Final Fantasy X and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy X storyline (such as Rayne and Marcus) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.

(Just A Game)

"Listen to my story. This… may be our last chance."

Something about that statement, combined with the music and the depressed looks on the peoples faces, made Rayne's breath hitch in her chest. The screen then faded to a back view of the boy and revealed a city with several white things with rainbow tails floating upwards. Then, the screen faded to black, and the words 'Final Fantasy X' appeared in copperplate gothic font.

"Final Fantasy 'X'," Rayne heard her brother mutter, "What kind of a name for a game is that?"

"It's ten." Rayne replied without tearing her eyes from the screen, "'X' is the Roman numeral for ten. Final Fantasy Ten."

"Ah," was Michael's reply, "Well, I heard of the Final Fantasy games, and they're supposed to be good. They've got great battle operations, characters that actually develop as the game goes along, and some good story lines."

The screen flashed white and then focused in on a faded vision of a crowd of people, and Rayne studied it closely, "Hmm… Is this the game that Aunt Kala sent with the PlayStation?"

"Yeah," Michael flinched as Rayne made the boy character walk up to a group of girls and talk to them, "Why are their voices so pitchy? Is there something wrong with the disk?"

Still looking at the screen, Rayne shook her head, "No, I think that's how there supposed to sound. It's probably trying to make a point about…," she paused when the screen changed and the alphabet appeared, a black box towards the top of the screen displaying the characters default name, "about Tidus' life, or something."

Michael stared at the back of his sister's head, "You overanalyze stuff waaayy too much, sis. What kind of point would they try to make with that?"

She shrugged, "I dunno, maybe that it's annoying or… certain aspects are annoying, or… that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be…"

Michael shook his head, "Overanalyzing…" He then smirked as he watched his sister guide the character through across a long bridge, "Hey, I thought you were opposed to games. What's up, hmm?"

Rayne's thumb twitched and hit the 'Start' button on the controller, causing the game to pause. She looked at her brother, a slight blush on her face, "Well, um… Tidus said that this was his 'story', and um… I … like stories…"

She looked down as her brother's smile grew even wider, "Face it, sis, maybe you were wrong about what is and isn't good entertainment. Maybe books aren't everything."

Rayne frowned and made to drop the remote, but her brother was quick to say, "Or we could just say that this is a book, only in a different format, and you control some of the aspects. It's basically what it is, right?"

He twitched as Rayne bit her thumb and stared at the paused screen. "I suppose. It does appear to have a set story line, and there is dialogue…hmm…"

Michael breathed a sigh of relief when she picked the controller back up and hit the 'Start' button again, making the game continue. He was happy that he had finally found something to make his sister stop moping and do something that involved TV, and he didn't want to do anything to make her stop.

When she was fully into the swing of the game, he sat down and watched, impressed by the in-game graphics. When it came to the cut scene where Tidus was playing blitzball, he noticed his sister drop the controller and become glued to the screen. She gasped when the giant thing inside of the water ball shot the city, and even Michael clenched his hands when it looked like Tidus was going to fall to his death from the overhang.

As the game progressed a bit more, Rayne panicked when she was engaged in her first battle and accidentally pressed the X button, making the tutorial for attacking click off of the screen. Michael laughed when he noticed his sister realize that she had no clue what to do. She watched in horror as Tidus was repeatedly attacked by some creepy blue bugs, and jumped every time the character 'Auron' yelled a command.

She felt like Auron was yelling at her every time she messed up, and it wasn't long before Tidus' health was dangerously low. Fortunately, her random clicking found her the items menu, and she managed to figure out how to make Tidus use a Potion. Unfortunately, it was used on Auron instead, and the next attack from the blue bugs made Tidus drop onto the ground.

"Oh my God, I KILLED TIDUS!!!!"

Michael laughed out loud as his sister panicked. "Sis, make Auron use a 'Phoenix Down'."

Too scared to question, Rayne shakily did as her brother told her, and suddenly, Tidus was back in action.

"Gah! I FRIKKEN RESURECTED TIDUS! Oh my God, DOESN'T THAT MAKE HIM A ZOMBIE?!" She could have sworn that Auron rolled his eyes when she said that, but she brushed it off as her being jittery.

Michael, on the other hand, laughed again, unable to reply as his sister continued the battle in panic, suddenly afraid of the idea of making the main character a zombie in the first thirty minutes of the game. Well, she soon discovered that he wasn't a zombie, mainly because when the battle was over he still spoke coherently and he hadn't eaten Auron's brains.

