Chapter 4
A young boy sat sobbing amongst the ruins of a once great city. Crumbling spires towered around him that was interspersed with crumbling highways that now led to nowhere. He heard the soft sound of approaching footsteps behind him.
"Why are you crying?" inquired a woman's voice as she comfortingly slid her arms around his shoulders. He could see the golden bracelets that decorated her wrists along with the dark blue sleeves of her dress.
"I don't want you to die," he protested tearfully, "I want you to stay with me."
"I will always be with you," she explained, "My power will help you whenever you need it."
"Mother, please don't do this," said the little boy, grasping her hand and noting how cold it felt.
"I don't have much time left Seymour," she added, "You must be brave."
"Seymour?" said the boy, blinking back tears, "I'm not-." He looked up to see long black hair surrounding a skeletal face wrapped in ragged bandages, a single green eye glowing malevolently in the socket.
"No!"
Tidus sat bolt upright in his bed, drenched in sweat. He got up and walked across dark room, dressed only in shorts. After he washed his face with cold water from the sink he flicked on a switch, causing white tubes to illuminate his haunted and haggard reflection.
"What a weird dream," he mused aloud. As a foghorn sounded in the distance he gradually became aware that he was back on his old houseboat. He peered around in the gloom and saw the familiar oblong room lined with memorabilia on display: his first trophy cup, posters, and autographed Blitzballs were all there. A ramp wrapped around one corner and led up to a door with a round porthole. He picked a shirt and shoes off the floor and ran up the ramp out onto the deck.
He was standing on a wood paneled deck of a sleek boat. Behind him as staircase led up to a curved upper deck under an arch which supported the triangular mast. Stabilizing wings jutted out from either side of the cabin near the stern. Ahead of him a metal ramp was built into a retaining wall flanked by oval panels on the bow. Tidus frowned when he realized he couldn't see the sky. His boat had been moved into an indoor shed that enveloped everything in darkness.
"What the heck?" he muttered as he put on his shirt.
He walked down the gangplank onto a concrete indoor pier and found the door to the outside locked. He simply dived into the water and swam under the doors of the shed. Outside a ladder led onto a dock.
A cool night breeze was blowing in from the ocean as the crescent moon reflected off the harbor around him. It was built on a series of natural mesas ringed around a massive central pool. Each mesa rested on a foundation of stalagmites over which water spilled in endless cascades. Dark cylindrical and conical buildings rose up, lit up from within like constellations across the night sky. A giant arch of water gracefully spanned across the sky in defiance of gravity, the far end connecting a palatial series of building resting a giant cushion of water. The spires and minarets were interspaced with roads and highways that connected the mesas together in a giant web.
Tidus couldn't believe it: he was back in Zanarkand.
The centerpiece of the harbor was a large coliseum with a ring of pillars that supported a large oblong roof, which could retract during games to open the action to the sky. It rested on an island built far from shore, illuminated by floating spotlights and connected to the mainland by thin zigzagging causeways. From here it looked damaged but still functional. Obviously it had been repaired; he must have been gone a while, he thought.
He hastily walked down the dock to a sidewalk lit by the glow of streetlamps. He had no idea where he was going, but he had to find the others. Tidus fervently hoped that the Fayth had kept her side of the bargain. The idea of Zanarkand seemed hollow and meaningless if Yuna wasn't there to share it with him. His feet took him to a highway lined with towering flat buildings with built in waterfalls and garishly lit billboards advertising something or other. The roadway shimmered underfoot as if water was flowing through it. There were dozens of small scattered pits that had been hastily patched with asphalt. He bent down and felt one of them, lost in the memory of the first battle with the Sinspawn.
"Oh, it's Tidus!"
"Eeek!"
Tidus stood up to see a gaggle of teenaged girls standing nearby laughing and pointing at him. One of them, a redhead in a sleeveless blue dress and matching beret, approached him.
"Can I have an autograph?" she asked shyly, offering a piece of paper.
"What happened?" demanded her friend with short brown hair and a white jacket over a navy blue skirt, "The Abes haven't been the same without you."
"What, they fired me?" he asked as he finished signing the paper with a flourish. As much as he hated his old man, Jecht had taught him a lot about how to deal with fans, especially groupies.
"Nah, Vinc from the Duggles has been subbing for the last few games," said an auburn haired girl with a pink sweater, "But you knew that already."
"Oh yeah," replied Tidus with a straight face, "Just checking to see if I've been missed."
"Of course!" protested the redhead.
"You're the best!" said the girl in pink.
"See you at the next game girls!" he proclaimed with a wave as he walked away.
"We love you!" shouted the brown haired girl.
As he made his way into the city, he noticed how many stares he was getting. He must have been gone from here for the same amount of time he had spent in Spira. Several of the skyscrapers had been repaired since the attack by Sin, but the damage was still visible in places. The avenue opened up into a causeway that led to a floating plaza in front of the stadium. Niches with statues of past Blitzball greats were flanked by the pillars that ringed around the outer wall. The giant oval entrance door was tightly sealed but the circular viewscreens on either side were glowing with the triskelon symbol of the Zanarkand Abes. However, the colossal statues that had once flanked the entrance were absent, a mute testimony to the havoc that Sin had wrought.
