Chapter 4: Macalania

Rikku stood on the deck of the Celsius, her eyes glued to the landscape below. Cool wind whipped past her ears, but even so, it wasn't nearly as chilly as she remembered in the past. The years hadn't been kind to Lake Macalania; since Shiva's disappearance, all of the unnatural snow had melted away, leaving behind only a rocky, bleached canyon. Here and there bits of moss and small shrubbery struggled to survive on the wind-swept cliffs, but overall the landscape was devastatingly barren. The lakebed itself had long since receded and the freshwater within the chasm was pale blue glacial melt, murky and full of silt.

"The magic's gone," she sighed.

"Maybe," Gippal replied from where he was seated cross-legged, sharing the view. "But I like to think of it as a different kind of magic. The land's coming back to itself. Remembering what it used to be. Nature's finally breaking itself out from under the thumb of Yevon." His lips twisted into a wry grin. "Kinda like us Al Bhed, huh?"

"I guess," Rikku hedged. The lonely canyon might have originally been part of Spira's actual geography, but it still felt wrong to see it in place of Shiva's icy glaciers. Though they hadn't exactly been friends, she felt a strange connection to the woman who'd once been known as the Goddess of Ice, and a mild sense of desolation at her noticeable absence from Lake Macalania. Despite her haughty attitude, Shiva had helped Rikku until the very end, giving her the strength to protect Auron and watch over him until his inevitable death. "Sometimes, though, I think… maybe not everything Yevon created was bad."

"Whoa there. Getting a little radical are we?" Gippal scoffed as the airship lost altitude. "You can think what you like, but me? I figure change is a good thing. Better that we all go through a few growing pains than stay frozen forever."

Rikku hid her crooked smile. "Well, I guess you're not wrong either." They passed over the sunken temple and settled near the cliff at the far edge of Macalania forest.

"Focus!" she told herself, slapping her cheeks. The tattered flags of Rin's abandoned trading post, somehow still standing, marked the beginning of the road leading inwards to the woods. Rikku prepared to disembark. "Why're you dropping me off here, anyway?" she asked as secured her pouches and adjusted her grip on her weapon. "I was planning on going into the forest, not hanging out around this lake."

"Well, almost nobody visits Lake Macalania these days." Gippal stood. "There's nothing here but seagulls. Which means you won't have an audience."

"I hear a 'but' in there." Rikku spared him a glance.

He shrugged. "Like you said… weird stuff's been happening in the forest. Nobody knows what's going on or what it's gonna look like today. Brother would have had a harder time trying to land in there anyhow, so you'll have to hoof it from here on out. And there's gonna be a lot of people hanging around the other exits, trying to figure out what's up. Coming in is easy. Getting out unnoticed is the trick."

The speakers crackled, and they both looked up as the sound of Brother's voice blared out over the intercom.

"Are you SURE you do not want to stay with us? The Gullwings are still accepting applications!"

"Applications?" Rikku's eye twitched. "Why would I have to apply? I thought I was one of the founding members!"

"Ah-HAH! So that is a yes the-?!"

There was another loud crackle, and then Buddy's voice rang out instead.

"Take care, Rikku. You better get off the ship before Brother gets out of this headlock."

Gippal laughed at her expression. "C'mere," he told her, reaching out and giving her a hug. "Do me a favor and keep me up-to-date on this mission of yours. For my peace of mind this time, yeah?"

Squeezing him back, she nodded. "You betcha." She stepped back and gave him a thumbs-up. "Stay strong! Even if you can't win Shelinda over as a friend, she doesn't have to be your enemy. And be careful about Berrik. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I should be saying that to you. Now go on," he said, delivering a mild kick to her backside that sent her flying off the edge of the ship.

"HEEEY!" She managed to flail and right herself before she could faceplant into the ground, then turned around and waved. "I'll get you for that!"

The Celsius was already pulling away; she could see Gippal leaning over the edge on one knee, smirking. "Looking forward to it," he yelled down at her. She watched the ship rise higher into the sky. It turned and disappeared, leaving behind ephemeral sparks as Brother gunned the engines.

