Standard Disclaimer. I do not own FFX or the characters in it. They are owned by Square-Enix. I do own this story, and my original characters. The title of this chapter is from a song performed by Pat Benatar

After the party entered the old stadium, they paused just inside, to gaze in awe and wonder at the shattered glory that surrounded them. But not all. As they stood on the circular platform, Tidus' blue eyes met Mercy's brown ones, both glistening with unshed tears. They exchanged a long look, shared grief for the beauty that had once stood in this place, wrecked now beyond repair, almost even beyond recognition. She tried to catch Auron's eye as well, and found that he had turned his back to the others. As she moved to stand beside him, she saw that his eye was shut tight, his jaw locked, and his hands were clenched on the crumbled railing in front of him.

"What are you waiting for?" she whispered, leaning back to see his expression out of the corner of her eye, while still facing into the platform's center.
Before he had a chance to answer, two specters formed in the center of the circle, young women in Crusaders' uniforms, shaped out of pyreflies, and air. As Rikku fell to her knees, shivering with fright, one of the ghosts' voices rang hollowly in the stillness. "If it might benefit the future of Spira, I will gladly give my life. It is the highest honor for which a guardian might ask. Use my life, Lady Yocun, and rid Spira of Sin." Then, as instantly as they had appeared, the phantoms vanished.
Still cowering, Rikku asked in a quavering voice, "What…what was that?"
Auron had kept his back turned during the entire scene, but he supplied the answer. "Our predecessors." You knew that was coming, didn't you, his wife realized. You were waiting for it. You just…didn't want to see it again. I wonder why?
Lulu cried out, "She said 'Lady Yocun,' didn't she? Wait! She guarded High Summoner Yocun?" Mercy found herself wondering what exactly it was about Lady Yocun's guardian that Lulu found so surprising. That she was female, that she was a female Crusader, that she was the only guardian who survived this far, that both women seemed so young, or if it was something else altogether. Not that Lulu is ever likely to confide such a thing to me, she reflected.
Auron finally turned around to face the others. Only Mercy saw the lingering tightness around his mouth that indicated the strain that he was under at this moment. "This dome is filled with pyreflies," he explained. It's like one gigantic sphere. People's thoughts remain here. Forever." His jaw snapped shut on the final syllable, clearly indicating that he would not reopen the subject. He remained immobile as the rest of the party began to move on. She stayed beside him, her shoulder brushing against his arm.
"Her name was Miyoshi," he whispered, mostly to himself. "Yocun's guardian. Guardians' names are not recorded, but…Jecht told me her name. Miyoshi. Once we are gone, no one else will remember her."
"But they remember you," she whispered back.
"Only because I 'survived'," he responded bitterly. "You saw Miyoshi's fate."
"She was Yocun's fayth," Mercy replied, understanding dawning, "so she…"
"Yes." He looked up, and saw the others ahead of them. "Come, we must rejoin the rest." She nodded in reply.

Further inside the ruins, they came across another scene, as clear as if they were witnessing events that were occurring in the present, and not merely echoes of the past. But this echo caused more questions than it did answers. A boy, with jagged blue hair, still young enough to wipe his eyes with the ends of his sleeves when he cried, and a woman, wincing in pain as she talked to him.
"No! Mother, no!" the boy wailed. "I don't want you to become a fayth!"
But his mother's will was adamant, even if her flesh was failing. "There is no other way. Use me and defeat Sin. Only then will the people accept you."
The boy was still crying. "I don't care about them! I need you, Mother! No one else!"
"I don't…have much time left," she said, grimacing as some internal spasm gripped her.
After the specters vanished, they all stared at each other in stunned amazement. Wakka was the first to speak. "Hey, wasn't that…?"
Rikku finished for him. "Seymour?"
"Just a second," Mercy interrupted. "That was Seymour? I've never seen a Guado before, but…he was still a child. This just doesn't make sense."
"That image was recorded twenty years ago," Auron answered. "Seymour is no longer a child, I assure you."
"But what did she expect? That her baby would run out and defeat Sin, and die right then and there? Was she unhinged or something?" Mercy cried.
"I do not know." Auron replied calmly. "She was dying. Braska was an apprentice then, and he heard something of it from his teachers. She had some wasting disease…and the temples could not save her. They tried. But I fear that being granted such a powerful aeon so young may have been what 'unhinged' Seymour, as you put it."
Mercy shuddered. "That's if just bringing him here and watching his mother turn into a fayth didn't do the job all by itself."
"You are right. That…certainly could not have helped matters," Auron agreed.
Tidus, watching and listening to the two older guardians, couldn't help but think, Cool! I forgot about this. Mercy makes the old man talk. He says all sorts of interesting and useful stuff, once she gets him going. Looks like Yuna and Rikku are hanging on every word, but Lulu's face would spoil milk, if we had any. What's up with her?

