Chapter 12: Facing Sin

Almost immediately after we left the dome, we were picked up by Father's airship. We got together on the bridge and argued about what our next step should be. Nobody really knew what to do. Our only clue, as Auron pointed out, was that Sin was Jecht. That was our one link, our key. Yuna approached my father and bowed low. He turned away because I saw he was trying not to cry. She, Kimhari, Auron, and Tidus left, leaving the rest of us to continue to talk it out.

"Sin is Jecht, Sin is Jecht," I said over and over to myself. "You know, it really doesn't help that the people who knew Jecht best just left the room!"

"What you mean?" Wakka asked.

"Well, they know what would get Sin's attention! What kind of things would Jecht like? I don't know!"

"He liked Blitzball."

"Oh great. Let's just open up the stadium at Luca for another tournament and see if he shows up! Who's gonna come if they know Sin's gonna appear? You remember how freaked out they were about the fiends!"

"Sin always comes back for its spawn," Lulu noted.

"That's true, but that's just gonna be like Operation Mi'hen again, isn't it? Besides, we don't have any Sinspawn!"

"Yes, we do."

"Then why aren't we fighting it?"

"Uh, I think she means his son," Wakka said.

"Oh yeah, Sin's spawn. That must have been why we kept seeing Sin. Jecht wanted to see his son! And that must be why Tidus was always able to survive! So, what are you saying? Should we just have Tidus out as bait in the Calm Lands or something?"

"I don't think so, but–" Lulu started.

"Hang on, hang on. Remember when we were at Lake Macalania? Sin came, and he didn't attack us! Tidus believed he came to listen to the Hymn of the Fayth!"

"You really think Sin was listening?" Wakka said.

"Sin, violence incarnate, listening peacefully," Lulu mused. "But the music stopped!"

"Well, of course! The Fayth can't sing when the ultimate evil is there!"

"So if we play the Hymn of the Fayth loud enough–" Lulu started.

"–then it will get Sin's attention, and he will be not as willing to attack," Wakka surmised.

"And then, we can hit him head on!" I finished.

Just then, Tidus and Yuna returned to the bridge. "Hey guys, I just had a great idea!" Wakka said.

No way is he gonna steal my glory, I thought. I covered his mouth. "It was my idea! Let me tell them!" We wrestled awhile, but then Lulu said it.

"The Hymn is the key." Wakka and I were both disappointed that we lost our chance.

"The Hymn?" Tidus asked.

"Sir Jecht likes the Hymn of the Fayth, does he not?"

"That's right."

"We knew it!" I said. "He was listening to it at Lake Macalania!"

"Um, I know it's your dad, and I mean no disrespect, but–" Wakka started.

"It's OK. I'm used to it," Tidus interrupted.

"Let me say it," Lulu cut in. "If we attack Sin head on, we have little chance of winning. However, if he hears the Hymn of the Fayth, he will become docile."

"Then we could make our move!" Wakka concluded. "It might be against the rules, but who's keeping track, yah? It's worth a shot, yah?" We all agreed that it was.

"Everyone," Yuna spoke up, "Tidus, Kimhari, and I have been talking, and we have another idea that would also be wise to follow. We believe we should return to Bevelle and request the counsel of Grand Maester Mika."

"You sure? It's not like he's been on the same page with us."

"Yeah," I added. "Last we heard, he had written us off as guilty of murder!"

"Maester Mika knows more of the teachings of Yevon than anyone in Spira," Yuna answered. "It would be prudent for use to listen to the wisdom of the other side. Perhaps he may know who Yu Yevon is."

"And if he threatens us, we'll just threaten him back!" Tidus added.

I didn't have as good a feeling about that, but Yuna seemed convinced that it was the best thing to do. So we first went to Bevelle. Of course, the moment we got there, the monks pulled their guns on us and called us traitors. We were just about to fight back when–

"STOP!" The same acolyte we had met several times on our journey approached us. "In the name of Maester Mika, Lady Yuna and her guardians should not be harmed! They are no traitors; that was an evil rumor spread by the Al Bhed!"

