I was planning on releasing this to coincide with FFX's twentieth anniversary, but better late than never. I know there's a lot of abandoned FFX novelizations floating around on the internet, but it is my hope to be the first to actually complete it.
Here's the first chapter of my Final Fantasy X novelization. Maybe I could have split it into two chapters, but whatever.
Read and enjoy, and please leave a review. Both praise and criticism are welcome!
Chapter One
The sky above Zanarkand was midnight black, twinkling with a thousand distant stars. The sound of ocean waves licking around the dock was drowned out by the chatter of an eager crowd. Dozens of people swarmed on the pier, all watching the entrance of a roomy home suspended on stilts above the churning waves. The air hummed with anticipation, illuminated by the shimmering streetlights hanging over the walkway. Everyone was waiting for Tidus.
Tidus pushed open his door and strolled into the noisy hum of night in Zanarkand. All the city's lights shone out from the cramped buildings, painting perfectly the scene of the great metropolis. The silvery lights reflected off of Tidus' blue eyes and spiky blond hair. He wore his Abes uniform, a yellow top with black overalls, marked with the Abe's symbol. He was short and only seventeen years old, but everyone knew that didn't stop him from being an amazing blitzball player. Seeing the mass of people waiting on the dock, he grinned. Surely just as many people would have been waiting to greet Jecht himself.
As soon as Tidus took a step out his door, the crowd erupted in excitement. They all leaped and cheered, shoving for the chance to glimpse the greatest blitzball player since Jecht. Tidus kept a toothy grin on his face as he walked out into the crowd. Tonight, he would prove that he was just as good a player as his father ever was.
"Can you sign this?" a boy wearing an Abes jersey held out his blitzball, bouncing eagerly on his toes.
"No prob," Tidus took it and wrote his name across the blue-and-white ball's surface before tossing it back to little fan. The boy's face glowed as he studied the fresh script on his ball. Before the boy could speak again, a younger child bounced in front of him. He held his own blitzball above his head.
"Please?" he asked, his large eyes twinkling in the city lights.
"Alrighty," Tidus took the ball and signed it. Being the star of the Abes, he had expected to be bombarded with such requests. While he was still writing, a third boy pushed his way through the crowds.
"Me too! Me too!" he cried, jumping as he spoke.
"Take it easy," Tidus sighed, handing back the second ball and taking the third. He wrote again, the motion of his signature coming naturally. He had signed a lot of blitzballs in the past few months.
"Thank you!" the third boy grinned widely as he gripped his ball. "I'll be watching the game tonight! I hope I get to see you score!"
"I'll try not to disappoint you," Tidus replied. He turned to walk farther through the crowd, but the little fan jumped in front of him.
"Are you gonna do the Jecht shot tonight?" he asked innocently. Tidus clenched his jaw, memories running through his mind.
"That shot is done like this," in Tidus' memory, his father, Jecht, walked up to him on the port in front of their home. Tidus had tried and tried to do his father's impossible shot, but he just wasn't good enough. He was never good enough.
Jecht chuckled and picked up the blitzball from Tidus' feet. Wearing a smug smile, he bounced the ball at the wall with his head. He bounced it in like manner several times, then leapt up in the air. With ease and grace, Jecht spung around and kicked the ball in midair, slamming it into the side of the house with a resounding thud. Tidus watched in dismay, a frown spreading over his small face. Why was his father always treating him like nothing?
"See?" Jecht folded his sun-tanned arms over his broad chest. His grey eyes, set beneath inky black hair tied with a red bandana, watched Tidus with emotion that the little boy didn't care to register. It must have been contempt or disdain.
"You can't do it, kid," Jecht said, and Tidus turned away before his father could continue. He rubbed his face in annoyance, feeling tears pooling in his eyes. He wouldn't give Jecht another chance to say he was weak.
"So? Are you gonna do the Jecht shot?" the little boy with the blitzball brought Tidus back to the present.
"What?" Tidus snapped back to attention. The swarm of fans shouted and shoved, all clamoring for a glimpse of Tidus. "Oh, well, we'll see." He shrugged and pushed his way farther into the crowd. He had thought about Jecht enough tonight. It was getting late, and he wanted to sign a few more blitzballs before the game.
Two women forced their way into Tidus' path, eager smiles on their faces.
"Can I have your autograph?" one of the girls asked, holding her blitzball in front of him.
