I've been thinking a lot about interdimensional warping and Final Fantasy X-2. You know, I quite like the new Spira, especially Kilika, it's my kinda town with all that water and the water taxies clearly based off of the water taxies in places like Turkey.

BW: They could have water taxies in Japan too!

FB: You think? O.o I never saw any!

BW: You went inland when you were there holidaying.

FB: But the mushrooms!

BW: Are you even trying to pay attention?

FB: Fudgybears?

BW: (pulls out throwing knives distainfully)

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy is a mushroom, a mushroom, a mushroom, Final Fantasy is a mushroom, one that's not mine!

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Alex's Battle Notes: You should always be alert, even when relaxing in case an enemy tries to get the upper hand.

The D'jose Priest

I did have nightmares that night. Horrible dreams about lost souls wandering the dark beach, images of those that had died and been torn limb from limb by the fiends that had probably infested that area. And a dream about Tidus, locked away inside a dark cage, desperation burning him from the inside as he called for someone to release him so he could protect his girl. Then at the last minute, as he looked up, he turned into Hunter with tears falling over his cheeks.

I woke up sweating and shaking, hugging the blanket I had been given as close as I could to my chest. For a while, I stared at the ceiling as my mind caught up with where I was, letting the dreams fade into the dark. When I was sure my heart beat had returned to normal, I pushed off the blanket and sat up. The room was filled with the low rumbling of several people breathing in and out in their deep sleep and as I squinted, I could just make out the carvings on the walls and the urns that told me I was still in the temple, probably in one of the side rooms with the other Crusader refugees.

I looked around and found the door in the corner of the room that clearly led out to the main hall where many other people were undoubtedly sleeping by now. I sat and thought about whether I could hold my pee until morning.

I really couldn't.

Carefully, I pushed myself up into a standing position and tried to plan a route that would take me to the door with minimal casualties to the sleeping masses on the floor. As I looked around me, I caught a glimpse of Tidus' blond hair and tanned face poking out of a blanket next to my futon. Though I couldn't really see properly in the dark, I could have sworn he had his thumb in his mouth and was smiling in the most ridiculous manner. Before I could stop myself, a smile cracked the corners of my face and one small chuckle escaped from my throat. I slapped a hand over my mouth and winced as I felt the stiffness of the newly mended arm.

Someone on the other side of my futon moved.

"Alex?"

Shit. Can't even go to the bathroom in peace anymore.

I turned like a kid about to be scolded, hoping against hope that I'd woken up someone nice like Yuna or Wakka but no, no, just my luck I'd woken the ice prince. Hunter stared at me through alert eyes in the dark.

"Are you alright?" he whispered.

"Yeah, yeah." I hissed back, watching as someone somewhere on the far side of the room rolled over. "I just wanted to use the little girl's room if you know what I mean."

Blush central. It's not like I had any better way of saying it. Good thing it was dark really.

I heard a shuffle next to me and watched as he stood up too, slightly surprised.

"What, you need to go too?" I asked him.

Brief pause. Is he laughing at me again?

"No, I was going to show you the way."

Oh...well then...

He stepped over the first person effortlessly and weaved his way over the bodies to the door. I tried to follow his steps exactly but I guess creeping isn't an ability for Copycat to note down because I ended up treading on a few fingers and getting cursed at. By the time I reached the door next to Hunter, half of the room was grumbling so I had to bow and apologise to the room in general.

Hunter pushed the door to, revealing the hall and a draught which made me shiver under my blouse. I expected the hall to be full of people, hundreds and hundreds of refugees sleeping all the way up the choir tiers but it was empty. The only thing to show that there was any kind of life at all was the burning electric pulsing around the lightning rods in the centre of the room. Maybe it was too dangerous to sleep in the hall.

Hunter led me over the cold floor. It chilled my toes as I wandered over the glyph on the floor and I vaguely wondered where my geta had gone in all the confusion. We moved right across to the other side of the hall and I thought we were heading to the other little room but it turned out there was a bathroom right next to it. Why there wasn't one on our side, I'll never know. Perhaps Yevon was on a bit of a budget considering Sin's destruction.

