**Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for! Whee! Have fun with this...although, there's a tad more in the next chapter, too. I mean, I had to have some sort of cliffhanger. .;;; So! Here's my plot...and if you think this part sucks, then I'm not going to continue it. It alllll hinges on this...can ya tell I'm nervous?? Please tell me what ya think! Thanks!!! --Jedi Ari**
It was a couple of days later, and the whole crew (except for Arashi, who now seemed to have some sort of supply of limitless energy) was absolutely exhausted.
"I don't think it took this long last time," Yueh began, wiping sweat off of her forehead, "to get from that temple to New Besaid." She sat down against a large tree trunk and let out a breath.
Niet nodded and sat down beside Yueh. "There's one thing I do remember about this little trip last time…" Niet held up a handful of blackberries and groaned. "Our bit of food supply…berries, mushrooms, and fish," she finished, obviously disgusted.
"I like blackberrish!" Mattian said around a mouthful of the food. He swallowed and threw another handful down into his mouth. "Berry good." Niet groaned again, Yueh joining her this time. Mattian turned his head to one side. "What?"
"Dey're okay, ya?" Hunter said, tossing a berry in the air and catching it in his mouth. "I tink dis isn't healthy for us, though. We need other stuff, too, ya?"
"Exactly!" Niet said, jumping up. She threw a hand in the air. "A person can't survive on berries alone!"
"That's why we have mushrooms and fish, Niet," Arashi said, calmly walking by the group. Niet began a protest, but Arashi put up a hand.
"We're here."
"Really?" Niet asked, looking around.
Yueh blinked. "Um, Arashi…where's the tree?"
Arashi smiled slyly. "You're sitting on it."
Yueh jumped up and turned around. Sure enough, she had been leaning against the temple the whole time. Only this time…
"There are more vines on the front than before! How are we supposed to get past that?!" Niet asked.
"Easy!" Mattian shouted, pulling a huge katana from behind him. He got into a fighting stance. "We cut through!"
"Down, Auron," Gage said, rolling his eyes. "It wouldn't work." Mattian, saddened, put the katana away.
"Den how?" Hunter asked, putting a hand through his brown hair. "If we can't cut it…"
"What is the one thing that we all have?" Arashi asked quietly. "What gives us the powers above everyone else?"
Yueh's eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Mattian, who had pulled out his katana again.
"Weapons!" he shouted, charging for the door. Arashi winced before he had even gotten two feet from the door.
Mattian was flung back from an invisible force field across the way and into another tree. He began muttering something under his breath that Yueh couldn't understand as he stood up and put away his sword once more.
Arashi turned to Yueh expectantly. "Well?"
Yueh swallowed and held up her dolphin-shaped charm that hung around her neck. "The jewels."
Arashi nodded and took out the belt to hold up the crescent moon jewel she owned. Niet glanced at the star-shaped gem on her wristband, and the three guys looked confused.
"What about us?" Gage asked. Arashi stepped forward and pointed out the gems on each of their clothes. Gage had a charm shaped like Saturn that resided on the side of his own belt. Mattian's jewel sat right in the middle of his chest, a comet shaped gem that was at the crossing point of the two belts that went around his torso. Lastly, Hunter's was also on a belt, right in the middle where the buckle would normally be, in the shape of a radiant star like the sun.
Mattian looked down at the jewel that sat at his chest. "…I always thought those were just decoration."
Gage shifted nervously. "I knew that they had something to do with this…she was always looking at it when she talked to me…"
Hunter and Mattian turned to Gage. "When who talked to you?" Mattian asked.
Arashi simply smiled. "Step up to the door and you'll see soon enough." She herself strode up to the vine-encased door and held her charm up high. The door began to glow.
Yueh and Niet stepped up and held their charms right next to Arashi's. The vines glowed even brighter than before.
Gage looked at his own companions and walked forwards, Hunter and Mattian not far behind them. They detached the jewels from their belts and held them up to the door.
Yueh closed her eyes. The door was shining as bright as the sun at noonday at this point, and didn't let up until a few seconds later. When it did, the vines were no longer there.
Arashi set her belt around her shoulders and smiled.
"Come on in, everyone. The time has come."
*-*-*-*-*
"Oof!"
Genki tripped over his cloak for the fifth time that day. Gagazet was cold, all right. And so was he.
Mariana had left her hair down, and had gone without a cloak. Genki was still trying to figure out how she wasn't at all cold in the short skirt and strapless top. Although, he supposed, her long hair made for a bit of an insulator around her shoulders, at least.
Mariana stopped at a higher peak before entering the mountain's caves themselves. She sniffed the cold air and smiled, turning back to Genki.
"When we get deeper inside the mountain, we'll camp for the night, Genki," she said quietly. She hopped off of the peak and strolled forwards. "When we reach Zanarkand, we'll—"
"I know," Genki said miserably. "We'll sacrifice ourselves and let Sin respawn yet again."
"No," Mariana chided softly. Genki raised an eyebrow at his wife. "No. We'll wait for them to come. So they can see, too."
"They? They who?" Genki asked. She didn't reply. Instead, she headed into the mountain. He thought for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows. "Wait, do you mean those girls you fought before? Is that who?" Yet again, there was no response. He heaved a sigh and ran silently after his wife into the mountain's caves.
*-*-*-*-*
The Cloister of Trials had already been completed once before, so the boys in the group were spared the thought of trying to figure out what had been an immensely easy puzzle back in the beginning.
