WARNING—This is the first chapter of a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X. Aside from introducing several new characters, it has no end of spoilers, both for the main story line and some of the optional side-quests. Specifically, you should know how Seymour acquired Anima.
Also, text in is in the Al Bhed language, which I assume most of the characters understand.
1. Accident and artifice
I. Seymour
You should thank me. Your death means your father's life…
So those are to be my last words…pathetic. I had so much more in me. That's the trouble, of course…they never warn you…
My father will be here, of course. Odd, that actually frightens me…it isn't as though he can kill me. Is it? He won't be angry, I'm certain of that much. The dead are never angry with their murders, he told me so himself…somehow, the farplane grants them perspective. Besides, if second-death is possible, I slew him once. I am prepared to do so again.
I remember my first death. The farplane touched me, for only an instant, before I transcended death…it was…warm water, soothing, supporting. For an instant I was tempted to give in, but that only strengthened my resolve. I was to bring this bliss to thousands.
It amazes me that I can think so lucidly. The farplane blurred my senses. No, it vindicated them. There was no longer and need to think or speak or see. Now, though, all my senses are intact….I'm lying on the ocean floor, I can almost feel the sand against my back. No, wait. I can feel it. And all at once I can feel everything, the weight of my robe, soaked through…weeds against my cheek…where is this?
I discover I can move. The weight of my corporeal form itself is unbearable. How did I manage with this unwieldy abomination for so many years?
I open my ears, my ears, my nose. A translucent membrane covers my nostrils, filtering oxygen from the water. One useful result of my Guado blood. The light here is dim. I can make out huge looming shapes, boulders, maybe. I try to kick off against the sand. My limbs eventually obey me, and I sail upwards, slicing through the water.
At last I surface. The sun is blinding, and the strain of controlling this form has become too much. Surrendering, I go limp, letting the water lift me until I am entirely horizontal. I float, then, after minutes or hours, sleep takes me.
II. Tidus
All I know is that I love her. What else do I need? As I fall, I try to hold that memory. I don't think of where I'm going, I don't hear the shouts from behind me. I only see her face, tears still wet on her cheeks, her eyes glowing. Before that moment, I never noticed they were different colors. I can't believe that. I only hear her breathing, as she stops crying, at last, and takes one deep breath. I only feel her warmth in my arms, and the softness of her bare shoulder.
…That must sound stupid. There's no describing it. I've never been much good with words, anyway. So I only remember.
I feel something else. Suddenly she's gone, and my arms close on nothing. For just a second the memory was real, she was actually there. I open my eyes. I'm not falling anymore. But the water of the spring is still all around me, and I can almost see her in front of me. I reach out to pull her in. Then I realize it can't be her. My arms close on metal, and it hugs me right back, with a much stronger grip than Yuna ever had.
III.
12:14, on the seventh day of the first cycle of the twenty-ninth Calm
-Five specimens C-1—C-5 materialized in soul syphon
C-1, Guado/Human male
C-2, C-4, C-5, Human male
C-3, Ronso female
-C-3, C-5 of no interest, liquidated
-C-1 resembles Maester Seymour (deceased), tests pending
-C-2, C-4 resemble former guardians (whereabouts unknown) of Maester (Summoner) Yuna, tests pending
IV. Yuna
This is to be the last destination of our new pilgrimage. Some have already left: Wakka and Lulu to Luca, Cid to the recovering Home. Afterward, I will be able to devote all my energy to the restoration of Bevelle. The city is ruins, but you would never know from observing the populace. They are still in a state of celebration. Perhaps I was too quick to say that Sin was forever gone. Not all of them believed it, anyway, but they still rejoice.
"Yunie…" Rikku walks around me, peering into my face. "Are we there yet?"
"Almost." I can't help but smile.
"Where're we going, anyway? Looks like a big rock to me. No self-respecting Al Bhed would ever live there. Nobody would." She peers at the horizon. I must admit she's right. The island, Pragmatica, is no more than a few square miles across. The single building, aside from the dock, is an Al Bhed institution for research and scientific betterment known as Strangeways. No Maester has ever set foot there. I will be the first. After Sin's dissolution, it was necessary that I take the title, as there were no others left. The church would have collapsed had I not.
There is another reason, as well, aside from the unification of the people of Spira. A personal matter. No need for Rikku to know. No need for false hope.
"A supervising technician, Blicero, contacted me," I say, which was true. Rikku peers at the rock another minute, then leans back, arms crossed behind her. She is silent for longer than I can ever remember her being before. "Have you been here?" I ask.
"You could say." She chews at a strand of hair that falls across her mouth. "Well…nah. Nothing, 's nothing."
"Go on," I say, in what I hope is a reassuring tone.
"You said his name was…Blicero?" She turns away, but looks towards me out of the corner of her eye.
"That's right."
"Well…there aren't that many Al Bhed. Not that many at all. Fewer than there're people in Bevelle, Cid told me. So what I mean is, I knew him. That's all."
"I see." I look out to sea. The island is much closer now, and I can make out the silver dome at its summit. Strangeways.
