AN: And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time at last for the conclusion of the Spira Adventure Arc, in the newest exciting chapter of Hearts of Avengers!
[audience applause]
Yeah, you'd better be excited, especially after that cliffhanger we left off on, but don't worry, that'll be resolved quickly enough, while a lot of other questions are answered as well, much like some of the big questions we had regarding a certain MCU movie just recently were.
Sora: I'm guessing you've recently seen Avengers: Endgame?
AN: Uh, YEAH! THAT MOVIE WAS SO EPIC THAT "EPIC" DOESN'T EVEN FEEL LIKE THE BEST WORD TO DESCRIBE IT! The big moments, the awesome scenes, the final battle! That movie now features my absolute favorite scene in all the MCU movies, btw! Not to mention...Oops, I almost gave a pretty big spoiler there, and I really don't want to do that.
Spider-Man: I can't help but wonder how that's going to affect some of your other stories/series in the future, like a certain Star Wars crossover that you're doing which hasn't been updated.
AN: Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there and tell you the exact same thing that I'm about to tell all my reviewers that have been posting things that basically just say "update 'this story' soon please." I'll get each of my stories updated when they're good and ready. And when I don't likely have mostly Disney stuff on my mind (especially in the case of Kingdom Hearts), along with Marvel based stuff, and since this story has both of those in abundance, guess which story is likely getting a lot of attention for a while. But don't worry, I will get back to my other stories soon. It'll just be a while before I update something that doesn't have some ties to Kingdom Hearts, or something similar to that. Sorry if that sounds a little harsh, but it does get a little annoying after a while when I'm only reading reviews that just say things like "Please update soon", or a less polite version of that, and even more so when it's a request for a completely different story.
Now, with my rant done for the day, let's move on to the regular review answers, shall we?
First off to "Dragon Rider 66", I guess the simplest way to explain Sora seeing Terra and Aqua in those visions would be to say...blame the D-Link ability. From my understanding, that power draws from the connections one has in their heart with others, and since Ventus's connection to Terra and Aqua are strongest, it would make sense that he would use his D-Link to them more than anyone else, so in a way, Sora's seeing what happened to Terra and Aqua because of how strong Ven's ties to them are. Hope that makes sense. I haven't actually considered doing TV shows that were specific to other worlds like you had suggested, but it is an idea to consider. And thanks for the show recommendation. I might just look into it when I next get a chance.
To the guest reviewer "Johnathen", I don't really have any plans for Sora to travel through time in this series, aside from when the Avengers deal with Kang the Conqueror (obviously), but as for Stan Lee cameos, you can rest easy knowing that will in fact happen. Like I'm really going to write a Marvel story/series that doesn't have Stan the Man showing up for a cameo in at least one of those stories/chapters.
Next up is to "One Nutty Author", glad you like this story so much so far. As for other Marvel heroes Sora will meet, I can't really say that there's much of a chance he'll run into the Inhumans (or at least, any besides Daisy), but I do plan to introduce Sora to the mutants' side of the Marvel universe at some point later on in this story, and at least imply that he's come into contact with the Fantastic Four, but that may be a little hard since the Four are almost never home. As for your question about Doom, you have to keep in mind that he usually keeps to himself for the most part in EMH, and even in other series that are not about the Fantastic Four, at least from my experience, he doesn't really come into the middle of things unless he believes he should. (The exception being that Super Hero Squad Show of course). Maybe he is looking into things regarding the Keyblade, maybe he isn't. You'll just have to wait and see just what all I'll have him cooking up, but I wouldn't expect much from ol' Victor Von Doom just yet.
To the guest reviewer "Guest" of 4/11/2019, I think that when you consider the things he managed to do in Kingdom Hearts canon, it's pretty clear how powerful Xehanort really is, but if you're referring to how powerful he is in this story...well, that answer will come when we reach the third story of this series.
Yuffie: You've got a plans for a third story already?!
AN: You say that like you're surprised. Now to "warrior of six blades", yeah Tony would probably not have much to say about Sora's visions just yet, but he would definitely have a huge tangent about Spira's opinion of modern technology, especially when you consider that he would more than likely be wearing his armor when they appeared on Spira, assuming he was present and suited up when Sora zapped the group away.
"GuestWithIdeas", I like your suggestion in having Shuri help examine Sora to find out the source of his visions, and while I do intend to have Shuri show up again later on in the story, I'm afraid it won't be for that reason. Sorry, but I do like the suggestion for Yuffie's codename, and I think I might be able to build something up from that.
"Spiderfan626", glad you enjoyed seeing Kairi's first appearance in the main story, more or less, and I'm right there with you on being eager for the sequels to those games. I just really hope that they're as good as the games that came before them. And in the case of the KH3 sequel, (not 4 but the tie-in), I hope we get some clue on what happened to Sora and that they find a way to pull him back, or at least come close to bringing him back before KH4. And that we see Kairi in a more active role, too, like say...as a playable character that doesn't get turned into a damsel in distress! Yeah, I'm looking at you guys, KH Creative Team!
Rounding it on over to "darinpasillas4", for now, Sora's going to be stuck with just Kingdom Key, so I wouldn't expect him to be getting any new Keyblades in this story. More than likely, he'll get his first new Keyblades in the sequel to this story, so sorry if you were hoping for something like that to come sooner. Glad that you're enjoying the story so far.
Finally to "CT7567Rules", whatever you think works best for that, by all means, go for it.
Okay, I think that covers everything I wanted to address, so let's get on with the main show. It's going to be really packed with all kinds of action, drama, fun, and even a little romance too this time, so why are you still reading this when you could be reading the story itself?
T'Challa: Perhaps they are hoping that they will learn something of great significance like how when the Masters of Evil finally attack, Sora will...
AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits the control]
T'Challa: Oh dear. [suddenly gets slammed into by a large, swinging tree log, and is sent catapulting out of the room]
AN: Phew! That was close. Never thought I'd have to use one of those gags on T'Challa of all people, but as they say everything's relative. Avengers, to the chapter!...
I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter XII
The entire room was silent, save for the small noises that were coming from the machines around them, and the small whimpers of sadness that Rikku was making, but considering what she just said, no one could blame them. How was someone supposed to respond after hearing that a noble quest their friend was taking to save the world was apparently going to end with said friend's death? Looking over to the Spirans that they had been traveling with, the heroes of Midgard and the Destiny Islanders all saw looks of sorrow and shame on each of their faces that proved that they all knew about this, and that got each of them a little riled up. They all had to wonder why the three would allow Yuna to go through with something that would kill her. Though that was not as confusing as to why Rikku would allow her cousin to go through with a pilgrimage if she knew that it would result in Yuna's death, especially if it upset her this much.
After a few more minutes, Miles could not take the silence anymore and said, "Okay, hold on. Are you seriously telling us that…all this time we've been helping with this pilgrimage, we've basically just…we've been just keeping Yuna alive so that she can die at the proper moment like a lamb for slaughter?"
"Here's a better question for you, boy: are you telling me that you didn't know about this," the Al Bhed man asked.
"Vydran," Rikku snapped in return, almost sounding like she was scolding him, but that was as far as she got with that.
"No, we didn't, because if we did, we wouldn't have been helping out unless Yuna intended to try and do something that would make sure she would live," Spider-Man had interjected.
"As far as we knew, she did not have any such plan," Lulu somberly revealed, but no matter how sad she sounded, it did not save her or any of her allies from the heroes' wrath.
"And you let her go through with this anyway?! I thought you were supposed to be like family to her or something. What kind of person would let someone that important to them throw their life away like that," Hawkeye angrily demanded.
"Don't you think we tried to stop her," Lulu snapped back, startling the archer a bit with her fury. "Yuna follows her heart. I begged and pleaded with her to not take on summoner training, but she insisted that she knew what she was doing. No matter what I said, Yuna intended to follow through on her decision, even if we disagreed. The only thing I could do at that point was become her guardian."
"I was the same way," Auron revealed, turning everyone's attention to him. "I had already been forced to watch as Yuna's father gave his life battling Sin. The only thing that hurt more than realizing that his calm was not the final one was when I learned that his daughter intended to follow in his footsteps. All that I could do was become her guardian, and hope that we would find another way to stop Sin before she was forced to use the Final Aeon."
"It's still wrong," Gwen snapped, startling everyone even more than Lulu had earlier. "People shouldn't have to sacrifice themselves just so others can be happy. No one should be forced into something just to make sure that another person is safe, even if it means they have to go through any kind of pain."
"I do agree, but I doubt that we really have too much of place to question this," T'Challa pointed out. "I understand the pain you all feel, having seen my own father go through a similar trial before he was struck down by a terrible villain, but if there is truly no other way, then I am certain that Yuna and every other summoner would do whatever it takes to protect their home, and bring peace and joy to their people, even if it meant their lives. It is a burden that I can relate to as a king of Wakanda."
"That doesn't change anything, and it doesn't give someone the right to push others around like this, Harry," Gwen snapped, only to flinch back as she realized the verbal slip she had just made. Everyone could only stare in startled shock and disbelief at what the blonde just said, until Gwen felt she could not take their stares anymore and just ran from the room, with Peter preparing to go after her.
He was stopped short though when he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Captain America had stopped him. "Let her go for now, son. I think she needs a moment to herself right now," Steve advised. He then returned his gaze to the others as he added, "Right now, we have much more pressing matters at hand: rescuing Yuna, stopping Seymour and the Heartless, and finding a way to put an end to Sin's rampages for good that doesn't involve sacrificing others."
"What do you think we've been doing, boy," the Al Bhed that Rikku called Vydran asked. "All Al Bhed have been searching for a way to permanently stop Sin for ages, even before my niece went and became a summoner, but most of our methods have only earned us labels like heathen and scum from those Yevonites that drove us from our home."
"Unfortunately, the list of ideas that these two numbskulls came up with involved just kidnapping summoners and stuffing them into an underground bunker for their protection, which I'm told them was a bad idea over and over again," Rikku stated with a pointed look.
"Hey now, don't be takin' that tone with your father, young lady," Rikku's dad warned.
"Yldiymmo, e's cdyndehk du drehg cra syo ryja ryt y buehd, Vydran," the other Al Bhed who shared a resemblance to both Rikku and her dad said.
"Um…what did he say," Peter questioned.
"Brother's basically saying that he agrees with me," Rikku simplified.
At that point, a loud bang reached everyone's ears, and made them turn to see Tidus was punching against the wall as hard as he could with the beginnings of tears in his eyes. "I can't believe…I can't believe how stupid I must've sounded," the boy moaned as he kept hitting the wall. "I didn't know…I didn't know a damn thing, and…And I've been telling Yuna… 'Let's go to Zanarkand together! Let's beat Sin!' I told her all the things we could…we could…and all along, I never knew anything! But Yuna just…She'd just smile."
No one could be certain on what they could say to help the boy get through the sorrow he was clearly feeling, even when Wakka moved to pat his friend on the back, even if it was in weak reassurance, because clearly the Blitzball player was feeling almost as upset as Tidus was. Eventually, Wakka did think of something to say, but he was not sure if he should be saying it. That did not stop him though, because he felt like it needed to be said. "I can't really blame her or yourself for that, ya? I mean, didn't Yuna once say that summoners and their guardians are supposed to be like Spira's ray of hope, and that she learned to practice smiling even when she was feeling sad? She said that she wanted her journey to be full of smiles and happiness, so I can't say that I blame her for avoiding this topic."
"That doesn't make it any better, Wakka," Tidus shouted as he pushed his friend off, looking like he was ready to slug someone. "We can't just…I can't let her die."
"And she won't," Sora determined, making all the attention shift once again, this time onto him again so that everyone could see his determination in full. "I promise, we'll find Yuna, and then you can apologize for anything you said that may have upset her, or really just all the things you guys said without knowing any better."
"Yeah, and what about after that," Rikku's father asked.
"Simple: we'll stop Seymour, seal the Keyhole, and beat Sin without having to sacrifice anyone," Sora replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I may not know how we're gonna do it, but I know there is a way, and we'll find it, together. After all, that's what heroes do. We save the world without letting anyone else die, including our own teammates."
"You really think it's gonna be that easy?"
"I never said that it would be, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Besides, you can make it easier by helping us out," Sora easily countered with a smile that shone with certainty.
Apparently the Keybearer's positive attitude was enough to make everyone slowly start smiling as well, because that was exactly what happened soon after, with Rikku, Kimahri, and Lulu all having shimmers of gratitude in their eyes as they gazed upon Sora. Tidus and Wakka were both soon standing on either side of their friend as the former said, "If Sora says we can make it happen, then we'll make it happen. No Destiny Islander worth their salt would ever go back on a promise to help their friends, and I don't plan on being the first."
"That goes double for me, man," Wakka nodded in agreement.
Rikku's father looked at the three for another few seconds before he finally let out a huff of humor and said, "I like these boys." He then marched over and patted each of them on the shoulder as he said, "Don't any of you forget those words, 'cause if you do…I'll make all three of you regret it."
"We won't, old man," Tidus promised on all of their behalf, while Sora and Wakka both just nodded, feeling that it was better to just leave it at that. After all, not a single person here was more determined to save Yuna and keep her alive than Tidus.
"Hey! Watch that 'old man' stuff. The name's Cid, so don't forget it," the man stated in response with a nod and he then said something to Brother in Al Bhed before he moved over to the large sphere in the middle of the room, with the others following his every movement with his eyes. "All right, let's get to it then," Cid declared. "We've gotta hurry if we're gonna catch up with them."
"Does that mean you know where Seymour and Yuna are," Tidus asked.
"'Course not! That's why we're gonna go look using this airship," Cid replied.
"I'm sorry, did he just say that we're going to look using…this airship," Miles asked, only to stumble a little as the room shook around them.
Looking to the front, everyone saw that Brother was seated at the main controls, and the view outside the large window suddenly began to move, proving once and for all that they had in fact been standing inside of a large vessel of some kind. "Vydran, nayto du suja uid," Brother reported.
"Yeehaa! Let's get going then," Cid declared, and a second later, everyone watched as they saw the cliffs around Macalania Temple move away in favor of the vast, clear skies above Spira.
As she took in the amazed expressions of her friends, Rikku could not help but smirk as she said, "Hey, don't look so surprised. After all, building new machina and reconstructing the old ones is a specialty of any Al Bhed, and that's especially so for my family."
No one could argue with that, as most of the group was much more inclined to enjoy the smooth ride that they were now undertaking. Hawkeye, T'Challa, and Steve remained impassive to the whole thing, mainly since they had all been on either a Quinjet, one of Wakanda's jets, or the Helicarrier quite a few times in their lives now, but Sora and the rest of the kids were definitely enjoying themselves a fair deal. Still, it did not stop the odd gaze that Cap adopted as he looked out the window. Sora knew the reason for the super soldier's look, but he was not quite fast enough to explain when he realized that others were beginning to notice as well.
"You okay, Cap," Miles asked.
"Fine, Miles," Steve reassured him. "Just…still getting used to things like this. After all, in my day, if something went this high, we didn't call it an airship,"
"What did you call it in your day then," Lulu asked, honestly curious about the fact, since she was still rather curious about the folks from Marvel-topia ever since they had explained more about their respective stories.
"Science fiction," Sora and Steve simultaneously answered, making the super soldier turn to see the boy grinning at him in good humor, while the others could not help but laugh a little.
Even through all of that humor, Peter was still worried about Gwen. Not that you could blame him, seeing as she was both his childhood friend and so much more. With that in mind, it only made sense that he would ignore what Steve had said earlier and gone after her, believing that the last thing Gwen needed right now was to be left alone. Of course, that also prevented him from realizing that Sora had noticed his departure and started following after him as quietly as possible.
After fleeing from the bridge, Gwen had just been sitting in the hallway, looking down at the floor with a sad, despondent look on her face. Though in point of fact, she was not actually sad, but she was rather upset with herself. She had not meant to let anything slip out like that, and she had done her very best to keep her secret hidden even if her emotions did get the best of her, but in that moment, with all the hard truths and heavy feelings that had been permeating through the room at the time, she had slipped up and nearly revealed what she had been trying so hard to keep secret from everyone, be they friends or family. She was not sure what most of the others would have thought, but she had no doubt that Peter had likely started drawing up more than a few conclusions, some of which may have been close to if not completely accurate. That worried her more than anything else, because she knew that if Peter knew the truth, he would probably have tried to blame himself for the whole mess, or tried to fix everything by himself, and this was definitely not Peter's fault, nor was it his mess to fix. Still, there was no changing what had happened, and it was only all the worse in her eyes that some of her other friends from Midtown had heard that near confession as well, so there was no telling how they were going to react to all of this. In this moment of self-pity, she did not quite realize that she never even realized that one such friend was actually approaching her at that very moment, until he was standing right next to her.
"You know, Cap said that it would be a good idea to leave you on your own for a minute," Peter said as he came to sit beside the blonde with a soft, caring smile in full view since he had removed his mask earlier. He felt that it would only get in the way of the talk they were about to have, and besides, he had been wearing it for a little too long for comfort anyway.
"Did you think that he might have been on to something," Gwen questioned as she tried to turn away, not wanting to look her friend in the eye.
"Maybe, but then again, he doesn't know you that well. Not like me, at least," Peter shrugged in response, partly out of humor and partly out of seriousness. Even though his comment did get a small smile out of Gwen, it did not stop Peter from dropping all humor completely and taking a seat next to the one girl he cared about more than anyone else when he next spoke. "Gwen, what's going on? Really?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Gwen tried to refute. She knew that it was most likely pointless, but she could not help but try and deny that she was having any problems at the moment.
"Do I really need to point out why that lie wouldn't work on me," Peter asked, proving Gwen's point with just that sentence. "There's no way you would've gotten that worked up like that and said Harry's name in the heat of the moment for no reason, so what's wrong? Please, just let me at least try to help."
