No one said anything for a while. Everyone was waiting for the Fayth to speak. He didn't. Then, without warning, he disappeared. Rikku looked around, searching for the boy-spirit.

"Hey!" Paine shouted, her grip on her sword tightening. There was silence for a moment. All that anyone could hear was the wind, and a few people clearing their throats. It didn't register with any of them that time had started again until a young woman in the crowd spoke.

"Well, I suppose we owe our thanks to all of you." She said quietly. Kairi, Yuna, Rikku, Paine and Tidus all jumped in surprise. The woman didn't seem to notice, nor did anyone else. "On behalf of the citizens of Zanarkand, we offer our thanks." She said, nodding. She turned and disappeared into the crowd, leaving to go home. After she left, the crowd seemed to disperse. The group of five was left standing on the steps of the stadium, completely dumbfounded. They snapped out of it when the voice of the Fayth echoed through the archway. I cannot take you back. You have to find your own way now.

"What?!" Yuna asked, shocked, spinning to face the arch. There was no one there. Her eyes dropped, and she stared at the marble ground in front of her. "How can we get back alone…?" She asked, her voice betraying her despair. She felt Tidus behind her, his arms winding their way around her.

"It's going to be okay, we'll find a way." He whispered, though his voice, too, told her that he was just as desperate as she was. There was silence for another minute or two, until Kairi stifled a yawn. Paine nodded.

"Kairi's right." Everyone looked at her, confused.

"Me?" Kairi asked, covering another yawn.

"Yes, you. We need to get some sleep. We have to find a way back to Spira tomorrow, and the last thing we need is to not have enough sleep. There's got to be some beds somewhere in this stadium." She started back into the stadium through the arch, the others following her. Yuna sighed, still preoccupied with the matter of getting back. Kairi, who was walking beside her, looked curiously at her.

"Are you okay?" She asked, worried. Yuna shook her head.

"We can't get back to Spira alone, it's hopeless." she confided, frowning. Kairi smiled sadly.

"Never, ever, ever give up hope."

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The group stopped when they reached the entrance to the backstage. The backstage door was infront of them. To their left there was two hallways, one angled slightly in front of them one angled slightly behind. To their right, there were two similar hallways.

"Which way do we go now?" Kairi asked, voicing the thought on everyone's minds. Everyone looked at each other, clueless. It was Paine who came up with an idea.

"We'll split up. Rikku, you go that way." Paine pointed to the front-left hallway. "Kairi, you go that way." She pointed to the back-left hallway. "Yuna, you go that way." She pointed to the back-right hallway. "I'll go this way." She pointed to the front-right hallway. "We'll meet back up at the big hole the fiend came out of in…an hour." Tidus cleared his throat. Paine looked at him thoughtfully. "Okay, Tidus you can… well, just go with Yuna." She looked at Yuna, half-smiling. "Don't get distracted, you've got a job to do." With that, she started down her hallway. Giggling, Kairi and Rikku did the same. Yuna blushed, grinning, and took Tidus' hand, starting down their hallway as well.

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Kairi frowned. This definitely isn't the right place to be looking for a place to spend the night. She thought, opening yet another door that led to yet another janitorial/ mechanical room. She'd found the room where they kept all the water pumps, the broadcasting room, the core of the security center, and hundreds of broom closets. It has to be getting close to an hour that I've been looking. She decided, turning a corner. She stopped abruptly when she nearly ran into a leather wall. Looking up, she found that it was in fact a very tall, very broad-chested man who was wearing a leather jacket. He frowned down at her.

"What are you doin' 'round here?" He asked in an odd accent. Kairi took a step backwards so she could see him properly, but he stepped toward her again, obviously trying to intimidate her. She stepped back again, but again he stepped toward her. Exasperated, she moved toward him, stepping on one of his feet. He backed up and glared at the small but defiant girl. "Just who do ya think you are?" He asked, glaring at her.

"I'm looking for-." Kairi began, but her cut her off.

"I don't care what yer lookin' for. You're not s'posed to be in here."

"But-."

"Scat, get outta here. Didn't ya see the 'do not enter' sign back there?"

"But-."

"Stop with the 'but's and leave, please and thank you." He spoke with finality. Kairi fought the urge to argue and turned on her heel, walking swiftly back the way she came. I guess I might as well start looking for the way back to the meeting place. She thought, taking in her surroundings as she walked down the hall.

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Rikku's luck was no better than Kairi's was. She was sitting against the wall, looking to her right for a moment, then to her left. Her hallway split into two, and she'd been sitting there for a surprisingly long time, trying to decide which way to go. She didn't think she was in much of a hurry; she was in the completely wrong area to find a place to sleep anyways. She'd stumbled upon the player's change rooms, a number of rooms with chalk boards and white boards and big projection screens. She imagined that these were where the teams made up plays and such. She'd also found a weight-training room, and a huge number of equipment storage rooms. She really wasn't even thinking about which way she should go anymore. She was letting her mind wander. Then again, letting her mind wander was never a good idea, because she always seemed to think about things that she didn't like to think about. Or rather, she didn't want to decide if she liked or disliked thinking about these things. Either way, her mind was drawn back to reality when she heard a pair of footsteps running on the floor above her. She smiled. Must be Tidus and Yunie. Wonder if they found anything? I'll find out in an hour. An hour! She jumped to her feet.

