Okay so i told you i'd be updating this regularly. And seeing as i have absolutely nothing else to do regularly could end up being every day. Don't quite know how im gonna wrap this whole thing up yet but i got's me some ideas, some better than others.
Any whos lets get back to the final fantasy goodness.
Chapter Ten: The Final Summoning
Fox was first to wake the next morning. He glanced over at Rikku for a moment before scouting out Zanarkand. As he made his way over the crest of the mountain an awe inspiring sight met him. A massive canyon of Fayths, hundreds strong. This must be how the Final Summoning was strong enough to kill Sin, if only temporarily. He took it in for a moment more before returning to camp, he still had to tell them of Lucavi and Omega.
The others were awake when he returned, with the exception of Wakka who was snoring very loudly. Lulu saw Fox had something important to say and kicked him in the ribs, waking him.
"Ouch! What was that for Lu?" he said as he reluctantly sat up.
"Just listen." was all she said.
"All right, I know i said alot last night but i had a bit more to tell you. And this last bits important." he told them, grabbing their attention.
"Aww it's too early for more depressing stuff Fox." said Rikku as she ate breakfast.
"Just listen. After I died in my world, i went to a very large room. There were stone statues surrounding me in this room, and they spoke to me. They told me they needed me to kill 'the beast with two faces'. From what you guys told me i had assumed this beast was Sin." he said.
"How'd you figure that?" asked Tidus.
"They said the beast was a thousand years old, that's how old Sin is. However, they had to pay a price in order to transfer my body to Spira. They made my body host to a demon." he told them, they were shocked.
"A-a demon? So your like demonic or something?" Tidus more mumbled than said.
"No stupid! He doesn't look demonic does he!?" Rikku said.
"Actually he kinda does, ya." Wakka said thoughtfully.
"Fox not demon." Kimarhi scolded the rest of them.
"Thank you Kimarhi. This demon tried to overpower me and take control of my body on several occasions, but i was strong enough to beat him back every time. He is the one who gave me this arm and also the reason i can do such powerful magic. After I beat him back the last time his master came to me, he told me some unsettling things." said Fox.
"Wow, i knew what you were doing was not regular magic, but I would never have guess a demon was behind it." Lulu said, more to herself than the group.
"What kind of things did this demon tell you?" asked Yuna.
"It said that Sin was not the beast I was sent to slay. It said I was sent to kill a beast named Omega. They said Omega's power was growing out of control, and you of course remember the huge monster that we killed back in the calm lands? That was merely a lesser copy of this Omega, much less powerful than the real thing." he told them, they gave each other a knowing look.
"You guys thinkin what i'm thinkin?" Wakka said.
"What are we thinkin?"asked Tidus.
"He's talking about the traitor Omega. A priest who defied Yevon eight centuries ago." answered Auron.
"You know of this evil?" asked Fox surprised, since he had discovered about Omega he had assumed it would be a hard creature to find, not common knowledge.
"We know of it yes." responded Lulu.
"Omega was a traitor to Yevon. As punishment he was sealed within a deep cavern, for all time. No one knows where this cavern is, but it is said to be full of the most deadly fiends in Spira." Auron answered. Fox thought for a moment, it sounded as if this cavern could be anywhere. It could take years, decades even to find it.
"Fox, your thinking about leaving aren't you?" asked Yuna. Fox stayed silent as he thought.
"What? Why would he leave?" asked Rikku confused.
"He was sent here to kill Omega, not Sin. He's been chasing the wrong monster." said Auron as comprehension dawned on the others faces.
"He wouldn't leave though I mean c'mon! After all we've been through? We're his friends." said Tidus simply.
"He's a soldier Tidus. And he has a mission to carry out, one that has nothing to do with us." Lulu replied stoically.
"Fox don't go! Please we could use your help! And we'll miss you...i'll miss you." said Rikku, immediately after wards she turned beat red. The others stared at her awkwardly until Fox spoke.
"Enough. It's my decision, and I have no clue where this cave or cavern is located. I'll stay with you through Zanarkand, until Cid picks us up again. Then i'll ask him if his ship has any way to find this cavern. After that, well I don't know yet." finished Fox as he started towards Zanarkand. The others followed reluctantly.
