Part II
Chapter 17
The following days were pretty awkward for Yuna and the rest of the group
The following days were pretty awkward for Yuna and the rest of the group. Yuna was constantly thinking about what Marckus had said, trying to understand how he knew about Tidus and Zanarkand. She just wished she could talk with the voice once more. Buddy and Brother were making an inventory on the stuff they had on the ship, as Buddy suspected that the ship had been robbed and Shinra spent most of his time in the travel agency chatting with the Al-Bhed people there. Rikku just helped where she could. This crazy routine was broken when they received a call from Wakka, asking them if they wanted to go to Luca.
- Hey! Now that's what I call a good idea! - Rikku said enthusiastically. - We can go see the Blitz tournament!
This year's tournament was starting, so everyone agreed that it was a good idea to ease everyone's minds. So, in the same day they landed on Mi'hen, right next to the Highroad Travel Agency.
- Uhh... Buddy? You know that this is not Luca, right? - Rikku asked as she got out of the airship.
- It's impossible to land the ship in Luca these days, it's crowded with people and ships... and airships!
- Airships got very popular lately. They're a much faster way to transport the players from their homelands to the tournament. - Shinra added. - Bad thing that no one used them before the Eternal Calm...
- Actually, it's a good thing that they didn't use them... otherwise I would have been in serious trouble last year. - Yuna giggled.
- What do you mean? - Rikku asked as the group started walking in Luca's direction.
- Last year... some Al-Bhed kidnapped me and took me to their ship. They wanted to hold me hostage until the Aurochs decided to forfeit the game that they were having against the Al-Bhed team; fortunately, Tidus, Lulu and Kimahri found me. If they used an airship I would be in trouble.
- What? They kidnapped you because of Blitzball? - Buddy laughed - No way!
- I bet that even if the Aurochs gave up the game, the Al-Bhed would have lost anyway - Shinra said – the Al-Bhed suck at blitzball, even we could win them easily.
- What? You wanna start a Blitzball team? - Rikku asked, amused - That would be fun! Just imagine the crowd cheering for us at the stadium!
- Yuna had already tried that! - Brother shouted. - During the speech, the stadium was cheering for you! You must have felt great, right?
Yuna recalled that day, the whole stadium there, hundreds of people around her, but no one to actually make her feel less lonely.
- Yeah... it was... great - she lied. Rikku noticed Yuna's change of mood, and tried to bring the happiness back.
- So... Who would be the goal keeper?
- Me not for sure - Shinra started - I'm too short for it.
- I don't know, I wanna be at defense. - Buddy dreamed.
- You three would be at defense then - Rikku said, pointing to Buddy, Brother and Shinra - Me and Yunie would attack! - and said this she punched the air, almost hitting Buddy in the jaw.
- That would be fun, yeah... - Yuna said - I would grab the ball and just go forward...
- Yeah! Then the crowd would go crazy! And we would dedicate them all them goal! - Rikku continued, excited as she was really living that scene.
- No. - Yuna interrupted - During a game, you have to think of blitz and nothing else. And you can't be thinking about who is watching, because the moment you do that, that's when you lose!
- Hey, having deep thoughts, uh?... - Buddy joked. - It's kind of weird imagining you playing Blitzball.
- How come? - Yuna looked at Buddy, intrigued.
- You know... It just doesn't fit you.
- Well, she thought that she could never get used to the guns, and look at her now! - Rikku argued.
- Nah, he's right. Blitzball doesn't fit me at all.
- Well people change. How knows if someday you'll walk around with a Blitz uniform... or an army uniform, or maybe a cheerleader? With those really short shorts and tops, and...
- Hey, stop that! - Yuna was getting scared - What's your point?
- I don't know. I was just playing with the situation, I guess.
- Yeah, but putting Yuna in a cheerleader outfit? - Shinra asked - That's a little bit too much.
Yuna tried to imagine himself as Rikku described, and felt nauseated.
- Let's not go there again... - she just said. - After all, you were the one who wore those weird clothes...
- What's wrong with my clothes? - Rikku protested.
- Their color is the exact color of your skin... - Yuna laughed.