"This is it." Hunter said, pushing the door open for me and switching on a light. Ah, the D'jose temple, the only place on Spira with cheap and actually usable electricity.

"Heh." I said, smiling awkwardly as I slipped past him inside. The bathroom was small and cold but again, ornately carved. The people that live around here must have a lot of time on their hands.

When I'd finished, I went to push the door open but Hunter barred my way out with his back to the door. Still half asleep, I frowned and pushed a little harder.

"Lemme out."

"Shh." He hissed through the gap.

I started, alarmed by his tone and peered out underneath his arm. Now that I was listening, I could hear the sound of voices. There were a couple of men by the sound of it. One of them had a voice that stood out above the others, sounded more authoritative. There was a woman as well, a distinct voice that I recognised straight away.

'Lulu?' I thought to myself.

"It was very good of you to come at such a dark time for these people. They need to know that there is something good in the future." One of the men was saying in a soft voice.

"Chaplain, you know I can't practice bias in my craft towards good fortune. I see what I see and that's it." The one with authoritative voice told him.

"I know, but it can't get much worse than this."

I didn't remember this bit of the game. The man with authoritative voice sounded so distinct, you'd think I'd remember it. I thought about what Hunter had said way back in the diner at Luca, how we could deviate from the linear story line because Spira was real, a real multi-dimensional space. I shuddered. This must have been something that had happened whilst Tidus was sleeping, that ominous black out after the operation on that god awful cliff. Without being able to rely on my knowledge of the game to help me prepare myself for what was coming, I felt vulnerable, blind.

"Ah yes, you're one of Lady Yuna's Guardians. Lulu?"

When Lulu replied to this guy, she sounded astonished, as though he had guessed her identity without being given any clues.

"And what can I do for you?"

"Uh...there's..." she hesitated, sounding guilty. Just what was happening here? Above me, Hunter pressed his back closer to the door as someone came into view.

He was bald and covered in tattoos as far as I could see, which was about down to his shoulders. From where I was, it looked like he was naked except for a few jade green beads around his neck.

"There's someone I want you to...take a look at. I'm not sure but I think she...might be a threat to the summoner."

"Is she a guardian?" Ah, so the bald man was the one with distinctive and commanding voice. I should note this down in the book of important facts.

"No...but she travels with us."

Forgive me for the gasp but I just realised who she was talking about. I backed away from the door and sat up on the side of toilet, trying not to exist with all my might. Something really was bugging Lulu, she thinks I'm a threat to Yuna? What did I do?

"What is your reasoning for this accusation?"

"When we fought one of the Sin spawn she...she knew exactly how to defeat it with just a quick glance. Like she had some sort of...connection to it. And this isn't the first time she's known things that no one else could possibly know."

Oh stupid stupid Alex! Of course she was going to think something like that! I've been going around all this time feeding them all information, when and where the fiends will appear, how to kill them...of course they were going to think I was being given information by something...or that I was a fiend myself! At the very least they were bound to think I was a threat to Yuna.

And wait, she wants that bald tattooed man to 'have a look at me'?

An ominous pause followed by the biggest and most discontented sigh I have ever heard from the bald man. Oh what, so I'm a hassle for you am I ugly?

"Bring her to me." The voice of baldy commanded. I could feel my eyes widening in the dark as I listened.

"We have prepared a room for you my lord, in the monk's quarters. Would you like to rest up before seeing the girl?"

They moved further into the temple so the conversation drifted out of eavesdropping range. I sat huddled on the toilet, wondering if Lulu was even now tiptoeing into the bedroom to fetch me for the crazy man. I wondered if she was just going to wake me up and drag me without saying a word or if she was planning to tell me what was going on. Hunter waited a while before opening the door and moving into the cubicle with me, his dark eyes blazing.

"What...will they do to me?" I asked.

"I don't know." Hunter said simply. He leant against the wall next to me.

"What...should I do?" I mumbled, hugging my knees tighter. I had no idea what he was going to do to me. Did they have mental wards on Spira? Would they take me into a dark examination room and ask me questions that I couldn't answer? Pronounce me crazy and then knock part of my brain out so I couldn't complain about the decision. I didn't wanna end up like that blonde chick in From Hell.

