Only In Theory

Chapter 3: A Familiar Scent

A dull roar filled the tiny locker room in which Koshi was laying down. She was alone. Wakka had gone with his team to compete in the first match, Lulu had left to go find Tidus and Kamari, as Yuna had been kidnapped by the Al-Bhed.

It's not that Koshi did want to go with them, to find Yuna…it's just that she didn't want any of them to know she had an association with the Al-Bhed. So she had remained behind.

"I couldn't go. If they knew the truth…" Koshi tried to tell her self, tried to convince her self that was the only reason. But she knew better. It was because he might be with them. That was the entire reason Yuna had left in the first place. Some one said they had seen…..in a café.

"It couldn't be him…." Koshi sat up, shaking her head. "It just could be…I was there….I saw……" Tears began to fill her eyes as she remembered that day on Mount Gagazet.

"Yeah! Alright! We did it! We beat those filthy Al-Bheds! Hah!" Wakka and the team came bursting in the door, fallowed closely by Yuna and the others. "Ow, oh man…they didn't go down with out a fight though, ya?" Wakka seemed to be asking no one in particular. Koshi got up and made room for the overly exhausted Wakka to lie down.

Koshi approached Yuna as Wakka went on about this being his last match. "Yuna?" She asked quietly, "Are you ok? What happened?"

"Oh, I'm fine…a bit disappointed though." Yuna looked down at her feet. "We didn't find Sir Auron."

Koshi released a sigh; both relieved and disappointed her self. "Ahh, just a rumor. Like Elvis still being alive."

"Who?" Yuna looked up at Koshi in confusion.

"Uhh, never mind." Koshi said, forgetting she wasn't exactly in Kansas any more.

Tidus and the team, minus Wakka, left the locker room to go face the Goers in the final game.

"Hey, whish us luck!" Tidus called out, waving and smiling. Koshi smiled and waved back, not really aware of what was going on around her.

"Are, you-alright?" Yuna asked with concern in her mismatched eyes.

"Yeah, yeah…I'm…well I'm about as good as I'll ever be." Koshi headed for the door. "Maybe just a few moments of fresh air, and some alone time." She smiled as she turned the knob and left the others.

The streets of Luca were eerily quiet, as all of its inhabitants were at the game. Koshi walked past the docks, beams of sunlight poking through the ships and every once in a while blinding her. She held out her left hand, raising it not in front of her, but to the side as if waiting for some one to grab hold of it. She smiled.

"Where are you Jecht…?"

'Despite the tremendous effort put forth today, it seems the Goers will remain undefeated.'

Koshi glanced up at the screen. "Oh, poor Wa-whoa!"

All at the once Koshi felt the ground rumble under her feet. She tried to balance herself on a stack of crates, but failed miserably and slammed hard into a wall; hitting her head and falling to the ground.

It was there, lying on the stone path-warm blood running down her forehead and along the contours of her cheeks, that she saw him. She didn't see his face, or even one inch of skin, but she knew. Koshi watched as a great wave of red fabric swept past her. She breathed in the familiar sent of blood and steel, of dry leaves and mud…a scent she had come to know so very well. Just before every thing went black, she managed to mutter one single word…

"Auron…."