"Of course!" Tidus took the ball and scrawled his name over its surface. He tossed it back to her with a spin.
"Good luck tonight!" the other girl said, offering her blitzball as well.
"Nothing to worry about!" Tidus assured. He signed the ball and handed it back to her. The two ladies remained, their eyes expectant.
"Oh, if I score a goal," Tidus held out his hands, aligning his thumbs and forefingers as if framing a picture, "I'll do this. That'll mean it was for you, okay?" The two girls giggled, and Tidus glanced at the sky. The moon, glowing in pearly shades, was rising out of the glittering ocean waves lit silver by starlight. He needed to be at the stadium shortly.
"What seat?" Tidus asked quickly.
"East block, in the front row!" the first girl said emphatically.
"Fifth from the right!" the second added.
"Got it!" Tidus nodded and moved on. He pushed out of the end of the crowd, the great streets of Zanarkand rising before him. He turned back to the enthusiastic swarm once more.
"Well, gotta go!" Tidus called, waving to the many fans. "Cheer for me!" He was about to leave when a group of three boys with blitzballs ran in his way. The one in front glanced back, sending hushed whispers to the rest of the group. Tidus smiled. He probably had enough time for some boys' demonstration.
The lead boy balanced his blitzball on his head.
"…two, three!" he counted down, then all three of the boys shouted in unison.
"Teach us how to blitz!"
Tidus sympathized with their desire. As a boy, he had longed for personal lessons on blitzball, but Jecht had always been too busy, or drunk. Tidus shook his head, frustrated that his thoughts had returned to his father again.
"Hey, I got a game to play," Tidus answered, rubbing the back of his neck. He hated the way the boys' faces fell.
"Then teach us after!" the lead boy insisted, his voice determined.
"Maybe… tonight?" Tidus thought as he spoke, considering how long the party would go if the Abes won, which they likely would.
"You can't tonight," a young but low voice came from behind. Tidus glanced back to see another boy, this one dressed in a dark purple hood that shielded his face. He looked out of place, but no one else seemed to notice. Whoever he was, he was probably right. Tidus wouldn't have enough time tonight.
"I mean… tomorrow." Tidus corrected, turning back to the three with blitzballs.
"Promise?" the lead boy asked, meeting Tidus' eyes.
"Promise," Tidus answered, nodding confidently. In unison, the three boys swung their arms over their heads, swooping them around to hold their hands above each other, palms facing. Then they concluded with a short bow. This was the blitzball symbol for victory, a formal way to show respect to players of great skill and wish them well in their game.
As Tidus turned to leave, he glanced back, trying to catch sight of the strange boy in the purple hood. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't spot the odd little person. Shrugging it off, Tidus walked away down the street. It probably wasn't important anyway.
Tidus climbed up the path from the docks to the large walkway stretching above the city of Zanarkand. To the west lay the ocean, visible from this point. The distant waters shined silver in the plentiful starlight. Closer to the city, the waves reflected the yellow and orange glow of artificial lights. Zanarkand itself was a beautiful sight. Great skyscrapers rose all around, some pouring out streams of shimmering water into pools far below. Building after building, light after light, tower after tower composed the sprawl of Zanarkand's urban glory. Here, on the raised walkway, one could look down and see the whole city. The high path made a straight route to any destination and avoided hours of navigating through the enormous skyscrapers. It was a path Tidus had walked many times as a child and as an adult, as it led directly to the blitzball stadium.
Above the walkway rose a great billboard. On it was the image of a man. His strong arms were folded over his broad chest, and he wore a smug grin on his weathered face. He had grey eyes and a shock of jet-black hair held back with a red bandana.
Jecht. Tidus stared up at the image of his father. Tonight, I'll win the cup. Tonight, the lights of Zanarkand shine for me, not you.
The voice of an announcer rang through the air above the city noises.
"I was in a coffee shop running away from home when I heard the news," he said. "Our hero, Jecht, gone, vanished into thin air! My dad must have been his biggest fan. I knew how sad he'd be. Heck, we all were that day. 'Zanar,' I says to myself, 'what are you thinking?' I went running straight back home. We sat up talking 'bout Jecht all night. My dad and I never talked so much," the commentator paused for a moment. "Whoa, didn't mean to reminisce folks…"
Tidus banished feelings of jealousy. He had no reason to wish he and his father has talked more. Of course, he had never really wanted Jecht's approval. He had never really wished that his father had acted like he loved Tidus more. At least, that was he had told himself, ever since that fateful day.
