College has started for me again, so I apologize for the lack of chapters being updated in a timely manner. I just don't have time. For those of you who don't know about college, or go to a homework-light college, I may not have time for a while. Several chapters of textbooks to read every night, papers to write at least every 2 or 3 days, art projects due left and right, it's crazy. So please, cut me some slack on my updating. Hope you enjoy this though.

Thanks to any reader's/reviewers. (Hope more reader's become reviewers!)
Cirien Phoenix

Water lapped around him as he lay face down in it. It was a gentle swaying motion, almost like it was rocking him back to sleep. Sin couldn't be near. The water was too gentle and forgiving. Tidus snapped up out of the water as if he'd been shot. "Rikku!" Though it wasn't the first time as of late, Tidus was entirely baffled. There was no Rikku. There was no Al Bhed ship. There was no Sin. The water was blue and almost crystal clear. He could see the sand and occasional seaweed at the bottom. Looking up, the sun shined down on him with all its glory. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen the sun that high in the sky. Usually he slept during the day. It was warm and welcoming. Tidus looked out at the vast ocean. It seemed to go on forever and ever. "No, I don't want to be alone again." Suddenly, something wailed him hard in the back of the head. Picking it up, he studied the blue and white ball. "Blitzball!"

"You okay?" a man's voice shouted behind him.

Tidus turned and felt absolutely embarrassed. He thought he was nowhere and instead was only a two-minute swim from shore. Ahead of him was the most beautiful shoreline he'd ever seen. The sand was almost perfectly white. A little dock jutted off to the left. The cliffs around the small beach picturesquely framed the sand. Lush palms in the most vibrant shades of green sprouted all healthily on top of them. On the beach were the figures of people wearing yellow. "Heeey!" Tidus swam underwater. The person from the shore who had called to him watched in disbelief as Tidus hit the ball out of the water with his head, then in the air, spun and kicked the ball forcefully back to shore, narrowly missing a hit to the person's head.

He stood patiently as Tidus swam to shore. "Whoa-ho!" Two of the other men ran up to him. One Tidus reached the shore, they ran back to the others. The man was itching to talk to the stranger.

Tidus waved smoothly as water dripped off of him. "Yo! Hiya!" He approached the tanned, shirtless man in yellow pants with a curl of red hair sticking straight off his head.

"You wanna try that move again?" The man crossed his arms, smiling.

Tidus nodded thinking that things were finally starting to look up for him. A ball was placed before him on the sand. All the men on the shore were wearing yellow pants like a team or club might. Tidus waited for them to gather around him, then performed the blitz move once again. The men surrounding him gaped in amazement. Tidus loved the attention.

"You're not amateur," said the red-haired man. "Who you play for?"

Tidus puffed out his chest. Prideful, he said, "The Zanarkand Abes."

The men around him started to chatter excitedly amongst themselves. Tidus realized that was the wrong answer as the red-haired man squinted and asked, "What team you say again?"

"Uh, I meant... Forget that," he babbled. "I got too, uh...close to Sin and my head's all foggy-like. So I don't know where this place is. Or even where I came from." He put a hand on the back of his head while attempting to look ashamed. In a way, he did feel ashamed. Rikku had said not to speak a word of where he was from, but he'd gone and opened his big mouth anyways.

"Sin's toxin got to you." Tidus's head popped up as the man spoke. Apparently, the look on his face was enough to convince them. "But, you're still alive. Praise be to Yevon!"

Tidus stared as everyone around him raised their arms over their head, then arched them out and down to their waists. At their waists they turned their palms opposite, one hand over the other, so a circle was formed in the center, and then they bowed. Tidus knew it was the blitzball sign for victory. He wondered if they meant victory over Death.

The red-haired man motioned for the team to go back to the spot they'd started at. "All right. Back to practice!" Putting a hand on Tidus's shoulder he said, "I'm Wakka, coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs, brudda."At that second, Tidus's stomach let out a lion-like growl. Wakka grinned. "What? You hungry? Okay, back to the village. I'll get you somethin'."

Wakka stepped forward, but Tidus hesitated. He felt he could trust this man, stranger as he was, so he decided to ask. "It's true Zanarkand was destroyed, right? A thousand years ago? So it's just a big pile of rubble now, isn't it?"

