A few things from last chapter are explained and two characters make a choice that will have great ramifications.

Other than a massive amount of editing for grammar/sentence clarity and a few new sentences added here and there this chapter remains mostly untouched. You also see the beginning of a few of the AU elements that this fic uses start to take shape in this chapter.

Thank you for the follows/reviews.

italics = denotes thought or memory

Not Mine

To Save Him

Yuna sat on a bench in her room on the airship, her eyes looking over to the window - watching the clouds as they whipped past. Everyone was happy and why shouldn't they be, they had killed Sin and through some miracle she was still alive. That was something everyone could be joyous about. Everyone but her. Didn't any of them understand that Tidus was now Sin? That the man that she had come to love more than anything had become a twisted creature? That Tidus was going to be killed by another Summoner? That he wouldn't be coming back? That he was gone and she would never see him again? She wanted to know if they thought about these things. She was sure that somewhere inside them they did understand, but they were still happy, happy for her and the life that Tidus had bestowed upon her. But her smiles felt fake now, inside her heart was breaking. And she was beginning to resent her friends, if just a little.

It had been a long week. They had attempted and failed to get back in the good graces of the government who had shunned them. She had tried to contact Bevelle and tell them that she had defeated Sin, in the hopes that they would quickly work on disbanding her status as a traitor, but she had not had any luck. They had not seen it happen so who were they to believe. Instead they had judged her commitment to Spira's ideals, and had asked her to turn herself in.

So she was stuck in Cid's Al Behd airship, looking over the world of Spira at a distance and for the first time in a long time wondering about herself. She had given so much to Spira, and now that she had nothing to fight for, she felt so alone. It was there in her small room that she let tears fall on her hands - clasped tightly together on her lap. Her tears were warm she realized, not cold as she had thought they would be. They slipped between the cracks of her fingers and made them wet. She brought her hands up to her eyes and tried to rub them away. But they wouldn't stop. She buried her face in her hands, and for a long time just sat there and allowed the tears to come - crying. Crying for a lost love, crying for an unjust Calm, and crying for herself - for a future she was sure was lost. She was mid sob when she heard the voice in her head, "Do not cry."

Yuna looked up and around, but found no one. The voice had come from seemingly nowhere. She looked at the loud speakers but sound didn't seem like it had come from that source. She could not discover where the voice had come from. She looked around slowly a little worried that her grief had caused her to go out of her mind. And then she started to cry again, now not only was Tidus dead, but she was hearing his voice. Her tears were still falling when she heard it again, "Do not cry Yuna."

This time Yuna knew that she had heard something or someone, that she truly wasn't crazy, and she called out into the empty room, "Who is this?"

"You don't recognize my voice Yuna? I suppose not, being Sin makes it hard to comprehend that it's my voice but it's me."

Yuna felt like laughing, she was going insane. She was hearing Tidus' voice in her head when she knew he was dead - she had seen him die, watched his body fade from existence. Sin was talking to her, and she was going mad. Like the people in the stories that got too close to Sin and got infected by its toxins. She got up shaking her head; she would not let Tidus' death get to her, not if it was going to drive her insane. She opened the door of her room and started the long walk back to the cockpit of the airship. She was mid stride when she ran into Wakka on the way there, "I've been forgiven by Yevon, ya?"

Yuna smiled softly but didn't feel it, "Really? Just you? Why?"

Yuna had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer, but felt obliged to ask anyway, "They said that anyone who said that we were only doing what you said, under thrall or something like that would be free to be forgiven by the government."

"Thrall?" She didn't get that at all, they were talking about her as if she were some sort of fiend.

Like she was one of the monsters, lost to the world. She didn't understand that, she was just as human as the rest of them. The idea that they would call her a fiend hurt and she felt truly lost to the country she had once fought so hard to save.

"It's not very nice I get that ya, but I need to do this little sis. I need to do this for me. To find who I am. I can't stay up here in this airship, I'll choke."

She had been right; Wakka had once again chosen Yevon over everything. It was as if he wanted to, that he couldn't let go of the idea that this religion wasn't corrupt. He couldn't see that it destroyed everything that it touched, that it had been what killed his brother - not the Al Bhed weapons. But despite all her musing she couldn't figure out why he had chosen this path. Did his brother's death still haunt him? Was he that unforgiving? She didn't understand it at all. She wanted to rant at him, to slap him, but that was not Yuna. Yuna was peaceful and brave, so she couldn't let herself do anything she would later regret. Insead she looked at him composed, "Did anyone else chose to be forgiven?"

Wakka shook his head, "No, everyone else chose to remain ya know? But Kimahri is going to go back to Gagazet and rebuild. Even if it's dangerous."

