AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yup. Took over a month this time. *runs to Portugal and hides from the wrath of fanboys/girls*

Thank you to Krissy Pooh Bear, Maestronel, A.K.b00m, Firestripe49, diamond2225leo and fanficlove2014 for reviewing the last chapter; you guys are all awesome!

I hope you all enjoy this chapter; please review!

This chapter is dedicated to BarakTheSlayer, mangalovingwierdo, Renegade Saint, EpicTouhou64 and fanficlove2014.

DISCLAIMER: Final Fantasy X, its characters, locations and plotlines are owned by Square Enix. I do not claim to own any of these. However, I do own my original character Sakura, also known as Suki. If you wish to use her in any form of media then please ask my permission first.

Chapter 48 – Childish

"Whoa… Looks like the Farplane!" Wakka murmured.

"Close enough," Auron said as he walked past him.

I could see exactly what Wakka was talking about. There were pyreflies everywhere; we were practically breathing them in. Unfortunately fiends were also everywhere on the road towards Zanarkand; apparently they hadn't got the message about this being a holy place.

Apart from Wakka's comment nobody had really been talking. Tidus had tried to keep the mood up earlier by talking about memories from the trip but eventually Yuna stopped him, realising that it was just making everyone more upset since soon all we would have left of Yuna were memories. As such the rest of the trek into Zanarkand was done in relative silence, even when we were fighting.

I was worried about everyone, especially Yuna, but also especially Rikku. She had never been this quiet. I knew exactly why she was acting like this; she was basically walking her cousin to her death. I felt the same way as her but I'm better at pretending that bad things aren't happening. The only way I was stopping myself from crying was by convincing myself that Yuna wasn't going to die; something would happen that would stop her from leaving us. Rikku couldn't do that. She had always been more literal than me without much of an imagination even when we were kids. But even with that I'd never seen my cousin look so hopeless. It was like she really had given up. I'd tried to take hold of her hand to give her some sort of comfort but she'd just pulled her hand away and sped up to walk ahead of me. I was shocked; Rikku was never like this. Lulu had clearly seen how shaken I was and she'd given me a quick hug before we carried on toward Zanarkand Dome, the temple of the city, me forcing myself to leave the encounter with Rikku behind me and not to dwell on it.

The temple was one of the most impressive ones I'd seen on this pilgrimage. Even though it was in ruins like the rest of the city it was still a huge building, the entrance to it all manner of different shades of yellow, orange, purple and green.

"It looks like my old Blitzball stadium," Tidus murmured, looking slightly nostalgic as he gazed up at the building.

Yuna reached the temple first with us all close behind her, and a priest came out to greet us.

"Journeyer of the long road, name yourself," he said in a soft voice.

"I am the summoner Yuna," Yuna announced with confidence and clarity. "I have come from the island of Besaid."

The priest walked right up to Yuna and I held my breath, afraid that he was going to condemn her due to what we'd done to Seymour. However, I needn't have worried.

"Your eyes, my dear, show me the long road you have travelled," he smiled kindly. "Very good. You have journeyed well. Lady Yunalesca will surely welcome your arrival. Go to her now and bring your guardians with you. Go."

The priest stepped aside and Yuna bowed to him before walking through the entrance to the temple. We all followed suit but I felt something like a rush of wind behind us. I turned to look back and saw the priest fading away to nothing but pyreflies. My eyes widened in shock but when I turned back to the others they had already walked ahead.

"This really is a place of death…"I murmured to myself before running to catch up to the others.

There was no roof to the ruined temple anymore so we were walking under a clear starry sky. As we walked the pyreflies around us formed into the images of other summoners who had passed through here, showing us the memories of how they'd felt walking on the very ground we were now walking along. It hurt to think that one day a summoner may walk through this temple and see memories of Yuna, but I forced that thought out of my mind.

Rikku was clearly creeped out by the apparitions the pyreflies were creating. When one appeared right in front of her she jumped at least a foot in the air and dove behind Wakka to hide. The memory was one of two young women, a summoner and her guardian.