Gwen kept silent, still not looking at Peter for the sake of hiding any shame that she might have felt, and in an attempt to keep herself from seeing any kind of hurt or anger in Peter's face. That proved to be futile, because Peter was soon gently turning her face towards his after cupping her chin with one hand, and when she finally locked eyes with Peter, Gwen saw nothing but the kind, caring, beautiful brown eyes she had always known to be his. It did not stop with those feelings though, because the minute her eyes had locked with his, something else seemed to flare up in those eyes, and Gwen was sure that the very same thing was now apparent in her eyes too as she continued to gaze upon the spider hero. Neither of them were sure what happened next or who moved first, but eventually, their staring led them to start leaning closer together, eyes slowly slipping into a half-lidded state, until finally, a far too familiar sensation greeted them both as their lips met in a gentle, sweet kiss that set off more fireworks than a New York Fourth of July could ever have. Even through all of those fireworks and the storm of emotions that was raging between them, they still kept the kiss gentle, with Peter eventually cupping one hand behind her head, while Gwen lightly grasped the front of his shirt before snaking her arms around his neck. Eventually, they did get to be a little more feverish, and rapid with Gwen thinking she was likely about to shove her tongue into Peter's mouth, or maybe that was Peter's tongue trying to get into hers, but quite frankly, neither of them knew or cared. All that mattered to them was each other. There was nothing else. No other worlds, no Avengers, no friends, no complications.
It was actually that last thought that finally made Gwen break off the kiss, pulling away so fast that you would think she had just been burned by something incredibly hot. "No," Gwen stuttered. "N-no, I shouldn't have done that. We shouldn't have done that."
"I-I know. I'm sorry," Peter quickly apologized, now feeling horrible about the whole thing and like he had just forced Gwen into that little…moment. That did not last though, because after a pregnant, silent pause, Peter finally said, "I am sorry, but…I'm not entirely sure if…if I regret it."
"Peter," Gwen started to say, but she did not get much farther than that.
"No, Gwen. I meant what I said months ago, and I still mean it now. You're the one I want to be with. You mean more to me than anyone or anything in the world. Be it this one, ours, or any other," Peter insisted as gently as he could. "I just…I need you to know that, and how that's the reason why I can't stand to see you hurt or upset for any reason."
That got a light blush onto Gwen's face, along with a genuine smile that Peter had not seen for a long time, hence part of the reason why his heart seemed to skip a few beats at the sight of said smile, and she was about to tell him how sweet it was of him to say that, until a new voice cut into their moment. "Oh that's it! I give up," the unknown viewer groaned loudly, making both Midtown seniors jump a little farther apart as they spun around to see a very frustrated looking Sora almost glaring at them both from down the hall. "Seriously, what is with you guys?! You both obviously like each other as way more than friends, but neither of you have done anything to act on it! I know that some stuff had happened last year that made things rocky between you, but that doesn't mean you should try and act like there was nothing there in the first place. Hell, you can't act like that, especially when you have moments like that, so what is the deal with you?!"
"It's…It's complicated, Sora," Peter tried to say, but his argument did not seem to hold any weight at all. Be it in his ears, or Sora's.
"You want complicated? How about we go over everything that I'm having to deal with since I first came to Marvel-topia, or even before that when I got this glorified hunk of metal," Sora retorted, summoning Kingdom Key into his hand on the last bit so he could emphasize his point. He did make sure to send a quick apology to his Keyblade for the remark, but that did not stop him from pressing on in his rant. "What you guys have is clear as day and way more simple, so how could it possibly be complicated?"
"In case you forgot, Sora, I have a boyfriend for one," Gwen reminded him, almost sounding angry for a few seconds. That died down a little when she then added, "At least…I think I do, but some days, I'm not so sure if Harry really is my boyfriend, or to be more accurate…if he really sees me as his girlfriend."
That got Sora's righteous fury to die down, and drew his and Peter's attention fully onto the blonde so that she could see their confusion at her words. Neither one of them was really sure if they wanted to know the answer to the obvious question, but Peter still asked it anyway. Something just told him that they needed to hear this. "What do you mean by that?"
Gwen did not say anything at first, apparently trying to steal her resolve for what she was about to say and/or do, but when she finally had, she slowly reached up and undid the scarf that had somehow remained firmly in place around her neck even in the chaos of all that they had been doing since arriving on Spira. When she did, both Peter and Sora gasped in shock at the clear impression of red finger marks around her neck, indicating that someone had recently wrapped their hands around Gwen's neck very roughly at some point before hand, and with the way Gwen was tearing up, they had a hunch that it was none of the bad guys that they had been fighting.
"Oh my god, Gwen," Peter gasped as Sora rushed over, intending to use a healing spell to remove the bruise. "What happened?"
Gwen wanted to flinch away as Sora began to cast his spell, but ultimately stayed right where she was, knowing that it would be useless to resist the younger boy's kind actions. Instead, she just breathed deeply again and replied, "This is…This is what happened when I told Harry about our study group. Or more accurately, when I mentioned that you would be a part of the study group, Pete."
Hearing that and seeing this most recent bruise was all that Sora needed to fit a few more pieces of the puzzle together, and he could not stop himself from announcing his conclusion aloud for all three of them. "Harry's the one who did this to you, and who gave you that bruise on your arm from the other day."
"Yes…He was," Gwen confirmed, sadly. "I don't know why, but every time Peter's name comes up, Harry just seems to…fly off the handle, or something. At best, he'll go on what seems like just a jealous rant about Peter, sometimes he'll even go so far as to accuse me of horrible things like being unfaithful, sleeping around, or just being with him for my own gain, but at worst…well, you've now seen two examples of what happens from that."
"He hasn't done anything worse to you, has he," Peter asked, now extremely worried for Gwen. Harry may have been his best friend, but if the sole heir to the Osborn legacy had done anything especially harmful to Gwen, or even attempted to try something that bad, Peter was pretty sure that any such feelings would be out the door, consequences be damned.
"No! Thank God, no," Gwen immediately reassured him, grasping his hand in hers with a few gentle rubs along his knuckles to better reassure Peter. "He usually comes to his senses before he can try something too drastic, usually because of me or someone else, but Harry's just…I don't know what's going on with him. At first it was just angry words and outbursts, and I figured it was just his way of coping with the loss of his dad, but as it got worse, even after all this time…"
"So then why are you still with him," Sora asked. It was obvious to him that Gwen did not care for Harry or the way he treated her, so he could not help but wonder why she did not just end things with him.
This time, Gwen and Peter shared a brief, hesitant look before the former finally said, "Like Peter said, it's complicated."
"Try me," Sora challenged as he dismissed Kingdom Key, having finished working his healing magic.
After one last exchange of looks, Peter and Gwen sighed and decided to finally come clean with the whole story. "Well, let's start with this," Peter began. "How much do you know about Harry, Sora?"
"Not that much," Sora shrugged. "Just that he's supposed to be your best friend, Gwen's boyfriend for whatever reason, that his dad was killed several months back, and that he left Midtown so that he could get a better education for when he takes over his family's company or something. Why?"
"Well, that's probably going to make this take a little longer then," Gwen sighed. "You see, last year, Harry was on Midtown's football team, but what most people didn't know was that he was playing while juiced."
"While what," Sora asked in confusion, having never heard the term before.
"It means that he was using drugs to help him play better," Peter clarified for Sora. "When word got out, a lot of people were really upset with Harry for a long time, but what most people don't know is just what drug he was using. It was an experimental performance enhancer that Oscorp designed called Globulin Green, and a really addictive one at that. Sure, it made Harry stronger, faster, and somewhat smarter, but at the same time, it also caused him to have some really bad blackouts. The worst part was that, during those blackouts…it looked like he became the Green Goblin."
"What," Sora gasped in shock. He had heard about that particular villain from old news articles, and how Green Goblin had contended with Spider-Man many times before he eventually died in one final battle against the web-swinger. A battle that ran across nearly all of New York, but Sora never would have guessed that the villain could have been Peter's best friend. "Are you kidding?"
"I wish I was," Peter admitted. "I first found out about this last Halloween after what I had thought would be my final battle with the Goblin. I had followed him back to the Oscorp penthouse, only to find Harry pulling himself out of the suit, and with a leg injury that I saw the Goblin receive after he had crashed down on a rooftop. His dad walked in a moment later, and we all agreed to keep it to ourselves, and send Harry away to get the help we thought he would need, with the Goblin disappearing forever, never to be seen again. We thought that was the end of it, until last spring."
"What do you mean? What happened," Sora asked, not that he was really sure that he needed to, but he did feel like he was going to lose his voice if he did not speak up every few minutes or so from listening to this story.
"Goblin resurfaced, and for a while, I'm guessing that Peter thought it was Harry under the mask, after likely having fallen back into his addiction. It certainly lined up with how Harry had disappeared without a trace a short time before that," Gwen explained, earning a nod of confirmation from Peter at her guess. "But then, one night, Harry showed up on my doorstep asking for help. He told me the whole story about what had happened up until Halloween, and later Peter, who obviously already knew, but what we didn't know was that the reason that he had been missing was because Harry had been kidnapped by the Green Goblin, or someone that was dressed up like him and using Goblin's tech."
"Gwen thought that Harry's dad could help him figure out what had been going on, but I wasn't so sure," Peter continued. "Before I found Harry in the suit, I had thought that Norman Osborn was the Goblin, after seeing Gobby fly up to the Oscorp penthouse and then disappear seconds before Norman showed his face from the place's wine cellar. It definitely made sense in a way, given how Gobby's arsenal was made up of tech that had been stolen from Oscorp, thefts that were likely staged to throw off suspicion, so I made it a point to swing by and be on the scene as Spider-Man when Harry confronted his dad."
"Obviously, Peter didn't expect to learn that witnesses had seen Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin together during one of Goblin's break-ins at Oscorp, or for the Goblin to attack him, Harry, and Norman while they were all in the penthouse together," Gwen added on. "That had basically led to a whole thing that had Pete and the Osborns scrambling to figure out who the Goblin really was, and why he had set up Harry to take the blame."
"Which eventually led to Spidey's final face-off with Goblin, right," Sora cottoned on.
"Bingo," Peter confirmed. "And in that fight, it turned out that my first guess was right: Norman Osborn was the man under the Green Goblin suit. He had sent us on a whole chase as a way of setting things up for his final victory against me, and so that he could finally rule over all crime in New York unopposed. He had already gotten all of the other competitors out of the way, so there was not really anything left to stop him except me. It didn't help that he was also taking what he thought was a safer version of Globulin Green to enhance his abilities to the point where he was able to keep up with me."
"But that doesn't make sense. If it really was Norman Osborn, then how did Harry end up in the Goblin suit with that injury," Sora asked.
"Well for one thing, it turned out that the leg injury I saw him take had been faked as a way of him trying to throw off suspicion. I'm not entirely sure if Harry was originally part of his plan, but when he got home, he did find Harry passed out from an overdose of the green, and that made it easier for him to get Harry into the suit. As for the limp…well…" Peter explained, though he trailed off at the end, clearly not able to really say it due to how upset the idea seemed to make him, assuming the way he was shaking in anger was any indication.
"He framed his own son, and hurt him just to make it all that more convincing," Sora gasped in angry disbelief.
"Yeah, and he had the gall to say that he did it to 'make a man out of Harry,'" Peter replied, clearly just as angry. "Said that he 'did it out of love.' You ask me, the man wouldn't have known love even if it blew up his glider."
Gwen quickly placed her hand on Peter's shoulder, hoping to calm him down before his anger made him lash out, and it seemed to work, because Peter was soon calm again, but he still allowed Gwen to continue from where he left off. "In the end, Peter's final attack caused Norman to fall into a vat of his own explosives, killing him in the process."
"Not that I meant to. I did try to stop him from falling in, but everything was happening so fast, and I was basically like one big bruise at that point, acting on instinct, that by the time I was about to try to save him from falling in, it was already too late," Peter quickly reassured Sora. Not that the Keybearer felt that Peter really needed to; he already had a very good idea of what kind of person Peter was, so Sora knew that Peter would never have intentionally tried to kill someone.
"At the funeral, Harry was clearly upset and promised that Spider-Man was going to pay for what he had done, and he then confessed to me that I was the only thing keeping him together and from backsliding into his addiction again, even though he had already destroyed his stash so that he wouldn't succumb," Gwen finally revealed. "I had been planning on breaking up with Harry so that Pete and I could be together, but after I heard that, and knowing the state that Harry was in at the time…I just couldn't do it, especially if what he said was true."
It was all out in the open now. Every question he had about Peter's self-imposed isolation from others, about why Gwen was not with Peter despite how obvious her feelings for him were, and every other mystery surrounding these two since he had met them was finally revealed. Even with these revelations though, Sora was still pretty upset, because quite frankly, he hated the conclusion to that story. "And Peter said I was a smart yet stupid kid," the Keybearer started, startling both Midtown seniors with that one comment. "Gwen, I get that you didn't want to stop dating him at that time, given that Harry was hurting and needed people who cared about him, but that was months ago, and from the sound of things, he hasn't gotten better. He's only gotten worse, right?"
"Well…yes, but…" Gwen started to say.
"But nothing," Sora interrupted. "If Harry's acting like this then staying with him is only going to end up leading to something bad for both of you. What if the next fit he has causes him to do something really bad to you, and Harry can't stop himself before it's too late. Harry could end up hating himself and backsliding into an even worse addiction than before."
"He's got a bit of a point," Peter slowly agreed. "Ever since he left Midtown, if not since his dad's funeral, Harry's not been himself, and it's definitely not just grief that was causing it. If he's hurting you, who knows what else he's been doing, to himself or to others. Maybe…maybe he needs a little more help than we realized, and I don't think we can give it to him by having you stay with him."
Gwen fell silent at that point, though neither boy was sure what she was thinking in that moment. That changed when they heard her sniffle a little, and Peter was quick to move closer and wrap his arms around her as tightly as he could. "I just…I don't know what else I can do," Gwen cried as a few tears began to fall.
"I do," Sora stated, making both her and Peter turn around to see him smiling. "The same thing I should've done when I started having visions of the past, and that Peter said I should do. Trust your friends to have your back and help out in any way that they can. You're not alone, Gwen, so don't try to do everything by yourself as if you were."
"He's right you know. I mean, weren't you just saying something similar not that long ago? I think it sounded a lot like swallowing your Stacy Pride and letting others help out," Peter added on, taking a bit of a moment to tease his old friend.
Gwen could only let out a brief laugh at her friend's attempt at turning her words against her, and after drying her eyes she gave both boys a quick nod, showing that she was more than willing to accept any help they could give her. Seeing that gesture of acceptance, Peter immediately pulled Gwen into another tight hug, and this time, she happily reciprocated, not wanting to let go or leave the comfortable feeling of being in Peter's arms for so much as one second, while Sora just glanced around the room with a quiet cough, suddenly feeling a little awkward from having to watch the two clearly starting to share a moment.
That moment was soon killed when Hawkeye suddenly walked over and announced, "Hey, if you kids are done with your little soap opera, you might want to get up here. We've found Seymour and Yuna, and I don't think Tidus is willing to wait forever before we finally go after them."
The three all exchanged a nod at that, and quickly followed the archer back up to the bridge, each of them now feeling better than ever, and with a new fire inside that promised they would be ready for anything that would come in the next confrontation with Seymour, and whatever would come after that.
"About time you guys got here," Tidus said to Sora, Peter, Gwen, and Hawkeye as they entered the bridge, and the Keybearer could have sworn that there was more than a hint of impatient scolding in his voice.
"Hey, we're here now, aren't we," Peter shrugged, making it a point to keep quiet about the little confessional time that he and Sora had with Gwen before. He knew that his friend would rather tell everyone else about this in her own time, if she ever decided to do so, a fact that Gwen clearly realized and appreciated judging by her smile. "So where's our bad guy?"
"Believe it or not, he's takin' Yuna to Zanarkand," Cid revealed, surprising some of the people in the room. "Some of our friends on the ground reported seeing him heading up Mount Gagazet just a short time ago, and they caught sight of someone carrying a person that could only be Yuna over their shoulder a fair distance up the mountain."
"If Yuna's still unconscious or so obviously in danger, the Ronso would never have let Seymour pass," Lulu suddenly argued.
"Ronso? You mean like Kimahri," Miles questioned.
"Mount Gagazet is Ronso homeland. Ronso guard sacred mountain for generations, acting as protectors of mountain. Ronso only allow summoners and guardians on pilgrimage to pass. No one else allowed on sacred mountain," Kimahri explained.
"Which means we may have a chance to catch up," Captain America realized. "If Kimahri's people won't allow anyone other than summoners and their guardians up the mountain, then the other Ronso are likely going to do whatever they can to keep Seymour from getting through until we can catch up."
"That would be true, if that chance hadn't already come and gone," Rikku said with a sad inflection to her voice, grabbing everyone's attention, but none more so than Kimahri. For a minute, the girl did not say anymore than that, but eventually she did turn a sad look up to her Ronso friend and said, "I'm sorry, Kimahri, but…when our people reached the base of the mountain they…they found several Heartless and a lot of dead bodies. Ronso bodies. Any Ronso that were still alive were really young and scared, all saying the same thing. Seymour killed them or had the Heartless kill them for him. There's barely any Ronso left on the mountain now."
Hearing this dropped a heavy, shocked silence over everyone in the room. Even the people who were not native to Spira had come to learn that the Ronso were some of, if not the most powerful warriors on Spira, and hearing that Seymour and the Heartless had slain so many in the brief amount of time that they had to take to find Yuna was certainly scary. More than that, it was also incredibly tragic, as that meant that a good number of Kimahri's people were now gone forever, so they could only imagine how the cat-like man was feeling right now. Turning to the Ronso in question, no one could do anything but look on in sadness as Kimahri processed what he had just heard, looking far more shocked and sad than any of them had ever seen him look before. That sadness soon gave way to anger though, as Kimahri's whole body began trembling, his fists clenched to the point where he was drawing blood from his palms, and finally, he let out a loud, angry roar that made everyone clamp their ears shut as hard as they could, while the ship itself seemed to shake a little under the sound of his sorrowful rage.
"Seymour pay for crimes against Ronso! Kimahri promise this on Kimahri's honor as Ronso," Kimahri roared loudly, looking like he was ready to jump out of the ship and chase after Seymour on foot as he reached back to draw his spear.
"Hey, easy big fella! Don't worry; we'll get him together," Miles promised as he placed a hand on Kimahri's arm, praying that the Ronso would not push him off since that would likely result in him getting thrown into a wall. "Seymour's going to answer for everything, including this."
