Chapter Ten

Tidus hasn't spoken a word in five hours.  Although he has prayed silently for sleep, his prayer has fallen on deaf ears.  He had been praying for a lot of things lately, and getting about the same response.  He never wanted it to be like this.  He stared off in the distance, but every now and then his bright blue eyes would flicker back towards the bed.

The bed where Yuna laid. 

Her entire right arm was in a makeshift sling, probably broken in three places, the doctor had said.  She had a support cast around her upper torso, to help stabilize her ribs that were fractured.  Her head was bandaged up, but not as heavily as Tidus' had been when he laid here in this exact same cot.  The doctor said that it's a miracle that she isn't in much worse condition; it could have been really bad.  She could have died.

There was no sign of life to her, except for the steady rise and fall of her chest. 

Tidus tightened his grip on her hand a little bit.  He was hoping to see some kind of movement, or some type of recognition.  All he got was a slight moan flowing from her lips, or more like a whimper.

Tidus closed his eyes trying his best to hold back the tears.

He remembers it clearly, and probably will for the rest of his life.  He had woken up in the early night, suddenly remembering anything and everything in his life.  His brain was going a million miles a second and he understood what he was seeing.  He was sitting upright in his bed, sorting through his thoughts when Rikku came bursting in the door.  She was hysterical.  Tidus couldn't make out anything she was saying except for one word:  "Yuna."

His heart sank, as he knew something bad had happened.

When he finally got to the temple, he couldn't move.  He stood frozen in stunned silence.  There was a lot of blood mixing with the sand, oozing on the street.  Her arm was twisted in a way that arms aren't supposed to twist: upwards and around her back.  Her hair was a mangled mess mixed with blood, covering most of her face.  In a way, Tidus was grateful for that.  He really didn't want to see her face.  He wanted to believe it wasn't her.  He felt as if this wasn't really happening; that it was some movie sphere he had watched in Zanarkand.  He experienced a strange sense of detachment.  He tried to think but all he could see was Yuna's distorted figure in his mind.  He tried to move but his feet wouldn't let him.  It was almost as if his feet were made of lead.  It had started to rain.  Finally he said one word; actually, he had screamed it:

"Help!!!!"

Tidus' eyes jerked open.  Was he asleep?  Had he slept?  Looking outside he saw inky darkness with the occasional flicker of lightning.  It was pouring rain outside.  He couldn't tell how much time had passed.  He squeezed his hand again, feeling the familiar cool flesh of Yuna.  He looked back at her, almost expecting her to be awake.  He quickly looked away when he realized nothing had changed.  He closed his bright blue eyes and started to drift off again.  Maybe I should, he thought.  Just for a little while.  He nodded his head and went back to sleep.

----

"Hey," a voice called out, startling him.

"Hey boy," it repeated.

"Dad?" Tidus said as he opened his eyes.  He looked around to only see nothing but white mist.  It was as if he was enveloped in a fog so dense he couldn't see more than ten feet in either direction.  "Where am I?" he asked into the vast nothingness.

"There you are," he heard his dad say.  "Thought I'd lost you for a minute there."

"What's happening?" Tidus asked.

"Something bad," came his response.  Jecht's voice seemed to come from nowhere, and everywhere at the same time.  Tidus turned around again, thinking that his dad might be creeping up behind him.

"Am I dreaming?" Tidus finally asked.

"Hmph," Jecht's voice started.  "You were always a dream.  You and me both boy."

"Yeah but you were Sin," Tidus said, with resentment on his voice.

"Yeah, guess so."

"Where are we?" Tidus asked looking around, finally taking a tentative step forward.  "Where's Yuna?"

"Were in the Farplane," Jecht answered, ignoring his second question.

"I can't be here; Yuna needs me now," Tidus said, with a bit more resentment this time.

"So does the rest of the world," came his response.

"Why am I here?"

