Final Fantasy X and PlayStation are owned by Square Enix and Sony, respectively, meaning they do not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Final Fantasy X storyline (such as Rayne and Marcus) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
(The Death of Seymour)
When the group finally got to the entrance of the Cloister, they found that Rayne and Kimahri had already dispatched the monks guarding the entrance. One of the monks who had been thrown to the ground sat up as they ran by. "T-that Ronso! He…" The monk then stood on his feet and glared at the group, "Bevelle with hear of this!"
Tidus stopped at the Cloister door and screamed over his shoulder, "Let them!" He then followed the others inside and shut the Cloister doors.
They found Kimahri and Rayne waiting for them. Rayne glanced at them and growled, "Didn't want the Cloister to spring a trap on us and leave you behind."
The group ran through the ice tunnel, Wakka moaning and cursing with every step they took. "Ohhoh!"
Rayne stopped running and looked back at him, "The hell's your problem now?!"
The ex-blitzer shook his head and groaned, "I can't believe we're gonna fight a maester!"
Rayne sighed and pulled him onward, "If it mean's protecting Yuna, we don't have a choice!"
Wakka just shook his head and planted his feet, "I won't do it!"
Rayne growled and grabbed Wakka's vest, heaving him off of his feet and slamming him into the icy wall, "Listen, Wakka, you made a commitment to Yuna! A commitment! You swore to protect her from anything and everything, and that includes maesters! If you had to protect her from Lord Mika, you would because it's your duty! If you had to protect her from Lady Yunalesca or Lord Zaon, you would because it's your duty! If you had to protect her from Yu Yevon himself, you would because it's your duty! There is no shirking it! THIS IS WHAT YOU SWORE TO DO!!!!" She then dropped him to his feet and pushed him backward one final time. "And if you can honestly say that you wouldn't protect her from any of them, then you don't deserve to call yourself a guardian."
She turned away from him and continued to run. "YUNA, WE'RE COMING!"
The group, who had stopped to witness the spectacle, watched Wakka as he clenched and unclenched his hands. They were thoroughly surprised when Wakka looked up with a new resolve in his eyes and shouted, "YEAH, YUNA, WE'RE ON OUR WAY!" Wakka ran after Rayne, the group not far behind.
Rayne threw the door open, jumping inside the antechamber and unsheathing her staff. The others followed not long after, Tidus running forward and shouting, "Seymour!"
The half-Guado, who was standing sentinel at the entrance to the Chamber, turned slowly to face them, "Please be quiet. Lady Yuna prays to the fayth."
Tidus waved his sword and shouted, "Make me!"
Seymour shook his head and sighed, "So foolish."
Auron stepped forward, "We know what you did to Jyscal."
The maester shrugged his shoulders, "A necessary sacrifice."
At that moment, the door opened and Yuna stumbled out. When she saw the others, she gasped and shook her head, "B-but why?!"
Tidus waved her over, "Yuna! We came to help you!"
Seymour lifted his arm, "She does not need this." He then looked at Yuna and held out his hand, "Come, Lady Yuna. Come to me."
Rayne laughed loudly and bitterly, "So she can end up like Lord Jyscal?! So she can suffer like you plan on doing to the people of Spira?! AS IF! We saw the sphere, and we know that you're out of your bloody mind!"
Still looking at Yuna, Seymour asked, "Surely you knew of these things when you came to me, Yuna?" Yuna nodded hesitantly and Seymour smiled, "Well?" He twisted the wrist of his still outstretched hand slightly.
Seeing the indecision in her wards eyes, Rayne called out, "Yuna! Come to us and we'll help you beat him! You don't have to do this alone!"
Biting her lip, Yuna took a step away from Seymour, then turned on him and ran back to her guardians, who surrounded her immediately. Seymour took a step forward and they raised their weapons, challenging him to come forth further. Seymour laughed eerily, "Ah, yes. 'Protect the Summoner, even at the cost of your own life.' The Code of the Guardian, how admirable." Two Guado stepped out of the shadows and joined Seymour on either side of him. Seymour continued, "Very well, I shall just have to grant your wishes to die."
