"We have to leave Besaid," Yuna said, in that voice of hers that commanded attention and respect.
Tidus nodded to her. "I know. We have to find Nooj and this pilot, so that you can learn how to become a Jedi. But how are we going to get out? The Empire is watching all shipping. We couldn't possibly smuggle ourselves onto a boat."
Yuna frowned slightly and turned away, trying to think of a way they could get halfway across Spira. Suddenly, as she realized she was staring at her father's statue, she rocked back as though physically struck.
A silly grin spreading across her face, she skipped over to Tidus and bounced on her toes in a manner she probably picked up from Rikku. "Hey, remember when I told you about Vegnagun? How it pulled all the fayth into the Farplane?"
"Right," he answered, nodding. "It left big holes in all the temples that fiends came out of." His jerked thumb pointed back toward the Cloister of Trials. "I've seen the one here. The hole is still there."
"Right!" she said enthusiastically. "But the temples weren't the only places where we found holes."
She stopped speaking there, waiting for Tidus to catch on. Within moments he did, his face lighting up as he did so. "The Cavern of the Stolen Fayth! Vegnagun pulled that fayth into the Farplane too, so the hole is probably still there."
Grinning, she nodded and clapped her hands together enthusiastically. "Right! So we just go into the Farplane abyss, and we can get back out into the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth from there!"
Grinning as well, Tidus grabbed her hand and ran with her up the steps into the Cloister of Trials, reflecting back to the first time he had entered there, with all of the priests and even Wakka shocked and outraged by his taboo action. If he hadn't run into the Trials that day, he may never have met Yuna.
Shaking that thought away, he ran with Yuna beside him through the trials, skidding to a stop on the elevator down to the antechamber and waiting for it to descend. While waiting for it to go down, Yuna pulled her hand away from Tidus' and untied her lightsaber, laying the weapon across her palms and staring at it in disbelief. She still couldn't believe that hers was the legacy of the Jedi Knights.
Closing her eyes, she tightly clenched the cylinder in her hands. "Father, great-grandpa Toral, I will make you proud of me."
Tidus reached over and laid his hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently to let her know that no matter where she went, or what she chose to do, that he would stay beside her. He smiled fondly, recalling the welcome that his own father, Jecht, had given him after Sin had been destroyed. He'd made his old man proud of him. He also knew that Braska was also very proud of Yuna. One day, he would tell her that. But not now. She needed to be focused on what laid ahead.
The elevator shuddered to a halt. Taking her left hand in his right, Tidus tugged gently and when she moved after him, the lightsaber still gripped in her right hand, he led the way into the Chamber of the Fayth.
At the brink of the hole where the fayth statue once laid in the ground, Yuna hesitated, and Tidus could sense she was a little scared. Slowly, she shook her head. "I never thought I would go back in there…"
Letting go of her hand, Tidus closed the distance between them and pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't worry, Yuna. I'm going to be with you the entire way. I won't leave you."
Her eyes widened as a moment of sudden revelation struck her. "But what if you can't leave the Farplane? What if you…disappear again?" Her voice became deathly quiet as she finished her sentence, causing him to hug her even tighter.
"Don't you worry about that," he replied. "I promised that I would always be by your side, and there's no way that the Farplane is going to make me break my promise. And besides," he added with a cocky grin, "you're the great-granddaughter of Spira's only Jedi Knight. The Farplane wouldn't dare tell you no."
She laughed, and clung tightly to him. "Thank you. You don't know how much better that made me feel."
"You're welcome. Now, we need to go. We've got to make you a Jedi."
"Yes."
Still holding her tightly in his arms, Tidus let his weight sag to the left, toward the hole in the ground. He felt her gasp slightly, not quite having expected him to do that, and kept his arms around her as the two of them plummeted into the Farplane.
---
It was huge, looming out of the ocean depths before them like a ghost of the past. Truly, that's what it indeed was. The outside of the dagger-shaped ship had been corroded with time, but it appeared to have started its life with a white color.
