Hello everyone! I'm back and I can't wait for you to read this chapter! (Well, actually I can but you all will probably just get angry with me.) Sorry to tell this but Tidus is late today, I have no idea what happened to him.

Tidus: I'm back. Sorry I'm late but I ran into trouble.

V: AHH! What happened to your hair!?

T: It's your fault! -covers now bald head with hands- You didn't post soon enough and one of you fans was good on his threat.

V: Well I can't very well write now with you looking like that.

T: Hey! You think I want to look like this!

V: Well, put this on. -opens desk drawer and pulls out curly wig.- -Drops on Tidus's head- That's better... I think.

T: Not really.

V: Oh well. At least now I can write. Chapter 12 is up and ready!

T: Enjoy.

Chapter 12: Maps Unfolded

"Hey, you're finally awake." Yuna heard Tidus say as she slipped out of the darkness and back into reality.

"How... how long have I been asleep?" She asked wearily while pushing herself up onto her elbows and placing a hand on her forehead. She found herself lying in bed and covered with blankets.

"A long time" Tidus answered with a shrug. "It's morning now."

"It was Auron I saw... wasn't it?"

Tidus nodded again. "I knew you would be surprised but I didn't expect you to pass out."

"Where are they?" She pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked around.

"Wakka went back to the stadium to meet up with the rest of the Aurochs." He answered. "As for Auron... I don't quite know where he went."

"He's probably the only one who can tell us what's going on and you just let him disappear."

"He said he would come back." Tidus reasoned.

Yuna settled back down in the bed and pulled the covers closer. "So, while I wasn't here, did you find out anything new?"

Tidus nodded. "It's a long story. I'll tell you that much."

"Well settle down and tell me." Yuna said while motioning to the other half of the bed. "I'm in the mood to listen to a long story."

"Hey, captain, are you all right?"

Wakka let out a loud groan as he rolled over onto his side to get the sunlight out of his eyes. His head was pounding and he was feeling queasy.

"You drank too much last night, didn't you?" Jassu assumed as he walked over to the bed Wakka was lying in.

"How could you do something like that?" Datto interrupted.

"Yeah, you always tellen' us that we should be keepen' our wits about us and you go off and get drunk." Botta continued, combing his hand through his red hair.

"There was a lot going on." Wakka mumbled as he hid his face against his pillow.

The rest of the Aurochs were not swayed by his answer and continued their chastising until Wakka finally got sick of it and forced himself up out of the bed and out of the room.

"I'm never gonna do something like that again." He whispered to himself while rubbing his hands over his face.

He had thought about telling the rest of the team about what he had encountered the night before, but he knew that he didn't have enough information to tell the story properly. He would just be barraged with millions of questions he wouldn't be able to answer. Either that or the team would not believe a word he said. In truth, he wasn't entirely sure what had happened the night before.

He sighed and looked over to a clock that was at the end of the hall. 11:36. He would have to get ready and get back over to Tidus's home before noon. That would take a while since he couldn't fully remember the way. They were going to start planing how they would go about on their search for the others.

He started off down the hall when he paused and looked down to the room he had just left. Should he tell the others where he was going? It would be a good thing to have more people in the search, but he shook off the notion. He didn't think that they would believe him. They would probably just continue going on about how much he had to drink the night before.

"I'll tell em' later." He whispered to himself. "Better to have someone with me to back up me up."

Tidus sat up when he heard a loud knocking at the door. He looked over to his alarm clock. 12:00 noon, exactly.

"Never was the type to be late." He said to Yuna, referring to Auron.

He got up onto his feet and stretched his arms straight up over his head and stood up on his toes. He yawned loudly before bringing his arms back down and started for the door.

"Always one to keep your guests waiting." Auron stated as soon as Tidus opened the door.

"Yeah, yeah." Tidus stepped to the side so Auron could step through. "Quit acting like you've never done the same to me."

"Did you tell her?"

"Yep." Tidus said as he dropped down onto one of the couches and propped his feet up on the table. "Told her everything you told me."

Auron looked over to Yuna when she stood up and nodded to her.

Yuna smiled and combed one of her hands through her hair. "Hello Auron."

"Now all we have to do is wait for Wakka." Tidus said as he leaned back and interlocked his fingers behind his head.

He closed his eyes and waited while Yuna and Auron continued their conversation. A while there was a knocking at the door got his attention. Before he had a chance to get up Auron was already at there and had it open.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Wakka said as he stepped through the door. "I kinda got a little lost on my way here."

"A little?" Tidus looked over to the clock. "Nearly an hour."

Wakka shrugged his shoulders. "I forgot the way."

"Can we begin now?" Auron asked as he pulled a rolled parchment out of his robes.

Tidus nodded and Auron unrolled the scroll on the table to reveal a detailed map of Spira. Everyone leaned over the table and scanned over the paper.

"Where do we start?" Yuna asked as she scanned over all the lands, trying to put it in proportion with the Spira she had seen in the dream.

"Does anyone here know where anyone else is?" Tidus asked as he did the same.

"Yeah." Wakka replied. He tapped down near the bottom of the map where it was just possible to see a small island. "Lu should still be in Besaid."

"I have a feeling Kimahri will be around Mount Gagazet." Yuna said as she touched the tip of her nail on the mountain pass.

"So we have two choices." Tidus said as he leaned in closer. "We can either go through the mountains and travel down or take a ship around the coast to Besaid and work our way back up." He placed his fingertip on the map and traced the two proposed paths.

"Well we know that Lulu is in Besaid." Yuna said, her voice a little timid.

