A Generation of Aeons
Chapter Fifty-One

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

Last Time:

Gaia watched Lenne and Takoire with a cheerful expression.

It had been a long time since the Al Bhed had seen her cousin's eyes without a glint of worry, if only for a second. For the briefest of moments, it was as if the aeons had never appeared and Lenne had never become a high summoner.

Gaia had also never seen Takoire the way she saw him now. Before today, her first and only impression of the guardian was a sullen, gloomy, and depressed man, who obviously cared about her cousin, but revealed nothing about his emotions or feelings. But now, he acted just like one of them. A little reserved, but still one of them nevertheless. Was this a small hint of real happiness? Even if it was only temporary?

Lenne and Takoire laughed again.

Gaia smiled. Maybe there was hope for her yet…

-------------------

"Okay, let's go over this one more time."

The statement earned a groan from everyone standing nearby, but the speaker remained firm. What was once the neat, clean conference room that belonged to the Gullwings had become nothing but a room in mass disarray. Tables and chairs were everywhere. Half eaten meals were scattered across the table as well as the floor. The table's surface had disappeared under the sea of papers and spheres scattered everywhere, with a few pieces of paper pinned up on the walls.

The Gullwings' conference room in Besaid was the most technologically advanced building in the city. The building contained only one room, and everything in it had some sort of purpose. Each chair was placed in front of a retractable computer station made for each user who sat at the table. Each station could call up any information in the Gullwings' archives in seconds, but only one had been used the entire day.

Seven figures appeared exhausted all throughout the conference room. Lucil and Nooj stood together;, Nooj re-reading the Bevelle family tree for the fifth time while Lucil drummed her fingers against the table. Garren was hunched over the table, sick of sitting, going over reports of Sareth's movements with Darka next to him. Takoire, as usual, stood alone in the corner of the room, but even he seemed to have a weary look in his eyes. The High Summoner Lenne, weary herself, still had a convicted look in her eyes.

"Lenne," Gaia muttered, her eyes red from rubbing them so much, "don't you think we should give this a rest? We've been at it all day. We can start back up tomorrow when we're not all so sore."

The high summoner shook her head. "No, I think we've done all we can here, I just want to make sure I've got everything before we're officially done. We've already figured out how I'm the Summoner of Yore, the prophecy fits with what's happened to me. The Guardian of the Ages' prophecy fits with Takoire…."

"Because of the whole me running away from home and having a blitzball career thing," Takoire answered about himself.

"And we know Sareth is the Destructor of the Ages because it fits with everything he's done since he assumed power in Bevelle. But we can't get anything more than that. The damned prophecy is just too vague," Nooj grunted, his anger quite evident in his voice.

Lenne let out an exasperated sigh. "You know what? Everybody's tired. I know all the guardians are tired and so are all of my summoners. Why doesn't everyone just take a day off tomorrow? I don't think Sareth's going to do anything yet because we're stuck in a stale-mate." She watched nods from around the room. "So we're agreed. If you need me, I'll be in my apartment."

Without another word, Lenne left out the door, starting out and into the city.

Stretching her arms, she yawned. Day after day, this was becoming her life. From before the sun had come up until the sun had long disappeared, Lenne found herself with all of Spira's leaders deliberating on how to counter each of Sareth's movements. Somehow, Sareth was gaining more and more power each day. Somehow, he kept managing to get through the defense systems the council put up. Each day was another battle, and it was beginning to take a toll on her.

The streets were filled with people who were on their way to find somewhere to stay the night. It was her decision that made all these people come to Besaid, but not all of them had somewhere to go. The guardians had set up shelters in some of the buildings for the people to stay in, but supplies could only be stretched so far.

She felt something pull on her skirt and glanced down. A little girl was staring up at her, with a doll of a moogle in her arms, Lenne recognized the girl immediately as Al Bhed from the girl's swirl of green for eyes. She wore khaki pants with a simple purple shirt, and her hair was in a single braid that fell down to the upper part of her back.