"What?!" I yelled in annoyance. Why do we have to take the fall for everything? If the hatred against us is ever going to stop, it's going to take awhile. The warriors lowered their guns, but then I confronted the acolyte about her Al Bhed comment.

"Truly, I do not know myself," she defended. "All of Yevon seems to be in disarray. Yesterday, they made me the Captain of the Guard out of the blue!"

"Running short of believers?" Auron suggested.

"Yes! The chaos of the temples is unimaginable! But I must stand strong as a rock against the storm. All of you have given me the courage."

"Please, we have come to see Maester Mika," Yuna said. "Is he here?"

"Yes, I will go arrange an audience with him immediately."

"But, but that doesn't explain why he's blaming the Al Bhed!" I argued.

"That's simple," Auron replied. "Yuna is Maester Mika's only hope."

I tried to figure it out, but I eventually decided that it would get me nowhere. "OK," I said cheerfully.

"Don't worry," Tidus said with a wink. "We're gonna teach him some manners!"

We went into the same great hall where the trail was held. Maester Mika looked very troubled. "Why have you come?" he demanded in a voice full of fear and dispair. "You must defeat Sin immediately! Have you not obtained the Final Aeon from Lady Yunalesca?"

"Well, uh, we met her," Tidus answered.

"And we fought and defeated her!" Yuna said boldly.

"What?!" the maester cried.

"It is so," Auron said. "Summoners and guardians will nevermore be sacrificed for the Final Summoning."

"You have profaned and subverted an ancient tradition? Fools! Infants! Don't you realize you have destroyed the only means of calming Sin?"

"But we think we have another way!" Tidus protested.

"Preposterous! There is no other way! Spira has lost its only hope. Destruction is eminent! Yu Yevon will trap us forever in his spiral of death! I will not stay to watch Spira die!"

"It will not die!" Yuna and I said together. Then, all of us demanded that he tell us who or what Yu Yevon is.

"He who crafts the souls of the dead in unholy armor, the armor called Sin! Clad within it, Yu Yevon is invincible, and the one means of piercing that armor, you have destroyed! Now, it will never be stopped!" With that, he raised his hands and disappeared into a cloud of pyreflies.

"What happened?" I asked. "Did he just send himself?"

"The unsent can do a lot of weird things, yah?" Wakka said. He shook his fist at the heavens. "He didn't have to go disappear on us, though."

Suddenly, Tidus and Yuna looked like they were talking to someone, but we couldn't see anybody. Yuna told us that she needed to go to the Chamber of the Fayth, and they departed.

"I don't get it!" I said in annoyance after they left. "Why does everybody say it's so hopeless? The answer is right in front of us! It's so obvious!"

"The most obvious answer is often the most difficult to see," Auron said.

"Oh . . . if only everyone in Spira would stop hating us!"

"But it's hard," Wakka answered in a tender voice. "After all we've been taught for so long. We're stuck in our ways. What do you expect us to do, go around Spira and say, 'Hey, don't hate the Al Bhed anymore?'"

"Still, we need someway to create a sense of unity," Lulu said. "That's a way to start. How can we do that?"

"I know what everybody in Spira has in common!" I said.

"What?" Lulu and Wakka asked together.

"The Hymn! I've heard everyone, every race, sing the Hymn of the Fayth!"

"You're right!" Lulu said.

"So, what should we do?" Wakka asked.

"When we play the Hymn on the airship, we'll just ask everyone in Spira to sing with it!" I said. "That way, they'll feel united! They'll feel like they're all responsible for defeating Sin!"

"You know, that just might do it!" Lulu said.

"Yeah, Rikku! You're really smart!" Wakka said.

"Still, you must understand, centuries of hatred will be very difficult to end," Auron reminded.

