A/N: Hi all! I had this fantastic idea this morning when I woke up. I thought to myself, what if I expanded Stories to include all the characters from FF10? That sounded like a lot of fun, and I wanted to deal with Rikku and Yuna's pasts more than the game does. I also realized that I wanted some Wakka/Lulu/Chappu interaction and discussion of their youths too. And just exactly how did Auron manage to get Kimahri to agree to take Yuna to Besaid? So, what I'm doing now is making each character(s)'s story into its own separate "branch" of the full deal that you can choose to read or not, tho reading them should make some things in the full piece make more sense later. It seems to make the title make more sense now too. So now, the piece that has, until today, been titled Stories is now going to be Stories: Auron and Tidus. Then there will be Stories: Rikku, Stories: Wakka and Lulu, and Stories: Yuna and Kimahri. Then, after everyone gets together in Luca, I'll have the whole thing tie together into one story called (I bet you'll never guess!) Stories. I think it will be a lot of fun, and i'm enjoying working on it already! Look for Rikku chapter one later tonight!
oh, and before people start hate-mailing me, here's my BS about the waterbreathing thing: Firtst off, you cannot play a game as hard core like blitzball while holding your breath. Anyone who swims even a little will tell you this. And second, humans aren't equipped to hold their breath that long. so, i have decided that somewhere down the line, some scientist came up with a way to make people able to breath water and bred the train into the populace at large. By the time of Tidus' Zanarkand, more people had this trait than didn't. By Yuna's time, only the exceptionally rare genetic throwbacks did not have this trait. (that'll be important in another branch of the story) if you don't like this idea, sorry. but its the one i'm going with.
SILLY LEGAL DISCLAIMER: I only wish that i owned ffx, the characters in it or spira. but i don't. all i own are copies of final fantasy games 1-X2 and an auron wall scroll. its very sad. and so is the fact that i will never make any money off of this fic, because it is illegal for me to try and square-enix would sue the pants off of me.
TIDUS
When I woke up, I was facedown in the water. Made me pretty glad I could breathe it. I didn't exactly cherish the idea of drowning.
My first thought was to look for Auron, so I scanned my surroundings. To my left, ruins. To my right, more ruins. In front of me, the ruins of some huge building. Behind me, lots of ocean. No bright red coat anywhere. And everything was dark and grey--I'd have definitely seen it if he was there somewhere.
I was alone.
"Auron!" I hoped that maybe he was just out of my sight somewhere. Behind a crumbling pillar or something. But there was no answer.
"Anybody!" Right then, I'd've been glad to see my old man.
When no one answered, I started to swim toward what was left of the building. The water was freezing; if I didn't get out of it soon, I wouldn't need to be having nightmares about drowning. I'd die of hypothermia.
Not that I was any better off when I got out of the water. The air in the entryway was just as cold as the water, and the inside of the building didn't show any promise of being warmer. I hoped I would find something in there that I could burn, but I wasn't going to get my hopes up. I'm probably going to die here.
There was this elevated walkway that led into the building proper. I was beginning to think that this place was a temple or something, cause what was left was pretty fancy. Feeling a little nervous about the height--and the lack of security rails--I stepped out onto the walkway.
I wasn't really surprised when the walkway dropped out from underneath me. A little, but not much at all. And I wasn't even afraid of the fiends that started leaping out of the water I landed in. I still had my old man's sword after all.
I started to get worried, though, when the big fiend showed up and started attacking the little ones. He looked pretty nasty and I didn't think I'd be able to take him alone.
So, I tried the next best idea--running away. But I didn't get very far before the thing caught up to me and attacked. I got in a couple of good shots before I managed to break away from it and swim like mad to a doorway I saw nearby.
Nothing mattered at that moment but getting away from that fiend. Being alone didn't matter, losing Auron didn't matter, freezing to death didn't matter. I'd worry about all that once I got away. If I got away.
As I got closer, I saw that what I thought was a doorway was actually too small for that. It was more like a small window. Sometime in the past, this place had sunk--a long way. For some reason, I wondered how many people had died here, and weather or not I would be one of them.
The fiend, on the other hand, decided that I was probably going to get away. It lunged at me, in a last ditch effort to catch some dinner. It probably would have had me too, except that the force of the attack it used propelled me into the window, which was too small for the fiend. In anger, it slammed into the wall a couple of times, causing parts of the ceiling to fall down and block the portal.
Things had gone from bad to worse. Now I was trapped in a freezing room, with no source of food, and no visible way out. I really am going to die here. I wish Auron was here. No I don't. I hope he's safe somewhere warm with lots of food.
And while I'm at it, why don't I hope that he's going to come rescue me.
A/N 2: aaack! i know its really short. and i don't really like it, but i was trying to write it without my notes, cause i can't find 'em. and i didn't want to play through the game again if i didn't have to. but it looks like i'm going to need to, so that i can get the meeting with the al-bhed right. have your translators ready for the next couple of chapters kiddies!