After the end of Sin, after the disbelief and wild celebrations and the sheer exhaustion of it all, the five who saw that battle and survived it all disperse; Lulu and Wakka have a life in Besaid to return to and Kimahri a place to reclaim, Yuna needs time alone for grieving, and Rikku – Rikku goes back to the desert, the stinging sands and old machina buried beneath the earth; she goes back home, though Home is there no longer, with the goal of building it back again.

It's not a bad life, but it is a solitary one, even with her family working beside her; more than that, she's gotten used to arguments around the campfire, the delicious horror of Yevonite ghost stories – and how messed up is it that Sir Auron always told the scariest ones? – and Yuna's laughter, and it's too quiet without them.

She could get used to quiet, she thinks, she could learn to live with it – until one day she sees Yuna standing at the crest of a dune with a machina weapon at her hip and a gleam in her eyes like a call to action, and she knows that whatever happens next, her life is about to get more interesting, more dangerous, and a lot less lonely; she leaps from her salvaged speeder with a whoop of delight, calls out her old friend's name and runs to meet the future with open arms.