai put a hand on his head and flattened his head. "What...the heck… Did a shoopuf lick my head with it's whole tongue? Seymour, what does yours look like?" He looked over at Mindy's sketch and had to grab a glass of water when he choked on his laughter.

Seymour shook his head. "What in the name of Yevon did they do to my head?" He sent a playful glare that melted to laughter when he saw Baralai's picture. "So what is with that collar and hair of yours then?"

Mindy laughed. "I told you they were sadistic… I always figured in reality, you couldn't have those hair antlers. That would take nautical tons of hair gel."

Lucia smiled at Rikku, "I'd prefer that we didn't do yours. They were... Not thinking holy thoughts if you catch my drift Rikku, Cid."

Rikku pouted. "Oh but I wanna see. Please…"

Lulu looked at Mindy. "I think I'd like to see what they did to me as well, if the open kimono on Seymour is any indication."

Lucia shared a look before laughing. "Sure. But please, don't take offense to it." She began to sketch out Rikku. "The first version is from the current game... Then there is a second version of you two years later..."

Mindy sketched out Lulu's portrait as Lucia sketched out Rikku's. Wakka looked over curiously and his mouth dropped and he looked over at Lulu. "You would never wear that low of a cut. And they're big yes, but not that big…"

Lucia snickered, "You're next Wakka. And for you, I'll draw how they did your weapon. Mindy, include one of Lulu's weapons from the game." She finished the first sketch of Rikku, passing it over to the blonde before beginning the second sketch.

Rikku looked over at the picture but before she could get a good look, Cid snatched it out of her hands. "If I ever see you dressing like this young lady, you will be grounded and homebound for the rest of your days."

Lucia shook her head, "It gets worse Cid." She finished the second sketch, showing it to Rikku first. She then turned to draw Wakka.

Lulu got her picture before gaping at it and quickly burnt it. "Unholy thoughts indeed. Perverts. How was I supposed to walk around in that and then to use a toy to fight?!"

Mindy sighed. "Well they thought the only thing you should be doing was casting black magic, never mind that they used a Magic Point system to make a player use magic strategically instead of using it willy-nilly. It was… stupid… to say the least. What's even stupider is they put you and Wakka together… having a baby in the sequel. And Yuna, I'm going to draw a few of your outfits from the second game. Your first image was bang on."

Cid tore up the second picture with a ferocity. "These game designers were perverts. It's one thing to do that to a grown woman but Rikku is only 15."

Lucia nodded as she handed Wakka his drawing. "The sequel was two years later. She was 17 in the second picture."

"17 is still too young to be dressing like a hussy," He looked at Rikku. "I swear if I ever see you dressing like that, you are never going outside again. Do you understand young lady?"

Rikku nodded. "No worries there dad. I'm not a slut thanks."

Wakka lowered his head in his hands and wept embarrassed tears. "Yevon, what were they thinking. What did I do, stick my head in a bucket of roofing sealant? And that ball… Blades? Really? Blades? On a blitzball?"

Lucia giggled, feeling happy for once. "Yeah, they were really not cool. I'm only going to say out of respect for the dead, we will not draw Tidus. And I refuse to draw him. For professional curiosity, they were exactly the same."

Baralai put a hand on Lucia's shoulder. "What about Nooj? And Gippal?"

She nodded. "Mindy, can you draw Nooj with LeBlanc. They made the poor woman a slut and had her follow Nooj like a puppy. Tragic really."

Mindy nodded and carefully sketched every aspect of both Nooj and LeBlanc. Baralai felt himself ready to crack. "Nooj, okay but good Yevon! LeBlanc is oh Yevon... We will never show her that. How horny were these people?"

Mindy giggled and looked over to see Seymour still staring at his picture. "I think the hair antlers was supposed their way of making sure the player knew you were supposed to be a villain." She said as she played with his hair.

Lucia showed the picture of Gippal to Baralai first before giving it to Rikku and Cid. "The artists were apparently very um… yeah. Aside from that they made Gippal pretty normal, but they tried to make him the ladies' man so to speak." She laughed as she turned to Baralai, "Oh and the religion after the fall of Sin in the game, meaning that Maestor Seymour would have been dead was called New Yevon… Supposedly you gave them little choice in regards to trusting you. Personally, I never understood it. You wanted to make sure the Spheres weren't left by malevolent Unsents. And the motto of New Yevon was 'One Thing At A Time.' Yeah that's Baralai." She teased with a shake of her head.

Mindy felt her lip tremble a little at the mention of what could have been. "I'm so glad the game was changed or wrong or something..." She played with the Maestor's blue hair. "And the Crusaders and others created what was called 'The Youth League' which I still don't understand..."

