Disclaimer: I do not, nor will ever, own FFX-2 or SquareEnix. Or any published song lyrics.

Author's Note: SPOILER! This is a songfic to "Imaginary" by Evanescence. Yuna tells about what happens in Chapter 3 at Djose Temple (the second time we visit it, when it's overrun by fiends like the other temples). This is an edited version of the first post. I finally got around to playing the game and was able to fill in the correct dialogue for the cutscenes you can only see once. Still not quite correct, but this is the best I can do for now.

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Field of Paper Flowers

I linger in the doorway of alarm clocks screaming,
Monsters calling my name.

Just a white void all around. It's so bright, my mind whispers. Light surrounds me, so bright that it consumes all. There is nothing here. The wind rushes by as I fall headfirst into the vastness, the pressure hurts so.

I remember another time this happened, when I escaped from my own wedding as a summoner. Now it's happening all over again.

How could I forget so quickly that there was a gaping hole behind me, when I jumped to avoid the last-ditch attack from the heretic aeon of Djose, Ixion? It was kind of hard to miss when I entered the Chamber of the Fayth with Rikku and Paine. Two-year-old memories came rushing back to me. I remembered kneeling in that room, a naïve summoner praying to the sacred fayth to entrust me with his aeon, the Hymn resonating in his voice all around me. I remembered the powerful surge of energy in my body as I received the spirit, leaving me light-headed and weak in the knees when I emerged from the Chamber. And now, two years later, I had had to fight the very being I once relied on.

How long am I going to fall? I cannot call to Valefor to save me this time. I cannot stay here. I will go mad if I must stay. I want to be back in Spira. This is not the world I know. It is a netherworld, capable of torturing my already-fragile mind.

Let me stay where the wind will whisper to me,
Where the raindrops, as they're falling, tell a story.

"Can you hear me?" Out of nowhere, a voice—clearly male. For a split-second I am frightened, but truthfully I could not care less that I see no one. A voice means a sign of life, somewhere in this nothingness.

"Yes," I reply softly.

"Ah, you can hear me," he says. I hear calm happiness in his voice. It is soothing.

Suddenly I stop falling. I am floating in mid-air. I gently set my feet down. Clearly I have touched some sort of ground, but I still see nothing but white.

"I can't see you," I say, looking around. "Where are you?"

"Right here." Immediately all goes black.

x-x-x

An unfamiliar sound draws me back to consciousness, like some magical swell of power nearby. I slowly open my eyes, see a pyrefly float lazily past my face. The world is sideways. I realize that I am lying down…on a bed of flowers. I raise myself up, look to see the waterfall behind me. It is a familiar place, I know it. So much green…and beyond it, sunset-colored clouds, bands of colored light rippling across the sky. A paradise.

The Farplane.

In my field of paper flowers and candy clouds of lullaby,
I lie inside myself for hours and watch my purple sky fly over me.

I look down to see that I am in my Songstress dressphere. But how? I climb to my feet, looking all around. Pyreflies swirl around me, setting my rippled lavender dress aglow with rainbow light. I can feel their other-worldly power. What's happening?

Wait just one freaking minute. The only time someone has pyreflies floating around her is if she's dead.

Oh, Yevon, I can't be dead. Somebody pinch me, wake me up. But if I'm not dead, then what the hell am I doing here?

Don't say I'm out of touch
With this rampant chaos—your reality.

I stop turning. Out of the mist melts a figure. Is this the man who spoke to me as I was falling? But that profile is unmistakable…

At last he comes clearly into view. I feel the breath sucked right out of me. Yevon, is it who I hope it is? The one I have missed for two years? The one I have loved with all my heart? Please let it be…

A smile graces his face. "I finally found you," he says.

"Is that…really you?" I ask in a small, hesitant voice.

"It is me. Shuyin."

Who is this? Not the one I have longed to see, not the dear friend I know. This is a complete stranger who is breaking my heart with his resemblance of my lost friend. My hope dies again.

"I've waited so long…Lenne."

Okay, seriously, this can't be real. It can't. I turn away, overcome by deep disappointment. And inexplicable fear. "But I'm not Lenne," I say.

"Lenne," he says, almost in a pleading voice. He seems not to have heard me. "We disappeared together, but when I awoke, I was alone. I looked for you for so long.

"While I wandered, I realized something: Spira hasn't really changed at all. Everyone's still fighting over nothing, still dying like they used to. A thousand years have passed, and they can't leave the hatred behind."

I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge:
The nightmare I built my own world to escape.

Well, I have to admit he's got that right. He keeps talking, his voice betraying his frustration…his anger.

"I'm through waiting; I'll fix it. This world continues to fail us, and what's worse, I failed to protect you.

"Vegnagun will make that all go away."

Oh Yevon, no. What's he going to do? Obliterate all of Spira just like Lord Seymour planned to do as Sin?

"And we'll fade again, together. Help me do it…Lenne." I feel his gloved hand on my shoulder. A shiver vibrates all through me. I remember when Tidus did that so long ago, as he left our campfire on the outskirts of Zanarkand, when the end of my pilgrimage was in sight. And I thought I felt his touch when he faded away after Sin's defeat.

