Chapter Four: The Race to Luca
Yuna still remained frozen as she heard the intruder approach the outside of the door. When she heard the person put their hand on the door knob and begin to turn it, Yuna decided to pull out of her small bag a teleport sphere. She threw it to the ground, causing it to break, and then there was a big flash of light. Within micro seconds, Yuna had escaped the room of the Fayth and was now outside of Kilika's forest.
Barthello entered the room of the Fayth to find his wife dead. Without hesitation, he dropped down beside her and cradled her in his arms. There was a look of confusion and sadness on his face.
"Who could have done this to my poor Dona?! I promised to her that I would not let anything bad happen to her, and now I have failed her. I have broken my vow. Who could have done this to us? Didn't everyone know that it was our first anniversary today?"
And with teary eyes, he picked up his dead wife in his arms, and was now going to carry her out of the room of the Fayth and to a priest of the Kilika Temple.
"Ugh, my lord, someone has committed murder today inside the temple! I found my wife dead inside the room of the Fayth! Please can you help me?"
"My, my, who would murder Summoner Dona? She was such a very good person and never hurt anyone! Don't worry, I will send an alarm of cry out to the people of Kilika and will inform them on the troubling event. I will not let this murderer go unpunished!"
"Thank you Priest Joseph. I appreciate all of the help and support you are giving me."
"Here, let me take her and I will place her in the hands of someone who will prepare her for her burial."
On the other side of the city, Yuna was walking quite fast at this point. She had forgotten all about her promise to her party of "getting in and out."
"Where were you?!" Lulu and Wakka exclaimed very loudly.
"Sorry guys I got held back with some important business that I had to attend to. Priest Joseph wanted to talk to me for a bit." Yuna lied.
"Oh well that is ok. Let's just get onboard so we can get to Luca quickly now!"
Yuna looked over her shoulder and took one last look at Kilika. She didn't see anyone upset, at least not yet, and so knew that she could escape this time.
"All aboard the S.S. Winno!" The Captain exclaimed loudly.
"Luca, here we come!" Yuna said with a smile on her face.
Back in Guadosalam….
"Tromell, there you are!" Seymour exclaimed.
"Ah, it is soo good to see you again my lord. I have been awaiting this day for some time now."
"Is everything going as according to plan?"
"Yes, rumors have finally made it down here saying that Yuna has indeed made it upon the S.S. Winno and that she is on her way to Luca as we speak. As for the others, they left only moments ago to search for Tidus."
Seymour and Tromell were unaware that the group had not left Guadosalam, but instead had sneaked inside Seymour's mansion. Auron, Braska, and Jecht were in the main hall's lobby of the mansion. Jecht had his ears on the set of purple double doors and was listening in on them. However, he accidentally had to cough and therefore made enough noise to give up their position.
"What was that? I fear we are no longer alone my lord. Quickly…go!" Tromell yelled.
Seymour quickly took out of his pocket a shiny baby blue sphere and threw it to the ground, causing it to break. There was a sudden flash of blue light, and within micro seconds he was gone.
Jecht quickly pushed through the doors and ran up to Tromell and grabbed him by the throat.
"You are going to tell me where my son is. You're going to tell me everything…now!"
"I cannot. You will just have to kill me." Tromell said with pride.
"Fine, I can kill you with a very slow and painful death. " Jecht said with a big smile on his face.
Suddenly, he moved his arms around in such a graceful manner in such directions and inflicted upon Tromell Bio. Suddenly, he was poisoned and with every movement, it caused him to slowly lose more and more health.
"You think that that is all I can withstand?" Tromell asked with fear in his eyes but tried to look tough.
"Oh no of course not. I will give you more pain."
And with more hand waving Jecht inflicted Zombie Attack upon Tromell.
"It is useless, I will not tell you anything."
"You lie and I have ways of getting you to talk. Remember here with me that I used to be Sin and so making people suffer is my specialty."
Tromell gulped and takes a step back.
"Now just answer this for me: where is Seymour taking my son?"
"Honestly I have no idea where is he taking him. All he told me was that he was going to use Tidus as bate against Yuna."
"How dare he put more suffering on my daughter?! She has already been through quite enough, what can he be plotting to do this time?" Braska asked with an angry voice.
"High Summoner Braska I'm not really sure. But, what I do know is that he wants all of you dead so he can take over Spira without someone in his way."
"That's not happening. Didn't happen the first time they killed him, not happening this time!" Braska and Jecht yelled at the same time.
