Another Turn of the Spiral

The sun had climbed well into the sky by the time Braska awoke. To my eye, he had slept poorly -- tossing, turning, and muttering the whole time -- and when he sat up, he did not seem much refreshed.

"Lord Braska?" I moved quickly to his side. "Are you all right?"

He nodded absently, his eyes staring past my shoulder and into the distance. Then he blinked and focused on my face. "I... I am fine. Auron, when did you last sleep?"

I had to think about the answer to this question. "Our last night on the mountain," I said. "Three days ago?"

"Too long," he murmured. "Take your rest, my friend, I will stand watch."

Looking him over, I shook my head. "My lord, you are too weak to defend us if anything should happen."

"We will be safe here." His tone was flat, as if he knew it to be a certain fact. "This place is protected. My battle with Sin is coming soon, and I need you at your best. We can spare a few more hours."

Though I was uncertain of the wisdom of this, the fact remained that I was thoroughly exhausted. "All right. Thank you, lord."

I pulled out my bedroll, laid down, and was asleep before I knew it.

I woke up at dusk, and we broke camp without speaking. Braska lead the way through the ruins. I was able to dispatch the few fiends we encountered without incident. When we reached the outskirts of the dead city, I stopped him with a question.

"My lord, where are we going? Are we returning to the Calm Lands?"

Braska shook his head. "We will battle Sin on the summit of Mt. Gagazet."

I nodded; we walked on, climbing the mountain. The sun rose, then set again, and by the time the moon was high in the sky we had reached the summit plateau.

"We camp here," Braska said; I started at the sound of his voice, which I had not heard since leaving Zanarkand.

"Yes my lord." I started to ready his bedroll, but he stopped me with a motion of his hand.

"There is no need," he said quietly. "I cannot sleep; I will keep watch so that you may."

"My lord..."

He shook his head again, a single swift, sharp turn. "Sin will come at me with all its spawn tomorrow as I try to defeat it. You will need to defend me, so you must be sharp and rested. If you are wakeful, I can use a sleeping spell on you."

"But..."

"Auron." He looked at me with clear blue eyes. "I will rest soon enough."

I could not argue with this statement. Setting his bedroll aside, I pulled out my own. After eating and drinking a little, and offering the same to Braska, I laid down and stared up at the stars. Braska settled down next to me, sitting up with crossed legs, his back to the wall of a cliff rising above us. Then he did something which surprised me: he lifted my head into his lap and began to stroke the hair at my temples and forehead -- a pose I had seen him take with Yuna many times during the months we had lived together. His gentle touch was both comforting and relaxing, and I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The morning sun rising into my eyes woke me. As I opened them, blinking, I saw that Braska still held my head in his lap, cradling it with his hands. Rolling over, I looked up at him; he was staring straight forward, a look of utter peace on his face.

He felt me stir and glanced down at me with a soft smile. "Did you sleep well?" he asked.

I sat up and nodded. "Thanks to you."

"Do you need to eat?" I shook my head; my stomach had immediately twisted into a knot as I remembered our purpose today. At least my head was clear.

"Very well." He pulled out his staff, then turned to me abruptly. "Oh, I nearly forgot. Jecht asked me to give you something." He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a lightweight sword with a red blade. I recognized it immediately -- it was the sword that Jecht had first bought in Bevelle. He had quickly found a heavier, two-handed model that he preferred, but he had insisted on holding on to this one.

"He said he wanted you to save it for someone, and that you would know who. Does that mean anything to you?"

It did -- Jecht was asking me to take his sword to his son. "Yes, my lord." I reached out and took it by the hilt. It felt insubstantial to me, but then small swords always did; it looked almost like a dagger in comparison to my own. "I will keep it safe."

Braska looked far away for a moment, then returned his attention to me. "He thanks you."

I returned the sword to my own bag. Then I walked up to Braska, who was standing at the edge of the cliff, holding out his staff, staring into the empty sky.

He turned to me, and I saw tears glittering in his eyes. "Thank you, Auron. There are no words to express just how grateful I am to you for being my guardian, how honored I am to have had you as a protector and a friend."