Gippal halted his descent and turned to Rikku, then gestured down to the ship and gave her a thumbs-up sign. She nodded in reply, then the two of them turned and continued down toward it.
After escaping from the Djose Temple, Rikku had shown Gippal the hidden pathway underneath Lake Macalania that led directly to Bikanel Island. Once there, the two had commandeered an Al Bhed salvage ship and taken it out to search for a group of ruins that rumors had recently been flying around about. According to rumor, the ruins were in fact crashed ships from beyond Spira that contained weapons never before seen on their planet.
In Gippal's understanding, that translated that these unknown weapons might have been useful against the Empire.
Within moments, the two of them had reached the surface of the sunken ship. Swimming around to the underside of the vessel, they found an external airlock and triggered the portal to open. As it did, water rushed into the empty chamber beyond, and they followed. Behind them, the outer door sealed shut as the chamber equalized the air pressure with that of the ship.
Finally, the inner doorway opened, and the water that had filled the airlock chamber rushed into the ship, flowing through the corridors and accessways until it vanished from their view entirely.
Cautiously, the two made their way through the slightly-tilted corridors, wandering around in search of some sort of storage bay. Their footsteps echoed endlessly off the white walls and ceilings that they passed by.
"This place gives me the creeps," Rikku said finally, breaking the silence. Her voice echoed mournfully down the corridor before and behind them. As though further unnerved by the echo, she reached down and drew out her twin thief's daggers. She had managed to convince herself that anything on this ship other than herself and Gippal would be a ghost.
"It's just a sunken ship," Gippal replied, resting his mortar launcher lightly on his shoulder. At the end of the corridor ahead of them was a door that looked to hold a large area beyond. "What, you scared? You want to go back to the dredger?"
Rikku stopped where she stood and stamped her foot childishly. "I'm not scared!" she almost shrieked. "I just hate spooky places…"
Rolling his eye, Gippal stopped at the door and peered through the viewport into the space beyond. "Well, well," he said, looking around for some kind of access panel. "Looks like we've found what we're looking for."
Almost immediately, Rikku apparently forgot her nervousness and skipped up to the door. "Really?" she asked, standing on her toes to peek through the other viewport. She then dropped back to her normal height and looked around also. "I don't see any door controls."
"Then we do this the hard way," Gippal replied, swinging up his mortar launcher.
Her eyes widening, Rikku turned and dashed a ways back up the corridor. For his part, Gippal aimed the multiple tubes of his launcher toward the doorway, then fired. A huge explosion filled the far end of the corridor, the shock wave threatening to knock Rikku off her feet. She stumbled, remained upright, and then dashed forward through the clearing smoke into the space beyond the door.
She found herself standing on a walkway overlooking a vast cargo bay. A series of recessed bulkheads along the left side of the space indicated doorways that could be opened to allow the movement of vehicles and cargo outside the ship. Thousands of crates of what she could only assume to be weapons and armor lined the walls of the bay.
And sitting directly before the massive doors that could be opened for exit were two dozen airship-like vehicles with downward-sweeping wings, twin missile launchers atop them, and ball-shaped turrets on both wings and to the sides of the cockpit. The vehicle was open to air, and had a pair of doors on either side of it that could swing closed to keep anyone within from falling out. It was obviously a heavily-armed troop transport.
Gippal walked up to Rikku's side and looked over the contents of the cargo bay, then grinned and laid a hand on her shoulder. "We have hit the jackpot."
---
She had always thought of the Farplane glen as a place of beauty, despite the bad memories that it held for her. Shuyin, Vegnagun, the ghostly form of Tidus walking away from her. As she stood up in the flower bed, Yuna noticed that she was still tightly gripping the lightsaber in her hand. Tying it to her belt with a particular knot that would allow her to quickly pull the weapon free, she turned and looked for Tidus.
He stood up a few feet away from her, looking around in wonder at the flowered glen. His eyes widened as he seemed to recognize where he was, then he turned and looked directly at Yuna. "The Farplane glen."
