Chapter Nineteen

Blood, tears, and pyreflies


Auron and Tida remained on the arching path that overlooked the battle, uncertain whether the retreat would be conducted in the direction of the Thunder Plains or toward the Moonflow. It wouldn't do for them to be caught on the wrong side of their foes. To Auron, as he watched the former guardians, older, though no less powerful or determined, as they dashed headlong into the conflict, just shook his head. They weren't supposed to make a stand. This was a rescue, not a pitched battle with all of the Guado in Spira.

"I'm going down there." he told Tida, hefting his blade.

"Not without me you're not!" she protested.

"Fine." he agreed. Auron was not going to leave her up there alone. "Stay close." he ordered, taking off down the path in hopes of striking the Guado from behind.

Tida was hard pressed to keep up with his long strides, but she managed, gritting her teeth in preparation for a good fight. Her knuckles were white as she gripped Brotherhood, wondering absently if the sword were lucky. Even though she had never fought non-fiends or even fiends so powerful as those called by the Guado, she wasn't afraid. She felt ready.


The fighting was thick in the center of Guadosalam as two more warriors burst into the fray. Even Yuna, Tiron, and Aurie were defending themselves against the outer fringe of the fighting. The lady summoner was casting powerful Curaga spells on the other members of the group, but the fighting was growing ugly rather quickly as the Guado mages began berserking the monsters and even a few of their own soldiers. They had no intention of allowing Yuna, Braska, or anyone else to get away from their clutches.

But then something turned the tide. Auron, a masterful tactician, and Tida, full of the fearlessness of youth, began to seek out the captains of the Guado, striking down the leaders with the idea that the others might rout if left without their leaders. It was a brilliant plan and seemed to be working.

Then as they moved closer to the center of the fighting, something caught Tida's eye. A slender, robed figure slipped quietly into the nearby manse and closed the door, escaping unnoticed into its relative safety. This was the Guado who had started all the trouble. No way was she going to let him get away. For a moment Tida felt her face burn and her hands tremble in rage.

"Nav!" she breathed through gritted teeth, taking off in the direction of the door just as Auron delivered a killing blow to another pitiless Guado foe.

In an instant, it seemed, she had reached the door and pried it open with her sword.

Standing in the foyer of the great residence was Lord Nav Guado, distant cousin of Lord Seymour and former blitzball star. His repulsive face was expressionless as he looked at the girl in the doorway, striding purposefully toward him. Nav pulled a nondescript staff from within the folds of his robes and chuckled.

"You are the champion they have sent to face me? Or are you merely some callow girl who does not know to mind her own affairs? In either case I will still permit you to flee, if you so choose." he told Tida with a cold sneer.

"I do not choose to do so." she growled, holding out her sword and approaching him.

"But you cannot hope to defeat me alone!" he laughed.

"She is not alone!" came the sound of a rough and angry voice from behind her.

Tida glanced over her shoulder to find that Auron had followed her into the manor. The door was thrown wide, and he seemed to fill its frame. His wrath was no less potent and consuming than her own.

"Oh, are you this child's protector? Tsk ... tsk. You should keep a closer eye on her. Or she may be hurt." chortled Nav, raising his staff.

Something in the words or perhaps the gesture snapped Auron out of his seething rage. He suddenly felt very cold as he looked at Tida and the rather powerful Guado lord standing before them, prepared to do battle. It was foolishness! It was absolute foolishness to allow her to face him. Auron strode forward until he was shoulder to shoulder with Tida.

"Run." he said quietly and calmly in her ear.

"No!" she said as Nav began a series of complicated motions with his staff, no doubt signaling that he was going on the offensive.

Auron could tell that whatever the Guado was brewing, he intended to use it on Tida, taking out the weaker of his challengers first.

"You must. Remember Yunalesca. Remember what I tried to teach you." said Auron, stepping in front of her.

"He's going to do sentinel for me!" thought Tida, her blood running a few degrees cooler as she recognized the technique and realized what was happening.

"Now." growled Auron.

Tida turned and began to run for all she was worth, hoping that Auron would also flee if he found the chance. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see the Guado strike Auron with his staff. It was a powerful blow, taking Auron nearly to his knees. But then the former guardian did something unexpected. He initiated a counterattack so powerful that Nav was nearly torn in half by the blow before he landed with a sickening crunch against the far wall. For a brief instant, Tida lingered in the doorway, believing that Auron, though wounded, had defeated his foe.

Then the Guado, gasping his last breath, lifted his head and began to cast Ultima. It required every ounce of speed and agility Tida possessed to leap from the doorway and outside before deadly flash of light consumed both Auron and the dying Lord Nav. Tida squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the awesome heat of the spell diminish and end.

"Auron?" she whispered, walking back into the manor. Tida could no longer hear the sounds of battle just outside, only her own heartbeat in her ears. "Auron?" she called a second time, though more loudly. The smoke and darkness were just beginning to clear. Her throat tightened as no answer came. Then she saw the red of his robe. She saw him. "Auron." she choked, rushing as fast as her shaking legs would carry her toward the figure of the guardian, who lay upon the floor of the manor.

His sword had slipped from his nerveless fingers, and the bracer upon his arm had cracked and split asunder. But there was no blood and hardly a mark upon him. Perhaps only the faint sulfurous scent of magic left by the perilous spell told the tale that he was wounded and horribly so, not merely a man at rest.

Kneeling upon the warm stone of the floor, Tida gently unfastened his collar and removed his glasses with trembling fingers that scarcely seemed to work properly. At loss as to where to lay his sky blue spectacles, she slipped them on. Something wet touched their rims. It required a moment for her to realize that the something was tears. Then she gathered his heavy form into her arms, tenderly running her fingers through his softly graying hair.

"Auron?" she whimpered, no longer the proud warrior and blitzer who had charged the leader of the Guado head on, but rather nothing more or less than the teenage girl she was in body and spirit.

He opened his eyes slightly and smiled. Most of the pain was gone, its teeth blunted by his nearness to death. His heart fluttered as he looked up at Tida. If he could have moved, he would have wiped her tears away, but all of his former strength was gone and his limbs felt heavy.

"The foe was not too great this time, it seems." he said very quietly.

"No." she agreed. "I ... I don't know what I can do for you. I don't have any potions, and ... and I don't know any healing spells." she said, sniffing between words as she tried to halt the flow of tears. She wanted nothing more than to be strong for him.

"It is all right. I know why I was brought here now ... why I had another chance." he said in a calm and reassuring voice. "To be a guardian to you ... as I was to your grandfather ... and your mother ... and perhaps ... a better one." Auron told her, his coppery brown eyes closing slowly. "Tell Tidus ... and Jecht ... to go to Bevelle." he whispered, drifting away even as he spoke.

Tida's sobs were silent ones as she continued to hold the dying guardian close. A few pyreflies began to flutter up and through the vaulted roof of the great house, slowly and peacefully finding their way back to the Farplane.


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A/N: Thanks for the reviews, Trixie, Bunny, Starla, sulou, Shido21, and Lynx! And a special thanks for pointing my error in the previous chapter goes to Shido21. (That was the lake bottom, wasn't it?)