AN: Hey guys! Sorrry for the wait on this one! It's more of a filler chapter, before the big aurikku action takes place. I have so many great ideas for their interaction together that I get bored now that they are travelling seperately. But it's cool, I've finally finished this chapter so I can get on with writing the next, yey!

Thank you guys so so so so so much for your reviews, I cannot get enough of them!

Chapter 11

Rikku's skin prickled as she stepped onto the deck of the Celsius. Her scarf whipped around her and she had to hold her hair out of her eyes to make out Paine standing at the far edge. She was watching landscape change as the ship flew over the Moonflow. Despite the sky around them being free from clouds and the sun glaring down on them, the air was cold. They were moving quickly.

"Heeey!" Rikku shouted out to her friend, waving her arms and squinting her eyes against the glare of the sun on the deck. Paine beckoned her over.

"You wanted to see me?" Rikku tried most innocent smile. Paine scrutinised her face, her eyes jumping between Rikku's.

"Out with it." She commanded. Rikku gave her best effort at feigning confusion.

"Out with it, now." She folded her arms to show she was serious. Rikku giggled nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Paine..." Paine turned her back on her and stood, hand on her hip, deep in thought. Rikku looked at her friend. Paine knew, she could just tell. The woman was a human lie detector, what was the point in hiding anything from her, she would just find out anyway. She would find out and pretend like she wasn't interested, but she was interested, because Rikku knew Paine cared about her friends. She reached out and hugged her from behind making Paine jump with surprise and took a deep breath.

"Paine, you remember when I told you Yuna was joining the Gullwings?"

Paine nodded.

"Remember when you met her, you told me after that she was exactly how you thought she would be?" Rikku's voice was muffled in Paine's back.

"She looked...like she had seen the end of the world."

"Yeah Paine, she didn't just see it, she brought it about. But even after everyone got a chance to start a new life, Yuna looked like she had lost hers. Like she had given everything away." Rikku's voice grew thick with emotion. "And she had. She gave him away, so that everyone in Spira could have this..." She stepped out towards the metal Gullwing mascot and raised her arms out across the landscape. Below them towns were being rebuilt, the Mi'ihen Highroad was dotted with yellow Chocobo's and their riders, and thick rolling fields of grass and green vegetation were growing up over the scars that Sin had left on the land.

"When I'm up here, I can feel the whole world healing itself...But when I look at Yuna, I can see she's the only one that's not healing..." Her voice trailed off, gathered up and taken away by the wind.

"I want Yuna to heal." Said Paine after some time.

"Me too."

"...I think she has to let go of the past, 2 years is a long time to mourn over love."

" You're wrong Paine. Letting go of the past would be like giving him up, and I think she can find him again. Because I know people can come back." Her voice was dreamy, but her eyes sparkled with sincerity. Paine furrowed her eyebrows.

"Rikku, once someone has gone on, they shouldn't come back. You're Al Bhed, listen to what your people say: Memories are nice, but that's all they are'" She quoted an Al Bhed philosophy at her friend. Rikku shied away from her words.

"But, there is so much about the world we don't know. About the Farplane, summoning, sending, garments, pyre flies. What if it's all linked? What if the people we lose aren't lost at all?"

"It's a nice thought Rikku. But it's not going to heal Yuna." Her words were flat. Rikku's round eyes pleaded with her friend.

"No but finding him will. Aren't you angry that Yuna was the one that had to lose so much? I am. And it wasn't just Tidus we lost," She paused as his name hung in the air before continuing. "We lost... someone very important to me too." She waited before bringing Auron's name into the physical realm, but Paine got there first.

"It was Sir Auron on the ship. He was the one you went to meet in Macalania. I saw him here and on the sphere." Rikku nodded, feeling her legs wobble as Paine confirmed that he wasn't a dream, she had actually seen him.

