DISCLAIMER: I do not own FFX or FFX-2 or any of the characters or places associated with it. I do, however, own the twisted idea for this story.

DO NOT COPY MY STORIES!!

If anyone wants to post my stories anywhere else, please just ASK and then give me credit for writing it. Email with any requests.

I have had problems with my fics being stolen. Reviewers of the Silver Wings trilogy know all about the situation. Please keep an eye out for this story or any of my others posted on any other sites. I only post here and I only use the name "akksgurl". If you think my story has been stolen, please contact me so that I can look into the situation. Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

Author's Notes: Another familiar character will show up in this story as well as some of my take on the Tidus/Jecht relationship in this story.


TWISTED DESTINY
by akksgurl
Chapter Four: A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

"How do you know Sir Jecht?" she asked again, her voice raising octaves with each passing second. Yuna didn't know why it was upsetting her so much. Maybe it was the thought that Jecht was from this Spira instead of her own. Or perhaps it wasn't upsetting so much as hopeful. Maybe if Sir Jecht was here, than her father would be as well.

He gaped at her for a moment and Yuna didn't think he was going to answer her. He just kept looking from her to the picture. Shuyin and Lenne were silent in the background. Yuna wished Shuyin would speak up, but it was obvious that he thought the question was raised to Tidus alone. However, at the present moment Yuna didn't care who answered. She just wanted the response.

"How do you know Sir Jecht?" she demanded again, a tone of impatience creeping into her voice. His blue eyes flashed at her and quicker than she could react, he pulled the frame from her hand and slammed it harshly back onto the lowboy she'd picked it up from; cracking the glass as it went. His anger only fueled her own and she spat, "I want an answer!"

He glared at her, "How about telling me how you know him?!"

"I asked you first!" she shouted back.

"Well I don't really give a damn who asked who first," he retorted angrily, pointing venomously at the photo, "Tell me how you know him. And why the hell you're calling him 'sir'!"

Yuna raised her noise haughtily, "I call him Sir Jecht because he is a great man." She stared directly into his eyes, "I'd like to see him."

Tidus snorted and turned, stalking to the other side of the room in a huff. Anger was radiating off of him in palpable waves. Normally Yuna would have jumped to apologize for upsetting someone so much, but not this time. Tidus' temper was outrageous. Simply for asking an answer, she'd had her head practically bitten off. No. She wouldn't apologize. Let him stew. To hell with him.

Shuyin looked from his brother to Yuna and back again before finally resting his eyes on Yuna. He gave her a weak smile, "Jecht's our father."

Tidus snorted, "Speak for yourself…"

Their….father…?

Yuna was on the verge of hyperventilation and she knew it. Her breath started coming out in tiny little spurts and she had to force herself to calm down. If she was really 1000 years in the past – before Sin, before the war – and if Jecht was their father…

"He disappeared about 10 years ago off the coast. He was out practicing and never came back." Shuyin was saying.

Tidus scoffed, "He probably ran off with one of his groupies." His voice was so full of anger that Yuna trembled a little. How could someone be so filled with hate toward Sir Jecht? Tidus squeezed the arm of the sofa he stood near until his knuckles turned white, "He's such an ass."

"Don't say that!" Yuna spoke before her mind consciously allowed her to, "Sir Jecht was a kind and gentle man!"

"Not my Jecht." Was Tidus' caustic reply.

Lenne lifted her hands in the air as if to ward off the animosity between the male and female before her, "Let's just not discuss anybody's personal feelings on Jecht for now." She said with a small smile. Turning to Yuna, she said, "What I'd like to know is how you know him."

"Yeah, I'd like to hear that too." Tidus said with a half smirk, "Maybe this tall tale involves aliens and spaceships."

Yuna glared at him, but didn't respond to him. Instead she responded to Lenne, "My father met Sir Jecht after he'd been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in Bevelle."

"Sounds like my old man." Scoffed Tidus.

Yuna ignored him and continued with her story, "Sir Jecht said he was from Zanarkand, which was impossible since it didn't exist where I'm from. Yet my father believed him and brought him home to meet me. Sir Jecht told me all sorts of fantastic tales about Zanarkand – the city that never sleeps. I was fascinated. Then my father went on his pilgrimage to defeat Sin. Sir Jecht was with him. I never saw any of them again."

"Uh…huh…" was Tidus' response to the tale.

Shuyin spoke with a warning tone, "Ti…"

"So you're telling me," Tidus began, ignoring the looks from his brother and Lenne, "You're saying that my old man is some sort of a hero of the future?"

"I don't expect you to believe me."

