AN: I do not own any of the following beyond the basic, and original, plot therein. Final Fantasy X is owned by Square-Enix and I make no profit from this writing.
Yuna's Final Aeon
Yuna stood over the injured Yunalesca. Left like this, she would eventually recover, as the Unsent did. She had to end this, here and now. No more sacrifices for a lie; those that came before were simply wrong and they would prove it.
She held her staff out and chanted soft words. Her Power reached into Yunalesca's form and flowed over the bonds that bound her soul to her physical form. The thin strands of Power snapped and Yunalesca's body faded away.
Pyreflies floated into the air from her. Left alone again anything could happen; she could reform, become lost and turn into Fiends, or even find her way to the Farplane herself. Yuna brought her Power over the Pyreflies and gently guided their will.
Yuna projected peace over them, acceptance. She showed them the way to the Farplane, and the Pyreflies drifted away. One light briefly touched her.
She could feel Yunalesca's memories, memories of turning her husband into a Fayth. Fear, despair, regret; a thousand years later it ached worse than anything she'd known. It drifted off and Yuna knew they were right. Yunalesca herself regretted the Final Summoning.
The final battle with Sin.
They'd all agreed to do everything they could to end the cycle of Sin's rebirth. Even going so far as to commit by Sending Lady Yunalesca; the only person, living or not, who knew how to perform the Final Summoning.
Like it or not, that path was closed. Ironically, the Crusaders had been right all along, humans needed to rise up against Sin themselves and take their own world back. They would atone with their own power, not by borrowing time with a twisted ritual.
The whole party had run atop the Highwind's deck. Sin's black form grew ever closer, suddenly more docile from the Hymn of the Fayth. They came up along the side of it; Sin's huge fin was just over their starboard side.
Cid and Brother were speaking Al Bhed over the speakers, mostly to themselves. Then- "Something shined underneath that fin! I'll bet that's a weak spot!"
They had a target.
With the first volley from the smaller cannons Sin counter-attacked. It wasn't really fighting back; if Sin fought like it meant it the Highwind would be obliterated. No, this was just an automatic response; Sinscales, powerful ones, launched at the ship, peppering the entire surface.
Lulu had reacted immediately, building up a powerful spell. As just the first scales hit the ship a massive lightning storm was conjured between the ship and the thickest pocket of Sinscales. Their armored hides made effective attractors to the lightning and dozens of the creatures shattered into a charred mess upon impact.
Wakka, meanwhile, proved his ace status by deflecting the Sinscales mid-air with his studded ball. He would bounce it off three or four scales before the final hit would send it flying back to him.
Auron, Tidus, Kimahri and Rikku scrabbled around the deck dispatching any scales that arrived intact, or the unfolded beasts within.
When Lulu finally fell to her knees, exhausted, and the lightning storm subsided, a series of hoof-beats then reverberated through the deck. Tidus stole a moment to glace at Ixion, standing proudly on the deck, Yuna determined beside him.
The great Aeon reared up, and when it hit the deck again a new lightning storm burst in place of Lulu's. It was so powerful that the Sinscales it hit simply blasted apart.
"Main cannon ready!" Cid shouted over the speakers.
The well trained team came together beside Yuna, and she raised a Protect shell around them. A moment later the Highwind had put enough distance between itself and Sin, and the powerful cannon fired.
The entire fin was blown off, Sin howled. Suddenly it whipped toward them, faster than the Highwind could ever maneuver. It battered into the starboard side and sent it listing through the air. Tidus belatedly realized they were all screaming in the pandemonium.
Ixion simply slid across the smooth deck and over the side, uniquely unsuited for this maneuvering. Tidus and Kimahri had both grabbed Yuna as she slid down the deck; they clutched to a rough hole that a Sinscale had punched in its surface. Kimahri had her under an arm, and Tidus had hold of her dress; she was busy, however, chanting over her staff.
Before Tidus could question it, he saw a burst of Pyreflies from over the edge of the deck; she'd dismissed Ixion before he could hit the ground.
Always thinking of others, he thought.
