Thank you so much to my reviewers! You guys are awesome! And no, this will NOT be an Aurikku as much as you may be unintentionally led to believe that it is in the beginning (although I must admit that Aurikkus are somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine, teeheehee...)

"Because, you are already dead."

Auron had a stunningly brilliant sense of tactfulness in handling delicate subjects such as this.

"But, uh, I," Rikku sputtered unintelligibly until Auron finally ceased her mutterings by speaking again.

"It's really quite simple. When your brother used that Thundara spell on you as a child, you didn't make it out quite as well as he assumed by your appearance. You were just as much an unsent from that day forth as I was after Yunalesca struck me down."

"No! Yunie! She sent you! I would've, been, sent? Too?" Rikku lapsed back into her semiconscious state halfway through her exclamation.

"Precisely. You were. That is why you are here. What don't you comprehend?" Auron looked very aggravated with Rikku's lack of understanding and went to lower his body as if to sit down in a chair. However, as was previously mentioned, not only was there not a chair underneath Auron's hovering form, the area was entirely devoid of any object whatsoever.

Rikku was about to shout a warning when she saw Auron cease movement. He truly looked as though he rested on an invisible piece of furniture. Suddenly, a bolt of silver energy shot under where Auron now sat and she could've sworn she saw it outline an overstuffed loveseat.

"Don't worry. Your eyes will adjust in time."

"My eyes... I... Hey, wait! Don't try and change the subject!"

Auron gave one of his trademark "Hmphs" and asked, "What more do you want of me?"

"I want to know how I was sent when I remember myself standing there with everyone else watching YOU!" At this point, Rikku was whimpering and sniffling back pained tears.

"Do you truly remember witnessing the scene in enough clarity to be sure of what happened?"

"Yes! I mean, well, I was crying so I couldn't exactly get a clear view. Actually, come to think of it, I think I fainted after that... Wait! I see where this is going, you, you... Oh, I'm so lost!" Rikku broke down entirely and sobbed uncontrollably as she lay sprawled out on the floor that, although unperceivable, surely must have been underneath her.

Auron sighed softly to himself. He pitied the situation that Rikku now found herself in. She had been removed abruptly from the world of the living even younger than he had been and with no prior warning, either. She was unable to prepare herself for her final departure from Spira as he had done for 10 long years and...

"So, this is the Farplane?" Auron was startled out of his thoughts as he suddenly became aware that Rikku had regained her composure enough to breathe normally and was speaking to him.

"Uh, yeah. It's, not so bad?"

Rikku appreciated his pathetic attempt to comfort her, but she knew that it WAS that bad. She had been torn away from everything she knew and placed in this inconceivable reality. She could feel the tears resurfacing, but determinedly strangled them back down into the recesses of her soul to be shed at a later hour. Noticing that Auron was giving her a rather odd look, she addressed him much in the manner that a mouse would plead with a cat for his life.

"Um, could I, you know, be alone for a little while, maybe? Please?" the emotionally distraught Rikku asked softly as she crouched into the fetal position and gave adopting a slightly less forlorn façade a try.

"Very well. I'll come back later. There are a few other people who will want to see you as well once you are of a better disposition."

Had Rikku been of a so-called "better disposition," she would've instantly perked up at this comment, pondering endlessly over the dozens of possibilities of who could want to visit her in the afterlife. In her current state, however, her curiosity was morbidly dormant and she couldn't have cared less. She began to hum the Hymn of the Fayth to herself as Auron exited out of sight, hoping that the familiar melody would soothe her troubled mind.

Instead, it made her want to gouge her eyes out.

Not that it would matter, she thought bitterly. It's not as though I'm capable of committing suicide. In order to do that, you have to be alive. Me, I'm deceased. I'm lost to the living. I've passed on to a "better place", if you will. ...Ugh! It sounds so wrong! It IS wrong! I'm not supposed to be here! This is unfair! Why me?!?

After the conclusion of this last part of Rikku's internal soliloquy and a slight pause to calm down, she lifted her head shamefully and tried her best to ease the creases of sorrow and frustration etched on her face into the smoothness of resolution. After all, what was the use in moping about and fighting against what was already accomplished? She was dead. Dead, dead, dead. There was no coming back, no altering her fate. So be it. Rikku eventually convinced herself of this (with much difficulty and inner turmoil) and went to seek out Auron.

She quickly discovered that doing so was not going to be an easy task. How could you locate someone (or ANYTHING for that matter) when you were entirely surrounded by mosaics that stretched into infinity and showed no signs of pattern or reason? Rikku thought that maybe she could feel out objects with her hands since it seemed that they must be there in an invisible form or otherwise since they could support Auron's weight (which must be a rather arduous chore considering his tremendous stature and hefty attire). She groped around helplessly for several minutes, but couldn't manage to stumble upon anything. She reluctantly gave up and waited impatiently for Auron to make another appearance.