Last update!
The airship sliced through the clouds like a missile. Their ETA to Zanarkand was three hours.
Yuna hoped they would be fast enough.
Tidus had gone out onto the roof of the airship, watching the clouds whip by. He remembered the last time he’d been on this airship. It had been less than pleasant.
Then he pushed aside those thoughts as Yuna plopped down on the deck next to him. “Hi.”
“Yuna, what are you doing up here?”
“Would you like me to leave?”
Tidus smiled and rebuked her, “Don’t start that again.”
Yuna smiled back easily, but Tidus sensed something else. “What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.
“This mission. Our trip to Zanarkand. It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
“How so?”
Yuna unconsciously leaned on Tidus’s shoulder and replied, “I don’t know. I get a sense of foreboding, of something being really wrong. But I can’t lay a finger on it.”
“I’m feeling sort of the same way,” Tidus admitted. “Sort of like a big puzzle, but you’re missing a piece. No, wait, more like you’ve forgotten it and you’ll find it only when it’s most inconvenient.”
They fell silent, listening to the throb of the airship’s engines. Yuna leaned over and began to kiss Tidus until the airship rattled violently.
Tidus drew sharply back and saw something huge splattered on the forward viewscreen. He then looked towards the sky and saw a dark cloud of flying, reptilian creatures descending.
“Slave races,” he muttered.
“Just when it was most inconvenient,” Yuna agreed.
“What do you mean, you rescheduled the windshield wipers installment for next Tuesday?” Cid bellowed at his son. “I have a mess on the viewscreen that’s not too pretty and we can’t get it off!”
Lulu snapped her fingers, and a barrage of water wiped the innards of the flying creature off the viewscreen.
“Oh, thanks.”
“No problem,” Lulu replied with a cool smile. Her smile faded as she peered out the viewscreen and exclaimed, “There are more of them!”
“Lose them,” Cid barked. His son nodded and quickly began to steer the ship to the right.
Auron just as quickly stopped him, saying, “Tidus and Yuna are out there.”
The things looked like triple-sized vultures with reptilian scales. Tidus had privately chosen to call them rultures.
They flocked at the airship, screaming.
“What are those?” Yuna yelled over the sound of their communal screeching.
“I don’t know!” Tidus shouted back. “Whatever they are, they don’t look very friendly!”
One of the rultures dove at Tidus, talons extended. He sliced in two with Caladbolg. The severed body parts hit the deck with a splat. “At least the blood isn’t acidic,” Tidus said.
“More of them!” Yuna shouted.
“There always are.” Caladbolg flashed again and again, each time plucking one of the rultures out of the air. The airship began pitching to the right, then leveled out again. Tidus and Yuna almost lost their balance on the slippery, blood-coated deck.
“I think whoever’s in the cockpit just realized we’re out here,” Yuna inferred.
“We’ve got more problems,” Tidus said, pointing at something.
Yuna focused in the direction he was pointing in. “The only thing that’s there are more of these flying things!”
“Yeah, but they’re even bigger and they have First Race on their backs!”
Three of the riders came in on a strafing run, firing what looked like enchanted crossbow bolts. Tidus jumped to the side, and the bolts tore through three decks before finally getting stuck in the fourth. He slashed at one of the riders, and the rulture it was on screeched and shook loose its occupant. The creature fell onto the deck, and Yuna mentally shoved it off the deck as it got to its feet.
A shadow fell across the two of them, and they looked up. A positively huge rulture was hovering over the deck. Streaming down its sides were dozens of First Race. They were all armed with scimitars and looked none too friendly.
“This is bad,” Tidus announced.
“It gets worse,” Yuna announced back as she leaped away from the venom a flock of rultures had spat at her. “Those things have a ranged attack!”
The deck then chose to vibrate hard enough that both of them went down in the slippery blood that covered the deck. Several First Race fell off the sides of the airship.
