Chapter Text
The sun sparkled off the blue waters of the Mediterranean as Vic strolled the white sand beaches, watching the sun continue its descent into the ocean beyond. Of course, she knew that wasn’t how the Earth’s rotation worked, but it was fun to imagine the clear waters swallowing the sun for a few hours.
Victory Hana Theon. An odd name, to be sure. Who names their kid ‘Victory’? Well, Nathan and Rachelle Theon did. Still wasn’t as bad as her late brother, Braska, though. His disappearance fractured their family beyond repair. While some memories faded, Vic remembered the day she got home late from Cheer practice and the babysitter was in hysterics because Braska never came home. According to his teachers, her young, eight year old brother, never even got to school that morning.
Her mom died shortly after one of his little disney light-up shoes was found on the side of the road, torn to bits. She took her own life.
Vic had moved from the states years ago, to Collioure, France. The small village was home to no more than three thousand people, so it was quiet and peaceful in the off-season.
What Vic didn’t see as she turned to head to her small chateau, was the huge wave about to crash into the shore as she turned away from the twilit sky and sparkling water.
Vic didn’t see it before it swept her up, and away from her lonely life. If someone had told her that morning that she was about to be on the adventure of a lifetime with a niece she didn’t know about, in a world that wasn’t her own, where her baby brother was revered as a hero, she would’ve locked that person in a Psychiatric Hospital.
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Vic woke up on what she believed was one of the neighboring island's beaches. That was, until an odd ball nearly pelted her in the face before she moved out of the way and ducked beneath a small wave. “Hey! Why would you try to hit me with… a bumpy ball?” She scooped the oddest blue and white ball out of the water as she swam toward the beach. She still wore her royal blue bikini and the lace cover up, which she shrugged off and left floating in the water as she got closer to the strangely dressed occupants of the beach.
“Yo! Toss it here!” A man with oddly styled bright ginger hair called out as she exited the water fully. He sounded almost Hawaiian in his accent, and had on what looked like jeans under a yellow, topless, jumpsuit.
She tossed it back to him, nearly toppling him. “Who are ya, then? Never seen you ‘ere on Besaid before.” One of the other guys said, wiping sweat from bushy blonde eyebrows.
Besaid? She’d never heard of that island before. And she’d lived in France for the last ten years, since she turned eighteen and could legally leave her dad’s. “Uh. I don’t really know how I got here. I don’t remember much of what happened before waking up here. I was walking on my beach, watching the sunset and then I was here.” But where is here?
“Come on, let’s get ya something ta eat and some clothes. I’m sure Yuna and you are the same size and she’s off on some adventure with Rikku. She won’t mind. I’m Wakka by the way.” He spoke quite quickly, and Vic nodded.
“I’m Victory. You can call me Vic.” She said, and Wakka kinda screwed up his face, but smiled and led her to a small village just as the sun rose into the sky.
Wakka led her to a large tent…hut? Inside was bare and minimal. Someone used to live here. Probably that Yuna girl. But no one had been here in some time if the thickening layer of dust was anything to go by. The bed was small, only big enough for one person. It had an elaborately designed loomed blanket folded at the foot, and a feather-down pillow sat atop.
“No one lives here?” She asked, but Wakka was gone when she turned towards the cloth that billowed softly over the doorway. Vic found a chest of drawers, opened the top one to find loose, loomed dresses, and they looked as if they’d never been worn. She pulled out a cream and pink one and pulled it over her suddenly exhausted body.
Vic laid down on the soft mattress, pulling the pillow under her head, but ignoring the blanket. The air was humid and sticky and hot, but sleep won the battle and Vic’s eyes fluttered closed. She had only been on this island for a couple of hours, but her body felt battered and worn, her muscles sore. She didn’t know where Spira was, or even how she got here, but hopefully she could find a way home. She hoped she could find a way home, anyway.
Voices outside woke her hours after the sun had fallen. “Yuna’s only family is dead, Wakka! Braska didn’t have any other children! You know that.” A woman’s harsh words came to her ears. But she… she had said Braska . Even had he been transported to this place, he’d only be nineteen. It had only been eleven years since he vanished.
She silently sat up, and pulled her knees to her chin as she listened to Wakka, and who Vic assumed was his wife? Argue. About a man named Braska. But they spoke about him in the past tense. Was he not here anymore? Did he grow old and die here? And children? She had nieces and nephews, then? Vic’s head spun with this information, and she didn’t feel the tears rolling down her face until one landed on her knee. Vic angrily wiped them away.
“But Lord Braska talked about a sister, ya? Auron said somethin’ ‘bout it once too, ya know. While we were in Macalania.” He said, not noticing Vic peeking out of the doorway and watching them speak just outside her dwelling.