Her throat thickened at those three words and she quickly crossed the distance between them, wrapping her arms tightly around him as though she feared that he would simply fade away from her. "You…remember?"
He nodded slowly, holding her tightly. "Yes. I led you out of here the first time you fell in."
She felt her fingers tighten on the fabric of his shirt, and hot tears stinging her cheeks. "It really was you?"
"Yes. I heard you crying, so I whistled. You heard me, and I led you out."
She didn't reply. Instead, she only held him tighter as she tried to push away the pain that those memories brought to her. First the revelation that it had been Shuyin in the sphere, and not Tidus. Then the conflict between her own feelings and Lenne's as Shuyin had hugged her. And lastly, to see a ghostly image of Tidus on the Farplane. She had thought him dead at that point, and had had terrible pain in her heart for days.
Then came another voice, similar to Tidus' yet much deeper. "Well, I never thought that I would see you here again, Lady High Summoner."
At the same instant, Tidus and Yuna stepped away from each other and turned toward the voice. There he was, striding out of the fog, exactly as he had been the first time Yuna had seen him. Those features so similar to Tidus' that it made her heart ache, yet the obvious differences in clothing, and simply the aura about him.
"Shuyin," Yuna said coldly, her eyes narrowed. She reached for the lightsaber at her side.
"That won't be necessary," came yet another new voice, rich and feminine, yet soft and gentle at the same time.
Yuna turned halfway around just as she felt a soft hand land over her own, preventing her from drawing the lightsaber. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the taller figure of the songstress whose feelings she had carried inside her. As every time Yuna had envisioned her, Lenne's face held a smile. The soft brown eyes and long brown hair was exactly as Yuna remembered from mere months ago, even down to the same attire that she, herself, wore in her songstress dressphere.
"Lenne," Yuna said, in a much softer tone.
Smiling still, the taller woman nodded. Satisfied that Yuna was not going to draw her weapon, Lenne pulled her hand away and walked past Yuna and Tidus, moving to stand beside Shuyin.
"I would ask you why you've returned here," Shuyin said, "but that wouldn't say much about us as all-knowing spirits, now would it?"
Yuna stood staring in shock. This couldn't be Shuyin. The Shuyin she had known had been a tortured soul, twisted by despair and hate. This one…was almost like Tidus in a way.
Then she blinked, remembering that Tidus was, in fact, standing at her side. But before she could make introductions, Tidus spoke up himself.
"I know you," he said. "From Zanarkand. You used to play for the C-South Duggles."
Shuyin nodded with a smirk. "And you, Jecht's son. Star player of the Zanarkand Abes. It's a shame we never got to meet in person before, Tidus."
"That's me," Tidus answered, pulling down a fist. Then he turned to Lenne. "And everyone knew you. The most famous songstress in all of Zanarkand. It's an honor to finally meet you."
Lenne smiled in return. "I am pleased that you and Lady Yuna were reunited. After all she has done for Spira, and for helping me deliver the words that I'd been longing to say for a thousand years, I believe that Yuna has earned her happiness."
Yuna looked down to the flowers between her feet, blushing profusely. She took a step over and slipped her right hand into Tidus' left, then looked up at Lenne and smiled. "Thank you, Lady Lenne."
Lenne laughed, a sweet, musical sound, and waved her hand in Yuna's direction. "Please, must there be formalities between us? After we shared minds for so many months, I was hoping that we could consider one another friends." Her tone was not accusing in any manner.
Smiling, Yuna nodded. "Of course."
Shuyin's previously-merry expression faded to a serious one. "So, we know why you're here, and what's going on in Spira. It seems that you can't find peace in your time."
Yuna sighed slowly and nodded, turning her saddened expression toward the pair across from her. "I know. It isn't fair. But we must deal with what comes to us. But right now, we must get to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth."
