FDB- I can't believe it. Only four more chapters. I'm really gonna miss you guys. –starts crying- But I don't think you will miss me after what I've done to you. I've probably let you down on a couple of chapters you were thinking would be good, and I forced you to wade through the screaming torrents of crap to get to the good stuff. I understand if you won't miss me. I guess you might not because you know that I'll be doing a sequel in conjunction with Shadoobie. –wink wink-

Lord Batman- So I did pretty good on the citrus last chapter, huh? Nice. And I suppose love means looking past the faults of the other. It must be hell for Yuna to look past Tidus' stupidity. And to answer your last question: Spring Break. Whatever time I don't spend blowing shit up for no apparent reason on Devil May Cry I spend typing.

Cor Strike FX- Jamie don't take shit from no one!

Sephirothxx- I think I know which episode you're talking about……I actually don't, but I believe you. I just thought it would be an interesting twist. And besides, it keeps Jamie from 'Wind Scar-ing the hell out of everything.'

Mandyfanforevr- It's not a lemon. I have no idea what the hell it is. It's some kind of citrus, but not a lemon. Lemon would be more graphic. And I'm glad you broke habit and tried something new. Tell your friends that do like 'random person comes to Spira' fics what you found.

Chapter 14: When you screamed.

"Well, this is it, eh?" Cid said as soon as Rikku and I walked in.

"Yu Yevon's hiding somewhere inside Sin, and we're gonna find him," Tidus said.

"Well, that sounds pretty simple."

"Hey! Simple is the way you like it, right?"

"You got that right."

"Whoa, hold on a sec," I said. "Can you explain what's going on to those of us who were unconscious for the past few hours?"

"Sin is being used by a summoner named Yu Yevon," Yuna explained. "We have figured out how to defeat Sin. Remember back at Macalania, Sin was listening to the Hymn of the Fayth?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with it?"

"Sin...violence incarnate, listening peacefully," Lulu said.

"We thought that if the Hymn can calm Sin, we could use it to distract Sin," Yuna continued.

"Then we move in for the goal!" Tidus reminds me so much of jock. Sports on the brain…IQ equivalent of a bag of potato chips…

"Yeah, well, who's Yu Yevon?"

"The guy inside Sin!" Tidus shouted. "We take him out, Sin won't come back."

"So…how do we get in?"

"We blow him a new blowhole!" Now Cid has style. "Now…" He walked over to a panel, flipped a few switches, and I heard the Hymn pour through the speakers. "Now, you kid go do your part."

I couldn't agree more. But now that it came to it, I wasn't all that anxious to defeat Sin. Maybe back at the beginning of all of this I was anxious to defeat Sin just so I could get home. Now, that I had chosen to stay, I was just along for the ride. But it didn't matter. I was going to do my part anyways.

We all went up on deck, ready as we ever were. The airship was heading right towards Sin, and it was staring us down with its million eyes. I was going to tear it apart for what it did back at Mi'ihen. We all just glared at it as we accelerated closer and closer to the final fight. I glanced over at Rikku, and found she was looking at me. We smiled at each other, and turned back to Sin to find its mouth open and a huge ball of energy building in it.

It fired. It ran right through the ocean, cutting a gutter through the land and water. It was like Moses parting the water, except I'm sure God had nothing to do with this. My eyes went wide and I saw Rikku run to the edge of the deck. She fell to her knees, blinking unbelievingly at the destruction. I couldn't believe it either. How could something be so powerful?

The Wind Scar won't be enough.

Then, Sin turned our way. Cid yelled over the intercom that there was no way in hell he was going to let us fight that thing. But we had to move in and end this. I wanted it to end. We watched at the water filled in the gap left by Sin. I turned back to Sin in time to see it pulling towards us. Cid said he saw what might be a weak spot at the base of the arm. It looked like it to me. It looked like a huge blue and purple flower.