Tidus suddenly felt like an idiot. Of course she would come here, considering how much she had wanted to see him play. He scanned the large crowd milling around the plaza and spotted Yuna almost at once. Still dressed in her summoner garments, she stood out like a sore thumb amidst the crowd decked out in urban streetwear around her.
"His name in Tidus," he could hear her saying faintly over the murmur of the crowd, "He plays for the Zanarkand Abes."
"Sorry sister," said a kindly old man, "But he hasn't been playing lately."
Tidus sighed and put his forefinger and thumb in his mouth and whistled loudly. She reacted like she had been shot, immediately turning to stare in his direction. He pushed through the crowd as she ran into his embrace.
"Thank Yevon!" she said, tightly clinging to him, "I was so worried!"
"Me too," he averred, "Although I'm not sure we should be thanking him."
"Sorry," she said looking up at him, "Force of habit." She began to chuckle and he joined her. Everything just seemed to be so absurd. Finally she pulled herself free self-consciously.
"What's wrong?" he asked as she took a step backwards.
"It's just…," as she faltered for the right words, "People are staring." Tidus suddenly became aware of the gaze of the curious bystanders surrounding them.
"Yeah, I'm kind of famous here," he admitted sheepishly. She smiled brightly as she put her hands together.
"That's great!" she said, "I know exactly how that feels!" He laughed a little at that.
"Well, it's not so great most of the time," he replied, "But I suppose you know that too."
"Yes," she answered with a nod. Together they walked out of the plaza down one of the main avenues, brilliantly lit by the glow of streetlights and shop windows.
"So how did you get here?" asked Tidus, after a long silence. She paused to look into a shop window, as if to avoid the question.
"The last thing I remember is fighting against Seymour and Anima," she said.
"Huh?" he said in puzzlement, "The last thing I remember is taking that destruction sphere from Tromell."
"You shattered her chains," she explained, "Then she stole you away and vanished."
"But we're both here now," he pointed out, "So she kept her promise."
"The city is truly beautiful," she said looking around her with a brave smile, "But I'm afraid something horrible will have to happen now."
"Why?" he demanded.
"Just being here with you," she said, "It feels like I'm asking for it." Tidus wondered if everyone in Spira felt that happiness was just a prelude to misery. Maybe a thousand years of Sin's wrath had beaten the optimism out of them.
"You only asked for me to take you to Zanarkand," he explained patiently, "And you're entitled to that." She nodded quietly and shyly took his hand.
"We'll find the others, right?" she asked.
"No problem," he said with a confident smirk. But then he felt a strange chill, like a cold wind was blowing through his bones.
A woman half a block away quietly watched Tidus and Yuna from among the milling crowd of pedestrians. She had brown hair and a careworn face. She wore black slacks and a white blouse under a loose sleeved yellow jacket. Her aquamarine eyes were filled with tears that streamed down her face.
"Forgive me," she said quietly, "It was the only way." Tidus turned his head and stared straight at her, with a surprised look. She gasped and quickly ran the other way down the block and into an alleyway. She emerged on the other side on a walkway that overlooked a waterfall cascading down from a higher mesa. After running for some time she paused along the railing to catch her breath.
"What have you done?" asked a small voice. She turned to see a young boy standing nearby. His face was hidden in the folds of a violet hood attached to a matching robe over dark pants. A red waist cord was tied around his midsection.
"I still bear the scars of our last battle," she said evasively as she leaned on the railing, "The pain still lingers in my heart."
"You know that this is wrong," explained the boy, "You shouldn't be here."
"I know," she replied sadly, "But I don't care."
"You don't care?" he asked staring up at her in shock.
"I am free of all conscience and duty," she replied, "And free to grant him happiness."
"What about Sin?" protested the boy.
"Just give him a little more time," she begged, "We are asking him to sacrifice everything."
"There's no time," he retorted, "We grow tired of the dreaming." She sighed and wiped away her tears demurely.
"I will continue to dream for his sake," she stated defiantly, "Even if I have to dream alone."
"Must it end this way?" protested the boy.
"I suppose it is our fate," she said regretfully as she began walking toward the center of the walkway. The boy walked from the railing until they were thirty paces apart. She could briefly make out the golden wheel emblazoned on the back of his robe.
"Last chance," said the boy, "Release him." She shook her head slowly. Angrily, he held up a hand. Four purple spheres materialized around him and careened at her. The force of the multiple blasts knocked her to the ground, where she rolled and tumbled violently. She was crazy, he thought, she could have easily put up a shield. Slowly cuts opened up on his face and arms and began to bleed; awful pains began to wrack his body.
"I can feel your pain," she murmured as she lifted her head, covered in identical cuts and bruises. She smiled grimly as blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. The boy staggered to one side and grimaced.
"What's going on?" yelled Tidus. They turned to see him at the far end of the walkway in a fighting stance.
"We will meet again," said the boy before running off into the alley. Tidus approached the woman and gingerly turned her over, cradling her in his arms.
"Are you alright?" he inquired before an expression of shock was frozen onto his face. She reached out with a hand and gently touched his face.
"I should have stayed away," she said regretfully, "But I couldn't resist your light." She then fell limp into his arms. Tidus gently picked her off the ground and turned to face Yuna, who had caught up by then.
"It can't be," he muttered.
"What happened," asked Yuna with concern, "Who is it?"
"It's my mother," replied Tidus with a helpless look.