We stopped for a moment, the chill of the mountain air cutting through my uniform. It had been two days and I still had to be lead around by Wakka. We didn't say anything, I was sure that he was still mad at me.

"These mark the graves of summoners and guardians who failed," Lulu said softy, everyone was quiet. We continued on, walking up the mountain for what felt like forever, until we stopped under something. I heard Auron turn on a sphere message.

"Hello Yuna, I hope you are well. I wonder how old you are, now that you're watching his sphere. You must be very beautiful, like your mother. I wish I could see you… Oh. By the way Jecht and Auron send their regards. So far our journey has been very entertaining. Of coarse it is a hard journey, but I have no regrets, it is the path I have chosen. Yuna, when you have grown you will have to find your own path. Do what you must do, the way you want to do it. Doors will always open themselves to those who do. Listen close Yuna, your future is yours to make. Live the way you want to. Whatever way that may be, you have your father's full support. Yuna, I will always be with you." Everyone was quiet for a few moments, I could tell from the way he spoke that he spoke it was Yuna's father.

"Oh my!" Yuna sounded like it was hard to take.

"We press on!" Auron said callously, I wondered many times how he could just ignore things like spheres of his dead friends, but then I didn't know the way that his heart broke at loosing them. We kept walking; I stumbled so many times Wakka just picked me up in his arms.

"Hey! Put me down!" Said flailing against him. He smelled so good… but it was still painful to be around him. As much as I protested he didn't listen and just carried me on.

"Summoners that die up here… aren't sent to the farplane…" Lulu said softly.

"Why not?" Wakka flinched as I asked the question.

"Who would send them? They die alone."

"So that means…"

"Many have become feinds, and the may want Yuna's company," Lulu finished softly.

"Well, Yuna will be fine."

"You're right," she said with a soft smile.

We walked on and on but nothing seemed to happen. A few feinds here and there and Oaka's brother Wantz but aside from that the journey was pretty slow. We stopped high up on the mountain where the air was getting thin.

"Bring Tidus here!" Kimahri growled. "Water run from dark cavern, heal Tidus eyes." Wakka held me under the trickle of water, my face felt hot and as I blinked I could see him again.

"You can see me?" Wakka asked softly.

"Yeah" he seemed so happy, he was about to hug me… but then he backed off.

"Let's go, something's around the bend," we ran around the bend, my legs were shaky from lack of use. We hit a big plateau and Rikku hung back to talk to me. We stopped on the summit, looking over the great mountains edge and only was darkness lying ahead.

"Zanarkand is on the other side, you know?"

"I know…"

"Yunnie is going to get the final Aeon, you know?"

"I know."

"I…uh…I still haven't thought of anything," Rikku looked down at the snow shyly, it's like she was saying 'there's nothing we can do' without any words.

"Me neither."

"What are we gonna do?"

"We'll do something! We just don't know enough yet. Until we do, we really can't help Yuna. Let's go to Zanarkand. We'll find something there. It'll all come together, I know it!" even while I said the words I didn't quite believe it.

"Heeey… Just now, you sounded like a leader, ya know?" her winning smile had already returned.

"Star of the Zanarkand Abes! Didn't anyone tell you?" I teased.

"Aha!" She said with a bow, a giggle ready on her lips. I started towards the cavern, but stopped when I heard her yell behind me. When I turned around I saw him, that damn Guado Maester in his thick ceremonial robes.

"Ah, the son of Jecht," Seymour said with that disgustingly calm face.

"Rikku, run ahead and tell Auron!"

"You are not fighting him alone!" she yelled back.

"Just go! Go!"

Rikku ran as fast as she could and Seymour just smirked. No matter what, it seemed as if he couldn't die. We'd already 'killed' him twice, each time barley escaping with our lives. It was… unnerving, standing alone with that walking corpse.

"Now is your time to die. Prepare yourself son of Jecht." He walked towards me with a sickening calm.

"Not if I can help it!"

"Save some for Kimahri!" Kimahri yelled leading everyone hurriedly towards me.

"Lady Yuna, it is a pleasure."

"Yuna!" Lulu shouted as Yuna moved towards him. She lifted her wand to send him, but stopped for reasons I still don't understand.

"A sending so soon? Allow me to say something to the last Ronso before I leave," he sneered, his cold laughter echoing along the mountain side. "Yours was… truly a gallant race, they threw themselves at me to bar my path. One after another…" He started chuckling again. I just wanted to bash his head in; Seymour had caused everyone enough trouble already.

"No…" Kimahri growled.

"You could end the suffering of this poor Ronso," Seymour said with a cruel smile.

