A/N: As always, to my darling reviewers:

Naith: Glad you're enjoying it! ::holds German flag and happily waves::

Tamelia: Thanks a lot. I love YOU for reviewing. Hee hee.

Lttlwings: ::blushes:: Aww shucks. Your compliments mean a lot because I did put a lot of planning into this. Thanks so much for keeping an eye on it. :)

Chapter Six

Rikku laughed as Lulu and Yuna harassed Paine into the bride's maid dress. It was the same dress she and Lulu would be wearing but it seemed to look lovelier on Paine, probably because any other time the warrior would rather be caught dead than in a dress. Even now as Lulu circled her, Paine was glaring very unhappily at the black mage. The shimmering pale white and blue hue of the dress fell perfectly across Paine's curves but she seemed to grow hostile if anyone commented on it.

"Now this I thought I'd NEVER see!" Rikku whispered to Yuna, who giggled in response.

It was the day just before the wedding, the traditional period where the bride would be separated from her groom for an entire day before their lives became forever entwined. The girls had spent the day together, distracting Yuna so she wouldn't go running looking for Tidus. They'd mostly ensured that everything was in place and that all the wedding arrangements were accurate. Yuna was excited and nervous but Rikku had never seen her cousin happier.

"So what is the great best man Wakka doing for Tidus?" Rikku asked Lulu.

The older woman rolled her eyes. "He's taking him out, partying on his 'last night of freedom'."

They laughed.

It was fun spending a day with the girls. Rikku hadn't realized how much she had missed it as much as she enjoyed traveling now. When she had first set out on her own, it had been lonely and a little intimidating. Many times, she'd almost gone running home. But eventually she grew used to the loneliness. She'd learned to look after herself and really see what she could really do, which turned out to be more than she thought possible. Still, there were times that she wished the rest of the Gullwings were around.

"It fits. Satisfied?" Paine growled at Lulu as she circled her to examine the dress again.

"I am now. Okay, your turn, Rikku."

"Aww...do I gotta'?"

"Yes. If I had to, you do too," Paine insisted.

Giggling, Rikku bounced to her feet. "Okay, okay. Relax, Dr. P."

Once Lulu was happy, the four of them were free to do as they pleased. Lulu went to get Vidina from Wakka. Yuna and Paine went on a walk around Luca as they'd not had any free time to do so since getting there. They'd asked Rikku to come but she had remembered that she had forgotten to get the presents for Yuna to the table where the gifts for the couple were set up.

She found her way back to the hotel and slipped into her room. Hmm...maybe she'd take a nice, relaxing bath while she was at it. It'd been a while since she'd been able to have a bubble bath. It was a tempting prospect.

She froze mid action in closing the door when she heard a strange sound filling the silence in her room. Immediately, the twin blades of her Thief Dressphere appeared in each hand. How had someone gotten into her room? Slowly, Rikku cautiously inched forward, treading step by step silently across the thick emerald colored carpet. She pressed herself against the wall that sharply turned off into her room where the intruder was.

Strange...Rikku frowned as the voice became louder with every step she made into the room. Was it just her or did it sound like there was...static? And the voice...it wasn't loud or clear at all. It was as if someone was talking from far away, slightly muffled and almost indistinct.

Rikku stood perfectly still, her back still pressed against the wall. Her breathing was soft and inaudible to any but her own ears; a skill she'd learned after venturing into a countless number of caves filled with hungry fiends. She tensed herself for combat. Then, gripping her blades tightly in each hand, Rikku sprang out...

...to find nothing.

"Huh?" she asked aloud, confused. Her weapons were still raised in a defensively but just one look around told her that there was nothing in there besides her. And yet the strange, static-tinged voice still continued. But from where...?

I don't' get it. Where is it coming from? Rikku peered around. The CommSphere? Nope, the CommSphere wasn't activated so this wasn't signal interference.

