Disclaimer: I don't own FFX, but I do own my explanation as to how the Sphere Grid works in this chapter.


Chapter 3—Desertion

The dark sky is the perfect setting to the feelings I'm having right now. Alone, and utterly disoriented. The trip through the portal was strange, almost like someone had thrown me in a washing machine. Looking around, I notice that we seem to be near some sort of large stone structure, which lies further off in the distance, across a body of water of some sort. Turning to Tidus, who I noticed was unconscious beside me, I shake him awake, shaking my head as well to clear the dizziness out.

"Hey, are you okay?" I ask Tidus, who sits up and looks at me, clearly still a little woozy from the trip as well.

"Yeah, I'm okay. You?" he replies.

"I'm fine. Luckily, we're both here in one piece, at least." I say, chuckling a little on the inside.

Standing up, Tidus looks around for a moment, before crying out.

"Anybody there? Auron! Heeey!" he yells, getting no response, except the calm moving of the water nearby.

Looking up, I notice a bird in the sky, moving towards the stone monument. Pointing at it, Tidus follows my gaze, before nodding. As we both swim off, following the bird's flight, I continue to think about what I'm truly here for.

'I don't understand. Why would the fayth pick me...I mean, out of all the people in the world, why me? What makes me so special?'

My thoughts were interrupted by Tidus yelling out to me, barely managing to warn me of the piece of stone that was directly in my path. Quickly turning, I continue to follow for a moment, until we finally reach the ruined structure. Moss and mold dot the surface of the ruins, and pieces of stone are chipped and cracked, sometimes completely missing from the spot they were supposed to occupy. Stepping onto a small stone platform, I take a moment to admire the surroundings, before following Tidus up a stone walkway.

Tidus walks for a minute or two, before suddenly stopping to take a look around. Glancing at the tranquil water below us, I almost feel at peace for a brief moment. Then, the path just falls out from under us. So much for the silent moment. Landing in the water with a hard splash, I wince, having never fell into a body of water from that height. Tidus, however, seems relatively unfazed.

'Must be the blitzball games...' I think to myself.

Suddenly, I notice the water churning nearby, as something seems to be approaching us, at quite the rapid pace to be precise. Fumbling for my katana, I draw it, albeit slower than normal. I suppose it's because I've never had to swim and wield a sword at the same time. Tidus draws his own blade, having the same slight bit of trouble that I had, as the creature finally reveals itself. Or should I say, creatures. It's a pack of small fish, looking somewhat like piranhas, but a little bigger. The fish surround us, as I call out to Tidus, while forming a plan at the same time.

"Ok, you get the one in front of you, and I'll get the one behind us! Try and dodge the third one until we can kill one of the others!"

Tidus nods, and turns his attention to the first fish, while I turn around to deal with the second. The first darts in, trying to take a bite out of Tidus' arm, but instead gets a mouthful of cold steel, as Tidus brings the sword in an arc, almost severing the lower jaw completely off the creatures body. As the second fish approaches me, I wait for the right moment, before stabbing my sword outwards, completely running the fish through. The blade bursts out of the other side, turning the water a slight shade of red.

As we turn our attention to the third fish, now alone, a rumbling noise catches our attention. Eyes going wide, we watch as a gigantic fish swims by and crunches down on the smaller piranha type creature, killing it instantly in a gush of red blood and snapping bones. The fish swims ahead for a moment, before suddenly noticing us, turning back around to stare us dead in the eyes. Tidus and I look at each other, mentally deciding what to do. Our mental debate ends when Tidus charges the shark-type fiend, cutting a jagged slash across its right flank.

The shark counterattacks, though, ramming Tidus away with its large bulk, before charging at us before we can react. I get my senses back just in time, and dart out of the way, holding my sword out behind me as I move. That cuts another gash across the opposite side of the creature. Letting out a bellow, or growl of some sort, of pain, the creature circles back for another attack. Looking at Tidus, I nod, and knowing we can't win this battle, we turn around, swimming the other way as fast as we possibly can.

Looking around while we swim for our lives, Tidus notices a small opening that we can fit into, and we start swimming for that as if our lives depended on it. Which, right now, they happen to. The bad part is, the shark is a lot faster than we are, and despite our small head start, it's rapidly gaining ground on us. Jaws open wide, the creature prepares to swallow us whole, as we are just a couple of feet from the opening. We are almost completely in the creature's mouth, when it's forced to stop, or risk running into the wall. Because of that, we make it safely into the hole. Unfortunately for the shark, it misjudged how far it needed to be to stop in time, and ends up crashing into the wall anyway. We rolled away quickly, as several large boulders fall down where we were just at, blocking off the entrance.