Yuna nodded she had figured out early that this course of action was going be taken by Kimahri long before the words came out of Wakka's mouth. Kimahri was just like that, he was loyal to a fault. He was kind and giving even if he seemed a little prickly at first, and it was something that made her so proud of him,. He was always trying to make thing better for everyone, and she would always be grateful for what he had done for her after her father's death.

Yuna nodded at Wakka and moved behind him. Not looking him in the face, didn't want to look at the man who she felt had betrayed her. She continued to walk forward and as she did so she heard the voice in her head again, "He cares for you Yuna. Don't be too mad at him."

Yuna laughed again, when she spoke her voice was tinged with madness "Why can I hear you?" she could no longer fight what she knew was true - Tidus was speaking to her in her mind.

Tidus for one, was finally happy that she had come to some sort of agreement in her mind and had realized that it was him. As insane as she thought she was. She could feel his happiness and his glee at the fact that they were finally communicating. Yet underneath his warmth she could feel something dark and dismal, something not quite human, all consuming: wanting to devour everything. And it was this something in his mind she came to call Sin. For she knew that was what it was. Somehow she also knew that she was not talking to Sin, but to Tidus, to her lost love, and he replied, "I'm guessing it has to do something with how you survived, maybe we're connected? You were not supposed to live."

"But I did," Yuna said smiling true for the first time since Tidus had disappeared.

And as she smiled she realized that she might be crazy, and even if she was she didn't care. She could talk to Tidus, she could hear him, and feel him around her. And that was enough for now, "Yeah, you really did."

Yuna nodded and a look of determination spread over her face, and in that moment she knew what she had to do. She ran back into her room, into her closet and pulled out an outfit that she had bought with Tidus while they were in Luca. He had told her that it went with the color of her eyes, and that the way it fit her made her come alive. The shop owner had joined Tidus to try to convince her to purchase it, and had told her that it was one of the new age outfits that gave you powers. As she was changing she felt Tidus recede to give her privacy.

As he did she felt a change come over her body. She could no longer feel him around her. It was as if all power had flown from her body and left her body bereft of the will to stand. But she continued to dress and ever so slowly she could feel the strength returning to her body, turning her shaky legs back to stone. She came to the conclusion that this was just some sort of withdrawal that she would have to get used to until it felt like nothing. An easy price to pay for hearing Tidus again.

She finally finished changing into the outfit in front of her and smiled at the way she looked in the mirror. The outfit was cute if she was honest with herself, short jeans, a sleeveless white blouse that had a very large v neck that was kept in place by a black symbol. A silk piece of fabric hung at her waist and it was striped blue and white. Finally large blueish boots topped of the outfit. She snapped up her summoning staff from where it lay on the bed, and hurried to the bridge of the airship.

Half way there the connection between herself and Tidus reopened, when it did she had to stop and grab the rail that ran up the hallway. His reappearance had cause a huge power surge to overcome her body. While she got her bearings she once again heard his voice inside her head, "You decent yet?"

"I'm decent."

"So what is this all about anyways?"

"You're Sin right? Well I figure who knows more about Sin than Sin? We might be able to use this link to figure out how to kill it and save you!"

She could feel Tidus's approval of her plan and smiled to herself. However behind his approval she thought she felt something a little sinister, but it was gone so fast that she didn't have time to register it. The link fell dead, but she knew instinctively they were still connected. She arrived at the bridge in a flurry of colors and everyone stared at her confused about how she could still be so full of life. Mostly it was Auron who stared hardest, who found what she was wearing to be utterly ludicrous. Every one else was staring at the staff that she held in her hands and knew with dread what it meant. Rikku walked up to her cousin, "Are you insane Yunie? After what happened last time? Do you want to die for real?"

Yuna shook her head, "I'm not going to die Rikku."

Auron shook his head, but wouldn't speak up against this. He would follow her into oblivion, but her did have one question, "What about Bevelle and the government?"

"I've already got that covered. We are going to get the Aeons that aren't in the temples. The hidden ones."

Lulu could only gape at the girl in front of her, she loved Yuna to death, but what was she thinking? Getting involved in summoning again would only lead to more terrible tragedy, she could already feel the heartbreak that this would lead to, the destruction of the very young girl that stood before her. And thinking about the hidden Aeons she was reminded of a secret she had kept close to her chest last time they had gone after them, a secret that she wanted to keep close forever. A secret she had hoped would die in the very cave that held that very Aeon. She voice her opinion, "How do you know this won't end in ruin?"

Yuna's answer was simple, "I've got Sin guiding me."

By the way everyone looked she was sure they thought she had gone a bit insane too. But she wasn't worried - these were her friends, the ones that had stayed with her. They would follow her anywhere she knew.

A/N: Sorry about Wakka :( but the plot must go on!