PART 6: Diminution

The Farplane was gone completely. Also, dozens of fiends were all over Spira. And Tidus was on his way to the otherworld. Still stuck on Spira, though, were the others. And two crystals remained on what was left of Spira. Paine and Rikku were fighting the fiends off desperately. "This is bad…real bad!" Rikku said, as she kicked a fiend away. She was out of breath, and went to sit down. "Get up!" Paine yelled, "It can't be long, now!" The two fought, for at least a good hour with no break. Finally, the horde of fiends stopped, just about as Rikku was about to collapse, and Paine was on her knees. "They…stopped…", Rikku said, breathlessly. Paine nodded, "Break time. Here. Take this," she said as she handed Rikku a Mega-Potion. "Thanks," she said, as she gulped it down. As Rikku lay on her back, she noticed something. "Hey! Where's the sky going!" she said, and Paine looked up. The sky was gone, quarter gone, actually. Where some of it should have been was a big, black void that was sucking things in slowly. Rikku got up, as Paine looked in awe. "The sky…" Rikku said, "It's disappearing, too!" Rikku reached her hand up, and as she did, her hand began to vanish. "Ahh! What's happening?" she yelled. "Put your hand down!" Paine said, as she yanked Rikku's hand back down, again. Slowly, Rikku's hand began to materialize before their eyes. Paine gulped. "This can't be good," she said.

Meanwhile, Baralai, Gippal, and Lenne were having a crisis. The Hover Machina thing had broken down a couple of miles down the road, and they were forced to run for it. "The people are getting sucked into the void! Unless we don't get a hold of those two crystals, Spira's gonna vanish!" Gippal yelled. The three ran behind him, as they ran for their very existence, avoiding the void. The void on the other side of Spira, where the Farplane was, had grown out of control. Now, it was sucking up Spira. "And not to mention," Lenne interrupted, "the endless number of fiends on Spira!" "That's possibly only because Spira has become smaller!" Baralai replied, "Where is Tidus? This is a disaster!" Gippal suddenly stopped. "I know that this just might be a bad time to tell you all this, but…", he said, "It was cool hanging out with you guys." Lenne looked at him, "Do you mean that?" she asked. Gippal nodded. Baralai hung his head, "I enjoyed everyone's company. I guess I should say this, just in case…you know…that we die. But where will we go? We can't go to the Farplane. It's vanished!" "We'll make it, somehow," Lenne said.

The hole in the sky was getting increasingly bigger. And it was sucking up much more. Rikku and Paine had run a good two miles to avoid the hole. "We're gonna disappear!" Rikku yelled. She looked and saw that the way they were facing, the other hole was heading their way. And the hole that they were running from was moving upon them quickly. "Run!" Paine yelled. Rikku looked at her, "WE CAN'T RUN ANY FURTHER! We just have to face it!" Paine stopped. "Rikku, I know this may seem a little awkward, but…ARE YOU INSANE!" "NO!" Rikku yelled back, "WE'RE JUST GOING TO KEEP RUNNING UNTIL WE DIE FROM EXHAUSTION, OR WE GET SUCKED UP BY THAT VOID! AND, PERSONALLY, I'M KIND OF CURIOUS WHERE IT GOES!" Paine looked at her. "You really do get worked up about things, don't you?" she said with a laugh. Rikku looked furious. "Well, then let's do it. Rikku. I'm going." Rikku looked as if she was about to cry. "I'll go into the void. It just may be another dimension," Paine said.
Rikku grabbed her hand, "Paine…" Paine smiled, and it was funny, because she never smiled. "It'll be fine," Paine replied. No sooner then she said that, she leapt into the void. Rikku stood in shock.
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The piece of Machina pointed right at Yuna. Seymour smirked, "This piece of Machina was in construction two years ago. It was halfway finished, and it would have been completed…But, now I can input the Crystal into it…To make all of the universe bow down to me! Lady Yuna, you will have the honor of being my first experiment!" Seymour inserted the stolen Crystal into it, and his two assistants started up the Machina. It started slowly, then stopped. Seymour looked sharply at the two, who cowered, "Why is it not running? Why has my Machina stopped? Hahaha…Hahahaha! You two! Bring me a second Crystal! With a second Crystal, I can test the Machina! Forgive me, Lady Yuna, for making you wait…Haha…I'll have all the Crystals soon enough."