Chapter 1:

My World

I awoke to the sounds of soft squalling of sea gulls. My left eye opened lazily, scanning the cabin while still in the clutches of hazy slumber. My lone eye focused on Yuna passed out on one of the beds, and paneled over to see a content Rikku talking in her sleep. It must be early if they're still sleeping.

I sat up in my bed slowly. I yawned and let my hand sooth the waves in my hair. I turned to the long vertical window of our cabin and squinted against the tangy morning light. Must be around 11 in the morning. I yawned again sleepily. I felt renewed with my night of sleep, and most of all, my mind was blank as a clean slate. I was right; sleep and time had erased that irritating subject from my mind and I was now free. I got up and opened my own personal drawer, pulling out my studded clothing and belts. Carefully and quietly, I walked towards the bathroom to get myself changed out of these...tonberry pajamas. Even now, recalling that accursed day I had walked into that Lucan clothing shop, I still have no idea what came over me when I finally agreed to wearing these PJs. I guess it was because of Rikku's eagerness to have matching bed wear for all of us that I just couldn't help but cave into the cute "matching fashion" that Rikku wanted so much.

I slipped into the bathroom door and quickly put on my clothes without making a squeak. Despite all the buckles and belts I wore on my usual outfit, I had grown used to making my footsteps and movements concentrated and planned so none of them would make a sound. If I had any hopes of surprising an enemy, or going unseen, I had to make sure that I wouldn't even give the slightest hint of a noise. I loved my belts and my buckles too much to part with them, so I just changed the style of my walking.

I softly open the door, carefully avoiding the click when I closed it. I walked past my bed and was nearing Yuna's. As I passed, I noticed she was still wearing her Songstress dressphere and not the moogle PJs Rikku had given her. My eyebrow arched just seeing her lying there. It was unlike her to pass out like that. Maybe the Kilika scramble had taken more energy out of her and Rikku than I anticipated. Whatever the case, I know I would find out by either Shinra or Buddy if anything happened. They would be the only ones up, anyway. I looked past her to see Rikku, mumbling to herself in a cheery tone and snuggling against her covers. Looking innocent and - something that rarely happened - calm in her Cait Sith pajamas. Surveying the two sleeping comrades of mine, I just decided that Brother had kept Yuna up dancing all night long.

I lowered my head while shaking it.

Selfish fan boy.

~ ~ ~

"Morning Paine," Buddy greeted me as I walked out from the elevator. He was in his Gullwing position, the "search seat" as we all called it. "Sleep well?"

"Yes," I answered calmly without looking at him in the eye. My head turned back and forth to acknowledge anyone else who could be up from their trip to the Dream realm. The only other person I detected was the Al Bhed child genius. Already both of them had brought the Gullwing central to life: all of the machina were on; computers were up and running; and the treasure oscillo was hooked online and searching for waves. The Celsius was on autopilot as the pilot seat remained empty. I was right; only Shinra and Buddy were up and already working. Our lackadaisical leader was still somewhere in the cabin....passed out and snoozing. Buddy gave me a kind smile before turning back to his work, typing madly and scanning the green screen for any kind of signals. Shinra himself was typing just as frantically. Perhaps more tutorials or trying to decode the meaning of the latest sphere.

My brows furrowed when I mused about that new sphere we..."won"...back at Kilika. It had the same man in Yuna's "Journey's Begin" sphere. I actually was able to catch a glimpse of his figure and clothing this time. Could it be the man she was looking for? If so, we may be stepping closer and closer to the termination of Yuna's Sphere hunting career. Which would be ultimately be the end of Gullwings. It was a prominent speculation that with her departure, the Gullwings would crumble. If it would of miraculously survived somehow, it would still be a disaster with Brother's constant whining.

I leaned against a cold steel wall beside the glass window and Shinra's research desk. My eyes traveled to the bottom right where the glass front allowed me to watch the white clouds pass by as Celsius tore through them. Separating them like whipped cream on a blue table. Seagulls called out softly to their brethren among our ship. While standing there, I waited for an explanation of what happened last night. Though all the waiting was for naught. Shinra and Buddy weren't even paying attention. They were all too sucked into their digital world of research to tune back into reality. All I had to converse with was the soft-tap-tap tapping of computer keys and mumbling curses coming from Buddy.