Tidus took a moment to glance around, Auron had anchored himself with his sword, Rikku was clutching his leg; Lulu had hardly moved at all, she'd quickly cast a burst of Ice below her to form a crude platform. Only Wakka had brushed with disaster, he was dangling off the railing with one hand; it would have been less dangerous if he'd let go of that damned ball.
The Highwind gradually recovered and righted itself; the whole party formed back up, gasping for breath and crouching close together.
"We can't do that every time we hit that thing!" Tidus yelled, partially over the roaring wind and partially out of a desperate plea.
"Ya, new plan, who's up?-" Wakka chimed in.
They were silent for a while. Then Yuna stood up from the group- "we hit it from two sides. Sin will attack the heaviest hit."
"Yunie," Rikku responded promptly, "I don't think any of us can hit harder than that cannon."
Yuna held out her staff and chanted. A moment later the great dragon-Aeon Bahamut landed and splintered the deck just behind her. "He can," she stated simply. Tidus had never known Yuna to willingly sacrifice anyone, not even an eternal Aeon; this gave testament to her determination.
Bahamut looked so fierce, crouched and rumbling. He'd thought that the Fayth always fought with inhuman determination for their Summoner, but Bahamut simply seethed with an ill-contained anger; and he was glancing at Sin.
"Cid!-" Tidus yelled, waving his arms at the Bridge windows.
"Yeah kid?-" came a response over the speaker.
"Do it again! Other side!-" he called with one hand forming a cone around his mouth, and the other gesturing wildly.
"You got it!-" with Bahamut there he must have guessed their tactic already.
The ship turned back toward Sin, slipping around to its other side. The cannon was already charged this time, and they prepared to blast apart the other fin. Bahamut lifted off and flew around to Sin's face. If Tidus knew him at all, he'd leave a gaping hole where Sin's eyes used to be.
"Firing in-" was all Cid managed to say.
Sin fired a beam of blue energy through Bahamut. It hit dead center, and Bahamut simply fell out of the sky in two pieces.
Tidus was stunned into complete inaction. Not a sound, no struggle; Bahamut was simply dead and limp, just like that. What hope do-
Sin's massive body swung out away from them, its face came eerily close to the ship. It bellowed once, sounding like a massive whale.
Yuna, standing apart from the party, threw up a Shell over the group; she hit the deck on her knees , muttering. Tidus' hair stood on end, it was the most solid Shell he'd ever been near; he couldn't even feel the presence of magic outside the barrier.
He and Kimahri sprinted out from the cover of the spell, to Yuna. Sin fired a massive blast of energy into the Highwind. It was so powerful that the ship hardly shifted from the impact, that portion was simply vaporized.
Kimahri stopped just in front of Yuna, facing Sin. He rammed his spear into the deck and roared, his own stolen magic, the Mighty Guard, shimmered in front of him. Tidus collided with Yuna, gripping her tightly to him, she shouted.
"Ifrit!"
The great beast slammed into the deck in front of the rest of the party, "save them!-" she cried. Ifrit glanced back toward Yuna, and nodded his great head once.
The destructive beam from Sin began to rise toward the deck. It shrank as Sin ended his attack, but it would reach them. Now it was weak enough to push the ship back in its entirety as it carved its way through.
In the last desperate moments Yuna threw up barrier after barrier before Ifrit and Kimahri. Tidus was even attuned enough to magic to feel that her personal reserves were exhausted, but still she somehow summoned the strength.
Ifrit created his own Shell in front of him with an efficiency and power that Tidus had never seen from a human casting magic. Then his own Shield; the incredibly powerful defensive spell all Aeons possessed.
Auron strode up behind the great beast and rammed his blade into the deck, bracing himself on it he yelled to the others behind him and they moved behind him.
Finally, the blast reached them. Tidus held tight to Yuna, she let out a strangled sob when her last spell simply shattered into nothingness.
The massive wave of energy began tearing through their barriers immediately. Moments into the assault Ifrit had to resort to taking the brunt of the attack on his personal barrier. All of Yuna's Shells protecting Kimahri were shredded; his Mighty Guard began to succumb.