"At least she was when I left." Wakka interrupted.

"Hey, let her finish Wakka." Tidus glared at the other blitzer for a second before looking back over to Yuna and waiting for her to continue.

"It's just that I think it would be better to go through Mount Gagazet."

"Plus, it would help with shortening traveling time." Tidus added. "We'd just be passing by on the boat and end up at the same place." He looked over to Auron, who just nodded and seemed to turn away from the conversation.

"We've seem to made consideration for where Kimahri and Lulu are, but what about Rikku?" Tidus added.

"Rikku?" Wakka asked.

"Yeah, she could be anywhere."

"Bikanel Desert?" Yuna suggested.

"Maybe." Tidus thought about it for a second. "But how would we know for sure? That desert is a big place and it would be impossible to finds anyone there. Were also not even sure she would be there since it seems like she goes everywhere."

"It would just be a stroke of luck to find her at all." Yuna finished.

"We should just find the people we know we can find first, ya?" Wakka suggested as he looked over to the others to see their reactions. "And then search for others."

A look of relief flashed over his face when he saw everyone else nodding their agreement.

A long time passed as they all thought up, discarded, and recreated strategies for searching the rest of Spira.

"What if she's in Zanarkand?" Tidus asked. "This is a big city and we still haven't searched everywhere yet."

"I can get the rest of the Aurochs to search the city." Wakka said, finally thinking of a use for them. "All I need is someone here to come with me to prove my story."

Everyone looked over to Auron.

"Well, Auron, since you have yet to contribute much to this plan, and since you know the most about what is going on then maybe you will be willing to go with Wakka."

Auron didn't say anything, but just moved away from the wall he had been leaning against and moved over to the door out. "Come." He said to Wakka before exiting through the door.

"Yeah, yeah." Wakka said as he headed for the door. He disliked the way Auron had taken control.

"What do you want to do now?" Tidus asked as he rolled up the map.

Yuna stretched her arms up over her head before answering. "I could really go for a walk."

Tidus smiled at the suggestion. "That's perfect. "He said as he took her hand and led her out of the house. "I just remembered, I have the perfect place to take you."

"Where?" She asked as she went along with his insistent tug.

His only response was, "You'll see."

After only a few minutes he stopped tugging on her arm and just walked with her. Leading her to the place he remembered. There was plenty of time to get there.

"Remember back in the dream?" He whispered into her ear. "Back in Macalania Woods?"

Yuna nodded as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"When I described the Zanarkand sunrise to you?"

A smile slowly spread across her lips. "Yeah." She whispered as she pressed herself closer to him.

"I know you've probably seen hundreds of sunrises..."

"But none of them were with you." She finished for him. "And that should be a new experience all on its own."

They traveled the rest of the way staying as close together as they possibly could. Blitzball fans, mostly young women, started following the couple as they slowly walked down the sidewalk. Tidus did his best to ignore the fans that continually called out his name or tried to grab onto his outfit. Yuna tried her best to ignore the fact that every young girl following them was fawning over the man she loved.

"Let's say we loose this crowd. Wouldn't want this evening ruined by this group." He whispered into her ear. When she nodded he craned his neck up to see the road up ahead. "When I tell you, start running as fast as you can and follow me."

A few blocks away the perfect opportunity arrived. There was a large crowd of people traveling over the streets and sidewalks. "Now." Tidus said as he sprinted forward, Yuna right at his heels and holding onto his hand. With the sudden rush there was confusion all around them and they were easily able to slip into the crowd.

The two of them were able to turn into a side street and disappear from the following fans. They continued their run for only a little while longer before slowing down again into a walk.

After a short time they ended up at a secluded section of beach. By that time the sun had already set and the stars were bright across the night sky. The moon shone so full and large, just barely touching the edge of the water.

"It's so beautiful." Yuna whispered as she stared up at the little dots of light in the blackness.

"It gets better." Tidus whispered back.

The both of them moved closer to the water until they were only a few feet away from the waters edge. Tidus dropped down to the sand and Yuna slipped down to sit down beside him. Both of them would talk and laugh some of the time, while at other times they would just sit in silence. They only truly needed each other's company to truly be happy.

Yuna fell asleep after a while, leaning against Tidus's shoulder, and he did not disturb her until the time had come.

"Hey, wake up." He whispered into her ear. "You're going to miss it." She slowly opened her eyes as the night came to its end.

The sky just above the ocean waters slowly started to change color. Changing from black, to dark blue and purple. Soon the colors spread farther up into the sky and were followed by pinks and then oranges. Finally, the sun's first rays slipped up over the horizon, dazzling the waters moving waves.

They stayed there, watching the spectacle until the sun had risen completely past the ocean and the light was warming their faces.

"We should be getting back." Tidus whispered.

"Just a few more minutes." Yuna whispered back while pushing herself closer to him.

V: Aww. So sweet.

T: This thing really itches. -scratches head-

V: Then just take the wig off.

T: Oh right -pulls off to reveal a full head of hair-

V: My, that grew back fast!

T: Yeah, -brushes hand through hair- It's amazing what you can do when you're a video-game character.

V: Oh... I wouldn't know anything about that.

T: I'm impervious to anything your wild fans might do to me!

V: Hey! Don't gloat like that or they'll try to find something else to do to you!

T: Oh... I guess I didn't think about that. Oops.

V: Oh well, let's end this before you set yourself up for even more trouble. Good-bye to all you fans out there!

T: Yeah. Hope to see all of you again. Preferably without any sharp instruments in you possession.

End Transmission