Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X and its wonderful characters aren't mine! Though I wish I were one...heehee. ^_~

And thank you so much for the reviews! I've forgotten how good it feels to get them. :-) Again, all you need to know this time is that the characters' thoughts are in "italics."

*****************

I remember falling; I remember the tears that stung my eyes, and the blue sky that embraced my fading form.

So I'm a dream right? The figment of someone's imagination?

Then, can anyone please explain to me why this ache in my heart feels so real?

****************

Final Fantasy X: Beginnings

Chapter Two: Second Chances

A fanfic by Noelle

****************

Ever since Sin was defeated, Tidus tried to accept his fate. Since that day, he tried to forget his sadness. And, since that day, he tried everything he could to find a way back. Every time he heard Yuna's daily whistles pierce the barrier between Spira and the Farplane, he longed even more to be by her side.

The eternal optimist, one of these "attempts" at coming back to Spira included trying to tear a HUGE hole into the walls of the Farplane using Auron's sword. It goes without saying then, that Auron wasn't too happy about that.

After all, he wasn't really dead, cause he never "lived," right? Even though he could walk among the dead, he believed he wasn't one of them. This gave him the hope to keep going, and anyway, being sad for longer than a few minutes wasn't his forte anyway.

He sat on one of the many ledges of the Farplane, humming the Hymn of the Fayth to himself and gazing out into space.

"Hey Boy, mind if I join you?" A gruff voice from behind him caught his attention.

"Nah, go right ahead."

It was Jecht. It only has been a few days since father and son were reunited, and a mutual understanding had come between them. They could now sit together without fighting. At least it was a start.

"Got something to tell you," Jecht said after a brief pause.

"Yeah?" Tidus was puzzled by his father's seriousness.

Jecht looked at his son and smiled. "Braska thinks he found a way to send you back to Spira." Still trying to be somewhat serious he mumbled, "and umm...he wanted me to tell ya the good news."

Tidus looked at his father, his eyes wide open. "Okay Pop, this better not be a joke, 'cause then I'd seriously have to hurt you."

Jecht put his hands up in mock defense." No no, I'm not THAT mean!" he put a comforting hand on Tidus' shoulder. "Come with me, we're gonna do it today." He stood up and started to walk away.

"Today?!"

"Yeah. Got a problem with that?"

"Umm...no." Tidus couldn't contain his smile. "Thanks Dad."

"Come ON! We got no time for the mushy stuff...." Jecht said, just a little embarrassed.

With that, Tidus stood up and joined his father to meet Braska, with hopes of meeting Yuna again on his mind.

****************

Braska's "residence" on the Farplane was lavish. He did sacrifice himself for the good of all Spira, after all. Besides that, you could "live" in anything you wanted to in the Farplane. All you had to do was dream it up, and there it was.

Auron had already arrived, and he was leaning against the wall when Tidus and Jecht came in.

"Wait here for a little bit, he'll be out in a minute," the stoic guardian said. He still wore his sunglasses and collar, though now that he was finally at rest, seeing a smile from him wasn't as rare as it used to be.

A door opened as soon as Tidus and Jecht took a seat on one of the couches of the room. Braska walked out. He was wearing his summoning clothes minus the headpiece, since it got taken off anyway every time Jecht came over...

"Hey BRASKA!" Jecht instantly got up and gave him a noogie, his clean cut honey brown hair getting frazzled with each turn of Jecht's fist.

"Owowowow!" Braska laughed as he tried to break out of Jecht's headlock. This was a funny ritual of theirs that started ever since Sin was defeated. Jecht tried to attempt doing this to Auron before, but once Auron threatened Jecht with his sword, that idea went out the window.

Once Braska finally got free and got himself back in order, he gave Jecht a glare, walked over to the wall, and grabbed his summoner's staff off of it.

"Tidus, I've known ever since you got here that you wanted to go back and see my daughter," he said as he still faced the wall. "and... I want you to make my daughter happy." He turned back towards Tidus, smiled, and made eye contact with him. "Let me explain this all to you before I do anything, ok?"

"Yes. Braska. Sir."

He gave Tidus one last smile before starting to explain.

"You've probably thought of this before, but you know you're more than a dream because you came in contact and defeated Sin, right? Jecht became real because he was Sin, and you...you have a chance at becoming real too. You just need an extra push."

"Luckily for us, we found out how to give you this extra push..." Auron started. "I think it'll be hell for all of us if you moped around all the time."

"Heeeey!" Tidus retorted. He looked at his father, expecting him to chime in.

"What're lookin' at me for?!" The truth was, he couldn't think of anything good to say, but that's not the point.

Braska continued. "What I'm going to do is perform a 'Reverse Sending' on you."

"Reverse Sending?" Tidus replied, his aquamarine eyes catching Braska's own sapphire ones.

"Yes. Much like sending dead people on Spira takes them to the Farplane, I will attempt a reverse sending to transport you back to Spira. It hasn't been proven to work before, but since no one ever tried sending a dream before, it's worth a shot."

"One question though..."

"Yes?"

"Where'd you think of this anyway?"

Braska laughed. "I was young like you once, and I wanted to find a way back too. I had more than ten years to think about it after all." He looked to Auron and Jecht. "Too bad it won't work on actually dead people like us!" Braska then motioned for Tidus to stand up. "Come Tidus. It's time."

Auron got up from the wall, and put his hand on Tidus' shoulder. "Don't forget us," a trace of a smile could be seen under his collar. "and stay by Yuna. Always."

"Will do!" Tidus reassured him.

Jecht then came up and gave his son a hug, much to Tidus' surprise. "I'm gonna miss ya," he said, starting to get a little emotional. "Be good, ok?"