Tidus shot a glance at the air around them; it was swarming with the missiles the airship had just fired off. Dozens of rultures were blasted out of the air at once.
The flocks immediately veered out of the airship’s path and took place alongside it. They began spitting venom into the missile launch tubes. Apparently the things learned fast.
Tidus and Yuna had a more immediate problem to deal with. The three dozen or so survivors of the assault platoon charged.
Yuna slammed a giant, invisible fist into the deck they stood on, causing everyone to lose their balance again. Then there was a sound of tearing metal, and Yuna immediately realized what the problem was.
The hole torn in the airship by the enchanted crossbow bolts was widening under the stress of the flight. The upper deck of the airship was being split in half. Tidus apparently noticed it, too, and he shouted, “Don’t worry, Yuna! The metal around the engines is triple-enforced! I know that because Cid’s been bragging about it every other minute I’ve been around him!”
“I’m more concerned about how that breach is going to affect our lifespans!” Yuna shouted back.
The airship bucked under the strain, then without warning a good part of the upper deck tore itself off.
And Yuna was on that part of the deck.
Time started to dilate again. Tidus turned, saw Yuna being flung away from him by the cruel reality of physics and stresses. He reached for her outstretched hand. Their fingers barely touched… and then she was out of his reach, falling into a milling sea of evil.
“YUNA!”
“TIDUS!”
The whole situation was wrong. He was supposed to fall from the ship. It had happened before. He had fallen off, and Yuna had lived. It was wrong, and that was why there was no sense of déjà vu involved.
Tidus knew that the equation at hand was false. A million of Spira’s most brilliant minds could study it for all time and be unable to prove it true.
But Tidus knew he was part of the equation as much as Yuna was. He knew exactly how he could make his part of the equation true.
He jumped after her.
The deck of the airship vibrated violently beneath everyone’s feet as the missile tubes fired. Dozens of the flying things had been blown out of the sky. Cid gave a long whoop of victory.
His whoop turned into a violent curse as his son shouted the avians had swooped down on the missile launch tubes and filled it with some kind of venom. Every last tube was jammed.
Rin came bounding onto the bridge. “I’ve been in Damage Control,” he panted, “and there’s a serious problem.”
“Yeah, we’ve got no guns left!” Cid growled.
“In addition to that, there is a sizable hole in the ventral skin of the ship. The high stresses of these speeds are widening it.”
“Your point?” Cid asked impatiently.
Rin’s eyes widened to the point of the sight being ridiculous, then wordlessly pointed towards the viewscreen. Everyone turned and looked.
Yuna was falling away from the airship.
And Tidus was falling after her.
The winds buffeted Tidus, but he refused to be swayed. He channeled every fiber of his being into getting to Yuna.
Yuna felt his determination flow off him in waves. Her first thought was that he was an idiot to jump after her. The second was that had the situation been reversed – again – she would have exercised the right to be an idiot as well.
With that, Yuna latched onto Tidus with a mental grip and pulled him down next to her.
Tidus and Yuna embraced, knowing it would probably be the last hug they would share.
Yuna kissed him and murmured in his ear, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Tidus murmured back.
Then everything came to a screeching halt.
Tidus blinked. Their rapid fall was continuing. Only it wasn’t a rapid fall any more.
The air around them glowed with a bright, green light. Instead of falling they were flying through the air towards Zanarkand.
Yuna pulled the emerald out of her pouch. It was almost too bright to look at.
“Well, whatever we did, I’m fairly convinced it’s a good thing,” Tidus announced cheerfully.
“Let’s hope our luck lasts,” Yuna said, still a bit dizzy over the entire switch.
“Last I heard, we didn’t want luck,” Tidus countered with a smile.
“Don’t be smart with me.”
Everyone had seen Tidus and Yuna be saved by the emerald. Everyone had been greatly relieved. However, that was almost completely forgotten, as they had more immediate problems.