When the characters ran passed a blue shiny thing, Rayne made them turn around and got a closer look at it. "What is that?"

When she pressed the X button, a tiny menu appeared on the screen with 'Save Game' and 'Cancel' in small but bold letters.

"It's a save point," Michael supplied, "Put the highlight bar over 'Save Game' and press X." When she had done this, a new menu appeared. "Alright, now choose the first memory card slot," she did, "And choose the first slot at the top to save the game."

When the little 'do not remove memory card' warning appeared, Rayne turned to her brother, "I didn't know there was a memory card."

He nodded and pointed to the small black rectangle sticking out of the PlayStation, "I put it in when you had your eyes closed. Just to be safe."

She nodded and turned back to the game when the little 'finished' ping sounded, and then stared at the saving screen blankly. Michael sighed, "Hit the O button a few times to get back to the game." She did, and her endeavor continued.

Michael watched both the TV and his sister as the game went on, amused by her slow learning, but impressed that she was actually trying. Though she was more enthralled when she just had to watch the non-playing scenes, both in-game and the cut scenes, she was actually making an effort to do well in the actual moving and combat part of the game.

After a few of hours, she had made it in and out of Besaid and was on her way to Kilika. It was just as she was engaged in battle with the Sin fin that their mother unlocked the door and walked in, arms full of groceries. When she heard the TV, she assumed that Michael was playing something, but was shocked when she looked and saw her daughter sitting in front of the screen.

She was so shocked, in fact, she screamed and dropped all of the bags. When Michael and Rayne heard this, they both jumped to their feet and ran over to her, pulling all of the bags off and almost yelling franticly.

"It's alright, kids, I'm fine. It's just," She looked at Rayne, stunned, "Were you playing a game? On the TV?"

Rayne froze and blushed, "Well… um…"

Michael picked up a few bags and laughed, "It's alright, Mom. The first line of the game was 'Listen to my story', and she's been hooked since."

Their mother looked at the TV screen in shock. "'Listen to my story'? Rayne," she looked at her daughter, "Do you like it?"

Rayne picked up a few bags and mumbled, "Well, um, I'm not too good at the actual fighting part, but I like the story so far."

Michael waved at his mom to stop questioning, and she did, afraid of chasing her daughter away. After they had the groceries put away, they all walked back into the living room, where Michael and Mom sat on the sofa and Rayne picked up the remote and continued the battle with the Sin fin. When it was over, another cut scene was shown.

The two on the couch watched as Rayne's hands tightened on the controller when Sin destroyed Kilika Port. "Sin…" she muttered under her breath.

Their mom looked at Michael with a raised brow, but he just shrugged, whispering, "She likes the story more than she lets on." They both then watched on in silence as Rayne continued to play. Soon though, it was dark, and their mother had prepared dinner.

"Rayne, honey," she called, "You need to save and come eat dinner, now."

Rayne didn't reply as the scene of Auron and Tidus becoming guardians before the Mi'ihen Highroad ended, and she guided Tidus up the stairs and to the save point. A bit reluctantly, she pressed the green button and turned the game off.

Dinner that evening was a silent event; Rayne was thinking about the game and her mother and brother were exchanging glances as they watched her. At one point, the silence was interrupted by Rayne telling her mother that they needed a locksmith to come and fix the door to the library, but silence then returned afterward.

Later that night, Rayne sat on the edge of her bed, thinking about what Auron had told Tidus after the attack on the blitz stadium.

"Sin is Jecht."

Not even Maester Seymour had creeped her out as much as that revelation had.

"The point of the game… of the story is to beat Sin. Tidus has to get to Sin in order to get back to his Zanarkand. But… Sin is his dad. No clue how that works out, but it's true… it's gotta be true. Auron doesn't seem like the type who would lie… why would he? He fought alongside both Jecht and Braska, and they were all friends." She buried her head in her hands and sighed. "That is so… messed up."

Alright, maybe she was getting too deep into this. It was just a game, after all, and there were nine others before it that must have had similarly disturbing plot revelations. Then again, Rayne got like this whenever she read books, too, so her reaction wasn't that out of the ordinary.

"Yeah," she muttered as she slipped under her comforter, "It's just like all of the other stories I've read. I'm just getting into the plot. It really is just a game."

Well, readers, had it been 'just a game', this little story wouldn't exist, would it?