A/N: I have your answers! Sadly no answers for Auron yet – since I seem to love torturing my characters almost as much as I do you lovely readers!

Chapter Seventeen

When, three days later, the fateful day arrived, the Celsius flew to Besaid to pick up the wedding guests. They'd already been to Bevelle, to collect Paine, and next on the list were Tidus, Yuna, and Wakka. Then it was to Gagazet where Kimahri would join them, and finally to Djose temple, where the wedding was to be held. Once she boarded, Yuna greeted Paine enthusiastically; the two girls hadn't seen each other in weeks, and communication through Commsphere wasn't the same as face to face. She embraced the silver-headed girl. "Oh Paine, I missed you so much!"

Paine, as uncomfortable as always with hugs, patted Yuna gingerly on the back. "Uh, missed you too, Yuna."

The High Summoner received hugs from everyone save one person, and they set off for Gagazet.

When Yuna turned to greet her cousin, however, Rikku gave her only a cold nod and not even the semblance of a smile. With some prodding and prompting from her fiancé, Yuna made her way over. "Hey, Rikku."

"Yuna," she said emotionlessly.

She hadn't meant to, but somehow she couldn't help herself, and the words came tumbling out anyway. "Rikku, please think about this! It's still not too late, you can still-"

Rikku threw her hands up. "You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? I said no! I'm sorry if that's something my lady High Summoner is unable to understand, but for the last time, Yuna, leave me alone!" With that, she stormed away from Yuna, and then a few moments afterward, when attention had moved on, she left the bridge altogether. In truth, she had been meaning to leave anyway – it was necessary to her plan – but Yuna's words had given her the impetus to do so now. It wasn't until they'd gotten to Gagazet and Kimahri was on board that Yuna even noticed Rikku was gone.

"Where's Rikku?"

"She was in the engine room last I saw her," Buddy said helpfully. "But she said something about cleaning up before we got to Djose."

"Oh right, ok," she said, still not moving.

Tidus smiled. "Yuna, go see her. I'm sure she's not still mad at you."

"You don't know that," she said. "What if-"

He kissed her forehead. "This is Rikku we're talking about. She's incapable of holding grudges."

"Hey, Yuna, if Rikku's not here, I need you as co-pilot," Brother piped up, ignoring the fact that Buddy could do the job perfectly well.

She nodded. "I won't be too long, I just wanna check she's ok." Making her way through the ship, she battled her nervousness all the way. Granted, Tidus was right, and normally Rikku wasn't the type to hold grudges, but since this whole thing with Giia, Rikku's temper had been getting shorter with each passing day. Outside her door, Yuna paused. Come on, Yuna, grow a backbone. She took a deep breath and keyed open the door. "Rikku, I know you-"

Rikku wasn't there, and Yuna guessed she was still in the engine room. She sighed, then walked inside anyway, figuring she'd just wait. Frowning, she noticed a letter sitting on Rikku's desk. It was addressed to her. "What the-" She picked it up and began to tear the envelope open.

Then the door opened again and Tidus came in. "Hey, Yuna, come on. We're gonna be late."

"Yeah, I'm coming. Just wanted to try and convince Rikku one more time."

He shrugged. "You've done all you can, Yuna. It's up to Rikku now."

"I guess…" Yuna sighed. "Just doesn't seem fair."

He put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. "Come on."

She put the letter inside her clothes and walked up to the bridge with him. The Celsius took off smoothly, none of its passengers knowing that a nineteen year old blonde Al Bhed girl was watching them go, saying goodbye in her heart to everyone on board.

It would be about another hour till they got to Djose, so everyone did their own thing on the way. They'd probably miss the start of the ceremony, but they didn't think Auron would mind if they turned up a little late. After Tidus and Wakka – Lulu at home with Vidina – got caught up in a heated discussion about blitzball, Yuna remembered the letter, then opened it and read it. Within thirty seconds, her mouth had dropped open in horror, and tears were welling up in her eyes.

Tidus happened to glance at her over Wakka's shoulder, and was at her side within seconds. "Yuna, what's wrong?"

She thrust the letter at him and ran to Brother. "We've got to go faster, Brother! Really, if we don't get to Djose within the next ten minutes, Rikku's going to die!"

"Huh? Yuna, you are not making any sense."

"Just GO!" she yelled.

Brother went.

Behind them, Tidus was reading Rikku's letter.

Dear Yunie,

I don't know when you'll get this, but I'll be dead by the time you do, I guess. Please don't cry too much, and be happy with Tidus. I'm not killing myself or anything like that, but there isn't anything that can stop it now. My own stupid fault really. Remember how I said I promised Giia? Well…there's a bit more to it than that. When I got there, Auron was too badly hurt for anything to work, magic or machina. So I did the only thing I could do. I made a heart-pact.

