CHAPTER SEVEN: Baralai confronts Tidus

Stepping into the foyer of Yuna's dream world, Baralai scanned the horizon, noting the purplish hue of the sky and the stars that shined and sparkled like gems of different colors. It was magnificent, but the last time he was here he was possessed. He couldn't take notice of the way the air made him taken in the smell of lavender and the poppies that clung to his clothes. He took the next few steps until he saw him--the man he was seeking. With a bit of nervousness, Baralai raked a hand through his silver hair. Perhaps Yuna wouldn't think so ill of him if she knew how hard he was fighting to atone for their lack of love. Lack of love? He checked himself. Every time she was in his arms, she clung to him like a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. But if she was clinging to him in her impassioned need, he had to make sure that it was he and he alone that was the focus of her heart.

"I thought I'd see you sooner." Came the reply from the other end. Tidus gave a smug look and grated out, "You've come to save her, did you?"

Baralai had always prided himself on his honor on the battlefield within the depths of Bevelle's secret chambers and via walkways. If he had to fight with Tidus, then so be it.

His opponent stared at him,

"What makes you think that you can give Yuna what she wants? She doesn't even know what she wants, you fuck."

"So this is the great Tidus. I didn't realize you were so eloquent in your words. If I had known that Yuna fancied her men with articulate manners I would have made an effort to reduce myself to that level. Let me guess, you're going to keep coming on to her sub consciousness hoping to come alive from her energy of wanting you?"

Tidus gave a smirk; his eyes glittered in the far plane, as the hanging stars behind him glared deliberately at the intruder.

"Yeah keep talking, Praetor. You're going to find out that Yuna will always choose me. The funny part is, you're the one who's going to get hurt."

"Did it ever occur to you, Tidus that you're hurting Yuna by giving her this?"

Baralai spread his hands out as he said those words, giving Tidus a glimpse of the farplane's existence and its purpose. "This is for the dead, Tidus. Is that what you want? To bring Yuna here before her time?"

"And you? Praetor of Bevelle, what about your self righteous sanctimonious self?" Tidus walked slowly towards the other, slowly evaluating his opponent. He could destroy him here now and Yuna would not know better. She would grieve but he would make sure that she had him. Isn't that what all fair in love and war is all about? But what stops him is the fact that there is this little nigging feeling in the back of his mind that he might lose. How could he possibly lose? If he lost, then he would come back again. He was after all, a dream.

His eyes narrowed as he gazed down the shadowy passage that had swallowed him up earlier. It seemed that he wasn't sure who was going to be his ally in this fight or if he was going to do it alone.

"What about me? Is it so wrong that I'm fighting for her life to be with me? We have produced children for Spiras sake, Tidus. Do you intend to have Yuna—"

He was cut off by the quick jagged look Tidus gave him. "Shut up! I don't want to hear about your little family that you've managed to steal from me! Yuna's mine and she'll be mine forever!"

Baralai watched him. Noted that Tidus's eyes strayed at the narrow passageway that looked like a violent whirlpool, somewhere he vaguely remembered. It seemed like an eternity when he had been possessed and walked around the farplane as if he owned it. Vaguely remembering that he could not fight Tidus within the whirlpool and it occurred to him if there was going to be a battle it would not be here, in the quiet sanctuary which vehicles the farplane and the world to his own.

The air hung like a million wet daggers and Tidus made his move. Baralai stepped out of the way in time. The two men glared at each other before the next quick move came.

As the sun stars of the far plane began to set behind the west tower of the waterfalls, there were shadows that seem to present an arena of spectators that took notice of the two figures below, battling in combat, one quick and efficient, while the other, steadfast and acrobatic. The rest of the stars hung and drifted away like a moving picture and the deepening of the chill in the air, the rest of the empty crowd had drifted away as well, and you can grow excited with the spectacle of Baralai's staff making quick strokes and his opponent growing stronger with every stroke of his sword. Soon the two of them seem to be alone in the courtyard of the growing poppies beneath their feet and their pointed silence between pauses broken only by the distant strains of music and noise wafting in from the whirlpool that could any moment suck them in.

THE SPHERE:

"Unbelievable!" screamed Yuna from the doorway. The two guilty girls jumped and Rikku giggled.

"Yunie!"

"Don't you two know the meaning of privacy??! Caught red handed I see. So, I can't trust either of you can I?" Her face was set and she was a bit angry but after considering her two friends horrified expression of being caught and having to mouth wordlessly before her, it gave her a bit of a chuckle.

