[FFML] [Fanfic] [FFX] Where you belong

Just one of those things...beat the game a week ago, and the ending..well..they leave it open, if you haven't seen it yet..I thought I'd make a shot at brining some closure into what I think is Square's best story yet.

Manifest Dynasty Productions presents:

Where you belong
A Final Fantasy Ten fanfiction

Notes: Final Fantasy as a franchise, and all characters and scenarios in this tale, are property of Squaresoft co., LTD

-This contains spoilers for the end of FFX! If you haven't beaten this game yet, you may not want to read this! If you haven't gotten this game yet...you need to sell your kid sister to the gypsies, buy a PS2, and go get it!

-Comments, complaints, C&C always welcome. all questions or suggestions can be posted publicly where appropriate, or emailed to tomh326@comcast.net

And without further ado, the curtain rises....

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"fffwwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!"

The piercing whistle splits the morning air, disturbing the rest of several nearby seagulls, roosting on their perches in the glow of the quiet Luca dawn. As she turns, they rise up, blanketing the sky with the whisper of grey-white wings and screeching cries, as if trying to compliment her own call. She heaves a slight sigh, as though her small frame carries some great, unspeakable weight, and she turns to regard the woman that stands behind her, her friend, her sister, her Guardian.

"Yuna, it's time to go" Lulu says, "Time to go home, at last."

Home at last. It didn't feel like home, not anymore...she'd seen
too much of the world, knew too much, to ever return to the quiet peace of Besaid.

Besides, no place felt like home to her anymore. Not with him gone.

"Lulu...I..." Yuna's quiet, plaintive voice is cut off by a stern
glare from her Guardian. "That's enough, Yuna. He's gone now, and no
matter how hard you whistle, you'll never reach the Zanarkand he's
from. You stand here, every day, call, over and over, as if you expect
him to just rise up out of the ocean and walk back into our lives! He
won't, he can't..he's gone now..gone like Chappu, like Sir Auron. Just
let it be. Come home...come home to me, and to Wakka, and to all those
who love you." Indeed, Lulu and Wakka had been living in Besaid three
months now, since Sin was defeated once and for all. They were seeing a lot more of each other, and rumors had it that Wakka might one day ask her to marry. Yuna wished them the best, but...

"No, Lulu..I'm sorry..I just can't..I can't let him go. I know,
deep in my heart, that he hasn't left me..he's still in my heart..and I know I'll see him again. I just can't leave him..."

"That's enough!" Lulu's normally soft, whispering voice holds a
note of sharp anger, even pain. "Stop it, Yuna! You can't bring back
the dead! Please, we need you! We who are among the livng, your
friends, we need you, as much now as before! Yuna you must go on
living! It's what he would have wanted!"

"How can you know? How can you know what he wanted? How?" Tears
were coming now, fresh pain streaming down her face to merge with the
salt of the sea.

*thwack!!* The slap comes as a surprise, perhaps as much to Lulu as to the young Summoner, a hard crash of Lulu's palm against the cheek of her most dearest friend. Yuna blinks...seeing something that perhaps no one, not even Lulu herself, has seen before..all the years of pain, loss, and sadness, rippling over the face of the stoic, quiet guardian like some primordial storm...a sigh of rage, perhaps frustration..maybe despair? escapes the lips of the black mage.

"I know for one reason Yuna..because it's what Chappu wanted, too."

Yuna's eyes open wide, the sudden realization of her Guardian's heart suddenly laid open before her shaking her to the core. Always, Lulu seemed uncaring, unfeeling, cold..Yuna knew this wasn't true, knew her friend had a gentle heart..but to see this sudden transfiguration left her reeling in its wake. Her hand flies up to her face, not to caress the stinging redness of the blow, but to cover her lips...almost as though she wishes too late to hold back the words she issued forth. "Lulu..."

Lulu shakes her head, braided black hair snapping around her as the rising sun sets her face aglow, "Love means letting go, Yuna..it means finding ways to live again after that which was dearest to you has left..and most importantly...Chappu..and Tidus as well, taught me that the most important part of life..of love..is living itself. I know in my heart that's what he would have wanted Yuna..he wanted to see your smile..and not just a facade behind the pain you held..but a true smile of joy! If you stay here, hanging on a memory of something gone, you forget what he truly meant to you, and what you truly meant to him Yuna. Honor him, honor his memory by living on, and living well."

Yuna nods, a deep sigh wracking her body as she slumps just faintly, the pain of finally being forced to accept that he is gone..to name her great sadness, taking its drastic toll on her. She looks older suddenly, sadder, with eyes that seem haunted and so terribly alone...she nods once more, resolve shining through the tears and pain, as she steps forward and clasps Lulu's hands in her own. "Let's go then, Lulu...let's go home, to where I belong."

