FINAL FANTASY X: OBLIVION

PROLOGUE

The Final Sending

One year ago...

Yuna raised her staff majestically in the air, and started to perform the sending, one last time. She had done it. Sin, the bane of Spira for the past thousand years, was finally dead. Yu Yevon's reign of terror and deceit had come to an end. The peoples of Spira would hold onto their false traditions no more. A new age was about to begin... The age of the Eternal Calm. The colossal empty shell drifted slowly down, and suddenly exploded, erupting into a spectacular flash of light, blinding the night's sky. It was gone. But that was not all...

The summoning of Yu Yevon has ceased, which meant that the Aeons too, were departing. The fayth were awakening... As she performed the sacred dance, they dissolved in great flares of blue light. Valefor, Shiva, Anima. All of them. They were gone, forever.

Yuna laid down her staff gently on the deck of the airship. She turned round to face her guardians, the tears falling freely down her graceful face. She was smiling.

'Thank you everyone. For everything.'

But something was wrong.

'Tidus. Your hands...'

He looked down at his palms. They were not solid anymore. He knew what it meant.

'Yuna... I have to go.'

The guardians looked at him in confusion.

'Wha-?' mouthed Wakka.

'What's going on?' asked Rikku.

Yuna knew. It was just as the fayth had predicted.

But, you know... When it is all over...we will wake.

She shook her head in disbelief.

'No.'

'I'm sorry I couldn't show you Zanarkand.'

He took a few steps forward, and turned his head to look at the girl he loved...

And our dream will end.

...one last time.

'Goodbye.'

Our dream will vanish.

Yuna and her guardians watched in disbelief, as Tidus, the dream of the fayth from Zanarkand walked to the edge of the airship. He was leaving.

'We're going to see you again?' asked Rikku.

But Yuna knew the answer. No. They wouldn't. The reality of the situation was beginning to take a hold of her. Never see him again? After all they had been through together, was she just going to let him go? No... She wouldn't... she couldn't let it happen! She couldn't let him go!

'Yuna!'

Before she knew what she was doing, she was in a full run, the tears still pouring down her. Tidus turned around, and held out his arms for her. But to no avail. As she tried to grab hold of him, his body shimmered. Yuna lost her balance and collapsed in a heap on the deck. It was... just open air. His back to her, Tidus wept silently as the pyreflies dispensed themselves from his body, and disappeared in the night's sky, leaving bright trails behind them. It was hopeless. There was nothing she could do to stop it. It would be like trying to keep water cupped in her hands. It was over. Yuna regained her balance, and scrambled slowly to her feet. She closed her eyes.

'I love you.'

Tidus turned around, and looked at her delicate form. He walked behind her and raised his arms around her shoulders, embracing her in a hug which she couldn't feel. Yuna closed her eyes again, wishing that she could capture this moment forever. He was still glowing, becoming more transparent and less visible by the second. He... wasn't real. He lowered his arms, pressed his face against her hair and stepped through her with his illusory body. .He took his final few steps, leaped off the deck, floated down like a gliding feather, and disappeared into the clouds. Never to be seen again. He was gone.