As they crossed single file over a narrow bridge, more like a girder that had fallen to span what would otherwise be a break in the road, Mercy felt a cold chill run up her spine, and saw the ghostly figures of three men run through her body, passing through the entire party as though they were not even there. We weren't here, ten years ago, her mind stuttered, as she recognized Jecht first. He looks… almost exactly as I remember him. That face was everywhere, when he disappeared.
"Hey, Braska. You don't have to do this," Jecht said. It sounded like an old argument. Well, Mercy thought, at least he sounded sober. Finally.
"Thank you for your concern," answered the man with the gentle voice in the strange headdress and long, red and gray robes. So that was Braska. From Auron's descriptions, I always though he must have been the oldest of them, but seeing them together, he clearly wasn't. In that, as in everything else, he was the middle…the balance.
"Fine. I said my piece," Jecht stated, with an air of finality, as he crossed his arms over his chest and jerked his head in a sharp nod.
"Well, I haven't!" Auron cried out. "Lord Braska, let us go back! I don't want to see you…die!" Lords and Ladies, he was so young, her heart broke for him. Just a boy, as he always claimed. Headstrong, passionate, naïve, proud, and with his illusions still intact. Tears spilled down her face. In the present, Auron turned his back to the scene. He had lived this. He had no need to see it again…it was already etched in his soul. Mercy rested her head against his arm.
Braska's response was still gentle. "You knew this was to happen, my friend."
Auron's was pure pain. "Yes, but I…I cannot accept it."
Mercy lifted her head to look up into his anguished face, still turned away from the others. You still cannot, she mourned for him, as raised her hands across his chest and wrapped her hands around his bare left hand, flesh to flesh, and held on, until he returned her grip, hard and tight, both his eye sockets squeezed shut against the agony as he heard Braska's voice echo from the past, "Auron, I am honored that you care for me so. But I have come to kill grief itself. I will defeat Sin, and lift the veil of sorrow covering Spira. Please understand, Auron."
Only Mercy heard Auron's hoarse breath, "I am sorry, Braska. I never understood." He bowed his head in grief.

They trudged on through the wrecked and rubble-strewn corridors, fighting fiends every step of the way. They stopped for a rest break, and a cold meal, in the long corridor that Auron finally admitted led to the Trials. Mercy and Tidus poked around the area they had cleared, carrying on a desultory conversation while they both tried to guess what function this area of the stadium had served in its glory days. The building had gone so completely to wrack and ruin, that even Tidus could not say for certain which section they were in. But as Mercy examined the patterns on the walls in search of clues, she found that one of the decorative wall panels was loose, and it swung down, still attached by one corner, but revealing an open niche in the wall behind in. Light struck metal inside the recess, and Mercy's curiosity got the better of her. She reached in with both hands, and extracted the shards of two swords, two hilts, the wrappings mostly decayed, the tangs covered in rust, the broken metal of two shattered blades. Auron raised an eyebrow at her as she returned to her pack and extracted an old shirt, then returned and carefully scooped up the old weapons. She caught his eye as she placed the whole mess in her pack, and shrugged.

Just before they descended the stairs to the Trials, they saw Jecht, Braska, and Auron standing in the same spot. Jecht asked Braska, "Are the Trials ahead?"
And Braska replied, a small smile on his lips, "Probably."
"Here too, huh? Gimme a break." Jecht sounded disappointed. "I was expecting, you know, parades, and…fireworks!" he almost laughed, as he gestured expansively.
Braska actually did laugh softly. "You can ask for them after I defeat Sin."

Mercy stared, as one of the puzzle pieces finally, finally fell into place for her. I never understood until just now, she realized, because I forgot this. I just couldn't understand how Auron could form such a tight bond with someone like Jecht. Not the Jecht I remembered, anyway. But this man, this I understand. It all came back to him. The easy warmth, the brash charm, that was the Jecht that everyone loved, when he started out, twenty, twenty-five years ago. Before he turned arrogant, and then saw the years slipping by, and started to drink it all away. This charming rogue Jecht, battered and broken, but clean and sober and reckless and daring, matched with Braska's pure spirit and delicious sense of irony, and Auron's pure heart and youthful idealism. Now I see it. What a band of brothers they made! Shaking herself out of her reverie, she cast her gaze at the others, the others who were intimately linked to these shadows from the past. Yuna stood straight and proud, her love and admiration for her father and his guardians clear on her face. Rikku watched Braska with wide eyes, clearly fascinated with this glimpse of the uncle she did not remember meeting. But Tidus stood with his arms folded across his chest; defending himself against feeling anything other than the hatred he had carried for his father nearly all his life. And Auron stared at the ground, refusing to watch the past unfold again. Mercy looked at her husband, with his gaze fixed on his boots, and grieved, you cannot bear to watch them, can you, love? You miss them too much to even look at them now. You left part of your heart behind. I wish…I wish there was something I could do. In her heart, she cried for him.

As they took turns pacing through the multitude of puzzles that represented the Trials of Zanarkand, Mercy asked Auron. "Are the Trials always this boring?"
"Yes," he answered impatiently. "Now leave me be, woman. I need to think," he finished harshly. He was trying to remember every detail of his last battle with the Spectral Keeper, a fiend they would face as soon as they completed the Trials. One detail he simply did not know, because this party was so much larger. Best to be cautious, he decided, as he planned the encounter in his mind, not paying attention to the direction his wife had gone.
Mercy muttered, "Be that way," and stalked off to join Tidus. She jerked a thumb in Auron's direction. "He do that often?"
"Yeah," the young man answered, "but not so much since you got here. He missed you."
She shrugged. "Not right now."

