**Tada! Chapter 24! I'm glad I could get this to you on time ::cough::WOMPRAT::cough:: despite the high school finals crunch. I should be studying for chem or doing my make up work, but instead I slaved (^_~) to get you guys your precious new chapter. Hehe. Now, this week the actual finals are on (Thursday and Friday), so the next chapter may be slightly delayed (although one of the upcoming ones is one I'm looking very forward to writing, so ya never know). Anyway, enjoy! Oh, BTW, with Arashi's glasses? That happened to me in real life...-_-;;;;**

"Mary? You mean--"

"Exactly," Yueh said, leaning back in her chair. She shook her head. "I had...I never thought..."

Arashi turned to Jon, and spoke quietly and swiftly. "Jon, would you mind leaving us alone for a moment? We have to discuss something." Jon gave a short nod and strode out of the room without another word. Arashi looked back at Yueh, her eyes shining. "That was the psychiatrist? The one who drilled you about your powers?"

"Yeah. I thought--I mean, she said she had never even heard of Final Fantasy, and yet--she's a summoner?" Yueh put her head in her hands, staring at the stone floor beneath her. "But why? She..."

"She's our villain!" Niet exclaimed, thrusting a fist in the air. Arashi and Yueh both looked at her, blinking. Niet blushed and placed her hand back in her lap. "Well, she's ahead of us, and a lot of people say she's mean, and if her conversation with Yueh means anything..." She trailed off, her excitement waning. "...shouldn't we be working to get ahead of her?"

Yueh stared back at the floor, as if it would offer some answers. Instead, the brown stone just stared straight back at her, offering nothing other than dust on her shoes. She finally looked back up at her companions. "Whatever she's doing...we can't let her defeat Sin. She's probably like Seymour."

Niet blinked. "Who's that?"

Yueh nearly did an anime-style face fault. "The blue-haired guy with the creepy voice. He figured out he could become Sin, because--you really don't know any of this?"

Niet thought for a moment. She then dug out her book from her nearby backpack, which was hanging on a post of the bed she lay on. She flipped through it quickly to a dog-eared page with a large picture of Seymour covering half of it and small text on the other half. Showing the book to the other two, she asked, "This guy?"

Yueh took the book from her. "Yeah. That guy. Mary was evil enough, she probably aspires the same thing Seymour did." She handed the book back for Niet to skim over. All was silent as Niet read, and her eyes went wide as she went further down the page.

"He wanted to BECOME Sin!?!" Niet flipped the page for more information, and continued skimming. "And 'end the spiral'...ew, he kissed Yuna?" She traced her finger over the page, going on. "And...he died but came back as an Unsent." She looked up at Yueh earnestly. "You think Mariana is an Unsent?"

Yueh hung her head. "No, I think she wants to become Sin. That's why--that must be why she wanted to know about my magic!" Yueh finished, hitting her fist into her open hand. "She wants to become Sin!"

Arashi finally spoke up. "I think we're jumping to conclusions." Yueh and Niet both looked at her quickly.

"What do you mean?" Yueh asked.

"I mean, I think she may be our villain, yes, but...if she is, why hasn't she attacked us? It doesn't seem that she's not powerful enough, having been able to collect all the aeons thus far," Arashi explained. She took another bite out of the hunk of cheese in her hand. "I'm just saying, why is she taking the long way around, in a sense?"

"I don't know," Yueh finally said. She stood up. "What I do know is that we need to do two things. One: get ahead of her and find out her deal. Two: defeat Sin without any of us dying." Yueh leaned over and took a small loaf of bread and began eating furiously. "And three, actually: eat before we get going to get Ixion. I'm starving."

Niet grinned and took the basket of cheese and breads and set it on her lap. She dug in and spoke around a mouthful.

"Much agreed."

*-*-*-*-*

After quiet a lengthy conversation convincing Jon that Arashi was perfectly healthy and well enough to pray to the Fayth, the three girls strode into the Cloister of Trials, Niet with the basket of food in hand--and some in her mouth. She also had the large book she had received from Tsuki's fayth open on the very top of the basket, reading up on Seymour and his various hijinks.

"So, he wanted to become Sin, and needed Yuna to accomplish that goal. To become her Zaon to her Yunalesca." She blinked and continued to balance the open book on top of the food basket as the group paused to pick up one sphere and place another. "And they were the ones who started the whole 'spiral,' as its called pretty much everywhere." Everything nearly toppled as Niet continued forwards. "So...blondie and company beat Yunalesca, meaning we won't have to fight her. Page!"

Yueh rolled her eyes and tromped over to where Niet was standing and carefully flipped the page over. Niet grunted a thanks and went on reading aloud, paraphrasing as she went.

"Ooh, and she was a nasty lookin' lady. Ugly fangs she's got there, ew. Glad we don't have to fight her."

"Get ready to blink, guys, I'm putting in the finishing sphere," Arashi shouted over her shoulder.

"All right!" Yueh shouted.

"Yeh," Niet yelled back.

Arashi nodded to herself and set the final sphere in its place. The trio closed their eyes as the bright light followed it as usual. Yueh opened her eyes to see Arashi kneeling down next to a treasure chest that had appeared just outside the now open door to the chamber. Arashi was smiling and gestured for Yueh to come closer.

"Your turn, Yueh."

