Disclaimer: I don't own FFX, Predator, anything we ripped off and (Blast, this is going to give the chapter away), I do not own Devil May Cry.

A/N: Well, here's a major fight scene for you folks to enjoy. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Tidus vs. the Predator! The fight occurs in the area wherethey fought the guardian beast, and we promise either an extremely great or horrid chapter, depending on how you guys react.

Another note, Dachande's spear will now be referred to as a Combistick.

Chapter 16: Tidus' Awakening

As the Airship touched down next to the rocky plateau(Is it a plateau?), the boarding ramp extended and Tidus walked out.

Remnants of their battle with the Guardian Beast still littered the area, and that was proven by the many pieces of the beast that were scattered around the area, plus all the craters made by the explosions of Rikku's machina weapons.

Unsheathing the Rebellion with his right hand and unholstering Ebony with his left, he started to stride forward at a slow and steady pace. Rescuing Yuna was his objective, and he would accomplish it. Or die trying.

Dachande dumped the human female onto the ground and took out his netgun. Manually removing a net from the launcher, he used it to secure the human to the ground.

Once the net was secure, Dachande smirked. This human wouldn't be going anywhere. At least, not until his main Target had been slain, his skull ripped from his shoulders as a trophy. This was his chance to prove himself to his clan.

Once he brought back the human's skull, he would be promoted to one of the Young Bloods, the newest addition to the ranks of the Dark Blade Clan. He would no longer be a lowly Unblooded youngster, disregarded as below his clansmen's contempt. And once he was finished with other hunts, he would be further promoted to be one of the Blooded, a veteran warrior, leading a life full of glory!

All he had to do was slay this one human and take his skull. No problem.

Triple-checking his equipment, he made sure his wristblades and Combistick were in tip-top condition, then discarded his plasmacaster, speargun and plasma pistol. He wouldn't need them until he was finished with his prey.

The dust hung thick in the air, acting as a smokescreen of sorts, limiting visibility until Dachande could see no further than a hundred metres in front of him.

He saw a shadow in the dust. It was approaching slowly. Soon enough, Tidus materialized out of the dustscreen.

Tidus stared at the creature. It stared back.

It's cloaking was off, and Tidus could now identify it as the very same monster that had been harassing the party ever since Luca. Recalling his brief struggle with this alien Predator in Luca, he knew that his best bet would be to unalign its mask, blinding it to make the fight easier.

They slowly started circling, going faster at a steady rate, and soon they broke into an all-out run, charging at each other. Tidus managed to get off three shots with Ebony, but Dachande spun his Combistick in a 180-degree angle in front of himself to deflect the shots. Retracting the telescopic ends of his Combistick, he clenched his fists tightly and unsheathed his wristblades.

Tidus had already holstered Ebony and replaced it with the Brotherhood. He managed to raise it just in time to parry the blow that Dachande had sent at him. Jumping at the chance to knock the mask out of alignment, he threw a quick kick at Dachande's face, only to have his foot caught in a clawed hand.

Oh no! Not again! Tidus thought as Dachande picked him up by that one foot and tossed him away.

But then, with agility henever knew he had, Tidus flipped around in mid-air and landed lightly on his feet. He backflipped a few times to get rid of his momentum, then set his swords in defensive positions.

Dachande charged straight at him, bringing down the Combistick in a punishing blow that would have shattered Tidus' swords had he not dodged out of the way in time.

"Chew on this!" Tidus shouted at his opponent. With supernatural strength, he slammed both of his swords straight into the ground blade-first, creating a shockwave that travelled straight at Dachande.

Backflipping to avoid the shockwave, Dachande had a few tricks up his sleeve. Still in mid-air, he produced his Smart Disc. Spinning around, he threw it at Tidus.

With the disc flying straight at him, Tidus dodge-rolled to the side. He glanced back, only to see the disc circle around, still intent on slicing him in half. Realizing that dodging was no use, he did the second-most sensible thing to do. Raising the Brotherhood, there was a mighty SSSSHHHHHHHKKKKKK! as the disc collided with the Brotherhood's blade.