- Well, from that point of view, maybe Rikku would be the one using a cheerleader outfit! - Buddy laughed even harder - Wearing just a bikini, with Yuna too!
The two girls looked at each other, pissed.
- Wow! Girls in bikini! Then they would dance for us. - now it was Brother who was becoming delirious.
- Okay, that's enough! You two are dead meat! - Rikku said as she started running after Brother; Buddy just tried to keep out of her sight, laughing uncontrollably.
--
Later on that day they arrived at Luca. It was a hot Summer day, but the cool sea breeze, allied to the fact that it was almost night, set the perfect mood for a walk trough the city. The Aurochs would only arrive tomorrow, so Buddy and Brother went to some bar, Shinra stayed at the hotel that they were staying in, and the two cousins went for a walk without any destination.
- This is really a big city. - Rikku commented, as they walked through the docks and looking to the tall buildings. - Hard to believe that this is just the second largest city, uh? - she waited for Yuna to talk, but she got no answer, so she added - Like, Bevelle is even bigger than this...
She looked to Yuna to see why she wasn't talking at all, and found her gazing to the vast ocean, totally absent from that conversation.
- Yuna?... - this time Rikku stopped walking and touched her shoulder, which made Yuna wake up from her day dreaming and look at her.
- What? Sorry, I...- she lowered her head - I wasn't listening. I'm sorry. What were you saying?...
- Is everything okay, Yunie? - Rikku asked, trying to follow Yuna's eyes.
- Yeah,... I was just... thinking... - they both started walking again - The blitz season is starting... again. Like, It's been a year since I've been here.
- Well... - Rikku wasn't sure where Yuna was trying to get to, but said, joking - I guess that time really passes away, right?
- Yeah... It feels like just yesterday I was here with Wakka, Lulu, Kimahri,... Tidus... - she lowered her voice when saying that last name.
"Oh, no..." Rikku thought to herself.
- Seems like yesterday... - she repeated - but other times feels like a lot more... I don't know. - Yuna stopped walking and looked again to the sea. - Things changed too much in a year.
- But we can't keep things like they are forever. - Rikku tried to say something to help.
They remained some moments in silence, Yuna lost in her own thoughts and Rikku unsure if she should say something.
- But we should be able to keep some things forever. Things that would stay here,... always. - Yuna said, without taking her eyes out of the blue ocean.
- Yuna, I... I know what you mean. And maybe you're right... - Rikku tried to cheer her up - I wished you're right. If someone deserved to keep something precious forever, that would be you.
- Thanks, but it's too late for that... - she looked to the ground.
- Who knows? - Rikku was going to say something more, but then she thought about what she had just said. "Who knows?" It was a legit question, but no one had ever thought about that. "Yeah, who knows?..." Who knows what happened to Tidus? Who knows? Is there a way to get him back? Who knows? Why did he fade away like that?
- Do you know? - Rikku asked.
- What? - her cousin asked back, confused.
- Why did he fade away?...
Yuna remained silent. She had no idea, but that wasn't the first time she asked herself that. Actually, she wondered about that everyday; why? But now that it was Rikku asking, she realized that she hadn't found any answer at all; every time she began thinking about that, other question used to come to her mind: why bother? He was dead, right?... Right?
- I... don't know... Because,... he died? - She surprised herself with the thought; it was the first time that she was considering the chance of Tidus being alive... or, at least, not dead as they thought.
- I don't know. - the two girls sited on some empty crates on the dock - He just disappeared with no motive at all. The Fayth disappeared, the Aeons disappeared, and Tidus disappeared. I don't understand it.
- Yeah, it makes no sense - Yuna looked at her cousin, surprised with her chain of ideas. She never thought about that that way, was there a connection? The Fayth, the Aeons, Tidus? "Wait..." Suddenly, she felt like she had received a punch on her stomach.
- Everything alright? - Rikku looked concerned as she watched Yuna, who looked like she had been suddenly waken up from a violent dream.
- Like, the Aeons disappear, right? And Tidus fades... And the guy, he said that he was like an Aeon. - she turned her face to Rikku - Do you think?...
- Wait, calm down and talk slower! - Rikku was confused with all that. First, she was the one who was compulsive, not Yuna. And second, who is she talking about? - What guy?...
