Spira as a dream

When I returned to the bridge, I felt… awkward. Rikku was talking with her Dad in Al Bhed, Auron and Kimahri were talking, I still wonder what they had to say, Kimahri never talked much to me. And in the corner Lulu and Wakka were talking, friendlier than I’d ever seen them. I felt like, the night before had just been a dream, and I didn’t belong in this waking world.

“Did you have a nice sleep Tidy?” Rikku said bouncing in front of me, I just shook my head, I couldn’t even think about it, I didn’t want to end up crying again, especially in front of Auron… but… especially in front of Wakka.

“Good morning,” Lulu said with a smile, it’s happier than I’d ever seen her. I thought, maybe Lulu did love Wakka after all. It was good seeing her smile like that, I decided to try and let it go, but still, I couldn’t even look at Wakka.

“Morning Lulu,” I said with a forced smile. I could see Wakka fidgeting in the corner of my eye, so I figured ‘why bother with him’ he obviously didn’t want to see me anymore. I walked over to Cid at the Sphere finder. “Any luck with Yuna?” I asked hopefully.

“We found her! We found Yuna!” Brother shouted, it always struck me that he was a little too fond of his cousin.

“Good, where is she?” Cid bellowed.

“Bevelle,” Brother said, as we got a picture on the big sphere, Yuna was wearing a beautiful white gown and her hair was up, she looked gorgeous, but she didn’t seem very happy.

“Oh, Yunie!” Rikku shouted.

“What’s with the fancy clothing, ya?”

“It’s called a wedding gown.” She said raising an eyebrow at him.

“What?”

“We have to save Yuna now!” I shouted.

“Hold your horse’s son! It’ll still be a couple of hours before we reach Bevelle.”

I wasn’t looking forward to a few more hours of wondering around the ship, but I caught a break when Rin came to the Bridge.

“There are fiends on board.” He said calmly.

“Fiends! Well that’s it we’re gonna destroy the ship and go down with ‘em, right dad?” Rikku said in her best Cid impression.

“Right!”

“Jeeze, show some restraint.” She said, shaking her head with embarrassment.

“Let’s go take care of those fiends,” I suggested, I wanted to get as far away from the bridge and Wakka as I possibly could.

“Alright!” Rikku beamed.

“You’ve made some good friends here Rikku.” Cid said with a smile.

“Right ‘o pop, we’ll have those fiends gone in no time.” We all followed Rikku down from the bridge, slaying evil-eyes and behemoths as we passed. We didn’t say very much, we’d paired up, Rikku, Kimahri and I went first while Lulu, Wakka and Auron followed. It didn’t take long for us to fight out way down the third corridor.

“We have this section under control; we’ll leave the rest to you.” Issaru said proudly. Rikku nodded her thanks and we continues through the ship, passing by a few frightened Al Bhed psyches on the way, until we made it to the back of the observation deck. A random Al Bhed man stared at me. “I know I’ve seen you before, at Baaj temple, was it?” He said, it was odd, I didn’t even know that there was a Baaj temple let alone why I would ever be there. I didn’t have much time to think about it, because as we looked out the window a huge flying worm appeared beside the airship.

“What was that?”

“Eerave, the great Wyrm protector of Bevelle,” Lulu said calmly.

“So that means we’re getting close to Bevelle, right?”

“Yes,” Auron said. “Into the heart of Yevon.” I could see Wakka flinching at the name, but I really didn’t care… Well maybe I did, a little. Cid’s voice burst through over the comm. “You guys gotta get out there and show that thing what you’ve got!”

“Roger!”

“Oh and Rikku, tell me when to move the ship closer or farther away from the worm.”

“Is everyone ready?” Auron asked, lifting up his Katana into position. “We fight!” We ran over to the hatch and passed Rin, who looked disappointed at loosing a sale. “No time to loose, lets go!”

We got on the lift and opened the hatch onto the deck, meeting the jumbo worm as it flew above us. I cast Haste on everyone, then watched a Rikku nimbly jumped up and pulled jewels out of it’d scaly skin, I still don’t know how she does that. Then Kimahri threw his spear at the beast piercing it in the chest, even that wasn’t enough to stop it. It swung its tail like a scythe and knocked us all over. That thing was strong; we had to finish it fast. Lulu rained Thundagas down on the beast while Wakka hit it with scores of Blitz balls.

“Move farther back,” Rikku ordered.

Cid moved the ship backwards and let loose a volley of missiles, they completely obliterated the wyrm, it was the biggest explosion of pyerflies I hade ever seen.

We passed over Bevelle palace, Cid shot out two sets of cables, and we slid out onto the roof and stormed the wedding. We sliced through scores of palace guards, but it wasn’t enough, more kept pouring out of every corridor.

By the time we reached the top of the castle, the wedding bells were already ringing, Seymour had his hands all over Yuna, and we were surrounded.

“Kill them,” Seymour said with a wave of his hand. Maester Kinoc pulled out a blaster riffle.

“I thought those were forbidden Machina,” Auron said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“There are exceptions,” Kinoc said with a chuckle. As he closed in to fire, Yuna ran towards the edge of the building.

“Stop! Let them go, or I’ll jump!” Yuna shouted.

“But the fall would kill you!” Seymour protested.

“Yuna!” I yelled to her, she gave me a long meaningful look, her eyes willed with resolve, and then she just leaned over the edge letting her body fall off the building.

“YUNA!”

There was a flash of light in the sky and Valefor burst through the clouds, she swooped in and caught her carrying her off into the temple of St. Bevelle. We fought as hard as we could to find an exit and found ourselves locked inside a stair less tower. The room was filled with machines and florescent blue forced fields.

“So this is the true face of Yevon,” Auron said bitterly.

“Machina?” Wakka said angrily.

“Here, I can get this to work,” Rikku said bouncing over to the controls. It took her a few seconds and before I knew it we were on a floating platform entering the bowels of the temple.

“Do we know where Yuna went?” I asked nervously

“There’s no doubt, there’s only one place in Bevelle that Yuna would go.” Lulu said, leading the way.

“The Fayth.”

“Is everybody ready for the trials?”

“Of coarse we are, what do you expect Wakka? Let’s go!” We ran into the room of the trials and we found long sterile mechanical halls and a floating platform.

“More Machina?” Wakka shouted.

“Don’t look at me!” Rikku shouted back at him.

“They treated us like crap!” Wakka shouted, I remember he just looked at me, maybe with an apology, or maybe he just wanted sympathy. We finished the trial effortlessly, with Rikku’s help and we found our way into the prayer room.

“Yuna’s in there?”

“But—” Wakka said nervously.

“To hell with Taboos!” I yelled back at him as I ran up to the door. I pulled as hard as I could, but it wouldn’t budge, Kimahri came and lifted the door up for me. He nodded and I went in.

In the chamber of the Fayth I saw Yuna kneeling before the image of a small boy, he seemed familiar, like I’d seen him in my dreams maybe.

“What is this??”

“The Fayth are the souls of people who gave their lives to protect Spira incased in stone by the holy rights. When a Summoner prays, they awaken the Fayth, and when a Summoner and a Fayth merge their consciousness’’ create an Aeon making the unreal real,” Auron explained.

“Whoa.” Was all I could say. Auron left, and I watched Yuna pray to this Fayth for a long time. Then the boy disappeared into Yuna’s body and the singing stopped, she fell to the floor and I picked her up.

“No! Don’t come out!” Rikku yelled, but it was already too late.