This chapter has turned out to be the shortest one yet. I feel kind of bad about it, but I knew exactly where it should end, and extending it just seemed wrong.
Anyways, read, review and enjoy.


Chapter Six

Wakka stood on the deck of the Liki drawing in long, deep breaths. With Sin gone and all the scales destroyed, the open sea was oddly peaceful. The waves lapped gently, and a small breeze blew, but other than that it was silent. Nobody spoke. Sailors began moving around, working to get the ship moving again. Wakka took stock of his friends. Lulu had composed herself and was speaking softly with Yuna, who also seemed unharmed. Kimahri stood with his arms folded, watching the two with his usual stony expression. And Tidus-
Where's that kid? Wakka felt panic rise in his chest. That's not good.
"Hey, anybody seen Tidus? he called out. Yuna and Lulu looked up at him, and even Kimahri showed attention.
"Well, isn't he-" Lulu broke off and glanced around, suddenly seeming worried. "Where has he gone?"
"Oh, no!" Yuna gasped, looking out over the waves. "Did he fall overboard?"
"I'll check," Wakka offered, climbing up on the railing.
"Hurry," Lulu said sharply. "This ship's going to start moving any moment."
"Let's find the captain and ask him to wait," Yuna suggested, and Lulu nodded. Wakka turned his back to the two women, pulled in a deep breath, and dived headfirst into the ocean.

Underwater all was silent. Wakka could hear nothing but the rushing of blood in his ears. Beneath him an empty expanse stretched farther that he could fathom. Clear blue water flooding away in every direction for miles. It was beautiful, and it made Wakka feel very small. Even after a thousand blitzball training sessions out at sea, he still found the open ocean very humbling.
Floating just a little ways below the surface, Wakka spotted the silhouette of a person. There you are!
Sure enough, Tidus was bobbing there in the blue seawater, unconscious. Wakka swam up to him, taking his still form under one arm. You'll be fine, kid, he thought as he swam towards the surface. You just need to get up on dry land.
Wakka sucked in a deep breath as he broke through the surface. Tidus still wasn't breathing.
"Come on, Tidus!" Wakka shouted, slapping his face. "Breath, man!"
The best blitzball players could hold their breath for hours, so Wakka wasn't all that worried.
Still, I'll feel better when this guy's awake.
"Wakka! Did you find him?" Wakka looked up to see Lulu and Yuna standing against the railing; it was Lulu who had shouted.
"I've got Tidus!" Wakka called back, and he saw Yuna sigh with relief.
"I'll look for someone to help you two back on board!" Yuna called and hurried away.
"I can't believe he fell overboard," Lulu sighed, shaking her head with a hand to her forehead.
"Hey, cut him some slack, Lulu!" Wakka sighed. "It's not his fault."
Wakka didn't hear Lulu's response, because he felt Tidus draw in a sharp breath. He glanced down to see the young man coughing out mouthfuls of seawater.
"Ugghh…" he groaned unintelligibly. Wakka grinned.
"Hold on there, Tidus," he chuckled. "You're going to be just fine."

Tidus lay on the deck, staring into the distance. The Liki was speeding as fast as it could go, and under the sunset sky, Kilika was just visible. Debris clouded the water from the destruction Sin had wrought. What had once been a thriving port town was now ruined and destroyed. The passengers of the Liki had seen the waters roiling in the distance and heard the crashing and destruction. No one knew if there was enough of Kilika left for the ship to even dock. Still, they sailed onward.
The sailing crew went along solemnly, performing their tasks in a silent vigil. Yuna had healed Tidus' wounds, and now she crouched silently over where he lay on the Liki's deck. Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri stood around on either side of them. They all stared out at Kilika, thinking of different things. Tidus could summon only one thought.
When Sin attacked Zanarkand that day, I woke up in Spira. I've kept hoping it would work in reverse, too. But I was just fooling myself.
Yuna's face was set like stone, staring out at Kilika with a kind of solemn strength Tidus had never seen before.
"I will defeat Sin…" she breathed, her voice barely even a whisper, but holding unshakable resolve. "I must defeat Sin."
It was that day, on the sea, under the burning sun that Tidus started to give up hope.
I'm in a foreign world, and I'm not going home. Tidus closed his eyes against the beautiful sunset behind the destroyed town. This is my new reality, and I'm stuck in it for good.