My throat had completely closed; I had to clear it several times before I could reply. "The honor has been all mine. Thank you, my... Braska."

He gripped my arm, then embraced me. I hugged him as tightly to me as I dared. He kissed me briefly on the lips, then stepped away and turned back to the horizon.

"Let me tell you what is to happen," he said.

Some minutes later, I stood behind Braska, my sword drawn, ready. He had kept his place at the edge of the cliff. His staff was held vertically in front of him, and his head was bowed. Then he took a step back, tipping the staff slightly forward. Symbols etched themselves in the air around him, and a huge, multicolored bird of prey appeared out of the sky. My breath caught at the beauty of Valefor in the morning light. Braska called out a command to her; she responded with a cry, then flew away, hunting Sin.

We waited in silence for what seemed a long time. Then a terrible birdcall split the air, and I saw Valefor winging back in the distance, just a few beats ahead of Sin, who followed her at a terribly fast clip. The other time I had seen Sin, it had been in the water, but now it, too, flew through the air, on giant white wings. Braska then called his three elemental aeons: fire, ice, lightning. Each appeared in turn, breaking for the sky to aid their fellow. They were too late, though: Sin took a mighty lash with its tail, sweeping straight through Valefor and smashing her into pyreflies.

The other three reached Sin then, and began to harry it. I wondered if it would be too distracted to attack us, but I was quickly disabused of that notion as dozens of Sinscales flew through the air and embedded themselves in the plateau where we stood. I swung into action then, jumping to each where it landed and slashing it in half with my sword. A few of these creatures would be no match for me, but they just kept coming, and I began to fear that I would be overwhelmed. If too many of these were allowed to open and shoot their deadly spines into Braska, he would be finished, and Jecht's sacrifice would come to nothing. Already I had reached one too late, and Braska had shuddered under the salvo.

Then help came from an unexpected source as I heard a roar that shook the ground. Braska had called Bahamut to come to my aid, and the two of us together were able to kill the spawn faster than they could arrive. Once we caught up, he left me to my work and joined the attack on Sin.

I knew that Braska was not expecting the aeons to finish Sin, only weaken and distract it while he prepared the Final Summoning. One by one, the aeons fell. There was a pause in the Sinspawn assault, and I turned to watch Braska.

He lifted the staff over his head and turned it, once, in a slow circle. Then he held it out in front of him, parallel to the ground, took a deep breath, and, with a burst of strength, snapped the staff in two.

The entire mountain began to tremble beneath my feet, and a burst of blinding white light appeared from the ruins of Zanarkand. It was followed by a monstrous figure, shaped like a man but a thousand times larger. It turned to us, and I stopped breathing when I recognized Jecht. The same tattoo writ large on his chest, his unruly hair winding and twisting like a nest of snakes, his sword transformed into a blade the size of a tall building, his eyes burning like two white-hot coals.

Braska's Final Aeon, Jecht no longer, lifted his sword and began to slash downward.

"No!" I cried, rushing toward them.

"Auron, stop!" Braska whirled around to me, thrusting out an arm, holding me away with a burst of magical force. Then he turned back to face the aeon, closing his eyes and holding out his hands in welcome, the pieces of the staff falling out and down the side of the cliff.

Mercifully, the aeon turned the sword at the last second, bashing Braska on the head with the flat of it, rather than slicing him in half before my eyes.

When he had finished the killing blow, he sprang forward, taking swing after swing at Sin. Unable to stay away any longer, I raced to Braska and sat with him on the ground, wrapping my arms around him, pulling him into my chest. He was still alive, barely. Then I returned my attention to the epic battle before me.

Jecht -- or what remained of him -- was slashing Sin to bits. With each stroke, another piece of the mighty demon disappeared. Occasionally Sin would get an attack in, but day was clearly won. In the end, the Final Aeon drew his arm back and pierced Sin straight through with the blade. With a mighty explosion of pyreflies, the huge gray monster disappeared, leaving only a small black creature hanging in the air. The speck hovered for a moment, then plunged into the aeon's chest.

