Chapter 26: Father and Son (Song: youtube - watch?v=y3IxVy_tuAI)

FLASHBACK START

"Addy, do you hate parent-teacher night as much as I do?"

Addison glanced at his younger sister, who had been forced to wear a dress by their mother. She looked pretty uncomfortable.

"Well... It's not so bad," he replied, tying his shoes.

"Really?"

"Well...with Dad? It's different, y'know?" Addison shrugged. "I guess it's just a guy thing. I mean, we don't have to communicate much to understand each other. So it's less easy to get into an argument with him."

"Yeah..." Dylan shrugged as well. "I guess that makes sense."

"You'll understand someday," Addison assured her, walking out of the room. "When you're older."

"Yeah, cause you're soooo much older than me!" Dylan shouted after him, chasing him down.

FLASHBACK END

"On your maaaaark, get seeeeet..." I said when we entered the "The Nucleus" area. "GO!"

"Wait, what are we doing again?" Tidus asked me, laughing.

"We're finding items. We can't go on until we collect them all," I explained again, grinning.

"Oh! Oh!" Rikku cried, waving her hand around in the air. "And you can't get caught standing still, otherwise the fiends'll get ya!"

"Very good." I patted her on the head. "Just for that, you go first."

Rikku cheered as she ran off into the shining light. The others followed her quickly, and I stayed back a little.

I was on a mission; I was trying to make my last moments in Spira as fun as possible. I didn't want to even think about what was going to happen next. I wasn't sure if my heart could handle the pain in real life. Watching the scene in the game was bad enough.

"Three!" I heard Wakka shout.

"Four!" Rikku shouted back. "Hehe, it's raining weapons! Don't get stabbed!" She let out an evil cackle, leaving Wakka standing there with a "wtf?" expression on his face.

I was glad they actually were enjoying themselves. Maybe they were thinking the same thing as me. Maybe they just wanted to rip the bandaid off, too, instead of slowly pulling on it. Just to get it over with.

"Six!" Yuna cried, excited to have actually gotten something.

"Awww, I'm no good at this!" Tidus groaned, ducking around like a kid on an Easter egg hunt.

"Seven!" Lulu said. Tidus groaned again.

"Hey! You're not even helping!" Wakka shouted at me, pointing his finger accusingly.

I sighed. "Fine, you win."

"Yeah, you find the last one!" Rikku demanded.

"No, let me!" Tidus shouted, racing around.

"Let's race!" I decided, and the game was suddenly more intense.

I found the item at the same time Tidus did, only I knew what I was doing; he just got lucky.

"RAH!" he cried, diving for it.

"NOOO!" I shouted, sprinting to grab it.

The next thing I knew, my body slammed into Tidus, shooting the item up into the air (gotta love physics). As if to protest our rowdiness, the item landed safely in Auron's arms. He grunted, unamused as we staggered to our feet, checking for broken bones or loose teeth.

"We go now," Auron commanded us.

}{}{}{

Tidus glanced back at Dylan before he entered the next "room." That was probably the last fun thing he would ever do on Spira. With anyone. With her.

But she smiled, and that pushed him forward.

There was just a shadow of a man waiting for them, but Tidus knew it was his dad. Auron knew, too, and stepped forward.

"You're late, Auron," said the growly, low voice. Yes, this was definitely Jecht. His back was facing them, but it didn't matter. Auron was the one who had promised Jecht. No one else.

"I know," Auron said in reply. Well, of course. Did Jecht really expect him to do all of this on time?

Finally, Jecht turned around. He looked just like Tidus remembered him.

"Hey," he said, waving to his son.

"Hi," Tidus responded coldly.

"Hah! You got tall, but you're all bones! You eating right, boy?" Jecht paused for a moment, then his voice became soft and kind. "You've really grown."

"Yeah, but you're still bigger," Tidus said, not even looking at his father. He didn't understand why his dad was suddenly being so...sentimental.

"Well, I am Sin, you know," Jecht joked back dryly.

"That's not funny." It was too bad that Tidus had all these harsh feelings for his dad. But really, he realized, it was for the better. After all, his dad was only going to die anyway. It was better to disconnect himself from such things.

"Well, then..." Jecht scratched his neck nervously, just like Tidus. "I mean...you know." Finally, he cracked his knuckles, regaining his confidence. "Let's end this."

"Dad?" Tidus suddenly called out in half a whisper.

"Yeah?" Jecht grunted.

"I hate you," Tidus said quickly.

To everyone's surprise (except, of course, Dylan's), Jecht chuckled.

"I know, I know," he murmured. "You know what you have to do."

"Yeah," Tidus said, finally looking his dad straight in the eye with confidence.

"I can't hear the Hymn so well anymore. Pretty soon, I'm gonna be Sin. Completely," Jecht admitted. "I'm glad you're here now. One thing, though... When it starts, I won't be myself anymore. I won't be able to hold myself back. I'm sorry."

"That's enough," Tidus snapped suddenly, his voice loud and somewhat hysterical. "Let's finish this, okay?"

"You're right." Jecht then turned and walked away, toward the middle of the platform they were standing on. "Well, then... Let's go!"