And all of this was yet more stress on top of the trauma we'd all just experienced on the beach. All that trauma and now an accusation like that? I felt the place where my heart would be in my chest and poked the dull ache that was starting to throb.

"They're going to find us sooner or later." Hunter prompted.

I was scared. Really scared. But right then, I didn't care. I'd been through too much to be afraid. I didn't have the energy for it.

"Let's go and meet them." I said, uncoiling from the toilet seat and striding purposefully towards the door.

"Are you sure?" Hunter asked in his low voice. He didn't sound particularly concerned but I knew he probably was. I thought about how he said nothing would happen to me.

"Yeah." I said and, with shaking hands, opened the door to meet Lulu as she came out of the sleeping quarters looking puzzled, her dress muffling the sound as the door shut. I stared defiantly at her.

"My business is done." I announced. "You can take me to baldy whenever you want, I'm ready."

Lulu flushed slightly but didn't avert her eyes from mine like I expected her to. I'd been brought up in a society that averted their eyes whenever eye contact was to be made in these sort of situations. It took all my willpower not to turn away.

She moved forward and grabbed my wrist, not saying a word. Hunter moved to take the other hand, which I'm ashamed to say made me shiver. When Lulu glared at him, he glared back. The air definitely chilled as those two clashed and I sat shivering in the middle, wishing one of them could cave so we could get this whole messy ordeal over with.

Eventually, Lulu rolled her eyes and strolled off, dragging both me and Hunter behind her, through the elaborately carved hall into a corridor which looked positively plain in comparison. There were a few windows letting in streams of moonlight and drafts of air on one side of the corridor and on the other there were a few doors, all lined up in a nice identical row. It was to one of these doors that Lulu led us to.

We waited as Lulu knocked. I was shaking violently, from the chill of the night or the nerves, I'm not really sure. Hunter's hand squeezed mine reassuringly, my teeth chattered.

"Enter." said the low voice of the bald man. Lulu pushed the door to without saying a word and nudged me into the room. As soon as I passed over the threshold, I was hit with a blast of incense smoke so pungent, I nearly fell over. My eyes started watering so I could only make out the barest minimum of the details of the room and my nose clogged so I started spluttering.

"What is this stuff?" I asked, trying desperately to breathe through the smog.

"This is called bright eye." The voice said. I tried to take a look at the guy but my eyes just wouldn't open.

"It helps clairvoyance."

Okay, nut job.

"Think you're using enough?" I asked him as Hunter walked in beside me and leant against the wall. He'd let go of my hand by now. I kinda missed the contact.

Baldy didn't say anything for a moment. Not until the door was shut and it was just us in the room. Then he said:

"Sit down in front of me."

To be honest, I had the right mind to just say 'no' to defy him. He wasn't the boss of me, he shouldn't use such a commanding tone! I found I couldn't help myself though, my legs just sort of carried me over until I was sitting neatly in front of him with my legs tucked under me. That was the biggest give away that something was amiss, I never sit neatly. I looked imploringly at Hunter for help but he was watching the incense like it might jump out and attack him.

Now that I was in front of this guy, I tried to see him more clearly. He was wearing robes of the deepest blue, pulled over one of his shoulders like a toga. So that's why he looked naked. He had a long face, big ears and droopy mad-looking eyes. His tattoos were mesmerising.

We sat in silence for ages, him looking at me and me looking at him, staring. After five minutes or so I started to get bored and made to ask him what exactly he was going to do but my mouth wouldn't move, no sound came out of my throat. Puzzled, I tried to look at Hunter but my head wouldn't move either. Panic settled in, that feeling that was becoming oh so familiar. Was I being possessed? Was my soul being ripped from my body? Why had I ever agreed to do this willingly? I started screaming, or rather trying to, throwing myself against the walls of my invisible prison...if that was even possible. It was so frustrating to feel myself moving while nothing changed in front of me. Above me, the baldy continued to stare and as I let out a particularly forceful scream, I saw his mouth flinch up into a smile.

