A Fleeting Dream

He had no weight, no feeling of ground below him, and no sense of time or space. He rode the illusionary currents and listened to the howling winds of limbo, where he assumed he was traveling. It wasn't cold, it wasn't warm. It was empty. He was waving his arms throughout the air without any idea of where he would land. All he knew was that his body was being pulled through a vortex and the outcome was unknown, like all his situations prior. It may have been hours that his spirit had been pulled through the endless tunnel of doom. Or days. He'd at least hoped the circumstances surrounding him and everyone else would remain the same at least for this moment.

When it had come to an end, he found himself halfway submerged in a watery environment. He opened his eyes to gaze upwards at a star-filled sky, where the moon seemed to cast a glow only in this very spot. He knew this place. He'd walked it ages ago and was heartbroken to see that it no longer existed when he'd returned to Spira. These mystical manifestations of the fayth gathered around him, overshadowing him with their intimidating height. And in the center, the heart of all that existed within. The tree with its warm glow.

But it was the person standing before it that caught his attention.

Yuna.

Looking as graceful as she had that night, she held herself afloat in the lake as she watched the pyreflies dance around the trees. She wasn't hurt, bruised, or torn up like he was. The first thought that popped into his mind was that he had walked into a trap. He kept his hand on the handle of Brotherhood, awaiting all enemies to pounce on him as he wandered forward.

"Yuna?" he spoke softly.

When she turned to see him, she showed him a half-hearted smile exactly like she had after the ordeal facing against Seymour and the treacherous court of Yevon. Tidus had stopped in his tracks as he was completely caught off guard by the figure before him. It had been such a long time since he'd been graced by the presence of the shy summoner that he had felt as though he was looking at her from a completely different time period. This woman had changed so much since he had seen her in this state. And yet, he felt as though he recognized her like this more than the person he'd spent the last two years with.

He could feel the wave of empathy that he held for her when he learned of the endgame of her pilgrimage. In the beginning, she had been naive, completely ignorant as everyone else had been about the intentions of Yevon's teachings. She seemed happier and more optimistic that way, leaving Tidus to wonder if it would have been better if everything had gone according to the original plan. It wouldn't, he reminded himself.

But he had snapped himself out of his emotions as he told himself that he was in the middle of his mission to save her.

"I always thought this would be easy," she told him. "With all my friends by my side."

Tidus had questioned whether she meant her first pilgrimage or the downfall of his existence on Spira. And when she continued her statement, he came to a conclusion.

"Yuna..." he asked her. "What... just happened?"

She turned to him with curious eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." he searched for the right words. "What happened before we got to the forest?"

Yuna raised an eyebrow at him. "We battled against Lord Seymour, did we not?"

So that's it. He turned his head and looked for the source of this simulation, although nothing was calling to him. It could have been any one of these trees that wielded the cluster of pyreflies around them. Perhaps it had been the largest and most luminous one of all. He brought himself closer to it, causing Yuna to cast aside, and swiped at it with one clean cut. Nothing occurred as a result. He tried again.

"Are you...?" Yuna asked. "Are you alright?"

He was hopelessly attacking the tree multiple times, but it had stood completely untouched by his efforts. He waded through the small lake, desperately looking for another source.

"There has to be something..." he muttered to himself. He knew he was brought her for a reason, thus he couldn't leave the lake, or Yuna, behind. But if it wasn't the tree that looked significant enough to be the source, what could it possibly have been?

Look for the Heart of Broken Memories. The fayth's voice swarmed through his head. All she has to do is see you. She was seeing him clearly and they were still here.

Heart of Broken Memories.

This couldn't have been just a memory. It had to be a dream.

Yuna's dream.

Yuna was dreaming.

"Tidus?" she asked him and he turned to look into her sparkling eyes. It struck him. He placed his hands gently on her shoulders to hide how hysterical he was feeling on the inside.

"Yuna, you have to wake up." he told her.

Once again, she gave him a confused look. "Wake up? But... I'm not..."

"Do you remember what happened before you got here?"

She lowered her eyes. "Y-yes. We fought against Lord Seymour and we ran to-"

Tidus shook his head. "No. You're trapped in this memory." He lowered his hands down her arms. "He's taking advantage of your powers. If you don't wake up right now, he'll completely drain you and... and you won't be able to have anymore dreams!"

She shifted away from him. "Tidus... I don't know what you're talking-"

"Macalania Forest doesn't exist anymore, remember?" he gestured to the false world around them. "It disappeared the same time that the fayth did. That I did."

