A little side note:
Main character's thoughtsDisclaimer:(Refer to "1. Prologue")
A/N: This chapter has taken far too long to finish. One reason being, well, I finished it completely, and then I had to TYPE IT OVER… I was so upset. Well, look how long this chapter is. I had to go by memory and retype the whole thing. Well, I actually think I did a better job this time. Maybe I should do that more often. Typing up a chapter, then typing it over to make it all sexier and stuff… Lol. Sorry. Anyway, go on… read!
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Final Fantasy X
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"From Fame to Tragedy"
It started out so well
All those people
Cheering and chanting my name
Star blitzer!
And then it ended
Not for me
But for everyone
For Zanarkand…
I just so happened to be one of the lucky ones
It was most certainly a prosperous city. There was not a moment when this enormous northern city drifted to sleep. Its people scattered every corner like ants within their anthills, always doing something but nothing. Fun, no work. It’s what this city has always been. Machina, advanced machinery created and invented by the Al-Bheds, worked while the people played. Blitzball was a huge sport in Spira, a simple ball sport that took place underneath the water, within a large sphere pool. It was a sleepless city, highly advanced and so very free.
The city’s appearance was like nothing nobody has ever seen in their lifetimes. Many buildings filled the city from corner to corner, tall skyscraper, oddly-shaped buildings so tall they scraped even the sky’s barriers. Small waterfalls decorated themselves off the buildings so very high in the air. There was no one ground to explore upon. Bridges and levitated highways weaved through and between the buildings, all adding up to be one large maze nobody could ever thoroughly explore in less than a couple weeks. Lights constantly burned brightly from every building’s window, from every neon sign, from every decoration within the city’s walls. The largest advance in technology, the most fun and growth in population, home of the largest and fanciest blitzball stadium in all of Spira, the only city with literally everything anyone could ever imagine…
Zanarkand.
“I know, it’s great, isn’t it?” One girl with a deep crimson-colored hair giggled, “I can’t believe the Zanarkand Abes are this close to winning the finals! After beating the Duggles, it’ll be our first championship since Jecht was on the team! Hehe!”
“Well, you have to admit, that one blonde guy is our only reason. Ever since he joined the team last year, our team is doing ten times better than before Jecht disappeared.”
“I know… It’s sad. I wonder what ever happened to him?”
The two girls giggled for a few short moments longer, surrounded by many other adoring fans near the docks and the bridge leading to the blitzball stadium out in the sea. The famous Zanarkand Abes would soon exit their luxurious boat to greet their fans with determined smiles and readied pens. The hatch slowly opened as the crowd soon forgot about any discussion or debate they had just carried, no longer seeming that important.
Many players began to exit the boat and onto the dock in a single file, waving their arms up gracefully for their screaming fans. The players began rising their fists in the air repetitively as they chanted their signature motive. Most of the crowd quickly cleared in hopes to meet some of the players. The last one exited by himself, not following his fellow team mates, but stood there with a grin to his lips. He would stay a minute in consideration to his fans.
“Oh my god, it’s him!” One girl hollered as the crowd quickly swarmed to his direction. “It’s Tidus!”
He went through this every time. It kind of bore him, all the fan girls constantly swarming after him. It was a nice life, though. Being this popular. Everybody knew who he was, not only because of his expertise in blitzball, but for being the son and blood of the greatest blitzer ever known: Jecht.
The young, golden-haired boy spun his blitzball atop his finger as basketball players do, then let go of it and drop kicked it into the air towards the other players. A couple fan girls chased after it as the other players caught it, passing it back and forth playfully. Fans clawed for the ball.
He shook his head and grinned, stepping out into the stadium’s outside center, and before he took a step further, he was halted by a group of girls. Most of the fans held their own blitzball in their possession for autographs. The crimson haired, dark-skinned girl held out her blitzball shyly.
“Can I have your autograph?”
Tidus smiled at this girl’s shyness, and whipped out his pen, pulling the cap off with his teeth.
“Of course.” He managed to say through his teeth. The girl giggled.
“Good luck tonight!” The other, more energetic girl dressed in a small pink top said.
“Nothing to worry about.” He reassured, and signed the blitzball. “Oh, and I score a goal, I’ll do… this!” He then held up three fingers from each hand, holding his arms up high. “That will mean it was for you, okay?” The girls giggled together, the red-haired one especially shy, blushing. “What seat?”
“East block in the front row, fifth from the right.”
“Got it.” He smiled, and politely nodded to them as he parted to meet a group of three young boys. They bounced up and down in anticipation for his visit. They grinned from ear to ear. One instantly offered his blitzball to Tidus.
“Can you sign this?”
