I want to go ahead and thank Kyanos, Chaka, Insane Child, and Kiki for their reviews. Okay everyone this is it: the last chapter. I won't keep you waiting, so enjoy.

Chapter 25: The Road Not Taken

It had been a week since Phoenix lit up the skies of Spira, and saved everyone from a terrible fate at the hands of Seymour Guado. The one who called the aeon spent that week hovering close to death. Ria had not moved since her friends carried her to the Ronso settlement, and the only sign that showed that she still lived was the painfully slow rise and fall of her chest. "Why won't she wake up?" Rikku asked the elderly Ronso healer, tears slowly sliding down her cheeks.

Kurgra Ronso gravely shook her head. "Her body lives, but her soul is gone. She may live for a long time or maybe not, but she won't wake again."

"There's got to be something you can do, ya?" Wakka cried as he tried to comfort Bob, who was sobbing just as he had when King Ralph died.

"No summoner has ever survived the Final Summoning. We all heard when Phoenix spoke to Ria. It demanded her life in exchange for its aid."

"But…" Bob sniffled, "But, Ria isn't a summoner! Anyone could have used that feather, so it shouldn't count! It's not fair!"

Kurgra bowed her head. "No, it is not, but I can only heal the body. I cannot bring a soul back from the Farplane."

Auron listened to all of this with a seemingly neutral expression, but the light in his eye betrayed his anger. Without a word, he turned on his heel and strode out of the building and the settlement with long, purposeful steps. When the village was out of sight, the swordsman finally gave vent to his rage. "YOU SORRY SON OF A BITCH!" he bellowed at the uncaring sky. "She shouldn't have to die for this! She's been through enough hardship as it is and now death is her reward? DAMN YOU!"

As he railed, two faintly transparent figures approached. One was a tall, kind-looking man in voluminous red robes, and the other was a dark haired, scarred man in black shorts and a metal armguard. "Auron, it can't hear you, you know," the scarred man told him. "After Phoenix completed its task, it returned to its resting place."

Auron stared at the spirits of his two best friends in disbelief. "It isn't right," he whispered brokenly, eye shut against the pain in his heart. "She doesn't deserve to die! Just as you didn't Braska, or you, Jecht. None of this is right!"

Braska placed a ghostly hand on the guardian's shoulder. "I know. It isn't right and it isn't fair, but Ria had a decision to make, and no one else could make it for her. If you could go back to the night you first met her, and you knew everything you know now, would you have stayed in the Farplane and watched her die?"

"No."

"So you still would have helped her, even though you knew that she was going to die anyway? Would you have let yourself fall in love with her?"

"No."

"Why?"

It was the universe's simplest question, but the possible answers were endless. Auron struggled with it for what seemed like an eternity, and finally he replied, "I don't want to lose anyone else…and…"

"And?" Jecht prompted, impatiently tapping his foot.

"And I don't want anyone else to die because I failed them. In the beginning, I promised Ria that I would be her guardian, but I failed when she needed me the most."

Braska laughed and said, "No, you didn't Auron. No one expected you to love her. Befriend her, yes, but not love her. It was what you told her in the Calm Lands that ultimately led Ria to her choice, do you remember?"

The swordsman's eye filled with pain as he remembered what he told her that night at the Al Bhed station. "…You will never be alone…" he said aloud.

The High Summoner nodded at him. "Those five words saved her from Seymour's attempts to control her. If you hadn't said them, then none of us would be standing here now."

"Yeah, we'd all be that freak's slaves, and I don't do slavery very well," Jecht agreed. "I hate to do this to you, my man, but we can't stay here anymore. Go back and see the little heroine; she deserves at least that much from you."

Auron stared at the apparitions as they walked away, fading with each step. "Didn't I tell you, Braska? Auron always was a sucker for the tall ones…"

Jecht's last words faded on the wind, and the guardian returned to the settlement. He ignored Rikku, Wakka, and Bob, and sat down on a chair in the corner. "I'll wait," he told them, his gaze glued to the bed, "I promised her that she would never be alone, and I'm a man of my word."

