A/N: this is my first attempt at making a game fanfic, so bear with me. I'm actually taking it slow, by inserting a character I can really mold as my own and developing the plot with everyone you're familiar with. This is, of course, set in an AU, as I haven't finished X-2 just yet and need time to beat it. Anyways, please, review with as much constructive criticism as you like, flamers will be somewhat ignored, and if you don't like original characters, well, you might want to read something else. But I promise you, she's far from a Mary Sue, and you should definitely give it a chance.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with Final Fantasy… yadda, yadda… (aren't I supposed to insert something quirky here?) So please, SquareEnix, don't sue me.

Chapter One: Sitaten

"And I won't understand if you keep shutting me out like this, Sita!" a red-haired male exploded, his cerulean eyes darkening in anger and his large hands curling into a ball.

"But I don't have a reason for it other than it felt right." A smaller frame pleaded with him. With bronze skin and amber eyes, she was easily labeled as a Besaidian. Her long wavy brown hair was pulled away from her face, as she expected to begin warrior training at any moment. Sporting a pleated white skirt and tight cobalt blue shirt, she reached for her dark blue tennis shoes under her bed as the corners of her full pink mouth curved downward.

"Just tell me why you did it honey." Her father sat on her bed and cupped her cheek in his hand.

Ironically, it was a bright and sunny day outside. The city of Bevelle bursting with pedestrian traffic, the sounds of laughter filtering through her wide-open window. It was only yesterday when she had bought her boat ticket off the infernal rock to find her fortunes elsewhere and the real reason for her journey scared her.

"But the people of Zanarkand did nothing to harm us. Why are we waging war with them?"

"It's simple, really," she remembered her favorite Sensei begin, "Those heathens won't let go of their precious machina. Yevon teaches that if we forfeit our use of machina and remain unwavering on his path may we finally be released from the terror Sin holds over us." Sitaten never really believed in the ways of Yevon, so she was little confused.

"But why not reason with them?"

"Savages like them would never understand. They strip our people away from the hope that they truly deserve. With them and those trashy Al Bheds, we'll never find the peace accompanied by the Eternal Calm."

"But why attack them now? We experience are experiencing a Calm, now."

"I wouldn't expect someone as young as you to understand."

"But"

"Don't question your faith, child! Nothing good will come of it for you."

That was when she truly understood. Zanarkand's difference in opinion was not what threatened Bevelle. If that were the case, they would be busy attacking the Al Bhed as well, knowing that it would be easy to destroy them because how scattered they are. It was an opportunity to gain absolute power, one where no one world dare contest with the teachings and the populace follows every command from the temples. By forbidding the use of machina, it would halt the development of civilization, therefore halting the gathering of people, and ultimately, ideas. With Bevelle holing the world under their control, the masses would be easy to manipulate, as they are unwise and fearful.

Her father, who was a devout follower of Yevon would disown her for her heretical thoughts, and she knew that her views here would not be well received and may ultimately cost her life. But she could no longer go on pretending. It is not in her nature.

"I love you father, but I can't stay in Bevelle. I'm too confused and I need to sort this out."

"Please, don't be rash, honey, just tell me and I can help make whatever is hurting you go away." He begged.

"You can't help with this, and I don't want you to think any less of me…"

"I love you… please… you're all I have left." He was referring to the death of her mother seven years ago. She was on her way home from a missionary retreat to Bikanel when Sin attacked her ship. There was only one survivor: a hand clutching a bottle with a letter inside.

"I'll won't be gone forever, I promise." He looked away, his eyes resting on a spot on the soft carpet. When he spoke, his voice was barely audible and hesitant.

"Is there anything you need for your trip, then?"

"Way to go Earn!" a blond shot through the water to give his teammate a high-five.

It was their fifth win into the season and from either end it did not look like the streak would ever be broken. The Zanarkand Abes won against the Ronsos 5-3, stealing away an incredible victory for an incredible team.