"What's happening?" Hunter asked quite calmly from somewhere on my left. He must have noticed by now that something horrible was happening. I could feel myself turning towards him without turning, willing him to come and shake me or something. Panic raged in my gut.

"She's in a trance," baldy said, his lips moving perfectly well, "I have contained her soul so I can probe into her mind without any interference."

Bastard.

I'll kill him when I get out of this.

Very randomly, he chuckled.

"She's scared, but that doesn't mean she's any less feisty."

A blade, flicked out in the corner of my vision and fell under his throat. It was a curved blade with markings on. Hunter's scythe.

"Stop messing around." Hunter's voice hissed.

Baldy's eyes narrowed.

"I will not harm her. I merely want to see if she is a fiend or is, in any way, connected to Sin."

"I can tell you now, she isn't."

There was a pause as the bald guy regarded him.

"We shall see." he said, looking back at me. I could feel a cramp crawling its way across my foot where I was sitting and mentally sobbed at the fact that I couldn't move. Baldy closed his eyes for a minute and the room grew silent. Not even Hunter dared force him to stop now. In the back of my mind, I could feel something poking and I tried to shove it off, like someone swats away an annoying mosquito. Again, the baldy had a smile flicker across his face. Mentally, I gave his poking a good kick.

Even that didn't put him off for very long. I struggled hopelessly against his probing until he broke through my 'defences' and I was left sitting there while the entirety of my mind was laid bare for him. He'd know everything...about the Ao Guardians...Earth...even about my private thoughts...would he tell them about it if he knew how fragile the universe was? Would that mean that the story had subverted too much creating the paradoxes we'd worked so hard to avoid? I felt to utterly useless as I felt him exploring my mind, delving into the parts I hadn't realised I could be aware of.

And all the while, his smile widened.

The cocky bastard.

"She certainly has a power," he said after a while. If I could have, I would have looked at Lulu to see if she looked relieved that her accusations were actually founded.

"But it is a power like mine."

"You can't be serious..." I heard her whispering. Power like this guy to paralyse and control people? As if. Maybe he'd come up against a mirror.

"Future sight."

Oh.

Lulu gasped, she sounded awed. Yeah, that's right biatch! You shouldn't mess with me, I'm powerful and I've been trying to help you all this time, you should never have doubted me.

He chuckled again so the sides of his face creased showing his age. What was so funny? Was he reading my coherent thoughts?

"She's like nothing I've ever seen before...you can rest assured Guardian, she is no threat to the summoner. Quite the opposite, you're lucky to have someone like this in your party."

Well thank you baldy!

I stared at him for a while longer, feeling my eyes start to dry out from the incense. As if I could do anything else. I wondered how much he really knew, what he would do with that information. Would he hold it inside him forever? Or share the burden? I tried to look at Hunter to see if he was showing even subtle signs of panicking but the effort caused me to get neck cramp and my head didn't move at all.

"Let her go now." Hunter growled from somewhere behind me. The bald monk let one last sweeping gaze linger on me before turning his back to me where he was sitting. At first I was indignant, how rude could you get? Dragging me all the way out here in the middle of the night to probe my brain without permission and then when you're done you just turn your back on me? I frowned at him and huffed, folding my arms across my chest before I realised what I'd done.

"I'm free." I whispered.

Hunter moved towards me, crouching down where I was sitting.

"Can you move everything?" he asked.

I wriggled my fingers and toes, blinked a few times to moisten my eyes up again and grinned at him. It was the nicest feeling in the world to be in control of my own body again. Quickly, I changed position on the mat I was sitting on and rubbed life back into my dying foot.

Lulu hovered in the background, guilt etched all over her face. I ignored her.

"Next time, ask my permission before you paralyse me and go diving into my thoughts." I muttered bitterly at Baldy's back as my foot tingled.

Baldy turned back to me then and I squeezed my eyes shut defensively. I hadn't expected him to respond to that and I hadn't particularly meant to piss him off.

"I'm sorry if what I did was invasive," I opened my eyes just a crack to see him hanging his head before me in a little bow. "These are dark times for Spira, we have to investigate any suspicion in case it jeopardises our future."