Kurgra watched all of this with sad amusement, and turned to the others, flapping her hands in a shooing manner. "Only one may stay, and he chose himself. The rest of you must wait outside."

…Flash…

Ria stood alone in the middle of a vast forest. The only path she could see was the one that lay before her, so she followed it, calling out to her friends as she went. "Where is everybody?" she wondered aloud.

Suddenly, she came to a fork in the path, and a glowing white figure stood in the middle of it. "Welcome, Ria," the being greeted her in a heartbreakingly beautiful voice.

The sorceress stared at it, open-mouthed, for one long moment, and then asked, "Who are you, and where am I?"

"I am the Gatekeeper, and as for where you are, you are in the boundary between life and death."

"You mean…I'm dead?"

"No, but you are very close…You willingly sacrificed yourself to Phoenix to save everyone, and now you are to be rewarded for such a selfless act of courage."

"Death is a reward?" Ria asked, raising an eyebrow.

The Gatekeeper laughed at that. "For some, Death is the greatest gift they can receive, but no, that is not your reward. Your reward is a choice."

"What kind of choice? What am I choosing? Do I get to go back to Earth?"

"When Phoenix restored the broken boundaries between Earth and Spira, it also repaired all the holes that previously existed, so you cannot go back to your world. The path on your left leads to the Afterlife, and if you choose that path, you will be with your family again."

Ria craned her neck and peered down that path. It looked like many people had traveled down that road many times, and it was worn, but well cared-for. She looked at the path on her right, and it was lovely, too, but it seemed like it would be a harder trail to follow. "Where does that path lead?" she wanted to know.

"That one is your second choice," it told her. "If you take that path, then you will return to Spira, but I must warn you: the journey ahead will be hard, and your closeness to Death will forever change you. Once you have made your decision, there will be no turning back, do you understand?"

Ria nodded and closed her eyes, listening to the silence in the depths of her soul. She waited for several tense moments, finally took one step forward, and said, "I choose…"

…Flash…

It had been another day, and still there was no change in Ria's condition. Auron continued to watch, feeling in his heart that something was going to happen, but what it was, he could not say. Suddenly, the sorceress' body started to glow. The light grew brighter and brighter until it was as if a small, blue-white sun had come to rest in that room. A great wind followed the light, and finally both pulsed once, then died, leaving the room in darkness once again.

"Ria?" Auron hurried over to the bed, the only thing in the room undisturbed by the strange occurrence.

The young woman's eyes opened. Once, they were leaf-green, but the ones that gazed at him now were shining silver. She blinked at him and whispered, "I choose life."

Wakka rushed into the room, shouting, "What happened…" His voice trailed off when he saw Ria sit upright in the bed.

Rikku and Bob came in right behind him, shoving him out of the way, and stopped dead in their tracks. "RIA!" the Tonberry King happily shrieked, flinging himself at the sorceress.

"Bob, you're crushing my ribcage," she croaked as the little fiend sobbed incoherently into her shirt.

"How is this possible?" Rikku asked, her eyes shining with wonder. "It's a miracle!"

"Praise be to…" Wakka started to say, until a dirty look from the Al Bhed stopped him.

"If I hear you say 'Praise be to Yevon', I swear I'll take a leaf out of Ria's book and kick you in the nuts!" the thief threatened.

The big man flinched, and said, "I don't know who to thank, but thank you, ya?"

Auron stared at Ria in complete shock. "You came back…why?"

She grinned at him. "You aren't getting out of your duties that easily, my dear guardian."

…

Another surprise happened on Mount Gagazet that day, when a couple of weary and extremely bedraggled chocobos showed up in the village and started squawking as loudly as their tired voices would go. "What in Spira are those?" Wakka asked when everyone went outside to see what the fuss was about.

Whatever had brought Ria back to life was also helping to speed up her recovery, but she still leaned on Auron for support when she finally showed up at the doorway. The lighter colored chocobo ran over to where the sorceress and the swordsman were and joyfully chirped, "WAAARRKK!"