Seymour chuckled at her antics, "So let's see you like playing with my hair then Mindy? But on a side note, perhaps things weren't so much wrong as changed because of the entry of two strong willed young women. As for the Youth League, he'll have to explain it to me."

Baralai beat his head against the table as he laughed and lamented the stupidity. "Oh these games sound like they were utterly stupid. Let me guess, Yuna fell in love with Tidus?"

Yuna blushed. "That wouldn't have happened. Would it?" She had liked him up until Macalania Temple but even before that it was just as a friend.

Mindy nodded. "It did happen... They even did this scene of you two kissing in Macalania Lake after escaping the Purifico by using a Life spell on an undead Evrae. And yes, I do like playing with your hair," She said to Seymour. "It's pretty."

He chuckled as he shook his head. "Now that's just silly." Seymour paused as he heard a knock. "Ah the last of our guests have arrived. Baralai, I invited Nooj, Leblanc, Payne and Gippal over so we could all talk about what's happened the past few days. Considering it involves most of them and Leblanc rarely leaves his side, I figured it'd be prudent." He got up and allowed them inside, "Welcome everyone. Please, come on in."

Gippal came in and walked immediately towards Rikku before looked over her shoulder. "Fruy! Rikku, oui hajan dumt sa oui fana ehdu dryd!"

Rikku pushed Gippal away swearing as she did, "E's hud! Draca fana dra etayc uv cusa banjand eh yhudran funmt! Ev E ajan saad dras, E's kuhhy gelg draen yccac!"

Lucia looked around uneasily as the new people filed into the room. Her laughter was immediately dead in her throat even though she knew these people should be good… "It's lovely… to meet you all." She looked towards Baralai tentatively. She had no idea how much had been explained to these new people nor if they even believed it.

Baralai got up and immediately went to Nooj. "Nooj! It's good to see you! I want to apologize for being so mad at you. I was wrong to blame the Den of Woe fiasco on you." He hoped his friend would forgive him.

Nooj nodded, "Honestly, looking back at it I can't blame you for thinking it was my fault. I don't even know how the four of us made it out."

Lucia shook her head, "It was Yevon I think… Even if he was sleeping for most of the time. Everyone who survived plays a key point of history going forward. Or at least…" She ducked her head to try and hide again.

Baralai grabbed Nooj's hand and pulled him over to Lucia. "Lucia, I want you to meet my best friend Nooj! Gippal is my other best friend but he's too busy digging a grave for himself with Rikku and Cid."

She nodded shyly, "It's nice to meet you Nooj." She didn't know quite what he was made aware of and didn't want to put her foot in the proverbial mouth. Her hand reached up instinctively for the token that Baralai gave her the day before.

Nooj looked at her picture of Baralai. "Think you can show me what they think I look like?"

Lucia nodded, "They um… they were quite unholy in terms of poor LeBlanc. I wouldn't blame her for not wanting to see it."

LeBlanc chuckled, "It's okay, what did those people do to me if poor Gippal had that reaction of Rikku."

Lucia handed Nooj the picture and turned her head trying to not focus on most of yesterday's events. "Like I said, they were quite… bad when it came to the women in the sequel."

LeBlanc looked over and her mouth dropped. She looked at her outfit, similar in color and design but her neckline was normal. "The hell!" She looked at Nooj. "And when did you get prosthetics? And that horrendous hair extension?"

The brunette giggled a little. "Like I said, they're perverts who think unholy thoughts. The prosthetics was apparently part of the past… the Den Of Woe where Unsent spirits took refuge within their bodies and continued the fight as though it had never ended. Shuyin was at the end of that mess… As for the hair… I honestly can say I have no clue LeBlanc. Wanna see what they did to poor Seymour and Baralai?"

Nooj nodded. "I see Baralai's cowlick that he used to have before he bought a comb. What did they do to Maestor Seymour?"

Seymour hid the picture. "No, this will never be shown in the light of day again."

She giggled, "Now we all know it's not true Seymour, it's okay. We know they perverted this whole world essentially. Somethings they got dead on… others not so much beyond just the physical appearance and sensibility of things." Lucia turned to her sister in an effort to push away some of the painful memories of their journey.

Melinda nodded and looked at Yuna. "You were essentially a doormat in the game. Letting everyone walk all over you. Even when you knew that the church was corrupt." She took a breath and shook her head. "Literally, even when you knew it was all a lie, you pushed forward to get that final summon, up until Zanarkand when you met Yunalesca."

Yuna blinked, "What? Me? A doormat? They must like their women weak and easy then. I'd take my staff to their hides and tan them! Yunalesca is the final summon?"

