A Generation of Aeons
Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X or X-2

Last Time:

Her head ached, and her body felt drained. Lenne awoke and looked around in utter confusion. "Where am I?"

The city was unlike any Lenne had ever visited. The young woman did not have limited experiences concerning Spira, she had been to every city at least half a dozen times, but this… this place was utter confusion. The buildings seemed to be as tall as the skyline, and the sun was nowhere to be seen, while instead the sky was filled with dozens of lights emanating from nearby buildings. There was barely any space between them, just enough for an almost spacious walkway for travelers that was lined with neon lights.

There was a level of technology that Lenne had never seen. When she was younger, her father had told her stories of his Zanarkand, where holograms were as common as pebbles on the ground. Zanarkand… the thought brought back old memories and old stories that her father had told her of the legendary city. But it couldn't be, Zanarkand had been destroyed for more than a thousand years. That was common sense. But Tidus had also told her stories about how he was from the fayth's dream of Zanarkand. Could she be in the same dream? But the fayth were gone.

Unsure of what to do, Lenne went with most of the crowd, in a daze. She barely noticed the random remarks of people passing by. "Hey, sweetie! What's with the sword?"

"Lookie here, I haven't seen someone this afraid of fiends in a long time!"

"Sweet cakes! I sure like your sword!"

Finally fed up with the remarks, she tripped the last man and gained a point of confidence. She towered over him as he lay on the ground, helpless. "Hey, here's a thought I felt like sharing since you felt like sharing yours: mind your own business."

Looking around, Lenne found herself in a blitzball stadium. The only problem was, she knew of only one blitzball stadium built in Luca. Recalling her father's stories, Lenne rushed to the edge of a walkway and peered down. It was built on a pier. The stadium in Zanarkand had supposedly been built on a pier, and so was this one, all lit up under the dark night sky.

"Ladies and gentleman! Citizens of Zanarkand and guests! Are you ready to watch some blitzball!" The crowd became wild as the announcer egged them on. "Tonight, we've got a special treat for you folks! First of all, I give you, your Zanarkand Abes!" The crowd continued its wild cheers and enthusiasm louder than before, and Lenne felt compelled to stay and watch. "And leading them is your Zanarkand Abes team captain, Takoire!" The people's cheering, which had seemed to reach an earsplitting volume, drowned out the announcer's voice at the captain's name. The entire stadium seemed to have exploded in one giant crash and clap of thunder. Lenne watched as the team's captain swam his way to the center of the sphere.

The crowd began to lower in volume, and the announcer continued. "And now…tonight, the Zanarkand Abes brings to you the first of the two games involved in the blitzball championship against the Besaid Aurochs!" A wave of boos rippled through the stadium as the team of Aurochs swam out to meet the Abes. Lenne began to watch with a keen interest as the two teams matched up against each other. She watched the two captains meet in the center and shake hands.

As soon as the formalities were over, the game began, and each team battled out furiously. Lenne's eyes barely kept up with the ball, which, for the audience, did not leave much hope. The clock was ticking down until only a minute was left before half-time, but the scores still couldn't be taken seriously… but no one was watching anymore, because the young woman heard a single scream pierce the festive air. Lenne searched frantically for its source. Not again. It couldn't happen again, after all… she was just dreaming, right?

A fiend had suddenly appeared in the middle of the blitzball sphere, taking up a huge amount of space in the water. Its roar shook the entire stadium, and people tried frantically to run… but they couldn't. The enormous fiend roared once again and what seemed like small sections of its body came from it, turning into smaller friends that ran rampant through the stadium.

Where were the guardians? Why didn't any of these people know how to fight? The two blitzball teams swam away faster than they had in any part of the game to get away from the fiend, with the exception of the Zanarkand Abes' team captain, Takoire. Well, at least someone was willing to fight. Lenne did her best in the stands, cutting fiends left and right, trying to protect the people, but more would just keep coming back from the fiend in the water.

She glanced to see the young man, Takoire, barely doing any damage to it. Without thinking, she took a deep breath and ran straight off the walking track and into the blitzball stadium's water sphere to help. He motioned to her to leave until she pulled out her own sword when he finally understood she was trying to help him. They both began to attack the fiend simultaneously, but still caused little damage.

Lenne continued to fight ferociously… if she could destroy the ones in the stadium that were all copies, why couldn't she kill the master? And then it dawned on her. She tried to gesture to Takoire what she planned to do several times before he finally understood her. Together they swam to the bottom of the sphere until their feet were nearly touching the ground. They began hacking away at the machine near the wall of the sphere with no mercy until their job was done.