"Stop doing that!" Rikku shouts, suddenly.
"I wasn't…"
"Stop being all smug and quiet! All right, so I lied, Yevon strike me dead, blah, blah. I knew him pretty well. I mean, really well. Like…well-well." She sighs, as if I've finally won, although I haven't done anything.
"How well?" I ask, dutifully playing my part as the antagonist.
"I thought it was love. We assigned to the same salvage vessel. It was some long job, three or four ships. I think…they might have been salvaging some of the equipment that they use now, at Strangeways. But anyway, he was working in the galley and I had to clean. It wasn't a big ship, so we met a lot, and we talked." There's no pain in her voice. None of her usual cheer, either. It's flat. "After three months, the ship came back to Home. We still met. One day, well…Bli was always so rigid, like, even when he was alone. He didn't like to touch things. And the way he moved, spoke…it was kind of like a machina. I liked him, he was smart and polite and all, but parts of him were so ugly. When I listened to music or watched the sun set, it was like those things were the opposite of Bli. So I thought I'd try to make him…less ugly. I bought this music box, thirty gil, it was a lot of money for me. The next time we met up I gave it to him, and…" She pauses.
"He didn't like it?" I guess.
"No, he thought…well, he said it was 'fascinating'. And he meant it, but that wasn't what I wanted…it's complicated. But we listened to it for a while, and he said it was bleak, and I said 'well, it suits you, then'. He smiled. I remember that, 'cause he didn't smile too often, and I liked it. It was kind of a depressing music box, though. Should've listened to it before I bought it."
"What happened afterward?"
"Oh…we sat, talked. I was trying to get him to say he loved me, but of course he couldn't…it was like this disability of his. He could only ever talk about the way things looked or smelled or sounded, never the way he felt about them. When he said the music was bleak, that was as abstract as he ever got. So he'd tell me I looked nice, and that was the end of it."
"No, I meant…in the end," I say, looking down.
"Eh. It didn't work out. He wouldn't kiss me 'cause he was afraid of germs. One day he just disappeared, I thought maybe he'd been killed. I didn't think it would be such a loss if he was, I was angry with him by then."
"Well." Strangeways is almost directly beneath us, and I can feel the airship shudder as it slows down. "You'll see him again, soon. Who knows? Maybe he'll still have your music box."
"Ooh! That's be so romantic!" She grinned, back to her usual self. "I'll bet he does. I'll bet he keeps it on a chain around his neck."
As we descend toward the island, I catch sight of something else, something huge and metal in the waters to the south, revolving slowly.
V. Seymour
I know this room. Jyscal used to send me here to calm myself when I was angry. A small place, near the top of the estate, with a single chair at its center. It was here that I slit his throat. I found the irony delightful.
But I cannot possibly be here. This is only another illusion, a trick of my battered mind. The same goes for her, sitting in that chair, her back to me. I have never seen her, but all the same, she is unmistakable. She looks enough like me to be my twin sister. And as I try to approach…
"This is your story." The words come from her, but also from all around, and from inside myself. "First Seymour sought death for himself, because he saw no reason to live. That has all passed. Then, Seymour sought power, because he hated others. That has all passed. Then, Seymour sought death for others, because he thought their lives were as hopeless as his own. That has all passed. Then, once again, Seymour sought death for himself. In the belly of Sin, where all bad things breed, he lost what little hope he had." She turns towards me. I want to obliterate that face before I can see it, but I am powerless, as in a dream.
She smiles, sickly. Her face is mine, but also…
And now I awake. So it was a dream, after all. So much the better, that it was natural, that I am not losing my mind. Then her voice sounds again: "What do you seek now?" My atrophied heart is jolted into motion. It is a moment before I can master myself, and look around.
VI. Auron
He isn't tall or short, fat or thin. He looks thoroughly average. An Al Bhed, judging from the shape of his jaw and the leather harness across his shoulders.
"So," he says briskly, "How do you feel?"
"Alive," I spit. He must think it's something positive. He can't even begin to know.
"You should be. You hardly had a pulse when we extracted you from the soul syphon."
"You should have left me. I was due." My entire body aches.
"Fascinating," is all he says, "Fascinating. Do you know your name? Speak it for me."
"Yours first." I'm not restrained in any way, but still I find it impossible to move. I'm lying across a metal slab, and he's standing over me.
"No need. I am…a scientist, suffice to say, of the Strangeways institute. Now…"
"I am Auron." I try once more to stand. No good. He may have drugged me. "And I should be in the farplane by now. Explain." I would have liked to utter that last word with my blade pressed to his throat. "What is this soul syphon of yours?"
He ignores the question, saying to himself, "Ah, Sir Auron. I knew as much…"
"Answer!" My shout comes out a whisper.
"My apologies for any inconvenience," he says, distractedly. "The soul syphon is a device…a lightning rod, drawing Sinspawn from all corner of Spira. They are captured for study, or if they prove too unstable, liquidated by compound security. This, though…this is unprecedented."
Presently, a door nearby swings open. I can't even turn my head to look. There are footsteps, and a voice shouts: "Pacco Blicero!"
