36 Rage
Along the bridge were hundreds of monks, and they threw themselves in front of me. I pushed through as many as I could without hurting them, but they were swarming me, so I got my sword and gave minor wounds to a few. That was enough to make them back off. The other guardians landed behind me, and together we barreled towards Seymour, brandishing our weapons.
We managed to vanquish a few guards, but their numbers were overwhelming. I got to the foot of the stairs below the altar, where Yuna stood, adjacent to Seymour. Maester Kinoc stood nearby. "Stop! This has gone far enough!" The guards prodded us with their rifles.
Yuna raised her hands high, and a sheet of ice appeared on the carpeted floor below her. Her staff materialized in her hands, and she began to dance. That old guy, Mika, leader of all Spira, was apparently their minister. "Stop!" He called feebly. Seymour gazed at Yuna unamused. "You would play at marriage, just to send me? Your resolve is admirable. All the more fitting to be my lovely wife." He turned to us, pyreflies floating up from his body.
"But do you not value your friends' lives? Your actions determine whether they live or die. The choice is yours." The ice beneath Yuna's feet melted into nothing, and she dropped her wand. It fell at my feet before it disappeared. "You are wise." Seymour smiled. I could see that Yuna was trembling. I was so desperate that I whispered under my breath, "Yevon help her!" But it did nothing.
Mika said a very few words, and Seymour answered, "I do." Yuna just shakily nodded. Then Seymour stepped forward and placed his hands on Yuna's shoulders, his claws digging into her skin. I tried to run up the steps in a blind attempt to stop that vile monster from hurting my summoner further, but a machina gun was shoved at my throat. I had no option but to stand and watch the girl I loved be defiled by a dead man.
He moved to kiss her, and she leaned back. But he pulled her to himself, and their lips touched. I had never in all my life been so furious. All it could have been described as was rage. Pure, utter rage.
And what was worse, Seymour wasn't letting Yuna go. He kept on kissing her. I watched her fist clench, and she tried to get free from his grasp, but it only made him kiss her more insistently. "Stop!" I growled, unable to control myself. Finally he released her, and she stumbled backwards, and wiped her arm across her mouth, disgusted. "Kill him." Seymour sneered at me.
Maester Kinoc pointed a rifle at my head. In an attempt to save me, Auron shouted at him, "Aren't these weapons forbidden by Yevon?" Kinoc took aim. "There are exceptions." I thought for sure it was the end. At that point I was sad, and I was sorry, more than anything. I had failed Yuna, and I was going to die. I looked for her, but she had moved. She was now standing at the edge of the balcony overlooking the city. There was no barrier.
"No!" She cried. "Throw your weapons down! Let them go...or else." Yuna looked behind her, ready to jump. "Yuna!" I yelled. She was mere seconds away from committing suicide. Seymour lowered his arm, and the guards dropped their guns. I would have been relieved if she wasn't in such a dangerous position. "Leave, now!" She called. "No! You're coming with us!" I wouldn't let Seymour go any further with her.
"Don't worry, go!" Her voice was full of urgency. "I can fly." "Get her!" Seymour barked. Guards went towards her, but she looked straight at me, crossed her arms over her chest, and plummeted. Kimahri roared and threw himself off the ledge after her. I tried as hard as I could to believe her, but I was terrified that she was going to die. But then, I saw Valefor in a nose-dive, going right to where Yuna and Kimahri had disappeared from my view. Then I was truly relieved.
"Cover your eyes!" Rikku called. She threw a metal sphere at Seymour's feet. I shielded my eyes with my hands and heard a small blast, and an outline of bright light came through my hands. People screamed. When the light died down, I let my hands down, and saw the guards, the monks, Seymour and the other to Maesters, were apparently blinded. It was a flash bomb.
"Run!" She took off down the long bridge. I bolted up towards Seymour, but Auron grabbed me and held me in a tight arm lock. He dragged me away, and I fought with all my might. "Let me go! I'm gonna kill him!" I shrieked. "He's already dead! It's no use!" Auron kept pulling me along. "We have to go get Yuna!" His words knocked some sense into me. He released me, and we followed the others.