With a small explosion, it was broken, the structure of water fell apart, and the fiend fell to the ground with an angry cry. Lenne offered a smirk and faced the blitzball player. "Let me take care of this. When I plant my sword in the ground, throw me that blitzball."

"What?" Takoire asked, dripping wet and out of breath.

"Trust me, you'll figure it out."

"What the hell are you-" before he could finish, Lenne had already begun to charge at the fiend. She slashed at it side to side, upwards and downwards, with every combination she could think of. With extra effort, she put a large amount of strength in the last cut and stabbed her sword into the ground. Getting the hint, Takoire threw the blitzball as fast and as hard as he could towards her, and as it came closer, Lenne kicked it at full force at the beast.

Within a moment of contact, the fiend seemed to break apart and dissolve into a sea of pyreflies, along with the rest of the spawn. The pyreflies continued to loom like a cloud over the stadium as Takoire looked at her with an astonished face. "W-What did you just do?"

With a smirk of satisfaction, Lenne resheathed her sword. "Something my dad taught me a while back."

"Your dad must be a pretty interesting guy, uh…" Takoire scratched his head embarrassedly. "Cheribum… You've saved everyone, and I don't even know your name."

Lenne blushed slightly. "I wouldn't say that I saved everyone, you were fighting that giant fiend right from the start. But, uh…"

With a tremble that seemed as if the stadium itself was fearful, the fiends and pyreflies

gathered from all the reaches of the stadium into one large fiend. It had scales of a yellowish green that winked in the light, and its red eyes gleamed at the small figures of Lenne and Takoire. It fell down to the ground on all four legs swiping at them, missing the pair by only a few inches. "Hey, Takoire, you better stay out of the way and let me handle this."

"Hey! I know you destroyed this thing once, but come on! It's bigger, stronger, and out with a vengeance. You're going to need my help."

Lenne took her sword, holding the hilt in her palm as her arm guided it down, and with her eyes closed, she stood as if in a trance for a moment. "Trust me."

A red light began to encircle the young woman as Takoire looked at her confused. "W-What are you doing this time?"

The daughter of High Summoner Yuna continued through the trance yelling out, "Don't know! I'll tell you when I figure it out!"

"What!"

Lenne hadn't heard him, and she stood frozen in a pose when out of the sky came a great bird. Its feathers were multi-colored, and its beak appeared razor sharp along with its talons. It spun in a full circle as a beam of light emanated from its beak, running across the fiend as a great fissure sprouted from its left mark.

Watching in awe, she whispered to herself, "Valefor?"

The fiend erupted into a sea of pyreflies once again, this time ascending into the night. The great bird bowed its head to Lenne and flew off in the direction of the pyreflies. It began to fade away before Takoire spoke. "That is definitely not normal!"

Unconsciously sheathing her sword for a second time, Lenne put her hand up to her forehead in amazement. "Oh jeez. I think I just summoned Valefor. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I've seen paintings of it in the temple and in my house; we have this tapestry with all the former aeons on it, but… wow."

"Wait," Takoire said, trying to sort out the confusion. "What do you mean that you summoned it? Are you a summoner? But that, that thing did not look like Suzaku, and you kept calling it Valefor."

"Suzaku? What's a Suzaku?"

"A summoner who doesn't know who Suzaku is, nope, that's probably impossible. And if you don't know what Suzaku is, are you from some remote part of Bevelle or something? Cause that city's got problems."

"A summoner? You think I'm a summoner? And what are you talking about that I'm from Bevelle? I'm from Besaid just so you know."

"Ha!" Takoire laughed hard, slapping his hand on his knee. "That's a good one, a summoner from Besaid who doesn't know who Suzaku is, it's not as if their entire culture revolves around the aeon."

"Aeon? What are you talking about? The fayth are gone, have been since before I was born!"

The blitzball player continued to look at her skeptically. "And what's a fayth? Some kind of new fad going around Bevelle right now?"

"What do you mean what are the fayth? And I'm not a summoner! At least… " Lenne clasped her hands uncomfortably, "I don't think I am. It's just," she looked to Takoire unsurely before beginning to yell out. "One minute I'm in Besaid running away from my dad, and the next thing I know, there's this giant red bird sitting on top of the temple and-"

"Suzaku," Takoire said, in an as a matter of a fact voice.

"What?"

Takoire waved his arms, imitating a bird flapping its wings. "Suzaku is a giant red bird with a crown of feathers on the back of its neck. Kind of goldish in color?" Lenne could only nod dumbly. "The big bird sitting on top of your temple was Suzaku, one of the five aeons."

"Five aeons?" Lenne continued to ask, still completely lost and confused.