Sighing, Rikku glanced at the decrepit trading post. She froze, imagining Auron in the spot where she'd laid him to rest so many years ago. Then she shook her head and turned away. Nothing was the same as back then; no cold, no snow, and most of all… no Auron.

For a moment a swell of loneliness overtook her. What if Jecht wasn't here? What if he was, but he couldn't help her find a way to be with Auron? She swayed on her feet. What if she was nothing more than the sum of her regrets, destined to exist just as Gippal had unwittingly suggested, an aeon stagnating in time forever?

A hint of a cool breeze blew past her, waking her from her musing, and she shook off her despondent lethargy. Nothing was exactly what would happen if she remained frozen on the shards of her regrets. Succumbing to that way of thinking would be no better than spending another five years in Besaid, hiding from reality. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her foot and took a step forward.

The path towards Macalania Forest was strewn with tiny rocks and the petrified remains of a few sparse branches and tree trunks. Very quickly, though, Rikku began to see signs of life. First grass and then a few larger shrubs. They were soon followed by saplings that quickly grew in size to full-blown trees. The forest was indeed recovering and spreading rapidly; still, the further in she wandered, the more she noticed the real problem: the trees were ordinary. There was no trace of Shiva's magical forest to be found in the newer sprouts; rather than crystalline plants, the weeds growing between them were of the mundane variety. Most damningly, there wasn't a single trace of memory water to be found, either above or below the surface of the budding flora.

She pressed on; the forest thickened around her. There had to be a reason for the rumors flying about; Braska had told her he'd sensed Jecht here, and she was determined to find him. The air around her was cooling noticeably, though it was just as likely due to the dense canopy overhead rather than any sort of magic. There was still no hint of the starlight, the frozen crystals, or the memory water that made Macalania special. In fact, the only unusual thing about the forest was the lack of people moving through it.

Stopping, Rikku frowned. "Wait… why aren't there any people here?" Suspicious, she glanced around the forest and then closed her eyes. "Maybe looking is the wrong way to go about this." Extending her senses, she felt for magic in the same way she'd sensed Isaaru's ward in Zanarkand. Her spine tingled and her nerves buzzed; after some time, she managed to detect faint traces of something in the air that resonated within her. She turned slowly, stopping when the sensations intensified. Popping her eyes open, she peered through the darkened tree trunks for something, anything that was out of the ordinary. In the distance, a flash of blue caught her attention. A butterfly.

She gave chase. The butterfly twisted in and out of the speckled light, drawing her further away from the beaten path. Crashing through bushes and picking her way over twisted roots, she kept her focus fixed on it so intently that she didn't even notice the stone that tripped her until it was too late. She landed hard on all fours, wincing. "Owwie…" Rolling over, she glared at the offending rock… and gaped.

"That's no rock," Rikku breathed, the ache in her knees forgotten as she scrambled closer. Jutting out of the ground was a spiked, diaphanous crystal formation. Inside of it, weak light pulsed. Memory water. "How'd you get there?"

Dropping her head close to the ground, Rikku pressed her ear against the crystal and held her breath. From within she heard the familiar crystalline hum of magic. "It's here." She latched onto the sound, attuning to it, feeling it run through her entire body. Scrambling upright, she let her feet lead her towards the magic. The trees seemed to twist and bend to accommodate her; now that she could hear the song of the forest, it was as if a veil was being lifted. She picked out a path along a particularly wide branch that took her up towards the canopy. As she climbed higher, she noticed round, glowing growths on the tree trunks here and there. They shed soft, ethereal light over her path. Though they weren't as large as they'd been in the past, it was clearly a sign that the magic of the forest was returning. The ringing of the trees intensified.

At the top of the branch, a whirlwind of blue butterflies were spinning in place before an unusually large crystal formation. The magic sparked like electricity through her veins, and Rikku shivered.

"This… it's an Oracle," she realized, approaching the enormous glowing bulb cautiously. She heard no voices and suffered no visions, but when she placed her hand against the cool, glassy surface, the water surged and pulsed under her palm. It was still growing, she realized with surprise. Relatively newly formed and yet incomplete.

