A Generation of Aeons
Chapter Thirty-Eight

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

Last Time:

"How long would I supposedly keep this position?"

Garren couldn't look at her and turned away. "As long as necessary. In all likelihood, at least five years."

"Five years…" Lenne muttered to herself.

'No, Takoire… I can't do it without you. I need you.'

'Your Spira needs you. The people you left behind in your Spira need you.'

"Very well, then," Lenne sighed. "Once a structure of summoners has been established, I will create a council of summoners to represent Spira and lead them."

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Lenne wandered Bevelle, reminiscing about the past two months. Bevelle had lasted a thousand years and would most likely last a thousand more.

Takoire's family had ruled Bevelle before the war with Zanarkand. Lenne had met Maester Arheist and Lady Doma briefly, but they were good people… good rulers. Lady Kaira was kind, patient, and kept her place as the wife of the lord marshal but was unafraid to voice her opinion when she saw fit. Takoire's father was a removed man. A soldier to the very core. Lord Takoire I was best at being a soldier, the reason he was lord marshal. Being a family man… that was something Takoire I was not the best at. Her guardian had admitted he had practically raised himself. Arkon was like a brother to her guardian, his equivalent of her Gaia. Arkon was a simple man who tried to live up to his family's standards. But they were all gone.

Sareth, what did you do!

If not for Sareth, maybe the war between Zanarkand and Bevelle would never have happened. What kind of man would kill his own family!

"Do you hear me!" Lenne yelled, staring into the rubble of what was once the palace of St. Bevelle. "Do you hear me, Kokon! Why didn't you do anything! Why didn't you stop Sareth! You could have done something instead of just disappearing! Why, Kokon! Answer me, damn you!"

But all she heard was silence.

Lenne was angry, angrier than she had ever been. Tears of anger were streaming down her face.

People were starting to stare at her now, but she was angry. She didn't care.

"You could have done something!" she repeated. "I know you have the power! You could have stopped Sareth, and Shuyin would never have lost Lenne, and Vegnagun would never have almost destroyed Spira! You could have destroyed Sin! Thousands of lives would have been saved if you'd done something!" Lenne fell on her knees. "The fayth would never have been created, I'd never have been born, and I'd never have met Takoire. I'd never have fallen in love with him, and I'd never have had to leave him…"

She felt a hand touch her on the shoulder.

"Lenne," Gaia's voice said, "come on… let's go."

Lenne wearily stood, following her cousin's lead, but her anger was still evident. "Bit of a one-sided conversation, don't you think, Kokon?"

Gaia attempted to lead her cousin away. "Come on…"

The high summoner let herself be led away and felt Gaia's arm around her.

"Let's get you home…"

"Gaia…" Lenne said.

"Yeah?"

"Would you mind staying in Besaid for awhile?"

Gaia nodded her head. "As long as you want, cuz…"

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Lenne stood just outside the doorway of her kitchen, holding off walking into the room a little bit longer. The day was almost over, and the sun's light was dwindling.

Just like her childhood.

That day, her seventeenth birthday… that day had changed everything.

She had been sent on a journey that would forever change Spira and… herself. She learned of the old ways before Sin and encountered people that had been dead for over a thousand years.

Lenne could no longer live carefree, as she could before. She wouldn't be spending her free time with her friends or sneaking out of the house at night. Lenne wouldn't ever treat things they way she had before. She looked at everything differently now.

She now shouldered enormous responsibilities.

Lenne had seen the change in her friends over the years. Darka, Garren, and Vidina all became guardians, two of whom became Crimson Knights of the Council. Gaia joined the Gullwings, her curiosity in history getting the better of her.

Her friends all rose through the ranks quickly while Lenne remained uninvolved and unnoticed. She didn't care what was going on in Spira.

"Ignorance is bliss…" Lenne muttered to herself.

The high summoner hesitantly stepped inside the kitchen. Her parents were inside. Yuna was hunched over the stove, and Tidus spun a blitzball on his finger. Lenne grimaced nervously.

"Mom… Dad…"

The two immediately stopped and stared at their daughter, a sight they had been missing for the past two months.

Tidus smiled softly. "Yeah? What's up?"

Lenne bit her lip, unsure of what to say. "I know I've only been back for a few days, and things just started getting back to normal…"

"What is it?" Yuna asked her daughter.

