AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hello everybody! This will be probably my first and only FFX fanfic and it's a oneshot for once! Let me ask you this ----- how many of you liked the ending of the game? If you're one of the many who didn't, don't worry. I didn't like it either ^^. Also being the hopeless romantic I am, I just had to think of something. So, one day while I was playing the ending of the game for the millionth time (don't you just love the beautiful CG movies?), my brother gave me this idea at the very last scene. You know, the one AFTER the credits? Anyhoo, he said that at the end, Tidus came back to his Zanarkand and met the entire FFX crew again. I grinned maniacally as this idea popped in my head and began to expand.

Anyhoo, enough rambling from me ^_^. Hope you like it!

 

Destined by Fate

an FFX fanfic by Ayame-chan

 

He jumped off the ship, soaring into the sky like a bird with now wings. Sin's life danced around him as it began to fade into nonexistence. He saw Yuna's father, Lord Braska, Auron, and his father Jecht waiting for him at what seemed to be the end of the road. Yet it wasn't the end of the road. Giving a high-five to his father, the young man continued to descend into darkness.

What's going on? he thought in confusion.

The light faded away and his mind began to panic. Did he still exist? Not exist? Remain in the Farplane?

The only answer given to him was darkness.

 

"Tidus! Tidus, wake up!"

Tidus bolted upright in his bed with beads of sweat dripping down his face. He was home....home?!?

It was then he was aware of the loud banging at his door.

"Tidus, are you awake in there?" a voice shouted from outside.

Is that Rikku's voice? he asked himself.

Noticing that he was only clad in his boxers, Tidus stumbled out of bed and groped around for any article of clothing that he could put on to at least make himself look decent for public. However, that still did not solve the case for the mystery voice behind his front door.

"Hey, Tidus, are you even alive in there?" the voice continued to shout.

"Ah...h-hold on a sec!" he replied and managed to pull over a shirt over his head.

"Well, hurry up, will you?" the voice complained.

"Okay! Okay..." he grumbled and slipped on a pair of board shorts and made a dash for the front door before the banging got on his nerves.

Right before him was Rikku. At least he thought it was Rikku.

Yet he heard himself say, "Oh hey, Krysta! What's up?"

Krysta stared back at him with a frown on her face. "What took you so long? You know, I've been banging on your door for the past ten minutes."

Tidus grinned sheepishly at his Zanarkand Abes teammate and childhood friend. "Sorry."

Krysta's frown soon turned into a warm smile. "Well, I don't blame you. You were so drunk last night that Tak had to carry you home."

They began to walk into the bustling streets of the metropolis Zanarkand. Silence lingered in between as they walked, giving Tidus some time to sort through his thoughts. Okay, so he was drunk. That could have probably explained all that had happened in Spira. Yet...it didn't somehow. It felt too real.

Now to come to think of it, Krysta does look like Rikku...he thought as he stared at the back of his childhood friend's head.

The two had been friends ever since Tidus could remember. His father had intended to get them to marry but that idea didn't work out so well. They would always remain friends. So absorbed in his thoughts, Tidus almost ran into Krysta who had stopped in front of the blitzball stadium.

"Why are we here?" he asked his thought aloud.

Krysta looked at him like he was a goat. "Don't tell me the booze got you that bad." When his shrugged, Krysta sighed and continued. "It's the championship reception! We won the cup last night after beating the Aurochs!"

They entered in the stadium, passing by many anxious fans who were so focused whatever was in front of them that the two went into the secret passage to the stadium without any trouble.

"I still don't know how you did that," Krysta suddenly said.

"Did what?" Tidus repeated.

"The winning shot! We were tied 4-4 with thirty seconds left and Tak passed the ball to you with three defenders around you. Somehow, you did this really amazing move by knocking down the three defenders and finished off with...I don't know what kind of kick you call it, and it got past the goalie," Krysta explained.

Tidus walked on with wide amazement as Krysta continued to ramble on with the remnants of the game. He didn't even hear what she said. All he could think of was Krysta's description of the winning goal, the moment he had always dreamed of. The shot...was his father's. The move that he had tried so hard into perfecting. The one that Yuna witnessed him practice.

Yuna. The name made his heart sink down to the recesses of his soul. Dream or not, Yuna had HAD to be real. He could still remember the taste of her lips when they were in the Macalania Woods, the smile on her face when they first met, the tears in her mismatched eyes when he had begun to disappear...

"Hey, Tidus ol' buddy!"

