I do not own either Final Fantasy VII or X

Please read the note from Chapter 1. I really believe Ignorance is so NOT bliss

Chapter 1

Heading towards Kilika

Tidus was puzzled. Scratch that, he wasn't puzzled. He was down right confused at everything going on. Just last week, he was back home in Zanarkand getting ready for a Blitzball game that was to decide the semi-finals in the league.

Then that thing attacked and he was here. Well, not here in Besaid to be technical. But he was here in Spira, and it was 1000 years later. Well after the destruction of Zanarkand in this machina war that was supposed to have happened. And it was completely and utterly frustrating, because this could not be happening. When he last looked there were clearly no signs of a war at all. So this had to be a dream, right? Or better yet...a nightmare.

He is going to wake up and find himself in bed, preferably not alone, and take comfort this was all just a dream. Nothing more, nothing less....

Still though, it felt all too real to him. So what the hell was going on? Why was he here? And why is Zanarkand gone? He can't help it. He has to do it. He has to let out a scream of frustration.

"GAH!"

"You all right ya?" A reddish orange haired man asked in concern at the sudden scream of aggravation. The blonde staring at his new found friend sheepishly waved him off.

"I'm fine Wakka. Just frustrated you know?"

"I know that feeling." The older guy said with a thoughtful look. "But all will be better in Luca, you'll see. I'm positive that there's going to be someone who knows you. And then your memory will come back in no time. You'll see ya."

A smile gracing his features, Tidus nods his head at Wakka's simple beliefs. Although desperately wanting to believe in what the other man says, he can't help but find himself hesitant to do so. Because if all that Rikku has told him is true from his time on her ship…

There would be no one there.

Thinking about Rikku as the ship sailed along the ocean, Tidus sincerely hoped she was all right. The blonde girl and her crewmates saved him from the fiend who attacked him back in that place. And not only that, despite being a prisoner, they took care of him.

"You seem pre-occupied?"

Startled at the sound of a quiet and feminine voice, Tidus turns to find Yuna standing behind him with a tilt to her head. Wondering where her large and furry bodyguard is, he sees Kimahri not to far away and watching them like a hawk.

"Sure it's all right to be talking with me?"

Giving a little smile, Yuna looks up at him with her unusual eyes. One blue and one green, set within pale skin. Soft lips and brown hair hair that framed her face, she was a beautiful young woman whom had recently become a summoner.

"It is all right. You do not mean to do anything wrong right?"

"Right." A shame faced look, as his almost costly interference from just the other day crosses his mind. He looks out over the water as she tilts her head towards him with curiosity.

"Could you tell me about Zanarkand?"

Startled by her question, Tidus looks at her in surprise. Then relaxing a bit as she seemed to be honestly interested in what he had to say. He can't help but smile softly in her direction as homesickness overwhelms him. "Wakka told you about that huh? He doesn't believe me."

The young woman smiled shyly as she stepped away from him. "Well, I believe you."

"You do?" Hearing this from her, Tidus was admittedly startled by her words.

Nodding her head, she continues to speak. "I hear that in Zanarkand. There is a giant stadium that is always lit up, even at night. That the games are amazing and that there is never an empty seat!" She smiles warmly as she closes her eyes with pure remembrance. The way she speaks as her arms move, it is almost as if she was one of the many fans there.

"Yeah... who told you? I mean it is like that back home." The blond stated mournfully. His heart filled with homesickness as he wonders what is going on back there. Or should he say...back then.

"A man named Jecht. He was my father's guardian."

Anger rising now in memory, Tidus turns around and grasps onto the ropes of the ship deck. Just the mere mention of his name, he can't help but be angry. The conversation continuing on, to be honest the blonde youth can not help but remember the painful memories he had struggled hard to forget.

Even when Yuna was hopeful, that perhaps they might find Jecht himself in Luca. Tidus hoped not. He...he did not have many happy memories of his father. If anything from his childhood, Tidus hoped never to see Jecht again.

Still all was pushed to the side as the ship began to lurch to the side rather roughly. Crashing back down on the water, Tidus knew the feel of what was happening all around him as he recognized the lurching of the bow from side to side.