Tidus's arm was nearly dislocated with the impact, and he almost let go of the Brotherhood as the disc was deflected. Quickly switching swords, he did a quick inspection of the blade. The section where the disc had impacted was completely spider-webbed with cracks.

This is impossible! The Brotherhood was supposed to be unbreakable!

Suddenly, the world slowed down, and Tidus saw himself in third-person view. And behind him, he could see another disc coming up from behind him. This time, he raised the Rebellion to deflect it. Two cracked swords were better than a broken one.

Strangely, Tidus felt hardly any impact as the disc hit the Rebellion. It was instantly repelled. Doing a quick check, Tidus saw that the blade was completely unblemished. What the...

A mighty roar brought him back to the fight. Tidus saw Dachande charging straight at him, Combistick raised. Tidus brought up the Brotherhood to deflect the incoming blow, and there was a loud CRASH! as the blade shattered beneath Dachande's might. Tidus' eyes widened and he quickly jumped backward, discarding the broken sword.

Realizing that he had lost one of his beloved swords, his world turned blood-red as anger and rage boiled up inside of him. "You're gonna pay for that!" Tidus screamed as he put the Rebellion in a charging position behind him. Letting the tip of the blade touch the ground, he did a lightning-quick slash that sent a much faster shockwave than before. This one was too fast for Dachande to avoid, and he was thrown backward as the shockwave hit him like a solid concrete wall.

Realizing that he was at a disadvantage, he quickly tossed his disc again before flipping back onto his feet. He then leveled his Plasmacaster at Tidus' chest and fired several bolts. The sound of the explosions ripped through Gagazet, kicking up clouds of snow and dust. But from beyond the smoke, Tidus lunged forth, the Rebellion weaving in the air. Dachande dodged and lifted into the air with his jet-packs, trying to keep one step away of that deadly blade and to occansionaly fire a spear bolt at Tidus.

The Predator was good, Tidus had to admit. Very good, and more than once Tidus had to parry desparately to turn a spear bolt aside. He kept up his offensive flurry though, keeping Dachande on the defensive with sudden stabs and slashing cuts.

One misstep...

And then, it happened, all of a sudden. Tidus started to slash to the left, cut it short and stabbed straight out, then reversed his grip and sent the blade slashing across, left to right. He spun a complete circuit, coming around to parry a spear gunshot, but there was no shot forthcoming.

That left to right reversal had cleanly landed. Dachande's mask flew free of his face and fell to the ground, to settle in the snow.

Despite losing his mask and having his momentum disrupted, Dachande still had plenty of tricks. He grabbed the Disc from his utility belt and threw it at Tidus. Tidus turned his blade, intent on using the flat endof the Rebellion to deflect it, but to his horror, the disc suddenly darted to the right, around the Rebellion, and severed Tidus' left hand at the wrist. The hand holding the Rebellion released it and it flew out of sight, soon enough tumbling over the edge of the cliff, into the lower levels of Mt. Gagazet.

A bloodcurling scream echoed through the area as Tidus clutched at the cauterised stump, desperately trying to ease the pain that wouldn't go away.

Dachande strode towards Tidus and was about to deliver the final blow when a thunderclap sounded through the area. Both of them looked up, and were rewarded by the sight of the symbol of Yevon floating in the sky. In the very centre of it, a certain object lay embedded in it. The symbol shattered, and whatever the object was plummeted to the ground.

The object, now identified as a sword with a very intricate shape and a very sharp blue-coloured blade(Yup.The Caladbolg), landed blade-first into the ground right between Tidus and Dachande. Both immediately dashed for the sword, but Tidus got there first. Picking the sword out from the ground, he realized that even if he had grabbed the sword first, he would've still been killed anyway.

He realized how true his revelation was Dachande plunged his wristblades into Tidus' abdomen. He didn't even get a chance to defend with his new sword.

"D..Damn.. you..." Tidus struggled to speak.