"Heh, I brought you here.  Being Sin, I had some crazy powers.  I came through time, took you and Auron back, could go about anywhere, or see about anything.  Guess I still have some of that stuff lingering around."

"What does this mean?" Tidus asked, growing more and more impatient.  "Are you the reason I'm back in Spira?"

"No, and this means that you had better listen up.  There's something bad going on in the Assembly.  People are getting power hungry, and there plotting against those who they think are threats.  I don't know it all, somethin's blockin me out.  I don't like it.  But I know whose doin' it."

"Luzzu," Tidus answered for him.

"Yeah, I guess we both think alike.  After all, you're still my son."

There was a moment of silence as the tension passed.

"Uah….anyway," Jecht continued.  "He's got to be the reason why all of this is happenin'.  He's got some kinda plan that I can't see, but I know it's nothing good for the people of Spira.  Now we got a plan…"

"What do you care about the people of Spira?"  Tidus asked cutting him off.  "You're the one who brought so much death and destruction.  You ruined lives, everyone's, mine."

"I know you still don't like me," came Jecht's awkward reply.  "And I don't blame you one bit.  But you were the one who beat me.  And well….I guess I wanna somehow give back a little.  Help, maybe make up for what I've hurt.  But I can't do it alone.  Like I said we've got a plan."

"I don't care about you're stupid plan," Tidus said.

"We'll what do you care about?" Jecht asked ruefully, knowing full well what his answer would be.

"Yuna," Tidus said looking down. 

"How you gonna save her?  Huh?" Jecht started.  "You can save her and the rest of Spira if…"

"I don't care about the rest of Spira.  I just care about her.  And if you're so all-powerful then maybe you can tell me why she did it.  Why did she…"

There was a moment's hesitation before Tidus heard the voice of Jecht let out a sigh.  "Tidus.  You know Yuna.  You know what she's like.  Do you ever think in a million years she'd commit suicide?"

Tidus was dumbfounded. 

"Over you?," Jecht added.

Tidus was speechless.  All this time he and the rest of the world thought Yuna had jumped of her own free will.  That she had somehow given up on life.  What Jecht was saying made Tidus really uncomfortable, but he wanted to hear it anyway.  He had to.

"She was pushed, Tidus.  But don't worry, I'll take care of her."

Tidus didn't respond at first.  Then found his fists tightening up into balls and his face getting flustered.  "Who?" he finally asked in between ragged gasps of breath.

"The same bastards who are tryin' to take over the world.  They think she's a threat to em', and they're damn right she is.  Like I said, we've got a plan…"

"I'm listening…" Tidus said.

----

Tidus woke up just before sunrise.  The early morning light was trickling in through the window.  The rain had stopped, giving way to a new day in Besaid.  Tidus opened his eyes with a look of fierce resolve on his face.  At first he just stared off towards the window, thinking about what he had to do.  Eventually his gaze returned to the cot that Yuna was sleeping on.  He looked at her torso that was all bandaged up, then her shoulders, her face, and then her eyes.  Her eyes were open, and they were the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen.

---

End of Part One

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Author's notes:

1—What'd I tell ya'?  Yuna'll be alright.  I know Part One was kind of…boring?  Thanks for sticking through with me this far.  Things are going to pick up tremendously soon, with lots of fighting, action, and that dude in red.

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

3—Recommended reading:  A Time For Reflection, by Fire Rules.  A completed story that is really cool, in a romantic, fluffy kind of way.

4—Bring down somebody's GPA and introduce them to this game, especially right about finals time.

5—Ok, this has been the plan for a while now, but I'm going to go through and edit Part One a bit.  I noticed in hindsight, when I had no idea where this thing was headed, that I rushed a lot of material and didn't think through some things.  So I'm going back in an effort to make things flow more.  I'm probably going to answer some of you guys' questions and find a way to make things not as jumpy.   If you have any questions about stuff so far, let me know and I'll address them as best that I can.

6—Thanks again for the support people.