He never wanted to see me dance again, and I understand why. Dancing always meant death as part of the Sending ritual. A ritual where I guided the souls of the dead to the Farplane, saving them from the fate of becoming fiends. A fate worse than the death they had unfortunately experienced.

I danced with sorrow in my heart for those loved ones left behind. For the mothers who cried for their children. For the children cried for their parents. Husbands lost wives just as young lovers were never to get their chance to marry and all of this was because of Sin.

I cried when I danced for them, hearing the wails of those still living. I cried because no life should ever be lost, no matter how young or old.

So I danced. Then I moved on to fight. We had to fight. Sin was our enemy. Sin destroyed hundreds of lives with no remorse to those families we left grieving for their losses across Spira. It was Sin who made dancing into a macabre rite of passage, and my guardians and I were going to destroy him.

Happily and sadly, in the end, we succeeded. Our story was known all over, and we would be celebrated for years, generations even.

It was apparent to all that it was a joyous moment in our history. Sin would never again return. People no longer had to live in fear of the toxin or the spawn. The threat of Sin destroying our homes was forever vanquished. We had The Eternal Calm.

Everyone was happy, but there were losses, and the sadness of our victory came from my loss.

I saved the world only to lose my heart… I lost him. My first and only love. He changed everything by both existing and not existing. Our world is saved because of the man from Zanarkand. A society that had been destroyed 1,000 years ago. It was a world where people could dance, and it wouldn't be about death but joy and love. It was a world destroyed by Sin… but it was a world in a dream. He was a dream.

I spoke to no one the day I left for Zanarkand. I asked Rikku to take me there nearly a month after we had our victory, and I had already decided that I would visit the Zanarkand once again. This time not on a pilgrimage but to relive some precious memories.

Wakka and Lulu knew where I was going, but I asked them to stay behind. Just this once.

"Yunie?" Rikku asked. "Are you ok?" She stood near our fire with her hands on her hips, watching me with curiosity and concern in her features.

I had climbed onto the nearby hill overlooking the ruins of Zanarkand. The Pyraflies were everywhere, casting their glow all over the land while the sunset cast shadows on the crumbling structures. I blinked away a tear and faced my cousin.

"Yes. I'm fine."

"You don't look it." She disagreed, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head. "Um… fire's all lit. Wanna come down from there?"

No, I didn't want to come down. Not yet, but I nodded regardless and looked over the land once more before carefully sliding down the steep slope.

"D'ya see anything?" She asked, still with concern.

I smiled at her and shook my head. "Just pyraflies."

Rikku nodded. "We can go to the ruins in the morning if you want." She bit her lip to stop herself from saying something else.

I know Rikku has a problem with this. She's Albhed, after all, and as she often says, 'Memories are nice, but that's all they are.' Though lately, she hasn't said those words to me. I was grateful for that.

We sat down beside the fireside. Each of us taking a spot opposing the other while we both remained silent. She poked the fire with a stick a couple of times while I stared into the popping, dancing flames. Dancing Flames. Always my thoughts go back to dancing.

I did one last Sending in the end, right after I defeated Sin. I never want to Send again. He faded because of that one last ritual, that one last dance.

Sadly it was more than just one soul who faded from my group of guardians. We also lost Auron, my father's closest friend.

Dance, death, dance, fade, dance….

Warmth began traveling down my cheeks in steady uneven streams. Wet and salty, but when that warmth touched my lips, I realized I was crying again.

"Yunie…" Rikku said my name softly. Her hand was on my shoulder.

"Really, Rikku, I'm fine."

"No, you're not." She frowned as her voice turned stern and authoritative, and despite my sadness, she made me smile. "You need to spill the beans, sister, or I am taking you back to Besaid right now."

I stood up, and she followed my lead as if to scold me should I back out of revealing my thoughts. I put my hands in front of me, feeling the warmth of the fire. The glow cast on my skin was warm and comforting. Not at all blueish like the glow of the pyraflies.

"Dance," I said softly.

"Huh?" her voice echoed with confusion. She skip-hopped to stand in front of me and bent over, twisting her head into a tilted angle so she could look me directly in the eye... "Talk with some sense, please." She whined.