Kimahri took a minute to calm down, until he finally nodded to Miles and the others in response to the boy's words, and while some of them wanted to give Kimahri a moment to grieve for his people, the others all knew that they still had an important job to do if they really wanted to avenge the Ronso and save Spira. Auron made that point clear when he stepped up. "Where is Seymour now?"
"Where do you think he is? If he ain't at Zanarkand's doorstep right now, they I'm a damned Yevonite, myself," Cid replied.
"Vydran," Brother gasped in response to that.
"What? It's just a figure of speech, boy," Cid reassured his oldest son and pilot.
"Then that is where we need to go," T'Challa determined, getting the conversation back on track. "We will rescue Yuna and put an end to Seymour and his crimes there."
"Why would Seymour take Yuna to Zanarkand in the first place though," Wakka asked. "I mean, all that taking Yuna there will do is help her to get the Final Aeon, and if Seymour wants to take control of Sin, why would he want Yuna to get something that would destroy it?"
"Maybe he wants her to have it so that he can better control Sin? You know, like how some folks will use a spray bottle on a disobedient dog," Miles suggested.
"I wouldn't have used that analogy myself, but that does seem pretty close to the most likely scenario. If Sin knows someone has full control over something that can destroy it, it'll be less likely to do anything his master wants," Hawkeye shrugged in response.
"Somehow I don't think that's the case. Remember, if a summoner does call the Final Aeon, they end up losing their life afterwards, which would mean that Seymour wouldn't be able to control Sin through that method without having Yuna summon the Final Aeon," Captain America pointed out.
"Right. The Final Aeon is basically a one and done, all or nothing attack, hence the reason why so many summoners take a pilgrimage at the same time, right," Peter reasoned out.
"That is correct, Mister Parker," Lulu confirmed, smiling a little at the boy's show of intelligence.
"But that doesn't mean he wouldn't want to have the Final Aeon as an option for controlling Sin," Sora pointed out. "Maybe…Maybe Seymour's actually captured several summoners already and forced them to claim the Final Aeon, too. If he was able to do that, he would be able to call upon the Final Aeon at any time he wanted, and all he would have to worry about was finding a summoner to replace the one that had summoned it for later on."
"As much as I hate to admit it, Sora's theory does seem to make a little sense," Gwen reasoned, much to the irritation of others, and she was soon raising her hands in silent apology and defense
"Trust me, I hate thinking that, too," Sora promised everyone who was giving him and Gwen dirty looks.
"Even so, someone did have to say it at some point," Auron argued, apparently defending Sora.
"What does it matter why he's taking Yuna there," Tidus interrupted. "We're not going to know about any of that for sure until we get down there and get him!"
"He's right, so we should move out the minute we reach Zanarkand," Captain America agreed. Brother and Cid both nodded in agreement and set to work directing the airship in the direction of the holy city, leaving the captain to address one other matter. "Miles, Gwen, I think it might be best if you two wait here on the ship. This fight could be a lot more dangerous than the ones we've gotten into up until now."
"No way. We've stuck with you guys this long, and Yuna's our friend too. We're not just gonna sit on the sidelines if there's even a chance we can help out," Miles argued, with Gwen standing firmly alongside him in silent agreement. "Besides, what if Sora's Keyblade suddenly zaps you guys back while you're down there, even if the battle is still going on? Do you really want to leave us stuck here with no way home?"
"He's got a point," Hawkeye stated, with Sora nodding in agreement.
"We're going with you, and you can't stop us," Gwen then insisted, and considering that she was giving Cap the look, she was not going to hear any arguments.
Having already received the look once before, Cap had thought he would be able to resist it should she ever direct it towards him again. Turns out, he was wrong, but it was not just the blonde's patented expression that was making him reconsider. No, the other factor was that he could see a fire in her eyes that he had only seen in very few other people, and even fewer that were her age. The kind that said they were willing to dive straight down into the gates of hell in order to do something to help, no matter what the cost. What he saw in Gwen's eyes was the fire that he could only find in the kind of folks that people all referred to by the same name: hero.
Apparently, Cap was not the only one who saw that, as Rikku and her dad saw it too, in both Gwen and Miles, because just after Gwen had made her statement, the two had moved off to the side and retrieved something from a locker that they then presented to the two kids. "If you're really serious about going down there, you should at least be equipped for a fight," Cid said as he handed each of the two cop kids an Al Bhed rifle.
"And here's a little something that I was working on while you guys were unconscious. You know, when I wasn't trying to get my boneheads of family members to see reason," Rikku added as she handed the two a pair of wrist devices. "They may not be as fancy or sophisticated as Peter's, but I'd like to think that they'll do the job pretty well."
Hearing Rikku mention Peter's name like that immediately gave Miles and Gwen an idea on what these might be, and they did not hesitate to put on the wrist devices so they could find out for themselves. Upon tapping the triggers that rested in the palms of their hands, they both had to smile widely at seeing a strand of webbing shoot out of the nozzles, and they were not the only ones, judging by the expressions on everyone else's faces. More so by the looks on Peter and the Avengers' faces.
"Ri, did you…are those actually…?" Sora stuttered.
"You made your own versions of my web-shooters," Peter finally gasped.
"Yep. I was planning on using one of those myself, while giving you another pair, but I think I can let my newest buddies take 'em," Rikku shrugged in false modesty.
"Why would you give one to Peter," Miles asked in confusion. Peter already had his own web-shooters, so it did not really make sense for him to have a Spira version of them.
"For in case he finally ran out of webbing, duh," Rikku admitted.
"Wait, are saying what I think you're saying," Peter asked. "Did you really figure out how to do it?"
"I did," Rikku proudly declared.
"How to do what? What're you guys talking about," Tidus asked.
"Fill in the blanks for all of us who don't speak geek, ya," Wakka pleaded.
"She figured out how to make web-shooters that could create their own webbing," Peter revealed. "It was an idea Gwen had back when we were tinkering around with mine on our rest stop at the Thunder Plains. The biggest problem with my web-shooters is that, while they do have a rotating carousel to load fresh cartridges when one gets empty, they all do end up empty eventually, which means I have to reload them by hand. Not a great thing to be doing while you're several stories up in the air and don't have any web-fluid in either shooter."
"So Gwenie here came up with the idea of making it so that the web-shooters could make new webs on their own," Rikku continued, throwing an arm around Gwen's shoulders as she did. "It took a while to figure out how to do it, but at the most basic level, I fixed these up so that they could trap moisture from the surrounding air and mix it together with some chemicals inside to create the fluid, and voila! Instant fresh webs in the shooters!"
"Sweet! You've gotta show me any notes you made and those bad boys themselves before I leave. I just know I can pull something similar like that together if I can get the parts back home," Peter cheered.
"No prob, Pete," Rikku agreed.
"Well then, if we're all prepared for what's ahead of us, we should get underway," Auron determined.
"Agreed," Captain America nodded. "Cid, Brother, are you ready?"
"You know it. Next stop, Zanarkand," Cid declared, and with that, the ship was flying to their next destination, with the passengers all set and ready for the upcoming fight.
Despite any remaining misgivings that some of the guardians had, everyone was very glad that they were able to fly the airship to Zanarkand. There was just no way that they would ever have been able to catch up to Seymour if they had attempted to chase after him by climbing the Mt Gagazet the old fashioned way, and right now, time was of the essence. Upon arriving at the entrance to the ruined city, Cid and Brother brought the airship just low enough for Hawkeye and Peter to shoot out a few lines that everyone could use to safely drop down to the ground, mainly for anyone who had no way of getting down from the ship without some form of extra assistance. Sora had offered to give some of the group a lift on his Keyblade Glider, but they all politely turned him down after learning that he had not fully mastered flying on said vehicle. Not long after, they began to make their way inside, knowing that Seymour was likely already in there doing who knew what to Yuna in an attempt to further his plans, so they quickly raced inside, slaying any fiends or Heartless that dared to cross their path.
Many of the fiends that the teams came across were bigger and stronger than the ones that they had seen on Spira thus far, but for the most part, they found themselves dealing with more Heartless than the native monsters. Most of them were the Neo-Shadows along with more than a few Large Bodies, mixed in with the elemental Heartless that the Midgardians had encountered shortly after they first arrived on Spira, but in addition to that, there were also a few new ones as well, namely a type of Heartless that looked a lot like an archer. Hawkeye took a particular bit of joy in destroying those darkness dwellers, which Sora's scanners had identified as Bizarre Archers, but considering that they were opponents that mainly fought using his weapons of choice, you could not blame him. Though it was hard to say if he found it insulting, as an opportunity for a challenge, or as the bad guys showing an appreciation for his fighting style that very few people really understood, and given the way that Hawkeye smiled every time he took out one of the Bizarre Archers, no one was really sure if they wanted to ask him.
Regardless of the Heartless and Hawkeye's reaction to the newest versions that they had encountered, the group made sure that they remained fully focused on catching up with Seymour, and let very little slow them down. When they first landed, Peter was a little concerned about that, because he was sure that would have caused them to unintentionally leave Miles and Gwen behind to fend for themselves, so it was natural that he let out a few sighs of relief when he saw that his friends were keeping up very easily. Apparently, using a Spira style rifle was no different than using an Earth-based one and the web-shooters that Rikku had cobbled together helped the two quite a bit as well. In fact, if Peter did not know any better, he would have thought that Miles and Gwen had been using the wrist devices for almost as long as he had, if not longer. The two were regular naturals when it came to firing off webs, even if it was mostly just pellets of Impact Webbing and a web-line or two meant for tripping up or pulling an enemy into firing range. They also seemed to be enjoying the fact that they had gotten the chance to use what was basically a copy of his signature gadgets, which made Peter a little surprised that neither of them were asking him if he would let them be his sidekicks or something.
Skill levels and enjoyment aside, the group did eventually manage to finally fight their way through all of the various monsters that lined their path, and when they finally reached a large, almost empty room that seemed similar to a Chamber of the Fayth, they found no sign of Seymour. But they did find Yuna kneeling beside a large beside a large stone in the middle of the room, looking very dismayed for some reason, while her eyes frantically looked this way and that, as if she were trying to puzzle together an unexpected mystery. Her face did light up a little though when she heard the door open and saw the group coming in, but it was not until Tidus had scooped her up in his arms for a tight hug that she really let out a genuine smile.
"I'm so sorry, Yuna," Tidus whispered as he buried his face into the young summoner's shoulder.
"No, it wasn't your fault. None of us were ready for what Seymour…" Yuna started to say, thinking that he was apologizing for her capture. She could not have been more wrong though, as she soon discovered.
"No, not just that. I'm sorry for everything. For all the stuff I said before, about beating Sin, about what we would do afterwards…" Tidus whispered, confusing Yuna a little on why he would be apologizing for that.
"Yuna," Sora called out, drawing the summoner's attention to him. "We know."
"Know what," Yuna asked, still confused.
"Everything, including the drawbacks of your pilgrimage to get the Final Aeon," Gwen clarified, startling Yuna a little. The blonde then smirked a little and added, "You're lucky none of us are planning on punching you for hiding that from everyone here who didn't know about it before."
A small smile did reach Yuna's face at the joke, but it did not quite reach her eyes, since she now knew that everyone was fully aware of the fact. "I didn't mean to hide it from any of you, but…"
"We understand, Yuna," Captain America reassured her. "But that doesn't mean you should have to go through with this. We can still find another way to stop Sin, one that doesn't involve sacrificing your life, so there's no reason why you should ever have thought doing so was necessary."
"I mean, come on. Do you really think any of us were gonna be cool with you doing something that make you lose your life," Wakka asked.
"I know you wouldn't be, and I wasn't entirely intending to do so either," Yuna revealed, surprising everyone a little. "My father believed that there might have been a way to stop Sin without the summoner having to sacrifice their life, and he spent his entire pilgrimage searching for that answer. He never found it though, because the end came before his search could yield any results. That's why I've been trying to at least think of a way to stop Sin without having to give my life for this entire journey. I have far too much to live for and too many people who care about me to throw it all away." Yuna gave a smile to everyone in the room, happy to see them all smiling back in return, until her gaze moved towards the floor again and reminded her of the discovery she had made before. "Besides, I don't think it will be possible to use the Final Aeon now, anyway."
"What do you mean by that," Hawkeye questioned, now very confused as to what she was going on about.
"Surely you noticed when you came in," Yuna reasoned as she indicated the stone object she was looking at when they came in. At that point, all the Spiran members of the group, aside from Auron all let out various reactions of disbelief at what they were seeing, much to the confusion of everyone who did not know. "This is supposed to be a fayth stone, namely that of the Final Aeon's, but there is no fayth to speak of. It's just an empty statue."
"Are you telling us what I think you're saying," Miles asked.
"If you think she's telling us that there is no Final Aeon and the whole pilgrimage was pointless, then I'd say your guess is pretty good," Gwen informed him.
"And from the look of things, it seems that this particular fayth has not held any power for a great deal of time," T'Challa stated, his cowl's scanners having already run an analysis of the fayth stone. When the others all looked to him in wonder of how he knew that, T'Challa merely replied, "Wakandan science has long since found a way to measure various forms of energy, including the mystical. In fact, one would say that in Wakanda, science and magic will often work together to do things that neither can do alone."
"But I don't understand. Every summoner who traveled here has acquired the Final Aeon from this ancient city; from Zanarkand. How could the Final Aeon's fayth no longer have any power for so long when others before us have in fact used it to defeat Sin," Lulu asked.
"I think it should be obvious at this point, but then again, considering your group is made up of people who are either outsiders to this world or who have been blinded by Yevon's web of lies, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you need it spelled out for you," a new, dark voice that almost sounded like two voices speaking at once answered. It was a voice that Sora, Spidey, Gwen, and Miles all recognized, and it also made the Keybearer of the four narrow his eyes in anger, even as he spun around to face the speaker.
"Night Hunter," Sora snapped as the Kingdom Key jumped into his hand in a flash of light just as he and the other Midtown students were assuming battle stances. The others all looked to see the masked swordsman standing at the entrance that they had just came through, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall, looking so incredibly smug that one would think that he had all the answers in the world and he was taking a sick pleasure out of holding them over the heroes' heads.
"You know, I thought people were supposed to at least wait a little while into the message before they started to shoot the messenger. Or do you guys really not want to know the truth about what's really going on with the Final Aeon and Yevon," Night Hunter mocked.
"Like we're going to listen to anything you have to say," Sora retorted, ready to charge until Hawkeye suddenly grasped his shoulder to keep him from doing so.
"Hold up there, Spiky. Let's at least let him monologue for a little while before we hit him," Clint advised. "Bad guys always let something about their evil plan slip when you do."
"Oh, it's not my evil plan that I'm letting slip; it's Yevon's. Well, Yevon and Seymour's, but what difference is there at this point," Night Hunter corrected with a shrug. When the heroes all just stared at him in silence, the dark villain took that as his cue to continue with his big reveal. "Did you really think that you would be able to acquire the Final Aeon like you had all the others? No, such a powerful beast cannot simply be obtained that easily. Every aeon that a summoner acquires is like a friend that they have met for the first time, or an employee that has been sworn into service under a contract. Such a thing could not possibly hope to defeat Sin, as many summoners had learned when the beast first began its rampages centuries ago. In order to truly stop Sin, the summoner Yunalesca called upon her husband, and transformed him into the fayth she would use for the very first Final Aeon. Remembering this success, the priests of Yevon drew up the concept of the summoner's pilgrimage and the guardians. Warriors that a summoner would trust entirely with their lives, and grow close to over the course of their journey as they came here to this sacred city. It is here, in Zanarkand, where the second purpose of the summoner's guardians is fulfilled."
"What second purpose," Wakka demanded, despite the fact that part of him was a little scared to ask.
"Don't you see? It should be so obvious," Night Hunter scoffed in reply before waving a finger over all the members of the group before him, save for Yuna and Sora. "In order for the Final Aeon to truly be created, one of the guardians must become the necessary fayth for its power. It doesn't matter if it was a friend, a relative, a sibling, or even a lover; so long as the chosen person was a guardian that is close to the summoner, they would be able to provide their summoner with the fayth that they needed to summon the Final Aeon."
"So you're saying that…one of us is going to have to become a fayth so that Yunie can use the Final Aeon," Rikku repeated in question.
"Indeed. It's actually quite the example of the heart's power, when you think about it," Night Hunter nodded. Of course, any honest admiration he may have had was quickly replaced with a cruel variety when he next said, "As is what happens afterwards when the Final Aeon destroys Sin. Surely you've noticed that no matter how many times the Final Aeon is used to defeat the monster, it always returns, and so long as this ritual continues, so to shall the cycle of destruction that has ravaged this world for centuries."
"Not if we repent and atone for our mistakes. The teachings of Yevon have said that if we atone for our crimes then Sin will never return again," Lulu pointed out.
"And you really believe that," Night Hunter snorted in dark humor. "It was all a pretty little story; an elaborate web of lies that Yevon's founders and even its current leaders still fed in order to hide the fact that the pilgrimages were nothing more than a simple quick-fix and not a permanent solution."
"Meaning what," Black Panther challenged, his fingers flexing as if he were intending to ready his claws for battle and attack. Kimahri seemed to be the same way, given how his hand seemed like it was slowly edging back to grab his spear at any moment.
"Are you really this slow, or do you really want me to spell it out for you just so you can confirm what you should already suspect," Night Hunter questioned in disbelief. He did not wait for answer, and somehow, Sora knew that the man was getting a bit of a thrill out of telling them this information. "If the Final Aeon really is so powerful, then how does Sin keep returning? Surely you've wondered about that. The truth is that all that any summoner has ever destroyed of Sin was its outer shell; the armor that protects the true monster inside, and after the battle, while the people of Spira celebrate and relax in their precious calms, Sin is reviving its armor using the Final Aeon that had defeated it before. In essence, the Sin of today is the very same Final Aeon that the girl's father used to try and defeat the monster before."
"No. No, you…you lie," Lulu protested. "The teachings all state that we can exorcise Sin with complete atonement."
"Have you not been listening? That was all nothing more than a lie that was crafted to hide the truth from the people. The truth that states that even now, no one has truly discovered a way to end the beast for good," Night Hunter reminded.
"But…But it's been our only hope for all these years," Yuna whispered.