When they reached the canyon of the fayth Fox stopped as the others took a collective gasp. He noticed Tidus was acting rather strange, he looked like a soldier walking into a losing battle. Fox guessed it was just how he was dealing with the fact that his Zanarkand was now a pile of rubble.
They made their way into the city by traveling over several very large overpasses. When they made their way inside they began to see several previous pilgrimiges, recorded by the pyreflies. Seymour was in one as a child and Auron, Braska, and Jecht were in several.
When they finally cut their way through enough fiends to reach the trials they figured out the puzzles and defeated a rather weak fiend. They went into the next room to discover what Auron had told Fox back on mushroom rock road. Lord Zeon's fayth had vanished. They went into the next chamber and Yunalesca came out to greet them.
"Hello summoner. You have traveled far and wide to reach my chamber. Now choose." she said. The others had looks of confusion on their faces.
"Choose? I don't understand." replied Yuna.
"You must choose a guardian to become the fayth. There must be a bond between the summoner and the fayth. Husband and wife, mother and child, or the bond between friends. If the bond is pure and strong, you will be granted the final summoning. Your father walked this path." she said as she left the room.
"No. You can't do this Yuna." said Tidus.
"What would you have me do then?" asked Yuna.
"I don't know but we'll find a way. We can't sacrifice someone!" TIdus yelled. Fox looked at Auron, who's face told him to hold his tongue for now.
"Please Tidus, what I do, I want to do with no regrets." she said as she walked into the final chamber, followed by the others. Yunalesca approached them and spoke.
"Have you chosen the one to become your fayth? Who will it be?" she asked.
"May I ask something first, will Sin come back even should I use the final summoning to defeat it?" asked Yuna.
"Sin is eternal. Every aeon that defeats it becomes Sin in it's place. And thus is Sin reborn." she replied.
"So that's why Jecht became Sin." said Tidus.
"Sin is an inevitable part of Spira's destiny, it is never ending." continued Lady Yunalesca.
"Never ending!? But-but if we atone for our crimes, Sin will stop coming back ya? Someday it'll be gone, ya?" asked Wakka. He had a look of denial and shock on his face, as if he couldn't accept what he was being told.
"Will humanity ever attain such purity?" she replied, Wakka glanced around with a crushed look on his face.
"This cannot be! The teachings state that we can exercise Sin with complete atonement! It's been our only hope all these years..." pleaded Lulu. Fox understood why Auron did not want him to speak, the rest of them had to find out like this. As Auron had, so they knew what they had to do.
"Hope is comforting, it allows us to accept fate. However tragic it might be." she replied.
"Nooo!" yelled Tidus, while at the same time a recording of Auron played.
"Where is the sense in all this!? Braska believed in Yevon's teaching and died for them! Jecht believed in Braska and gave his life for him!!" a much younger Auron shouted, his voice full of pain and rage.
"They died because they had hope." she said simply. The young Auron screamed and charged Yunalesca with his sword, only to be blasted away by a powerful spell.
The final summoning gives the people of Spira hope. Without hope, they would drown in their sorrow. Now choose, who will be your fayth?" she asked.
"No one. I would have gladly died for the people of Spira, i live for them. But the final summoning is a false tradition that should be thrown away!" she said strongly. Fox looked at Auron again and he gave him the nod.
"Then let us destroy this spirit who continues it's existence." Fox said.
"Ya, lets beat up this hag and find a way beat Sin for good!" shouted Rikku.
"C'mon Yuna lets show her how serious we are." chipped in Tidus. Yunalesca looked at them all with rage, before resting her eyes on Fox.
"You...you are not of this world. You have the mark of a demon on you. Why are you here!? Why have you come to destroy Spira's hope you monster!?" she spat at him.
"I am not here to destroy Spira's hope. I'm just here to help destroy you." Fox said as he lunged and stuck his blade through her sternum. He knew she was unsent however and it would take much more to bring her down. The team split into battle formation and began to fight. Yunalesca was weak to melee hit but she had powerful magic.