She tracked the sound to the other side of her bed where her bag lay on its side on the floor. It must have fallen when she'd carelessly tossed in onto the bed when she'd been introduced to her room. Strangely enough, it was also the source of the sound.

Feeling slightly foolish for being so paranoid and now curious, Rikku dismissed her blades and reached for the discarded backpack. She unlatched the top flap and peeped inside. Yuna's presents were undisturbed but they were aglow in a faint green light.

Rikku realized what it was. Of course! Rikku you tisso, it's the sphere! dummy

She grabbed it and pulled in out of the bag to get a better look at it. There was a fuzzy image of a middle-aged man with a strangely familiar face and voice. The cracks and dents in the sphere unfortunately hindered the image so Rikku couldn't make out his features clearly, but she had a feeling that they'd met somewhere before. The audio was also not in good shape, as she could barely make out the few words that had survived the damage done to the sphere.

"Hmm...let's see this from the beginning..." she muttered to herself and carefully turned the sphere in her hands. She turned it off and then back on. The haunting image of the man reappeared. It seemed he was standing in a cavern of some sort, but in the background, Rikku could clearly make out the distorted sound of water crashing against water, an underground waterfall perhaps?

The man reached out and adjusted the angle of the sphere recorder, still peering into it with his bright gaze. He smiled, mouthing something that Rikku couldn't hear as the sound was blurred and jumped right into a mess of words.

"...not sure...anyone...see...but I have....tale....history as legend...never heard...do...anyway...enchantment...standing...Spira does not even...existed...underground city...unheard...this city...Eteragard, the Eternal City..."

It seemed that the account ended there, but from what she had heard, Rikku found herself fascinated. As the speaker had spoken, he'd held the sphere recorder out and rotated it around so that he could catch images of wherever it was he was standing. It was a cavern like she had guessed. He was standing beside a small waterfall that dribbled down from an opening in the cavern ceiling into a pool.

Beyond where the speaker was standing and the pool, though, was what captivated Rikku's interest. For spread out in the large cavern there was a city. But it didn't look like any small settlement but a cluttered, active collection of brightly lit buildings and streets with people wandering all over them, chattering and going about their business. It was like the Zanarkand Rikku remembered seeing in the image that Yuna's Songstress Dressphere had conjured during the song she sang in the Thunder Plains two years back, recounting the tragic ending of Lenne and Shuyin.

The lights of the city—Eteragard, from what the speaker had said—bathed the dark gray cavern walls in a light, warm golden glow. Despite the cramped space in the cavern, Eteragard seemed to spread for a long, long way back into the depths beyond. Rikku blinked. Was this real?

The image began jumping violently and the audio completely turned into static. Rikku was about to turn the sphere off to reactivate what she'd seen again when something clamped down on her shoulder.

"RIKKU!"

Her response to this was built from pure instinct. Before she even knew what she was doing, her hand had shot up, grabbed the offending hand on her shoulder and pried the fingers away. With a sharp twist of her wrist, she ducked her head and yanked hard.

"AHHHHH!!!!" The wild scream was heard as a body came hurtling headfirst right over her shoulder and tumbling clumsily into the hard leg of the table. Rikku had already leapt to her feet and was moving backward to put distance between them. She heard a painful "Oomph!" and the sound of bone crashing into wood.

"Hey you, what's the...Brother?!" Rikku's jaw went slack when she recognized her older brother's crumpled form beside the table.

He made a painful moan in reply. She scurried over to him and helped him up by his arm. "What's the big deal sneaking up on me like that?"

"RIIIIKKKKUUUUUUU!" Brother whined. He had a hand on his back, rubbing at the spot where it'd slammed into the table leg. "That HURT!"

Rikku gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry. But you shouldn't have crept up on me like that! You could have been some big monster for all I know!"

"WHAT?" Brother made a face. "You think I'm a monster?" He reared back as if she'd struck him, then his lower lip jutted out, "Yuna! Yuna must think I'm a monster too!"