Rikku brought the last puzzle piece back to complete the Trials, and they all returned to the main room, expecting a door to open, or an elevator to be revealed, leading to the Chamber of the Fayth. Instead, the Spectral Keeper greeted them. Auron started shouting battle orders, as he took the position right in front of the massive fiend. "Mercy, take the glyph two to my right, Yuna, two left. It sweeps with its tail, but its most powerful attack is with its pincers in front. Do not let it face you; the pincer attack will knock you out. Move if that happens. If the glyph you are standing on starts to glow, that means the glyph is mined and will explode. Move immediately. Tidus, Hastega."
As she ran to her assigned position, Mercy thought, Of course, he is their battle commander. Who else? Then she heard Lulu's voice break in, starting to question Auron's orders. "But, why…" the black mage began.
Kimahri cut her off. "No questions. Enemy not wait for questions."
Mercy settled into a fighting stance, centered herself into the calm that always came just before a battle began, then she felt the effects of Tidus' magic rev up her entire body, and the world around her slowed to a crawl. Rikku tap-danced over the platform to her right, twitched something from behind the monster's massive shoulder, and floated away. A white shield floated in the air in front of her, and then she saw the creature reach out with its talons to strike at Auron. She slashed at it, intending to distract it, hoping it would stretch out a limb he could hack at with his heavier sword. He cut into its right leg, and it swiped at him again. Auron fell to one knee momentarily. Yuna threw another shield in front of him. Mercy leapt up, driving at its eyes, distracting it again while Yuna healed Auron, she hoped. A tail sweep, and Yuna staggered, before getting her own airy shield in place. The fiend turned, and Mercy found herself looking directly into its eyes. "Move!" Auron yelled.
She vaulted over its head, stabbing at its eyes again as she passed, finding ichor dripping on her long sword when she landed, knowing that she had scored. The Spectral Keeper howled in pain. Auron moved to the forward position again and took another attack from its forelegs. Yuna surprised them all by casting Flare on the creature, and it retaliated by sweeping both women with its tail. Mercy looked down, and saw that the glyph she was standing on was pulsing with light. The only open spots were almost directly in front of the enemy. She jumped. Auron took one look at the situation and gave his orders. "You, out. Wakka, in, now," and the fight continued.
The fight ended with the Spectral Keeper dispersing in a cloud of pyreflies. Everyone spent the next few minutes either bent forward, or flopped on the floor, catching their breath and checking for wounds that hadn't been noticed in the heat of battle. "Enemy dead. Now is time for questions," Kimahri announced.
"No, it is not," Auron stated. "We must move on. You either trust me, or you do not. If you wish to choose another tactician, you are free to do so. But do it now, not while a fiend is breathing down our necks."
Wakka glanced around at the others, then spoke quickly, "No, Sir Auron. Everything's fine the way it is, ya. We don' want to change nothing right now. Lu's just getting nervous, that's all. Right, Lu?" he asked, looking anxiously at the black mage. She just stared back at him. "See, that's right. We're just getting kinda jumpy. Okay, Sir Auron?"
Auron nodded. "In that case," he turned sharply to Rikku, "that was a very foolish stunt you pulled at the beginning. You are lucky that fiend didn't slap you to the ground right then. Do not try that again. Understood?"
Rikku stared at the ground, and nodded meekly.
The young Al Bhed was downcast as they moved toward the elevator in the center of the chamber. Mercy whispered in Rikku's ear, "You were too far forward. That's how he saw you. You need to be more to his right next time."
Rikku looked into the older woman's eyes, and saw the mischief lighting them. "Oooh, so that was it. I wondered what went wrong. Thanks," she smiled in gratitude.
"Don't mention it," Mercy replied, very softly. "Please, don't ever mention it." Rikku rolled her eyes, and giggled.

Auron stood with Yuna at the edge of the platform that would descend to the Chamber of the Fayth. "Yuna," he called to her, in a surprisingly gentle voice, "We're here."
She met his gaze steadily. "The hall of the Final Summoning." Is not quite what you imagine, Mercy continued to herself.
"Go," Auron directed the young summoner.
"Yes," Yuna replied. Then she bowed her head and stepped onto the elevator.
Yuna descended to the depths on the platform. As the interminable minutes stretched out, Mercy took advantage of Auron's distraction to ask, "What were you wracking your brain about earlier?"
Without glancing away from the spot where the elevator would reappear, he replied, "Trying to remember if the damn fiend closed the circle behind us when it mined the glyphs."
"Oh," she breathed. "But it didn't."
"I don't think we tested it ten years ago," he answered, his concentration still fixed on Yuna and the absent platform. "There were only three of us. There was no need."

Then Jecht's voice shouted from the past, "What do you mean, no Final Aeon!" as Yuna returned to the surface and hurried them all onto the platform to descend with her to the Chamber of the Fayth. The open elevator was a tight squeeze for eight people, and Mercy found herself crowded close against Auron, her back against his chest, and, all too briefly, his hands on her waist. She clasped her own hands over his and squeezed gently, their embrace mostly concealed by the tight press of the party surrounding them.

Yuna knelt at the base of the statue, examining it carefully. The others arrayed themselves around the edge, watching her. "This isn't a fayth," she pronounced at last. "It's just an empty statue."
The old priest appeared behind Yuna.
"That statue lost its power as a fayth long ago," he intoned. "It is Lord Zaon, the first fayth of the Final Summoning. What you see before you is all that remains of him. Lord Zaon is... his soul is gone."
Wakka was incredulous. "Gone!" he shouted.
Rikku was even more disbelieving. "You mean, there is no Final Aeon?"
Yunalesca's aide responded placidly to their outbursts, "But fear not. Lady Yunalesca will show you the path. The Final Aeon will be yours. The summoner and the Final Aeon will join powers. Go to her now. Inside, the lady awaits."
He performed the prayer gesture, then vanished. Yuna walked toward where the wall used to be, to the barrier of blue-green energy that had appeared in its place.
Tidus called out, "Yuna, wait!" then he turned to the older guardian. "Auron, you knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" Mercy was standing between the two of them, and she found herself pulling back, taking a step that brought her closer to Auron's side. She knew that her silent support was the only thing she could offer at this point. He had told her his reasons for not preparing them for this revelation, now he would have to reap what he had sown. But Tidus…his expression, his voice, his body language…were a study in contradictions. It's like he can't make up his mind whether to be defiant or defensive, so he's about half and half, she decided.
Auron replied simply, "Yes."
Rikku burst out, "Why didn't you tell us?"
Auron was as impassive as ever. "If I had told you the truth, would that really have stopped you from coming?" But he did not address himself to Tidus, or to Rikku. His remark was addressed to Yuna, because to him, she was the one who mattered, now.

