8. SIN

The first thing Jecht felt when Auron's words sank in was not fear, but denial.

No. it can't be Sin. Not yet. Not NOW! There's so much more I want to talk about, so much more I need to know about Spira, and about Braska—it's too soon, we're not ready, I'm not ready! We still had two days! And finally, when Braska raised his face to the sky, closed his eyes and obviously prepared for what would be his final Summoning, it's not fair!

"Braska…" Auron's voice was hoarse, but he was not pleading now. "My Lord, I…" Braska opened his eyes, eyes the colour of lazy summer afternoons and tropical seas. Eyes that saw everything, and understood all.

"I know." Auron shook his head.

"No, you don't. I…" he stopped, gazed at the grass, looked up again. And he smiled, with difficulty, but genuinely.

"I will guard you with my life. Whatever will happen." The Summoner smiled back, then reached out his hand and lay it, flat, the fingers stretched out, against his Guardian's cheek. It was an oddly brotherly gesture, affectionate and reassuring, but Auron leaned into it as if it were the touch of a lover. Braska's smile, already serious, turned sad.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, too softly for Jecht to hear from where he was standing, "to have to do this to you. To ask of you that you live, no matter what. But we…Spira…we need people like you, Auron. I need you to live, no matter what. For Yuna, and for Jecht's child, and…It will be good to know…for me…that you still live. That, even when I am dead, I will have created a Sin-free world for you to live in." He pushed the younger man's chin up, slid his hand to his shoulder and squeezed. "I want you to be happy." He chuckled. "Doesn't that sound like a fairy-tale wish?"

"Eh, Braska? Auron?" Jecht nervously looked at the sky, which was now completely darkened with Sin spawn. "Those things are about to come down real soon!" The Summoner nodded.

"Yes. We should go. Auron?" His Guardian clasped his slender wrist in his own large hand.

"I am ready. Let's go."

"Right. Follow me." He broke out in a run, heading for the cliffs, Jecht and Auron close on his heels. "We have to come as close as possible!" Braska shouted over the din of the fluttering wings. "It'll take too much time to fight all the spawn; Sin will be long gone if we get delayed by them."

"You just keep running," Auron said. "We'll take care of the spawn." He drew his sword and hefted it threateningly towards the creatures that were littering the plane, coming down like ticks from an overly large dog and growing legs in a disturbingly high tempo. He had never seen so many of them at one time; the grass was literally crawling with them. From everywhere sounded the hissing, clicking, fluttering noise that had haunted his dreams when he had been young, and occasionally still unnerved him when he could not place it. They were like an army of fiendish guards, trying to protect Sin like he was protecting Braska. The comparison made his lip curl. As if I'd ever let you get him! As if Sin needs you at all! He swiped at four creatures that had come too near, and crushed them with a single slash. You're just pests. Weak. Revolting. Inadequate. Die!

Next to him, Jecht gasped, and when he looked up from the cloud of pyreflies, Auron saw what had made him catch his breath. Sin. They had come to the edge of the Calm Lands, only a few hundred meters from the coast. Far, far below waves crashed against the rocks, sending up wreaths of water all the way up to the plane, misting into the three men's faces. Close to the cliffs, his head and back rising high above the land, Sin was blindly attacking the coast. There, more than a mile to the east, the land was black with spawn, swarming and buzzing like locusts.

"Oh my bloody hell…" Jecht whispered, paling a little. "I'd forgotten how big the fucking thing was." Braska nodded. Even he seemed a little disconcerted now, but there was still humour in his voice as he said, "It's big, yes. But you might be even bigger." He smirked at the other man's raised eyebrow. "Your Aeon, Jecht. I will call upon it shortly. You will be my weapon. As Auron will be my shield. I will wield you, and we will be victorious." He took a deep breath and managed a grin. "I've always wanted to say that."

"My Lord…"

"I know, Auron. We should hurry." He looked at him, piercing him with his gaze. "You will take care of Yuna, won't you?"

"As I promised," Auron said earnestly. "She'll be safe in Besaid. But first, I'll be your shield."

"And I'll be yer weapon," Jecht added gruffly. "Hey Auron. You'll take care of Tidus too, right?" The other only nodded, and raised his sword to his chin, as in salute. "Okay. Well. This is it, right?" He thrust his hands in his pockets, kept them there for a few seconds, pulled them out again and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's the right thing to do.

Braska, I'm ready when you are."

