Everything crashed.

"Ugh," Rikku moaned, her cheek pressed deep into slushy water. Everything around her was cold, encasing her arms and legs like a tight outfit. Her pain-laced stomach and chest reminded her dimly of the events before their plunge.

White whirled around me, with only the pale blue sky as a landmark. A tall fiend with red eyes and blue feet came out to meet us with the Guado. Auron stepped in front of me. With its last breath, it broke a huge hole in the ice, and we couldn't get away from the cracking surface of the lake. It all crashed beneath our feet, and I lost my grip on Auron. Everything is cold.

We killed Seymour.

Her mind still couldn't process this last fact.

By now, she was sure that none of their minds had actually been thinking when they had seen Seymour, heard his vicious words, and felt his spells working their way beneath their skin, trying to strangle the heart. Rikku knew that she hadn't woken up from blind action before Seymour lay dead at their feet. Tidus seemed victorious; Lulu and Wakka were both in shock, and Kimahri was completely neutral.

Auron, however, seemed conflicted. Just like Yuna.

She searched for purchase on the icy lake floor with her gloved palms, found a solid place, and forced herself shakily upright. They had luckily landed in a patch of ruins on a shelf of ice under the initial lake surface- Macalania must be colder than they thought- and were now safe from the hunting Guado. The spiraling ruins of towers rose around her, stretching back up toward the broken ice surface.

She craned her neck upwards, her mouth wide open. "Wooooow," she goggled. "That's a long way up." They fell that far? How had they survived?

Far off in the distance, she heard the Hymn of the Fayth. Peaceful and unchanging, as the fayth had been singing for nearly a thousand years. Rikku crouched down and inspected her cold legs for injury. So far, so good- her skin was mostly intact.

On her peripheral vision, she saw the telltale red coat. Rotating her head, she saw Auron leaning against a tower, seemingly unshaken. Perfunctorily, she asked him, "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Are you?" He rolled his eyes up toward her. Behind the glasses, she saw real emotion. So, the fall had rattled him; this was just his way of dealing with it.

"I'm okay. I'm a little sore, but I can deal with it." She grinned as always, folding her hands behind her back. "Where's Yunie?"
"There." He pointed abruptly toward a shadowy ruin with a fallen wall. Through the dim light, Rikku could just make out the white blouse and night sky-blue skirt of the young summoner. With a smile and toss of her blonde bangs, she bounded over toward her fallen cousin with her usual excitement and youthful energy.

"Yuna sleeping," Kimahri growled softly as she approached, leaning over and peering into her cousin's face. She looked up into the impassive face of the blue-furred tower, his arms crossed across his chest.

"Is she okay?" She gently touched the soft skin of Yuna's hand, her delicate skin cool but still alive. Yuna looked paler than usual, the shock of Yevon's sudden betrayal hard on her. She brushed Yuna's soft brown hair away from her cheek, smiling a little. "She still looks tired."

"Yuna!" Tidus sloshed up beside her, his haphazard clothing dripping slush, betraying how fast he had run here from waking. He really does love her… Rikku shifted to her right a little, allowing the young man to get closer to the summoner he guarded so faithfully. "Is she okay?"

"I think so," Rikku said. "That was kind of a long fall. Do you know where we are?"

"Lulu said we're beneath the lake ice. Look, there's the temple thingy." He waved toward the column of the temple, his bright blue eyes never leaving Yuna's face. Rikku watched him, a mischievous smile creeping over her face.

"Look! A fiend!" She barked in Al Bhed. Tidus' head whirled, and he whipped out his sword, leaning over Yuna. In one smooth movement, she kicked his ankles out from underneath him, making him slip and fall in the slushy lake bottom.

"Yowch! What was that for?" He jumped back up, his eyebrows knitted as he swiped at her.

"Jeez," she laughed, dodging. "We're still alive- lighten up!" Evading again, she flicked his nose playfully. "Yunie's gonna be fine."

Tidus sighed at her and turned back to Yuna. Seeing that she couldn't lighten the mood without being unkind, she turned away and walked back toward the edge of the ruins where Auron stood alone. She passed Wakka, who stood in some sort of coma, staring at the temple and praying fervently. However, even with the luck of their survival, the shock would have him snapping at her even worse than he was before. Avoiding him, she snuck at admiring look at Lulu's mature stance, attitude, and figure before pulling up beside the legendary guardian.

"How is Yuna?" He kept looking straight out across the vast plains of the sub-ice lake, but concern tingeing his voice.

"She's kinda out." She leaned against the wall next to him, her arm lightly resting against his side. "But Tidus is watching her, and Kimahri is… y'know, whoo." She cupped her hands in circles around her eyes like binoculars, and Auron chuckled.

"What're we going to do?" She looked up at him after a short silence. "How are we going to get out of here?" And the temples? And Yevon? And Zanarkand? And Yunie…

"We'll take care of each other." He turned his head and looked down at her tenderly. Suddenly, she felt the warmth of hand touching her palm. "And we'll all take care of Yuna."

And all of a sudden, it was bright. Rikku's eyes flickered open once again.

"Owchie…"

Digging her fingers into the surface beneath her- sand?- she pulled herself upright again. The sun beat heavily on the back of her neck, her boots steeped to the ankles in loose grains of sand. The wind blew mercilessly, devoid of water, into her sleepy face.

"It couldn't be?" And yet it was. Every dune, every inch of the sky, whispered home into her ears. Yet how?

What about Yuna? Auron? Tidus, Lulu, Wakka, Kimahri?

She turned into the sun. Sin must have dropped them here- she vaguely remembered seeing its death-riddled form floating in the emptiness of the lake. Auron's warm presence next to her had disappeared, pulled suddenly away, and she floated in emptiness. Lights, roads, and a war-beaten atmosphere had swallowed her, and must have dropped her here. But three words that had somehow echoed through the darkness puzzled and haunted her.

"You're Sin now."

Letting the thoughts float off into the sky from whence they came, she walked across a dune. Certain now that this was Bikanel, she searched for a landmark from which to find Home. But the others…

Their faces drifted through her mind; she couldn't just leave them in the desert to find their own way. Even after Wakka's cruel words, she had to find Yuna. It was her responsibility. And Auron; she had to find him. For her own sake as much as his.

"Heeeeeeeeeey!" She cried out in Al Bhed, her thin voice echoing across the wind-blown sands. No answer came. She walked.

Miles drifted away beneath her feet as she reacquainted herself with the sliding, loose terrain. Soon, she became as usual- just before she had left the island several weeks before. A terrible thought occurred to her- what would happen at Home when she arrived with Yevonites and a summoner, as a guardian?

But her questions drifted away to join her thoughts in the air when her happy eyes fell on a small group coming through the sand. Joyous, she raced down to meet them. Tidus gave her a winning smile, and she saw Auron's emotion behind his façade.

"Where's Yunie?"