We caught up, and Lulu called, "There is only one place Yuna would go. The trials!" "This palace is also a temple." Auron explained. He went ahead and led us through the labyrinth of a palace until we reached a machina panel. He started pushing buttons, and Wakka gasped. "Why's there machina in the temple? What about the teachings?" A door slid open. "This is Yevon's true face. They betray their own teachings." Auron was calm and collected; he stepped onto the platform in front of us. "Are you coming?" Rikku and I followed him, then Lulu. Wakka hung his head as he, too, got on. "They treated us like dirt."
The trials were entirely built from machina. Gusts of wind blew eerily through the electric sliding panels. It was already solved, presumably by Yuna and Kimahri. Now I was really glad that Kimahri had gone after her. When we got to the anteroom, Kimahri was there. "Yuna in chamber." I ran up to the door and pressed my ear against it. Somehow, I just couldn't believe she was still alive, she was really okay.
Suddenly, it slid upwards. I stepped back, thinking that Yuna was coming out. When she didn't, I cautiously stepped across the threshold. "H-hey!" Wakka sputtered. I spun around. "You can stuff your taboos!" With that, I ran into the dark room. When I entered, a soft glow rose from the center. There lay Yuna, sprawled over the edge of the statue.
Above it appeared the same child in the purple hood that I had seen the night that Sin attacked Zanarkand. He didn't say anything. He looked from me to Yuna, and then vanished. Yuna's wedding gown train was torn off, and white feathers from the dress were scattered around the room.
Suddenly again the the child appeared. "Do you wish to return to Zanarkand?" I swallowed hard. "Excuse me?" "Do you wish to return to Zanarkand. I can send you there right now." I shook my head in astonishment. It had been months since I had ever considered going back to Zanarkand to be a possibility. Now, the offer was right there in my lap. "Can Yuna come too?" I gazed at her lovely face. I knew how much she wanted to go there. And I couldn't leave her there, even if I had wanted to. "She can go, but I cannot send her there. She must find her own way. And there is a way." I gasped, excitement dancing in my chest. "I'll find it with her!" The child disappeared again, leaving me alone with Yuna.
I cradled her in my arms, taking a moment to breathe deeply. I could hardly wait to tell her that we could go to Zanarkand together, after all. Maybe I could get her to quit her pilgrimage and come with me instead. I carried her out of the chamber, and I was rudely met with a gun to the side of my head. We were surrounded by guards. I sighed. My emotions were so mixed up that I was almost too exhausted to be upset...or at least any more upset than I already was.
Kinoc was among the guards. "That's the last of them." He announced to them. He pointed his finger at me, and then at each of us consecutively, as he spoke. "You are to stand trial." At gun point, I carried Yuna back through the trials, and everyone followed. Auron, Wakka, Kimahri and I were put in a cell together, and Yuna, Rikku and Lulu were in another. The cells were pretty much cages hanging by chains over a huge pool of water below us. We swayed back and forth, and I tried not to think about what would happen if the chains broke.
When Yuna finally woke up, before anyone got a chance to even tell her what had happened, the guards escorted us to the courtroom. They pushed Yuna onto a platform which then floated out into the middle of a misty expanse. We were trapped between the wall and a railing separating us from Yuna. Seymour, Kinoc, and an elderly Ronso stood on balconies on the three remaining sides of Yuna.
The Ronso spoke. "The High Court of Yevon is now in session. The sacred offices of this court seek nothing but absolute truth, in Yevon's name. To those on trial: Believe in Yevon, and speak only the truth." Auron tilted his head at the Ronso. "That's Maester Kelk Ronso." Lulu whispered to me, "Stay quiet. Only the one on the platform is allowed to speak to the court. I didn't think that was fair, but I complied.
Kelk addressed Yuna. "Summoner Yuna. You have sworn to protect the people of Yevon, true?" "Yes." She was quiet, still tired. "Then consider: You have inflicted dire injury upon Maester Seymour Guado, and conspired with the Al Bhed and joined in their insurrection. These are traitorous and unforgivable crimes that disturb the order of Yevon. Tell this court what possessed you to participate in such violence."