"Ah, the greatest illusion of all," Night Hunter sighed in false happiness. "Hope is nothing more than a convenient blanket that one can use fir comfort as they deceive themselves into thinking that people can attain the purity you speak of, but that is nothing more than a fool's dream. No one can truly reach such purity. The closest any come to such a thing, is when one allows darkness to truly enter their heart, allows the shadows to fill their very being, and become darkness itself. There may be some who can attain a purity of light like that which you have been hoping for, but they are all far more few than those who turn to darkness. So few that they are more than likely born to hold that pure light, or have obtained it through very unnatural means. Then again, considering the greater purpose that those pure lights hold, one would have to wonder if it would truly be worth the trouble of having that power."
"Now what're you on about," Spider-Man questioned.
Night Hunter just waved it off, stating, "Never mind that last bit. It's nothing more than the ramblings of one who serves a much greater purpose than any of you can ever hope to understand."
"Somehow I doubt that," Sora retorted. "Besides, how do we know you're not just saying all this as a way of trying to buy Seymour time to escape?"
"Oh Sora, you truly don't get it, do you," Night Hunter sighed, almost sounding disappointed. "Why would Seymour want to escape when he's exactly where he wants to be? You see, he discovered this truth many years ago, after his mother became a fayth for another aeon, and upon learning this truth, Seymour began devising a way to seize the power of the real Sin for himself. He intend to do that by stealing Yunalesca's power to transform others into fayth, and then using it to create an aeon that would be his alone to command, while being unmatched in power. This aeon would destroy the armor, and then with the Heartless, Seymour will finally destroy the true Sin. Not that he will ever admit to doing so, because as far as everyone else outside this place will know, Seymour will have done the impossible and turned Sin's power to his command."
"That won't be possible. Take it from someone who tried to challenge Yunalesca once before and failed," Auron admitted, surprising everyone.
At that point, something from this little information dump clicked into place for Tidus, and he gasped, "You knew. You knew the whole time, didn't you Auron? About what Sin really is, about Yunalesca…all of it!"
"It does make sense when you think about it. I mean, he was a guardian for Yuna's father, and he finished the pilgrimage to defeat Sin entirely, so it would make sense that he already learned of this before," Miles reasoned.
"That doesn't mean he had any right to hide it from us," Hawkeye argued, having turned a glare in the old swordsman's direction.
"Would telling you all of this have made any of you decide to not come here," Auron questioned. The silence was answer enough for him.
"Hold on, if one of the guardians is the fayth for the Final Aeon, and Auron's still here, then doesn't that mean that right now, Sin is actually…" Gwen started to ask, only to trail off at the end as she and the others all slowly turned towards a slowly paling Tidus.
"Jecht," Tidus finished in a whisper. "My old man is Sin now, isn't he?"
"Hey, give the boy a prize! He helped his group solve a puzzle without me having to give away the answer," Night Hunter mockingly applauded. His clapping stopped short though when Sora spun around and shot a fireball out of his Keyblade at the dark villain. Not that Night Hunter was too worried about the attack, given how lazily he dispersed the fire blast with his sword. "Temper, temper, Sora. I did say you shouldn't shoot the messenger, didn't I?"
"Good thing I'm planning to do a lot more than just shoot you," Sora promised as he prepared to attack again.
"Oh? So you wish to do battle with me now? I'd have thought you would rather stop Seymour, given that he's on the verge of getting what he wants even as we speak," Night Hunter pointed out. The faint sounds of a sudden explosion from somewhere close by made every jump a little as Night Hunter continued, "And I'd say that he's only getting closer with every second. He'd best hope so for his sake, since Sin will be just outside in a few minutes."
"What? Sin coming here," Kimahri gasped aloud.
"That's right little kitty," Night Hunter mocked, making the Ronso growl in response. He ignored the feline-like warrior though, in favor of continuing to mock the Keybearer. "So Sora, I'd say that you're faced with quite the dilemma. Either stop Seymour and free Spira from Sin for good, like I know you had been planning to since you found out about it, or try to fight me in a useless attempt at capturing me. You can't do both, you know."
Sora just growled in response to that, even as he rushed towards Night Hunter, intending to cut him down with the Keyblade. The villain merely let out a short laugh at this as he opened a portal and departed from the chamber, leaving Sora to hit nothing but air. Sora let out an agitated snarl at seeing Night Hunter had escaped yet again, and his frustration was shared by everyone who had past dealing with, or was at least familiar with the masked man by now. Of course, this mostly applied to Spidey and his friends, since they had been there when Night Hunter first appeared before Sora, and knew just how dangerous the man really was.
"Man, talk about a lowlife," Miles grumbled.
"No kidding. I'm starting to think he took lessons from Doc Ock, Gobby, or even Tombstone when it comes to using other big bads to cover his own hide," Peter agreed.
"We'll worry about him, later. As much as I hate to admit it, he was right about one thing: stopping Seymour is our priority at the moment," Captain America advised.
Everyone nodded in agreement with the captain at this, and now that they knew where they had to go from here, they all quickly proceeded into the next chamber. Tidus hesitated for a minute though, sparing a quick glance at Auron that was very telling to the swordsman in question. "You need something," Auron asked.
"Before he became a fayth…did my old man," Tidus slowly asked, though he was unable to really finish his question since he was not entirely sure what he it was he wanted to ask.
Auron did not need him to specify what the question was though, as he already had a few answers lined up. "Jecht asked me to look after you should you ever find your way to Spira, and even though he knew there may be a chance that Braska could die, he insisted that there may have been a chance to stop Sin for good. When asked if he had a plan, he merely said the one thing he always seemed to say whenever we faced a perilous situation that he did not have an answer for."
"'I'll think of something,' right," Tidus filled in with a small smile. When Auron looked to him with a question, Tidus merely chuckled and said, "It was practically his motto when I was a kid. Every time I asked him to help me out with a problem and he didn't have the answer that I hoped for, he would always say that to me, before insisting that if he didn't, then I would."
"Really," Auron asked, sounding a little surprised.
"That's not how I remember it," Sora corrected, letting Tidus know that he and the others were listening in a little bit. "From what I remember, his exact words were, 'Or you could just try and fix the mess on your own, assuming you can stop crying long enough to actually use that bonehead of yours.'"
Even though his face turned a little pink from embarrassment, both at hearing his father's exact words and from Sora's bad impression of the man, Tidus did still join Yuna and Wakka in laughing along with the Keybearer at the old memory, and not long after, Spidey, Miles, and Gwen did the same. As he watched the kids laugh off the memory, Auron had to smile a little as well, since a sense of nostalgia had washed over him from seeing his old friends' kids were not just following in their parents' footsteps, but were actually on the road to even doing better than they ever had.
"Well then, let's go and see how things turn out," Auron finally said. "After all, this is your story, and I can't wait to see how it ends."
Tidus just shook his head in response and said, "Think again, Auron. It's not just my story. It's yours too."
"No, it's our story," Yuna corrected with confidence. "I know that I can't let my fate just carry me away, following the same path my whole life through. I intend to fulfill my father's greatest wish: to finally bringing an end to the sorrow that the people of Spira have felt for so long, without losing my life, or the lives of any of my loved ones. I may not know when we will finally end the sorrow, but someday, I know we will conquer it, and we'll do it without false hope."
"Right," Sora agreed. "Night Hunter may think that this world is doomed to be covered in the darkness of Yevon's lies, but we'll prove that our light, our real hope is far stronger than any of that."
Everyone agreed with that, and with nothing more to be said, they all moved into the next chamber with their heads held high, and determined to prove to Seymour that their fates were in their hands.
For all appearances, the chamber in which our heroes found Seymour looked much less like a room inside the massive building that lay in the center of Zanarkand, and more like a small piece of an archway that rested amidst the stars, literally. Even when they looked back, they could barely make out the entrance to the strange place against the star-lit night sky that surrounded them, and the only things that stood out from all of this were the apparently incomplete stairways that sat at the side of this square spit of land, and the ruined columns that appeared to have once been part of a larger temple. None of them were too concerned about the aesthetic design of their surroundings, because they were more focused on a the half Guado who stood across the room, chuckling like only those of evil intent would when they had just gained something that they were after.
"Yes…this power…The power to create the fayth that fuels the aeons, and to forge the Final Aeon. With all due respect, Lady Yunalesca, you were a fool to have used it in the way you had, but then again, I suppose such foolishness can be forgiven, since you never had your eyes opened to the possibilities as mine have been," Seymour mused to himself, apparently not noticing that recent arrivals. On the other hand, it could be that he did and was just too wrapped up in his new found powers to really care. It made little difference to the Avengers and their allies, because they were only interested in one thing: saving Spira from this madman before he plunged it any further into darkness than it already had been, figuratively and literally speaking.
"Stand down, Seymour," Captain America ordered, his shield already set to be thrown at any moment.
"Or don't. I've been itching to put a few arrows through you ever since we first met," Hawkeye smirked as he notched one such arrow.
Seymour did not show even the smallest hint of concern as he turned to face the group. Instead, he just grinned widely and remarked, "Ah, the traitors to Yevon arrive at last. I suppose one can't be too picky about who they have as witnesses for the beginning of a new era."
"Oh spare us that kind of lnyb! You're the real traitor here! You and every other yccruma that's been calling the shots in Yevon," Rikku snapped in return, unintentionally letting a little bit of Al Bhed slip into her speech.
Only Tidus paused to wonder what the translation for Rikku's words and Yuna must have noticed since she was kind enough to whisper the translations to him before he could ask. "Lnyb means crap, and yccruma is asshole."
"Yuna, don't use such language," Lulu scolded.
"I'm just translating," Yuna shrugged in her defense.
"Perhaps we should save the language lessons for later," T'Challa advised, not seeming to let his gaze move from Seymour for so much as one second.
"I couldn't agree more," Sora nodded. "We're not going to let you create a new Sin so that you can turn Spira into your own little plaything, Seymour."
"Oh? And how pray tell could you possibly know that," Seymour questioned, thinking Sora was just bluffing.
"Well, we may have gotten a little tip from your buddy in the helmet and creepy-looking jumpsuit. Honestly, you'd think that bad guys would've learned by now that they just can't ever team-up with each other. They always end up betraying their so-called teammate in the end every single time. Either that, or they just find out they aren't as solid of a team as they initially think they are once the good guys come in and thrash them," Spider-Man revealed in a jovial manner.
Hearing this, Seymour could not help but scowl a bit, having figured out the meaning behind the web-head's words, but it soon passed as he said, "No matter. Night Hunter and his allies were merely a means to an end for me. All I've ever cared about was Spira, and with both Yunalesca's power and that of the Heartless now in my hands, I will not be denied for much longer."
"You do remember that you can't really control the Heartless right? They've already slipped from your command once, and it's only a matter time before they take your heart along with the hearts of everyone else on Spira. Not just the human hearts, but those of the Guado too. Do you really want to doom both of your people to that," Sora cautioned.
"I could care less about the Guado. They cast me out like a piece of trash when I was barely more than a baby in my mother's arms, and humans have never looked upon me in any manner that would be considered better. Now, I am far beyond any of them, and they will either obey me or learn to fear me, just as Sin will when I finally destroy it once and for all," Seymour boasted in return, proving that he did not care about anyone other than himself.
"Not while we have anything to say about it," Miles promised, aiming his borrowed rifle at the madman.
"Yeah, the only one around here who's going to be kicking my old man's ass is me," Tidus joked with a flourish of his sword, almost as if to better show how he was planning to be the one that stopped the monster that Jecht had been forced to become.
"Besides, if you really were as great as you claim, you wouldn't have even needed that power. Face facts, you're nothing but a sad child that can't help but lash out at the world around him in a desperate need for payback. You're no better than some playground bully," Gwen snarked in addition to that. It may have been a little out of character for her to talk down to someone like that, but Peter would be the first to say that she did have it in her. He had seen it firsthand many times when the blonde had stood up to Flash for him, but right now, while it was impressive and kinda hot in his eyes that she was doing so to a supervillain, it was a bit more worrying than anything else.
Gwen's remark definitely struck a chord with Seymour, and like that, he growled viciously and unleashed a powerful shockwave of his new power across the room, almost as if the universe intended to prove Peter's concerns were well-founded. It was certainly doing a great job, because everyone seemed to buckle a little under the force of Seymour's little demonstration. They were a little surprised that they were able to stand their ground when the shockwave finally passed, but they were a little skeptical of how long that was going to last, especially with how angrily Seymour was glaring at them. "So you wish for me to prove that I am superior to everyone on Spira and to all of you? Then so be it! My new rule shall begin with your deaths," Seymour promised.
Seeing the man was beginning to lift up into the air, carried by his new powers, along with how energy seemed to radiate out of him like a solar flare from a star, coupled with how the room seemed to shake under the force of his show, Wakka could not help but look to Gwen and say, "I think you probably shouldn't have said anything, ya?"
"You're not planning to run away now, are you," Lulu asked as she readied the doll she used as a focusing tool for her magic.
"Hah! Fat chance," Wakka scoffed. "I'd never forgive myself if I ran away now. Even in death, ya!"
"My thoughts exactly," Lulu smiled in agreement.
"Friends need Kimahri. Kimahri protect friends, and Kimahri avenge Ronso," Kimahri promised as he twirled his spear around with low growl.
"This is our story, Seymour, and you're part in it is about to end," Auron declared.
"And we're going to make sure that it ends on our terms," Tidus promised, with Yuna nodding in resolute agreement.
"Well, what else really needs to be said besides that," Rikku asked, showing she was ready to at any time.
"I can think of one thing," Sora smirked as he spun his Keyblade around while activating his helmet and gauntlets. With that, he waved the blade forward, and shouted, "Avengers, assemble!"
As usual for everyone who was actually part of said team, that simple battle cry was the signal for the fight to start, as everyone rushed in to attack Seymour. Miles and Gwen both stopped part way through said charge so that they could provide suppressing fire using both their rifles and the make-shift web-shooters, with Hawkeye making it a point to stay close to the kids as well as he fired his arrow before notching at least three more and firing them soon after. Wakka and Lulu were both quick to take a long-range offensive as well, with Wakka actually coating his Blitzball in some fire magic before tossing it while Lulu just cast the most powerful lightning spell she knew. All of that provided the rest of the group with plenty of openings to charge in and hit Seymour any way they had, as the fallen maester soon discovered when he was hit by several different punches, kicks, slashes, stabs, and even a bash from both Cap's shield and Yuna's staff. After she had gotten a fair amount of hits in to be satisfied, Yuna did back off from the main fight so that she could be ready to summon an aeon at a moment's notice and so that she could better heal her teammates when they needed it. Of course, she also provided a few different protection spells here and there so that when Seymour did strike back using his own powerful attacks and magic, the others were reasonably safe from taking serious damage.
The initial charge did not really land that much injury to Seymour, even if some of them were not expecting it to be that easy, and Seymour was soon quickly proving that he was going to do whatever he could to take them all down by casting powerful magic spells that even Lulu struggled to perform. The first time around was a powerful barrage of ice magic that left several of them feeling like they had just stepped into the worst blizzard imaginable, and while the follow-up bombardment of fire spells did warm them up, the downside was that it also made a good number of them breathe sighs of relief when they realized that they were not just piles of ash afterwards. You could thank both T'Challa's keen instincts and Peter's Spider-Sense for a good deal of that, but if it were not for the magic barrier that Yuna had conjured to block the next powerful blast of energy that Seymour threw out, they all knew they likely would have ended up being flattened into pancakes on the ground.
When the magic barrier dropped, no one had expected to find Seymour right in front of them, so it came as quite the surprise when he suddenly rushed in and slashed Rikku several times over with his massive claws before she was thrown away from the group via a hard, magic infused punch. Tidus and Kimahri were instantly in front of Yuna when they saw Seymour charge for her, and they were both quickly blocking whatever attack he threw out with their respective weapons. They were unable to do anything more than that though, but thankfully, Auron and Black Panther stepped in just seconds before Seymour finally broke past the two's guard, forcing the madman back as he dodged Auron's sword, while ultimately landing right in striking range of T'Challa and his vibranium daggers. Captain America was soon joining in on the confrontation as well, with Sora and Spidey not far behind, but the four were all soon forced back again when Seymour suddenly erected a reflective barrier that had the added effect of making them all feel like they had just attacked themselves.
When another shower of bullets, arrows, and a Blitzball suddenly hit him in the side, Seymour growled in annoyance as he looked to where Hawkeye, Gwen, and Miles were positioned as they continued to fire their respective weapons, while Wakka caught his ball on its return trip as he raced to his next attack position. Seymour immediately dealt with the Blitzer by throwing out a blast of wind and ice magic that not only blew Wakka off his feet, but also froze him where he landed, forcing Lulu and Yuna to cease preparations for their next attacks so that they could attend to him. With those three out of the way, Seymour took the chance to unleash a new fury of spells on the three ranged fighters, making Hawkeye shout for the three of them to scatter. Both of the kids heeded Clint's advice without any hesitation, and managed to avoid the first few salvos of fire, ice, and thunder that came their way. Unfortunately, it could not last as Gwen soon learned when her foot ended up caught on a crack in the floor and caused her to trip. Seeing that made Seymour smirk in maniacal glee, as it presented him with the perfect opportunity to make the girl pay for her earlier insults, and he immediately began to power up the spell he would use to make that happen.
Seeing Gwen in trouble, Sora and Peter both acted on instinct, with the latter charging over to his friend so that he could try and shield her with his body, while the former just aimed his Keyblade at her as the tip glowed brightly. Sora was not sure why he was not charging over like Peter was, but something inside him definitely seemed to know what it was doing, and so did the Keyblade, so he did not question it too much when he cast his next spell, even when Peter had already gotten within arm's reach of Gwen, or when Seymour cast his spell.
"Prismatic Agony," Seymour chanted as he sneered at Gwen. "A spell that reflects and amplifies the pain you feel from when it first strikes several times over until you either perish or are rendered unable to move without inflicting further harm on yourself. A fitting power to use on a brat such as you, and anyone else who dares to question my power as you have."
