She was trying her best to keep up with him as he dragged her through the corridors. Panic and anticipation pumped adrenaline into her blood to give her the strength to continue on. He glanced back her, his blue eyes swallowing her brown, then he looked away once more to plot out their course. It seemed as though they'd been running their entire lives. Running to each other, running from life, Yevon, authority...

Her toe caught the edge of something uneven forcing her to her knees with a gasp. She tried to compose herself as he pulled her back up to her feet. Tried to push away the stress that was straining her muscles with every hurried step she was forced to take. But even with her fear guiding her, she was tiring. She just wanted to stop, to make the world stand still for just a moment to catch her breath and figure how they'd gotten here.

Without thought at all, her mind engulfed her.

Their eyes had met, and she wasn't sure how long it was they had stared at each other. No words passed between them for the longest time until they found themselves standing only mere inches apart. Somehow, she had known him. Known everything about him. And in that instant when the only word he spoke was "hello"; she could have sworn he was hers.

A smile crept to her lips that not even her fear could shake. Her feet soon found step with his in their desperate will to escape the mazes of Bevelle's underground. She'd pulled him away from the monotonous "schedule" of his life. A rut he had placed himself in to block out the world, so he wouldn't have to think. She'd claimed his lips and every inch of his body, marking it to ward others away. She'd even taken his soul into herself to create a beat unheard by any other except that old Summoner. He did belong to her.

A darkness consumed them and she felt him turn to look at her as their feet came to a halt. His hand touched her face and she turned into his warm palm.

"Lennie..." He trailed off as he leaned closer to her until his lips gently brushed hers.

She returned the pressure with her own, raising her arms to wrap about his neck. Her fingers slid up into hair and along his back. Her mind pulled her two their last embrace within his apartment. His desperate plea for her not to leave rang in her ears and she pressed herself more firmly against him to block it all out.

His arms circled around her waist, pulling her as close to himself as he possible could. He kissed her softly, slowly drawing lines across her lips and through out her mouth. Breaking away only to pull at her lower lip until salt met his tongue. He opened his eyes to find tears slowly coursing down her cheeks. Her brown eyes hidden from him, he caressed her cheek with his thumb until she opened her chocolate orbs to look at him.

Distress lingered within those reflective pools. Pain, fear, desperation. Betrayal? No, but she was hiding something.

"Shuyin." She whispered when she pulled slightly away.

A light was switch on above them and Shuyin pulled slightly away from her to take in their surroundings. They'd run through a course of circles and had ended up right back where they had started. Vegnagun stared down at them, empty.

They'd finally caught up and they took to their positions. Keeping his eyes locked on them, Shuyin drew Lenne into his arms. He tore away from the Bevelle soldiers to glance again into her eyes. His eyes pleaded for her forgiveness, but it wasn't anger that she held. She forced a smile to her lips to comfort him as guns clicked into place.

She didn't care if she faded, but she couldn't let them die. She closed her eyes and prayed with her slipping will that the Fayth would intervene. She begged them with every breath that at least one would be spared.

Movement caught her attention and a scream echoed in her ears. She didn't even hear the thunder as bullets tore from the barrels. She didn't feel the tiny shards of metal force through her skin, all she knew was that Shuyin was slipping from her grasp and she was falling.

Her back met metal and her eyes searched him. He wasn't moving. She tried to reach for him, but her arm wouldn't comply, her fingers merely twitched and curled slightly inward. Tears escaped her and she thought of the lives that would fade in this underground chamber. Her heart split open and her silent plea screamed for some sort of salvation. If not for her, if not for Shuyin, then for the slumbering soul within her that she'd fought so desperately to keep hidden.

A child's face appeared above her own. Tears poured from a blue and brown mismatched set of eyes. A large silver ring through one of the child's ears swayed back and forth against her cheek as the small girl touched Lenne's face.

The thin pieces of linen that clothed the girl strained ever so slightly as she leaned forward and pressed her lips against the Songstress's temple. A smile formed on the Summoner's lips as her eyes slid close and her breath escaped her.

Pyreflies rose into the air. They emerged from the fallen woman and circled about, hovering. They fluttered about the small child, caressing her skin and sending a warmth into her cold body. She wiped at her tears as she watched the small lights slowly fade. Without notice, their glow intensified and the small stream shot into her, setting her eyes afire.

Yuna's vision faltered and the girl before her bared a striking resemblance to the Liya she had witnessed at Lenne's side. Her mind rushed through questions that she could only leave unanswered as she searched for some sort of rhyme or reason to everything.

Darkness consumed her vision and she lost track of the world. Tidus turned abruptly to face his wife and caught sight, for just a moment, of the girl who stood with her back to him before she vanished in an explosion of pyreflies. Yuna stood motionless as black seeped into her eyes, taking over completely.

"You have been warned about the darkness you stir within these hallowed grounds." She spoke, with a voice that wasn't her own.

Appearing to walk from thin air, the child Fayth of Bevelle stepped forward. "She's coming. And soon...we may all fade when it wakes.