"Right. First, let's draw his attention, shall we?" Butting his staff firmly into the ground, he began to chant—a completely different kind of chanting than he had done before. This song was dark and powerful, and threatening.

"What…?" Jecht sputtered.

"Ultima." said Auron curtly. "guaranteed to draw its attention. If it doesn't kill it, but then I guess I shouldn't get your hopes up." He fell silent as an explosion of light and darkness, mixed with vivid greens and reds lit the air, and squared his shoulders when a low, rumbling roar caused the ground to tremble and the spawn to squeal and flicker. "Bingo." Braska whisked around and grabbed the blitzer by the arm.

"Jecht! Your turn! He's coming right for us!"

"What should I do?"

"Close your eyes."

"What? Now?!"

"Close your eyes!"

"Okay, okay!" He squeezed his eyes shut, and noticed that the rumbling and the noise were much worse when you could not see where it originated. "Now what?"

"Surrender."

What? Jecht meant to demand, but at the same moment Braska had begun to pray again, and some part in his body immediately knew what to do.

Surrender.

The tenseness smoothed away from his face, from his body, from his very soul.

Surrender.

He did not feel scared anymore, or nervous, or anything. If he opened his eyes, he knew he would not see the shaking cliffs or Sin's massive body wrecking the countryside. He would see pyreflies and light, and a never-ending space filled with water and falls and rainbows. The Farplane.

Beneath Jecht's bare feet the grass shook and the earth bucked, but Jecht stood very still, as if he were standing on something more solid than Spira's ground. Slowly, the edges of his figure were beginning to fade.

"Come on, Jecht…" Braska panted, clasping his staff in white fingers. "Give in…"

"He's changing," Auron whispered, and then suddenly the other man opened his eyes, and they were white and bright as if a candle burned behind each socket.

"I will." He said, with finality, and then he was gone.

In the Dome, deep beneath Zanarkand's stadium, the room where Yunalesca kept her collection of Aeon statues pulsed with a blinding light. It threw the statues in a sharp relief, shadows playing over their still faces appeared to make their stony lips move. In one of the niches, Jecht's body, the only body still made of flesh, jerked spasmodically before stiffening against the wall. It opened its eyes—the pupils dark and unseeing, already misted over with death, and moved its lips.

"I will." The body whispered, and with a sound like a sigh, turned into stone.

Where is he? Auron searched feverishly for his friend as he clubbed several spawns to death. Where'd he go? Braska, too, looked around searchingly, one hand pressed against his chest, the other grasping the staff.

"He must be here…I felt him give himself to me." Sin, properly alerted by the summoning, threw itself against the coast. Both men staggered, Auron grabbed one of his Summoner's sleeves to keep him upright.

"Braska!"

"I'm fine! I don't understand! Where…" His eyes widened, and a strange, elated smile slowly grew on his face. "Ooohh…"

"Braska?" A thunderbolt crashed down from the sky, bathing the Summoner and his Guardian in light so white it obliterated all colour—no, not thunder, but light, pure Farplane light, brighter than they had ever seen. And then another shape loomed over them, a creature made of fire and light and smoke; a being that had to be the largest Aeon on Spira.

"Jecht…?" Auron whispered. All around him, spawn disintegrated in the light, which was just as well, for he was so impressed he'd forgotten to fight them. Braska was standing in the stream of light, hair and robes flapping in a breeze of summoning power, staff raised high in his hands, face turned up to where the Aeon had landed. It was still vaguely humanoid, but gigantic and so vivid it hurt to look at it.

"Help us." Braska screamed. He was quivering, his fair skin flushed as if he were having a fever. His eyes, too, just like on Mount Gagazet, were too bright and too wild, but now the effect was a hundred times stronger. As he moved his left arm, so did the Aeon's and when he brought it down, the Aeon's fist plunged deep into the earth. It pulled back, drawing with it an enormous sword. Before it was completely out of the ground, though, Sin charged, and hit the Aeon in the side. Jecht hardly reacted, but Braska bent double with a cry and fell to his knees.

"Braska!"

"Get me…up! Up!" Auron knew better than to protest, and hoisted the man to his feet, keeping one hand on his back to lend him some support. A thin line of red ran down Braska's chin, but he didn't even notice.

"Go on!" he shouted breathlessly to the creature up high, "Kill it! You know what to do!"

So it seemed. The Aeon drew the point of its sword out of the ground, then quickly as lightning attacked and slashed at Sin's left fin with a movement Auron absentmindedly recognised as one of his own attacks. It is Jecht. That's his move. Are Aeons still aware of their human origin, then? He was started out of his reminisces when Sin retaliated once more, and Braska stumbled backwards against his chest.