I felt myself blush.

I guess I can understand that.

Next to me, Hunter huffed a little and turned his back on them both. Like he didn't make mistakes. I didn't know what to feel. Indignant, horrified, forgiving. It was just something else I had never been taught to deal with at home, back where a personal invasion of that scale might be a seriously punishable crime. Honestly, I didn't feel anything much, still numbed from the sheer scale of the emotion that had been forced out of me by the battle the previous day. Compared to that, this seemed so trivial.

"I'm going back to bed." I said, by the ways of a decisive thought.

"I'm also sorry for disturbing you at such an hour." Baldy said, still bowed. I grunted my response, stood up shakily and turned on my heel to the door of the little room. I paused with my hand on the handle, thought for a moment and threw back at him:

"Oh yeah, your incense is stinky!"

Ha! The ultimate revenge!

And with that the perfect exit out into the corridor where I'll remember my way ba- oh shit. I stood outside in the corridor, looking from left to right and back again. Everything looked the same, even as the sun was starting to rise through the windows and bathe everything in an early light.

"Oh...shit." I said and picked a direction. I hadn't gone three steps when Hunter appeared in the doorway behind me. His expression had softened a little and now that he'd stopped glaring at everyone he looked dead tired, massive bags hung black under his eyes.

"You're going the wrong way." He said, and held out his hand for mine. My resolve faltered, I walked forward and held onto his hand. As he guided me back, I turned to look at the door and saw Lulu coming out, closing the door behind her looking tortured. It's not like I can really hold a grudge if she thought there was something wrong with me...I smiled at her over my shoulder and she looked a little surprised, like she didn't expect me to forgive her for days.

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"Get uuuuuuuuuupuh! We're leaving!"

"Huh?" I tried to open my eyes but they were glued shut. With a massive effort I made them flicker open for a minute so I could catch a glimpse of Tidus standing over me pouting.

"What's up with you? You slept more than everyone!"

Yeah, you'd think that.

"Oh just...leave me here to die." I said, hiding myself under the pillow on the futon, blocking out the world. I didn't want to wake up yet, I only just got to sleep.

"We don't have time for this." Tidus said and with that, he reached down and picked me right up off of the floor, swinging up and over his shoulder like a weighed nothing. My stomach churned on his bony shoulder.

"Ah! Let me down you psychopath! Let go!" I pounded half heartedly on his back, irritated and happily surprised all at once. I really don't know why him lifting me like that made me so happy...

As if rubbing it in my face, Tidus started whistling as he took me out into the main hall. Loads of people stared at us as we went passed, including Gatta who looked like he hadn't slept a wink.

"Oh yeah, we should check on Yuna." Tidus said cheerfully, veering into the other little room. It was quite messy inside, with a few people sleeping soundly on the floor, their wounds bandaged.

"Put me down." I hissed to Tidus, serious this time because my stomach was complaining.

Tidus did as he was told, his eyes hovering over the sleeping form of Yuna, her hair in disarray and her face sunken where she'd gone to sleep even later than me. Shelinda stood by the side of her bed, shaking her head and putting her finger to her lips.

"She was working until dawn." She whispered over the sleeping people, "Healing the wounded and sending the fallen..."

Tidus looked at her, studying her as though she would disappear before his eyes.

"I guess I'll just let her sleep for now then."

Oh sure, she gets to sleep because she was being helpful, I get forcefully interrogated and get a rude awakening anyway.

Not that Tidus was to know anything about last night.

He turned round to leave, taking a step towards the door before Yuna stirred. Quick as lightening, he was at her side, kneeling by her bed as she woke up. It took her a few moments to blink the sleep from her eyes and realise who was by her bedside, a radiant smile breaking over her face.

"Good morning," Tidus said softly. In the background, I wondered if I should leave. It seemed a bit intimate for witnesses, not that Tidus even remembered that I was there.

"What? Morning?" Yuna exclaimed, sitting up quickly so her hair stuck up.

"Don't worry." Tidus told her calmly, looking right into her flawed eyes. Yuna was having none of it.

