**Sorry for the long, looooong wait, guys...::bows deeply:: I don't know what happened. The story's almost done, so...from here on out, its downhill. Thanks for sticking with me! ^_^ --Jedi Ari**

Tidus sighed, staring out through the blackness and the small, multi-colored sparkles that swirled around he and his new friend. He couldn't see too much save for a small window to the outside world, and hadn't talked to anyone else except for his friend and the new summoner for quite some time.

Sighing again, he sat down next to Atrah and began tracing a finger on the ground. "How long has it been since Arashi came to visit?"

"A week, maybe," Atrah guessed, lying down to stare at the ceiling. "I wish she'd come back again…"

"Hey, I haven't gotten to see Yuna for even longer," Tidus pointed out. After a moments silence, he sighed and flopped down on his back. "If she can ever see me."

"Arashi told us what's going on, remember? She'll fix it," Atrah said. A small smile came to his face. "She always does, somehow. I can't see how she stays happy after all of this."

"Yuna's the same way," Tidus agreed. "It must come with the job of being a summoner."

Atrah shook his head. "How someone can stay happy knowing they're going to die is beyond me. If I were in their position—well, I wouldn't be. I couldn't kill myself."

"Same here. We've been through this conversation a million times already, you know."

This time, it was Atrah's turn to sigh. "What else is there to talk about?"

Another silence. Tidus stood up and pulled out a blue and white ball from behind his back. "…Blitzball?"

*-*-*-*-*

Yunalesca was down at Mariana's feet, gasping for air. She looked up at the brunette summoner and let out another gasp. Electricity sparked between the summoner's fingertips.

"You cannot…this has happened once, but fate and Yevon saw it fit for me to survive—you cannot—"

"I can do what I damn well please, Yunalesca," Mariana said, slapping the woman across the face. She fell completely to the floor, her face hitting the tiling with a nasty thud. "You have brought this lie and this false hope just as Yevon has. Even I was taken in by it, by knowing that I could take the power that is Sin and make it my own."

"It wasn't a lie…it's the truth, the only hope of Spira." Yunalesca coughed, blood and pyreflies coming up with it. "If you kill me, the hope of Spira—"

"Save it," Mariana said. She looked over her shoulder and jerked her head forwards, gesturing Genki forward. "He's one of the two people who helped me see this…two—no, three people." Genki's new boots clicked against the tile as he stepped up to his wife and Yunalesca. "This is my husband, Genki. He is one of the three."

Yunalesca's eyes widened. "So, you too have a lover! Certainly, then, you know how it feels to sacrifice one's love for the good of the people. Why can't you—"

"Shut up." She took Genki's hand and, both glaring at Yunalesca, began to sing the hymn of the Fayth.

"No…no, you cannot, you cannot…" Her outstretched hand began to change into pyreflies right in front of her. "Please, no…" They continued the hymn, only louder. Yunalesca began sobbing hysterically. "No…no!" Her final cry echoed as she disappeared, once and for all.

Mariana let go of Genki's hand, smiling. "We've finished her off. She's gone."

"So you weren't going to sacrifice yourself after all," Genki said quietly, looking at his wife with loving brown eyes. "You never were."

"Yes, I was, before," Mariana admitted, turning away from him. "Before all of you came into my life…Yueh set everything into motion."

Genki paused before walking up next to Mariana. "So, this was all fate caused by that girl back at Bevelle?"

"Fate does what fate wills," Mariana agreed. "And she willed it that some odd event like this would bring these two worlds together, and that it would be caused by two people…a girl and her male counterpart."

"Male counterpart?"

"Each girl has their counterpart. Yueh has Hunter, Niet has Mattian, and Arashi has the boy within Sin, Atrah." She began to pace slowly. "The only one without his opposite is the tall boy, Gage."

"How do you know all this? Did you meet them when I was asleep?" Genki asked quickly.

"I've never met them," Mariana said, "but have heard of them, in dreams…" Arashi has told me about them, once or twice, in that one dream…just a day ago…

"In dreams?" No response. "So, on towards Sin?"

"No, we wait here, atop of the Zanarkand ruins, for them to call it," she said, seating herself calmly. "They know how to bring it here…so we wait."

Genki bit his lip. "We wait?"

A small, firm nod. "We wait."

He stood there for a moment, thinking. He was utterly confused amidst being very happy that his and his wife's lives were not going to end prematurely. However, this just led to more confusion: how did Mariana talk to the other summoner otherwise? Was the "in dreams" a clue? Or was Mariana just being…herself?

Genki sighed and resigned himself to sitting next to Mariana.

"We wait."

*-*-*-*-*

"Arashi! We're here!" Yueh shook the summoner by the shoulders. She had, of course, fallen asleep, and had been asleep for about 12 hours—almost twice as long as the rest of the group had slept. "Arashi! Cid says we've gotta go, now!"

"I swear she does this on purpose," Niet remarked, pulling Arashi out of the bed by an arm. Yueh grabbed her other arm and the two hauled her off of the bed and stood her up on the floor.

"Let her stand up on her own, now," Yueh said, slowly letting go of Arashi's arm. Niet did the same, only to have the summoner begin to slump to the floor. The girls quickly grabbed her again and pulled her up. Sighing, Yueh said, "Time for the thing that always works…" She motioned for Niet to let go and cast a lightning spell just as she herself let go of Arashi.