"I know, but I can be patient," I nodded. Yuna and Tidus came back, and we told the female acolyte to spread the word around Spira regarding the Hymn. She agreed that she would.

Back on the ship I told Father and Brother of the plan. Father assured me he'd look through the ship's audio files and see what he could do. He let me take some of the control up at the helm while he was looking. While I was up there, I told Brother a little bit about my journey and all the other people with me.

"They're not too bad, for black circles that is," Brother muttered.

"Brother, you can't say that anymore!" I scolded him.

"What?!" He took his eyes off the sky for just a moment. "Sister, you know the things they say about us behind our backs! Don't I have the right to say same?"

"No you don't! Brother, think about it. How are we going to stop the hatred against us if we hate back? We got to stop this! No more insults! No more machina fiends!"

"How is that going to change anything?" Father broke in. "You know what they say, 'The more things change, the more they stay the same!' There's nothing we can do to make people stop hating us; it's esbuccepma!" (impossible) "Tayn, you're really starting to sound like–"

"Ihlma Braska?"

Brother gasped in shock. Father looked like he was trying so hard to control his rage. "I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL HIM THAT!"

"But he is my uncle, Father, and I am proud that he is part of my family tree. He was a wise man. You can see the wisdom live on in his daughter, and I want it to live in me."

"But look at where his thinking got him! He went to Zanarkand to die! You call that wise? I say that's the most foolish thing anyone could do!"

"You're right. It was foolish, but he didn't know until he got there how foolish it really was. I'm not going to hold it against him. He had a vision that no one else in Spira ever had–a united, Sin-free Spira. He did all that he could do to try and achieve it. I say that made him wise."

"But Braska's guardians tried to kill Father," Brother argued.

"And Uncle Braska saved him."

"How do you know about that?" Father asked. "Did Auron tell you his side? Because it was obviously skewed."

"Auron did more than tell me. He showed me in a movie sphere. I really ought to show you and Brother when this is all over. Look, maybe it is impossible as you say, but we can still try. We'll never know if we don't try. We can reach out to the non-Al Bhed. When we defeat Sin, we can share that triumph with them. We can share our interests, like Blitzball! We could just try to be friends with them, despite everything." Then I looked at Brother. "And we can start by learning their language."

"AAAAGH!" Brother groaned. "Do I have to?"

"It's easy! All you gotta do is rearrange the alphabet! That's really all there is to it. Everything else is the same as far as grammar goes. Well, I guess they have a few more words meant to clarify things."

"I suppose . . . maybe I could. I'm . . . I'm glad we found Yuna. She . . . looks really nice, you know."

"Nice in what way?" I playfully slapped at his shoulder.

"Rao! Lid dryd uid!" I laughed, and he laughed a little too, but then he turned to me. "How do you say that?"

"Hey, cut that out."

"It sounds so different."

"Trust me. Once you start learning, you'll see how simple it is. Father and I will teach you."

Meanwhile, Father was wondering off by himself, muttering, "Reach out . . . share our triumph . . . hmmm . . ." Oh boy, Father's planning something again.

He soon got a beautiful audio file of a chorus singing the Hymn in four part harmony. After he turned it on, there was a moment of silence. We all waited with bated breath, hoping that Sin heard. Suddenly, Brother jumped out of his seat. "SIN!" On the screen, we could see the monster coming right for us. We immediately proceeded to the deck.

Outside, I could still hear the Hymn all around us. That faithful acolyte passed along the message! Somewhere below, every human creature was singing with all their hearts. How's that for hope?

Then, everything around us shook. We saw the beast open its mouth, and a huge ball of energy was forming around it. All of us hit the deck, bracing for impact . . . but no impact came. Everything was so quiet and still. It was like time had stopped. I stood up and looked around. I don't know how to describe what I saw. It was like Sin had torn a hole, through the earth, through the ocean, even through the sky. As soon as I took in that marvel, everything started again. The hole collapsed on itself. It was a wonder that we weren't all destroyed by the blow.