Lucia shook her head, "No. In the game… she was to help you with turning a guardian into a summon. Then when you summon it to fight Sin, you'd die. Instead you took her on, defeated her – ending the final summon. Then you didn't have to die. But Tidus, being that he was from a maintained imagination of Zanarkand from the past, he would vanish with the pyreflies. You both were supposedly never destined to be together. Then in the sequel, if you did things just so, he came back." Her eyes dulled as she shivered.

"Just so means talking to every npc multiple times, doing every side quest including a horrible coin game called sphere break and in Zanarkand trying to get monkeys to have sex," Mindy explained.

Yuna laughed, "That's seriously messed up! So where do we go from here though? How do we reduce the Guardian's size?"

Lucia pondered it, "If the Aeons are former Guardians, and the different layers are guardians, perhaps sending the Aeon on in front of Spira's Guardian will help send a level of him onwards to the farplane…"

"Maybe in Zanarkand ruins, giving everything closure at last would help too," Mindy suggested.

Lucia nodded in agreement. "All things came to a head in the first at Zanarkand. It makes sense to go there and try. At least if something doesn't work, Yevon can't hurt anyone accidentally." She looked around. "Who will be going with Lady Yuna? I want to… no I need to… to see this to an end."

Mindy stood. "I'm going too. Oh by the way," She sat back down and quickly drew Yunalesca. "Please tell me Yunalesca doesn't look like that?"

Seymour raised an eyebrow, "I have no idea honestly. No one really lives to tell anyone of what she looks like."

Lucia sketched out Payne and giggled, "Wanna see how they portrayed you?" She held the picture close to her to keep people from seeing it.

Payne nodded. "Yes I would. I'm scared to know how low my neckline is though." In reality, she wore a simple pair of black pants with a black t-shirt.

Lucia got up with Baralai closely following, as did Nooj and even Gippal. "Here you go. They um… yeah." She had no idea how to quite explain just how wrong they had gotten Payne.

Mindy decided to sum it up. "At the time Emo was considered super sexy."

The twin nodded, "They decided to spice it up with making it look like she had almost no shirt at all. Just a wrap to keep herself covered. Yeah."

Payne looked at the image. "Oh wow... Did they at least get that I swing more towards women? Sorry Maestor."

Lucia shook her head. "I know it's against the teachings, but there's nothing wrong with preferring same gender in our world at least in most eyes. Again with narrow minded people. They didn't really do much with your character sadly Payne. They just assumed how you dressed implied you prefer females."

Seymour shrugged. "Same sex isn't necessarily against the teachings. Lust of any gender is the big one. Yevon is more neutral. Now if Mika heard you say that, you'd be tossed in the Purifico. The reason Jecht was so willing to give his life for Braska's mission... Well according to rumors..."

The twin couldn't help the growl when she heard Mika's name. "That bastard… I hope he's rotting in the depths of hell. No offense Maestor Seymour…"

Seymour nodded while Gippal looked at his picture. "At least they came close. I can't expect them to really know what a dashing devil I am."

Rikku pushed him over. "Dashing devil my foot. Oh, and here's Seymour's picture."

Seymour gaped as he realized the picture was missing from his hand.

Gippal laughed when he saw Seymour, "What in the name of Yevon did they do to you Maestor Seymour?"

Nooj look at the picture. "I wonder if that's even possible... How much hair gel would that need?"

Seymour growled. "Give it back." He made to grab it back but Nooj passed it around.

Lulu laughed. "Funny thing Maestor Seymour… at least they didn't make you look like an utter tramp like they did me." She made a gesture of the bust size they gave her. The mage passed it to Wakka with a giggle.

Wakka laughed, "I thought they did horrible things to me man. They really got you good Maestor Seymour. I had a major cowlick up to here!" He indicated with a hand to a foot above his head.

Lucia giggled, "Wakka, they made you out to be a country bumpkin too who was happy to just try instead of win a blitzball game. 23 years without a win."

Wakka's mouth fell open. "23 years? 23? I'd say we went 5. We were winning before the Goers discovered cheating."

Lucia nodded with a frown. "Yep, it was something just utterly dumb. In the game they grabbed Lady Yuna in Luca to try and force you to lose again. That's why I kept insisting that she stay close to the group. Tell me Yuna, when did that man first meet up with Tidus in Luca?" She had a bad feeling about the answer.

Yuna thought about it. "I think it was right before I got grabbed and you saved me."

The brunette turned to Baralai… "He was in on it then too I bet. Tidus probably said something to him before hand – something about what my sister and I could do so to speak. How else could they have found me so easily?"

Baralai nodded. "Yes... We have to take care of him right away. Just so you all know. Auron is our enemy. He's a disgrace to the title of Guardian. And Kinoc is a perversion. If you meet with them, capture them. But if you have to, you may kill them. Right Maestor Seymour?"

