The first sensation he experienced was of the frigid wind passing through him.
The man looked down, utilizing his sense of sight for the first time in over nine years. Wait. He had eyes again? Admittedly, it was just the one—the other was horribly scarred over—but he had organs, any at all? He had substance?
Before him, there were vaguely familiar shapes. After a second he knew they were hands, his hands, and saw that they were connected to arms, which in turn joined to a torso at the shoulders. Long, sturdy legs supported him, and, at the very top of his body was a head decorated by a mane of black hair. He could faintly see the ground through himself, but his assembled body was solidifying quickly enough. Not quite so fast, however, as to allow for his dormant mind to fully awaken and grasp the situation. Disjointed thoughts flowed in and out of his consciousness.
Death. Revenge. Sin defeated. Peace. Rest. Pyreflies. Freedom. Memories. Feelings. Obligation. Then…confusion.
Who…who am I?
His heart at once began pumping, sending blood coursing through him, out to the ends of his fingertips, down even to warm his newly formed toes. He had the sensation of touch once more.
While exercising his lungs—tasting air after so long—the man first felt his chest, touching the smooth black material of the sleeveless shirt he wore, sensing the strong beating going on within his ribcage. His hands ascended, took strands of the black and gray hair between his thick fingers, moved over and touched a scruffy chin.
He was missing something. His neck was in need of a covering, a large collar he could only vaguely recall. He brought one hand from his forehead to his chin, letting the fingertips linger on a large scar crossing through his right eye. Glasses, where were his sunglasses?
And, most importantly of all, his coat. Where the hell was his coat?
~
The woman pulled up her skirts and waded into the sparkling blue ocean. She continued carefully until the cool water barely ebbed in and out about her knees. She was content to stand there for a moment, her eyelids shut, her nostrils and ears wide open. She smelled the strong salt air of the sea, heard the calling of the seagulls that could not contain their excitement at living through another day of bright sunshine on sea and land and gentle breezes whispering through the trees.
"Yuna!"
The lady turned to see her friend coming down the beach. Lulu wore black Capri pants and a sleeveless gray blouse. Her shimmering dark hair flew freely in the wind, save two braided strands that were pulled from just above her ears to join at the back of her head. The woman's once pale skin was still light in color, but it had grown tanned during the long hours of overseeing her son play in the woods and along the shore.
Yuna admired the healthy and beautiful appearance of her friend while she stepped out from the water. She let the layers of purple skirt drop down and bounce until they came to a rest around her wet shins. On top she wore a cream colored blouse with long, draping sleeves—a style influenced by the clothing of the Guado.
The sand was white beneath their feet, hot and prickling as the yellow sun shone down fiercely upon it. Lulu offered Yuna her sandals, which she had picked up on her way from the village.
"Thank—ow!" The sand was burning Yuna's vulnerable soles. Leaning on the other woman for support, the former summoner lifted one foot at a time, brushed the sand from it, and fastened to it a leather sandal.
Lulu could only shake her head, but Yuna laughed and the two began to walk together, as friends close as sisters are apt to do, in the direction of the dock. Some of their fellow villagers were loading up the latest trade ship to Kilika.
"Lady Yuna, Lady Lulu," Keepa greeted, giving each a slight nod. Grunting, he heaved a large crate from the ground to his shoulders and waddled down the platform.
Yuna found herself laughing again for some reason. Lulu shot her a questioning look.
"I'm just so happy," the brunette said, stretching her arms high into the air.
"Why's that?"
"I just have a good feeling. Don't you ever just get a good feeling about things, Lulu?"
"I suppose so. But I haven't had much time for them lately. Vidina and Wakka keep me too busy worrying."
They reached the end of the beach and took a slow half circle to begin strolling in the other direction. From the woods emerged Wakka, Tidus, Lenne, and Vidina, all fighting over a blitzball. They saw the two women and waved enthusiastically at them. The mothers smiled and waved in return, but stuck to their girl talk for a while longer.
"I just have this…this intuitive feeling," Yuna confided in her friend. "I think that Sir Auron could be brought back to us!"
Lulu stopped immediately. "What are you talking about?"
Yuna tilted her head, cheerful in the face of the other's skepticism. "Why did Tidus come back, Lulu? I wanted to see him so badly that the fayth brought him back to me."
"But isn't that different?" Lulu gazed out at the sea before turning back to her companion, a serious expression in her violet eyes. "Tidus was made real, Yuna, not brought back to life. Before he was a dream of the fayth, Yuna, not a real person who died."
Yuna either didn't see the difference or refused to. She took a moment to organize her thoughts and spoke once more, trying to continue wearing a confident smile. "I was speaking with Sir Auron, though, at the Farplane. I told him that Rikku missed him." Lulu was listening, although, from her expression, not seeing where all of this was leading. "And then he disappeared, Lulu. Tidus went in later and he couldn't summon Sir Auron either."
Lulu remained silent for a long while. Her friend found this worrisome.
"Well?"
"Yuna, you have to consider the implications of what you are saying. But first, just think for a minute. Don't you think everyone wishes for dead loved ones to come back to life? Wishing doesn't ever make it happen, does it?"