"If it might benefit the future of Spira, I will gladly give my life. It is the highest honour for which a guardian might ask. Use my life Lady Yocun, and rid Spira of Sin."

As the figures disappeared, Lulu frowned. "She said Lady Yocun, didn't she? Wait, she guarded High Summoner Yocun?"

"She must have died in here too," I said. "Lady Yocun's guardian I mean."

Tidus, Rikku and I all glanced at each other. It wasn't just summoners who died here; it was also their guardians sometimes. Summoning the Final Aeon may kill summoners, but there may be other threats in here that could kill any of us. We would have to be careful.

I was soon proved right. The fiends in this temple were stronger than any we had encountered throughout our journey, but working together we managed to fight our way through towards to Cloister of Trials.

After we'd been walking and fighting for quite a while, we heard a voice behind us.

"No! Mother, no! I don't want you to become a fayth!"

We turned to see another image created by the pyreflies, this time of a young boy who looked strangely familiar and a woman, presumably the boy's mother.

"There is no other way," the woman replied calmly to her crying son. "Use me and defeat Sin. Only then will the people accept you."

"I don't care about them!" the boy wept, refusing to look at his mother. "I need you mother, no-one else!"

"I don't…have much time left," his mother said weakly before both imaged disappeared.

"Hey, wasn't that…" Wakka stammered.

"Seymour?!" Rikku cried.

I gasped. Of course, the young boy had been Seymour's double. He looked just like him but a lot younger.

"Wait, Seymour was a summoner at that age?" I said, shocked. "He was just a child though!"

"I remember hearing that Seymour's mother died when he was very young," Lulu said. "He and his mother were exiled from Guadosalam when Seymour was only eight years old. From the sounds of that conversation, it seems like his mother wanted to become a fayth so Seymour could use the aeon it would create to fight Sin."

"Seymour never defeated Sin though, did he?" Tidus asked.

Yuna shook her head. "No. He is a summoner, but he's never gone on a pilgrimage. He was raised in a temple until Lord Jyscal called him back to Guadosalam when he was eighteen."

"Anima…"

Everyone turned to look at me in confusion. "Anima?" Yuna asked.

I nodded, looking up at everyone. "That aeon Seymour always uses, the really terrifying one. Yuna hasn't gained that aeon yet. I bet that's the aeon Seymour's mother created."

"You might be right Suki," Lulu nodded slowly. "That aeon does seem very powerful, and Seymour does seem to favour it."

Everyone was silent again and I found myself feel a pang of sympathy toward Seymour but it didn't last very long. Whatever he had gone through as a child didn't excuse him being a murderer, or for everything he'd done to Yuna.

"There's nothing can be done now," Auron said suddenly, breaking the silence. "All we can do is carry on with our story. Seymour must write his own story, as we must write ours. We all decide our own fate, Seymour included."

Everyone nodded at Auron's wise words before starting to walk again, but it wasn't long before more figures created by the pyreflies ran past us. This time they were even more recognisable.

"Hey Braska, you don't have to do this," the image of Jecht called out.

"Thank you for your concern," Lord Braska smiled to his guardian.

"Fine," Jecht sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "I said my piece."

"Well I haven't!" the young Auron cried, completely different to how he acted around us. "Lord Braska, let us go back. I don't wanna see you…die."

"You knew this was to happen, my friend," Yuna's father replied, not looking at Auron directly.

"Yes, but I…" Auron stammered, "…I cannot accept it."

Braska laughed, still smiling. "Auron, I am honoured that you care for me so, but I have come to kill grief itself. I will defeat Sin and lift the veil of sorrow covering Spira. Please understand Auron."

The three figures walked off, Auron lagging behind the other two. I glanced round at our Auron and he was glaring at the ground in a very threatening manner so I didn't say anything. When I looked back up the figures still hadn't vanished so we started to follow them.

After a few minutes we arrived at a door. The figures of Yuna's father, Tidus's father and Auron were once again talking.