Then a huge burst of power exploded in front of them. Tidus glanced over to see Lulu, the doll at her feet was smoldering with Power. Normally she always looked graceful and relaxed when casting, as if it were the easiest thing in the world to her. Now she was braced with both hands out, shaking with effort. Each successive explosion resulted in another rocking response in her body.
Finally the little doll simply burst into flame, and Lulu fell to her knees. A look of fierce determination on her face, she still had one hand out, and the Ultima explosions continued.
The force of the blasts counteracted the dwindling beam from Sin. However, they soon stopped; Lulu simply collapsed, unconscious.
In this time Ifrit's Shield had failed and the great beast desperately held himself in place on the deck. He couldn't last long, and his battered body burst into Pyreflies. The deck itself was peeling back, threatening to simply hurl them all into empty sky.
The protective barriers in front of Kimahri and Auron both failed as the blast finally ended. It wasn't soon enough though. Both warriors were struck, and offered themselves as shields to those behind them. Kimahri's weapon quickly shattered, leaving him to be blown away, a bloody mess. Tidus' back lit up in unimaginable pain for the last instant of the attack.
Finally it was over. Tidus held Yuna, shaking; Auron collapsed to the ground and exploded into brilliant Pyreflies. Then the Highwind lurched and fell.
Tidus couldn't recall any conscious thought as they fell through the air; simply panic and powerlessness. In a brief moment of clarity he'd cast Haste on Valefor, who Yuna must have summoned. But soon he was amidst the shattering debris as the ship hit the ground.
He'd prayed to his Gods and Spira's during their descent. He'd asked that they just let him do this one thing right, to just let him protect Yuna one more time.
Tidus lay atop Yuna; the smell of ionized metal was overpowered by that of charred flesh. He held her tightly for a moment and then pushed himself up from her slowly, pain written plainly across his face. His eyes were happy, relieved, peering down at her uninjured frame.
Yuna couldn't yet move or speak. Somewhere between the impact forcing the air from her and the horror of seeing the blood slowly soaking into his clothes and forming on his lips she'd lost those abilities. People wrote and spoke of it, injuries leading to blood flowing from the mouth; that only happened with torn up cheeks from an impact on the teeth, or a dire internal injury. Tidus' mouth was fine.
He rolled suddenly onto his side, sputtering and coughing. She could see the resting wreckage of the Highwind; most of the party remaining weren't yet moving, but seemed mostly uninjured from the crash. However the Highwind itself was another story, more of the lower decks were crushed and torn open in the descent; Yuna would be happy to find that even half of the crew had survived the last few minutes.
Once she could breathe she found the strength returning to her body. Yuna quickly pushed herself up to examine Tidus. She could barely glance at his back before he quickly grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back down.
His entire back was scorched, and what remained of his clothes was embedded in the charred flesh. Steel shrapnel from the hull of the ship littered his back as well; at least one long piece was piercing his left lung. It was bad, worse than she could fix in time with magic even if she had any Power left. Cure could recover simple injury and Revive could even heal mortal wounds, but this was far worse than she could have healed. Nothing could bring back the dead, and Tidus was dying.
"Yuna," he spoke roughly, forcing the words past the blood, "you have to do it." He was looking into her eyes and saw her confusion immediately, "make me a Fayth, the Final Aeon."
"No," she gently took his head in her arms with tears streaming down her face, "we can break the cycle!"
Sin was slowly turning away from the Highwind, toward Bevelle, the low sounds it uttered sounded furious and pained.
"We still can," he said, slower now, carefully to stifle coughing, "not like this. People are dying, our friends are dying; I'm dying."
"I don't know how!" she sobbed, clutching him tighter.
"I trust you," he said simply, pushing her away. She kneeled over him, taking his bloody hand in hers; he held tightly.
Yuna racked her mind for a solution, for something. She thought briefly of the aching sorrow she had felt from Yunalesca's Pyrefly, it helped. She held tightly to that awful pain and the answers slowly appeared to her.