The butterflies swirled and danced around her in coordinated agitation, so she pulled away to watch them. After a few more twists, they turned into strands of light, eventually coalescing into a familiar form, albeit slightly translucent.

"Pukutak?"

The mouse spirit swayed from side to side, happy to see her. "Oh me, oh my, our Eden has returned!" she gushed, clapping her tiny paws together. "Did you find that love for which you so yearned?"

Rikku let out a soft laugh. "Umm, yeah, sorta. But… it didn't last."

Pukutak nodded knowingly. "Most things don't, in this world of mortals. You were fortunate to have traveled through time's portal! It granted you a chance that many do not have." The mouse's ears dipped as she regarded Rikku curiously, her eyes dark and black. "So I don't understand why you are so sad."

"Well excuse me for being miserable! It's not like I can help it!" Rikku snapped, before reigning in her temper. After all, up until she'd spotted the butterfly she'd believed all of the forest spirits to be dead, vanished alongside their crystal forest. "Umm, sorry. It's still a sensitive topic for me right now."

Fortunately, the mouse-spirit hardly seemed offended by her outburst. Instead, Pukutak continued swaying from side to side, dancing to a tune that only she could hear. "No, I see now. You came to seek satisfaction. And the forest's new master is a man of action!"

Jecht. "Where is he?" Excitement kindled in Rikku's breast. "Where can I find him?"

Pukutak spun on her heel and blew a soft note through her horn. "Your soul-brother waits in the depths of the pool where tears were shed over fate most cruel." Twirling, she tooted a lively melody on the horn, fading away. "Hurry and go, your feet wish to fly. You will never know unless you try!"

As much as she wanted to take Pukutak's advice, Rikku picked her way back down to the forest floor slowly and carefully. The spirits always spoke in rhyming riddles, and she had no idea what the mouse had meant. "A pool of tears?" She hummed, thinking back over Yuna's pilgrimage. There had been that one time that Tidus took Yuna on a date in the forest. Yuna confessed afterwards that it had been 'the best kiss of my life, but also the worst.'

Rikku grinned, thinking of how Auron had prevented Wakka from chasing after them. Though, if she had to be honest, the only reason she really remembered that moment so clearly was because of how spectacularly she'd failed in her attempt to filch Auron's heavy sword while he wasn't looking. She'd overestimated her own strength, and he ended up having to pluck both it and her off of the ground, much to her embarrassment.

"Well… if Pukutak mentioned it, then that clearing must still exist," she mumbled, letting out a sigh of relief when her feet hit solid ground. It took some work to push her way through the underbrush; the old paths that had once existed were no longer there. And strangely enough the woods were still devoid of tourists, which was inconceivable considering how obviously magical the place had become once again.

"The Church really could have a revival if people knew this was happening." She frowned, wondering just how prying eyes were being kept out. A summoner would have the power to erect a barrier, but not over the entirety of the forest; it was just too big.

Following the tug of the magic helped Rikku orient herself much more than her eyes; she was sure she would've been hopelessly lost otherwise. Eventually the forest floor flattened out into an open, empty clearing. The tree in the middle of the watery glade was familiar; its bark still pulsed with the magic of the lake it grew out of. The thrum of power was strongest here; she knew this had to be it.

"Huh." Rikku frowned. There was no sign of Jecht, so she waded into the pool. It was crystal clear and she could see its magic in plain sight now; drifts of stars mixing in with the alluring promise of visions of the past. Here and there butterflies flitted about; members of the spirit race, their bodies still reforming just as the Oracle was. They must have been growing in number and strength, just as the crystalline trees were. "Where are you?" Rikku murmured, circling around the trunk. Finally, she took a deep breath and looked down.

The water of the pool was deceptively shallow. She knew, though, that diving in would take her far below the surface. And if the water really was active again, then she might not resurface if she couldn't hold on to her sense of self and keep her memories from pulling her under.

"Well… it's not like I can really drown, right?" she mumbled. Still, she made sure the breath she took was steady and deep before she tipped headfirst into the lake.