"Are the trails ahead?" Jecht asked.

"Probably," Lord Braska replied.

"Here too huh?" Jecht sighed. "Gimmie a break… I was expecting, you know, parades and fireworks!"

Braska grinned round at Jecht. "You can ask for them after I defeat Sin," he suggested before he, Jecht and Auron headed towards the door and disappeared.

The trails were, unsurprisingly, fairly difficult. None of us had expected them to be easy since this was the end of our journey, but we managed to work together and got through it. However at the end of the trails we also had to fight a huge monster known at the Spectral Keeper. The fight was long and difficult but somehow we got through it. We were all completely wiped by the end of it and honestly I just wanted to lie down, but we knew we couldn't since we were so close to the end.

Once the monster had vanished the Hymn of the Fayth began. It was faint at first, but it slowly grew louder. The symbol of Yevon appeared on the ground before a moving platform like the ones in some of the other temples rose from a hole in the ground. The memory of Barthello throwing Tidus onto one of those on Kilika popped into my head and I almost smiled. Almost.

"Yuna," Auron said softly. "It's time."

"The hall of the Final Summoning…" Yuna practically whispered. She was trying to hide it but I could see her hands were shaking, and I wasn't the only one who noticed.

Tidus stepped forward and laced his fingers with Yuna's. Yuna slowly looked up at him and the pain in both of their eyes was obvious. But even so, Tidus nodded and smiled encouragingly.

"You can do this Yuna," he said softly.

Yuna took a deep breath and nodded before looking back at Auron.

"Go," Auron said, a small smile passing over his face.

"Yes," Yuna replied, bowing slowly before she let go of Tidus's hand and stepped on the platform. It started to move and just before she disappeared from sight Yuna glanced back at us with fear in her eyes.

I could feel my heart breaking.

"What do you mean, ' No Final Aeon'?"

Jecht's voice ran through the chamber even though he was nowhere to be seen before Yuna reappeared on the platform before us. She didn't say a word; the look in her eyes spoke volumes. Without a word passing between any of us we all stood on the platform with her, Tidus, Auron, Wakka, Kimahri and Lulu forming a human shield around her while Rikku and I took hold of her hands and squeezed them as tight as we could.

Yuna didn't look up at any of us.

When we reached the Chamber of the Fayth we could see why Yuna had come back up to get us.

"This isn't a fayth, it's just an empty statue," she said in confusion.

"That statue lost its power as a fayth long ago," a voice behind Yuna said before a man appeared out of nowhere. "It is Lord Zaon, the first fayth of the Final Summoning. What you see before you is all that remains of him. Lord Zaon is…his soul is gone."

"Gone?!" Wakka cried.

"You mean…there is no Final Aeon?" Rikku asked with a tinge of hope in her voice.

I now understood why we'd heard Jecht's voice earlier. That must have been what he had said when he'd heard this explanation.

"But fear not," the man said. "Lady Yunalesca will show you the path. The Final Aeon will be yours. The summoner and the Final Aeon will join powers. Go to her now. Inside, the Lady awaits." The man bowed before disappearing into nothing.

Without another word Yuna began to walk towards the door at the end of the chamber.

"Yuna, wait," Tidus called. Once she'd stopped walking, Tidus turned to Auron. "Auron, you knew this would happen, didn't you?"

"Yes," Auron answered simply.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Rikku asked.

"If I had told you the truth, would that really have stopped you from coming?" Auron replied, his tone more cutting than normal.

"Yuna…" Kimahri said softly, looking round at her.

"I'm not going back," Yuna snapped, not looking at any of us.

"Kimahri knows," Kimahri replied, walking up to stand next to her. "Kimahri goes first. Yuna safe. Kimahri protect."

Yuna slowly looked up at Kimahri with tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. I knew they were tears both of fear and gratitude. She nodded once before Kimahri walked through the door, followed by Yuna, then everyone else. Auron hung back.

I was the last one to the door but before I walk through Auron grabbed hold of my arm.