Don't touch me, my mind whispers, as if this Shuyin can hear. And of course, he does not. He suddenly spins me around and crushes me in his arms. I do not return the gesture. My own arms hang at my sides, much as they did in that publicity stunt of an embrace that Lord Seymour pulled at my wedding.

As I stand there trapped in Shuyin's grip, the pyreflies swirl around me as they did before, my dress glowing again with their power. I feel an overbearing presence, almost like someone else has taken up residence in my body. Whose feelings are these? Lenne's? Mine?

He pulls back to look at me. Those eyes…oh Yevon, why does he have to be such a spitting image of Tidus? Shuyin presses me close to him again, his cheek against my hair. We just stand there. I still will not hug him back. I wish it were Tidus holding me…

"Open your eyes!"

Another voice, a familiar one. Abruptly Shuyin pushes me away. My Songstress outfit fades away and my Gunner garb takes its place. Shuyin appears to transform into Baralai. I remember just a little while ago, Rikku and Paine and I were spying on the secret meeting he had with Nooj and Gippal, in the bowels of Bevelle, where Vegnagun once rested; pyreflies streamed from Nooj's body into Baralai's…was it the spirit of Shuyin?

I turn to see what was making that grinding noise. It is a portal in the glen, a swirling vortex wrought of magic. Where it leads I do not know.

Baralai is about to enter it. Nooj and Gippal come up alongside me. Baralai turns to us and says, "The end is not far now." And then he is gone.

The others start to follow him, but turn to me. "Give this to Paine," Nooj requests, offering me a sphere. "It's all I was able to find."

"Yeah, give her this one, too." Gippal does the same.

I am confused. "What…?" I ask.

Nooj answers my unfinished question. "Our wills."

I gasp in shock.

"He's kidding," Gippal relieves me. "Just make sure Paine gets 'em, all right?"

"How do you know her?" I ask him.

"The four of us go way back." That's all Gippal says.

They walk toward the portal. "Don't go!"

"Don't worry, everything's under control."

"Take care of things topside," Nooj puts in. That I can understand, given the state of affairs in Spira.

The two of them disappear into the portal. I am alone again. Suddenly all goes dark. Again.

x-x-x

All I know is, there's still grass under my feet. Maybe I'm in the same glen; I can't tell. Everything is dark, except for a shaft of light coming from somewhere above. This whole thing is getting really annoying.

I don't know what to do. Everywhere I look, I find only questions. But more than anything, I'm just…angry.

The pent-up frustration forces its way to the surface. I start pacing furiously around the space, like a caged Coeurl. "One thing after another, and I'm already confused to begin with." Well, that's obvious since I'm talking out loud to someone who isn't even there. "Hey! Where am I?"

As if I am even going to get an answer. I slow my pacing and finally stop. Out of the blue I remember what Tidus did when he was so angry that he could barely contain himself.

I scream.

The fury is gone. In its place…despair. "I'm all alone," I sigh. How long does it have to be this way? Damn it, why does it have to be this way?

Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming—
Cannot cease for the fear of silent night.

A sound breaks the silence…a whistle, distant but clear. I jump back to my feet. I know I've heard that whistle before. Again I look all around, disappointed to still find only darkness. "Where are you?" I whisper.

There it is again! My answer comes faster than I expected. A glowing silhouette appears, vanishing abruptly when I turn to it. There's no mistaking that profile this time; I know it's Tidus.

And again! The shadow materializes, walks along as casually as if he were the real guy. "Wait!" I call to him. But then he disappears again as I catch up to him.

Once more, the whistle sounds. He comes again, but only to walk away, as if on an invisible stairway. I follow him. It has to lead back to the surface. It feels like I'm walking on air, literally. Light around my feet guides my way.

Once more I am plunged into total darkness.

Oh, how I long for the deep-sleep dreaming…
The goddess of imaginary light.

x-x-x

Sharp cracks, like sparks on a broken wire, and the whispery sighs of pyreflies wake me. I open my eyes. I am on the floor in Vegnagun's chamber.

I tell you, I'm really getting tired of these spells that make me feel like I've fainted. I shouldn't be surprised at what I have just seen and experienced, but I still feel like it was all some hallucination.

In my field of paper flowers and candy clouds of lullaby,
I lie inside myself for hours and watch my purple sky fly over me.

"Come in, Yuna. Yuna!"

Buddy's voice brings me fully awake. I climb to my feet. As much as I want to, I can't stay in a world wrought of dreams and indulgent spirits. I do not know if Tidus is really out there anywhere. But he's somewhere. I can't give up hope. I have to go on searching.

So I look up with a smile, grateful to be back. "Yuna, reporting in."

"YUNA!" I hear everyone shout happily.

Time to get back to work…and to life. This is my story, after all.

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So there you have it! Probably longer than your average songfic. Sometimes you might have to think to figure out how the lyrics fit, but I guess a piece of writing is supposed to make you think in one way or another.

Hope you like!