83: Epilogue (Memento Vivere)

"I didn't think I'd see the day the Al Bhed would be defending Bevelle," Tidus said conversationally.

Rikku laughed and was about to reply when another explosion shook the airship. Stumbling for balance, she swung around, worried. "You guys!?"

Yuna picked herself up and grimaced, then went for her dressphere. "They can't knock me off if I can fly." Light shone, and then crackled and exploded, revealing Yuna in all of her white-haired, flower-petal glory. "I've got this one covered!" she yelled bravely, rising into the air.

Tidus let out a happy sigh watching his wife don her Floral Fallal costume, his eyes going dreamy. Rikku rolled her own. "Brother! Ra haynmo kud ic! Byo yddahdeuh!" she yelled, shaking her fist.

The Fahrenheit's speakers crackled, and Brother's voice rolled over them. "I KNOW! They try to hit Palace! We dodge, tower go boom!"

"I won't let you destroy our peace!" Yuna yelled, rising higher into the air, the petals of the enormous flower she summoned whipping in the wind as her feet rose higher and higher off the ground. Sweeping her arm around, she conjured a barrage of pure magic that concentrated into fierce, whirling discs before her outstretched hand. Beams of energy shot out, one after the other, slamming into the Celsius above them.

The airship rocked and veered off course, smoking.

"Nice hit, Yuna!" Gippal called out, kneeling as he aimed his mortar and added to the fire. "I think we got 'em running!"

Rikku squinted, watching the thick, black smoke spurt from the old airship. Its spinning wheel was starting to slow down, and her eyes widened. "We hit it a little too good!" she said, running towards the edge of the ship and looking over the side. Bevelle stretched before her, well on its way to becoming a proper metropolis in the decades since the Eternal Calm. "They're gonna crash!"

"Aww, shit," Gippal said, noting how the Celsius had changed its trajectory. It was on a collision course for Bevelle's Palace. "They wanna go out with bang," he swore. "Brother! Warn Nooj and Baralai! They have to evacuate, NOW!"

The speakers crackled. "No time! Paine! Paine is-"

Yuna gasped, losing her dressphere and falling towards the deck. Tidus caught her.

They watched Paine stride out onto the platform, lights swirling around her, surrounding her in her graceful, crane-like Full Throttle costume. Swords whirled over her head, arranging themselves in a diamond-shaped array before her.

"That's not a defensive dressphere!" Rikku said, her breath catching in her throat.

True to form, Paine went on the offensive, flapping her wings and sending shards of ice shooting towards the Celsius.

Tidus squinted as Paine sent wave after wave towards the burning missile in its kamikaze dive. "She's not trying to stop the Celsius! She's just trying to keep it from exploding!"

"We gotta stop them!" Gippal was on his knees, his eye wide, no trace of humor left on his face. "Nooj! Baralai!" he yelled hoarsely.

"Paine! No!" Yuna screamed, twisting in Tidus' arms.

His face contorted in pain, watching her suffer. "Yuna," he said, making his decision and letting her go.

Rikku saw them all, these people that she'd grown to call her family, fighting for their lives yet again. Maybe not to save the world this time, but at least themselves and the new peace they'd worked so hard to build.

There was Tidus, just like before, ready to give up his life as a human and sacrifice himself for Yuna's happiness.

Gippal was pounding the deck, swearing, and with each hit she heard how much he loved them: Nooj, Baralai, and Paine. How he believed he was going to watch them all die because he'd failed to protect them.

And Yuna, crumpled against Tidus, weeping because someone she cared about was slipping out of her grasp, once again.

There wasn't really any time for nostalgia, though; the Celsius was on a crash course with the Palace, after all.

She leapt and caught Tidus before he could jump off of the Fahrenheit. "Sit this one out," she said, shoving him back down next to Yuna.