“No prob.” He signed, as the two other boys held up their blitzball in response.
“Please?”
“Alrighty…”
“Me too!” The last one hopped up and down impatiently.
“Heh, take it easy.” As he signed the last one, he recapped his pen, giving other fans a look that said he’ll get to them after the game. He knew he was late as it is; the other players were probably impatiently waiting in the locker room for him to arrive. “Well, the game’s about to start… I have to go. Cheer for me.”
“…two, three…!” the boys gathered, and exclaimed altogether, “Teach us how to blitz!!”
Tidus scratched the back of his head.
“Hey, I got a game to play.”
“Then… teach us after?”
“Maybe tonight…? Um… well…” Just then, a very short figure whom which seemed to appear out of nowhere in the near shadow against a wall, spoke up. It was cloaked in a purple jacket of some sort, hooded, containing an odd-looking circular golden design on the back of the jacket. All Tidus could tell was it was dark-skinned; the hood covered its face up too much to be able to tell whether it was a young boy or a young girl.
“You can’t tonight.” Oddly enough, Tidus seemed to know the figure, though he didn’t really.
“I mean… tomorrow.” He grinned to the boys.
“Promise?”
“Promise.” He nodded.
The kids all bowed down together, then moved their arms around and back together in front of them in some sort of prayer. Tidus seemed to understand it well, as if it were some sort of ritual prayer for blitzball.
Shortly afterwards, he headed on his way to the stadium, but first, he had to cross a wide bridge levitated above the city and directing to the stadium. He stopped for a moment to take in an extremely large projection upon a building near the blitzball stadium. He sighed and turned to face it, gazing up at it for several moments.
The image was a middle-aged man, powerful and determined looking. He had tanned skin and was very well-built. His head wore a red bandana, his brown hair spiking off down passed his shoulder blades a little bit, and his arms were strongly crossed.
Tidus shook his head and gave somewhat of a scowling smirk, before strolling onwards with a neutral “hm.”
The loudspeaker suddenly spoke, coming from the blitzball stadium. It seemed to be more like a story before an announcement.
“I was in a coffee shop running away from home when I heard the news. Our hero, Jecht, gone. Vanished into thin air! My dad must have been his biggest fan. I knew how sad he’d be. Heck, we all were that day. ‘Zanar,’ I said to myself, ‘what are you thinking?’ I went straight back home. We sat up talking ‘bout Jecht all night. My dad and I never talked so much… Whoa, heh, didn’t mean to reminisce, folks.” The voice suddenly became more enthusiastic.
“Anyway, ten years later, the Jecht Memorial Cup tournament is today! The two teams that have won through the finals are, of course, the Abes from A-East and the Duggles from C-South! I know there’s a lot of people out there today to see the star of the Zanarkand Abes! In just one year, he’s become the team’s number one player. He’s Jecht’s blood, and the new hope of blitzball! What kind of super play will he show us today? Will we see his father’s legendary shot? I don’t think I’m the only one excited here, folks!”
Tidus grinned to himself. He arrived.
He could hear them. Tens of thousands of fans calling, shouting, cheering, chanting for the Zanarkand Abes. It was an experience like nothing before. His heart spoke loudly and nervously to him. Just outside, he would walk into the largest blitzball stadium known to Spira, and the most enormous sized crowd Tidus has ever played for. All of them… and only one of him. They cheered for just him.
The stadium was circular all around, representing a majestic lower half of a sphere as the top part opened up. In the center of the stadium rested an enormous arc coming far up out of the ground, and curving over and back down in a perfect half circle.
Machina projected electrical-appearing bright blue energy towards the center of the arc, and the more the energy collided within one another, the larger a blue spherical ball of energy grew. Its growth ascended at alarming rates. This excited the fans, they knew it would be starting soon.
Tidus breathed heavily as he stood in front of the large door hatch. Its center turned, and slowly the door began to part open, revealing the breathtaking stadium before him. He felt so small, so insignificant, and yet he was the reason half the fans anticipated the game. His blitzball rested against his hip under his arm as he stepped up onto his platform, into view. The fans grew wild.
A smile crossed his lips. He held a determined appearance, ready to win this championship. He wasn’t about to leave thousands of fans heartbroken and disappointed with him. No, no. He’d have to kill himself trying. His blue eyes reflected the bright energy emitting from the center, and widened his eyes in anticipation as the large sphere then gathered an even brighter form of energy towards its center, and then exploded, sending the entire crowd swaying back, gasping loudly with amazement.
The sphere was now replaced with an electromagnetic field holding water in its place, suspended within the arc, so massive that the spherical pool caressed the inner edges of the arc. Each player stood at their team’s side, each on their own individual platform near the pool. They all awaited the signal, everyone grew quiet. Once the loud horn called…
They all dove in.