"Well good," he replied, "because I don't."

Yuna opened her mouth to give him a scathing comeback when Lenne jumped from her seat and rushed to Yuna, gripping her arm she said with a smile, "Well, why don't you get some more sleep while we discuss this fascinating story. Hmmm?"

Yuna sighed and nodded with a yawn, "I could use some more sleep."

"Good." Lenne said with a smile as she ushered Yuna back into the guest room, "Sleep tight!"

"That was really unnecessary." Shuyin was saying to Tidus as Lenne walked back into the room.

The female nodded, "Yes, it was. We're not saying to believe her, but you could at least be nice about it."

"She's saying that Jecht was some sort of a hero!" raged Tidus, "I – of all people – know better than that!"

He didn't think much of where he was going as the door to the boat slammed shut behind him. He just needed to get away. Jecht…a hero. The idea was idiotic in and of itself, but to Tidus it was asinine. His father was no hero. He was a drunken, arrogant, abuser.

His feet hit the pavement on the other side of the one foot gap and he kept walking. Turning left at the end of the driveway, he started up the hill with proverbial steam blowing from his ears. A hero. Hah!

"Sir Jecht…" Tidus mimicked Yuna's high pitched voice with scorn, "He was a kind and gentle man!"

Tidus' finger traced the jagged scar across his neck, partially obscured by his long hair, "Gentle my ass." He hissed under his breath, "To Shuyin maybe…"

"Why can't you be more like Shuyin, boy?"

Even at a very early age, Tidus had known that Jecht didn't like him. Tidus hadn't been as 'tough' as Jecht deemed that he needed to be. Blitzball had come easily to Shuyin, but Tidus had to struggle with it. He hadn't been athletic as a child. He preferred to read and write short stories. That's what Tidus had been good at.

His mother called him artistic.

Jecht called him a waste of skin.

"Not those damn stories again! Can't you do something normal for a change?"

Jecht took Shuyin under his wing and taught him everything he knew about blitzball. They had spent hours bonding in the ocean while Tidus had sat on the docks watching and wishing that Jecht would pay just a modicum of attention to him. Jecht would just walk right by Tidus after practice to take Shuyin out for ice cream. He wouldn't even invite Tidus to tag along. It was like he wasn't even there.

In fact, the only time Jecht paid attention to Tidus was when he'd been drinking.

Tidus fingered the scar on his neck again. He remembered just how he'd gotten it and he cringed at the memory.

Jecht's career was going down the toilet. He drank all the time and had even shown up to a few games drunk. Mother cried all the time and Shuyin ignored the situation by practicing blitzball. Tidus was the only one who was wide-eyed enough to see what was going on. He'd heard about these things called 'interventions' on the S.V. and saw how the people were always so grateful to the families when it was all said and done.

If he could stage one for Jecht, than maybe his father would start to pay attention to him. Maybe Jecht would love him for a change.

Staging one, as Tidus would learn, while someone was drunk and nobody else was home was probably the stupidest thing to do. Jecht hadn't taken it very well when Tidus had approached him. By the time Tidus saw the vein bulging from Jecht's neck – the sign of impending doom – it was too late. The bottle broke into sharp edges on the table next to Jecht and he'd lurched toward Tidus with an evil glint in his eyes and gone at him with it.

"Don't you ever tell me what to do again, boy? You hear me?!"

Jecht was unconscious from over-imbibing in liquor and Tidus was half dead, most of his blood supply in a pool around him on the carpet by the time Shuyin got back from his friend's house. Tidus didn't remember anything about what happened after Jecht's bottle came down on him except what he'd been told.

Shuyin had called an ambulance, misdialing the emergency number several times as his 6 year old hands shook with fear. Then he'd called his mother's hair salon where she was getting a perm. Tidus had needed several blood transfusions in order to replenish his supply and Jecht had been held over in prison for child endangerment.

This mother hadn't pressed charges and Jecht was released. Tidus had expected no less. Even at 6, Tidus knew that no one was more important to his mother than Jecht. Not even him. Not even Shuyin. At least Shuyin had the adoration of one parent. Tidus had the love of neither.

The following year, Jecht went out to practice and never came back. Tidus wasn't overly upset. Jecht hadn't done anything to make up for what he'd done – not that Tidus had expected him too. He'd just ignored Tidus even more than usual. The only change was that Shuyin had backed away from him as well. Shuyin spent most of his time with Tidus afterward. It was Shuyin who had taught Tidus the art of blitzball and who was patient enough to work with him until he got it. Of the three remaining Bacohl's, the only one whose whole world shattered with the loss of Jecht had been their mother. She'd given up her strength and died a few years afterward.