"For Yevon's…sake…" he wheezed, and began to cough. The light around him had dimmed, now, and in the stark but otherwise ordinary light the blood on his lips was very red. "I need to…"

"I'll keep you up." Auron said, and he did so.

The creature that was Sin and the Aeon that was Jecht fought for hours. Their battle formed a spectacle that was like a movie, had Auron and Braska recognised it as one. Somehow, as they were standing there beneath the two behemoths, it was as if it were not real, as if the storm of power raging around them was of another world, and they were looking at that world through glass. If it hadn't been for the trembling ground and the pieces of debris flying in their faces and ripping their clothes, Auron would have thought he was looking at a wizard's game, not a battle that would decide the future of Spira. The future of Braska. He tightened his arms around the man's slender, all but limp figure, pressed his face against the side of his head, feeling the heat the Summoning generated in his body, acting as his feet and legs as Braska's own had ceased to function. He was still looking up, praying soundlessly, eyes still bright but unpleasantly empty. Once in a while he would cough up blood, but just as methodically Auron would offer his sleeve, and on red the blood did not show. Much.

A deafening shriek told them that Sin had been injured again, and a spray of salty water hit Braska's hot forehead.

"Now," he whispered to his Aeon. "He's vulnerable now. That was his last…fin. He can't… go anywhere now. You must…finish him now." He shook his head in reply to a silent remark. "No. Go ahead. This is…this might be…our only chance…" And then he smiled, weakly wiping a red stain from his mouth. "Thank you. Me too." He let his head roll back to look Auron in the face. "This is the end."

"My Lord?"

"Sin…is finished. Almost. Just keep me up…for a little while longer…if you can."

"Always." said Auron, and he and his Summoner watched as Jecht raised his sword and sliced Sin in pieces.

At first, nothing really happened. In the middle of Jecht's final offensive, Sin simply stopped moving, shaking only when the sword hacked into its head. It just floated there, half in the air, half in the water, losing narrow tendrils of substance, that bursts into pyreflies when they drifted away from its body. At one moment the sky was dark with threads, tangling around each other and dissipating in the air. The Aeon dealt Sin one final blow, then looked down.

Braska nodded.

"You can…put me down now," he whispered gently.

"The Aeon's still there," Auron said, lowering him carefully to the ground. Braska smiled.

"I already…let him go." And at that moment the remains of the light shining down on him winked out. The Summoner drew in a quivering breath, closed his eyes.

"It's over."

BOOM

There was a sound like an underground explosion, and suddenly Sin's body seemed to fissure, light shining out between the cracks. Auron flung himself over his Summoner, just as an enormous blast flattened everything to the ground. The rocks cracked and splintered, flew into the air and crashed into the ground, ripping out whole patches of grass and earth. A part of the cliffs caved in and disappeared into the boiling sea, where towering waves leapt up to the sun and drenched Auron to the skin. He felt something hit his back, his head and his left arm, and a stream of something that was too warm to be water dripped down his neck, but he bit his lip and tried to form a dome with his body over the helpless shape of his friend. I'm your shield. I'm your shield. I will protect you.

When the violence finally stopped, he ventured a look around him, and a low moan escaped his throat. The edge of the cliffs, which had been a few hundred metres away from them when Braska had begun to Summon, now began perhaps fifteen feet away from where they were lying. No grass or earth covered the ground; all he could see was blackened rock, and far below, the furious water. For the rest, it was quiet. But even though the warrior monk in him wanted to go and see whether there was still something left of Sin, there were some matters that had be finished first. He drew himself up, gritting his teeth as a wave of dizziness made his head spin, and touched the pale face of the man lying beneath him.

"Braska?" For a moment he thought that he had already lost him, but then the dark blue lashes fluttered, and Braska opened his eyes.

"Auron?" They were dark, now, almost the same colour as the sea, with only the smallest sparkle of light, and there was preciously little life in them left. Braska's voice was little more than a whisper.

"Yes," Auron said softly, getting to his knees to give the other man space to breathe. "I'm here." He leaned over him to let his friend look at him, showing him that he was still alive. A rain of red pattered down on Braska's face, and he wiped it away, cursing softly. One of the rocks that hit him had to have made a rather deep hole in his head—but now was not the time to think about trivial things like that. Braska, however, chose to differ.

