Author's Note: Very tired . . . must write . . . chapter . . . . Does anyone read these things anyway?

Disclaimers: Well, you see, Squaresoft came up to me today and, because the company's going bankrupt, they wanted to sell the company to me. So, I agreed and now I own Squaresoft and all related characters. O_o Shyeah, in my dreams . . .

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"Knew there was somebody somewhere

Like me alone in the dark.

Now I know my dream will live on

I've been waiting so long.

Nothing's gonna tear us apart."

~At the Beginning

Richard Marx and Donna Lewis

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Yuna ran up the stairs to find her Uncle's house atop his car and machina maintenance shop. Eagerly, she knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. Tidus and Auron hung back a little bit, looking around at the framed pictures and architectural designs of the latest machina.

Suddenly, the door flung open and a bald man approximately in his forties stood, wiping his hands which were covered in oil with a dish rag. When he saw Yuna, he chucked. "Hey there, Yuna. How've you been lately? Everything fine?" he questioned.

"Actually, we were wondering if we can ask a favor of you. If it's not too much trouble," she replied shyly.

He moved aside from the door. "Sure, c'mon in," he looked around the house. "I wasn't really expecting company, so excuse the mess. I've been working on a new telecommunicater that'll work ten times better than the version they have out now."

As Tidus and Auron moved inside, Yuna smiled. "Hope you don't mind, but they're part of the favor as well."

"Sir Auron and Tidus . . . nice to see ya again!" he grinned, holding his hand out for a handshake which both shook promptly.

All four sat on a worn out couch, junk around them. Auron spoke first. "Cid, we were wondering . . . you see. Sometime this afternoon, Rikku and Ryo checked out of the hotel that we all were staying at and left for Bevelle without telling any of us."

Cid raised an eyebrow. "Rikku left for Bevelle with Ryo? The wedding's supposed to be here in Luca. Why would they go to Bevelle?"

"Another thing," Tidus interjected. "Yuna mentioned something about the wedding being moved to two weeks. You don't know anything about that, do you?"

The man looked quite perplexed. "Rikku hasn't really mentioned anything about the wedding since the last time I talked to her. And that was about three weeks ago. I didn't even know she was in town until you guys told me."

"So you know nothing?" Yuna prodded, only receiving a shake of the head. She sighed and continued. "Well, now that that's out of the way, we have something else to ask you."

Auron leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees, shaking the blonde hair from his forehead. "The ship for Bevelle left this evening. We were hoping you could lend us the airship until we get her back."

"My airship?" Cid laughed. "Kids, why should I lend you the airship when you don't even know the first thing about piloting it?"

"Vydran! E lyh ramb!" a teenage boy's voice called from another room. Immediately he ran into the room the four were conversing in, and frantically spoke in Al-Bhed. "E lyh umo dra yencreb du Bevelle! Bmayca?"

Auron, Tidus, and Yuna looked at each other. Neither had understood a word he had just said. Yet Cid stood up and lifted his hand to his chin in thought. "E tuh'd ghuf . . . ."

"What did he say?" Tidus asked, adjusting the red coat.

"Brother said he would take you there . . . but . . ."

"But what? We have our pilot. We have our destination. What more do we need?" Auron exclaimed.

Cid eyed Auron with one eyebrow raised. "Son, hasn't the last few times we've met taught you to respect your elders?"

Of course. Cid thought Auron was Tidus and vice versa. The older guardian growled and looked away. This whole body switching thing was too crazy. This is what got them in their predicament in the first place.

Cid nodded towards Brother. "Brother, dyga dras du dra kynyka yht kad dra yencreb nayto. Fa'na kueh' du Bevelle!"

"Translation?" asked Tidus.

"Pack your bags. We're off to Bevelle!"

~*~*~

Rikku sat in a room aboard a ship headed to Bevelle. When had they agreed they were checking out of the hotel? Heck, why was she on this ship at all? Ryo had insisted that Bevelle was a much better place to get married. After all, it was where Maester Seymour and Yuna were wedded. She snickered to herself. If only he knew half the story . . .

