Disclaimer: Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

Author's Note: To StoryWeaver, I know that difference, but I needed someone to have the gang compare Shuyin to and psycho Shuyin is very much like Seymour.

To akksgurl, well you got the airship right and you'll see the Cid thing that you picked out as well. Well, I didn't go as overboard with him as I could have, but that's not too much of a bad thing, right? Oh, you might also see some of your other comment in here, too.

Spira: The Eternal Discord

Chapter 4: Memories of Light: A Silent Vigil

Shuyin

That Rikku was certainly something. Just as Kirin had done over a thousand and ten years in the past, this blonde Al Bhed girl who'd only known me as some psychotic killer wanted to cheer me up. It'd been so long since I remembered being carefree and naïve. That Machina War with Bevelle completely destroyed that part of my mind. I swore I'd never be fooled again and it cost me my innocence. We all lost our innocence from that horrible event. Once Damusa was killed, that's when everything began to spiral into oblivion. Then came the day Areth had Kai executed for betraying Bevelle. My mind can only remember the terrible way we lost our lives. It'd been burned into it for a thousand years after all. I failed to save any of them and those pyreflies in the cave felt my regret and aided in expanding it, repeating the moments of their deaths over and over. It had been like a bad dream.

"Shuyin? Are you alright?" Rikku asked me. Apparently, I'd dozed off while recounting my past. Rikku looked at me with concern.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" I asked her, not understanding why she was concerned. I just fell asleep, right?

She moved over to sit next to me on the bright colored make-shift bench I had dozed off on. "You were saying things. Something about how none of you guys deserved a life like you had. Did you have a nightmare?"

I huffed slightly and smiled a bit, "Yes, a dream that lasted for a millennium. I'm glad to finally awaken from it. Hopefully, I'll be past it one day. Until then, don't mind my sleep talk." She seemed to be satisfied and didn't start the comfort session again.

How alike those two were. It was amazing. Their similarities were in both physical and psychological aspects. It was almost as if Kirin never died. Both of them had the brightest and most cheerful outlook on life. When Trista had that faked Kirin attitude, I'd thought I'd met her equal in strange hyper behavior, but this girl was something else. She must have noticed what I was thinking because she started giving me sideways glances.

"Shuyin? Why are you staring at me like that?" She asked, her voice even a viable match to Kirin's. She even looked at me in that cute way Kirin would look at me should I do something bizarre.

I couldn't help but smile to myself like an idiot, "It's nothing. You just… You're just so much like Kirin. I found that interesting. It's amazing how I didn't notice that before."

At that point she burst into a fit of giggles, though I didn't have a clue why. "Oh, maybe you were distracted with your plan to blow us all up, Mr. Evil Shadow man. Hard to notice things when you're so dead set on killing everybody." She jested, smiling that warm smile that I'd only known from Kirin and Lenne.

"I guess you're right about that. I probably wasn't so interested in comparing and contrasting people from my time to people nowadays. Still, how I could have missed this is amazing." I told her.

Suddenly, an alarm or signal or something went off on the ship. "What's going on? Is there a problem?" I asked Rikku, as normally airships didn't sound off an alarm unless it was being attacked or losing attitude drastically.

"No, my brother is just an idiot. This noise just means we reached Mt. Gagazet." She explained, fiddling around with the controls and shutting down the alarm.

The Celsius landed and I led the way from it to the peak of the Ronso's home. The airship couldn't land anywhere on the side of the mountain as the cliffs were far too steep. Instead, Rikku put it right at the bottom, outside the crevice that led to the Calm Lands. We ascended past the cavern where I'd sent the Yojimbo fayth with his makeshift Daigoro to eliminate all traces of life with a small army of fiends. It really was amazing. As an unsent, powered completely by emotions the lingered in the plane of the living, I was capable of throwing Spira into chaos single handedly. Takuma was right: My anger was an invaluable weapon.

We moved on and eventually found the land of the Ronso. Funny, I'd managed to bypass them the last time. I had been riding on that chocobo at the time, but I basically skipped up the other side of the mountain and never had to meet their Maester Kelk Ronso. This time, however, Rikku actually proceeded directly into their midst.

"Kimahri!" She called out, her arms outstretched as she ran into the awaiting arms of a blue-furred ronso.

The ronso embraced her as an old friend would, but I had no idea she'd known a ronso, as well. "Kimahri is happy to see Rikku…" Then he turned to me, "Kimahri also happy to see you back. You make Yuna happy."

I blushed slightly and put a hand on the back of my head, "I'm… not who you think I am…" I admitted to the one I now knew was named Kimahri.

Rikku giggled easily as if nothing should bring discomfort for the ronso about me. "Silly, this isn't him. He's Shuyin. We met him after… oh right! You've seen him before. The sphere that you wanted me to give to Yunie, it wasn't a sphere of him. The sphere was actually Shuyin."