"Yeah... But Yuna can't know. He made me promise not to tell her he's here." Her tone begged urgency. " Auron hasn't told me everything, but I trust him. I think Yuna needs to find Tidus herself. And I think that Tidus, Shuyin and Vegnagun are all connected."

"So why has Sir Auron returned?"

"He's come back...to help us. He's come back to help save Spira again." Her voice was quiet with admiration and a small hopeful smile broke across her face.

Paine crossed her arms. "Yuna will find out."

"I know, but the time's not right, not right now"

She ran her fingers through her silver hair, contemplating what they had discussed. After a pause, she gave Rikku a meaningful look and took hold of her hand.

"Don't get too attached, Rikku. He's stayed on this world longer than he should have."

How do you know that? Rikku thought to herself. Maybe this is exactly where he is supposed to be.

The sound of the deck's doors sliding open signalled an end to their private meeting.

"Guys! guys!" It was Yuna, she was running at them grinning excitedly. "Get inside, we're changing course!" She jumped at Rikku, spinning around.

"Woah!" Her two friends said together, gripping one of her shoulders each.

"What's going on?!"

"It's Wakka and Lulu! " Yuna panted out of breath, "They just had a baby boy! Lets go and meet him!"

The three girls squealed, spun around each other and raced towards the lift.

"Woahv, just look at this place!" Gippal was stumbling across the uneven levitating walkways, his head turning this way and that, taking in the strangeness of his surroundings. Nooj nodded in silent agreement. After coming through the vortex they had found themselves in a vast and bright area, riddled with booby-trapped pathways that were rigged only to allow someone pass if they were brave enough to deactivate the lasers using a musical device. They had to work out a melody that echoed around them in the cavernous heart of the Farplane. It was a soulless melody, one that echoed a millennia of sorrow and regret, and with each time they heard it, Gippal and Nooj felt their resolve to find Vegnagun waver.

Auron hung back, desperately trying to find a way to follow them without triggering the melody and revealing himself. He followed different pathways that ran underneath them, waiting until they triggered the melody and deactivated the lasers before he moved on, all the while listening to their conversation.

"Can you believe we're actually in the deepest part of the Farplane?" Gippal was squinting around trying to see where the path ended.

"Must be a strange feeling, for an Al Bhed." Nooj's deep tones echoed around them.

"No stranger than for you... Hey, you look beat, lets take a break over there." He nodded to where the edge of the path way had grown tall and could provide them with a little shelter. Nooj nodded and hobbled over. He eased himself down and massaged his hip where his leg support was strapped on, sighing with relief.

"Being down here makes you think...you only live once and this is where you end up when its all over." Gippal rested back on the wall of the shelter and sighed heavily. Nooj laughed.

"You believe that? You're Al Bhed." Gippal sat for a moment, thinking.

"Yeah well...I don't know. But all this stuff with Shuyin and what happened with the Crimson Squad... He's been dead for a thousand years, and yet he's here, stuck inside our friend"

Nooj leaned against his staff. "We have got to save him. Shuyin is...tormented. When he took over me, it felt worse than watching our friends die in the Den of Woe. Baralai's strong, but I don't know if he'll be the same after this..."

They sat in silence together, pondering the inevitable, until a small movement caught Nooj's attention. Up ahead, a fiend had caught sight of them and was making it's way towards them. It was a legless wraith, floating on top of a build up of electrified energy and was flexing it's skeletal claws towards them hungrily. Nooj watched it sadly. Once, that fiend had been person, torn from the earth too early with no one there to send them onto the next plane. It had lingered, festered, and now groped towards the living with a jealous hunger. Were fiends attracted to the living because of a twisted familiarity? Or was it helplessly wandering, seeking freedom from it's tormented bonds. Nooj never could decide, and instead watched the fiend with pity.

So as to keep the element of surprise he caught Gippal's eye and signalled the threat. They slowly moved apart and waited until the fiend was within range before unleashing fire on it. Their weapons were effective at long range, but up close Nooj failed as a hand to hand fighter and was unable to defend Gippal when he faltered. The wraith struck Gippal along the abdomen, leaving a blood soaked gash behind. He cried out in pain and collapsed. Nooj was left to fend for himself.