I know what you're thinking, and yes they are real, and yes, all the bad things about them are real too. It really does hurt that much. Basically (for Tidus, because I know Yunie will let you read this too), I put my heart in him. Literally. We kind of…share it. Not that Auron knows he's the keeper of our heart. But he controls what happens to it. That's why I don't have a heartbeat, because it isn't there to beat. It was a stupid thing to do, but hey, I was in love. As you know, Yunie, now I'm fucked. There are three things that end the heart-pact, and they all result in my death. The first one is if he dies, I go too. The second is if he falls in love with someone else, and says it. The third is if he gets married. I know what you're thinking, but just because he hasn't told Giia he loves her doesn't mean he doesn't. Auron's not great with words. And it doesn't matter now anyway, because as soon as that ring is on Giia's finger, I'm going to die. I'm not really sure when, actually, probably before then. Please don't tell Auron why I'm dead, I don't want to hurt him. Don't blame him either; he never asked to have my heart, and I was too…naive, I guess, to understand why heart-pacts are forbidden. But hey, now I know.

That said, don't think that I regret it. Every second he's alive makes what I did worth it. If being in love means you get to die for that person, hey, I'm on a roll. I'm not saying don't grieve, but don't forget to live your life too. I've had as much of mine as I'm going to have, so go enjoy Spira for me. I guess the only thing left is goodbye. I've sent a letter like this one to Pops, and I'll give your love to your father for you when I get to the Farplane. But I don't want to see you there for a long time, you hear?

I love you all,

Rikku.

There was a small, round water-stain just by where she'd signed her name. Tidus looked up from the letter. "Holy shit!"

Yuna gave him another terrified look and nodded. "We have to stop that wedding!"

"We do? I know Rikku's not Giia's best friend, but we can't just stop it because of that, ya?" Wakka said.

"Wakka, she's going to die!"

"We're gonna kill Giia? That just ain't right, ya!"

"Oh for the love of- Here, just read it."

"Uh, Yuna?" Tidus asked nervously. "What are we going to tell Auron? If we can't tell him about this…heart-pact thing, then what do we say?"

"I don't know!" she replied frantically. "I just know that unless we stop it, my cousin is going to die!"

---

Rikku sighed as she hauled herself through yet another snow-drift. She'd snuck off the ship as they picked up Kimahri, and she was determined to get to Zanarkand. The one and only place where she'd known what happiness really was. At sixteen she tasted paradise, and then it was snatched away. If she was going to die, she was going to do it as close to where Auron had kissed her as she could get – at the end of the Pilgrimage. Unfortunately it just required trekking over Gagazet to get there. She checked the time. "I'm not going to get there in ten minutes. Unless…" She was only five minutes away from the Fayth Scar. With its transporters. "So…"

Knowing her time was running out, Rikku began sprinting through the cold, then didn't stop once she got in the cave. She tore open the control panel of the transporter and inserted a chip into the mass of wiring inside. She'd been working on a modulation device for the transporter pads, to boost their range in case Brother's driving ever brought the Celsius down for real. Just as she tied two wires together, a sharp pain hit in the place where her heart used to be. "Oh no." She doubled over as it came again more strongly. "Would you just wait a second, Auron? Do you have to get married in the next thirty seconds?" Another pain, and the first tug of death. She crawled onto the platform.

"No. No fucking way. I'm…going to get to…Zanarkand…It's the last thing…I'll ever do." The cave disappeared and Zanarkand appeared, then almost went again as her vision blurred. Dimly, she knew that it had worked; she was standing in the Chamber of the Fayth, surrounded by the lovestruck monkeys that she'd helped put together. At least none of the tourists are around to see me die. The pain in her chest grew worse, despite the fact that there wasn't anything to hurt. "Auron…" All she got out was his name before the darkness swallowed her.

---

Yuna jumped down the ramp before the Celsius had landed, with the others – who'd all now read Rikku's letter – only a few feet behind her. Djose Temple squatted in its normal site like a great evil structure that seemed to be laughing that it would be the one draining Rikku's life away. Yuna and Paine were in the front, and both women pushed desperately on the door until the heavy stone began to creak inwards. En masse, a High Summoner, two blitzball players, a warrior and a Ronso all rushed into the Temple.

Yuna's horror-widened eyes fell on the three people standing a little further in, at the bottom of the steps leading to the Trials. They all yelled "STOP!!" at the top of their lungs.

A/N: I told ya, I LOVE cliffies!