Wakka turned and gave him a sideways look, then another look of understanding passed over his face. He seemed to remember Tidus's "ailment" caused by the Toxin. "Long time ago, there were a whole lot of cities in Spira. Big cities with machina--machines--to run 'em. People played all day and let the machina do the work. And then, well, take a look. Sin came, and destroyed the machina cities. And Zanarkand along with 'em. Yeah, that was about a thousand years ago, just like you said. If you ask me, Sin's our punishment for letting things get out of hand. What gets me, though..." He paused, then continued with a hint of anger, "is we gotta suffer, 'cause of what some goofballs did way back when! 'Course, we must always repent for our sins! That's important! It's just that, it's hard to keep at it sometimes, you know?"

Tidus thought about it. He didn't think that Wakka and Rikku had probably ever met before. It was at least unlikely. How could they both tell the same lie? Tidus gave up and came to the conclusion that they weren't lying. At least, he couldn't prove it yet, so there was no reason to point his finger in anyone's face shouting "I told you so!" Maybe no one had been to Zanarkand in so long they'd forgotten about it, but people had moved back in. Zanarkand, after all, didn't seem to have any connection to the world outside as far as he knew. They always had blitz matches against other Zanarkand teams, food was grown there, and water was already there. People had no reason to live and no one seemed to come to them. Tidus hoped that this was the case. It at least made him feel better to think it was.

Tidus unexpectedly felt his head being grabbed and noogied, messing his hair up. Wakka had him in a head lock. "But you from the Zanarkand Abes--that was a good one!" He laughed heartily. "Hey, I'm not saying that team never existed, ya? But you gotta figure a team living in luxury like that'd be pretty soft, eh?"

Tidus appreciated Wakka's attempt to make him cheer up. It would have been funny if the Sin Toxin excuse were true. Tidus knew it wasn't though and only got angry thinking about how Sin had brought him there in the first place. Everything started with Sin, and all he could hope was that finding Sin again would bring him back home. Until then, Tidus decided not to think about going home, but instead about the moment at hand and enjoying the beauty around him.

"Come on, brudda!" Wakka's call got his attention. He jogged off the beach through a little outlet leading to a forked path. Tidus followed. To the left was a buried piece of some kind of brass machine. Machina, Tidus reminded himself. "This way," Wakka said walking backwards on the right of the fork. The left led up and over the machina and disappeared from view after that because it was much higher up. Tidus caught up to Wakka at the edge of a grassy ledge. The ledge looked down over sapphire water. Here it was calmer than the ocean, but still smelled salty and alive. Around the inlet were cliffs, which were lined with palms and flowers. Under the water, Tidus could see coral and other plants. Tidus leaned over for a better look. Crafty and quiet, Wakka snuck up behind and gave a little shove. Tidus let out a yell as he splashed down into the water.

Tidus laughed. "Hey, what's the big idea?" Swimming along in the peaceful serenity, Tidus's eyes darted everywhere trying to take in all the unfamiliar beauty of the landscape. The water gently accepted their presence, allowing them to glide along.

Tidus was looking over his shoulder when from behind he was ambushed. Pressure was put on his neck and his hair was… ruffled? Tidus struggled to get away from Wakka's grasp. "Lemme go!"

Wakka didn't release him, but instead said, "Got a favor to ask ya."

Tidus grinned. "You want me on your team, right?"

Wakka let go of him letting him dip under the water, then resurface. "A major blitz tournament's coming up. All the teams in Spira'll be there! It's so huge, I'm sure someone there will recognize you! Then you can go back to your old team, right? It'll be fun! What do you say, huh? Come on, come on!"

Tidus considered for a moment. Everything in his head swirled around as if trying to find the right answer to all of this. Only possibilities and opinions came to him. His mind came to the conclusion that at least blitzball was better than nothing. "Sure thing." Tidus began to swim again making his way past Wakka.

Wakka felt like doing a little victory dance. "Dude! Our team is gonna rock, eh?" he said to Tidus's back. After a second more of savoring his ecstacy, he began to swim again, too.

Tidus began to wonder if the only things in common between his Zanarkand and this new world, Spira, as he was later told it was called, were blitzball and Sin. He would soon find out that was almost on the mark.