He understood instantly, his face filling with shame-faced gratitude for the continued chance she was granting him to stay with his wife. His arms wrapped around Yuna. "Sorry…"

"What? What're you doing?" Yuna asked, her eyes going wide as light flared around Rikku.

It was understandable; Rikku hadn't worn a dressphere in her Garment Grid since her return from the Farplane, so many years ago. There shouldn't have been anything to activate, but still, her exosuit was climbing over her skin, encasing her in the armor she hadn't used since she'd carried Auron across half of Spira in her arms.

Gippal finally noticed; his mouth dropped open. "Rikku?"

"I love you, Yunie." She smiled. "Say… sorry to Brother and Paine for me, okay?" Then she jumped off the deck. The mechanical wheel forming on her back turned, and she shot after the falling Celsius, feeling her limbs stretch and lock, her body distending and reshaping itself into Eden's larger, winged form. She wondered, with a faint sense of misplaced vanity, if she was making a striking impression on everybody else. Then she hit the Celsius and it didn't matter anymore. Metal screeched against metal and she shuddered in pain, feeling her limbs bend and groan from the shock of the impact. She twisted them as they fell, narrowly missing the tower. She caught a fleeting glimpse of Paine's surprised face, before she was fighting again, fighting for clearance, fighting to keep the Celsius from hitting the densely populated city below.

They took out the tops of a few of the higher skyscrapers before, with one last heave, she managed to push the ice-encrusted, smoking Celsius into the sea beyond. When they hit the water, the Celsius exploded, and her view screen blacked out, her metallic body disintegrating from the force of the blast.

.x.x.x.

When she opened her eyes again, it was to pastel skies, and the soft hum of pyreflies singing overhead. Sitting up, she stretched and rolled her shoulders. "Huh," she said, testing her limbs. "I thought dying would hurt a little more than it did."

"You know you're not actually dead. But try the real thing sometime, you might be surprised."

"Auron!" She jumped up when she saw him, unable to stop her smile from blooming. "I missed you!" She threw herself at him.

He caught her and spun her around with a laugh, settling her gently among the wildflowers, and leaned over to kiss her.

"Mmm," she mumbled, melting into him. "I missed this," she breathed as he dug his fingers into her hair, pulling her tight.

"As did I. Rikku," he said, breathing her name like a benediction, a soft release of longing, devotion, and desire.

They spent some time entangled together, in the endless stillness of the Farplane. A moment, or maybe a lifetime? She couldn't tell and didn't care, and neither did he, from the feel of it.

When he finally drew back, she smiled wistfully at him. "It wasn't the same without you there. I never did manage to fall in love that hard ever again, you know. You ruined me for everybody else!"

He shrugged, but she saw a touch of pride in the motion. "Regardless. You had a good life."

"I did," she sighed, latching onto his elbow and leaning into his shoulder. "I'm glad I lived it. It felt... good. Even when it got hard sometimes. It was worth it."

"Hnn," was all he said, his fingers resting on her arm.

She turned her face into his shoulder. "You must be tired now."

There was a brief silence, and then a grunt of assent. "I am."

She squeezed his hand. "Then go now. I'll keep an eye out for you," she promised.

"Thank you," he said. "I love you."

She smiled, releasing him. And then he was gone, and she was sitting alone by her Fayth stone, watching the wildflowers gently bob in the absence of any breeze.

.x.x.x.

Boredom was the main reason Eden materialized on the plateau. Jecht and Alexander were beginning to wear thinly on her nerves; they were always exhorting her to keep pace with the world of mortals. Usually they'd come at intervals, each invested in living their own very human lives outside of the Farplane every so often. Still, it was a rare occurrence that the two would disappear at the same time, leaving her completely alone. It was likely because Alexander had felt something, or maybe seen something out there. He'd left unexpectedly, as prone as he was to flights of fancy. He always seemed to be chasing after the certain color of a soul he'd grown fond of.