"Lady Yunalesca will ask Yuna something," Auron said quietly, looking me right in the eyes. "No matter what, do not say yes. Do you understand?"

I frowned. "Ask her something? If she's going to ask Yuna something then why would I say yes? What are you talking about?"

"You'll understand very soon," Auron said. "But you cannot say yes. Promise me."

I opened my mouth to ask more questions but Auron shook my arm. "Bnuseca sa," he repeated in Al Bhed.

Both the look in his eye and the fact that he said it in Al Bhed made me shut up. I swallowed and nodded once. "E bnuseca. I promise," I said quietly.

Auron let go of my arm and nodded before following the others. I stood in silent confusion for a few moments before doing the same.

We entered a beautifully decorated room just Rikku squeaked.

"Someone's coming!"

From a door at the top of a staircase at the other side of the room a beautiful woman emerged. I recognised her from when Seymour had shown us the sphere back in Guadosalam, just before we visited the Farplane.

"Lady Yunalesca," I breathed.

Lady Yunalesca smiled down at all of us. "Welcome to Zanarkand," she greeted us warmly. "I congratulate you summoner. You have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow you with that which you seek. The Final Summoning will be yours."

When those words left her mouth, I felt genuinely sick to my stomach. This was it. We'd failed. Yuna was going to die and we could do nothing to stop it. I looked down at the ground and clenched my fists, determined not to cry.

"Now," Lady Yunalesca continued, "choose."

Everyone, including Yuna, frowned in confusion. Except for Auron, who looked away.

"You must choose the one whom I will change," Lady Yunalesca said, descending down the stairs towards us, "to become the fayth of the Final Summoning."

Yuna's mouth dropped open, Tidus stepped back, Lulu and Wakka gasped, Kimahri frowned deeply and Rikku and I both froze. What…did she mean? For someone to become a fayth they had to be dead. Did she mean…

"There must be a bond between chosen and summoner," Lady Yunalesca continued, sensing our confusion as if the looks on our faces weren't obvious enough. "For that is what the finding summoning embodies. The bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends. If that bond is strong enough its light will concur Sin. 1000 years ago I chose my husband Zaon as my fayth. Our bond was true and I obtained the Final Aeon."

Everyone was silent. Yuna still looked like she was in shock, as were we all. All except for Auron. I realised he must have known he was coming since he had gone through this all before with Lord Braska and Jecht.

Reality dawned on me and I slowly looked round at Tidus. I could see from the look on his face that he had also figured it out. Jecht must have become the Final Aeon for Yuna's father since Auron was still here. He had sacrificed himself for Lord Braska's sake, and now Auron was the only one left.

I also now understood what Auron had said to me a few moments ago. He had been making me promise not to volunteer to become the Final Aeon. Why he had made me promise this and not anyone else I didn't know.

"There is nothing to fear," Lady Yunalesca smiled. "You will soon be freed of worry and pain. For once you call forth the Final Aeon, your life will end. Death is the ultimate and final liberation."

I frowned at how much she sounded like Seymour.

"Your father, Braska, chose this path," she continued.

Without warning, another vision of the path appeared before us as Lady Yunalesca left through the door she had entered the room through. Jecht, Auron and Lord Braska were there once again.

"It is not too late," Auron was saying. "Let us turn back."

"If I turn back, who will defeat Sin?" Braska replied, a slight hint of distress in his voice. He hadn't known about having to sacrifice a guardian either. "Would you have some other summoner and his guardians go through this?"

I understood why Lady Yunalesca had shown us this. She thought that hearing what her father said would convince Yuna to go through with it.

"But…my Lord, there must be another way," Auron begged.

"This is the only way we got now," Jecht said quietly. "Fine… Make me the fayth."

I felt Tidus tense up next to me when he heard his father say that.

"I've been doing some thinking," Jecht continued. "My dream is back in the other Zanarkand. I wanted to make that runt into a star Blitzball player, show him the view from the top, you know. But now I know there's no way home for me. I'm never gonna see him again. My dream's never gonna come true. So…make me the fayth. I'll fight Sin with you Braska. Then maybe my life will have meaning, you know?"