Souls taken from willing bodies. She had to perform a Sending on a living person, on Tidus. Yuna closed her eyes and focused on the energies around her. She sharpened it to the small body before her, it still thrummed with life and held tightly to its soul.
Yuna attempted to force that bond apart; it yielded slightly but did not break as it did in a normal sending. She poured her dwindling Power into it now, it battered against the bond, burning it away. Tidus was obviously some kind of pain from this, he was howling in front of her and clutching tightly to her hand. Then suddenly, he let go, his body and his soul. Tidus' spirit simply broke free, unanchored. His hand suddenly felt colder.
Yuna slumped a little, more hot tears poured down her face; but she could not stop. She couldn't afford to feel it all yet.
Turned to stone, the soul of the Fayth dream. Now she would guide the Pyreflies to the Farplane normally.
Yuna guided fragmented spirit of Tidus, not to the Farplane, but to a point just ahead of them. They fluttered together there, just above the ground. As Fiends were Pyreflies and rage manifest, she needed to create the form of a Fayth now.
She could feel his thoughts and emotions vaguely; she would normally calm those thoughts and guide them toward acceptance. She couldn't let Tidus find peace yet. She found the small 'thread' that felt of righteous fury; the desire to destroy Sin to save Spira. This thought she reinforced, brought it to the forefront of his fragmented self until it bound the pieces together.
The Pyreflies coalesced into a single bright light driven by this need, and from that point a stone formed. It grew out organically and formed a stone representation of his 'self'. It looked nothing like his human body of course, but to Yuna it was instantly recognizable as Tidus.
She wasn't done yet; now to set him to dream. She felt his thoughts again, whole and intact once more, and gently calmed his mind to a peaceful sleep. As he drifted away and began to dream the stone began to radiate Power. More than Tidus ever held. More than a person could ever hold inside their body and not burn up.
He was still just as single-minded in his existence as a Fiend, but instead of a jealous rage toward the living it was his righteous fury toward Sin that directed his mind in sleep. And so he dreamed. He dreamed of the only thing his mind wanted, defeating Sin, of having the power to do it.
The last moments of his life had driven that point home, he had to be a Fayth and embody an Aeon; the Final Aeon; Yuna's Final Aeon.
Yuna let go finally, both of Tidus' hand and of the Summoning. The Power continued to grow inside the Fayth stone. She knew she was done now, the fragment of Yunalesca's memory matched eerily with this moment. This was the moment when she realized her regret. Yuna waited, knowing now that she couldn't stop it if she wanted; she wondered if Yunalesca had tried to stop it.
Despite their struggle, despite even rising against Yunalesca, they couldn't stop the cycle. In fact, the secret of the Final Aeon would likely die with her, and doom this to be the final Calm. A dim hope hid inside her heart that Tidus would find a way to break the cycle.
Jecht had come close; he'd crossed between worlds and resisted his fate as best he could. His son had grown so much during their pilgrimage, if anyone could, she knew it was him. But could anyone defeat Sin and break the cycle?
The Power was immense now, she backed away from it as it grew further and finally to some unknown limit. The Fayth stone began to glow; not the glow of magic and Pyreflies, the dull angry red of a heated blade.
Yuna timidly tried to touch Tidus' mind again, and had to quickly pull back her magical 'hand' in surprise. The Power burned her so that she couldn't touch it, but Tidus' soul was trapped there inside. It was like she'd come to close to campfire, but he was laying in the coals.
Yuna fell to her knees and elbows and made a strangled sob. The dried streaks left from her earlier tears were quickly renewed. Yuna cried hot tears of despair. She'd just saved the world from Sin, done everything she could to save as many people as she could, but it wasn't enough.
She'd failed.
Most of the brave crew and innocent refugees aboard the Highwind were dead, because she was too stupid to face the truth. Bevelle would certainly be assaulted before the Final Aeon could confront Sin. Even her friends Auron and Kimahri had died before her eyes. She'd Sent Lady Yunalesca, the only one who knew how to teach the Final Summoning, and taken her place as the sole possessor of that knowledge, only to go and get herself killed!
