shinA/N: Third chapter! Whee!

---***--- The Gamer ---***--- Chapter III: Grace Period ---***---

Tidus managed to get up on time (alarm clocks helped) and shuffle down to breakfast. He slurped up something resembling oatmeal and a few slices of bacon, snatched up an apple and his floatcar keys and backpack, and drove off to school.

Zanarkand was divided into sectors, four north, four south, three east, and five west; the city officials had taken a leaf from their ancestors' book and numbered them. Zanarkand was a great sprawling behemoth, far outstripping its primary rival Bevelle by far. Tidus' school, Zanar West- Three High School, catered especially to athletes. Once Tidus had been seeded for the Abes, he had transferred to ZWTHS. It wasn't that much longer a commute, and it wasn't far from the stadium.

While his car followed the preprogrammed route to ZWTHS, Tidus made sure he'd done his Civics homework; Mr. Petro was a stickler for homework. Normally Tidus would have skived off and copied it from someone, or forgotten about it altogether, but his grades had fallen from the B average they normally were. Auron had immediately gotten on his back, and had worked out something with the coach so that if he fell to a C average or worse, he would be suspended from all blitz until he raised them. Since blitz was his life, and probably his source of income for his entire working life, Tidus knew when he'd been beat.

Tidus fingered the Abes symbol Rin had given him. He liked that game, however weird it was, and decided to play it as often as possible. Flipping out his cell phone, Tidus dialed Rin's house, knowing he'd be up tinkering on something.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

"Hey, this is Rin, I'm not here but you can be. Leave a message." Beep.

Tidus cursed under his breath but said, "Rin, this is Tidus. I'll stop by after school to play a little more of that game. Have it ready for me, okay? See-ya." He thumbed the 'End' button and dropped the phone back into his backpack.

Getting into the parking lot at school could be tricky, if you came late. Tidus was running ahead of schedule, and avoided the worst of the student traffic, but was still stuck five minutes waiting to get to his parking space. The clamps came down to grasp the car. Tidus turned off the engine and stepped out, slinging his backpack over one shoulder and locking the car before moving off towards his first class – Civics.

---***---

"Yo, Tidus, wake up!"

"Huh?"

Brendan poked at Tidus, who'd been happily stretched out on the artificially-grown turf on the school's roof. With space such a commodity in Zanarkand, fields and parks were on rooftops. The grass was grown in massive hydroponics labs, in the east-two, where most of the scientific labs were located. One of Tidus' aunts worked there.

The field/park on top of the West-Three High School was a luxurious one. It had trees.

Tidus sat up. "Brendan, I told you not to wake me!"

"Figured you'd be hungry, man. Seems like you're part stomach half the time."

Brendan had been Tidus' best school friend since the third grade, and he'd known Tidus long enough to know that Tidus was, in fact, completely stomach all the time. Tidus snatched one of the rehydrated burgers off Brendan's tray and took a huge bite. "As usual," he said cheerfully while taking another bite. "Tastes something like plasflim. But if you close your eyes it almost feels like you're really eating chicken."

Brendan rolled his eyes and started in on his own burger. "Man, I don't know how we eat this stuff."

"I don't either."

---***---

Tidus languished over his homework for the day in Advisory, and finally left school at about four. Tidus always did his homework at school; that way he could spend hours at blitzball practice and not have to worry about it. But there was no blitzball practice today; Coach Fawzi had given them the day off after their spectacular win the other night. Eight to one, leading from the start. Blitz was Tidus' life, but even he liked his vacations occasionally. But today he was on his way to Rin's, to play some more of that game.

He parked his hovercar across the street from the now-calm nightclub. Shouldering his way in past the security guards through a door that said "Deliveries," Tidus got himself into the game room. One of the other pods was closed; someone was in it. Tidus climbed into one of the other pods and attached all the leads, quelled his claustrophobia when the things slid up over his arms and legs, and relaxed when the faceplate slid down over his face and the pod lid closed with a hiss-click. A screen popped up:

SPIRA: SPIRAL OF DEATH

NEW GAME

LOAD FILE

Tidus chose LOAD FILE, moved the pointer to his (he noticed there was now another save file, with different characters, and that Rin's counter was ticking up) and was immediately whisked off to the highbridge in Zanarkand. He was in his character almost immediately, running back after Auron. Leaping ledges and gaps was no problem in this body. But at the last one...

The thing was sucking the city up into its belly. Auron looked up at it and said, "You are sure?"

"Auron!" Tidus yelled. "Auron!"

The man in red pulled him up and held him out for the suction of the thing to take. "This is your story," he said, and then the whole world dissolved into nothingness.

---***---

He awoke swimming in – nothing.

He was suspended in the air, alone. All alone, utterly alone, in front of a large burning Zanarkand Abes symbol, swimming like he was in water but wasn't.

/Where is everyone? Rin? Auron?/

/...Dad?/

Tidus swam around aimlessly. Then a figure, fuzzy, swam into view. Curious, Tidus went towards the figure and saw it resolve into himself as a young boy. It felt odd, watching himself talk. Then he was whisked off again, this time to a bunch of ruins in a long inlet of the sea. It was cold, and he was alone again. At least when he'd been talking with himself he was WITH someone. Shivering, Tidus slid into the water. It enveloped him like a lover, warmed and comforted him and soothed his frazzled nerves.

/Geez, Rin, this is some game!/

Tidus didn't expect a response, and didn't get one. Rin was in his game, probably screwing around with some chick. Tidus swam towards what looked like a temple; ruined and broken, its minarets reached up to the sullen skies. He reached a small set of stairs, and ran up them. There was another of the spheres, and he saved there. It was already second nature. Tap the sphere, select 'SAVE' and wait a moment. He made note of the third save file – the characters were very different. There was an older-looking man, and another man that could be that man's son. Tidus pushed that out of his mind while he ran around to keep warm and try to find a way to the temple's entrance. He came across a chest and pushed it open.

RECEIVED 200 GIL

Tidus wondered how he could see how much gil he had – if it was money in Zanarkand, it would surely be money here too. Rin was creative, but not THAT creative. And as the thought crossed his mind, the little keypad with the buttons that he'd used in the battle before popped up. Tidus pressed the various buttons and found the triangular one brought up a menu that had his picture on the left, his HP and MP, and some other stuff he wasn't sure about. At the bottom it said

GIL: 1900

/Hm. Multiply that by five and add a couple zeroes and you have my paycheck. Heh, I love being an athlete./

That accomplished, Tidus made the menu vanish by calling up the keypad again and pressing the circle button. Moving forward once more, thinking about what he was supposed to do here (and where that big whale-fish thing went) he didn't notice the bridge he was on shaking until the stones fell out from under him and he fell into the circular pool. And there were more monsters.

Fish-type things; ugly, their mouths full of teeth and their spines sharp. Tidus kept a distance and pulled out his sword, grim and ready to go. The battle menus popped up again, and Tidus quickly selected the options he wanted and attacked. Two of the fish-things flew up into those little sparklike things that moaned. The third was about to attack; he had 203 HP and he knew it would kill him –

And a large thing came and ate it.

/Always a bigger fish./

---***---***---

A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys, but I had a lot to do...last week was the talent show I performed in. I wanted to get this chapter to you earlier, but like I said...

Thank you to the people who reviewed! It means a lot to me. I now have a definite way this fic is going, so stay tuned!