Yuna stared out over the black waters and tried to feel something. It was partially her subconscious that had brought them this far, but Yuna couldn't seem to bring any perception of her unseen connection to Tidus into her conscious mind. There had to be a sign, a way to sense if Tidus was here for sure. If he wasn't here, they were wasting time. The smell, rotten and acrid, was somewhat convincing. Just dreaming something as nauseating as that wasn't likely, but she was still nervous. What if they were wrong? Where would they search then?
A prayer came to mind, one of the simple, "protect me and guide me and keep me Yu Yevon", verses and Yuna recited it. It wasn't out of faith, rather a habit. She uttered the words, which were familiar, which had brought her comfort in the past. Despite their hollow meaning, Yuna whispered them over and over again.
Sitting in the shadows, unnoticed and silent the Old Mother Ina surveyed the tense collection of people. Her gaze continually returned to the lady summoner no matter how she tried to avert her attention. If the old mother had had any clue about the uncertainty Yuna struggled with, she would have reassured her. Ina could perceive the black wispy ties to death on and around the Lady Yuna. Some of those ties ran an umbilicus between the lady and her love, Tidus. Those ties to Tidus had become distinctly thick and languid like the ripe tentacles of a giant Malboro. They trailed off and into the ocean. Tidus was here, somewhere down below. How long did they have though? She could feel death, close and strong.
Tidus's escape was almost a failure before he even began his swim for freedom. Hershey had managed to fold him into the capsule and eject it from the platform without undue trouble. It had seemed like an eternity bouncing along, too fast to consider ditching and swimming up. The first and only major problem had reared its ugly head when he finally decided that it was time to go for it and swim. He couldn't get the pod to open. His first thought had been, dead men don't need to escape from their coffins. The inclination to panic was overwhelming, but Tidus wouldn't surrender to it. He found the safety catch a few moments later, and was out in the water.
It was like his dream, trapped in the foul black water. Unlike his dream there was no fear of drowning. Instincts he couldn't remember honing had him kicking for the surface almost instantaneously. In his dream he'd swum to safety and into the arms of the girl, his girl. Tidus couldn't help feeling that she was out there now, waiting for him, praying for him. All he had to do was find her.
Tidus kicked hard for the surface, his lungs beginning to burn. Unlike in his dream, the world grew lighter as he neared the surface. When his head broke through into the air, he just wanted to howl his glee, the sun! But the escape wasn't over. He had to sneak onto the supply ship, or he was dead. A nagging fear tugged at his stomach. This was doable though. He was too close to fail.
The two girls, Rikku and Yuna had come together at the Starboard railing. Rikku had her arm wrapped around her cousin and they appeared to be deep in conversation. The Old Mother Ina watched them and half-dozed. Then it hit her, like fingernails on a chalkboard, her senses screamed imminent death. She stood up straighter and spun, scanning the water. What could they do? They had to do something. Time had run out.
Ina's gaze went glassy and she reached desperately for Tidus for the target of death. "Unmistakable." Tidus was close, no longer buried under leagues of ocean. "There," she whispered. Less than fifty feet away and swimming toward their ship, it had to be Tidus. But death was so close. "He's afraid," Ina whispered.
"Yuna!" Ina rushed down from her perch and ran to Yuna's side. "Quick let him see you. There isn't any time!" Ina shouted.
"Tidus," Yuna said. She stood quickly and followed Ina's gesture at the figure swimming toward the ship. "No time?"
"He'll never make it here. He's afraid, and death is close to reclaiming his soul," Ina said. "Give him hope, anything to hold death back."
"Death? Are you sure?" Rikku said. She faced out to the ocean and craned her neck trying to see Tidus. She spun back to Yuna and Ina, a serious frown creasing her brow. "We can't lose now."
Yuna looked between the two women and horror creased her brow. "So death has been stalking us, stalking Tidus? That's what you wouldn't tell me." Yuna said. Her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head adamantly. "It doesn't end here. I won't let it end here. He needs hope?" Yuna pulled the white mask down around her neck and whistled for all she was worth. Hear it. Understand it. Don't die, Tidus. A loud pure whistle returned from the ocean. The worry creasing Yuna's brow faded. It was Tidus. "I'm going to him. I'm coming." Supremely calm, Yuna began to scale the railing.
"You can't jump off in that mess down there," Rikku said. She tried to stop Yuna from climbing the boat's rail, but Ina restrained her. "You'll break your neck, and you don't swim that well. Yunie, wait."
"It's their only chance," Ina whispered. "Death is too close."
Wakka and Lulu emerged from below deck at a run and were just in time to witness Yuna's swan dive into the fouled ocean. "Yuna!" Wakka called. He started up the rail as if to fish Yuna out of the water. "What the heck does she think she's doing?"
"Tidus is there," Rikku said. She pointed to the approaching figure nervously.