The water welcomed her with a musical sigh, its cool embrace drawing her into the starry depths. As she dove, feelings of nostalgia rose up to meet her, urging her to push deeper. She saw a flash of red and swam towards it. Of course it was Auron, young as he was during Braska's pilgrimage and desperately in love with her. He reached out towards her, a look of yearning on his unscarred face.

"Don't leave me," he whispered as she fell into his embrace.

Not this time, Rikku thought, grabbing onto him and leaning in to meet him, her eyes clouded with emotion. Finally. I missed you so much… His arms closed around her and she buried her face into his neck, exhaling with relief. As she did, she heard Pukutak's musical lilt echo in her ears.

"…where tears were shed over fate most cruel..."

This isn't real, she realized. The phantom Auron squeezed her even tighter, as if he knew she was going to leave him again. Ruefully she extracted herself from his grasp, grimacing as his image flickered and dissolved. For a moment she could only tread the water, trying to stay her grief and recompose herself in the present.

Somewhere below in the wake of the illusion, a soft light pulsed. She struggled towards it. Although she was unaware of how much time she'd spent embracing the phantom Auron in the depths, she was familiar with the tell-tale weight of suffocation in her chest.

A melody caught her attention, carrying through the water. She slowed as she heard it, stringing together the notes that grew clearer with each pass. It was the Hymn, crude but unmistakable.

Something in her reacted; her heart fluttered and her chest opened, spilling out a wave of unexpected wistfulness. Feelings of comfort and belonging enveloped her. It was safe and warm; it was everything she wanted. The Hymn dulled the pain of her memories, her losses; she felt like she might burst from joy. The tears that fell from her eyes were no longer of longing and regret. They flowed freely, mixing into the water; the song was overwhelming her. The words were familiar; the melody was home.

Ie-yui… The sound of Jecht's voice surrounded her, a rich baritone, slightly off-key. She surged forward, her arms outstretched.

No-bo-me-no, he rumbled.

Her hands found the glowing runes at the edge of the stone. She looked up at the sculpture; a familiar tanned back, crisscrossed with battle scars. He wore overlapping scales across his shoulder like a one-winged cape, his sword tightly gripped in the opposite hand.

She parted her lips. "Ren-" she tried to sing, but her mouth filled with water.

Ren-mi-ri, he answered.

Choking, she stopped trying to join the Hymn with her throat. Her breath, already short, stagnated in her chest and she hugged the stone, her lungs burning. Yo-ju-yo-go, she cried out, driven enough to hear the sound of her soul echoing, refracted through the water into wordless chimes. The stone pulsed underneath her fingertips. Her vision was going blurry, but she couldn't bring herself to let go.

Ha-sa te-ka na-e, he sang, and her voice joined his.

Ku-ta-ma-e!

Blackness overtook her; her entire chest was painfully tight from lack of air. Faintly, she felt a pair of arms encircle her and yank her upwards. She would have wheezed, but there was nothing left in her throat. Instead, when she broke the surface, she sputtered and hacked, spitting out water so that her lungs could suck in fresh air greedily.

When she stopped shuddering and convulsing, she scrubbed the tears from her cheeks and looked up to see a set of bare toes. Her eyes shot up, and despite feeling like a drowned rat, she couldn't help the smile that broke out over her face.

"Jecht!"

He squatted from his perch on the water, looking down at her with surprise. Uncrossing his arms, he offered her his hand. "Blondie! You woke me up," he rumbled, his voice thick from disuse. "Welcome to Macalania! You look older. I like it!"

He was stronger than ever; she practically shot out of the water when he pulled on her arm, her feet dangling before landing on its surface as though it were as solid as the ground of the forest behind her. "How…" she coughed, still feeling out of sorts. Despite the discomfort, she didn't mind when he crushed her to him in a bear hug that made her yelp in surprise.

"Wow, you really been hangin' out with humans for way too long," Jecht observed, giving her a few heavy pats on the back to clear the rest of the water out of her lungs. "You know you don't need ta breathe or walk, right? These bodies of ours can do whatever we want 'em to." He barked out a laugh. "You! Drownin'? Hah, you're makin' my day here Rikku."