Tidus stepped unsteadily out onto one of the only remaining piers in Kilika. Beyond this dock, a whole network of piers created the streets of the small fishing town. Now, many of these streets were smashed and impassible.
After so long on the boat, the stillness of land seemed unnatural. Tidus' head was spinning as well. He wasn't sure what to think, about Sin or Kilika, and he didn't want to think about his hopeless situation. No going home…
A middle-aged couple rushed down the pier to meet the new arrivals. They looked weary but mostly unharmed. Yuna, standing at the front of the group, approached them.
"Greetings!" she called. "I am the summoner Yuna. I have come from the temple in Besaid."
"M'lady Summoner!" the woman answered with reverence.
"If there is no other summoner here, please allow me to perform the sending," Yuna requested solemnly. Tidus dimly wondered what a sending was.
"Thanks be to ye!" the man said with relief.
"Our loved ones…" the woman looked on the brink of tears. "We feared they would become fiends!"
"Please," Yuna said quietly, her voice soft and gentle, "take me to them."
The man nodded, and he and his wife walked away down the pier, Yuna following close behind. Lulu and Kimahri tailed her, but Wakka remained with the Aurochs.
"Come one, boys!" he called to the blitz team. "We'll go see what we can do to help in town."
As all this happened, Tidus stood on the pier, watching. The Aurochs followed their coach into the wrecked fishing town of Kilika, and Yuna and the others were just disappearing around a bend in the docks.
Pull yourself together! he snapped in his mind. If this Spira has to be my home now, there's no use pouting about it! Tidus pulled in a deep breath and turned his gaze to were Yuna and the others had vanished. And I'll start by finding out what a "sending" is.

Rounding the bend, Tidus saw Yuna talking with the same couple that had received them at the dock. A great crowd of people was gathered on the dock, all staring at the water. At first, Tidus wasn't sure what they were looking at, but then he saw it. A large mass of shapes floating under the surface. He wondered what they were…
Standing apart from Yuba, close by Kimahri, Tidus spotted Lulu. She seems to know lots, he thought. Maybe she can tell me what I want to know.
"Um, what's a 'sending'?" Tidus asked tentatively as he walked up to Lulu. "Are we going somewhere?"
"Oh," Lulu sighed, shaking her head. "You truly are clueless. Are you sure it's just your memory that's the problem?"
Tidus tried to think of a suitable response for this comment, but Lulu continued.
"The dead need guidance." The mage paused a moment, turning her gaze from Tidus to Yuna, who still spoke with the townsfolk.
"Filled with grief over their own death, they refuse to face their fate. They yearn to live on, and resent those still alive. You see, they envy the living." Lulu paused again, staring over the water. Tidus couldn't help but realize that the vague shapes floating under the surface looked disturbingly like people…
Lulu continued. "And in time, that envy turns to anger, even hate. Should these souls remain in Spira, they become the fiends that prey on the living. Sad, isn't it?"
Lulu turned back to Yuna. "The sending takes them to the Farplane, where they may rest in peace."
Tidus was silent for a moment, trying to take in the flood of information.
"Summoners do this?" he asked at last. Lulu nodded.
A hush fell over the congregation, all conversation ceasing. Tidus followed the gaze of the crowd; all eyes rested on Yuna.

Yuna stepped from the pier, her feet resting on the water's surface. Instead of sinking away, she somehow remained atop the gently rippling waves. A quiet sea breeze whisked her hair, and the pink sunset colors refracted from the water, decorating the young summoner with dancing light. All was silent as she took slow steps over the water, until she stood directly above the mass of submerged bodies, the red sky behind her like a blood-stained canvas. Then she started dancing.
The dance reminded Tidus of when Yuna summoned Valfor, the great bird-like aeon from Besaid temple. Only, there was something different about this dance. Yuna swung her staff and spun around, her face filled with emotion. For a few moments that seemed like a lifetime, there was silence over Kilika as Yuna danced atop the still solemn waters.
Then lights began to appear under the waters. Tidus had fought fiends enough times to recognize these lights, the things Lulu had called pyreflies. The swirling streams of aqua, blue, lavender, and white lights swarmed in a spiral pattern, congregating underneath Yuna's feet. Then the silence was broken as the water began to foam. The waves followed the path of the lights and swirled around Yuna, erupting in a great fountain that held the summoner high over the observers. The pyreflies broke from beneath the water and soared through air, enveloping the summoner as she continued to dance. Tidus was only dimly aware of people sobbing, but he could sense clearly the atmosphere of grief that surround the beautiful but tragic dance. The sending felt like it had taken hours, but only a few minutes had pasted when the last of the pyreflies disappeared into the sky and Yuna walked back towards shore.

"It must be tough, being a summoner," Tidus breathed, to no one in particular.
"Yuna chose her own path," Lulu answered quietly. "She knew from the beginning what it meant." Lulu watched as Yuna pulled herself back up onto the dock. "All we can do is protect her along the way. Until the end."
"Until the… end?" Tidus didn't understand the gravity in Lulu's words. "What's the end?"
All of the grieving citizens of Kilika stopped and stared at Tidus. He suddenly felt very conspicuous. What did I say?
Lulu sighed and held one hand to her forehead. "Until she defeats Sin," she answered plainly.
"Oh." Tidus pondered that for a moment. Defeats that thing? A summoner's job is tough.
Lulu rushed over to meet Yuna on the dock. The Young summoner was covered in spray from the water, and her face was damp as well.
"I hope… I hope I did okay," she said shakily. Lulu put one hand on her shoulder and with the other stroked her hair gently.
"You did very well," she reassured. "They've reached the Farplane by now." Lulu paused for a moment, smiling fondly. "But… next time, no tears, hm?"
Tidus stared after them. He wished there would never be a next time. No more people killed by Sin. No more sendings for Yuna.
Everyone stood there watching her. It was strange, and somehow… horrifying. I never want to see that again.