Final Fantasy's Final Fantasies Presents:

Final Fantasy X: Auron and The Blitzball - In 6 Acts

ACT 1:

Lulu sat on the bench and rearranged her belts to get comfortable. Her cactaur and moogle were sitting on her shoulders, and she was just about to close her eyes when Wakka and Tidus came in, dripping and flushed from a game of Blitzball.

Lulu sighed. She couldn't figure out if Tidus' resemblance to her dead fiancé was painful or annoying. Of course, when he was acting like this, it was the latter...

"Man, you should have seen yourself, brother. Flying into de air like dat, it was amazing!" Wakka grinned at Tidus, throwing his ball into the air.

"Yes...yes, sometimes I do amaze myself!" Tidus said, stroking his chin with a smile.

Wakka shook his head. "I wish I could play like dat."

Lulu folded her arms. "All right, you had your little respite. You'd better be ready to get a move on tomorrow morning."

Wakka sank his head. "Right, right..."

"And another thing," Lulu said with growing vocal strength. "Where is Auron? I thought he was going to the stadium with you."

Tidus and Wakka shrugged.

"He split when we ended up at the stadium sphere," Tidus said.

Lulu sighed and rolled her eyes. "Just go to bed, you two. And don't wake anyone else up."

Tidus began walking to the inn, but Wakka looked at Lulu and made a woo-woo face. "Awwwww, is Little Lulu gonna wait up for Auuuuroooon...?"

He was cut off when Lulu threw her moogle at him and lit him on fire.

As Wakka danced with the flames, shrieking, Lulu rearranged her belts again, folded her arms, and closed her eyes.

ACT 2:

It was a mysterious calling, tugging in his heart, in his head, even his feet. Still, he could not shake his confusion.

Auron was standing in a strange blitzball uniform in the locker rooms under the stadium, home to the Zanarkand Abes. The problem, aside the fact he was in a blitzball uniform, was that he had no idea how he had ended up there in the first place. He vaguely remembered tagging along with Wakka and Tidus. They went through the sphere together. But after that, everything was a mix of jumbled, worried, incomprehensible thoughts and black voids.

Shaking his head, Auron began taking off the uniform, muttering curses to himself. He was not the type for blitzball, not after what had happened with Jecht, anyway, and especially not after that little incident with Tidus in Zanarkand.

ACT 3:

Auron tried to sneak back to the inn where his companions were staying, so no one would notice and confront him of his whereabouts. Just when he put his foot down on the first step of the stairwell, a shadow overtook him. He looked up and saw Lulu standing, arms folded, at the top of the stairwell.

"There you are," she said in a calm but ominous voice.

Auron had to keep his cool. He strode up the stairs and past her without meeting her cold gaze. "Why are you still up?"

"Huh! You're one to talk. Where have you been? You should have been in bed hours ago."

Auron ignored her and continued to his room.

Lulu followed him. "Auron, you can't fool me. I know you were at the stadium."

Auron flinched. "Trying to prove something?" he said testily to his bed.

"You smell like water, so unless you fell in a river or a canal or the sea, it stands to reason you were swimming around in the stadium. Hah. Who knew you were into Blitzball?"

"Think whatever you want. Stop bothering me and go to bed."

"There's this, too," Lulu went on, as if she hadn't heard Auron say anything.

Auron finally looked up, and his eyes grew round when he saw what Lulu was holding in her hands: a blitzball, shredded to bits.

Lulu dropped the ball onto the floor, where it landed with a splat. "I found this in here this morning, under your bed."

Auron bristled. "That isn't mine! And why were you in my room?"

Lulu sneered. "I was looking for my fire moogle."

Auron couldn't argue with that. He shook his head and turned away form Lulu again. "Just get out of here, will you."

Lulu shrugged. "All right, keep your secrets. But don't think I haven't noticed something strange is going on with you." She stepped out of the room and shut the door.

ACT 4:

Auron was having a terrible nightmare. In it, he was stuck in a Blitzball stadium, drowning, with hundreds of blitzballs chasing after him. He woke before dawn biting back a yell and lay in the dark in a cold sweat until breakfast.

Everyone was already seated and eating in the cafe by the time Auron arrived. Tidus and Wakka were eating with a well-used blitzball set between them on the table and talking animatedly with each other about the game. Kimahri was staring at his bowl, seated beside a head-bowed, thoughtful-looking Yuna. Lulu was sitting beside Wakka, also staring at her food with a furrowed brow; she looked up when Auron walked in.

Auron avoided her and sat beside Kimahri, who gave a nod.

"Hey, Auron. I heard you're into blitzball!" Wakka shouted across the table.

Everyone stared at him.

He shot dagger eyes at Lulu, who was smiling smugly. "Says who?"

"Lulu mentioned it this morning," Tidus said.

"Let me make one thing clear. I do not play Blitzball. I do not like it. I have never liked it. I never will like it." He pounded his fist on the table for emphasis, but nobody seemed the least bit fazed.