Rikku gave up on wringing out the water from her hair and glared at Jecht. "Look, Tidus never told me about any of that! He doesn't go around Besaid walking on water or flying—wait a sec. Ok, bad example," she backtracked.

"Well at least think yourself dry, ya look awful," Jecht said, though he did lead her back towards the bank of the pool. "You're gonna make me feel guilty for puttin' my body at the bottom of the lake."

"Is that how you got here? You… brought yourself?" Rikku asked, falling to the ground in an exhausted slump, her heart still pounding from nearly losing consciousness. Her clothes squelched uncomfortably, drenched in water that felt a lot less magical now that she was back on land. She didn't bother trying to dry herself, sulking from his good-natured teasing.

Jecht settled next to her, humoring her refusal to act like a disembodied spirit. "Yep," he answered, crossing his legs before him. "Woke up in Zanarkand in that creepy snake lady's hallway o' horrors. So I decided, screw that. Picked my own body up an' left."

Rikku's eye twitched. "But how'd you – the runes – wouldn't you have – ?"

"Blondie, I got a flyin' sword an' all the time in the world. It wasn't that hard, really. Speakin' of which, if you ever wanna get yourself outta the Farplane, I'd be happy to help," he offered.

"And go where?" Rikku paused, then grabbed her head. "Ugh! No! This is not what I came here to talk about! Jecht!"

He laughed at her, a deep, belly laugh, and then leaned into her side. "Aww, I missed this. It's great seein' you again, Blondie."

"Me too," she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. "Why didn't you tell anyone where you went? You haven't even seen Tidus once yet since you came back."

Jecht harrumphed. "He's livin' his best life with Yuna out there in Besaid. I… I don't got the right to mess that up. If I show up, Yuna's gonna know. What I am. What he is. Maybe even what you are. I can't do that to my boy," he grumbled, looking at the ground. There was a moment of suspicious silence, punctuated by a sniffle.

"You can cry if you want, you know. The forest spirits call this place the pool of tears," she pointed out.

"I ain't cryin'!" Jecht shouted, pushing her off. "You just splashed some water in my eye, is all," he finished sullenly, glaring intently at the canopy above.

"Come on. I don't believe you. If you're so great at separating your body from your consciousness, you could've come to Besaid looking like somebody totally different and at least said hello."

Jecht rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Yeah, I guess," he hedged.

She stared, narrowing her eyes. "What's eating you? Spill it."

Grunting, he dropped his hand with a guilty look. "Look. I don't think you can understand, but, uh, it ain't so easy for me to act like a human anymore. Not the way you an' Tidus do. I spent a long time as Sin. You weren't there for it, Blondie." He looked away from her; his physical appearance was frozen in time from the moment he'd been transformed into a Final Aeon. He looked like a man only a couple of years older than her, in fact. His eyes, though, revealed some of his true age; of the decades that had passed for him since then. "It changes you."

Reaching out, Rikku gave his bicep a squeeze. "You feel guilty, you mean? Because of what you did while you were Sin?"

He shrugged slightly, not meeting her eyes. "I got a lot to make up for," he mumbled. "And, well," he added, reddening slightly. "Maybe I was a lil' intimidated. I ain't the world's best dad by a long shot."

She smiled; the younger Jecht she'd befriended would have rather eaten a blitzball than admit that he was afraid of anything. "You loved Tidus, and you tried your best," she tried to comfort him.

He shook his head and laughed. "Sometimes your best ain't good enough. Anyway, even if I was chocobo shit for runnin' away from him, it's not in my hands anymore." He gestured at the sparkling forest around them. "I saw how this place was disappearin' an' I had to do somethin' about it. What was goin' on here, it reminded me a lil' too much o' Dream Zanarkand. I didn't want anythin' else to be forgotten."

He stretched out his hand and a butterfly fluttered down, landing on his fingertip. "It was almost too late for these guys, see? Most o' the crystal forest was gone, and so were their bodies. I been workin' to bring the magic back since I came here, and they're finally startin' to recover." He shook the butterfly off, then let out a heavy sigh. "But doin' this ain't easy, Rikku. I sleep a lot, tryin' to hold things together with my dreams."