Seymour nodded. "But remember, Auron is a very dangerous man and should not be taken lightly. It is unlikely he will just let you bring him in."

Lucia shook her head and backed away from them as they spoke of what to do with Auron. She would rather he die than to even so much as look at her ever again. Her arms crossed her body as if to protect herself.

Gippal saw her fear. "It's okay little lady..." He reached out to pat her shoulder in comfort.

She whirled quickly on her foot and hurried to Baralai, hiding behind him as she shook in fear.

Baralai pulled her into his arms and held her close. "Kill him painfully..." He told Gippal and Nooj.

Nooj nodded and he pulled a shaking LeBlanc into his arms, knowing she knew what Lucia had gone through first hand. "He will never lay a finger on any of us."

Gippal frowned and nodded. "Define level of pain Baralai… we as I recall… invented new levels for that kind of scum."

Baralai thought about it. "I'd say level red should suffice."

The Al Bhed laughed. "I'd pity him then cause he's not gonna be too happy with that level. Still, let's prepare to go to Zanarkand and help out dear Yevon to become what he was supposed to be so long ago. Let's make him a proper Guardian."

As if on cue, the sound of a whale's call could be heard echoing through Bevelle. Mindy looked up. "I think he's ready," She looked out a window towards the ocean. "I don't see him though."

Lucia shook her head, "With him awake and aware, he would have pulled out farther to sea before rising. So that way the tidal wave might only be a small wave by time it reaches the coast. We need a boat to catch up to him and explain what we intend to do."

Cid stood. "That's where we come in. My son and my men are waiting on our ship at the docks. This will be interesting, working with Sin."

Mindy giggled. "We started the trip on that ship. Might as well end there. I wonder what Yunalesca is really like. In the game she was a bitch. Oops, I shouldn't use that language in a church."

Seymour wrapped an arm around her waist, "We'll just have to go find out. And for language, at the moment if it's just the group of us I don't care – especially if it pertains to two men in particular. But after that, yes…"

Mindy leaned into his hold. "At the rate it's been going, Luci, how much do you want to bet she's about as sweet as Mrs Potts?"

Lucia nodded. "Sure, why not? They've been wrong about certain key people – so why not her too? I bet she just wants to rest or be reunited with Yu Yevon." She looked at the group. "Let's see, they had Mika about right. Kinoc was worse in reality than the game. The game just painted him as a dumb one. Wrong about Tidus, Auron, Jecht, Sin, Yevon. They were exceptionally wrong about Seymour."

Mindy sunk deeper into the Maestor's embrace. "Exceptionally wrong indeed..." She laid her head on his chest, yawning a little.

Lucia raised a brow, "Let me guess, she didn't sleep at all. Right Seymour?" Her expression said to not even try to lie to her.

Seymour nodded as he picked up the sleepy brunette. "She can sleep on the way to Zanarkand."

Melinda closed her eyes as her arms went to his neck, using his shoulder as a pillow. "Brain wouldn't stop Luci, you know how I get sometimes..."

Lucia shook her head. "I do and you need to sometimes make it stop because otherwise you could get hurt or sick… then where would I be? Especially right now." She hummed a soft melody from back home, one that she knew would help put her sister to sleep.

The twin's breathing evened out within moments and she was asleep in the Maestor's arms. Seymour looked at the girl. "How did you do that?"

Lucia smirked, "It's a little trick mom used to do to help us sleep when a bad storm raged and wouldn't let us sleep. Ever since then, I've used it to help put Mindy to sleep when her brain was too wound up to do so. She'll sleep for a few hours."

Yuna looked at Lucia. "Is she insomniac?" She looked worried.

The woman shook her head. "Not normally. But the past few days have been a bit crazy… so I'm not necessarily surprised." She looked at Seymour, "If it happens again, wake me up so I can help. Okay?"

Seymour nodded. "Or you could teach the melody to me. You need your rest too Lady Lucia."

Lucia frowned, "Sleep hasn't necessarily been a good friend in the past twenty four hours if you know what I mean Seymour. It's part of the reason Baralai indicated that red level of pain." She shook her head, "But I will teach you the melody. You will have to tell me if it works though for her, because sometimes it's that it's me doing it more so than the melody itself."

Seymour nodded abruptly in oath. "I'm going to ask Maestor Kelk to lead services while we are gone. The people should not be denied their worship any longer."

Baralai nodded, "It shouldn't be much longer before it's all done Master. Then things will go back to normal."

Seymour nodded. "I hope so... The services are so comforting... And I plan to ask Maestor Kelk to teach them a lesson while we are gone."

Lucia shook her head, "Honestly don't worry about it Maestor Seymour, I shouldn't have let it get to me the way it did…"