AN:- AU fic - what if Yuna had chosen one of her guardians?

ooo

When they come at last to Zanarkand to stand before the one who will forever be the first and the last of them all, the choice that she is given steals her breath away with its cruelty. She looks into the cold, empty eyes of a woman who died centuries ago and she understands then that the sacrifice she is being offered is as nothing compared to the one that this woman made. To live forever in death, parted for an eternity from one she held dearest, that is a pitiless task for which there can never be reward enough. Yuna looks into the dark gaze of one who has always known the truth, and what she sees there freezes her to the bone.

Beside her, Tidus is shot through with his father's fury and the aspirations of a heart full of light. She can see the hope in his eyes as she turns to him; the belief, the denial of fate, and for a moment she sees how it could be. They would stand together, side by side, he with his sword in his hand, she with the rising power of the Aeons at her back and alongside them both would be the rest of her guardians - Lulu, Wakka, Kimahri. They'd be together at the end when Sin came, and the strength of their hearts would carry them on and guide their swords. There would be peace, and a Calm that went on forever.

They could do it, except-

Except if it could be done then surely it would already have been so. Stronger summoners than she have trodden this path for centuries and not once has the cycle been broken. Her father would have done it had he been able. Her father could have done anything.

But he didn't, and neither can she.

So she smiles, even though she can hardly breathe through the fear, and she tells him no, this isn't his story, or her story, it's Spira's story. None of them own their own stories, because they're all tied one to each other, and no single person has the power or the right to risk the fate of all upon a single wild fancy.

She watches the horrible understanding dawn in his eyes and she doesn't step forward to touch him even when it takes both Wakka and Kimahri to hold him back. Behind him she sees Sir Auron break, the last of his hope gone as finally he understands what Braska had been telling him for all those years, that there is no hope save this. It pains her to see him kneel, slowly and clumsily as though his years have come upon him all at once, as he carefully sets down his sword and bows his head in grief. She hears Rikku's silence, here at the end where the words no longer mean anything at all, and it's like a darkness that falls across everything.

Yuna smiles, even though she doesn't feel like it, and takes Lulu's hand. Together they reach out for the light and another chapter of the story draws to a close.