Gwen could not even bring herself to look as Seymour's spell was cast, but she soon found herself wrapped up in familiar, warm arms, and peeked out through her eyelids to see Spider-Man holding her close with his back facing Seymour's incoming attack. If she ever needed greater proof of Peter's self-sacrificing nature, at least when it came to people he cared about, Gwen certainly did not anymore, but that did not make her any less pleased that Peter was going to try and sacrifice himself for her. She could probably say that their world needed him, as Spider-Man and as Peter Parker far more than it needed Gwen Stacy in her mind, but the truth was, she just needed him in her world. She was so caught up in the moment that she barely registered hearing Sora shout out the name of his spell, or the sound it made when it took shape.
"REFLECT," Sora cried out, and in an instant, a dome of energy just like the one Sora created when Zemo attacked Avengers Mansion began forming around the two friends, creating the beginnings of a powerful, magic barrier. What no one expected to happen was that when the two spells collided with each other, they seemed to blend their energies together while washing over both Spider-Man and Gwen.
The force that he was suddenly assaulted with made Peter grunt a little in pain, but since she did not have his tolerance for sudden pain, Gwen could not contain her scream when the mixed spells washed over them. What some would probably find surprising though was that Gwen's screams were not due to how much it hurt, but rather, how sudden it was, because really, it did not seem that painful after a few minutes. If anything, as the sensation continued, the pain lessened, and Gwen began feeling like something inside of her had begun to change in a way that she did not understand. For some reason, she just knew that it went right down to her DNA, almost like someone had started to infuse something into her genetic code, and it was now in the process of creating something entirely new and different within her. When the two spells finally ceased their work, Gwen could barely keep herself upright enough without help, but she was still able to see that the sudden mix of spells had caused quite the explosive backlash, as Seymour was now several feet away from her and Peter, along with their friends that had been closest to their position.
"Are…Are you okay," Peter panted, sounding pretty drained when he did ask.
"I think so," Gwen weakly replied as she gave him the best, reassuring smile she could muster in the moment. "What happened?"
"I'm not sure," Lulu admitted. "Seymour's spell seemed to suddenly mix with Sora's, which makes a certain kind of sense since they are both reflect spells in nature, but no one's ever seen two such spells mix with each other before."
"What do you mean," Sora asked as he came over to them, already using his Keyblade to help heal the two as much as he could.
"Normally when two spells of the same element are mixed together, it just creates a much more powerful attack, like if you were to use a fire spell mixed and a wind spell, or it they would cancel each other out."
"Like with a fire spell and ice spell," Sora guessed.
"Yes, that is one example. However, no one has ever mixed two spells of the reflect element before, mainly because most of them are defensive in nature. This would be the first time I've ever seen it happen, and that's without considering that one spell was meant as an attack while the other was a shield, so anything could have happened as a result, and may still happen," Lulu finished.
"Hey, how about we ponder the mystery later! There's still a bad guy to beat, and it looks like he's about to call for reinforcements," Hawkeye shouted, drawing their attention back to the fight just in time to see several Shadows and Neo-Shadows start rising up from the floor, along with a few Large Bodies and elemental Heartless as well.
"Heartless, finish them all, now," Seymour commanded, but to both his and the heroes' surprise, the Heartless did not do as they were told. Instead, they just remained right where they were, jittering about as they swerved their heads this way and that, like they were trying to confirm what they were seeing. "What are you doing? Destroy them," Seymour snapped, only to yield the same results. "I am your master, and you will do as I say!"
What happened next was not something any of them expected, as a light suddenly flashed in the back of the room, making everyone pause so that they could shield their eyes to prevent them from going blind, and when it finally faded, they saw something that some of them had suspected but were still surprised by all the same. There, floating amidst the stars on the back wall of the room, in the usual glowing outline, was the very thing that Sora and his friends had been looking for since they arrived on Spira: the Keyhole, and from the look of the Heartless, it seemed that they were just as surprised as everyone else was for a moment before they started making a mad dash towards it.
"NO," Sora shouted, his mind already flashing back to that night on Destiny Islands as he saw the dark creatures advancing. "Don't let them get near the Keyhole, no matter what happens!"
Hearing Sora's desperate plea drew everyone out of their stupor and back into action, as T'Challa, Hawkeye, and Miles all immediately opened fire on the Heartless with their respective long-range weapons, destroying as many of the Heartless that were closest to the Keyhole as they could, and Wakka and Gwen were quick to join in on the attack as well. Captain America and Sora both took it upon themselves to get in front of the Heartless, thanks to Sora quickly teleporting them into a position between the dark creatures and their target, and the two easily began destroying the various dark creatures as quick as they could, determined not to let a single Heartless slip past them. It became a little easier when Spider-Man swung around and over to help the two, but unfortunately, that left the others to deal with Seymour, a fact that the Guado maester was too happy to take advantage of.
To Seymour's surprise though, none of them really seemed that worried, and when he realized why, it was already too late. Sometime during the Heartless' charge to the Keyhole, Yuna had begun waving her staff around in an elaborate dance, while a few magic circles took shape beneath her feet, and when Seymour finally took notice of this, she had already finished casting her spell. In an instant, a large, bird-like creature descended from the sky above them, bringing a mighty gust of wind with it as it flew through the air until it came to rest alongside of the summoner who had called it. This bird-like being was none other than Yuna's very first, and perhaps her most loyal and favorite aeon, Valefor, and she intended to unleash its power in full on Seymour, along with any other summon she had up her sleeve.
"Everyone, attack Seymour together," Yuna shouted, and anyone that was not busy trying to keep the Heartless from reaching the Keyhole did just that.
Lulu led the charge by hitting Seymour with every one of her most powerful spells, opening the way for Tidus and Auron to hit the half-Guado with a raging flurry of sword strikes that could only come from two swordsmen working in tandem. When the two backed off, Seymour thought that he had finally caught a break along with an opening, only to be blown away by several of Rikku's grenades. Apparently the Al Bhed girl was really upset about him using her as a scratching post earlier, and she was not willing to take it lying down. Of course, her fury was nothing compared to the raw power and savagery that Kimahri unleashed on Seymour when he attacked, and his attack was guaranteed to fall through thanks to Wakka taking a break from attacking Heartless so he could spare a few shots in assistance, with Gwen doing the same soon after. Eventually, Seymour found he could only try to cast defensive spells or just attempt really powerful attacks to discourage the group from attacking him, but it was just too not enough as he soon discovered when a bolt of lightning suddenly came down on him, courtesy of Sora, who had paused in his rapid slashes against the Heartless for just long enough to cast said spell in the madman's direction. Add in the powerful gusts of wind that Valefor was sending in his direction to keep him off balance so that the process could be repeated a few times over, and Seymour was beginning to panic about his chances of winning.
"No, this can't be," Seymour protested, much like any bad guy would when they were about to be defeated by heroes they had believed were incapable of stopping them. "I'm so close that I can taste it! I can't be bested by a mere band of misfits and out-worlders! I am destined to become the next Sin and rule all of Spira!"
"No, you aren't," Tidus denied. "The only thing you were destined for is to be a lousy creep who takes advantage of the people around him!"
"And beyond that, it would seem that you were also meant to give us the opening we need to take destiny into our own hands, and defeat Sin without the Final Aeon," Yuna finished. She then glanced to her aeon one last time, and directed its attention onto Seymour once again as she commanded, "Now Valefor! Finish this with Energy Blast!"
The instant that Yuna's command had been given, Valefor shot into the air like a rocket, reared its head back, and unleashed an incredible salvo of energy beams across the battlefield, most of them focused on Seymour, while the remainder reduced a good chunk of the Heartless into nothing more than dust. When the attack finally ceased, the group all waited with baited breathes, hoping that they had beaten their enemy. Eventually, the smoke did clear, and they all saw Seymour stumble quite a bit before he finally fell to the ground in defeat, all of his power and strength clearly zapped away after he had been hit by that last attack. Not wanting to chance any possibility of having to go through all of that again, this time with Seymour as a fiend, Yuna immediately began to perform the sending, and though she was glad that the vile man was now gone for good, a part of her did feel a small twinge of pity for Seymour, even if he did not really deserve it.
When Seymour finally vanished into a shower of lights, the gathered team knew that there was only one last matter to deal with in this place, and as he struck down another Heartless with his shield, Cap looked to the one person who could settle that matter, and shouted, "Sora, go!"
The spiky haired boy did not even pause to nod in acknowledgement of the order before he raced towards the Keyhole, slaying any Heartless that came into his path as he went. After making one last jump to get within range, Sora spun Kingdom Key around in his hand, aimed it at the Keyhole, and sent a beam of light straight into the mystical passage. When the beam struck, everyone heard the sound of something being locked echoing throughout the room, and along with that echo, there came a powerful burst of light that seemed to explode outwards around them, and it instantly wiped out all the remaining Heartless without any trouble at all.
Seeing all of their enemies were either defeated or just straight up gone, no one complained or criticized when several members of the group just dropped down onto their knees or backs in exhaustion, panting quite a bit as they did, as they were all just relieved that they had won. After letting out a few tired breaths of his own, Hawkeye looked to his teammates and said, "Okay, we stopped Seymour, sealed the Keyhole, and essentially made sure this world will be protected from the Heartless, and kept everyone safe…Can we go home now?"
"No! We still haven't stopped Sin," Sora protested.
"But that is not our purpose here," T'Challa immediately countered. "For all we know, the only reason your Keyblade brought us to Spira was so that we could stop Seymour's plans, and prevent the Heartless from drowning this world into darkness by sealing the Keyhole. We have done both of those things, and if a Keyblade wielder is not allowed to interfere in the affairs of other worlds, then our remaining here to help destroy Sin may very well be such an interference."
"So what? We told Yuna and these other guys that we were going to help them, and I'm not about to go back on a promise to a friend," Sora insisted.
"I can respect such a decision, Sora, and I do agree with you on this, but maybe it would be better if we at least get back to Earth for just a short time," Captain America argued. "Not only would it allow us to get Miles and Gwen home safely, but it would also mean that we could bring back the rest of the Avengers to help us as well."
"Cap's got a point, kid. I mean, if Sin really is as big and bad as everyone here says it is, then we need to bring in all of the big guns, and there aren't many guns bigger than Hulk and Thor, or even Pym when he decides to stop being a wimp and actually fight, namely by going giant," Hawkeye pointed out.
Sora could see all of those points, but there was one thing that the other three appeared to be forgetting, so he quickly reminded them of it. "I know that makes sense, but did you guys forget that I can't teleport to other worlds on my own, even if I have been to them at least once before? I've been trying to get back to Atlantis and Olympus in my free time for months now, and all my best efforts have ever done is made me look either ridiculous or just stupid. What if this time isn't any different?"
"What if you there was someone left behind that you had to come back and get," Peter asked, confusing everyone a little with his question. "Think about it, nothing says that all of us have to go back, so why not have one of us stay behind while you take everyone else back. Maybe having someone from our world getting left here would help your Keyblade zero in on the world, like a tracking beacon."
"That's a horrible idea," Sora protested.
"Agreed. If we did that, we would risk stranding the person left behind on Spira with no way back," Captain America nodded.
"Well Sora did leave a message with his friends from Space, so even if it doesn't work, he could always just have them pick the person up and take them back, couldn't he," Spidey reminded them.
"Maybe, but that's only on the off-chance that Donald and Goofy have found enough of their ship's map data to find both Spira and Marvel-topia," Sora pointed out, having mentioned that particular point about why Donald and Goofy had not already arrived on Earth while they were all on the road.
"Look, either way, it doesn't matter. We should at least send Miles and Gwen back home so that we don't have to worry about them getting hurt, and the same goes for Spider-Kid," Hawkeye insisted.
"Hey, watch it, Purple Arrow," Peter snapped.
"And considering that we still don't know what could have happened to Gwen and Peter after they were hit by yours and Seymour's combined reflect element spells, it may be best if you transport them home so that they can be properly looked at," Lulu added on, thinking that such a matter should not be ignored for too long, even if it meant that their otherworldly friends were going to have to return to their home with small chances of returning to see this journey through to the end.
Sora could tell that he was not going to win on that particular point, so he finally sighed in defeat and summoned his Keyblade. "All right," Sora finally nodded. "But I'm not leaving anyone of you behind. Tidus and Wakka are both here, and they've been with Yuna and the others since the start of her journey, so they'll be the ones to act as my guide post."
"Makes sense to me," Tidus nodded. "Me and Wakka aren't from Spira, so there's no reason why someone from your world should have to stay just so that Sora can figure out how to get back."
No one argued with that, and with simple nod, the Avengers, Spider-Man, Miles, and Gwen gathered around him as he held his Keyblade out, focusing his thoughts on Marvel-topia and Avengers Mansion as he did. Of course, he did make a point to ensure that Tidus, Yuna, and the others had taken a few steps back first, just in case they accidentally got pulled along for the ride, but after a few minutes had passed, they were all a little surprised that nothing was happening. Sora's eyes eventually began to scrunch up in hard concentration, almost like he was trying to force it all out, but eventually, he relaxed his posture again, and then raised the Keyblade up, similar to some of the times he had seen Thor raise his hammer when the Asgardian planned to go to another place in the Nine Realms. That attempt did not have any more success, as no flash of light came, and they all remained right where they were on Spira.
"Any time now, superstar," Hawkeye prompted.
"I'm trying! These things take time, you know," Sora insisted. He then made a few more motions while waving his Keyblade in an attempt to get their transport to Marvel-topia going, until finally, he slumped in defeat and said, "Sorry guys, but I've got nothing."
"You mean that even after sealing the Keyhole and beating the guy who was working with the Heartless, we're still stuck here," Spider-Man gasped in disbelief.
"It would seem so," Auron nodded. "Looks like your stories on Spira are not quite finished yet."
"Indeed. Which means that if the Avengers are to aid you in defeating Sin, it will be up to those of us who are already here to do so," T'Challa confirmed, though from where they were standing, it looked like he was addressing Yuna more than anyone else.
The summoner in question nodded in reply to Black Panther, though it did not seem like she was too terribly disappointed by the fact that they were not going to get help from the rest of the Avengers. From Yuna's point of view, the heroes that stood alongside her were more than enough to help her finally fulfill her father's dream of ending Sin for good. She was just about to comment on this when Rikku suddenly cried out, "Well you may be getting your chance a lot sooner than you think. Pops just called and said that Sin really is heading this way and will be outside the city any minute now!"
"Then there's no time to waste! Let's get moving, people," Captain America ordered, leading the charged back to the entrance of Zanarkand, with everyone determined to face Sin head on when the beast arrived at the ruined city's doorstep.
Rikku was not exaggerating when she said that Sin was going to be outside of Zanarkand soon, because the minute the group had gotten outside the ancient city again, they saw the massive beast floating right before their very eyes in all of its horrible glory. From what they could see, they saw that Sin's body was similar to that of a whale's, and it had clawed arms and hind legs that resembled pectoral fins, along with a long tail. Even from a distance, Hawkeye could still see what looked like a small part of a destroyed city resting on its body close to the head, but they could all see the large, feathery wing-like protrusions that seemed to carry it through the air. Either way, there was no denying that this monstrosity of a beast was definitely here for a reason, but the fact that it was just sitting there was throwing quite a few of them off.
"How come it's not doing anything? I thought Sin was supposed to be a mindless creature that destroyed everything and anything without a care in the world," Gwen finally asked.
"That's true for almost everywhere else, but for some reason, even when it does come close to Zanarkand, Sin has never once tried to carry on with its destructive path in this city. That's why Zanarkand has become considered as a holy place," Lulu revealed.
"Or maybe…it reminds the person inside of Sin of the place where they had last been human," Tidus offered.
"Doesn't matter either way, because this looks like our best chance to put an end to the thing," Hawkeye pointed out.
"Hawkeye is correct," T'Challa agreed. "We should strike the beast while it is docile."
"Hey, I'm all for that, but how are we going to stop Sin without the Final Aeon? I mean, it's not like any of us have thought of a plan yet, ya," Wakka asked.
"Actually, I think I might have an idea," Sora revealed. When everyone turned to face him, Sora explained, "Remember what Night Hunter said? About how the thing that all the previous summoners beat was just Sin's armor? Well, armor always protects something, so we just need to get inside of Sin, and hit whatever is underneath."
"And how are we supposed to do that? Because from where I'm standing, the only way into that thing is to follow the examples of Jonah and Pinocchio when they met a whale," Spidey pointed out.
"That doesn't mean it isn't an option, but we should at least consider trying something that would either slow it down or discourage it from going on any rampages while we're inside fighting it," Captain America pointed out.
"Now that is an idea I can get behind," Hawkeye stated with a smirk. He then pointed up at where he guessed Sin's throat would be and said, "We just have to hit one specific point on its soft spots with as many blasts and powerful attacks as we can, and we should have a straight shot inside."
"I think my dad and Brother might have something on the airship that can help with that," Rikku revealed with a smile, clearly excited at the chance to use said airship in a fight.
"Not to mention, one of Yuna's summons might be powerful enough to soften it up a little too," Tidus offered.
Seeing as they had a plan beginning to form, Captain America quickly took charge and ordered, "Okay then, we'll hit from down here along with Yuna's summon. Sora, you take Hawkeye, Miles, and Gwen up to the airship."
"Uh, I get Hawkeye, but why are me and Gwen going up too," Miles asked.
"Because this fight is definitely going to be too dangerous for to go dragging civilians into it, especially since there's a chance that we may not make it back out," Hawkeye stated. "What I want to know is why you're not having Spider-Boy go and wait on the ship with them."
"First off, it's Spider-Man, and I'm not going to tell you again, and second, you wouldn't be able to stop me from going in there with you even if you tried," Spidey retorted.
"He's not wrong, and besides, he's already faced some incredible odds on his own that would give some of the Avengers pause. In my book, that makes him perfect for a job like this," Captain America insisted.
Miles and Gwen would have argued against being left behind, and the Avengers letting Peter go with them, but they knew that the captain had a point, and from the look of Peter, he was just as adamant about them staying on the ship where it was safe, even if he had to web them onto the ship's deck, so they just nodded in agreement as they moved over to Sora with Clint. Before Sora could cast his teleportation spell, Gwen quickly rushed back over to Peter and kissed his masked cheek before saying, "Please make sure you come back safe."
"I promise," Peter nodded in return, and he then pulled Gwen back in so that he could give her a proper kiss. When the two separated again, he whispered, "For luck, and just in case this doesn't work."