Yuna glared at Seymour, her husband...her dead husband. "Your Grace..." She replied to the Ronso. "The real traitor is Maester Seymour! He killed his father with his own hands!" Kelk recoiled. "What is this?" He demanded from Seymour. Seymour looked at him, almost as if he was bored. "Hm? Hadn't you heard?" He dismissed it as absolutely nothing.
"Not only that...Maester Seymour is already dead! Maester Kelk, please allow me to send Seymour now!" Yuna beseeched him. Kelk stepped aside, and Mika came forward from behind him, where I hadn't seen him before. "Send the unsent to where they belong?" Mika chuckled. "Maester?" Yuna didn't understand why he was not taking this seriously. "Send the dead, hm. You would have to send me, too."
Before Yuna could say anything, Kelk spoke. "Grand Maester Mika is a wise leader. Even in death, he is invaluable to Spira." "Enlightened rule by the dead is preferable to the misguided failures of the living." Kinoc sounded scornful. "Life is but a passing dream, but the death that follows is eternal." Seymour raised his hands in glory.
"Men die, beasts die, trees die, even continents perish. Only the power of death truly commands Spira. Resisting its power is futile." Mika professed. "But what of Sin? I am a summoner, my lord, like my father before me! I am on a pilgrimage to stop the death that Sin brings. Are you...are you telling me that, too, is futile? Grand Maester Mika, I am not alone! All the people who have opposed Sin...Their battles, their sacrifices...are you telling me that was all in vain?" Yuna was badly shaken.
Mika shook his head at her. "Not in vain. No matter how many summoners give their lives, Sin cannot truly be defeated. The rebirth cannot be stopped. Yet the courage of those who fight gives the people hope. Never futile, yet never ending. That is the essence of Yevon. Yevon is embodied by eternal, unchanging continuity, summoner."
"No! That can't be right!" Yuna was practically wailing. "Those who questions these truths, they are traitors!" Mika declared. "Lord Mika!" Mika waved his hand at Yuna and left, as did the other three Maesters. The guards brought Yuna's platform back, and took us all away. This time, the women were in a different room from us, so I didn't know what was happening to Yuna.
When the guards left, I screamed. I couldn't help it. Everything was going all wrong. We were branded traitors by the court. Whatever that meant for us, it could only be bad. Then I bowed my head, hugging my knees. "Ugh! I hope Yuna's okay." "She's strong. She'll make it." Auron said. I got really mad. "She'll make it? What, so she can die?" I sighed. "Auron, why is it that everything in Spira seems to revolve around death?"
"Ah, the Spiral of Death. Summoners challenge the bringer of death, Sin, and die doing so. Guardians give their lives to protect their summoner. The fayth are souls of the dead. Even the Maesters of Yevon are unsent. Only Sin is reborn, and then only to bring more death. It is a cycle of death, spiraling endlessly."
Then Kinoc walked in. "Come. Your sentence has been decided." The guards made us file out of our cell, and Auron scowled at Kinoc. "Don't you mean execution." "Yes, of course, your execution, if you like being so blunt." My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. "Is Yuna being executed too?" Kinoc chuckled. "Ah, the little guardian boy, thinking first of his summoner. Well you will never know, will you?"
Wakka and I were taken to a room with a hole cut into the floor. Deep inside it was water that looked like sewage. The guards pushed Wakka in, and then Rikku was led into and also tossed in. That was no problem, they just treaded water, not sure what was in store. Kinoc said something to one of the guards, and they attached shackles to my ankles with a heavy weight. I was sure to take a deep breath before I fell, and the weight quickly dragged me to the bottom. Then they shot a harpoon in with perfect aim. It pierced straight through my shin, pinning me to the ground. I released some of my air, but managed not to take in a deadly breath. They put something over the opening so that we couldn't get out, and everything went black, except for a little light far in the distance.
I had experienced much worse pain before, but all the stress made it a lot harder to handle this. I tried to pull the harpoon out of my leg, but it was stuck fast. Of all the ways I thought I could die, drowning wasn't even on the list. Wakka and Rikku swam down and felt their way to me. With both of their strength, they ripped the harpoon from the ground and out of my leg, and I screamed in agony.