Auron watched from a safe distance. It was likely both of them would die without intervention. Gippal was heavily wounded and needed medical attention urgently, and looking at the strained sweat running down Nooj's face, it wouldn't belong before he too would succumb to the fiend. Auron was already running to them before he could even consider whether to reveal himself or not. He pushed between them, slicing at the fingers of the wraith whilst shielding Nooj with his broad torso. The wraith shrieked at them, their ears popped with pressure and pain but Auron did not pause. He swung his sword with the precision of an experienced fighter, refusing to show mercy on the beast. With a burst of strength he pushed it to the floor and thrust his sword between it's visible vertebrae. The wraith shrieked once more and curled it's limbs up around itself like a spider before evaporating into a haze of pyre flies. Auron breathed out his lungs slowly, concluding the battle. He regarded the disappearing fiend before him. As he had lain in his final moments in Kimahri's arms at the foot of Mt. Gagazet all those years ago, what had stopped him from becoming one of these pitiful creatures?

"Are you friend or enemy?" Nooj's deeply threatening voice pulled him from his thoughts. He turned to the injured party.

"My name i-"

"You're Sir Auron!" Gippal was pointing a shaky finger at him whilst clutching at his wound. Auron didn't even merit him with an answer, instead choosing to crouch before the damaged soldier to tend to his wound. He searched inside his sleeve and pulled two small vials of liquid. He tipped them both onto a clean cloth and held it to the wound.

"Open your mouth." Gippal did what he was told and Auron allowed the dregs of the liquids to fall on his tongue. Nooj grabbed at Auron's shoulder registering concern for his comrade on his face.

"It's a mix of Al Bhed potions I learned from a guardian, it'll stop the bleeding and heal the skin, but he will not be able to fight. He must rest." His voice was controlled as he moved injured man into the recovery position.

"We've got to get help. Neither of us will be able to take down Vegnagun in this condition." Nooj rested on the ledge, thankful that the legendary guardian had saved them in their time of need.

"You...your dead, your not supposed to be here." Gippal coughed in pain as he tried to speak. Auron's expression darkened.

"It's lucky for you that I was..." He said, reminding Gippal that he was alive now, thanks to this man. Gippal and Nooj shared a confused glance understanding that they must have been followed.

"Yeah, well...I owe you one."

"You're wrong...I was simply repaying you for your help in the desert." He said quietly, working on Gippal's wound. Gippal's eyes widened as he remembered their brief encounter in the Sanubia, two years ago. Moments before being alerted of the attack on Home, Gippal had found Auron searching for his summoner and guardians after being taken to the desert by Sin and informed them that they were now officially outlawed. Despite this, Auron had refused to give up the pilgrimage and their short conversation had galvanised Gippal into fighting against the temples.

"What are you doing here anyway." Said Gippal, his strength returning to him with every breath.

"I intend to take down Vegnagun. I followed your trail in order to find him."

"...does Rikku know you're back?" Auron regarded Gippal suspiciously.

"Yes." He said, matter-of-factly. "She assisted me in coming here."

"She's...told me a lot about you..." Gippal's face flickered briefly with jealousy.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah." The two men sized each other up, Nooj watched in silence and prepared himself to act, knowing how volatile Gippal could be when it came to women.

"She failed to mention you during our time together." He said, knowing exactly how it sounded. Furious, Gippal jumped to his feet and winced in pain.

"Hey, that's my girlfriend you're talking about!" He shouted after Auron who had turned his back to leave. Auron looked over his shoulder.

"Funny, that's not what you were saying earlier." He alluded to the conversation he had over heard about Gippal and Paine.

"Jackass!" Gippal shouted after him, enraged that Auron had been eavesdropping on them.

"Only a jackass can change the world." He retorted and took the jump towards the final gate.