"I leave for a little while and think that I could trust you two behind my back and what do I get? I should be more suspicious of you guys more often, is that it? Shall I take with me the sphere when I leave the room?"

Paine grimaced, "Yuna, I'm sorry. It's all her fault" She pointed at her other guilty party.. Rikku gasped.

"Since there really isn't anything much in that sphere but our intimate moments together, I suppose it's alright. It's my fault for leaving the temptation here in the first place."

Paine apologized profusely again, for it wasn't really in her nature to go into her friend's private lives, especially one whom she respected above all others. "I can explain, Yuna. It was shameless of me to go into your privacy when you specifically said no more...I should be whipped."

Rikku stood there, giggling, she had that nervous giggle that she always kept when things were not looking her way, like the time when we got lost in the Bikanel desert and nearly suffocated in great thirst.

"It's alright you two. I should not have left it here."

Paine moved forward, wanting to put an end to her shameless act of intrusion, "Yuna, forgive me. I never meant to barge into your privacy, it was, it was....it was her fault." She pointed a finger at Rikku.

"Did you know— ..." Yuna interrupted the near remark Rikku was going to voice out to Paine. The two girls looked at her steadily.

"Did you know that Baralai asked me to marry him in the Bikanel desert? A long time ago?"

"Really? So why the rendezvous?" Paine inquired suspiciously.

"Because, it was my fault really. I didn't want any of my friends to know about him and me. I wanted to keep it a secret and eventually we got married anyway, besides I was pregnant you know."

"So let me get this straight." Paine mused interestedly, "You've been in love with Baralai for as long as we've been hanging out and you're now just showing us your feelings and his, and all this time, we thought you'd gone into a loveless marriage? My god, Yuna, and what about Tidus?"

Rikku was about to make an exclamation but Yuna cut her off, her tone more gentler yet concern creased her brow.. "I'm worried."

"What's wrong, Yunie?"

"I feel something wrong....and it has to do with Baralai and Tidus."

"Uh oh." Paine gave her a knowing look. "What kind of feeling?"

As Yuna straightened, her gaze met theirs and looked over their heads, staring at the sphere on the bed abandoned but the vision of Baralai and herself still in an amorous embrace shocked her. "I think something is wrong. They're in danger!"

She put her hands in her face and she started to cry.

Paine and Rikku stared at her, then Rikku jumped on the bed and held her friend. "Ohh, Yunie, don't worry. They're okay right? Baralai is on that exhibition or something and Tidus is on the far plane right? or wherever unsents are."

"No no...it's all my fault. I have this gut feeling. I don't know. I need to go to the farplane now!"

"This is ridiculous." Paine had her arms folded, "You're going to farplane so you can go meet Tidus? What about poor Baralai?"

She met the sharp look of her friends gaze and through her tear filled eyes, she gasped, "Somethings wrong. It's both of them! I don't know....it has to do with Tidus."

FARPLANE:

In the misty clouds of the farplane, Tidus's energy which he took from this place was getting stronger and Baralai, his sweat coming down his face, his lips pursed, the strength of him seem to drown in this place. He would die her and all this effort to save Yuna from her disease would be all for naught. He tried to save her from dying only to find out that by that, he would find his own grave here in the far plane.....he could never share Yuna as an unsent. It would all be for nothing. He took one last swallow before making another attempt to thwart off the attack Tidus gave him. The last blow nearly sent him flying on the soft ground, to lay among the lavender scents and the poppies that threaten to hold him down. His staff broke after several attempts to deliver a blow to Tidus only to have it be torn in two.

A familiar voice seem to echo out in the background. But he was on the ground surrounded by red blood poppies and the scent of lavender began to blend into the sandalwood smell of her. The only woman whom he had ever loved. His woman's lover stood there above him, his deliverer, smiling evilly, as if he enjoyed this and why not? Would he not have enjoyed taking him down, sending him back further into the farplane where he would not be able come back for his wife?

"Say goodnight, Praetor." Tidus whispered, and he raised his blue flaming sword above Baralai like an avenging god. He never felt the blow, he didn't know why, but he remembered how the sound of her voice wafted in and out of his bruised and battered condition.

He lay there, panting, staring at the hung stars that seem to fall onto his head, and his head, oh his head began to swirl and they were full of Yuna's visage. Her lovely face in tears as she held him, crying, telling him to wake up, to come back to her. She said she had made her choice. She would remain with him forever and forever and never look at another man as long as she breathed.

But it was too late.

She was saved but she couldn't be with the man she decided to be with in the end..