Of course, there were still the other mortal souls who passed through the Farplane. Their company was fine enough, but inevitably fleeting. When their stays weren't, usually heroes would appear and call upon their aid to make sure those stubborn beings moved on, willing or not. It was the way of things; it kept Spira from sliding into decay. That had actually happened once long ago; they'd all taken part in correcting it. She could hardly remember.

So she waited, and watched. Mortal souls passed in and out of the Farplane like flower petals being blown along the wind; entertaining and pretty, but never lasting. Her two aeon companions were her only constants, and she found herself growing lonely without their company.

After a long, solitary while of considering their advice, and with the feeling of moving muscles left long dormant, she stretched and brought herself back. It took a moment to remember what being human felt like; a faint memory of Alexander insisting on change being the most human thing of all prompted her to dig deep.

She gave herself wild, blonde hair, piled high in a ponytail atop her head. Green eyes; those had always been hers, she knew. After some consideration, a bright orange tube top, held in place by two wide straps, and a pair of green shorts felt appropriate. The rest came rapidly after that; a scarf, some stockings, a pair of gloves… A flight of whimsy had her weaving a phoenix down into one of her braids.

Her boots hit the ground and she blinked, taking the time to get used to the new, smaller dimensions of her adolescent body. Wriggling her fingers, she grinned. Life outside of the Farplane was always so much brighter and more tactile than she remembered; she enjoyed the intensely physical feel of it, swaying on her feet and soaking in the sensation.

I wonder how many years passed since I was last here…?

There was a droning voice behind her; half-turning, she spotted an old man, steeped with age, dressed in archaic robes. He was relaying parts of Spira's long history to an audience of tourists of all ages. Some looked bored, others listened in rapt attention.

"…They say the pyreflies are just reacting to visitors' thoughts and dreams. But only the dead appear on the Farplane. No images of the living have ever been seen. It's a great mystery! But maybe… the dead leave a bit of themselves in the hearts of the living. And that little bit borrows the pyreflies' power for their paranormal performance! Or maybe not. Who knows?"

She squinted; he sounded familiar. Shrugging, she took his words to heart and turned to look over the Farplane, searching within herself. Blurred figures misted before her, never truly taking shape. She had the faint impression of them, though, tickling at her memory. Three men who shared her features. Family? She smiled fondly at the one with the spiked hair, her tongue catching on a name. Brother.

They shifted, changing. A woman in a long black dress and… her husband, yes. Large, loud, red hair. The teenager between them sharing his father's red hair and his mother's pale skin. And there… a blue lion? Ronso, her memory provided, and the image solidified a little more. He wore a stately white beard and bore an unusual, broken horn.

"Ah! I see, you are thinking of the Last Pilgrimage!" The old man's voice cut across her thoughts, dissolving the images. She turned to look at him more closely, her eyebrows rising.

Not what you seem, old soul, she thought. But the usual stench of decay and maliciousness wasn't there; odd. Well. It wasn't her place to interfere unless the heroes of the age called upon her, and this creature seemed largely harmless.

"The Lady Yuna brought to Spira the Eternal Calm, with the help of her six Guardians!"

That brought a jolt to her; much closer and much more familiar. "Yuna," she whispered, and it sounded wrong on her tongue. She tuned out the old man and looked at the Farplane, trying hard to remember. Something within her stirred hotly; of course she couldn't forget Yuna. She could never forget.

"Yunie," she said, her voice sliding back into its proper register. Her image refused to form, even though Eden's memory was clear.

She thought suddenly of Alexander. And squinted. Not Alexander. Tidus. He, too, remained unsurprisingly absent from her Farplane wishes. "Still in love with her, aren't you," she murmured, feeling her lips stretch into a warm smile.

In love, she thought, and was surprised to find a different image forming. Blue eyes… familiar ones. A summoner, in long, sweeping robes.

"Ah, High Summoner Braska," the old man said. "The Lady Yuna's father, who had also defeated Sin. It is said he set her upon her fateful path, joined by his legendary Guardians."

