Aching, jarring pain in every bone of his body. He didn't want to move. Didn't want to force his muscles to obey.
Yevon knows, he wouldn't have, either, if the sun hadn't been beating down on him, and drying him out. Wakka could imagine himself as a small pond, evaporating in the sun.
With head pounding with every movement, Wakka flipped himself over in the sand. Somehow, the grit found it's way into his mouth. He spat, and cursed, and tried to push himself up.
'Can't do it.' Wakka thought to himself. 'Too tired.'
All the others were gone anyway. He didn't know if they were dead, or just lost, or what. They were still gone.
And Lulu. She'd been so sick when the wave had washed in. When Sin had attacked...
Wakka's fists balled up, and he felt his face crumpling.
Lulu...
His fists beat down on the sand beneath him, sending up puffs of dirt.
'I shouldn't think like this.' He chastised himself, even as the tears were running down his cheeks. 'Lu's stronger than that...'
But she wasn't strong when Sin attacked. He thought about her. How tired she'd been. How weak. How many times Yuna had had to heal her.
"Damn you, Sin!" Wakka cried out. He ground his knuckles into his eyes. The grit stung, but he didn't care.
'Just gotta get out of the sun.' He thought. 'Just get into the shade, and then...'
And then he could give up.
It had taken him the greater part of the day to find his shelter. The ruins of a machina city had been draped with old, tattered fabric. Inside, it was only just a few degrees cooler with the shade, but Wakka could have wept with relief to be out of the sun. The walls were covered with signs he couldn't read. Letters that were illegible to him. He knew what language it was though. Al Bhed.
Whatever. He was too tired to be outaged, or incensed.
The sand cushioned his body, and he was asleep within only a few minutes.
His dreams were troubled. The entire time he slept, Wakka dreamt that he was chasing something, and but he could never catch whatever it was he was pursuing. Once he thought it might have been Lulu. Once he thought it was Auron. But whatever it was, he never caught it.
Wakka came awake as smoothly as he'd fallen asleep. One minute, he simply was awake, and staring into the purple-blue sky of the early morning. It had to be about...four or five in the morning. The stars were glittering in a way that they never had over Besaid. He wished Lu were here to see them.
She'd always loved staring at the stars. He remembered how she would lay on her back, with her hands cushioning her head, and just lay for hours in contemplation of the heavens.
God, she'd been so beautiful.
'I'm never going to see Lu again...' Wakka thought to himself.
A single tear trickled down his cheek once more.
What would Lulu want him to do in this situation, he wondered.
Almost as clear as if she were standing in front of him, Wakka could imagine Lulu. No doubt, she'd have her hands on her hips, and be scowling at him like usual.
Yevon, he'd give anything for her to scowl at him right now.
And then, most likely, she'd make some scatching remark about how he was being weak, and giving up, and how Chappu would have never given up.
'I'm not Chappu.'
Chappu is dead...
I'm alive...
Wakka watched as the horizon began to blush, and lighten. Soon the sun would be coming up.
'As long as I got a hope of her loving me, then I gotta try.'
His eyes picked out the silhoette of the mountains against the sky.
'Soon as the sun's up, soon as I can see...I'm going to come look for you, Lu.' He thought.
If he didn't find Lulu, he might as well be dead anyway...