Yuna's grasp tightened on her stave, "Maester Seymour, though it is true that these people are my guardians, they are also my friends. I will not stand by and watch you hurt them." She raised her stave and set her feet, "I will fight you, too!"
Seymour remorselessly replied, "What a pity." And with that, the battle began.
The two Guado at Seymour's side worked constantly to heal and protect him, so Auron commanded the melee attackers, "Take out the other two, first!"
Rayne, Yuna and Lulu kept their eyes on Seymour, shielding the others from his magic. After the group received several of his magical attacks, Lulu shouted, "He attacks in order of element!"
Yuna nodded and called back, "That gives me the time to shield us from his next element attack!"
When the two Guado were finally defeated, they all leapt forward to attack Seymour directly.
Yuna shouted at the twisted maester, "I will defeat you!"
Seymour grinned wickedly, "The resolve in your eyes. Beautiful!"
Tidus screamed and attacked, causing Seymour to giggle and taunt him, "You really think you can beat me? With Yuna at my side, I shall free Spira!"
Tidus rolled his eyes and shouted, "You talk too much, Seymour!"
Wakka hesitated before he attacked, "Maester Seymour, please! We must stop this!" Be Seymour didn't even react. Wakka cringed and threw his blitzball, hitting the half-Guado dead on.
Seymour did, though, glance at Rayne, "I can help you awaken from this curse, you know. I could send you home."
Rayne dodged an attack and threw one of her own, shouting back, "This is my home, Seymour. It has been for the past ten years!"
He sighed and shook his head, "I do pity you."
Rayne scowled and jumped at him, slashing open his chest with the bladed edge of her staff. While she was close enough to see the blood run down his chest, Rayne saw his eyes flash. She stumbled backwards and shouted, "Yuna! Summon!"
At the same time as Yuna began to summon, Seymour raised a blood-soaked hand into the air and called in a booming voice, "Feel my pain… Come, Anima!"
Three large blocks of ice fell behind Yuna, and a giant anchor dropped before Seymour. The ice shattered to reveal the priestess, the aeon of ice. The anchor pulled up the aeon of darkness by her throat, leaving her in shackles before her summoner.
Yuna looked at her new aeon and pleaded, "Please, help us!"
The ice priestess nodded and faced Anima. She then ran forward and delivered a powerful roundhouse to Anima's side. Anima retaliated with a blast from her bleeding eye.
Rayne stood back with the others and watched the two great aeon's battle. She winced every time that Anima was hit, plagued by the oddest feeling that there was something more to that aeon than what met the eye. She tried to remember just what she had heard about Seymour and his aeon, but all she could think of was the fact that he and his mother had been banished to some undisclosed location and when he had returned, he suddenly had a powerful aeon. That led Rayne to one conclusion, but she didn't want to think about it.
"No!"
Rayne snapped out of her reverie just in time to see the ice priestess drop to her knees, navy blood oozing from various wounds. Yuna doubled over at the same time, clutching at invisible wounds. Rayne watched with horrified, wide eyes. 'How painful it must be, the bond between aeon and summoner.'
"Blizzara!"
The spell left Rayne's mouth before her mind could process the need to say it, and it hit the ice priestess. Though, rather than harm her, it healed her, and she and Yuna stood back on their feet.
"Yuna!" Rayne called out above the roar of Anima, "Remember; like element heals like elemental creature! Just like fire will heal Ifrit and thunder Ixion, ice will heal the priestess! She has the black magic for 'Blizzara', so use it! Use the aeon's abilities to their full extent, not just to blindly attack!"
Yuna nodded and faced her aeon again, calling out, "Use 'Blizzara' on yourself!"
The priestess appeared to be relieved when she nodded, and seemed to sigh happily when her own black magic attack healed her. She then glanced at Rayne briefly and nodded, which Rayne returned.
Seymour laughed madly, "This power that can withstand Anima; it will be MINE!" He then looked up at his aeon and cried, "Anima! Destroy them! Oblivion!"