Just then, Father called us. He noticed a weakness under each of Sin's arms. He asked us to attack the spots with all of our might and then he'd hit them with the big gun. It wasn't easy, but we did it. Then, just our luck, the main gun jammed. So we jumped onto Sin and fought another weak spot on its head. That was even harder. We got the job done, though. Sin crashed into Bevelle.

Yuna and Tidus walked alone. I stayed on the bridge to watch. After a while, Sin started to move. I quickly paged Yuna and Tidus, and we watched as the beast grew wings and mounted on the tower in Bevelle. We knew it was time. Jecht was waiting for the final battle. Tidus ordered Father to take the ship into the beast itself.

All of us went to the deck as the ship went inside. It was strange. Even though this was the ultimate creature of evil, the journey in was beautiful. I dare say I saw more pyreflies floating around us than in the Farplane. As we looked on in wonder, we suddenly heard a familiar, nasal laughed. We looked up and saw Seymour's face. The vision seemed to draw us in at mach speed, but as soon as it happened, it was over. Then we landed and made our way through.

I gotta say, getting through Sin was probably the hardest part of the whole journey. The fiends were a lot tougher and a lot more numerous. A dense fog was all around us, so we couldn't see clearly where were going. It took forever for us to find a Save Sphere and renew ourselves. At the Save Sphere, though, Seymour was waiting for us. He had this crazy idea that Sin chose him and he was going to learn how to control Sin. We were just anxious to get rid of him. So we fought him harder than ever until he fell. Then, then, finally, Yuna performed the sending. I wasn't paying attention; I was too busy looking at him. "So Seymour, tell us, does death end pain? Does it end suffering? Is death love, Seymour? You're dying alone. How can it be?"

"It matters not, Miss Rikku," he replied in a raspy whisper. "Perhaps I have lost my hope, but so has Spira." Then, he became a cloud of pyreflies.

After he disappeared, I muttered to myself, "To think I used to think he was handsome."

I must have said that louder than I intended because everyone looked at me. "What did you just say?!" Tidus asked.

"Uh, nothing!"

Yuna laughed. "Maybe he should have proposed to you instead!"

"Hey! I would have figured out he was evil first!"

Just beyond where we confronted Seymour, there seemed to be a deserted city. The fiends there were even harder than they were outside, but there were some neat treasures hidden everywhere. As we got past everything, a huge tower crashed down in front of us. We went near it, and we were transported to this strange place where icicles and crystals fell from the sky. If we touched the icicles, we had to fight another fiend, but if we caught the crystals, they gave us rare treasures. After catching ten crystals, we were transported again to a dark platform surrounded in lava.

There, we saw a man. He was standing in the shadows with his back turned to us, but we all knew it was the same man that was in the movie spheres Auron showed us. I think seeing the human in Sin gave us some hesitation. We could see how hard this was going to be. I would have rather seen any fiend than that man.

"You're late, Auron," he said in a quiet, tired voice.

"I know," Auron replied with resignation.

The man turned around, and he smiled and waved. "Hey!"

"Hi," Tidus replied curtly.

"You got tall, but you're all bones! You eating right, boy?" Jecht laughed, but Tidus didn't respond. Then he added seriously, "You've really grown."

"Yeah, but you're still bigger."

"Hey, I'm Sin after all!" Jecht replied in a jovial tone.

"That's not funny."

"I know." He started walking closer to us. "Well, you got together a good team. It made this kinda fun."

"Fun?! You call destroying Spira fun?! Tearing up those houses in Kilika? Destroying all those people on Mushroom Rock? That was FUN?!"

"You know I didn't want to. I would have stopped if I could. But I saw all of you when we were fighting, and I knew you could stop me. I could see that you had it in your hearts. All the same, though, you know how I love a challenge." He chuckled. "Kinda took me back to my Blitzball days. Speaking of," he turned to Wakka, "you play too, don't you?"

