It was his last bet. His last hope. Bhunivelze didn't look into Prompto's mind, otherwise, Prompto would probably dead in a ditch somewhere.
But he wasn't. And he had a chance. And that was why he had to do this. That was why it was okay for him to play the bad guy. He and Baralai agreed on this. Prompto earned the chance to sacrifice himself.
Bhunivelze grew distracted, instability rearing its ugly head as his neglected and abused planet lost control. The fate of the rest of the planets under him if they didn't do anything. And Bhunivelze compelled Prompto to join them.
Because Prompto could steal the power of this planet and take it where it didn't belong. And Prompto had to do so if he wanted to keep living and fighting.
"It'll make them happy," Aerith mused while she searched for the Strife family. "They're almost here."
Prompto barely noticed her work as he caught words from a distant voice. Seifer and Fujin used the Lifestream to communicate with someone not from Gaia VII.
Prompto fought the haze in his head and the confusing voices of death. He forgot his name down here sometimes and it was all he could do to remember who he was. But he remembered enough to confuse Aerith with flashes of his own memories and redirect her from the Farplane. The Strifes were strong enough that he could buy them enough time if he tried.
… Nanaki.
He had to find Nanaki.
Mog spun through the Historia Crux, screams bouncing off the clock gears that encompassed his small party of heroes. "What was the point of this, kupo~o?"
"He's weakened!" Cinque called to him. "Without the Void, he's not gonna know what to do!"
"He'll at least fumble without it at first," Serah said.
Dajh sped past them, limbs tucked in like a bullet. "Let's hurry and find the others before he stops fumbling! My virus won't last forever!"
Mog shrieked again when they entered a new vortex, only for Serah to take him. They flew together and zipped through wrinkled space. "What about the chaos, kupo?" He gestured to a checkered nebula. "Can't we stop that, too?"
Serah said, "We'll worry about that after we corner Bhunivelze."
"And how will we do that, kupo? He's still spread across almost three planets!"
"It isn't about volume," Cinque said, "it's about depth. We need to pluck him at the root and scare him into running! And when someone runs, they turn their back! And when they turn their back, you can smash them from behind!"
Mog whimpered and curled against Serah. The shiftiness of the vortex reminded him of moving around Nova Chrysalia before Lightning returned. Remembered the constant tremors and changing land that lost itself to chaos and nothingness. Remembered the cries of his people that silenced against that wretched fabric of space that separated them from the Void.
"We'll fix it," Serah said. "Just you watch. We'll get to Valhalla and from there, we can get to him."
"Kupo, kupo."
Much as he trusted Serah and the others, he couldn't bring himself to take comfort from her words. Not when they faced such a great and powerful force. Not when they held together by a thread. It all happened too much too fast.
He clung to Serah with all his strength and watched the vortex breeze them by.
Paine struggled to breathe in the thick and wretched fog of this makeshift underworld. Wandering through spirits that didn't belong, she wished she had a white mage sphere to blast them back with a flick of her wrist. Wished she knew Holy like Yuna.
Paine took to trees to recover her breath, but every time she did so, it took longer to get enough air. She didn't know if it was because her body grew weaker or if the mist grew stronger.
"Lulu," she hissed as she made her way down another tree, "you'd better hang on better than me."
Roads and trees passed until she collapsed on Guadosalam's doorstep, lungs burning and skin bleeding. She didn't remember cutting herself on branches or stones, yet everything hurt like she bruised herself over and over again.
Dreams flashed before her eyes and reality swirled as she lost herself to sleep. Death pulled at her, its cold grip hungry and determined for further strength. She knew it already from her time in a hospital not far from here when a bullet in her side almost killed her. When she woke complaining of spirits, the Al Bhed assured her it was madness brought on by blood loss.
But Paine knew the scent of Pyreflies, warm and rusty with a hint of incense. And that smell plagued her until she woke up in red-stained sheets and alone with strangers.
A distant roar reminded her of her first day aboard the Celsius, whose plates shuddered in the wind and rocked with the turbulence of open skies. She almost threw up her first time.
"Ue, Paine, fryd tu oui tu uid rana eh cilr y tyo?" Buddy asked. Like he didn't know why she traveled to Bevelle and why she planned to get this accursed sickness off her world.
"Paine!"
Someone shook her and scratchy reality returned. Woken from her half-dead dreams, she remembered her aching body and the hard ground on which she slept. She lapsed into a coughing fit, dirt caught in her lungs and caked against her face.
"Get her up!" yelled Cid, Rikku's father. Paine wondered what he was doing holding to the Celsius' drop ladder like that.
Strong arms took hold of her and Paine smelled Buddy's cologne. He took care of himself well enough that Paine wondered if she could really trust him.
"If only you docked in the Thunder Plains," Buddy said. "Maybe we could have touched down and gotten you up a little more gently, am I right?"
Paine licked chapped lips and asked, "Bevelle?"
"Silent as a ghost town. That where you're going?"
"Lulu, too."
"Already got Lulu. Brother got his hands on some scanners, so we're just following signs of life. You're the last one."
"… Infected?"
"Everyone that's left, yes. Thought we lost you, too. Okay, now hold on as much as you can because I'm gonna need my limbs. Can you do that?"
Paine breathed in and did as told while Buddy maneuvered his way up the ladder.
They lost Bevelle. But she had to see it.
"It's not worth going back there," Cid said. "But we'll talk about it after you've slept, okay?"
Paine meant to respond, but her tongue felt stiff and heavy. Dreams took her again.