Anima shed a fresh tear of blood and screeched, the in the room growing dark. Yuna had just enough time to yell out 'Shield!' before all sound was muffled and the rooms occupants were locked in darkness. Though it was only mere moments long, the oppressing black made it feel an eternity, and when it finally did fade, it left the priestess in worse condition than she had been before.
Rayne yelled 'Blizzara' again, but it did little to help the aeon.
Yuna knelt beside her and said, "I know that this is asking much of you, but could you use your overdrive?"
The priestess nodded and pulled herself shakily to her feet, her body flashing red and the air around her dropping severely in temperature. Yuna shouted 'Diamond Dust!' and the priestess raised her arms above her head, turning the whole room into an ice cavern. At the snap of her fingers the ice shattered, the shards tearing into Anima.
Seymour shrieked, "ANIMA!!!!" He then turned his eyes on Yuna and pointed his staff at her, "DEATH!"
Rayne raised her staff and stepped between them, "Pain."
Seymour fell to the floor and writhed, pulling himself up after several obviously agonizing moments and turning wide eyes on Rayne. "How can you do that?! It is supposed to be Anima's special attack; no human can replicate it!"
Rayne rolled her eyes, "Unfortunately for you, Seymour, I have more magic available to me than you can shake a stick at. Pain!"
Anima reached out and grabbed the attack, absorbing it into her skin and healing slightly. Rayne backed away and stared at her, leaving the aeons to return to their battle. Anima turned to the priestess and used a 'Pain' of her own, but Yuna's aeon dodged it and cast another 'Blizzara' on herself.
The ice priestess then raised a hand into the air and slashed it downward, a giant ball of ice forming above Anima and dropping down onto her head. Anima roared in anger and released two consecutive 'Pain' attacks, both of them hitting the priestess dead on. Yuna's aeon shuddered, then dropped to her knees, Yuna following soon after.
Pushing passed the pain, Yuna cried out to her aeon, "Please! Just one final overdrive!" The priestess gave a barely perceptible nod and Yuna shouted, "Diamond Dust!"
Pulling herself to her feet one final time, the priestess once again encompassed the room in ice. After adding a layer to the air around Anima, she then snapped her fingers, ending the ice spell and shattering everything, dealing a massive amount of damage to Anima.
Seymour's aeon roared and drooped, her pyreflies slowly departing from her body, breaking her down. When she was gone, Seymour laughed madly, "You have defeated Anima! Beautiful! I will have your power!"
"Not if I can help it!" Tidus shot forward and struck Seymour, cutting off the Guado's laughter as the priestess was 'Dismissed'.
Following his example, the rest of the melee attackers ran forward and attacked the maester. Despite his numerous wounds, Seymour kept standing and began to call out spells. Rayne and Lulu stepped forward and cast two consecutive 'Blizzara' spells, which combined and struck him simultaneously. When he remained on his feet and raised his staff, Yuna closed her eyes in concentration and yelled, "Holy!"
The sacred spell caused several successive balls of holy magic to strike Seymour in succession. Unable to hold on, Seymour finally tottered forward a few steps and fell onto his back. The group surrounded him and Yuna knelt by his side, obviously contemplating helping him.
His eyes saw the look in hers and, coughing passed a glob of blood, Seymour chuckled, "Yuna, you would pity me now?"
Yuna bit her lip as she watched the life flee his body and the light in his eye fade. Thus did Seymour, son of the Guado Maester Jyscal and a human woman, a Maester himself and the leader of the Guado race, died.
The group stared at the body of Seymour in stunned silence, shocked by what they had just done. After a moment, Rikku coughed and asked, "Well… what now?"
Rayne shook her head and was about to say something when the doors burst open and a cry split the air, "Lord Seymour!"
Tromell and several Guado ran forward, the group backing off to let them get to the fallen maester. Tromell sobbed and regarded them with horrified eyes, "Wha-what have you done?!"
Rayne sighed and shook her head, "An unfortunate but necessary deed."
Auron nodded in agreement, then turned to the summoner, "Yuna, send him."