"Anyways," the announcer, Zanar, continued, "ten years later, the Jecht Memorial Cup tournament is today! The two teams that have won through to the finals are, of course, the Abes from A-east and the Duggles from C-south!"
Tidus' thoughts drifted back along the course of time. Ten years ago, his father, Jecht, had disappeared while training out at sea, leaving Tidus and his mother behind. A little more than a year after that, Tidus' mother had passed away. It was around that time that he had met Auron. Tidus still remembered that day plainly, when the stranger in glasses and a long red cloak had come up to him and asked him what was wrong. After that, Auron had stayed in Zanarkand. Most people knew who he was, if only as the strange man who showed up in the city ten years ago. No one ever came to Zanarkand from outside. In fact, Tidus had never heard of another city, or even of anything beyond the ocean that surrounded Zanarkand. He had often asked Auron where he was from, but the strange man would just chuckle mysteriously. At first, Tidus had resented Auron's concern over his wellbeing, but after his mother died, Tidus came to count Auron the closest thing he had to a friend.
Tidus hadn't seen Auron in a few weeks but figured he would see him briefly at the party after the game. Auron usually congratulated Tidus on his victories. Only once had the Abes lost in the ten years since Jecht's disappearance, just before the Jecht Memorial Cup tournament had begun. Auron had dropped by Tidus' house then, too.
"I know there's a lot of people out there to see the star player of the Abes!" the announcer's voice broke through Tidus' reminiscence. "In just one year, he's become the team's number one player! He's Jecht's blood and the new hope of blitzball! What kind of super play will he show us today? Will we see his father's legendary shot? I don't think I'm the only one excited here, folks!"
Tidus frowned. How come everyone thinks I'll be preforming the Jecht shot at the game tonight? He sighed. Up ahead, he could see the blitzball stadium, all lit up and ready to receive the thousands of fans it would hold for the game. Tidus closed his eyes, envisioning the moves Jecht had done, the way he hit the ball, flipped and landed the perfect kick. He opened his eyes.
Maybe Tidus would do the Jecht shot tonight.
Tidus stood at the edge of the blitzball sphere, watching it fill with water. The massive globe would act as the playing field once it was full. Tidus' mind was centered entirely on the game, no thoughts of his life before lingering. The intensity of the screaming fans rolled over him, birthing a deep excitement for the coming game.
Blitzball was a difficult game to play. Teams played entirely submerged in water, only coming out for breath at the end of each quarter. Breath management was an important aspect of play. The rules were simple; move the ball down the field and kick it into the other team's goal. The ball could be carried and passed by either throwing or kicking. Some players were goalies, others were defensive or offensive. Since the game was played inside a massive glass sphere, three dimensions offered the opportunity for complex strategy. Blitzballs were round but covered with bumps to make them have more drag. This made it so that a player needed great strength to pass or shoot. To stop a player, you were allowed to do almost anything; ramming, tackling, and wrestling were all perfectly legal. If a blitzball player didn't guard himself, he could go home with quite a few nasty bruises.
Tidus was ready. It would only be a few moments until the sphere was completely filled. It was time to play blitzball.
Above the great city of Zanarkand, someone stood on the top of one of the great, flat-topped skyscrapers. The man's eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark glasses, and a scar slithered up his face into his black hair. A high collar hid part of his face, adding to the man's air of mystery. His long red cloak whipped in the agitated winds as he watched the sea beyond Zanarkand. The starlit waves rolled and frothed as though a storm was brewing deep under the surface. The man stood and watched as the waters built up and flowed towards the city. People below noticed the impending wall of water, and the west side of Zanarkand was consumed with panic. The tidal wave began to build up unnaturally, a mound standing higher than all the towers of Zanarkand. Finally, the great dome of water rose skyward, pulling itself from the sea, flying all the while for the great city. No one below knew what was happening.
But the red-cloaked man stood and watched, showing no sign of worry.
Bang! Tidus grinned at the sound of the ball landing securely in the Duggles' goal. The opposing team played good defense, and halftime had come and gone without scoring. Now, the game was one to zero, Abes leading. We've got this now, he thought.