"Aww...dad!"

After the goodbyes were finished, Braska had everyone get away from Tidus, so he could start the dance. As Tidus started to dematerialize before their eyes into numerous pyreflies, Braska gave him one last message.

"I don't know when or where in Spira you'll end up, but from the way this is going, it's working." Braska spun his staff above his head once more and leveled it in front of his face as Tidus faded away.

"Goodbye."

*****************

Two years later...

He found himself curled up in a ball, his forehead touching his knees. Even without opening his eyes, he could sense pyreflies coursing through his body.

"Am I...underwater?" he sensed a cool sensation all over. Breathing would be no problem; he was the star of the Zanarkand Abes after all. Waitaminnit...

"UNDERWATER?! That means..." He opened his eyes and smiled a knowing smile. He lifted up his head toward the Spira sun, stretched out, and started swimming as fast as he could to the surface. "Hang on Yuna, I'm---*"

His head broke the surface of the water, and the first person he saw was none other than...

"Grand Maestress Yuna! Over here!"

"Lady Yuna, how do you feel about..."

"About your speech..."

Yuna, just exiting the blitzball stadium, was currently fending off her supporters with a little help from Wakka and Lulu. The crowd of people made it very hard for her to get to the waiting S.S Winno heading back to Besaid.

"She's as beautiful as ever..."

Tidus wanted very much to just call out her name and run to her right now. His emotions were so built up, his heart threatened to come out of his chest! His chance was missed though, as he lost sight of her in the crowd. The commotion was so much that when he tried calling to her, his voice was lost on the wind. Not one to be discouraged though, he got up onto the Luca Port and tried once again to find her in the crowd. Even on his tiptoes he couldn't spot her, and the S.S Winno already seemed to be leaving the dock.

"I guess I'm gonna have to find another way then..." he absent-mindedly said to himself. The nearby vendors added even more to the noise from Yuna's recent departure.

"Official Blitzball merchandise! Get your official Blitzballs here!!!!"

"Hot dogs, get your hot dogs!"

"Movie spheres! Movie spheres! Take Luca home to your family!"

"Wait...that's it!" he thought. He walked over to the movie sphere vendor, a hopeful smile on his face.

"One movie sphere please." He said cheerfully to the vendor.

"500 gil."

"Umm..hold on a sec." Tidus fumbled through his short pockets for money. "Oh no! Don't tell me I'm back and I'm brooooke..." For an instant fear crossed his face, but then finally felt a few coins at the very bottom of his large pockets. "Whew! That was a close one!" Tidus regained his composure and gave the money to the vendor.

"Here ya go. Come again."

"Thanks! Ehehe..." He looked down at the movie sphere in his hands.

"I could mail this over to Besaid to tell Yuna I'm here with this...and then I'll figure out some way to get back and surprise her! Yeah! Perfect!" He looked over his surroundings. "Hmm... where can I record this thing?" The hustle and bustle in Luca's center wasn't exactly the best place to do this task. He sighed. The closest thing? Back into the water he went.

"Now what to say...what to say?" He set the sphere afloat on a nearby piece of plywood.

"Yuna...here's....TIDUS!!"

Nah.

"Hi...honey?!"

No no no no.

"I love you, marry me?"

Oops, that's for later. Oh, I know! He hit the button on the sphere to make it start recording, and moved back a little.

"Yuna," he smiled just at saying her name. "Yuna, I meant it when I said I'll come running...wait for me, just for a little bit more, ok?" he didn't want Yuna to think he whistles were in vain, her father had probably heard them too. He was about to add more, when suddenly, some waves picked up as a fishing boat whizzed by.

A fish in the water, stirred to the surface, saw Tidus' movie sphere in all the chaos, and decided to eat it. There was a tasty insect that happened to land right on top of it after all. Tidus looked on in horror as the whole scenario took place.

"Heeeey! Don't eat that! I... Maaaaaaaan!!-----*"

The fish swam off, Tidus tried to hit it with the plywood, and the fishing boat went on its merry way.

*******************

Later that day...

The Al Bhed on the salvage ship had seen better times. Their machina lessons were free, and for the good of Spira, but whoo! They needed to eat too! But with no money, and far from Home, they had to resort to the old fashioned way of getting food: catching it. Rikku and Brother were on the bow of the boat, fishing in the waters of Luca, since that's where they ended up today.

"Oooooh! I got one!" Rikku exclaimed in excitement.

["Let me help you!"] Brother said in Al Bhed. He grabbed her pole and pulled the fish up and out of the water. "[Ha! Look at that! It's a big one!"]

["Wait...what's that?"] Rikku pointed to something in the fish's mouth. Brother, curious as well, pulled up the fishing line, opened its mouth and pulled out a turquoise movie sphere.

Rikku shook her head in disbelief. ["Fish eat the strangest things nowadays..."]

******************

Author's notes:

Thank you everyone who reviewed the first chapter! And darcee-michelle, you're my hero . :-)

I meant to get this out sooner, but whoo! This chapter took me the whole day! I guess I've got to find that "groove" that lets me pump out chapters super duper fast! At least I give you a substantial read every time, right? Right? :-)

I've got the next chapter concept down already, and I promise it'll be out in a couple of days. This is story WILL go somewhere, I just felt I needed to explain a few things on Tidus' side before I tread onward.

Oh yeah, my whole opinion on Tidus' name? I can read it Japanese, and the way you're supposed to say it is "Tee-da." So, that's what I think every time someone says his name in fanfics. Hey. I think it sounds cool that way...just a random bit. ^_~

As always, good or bad, tell me what you think! It'll make me a better writer, and a faster one too! Ja mata ne!~