The door opened and Ryo stepped inside, shutting it quietly behind him. "Hey, Rikku. How you holding up?"

"Why did we leave Luca?" she demanded.

Ryo chuckled. "For the last time, sweetie. It's a much better place to get married. Why go to Luca when we could go to Bevelle?"

"That's not the whole story! You're hiding something, aren't you?"

Slap! Ryo had smacked her across the face. "You shut your mouth. I will not tolerate that tone of voice when you talk to me, understand?"

Her eyes were widened and her mouth opened slightly. "Ryo, what's wrong? Why are you all of a sudden hitting me?"

He stood up, his black hair falling over his menacing eyes. "If it's the only way to keep you in line, so be it. I'm so sick of you talking back to me, of talking about Auron. You're always complaining or crying about something. It's so irritating!"

Rikku stood up as well yet was at least a head smaller than he was. "I do not complain! I never talk back to you, and so what if I talk about Auron? He means nothing to me now! Why can't you see that, Ryo?"

She felt something hit her in the stomach, causing her to lose her breath. She was on the ground, doubled over in pain. Ryo kneeled before her and leaned close to her ear. "It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself that he's not a part of your life anymore."

He got to his feet and held his fists by his side. "You'd better learn to control that temper of yours, baby. It might be your downfall," he mocked, kicking her in the side as well as her lower thigh before calmly striding away. The Al-Bhed girl tried hard to hold back the tears yet failed as she felt a tear escape the edge of her eye and slide down her small cheek.

~*~*~

Brother parked the Airship somewhere on the outskirts of Bevelle. Tidus and Yuna marveled at the large city. Auron rolled his eyes. He, too, would have found it interesting, but he had lived there since he was a small child. There wasn't much else to look at.

After saying goodbye and thanking Cid and Brother, the trio trekked to the port where they knew Rikku and Ryo would be docking. Along the way, all three noticed how everyone sort of studied and eyed them as they walked through the city to the port. Yuna had to reassure them that it was because they were the ones who brought the Eternal Calm. Both Tidus and Auron seemed unfazed about their publicity. Tidus because he had lived in the spotlight since his father, Jecht, had begun to play blitzball; Auron because . . . well . . . Auron never seemed fazed by anything.

Before long, they finally made it to the port. Large ships were pulling into dock as well as some little boats. They searched for the boat that could possibly be carrying Ryo and Rikku but found it was much more difficult than imagined. Auron looked out to the ocean and spoke, "We're going to have to split up. Yuna, you go left and Tidus will go right. Eventually you'll meet halfway on the other side of the port."

"That's great, Auron. But, what are you going to do?" Tidus questioned.

"Well, someone's going to have to stay here and see if anymore ships come in. I'll be the one to stay," he faced Tidus. "That is, unless you have any objections."

"No! I was just asking . . . I mean . . . ah forget it. I'll see you two later," he stammered, walking away to begin his search. Yuna, too, left and began her search along the other side of the port. Auron waited until they were out of sight before sitting on the dock, staring at his reflection in the crystal waters below him.

Yevon . . . or whoever's listening . . . if you could help me with my one simple wish, you'd make me the happiest man alive . . . or something like that . . .

~*~*~

Yuna had felt like she'd been walking for hours but knew it had been at least twenty minutes. Sweat had begun to collect on her brow as the sun beat heavily on her. How had it been, that just last night, it was such a comfortable temperature and now it was hotter than . . . well . . .

She figured taking a brief break wouldn't hurt anyone so she found the nearest bench and sat down. She scanned her surroundings and suddenly felt overwhelmed. It seemed like yesterday she was guided through the streets, Maester Seymour Guado by her side. He'd tried, on many accounts during their time alone, to get closer to her. To reassure her about this whole 'wedding'. Yet she wanted no part in it. Her heart had belonged to Tidus.

During her reminiscing, she failed to see the ship from Luca pulling in.

~*~*~

Rikku had one hand on the rail of the ship, her other hand holding onto Ryo's. About an hour after their fight, he'd come back with a bouquet of roses and apologized for his 'unacceptable behavior'. How could she not have forgiven him?