The ball launched out into the middle of the field, and players from both teams raced towards it. Tidus swam alongside one of his teammates, his eyes fixed on the small sphere suspended in the water. He pushed ahead, snatching the ball and holding it close to him. Before Tidus even had time to think, a Duggles player grabbed him in a headlock. The tight squeeze forced Tidus to let out a breath, a bad move so early in the half. Biting back his frustration, he threw the ball in the direction of his teammate and moved his hands up to tug at the restraining arms. The Duggles player held on persistently. Tidus writhed like a snake until he could place his foot against the other player's stomach. With a single push, he shot away from his captor into open waters.
Tidus caught the eye of the Abes striker who held the ball. The man watched Tidus as he swam, waiting for the right opportunity to pass. Tidus nodded towards the top of the sphere pool, indicating that he wanted to do his signature shot. The move wasn't as hard or as impressive as the Jecht shot, but it would get the ball into the goal. At two to zero, the Abes' victory would be assured.
The Abes striker let the ball fly, and Tidus swam with it towards the top of the sphere pool. He and the ball breached the surface at the same moment, and Tidus flipped around in the air, preparing to send the ball soaring into the Duggles' goal. Everything was perfect. Blitz fans would talk about this night for a long time.
Tidus' foot was about to make contact with the ball when he saw it. Above the city floated a massive sphere of water. The buildings below it rose up into the air, sucked in by the great force of whatever that massive thing was. It hovered slowly over Zanarkand, devouring everything beneath it. Tidus' eyes widened. Before he had time to gasp, bolts of light flew from the great sphere towards the stadium, ramming into the stands at great speeds. The glass blitzball sphere cracked and the stands collapsed; all around the cheers were replaced with screams of terror. Chaos echoed through the city streets, and Tidus found himself slamming into one of the overhangs. The impact knocked the breath out of him, but he managed to grip the edge. For a moment he just dangled there, wondering what to do. All around him the world shook, and his black leather gloves didn't have enough traction to hang on.
No, no, no!
First one hand, then the other slipped from their purchase, and Tidus spiraled down into the pandemonium below.
…
Tidus groaned. His head throbbed and everything seemed blurry. He waited for a few moments, pulling himself into a sitting position. The world around him came slowly back into focus.
Tidus was sitting just outside the collapsed blitzball stadium. Panic-stricken fans raced from the large doors, the few surviving blitzball players running with them. Water from the broken blitz sphere trickled onto the street, pooling all around. People splashed through the puddles, heedless of anything but their own terror. More people ran past the stadium, fleeing from the western part of the city. Up in the sky, the great sphere of water floated, hovering menacingly over Zanarkand.
Tidus scrambled up to his feet, ignoring the pain in his head. He staggered for a moment, trying to find his balance again. Something in the crowd fleeing passed the stadium caught his eye. A man wearing a long red cloak and dark glasses moved along with the tide of people, walking instead of running. He seemed not to notice the chaos all around and moved without worry or fear. The red-cloaked man broke from the crowd and walked straight for Tidus. Tidus felt a fragment of relief. He knew this man.
"Auron!" Tidus shouted, rushing up to meet his friend. "What are you doing here?"
"I was waiting for you," Auron said calmly in his deep, gravelly voice.
"What are you talking about?" Tidus asked, frowning and furrowing his brow. Auron was usually mysterious and unreadable, but even more so now.
Auron didn't answer Tidus' question, but instead turned to walk back into the crowd. He pushed against the current of people, calm as ever, fighting his way back towards the great sphere in the sky.
Tidus, unsure of what else to do, followed his friend through the crowd.
Tidus raced along the walkway, trying to catch sight of Auron. What is wrong with him? he thought franticly. We need to get out of here! People ran along the walkway, fleeing from the west side of the city where the destruction was the worst. The great sphere in the sky seemed to grow larger every step Tidus took towards it, but he tried his best not to look at it. That would just make his fear grow.
Without warning, silence replaced the chaos. Tidus glanced around in shear confusion; the around him people stood as still as statues, frozen in the middle of their panic. Tidus seemed to be the only one who could move.
What's going on? Tidus thought, trying not to lose his wits.
"It begins."
Tidus spun around to face the strange boy in the dark hood he'd seen before the game. His voice was young and quiet yet carried deep gravity. Tidus stared at the boy, wondering who he was.
"Don't cry," the boy said, tilting his head a little.
Time resumed. People broke from their statue stances and ran down the path. Tidus looked around wildly at the world in motion again. He glanced back to where the strange boy had stood. He was gone.
"What the..?" Tidus blinked, wondering if he had lost his mind. No time for this now. He turned his gaze back down the road, catching sight of Auron's red cloak.
