Wren found herself in the fountain courtyard of her dreams. It seemed she was still asleep.

The thing that she noticed first was that there didn't seem to be anyone else around. Though the city in her dreams had first been empty, there was something eerie about them slowly filling with new faces, and now being completely void of life again.

She reached out to Amalthea, but there was no answer.

"Amalthea?" she tried again, standing to her feet.

Still nothing.

Anxious, she started walking. Out of the fountain court, to anywhere more populated than this, but she was already losing hope of seeing another face.

Memories of what had happened before she had been knocked out flashed into her head. The thought of Amalthea's fate was a heavy weight on her shoulders.

Wren didn't completely agree with Amalthea, but no one deserved what Mobius had done to her. And he was threatening to do it again, and again, over and over without end. Dwelling on the idea had her bubbling with anger.

As she walked, she became steadily more anxious. Nothing felt right. It wasn't just the lack of a crowd that was bothering her, or even mourning for Amalthea. No, she was slowly aware of something looming over her, pulling her towards a destination. It was the same way she'd felt the first time she'd seen the Hall of the Hymn in Djose.

She stopped in her tracks, turning her head to determine the source of the call.

It led her down the winding streets, to a building on her left that appeared to be a library. Her guard was still lowered as she climbed the steps to the entrance, and once she got to the top, she hesitated.

What was on the other side of this doorway? She didn't have to wonder for very long, hearing the shuffling of feet on the other side, moving towards her. Out of instinct, or habit, she froze. Though she didn't move from where she stood, she felt herself trembling when she saw the face of the person that emerged from the library.

"Wren…?"

It was Mobius, but he looked different. It was his hair, she thought. It seemed even longer, but perhaps she was just so used to seeing his hair tied up that she couldn't tell. His clothes were certainly different - flowing robes that revealed more skin in the form of his partially exposed chest.

He looked just as bewildered to see her as she felt, and his face turned almost as pale as Yue's had been. She wouldn't forget what he'd done to them either, "real" or not.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, an urgency rising in his voice.

Wren found herself irritated with him suddenly, rather than afraid. "What are you talking about? This is my dream. Why shouldn't I be here?"

He brought his hand to cover his mouth. His eyes glittered with something that Wren could only identify as worry.

"A dream it may be, but not yours," he said, pulling his hand away from his face. "You shouldn't be here. You're supposed to be outside, making preparations."

A new unease was settling over her as he spoke, and she lowered her folded arms, giving him an inquisitive look. "When that light appeared, I passed out and came here, just like I do almost every night. Are you… really Mobius? The real Mobius?"

He shook his head, but not in response to her question, and his eyes fell to the floor. "Yes, I'm as real as you are. These dreams of Zanarkand, I've had them for nearly six years now. This dream is different… it's more alive than any dream we've ever had before. We… are inside Sin."

Wren took a step back from him to look around at the city. The building, the streets, the sky… They all looked normal to her. She turned around to face him again. "This is what the inside of Sin looks like? Where are we really?"

She seemed to think it was a joke, but he didn't smile, instead staring at her blankly. "I'm serious. This is a stronghold for Sin's summoner. It's cut off completely from the outside world. That means that you and I are the only ones here."

Wren's expression fell even further, and she shook her head in disbelief. "What? But I didn't- You were the one who-"

She couldn't even finish her accusation, choking on the words as abject horror set in like a bird of prey plucking a rabbit from the ground. She put her face in her hands. She could feel that he was telling the truth. Deep below her feet, she could sense something alive. It was real…

"I shouldn't be here - this can't be happening," she whispered. "If I'm here, who's going to end this?"

Mobius' lips were pressed into a tight line, and he looked away from her out of discomfort. If she could have noticed, she would have seen the same question plastered across his face. "You weren't supposed to be here with me. It must have been when the pyreflies were released… We were the only ones there when the ritual was completed, and you got dragged in because the remnants of the original Sin were within you as well. It… couldn't distinguish between two summoners."

Wren lowered herself to the ground, sitting pensively on the steps.

"I had hoped you would remain in Spira, to spread the word of Sin's return, and maybe to one day come to Amalthea's rescue," said Mobius, sighing as he moved closer behind her. "I felt you approaching the library. We are bound together now, whether we like it or not. You must have felt it too."

"I did," she said, misery evident in her voice. She was sinking farther and farther into her agony, something Mobius could see even through his own filter

He hurried to her side, kneeling down beside her on the first step. "Wren, this is very important. In my dreams, this library is where I spent my time, reading about the ancient summoners of Zanarkand and their techniques. There are many tomes detailing theories on life after death - the unsent, fiends, and the many forms they might take."