Rikku took another, closer look around the forest. "I mean, I'm impressed," she said after a few moments, awed by the realization that everything she was seeing was being sustained by him. I could have been helping, she realized with a pang. He's not even that great at magic. "How did you manage to grow this forest? You're not like Shiva. She was the God of Ice."

Jecht puffed up noticeably. "Well… I figure I must be a god of somethin' too," he said proudly. "An' I've always been good at strategizin'. This is just another battle, right? Fightin' to save the forest." His grin turned smug. "'Sides, I already got an idea 'bout how to set things right. If it all works out, I'll be able to leave this place one day without it crashin' around my head when I go." He crossed his arms, a glint of fierceness entering them. "I ain't ever gonna be like Yu Yevon."

"So what's your plan?" she asked, curious. "'Cause it sure sounds like you got one. And how are you keeping the humans out of your forest, anyway?"

"Oh, that? Well, there been less people comin' here ever since some summoner fella got this forest pegged as a Spiran cultural heritage site," Jecht said offhandedly. "But as for the rest, I just try to hide it by divertin' people's attention. Make it seem like there's more trees than there are, or less. Y'know, kinda like an illusion. It's way too soon for the spirits to let people go stompin' through here. But I mess up sometimes." He winced and rubbed at his forehead. "The whole damn place is getting' too big for me to handle. Least no one's noticed anything yet. "

Rikku sighed. "Yeah, about that…"

Jecht froze. "I messed up?"

She nodded with a sympathetic smile. "You messed up. I heard your work's being wrapped up into a New Yevon revival movement. I think they're saying they brought Shiva back."

"For real? Well, shit."

He looked so dejected at the news that she backpedaled. "I dunno! It's all just rumors I heard from other people! I don't really get out that much either," she admitted. "I could be wrong!"

That caused Jecht's face to fall. "Oh, man. An' here I thought you were better at this whole bein' human thing than I was." He threw his arm over her shoulder and let her lean in again. "Still missin' the stiff, huh?"

"Trying to bring him back, actually. I was hoping you'd have some advice for me, but it sounds like you have your own problems here."

Jecht fell silent for a while, his brows drawn in thought. "Y'know, seems to me like the first thing you should do is ask Auron if he wants to come back. Everythin' else is just pissin' in the wind."

Rikku wrinkled her nose. "There you go, being all reasonable again," she complained. "Just hear me out, alright? What if he did want to come back? What do you think we could do?"

"I mean, if I could I'd have asked Braska. He's the one who knew everythin' there was to know 'bout magic."

Rikku felt a hot blush stealing over her face and couldn't meet Jecht's eyes. She mumbled quietly under her breath.

Jecht's eyebrows shot up. "… Whaddaya mean, you already asked him? I can read lips, y'know!" He peered at her, then whistled lowly as her cheeks continued to darken. "Hooooh boy. You did more than just ask, didn'tcha," he observed through his obvious disbelief. "How the hell did ya manage to get Braska to show up anyhow? I thought he was gone."

Rikku waved her hands until the furnace that was her face cooled down a bit. "I went to Zanarkand, okay? There were enough pyreflies there to let his consciousness take a physical form inside the dome. It's, uh, it's not the first time I've done something like that, but he wasn't… complete."

Jecht's incredulity was morphing into humor. "Sounds like he was complete enough, though. So lemmie get this straight. You managed to bring Braska back after all this time, an' the first thing you two did was play hide the sausage? Are you for real?"

Rikku started hitting his shoulder in earnest, her cheeks flaming. "He was horny! And so was I, okay? It just happened, so shut up already!" she yelled, her voice so high it nearly broke.

Snorting out his laughter, Jecht held up a hand and shook his head. "Look, if Auron wasn't straighter than the Mi'ihen Highroad, I swear Braska would've had you guys in a three bean salad faster than he could get your skirt off." He let out another guffaw. "Which was pretty damn fast, apparently."

"Alright, you made your point," Rikku groused, cupping her hands to her cheeks to hide them. "But mine is that Braska didn't know what to do, either. So I'm kinda stuck here."