The old lady next door had told Tidus once something that he never forgot, "When a lovebird dies, the other one gives up living so it can join its mate." It had been just like that and Tidus had grown to hate Jecht even more. In life, he'd abused and ignored him and had kept Shuyin and his mother from him as well. In death, he'd gotten his brother back but lost his mother.

At 7, the world was suddenly a whole lot harsher than it had been before. If it wasn't for their guardian, Tidus didn't think he and Shuyin would have made it. It was truly surprising that their guardian – a friend of Jecht's – would have turned out to be such a good father figure. Maybe it was because he knew Jecht as Tidus knew him – fault filled and angry. Maybe if he spoke to Yuna, she'd stop thinking Jecht was a saint.

So he climbed the stairs and knocked on the front door.

00000000000000000

About an hour later when Yuna reentered the main living area, the first thing she noticed was that Tidus was gone. Shuyin and Lenne were still sitting on the couch, engaged in serious conversation – no doubt about her confessions of the day – when they noticed her entrance. Shuyin smiled, "Sleep well?"

"Yes," she replied, "Just fine." Her eyes wandered about the room as if expecting to see Tidus hiding behind a piece of furniture. She wanted to apologize. She had been out of line. If he hated Sir Jecht, then there had to be a good reason for it and it was none of her business what that was.

"He went out for some air." Lenne said.

"Oh…"

Yuna was disappointed and yet relieved at the same time. She wasn't sure exactly what to say to him. Never in her life had she met someone like him. Someone who, with just one word, could make her hate him or like him passionately and then with the next word get a completely different reaction. Yet, it wasn't so much what she thought of him that mattered. It was what he thought of her, which was once again something Yuna had never really cared about before. Sure, she wanted people to like her, but it had never mattered so much before as it did with Tidus. She really wanted him to like her. It was probably one of the most important things in her life.

"Is he angry with me?" she asked, meekly, embarrassed that she was even asking the question and wishing desperately that she didn't care whether he was or not, yet knowing she did.

Shuyin shook his head, "No, he's just angry at the situation. Ti's a little…touchy when it comes to Dad."

"Understandably, though." Lenne remarked as she stretched her legs under the coffee table before them.

Yuna was intrigued. She wasn't going to deny that, "Why does he hate him?"

"Dad wasn't that great to Ti when we were kids. I was always his favorite and Ti was left with his animosity."

Lenne rolled her eyes, "You know damn right well that's not the real reason, Shu." She looked at Yuna, "Maybe I'm speaking out of turn here, but the real reason Tidus hates Jecht is a simple one. Jecht attacked him with a broken liquor bottle when he was 6 during one of Jecht's legendary tirades."

Yuna's eyes widened and her mouth gaped but Shuyin is the one who spoke, "Dad didn't mean it. I really don't think he meant to hurt Tidus. He was just drunk and did something stupid."

"Something stupid that almost killed your brother." Lenne replied with a heavy sigh. She gave Yuna a small smile, "I wasn't around then. I lived in D-West at the time, but when Shuyin told me about it I instantly felt the same way Tidus does. Anybody who'd do that to their child – drunk or not – is a monster in my book."

Yuna still couldn't quite believe her ears. Sir Jecht…was a drunken, child-abuser. Attacking Tidus with a broken bottle?! No, that wasn't the Jecht Yuna had met so long ago. That wasn't the same man who had taken her under his wing during the three-day stay in Bevelle and taught her blitzball kicks and regaled her with tales of Zanarkand. The Jecht that Lenne described was a monstrous drunk with a questionable conscience.

Footsteps outside the door silenced any comeback Yuna may have had planned. Shuyin sighed with relief, "Oh good, he's back." He said as he heard the key in the lock.

Now was the time for Yuna to apologize. If Sir Jecht had indeed done that horrible thing to Tidus, than Yuna had been in the wrong to berate him for his hatred. Tidus was perfectly within his rights.

The door swung open and Yuna opened her mouth to begin her apology when the man standing behind Tidus became the center of her universe. Tall – over 6 feet in his boots – and still wearing the large red overcoat and the black pants that he had been wearing the last time she saw him, Yuna stared into the deep brown eyes that gaped back at her, "Sir Auron?"

Auron's eyes widened despite the infirmary that had injured the one, "Yuna?"

Despite the fact that she was much older than the 7 year old girl he'd left behind in Bevelle that day, he'd recognized her and to Yuna that meant the world. She let out a joyous cry and ran into his arms. He pulled her into a tight embrace and she buried her face in his neck as she let a few stray tears fall.