"Hey! Wait!" Tidus cried out, sprinting down the walkway to meet Auron. The older man stood in the middle of the street, still and calm.
"Hey, not this way!" Tidus said emphatically. He didn't understand what Auron was doing. Shouldn't we run away from that thing?
"Look!" Auron turned his face towards the sky, his voice low. Tidus looked. What he saw made him gasp. From the stadium he had seen the great ball of water, and he'd caught several glimpses of it running up the walkway, but now he could see the whole thing. It was massive, larger by far than any blitzball sphere. Inside it, something huge and dark moved about, something menacing and terrifying.
"We call it 'Sin,'" Auron said darkly, staring up at the massive sphere of water in the sky.
"'Sin?'" Tidus turned his gaze to Auron, wondering how he knew about this terrible thing that menaced the sky over Zanarkand.
An explosion coming from the building to Tidus' right shook the air. Something had shoot from the ball of water and crashed into the tower wall. From what Tidus could see, it was like a mass of writhing tentacles, black as the night sky and covered with pulsing blueish lights. From the center of the thrashing limbs rose one thick tail covered with rough scales. It jerked back and forth, throwing these scales every which way. Several of them landed on the road in front of Tidus and Auron. The massive oval-shaped plates were edged with spikes and as tall as Tidus was. One by one, they split open and unfolded like an armadillo unrolling, until massive insect-like creatures filled the streets of Zanarkand.
Three of the monstrous creatures crowded around Tidus. They snapped at him with their shell-like wings and wide jaws, and he stumbled backward. Tripping over his own feet in the haste of his retreat, Tidus fell to the ground at Auron's feet.
"Take it," Auron's voice was commanding. Tidus looked up to see Auron holding out a longsword, gleaming in the moonlight. Tidus scrambled up to his feet and grabbed the hilt of the stately weapon. It was much heavier than it looked, and he nearly dropped it.
"A gift from Jecht," Auron said, watching Tidus closely.
Tidus jerked his face towards Auron, his eyes wide. "My old man?"
The squealing of the insect-creatures attracted Tidus' attention. He leaped forward, swinging the blade in a quick downward motion. It bit into the creature's thick carapace, and the insect leaped backward with screech. The force pushed Tidus back, and he fell back to the ground.
"I hope you know how to use it." Auron spoke quickly and stepped in front of Tidus, drawing out his own sword, a massive shining katana. Tidus leaped up to his feet and rushed forward, determined to help his friend.
Auron brought down his blade with considerable force on one of the insect creatures. It sliced cleanly through the beast, cutting it in two. For a moment its body lay there, but then it dissolved into the air with bursts of blue, white, and aqua light, as though it had never been real to begin with. Tidus leaped forward, swinging his blade. The insect he struck for jumped backward, shying away from his blade. Tidus frowned in irritation.
"These ones don't matter," Auron called as he advanced quickly through over the walkway. "We cut through!"
Tidus broke from his combat and followed Auron. No people were on these streets; this part of the city had been completely abandoned. Tidus realized with dismay that they were nearly directly underneath the great sphere of water.
What is Auron thinking? Tidus thought helplessly. Still, nowhere in the city would be safe at the moment. Tidus really had no choice but to trust Auron and hope that he was right.
"Don't bother going after all of them," Auron repeated his urgent instructions. "Cut the ones that matter, and run!"
Tidus leaped ahead, rushing up to Auron's side. Ahead, he could see a mass of tentacles rising out of the street. Whether this was the same creature he had seen on the building or another one of its kind, he couldn't tell. The hideous thing was planted in the ground; the parts of it that were visible were its tail, now bare of scales, and its writhing black tentacles. Auron continued to run past it, and Tidus followed.
The reach of the massive creature's tentacles covered the whole street, and the long appendages swung at Tidus and Auron as the tried to slip passed. Tidus hacked at one of the swooping tentacles, and it dropped off and landed at his feet. It thrashed on the ground for a moment, then dissolved into the air like the dead insects had.
Tidus had no time to puzzle over this strange phenomenon. Auron was rushing ahead already, and Tidus had to sprint to catch up with him. He would have loved to rid that monstrous creature of a few more of its tentacles, but he had to keep following Auron.
Tidus pushed his legs as hard as he could; Auron was just up ahead, and if he could catch up with him, maybe Tidus could talk some sense into him. I want to believe Auron knows what's best, but there's no way this is right. We have to get out of here!