But Mercy watched the others as well. They had all trusted Auron, and she could tell by the expressions on their faces that that trust was now shaken. They would all still have come, he had been right about that. But in their minds, he had lied to them. A lie of omission was still a lie, especially if you were on the receiving end. They all felt betrayed. Tidus was taking it in stride; he seemed to have grown used to discovering that Auron had neglected to tell him something. But Wakka was clearly in shock, he had the look on his face of someone who has just discovered that his hero has feet of clay.
Kimahri addressed himself to Yuna's back, as she had already turned toward the shining doorway. He just said her name, nothing more.
Yuna responded to what she perceived as an unspoken question. "I'm not going back."
Kimahri knew his summoner too well. "Kimahri knows. Kimahri goes first. Yuna is safe. Kimahri protect." Auron really did get lucky when he chose Kimahri, Mercy decided. Kimahri could not love his own daughter more.
Then she watched in silence as Kimahri walked through the blue doorway first, followed by Yuna, then Auron. Mercy followed her husband, and heard the others' footsteps behind her.

The party entered a large, relatively intact, chamber, and found themselves facing a grand staircase. Auron and Mercy remained near the exit, while the others moved forward, Yuna leading, Kimahri faithfully guarding her. A woman appeared at the top of the stairs. As Yuna breathed the name, "Lady Yunalesca," with reverence, Mercy studied the form of the witch who had killed her husband. How does she manage to look so regal wearing a metal filigree bra and a thong? And why does she choose to appear as a siren instead of a queen? Are most summoners and their guardians men? Does the bitch figure that they will be too busy looking at her tits to think about what she is saying? I suppose it's worked for a thousand years, why mess with success, she conceded sarcastically.

Yunalesca addressed herself to her namesake with the prayer gesture. "Welcome to Zanarkand. I congratulate you, summoner. You have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow you with that which you seek. The Final Summoning...will be yours. Now, choose." She walked down the stairs, and swept her arm out in a gesture to indicate the members of Yuna's party. "You must choose the one whom I will change...to become the fayth of the Final Summoning." The entire party gasped in complete astonishment, except Auron and Mercy, standing silently together in the back of the room.

Yunalesca continued, undeterred by the brief interruption. "There must be a bond, between chosen and summoner, for that is what the Final Summoning embodies: the bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends. If that bond is strong enough, its light will conquer Sin. A thousand years ago, I chose my husband Zaon as my fayth. Our bond was true, and I obtained the Final Aeon." Yunalesca went on, a note of pity in her voice. "There is nothing to fear. You will soon be freed of worry and pain. For once you call forth the Final Aeon, your life will end. Death is the ultimate and final liberation. Your father, Braska, chose this path."

As the lady floated away, she was replaced by the images of Braska, Jecht, and the young Auron, and the party watched the three men discuss the same decision that they now faced. Mercy viewed the replay of their debate with pain and with wonder. It was the beginning of it all, she knew. Because of this, and what came after, we are all standing here now. Braska's daughter, and her friends, Jecht's son, Auron, and I. Because of this.

"It is not too late! Let us turn back!" the young Auron cried. Oh my love, Mercy's heart cried, you were shouting the roof down. It should have fallen for you.
"If I turn back, who will defeat Sin? Would you have some other summoner and his guardians go through this?" Braska asked, a surprising amount of steel in his usually patient voice.
"But...my lord, there must be another way!" Auron pleaded. That was what the fayth heard, Mercy nodded to herself. I can see it in his eyes, that he believed it must be possible. The bitch-queen did not fascinate him enough to overset his reason, or his love. Those five words, shouted with conviction, changed my life…and I didn't even know, Mercy reflected.
Jecht broke in, his voice a combination of resignation and determination. "This is the only way we got now! Fine. Make me the fayth. I been doing some thinking. My dream is back in the other Zanarkand. I wanted to make that runt into a star blitz player. Show him the view from the top, you know. But now I know there's no way home for me. I'm never going to see him again. My dream's never gonna come true. So make me the fayth. I'll fight Sin with you, Braska. Then maybe my life will have meaning, you know." Damn you, Jecht. Your life did have meaning. Your wife. Your son! You threw it all away. Drank it away. But we made your dream come true for you. I hope you know that, Mercy found herself wishing, suddenly, desperately.
Auron still beseeching, now turned to the older man, "Don't do this, Jecht! If you live...there may be another way! We'll think of something, I know!" Mercy felt like her own heart was breaking. Tears were running down her face, but she was so caught up in the scene before her, the emotions that it evoked, that she wasn't even aware that she was crying.
Jecht's voice held only conviction now. "Believe me, I thought this through. Besides...I ain't gettin' any younger, so I might as well make myself useful." Damn you, Jecht, Mercy cursed silently. You were a fool. There was plenty of use left in you.
Braska walked up to face the blitzer, and just said his name.
"What! You're not gonna try to stop me, too?" Jecht replied, in his usual brash tones.
"Sorry. I mean...thank you." Braska said quietly, overcome with gratitude.
Jecht briefly placed his hands on Braska's shoulders in a gesture of solidarity, or possibly, reassurance. Then Jecht turned to Auron. "Braska still has to fight Sin, Auron. Guard him well. Make sure he gets there." He turned back to Braska. "Well, let's go." And Braska and Jecht began to walk away.
Auron tried one last time, "Lord Braska! Jecht!"
Jecht answered impatiently, "What do you want now?"
Auron practically shouted his final argument. "Sin always comes back. It comes back after the Calm every time! The cycle will continue and your deaths will mean nothing!" You were half-right, love. The cycle did continue, but their deaths…meant that we are all standing here, now. That may be something, after all.
Braska responded in his usual patient manner. "But there's always a chance it won't come back this time. It's worth trying." I never understood what the phrase 'patience of a saint' meant, until now, Mercy realized. Braska clearly had that much, and that kind, of patience.
Jecht sounded so sure of himself. "I understand what you're saying, Auron. I'll find a way to break the cycle." You convinced the fayth, you caught at some piece of Jecht's heart, or his pride, and he went along with you, at least partway, and the fayth saw it.
Auron wanted to believe so badly; it was plain on his face. "You have a plan?"
"Jecht?" Braska asked.
But Jecht was just being cocky. "Trust me, I'll think of something." Then he laughed.
Auron's ghost fell to his knees in grief, and despair. Mercy felt the man beside her stir, and tried to catch his arm as he moved, but was unable to stop him. She watched as he tried to expiate his guilt and his pain, by slicing at the forlorn figure of his younger self.