"Wait…you do know where Seymour is going, don't you. He is going wherever Yuna is correct?" Auron questioned Tromell.
"Yes, that is correct. Like I said he plans to use Tidus as bate, so in that sense he has to be around Yuna to do that." Tromell confirmed.
"Oh no, I know where they are going! How could I not think of it before? Duh, today is the first anniversary of Yuna's Calm. She is most likely going to be giving a speech on it so that means---"
Auron was cut off when Braska and Jecht said at the same time, "There are going to Luca!"
They were just about to run out of the mansion, where Tromell stopped them.
"There is something else you probably should know. Something that is probably on your minds…the reason why everyone in the Farplane escaped was because of me. You see a long time ago, when Spira was first coming together and towns were being built, it was here in Guadosalam where the idea of the Farplane came about. Seymour's ancestors wanted a place where the dear departed could rest in peace and didn't have to turn into fiends. Soo, they used all of the best black magic that they knew of and even created some spells of their own and combined them together to create the powerful bonds of the Farplane. Once a soul was sent to the Farplane, it could never escape…at least that was the idea told to the public. But secretly, his ancestors wanted to be able to bring back certain dead that had been sent. So for generations the secret was passed down, just in case the secret weapon was needed. Seymour told me that if he was ever somehow sent, I was to follow the certain instructions to release him. He said that he wanted to turn everyone in Spira against each other and that with the living and the dead who were brought back and with the good and the evil, he would start massive chaos that would in turn be the start of many wars. This is why he wants you dead so he can do this without you guys interrupting him all the time." Tromell explained.
In outrage, Jecht tossed an x-potion at Tromell and he fell to the floor. (Remember that when a person is inflicted with Zombie Attack that anything that would normally heal them, actually hurts them.)
"Just finish him off Jecht!" Braska demanded in impatience.
"Believe me it is tempting, I know. I want to give him this phoenix down just as much as you do for it would kill him in an instant. However, I do believe that he may be of good use in the future…" Jecht said thinking.
"What do you have in mind, Jecht?" Auron questioned.
"I'm thinking that we could turn him against Seymour and then Seymour would really be alone and without help. That way, he is less of a threat and will eventually break down into something that we can destroy."
"Sounds like a plan, now let's get the hell out of here!"
All there of them just left Tromell laying on the floor of the Banquet Hall and exited the mansion.
Back with Yuna…
"Yuna, wake up we are here." Lulu said while gently shaking her at the same time.
"Oh wow, I've never seen Luca so crowed in my whole life before!!! Look at all of the people here!!" Yuna exclaimed with her jaw dropped.
"They are all here for you, Yuna. Be proud." Lulu stated.
This time the S.S. Winno had come to dock number two. As they stepped out of the boat, she could hear many people screaming her name and chanting in joy. All around her there were posters that said things like "Thank you Yuna for everything!" and "Long live Yuna and Her Calm!" Balloons of all colors filled the air and floated about in the happy atmosphere. The aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies also contributed to this joy and welcoming of Yuna.
"Make way, please. Yuna needs to get to the Blitzball arena…No, no autographs will be handed out at this time…Thank you for that special gift, and what was your name again? Ok, I will have her write back to you…Ok, come on guys make way please!" Wakka was getting so annoyed because all of Yuna's 'fans' were not cooperating with him and he was starting to lose his patience.
Once inside the stands of the arena, they make their way up the numerous sets of stair to the very top where Yuna will speak. Once going up the last set of stairs, she makes her way to the big podium where Grand Maester Mika introduces her with a short speech:
"All of Spira, we are gathered here today to celebrate. We are here to remember what High Summoner Yuna did a whole year ago. It was because of her and her trusting guardians, that Yuna's Calm was brought to us. It was because of their daring acts to do something new about Sin and the deaths of Summoners that we can now safely live in Spira once again."
Not too far away inside the Besaid Aurochs' locker room…
"Ug, what hit me?" Tidus said as he got up from the floor.
"Damn, what happened to my head? And where am I? Wait a minute this room looks familiar…yes, I know where I am now! But what am I doing in here? Is there a game or something? But then again, where is everyone else?"
Tidus walked over to the bench and sat down to think about what he could remember. It wasn't long before the answers came back to his head.
"Wait, shit I know what happened. Seymour pushed me in here and when I tried to get out he punched me hard in the head and locked the door. Then he mumbled something about his 'plan' saying that he was going to pretend to be Maester Mika or something."
After a few minutes, he decided to get up from the bench and walked over to the door.