The shout of the familiarity of the voice and the hard smack in the back that came afterwards snapped him out of his reverie. He turned around to look up at Wakka's amiable face. At least he thought it was Wakka. Heck, he even had that funky hairdo!

But again he heard himself say, "Hey, Tak."

Tak was the best defender among the blitzball league and also caption of the Zanarkand Abes. He was also Krysta's cousin-in-law.

"Why look so glum? We won the championship yesterday, you know? And that was one heck of a goal you made. The shot looked a lot like your old man's from back in the day," Tak said. Correcting himself, "I mean...that was one heck of a shot."

Tidus gave the older man a half-hearted grin. "Nah, it's all right, Tak. You can say it. My shot looked like my old man's. Actually...I'm kind of glad that I pulled off his move."

Tak stared at him in astonishment and felt the younger man's forehead. "Are you okay? Did you, like, have alcohol poisoning or something?"

Tidus swatted away the hand with a smile on his face. "There's nothing wrong with me, really! I'm fine!" Yeah right, Tidus.

Tak laughed, one that echoed throughout the very depths of the stadium. "Whatever you say, brother. Hey, I want you to meet my wife."

The large man led Tidus through a maze of people before eventually leading him to a small group hovering over one of the many concession tables. Tak waved at the group. A dark-haired woman had caught the wave in the corner of her eye and smiled back. The woman looked strikingly like Lulu.

"Tidus, I'd like you to meet my wife, Ira," he introduced. "Ira, this is the guy who I was talking about all the time, Tidus."

This has to be a dream...it has to be..Tidus thought as he smiled meekly back at the Lulu look-a-like, bracing for cold impact. "Hi, um, Ira."

To his astonishment, the Lulu look-a-like smiled back and replied sweetly, "It's nice to meet you, Tidus. My husband's told me much about you. You're going to take over my husband's place as captain next year, right?"

Tidus' eyes lit up for no apparent reason. "Well, I...."

"Hey, Tidus!" Krysta called and came over to grab his arm. "I want you to meet someone. Oh, hi, Ira!" She winked at the husband and wife. "If you don't mind, can I take this handsome man out to meet someone?"

"You mean Yunie? Go on right ahead," Ira agreed.

Again Tidus was dragged across the stadium. His mind was still in a daze, but it had lessened as he began to remember the last conversation. 'Yunie'? His heart began to pound.

"Hey, Yunie!" Krysta shouted to a crowd in the corner. Then she whispered in Tidus' ear, "Don't mind her chauffeur. He likes to be a statue."

Looking in the direction that she was pointing at, Tidus saw a rather tall and bulky man standing off to the side. His mop of bluish-white hair covered catlike amber eyes that were staring into space. Tidus looked at the man for a moment. Now, if he had blue skin, whiskers, and a tail...

"Yunie! This is my best friend, Tidus," Krysta chirped as she addressed to the young woman in front of them. Tidus held his breath, eyes wide with disbelief. He couldn't believe who he saw. "Tidus, this is my cousin, Yunie. She just arrived here yesterday from Bevelle."

Yunie and Tidus stared into each others' eyes, curious to who they were to one another. Noticing the looks, Krysta slyly smiled and gently patted Tidus on the shoulder. "I'll...leave you two alone for a while."

"Hey, Krysta!" the two protested simultaneously, but the blonde had already blended back into the crowd.

Silence. Tidus looked down at his shoes. He couldn't think of anything to say as his heart began to pound loudly.

"Um," Yunie finally managed to utter out. He looked up. "Um...I saw you yesterday. You made the winning goal at the game, right? That was really amazing."

He had already heard those sentences countless of times before, but it was already beginning to sound different through her soft voice. The voice that always seemed to calm him down, smooth out all the feelings twisted inside.

"Thanks," he replied, giving her his most charming smile. He was too entranced with her mismatched eyes.

"My real name's Yuna, by the way, not Yunie," Yuna added, feeling a bit relaxed as she too stared into his ocean blue eyes. "It's just a nickname that everyone calls me."

"I kinda figured that."

Yuna's eyes widened with excitement. "Really? You know, I had this really weird dream last night. Spira was totally different. Like it was a thousand years later, you know? And I was a summoner trying..."

"Trying to defeat Sin," Tidus finished. "And you beat him."

"Yeah...you had the same dream?" He nodded. Yuna pondered for a minute, looking at his face before a small smile crept to her lips. "You know..."

"We've met before," they said together. Then they laughed.

It must be coincidence, they both thought.

An empty void soon disappeared in both of their hearts. Maybe being in an after-thousand year Spira adventure wasn't so bad after all.