Bonds, Mercy reflected. Lords and Ladies, there are so many bonds in this room; the air is positively pulsing with them. If we were bound any tighter, we wouldn't be able to move. But isn't that Yunalesca's whole argument? Everyone in Spira is so bound by the damn traditions, they can't see or think for themselves. Poor Yuna, she is confined most of all. Her father even named her after that bitch. And all of her guardians have deep-rooted bonds to her, except for me. Two foster-fathers, one foster-brother, one foster-sister, one cousin, one lover. By Yunalesca's reckoning, any of her guardians would make a fine choice, except that, from what I can see, she only has three volunteers. Only Wakka, Lulu and Kimahri seem willing to be Yuna's fayth. As the discussion continued around her, her thoughts stuttered, and paused. But the other fayth, Shiva, Yojimbo, and the dreamers and the listeners, they woke up ten years ago. They couldn't have been certain which summoner would be standing here now, but they have been hoping that Auron would be standing here guarding that summoner. It's his bonds that matter, because he is tied to all of us, not just all of us now, but those two lost souls ten years ago. Maybe it's three lost souls, maybe he lost a part of himself then, too, a part he still needs to find. Her thoughts sped up, as the concept took wing in her mind. Braska, his loved and revered older brother. Jecht, the 'black-sheep' brother, so opposite as to be almost a rival, but his brother nevertheless. Kimahri, who redeemed his oath for him, and saved him from being forsworn, a debt of honor he can never repay. Yuna, Braska's daughter, and Tidus, Jecht's son. He had promised both their fathers that he would guard them. He gave his word, which he never breaks, not even in death. He loves Tidus as if he were his own son, even if he will never admit it. Wakka's hero worship of him carries its own burden, and its own obligation, as does Lulu's envy and jealousy. But I still may have to scratch that witch's eyes out one of these days, Mercy thought, totally irrelevantly. In a blinding flash, she realized the meaning of something that Auron had said that morning, when he had said that, 'even if Yuna chooses the Final Aeon, we should be able to salvage something.' What we could salvage, she guessed, would be Rikku. Between us, we could make sure that Rikku survives, and makes her way safely back to her people. The Al Bhed would have the best chance of protecting her from any possible backlash the temples might send against a surviving guardian, and she could carry the truth forward to another generation. Mercy sighed. And I am only here because I am bound to him, and he to me. Our bond has already proved true, as Yunalesca put it, otherwise I wouldn't be standing here to think these thoughts. The fayth probably hoped that he would forewarn his summoner, that she would be prepared when this time came. But I think he loved Braska too much, or loves Yuna too much, to tie her hands that way, when she has already spent her whole life marching down a preordained path. Her gaze fastened on Tidus for several heartbeats. Now, it may be her love for Tidus that saves this place. But I wonder, what happens to him if the dreamers find their rest? Mercy walked the length of the chamber, to Auron's side. She let her shoulder brush against his arm as they stood together. She wished she could do more, but there was no comfort she could offer for this pain, only support. They remained silent, listening as the argument wound down. When the decision was made to ask Yunalesca, Mercy began to hope. She and Auron exchanged a glance as they went last through the door at the top of the stairs, and one word, one, "Maybe."

The stairs led, not to another room of the stadium, but to a platform paved with gray stones, suspended high above the dome, the air slightly thin, under the night sky and the stars. Yunalesca appeared opposite them, appearing as if on a stage designed expressly for her performance.
"Have you chosen the one to become your fayth?" Yunalesca asked eagerly. "Who will it be?"
"Might I ask something first?" Yuna questioned her in return. "Will Sin come back, even should I use the Final Summoning to defeat it?"
Yunalesca spoke as she would to a child. "Sin is eternal. Every aeon that defeats it becomes Sin in its place. And thus is Sin reborn."
Tidus muttered under his breath, "So that's why Jecht became Sin."
Yunalesca continued, "Sin is an inevitable part of Spira's destiny. It is never ending."
Wakka burst out, "Never ending? But…but…if we atone for our crimes, Sin will stop coming back, ya? Someday, it'll be gone, ya?"
Poor Wakka, Mercy thought. He is a true believer. Will it crush him, or make him stronger? I only know Braska from Auron's memories, and his daughter not at all yet, but if Yuna has any of her father in her, then all of her guardians will rise to the occasion. Mercy crossed her fingers behind her back again.
"Will humanity ever attain such purity?" Yunalesca asked, more than a hint of condescension in her tone.
Lulu strode forward in righteous indignation. "This…this cannot be! The teachings state that we can exorcise Sin with complete atonement! It's been our only hope all these years!"
Temper, temper. So Lulu's cool exterior conceals a believer as well, Mercy noted in surprise.
"Hope is…comforting. It allows us to accept fate, however tragic it might be." Yunalesca continued to treat them as though they were children.