"I'm going to move out," Lenne answered a little too bluntly. "I'll still be in Besaid, but I also need to get an apartment in Bevelle. Once everything's been established I'm supposed to head some kind of new summoner's council… not to mention, I have to supervise the reconstruction of the temple." Her parents stayed silent. "Gaia's going to help me move, and Vidina and Darka said they'd pitch in when they had some free time."

Lenne expected her mother to react first, worrying almost immediately. Telling her she couldn't take care of herself yet, or that she didn't realize what she was doing. Her father would support her mother but would take no definite stand. But there was one catch.

She wanted them to stop her.

She wanted to pretend that nothing had ever happened. She wanted life to go back to the way it was. She wanted to that wish that she'd never been away from home.

…But a part of her didn't wish that.

Every time she thought about how she left home, she would think of Takoire.

Yuna only nodded sadly. "We understand. Things are different now."

"I'll help you move," Tidus said abruptly.

"What?" Lenne asked, shocked. "That's it?"

"It's hard, but we understand," Yuna said. "We wanted you to have a quiet and normal life…"

Lenne embraced her mother in a tight hug and rested her head on Yuna's shoulder. "That's all I want now. I didn't understand before; the things you and dad did, what you went through afterwards. I'm sorry for being so naïve."

Yuna moved back slightly from her daughter, only to find both of them crying. "You're a lot like we were when we were your age. No, you're even stronger than I was…"

"What are you talking about?" Lenne stared at her mother, confused.

"After I defeated Sin, and your dad had faded, I went to Besaid and stayed there. I didn't help the people adjust or get used to the idea of a world without Sin, I just stayed in the peacefulness of this island," Yuna answered her daughter. "It took me two years to finally leave again, and by then things were so screwed up Spira was on the verge of destruction again."

"But Mom-"

Yuna held up a finger in response. "I didn't have the courage to show my face after what I went through. You do."

Lenne shook her head. "I don't have anymore courage than you do, but," she paused, "a friend once told me that when you're a leader, those around you can see it. He also said that when you think you're a leader, you're as far from it as you can be, but when you don't believe you're a leader, that's when you usually are."

"Your friend's pretty smart," her father remarked.

Lenne nodded. "Yeah, he was."

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"What are you doing?" she heard a voice ask.

But she knew that voice, she knew it better than anyone.

Lenne was standing in an endless field of flowers, and the sound of rushing waterfalls filled her ears. The sky was like a canvas, where a painter had used every color known to man to create the ultimate masterpiece. Pyreflies seemed to swim through the air as if it were water. She was in the Farplane.

Her voice seemed to be caught in her throat.

She turned frantically to find the voice's source.

And she found it, only a few steps away.

There he was, standing there. The same jet black hair… The same Zanarkand Abes uniform… The same silver ring he fiddled with on his finger… Those same stormy gray eyes…

"T-Takoire?" Lenne heard herself ask.

She wanted to run to him. She wanted to be in his arms again. She wanted to kiss him and never be separated from him again.

But she felt frozen in place.

Takoire looked at her gently but firmly, his voice conveying the same thing his eyes were. "What are you doing, Lenne?"

"Wh-What do you mean?"

His face cracked into a small smile.

Cheribum, she missed that smile…

"What are you doing?" he asked her for the third time. "Why are you torturing yourself like this?"

"Torturing myself?"

Takoire's tone softened. "Cheribum, I miss you, Lenne…"

She almost started crying right there.

"I miss you, too…" Lenne answered him.

The former blitzball player took a step towards her with a sad look on his face. "You need to move on, Lenne."

"Move on?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"

He took another step towards her.

Cheribum, she could feel his body heat he was so close.

"I can't stop thinking about you, Takoire."

Her guardian nodded grimly. He touched her face with his hand, and Lenne melted there.

Takoire looked her in the eye. "You need to move on. Lenne… I'm holding you back."

Lenne shook her head, unable to stop a tear from falling out of the corner of her eye. "No."

"I want you to get on with your life, even if it means you have to forget about me," he said. "You were destined for great things, Lenne, and you can't do that unless you move on."

Lenne was letting the tears fall freely now. She didn't care.

Takoire's thumb wiped them away, and Lenne burned the feeling of his hand against her face into her memory. "I hate to see you cry, Lenne."

"I don't want to move on. All I want is you."

The guardian looked distraught. "I know. I know. But you have to live your own life in the present, not in the past."

He paused, as if trying to decide whether or not he would withdraw his hand from Lenne's face.

He decided not to and instead brought his face to hers.

"I will always love you, Lenne…"

Then Lenne felt his lips brush against hers, and everything was right in the world…

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Author's Notes:

Final Revision