His voice was almost pleading with her as Wren tried to turn away from him. "To create such a powerful Aeon as Sin, as Yu Yevon did, as we have, we give up our true forms. What holds us together now will begin to wear with time, and we'll gradually lose all sense of self. If you fall into despair now, you risk robbing us both of our senses before our time."

His explanation brought her no joy, but she stopped to listen when he implored to her. She was scared, but he was making sense.

"You must keep yourself together, for both of our sakes." He brushed a piece of her hair away from her face. She would have recoiled from his hand, but the sight of the length of her hair also had her frozen. It was several inches longer than it should have been, and she became aware for the first time that it hung down her back and shoulders heavily. Everything was different. She was different.

"Who is in control of Sin now? How could Sin be inside Zanarkand temple?" she asked tentatively, though her voice still wavered.

Mobius rose to his feet, looking out into the horizon. "For the moment, no one. It's odd. Amalthea isn't resisting at all, yet I can't command her. As for your second question, I don't know. We've probably moved, somehow. Sin… wouldn't begin to fit inside that tiny room. With any luck, someone will see the beast, and maybe someone will become bold enough to try their hand against it."

"Don't call her a beast," hissed Wren, cutting her eyes up at him. "You made her this!"

But she could feel that he was right about Amalthea's resistance. She focused herself, trying to reach Amalthea, wherever she was.

"What are you doing?" asked Mobius, as if he could personally feel her attempt.

"I'm just checking on her," she said, scowling. There was only a faint answer, like the faintest pulse. Amalthea was there, and she was holding on, but she had no interest in fighting suggestion.

The idea that Wren could feel all of that, and potentially command Sin, terrified her.

He paused, then looked at her with awe. "You're the one stopping me from controlling it. You and I have an equal share of the power - I can't do anything without you."

Wren looked back at him with surprise as the realization of their stalemate dawned on both of them. Her expression was uncharacteristically smug for just a moment. "I'll let you dismiss Sin and free Amalthea."

His eyes silently fell to the side and he slowly turned away from her. There was her answer.

She smiled, almost genuine in spite of her situation. "Then neither of us will get what we want."

In Spira, Twill waited for help to arrive. They didn't expect Chia to return until at least the next day, but the supplies that had been left behind would be enough to live off of for a little while, even if the monkeys returned after being scared off by their scuffle.

They sat at the extinguished fire in the dark, pondering what they'd seen inside the temple.

They had arrived too late, just in time to see both Wren and Mobius disappear before their eyes in an explosion of pyreflies. Before that, on their way down, they had seen the light pouring into the lift shaft through the dark well it dwelled in. There was no indication of what had produced the light, but it didn't seem like a good thing.

There was no obvious cause for what had happened in the Fayth chamber, but Twill was certain that Mobius had succeeded. The whole scene had been too unusual, like Twill could just feel that something was off. They sincerely hoped they were wrong.

Panic would break out, if Sin really was back, there was no hiding this. Those who remembered the world before the Eternal Calm would no doubt return to the old ways. Summoner's parties would return, but at no small expense. Without any of the old temple Fayth, though…

Twill winced. Mobius had probably intended for his Fayth stones to replace the ones that had vanished into thin air six years earlier. Their mind felt too weary for them to decide what to do about the situation. Once they could see how Merris and Tana were doing, they would try to discuss their options with the rest of the group.

The sun was beginning to set.

Twill was so tired.

By the time Chia was able to retrieve Twill, they had fallen into an exhausted sleep, but were more than glad to see a friendly face.

They filled her in on what they had seen on the way to Bevelle to visit the others.

Tana and Merris seemed to be doing well. They had been in rough shape when Chia brought them to the temple's monks for healing. At the very least, they were now moving around, though they were shaken. Twill broke down with relief to see them so well, after what they'd all been through.

Tana stood up from the futon that had been provided to her. "Where is Wren?"

Twill looked up from holding their face in their hands, a guilty look that they cast to Chia. If they'd gotten there sooner, if they'd just fought back instead of letting Mobius pass… "I don't know. I followed them into the temple, but when I got to them, they were both collapsed, and then they disappeared. Both of them."

"Do you think it means he did it?" asked Chia, looking between all of them.

Merris remained seated on his own futon, but he leaned over his knees with his hands folded between them. He didn't say anything.