"What do you think?" he asked, referring to the city.

"It's the perfect place to have a wedding. I can't believe I thought so otherwise," she breathed. He gave her hand a squeeze and picked up their luggage. Both descended the ramp from the boat after it docked and looked around for their hotel that Ryo had made new reservations at. Ryo took at glimpse at his fiancée and saw the dark blue and purple bruise that formed on her lower thigh where he kicked her.

"Don't wear such short shorts. They'll show your bruise," he whispered, pointing to the bruise. Rikku looked down and gasped. She didn't even realize it was there until he showed her. She desperately tried to pull down her shorts to hide the mark only to find that her shorts wouldn't reach that far.

"When we get into town, I'm buying you different shorts. It's about time you wore new ones anyway. I don't want other guys staring at my baby," he joked, but she knew he was being serious deep down. Nodding, she picked up one of her bags and followed Ryo.

~*~*~

Yuna snapped her head up when she saw her cousin and her fiancée step off the ship. She started to walk towards them but stopped when she saw Ryo's mouth move and Rikku instantly look down at her thigh. Yuna followed her gaze and gasped at the bruise. How could someone sustain such an injury? Rikku was never clumsy . . .

Unless Ryo had hurt her on purpose.

Yuna quickly dismissed the idea. Rikku would have told one of them if Ryo had hurt her. Besides, she had said it herself. Ryo was everything any girl wanted. Nice, smart, handsome, even rich.

Yet a small part of Yuna told her that Rikku was still young. Would she really know that she was endangered?

Stop being silly, Yuna. It's a bruise. It's not that big a deal. People get them all the time.

"Yeah, but not ones that look that bad," she countered with herself as she watched the couple walk away through the crowd and disappear.

~*~*~

Author's note: Oooh! It's getting interesting! ^_^ I'm listening to 'Liberi Fatali' (FFVIII) and it strangely reminds me of Beauty and the Beast. I love that movie . . . Speaking of movies. Has anyone else seen 'Pirates of the Caribbean'? I saw it this week and just had to stare in awe at how far Disney's come, movie-wise. For Disney, that thing was violent. But I loved it so much! ^_^

Review Replies:

Aidrianna: *stares at her review* Uh oh . . . well . . . uh . . . you might wanna beat Ryo now . . . *hands her a baseball bat and runs*

MaxMyu: *high five* Power to Rin's accent! *turns to all the other reviewers* BEHOLD RIN'S ACCENT! ^_^ Teehee, thanks for your review!

Desdemona: I know, poor Auron. Not only is he stuck in Tidus' body (wait, that's a good thing . . . he should be getting more girls! ^_^) but Rikku has no idea it's him. Loves strange sometimes, ne?

Cool-Kitsune: I want Ryo to die too . . . but if he died now, there wouldn't really be a story . . . ah what the heck! Let's kill Ryo! Oh, I thought the part w/ Auron yelling and acting like Tidus was kind of cute, too. Bit OOC, but, what can I say? It's my story. ^_^

Jay: Oh trust me, I have PLENTY in store for Ryo . . . it's gonna take some time, I think. Heck! Join in with the rest of the reviewers and kill him now! ^_^

Ruki the Sake Fairy: Haven't seen you in a while! How ya been? Glad you could review again!

AFTERMATH: Chaotic Wind: You know, I never thought of Ryo as another Seymour. He reminds me of someone from my original fic on Fictionpress.net. Kinda . . . sorta . . . not really . . . Oh! You can have Auron if you want . . . but be prepared to put up a fight . . . *motions to other fangirls who are violently ripping off his coat and latching onto his arms, etc.* *smiles and walks away with her Seifer Almasy*

Everyone, I just wanted to say how happy I am that everyone likes this story. You don't know how pleased I am to always see 'Great story' or 'Update soon'. It always brightens my day, as cheesy as that sounds. ^_^

Now, R+R and you can have a monkey. o(^.^)o ~~~Monkey