"So, how did the night go?" I asked subtly, avoiding bluntly questioning why Yuna had passed out in her Songstress dressphere.

"It went all right," Shinra replied, still staring at his screen with goggled eyes.

"Something was wrong with Yuna, though," Buddy added, also not diverting his eyes from the screen.

"Was it the sphere?" I inquired as a memory flash came into mind. I remembered Yuna's gleeful expression when she once again saw the spiky haired man appear on the computer. But how the raptured expression fell when she heard the man quietly whisper to himself about a girl named Lenne.

"Yeah," Shinra answered somewhat preoccupied any typing away. "She seemed to be bothered by some of the contents on it. Especially by that Lenne girl."

I was right.

"She was a bit distracted while dancing though she didn't admit it to us. When you left, she kind of sat out and let Rikku dance a bit. Then she got up and screamed 'Who the heck is Lenne?!' out of no where."

Ooh, ouch. Jealousy.

Buddy took over from there.  "Then afterward she just stormed to her bed."

I lifted my body from the cold metal, standing straight up but with arms still crossed on my chest. So, Yuna's love interest had found someone else? Or at least it appeared so. I felt a little bit of pity for Yuna when it truly sank in. The man that she was direly seeking for was with someone else. I wonder if it would change her resolve? I wonder if she would give up this stupid quest to find him and just sit back and enjoy the pleasures of sphere hunting?

E tuipd ed.

Even if he had found someone else, this had been her resolve for about two years now. Why would she change it on the spur of the moment? Perhaps their reunion would be much different than what she had originally predetermined...from a warm embrace and a kiss to remember, to a slap in the face with screams and flooding tears.

Hm. Betrayal.

The feeling is revoltingly familiar.



~ ~ ~


"I can't wait anymore!" Rikku yelled at the Bridge. I stood on the higher deck of the levels, my hands to my sides and my crimson eyes searching the skies. Rikku was having some kind of temper tantrum because of Yuna oversleeping. She was already full of vigor and geared for the next sphere mission. She had been waiting just thirty minutes and she had already grown impatient. While I had been waiting for around an hour for even another person to be among the living other than Shinra and Buddy.

"If she's not getting up now, then she needs a wake-up call!"

I chuckled to myself as I gazed at Rikku. It was sometimes amusing watching her squirm in frustration, even if that does sound cruel. Occasionally she would remind me of those monkeys that crawled all over Spira. A green-eyed monkey with boundless energy, that is.

Rikku's swirled emeralds looked to me and she stomped childishly. "Paine! Come on, let's go!"

"All right, all right, calm yourself," I sardonically replied. I followed Rikku's fleeing figure to the elevator and once inside, went down to the cabin.

Rikku's braids swung gently from her shoulders as she tiptoed into the cabin, planning a surprise attack on High Summoner Yuna. I could only shake my head. Rikku's hyperactivity never seemed to cease. Just like those monkeys.

As we reached the stairs and began to climb it, we began to hear Yuna moaning in her sleep. We heard covers toss and ruffle. Her voice shaky and choking. She was having a nightmare. When Rikku's ears realized the faintest of moaning, she hastily ran to Yuna's side. By the time I had climbed fully up the stairs, she was staring with a distressed expression as Yuna's twisted figure continued to thrash. Yuna was breathing fast and groaning. By the time I reached to Rikku's side, Yuna shot up in a cold sweat and screamed, "What-"

I blinked, a bit surprised of Yuna's abrupt scream. "'What' what?"

Yuna looked up at us with dazed eyes, then shook her head, embarrassed. Her face flushed a bit of pink but not a full-blown red to signify being mortified.

"Just...a strange dream."

Once again, I was right. A nightmare.

"A dream's a dream," I quietly said to her, turning away.

Rikku giggled a bit. "Blame it on your new jammies."