Worse yet, the cause of her tears, was the pain Tidus was going through, and the pain he would likely be enduring as the next incarnation of Sin.
Tidus' fractured 'self' had coalesced, the puzzle pieces fitting nicely back together. Yuna's warm guiding hand leading him to it. The agony of dying of grievous wounds couldn't compare to your soul being torn out, or the fact he'd had to just let it happen. But through it all, Yuna's warmth was beside him.
Now he drifted, no senses to rely on, just existing. Yuna touched his mind.
Sin.
He felt his whole being shiver in terror of the monstrous beast. He wanted to ignore it.
Sin, Yuna insisted. Yes… he was supposed to fight Sin. To protect Yuna by defeating it forever.
Spira.
Tidus took a moment to let the thoughts settle. He needed to fight Sin. Not to protect Yuna; to protect all of Spira. All of their friends, all of the innocents, even to free his father.
Yes.
More and more his mind focused onto this point, defeat Sin for Spira, it repeated into every fiber of his being. She was manipulating his will, but her warmth…
She had to do this, and he'd told her to. Tidus accepted it. A moment later, that warmth covered his entire self. Yuna settled in around him, and he drifted away to slumber. Soon he dreamed of Sin.
The gentle warmth was soon gone. He burned now, worse than explosion on the Highwind had burned. It wasn't Yuna either, it was raw Power from his own soul. His drive to destroy Sin burned hot in his core.
Tidus endured this growing power as best he could until it drove everything else from his mind.
Finally he could bear no more and simply screamed to himself, alone in the scorching darkness.
Tidus' eyes shot open. He was looking at the ground. The shrapnel in his back was still there, the burn ached dully. He could vaguely remember being in much more pain, this felt as such a reprieve.
He shakily rose up on his hands to see Yuna in front of him, crying and screaming. She was faced to something just past him, he turned to see it.
A Fayth. In that Fayth is was like looking into a mirror. He looked back upon himself in the stone.
No, he thought, it's more like I'm in the mirror looking back at the real me.
Sin.
His entire being throbbed suddenly. Tidus screamed. His world blacked out around him immediately.
Tidus' head exploded in pain.
Rikku and Lulu finally reached Yuna. She was sitting, leaning back with horror plain on her face. It was obvious why to the both of them. A new Fayth was yards away from her, glowing a sullen red; Tidus' mangled body was somehow raised up on its knees and howling inhumanly.
Yuna was muttering to herself and Rikku could just barely make out the words on her lips, I'm so sorry, I'll take it all back.
The two of them tried to haul her up with limited success; soon all they could do was stare on in just as much horror and try to block out the howling scream.
Tidus' mind fractured again. Not the peaceful dream-state fracture from splitting into Pyreflies, but from his brain was torn apart. His head inflated with the rest of him, new tissues ballooned into place in the old.
The first few moments Tidus spent in a whole new kind of loneliness, his mind was scattered into isolated pieces and drenched in the worst pain he'd felt yet. He couldn't even try to cope with it, no part was coherent enough to compensate for the pain.
When finally it came back together he found that his sense of self was expanded. He could think faster and feel more than ever before, but all he could feel was agony.
Finally he could try to deal with the pain, ever in the forefront of his mind was that he needed this to fight Sin. It helped, but Tidus was feeling his body get torn apart and rebuilt over and over.
Scaly armor burst through bloody holes in his skin, bone shattered into pieces only to form several new bones and shatter again. His insides were in constant flux, it felt like he was going to simultaneously vomit up his intestines and have them burst.
Hard bone plates suddenly burst out from his left arm, one after another until the entire thing was covered. Then they rooted in his flesh and hardened.
Nothing inside him simply grew larger, the old tissues burst open and then new tissues grew from the torn wound. By this time he'd have done anything to stop it.
He became vaguely aware that he'd been screaming at the top of his (intermittently bloody) lungs the entire time as the pain finally subsided. His focus on destroying Sin wavered when the pain finally ended.