With a terrible cry, the aeon curled into a ball and flew high into the air. Then he plummeted into the ocean with a mighty splash, and Sin was no more.

"You did it," I breathed, looking down in his face. "High Summoner Braska, you have defeated Sin."

He smiled weakly. "Remember... Yuna..." he whispered. His eyes opened wide, focusing on something only he could see. "Tess..." Then his eyes closed, his head dropped, and he breathed his last.

I started to shake uncontrollably as colored lights gathered over Braska's body, came together over his chest, and then shot up into the sky, swirling and twirling their way to the Farplane. Braska had accepted his death and sent himself. At long last, he would see Tessa again.

I dropped the rapidly cooling corpse from my arms. Unbearable pressure built behind my eyes and in my chest, yet somehow I could not weep or wail. My heart started to pound, and my vision to blur, but not with tears. With rage.

Maybe Braska had accepted his death, and Jecht's. But I couldn't.

I found Jecht's sword and sheathed it in my scabbard, lifted Braska's corpse over my shoulder, and picked up my own sword with my free hand. Then I headed back down the mountain, back to Zanarkand.

I had no plan as I walked. All I knew is that I needed to see Yunalesca. For answers? For revenge? Whatever my purpose, I was driven by it, and it took me only twelve hours to descend Mt. Gagazet.

When I reached the bottom, I paused to commend Braska's body to the deep, stopping by the side of the ocean and letting it fall into the waters. I bowed my head for a moment, but I did not pray. At that moment, I was not feeling particularly charitable toward Yevon, or toward any god that would demand this kind of sacrifice from his followers. As soon as my friend had disappeared from view, I continued on.

I fought my way through fiends, through the ghosts of warrior monks, through an ancient machina that once blocked my path. They were as nothing to me. I was focused on my goal.

The Cloister of Trials was deserted; there was no barrier to entry, no giant fiend to kill. The lift waited for me, and I descended, walking past the spirit guide who had met me before. He watched me pass in silence. I went through the richly appointed hall where Yunalesca had first greeted us, climbed the stairs, and pulled open the door to her chamber.

She was waiting, and did not look particularly surprised to see me.

"You are here to avenge your lord's death?" she asked, in her rich voice.

"Perhaps," I said, tipping my sword back over my shoulder. "Tell me one thing first: has Braska succeeded in defeating Sin? Or will it just return as it always has before?"

She smiled sadly. "Sin is eternal. Every aeon that defeats it will become Sin in its place."

No. No. No, this could not be. I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. The aeon -- became Sin? But that meant that... Jecht...

"You mean to tell me," I said as I struggled for breath, "that the Final Summoning creates the very monster it destroys?"

Yunalesca spread her arms. "In a sense. Perhaps that is one way of understanding it."

A wall burst within me, and I was flooded anew with rage. "So it is all for nothing?" I shouted. "The aeons, the fayth, the pilgrimages? The lives of hundreds and hundreds of summoners and guardians? The teachings of Yevon? I have dedicated my life to a lie!"

"Not for nothing, and not a lie," she replied. "The teachings, the pilgrimages, the summoners all give the people hope, hope for a world without Sin. Their hope comforts them."

"But if Sin can never be defeated, then there is no hope!"

She shook her head. "Still, hope is necessary. The people need it to carry on with their lives, to keep from drowning in sorrow. Surely you understand."

"No!" I did not understand. I did not want to understand. "Where is the sense in all this? Braska believed in Yevon's teachings and died for them!" I lifted my sword from my shoulder and slashed at the air. "Jecht believed in Braska, and gave his life for him!" The sword came down in front of me; I brought my other hand to the hilt and held it ready.

"They chose to die," Yunalesca said, "because they had hope."

My fury pushed me forward with an irresistible force. I raised my sword with a mighty cry, and charged.

She lifted her hand as I crashed into the magical force that protected her, and it was as if I had been sliced by a thousand knives. I felt my body lifted up and propelled backwards, my sword bouncing back into my face and then flying from my hand. A terrible pain ripped into my right cheek and eye, the agony too much for me to even scream. I tumbled over in the air, and was unconscious before I hit the ground.

