Baralai arrived at Mt. Gagazet first. He hardly even reached the gate however, before he heard the sound of the Celsius behind him and Gippal and Rikku jumped out of it and came running towards him.

"Yo!" Gippal called over to him. "Baralai, what are you doing here?"

Baralai frowned as he thought of the dream. He hoped he wasn't too late. "Looking for Paine." He said trying to stay calm.

"That's great!" said Rikku in agitation. "So are we! So let's find her already!"

Before any of them could respond they heard shouting and they turned to see Tidus and Yuna running up to them, panting, and calling out to them. "Guys! Is Paine here?!" Tidus shouted out to them.

"We don't know!" Rikku shouted in response. "We haven't looked yet!"

When they caught up to the group they all continued as fast as they could to the Mountain's gate. Finally they reached the top of it and spotted Kimahri, who was discussing some important business with another Ronso.

"Kimahri!" Rikku shouted waving her hands wildly and jumping up and down in the snow.

Kimahri, startled glanced up at the group and his face fell. "Kimahri sorry." He said to the Ronso and he walked over to them.

"Is Paine here?" Rikku demanded.

Kimahri stayed silent, and that was enough answer for any of them.

"Please, Kimahri." Yuna pleaded "We need to see her."

Kimahri sighed. "Yuna's friend go to mountain, wish to be alone, ask Kimahri to keep secret."

Baralai chimed in "Please, it's a matter of life and death." To which the others stared at him questioningly.

"Um...have we missed something important Lai?" Gippal asked nervously.

"Guys we don't have time for this!" Tidus exclaimed.

"Please Kimahri!" Yuna pleaded again.

Kimahri sighed. "Your friend at summit, please respect mountain." He said and turned away to resume his meeting.

They didn't need to be told twice. With Baralai in the lead they rushed to the summit.

"You don't think she would've gone to Zanarkand Ruin's do you?" Rikku asked as they looked around for a sign of Paine in the snow.

Yuna shook her head "She knows we'd look there."

"We should split up." Tidus suggested. "We have more luck of finding her that way."

They all agreed and split up in different directions. Baralai couldn't help but notice the beauty and tranquility of this place as he searched. He understood why Paine would want to hide here. If he was going to run away somewhere he'd want it to be here too. But what he didn't understand was why she continued to run when she knew they were searching for her. Did she realize how much they cared about her?

That's when he saw her, hugging her knees, hiding behind a mound of snow. Just seeing her made his heart skip a beat. Maybe his dream was wrong. Maybe he'd made it in time, and they would return home together. But if that was true why did he have that feeling of mounting dread?

"Paine!" he called out to her and her head snapped up. She smiled when she saw him and stood up, walking over to him.

"Looks like you guy's finally found me. I was wondering how long it would take." Her smile faded. "Listen, I...I just need to start over."

Baralai interrupted her. "But why? Paine, we all love you! We want you to come back!"

She shook her head. "We." She said "It's always 'we' with you isn't it?"

"What?" Baralai was so confused, how was he supposed to convince her to come back?

"Why do you have to start over?" he asked taking a step closer to her.

She took a step backwards and replied, "Because I can't take it anymore, Lai...Look, I'm sorry I'm not better. I'm sorry I can't come back and be there for whenever you need me."

Tears filled her eyes and she turned to leave.

"Wait!" Baralai exclaimed.

"Goodbye" she whispered and took off running.

"Stop!" Baralai shouted and ran off after her.

He recognized the feeling of déjà vu immediately, with mounting horror as he chased after her. He called out to her when he saw the dead-end that dropped off a cliff. "STOP!" he shouted. "Paine, you'll fall!"

He was merely a few feet away from her now, as she tried to turn but slipped in the snow. Desperately he dived forward and grabbed one of her hands.

When he looked down at her she was gazing down, the ground below was barely in sight it was so far down. She looked panicked, almost as panicked as Baralai felt. He had to stop her from falling.

He tried to pull her up only to find himself sliding towards the edge. With growing panic he called out to her. "Paine, give me your other hand!"

She smiled sadly and shook her head. "You'll fall with me, idiot. You have to let me go."

He shook his head desperately. "I can't do that Paine." He whispered as tears welled up in his eyes.

She smiled again and tears filled her eyes. "Spira needs you." She said and then she started to pull her hand out of his grip. "Goodbye" she whispered "I love you."

And then she slipped her hand from his grasp and went plummeting towards the ground below, eyes closed, with a smile still plastered on her face.

Baralai screamed, just as he heard Gippal, who had heard the commotion and come running, scream from behind him. Baralai nearly dived off of the edge out of instinct, but Gippal grabbed him and pulled him back.

Sobs wracked his body as his friend pulled him to safety. Paine was gone, she wasn't coming back. How could this happen? Why did the fates do this to him? Why did they do this to her? Fate was cruel, and Baralai would never be the same again.

....

Rikku had just found Tidus and Yuna and regrouped with them when she saw Gippal coming up to them. Behind him was Baralai, who Gippal was dragging along by his shirt collar. Tears streamed down Gippal's eye and Baralai looked like he was about to die; his face was read, he was still sobbing, and completely unaware of his surroundings.

"Gippal!" she called out to him. "What happened!? Did you find her?!"

He didn't say anything until he reached them. He let Baralai go then, who just fell onto the snow as a sobbing mess. Gippal looked up at Rikku unable to say anything.

"P..P..aine is..." he stuttered desperately trying to find his voice.

"Paine?" Rikku prompted. "Paine is what?"

"D..d..d..ead."

Rikku shook her head in denial. Behind her Yuna collapsed to her knees and started to cry. Tidus knelt down and put his arms around her offering whatever comfort he could.

"n..no. No!" Rikku whispered. "Y.y...you're ly...that can't be true!" She closed her eyes and fell over backwards having fainted. Paine was gone, dead, she'd never come back! In that awful cold, in that horrible freezing place Paine had died! And Baralai would forever remember the smile on her face when she left the world behind.

A/N Okay, I just want to say, this is the hardest thing I have ever had to write!  I nearly cried my eyes out just writing this, and so I'm going to apologize to you as the reader for inflicting this upon you.  BUT I promise you, this story has a happy ending. The next two chapters are going to be sad as well (Don't worry, no one else dies!) but after that it shouldn't be as sad. And I repeat, this story has a happy ending. So just keep reading and you'll find out how. ^_~ lol anyway  Thank you guys for reading so far, and I hope you keep reading. Stay tuned for more Final Fantasy goodness (I promise I will have another update on Friday, since I cannot in any right conscious just leave you with this cliffhanger!) Thanks for reading so far. I'm sorry, I love y'all! -Reibun