The airship was falling apart around them. The bridge had been torn in half, and everyone manning a station except Cid’s son had been thrown through the gap, screaming. They had all reached safety on the other side of the blast door leading to the bridge… but the airship was in a fatal, though slow, plummet.
“Let’s get to the escape pod,” Cid said. “Unless anyone would like to stay.” He shot a meaningful glance at Rin. “Would the captain like to go down with his ship?”
“Another day, perhaps,” Rin replied implacably. He motioned towards the corridor and said, “After you.”
Ten seconds later the airship exploded.
“Oh my god,” Yuna whispered. The airship had just gone up in a ball of flame. The flocks of rultures cawed at the wreckage falling out of the air, gloating.
“Everyone was on that ship,” Tidus croaked. “Lulu, Wakka, Rikku, Kimahri, Cid, Rin, Auron, Braska… Dad.” He squeezed his eyes shut and Yuna could see the muscles in his jaw clenching hard enough they looked as if they might snap.
Tears flooded Yuna’s eyes, and she did nothing to keep them away. Tidus began crying too, much as he tried not to. They held each other and wept for comrades lost, friends fallen in time of greatest need. Opportunities never taken, doors never opened, places never explored. All gone.
The air where the airship had been exploded with pyreflies, and Anaroth, though his physical form must have been destroyed, had no doubt been at work.
Tidus sniffed and said, “We can still finish this. We still have a job to do.”
Yuna nodded, still wordless except for sobs.
Zanarkand was visible now. They flew towards the great city. In the east, the sun set, casting a bloodred hue over the earth. At that moment in time, all seemed lost. There was no hope left for mortal man on that godforsaken world, and all who lived did so in utter despair.
The First Race still flowed from Zanarkand, a tide of pure evil and malignance. The gateway throbbed with power.
Tidus and Yuna both made a silent vow never to give up. For as Anaroth had said, hope could not be destroyed. Only relinquished. As the sun set, hope dawned on Spira again.
Tidus and Yuna flew onward.
“Well, we’re still alive,” Jecht said, then cursed as his head banged against the low ceiling of the escape pod.
“No thanks to your driving, Rin,” Auron added.
“It’s a good thing the escape pod was just outside that corridor,” Wakka exclaimed. “If it wasn’t, we’d all be toast.”
“Another triumph of planning and design,” Cid said proudly. He instinctively started to strut, then bumped into Lulu and Rikku.
“Next time, make sure your vaunted ‘planning and design’ makes for a bigger escape pod,” Lulu growled.
The escape pod flew toward Zanarkand, chasing after Tidus and Yuna.
The gateway hummed with an evil power, its surface shining with a red glow that came from the setting sun. Tidus and Yuna flew inexorably towards it.
Then they started to fall towards it.
“Well, I guess this is it,” Yuna said.
“I thought the fall from the airship ‘was it’,” Tidus reminded her. “I was wrong, wasn’t I?”
“There is no way that this won’t be ‘it’,” Yuna replied. “This is… the end. The end of the road I’ve traveled my entire life. The road of service to others.” Her voice began shading into scorn, and Tidus sighed.
“Yuna, that’s your path. You always had the chance to go on a different path, but you stuck with it through all kinds of hardship, adversity, what-have-you. That path normally benefits everyone around you, but in the end leads to self-destruction.
“What I’m saying is that your path is anything but normal. Maybe there’s still a chance. This is sort of a stupid conversation to be having while we’re falling to our dooms, but it’s the conversation we have to have now.”
“Tidus…”
“Yuna…”
It was a completely pointless exchange, but to Tidus and Yuna, it meant more than could be said in a lifetime. They were expressions of love, sorrow, and chances for a life that could never be lived simply because there was never enough time.
Yuna closed her hand around the emerald.
“Goodbye.”
She channeled the tiniest bit of magic into the jewel just as they hit the gateway.
Oblivion took them both.
“Tell me I’m not seeing things,” Jecht said.
