DISCLAIMER: I do not own Final Fantasy. Square does. I'm just borrowing their characters for a while. No profit is being made from this. So nah!

SUMMARY: Oneshot. Zaon's experiences as he and his wife Yunalesca defeats Sin. My first fic, so please be gentle. :)

UPDATE: Just a minor one. Added some Author's Notes at the bottom. Plus, I was reading through and noticed a minor inconsistancy. It's been fixed now, but apart from that, the story's largely unchanged. If you didn't notice it, then good! :)

FINAL FANTASY X

Zaon

He did it! He had beaten Sin. Even now, the husk of the thing was tumbling to the earth below, sending up a massive cloud of dust and other debris. He looked at his summoner triumphantly, his heart pounding with relief and joy. She looked up at him, smiling sweetly. No... they did it.

/Oh, my love, it has been a long road!/ She couldn't hear him, of course, but he didn't care. /Let's go home./

A long road, indeed. The flight from Zanarkand had been very taxing on both of them. Ever since Sin appeared, the two had steadily been making their way to Bevelle, the home of their enemies. Of course, he hadn't expected them to let them in, but so terrified were they of Sin that they practically begged Yunalesca and Zaon to get rid of it for them. "Only if you lay down your machina weapons!" she declared. "It was those things that caused this Sin to appear in the first place."

Of course, if she had told them to cut their throats, they would have done that, too. There was nothing they wouldn't have done to appease the warrior couple. Anything to get rid of Sin. And lay down their machina weapons they did.

In turn, his dear Yunalesca made good on her promise. When she set out to vanquish this new enemy, he was by her side every step of the way. There were many times when she had wanted to give up, to turn around, to go back, but it was Zaon who urged her on.

Now, it was all over and the two of them were smiling.

Zaon allowed himself to descend softly to the ground where his wife was waiting. She was looking up at him, her face sparking with tears.

/Yuna?/ He reached out to her, tilting her chin upward to stare into her crystalline eyes. Was that sorrow?

"Oh, Zaon, I'm sorry."

He cocked his head to the side, wondering what she was talking about. But his only warning was the shadow that suddenly covered him and his wife. He looked up just in time to see--for a lack of a better description--a large bug, the symbol of his father-in-law Yu Yevon emblazoned on its body, barrelling towards him with murderous intent in its eyes.

Zaon fell to the ground, howling in pain as the thing disappeared into his chest. He thrashed about wildly, desperately looking around for his wife. His insides were on fire!

/Yuna!/

Thankfully, she wasn't too far away. However, she seemed to be in pain as well. She was on her knees, clutching her head and crying out to her husband. He stretched his arm out, wanting nothing more than to hold her, to comfort her, to tell her that everything was going to be alright. But it would be a lie... she was dying! He could already feel his connection to her being severed.

/Yuna!/

//Stop your crying, boy. This is what has to be.//

Zaon froze. That voice... /Yu?/

//Yes, it's me.// That gravelly old voice thundered in his head. //It's Yu.//

/Father, please, stop this./ He pleaded, tears forming in his eyes, yet he couldn't be sure that it was from the pain or the fact that his wife was dying.

//Didn't she tell you anything, boy?// His father-in-law sneered, or at least he thought that it was his father-in-law. How could he be Sin? //You destroyed my shell. Now I need another one. And you, my boy, are it.//

/But you're killing her!/

//Be more concerned about yourself! She knew the risks when she fled from Zanarkand. I was the one who told her about it, and I'm quite surprised that she didn't tell you as well. She had always had an affinity for telling you things while leaving her own father out of the conversation.//

He looked toward her again. She was on the ground now, curled in a fetal position and cradling her head. She was barely moving. /Yuna.../

//Hers is the blissful sweet of death. But you and I... we have some catching up to do./

And with that, Zaon screamed.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I always kinda wondered if Zaon knew what he was getting himself into when he journeyed with Yunalesca. I mean, think about it. When Auron found out that the Final Aeon would become the next Sin, he was pretty ticked, and I didn't think that anyone armed with such a knowledge (and not to mention in their right mind *cough* Seymour), would ever undertake such a journey, especially the one who was to become the Final Aeon. Here, it seemed to me that Yunalesca chose her love for her father over that of her husband in order to forever venerate his name, as Maechen hinted at towards the end of the game. As far has the hostility between Zaon and Yu Yevon, that was entirely my invention. Pure speculation, but not entirely implausible. Yu Yevon just seemed to be the bitterest creature on the face of Spira to even dream of something like Sin in the first place.