Finally…

Finally there was someone who would make them believe her…

Finally there was someone who understood what she was going through and, perhaps, could help her figure out how to get home.

Auron released her gently and placed her feet back firmly on the ground, "Yuna? Tidus told me there was someone he wanted me to speak with about Jecht, but he didn't tell me it was you."

Yuna grinned happily and with relief, "Oh Sir Auron. I'm so glad you're here. Now you can back me up. Tell them that I'm not crazy and that everything that I've been saying is true. Tell them, please!"

Auron frowned more, if that was even possible, and held her hand firmly, "Come, Yuna. First I'd like to speak with you privately." He nodded to the trio still in the room, "If you'll excuse us, please."

Yuna was led out of the living quarters and onto the deck, the sound of the door shutting behind her verified that they were alone on the deck. He led her over to the rail and gazed out onto the horizon for several minutes. Yuna examined him closely during that time. He hadn't changed much from what she remembered. He was older, of course, and had more gray in his hair than she remembered. Yet, he was still tall and stood as straight as an arrow. His presence was still powerful and his katana still hung loosely at his side. A light fraying of hair along his jaw proved to Yuna that he hadn't shaved in a few days and served to make him look even more menacing. She was surprised that people didn't run from Auron. However, if they took the time to know him like she did, they'd see that Auron was nothing if not kind and fair.

She'd known him for her entire life. He had been a close friend of her father and was Braska's first and most logical choice for a guardian when he'd chosen to journey. Most people had tried to talk Braska out of it since it would leave Yuna an orphan, but Braska was not to be swayed and Auron went with him without uttering a word of reproach. Yuna supposed that she should be angry at that, but instead she had always looked up to Auron with awe. He was truly a great man.

Currently, however, he was a brooding man and Yuna wondered what was upsetting him. Surely he wasn't upset to see her. She knew she was eternally grateful to see someone from her time and she'd only been in this strange place for a day. Auron was in this place for much longer than that, though how long she wasn't quite sure.

Finally Auron tore his gaze away from the horizon and focused it on Yuna, "What did you tell them?"

"The truth." She replied.

"Which is?"

So Yuna told her tale again, focusing only on the truly important parts. Auron wasn't the type of person to want to hear about the trivial and inconsequentials. That would just have to wait for Rikku when Yuna got back. Rikku loved hearing all about the inconsequential details that made up a story.

"And you told them this?" was Auron's question when Yuna finished her tale.

"Yes." She replied, suddenly wary of Auron's lack of reaction, "Was I not supposed to, Sir Auron?"

Auron sighed and looked back over the rail, "It would have been better if you had not, Yuna. Now I will have to try to fix the damage you have done."

"Damage? I don't see how telling the truth is damage, Sir Auron."

Auron gave her a weak smile, "Of course you wouldn't, Yuna. That is what is so endearing about you." He turned and placed a hand on each of her shoulders, "Unfortunately, it can be quite damning in a situation such as this."

"How so?"

"Yuna, we are in the past. We are not meant to be here, but we are." He sighed and released her shoulders, running a hand through his hair, "I'm not sure how we got here, although since the two of us came in contact with Sin before waking up here, I'm willing to bet that's what happened. Nonetheless, we are in the past and we must tread carefully or else deal with the ramifications."

Yuna bit her lip. She didn't like the sound of that at all.

"We must convince Shuyin, Lenne, and Tidus that everything you said was as a result of some sort of confusion. Take your pick, Yuna. We can tell them that you hit your head, that you have an overactive imagination, that it was a very realistic dream, or that you're just insane. However, we must make them believe it was all fake."

Yuna frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, "Why?"

"Yuna," Auron said, his voice low in his throat, "We must not change their lives one whit. Us simply being here is bad enough. If we change their lives, the entire future could be altered horribly. They have their fate and we must not change it. Do you understand the importance of this? If we change the lives of just one resident of Zanarkand, hundreds of Spiran's could suffer."

Yuna certainly hadn't thought about that. She hadn't considered the consequences of being in the past. Yet at the same time she wondered if perhaps her fate was to be here, in which case future Spira wouldn't suffer. However, now was not the time to argue science fiction with Auron. She simply nodded her understanding, "Tell them that I'm horribly upset over Kimahri's death and I'm not taking it well. Maybe they'll believe that grief has caused me to make a fantasy world."

Auron patted Yuna's head affectionately, "Don't worry, Yuna. Zanarkand isn't so bad once you get used to it. Besides, maybe with you here we'll be able to figure out how to get home."