"No way!" Bob gasped when the darker chocobo started nuzzling him.

"What is it? Bob, do you know where these chocobos came from?" Rikku asked.

"It's Snow and Shadow! I thought that we had lost them when the sea monster blew up the ship we were on!"

Everyone helped clean the dirty birds' feathers, and sure enough, one was inky black and the other was diamond white. "How did they make it all the way up here?" Ria wondered as the chocobos dug into the food they were offered.

"These two seem to be different from your average chocobos," Auron observed.

Snow suddenly stopped eating and looked up at them. Cocking her head to one side, she trilled, "Wark?"

Bob gave Ria and Auron a wicked look, turned to the curious birds, and proudly announced, "Yes, those two are mated now."

"WHAT?" they both shrieked, as the little fiend quickly backed out of reach.

"Hey, they've known about how you feel about each other, too," he quickly explained. "Chocobos are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for."

Shadow let out a self-congratulatory chirp, reached over and preened Snow's neck feathers, and the two birds went back to their dinner.

…

It was late in the evening, and everyone, except Ria and Auron, had gone to bed. "You said that the boundary was restored, and that you can't go back to Earth, right?" the guardian asked as they sat outside in the moonlight.

"Yes," she replied, not looking at him.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"I honestly don't know. Rikku invited me to go with her on some kind of expeditions, but I have a feeling that I'm not supposed to be involved in that. What about you?"

He shrugged. "Spira doesn't really need someone like me anymore. Not as a guardian, anyway, so I've decided to go on a new journey."

"And just how long, exactly, is this 'journey' going to take?" she demanded, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I don't know, but I'd rather have someone that I could trust come with me." He grinned at her, and asked, "Do you think that Wakka would be willing to go?"

Ria gaped at him in astonishment. "Auron, was that a JOKE?"

"You already know that I have absolutely no sense of humor," he replied, still grinning. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Would you like to go on this journey with me, and keep a senile old man company?"

She looked him directly in the eye and said, "No."

"What do you mean, 'no'?"

"I'm not going anywhere with a senile old man…"

He gave her a stricken look, and she grinned at him. "I'm going with the one I love."

…

Rikku read the letter Ria had written in careful Al Bhed. It read:

Rikku,

I'm writing this to you because I'm not entirely sure that Bob can read, and Pac-Man would just make it five times as long by adding 'ya?' at the end of every sentence. Anyway, I greatly appreciate the offer you made me back in the cave on the mountain, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline it. Auron and I are going on another journey, and I'm not sure when we'll be back. That's okay, though, because I have the feeling that your own journey is just beginning, and that you're going to do something great for Spira. I hope you find your cousin, Yuna, and I hope that she is well. Tell Bob that I think that he's going to be the best Tonberry King and to give Marlene my best regards. Tell Pac-Man that he needs to watch his mouth, and that I hope he has a good life with Lulu…

"How did she know about that?" Wakka hissed as Rikku read the letter aloud

"Shut up! I'm getting to that part!" the thief snapped, before continuing to read.

No, I haven't learned to read minds, but you might want to tell Pac-Man that he talks in his sleep. I'm starting to write a novel here, so I'd better stop soon. Give my thanks to Lulu and the others, and thanks for everything in general. You're all true friends.

Best wishes,

Ria

P.S. I had to translate this using the Book of Al Bhed that Bakkuri gave to me, so I hope this came out okay.

"It came out just fine, Ria," Rikku said to softly to herself, as a huge red airship roared into view.

The strange vehicle stopped, and a man and woman got out. The man was Rikku's brother, Brother, but the woman was someone the thief had never seen before. She was tall, with gray hair that looked wild on someone so young, and blood red eyes. She was dressed in red and black leather and carried a black broadsword with a skull motif.

"Rikku, this is Paine," Brother introduced in his heavily accented English. "Paine, this is my sister, Rikku."