"Are you High Summoner Lenne?" the little girl asked.

Lenne bent down on one knee and smiled at her. "Yes."

She cocked her head. "Are you the one who made us move here from Bevelle?"

Lenne nodded her head. "There's a bad man in Bevelle right now, so we moved you here so we can protect you, and your friends, and your mommy and daddy."

The little girl smiled. "I wanna protect my mommy and daddy! Can I be a high summoner like you, too?"

The high summoner laughed and stood up. "Of course you can."

Lenne watched the little girl wave and disappear back to a worried looking older woman.

Almost a week and a half had gone by since she had first woken after Takoire's headache. Although a significant amount of time had passed, at least what she considered a significant amount of time, Takoire remained the same as ever. He was the source of unlimited information, a sphere you could ask questions. Takoire was nearby, ready and willing. On the other hand, if Lenne was looking for a friend or someone to confide in, Takoire was as far away from what she needed as possible.

Before the night of her festival, Lenne hadn't seen him in three years. The days after she had seen him again, he acted cold and distant, pushing her away.

So why was it that every time she saw him out of the corner of her eye… her heart still skipped a beat and her throat still went a little dry?

Maybe… maybe it was because of that day, that day she had seen her guardian spar with Garren and Darka. That day… she thought she saw a glimpse of that old blitzball captain she had fallen for.

Without a thought, Lenne brought her hand up to the screen by her door. A beep sounded, and the door slid open. "Good evening, Lenne."

As she entered, the lights came on automatically, revealing her home. The place was completely disheveled, with papers and spheres strewn all over the floor and table. She had left her sphere screen on before leaving this morning. She grabbed a remote from under a stray pillow and clicked it off. It was another newscast about Sareth with a follow-up on her and Takoire. Her life was becoming everyone's business…

The door to her guest room was closed. She had given that room to Takoire.

Dinner time was always quiet. Lenne managed to throw something together, and they would watch the news together while eating. After dinner, they both went to bed, and that was the end of the day.

Lenne walked into her room, sitting on the opposite edge of the bed from the door.

She would never have met Kiron, Seru, and Zaon; she would never have felt such grief at Kiron and Seru's death; she never would have cared about the fact that Zaon had died uselessly as the first final summoning for Sin. She would never have fallen in love with him and wouldn't have been forced to endure such pain. And she would never have known about Sareth, and maybe, just maybe, he would never have come into her time.

No… no matter how many times she told it to herself, she would never believe it.

Glancing behind, Lenne saw that Takoire was still no where in sight. Bending over, she opened the small dresser at her bedside and sorted through the countless memorabilia. Finding one lone sphere in the corner, she pulled it out.

It was no doubt old, ancient even. A small crack ran through it, but it still played. She had seen it play a hundred times, but she needed to see it right now. She forwarded the sphere to the end.

The sphere flickered on and revealed an all too familiar scene. She was transported to her sanctuary under the night sky… something she hadn't had a chance to do in what seemed like centuries.

He scoffed. "You're just jealous of my obvious talents as your wonderful guardian…"

Lenne watched the figures of herself and Takoire standing there alone as she playfully pushed her guardian in the direction of the cliff. She watched herself gain a look of skepticism.

Lenne looked at him skeptically. "Ego…"

"Anyway, this is your sanctuary? I like it, cozy yet spacious, a nice view, the hammock's a nice touch…"

"What are you doing?" Lenne asked. "Selling it for me?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe."

Walking towards him and looking him squarely in the eye, Lenne answered, "Sometimes I wonder… how'd I get stuck with a guardian like you?"

Looking into her blue and green eyes, Takoire swallowed a cold, hard lump caught in his throat as his heart seemed to skip a beat. "I guess I was just lucky enough to meet you."

That was the end, and the scene retreated back into the sphere. Lenne's head fell into her hands. She felt a few tears fall from the corners of her eyes.