She placed her hand on her chest, knowing why he was there. He stared at her, a half-smile lighting his kind eyes, and it felt like she was looking at herself. Of course, neither she nor Jecht appeared next to him. But… there had been another, hadn't there.

She felt her heart stutter; a growing awareness of an absence that she hadn't realized was there. A sense of panic that she'd forgotten, forgotten something very important.

There was a third. But no matter how her mind grasped for it, he wouldn't appear.

"You should stop trying," a young voice told her. "Nobody knows what they look like or remembers their names."

A memory surfaced. "Intriguing, how High Summoner Dysley's name has gone down in history as a hero, yet my own is forgotten." She felt a chill run down her back.

"It's amazing that you even got one of them to appear. They still have a few of those old statues of him around, though. You must've seen them! Maybe that's what he looked like after all."

"No, I'm sure," she said, crossing her arms and looking back at Braska. "That's him. That's Lord Braska."

A snort. She turned her head to look at the boy a few years younger than her speaking, and had to keep herself from taking a step back. "Yeah, right. He's got my eyes. You probably just saw my face and pasted it onto him."

Braska's bright blue eyes were glaring at her. But it wasn't Braska – her mind stuttered, trying to match those eyes to the boy's stocky build. His black hair was a little unruly, but he'd tried to tame it into a short ponytail, at least. It didn't stop a few stubborn strands at his forehead from falling loose to frame his face.

She felt another twinge in her chest, a flutter of memory. She had to catch herself before remembering how to respond.

"Big talk coming from somebody younger than me," she told him, crossing her arms. "It's not like you know what Braska really looked like either! Someone's a little full of himself. And why would I take your face anyhow? I could be getting my inspiration from anywhere. How would you know? Huh? Huh?"

He scowled at her, matching her pose, and then looked back up at the image of Braska she'd summoned. The scowl slid off his face gradually. "… No. You're right," he sighed. "I don't know why I said that. I guess I just felt protective of his memory. It doesn't seem right… that people are forgetting them," he trailed off more thoughtfully. Then he shook his head and met her eyes, contrite. "I shouldn't have picked a fight with you. I don't usually go around insulting random girls I meet on the Farplane." He looked at the ground and scowled again, more at himself than her. "Especially since it's hard finding people who still care about ancient history these days. ... Sorry."

That fluttering feeling in her chest knew even before her mind remembered his name.

It's you.

"It's… okay." She swallowed around the tightness in her throat, and managed to ask, "What's your name?"

He looked up, surprised that she still wanted to talk to him. "Aaron." He winced and hunched his shoulders. "Don't laugh. My parents are historians. They wanted to name me after one of the legendary guardians, but like I said... nobody really remembers who they were anymore. So I got stuck with this weird name. It's probably a mistranslation."

"There's nothing wrong with it," she said softly. "That's just your name. It's who you are inside that counts."

He met her gaze at that, surprised. The scowl softened into genuine curiosity. "Uh. Right. What's your name?"

She hesitated. It'd been so long since anyone had called her anything but Eden. But Rikku was long gone, and so was Auron. This was the beginning of a new story. A new beginning, for both of them. Together, this time.

"Rika. My name's Rika. Nice to meet you," she said with a sunny smile.

A/N:

Ra haynmo kud ic! Byo yddahdeuh! / He nearly got us! Pay attention!

Yuna's dressphere ability: Floral Fallal: Great Whirl

Paine's dressphere abilities: Full Throttle: Sinistral Arts (Steel Feather, Diamond Feather), Throttle (Winterkill)

Rika's outfit is the original design for Rikku in Kingdom Hearts, before they scrapped Rikku and threw in Yuffie in her place instead.