Yuna looked at Rikku quizzically, then glanced down at herself. "Oh!" She laughed a little bit before getting out of bed, and finally joining the living.


~ ~ ~


Hours later after Yuna had awoken, we had already found ourselves in a mess. The sphere we had pried out of Kilika the other day was being analyzed by Shinra. When the downloading was completed, we all watched with curious eyes to what this "awesome" sphere held. To our horror, we saw something that none of us guessed would have existed. After two minutes of seeing its data we were already wanting to give it back. Although the only thing that caught Yuna's eye was the golden-haired youth, the massive machine behind him is what caught all the rest of our attention. A mammoth machina was behind the brave man, pulsating vibes of utter destruction. Brother was the first one to see it. He was always repelled and hateful towards the man - or any man that looked like him - had stolen Yuna's heart. So, the only thing to look at if it wasn't him was the huge machine. How could you miss it, anyways? The machine took up the whole room! Even I, sizing up the machina and making notes of all the offense devices, knew that the machina was the epitome of trouble and hell.

Figures. Anything related to Yevon was bad in itself. I should have guessed that the sphere was of something that nobody wanted to know of, or see. New Yevon was just another replacement cult after the fallen Yevon.

Immediately Brother didn't want it. It was a secret lethal weapon of mass destruction that could be served for a war. Lacking in everything that leadership needed, our so-called "Leader" kept shifting the decision to be made by anyone else but himself. Eventually, the decision rested on Yuna's shoulders. She didn't have much of a choice, anyway. It was either the sadistic cult that replaced the one of Yevon all those years back, or the countering mafia to balance the yang - the former Crusaders who had renamed themselves as the Youth League. I preferred to keep them both out of reach of this sphere. Either mafia would have taken the information and used it against the other causing havoc for all the rest of us. However, Brother had been so adamant about getting the wretched thing out of our hands that this wasn't an option. All I could do was contribute some advice and background on the two opposite groups.

By the end of Yuna's thinking we had decided to give it to the Youth League. New Yevon was the same as the old Yevon: they held dangerous secrets and manipulated the rest of Spira because of the lack of information. They claimed themselves to be supporting a holy cause but it all boiled down to was the same deception. Or at least we all viewed it that way. The Youth League seemed to be a promising group. They wanted to announce the secrets to all of Spira. For it was also the people's right to know what was going on. There shouldn't by any special "groups" to monitor the information flowing in and out of the world. Yuna hated this most of all. It was of this deception she had followed blindly into Death's hands but managed to escape. She wanted to avoid deceit and illusion so she could obviate the same mistake. And if giving it to the Youth League meant doing that, she seemed uncoerced.

When we went to Mushroom Rock, we battled our way through the Gauntlet and into Youth League's HQ. There we were greeted by some old allies of Yuna. Clasko from the entrance, Elma, and Lucil, all former Chocobo Knights. It seemed that we chose right, seeing how many allies of Yuna had joined this group. From there, we were taken into Nooj's tent and he had volunteeringly explained to us the contents of the sphere. Nooj seemed like his usual self, hadn't changed over the years. However, we had no time for small talk to catch up for the both of us - Nooj seemed to have taken on the truth of this machina, the Vegnagun, while I still was in search for my truth.

What irked me mostly about the conversation was how he knew about it. How did he know, if he hadn't seen the sphere before? Didn't the New Yevon always have it? I watched as Nooj continued to talk to Yuna as these questions drummed in my mind.

Well, no choice now. We've already given it up.

But what was the point of wondering about it now? My job, my world is as a Sphere Hunter. I only take part of what interests me and to the data that doesn't, I shouldn't concern myself. Sure, if I was hell-bent on blasting half of Spira into oblivion would I ever care about that machina, but I wasn't. All my mind was concerned about was where we would get our next sphere.

Hm.

Devotion.

Before we left, however, I noticed something about Nooj's eyes. They looked at me hard, as if trying to grab hold of me just with his gaze. His body was rigid and appeared to be nervous but I took no heed of it.

I just shrugged and turned my back to him.  Whatever was going on through his mind, whatever he was seeing through those glasses, didn't matter to me...anymore.