Tidus was innately aware of his appearance now. He was still remotely human at least. His head was tiny compared to his massive body, larger than even Bahamut. Around his head and shoulders his skin was thick and leathery, with occasional scales grown here and there. Then they became more numerous down his arms and torso. Each arm was as wide as his torso, and all of it was thickly muscled.
His left arm was plated on the outside and bare inside; a massive shield.
The right arm was solidly covered in scales and was clutched to a nightmarish sword. No, he thought when trying to move his fingers, bone and scale had grown over in melded with the hilt. The sword was bound to him irrevocably.
His mostly human legs were similarly covered in scales, and ended in unmistakably reptilian feet. Somehow his penchant for baggy shorts had translated into a long shimmering scale facsimile of shorts around his midsection. Not that it mattered; he quickly realized that underneath he was quite sexless.
His mind though, he was hyper-aware of everything around him. His memory was perfect, especially vivid were the agonizing trials he'd just experienced becoming the Final Aeon.
That horrible pain unlike anything else. That pain echoed in his mind; it flayed the edges of his sanity. And then he looked around him.
His eyes no longer simply focused on a single point, everything was brilliantly clear and new colors beyond anything he had known illuminated the world. Then his gaze fell upon Yuna, Rikku, and Lulu below him. He wondered briefly where the others that had survived were, or if any others had actually survived.
Rikku and Lulu were trying to pull Yuna away, but she was fighting them and trying to get back to him.
She'd done all this to him and she still wanted more.
The pain, the burning, the loneliness, she wanted more! Tidus howled again, now in furious anger.
The three of them collapsed. They'd left bloody marks on Yuna's arms and shoulders trying to pull her away. All three of them had trickles of blood coming down from their ears from his screams earlier; Lulu and Rikku tried to cover their ears against the sound of his howl, but Yuna now just sank to her knees.
He easily reached down and plucked her from the ground, gripping her small frame in a single hand.
He tightened his grip.
How could she have done this to me? How could she love me and put me through all this!
A small boy in purple appeared floating beside her, she didn't know, he insisted.
How could she not know! Magic is asserting your will over nature; she couldn't do this to me without knowing it completely!
No, he spoke softly against Tidus' rage. Summoning is different; she didn't know what would happen.
Rikku was crying and screaming, no she was begging for him to stop. Lulu was hurling spell after spell it him, but the magic simply shattered into fantastic sparks against his hide.
You lie! Tidus shouted back to Bahamut.
You asked for this, was his simple reply.
Tidus snarled and tightened his grip further. Yuna screamed as the air was forced from her lungs. He felt the slight release of tension as several ribs popped.
You'll never forgive yourself, Bahamut said quickly. The young boy was crying now, pleading with him. Tidus never remembered him being so animated.
"Liars!" Tidus shouted.
He tightened his grip further, smiling satisfied when he felt her bones popping all over, she vomited and coughed copious blood. Good, he thought, she should feel a fraction what I experienced.
Tidus realized the slight motions of her lips were a pattern. She was mouthing words.
He was even more satisfied to see what she was repeated as if a mantra, 'I'm so sorry.' She was begging for her life! He had the power to save her life still for a few moments, but he would not oblige.
As the life left he body the words changed, she looked up to him and smiled macabrely before saying, "I love you." The Fayth statue shattered.
He dropped the body as if it burned him, stunned.
She wasn't begging for her life, not at all. She'd never wanted to hurt him, and still she loved him even though he'd just killed her. The blinding rage poured out of him.
Rikku and Lulu ran to the lifeless body, and Tidus searched for Sin on the horizon.
"Your fault," he rumbled. The rage boiled up stronger than before, all-consuming. "You did this!" Yuna's Final Aeon launched from the ground in a single leap toward Sin.
The Final Aeon slammed into the side of Sin, beside the only weak point he knew, under the right fin. It was much easier now; he dug his clawed hand and feet into the hard armor on Sin's side, and cleaved the entire thing off with one slash of his blade.
Sin howled, and the Aeon rammed his heavy blade into the gaping wound for good measure. He actually felt the beast shake. The Aeon then launched himself toward the front of the beast; moments before beams of terrible light burst through the air where he'd just been.