"I don't under stand you!" Yuna cried, her eyes were shimmering. Seymour turned toward the edge of the plateau and looked off for a minute, his voice rose in a calm menacing tone.

"Allow Kimahri to die, and release him from his pain. Spira… is a land of suffering and sorrow caught in a spiral of death. To destroy—to heal Spira I will become Sin. Yes, with your help." Yuna looked like she was going to be sick this, he and Yevon where all she'd fought for, and he was asking her to help him destroy everything. "Come with me Yuna. You are my wife, are you not?" I stood between Yuna and Seymour, my blade already drawn. I couldn't take listening to his madness anymore. "Once I have become the next Sin, your father will be freed again."

"Grrr! What do you know?" I changed toward him and a monstrous creature rose behind him, fusing with his body.

"Your hope ends here, and your meaningless existence with it."

I cast haste on everyone as quickly as possible; Seymour wouldn't keep his big mouth shut. "Do you not want to heal Spira of its sorrow, let death end all its pain?"

"You cannot run from your fate!" Yuna shouted at him.

"You have angered Kimahri! The spirits of the Ronso will strengthen his spear!" Kimahri shot his spear at Seymour's Mortibody, Lulu cast Bio and Wakka, Auron and I wailed on him as quickly as we could. He cast rounds and rounds of Flares and hacked at us with his swords, dismissing Yuna's Aeons as soon as they were summoned, and finally right when I was about to give up hope Wakka felled him with one last shot venom shot. Seymour disappeared into a cloud of black smoke that blew away with the wind.

"And stay up there!" I shouted throwing down my sword for a moment. Everyone walked away slowly toward the dark cavern, it took me a moment, my legs were still weak and I was exhausted, but after I caught my breath I followed them inside, Yuna stopped at the opening.

"He will become sin… with my help?" Yuna said softly.

"Lies, forget them." Auron said softly.

"If he becomes Sin, sir Jecht will be saved…" Yuna continued.

"We're leaving," Auron said turning without another word.

"You know something! Tell me," Yuna ran to my side. "Tell me!"

"… Sin's… my old man."

"You hit your head?" Wakka asked patting my shoulder.

"No, that was you," Rikku murmured softly.

"Sin is my old man. My old man became Sin! I don't know how or why he did it. I felt him, inside. And when I did, I knew it was true. My old man is Spira's suffering. Sorry."

"Even… knowing that sin is your father… Still, you know I must…" Yuna said softly.

"I know, lets get him. I think my old man would want that."

"You would fight your own father?" Lulu said with wide eyes. Yeah, no problem there, I thought. Orphans never get it.

"Uh… 'Bout your old man… you sure this aint some kinda bad toxin dream or something? Then… Chappu… I uh…. I think I'll just pretend I didn't hear nothing. I'm getting a little confused, ya? Why… Why'd all this have to happen?"

"We'll learn when we arrive," Auron said softly, like he didn't already know. We passed through a row of columns and followed a blue light.

"Wow," Rikku muttered as we walked in. I looked at the walls, and they were people. Faith to be exact, their bodies perfectly preserved in stone and pooled in this mystical blue light. The light hot up into the sky. I felt tingly all over, all the weariness that I'd felt, the pain in my leg all washed away in the blue light.

"Wh-what are those?" Wakka's mouth hung wide open.

"Those are fayth," Yuna said calmly.

"Whoa!"

"Oh! A summoning," Yuna said covering her mouth. "Someone is using these fayth! Some one is drawing energy from all of them!"

"This many?"

"Who wields power on this scale, and what could they be calling?" Lulu said nervously. Rikku ran up to Auron and squinted.

"Hey, you know something, don't you? Spill the beans!" she said with her hands on her hips.

"Look not to others for knowledge," He said with a smirk. "This is your journey to?"

"Yunnie might die, you know?" She definitely wasn't smiling.

"No, Auron's right," I said.

"Huh?"

"This is our… this is my story." When I touched the fayth my limbs felt heavy. A white light covered everything and I didn't know where I was. The sound of pyerflies screamed in my ears, I saw myself on a deck, pyerflies pouring out of me like a dismissed Aeon, I was in Zanarkand but it was empty, my pyerflies didn't go far. I could stand.

"Eh?" Everything was there, the stadium, my home… everything. I shook off whatever was making me so weary and took a look around. I went home, but it felt so empty… it was eerie. The entire city was lit over the dead calm sea. I went inside; it was just as I'd left it. Big coffee table in the middle, low cushions around it. The floor lit with soft blue lights, and there was a bar behind the living room, I was home. Really home, but this wasn't where I wanted to be. The fan was still turning slowly… I could see that small boy curled up in the corner, Bahamut's fayth.