Paine and Rikku stood right outside the far plane's entrance and watched with an empty heart.

"I can't believe it!" Rikku screamed. "It's like some kind of sad ending! I can't bear to look." Her sobs drowned out anything else that Paine might have said in the bleak sunlight of that day. Paine stared horrified of what happened.

"Couldn't he just take a phoenix down?"

Through Yuna's tear blazed eyes, she looked at her friend. "Yes, you're right!" Then she looked up at Tidus. "Tidus. I need a phoenix down."

"Yuna. You can't mean this. I belong to you. He came here to save you didn't you know that? By that, he saved you by me taking his life and that forfeited yours"

Tidus knelt beside her and took her tear stained face in his hands. "My darling. He gave you back your life to me. You can remain in the mortal world and here in the farplane. No more dreams between you and me. They are real now."

"What?" She stared at him not comprehending. She thought that if once Tidus came to her those several years before, he wouldn't have any trouble again. But he looked at her as if knowing her thoughts. "Yuna, I can't come back to you the way I did then, I can only come to you in your dreams. You were dying because of me. Coming to you in your dreams and loving you, it cannot be without consequences. Baralai finally figured it out and came here to find me so he can challenge me, only to give his own life so you may live with me, forever."

"No! NO! NO!" she shook her head and she railed at his words, "I don't want it! I want him! I don't want you!"

"Yuna, you're upset but I know you'll always love me."

"Not like this! Not like this!" she screamed and she held on to Baralai's limp body as if it were her life.

Paine and Rikku approached. "Yunie! You can't remain here too long. We have to get back. We can take Baralai's body back and find a phoenix down but it has to be soon!"

Tidus's face contorted in anger. "You idiots! You can't do that!" He looked about to murder them and both the girls stopped.

"Whoa, Tidus baby, you've changed! What's gone over you? Being dead too long got you all grumpy?" Rikku made light of the situation but inside she was shaking. She hadn't seen Tidus this angry as when his look a like from a thousand years past had confronted them. Was this what made him so crazy?

"Oh my god!" Rikku screamed. "Don't you get it, Yuna? Paine?" she looked around at the girls, Yuna on the ground holding fast Baralai's limp upper body. Paine beside her gave her a strange look.

"What? You better hurry and tell us or Mister nice guy here is going to send us where all the unsent go."

"It's simple! The longer an unsent has been an unsent, he turns into this avenging mad being."

"Nope. Sorry, Rikku. Tidus was already sent. Wasn't he?"

"NO he wasn't. Not by Yuna. Everyone thought he was already sent because Yuna did all those moves and dances that sent every unsent over to the far plane. But seriously, Why and how come Tidus was able to be sent back to the world among us? Because he's never been sent!"

"I dont understand."

Tidus made a clicking noise with his tongue. "You've always been such a little clever girl, Rikku, despite your not so smart looks."

"And you've become an overbearing monster." She pouted back at him. "What's got over you anyway? You've become one of those monsters who fight us daily."

Paine stopped her, "Rikku, can Yuna send him?"

Yuna looked at them. "No. I can't."

Tidus threw his head back and laughed heartily. "Oh you girls are rich! And a clever bunch you all are but too late, sweethearts. Yuna is mine and forever...oh and you can wish Baralai's little soul good bye too while you're at it."

"Not if I can help it, Tidus." Yuna faced him, she was standing there like an avenging angel, her long brown hair flowing in the still air of the far plane, the violet flowers swirling around her and Rikku whispered to Paine, "How'd that happen? Everytime Yuna gets all angry, all these flowers come out of no where. Wish I could do that."

"I no longer want you, Tidus. You've become the man I would never love. You're not the Tidus I knew and fell in love with. You have become a monster and for that....we have to fight!"

Yuna looked at her two friends. "You ready?"

Rikku smiled, and her face registered a familiar expression, "You got it! R!"

"Y"

"P" Paine cried out, and they all three held the swords and knives out like the cover of a magazine, modeling their familiar stance in front of the great unsent and the lost love of Yuna.

"What the fuck!?" Tidus gaped at them.

Yuna changed into her gun suit and started to do a flip flop, extending out her two hands which housed two double barreled shot guns. "Yeah, baby, I've got the goods this time. No more pistols for little ole'me!"

Rikku swirled her knives, which looked like swords and began to slice the air between them, "Get ready you big bad meanie!"

Paine nodded.

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AUTHORS NOTE: Yes, Tidus has gone a bit over the end hasn't he? I'm sorry for the Tidus's fans but it was part of the plot....but don't worry!!!