Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Golden Silence ❯ Coming to Terms with Reality ( Chapter 9 )

Golden Silence

Lady Mars

Chapter IX: Coming to Terms with Reality

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX.

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The stern determination on his face

Shows he is ready for the ultimate fight

To show who will conquer: dark or light.

The glint in his eyes shows no fear,

But he dreads what comes near

To break the peaceful silence of the day

That his life changed to this way.

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The crowd stared at Tidus rose back to his feet.

"I've told you a hundred times before boy, I'm not getting involved in this. I thought you had… talked… to her about this…" The miniaturized version of Braska had turned around and caught his first glimpse of, not only Tidus, but the crowd behind the boy. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Things out of my worst nightmares, you twerp," Tidus spat.

"Excuse me?" Braska asked.

"You heard me," Tidus growled back. Braska scowled. He raised his right hand and continued to stare at the boy. After a brief moment, Tidus crumpled onto the ground, unable to breathe.

"Do remember you can not be sustained on her power alone and I can take away as easily as I give." Tidus nodded and Braska dropped his hand, releasing the boy from his spell. Tidus gasped as the air rushed back into his lungs. 'Bastard.' "Now why have you summoned me here, oh great leader of the dead and bearer of the blood pools."

"Funny. I summoned you here to prove to these people that I didn't kill you!"

"Kill me? You mean that thing that Aur… That was real?"

"Do you seriously think I look like this for my own personal pleasure?"

"Well... No. I know you better than that."

"You damn well should know me better than that. If you don't, I am going to be thoroughly disappointed with you." Braska snorted.

"Right. While we're on the topic of you looking like the bloody mess that you are, how did you get… that… You didn't!"

"I did. What are you going to do about it because, if I remember properly, you taught it to me? So, in essence, this is your fault." Braska sighed.

"I should have known better than to teach you that spell."

"It worked, didn't it?"

"It did, but I still don't like it."

"Your problem, not mine."

"Right, because you have enough problems as it is."

"And why do you say that?"

"Look at you. You're a walking mess, boy."

"And? What's your point? It's not like I was ever not a mess in the first place."

"That is BESIDE the point, my dear boy. You need to learn to control that unruly power of yours."

"Oh do I? Why do you say that?"

"If you don't, you WILL kill someone."

"It's not like I have any qualms with that." Braska gawked at the boy.

"You.. Have… No qualms with killing…? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Tidus leaned down to get closer to Braska.

"Absolutely nothing. There is NOTHING WRONG WITH ME." He stood back up to his full height. "There was never anything right, so how can anything be wrong?"

"Tidus…"

"Don't Tidus me! That's all I've ever heard from you since this whole thing started. And I am quite sick of it! Have you done anything to help me? NO! Have you given me any sense of real guidance? NO! Am I going to stand for this anymore? NO!" Tidus spun on his heel and marched deftly into the crowd.

"Tidus!"

"No, I've had it with you. Be gone." With out warning, both the miniature Braska and Tidus were gone.

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He watched the blade glint in the low light cast from the fire. The blade in his hand was the first step in getting out of this nightmare. 'This is it. Once I do this, it'll all be over. I'll never have to put up with this any longer'

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Tidus looked up from the blade to the fire red bird resting on the back of one of the chairs.

"What if I do? What are you going to do about it?"

"Absolutely nothing. It is your choice after all."

"Are you joking with me or are you being serious?"

"I'm being serious. If you want to do it, go right on ahead."

"There's something off about this. There must be some kind of covert idea behind this."

"Nope, there isn't. This is something every summoner deals with."

"You have got to be kidding."

"I'm not. Braska went through the same thing. It is the point on a journey where the summoner decides whether they are strong enough or not to carry on. It is their choice and theirs alone."

"So the why are you here?"

"To make sure if you do it, you do it right."

"That is really morbid." The bird shifted his wings, keeping his balance.

"Did you ever know me to be anything less than that?"

"No, no I didn't." He set the dagger back on the table next to the bed.

"Not going through with it now are we?"

"I've been toying with the idea for a long time now Auron. One more day isn't going to change much. But I figure that if I can last long enough to get through all of this, my live may become better. If not, then I can go back to my original plan."

"Ah. Ulterior motives eh?"

"Yes, and what's so wrong with that?"

"There isn't anything wrong with that. It just seems odd, even for you."

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me." The boy stood up and walked over to where the bird roosted, extending his arm in offering. The bird stepped off the back of the chair and wrapped his talons around his arm.

"Oh really?" Tidus walked out of his hut and into the now empty square.

"Yes, really." The air had finally taken on silence once again. "Despite what you may ever think, I do like being alone. It's always given me time to think. My life isn't as good as it seems sometimes." He walked slowly towards the temple. "It almost seems that every good opportunity that comes my way gets snagged out from under me at the last possible second. I never seem to get anything the way I want, but sometimes that's better than nothing. I can't expect everything to be sunshine and roses, but people see me and think that's what I do expect. I wish that they could see me for who I really am."

"You mean the sadistic bastard that keeps coming out?"

"Not that exactly." Tidus walked up the stairs and around to the back of the temple. The bird hoped off of his arm and onto the railing. "I want them to see that I can be serious once in a while, despite everything that they see outright." The bird snorted.

"Sometime naïveté is the key to happiness."

"Who ever thought that one up needs to be fed to a Chocobo."

"I have to agree with you there." The pair remained silent for a few moments. "So where do we go from here?" Tidus sighed, his hair rustling in the light breeze.

"I'm not really sure. But all I know is we must keep moving forward. That is the only way to defeat what lie past the horizon." The bird turned his gaze from his summoner to the sun rising over the deep blue of the ocean. For that moment, all seemed right in the world.

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