Lulu was trading spells with her until a holy put her down hard. Yuna ran over to assist while Wakka, Auron and Tidus ran in for the kill. They each caused massive damage before Fox came in with the finishing blow, he formed his Lucavi arm into a sickle and plunged it into her torso.
The unsent Yunalesca screamed and began to pull something from the ground. It was a massive face with tendrils for hair, similar to Medusa. Yunalesca rested on top of the face and the battle continued. All around him his allies were getting hit by powerful magic and going down. Shortly after Yuna would heal them and they would rejoin the fray.
Kimarhi use Fire Breath and scorched out one of the faces eyes, blinding it's right side. This gave Wakka and Auron enough time to get close enough to carve out the other one. Yunalesca was now trying to guide the monster as it shot off spells in all directions in a vain attempt to hit somebody.
Fox sent his arm into the ground and had it rise behind the beast. He guided his arm to just behind her skull, and then stabbed into it. He dark claws pierced her head as he lifted her from the monster. His allies began to finish the beast as he brought Yunalesca face to face with him.
She was squirming but he had his arm in the canals of her brain. She could not make a move without his say so. He brought her level with him before speaking.
"You are a coward, too afraid to try and destroy Sin for good. You created an entire religion which does nothing but repeat the same tragic tale of death and sorrow endlessly. And after we have defeated Sin for good, the world will know of Yevon's treachery." he said before he ended her life. His arm pierced her chest holding her soul. He tore through the tender ball of light with his dark claws and Lady Yunalesca was no more. He tossed her body aside and joined the others as they killed the face beast.
They were silent as they left her chamber. They had destroyed the final summoning and none of them were sure about how that made them feel, well except for Fox. Fox had thought something like this might happen every since the first time he was told about the final summoning. He had never been a big fan of things that only solved problems temporarily.
He noticed Auron had kept Tidus back to talk to him. He used his superior hearing to catch a bit of it.
"I too am an unsent." he heard Auron say, he was a little surprised by the information but it didn't upset him. He followed the others outside to wait for the airship. Fox had thoughts bouncing around his mind, plans on how to destroy Sin. Each one seemed impossible to pull off. He had seen the creatures destructive power first hand, they simply could not overpower it.
Then he thought about what Yunalesca said, about how each new final aeon becomes the next Sin. How was that possible? It had to be some kind of shell, a host for some other creature perhaps? this seemed likely to him, when its current host is killed the parasite or whatever it is transfers itself to the new aeon. The calm is probably the time it takes to develop its new body, time for it to grow into an unstoppable monster again.
This made sense to Fox, it seemed the only logical explanation. But then again, in Spira logic could be very different.
"What are we gonna do you guys?" asked Rikku, she had only a hint of her normal perkiness.
"I don't know yet, but I will soon." answered Fox. He just hoped what he was thinking would work.
Okay so bing bang boom. Another update in the bag. Now this had alot of stuff straight from the game, most of the dialog with Yunalesca was word for word. I wanted to keep it that way because it was such a good point in the game, ur all like "oh man that's messed up".
Now for more imaginary character abuse.
Tidus: "Hey i'm not imaginary pal! Rumble with me and you'll end up with some imaginary broken bones!"
Auron: "I'm imagining causing the author some pain."
Kimarhi: "Kimarhi no have imagination."
Wakka: "Man those guys are violent, what happened to forgiveness ya?"
Lulu: "I'll never forgive you for getting me knocked up in the sequel Wakka! Ultima!"
Yuna: "Guys we need to hurt the author not each other, rip his guts out!!"
Rikku: "Wow Yunie, your scaring me."
Seymour: "Can you write me back in author?"
Solid Snake: "Otacon, did you give me the wrong coordinates again? Where's the Metal Gear? Wait i see a flying one! Stinger's away!!"
Otacon: "Ahh snake no, that's an Airship not a metal gear!!"
BOOOOOMMMM
Cid: "hey stop shooting at my ship ya little punk!"
Campbell: "Snake you are cleared to destroy that airship, over."
Grey Fox: "Just get to the next chapter already..."