"But it's morning." She jumped up off of the bed and bowed as low as she could. "I'm so sorry! I'll just be a minute." She scuttled over to the chest of drawers on the other side of the room, pulling out the obi to tie around her waist and her sleeves. She worked quickly, tying the obi first and then putting the sleeves on, pulling the purple draw strings tight. When she'd finished that, she ran back towards her bed to fetch her summoning staff. She never remembered to brush her hair.

"Hey, don't worry, it's okay." Tidus repeated, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to take a deep breath. He wanted to pull her into a hug, I could see it written on his face. How had it taken Yuna so long to figure out he was digging on her?

I sighed a massive sigh that no one but Shelinda noticed and disappeared out into the main hall. For a minute, I thought about breakfast but if Yuna was rushing about like a headless chicken, it was doubtless I'd get any. I meandered across the hall and, on a whim, decided to change my clothes before we left so I could get rid of the lingering smell of the dead. I walked out into the open air about a quarter of an hour later dressed the yellow trousers and my school jumper. The morning was bright and despite what had happened the day before, the birds were singing. The air was fresh too, no trace of the dead left.

As I crossed the compound back towards the bridge up to the Moon flow, I noticed Hunter talking to one of the people in the shop. After a while, Hunter nodded and something was given to him wrapped in brown packaging. I frowned and nearly walked straight into Lulu who gave me a look like a kicked vampiric puppy.

"I...I'm...sorry about last night," she said, her eyes actually averted from mine this time.

I nodded.

"I was...uneasy...because of what..." She trailed off, lowering her head a little so her hair slid forward and covered her eyes.

"Because of?" I prompted gently. I'm not exactly good at mind reading.

"Because of what..." Her voice broke a little. "Luzzu...said before he died."

Oh, Chappu.

"I never wanted Wakka to find out."

I was a little mad, I admit. I probably should have been raging considering she took me to a bald monk who invaded my mind but I couldn't blame her for wanting to protect Yuna and our circumstances, mine, Tidus', Hunter's, aren't exactly in our favour. Then she has to deal with the whole Chappu thing again right before something insanely traumatic? Hell, that would make anyone uneasy.

"It's okay." I said to her, patting her on the shoulder. She looked up at me with those dark eyes, surprised. She really wasn't expecting me to forgive her so easily. She looked grateful and puzzled.

"To be honest," I said, feeling the sudden urge to stretch, "I don't have the energy to hold grudges. Oh, here's Yuna."

Yuna came out, huffing and puffing, bowing to everyone and apologising for being so late. She glanced round at everyone and spotted Auron lurking in the back. She galloped over and gave her deepest bow.

"I'm so sorry."

"Really, there's no rush." Lulu told her. She seemed in much better spirits now I'd forgiven her...it must have been plaguing her for the rest of the night.

"Here, your hair." She said, laughing at the anti-gravity look Yuna seemed to be going for.

"A summoner with bed hair, what's the world coming to?" Wakka asked mockingly, stepping out behind her and examining the new do.

"You could have woken me up!" said Yuna, pouting indignantly.

"Uh...we called to you," Lulu told her between chuckles, "but with all that snoring."

Yuna smiled huge and bright. I was nearly blinded by the radiance.

"Hmm...what is it today? Everyone's picking on me," she moaned. Everyone started laughing, they couldn't help it. Even I laughed, this whole thing seemed so light hearted after the day before that I just had to laugh. Even Auron let out a brief little snicker.

"You too sir Auron?" Yuna asked, affronted.

I couldn't really see beneath his collar but I was pretty sure he was smiling. An old man smile, like a parent looking at a daughter.

"Once Lady Yuna fixes her hair, we leave." he said.

Everyone laughed again and started off together along the road to the Moon flow. I hung back with Hunter as the party pressed on and as we walked over the bridge, I noticed, even Hunter had cracked a smile.

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So Lulu thought that Alex was a threat to Yuna and took her to see the bald monk. Does the monk know all about the Ao Guardians? Will he keep it a secret? What will happen when they finally reach Seymour? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?

Hunter: (sighs and ties FB up in straight jacket)

FB: Love you all, R&R please!