"SIN!"

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Mi'hen Highroad

Same time

Cloud feels the winds of change in the air around him. On his way to Luca to pick up items he needs for his home, senses he has not felt since his days from SOLDIER began to stir once more. Grasping onto the hilt of his sword out of an almost forgotten habit, he looks around in confusion.

"Hello."

Turning around, he finds a small boy dressed in purple staring at him from underneath his hood. A smile crossing the young features, Cloud can not help but sense a familiarity about this boy.

"You can sense it can't you?"

Gripping onto his sword even tighter, Cloud remains silent. As of lately he has felt a significant change in the very air of the earth around him. With the life stream flowing through his body, the changes to the planet itself over the last 1500 years has made him sensitive to sudden shifts in its power.

"What is it?"

"It is Sin."

Sin. To live as long as he had, he was bound to hear of this latest threat to the world he calls home. A creature that rises every 10-50 years or so, it destroyed many lives. The first time it had come, he had hoped beyond hope, that this thing could kill him.

Could finally send him some place where he would be with Tifa, Yuffie, everyone he loved and cherished with all his heart.

But as before, the planet did not let him go. He could feel and sense their spirits waiting for him. Reaching out to welcome him home, but the lifestream always pulls him just out of their reach.

Over and over he tried when Sin first appeared, but never was he allowed to cross that final threshold. It was truly only with Sin, that he came close to seeing them again. To seeing their smiles and laughter from his memories, and not their age stricken bodies.

He had even tried being a guardian to the first High Summoner, Yunalesca, and her husband. The couple had tried their hardest to help him. Help him become mortal and to once more be able to eventually rest as they researched ways to defeat Sin.

But after they faced Sin itself, the only ones to rest were them despite how hard they tried to allow him his. They died fighting it, and everyone celebrated, but once again he was alone.

But then it returned only 30 years later, and the process started all over again.

Yunalesca and Zaon died for nothing. They died believing that Sin was defeated only for Spira to feel it come over and over again. So many people died and Cloud felt each and every one.

As connected as he was to the lifestream, he above all was thankful for the summoners in one regard at least. Despite wasting their lives on a hopeless dream, when one would manage to find him, they gave him a measure of peace and contentment.

They calmed his soul with their sendings....

So he lived on as he always did. He withdrew from society even more so as not to become attached to someone, only to envy them in their death. Coming out to keep himself somewhat up to date with the changes every ten years or so was the only luxury he gave himself.

Therefore seeing the figure before him stating that what he sensed was Sin? He could not help but ask. "What makes this one different?"

"This one still has hope." The boy stated simply. "Will you help?"

Turning away for a moment as he hears the sounds of Chocobos coming towards him, he steps to the side to avoid being run over as he observes a red headed woman wearing a uniform of a Chocobo Knight going by followed by a dark haired one.

Seemingly in a hurry at this moment, when he turned around to answer the question, the child was gone. Leaving the question lingering in his mind, will he help?

The question becomes moot though, as that feeling vanishes from his senses as if it was never there.

"How can I help? When even if I kill it, it will always come back?"

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Aboard the S.S. Liki

After the fight with Sin

"I will defeat Sin." Yuna whispered softly. Her hands threading through the blonde youth's hair as he lies unconscious on her lap. "I must defeat Sin."

The ship was in poor shape from the battle she and her companions had conducted to keep not only themselves, but all those on board alive. Thanking Yevon that no one had died, the agony of what they knew they would find and prayed that they didn't was rising. The crew was doing their jobs as if it was the only thing they had, as their destination was to be where the vile being was going. And all efforts to stop it, or even change its course, had failed

"No...No...please Yevon. Please...spare them. Spare my wife, my children. Spare them, don't let Sin take them away from me." A sailor chanted over and over. Others of the crew doing similar things, Yuna and her companions remained silent.

Each one offering a prayer like theirs in their hearts, in hopes that when they arrive, they see a happy bustling small town. That these men and women will find their loved ones safe and happy, not hurt. That the town would be full of laughter as Yuna so desperately wants.

And they hope, each and every one, that when they do get there, they find that kind of town and not one filled with mourning and the scent of death...