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Cold, blue, salt, rippling.

It comes as sensations first..touch, color, sight a blurry haze, the smell of the sea seeming to dominate his conciousness, as his mind begins filling in the blanks. Thought comes later, trickling up through his mind as he drifts in confusion and delirium amisdt the shimmering blue-green universe that surrounds him.

"Where...am I?" He thinks, "Water..I'm in the water again...is that the sun above me? that light...it must be the sun..Have I done it? Am I finally home, to where I belong? Did the Fayth tell me the truth?"

Fayth. The strange, long-dead beings whose dreaming brought him to that even stranger world that was not quite his own..that brought him in reunion finally with his father, and yet ripped them apart in a haze of rage and battle. The ones that introduced him to the lovely creature upon which it seemed his every waking thought since had been about. The one that the Fayth had told him he must leave, when they told him that he must go home. To where he belonged. He shakes his head, restrains a bitter laugh as the salt-laden sea stings his eyes like a thousand thousand tears.

There was no home, without her. He belonged nowhere, if he was alone.

Still, he couldn't just float here forever...couldn't just give up and die. She would want him to live, to smile through the pain, and go on, no matter what the cost. Her courage taught him that. And so, with a soft kick and a typically flashy backflip in mid-water, he begins to swim his way to the surface, hands reaching out as though to clasp the sunlight streaming through the waves. His eyes close as he breaks the surface, then open in sheer wonder...he knows this place!

Perhaps he was going home at last after all. To where he belonged.

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Three months.

Three months had elapsed since she left Luca, and returned home to Besaid, and yet Yuna still feels as though there was something missing in her life, some part of her that could not and would not be replaced. Even on ths most joyous of days, she feels alone.

She remembers the night before, the dancing and singing and laughing that went on till nearly dawn..it was a joyous thing indeed to celebrate. Marriages were rare in Spira, even in the days after Sin, and any occasion that could bring a smile to the many was a miracle indeed. And even more so for the tiny village of Besaid, perhaps even more then that for Yuna, because she was given the greatest honor of her young life the night before: the honor of giving her two best friends in the world, Wakka and Lulu, to each other in the holy bods of wedlock. She had been overwhelmed, but they both insisted, and so with brilliant blushes and tears accepted their request.

It was a gorgeous ceremony, even for such a tiny, poor little island, amde more so by its strange and fantastic guests. Cid, it seemed, had brought every Al-Bhed in Spira to help mark the occasion, and they were lead by a somtimes-weeping, sometimes laughing Rikku as she strewed flower petals in the wake of the bride and grooms passing. The Ronso, too, honored the ones who had saved their world, and a full contingent of their warriors, lead by Kimharhi himself, had presided over the solemn and loving vows that the couple had written themselves. Even the Guado had had come, several ranking officials paying tribute in what was one of the most talked about events since the defeat of Sin.

She couldn't remember a word of the vows, not a stitch of the gorgeous clothing everyone wore, not even a single note of the marriage hymn she herself had sung..it has all flown by in a blurry haze. All she remember was afterwards, as the sun had set and the real parying began, how she drew alone to the shore to think..and how, without realizing it, she spent the night in vigil at the ocean's edge, watching the sunrise.

Now, as she stands before the half-risen sun and watches the waves crash on the shore..she remembers something deep in her heart, the words he said so long ago, "If we're ever separated, just whistle..you do know how, right?" She gives a soft laugh at her fumbling attempts at a single note, and her laughter back then at his own shrill whistle. On impulse, she draws a deep breath, places her fingers between her lips, and lets out an ear-splitter of a whistle that would seem to shake the very sky..it carries on the morning wind for a long, aching moment, then floats away on the sea breeze. She waits, a moment, maybe an hour, or perhaps a lifetime..time means so little after all she's seen. But no..no change, no response...she drops her head to her chin and sighs, then turns to go back to the village, to live out her life.

That's when the subtle splash erupts behind her, but in her pain she doesn't hear it...that's when the footsteps break the sand behind her, but she senses nothing, lost in her own mind..That's when the arms fold around her, like they did once before, on the airship...this time...

This time, they're real. This time, the strong fingers lacing about her own are real. This time, the soft warm breath that whispers her name like a prayer, can be felt as well as heard. With a gasp she turns and falls into his arms, his kiss, his heart..as she's found what she was missing for so long.

Tidus gives her a winning smile as he kisses her again, basking in the warmth of her love and the sun above him, "I'm home, Yuna..."

Yuna smiles back through her tears, almost laughing in her joy, "Yes Tidus..where you belong."

FIN

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hope you liked! yeah it's a bit long, I know. Suggestions? comments? mail em to me at tomh326@comcast.net