Dachande slowly dragged the wristblades upward, creating great gashes which blood poured out of. Tidus only managed a small grunt of pain before the air left his lungs. His whole body went limp and Dachande kicked it off his wristblades.

Retracting them back into his wrist sheath, he turned his back on the corpse of his prey whilst putting his mask back on. He would take his skull as a trophy, he just needed to release the other first.

Behind him as he walked off, Tidus' right hand twitched. His hold on the Caladbolg tightened. Still groaning from the pain,he slowly tried to get up.

Suddenly, Dachande turned around and charged back at Tidus. Violently thrusting his Combistick forward, he impaled Tidus and pinned him to the ground.

And stay dead! Dachande thought to himself as he turned back again. He had walked no more than thirty metres when he heard an ominous rumbling.

Turning back to the still body of his prey, he noticed that his Combistick was vibrating very violently. All so suddenly, the combistick erupted from his prey's body, and a column of dust surrounded his prey, creating a small whirlwind. From within that whirlwind, Tidus, mysteriously still alive, lunged straight at Dachande. With his bare hands.

Dachande immediately raised his wristblades to block, but what Tidus did was completely unexpected. His punching right hand went straight through the wristblades, stopping midway because his fist had hit the wristblade sheath. What the... Dachande couldn't believe it. His prey was supposed to be dead, but right in front of him, Tidus was still alive and kicking.

A slight movement made him realize that Tidus was shifting his hand with the wristblades still inside it! A glance at Tidus' face and Dachande realized that he was showing no signs of pain at all. Tidus' eyes had glazed over, no pupils were visible at all. But yet, Dachande knew that Tidus was staring at him with a single purpose in mind.To kill him. Quickly wrenching the wristblades away, he jumped back and retrieved his combistick from the ground.

Tidus was slowly staggering towards him, surrounded by a pulsing white aura, his breathing heavy. Every step he took was incredible labour. Just as he was a few steps away from Dachande, he stopped.

Yuna had regained conciousness shortly after the fight had began. Her heart started beating at the back of her head as Tidus did battle with the beast.

Her heart leapt in hope when Tidus knocked off the beast's mask, but collasped in despair when the tables got turned and Tidus' hand got severed. She could almost feel Tidus' pain when he was stabbed violently and cursed the net for holding her down and preventing her from helping him.

She lost all hope when Tidus was impaled to the ground, but kept her fingers crossed that the beast was only after Tidus. She, like Dachande, thought Tidus was dead, but when he sprang up again, her heart lit up with joy, but this feeling was soon overtaken by another.

Pain.

She felt as if an unknown force was wrentching her gut out.All her muscles ached and her head felt as if it was being rammed by a sledgehammer.

Then, she no longer felt the pain. She felt as if she was flying,and, weirdly, she couldn't stop thinking of Zanarkand. Pyreflies were everywhere and the shrill call of sin echoed throughout her head.

Despite the pain, she managed to choke up enough strength to lift her head and take a glance at Tidus, only to see him throw his head back with a blood curling scream.

Then, she blacked out.

Another bloodcurling scream, longer and more tortured than the last echoed throughout the entire Gagazet mountain range. Tidus' body exploded in a flash of white light so brilliant that Dachande immediately had to cover his face or have his vision permanantly impaired.

Slowly lowering his arms, he saw an immense beast standing in Tidus' place, one that was aboutas large as himself. A metallic helmet of some sort covered its head, though the helmet seemed to be the head itself. The rest of its body was red and black in colour, with white streaks running along its appendages, immense power radiating from within. Demonic-looking wings extended from its back, but they were currently folded in, like a bat's wings.

(A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, presenting our very own version of Dante's Devil Trigger(DT), Tidus' Aeon Trigger(AT)!)

At last. The TRUE hunt begins. Dachande thought to himself. This would certainly be a challenge.

Dachande gave a crisp salute to his new adversary, drawing and extending his Combistick. Then, formalities over, he leapt at Tidus, a sudden and devastating thrust.

