Dissimulation

Chapter 11: The Sphere of You

Yuna barged into the room, the sphere she held tightly in her hands burning in her fingers. Her heart raced as her eyes fell upon his bright blue eyes.

"Everything ok?" Tidus asked, cocking his head slightly in curiosity. Yuna stopped dead in her tracks. The images of the sphere still seared freshly into her mind. Her hands shook as she held up the sphere. She couldn't even get herself to speak. Tidus stood up and took the sphere from Yuna's shaking hands. "What is this?" Tidus asked.

"Something you need to see," Rikku told Tidus.

"But Yuna, you are shaking," Tidus said with concern.

"Just watch it," Yuna managed to say shakily.

"Are you ok?" Tidus asked.

"Just watch the sphere," Yuna said through clenched teeth.

Tidus looked down at the sphere. Did he really want to watch it, considering how shaken up Yuna was over it? However, the being's voice inside his head still rang fresh in his ears. "Well, it seems sooner than you think," the voice had said. Was he finally going to get the answers he has been searching for?

"Guess there is one way to find out," Tidus said to himself. He held up the sphere and shakily pressed play.

Everything was dark, but faint outlines of bars could be seen close by. It was very quiet except for a faint snoring. The sphere continued for a few minutes before a soldier dressed in Zanarkand armor appeared on the other side of the bars.

"You, get up," the soldier demanded.

"What?" a man's voice sounded, startled from his sleep. The prisoner's voice sounded vaguely familiar.

"Yu Yevon wants to see you," the guard announced.

"Fantastic," the man's voice whispered. Rustling could be heard as the prisoner stood up. Whatever he was using to record the sphere was attached to him in some way, as if he were hiding the fact that he was recording. He slowly walked over to the cell door. The soldier opened the cell door and the familiar clink of iron cuffs sounded as the prisoner was handcuffed. The soldier and the prisoner then shuffled on.

The soldier and prisoner went down what seemed like endless tunnels until they finally landed in front of a very large wooden door. The guard firmly pushed on the door and the wood creaked as it opened. They entered a dimly lit room with a large throne at the end. On the throne sat a handsome older man.

"Thank you, Dominic. You can leave us now," the older man said.

"But my lord, he is dangerous," the soldier said in protest.

"He is shackled in chains and has no weapons. Do you really think he could hurt me?" the old man chuckled. "Besides, I am the world's strongest summoner, I don't think he is a threat."

"As you wish my lord," Dominic said with a bow. He then swiftly turned and left he room.

"Now, I don't believe we have been officially introduced, other than when you tried to kill me," the man smirked. "Yu Yevon is the name."

"I know who you are," the prisoner growled.

"Yes, but I don't know who you are or why you tried to kill me," Yu Yevon said.

"And what makes you think I am going to tell you?" the prisoner asked.

"I think this may help," Yu Yevon smiled. He flicked his hand and a holographic image of a young woman with long brown hair appeared.

"No," the prisoner gasped.

"I hear she is of great importance to you and just signed up to help with the war. I really don't think you are in the position to be difficult," Yu Yevon warned.

"You wouldn't," the prisoner said through clenched teeth.

"I wouldn't if you choose to cooperate with me and answer truthfully, then I will assure your little girlfriend is kept safe. If not, well then, I will let you use your imagination," Yu Yevon said.

"How dare you," the prisoner growled.

"I will give you time to think about it, but I expect you will do the right thing," Yu Yevon winked. He then pressed a buzzer on his throne and Dominic reappeared. "Dominic, take him back to his cell, we are done here."

"Yes, my lord," Dominic said. Dominic walked over to the prisoner and ushered him back to the prisoner's cell. Once alone, the prisoner took off his recording device and faced the camera onto his face, "I will expose Yu Yevon, even if it is the last thing I do. Stay safe, Lenne."

Tidus gasped in shock and nearly dropped the sphere. His exact splitting image was staring back at him. Tidus felt all the color drain from his face. Who was this person and why did he look exactly like him?

Then it hit him. The memory of the hooded figure revealing his face suddenly flashed into Tidus's mind. He remembered staring back at the same face just before he decided to join forces with this person. Was this the source of the voice that has been tormenting him since his return. There was way too much of a coincidence for there not to be a connection. Tidus tried to reach out to the voice in his head, but for once the voice was silent.

"Who… who is that?" Yuna asked shakily.