Gwen could only nod in return as she slowly walked back over to Sora, and like that, she and the other three vanished from the ground, only to reappear on the airship's bridge seconds later, much to Cid's surprise. In fact, Cid was so shocked he was barely able to let out more than a simple gasp of surprise before Hawkeye had marched up and asked where the weapons controls was, and the man could only just point to the console in question in reply. Taking over for the Al Bhed crew member that had been previously stationed there, Hawkeye told Brother to bring the ship around to a certain point, and then gave Sora a simple nod to say that the kid could head back to the ground whenever he was ready. The Keybearer did just that once he saw the nod, and in a simple flash of light, he was back down on the ground with the others, just as Yuna had finished performing the necessary spell to summon one of her strongest aeons.
When the light show from Yuna's summoning spell faded, everyone was greeted to the sight of a massive, dragon-like being with large, red wings, a very muscular form, and large jaws filled with sharp teeth kneeling behind her, and they were all sure that they would be able to feel the sheer power that this aeon possessed even from a distance. "When did you get this one," Tidus asked, incredulously, because he did not remember the group ever stopping at a temple that Yuna could have gotten this aeon from.
"Seymour did not take me directly to Zanarkand. He stopped in Bevelle for a moment to take care of some of his own business. I took a chance to pray to the fayth in Bevelle's temple while Seymour was distracted, and only just managed to receive Bahamut before he caught me again," Yuna explained. She then looked to Sora and asked, "Did Hawkeye say where we should attack?"
"No, but I get the feeling we'll know in just a moment," Sora replied, and he was right.
Mere minutes after the Keybearer had spoken, the airship let loose a barrage of weapons fire that struck one particular spot on Sin's throat, and after zeroing in on the target point with his helmet's scanners, Sora pointed directed Yuna's attention to that same location. An instant later, Bahamut let loose a powerful energy blast upon the same location, and to further help things along, Sora, Lulu, Wakka, and even Rikku began to fire off whatever long-range attacks they possessed as well. They all kept up this bombardment of attacks until Cap ordered them all to cease fire, so they could get a better look at their handiwork. When the smoke from their attacks cleared, they all let out quick cheers upon seeing that they had managed to make the necessary hole in Sin's throat that would get them inside.
Spider-Man was about to fire a few web-lines to help get them up to their opening, when Bahamut suddenly knelt down among them and allowed Yuna to climb onto his back. "Come on! Everyone, climb aboard," the summoner prompted.
"Uh…are you sure it's safe to ride on that thing," Spider-Man questioned.
"Yeah, of course it is," Yuna reassured him, while the others began clambering onto Bahamut's back. "The aeons care a great deal about Spira too, so they won't let any harm come to us."
"Maybe to those of you who are actually from Spira, but for the rest of us," Spider-Man pointed out, trailing off at the end so that the others could fill in the blanks on their own.
"Don't worry, soldier. We'll be fine," Cap reassured the young vigilante as he and T'Challa climbed on as well.
After a few more seconds of hesitation, Spidey joined the rest of the group on Bahamut's back, while Sora just teleported back onto the airship to retrieve Hawkeye, saying he would meet them inside. The minute he had, Bahamut lifted up into the sky and rocketed towards Sin, drawing a scream of fright out of the web-head due to how sudden the whole thing. Their flight came to just as quick of a stop after they went through the opening in the beast's throat, and after they had climbed off Bahamut and back to the ground again, they all breathed sighs of relief at seeing Sora and Clint right next to them as well, proving that Sora was able to get them onto the draconian aeon before it had gotten too far in. Of course, this fact did have a downside for the web-head who had just been freaking out so much.
"You swing through New York on a thin, easily snapped web-line, and yet flying on the back of a dragon-like creature makes you scream like a little girl," Hawkeye questioned. "No offense, Rikku, Yuna."
"None taken," the two girls immediately replied, only to realize what Hawkeye had just implied with his words a second later. "Wait, hey!"
"I can control the web-swinging, and my webs are not easily snapped. They can hold a car, or even help me to stop a speeding train if I needed them too. I just happen to go up against a lot of supervillains that have really sharp claws, knives, or are just flat out stronger than the webs," Spidey retorted.
Clint did not have a retort for that, but instead, he simply just hummed and said, "Yeah, I know what that's like. You would not believe how often people just shred through the cables that my grappling and net arrows are made of, and those things are made of tough stuff."
"Focus you two," Auron snapped. "We're only half done."
"He's right. You guys can compare equipment notes and experiences later. Right now, we've got a world to save," Sora reminded them.
Everyone nodded in response to that and began marching further into the winged, whale-like beast, taking extra care to mind their surroundings as they advanced. Despite their intense focus though, no one could ignore the rather beautiful landscape that surrounded them. There was a vibrant mix of colors all across the ground and what counted as both the walls and ceiling in this strange place, while what looked like gold, shooting stars raced over their heads, and sometimes even slowly dropped down to the ground. Even the rather vicious spikes that suddenly shot up from beneath their feet had a kind of eerie beauty to them, while the trails ahead all seemed to sparkle like freshly polished glass. To be honest, if anyone else had seen this place and not been aware of just what it really was, or the danger it presented, they likely would have tried to take several photos of it so that they could capture the images before them forever on film, or so that they could take it to the best artists they knew to try and recreate it on paper at a later date.
In point of fact, Peter actually did get his camera out once or twice so that he could snap a few quick photos, and Sora could not help but take some too with the camera on his phone, but all photo sessions quickly came to an end when they reached the end of their strange trail. You would think that they had all paused for a moment because they were finally face-to-face with the true Sin that lay within the massive, monstrous armor that so many summoners had destroyed over the centuries past, but the real reason, while similar, was still rather wildly different. There, standing before them, with a red headband tied around his forehead, with his family emblem tattooed onto his bare chest, white bandages wrapped around his right wrist, metal armor running all along his left arm up to his shoulder, and black shorts with a dark orange and black sash covering his right leg, was none other than the man who became Braska's Final Aeon himself and Tidus's father, Jecht.
When Jecht took notice of his visitors, he crossed his arms in thought for a minute, until he eventually smiled a little as his eyes fixed on three individuals in particular. "Well, whaddya know? Never thought I'd see folks from the islands ever again, let alone a bunch of the runts after they've gotten all grown up," Jecht remarked in his rough, almost arrogant sounding voice, but the boys he had singled out could all tell that said arrogance was even more of an act than usual. Clearly his time on Spira had tempered Jecht's attitude quite a bit. "Wakka, look at you! You're a friggin' giant!"
"Well, what can I say? Had to hit that big growth spurt that every member of my family seems to get sooner or later," Wakka shrugged as best as he could, refusing let himself get choked up over seeing the man that had inspired him to become a Blitzer.
"Heh! Yeah, I guess so," Jecht shortly laughed before his eyes locked onto the spiky haired boy of the three Islanders. "Wait a minute. Is that little Sora?"
"Uh…Hi, Mr. Stone," Sora hesitantly waved. He would never admit it, but there was always something about Tidus's dad that intimidated Sora a bit. Maybe it was the wild-man look that he always held.
"Yeah, that's Sora all right," Jecht tiredly sighed. "Not only is it impossible for anyone to have hair that spiky as far as I know, but he's also the only one of you runts to have never gotten it through your heads to not call me Mr. Stone. It's either Jecht or Sir, none of that Mr. stuff. It makes me feel old."
"But you are pretty old now, you know," Sora pointed out with a half-hearted tease.
"Hey, watch it! This 'old' man is still as tough as ever," Jecht playfully cautioned. He then turned completely serious when he laid eyes on his only son, and sighed, "Hey kiddo."
"Hi Dad," Tidus just barely managed to whisper. Not that you could blame him. This was the first time he had seen his father in years, and for all that time, he had thought that his dad had died at sea or something. There was just so much that he needed to say, that he wanted to say, and yet, now that the moment was here, he could not bring himself to do it because of how choked up he was getting.
Jecht must have realized this, because he quickly went right to his usual method of trying to get Tidus out of his funk. "Hey, are you seriously gonna start cryin' already? I woulda thought you'd have stopped doing that so much by now, kid."
"Shut up! I'm not crying," Tidus snapped back, his fire already back to normal. "It's just…I can't believe that…"
Jecht's smile became a little more gentle as he quietly replied, "I know, kid. I know." The moment soon came to an end though as he said, "Listen, I don't have a lot of time, but I've gotta tell you all what you need to know to stop Sin for good."
"Do you mean to say that you finally have a plan," Auron questioned.
"Hey, I told you I would think of something, didn't I, Auron," Jecht playfully questioned in return. "When you've got so many years of free time between being forced to destroy and kill, you can't really do anything other than think, and I've finally got a solution that doesn't involve the summoner dying."
"Well don't leave us in suspense, pal. We're all ears," Hawkeye prompted.
"It's the aeons," Jecht informed them as simply as he could. "Sin needs the Final Aeon to create a new body, and when the old one is beaten, Sin is weakened quite a bit before it moves in for the transfer to the next Final Aeon. However, that's the only aeon that's truly compatible with it. All the others you've gathered, they could be used to fill the space, temporarily, but it wouldn't work in the long term, and they wouldn't be as powerful while under Sin's control."
"So then, whatever aeon Yunie summons, will become Sin's new body," Rikku summarized.
"Yep, and you need to let that happen. Since the other aeons aren't entirely compatible, you'll be able to knock down Sin several times over, until its finally weak enough for you all to move in and finish it off for good. I know that it's probably not going to be easy, but you're most likely gonna need to sacrifice all of your aeons to make this work," Jecht finished. Seeing the sad look that had begun to form on Yuna's face, Jecht then added, "Hey, don't be getting so down. This is something that the aeons and their fayth want, too. They've been stuck in an endless dream for centuries, so now; all they want is to finally stop dreaming and move on to the next life, just like anyone else. I should know, being made into a fayth myself, and all."
"But what about you? Won't doing this also mean that you'll end up…?" Spidey started to ask. He knew that there might have been a chance that they could not save Tidus's dad, but that did not mean he was not hoping there would be. After all, he hated the idea of anyone losing a parent or parental-figure like how he had lost his uncle, so it was only natural that he would be determined to keep it from happening as often as he could.
"Well unless you want to use the Final Aeon, this is the only way," Jecht shrugged. He then adopted the softest expression that any of the Destiny Islanders had ever seen on his face as he said, "At least this way, I'll finally get to see all my old buddies again, and my wife too. Just do me a favor and make sure that Tidus doesn't follow me there any time too soon, ya hear?"
Everyone could only give hesitant, silent nods in return, and when they saw that Jecht was starting to seem like he was fighting against himself, they knew that the final fight was about to take place. With that in mind, they all readied their weapons and feel into their battle stances, except for Tidus, who could only look at his dad in sorrow. More than that, he still had one thing left to say to his father. "Dad," Tidus called out, getting Jecht's attention. "I…I hate you."
You would think that Jecht would be upset when he heard that from his own son, but it was actually just the opposite. Instead, he actually smiled a little, knowing exactly what his boy really meant when he said that, let out a short laugh, and replied, "Yeah, I know. Love you, too, Tidus. You've really grown."
"Yeah, but you're still bigger," Tidus shrugged, finding some familiarity in this conversation.
"Well, I am Sin you know," Jecht pointed out.
"That's not funny," Tidus immediately scolded.
Jecht still laughed a bit, but his laughter quickly ended as he let out a pained grunt, and said, "You'd better get ready. Pretty soon I'm gonna be Sin completely, and once that happens, I won't be myself anymore. I won't be able to hold myself back, so you'd better give it your all, or you will more than likely end up dead. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize for something that isn't your fault! Let's just…let's just finish this, okay," Tidus begged as he drew his sword.
"Yeah, you're right," Jecht agreed. He then stepped back a few paces, and then shouted, "Well, then…let's go!"
A minute later, they all watched as Jecht transformed into the aeon he had become when he became the fayth for Braska's Final Aeon, and they were all left rather stunned and a little frightened. Jecht's aeon form was a rather monstrous beast that almost appeared to be a deformed version of Jecht himself, with brown scales and horns, and crests of spikes emerging from his back and shoulders. His hair and the tattoo on his chest had both turned white, while his eyes were now a glowing yellow. More crests of spikes covered some of his legs, and despite the fact that his right hand was still proportionate to his body, his left had been transformed into a very large, bestial claw. They figured that the right hand had not been changed so that he would be able to wield the large, black sword that was firmly gripped in said hand. In short, it looked nothing like what anyone would expect a creature that gave hope to the world to look like, be it of one world or another.
"Yikes, and I thought that Guard Armor thing Night Hunter set loose on our school was freaky," Spider-Man muttered to Sora.
"Doesn't matter how vicious it may look. He's not invincible, and we've got to take him down, even if we don't like it," Captain America reasoned to everyone, his shield already brought to bear before him.
"Then let's make this quick," Tidus told the group. He then fixated his gaze on the creature that had once been his father, and challengingly shouted, "Hit me with all you got, Dad!"
"Something tells me, you don't really want him to do that," Hawkeye quipped in return before he fired an arrow on the Aeon-Jecht.
That single arrow turned out to be the perfect signal for the start of the battle, as the others all began letting loose any long-range attacks that they had at their disposal onto the monstrous form of Jecht. Anyone who did not have any solid methods of attacking at a distance just waited for the best moment between those attacks to move in and land some strikes of their own, and when they did strike, they struck hard. Between Wakka infusing his Blitzball with various elements, Lulu's numerous magic spells, Rikku's various grenades, Hawkeye's arrows, and even T'Challa's vibranium daggers, there was very little time for Aeon-Jecht to get in any kind of counterattack, so he was easily left disoriented enough when Spidey, Cap, Tidus, Auron, Kimahri, and Sora made their moves. Of course, they did try to make sure they did not end up being too predictable, assuming that Aeon-Jecht's mind was capable of that level of tactical thinking. Every now and then, some of their close-combat fighters would drop back to lay down whatever barrage they could, such as when Sora would jump back to fire off whatever spells he managed to get out of the Keyblade, or when Spidey shot of some webs in an attempt to either blind or immobilize the giant monster man. Whenever they did that, some of the others who were fighting at a distance would get in close too, and Rikku made sure that the claws of her gauntlets were driven very deeply into their target, while Wakka slammed his ball against the monster as hard as he could whenever he moved in close.
That was not to say that Aeon-Jecht did not get in any shots at all, as they all soon found out that he was not just Braska's Final Aeon in name alone. The powerful laser beam that he fired out from his eyes was certainly proof of that, and it was also part of the reason why Spidey made it a point to blind the massive creature with his webs as often as he could. Of course, there was very little the web-head could do to stop anyone from getting slammed or crushed by the massive claws that Aeon-Jecht possessed, and since no one was going to kid themselves into thinking they might be strong enough to either block or deflect a blow from that thing, they all made it a point to dodge or duck as often as they could when they saw Jecht prepare to attack with the massive appendage. The only thing more worrying than that laser beam and the massive claws was probably Jecht's sword, as they could tell just from appearances that a single swing of that thing was likely to tear a mountain clean in two. That suspicion was soon proven true when Aeon-Jecht swung the massive blade down at them, and destroyed a good portion of the strange ground they were standing on in that single blow. After that attack, they all put in their best efforts to make sure that he was not able to so much as prepare, let alone complete an attack with that sword again.
While all of this was going on, Yuna remained in the background, either healing the others, or using whatever offensive light magic she had at her disposal. She would probably have tried to summon one of her aeons to help with the fight, but from what Jecht had said, she would need as many of her aeons as possible for when they finally defeated his aeon form, if not all of them. With that in mind, it was no mystery as to why she was not going to fully join in on the battle. Even without the Final Aeon, Yuna was still a very vital key to ending the terror of Sin once and for all. Though from the worried look on Auron's face when he saw Aeon-Jecht stab his massive sword into the ground and prepare to leap on top of it, she had to wonder if she should at least consider summoning one of her aeons.
"Careful! He's about to use his most powerful attack! The Ultimate Jecht Shot," Auron shouted, the worry in his voice as clear as glass.
"Then we need to finish this now," Captain America determined.
"Right, and I know just the thing to do it with," Tidus decided. "Wakka, set me up!"
"You sure, man," Wakka asked.
"Oh yeah," Tidus grinned. He then turned to Sora and asked, "Think you could add a little extra fire to it?
"You bet; we've got your back," Sora nodded with a grin, aiming his Keyblade high. "Wakka, let it fly!"
Wakka just nodded in response, jumped back a few feet, and then tossed his Blitzball as high as he could. When the ball came back down, Tidus bounced it back towards Aeon-Jecht with a hard kick. The ball hit again, this time harder than before, and when Tidus kicked it this time, it went high into the air before he leapt up and bounced it off his head and back at the monstrous form of his father, once again harder than before. When the ball came flying back towards him, Tidus hit it as hard as he could with his hand, bouncing the ball off Aeon-Jecht's front and high into the air. While the ball was airborne, Tidus gave Sora a quick nod, and the boy aimed his Keyblade at the spinning ball and let loose a fire spell that set it ablaze as Tidus leapt up as high as he could, spinning his body around several times over to build up momentum. After one final spin, Tidus stuck his foot out and kicked the burning Blitzball as hard as he could, sending it flying right into Aeon-Jecht's face, and unleashing a very fiery explosion when it hit.
The monster form of Jecht let out a pained roar as it stumbled under the latest attack's impact, causing him to completely halt in powering up his powerful ability. Sora took that opportunity to rush in, using a burst from his gauntlets' repulsors to send him rocketing forward at high speed, and with a single swing of his Keyblade, Sora dealt the final blow that ultimately brought Aeon-Jecht collapsing to the ground, face-first. After Sora landed, everyone could only watch in slight sorrow as the massive beast began to revert back into the human it had been spawned from, while a black orb slowly slipped out from the top of its head, but to their surprise, Jecht had a proud smile on his face, even as he dropped to his knees. Before his father could fall to the floor, Tidus quickly rushed over and caught the older man in his arms, his eyes beginning to water up a little as he did so, but he did not care right now, and from the looks of things, Jecht was distracted by something else to notice.
"That was…That was my move, wasn't it," Jecht weakly questioned. "The Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III."