- The... that voice! He said... - Yuna tried to recall the voice's words - He said he was like an Aeon, right?
Rikku stood some more moments lost, until she realized that Yuna was talking about the voice that claimed to be a "dream of the Fayth".
- Ahm... Okay...?
- If he was like an Aeon, if the Aeons disappear, the voice,... or whoever the voice was when it was human would disappear as well.
The Al-Bhed was shocked and confused. "Maybe she's right!... Maybe the voice really is him!"
- I... Wow... - she was really speechless.
- It makes sense,... - Yuna looked to her cousin, trying to know her opinion. - doesn't it?
- Yeah... It makes a lot of sense!
It made sense. The voice said that it was human before, right? But it was also like an Aeon; so, if the Aeons fade, he would fade as well. That's why it said that it was a dream of the Fayth! The Aeons only came to help the Summoners because they summoned them, and by doing that, the Fayth dreamed about the Aeon, and the Aeon appears. Then, the Fayth stopped dreaming, and the Aeon vanishes. Just like the voice! "And like Tidus?..."
- I remember the voice saying that it would come back somehow, it just would.
Yuna got up, walked to the edge of the dock and called for him; she whistled. And then she whistled again.
"Will you really come?"
Rikku came after her.
- Then, let's help it to come back!
Yes, help it to come back, at any cost. "If it's really you..." Was it really Tidus? She wanted to find out. If it really was him, then she... she what? Having Tidus back would be the ultimate happiness for her, something she had never experienced before, but in some few moments in Macalania. On the other hand, if it wasn't Tidus... she didn't care. If it wasn't Tidus then nothing else cared. Suddenly, she felt scared. What if it isn't him? What if this small ray of hope was nothing more than an illusion? She wouldn't handle it, she would probably become seriously depressed once more and try to give up life again; it wasn't worth living without him. She realized that even being with Rikku and the rest of the crew, traveling in the airship, living those small adventures... despite all that she always felt that a part of her was missing, empty. In every place visited she would recall this or that situation that happened during the pilgrimage, and Tidus was always there; during every action scene she would think about how easy that would have been if Tidus was there, slashing the fiends with his sword; and every peaceful moment, she would try to get busy in order not to think about him.
So she didn't care. She had nothing to loose but that small piece of hope that kept her alive. If she lost it, it was over, nothing else would worth living.
- Hhhmm... look, if the voice really is Tidus... Why is he a "dream of the Fayth"?
- I don't know... but I think Marckus does...
She had to come back to Marckus, even if she was a little afraid of him right now. He knew something, that was for sure. And this time, Yuna didn't care about saying anything Marckus would want to know. Any information she could give him was a low price to discover if Tidus was really the voice; anything Yuna could give seemed like a low price to pay for Tidus.
But she wanted some time to think about everything that she thought she might have discovered, time to reflect and think about the better way to deal with all of this.
- Let's go see Marckus after the tournament...
- Yep! - Rikku exclaimed - But now let's go back to our room, I'm getting cold.
It was indeed getting cold. It was already night, there were lights on almost every window. Yuna looked to the ocean one more time, saw the moon's light reflected on it, and whistled one more time.
End of Chapter 17
I'm sorry for the late update, but I have the same old excuse... school, bah. Anyway, three things:
1) Thanks to my new reviewers for the positive reviews. I never thought I would get so many reviews as I have right now, I thought that everyone had already forgot about FFX,... but I guess that great games are always famous, right? :) So, thank you for your support.
2) iwasnthere noted a mistake in chapter 10... yes, the correct music is, indeed, 'Hurt', and not 'Something I Can Never Have', as I wrote... I have no idea why I confused the musics :P Thanks for detecting that, I'll fix it ;) (and it's fun to know that that is another NIN fan reading this xD)
3) Obvious critic to FFX-2 in this chapter... Yes, I hate that game, it ruined FFX's spirit. I'm trying to put only the 'good parts' of it in this fic so, please don't imagine Yuna in her FFX-2 outfit during this fic... imagine her dressed with something in between FFX and FFX-2... I don't know, use your imagination! (I suck at describing clothes, and I lack the correct vocabulary to do it :P)