Suddenly Jecht raised his arms in the air, his chest glowing strangely. But then his arms lowered, and trance-like he backed up more and more, getting closer and closer to the edge. Tidus jumped into action; he ran toward his father, his hand oustretched to grab him. But Jecht fell off the edge and into the swirling abyss below, just before Tidus could've reached him.

The platform then began to rumble. Tidus noticed the buildings around them light up in response. It was happening. This was the cliche "beginning of the end" he had always feared. Tidus had not moved from his spot where he watched Jecht fall, and he wasn't going to until he knew it was okay.

}{}{}{

A giant, fiery hand clamped onto the platform, crushing Tidus...which was kind of funny, except that it was his own father.

Braska's Final Aeon was any pyro's heaven. The entire body was engulfed in eternal flame. Even the ice-blue eyes looked like they were on fire.

"My father's...final aeon," Yuna whispered behind me.

"The final aeon of them all!" I assured her, turning to face her. "We can do this!"

Jecht uprighted himself, towering above the eight of us. Tidus drew his sword.

"I promise this'll be quick!" he cried. "Hit me with all you got, Dad!"

"Alright, what do we do, ya?" Wakka asked me. I huffed a sigh. Still helpless without me, apparently.

"See the little pillars? They heal Jecht," I explained, pointing with both hands outstretched. "We're going to have to use Zombie-based attacks and-"

Suddenly beams came out at us as an attack. But what was probably supposed to be a group attack just ended up blasting my hands.

"MOTHER ****!" I screamed, pulling my hands in toward my body. I was not expecting that! The pain was absolutely seering!

"Dylan! What just happened?" Lulu asked me, rushing to my side.

"I dunno-ahhh, nuts."

My hands were completely numb from the pain when I held them out in front of me again to inspect them. They were both covered in blood from my wrists to my finger tips, so I couldn't tell where the main wounds were at first. But after a few moments I saw where the lasers had grazed my hands on top and on the palm side.

Yeeeeesh.

"Here," Yuna said, pouring a hi-potion on them. The blood disappeared, but the marks stayed.

*Great,*I thought to myself. *More scars. Just what I need after this journey!*

"Thank you," I murmured, smiling at her. She smiled back.

"C'mon, let's finish this!" she said, standing upright again.

"You're right." I straightened up, too, smirking. "Yuna, summon Bahamut. Let's make this quick."

I knew by now, after all we had been through and fought, that Yuna was powerful enough to finish this fight with just this aeon.

"Okay," she said obediently, and so she began to summon.

}{}{}{

Yuna's heart was thundering in her chest as she brought forth her most powerful aeon, Bahamut. She knew this could really make or break her friends in this battle. Though her aeon was powerful, so was Jecht. It was up to luck.

"Be brave," she told the aeon as it roared, flying to her side.

As the aeon started to attack with its powerful overdrive, Yuna stood back and watched, staring at her father's final aeon.

Of course, this would be the last time she would ever summon Bahamut or any of her aeons to fight for her...ever.

She could hardly believe she was at this point. She never thought in her wildest dreams it would end this way. Sure, the addition of guardians to her list had grown, which was unexpected, and the whole Seymour thing was a bit ridiculous as well.

But Yuna just couldn't understand what went so wrong with Yevon. Or...maybe it was never quite right to begin with. She didn't really know; she didn't fully understand.

Deep in her heart, Yuna was actually a little bit angry.

Discovering this truth about Yevon and Spira was so incredibly painful. It basically meant that her father's struggle was completely in vain. It was just part of the supposedly endless cycle of death that Spira was built around. What she wanted to be endless was the hope in Spira, though. She wanted to just destroy Sin for good.

It was too bad that Jecht was involved in all of this as well. He wasn't really a bad man-though he probably wasn't the best, either...

Yuna glanced at Tidus just before Jecht was blasted with the formidable attack.

He was the good thing that came out of Jecht being Sin, though, she realized, frowning a little. But she was worried. The conversation that she had had with the fayth in Bevelle made her uneasy. Dylan's reaction only confirmed her greatest fear: Tidus was an unsent.

She also kind of figured that Auron was, too. After she watched the scene in Zanarkand with Yunalesca and the younger Auron...well, it seemed to her that Auron had met his end there. Yes, Auron was most definitely an unsent.

Yuna then looked at Dylan, who gestured to Tidus, letting him get the final hit in to destroy the aeon for good.

Yuna wasn't so sure about Dylan. She didn't think that her friend was an unsent, but there was a pretty good chance Dylan would not be staying past the last battle, either. After all, this wasn't her home world. She was supposed to be somewhere else. She just ended up here to...

Well, that was a good point. Why was Dylan there? To guide them? She had definitely done a great job of that! Without her they would've had a lot more trouble during fights. She knew the strategy to everything.

But surely that wasn't her only purpose? Maybe that was something they'd never figure out.

"It's over!" Rikku cried suddenly. Yuna perked up.

Sure enough, Yuna could see the symbol that Jecht and Tidus always were clad in glowing in the background of the battle scene. The giant sword Jecht had been holding was shoved into the platform; it seemed to be propping Jecht up for support. But that didn't last long... Soon the aeon crashed forward and disappeared into pyreflies.

And suddenly the human Jecht appeared before them all one more time.