"You know, I still think that's a stupid name, especially since there never was a Mark I or Mark II," Tidus weakly retorted with a small smile.
"Hey, I told you, that was just something to hook the crowd, and it did, didn't it," Jecht reminded him. "Besides, from what I just saw, you seem to have added enough of an extra something for there to be an official Mark II, now, right? Guess now…I'm not really the best anymore, huh?"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that. I mean, you're still the one who came up with the original move," Tidus teased. He then grew silent again, feeling a little more somber than before, and admitted, "You know, I used to get so mad at just the thought of you, and that made it so much easier for me to say that I hate you, but…"
"Hey, save it for later. You've still got a job to do, you know," Jecht interrupted, not wanting to waste any time.
"I need to say it now, or I may never get the chance again," Tidus insisted, and from the way his dad jumped a little in response, he could tell that he got the message across. "That all may have been true, but after coming here to Spira, hearing about what you did from Auron, Yuna, and a few others, and even now after all that just happened…For the first time, I'm glad to have you as my father."
That made Jecht smile the most honest, happy smile that Wakka or Sora had ever seen on his face, and a moment later, he pulled his boy in for a one-armed hug, and replied, "I've always been proud to call you my son, Tidus, and to be honest…I kinda wish I was able to shed a few tears at things like you could."
"Seriously? I'm trying to be serious and honest here, and you're making fun of me just because I cry a little every now and then," Tidus joked in response.
"A little? I think you might've been hit in the head a few too many times, because clearly your memory's not all that trustworthy at the moment, and who's making fun of anyone. I'm being just as serious," Jecht playfully argued.
"Sir Jecht…I should…" Yuna started to say, feeling that she should perform a sending for Tidus's father. Jecht was of a different opinion though.
"No, Yuna, there's no time," Jecht insisted. "You need to call the aeons now while you still have a chance! Sin's going to come at us at any minute!"
At that point, everyone finally took notice of the black orb that had slipped out of Jecht earlier and how it was orbiting around them like a moon around a planet, until it changed course and struck the handle of the massive sword Jecht had been wielding a moment ago. The minute that happened, everyone was nearly blinded by another brilliant light that served as a precursor to a change in their surroundings. From what they could see, they were all now standing on top of the blunt side of the massive sword, which had been enlarged quite a bit as it floated in a massive, colorful void. Sora could not really give an opinion on the place, but from what he gathered, this place was probably a lot like what the Farplane looked like. Of course, he was only thinking that because he overheard Lulu whispering something like that from close by, but he set it aside for later, as he heard Yuna start chanting as she prepared to summon the first aeon that they would use to weaken Sin's true form further.
"Set ablaze in battle, Ifrit," Yuna called out as she finished her dance, and soon after, her second aeon burst out from the ground in a raging inferno. The horned beast with massive claws and a very demonic-like appearance did not remain on their side for long, as they were all soon watching as the dark orb merged with Ifrit, changing his colors from reddish brown and light red to pitch black and dark gold respectively. When it transformation was complete though, they all saw Ifrit twitch and jitter quite a bit, and they all took that as a sign that Jecht's suggested plan may be working. They did not take any chances on waiting around to find out for sure, as Sora and Lulu both took action by unleashing various ice or water based attacks. Sora even went so far as to surprise the others by coating his Keyblade with some ice magic before he threw it at the burning aeon much like Cap often would his shield.
"Nice shot, Sora," Hawkeye praised when he saw how Sora's chilling attack not only dealt some serious damage, but also froze Ifrit in solid ice so that Tidus and the others could land a few strong hits on it. "When did you figure out how to do that?"
"Oh, the usual way. Turns out, my visions can happen in short bursts after all," Sora shrugged as the Keyblade spun back into his hand. "Apparently, Ventus was really good with Keyblade moves that are called Raid attacks, like the Freeze Raid I just used."
"Well I hope you picked up on some other varieties, because I think we're going to need them for the next round," Spidey commented as he landed the finishing blow against Ifrit with one powerful web-slingshot.
Thankfully Sora soon got the chance to prove that he did after Yuna summoned forth another aeon, this one being the samurai-like warrior known only as Yojimbo. Normally, Yuna would not summon this aeon, given that it always had a penchant for demanding payment before it performed any attacks, but under these circumstances, she was willing to make an exception, and once again, they watched as the true Sin took on the aeon as its new host body. Sora was the first to attack by using the most common Raid attack that he learned from his quick vision was called Strike Raid, and the Keyblade easily tore through the sword-for-hire aeon both on its initial and return trips, much like Cap's shield did when he tossed it at Yojimbo. T'Challa and Auron then met the samurai aeon in close-combat, matching its blade strikes blow for blow with their own respective blades. Surprisingly, it was Rikku who landed the final blow against Yojimbo with her clawed gauntlet, and with that, Sin left the destroyed aeon, weaker than before, and the process repeated once again.
In point of fact, that same process repeated quite a few times, with Yuna summoning forth both the lightning horse, Ixion and her draconian warrior, Bahamut, and given how much more often the aeons would twitch and shake while possessed by Sin, it was clear that the greatest evil to ever walk the surface of Spira was nearing the point of being completely defeated. Even so, judging by the scans that Sora was constantly taking of the real Sin with his helmet, it was going to take a bit more until they reached the point where Sin was weak enough for them to end it for good, and Yuna was quickly running out of aeons to summon. All that she had left were Valefor and the one that she acquired at Macalania, and somehow, he had a feeling that the bird-like aeon was one that Yuna did not wish to part with.
The Keybearer's hunch was soon proven true when after he had used a Fire Raid to destroy the icy aeon that Yuna had called Shiva to weaken Sin further, but only to the point where they would still need one more aeon to really finish the job. "Yuna, you have to summon one more time," Sora called out.
"But…all I have left is…" Yuna stuttered, suddenly feeling a little nervous.
"I know, but we don't have a choice. If you really want to get rid of Sin for good, then we need that bird-brained friend of yours," Hawkeye tried to reason, shooting off a few arrows at Sin while it was vulnerable, just in case it got any ideas of trying to possess one of them, even though none of them were aeons.
"Hey, Valefor is not a bird-brain," Yuna snapped in retort.
"Yeah, and I don't think you have much room to talk about bird-brains, Hawkeye," Spider-Man added, making sure to put a good deal of emphasis on the first half of the archer's name.
Clint just rolled his eyes in response to that, and decided to let Tidus do the talking from that point, given that the blonde boy was obviously better at getting Yuna to see reason than he was. "Yuna, I know it hurts, and I know how important Valefor and all the aeons are to you, but you don't need them to be strong. This is their choice, and it's also their way of showing you that you can be strong without them if you can let them go, just like how my dad did for me a moment ago."
Yuna was still hesitant on doing as the others were asking, but in the end, she knew that they were right, and looking into Tidus's eyes, she knew that she could trust him on this, so she waved her staff in the required manner, while saying the corresponding chant for her faithful friend. "Descend…Valefor."
Seconds later, the aeon in question descended from the skies above in its usual show of speed and aerial capabilities, and just like the aeons before him, he too was taken over by Sin, and Yuna could barely stop her tears from falling when she saw her friend turn to such dark colors. She shook it off though as she joined the others in attacking the possessed aeon in every manner that they could, until finally, Valefor also fell to the ground, defeated like the others, and Sin finally too weak to so much as avoid the group any further. Seeing that, Yuna made it a point to unleash her most powerful light spell, Holy as many times as she could, a fact that was replicated by her comrades as they unleashed their best attacks as well. Even the Avengers were throwing out their best or strongest attacks and equipment in an effort to destroy Sin for good, but it was not until Sora finally charged in through the use of Sonic Blade, that the greatest terror of Spira finally fell, and they all soon found themselves being blinded by a brilliant light once again. When the light cleared, they were all surprised to see that they were back on the airship, and the whale-like monster that they had been inside of was beginning to fall apart, dispersing into small particles of light.
"Hey, are you all okay out there," Cid's voice called out over the ship's intercom.
"Yes, we're fine, Cid," Yuna confirmed. "Sin has been defeated, and this…it won't ever be coming back."
"Then there's only one thing left to do," Auron noted, surprising everyone, even as he stepped forward to kneel before Yuna. "Perform the sending one last time, Yuna. For the souls that make up the fayth for the aeons…and for an old warrior who has lived for too long as it is."
"Sir Auron," Yuna gasped, while the others just stared at the man in either surprise or confusion.
"Uh…what does he mean by that," Spider-Man questioned, being one of the people who was confused.
In response, Auron closed his eyes and let a few lights float out from his body, showing everyone who knew, namely those who were either from Spira originally, or had been on the world long enough to know, exactly what he meant. "You…You're already dead," Tidus whispered.
"After I learned the truth about Sin, I confronted Yunalesca, and in my anger, I attempted to attack her. It did not end well for me. That should have been where my story ended, but through my determination to keep my promises to my old friends, I continued to live on, without ever becoming a fiend, and now, my part in your stories is done," Auron explained. He then allowed everyone to see his gentle smile as he concluded, "This is your world now. Make sure that the stories you tell it are all great ones."
While she was hesitant to have to say goodbye to another friend, Yuna did still nod and performed the sending one final time, maybe not for everyone, but certainly for her. As she performed the sacred dance, everyone was left in slight awe and some of them even shed a few tears as Auron faded away into the particles of light known to those of Spira as pyreflies, and soon after, the night sky was lit up with many more, floating away into the air like little lanterns before they faded away entirely, while the faint images of the aeons that they were linked to orbited around the airship before vanishing as well. When all of the last traces of both Sin and the aeons had dispersed into faint sparks of light, everyone knew without a doubt that it was truly over. Sin was gone, Spira was freed from Yevon's lies and false hopes, and the world had finally been saved from its greatest threat.
A few hours later, everyone had gone to Bevelle so that Yuna could announce Sin's ultimate and final defeat, along with revealing the truth about Seymour and Yevon, and while everyone was overjoyed to hear that Sin was finally gone for good, many were left rather shocked at the truth behind the teachings that they had followed for so many generations. No doubt it would take some time for that to sink in, but Yuna was confident that everyone would eventually come to accept it and learn a new way of life someday soon. Not that she was really hoping for it to happen that soon, because after making her announcement, along with giving a small speech about how their futures were now in their hands, Yuna just wanted to go back home to Besaid Island, and the others were all too happy to join her in that journey.
Upon their arrival at Besaid, they found themselves swept up into a celebration of both Yuna's victory over Sin and her triumphant return home, and this time, Yuna had no qualms about joining in on the festivities. After all, there was a huge difference between some fancy, city-wide party for elites like the ones that were being held in Bevelle, and the small party of close friends and neighbors that her home village was throwing. Even the Avengers could not help but join the celebration for a little while, but only just long enough to be polite, because they knew that they had to get home right away. Of course, there were still a few things that some of them needed to address.
"You know, you guys can come with us. I'm sure Tony wouldn't have any trouble getting you both enrolled at Midtown with me, Pete, Gwen, and Miles, and we could always use a few more members on the Avengers to help out with dealing with both the Breakout escapees and the Heartless," Sora told Tidus and Wakka when he finally got the two of them away from the party long enough for them to talk in private.
Both of Sora's older friends wanted to join Sora on his adventure, the Keyblade wielder could tell from the looks in their eyes, but more than that, he could also see that they had already made a decision on that before he had approached them about this. "We appreciate that, Sora, but we're not going with you," Wakka revealed.
"Yeah, and even if you do find a way to bring the islands back, I don't think we'll be going home again anytime soon," Tidus added. "We've found our place here, on Spira, and neither of us plans on giving it up now that we have."
"But if I do figure out a way to restore our home, then what about your friends on the islands, or your families," Sora asked.
"Sora, in case you haven't noticed, I'm an orphan again, and that was true even before the islands were destroyed by the Heartless. The only real friends I had back home were Wakka and Selphie, and there's no telling whether or not Selphie's still alive somewhere," Tidus pointed out.
"Yeah, and the only family I had left was my little brother, Chappu, and who's to say that he's going to come back even if you find a way to restore the islands," Wakka nodded along. He then cast a glance over in the direction of a certain black mage and added, "Besides, why would we want to leave when we've found something here that's really worth fighting and living for?"
Sora could only smirk in response to that, easily picking up on what Wakka meant by that. Contrary to popular belief, Sora was not as dense as some people thought, at least when it came to other people's relationships, so he had no problem teasing them about said relationships when the topic came up. "All right, I get it. Just make sure that you two behave yourselves and play nice whenever you're around Lulu and Yuna."
"What?! Wh-what're you talking…Who said anything about Yuna?! He was just…I mean, we were…" Tidus stammered, and Wakka was no better considering he went as stiff as a statue while his face turned about as red as his hair. When Sora belted out a loud laugh, the two boys immediately reached to grab him in retaliation for his teasing, but the slippery little Keybearer was just too quick for them, and thus a friendly chase around Besaid began, much to the amusement of the other Avengers and anyone else who happened to see the three friends.
In fact, Lulu could not help but let a small smile grace her lips before she returned her attention to the two Midgardians that she was speaking with. "Make sure that you talk to someone that can help look into what happened as soon as possible. I'm sure you don't want to find out what those combined reflect spells caused at an inopportune moment," the black mage advised Peter and Gwen.
"Don't worry, neither of us plans on leaving that alone for very long, but I don't think we're going to have much luck finding a magic expert anytime soon that can help that easily," Peter joked in reply. "Besides, I haven't really felt all that different since it happened."
"Speak for yourself," Gwen groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "I've had a small headache popping up and out every few minutes or so since it happened."
"All the more reason why you should investigate as soon as possible," Lulu insisted.
"Like I said, don't worry. We will," Peter promised, with Gwen nodding along soon after.
After a few more goodbyes were exchanged, the Avengers and their young friends all gathered around Sora once again, ready to try to get back to Earth one more time. Just as Sora had summoned his Keyblade though, Rikku shouted for them to wait, clearly having one more thing that she had to say to the Keybearer as she locked eyes with him. "Syo ouin raynd pa ouin kietehk gao," the Al Bhed girl stated.
"Um…What," Sora asked.
Rikku merely giggled and explained, "That's the Al Bhed way of saying a certain phrase that all Keyblade wielders had said to each other and many other people all the time, at least according to legend, and it's one that my family is also really fond of and follow quite a bit to this day as well."
"Well can we get a translation of what you were saying, because none of us speak Al Bhed, you know," Miles pointed out.
"I know what it means. My father also liked that saying as well and used to say it to me all the time when I was little," Yuna replied. She then smiled brightly and translated, "May your heart be your guiding key."
"May your heart be your guiding key," Sora repeated in a whisper before he smiled back to the two girls with a nod. With that said, Sora aimed his Keyblade up towards the sky, and everyone could only watch as the legendary weapon glowed brightly, enveloping the heroes of Earth in its light before they all vanished from Spira completely.
Even after they were gone, Yuna and her friends still looked on at where they were, until they all started waving goodbye while Tidus called out, "Bye Sora."
"He did it again! I can't believe he went to another world without me again," Janet yelled as she stood off to the side of the room while Tony ran a scan of the lounge. The size-changer and billionaire had immediately dropped everything after Hulk had called them saying that Sora and the others had disappeared with Sora's classmates, knowing that it could only have mean that the Keyblade Samurai had once again traveled to another world, and ever since arriving, Janet had been going on that tangent almost nonstop. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was going to tear Sora a new one unless something else came up that almost just as surprising or important, even if the kid was not entirely at fault, a fact that was surprisingly pointed out by Hulk.
"You do remember that Spiky still hasn't learned how to control his world jumps yet, right," Hulk questioned with his arms crossed as he inhaled some more snacks. He was not touching the cookies that Miles had brought because of his promise to let the rest of the Avengers have at least one first, and so far, Janet and Tony had still not had their one.
"Doesn't matter! He still promised that I would get to go with him next time," Janet huffed.
"No he didn't," Tony corrected, having made sure to record every conversation that Janet and Sora had on the topic, at Sora's request. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to see if there may be even a slight chance we can bring Sora and the others back a little…"
"Pardon me for interrupting, sir, but the mansion's sensors are detecting a sudden increase in magical energy similar to the type that Master Hart's Keyblade gives off when it is about to transport him to another world," JARVIS suddenly interrupted.
Before anyone could question JARVIS on what he meant by that, a bright light suddenly filled the room, making Tony jump back a little from where it had originated from, and when it faded, the room's three occupants all let out relieved smiles when they saw who had been deposited into the room with them from said light source. "Ah, home sweet home," Sora breathed in relief as he dismissed his Keyblade.
"No kidding. Let's all just agree to never do that again, huh," Hawkeye prompted.
"Do what, exactly? Go to another world via Keyblade magic, or go back to Spira," Miles teasingly questioned.
Hawkeye just gave the kid a look to show he was not laughing, despite the fact that everyone else seemed to at least be sporting humored smiles, but all laughter ceased when Janet stomped over and shouted, "Sora Jonathan Hart, you are in so much trouble, Mister!"
"Okay, one, that's not my middle name," Sora started to say in a quick defense, hoping he could quell the angry Wasp's fury.
"Don't care! That doesn't change the fact that you went to another world without me again, or that you took Cap, T'Challa, the newest member of our team, a couple of your classmates, and Spider-Man instead," Janet snapped in retort. Her anger quickly vanished though when she realized who the last person on the list was, and she then turned a confused look to the web-head in question as she asked, "Wait a minute; how did you bring Spider-Man to another world with you anyone? Did he sneak into the mansion or something?"
"Of course not. Bright as he might be, I doubt that he's smart enough to get past my security systems with his resources that easily," Tony immediately dismissed. "Besides, Sora invited him here along with the other two, isn't that right, Mr. Parker?"
Everyone went silent at that, most of them staring at Tony with eyes that were wide enough to be dinner plates while the others were just looking back and forth between the billionaire and Spidey. In fact it was so quiet you would think that someone had removed all form of sound from the room until Spider-Man finally spoke up to ask the only question he could think to ask. "What…How do…You know?"