"Welcome home," his voice rang like an echo, pyerflies surrounding him like moths to a flame.

"You…"

"Remember me? We met in Bevelle."

"Yeah…"

"But it wasn't the first time we met. I've known that about you for a long time. A long, long time."

"I… I feel like I know you too. Where are we?"

"Silly, don't recognize your own home?" he disappeared. Wakka popped up behind me, like a spirit from the farplane.

"Hey, what's gotten into you?" And then Rikku took his place.

"Wake up! Wake up!"

"Wait, this is a dream?" The fayth ran back to my side.

"Precisely," he said with a smile.

"A dream? Are you crazy? I don't have time to be dreaming now!"

"You're wrong. It's not that you're dreaming, you are a dream."

"Huh? Wait a sec." But he didn't he just ran outside. Why were the fayth bothering with me? I didn't want to know… but I had to. I found him up on our deck; he was looking over the Zanarkand skyline.

"Long ago, there was a war."

"Yeah, with Machina, right?"

"Yes, a war between Zanarkand and Bevelle. Bevelle's Machina assured their victory from the start. Spira had never seen such a power. The summoners of Zanarkand didn't stand a chance. Zanarkand was doomed to oblivion. That's why we tried to save it—if only in a memory."

"What did you do?" I sat down before him, to hear the rest rest of his story.

"The remaining Summoners and the townspeople that survived the war… they all became fayth—fayth for the summoning."

"The summoning… you mean sin?"

"No, I mean this place. A Zanarkand that never sleeps."

"What?"

"The dreams of the fayth summoned the memories of the city. They summoned all the buildings, all the people who lived there."

"The people… What, they're all dreams?" I stood up… I didn't want to believe him. "Me too?" He nodded yes, and then ran past me, I followed.

"Yes, you're a dream of the fayth. You, your father, your mother, everyone. All dreams. And if the fayth stop dreaming…" bits and pieces of Zanarkand started to disappear right before my eyes. It turned into wreckage, the dead city of Zanarkand, Spira's Zanarkand.

"No! So what if I'm a dream! I…I like being here."

"We've been dreaming so long… we're tired. Would you and your father… would you let us rest? Both you and your father have been touched by Sin. Sin, the one whom all Spira—the Spiral—revolves." He disappeared again.

"What are you saying?" I ran down to find him, he appeared by the dock.

"You two are more than just dreams now," Yuna popped up behind me and I was terrified. This was all too much.

"Wake up! Wake up, please!" and then she disappeared.

"Just a little more and maybe… maybe you are the dream that will end our dreaming at last." The blinding white light came over me again, and my Zanarkand was gone. I could feel the cold hard ground beneath me, when I opened my eyes; Yuna, Rikku and Wakka were crowded around me. I jumped up. Seeing the fayth, the townspeople of Zanarkand it made me sad, to know that I was just a memory; they had to suffer to keep alive.

"Are you all right?" Yuna said with the brightest eyes.

"Hey! We were so worried about you!" Rikku shouted, bouncing up and down.

"You Okay?" Lulu asked softly.

"I…I'm okay."

"What happened?" Yuna asked taking my hand.

"Nothing… I blacked out. I was dreaming, you called me… and I woke up." Like an Aeon, I thought. I stretched my arms and put on a smile. "Nothing like a good nap! Well, I'm ready, let's go. We ran across the ridge, the entire mountain side was filled with fayth, it was despicable. All these people gave their lives for a memory.

We finally found the smaller mouth of the cavern. It was a relief to be away from the fayth. We came to a big pond filled with sphere gems.

"Looks like we got a job to do, ya?" Wakka said smiling at me.

"If anything should happen in the water we're relying on you three." Lulu said patting Wakka on the shoulder, "If it gets dangerous, pull out quick."

"Right!"

"Be careful, okay?" Yuna said leaning over and kissing me on the cheek.

"Okay," I nodded. We jumped into the water and swam through to a cavern and as soon as the rest of our party was out of sight we were ambushed by piranha and achelous. I was surprised by how strong Rikku's black magic had become, she zapped them to pieces without even breaking a sweat.

"Whoa! Teach me some a dat!" Wakka said with a big grin, Rikku smiled back at him.

"Maybe later, we've got a job to do, you know?" She swam ahead of us without another word.

"You sure you alright?" Wakka asked, turning to me for a moment. "You took a hard spill, ya?" I couldn't tell weather he was talking about when he'd knocked me over or when I'd fallen and I didn't want to talk to him about either.