Annotations:

Well, since Fanfiction doesn't let you publish chapters that are notes, here are FOOTnotes for a 500k+, 20-year-long fanfiction. XD

All About Aeons

It's probably obvious already, but Tidus' aeon form is called Alexander (FFIX). I know, it seems like he'd be a Leviathan, it makes sense and there's even fan art for that, but Leviathan already existed before Tidus did in this Spira.

Jecht's aeon form is still called Jecht. Go figure, because he's Jecht! Less facetiously, he was created with Yu Yevon's entire massive ego, so I think he'd keep his own name through the ages.

About aeons that survived the destruction of Yu Yevon: in this story, they're able to continue existing because they're sustained by the collective consciousness of Spirans, and they didn't fight and get consumed by Yu Yevon. That means every aeon that Yuna brought to the final battle with Sin should have permanently died. Game canon messes with this theory, though, by repeatedly bringing especially Bahamut back as a narrative element.

This story quietly assumes Yuna found every optional aeon, absorbed them, and then used them in the final battle. But technically… no one ever had to actually pick up the optional aeons to finish the game. If you want to imagine Yuna never bonded with the three optional aeons (Anima, Yojimbo, and The Magus Sisters) even after finding them, then they'd still be around. Also, it could be that Braska and Yuna never found all of the hidden aeons that Spira created over the course of nearly a thousand years, so there may be even more than three aeons left in Spira. Who knows if Phoenix, Carbuncle, Kujata, Titan, Fenrir or any of the other possibilities still lie sleeping in wait for someone to find one day?

In the canon game, the major aeons all have nicknames as the "God of [something]." I took this and ran with it as a reason for them to gain the powers they had, because it was something all of Spira believed in. Bahamut's ability to transcend death might be related to the attribute I gave to him for this story; canonically, he's only referred to as "The King of All Aeons." But in my opinion, his attributes are Space / Time, which is why he's able to transcend his own death somewhat and facilitate Rikku's time travel. The rest are as you might expect. Some of these attributes are game canon, and some I just extrapolated: Ifrit is Fire, Shiva is Ice, Ixion is Thunder / Lightning, Valefor is Wind, Anima is Pain / Suffering, Yojimbo is Greed / Ego, the Magus Sisters are Innocence / Will, and Leviathan was Water / Memory. Leviathan's loss was a bigger blow to Spira than anyone realized! All of these aeons held pieces of their original summoners' souls to be able to continue existing in Spira. The only ones we know about in this story, though, are Belgemine and Seymour. One might guess that Bahamut is possibly holding a piece of Yu Yevon or Yunalesca's soul, too, but that's a whole other can of worms, isn't it?

What is sustaining our last three known aeons in Spira?

First we have Tidus, who was brought back by Yuna. He's able to exist because Yuna gave him part of her soul, and able to stay in Spira because he is sustained by Hope / Joy. Alexander is basically a fortress with angel wings, and in every game he's appeared in, he basically defends something with his holy power, which is why I thought it was an appropriate match.

Then we have Rikku, who was brought back by Braska. She's able to exist because Braska gave her a part of his soul, and she's able to stay in Spira because she's sustained by Potential / Possibility, as stated in the story. She's not the strongest aeon (that would be Jecht), but she's considered the most powerful aeon in the story because she's the only one who is able to continue to develop, grow, and change like a human being would, even as an aeon. I like tying her to Eden because she's an Al Bhed, and also because nothing speaks to me more about possibility than space travel.

Finally, we have Jecht, who was brought back by the Hypello community. He's able to exist because Braska gave him a part of his soul, and he's able to stay in Spira because he's sustained by Battle / War. Rikku joked in the story about Jecht coming back as the God of Blitzball, but honestly… he's always been a warrior to me, only he fought his battles on a sports field. It's a bit dark for a personality as sunny as Jecht's was, but he's had his moments of darkness, too. Particularly the ones covered in the canonical game, where he strategically chose to stop holding back Yu Yevon's destructive tendencies to show Tidus that they needed to be killed. Of course, I also noticed that no-one ever Sent Jecht after he got taken down by the party. Which is why in this story, with his unique non-human constitution, he actually lived and was able to come back to Spira as an aeon.