Above the walkway, Tidus could see the billboard he had walked past on his way to the game. Jecht's face stood tall throughout all the destruction, his smile as smug as ever.
"What are you laughing at, old man?" Tidus muttered under his breath as he ran. He pulled his eyes from his father's face to see Auron standing still in the center of the street, just a few yards away. Seeing his opportunity, Tidus rushed up to his side.
"Auron!" he gasped, bending over as he tried to get his breath back. "Let's get out of here!"
"We're expected," Auron gazed steadily ahead at the great sphere of water floating in the sky, his features showing no sign of hurry or fear.
"Huh?" Tidus frowned, not understanding what he meant. Who could possibly be expecting them?
Auron slung his blade up to rest on his shoulder and broke into a sprint, showing no fatigue whatsoever.
Tidus groaned. "Gimme a break, man!" Gulping down one last lungful of precious oxygen, he followed.
Tidus screeched to a halt beside Auron as a cascade of scales fell through the air, covering the walkway ahead. These, like the others previous, unfolded their spiny shells and changed into large insects. The massive swarm flooded the bridged, leaving no way across for Tidus and Auron.
"Hmph," Auron narrowed his eyes. "This could be bad." He quickly turned his face to a large truck whose trailer was dangling over the edge of the walkway.
"That!" he pointed his katana in the vehicle's direction. "Knock it down!"
"What?" Tidus frowned. He could see from here the tanks fixed to the trucks flatbed; tanks of oil. If he knocked them down, they would cause a massive explosion.
"Trust me. You'll see," Auron's voice was level and confident, authoritative in a way that made Tidus do as he was told.
Leaving Auron to battle of the insect-scale things, Tidus hurried over to the truck. No amount of pushing would send its cargo dropping, so Tidus set his blade to the cable connecting the trailer to the truck. With the first blow, the strong metal wiring showed almost no sign of injury. Trying to mimic Auron's unbreakable calm, Tidus struck again and again. The thick cords gave one by one, and as the trailer slipped away into the city below, Tidus hoped that whatever Auron had planned would work.
The bridge jerked for a moment, the explosion beneath breaking its stability. The walkway cracked and bent under its own weight as the supports gave way, and the large, vicious insects Auron had been fighting retreated in all directions.
Auron himself stood on the rupturing bridge, waiting for Tidus.
"Go!" he shouted and ran on ahead.
Not believing he could be so foolish, Tidus sprinted after Auron, onto the buckling surface. Auron had reached the other side by the time Tidus as halfway across, and now the bridge was sinking. The section of walkway Auron stood on was almost above Tidus' head already. Looking up at Auron, Tidus could see that the massive sphere of water was almost directly above him. Tidus had nearly forgotten his fear of that great monstrosity in his terror on the falling bridge.
Reaching the end of the collapsing structure, he jumped just before it fell away completely, reaching for the walkway above.
Tidus' hands just barely caught the edge of the walkway. He dangled there for a moment, just trying to breath steadily. Above him, the great sphere of water blocked out the whole sky. Auron stood, his straight poster and square shoulders outlined by the unnatural glow of the massive shape above. All around, debris floated upward into the sphere of water, which warped at the bottom into a shape like a whirlpool or a massive funnel. The walkway, too, yielded to the great sphere's gravity and started to rise upward.
Tidus could feel his grip slipping.
"Auron!" he shouted, but Auron paid no heed. The ledge began to crumble.
"Auron!"
Auron gazed up into the tunnel-like opening forming in the ball of water above, ignoring Tidus.
"Are you sure?" he asked quietly. He hesitated a moment longer, then turned back to Tidus. His black glasses reflected the brilliant light coming from the sphere above. The section of the walkway broke away from the rest, rising through the air towards the gyrating funnel above.
"This is it," Auron stooped down and clenched the collar of Tidus' shirt in his hand. He pulled Tidus up, and the sucking force kept him suspended in the air; Auron's grip was the only thing stopping Tidus from flying up into the massive sphere.
"This is your story," Auron looked Tidus right in the eye. He was as calm as ever, though his voice carried deep meaning.
"It all begins here."
Tidus' perception of Auron seemed to twist and stretch. All of the debris floating up around him warped and twisted. The light from the center of the massive sphere- Sin, Auron had called it- engulfed everything, a blinding surge giving way to darkness…