It was true. As a child, Yuna had prayed daily that her father could come back, that he somehow could live again. Her wishes had never been fulfilled, true, but…
Meanwhile, Lulu continued. "How many people have died, Yuna? Even if just the past thousand years? If they were all wished back to life, what would happen to Spira? There would be millions of people everywhere you went. There would never be enough food to feed them all, nor enough clothes or homes to keep them warm. There would be tension, which would lead to fighting and then another war would break out. Perhaps the entire cycle of Sin would begin again!"
Yuna suddenly felt ashamed. She had never considered any of that. She had selfishly wished for her own loved ones to be returned to her. Lulu's words were imbued with reason. Her thoughts were not often driven by emotion, as Yuna's were prone to be.
Lulu looked down into Yuna's eyes. "I know the pain that comes with the death of a loved one just as well as you do, Yuna. Everyone must face it. It's terrible, but we must all learn to accept it. Death is an important part of life. It is…necessary."
Lulu touched her friend's shoulder before taking up her walk again. Her seven-year-old son, Vidina, hurried to his mother and passed her the blitzball. Lulu laughed and threw herself running into the game, tossing the ball to her husband.
Lulu learned to let go of the past long before I did, Yuna reflected, settling down onto the beach to watch the game. I can't believe how foolish I still am. Of course it's foolish to try and bring back every person who has left us. I only thought about how nice it would be for Rikku to see Sir Auron again, maybe just one more time… I knew deep down that it couldn't really happen.
"What's got you looking so gloomy?"
Yuna looked up to see Tidus's concerned face gazing down at her. She offered him her arms and he pulled her to a stand.
I just wanted Rikku to have a chance at the happiness I was so lucky to receive. I suppose my only choice is to help her move on. Sir Auron is dead, and he deserves to rest. His place is in the Farplane.
"You mute or something?" teased Yuna's husband. He touched his lips to the woman's nose and then to her lips, a brief kiss to reveal a taste of the infinite love he felt for her.
We all must look toward the future now, because it's all we have.
"I'm not mute," she retorted, pretending to be offended.
"Good, because I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't hear your voice again." His arm encircled her thin waist, and the two walked back toward the blitzball game.
"Tidus," Yuna said, coming to a halt before the laughing players surrounded them. The man stopped as well, worry again dominating his tanned features. Yuna took his hand and placed it over her slightly rounded stomach. "I've been meaning to tell you: Lennie has a brother or sister on the way."
~
"What's taking us so long to get going?" Gippal asked lazily from his bed in the back room. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with him. He had allowed Rikku the use of his bed for a few hours and had slept a bit himself, seated on the floor with his face pressed against the painted metal wall. He'd started drooling a bit and Rikku had had the gall to wake up and find him that way.
Rikku didn't respond to his inquiry, so the man stood. He peeked through the doorway to see her seated figure staring down at something from the pilot's chair. Well, it had been over a day since he had changed clothes, so the Al-Bhed slipped into the small bathroom. After brushing his teeth, shaving, and scrubbing his face clean, he donned some dark blue pants and a green long-sleeved shirt with the word "Fehhan" on the front in chunky white lettering.
His shipmate was still at the control panel. He went over to see what she was concentrating on and found it to be a projection of a map of the planet.
"Lemme guess…you have no clue where you're going."
"Shut up!" she snapped defensively. "There's plenty of places to go. I just don't know where to start, that's all."
"Riiight." He leaned over, his body pressing against her shoulder. Rikku said nothing, but slid the chair to the side. The man was left to regain his balance.
With a slightly disgusted edge to her voice, Rikku read the man's shirt. "Winner? Honestly, Gippal."
"Honestly what? Who's the leader of the Machine Faction, hmm?"
"The irresponsible leader."
"Whatever! You know I'm uniting the Al-Bhed with the other tribes of Spira."
She rolled her eyes at him and turned her attention back to the projection.
"Hey!" He grabbed hold of Rikku's shoulder, secretly rejoicing at what warmth of hers radiated through the fabric of the orange sweater. "You can't just ignore me."
Seeming to have forgotten the recent path of their conversation, Rikku turned to him. "Hey, Gippal, can I ask you a hypothetical question?"
"Hypothetical? Go for it." He slid into the copilot's seat, feeling relieved that she was still talking to him.
"Say you had to go away from Spira to, oh, I dunno, but you left Spira for somewhere else."
"What else is there except Spira?"
"Don't you know what 'hypothetical' means?" she demanded. "Just answer."
He wanted to say, "I'd find out where you were and go there right away," but he found he couldn't. He was worried about this "friend" Rikku was searching for. From the way she avoided telling him who the mysterious person was, Gippal could only guess it was a guy. A guy! Gippal would have to wait to meet this idiot and size up the competition. Then he would devise a way to prove to Rikku that he was superior in every way possible.
"Hey-lo? Gippal, you in there somewhere?"
"I would go to Bikanel and see how the Al-Bhed were doing," he said dully, caring to give no explanation for his reverie. What he said was true; he worried about his people. But there was one of his tribe that he worried about most of all.
"Oh."
~
Rikku sunk back into her chair, basically ignoring the man next to her.
She realized she didn't know very much at all about Auron. Did he have a "people" as she and Kimahri did? Where had he been born? It had never seemed like he had family around—not to mention that having living parents or even siblings during Sin's reign was excessively rare—but that didn't automatically mean Auron had no family. Auron had had ties to the warrior monks, so…
"Bevelle," Rikku announced suddenly, making Gippal jump. "I decided. We're going to go to Bevelle."