She shook her head and rolled her eyes as Brother started blubbering about Yuna this and Yuna that. Paine had already warned her beforehand that Brother was upset about the wedding. Rikku wasn't surprised. Brother had always held a disturbing, hopeless obsession with their cousin.

"Hey, cheer up!" Rikku clipped him playfully on the back of the head. "Don't I even get a hug? We haven't seen each other in months!"

Brother glanced up and suddenly threw himself at her, arms winding around her and lifting her up as he swung her around like Rahga had done earlier. "I know! You don't call! You don't visit!"

She laughed and hugged him back. "I've missed you too."

It was the truth. She had honestly missed him despite their constant bickering and differences. Rikku pulled away from him and grabbed the sphere, which had rolled under the bed when Brother had startled her.

"Eh? A sphere? You sphere hunting without me?!" Brother gave her his most offended look, but she rolled her eyes and waved a hand.

"Oh dry up. No, I haven't been sphere hunting. Rahga gave this to me. He and Orric found it in Bikanel when they were digging and thought that I'd want to see it."

"What's on it?"

"Nothing important really. It's old so the audio is messed up and the picture isn't clear. I think I'll have Eido take a look at it later. Maybe he can fix it up."

Rikku tucked the sphere carefully into one of her side packs and thought no more of it. Together the two of them found Cid, who gruffly greeted Rikku with a snort declaring that he was glad to see that she was 'done wandering by her lonesome and came to her senses to come home'. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she'd be picking up right where she left off on traveling Spira after the wedding was over. Instead, she just nodded and smiled, giving him a big hug.

She passed Yuna's presents off to the efficient, yet slightly neurotic wedding coordinator. Brother fired question after question and she patiently answered them, no matter how stupid they were, like "Did the weather change a lot on your trip?" or "Do you like fighting flan azul?". At least he wasn't babbling on miserably about Yuna anymore.

The next day was nothing short than hectic. An insistent pounding on her hotel room door woke Rikku early in the morning. She had sleepily trudged to the door to open it and found an excited and anxious Yuna on the other side, smiling brightly at her cousin. It took a moment for Rikku's sleep muddled mind to catch up. Of course! The wedding.

Yuna was more than excited. She was uncharacteristically talkative and chattered on and on about everything as she and Rikku met up with Paine and Lulu. It became a hectic morning of preparation. Lulu ushered them into the dressing room to get ready. While they dressed, they talked to reassure Yuna that everything would go smoothly. She smiled nervously, thanking them for the hundredth time for being there for her, and then commented on the color of the drapes and how she hoped she would be able to find a similar color for her and Tidus' house.

The wedding went by, thankfully, without any problems. Yuna looked absolutely radiant as she walked slowly down the aisle, clutching to a colorful bouquet of flowers while Cid gave her away. The pristine white gown seemed to glow in the cheery sunlight as it perfectly accentuated Yuna's figure, the long hem dragging behind her on the white carpet. Even through the sheer veil covering Yuna's face, Rikku could see the wide smile on her cousin's lips.

"Oh...she's so beautiful!" Rikku murmured to Paine and Lulu happily. The other women nodded their agreement. Rikku giggled softly when she saw the look of utter shock and joy that was plastered across Tidus' face at the sight of his bride.

It went by fast, surprisingly. Elwith, the former Yevon priest, spoke a few words about how he'd known Yuna and her father. Then he let the bride and groom exchange their vows, place the ceremonial wedding bands on each other's hand, and then pronounced them to be husband and wife. Everyone clapped. Rikku felt tears prick her eyes and her throat close up as they kissed for the first time as a married couple.

I hope my wedding day will be like this. She thought wistfully as Tidus and Yuna, hands joined, walked around the large fire alter set up nearby; it was a tradition to circle the fire alter to symbolize that no force could destroy the bond between the newlyweds.

"Come on, Rikku," Paine was saying suddenly. The guests were now abandoning their seats and making their way down to the hotel where the reception was being held in their massive ballroom. "Party time."

That was all Rikku needed to hear. "Let's go!"