Tromell balked and placed himself between the group and the body of his dead liege, "Wh-what do you mean?!"
Rayne gently put her hand on the Guado's shoulder and said, "It is the job of the summoner. Seymour is de—"
"NO!" Tromell slapped her hand away, "None of you shall approach him!" At that, the other Guado picked up the body of Seymour and carried him out of the room. Tromell followed close behind them, turning to shout before the doors shut, "You will pay for this, traitors!"
The company stared at the door in silence for a moment, then Yuna shook her head slowly and murmured, "Traitors?"
Rayne shook her head and walked to the door, "Branded or not, it's freezing in here, and I sure as hell don't want to wait in this icebox until the Bevelle officials arrive."
"Bevelle?!" Three simultaneous cries cut through the air.
Rayne turned and nodded to the dazed Besaid islanders, "What did you expect? Whether he was crazy or not, the man we just killed is a maester. Word will reach Bevelle quickly, and holy officials will arrive even quicker. It's best we go."
Wakka shook his head and incredulously asked, "Run from Bevelle?"
Rayne shrugged and walked backwards towards the door, "Better than being killed by the Guado before they arrive. Now, let's quit chatting and go; I'm getting a serious case of frostbite in my toes and I don't much relish the idea of amputation."
They each briefly touched the save point, then ran through the doors. On the other side, though, they discovered that the Cloister had already been reset. Tidus groaned, "Can't we get a break?!"
Solving the puzzle was more tortuous than the previous Cloisters, and they almost didn't find the Destruction Sphere. When they finally finished, though, they ran as quickly as they could across the bridge, Rayne stuffing the Destruction item (she was in too much of a hurry to check what it was) into her jacket.
On the other side of the door, a group of Guado and humans awaited them, gazing up at them in hatred. "Traitors! You killed Maester Seymour!"
Tidus shook his head and shouted back, "He started it! Besides, he was crazy! Yuna, show them the sphere!"
"You mean this?" Tromell calmly held up Jyscal's will and crushed it, hissing, "The Guado shall deal with Guado problems."
Rayne groaned and jumped into the crowd, sweeping her staff in a wide arc and clearing a path as the people scattered. "Everyone, run!"
The group ran out of the temple, pushing as they went and beating off the hands that frantically grabbed them. Outside the door, Rayne saw O'aka and screamed, "Run! Now!" The merchant nodded and touched the sphere, teleporting away. As soon as he was gone, several Guado fighters surrounded it, forcing the group to run along the icy bridge to escape.
They fought their way passed several Guado and once they were up the stairs and back outside they continued to run to the lake, their snowmobiles inexplicably gone. When they finally arrived at the lake, several Guado appeared and cut them off, all of them giving up their lives to summon two great wendigo.
The two fiends packed a mean punch and they were resistant to magic. The melee attackers had a hard time beating them, so Tidus shouted in suggestion, "Let's just focus our attacks on one of them at a time!"
So while the melee attackers faced off against one of the yeti-fiends, Rayne and Lulu worked to keep the other one occupied, Yuna working in the back to keep everyone healed. When their fiend fell, the melee then focused on the final one, Lulu and Rayne falling back to stay out of the way.
Wakka shouted, "Elemental Slots! Thunder!" He then spun his blitzball on the tip of his finger, the contact causing the ball to burst into crackles of electricity. Wakka quickly launched it into the air, kicking it when it came back down. The ball flew forward and smacked the fiend in the face, burning its eyelids shut and melting its nose.
The fiend roared and stumbled backward, clutching its face piteously. It tripped over an icy rock and fell, crashing onto its side. Its great paws reached out and groped at the ground, then, with a final roar, the fiend lifted its arm into the air and brought it down heavily upon the ice.
For a moment nothing happened. Then, the ice around the fiend's fist cracked loudly, several rifts forming and spreading in latticework formation. Rayne vaguely heard Auron shout "Run!" before the ground beneath their feet shattered and crumbled and the group plunged into darkness. Rayne shouted, "AURON!!!!", then all was black.
