Chapter Three

Sweat poured off of her body.

"No," she said to darkness.  "Please don't go."

She rolled over and let out a moan.

Yuna was asleep, but not really sleeping.  Her pleasant dreaming suddenly turned into a nightmare sometime in the hot Besaid summer night.  It was the same nightmare that she has had quite a lot over the past two years.  It was the one about her losing the man she loved.  In this place between sleep and awake, her dreams sometime took off with themselves.  And sometimes they formed words, screams, and moans into the night.

"I love you," she said.  She was now thinking about being outside the Airship after the battle with Sin.  She remembered running towards Tidus.  She was planning on hugging him, and asking him not to leave.  Telling him that she loved her.  But instead, she rushed through his body.  I love you, she thought absent-mindedly.

Why did you have to leave me?

I don't know what to do without you.

Suddenly more flashes of her memory came to mind.  On the docks of Luca, whistling with him.  Zanarkand, around the campfire, the sunset on the top of Mi' Ihen Highroad, and Macalania Lake.

Oh God, some part of her mind said. 

Immediately her mind raced faster and faster.  More images, starry nights, warm water, the taste of his kiss.  His smell.  The feel of his hand in hers.  The looks they gave each other.  The thoughts she always wanted to say, but never really could.

Maybe if I had said something else, or did something else.  Maybe I had hadn't defeated Sin, her mind said. 

The sweat from her fitful sleep had made her nightgown stick to her body and her hair mangled and thick to her face.

"Why did you have to go?" she asked aloud.

"Yuna." It was Tidus' voice, but it was only in her head.  She began to answer it when it continued.  "I'll find another way."  Suddenly her mind took her back to the Airship, in the bridge next to Tidus, Lulu, and Cid.  Another memory took over her mind.  "But I didn't like your way!!  I wanted to stay with you!!" she said into the night.

There was a knocking on her door, but she was too asleep to distinguish reality from fantasy anymore.

"Will you stay with me until the end?" she had once asked.

"No, not until the end," came her reply.  "Always."

"Damn it!!" she screamed into the night.  "Why didn't you keep your promise?"

"Yuna," Lulu said as she entered the room, dressed in her nightgown holding a candle-lit lamp.

"Why didn't you keep your promise?" Yuna repeated again in her own subconscious world.

"Yuna," Lulu said again as she shook her arm to wake her friend.  "Oh my God," she said as she felt the sweat and saw the look of despair on Yuna's body.  "Wake up!" she said shaking her more.

"Hmm?" Yuna responded, coming out of her sleep.  "Lulu?"

Only Lulu wouldn't answer.

"What's wrong?" she asked in her groggy state.

She hesitated before answering.  She couldn't exactly find the words she needed, so she blurted out the only thing that made sense:

"Tidus."

"What?" Yuna replied, snapping back to full consciousness.

"I don't know." Lulu started, but then stalled.   "Rikku found…"  Lulu took her eyes away from Yuna, glancing down.

"What?  What is it?" Yuna persisted.

"He's back," Lulu said slowly.  "But……"

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Author's notes

1—I know, I left you guys hangin'.  You'll find out what "But…." means shortly.

2—All names, characters, places, and events referred to are copyrighted by Squaresoft.

3—I decided to do something different with this.  I've never tried a first-person dream narrative before.  It's not perfect, but I hope I did it justice.

4—Full Circle, my other fic, is now on the back burner.  For some reason I have writers block even though I know exactly what I'm supposed to write.  It's just not coming to me for some strange reason.  But don't worry, it'll be back.  Sometime…maybe.

6—Thanks for the support guys!!