"Yah," he said uncertainly.

"Amateur?"

"No, professional! Well, I was."

"Could've fooled me!" Jecht laughed heartily, but Wakka looked rejected. "Oh come on, kid, I was just playing with ya. So you quit?"

"I retired, to focus on the pilgrimage."

"If you survive, do me a favor. Come out of retirement. Keep the game alive." Jecht patted his shoulder. "By the way, sorry about your brother."

"Uh . . ." Wakka stood there with his mouth open, a complete loss for words. It didn't matter anyway because Jecht moved on to Lulu.

"And you, you are impressive. I'd never seen black magic like you could do. Auron and I were way too lazy to learn much magic. Braska knew some, but it was mostly white. So that was awesome."

"Thanks," Lulu replied quietly.

"Then, there's you," Jecht said approaching the Kimhari. "I never did meet many Ronso on my journey, but I think of all the ones I've seen, you're the strongest."

"Kimhari is honored," the Ronso replied with a bow.

"Yeah. Thanks for looking after her," Jecht added, nodding toward Yuna. Kimhari only made a deep growl in response.

Then Jecht walked up to me. "I remember you! Braska's cute, little niece!" He started playing with my ponytail. I couldn't stop myself from giggling a little. "Oh, you're still very cute, and such pretty eyes too!" I smiled. I don't think a non-Al Bhed ever complimented my eyes; most of them must have been too disgusted by the spiraling pupils. Then, he put his hand on my shoulder and said seriously, "You got spunk, kid. Never lose it."

"OK," I answered. "Um, thank you for bringing me Home that time."

Jecht shrugged. "Hey, it was the least I could do." Then, he walked over to Yuna. "And you . . . Yuna . . ." All the joviality left his voice, as though he was about to cry. "You still look so young." He ran his hand through her hair. "You're eyes . . . they're also lovely. They're not how I remember them."

"They changed," she answered. "When I first joined with a Fayth, they changed."

"I thought so." He sighed sadly. "Your . . . your father would be so proud of you. I think . . . I think in some ways . . . you outmatched him."

"Thank you, Sir Jecht. I am honored," Yuna replied solemnly with a bow.

"Enough of this!" Auron demanded. "You're wasting time as usual, Jecht."

Auron turned around to him. "Well, I see you haven't changed!" he said with a laugh. "Still . . . you're not quite the same as I remember." He came closer. "That scar. Huh, there must be a story there."

"There's always a story," Auron replied coldly.

"Yeah, you're right. Sometime, I'm gonna have to hear it."

"Jecht, we don't have time for these pleasantries!"

"Give me a break, Auron! You think I wanted this? You think I asked to be Sin? This isn't what I signed up for at all! This is so hard for me!"

"That's enough, Dad!" Tidus yelled. "Let's just get this over with!"

Jecht turned to him with a sad look in his eyes and then nodded. "You're right. Let's end this."

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

Tidus looked up at him coldly. "I hate you!"

Jecht laughed sadly. "I know, I know." I couldn't believe this. After all our talk about love, will it be hate that destroys Sin? "You know what you have to do."

"Yeah," Tidus nodded.

"I can't hear the Hymn so good anymore. Pretty soon, I'm gonna be Sin, completely. I'm glad you're here now, all of you. One thing, though, when it happens, I won't be myself anymore. I won't be able to hold myself back. I'm sorry." I could hear the agony in his voice. So, Sin could feel. Sin does have emotions.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Tidus said once more. "LET'S FINISH THIS!"

And once more, Jecht nodded sadly. "You're right." He started walking toward the edge of the platform. Then he turned around once more and said for the first time with excitement in his voice, "Then, let's go!"