"Don't do this Jecht!" Auron cried. "If you live there may be another way! We'll think of something, I know!"

"Believe me, I've thought this through," Jecht replied. "Besides, I ain't getting any younger so I might as well make myself useful."

"…Jecht?" Braska murmured.

"What? You're not gonna try to stop me too?" Jecht frowned.

Braska paused for a moment before shaking his head. "Sorry. I mean…thank you."

Jecht placed his hands on Braska's shoulders and smiled before turning to look at Auron. "Braska still has to fight Sin, Auron," he said. "Guard him well. Make sure he gets there."

Auron was lost for words so Jecht just smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, let's go," Jecht said before both he and Braska started to walk up the stairs.

"Lord Braska! Jecht!" Auron called.

"What do you want now?" Jecht sighed.

"Sin always comes back," Auron said. "It comes back after the Calm every time. The cycle will continue and your deaths will mean nothing!"

"But there's always a chance that it won't come back this time," Braska replied. "It's worth trying."

"I understand what you're saying Auron," Jecht said. "I'll find a way to break the cycle."

Auron's eyes widened. "You…have a plan?" he asked.

"Jecht?" Braska frowned, not having expected this.

Jecht grinned. "Trust me, I'll think of something."

Jecht's laugher echoed through the chamber as the figures of Jecht and Lord Braska disappeared. Only the image of the younger Auron remained as he fell to his knees. Our Auron ran up to it and started to slash at it with his katana, but as it was just a memory of the past it had no effect. He stopped and his shoulders slumped down.

"And…the cycle went on," Auron sighed heavily as the image of his younger self disappeared.

"We'll break it," Tidus said immediately, echoing his father.

"But…how?" Wakka asked. "What, you got a plan now?"

"If one of us has to become a fayth, I volunteer," Lulu said.

"Me too Yuna!" Wakka agreed.

"That still won't change anything!" Tidus cried out. "You'd bring the Calm and then what? That won't break the cycle!"

"Tidus is right!" I joined in. "If Auron thought back then that there was another way to defeat Sin, then maybe he was right! The way to defeat Sin can't only end in death. There had to be another way!"

"Listen," Wakka said softly. "We want to defeat Sin and keep Yuna alive. You don't want Sin to come back, yah? That is just not gonna happen, yah know?"

"If you want everything you'll end up with nothing," Lulu said.

"But I want everything!" Tidus cried.

"Now you just sound childish," Wakka shook his head.

"So what would an adult do then?" I challenged Wakka. "They know they can just throw away a summoner and then do whatever they like. Excuse me for not just accepting that two people I love have to die."

Everyone was silent, presumably shocked by what I'd just said.

"You're right Wakka," Tidus said after a while, looking down at me and nodding. "We might not even have a chance, but there's no way we're just gonna stand here and let Yuna go! And…what Auron said about there being a way, I think it's true."

Rikku smiled, walking up to grab onto both our hands. "You'll…think of something?" she asked.

Tidus nodded. "Yes. I'll go ask Yunalesca. She's got to know something."

"You really think she'll help?" I asked, doubtful that she would.

"I dunno," Tidus answered truthfully, "but I have to try."

Tidus looked up at Yuna who had been silent this entire time. She hadn't looked up from the ground.

"This is my story," Tidus said with confidence. "It'll go the way I want it, or I'll end it here."

"Wait."

Yuna finally spoke and raised her head to look at Tidus.

"You say it's your story, but it's my story too. It would be so easy to just let my fate just carry me away, following the same path my whole life through. But I know…I can't. What I do…I do with no regrets."

Without another word Yuna began to walk up the stairs. Kimahri quickly ran ahead of her and the rest of us followed in a rush, having no idea what she was going to do.

But if there was one thing I knew about Yuna it was this; she didn't want anyone else to die for her. If there was a way to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon, she would do it in a heartbeat.

AN: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please review!