The first thing we realize, besides the fact that we're still alive, is that it's cold. Very cold. Tidus speaks then, shivering the whole time.

"Cold...need fire..." he says, looking around.

"Tell me something I don't know..." I reply, walking towards the center of the room along with Tidus. Noticing a place to build a fire there in the center, we split up and begin to look for anything we can burn. Several minutes later, we meet back up at the central area. Tidus found some stones to use as flint, and I found a pile of tinder. Using what we found, we quickly get a fire started, and sit down beside it to warm up. Tidus lays back, and says the one thing that I didn't need to hear.

"I need food."

That got my stomach rumbling, as I realize I haven't eaten anything since arriving in Spira.

'Thanks a lot, Tidus.' I think silently, almost glaring at the teen.

Tidus seems to have zoned out on me now, a dazed look in his eyes as he stares at the ceiling of the room.

(Flashback)

"What do you want?" Tidus says, staring at Auron, who stands in front of him.

"It was a bad call. Your team lost because of you." Auron replies, a disappointed tone to his voice.

"You came to say THAT?!" Tidus says, shocked.

Auron doesn't reply, instead silence overtakes the area for a moment, before Auron speaks again.

"It's been...ten years. I thought you'd be crying."

Tidus stares for a moment, before replying.

"Who, me?"

The fayth suddenly appears then, deciding to add his own input to the conversation.

"You cried."

(End Flashback)

About 20 minutes has passed, and Tidus still looks out of it, but now he looks like he's falling asleep. Mentally debating with myself on whether to slap him awake or not, I decide against it. The fire starts to die, though, and suddenly Tidus springs up, wide awake now at the sudden lack of heat.

"Hey, wait! Wait! Don't go out on me! Just hold on. I'll get more wood!"

Tidus looks around for anything that could be used as firewood, when suddenly a clicking noise coming from above us alerts him. He looks up, and notices some kind of giant insect scurrying along the side of the wall. The bug jumps down, and we both draw our swords, preparing for a fight.

The monster, Klikk, jumps at Tidus, slashing downward with the front set of legs, only to have it arrested by the blade of Tidus' sword. I jump in, and slice my katana along the soft underside of the creature, eliciting a screech of pain from the insectoid. Enraged, it turns to me, and tries to pounce on me, only to land back on the ground as I roll away. Tidus takes that moment to slash the creature along it's back. Another screech comes from the creature, as it turns around and in one swift move, slashes Tidus across the chest while knocking me away with the back set of legs. Stumbling back and holding his chest, Tidus glances at me, laying several feet away on my back.

"You okay over there?"

I glance back at him, noticing the tear in his shirt and blood seeping from the gash.

"I'm fine, but you better be worried about yourself!"

He turns back to the creature, just in time to avoid a strike that would've decapitated him on the spot.

Suddenly, one of the makeshift doors to the room explodes outward in a deafening roar and shower of wood shards, as several armed men rush into the room, followed by a girl in a bodysuit and goggles. The girl runs up, and mutters something in a language that neither of us understand, before pulling out a small object and pulling something away from it, then throwing it at the creature. I realize just what it was in the nick of time.

"Get down!" I shout, throwing myself to the floor, Tidus shortly after, before the grenade goes off with a loud explosion, blowing the top half of the creature completely apart, before it dissolves into pyreflies.

Tidus walks up to the girl, staring her in the face, as she lifts her goggles up. Tidus stares, mouth wide open for a moment, before sighing.

"Whew! That was close." he says, not noticing the man walking up behind him. All of a sudden, both of us are grabbed by the arms, Tidus struggling immediately against the contact.

"Hey! Lemme go!" he cries, before shutting up as several more of the men surround us and point guns in our faces.

"Fryd ec drec?" one of the men says, turning to another.

"Y fiend! Eh risyh teckieca!"

A third then cuts in, looking at the other 2 men.

"Oac! Ed ec cu!"

One of the men suddenly steps in front of Tidus, brandishing a knife and holding it to his throat. I gulp, thinking about what might happen if this doesn't exactly go the way it does in the game.

"Fa gemm ed?"

Suddenly, the girl decides to speak up, staring at the man who had the knife to Tidus' throat.

"Fyed! Fryd ev ed ec risyh?"

The man stops for a minute, before pointing the knife at the girl.

"Drao yna dra cysa eh taydr."

The girl seems mad now, as she speaks again, this time with a definite angry tone.

"E vunpet ed! Fa pnehk ed fedr ic!"

She then turns, walking over to Tidus. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that we're going to be okay now, for the moment at least.