"Kimahri not understand. How can this not be that man? Ronso eyes do not see false." The brutish one told Rikku, obvious not believing that their friend was only a dreamed up version of me.

"Kimahri… My name is Shuyin. I lived in Zanarkand over a thousand years ago. The guy you know… he never lived in my Zanarkand. He lived in a dream of the fayth. Actually, I think I could show you. We're headed that way, too" I explained to him.

Rikku poked my arm inquisitively, "Wait a second! I thought you were taking me to see Kirin!"

This brought a warm smile to my face. Rikku was every bit like Kirin. I still remembered that day Lenne received Elumina as her ultimate Aeon. Kirin had been confused as to who the vampire Aeon was and why we were so displeased to mention his obtaining. "Okay, I'll just pretend like I know what you guys are talking about so, yeah, I agree. " She'd said. Later in that day, when we were out hunting fiends, she'd been the impatient one who'd gotten us in trouble with that substantial group of fiends.

"Rikku, the place I buried Kirin is where the dream of Zanarkand was placed. I think it was the power of the dream that actually put my Kirin back together." I explained to her as she made the "oh, now I get it" face.

We ascended the mountain, the three of us, but Kimahri seemed overall confused about what we were doing. On the other hand, I could detect some form of ronso nostalgia from him, due to the fact that every now and then, he'd look down at the ground and direct his foot to a certain spot. It almost seemed like he was trying to step in the same places he had before. Noting that Rikku knew him and he'd talked about Yuna, my guess was that this ronso had been another of Yuna's guardians and he was trying to remember how he'd walked that day over two years back. It was an amusing site at times, but I knew that could've been me had I lived out my life.

"Kimahri still not understand. If you are Shuyin and not Kimahri's friend, where is Kimahri's friend?" The ronso questioned, still taking calculated steps as we walked up to the summit of the mountain.

"Oh, we didn't bring them with us. Don't worry, he's with Yunie and Paine right now. Actually, they're probably up. Hope they got the sphere and didn't freak out." Rikku answered, thinking back on those we'd left back in Besaid.

Yuna probably wouldn't mind this all too much. My clone, however, wanted to rip out my spleen. He'd probably have some choice words for what Rikku had done… or rather what had I done to her. Paine would undoubtedly side with him, but it wasn't like I didn't deserve that. I'd screwed up her life so badly, it wasn't surprising she'd hate me so. My duplicate disliked me on account that I tried to kill his love; that's about all. He's just as overprotective as I am and he's equally as arrogant.

We finally reached the summit and the large rock that had the body parts sticking out of it. I figured I'd be seeing what I'd seen when I last came, but I forgot to take into account that over those two years I spent as Nooj, Yuna had permanently beaten Sin and rendered the dream of the fayth, nothing. It shouldn't have been overwhelmingly surprising that the tower of water had disappeared and the glow from the wall of Mt. Gagazet would have faded.

"The spring! The apparition! I hope Kirin's still like how I left her." I said in concern. I didn't want Rikku's innocent eyes to see what Kirin had died like. I didn't want to see Kirin in that way myself. I wanted to show Rikku just why I'd have confused her with Kirin.

With a bit of hesitation, I peered down into a pool of water, this being all that remained of Dream Zanarkand. As I searched the bottom, I gave a sigh of relief as I saw her, still dressed in that pink dress I'd put on her before taking her here. I gazed at her beautiful features and longed for her eyes to just open. As much as I knew she'd never open her eyes again, I still wanted her life returned to her. She didn't deserve to die so young.

"She's… just like me… I don't believe it… She really does look like me." Rikku gasped, eying Kirin's body all over through the surface of the water.

I smiled warmly at Rikku. So full of life she was… I guess I always needed someone like her, someone to keep me from remembering the angst of my life. Kirin had been the one that took me away from being miserable over the loss of my mother. Rikku was now the one that was reminding me what I used to believe in and leave behind the evils I'd nearly committed.

"Shuyin wanted to show Kimahri this place? Kimahri already knows this place." The ronso stated, slightly agitated by this turn of events.

"I wanted to show you that I'm the man from Zanarkand, the ruined city. The one you knew came from here. The scene you witnessed two years before was the summoning of my home." I explained.

"I don't get it, though. Why would Yu Yevon pick this place to make the dream of Zanarkand when he'd obviously see that there was something else here?" Rikku asked, waving over to the gravesite.

I looked down, somewhat angered by what my mind had summarized for me, "When you're desperate, you'll do anything. Yu Yevon needed to keep Dream Zanarkand away from the people of Spira so this summit would have been the perfect and easiest place to hide it."

Kimahri eventually left, his role in this journey having been completed. He was a ronso Elder and needed to tend to his duties. As for Rikku and I, we remained to continue looking at Kirin's body. Rikku admired it from head to toe, matching up every part of Kirin's body with her own. It was rather amusing watching the girl prance around, take a look at Kirin's hip, hop a little, and finally take a look at her own hip to compare. I, in the meantime, reminisced on all the years I'd spent with that girl. We definitely had an interesting childhood to say the least. We'd always get each other into trouble and then, through mischievous and sly acts, we'd find some way out.