"I'm fine Wakka, let's just go already."

We followed Rikku to an old set of steps. There was a magical barrier spinning around a Gagazet sphere.

"This is the first trial of Gagazet, I'll get this." Wakka picked up his ball and hurled it at the center, it turned red and then the motion stopped. "Alright! On to the next one, ya?"

"Good shot, you should be a blitz ball player, you know?" Rikku said sticking her tongue out at him as we headed to the next trial. I could tell Rikku wanted to talk to Wakka, about everything, but she held back for a while at least. We made it back to everyone else fairly quickly.

"This way!" Auron said as he lead us back to where there'd been a break in the path, it was filled with what looked like a large Gagazet sphere. We found a second water cavern, similar to the first. Rikku, Wakka and I swam into the depths leaving everyone behind again.

"Wakka?" Rikku asked as she swam alongside him.

"Yeah?" he said, I cut between them before she could get in another word, I knew my Rikku and I didn't want anymore trouble no matter how well she meant.

"Um… I don't really think this is the right time." It didn't seem like I would be around much longer, I just wanted things to go as smoothly as possible. I finally knew how Yuna felt every day.

"Why did you beat up Tidus?" I swam ahead a bit; I didn't want to be between them if they were gonna start talking about that.

"You know why, ya?" Wakka said scratching his head awkwardly.

"Please explain, I don't think I get it." She said with the most serious face that I had ever seen on her.

"I…uh… heard you… okay?" He said blushing a bit.

"Oh!" I had never seen Rikku turned so red, not even in the most heated passion. She obviously hadn't been expecting that. "So you were jealous?"

"No!" Wakka shouted, his face now matching her color. "I just thought—how could you joke about something like dat? Don'choo care? He's playing you, Yuna too. It's disgusting, ya?" I couldn't help but wince, my stomach tightened up at his words. I guess I still cared, a little bit.

"No!" Rikku said shaking her head. "I love Tidy, he's my best friend!"

"Thanks," I said softly, I hadn't even considered the word love, but she was my best friend too.

"Hehee no problem Cap'n" she said with a teasing salute.

"But—you… ya know?" Wakka looked like he was getting a headache.

"Yeah, we both needed a little release, ya know? You and Yuna had him all tied up in knots. Besides, I kind of talked him into it." Wakka just stared at her for a moment and then looked back at me. The secret was out. "At least I wasn't as bad as Yuna, she practically—-"

"Rikku! It's… we have a job to do." I cut in; he had already heard enough of my business.

"Yuna what?" Wakka asked looking at me with pleading eyes. Pleading for what I couldn't imagine, but I wasn't going to let anyone hurt Yuna, least of all me.

"It's nothing," I sped up ahead of them.

"Oh… Okay," he looked disappointed.

We swam on until we found three glowing sphere stones, blue, red and green.

"This second trial is easy, ya? All we need to do is hit all three stones at the same time." As we pressed the stones a white light filled the cavern, then we met back up with everyone.

"There's a stairway now, to the other side. But first check out what's on the southern path.," Auron ordered.

"All Righty!" Rikku said skipping off toward the southern path, Wakka and I had to run to catch up to her. We both hopped in the water and followed her to the very back of the 3rd cavern, it was a short swim. There sat two treasure chests.

"Yeah! Treasure!" she said with a little twirl.

"Oh boy," I said with a sigh, I didn't really mean it.

"So… you two are really okay?" Wakka asked looking at the ground.

"Yuppers and Tidy was the best I've ever had!" Rikku said slapping me on the butt, both Wakka and I blushed.

"What about Yuna?"

"I… lets leave Yuna out of this, please?" I said with a little frown. Wakka looked at me for a moment and then back at the ground.

"Well alright, so long as nobody's gettn' hurt, ya?" he didn't sound very convinced, but I didn't want to make an issue of it.

"Okay we should get back to that stairway," I said heading off as fast as I could. We got out of the water and followed the multi colored rock stairway. At the top Auron stopped to talk to Yuna and I listened in.

"They'll be upon us soon. She has sent fiends to test our summoner's strength."

"Who is she?" She asked softly.

"Yunalesca," he answered flatly.

"Lady Yunalesca?"

"In Zanarkand she awaits the arrival of the strongest."

"She… is still alive?"

"As much as Mika and Seymour."

"I see," Yuna said with a frown.

"Lost your nerve?" Auron asked raising an eyebrow above his shades.

"No, nothing frightens me now." Yeah right, I thought.

"Braska would be proud," Auron said patting her shoulder lightly.

"Then, I must not let him down," was her only answer.