“I hope you’re seeing what I’m seeing,” Auron replied, “because if you aren’t then the world truly is doomed.”
They all stared, awestruck, as a great, green shockwave spread from around the gateway. The First Race stared at it, then began to flee in horror. It did them no good, as the shockwave expanded faster than the eye could follow. The gateway collapsed in on itself, producing an apocalyptic explosion that seemed to feed the shockwave’s power. All over Spira, First Race cowered down, fled, or stood and accepted doom. The world was covered by the sheer power of the energy.
After what seemed an eternity, Spira was free again.
“What happened to Tidus and Yuna?” Rikku asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the escape pod.
“You will know soon enough,” Anaroth replied. He had been silent until then, and his voice startled everyone. “For now, I suggest you return to Besaid. There are people there who will want explanations.”
Then he vanished.
Everyone simply stared at the spot where he’d been for a long while. Cid finally spoke up, saying, “Rin, let’s get back to Besaid.”
Rin nodded silently and turned the escape pod around. The world had been saved, but nobody was celebrating.
Nobody could celebrate when two lovers were denied the chance for a life.
Once again, Yuna stood on the platform in the void, high above Yunalesca’s. She stood on the dais with a silhouette of a galaxy etched into it. Tidus stood beside her. Both were dazed and confused.
Cerewin, Anaroth, and a beautiful woman dressed in long, shimmering, sapphire robes stood before them. Yuna got the distinct feeling that she and Tidus were standing before them, not the other way around.
The woman looked surprisingly like Yuna, give or take thirty years and brown eyes. Anaroth had pulled down his hood. Yuna would have gasped had she the energy to do so. Underneath the hood, he had a handsome face. His brows were upswept, his hair was long and black. His nose was in perfect proportion with the rest of his face, and his high cheekbones gave him a gaunt look. But Yuna forgot all that when she looked into his eyes for the first time. They were black as well, but through the dark void she could see the memories of countless souls. One was the diplomat far from home and his wife, another the estranged father, another the boy out on his first date. It was a kaleidoscope of hopes, dreams, sorrows, memories forgotten. Yuna almost felt dizzy looking at his eyes.
< You two have been brought here through the gateway, just before it was destroyed, > Cerewin said without preamble. < What you have just done, through your union of love, comradeship, and bravery until the end, has saved Spira and all those who still live in it. You, both of you, are now faced with a choice. >
“Spira, though it has survived and the First Race is gone, has been too heavily damaged to recover from this onslaught,” Anaroth said. “The explosive rush of power created by the First Race’s demise, the gateway’s collapse, and the deaths of millions has given us a rare opportunity. We can re-make this world into something new, a fresh one, so to speak. Sin and the First Race will be completely forgotten. There will be no more sorrow, simply existence started over.”
The woman spoke. “The other choice is for us to resurrect enough of Spira that the planet has a chance of rebuilding itself, with you, Yuna, as its leader, just as I once was.”
“You’re… Del Thaxos?” Tidus asked.
“I am.”
Yuna’s head swam. Denied a normal life again, she thought bitterly. She didn’t want existence started over. The hurts Spira had endured had only served to strengthen it, to help guard it against further evil. Restarting existence would take away all memory of that, leaving the world prone to evil again. Yet, if Spira were to be given the chance to rebuild, Yuna would have to lead it. She did not want to be a leader any more than she wanted her romance with Tidus to be wiped away in a clean sweep of reality.
Then another thought occurred to her. For once in her life, Yuna sincerely thanked Seymour for the idea.
“Anaroth, Cerewin, Del Thaxos… what if I were to do what Seymour couldn’t?”
< What do you mean? > Cerewin asked.
Yuna, more excitedly now, said, “What if I were to open a hole in reality, a manipulable one? I could undo as much of the damage that’s been done as possible, make it so that Spira can recover without having to make me their leader.”
“Yuna,” Del Thaxos replied, “That is a good theory. But is an extremely selfish one.”