But one that never got close to hitting. With hardly a movement, Tidus turned the Combistick aside.

Dachande then went into a wild flurry, the likes of which he had never show before, raining blows at his foe. but Tidus didn't even seem to move. He didn't step back or to the side, yet his subtle dodges and his precision parries kept Dachande's weapon slashing and stabbing harmlessly wide.

It went on for several moments, but eventually Dachande's flurry began to slow, and the Predator, recognizing the futility of the attempt to overwhelm, stepped back fast.

Not fast enough.

With a sudden burst of power, Tidus flew forward, his blade working mightily. When it was at the peak of its dance, all it left was a blue blur glistening in the sun. Dachande held strong, his Combistick parrying brilliantly, each blow backed by the sheer determination of not to be overwhelmed by his prey, or else Tidus' strikes would have driven right through.

Just as he was about to launch a counter, Tidus was gone, leaping high, with great demonic wings spread, and turning a somersault to land right behind Dachande in perfect balance, striking hard.

Dachande reversed his grip and stabbed out behind him, intercepting the blow. He let go of his weapon altogether, tossing it just a bit, and spun about, catching it before it had even disengaged from Tidus' blade.

With a growl of rage, Dachande gave a yell. His tempo increased suddenly and dramatically, three steps forward, two back, prefectly balanced all the while. His fighting style was based on balance, on the back-and-forth charges, thrusts and sudden retreats, and now he came at Tidus with a series of cunning stabs, but Tidus easily dodged.

Dachande stabbed high turning the angle of his Combistick high in anticipation that Tidus would move left, but Tidus, as if he had anticipated the movement totally, moved to the right and scored a slight hit on Dachande's waist. The Predator then retracted his missed blow and stabbed it a second time, this time lower, but Tidus anticipated that too, easily dodging it and scoring another hit, this time on Dachande's right.

A sudden stab by Tidus had Dachande quick-stepping back even more off-balance, for the first time, and then Tidus flew away, up and back.

The furious Predator pursued, thrusting hard for Tidus' head. And in his rage when his stab missed yet again, he reverted to a slashing attack.

Tidus' blue blade caught the blow, holding the silvery-black Combistick at bay, this would be a contest of strength. But Dachande, too focused in his efforts to force Tidus' blade down, could not defend himself from the former's kick to his abdomen.

Dachande flew back, but quickly recovered and was about to pick himself up when he realised Tidus had grabbed his arm, pulled it over him, flipped himself over so that his back was on the ground, and with both legs, he kicked Dachande several feet straight up into the air.

Dachande immediately tried to acticate his jetpacks to get out of whatever move Tidus was planning, but Tidus was too fast for him.

(A/N: Zioncross, you should easily recognise this move.)

Somehow, Tidus had simply teleported right behind Dachande, and had grabbed him in mid-air (Hey, many things are possible when Tidus is in AT. Btw, what if he left green leaves in his wake?). Tidus' sudden teleportation had added velocity to Dachande's rise, and as they started to descend, they also started to spin.

Tidus yelled a viscous warcry, and the spinning projectile comprised of the two combatants slammed into the ground with a force equivalent to that of a miniature meteor.

Tidus, who used Dachande as a shield to soften the impact, quickly jumped off and put himself in a defensive position, ready to counterattack.

(A/N: That was another of Ryu Hayabusa's moves, the counter-hold 'Senko-Izuna'.)

Dachande was slightly stunned and dazed by the impact, but it would take more than that to bring him down. Shaking his head to clear the dizziness, he charged at Tidus again, this time aiming his wristblades at Tidus' midsection. Once again, Tidus was much faster. Grabbing Dachande's arm and pulling it over him, he launched a viscous uppercut that once again launched Dachande straight into the air.

(A/N: Another counter-hold, the 'Rekko-Izuna'.)

Not another one..., Dachande thought to himself as he hit the ground spinning once again. This time, he took a bit longer to get up. Those drops were beginning to take their toll on him. Another three more and he would be finished. Perhaps he had bitten off more than he could chew...