"What is it?" he answers, as though he expected this.
"You asked to be told…the new Maester has arrived. She is on the shore with her escort, a Ronso, and one of our own. I do not recognize her."
"Who, the Maester?"
"No, the escort, the Al Bhed girl. Perhaps you identify her, they wish to speak with you immediately."
"Very well." Pacco Blicero turns back to me, frowning. "I will return shortly," he says, "Perhaps with one that you know. And you must remember, you are not my prisoner here. A quarantine period of one week is traditional. After that, you are free to leave."
He moves out of my line of sight. A door is slammed shut. Then, after a minute, there's another voice, one that's damnably familiar. If I could look to my left, I know I'd see an eruption of blue hair, a heavily veined chest, and a wretched, arrogant smirk.
"Well," says Seymour, "Yevon's workings are mysterious indeed. It would seem he has seen fit to bring us together once again."
VII. Yuna
The island of Pragmatica is as desolate as it looked form the air. Nothing grows here naturally. Rikku stands on one side of me, Kimahri on the other. A procession of six unarmed monks serves as an escort. We stand at the edge of a cliff, waiting for an emissary from the institute. Rikku has already told me she hates this place. She can't say why, but she keeps shivering, despite the tropical climate.
Now Kimahri sniffs the air, and I can guess he words before he even speaks them. "This place smell terrible. Like death…no, like nothing. No smell." I can imagine how disturbing that must be. Kimahri has always relied on his nose. How can he trust anything he can't smell?
"Well…it is, like, a sterile facility and all," Rikku offers, in feeble defense of her people's work. "It's not dead, just clean. Nothing wrong with that." I think I can make out figures stirring near the base of the Strangeways. I lean forward, and Rikku follows suit. Her eyesight must be sharper than mine, since she reels back immediately. "Well," she says faintly, "He's here."
The procession descends toward us, following a winding path eroded into the rock. There are six of them, five men and a woman. She is dressed in the leather jumpsuit of an Al Bhed scavenger, but the others wear stiff white robes I am unfamiliar with.
"The guys are Pacco," Rikku whispers, "Al Bhed scientists. They mess with older machina, trying to make, well, new ones. And that lady, I think I know her. They call her Niner. Largest lung capacity of any Al Bhed." She has short, black hair, showing beneath her headgear. She is no older than Rikku.
The leader of the group is now only a few feet from me. His hair, which is so blonde as to be nearly white, is cut severely short. He bows, and performs a clumsy version of the Prayer.
"I am Pacco Blicero, good Lady," he says stiffly, "At your service."
Blicero assured me that the reason for my visit was safe, and alive, but unconscious. It would be at least an hour before he was fit to receive any visitors. He also hinted that some of the others who had been captured by his device might be of interest to me. I flooded him with questions, but it was impossible to get a straight answer from the man. He kept spitting out the same words, Quarantine, Unverified, Delicate. I decided not to press the subject.
Now, he has left me in the hands of another of these Pacco, a man he calls Veigel. He announced that he would check on the status of his subjects. Throughout our interview, Rikku kept staring pointedly at him, but he took no notice. When he went off, she crept discreetly after him.
I think I like Veigel better, he seems more good-natured. "I am a bad scientist," he said once Blicero was out of earshot, "Because I smile. Blicero cannot stand it, so he dislikes me. But I have found it often helps."
He seems to be leading me on a tour of the facility, talking all the while. "The actual reason Blicero left you with me is simple—he cannot talk to people, you see? He avoids them whenever possible. He thinks I am better…perhaps this is so, but I cannot imagine that anyone would be worse." The Bevellian that he and Blicero speak is broken and heavily accented, unlike Rikku's.
"And what is it he wanted you to tell me?" I ask.
"Only this…we are very concerned, here. There are two issues mainly, both relating to balance." He stops, looking around us at the banks of machinery.
"Yes?"
"The first. As you of course know, Sin is no more. Many here believe that it will return, in time, but I do not…for the sake of conjecture, let us say that he is. Now Spira is without destruction. Now this troubles Blicero, in particular…he is the sort of man, who…how do I explain…if he brushes one wall of a corridor with his sleeve, he feels he has to brush the other, so as have all things be equal. He cares very much about these matters. We think that good cannot exist without evil. Nor can creation without destruction. Nor dark without light. Nor what is masculine without what is feminine. So if there is no Sin, then perhaps something still more terrible…will rise in its place."
I say nothing. After we've passed through several more halls, he goes on. "The other difficulty is this. With our soul syphon, we have perhaps captured souls on the very brink of the farplane. Therefore we have taken from Yevon things that belong to him, we have robbed him."
"I thought you were a scientist," I said.
"I am a scientist first and foremost. But I am a bad scientist, as I said, and I cannot deny that Yevon exists, and that he has great power. Perhaps all power. I do not know what he is, only that he is. But we have robbed him of three souls, so perhaps…remember, balance…he intends to claim three of ours." Another break. Then, "But this is all mere conjecture. Perhaps there is nothing in it. If so, we will be sorry to have troubled you."