"Tidus!" the blond in the black shorts and bright yellow hoodie looked into the stands to find his favorite person waving ecstatically to him. Tidus smirked and did a back flip in the water at the sight of her face, at the familiar feeling of her multi-colored eyes on him.

"Yuna's down there?" Tidus' best friend, Wakka, swam to him and then looked down at the crowd below. Sporting bright yellow pants and a blue headband covering his even louder orange hair, he easily drew attention to himself, even in crowds.

"Hey, Yuna, you saw my last goal, ya!" he yelled, but of course, she could not hear him. She made it clear that she understood he was talking to her by jumping and clapping even harder.

"Let's go get outta here, ya?" Wakka began to tread over towards the exit.

"Great game, you guys." Yuna giggled as Tidus picked her up bridal style and began marching her towards his car. Wakka had to jog to catch up with the over-excited teenager.

"Where's Lu?" he inquired.

"I'm sorry she couldn't make it, Wakka, she said she was getting sick again." Wakka sighed heavily, indicating that he understood. He and his wife Lulu had just found out that she was pregnant a month ago. She was still in her first trimester and with that came the long bouts of sickness.

"Where's Rikku?" Tidus asked as he carefully let Yuna down so she could get into his brand new cobalt blue sports car.

"Partying, where else?" she giggled.

"How long are we expected to wait here, Shuyin?" a young man, who possessed a remarkable likeness to Tidus shrugged, his yellow and black trimmed jacket whipping violently in the wind. With the same blond hair and ocean-blue eyes that often changed to green, people never ceased to confuse him from his twin brother the Blitzball Ace.

"You should have known it would take this long, Paine. It is coming from Kilika after, all." His deep voice was set in a slightly harsh tone. The girl, Paine, who sat beside him on a large boulder, turned her crimson gaze up at the starlit sky, willing her anger to dissolve. Letting the wind whip her silver hair about her face, she finally close her eyes and took in a deep breath. It was a hot night, and her leather top, skirt, and boots did not make the heat bearable at all.

At the same time, thirty miles away, Sitaten was enjoying the breeze on her face as well. She opened her arms prepared to embrace the joy that came with the feeling of spinning in circles when someone called to her.

"Hey, Princess." Recognizing the nickname the shipmates provided her with the moment she stepped on this ship as the only woman traveler, she turned around to find a one of them beckoning her to come to him.

"I've got something for you to do, since you're so bored, eh?" her presented her with a net.

"Now, every sea-farer needs to have this basic skill."

"You want me to fish?" she looked down at the long rod dubiously.

"It's real easy, especially on a ship that goes so fast." He said, turning the handle over to her and picking up another.

"How do you do it?" she inquired.

"Well… you dip your net into the water and let it drag for a few seconds," he started, his words mirroring his actions, "and then you twist and pull it out." he net emerged full of fish, jittering helplessly under the weight of their peers. Use the balustrade to slid it back in like this, eh, then dump in that bucket over yonder" he pointed to a white bin at her fee.

"Alright then," she shrugged, getting to work. It was not as though menial labor was required of her for passage, instead, she complained a couple of days ago to a shipmate that she was bored and asked if she could help them out with any work through the rest of the trip. The men developed evil little grins then, chuckling menacingly while assuring her that they would find a way to keep her busy. Ever since, they had her running ragged around the ship attending to someone's chores.

"Finally!" Paine pushed herself up and looked over to the ship as people began to filter into the crowd waiting to greet their friends or family. She felt a tug at her lips when she recognized a familiar whirl of straw-colored hair, the owner waving frantically at her. He was poised on the balustrade that wrapped around the ship, doing his trademark stand, balancing on one foot while the other rested on his thigh. She nearly doubled over in laughter when a teen with silver hair wearing a green robe pushed him off onto the deck below.

"Baralai," she waved to her friend, who prayed when he met her eyes. The goofy blond snuck up behind her and grabbed her from the waist.

"Paine!" he drawled, smirking down at her.

"Let go of me before you lose another eye, Gippal." She threatened, but the teen just laughed and ruffled her hair a little.