Yueh kneeled down next to the chest and held her charm right over the gem-shaped lock on the chest. The small area around the lock and her charm illuminated in an aqua light before the chest popped open. Inside were two thick, dark blue bracelets, each with a small silver buckle. As she picked them up, the ever-so-familiar pop-up screen appeared, giving the title of "Mage's Wraps" to them. She clutched them in her hand as she stood up and gestured to the door.

"Let's go in, and Arashi can get the aeon," she said. "I can put these on in there."

Arashi nodded and took off her glasses before she entered. As she did so, however, one of the pieces that went behind her ears snapped off cleanly near the lenses. She held both pieces out in front of her, blinking.

"Ah, just my luck." She showed the pieces to the guardians and giggled. "I guess I'll need new glasses after this. Can't go into battle not being able to see right!"

"How...oh, never mind," Yueh said, shaking her head. Arashi shrugged, still smiling, and went into the Chamber of the Fayth, the stone slab of a door slamming behind her.

Niet dropped the basket of foods on the floor and plopped herself down next to it, her book now in one hand, a chunk of cheese in the other. Yueh took up residence on the other side of the small staircase and began replacing her old, black wrist ties with her new ones. There was silence for a moment until Niet let out a loud, "A-HA!"

Yueh nearly jumped out of her skin and dropped one of her old bracelets. "'A-ha' what?"

Niet pointed in her book, flailing it around a bit as she tried to show Yueh what it was she found. She spoke around a particularly large mouthful of cheese. "'Dish righ' here! Your new bracelet fing!" Through all the thrashing around of the book, Yueh managed to see a large, colored picture of the bracelets she currently had halfway on. Niet finally finished the cheese she had been holding and began to speak clearly. "It gives a 30% magic attack increase, and half MP cost." She let out a low whistle. "Nice stuff."

"Yeah, good stuff." Yueh finished putting the other wrist strap on and looked over them. "Half MP cost'll be helpful." She stuffed the old ones in her pocket and pulled out the movie sphere Jon had given them. Yueh switched it on and paused it at the very end, where Mary's face and shoulders were the only things that could be seen on the sphere. Yueh stared at it for a moment.

"Oh, hey, I can upgrade your old bracelets for later, too," Niet said, flipping another page in her book. "Those have a couple ability slots open, so I could add maybe some defense or magic defense, or even some more MP. Oh, or maybe Auto-Med!"

"We have the materials to make an Auto-Med bracelet?" Yueh mumbled, still absorbed in the sphere.

"I thought--" Niet did some mad turning of pages before shrugging. "Guess not. But I could still add the defense things." She grabbed another loaf of bread and took a big bite out of it. "If ya wan'ed, I cou'd. Wou'dn't be too 'ard." Swallowing, she went on. "Just a poke here and a tap there and we're done--hey, hey, Yueh, you even listening?"

Yueh blinked, and shook her head. "Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. I was just..." She gingerly picked up the sphere and pointed to the middle of Mary's collar bone. "This stone, it looks a lot like mine, and I can't help but think..."

"Think what?" Niet prompted.

Yueh sighed and switched off the sphere. "There was more to the original stone that I had before I met you guys. When I was brought to the psychiatrist's, on the way in, I wasn't exactly cooperative and part of the stone broke off on my way in." Yueh began to fidget, and held her dolphin-shaped charm in her hand. "I looked for it on my way out, but I couldn't exactly tell my parents that I was looking for it, and since I couldn't find it..." She sighed again and pushed back her long bangs with her free hand. "I guess Mary knew all along about the stone and found the other half." So now even more of this is my fault.

Niet blinked and paused, the loaf of bread halfway to her mouth. "But...but how did she know about the stone in the first place?"

"That is a very good question." Yueh leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "And I really wish I knew. Along with how she knows so much about Spira if she's never played the game before," Yueh added as an afterthought.

After a moment of silence, Niet waved a hand and tossed Yueh a small loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese. "We can't worry 'bout that now. So, we might as well eat up." She gave a wink and took another large bite out of the bread she had in her hand.

Yueh gave a small laugh, but it didn't sound completely genuine. She took a small bite out of the cheese and smiled.

"We can't worry about it...right."

*-*-*-*-*

Mariana and Genki had made it to Bevelle, and both were in a considerably better mood than before.

The priests and people of Bevelle treated them both like royalty, and waited on them hand and foot. At the moment, Mariana was sitting in a four-poster bed with dark green drapes, and Genki was in a plush, deep red chair, eating from a large plate of steaks and chicken. Mariana was lazily eating from a bowl of fruit.

"This is great! Steak and broiled chicken and fried chicken and ginger chicken--" Genki took another big bite of the steak. "Its just…great!"

Mariana smiled, her eyes closed as she took another apple from the bowl and took a small bite. "Delicious." She leaned forward through the drapes and opened her eyes to look at Genki. "They treat us as we should be treated…love."

Genki blushed, still not used to his new nickname for her. "Then maybe we should stay a while?"

At this, Mariana rolled over in her bed and sighed, staring at the ceiling of the bed's canopy like a bored teenage girl. "I would love to, but…the others are getting closer." She looked back at Genki, upside-down from her point of view, and saw his small pout. Grinning happily for the first time in a long time, she turned upright and let out a fake sigh.

"All right…if we have to."