He could see that her eyes had shown slight realization.

"You're stuck in a dream, Yuna." he said. "None of this is real. I'm not real." She turned away to look at the tree that was now starting to fade slightly. "You gotta wake up. You're in danger."

He felt the ground begin to shake only a little. As if sending a warning that this place could collapse at any moment. Yuna had been calm, seemingly untouched by the impending chaos. She walked up to the uninjured tree, where the heart of all who had crossed over to the world of the nonliving. Without knowing that the forest represented what it actually had, one would have thought nothing of it but the fact that it was beautiful.

"But..." she began. "If I wake up..." She turned to the man with her head hanging low. "The dream will end."

He nodded slowly. "And you'll have a new dream." he told her. "Better than this one. But please, Yuna... don't stay trapped in here."

The forest had faded at a pace faster than Tidus could blink. The world had become an entire blank space bright enough to completely ruin one's eyesight. When he had gazed upon Yuna's face, he could feel his entire body freeze as he saw fire in her eyes. She had planted her feet firmly on the ground and tightened her fists. This woman wasn't any ordinary women, he knew. But in this position, the way her eyes gleamed with vicarious determination, she had represented a warrior. The savior of Spira.

"Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD."

It was the voice of the high summoner and the voice of the apparatus fighting against her. Bold, tenacious, and utterly terrifying. Tidus had never used such words to describe her. His body lifted into the air and once again he found himself being thrown into the white unknown. He reached for her, hoping that she would come with him, but Yuna had stood her ground. She wouldn't ever stop.

The others had felt it. The massive rumble and roar of an awakening creature. Rikku had held her weapons close to her chest and glanced upwards to spot any falling debris.

"W-what's happening?" someone had said.

Rikku shifted closer to Yuna's captured body. "I don't know!"

Something had shifted near her leg and she jumped around, ready to attack.

"Look!"

Yuna's body was radiating a much dimmer glow and slowly, each of the vines tightly wound around her had fallen. When her body was finally free, she had fallen to the ground and immediately the others had rushed to her side. They were mistaken to do so. Her figure had risen once again, with the horrid luminescence of the creature within. Her form lifted off the ground and when she had opened her eyes, they were no longer the gently green and blue irises they all had known. White light had replaced them. She had screamed at a pitch that rattled their skulls and readied her palms with Yuna's most lethal magic.

Tidus had woken up for what felt like the fifth time that day and noticed that the environment surrounding him was beginning to crumble. Boulder-sized particles fell from above and some had disappeared below. Tidus rushed himself up and turned in every direction, trying to find where to go next. He could see the faint shadow of a fayth in one of the corridors and didn't take a closer look before following it.

He was running faster than he ever had, jumping out of the way of falling objects, with Brotherhood dragging behind him. He could sense the monster's anger in the air around him. It shouted nonsensical words and he could now see the phantoms it used against Tidus and the others were faltering. They collapsed in agony with their hands grasping their heads. Their ghostly moans and screams were nothing Tidus had ever heard before and it was almost enough to twist his stomach into knots.

He had arrived at an even worse scene. Yuna in her abnormal celestial form, floating in the air with deadly weapons aimed at him.

"You should have remained sent!" He heard the demon within her say.

He leapt out of the way of an incoming elemental attack.

"Yuna!" He shouted. "You know me! We used to walk along Macalania Forest together!"

The creature laughed. "You will have to try harder than that to get her back!"

To be on the opposing side of the high summoner when she was in combat mode was much more life-threatening than any battle Tidus had been apart of. She was every bit as skillful as she ever had been, combined with the unholy magic of the fallen summoner. She was even more powerful than she had been when she initiated this entire chain of events. Tidus wouldn't stop reminiscing out loud about the moments they'd shared together. He could see from the lessening amount of attacks that it had been working.

"You watched me play blizball with Wakka's team three years ago!" he said.

She hesitated only for a split second before volts of lightning shot his way.

"Come on, guys!" he called to the others. "Help me out!"

Rikku had felt her knees grow weak upon fighting against her own cousin. She almost prevented herself from hurdling hybrid bombs towards Yuna's way when a Holy attack had motivated her to keep fighting.

"Yunie!" she said. "Don't you remember when we fought Vegnagun? That was one of the scariest battles I've ever been through in my life!"

They could see the creature lowering itself towards the ground. Lulu had taken an enormous hit of Firaga. She made sure to keep her bangle in tact.