"Cunno." she says, before driving her knee into Tidus' stomach, making him groan in pain for a moment, before passing out completely. The next thing I know, I'm slammed in the back of the head with what I can only assume is the butt of a gun, and for the first time in my life, fall unconscious.

When I wake up, I find myself on a ship of some kind. Wincing at the waves of pain now shooting through the back of my skull, I drag myself into a sitting position and examine my surroundings. Tidus is laying several feet from me, still unconscious. Everything else...is ocean. And nothing but ocean. No islands, or any other kind of land, for that matter. Suddenly, a moan from Tidus catches my attention, and I turn back around to see him also sit up. Unfortunately, one of the men from earlier notice this as well, and turns around to glare at him. Or, what I assume was a glare. After a moment, the man walks over and hits him, sending him falling back.

"Ced, lybdeja!"

"Hey, that hurts!" Tidus said, falling backwards. The man just stands there, before speaking again in an equally harsh tone.

"Hu sujehk, rayn?"

Tidus seems stunned by the fierceness of his voice, and just stays still.

"Whoa...okay." he says, turning to look at me. I shrug, even though I have a perfect knowledge of what's going on, and who everyone is, I act as if I know about as much as he does. I look past him, and he follows my gaze, as two more people approach us, one of which is the girl from earlier. The other is a tall man, taller than the girl, with a blond mohawk. He was also wearing goggles, like all the rest of the ship's crew.

"Caynlr res!" the man shouts, beginning to make a strange series of motions with his arms, which I can only assume mean something about swimming. Tidus just stares, a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Right. Whatever."

The man walks up to Tidus, gesturing even more.

"Tu oui hud cbayg?" he says, pulling out some sort of necklace, and gesturing to it now. Tidus looks a bit annoyed by now, but then again, if you ended up in a place where you couldn't understand anyone, wouldn't you?

"I said I don't understand!" he yells, waving his arm through the air at the man. Another one of the men then points his gun at Tidus, apparently seeing the action as a hostile gesture.

"Ehcumala!" he cries, before the girl suddenly moves towards Tidus, motioning for the other 2 to stop.

"Fyed!" she cries, causing the other 2 to stop what they were doing. "He said you can stay if you make yourself useful."

Tidus blinked in shock for a moment, his eyes going wide.

"You...you understand me?" he says, right before the man behind him smacks him in the back of the head with the gun. "All right, I'll work!" he yells, annoyed at being hit so many times. I shake my head, and begin to walk over to Tidus and the girl, before she looks at me.

"Are you going to help too?"

I nod, and walk to the edge of the boat, peering down for any sign of anything. Unfortunately, I can't see anything because the water is too murky. Sighing, I turn back around and walk over to the group.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Let me show you two how to use the Sphere Grid!" she says, pulling 2 rectangular objects out of a pocket of her suit. I raise an eyebrow at the mention of the Sphere Grid. I had known what it looked like in the game, but I didn't expect it to be an object. Tidus and I each take one, and I turn it over in my hand.

"This is the Sphere Grid, I take it?" I say, glancing at the girl.

Nodding, she turned to me, and began to explain.

"The Sphere Grid has a lot of magic power in it, and it's able to determine what abilities you have as well. They're all different from one person to another. Sometimes, when you kill a fiend, they'll drop little spheres, that represent different things. Strength, Mana, or even keys to learning new abilities. When you find one, you check the little map on the screen here." She pointed to the black part of the device, which showed a little grid of circles, connected by small lines. "This is where you are," she said, pointing to a small circle that had a tag with my name on it, "and this is how you use it." She took out a small sphere, red in color, and inserted it into a slot on the side. "Now, you can use that little arrow pad to move where you want. Move up one space." I nodded, and moved to where she told me, before she pressed a green button, and the circle I was now at went from a dull gray color, to a rosy red. As soon as it happened, I felt just a little stronger.

"That one was for strength, I assume?" I say, looking up at her.

Nodding, she smiled. "See? You've gotten it already! And as long as you have it somewhere close to you, you'll get the effects from what you've done! So don't worry about suddenly losing a lot of power or magic, because it gets knocked away from you in battle or something! Now, let me go show blondie over here how it works."

Laughing, I smile back at her, and place the device into a pocket on my pants. No sense in losing it this early on. Walking back to the edge of the boat, I sit down and start to think about everything up to this point.

'Well, in roughly the span of an hour or so, I've been through a city's destruction, fighting Sinspawn, fighting a huge bug type thing, been unconscious for the first time ever, outside of sleeping of course, and figured out how to use a magical artifact. And to think, it's only gonna get weirder from here.'


If you need a translation for the Al Bhed conversations, you should be able to find a translator on the net, by Google search or something. I'm assuming, though, that if you've played the game, you should know what was said. As always, please read and review!