This time, he wouldn't go easy on his prey any more. He was no longer fighting a mere human. This creature that his prey had transformed into was nearly his equal.

This time acting much faster, Dachande plunged his Combistick at Tidus' legs, intent on sweeping them out from under him. But, as you readers would have expected, Tidus was too fast. He grabbed the front end of the combistick and yanked it towards him. As soon as he was able to, Tidus grabbed Dachande's arm again, but what he did next was once again unexpected.

Rolling over Dachande's back, he threw Dachande over his shoulders and kicked him straight up into the air. The force of both kicks hit Dachande's unarmored back like a megaton of bricks. As expected, as he was launched into the air, Tidus grabbed him and sent them spinning to the ground.

(A/N: Yet another hold, the 'Yoko-Izuna'.)

When they hit, it actually hurt. Dachande felt as though his skull had split open, but he knew it wasn't. It just felt like it. This time, he had trouble picking himself up.

Tidus strode over to him, picked him up by the shoulder, and launched another uppercut that propelled the battered, bruised and dazed Predator into the air once again. Dachande nearly blacked out as they hit the ground, but he kept himself stubbornly awake. If he didn't escape now, he never would.

(A/N: That was the dreaded throw itself. Ryu Hayabusa's most infamous move, the Izuna-Otoshi!)

Getting back onto his feet as quickly as possible, he grabbed a Sonic Trap from his bandolier and tossed it straight at Tidus' feet. The sonic trap detonated as soon as it landed on the floor, and the burst of multi-spectrum light and subsonic sound the mine released was enough to keep Tidus stunned for the few seconds that Dachande needed to get away.

Quickly grabbing his ranged weapons that lay on the ground, he activated his cloak and fled.

As soon as the adrenaline rush wore off, and so did his transformation, Tidus collapsed onto his knees. The searing pain on his wrist had toned down to a painful throbbing, and somehow the gashes on his chest had regenerated, leaving angry scars in their wake. The dust around him suddenly scattered, and the Airship appeared over him.

Tidus glanced upward at the Airship, relief flooding him. Perhaps he would live...

Unable to take the pain any longer, Tidus slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

Rikku was among the first the run down the boarding ramp of the airship. Rushing over to Tidus' body along with the rest of the party, she knelt down beside him and stared in shock at the cauterised stump where his left hand used to be.

"Call the paramedics!" she yelled at Buddy, who nodded and barked orders into his radio.

Five minutes later, the medics arrived. Lifting Tidus onto a stretcher, they quickly carried him back into the airship for an immediate operation.

A/N: One hour later...

"He looks pretty beat up, doesn't he?"

"Beat up? Wakka, are you nuts? Take a look at his hand! Take a look at those scars! You call that beat up? He's been friggin' mutilated!"

"Alright, Lu! Calm down. I understand."

"Honestly, I'm quite surprised that he actually managed to survive."

"Sir Auron,are you sure he's really all right?"

The last voice brought Tidus back from blissful nothingness. The voices hammered at his ears like jackhammers, causing him to groan from the discomfort.

"Look! He's awake!" Squealed a high voice that Tidus could identify as Rikku's.

"Rikku, shut up. You're making my headache even worse." Tidus moaned as he instinctively brought up both hands to cover his ears. What his left ear met wasn't flesh, but hard, cold metal.

"WHAT THE...!" Tidus yelped as he yanked his left hand away from his ear. He flexed his left hand, clenching and unclenching it. He heard the movement of machina gears and servos.

Tidus didn't want to look. Had his left hand really been replaced with a machina one?

"Umm, Tidus? Are you feeling all right?" Rikku asked him.

Tidus sure as hell didn't feel right. Every injury in his body had already healed by then, thanks to the mysterious powers the ceremony had given him. The only place he felt wrong was his left hand.

Slowly bringing his left handinto view, Tidus nearly fainted as he saw the machina hand that was in place of his. Collapsing back onto the bed, he tried to take it in.