We kept our distance at first. It didn't attack us as much as I had expected. I guess the Hymn is really doing its job. Wakka, Lulu, and Yuna were hitting it from a distance with magic, Wakka's ball, and the aeons. It was giving the rest of us a chance to build up for a close range assault. Yuna let the aeons go at it while she cast protective magic on us. Rikku was helping, too. I was getting kinda antsy waiting for our chance to attack.

Then, Rikku gave Cid the order to move in. I was ready. I already knew the Wind Scar wouldn't work here. It needed a surface to travel over. The airship inched closer to Sin, and Auron just let him have it. He lifted his sword, took a long drag from the jug he always carried, and…hawked a loogie on his sword. Ingenious! Death by old guy germs! But I didn't think that for long when he swung his sword at Sin, firing four balls of energy at it. Go Auron!

This time it was Tidus' turn. He rushed Sin's arm, and released eight or nine slashes on it. Couldn't really tell how many it was; he was moving too fast. Then, he plunged his sword into the hull of the airship and jumped off of it. Rikku tossed him a blitzball which he kicked right into Sin. I take back everything I ever said about the dumbass. That was just beautiful. And it gave me an idea.

While Kimahri was breathing fire on Sin…no idea how…I was going over my idea with Wakka. He seemed to get it. He talked to Yuna about it and she understood. She thought it was a good idea. While the others kept Sin busy...for some odd reason, now that we were close, it was slamming into the airship like crazy…Yuna cast a few shielding spells on one of Wakka's old blitzballs while I charged up the Wind Scar.

"Rikku!" I shouted. "Tell Cid to pull back!"

She looked at me like I was crazy, but I think she understood. The airship pulled away from Sin, which went back to a hypnotized state, and Wakka got between me and Sin.

"Here it comes, Jamie!" he shouted. "Hope you're ready."

You bet I was. I was holding Tetsusaiga in a batter's stance, wisps of the Wind Scar revolving around it, when Wakka threw his ball…right at me. I swung my sword, transferring the power of the Wind Scar to the ball, which was racing right towards Sin's soft spot. Going…going…gone! The Scar charged blitzball hit its mark, and I heard Sin…scream, maybe? If you could call that deep, earth-trembling roar a scream. But it started shaking and drifted farther and farther away from the airship.

"I can't believe that worked…"

Auron and I looked at each other, because we said that at the exact same time. I just grinned and he just shook his head. I didn't really expect that to work. That's why I talked Wakka into using one of his old blitzballs instead of his newer spiky one. I half expected the Wind Scar to fry it. Wakka was the one who had the idea to get Yuna to cast the shielding spells on it. No idea how it worked. I just figured that if the Wind Scar needs a surface to travel over, just bring the surface to Sin. Sure, if I'd timed it right, I could have Wind Scar-ed Sin when it slammed into the airship, but then it might wise up and attack a different way.

"Here goes!" Cid cackled through the radio. "Everyone, hold on to something! Here we go!"

Cid pulled away from Sin, and pointed us right at the Fin we had just fought. I heard the sound of metal on metal, and soon, a bolt of energy shot from under us and hit Sin. The Fin just broke right off. Sin couldn't be this easy to beat, could it?

"Couldn't have done it without you! All right!" Cid said. "Everyone look sharp! Time to hit the other side!"

Knew it. We have to go through all of that again: Sin slamming into the airship, throwing us around, launching another one of Wakka's blitzballs at it, slashing it, bombing it, stabbing it, torching, electrocuting, drenching, freezing, kicking, spitting, breathing fire or water, summoning. All of that all over again, just like the other side...sounds like fun.

And we did all of the above…except for the spitting. I think Auron ran out of whiskey. Or whatever the hell was in that jug. But we blasted Sin's other Fin off anyways. We were all jumping around and cheering, not really believing that Sin was actually going down. I had my arms around Rikku, but she had stopped jumping. I stopped and looked at her, but it looked like she was listening to her father.

"The main gun's busted!" she cried out.

"What?" I shouted. "Wait…if it's the main gun, then does this thing have…maybe…other guns?"

"No…"

Dammit. And here I thought that we had Sin on the run.

"Come on back inside," Cid said through the radio. "We need a new plan."