I couldn't stop myself. I gasped in the water. It tasted like rotten flesh. Everything went black, and the next thing I remember was that I was being held up against a wall by Wakka and Rikku. I spewed out everything in my lungs, and gulped in the stale oxygen. They let me down, and I started treading water, but there was an incredible pain as water passed in and out of the hole in my leg.
Suddenly the water began to churn, faster and faster. Out of it rose a monstrous creature. It looked kind of like a dragon. We tried to flee, but I could barely swim with my leg. The creature's head came towards me, mouth open wide. It could have easily swallowed me whole, but I took my sword from the air and stabbed it through the back of its through when it tried to eat me.
It was a terrifying, yet easy battle. We swam on for what felt like hours, and my life's blood was seeping away. Eventually, we reached a dimly lit stone room, on land, and pulled ourselves onto it. I could not stand. It hurt way too much. But then I imagined what was happening to Yuna. I imagined her being attacked, and it gave me willpower that I didn't know was possible. I cried as we ran through the maze; with every step, I felt like my shin was going to split in half.
Lulu, Kimahri, Auron and I were tossed into a deep pit, landing on hard packed dirt. I landed and rolled, thankfully avoiding too much injury. Lulu's ankle broke, and I healed it before we went into the intricate maze. Auron led us, and turned right at every corner. He said that was the only way to find your way out of a maze. And he was right. After a few really hard battles with some huge and dangerous fiends, we made it to a long bridge.
At the end waited Wakka, Rikku, and Tidus. Tidus was lying on the ground blood draining from his leg. He was really pale, and I ran to him as fast as I could. "Is he dead?" I was frantic. "No, not yet. It's a good thing you're here!" Wakka was really relived to see me, so was Rikku. I put my hand over his wound, healing it quickly. He sat up, his eyes dull and tired. When he saw me, he looked like he was going to cry. "Yuna..."
"Look!" Auron interrupted the brief exchange. We turned around and saw Seymour, Kinoc, and a couple Guado and Bevelle soldiers. The Bevelle soldier was carrying Maester Kinoc by the nape of his neck. The soldier dropped him, and he fell on his stomach, dead.
"I have saved him." Seymour said airily. "He was a man who craved power. And great power he had, but he feared losing it. Trembling at unseen enemies, he spent his days scheming petty schemes. Chased by his fears, never knowing rest. You see...Now he has no worries. He has been granted sleep eternal. Death is a sweet slumber. All the pain of life is gently swept away. Ah, yes. If all life were to end in Spira, all suffering would end. Do you not agree? That, Yuna, is why I need you. Come, Lady Yuna. Come with me to Zanarkand, the lost city of the dead. With death on our side, we will save Spira, and for this, I will take from you your strength, Yuna, your life, and become the next Sin. I will destroy Spira! I will save it!"
When he finished his crazy speech, Tidus yelled at him, "You're totally nuts!" I agreed. Kimahri ran up and stabbed Seymour with his spear. Seymour looked down at it, lodged in his chest. "Unpleasant...Very well. I will give you your death. You seem to want it so." The soldiers and Kinoc dissolved into pyreflies, which flew in circles around Seymour, eventually cladding him in a strange white armor.
"Run! Protect Yuna!" Kimahri shouted. "Go!" Auron hollered. He gave me a rough shove in the direction of the exit. We ran, but I stopped and looked back at Kimahri, who was swiftly losing the battle. "I won't leave Kimahri behind!" "He is a guardian. Protecting you is everything." Auron countered. "Auron!" I cried. Tidus cut in. "That's right, Yuna! We're all you guardians. And you know what that means? Yuna, anywhere you go, I'll follow!" I smiled gratefully at him. "Anywhere I go?" He nodded. "Well then, let's go!" I ran off with him. Without any choice, the others also followed.
With everyone fighting, it didn't take long for Seymour to burst into pyreflies. I didn't get a chance to send him, because I was too busy staying alive; we all were. That meant he was still lurking. But we would have to deal with it later. We fled Bevelle, escaping into the woods of Macalania. So far, that had been the absolute worst day of my life.