"I was the one who taught you how to fire that spell." The older woman said to Yuna. "You nearly caught one of the village homes on fire."

Wakka dodged another elemental attack.

"I showed you how to play blitzball, ya?" he said. "You were bummed 'cause you thought you weren't ever gonna get any better!"

Tidus could see it now. Yuna was fighting this monster with every bit of strength she had left. He could hear her squirm in pain as she twitched at the feeling it was giving her. She was low enough on the ground where she could almost stand.

"Yuna..." Tidus spoke softly and approached her. "When I came back to Spira, we went to Zanarkand." The glow was much less intense than it had been. "And I remember saying that I thought I was just a dream. And I told you that we had to cherish each other. That we had to stay together." Yuna's arms slumped to her side. "And then... you pushed me in the water and told me I didn't disappear."

She was standing with her body limp from exhaustion on the ground. Auron stepped up beside the blonde boy.

"I told Braska I would guard you through your pilgrimage," he said. "I intend to keep doing so."

Yuna was finally free and her body fell onto the ground. Quickly, Tidus grasped her hand and slid the anti-possession ring on her finger.

The creature was much too painful to look at. It clearly wasn't finished with its prey. But its attacks consisted of tainting the mind and tricking each of the team to believe the other was the enemy. Tidus had done his best to look away from the hypnotizing enemy. He had to dodge against his own team members while trying to concentrate on shifting his gaze away from this levitating monster. His skin was being burnt, cut, and electrocuted by different people. He kept himself close to the unconscious Yuna laying behind him. It was all too much, too fast, and nearly impossible to keep up. His sword had been knocked out of his hand and he was now the defenseless target of the delusional people. He searched through his inventory and immediately pulled a flash grenade. It was enough of a distraction for him to get Yuna and rush to the other side of the arena.

"You are a pain a kill." He concluded to the monster.

It growled. "This would have gone the way it should have had you not existed on this plane!"

The vines had erupted from the ground below him. He found himself and the others being pulled into the abyss that was the creatures armor. He dug his fingers into the surface that was now rising above him and with his unoccupied hand, he reached for Yuna before she could disappear. The rest of the team had snapped out of their confusion when they realized they were sinking. They struggled, shouted, pulled, but could not pry the creature's grasp on them.

"Let them go!" Tidus said. "Let all of them go!"

"You will make great additions to my collection of souls!" The monster roared into the air. "I will never stop until I have my vessel!"

The young blonde watched as his friends were almost buried alive underneath the skin built with Lost Souls and unfortunate victims. Yuna's arm with the ring attached to the hand had been the only thing he could see clearly. Without her to maintain this armor, the entire place was falling apart. He glanced down at his shield, the only mechanism keeping the monster from collaborating with his body. And had an idea.

He used as much of his strength as possibly to free himself from the vines. Only half of his body was out of the surface. He slipped off his anti-possession shield.

"Hey!" he shouted to the creature. It turned its attention to him but he kept his eyes closed. "You want her so you can use her power? You're gonna have to go through me!"

The monster didn't hesitate to take this opportunity and quickly merged with the blonde blitzer. The overwhelming feeling of having a dark soul inside of him had lessened his confidence that he could take control of this monster and its power. As he hoisted himself above the ground he could feel his arm automatically reach for Yuna who was still trapped within the confines of its body. And he had to muster all of his physical and mental stength to stop it.

As he used the creature's power to free his friends, he could feel himself becoming corrupted with the creature's grief, anger, and vengeance. He moved as fast as possibly and snatched Yuna before it was too late and handed her over to the team. Wakka had taken her.

"Go!" he commanded to the others. "Get out of here!"

"What about you?!" Wakka said.

He was starting to feel his body give in to the more powerful being. "I... I can't hold it much longer!"

Nobody moved an inch.

"We're not leaving without you!" Rikku said.

"Just go! I'll be fine! Get Yuna out of here!" Tidus shouted. "He won't stop until he gets to use her again!"

There was no choice and no other option. The others had given him a solemn look of concern before fleeing the scene.

Tidus was beginning to feel his body being torn apart from the instability of the monster and its power. He laid on his back and watched the world before him fall apart.

She's safe now. He reminded himself and spent the last two minutes before the leviathan that had guarded the tormented souls and painful memories imploded on itself thinking about the time he'd first laid eyes on Yuna. Comforted by the sight, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to be delivered from this hellscape.