All Takoire could do was stare at the young woman and chuckle. "You know what, I never caught your name."

Lenne looked at the Zanarkand Abes captain. Despite the fact that both of them were soaked to the bone, she could see he was a few inches taller than her, with neatly cut jet-black hair and curious looking, gray eyes. In his right hand he held a broad sword, and Lenne could see a silver ring on one of his fingers. His uniform consisted of the Abes' colors, his shirt was a tight blue with the collar protruding up and stopping an inch from each side, almost surrounding his entire neck. His pants reached his ankles and appeared to be loose and comfortable, but not enough to drag his speed down in the water. Looking at him, Lenne couldn't help but smile.

"Well, maybe because I didn't give it." Lenne offered a sly smile of which Takoire could only surmise to with a smile of his own. "But… I'm Lenne."

Takoire grinned. "Well, I'm guessing you probably already know who I am. The announcers have a knack of dramatizing everything, but just for the heck of it, Takoire at your service." He held out his hand to Lenne.

She took it gladly but couldn't help but give a response of her own. "I'm debating with myself right now whether or not to take you literally."

He laughed. "I'll tell you what, Lenne, I know this great place where we can get a cup of coffee and sort out this whole Suzaku and Valefor thing. You up for it?"

"Sounds fine with me, but do you think we could dry off first?"

"Okay… before I completely discard your story because it seems so far fetched, I wanna see if I got this right. You're from a place where Zanarkand was destroyed a thousand years ago between a war with us and Bevelle, but then our leader, the respectable Yu Yevon, and this giant summoned thing called Sin, ended the war… but then Sin ended up terrorizing Spira for a thousand years or so." Lenne gave Takoire a continuing look. "And that kept going until your mom and her guardians put a stop to it. After that she ends up marrying one of her former guardians, who was from the fayth's dream of Zanarkand and I don't even want to get into the whole fayth thing, then your born a few years later, and boom, seventeen years after you're born, Suzaku appears out of nowhere." He finished by leaning back casually in his chair as he attempted to recount a portion of the events that Lenne had told him over three slowly sipped cups of coffee.

"I know how it sounds," Lenne returned, sipping from her fresh cup.

The captain gave a laugh that wouldn't quite fit the definition of subtle. "Really? I mean, how do you know that you didn't dream this entire thing up? Because at this point, I'm pretty sure you're not a crazed fan or anything."

"Then how do you explain Valefor?"

He shrugged. "I can't. At first I thought it was Suzaku, but it had too many different colors."

"Look, Takoire, I appreciate you taking the time to listen to me, but if you don't believe me, why are you still sitting here?"

Takoire gave her an intriguing smile. "I haven't said I don't believe you, I'm still working on my decision at the moment." Lenne looked at him with a glimmer of uncertainty. "Anyway, how many aeons exactly, are in, your, um, your uh, your time?"

"Technically, none. But when my mom was a summoner, let me think…" Lenne said, starting to count on her fingers, "with the main temples, five, and with the minor temples and the one that really wasn't a temple, I think another five, so ten altogether."

"And all the aeons used to be people?"

"Yeah, creepy huh?"

Takoire shivered slightly. "No kidding." Two teenage girls peered over in a corner of the coffee shop whispering to each other and giggling until finally deciding to walk towards them.

"Hi, Takoire!" one squeaked, her hair in pigtails. She was barely wearing any clothing, with the exception of her short shorts and a tight cloth wrapped around the middle of her chest.

The other followed suit with long braided hair and a tank top and capris. "Can we get your autograph?" she asked, holding out a blitzball.

With a roll of his eyes, Takoire put on a bright face, pulled out a black marker from his back pocket with a spin, and began to sign. "Sure, no prob."

"That was a really great game by the way!" the first one chimed.

"Yeah, then that big fiend had to spoil it all! I know you could have beaten it on your own, Takoire, but that mean summoner had to call Suzaku and take away your spotlight!"

Takoire gave a small grin and glanced in Lenne's direction, trying to hold back from laughing out loud. "Yeah, that was a mean summoner all right. I had that fiend on the run, didn't I?"

"You sure did, Takoire!" they both said.

He finished signing the blitzball and gave them a wink. "Okay, now, you two be sure to cheer me on at our next game."

"Okay!" they said again before running off.

Lenne raised an eyebrow. "Mean summoner?"

"It was a figure of speech," he shrugged back.

"Right," Lenne responded by softly pushing Takoire out of his chair as he yelled out in protest. When he got back into his chair, Lenne eyed him confidently. "All right, Takoire, time to tell me exactly where I am."

Author's Notes:

Final Revision