Of course, thinking about old events between me and Kirin reminded me of one more thing: Crushes. I'd had a very minor crush on her, this due to built up affection from the love she'd shown me. I'd settled that into love of a younger sister instead of romantic affection. Of course, that wasn't the end of it. Later on, during my early teen years, Kirin'd developed almost the same crush on me. I was such an ignorant twerp then, I completely disregarded her. She'd revealed her feelings to me one night as a party, but I figured it was one of those, "Hey, I love you", kind of things and didn't think much of it. I simply said, "love ya, too" and went off on my merry way. Then, I had the audacity to get upset at her for not talking to me for the next few months. The worst part was that she actually apologized for being rude to me. Once I found out she really was serious, I never forgot what I did. It had been Jurama that told me about her and how "if I hurt her in any form again, he'd kill me" that a current boyfriend tends to say to the former love interest.

"Wow, we've got the same arms, the same dimples, the same hips, the same legs, the same…" Rikku went on with this for a good five minutes, but it definitely got my attention back on her.

"Well, I told you you two were alike." I said, "Now you get to see for yourself. So…"

"Shuyin…" A low voiced echoed nearby.

I unsheathed my sword, "Who's there!"

"Shuyin…" The same voiced bellowed.

"Come out! Whoever you are, come out here now!" I demanded, readying myself for a fight.

The voice sounded incredibly familiar, but I had not idea what to make of it. Again, it called out and I gripped my sword tighter. Rikku came to my side and unsheathed her two daggers, getting into a defensive position, as well. Together, we waited for whatever it was to reveal itself. It echoed my name once more before I saw him…

"… Galte?..." I muttered, seeing the slightly transparent form of the white ronso I'd known a lifetime ago. "Galte… Is that you?"

"Shuyin… Galte guard Kirin. Galte keep her safe. Galte has missed Shuyin. Last time, Shuyin was so angry. Galte not know how to help." He told me, obviously being there for when I retrieved my sword.

"You've been guarding this place all this time…" I muttered again, extremely grateful to the white ronso for keeping his word for so long. "I didn't even expect you to stay this long."

"Who's Galte?" Rikku asked, breaking our moment.

I smiled as I turned back to face her, "Oh, that's right. You two have never met. Rikku, this was Rothel's friend, Galte Ronso. Galte, this is Rikku."

Galte stared strangely at the blonde before turning to me, "How is Kirin alive?"

"No, I'm not Kirin. I'm Rikku." She reiterated for my unsent friend, performing a curtsy afterward.

I walked over to Galte and put my hand on his shoulder. "Enough Galte. You don't need to keep watch over Kirin anymore. I'm back and I'll take care of her. You go on… Be with Rothel."

Nodding his understanding, he left with the parting words, "Galte wait for the day we all are together again." His body erupted in pyreflies and flew past me into the Farplane to finally be at peace, along with the rest of my friends.

Soon after, Rikku and I went back down Gagazet. It was touching to see Galte again, but at the same time, I'd kept him on Spira. To have a friend with that much resolve; I truly was a lucky one. As we made our way down, we heard a few voices, each more agitated than the next.

"What do you mean you saw a dead body?" My voiced screamed.

We found our way back to the ronso village where my other promptly grabbed my collar, "What'd you do to Rikku?"

"We did what the sphere said; we visited Kirin." I replied plainly, removing his hand from my collar by gripping his wrist tightly.

Yuna was the next to say something, "Kirin?" She turned to Rikku, "Did she really look that much like you?"

Cute as can be, Rikku nodded a few times and started hopping up and down, "She looks just like me Yunie! C'mon, I'll show you!" And with that, Yuna was dragged back up the way we'd come.

"So that's all you did?" Both Paine and Tidus asked me in sync.

I never got a chance to answer. From somewhere nearby, I was grabbed by someone with a bald head and some yellow jumpsuit thing. "What have you been doin' with my daughter!"

I shook my head and put up my hands, "We just went to see an old friend of mine."

He seemed… somewhat convinced, as he moved away and back into… a tremendous airship, one I'd never seen on Spira before. The design was very smooth and articulate. By looks, it seemed the chief source of movement came from the huge turbine in the back.

"Where'd you guys get an airship like that?" I asked any one of them.

My duplicate was the one to answer, "That would be somewhere under the waters of Baaj Temple. I helped find it, you know?" Ever the arrogant blitzer… "Its name is Vena and it was the airship we used to kick Sin's butt!"

"Vena?" Obviously that meant something to me. "Vena… She was one of my friends and a great player on the Abes. What I would imagine her thinking if something with a backside like that was given her name."

I think I'm gonna finally get back the life I lost. I rather like it here…