"Lenne…"

She sat up immediately and found Takoire standing in her doorway with a look of guilt on his face. He had caught her vulnerable. He had seen her in one of the weakest states Lenne ever found herself in. To him, she must have looked like nothing more than a crybaby who was clinging to something that had disappeared years ago.

The high summoner wiped her eyes before turning. "How long have you been standing there?"

Takoire bowed his head. "I got in about five minutes after you. You seemed a bit off, and I was worried about you. I didn't mean to invade your privacy or anything… I just wanted to see how you were doing." He took a step back. "I-uh… I'm sorry."

"Did you mean it?" Lenne suddenly burst out, not giving him a chance to leave.

"What?"

Lenne paused. "What you said that day, about being lucky enough to meet me. Did you mean it?"

The blitzball captain turned guardian ran his hand through his hair, not helping to tidy it at all. He eventually lifted his head up and looked Lenne straight in the eye. "I still do."

She bit the bottom of her lip. "I must look like some little girl, crying in her room over something stupid."

Takoire approached her and sat back on the edge of her bed. Sitting next to her, he hesitantly brushed her tears away with his calloused thumb. "You are not being childish. Not at all," he said to her seriously. "I want to tell you something. I was trained to withstand a significant amount of torture. No one wanted a general who, if captured, gave up their army's secrets. My mentor told me you had to focus on one thing, one thing that you held above all and that you wanted to protect." He paused. "All I could think about was you. You were what kept me going for seven months." Lenne looked up. "About six months after Sareth captured me, I thought I had died. I found myself on the Farplane, and I was completely fine again. Then I saw you… you looked so torn and lost…" he brushed a lock of hair from Lenne's face, tucking it behind her ear, "…not the Lenne I knew. It hurt, but I told you to move on. Forget about me. You couldn't do what you were supposed to do if you couldn't forget about me."

Lenne looked up at Takoire, almost in a daze. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "But… Takoire, I-"

He hushed her as he placed a finger on her lips. "You had a dream a lot like it. Gaia told me about it the day after I got back."

"So we really saw each other?" Lenne asked in disbelief.

He shrugged. "Can't say for sure because I don't know, but I definitely won't throw out the possibility. You traveled back a thousand years and I traveled forward. Some pretty weird things can happen." Lenne put on a small smile. "There, now that's what I like to see, that beautiful smile of yours."

"Takoire," Lenne began hesitantly, "I've been meaning to ask you a few things."

"Shoot."

She bit her bottom lip. "Last week, when we saw that sphere of you and Sareth… You told me that Ryak had a wife and daughter."

Her guardian nodded. "Yes, he met her just after he started the underground movement. Her name was Vayra. They got married and had a daughter." He paused. "Ryak named her Seru."

"Of course…" Lenne muttered, nodding her head. "Ryak and Seru were cousins."

"Yeah," Takoire answered, confirming what she had said. "I was her godfather. I don't know what happened to them after I fell into the Farplane. I couldn't track them. It was like they disappeared off the face of Spira. I never found out what happened to them." He bowed his head. "I was supposed to protect them. Ryak asked me to protect them before he died, and I didn't do it. I should have been there." He bowed his head. "I should have protected you. I should have been there for you… but I wasn't. There are a lot of things in my life I should have or shouldn't have done, and even with this ability to travel through time, I know I can't change any of it. I know that if I were to change the smallest detail in the world…" Takoire began to drift. "I might not have met you, and that isn't worth more than anything else in Spira. There's hardly anything in my life worth anything, and what is, I don't want to lose. Lenne, I-"

With no prior warning, Garren burst into the room, panting and short of breath. "Lenne! Takoire! Sareth's just attacked the Macalania temple filled with refugees! The council thinks he's after the third object! We don't have enough guardians there to defend it!"

-------------------
Author's Notes:

Final Revision