The two girls exchanged greetings, and the thief turned to her sibling and said, "What's this all about?"

"The Celsius is finished, so I have started up the Gullwings!" he told her, quite proud of himself.

"The who?"

"My sphere-hunting group! We are going to go all over Spira and look for spheres, but since I am a good brother, I thought that I would ask you to join us first."

"Uh, before you do all that," Wakka said, interrupting the conversation, "Do you think that you could give me a lift back to Besaid?"

Paine shrugged, and Brother scratched his head thoughtfully, saying, "Besaid is where Yuna lives, no?"

Rikku nodded and replied, "Yeah, maybe she's gone back there now. She wasn't in Zanarkand, so Besaid's as likely a place as any to look for her."

"Well you can count me out!" Bob told the group. "I went through torture on that last ride in an airship, so I think I'll just walk back home, if it's all the same to you. Besides, it isn't that far, and the Ronso Elder was nice enough to give me an escort for my trip."

The Tonberry King hugged the thief, and started to leave, along with a couple of burly Ronso youths, but she stopped him. "Wait, who's the new leader?" she called.

He turned around and pointed at Kimahri. "Kimahri, YOU"RE the leader now? Why didn't you tell us before?" Rikku's tone was accusing.

The Ronso shrugged his shaggy shoulders and replied, "It was not important at the time. Leader or not, Kimahri is still Kimahri."

He walked up to her, pressed an old sphere into her hand, and said, "This sphere was found in the floating ruins at the summit of the mountain. If you see Yuna, then give it to her. Tell her it's about the boy."

…

A couple of weeks later, Brother and Paine were on Besaid Island, watching Wakka and Lulu's wedding party with varying degrees of amusement. Meanwhile, Rikku was talking to a girl whose eyes were two different colors. "Yunie, where did you go?" the thief asked her cousin. "We were all so worried that you had tried to go to Zanarkand!"

Yuna smiled, "I'm touched, really. I just needed some time to think…about certain things. I'm okay now, though."

Suddenly Rikku remembered the sphere Kimahri had given her, and she dug into her belt pouch and pulled it out. "Here," she said, handing it to the new High Summoner, "Kimahri said that they found it in some old ruins on Gagazet, and that it might be important to you."

Yuna turned on the sphere and nearly dropped it in surprise. "I don't believe it! It looks just like him!"

"The image isn't very good, but it DOES look like him, doesn't it?" the thief grinned. "You know, the Gullwings have an opening for a new member, and I think you would fill that position quite nicely."

Yuna nodded in agreement, and she ran away from Besaid that night to join her cousins in their sphere-hunting adventures.

…

Far away, on a mountaintop east of Zanarkand, a pair of chocobos waited impatiently for their riders to finish what they were doing. Ria placed one last stone on the top of the small pyramid she had built, and stood up. "There, it's finished," she said, dusting herself off.

Auron stared at the little sculpture and said, "It's nice, but you never did tell me what it's for."

She mounted Snow and replied, "It's just my way of honoring the memories of everyone on Earth AND Spira who've suffered because of everything that Seymour did."

The swordsman climbed onto Shadow's back, and watched the eastern sky turn a pale rose. "Ria, do you…have any regrets?"

"I regret a lot of things, Auron, but none of them have anything to do with being with you. I'll miss everyone, and nothing will change that, but this is OUR journey, and we'll face it together."

With that, the two of them spurred on their chocobos and rode off into the dawning of a new day. Their knew that their journey would be full of hardship, as well as joy, and that they would most likely have more than their fair share of fights, but most importantly, they knew that they were not alone any more.

I hope everyone really enjoyed Broken Boundaries, and I hope everyone liked how I linked FFX to X-2. I want to thank Square Enix for making such kick-ass games, the Powers Above for inspiring me, the real Marlene for all of her great advice, and most of all: thank YOU, the fans. Seriously, this story would have gone nowhere if you hadn't been there to appreciate it. I thank you all from the bottom of my little black heart.