"Hello, anyone there? Please someone help me! HELP! ANYONE?!"
"No use, no one can hear me down here. I have to admit that Seymour was smart in that sense to put me here. Still, what now? I guess I will just listen to Seymour's speech…"
And with that he walked over to the window and put his ear against the wall to ensure that he could hear.
"Again, we cannot thank you enough Yuna for what you have done. In your honor, we will name this day after you. Long Live Yuna Day." Fake Maester Mika said.
"Geez Seymour, I know that you're trying to be nice and all but you sound obsessed with my girlfriend….wait a minute, did Seymour say Yuna? YUNA!!!!" Tidus screamed when he realized that she was just a few minutes away from him and that Seymour was with her instead of him.
Tidus collapsed on the floor onto his hands and knees and started crying.
"Thank you soo much Maester Mika for your speech. I am very honored to be here to talk to all of you. I think that it is a new time. It is a time for finishing our re-building of the towns, to finish repenting our sins to ensure that Sin will never come back, and to keep remembering those who we have lost. Never forget them. As I go around Spira, I see that so far we are doing very well. We are coming back together and are moving on…, she pauses; however, it is also a time for change. I want to change the state of the matter with everyone's beliefs. Just because Sin is gone, why should we stop believing in the Fayth? There is no reason to leave the temples in the dark collecting dust. This is the new age of Spira, the age of the New Summoners. It just makes sense to fight all evil that comes to try and take us down. Otherwise, we will have nothing but Crusaders, and quite frankly I was getting tired of hearing of their deaths. Let us stand side by side and fight!"
The crowd was getting excited at this and was chanting, "Long live the Mother and Savior of future Spira! Long live High Summoner Yuna!"
Seymour was getting really pissed off at what Yuna was saying and what the crowd was chanting. This is exactly what he feared was going to happen. She was going to get in his way.
"Very well Yuna it is your turn to die." Seymour thought to himself
And while the crowd was chanting and singing along, Yuna noticed out of the corner of her eye souls. Thousands of them. In fact, it looked as if some huge fiend had been killed or something. And now, it was not just colored balloons which filled the sky, it was these souls which were floating and making their way towards the crowd.
The souls of the departed were a beautiful sight. They almost appeared to look like comets in the way that they had a core and a tail. But the souls were much prettier than comets. Their core was a bright yellow which was so bright it could have been mistaken for a white color. And the 'tail' of the soul started off with a purple color that went to a lime green and then to a sky blue color. All of it shimmered and sparkled.
When the souls reached the crowd, they turned into the people whom they were. Many famous people were once again brought back to life including Luzzu from the Crusaders and Tidus's Mother. But many evil people were brought to life as well including Yunalesca.
The crowd was now so huge that people were pushing and shoving to get out of Luca. There were shouts and angry mobs because of the confusion of what was happening. Still by the millions, these souls kept coming and everyone who had been sent to the Farplane was now living again.
No one was really paying attention to the 'fake Maester Mika' anymore and so this proved to be the best time for Seymour to kill Yuna. At once he waved his arms around and disabled the spell for looking like someone else. There was a huge cloud of black smoke that was spinning around Seymour very fast in all directions. When he was back to his original form, Yuna gasped and tried to run away. Seymour however grabbed her by the arm and pinned her down to the ground.
"My beautiful wife, why do you run from your husband?"
"I am not your wife Seymour, how many damn times do I have to tell you?!"
"But at our wedding last year we kissed, you remember not?"
"We may have kissed but we never said the words I do. So for the hundredth time I am not your wife! Now get your hand off of me and release me at once!"
"Why would I do that? Now that you have told Spira of your great plan, I cannot have you standing in my way. I must kill you along with your friends. Good-bye Yuna."
And with that he was just about to use the spell Death when Auron came with his Ashura blade and preformed his Shooting Star Overdrive on Seymour.
"Go with your dad and Jecht, now! Let me take care of this!"
"But—"
"There is no time for explaining now, just GO!"
And she quickly ran towards her dad and they escaped towards the marketplace in the middle of Luca. Now, at this point, nobody was listening to what Seymour or anyone else had to say, people were just trying to get aboard the S.S. Winno and get the hell out of there.
"Why did you come back Auron? How many times must you die and come back? All of you are pathetic mortals."
"Yuna is right; we must protect Spira from madmen like you!"
Auron just made yet another blow to Seymour's head, and then Seymour casted Firaga at Auron.
"You cannot stop me! This is a new time. The time of Spira's first Civil War!"