"No!" Tidus shouted. "We're going in! Every blitzer knows: when you got the ball, you gotta score!"

Now that actually made sense. In a dumb jock sorta way. But Kimahri jumped off of the airship right on top of Sin, and Tidus got all whiny, saying that star-players went first. Yep…jock to the core.

We all jumped and landed on Sin's back. What looked like a leafy armadillo was guarding another one of those blue-purple flower things. The armadillo opened up and revealed a huge plant monster that was, you guessed it, ugly. Everything here is ugly. Even Auron.

Now's my chance. Since I didn't get to use the Wind Scar properly back when we fought the Fins, I get to use it now. And I must've released at least five or six Wind Scars before the plant monster fell. Just the plant monster. We still had to detonate the flower. But keep in mind, I didn't unleash one Wind Scar after another. No, I let the others have fun, too. Mostly because Rikku was getting tired of me just Wind Scaring the hell out of everything. And have I ever mentioned how persuasive she can be?

I pretty much sat this one out. I got in a few hits, but no Wind Scars. But we eventually defeated it. Took longer than it would have with the Wind Scar, but id didn't mind. And I didn't even get in the last hit like I usually do. It was actually one of Yuna's new aeons, Yojimbo, that took it out. Don't remember when she got him…must've been when I was unconscious. He actually looked pretty cool. But he had a cooler sword than mine. And it destroyed the flower in one hit. No fair…

Sin's skin…or whatever we were standing on…started convulsing and shaking, and we jumped back over to the airship. We watched as Sin crashed into Bevelle, tearing up about half of it. I'm almost sorry that Seymour finished off Kinoc. Kinoc would have had a ball watching Sin fall on him. Oh, well… Guess he's in the Farplane as lardy as ever… But I still can't believe it! We actually took down Sin! Alright!

"It's going to come back, isn't it?" Yuna asked.

"I know," Tidus responded.

"What?" Cid shouted. "You're kidding me!" My thoughts exactly.

"No! We have to beat the guy inside Sin."

"The Crusaders would be out of a job if it was this easy." Wakka has a point.

"But it has weakened." But so does Lulu. "I'm sure of it."

"Yeah! We're winning!" I agree with Rikku.

"We gotta be doing something right, here," I said. "All we have to do now is get inside and raise some hell."

"Alright," Cid said to us. "I'll do what I can with the main gun!"

We all retreated back into the airship, and waited until Cid could fix the cannon. Rikku and I walked back to our room and sat down on the bed.

"Think we can win?"

"Absolutely. We came this far, I don't see why we can't go all the way." Good God, I'm starting to sound like Tidus.

"Yeah...Yeah! We can win!"

I loved the way she smiled. I just smiled at her and put my arms around her. She kissed me on the cheek and we just sat there in silence for a while. How am I going to say this? I didn't want anything to happen to Rikku, so this had to be done.

"Rikku…"

"Yeah, Jamie?"

"We…We're coming up to the last battle against Sin. And we have to go inside that thing. It's going to be dangerous. You…you could get hurt."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Promise me, Rikku. Promise me that when we get inside Sin, you'll stay here, in the airship."

"What? What are you talking about? It's just as much my fight as it is yours!"

"Promise me! I don't want you getting hurt."

"No way! I'm coming whether you like it or not!"

"If you won't stay for me, then stay for Yuna." She was silent after this. "She wouldn't want you getting hurt either. We both love you, Rikku. And I'm sure Cid isn't that keen on letting you in there…especially if he doesn't trust you with me."

She giggled lightly, but stayed silent. "Please, Rikku. Just promise me you'll stay on the airship when we get inside Sin."

"I…I promise…"

"Good. I love you, Rikku, and I don't want to lose you like I did Stephanie."

I hated doing that. But I just wanted her to be safe. I couldn't live with myself if Rikku got hurt. Cid called us all back to the bridge so we both stood and walked towards the door. We both stopped, door closed, and turned to each other. I stared into her eyes. I guess she closed her soul off to me, because I couldn't see the light in her eyes like I had seen earlier. I didn't blame her. But at least when this was over, she'd be safe and we'd be able to live together. Before heading to the bridge, we shared one last kiss.