Yuna's Aeon slammed down onto Sin's head, wasting no time in digging his blade into eye-plate in Sin's head, savagely tearing it apart. Sin soon revealed its core, but inside Tidus' seething hatred and lust for vengeance he wasn't close to done yet.
A savaged Seymour lay in Sin, surprise and horror written on his face. Tidus moved deeper into Sin, tearing apart anything he could find on his way in.
Eventually he found his way to a huge chamber. Jecht stood, ghostly and transparent on the ground, waiting.
"Son-" he tried to start.
"Your fault-" Tidus rumbled back.
Jecht simply closed his eyes and nodded. He, of all people, knew what it was like inside that Aeon. "I have to fight you now son, I won't be able to hold back. I know you won't either."
Tidus' response was to bring his heavy blade down on his father's image. The ground shattered and the ghost vanished. Words manifested out of nothingness inside the room-
"I love you, son-" the words ached of the deepest sorrow.
Braska's Final Aeon appeared from over a pit. It was oddly similar to Tidus' form in some ways.
Yuna's Final Aeon lunged.
Tidus jabbed his sword at Jecht's head, the huge Aeon simply deflected it with its huge arm and fired a huge blast at Tidus. He kept moving forward, absorbing the impact with his left arm, and then reached through the explosion and gripped Jecht's head with his huge hand.
Jecht reached up to pull it off quickly, he was far stronger then Tidus and easily pulled it away, but his arms were raised to do it.
Jecht's son plunged his nightmarish blade into his side, sinking it deeper and deeper until his fist was pressed against his ribs. Jecht went limp; the blade was long enough to deform the surface of Jecht's opposite shoulder, and wide enough to very nearly rend him in two.
Tidus' rage only grew when he saw his monstrous old man smiling just before he shattered into dozens of Pyreflies.
Inside the scattering lights was a small creature. It appeared to be a black beetle, floating vertically; glowing on its shell was a symbol of Yevon he'd seen all over Spira. Tidus burned with rage.
Its legs jumped out and latched onto Tidus with a great strength that seemed impossible from their tiny size. Even as he struggled they buried themselves into him. Tidus could see that they weren't digging into him, they melding with him. The dark tendrils reached into his body, corrupting, seeking his core.
Tidus finally boiled over. I'll give you the core you bastard. He summoned all of his vast energy to that single point within.
Lulu had once described Ultima to him. She conjured lighting over a small bit of water, even just vapor in the air. It split the water into two gasses, and he took the lighter of the two. Then he pulled that gas in on itself into a tight bundle. Pouring heat and force into that tiny bundle until all those pieces slammed together and exploded violently.
Normally this was done on a very small scale; but Tidus was brimming with hate and Power. A drop of rationality fell into his mind and gave him peace, Sin was far away from any populated areas now- he could do whatever he liked.
As the dark tendrils brushed against his core, Tidus' newly expanded senses and mind quickly built a tight bundle of the gas. Yu Yevon's beetle-body had attached to his chest, and was digging into him.
Power poured into the tight bundle. The dark tendrils latched onto his core and Tidus could feel Yu Yevon's presence in his mind.
You can't stop me, he said to Tidus. He was the spirit of vengeance against all of Spira, self-appointed Judge, jury and executioner for a thousand years.
Burn.
The tiny bundle collapsed in on itself and the pieces fused together.
Far away Rikku cried onto Yuna's lap; the Summoner's head, the blood having been gently wiped away, rested as if sleeping on Lulu's lap. Wakka had eventually stumbled over from the wreckage of the Highwind; he had in tow fifteen survivors from the crash in various states of injury; Cid and Brother among them.
Rikku had soon expended all the healing items she had, and had managed to get all the survivors into stable condition; magic would have been better but…
Wakka had refused treatment, he'd had several smaller injuries, but his left shin-bone was shattered. Lulu had actually smiled brightly at him when he told them that he'd still recovered survivors despite his injury, it was enough for him to just have that. After all, without immediate treatment he could never walk normally again; his days of Blitz were over, but he could never trade his sport for another's life.