Jecht sighed and rubbed a hand over his head. "Okay, look. The first thing you gotta do is ask Auron what he wants. I know he's waitin' for ya on the Farplane, but that's just 'cause he wanted to make sure you got over him. Which ya haven't. I don't think the man's gonna be happy with you, Blondie."

"I know," Rikku grumbled, giving her cheeks another pat. "I'm just making a big mess all over again, aren't I?"

"'ey. Life is messy," Jecht told her. "But ya never know how things are gonna work out. I mean, you an' I are still here, right? An' I guess Braska is, too?" he added less certainly. "Maybe Auron will change his mind an' wanna have another shot at life with the rest o' us. Either way, you got what I think 'bout it."

Rikku hung her head. "Yeah… I guess I should've gone there to see him first, huh?"

"Don't be such a downer. We ain't exactly in a hurry, right? Besides," he said, leaning in with a crafty smirk. "I got an idea that might help ya convince him to come out an' try livin' again. Ask Auron to help you find somethin' for me."

"Find something? What something?"

"A special somethin'," Jecht said, looking cocky. "I'd go get it myself, but I can't leave the forest. So that's where you and Auron come in. I need you guys to go to Kilika and find me a sidekick."

"A sidekick." Rikku waited. Jecht continued to smile smugly rather than elaborate. Finally, she groaned and threw up her hands. "Well?!"

He stood up and started pacing. "So I been thinkin'... you remember Yojimbo, right? He had that dog, what's-his-name…"

"Koimanu?"

Jecht pointed at her. "Yeah! That one!" He spun and continued his restless pacing. "So anyway, I was thinkin' 'bout us, y'know. 'Bout aeons an' stuff. Yevon an' Yunalesca were all happy makin' em out o' people way back when, but what if they weren't the first? I mean we met Lenne, yeah? Not all them ancient summoners were bad people."

"Riiiight," Rikku nodded. "But what's that got to do with finding you a sidekick?"

"Well, I figure the good ones musta tried makin' summons outta other stuff before jumpin' right into the human sacrifice. They can't have gotten it too wrong, 'cause someone managed to make this Koimanu thing. I got to thinkin', there must be others out there. Failed experiments."

"Huh." She'd initially thought Jecht was spouting another one of his bad ideas, but what he was saying was kind of making sense. And also filling her with a growing feeling of excitement. "You're talking about lost Fayth. You mean there might be more of us!"

"Uh-huh." Jecht stopped pacing and crossed his arms.

"So you think there might still be some other Fayth out there that aren't human? Sorta like beta aeons? First run experiments?"

His arrogant smirk returned full-force. "I don't think. I know. I found one, Rikku."

"What?! How?!" she shrieked, jumping to her feet. "They're in Kilika?"

"Yep. I can't leave the forest myself, but I been workin' on bringin' the spirits back. An' since they're thankful, they've been helpin' me out with the search." He gestured at the butterflies that were circling around him. "They told me I can find my own version o' this Koimanu in Kilika." He stared at her for a moment, his eyes getting bigger and rounder.

"Ok, what're you doing now?" Rikku asked, taking a step back from him as he leaned in. "It's creeping me out!"

"You gotta do this for me, Blondie!" His hands came up clasped under his chin and his voice turned into a petulant whine. "I always wanted a dog!"

She couldn't help it; he looked so ridiculous that she burst out into peals of laughter. After a moment, he joined her. It took them some moments to recover; she did first, wiping the tears from her eyes. "This pool is earning its name today," she wheezed. "All right. You know what? If chasing after aeon puppies convinces Auron to leave the Farplane, then I'll do it."

Jecht nodded wisely. "Kids and puppies are humans' greatest weakness. An' we already know Auron's got a soft spot for kids."

Sighing, Rikku nodded and held up her hand. "It's a deal," she said.

"Yeah!" Jecht crowed, returning her high-five.

AN: I went back and forth over how drastically Macalania might have changed in 14 years. I decided after looking at the region, the supposed height of the land above sea level, and the climate, that all the snow would have completely melted away.