Jecht then put his wrists together and began to glow. He held his hands high over his head as he glowed brighter and brighter. Then, he took one step back and fell into the lava. Tidus ran after him, but it was too late. Suddenly, a city lit up around us. It looked like Zanarkand, as we saw in Seymour's sphere. At that moment, a gigantic hand grabbed the platform and a huge monster that only barely resembled Jecht rose out of the lava pit and faced us. Tidus drew his sword. "I PROMISE THIS WILL BE QUICK! HIT ME WITH ALL YOU GOT, DAD!"

Living up to that promise was not going to be easy. I guess it shouldn't be any surprise that Sin was the strongest foe we ever faced. Every time we weakened him, these two towers attached to Sin and gave him back some HP. We could tell he was getting closer and closer to his Overdrive. Every time he got too close, Tidus yelled at him, and Sin calmed down. Once, though, Sin lost the last few traces of Jecht and couldn't hear Tidus. Then, he unleashed this super strong attack that nearly killed us all. We then decided not to hold back anymore. We all hit him back with our strongest Overdrives, and Yuna called her most powerful aeons. It seems after that, Sin fell easily. He collapsed and transformed back into Jecht in an explosion of light. The man also collapsed. Tidus ran forward and caught him.

Jecht laughed. "You'll cry. You always cry! See? You're crying!"

And he was right. Tidus was crying. I hadn't seen him cry since I told him about what Yuna was about to do, so I don't know what Jecht meant that he always cried. "I hate you, Dad." I think I was crying a little too. So was Yuna.

"Save it for later," Jecht said gently.

"You're right," Tidus nodded. "We got a job to do, don't we?"

"That's right. You're my son, after all."

"You know . . . for the first time, I'm glad . . . to have you as my . . . father." That made me feel somewhat better. Maybe Tidus was wrong. Maybe he didn't hate Jecht, even though he thought he did. Jecht only laughed. He must laugh a lot.

Yuna walked forward. "Sir Jecht, I should . . ."

But Jecht sat back up. "No! There's no time, Yuna!"

We saw something, like a sphere, flying through the air. Was that Yu Yevon? "You stay away!" Tidus yelled at it.

"You know what you must do, Yuna! The aeons!"

I heard a voice say all around me, "We aeons!"

"Call them!"

"Call us!"

I didn't understand. Jecht then fell to the ground and dissolved into pyreflies. The white orb came toward us and hit Sin's gigantic sword. We were all knocked down, and when we got up, we were standing on top of the sword and surrounded by a strange, pinkish light. Yuna went forward, raised her staff, and yelled, "Valefor!" The sky glowed brightly, and the gigantic bird aeon flew down. But it didn't take its place by Yunie's side. It was facing us. We had to fight it and every one of her other aeons. That was really hard, not just because they were aeons and they were being powered by those same two towers, but because we had grown to respect, maybe even rely on them. When they were gone, they were gone for good. Every defeated aeon hurt Yunie so, I could tell. She'd look down with great sadness for a moment, and then she'd look up with determination burning fiercely in her eyes.

Then, it was us and the sphere. It grew eight legs, and a crest appeared on its back. So it was Yu Yevon. Kinda disappointing. I wish it had some intelligence so that I could ask it why it created Sin in the first place and why it kept bringing Sin back. Then, I heard an even greater mystery.

"Everyone," Tidus said, "this will be the last time we fight together, OK?" We were all surprised to hear that. What could he mean? "What I'm trying to say is, once we defeat Yu Yevon, I'll disappear!"

"What are you talking about?" Lulu asked. Yuna looked at him with the greatest sadness, as though she was begging him to stay.

Tidus, however, drew his sword and approached Yu Yevon. "I'm saying goodbye!"

"Not now!" I implored.

He turned back but only for a second. "I know it's selfish, but . . . THIS IS MY STORY!"

So, we fought Yu Yevon together. I tell you what, without Sin he's a pansy. Yuna cast reflect on him and all of us, and his strongest spells hit him instead of us. It seemed like it didn't even take five minutes, and he was defeated.

So, it was over. Sin was forever destroyed. We didn't lose Yunie, but we still had to pay a price.