So what happened to Auron, Braska, and Jecht?

I know I wasn't very explicit about their ultimate fates, and I do enjoy letting readers imagine what might have happened in between the spaces of the story I wrote. But after reading some feedback, I'm putting here what I imagine happened to them during and after the final battle with Sin.

Auron survived the battle with Sin, though he did lose his eye. He even survived the battle with Yunalesca. What he didn't survive was overextending himself by using curatives when his body needed rest. That almost happened to Braska once early on at the beginning of the story en route to obtaining Shiva, but Rikku managed to prop him up using her dressphere alchemy. Auron literally died from overworking himself, because that's how he dealt with his grief at his perceived failure to protect everyone. And then he came back as an Unsent to work some more! Tired doesn't even begin to describe how he must have felt after all that time.

Unsent Auron joined Yuna's Pilgrimage and acted as a guide to the rest of the party, much the same way Rikku did for Braska's Pilgrimage. No, he never got nasty with 15-year-old Rikku even though she was crushing on him. For one, he's a good guy. For two, he himself was taken advantage of by an older woman when he was 16, and he knew exactly what it was like to be traumatized in that way. So no, he didn't perv on child-Rikku, he just suffered. I'm sorry, Auron. (Not really.)

I've been asked whether or not Braska came back after splitting his soul two ways. While I like to leave that open to interpretation – after all, Aaron had Braska's eyes – in my head, he is the only character who actually died a true death. There might have been bits and pieces of him left to join the "cycle of reincarnation" in Spira, but for the most part, his soul really was destroyed when he spit it two ways, which was one too many. It's a cruel fate, and I'm sorry to all the Braska fans out there who were hoping he'd somehow end up with Rikku.

I have mixed feelings about the Braska I wrote – I enjoyed him as a character, but I never really stopped thinking of him as a little bit selfish and obsessed, even if no one else recognized those traits. It is in part because he worked hard on his image to counter them, but in the end… he still chose himself over his family when he decided to become a summoner. I've noticed a trend of the greatest geniuses doing that in the real world, refusing to sacrifice their ambition / work for the sake of their personal lives and family, and I think Braska fits in well with those people. That doesn't mean he was a bad person; if anything, I'd imagine he was a bit like Hayao Miyazaki and Yuna was his Goro. (And for the record, I think Goro Miyazaki has talent, too, even though he's not his father.)

As for Jecht… well, what is there to say? According to the poll I took, he's everyone's favorite character by a large margin, and I'm quite okay with that. As Yu Yevon said, he created Jecht to be "perfect." If the readers still think he's the GOAT of this story, then Yu Yevon must've done it right!

If I had one major regret about how I wrote Jecht, it's that I didn't mention the rest of his family enough. Sure, we all know intimately about Tidus, but Anne was just as important to him. She never really fit into the narrative, though, and more importantly, by focusing on Jecht's determination to save Tidus, I felt it was a nice contrast to Braska's inability to be a father for Yuna. Also I regret not being able to give the explicit shout-out to Shadow Hearts by mentioning Jecht and Tidus's last name, which was Hyuga. The one minor regret I have about writing Jecht is that I feel like I didn't research alcoholism enough to properly represent his character when he still had an addiction, and how dealt with his recovery afterwards. That's a dark place to tread, though, and there's more than enough dark drama in this fiction to deal with.

If you've got questions or theories about this unique version of Spira, feel free to share them with me! I spent nearly 20 years thinking about this place, after all. I enjoy nerding out about it! And thanks for reading with me all the way to the end. You guys are the best. 3

*NB: There's also a Jecht Writes Friendfiction Part 3 on AO3, but it's way too smutty to ever get aired here. If you like to get your freak on, you can read it over there though, LOL.