"You're…hurt." He made an attempt to sit up but blanched before he had even lifted his head from the ground. Auron all but pushed him down.

"Don't tire yourself!" he cried anxiously.

"Auron."

"I will be fine. It's just a flesh wound."

"Did we…win?" There was so much hope in that voice, so much happiness waiting to come out. The Guardian closed his eyes against the tears he did not want to cry, and felt them sting in his throat.

"Yes." He said hoarsely, "We won. Sin is gone."

"And Jecht?" He looked up, and thought that he could see someone, precariously near the edge of the cliff. The figure—yes, it had to be Jecht, although it was man-sized now, he recognised the way it moved—was pushing itself to its knees.

"I think he's over there. He looks fine, if a bit bruised and battered."

"Good." He raised his eyes to the sky, a faint but warm smile curling the corners of his mouth. "He should be…fine. But you…"

"I'm…"

"Fine. Of course you are." He laughed, breathlessly and soundlessly, and licked a small drop of blood away from his lower lip with his tongue. "Well, at least…you will be…when I have…healed you."

"Braska, please, spare your strength."

"Could you…get me in a sitting position? It's…cold…on the ground." Still shaking his head, Auron gathered him against him, loosening his coat to wrap it around him, not caring about the blood running down his arm, his temple and his back, or the mud that covered both of them.

Keep him warm, keep him safe. He'll be all right. As long as I keep him warm—as long as I keep him talking!

"Auron." Reflexively he tightened his arms around the slender figure. Don't speak.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"Look at me." He did so. For the first time it struck him that Braska was older than him, not because of his exhausted, white face but because he was so clearly grown up, and no longer had the glow of power and animation that usually surrounded him. And at that moment he also realised that no matter what he did, he would not be able to save him.

"Let me…heal you." His eyes burned, then overflowed. He blinked quickly, but with his arms supporting his friend, he could not scrub his tears away.

"It will be the last thing…I do."

"Hey! Auron!" a faint voice called from a distance. "Braska!"

The Summoner touched his knuckles to his Guardian's hand, and Auron took his hand in his own, laid it against the wound in the side of his head. Braska's eyebrows danced briefly, as if he were laughing, but his face was serious now, and the light in his eyes was dimming quickly.

"Jecht will be here…soon. You'll have to help him. I…I don't know what should happen now. I'm…sorry."

"Braska."

"I'll heal you." Braska whispered firmly, pressing his fingers against Auron's temple with as much force as he could muster—which was barely enough to make his fingers twitch. "Because…that is what I always…always…wanted to do. Take your pain away."

"Wait. Braska, wait, there's so much I still need to tell you…" But by now the last flicker of light had left his eyes, and Auron halted in mid-sentence. "I…" He swallowed. "Goodbye, my friend." Then he closed his eyes and let the blue light of healing obscure his tears.

"Braska! Auron!"

When he looked up again, he was aware of three things, which slowly revealed itself to him. The first thing was, that his body felt whole and relatively sound. The second was that something inside him was aching so badly it oppressed the beating of his heart. The third was that someone, someone familiar, was shouting in his ear and shaking his shoulder.

"What?" he croaked, looking up from Braska's body. "What do you want?" Jecht was kneeling close by, his arms wrapped around his chest.

"Is he dead?" He himself looked much the worse for wear, and for a moment Auron was able to push his grief aside and converse.

"Yes. He's…dead. Only a moment ago."

"Fuck." Auron blinked.

"What?"

"Fuck!"

"What the hell are you…"

"It's not over yet, Auron!" Jecht jumped up so swiftly it was not humanly possible. He seemed solid now, but there was still something about him that was different, as if something very basic had been stripped away—something like his humanity.

"What do you mean? Sin is dead, I saw him explode…" Jecht shook his head, wildly.

"No. No, it isn't dead, not completely. There's something…I can feel it, something—there it is!" He pointed at the sky, and Auron thought he saw something fly, some kind of dark fiend, but very small.

"It's nothing," he said, turning back to Braska. The headband had dented sometime during the fight, and the blue cowl was ripped to shreds. You would hate to see yourself like this. He gently removed the band, pulled down the remnants of the cowl, freeing the long blue hair. It was almost like that first time they fought together, in Djosé…

"Auron!" A high note of panic crept into Jecht's voice. "Will you look at that thing!"

"What about it? It's just some kind of fiend. I'm sure it's hardly dangerous. I don't see…"

"It's more than that." He took hold of Auron's shoulders with both hands and pulled him to his feet. "Much more. Hell, it's…it scares me to death, that thing. It's something…I know that thing."