I opened the door and walked out, Rikku not far behind me. We arrived at the bridge just in time to see Sin sprout wings and land on one of the towers of Bevelle. I thought we took that thing down! Didn't we?

"Well," Cid said, "the main gun is still busted! We can't give you any cover fire!"

"Hey, just take us in," Tidus said. "We'll do the rest."

"All right." We were all walking to the deck when Cid turned to Rikku's brother. "Take us up, flush to the mouth! No mistakes, or I'm gonna tear out that mop you call hair!" Cid can be frightening sometimes. I think I finally know where Rikku gets it…

Here we are. Face to…face...I guess…with Sin. The beginning of the end. I drew Tetsusaiga and prepared myself. Here it is. At first, Sin started out farther out, but quickly drew us in. Lulu, Wakka, and Yuna were the only ones who could do anything to it from this distance. Me and Wakka managed to hit him again with the Wind Scar/Blitzball combo, but this time, Sin knocked away the ball, and Wakka didn't want to use World Champion for it. Dammit. Guess I have to wait for Sin to get closer.

And it did. Rikku managed to mix up another bomb or two and toss them down Sin's throat, but it still wasn't close enough for the Wind Scar. Tidus, Auron, Kimahri, and I had to wait until Sin was within striking distance. Until then, Wakka, Lulu, Yuna, and Rikku could handle it.

But it finally moved close enough for us to get to it. Tidus let loose first, doing some gymnastics flips before slashing Sin. I think he's just trying to impress Yuna. Then Auron just rushed up and knocked the shit out of it. Original… Kimahri just kicked it. Lame...

As Sin got closer, I noticed what looked like a city on it's back. What the hell? Whatever. I charged up a Wind Scar and unloaded right in Sin's face. But it barely flinched. I eased over to the edge and noticed a small gap between Sin and the airship. It was only after that that I noticed it was charging up another one of those blasts that tore through the ocean.

We're in trouble.

We all started panicking. We started throwing everything we could at it. The Wind Scar wasn't much help because it couldn't reach Sin. But we weren't strong enough. It kept forming that ball of energy in its mouth. There's no way to deflect that thing. No way to deflect it…but there may be a way to redirect it!

I concentrated, just as I would before releasing the Wind Scar, but this time was different. I focused on the golden rift, of course, but I also focused on Sin's attack. Not entirely sure I can pull this off. But it has to work. If it doesn't, I won't be able to live my life with Rikku. Everything we've done will have been in vain. Yuna…everyone will die. This has to work.

I rushed right at the ball of energy, swinging my Wind Scar charged sword right into it. At first, it resisted the blow, but the ball was soon covered in the streams of the Wind Scar…and pushed right down Sin's throat. Its mouth quickly closed around it, and I think it actually swallowed it. Swallowing that…if it's what I think it is…can you say 'indigestion'?

Sin started convulsing, and after a few minutes, its mouth flew open, almost drawing us in. The others were cheering, but I was still in shock. But something quickly brought me around.

Seymour. Doesn't that fuckwad know when to die? I guess not. But we finally landed inside Sin, ready to end this. Rikku walked with us to the ramp, but didn't go any further. I just looked at her, smiled, and followed the others. I didn't want to leave her like this, but this was the only way she'd stay safe. Besides, when all of this is over, we can live together, and I'll never leave her again.

As we walked through Sin, I thought about what our battle with Yu Yevon would be like. I had no idea…hell, none of us had any idea what we were up against. I guess we'll just have to wing it when we get there. Maybe I should keep in mind what happened outside of Sin. What I pulled off out there would surely come in handy.

I just had to remember how I did it.

FDB- I've done some refiguring, and there are actually two more chapters left, then an epilogue. And I just have to say this. OMG! Anbu713 didn't review this chapter! But I suppose he'll like what Jamie did there at the end. Those of you who know Inuyasha, and know Tetsusaiga will know what Jamie pulled off. R&R!