Anaroth placed a hand on the sorceress’s shoulder. “Del. Yuna has devoted her entire life to Spira. I know what the difference between selflessness and selfishness is, and her theory is selfishness in the extreme. But…”
He leaned closer to Del Thaxos and said, “I believe Yuna deserves what she really wants. A life with Tidus. Six or seven children.”
“In your – my – his – dreams,” Yuna stammered.
“Very well, Yuna,” Del Thaxos said with a warm smile. “You have given up everything for Spira, without any thought of reward. Here is the reward you never thought you would get.”
She waved in farewell. Anaroth did the same, and Cerewin’s flame flared a bright yellow.
The world faded away in a burst of white light.
The world came into focus for Yuna and Tidus again… and they were standing in the middle of Besaid temple.
“It’s amazing!” Cid was saying. “I’m getting reports of massive resurrections! Spira still has a chance to… to…”
Nobody spoke. The crowd inside the temple was speechless.
“Uh… hi,” Tidus greeted them with a shaky smile.
Everyone was suddenly shouting in relief and joy. Tidus and Yuna ran over to where their friends stood.
“I thought you were all dead!” Yuna exclaimed.
“We all thought you two were dead!” Rin exclaimed back.
There were backslaps, hugs, exchanges of relief all around. Jecht hugged Tidus fiercely and said, “I missed you.”
“Don’t tell me you cried over it,” Tidus responded slyly.
Finally there was silence in the temple and Yuna proclaimed, “We’ve all been given a chance for another life. What say we use it?”
Tidus hugged her and replied, “Oh, yes, let’s.”
Epilogue
Six months later, the world had, for the most part, reverted to normal. The process of reconstruction was still underway. Humans, Guado, and Ronso were forming a lasting alliance. The order of Yevon was again forever banished from Spira, and it was unanimously suspected it would stay that way.
For Yuna, the world, despite its flaws, was perfect.
She sat in the home she and Tidus had made for themselves on Besaid, reading a book. A rarity, that, but one she had come to enjoy.
Her wedding ring glittered with a light of its own as she closed the book. It had been one of the happiest moments of her life when she and Tidus had been married.
Tidus entered the room, and Yuna flinched slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Tidus asked.
“Your first kid just kicked me,” Yuna replied wryly.
“Only four months old and he’s kicking you? I doubt that.”
“I suppose he takes after his father.”
Tidus smiled at that and replied, “Maybe it was that stew Wakka gave us.”
“He’s actually gotten to be a very good cook,” Yuna countered. “Without blitzball, he’s needed a hobby and it looks like cooking happens to be it.”
Tidus took Yuna in his arms and they walked outside into the noon sun. They found themselves staring out at what little ocean was visible.
“It’s sad, isn’t it?” Yuna asked.
“What’s sad?” Tidus asked, puzzled.
“There are so many different paths we can take in life, but there will never be enough time to explore all of them,” Yuna said with a sigh. “I hope we choose the right path for us and our children.”
“Yuna, you chose the right path a long time ago,” Tidus assured her. “We had this discussion before. And I don’t think it’s up to us to decide what paths to take. It’s more that we have to decide what to do when the path becomes apparent to us. Should we go up or down it? Maybe we should stay off the grass, or not walk in that flower bed…”
Yuna giggled and Tidus said, “I’m not making any sense, am I?”
“You’re making perfect sense,” Yuna assured him. “You’re absolutely right. Just one thing… when our children choose the paths they will take in life, they had better not choose to be politicians.”
Tidus chuckled at that. Yuna drew him closer and they kissed.
The world continued on around them. The sun went along on its path across the sky, the peoples of Spira continued reconstructing all that had been destroyed. Yet for Tidus and Yuna, all time stood still in that perfect moment.
Perfect it was.
Phew, that was long. I hope you all enjoyed it. Now, to go play World of Warcraft some more…