The next thing I knew, I was at the site of the mysterious Gagazet summoning with no idea how I'd gotten there, lying in a pool of my own blood. My body ached inside and out, my face was on fire, and I could not see out of my right eye. I tried to stand and found that I was too weak. I reached out my arms and found the hilt of my sword with my right hand. My fingers curled around it, and I pulled it to me.

Still alive, but maybe not for much longer.

Yuna. I had to get to Bevelle and keep my word to Braska. Maybe I would find help on the way. I certainly couldn't save Yuna if I just gave up and died here. And I had to save her, to get her out of the clutches of Yevon.

Yevon. A cruel hoax, a foul lie, poisoning my world for a thousand years. There was no way I could abandon her to them.

I lifted myself as best as I was able and started to crawl.

It took me three days to crawl down the side of the mountain, leaving a crimson trail on the white snow, gripping my sword and sweeping a path in front of me. Somehow, I stayed alive, stopping only to scoop snow and ice into my mouth, letting it melt there and trickle down my throat. The cold saved me, slowing down the bleeding and eventually stopping it. I did not dare rest; I knew that I would never get up again if I did. I held Yuna's innocent face in my mind, and somehow that gave me the strength to keep going, to live through sheer force of will.

Eventually I reached the Calm Lands, where the going was harder with no easy source of water. Soon my thirst began to outstrip even my pain, and I realized that I wasn't going to make it much farther. Two days into the grassy plain, I collapsed.

So this is it, I thought bitterly. I die here, alone, my promises to Braska and Jecht and Arelle unfulfilled.

Then I heard footsteps and lifted my head. "Help," I croaked.

Strong arms rolled me over, and I looked into the face of an adolescent Ronso kneeling over me. His fur was blue and mane white, his eyes yellow and concerned, and his horn was missing; the break was jagged, as if it were a fresh injury.

"Wait here. Kimahri will find healer," he said.

I shook my head. "No... time..." I gasped. "Go to... Bevelle Temple... find Yuna... daughter of High Summoner... Braska... take her to Besaid... last wish of a... dying man... please... protect her..."

"High Summoner Braska?"

"Sin is... defeated... by Lord Braska..." I let out a sigh. "Please... protect Yuna!"

He stared at me for a moment, then stood with a firm nod. "Kimahri will do as you ask."

"Thank you." I dropped my head back and prepared to let go of my life.

"Here!" the Ronso roared overhead. I heard the rumble of a machina engine -- an approaching Al Bhed hover? I was curious but too weak to lift my head and investigate.

The engine noise came closer and dropped in pitch. "Sir Auron? Is that you?" said a familiar voice. "Dear me! We will get you some help at once!" Two pairs of arms lifted me up, carried me and lay me down on something hard and flat. Water poured over my face and into my mouth; I sputtered, swallowed, and opened the good eye. The eyes looking at me with worry were now the green swirls of an Al Bhed: Rin.

"The Ronso?" I whispered.

"He left as soon as we arrived, heading in the direction of Bevelle," said Rin. "Here, take this." He tipped a potion into my mouth, and I drank it. I did not feel anywhere near whole afterwards, but the pain subsided a little. "That is all I have here, but I may be able to do more for you in the Travel Agency." But I saw the doubt in his face, and I shared it. I was not even sure I would survive the trip.

The ride back was excruciating. Every jolt and bump of the hover caused a fresh wave of agony. Fortunately, it was a short journey, and soon the arms were carrying me again, taking me through the agency and to a bed in the back. Rin gave me another potion, a stronger one, and left.

It was not enough. I lay back in the bed, feeling the soft pillow against my head as the last of my strength ebbed away. A single face passed through my mind, that of my love, her copper hair glowing, grief etched on her forehead, deep sadness in her gray eyes, and I whispered to her.

"Relle... I'm sorry."

I closed my remaining eye, turned my face to the wall, and died.