Two young, male voices cried, "No!" simultaneously, Tidus' and Auron's, ten years ago, both rushing forward, swords drawn. They all watched as Auron's earlier incarnation confronted Yunalesca alone. Mercy braced herself for what she knew was coming.
In his rage, and his grief, the younger Auron shouted, "Where is the sense in all this? Braska believed in Yevon's teachings and died for them! Jecht believed in Braska and gave his life for him!"
In the past, Yunalesca replied patiently, "They chose to die…because they had hope."
The ghostly Auron charged at her, and she hit him with a powerful blast. He went flying backwards through the air and landed in a crumpled heap, silently, his sword stabbing the ground.
Mercy had tried to brace herself for this, she had known all along it was coming…but it hadn't help. She gasped aloud when her husband's spectral form collapsed on the pavement, and she had to dig her nails into her palms to keep herself from rushing forward to help him, even through she knew it was ten years too late. This was…his death. No one could have survived that. No one. I'm amazed he managed to crawl over the mountain to meet Kimahri. If he hadn't been such a fool…we would never have met. But I would have spared him this…if I could. She desperately wanted to wrap her arms around him, now, in the present, to hold on tight and never let go, to take some tiny piece of this pain away, and knew that she couldn't. He would never allow himself to show that kind of weakness, not in front of the bitch who killed him. Mercy looked into her Auron's tight, set face, and then turned, and saw a cold, triumphant little smile on the present day face of the witch-queen.

In the present, Yunalesca began the lesson again, as she advanced the last few steps to confront them. "Yevon's teachings and the Final Summoning give the people of Spira hope. Without hope, they would drown in their sorrow. Now, choose. Who will be your fayth? Who will be the one to renew Spira's hope?"

In the silence, Mercy found herself wishing that she believed in some kind of a Supreme Being, so that she could pray right now. She didn't, so she would have to settle for hope. She hoped, with all her heart, that Yuna would make the right choice, the hard choice, the choice that Spira really needed. At Yuna's first words, her soul lifted.

Yuna's words rang in the quiet. "I choose…no one. I would have gladly died. I live for the people of Spira, and would have gladly died for them. But no more! The Final Summoning…is a false tradition that should be thrown away."
Yunalesca was appalled. "No. It is our only hope. Your father sacrificed himself to give that hope to the people. So they would forget sorrow."
"Wrong," Yuna began, her head bowed. "My father," her voice gained strength, and she raised her head to face the lady, "My father wanted…to make Spira's sorrow go away, not just cover it up with lies!"
Yunalesca tried to regain the upper hand. "Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try."
Yuna refused to yield. "My father…I loved him. So I…I will live with my sorrow, I will live my own life! I will defeat sorrow, in his place. I will stand my ground and be strong. I don't know when it will be but someday, I will conquer it. And I will do it without…false hope."
Mercy's heart filled with wonder. I'm not sure Tidus deserves her. But I think her father…would be very proud of her.
Yunalesca's voice was filled with pity. "Poor creature. You would throw away hope. Well…I will free you before you can drown in your sorrow. It is better for you to die in hope than to live in despair. Let me be your liberator."
Lady Yunalesca revealed her true form at last. She would fight them to keep the secret of the Final Summoning. She would fight them as a fiend.

Auron shouted "Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!" They must choose to fight, his mind screamed. They must! Or it has all been in vain. For a few seconds, he heard nothing but the sound of his own heart beating. Then he heard the sounds he had waited ten years to hear…weapons being drawn and readied, around him, beside him. Relief flooded through his system, and with it, renewed hope. He closed his eye. Braska, Jecht, he called in his mind, I did my best. I hope it proves enough.
Kimahri addressed Yuna, "Yuna needs Kimahri. Kimahri protect Yuna."
Rikku spoke to no one in particular, "Well, I'm fighting!"
Wakka spoke to Lulu, "I can't believe we're gonna fight Lady Yunalesca! Gimme a break!"
Lulu responded wryly, "You can always run."
Wakka replied, "Hah! I'd never forgive myself-no way! Not if I ran away now. Even in death, ya!"
Lulu smiled at him. "My thoughts exactly."
Mercy looked over at Auron, and said quietly, so that only he could hear, "That was quite a speech, coming from you. But I don't think our own story is done just yet, either."
She only heard a short "Hmph" in response, but she saw the corner of his mouth turn up, just a little.
Tidus called out, "Yuna! This is our story! Now let's see this thing through together!" Yuna nodded to him in reply.
Then Auron started shouting battle orders, directing Rikku to, "Steal whatever you plan to, quickly, then set up a healing station behind the lines. Now! Everyone else, we should not all engage her at once. She is old, and powerful. We will need reserves. Three at a time. Lulu, Wakka with me, now!"

Lulu's doublecast her spells, and they were moderately effective, but Yunalesca countered by silencing the mage after each casting. Wakka thumped the witch soundly with his ball, but she blinded him after every hit. Auron struck hard at the fiend. She blinded him as well, but he had trained himself to fight while sightless, and he was nearly as effective a fighter without his sight as he was with it. Mercy, seeing Wakka stumble around, yelled, "Wakka, get out, I have a charm that makes me immune to blindness!"
"Whatever you say, lady," he shouted back, and dropped out of the fight, as Mercy took his place. Mercy sank her blades into Yunalesca's midriff, and the witch fell. But her satisfaction was short-lived, as the witch-fiend rose again, surrounded by a mass of lacy black tentacles. Those tentacles plunged into the ground and came up underneath each member of the party currently in the battle, turning them each into zombies and slapping them around viciously. Yuna switched with Lulu and threw up one of her protection shields around herself, as both Auron and Mercy each quickly drank something to counteract the zombie effect so Yuna could heal them as they fought. They could not quite reach Yunalesca herself, so they had to settle for hacking at the tentacles, which they both did with a will. Mercy saw the shimmer of an airy shield go up around her, just before another round of tentacles came up from the ground again. She cursed as the zombie effect took hold again. It made her feel nasty and slimy, as though the flesh were trying to creep off her bones. She cursed as she fought, but she kept going.