Arashi's gray eyes opened wide as the lightning went through her. She jumped up and yelled, "OUCH!" Her hair then proceeded to stand completely on end, creating a sphere with a diameter of about two feet around her head. It was of course at this time that the guys had decided to walk back in to check on Yueh and Niet's progress.

There was a small, small silence before the room broke out in loud laughter (except for Arashi, who didn't find it funny at all). She was rubbing her rear end with a mean look on her face.

"That…hurts." Arashi used a bit of white magic to ease the pain before adjusting her glasses. "Anyway…you were saying?"

"Cid says we have to leave, ASAP," Yueh said again. Arashi nodded.

"Where are we exactly?"

"At the exit of Mount Gagazet," Gage said, trying to lead the group out of the room. "It'll take less than a day to get to the inside of Zanarkand."

"Right." Arashi went ahead of Gage and began to lead the group to the upper deck of the ship. "We'll fight Sin and do my…plan there."

"But…Sin's wherever he wants to be. How're we going to bring it here?" Niet asked.

"Simple. Sing a song," Arashi said.

"But Sin isn't Jecht anymore," Mattian pointed out. He stood taller, still in his effort to be like Auron. "What song will you use to call him?"

Arashi grinned, which made Yueh all the more worried. "You'll see." Before anyone could ask any more questions, Arashi had already gone off on another tangent. "Anyway, when I talked to Cid earlier, he said he could go in low enough to at least avoid another parachute jump landing."

Niet gave a sigh of relief, to which Mattian responded with a snort. The girl gave him a glare before asking Arashi, "So how are we going to get off this thing, then?"

"Simple. We slide down."

Hunter's eyes widened, a smile spreading on his face. "Ya mean, like when Tidus and everyone slid down to crash Yuna's weddin', ya?"

Arashi smiled again. "Exactly. Only, a bit more safely." She took a right turn as she continued talking. "We'll use pieces of chain and cloth to slide down the metal rope without burning through the soles of our shoes." She looked at Yueh. "Or sandals. Not to mention, I'm a complete klutz who can barely keep her balance on solid ground, much less a taut metal wire." At this, Yueh simply blinked. Arashi's ever-changing mood…

"Took you long enough," Cid said gruffly, popping out from around one of the corners. "C'mon, the wires are ready. The chains are on deck already."

"Right." Arashi gestured for the rest of the group to follow, although they didn't need it. Quite soon, they were on the outer deck, where each of them grabbed a piece of chain with cloth at both ends. Yueh looked down over the side of the airship and gulped. This time, there weren't any trees to save them if they fell off course—or off the wire itself, rather.

"Are you sure this is a smart idea?" Yueh asked, tapping Arashi on the shoulder. "I mean…"

"Aren't we gonna get hit by sparks?" Gage asked, glancing from the wire to the chain in his hands. "The metal against metal friction is going to create mass electricity?"

Arashi simply waved her hand at Gage without looking. "I'll cast NulShock on all of us before we descend. It'll be fine."

Yueh swallowed hard again. Somehow, she didn't think so. One of those feelings, I guess.

"All right!" Cid shouted. "I'll go back in. Once the wires shoot into the mountain, you've got about a minute to get all the way down the line and to the base of Mount Gagazet." He gave the group a short nod. "Good luck."

As Cid left, Niet began to pace nervously, her eyes on the metallic outside of the airship beneath her feet. Arashi gave her a friendly pat on the back to try and make her feel better before casting a group version of NulShock on everyone.

"Here we go! Hang on, everybody!" Cid's voice came over the speakers. "We're firing the rockets in three…two…one…"

The airship lurched horribly, knocking Niet off of her feet and sending her sliding dangerously close to the edge of the ship. Arashi leaped out and pulled Niet back up, Gage and Hunter making sure that she herself didn't lose her footing.

"I told ya to hold on, now didn't I? Hurry up and get outta here! And good luck!" came Cid's voice once more. Arashi nodded and gestured to Mattian with her free hand.

"You go first. Then Niet, then Gage, Hunter, Yueh, and I," Arashi explained. Before anyone could ask further questions, Arashi shouted, "Go! Go! GO!!!"

Mattian adjusted himself on the edge of the airship, tossed the chain over the wire, grasped the other end firmly and threw himself over the side.

"Yeeeeehah!"

Niet, shivering (and not from the cold air), sat down just like Mattian had and carefully put the chain around the wire. Swallowing and shifting slightly, she closed her eyes and slid off the edge, whimpering loudly.

Gage and Hunter did much the same as Mattian, sliding down the line without incident. Yueh's turn came, and she breathed in deeply before sitting down on the edge. She wrapped the chain around the metal wire and took another deep breath.

Immediately before she hopped off of the edge, Arashi kneeled down and whispered in her ear:

"It's almost over, Yueh. Just a few more hours, and everything will be set right again."

Yueh blinked and nodded, confused. Set right…how can we ever set this right again? With that in her mind, she skidded off of the airship and began sliding down the wire through the air.

Yueh quite quickly forgot Arashi's words and held on tight to the cloth on the chain, whooping wildly and smiling. The wind was whipping through her hair at high speeds, and it felt wonderful, absolutely indescribable. To be honest, it felt almost like flying…

There was a quick tug on the wire, which Yueh could only guess was Arashi hopping on the wire herself. At least everyone got on the thing okay…now for the getting off part.

Suddenly, there was a loud scream from the front of the line. Yueh watched in horror as Niet's grip slipped on her chain and she fell from the sky with increasing speed.

I didn't mean getting off like that! "Arashi—Niet's falling!"

"HELP!!"