It was a short game as of far, but the Zanarkand Abes had already scored their first goal. Two blitzers high-fived each other within the water, giving each other a thumbs up as an alternative to speaking. The players swam about speedily for the ball, some of them taking positions near their opponents’ goal as an open pass. They tackled, struggled, passed, swam, and dodged.
Tidus made a pass to his fellow team mate near the Duggles’ goal, but was immediately tackled by another offending Duggle member. The game went on like this for quite awhile, passing back and forth, catching and tackling, sometimes Tidus even tackled a Duggle out of the pool and into the crowd. He always crossed his arms, feeling proud of doing this.
-+-
While in the meantime… a mysterious cloaked figure, unhooded however, strolled about calmly throughout Zanarkand near the blitzball stadium. He watched outwards to the see in the opposite direction, nothing the blitzball fans or players would yet see. He stood out upon a ledge high above Zanarkand, gazing into the sea.
Just as he expected. He sensed it was coming, and held his arm out as if to welcome it. The sea slowly formed a monstrous buldge from below, rising and rising, higher and higher as it sped quickly and majestically towards the city of Zanarkand. It resembled a tidal, but had no arching wave. Something about it was most certainly wrong.
-+-
Tidus squirmed from an opponent’s grasp, clutching tightly onto the blitzball he possessed. Retaliating quickly, he broke free and instantly passed the ball to another player, successfully catching it. They continued to swim with acceleration, hearing the low, drowned out cheer of the fans, being within the water.
-+-
This man cloaked in red, remaining astonishingly calm as if he expected this to come, walked along the bridge that led to the stadium. He knew where he needed to go. Stepping into the puddle, the splashed water drops did not splash back into the puddle or on the ground. They slowly levitated in the air for a moment, then slowly began to rise from behind him.
He could feel it. He wasn’t sure if anyone else could, seeing the laughing children chase each other as they passed him. It saddened him to think they would be laughing not much longer. He could feel the gravity defying force slowly beginning to pull at his body, though it did nothing, he could feel it because he expected it.
The monstrosity of a tidal slowly began to tower over Zanarkand as if something resided just underneath it. It was quiet, and deadly. Buildings near it were either swallowed up in its path, or slowly began to break, being pulled towards the water with strong gravitational force. It would swallow everything.
-+-
Tidus knew this was the end. Time was running out, and the two teams scored a current tie. Once he finished the game with his final move, it would be sure the Abes would win, and he would make every one of his fans, out of tens of thousands, very proud. He’d be a hero in history.
He had the current possession of the blitzball, and after positioning it in front of him, he swam straight up with the ball at his head, like a seal nosing a beach ball around with its nose. He continued to swim vertically, speedily, until at last he surfaced the very top of the sphere pool, allowing the blitzball to spin endlessly in front of him. He started to do a backflip, flexing out his right leg in preparation for a downward kick.
Before he could do so, he saw something that made everything stop… His mind sweltered with a sudden fear he had yet to identify. A tidal wave… no, it was something more. He didn’t have time to think. The very next thing he saw were about four or more massive bright orbs of energy being shot from the tidal, screaming passed him and into Zanarkand, slicing through the buildings so fast, it took about three seconds for the buildings to fall, and collapse. Destroyed. One of the attacks struck the blitzball stadium at harsh speeds, and abrubtly disembled the entire stadium in one, large strike.
It exploded. And before he could land back in the sphere pool, it was gone. He reacted quickly, and grabbed onto the ledge of the large arc, holding on for dear life. Thousands of fans immediately began to run for their lives, screaming bloody murder in complete confusion. Safety was nowhere to be found. But it didn’t stop them. Because of the stadium being so crowded, many could not make it out in time, as they were left behind to be crushed and drowned.
The sphere pool completely disembled and was no longer supported by the force of arc. Smoke and dust rose up blindly from the rubble that had collapsed and caved in. Tidus remained hundreds of feet in the air, hanging on with two, sometimes one hand as he lost grip.
He dared not look back into the chaos brought into the once prosperous and free city of Zanarkand. The screams below him dicipated, he knew not whether it was because everyone had escaped, or… No, he couldn’t think about it. He hung on for his own life, and struggled to be one of the few to survive.
Another explosion took place, and shook the entire stadium abruptly.
He lost his grasp, and fell.
A/N: I had to retype this entire chapter by memory… so praise this chappy. I accidentally saved something else over it today, and retyped the entire thing… today. So be proud of me. I’m already half way finished with the third chapter. Whoo, I’m speeding… So, keep me on your alert list.
I’ll satisfy your expectations of this. Hopefully.