"Oh no! It's been way over an hour! I'm so late!" She cried, setting off at a sprint back down the hall.

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Paine's hallway led her all the way round the stadium. Every door she opened led to some sort of conference room, some more extravagant than others. She found herself in a huge room with a domed roof. It looked almost like a fairy-tale ballroom, with marble floors, lavish furniture and expensive décor. She thought that it must be the room where the staff and players received their personal guests, or where they received celebrities who came to watch the games. There were three doors along the wall to her right and one door on the wall to her left. She opened the three doors first. The closest revealed a large room that was empty except for a few chairs along the walls and a long table against the far wall. The second opened to a room very similar to the first, except that it was full of round tables. The third door opened to a smaller version of the huge reception hall she was in now. She crossed the room and opened the last door, only to find that it opened into the middle of the stadium. Paine shrugged.

"And this concludes my search." she decided, walking over to the hole. She'd only been standing there a minute or two when she heard footsteps approaching her. Looking up, she saw Kairi walking towards her. "Did you find anything?" Paine asked.

"Hundreds of broom closets and a grumpy old man." Kairi replied. Paine almost laughed. Kairi looked around. "Am I late?"

"No, I was early. And so are you. Yuna, Tidus and Rikku won't be back for at least 20 minutes."

"Oh. Okay." Kairi said, sitting down. She let herself fall backwards, her back landing on the ground with a soft thump, and started staring up at the stars. Her eyebrows furrowed in worry when she saw how few there were. "Why are there so few stars? Weren't all the planets revived when the Heartless were all locked away?" She asked. Paine didn't have any idea what she was talking about.

"You can't see all the stars because of the city lights." She answered slowly.

"But, even if the lights weren't there and the sky was completely clear, there wouldn't be anymore stars." Kairi told her, still worried.

"How would you know that? Have you ever seen it without all the lights?" Paine asked disbelievingly.

"No, but I can feel it. After being in the dark so long, I can feel light more acutely than anyone else can. It's the same with emotions. I can tell. There are no other stars up there, no matter how dim." There was silence for a moment.

"Why does it matter so much? So what if there's only a few stars?"

"So what?! How can you say that?!" Kairi asked, sitting up a little. Paine looked confused.

"What's the big deal over how many starts there are?" Paine asked slowly. Kairi relaxed when she realized that Paine didn't understand.

"Each star is a planet. When the Heartless take a planet, a star goes out. A few years ago, planets were falling into darkness so often that it wasn't uncommon for the sky to have only a few stars, despite Sora locking up as many planets as he could. It was only after he locked all the Heartless into Kingdom Hearts that most of the stars were rekindled. The number of stars here…I'm really worried about it. What if the Heartless have escaped?" There was another moment of silence as a still-confused Paine tried to grasp what Kairi was talking about. Her thoughts were interrupted though, as Tidus and Yuna walked toward them.

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Yuna's and Tidus' hall took them up a flight of stairs and into a wide hallway lined with vendor stalls. They met only one person as they walked through the hall in their search; an old janitor. They stopped and asked him if there were any beds and where they could find some, but he either couldn't hear them or chose to ignore them. Everyone else: all the vendors and the buyers and the scalpers were all gone home. The pair came across another flight of stairs. Climbing it, they found themselves on a long balcony that ran all the way around the top of the stadium. It was surprisingly windy, but the view was beautiful. Looking out over the city, Yuna had to ask.

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?" Tidus asked in reply, content to forget about their job for a moment and hold her in his arms. It was something he hadn't done in a long time, and he wouldn't admit, even to himself, just how much he'd missed it. Yuna was happy to snuggle closer to him, taking in the breath-taking view.

"What's it like to live in such a huge city? It must be so exciting."

"It is. But it's lonely."

"Really? You think with so many people, you'd never be alone."

"Not physically alone. There are always people everywhere you go, but it's not like Spira. You don't just happen upon people you know here. And the people aren't the same. People don't smile and wave at you everywhere you go, whether you know them or not, not like they do in Spira." Movement caught his eye and he stopped talking abruptly. Yuna looked up at him, surprised. Looking down into the stadium, he saw two small shapes: one standing at the hole and one walking towards it. "Uhoh, looks like we're late." he said pointing. Yuna looked down.

"That's Paine and Kairi. Come on!" She took his hand and together they ran back down the stairs. Running down the wide hall full of vendor stalls, Yuna had the uncanny feeling that she'd been there before. Tidus, who was not only taller than her but had always been faster than her, was running just faster than she was. They were hand in hand, so he was almost pulling her, and she tripped. Tidus stopped and helped her up. Standing, she didn't move. She knew exactly where that feeling of déjà vu was from now. It was from the dream that she had where she and Tidus had relived the last moments of Lenne and Shuyin. It was exactly the same. She also knew all too well how the dream ended, and she was filled with the irrational fear that the same thing was going to happen to her and Tidus. Glancing quickly behind her, she almost expected to see Yevon guards running towards them. When there were none, she shut her eyes and slowed her breathing, trying to slow her racing heart.

"Yuna? Are you alright?" He asked, worried. His hand on her shoulder seemed her break her terrifying trance. She looked up at him, her expression solemn.

"Let's not run."