Shuyin nodded toward her, his right hand held in both of Lenne's, his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "I know. The path is still there, as is the opening. You will find Nooj and your Rebel pilot still there."
"In the meantime, we will begin thwarting the forces of the Empire," Lenne said.
Tidus blinked confusedly at her. "How's that? Aren't you guys dead?"
The expression on Shuyin's face could only be described as predatory. "Exactly. You cannot kill what is already dead."
Now it was Yuna's turn to be confused. "How exactly can you help us? Doesn't death limit your options?"
Smiling a predatory smile, Lenne stepped away from Shuyin, who obligingly backed away from her. Yuna couldn't help but wonder why Shuyin was moving away the same distance that her guardians had moved every time she had summoned an aeon in battle. Lifting her right hand into the air, Lenne's songstress microphone that she also used as a summoning staff appeared in her hand.
As her smile widened, she twisted the staff around in her hand, bringing it over to her left side before sweeping it back in front of her. A huge shadow appeared over the glen, but before Yuna or Tidus had time to look up and identify its source, dark clouds gathered over the glen, completely blotting out the shadow and whatever had caused it.
As they watched, runic symbols suddenly appeared at the lowest layer of clouds, and a blurred shape could be seen racing toward the center of the runes. Yuna gasped, bringing her hands up to her mouth, as she recognized what she was seeing. The shape crashed through the center of the runes, splitting them into three different runes, as a sonic boom washed over the glen.
The storm clouds suddenly vanished, revealing a draconic form with feathered, multi-colored wings streaking down toward the glen. The form pulled up abruptly, turning itself so that it would land feet-first on the flowered surface. It impacted the glen with such force that Shuyin struggled to maintain his footing; Lenne barely swayed where she stood.
As it stood to its full fifteen-foot height, the dragon let loose an intimidating roar and then stood there, arms crossed together as it waited for its summoner to give it a command.
Tidus stood staring at the aeon, his mouth agape. Yuna stepped forward, her hands still held over her mouth, walking toward the dragon. For its part, the dragon regarded her steadily with its white-eyed gaze.
"An…aeon…" Yuna finally managed, breathless.
Lenne nodded with a smile. "The fayth see everything, as we do. They have agreed to lend their spirits for me to use to aid you in throwing off the oppressive Empire. I can summon any aeon that I desire." She made a dismissive gesture toward the dragon, which burst into pyreflies that quickly vanished into the Farplane.
Shuyin stepped forward again, laying a hand on Lenne's shoulder. "And I have the power to control fiends. Yuna, there is talk of rebellion all over Spira. Your friend Rikku has discovered a sunken ship filled with weapons that can combat the Empire. Nooj, the Rebel pilot, and Gippal are individually planning to unite Spira as a single fighting force against the Empire."
"Yuna," Lenne said, "learn the ways of the Force. Become a Jedi Knight. When you are ready, there will be a rebel army of Spira for you to lead."
"But, how will Spira know to unite and rise up against them?" Yuna asked softly. "They control all sphere channels and the ports."
"Who better to spread the message than the dead?" a deep, smooth voice asked from behind Yuna.
She and Tidus both spun, and Yuna couldn't hold in a laugh of joy as she recognized the three figures standing behind her, exactly as she remembered them. In the front stood her father, Braska, his expression one of fatherly pride and happiness. Behind him and to his right stood Auron, the red-coated ronin who had served as guardian for both her and her father. And on Braska's left, standing with crossed arms the way he was usually seen, was Tidus' own father, Jecht.
Unable to contain herself, Yuna dashed forward and flung her arms around Braska, unable to contain her happiness at seeing her father again. Still smiling widely, Braska folded his sleeved arms around her as she sobbed into his chest.
Smiling at Yuna and Braska, Tidus stepped forward toward Jecht, who was holding out his right hand. His smile shifting into a grin, Tidus lifted his right arm and slapped his gloved hand into Jecht's in greeting.
"Good to see you again, boy," Jecht said, grinning as well as he crossed his arms again. "You been putting on some muscle, I see. Not bad for someone who's only been alive again for a few months."