"You haven't changed a bit."

"Is this your friend?" he asked about the twin as Baralai caught up with the group.

"Guys, this is Shuyin, Shuyin, this is…" she started.

"Gippal and Baralai, yes, I heard." He finished for her. Paine narrowed her eyes at him- he could be such an ass.

"Oh, yeah, guardian Shuyin, I remember the name. You and your summoner caused quite a stir in Bevelle." Gippal scratched his head.

"That was two years ago." He said in a tone that made it clear that he no longer wanted to talk about it. Gippal, unable to get the hint, continued.

"Looked a lot like your brother's Yuna, doesn't she?" he asked. Baralai, sensing Shuyin's patience running thin, cut in.

"But of course, the past lies where it should, ne?" he extended a hand to Shuyin, who was about to speak when something knocked into him.

"Ouch!" Sitaten rubbed her rear in pain and tried to make sense of what just happened. She was speaking her last goodbyes to the captain and its crew while stepping away backwards. She craned her neck all the way back to find someone staring down at her stoically. She grinned in embarrassment before getting up and brushing herself off. When she turned around, she noticed that the cute blonde she knocked into was none too happy about her clumsiness.

"Sorry about that, I'm incredibly clumsy." She apologized, but the guy just turned his gaze as though she was an insignificant little fly.

"Helloooo!" she waved her hands around, trying to get his attention back.

"It's okay, kid, he's not in a great mood." Paine shifted her weight to one leg and folded her arms across her chest, looking pointedly at Shuyin. When he didn't get the picture, she elbowed him in the stomach, eliciting a glare from him, "she apologized."

"Your point?" he raised an eyebrow.

"You should at least acknowledge her." All the while, Sitaten stood there, looking back and forth between the two friends, twisted her signature long, white pleated skirt in her hands. Seeing this, Gippal switched into lady-charmer mode.

"So, ya been to Zanarkand before?" he peered into her face.

"N-no…" she replied. He began to walk around her, as he usually does when he meets new people, analyzing her build, strength, poise, etc.

"So what's your name?" he asked.

"Sitaten." She smiled shyly, not exactly liking being looked over like some sort of animal experiment.

"I'm Gippal, and this is Baralai" he started.

"Pleased to meet you…" the younger one smiled warmly.

"…And the two hotheads over there are Paine and Shuyin." He cocked his head to the side and smirked at her.

"Are you heading into the city?" Baralai asked her, his voice gentle.

"Yeah, do they have taxis that come out here?" she asked.

"Why don't you ride back with us?" Baralai asked.

"WHAT?" Paine and Shuyin both yelled at the Yevonite.

"It's quite obvious to me that she doesn't know anyone here or her way around the city, for that matter. The least we could do is give her a ride into the city." Baralai gave her another warm smile.

"So, where ya headed?" Gippal started standing on one foot again.

"Downtown, I think…" she put a knapsack down and searched her pockets for a sheet of paper.

"Lucien Street…um… my dad said it overlooks the sea." She replied.

"…Near the blitzball stadium, then." Paine crossed her arms over her chest.

"Good, you can find it easily on your own." Shuyin said flatly.

"Sitaten, right?" Gippal looked down on her. The girl nodded, trying to ignore the outward hostility flung at her by the beautiful stranger, "You got a nickname?"

"Most just call me Sita."

"Eh… alright, whatever. You can sit in the front with me, 'kay?" he leaned in to her again, causing her to avert her eyes and blush, knowing that this 'Shuyin' would be unhappy that his opinion was ignored.

A/N:

Well, just so you know, I'll be using a little vocabulary from different languages, but never fear, if it has an asterisk () by it; I kindly defined it for you. Another heads up is I'm in love with Japanese, French, and Ancient Egyptian.

Sitaten- 'Sit' means 'daughter of' and Aten happens to be the Egyptian sun-disk god of everlasting life. It's actually the name of my comic book character that I'm working on now.

Ja ne!

Jaiasa