Tana turned her head to look at him, then turned back to Twill with a nod. "Yeah… I think so. It's ridiculous, and I was concussed, but I had a weird dream, or… a nightmare, I guess. It was about Wren and Mobius, but I can't remember the rest of the dream. I just remember being scared. Like something really bad happened. I still feel a kind of dread, I guess…"

Twill was surprised by Tana's confession, but they nodded understandingly. "I've felt the same way ever since I reached the temple's Fayth chamber. I don't know what happened down there, but I think we need to treat it as if Sin really has returned."

They all murmured in agreement, but nothing felt real even though they were forced to take things seriously.

"It would be nice if we could keep this quiet, but there's no way no one will notice when," started Chia, but the gravity of what she was saying made her pause. "When Sin starts wrecking cities again…"

They were all lucky to be alone in the room.

Merris leaned back, frowning. "The Al Bhed in Bikanel and what's left of the Machine Faction aren't super connected anymore, except for between families. I'd write to Mom and Dad, but I don't want to worry them…"

Tana rolled her eyes, looking to the rest of the group. "They were really big on that whole thing about sabotaging pilgrimages so that summoners would stop marching to their deaths willingly."

"They had the right idea, but I think they were a little confused," added Merris.

"Isn't saving the lives of summoners a good thing?" asked Chia.

"Sure, but some of that group didn't stop at sabotage. Cid's girl was one of the ones going out and kidnapping the summoners right off the roads and bringing them to our Home, remember?" said Tana.

Merris grimaced. "A little? But now she's a legendary guardian to a high summoner - maybe she and her dad were right?"

He was joking, but no one laughed, including him.

"We really will have a problem on our hands pretty soon, if Respira has its way," said Twill. "There are enough Aeons there to start distributing them to the rest of the temples. We'll never be able to fight back hard enough to keep them from making a pilgrimage, if word gets around."

Merris nodded. "Maybe we should go to Besaid… Tell Yuna what's going on."

Tana shook her head. "We can't hide it forever, but if we tell Yuna, she'll definitely take it into her own hands. Wren had to all but beg her not to run after Mobius herself."

"But we might save a lot of lives," said Twill. "Those little islands are vulnerable. ...I think we should tell her guardians, and let them figure it out… Since one of them is in charge of the village anyway."

Tana sighed. "This is a disaster, no matter how you look at it, but I actually agree. I wasn't thinking about that. I wonder if hearing about it from her guardians will be enough to convince her to stay home, though."

"What if we defeat Sin first?" asked Chia, causing everyone to turn their eyes to her. She shrugged a little, looking sideways at them with a dull look. "We're not just gonna do nothing, right? And, no offense, but we're kinda responsible for making resurrecting that thing possible, since we couldn't stop him."

Twill scowled. "I won't use his Aeons, and no matter what, none of you are about to be sacrificed to become Mobius' puppet. If it has to be us, we're going to have to do it without a summoner."

"And neither of us can use magic," said Merris, gesturing between himself and his sister. "But… yeah, I guess I'm in."

Tana winced. "With Mobius gone, that leaves me in charge of the few duties he had in Djose. I might have my hands full for a little while."

"The way the town is built into the rock, though, I bet Sin won't be able to hit us very hard. Unless we flood, it should be fine," she added, thinking. "First thing I'm gonna do is turn that ugly mansion of his into a proper hotel."

Twill couldn't hide their disappointment. "You'll go back to Djose, then?"

"Just for a little while," she said, also looking disappointed. "I need to make sure we can take an attack from Sin before I can leave it alone. And… we might have trouble in town from Respira, if I don't keep an eye on them."

Merris tilted his head. "Also, we, uh, might need to go through a little more training before we're ready to take on Sin. This might take time."

"Where will you go?" asked Chia, looking over at him.

He scratched his little goatee while he thought, frowning. "I don't know. I might just do some traveling. I've got a lot of work to do. Maybe once I feel up to form, I'll meet up with you all in time to get back at Mobius."

"If we're splitting up, we have to keep in contact. It's too dangerous to leave something like this up to the whims of fate. We can wait until all of our preparations are finished, but not without keeping everyone updated," said Twill, folding their arms.

"What about you, Twill?" asked Merris.

Twill hesitated, unfolding their arms. They hadn't had a chance to think about it. "I guess I'll go home too, but not for long. Withholding information may be dangerous, so I need to make sure my mother knows what's happening. And… then I'll keep spreading the word, I guess. Even if no one believes it."

