4. Staring Down The Barrel

Whatever happened to the young man's heart?

Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart.

- 45, by Shinedown -

There had been a few times Gippal had felt fear.

The destruction of Home had been one of them, naturally. Years before, it had been the day of his parents' death. A rampant machina had gone ballistic and attacked any and every thing in its wake. He had lost his right eye that day. His parents had lost their lives.

After that, no one had wanted to take him in. A fifteen year old boy, shocked and hurt, wasn't exactly what you wanted to be part of your family. Oh, they cared, sure enough. There was always a place to sleep, a hot meal wherever he went. But never love. Nor simple affection. His mother hadn't even been Al Bhed, after all. It had been Rin who had finally taken pity on him. Seeing how well he got along with his daughter Nhadala, he had offered a home to the orphaned boy. Gippal sometimes thought that the merchant had wanted someone to take over his business. But his parents' love for machina and engineering had already been too big a part of him. And his ambitions had never been met with anything but acceptance and encouragement.

Which led him to another day fear had resonated deep within his being. The day he raised his gun against one friend to save another, and found himself unable to lower it again. He had been afraid, then.

But nothing, nothing that ever happened to him, not even his nightmares, could have prepared him for the feeling of helpless terror he experienced as he stood in front of Vegnagun, alone, and felt the machina stare down at him. Measuring. Calculating.

He might have been afraid before, but he had never felt so lonely.

Gippal raised his weapon, knowing how foolish that was. It had taken all three of the Gullwings and their most powerful dress spheres to keep Vegnagun from destroying Spira the first time around. What could he hope to achieve? Still, he had to try.

A voice rang inside his head, booming, hurting. A voice full of malicious glee.

Lower your pathetic weapon, fool. I did not summon you to kill you.

He was so surprised he almost did what the machina demanded of him. Almost.

"You- you can talk?" he gasped.

I have been aware of myself for thousands of years, human. It is no huge step from thought to speech. Now… drop… your… weapon.

And the world became pain, a white-hot flower blooming in his mind. Crying out, he dropped to his knees and clutched his head, dropping his gun in the process. The pain flared, then receded to a dull ache.

Very well. Do as I tell you, and you might leave this place unharmed.

Gippal panted, trying to catch his breath, feeling light-headed, and absentmindedly wondering why there was no blood running out of his nose. Dark amusement flickered through his mind, cruelty accompanied by almost childish merriment. And he didn't understand it, didn't get how this could be possible at all. Vegnagun had been left on the Farplane, seemingly destroyed, or at least turned off again. How could it be here, in Bikanel of all places, and why? And why had it called for him, of all people, after all he had done to make sure it would never serve its purpose?

He tried to ask, tried to gather his strength, but failed, the dizziness making him feel sick. He got his answer anyway.

I want you to bear witness to my final act, human. And when I left the place you call Farplane, how could I have come anywhere but here, where so many lost there lives in a symphony of pain and annihilation? The walls between the planes are thin in this abyss of your own making. It has called for me as I have called for you.

"Why me?" he gasped, shakily rising to stand, "What do you want me to witness?"

Revenge. The voice boomed through his head, dripping with hatred. From here, I will destroy him, and in doing so, I will destroy you. Too cocky you were, too stubborn to be taken in as my tool. It would have been beautiful to use you, but this will be just as satisfying.

"What? I don't… I don't understand…"

And then it was there, just as clear as he had lived it in his nightmares, only this time he could see the single beam of energy leave the symbol on Vegnagun's face, passing through earth and water alike before rising above the ground, felling the man the machina had come to hate more than anything else. Baralai, who had been too weak to fully contain Shuyin's essence, who had failed to finish Vegnagun's sonata of death, who was the reason that instead of wiping out the whole of Spira, there was barely enough energy left for one last act of destruction.

I am dying, too much has it cost me to leave my resting place, the Farplane. But I will not leave alone. I will tear through his chest as though it were mere air. I will slice him open so all the world may see what fate awaits those who fail Vegnagun.

"No, you… you can't!"

I can, and I will. And there is nothing you can do to prevent it, pathetic child you are, and so we too will get even.

Even as the machina spoke, Gippal could feel it summoning its last reserves of energy, could see the symbol start to glow in a filthy red. Wicked satisfaction filled his mind, drowning his terror, and he wanted to cry in helpless anguish. This wasn't happening, this couldn't happen, there was just no way, and Baralai wouldn't die because some ancient piece of junk nurtured its wounded ego.

He wouldn't.

Gippal straightened, summoning the shreds of his will through the machina's echoing laughter. Stubborn he had been called, and stubborn he was, straightening to stand upright even as the sign on Vegnagun's forehead began to pulse, began to flare. The Al Bhed had never been known to surrender themselves, and he wouldn't start now. In a desperate act of defiance, he gathered his remaining strength and ran, jumping on stone and pieces of Vegnagun itself to propel himself upwards. Praying to every Fayth that might be inclined to listen, he leapt.

Right into the path of that single beam of energy, which, just that very second and like he had seen in his vision, left the strange symbol on the machina's face along with the rest of its life force in a furious scream.

There wasn't even time to feel the pain.

He was dead before his body hit the ground.