"The flames, they reminded me of dancing. They remind me of the Sending."

As I knew such words were hard, it wasn't surprising that her face fell into sadness. "Oh…. that."

I could have chosen to silence my thoughts at that point, but now that the words had been spoken, I had to continue. I needed to find a way to express the feelings that I had held so close to myself. My lips pressed together tight while I closed my eyes, formulating how to get the words across to my cousin, and after a short silence, I continued to speak.

"He never liked my dancing," I admitted.

She looked at me with concern again. That same look I have come to dislike. Since the pilgrimage, my guardians have been giving it to me, and I don't see it fading anytime soon.

"But that's the Sending." She said. "He hasn't seen you dance. Not really."

I nodded again. "I wanted to dance for him."

Rikku seemed to understand. She nodded and stepped back to give me space as she returned to take a seat by the fire.

"Are you sure you wanna find the memory here? It might make you even sadder. To see him… then…" Rikku bit her lip, afraid of what her words would do to me.

"To lose him again." I finished for her, and though she had a point, I knew it wouldn't be as devastating as all that.

I closed my eyes, letting my memory recall his face, smile, eyes, and voice. I thought to all those times we shared a moment of understanding. His support and kindness. The way he felt when we kissed...

I want to see you again.

Slowly I began to sway. I felt the fire beside me and the warmth it gave off. I stepped back from it, swaying as I did so so that the heat was not as intense. I knew I was far enough away now; I began to twirl, kicking up the heel of my boots so my hip would rise and fall to the rhythm of a song that played solely in my own mind.

My hands came up to accentuate my dancing. I felt myself moving in a fluid motion, twisting and listening to the swish my summoners dress made as I did so.

I let my mind focus on him—the boy I wanted to be with so badly. I envisioned him right there beside the fire.. watching me.

My mind replicated the music that I heard from the drummers on Besaid. Then I mimicked our dancers by making my hips rise and fall like the waves on the beach. I shimmied while my hands dropped to hip level and spun as the music in my mind picked up the tempo.

I imagined that our eyes made contact as I danced for him. He would stare with fascination this time… not with sadness or pain. He would smile at me, and I smiled back.

The warmth was close again, so I stepped back from the fire once more, but I continued to dance. Weaving and rotating, twisting and twirling…

Then I heard a gasp from Rikku. I opened my eyes mid-twirl and stopped instantly to see … him. Glowing with Pyraflies.

My heart skipped a beat, but when I stopped dancing, the vision started to fade. I wanted to run to him, to stop his fading but no... there was nothing I could do to stop it.

"Keep dancing, Yunie," Rikku said quickly, almost breathlessly.

So I did. I threw my hands up again and twirled. His image brightened up again, glowing and smiling. He was almost laughing with the joy that was so evident on his face. My heart pounded in my chest, and I danced more.

My mind's music was beating louder, louder than before that I could almost swear it was playing and echoing off the ruins. I kicked and twisted. Jutting my hip from one side to another. I dance for him.

Rikku sat down in awe of the vision. She was laughing, and I joined her spinning again as I did so.

We looked at him with amazement when I was finally out of breath from it all. I didn't want to stop but my body, wholly exerted, said otherwise.

He didn't fade right away. He lingered there, grinning widely as if my stolen energy had stabilized his apparition.

"Yuna," His voice was like fresh water in the middle of the Bikanel Desert. "You dance beautifully."

I felt the tears, both happy and sad, begin to trail down my face as I spoke to him. "I needed to dance for you."

"I'm glad you did." Too soon, he began to fade as he said those words. I knew it couldn't last forever, yet I wasn't so sad this time; I was happy. I saw him. I was able to see him once again, thanks to the pyraflies.

If any of my other guardians were here to ask me if that was truly him or just the Pyraflies reacting to my wishful thinking, I wouldn't be able to say. Either way, it didn't matter because his words meant a lot to me. Just seeing that glimmer of hope and happiness in his expression was enough to keep me going.

One day I will find him again. Somehow, someway… and when I do, I will dance for him. Without sadness, without death. I will dance for love.