"Relax, kid. I've known who you were for months now and haven't told anyone, and from what I gather, you've already had to expose your secret identity to my teammates as well, so I'd say that you don't have anything to worry about in that regard," Tony waved off. "To be honest, when I heard that Sora had invited you over, I was kinda hoping that I would get the chance to talk to you for a little bit before you had left, at least until Pepper dragged me into the office for some official work at Stark Industries. Almost seems like a blessing in disguise that Sora's latest trip to another world pulled me away from that a few hours ago so that I could help figure out a way to get you guys back from our end, but it looks like we didn't need too."
"Tony, are you seriously saying that you've known that Spider-Man was just a high school kid this whole time and didn't do anything about it," Captain America demanded.
"Cap, you've spent time hanging out with the kid. I'm sure you've figured out that he's got his reasons for doing what he does, and that he's just a good kid with a caring heart. Why would I do something about it, well, other than figure out a way to meet him so that we talk shop or something, because I've gotta say, he definitely strikes me as a bright kid," Tony shrugged.
"Wait, you wanted to meet me? Seriously," Peter gasped in surprise as he pulled off his mask. Normally it was the other way around, and it definitely was in Peter's case since Tony Stark was one of Peter's idols even before he became Iron Man, so you can imagine how surprised Peter was to hear that the billionaire genius wanted to meet him. "Why would you want to meet me for anything, let alone talking shop?"
"Because I do my homework, and from what I've seen, you've got a lot potential in your future, especially if you have a little guidance and a few other things," Tony admitted. After saying that, he could see the kid's eyes lighting up in excitement, but that did not stop him from continuing on with his little speech. "Of course, the first of those things would be getting you a complete upgrade. I'm talking systemic, top-to-bottom, hundred point restoration upgrade, especially in the case of that onesie you call a suit."
"It's not a onesie," Peter immediately argued. "And besides, we can't all have access to the latest technology. Some of us have to make do with the simple things in life like our aunt's sewing kit."
"Wait, seriously? Are you telling me you made that suit yourself," Janet gasped. When Peter just nodded in reply, Janet could only hum in appreciation for that and admit, "I'm actually a little impressed."
"Either way, there's no denying that you could still use the upgrade," Tony interjected as he stepped out of the room for a minute, only to come back in with a silver briefcase in hand. "Which is why I would like you to have this. Feel free to go ahead and try it on now, if you'd like."
Peter just looked between the briefcase and Tony for a minute before he finally accepted said case and opened it up to reveal what was inside. What he found was something that definitely surprised him, because inside was actually a nearly exact replica of his suit, only with quite a few differences that he could easily spot. It still retained the color scheme his current one had, but it was obvious that this red and blue portions of the new suit were slightly darker than those of his current one. In addition to the fact that it still retained the web patterns along with the design of his spider-emblems, Peter also noticed that there were a few extra, solid black lines on some parts of the suit, namely on the arms and boots, and along with that, the eyes of the mask seemed much more heavily tinted than his usual mask, and somehow, Peter could tell just by looking that this new mask had some extra features built into it somehow.
Even after taking it all in, Peter could only stare at this new suit in awe before he finally looked up at Tony and received a nod in reply to his unasked question. That did not mean that Peter could stop himself from asking it though. "Is this…Is this really for me?"
"Of course. I did design it with you in mind, and based off of everything I could ever gather in regards to you and your powers, but I'm sure that there are still some adjustments that will need to be made before it's perfected, if you're willing to let me help out with that," Tony confirmed. He then decided to add in a little joke at the end and said, "Besides, it doesn't fit me. So, are you gonna try it on, or what?"
Peter was all too happy to do just that, and a few minutes later, everyone was watching as Spider-Man entered the room once again, this time clad in the suit that Tony had just given him. Even though the changes were rather minor in terms of appearance, they all had to agree in saying that Peter looked a lot more impressive in this new suit than he had in his old one. There was just something about it that made Peter seem a little more serious and confident as a hero. "Wow, this is amazing," Peter whispered as he looked out through the mask, enjoying the HUD that it he had discovered was built into it earlier quite a bit, with the eyes of said suit widening and narrowing a little to show off some clue of his facial expressions. "Any reason the eyes were designed like this though?"
"Just figured it would better help you to show folks what expressions your face was probably making than your old one did," Tony shrugged in response. "Plus you probably noticed that you can see a little better thanks to the lenses, too."
"Yeah, I did actually. How'd you know to put those sensors in the lenses," Peter asked.
"Well, I noticed pretty quickly that the eyes of your mask were pretty heavily tinted, and while I figured that part of it was to keep folks from seeing your eyes through the mask, I figured another reason was probably because your spider-powers included enhanced senses or something. And from the looks of things, I wasn't wrong," Tony remarked, and everyone immediately turned to see that he was messing around with Peter's old mask, even going so far as to try it on to see if he could see through it. "I mean, Lordy, can you really see through these things?"
"Yes, yes I can," Peter confirmed with a little, unintentional bite. He quickly reigned it in though as he admitted, "When I got my powers, it was like all my senses had been dialed up to eleven. Sometimes, there was just way too much input and that made it a little hard for me to focus at times. Not a great thing to have to deal with when people are shooting at you."
"I can only imagine," Tony nodded. "I just wish I was able to do a little bit of work with your web-shooters, but I couldn't figure out how to work in some of the ideas I had for them without knowing all the details about how they work and the exact formula for your webs."
"Well I could help with that, if you still want to," Peter offered.
"That would be a big help, but you know what I think would really help you? If you had access to a proper lab where you didn't have to sneak around to do anything related to your Spider-Man stuff. Like say, one of the labs at Stark Industries, or maybe the labs here at the mansion," Tony then offered.
"Wait, Tony are you offering Peter a place on the team? Because that would be so awesome for so many reasons if that is the case," Sora asked, getting more and more excited by the minute, and the same could be said for Peter, Gwen, and Miles judging by the looks on their faces.
"Well, not a full-time membership. If anything, I'm offering him a reserve position," Tony clarified. "Along with an internship at Stark Enterprises that would not only offer better pay than what he makes from selling those glorified selfies, but also serve as the perfect cover story for when he needs to suddenly disappear and do his Spider-Man-ing thing. What do you say, kid?"
Peter was not sure what to say. The whole thing just seemed like something out of a dream to him, but then again, everything he had just been through since he first walked into this mansion could be considered as such. Looking around the room and seeing the encouraging looks he was getting from both his friends and the Avengers themselves definitely served as strong evidence of the fact that he was in fact awake, along with the suit he was wearing, but he still felt the need to pinch himself just to be sure. He did not follow through on that though, because one last look at Gwen told him that the girl he cared so much for was completely on board with him doing this, and that she was more than willing to support him no matter what he chose. When he looked to Sora and saw how the younger boy was smiling widely as a way to further encourage him to say yes, Peter felt that the answer was pretty obvious.
"Yes," Peter finally grinned. "Yes! Absolutely yes! I mean, I'll still have to keep up with my internship at ESU, and I'll have to give my two week's notice to the Bugle, assuming that what you're offering really does pay…"
"And it does, I can promise you that," Tony confirmed.
"Either way, yeah. I'd be honored," Peter confirmed with a smile. That drew cheers from both his friends and some of the Avengers, namely Sora and Wasp, and he could have sworn he heard the sounds of Yuffie celebrating from another room, but there were still a few things left for him to do. "Now if you all will excuse me, I think I need to go and call my aunt. No doubt she's freaking out over the fact that I've disappeared for a few days."
"Oh crap! My parents aren't probably doing any better," Miles groaned.
"Hey, at least your dad can't send out every cop in the NYPD to search for you and then probably lock you up until he's absolutely sure that you're safe again," Gwen reminded Miles.
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, you three! You don't need to worry about your parents or guardians! You've only been gone for a day, and I already called to let everyone know that you decided to spend the night here after your study session ran late," Tony reassured them.
"What? But…we were on Spira for way longer than that! How can we have only been gone for a day," Miles protested.
"Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the whole thing about time differences between worlds," Sora sheepishly asked his friends, earning another round of laughter from the Avengers.
For the rest of the day, Miles, Gwen, and Sora kept themselves busy studying their school notes like they had originally agreed to doing, and after getting a personal tour of the mansion's state of the art labs and doing some work in those labs with Tony, Peter finally joined them in that study session. Of course, that was after he showed off that Tony helped him to make a more refined version of the new web-shooter designs that he and Rikku came up with on Spira, along with finalizing the necessary adjustments to his new suit, but all-in-all, they would all agree that today had been one that none of the Midtown students were going to forget any time soon.
A few hours after all the excitement that had gone down at Avengers Mansion saw Gwen reading peacefully in her room, happily thinking over everything that had happened in the last few hours. Sure, it may have been several days on Spira, but Gwen could still hardly get over the fact that it had only been twenty four hours here on Earth. Not that she was complaining, mind you, because she was definitely glad that she had not vanished for long enough of a time for her dad to completely freak out, or for New York to freak out over the disappearance of one of its most dedicated superheroes. Thinking of that part in particular brought a smile to Gwen's face, as she could still barely believe how she never once figured out sooner that her best friend was Spider-Man. It also made her feel a little bad about how she had laughed at the idea when all those reporters were accusing Peter of that fact several months ago because of what Venom had told the Bugle, but she was not focusing on that detail. If anything, she was just happy that Peter had finally told her the truth about all of that. It made her feel like she had just gained a much more special place in the world that Peter had entered into ever since he was bit by that spider, and that made her think about the kiss that they had shared earlier. Sure, it might have been wrong of her to kiss Peter while she was still dating Harry, but at the same time, Gwen was not going to deny how good it felt.
Speaking of Harry, she was now very sure that something was wrong with her so-called "boyfriend," and since others now knew about that suspicion, along with information about what he had been doing to her lately, Gwen had a feeling that she would be able to get to the bottom of that all the sooner. Sure, she knew that part of it would likely lead to her breaking up with Harry, and she was a little saddened by that, but she could not keep lying to him and pretending like her feelings for Harry were really as deep as he claimed his were. It just was not fair to her or Harry. Like Sora and Peter said, it was time that she let others in so that she could live the life that she wanted and find a way to get Harry the help that he really needed after she made it clear that they needed to end things between them.
She probably would have called him up right away, not feeling like she could do it face-to-face on her own, but before she could, she got a text message from her friend Mary Jane. She sent a quick reply and then moved to set her phone aside so that she could think of a way to gently break things off with Harry. What she did not expect was for her phone to not stay on her bedside table, but instead, remain in her hand without her even trying to hold it. She shook her hand a little, trying to get the phone off of her, but her eyes only widened as she saw that the device was actually sticking onto her hand with her doing anything. When she finally did get the phone off, she turned to see that her book was actually stuck on her other hand, and she then began to push against it in order to get it off.
Gwen did succeed in getting the book off of her hand, but in the process, she did not realize that she would end up tumbling back into the wall. More than that, she soon found that she had not just rolled across the floor, but that she had also somehow sprung up onto the wall directly behind her. Looking back at the wall and down at herself, Gwen immediately recognized her position as being similar to one she had seen Peter assume various times when he was perched on a wall, and she slowly turned herself around so that she could try something. With that done, she slowly placed one hand in front of the other, then the other in front of that hand, all while slowly moving her feet along the wall at the same time as she crawled along the wall like it was the floor, until finally, she came to a stop on the ceiling, and remained there, unable to move at all.
Looking down from where she had stuck, Gwen's eyes had become as wide as dinner plates, and her mind was quickly beginning to go blank in a fit of panic as her voice seemed to go mute. When she finally did find the ability to speak again, she could only think of one thing to call out. "D-Dad…DAD," Gwen shouted, prompting one George Stacy to come running into his daughter's room. When he did not immediately see Gwen anywhere in the room, Gwen called down, "Up here." That got George's attention, and his eyes to go as wide as Gwen's just were, even as she gave him some very simple instructions. "I'm gonna need you to call a friend of mine. I think there might be something wrong with me."
AN: Well, that was pretty unbelievable, huh? We all learned the truth about Yuna's secret plan, Night Hunter outed Seymour's plan, the heroes stopped all the bad guys and saved the day, Tidus got a proper chance to say goodbye to his dad, Gwen and Peter finally revealed the reasons behind their tension with each other (while we also got to see a little Peter&Gwen moment too), and look at that, Spidey's now a reserve member of the Avengers! And a lot sooner than he had been made in the canon version of EMH at that. Plus, he's got him a new suit to go along with it. Before anyone asks, Spider-Man's new suit is in fact his suit from Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, and yes, the Stark Internship thing is also inspired by that same matter in the MCU.
Spider-Man: Uh, can we just talk about that little expose we had regarding Gwen's relationship with Harry, and more? I thought you said Sora was going to help Harry get his head on straight again?
AN: I never said that it was going to be as easy as him just talking the guy down, did I? Yeah, Harry's been hitting Gwen. Be honest, did you really think that it could've been anything else? I mean, I get that Harry's not usually depicted as someone who would do that, but at the end of Spectacular Spider-Man's second season, the guy did come off as turning into a total punk, to put it nicely, so I just went what I thought would be the most logical route with that. Plus, I felt it necessary to give that little history lesson to Sora because 1) he didn't really know anything about any of that, and 2) it also served as a little background info for anyone who has not seen that amazing show! No pun intended. Don't worry, Gwen won't be taking Harry's crap anymore, and from the look of things, she's got a few new talents to help prove that point.
Yeah, you weren't imagining things at the end there. If this whole arc were a movie, that bit at the end there would've been the Post-Credits scene, and I can confirm right now that it is proof that Gwen now has spider-powers, as if that wasn't already obvious? I'm sure we've all figured out why she now has powers, assuming you were all paying attention to how things unfolded in the battle against Seymour. Guess you can all tell who's going to show up soon just from that, huh?
Now, on the matter of things that played out on the Final Fantasy X side of the story. First off, in the original version of the story, Seymour did not kill Yunalesca, and Yuna and her guardians ended up fighting her in Zanarkand, while the reveal about the Final Aeon was given by some dead guy who was Yunalesca's servant or something. They did fight against Seymour at least one more time before the final battle with Sin, but it was in an entirely different location, and it was not nearly the same as here. I wanted to go with something that combined Seymour's natural talents and abilities in the game with the powers he acquired here when I did that battle, and what you saw here was the end result. Hope it was to everyone's satisfaction.
Next change was how things played out with the final battle against Sin. Yeah, there were a lot more changes here from canon, and to go over all of them would probably take up all of our time here today, so I'll just try to keep it as brief as possible, and on all the important stuff. Yes, there was a fight against Jecht, or rather, his Final Aeon form, and Tidus and Jecht did have a similar conversation to the one that they had here, which was very touching and bittersweet in its own way, but Jecht was not the one who came up with the way to win once and for all. That was actually the spirits that lived within the fayth, which relayed the plan through Bahamut's fayth. Still, I needed to come up with some way for that idea to be given, and that was the best option, plus it also gave Jecht a little more purpose here than he had in the original canon. Not that I had a problem with Jecht's original role, but I felt like I needed to make it a little more important this time around.
Another big change was that Sin was only just the armor of the true evil, while the big bad in question was revealed to be the spirit of a summoner named Yu Yevon that refused to move on to the next life. Big shocker, huh? A lot of folks on Spira seem to like being dead but not sent on to the next life, despite the fact that the dead are supposed to turn into fiends when they are unsent. Talk about crazy.
Tidus: To put it mildly. And can I just say that I'm glad you didn't make me suffer my canon fate this time around?
AN: You can, and did. Yes, in the canon story, Tidus was actually just a dream of the fayth, and by defeating Sin in the method that they had, the fayth's dream ended, and that means...well, Tidus go bye-bye. Poor Yuna. [cries a little bit for Yuna before straightening up seconds later] But on the bright side, that didn't happen here, since Tidus is not a dream of the fayth, but a former citizen of Destiny Islands. And yeah, he and Wakka are staying put on Spira, even if the Islands do come back. That won't change when Destiny Islands returns, but I can promise that they're going to find a way to go back and forth between their old home and their new one sooner or later, and without the use of Sora's Keyblade magic.
Wakka: Well that's good news. I'd hate to have to choose between one world or the other, especially since there's so much on Spira that makes it feel more like home for Yuna and Lulu in this story. But did Auron really have to be sent, too?
AN: Honestly? Yeah, kinda, and yes, this was a detail from the canon version of Final Fantasy X that went unchanged. I wanted to have that happen so that it would still be possible for Auron to show up later on Olympus Coliseum, assuming that I went with that version of the story later on in this series, so it's only natural that I have Yuna send Auron along with all the spirits of the fayth. Now, everything's set up so that when the heroes ever return to Spira, they will likely come across the Gullwings, and while it may even be an entirely new version of them, I can promise that they will still be really similar to the one from canon.
Speaking of Final Fantasy X stuff, if you want all the Al Bhed translations that were not given...please just look it up in a translator program online or something, because it took me forever to find all of that myself, and I'm too pooped to bother with going into detail on the exact meanings at this point, at least in regards to the stuff that was not translated in the story.
Now, let's get you guys on over to the part of these ending notes that you all really look for when you read this part of the story. Onto the Preview!...
Upon receiving a call for help from Captain Stacy, Sora and Peter find out that Gwen has somehow gained spider-powers of her own, and they both quickly come to the same conclusion as to how it's possible. Now, with Peter helping to coach her in how to control her powers, Gwen wants to do whatever she can to join Peter in his crime-fighting crusade, even going so far as to pitch a few costume ideas to Janet, but Peter is more than a little hesitant on that idea. Sora seems to be just as against this, but something a little more important comes to their attention when one of NYPD's finest calls in a report on a crime that seems a little too similar to something that Green Goblin used to pull. Has Harry finally fallen into the same pits of insanity that his father had, and just what will our heroes be willing to do in order to solve the mystery whether he has or hasn't? A new hero is about to start spinning her web of heroics, in the next thrilling chapter.
Yeah, you heard it here, we're diving more into Spider-Man's corner of the Marvel universe, and going along with this story's version of Spider-Gwen's origin story! You may be surprised by how many things change or stay the same from what we've seen before, along with who else will show up in the story during that time. And that's not all that's going to happen, in case you haven't already guessed that yet, but I will go ahead and warn you all that it may be a little while before I update any stories again, seeing as I'm going to be going on vacation for a little bit, but don't worry, once I'm back home again, I will have a few new updates out as soon as possible, so until then...
Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!