Tidus looked up at Yuna, a worried expression plastered on her face. "I don't know," is all he could answer. He wanted to tell her otherwise, but he knew that the voice would not let him say a word. He really didn't want to have to suffer through another blackout again. "Where did you find this sphere anyway?" Tidus asked.

"Brother found it with some other spheres in a hidden storage area he just found," Rikku explained.

"Did you watch any of the others?" Tidus asked.

"No, this was the first one we watched and gave us a bit of a shock," Yuna said.

"Well, I think we need to watch the others, maybe we can find some more information," Tidus suggested.

"Why does he look like you?" Yuna asked.

"I don't know," Tidus said. "But we can at least try and figure out who this is," Tidus continued. He grabbed Yuna's hand, it felt clammy in his fingers.

"He tried to kill Yu Yevon," Yuna whispered.

"It seemed like he knew what Yu Yevon was going to do," Tidus said. "I mean, Yu Yevon wasn't exactly a saint," Tidus continued, reminding Yuna. He was right. Yu Yevon created Sin in order to stop the war, but consequently brought destruction to Spira for a thousand years following.

"Too bad he didn't succeed," Rikku sighed.

"I was so close," the voice grumbled suddenly.

"So that is you," Tidus said in his thoughts.

"Very good detective work," the voice chuckled.

"So, you going to tell me who you are now?" Tidus asked hopefully.

"No, I told you it is something you need to find out for yourself," the voice said.

"Thanks for the help," Tidus sighed.

"I am sorry, it just has to be this way. You will know why soon enough," the voice told Tidus.

"I still don't know if I can trust you," Tidus said. It was true, even though he almost successively stopped Yu Yevon from creating Sin, didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.

"There is way more danger coming than me, I can assure you that," the voice insisted.

"What do you mean?" Tidus asked.

"Can't tell you that," the voice said with a hint of reluctancy in his voice. Tidus sensed that he wanted to say more.

"I see," Tidus said. "Guess I should work on finding some answers," Tidus continued.

"And hurry, you don't have much time," the voice warned.

"Tidus?" Rikku asked suddenly.

"Huh, oh sorry, guess I am still in shock about that video," Tidus said.

"Well I said we probably should go watch those other spheres," Rikku told Tidus.

"Okay, then let's go," Tidus smiled. Rikku nodded and promptly spun around and exited the room. Yuna hesitantly held back. "You ok?" Tidus asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. He could feel her tense up by his touch.

"Yeah, I am fine," she whispered, shrugged off his touch, and followed after Rikku.

"Doesn't seem like it," Tidus mumbled to himself. He rubbed his pounding forehead and then headed to the control room after everyone else.

Yuna felt like every nerve in her body was on fire. She had so many questions swirling in her head. Who was that? Why did he look and sound exactly like Tidus? The horrible look on the fayth's face when they ordered Yuna to go back to Besaid immediately flashed back in Yuna's mind. How did Tidus come back? Tidus's strange behavior since returning. All these questions made her question if Tidus was really who he said he was. She loved him more than anything in this world and wanted to trust him, but she felt she couldn't get herself to trust him completely now which made her sick to her stomach.

"There are my favorite girls," the gruff voice of her uncle rang happily and Yuna found herself pulled back into reality standing in the control room. Across the room Yuna saw 5 or 6 more spheres identical to the ones she just watched sitting carefully in a box across the room. A wave of nausea just suddenly hit Yuna and she had to swallow down the bile raising down her throat. "Whoa, are you okay?" Cid asked.

Yuna took a deep breath and forced a weak smile, "Yeah, sorry, pregnant."

"Oh yeah, I remember when Amaria was pregnant with both Brother and Rikku. The slightest smell of oil from machina made her green. It was hard for her at Home," Cid said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Yeah, sorry, I am okay now," Yuna said. She placed a hand on her belly. She knew whatever happened her child's safety needed to be her top priority. That meant that she also needed to figure out what transpired in those spheres. The heavy feeling of dread pulled Yuna's thoughts even further down to darkness. Was that man in the sphere Tidus? Was Tidus not who he says he was? Why was the faith in complete and utter horror when Yuna last reached out to them once they learned Tidus returned? So many questions were swirling around Yuna's head. Questions that Yuna wasn't sure she could handle the answer to.

"You ready?" Rikku asked, pulling Yuna from her thoughts. Yuna looked over at Rikku, the look of worry plastered on her face. "You don't have to watch them if you don't want to," Rikku added.