Arashi led the group straight back to the Fayth's chamber and again held up her charm. The vines on the second door receded, and her jewel began to glow—along with the other five jewels on her belt.
"See you guys in a bit," Arashi whispered as the five jewels disappeared from her belt. Her moon-shaped gem stayed on the belt.
"Um, okay, Arashi…see you in a bit?" Yueh half-asked. The summoner shook her head.
"Nuh-uh. You guys are coming with me," she replied. Whirling around, she began to walk backwards into the chamber.
"We aren't supposed to…aren't we?" Niet asked. She pulled her book out of her backpack and began to flip through its pages. Arashi shook her head, and Yueh put a hand on the book. Niet looked up at Yueh.
"I think," she began quietly, "that this is an exception." Gage nodded as well.
"Come on in," Arashi said. She turned back around and walked into the chamber.
The other five didn't look at each other. They all walked in after her, completely silent (for once). Arashi was seated in the middle, right in front of a small, round dip in the wooden floor.
"Sit down." They did. "Okay, we're ready now."
"All right," a gentle voice said. Yueh recognized it as the same voice that had first told her to use the flute. Arashi settled in and got comfortable as a figure began to appear in front of them, kneeling and floating just above the dip in the floor. As it became less and less transparent, there was a collective gasp from everybody in the room except Arashi and Gage.
"Yuna," Yueh whispered quietly.
"Yuna's the fayth!?" Niet and Mattian shouted simultaneously. Their voices rang sharply against the walls.
"No need to shout," Yuna said, laughing lightly. "I can hear you just fine." She smiled kindly at them all.
"What about the others?" Arashi asked, pushing her tinted glasses back up her nose. "They are going to, ah, show up as well, correct?"
"In a moment," Yuna said, shifting a bit. "Sir Auron said it would be best so as to not 'shock them all at once.'"
"Sir Auron?" Hunter asked. Yuna lifted a hand to her mouth, her face turning red.
"Oops."
"Its all right, Yuna," Auron said, appearing across from Mattian. Mattian simply stared up at him as Auron sat down. "I believe they're over the shock of seeing you." Auron's one eye trailed across to Arashi. "I still would…appreciate my glasses back, Lady Arashi."
Arashi giggled, shook her head, and played with the glasses sitting on her nose. "Nope. They're still mine, Auron."
"I knew I had seen them before!" Yueh exclaimed, hitting her fist in her hand.
"Yup. I, ah, borrowed them from him when I met him by the Moonflow," Arashi explained.
"Stole is more like it," Auron grumbled.
"Oh, come on, Auron, don't be such a stick in the mud!" shouted an exuberant voice across from Niet. All of the group's eyes looked over there to see Rikku, just making herself comfortable on the wooden floor. "She needs them more than you do, anyway."
Arashi smiled at her. "Exactly what I told him." Auron was silent.
Yueh looked around herself frantically as another figure appeared, this one across from Gage. There were no words from him, and as soon as the shimmering form became even a bit clearer, it was obvious no words were needed: Kimahri was now sitting across from Gage. His feline eyes looked at Gage and he nodded in what Yueh thought was some sort of approval. Gage gulped slightly and nodded back.
I don't blame him—those Ronsos scare me, too.
"Agh, 'dis is too cold, ya?!" shouted a voice without an owner. Yueh laughed and shook her head—that was none other than—
Wakka shivered as he appeared in front of Hunter. "Geez, ya think ya would'n' get cold as a ghost, ya?" Hunter laughed a bit, even in his shocked state.
"You're not a ghost, Wakka," came a cool, clear voice across from Yueh. "If you were, you wouldn't be in our company, and you most certainly wouldn't be annoying us right now." Yueh nearly snorted with laughter. That kind of sarcasm and cynicism could only come from one member of Yuna's little entourage.
Lulu tossed her braids behind her shoulder. Her crimson eyes stared at Yueh a moment before she spoke again. "Nice to meet you."
"I'm not annoying, ya?!?" Wakka shouted indignantly for a moment. Lulu looked at him for a second before simply turning her head to ignore him, which infuriated him further. "I'm talkin' to you, ya, Lu? Lissen t'me!"
"Stop your childish behavior, both of you," Auron commanded, looking down the line with his one piercing eye. "There are more important manners at hand."
"Sir Auron is right," Yuna said, nodding.
"Right. Now that we're all here—" Arashi began.
"But we're not," Yueh said, confused. "Where's Tidus?"
"Yeah, where is blondie?" Niet asked, glancing around the chamber.
Yuna's guardians and Arashi and Gage were suspiciously silent, and Yuna looked over all of them with a sweeping glance.
"Tidus…is he here?"
Lulu, Rikku, and Wakka all looked down, away from Yuna's hoping gaze. Kimahri looked rather sad, but didn't avert his eyes. Auron and Arashi looked at Yuna, and Arashi was the first to speak.
"This…is the not so good part, Yuna. I found this out from Auron, and just recently I found out something else…"
Auron spoke up as Arashi trailed off. "There are two people that currently exist as Sin, together in that form. One of them—"
"Is my boyfriend," Arashi said, her eyes slowly tearing up. "Brent—I guess you could call him Atrah—got stuck in there, somehow, and the other person—"
A short silence. Arashi looked to Auron.
"You say it. I…I can't…" She pulled out her handkerchief and wiped her eyes.
Everyone looked at Auron, who sat up straight and spoke as calmly as he could.
"Sin is both Atrah…and Tidus."