A replacement machina hand... (Geez. Just like Anakin and Luke Skywalker.)

"Back to the land of the living, huh?" Auron remarked as Tidus slowly sat up, still clenching and unclenching his machina hand.

"Tidus..." Wakka began hesitantly.

"Wakka, there's something you need to know. The Brotherhood... I... lost it." Tidus started to get off the bed, still flexing his new left hand.

"Yeah, I know." Wakka held up the Brotherhood's handle, bits and pieces of the blade still stuck to the handguard.

Tidus stared at the remnants of his beloved sword before recalling the other one. "Another thing. Cid!" Tidus called out.

"What is it, kid?" Cid turned to him.

"The Rebellion. I think it tumbled off the cliff while I was fighting. I need to get it back."

"You're nuts, kid! You just barely recovered from your fight! You're not going anywhere." Cid protested.

Tidus disregarded Cid's protests. One way or another, he would get back the Rebellion.

Striding out of the sick bay and grabbing the Caladbolg on the way out, he quickly walked over to the cliff edge which the Rebellion had tumbled off, the party right behind him.

"Umm, Tidus?" Rikku began hesitantly. "You're not gonna jump down there... are you?"

Tidus responded by slamming his right hand into a nearby rocky outcrop very violently. Cracks slowly started to travel up the outcrop, until suddenly, the whole thing exploded.

Surprised, Tidus stared at his right hand, as though it was someone else's. Then, a grin started to form on his face.

Stepping forward, he leapt off the cliff. Yuna screamed and looked over the cliff edge, only to see a flurry of slashing movements and gunfire travelling down the cliff.

"Don't worry," Auron told her. "The medics just gave him an overdose of morphine."

Flying down the side of Mt. Gagazet, Tidus was busy kicking Ahriman butt. He kick-jumped off one, let another have a healthy dose of lead, sliced through three with a single slash with the Caladbolg, and then spun around, causing a Rain Storm of lead to rain down on the horde of Ahrimans waiting below.

Shifting himself closer to the cliff side, he started running vertically downward, along the cliff side, still shooting E&I like a madman. Scores of Ahrimans fell beneath his marksmanship.

Kicking off the cliff side, he set the Caladbolg beneath him and impaled three Ahrimans with the blade. Letting himself fall back to the cliff side, he started running down again. Quickly aiming Ivory at the bottom of the Caladbolg's hilt, he fired off three shots. All of them hit dead-centre, accelerating the Caladbolg to deadly speeds. Any Ahriman that got in its way was instantly impaled and shredded to pieces.

Tidus had already gotten a lot of speed by running down the cliff, thanks to Sir Isaac Newton and his law of gravity, and now his speed matched the Claadbolg's and was going even higher.

Steadily catching up with the Caladbolg, he snatched it out of the air and plunged it into the cliff wall, shearing off huge chunks off his downward velocity.

Tidus was still descending very rapidly, and the muscles in his arms screamed out for respite. Gritting his teeth and biting back a cry, he held on tightly.

The ground was starting to come into sight, but Tidus was still going down really fast. He estimated just 500 metres before he'll get turned into a pancake.

400 metres.

200 metres.

50 metres.

Tidus was still descending very fast.

25 metres.

3 metres.

50 centimetres.

10 centimetres.

Tidus halted abruptly, and the massive force of inertia nearly lifted him back into the air. Letting go of the Caladbolg and shaking out his tired arms, he glanced around for the Rebellion. No sign of it.

"Cid," Tidus spoke into his comm, "I think I lost it for good. Bring me up."

But behind a rocky crevice that Tidus had failed to notice, the Rebellion lay embedded in the ground.

And next to it, lay a sphere.

A/N: Gee, I wonder what that sphere is. Of course it's the New Beginnings Sphere! Well, what do you think of Tidus' AT? What about the Izunas that Tidus pulled off? Tidus is now half-man, half-aeon. Whatcha think of that?

Review, review and review.

This is the Chief, signing out.