Tidus laughed. "Good to see you too, old man. How's the dream world been treating you?"
"As good as it can, I suppose. Boring as hell, though. Now that all that hoo-hah about Sin and the fayth is over and done with, there's nothing to do anymore but sit around and watch blitzball. The Abes haven't been doin' too hot since you came to Spira, you know."
Tidus waved his hand in front of his face and shook his head. "Nah, the Abes were a good team. They didn't need me to carry them." He then turned toward his old mentor, and softly dropped his fist against the man's red-clad shoulder. "So what've you been up to, Auron? Keeping my old man out of trouble?"
Auron chuckled, the smirk on his face hidden by his high collar. "More or less. You're acting like you've been gone a few years, instead of a few months."
Tidus shrugged helplessly. "What can I say? I'm loving every minute I spend here on Spira."
Jecht looked over Tidus' shoulder at Yuna, who was sharing a quiet conversation with her father, and grinned, elbowing his son gently in the stomach. "And who can blame you, eh? I figured she'd be good for ya, son. Back twelve years ago when I first met her, I looked at little Yuna and thought to myself, 'Self, you need to bring that crybaby of yours here to Spira just to hook him up with little Yuna. She'd sure be able to set him straight!'"
Tidus laughed and turned partially to look towards Yuna, who was holding up the lightsaber to her father, probably promising him that she would live up to their heritage. "She sure has, Dad. You were right about that."
Laughing, Jecht reached out and clapped his hand onto Tidus' shoulder. "So, boy, when are you bringing the next generation of star blitzer into Spira?"
Tidus paled considerably and reeled back, blushing profusely. "Dad!"
Jecht burst out in even louder laughter, holding one arm over his stomach as he slapped the side of his leg in good jest. "I'm just kiddin' ya, boy! You should've seen the look on your face."
Scratching the back of his neck, Tidus glanced over to Yuna to see her laughing as well, but he caught the blush of her cheeks that told him she had also been embarrassed by Jecht's brash approach to their relationship.
Auron cleared his throat, then looked from Yuna to Tidus. "Do not worry about organizing Spira into a rebel movement. We will handle that. The Empire's stormtroopers cannot harm us. We will do that while you learn the ways of the Force. Yuna, I wish you luck." He focused his gaze on Tidus. "Keep her safe. Let her lean upon you for strength and support when she needs it the most."
Tidus nodded silently, his expression determined.
Braska hugged Yuna one last time, then stepped away from her. Almost as one, he, Jecht, and Auron all began to fade from sight. In moments, they were gone.
Drawing in a deep breath, Yuna turned toward Tidus and nodded, then both of them turned toward Lenne and Shuyin. Shuyin nodded to them, then turned and waved his right hand in the air. A glowing orange portal appeared in the air before them.
"This will take you directly to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. Go, and become a Jedi, Yuna."
Nodding silently, Yuna linked hands with Tidus and stepped into the portal, allowing silence and white light to overcome them.
A/N: Ew. I hate how that chapter ended up. I swear up and down that this is the LAST time I watch TV while working on a fanfic. It's just so disgustingly decrepit in my eyes. Ah well. Shit happens. On to shout-outs.
Morgaine of the Fairies: Ah yes. I should've put at the beginning of the last chapter "And now, with a special guest appearance from Luke Skywalker!" Hah. No, you will not see Yuna removing her own limbs with the lightsaber. You will, however, see a very pissed-off Yuna wielding the Force and a lightsaber in upcoming chapters. It will not be pretty.
Furitaurus: Sorry, man. The role of über-l337 Jedi chick has already been filled. But look! Rikku got to find the only weapons that Spira can really use against the Empire! That's cool, right? :D And on another note, I do not condone character death at all. ; So you needn't worry about that.
Wolfy16: Thanks for the words. And hey man, lemme tell ya. When inspiration comes up and slaps you in the face, you gotta roll with the punches!