"No, I need to," Yuna said shakily. Yuna took a deep breath and walked over to the box of spheres. She picked up one and took a deep breath and pressed play.

It was dark, but the outline and lights of the city of Zanarkand illuminated in the background. Waves could be heard slapping against some sort of structure. The camera moved smoothly to the face of a young woman. Her eyes were like warm chocolates and her hair brown, long, and straight down past her shoulders. She wore a blue and white ruffled tank top and a short, dark blue, mini skirt. She was very pretty. She smiled sweetly at the camera holder.

"You are so beautiful," the familiar voice said softly.

"Will you stop filming me?" the woman chuckled, trying to shove the camera away.

"I want to capture every moment I spend with you, plus you are too beautiful not to film," the man chuckled.

"You are over exaggerating," the woman laughed.

"No, you know how much I love you," the man said sweetly.

"Instead of focusing on me, why don't you focus on the horizon for the sunset? The reason why we are here?" the woman reminded the man.

"We still have a few minutes," the man laughed. The woman just shook her head and looked out to the horizon. The familiar glow of dawn began to glow on the woman's face.

"This is always my favorite time of the day," the woman whispered.

"Yes, it is always so beautiful," the man whispered. He panned the camera to the horizon. The horizon was glowing a bright orange and the light began to bathe the city skyline. The city lights began to turn off one by one and the buildings started to glow as if they were on fire.

"So peaceful," the woman whispered.

"Wish it could always be like this," the man sighed.

"It will be okay, this little tussle with Bevelle should just blow over," the woman replied.

"And if not? Bevelle is not a force to be reckoned with. If a war were to break out…" the man started to say.

"It will be okay, we are working hard to keep peace under the guidance of Yu Yevon," the woman interjected.

"I hope you're right," the man said, and the camera turned black.

"That sunrise…" Yuna said. Her eyes began to well up with tears.

"I told you it was beautiful," Tidus said suddenly. Yuna turned towards him. The memory of their first kiss flooding back into Yuna's mind.

"Let's go to the sea, before sunrise. The city lights go out, one by one, the stars fade, then the horizon glows, almost like it's on fire. It's kinda rose-colored, right? First the sea, then it spreads to the sky, then the whole city. It gets brighter and brighter till everything glows. It's really pretty. I know you'd like it," Tidus had whispered softly.

Then the tears had came. Yuna had wanted to see that sunrise more than anything. It sounded beautiful and it had seemed easy at that point. Abandon her pilgrimage and travel to an impossible land to take in the beauty that Tidus had just described and forget about everything. Yuna could not bring herself to do that. That same memory brought the tears flooding back once again.

"Yuna," Tidus said softly. He walked over to the crying Yuna and placed his hands softly on her shoulders. She looked up, the tears streaming down her face. Tidus stared into her eyes for a moment before planting a soft, warm kiss on her lips. He then pulled Yuna into his arms, his comforting warmth soothing Yuna's sobs. The same warmth that enveloped Yuna that night in Macalania Forest. Yuna then knew that Tidus was truly Tidus and all that doubt seemed to melt away.

"You don't have to watch anymore of those spheres," Tidus whispered softly in her ears.

"No, I have to. I want to know who that is," Yuna insisted. She took a deep breath, "I didn't tell you, but the fayth seemed very concerned when they discovered you were back."

Tidus pulled away from Yuna, a look of panic plastered on his face, "Concerned?"

"Yeah, they seemed so angry," Yuna explained. "That is why these spheres have upset me so much. I feel like they are connected somehow. Then, whoever this person is, he looks exactly like you…" Yuna continued, before trailing off.

"Smart girl," the voice chuckled in Tidus's mind.

"Take it you and the fayth aren't exactly friends," Tidus replied to the voice in his head.

"Oh yeah, we go way back," the voice laughed.

"I am telling you, that person is not me," Tidus said.

"I kind of am now," the voice chuckled.

"Shut up," Tidus growled.

"I know," Yuna said. "I am sorry I doubted you."

"It's okay, I get it," Tidus responded. He placed his hands on Yuna's shoulders and planted a soft kiss on Yuna's lips. "I want to know who this person is just as much as you do."

"Well then, let's get watching," Yuna smiled weakly. Tidus smiled and gave Yuna a thumbs up.

A/N: So there you have it, Chapter 11. I hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think.