"Don't fight the zombie effect," Auron shouted. "I think she's going to change again, and I don't know what will happen." Yuna cast Holy, and the unholy creature morphed into something from the blackest pit of hell. An enormous, disembodied head with putrid yellow eyes, a forked tongue, and thick, snake-like tentacles for hair cradled the great lady of Yevon in its tender embrace. Then she cast a death spell on all three of them. And it failed, because they were all still suffering from the zombie effect she had inflicted upon them. So she sent her tentacles up through the floor again, and slapped them all around even more violently then before. And left Mercy's body a shattered wreck on the stone.

Auron heard Yuna gasp, and turned his head, and saw his wife lying lifeless on the floor. He did the only thing he could. He moved to stand over her, to shield her with his own body. An instant later, he felt someone at his right side, and glanced to see Tidus standing shoulder to shoulder with him, protecting Mercy together until Wakka and Kimahri carried her gently away. Auron stepped back into his own place in the center of the battle line, and a blood red haze fell over his vision. Moving more swiftly than should have been possible, he drove in and swung his great sword across the fiend's enormous yellow eyes, over and over, until his blade dripped with the ichor. He delivered blow after blow, leaving great tearing rents in the creature's face. But as he struck at the monster, he paid no attention to his own defense, and its tentacles delivered repeated whips and cuts to arms, legs, and face. The severe blows from the heavy tentacles cracked two of his ribs, and blood was dripping down his face, and down his arms until his hands were so slippery he was having difficulty holding onto his sword. He, too, was taking heavy damage, damage that his rage was allowing him to ignore, but which would eventually destroy him if he didn't come to his senses in time to save himself.

Kimahri decided not to wait. He waded in, wrapped his great arms around Auron's biceps, effectively putting the older guardian in a blue-furred straitjacket, and carried the man out of the fight and back to the healing station, while Wakka took Auron's place in the battle. The swordsman struggled with the Ronso every step of the way, until Kimahri carried him to where Rikku was passing out potions and field-dressings, and a woman's voice finally penetrated the fog in his brain, saying, "Auron, it's okay. I'm all right. But what the hell happened to you?"
Kimahri felt the fight go out of the man, and released him. Auron stumbled, because as the rage left him, the effects of his many wounds took its place. The Ronso helped him find the ground in a more dignified manner than simply falling in a heap, as Rikku rushed up with some potions. "Rikku, get me some rags and some water, too, will you?" Mercy asked the girl. Then she sat on the ground beside Auron, and touched his face, trying to find a place where he wasn't cut up. "What happened?"
Kimahri answered, one word, "Berserker." Then he left them alone.
Auron swallowed the potions, wincing as the effects coursed through him. Then he pulled her roughly into his arms, and held on tight. She wrapped his ponytail around her fist and dragged his head up. "Don't you dare ever do that again. Do you hear me? I didn't go through all this shit just to lose you now." Then she kissed him, hard, just to emphasize her point. "Okay, let's go finish this bitch and get the hell out of here," she finished, standing up and reaching down her hand to him. He took it, and stood and they turned to see what was happening.

Yuna had just called Bahamut. Mercy gasped. She had never seen an Aeon before. She'd never seen a dragon before, either, except in a painting. But there he was. "Wow, wow, WOW!" she screamed in excitement. Then the Aeon sent a massive number of flares straight at the queen-fiend, and they finally defeated Lady Yunalesca. At last, the witch lay on the stones, returned to her original form, trying one last time, either to seduce the men with her body or to frighten the children with her words. Mercy wasn't sure which effect the old fiend was aiming for. She looked around the circle, and it was a circle. They were surrounding Yunalesca, making sure that she couldn't escape. But they were all still fascinated, and were ready to hang on her every word, and every gesture, until the end. Except for Auron. He kept his back turned to the witch who had killed him. He had done what he set out to do. He clearly felt no need to watch. Mercy looked up, saw the tight, set look on his face. He clearly felt no need to forgive the bitch, either. Mercy stood beside him, facing into the circle with the others, but laid her hand on his arm.

"If I die, Yunalesca said pitifully, "So does the Final Aeon. And with it, Spira's only hope." Thank goodness for that, Mercy thought with relief. No one will have to go through this again!
Defiantly, Tidus shot back, "Then we'll find Spira a new hope!" Don't get too full of yourself, honey. There'll be no living with you. Mercy wanted to laugh hysterically, and realized that she was just overwhelmed with relief. She tamped down the reaction, but still felt a small smile cross her face. Tidus was irrepressible.
Yunalesca let her contempt show. "Fool. There is no other way." Then, with resignation, she went on, "Even if there was…Even if you did destroy Sin…Yu Yevon the immortal would only create Sin anew."
"Yu Yevon?" Tidus questioned.
But Yunalesca was beyond responding to him. "Ah…Zaon…Forgive me…" she cried sadly. "Spira has been robbed of the light of hope…All that remains is sorrow," she wailed, as she vanished in a swirl of pyreflies.

Yuna was suddenly overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. "I cannot believe what we just did," she said, shaking her head. Now, child, wait until you realize that you will get to worry about having a life to live. Mercy almost smiled. Then you really won't believe it. But at least, now you have a chance.
But Tidus was filled with confidence by their success, and it rang clear in his voice. "Let's do something more unbelievable," he challenged.
"What?" Rikku asked.
"Destroy Sin," he answered, sounding very sure of himself. So it won't come back, and without the Final Aeon. I don't know how just yet. But I'll find out." I hope you do, Mercy thought, because that is what has to happen. That is what the fayth want. And I know for certain, that that is what Spira needs.