"I'll come with you," said Chia. "We'll get around a lot faster in my ship. And- oh! The Gold Saucer. It's right smack in the middle of the Calm Lands. It'll be dangerous if anyone ever does challenge Sin there, since it's the only place big enough for a fight on that scale."

"If they can keep their business with all this mess," said Twill. "People will start staying safely at home again. There never used to be time for things like amusement parks, back when everyone had to live like they'd lose everything at any moment."

Everyone quieted down for a few moments, before Tana spoke.

"I think all of you should come with me to Djose first," she said, fidgeting with her hands. "Writing each other will be really hard if the rest of you are going to be on the move. So there's this guy who's responsible for the energy grid that Djose is on. Mobius paid him a lot to design the whole thing. He's not based in Djose, and keeps to himself most of the time, but he's business partners with Rin - the uh, Sphere Break guy - and he sends someone out to check on the grid every once in a while."

"What does that have to do with us?" asked Chia.

"Oh," said Tana, blinking. "Right. So all of our lights and such were designed by him - including the device that Mobius has on his front doorstep. It's like a regular sphere, but it shows a live image like the screens in Luca, but smaller. We could keep in touch easier if I can get him to send us a few of them in a portable version."

"Oh, like the CommSphere," said Twill, to Tana and Chia's confusion.

"Yes, that's what it's called, but how did…"

"Yuna gave us one when we visited her in Besaid the first time, but it broke when we jumped into the Farplane to find you," said Merris.

"I wouldn't mind having something like that on the ship normally," said Chia, humming.

Tana looked at Chia sympathetically. "Also, I'm sorry for roping you into all of this. If I'd known this was going to happen when we asked you to come along… I don't know. We still needed the ship."

Chia rolled her eyes. "And you needed me to fly the ship. As long as you keep your promise to me, I'll follow you all into the depths of the Farplane."

"Well, we won't be going back there anytime soon," said Tana. "But yeah. Once Mobius' affairs are dealt with, the money is yours."

There was too much planning to be done in a very short time. Precautions had to be taken, and the group couldn't be everywhere at once. Though they were reluctant to split up, each of them had their own tasks ahead of them. If Tana could get CommSpheres to each of them, it would almost be like they were never even apart.

Except for Wren… Each of them tried to put their lost friend out of their heads. Twill wasn't even certain she was truly gone, since there had been nothing left behind to perform a sending, not even a body.

It was as if she had been spirited away altogether.

As each town and village received the news, few took the information seriously. Not Luca, whose docks remained supernaturally safe even during Sin's time, and most certainly not Bevelle, who believed the creature to be well and truly gone.

It was the smaller cultural hubs that were inclined to believe the story. Besaid's famous residents were skeptical, yet deeply troubled by the news. Kilika, ravaged by Sin more than once. Thanks to Twill's mother, Guadosalam was handling the news surprisingly well. Sin mostly had not bothered the city in the past, but the massive grove of trees that it was built under couldn't afford to be disturbed.

Rumors came some months later from Mt. Gagazet, from the Ronso, that Sin had been sighted somewhere over Zanarkand, but as time passed, nothing came of it. Tana in particular believed the Ronso messenger's every word. After what Twill had seen, how could she not?

Still, even with that news, the only reports that anyone had sighted the creature were from terrified fishmongers whose ships had been smashed or stranded during seasonal storms, not by a false god. Hoaxes, all of them, though their paranoia was very real.

To make matters worse, reports of strange dreams rippled across Spira.

No one quite knew where they had started, but they seemed to plague nearly everyone indiscriminately. There were always two things linking each report; a young girl with dark skin and ruddy brown hair, and a slender man with long dark hair like a violent sea.

The descriptions were vague, but the general populace of Spira weren't the only ones with troubled dreams. The party that had accompanied Wren to her possible demise had the same restless sleep. If it weren't for the growing annoyance of the public, they may have written the dreams off as their own imaginations.

Still, maybe they were lucky. Any time someone claimed to have seen Sin, it was far from land, and certainly far from any town. The destruction they all expected never came, but that didn't mean the peace would last forever.

That uncertainty was part of the reason that Tana and the others went so far to keep each other updated, while they all honed their skills. None of them were strong enough to handle Mobius, together or as individuals, and they were no match for Sin's impenetrable armor.

Not that they had any idea how to know when they would be ready. It was scary to think of what could happen in the time they were losing, but they had to be successful. If they failed because they were unprepared and charged in, that was it.

There would only be on chance.