"It's okay, man. You don't gotta hide it!" Wakka laughed.

"Yeah, now you can play with us! You should have said something yesterday!" Tidus cried out, high-fiving Wakka.

Kimahri grunted a laugh.

Yuna smiled. "It's nice you've taken up a sport."

Auron exploded. "No, it is not nice I've taken up a sport! Have you all forgotten the journey we're on? The pilgrimage? The death and carnage surrounding our quest! And I am not playing Bliztball! I never have, and I never will!" He stormed out of the cafe.

Outside, Auron paced. He couldn't figure out what was wrong. He had no idea.

Well, he refused to let it get to him. He had more important things to worry about.

ACT 5:

Several days passed, and Auron and his companions found themselves in the Makalenia Forest. Auron had almost managed to wipe his slate clean of anything regarding himself and Blitzball, but it still tugged at his brain. When everyone stopped to make camp, Auron made sure to find a place far enough from the others to avoid any incidents should his nightmare return.

The nightmare did indeed return, and he woke up, sweating and terrified. As he calmed himself he noticed a strange glow to his right. Slowly, he turned. A blitzball was sitting next to his pillow, shining.

He was about to kick the ball away and demand to know who had played such a cruel joke on him when he heard a voice.

"Auron."

The voice was low and ethereal.

Auron's eyes shifted. "...What?"

"Auron...It is I, Jecht."

The voice really did seem to be coming from the blitzball.

"...Jecht? But you...I though you turned into Sin."

"Auron...I need you."

Auron sat up straight. "Now, I don't know about that-"

"Not like that, Auron," the ball said. "I need you to help my son."

"I'm already helping him."

The ball's glow intensified. "Everyone thinks I became Sin, but in reality I was sucked into this blitzball. I've been trying to leave you hints for the longest time. Tidus...Wakka...the ball under your bed... I even used what little strength I had left to transport you inside the blitzball stadium. But you just didn't understand."

Auron's eyes were narrowing. "If you're here now, in that ball, why did it take you so long? And dare I even ask how you got...sucked into a blitzball?"

The ball seemed to sigh. "Another team's practical joke. After I went missing, they fabricated the story of Spira and Sin."

Auron felt an ache in his temple. "...Then...what is we're going after, exactly?"

If blitzballs could shrug, Auron was positive this one would have. "No clue. Anyway, I need your help. Help my son get down the Jecht Shot, and use it on this ball I'm in here. That's the only way I can become Free."

Auron shook his head. "This is really bizarre...Jecht. I don't know if-"

"Please! You must help me! I haven't much time left! Strength...is fading...If you don't get me out of here, I may do something terrible again!"

"Terrible?"

The ball rolled forward an inch; Auron scooted back and clutched his blanket to his chest.

"The Curse... It sometimes causes harm to whomever comes in contact with this ball...it...aaah...no! No, not again!"

"Jecht!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the voice from the ball cried out.

Auron threw his arms over his eyes when a light flared up from the ball.

ACT 6:

After three days of searching, Lulu banded everyone together again. Auron was gone without a trace, plain and simple. All they found the morning they noticed he was gone was a squeaky clean blitzball where his body should have been.

Tidus and Wakka decided to take the ball and use it for practice, since theirs was growing old.

But they had to keep going. They had to defeat Sin, no matter what. And so they did. And when they met Sin, they killed it. After they succeeded and returned to the airship, Tidus did a victory blitzball move in midair. He managed on his first try to pull off a perfect Jecht Shot. The ball then began to glow, and then it shattered. The ghost of Jecht could be seen by everybody present, hovering before them all.
"Come...my son," Jecht's ghostly voice said.

"Dad..." Tidus' voice was strained.

Jecht held out his transparent arms.

"You were in this ball all along?" Tidus had picked up the remnants of the ball and was holding them close.

"I knew you would find out, one day. But it's time to come with me now. It is your Destiny."

Tidus nodded, for he knew it was true. "Yes. Just one thing...where is Auron?"

Jecht smiled. "He met his Maker. Now he's waiting for us...on the Other Side," the ghost said breathlessly, closing his eyes in passionate sadness.

As Jecht's ghost disappeared, Tidus turned to his companions. "Goodbye...my friends!"

Yuna ran forward. "What are you doing? It doesn't have to be like this. There's no point! Your father was just stuck in a blitzball, it doesn't mean you have to kill yourself!"

Tidus bowed his head and closed his eyes. "No, Yuna. I know now. It must be this way."

"But-"

Tidus ran and leaped off the airship, with Yuna crying after him, "This isn't going to accomplish anything, dipwad!"

But there was nothing anyone could do.

Everyone else lived long, relatively happy lives, including Lulu, who realized after all this time she was glad Tidus was gone, because his resemblance to Wakka's brother, her dead fiancee, had bothered her after all.

THE END