Before they left the scene of Yunalesca's defeat they found another one of those strange crests. They still had no idea what the things were for, although by this time the party had acquired several. After they moved back into the room with the grand staircase everyone else kept going, heading outside the old stadium, but Auron motioned Tidus to remain behind. Mercy decided to stay unless Auron asked her to leave. I think I know what this is all about. Why did Yunalesca show us that scene? With Auron there? Was she taunting him? Was she trying to make everyone guess? I would have known that was a deathblow, just by watching it. Especially the way he landed. She grimaced at the memory. Tidus probably guesses the truth. It's better if Auron tells him now, instead of making this another 'lie of omission', she reasoned. Of course, I'm not taking my own advice. Not yet.

"There is something you should know." Auron told the young man.
"I know...it's about you, right?" Tidus replied.
"I am also an unsent. "You are not surprised?" Auron strove to keep his voice calm, but Mercy heard the strain in it.
"I think I kinda knew. It was Yunalesca, wasn't it?"
Auron forced the words out. "When Braska and Jecht died defeating Sin...I just couldn't accept it." His thoughts began to run in a private counterpoint to his words, I did not accept the necessity of Braska's sacrifice before I knew about Sin…after…well… "I came back here...tried to avenge them." Jecht was right…it had been stupid…incredibly, idiotically, fatally stupid. "But she struck me down." And I was too stubborn to die on the spot, the way I should have. "Somehow I made my way, crawling, down Mount Gagazet." Crawling, stumbling, sometimes screaming in pain. That journey still lives in my nightmares. "But my strength left me just outside Bevelle." Thanks to some final assistance from a chimera. "That's where Kimahri found me. I told him about Yuna... just before I died." And decided that I was not ready to rest on the Farplane. "I've been wandering ever since, never going to the Farplane.
Tidus flinched in memory of the encounter he had witnessed. "Auron..."
"Don't make that face. Being dead has its advantages." Auron smiled warmly at Mercy, now standing next to Tidus. No masks were necessary when the three of them were alone together. "I was able to ride Sin and go to your Zanarkand."
"And you've been watching over me since then, haven't you? Why?" he demanded. "What's the big idea? Why me?"

"It is one of those things that is difficult to explain. Very well, I will show you," Auron replied in resignation, then he walked to the center of the chamber. "My memories," he stated, and knelt with his back to them. As pyreflies escaped from his body, Tidus and Mercy saw Jecht and Braska in the same room, through his eyes, ten years ago.
Jecht seemed almost embarrassed as he asked, "Can I ask you one last favor? Uh...Nah. Never mind."
"Out with it!" Auron demanded impatiently.
Jecht responded with more of his old confidence. "Okay. Listen good. Take care of my son. My son, in Zanarkand. He's such a crybaby. He needs someone there to hold his hand, see? Take care of him, will you?" Mercy bowed her head and closed her eyes. Thank you, Jecht. Thank you so much, she thought.
Auron was incredulous. "But how am I supposed to go to Zanarkand?"
Jecht threw Auron's words back at him with a barking laugh. "Hey! You said it yourself! There must be a way to get there, right? You'll find it."
"All right, I will! I give you my word. I'll take care of your son. I'll guard him with my life."
Jecht was serious for just a moment. "Thanks, Auron." But he returned to his usual mocking tones almost instantly. "You were always such a stiff, but that's what I liked about ya." Then Auron shut down his memory projection as Jecht approached him, clearly intending to hug him, but the vision faded before either Tidus or Mercy could be certain.
Mercy looked from one to the other. He gave his word, and he kept it, with no idea what in the hell he was letting himself in for. And here we are. Now that we've just thrown all their 'teachings' out the window, I wonder what happens next?

As Auron rose from the floor, Tidus turned to Mercy, and asked, "You've known this all along?"
"Yes. He told me the day before I met you," she replied.
Tidus hugged her against his side for a moment, and she rubbed her cheek into his shoulder, debating whether this was the time to tell him the rest. She closed her eyes for a second, and felt Auron take her hand and squeeze it gently. "Let's go," he said quietly, and the moment passed.

They left the old stadium together, only to find Sin waiting outside, staring at Tidus, and keening. Tidus stared back, intently, as though he were communing with it, somehow, then Sin turned, and ambled off into the path of the setting sun. As they all watched, the Airship passed beside Sin, then floated over the party, and began to lower itself. Mercy turned to Rikku. "Is that your Dad's airship?"
"Yup!"
"I haven't had a hot bath in ages. Please tell me…"
"You bet! Hot and cold running water in all the rooms. Just don't ask Pops how it works, 'cause he doesn't know," Rikku answered eagerly.

"I don't care how it works, as long as it works!" Mercy exclaimed.
They all looked around at each other. They had defeated Yunalesca, and they were all, all, still alive. Whatever was going to come, they would face it, together. Tidus reached for Yuna's hand. Auron and Mercy just stared into each other's faces. They both knew that this was borrowed time, but it was still sweet.
Rikku looked at everyone. They were all dirty, grimy, bruised and sweat-stained. She wrinkled her nose, then sniffed. "Phew, we could all sure use a bath." She started to giggle.
Lulu immediately said, "Speak for yourself," in her usual, cool tones. Wakka, less sure of himself, tried to sniff discreetly at his armpits, a completely impossible task. Lulu slapped his arm down in disgust. Tidus started laughing.
Auron snorted, "Hmph," at no one in particular, but then realized that he agreed completely with the young Al Bhed, he wanted to wash the dust of this place off as quickly as possible. He began to chuckle softly. After the strain and tension of the last few hours, one by one, they all burst into gales of relieved laughter, as the airship claimed them.

End Chapter Twenty-Seven