"Yes? Then what is it?" But disregarding his irritation, he observed the small bulb closely. It looked a bit like a short-legged squid, and was about the size of his own head. As he was watching it, something in its movements made him feel uncomfortable, and suddenly he understood Jecht's fear. There was something about it, something threatening, something unholy…Next to him, Jecht sucked in his breath.

"I know what it is." He said, with finality. The thing swerved towards him, and he ducked behind Auron's back, pulling him along, away from it.

"What is it?"

"It's Sin."

"What?"

"That thing, it's…that's what I fought, when I was an Aeon. But not the outer thing, the big armour, not Sin as you know it…" he buried his fingers into Auron's flesh, making the other man grunt in pain. "I know! Yunalesca…she said something about this. Yevon?"

"What?" It loomed closer still, swirling above their heads in steadily diminishing circles. Jecht began to talk even faster.

"Yunalesca, when she changed me, she told me things about…damn, I can't remember!

Something about Yevon, no Yu Yevon, possessing the Aeon. That was what turned them into Sin."

"But Yu Yevon is Yevon!' Auron cried. "It makes no sense!"

"We have to fight it!"

"I can fight!" He scooped his sword up from the ground, slashed at the creature as it came in his reach

Another. I need another. Another shield. Another shield.

thoughts flooded his mind in a wave, and he wavered on his feet before Jecht pulled him straight.

And at the same time he knew that Yunalesca had, indeed, known. And still she had sent them on their way. Jecht and he fought the small dark fiend as best as they could, but he knew that they would lose, because this creature did not want them dead.

I need another shield.

Despite all his strength, he could not stop his god regaining his armour. He knew he had lost the moment Jecht stopped fighting, but that did not matter. All he could do now was fight, and never mind that it was senseless. Only when Jecht turned his eyes on him and shook his head, he dropped the point of his sword into the ground and stood, panting, shaking his head in denial.

"No. I won't let it take you that easily." Jecht looked away from him, unblinking, and shook his head. Like when Braska had started praying to his fayth, his eyes had changed, but this time they were as black as obsidian.

"He already has me. I think…I think it's summoning my Aeon."

"No!" Auron screamed. He lashed out at Yu Yevon, but it deftly avoided his attack, and drifted up a little higher, where he could not hit it.

"No. NO! I won't have it! I need you, damn it! I need you to protect Yuna for me, while I go looking for you son…" He grasped one of his friend's arms, or made to, for when he touched him he felt a shock, and his hand passed right through him. "Jecht!"

"It's summoning me." His face crumpled; he raised his hands to his face, pressed his fingers hard against his temples. "Oh hell, it hurts…it hurts…stop it…help me!"

"I can't!"

"Make it stop!"

"I can't!" Auron screamed, and then the small black bulb fell down from the sky, landing in the middle of Jecht's chest, where it melted into his flesh and disappeared. Jecht's hands flew from his head to his chest, and he doubled up, screaming in agony.

"Jecht! JECHT!" But again he was fading, even though he resisted his summoning with all his might.

"Jecht!" He's next. Auron realised with a dread so terrible he thought he might faint of it, He is the next Sin. Jecht will be Sin! And she knew, she knew!

"Jecht!"

But he was all alone on the destroyed part of the Calm Lands, and far away over the sea, a mass of black threads was spinning into a smaller, sleeker version of the creature he had seen explode only half an hour ago.

"Jecht!' he ran to the edge of the coast, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice carry. "Fight it! Fight it!" And then, with a glance at the dead body of his best friend lying only a few meters away, "I will make her undo this! I will get you out of there! Do you hear me! Don't give up! Jecht!"

There was no answer. The whole place was silent, not even a bird could be heard. Auron dropped his arms to his side, hands balled to fists. He felt so furious, so betrayed, that he was beyond tears now.

"I will make you pay for this," he hissed. "I WILL make you pay!"

To be continued…

So there! Sin's dead, Yunalesca's gonna get her ass kicked. Or not : ) Next chapter, Auron travels to Zanarkand and curses destroyed spheres.

Please leave a review, if you haven't done so yet. Please. They so help me write! Oh, and one time soon I'll edit the whole thing, write up some spaces in the story that I know that are there but I was unable to fill before. Right now I need to get the story out of my head on paper as soon as possible, later I will prettify it and make it more readable. See ya next time!