"You should have let him swim to the boat. God knows what's in that water," Lulu said.
"There isn't any time," Ina whispered. Her unfocused gaze fixed on the pair of swimmers. "It will be so very close."
"We weren't too late?" Lulu whispered. She turned to Wakka. "They're going to make it?" Her eyes normally so cool, ever the realist, the cynic, were bleeding hot tears. They were the eyes of a naive optimist, who hadn't quite forgotten about happy endings.
"They're going to make it," Wakka said. His words held all the conviction he could muster. "They have to."
Lady Ina watched the clouds of death coalesce and darken. She thought at any moment it would end, and death would take one then the other. "I can't look," she whispered. Ina covered her face and looked away...
Tidus hadn't been able to believe it when he heard the whistle from the supply ship. It wasn't possible, was it? There was too much coincidence. He hadn't been able to make out her face when she dove into the water but it had to be her. Why would anyone dive into the soup he was swimming in? She'd swum to him in his dream though, and now she was paddling awkwardly his way again.
A few hard strokes and they were so close, they could almost touch, and then she was in his arms. She fit there, like they were made to slide together. "Tidus," she whispered. "Is it really you?" She wiped at the grime on his face and cleared the area around his eyes.
"I'm Tidus? Tidus..." he said. Tidus held Yuna tight and planted a desperate kiss on her forehead. "I dreamed you. I couldn't remember anything but you, you and your face from my dreams. It was all I could hold onto. You were my proof that there was a world to find. You were always vanishing out of my dreams... I'm half expecting this to end. I don't want to wake up. Don't disappear, okay?"
Yuna laughed and tears rolled down her cheeks. "Asking me not to disappear? I promise not to disappear, if you won't either." Tidus nodded solemnly. "Do you remember, anything? Me? Sin? Zanarkand?"
Tidus stroked at her damp hair. "I don't remember your name or any of those things. Why don't I remember? My own name... you said it was Tidus?"
"Yes, you're name is Tidus, star blitzball player for the Zanarkand Abes, guardian to the summoner Yuna, a dream of the fayth," Yuna said. She framed Tidus's face with her hands. "Don't be afraid. I know you'll remember eventually. I'll tell you everything you want to know."
Her answer sparked a hundred new questions, questions that could wait. Tidus just wanted to hold his precious dream for another moment before she explained all the mysteries away. Whatever the truth was or the future held, he was where he belonged for that moment. A peaceful elation filled his mind, simple peace, like nothing he could remember.
Ina knew when the lovers came together. After their first touch, the heat of their love flashed a brilliant white over her perception even through her closed eyes. The white fire burned the invisible ties to death that almost destroyed their lives. The old mother Ina smiled and half-laughed. "They made it. They made it," she whispered for the guardians waiting anxiously on deck.
And silently to herself, "You did it, Mother Nual."
Ina could hear the former guardians shouting and celebrating and she turned back to see the couple in the ocean again, the ones who successfully cheated death. But they weren't alone. There was an ivory-skinned woman in simple flowing gown whose train pooled over the top of the ocean. The woman had red hair, long and wild like a flame. The dress, which seemed to cling, sticky on her curves, was black and maroon and crimson like it had been soaked and aged in blood. Old mothers were taught that the color of death was crimson. Ina choked and stepped back. The wisps of blackness which had until recently clung to the lover's spirits rested lightly in the incarnation of death's hands. The creature smiled and winked its eye, a viscous pool of blood. Ina could hear death herself, whispering into her brain. "They're free for now to live as they please. I'll have to take my due, sighted-one. Would you like to see? They trained you to see."
Ina could feel a sharp pain in her chest, a fire, which spread down her right arm. "I need to lie down," she whispered and pushed her way past the celebrating guardians. No one took any notice of her retreat.
The Old mother Ina never told another fortune or wrapped another poultice. She never told anyone what death showed her that day on the fetid ocean, the plan that would ultimately bring that force of nature her due. What difference did it make? If they had a day or a year or a lifetime, it didn't matter. No one needed to know death's plans.
But Ina did... Ina could see the eventual death of each face, which had ever crossed her path: a smiling toddler destined to die in childbirth at the age of sixteen, a boy with a large halibut destined to die old and gray and alone. Ina squeezed her eyes shut and she could see Yuna and Tidus. "You don't have long children. Enjoy your miracle." No Old Mother had ever seen death so clearly.
Ina pulled out a long curved dagger and carved a warning carefully into the wall next to her bed on the Solomon. The pains shooting through her chest grew stronger, but she continued to carve, the words growing less distinct as she lost control of herself. Ina dropped into her bunk and her knife clattered to the ground.
While the former guardians, and the Jenquo sailors cheered for Yuna and Tidus, Ina quietly followed her mentor, mother Nual, from the world.