Now they looked on toward Sin, it had fallen onto a mountain side, unmoving for some time. Everyone knew though that if it were truly dead the body would not remain. The people paid respects to their heroes and everyone grieved over Yuna.
Soon the grieving turned to prayer, desperate prayer that it was not all in vain, that Tidus would still at least bring a Calm.
Then the side of Sin exploded violently. Luckily all the onlookers turned away and covered their eyes at the initial brilliant flash and avoided looking at the main explosion. Sin, in its entirety, exploded then. The flash was so bright that grass miles away caught fire; the small group of survivors was spared the majority of it as Lulu quickly threw up a large wall of cloudy ice to shield them. Still the wall was almost entirely vaporized from the initial flash and the secondary heat-front.
When finally things settled down Lulu shattered the remainder of the wall and they all looked on in a mixture of awe and horror.
The mountain was gone and in its place was a molten pit, the nearby mountains were blasted bare and all the fields and trees for miles were either charred and gone or aflame. A huge cloud of debris filled the air, much of which was now raining down over the countryside. Pyreflies lit up the sky.
Scattered bits of debris, parts of the exploded Sin, faded away while raining down and burst into ever more Pyreflies. The sky was positively lit up with the end of Sin, and the beginning of an Eternal Calm.
Among the survivors was one of the Summoners, Isaaru, he'd been crying over the loss of his brothers. Like all Summoners he was devoted to his duty, and he began Sending as many of the Pyreflies as he could. While some rejoiced and others still grieved, Isaaru Sent.
Hours later, help arrived from Bevelle; exuberant over the arrival of a new Calm, the rescue team nearly burst with excitement to learn that this Calm would never end and that Sin was finally vanquished.
The injured were treated, the dead were gathered as heroes of all Spira; and they were taken back to Bevelle. Three rescuers stayed with Isaaru while he Sent until the young man finally collapsed. Sin was gone, but Fiends that would result would be a problem for many years with so many Pyreflies left behind.
Months later the world was adjusting to its new reality. Sin was gone and machina was slowly being accepted among the younger generation. While the people did not fight over the dispute between adhering to the teachings of Yevon or abandoning what was claimed to be a false religion; the beginnings of great upheavals were in the making.
The Crusaders' ranks grew much faster now. With the surety of death at the hands of Sin gone many more people were willing to join a fight that was just as important. Monster populations across all Spira had boomed in the wake of Sin's death and the Crusaders now acted as guards and hunters.
Wakka and Lulu had since settled together, he could finally walk again, even swim, but running and Blitz-ball were simply impossible. Lulu cared for him, she'd always admired selflessness like he'd shown so much; now she knew for sure that under his excitable and sometimes dim exterior he was a great man.
Lulu taught black magic now as well. With the boom in Fiend population and the crop troubles caused by the debris cloud near Bevelle; magic was become more important in people's lives.
Rikku now worked with her uncle to develop machina for all of Spira, now that it was accepted more and more. Machina weapons were of course most popular due to the increase in monster populations. She also visited the Farplane frequently now; Tidus, Yuna, and Auron were always there to greet her. The souls in the Farplane had been gradually becoming more responsive. They weren't all simply memories and representations, but truly the souls of those that had been.
She talked for hours with Auron on most days, finding a strangely kindred spirit in him. Tidus and Yuna had found each other and were happy together, at least in what way they could be.
Isaaru had finished his pilgrimage eventually, to honor his brothers. He found that the Wall of Fayth that Yuna's guardians spoke of was now silent and empty. Once in the city, he came to a final decision: without Sin to fight against, he could devote himself to a new calling. He would learn all he could about Zanarkand and its war of the past.
He would teach the world the true cost of war, and hope that mankind would learn from its greatest mistake.
AN: Just spat this out in the course of a day. It's a little rough so feel free to point out glaring mistakes! Anyway- the theme here, as you can likely tell, is the relationship of the Final Aeon and the Summoner; the hows and whys. While ripping Sin and Yu Yevon apart is all well and good, the battle itself wasn't a pressing point in all this.